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Old 24-09-2017, 05:10 PM
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Originally Posted by Unregistered View Post
Hi,

We've been following this forum and have found the discussions and arguments here useful. We think there are good pointers on both side of the arguments.

Those who argued we need a lot of money to retire may be right if we want to maintain our high standard of living. Those who argued we don't need so much money to retire could also be right since they chose a simple standard of retirement.

We have found a SECRET on how we both as a couple can retire with a high standard of living even though we are not rich. We realize it is difficult for us to have a high standard of retirement if we retire here.

We will soon reach 55 and plan to retire. The SECRET is to retire in KL, where we can enjoy a high standard of retirement due to the lower cost of living and a favorable SGD exchange rate. We will join our relatives there. We also have friends in KL. KL is a metropolitan city with many modern amenities, shopping, entertainment, attractions, lots of international food choices, etc. Not much difference from Singapore. We are familiar with KL. With the KL-SG HSR, our children and grandkids can visit us easily in the future.

Our children will remain here as they will be working, married and living in their own BTO HDB flats. They will be working hard to save lots of valuable SGD for their own retirement.

We plan to rent out our paid up Singapore home for $2500 pm. We also have dividends of $1000 pm from our investments. In total our passive income will be $3500 pm. After conversion we will receive RM10500 pm. We can retire in comfort and enjoy a high standard of retirement with this amount.

Our spendings (2 retired persons) per month:

Condo rental (3 BR) RM2000
Food, mobile, wifi and utilities RM2000
Car petrol and maintenance RM500
Medical RM500
Entertainment and holidays RM1000
Miscellaneous RM1000
Total RM7000 pm
Savings RM3500 pm

Upon reaching 65, our CPF Life ERS will give us $4000 pm. So our passive income will be $7500 pm or RM22500 pm. With this passive income we can rent a luxury condo in KL's prime district (Orchard Road standard), employ a maid, drive a luxury sports car and go annual holidays to Europe flying business class.

So, we can have a luxurious retirement lifestyle even though we are not rich as long as we have:

1. A paid up HDB flat
2. Some investments which give dividends
3. CPF Life ERS

Retiring in luxury is possible if we retire overseas, in places with a lower cost of living.

We have projected that we can't afford to retire here with a high standard of living. If we retire here, we may have to downgrade to a very small HDB flat and eat simple meals. We also don't want to work until we are 65 or 70. If we die at 80, we will only enjoy retirement for 10 to 15 years. If we are sick for say 5 years, our enjoyable retirement will only be 5 to 10 years.

If we studied hard from Primary 1, worked hard in our career until we retire at 65, that's 59 years of hard work. Not worth it to enjoy only 5 to 10 years of retirement after 59 years of suffering and hard work. We choose to be smart and not think like the ordinary, unthinking people. We will retire at 55. We deserve it after working hard for 49 years (from 6 to 55 years old).

While we value hard work, we don't believe in working long and hard just to amass a huge wealth to pass to our children. Every generation has to work hard and not be spoilt by stupid parents. Our forefathers worked very hard to build our nation, so our future generations must work hard too. They must not be weaklings and strawberries or else there's no future for our country.
Thanks for sharing your retirement plan. Have you found a condo in KL that is safe and luxurious at RM2k? If yes, would like to hear from you.

The problems with KL in particular and Malaysia in general as a retirement destination are (a) Security, (b) Security and (c) Security. The country is suffering from very crappy (mis)management from corrupted and incompetent "leaders". A large number of the populace is struggling from the ever-increasing cost of living while salaries and wages remain stagnant. So what do some of these people do when they cannot make a living from honest work? Add to the increasing number of legal and illegal migrants, and you will know why the security issue can only get worse instead of better. That is why I am hesitant in taking up the MM2H program even though like you I have many friends and relatives in Malaysia.

So KL as a retirement place? For me it may be a bit too adventurous when I am old. Safe but boring Singapore will suit me fine, even if the cost of living is higher.
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