Actually, if your expected return on your portfolio is 6% and you withdraw 2%, and inflation is 4% and you set retirement at say, 50... then theoretically you can retire indefinitely ....

What I meant earlier was... if your plan is based on living to 100 and you plan to retire at 70, then you might just die before reaching 70...

You should plan to retire earlier and yet your funds can last beyond 75 or 100 or indefinitely...

This conservative approach is not easy to achieve of course... but safer... if your contingency plan involve depending on next of kin handouts... then you are not ready to retire early ...

This 2% withdrawal rate is not set in stone.. what I mean is in the earlier years of retirement, you can withdraw 3% or 4% which will mean a smaller portfolio when you are older which is ok as one is expected to spend less when one is older... u tweak the numbers according to the situation ...

i'm with U on the "till 100 or death" planning but more for "not creating a sandwich" situation for my kids & "leaving something behind". I find it challenging being in a "sandwich generation" - ie. taking care of parents & kids - thus i dont wish such for my kids, let them focus on building their life since my generation has access to info & markets to build our own stash for retirement.

just my 2 cents + er. for the fellow forumer @ 50 years young, i'm somewhere there too - younger in physical years but older in wrinkles/worries

This post has been edited by wongmunkeong: Dec 10 2019, 06:46 PM

Side news.

Are u the wong mun keong from rohas tecnic bhd ? Director ?

We are on the same line there.

My thinking is, if we can build the discipline to look at our expenses and eliminate where we don't think it makes sense for us, over the long run, as our earning grows, we will not inherit the mindset of 'keeping up with the joneses' ...

However, it should not come at the expense of one's enjoyment of life as how they see fit. That's to me is basically what frugality vs miserly means.

Wow that is a lot...Is that in USD? I would find it difficult to spend RM150,000.00 per year for my retirement let alone RM250,000.00. Australia is definitely more expensive. Eating out is pretty expensive there. At the moment when running my business I easily spend RM400K per year but that includes 70% on my business expenditure. Based on my calculation I will only need RM3 million cash by the time I am fully retired which I think will be around 60. I am 44 now but will reach my RM3 million cash target in 3 years. My cash includes a mix of RM, USD and SGD. Recently AUD dropped so I did buy quite a bit. If I leave my RM3 million without any further contributions, it should grow to RM6.5 million by the time I am 60 (based on 5% return per annum). Obviously this far exceeds my goal of 3 to 4 million by 60 but I guess more is better than less.

As for assets that are not cash, I have 3 properties, 2 fully paid and one still charged to the bank. Once I reach my RM3 million cash target I plan to pay off the last bank loan I have...So I anticipate in 5 to 5.5 years I should be debt free and not have to worry about money.

I plan to work part time until the day I pass but with lots of 1-2 month sabbaticals in between. During those sabbaticals I would like to live abroad: a small village in Italy or Ecuador. Nothing too lavish just rent a nice cottage and enjoy the local lifestyle.

That sounds like a lovely plan. At present, the $30,000,000 is the total “capital” of which I have split approx 55% in cash (SGD & AUD - like you, I bought tonnes of AUD on the cheap) and properties in Singapore and Australia. This does not include my annuity policies, insurances and CPF/Superannuation fund.

I am 30 years old and I am working towards FIRE. I have learned a lot about personal finance and have put it to test. But my main priority at this juncture is to save $100k by the end of next year. I should get there on time if things go as planned. In the meantime, I found this article which I found very helpful!

https://www.growthrapidly.com/how-to-save-100k/

Im almost 30, so im thinking about my 40s... If u guys are in your 40s maybe your thinking abt 50s.. who knows..

As part of the RE, i would assume to stop working by 50 and live off investments..

Actually just wanna see people's opinion if realistically RM2m in today's terms in enough or not..

RM2mil in today terms should be enough if you have no kids and lead a simple lifestyle ... not poor simple but ok ok simple even with some foreign travel... being single is easy .. if family, definitely not enough

Hi there,

In my humble (unlearned) opinion, the highlighted part is doable, depending on 3 primary factors:

1. What's your war chest (retirement nest)? Obviously, the bigger the chest, the better you'll be.
2. What's your risk appetite? Bigger risk taking behaviour means you'll need a smaller chest (from no. 1) to generate equivalent returns, compared to needing a bigger chest to do the same, if you're conservative
3. What are your projected expenses?

If you have RM2 mil at 50 and take out RM8000 per month with a 2% increase every year to take into account inflation, you will have about RM466K left at the age of 80 if you get a 5% per annum return on your RM2 million.
But if you only take out RM5000 per month with the same 2% increment per year, you will still have RM3.6 million at 80

Interesting....if it were me, I will probably take out about 6k..

This post has been edited by aspartame: Dec 13 2019, 04:37 PM

Here's a different thought to consider... are you ready to make it happen regardless whether you achieve the targeted figure or not.

Life style can be slightly adjusted to suit the financial means.

If solely focusing on a certain amount of money to reach, one might get cold feet to quit the working life especially if the income is good and the job is something you could perform with ease. Easy money, why closed the tap and stopped the flow?

2% returns on the RM2,000,000 is a very very conservative calculation. I like that. It's prudent to never count your chickens before they hatch.

That's actually a very real assertion that many people in my profession/situation face. While ours isn't exactly "easy money" (it's actually hard, but rewarding, work) it's very good money - and it's intellectually seductive work, because we problem solve life & death cases (in a sense). This intellectual stimulation, coupled with more than adequate compensation, makes leaving our jobs an extremely difficult task for many of us.

In a blink of an eye, we've shot past 55 years, then 60 and before you know it, we're so far away from intending to retire "young", and we're just working and working and working... for everyone else but ourselves.

That's really great advice, I never really thought about it that way!

Just started focusing more on increasing my passive income few weeks ago. I'm in my early 30s and hope it is not too late. (pray)

It's never too late to start

had 0 (zero) savings when I was 30. Now 42, about 4-5 years from retirement.

It is never too late to start something, to best time is now.
Wishing you all the best in your journey toward FI/RE my friend! Together we work towards that.