Loving all the stories here. I am FI but not planning to RE. I am probably semi retired now. I go to the office around 11 and work about 2-3 hours. I stay in the office until 4 or 5 but just surf the net, read story books and sometimes watch some movies. I don't work on Sat or Sun.  There are times when I have to work harder...maybe pull an all nighter but it is pretty rare...maybe once every 2 to 3 months.

I am 43 and a single mom. My daughter is 17 and just entered college on a scholarship.
When I was 19 I left home to enter a local university. Although I was offered several overseas scholarships I could not take the offer as my parents were not willing to subsidise my living expenses in UK although they could afford it.  I could have worked and studied at the same time but during that time at the age of 19 I was scared to go to UK alone and was really clueless. HAHAHA.

So anyway I left home and stayed in a hostel  that was crowded and more like a elevated version of a prison cell. 8 to a room. During my four years of studies I did well and the university sent me overseas for competitions. As it was a local university and I was not a bumi, I was not qualified for JPA or MARA scholarship and many of the private company scholarships at that time had a 2 year bond attached to the award. So I just hustled and got paid to do assignments for my uni mates. Paid my own way through university.

When I left university I got a high paying job immediately but being young and stupid I fell in love and got married at 25. By 26 I had my daughter and 10 months later I was divorced. At the time of my divorce my ex left me with no money and a car debt as he bought a car in my name.

Since I was 26 and had a young mouth to feed, I guess survival instincts kicked in. I then started working in 3 different companies before I left and started my own business 12 years ago.  I started my business because I wanted more time with my daughter and I wanted flexibility as I had no help from my family or my ex. I was totally on my own.

Currently my business has 5 full time employees  and two part timers and my income has doubled from last year. My income is approximately 600K per year after expenses. My passive income is about RM20K per month and will probably increase  because I am still earning and saving.

Most of my passive income comes from FD and share dividends. The rest from the rental of 2 properties (only 20%).

I am not a miserly person but I am quite frugal in my daily expenses. I eat at home quite a bit because I find home cooked food healthier and I love cooking.  Recently due to the increase in my earnings, I have loosen the purse strings a little and bought a 200K car. I have also increased my travelling because that is the only thing I like. I usually travel 3-4 times a year but now I travel business class. The car and some of the travelling is paid by my company as an expense.

As my daughter is on scholarship I don't really need to support my daughter that much. She gets a RM500 per month allowance from me and yet she hardly spends it.  She is an amazing person and we have a very close relationship.

I have revealed too much of my personal life so i am keeping a much lower profile now in LYN -someone may read this in future and know me esp when i go back to retire. Not very nice people know so much about your background esp there are things that you do not wish to disclose.

Loving all the stories here. I am FI but not planning to RE. I am probably semi retired now. I go to the office around 11 and work about 2-3 hours. I stay in the office until 4 or 5 but just surf the net, read story books and sometimes watch some movies. I don't work on Sat or Sun.  There are times when I have to work harder...maybe pull an all nighter but it is pretty rare...maybe once every 2 to 3 months.

I am 43 and a single mom. My daughter is 17 and just entered college on a scholarship.
When I was 19 I left home to enter a local university. Although I was offered several overseas scholarships I could not take the offer as my parents were not willing to subsidise my living expenses in UK although they could afford it.  I could have worked and studied at the same time but during that time at the age of 19 I was scared to go to UK alone and was really clueless. HAHAHA.

So anyway I left home and stayed in a hostel  that was crowded and more like a elevated version of a prison cell. 8 to a room. During my four years of studies I did well and the university sent me overseas for competitions. As it was a local university and I was not a bumi, I was not qualified for JPA or MARA scholarship and many of the private company scholarships at that time had a 2 year bond attached to the award. So I just hustled and got paid to do assignments for my uni mates. Paid my own way through university.

When I left university I got a high paying job immediately but being young and stupid I fell in love and got married at 25. By 26 I had my daughter and 10 months later I was divorced. At the time of my divorce my ex left me with no money and a car debt as he bought a car in my name.

Since I was 26 and had a young mouth to feed, I guess survival instincts kicked in. I then started working in 3 different companies before I left and started my own business 12 years ago.  I started my business because I wanted more time with my daughter and I wanted flexibility as I had no help from my family or my ex. I was totally on my own.

Currently my business has 5 full time employees  and two part timers and my income has doubled from last year. My income is approximately 600K per year after expenses. My passive income is about RM20K per month and will probably increase  because I am still earning and saving.

Most of my passive income comes from FD and share dividends. The rest from the rental of 2 properties (only 20%).

I am not a miserly person but I am quite frugal in my daily expenses. I eat at home quite a bit because I find home cooked food healthier and I love cooking.  Recently due to the increase in my earnings, I have loosen the purse strings a little and bought a 200K car. I have also increased my travelling because that is the only thing I like. I usually travel 3-4 times a year but now I travel business class. The car and some of the travelling is paid by my company as an expense.

