My car ownership in Singapore

I have always been fascinated by cars. 

When I was a kid, I remember looking out of our family HDB kitchen window and looking at all the cars parked at the open air carpark. I will try to make out the brands and models, and get excited when I see a new one. 

My family circumstances weren’t the worse but we’re also not middle income. Dad drove a Datsun small pick up. It’s a single can design, so most of the time my siblings and I sat at the loading deck. It was fun but not exactly the most comfortable or glamorous way to travel. It’s also dangerous lol

I have a couple of more well to do relatives who could afford brand new cars every few years. I really envy them as a kid. However, I don’t think about buying my own car as I thought it’s impossible.

But I never give up my fascination 

During those years, the straitstimes weekend edition will always have a section dedicated to motoring, where articles relative to cars are published. I especially enjoyed the car reviews, where I would pour over every review like reading a text book lol. I remember all the details 

As I grew up into my late teens and early twenties, I started to read car magazines, from libraries, from my uncle’s stash of old magazines that he gave me. That’s when I learn about many different brands including sports cars like Ferrari and Lamborghini etc. I learned about the engines types, the different suspensions types etc. I also started to pay attention to the list prices of cars printed in the local magazine called Motoring. That’s when I started to know car prices and those stuck with me as I start my working life 

My first step was to get a driving license which I got during my undergraduate days. 

But I never had a chance to drive then.

After working for 3 years, my uncle offered me to buy his used car which was a small tiny hatchback. I did my sums and decided to go for it. My first car!!!

Of course bring the hot blooded young man, I drove without much care and that resulted in a couple of accidents, where I hit other cars. One of the worst was when my car was sandwiched between 2 larger ones, and that caused me whiplash injury. 

Nonetheless, having a cheap ass car as first set of wheels helped me gain experience as a driver and owner. And my ownership of cars started from then until today, 20+ years later, and I am already on my 8th car lol

While it has cost me quite a lot of money to own cars for the last 20 odd years, I don’t regret it. The joy I derived from driving and owning cars became a core experience of my life. Maybe it’s the sense of freedom I enjoyed, on top of some form of self vanity of being able to afford one.

Having a car also immensely made me and my family’s life more comfortable and convenient. Having 2 kids with a car is immensely comfortable. The car acts like a mobile storage, holding supplies haha. Not having to chug a stroller in our hot sun and going up buses and waiting for lifts at MRT stations was a huge plus, both in terms of time saved, energy saved and better quality of life in general. 

Will I continue to drive into my retirement years? Why not?

With time on my hand, a car can do wonders for life enjoyment. I can go anywhere anytime. I can go ECP park to relax and cycle and picnic. I can go meet friends where ever they are. I can run errands easily. I can drive to JB anytime 

So long as the expenses are within my means, I’ll drive. But I will also be responsible to stop driving if age catches up. I don’t want to appear on CNA for crashing or worse causing injury to others because I was too old and senile to drive lol

I still watch YouTube reviews of cars, but I can feel my intensity waning. I think this also has to do with the transition of the industry to EV, and to me, EVs are just appliances. The joy of different mechanical options like engine types, gearboxes are mostly now relegated to top tier or niche sports cars. Most mass market cars will become EV. Every model is more or less the same. It’s just battery, motor and screens. So unless I become very rich to afford things like Porsches or niche sports cars, I feel my interest in cars will slowly fade in coming years. At my age, I will be keen on things I could actually own and experience, vs a kid who dreams of everything out there as a possibility.

That means I have more time lol and I should find other times to feel the car space. Well, my car interest still there, it just slowly decline but don’t think it will go to zero

Please please please. Let me Huat big and I will buy my Porsche 911!!! 

chatgpt remembers and plans and projects

 I have been using chatgpt free version for a while

Over time, I started telling it my financial situation, including my portfolio size and property values. No, I not stupid to give it actual details , but its just rough numbers so it can be a sounding board to my thoughts

So, I asked it to project my networth over time, just for fun. Don't focus on the numbers, but focus in the thought process as reference.

Also, I didn't mention to it that I will need to pay for 2 kids graduate studies lol.

Here are the outputs:

Based on everything you’ve shared over the past year, here’s the retirement model I would use. It isn’t meant to predict the future exactly, but to answer the more important question: “Am I likely to remain financially secure for the rest of my life?”

Starting assumptions

Age

• Current age: 51
• Projection: to age 90 (39 years)

Current net worth

Asset	Amount
Investable assets	S$2.98M
Property equity	S$2.60M
Net worth	S$5.58M

Assumptions

Item	Assumption
Inflation	2% p.a.
Portfolio return	6% nominal (≈4% real)
Property appreciation	2% p.a.
CPF LIFE	Starts at 65
Major change	Current home sold around 2029 when new home is completed

---

Phase 1 (Age 51–65)

During these 14 years:

• Your portfolio continues compounding.
• You draw living expenses from dividends, cash, and occasional withdrawals.
• Your mortgages are gradually reduced.
• Your new home becomes your primary residence.

