How much are you earning per annum?

There in lies the critical difference. The really successful people in their respective fields (whatever it may be) can afford to retire early/young, but most dont. Because they are not after money anymore. To these people, it could be sense of duty, sense of responsibility or simply they love what they do. They will take on consultant or advisory roles as they reached their 60s, but still very much plugged in into their respective fields.

On the other hand, we have people who dont know any better, advising people to retire on very limited funds, giving up their HDB flats, and focus on dying in their 60s. Such negative and pessimistic thoughts are ultimately self fulfilling. Such people are also abusive and hard to help.

And then there are the negative effects of retiring young. We can already see people who retired young wasting their time looking out of windows and developing an irrational fear of peak hour traffic.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

What's all these fuss about retiring at 55? Those successful bankers, doctors and lawyers can already retire in their 40s. They have made it big.

You should stop making fun of other people. Reflects badly on your character. It's up to them whether they want to retire at 30, 40, 50, 60 or 100. As long as they can afford it, so be it. It's none of your business. Don't need to impose your views. Please have the basic decency to respect others.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

There in lies the critical difference. The really successful people in their respective fields (whatever it may be) can afford to retire early/young, but most dont. Because they are not after money anymore. To these people, it could be sense of duty, sense of responsibility or simply they love what they do. They will take on consultant or advisory roles as they reached their 60s, but still very much plugged in into their respective fields.

On the other hand, we have people who dont know any better, advising people to retire on very limited funds, giving up their HDB flats, and focus on dying in their 60s. Such negative and pessimistic thoughts are ultimately self fulfilling. Such people are also abusive and hard to help.

And then there are the negative effects of retiring young. We can already see people who retired young wasting their time looking out of windows and developing an irrational fear of peak hour traffic.

Retirement is a personal choice and very much depends on a person's situation. Some can retire in their 50s or even forties while many others need to work past 55. Is a fact that many do not have the discipline to save and invest much earlier in their productive years and to mention decent returns from investing, only a significant minority have mustered the art of stock picking as evidence by statistics provided by Cpf board.


Going forward, I see many tempted by early self gratifications and thus not able to save and invest much in their 20s and 30s. Imagine taking a mortgage of a 25-year period at age 30 by that time he hits 55 not much left in his cpf account after setting aside for retirement account. To avoid having to work past his late 50s, one needs to be able to generate a decent income in his working years and learn to invest wisely. Avoid buying fanciful cars and take high long-term loans unless one is able to make at least S$10K a month alone aside from his wife's income when he reaches the age of 30. This excludes cpf contributions and all forms of bonuses and commissions.


Apart from financial savvy, must also cultivate a hobby to enjoy during his silver years. Working past 60 even though is out of interest and not necessity is just not a choice for me.

Absolutely true. Many people overconsume.

They upgrade to a condo even though they should only be staying in a 4 room HDB flat. A big portion of their CPF savings and cash go to paying the big condo mortgage. Their CPF savings will not be much when they reach 55.

Many buy a car even though they should be taking public transport. They hardly have any cash savings and need to take big car loans.

Many go for expensive holidays, paying their holidays by credit card and have big credit card debts.

Many buy luxury bags, shoes, clothings, etc using credit cards and owe huge debt.

Not surprising why 99.9% of Singaporeans cannot retire at 55. Only the financially smart and capable can retire at 55.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Retirement is a personal choice and very much depends on a person's situation. Some can retire in their 50s or even forties while many others need to work past 55. Is a fact that many do not have the discipline to save and invest much earlier in their productive years and to mention decent returns from investing, only a significant minority have mustered the art of stock picking as evidence by statistics provided by Cpf board.


Going forward, I see many tempted by early self gratifications and thus not able to save and invest much in their 20s and 30s. Imagine taking a mortgage of a 25-year period at age 30 by that time he hits 55 not much left in his cpf account after setting aside for retirement account. To avoid having to work past his late 50s, one needs to be able to generate a decent income in his working years and learn to invest wisely. Avoid buying fanciful cars and take high long-term loans unless one is able to make at least S$10K a month alone aside from his wife's income when he reaches the age of 30. This excludes cpf contributions and all forms of bonuses and commissions.


