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 FI/RE - Financial Independence / Retire Early, Share your experience

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LNYC
post May 19 2020, 11:24 AM

On my way
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Senior Member
520 posts

Joined: Jul 2015


QUOTE(j.passing.by @ Dec 28 2019, 03:11 PM)
The Art of Doing Nothing.

This post is not for everyone, especially those who are having an active lifestyle and finds sitting down boring.

So what is the living cost of being sedentary and one who dislikes doing anything as it is too much of a bother? Close to zero.

It is similar to asking what the fuel consumption of a gas guzzler when it is only driven 2 or 3 times in a month. Very low fuel consumption.

So the living cost of a retiree can be very low… if he is debt free, the only basic living cost is food (and his medical needs). When he was working, his expenses are mostly on the transport to his place of work, his car and house instalments, and his lunch, if it is not provided by the company.

The bulk of the monthly expenditure is on the car and the house. Once these loans are settled, the monthly expenditure is greatly reduced.

So to strive for early retirement, at an earlier age of 45 or 50 instead at age 60, everyone can to it if they set their minds to it. It is important to know your own true self and what you want. Do not let others determine the living cost.

Others may set a higher figure since the maintenance fee on their condo unit can be no less than two thousands, and then there are club memberships and other bills that they have to foot every month.

Their cost of their car’s wash and wax can even be higher than what I spend on food.

Once again, don’t ever ask how much it takes to retire. Determine the figure on your own. If you have to ask because you are indecisive… well, grow some balls and figure it out on your own.

Otherwise, you can select not to retire early and work till the mandatory retirement age.

By mandatory retirement age, I am writing for those “tah kung chai” or wage earners who are not running their own businesses or practises.

Needless to say, to retire, you need to be financially independence first. You are debt free and have savings to last you a life time.

My advice would be keeping your financial plans as simple as possible. Easy to comprehend, without needing an accountant to figure what are the assets, what are the liabilities and what are net savings.

Don’t be too taken up by the marketing talk of flexi housing loans and choose to finance your house 30 or 35 years. Keep it simple. If you want to retire by age 45, choose a loan tenure that you can fully settled by age 45 or several years earlier.

Be prudent in using loans. They come with interest. So borrow only what you need to close the shortfall. Don’t over borrow… as you will be paying more unnecessary interests.

In personal finance, there is no such thing as “leverage”. Leave this business jargon to where it belongs, in the business world.

To have savings or leftovers from the monthly salary, live within your means. Better still, be frugal and spend only a small fraction of your salary. The bulk of the spending should be only on the car and housing loans.

Live well below your means to have more savings. If the car and house is by any means a status symbol, set the status 1 or 2 notches lower.

Be reminded that the mandatory retirement age is set by society at large, not by you. It used to be 55, and it changed to 60 recently. You should set this retirement age as it is your life.

I find it abhorrence in not being able to retire as and when I wish to. The words “mandatory retirement” is an abhorrent as if we are robot ants born to perform a duty for the society to keep its economy and welfare ongoing.

And especially if you are one of those suffering tah kung chai in dead end jobs who have to act and respond accordingly to their employers’ whims and fancies, it is a wonderful unrestraint feeling of freedom to know that you are financially independence and debt free, and can walk away any time.

Do aim to have financial freedom as early as possible. Set yourself free from work.
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Thank you for your advice
LNYC
post May 19 2020, 11:26 AM

On my way
****
Senior Member
520 posts

Joined: Jul 2015


QUOTE(mmwe @ Jan 17 2020, 11:26 PM)
Retired at 42 but could have done it at 39.  Practised FIRE without knowing it. 

Would sum it up to
- hard work which is worked like 10 hours a day
- saved 70% of my income which means up to 34 only 2 foreign holidays
- invested my money wisely
- high salaried stressful sales job
- lots of luck

I'm thinking of starting a blog on this do you think you guys would be interested in
this type of blog?

Thanks.
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I am interested notworthy.gif please and thank you

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