The Financial Coconut Podcast

What do you say when a client likes your work, then asks you to lower the price?

That conversation can be harder than the creative work itself. Especially when you want the project, need the income or worry that pushing back will cost you the relationship.

At this Artbox panel, Adrian Tan speaks with Kyle Ong, James Tan and Johnson Gunasekaran about how they handle those moments across filmmaking, photography and marketing.

James explains why having prices ready for additional requests helps you respond before the work starts piling up. Kyle discusses negotiating a trade-off when a client wants a discount. Johnson shares why a rate quoted two years ago does not have to remain your rate forever.

For freelancers and small agency owners, these are decisions that shape how much time a project actually takes— and whether the fee still makes sense.

Which is harder for you: quoting your price or holding it when someone pushes back?

Watch the full episode on YouTube.

#TFCBusinessShow #Freelance #CreativeIndustry #PricingStrategy #SingaporeBusiness #Artbox

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Can you really make a living doing what you love in Singapore?

For Rowena See, theatre is her passion, but teaching accounts for around 70% of her income. The remaining 30% comes from theatre work.

And here's the surprising part: landing more than two theatre projects in a year can already feel like an amazing year for her.

Meanwhile, Fiona Chua balances modelling, acting and other creative jobs, planning her finances around an unpredictable stream of opportunities.

So what does financial stability actually look like when your dream career doesn't come with a fixed salary?

In this episode of Wise & Shine, Adrian Tan and Faith Choo sit down with Rowena and Fiona to uncover the realities of building a creative career in Singapore.

From taking on multiple jobs and managing irregular income to developing new skills and creating their own opportunities, they share what it really takes to keep pursuing the arts.

Because passion may be what gets you started, but financial planning is part of what keeps you going.

Would you give up a stable salary to pursue something you love?

Watch the full conversation on Youtube.

#WiseAndShine #TheFinancialCoconut

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🎧 The Financial Coconut:

Your weekly source for empowering financial knowledge and unlocking possibilities. We explore personal finance, investing, and entrepreneurship to help you build a richer life. Join us as we explore personal finance, investing and more.

Get ready to take control of your financial future and live your best life, financially wise: https://linkin.bio/thefinancialcoconut

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⚠️ Disclaimer:

The content discussed in this episode is intended for educational purposes only and should not be considered as financial advice. The information provided is based on our understanding at the time of recording and may not reflect the current regulations or market conditions. The opinions expressed by guests are their own and do not necessarily represent those of The Financial Coconut. Please do your due diligence before making any investment or financial decisions.

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Everyone talks about India’s growth. But how much are you paying for that growth?

That is where the conversation gets more interesting.

India can have strong fundamentals, rising consumption and companies with long growth runways, while its stock market can still look expensive at certain points. Both things can be true.

In this episode of Chills with TFC, Jermyn Wong of UTI Investment Singapore breaks down how investors can think about Nifty 50 valuations, what a “fair” P/E might look like and how India compares with markets such as the US.

Because choosing a market is not only about asking which economy will grow fastest. Price still matters.

Would you pay a premium for India’s growth story, or wait for a better valuation?

Watch the full conversation on YouTube.

This is a sponsored episode with UTI Investment Singapore.

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🎧 The Financial Coconut:

Your weekly source for empowering financial knowledge and unlocking possibilities. We explore personal finance, investing, and entrepreneurship to help you build a richer life. Join us as we explore personal finance, investing and more.

Get ready to take control of your financial future and live your best life, financially wise: https://linkin.bio/thefinancialcoconut

📍 LISTEN & SUBSCRIBE

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⚠️ Disclaimer:

The content discussed in this episode is intended for educational purposes only and should not be considered as financial advice. The information provided is based on our understanding at the time of recording and may not reflect the current regulations or market conditions. The opinions expressed by guests are their own and do not necessarily represent those of The Financial Coconut. Please do your due diligence before making any investment or financial decisions.

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Quitting a stable job is one thing. Having enough money to survive if it fails is another.

Before Chanel Yui left teaching, she had saved enough to give herself a few years of runway.

That gave her room to try different paths: cosplay, modelling, content creation, events, art and retail — without betting everything on one idea.

Three years later, she is still taking risks, just calculated ones.

For anyone thinking about leaving a stable career, her story is a reminder that the leap does not start with the resignation letter. It starts with being ready for what comes after.

Watch the full conversation on Youtube.

#WiseAndShine #TheFinancialCoconut

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🎧 The Financial Coconut:

Your weekly source for empowering financial knowledge and unlocking possibilities. We explore personal finance, investing, and entrepreneurship to help you build a richer life. Join us as we explore personal finance, investing and more.

Get ready to take control of your financial future and live your best life, financially wise: https://linkin.bio/thefinancialcoconut

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⚠️ Disclaimer:

The content discussed in this episode is intended for educational purposes only and should not be considered as financial advice. The information provided is based on our understanding at the time of recording and may not reflect the current regulations or market conditions. The opinions expressed by guests are their own and do not necessarily represent those of The Financial Coconut. Please do your due diligence before making any investment or financial decisions.

