Mr Apelles Poh, 44, can afford to relax and live life at a leisurely pace because he is confident he has the resources to retire any time he wants to.

But this certified financial planner at Professional Investment Advisory Services (PIAS) still pushes himself to see three to five clients a day. This is because he is passionate about his work and finds purpose in helping others. Last year was his 'best' one at PIAS: He was the top producer, having more than doubled his personal revenue.

A former Air Force officer, Mr Poh became convinced that insurance satisfied a real need for almost everyone after he was approached to buy an insurance policy when he was 27.

He joined the now-defunct Insurance Corporation of Singapore (ICS) in 1991. PIAS bought over the company's agency sales force in 2001.

Mr Poh recalled how 'investment illiterate' he was in the past.

'Before I became a financial adviser, I put all my money in the bank, mostly in savings accounts. I left the money there because I didn't know what else to do with it,' he said.

As he has no time to monitor the stock market, he steers clear of equity investing. Instead, all of his investments are in properties and unit trusts.

Mr Poh has achieved the coveted Million Dollar Round Table qualification every year for the past 14 years, and for the past four, he has made it to the Court Of The Table, which boasts the world's top 1 per cent of financial practitioners.

He is married to Ms Linda Ang, 43, who is also a financial planner at PIAS. His book, Live Well, Love Much, Laugh Often - a book about finding success, balance and meaning in the journey of life - was launched in late January.

Q What are your money habits?

I buy what I need, not what I want, at least 80 per cent of the time. I'm a simple man. I usually don't go for branded stuff. My shoes cost $40, and I find them very comfortable.

I have three pots of money. The short-term and emergency pot, which contains three to six months of income, sits in a bank for liquidity purposes.

The mid- to long-term pot is for long-term goals such as retirement. I fill this pot regularly and put in lump sums as well, all of which is channelled into unit trust investments. This is one good way to beat inflation.

About 10 per cent to 20 per cent of my excess cash goes into the speculative pot, which is invested in unit trusts when markets are volatile and down.

Q What financial planning have you done for yourself?

Being a financial planner, I steer my own ship. I am a high-growth investor, and my unit trust portfolio is made up of 90 per cent equities and 10 per cent bonds. For the equities portion, Asian equities make up 60 per cent, and emerging markets and European funds, 40 per cent.

I'm a long-term investor, and I believe that equities will outperform bonds and cash in the long term. I have avoided United States equities in the past four years because of the declining US dollar. In the long run, I expect average returns of 6 per cent to 8 per cent a year.

I have done a will, and I've made the beneficiary nominations for my Central Provident Fund monies and my policy with NTUC Income.

Q What about insurance planning?

Investments can be likened to a sword, and insurance to a shield. In the battle of life, we need both sword and shield.

Insurance is the foundation you have to lay even before you start to invest.

I have personal accident coverage as well as medical insurance, which includes a critical illness cover of $500,000, mortgage insurance and a life cover of $1 million. My annual premiums amount to $15,000 to $20,000 a year.

Q Any property investments?

I have invested in several properties in Singapore and a bungalow plot in southern Johor. The rental yield from my properties is about 4 per cent to 5 per cent.

I bought my first property, a freehold condo unit on West Coast Road, when I was 28, for $380,000. It was rented out for 13 years, and then it went on en bloc in 2006, for almost double the value.

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

I'm the youngest in a large family of 11. When I was at kindergarten, lunch was sometimes just porridge and soya sauce. At 13, I started giving tuition and continued to do so for six years, to supplement my allowance.

Dad used to deliver raw noodles and when I was 11, I earned 50 cents a day when I helped him over the weekends. Mom was a homemaker. My dad passed away when I was 17. Through all this, I learnt the value of money.

Q What has been a bad investment?

In my early 20s, I invested in a fashion retail shop with someone I had known for only two months, without knowing much about the business. I ploughed my entire savings of $20,000 into it, and I lost all of that within six months when the business folded. I didn't know that my friend was already in debt.

Q Your best investment to date?

I bought into a portfolio of unit trusts when the Straits Times Index dropped to about 1,200 points during Sars and the Gulf War in 2003. The value of those investments has appreciated 170 per cent despite the current economic climate.

But my best investment has been to plough time and resources into developing, growing and stretching myself.

Q And your home now is...?

I live in a three-bedroom unit at Savannah CondoPark in Simei Rise.

lorna@sph.com.sg