How much are you earning per annum?

If you're in your 50s and got retrenched, not easy to get a new high paying job. Imagine you were in top management before you were retrenched. How many people in top management wants to give up their high paying job? Not many. So, positions of top management are not many in the market. To get into a lower position will also be tough as the hiring manager may be much younger and less experienced than you, so he feels threatened. Even though you are more capable than him, you may not get the job because of his insecurity.

So, the best thing you can do is to do your own business such as being a uber or taxi driver. You're your own boss. Or you can open a small cafe.

But the best is to retire.

How do you retire? You have two choices

1. Downgrade your lifestyle
2. Retire overseas in cheaper cities

1. Assuming you were a top executive, you would be living in a posh condo. Sell it away, pay off your mortgage and buy a hdb flat. Sell your condo for $1m, pay off the mortgage remaining of $200k and use the balance to buy a 4 room hdb flat for $300k. There are many cheap hdb flats nowadays. Use your $500k and your other savings to retire.

2. After you sell your condo, you get $800k cash balance and with your savings of $200k, you will have $1m in cash. This will be RM3m if you retire in Malaysia. If you retire in Thailand, Vietnam or Cambodia, you will be a multi millionaire.

So, your condo is your valuable retirement asset, you can sell and retire. It is the best asset if you did not overpay for it when you bought.

If you have done a good financial planning since you started working, then you should have no problem. You should plan to work hard in your early career years and must achieve financial independence by the time you reach 50, so that you don't worry about retrenchment.

Your idea of a top management guy and his wealth is quite out of synch. Let me explain.

A top management guy especially one in his 50s would have built up quite a tidy sum of money. Yes he may be staying in a posh condo or landed property and:

1. He would have already fully paid for it
2. He would very likely have another property earning him rental income about $40k pa
3. Children in the unis or already in workforce
4. Have substantial holdings in stocks earning good dividends (maybe $50k to $70k pa)
5. If already 55, he would have $241.5k in his CPF RA (retirement account)
6. Still got substantial amount of money in his OA and SA.
7. Cars fully paid.

A top management guy if retrenched in his 50s, can go straight into retirement comfortably.

If he does not have the above, believe me, he is not top management.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

If you're in your 50s and got retrenched, not easy to get a new high paying job. Imagine you were in top management before you were retrenched. How many people in top management wants to give up their high paying job? Not many. So, positions of top management are not many in the market. To get into a lower position will also be tough as the hiring manager may be much younger and less experienced than you, so he feels threatened. Even though you are more capable than him, you may not get the job because of his insecurity.

So, the best thing you can do is to do your own business such as being a uber or taxi driver. You're your own boss. Or you can open a small cafe.

But the best is to retire.

How do you retire? You have two choices

1. Downgrade your lifestyle
2. Retire overseas in cheaper cities

1. Assuming you were a top executive, you would be living in a posh condo. Sell it away, pay off your mortgage and buy a hdb flat. Sell your condo for $1m, pay off the mortgage remaining of $200k and use the balance to buy a 4 room hdb flat for $300k. There are many cheap hdb flats nowadays. Use your $500k and your other savings to retire.

2. After you sell your condo, you get $800k cash balance and with your savings of $200k, you will have $1m in cash. This will be RM3m if you retire in Malaysia. If you retire in Thailand, Vietnam or Cambodia, you will be a multi millionaire.

So, your condo is your valuable retirement asset, you can sell and retire. It is the best asset if you did not overpay for it when you bought.

If you have done a good financial planning since you started working, then you should have no problem. You should plan to work hard in your early career years and must achieve financial independence by the time you reach 50, so that you don't worry about retrenchment.

There are different types of top management.

If you're in top management in the financial sector, you can retire very comfortable, living in a paid up landed property or paid up luxury condo and still owning a paid up nice car, in your 40s. Your passive income in retirement can even be higher than the salary of those in top management of the manufacturing and engineering sectors.

If you're in top management in the manufacturing or engineering sectors, you will need to work longer and can only retire in your late 50s. You will not be retiring in a landed property and can only afford to retire in a cheap $2m condo. Your annual salary package can be less than the passive income of those retired top management in the financial sector.

This is the reality.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

There are different types of top management.

If you're in top management in the financial sector, you can retire very comfortable, living in a paid up landed property or paid up luxury condo and still owning a paid up nice car, in your 40s. Your passive income in retirement can even be higher than the salary of those in top management of the manufacturing and engineering sectors.

If you're in top management in the manufacturing or engineering sectors, you will need to work longer and can only retire in your late 50s. You will not be retiring in a landed property and can only afford to retire in a cheap $2m condo. Your annual salary package can be less than the passive income of those retired top management in the financial sector.

This is the reality.

Don't be silly. A real top management in a manufacturing mutli-national is paid easily US$1mil+ a year. What cheap $2m condo retire in late 50s are you talking about? At Executive level, financial sector is one of the lowest paid now due in part to extremely strict regulations globally after GFC.

Are you the guy who cannot take the stress and left the workforce in your 40s? If you are, you are really out of touch. That's the problem with leaving the workforce early.

