Whats your net worth

Originally Posted by Unregistered

I am a 41 year old tax driver. I lost my job due to office politics.

Now, I am happy because no more boss. My passengers are now my bosses, some are nice and a couple or so can be quite rude. Overall, ok, better than working for a lousy boss.

No more liabilities, living happily with family in a new, fully paid condo.

Family net worth, including condo is only about $3m. Worse than my contemporaries, but I am contented.

No need car as I am a taxi driver, saves a lot on transportation. My neighbours are my regular customers. I am their resident taxi uncle. I am not ashamed as they know my story, I was a successful executive but due to bad office politics, I had to go.

I am feeling very lucky. Even though I am a taxi driver, I can give many good business and life advice to my passengers.

First, thanks for breaking the above chain of irrelevant postings which were nothing more than extracts of other people's articles.

Secondly, your story is refreshing. Accumulating $3M at 41 is no mean feat, probably among the top 15 percent of the work force.

Taxi driving is also a job. No, in fact it is a business, where you are the boss. It is an honest way of making a living. Nothing shameful about that.

The happy man is the man who knows and counts his many blessings rather than his misfortunes.

You didn't say if you have any children, and if so how old they are. It would be prudent to make your $3M work hard for you. At 4% return, you can generate $120K annually to complement your taxi driving income.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

I am a 41 year old tax driver. I lost my job due to office politics.

Now, I am happy because no more boss. My passengers are now my bosses, some are nice and a couple or so can be quite rude. Overall, ok, better than working for a lousy boss.

No more liabilities, living happily with family in a new, fully paid condo.

Family net worth, including condo is only about $3m. Worse than my contemporaries, but I am contented.

No need car as I am a taxi driver, saves a lot on transportation. My neighbours are my regular customers. I am their resident taxi uncle. I am not ashamed as they know my story, I was a successful executive but due to bad office politics, I had to go.

I am feeling very lucky. Even though I am a taxi driver, I can give many good business and life advice to my passengers.

To lose your job over office politics really sucks, its hard not to win without betraying your principles. But you sound like a contented man with a solid family, respect from those around you, little obligations (debt) and also a way to use your time and share your life history with your passengers. You got my respect for sure.

If fate has it one day I will be honored to be your passenger.

Originally Posted by dives

You make a fair point, I'll share some of my story see how it goes

So I am 34 married guy with 2 kids working in a support role (banking), decent salary not exceeding 5 digits but put in about 10 - 12 hour days.

Liquid Cash: 1M (70% from inheritance pay-out)

3 Properties valued about: 4.3M (1st & 2nd property partly funded by parent-30% each property, 3rd was inherited from grandparents)

Investment account (cash and shares): 1M (55% from funds overdrawn on the grown valuation of the property)

Debt: 1.4M (for the properties)

Inheritance from my portion of certain family interest: 22 - 25M (unlikely to be liquidated for the near future)

Total Net worth about 25M (or 3M if just counting what I got)

Most of the wealth was from my grandparent’s time; my parents luckily also work hard at making a living also create their own wealth pool.

My grandparents were very frugal, for example they would save every bit of rainwater in pots and pans to water the plants in the garden. Since they were also quite stingy most of the family found their own means to earn money. Since young I was helping out with my parents business supplying marine parts, I only became aware of the full picture about 10 years ago.

Fast forward today I do spend more than I should, definitely not frugal living (dining and holidays wise but nothing really super extravagant). I drive a 2nd hand audi to work and like any other person put in the long hours as required for the job. Though my parents are ok to fund properties (I know how much I need to repay them but personal expenditure are paid by myself hence 2nd hand car)

To answer your question I believe ultimately what makes a difference in my life is really upbringing when young(parents attitude to cash and hard work) and the people I have around me, I have friends from the average Joes to the wealthy friends and there are things to learn from both sides on how to live your life and also their experiences which saves you having to learn things the hard way.

I suppose the irony of things is that majority of my funds are locked up, so I do what I can to increase my net assets via whatever means I have (Salary, Existing funds, leverage, parents etc) as I cannot depend on that as a meal ticket. I am also waiting for a dip in the property prices before jumping back in. I’ve been vested in property since 2006 and for me this is a viable way to invest since I’m quite comfortable in this area.

Thanks for sharing.

You seem to have turned out OK. That's all I want for my children. Not for them to be superstars or anything like that. Hope you don't mind but I have a lot of questions.

Did you parents' pamper you as a kid? Did you get everything you wanted? If not, how did they teach you to be frugal when they were so wealthy? Did you know they were wealthy when you were young or did they hide their wealth from you. Did anything change as you became a teenager to young adult?

Did you do well in school? go to University? Overseas? How hard did they push you on studies?

How much money did they give you? As a child? teenager? an adult? Was it just making downpayment on the houses or did they give you any cash other than inheritance payout? Was there a trust fund set up for you that pays you regular income? Did your wealth at a young age reduce your desire to succeed? Do you think you would have pushed harder if you came from a less wealthy family?

Wow is there anyone here who has less than $3million net worth?

I am a normal PMET and now in my late 30s, having led a frugal life and investing my savings wisely, I barely make it past $1.1 million net worth

I see so many mega millionaires same age as me or slightly older make me rethink if I should be more risk taking in my investments...

