Spencer Li

3 Biggest Financial Regrets of Retirees – And How to Avoid Them!

Retirees' biggest money regrets - personal finance

The 3 Biggest Financial Regrets of Retirees in Singapore (and How to Avoid Them)

Last updated: 7 August 2026 · By Spencer Li, CFTe

Three money regrets retirees often name: not saving money when they were young, not investing the time to learn how to invest, and overspending on their children. All three are fixable while you still have time. Start saving early so compounding works for you, because $10,000 saved in your twenties grows far more than the same $10,000 saved in your forties or fifties. Spend a few weeks learning to invest across more than just stocks, because a stocks-only portfolio fell more than half in 2008. And spend less on expensive things for your kids and more time with them, because that is the part they actually remember.

The good news: none of these require more money. They require earlier, simpler decisions. Here is each regret, why it happens, and the fix.

Decide earlier: save, learn, give time. Summary card for the post: 3 Biggest Financial Regrets of Retirees - And How to Avoid Them!.

Regret #1: Not saving money when young

This is the most common regret, and it is universal. Seniors all over the world say the same thing: I should have started saving earlier.

The reason is compounding. Saving $10,000 in your twenties adds up to a lot more than saving $10,000 in your forties or fifties, because the early money has decades longer to grow. The earlier you start, the more time does the work for you.

Three growth curves for the same sum saved in the twenties, forties and fifties; the one started in the twenties ends far higher
The same savings started in your twenties grow far more than savings started later.

It also gets harder with age, not easier. Expenses pile up as you get older. Property, health spending, and raising a family take up most of your money. Saving gets a lot harder when the children are begging you for the latest mobile device for their birthdays.

Gambling and entertainment quietly eat away at your nest egg, so stay clear of them. And if you are reading this past your twenties, do not despair. It is never too late to start getting your money habits sorted out.

Regret #2: Not investing the time to learn

Back in the 1980s, investing was genuinely hard to learn without the internet. Today that excuse is gone. Kids these days build a website from scratch without supervision, so you can certainly find a way to learn something that pays you dividends in the long run.

Most people complain about not knowing what to invest in. That is a reasonable complaint. But here is the deeper problem underneath it.

The reason most people cannot invest money is that they do not even invest time to learn how to invest. Time is sacred. Use it wisely, and use it on what matters.

If your entire financial vocabulary is:

  • buying blue-chip stocks for the long term
  • mutual fund investments
  • investment-linked insurance policies (insurance bundled with an investment fund)

then you are missing a large chunk of the pie. A good diversified portfolio holds much more than just stocks. Holding only stocks can be very risky. In the 2008 crisis, the S&P 500 fell about 57% from its 2007 peak. Multi-asset, multi-instrument investing (spreading money across stocks, bonds, forex, commodities, and more) is the norm now.

One more myth worth killing: people assume learning to trade or invest is hugely time-consuming. It is not. Like any skill, it takes practice at first, and a rules-based routine keeps the daily time short.

Here is the part the brochures skip. The tools are now nearly free. A screener will find a setup, a robo-advisor will rebalance a portfolio, an app will track everything. What none of them supply is the judgment to know which risk is worth taking and the discipline to sit out the rest. That judgment is the one piece you actually have to build yourself, and it is the first of the Five Edges that no tool can hold for you.

Regret #3: Spending too much on the children

Many parents look back on their years as young parents and say the same thing: we should have spent less. The bad outcomes are familiar. Spoilt children. Children who expect a lot but contribute little.

This is not about being stingy. It is about spending on the things that last instead of the things that get thrown away. Among the many unnecessary expenses, parents could do well to trim any of these:

  • Extra-curricular lessons like ballet, music, or swimming, especially if the child is not enjoying them
  • Tuition lessons, since the school system in Singapore is honestly quite robust
  • Expensive pre-school education, because they will not remember it anyway
  • Expensive holidays, which we do not remember a year later
  • Toys that get thrown away three months later
  • Expensive meals at fancy restaurants, because food is still food
  • Overseas university education, when a local degree can be just as profitable for your child
  • Expensive childcare services, when reasonably priced ones do the same job
  • A domestic helper, when teaching the kids to take care of the house makes more sense

We sometimes put too high a premium on a university degree. Pay what is fair and reasonable. Do not spend half a million dollars on one.

And here is the real point. Many parents have money but very little time for their children. Ask any child and you will find they would much rather spend time with their parents than have an expensive holiday in Paris, Dubai, or Tokyo.

In hindsight you always know better. So take the advice of our seniors: spend on what really matters, which is your time. What use is all the cool stuff, the premium lessons, and the holidays, if we miss the one thing that truly counts?

