Good point on living below your means.

In my personal humble opinion a person and as a person who retired early at 42 I could have done it at 39 but didn't have the guts to retire.  I had surprisingly never heard about FI/RE movement till I retired.  Although after reading about it I do see some similarities between it and my life. 

To me retiring early has always about being about two concepts
frugality = delayed gratification 
high income = personal sacrifices

Both are equally important living below your means is only the start. For me, I maintained my expenses at the same level for the first 10 years of my life even though my annual income had increased by 5 times.

After 12 years if you didn't take into account inflation my annual investment cashflow was equal to my expenses. (I had already increase my expenses by about 2.5 times my original as relaxed a bit and allowed for a bit of inflation)

High income always involves sacrifices what sacrifices?
1. I didn't have time for friends
2. I didn't have time to exercise
3. I never had time to participate in forums like low yat till today
4. I spent my weekends sleeping catching up on sleep
5. I didn't have time for my family

Frugality has never been an issue with me as when you're so busy you don't really have time to spend money.                                             

My target was retired by 40 well I sort of achieved it but did it a bit late as I didn't have the guts to do it. As
the change from spending your salary as compared to spending your investment income was quite a big change
for me.

I couldn't have done it without suffering a bit (long hours and super stressed). To say that suffering to achieve your goal is wrong then I guess I did it the wrong way  .  If you asked me to do it again without suffering I would tell you I wouldn't know how to do that.  Anyway, I can't turn back the clock, but I can say I was willing to make those sacrifices and today I am enjoying the benefits.

I do believe there are different ways to achieve the same goal and everyone has a different goal too.  My way might
not be suitable for others. 

All the best to you and everyone in achieving your goals.

In my early years I invested almost completely in shares as Malaysia market was really undervalued in 1998 public bank was rm 1 only. 

I made money on my first 2 properties but at that time my first property was giving 11% net yield and the second was 7% net yield.  I sold it when net yield was less then 3% about 7 years ago.

I lost money on my 3rd property as originally bought it as a personal residence but changed my mind and lost about 100k in terms of interest and transfer fees.

For the last 7 years besides shares I also invested in US ETFs. 

Last year I started in unit trust as I felt that US ETFs and Malaysia individual shares will not give such good returns anymore.

There is no magic bullet in investment.  An investment is only good when valuations are low and prospects look good.  So can't say unit trust, shares, properties or REITs are better it depends on today's valuation and future growth prospects.

Property was good when rental yield was at 7% to 11%.  Today it is something like 1% to 2%.

Local shares was good when Malaysia economy was growing 8% and the unit trust industry was growing as they were injecting funds into our capital markets.  Unit trust only started getting popular in the late 90s.

US ETFs were good in the last 10 years as there was a big correction in 2008.  Earning yields were high today is super low.

Am restructuring my portfolio based on unit trust as I feel that is the way of the future as they able to make money in a flat or falling market.  (As I have no idea how to do that)

At the end of the day the most important investment should be yourself as a direct salary icreases gives the fastest cashflow increase.

I estimate my investment returns was about 6 to 8% over the years hard to say as need to remove my savings to calculate actual return.  My net worth increase has been about 14% for about 20 years so you can see half the increase was from salary.

Last year my returns was a out 7.5% but my targeted returns at reitirement is about 6%.

I did marry late because of that I could save more.  You're right marriage and kids will suck your capital for investment.  I don't have kids but I do have enough cashflow to support two kids till University perhaps going to a twinning program.

If you marry late you have more money the bad thing is you're very old when your children grow up like me when I get kids.  There was an article I read on someone's blog on what happens if you marry earlier or later with the actual numbers perhaps you can search the web for it.

Your partner makes a big difference in you life make sure she is frugal too.  The other big factor is who you mix with if you have high spending friends it is unlikely you can save much.

Actually I am going to start a blog to share my experiences as a pet project am targeting September for it to be out.  Hopefully you will check it out when it's out. 

By the way all the above are just my personal opinions for education only please consult a licensee financial planner if you want advice based on your personal situation.

Some pointers would be

1.  Buy some books on it as I couldn't find any free impartial advice on the web.  The books authors make money from the book so they can be impartial in their advice
2.  You don't have to buy everything from one asset management company you can mix and match
3.  Don't just buy one fund at a time buy a portfolio of funds from different asset classes to diversify

Will put more info on my blog will I have time to put together my thoughts

Don't really know your actual situation but some things to consider would be that in all investments you have to know what is the key driver of growth(no growth means the investment won't go up) And what are the risk

1.  An S&P 500 ETF is betting on the US economy

https://www.morningstar.com/articles/962169...ns-2020-edition

10 year nominal returns forecast by vanguard for the us economy is I thinK 3.5 to 5.5.  You have to make your own decision in what you believe the growth would be as different companies forecast different amount I use Vanguard as I own vanguard ETFs.

2.  A global index fund is betting on the global economy

I think the above article might have some forecast on global returns also but I think it's better then the US.

For me I am reducing my exposure to the US but not completely moving out as I also need to think of currency risk.  What happens if the ringgit appreciates against USD in the next ten years.  A 5.5% upside for me is not enough for me to top up my investment in the US as for me I would want at least another 2% more premium for currency risk.  This year for my US portfolio I will most probably reduce my US exposure and put my money in other regions which have lower valuations.

A lot of people are of the opinion that the US market is overvalued

Besides currency risk as more people index something might happen no one knows as there has never been so much money in index funds before.  Will there be am indexing bubble?

So end of the day you have to evaluate for yourself
1.  Do you think the global economy and the us economy is overvalued or undervalued
2.  Do you think there will be earnings growth
3.  What are the risk involved and are you getting a premium in return for the risk you're taking
4.  Do take into account what we call black swan events, like perhaps an indexing bubble meaning you should have some stuff in non equity markets for cashfow.  It might take 15 years to recover from a major crash.

Also another thing is if you have dependents it might not be such a good idea to have an overseas account.  If something happens to you, your dependents would have to fly over to UK and appoint a UK lawyer to get a probate.  The lawyer might cost more then your investments.  If you have a large amount there you might have to be estate duty too.

I hope I haven't confused you didn’t really answer your question but would like to give you some info instead.