How much are you earning per annum?

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Did you ask the recruiter why he/she thinks you are overpaid? I would suggest you look through the JDs for your next level and identify the gaps. Know what is the gap and find ways to close it. I would say that at current stage, you are too early to jump as you have not gained enough knowledge and skillset to move to next level.

Hi, I am just looking for a lateral move, not to the next level. I have been working 10+ years, isn't 8-9k quite standard, no?

48 and 46, middle class married couple with two children. Combined household income $150k pa. Cash savings $30k pa. Lives in a condo, worth $940k. Mortgage left $140k, paying by CPF. Owns a car, paid up. Cash, investments and CPF, combined $1.2m. Total combined net worth $2m.

We hope to retire at age 55. By then our condo will be fully paid up and our children will be working and financially independent. We will also have a good sum of cash savings. Our expenses will be reduced significantly as we no longer need to finance our children's expenses such as food, insurance, tuition fees, transport, etc as they will be financing these themselves. Also no more mortgage loan. Our basic needs of food, medical and utilities can be taken care of by our cash savings, investments and insurance.

At 55, we expect our combined net worth to be:

Condo (paid up) $1m (assumes almost zero price appreciation over the next 7 years due to huge property oversupply)
CPF $600k (most will go to CPF Life)
Cash $400k
Investments $500k
Total $2.5m

From age 55 to 65, the investments ($500k) can generate dividends of $20k pa (4% pa) to cover part of our expenses, any shortfall will be covered by our cash savings. If we spend $4k pm ($48k pa) on average over the 10 years of retirement, we will drawdown $28k pa or $280k (over 10 years) in total from the cash savings.

From age 65 onwards, our expenses will be covered by our CPF Life (ERS - $48k pa) and dividends ($20k pa). Total passive income from age 65 onwards $68k pa ($5.6k pm). We will likely spend lesser than $68k pa and will save the rest.

I keep seeing people with millions of assets. Is this really achievable?

I think we are doing pretty well for our age: we are 27 and 29 with annual income of 280k combined. We still fresh in our careers so we do expect salaries to increase as we hit our 30s.

But i see people here having 6m net worth. Is this possible?

Originally Posted by Unregistered

I keep seeing people with millions of assets. Is this really achievable?

I think we are doing pretty well for our age: we are 27 and 29 with annual income of 280k combined. We still fresh in our careers so we do expect salaries to increase as we hit our 30s.

But i see people here having 6m net worth. Is this possible?

It is possible for high income earners and/or people very savvy with investment. Take your example, if both of you spend 80k a year, you would be able to save 200k a year, or 1M in 5 years. In 30 years, you would have 6M. That's not even taking into account salary increases and income from investment later.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

I keep seeing people with millions of assets. Is this really achievable?

I think we are doing pretty well for our age: we are 27 and 29 with annual income of 280k combined. We still fresh in our careers so we do expect salaries to increase as we hit our 30s.

But i see people here having 6m net worth. Is this possible?

That's pretty high, what do you guys do?

Originally Posted by Unregistered

I keep seeing people with millions of assets. Is this really achievable?

I think we are doing pretty well for our age: we are 27 and 29 with annual income of 280k combined. We still fresh in our careers so we do expect salaries to increase as we hit our 30s.

But i see people here having 6m net worth. Is this possible?

That's very good income at your ages. What professions are you in?

Whether you can attain $6M or not depends a great deal on your lifestyle and income source longevity. Income source longevity refers to whether your job and salary are secure over the long run.

For eg., when the children come along, will your wife decide to take a break from her career and look after them? If so, that would reduce your income. If you're in the civil service, that would be relatively secure. Then it is just time to incubate your savings and investment. Over a 30 to 35 year timeframe, hitting $6M to $10M is achievable for those with steady and consistently good income.

If you are in non-secure, cyclic kind of industries, then it is a lot harder to build up that nest egg. In good times, when the bonuses are good, save and invest them. But many people who received big bonuses in good times succumbed to the temptations to treat themselves - going for expensive holidays, buying expensive cars and what not.

