Interesting discussion. I believe I am FI but I am not interested in RE bcos I am already doing what I like. I started my business at 32 and am now 10 years in. The first 2 years was hard but manageable. I guess since I am a giggolo and not a prostitute (to borrow Showtime's analogy) I have no interest in retiring early. I love what I do. My normal work day is 11 am to 4pm with occasional all nighters. I am not interested much in luxury vehicles and items but I do enjoy travelling 3 to 4 times a year. Not 5 star travelling but more 3 star with the occasional 4 star. I intend to continue this semi retired lifestyle well into my 60s or 70s if health permits because I realise that I am not cut out for staying at home, gardening and the like.

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.

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.

Agree. I am the type cannot tahan sit at home do nothing. I don't have any hobbies aside from travelling and even tthat is starting to wane. I am planning to go back to studies and see how it goes. I took a break of one month from my business once. It drove me nuts. After 2 weeks I wanted to go back to work. Maybe when my daughter ger married and have babies I will retire conpletely and help with any grandkids.

Did your mom have a tertiary education? If not it would be nigh impossible for her to do something similar unless she is an outlier. My mom who is now 78 has this cross to bear. She chose to support my dad who was abusive to all his kids and now we, my siblings and I are not close to her.


For those who RE what is your daily schedule like? How do you guys keep sharp mentally?

I have the same viewpoint. My daughter just entered a local government university. Due to my income she is not eligible for government aid but I am more than happy to pay for her tuition which is less than 10K per year. Her goal is veterinary medicine so maybe I will build her a pet hospital instead!

I have seen some of my my older friends retire relatively early. One at 42 and another 40. Then there is my own parents who retired at 60 and 55. From my observation my Dad was happy to retire. Most of the days he just woke up at 5am, go for roti canai or wantan mee, read all the newspapers until 10am. Then have his 2nd breakfast and then wash his 2 cars. After a late lunch he would bug my mum or brothers with incessant questioning until around 7pm. Light dinner then bed at 9pm. The next day the same. Occasional trips (5 times per year). He passed away almost 4 years ago.

My mom retired at 60. Regretted it and went back to part time work a year later. Did part time for another 5 years. She is 78 now and is very active. Goes from her kids house to house visiting grandchildren. Travels every month, gardening groups, walking groups etc. She still complaina she is bored.

Friend who retired at 40. Very active in church so now works at the church like a regular employee but no pay

Friend 42 helps with the kids at home coz wife wants to work. Tells me that its worse than working. LOL

So from everything I have observed...I am gonna continue working at least part time .

I think he is talking about private medical costs which is not covered by medical card because those above 70 usually cannot get medical card. My mum at 74 broke her arm and we kids paid for her surgery. Costs us close to 80K including metal plate, surgery and stays at the hospital.

Private medical costs are really high. My mom fell from a mango tree (yes she climbed up the tree!) They had to do xrays, order the metal plate from overseas, staying in the hospital for a week. Every single item in the surgical theatre costs money.

Just last week my BIL went into a hospital for a stent. Just stayed one night and it cost him 25K!

My plan is that by 58 I have passive income of about RM180K per annum. My medical card covers only up to 70 (bought it many years ago so my premiums are low) so I intend to self finance my own medical costs after 70.
Government hospitals have good doctors but the facilities are a bit uncomfortable and non emergency services need a longer waiting time. Some injuries may not be an emergency but can still be painful so a long wait is prolonging the suffering. I prefer paying for faster service and more comfortable stays if I can afford it. A good alternative would be the government hospitals that have private wings like UMMC.

My policy on saving is a little different. To be honest I am not the most frugal of persons but do not have a lavish lifestyle. Just typical upper middle class. Yes I have FI but the amount I have is not even close to the 10 to 20 million people have accumulated. I intend to only save around RM3 to 4 million before I decide to fully retire (am working only 4 to 5 hours a day now) because I want to travel and experience things before I am too old to do so. So even if I can accumulate 10 million if I go really frugal and cut all the holidays, I don't want to because I want to do all my travelling before I am 55. Once I fully retire (or am forced to) I don't see myself spending that much. Just daily expenses and only an occasional trip coz I got all that wanderlust out of my system.

This post has been edited by cynthusc: Dec 6 2019, 11:25 AM

Thanks. I just don't want to hoard money just for the sake of having a lot money. Money is a tool. Accumulating money without a purpose is pointless. I have a daughter but I don't intend to leave her much....maybe just a small amount for the grandkids when they are born to startup their education fund. Let compound interest work its magic. Hopefully when its time for me to go... just a small inheritence is left.

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.

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

With a fully paid house and car...RM150K per annum is enough for me. Even now while working I don't spend RM400 a day and I do eat at 5 star restaurants but not every day....once or twice a week. I don't think I can eat wagyu eveey day 🤣

Yup...when I was US for a month , I only spent USD2K per month. Ate out everyday with occasional cooking. I took USD3K with me but brought badk 1K and this was in the most expensive state in US....Hawaii

LOL...M40..."150k is enough as they never spent more than this amount, as they never earn more than this amount every year"

But what if I earn more than 700K per annum but think that RM150K per annum is enough because I don't spend that much without my loans and dependants?

I did explain a little in my earlier posts. In short, I started my own business ten years ago. Worked really really hard for the first 5 years and now business is doing well so I only need to work a few hours a day.