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Kevin thought he had found someone he could trust.

They met through a property-investing community. The other man spoke about family, long-term relationships and business. The first payments arrived without Kevin even needing to chase. Over time, that trust grew into multiple deals… and eventually into borrowed money.

Then the rhythm changed.

Payments needed reminders. A few days became longer delays. Excuses piled up. Kevin says the stress started showing at work and even clients could tell something was weighing on him. By then, this was no longer only an investment problem.

His turning point was deciding to stop waiting quietly. Kevin documented what had happened, spoke publicly and engaged debt collectors. He recovered S$100,000, but the episode is less about getting money back than understanding how trust can blur risk.

Today, he is sharing the mistakes publicly through Quest with Kev so other people can examine opportunities with less emotion than he did.

Watch the full conversation now.

#TheFinancialCoconut #ChillsWithTFC #MoneyMistakes #FinancialLiteracy #Singapore

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🎧 The Financial Coconut:

Your weekly source for empowering financial knowledge and unlocking possibilities. We explore personal finance, investing, and entrepreneurship to help you build a richer life. Join us as we explore personal finance, investing and more.

Get ready to take control of your financial future and live your best life, financially wise: https://linkin.bio/thefinancialcoconut

📍 LISTEN & SUBSCRIBE

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Get daily tips, insights, and community:

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Discover our other shows and deep dives on YouTube

⚠️ Disclaimer:

The content discussed in this episode is intended for educational purposes only and should not be considered as financial advice. The information provided is based on our understanding at the time of recording and may not reflect the current regulations or market conditions. The opinions expressed by guests are their own and do not necessarily represent those of The Financial Coconut. Please do your due diligence before making any investment or financial decisions.

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Is your SME actually using AI… Or are you just adding more AI tools?

The real opportunity may be much less flashy.

Think WhatsApp enquiries, emails, quotations, appointments, repetitive admin and all the small workflows your team keeps doing manually.

In TFC Business Show 65, Leonard Loo, Co-Founder & CEO of Voltade, breaks down how SMEs can move beyond simply chatting with AI and start getting it to actually do work inside the business.

Because adopting AI does not mean automating everything overnight. The more useful question is: which repetitive processes are slowing your team down, and which ones can already be handed over?

For business owners, this could mean less time spent coordinating routine work — and more time focused on customers, growth and decisions that still need a human.

If AI could take one repetitive workflow off your team tomorrow, what would you hand over first?

Watch the full conversation on YouTube.

#TFCBusinessShow #Voltade #AIForBusiness #SME #TheFinancialCoconut

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🎧 The Financial Coconut:

Your weekly source for empowering financial knowledge and unlocking possibilities. We explore personal finance, investing, and entrepreneurship to help you build a richer life. Join us as we explore personal finance, investing and more.

Get ready to take control of your financial future and live your best life, financially wise: https://linkin.bio/thefinancialcoconut

📍 LISTEN & SUBSCRIBE

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Get daily tips, insights, and community:

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Discover our other shows and deep dives on YouTube

⚠️ Disclaimer:

The content discussed in this episode is intended for educational purposes only and should not be considered as financial advice. The information provided is based on our understanding at the time of recording and may not reflect the current regulations or market conditions. The opinions expressed by guests are their own and do not necessarily represent those of The Financial Coconut. Please do your due diligence before making any investment or financial decisions.

Learn about our events

Help us get to know you better: http://bit.ly/thefinancialcoconut-survey

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

AI can make work faster. But should it do all the thinking for us?

In this Wise & Shine conversation, Chelvin Loh, Dr Tommie Chen and Mario Jacober explore how AI is changing jobs, skills and the way people work.

The bigger question is not simply whether AI will replace jobs, but which tasks should be automated, where human judgement still matters and what skills will keep professionals relevant.

For working professionals, staying ahead may mean less chasing every new AI tool and more strengthening judgement, communication, adaptability and real-world capability.

Produced in partnership with Lifelong Learning Singapore.

Disclaimer: This content is for general informational and educational purposes only.

Watch the full conversation on Youtube.

#WiseAndShine #Lifelong Learning Singapore #CareerGrowth #FutureOfWork #AIAtWork #TheFinancialCoconut

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🎧 The Financial Coconut:

Your weekly source for empowering financial knowledge and unlocking possibilities. We explore personal finance, investing, and entrepreneurship to help you build a richer life. Join us as we explore personal finance, investing and more.

Get ready to take control of your financial future and live your best life, financially wise: https://linkin.bio/thefinancialcoconut

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⚠️ Disclaimer:

The content discussed in this episode is intended for educational purposes only and should not be considered as financial advice. The information provided is based on our understanding at the time of recording and may not reflect the current regulations or market conditions. The opinions expressed by guests are their own and do not necessarily represent those of The Financial Coconut. Please do your due diligence before making any investment or financial decisions.

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Jeremy Ko’s first gym died after about a year.

No triumphant founder montage. He was fresh out of NS, knew fitness, but did not yet know how to run the business. That failure gave him the thing he could not buy from a franchise deck: context.

