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Me & My Money Series (Sunday Times)
Feb 27, 2011
me & my money
His actuarial calling - at age 16
HSBC Insurance chief has worked towards that goal since then
By Lorna Tan, Senior Correspondent
Like most kids, South African-born Walter de Oude did not know what he wanted to be when he grew up. But a visit to a professional career guidance counsellor when he was 16 helped make up his mind.
The results of the career assessment profiling test suggested three careers that would best suit him. They were: architect, accountant or actuary. Once he worked out what an actuary was, Mr de Oude decided to pursue an actuarial career and applied to a number of insurance firms for a university scholarship at 17. An actuary evaluates the likelihood of events in order to minimise losses in trading.
He won a scholarship from reinsurance firm Swiss Re and graduated with a bachelor's degree in economic science from the University of Witwatersrand, South Africa, in 1994. Six years later, he qualified as an actuary.
He worked at Swiss Re in Johannesburg from 1995 till 2005. During that period, he did short stints in Singapore, Japan and India. In 2005, he joined Watson Wyatt in Singapore, before he was appointed an actuary at HSBC Insurance (Singapore) in 2007. Last June, he became the chief executive of HSBC Insurance.
Mr de Oude, 37, is married to South African homemaker Cindy Botha, 37, and they have two sons, Luke, four, and James, two. Both he and his wife are Singapore permanent residents.
Q: Are you a spender or saver?
I am a very disciplined saver at heart, but I do love to spend.
My approach has been to plan and invest very carefully for the amount of income that my family and I need to survive on once I retire, and make sure that is met before I allow myself to spend on things I like. My savings are always in excess of 20 per cent of income.
Q: How much do you charge to your credit cards every month?
I spend only on my HSBC Premier MasterCard. I find I get the best points and air miles there, and great discounts.
I watch my spending closely, and don't like using more than one credit card, since it then becomes difficult to track how much I'm spending each month. As a family, we spend around $4,000 per month on the credit card, and sometimes more when we go on holiday.
Q: What financial planning have you done for yourself?
I break down my financial planning needs into two boxes - making sure my family has enough money in case I die or get ill, and ensuring that I am saving enough for my retirement.
In the first box, I have a mortgage life insurance plan so my wife does not need to worry about mortgage repayments if I die, a term life and critical illness plan that provides life cover until I am 65, and an investment-linked insurance plan (ILP) that combines protection and investments. My combined life cover is about $1.5 million and I spend about $12,000 a year on insurance premiums.
In the second box (long-term savings), I have the ILP, and a number of properties in South Africa and one in Singapore, which are my 'safe' money investments that should provide for my retirement. I also invest directly in shares with the balance of my savings.
I am still young and so am happy to take the risk of doing so.
Any leftover income I have after my savings, I spend on things I like. For stocks, I'm holding on to Singapore, Hong Kong and US stocks and they cover mainly banks, commodities and technology sectors. My ILP is invested in four funds and I'm about 80 per cent focused in Asia, with the balance in global bonds and equities.
Q: Moneywise, what were your growing-up years like?
I come from a family of three sons and I am the middle child. My father worked at IBM as a systems engineer while my mother was an industrial psychologist and worked mostly part-time.
I grew up in a middle-class, four-bedroom suburban house in Johannesburg. I was fortunate in that my family encouraged me to understand the value of money.
I had my first real job at age 13, working on Saturdays as a salesman in a computer store. My parents gave me some pocket money from age 13 - the equivalent of $10 a month - and I had to manage that to buy my clothes too.
Q: How did you get interested in investing?
When I went to university in Johannesburg, my sponsor Swiss Re gave me money for accommodation, but since I was sharing a house with my brother and some friends, I invested the balance of about 2,000 rand (S$360) in a unit trust.
That was my first real investment. I lost some money, sold it a year later, and bought a drum kit with the balance.
Q: What property do you own?
