tq for sharing... have one extra sampling point in terms of resources needed for overseas education and property...

lol... no lar... don't have to plan their home purchase also...

if can support them all the way till they start work (ok, some good parents will even ensure that the kids are fully funded in first few months of work) is more than enough.

home purchase can view as letting them have part of their inheritance early....

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.

To be fair to the youtuber, she never really planned on retiring early. It just kind of happened when her firm pushed her out. So being a bit clueless and trying to make sense of it all is totally understandable. And honestly, for someone who didn’t even plan for early retirement, having 3m sgd saved up is pretty impressive.

Now, if she were a lot closer to 60, that would be a whole different story.

Many people think they love traveling, but often, that is not really the case.
The allure tends to fade with age... or maybe it is just that once you're no longer chained to an 8-to-6 job, the idea of rushing through airports doesn’t feel that magical anymore.
some consultants that had to fly a lot can share their experiences.

would this be what some mean when they say they need a vacation from their vacation just to recover?

I wish I had the same experience as you when I retired early more than 4 years ago. I thought maybe after a year or two, I'd get restless enough to want to go back to work. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately?), that never happened.

I'm still very much turned off by the thought of office politics, endless meetings, and other usual nonsense... the joys of solving actual business problems could not override.
Of course, there’s always a number that could tempt anyone back. My friends joked that my pupils dilated when they mentioned RM200K a month... that's what people mean by FU retirement money, I guess. (Not that I’m delusional... no one's paying RM200K a month in Malaysia unless we suddenly become the 51st state of the US.)

But jokes aside, your point about being mentally and financially ready for retirement is spot on. Better be ready than being forced into retirement, early or official. With AI, automation, and the younger crowd moving up fast, waiting till 60 or 65 to figure it out is just too late.

having x number of annual leaves may not mean much... especially if one is not allowed to take most of them....

its nice display only....

my last job gives 35 annual leaves per year for senior staffs... guess how many I can finish?
(good thing is one can monetize like 3 days as cash if cannot clear all... that also i suspect is to keep us from making too much noise)

i googled ASSI, and it should be the same guy who is the blogger A Singaporean Stocks Investor...

He seems to be a super kiam siap (super frugal) vs my standard. So just curious... how you hear that he has a few china girls? having china girls cannot be cheap rite?

I get what you mean and agree: there's definitely a balance to everything in the FIRE journey.

But technically speaking, at some point, "living below your means" isn’t just good advice. It’s a mathematical necessity if you want any kind of retirement later on (early or otherwise).

Because the opposite, "living at or above your means", basically means spending more than you earn on annual or a set periodic basis. That definitely leads to debt piling up over time, and eventually working till the very end... just hoping the end comes before the bankruptcy does.

Delayed gratification is what we all should aim for, with healthy moderation during both the saving and spending phases.

while waiting for response....
my version...


Simple back of the envelope calc here

1K rm a day per pax in Malaysia is already more than adequate => 30K rm a month per person.
Similarly, about 1K sgd a day would go a long way almost anywhere else.
(Of course, in places like Vietnam, it’s probably closer to RM1K than SGD1K, right?)

Accommodation, especially temporary or ad-hoc stays, usually takes the biggest bite. Once that’s sorted, the rest of the spending is quite manageable.

But yeah, even with these numbers, I think it’s pretty overkill already… hopefully most would agree



Another, maybe more logical and structured way to look at it, is to base it on your actual spending while you were working.

Rough guide:
Around 80% of your gross salary (your usual take-home pay) = chubby FIRE
About 50% of gross salary = normal FIRE (anyone with proper savings planning understands why)
And if you can sustain min 100% of your gross salary in retirement, that is FAT FIRE already in same country really.

I think I only truly lived the FIRE lifestyle once, long before I even knew the phrase FIRE. It was definitely Lean FIRE.

Just graduated, had only 400 to 500 usd to last the month. Luckily, 1st month rent was covered by my employer.
Imagine surviving in a big US city on 10 dollars a day after utilities (ok, it was like 20 years ago... ) So it became a very simple life where one does a lot of free activities in a new city... so not so bad.

Second month, I allocated 800 for spending. wow, pure luxury! Finally bought proper work clothes and started eating out.... of course, spending became "normal" 3rd month onward.

Looking back, there was no real need to be that frugal. I could've just swiped my card and paid it off after payday.

I guess what I’m saying (I know, I am repeating) is you can loosen your budget a little, maybe by 1K a month (ur income now can handling this amt), and your long-term plan will still be just fine. the journey will at least be a bit more relaxing/chill.

Allow me to illustrate with a simple example.