As my daughter is on scholarship I don't really need to support my daughter that much. She gets a RM500 per month allowance from me and yet she hardly spends it.  She is an amazing person and we have a very close relationship.

Loving all the stories here. I am FI but not planning to RE. I am probably semi retired now. I go to the office around 11 and work about 2-3 hours. I stay in the office until 4 or 5 but just surf the net, read story books and sometimes watch some movies. I don't work on Sat or Sun.  There are times when I have to work harder...maybe pull an all nighter but it is pretty rare...maybe once every 2 to 3 months.

I am 43 and a single mom. My daughter is 17 and just entered college on a scholarship.
When I was 19 I left home to enter a local university. Although I was offered several overseas scholarships I could not take the offer as my parents were not willing to subsidise my living expenses in UK although they could afford it.  I could have worked and studied at the same time but during that time at the age of 19 I was scared to go to UK alone and was really clueless. HAHAHA.

So anyway I left home and stayed in a hostel  that was crowded and more like a elevated version of a prison cell. 8 to a room. During my four years of studies I did well and the university sent me overseas for competitions. As it was a local university and I was not a bumi, I was not qualified for JPA or MARA scholarship and many of the private company scholarships at that time had a 2 year bond attached to the award. So I just hustled and got paid to do assignments for my uni mates. Paid my own way through university.

When I left university I got a high paying job immediately but being young and stupid I fell in love and got married at 25. By 26 I had my daughter and 10 months later I was divorced. At the time of my divorce my ex left me with no money and a car debt as he bought a car in my name.

Since I was 26 and had a young mouth to feed, I guess survival instincts kicked in. I then started working in 3 different companies before I left and started my own business 12 years ago.  I started my business because I wanted more time with my daughter and I wanted flexibility as I had no help from my family or my ex. I was totally on my own.

Currently my business has 5 full time employees  and two part timers and my income has doubled from last year. My income is approximately 600K per year after expenses. My passive income is about RM20K per month and will probably increase  because I am still earning and saving.

Most of my passive income comes from FD and share dividends. The rest from the rental of 2 properties (only 20%).

I am not a miserly person but I am quite frugal in my daily expenses. I eat at home quite a bit because I find home cooked food healthier and I love cooking.  Recently due to the increase in my earnings, I have loosen the purse strings a little and bought a 200K car. I have also increased my travelling because that is the only thing I like. I usually travel 3-4 times a year but now I travel business class. The car and some of the travelling is paid by my company as an expense.

As my daughter is on scholarship I don't really need to support my daughter that much. She gets a RM500 per month allowance from me and yet she hardly spends it.  She is an amazing person and we have a very close relationship.

Don't worry about it.

Are you looking forward to retirement? Do you have any activities you plan on doing once you have retired?

I read that you were planning to come to Kuala Lumpur for retirement, what would you be doing with your time here?
Well done. You have done very well for yourself despite all the setbacks.

Did you find it challenging to be a single parent with no support from the ex?

Don't worry about it.

Are you looking forward to retirement? Do you have any activities you plan on doing once you have retired?

I read that you were planning to come to Kuala Lumpur for retirement, what would you be doing with your time here?

I am not very familiar with the business scene in KL so will just sit back and learn first.

My wife and i are not considered wealthy so we will have to be careful with our expenses because we will be relying on our passive income to survive. At my age (57), you probably want to adopt a more conservative lifestyle (in terms of taking risks on investments) as we will not have a second chance to do things again if we get things wrong.

Yes, at that age, it's better to be careful and frugal.

Talking abt investments,... I'm happy that, in a way, you have confirmed a theory of mine. I've always had this theory that we should start early to learn abt investments,... for when the time comes to retire, we will be knowledgeable and experienced enough to earn passively !

Otherwise,... the risks will be higher, and especially in this day of low yield environment, which keeps getting lower, returns are being squeezed to only in higher risk ventures.

Bro,... I would quote an eg of what I am commenting above in a familiar setting to you. Australia used to have the highest FD interest rates in the world among the developed economies. I earned 8% pa when I first opened my acct there 15 years ago.

Look at it today !

............
Lifestyle costs for me is very important esp when you are only relying on passive income to live on. If we can lower our lifestyle costs, we can achieve Financial Independence at a much earlier age. Also, once you are used to an expensive lifestyle, it is very difficult to go back to a cheaper lifestyle. So the most important lesson in life is being frugal and thrifty - once you can achieve this, your FIRE aspirations will appear a lot sooner.
...............

Aust has gone into a period of low interest rates (and for many years to come) and a lot of investors have no option but to resort to higher risk entities (mainly equities like shares). The Aussie dollar will remain fairly weak which is why my super is all in International shares (which has done very well because the Aussie has been weak and Dow Jones has been very strong) - i am a little scared now and wonder whether i should reduce my International shares exposure!! My personal portfolio also contain all foreign exposure (i like Magellan products so i have been only buying MFG, MGE and MGG on the ASX).