Apart from financial savvy, must also cultivate a hobby to enjoy during his silver years. Working past 60 even though is out of interest and not necessity is just not a choice for me.

Oh now my comments are hurting.

You should see what the other posters were saying before.

For eg. the "looking out of the window guy". He was repeatedly looking down on ordinary folks who have to go to work day in day out to support their families. Laughing and sneering at those not in the financial line especially those in the engineering field. Laughing at them for not being able to retire early. To me that is very mean and totally tasteless.

For eg., the guy who repeatedly talked about retiring on very limited funds and living on $3k a month for a couple. And then having such a very narrow mind that anyone else who disagree is ether stupid or an idiot. He dished out insults instead of robustly arguing his position.

If you were to re-read my posts again objectively, you will see I am offering sound perspectives on working and planning for retirement. While I understand that what I shared about expenses required for a long and comfortable retirement may cause alarm, it is based on simple mathematics and projections. The message I have was "If you fail to plan, you are actually planning to fail".

And finally, yes I agree that this forum is for sharing and to critic each other's post, thats why I am very surprised why suddenly my posts are the subject of so much vitriol.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

You should stop making fun of other people. Reflects badly on your character. It's up to them whether they want to retire at 30, 40, 50, 60 or 100. As long as they can afford it, so be it. It's none of your business. Don't need to impose your views. Please have the basic decency to respect others.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Oh now my comments are hurting.

You should see what the other posters were saying before.

For eg. the "looking out of the window guy". He was repeatedly looking down on ordinary folks who have to go to work day in day out to support their families. Laughing and sneering at those not in the financial line especially those in the engineering field. Laughing at them for not being able to retire early. To me that is very mean and totally tasteless.

For eg., the guy who repeatedly talked about retiring on very limited funds and living on $3k a month for a couple. And then having such a very narrow mind that anyone else who disagree is ether stupid or an idiot. He dished out insults instead of robustly arguing his position.

If you were to re-read my posts again objectively, you will see I am offering sound perspectives on working and planning for retirement. While I understand that what I shared about expenses required for a long and comfortable retirement may cause alarm, it is based on simple mathematics and projections. The message I have was "If you fail to plan, you are actually planning to fail".

And finally, yes I agree that this forum is for sharing and to critic each other's post, thats why I am very surprised why suddenly my posts are the subject of so much vitriol.

Indeed, your rational and prudent behavioral finance concept stands out. If you still don't understand, some posters argued irrationally without substiantial evidence - nothing wrong here as we're professionals and can discern truth from falsehood and deceptions.

An opinion given is better than silent reading as we learn together, hopefully in the right manner. It is difficult to correlate as news is everchanging but never perceiving in the same eyes. Let's say assuming condo mortgage as few posters aforementioned, recent Fed hike of 25 basis points signals rise in interest rate on liabilities. How many posters pointed out even if they are aware of such news?

The thread focuses on "How much are you earning per annum", some shared others boasted and rest silence. My personal net worth barely meets the "benchmark" as I am still in my early 20s.

Yesterday after our company's "Townhall" meeting, I happened to mingle with 5 other colleagues for refreshments. We knew each other reasonably well as we have all worked for the company for a good number of years. The oldest among the 6 of us was 60 while the youngest was 53.

The small talk started with the usual questions about our children, which uni or poly and what year they were in, or for those of us with older children, what work they were doing. As 5 of us were above 55, the conversation invariably veered towards retirement and our CPF savings. Not unsurprising, none of us above 55 have withdrawn any money from our CPF savings upon turning 55 since we are still working and in fact are still regularly contributing to our CPF accounts.

I was quietly confident that I have the highest CPF savings among the 6 of us, since I knew that the 60 yo colleague own a landed property and an investment condo. So it was big surprise to us when he coyly shared that with the recent CPF interest credited into OA, his OA amount now stands at a cool $1m. The total interest he earned in 2016 from his various CPF accounts was $36k!