Imagine a rational person living a normal life with a proper retirement savings plan.
Here are the basics:
a) Monthly salary: RM20K (RM240K per year)
b) Income tax: around 20%
c) EPF contribution: 11%
d) Additional personal savings: 20%

So effectively, their take home pay is about 70% of their gross salary. But since they save 20%, their actual spending is around 50% of gross income (roughly RM10K per month).

Now, after FIRE (meaning full retirement) if they maintain the same 10K monthly spending, their lifestyle hasn’t dropped at all. In fact, it even improve since work-related costs (commute, office meals, coffee, work clothes etc.) disappear.
That's what we call a "normal FIRE" lifestyle... maintaining at min the same real spending level as during working life.

Now if they decide to spend RM20K a month instead, that's FAT FIRE. Spending double what they used to while working, for the same location and standard of living.


If you have spare cash/income, you can try to calculate what you usually spend per month, and then pick a month where you allocate and spend double what you used to spend. It is very liberating really.

Edit: I just realized I didn't mention about this rational method. This method is using respective person's income and spending.
It implies that one needs to be realistic and know how to "ukur badan sendiri". Ie Fat Fire for a B40 is different level from a T01.

This post has been edited by Wedchar2912: Nov 5 2025, 04:05 PM

This is a common confusion.

FIRE has 2 distinct component. FI for financial independence.
Re for retired early.


So some may say already fired to mean achieved independence
While others may mean already retired early.


Having said all these, I may start not telling people I am fire'd.... To short cut the explanation and discussion. Some more I am still young and drive a old car. (some even thought I got into some kind of trouble or abt to die due to some disease... Humans can be very creative)

I just say I am still working for semi-active income. Lol. A bit of trading here and there. Haha. Which opens another set of worms like saying behind my back to others not to lend money.

Lol... Peace of mind.

This post has been edited by Wedchar2912: Nov 7 2025, 05:16 PM

Care to elaborate a bit more pls? Your notion is intriguing.

Cannot rely on dividends means epf and stocks are out of the questions.
Other income means pension or fixed income instruments.

So what do you have in mind for retirement fund? Or your idea is direct holding cannot count but reits and mutual funds are fine?

Oh. May I say basically what is the networth/portfolio divided by yearly expenditure in essence, exceeding a certain number like 30?

Ie if per year spends 100k a year, and networth of 4m, then the ratio is 40 and the person can afford to retire?

well, there is a mapping of SWR to the ratio of networth over yearly expenditure... so you are right....

using the earlier example,
100K expenditure when one has 4m is equivalent to 2.5% swr.
So, if the ratio one think is safe enough to fully retire is 40, then set swr to 2.5

This is why most FIRE practitioners considers 3.3% as a good swr because the equivalent ratio is 33...aka last 33 years
if really kiasi, swr of 2% is super safe, as that equates to ratio of 50.... if the portfolio does nothing, it will last 50 years....

swr of 1% means ratio of 100! This is really LEAN FIRE already also... imagine have 10m but can only spend 8.33K rm pm. networth confirm grow irl till after death and still grow...

or like what jasontoh said, and using magika's conservative 2.5% swr, with 4m in EPF, can take out 100K pa and spend 8.3K rm pm....

someone in 40s with 4m in EPF, should have a few million elsewhere also rite? that should give another 5 to 8K rm pm to spend?

can retire....

Yeah, there’s really no single hard formula for retirement... all depends on what kind of lifestyle, peace of mind and effort.

If someone prefers to be conservative and doesn't want the hassle of managing investments, then sticking with EPF and traditional instruments like FDs, high-yield savings, or mutual funds is perfectly fine. That’s essentially what your colleagues can/are doing by setting a low swr say 2.5–3% and just living their lives without this headache (there are people who really don't want to think or manage money). The funds will outlast his lifetime.
Honestly, that was my own plan when I fire’d more than four years ago.

Why? A 2 to 3% wr is almost foolproof if one is ok with the corresponding spending level. For example, with 10m, that's 17K to 25K pm spending, which almost all will agree is actually quite conservative and penalizing.
(eg: 1m networth means 1.7K to 2.5K pm. how many you know would be willing to live such frugal life when they are a millionaire?)

Just owning 20-year MGS (currently yielding close to 4%), the capital even grows. So for someone retiring at 50, the risk of the funds ever running out with a 2–3% swr is virtually zero.

Of course, one should try not to have any large outstanding loans after retirement, to err on the conservative side.

but no lar... why would you want to be so frugal and just live off 1.7 to 2.5K rm after retirement? (not saying that one should simply spend, but there's no need to be frugal just cos one can be so frugal).

after fired or after 60 yo... wr of 5% should not be an issue... that gives the millionaire like 4 to 4.5K rm to spend.... which is not bad really for single person without any more commitments like housing or car loans.