Retirement planning is a huge topic of discussion and an equally large industry. What I would like to know is what do Singapore residents feel is sufficient to live on for retirement? Let's assume a retirement age of 55 because in the corporate world, its not easy to "survive" beyond that age.

In this increasingly globalised world, inflation is transmitted almost instantaneously and no country is immune, hence one should provide for global cost of living, especially in a country like Singapore. If one buys this argument, protecting against inflation should be the primary goal of all investment plans followed by growing it.

There are 2 ways of looking at how to finance your retirement besides the various financial instruments purchased to hedge agst risks e.g. medical and hospitalisation insurance, etc. One can finance your retirement by drawing down on your savings over time. Alternatively, one can finance one's retirement by the returns or cashflow from one's savings (which need to be carefully invested).

Obviously, the second route is preferred since that would almost guarantee that you will never run out of funds if you spend within your cashflow and your investments are diversified across "safer" asset classes.

What amount of savings do you think is sufficient to finance your retirement lifestyle? What would you regard would be a reasonable and acceptable rate of return on your investments?