Whats your net worth

I am in my mid 30s ans totally agree with holding shares for long term is the best.

Sharing my own experience, i started to buy stock since 2010, all along my accumulated capital is abt $150k. Now my shares has already grown to 350k. It is more than 100% return in 7 years time.

I will continue to add in fresh fund and reinvested my dividend received. Hopefully it will grow to a million in 3 - 4 years.

43 , male
Semi retired
Property - 2.4 m value 850k loan
Cash and investment - 1 m
Cpf oa- 100k
Cpf sa -170k
Married , 2 kids . Wife net worth is about the same except she is still working .

Cash flow - 10k pm from trading
Not worth much , but with a simpler lifestyle , it is enough.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Sharing from my own experience only. I am a share investor not a trader. I bought my first share in 1986 and have been adding to my holdings for over 31 years now. I have not sold any shares other than those taken private or delisted.

Many, if not all, of my shares bought 20 to 30 years ago are now "freehold" shares. What does this mean? It means that the dividends I have collected from them have already broken even with the initial purchase price of the shares. 31 years old on, I am still hloding on to these "freehold" shares and collecting dividends.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

I am in my mid 30s ans totally agree with holding shares for long term is the best.

Sharing my own experience, i started to buy stock since 2010, all along my accumulated capital is abt $150k. Now my shares has already grown to 350k. It is more than 100% return in 7 years time.

I will continue to add in fresh fund and reinvested my dividend received. Hopefully it will grow to a million in 3 - 4 years.

Would you be able to share what kind do u buy? E.g. Stocks, etf, reits? Local, overseas mkts? And other fr the stock exchange, which platform do you recommend?

42 sole bread winner with 3 young kids
hdb worth 700k almost paid up
cash 150k
cpf combined 200k
shares 1.2m
bonds 100k
car fully paid up
net worth is 2.3 m
hope can do 5 more years and retire.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

42 sole bread winner with 3 young kids
hdb worth 700k almost paid up
cash 150k
cpf combined 200k
shares 1.2m
bonds 100k
car fully paid up
net worth is 2.3 m
hope can do 5 more years and retire.

You cant sleep at night? Stressed out by work / money worries?

Whether you can retire or not in 5 years time (at 47) depends on:

1. Expected expenses in retirement
2. How much more you can save in the next 5 years.

Your networth of $2.3M (including your home) will only last 23 years if your yearly expenses are $100k a year (about $8.5k pm). This is assuming no inflation. Expenses of $8.5k per month is not exactly a lot especially when you have 3 young children.

At 42 yo, what you could be experiencing now is probably mid-life crisis. Just grit your teeth and plod on. Many others before you have gone through this phase of their lives - some caved in and changed jobs or made irrational decisions like buying expensive cars or go on expensive holidays, while many others like me, just steeled ourselves and soldiered on.

"Mid life" crisis can strike you many times. But each time you pulled through, you get better at dealing with it.

So, what do I get for sticking through? Well, for that, I ensured that my income was not disrupted throughout the years. My savings grew consistently. We also saw through the high expenses of our children's uni education without any stress / dip on our savings.

In fact, at our current age of 57, we can look back at those "mid life" crises and smile at the thought of what we almost did - like walking out of our jobs or doing crazy things like travel around the world.

While working, we could still travel the world but just in shorter duration - while still having our salaries.

Another big benefit of not quitting early or working through to your mid fifties is this golden period of savings acceleration. The typical working family / couple from early 50s to their 60s will see that their financial commitment taper off while their salaries peaked. This combination will accelerate their savings - very important period to pad up their retirement nest egg.

We have been enjoying this phenomenon for the last 7 years. We saw our savings hitting as high as $400k last year! This was made possible as our children graduated and entered the workforce, our housing loan and car loan were paid off.

So just hang on. Tough times dont last, tough people do.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

You cant sleep at night? Stressed out by work / money worries?

Whether you can retire or not in 5 years time (at 47) depends on:

1. Expected expenses in retirement
2. How much more you can save in the next 5 years.

Your networth of $2.3M (including your home) will only last 23 years if your yearly expenses are $100k a year (about $8.5k pm). This is assuming no inflation. Expenses of $8.5k per month is not exactly a lot especially when you have 3 young children.

At 42 yo, what you could be experiencing now is probably mid-life crisis. Just grit your teeth and plod on. Many others before you have gone through this phase of their lives - some caved in and changed jobs or made irrational decisions like buying expensive cars or go on expensive holidays, while many others like me, just steeled ourselves and soldiered on.