Originally Posted by ALTZ

Wow is there anyone here who has less than $3million net worth?

I am a normal PMET and now in my late 30s, having led a frugal life and investing my savings wisely, I barely make it past $1.1 million net worth

I see so many mega millionaires same age as me or slightly older make me rethink if I should be more risk taking in my investments...

$1.1M is actually quite good for a single person.

Originally Posted by ALTZ

Wow is there anyone here who has less than $3million net worth?

I am a normal PMET and now in my late 30s, having led a frugal life and investing my savings wisely, I barely make it past $1.1 million net worth

I see so many mega millionaires same age as me or slightly older make me rethink if I should be more risk taking in my investments...

Actually, you're quite good. I'm in my late 40's and my net worth is only $1.5m and my wife's net worth is $2m. We need to work harder until our net worth reach $6m combined, then we can retire in a small condo and rent out our 4 other properties to generate $20k per month for our retirement. We plan to work till 70. We are just an average income family.

I see many rich people in this forum. I'm not rich at all and now looking at ways to survive my retirement. I'm lucky to be able to afford a 5 room HDB flat near the city area which now can fetch at least S$4k a month in rentals. I bought this flat many years ago.

I am planning to rent out this fully paid flat to a FT family and use the rent to fund my retirement in Thailand. With the rent, I can convert to baht and rent a nice house near the beach and can eat nice seafood and enjoy a relaxing life.

Luckily I made the decision to buy this fully paid up flat which is now worth S$980K.

I am glad that we now have many FTs in Singapore for me to rent out my flat to.

Remember, your HDB flat is your asset. Don't sell it away. I feel we should not allow PRs to buy resale HDB flats. Instead, we should just allow them to rent HDB flats and this will enable older Singaporeans to rent to PRs and thus they can retire by enjoying rental income. So they dont have to drive a taxi to survive.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Actually, you're quite good. I'm in my late 40's and my net worth is only $1.5m and my wife's net worth is $2m. We need to work harder until our net worth reach $6m combined, then we can retire in a small condo and rent out our 4 other properties to generate $20k per month for our retirement. We plan to work till 70. We are just an average income family.

You didn't say how much your outstanding loans for your 4 properties were. If you are highly leveraged, you will be having cold sweat every night. It wasn't too long ago (1997/98 and then 2008) that landlords were unable to get tenants and at the same time struggling to keep up with loans repayments. Many were forced to let go their properties at great loss (some were forced sold by their banks). Worse thing was after the bank sold off their properties, the poor guys still had to pay up the difference in installments.

I truly sympathise with your situation. Many of us in our haste to keep up with our rich peers / neighbors can be over exposed to risks. I off loaded 2 investment properties recently after a review of my portfolio. My risk appetite is much lower now that I am nearer to 55 yrs and although I think that I may have to work beyond 65, there is no guarantee there will be a job waiting for me. Also maintaining good health in order to continue working is another big unknown.

When young, yes, no risk no gain. When old, I would caution, less risk less pain.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

I see many rich people in this forum. I'm not rich at all and now looking at ways to survive my retirement. I'm lucky to be able to afford a 5 room HDB flat near the city area which now can fetch at least S$4k a month in rentals. I bought this flat many years ago.

I am planning to rent out this fully paid flat to a FT family and use the rent to fund my retirement in Thailand. With the rent, I can convert to baht and rent a nice house near the beach and can eat nice seafood and enjoy a relaxing life.

Luckily I made the decision to buy this fully paid up flat which is now worth S$980K.

I am glad that we now have many FTs in Singapore for me to rent out my flat to.

Remember, your HDB flat is your asset. Don't sell it away. I feel we should not allow PRs to buy resale HDB flats. Instead, we should just allow them to rent HDB flats and this will enable older Singaporeans to rent to PRs and thus they can retire by enjoying rental income. So they dont have to drive a taxi to survive.

Yes, you are certainly not rich when you have to live in a third world country to stretch your dollar in retirement. Take heart that you are not alone. It is a world wide phenomenon. Americans by the thousands are spending their retirement in third world and developing countries like Costa Rica, Philipines, Thailand, M'sia and Indonesia.

Only problem I have with living in another country in my retirement is the lack of familiarity, no kakis to talk cock, children in Singapore, medical facility, missing the convenience of living in a city state. There is also the danger that your "host" country may not be that welcoming.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Yes, you are certainly not rich when you have to live in a third world country to stretch your dollar in retirement. Take heart that you are not alone. It is a world wide phenomenon. Americans by the thousands are spending their retirement in third world and developing countries like Costa Rica, Philipines, Thailand, M'sia and Indonesia.

Only problem I have with living in another country in my retirement is the lack of familiarity, no kakis to talk cock, children in Singapore, medical facility, missing the convenience of living in a city state. There is also the danger that your "host" country may not be that welcoming.

I will have my kakis in Thailand, some are locals and some are other fellow retirees. The locals welcome us as they know we bring in $$$ into their economy, many respect us when we say we are Singaporeans. They look up to us. I will live like a king when I retire next year. I am indeed happy.