You dont really need to be in the top management to fully own a condo ($1m to $2m) by the time you reach your 50s.

Senior civil servants (below director level), uniformed group officers by their late 40s would be such examples of non top management people who can comfortably own condos, even investment condos for rental income.

The other types of top management people that you referred to who cannot retire, are top management in name only. Title inflation. If you set up your own company, you can call yourself anything like.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

There are different types of top management.

If you're in top management in the financial sector, you can retire very comfortable, living in a paid up landed property or paid up luxury condo and still owning a paid up nice car, in your 40s. Your passive income in retirement can even be higher than the salary of those in top management of the manufacturing and engineering sectors.

If you're in top management in the manufacturing or engineering sectors, you will need to work longer and can only retire in your late 50s. You will not be retiring in a landed property and can only afford to retire in a cheap $2m condo. Your annual salary package can be less than the passive income of those retired top management in the financial sector.

This is the reality.

What happened to the window guy? Hope his view this morning was not affected by the heavy rain.

You are right. Bankers in their 40s can easily retire if they got retrenched. Engineers in their 40s will have to drive a taxi if they got retrenched.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

There are different types of top management.

If you're in top management in the financial sector, you can retire very comfortable, living in a paid up landed property or paid up luxury condo and still owning a paid up nice car, in your 40s. Your passive income in retirement can even be higher than the salary of those in top management of the manufacturing and engineering sectors.

If you're in top management in the manufacturing or engineering sectors, you will need to work longer and can only retire in your late 50s. You will not be retiring in a landed property and can only afford to retire in a cheap $2m condo. Your annual salary package can be less than the passive income of those retired top management in the financial sector.

This is the reality.

Top management in manufacturing and engineering is what GM level, CEO, Chairman? These companies are usually very flat in hierarchy, but taken say a senior banker in his 50's and a similiar senior exec in the manufacturing/engineering industry around the same age today.

Families that I know in the latter are typically majority shareholders in the a listed company. Even top level exec in engineering I know owns several landed properties.

But the wealthiest still goes to the manufacturing execs who started off maybe around the 90's? Their network easily 100's of millions. Friend of mine accidentally disclosed his family earns about 400k a month (initial I thought he was talking annual lol).

Anyway most of the professionals make their money from their property investments, even bankers who started off in the 90's maybe made their pot by buying some GCB when it was cheap. Manufacturing companies rode on the consumer wave.

Tommy Goh is an example of a previously top level manufacturing exec, if you not familiar google up JIT Holdings

Originally Posted by Unregistered

There are different types of top management.

If you're in top management in the financial sector, you can retire very comfortable, living in a paid up landed property or paid up luxury condo and still owning a paid up nice car, in your 40s. Your passive income in retirement can even be higher than the salary of those in top management of the manufacturing and engineering sectors.

If you're in top management in the manufacturing or engineering sectors, you will need to work longer and can only retire in your late 50s. You will not be retiring in a landed property and can only afford to retire in a cheap $2m condo. Your annual salary package can be less than the passive income of those retired top management in the financial sector.

This is the reality.

Need some advice here

I am a 37 yo single guy who come from a small town in Malaysia. I have been working in sg for many years and have plans to move back home to care for aging parents. However, my savings are not enough for me to do that now and my parents are v stubborn n do not wish to move to SG to stay w me. They only have relatives around to help look after them as my sister has married n moved overseas. I only go back once in a while due to work commitment and I do wish to be able to spend more time w them before it is too late.

My annual income from employment is only about 85-90k and being a new sg citizen, I now have a HdB bought under the single citizen scheme. To speed up my savings rate I have rented out 2 Bedrooms for about 1500 per month. My current cash+stocks are only 162k as i have used some cash to pay for the hdb and also to top up cpf SA.

My current passive income from rental n dividends are about 1900 per month. With disciplined saving, I should be able to save 50k per year and i plan to move home once my portfolio hits 400k + with the hdb paid off. I will also make sure that my cpf has met the minimum sum before i call it quit. I intend to come back to sg to retire after my parents pass on as all my friends are here n I have already gotten used to the life in sg.

Assuming I get a part time or simple job to cover my basic living expenses back home and keep my passive income generated in sg to build my nest egg further., Do u think I will have enough to retire on in sg ? I dont need to live a luxurious lifestyle so long im not poor n miserable is good enough.

I know the amount stated is probably not enough by a lot of ppl's standards but I do not want to wait too long since my parents health are not good.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

You are right. Bankers in their 40s can easily retire if they got retrenched. Engineers in their 40s will have to drive a taxi if they got retrenched.

This is the truth.

Bankers earn a lot more than engineers, generally.

Bankers can retire in their 40s if they want to.

Engineers have no choice but to work until they are in their 60s.

Engineers are cost centres. Bankers generate revenue.

Top bankers can earn millions of $ annually.

Top engineers earn only $250k pa annually.

The only way for engineers to earn more is to set up their own business.
Then they can earn millions and potentially become billionaires if they are good.
If they are lousy, they become bankrupt. That's why most engineers don't dare to set up their own business because they are not good. Cannot make it.