This article first appeared in Personal Wealth, The Edge Malaysia Weekly on February 12, 2018 - February 18, 2018

When Robert Foo started financial planning firm MyFP Services Sdn Bhd in 2002, it was considered a shift from his previous experience and he had to learn everything from scratch. Having worked in banks for many years and grown up in a family where nobody had started a business, he was not one to make risky decisions. 

“I did not make any big financial mistakes because I was working in a bank, in the accounting department, and was relatively conservative. I come from a family where everyone basically worked for other people rather than one that was involved in business and used to taking risks. I made a lot of mistakes of omission because there were plenty of opportunities I could have taken, but didn’t,” says Foo.

But his horizons began to widen when he read up on financial planning and exposed himself to new opportunities. His reading led him to spot a trend — how technology was going to disrupt jobs in various sectors, including his own.

“I used to tell my branch managers that they were going to have to change and update their skills because there would come a time when their jobs would be automated,” says Foo.

Needless to say, they didn’t believe him.

“That was in the early 1990s. The sad part is after I left banking and started financial planning, I met one of the branch managers at a golf course where he was selling credit cards. He acknowledged that I had been right. The whole industry was changing and this was just the first wave,” he says.

This experience convinced Foo to teach his children to take risks in their careers. He thinks the economy will remain volatile as industries continue to be disrupted. Job insecurity will be the norm, so the best thing his children can do is prepare for it. This can be done by getting multiple sources of income, reskilling themselves periodically and, if possible, starting their own business.

“The old economy is being thrown out by the new economy, and the new economy is being thrown out by the newer economy. So, it means things will be very uncertain. Globalisation means a breakdown of your local boundaries, which means your so-called local exposure becomes global. Everything affects you, whether it is inflation, loss of jobs or technology,” says Foo. 

“This is the kind of world you are going to see. So, I tell my children whatever job you are doing, if possible get into business. The security is that you can create your own wealth.”

Foo’s two children are in their thirties and they have taken their father’s advice to heart. So far, they have each tried — and failed — to start a small business with their friends. His daughter, who is in online marketing, started an e-commerce company selling clothes while his son, who is a writer, created a T-shirt printing business with his friends. Foo talks to them about these things and when they ask why he continues to drum the same message home, he simply replies that he is imparting the wisdom he has gained from his years of experience. 

His daughter’s e-commerce business ended when she realised it took up too much of her time. She had to deal with wrong orders and clients who were not satisfied. She also had to learn how to source materials.

“She experienced the challenges of that kind of business. She has a friend who is basically one of the top online clothes bloggers in the market, so when she started out, she told me her online blog shop for clothes was in the top eight of the market. It didn’t last, but she got some money and experience.

His son, on the other hand, approached him for advice on starting a business with his friends. Foo asked them about their business plan and each partner’s funding responsibilities as well as their value proposition.

“They actually asked me to attend one of their gatherings,” he says. “The mother of one of the boys was a bit worried because they were all good friends and if they went into business together, they may end up becoming enemies, which is a typical response. I said, ‘Yes, that might happen. How could they make sure it doesn’t?’ 

“I took them through a thinking process. Now that the business has disbanded, I say it was a good learning opportunity. This is how you know whether you can go into business with your friends. To me, it is better to let them make small mistakes now rather than make huge ones later.”

Foo also warns his children not to simply follow the crowd when it comes to lifestyle trends. “You should figure out your own ideal life, and not just follow people. My daughter used to be the iPhone kind of person and now they are charging RM3,000 to RM4,000 for a phone, which I think is ridiculous when you can get a Xiaomi for RM400,” he says.

However, if his children insist on purchasing expensive items frequently, he just wants them to make sure that they have enough income to sustain that kind of lifestyle. 

Foo uses the strategies he has picked up in his line of work to teach his children, particularly the need to know their goals and plan ahead. When his son asks his opinion about financial issues, Foo walks him through the same process as his clients. 

First, he establishes what his son actually wants. “The first thing we ask you is, what do you want? If you want a financial decision, what financial decision? Only then can you tell them their options and how they can go about achieving what they want,” says Foo.

He does try to engage his children in casual conversation to find out how things are going with them. “I do ask them how things are going when we are sitting in the living room. Through our conversations, I try to understand what they are going through at any point in time.”

Naturally, being a financial planner, Foo encouraged his children to invest as soon as they started drawing a salary. After all, investing is a part of wealth building so they have something to fall back on should they lose their jobs. 

“You have to realise that you should build some wealth for yourself. The ‘why’ depends on what kind of life you want to have. I told them I would pass some of my assets on to them, but they would have to build their own wealth through savings that would go into investments, properties and new businesses,” says Foo.

He thinks it is important for parents to teach their children the right values so that they are able to sift through the plethora of information available, especially online, and make the right decisions. This is especially important now, when they are being bombarded by information on different products from all fronts. Some discernment is required to navigate the current environment unscathed.

“Nowadays our children know a lot through Google, YouTube and other sites, which is good. But the problem is, they tend to get confused because there is a lot of sales information [masquerading as news] on these sites,” says Foo.

“So, you have people saying this thing is good for you. But is it? How does it work? How do you figure it out? You need to know what you want and how this thing fits you. This is the challenge for the new generation.”

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