Been past the stage and regret not retiring earlier . Slight procrastination for RE and time flies past in a blink of an eye. I have more than met my target . Concentrating most of my cash into KWSP although i have a few properties plus FD. Sold most of my stocks. I am a Malaysian, born, studied and worked here all my life. With the lowest academic qualification possible, i have worked and moved up the ladder carrer wise. In more than a decade in my working life, meeting daily expenses has been quite a challenge.

Only reason i think, of being able to accumulate enough for retirement, is being quite debt free and commitment free for most of my life except for the first house i bought. No purchases were on hire purchases, no buying of insurance n medical. Only local holidays, remember my first overseas holiday was in my late forties.

I am not frugal and do not believe so. Sonewhat remember the story of a lady saving her best crockery set for use on the occasion that never come. Life is made up of wondrous experiences and frugality somehow will crimp it. Do not worry too much and count the number of grapes you have everyday. There is a lot of people sharing their experiences on financial planning that sometimes i have trouble comprehending. My advise is to only do things that we totally understand and results matter no matter whatever the reason may be. Dont really believe in stocks investment eventhough i got my major headstart in wealth accummulation using stocks.

Have a few friends who on mandatory retirement, travel the world. A few enjoyed it very much. One friend who is a former professor in a local University seems quite lost upon retirement. Retirement should be the time when we make new interest and live our life as we were and all our academic and career achievement no longer holds water socially.

In my opinion , a person should aspire to retire early so that we can reconnect with our friends and family that otherwise we dont have time for and also pursue our own interest not because we need to past the time but because we want to.

My monthly expenses is around RM13k. I would think most of it is due to eating expenses as we rarely cook at home.

This post has been edited by magika: Aug 18 2019, 10:56 AM

Retired nearly 3 years ago. Happy at retirement as its quite relaxing for me , just not really a travel buff.13k per month is because of a family of five. No adjustment as i dont budget for anything beyond keeping an eye out at my expenditure monthly. Its a plus when we retire because we can afford to do so rather than scale down our expenditure so as to afford retirement.

Immediately after retirement, the spending curve will go up as we have more time to indulge ourselves. Improve our surrounding and equipment etc. I imagjne the curve will stabilise after around 5 years.

For a couple 10k is more than enough, if debt free of course. If thrifty couple then 5k is enough. You are right about healthcare being on top of the worry list. Most of it is on the postcare side.

I would say you did not read properly. First rule is not to accumulate any debt even credit card. For instance some credit card do have 0% interest to stretch payments for a number of months. To me that is debt which should not happen regardless of whether it is beneficial. If you read correctly , i did say my initial accumulation came from initial investment in stocks. I am no financial gurus so am in no positikn to guide anyone as you may have gathered when i say i have the minimum academic qualification. Just take my comment with a pinch of salt will do.

Its the same conundrum everytime. High earners would not quit earning. Most people will always say they planned to retire at a certain age but when the time comes, and they realised the income they have been earning, there will be lots of excuses.


This post has been edited by magika: Dec 2 2019, 09:38 AM

Its a really a matter of your earning capabilities. High income earners who can safely accumulate their retirement fund by their own earnings does not have to take any risk or should take any risk. Middle income earners with their projected savings who most likely could not meet their targeted amount should take more risk and worse to worse they will work until they drop.

Those who retired with achieved targetted fund should be very much risk averse in order to peacefully enjoy their retirement.


This post has been edited by magika: Dec 3 2019, 09:48 AM

Most forumers discuss about FI/RE but what about living life after it. In general most lump it in travelling and social work . In reality there is more to it as everyday life consists of 24hours daily, so what is the routine consist of ? Its also why some dread of retirement as they are really unsure of things that could captivate their daily life interestingly. In our lifelong career spanning many decades, things that occupy most of our waking moment will consist of work, family and some period of recreation. But upon retirement, career which for some people filled nearly 50% of their daily life is suddenly missing. A friend of mine , a former University professor upon retirement, felled into depression. As most people suggested he travelled to quite a number of countries and even climb to the peak of a mountain. Its sort of trying to complete his bucket list. In reality, retirement is how we occupy the periods in our daily life that is the most important .

RM150,000.00 per year looks like very big amount but in actual is not much. Its equal to RM416.00 per day. For a couple in retirement in Malaysia is just so and so, middle class lifestyle. Living abroad especially in Europe, i would say not enough.

How is accomodation paid for ?

I think if 1or 2 person if simply moderate lifestyle then should be okay.

Paris, Florence, Barcelona and Munich. If one is living in Italy and Spain.
Good achievement.

Rm150,000.00 pa equiv to RM416.00 per day. Realistically its not all yours to spend daily as there will be obligated recurring expenses such as utilities, household expenses, repairs, travelling expenses and the likes. I would budget a quarter of it just for that. Remainder RM300 plus just comfortable for 2 person living in Malaysia .



This post has been edited by magika: Dec 27 2019, 11:35 AM

Its not the actual amount that is in discussion. Its rather the bar we want to retire at. B40, M40 ot T20. Only those who already retired at the bar that they set for themselves , then only after retirement would they know whether it is realistic enough.

RM2100.00 plus TGIF average RM300.00 with a total of RM2,400.00 per month not inclusive of lodging is not exactly frugal.

This a discussion on future retirement and we should weigh in on what is realistic in our plans. If we feel there is flaws or advantages then we should explore it so that plans may be remade. Maybe my views are not suitable for you and i form my opinion from my experiences only. By the way , i am retired a few years ago and i do know what is its experiences.