Company boss puts all his eggs in one basket

Me & My Money Series (Sunday Times)

The Straits Times
http://www.straitstimes.com
Published on Oct 14, 2012
Company boss puts all his eggs in one basket
Environmental brand consultancy owner opts to pump savings back into his business

By magdalen ng

A common mistake made by many investors is to put all their eggs in one basket. But that is a risk business owner Simon Faure-Field is willing to take.

Especially when that one basket is his own firm.

After starting his environmental branding consultancy Equal Strategy in 1998, he liquidated most of his portfolio and diverted all the resources to his business.

Equal Strategy utilises scents and music to create an ambience that makes consumer, retail and hospitality environments more attractive to spend time in. Its clients include banks and retail outlets.

Mr Faure-Field, 42, said: "A steady savings plan is good if you are an employee. I choose to pump my savings back into the business, and nothing in the market will give me the same kind of growth rate."

He added that this is also one basket that he is "very much in control of".

Mr Faure-Field moved to Singapore from Britain in 1995, to work for City Phone Communication, which did voice work on telephone systems for companies.

His wife is a senior account manager for China Telecom, and they have a seven-year-old daughter.

Q: Are you a spender or a saver?

I am a spender, especially on my main investment vehicle, which is my business. My plans are quite dynamic due to the volatility of the markets. I draw from the business what I need to fund my lifestyle, while the rest gets pumped back into the business.

There is not a lot of distinction between what I save and what I put into my business.

Q: How much do you charge to your credit cards each month?

My personal spending varies from $500 to $8,000 a month, depending on whether I travel.

I tend to use one card to accumulate reward points, but have multiple cards so I can use them if there's a worthwhile promotion, but no Tupperware or pots please.

Q: What financial planning have you done?

I used to have a steady plan, but needed my capital to fund my business in its earlier years. My plan was to put some money away each month into an investment fund.

When my business needed more cash, I could have got other people to invest in it, but I did not want to dilute my equity. At that time it was also not easy to get loans from the banks.

My other option was to use my savings to inject into my business, which is where I am still at now.

I have a term life and critical illness plan and am covered for about £1.5 million (S$3 million).

Q: Moneywise, what were your growing up years like?

They were not exactly easy. My parents separated in my earlier years and my father did not contribute to maintenance, so my mother, a personal assistant at the Ministry of Defence, paid for our privately owned house and had to pay the bills.

My father lived overseas as the managing director of an advertising firm.

I missed out on the exotic school holidays, and up till I was 10, I had to wait at school for my mother to finish work. I also worked part-time, once at a clay pigeon shooting range where I worked the traps. At one point I was also cutting grass.

This had quite an impact on me and the aspirations for the lifestyle that I want to provide for my daughter. One of the reasons I work so hard is to fund the correct education, support and facilities for her, so she will not have to go through what I did.

My experience also taught me that money does not grow on trees, and you have to work hard to define your destiny.

Q: How did you get interested in investing?

I wanted to be able to fund the lifestyle that I want and the future for my family. There was also a need for survival and to fund my aspirations.

When I was an employee, I had a fixed income and you more or less knew how much your bonus would be. Nothing outside of that would generate money, so I knew I had to be putting some money aside.

Q: What property do you own?

I do not own any property as of now. To buy in Singapore is really too expensive, and you need a lot of liquidity. To have that much money as down payment, I'm not sure how that stacks up against putting it into my business.

I've started looking in different Asian markets where there is a little bit more accessibility in terms of affordability.

Q: What is your retirement plan?

I plan to retire in Asia or Australasia. At the moment, Singapore is too expensive a place to retire. I would need about $10,000 a month to live comfortably, and I hope to fund that through my eventually diversified portfolio of my business, property and commodities.

Q: What is the most extravagant thing you have bought?

It will have to be my Audi A5 coupe. If you are talking about a couple of hundred thousand dollars, I haven't spent anything like that on anything else for myself.

I could have got myself a smaller car, but I chose this one, and when I look at it, it makes me happy.

I had my first Audi coupe when I was 19, which I got rid of a year later. It was 22 years before I got reunited with the brand. When I was younger, the rally cars of the time that were winning were the Audi Quattro Turbos, but I never got around to buying one. Now, they are so old you can't buy them.

Q: Home is now...

A three-bedroom apartment in Kembangan, which is about 1,500 sq ft. I would like something bigger, but it all comes down to money, doesn't it? I rent it for $5,000 a month.

Q: I drive...

An Audi A5 coupe 3.0.

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Worst and best bets

Q: What was your worst investment?

It was my first investment in a unit trust fund. I was 23 years old when I started to put in about £150 each month, but when the market crashed eight years ago, I made a major loss.

I would not say it was my life savings because at an earlier point I had cashed in some of it for my business.

Q: And your best?

It would have to be my business, Equal Strategy