How much are you earning per annum?

29m

local uni grad from fass

~100k a year

This is a good post. It emphasises on the importance of owning your HDB flat, having enough in your CPF Life and savings.

Forummers in this forum may get retrenched. Good to be prepared.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

For those retrenched ex-PMETs out there, such as ex-engineers and ex-bankers, do not be sad. You have worked so hard all your lives, now is the time to celebrate life. Open your mind. Your life on this earth is limited. Time to retire. Enjoy your retirement!

Good retirement plan in KL or Penang (retire in luxury) for a retired couple at 55 years old (assuming no dependents)

Passive income at 55
Rent out fully paid HDB flat S$2.5k pm
Stocks dividends S$1k pm
Total S$3.5k pm or RM10.5k pm

KL or Penang cost of living
Rent a 3 bedroom condominium RM2k pm
Car expenses RM500 pm (assume buy car in cash RM50k)
Food, groceries, restaurants and utilities RM2k pm
Medical and entertainment RM1k pm
Misc RM500 pm
Total spending RM6k pm
Savings RM4.5k pm

Passive income at 65
Rent out fully paid HDB flat S$2.5k pm
Stocks dividends S$1k pm
CPF Life (Enhanced Retirement Scheme), couple gets S$3.5k pm
Total income S$7k pm or RM21k pm
Total spending RM8k pm
Savings RM13k pm

This retirement plan allows you to live in a nice condo and drive a nice car. You can go holidays all over the world every year if you want to since you will have lots of savings.

Your key retirement assets are: 1. HDB flat 2. CPF Life 3. Dividend blue chip stocks.

We are in a global financial crisis. Oil price crashing. Stock markets crashing. Property market crashing. Retrenchment rising. I think if the Fed continues to hike interest rates, the world economy will likely collapse. Now is best to be conservative.

You should clear all your mortgages and be debt free. This will allow you to sleep in peace at night since you won't worry about a roof over your head. Keep lots of cash so that when you get retrenched, you have cash to survive.

I have cleared my condo mortgage and all loans. I am debt free. I have cash to survive. If you don't have enough cash, better save more. Don't spend on expensive cars, expensive holidays and expensive items. If you need to buy a car, buy a cheap reliable car. No need to show off by buying expensive cars which not only cost more to buy but also more to maintain.

Be ready for any retrenchment. Be prepared for BOTH you and wife to be retrenched. Save more and more cash.

The stock market is like in 2008/09 period, but economy slowly getting worse. So far, no news of any big companies going bust not like last time where Lehman Brothers went bust, and AIG almost went under also. Not saying that this time is not going to be as bad, but so far, our government has not initiated any measures to help businesses yet.

While we hunker down for the bad winter, I think we should also keep a lookout for opportunities. As in any crisis, there will be opportunities. One way is to identify what stock, property or car that you want, and strike when you feel the time is right.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

We are in a global financial crisis. Oil price crashing. Stock markets crashing. Property market crashing. Retrenchment rising. I think if the Fed continues to hike interest rates, the world economy will likely collapse. Now is best to be conservative.

You should clear all your mortgages and be debt free. This will allow you to sleep in peace at night since you won't worry about a roof over your head. Keep lots of cash so that when you get retrenched, you have cash to survive.

I have cleared my condo mortgage and all loans. I am debt free. I have cash to survive. If you don't have enough cash, better save more. Don't spend on expensive cars, expensive holidays and expensive items. If you need to buy a car, buy a cheap reliable car. No need to show off by buying expensive cars which not only cost more to buy but also more to maintain.

Be ready for any retrenchment. Be prepared for BOTH you and wife to be retrenched. Save more and more cash.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

We are in a global financial crisis. Oil price crashing. Stock markets crashing. Property market crashing. Retrenchment rising. I think if the Fed continues to hike interest rates, the world economy will likely collapse. Now is best to be conservative.
........

Be ready for any retrenchment. Be prepared for BOTH you and wife to be retrenched. Save more and more cash.

On the contrary, I think it is time now to start getting aggressive.

Me and my spouse are with MOE and MINDEF so that's like titanium rice bowls.
It is times like this to start being adventurous. It can't be that we buy high and sell low, right??

Originally Posted by Unregistered

On the contrary, I think it is time now to start getting aggressive.

Me and my spouse are with MOE and MINDEF so that's like titanium rice bowls.
It is times like this to start being adventurous. It can't be that we buy high and sell low, right??

Don't be over confident. Better be safe than sorry.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

The stock market is like in 2008/09 period, but economy slowly getting worse. So far, no news of any big companies going bust not like last time where Lehman Brothers went bust, and AIG almost went under also. Not saying that this time is not going to be as bad, but so far, our government has not initiated any measures to help businesses yet.

While we hunker down for the bad winter, I think we should also keep a lookout for opportunities. As in any crisis, there will be opportunities. One way is to identify what stock, property or car that you want, and strike when you feel the time is right.

What if you and spouse are both retrenched?

You will have to ascertain your situation properly before committing to any big investment both in good times and in bad. In bad times, you will have be to extra careful. You may want to take small bites of investment within your comfort level.

To totally close yourself out from investment during a crisis is to miss out on good opportunities.

Once the current crisis blows over, you will again start to hear stories of people making it big reaping the rewards of picking good bargains when others are cowering in fear.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

What if you and spouse are both retrenched?

Well, there could be naive people who think it is a good time to upgrade to a GCB in a crisis, thinking they will still be in a job only to realise that they got retrenched immediately after they bought their GCB. How like that? Sure go bankrupt.

My advice is if you want to upgrade to a GCB, you should pay it in full cash eg. $10m rather than taking a mortgage and relying on salary to service the mortgage. If you don't have the $10m cash, then just buy a cheaper property costing say only $6m. This should be more affordable. So, even if you lose your job, you still have a paid up home.

Most important lesson is to own your home outright with no mortgage.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

You will have to ascertain your situation properly before committing to any big investment both in good times and in bad. In bad times, you will have be to extra careful. You may want to take small bites of investment within your comfort level.

To totally close yourself out from investment during a crisis is to miss out on good opportunities.

Once the current crisis blows over, you will again start to hear stories of people making it big reaping the rewards of picking good bargains when others are cowering in fear.

I must caution, things may be different this time. Be careful. If you want to buy a second property for investment, make sure your current bungalow home mortgage is paid up first. Then for the investment property, pay a downpayment of 60% so that if price crash by another 50% after you bought, you're still ok. Also you must have 5 years worth of cash to pay your mortgage so that if you got retrenched and if your investment condo is empty (due to the huge oversupply), then you're still ok.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

You will have to ascertain your situation properly before committing to any big investment both in good times and in bad. In bad times, you will have be to extra careful. You may want to take small bites of investment within your comfort level.

To totally close yourself out from investment during a crisis is to miss out on good opportunities.

Once the current crisis blows over, you will again start to hear stories of people making it big reaping the rewards of picking good bargains when others are cowering in fear.