Skip to main content

Retiring or not?

Hard question at this age. Technically it is possible, but socially it seems not acceptable. Wide-eyed stares when I talked about it to peers, probably thinking that Uncle had overdosed with kopi-o cannot think properly lol

The rat race mentality, competitiveness, materialism in Singapore is part of our DNA so much that no one in general would question if it all make sense, nor dare to take a different path.

Either you are ridiculed for being foolish, or frowned upon for being able to do it when they can't.

But Uncle is determined to forge my own path. Uncle always believe that if you do the same thing as everyone else, you won't be successful. Success is about being relatively better. Doing the same thing at same level as others means you are no different from the masses, so why would you expect to get better opportunities? 

Once you stay in a condo or landed house, why can't you re-adjust and move to HDB? What's the shame in that? 

Shame is if you foolishly try to impress others while suffering in silence to make ends meet due to the unrealistic lifestyle you want to hold on to even when you could step back a little to a still very good life while not having to continue in rat race and burning up your health. 

I'll rather have time, health, love in my humble and nicely furnished HDB then to have no time, poor health, and quarrels in my fancy condo


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Expenses of a middle-classy Singapore uncle with family

I don't know what exactly is considered middle-class in SG, but I figured its the fat range in the middle section if we were to line people up based on income. There will be a steep drop off from the bottom 5% and a steep surge from the top 5, and another galactic surge from the top 1%. Uncle is pretty sure I am in that middle chunk of 90%, and based on my estimation, should be in the front 30 percentile in this chunk. Now, this is how my expenses look like for myself (excluding what my wife contributes). The numbers are on per month and in SGD Car expenses (loan, insurance, maintenance, tax, fuel) = $2,500 Insurance premiums = $800 Utilities bill = $350 Mobile lines for 5 = $90 Home internet line = $30 Services (Netflix, Spotify, iCloud) = $60 Condo maintenance fees = $350 Property tax = $250 Groceries and take out meals = $1200 Allowance for my parent = $1000 Allowance for kiddos = $200 School fees for kiddos = $150 Tuition fees = $270 Piano, and music classes = $900 Sub-Total fo...
Post a Comment
Read more

Getting comfortable without a salary from working

 Not sure if I am there yet. Basically I am effectively drawing down my cash each month, primarily due to 2 things : mortgage and income tax mortgage (after CPF) is about $9k per month income tax is about $5k per month My investment cashflow covers all my other expenses, including utilities, groceries, handphone/internet bills, insurance, property taxes, condo maintenance fees, personal spending. With some input from wife who is still working, I am still out of pocket by almost $11k per month.  She will continue to be able to save a decent sum per month and I'll let her grow that and managed it for her via safe investments. Am I comfortable? Not really. I will if I am not out of pocket per month. If I really stop working for good, the income tax amount will go to $0 after 2025. So only mortgage left We can pay off the mortgage but I think I said before, it doesn't make sense since it's our home and we will be locking the money up with little leeway to do other things. So I ...
Post a Comment
Read more

CPF balances 24 July 2024

  I think for SA, my balance is considered "self-sustaining" as the 4% pa for SA could ensure my balance will continue to meet the FRS requirement every year until I reach 55. from CPF website, my SA balance already exceeds FRS for 2024. Every year, the FRS increases a little for inflation. E.g. the FRS for 2025 is 3.4% increase compared to 2024. But SA interest rate is 4%, so as long as you already reach FRS amount for current year, you will be fine I think, even if you stopped working (i.e. SA stops having contribution)
Post a Comment
Read more