Go get a life, but I think you need medical examination and treatment.

Thank you. Indeed, it feels very good to be debt free. We can sleep peacefully every night. We can also enjoy eating good food at restaurants almost every weekend without worrying about our budget.

Do you know that many families are already doing something similar but instead of staying in Penang, they are staying in JB. They will drive the whole family early each morning to school for their kids and to work in Singapore while they rent out their flats. These families aspire to live in landed in JB so they do this but of course they have to sacrifice by having to wake up very early each morning. Anyway, your plan is good for a retired couple with no other family obligations.

Compare salary for what? Does it make you feel better if you earn more than others?

Health is the most important. So much wealth also no use. Look at the obituary and you will see many die young.


s://.heavenaddress.com/memorial/latest_memorials/SG/-/

Agreed. Comparing wealth with others in itself is not constructive. But we should not totally ignore the financial aspect of living.

In life, it's always about balance. Even at work, younger workers nowadays demand better work life balance. If not, they will leave for the next company / job that gives them the work life balance they seek.

Therefore you cannot over emphasize one aspect over the other. As long as you are alive, you cannot ignore the financial aspect. If You can live simply all your life then you don't really need much. If you want to live a little more comfortably, obviously you need more money.

While it is within our control to choose to live simply, comfortably or luxuriously, we cannot know when our last day will be. This unknown is what makes people plan their finances with buffer. And they plan the finances not just for themselves, but also for their loved ones, especially if they were to die young and their children are still young.

People do recognize that some wealth is necessary to sustain good health and life. The big question is how much is enough. This magic number is different for everyone. And that's why we come to this forum to see what others think and accumulate.

Money Matters
 

The way to handle the money issue in life is not to ignore it, but to tackle it head on, and as early in your career as possible.

Many financial bloggers (worldwide) have one common goal - to achieve financial independence. Financial independence (FI) is a stage where you no longer have to work for your money. Where your investment incomes are enough to cover your expenses. Many of these bloggers aim to achieve FI before a certain age, usually way before the official retirement age.

The way they go about it is to know exactly what lifestyle they want to lead, the expected expenses for the lifestyle, the investments to put their hard earned money in, the expected ROI and buffers for inflation, medical and other emergencies. Once you have achieved FI, you can truly proclaim money does not matter.

So, what is the "number" required for FI? Here are some numbers for 3 types of lifestyle for a couple with the following conditions: No more loans (housing, car, student etc). No big medical problem.

Basic lifestyle
Housing type - 3/4 room HDB
No car, no maid
No holidays to ANG Moh countries
Monthly expense -$3.5k
Yearly expense - $42k
Now let's see how much capital you would need to generate a passive income of $42k pa. At 5% return, you will need $840k!

Comfortable lifestyle
Housing type - 5/exec/small condo
No car, no maid
Holidays to Ang Moh countries possible
Monthly expense - $5.5k pm
Yearly expense - $66k pa
Capital needed to generate $66k pa at 5% return = $1.32m

Luxurious lifestyle
Housing type - condo/landed
Got car and maid
Holidays to Ang Moh countries 2 x yearly
Monthly expense -$8.5k
Yearly expense - $102k
Capital needed at 5% ROI to generate $102k pa = $2.04m

The capital sums above should not include the value of your home. The above calculations are theoretical of course. It assumes the ability to generate 5% ROI year after year and does not consider inflation! You would also want to put in buffers for emergency expenses.

I had a good career for more than 20 years. I had always wanted to retire from salaried work and worked very hard at achieving financial freedom. To me, my success in life is to achieve financial independence so I have choices on how spend my time. I love doing social work ever since I was a student so I made it my life mission to devote more time towards helping those in need.

For many years, I worked hard at work, got promotions, got good bonuses and made successful investments which now allowed me to retire from salaried work. I now devote my time towards my family and doing social work besides managing my investments. My passive income covers more than my expenses. I also make sure my children are not deprived of a comfortable life. We live in a relatively new modern condo located not far from the CBD. I drive a one year old car for my family's convenience.

I'm very happy with my life now. I have good relations with my family and friends. I'm also find fulfillment for the social work I'm doing in making the lives of others better. My health has also improved with less stress and less rushing.

Looks like you are the ideal Singaporean.

Are you planning to write a book about your success story?

Never thought of writing a book. Anyway, I'm not interested to do that.

You're a beautiful soul. I'm inspired. Thank you, sir.