About a decade ago, this MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role-playing game) – MapleStory – was super popular. It burst onto the scene when I had just started secondary school, and I was addicted from the second I played it.

Isn’t it just the cutest game ever?

However, like all good things, nothing lasts forever. Its popularity dwindled over the years, and I stopped playing after secondary school.

When the Circuit Breaker (Singapore’s equivalent of a “lockdown”) began in April, I decided to start playing again just for the fun of it. I thought I would love it all over again, but this was sadly not the case, for so many reasons that reminded me of my own FIRE journey.

Here’s what I learnt.

1. It’s never about the destination.

When I played MapleStory in the past, the highest level you could reach was Level 200. To get there would take months, if not years, of grinding. After 4 years of playing in the past, I had one character that reached a whopping Level 89.

Not even halfway to the maximum level, after 4 years!

But I didn’t care. Reaching Level 200 would be cool, but I didn’t even try to strive for it. Instead, I enjoyed spending time with my online friends and just enjoying the game.

Similarly in my FIRE journey, I’ve recently come to the realisation that I shouldn’t obsess over my S$1 million goal. While it’s certainly something wonderful to have as a goal, obsessing over it would make my life miserable every second that I haven’t achieved my goal. And that could be decades.

In order to stop this obsession over my FIRE goals, I’ve decided to make my FIRE journey enjoyable.

2. The process should be enjoyable.

Many of my schoolmates quit playing MapleStory after a few months or even a couple of years, because the grinding it took to level up was just so tedious. Getting to the next level could take days, sometimes even weeks, of (very) routine grinding.

And they thought I was crazy for enjoying every single second of the process. I savoured every mundane quest that I went on, every monster that I slayed, every bit of monotonous grinding that I had to do to level up. I loved the music, my character, the graphics, everything.

The fact that I loved the process so much made all the difference in the world.

Fighting monsters at Lion King’s Castle.

This year, I’ve started to think about my FIRE journey a little differently as well. Just last year, I was planning to get to my S$1 million nest egg by working a number of corporate jobs. While I really dislike corporate jobs, this journey to FIRE felt unavoidable.

However, after some time of reflecting this year, I’ve started trying to create active sources of income that feel enjoyable to me. Hopefully after 2-3 years, I’d be able to transition out of corporate work and into having enjoyable streams of income. That way, I can enjoy the process to FIRE instead of dreading the Monday blues.

3. A big part of happiness comes from your social circle.

A decade ago when I was playing MapleStory, I had many of my real-life friends as well as online friends playing the game with me. Whenever I logged in each day (and yes, I was so addicted that I had to play every day), I would always have friends to hang out with in game.

On the days that we felt more diligent, we’d go for quests or hunt monsters together. On our lazy days, we’d just hang out in town, go shopping or just explore the different worlds together.

I forced my girlfriend to play the game with me.

Sadly, none of my real life friends play the game anymore. All of my online friends have up and disappeared too. On the off chance that I log in to play these days, things just don’t feel the same. Sometimes it just feels a little lonely.

Coming back to reality, I’ve realised that having a few close loved ones can really make a huge difference to your life. While money is important and gives us freedom, having loved ones that you can count on is equally important.

While I used to think that I’d be happy only when I reach my S$1 million goal, I’ve now realised that I need to change my thinking. It’s not about the destination; it’s about enjoying the process and having your loved ones with you along the way.

As always, thank you for reading and supporting this blog. 

Last year in October 2019, I decided to write a post titled “I’m 25, and I Still Live in My Parents’ House”. That long blog post went into detail on my tumultuous relationship with my parents, my past, as well as my plans for the future.

It’s been a full year since then, so I decided to write this update post just before I turn 27.

I wrote this update using a series of questions, so just click on the question you’re interested in having answered, and feel free to skip the rest.

As always, thank you for reading and supporting the blog.

For many years now, I’ve always challenged myself to see how little I can live on. After all, the less I can live on, the sooner I can retire and quit my corporate job, right?

So, let’s see if we can live in Singapore for as little as $1,000 a month. Not going to lie, it’s going to be very tight, but let’s make it work.

Note:

1. This budget is based on an able-bodied (regular medical costs, no exorbitant medical expenses), single person with no partner (no efficiencies), no kids (no childcare expenses), and financially-independent parents (no parent care expenses).

2. All currency in this post is in Singapore dollars (S$).

What a Budget of $1,000 a Month Looks Like

Here’s a more detailed breakdown of these expenses, for those interested:

And now, let’s get into each category in detail.

Rent – $500 per Month

Singapore isn’t the world’s most affordable country, and housing in Singapore can be extremely pricey. Here’s a quick look at what the rental situation is like in Singapore.

By way of a short introduction, in Singapore, there’s private housing (landed properties and private condominium apartments) and public housing. With a budget of at most $500 a month, the only option available is public housing.

If you don’t mind living extremely frugally, you could get a single bed in a shared bedroom in a public housing apartment for anywhere between $200 to $300 a month. Each bedroom is typically shared between 4 guests. In a single apartment, you could have up to 11 other roommates (assuming 3 bedrooms and 4 people in each bedroom).

A bed in a typical 4-person bedroom costing $250 per month looks something like this.

Not too bad, but privacy certainly is an issue.

If privacy is a priority, and having at least the entire bedroom to yourself is important, then renting an entire room in the shared public housing apartment can set you back anywhere between $500 to $1,000.

For $500 a month, you could get a room that looks like this (I lucked out and found a pretty decent one at $500 a month, utilities included):

Bear in mind that the locations of all these cheaper apartments are generally not great. It’ll easily take an hour or so to get from these apartments to the central business district. That’s 2 hours, both ways. Could take longer as well.

If you’re interested in checking out other properties in Singapore, you can visit PropertyGuru, one of the largest online portals for properties in Singapore.

Utilities – $55 per Month

As I was checking through the property listings for $500-per-month rooms, I discovered that the $500 per month rental usually includes utility fees. For example, both the rooms I showed above had utility fees included. 

Otherwise, utility fees were typically listed as about $50 per month, to cover internet, electricity and water usage (unfortunately, with this budget, air conditioning is out of the question). A cheap mobile plan will run you another $5 per month.

Here’s how much utilities cost in Singapore, if you want to be as budget as possible:

Internet: $45-$50 per household, as per these Singtel prices. This is usually included in the rent, so you don’t have to worry about it.

Mobile: $5 per line, for 50 minutes of calls, 25 text messages, and 2GB of data. A steal, if you ask me. This is the cheapest plan on the market so far. An alternative is pre-paid phone cards.

Electricity, water and gas: SP Power, Singapore’s utilities distributor, provided statistics stating that 5-room apartments typically pay $142 for electricity, water and gas. Per room, that’s less than $30 a month.

Other Household Expenses – $40 per Month

All the other household expenses consist of the following:

• Maintenance/Fees: $20
• Supplies: $20

Maintenance: All residents in apartments in Singapore, whether private or public, are required to pay maintenance fees for maintenance of the estate. $20 should be a fair estimate for these fees, although usually these fees are built directly into the rent.

Household supplies: For household supplies, it would be best to buy in bulk (whenever possible) and go for generic brands. When buying only the essentials, a budget of $20 a month should be able to cover everything you need.

Homemade chilli, $2.30 per serving.

For breakfast, you could have 2 eggs, which would set you back $0.36. (Each egg costs $0.18.)

For lunch, you could have a grilled chicken and cheese sandwich, which would set you back $1.68.

• Assuming 50% of the chicken is edible meat, 100 grams of chicken would cost $1.06.
• 2 slices of bread would cost $0.18. (19 slices cost $1.75)
• 2 slices of cheesewould cost $0.44. (36 slices cost $7.95)

For dinner, you could have a beef bolognese pasta, where the main ingredients would set you back $2.58.

• 100 grams of beef would cost $1.17.
• 100 grams of pasta would cost $0.70.
• 150 grams of diced tomatoes would cost $0.71.

All 3 meals cost just $4.62.

Note that the prices above were all taken from the website of NTUC FairPrice, which isn’t the cheapest supermarket around (although they happen to have one of the most user-friendly websites). If you shop at cheaper supermarkets, such as Sheng Siong, or if you don’t mind going to wet markets, you could shave at least another 10-20% off your grocery bill.

The above shows that you can have a balanced diet on a monthly grocery budget of $150. 

To keep grocery costs as low as possible, buy more staples (like oatmeal and beans), vegetables, and eggs (a cheaper source of protein than meat).

On the other hand, junk food (like chips and sweet drinks) is to be avoided at all costs.

Dining Out – $15 per Month

In case you need the occasional treat, or are simply pressed for time, you could eat out anywhere between 1 to 4 times a month with just $15, depending on where you go for your meals.

At cheaper-end restaurants, you could get away with paying just $10 per meal. On the other hand, if you confine yourself to hawker centres, you could pay just $4 per meal.

A handy tip for dining out is knowing the best deals around. I highly recommend the online platforms Chope and Shopee, and I’ve scored numerous deals on both of them. Check out the scrumptuous dishes that I got for just $1:

Fried chicken with numerous sides, for $1.

Related Reading:
I Ate Out 176 Times in 2019 – How Much Did I Spend?

Other Living Expenses – $14 per Month

As listed above, other living expenses consist of the following:

• Personal Care: $10
• Hairdressing: $4

Personal Care: Similar to household supplies, a budget of $10 a month should be sufficient when buying only the essentials, in bulk, and only generic brands.

Hairdressing: An option here is to cut your own hair, which will cost nothing. Alternatively, you could visit cheap but good hairdressers. Personally, I pay $18 per haircut, and I visit my hairdresser only twice a year. That’s $36 a year, or just $3 a month.

Transportation – $96 per Month

Taking a cab in Singapore isn’t cheap, and can cost you anywhere between $10 to $20 for a 20-minute ride. Meanwhile, buying a car in Singapore is outrageously expensive, with the cheapest model setting you back a whopping $62,000.

As such, when working with a $1,000 a month budget, the only option you have is public transportation. Thankfully, in stark contrast to private transportation (cars and cabs), public transportation in Singapore is comfortingly cheap.

Taking a subway ride from the west-most side of Singapore to the east-most side of Singapore will cost you $2.17. North to south will cost $2.05. Chances are, you will spend less than this to get to where you need to go.

For $96 a month, you can take the following trips:

Total cost per week is therefore $24 ($4 per day x 6 days). Assuming a 4-week month, each month will result in spending of $96 ($24 per week x 4 weeks).

Insurance – $50 per Month

In the beginning of this post, we made a few assumptions:

• That you will be renting (no house, so no home insurance).
• That you have no dependents (so no need for whole life or term life insurance).

The only thing you might need is hospitalisation insurance, the cost of which will depend on your age.

Sometime in 2018, I was thinking of picking up full-coverage hospitalisation insurance, so I had a few discussions with an agent from Prudential. Below is a table containing the cost of hospitalisation insurance for foreigners, on the cheapest possible policy. (Singaporeans and Singapore Permanent Residents enjoy slightly cheaper rates.)

At a yearly cost of $378 for someone between the ages of 21 to 30 years old, this breaks down to $31.50 a month. This increases to $573 a year for someone between the ages of 31 to 40, which breaks down to $48 a month. The premiums increase exponentially as age increases, making it incredibly difficult to adhere to the budget of just $1,000 a month.

Medical Services – $80 per Month

As listed above, medical services expenses consist of the following:

• Medication: $10
• Doctor: $10
• Dental: $10
• Others (like specialist treatment): $50

If you’re reasonably young and in the pink of health, you might not even need monthly medication, doctor consultation fees or specialist consultation fees.

However, you might still want to visit the dentist every 6-9 months for scaling and polishing, and this can cost as little as $60 per visit. Therefore, a budget of $10 a month for this category of expense is sufficient.

Alternatively, you could spend nothing at all on this entire category of medical services, including dental, like Mr Money Mustache.

What About Discretionary Expenses?

How Far Does $15 Go?

The Canopy Park in Jewel Changi Airport. Insanely beautiful, and well worth the $4.50 fee.

What Can You Enjoy for Free in Singapore?

Taking a walk through Fort Canning Park. Free.

People Who Actually Live on $1,000 a Month in Singapore

I came across the most interesting Quora thread with people who live on extremely small budgets in Singapore, but seem plenty happy anyway. For ease of reference, here are some people who live on around $1,000 a month, along with breakdowns of their budgets.

Quora User: Achelle Go
Other Details: – 

*Food includes the occasional bar/restaurant/cafe.

**Utilities includes mobile phone plans.

Conclusion – Is it Possible to Live in Singapore on $1,000 a Month?

It certainly is possible to live in Singapore on just $1,000 a month, though it does come with a few obvious sacrifices, such as:

• Living as minimally as possible, with close to no frills in the budget;
• Being willing to do things that others won’t (a good example of this is dumpster diving. Our helplful Quora user, Daniel Tay, spends $0 on food each month by dumpster diving, amongst other things.)

However, for a great many of us, a budget of $1,000 a month simply won’t be enough. As you saw above, almost the entire budget has been deployed only to essential expenses, such as:

• Rent,
• Household expenses,
• Groceries,
• Living expenses,
• Public transportation,
• Insurance, and
• Medical services.

What’s leftover after this? Not much.

Enjoying $2 beer in a fancy bar in Cambodia. Even a budget plane flight from Singapore to Cambodia would cost at least $200.

In addition to that, there won’t be enough to spend on other things that you might find necessary in life, such as:

• Healthcare: Insurance premiums increase exponentially as you age. For example, from the table provided above, once you hit 70 years of age, insurance premiums will total almost $300 per month. You’d also likely visit doctors more often, as health in old age rapidly deteriorates.
• Starting a family. If having kids is a possibility in the future, this would surely increase your expenses in all categories across the board. For example, you’d need a bigger living space to cater for a family. You’d also need to buy powdered milk or food. You can expect to shell out anywhere between $7,000 to $17,500 per year, per child, depending on the age of your child.

Homelessness.

Additionally, it is a huge blessing to be able to afford all necessities of life on just $1,000 a month, as this opens a lot of options for many people. For example, if you’re relatively young, healthy, if you’ve just quit your job to take some time off, to prepare for a career change, living on $1,000 a month as a temporary sacrifice is a good thing. You’d have a roof over your head and warm food on the table. It’s not a bad life at all.

However, if you have the option to shoot for more, then go for it. By increasing your budget by a mere $400 per month, you might see a whole world of difference.

In fact, that’s exactly what I plan to do myself. 

Is it possible to live on $1,000 a month in your country? Would you consider this a lifestyle, or more of a temporary measure? Would love to hear your thoughts!