My wife and I own a 2,000 sq ft apartment in Pasir Panjang, which is rented out. It was bought early last year for more than $1 million and has gone up in value by about 10 per cent.
I also own a few residential properties in Johannesburg, which were bought between 1995 and 2007.
All have mortgages, but I hope that one day these will supplement our retirement income.
Except for one, all of my properties in Johannesburg are rented out at an average rental yield of 5 to 6 per cent per annum (pa). Their prices have appreciated roughly 10 per cent pa on average, while inflation in South Africa is 7 to 9 per cent pa. I'm looking for a tenant for my vacant property.
Q: What's the most extravagant thing you have bought?
I really like buying watches, and have more than I could possibly wear. That's extravagant because of the quantity - not the quality.
I have 15 watches and the average price ranges from $100 to $400. I buy about two or three watches a year. This hobby started about 10 years ago.
Q: What's your retirement plan?
I'll retire when I get bored of working. That could be in five years or 25 years, who knows? For now, I love my job and the people that I work with, and retirement seems a long way away.
When I do retire, I think I could lead a much more simple life than I do now, and live on much less. The goal is to have around $6,000 a month for my wife and I when I do retire.
Q: Home is now....
A rented four-bedroom condo in the Mount Sinai area.
Q: I drive....
An old Audi A4 Cabriolet.
lorna@sph.com.sg
---------------------------------------------------------
WORST AND BEST BETS
Q: My worst investment to date...
In 2002, when I was working in Japan, I got a call from an international broker who suggested I could make a lot of money buying a call option on heating oil. I got a bit greedy and went for it, since I had some of my 'risk' savings to spare. I lost the whole US$3,000.
Q: My best investment to date...
I invested in property from a very young age and bought my first apartment in Johannesburg at the age of 21 in 1995. The 690 sq ft, one-bedroom apartment cost me the equivalent of $50,000 and I still have it. It pays me a rental income of about $600 a month. That's a great return.
My tip to retail investors is to figure out how much you need to retire on, your risk profile and to keep investing to get there. And do not spend extravagantly unless your savings are ahead of that plan.
me & my money
His actuarial calling - at age 16
HSBC Insurance chief has worked towards that goal since then
By Lorna Tan, Senior Correspondent
Like most kids, South African-born Walter de Oude did not know what he wanted to be when he grew up. But a visit to a professional career guidance counsellor when he was 16 helped make up his mind.
The results of the career assessment profiling test suggested three careers that would best suit him. They were: architect, accountant or actuary. Once he worked out what an actuary was, Mr de Oude decided to pursue an actuarial career and applied to a number of insurance firms for a university scholarship at 17. An actuary evaluates the likelihood of events in order to minimise losses in trading.
He won a scholarship from reinsurance firm Swiss Re and graduated with a bachelor's degree in economic science from the University of Witwatersrand, South Africa, in 1994. Six years later, he qualified as an actuary.
He worked at Swiss Re in Johannesburg from 1995 till 2005. During that period, he did short stints in Singapore, Japan and India. In 2005, he joined Watson Wyatt in Singapore, before he was appointed an actuary at HSBC Insurance (Singapore) in 2007. Last June, he became the chief executive of HSBC Insurance.
Mr de Oude, 37, is married to South African homemaker Cindy Botha, 37, and they have two sons, Luke, four, and James, two. Both he and his wife are Singapore permanent residents.
Q: Are you a spender or saver?
I am a very disciplined saver at heart, but I do love to spend.
My approach has been to plan and invest very carefully for the amount of income that my family and I need to survive on once I retire, and make sure that is met before I allow myself to spend on things I like. My savings are always in excess of 20 per cent of income.
Q: How much do you charge to your credit cards every month?
I spend only on my HSBC Premier MasterCard. I find I get the best points and air miles there, and great discounts.
I watch my spending closely, and don't like using more than one credit card, since it then becomes difficult to track how much I'm spending each month. As a family, we spend around $4,000 per month on the credit card, and sometimes more when we go on holiday.
Q: What financial planning have you done for yourself?