The three regrets at a glance

RegretWhy it happensThe fixStart when
#1 Not saving youngCompounding is invisible early; expenses pile up with ageSave early and automatically; cut gambling and entertainment leaksToday, at any age
#2 Not learning to invest“I don’t know what to buy” plus the myth that it takes too much timeSpend a few weeks learning; diversify beyond stocks; then a few minutes a dayAfter a few weeks of study
#3 Overspending on kidsConfusing money spent with love shownTrim the throwaway expenses; give time insteadBefore the habits set in

How to avoid all three at once

Notice the thread running through every regret. Each one is a trade of a small, early, slightly boring decision for a large, late, painful one. Saving early is boring. Spending two weeks learning to invest is boring. Choosing an evening at home over a flashy holiday is boring. The regret is what arrives when you skip the boring version.

So pick the version your future self will thank you for. Start the savings habit now. Put in the few weeks to learn investing properly, across more than one asset class. And spend on time with the people who matter, not on things they will forget. None of this needs more money. It needs an earlier decision.

FAQ

What is the most common financial regret of retirees in Singapore?
Not saving money when young. It is the single most common regret reported by seniors worldwide, because compounding rewards early savers and expenses only grow heavier with age.

Why does saving early matter so much?
Because of compounding. Saving $10,000 in your twenties grows into far more than the same $10,000 saved in your forties or fifties, since the early money has decades longer to compound.

Is investing only in stocks risky?
Yes. Holding only stocks can be very risky. In the 2008 crisis, the S&P 500 fell about 57% from its 2007 peak. A diversified, multi-asset portfolio spreads that risk.

Does learning to invest take a lot of time?
It takes practice. Like any skill it takes time to learn, and a rules-based routine keeps the daily time short.

How can I avoid these regrets if I am already past my twenties?
It is never too late. Start the savings habit now, spend a few weeks learning to invest beyond stocks, and redirect spending toward time with the people who matter.

The seniors who shared these regrets are not telling you to earn more. They are telling you to decide earlier. Which of the three regrets is the one you would most want to avoid? Let me know in the comments.

And if regret #2 is the one that stings, that is the most fixable of all. Start with the pillar: How to Start Investing and Trading in Singapore: A Beginner’s Guide.

Want the few-minutes-a-day version? Grab the free 15-Minute Swing Trading Starter Kit. It is the exact routine I use to scan once a day and trade any market in 15 minutes, which is the practical answer to regret #2.

About the author. Spencer Li is The 15-Minute Trader and the founder of Synapse Trading. He is a Certified Financial Technician (CFTe) with 15+ years of trading, run from 70+ countries. He holds a B.Acc and B.BM from SMU. Every trade he takes is public, dated, losses left in. He teaches rules-based swing trading in 15 minutes a day, one system for any market.

Education, not financial advice. Synapse Trading is not licensed by MAS to advise on investment products. Trading carries risk of loss; past performance is not indicative of future results.

Related

How to Start Investing and Trading in Singapore

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Spencer Li

5 Reasons Singaporeans May Never Retire Despite Working Harder, Checked Against the 2026 Numbers

Why you may never retire - personal finance

By Spencer Li, CFTe · Last updated: 26 October 2026

Working harder rarely fixes retirement in Singapore on its own, because the five forces that make it hard act on what your savings can buy, while a pay rise only changes how much you earn. Those forces are low returns on idle cash, a CPF system built as a floor and not a full plan, inflation, decades of property debt, and an ageing population that raises the cost of care. You cannot outwork any of them. You can understand them, and then put your savings and your skills to work against them.

I first wrote this in March 2017. Two of my predictions from that year turned out wrong, and I have marked both below, with the numbers that proved them wrong.

1For most people, wages will never be enough to sustain their lifestyle at retirement.
Source: media.cagle.com

Why does working harder not solve it?

Talk to any taxi driver in Singapore and you will hear the same list within one ride. Healthcare costs more, petrol costs more, food costs more, a flat costs more, and the economy feels less steady than it used to. Most of those complaints are about prices. Very few are about pay.

That is the clue. Every extra hour you work raises the number on your payslip, but your retirement depends on what the money you save will buy in 20 or 30 years, and on how long it has to last. A pay rise does nothing about either of those on its own.

Before reaching for answers, then, it helps to see where the pressure comes from. There are five sources, and the first is the one most people never notice.

1. Why is money in the bank losing ground?

Singapore has more mobile phones than people, yet most of us could not say what our savings account paid last year. We are well educated and badly informed about our own money.

The trouble is simple. When the interest on your deposits is lower than inflation, every dollar you leave there buys a little less each year, and nobody sends you a statement showing the loss. To stand still you have to earn at least the inflation rate, and most bank deposits have not done that for long stretches.

So the first defence is financial literacy, and it does not need to be exotic. You do not need statistical arbitrage, options strategies or bets on the yield curve. You need the basics: the main financial instruments, the major asset classes, the difference between investing and speculating, and how to keep a single loss small. That alone puts you ahead of most people.