As always, thank you for reading and supporting this blog.

In 2019, I formulated a crazy, ambitious plan to (1) work my ass off and (2) sacrifice most comforts of life for the next 10 years, retiring by the time I hit 36 years of age. After which, I would finally give myself the privilege to enjoy a life free from corporate work.

To cut a long story short, my plan failed miserably.

Just a year into this crazy plan of mine, I decided I just couldn’t hack it. There were too many sacrifices that I was making, which weren’t worth the early retirement at age 36.

Related Reading: 
My Original Plan to Retire by Age 36 (and Why it Failed)

As such, for various reasons that I will explain below, I’m delaying my retirement to age 40. 

Note: All currency stated in this post is in Singapore dollars (S$).

Why I’m Delaying Retirement by 4 Years

My previous plan to retire by age 36 failed for a number of reasons, as retiring that early required me to:

Visiting Universal Studios Singapore on a Wednesday afternoon. The benefits of part-time work are clear.

My New Plan to Retire by Age 40

The Gist of My Retirement Plan

In my new plan to retire by age 40, I’ll be working full-time for at most 5-6 more years, while working part-time or taking mini retirements the rest of the time. Here’s what my working years from 2020 (now) to 2034 (early retirement) will look like for me.

And here’s what my yearly expenses will look like:

With that, let’s go through these numbers in more detail.

How Much I Need to Retire

The amount I need to retire still hasn’t changed. That’s $1,000,000, and you can click here if you’re interested in how I came to this number.

Year 2020: Part-Time Work + Side Hustle

Enjoying a delicious fried chicken meal in an empty cafe at 11 a.m. on a Monday morning. Can life get any greater than this?

Net Worth

As of April 2020, my net worth in cash, stocks and bonds (excluding retirement accounts) stands at slightly north of $180,000.

Assuming a 4% return on investment after accounting for inflation for the rest of the year, here are what my net worth numbers will look like by the end of the year:

A mini-retirement means more time to go out and explore Singapore! That’s my girlfriend on the Sentosa Boardwalk. Entry into Sentosa via walking costs just $1, whereas taking the train costs $4.

Expenses

As for my expenses, I expect to spend at most $9,000 for the entire year, while being super frugal. This possible, since I live with my parents, and I don’t buy many things outside of necessities. Here’s what my monthly expenses look like:

Savings

Savings for the year should amount to a big fat zero.

If we continue filling in the table of my financial journey, here’s what the end of 2021 will look like for me financially, assuming a 6% annual return on investment after inflation:

Years 2022 to 2026: Full-Time Work

Income

Back to the workplace while trying to beat rush-hour traffic. Not my idea of an ideal life, but a necessary evil I suppose. 

Expenses

Of course, expenses will increase once I move out of my parents place by 2022. I anticipate that I would spend $17,000 a year, and this will allow me to afford:

• Rent in a condo studio apartment with my girlfriend, with all the amenities I could need;
• Travelling and entertainment on a budget; and
• Inexpensive passion projects.

I don’t plan to increase my spending until I absolutely have to.

Here’s what a breakdown of my spending will look like:

Savings

Savings for each year would be $50,000 ($67,000 – $17,000).

Assuming a 6% annual return on investment after inflation, here’s what my financial journey will look like up to 2026:

Year 2027: Start a Family

By end-2026, I’ll be 33 years old. With close to $600,000 in my nest egg, this might be a good time to start a family. I’ll probably work full-time all the way until my child is born (if I’m so fortunate), so that I’m able to enjoy paternity leave in my full-time job.

Income

Since I’m still be working full-time, my annual take-home salary from my full-time job would still be $53,000, after retirement contributions and taxes. (Although it’ll seem like working part-time, because paternity leave will be anywhere between 3 to 4 months.)

I don’t think I would have time to side hustle this year, so I won’t be including side hustle income.

Expenses

Apart from my regular spending of $17,000 a year, there will be costs related to pregnancy, which would be split equally between my girlfriend and I:

Total expenses for the year would amount to $33,000 ($17,000 + $16,000).

Savings

Savings for each year would be $20,000 ($53,000 – $33,000).

Years 2028 to 2034: Back to Part-Time Work 

Income

If we are fortunate enough to have a child, I’m hoping to be able to work part-time (3-day work week) in the government sector. This will reduce my full-time gross salary of $68,000 to a part-time gross salary of $41,000. After retirement contributions of $8,200 and taxes of $300, I’ll be left with a take-home salary of about $32,500 from my corporate job. This part-time arrangement will give me 4 days a week to spend with our child.

Hopefully by this time, some of my passion projects would start generating income. I think $12,000 a year (or $1,000 a month) is reasonable after 8 years of work, right? After taxes of $600, I’d be left with a side hustle take-home income of $11,400. If my passion projects don’t work out, that’s fine, and I’d just continue with freelancing, as long as I can work from home.

This brings my total annual take-home pay to about $44,000.

Expenses

Without a doubt, expenses will increase with an expansion of the family. This article has provided a neat breakdown of all the costs involved with raising a child in Singapore.

With the costs of raising a child being shared equally between my girlfriend and I, my expenses will increase from anywhere between $4,000 to $9,000 a year. (Hopefully we don’t fall into the trap of showering our child with material possessions!) 

This would bring my annual expenses up from $17,000 a year (as a single person) to $26,000 a year ($17,000 + $9,000).

Savings

This would give me savings of $18,000 a year ($44,000 – $26,000). 

This gives me a $1.02 million nest egg by the time I’m 40, only 4 years later than my bone-headed plan to retire at 36. 

And by this time, I would have started a family, would have travelled to lots of cheap cost of living places, and would have been working on passion projects (that may even generate some kind of income)!

Conservative Assumptions in my Plan

I used the same conservative assumptions in this new plan to retire at 40, as I did my original plan to retire at 36:

1. This plan takes into account a realistic 6% real rate of return on investments after inflation;
2. This plan assumes that I’d receive only inflationary wage increases and that I’d never get promoted; and
3. This plan assumes that none of my passion projects would ever bring me any income before the 8-year mark.

The Benefits of Delaying My Early Retirement

This new and improved plan to retire at 40 addresses all the concerns that made my original plan fail.

Enjoying S$2 beer in a fancy bar in Cambodia. Delaying my retirement by 4 years will allow me to enjoy awesome experiences like this one.

The Fluidity of the Future

I’d like to end this post by saying that nothing is set in stone. I don’t know where my government sector career would take me, and I can’t predict for the life of me what my passion projects might hold for the future.

The following will speed up my journey to early retirement:

• Getting promoted;
• Having passion projects take off; and
• Enjoying wild gains in the stock market.

On the other hand, the following may slow down my journey to early retirement:

• Getting really sick;
• Getting fired;
• Buying a house in the near future;
• Having more children; and
• Caring for loved ones.

(So, this means more retirement updates in the future!)

But whatever it is, I’m going to try and hold my values close to my heart, and not sacrifice an excessive amount of happiness or health for money.

Even if I don’t retire till I’m 65, as long as I’m happy and healthy along the way, I’m all good with that.

What do you think of my new plan to delay retirement by 4 years? Which path do you recommend I take? Are there any other considerations that should have gone into my analysis?

As always, thank you for reading and supporting this blog.

Before discovering the financial independence and early retirement (FIRE) community back in 2017, I had a one-track mind when it came to finding a good corporate job, climbing the corporate ladder, and retiring at age 65.

It didn’t matter that I already felt hollow and lost. What mattered was that this was the conventional route to a good life, and that I shouldn’t stray from the path.

After discovering FIRE, disbelief set in. There was no way to retire early since I didn’t have a six-figure income, right? That was me in 2017.

In 2018, after deciding to take a leap of faith, I tweaked my budget, ran my numbers and felt that I could still retire by the time I was 45. “Not too shabby”, I thought. This was the year that I ploughed most of my cash into investments, and saw the beginnings of compound interest. It opened my eyes.

Then came 2019. I was still without a six-figure income (or even anything close to it), but I had a pretty sizable nest egg, and significantly more clarity on what made me happy in life. And I realised that I didn’t need a whole lot of money to afford that.

So, out of 2019 came my aggressive savings plan to retire by age 36.

How Much I Need to Retire

In a previous post I wrote, titled “Why I’m Shooting for a $1,000,000 Nest Egg for my Early Retirement“, I discussed the following:

• Why I’m not shooting for Bare-Bones or Lean FIRE,
• Why I’m aiming for Regular FIRE,
• My future expenses of about $35,000 a year, and
• Why I’m not using a withdrawal rate of 4%.

For the purposes of this blog post, all you need to know is that I plan to accumulate a nest egg of $1,000,000 to support my future needs. (This $1,000,000 has to exclude any money I have in my retirement accounts, as I have no control over my retirement accounts.)

If you’re interested in the details behind this decision, I’ll leave a link to the relevant post right here.

Related Reading:
Why I’m Shooting for a $1,000,000 Nest Egg for My Early Retirement

The Grand Plan to Retire in 10 Years (by Age 36)

As of this year, 2020, I’m 26 years old (turning 27 in October 2020), and as of my net worth update in April 2020, I have assets (cash, stocks and bonds) of approximately $180,000, the result of 5 years of hard work and frugality. (To reiterate, this excludes any amounts in my retirement accounts.)

The premise behind my grand plan is simple – Work full-time and juggle side hustles for the next 10 years until I reach financial independence.

Only after which, would I allow myself to buy a house, settle down and start a family.

My financial situation in 2019 is fairly unique – I live with my parents, earning $42,400 of take-home pay a year from my full-time job and an average of $12,000 a year from my side hustles, while spending about $9,500 a year. This gives me savings of about $45,000 a year. (The details of my finances have been provided in my related reading below.) I work about 55-60 hours a week on my dead-end job and side hustles, excluding time for commuting.

I plan to live with my parents for another 2 years, while slowly breaking the news to them and having them come to accept my decision to move out.

Related Reading:
I’m 25, and I Still Live In My Parents’ House (2019 Edition)
Living with My Parents – Does it Speed Up My Journey to Early Retirement? 

Thus, the next 2 years of my financial journey will look something like this, assuming a 6% return on investment:

After which, I’ll move out. This will give me more freedom to get a much higher paying job. 

If I go for a government job, with my degree and existing job experience, I can expect a gross income of around $68,000 (since the Singapore Government regularly pays out good bonuses). This will bring my corporate job take-home salary to $55,000. Since government jobs are pretty cushy, I think that I would still have time to side hustle, bringing my total take-home income to about $67,000. 

Of course, expenses will likewise increase, but not by too much, as I planned to live as cheaply as possible. My extremely bare-bones annual expenses will amount to only $13,000 a year, giving me yearly savings of $54,000.

And here’s what my budget of $13,000 a year would look like:

If we continue filling in the table of my financial journey, the rest of my working years will look something like this:

By the end of 2029, I’ll be 36 years of age, with a nest egg of a cool $1 million that can be used to support my annual expenses. Then, I’d be able to quit my job and retire from working life for good.

Conservative Assumptions in my Plan

First, my grand plan takes into account only a 6% real rate of return on investments. Considering that I’ve been shifting my asset allocation toward 90% stocks and 10% bonds, even after accounting for inflation, this is still a conservative rate of return.

Second, my grand plan assumes that I’d receive only inflationary wage increases and that I’d never get promoted in all my remaining 10 working years.

Third and last, my grand plan assumes that I’d never make any headway in my current side hustles or never pick up any more lucrative side hustles.

If the market continues to roar, and if I get promoted maybe 2 or 3 times during my working career, I think I’d be seeing early retirement in 8-9 years instead of a conservative 10 years.

Why My Grand Plan Failed Spectacularly

#1 – I Didn’t Prioritise Important Things

After putting together my plan to retire by 36 and working towards it for a year or so, I realised that there was something about my plan that left me very unsettled.

Reflecting on this made me realise that I was putting off the important things in life – such as being happy, and having children – in my quest to reach early retirement as soon as possible.

Happiness – I don’t think I could ever be truly happy or passionate in any corporate job (5 internships and 2 full-time jobs have taught me that), and yet I was willing to slog for another 10 of the best years of my life in exchange for money. Maybe I wouldn’t even have another 10 years to live. And then all of that would have been for nothing.

Children – I’ve always known that I want to start a family some day. Putting off starting a family because I want some extra money in my nest egg, even though I already have quite a bit, doesn’t seem like a wise thing to do.

After all, there’s no rush to early retirement.

Instead, what I should do is strike a balance – This means prioritising the important things in life while pursuing early retirement at the same time.

#2 – My Budget was Too Bare-Bones

Carrying on with my plan to retire by 36 consisted of many, many sacrifices, the most glaring of which required me to live on a bare-bones budget of $13,000 a year (or about $1,070 a month) until I accumulated my $1,000,000 nest egg.

Having a fun time in the Canopy Park of Jewel Changi Airport. Price of admission? $4.50. Something I wouldn’t be able to afford on a Bare-Bones budget.

By increasing my spending by just $4,000 a year, I should be able to afford all of the above, optimizing both my spending and my happiness. Here’s a new and improved budget of $16,800 a year, which would skyrocket my happiness.

#3 – I’d be Spending a Lot of Time on Things I Dislike

Another sacrifice I will have to make is spending a whole lot of time working on things I am not passionate about. I work a dead-end corporate job (45 hours a week when full-time) and side hustle (anywhere between 8-10 hours a week) as a tutor, both of which I do not love, and would not do if I weren’t paid.

Between my full-time job, side hustles, commuting and getting ready, I will waste spend approximately 65-70 hours of my precious time a week doing things that I dislike; that’s more than 40% of waking hours. That’s excluding taking time to recover from all these activities.

#4 – I’d be Sacrificing Mental Health

In 2019, that’s exactly what I did. I worked 45 hours a week at my full-time job, while busting ass side hustling almost every single day. My days were packed, and I knew nothing other than work, commute, eat, and sleep (sometimes I felt so empty, I would lie awake in bed, wondering what went so wrong).

On this schedule, I hardly have time or the energy to do things I love, like:

• Exploring passion projects,
• Reading,
• Exercising,
• Walking in nature and getting fresh air,
• Spending time with loved ones, and
• Getting alone time to chill.

After just a year of working like this, I felt empty and lost. Some days I experience just negativity. Other days, I’m not so lucky; I struggle with full blown anxiety, insomnia, and other mental health issues.

If I force myself to do this for the next 10 years, it might break me.

My first desk at the office, until I got moved to another department. I hated my job; coming in every morning to see this desk felt like misery.

