How much are you earning per annum?

You are lucky to be able to afford two cars. As for downgrading to HDB flat, we will have no problems as many of my friends and colleagues stay in HDB flats. We upgraded to a condo because it was very cheap in 2006 and we also wanted to let our children have a taste of condo living while they are young.

Btw, how old are you now? How much is your household income and net worth?

Originally Posted by Unregistered

If you are living a simple life now it will be easier to downgrade to HDB, when the time comes.

My wife and I have our own cars. Once we tried living with one car, we simply could not adjust. With only one car, I have to fetch her to her workplace and then send our children to school. It was very taxing on me as my work schedule not very flexible and also at times I had to be in office very early. So they had to wake up very early to take public transport or taxi. We were all tired and stressed each day. So after 2 months, we went back to having 2 cars.

Likewise for the maid, we tried not having a maid after our children reached secondary school level. We had food delivery for dinners, and we took turns to clean the house every evening. Again it was terrible as we were always tired out when we reached home at night from work! Our clothes were not ironed for that period without a maid, and most weekends were spent cleaning up the house. We promptly got ourselves a maid.

Living in a condo has uplifted our quality of life - privacy, facilities and exclusiveness. We upgraded from HDB, so we know what life would be like if we downgrade back to HDB. Adjusting from HDB to condo living was the easy part. Going the other way around would be a pain, I am sure.

Wifey, 50, earns $116k pa. Me, 55, earns $154k pa.

Home is a 3 bedroom luxury condo, now worth $1.2m, no more loan. Car, 5 years old.

Plans to retire at 60, will sell condo and buy a one bedroom condo, preferably near an MRT station in the West of Singapore so that I dont need to depend on a car to move around.

After buying new condo, will invest the rest of my money and savings of about $1m in dividend stocks, giving 5% dividends. Will get $50k pa, which is enough for food, utilities and some travel. Once we reach 65, I will get $1k per month and wife will get $1k per month from CPF Life or $24k pa. Children may also give $1k per month in total or $12k pa. So, we will have $86k pa. This is a lot of money for a retiree couple with no loan, no family obligations and no car.

It appears you do not have children. Even so, it is always good to have reasonable house size to give each other space especially when both of you are retired and will be spending a lot of time together. Everyone needs their quiet time and space.

I see a lot of posters talked about plonking their money into stocks to earn dividends when they retire, but I am doubtful how many would actually have the guts to do it. Let's use your case as an example.

After buying your studio apartment upon retirement, and you have $1m left. Out of this amount, you would probably set aside $50k - $100k as cash (in FD) for emergencies. Out of the $900k left, let's say you take the plunge and invest them into equities. To manage risk, you would probably spread the investment over different kinds of stocks. You want some safety in blue chips, but blue chips usually give lower dividends of maybe 2 - 4%. And you put some in reits for higher dividends maybe 6%. In total, you will not be getting 5% as you think because when retired, you will become more cautious, because you simply cannot afford to lose any money. No more salary coming in.

Sharing from our experience, we could only achieved about 4% return from investment on average, and that is only because we dared take on some risky investment giving higher returns. We dared because we are still working, but once retired, we will divest those risky investments. Here is our spread and returns from our current portfolio.

1. Investment Property at $1m -- rental (net) return at 3-3.5% or $30k - $35k pa
2. Blue chip stocks at $600k -- ave. return at 3.8% or $20k+ pa
3. Reits at $400k -- ave return at 6% or $24k pa

We are getting about 4% return or $80k pa from a $2m outlay. I asked myself would dare I put everything into reits to get the 6%? I think not, not when I am retired!

My point is, the $50k pa that you are banging on to fund your retirement, think you need to explore other options or to reconsider working longer.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Wifey, 50, earns $116k pa. Me, 55, earns $154k pa.

Home is a 3 bedroom luxury condo, now worth $1.2m, no more loan. Car, 5 years old.

Plans to retire at 60, will sell condo and buy a one bedroom condo, preferably near an MRT station in the West of Singapore so that I dont need to depend on a car to move around.

After buying new condo, will invest the rest of my money and savings of about $1m in dividend stocks, giving 5% dividends. Will get $50k pa, which is enough for food, utilities and some travel. Once we reach 65, I will get $1k per month and wife will get $1k per month from CPF Life or $24k pa. Children may also give $1k per month in total or $12k pa. So, we will have $86k pa. This is a lot of money for a retiree couple with no loan, no family obligations and no car.

My wife and I are your typical, average, graduate working couple, 43 & 45 years old and earning $116k pa and $124k pa respectively. We are good at timing our property purchase and hence able to upgrade from a 4 room HDB flat to a luxury condo. We bought our first flat direct for HDB at a very cheap price (so cheap I am ashamed to mention here as it will invite jealousy). We stayed for many years and able to pay off the loan in less than 10 years. Then in 2006, we realised the market was down and we manage to buy a luxury condo for only $1m. We sold our flat at a big profit and bought the condo with a loan of $500k only. Now the condo is worth $2.2m and our loan left is only $200k as we used our bonuses to pay down the loan.