2. Is CPF enough to retire on?

Here is a number worth knowing before you turn 55. For members turning 55 in 2026, the Full Retirement Sum is $220,400, and CPF estimates it will pay about $1,780 a month from age 65 on the CPF LIFE Standard Plan, assuming 4% interest. The Basic Retirement Sum of $110,200 pays about $950 a month, and topping up to the Enhanced Retirement Sum of $440,800 pays about $3,440.

Now set that beside a working income. MOM puts the median gross monthly income from work of full-time employed residents at $5,775 in June 2025, including employer CPF. At the Full Retirement Sum, the payout is a little under a third of that median, so CPF covers the basics, and the lifestyle on top is up to you.

The interest side matters too. For October to December 2026, the CPF Ordinary Account pays 2.5% and the Special, MediSave and Retirement Accounts pay 4%. In 2017 I wrote that inflation runs at 4% to 5% in boom years, which leaves the Ordinary Account behind. SingStat’s figures back the shape of that. Inflation was 4.6% in 2012, 6.1% in 2022 and 4.8% in 2023. But it was also 2.4% in 2024 and 0.9% in 2025, when 2.5% came out ahead.

CPF is a solid floor. I would build on it and not stop there. Owning a smaller home later, holding dividend stocks or keeping some money in safer deposits all help you keep what you have, but none of them is a plan for making it grow.

That week in 2017, I was running a refresher on trading setups for my students.

Doing a refresher for the setups before we embark on live trading! ??? #tradingarcade #realtraders

A post shared by Spencer Li ?? Synapse Trading (@iamrecneps) on

If you want a way to keep learning without giving up your evenings, my free 15-minute swing trader checklist is the daily routine I use myself.

3. Did zero inflation become the norm?

This is the first place I was wrong. In 2017, Singapore had just been through two years of falling prices. SingStat’s index shows consumer prices down 0.5% in 2015 and again in 2016, and I wrote that zero inflation could become the norm and drag wages down with it.

sgInflation has fallen and fallen, and has even turned negative in 2015 and part of 2016.
Source: tradingeconomics.com

The chart above stops in 2016, and the years after it did not follow the script. Prices rose 0.6% in 2017, then 6.1% in 2022 and 4.8% in 2023, before cooling to 0.9% in 2025. The latest monthly reading puts prices 2.2% higher in September 2026 than a year earlier. Zero inflation was a passing episode.

My second miss was wages. I warned that stagnating or falling pay could become the norm. MOM’s 2025 report shows the opposite at the middle. Median income from work, after inflation, grew 2.1% a year from 2015 to 2025, and the bottom fifth of earners did better still, at 2.9% a year. I also listed jobs I expected to shrink, from marketing to logistics, based on 2016 surveys that I would not lean on today, so I have taken that list out.

What survived from that section is the warning about one salary doing all the work. Pay grew, and so did prices, sometimes faster in a single year. If your savings only keep pace with the salary that feeds them, you are running in place. A second skill that does not depend on one employer is still worth building, and so is the habit of helping your children follow what employers want next, alongside their exam scores.

4. Why do property prices push retirement further away?

If you already own a home, rising prices feel like good news. If you are trying to buy one, they mean a loan that runs for decades and a big slice of your working life spent paying it down.

Singapore’s stability is part of what draws overseas buyers, and that demand does not fade on its own. Most households end up carrying a mortgage through their best earning years, and a household paying off a home tends to spend and invest less. Spread across a generation, that debt slows growth for the whole economy, so the growth of the 1980s and 1990s is hard to repeat.

For retirement, the cost is simple. Every year spent mostly paying off a home is a year with less left over to put to work.

The same week I wrote the first version of this, I was the opening speaker at SMART Expo Singapore 2017.

Opening speaker for SMART Expo SG 2017! Thanks to everyone who came down to support! ? #suntec #property #guestspeaker

A post shared by Spencer Li ?? Synapse Trading (@iamrecneps) on

5. Who pays for care when the country gets older?

Demographers use a blunt number called the old-age support ratio, which counts working-age people for every person aged 65 and over. In 1990, Singapore had 10.5 residents aged 20 to 64 for every resident 65 or older. By 2015 it was 5.7. In 2026 it is 3.2.

That is the problem in one line. In 2026, 19.5% of residents are 65 or older, against 11.8% in 2015, and fewer working adults stand behind each of them. It is the same greying that Japan has lived with for years, and it is nobody’s fault, since a lower birth rate does it on its own.

People are also living longer. A resident who reached 65 in 2025 could expect about 21.6 more years on average, with men at 19.9 and women at 23.1. Add a little inflation to two decades of retirement and the sums move quickly. At 2% a year, prices rise by about half over 21 years, so the same basket that cost $1,000 at 65 costs about $1,500 at 86.

More elderly people means more demand for doctors, beds and care, with fewer workers paying in. In 2017 I called this falling government support, which was not fair. Support has not been cut. The pressure comes from the arithmetic of an older population, and medical bills tend to follow it.

Is it really that bleak?