Going Forward: Striking a Balance between Time and Money

Admittedly, even if I were forced to work those 65-70 hour weeks by holding down a full-time job and side hustle at the same time, my life wouldn’t exactly be torturous. I live in a first-world country, and can afford all the basic necessities of life. Life is far from painful, especially compared to all those who are less fortunate.

But since I have been afforded the privilege of a choice between time and money, I’m going to choose a little bit of both.

Enjoying an awesome day out at one of Sentosa’s beaches in Singapore.

For all the reasons above, my original grand plan to retire by 36 failed spectacularly. And I think that’s a huge blessing in disguise.

Then again, only time will tell. Hopefully, you’ll stick around to find out.

What do you think about my decision to delay early retirement? Should I have gone full-steam ahead instead? What are your experiences with rushing towards FIRE vs. taking breaks or mini-retirements along the way? 

As always, thank you for reading and supporting this blog.

Every person’s journey to FIRE is largely determined by the gap between their expenses and their income. The lower the expenses and the higher the income (i.e. the larger the gap), the faster a person is able to reach FIRE.

In this post, I’d like to discuss the impact that living with my parents has on my journey to early retirement, using these very factors – expenses and income.

Living with my parents has been a heavily-guarded, shameful secret of mine for a while now, but I’ve decided that it was easier to be fully transparent. If you’re interested, I wrote a fairly detailed post on my decision to live with my parents here.

My past and current situation with my parents is fairly unique and may not apply to most people, but I hope that you will still be able to take something away from this. For anyone in the same situation, I hope this provides some value, and feel free to reach out.

Note: All currency stated in this post is in Singapore dollars (S$).

Without further ado, let’s dig in.

Expenses – Living with Parents vs. Living Alone

Living with parents usually does come with financial benefits. I have to admit, I have lower expenses because I’m still living in my parents’ house.

Expenses – Living with Parents

Here’s a quick snapshot of my current average monthly expenses:

Expenses – Living Alone

If I were living on my own, my monthly expenses would probably look more like this:

I won’t be going through my expenses in detail in this post, as I wrote about it at great lengths in other posts, which you can find right here.

Related Reading:

My Monthly Income and Expenses

Living with Parents vs. Living Alone in Singapore – How Much More Expensive is the Latter?

And with that, let’s move on to analyse my income situation.

Income – Living with Parents vs. Living Alone

Income – Living with Parents

I’ll be the first to admit that I definitely reap the benefits of lower expenses while living with parents. However, because of their over-the-top-controlling and authoritative nature, my income situation is a little more tricky. Why? Because my freedom is severely restricted.

Restrictions on Freedom

Ever since I came out to my parents as being queer, as well as made the mistake of telling them that I was dating someone of the same gender, they have been (to put it politely) controlling as hell.

The Result – A Job that Doesn’t Pay Much

The result of these restrictions on freedom is me having to accept a job offer that doesn’t pay a lot of money, for the following reasons:

This, however, comes at a price. In a good year, my take-home salary from my office job is $42,400. My book, Become a Millionaire and Retire Early on a Modest Salary, which is free to you, gives you many more details on my corporate job salary, as well as benefits (like paid time-off). I’ll be leaving a link for you below in case you’re interested.

I do also side hustle, which makes me anywhere between $10,000 to $15,000 a year. This could be more or less in a given year, depending on my luck and the economic situation.

Working with the figures that we have, I spend about $9,500 a year while living with my parents. My take-home salary from my office job is about $42,400 a year, and my side hustles bring in another (estimated) $12,000 a year. This gives me savings of about $45,000 a year. Here’s a nifty table to summarise everything for you:

Considering that I need to build a nest egg of $1 million for my early retirement, which excludes retirement contributions, these figures will put me about 12 years from early retirement, assuming:

1. I don’t move out of my parents’ house for the next 12 years (which is crazy and will probably drive me to insanity); and
2. A return on investment of 6% per annum, adjusted for inflation.

As at end-April 2020, I had a net worth of slightly north of $180,000 in cash, stocks and bonds (excluding retirement contributions). The numbers in the run up to early retirement therefore look like this:

The format of the table above is from Millennial-Revolution and their awesome reader case studies.

Related Reading:

Why I’m Shooting for a $1,000,000 Nest Egg for My Early Retirement

Income – Living Alone

Now, let’s get down to the fun stuff and assume that I’ve moved out (which I have planned to be reality in 2 years’ time).

This would mean that I no longer have to sneak around my parents. I can then score a higher-paying job, and meet my girlfriend after work and during the weekends, like all normal people do.

If I go for a government job, with my degree and existing job experience, I can expect a gross income of around $68,000 (since the Singapore Government regularly pays out good bonuses). This will bring my take-home salary to $55,000. Since government jobs are pretty cushy, I think that I would still have time to side hustle, bringing my total take-home income to about $67,000.

When I first move out, I think I’m going to want to play things safe and live as frugally as I can. This would mean a yearly expenditure of $16,000, giving me savings of $51,000 a year. 

Here’s what these figures look like in table form:

With these figures, how many years do I have till early retirement?

10 years to early retirement. That’s 1 whole year of freedom because I’m able to save an additional $5,000 a year.

And this is being conservative. In my current job, there is little to no chance of a promotion and a pay-raise, despite how much I do. In the government sector, on the other hand, I will stand a much higher chance of scoring pay raises and promotions.

With this, this concludes our little exercise in determining whether living with my over-the-top controlling parents speeds up or slows down my journey to early retirement.

In conclusion – living with my parents actually slows down my journey to early retirement a little.

So then, why am I still choosing to stay with them?

Why I Haven’t Moved Out Yet

1. My relationship with my parents has improved a little, compared to the past.

The current situation with my parents is better than it used to be. In the past, it got bad enough that I got locked into my own room and slapped in the face multiple times. All because I wanted to go out on a date with my girlfriend.

At least now I get to enjoy some semblance of autonomy during my weekdays. And occasionally after work and on the weekends if my friends or other family members help cover for me.

2. I’m still hoping my parents might come to acknowledge me being happy with my girlfriend.

This might just be wishful thinking, but I’m hoping that the older I get and the happier I seem, the more my parents might come to accept that this could be a way to live. That queer couples do deserve the right to have happily-ever-afters just like every other heterosexual couple. Even in a place like Singapore, where sex between consenting adult men is still criminalised.

Browsing an awesome Japanese bookstore with my brother. One of our favourite pastimes.

4. I’m just delaying the inevitable because I’m afraid of the consequences.

My parents have done a number of awful things to me. The truth is, I don’t know how much worse they would react when I tell them I’m moving out for good this time. Maybe they’d force me out of the closet by telling the rest of my (huge) family that I’m queer and thus a worthless child. Then they’d blame me for tearing this family apart. They have threatened to do this to me before, so I wouldn’t put this past them.

I’m also worried that my siblings and my closer cousins would then be forbidden from seeing me, and I lose so many of my closest relationships right there.

Ideally, my parents eventually acknowledge that I’m happy and that I’m not actually doing anything to spite them. This would mean that they wouldn’t pull any crazy moves. But again, only time will tell.

I’m afraid of the consequences, but at the same time I can’t keep staying with my parents.

It not only drives me batty, it also even delays my journey to FIRE.

I’m just hoping that, over the next 2 years, I slowly persuade them about my own happiness and they come to acknowledge who I am.

Even if my own version of happiness isn’t identical to theirs.

Have you ever been in such a situation? How should I go about dealing with this? Or am I just asking for too much?

Thank you for taking the time to read this.

In a previous post, I explained how I currently spend only about $9,000 to $10,000 in a year.

This would put my retirement nest egg at anywhere between $225,000 to $250,000, based on the 4% rule.

However, I spend so little right now only because I currently live with my parents and I pay them rent at a 50% discount to the market price.

When I move out in approximately 2 years (that’s the plan, at least), I expect my expenses to increase by a fair bit. How much then, would I need to retire? This is what I explore in this post.

I went through my numbers and considered the following variations of FIRE:

1. Bare-Bones FIRE;
2. Lean FIRE;
3. Regular FIRE; and
4. Fat FIRE.

Note: All currency stated in this post is in Singapore dollars (S$).

Bare-Bones FIRE

What is Bare-Bones FIRE?

As the name suggests, bare-bones FIRE is when you have 25 times your bare-bones expenses saved up. In other words, your nest egg provides you with enough passive income for only your necessities. There is no room in the budget for many, if any, luxuries.

Bare-bones FIRE is attractive for those who are dying to quit their jobs to start afresh, or to take a sabbatical, without worrying about how to pay the bills. Bare-bones FIRE shortens the runway to financial freedom dramatically, as it’ll take you much less time to save $300,000 as compared to $1,000,000.

What is My Expenditure and Nest Egg in Bare-Bones FIRE?

After doing the math, I expect my budget to look like this, assuming I continue to stay in Singapore:

Based on the 4% rule, I’d need to save up only $322,000 ($12,864 x 25) to be financially free.

This $322,000 has to exclude retirement contributions, since the Singapore Government doesn’t allow us to have much control over our retirement accounts anyway. Excluding retirement accounts, I had slightly north of $180,000 as at April 2020.

This means that I need to save up at most $142,000 more ($322,000 less $180,000) before I can be bare-bones FIRE. This should take me no more than 3 years to save up, assuming that I work full-time as well as have a solid side hustle. 3 years isn’t a long time, and it’s freeing to know that I am able to quit my job in the near future, should I choose to do so.

Hacking My Way to Bare-Bones FIRE

In order to get to bare-bones FIRE as soon as possible, I need to reduce my 3 biggest categories of expenses, which is household, food and transport.

Household: I would find a very small minimalist place to rent out, far away from the city centre. That way, rents would be cheaper. And it doesn’t matter much that the location isn’t convenient, since I don’t need to hold down a job anyway.

Food: Although I love eating out, this is something that has to go. I would spend only on groceries, and cook at home 100% of the time.

Transport: I would take only public transportation. It’s dirt-cheap compared to private transportation.

Saying goodbye to a toxic job – Probably one of the best feelings in the world?

Lean FIRE

What is Lean FIRE?

There’s no fixed definition as to what Lean FIRE is. Some believe that Lean FIRE is something you achieve when you save up 25 times your annual expenses on a lean / not-many-frills-involved kind of budget. Others believe that Lean FIRE is where you spend less than $40,000 a year, and therefore need to accumulate a nest egg of less than $1,000,000 to support your needs.

For the purposes of this post, we’re going with the latter definition – If you plan to accumulate less than $1,000,000 for your retirement nest egg, that’s Lean FIRE.

I see a difference between Bare-Bones FIRE and Lean FIRE.

For me, Bare-Bones FIRE is just about survival. It’s a temporary solution to escaping a job that you hate. The Bare-Bones budget contains no frills at all, no travel, no dining out, nothing.

On the other hand, Lean FIRE is about living out the rest of your life on a lean budget, which may or may not involve a few frills. If you plan to shoot for Lean FIRE, you should be comfortable and happy doing so. After all, it’s a lifestyle choice, not a temporary solution.

What is My Expenditure and Nest Egg in Lean FIRE?

After running the numbers, I discovered that I would spend $16,800 a year on a lean (yet still very comfortable) budget.

Drinking S$2 beer in a fancy bar in Cambodia.

In order to retire early, based on the 4% rule, my nest egg would have to amount to $421,000.

Although this is only $100,000 more than my required bare-bones nest egg, it offers me a lot more perks (explained above). It’s quite exciting to know that I could actually retire with just $421,000, and still live a comfortable life.

My current net worth puts me at only 57% away from retirement. About 5 more years of full-time work and battling lifestyle inflation should allow me to retire with this nest egg.

Why I’m Not Shooting for Lean FIRE

However, I’m not shooting for Lean FIRE, because my girlfriend and I want to:

1. Eventually start a family;
2. Purchase our own apartment; and
3. Go for more holidays / travel the world together.

All these things don’t come cheap.

And that brings us to Regular FIRE.

Regular FIRE

What is Regular FIRE?

Most folk shoot for Regular FIRE, which is in between the two extremes of Bare-Bones FIRE and Fat FIRE. This would typically require them to accumulate a nest egg of about $1 million, which is where I currently stand as well.

What is My Expenditure and Nest Egg in Regular FIRE?

After running the numbers, I discovered that I would spend $35,000 a year if I were to spring for a few more luxuries in life, such as buying my own apartment.

You might notice that the main increases in expenditure between my Regular FIRE budget and my Lean FIRE budget again involve only the things that I care about – Family, household, food, travel, and gifts.

In addition to this annual expenditure, I would also put some money aside for housing and for the costs of pregnancy, which would be split equally between my girlfriend and I:

Housing Costs: $20,000 per person*
Fertilisation Treatment: $5,000 per person
Pre-Natal Care: $3,000 per person
Childbirth: $6,000 per person

*As for my housing downpayment and other fees, I’ll be able to use my retirement accounts to make most of this payment. As such, I don’t expect to have to fork out a lot of money out of pocket.

For my one-time expenditure, I expect to be able to save this kind of money in at most 1 year of full-time work. For the sake of simplicity, I will not be including these one-time expenses in my calculation of my nest egg.

In order to be financially independent, based on the 4% rule, my nest egg would have to amount to $875,000 ($35,000 x 25).

Why then, am I shooting for a $1,000,000 nest egg instead of just $875,000?

Why I’m Using a 3% (and not 4%) Withdrawal Rate

Being a conservative person when it comes to risk, I plan to accumulate a nest egg of a cool $1,000,000 and draw down only 3% or $30,000 a year.

This is in contrast to the 4% rule, where I’m allowed to draw down 4% or $40,000 a year.

3% vs. 4% Withdrawal – The Difference between 0% and 22% Failure

The famous Trinity study found that if you withdraw 4% from your portfolio of 50% large-cap stocks and 50% long-term high-grade corporate bonds at the start of every year, there’s a 95% chance of survival over a 30-year period. (Thanks goes to Four Pillar Freedom and The Poor Swiss for their great articles on this study.) That’s where the 4% rule came about.

However, the limitation to this study is that it looked only at 30-year periods. Since I plan to retire in my early-40s, barring any unforeseen health complications, I could easily live another 40 years, or maybe even 50 years.

So, I ran my numbers through FIRECalc. Turns out, a $1,000,000 portfolio with a 3% withdrawal rate over a 50-year period saw a failure rate of 0%. On the other hand, a portfolio of $875,000 with a 4% withdrawal rate over a 50-year period saw a failure rate of 22%.

$875,000 Nest Egg, 4% Withdrawal Rate, 50-Year Period

22% Failure Rate

Unfortunately, a 22% failure rate is not a chance that I’m willing to take, so I’m sticking with the 3% withdrawal rate.