Among my cohorts (> 55 yo) many of us have around $5m networth. We see our younger colleagues starting with much higher salaries than we did 30+ years ago. So we know in time to come, their networth (when they reached mid 50s) will be more than what we achieved currently.

So, yes, $6M networth should be attainable, if not easily attainable given your current high income.

Many of the examples here are husbands and wives with steady income over the years.
Do any of the husbands here have wives who gave up say $10k pm income to look after kids, or take huge pay cut to pursue her interests etc? Did yr wives return to the workforce and still able to command a good pay?

Originally Posted by Unregistered

48 and 46, middle class married couple with two children. Combined household income $150k pa. Cash savings $30k pa. Lives in a condo, worth $940k. Mortgage left $140k, paying by CPF. Owns a car, paid up. Cash, investments and CPF, combined $1.2m. Total combined net worth $2m.

We hope to retire at age 55. By then our condo will be fully paid up and our children will be working and financially independent. We will also have a good sum of cash savings. Our expenses will be reduced significantly as we no longer need to finance our children's expenses such as food, insurance, tuition fees, transport, etc as they will be financing these themselves. Also no more mortgage loan. Our basic needs of food, medical and utilities can be taken care of by our cash savings, investments and insurance.

At 55, we expect our combined net worth to be:

Condo (paid up) $1m (assumes almost zero price appreciation over the next 7 years due to huge property oversupply)
CPF $600k (most will go to CPF Life)
Cash $400k
Investments $500k
Total $2.5m

From age 55 to 65, the investments ($500k) can generate dividends of $20k pa (4% pa) to cover part of our expenses, any shortfall will be covered by our cash savings. If we spend $4k pm ($48k pa) on average over the 10 years of retirement, we will drawdown $28k pa or $280k (over 10 years) in total from the cash savings.

From age 65 onwards, our expenses will be covered by our CPF Life (ERS - $48k pa) and dividends ($20k pa). Total passive income from age 65 onwards $68k pa ($5.6k pm). We will likely spend lesser than $68k pa and will save the rest.

why do i keep seeing a similar msg with the same (condo almost paid, car paid, investment 1m)? ahha same poster that keeps posting thru out this thread?

Thanks for being so comprehensive in your answer! Our jobs are secure and not commission based - regular salary and there is quite a clear and definite upward salary adjustment.

We still take mrt and bus, no car. No expensive hobbies either. Luckily for us, we managed to get a bto when one of us was still studying and within the income ceiling. Plan to wait for the 5 years mop (and amass cash for deposit) for the next condo.

The 6m still sounds so unattainable... I will update 30 years down the road (or if I hit that along the way)!

Originally Posted by Unregistered

That's very good income at your ages. What professions are you in?

Whether you can attain $6M or not depends a great deal on your lifestyle and income source longevity. Income source longevity refers to whether your job and salary are secure over the long run.

For eg., when the children come along, will your wife decide to take a break from her career and look after them? If so, that would reduce your income. If you're in the civil service, that would be relatively secure. Then it is just time to incubate your savings and investment. Over a 30 to 35 year timeframe, hitting $6M to $10M is achievable for those with steady and consistently good income.

If you are in non-secure, cyclic kind of industries, then it is a lot harder to build up that nest egg. In good times, when the bonuses are good, save and invest them. But many people who received big bonuses in good times succumbed to the temptations to treat themselves - going for expensive holidays, buying expensive cars and what not.

Among my cohorts (> 55 yo) many of us have around $5m networth. We see our younger colleagues starting with much higher salaries than we did 30+ years ago. So we know in time to come, their networth (when they reached mid 50s) will be more than what we achieved currently.

So, yes, $6M networth should be attainable, if not easily attainable given your current high income.

Mine did for 2 years, took some time to find a job she liked and paid 80% of what she used to earn (contract). Had to endure on some time in a shitty startup before landing that.

But she is analysis company financials so the job is in fairly decent demand, really depends on the skillets.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Many of the examples here are husbands and wives with steady income over the years.
Do any of the husbands here have wives who gave up say $10k pm income to look after kids, or take huge pay cut to pursue her interests etc? Did yr wives return to the workforce and still able to command a good pay?