Sean Seah - FINANCIAL JOY 2.0: YOLO YOUR FINANCE

!1 Chief Editor: Rachel Kang & Marc Teo All writing credits belong to the respective writers. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission of the copyright owner. This publication contains the opinions and ideas of its authors. It is not a recommendation to purchase or sell the securities of any of the companies or investments herein discussed. It is sold with the understanding that the authors and publisher are not engaged in rendering legal, accounting, investment, or other professional services.

The authors and publisher specifically disclaim any responsibility for any liability, loss, or risk, professional or otherwise, which is incurred as a consequence, directly or indirectly, of the use and application of any of the contents of this book. !2 FinancialJoy 2.0Yolo Your Finance!Sean SeahAuthor of Winning The Money Game, Gone Fishingwith Buffett, Financial Joy !3 Contents I. Introduction a. Why I wrote Financial Joy in 2012 b. Why write Financial Joy 2.0? II. The Financial Joy I.D.E.A.L Roadmap Financial Freedom and Financial Joy A Quick Self Check Financial Maturity Check Financial Roadblocks The Financial Joy Game Plan and I.D.E.A.L Roadmap 31 Checkpoint 1: I: Insurance and Financial Review 6.

Your Financial Review 7. Ample Insurance Coverage Checkpoint 2: D: Debt Elimination 8. Debt The Number One Joy Killer 9. Steps to Get Rid of Debt 10. Good Debt, Bad Debt? Checkpoint 3: E: Emergency Fund 11.Liquid Funds 12.Increasing Your Savings with Hidden Money Seeds 13.34 Ways to Save 14.Saving What You Have Saved !4 Checkpoint 4: A: Advance Planning 15. Into the Future 16.Crafting Your Future 17.Planning for Big-Ticket Items Checkpoint 5: L: Liberty (Financial Freedom) 18.Your Personal Financial Freedom Plan 19.Joy @ Work Part 1 Work-Life Balance 20.Joy @ Work Part 2 That One Thing 21.Ways to increase your income 22.New streams of income 23.Investing with Joy! 24.GST + Price: An Investing Framework 25.Managing Your Portfolio Afterword !5 INTRODUCTIONWhy I wrote Financial Joy in 2012 On 1st July 2013, I published the first version of Financial Joy.

I probably didnt share this with many people, but I wrote most of the book in the childrens hospital ward. Just more than half year ago in November 2012, my son who was 5-year-old back then, was admitted to the hospital after a fall. He was then diagnosed with blood cancer (leukemia). From then on, the poor 5-year-old had to undergo cycles of chemotherapy and we spent most of the time in hospital. I was there with him most of the time while my wife took care of our other 2 children as they were not allowed into the ward due to potent medicine used there. It was a heart wrenching period as I really missed my other 2 children and at the same time have to witness my ill child go through the painful treatment and procedures every day.

The heaviness is still vivid whenever I think about it. But one thing I learnt back then, was Joy. Joy is different from Happiness. I remembered a sermon I once heard that Happiness depends on Happenings. This means the feeling of happiness is triggered by things that happen. If we get promoted, win a competition, buy a dream car or a dream house, these are events that fire out the feeling we know as happiness.

It is a great feeling that makes us feel top of the world. But it is also a temporary feeling and because most of us want to feel more of that, we work to create the next such event. It can also be simpler events like having a supper with friends or even a jog in the park. But again, these are temporal. Some even turn to drugs to create such temporal feelings by tweaking the chemicals in our body biologically. !6 Joy on the other hand, is independent of event.

It is a character that we develop. You probably know of a friend who always seem to be able see the good in everything regardless of the situation. We term these people as optimist. Optimist probably has joy in their heart. Being humans, they will also feel down and low at times, but they have the ability to bounce back after a while. It is as if there is some supernatural forces pulling them back up and making them shine no matter how dark the situation is.

In the midst of the darkest moment in my life, seeing my beloved 5 year old son lying in bed with tubes coming out of his button nose and little hands, I learnt to be grateful to God. One night as I was watching my son fall asleep on the hospital bed, a thought came into my mind, Would you put your son through these suffering by choice, if it was to save another persons life? No way! was my immediate answer. I will never allow my child to suffer the way he did if I ever had the choice. But, what if it was for someone you love? It seems as if a voice was asking me. I thought about it and imagined if my parents, my wife or my other children really needed medical help, and my child is required to suffer to save their lives. Even if I love them so much, I hesitated having to make my child suffer.

Then I had a realization. God did not hesitate to send His Son, Jesus, to die for me. How it must have pained Him to see His Son suffered. But He did not hesitate. This could only mean one thing, His love for me is so much greater than the love I think I had for my parents, my wife or my children. Tears welled in my eyes as I realized how blessed I am being loved by God.

I also realized while my situation may look bad in my eyes, there are many people who may actually want to take my place. !7 For example, I met a dad who told me the doctor just informed him that there is nothing more they can do for his child and told him to bring the child home to enjoy the remaining days. I am sure this dad will rather take my place where my child is suffering from chemo but is on the way to recovery. I also met another dad who had to rush to hospital after work and then go back to work early in the morning from the hospital. He asked me why is it that I could just spend the entire day at the hospital and I didnt know how to tell him that I was blessed enough to build up passive income to not worry about money. He seemed troubled enough about his childs condition and at the same time had to be bogged down with his finances.

I am sure he was be grateful and feel joyful if he need not be concern about his finances and had the time to focus on his child. But again, in any situation we are in, there is probably someone worse off who will be grateful and joyful to take our place. With that in mind, I wrote Financial Joy, a financial roadmap for my readers to be able to set up a financial fortress to not to have to worry about money again. But again, situations may change. So does our sense of peace depends on the amount of passive income and wealth? If it does, then we got to seek something much greater than just dollars and cents. I want to share that my child has fully recovered by the grace of God and is one of the most joyful and sensible boy any parents can ask for.

In fact my entire family grew much closer because of this ordeal. We are far from being perfect and have lots of quibbles and quarrels, but most of the time, we are joyful. I just want to start this book by sharing with you, my reader, the reason for writing the first version of my book. Now, for the next question why write Financial Joy 2.0? !8 Why write Financial Joy 2.0?~ YOLO Your Finance Dated: 1st July 2019. It has been 6 years since I published Financial Joy in July 2013. Whenever I write a book, I usually would have an audience in my mind.

The first Financial Joy was written for people in desperate need for a financial roadmap as the worry of finances are bogging them down. They are like me when I first started, in search for financial freedom. In the recent few years, I met more people who seem to be in search for different things in life. You Only Live Once! Lets go travel and sky dive and experience different things in life! This is the motto of the group of people I spend my time with nowadays. We are no longer just interested to work in one job for the rest of our lives. But we want more experiences, opportunities, adventures! In 19 days on the 19th of July, I will be turning 38! And I am seeing it more clearly now, I only live once! But before you think I am in a midlife crisis and close this book off, I want to say that living a YOLO life doesnt mean living an irresponsible life.