wow. what does you and your wife do to earn so much at 36?

By defination of debt free, it means I would like to have sufficient cash to pay off loans if I need to.
However I do agree with your idea of passive income. Just that houses are expensive for this route nowadays.

27 years old this year

stocks :100k
cash :5k

manage to save this 100k when I change job from a engineer 2 years ago into front line banking.. Had $0 in my bank account when I change into banking

You really made the right move.. I've been engineering for 10 years... my savings also $0.. How did you managed to enter banking?? Can help save a fellow engineer from hell??

41, male

$160k 401k (maximizing annual limit)
$40k pension
$3k roth ira (maximizing annual limit)
$5k savings
$80k mortgage for $170k townhome
no other debt

tip: prolong marriage and kids

401k? Are you from USA? Your houses are super cheap compared to ours in Singapore! Our smallest government apartments cost at least $200k SGD each, and they are tiny in size.

Hi,

I'm a singaporean based in the US too. Just started working here. Are you planning to get a green card? If i'm not planning to get one, would you still recommend taking advantage of the 401k, IRA etc.? Right now I'm close to maximizing my first year Roth IRA contribution, and am wondering whether I should plough more money into my 401k. At present I'm contribution 12%, split half and half between traditional and roth, but am looking to increase that to 16%. Would you recommend traditional or roth or neither?

Thanks.
Singaporean in Boston.

All,

Interesting reads, esp from common_man. Good, hard working guy. You are lucking that you and your wife both work. I am same age as common_man ... maybe we know each other in primary school. :)

My honest situation:

50 (me), 42 (wife - not working), 3 teenage kids (16, 15, 11)

Condo (staying in) - $1.2m (paid up)
Cash - $200K
Stock - abt $1.1m
CPF - Ord $290K, Sp abt $120K, SRS abt $55K
Car - Jap 6yr old, paid-up, value left abt $28K, I think

To add more:

Passive income: abt $5.5K/mth
Income abt $12K/mth
CPF interest - not sure/yr

Hi, I am posting anonymously but I would like any constructive advice from any of you, not necessarily in financial planning. I will appreciate a tip or two from men around my age or older on how to manage my life from this point onwards. My wife and I are in our mid 40s.

Assets
- 3 private properties (includes the one we live in) worth about $4.5M, 2 totally paid up and one with a $1M mortgage outstanding
- $1M in the bank and some stocks
- 2 simple cars with no or minimal loans
- Nett business income $1M-$1.5M a year after tax
- 2 boys still in primary school, doing above average - I would like to send them abroad to study mainly for the more global exposure

We have no expensive hobbies, no parties or horse riding or watches or wines. We eat mostly at home or at coffeeshops and sometimes at a cafe. Almost no one knows how much we make because we dress very simply and do not talk about money very much.

If you are posting in response to me, please address your post to MeePokMan.

Grateful for your time. : )

Your wealth and income are far above that tolerated by many members of this forum. You will likely trigger the following
1. Someone will post to express disbelief.
2. Someone will tell you that a multi-millionaire like you should not be visiting this forum because you have to attend to your expensive hobbies, parties, ride horses, buy watches or wines 24/7.
3. Someone with the nickname "Bill Gates" or "Sultan of Brunei" or "Orang Utan" will soon appear to tell you that he earns billions.

Char Kway Tiao Girl
 

You are doing so well and need advice from commoners here??

Most of the readers here would probably envy and seeking advice on what business that you are in.

Setting up Mee Pok Chain?

Mr Mee Pok,

I think you should get professional advice.

You don't need any financial planning advice from mere mortals here. You can afford to lose your entire savings and in 1 year you'll still make more than what commoners can't make in their entire lives.

Why don't you share a bit on how you made it rich.

Hi friend, thanks for your post. Yes, I have considered the possible types of responses but I believe there are men out there doing considerably better than me. They are the ones I would like to learn a lesson or two from. Not about making more money, but how to live meaningfully, and to use my resources as a tool for good. To those who wish to make negative remarks, I cannot stop you but maybe you will do well too and someday find yourselves in my shoes.

Hi, thanks for the reply. I generally mistrust bankers and moneymen including insurance people because they keep trying to sell products. But I will keep that in mind.

Hi Char Kway Tiao Girl, I am sorry if I have stirred up feelings of envy. That was never my intention. But envy exists, and we all have to live with it. I sometimes envy others in my social circle too. There are those who are doing even better or have smarter kids or happier. I am also a commoner. You will not be able to tell me apart from another guy at the wet market or the coffee shop.

I cannot reveal which business I am in. Singapore is a very small place and people in the same industry know one another. I hope you understand. I do not sell mee pok. But I do enjoy eating it. : )

Hi, I am just a mere mortal like everyone else. And I am not looking for financial planning advice, but more on how to live wisely and in a meaningful way. My savings and business earnings were accumulated over the years and not a windfall. So I do not spend as if I had just hit toto.