On 27 May 2026, a member of Reddit’s r/singaporefi pushed back on the gloom with a post titled “You could probably RE earlier than you think.” RE is short for retire early. Their point was that retirement money arrives in stages: their own savings first, then whatever CPF releases at 55, then the CPF LIFE payouts from 65. They had been waiting for one big number when several smaller ones would do.

They are right, and it corrects something in my 2017 version, which treated retirement as a single finish line that most people would never reach. For many people the honest answer is that you will retire, just later, or in stages, or on less than you hoped, unless you plan for each stage.

The five forces still decide how big each stage is. That is why the useful question is what you can control.

So what should you actually do?

None of these five forces will change because you work later at the office. What you can change is what your savings do while you work, and that starts with learning how markets behave.

Start small and start now. Learn the basics, then put a small amount you can afford to learn with into the market, and keep each loss small enough to shrug off. The goal is to stop leaving your money defenceless against forces that never take a day off. Shortcuts are not the goal.

When I started, the hardest part was keeping the habit going after work. A short daily routine solved that for me, and the free 15-minute swing trader checklist is the one I still run.

For the beginner’s path in order, start with my free trading guides. If you want to see what a big target needs each month, read how much you must save to have $1 million at retirement. And before you plan, learn from people who have already been there, in the 3 biggest financial regrets of retirees in Singapore. To see where your pay sits today, look at what you need to earn to be above Singapore’s average.

FAQ

Is CPF enough to retire on in Singapore?
For most people it is a floor. For members turning 55 in 2026, CPF estimates the Full Retirement Sum of $220,400 will pay about $1,780 a month from 65 on the Standard Plan. That is a little under a third of the June 2025 median income from work, so most people need savings on top.

What is the CPF Full Retirement Sum in 2026?
For members turning 55 in 2026, it is $220,400. The Basic Retirement Sum is $110,200 and the Enhanced Retirement Sum is $440,800.

What are the CPF interest rates now?
From 1 October to 31 December 2026, the Ordinary Account pays 2.5% and the Special, MediSave and Retirement Accounts pay 4%, according to CPF.

How long does retirement last in Singapore?
A resident aged 65 in 2025 could expect to live about 21.6 more years on average, according to SingStat. Women at 65 could expect 23.1 years and men 19.9.

Has Singapore’s inflation been higher than CPF interest?
In some years. SingStat shows inflation of 6.1% in 2022 and 4.8% in 2023, above the Ordinary Account’s 2.5%. In 2025 it was 0.9%, below it.

Does working harder solve the retirement problem?
Rarely on its own. The main pressures act on what your money buys and how long it must last, so learning to grow your savings matters as much as earning more.

Which of the five worries you most, and has any of them changed your plans? Let me know in the comments.

And if you want a routine that fits around a full-time job in 15 minutes a day, grab the free 15-minute swing trader checklist.

About the author. Spencer Li is The 15-Minute Trader and the founder of Synapse Trading. He is a Certified Financial Technician (CFTe) with 15+ years of trading, run from 70+ countries. He holds a B.Acc and B.BM from SMU. Every trade he takes is public, dated, losses left in. He teaches rules-based swing trading in 15 minutes a day, one system for any market.

Education, not financial advice. Synapse Trading is not licensed by MAS to advise on investment products. Trading carries risk of loss, and past performance is not indicative of future results.

by
Spencer Li

3 Little-Known But Powerful Life Principles That the Top 10% of Rich People Apply Daily

Habits of the top 10% - wealth

Wealth has little to do with your age. Instead, maturity is the key factor in living successfully and accumulating wealth. I’ve seen 40-somethings and 50-somethings behave like school children, and 20-somethings with nothing in their pockets but with an attitude that would put accomplished men to shame.

The latter are the superstars of tomorrow. But what is the defining difference between these 2 groups of people?

The answer lies in their life principles, and here are 3 essential life principles that are adopted by all the world’s richest and most successful people.
It’s your attitude, not what’s in your pocket. Summary card for the post: 3 Little-Known But Powerful Life Principles That the Top 10% of Rich People Apply Daily.

FIRSTLY, IT’S NOT WHAT YOU HAVE IN YOUR POCKET, BUT WHAT ATTITUDE YOU HAVE IN YOUR HEAD.

Attitude makes the difference. I have met employers, bosses, CEOs over the years and one thing I’ve noticed is that many of them do not mind hiring fresh graduates, as long as they want to learn. Many people come straight out of school expecting a $4,000 salary and posh benefits, but the truth is, these jobs no longer exist. Instead, the business world is a harsh hustle and the reality may shock comfort-seekers and fun-loving teenagers.

Money is not the solution to your financial difficulties. It’s your mentality towards wealth and life in general.

aSource: Quotefancy.com

Of course, in capitalism, money speaks. But when you have nothing to your name, it’s your willingness to change and your enthusiasm that attracts the money eventually.

Entrepreneurs are people who create money out of thin air. They see a problem, and find a way to solve it.