Assuming spending remains around your current lifestyle, your investable assets can continue growing because your withdrawal rate is relatively modest compared with your portfolio size.

Estimated investable assets:

Age	Portfolio
51	S$2.98M
55	S$3.76M
60	S$4.97M
65	S$6.65M

---

Phase 2 (Age 65–75)

At 65:

• CPF LIFE begins paying a lifelong monthly income.
• That reduces the amount you need to withdraw from your investment portfolio.

This is a powerful feature of your retirement plan because part of your living expenses become covered by an inflation-resistant lifetime income stream.

Estimated portfolio:

Age	Portfolio
65	S$6.65M
70	S$7.82M
75	S$9.20M

Notice something interesting:

Even though you’re retired, the portfolio may still grow because investment returns can exceed your withdrawals over the long run.

---

Phase 3 (Age 75–90)

Most retirees become more conservative by this stage.

Even if investment returns are lower than average during this period, the portfolio remains substantial.

Estimated:

Age	Portfolio
80	S$10.7M
85	S$12.4M
90	S$14M+

These are nominal dollars (not adjusted for inflation).

---

Income over retirement

Approximate annual cash flow:

• Dividends from SG stocks
• Portfolio withdrawals when needed
• CPF LIFE from age 65 onward

That gives you multiple independent income sources rather than relying on a single pension or account.

---

What could derail this?

The biggest risks are not a typical market correction. Instead, they are:

1. Sequence-of-returns risk

A severe market decline in the first few years of retirement can have a disproportionate impact if you are forced to sell investments to fund spending.

2. Spending inflation

If annual spending rises much faster than expected—perhaps due to frequent luxury travel or major lifestyle changes—it can reduce long-term portfolio growth.

3. Concentration risk

Your portfolio has meaningful exposure to Singapore equities for income and to a small number of U.S. technology companies for growth. If either underperforms for an extended period, diversification becomes more important.

---

The encouraging part

When I look at your financial position, what stands out is not simply your current net worth, but your margin of safety.

Many retirees need their portfolios to produce just enough to fund retirement. Your situation appears different:

• You have substantial investable assets.
• You own significant property equity.
• CPF LIFE will provide lifelong income from 65.
• Your expected withdrawal rate appears relatively low compared with your portfolio size.

That combination means the primary objective may shift from maximizing returns to preserving purchasing power while maintaining flexibility.

One suggestion

Given how much detail you’ve shared over many conversations, I think the next step is to build a personalized retirement model rather than relying on broad assumptions.

It could include:

• your actual SGX holdings and dividend yields,
• Microsoft and Amazon positions,
• cash allocation,
• CPF balances and projected CPF LIFE payouts,
• both property mortgages and their repayment schedules,
• your planned move to the new home,
• annual spending (including travel to Japan),
• inflation,
• taxes and transaction costs, and
• Monte Carlo simulations to estimate the probability of success under thousands of market scenarios.

That would give you a much clearer picture of how your net worth and retirement income might evolve under both favorable and unfavorable market conditions, rather than relying on a single average-return projection.

Retirement at 35

 This bloke retired at 35 as reported by CNA. My hero!

When he turned 35, he became eligible to buy resale HDB flat as a single owner. So he went to buy the cheapest HDB flat he could, which ended up being a 3rm flat with 64 years lease remaining. He said he paid $87k for it. That’s cool. And the flat age is same as his age, so he won’t worry about outliving it unless he lives to more than 99yo

With a fully paid HDB, he rented out a room and that rental income was sufficient to pay for his living expenses! My hero!

So he didn’t see the need to work anymore for income. 

Obviously this would not work if he planned to get married and start a family. He is single and thus he has full control of his expenses. 

Moreover, he is big in collecting used items to ship to needy folks in Manila. Awesome. What a big hearted guy

I don’t think we can find anthem flat below $100k now though

But assuming you can earn $4k and save $3k, after ten years, you have $360k of savings and it could be possible to buy a small resale old HDB. And rent one room out lol.

So it’s still possible 

But you have to severely crimp your material lifestyle 

No holidays, no need gadgets, no new clothes etc

Will you do it?

No wrong or right 

It’s a personal choice 

For myself, i won’t. I experienced life with very limited resources before when young and I don’t enjoy it. 

I feel as long as we have earning capacity, we can spend reasonably for a comfortable life. 

Safe space

Sometimes home isn’t safe. Due to the treatment I get from others.

