So you still around, we thought you were the samurai man at the MRT!

52, annual salary including bonuses $170k. Wife, 55, housewife.
Home: condo worth $1.6m, fully paid up. Shares and bonds $500k.
Retirement plan: Retire at 60, sell condo and downgrade to a 4 room HDB flat.
After selling condo and buying flat, will have a net cash of $1m. Investment portfolio of shares and bonds expected to be $2m, giving passive income of $100k pa. Expected annual expenditure by then is $60k pa for a retired couple with no debt.
8 more years to go.

Our plans are quite similar to yours. We now live in a landed property, worth $3.5m. When we retire in 5 years time, we will sell our landed and buy a $1m small condo unit in Jurong Lake District. We will invest the balance of $2.5m in stocks, giving us dividends of $125k pa.

You guys crack me up. When I'm feeling low I come here and read some posts. Never fails to improve my mood.

Let me see if i got it right.
Your stock and bonds is now 500k and if you put $100k in for the next 8 years, that is 800k and brings it to $1.3m .
Assume you start off with this position from year 0, that means you have to grow this portfolio by around 5%- 6% yoy.

By seeking >6% returns, you need to may need to take on more equity and securing non AAA bonds. Remember you are growing your retirement egg. To me ,seeking such returns with so little time is akin to gambling at casino.

I really dont doubt you and hope you are able to do it . Hopefully you have achieve similar returns in the past ,but if so, i dont see why @ at 52 your networth is as posted because you are talking about achieving returns which about half your annual package

Anyway, good luck. I seriously hope you succeed.

They do say the Gods favour the brave.

Absolutely not. You are earning more than almost half the tax payers in Singapore. Don't mind the resident buffoons - they're full of hot air.

I'm confident of generating returns with reasonable risk. No worries.

Actually it is not just about much a person earns, but also his expenses. A person with high expenses due to whatever reasons (maybe medical, family or alimony obligation) could still be poor even if he is netting >$100k pa.

Also knowing how much the others are earning is a good gauge to see where you stand. So even though one can be earning a lot, but if everyone else is earning more, you could still be poor. See here as example:The Middle Class Blues | Pew Social & Demographic Trends. And Singapore is not exactly a cheap place to live in.

The poster who said he earned $50k pa did not say how old he was, so I did a general comparison using this:Compare Your Annual Income 2013 | Salary.sg - Your Salary in Singapore

His $50k pa is below 53% of workers (all age groups, male and female) here. It would be much worse if he was in the 45-55 age male group.

Finally I just do not know whether to laugh or feel sorry whenever I read responses like this "Don't mind the resident buffoons - they're full of hot air." Sometimes ignorance is not bliss.

I'm 50 and happily retired. My hard work in the corporate sector over the past 25 years has paid off. Instead of wasting my big salary and huge bonuses on gambling, women, etc, I invested in a global stocks portfolio. I have paid off my condo mortgage and car loan. Now I get a passive income of $80k pa. My wife, 40, is still working, earning $110k pa. Since we are debt free, we don't spend much, only $60k pa. We have also set aside an education fund for our two kids. I will also bequeath my multi-million dollar stocks portfolio to my kids when I die.

I spend my time managing my stocks portfolio, swimming in the condo pool and working out in the condo gym. I am now much more healthier, fitter, happier and has developed a six-pack abs. No more 16-hours work weeks, late nights and weekends working. My stress level and blood pressure have also gone down significantly. My advice to my younger ex-colleagues who are envious of my achievement is to work hard when they are still young, upgrade constantly (I have 2 Masters degrees) and don't gamble and womanize. Also learn to invest in stocks of good global companies.

Can share what your net worth is?

My wife and I took one week leave to test out "retirement" lifestyle, and I cannot tahan already. Bored to tears and argue a lot. So we decided that better to work as long as we can even though financially we can retire now and live with yearly budget of $100k pa for as long as we need.

My wife and I joked that when retired, we will miss looking forward to the following:
1. Looking forward to retirement
2. Looking forward to taking leave for holidays
3. Monthly pay
4. Performance bonuses
5. Satisfaction of successful job assignments
6. Fridays (TGIF)
7. Public holidays
8. Taking the occasional half day leaves
9. Company paid overseas (business class) trips
10. Good colleagues
11. Job titles
12. Work allowances, and medical insurance coverage
13. ... the list just goes on..

With so many goodies when working, we do find it hard to retire.