Stocks and a portfolio of relatively stable income investments

This is exactly the type of prudent retirement planning that I aspire. Your income generating assets should be worth around S$4m, which is respectable. Enjoy your well deserved retirement!

Actually if you are retiring at 65, you and wife can choose the CPF Life Enhanced which will give you and wife $4k pm in total. Assuming you are debt free and your home is paid up, $4k pm should suffice for food, utilities, public transport, medical, etc.

If you're retiring earlier at 55, you must be a high flyer who have assets that can produce at least $5k pm for you and wife. This also assumes you're debt free by 55.

I agree. We can also monetize our HDB flats when we retire by renting out spare rooms to FTs. So we must attract more FTs to work here so that they can rent our spare rooms. Must also not have oversupply of properties. If we have oversupply of properties, property prices and rents will crash and our spare rooms will be empty. Many old people will worry as they cannot earn from renting their spare rooms. Our HDB flat is an important retirement asset.

It's good to work if you can. Idle mind is the devil's workshop. One way is to take up flexi working schedule such as 1 3 5 only.

Naive, foolish, sweeping comment. On the contrary, devils are actively working in the minds of lusty, greedy fools who lust for money, power, higher positions on the corporate ladder. Just look at their evil office politics, slandering, back stabbing, cheating, lying, etc just to move up.

You can retire from the corporate world and more into the world of volunteerism. You will be actively helping those in need. This is more meaningful than trying to earn more and more money. Don't be a lustful, greedy fool.

Time diminishes value of money
 

I remember quite clearly almost 35 years ago, when I was still an undergrad, people were aiming to save $1,000,000 and then they will retire. In 1982, $1,000,000 was a princely sum. Very few people had that kind of money. And why not, fresh graduates then were only earning $1,300 to $1,600 a month or thereabout.

Now, in 2017, when you tell people you aim to retire with $1,000,000 you risked being laughed at and ridiculed. And rightly so. Even with a very basic lifestyle of just $3,000 a month or $36,000 a year, with 3% inflation, your $1,000,000 will only last 25 years. And that $1,000,000 better not include the value of your property!

Nowadays, 35 years later, I am hearing more and more people aiming for above $3,000,000 (not including their property) before they are confident of a good and worry free retirement while living a $7,000 a month lifestyle.

With $3,000,000 invested at a conservative 4% return, that would provide $120,000 pa. And with 3% inflation, and a $7,000 a month lifestyle, the $3,000,000 will last about 35 years!

It is understandable why people want to build up more wealth before they consider retirement. Its about wanting a worry free retirement where you should living life and not having to count every cent you spent, and getting stressed and being jealous about others.

But can you live that long after retirement? 3 mil?

That little extra $$ does not hurt
 

Its a fine line between greed and wanting a margin of safety.

I can understand people who want to have margin of safety in their lives, for eg. when they pick a stock, they would prefer to buy an undervalued stock as opposed to an overpriced one. For retirement planning, it is also prudent to plan with sufficient margin of safety. The variables that can affect your planning are:

1. Longevity- we really dont know how long we will live, so best to plan for worst case (100?)
2. Inflation - Singapore has ever experienced inflation at 6 to 8 % before, so it can happen again
3. Medical emergencies- this can happen anytime
4. Lifestyle inflation - sometimes we just have to keep up with the times. I used to use a 2G phone but now I cannot do without a smart phone. Correspondingly, my phone bill went up from $14 pm to $40 pm.
5. Unknown unknowns. Retirement is a long term affair. There is a lot of things that can crop up and screw up our best laid plans.

Many things in life we have no control over, but at the very least, we should prepare and build up sufficient funds and safety margins.

Dont be afraid of being accused of being greedy when you are just building a bigger safety margin for yourself and your family.

For eg, I estimated I will need $3,000,000 to sustain 35 years of retirement for two of us. When I plan, I will put in a 100% safety margin and aim for $6,000,000.

Too much!? If it can be done, and if it brings peace of mind for the rest of my life, why not. That little extra $$ wont hurt!

Lust and greed knows no limit. Don't waste time arguing with such people.

If you need $6m to retire, then 99.9% of Singaporeans cannot retire. You fool.