Your calculation wrong lah. One year need 200k, 25 years need 5 mil? This kind of calculation grossly overestimate the amount needed as it ignores the return generated by the 5mil every year.

how much investment risk can u tolerate during ur retirement? high returns come with high risk which may not be suitable for most retirees. so most retirees have to settle for lower return low risk/risk-free investment. factoring in inflation, the net return is probably close to 0. how is that grossly overestimate?

This posters essays never fails to amuse me.... You can see the writing pattern. subtly boastful.

Subtle meh? Hahahaha

I am a professional liar.
I earn 15k+ per month excluding bonuses.
In a year, I get around 100k bonus.

I am 32 this year.

Lifestyle of wealthy Singaporeans
 

I have always wondered about the lifestyle of the wealthy in Singapore. I have driven past big bungalows with swimming pools, top end condos that can cost upwards of $8m each and other big landed properties and wondered who are these people who lived in them and what their lives are like.

No, I am not referring to those whose networth is below $10m, because I think their lifestyles would not be much different from the masses, except maybe they have 2 to 3 conti cars, stay in terrace houses or condos.

I am referring to those whose networth is above $50m. I don't have the good fortune of knowing someone in this networth group well enough to be invited into their homes or their social circles. The below article gave a hint of their lifestyle:

"The Affluent Insights 2015 HNWI (High Net-Worth Individuals) Luxury Study that was reported in The Straits Times in November 2015, detailing the discretionary spending of the wealthy – of which, 40 percent is attributed to travelling (which includes tickets, accommodation and the whole travel experience), 10 percent on entertainment, 8 percent on designer clothing and accessories, and only 5 percent on cars.

The survey also indicated that 60 percent of the wealthy preferred shopping overseas than in Singapore, with many choosing to head to specific destinations for their shopping purposes. So it was not a surprise for me when I discovered a June 2015 Visa survey, which revealed that affluent Singaporeans go for an average of three holidays a year, and many choose to splurge on their trips, opting for luxury holidays."

And I understand that when these people travel, the whole family fly business class no less. As a friend once said to me "how to spend money when money comes in faster than you can spend?"

40yr old couple local grads
Combined gross income $300PA before bonus.
To put things in perspective, when we started working around 15yrs ago, it was like 60k PA combined

Income grew as we get raises/promotions/job changes over the years. We got lucky.
Expenses grew as we married, bought our home and car and had kids. And of course the cost of living in SG has been going up over last decade.

Probably our income will stay around current level and then start to decline as we become the "old" workers as we approach 50yr old.

This is of course peanuts compared to the many high income earners posting in this forum ;)

Fire
 

I came across this acronym "FIRE" often in the financial blogosphere. It stands for Financial Independence Retire Early. Many young Singaporean financial bloggers also blogged about their plans and roadmap to achieve FIRE. Some of them aimed to achieve FIRE by age 35!

While I admire their determination and actions taken to achieve FIRE, I worry for them when those plans and actions involved cutting down expenses to the bone. They still have a long way to go in life and life has a way of throwing up "curved balls" along your way. So planning your retirement or financial independence based on what you see in the present time is not a good way to know what you might need to cater for in the distant future. For eg., as a young person or young family, you may think that you could survive on $3k a month and you decide to "retire" once your passive income can cover this amount, you will be in for a very rude shock a few years down the road when you see your expenses creep beyond your passive income not just because of inflation, but because of growing needs as you get older.

I don't advocate retiring from work that early in life, especially before 55. Is working really that bad? Working, besides giving you a life sustaining income, also enlarges your social circle, provides different experiences and exposures and equips you with some professional skills.

FIRE does not apply to me anymore as I am already 56. But the idea of being financially independent is attractive at any age. It gives us options.

I started investing in shares the moment I got my first pay check. At time, the motivation was to make my savings grow, but little did I know then that it was the start of a passive income source. Now, 30+ years later, this one source of income (shares) is providing us a passive income of $50k pa. Together with 2 other sources of passive income, we are currently deriving passive incomes in excess of $120k pa.

I would advise my younger colleagues to achieve FI without the RE. And not to blindly achieve FI by cutting down expenses to the bone, but cutting down only the frivolous expenses.

We are in our late 40s, with a total earnings of $168k pa. We live in a three bedroom condo which has no mortgage. Now the condo is worth $980k. We own a two year old car which we paid in full cash.

We are now embarking on our retirement journey. We plan to retire at 60, which means we have about 12 years to prepare for it.

Here is our plan:

1. Save $35k pa cash for retirement, which means we save $420k cash over 12 years.
2. Spend on average $3.5k pm or $42k pa or $210k over 5 years from age 60 to 65.
3. At age 65, our Enhanced CPF Life will pay us $3600 pm in total (two persons).
4. Buy annuities with cash, giving us $700 pm, for life.
5. Our filial children will give us $200 pm from each of them (not much as we don't want to burden them). Total = 2 x $200 = $400 pm.
6. So our total passive income from 65 = $4700 pm or $56.4k pa.
7. We retire in place in our condo. Our children and grandchildren can enjoy the condo facilities every weekend. We get to see them every weekend.
8. No need to employ maid as we will do our own simple household chores. This is also a form of light exercise for us. And to keep our mind active.
9. No need car as our condo is near bus stop and an MRT station.
10. Holidays during non peak seasons, 2 times a year.
11. Total expenses $4k pm or $48k pa.
12. Total savings $8.4k pa.

Retirement routine and activities (healthy ageing):

1. Workout in the condo gym.
2. Swimming in the condo swimming pool.
3. Play tennis in the condo tennis court.
4. Walk at nature parks. Explore all the many nature parks in Singapore.
5. Volunteer at charities.
6. Attend health and wellness talks.
7. Participate in activities at community centres.
8. Reading lots of books and learn new knowledge.
9. Watching TV and movies.
10. Holidays.
11. Household chores.
12. Grocery shopping.
13. Cooking.
14. Learn new recipes.
15. Trading stocks.
16. Bring grandchildren to the zoo, bird park, science centre, museums, etc.
17. Take care of grandchildren, when necessary, to help out our busy children.
18. Many more activities.

Retirement is not boring.

If you are a boring person now, then your retirement will be boring.

Thanks for sharing. You have a good retirement plan. You're lucky that you're able to retire in your condo. Many people may sell their condo and downgrade to a hdb flat when they retire as they want to get some cash. Owning a condo and retiring in it is a very big accomplishment in Singapore. Well done, young man!