Hi MeePokMan,

I think you can live wisely by having your favourite Mee Pok.

It would be meaningful to share part of your fortune to those misfortune.

And if you have accumulated enough passive income, try to volunteer and help out those unfortunate.

Believe your life would be much fulfiling when you share and care. But first take care of your immediate family, then try to achieve little by little in giving.

Even if you can't reveal your line of business, could you share your experience on how you got started? Did you quit a comfortable job to plunge head-on into the wilderness of business? Where did you pick up the know-how? Did some mentor guide you along?

We've heard too many stories about the common salaryman, and yearn to hear more about genuine business upstarts.

After reading all these savings and assets you guys have, I've become depressed. Very depressed.

I'm in my late 20s and currently, i ONLY have ~$2k in my bank a/c. Zero assets.

i guess i have to sell my kidney. Interested?

Sigh...

Don't have to sell kidney or backside. Start by saving 10% of your pay every month. This 10% guideline is actually western standard. Once you achieve 10% consistently, you should then progress to Asian standard of saving 50% of your pay every single month. Of course, the more you earn, the higher the percentage you can save, which is why some people can save 60-70% of their pay!

You may ask: save for what?

Well, my answer: for rainy days, for unforeseen expenses, and for making even more money when opportunity strikes - for example, a business opportunity or an investment opportunity (condo fire sale, stocks fire sale, ...)

Every journey starts with the first step. Make it happen.

exactly. stocks having fire sale now.

don't give up. it is usually harder at first, but slowly build up your savings and invest them.

my wife and i started with nothing and slowly built up savings of just over 300K after 7 years of working, but in the next 6 years we managed to increase that to over 2.2M through some well-timed property investments and also our salaries doubled.

Wow!! What do you and wife work as?? Must be some really high income jobs right?? Sounds impossible to save 300k in 7 years for most pple in normal jobs....

Just to share: 48 years old man, wife not working

Income active + passive = 280k

Cash = 500k
Stock = 400k
CPF = 500k
Property = 1.5M
Loan = 900k

Retirement plan at 55 years old, hopefully with:
Cash + Stock = 1.7M
CPF = 300k
Property full paid

Always my dream to retire with 2M asset without considering property if possible.

tired and want2retire
 

Our gahmen have been urging people to work till they drop and their goons are saying 50 is the new 40, blah blah blah. But when you are tired, you are tired....

My goal is to build up enough and consistent stream of passive income so that I can retire with fewer worries, but I am at my wits end how to do it. Some of you forummers seemed to have achieved good passive income stream. Please share...

landed property worth $1.5 mil fully paid
condo worth $700K half paid up
cash and cpf $100K
47 years old

feeling miserable cos many here are earning and worth much more than me

single mid 30's

cash 25 million sgd

ferrari F430 scuderia fully paid

AMG C63 fully paid

freehold condo fully paid

stocks all sold.. too volatile..

got rich father? or little white face?

hi all, acutaly im debt. Any one can give me advise how to save up when in debt?

How much is your debt and how much is your income?

A simple way - sometimes so simple you cringe when you hear it over radio - is to allocate 10% or 20% of your monthly income to pay down your debt. This assumes you make enough to spend! ... which doesn't apply for most people in debt. They wouldn't be in debt if they had made enough.... duh.

It depends on what kind of debt.

Most of us are in some kind of debt too, like mortgage and car loans etc.

After reading all these, Im even more depressed. I have only a pathetic $1000 savings with no assets though I'm only 24 this year.

Prolly you will feel better, you have double of mine.

Why do you feel depressed? A student is not supposed to have much savings.

That said, I had almost 2k after ROD. That's about 2 decades ago, when ORD was known as ROD. And 2k then is like 3k now.

It is easy to brag on the internet but once ask for more details, diam diam liao

I have mortgage, car loan, reno loan plus personal loan debts..... *sigh*

Me (Harvard Grad, 32) + Wife (MIT Grad, 31)

Cash 150k
Stocks 400k
Treasuries/Bonds 350k
2 cars 180k (fully paid)
HDB - 500k (fully paid)
SG Condo - 1.8m (60% loan left)
AUS Property - 700k (fully paid)


We are not in banking or consulting. We are in IT and Science. So this proves you do not have to be in banking to become a millionaire. But you have to play politics and be the guy bringing in the money for the company if you are salaried people

Good Luck all.

How much of your wealth came from inheritance or gifts?

What's your annual income?

I don't doubt your abilities, but to be able to go to US private universities, you guys are either scholars or born with silver spoons.

Non-AO scholars don't have much earning power, so I doubt you are even scholars.