Hi folks, want to ask, does having children stopped you from achieving FIRE?


I am planning to FIRE in my 40s but just afraid children will prevent it

if you have enough....then should be no problem

Tbh, u can't compare it this way. It's funny to tag a price on bringing up a children Vs FIRE.

I want the best for my children. International school and all that

No no I don't think so. The choices are very obvious, stay childless and keep your savings high, or have children and spend all your hard earn savings in your 20s to get a house and shit.

Good to have high goals... It makes one strive to earn n save more... So as to be able to fire..
Just like some strive to hv yearly global travelling during fire

Again, what works for me may not work for you. Best to engage a financial planner if you have that kind of wealth.

If 5 mil is all I have now and I'm 35, I would allocate 1 year of expenses into a high yielding cash account, 1 year of expenses in a dividend yielding investment such as AAPL and MSFT. The rest would be in Tesla.

However, this is only based on current information. It may change as time moves on and new information is available.

FD or money market that has a higher yield than normal FD.

E.g. current 1 year FD is 1.85%, I would go to the bank and ask for something around 2% or more or try to look for promo.

I always keep 1 year of expenses. 2% is not enough to fund expenses. Im talking from the perspective that I don’t have other sources of income. No matter how liquid stocks can be, you may sometimes need to liquidate your stocks at an inopportune time. But that’s just me. You should be comfortable with your decision. That’s why I said it depends on person to person. You don’t know what situation I’m in and I don’t know what situation you’re in. That’s why I said to engage a financial planner. Not enough to just write on a forum with limited context.

I do not want to liquidate my stocks just because I have a big expense coming up. Therefore, no matter how invested I am, I always keep liquid cash.

Quite a lot have been written regarding engaging financial planners and most of it have been quoted from overseas sources with no actual benefit data from real experiences.

FIRE..a 4 letter word, over used but at my age, i still dont get it. It means differently to each individual. I can only relate it to my own sorroundings.

1. Neighbour, both Doctorates with US Degrees, chose to retire early 50s, now early 60s. Survive on their pensions, still paying house(s) installments.
2. Relative ard 40s of another neighbour. Kids in primary school. Jobless n works at his place of worship. Room n daily expenses depend on the well wishers.
3. Neighbour, ard late 40s, mechanic with multiple properties n cars, that comes over at weekends, was gifted an orchard.
4. Neighbour, ard mid 50s, 5-6 cars construction biz, multiple properties, still work by meeting customers/ RFQ n handover to son run daily operations.
5. Neighbour, Chairman of MNC, retired at 65 yo, died within 6 months of retirement. Collapsed while exercise.
6. Office, Mgr ard mid 40s drives a Macan, BMW, Bentley Continental, with factories net worth (?) prefers to work. Cant stay at home to face MIL.
7. My mentor, late 60s, worked till 63 yo although net worth likely >10x mine. His phylosophy, why stop working before Govt mandated age? Any reasons?
8. Personally, based on stats from MUM, im classifies as part of the 0.2%. I continue to pray hard to strike 4D, enjoys working as it stimulates my senses, occupies my time structure n during pre covid period was the biz cum pleasure travels.

Dont really understand which of them excudes or embodies FIRE. Maybe, its a generational aspiration among the younger folks.

Hmm, so when forumers talk FIRE with RM5-6M cash, im quite in awe of their temperance.

In conclusion, i, for one believe we cannot explain FIRE thru science of investment..reason be, greed is not a financial issue, its a heart issue.

P/S. Dont beat me up...raining n couldnt go out plus ran out of free fuel for my online Wargame, unker just passing time writing some nonsense. Pls disregard.
Back to my game now. Tq

This post has been edited by Unkerpanjang: Mar 6 2022, 05:34 PM

IT is for emergency purposes

Anyone FIRE without owning a house? Is it doable? Reason why I want to ask this is because I think house is a terrible investment, it won’t appreciate already compared to 2008 time due to property oversupply. Plus, have to pay mortgage interest which is 2x the house price, no rental yield due to own stay. 1 mil house need to pay almost 2mil after 35 years.

If let’s say we have 1million capital, instead of buying a house. Can’t we just put it to the equity market? US index fund, ASM, EPF etc and let it work? Assuming a conservative 6% average annual return from S&P500, 1 million capital will yield 60k a year or 5k per month. Then use part of the passive income to pay rent at whatever place we like. The remaining use for daily expenses or reinvest it.

Can this method work?? Why I never hear people talk about this before? Rent in Malaysia isn’t too expensive anyway. 2-3k can get a decent place.

My unqualified comments,...
FIRE = Financial independent retired early...
Thus I don't see owning a house is a factor...
Just that, if you can achieved financial freedom and are financially independent (you hv income streams by not dependent on others to gives you income), and you can retired without the need to work anymore and are emotionally prepared to hv a none working lifestyle.....

If renting a house without buying one suits that Fire,... To me it is fine too

I think it depends on location and marital/family status. But if single and mobile better to rent, easier to job hop too.

1. End of 35 years mortgage, you own an asset vs rental.
2. 2-3k monthly also can pay for mortgage of a decent place, in fact your example of RM 1M property is biased coz you're already choosing by "wants", not "needs"
3. If you really have the RM 1M capital then it's lagi a no brainer to use those gains to own the asset, no? In the end your yield will be RM 1M + asset + whatever remaining from dividend vs RM 1M + dividend - rental

But factoring in the interest it’s really a different story isn’t it? I see many people talk about property without without talking the total interest payment. For 35 years mortage , the interest is actually higher than the house price you purchase. Interest is More than the cost of house.

Also can the house consider as asset if you stay inside it? It sounds like a liability to me. No cashflow generation and might stay stagnant for very long time. If the capital is invested in equity, at least in the long term got positive 6-7% per year. vs mortgage interest rate which is negative 3-4%.

If this is 2008 we talking about, it’s a no brainer to buy property. But I realize after 2013-2015 property macam stay stagnant and not much appreciation at all, very slow. But at the same time S&P500 growth is doubled… so is current situation still same as last time?

You rent RM 3k a month for 420 months is outflow of 1.2M, if you pay mortgage RM 3k a month, the property price in current time most likely RM 700k, at end of 35 yrs, worse case scenario, assuming your property depreciate by 50%, you still end with RM 350k with stoppage of RM 3k monthly outflow

Another thing with rental is that rental prices are always upwards coz landlords will pass the cost down, if own property at end of tenure, who hikes your rate?

No cash flow generation is subjective, what if you're a WFH, freelancer, home business owner? Even renting out rooms is cash flow generation already

Tbh, renting or owning is really depend on your intention of use, personally, I'll prefer to at least own one for own stay

I am in the camp of not buying a house cause a house is like rm600-800k. Way above my pay grade.

That's why I invest for cashflow.