Let’s talk about the expectations on young adults: Am I really expected to earn, plan & invest all at the same time?

As the title suggests, the pressure I face as a young adult is, a lot. I’m a fresh graduate taking my first step into adulthood, while working on excelling in my first full-time job, and also looking to pay off a tuition fee loan.

Even though I was lucky enough to have secured a full-time job in the midst of the pandemic, the expectations do not stop there.

As though the daily nine-to-five grind isn’t demanding enough, there seems to be tons of societal expectations placed on us young working adults, and an endless list of things to plan for -- marriage, house, car, kids...

I’m also supposed to learn how to generate alternative sources of income, grow my money with sound investing, while growing networks and connections?

Help.

There’s also the pressure of juggling societal expectations with personal expectations. Am I pursuing my passions? Am I keeping up with my friendships and loved ones enough?

Yet, most of the time, I find myself focusing on how I can find ways to earn more money, to fulfil the expectations that society has of me.

But when I stop to reflect and dig deeper into my motivations for striving so hard to meet these expectations, I realised that I should be prioritising myself.

Rather than panicking and succumbing to these never ending societal expectations, I should be asking myself what is truly important to me, and focus on achieving those things.

At the crux of it all, I figured that I want to live a fulfilled life – that could mean pursuing my passions, working at a job I love, finding meaningful relationships and investing my time in the people that I care for.

To do this, I don’t need to pursue money blindly, but I need to ensure that there is a financial plan set in place to set a solid foundation for me to live the fulfilling life that I want.

Enter the DBS Multiplier Account

That’s why I was understandably stoked when I came across DBS’s Multiplier Account, an account which rewards me for planning my finances.

Get rewarded for planning your finances on DBS NAV Planner

Taking the first step in financial planning, I initially thought I would dread the process, having seen my parents file loads of papers and trying to keep track of numbers in a spreadsheet.

I was delighted and relieved to find out that I did not have to undergo that “ordeal” my parents had to, and could simply consolidate my financial information with SGFinDex on DBS NAV Planner with just a few taps.

By linking SGFinDex on DBS NAV Planner, I can track my finances across different banks, credit cards, HDB (Housing and Development Board) loans, and CPF (Central Providence Fund) balance, all in one platform.

Meanwhile, DBS NAV Planner also provides me more holistic insights and recommendations on investment ideas and insurance needs based on my financial position and goals, helping me to better plan for the future.

With more financial commitments surely and gradually adding up in the near future, the convenient feature of having all my financial information consolidated in one platform is very welcome.

To sweeten things up, DBS is even adding this feature as an alternative of crediting your salary or dividends with the Multiplier account, and users can earn higher interest rates when they choose to do either one of these options. This is something I love, getting rewarded for doing the basic step in any financial planning journey.

For folks who utilise their Multiplier account for transactions such as credit card spending, home loan repayments, insurance, and investment, you may even be eligible for an interest rate as high as 3 per cent per annum.

Get rewarded by insuring yourself

To me, financial planning also means planning for rainy days. Having had my fair share of bitter experiences with medical costs, I know how unexpected situations can almost instantly wipe out savings that took a long time to accumulate.

For this reason, I wanted to get myself insured.

While everyone has various needs and priorities when it comes to insurance, I found myself focusing on critical illness insurance to ensure that I could afford treatment and time to recuperate, and a life insurance plan to ensure that my parents would be taken care of if anything happened to me.

And while I was clear on which type of insurance I valued more, I took some time to delve deeper into the type of insurance premiums I wanted to pay – Regular or single premium insurance.

While both have their pros and cons, in summary, I choose to go ahead with regular premium due to its affordability.

However, in that decision making process, it was nice to know that DBS Multiplier rewards for both single and regular insurance premium terms.

Needs and circumstances may change, and it’s heartening to know that should I choose to take up a single premium insurance plan, DBS Multiplier rewards me for that as well.

Get rewarded for growing your wealth

Once I ensured that my protection needs were met, that gave me the peace of mind to look at how I could comfortably start growing my money, and making my money “work for me”.

Although I was aware of the downside of inflation -- which means any cash I leave idle could be losing value every year -- I did not necessarily have the know-how to grow that money by investing on my own.

Hence, I started looking at roboinvesting, where I didn’t need to manage individual portfolios, and could leave it in the good hands of robo technology.

Here’s where digiPortfolio came in for me, DBS’ version of roboinvesting.

What I found interesting was that digiPortfolio was powered by robo-technology, but also had a team of investment experts carefully monitoring and creating quality portfolios.

With both technology and human expertise, I felt more confident that the investments I was making would make me good returns.

In addition, digiPortfolio has a low starting capital at S$1,000 or US$1,000. I found this “comfortable” for my risk appetite when it comes to investing, and also affordable with my current finances.

Where does Multiplier come in for this? DBS digiPortfolio is newly recognised under the investment category of Multiplier, earning me bonus interest, which gives me even more returns for my investments.

As I research more into investments, and learn more about the different instruments, I hope to be able to diversify my investments to ensure I balance my risk.

What I loved is that DBS Multiplier investment category also recognises bonds & structured products, Unit Trust, equities trading and DBS Invest-Saver (something I may start on next).

Plan your finances according to personal goals

With the overwhelming expectations on me as a young working adult, it sometimes feels so easy to lose sight of personal goals or interests that might not always conform to those expectations.

The need for “normalcy” and the FOMO can really get to the head, especially when I’m just starting out on this journey.

Which is why I feel it is important for everyone to introspect and figure out their own personal goals, without feeling obligated to blindly follow the crazy list of expectations.

Once you know the goals you want to achieve, build a solid financial foundation to ensure that you can comfortably achieve them.

Let’s not allow societal expectations get the better of us.

Click here to begin your financial journey with DBS Multiplier.

Top image via @micheile/Unsplash & Wes Hicks/Unsplash

This sponsored article by DBS made this writer apply for a DBS Multiplier account during his lunch break.