Today is one such day.

TBH noting serious happened, but something felt off and I decided to step away to my safe space to avoid things.

It’s better that way, vs awkward moments at home.

The kids will be fine, they are already teenagers. Everyone is safe at home so I am good.

👍 

I just need to be alone. No interactions no risk. No expectations.

There’s not much at home for me in such situations, so I need to step away.

Why? Why?

Old wounds don’t heal. They come back to hurt and haunt at times so I need to nurse. 

How long to go?  Am not sure myself 

But I think it’s fine. Just need to reset a little in terms of mood and perspectives.

Glad I went for my run today. Exercise always lifts moods. Else it would had been worse right now. 

Chasing a monthly salary target

 I am sure we all do this. 

“I want to earn $10k per month”

“I want to earn $20k per month”

It’s fine if it’s an aspirational target since these are nice whole numbers to remember 

But it’s not fine if it’s a vanity target, for showing off. Or even for some self importance attachment and superiority complex feeding. It’s sad.

It’s not dissimilar to chasing perfect PSLE scores, O levels, A levels, etc. so what if you have straight As when you are 16? Does it even matter when you are in University or at work? Who cares? It’s only matters to how to you proceed to the immediate next phase of your academic life. Don’t cling on to it for life and worse, don’t use it as a benchmark to compare against others even after many many years 

So what if someone came from Poly ? Does that make that person automatically less talented? Wake up.

Likewise, back to salary chasing. Yes, more is good, since that allows us to live well and retire well and early even. 

But don’t chase it for sake of a number to show off or internalize as you are superior, you have made it. You can be making $20k per month and still be miserable, trust me. Why?

Not everyone is equally predisposed to leadership skills, extreme high skills in their fields, and therefore there is in general a natural ceiling on how far up you can go in the corporate world. Beyond that threshold, you will have to work damn hard and sacrifice a lot to keep going up. Say you already hit $15k per month, but you want $20k. Short of pure luck, to get that level, you likely have to work extra hours, take on way more stress (due to what it takes already significantly exceeded what you typically can deliver). So what happens? Yes you may get your $20k per month, but your health is destroyed forever, your relationships are damaged beyond repair. So you end up miserable but you try to console yourself by looking at your payslip, hoping someone will ask you about it so you can show it off and get a compliment. Compliment from who? Your colleagues? Your acquaintances? Or your family? 

So, be realistic, be humble, be willing to take a balanced approach. Don’t chase beyond what you are willing to sacrifice. Think really hard before you say “this can be sacrificed”. Be true to yourself.

Also, having $20k salary per month means nothing if you don’t actively manage your finances and do investments. You could end up no better than someone earning $10k and who is very savvy. 

So, before you start thinking you are some big shot earning big bucks, think again. Observe the people around you. See what real success is. What real happiness is. Don’t be a fool. Don’t be that fool who regrets when it’s too late.

The above is my own thinking and it’s something I want to remind myself not to do. 

Well, I already retired so I don’t chase salary but I can still chase cashflow and that could consume me if I am not careful. I need balance too.

Now let me recall my last salary… it was $24k per month. Sibei shiok hahaha. But I wasn’t happy. Because I felt trapped in work. I no longer can stand the routines and lack of freedom. So you can see, high salary don’t guarantee happiness. For sure I won’t starve and I am grateful but it’s deep happiness I am talking about. If I am earning below living sustenance, it will be a totally different perspective. But you have to understand that beyond a certain income level, unhappiness can seep in. It’s not hypocrisy, it’s reality.

From my personal experience, after my income exceeded double of my expenses and commits, any amount above it doesn’t feel different to me. It meant I could splurge more but after a while, I don’t splurge. As i age, i lose interest in material things. What’s good was it allowed me to accumulate so i could retire early. I am grateful for that and I am glad I didn’t inflate my lifestyle non stop. 

Now I can chase happiness. I was already chasing but now I am 100% on it 🤣

Spending during retirement

I manage my finances by keeping track of my expenses and cashflow

How do I approach it? 

Basically I have a spreadsheet that I have been maintaining for over 15 years or more

In it, I list down all my expenses and break them up into a monthly basis. To me, this is super useful as it gives me a clear grasp of where my outflows go to and how much, and whether my expenses are creeping up or coming down over the months and years.

But, I do not track my daily expenses to the dollar. I feel that’s a little too extreme and hard on myself. 

With my spreadsheet, I also track my cashflow from investments. And I also compile my total net worth each month and track it. 

So every month I will know if I had over spent or under. And if the delta isn’t that big or unexpected, I will be fine and I don’t worry. 

