Stocks and bonds are dangerous and volatile. You are at the mercy of the markets and the company. The company can be good today but you will never know how they will be in 5 years time. Many people lose money in stocks. I lost thousands of dollars before from stocks. Buying Singapore property is safe in the long run. Prices are not volatile and appreciate over many years. Many bought their 5 room HDB flat in the 1980's for less than $100k and now after 30 years, these flats are worth more than $600k, 6x more the price they bought. If you invested in stocks, there is no guarantee the stock price will appreciate at all, can even go down to zero. My advice is to spend all your money to buy a HDB BTO flat (only about $400k) and pay down the loan as much as possible. In the next 40 years, your property will be worth a lot more. It may not go up by 6x but at least 2x. At least $800k. Will not go down to zero.

The flat BTO flat you mentioned that you think that will be worth twice the price in 40 years will not assure you good retirement plans, the house will always be your liability and never your asset until it starts to put money into your pocket, i guess you can only call it a solid saving ONLY if you choose to live in it for the next 30 years, if you start going around buying and selling HDB flat, you have just took up a huge debt again.

Granted. But what he has shown is that it can be done. If I want to have a passive income of $100k now, maybe I need at least $2M. But one builds up passive income over time, not achieve it over night.

The key thing is u still need min. $2M. I duno how well paid u r now, but unfortunately for me I'm only drawing 60k p.a. now. Even if I save 100% also need 34 years which will exceed my retirement age already.

Looks like really no hope for me :(

One way is not to spend all of your passive income but to re-invest a portion of it to grow your capital base. The other way is to draw down your capital base to make up for the shrinking value of your passive income. After all, one can't take one's money to the grave :) The risk is that you may outlive your capital base.

I'm not aiming for $100k passive income. I'm contented with much less and can live on much less. The important thing is to know how much you need and aim for that. How many people have $2m of cash-generating assets at retirement? It may be sound like a lot reading the posts here but there are lots more with far less and still live OK.

Your HDB flat is always your asset even though it does not generate income for most people, it provides the utility of a shelter. It has value. If you dont own a flat, you will need to rent. It is thus better to pay a monthly mortgage than to pay rent as after 30 years of paying your mortgage, you fully own your flat and you can live in it for free for 60 years or until your flat goes for SERs. HDB BTO is a sure win.

Actually I feeling sibei sian in SG. Now I am saving 15k average per year. I calculate even if I manage to stay employ until 65 base on my age & current savings maximum net worth is only 550k.

Never take into account pay raise & inflation as I assume will cancel out each other, in reality most likely when I hit 50 onwards inflation will start to exceed pay rise whcih make my situation even worse.

Regret last time never cheong when young now trap in a lobo but low paid industry...

Well yes...if you are more reasonable...probably, you can say if someone has a saving of $100K and not ($2 millions), then he prudently select a few good diversified REITs and a earn a $5K passive income per year....then try to save money from monthly income and add more into the REITs...

That is a more realistic picture...isn't it?

Then we definitely have different definition for asset and liability.

Asset - Something that puts money into your pocket every money.
Liability - Something that takes money out of your pocket.

When u buy a HDB you go into debt, the interest you are paying is an Liability, until you OWN the flat entirely and rents it out, it become as ASSET.

So base on your statement, if you buy a Car, take up a LOAN and pay monthly installment ,which provide u comfort and save time does it make it an asset ? - No it doesn't.