If someone is hiring a trader, I want to see at least 5 years of dedicated self-study to the subject, outside of the classroom. I want him to be proficient in all asset classes, conversant with financial jargon, and at least know who Yellen and Lagarde are.

When an aspiring trader tells me that the FOMC rate caused a bull spike and reversal on the yen yesterday despite the announcement being ambiguous, I’m sold.

Rich people have raw passion, and I believe every successful entrepreneur would say the same.

What kind of attitude do you have?

SECONDLY, LEARN TO SERVE INSTEAD OF BEING SERVED.

Many people, young or old, squirm at the idea of having to serve someone more experienced than them. After all, they would say to themselves “I could jolly-well do what my boss is doing. Why is he paid 3 x of my salary?”

“That’s because he’s the boss, silly you.”

This is the truth: your boss did something, and had something that got him there. He paid his dues and did what it takes to get to where he deserves.

 

1Would you ‘wash someone else’s feet’ in order to learn and get where you want eventually?
Source: enemyofdebt.com

And learning to serve is a great way to buy into the shoes of high-rolling elites. Many wealthy people are humble, hardworking, honest, eager to learn, and much much more. When they see the same qualities they once had, you’re in.

Serve your boss. Look out for what the company you are in wants. Help others around meet performance goals. Learn to work for a vision greater than yourself, and don’t beat yourself up for having low pay initially.

When you serve, you grow as a person, you grow in maturity, you expose yourself to different experiences, and you’ll instantly stand out from the crowd.

 

LASTLY, BE FAITHFUL WITH LITTLE, AND YOU’LL BE GIVEN MORE.

I’m surprised by how many people I meet, fresh out of university, who have studied Economics, Finance, Corporate Accounting, Complex Derivatives, and many other subjects, but fail to manage their own income and expenses.

A person who manages his expenses at the age of 18 is impressive. People don’t look only for great results; the person’s habits will show.

I’ve seen youngsters who can pull out spreadsheets detailing their monthly income and expenses for the past 5 years, filed into category, along with savings plans, % completion on their financial goals, and many other cool details. These are the ones that will get ahead.

If you can’t manage $1,000 a month, don’t think that things will get better when you have $4,000 a month. If you are faithful with little, you will be faithful with much.

Have you ever heard of lottery winners striking it rich, and then lose it all because they were bad financial managers?

 

izI ain’t no saint, but Mother Teresa has some great wisdom on this issue.
Source: izquotes.com

 

Budget faithfully, keep to your current level of income, and stick to it. But always seek to grow your level of earning power.

TRUTH BE TOLD, MANY PEOPLE DON’T LIKE TO DO THE ABOVE 3 POINTS.

Sadly, I’ve also met adults in their 40s-50s who have lost hope. When the family comes, the kids come, and the crushing mortgage comes, the cracks will show in their financial discipline. These habits are formed over many years, and the lack of discipline and a humble attitude is to blame.

Keep at your inner-game and you’ll be much closer to your financial goals than you imagine.

Cheers! 🙂

 

thumbnail an unofficial guide to living our best life beyond financial freedom

If you are excited to get more life hacks, also check out: “Beyond Financial Freedom: An Unofficial Guide to Living Your Best Life”

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Spencer Li

Dangerous Myths About Trading: What Is Really True About Leverage, Stop Hunting and Forex

Dangerous myths about trading - trading basics

By Spencer Li, CFTe · Last updated: 26 October 2026

The three trading myths that do the most damage are that leverage raises your risk, that your broker is hunting your stop loss, and that forex is riskier than stocks. Each one is wrong in a way that matters. Leverage changes how much cash a trade ties up, while your position size and your stop decide how much you can lose. Most stop-outs come from where traders cluster their stops, although a broker that takes the other side of your trade does have a real conflict. And risk lives in how you trade, so forex is no more dangerous than stocks, and it is often the cheaper place to learn.

I first wrote about these myths in 2017. Two of my answers back then were too simple, so this version includes the parts that cut against my own argument.

Why do trading myths feel like common knowledge?

In 1977, three psychologists, Lynn Hasher, David Goldstein and Thomas Toppino, published a study on a strange habit of the human mind. People rated statements they had seen before as more likely to be true than statements they were seeing for the first time, whether or not they were true. Psychologists now call this the illusory truth effect, and it explains most of what you hear about trading at a family dinner.

Listen to the financial news, or to relatives who have never traded, and the same warnings come round again and again, usually meant kindly:

  • Trading is very risky because you can lose all your capital.
  • Leverage increases your risk.
  • Brokers are out to hunt your stop loss.
  • Forex is riskier than stocks.

Each repetition makes a warning feel more true. Summary card for the post: Dangerous Myths About Trading that Could be Affecting Your Profitability.

Each repetition makes a warning feel a little more true, and none of them makes it more accurate. So the useful habit is to take each one apart and look at the mechanism underneath. I will take the three that I think cause the most harm.

Does trading with leverage increase your risk?

