How much are you earning per annum?

If you are wealthy, you should show empathy towards your fellow beings and be humble. If you are not wealthy, then all your proclamations below are hollow talk.

Anyway, I was going to share with guys on the talk given by CPF to prospective retirees like myself. The talk was titled "Your Assurance in Retirement".

At the urging of one my golf kakis, I attended the above talk recently. He said it was informative and quite useful, so I was curious to see what I might have missed since I thought I knew enough of the CPF schemes available for retirees from their website.

The presentation slides were catchy with abundant use of nice pictures and graphics to help in getting the message across.

What caught my attention and set me thinking was this. The presentation described the typical wealth cycle as a wealth accumulation phase (from the moment you begin to earn an income to retirement) and then wealth de-accumulation phase (from the day you retire till you pass on).

What went through my mind was how to break this cycle and prolong the accumulation phase and not get into the wealth de-accumulation phase. Obviously you will need to continue working as long as possible to prolong the accumulation phase. In order not to get into the wealth de-accumulation phase upon retirement, you need to be able generate passive income and this passive income must be in excess of your annual expenses to allow your wealth to continue to grow and keep up with inflation.

To sustain our desired lifestyle and the accompanying expense, I estimated that we would need a base wealth of $6m (today's value) in order to have a "perpetual" passive income generating machine.

Based on the trajectory of our savings record, we would need to work another year to achieve the $6m target.

By similar projection (ceteris paribus) working till we are 60 would push it $7m. Working till 65 like what some of my colleagues are doing would put us in the $10m band.

Right now, we just set our sight on the $6m first. A step at a time.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Low class millionaires are those with individual (not combined with spouse) net worth of less than $5m. So, a couple with combined net worth of less than $10m is considered low class millionaires.

Middle class millionaires - individual net worth of between $5m to $50m.
Upper class millionaires - individual net worth of between $51m and $200m.
High class millionaires - individual net worth of more than $200m.

All this talk on wealth accumulation will never end. At the end of the day you will die. Why do you need to keep so much wealth until you die? Give to your kids and make them lazy? Why should you work so hard and all your wealth will be enjoyed by your kids. Stupid.

I would give the best education to my kids and send them to Ivy League universities. Then it's up to them to chart their own destiny. With the solid education, they can earn a lot more than I did and accumulate their own wealth.

I will just plan so that whatever wealth I have, I will spend it. I'll just buy annuities with my wealth. The payout will continue until I die.

Fully agreed with you. The craving for more monies will be your downfall. Spend most of your hard earned monies n just leave some $$ or at least your home to your kids. My parents leave nothing for me but I did had a good life. Why shouldn't I do the same to my kids.

First of all, what makes you think we are not giving the best education to our children? Secondly, having a job is a privilege. Those currently unemployed would know what I am talking about. We always count our blessings that we have jobs and are healthy. So don't abuse these blessings by giving them up, especially by retiring prematurely. Working can be a drag sometimes, but there are also good and happy periods when you/your team achieved your targets/objectives and see that your work output make a difference to society at large.

But most important of all, it is really not about the money when we talked about our wealth targets nowadays. Admittedly, our wealth building journey did start off with the main objective of saving enough money for our retirement. After we hit targets after targets (eg, hitting our first $1m, then $2m, etc). it has now become a hobby and a passion. When we hit the $5m target recently, it is no longer about the money anymore. Now we treat wealth building as a project if you like. Something that we can still do passionately when we retire from work.

It is exciting when you see your investments panning out well and you want to do more. For us, this is in the form of our passive income streams and the appreciation of our investment values.

If you have not started on this, you might want to give a try. It can be addictive.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

All this talk on wealth accumulation will never end. At the end of the day you will die. Why do you need to keep so much wealth until you die? Give to your kids and make them lazy? Why should you work so hard and all your wealth will be enjoyed by your kids. Stupid.