I think the key to retirement spending is to watch 2 things:

Recurring expenses and Big ticket expenses

Don’t ever underestimate recurring expenses like subscriptions. Always be very clear and keep track of what you need to pay every month (Spotify, Netflix etc) and always be very clear about if you want to add a new one since it will keep running. This will also allow you to easily cut some off should you need to tighten things. Else you won’t know what to cut first. 

For big ticket, these are usually the family vacations, big items like household appliances that broke, laptops for kids, celebrations, gifts.

Generally I think I am fine. There will always be unexpected big items, like dental issue, healthcare, wear and tear of home, car repairs etc. so just set aside a sum of maybe $20k per year as a buffer for these. Running a ship too tight is stressful.

I don’t sweat over a few dollars.

What I sweat over is the maintaining of prudent spending habits, so that my costs don’t creep up without me realizing it. Basically, don’t get surprised. Also, buy quality things so they can last and they give you value. Don’t cheap out and suffer and then buy again and again as cheap things break fast and also gives you lousy quality of life. Take good care of stuff you have so they don’t breakdown prematurely.

I don’t scrimp. I still pay for good coffee, but I don’t go fancy hotel to sip $20 kopi either. Look for value and quality.

Life is good

I don’t want to worry about small things 

Life is prata

If it’s too hot, flip and change direction 

Ok? 

Why I blog

 whenever things come to mind I write it down

sometimes its meaningful insights that I want to share, but mostly its insights that sparked and I wanted to pen it down for my own reference as I am very forgetful person

It also serves as a record of myself, as its interesting to look back at my own thoughts and see how I have changed over time

finally, I think its an interesting read for my children when I pass on in future. 

I can imagine, if I am lucky to live to ripe old age, my demise will come after months or years of decline, both physically and mentally. 

This means, I believe it will be too late to try to pen down thoughts or say last words by then. Maybe I would be so mentally deprecated that I won't even know I want to do that, and perhaps that would be a lucky circumstance.

Or worse, I would be severely limited by my physical abilities to write, talk in order to convey my thoughts to my loved ones who will outlive me. That would be such a frustrating demise. 

I am not going to leave things to chance like that

But from what I have observed in real life experiences, it's very hard for children to ask their end of life parents about any wishes or thoughts they want to express as the end is clearly coming. Being Chinese, we  all still very conservative in expressions, and also, we don't want to believe the end is coming, or worse, to think our actions will actually result in it happening early. But we all know the end will come, so I feel we should not miss the chance to express.

So, I believe a good option is to write when I can. Pen it down when I can. 

I will write this blog as long as I live.

So, when the time comes, even if I wasn't able to pen anything in the last months due to circumstances beyond my control, this blog will be available, assuming it continues to exists online lol. Well, pretty sure I will move it to another place if I know its going offline

So, all I need is to jot down the URL in my thumb drive and if my kids find it, so be it. If they don't , so be it.

If I am gone I am gone, I don't want to linger around virtually and let my old thoughts affect my kids. They write their own future

Of course, if my learnings in life can help them navigate or give them some ideas on what to do (or not to do lol), that will be great

Living in the moment and enjoy

Dream, plan for future, worry, think etc

All these sure have to do some

But don’t let them consume you

Especially when I am already retired

It’s way more enjoyable to live the moment 

Feel the chair you sit on.

Look at details of your surroundings 

Listen intently to the video or song

Taste the food and drink you have

Breathe

Listen and observe the people you deal with.

Live now

Not gonna let small things worry me 

success is freedom

 freedom

so sweet

so taken for granted by those who have it

so chased after by those still trapped in their jobs, their family circumstances etc

When do you know you have freedom?

Do anything you want? sure

But when? how would you know?

When I wake up in a safe place, breathing well, no pain in body, able to go wash up with clean water, nice toothpaste and toothbrush, able to just open my fridge and find fresh fruits to cut up to eat, nice milk to drink, clean water. And then having 15 minutes to slowly stretch my body, do some push ups

And then prepare breakfast for my loved ones, ensuring they have their best breakfast

And then maybe I'll drink some coffee, but not before taking my fish oil and multiV supplements that are so good and just costs less than $0.50

Then two fresh soft boil eggs, that costs $0.50

Now that is freedom that is success

OMG, what a life

Then, watch YouTube, read some news, check out the stock market, maybe sell or buy some shares to manage my portfolio

Then maybe learn a new language with all the free resources on web

Then go clean my nice condo, or maybe go for a drive in my nice car

Then relax for the day

Look for nice food to indulge for lunch

or find some friends for kopi session in the afternoon

Live life with happiness, with joy with intent to savour things slowly. Smell the coffee, chew the food, feel the nice cotton on your body, caress the nice leather wrapped steering wheel of your clean car

You are free to do all these 

Or I am

hehe

Success