What is Wealth Management?

What is wealth management? 

Try searching through google and you'll end up with something like this:

Wealth management is an investment advisory discipline that incorporates financial planning, investment portfolio management and a number of aggregated financial services. 

*nosebleed*

GOOD LUCK! You see, that's why most people don't get wealthy because we tend to complicate a lot of things. Most don't have the patience and discipline to study because they think it is too complicated. But I tell you, it's not. Let me share with you what I learned from a seminar by Mr. Rex Mendoza (President of Biggest Life Insurance in the Philippines, a Stockmarket Guru) and how he simplified it especially for us, Filipinos. 

We, Filipinos love telenovelas and he related wealth management like "Ang mga yugto ng buhay" (Episodes in Life):  

There are three episodes or stages in life when it comes to our finances:

1. You work for money. With zero savings at the start, we work hard for money. Get a job and get paid. Yes, it is expected that we pay ourselves first, so we save. (I have quite a lot of posts talking about savings so feel free to explore my blog.) But saving is not enough, we have to learn how to turn our savings into wealth through investing.

2. You work for money + Money slowly working for you. Through investing, you are saving money and earning better interest rates compared to typical savings accounts in banks. You are also fighting inflation by saving your money higher than the inflation rate. Lastly, your investments should be long-term and diversified to compromise and lower the risk in investing. Yes, investing may sound difficult at first, so please, continue to learn and research more. Continue educating yourself while still working, providing you with both short-term income (Job) and slowly building your long-term source of income.

3. Money working for you. When savings are big enough, that the interest you get from your investment is enough to sustain your living, then you've reach the ultimate goal: Retirement! We deserve to have a break. We deserve to enjoy life. We deserve to do things without worrying about money. That's the ultimate reward we can receive by having patience and the discipline of managing our income. 

Sadly, most people never get to stage 3 because they never did stage 2. They never bother learning about investing in stage 2 because in the first place they never save in stage 1. It all boils down that wealth management is all about discipline. Save. Invest. Wait. Enjoy. That's it. Simple straight to the point but difficult to follow.

Mr. Rex is right, it's not our fault why the poor gets poorer, rich richer. You wake up early morning, you go to work very early, you see poor people playing cards and drinking alcohol. You work extra time, go home late, you still see the same people, doing exactly the same thing. 

Sad but true. Truly, we are all created equal. Though we may not have the same opportunities, but with discipline we all have the right to become wealthy.