Lifestyle costs for me is very important esp when you are only relying on passive income to live on. If we can lower our lifestyle costs, we can achieve Financial Independence at a much earlier age. Also, once you are used to an expensive lifestyle, it is very difficult to go back to a cheaper lifestyle. So the most important lesson in life is being frugal and thrifty - once you can achieve this, your FIRE aspirations will appear a lot sooner.

We learn a lot more about life as we age but the most important lessons can only be learnt through the hardships we encounter. I have gone through a lot of hardships in life and it has changed me a lot but i am happy that my hardships are mostly over now. There is a saying - What does not break me makes me stronger.

now R and E earlier by 3 yrs from plan
now are in the process of trying to reduce 10% off from the expenses of my household need to have needs so that they are in synn with my passive income.
and hopefully the expenses of my household good to have needs will be able to be continuously generated from my investment income.

Australia used to have the highest FD interest rates in the world among the developed economies. I earned 8% pa when I first opened my acct there 15 years ago.

Look at it today !

if can still work why retire early? then do what at home?

if can still work why retire early? then do what at home?

Bro, deposit rates was 16% 30 years ago 

Realistically, you can't have high interest rates and bull stock market at the same time lah. If rates is so high, many won't buy stock and price will be beaten down. 8% return from FD almost risk free ? I will put all my money in.

The reason why we have bull market all over the world is partly because of low interest rates. Because everybody shift their money to work harder.

As our saying goes, got 1 good, no 2 good

if can still work why retire early? then do what at home?

Yes definitely but I got to do what I got to do. Luckily my daughter was a happy baby. I had to train her though...no middle of the night feedings, no soothers except for a blankie and she was off diapers as soon as she could sit. The advantage was no interference from anyone in terms of how I brought her up.

I am not very familiar with the business scene in KL so will just sit back and learn first.

My wife and i are not considered wealthy so we will have to be careful with our expenses because we will be relying on our passive income to survive. At my age (57), you probably want to adopt a more conservative lifestyle (in terms of taking risks on investments) as we will not have a second chance to do things again if we get things wrong.

Aust has gone into a period of low interest rates (and for many years to come) and a lot of investors have no option but to resort to higher risk entities (mainly equities like shares). The Aussie dollar will remain fairly weak which is why my super is all in International shares (which has done very well because the Aussie has been weak and Dow Jones has been very strong) - i am a little scared now and wonder whether i should reduce my International shares exposure!! My personal portfolio also contain all foreign exposure (i like Magellan products so i have been only buying MFG, MGE and MGG on the ASX).

Lifestyle costs for me is very important esp when you are only relying on passive income to live on. If we can lower our lifestyle costs, we can achieve Financial Independence at a much earlier age. Also, once you are used to an expensive lifestyle, it is very difficult to go back to a cheaper lifestyle. So the most important lesson in life is being frugal and thrifty - once you can achieve this, your FIRE aspirations will appear a lot sooner.

We learn a lot more about life as we age but the most important lessons can only be learnt through the hardships we encounter. I have gone through a lot of hardships in life and it has changed me a lot but i am happy that my hardships are mostly over now. There is a saying - What does not break me makes me stronger.

if can still work why retire early? then do what at home?

Somebody will enjoy by just doing nothing

Others cannot tahan not working and being unproductive. But when FI, you can pick and choose what you want to do, be it doing freelance, low level stress-free jobs, charity, hobby/sports you don't have time for previously, take care of parents/children/grand children, spend more time with friends/relatives....

So, it is very important to understand what is a person's true personality before decide to retire. What do you want to do is a very important part of retirement, beside financials

Somebody will enjoy by just doing nothing

Others cannot tahan not working and being unproductive. But when FI, you can pick and choose what you want to do, be it doing freelance, low level stress-free jobs, charity, hobby/sports you don't have time for previously, take care of parents/children/grand children, spend more time with friends/relatives....

So, it is very important to understand what is a person's true personality before decide to retire. What do you want to do is a very important part of retirement, beside financials

I take it you are no longer a Malaysian citizen since you have spent so many years Down Under?
Do you believe the low interest rates will be there for 5-10 year period or appears to be longer than that?

Considering some further investments in Australia or should I say mainland Australia as real estate prices has started to slip. I invested some years back in Tasmanian real estate and businesses as was planning for a PR, in the end invested as there were good deals but abandoned plans for PR in Australia.

Have to agree it is the hardships in life that teaches us far more than the cushy times in our life. I guess that is partly the reason when it comes to real estate I always tend to look for the absolute worst dumps in the best of locations.

Myself, currently lifestyle cost is a bit difficult to contain. I have a partner that doesn't work admittedly because I told her to give up her career 3 years ago. Children have 1 on the way, a step daughter that is now 4 and 2 aged 6 and 10 that am trying to fight their mother for custody. Their education itself is going to cost me a fortune but it is something am willing to fight till the end.

Oky,... don;t know so far back,... still in school,... 

Some no frills parenting. Always wished my own mother opted to do something similar instead she took the easy way out and found a partner that mistreated the children that wasn't his.