On 27 March 2018, the European Securities and Markets Authority published a number every new trader should see once. Regulators across the EU had studied retail accounts trading CFDs, which are leveraged contracts on forex, indices and shares, and found that 74% to 89% of retail accounts typically lose money. In the same announcement, ESMA limited retail clients to leverage of 30 to 1 on major currency pairs, and less on everything else.

Singapore had already moved the same way in March 2014, when MAS confirmed a 5% minimum margin on forex CFDs traded by retail investors, a cap of 20 to 1 that it called in line with Hong Kong and Japan. Its reasoning is careful, and I think it is exactly right. A cap on leverage “does not necessarily prevent losses”, MAS wrote, but it “mitigates the risk of retail investors taking on excessive positions”.

So leverage clearly plays a part in those losses. But look at the mechanism, because the leverage ratio does not set your risk on any trade. Your position size and your stop loss do.

Say two traders each buy USD 10,000 worth of a currency pair, with a stop loss 1% below their entry. If the stop is hit, both lose USD 100.

The first uses 20 to 1 leverage and ties up USD 500 as margin, which is the cash a broker sets aside to hold the position. The second uses 2 to 1 and ties up USD 5,000. The trade is identical, and so is the loss.

Now imagine a third trader with a USD 5,000 account who uses every bit of that 20 to 1 and buys USD 100,000 of the same pair. The same 1% move against him costs USD 1,000, a fifth of his account, on one trade, and a few of those in a row wipe him out. He is the one the regulators were worried about and the one the newspapers write about. Leverage made the bigger size possible, and greed did the rest.

Leverage is a lot like fire. It can cook dinner for the whole family, or it can burn the house down, and nobody blames the stove for the second one. I explain margin and leverage ratios in more detail in how leverage works in forex trading.

If you would like a daily routine that keeps your size small without hours at the screen, my free 15-minute swing trader checklist is the one I use myself.

Are brokers really out to hunt your stop loss?

On 20 September 2023, a trader on Reddit’s r/Forex asked: “Is stop hunting by trading providers a problem in forex?” It is a fair question, and the honest answer has two halves.

The first half is that stop hunting has really happened. On 12 November 2014, the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority fined five banks a total of £1.1 billion over their forex trading. Among its findings, traders had attempted to manipulate fix rates and trigger client “stop loss” orders.

Those banks could see their clients’ orders, and a retail broker that acts as a market maker sits in a similar seat, because it takes the other side of your trade, sees your stop, and does better when you lose. In 2017 I wrote that brokers simply want you to keep trading and be profitable. That holds for a broker that earns spreads or commissions on orders it passes to the market. It is too kind to one that is your counterparty, so find out which kind you have before you open an account.

The second half explains most of what traders actually feel, and it needs no villain at all.

Everyone reads the same chart, so stops pile up in the same obvious places, just under the last swing low, under a round number, or just past a breakout level. A pile of stops is a pile of orders that will sell at any price the moment they are touched. A large buyer who needs to fill a big order goes where sellers are sure to appear, the stops fire, and price snaps back once that forced selling is done. It feels personal. Nobody knew your stop was there.

It happens to me too. In my weekly outlook on 5 November 2025, I told viewers that a short position on Reddit, the company this time, was “one of the unfortunate trades, where we actually got stopped out”. As I said then, “the trade direction and analysis was actually correct”, because after the stop was hit, “the market actually plunged like 18%”. Nobody hunted that stop. The stock bounced into it first and then went the way I expected.

So getting stopped out is normal. You do not even need to be right most of the time. Suppose each losing trade costs you USD 100 and each winner makes USD 200. Out of 10 trades you lose 6 and win 4, which is USD 600 lost and USD 800 made. You are up USD 200 while being wrong 60% of the time. Those numbers are made up to show the arithmetic, but the shape holds: the size of your wins and losses matters more than how often you are right.

Do note that the opposite belief is the expensive one. A trader convinced the broker is hunting his stop often stops placing one, or moves it whenever price gets close, and a small planned loss turns into a large unplanned one. I have written about why that urge is so strong in why it is so hard to cut your losses and let your profits run.

Is forex riskier than stocks?

Most of the people who told me forex was dangerous had never traded either market. Risk does not belong to a product. It comes from how much you put on, where your stop sits and whether you follow it, and on a few practical points forex is the gentler place to learn.

The first is size. In forex you can trade a micro lot, which is 0.01 of a standard lot, or 1,000 units of the base currency. That lets you place real trades for a few dollars of risk, and most of what traders learn in their first year is about themselves. How do you react to a losing streak? Can you sit still? You only find out with some real money in the game.

The second is cost. Many forex accounts charge through the spread, the small gap between the buying and selling price, with no minimum fee on each trade, while many stock brokers charge a minimum fee however small the order. So each small learning trade tends to cost less in forex.

The third is time. Forex runs around the clock from Monday morning in Asia to Friday evening in New York, so it fits around a busy job instead of the other way round.

