What is really important in Personal Finance Planning ?

There is a great video I have seen in LCF where he talks about

• Insurance
• Investment
• Retirement
• Tax
• Estate Planning

Although I may not agree to all points but it is actually quite good and all points presented professionally.

Some of my pondering points

• 5-6% investment cost is NOT LOW
  
  Actually whether an investment cost is low or not is always relative.  For example, if you are paying 20-30% to others to manage your portfolio then it is lower to find one that is 5-6%.  Likewise, paying 1-2% fee when you manage your own investment is common.  So it is really a matter of your money vs your time.  If you pay more fee, you would expect better services just like any other things in life.
  
  
• Thousands of saving on tax can be compounded to millions
  
  While its true you could save on tax but usually its not in a huge magnitude.  To save thousands in tax, you probably have a certain amount of much bigger income to start with.  Its more toward FREE money vs ignorance.  You could just save those extra money for your own use instead of just giving them away if you know how;  while all these do not affect your constitution rights as a citizen.
  
  Some other times people actually channel the income elsewhere to save on tax but didn't realize if the money used elsewhere are of no additional values, then its really not a smart way to save tax.  Examples are like buying books that you don't read, visiting clinics when you are actually healthy etc.
  
  
• Product Features
  
  In the beginning he mentioned don't talk about 'product features' but at later part mentioned quite a few jargon.  I felt like those are just 'personal finance planning features'.  So perhaps its fine to talk about features as long as those are the features people care about.  :)
  

It is great to see that there are so many professionals in finance planning industry now.  It is really different 20 years ago where no one understand how one could make a living out of financial planning service alone.  Overall it is a great way to get an introduction to what is really important in Personal Finance Planning.  If I were to need some services one day, I would probably be very thrill to meet up with LCF.

I also have a feel that he is more incline toward insurance than mutual funds but its just my gut feel after viewing the video.  Back then, financial planning is broken down into 2 main influencing industries.  One is base on insurance and another is base on mutual fund, is it still the case now ?