How much are you earning per annum?

There is a lot of discussion on retirement in this forum. Many posts is by an old man who doesn't represent the average Singaporean retiree as his retirement lifestyle is a lavish retirement lifestyle.

A more practical retirement lifestyle will be:

- Living in your current home (can be a condo or HDB flat) which is fully paid up. No more mortgage payments.
- No need to own a car as it is unnecessary for a retired couple who can move around in public transport during non-peak hours of the day hence avoiding the crowds. This will save you $2000 pm. Public transport cost $100 pm for a retired couple.
- No need to employ a maid as the household chores for a retired couple is minimal. You save $1000 pm.
- For food, a mixture of eating at hawker centres, eating home cooked food and dining at restaurants. Food and groceries, only need $1000 pm for a retired couple.
- Utilities, Internet, etc only $300 pm.
- Medical $200 pm.
- Entertainment and overseas holidays (pro rated) $600 pm.
- Misc $400 pm.
- Total $2500 pm.
- To take care of inflation, your expenses will grow from $2500 to $3500 over 20 years.

This amount can easily be achieved by your Enhanced CPF Life which gives $3600 pm for a retired couple at 65. Your children may give you $400 pm as allowance. If you have two children, then you will get $800 pm. Your passive income will then be $4400 pm.

So, if your retirement lifestyle is not lavish and wasteful, then you don't need much. Just focus on clearing your home loan and make sure you go for the Enhanced CPF Life.

My retirement plan is simple:
- I retire in my condo, which is paid up.
- My Enhanced CPF Life will pay me EVERY MONTH till death.
- I buy annuities with my cash savings to give me extra cash EVERY MONTH till death.
- My retirement lifestyle is simple - No car as my condo is near an MRT station and near shopping amenities. No need maid as household chores are very simple to do. Eat mostly at hawker centres and cook at home, sometimes eat at restaurants. Go holidays during non-peak seasons.
- Any allowances from our children will be a bonus. We don't need it but will gladly accept if they give. This is filial piety, which is lacking in today's society.

How is your retirement plan?

We both plan to retire in 10 years time when we reach 55. By that time, our condo mortgage will be paid off, our children will be working and probably married and living on their own with their spouses in their respective new flats.

Currently, we earn a passive income of $2k pm or $24k pa from our investments. We are saving $3k pm or $36k pa in cash. When we reach 55, our cash savings will be at least $360k. When we retire at 55, we will continue to get $2k pm in passive income from our investments and we will draw down $2k pm from our cash savings (or $240k over 10 years) for our $4k pm expenses. This will take care of our retirement from 55 to 65.

When we reach 65, we will get income from our CPF Life of about $3.6k pm and plus our $2k pm from investments, our passive income will be $5.6k pm, which is more than we need from 65 until we die. We expect our children to contribute a monthly parental allowance which we will save.

We have worked so hard for so many years. We have so many things we plan to do when we retire. Life is short. We hope we will live long enough to enjoy our retirement.

Fresh Grad, 2nd Upper.

Expected Annual Package: S$70k

Good news!

Cat A and Cat B COEs went up. I told you so!

Congrats to those who got your $38k COE.

COE prices will continue to rise higher and higher due to the very high demand from

1. Replacement demand
2. Demand from private car operators
3. Demand for families buying their 2nd and 3rd cars, one for their wife and one for their children
4. Demand from new buyers who have higher income

Better book your new car now!

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Good news!

Cat A and Cat B COEs went up. I told you so!

Congrats to those who got your $38k COE.

COE prices will continue to rise higher and higher due to the very high demand from

1. Replacement demand
2. Demand from private car operators
3. Demand for families buying their 2nd and 3rd cars, one for their wife and one for their children
4. Demand from new buyers who have higher income

Better book your new car now!

bro, if you are rich, you will not worry too much about marginal change of $5000-$10,000 in COE. The rich in true sense don't think about COE. It is such a trivial matter.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

We both plan to retire in 10 years time when we reach 55. By that time, our condo mortgage will be paid off, our children will be working and probably married and living on their own with their spouses in their respective new flats.