Dividend Payout Ratio

Another reason I chose to use a 3% withdrawal rate is because my investment portfolio pays out dividends of approximately 3% per annum. Here’s what my investment portfolio consists of, with the corresponding dividend yield of each asset class.

• Singapore stock ETF, between 3 to 4%.
• U.S. stock ETF, less than 2%.
• International stock ETF, between 3 to 4%.
• Bond ETF, slightly north of 2%.
• Individual stocks, between 5 to 7%.

To combat the low dividend yields of my U.S. stock ETF as well as my bond ETF, I’ve been picking up more and more high-dividend-yielding stocks to increase my overall yield.

The plan for retirement is to live off just dividends for the rest of my life, as I don’t really feel comfortable selling off stocks to fund my lifestyle.

Other Considerations

Bridging the Gap with Enjoyable Income

You might have noticed that my yearly withdrawals of $30,000 a year isn’t enough to cover my yearly expenses of $35,000.

To bridge this gap of $5,000 a year, I plan to find sources of enjoyable income.

This could be from this blog, or from freelancing, or from part-time jobs (gasp, active work in retirement?). After all, I believe that work can be a wonderful thing, and I plan to never stop working as long as I enjoy it.

Having small sources of income in retirement will provide me with peace of mind as well, just in case I happen to see dividends of less than 3% for any particular year. If that happens, I wouldn’t have to draw down on my portfolio; instead, I could just ramp up the hours that I’m working for that year.

Why Not Aim for a $1,170,000 Nest Egg Instead?

You might also be wondering why I’m not aiming for a $1,170,000 nest egg instead, since a 3% withdrawal rate from this nest egg would amount to $35,000, allowing me to cover all my expenses instead of having to work part-time.

Well, I’ve 2 reasons for that.

First, saving an additional $170,000 means more years in the office. If the market does well, I could save this extra amount in just 1 to 2 years. If not, I could be in the office for many more years. That’s not something that I’m willing to do.

Second, my yearly expenses will not be as high as $35,000 forever. After I pay off the mortgage in 25 years, my expenditure will decrease drastically, as I would no longer have to pay the $1,500 a month (or $18,000 a year) to service my mortgage. This means I will be spending only $17,000 a year.

At this point, my $1,000,000 nest egg will be able to support all my needs, wants, and more.

I will then be free to spend my extra disposable income on whatever I please, like family, travel, and passion projects.

Why I’m Not Considering Fat FIRE

Fat FIRE is something you achieve when you save up 25 times your annual expenses on an above-average annual budget. To achieve Fat FIRE, you need anywhere between $2 million to $5 million or more in your nest egg.

Enjoying Michelin-starred sushi omakase in Japan. It was a blast. Price? ¥3,000, or US$28, or S$40. Don’t think you need a $5 million nest egg to enjoy this.

Are you Bare-Bones FIRE, Lean FIRE, Regular FIRE or Fat FIRE? What do you think about the 4% withdrawal rate? Is a $1,000,000 nest egg too little, or too much?

Thank you for reading!

Why I Stopped Posting Income and Expenses Reports

Back in 2018, I used to post monthly income and expenses reports. However, I stopped this practice a few months after starting it, when I realised that these reports were incredibly repetitive month after month (and probably lulling everyone to sleep).

I felt that my income and expense reports were repetitive for the following reasons.

1. I receive active income from only a few sources – my 9-to-6 job, tutoring, as well as occasionally flipping items online. These were mostly stable every single month.

2. My passive income was incredibly low at the time, because I had just started investing seriously.

3. I have the same expenses month after month, because:

• I have no big-ticket items, such as a house or a car to account for.
• My parents are authoritarian control-freaks, and I have to abide by very strict rules since I’m living with them. This means I don’t have cool travel-hacking holidays, staycations or memorable events to write home about either.

So, I figured I’d write this post for anyone keen on taking a peek into my month-to-month income sources and expenses.

My Monthly Expenditure

Here’s a snapshot of my current average monthly expenses, in Singapore dollars:

Rent: $400

I currently give my parents $200 and my grandparents $200 every month; I’ve logged this expense as “rent”.

Considering that my family sits on a pretty significant amount of wealth (just to be clear, none of which belongs to me), I don’t think it would be an exaggeration to say that they could easily make this $400 in just a few minutes. However, it is deemed as filial for children of Asian cultures to distribute a percentage of their monthly paychecks to support their parents. It makes them happy and gives them “face”, no matter the amount. (Of course, it can’t be too nominal. $10 would probably not cut it.)

Utilities: $35

Right now, I pay for only my mobile phone bill, which costs me $35 per month. This contract runs for 2 years.

There’s currently another cell service provider offering a no-contract $5 per month plan, which sounds like the dream. I’m planning on switching over once my existing contract ends.

The 5 different supplements that I take.

Cooking a very simple Shakshuka at my girlfriend’s.

Each dish set me back just $6. Meal-hacked.

Transport: $60 – $90

One thing I love about Singapore is the insanely cheap public transportation network. For example, I spend only $2.04 a day getting to work and going back home. That’s only $1.02 each way. (Amazing, right?) That’s why I take only public transportation. No Ubers or cabs for me.

I make a conscious effort to walk to as many places as possible, because I love walking. This keeps my transport costs as low as possible.

I’m that person who would walk anywhere between 30 minutes to an hour to save that $1 transportation cost.

On a good month with lots of walking, I could spend as little as $60 on transport. On a not-so-good month with lots of rain and hence little walking, I could spend as much as $90 on transport.

Medical: $50 – $100

I have a chronic eye problem, which, at its most aggressive, would see me getting allergic conjunctivitis every month. I’ve since gotten it under control, with a great deal of tender loving care, cleaning and eye drops. However, all of this costs money, to the tune of $50 to $100 a month, depending on how much eye drops and medication I use.

This does not include the cost of medical appointments whenever my eye problem acts up. A single eye specialist appointment could set me back anywhere between $300 to $500. Thankfully, I haven’t had a problem with my eyes for a few years now, so I limit my specialist appointments to once a year, which are covered by my medical benefits at work.

Visiting Japan with family.

Miscellaneous: $30 – $50

A bunch of other things, such as gifts, entertainment and unexpected expenses, fall into this category.

My month-to-month spend varies depending on birthdays, social events and other unforeseen expenses.

Expenses – In Conclusion

Since my total monthly expenses amount to about $725 to $875, my total yearly expenses would therefore amount to only about $8,700 to $10,500.

Although my parents are authoritarian control-freaks, I’m still trying to make the best of a sucky situation by focusing on the benefits. And the clear financial benefit here is that I spend a lot less than I would if I were living on my own.

My Monthly Income

Active Income

My active income situation is fairly standard. I have only a few sources of active income:

1. From my 9-to-6 corporate job;
2. From my tutoring side hustle;
3. From my flipping side hustle.

Corporate Job

When I used to work full-time (5 days, 9-hour days) at my day job, I was earning about $3,600 a month, with $700 going into my retirement accounts, and $2,900 as my take-home salary. This is exclusive of any performance bonus received, which can vary between 1 to 3 months in any given year.

I’ve since negotiated a part-time working arrangement, and now work only 3 days a week. As such, my current salary is only $2,180 a month, with $430 going into my retirement accounts, and $1,750 as my take-home salary. Similar to the above, this is exclusive of any performance bonus received.

Side Hustles

For my tutoring side hustle, I teach students anywhere between 6 to 10 hours a week, making $25 an hour (this excludes the time that I take to travel to my students’ houses). The number of hours I teach is dependent on the availability of myself and my students.

I’ve been tutoring as a side hustle for more than 5 years now. I’ve since reflected and decided that this unscalable and unpredictable side hustle isn’t worth too much more of my time, and I believe that this is my last year of tutoring.

As for my flipping side hustle, I make anywhere between $0 to $200 a month. There are months where I can earn a great deal of money by getting in on the latest fad, but there are also months where I make absolutely nothing. I’m fine with this though, because I haven’t been putting in much effort at all. I’ve more or less dropped this side hustle entirely, because of the lack of passion.

Passive Income

I do have a few small sources of passive income, which are as follows:

• Stocks (both ETFs and individual high dividend-yielding stocks);
• Bonds (only ETFs);
• Cash (in high-yield bank accounts); and
• Retirement accounts.

In 2019, my total passive income amounted to $5,646, and the breakdown of this is as follows.

Side Note: I track my yearly passive income, and you can find these reports in greater detail below.

Related Reading:

My Total Passive Income in 2019

My Total Passive Income in 2018

Dividend Income from Stocks

The majority of my net worth is in Singapore’s stock ETF. On top of that, I am also invested in several high dividend-yielding individual stocks in the Singapore market.

For international exposure, I own VOO, VTI and VXUS.

In 2019, I received a total of $2,969 in dividend income from my all my stock holdings.

Dividend Income from Bonds

I have bonds only in the Singapore bond ETF. This is because I’d like all my bonds to be in the same currency as my home currency.

In 2019, I received a total of $958 in dividend income from my Singapore bond ETF. I don’t hold any bonds in any other market.

Interest Income from Cash

Since my expenses are low (ranging from $8,700 to $10,500 a year, as explained above), I am prepared to invest as much as I can when the opportunity arises, subject to keeping a minimum of $5,000 in my bank accounts (which is my emergency funds of six months of expenses).

In 2019, I received a total of $353 in interest income from my high-yield bank accounts.

Interest Income from Retirement Accounts

In 2019, I received a total of $1,366 in interest income from my retirement accounts, courtesy of the Singapore government.

My Life Plan Going Forward: 2020 and Beyond

In the 2-3 years since I’ve discovered the concept of FIRE, I’ve focused only on savagely slashing my expenditure, at the same time maintaining my original happiness. This has led to me accumulating a fairly significant net worth at a young age. And I’m happy with how far I’ve come.

However, I’ve completely neglected the other foundational tenet of FIRE, which is increasing income. Or rather, increasing enjoyable income, as Zach from Four Pillar Freedom puts it aptly. This has led to the situation that I’m in – not enjoying my corporate job, having a dead-end no-prospects corporate job, and no longer deriving any happiness in my unscalable side hustles.

As such, going forward, I plan to stop focusing on cutting expenses (as I can be rather obsessive over this). In contrast, I plan to be consistent in doing things that I enjoy, and hopefully find ways to monetize these things that I enjoy.

This would, hopefully, lead to a situation where I have multiple tiny income streams from passion projects in the future that provide me with a little money to cover my already minimal expenses, and also to save a little.

That way, I can eventually quit my dreary corporate job and start waking up each day excited to face the day. It’ll take years to get to where I want to be, but I’m willing to stick things out and see where things take me.

Should I continue to post monthly income and expense reports? What is your current situation with your income and expenses? How will you be improving your current situation? Feel free to let me know in the comments below. Thank you for taking the time to read this.

A while ago, I came across a wonderful post from Rob at Getting Canned. I left him a comment and he reached out to me, inviting me to guest post on his site.

Here’s our end-result: Changing My Financial Life After My Employer Refused to Pay Me

I hope you enjoy it!

Love,
Liz

A couple months ago, I recorded my first-ever podcast episode with the hosts from Chain of Wealth, Denis and Katie. It was an incredible experience, and I’m extremely humbled and honoured to have been invited on their podcast.

The good news is that the episode was released recently! Click this link to find out more about this episode. If you’re worried my voice will scare you away (I’m worried about that too!), the show notes are provided as well.

Here’s a short summary of things we discussed:

1. My coming out story.
2. Lifestyle changes after getting cut off.
3. Plans with my career and my blog.
4. A discussion about giving up my dream apartment.
5. My savings plan for the future.
6. Books and podcasts I’d recommend.
7. My favourite quote and a parting piece of advice for you.

And that’s it!

I just want to thank Denis and Katie from Chain of Wealth for this amazing experience, and 5AM Joel for the recommendation. It really means the world

Love,
Liz

I once worked a corporate 9-to-5 job, where I earned a very handsome 10 cents an hour. No paid leave. No medical benefits. Just full-on daily grind. If you’re interested, you can read about my entire $0.10 an hour corporate job story here.

This particular blog post, however, isn’t about practical tips on how to save money on a meagre salary. Or how to discover smart ways of earning money on the side. Or how to save money on a small income.

It’s about gratitude.

What it’s Like Earning $0.10 an Hour

In the 6 months that I worked at the crappy job, I was paid only a sum of $120 during my 5^th month on the job. One single measly payment, and no more.

I couldn’t even cover my transport expenses, let alone food, water, and the works. When I fell sick, I had to foot my own medical bill.

I wasn’t even entitled to any leave, and my supervisor would constantly bother me over the weekend over the smallest things.

I was constantly hustling outside of my full-time job, looking for any means that would allow me to stay afloat.

I was exhausted, and defeated.

Misery was my best friend, to say the least.

But after I realising that my pay-checks were never going to come, and that I was being taken advantage of, I sent out my resume like my life depended on it.

Landing a Higher-Paying Job

I eventually found a corporate job that paid me $2,800 a month, with a 1-month bonus in December, and a variable performance bonus in March.

I was ecstatic, and took the job. I got my pay-check promptly every single month, 14 days of paid vacation, $800 of medical benefits, and insurance coverage.

A couple months into the job, however, and my initial euphoria faded into nothingness. Crunching numbers and pushing paper aren’t exactly my idea of excitement. On top of that, my law school peers were making a lot more than I was, and many of them kept telling me to switch jobs.

Soon, I was grumbling about how I earned only $2,800 a month, or $140 every 9-hour working day, or about $15 an hour.

‘This sucks big time. What a drag! A waste of my life.’, I complained, the thoughts racing through my head faster than I could catch then.

‘I can’t wait till I’m out of here.’

Those seemingly innocuous wishes floated through my mind every single day.

I constantly grumbled about how little I was being paid, comparing my peanuts to my peers’ moneybags.

The Vicious Cycle of Discontentment

Over time, working became more and more of a drag. Sunday nights made my insomnia exceptionally chronic, and Monday mornings saw me dragging my feet into the office.

I was miserable, all over again.

But this time, my financial situation was very different.

I was being paid a wage that could cover all my living expenses. I didn’t have to constantly hustle outside of my corporate job. And when I did hustle, it was because of choice, not necessity.

There was no lingering worry that I would starve to death the next day. There was no nagging anxiety about when I would get my next pay-check. In fact, I was diligently stuffing away a couple thousand dollars every single month.

I watched my bank balance increase unceasingly, month after month.

Everything that I couldn’t do on my previous 10 cents an hour pay-check.

Yet, I wasn’t happy. I wasn’t content.

I wasn’t grateful for what I had.