We plan to continue staying in the condo which is in a prime district for the next 20 years. When we retire, we will sell the condo and buy a cheap one bedroom suburban condo. We estimate we will have about $3m in remaining cash which we can invest in dividend stocks and REITs which will give us a 5% yield on average. So we can get $150k pa in dividends. As mentioned by some, we will get a condo next to an MRT station so that we do not need a car.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

My wife and I are your typical, average, graduate working couple, 43 & 45 years old and earning $116k pa and $124k pa respectively. We are good at timing our property purchase and hence able to upgrade from a 4 room HDB flat to a luxury condo. We bought our first flat direct for HDB at a very cheap price (so cheap I am ashamed to mention here as it will invite jealousy). We stayed for many years and able to pay off the loan in less than 10 years. Then in 2006, we realised the market was down and we manage to buy a luxury condo for only $1m. We sold our flat at a big profit and bought the condo with a loan of $500k only. Now the condo is worth $2.2m and our loan left is only $200k as we used our bonuses to pay down the loan.

We plan to continue staying in the condo which is in a prime district for the next 20 years. When we retire, we will sell the condo and buy a cheap one bedroom suburban condo. We estimate we will have about $3m in remaining cash which we can invest in dividend stocks and REITs which will give us a 5% yield on average. So we can get $150k pa in dividends. As mentioned by some, we will get a condo next to an MRT station so that we do not need a car.

I think you've done well. The key thing is, you took the risk when it mattered and it's paying off. Looks like you've got a good retirement plan too. Well played.

I enjoy reading this forum and thanks to all who share your personal finances.

I have a question which I hope you can share.

My wife and I are both career people and we both earn our salary and bonuses. My annual income is slightly more than my wife's. However, I bear 70% of the household expenses and commitments. As such, my savings are lesser than my wife. Am I doing the right thing? Should I share the household expenses equally? 50:50 ? What is you practice in your household?

Please share. Thanks.

My wife and I believe in shared responsibility in our finances as well as home and child raising. Since Day 1 when we got married, we shared our household expenses 50% each. Over time, even though my annual income surpassed hers a lot, we still maintain the 50% sharing. Now, I am managing my own investment fund full time from home, earning $100k pa in trading profits and dividends. She earns $120k pa from salary. Our expenses now is $110k pa, so we share the expenses $55k each. She saves $65k pa while I save $45k pa, which I reinvest.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

I enjoy reading this forum and thanks to all who share your personal finances.

I have a question which I hope you can share.

My wife and I are both career people and we both earn our salary and bonuses. My annual income is slightly more than my wife's. However, I bear 70% of the household expenses and commitments. As such, my savings are lesser than my wife. Am I doing the right thing? Should I share the household expenses equally? 50:50 ? What is you practice in your household?

Please share. Thanks.

of course it is 50:50.
if she has too much money, she will splurge on some stupid branded bags and shoes. as it is there is no more space to store all her bags and shoes. LOL.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

I enjoy reading this forum and thanks to all who share your personal finances.

I have a question which I hope you can share.

My wife and I are both career people and we both earn our salary and bonuses. My annual income is slightly more than my wife's. However, I bear 70% of the household expenses and commitments. As such, my savings are lesser than my wife. Am I doing the right thing? Should I share the household expenses equally? 50:50 ? What is you practice in your household?

Please share. Thanks.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

of course it is 50:50.
if she has too much money, she will splurge on some stupid branded bags and shoes. as it is there is no more space to store all her bags and shoes. LOL.

I am in the same scenario, my spouse earns slightly more than me but he pays for most of the household expenditure.

The wife (me) pays for tuition, enrichment and electricity/pub bills which is very little monthly. I estimate less than $300 a month, I don't even bother keeping track as it does not affect my spending.
Any holidays we have, we tried to split 50/50 or 40/60, me 40

I do splurge on branded bags and shoes, but seldom or never buy at retail. The bags and shoes I buy are often sold off after I tire of them. I do feel guilty my spouse pays for most of the expenses, but I brush it off since his parents and his childhood was in a similiar situation. His father is the sole breadwinner of the family.

Spouse annual - 120k
My annual - 110k

I may commit to more fixed expenses in the near future

Definitely one of the more honest posting.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

It appears you do not have children. Even so, it is always good to have reasonable house size to give each other space especially when both of you are retired and will be spending a lot of time together. Everyone needs their quiet time and space.

I see a lot of posters talked about plonking their money into stocks to earn dividends when they retire, but I am doubtful how many would actually have the guts to do it. Let's use your case as an example.

After buying your studio apartment upon retirement, and you have $1m left. Out of this amount, you would probably set aside $50k - $100k as cash (in FD) for emergencies. Out of the $900k left, let's say you take the plunge and invest them into equities. To manage risk, you would probably spread the investment over different kinds of stocks. You want some safety in blue chips, but blue chips usually give lower dividends of maybe 2 - 4%. And you put some in reits for higher dividends maybe 6%. In total, you will not be getting 5% as you think because when retired, you will become more cautious, because you simply cannot afford to lose any money. No more salary coming in.

Sharing from our experience, we could only achieved about 4% return from investment on average, and that is only because we dared take on some risky investment giving higher returns. We dared because we are still working, but once retired, we will divest those risky investments. Here is our spread and returns from our current portfolio.

1. Investment Property at $1m -- rental (net) return at 3-3.5% or $30k - $35k pa
2. Blue chip stocks at $600k -- ave. return at 3.8% or $20k+ pa
3. Reits at $400k -- ave return at 6% or $24k pa

We are getting about 4% return or $80k pa from a $2m outlay. I asked myself would dare I put everything into reits to get the 6%? I think not, not when I am retired!

My point is, the $50k pa that you are banging on to fund your retirement, think you need to explore other options or to reconsider working longer.