This guy is shooting through the mouth w/o thinking. I quickly ran a simulation using our company’s financial planning tool base on the information he provide & some general assumption:

1) Finish degree start work at 24 years old, starting pay 2k (which is very high 16 years ago if he is 40 now)
2) Take home after CPF left 1.6k, so I assume he save 50%, i.e. $800 a month (again very high assumption)
3) He claim his return is 5% - 10%, so I assume on average 7.5%
4) Let’s say he is a high flier with annual increment average 8% a year (very high assumption)
5) No major events that affect his lifestyle like marriage, kids, parents etc., therefore he can save 50% of his pay throughout the entire 16 years working

The result is plain & simple. Even with above average assumption, he will end up with approximately 485k by the time he reach 40 yrs old, it’s a decent sum but nowhere enough to generate a “passive income” of 6k per month or “assets under management” of $3million.

Of course it is possible. I bought a condo in 2006 for $670K with 20% downpayment (Cash + CPF) and sold it last year for $1.43m and made more than $600K after accounting for interest, stamp duty, renovation cost etc.

gyesten Talo-na
 

Lucky you. Not buying the Quartz that year (2006) was the greatest regret of my life. Thanks to my conservative hubby. :( Else I can retire home with my babies by now.

Not surprising.

If we look around us there are many late 30s or early 40s PMET friends, relative & colleagues. Quite a number of them save wisely and do not anyhow spend. Most also invest in stocks, unit trust, properties etc, but I haven’t seen anyone like that who can accumulate millions and generate 6k passive income by the age of 40, it just do not work that way.

The only way to short cut the process is either got big inheritance, start a successful business, high flying career or be able to generate returns of 15%-20% per year like the top hedge funds in the world.

Aiyoh.. I think the biggest regret for your husband should be marrying a wife like you... only know how to complain and blame him for being prudent to protect the family.. Assuming if he really bought the Quartz in 2006, but somehow property prices crashed... You would also be blaming him i'm sure... Women everyday stay at home will get fat.. better go and work lah..

Yup it's like betting big/small. After the round, those aunties will say aiyah if I had bet that other one, I would have made money.

If investing is so easy, everyone would be rich.

Perhaps I am lucky or blessed whatever u call it.I had three breaks of buying properties at the lower end of the cycle and selling them for a profit.These properties are in D9and 11.In addition,I invested into a great Japanese f&b restaurant biz and resold it to a Japanese entity for a handsome profit.Possibly these contributed to my accumulation of assets over the years.I say I am pretty big risk taker and looking back I perhaps may not do now what I did then :)
In addition I said I retired from full time fixed salary job lah not totally retired from work and shake leg.I still need income to sustain myself.

You are a champion...

So now the story of your wealth change from returns of 5% - 10% & prudent savings to you were "lucky or blessed" and manage to make big profits from properties and a restaurant?

You claimed earlier in a nonchalant way that "There is no secret actually.Properties,blue chips,fixed income and trust funds generate the cash flow for me." Now the story appears to be that you took a big gamble and leveraged aggressively during a downturn and also dabbled in some form of entreprunership / angel capital.

Even if that's the case why mislead others into thinking that somehow by saving wisely and investing prudently one can retire with 6k passive income and millions of assets by 40? It is obvious that the bulk of your wealth comes from heavily leveraged property speculation & entreprunership / angel capital, it has little to do with blue chips, fixed income or trust funds like you claimed earlier.

At the end of the day we all have to be realistic. I have seen this nonsense spouted by many people about how all you need to get rich & retire early is to get a stable job, save and invest wisely.

The fact of the matter is that in order to retire early comfortably and hit millionaire status outside of the home you stay in requires special actions like inheritance, start own business, very high paying job, some high risk speculation or top notch consistent investment returns. Doing things the normal way will result in a normal outcome, basically enough money for a decent retirement at age 62.

I ran a few different scenarios in our financial calculator on some typical Singapore family scenarios and it proofs the above thinking.