I would give the best education to my kids and send them to Ivy League universities. Then it's up to them to chart their own destiny. With the solid education, they can earn a lot more than I did and accumulate their own wealth.

I will just plan so that whatever wealth I have, I will spend it. I'll just buy annuities with my wealth. The payout will continue until I die.

You need help. Your soul is empty.

Read and understand this

h t t p : / / w w w.addictionhope.com/alcohol/addiction-and-giving-up-the-pursuit-of-wealth

Enjoy life too, in life. Studies had shown it is not wealth that create happiness, but qualitative relationships and doing a cause one is passionate about. Whilst I don't know the lifestyle of this "wealth-accumulative addict, my stand is, dun accumulate wealth as an ends by itself and ponder what to do with them meaning-fully. Also, be generous with selves, we do deserve them. Not forgetting generosity to others.

Thanks to all for your concerns.

I have been sharing about our income and wealth build up in this forum because this is what this forum is all about, right?

I am not that one dimensional. There are many facets to my life. For eg, when we are playing golf, its all about golf. We can talk golf the whole day. I do spend a lot of time with my family and enjoy our annual vacations like everyone else.

I am very down to earth and always enjoy coffee at the coffee shops, dressed very casually in Ts, shorts and sandals. Although I am 56+, I actually looked younger because I am slim and head still full of hair albeit greying. I exercise quite a fair bit regularly especially since its very convenient in our full facilities Condo. I swim, jog and play tennis also.

I apologise if my sharing has caused envy and jealousy. I thought we were ordinary seeing so many posters with very high incomes!

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Enjoy life too, in life. Studies had shown it is not wealth that create happiness, but qualitative relationships and doing a cause one is passionate about. Whilst I don't know the lifestyle of this "wealth-accumulative addict, my stand is, dun accumulate wealth as an ends by itself and ponder what to do with them meaning-fully. Also, be generous with selves, we do deserve them. Not forgetting generosity to others.

Good to hear that, happy for you...(though I see only the aspect of self happiness from what you have elaborated. I think it is fair to comment such, short of any info otherwise. When I say self/centred happiness, many people can do it. Nothing wrong but a greater, higher cause would have been something else. Well....Hmmm, but where did this perception of posters being envious and jealous come from? Why the self-defence, explaining others are envious? Fact-we don't know you at all.

recommend anyone read million dollars

I would caution against reading too much into studies, surveys and statistical data. These are good for policy makers, governments and businesses to cater to the masses. For the individual, we should know ourselves, our unique situation and circumstances better.

When we bought our first home, we have had to take on a big loan. While we were excited with our new home, we were also worried about the loan. Our worry about the loan dampened our level of happiness.

When our wealth grew, and when we upgraded to a bigger condo, we were able to pay in full the purchase. We were very excited and happy with our new home. No doubt, the need to dispense with the loan remove our worries and increased our level of happiness.

Likewise, when we bought our first car, we had to forgo our annual vacation for that year. Now we have two cars and still go for our annual vacation which was good for family bonding and relaxation. All this was possible through wealth.

Wealth gives one options, and the ability to choose what to do to make yourself happy. For eg, if you are terribly unhappy at work, but need the money, too bad, you will have to suck it up and slog on. On the other hand, if you have sufficient wealth, you could just walk away, and retire or find another job with lower pay but one that you will be happy in.

Helping others can make you happy, we all have experienced this. When you have no money, you help by contributing your time. But when you have wealth/money, you can do both - donate money and contribute your time - double happiness.

I could go on with examples of what money/wealth can help you achieve happiness.

So don't be mistaken, wealth / money is a means to achieve happiness and your goals.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Enjoy life too, in life. Studies had shown it is not wealth that create happiness, but qualitative relationships and doing a cause one is passionate about. Whilst I don't know the lifestyle of this "wealth-accumulative addict, my stand is, dun accumulate wealth as an ends by itself and ponder what to do with them meaning-fully. Also, be generous with selves, we do deserve them. Not forgetting generosity to others.