I break down my financial planning needs into two boxes - making sure my family has enough money in case I die or get ill, and ensuring that I am saving enough for my retirement.
In the first box, I have a mortgage life insurance plan so my wife does not need to worry about mortgage repayments if I die, a term life and critical illness plan that provides life cover until I am 65, and an investment-linked insurance plan (ILP) that combines protection and investments. My combined life cover is about $1.5 million and I spend about $12,000 a year on insurance premiums.
In the second box (long-term savings), I have the ILP, and a number of properties in South Africa and one in Singapore, which are my 'safe' money investments that should provide for my retirement. I also invest directly in shares with the balance of my savings.
I am still young and so am happy to take the risk of doing so.
Any leftover income I have after my savings, I spend on things I like. For stocks, I'm holding on to Singapore, Hong Kong and US stocks and they cover mainly banks, commodities and technology sectors. My ILP is invested in four funds and I'm about 80 per cent focused in Asia, with the balance in global bonds and equities.
Q: Moneywise, what were your growing-up years like?
I come from a family of three sons and I am the middle child. My father worked at IBM as a systems engineer while my mother was an industrial psychologist and worked mostly part-time.
I grew up in a middle-class, four-bedroom suburban house in Johannesburg. I was fortunate in that my family encouraged me to understand the value of money.
I had my first real job at age 13, working on Saturdays as a salesman in a computer store. My parents gave me some pocket money from age 13 - the equivalent of $10 a month - and I had to manage that to buy my clothes too.
Q: How did you get interested in investing?
When I went to university in Johannesburg, my sponsor Swiss Re gave me money for accommodation, but since I was sharing a house with my brother and some friends, I invested the balance of about 2,000 rand (S$360) in a unit trust.
That was my first real investment. I lost some money, sold it a year later, and bought a drum kit with the balance.
Q: What property do you own?
My wife and I own a 2,000 sq ft apartment in Pasir Panjang, which is rented out. It was bought early last year for more than $1 million and has gone up in value by about 10 per cent.
I also own a few residential properties in Johannesburg, which were bought between 1995 and 2007.
All have mortgages, but I hope that one day these will supplement our retirement income.
Except for one, all of my properties in Johannesburg are rented out at an average rental yield of 5 to 6 per cent per annum (pa). Their prices have appreciated roughly 10 per cent pa on average, while inflation in South Africa is 7 to 9 per cent pa. I'm looking for a tenant for my vacant property.
Q: What's the most extravagant thing you have bought?
I really like buying watches, and have more than I could possibly wear. That's extravagant because of the quantity - not the quality.
I have 15 watches and the average price ranges from $100 to $400. I buy about two or three watches a year. This hobby started about 10 years ago.
Q: What's your retirement plan?
I'll retire when I get bored of working. That could be in five years or 25 years, who knows? For now, I love my job and the people that I work with, and retirement seems a long way away.
When I do retire, I think I could lead a much more simple life than I do now, and live on much less. The goal is to have around $6,000 a month for my wife and I when I do retire.
Q: Home is now....
A rented four-bedroom condo in the Mount Sinai area.
Q: I drive....
An old Audi A4 Cabriolet.
lorna@sph.com.sg
---------------------------------------------------------
WORST AND BEST BETS
Q: My worst investment to date...
In 2002, when I was working in Japan, I got a call from an international broker who suggested I could make a lot of money buying a call option on heating oil. I got a bit greedy and went for it, since I had some of my 'risk' savings to spare. I lost the whole US$3,000.
Q: My best investment to date...
I invested in property from a very young age and bought my first apartment in Johannesburg at the age of 21 in 1995. The 690 sq ft, one-bedroom apartment cost me the equivalent of $50,000 and I still have it. It pays me a rental income of about $600 a month. That's a great return.
My tip to retail investors is to figure out how much you need to retire on, your risk profile and to keep investing to get there. And do not spend extravagantly unless your savings are ahead of that plan.
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