"Mid life" crisis can strike you many times. But each time you pulled through, you get better at dealing with it.

So, what do I get for sticking through? Well, for that, I ensured that my income was not disrupted throughout the years. My savings grew consistently. We also saw through the high expenses of our children's uni education without any stress / dip on our savings.

In fact, at our current age of 57, we can look back at those "mid life" crises and smile at the thought of what we almost did - like walking out of our jobs or doing crazy things like travel around the world.

While working, we could still travel the world but just in shorter duration - while still having our salaries.

Another big benefit of not quitting early or working through to your mid fifties is this golden period of savings acceleration. The typical working family / couple from early 50s to their 60s will see that their financial commitment taper off while their salaries peaked. This combination will accelerate their savings - very important period to pad up their retirement nest egg.

We have been enjoying this phenomenon for the last 7 years. We saw our savings hitting as high as $400k last year! This was made possible as our children graduated and entered the workforce, our housing loan and car loan were paid off.

So just hang on. Tough times dont last, tough people do.

I am not the original poster.
How did you soldier on during mid life crisis? Did you have a tough job that required long hrs?
It looked like money was your motivation?

I am at this juncture that I don't enjoy what I am doing, it's a job that pays off bills. I don't like the long hours as I have a family to look after. Should I just continue because of the monetary aspect? But what about job satisfaction and personal well being? It's tiring.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

We have been enjoying this phenomenon for the last 7 years. We saw our savings hitting as high as $400k last year! This was made possible as our children graduated and entered the workforce, our housing loan and car loan were paid off.

So just hang on. Tough times dont last, tough people do.

Did you give back to society?

Originally Posted by Unregistered

42 sole bread winner with 3 young kids
hdb worth 700k almost paid up
cash 150k
cpf combined 200k
shares 1.2m
bonds 100k
car fully paid up
net worth is 2.3 m
hope can do 5 more years and retire.

In 5 years time, you can sell your flat and buy a cheaper flat.
Let's say your flat will be worth $800k in 5 years time. After selling your flat and buying a $400k flat, you will have $400k cash. You can then buy more shares with the cash and your portfolio will be worth at least $1.6m. If you add $100k savings every year over the 5 years, then your portfolio will be worth $2.1m. If you get 5% dividend yield from your portfolio, your dividends will be $105k pa. If you can manage your expenses well below $100k pa, you can retire in 5 years time. Your bonds will your emergency fund.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

In 5 years time, you can sell your flat and buy a cheaper flat.
Let's say your flat will be worth $800k in 5 years time. After selling your flat and buying a $400k flat, you will have $400k cash. You can then buy more shares with the cash and your portfolio will be worth at least $1.6m. If you add $100k savings every year over the 5 years, then your portfolio will be worth $2.1m. If you get 5% dividend yield from your portfolio, your dividends will be $105k pa. If you can manage your expenses well below $100k pa, you can retire in 5 years time. Your bonds will your emergency fund.

Yeah, saving around 130k a year. Hoping that with investment and savings I can reach another 1m savings in another 5 years.

How much is enough to retire?

There are many factors at play, of which the biggest is your age.

When we are young, < 50 yo, $1M is certainly not enough to consider retirement, when we are old >70 yo, $1M should be more than adequate for a single person.

Lets take the case of 2 couples both having a life expectancy of 85 years. One is a young couple at 40, and the other couple is 60 yo. Say both couples need an annual expense of $100k (for ease of calculation and comparison) in retirement. $100k pa is $8.3k pm.

For the young couple to retire at 47, they will have 38 years in retirement. With an annual expense of $100k, they will minimally need $3.8M. With inflation of 3% pa, they will need >$4M to support their retirement till 85 yo.

For the older couple, supposing they retire at 62. They will have 23 years in retirement. Of which they will $2.3M to support their $100k pa retirement lifestyle.

Here in lies the paradox. The earlier / younger you retire, the more you need to save for retirement but the less you tend to save / accumulate. The older you retire, the less you need in retirement, but the more you tend to save / accumulate.

My personal view is retiring at 60 is optimal. This will give you the opportunity to reap some of the benefits of the golden period of accelerated savings from the age of 50.

Our personal experience testifies to this. Before the age of 50, we were saving < $150k pa. From 50 yo onwards, we saw our savings climbing steadily year on year crossing $200k pa at 51 yo to $400k last at 56.

The last 6 years savings were critical to building up the bulk of our nest egg. If we work till 60, the contribution from the savings from 50 to 60 yo period would form 50% of our entire lifetime of savings!

This golden period of accelerated savings is not something to be missed!