Like me, he had been "paying back" to his CPF savings the money he used to buy his properties. I started paying back money to my CPF about 3 years ago (at 53). Each year my wife and I would put back the savings we have into our CPF accounts.

With the recent interest from CPF, my OA amount is a respectable $900k. I would need 2 years of contribution to reach $1m in my OA. The money will come from $37,740 per year from salary and voluntary contribution for 2 years, plus the projected interest of $25k per year for two years.

[lazyplane]

Just to be clear,

when you refer to "paying back", am i correct you are using your cash to put into your CPF for "loan payments" your property. And this amount goes to CPF OA only right. You are not selling your property right ?

And the only reason you are doing this is for interest arbitrage right ie cash deposit interest vs CPF OA interest of 2.5% and you are near retirement age so you can withdraw your CPF for amounts above your ERS.

I am younger and i think i need my cash on the tap for rainy days. So i think the SSB will be a better plan for me albeit there is a limit ie S$100k per person.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Yesterday after our company's "Townhall" meeting, I happened to mingle with 5 other colleagues for refreshments. We knew each other reasonably well as we have all worked for the company for a good number of years. The oldest among the 6 of us was 60 while the youngest was 53.

The small talk started with the usual questions about our children, which uni or poly and what year they were in, or for those of us with older children, what work they were doing. As 5 of us were above 55, the conversation invariably veered towards retirement and our CPF savings. Not unsurprising, none of us above 55 have withdrawn any money from our CPF savings upon turning 55 since we are still working and in fact are still regularly contributing to our CPF accounts.

I was quietly confident that I have the highest CPF savings among the 6 of us, since I knew that the 60 yo colleague own a landed property and an investment condo. So it was big surprise to us when he coyly shared that with the recent CPF interest credited into OA, his OA amount now stands at a cool $1m. The total interest he earned in 2016 from his various CPF accounts was $36k!

Like me, he had been "paying back" to his CPF savings the money he used to buy his properties. I started paying back money to my CPF about 3 years ago (at 53). Each year my wife and I would put back the savings we have into our CPF accounts.

With the recent interest from CPF, my OA amount is a respectable $900k. I would need 2 years of contribution to reach $1m in my OA. The money will come from $37,740 per year from salary and voluntary contribution for 2 years, plus the projected interest of $25k per year for two years.

Yes, we didnt sell our properties.

In the scenario when you sell your property, the cpf will automatically take back the amount that you had drawn out to pay for that property plus any interest accrued to that amount.

Since we didnt sell our properties, this "pay back" is totally voluntary. We can choose to return any amount up to the full amount withdrawn plus the accrued interest.

And yes, once you reached 55, and you met the FRS, you are allowed to withdraw the rest of your OA and SA monies. We chose to leave/put our money in CPF as the interest environment outside is very weak. If we leave the money in CPF for 10 years, the compounded interest is actually 2.8% per year! A sum of $1m will earn a compounded interest of $280k over 10 years with almost zero risk!

Originally Posted by lazyplane

Just to be clear,

when you refer to "paying back", am i correct you are using your cash to put into your CPF for "loan payments" your property. And this amount goes to CPF OA only right. You are not selling your property right ?

And the only reason you are doing this is for interest arbitrage right ie cash deposit interest vs CPF OA interest of 2.5% and you are near retirement age so you can withdraw your CPF for amounts above your ERS.

I am younger and i think i need my cash on the tap for rainy days. So i think the SSB will be a better plan for me albeit there is a limit ie S$100k per person.

Married working couple, 53 & 50.
Total income, $200k pa.
Accommodation is a private condo, worth $940k.
Mortgage left, $179k. Spends $12k pa in mortgage payments.
Car is paid up. Spends $12k pa to maintain and operate.
Supporting parents financially, both sides. Spends $20k pa.
Holidays, twice a year. Spends $12k pa.
Total spending, $150k pa.
Total savings, $50k pa.
Total net worth, $1.2m.
Are we doing well since our total net worth is more than $1m?
When and how can we retire?
Please comment. Thank you.