OA is dwindling each month as my income has stopped and mortgage payments continue each month ($1400 per month). This is expected and the amount will last me another 1.5 years before I will run out and need to incur additional $1400 of cash outlay per month. Maybe I'll be working again before that happens, but even if not, I am not too worried atm
Uncle had a chat with an old friend (same age) recently. He is married without kids and lives in a HDB flat that has been fully paid for many years ago. His wife has stopped working due to health issues (non-life threatening), while he continues to be gainfully employed.
During our chat, he mentioned about planning to retire in 2025, and I was sincerely very happy to hear that. Of course I was curious about how he did it. And I am glad to say, he seems to have things sorted out. Housing is paid for, and they both have decent amounts accumulated in their CPF accounts which should provide a good safety net as they reach 55 and beyond. He has also active investments and trading which he said provides sufficient coverage for his household living expenses.
To be, he lives a comfortable and humble lifestyle. He doesn't own a car though he could comfortable afford one. He eat simple meals and enjoys short trips to nearby countries very often. All these expense are well within his budget. What is more admirable to me is his resolve in keep himself very fit and healthy, such that he actually looked 10 years younger than he is, I am really happy for him and I looked up to him as an inspiration for myself as I approach my retirement years.
We both agreed that early retirement is a privilege that is only opened to a small percentage of people here. But we also agree it can be within reach for more people if people are willing to be realistic on what is considered "enough". There are tons of high earning people who continue to slog non-stop even when they could had stopped and retire and do whatever they want and live their lives. Why? What is it that they are chasing, we ask between us. I think the allure of material comfort is too high for many of us in this age and time. Such that we are so blinded and so discontented with the goodness we already have. Such that we don't know when to say "this is enough for me now! time to smell roses!". Its tragic to read news of people dying/falling very sick at their peak, or losing all their monies as they take on more risks to chase more. These folks are the envy of many working class people like ourselves, and we cannot understand why they don't feel contented to start living a good life with their resources, which some of us will never have in our lifetime.
But who are we to judge? Maybe when we have our own millions, we will be like them too, chasing non-stop some imaginary good life that could come if we slog just a little more. I am determined not to fall into this thinking. And my good friend agreed.
I hope he and I will be successful in our pursue of happiness and early retirement and contentment. We are lucky ones.
Now Uncle's TSLA holdings are up by 50%. Maybe Uncle can finally buy a real Tesla car soon lol
First, what is definition of a millionaire?
I think one of the more commonly accepted version is : Having nett USD1M of assets, excluding your primary residence.
Uncle will not include CPF in measurement
Uncle has equity of about 1.6M in my primary residence, but cannot count that.
But there is also an outstanding mortgage of 1.6M. So do I deduct 1.6M from the value of my other assets?
My home is where me and my family live in, it's our shelter, it does not generate passive income, even if its market value continues to go up over time. In fact, it is an expense, due to mortgage interest, property tax, utilities and upkeeping costs.
But should I just deduct the outstanding mortgage from my net worth? That doesn't make sense, because at least 50% of the monthly repayment goes into the home equity. So maybe I'll take a haircut of 50% (i.e. 800k) as a cost.
So combined with my wife, we'll have a net of almost USD2M in assets, excluding the equity of our home. Yay! We are millionaires! But why still so stressed leh? lol
That's because of the high cost of living in SG.
Yes, you may say, just move back to HDB and you'll be in better position! Well, that does come with a financial cost too...the value of the HDB will not go up as fast as value of private condo. It's a risk vs reward tension. We want to hang on to see it grow and grow, for future adjustments when value of current home is even higher.
BUT TBH, a million dollars doesn't cut it anymore today. I would say, $5M at least is what we should go for. Inflation and cost of living / housing eats up a lot of money.
TBH I started late on SRS, was so ignorant back then. So far, I have contributed max $15.3k per year since 2019, so total 4 times. Will continue to do so for 2024. The tax savings are significant for my situation, and its a no brainer
I had tried to buy SSB with the SRS funds, but finally decided to consolidate by only using SRS to buy STI index fund ES3. No specific reason, but just for simple administration of my portfolio. As long as it is ES3, it is funded by SRS. This sort of allows me to continually pump into STI ETF over time.
If I decide to stop work for entire 2025, then I may not add more to SRS since there are no income tax benefits. And that means my ES3 accumulation would pause or even stop. I'll just reinvest the ES3 dividends back to ES3 then
The small bump up was from my final salary input as it included amounts from encashment of unused vacation days.
So, my OA has $1400 deducted per month as part of mortgage, which means this can last 20 months before I need to pay that in cash.
We'll see if I find a job or retired by then hahahaha.
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 think it all depends on how my stocks performs by end of 2025.
But meanwhile, will continue to keep healthy, enjoy life, continue investing, continue keep mind sharp, eyes open for jobs, and get my coding training done.
Will of course continue to worry, but it should be positive stress that pushes me in positive way, nothing negative. It may seem scary, but its not actually. I am getting the hang of enjoying life without needing to report to any boss, or manage any deadlines. Life is good!! Wish myself success!! lol
Portfolio for SG market still above the feel good SGD 1M threshold.
These are my own research from reading news and financial reports of CDG. It is for my own reference only and I am not responsible for any investment gains/losses made if you decide to reference this information.
CDG recent acquisitions
CMAC S$136M https://www.theedgesingapore.com/news/ma/comfortdelgro-acquires-uks-cmac-group-gbp802-mil
Net cash that CDG has
Jun 2024 = 201.5M (increased in borrowings to fund acquisitions CMAC and A2B)
Dec 2023 = 497.5M
Dec 2022 = 653.4M
Dec 2021 = 519.8M
Dec 2020 = 190.5M
Dec 2019 = (40M)
Dec 2018 = 16.2M
Dec 2017 = 273.9M
Dec 2016 = 434.2M
Dec 2015 = 229.2M
Dec 2014 = 88.7M
Dec 2013 = 22.7M
Ah green line, the OG MRT that I know as a kid, it's the first time in my life I rode a train.
While it's unfortunate that the incident happened, I am glad no one was hurt. Well, maybe inconveniences and anxiousness for some kids taking PSLE, but I think they are taken care of.
Kudos to the engineers and workers who toiled over last 6 days to get this fixed and retested, to allow safe restoration of services.
Please do your own homework. Don't take these values and use them without using your own brain. I put them here for my own record purposes as uncle is very forgetful. But Uncle is definitely using these values as a gauge on whether I should continue to accumulate these counters
Target prices at end of rate cut (maybe 2026?)
Ascendas REIT $2.90
Capitaland CICT $2.15
Capitaland India trust $1.35
Capitaland China $1.03
FCT $2.40
MapleTree Log Trust $1.80
Netlink Trust $1.06