Reflecting on My Progress

It wasn’t until recently that I decided to pen down my story of how I once made 10 cents an hour at a full-time corporate job. I recounted the stories of my six months’ suffering that I buried at the very back of my mind.

Through that, I realised how far I had come.

I chuckled to myself as I acknowledged that switching jobs had given me a 14,900% increase in pay. From 10 cents an hour, to $15 an hour! Not too shabby, eh?

I decided to stop comparing myself to the peers that I knew. Sure, they were cashing in pay-checks far bigger than mine, but is that the only measure of success?

Why couldn’t I see that my success was overcoming the immense difficulties in my life? I came out of the closet, was rejected vehemently by people I loved the most, had my life’s purpose ripped away, suffered emotional torment and almost become homeless without much money to my name.

So for the first time in a very long, I finally acknowledged that I had to go through all of that and somehow, came out alive. Then, I gave myself a long-overdue pat on the back for overcoming all of that.

I mean, I went from being almost homeless while having practically nothing to my name, to working a 10-cents-an-hour corporate job, to saving thousands of dollars every single month.

I think I owe it to myself to not be sucked into a vicious cycle of misery, right?

Practising Gratitude

While I may not enjoy my current job, I am still grateful for it. I’m grateful for the fact that I don’t have to worry about covering my living expenses, unlike before. The fact that I can save a not-so-insignificant sum of money every single month, unlike before. Also, the fact that I have adequate work life balance to side hustle and blog.

My current salary isn’t anything to shout about, but it sure beats 10 cents an hour, any day, in any universe.

Understanding gratitude was never easy for me. I used to be a trust fund baby who was given $250,000 in my early-20s. On top of that, I was sitting on a huge inheritance. Other than choosing a life partner, I did everything my parents told me to do.

But my parents took everything away from me anyway, just because I came out of the closet. When you’re stuck in that kind of situation, do you even have anything to be grateful for?

Going from having everything, to having absolutely nothing, is crushing. And in those moments, you don’t see any light. Gratitude is the last thing on your mind.

But what I’ve learnt over the years of loss and suffering, is this.

If you don’t learn to be grateful for what you have now, you will never be grateful for what you may have in the future.

You’ll go through life, a constant vicious cycle of attainment and subsequent unhappiness. My experience with switching jobs and a 14,900% increase in pay is an ideal case in point.

For many of us, learning to be grateful is a hell of a challenge. A daily battle between resentment and contentment. And we usually let resentment win.

How often do we tell ourselves, ‘Look at all my suffering! And now, look at everyone else! Why do I have such a damn difficult life? Isn’t there any justice in the world?’

But nothing good ever comes easy. Gratitude included. While you may struggle with the constant tension of attainment and contentment, truly knowing that you should be grateful for whatever good is in your life – well, that’s the first step.

Stop comparing yourself to others – that’s the second step. Do what you need. Delete social media. Remove all temptation.

The third step? Reflect on all the progress you’ve made in your life. It could be big goals, or it could be small baby steps. Be grateful for how far you’ve come. Compare yourself not to others, but to yourself in the past.

Practice, practice, practice. Every single day. This is the fourth, and most crucial, step. Be grateful for all the big things, like the progress you’ve made over the course of your life. be grateful for all the little things too. Like a good day at work, or an interesting chat with a colleague, or an awesome comment on your blog. Give yourself something to be grateful for every single day.

After a while, gratitude becomes more natural. You’d be more at ease with yourself, and with the world.

Gratitude still doesn’t come easy for me. And it won’t come easy for you. But we must try.

Because it’s our best shot at leading truly amazing, wonderful lives.

To a brighter future filled with content and gratitude,
Liz

A few weeks ago, Jaime from Keep Thrifty invited me to guest post on her site. This is my first-ever guest post, which turned out to be an amazing experience.

Here’s our end-result: How Losing Everything I Had Became A Blessing In My Life.

I hope you enjoy it!

Love,
Liz

When I was growing up, my parents constantly told me to study hard, get a good education, get a good job, and enjoy life. So, I studied hard, got a decent education, and got an acceptable corporate job.

But as I spent my mornings rushing to work with a truckload of other people, I grew weary of life. As I spent 9 hours of my life each day hunched over a desk, doing work that meant nothing to me, I started to wonder, “is this all that life has to offer?” I felt trapped, suffocated. I wasn’t free, and I knew it.

I just didn’t have a clue what to do. And because I hadn’t known any better, I spent my hard-earned money on stuff that I thought would relieve me of my misery. I would go out on the weekends, buy new stuff, feel a bit better, and then be miserable all over again as Monday morning rolled by. Although I desperately wanted to be free, I wasn’t. Instead, all I was, was trapped in this vicious cycle.

One day, I had an epiphany – I knew I couldn’t spend the next 4 decades of my life like this. I told myself to do whatever it takes, to end this cycle as soon as possible. Since then, I’ve been doing a great deal of thinking about the concept of “freedom”.

What is freedom? How do I achieve it? Why do most people not live lives of freedom?

It breaks my heart a little, whenever I hear about people hating their jobs and wanting to quit, but can’t because they have bills to pay. I get all downcast when I read about people being forever bound to their student loans, their credit card debt, their expensive mortgages.

Most of us spend our entire lives being shackled to one thing, or another. It’s not just the corporate jobs we hate. It’s not just the crippling debt. It’s more than just that. I’m sure you’ve heard of people having houses full of stuff, yet at the same time constantly complain that they still live paycheck to paycheck.

Here’s the good news. We all have a choice. A choice to either be free, or to be bound by something that holds us back from the best version of ourselves. That choice? It’s ours to make.

Below, I’ve put together a comprehensive 5-step guide on how to live a life of absolute freedom.

A Quick Guide:

Step 1 – Become Debt-Free
Step 2 – Understand the Meaning of “Liabilities”, and Stop Accumulating Them
Step 3 – Live Simply
Step 4 – Save Money. Don’t Quit Your Job Yet
Step 5 – Screw What Everyone Else Thinks

Everyone’s personal circumstances are different, and not everything will apply to you. I’ve added hyperlinks to each step, so you can skip to the parts that you find the most useful. Take what you find to be valuable, and leave whatever is not.

Enough chit-chat. Let’s get started.

Step 1 – Become Debt-Free

Many of us go through life thinking that amassing debt is normal. Most people go to college, and accumulate student loans. Most people buy a house, and burden themselves with a mortgage to service. Most people love to live fancy lifestyles. With the help of credit cards, these people find themselves in dire credit card debt. This is the behaviour that we are encouraged to partake in.

But when you think about it, debt is the thing holding you back from all the amazing things in your life.

Want to quit your job to become a world-famous musician? Nah, you’ve got to stay in your corporate job because you have your credit card debts to service.

Want to travel the world full-time? No way, you need to keep working. You need to keep the money rolling in to pay off your mortgage and car loans.

Want to do anything worthwhile, which will require an initial few years of low-pay and little reward? Don’t think so, those debts have your name written on it.

When you have a creditor, or creditors, hounding you, you can’t afford to just quit your highly-unlikeable job. You can’t afford to just do whatever you want to do. You have to keep working, so you can earn money, so you can meet next month’s repayments.

Being shackled to a job that you dislike, because you have debts to service – is this freedom?

Having to worry about whether you can meet next month’s repayments – is this freedom?

I found myself in a cubicle when I was 23. A little while in, and I started detesting it. I started hating the person I had become – nothing but a corporate drone doing someone else’s bidding. Life soon became a dreary mess of nothing but work, eat, and sleep. I was miserable.

The only thing that keeps me alive is the freedom that I’d be able to quit work whenever I want to. Because I don’t have any debt.

I went to a community college that was largely subsidised by the government. My college fees for 4 years came up to only about $40K. I gave up buying my dream apartment, even though I could afford it. I had enough for the downpayment and I was making enough to meet the monthly repayments. I pay all my credit card bills in full, every single time. In fact, using credit cards actually save me money. A lot of money.

Whenever I want to quit my job, I’ll quit. Because I don’t have any debt.

Reality is harsh. Anything that’s worthwhile will take months, if not years to establish. Whether it’s blogging. Or other forms of content creation. Or building up a career as an artist. Or starting a business from scratch. These careers, these paths in life – they take years to build up. In the initial few years, you’d see hardly any reward. Barely any recognition. Little to no money at all.

Is this something you can pursue when you’re knee-deep in debt?

With no money to pay your debt, your creditors will foreclose on your house. They’ll remove all your belongings. You’d be made a bankrupt faster than you can blink.

Your Debt-Tackling To-Do List:

Having debt is keeping you from living your best life. The time to destroy your debt, is now.

Pay off the highest-interest bearing debts, before proceeding with the lower-interest bearing ones. Right at the top, we have credit card debt, the most toxic type of debt you shouldn’t have. Throw as much money as you can into repayment of these debts, like your life depends on it. Because frankly, it does.

After you’re done crushing your credit card debt, pay down all your other debts. Every single one – mortgages, student loans, car loans. Is it possible to downsize your house? This could mean a smaller mortgage to service. Or is it possible to get rid of your car? You’d no longer have to meet repayments on something that will have no residual value in a few years.

Your best days will come after you’re done crushing all your debts. No creditors, no repayments, no worries.

Step 2 – Understand the Meaning of “Liabilities”, and Stop Accumulating Them

As a credit analyst in a financial institution, I’ve learnt that assets are something you own. On the other hand, liabilities are obligations, something you owe. The textbook definitions by accounting standards, that is.

But if you really want to live a life of freedom, you can’t view assets and liabilities from this perspective. You should view assets as something you own, which will bring money into your life. Liabilities, on the other hand, are things you own, but take money out of your life.

Gone, is the traditional notion that being debt-free means that you have no liabilities.

Heck, you could be debt-free, but be swimming in liabilities.

Let me break this down.

Assets:

Assets are things you own, which bring money into your life.

Stocks are assets. You buy a stock, and this stock will pay you dividends quarterly / half-yearly / annually. Not only that, leave the stock in the market for decades, and you’ll get to enjoy capital appreciation. Bonds are assets. Side hustle businesses are assets. All these things bring money into your life.

Liabilities:

Make no mistake, liabilities are things you own, too. But these things take money out of your life.

A prime example of a liability is a car. First, you have to pay for the car. Money out of your pocket. But the cost of the car isn’t the only thing you should be considering. What about fuel? Insurance? Road tax? Regular servicing? Parking charges? Parking tickets? Your wheel getting clamped? Accidents that your insurance doesn’t cover?

At the end of the day, after you’re done draining the car as well as your wallet, you get to scrap your car for 10 bucks. Enough for a nice breakfast at a diner.

Is a car an asset, or a liability?

Your house can be considered a liability, too.

Again, it’s not just the cost of the house. Unless you’re Bill Gates, you probably need a bank loan for your house. In your monthly repayments to the bank, you’ve got to factor in interest costs. Then you’ve got to think about the maintenance fees. Property insurance. Property tax. Interior designing to make your place look nice. Furniture and fittings. Garbage disposal fees. So on, and so forth.

It’s just money constantly flowing out of your pocket. Again, liability.

Buy Lots of Assets, and Only the Liabilities that You Need.

I’m not advocating for you to be car-free. If you need a car to shave hours off your commute, then a car becomes a necessity. In which case, you should buy it, even though it is a liability.

I’m also not preaching that you shouldn’t buy a house. I understand the desire to have a comfortable roof over your head. A place of comfort, peace, and solitude. Where you can be away from the craziness of the world. I totally get that.

But don’t buy something extravagant that you can’t afford. Something over the top, just to impress your friends. You don’t need a BMW or a Mercedes-Benz to get you to work, and back. You don’t need a huge garden, or three dining rooms, or a big-ass living room with gigantic, luxurious chandeliers hanging over your head.

How often will you get to drive your car around? How often will you get to walk around your garden, or use your three dining rooms, if you’re too busy slogging it out at work? Just so you can service your loans?

Liabilities aren’t limited only to cars and houses. It’s just stuff in general. Stuff you don’t need, but buy because you have extra cash this month.

It’s that spanking new flat-screen TV you just picked up. It’s that new over the top stereo, or turntable. You bought that because the thought of having a turntable is just so cool. It’s that beautiful $50,000 Hermes handbag that you had to sell your kidney for. It’s that sleek, best-selling iPhone 17 that everyone wants to get their hands on. It’s those AirPods, the only earpieces that can be used with the iPhone 17.

This stuff, it’s just stuff. You spend your weekends cleaning them, trying to keep every speck of dust away. That’s time wasted. Even so, maybe that’s not good enough. Maybe you’re considering buying a dust-proof, bullet-proof glass display case to show your acquisitions off to your friends and family. That’s more money wasted.

And for what? It’s just stuff. This stuff, they’re vulnerable to age, and will break down eventually. Then what? You’ve got to send them in for expensive repairs? Or will you buy something even more expensive to replace that? They’re all liabilities. And they’re all marketed to make your part with your hard-earned money.

Undoubtedly, for most people, there will be some material things that we can’t bear to part with. Liabilities, which actually increase our quality of life.

For me, that’s my drum set. My piano. My guitar. My ukulele. My exercise gear. My collection of books and DVDs. Mostly second-hand, and pretty cheap. Take my music, books and movies away from me, and I might just die a miserable death.

But these are all things that I use regularly. I use my exercise gear every single day. I play my musical instruments on a weekly basis. I watch movies and read books whenever I have free time. Most material things that I have, have a purpose in my life. They increase my quality of life. The rest of my stuff? I’m in the process of getting rid of.

Look around your room. How many items do you use on a regular basis? And how many items did you not know ever existed, buried in the little Bermuda Triangle in the dark trenches of your closet? My guess would be 80-90%.

Your Liability-Prevention To-Do-List:

The next time you’re out on a shopping spree, and you pick up Item XYZ, ask yourself these questions:

1. Is Item XYZ an asset? Will it allow you to invest in yourself? Grow your business? Improve your side hustling skills?
2. If Item XYZ is a liability, do you need it? Would not having Item XYZ decrease your quality of life? Would not having Item XYZ lead to you not fulfilling your dreams? Will you be using Item XYZ regularly? How regularly?

If Item XYZ is an asset, buy it. No qualms about it, buy it.

Even if Item XYZ isn’t an asset, if it’s something that helps you fulfil your wildest dreams, if you’re going to use it regularly, go right ahead and get it.

If not, put that damn thing down.

Step 3 – Live Simply

In a world like ours, everyone wants more. Everyone wants the fancy apartment. Everyone wants that luxury car. Everyone wants that shiny new thing. In a world like ours, who are you to stray from the pack? Who are you to reject hyper-consumerism? Who are you to stand tall, and say, “I want to live a simple life”?