The last difference is in the charts themselves, and the two charts below show it side by side.

forexForex pairs/currency futures tend to have less gaps between bars; bars close and open at roughly the same price.

stockMost stocks have gaps between the candlesticks/bars, due to the opening and closing of the market every day.

Stocks gap because the exchange closes overnight and news keeps arriving while it is shut, while the forex market barely closes at all during the week. A gap makes the reading harder, since you have to weigh the gap alongside the candle that printed. Forex lets you practise reading price action without working out what each gap means first.

What do the three myths have in common?

Each one blames something outside the trader, whether it is the leverage, the broker or the market. And each one hides the real lever, which is how much you risk on a trade, where your stop sits, and whether you follow it.

A platform will hand you 20 to 1 leverage in a second, and nothing in it stops you from betting the whole account on one idea. The market will fill your stop wherever you put it, including in the same spot as every other beginner. Those decisions stay with you, which is good news, because they are also the ones you can fix.

Fixing them is a matter of routine, and routines are easier to keep when they are short. The free 15-minute swing trader checklist is the one I run every day.

thumbnail beginner guide to trading and TA

If you would like to learn how to get started in trading, also check out: “The Beginner’s Guide to Trading & Technical Analysis”

FAQ

Does leverage increase your risk?
Leverage by itself sets how much margin a trade ties up. Your risk comes from your position size and your stop. It turns dangerous when it lets you take a position far too large for your account, which is why ESMA in 2018 and MAS in 2014 both limited it for retail traders.

Do brokers hunt your stop loss?
Most stop-outs come from stops clustering at obvious chart levels. Deliberate stop triggering has happened: the FCA fined five banks £1.1 billion in November 2014 over forex failings that included attempts to trigger client stop-loss orders. A broker that takes the other side of your trades has a conflict worth knowing about.

What percentage of retail traders lose money?
In its 27 March 2018 announcement, ESMA said EU regulators found that 74% to 89% of retail accounts trading CFDs typically lose money. That figure covers leveraged CFD accounts in the EU at that time, not every kind of trading.

What is the maximum forex leverage for retail traders in Singapore?
In March 2014, MAS confirmed a minimum margin of 5% for forex CFDs traded by retail investors, which equals leverage of 20 to 1.

Is forex riskier than stocks?
Risk depends on how you trade. Forex lets you start with very small trades, often has no minimum fee per trade, runs 24 hours on weekdays and has fewer price gaps, which makes it a cheaper place to learn.

Which of these three myths did you believe the longest, and has a stop-out ever made you suspect your broker? Let me know in the comments.

If you are just starting out, my free trading guides cover the basics in order, from reading a chart to managing risk.

And if you want a routine that keeps your size small and your stops honest in 15 minutes a day, grab the free 15-minute swing trader checklist.

About the author. Spencer Li is The 15-Minute Trader and the founder of Synapse Trading. He is a Certified Financial Technician (CFTe) with 15+ years of trading, run from 70+ countries. He holds a B.Acc and B.BM from SMU. Every trade he takes is public, dated, losses left in. He teaches rules-based swing trading in 15 minutes a day, one system for any market.

Education, not financial advice. Synapse Trading is not licensed by MAS to advise on investment products. Trading carries risk of loss, and past performance is not indicative of future results.

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Spencer Li

6 Little-Known Things Rich People Do Differently that Give Them an Advantage

Six things rich people do - personal finance

Many people do not realise that small things add up. Like how a small river can cut through rock and form grand canyons, small habits can add up over time to produce vastly different results. This means that quite often, a small change in the way we do certain things can result in huge leaps in improvement. So here are some things that rich people do differently:

1. MAKE MANY SMALL & FREQUENT WINS, NOT A FEW BIG WINS

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Trading is boring. Ask any seasoned trader in a proprietary fund, and they will tell you the same thing. It’s all about doing the same thing over and over again, and it is surprisingly difficult to do something simple over a very long period of time.

Some of the richest people I know own very humble businesses. One example is the typical food hawker; it’s unexciting, it’s repetitive, but hey, it gives a very stable source of income, week in, week out. It is virtually impossible for good food to become irrelevant to the typical consumer, and hence this source of income is one that will last a long time.

In trading, it’s the same. Small wins add up over time, and instead of being diligent, many aspiring traders choose to take the easy way and just look for that one quick way to make money. Although the news always glorifies the one-hit wonders, like Zuckerberg and other billionaire tech founders, the majority of the rich are not overnight successes, and they know this rule best: small wins add up over time.

 

2. THINK IN % ROI, NOT DOLLARS OF INCOME

Compounding is the way to go. Although you might be nauseating because this is probably the 100th article on the power of compounding, it really works. Just take a moment and think with me:

Nobody would learn trading if you claim to make $10 a day. They want $100 a day, $1000 a day, but forget that it starts with $10 a day.

That’s why most people fail to achieve financial success. They measure monetary success in dollar terms, and fail to consider that ROI is what brings true riches over the long-run.

