No matter how you plan for retirement, the only realistic way to have a good,safe and stable passive income when you retire is to build up a massive portfolio by the time by that time.

To do so there are only a few ways:

1) Inherit - Out of your control
2) Strike lottery - Out of your control
3) Live very modestly and scrimp and save whatever you can
4) Have a high flying career and whack as much of employment income as you can and save a portion of it
5) Make it big in business - High risk of losing everything and restart from zero in your late 30s early 40s

At the end of the day #1 & #2 only <1% can do, most of us either got to scrimp & save like mad towards retirement or cheong career or business and hopefully some big money will come about.

For me I have no interest of following some typical PMET career route like a typical SG and save high proportion and lower lifestyle for decades just to meet retirement target. That's like not living up to your dreams from age 24 to 67 in order to save up to retirment of your dreams from 67 to 82.

Thanks but no thanks for me.