How much are you earning per annum?

Originally Posted by Unregistered

You should aspire more. Don't rest on your laurels. Are you currently living in a condo? If you are, you should work harder to own a bungalow with a private swimming pool and private gym so that you don't have to share with others. A GCB costs $20 million. Work harder and longer, as long as you can. Don't be easily satisfied. All the best.

Agree. We must work harder to achieve more in life. Don't be satisfied by just looking out the window and afraid of traffic jams. We should only retire after we have bought a $20m GCB and has an investment portfolio of $30m. As long as our net worth has not reached $50m we must work. Don't be like lazy people who are just happy to have a net worth of $10m.

What's your net worth (excluding your wife's net worth)?

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Nobody would want to nor can work 24/7 - meaning 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Not too long ago, maybe 15 years ago, a lot of companies including the civil service require their employees to work 5 and a half days week. Having worked in those days and now, I can say that having a 2 day weekend definitely beats having one and half day weekend. That, however, does not mean that I am working fewer hours now. I am still easily clocking 45 hours or more each week. But having the 2 day weekend really allowed me to unwind and re-charge. I feel fresh and energized going into each new week.

Yes, we as humans, cannot work 24/7 but what about our money? Wouldn't it be nice to have income coming in while we sleep, while we unwind and relax and while we spend? Especially if you are nearing retirement like myself. At 56, I can perhaps working for another 6 years? With Trump taking over as the new US president next year, the world is a lot more uncertain. So, will the company able to let me work another 6 years?

To prepare for such uncertainties, I have been building up my passive income sources over the years. Yes, from those years when we were working 5 and a half days a week till today. Investing for passive income is a slow process, and initially you may even be discouraged by the slow returns. But like they say - good things come to those who wait!

When I first started investing, I was very reluctant to share with my wife and friends because what I was getting in passive income was insignificant, something like $200 - $300 per month. Friends were getting more from their fixed deposits interest!

Now, things are different. With the current year coming to a close, my tally of my passive income for this year comes up to $149k. It grew roughly by $10k each year for the last 4 years. It grew because of constant cash infusion into more investment plus reinvesting the passive income as I am still working.

Having passive income is akin to having multiple pay days throughout the year. My "busiest" income months are in May, August, October and November because of the investment mixed that I am currently having. Busiest because every few days I would have a few thousand dollars credited into my bank account. It is really a liberating feeling to see your account balance goes up instead of coming down when you go and withdraw money!

My points in sharing this are that:
1. We cannot work, neither do we want to work 24/7, but our money can!
2. Investing for income is a slow process but you have to start somewhere
3. If you don't need to use the passive income, reinvest them and see the compounding effect.
4. Having passive income stream is always a good hedge against an uncertain economy. It removes unnecessary stress. Life should be enjoyed and not be burdened with worries, especially over money.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

What's your net worth (excluding your wife's net worth)?

Flat 300K
CPF 300K
Savings + Investments: 260K

Originally Posted by Unregistered

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.

Surely you know that as a new citizen, you have given up your Malaysian citizenship and can never get it back. PR in Malaysia is also a very difficult process and can take many years. Hence, you can now only stay 30 days at a time and if you renew too many times they will reject you at the border.

Lets do some guesstimates

To achieve passive incomes of $149K pa

At 3% ROI, it would take $4.9M in investment principal
At 5% ROI, it would take $2.98M
At 10% ROI, it would take $1.49M

Including his home, say a reasonable size condo, this should add another $1.8M to $2M

So, rough estimate, the total networth should be around $3M to $6.9M

Divide that by 2, each of their networth should range from $1.5M to $3.45M

Originally Posted by Unregistered

What's your net worth (excluding your wife's net worth)?

[lazyplane]

True for traditional investments. Some here are claiming that they are making such passive incomes via blogging / web and as such passive incomes are not capital intensive but effort intensive.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Lets do some guesstimates

To achieve passive incomes of $149K pa

At 3% ROI, it would take $4.9M in investment principal
At 5% ROI, it would take $2.98M
At 10% ROI, it would take $1.49M

Including his home, say a reasonable size condo, this should add another $1.8M to $2M

So, rough estimate, the total networth should be around $3M to $6.9M

Divide that by 2, each of their networth should range from $1.5M to $3.45M

Passive income is defined as income derived not from your own labour. Income from blogging is treated like work (active) income. It can be the main work income especially for popular full time bloggers (a lot of these in the US) or side work income if the bloggers are still holding their day jobs.

I believe the passive income of $149k pa in the post #10644 does not include capital appreciation/depreciation. In other words pure cash flow!

Originally Posted by lazyplane

True for traditional investments. Some here are claiming that they are making such passive incomes via blogging / web and as such passive incomes are not capital intensive but effort intensive.

We will soon reach 55 years old. We are ready to retire at 55 because we have paid off our flat's mortgage and our children are grown up. We are debt free too.

We have been saving and investing for more than 30 years and now enjoy a healthy passive income from our investments that would be enough for the two of us in retirement. Our passive income is $4000 pm while our expected expenses is $2500 pm. We can save $1500 pm to take care of future inflation.

Our monthly expenses for the two of us would include food & restaurants ($800), utilities ($100), public transport ($100), medical fees & insurance ($600), donations to charities ($100), entertainment ($200), overseas holidays ($400), and miscellaneous items ($200).