In a world like ours, it’s crucial for you to stand your ground, to hold your head up high. And to be keenly aware of what brings you happiness and fulfilment, and what doesn’t.

The Difference Between the Simple, and the Luxurious

Imagine you just won the lottery. Let’s say that’s $2 million right there. What would you do with that money? I say you’d quit your job, right away. Then you’d buy a neat little apartment, with state-of-the-art furnishings, and modern interior designing to die for. Would you like a nice BMW to go with that? Sure you would!

Awesome. The house and the car are all set up. And you’re free from your job. What would you do with all that free time? I say you’d do stuff that brings you fulfilment. For me, that’s writing, making music, exercising, learning languages, travelling, seeing cool sights. For you, it could be other stuff. Maybe you could learn how to code? Or how to cook up a feast? Or hike in the woods? And of course, we all want to spend more time with loved ones.

But honestly, can’t we do all of that already? We don’t need money to spend more time with loved ones. We don’t need money to go hiking in the woods. We need a little money to go budget-travelling. We need a little money to buy a guitar before we can make music. We need a little money to pay for hosting and a theme before we can start publishing blog posts. We need a little money to pay for courses to learn awesome new stuff.

Sure, we need a little money. But we don’t need a lot. And for some things, we don’t even need money at all.

I can understand how material things can bring us a few moments of happiness. I used to shop a lot. I used to get that “high”, whenever I was scoring a great deal. But it’s superficial. It’s fleeting. And we’re addicted to that feeling. So, we spend a great deal of time and money sourcing out the best deals online. Just to enjoy those few moments of bliss.

And the scary thing about constantly buying material goods? We always want more. This year, we get a $300 Kate Spade. Next year, we want a $6,000 Chanel. The following year, we’re shooting for a $50,000 Hermes. This year, we’re tolerating our studio apartment. Next year, we’re thinking of upgrading to a 2-bedroom. Within the next decade, we’re dreaming about our fancy penthouse.

While material things can bring us a little happiness, it isn’t sustainable. Since we always want more, we’re always going to be trapped in our detestable corporate jobs. We’re always going to have drag ourselves to work on Monday mornings, hating our lives. Because we need our paycheck to cover our luxurious ‘wants’. This isn’t freedom, not one bit.

What I want to get you to consider, is this – Do you really need that expensive-ass apartment and car, to feel fulfilled and deeply satisfied with life? Do you have non-material hopes and dreams, which can bring you an equal amount of fulfilment, if not more? Would that be a more sustainable avenue of happiness?

Consumerism Isn’t Inherently Bad

I’m not advocating that we reject all notions of consumerism and material possessions. I’m not saying that we should build a hut in the woods, and live completely off the land. I’m not propagating the idea that luxury is bad for us. None of the above.

What I am saying, though, is that we shouldn’t live our lives solely for material possessions.

Perhaps you’re a hard-working business owner who earns a bazillion dollars a year. Or a million-dollar blogger who loves her work. Or a high-flying CEO who absolutely adores his career and the company he works in. Should these people reject consumerism at all costs? Of course not. They can more than afford to buy that awesome apartment and insane car.

Unfortunately, that isn’t the case for most of us, is it? Most of us spend our time in jobs that we dislike. Maybe even hate. And then we go and blow all our hard-earned money on useless material shit, like new bags, new shoes, new suits. Which we wear once, and then completely forget about. And then, we get stuck, chained to these corporate jobs that we really don’t like. We’re forced to work a job we hate, because we aren’t done paying off our huge-ass mortgage and car loan.

Is this freedom?

Simple Living Grants You Freedom, and Happiness

What if we stopped buying useless crap? What if we lived simply? What if we learned to find pleasure in the simple things in life, most of which are free?

When you stop buying crap, and when you love the simple things in life, you wouldn’t have many expenses. Then you wouldn’t need a job to cover those crazy expenses. All you would need is a small nest egg of investments to tide you through the rest of your days. And when you don’t need a job, then you have time on your hands. Complete control over every single one of your days. To do whatever makes your heart sing.

No job. Time on your hands. Chase your dreams to the end of this world. Now, this, is freedom.

Isn’t that worth it?

I used to live quite an extravagant lifestyle. Partying and boozing all the time. Shopping sprees every single week. Eating at expensive restaurants every other day. Each drink that slid down my throat set me back $10 or more. Each shopping spree made my wallet at least $200 lighter. Each meal I ate was $50 rumbling in my tummy. For someone who wasn’t working and was relying on generous hand-outs by my rich parents, I was spending a lot. Too much, to be exact.

Until the one fateful day when I lost everything I had, overnight.

For my survival, I had to change my life completely. Now, I spend the majority of my free time doing stuff that I love – Exercising. Immersing in nature. Learning new things. Reading. Writing. Making small improvements to my blog. Connecting with like-minded people. Spending time with my loved ones. Staring out of my window while mulling over the meaning of happiness.

A few of these things require a little bit of money. But most of these are absolutely free. You know what they say about the best things in life being free? I guess that’s true, after all.

I used to have a 9-digit inheritance. Yes, it was fun while it lasted. Yes, never needing to budget was, in a way, awesome. But losing everything I had forced me to reflect on my life and the choices that I made. Introspection and self-awareness became a part of my everyday life. This has made me more keenly acquainted with what brings me happiness, and what doesn’t.

And I can say this with conviction – I’m more fulfilled. I’m more satisfied with life. I feel more alive. More than I’ve ever been.

This means that beyond a certain level of material comfort, having a shitload of money has little to no impact on our happiness and satisfaction with life.

Why do some lottery winners have a greater chance of suffering from depression? Why do some people who are multi-millionaires still choose to commit suicide? Why do some people living in the slums still have the biggest, brightest smiles?

Because having money doesn’t come with a “happiness” guarantee.

Why then, do we spend decades of our lives, being miserable in jobs that we don’t care for? Why do we spend our life energy, chasing something that wouldn’t give us happiness?

Sure, we do need a roof over our heads. Food to fill our stomachs. Water to quench our thirst. The simple necessities of life. But the rest? Penthouse apartments, Italian cars, the finest leather goods? All white noise to distract us from the simple pleasures of life, the stuff that rids us of our detestable corporate jobs. The stuff that makes our hearts sing.

The simple pleasures of life. The stuff that truly matters.

Your Simple-Living To-Do-List:

Take some time out of each day to think about what brings you happiness. Write down anything that comes to mind – whether it’s a car, an apartment, exercising, or spending time with loved ones. This isn’t an easy exercise; it could take you days, if not weeks or months, to come up with a substantial list. But this isn’t a race to some arbitrary finish line, so do spend the time to do this.

Separate what brings you happiness into two groups – material things, and the simple things. Clothes, cars, dining out, these belong to “material things”. Exercising, making music, spending time with loved ones, writing, reading, these belong to “the simple things”.

I’m not advocating for you to completely ignore the material things that can provide you with happiness. But do focus on spending a majority of your time doing the simple things that bring you happiness.

The more time you spend engaging in the simple pleasures of life, the less expenses you’d incur, the less likely you’d need a job, and the more time you’d have on your hands to chase your dreams.

Step 4 – Save Money. Don’t Quit Your Job Yet

When you’re done paying down all your debt, when you stop accumulating liabilities, and when you start living a simple lifestyle, this would happen automatically – You get to save lots of money. And saving money is important as hell.

You’re probably wondering, “Liz, you just preached about the best things in life being free! What’s up with this?”

Well. In this world, we need money to put a roof over our heads. To put food and water in our mouths. To clothe our bodies. To maintain a basic level of hygiene. To commute to places. To travel the world. All these expenses aren’t going to pay for themselves.

I may be a strong advocate of simple living. I may support the belief that many of the best things in life are free. But I also understand that even the person living the simplest possible life, needs some level of financial comfort.

Let’s say you grow your own food. Don’t you still need money to buy seeds? To buy tools for harvesting? To water the plants when there isn’t enough rainfall?

Let’s say you cycle to everywhere you need to go. You’d still need money to buy a bike. You’d still need money to replace worn out parts. Even if you were to walk everywhere instead, you’d still need money to buy comfortable sports shoes. Money to replace those shoes when the soles wear out.

Unfortunate as it may be, we can’t escape this truth – we need money for our survival.

How do we obtain this money? We spend time providing services for others, in exchange for a sum of money. Usually, the services we provide come in the form of working a corporate 9-to-5 job.

I know it completely sucks, to have to work for money. Most of us are stuck in corporate jobs we detest, just for the money. If you’re doing it only for the money, only so you can pay the bills, it just plain sucks.

But mull over this for a little bit. Having a medical scare, and wondering how you can pay the bills – is this freedom? Agonizing over where your next meal is going to come from – is this freedom? Having to eat dollar pizza or instant ramen for the rest of your life, because you can’t afford anything more – is this freedom? Constantly worrying about whether you’re going to get evicted – is this freedom? Struggling to scrape together a few dollars to take the subway – is this freedom?

When you have the option to quit your job without worrying about money, you have freedom. When you have the option to spend your day as you please, you have freedom. When you have the option to eat a delicious home-cooked meal over instant ramen, you have freedom. When you have the option to choose an apartment over living on the streets, you have freedom.

With money saved up, you have options. And with options, you have freedom.

I don’t like my corporate job. (I mean, who does, right?) I work, only so I can receive a neat little paycheck at the end of the month. Although I’m not downright miserable, I think about quitting, every single day. But I’m still a few years away from accumulating my ideal amount of savings. If quitting now means that I’ll be up all night worrying, if quitting now means that I’ll be in a constant state of anxiety, I’d rather not quit.

How could endless nights of insomnia, ever be considered freedom? How could living in a state of fear, ever be considered freedom? How could constantly fretting about money, ever be considered freedom? Maybe you’re free of the job you hated so much, but are you truly free? Don’t mistake quitting your job, for freedom. Because if you don’t have enough savings, you might just find yourself more stressed and more anxious than ever.

Think of your job not as something that sucks the soul out of your body, but as something that’s providing you with a decent amount of money. Money that you can use to splurge on your freedom. When you take advantage of compound interest, you would find yourself with a pretty penny to tide you through all occasions.

Therefore, think of your job as something that’s providing Future-You with freedom.

A few years of sacrifice, for decades of freedom.

I currently have a five-digit nest egg in high-interest bearing bank accounts, stocks, and bonds. By the end of 2018, at the age of 25, I’d have a six-digit nest egg.

Considering the fact that I can save around $40,000 a year from my job and side hustling, I should have $250,000 in 3-4 years’ time. And that’s from savings alone. If the financial markets rally, I could have a much, much more substantial net worth.

This money, though I had to trade years of my life for it, can pay for my living expenses for years. Actually, taking into account how simple my lifestyle is, this money could possibly pay for all my living expenses for decades.

I never have to worry about whether I can put food on the table. Or whether I have a comfy bed to sleep in. Or whether my medical bills can be covered.

Now, that’s freedom.

Your Money-Saving To-Do-List:

While you’re working a desk job, whether you like or dislike it, focus on putting away as much as humanly possible. I save around 70-80% of my income, even though I don’t earn much from my corporate job.

In the meantime, calculate your annual expenses and cut the fat from your expenses. After which, figure out how much you need to have saved up before you allow yourself to quit your job. (I know this is extremely vague, but I’ll definitely be writing about this in the future!)

Step 5 – Screw What Everyone Else Thinks

Are you trying to become financially independent? Trying to lead a simpler life? Trying to save lots of money? Whatever your journey, you’re bound to meet someone who frowns upon your decisions. Or someone who keeps asking you whether you feel “deprived”.

We feel crappy about this, because what we all crave, is to fit in and be accepted. We long to feel part of a community. We’re hungry for approval that validates our entire existence. But keeping up with the Joneses is a sure-fire way to get yourself into a position of huge debt and little savings. Oh, and of course, a life of being chained to your cubicle. A life of minimal freedom.

Everyone seems to think that being in debt is a normal thing. They view having student loans, car loans, and housing mortgages as “good” forms of debt. Why? Because having a degree, a nice car and a fancy house are indications that you’ve made it in life. On top of that, you need to dress appropriately, wear suitable shoes, and carry branded bags – signs of apparent affluence. Spending, which you rack up on your credit card.

And if you don’t have this material stuff? People look at you weird, and wonder if you’re broke.

Let me tell you this. None of that should matter to you, because you’re insignificant to other people. And that’s a damn good thing.

Take Advantage of Your Insignificance

I hate the stares of some of my relatives and colleagues. I can see their eyes scanning. I know that they’re looking at what I’m wearing and determining how much I spent on my stuff. It used to get me in a huff. Even today, I still do feel self-conscious. But here’s the thing – that lasts for all of 1 minute. Maybe even 30 seconds. After which, something else will catch their eye, and the stuff I’m wearing will be long forgotten. Because I’m insignificant to them.

People just don’t have the time to spend hours and hours obsessing over your latest acquisition. Or, for that matter, whether you’re broke or not. The world we live in has too much to offer. People will get excited over something new for a minute or two, but then they’ll be distracted by the millions of other things out there. When you buy a $10,000 watch, or a $50,000 car, what is it for? Does the watch or car provide you with an equivalent amount of happiness? Or are you buying these things for that 1 minute of approval from other people? If so, is that even worth it?

My family is extremely wealthy, and my relatives love to hold fancy parties at their equally fancy houses. Even though the dress code is usually casual, everyone will be decked out in pretty dresses and expensive shirts. And into the parties I’ll stroll, in a $50 dress and a 3-year-old Herschel backpack. Easy to maintain, and perfectly functional.

But the pressure to look better, sometimes, can be a little overbearing.

My mum talked to me a few times about this. She told me that I needed to spend more money maintaining my image, and that I couldn’t always be using a 3-year-old backpack that looks like it’s going to fall apart. My grandmother gently chided me about the same thing, too. She always told me that I need to go out and buy more dresses. “Having 7 work dresses is way too little”, she told me, “What will other people think about you?”

Does it bother me? A little, but I continue to be firm. I don’t believe in buying new stuff until my current items become irreparable. I won’t buy a new backpack until my current one gives way. I won’t buy new pair of shoes until I can’t walk in my current pair. I won’t buy new dresses until I’m not able to wear my current dresses. Doing otherwise will force me into a vicious cycle of shopping and then getting rid of perfectly functional items.

A complete waste of hard-earned money, and for what? So that other people can fawn over me and my new stuff? Should I go out and spend $1,000, just for a couple minutes of approval?

