Thank for replying. There are so many people posting with a few million still not retiring, how could I. My kids still in primary sch. That petty amount will be eaten up by tuition, uni fee. I think still need to slogged for 13 years before retirement.

Wise words!

$1m nowadays dont go very far. At $50k pa expenses, it takes less than 20 years to eat up $1m (with inflation). If you retire at 50, 20 years mean you will only be 70.

Similarly, $50k pa doesnt buy you much. Most families with children still schooling would need at least $60k to $80k pa.

With a car and maid, the expense will go up to $120k pa or more.

Care to share the capital gain / loss that your stocks/funds have made over the years?

How old are you? What's your net worth?

I'm 50 and happily retired. I worked very hard in a highly stressed and high paced environment. Made very good money though. I invested my huge bonuses and made millions from my investments. Now can retire.

My advice to youngsters is to work in a sector which pays very high, even though it's a high stressed environment. But must plan your exit early before you collapse. I manage to exit at the right time. Now a lot more healthier and happier.

May I know which industry you are from? Which industries are considered paying high?

Age: 26

Worked less than 2 years. This coming sep will be 2 years.

Cash: around 26k (started with 4k when I just started working)

Equities: around 5k

Cpf OA: around 14k plus.

h 41 w 41

2 kids

combined

cash 80k
hdb fully paid
comdo 750k (loan 550k left)
stock 0
cpf 200k

Many people here talks about retirement. How much do you really need for retirement? It all depends on your retirement lifestyle. So, what's the typical average Singaporean retired couple's profile and how much do they need? Let's explore.

A typical, average heartlander retired Singaporean couple would be staying in a 4 room HDB flat which they bought cheap, direct from HDB many years ago and would be paid off fully by the time they retire (no more mortgage). They would most likely not own a car (a car is a luxury and not a necessity, especially for a retired couple) and do not employ a maid. They would do their own housework, which is not much for just two persons. They also cook their own meals or buy food from hawker centres.

How much are their expenses (TWO PERSONS ONLY)?

Groceries, hawker food, utilities - $1000 pm
Public transport (discount with PG card) - $100 pm
Medical - $200 pm
Medical insurance premium - $400 pm
Entertainment - $100 pm
Holiday travel (pro rated) - $200 pm
Total - $2000 pm

So, if they can earn a passive income of $2500 pm or $30,000 pa, they can retire before 65. If they don't have this passive income, they will have to retire at 65.

At 65, if they choose the Enhanced CPF Life, they will get $3,600 pm or $43,200 pa.

Cash can start to dump in FD or lump sum rsp soon. Dont accumulate too much cash.

You are around the same situation as i am, i work for 2 years already so my OA is a bit higher than yours. For around 2 years i manage to save around 40k and equities of 2.8k only. I am hoping to earn my 100k before i hit 30 years old.

For the 26k cash you can put it in banking account which gives you higher interest rate.

I have record my experience in my saving journey in my blog, so if you want you can read it. s://jyklmoneyblog.blogspot.sg

I am impressed by the amount of savings people have..

Age: 30 this year
Qualifications: Degree with 2nd lower hons
Job: Civil Service
Current income: 5k per month with sideline job 1.5k additional
Savings in cash: 85k (all in FD)
Stocks: 2k+ paper loss of 1k+ alrdy PEC LTD BOO HOO ( i only sell if i profit. I only buy 1 share at any one time lol)
CPF: 70k in OA ( worked for 4 yrs after graduating)
Rojak cash: about 1k+ in various bank accounts


NO DEBTS


Anyone can advise how i can generate more passive income.

There is no mystery nor magic in generating PASSIVE income.

It takes money to make money and if you are the adventurous types, you can use leverage.

Lets say you want to generate $100k pa in passive income. And with expected returns of 4.5%, you will need a capital of $2.22M. Its simple maths without considering the risks.

How about leveraging? Property is one of the best means to use leverage. Because the banks view the property as a good collateral, they are willing to lend you money at low interest rates. Housing loans have the lowest loan interest rates.

Let me share my case, and I think I represent the typical singaporean who is kiasu and kiasi.

For one, I would not dare to dump all my money into one asset class for eg. stocks. To mitigate risks, I spread my investment out to these 3 broad classes of investments.

1. Stocks and shares - 30% of my investible assets (ie not including my primary residence)
2. Rental Property - 15% (Leverage on loan)
3. Bonds, FD, and CPF - 55%

Based on the above 3 investment spread, my passive income last year was $130K.

Will I get this amount this year? This year started off with a dampener with the STI dropping badly. Some of the companies reduced paying dividends and on top of that, I suffered paper loss on my capital! And tenants are proving elusive. I managed to get another tenant for my rental property but with reduced rental income.

The only steady component is the third one - the bonds, FD and CPF

So as you can see, you want higher returns you have to bear the higher risks.

As of Jun this year, my passive income is $67K. Going forward, my rental income is going to be lower, so I am not too confident of hitting $130k again this year.

Impressive. You're the most successful among us here in the forum. 99.99% of those aged 50 are all still working to pay mortgage, pay bills, etc.

