Late starter making up for lost time - Good for him and his family!

For years, Mr John Goh's idea of financial planning was to squirrel his teacher's salary into a low-interest bank account. A science graduate from the National University of Singapore, he has been a secondary school chemistry teacher for the past 17 years.

But he has since become a savvy investor too. He said he regretted not knowing how to make his money grow till he was in his mid-30s.

'No one taught me to manage my finances and to invest. My earnings went into my savings account which was paying a miserable interest,' said Mr Goh, 41.

Then his friends showed him how to open a trading account to trade in stocks about six years ago. Since then, he has voraciously read many books on the subject. Author Robert Kiyosaki's Rich Dad, Poor Dad had a particular impact on him.

Inspired, he decided not to depend solely on his job to provide an income, but to achieve different streams of passive income by making his money work harder for him.

His current investment portfolio comprises properties, stocks and land banking.

Taking a leaf from the book of Mr Kiyosaki, who made his millions from real estate, Mr Goh sold his landed property last year and bought three properties, two of which are investment properties for renting out.

He says his is a 'disciplined approach' when property hunting. He looks for homes near public transport like the MRT stations and bus stops that will offer a positive cash flow and that will provide healthy rentals. He will view about 30 units in a chosen area before making an offer.

His wife Jennifer Tan, 39, is also a teacher and they have a son, Joshua, 12.