The few years that I spent pondering about happiness have made me realise that I don’t derive a lick of joy from buying new clothes, new shoes, new bags. I only have one body, one pair of shoulders, and one pair of feet. No matter how many dresses I switch up during the week, no matter how many shoes I show off in a month, I never feel any different. My body, my feet, my shoulders don’t feel any different whether I’m carrying a $100 bag, or a $10,000 bag. A $100 pair of shoes, or a $1,000 pair of shoes. A $20 dress, or a $200 dress.

It doesn’t make any sense for me to buy new stuff, for the sole purpose of gaining the acceptance of other people.

After all, I’m insignificant. People may think I’m broke. But they won’t care for longer than a few minutes.

When you’re deeply aware of what brings you happiness, and what doesn’t, you don’t feel so insecure. When you’re in tune with what you want, not what other people want, you wouldn’t care so much about what they think about you. When you’re dead-set on pursuing a life of freedom, that’s when you stand real tall, even when others look down on you.

That’s when you can walk into a room full of wealthy relatives with extravagant stuff, carry a 3-year-old backpack, and still be at ease in your skin.

It’s liberating, when you stop caring about what other people think about you. Nothing brings you down. Nothing touches you. You’re free.

“Care about people’s approval, and you will always be their prisoner.”
– Lao Tzu

When you’re taking in your last breath, when you’re going to be stripped of all your worldly possessions, what’ll matter are the people you’ve touched, the lives that you’ve changed, and the beautiful memories you’ve created.

Not the people who gave you approval for dressing up real nice.

Your To-Do-List:

Understand that most people are naturally nosy curious. They’d want to know what you’re wearing, what you’re buying, what you’re driving, where you’re staying. Recognise that these people will judge you based on this stuff, but only for a few minutes or so.

Become deeply acquainted with the fact that you’re insignificant. And use that to your advantage. Screw what everyone else thinks.

Be Free.

Many of us seek freedom, but few of us ever achieve it. Because the pursuit of freedom is not an easy one.

It’s easy to accumulate debt. To only pay the minimum on your credit cards. To live in the lap of luxury. To spend beyond your means. It’s easy to do all that.

You know what isn’t easy?

Having the discipline to pay down all your debts.

Resisting the temptation to bring more liabilities into your life.

Living simply, but with intentionality, where everything in your life has a distinct purpose.

Cultivating the persistence to stick it out in a corporate job for a while. Delaying gratification to save money.

Nurturing the self-confidence to stand tall when everyone else looks down on you.

Living a life of freedom. This isn’t easy.

But like everything else in the world, nothing worthwhile ever comes easily.

To a life of freedom for all of us,
Liz

Being fairly new to the Financial Freedom movement, I’m not particular good at a lot of things. I don’t make big bucks. I don’t reap fantastic investment returns.

But I do have one ‘superpower’ (if you can call it that) when it comes to personal finance. And I like to think that it’s made all the difference in the world.

What’s this superpower?

My ability to enjoy the very simple things in life. Simple pleasures.

It’s unlikely. It’s under-stated. It probably made you raise one eyebrow in curiosity.

But in my honest opinion, it’s a superpower that’ll grant you infinite freedom.

What are Simple Pleasures?

“Simple” is entirely subjective.

To a world-class celebrity earning hundreds of millions of dollars, simple could mean dinner at an expensive restaurant, instead of sailing across the world in a private jet.

To a more average person, simple could mean buying a beat-up Honda instead of a brand new sparkling Mercedes-Benz.

To me, simple means being content with what I already have, or spending only a few dollars for a little entertainment.

A simple pleasure is scoring a great $0.50 DVD for Friday movie nights, along with a steaming cup of hot chocolate.

A simple pleasure is trudging through one of Mother Nature’s forests, the leaves rustling under your feet, the birds chirping away happily.

A simple pleasure is walking by the beach, listening to the gentle lapping of waves against the shore, watching the twinkling lights of ships a distance away.

Simple pleasures that anyone can enjoy.

Why is it a Superpower?

When you plan for life after quitting your job, you’re going to have to set a budget for housing, food, transport, entertainment, health. The list goes on, and on.

Let’s keep things simple. Let’s say you make $50,000 a year. And you spend, annually, $18,000 on housing, $10,000 on food, $8,000 on transport, and $4,000 on entertainment. This adds up to $40,000 a year. According to the famous 4% rule, you’d need a portfolio of $1 million to maintain your standard of living. Your savings of $10,000 a year, or a savings rate of 20%, would mean you’re 36.7 years away from financial freedom.

But what if you enjoy living in a tiny house? What if you enjoy economical home-cooked meals? What if you take public transport? What if your entertainment is entirely free? Your expenses could then be $20,000 a year, or even less. You’d need a portfolio of $500K, or even less. Your savings of $30,000 a year, or a savings rate of 60%, would put you only 12.4 years away from financial freedom.

The Amazing Early Retirement Grid, from Four Pillar Freedom

This amazing superpower has the ability to slash the size of the nest egg that you need. Not only that, it helps reduce the expenses that you have now, boosting your savings rate. What does this mean? You’re drastically decreasing the amount of time you need to work, before you reach financial freedom.

You could quit working in a cubicle maybe 10 years from now, instead of slaving away for the next 36.

That’s 2.5 decades where you spend your time doing things that are meaningful, instead of pushing paper in an office. How wonderful is that?

When you enjoy the simple things in life, you won’t need to worry about your portfolio dwindling during a recession. You won’t need to fret about out-living your ever-shrinking portfolio.

Because almost everything you love is absolutely free.

When you enjoy the simple things, you could go about your daily life spending no more than just a few bucks on absolute necessities.

This superpower of enjoying simple pleasures is what allows me to save as much as I do. Despite earning no more than $2,825 from my corporate job, and a few hundred dollars from side hustles and interest income, I’m able to save 75% of my monthly salary.

And you know what? I don’t feel deprived. I don’t feel like I’m missing out on life, or that life is passing me by.

In fact, when I tabulate my monthly savings at the end of each month, a wave of accomplishment rushes over me.

When I get a good workout in, or hike in the woods, my soul feels at ease with the world.

When I finish writing a blog post that I’m proud of, my heart sings.

When I listen to an amazing song, or learn how to play a sick beat, my body feels like it’s on fire.

When I read a fantastic book that I borrowed from the library, I feel like I’m transported to another dimension.

Apart from the initial investment for blog hosting or buying a new musical instrument, these things don’t cost a cent.

I could do all these things that bring happiness into my life, for years and years, without forking over an exorbitant sum of money.

Infinite freedom.

So, remember. Next time you’re slogging it out at your corporate job, aiming for your $1 million portfolio that’ll take the next 2-3 decades to achieve, hating your life every miserable second of the way, remember that you have other options.

Enjoyment and happiness is only a stone’s throw away, only if you have the desire to look for it.

Financial freedom is available for everyone. The freedom to be happy is out there. The freedom to live life on your own terms every single day, is right before your very eyes.

Don’t let it elude you in exchange for a fancy house, a luxurious car and nights filled with caviar and champagne.

A Simple, Yet Inspiring, Story

I’d like to end this post with a little story I heard when I was younger. It’s a story about a fisherman, who lives in a quaint little town.

A businessman, while vacationing in the little town, strikes up a conversation with the fisherman. “This is a charming little village. You live here?”

The fisherman grins proudly. “Yes, I do. It’s great, really. I live in a little low-maintenance cottage. I fish to feed myself. And I spend the rest of my day hiking and enjoying nature.”

“That’s a wonderful, relaxing way of life! I want to relax like you do, after I retire in 20 years. My job is just too stressful, I can’t do it forever.” The businessman replies, a hint of envy plain in his voice.

The fisherman furrows his brows and looks at the businessman with eyes filled with doubt. His response shakes the businessman’s very core. “But why go through 20 years of misery, when you can have all the simple pleasures of life, right here, right now?”

Just a little food for thought.

Love,
Liz

I like to think that I’m ‘immune’ to most luxuries in the world.

I don’t own a car, and I take either the bus or the subway practically everywhere I go. I use a 3-year-old Herschel backpack for almost all occasions. My iPhone 6 is 3 years old, and counting.

But the one thing that makes my heart flutter? Apartments.

Where I come from, land is scarce. Because of this scarcity, you pay through your nose for housing. A tiny studio apartment in the far-flung corners of the city would set you back $500K. “Tiny” meaning about 500 square feet, or 46.5 square metres. “Far-flung” meaning it’ll take you 2 hours to get to work by public transport. That means you’re looking at a 3-4 hour commute every single day.

A while ago, my girlfriend and I were eyeing an apartment. It was incredibly remote, and would take me at least an hour and a half to get to work. But it was one of the cheapest apartments we could find. It was a 2-bedroom, about 750 square feet, or 70 square metres.

The cost? About $800K. And that’s considered to be cheap.

The Downpayment

The first issue was the downpayment. Our downpayment of 20% amounted to $160K. No small sum of money, but we knew we could do it.

At the time, we already had savings of around $60K or so. Which meant that we had only $100K to save. My girlfriend’s 5 years older than I am, so the plan was for her to save $60K, and for me to save $40K. Manageable.

We knew that we could afford the entire downpayment within a couple of years. Or maybe even less.

The Monthly Repayments

We needed a bank loan of $640K ($800K – $160K). The interest rate was 1.8% per annum at the time. A 25-year mortgage meant that our monthly repayment would be $2,651 a month.

‘That’s not bad!’, we told ourselves. The interest rate was at an all-time low, and the apartment was the cheapest 2-bedroom we could find. ‘What a steal!’

I was earning $2,800 a month. My girlfriend was earning $3,700 a month. Our combined monthly income was $6,500.

We did the math, and here’s what we would spend every month.

Maybe you’re thinking “hey, savings of $1,700 a month? That’s okay!”

But that’s for two people. Which means that we’re saving only $850 a month, per person. Far from ideal.

And what I listed above includes only monthly expenses.

What about property tax? Property insurance? Income tax? Travel expenses?

Essentially, we would have close to zero savings. All our net worth will be tied up in the apartment.

Sure, our paychecks were stable. But so were our expenses. Whatever money comes in, would flow right out.

But we were bright-eyed, and unrealistically optimistic. And we wanted that damn apartment.

So, the plan was to live paycheck to paycheck, at least for a while.

We told ourselves that things would get better as we slowly rose through the ranks, earning bonuses and increments.

We worked our butts off to save up as much as we could. Full-time job. Multiple side hustles. Living a simple lifestyle. And we made steady progress. Everything was going smoothly.

Until I Started Hating My Job.

I was never a big fan of my job, right from the very beginning. But I somehow convinced myself that I could do this for the next couple of decades, at least. I mean, it was an easy life. Work 9 hours a day, relax upon getting home. After a 5-day work week, you get to take the weekends off.

But as time went by, the resentment grew. Maybe it was the meaninglessness of the work. Maybe it was the complete inflexibility of the 9-to-5 routine. Maybe it was the time-consuming commutes. Maybe it was the endless bitching. Maybe it was the fact that you’re not allowed to disagree with your boss, even if you’re the one making more logical sense.

Maybe it was the belief that I was destined for greater things than to just sit at a desk.

I think it was everything put together. It takes a while for the small things to get to you. To wear you down. A few months in, and I was all worn out.

Not a day went by, that I didn’t think about quitting.

And it was excruciating, thinking about how I had to endure 25 more years just to service my entire mortgage.

I was incredibly stressed, wondering how I would be able to service my mortgage if I got fired. Or if I just quit. Money issues overwhelmed me, day after day, and turned my dreams into nightmares.

I eventually got to wondering – was this apartment even worth it? I was always stressed about money. The constant dread of picking up my feet and going to work wasn’t doing much to help my situation either.

Could I live this way, for the next 25 years?

Was this apartment worth the best years of my life?

Would I even be alive at the end of the 25 years to enjoy my freedom?

No, no, and I doubt that I would.

It took a couple of months for me to accept that my dream apartment was going to slip through my fingers. That I wouldn’t have a place to own and to call home. But I knew that it was better for my sanity this way.

Eventually, I let it go. I gave up my dream apartment.

And you know what? I never regretted it.

In fact, I’m so thankful that we didn’t have enough for the downpayment. That we needed some time to save up for it. That we hadn’t gone in and dumped a huge wad of $160K on the real estate agent’s desk. It was the fact we didn’t have enough money yet, which allowed us to escape the shackles of having an expensive mortgage to service for 25 years.

I’m grateful for that.

I still think about quitting my job, every single day. The only difference between now and back then, is that I only have a few more years on my timeline. I know I’ll be staying in my job till end-March 2019, at least. Because that’s when my company gives out bonuses. That’s only 7 months from now. After which, I could extend my stay to 1 more year. Or even 2-3 more years.

A lot more bearable than an excruciating 25-year wait.

Hell, I could even quit at the end of this year, which is what, 4 months away? By then, I’d have a six-figure nest egg to tide me over for years.

It’s truly liberating, this freedom.

And I know that this freedom is only afforded to me because I don’t have an expensive mortgage to service. Or any other extravagant responsibilities to tie me down, for that matter.

Would I want a fancy-ass apartment that requires me to stick it out at a job that I dislike for 25 years? Or would I rather have the freedom to quit and chase my dreams? Chase the passions that truly matter to me?

I think my answer is clear.

Freedom trumps everything else.

I don’t know yet when I’d quit. But one thing’s for sure – a few more years (at most) and I’ll hand in my resignation letter to chase my dreams all over the world.

Forever.

Free.

Love,
Liz

I Can Understand Why “Working” Seems Like a Terrible Thing.

I would jolt out of bed every weekday morning. With the dreadful sound of my alarm that always makes me cringe.

“Shit, I’m late for work!”, I’d think to myself before rushing out of the house.

Later in the day, my friends would ask, “Free for a movie at 4PM?”

I’d sigh and reply, “Can’t, I’ve got to work.”

“When can you go for a holiday?”

“I would have to apply for leave from work first.”

Work.

The thing that forces you up too damn early in the morning. The thing that stops you from enjoying a good movie or a delectable lunch outside of office hours. The thing that you need to get approval from, before you’re allowed to go for a vacation. And screw you, if your boss doesn’t want to approve your leave application.

It’s the thing that forces you to be chained to a desk, 9 hours a day, 45 hours a week. Whether you’re done with your work or not. It’s the thing that ensures you don’t leave your desk except during your pathetic 1-hour lunch break. It’s the thing that compels you to be stuck in 3-hour-long meetings, even when that meeting has nothing to do with you.

Work.

The word that leaves a bad taste in our mouths.

What’s Fuelling Our Hatred of “Work”?

Societal constructs.

