How much are you earning per annum?

You seem to worry about being bored during retirement.

For me, I look forward to early retirement because I want to do things I can't do full time now. I want to do charity work and study my religion deeper. This requires dedication and I am very enthusiastic about this.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Should try and talk to people you know who have already retired, in the age group you envisaged to retire at. You should then be able to get a glimpse of what it is like to retire at that age. People of our parents' generation have different expectation when they retired. For them, seeing us grow up, start our own families and in good jobs was enough satisfaction for them. So their retirement years were spent living simple lifestyles.

But for us, will we be satisfied to live simple lifestyles in our retirement, especially at 55? No matter what people planned to do during their retirement years, they will quickly find boredom once routine sets in if they do not find something to do that is engaging enough. Just like work, retiring happy requires some commitment to do the things you planned. Otherwise you will end up listless.

I have colleagues who retired at 55 because they can afford to. They have made astute investments during their working years and are now enjoying the returns. Although they have no worries financially, some of them admitted they were bored and have taken up new jobs. As their children have grown up, and their spouses still working, it can get very lonely at home. Worst of all they still feel energetic.

If your work is not unbearable, I would advise working as long as you can. You can still travel to exotic places during your annual leave like what I am doing. Like my colleagues, I can retire now but I don't want to rush into the lifestyles they are leading right now.

I have hobbies lined up once I retire, but I worry they may not be sustaining and then I would be very bored and it would difficult to get back into the workforce.

We should always plan for retirement especially the financial part, but think carefully before letting go your job because work makes up a big chunk of our lives. It gives us purpose.

190k per annum

I noticed a shift in your envisaged focus in retirement. (You now left out traveling to exotic places). It's a small matter in the greater scheme of things.

I don't know what your religion is, but for a group of us, work has not deterred nor hindered us in our desire and commitment to understand the deeper meanings of our faith. We attend classes and engaged in faith discussions once a week in the evenings after work.

Charity work can be done at many levels. Monetary contributions, volunteering and full time (paid) work in charitable organizations. Everyone of us can do our part. But remember you can only do so much if you have limited funds. If you work as a paid staff in a charitable organization, be prepared for it to be like other jobs when the novelty wears off.

I am 55, and although I have "seen" more things, I am in no position to advise anybody about their lives. At the final analysis, it is your life. No two paths are the same.

But that much I know. Things shining in the distance look alluring, but they can out to be broken pieces of glass. Or to put it more crudely: It looks nice from far, but it is actually far from nice!

Originally Posted by Unregistered

You seem to worry about being bored during retirement.

For me, I look forward to early retirement because I want to do things I can't do full time now. I want to do charity work and study my religion deeper. This requires dedication and I am very enthusiastic about this.

You have your priorities and I have mine. Anyway, thanks for your comments. Good night.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

I noticed a shift in your envisaged focus in retirement. (You now left out traveling to exotic places). It's a small matter in the greater scheme of things.

I don't know what your religion is, but for a group of us, work has not deterred nor hindered us in our desire and commitment to understand the deeper meanings of our faith. We attend classes and engaged in faith discussions once a week in the evenings after work.

Charity work can be done at many levels. Monetary contributions, volunteering and full time (paid) work in charitable organizations. Everyone of us can do our part. But remember you can only do so much if you have limited funds. If you work as a paid staff in a charitable organization, be prepared for it to be like other jobs when the novelty wears off.

I am 55, and although I have "seen" more things, I am in no position to advise anybody about their lives. At the final analysis, it is your life. No two paths are the same.

But that much I know. Things shining in the distance look alluring, but they can out to be broken pieces of glass. Or to put it more crudely: It looks nice from far, but it is actually far from nice!

Actually, you don't have to downgrade. You can continue condo living and focus on paying off your mortgage, pay it off before you reach 55. Then you can rent it out. By then, you should be able to get a net rent of $5k pm or $60k pa. With this passive income, you can retire easily in Malaysia. Go to the "international living" website for more info.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Hi all,

My wife and I have been following this forum for quite some time. We find it very good as we learnt a lot from the many smart people here. We often discuss the ideas that were shared here and we got inspired to leave the rat race and retire as soon as possible so that we can pursue more meaningful things in our lives such as travelling to exotic places, reading, studying our religion deeper, charity work, etc.

We are now both 40 years old and earn a total income of $160k pa. We own a condo, which has mortgage of $600k and worth $1.2m. Our other assets include cash, CPF and some dividend stocks, worth $500k in total. We own a luxury car which is paid up, left 1 year of its COE. Currently our savings is $40k pa.

Here is our plan to retire early at 55:

1. We will sell our condo at $1.2m, pay off the condo mortgage and use the cash balance of $600k to buy a 4 room HDB flat for $400k. We then have $200k cash avaliable to invest. So now we are debt free and no more loan to service. We will save about $35k pa in mortgage payments.

