My spouse and I are in our early 50s and earn a total of only $170k pa. Our combined income is actually very little, we have friends and relatives whose combined income are more than $350k, some more than $500k. We consider ourselves as in the lower middle income group.

Nevertheless, we are contented with what we have. We are lucky enough to buy a condo in 2006 for only $500k and now it is fully paid up and valued at $1.2m. Our purchase was perfect and we are happy indeed. Our investment in our condo has paid off well.

We also have some cash and CPF savings over the years and this amount to about $500k in total. Our current total net worth is about $1.7m, including our condo. We are debt free.

Our retirement plan is to sell our condo and buy a small HDB 3 room flat. We will our invest our cash balance in strong blue chips to get 5% dividends. If we invest $1.4m, we will get an annual dividend of $70k pa. We will also get from CPF Life about $24k pa ($12k pa each). Our children should give us $12k pa in total ($6k pa each). So we will have $106k pa, more than enough for a retired couple. We will get a flat near an MRT station so that we will not need a car to travel.