Glad to see this thread active again. Took me a while to catch up reading lol. One topic of discussion interest me.

Those who earns great income, i believe one mention here rm30k or rm40k, in his 30s or 40s, would they FIRE and leave high paying jobs.

I have a friend who is exactly in this predicament right now. He just got promoted, in a new department and earning quite a good salary already, so the promotion for sure gives him a nice bump in salary.

I know he is a frugal guy and have talked about retiring early before. But with the new promotion and salary bump, i also wonder if he has a change of heart.

Even if he has enough saved to FIRE, working longer also means more buffer in the savings. But it also means his time will be tied up with work as oppose to FIRE where he will get to control what he does entirely, which is basically the  purpose of FIRE. But if continue working is something he doesnt mind doing, and he can quit anytime he wants, he still has that control no?

I wish i would reach that level. Not a bad problem to have lol

hard to say though. once it becomes a lifestyle for 30-40 years it's hard to change. that's y many ppl's retirement funds finish very fast because unable to change lifestyle.

I see myself in rather similar situation as TS...
- I am in my mid 40s, from mid 20s till now, been gainfully employed tax free.
- So after working for nearly 20 years, planned to retire early (maybe in another 4 to 6 years).
- I am financially independent already with no loans and no commitment.
- Life insurance premium on family member waived, wife had critical illness waiver (cancer) but thankfully recovered.
- All houses, cars fully paid.
- Only thing left is to see through my daughter's tertiary education in the horizon of another 6 years.

My secret?

Back in 2021 (same time as TS posted this thread), I heeded advice from Michael Burry and Mike Maloney. Inflation is going to burn with all the stimulus unemployment paychecks and Quantitative Easing. Instead of equities, I went all in into physical gold bullions. Even liquidated all insurance saving plans! Paid off handsomely and now I am in HODL mode watching all governments burn in debt....

Only gold is money, all else is credit - JP Morgan

All paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value .....ZERO - Voltaire

Not quite, I went in full with physical gold, starting 2021 by liquidating other savings/assets/saving plan insurance. Took 2 years to accomplish all that (buy some every 2 months or so), and it doubled my net worth in the span of 4 years.

You can imagine, in 2021 around Jan-Feb, a kilo bar was RM225,000. Today, it's RM500,000!

True what you said, a well paying job is the essential enabler here, else I wouldn't have the capital to go into gold.

Also, you brought up an interesting point. For those people who are passion-driven in their career - artists, teacher etc. It's sad that they will have a much harder journey towards FI, although I believe they will be happier and derive more satisfaction from their career.

Seems to be out of touch with reality. Teachers makes more side income and more likely to achieve FI.

Congrats!

If i may, can you share how you navigate your kids inheriting your assets (if u plan to that is)? Do your kids know your current net worth and know they dont have to work for the rest of their lives?

Retiring early is great only .....if you don't retire from actually living  first.

i read it as a warning dont skimp so much....

struggle so much to get the number  for x  years ' expenses ahead
when life can be cut short, plan for 90 dead at 61.

  if life is unpredictable, 61 can be 36 or 46..

so dont wait to retire ,,,
enjoy the journey all the way
from start

the finishing line is not a victory lap
it's just proof you survived office politics till then

it isnt the mountain peak either
it's just the start of the downhill ride...

I live by the code that to FIRE you must practice delayed gratification. Not doing delayed gratification is not the traditional way of FIRE. Feet to the pedal, nose to the grinder. Do not let go until you are FAT FIRE. That's how the OG FIRERs do it. If they can do it, why I am being weak and not able to have no life for a while? Is it that hard to continue having no life when you are already having no life?

Which country to go for European holidays? just saw a YouTube on how bad paris has become.

you don't need 4 million to fire, nor 10 million. 1-2 million is good enough. The caveat is you don't go for overseas trips, stay in a 500k condo instead of 2 mil landed house, and drive an axia instead of bmw/mercs.

The problem is, when you really reach your 2 mil accumulated wealth, then most people will tend to buy that 2 mil landed, drive that bmw, and go for european holidays.

A guidance on your life expectancy in Malaysia. Good measure on how long your net worth needs to last once you've FIRED

https://kalkulator.dosm.gov.my/lifeexpectancy/#/

Just a light-hearted note…

You can’t change your date of birth, and changing your ethnicity or gender is... well, technically possible, but let’s not go there. 

But hey... if money really can’t last that long, at least you can still choose to smoke and shorten the timeline a bit.   

Yes that right. That's why I follow only those that have done it. I also believed and follow the original FIRE way and notcurrent day derivatives. All tell you the same thing. Be super frugal, save min 50% of income, invest the savings for cash flow or income. That is it. Unfortunately being frugal part is the part where most people struggle because most people cannot do delay gratification.