Kena kicked out from another forum now here to infest this one. Same insecure joker/loser always praising himself. Tsk tsk.

around half of my cash now is emergency fund, so don't intend to use it for investment. I need the cash actually for marriage and renovation of flat in the coming 3 years or so.

Oh. yes! i have been to your blog a few times actually when i go to sginvestblogger. you are very close to your 100k goal already.

The cash is in my OCBC360 account which i feel still give a decent returns for a saving account.

Yea, I will be hitting my 100K target this year if everything goes smoothly. But it will be all gone next year cause I am going to purchase my first house next year. Have to start from scratch again haha.

Civil servant can do moonlight? I tot cannot right

Are you still working or retired? There are some in this forum who have amassed significant networrh generating impressive passive income, and still working as they feel that this is the best period of time to accumulate even more wealth. Would be interesting to know your situation too and what you think.

Many people here talks about retirement. How much do you really need for retirement? It all depends on your retirement lifestyle. So, what's the typical average Singaporean retired couple's profile and how much do they need? Let's explore.

A typical, average heartlander retired Singaporean couple would be staying in a 4 room HDB flat which they bought cheap, direct from HDB many years ago and would be paid off fully by the time they retire (no more mortgage). They would most likely not own a car (a car is a luxury and not a necessity, especially for a retired couple) and do not employ a maid. They would do their own housework, which is not much for just two persons. They also cook their own meals or buy food from hawker centres.

How much are their expenses (TWO PERSONS ONLY)?

Groceries, hawker food, utilities - $1000 pm
Public transport (discount with PG card) - $100 pm
Medical - $200 pm
Medical insurance premium - $400 pm
Entertainment - $100 pm
Holiday travel (pro rated) - $200 pm
Total - $2000 pm

So, if they can earn a passive income of $2500 pm or $30,000 pa, they can retire before 65. If they don't have this passive income, they will have to retire at 65.

At 65, if they choose the Enhanced CPF Life, they will get $3,600 pm or $43,200 pa.

50 & 48 with 2 kids
Cash/FD 300k
CPF 1m
Condo 2m
Shares 700k
Bonds 300k
Liabilities 0k

Net worth 4.3m
Net worth excluding property 2.3m

I'm 50 and happily retired. I worked very hard in a highly stressed and high paced environment. Made very good money though. I invested my huge bonuses and made millions from my investments. Now can retire.

My advice to youngsters is to work in a sector which pays very high, even though it's a high stressed environment. But must plan your exit early before you collapse. I manage to exit at the right time. Now a lot more healthier and happier.

Don't worry.

For those retrenched ex-PMETs out there, such as ex-engineers, do not be sad. Instead of worrying so much, you can just retire assuming you no longer have any dependents at age 55.

Good retirement plan in KL or Penang for a 55 years old retired couple.

Passive income
Rent out fully paid HDB flat S$2.5k pm or RM7.5k pm
(Note: let's hope our Singapore property market will not crash and there is enough FTs working here, or else our HDB rents will also crash and this will cause our old retirees to suffer as they will not be able to get good rents)

KL or Penang cost of living
Rent a 2 bedroom condominium RM1.5k pm
Car expenses RM500 pm (assume buy used car in cash RM30k)
Food, groceries and utilities RM1.5k pm
Misc RM1k pm
Total spending RM4.5k pm
Savings RM3k pm

This retirement plan allows you to live in a condo and drive a car.

Your key retirement asset: HDB flat (we are very fortunate since we all get to buy cheap BTO HDB flats when we got married)

You can retire now.

1. Sell your $2m condo and buy a $1m condo. There are many 3 bedroom condos selling for less than $1m. Use your CPF to pay half for the $1m condo, with the rest in cash.

2. You have $2.8m to invest in high dividend 5% yield stocks. This will provide $140k pa in dividends.

3. $140k pa would be enough for a family of 4, provided you don't travel first class every time you go for holidays, you don't buy $300k cars, etc.

4. Live a happier life. You deserve it.

Bro, capital loss on stocks got consider bo? Dividend got use?

yo all 28m single, 100k cash no investment cpf 64k

no credit cards or outstanding liabilities

what can anyone advice me

Gimme
 

My advice is to put that 100k cash to work

In this volatile market of ours, , cash is king.

At least buy those savings plans that are capital guaranteed and can get about 3% or slightly lesser returns pa.

25 yo fresh grad just started working
10k stocks
25k cash
Salary 3.4k pm
No debts
Liabilities 800 rental as I am not able to stay w my family due to circumstances

Would like to seek advice. Many thanks

Do you even know what that means?

Age: 22
Cash: $15k
Savings Account: $31k(0.4% p.a. Interest)
Precious Metals: $2k

Am thinking of how to invest my money more effectively that can generate much better returns. Any Advice?

Dump the precious metals. Every month, buy $1000 sti etf for the next 30 years. Soon you will be collecting steady dividends on a permanent basis.

How do I go about buying the STI ETF? Have 0 clue in investments

broadwaycote
 

Go look at US closed ended funds. If you want a steady dividend. STI ETF is **** compared to that.