Currently, we earn a passive income of $2k pm or $24k pa from our investments. We are saving $3k pm or $36k pa in cash. When we reach 55, our cash savings will be at least $360k. When we retire at 55, we will continue to get $2k pm in passive income from our investments and we will draw down $2k pm from our cash savings (or $240k over 10 years) for our $4k pm expenses. This will take care of our retirement from 55 to 65.

When we reach 65, we will get income from our CPF Life of about $3.6k pm and plus our $2k pm from investments, our passive income will be $5.6k pm, which is more than we need from 65 until we die. We expect our children to contribute a monthly parental allowance which we will save.

We have worked so hard for so many years. We have so many things we plan to do when we retire. Life is short. We hope we will live long enough to enjoy our retirement.

Seems doable eventhough more is always merrier. This is much more realistic than those passive income 20k spend 10k save 10k.

You should show some respect to the old man, as an elder to you, before you even speak of filial piety!

I noticed you mentioned you stay in a condo and intend to retire in your condo, but you didn't cater money for condo maintenance. If your condo has security guards, employ gardeners, cleaners and managing agent, you can expect the maintenance fee and sinking fund to grow over the years as their salaries grow to keep pace with inflation. Let's say it's now $300 a month, in 10 years, it could be $500 pm, in 20 years, it could be $700pm.

In your calculation, you say needed $2500 pm, but upped it to $3500 pm to cater for inflation. Now you add in another $500pm for condo maintenance. That would bring the total to $4000 pm or $48k pa. Now to be careful, you would want to set aside some money say $5k pa for emergencies both medical emergencies and house and appliance repairs. This would bring the total yearly budget to $53k. This emergency is also to take of periods when your children are in between jobs or looking for jobs and cannot give you any allowance.

How many years do you expect to live in retirement? 30 years? If 30 years, then you will need 30 x $53k = $1.59m. This should not include your home value. Do you have this amount?

As you can see, with $1.53m your retirement lifestyle will be very basic.

The old man planning to retire on $150k pa passive income is not planning for a luxurious lifestyle, but just a comfortable lifestyle. The only difference between you and the old man is, the old man is planning NOT to touch his savings but only the passive income generated from his savings to sustain his retirement while you are drawing down on your savings in your retirement.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

There is a lot of discussion on retirement in this forum. Many posts is by an old man who doesn't represent the average Singaporean retiree as his retirement lifestyle is a lavish retirement lifestyle.

A more practical retirement lifestyle will be:

- Living in your current home (can be a condo or HDB flat) which is fully paid up. No more mortgage payments.
- No need to own a car as it is unnecessary for a retired couple who can move around in public transport during non-peak hours of the day hence avoiding the crowds. This will save you $2000 pm. Public transport cost $100 pm for a retired couple.
- No need to employ a maid as the household chores for a retired couple is minimal. You save $1000 pm.
- For food, a mixture of eating at hawker centres, eating home cooked food and dining at restaurants. Food and groceries, only need $1000 pm for a retired couple.
- Utilities, Internet, etc only $300 pm.
- Medical $200 pm.
- Entertainment and overseas holidays (pro rated) $600 pm.
- Misc $400 pm.
- Total $2500 pm.
- To take care of inflation, your expenses will grow from $2500 to $3500 over 20 years.

This amount can easily be achieved by your Enhanced CPF Life which gives $3600 pm for a retired couple at 65. Your children may give you $400 pm as allowance. If you have two children, then you will get $800 pm. Your passive income will then be $4400 pm.

So, if your retirement lifestyle is not lavish and wasteful, then you don't need much. Just focus on clearing your home loan and make sure you go for the Enhanced CPF Life.

My retirement plan is simple:
- I retire in my condo, which is paid up.
- My Enhanced CPF Life will pay me EVERY MONTH till death.
- I buy annuities with my cash savings to give me extra cash EVERY MONTH till death.
- My retirement lifestyle is simple - No car as my condo is near an MRT station and near shopping amenities. No need maid as household chores are very simple to do. Eat mostly at hawker centres and cook at home, sometimes eat at restaurants. Go holidays during non-peak seasons.
- Any allowances from our children will be a bonus. We don't need it but will gladly accept if they give. This is filial piety, which is lacking in today's society.

How is your retirement plan?