More than a decade later, he says his group has 25+ gyms, alongside fitness equipment, sports supply and climbing businesses.

The part worth stealing is not “work harder”. Jeremy’s model got stricter. He starts with demand and catchment, works backwards into rent and costs, and asks whether the concept can scale without the founder becoming the permanent receptionist, troubleshooter and cleaner.

His sharpest line for anyone romanticising entrepreneurship: if you only create one outlet that needs you every day, you may have bought yourself a job.

For TFC’s working-professional crowd, that is the real tension. Leaving a salary can create freedom… or swap one boss for rent, payroll and leaking roofs.

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🎧 The Financial Coconut:

Your weekly source for empowering financial knowledge and unlocking possibilities. We explore personal finance, investing, and entrepreneurship to help you build a richer life. Join us as we explore personal finance, investing and more.

Get ready to take control of your financial future and live your best life, financially wise: https://linkin.bio/thefinancialcoconut

📍 LISTEN & SUBSCRIBE

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⚠️ Disclaimer:

The content discussed in this episode is intended for educational purposes only and should not be considered as financial advice. The information provided is based on our understanding at the time of recording and may not reflect the current regulations or market conditions. The opinions expressed by guests are their own and do not necessarily represent those of The Financial Coconut. Please do your due diligence before making any investment or financial decisions.

Learn about our events

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Most people try to make their jobs sound more impressive. Shaik Nifael does the opposite: "I clean longkangs for a living."

He left school without the conventional qualifications his parents had hoped for and ended up doing the work he had been warned about growing up. At first, even Shaik was embarrassed by it. Then something shifted: engineers were listening to his advice, clients relied on him when buildings had problems, and he realised the job people looked down on was highly technical and hard to replace.

That experience became the foundation for Jetters Incz.

Along the way, Shaik took a S$1,900 management trainee salary, learnt sales the hard way, and later secured S$200,000 in backing from businessman Kelvin Neo. Jetters has since grown into a waste-management business reported to be generating around S$3 million in annual revenue.

This isn’t a "school doesn’t matter" story. It’s about what happens when you stop judging a career by how impressive it sounds and start asking where the real demand, skill and opportunity are.

Hit the link in bio to watch the full episode now.

#WiseAndShine #TheFinancialCoconut #SingaporeCareers #Entrepreneurship #SingaporeBusiness

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🎧 The Financial Coconut:

Your weekly source for empowering financial knowledge and unlocking possibilities. We explore personal finance, investing, and entrepreneurship to help you build a richer life. Join us as we explore personal finance, investing and more.

Get ready to take control of your financial future and live your best life, financially wise: https://linkin.bio/thefinancialcoconut

📍 LISTEN & SUBSCRIBE

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Get daily tips, insights, and community:

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Discover our other shows and deep dives on YouTube

⚠️ Disclaimer:

The content discussed in this episode is intended for educational purposes only and should not be considered as financial advice. The information provided is based on our understanding at the time of recording and may not reflect the current regulations or market conditions. The opinions expressed by guests are their own and do not necessarily represent those of The Financial Coconut. Please do your due diligence before making any investment or financial decisions.

Learn about our events

Help us get to know you better: http://bit.ly/thefinancialcoconut-survey

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Would you buy an ETF just because it is cheaper, more tax-efficient and easier to access from Singapore?

With new UCITS ETFs coming to SGX, that choice is about to become much more relevant for local investors.

But convenience is only one part of the equation.

In this episode of Chills with TFC, Reggie, Dawn, Chuin Ting Weber and Kang Wei Chin unpack what investors should actually look at before choosing an ETF: the index underneath it, withholding tax, brokerage costs, bid-ask spreads, liquidity and whether “passive” really means passive.

They also get into a surprisingly important question: when an ETF says “World”, how much of the world are investors actually getting?

The ETF wrapper may look simple. What sits inside it can be very different.

So if two ETFs track similar markets, what matters most to you: lower fees, tax efficiency, easier access or broader diversification?

Watch the full conversation on YouTube.

#ChillsWithTFC #TheFinancialCoconut #SingaporeInvesting

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🎧 The Financial Coconut:

Your weekly source for empowering financial knowledge and unlocking possibilities. We explore personal finance, investing, and entrepreneurship to help you build a richer life. Join us as we explore personal finance, investing and more.

Get ready to take control of your financial future and live your best life, financially wise: https://linkin.bio/thefinancialcoconut

📍 LISTEN & SUBSCRIBE

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Get daily tips, insights, and community:

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Discover our other shows and deep dives on YouTube

⚠️ Disclaimer:

The content discussed in this episode is intended for educational purposes only and should not be considered as financial advice. The information provided is based on our understanding at the time of recording and may not reflect the current regulations or market conditions. The opinions expressed by guests are their own and do not necessarily represent those of The Financial Coconut. Please do your due diligence before making any investment or financial decisions.

Learn about our events

Help us get to know you better: http://bit.ly/thefinancialcoconut-survey

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.