Thinking in ROI is a very huge barrier for many people, and it actually benefits you because when you finally do make a substantial sum of money, you will still be thinking in terms of ROI and not be overwhelmed by the huge amount of funds on your plate.

I’ve seen many traders do well on small accounts, only to blow up with larger accounts because they have not drilled the ROI concept deep into their minds.

 

3. STAY AWAY FROM ALL FORMS OF GAMBLING

This point is probably the easiest to write about:

Gambling = negative expectation

Investing/trading with a tested edge = positive expectation

“I bet I can stop gambling!”

Gambling gives you hope, which is false and always gets dashed.

I think that’s enough said. If you’re gambling for the thrill, treat it as expenses. As a trader I always think in probabilities, so since the expected return from gambling is negative, the rational decision is to not participate at all.

Gambling destroys your family, your friendships, your sense of sanity, and your work ethic. I think it’s enough to let you realize it won’t get you rich; even the seemingly innocent TOTO or 4D that you buy is not a rational attempt for someone to earn big money.

 

4. TIME IS WORTH MORE THAN MONEY

Quite often, people will go to great lengths to save money, for example spending hours hunting around for cheap shopping deals, when all you save for your hours of effort is a mere $10-20. Rich people know the value of their time.

One important question to ask yourself is, “what is the $ value of 1 hour of your time?” If 1 hour of your time is only worth $2, then spending an hour queueing up for free ice-cream might make sense. However, if one hour of your time is worth $200, then taking a $20 cab ride to save an hour of transport will make a lot of sense. You get the idea.

At this point, you might have realised that one if the key ways to increase your net worth is to gradually work your way up by increasing the value of your time. After all, everyone has 24 hours in a day, but the more value you can create in one hour of your time, the higher you will be paid for it, and the higher the value of that hour will be.

 

5. DON’T WASTE MONEY ON CHEAP STUFF – ONLY BUY QUALITY GOODS

It’s sad that most people are thrifty in things that do not matter, but silly when it comes to investments of thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars. I’ve seen people scrimp on their daily meals, yet when it comes to investments, blow $50,000 on an investment fund they do not understand, or buy into a multi-currency deposit that doesn’t even make sense.

Home purchases, which make up the bulk of most people’s expenditures, tend to be bad decisions. People buy houses that they cannot afford, spend money on renovations that don’t matter, and waste money where it doesn’t bring returns.

1Most people are smart with small sums of money, but unwise on big decisions

Rich people buy things that appreciate in value, while poor people don’t. Electronics generally don’t appreciate in value. If you consider buying electronics, buy quality electronics, and keep them in tip-top condition so that you can resell them at a decent price. And… just because it’s the latest gadget doesn’t mean it’s quality. You’ve got to do your research and think about your purchases if you are serious about your money.

Other things that are not worth spending on include:

  • fast food
  • low-quality makeup
  • gifts that don’t really matter
  • alcohol
  • bottled water
  • cheap shoes/clothing that you throw away within 6 months

Yes. It might hurt to read this, but if you need a total personal finance audit, then it helps to do a reality check on yourself.

 

6. LASTLY, RECOGNIZE THAT PERSONAL DEBT IS A SHACKLE

Personal debt chains you from spending on what really matters.

In my opinion, the only useful loan is the humble HOME LOAN. Yes, a loan for the house you actually live in, not the house that you would not live in. It is essential to have a roof over your head that you own, because when your business fails, when you lose your job, you still have somewhere to rest and find solace while you sort things out. The worst thing you can find yourself in is having no house, no money, and no one to support you at your lowest moment. Using debt to buy additional houses is a bad idea unless you are a real estate investor by profession and you know what you are doing.

Car loans are unnecessary. Unless you have a dire need for a car, buy the car in cash as much as possible, or just take a taxi everywhere since you can afford it anyway. Credit card loans are the jaws of death for many; stay away from them, and just follow the simple mantra of  “spending below your means”. 

Spend below your means, but also look to expand your means.

Too many people get stuck in the “spending below your means” mentality, and fail to consider how they can acquire more sources of income. In fact, having no personal debt frees you to make decisions that allow you to work towards financial freedom, which may require you to have no income for months or years in a row.

 

WHAT SHOULD I DO?

I hope that these 6 tips will get you toward your goal of financial freedom. Keep at it! Remember, if you change your habits, you will change your outcomes. Live like the rich do, and you’ll soon be living the life that the rich do.

Reading this article without putting the tips into practice is like looking into a mirror and forgetting what you look like. It might hurt at the start, but changing the way you live could very well change your destiny!

Wishing you all the best in your journey!

 

RESEARCH SOURCES & REFERENCES

alternet.org/how-gambling-can-kill-you-faster-drug-abuse-or-alcoholism
wondergressive.com/20-biggest-wastes-money/

 

thumbnail an unofficial guide to living our best life beyond financial freedom

 

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