Advice needed
 

I am currently 27 years old graduate working in a government agency and earning annual take home income of 38k including bouses. Had been working in my 3rd year. Current cash savings/on hand available is about 37k. No other assets except a small amount in the stocks (about 1k, just beginning to invest)

I work with a budget and fixed spending for necessities of about 1000 to 1200 a month (food, transport, insurance and giving parents money). My budget for annual spending is about 20,000 including in total. Which left me about 6000 to 8000 for any other things such as medical fees, overseas trip, friends wedding angbao, presents for gf, some family expenses, buying of necessary clothes, shoe etc.

My aim is to consistently save half the amount i left after deducting my above expenses and invest the other half every year. For this year it will mean spending 20k, save 9k and invest 9k (for a total of 38k that i earn).

My main worry here is about my parents as they do not have much savings due to some complicated family circumstances which I will not want to elaborate here. In summary:

Mother: no significant CPF (maybe about 10k or so in total OA,MA,SA from working previously before becoming housewife). Currently only getting $200 a month (excluding my contributions) from a shared job.

Father: Currently working in a 2 jobs and only getting $1800 per month take home. However, he does not have much savings per month as he pay for the utilities, phone bills, groceries and also take care of my grandparents and their medical fees. Think the amount of money he left per month is only about 2 to $300. CPF only about $20k maximum and his medisave is almost used up by my grandparents.

I have a younger brother who is still studying in uni and will only graduate in 2 years time. A younger sister who is still studying and graduating next year (diploma).

My parents have insurance for the basic items such as medical and they also bought insurance for us to pay for our education. Luckily because of this arrangement, I do not need to pay study loan.

I''m worried about my parent's retirement as now they are almost living end to end. I could not contribute more as I would want to build up savings myself and preparing to get a flat and get married in about 3 years time. Currently, we are still able to get by and i feel that giving my parents more money wont help matters in the long run.

I am living a very simple and frugal lifestyle (almost always eating at hawker centres, food courts, cooking at home, taking only MRT, rarely take taxi, never buy any luxury goods etc)

Just need some advice here on how to plan forward for my parent's retirement so that there is a sum of money that they can use when they could not work anymore. Thanks in advance!

I think it is good you are concerned for your parents retirement and want to help them out. This is a step in the right direction. I also sense you are seeing a dilemma of "investing" your money now so as to get a bigger payout for your parents future. So let me offer a BIG tip that i applied to myself .

If you want to combine "investing" and giving to your parents , do voluntary cash contribution to THEIR CPF. This will help achieve good returns of 4% (and more since they are below the min sum and will earn extra 1%)

The 4-5% savings interest rate is really fair in this low interest rate environment. And because you contribute, you get income tax relief as well !

By putting in their CPF, it also prevent "frivolous" spending as they have to meet CPF withdrawal requirements ie beyond 55 etc.

Of course, your parents may disagree- because cash at hand is better and they may have negative sentiments about government etc,

One thing here you must watch, i note your mom has no CPF, so whatever she has will go into the purchase of CPF life. CPF life is essentially what you wish to give her as it means getting an monthly sum in exchange for the lump sum. Do more research and calculations to plan so that she can meet the basic retirement sum (ideally)

i recommend reading this blog as well to get the idea .

A Singaporean Stocks Investor (ASSI)


2. After you do all the research on the above point, i like you consider giving a small cash amount (maybe start small say $10 per week) to your parents.
This gesture while small , will mean a lot to your parents. (while the bigger payout starts to grow)

3. In terms of considering other forms of investing for your parents, i will say dont bother. Just do the CPF. Cos their time is short, and there is no guarantee of success. You can do the other forms of investing for your own retirement and take the risk as it comes. If it works, good for you. If it doesnt, at least you dont face additional stress for providing for your parents

All the best, and wish you success.

Age: 31 Years Old (Going 32)
Total Liquid Net Worth: Around $60K
CPF: Around $110K

I realised as compared to the other posters here, my savings are not that fantastic. This thread has really opened my thoughts about being more financially conscious. Gotta save and invest more so that at least I cross the $100k mark in my liquid assets.

28 Years Old - Into my fourth year of working... Luckily I got a good job thru connection and the salary of my first job was higher than most of my peers (not invest banking and definitely not in the range of above $8k)..hope a few good jobs with substantial increment...

now have about $100k cash (let's not talk about cpf) after paying roughly $60k cash down payment for a humble conti car.. $100k cash is definitely not much if compare to IB, lawyers, docs or full time stock traders who can make $100k in a single year, getting married next year...but i think i can live comfortably at the moment before i have kids..

Hi all, any advice here... Single, currently making ~$140k, mortgage on condo $1mio, value of condo $1.8mio, cash ~$1mio, car fully paid. No other investments. What would you suggest is a good next step in handling my savings? Pay off most (or all) of mortgage? I would like to keep the apartment, considering paying off mortgage up to the point where monthly mortgage is from cpf with no cash outlay (preference to max out cpf). Thoughts? Thanks!