You think too much for your children, even spoiling and pampering them. We don't have to bequeath so much for our children, they will not have the motivation to strive hard on their own merit. This is the problem in our society. Parents are over protective and spoiling their children. They don't acquire the drive to work hard on their own. Some parents buy for their children new car, new condo, branded bags, etc. They become spoilt.

I grew up from a low income family. I strived hard to be where I am today. I want my children to have the same drive and passion. I will give them a good education and it is up to them to achieve success in life. I will not leave them much, just my condo unit where I'm staying in after I die. My retirement plan do include drawing down on my savings and investments. That is planned. With proper planning, I don't have to retire only in my 60s. I can do it earlier.

I don't want to follow the foot steps of those who over accumulate wealth and die even before they retire.

What's the biggest gift we all have? Time. I don't want to over trade my time for money. I rather use my time towards doing charitable deeds to help the poor, needy, orphans and destitutes.

I do respect you as an old man, but I don't respect your rigid views. Have a good day, old man.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

You should show some respect to the old man, as an elder to you, before you even speak of filial piety!

I noticed you mentioned you stay in a condo and intend to retire in your condo, but you didn't cater money for condo maintenance. If your condo has security guards, employ gardeners, cleaners and managing agent, you can expect the maintenance fee and sinking fund to grow over the years as their salaries grow to keep pace with inflation. Let's say it's now $300 a month, in 10 years, it could be $500 pm, in 20 years, it could be $700pm.

In your calculation, you say needed $2500 pm, but upped it to $3500 pm to cater for inflation. Now you add in another $500pm for condo maintenance. That would bring the total to $4000 pm or $48k pa. Now to be careful, you would want to set aside some money say $5k pa for emergencies both medical emergencies and house and appliance repairs. This would bring the total yearly budget to $53k. This emergency is also to take of periods when your children are in between jobs or looking for jobs and cannot give you any allowance.

How many years do you expect to live in retirement? 30 years? If 30 years, then you will need 30 x $53k = $1.59m. This should not include your home value. Do you have this amount?

As you can see, with $1.53m your retirement lifestyle will be very basic.

The old man planning to retire on $150k pa passive income is not planning for a luxurious lifestyle, but just a comfortable lifestyle. The only difference between you and the old man is, the old man is planning NOT to touch his savings but only the passive income generated from his savings to sustain his retirement while you are drawing down on your savings in your retirement.

Let me ask you this simple question "Do the poor, needy and destitute need your time or your money more?"

The answer is obvious right? Best way to help this group of people is through creating and giving them jobs. If you cannot create jobs for them, the next best thing is to give them money - NOT your time. They cannot fill their stomach with your TIME.

Jobs give people dignity, hope and pride. When people spend, they create demand for goods and services and this creates jobs.

When you retire early, and start cutting back on your expenses, you are reducing demand for goods and services, which in turn destroy jobs.

When you dont plan properly or plan only for basic survival, you have a much higher chance of running of money before you die or you will become one of the needy, poor and destitute. Then you will have a lot of TIME but no money.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

You think too much for your children, even spoiling and pampering them. We don't have to bequeath so much for our children, they will not have the motivation to strive hard on their own merit. This is the problem in our society. Parents are over protective and spoiling their children. They don't acquire the drive to work hard on their own. Some parents buy for their children new car, new condo, branded bags, etc. They become spoilt.

I grew up from a low income family. I strived hard to be where I am today. I want my children to have the same drive and passion. I will give them a good education and it is up to them to achieve success in life. I will not leave them much, just my condo unit where I'm staying in after I die. My retirement plan do include drawing down on my savings and investments. That is planned. With proper planning, I don't have to retire only in my 60s. I can do it earlier.

I don't want to follow the foot steps of those who over accumulate wealth and die even before they retire.

What's the biggest gift we all have? Time. I don't want to over trade my time for money. I rather use my time towards doing charitable deeds to help the poor, needy, orphans and destitutes.

I do respect you as an old man, but I don't respect your rigid views. Have a good day, old man.

I fully agree with you and has the same plan. Why leave a huge sum when you can spend them. Just make sure your children has a good education and moral grounds and a house to bequeath as a headstart for them.