2. We will sell our car and take the bus. This saves us $25k pa.

3. After all the these moves, we will increase our savings to $100k pa.

4. So, we will start with about $300k to invest in blue chips giving us 4% dividend yield or $12k pa. Every year we will add $100k in investments and the dividend will then increase. Over 15 years, our investment will grow to about $2.5m and the dividend will be $100k pa.
We can then retire at 55 years old with $100k pa passive income.

What do you think of this plan?

It is good that you have the objective to retire early to focus on things you value more. Life is not only about earning an income (earning an income is important but not everything), life is about understanding life itself. Ask yourself the meaning of life, why are you created, where will you go after you die.

Explore this site to get the answers: w w w. h a l a l t u b e. c o m

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Hi all,

My wife and I have been following this forum for quite some time. We find it very good as we learnt a lot from the many smart people here. We often discuss the ideas that were shared here and we got inspired to leave the rat race and retire as soon as possible so that we can pursue more meaningful things in our lives such as travelling to exotic places, reading, studying our religion deeper, charity work, etc.

We are now both 40 years old and earn a total income of $160k pa. We own a condo, which has mortgage of $600k and worth $1.2m. Our other assets include cash, CPF and some dividend stocks, worth $500k in total. We own a luxury car which is paid up, left 1 year of its COE. Currently our savings is $40k pa.

Here is our plan to retire early at 55:

1. We will sell our condo at $1.2m, pay off the condo mortgage and use the cash balance of $600k to buy a 4 room HDB flat for $400k. We then have $200k cash avaliable to invest. So now we are debt free and no more loan to service. We will save about $35k pa in mortgage payments.

2. We will sell our car and take the bus. This saves us $25k pa.

3. After all the these moves, we will increase our savings to $100k pa.

4. So, we will start with about $300k to invest in blue chips giving us 4% dividend yield or $12k pa. Every year we will add $100k in investments and the dividend will then increase. Over 15 years, our investment will grow to about $2.5m and the dividend will be $100k pa.
We can then retire at 55 years old with $100k pa passive income.

What do you think of this plan?

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Should try and talk to people you know who have already retired, in the age group you envisaged to retire at. You should then be able to get a glimpse of what it is like to retire at that age. People of our parents' generation have different expectation when they retired. For them, seeing us grow up, start our own families and in good jobs was enough satisfaction for them. So their retirement years were spent living simple lifestyles.

But for us, will we be satisfied to live simple lifestyles in our retirement, especially at 55? No matter what people planned to do during their retirement years, they will quickly find boredom once routine sets in if they do not find something to do that is engaging enough. Just like work, retiring happy requires some commitment to do the things you planned. Otherwise you will end up listless.

I have colleagues who retired at 55 because they can afford to. They have made astute investments during their working years and are now enjoying the returns. Although they have no worries financially, some of them admitted they were bored and have taken up new jobs. As their children have grown up, and their spouses still working, it can get very lonely at home. Worst of all they still feel energetic.

If your work is not unbearable, I would advise working as long as you can. You can still travel to exotic places during your annual leave like what I am doing. Like my colleagues, I can retire now but I don't want to rush into the lifestyles they are leading right now.

I have hobbies lined up once I retire, but I worry they may not be sustaining and then I would be very bored and it would difficult to get back into the workforce.

We should always plan for retirement especially the financial part, but think carefully before letting go your job because work makes up a big chunk of our lives. It gives us purpose.

You mention the difficulty of getting back into the workforce. Are you talking about adapting back to the job environmment? Picking up new skills and knowledge? Or finding a job after being out of work for a few years? Asking this because for me, what's ideal would be to retire when I've saved enough, get back to work again when I'm bored, break off again maybe for a couple of years, and so on. Do you think this is viable?

[LowIncomeUser]

Originally Posted by Unregistered

It is good that you have the objective to retire early to focus on things you value more. Life is not only about earning an income (earning an income is important but not everything), life is about understanding life itself. Ask yourself the meaning of life, why are you created, where will you go after you die.

Explore this site to get the answers: w w w. h a l a l t u b e. c o m

God created me and I trust in Him. I will go to heaven after I die. All these materials are just temporary and you can't bring it with you. Do enjoy and contented on what you have now.

We're a couple in our mid-30s with 2 very young kids. We drive a Jap car. Condo fully paid-up: $4.5M. Our combine income = $160k/yr (include all bonuses etc.) $300K cash.

Most assets, be it cash/properties, was handed down to my wife by her late parents.

Passive income:
1. 2nd condo ($1.6M ~ loan fully serviced by rent of $4K/mth) = $0 income
2. shophouse ($2M+) = $9K/mth
3. $700K shares = $1-2K/mth (estimate, never count returns as shares were inherited)

My wife and I are in our mid 40s. We're low middle income earners, earning $140k pa combined. We live in a 4 room HDB flat, fully paid and drive an old 2nd hand car. We go for holidays to neighboring countries once a year.

Now our savings (cash & CPF) is $300k. We hope to retire at 65.