If that the case better off buying Gold especially physical gold to hedge against inflation if it is for wealth preservation purposes rather putting MMF

The reason is for MMF is for short term interest while waiting for other buying opportunities not to preserve the growth

while most of the discussions revolve around the investment part, how about the expense control for FIRE?

Although one should save as much as possible, is there a guidance of the expenses allocation?

under FIRE, like max can only spend rm10 on food+grocery /day ah?

as frugal as possible.

ya frugal... sometimes i wonder I am frugal or being stingy already

personally, i used % of net active income - ie. excludes passive income.
as % is very easily fungible, U can customize to your own situation + aim to increase certain allocations to grow faster / when situation changes

i started with the aim of:
50% basic necessities
10% saving to invest
10% saving to create emergency buffer - when "enough" eg 6-12 months living expenses, re-channel to invest
10% feel good
10% accumulation for big purchases OR pay off debts
10% fudging for a combination of the above XD

The above is a mutation / self-customized from T Harv Eker's "secrets of the millionaire mind" guidelines.
There's also the "50/30/20 rule" - google it. Similar but since i know i'm not too disciplined, i needed the more detailed version above to focus on, to get into the habit

it was tough at first, VERY TOUGH.
especially after paying for a divorce to ensure my daughter is ok & rebuilding from the ashes. tough as in like 5% savings only..

after like 12-15 years, i more than recovered and was on >=20% saving to invest to <=40%, and my necessities fell to less than 50% coz my flexi mortgage was chopped down by prepayments. The prepayments were used as emergency buffer + war chest for "lelong buys" like stocks in 2020 Mar-Jun + lelong groceries that have long shelf-life & "for sure used" like milk powder, oats, soap.

I don't think people who achieved FIRE should live a frugal life. If that's the case, better add a few more years to achieve real FIRE. My own interpretation is to be able to live comfortably, eat semi luxuriously on weekends, travel locally every month and abroad twice yearly, play golf regularly and enjoy weekly massage session. These are rewards after years of working hard, investing and saving. Nevertheless still must have a monthly budget without fail.

Having said all that, I'm still a long way from FIRE.

You will be surprised. Most fire bloggers I read achieve fire by being frugal and living below their means and don't live pay cheque to pay cheque.

Most probably they don't saved more than enough before being fired.
If really enough, they don't hv to be frugal.
Those just aimed to be enough to be fired....will hv to live with the life they aimed when setting the target to fire.

The level of frugality is normally dictate by your habit. If you just try to be frugal when you are not, that won't last long. I don't think there is such thing as real FIRE either as everyone s definition of luxury can be very different.

I've been working hard, trying to invest smartly and to achieve FIRE in the not too distant future. Once achieved, I want to enjoy the better things in life but within a reasonable limit. I also don't want to die early, leaving my kins to enjoy my fruits of labour without me.

On the other hand, if one wants to live too frugally no need to achieve FIRE. Just enrol into a monastery as a monk/priest. With 'free' food and lodging, basically already FIRE. Kidding ...

No impulse spending and only spend necessity

The best is learn from Warren Buffett on how to control spending

Frugal is live within you’re means while stingy a whole new different game

Coupled most of the money have passive income which can cover their needs while being frugal to grow the passive income evenness bigger

Frugal means immune from peers pressure.

This post has been edited by icemanfx: Oct 20 2021, 04:49 PM

You need to know 2 things:

1. What is your target retirement age?
2. How much do you need to retire at that age?

Then it's easier to know if what you're saving is enough to get there. If you know what you need to save, then whatever you dont save just spend lor.

what age plan to retire? 45 or 50?

Over frugal also no good.
Money earned is for spend and use.
No use after life.

Over frugal may affect health and social.
Health - refuse to buy healthy food (don't need to be expensive, just normal natural food) and consume cheap junk food. In the end, affect health when aging and more money spent on medical only. Penny wise, pound foolish.
Social - Too stingy can affect socialize with other people, not going out with people, too calculative until affecting friendship.

Spend within yours mean.
Frugal is good habit
Over frugal is not.

what are you going to do when you retire at 45?

Plentiful. Just worry money not enough. At the low end, could play golf in the morning, long lunch, siesta, happy hours, long dinner. if stay in one place is boring could buy a yacht to sail the world, which many do. If boring with one cabin could move to different wine region at different time of the year.

This post has been edited by icemanfx: Oct 20 2021, 08:55 PM

Don’t forget impulse control as well

Just to add: a lot of people dream of saving up money so they can travel the world when they retire.

Counter point: travel is tiring, and most people usually crave for familiar comforts of home after a while.

And travelling to a lot of places involve jet lag, lots of walking, and just sensory overload. Or even hiking up to not so easy to reach places.
When you're older, you have less energy and not so easy to walk that much in a day anymore.

I think it's better to stagger out your vacation plans like once a year,
Take some time off and travel a bit when you're still young and able.

My strategy im saving 20-30% of my monthly income. And slowly invest it to create passive income.

Currently my rented out property is paying me averagely rm900-1200 nett per month after deducting all cost ex. Maintenance fee, tax, bills etc.

While my shares and crypto dividend is paying me out rm300-400 monthly on average.

My target is to have at least around rm3-5k of this passive-semi passive income.

Still far from my target.

I recently looking at vending machine business to be placed at some residential apartment. See how it goes. They say the cashflow from this biz is low. Low profit. But it is also low cost and risk. Rental for vending machine is only rm100-200 per month depending on the place density and traffic.