We plan to do active charity work when our retirement starts. We strongly believe that those who are better off and more successful in life must help the less fortunate ones. This way our society will be a more compassionate society.

We also look forward to travel to other countries during non peak seasons as it is cheaper.

Planning for retirement sustenance is always tricky business especially if one is planning for 25 to 35 years down the road. It is really too deep into the future to see. How then do we minimize the unknown in our planning and preparation? Here are 4 steps that I think are useful.

The first step is to plan for inflation.
We are often told that based on historical data, the inflation rate averaged 3%. We can use this figure to project what our expenses will be like in the distant future. For example, if we need $2500 today, we will need $3450 in 10 years time, $4,500 in 20 years time and $6000 in 30 years time - just to have the same purchasing power that $2500 gives us today.

In the case where you already have $900k and it is earning an ROI that is equal to inflation, then the $900k will be able to provide $2,500 pm or $30k pa. However at the end of 30 years, it will be zero. That is, nothing left to bequeath to your loved ones.

If however your $900k is unable to consistently bring in a ROI of 3%, or a net ROI of 0, then it will run out in 23 years.

The second step is to cater buffer, as big a buffer as you can.

Catering for inflation alone is not sufficient. Because after all, the 3% inflation rate is a broad historical gauge. If you look at the cost of basic necessities, such as food, medical fees and other basic items, their inflation rates are much higher. Something like 10%! When you only budgeted $2500 pm for your retirement expenses, you are already at the bare bones lifestyle. This means that you are very vulnerable and susceptible to the core living inflation which are typically higher. To get around this, you must budget a buffer into your planning. For example, add another $1500 pm to make your monthly budget to $4000 pm. Then use the $4000pm or $48k pa to re-compute what you would need to save for 30 years of retirement.

So instead of $900k, you will now need $1.5m! And this $1.5m must earn you an ROI that is equal to the broad inflation rate.

Buffers are important because there are always curve balls in life. That medical emergency, that unexpected home repair, that unexpected trip to make and what not.

The third step is to minimize the time you spend in retirement.

No, I am NOT asking you to die early, but to work longer. The longer you work, the more you will save, and the less you will need in retirement because of the shorter retirement years. Whatever it is you want to do in retirement, you can actually do them when you are still working. Traveling, reading, keeping fit, writing to this forum etc.... All can be done while still working.

For us (we are already 56), every year that we work, we can save for 3 years of retirement expenses. If we work till 62, another 6 years, we would save up another 18 years of retirement expense.

The 4th step is to ensure that your savings are invested and diversified. Invest some in high yield but unfortunately more risky instruments such as shares. Put some money in bonds (bonds as we learnt recently can also go bust!). Put lots into your CPF RA, here I mean go for the ERS. At least if everything else fails, the ERS can still provide you an income to meet your basic bare bones need. And if you have enough money, get a property for rental income.

The more sources of passive income, the more robust your retirement planning.

We have all 4 sources of income and at this point, I will tell you that the dividends from shares are not consistent. Neither is rental income. There were short duration where our property was sitting empty. Our only consistent and strong sources are bonds, and the CPF!

Originally Posted by Unregistered

We will soon reach 55 years old. We are ready to retire at 55 because we have paid off our flat's mortgage and our children are grown up. We are debt free too.

We have been saving and investing for more than 30 years and now enjoy a healthy passive income from our investments that would be enough for the two of us in retirement. Our passive income is $4000 pm while our expected expenses is $2500 pm. We can save $1500 pm to take care of future inflation.

Our monthly expenses for the two of us would include food & restaurants ($800), utilities ($100), public transport ($100), medical fees & insurance ($600), donations to charities ($100), entertainment ($200), overseas holidays ($400), and miscellaneous items ($200).

We plan to do active charity work when our retirement starts. We strongly believe that those who are better off and more successful in life must help the less fortunate ones. This way our society will be a more compassionate society.

We also look forward to travel to other countries during non peak seasons as it is cheaper.

Good to see that you're very prudent in your retirement planning. Saving $1500 pm or $18k pa will surely prepare you well for inflation. In fact, you have over provided.

At 65, your CPF Life starts paying you $3600 pm, which makes your passive income $7,600 pm! Even if your expenses increases to $3500 pm when you reach 65, no problem at all! Excellent!

Originally Posted by Unregistered

We will soon reach 55 years old. We are ready to retire at 55 because we have paid off our flat's mortgage and our children are grown up. We are debt free too.

We have been saving and investing for more than 30 years and now enjoy a healthy passive income from our investments that would be enough for the two of us in retirement. Our passive income is $4000 pm while our expected expenses is $2500 pm. We can save $1500 pm to take care of future inflation.

Our monthly expenses for the two of us would include food & restaurants ($800), utilities ($100), public transport ($100), medical fees & insurance ($600), donations to charities ($100), entertainment ($200), overseas holidays ($400), and miscellaneous items ($200).

We plan to do active charity work when our retirement starts. We strongly believe that those who are better off and more successful in life must help the less fortunate ones. This way our society will be a more compassionate society.

We also look forward to travel to other countries during non peak seasons as it is cheaper.