As a kid, you’d go to school, and study your ass off for 7 hours a day. Then the teacher would send you back home, with of course, “homework”. You’d have homework for English, for math, for science, for everything under the sun. You’d be up to your eyeballs with homework. You’re desperate to get them all done; otherwise, you’d get reprimanded.

Your schooling days eventually come to an end. “No more homework!”, you tell yourself. Then, you find yourself in the “workforce”. Instead of homework, you’ve stuck in front of a computer, with a calculator in your hand. And you’d be up to your eyeballs with “work”. Sometimes, you’d even take your work home. You’re desperate to get all your work done; otherwise, you’d find yourself out of a job.

All these decades, we have been forced to do things we never wanted to do. Boring homework. Working with company spreadsheets. Making profits for other people.

The consequences of our failure? We’d fail a class. We’d be unable to graduate. We’d be jobless.

So, we work. Because we don’t have a choice. Eventually, it becomes so ingrained in our psyche that “work” is inherently bad.

And that’s why everyone wants to retire. To live life of absolute leisure.

Changing Your Understanding of “Working”

I’ve always enjoyed looking at articles about retirement. One thing I’ve noticed, is that most articles talk about “working past retirement age” like it’s a bad thing.

When you’re forced to work past your retirement age at a crappy job you don’t like, that’s terrible. But working in itself, isn’t a bad thing.

In fact, working for the rest of your life can be a wonderful thing.

Your work can be the reason you get out of bed every single morning. Your work can be the reason you have meaning in your life. Your work can make you feel satisfaction, fulfilment, and happiness.

The first step, is therefore, understanding that “working” isn’t a bad thing. It isn’t a bad word.

Work doesn’t have to be slogging it out every single day at a job you hate. Work doesn’t have to be dealing with stupid spreadsheets and meaningless stuff. Work doesn’t have to be reporting to an unreasonable boss. Work doesn’t have to be getting up at 7AM every morning just to make it to work on time. Work doesn’t have to be squeezing your entire lunch into 1-hour-breaks at strictly stipulated times.

Work can be creating great content to help other people. Work can be flying around the world and blogging about your experiences. Work can be running your own little eatery down the corner. Work can be starting a clothing line with beautifully hand-sewn clothes. Work can be opening your very own virtual store selling gorgeous trinkets, handcrafted from the heart.

Work can be anything you allow your imagination to run wild with.

And then, work becomes enjoyable. Work becomes your passion. An obsession, even. You spend all day, every day, thinking about how to improve your craft. You wake up bloody early in the morning just to make little enhancements to your work. You willingly skip lunch, because you’re too engrossed in your work. You don’t stop working at 5PM, and you happily burn every single weekend, because you want to keep on refining your work.

I guess now, the problem is finding your passion. Your obsession. But that’s something that’ll take time and patience to figure out. You put yourself out there in the world. You try things you never thought could pan out. You push yourself to your limits. You fail miserably. You pick yourself up again. You keep trying different things. Eventually, you’d find your true calling. (Something I would definitely want to write about in the future.)

But the first step comes with your understanding that “working” isn’t a bad thing. That working doesn’t have to make you feel so damn miserable.

That working can be the highlight of your every day.

That working can actually be the light and life of your world.

To the burning obsession to work,
Liz

Recently, my colleagues have been floating the idea of retirement.

One of them shared that her father passed away shortly after his retirement. All he did was sit around at home watching television shows. And he was gone a few years after retiring.

No life-shattering illnesses. No typical old-age ailments. He just passed away, before even reaching the age of 70.

I was a little taken aback. I wondered to myself, ‘he had a stress-free life of leisure! No work stress. No financial stress. No family stress. He had all the time in the world to relax and watch as many shows as he wanted. That’s the dream, right?’

No, it’s not the dream.

I’ve since come to learn that the concept of retirement, like many other things in the world, is a social construct.

In 1889, Germany invented the concept of retirement. By having the state take care of people of old age, jobs were then freed up for younger people.

Soon after, the concept of retirement became a social construct that everyone now takes as gospel truth. For a great majority of us, retirement (or rather, early retirement) became the dream.

Why We Crave Retirement

“Retirement is a Western invention… that’s based on broken assumptions that we want — and can afford — to do nothing.”

– Neil Pasricha

We want the freedom to be able to do nothing. We want the freedom to be able to bum around at home in our pyjamas. We want the freedom to be able to binge watch entire seasons of Game of Thrones.

And what’s that all caused by?

Our soul-sucking corporate jobs. We run around all day, making money for other people. A huge chunk of our lives is being devoted to doing something that we dislike. Something that we don’t find meaningful.

In exchange for giving up many hours of our lives, we have only a few hours every week to spend doing things that we enjoy. Watching movies. Going for a run. Bumming around at home. Vegetating in our beds.

And that little bit of freedom we enjoy is a very, very small taste of what we will get to immerse ourselves in, when we do reach retirement age.

So, we all want that freedom. To do nothing.

Believing that it’s our one and only key to happiness.

After all, the grass is always greener on the other side.

But honestly, it’s not. Retirement isn’t the dream. And the grass isn’t greener when you retire.

(Early) Retirement and its Conflict with Human Nature

Retirement and the concept of a life of leisure is, in theory, a beautiful concept. Those 2 decades of leisure, after slogging it out for a dreadful 4 decades, sound like a dream.

It is, however, in conflict with human nature.

Think back to when you were younger, and mobile phones were like bricks. Now, they’re sleek, user-friendly, and absolutely stunning. Television shows used to be a pixelated blur. Now, graphics are so high-quality, they seem to transport you to an alternate universe. Abandoning Earth for another planet was never a possibility. Now, it seems within reach in the next couple of decades.

That’s the evolution of mankind. Progress, through the ages.

The nature of humankind was never to remain idle. It was never to live a life of complete leisure, just whiling time away, every single day.

Human nature compels us to make improvements to our lives. To make progress in our lives.

When was the last time you felt satisfaction?

When you were idling in bed?

Or when you were pushing yourself to your limits, doing something you love doing?

Personally, I love my Friday nights in, with a good movie and a cup of hot chocolate. I feel calm. I feel peace. I feel at ease with the world.

But I can’t imagine doing that every single hour, every single day of my life. I’ll go out of my mind. Because I wouldn’t be making any progress to my life. All I’d be doing is partaking in an endless supply of consumerism.

When do I feel satisfaction? Intense feelings of happiness?

When I tabulate my monthly income and expenses, and realise that I’ve hit my target savings.

When I finish a post, and publish it on my blog.

When someone I admire noticed one of my posts, and published it on their blog.

When I learn a sick drum beat.

Those feelings of satisfaction are derived from progress.

Progress in my savings. Progress in my blogging. Progress in my life.

Slow Down, but Never Stop Working

There’s nothing wrong with wanting to slow down, to spend more days of leisure. As we get older, we just want to take the time to smell the roses.

But never stop working.

Working isn’t a bad word. It’s only horrible when you’re working a job you don’t want to work at.

Working isn’t so bad when you’re running your own little side hustle. Or when you’re creating content that you’re proud of. Or when you’re putting ideas out there in the world that you know will help others.

You don’t have to constantly work at building a career. You can work on being more healthy. You can work on giving back to society. You can work on learning stuff you’ve always wanted to learn.

What’s important is that you keep working on yourself and your life.

The concept of early retirement and having leisurely days for decades used to be so alluring to me. But now, I’ve realised that I don’t want to retire. Ever.

I will quit my job in the near future, but I want to work on fulfilling all the dreams I ever had. I want to build my own little businesses. Travel the world. Learn as many languages as I can. Make a difference in other people’s lives. Give back to society.

For as long as I live.

Retirement isn’t the Goal

Financial freedom is.

Having the freedom, not to do nothing, but to fulfil all your wildest dreams. Without having to worry about how to put food on the table or having financial burdens weigh you down.

Remember, retirement is a silly social construct. A dream fuelled by the hate of your corporate job.

But true satisfaction doesn’t come from idling. It comes from making progress.

While you may want to slow down and enjoy more days of leisure, never stop working on fulfilling your dreams.

Don’t aim for retirement (or an early retirement). Don’t bother retiring. Aim to be financially free.

Free to chase all the wildest dreams in your life.

Love,
Liz

Being financially free has countless benefits. I know that you don’t need to read this post to know what the benefits are. I’m sure you can spend all day just listing the benefits yourself.

But I’m going to write this post anyway, because it’s just so much fun.

No More Soul-Sucking Jobs

If you’re anything like me, you probably hate your soul-sucking desk job. You hate beating the early morning rush hour crowd. You hate beating the rush hour crowd yet again after you’ve left your workplace. You hate the fact that you’ve only got an hour of lunch (that you probably spend at your desk trying to clear work). You hate the unfulfilling work you’re doing, just making a ton of profit for people who are already rich. Most of all, you hate the fact that you’re stuck at a desk for about 9 hours a day, 5 days a week, 52 weeks a year.

You feel suffocated. You feel trapped. You feel like you’re going to explode.

But when you no longer need an employer for a pay-check, you don’t have to tolerate the rush hour crowd. You don’t have to sit at a desk for 9 hours a day. You don’t have to do work that you find meaningless just because you need to make a living.

You don’t have to do anything you don’t feel like doing. You do what you want, not what anybody else wants you to do.

Having the Time to Develop Your Passions

 You finally get to work full-time on what you’re passionate about.

You’re no longer bound by the salary you draw every month, because you have more than enough to sustain you for the rest of your life.

You no longer require your day job to keep food on the table and a roof over your head. You get to develop your passions in life, guilt-free, without ever having to worry about when your next pay-check will come in.

You can even attempt to monetise your passions and build a business out of it, without the fear that you’ll starve or lose your shelter if it doesn’t work out.

Spending More Time with Loved Ones

A few days ago, my brother wanted to talk to me. I told him I was stressed and I didn’t want to talk. I needed to be alone. I didn’t know what he wanted. I didn’t even bother to find out what he wanted.

Why? I was stressed. I just had a bad day at work, and I was emotionally drained. To top it all off, I hadn’t even done any blogging for the day, and that made me feel guilty. I was so obsessed with the things that made me money and could potentially make me money, that I just couldn’t find the energy to spend time with people I love.

I felt awful after that incident, even though he was nice enough to understand.

Right now, my time is tight. I work 9 hours a day at my day job. I side hustle on weekday evenings and on the weekends. The rest of my free time goes to blogging, working out, and spending time with loved ones.

I have been trying my best to spend time with the people I love. But even in their company, I sometimes find myself worried about money and my future. (A bad habit I am trying very hard to break.)

When I eventually achieve financial freedom, I no longer need to worry about making money. I no longer need to worry about whether my performance at my desk job is lacking. I no longer need to worry about picking up side hustles to boost my income.

I’ll get to spend as much time with my loved ones, whenever I want.

Security of Your Nest-Egg

All the benefits come with the security of knowing that you have already built your nest egg and that it’ll more than provide for you.

Can you imagine? It doesn’t matter whether you’re sleeping at home, binge-watching movies all day or travelling the world. Your money is hard at work, making even more money for you. You barely even have to do a thing.

That’s the raw beauty of financial freedom.

The first few years of your pursuit would be tough. These are the years when you dig deep and push yourself. You push yourself to lay the financial foundation for the rest of your life. And when you’re done laying your foundation, reaping your rewards will be most satisfying.

Endless Possibilities and Choices

Everything above boils down to one fundamental truth – Money has the ability to buy happiness. Use your money to splurge on your own freedom. Complete financial freedom over every single day of your life.

Regular pay-checks cease to be a priority to you. You stop working just to make ends meet. When this happens, you could do so much more with your life.

You can spend so much more time with your family and friends. And you wouldn’t have to worry about overdue assignments at work whenever you’re with them.

You could travel the world any time you like.

You could work on whatever makes you happy, whatever you’re passionate about, be it writing, creating music, photography, etc.

You could even bum around all day, binge-watching all the movies in the world. And it’ll be completely guilt-free.

You could see all the things that you’ve always wanted to see, do all the things that you’ve always wanted to do.

You could literally do whatever you want to do, all the while being smart about your money choices and habits.

Through financial freedom, you can be happy.

Deciding to get off my ass, and to save up for my freedom, is one of the best decisions I have made in my life.

I hope that it will be for you too.

Love,
Liz

I first came across the ‘Financially Independent, Retire Early’ community about 2 years ago, sometime back in 2016. Back then, I thought it was impossible. I was completely sceptical about it.

It took a while for me to conclude that, “Hey, it’s actually possible”.

It took starting work at a corporate job I hated, to realise that “Screw this shit man, I’m desperate to be financially free.”

Necessity, not Choice

Everyone loves to be able to do whatever they want to do, whenever they want to do it. (Subject to, of course, infringing on the liberties of other people.)

I’m no different.

I hate the idea that we need jobs to provide us with a living. I detest the thought that we need these jobs for money to exchange for food and water. Just to ensure our survival.

While I get that working for yourself and monetizing your passions are totally awesome things to do, working for a corporation that does meaningless work is just suffocating.

You see, the former is born out of choice. Your unfettered, conscious decision to do something. That’s what makes it beautiful.

The latter is what most people do out of necessity. Not because they want to, but because they have to.

And it’s what I’m doing. Because I need a roof over my head and food on the table.

The absence of choice makes me feel drained, helpless, and suffocated. That feeling of being trapped between a rock and a hard place, that feeling of having no viable choice, is the worst.

I suppose that these feelings, for better or for worse, are products of my life experiences.

My Experiences Growing Up

My parents ruled the household with authoritarianism. Whatever they demanded us to do, we had to do.

Disobedience or questioning their choices would bring about consequences. (I still remember my brother crying and writhing on the floor with pain as my father towered over him with a belt in hand.)

We were made to do whatever my parents asked. Whether it was choosing a school, a course of study, a religion, a partner in life, everything was dictated for us.

After all, my parents held all the cards. The roof over our heads, the food on the table, the clothes on our body.

Obedience meant we gave up our freedom of choice, for necessities of life.

Disobedience meant we were out on the streets, struggling with the consequences of our choices.

To me, it just wasn’t much of a choice at all.

That was my life for more than 2 decades.

My Experiences in the Workforce

I found myself in a cubicle when I was 23.

At first, it was all fine and dandy. I was cruising through my probationary period. I enjoyed getting my pay-check at the end of the month.

One day, though, I fell sick. My nose was running like a leaky faucet. My eyes were smarting. I was having the chills. I was running a temperature.

I tried to apply for medical leave. But human resources policies dictated that I wasn’t allowed to, because it was still during my probationary period.

It didn’t make sense to me. I was sick. I wasn’t productive. If I stayed in the office, I would spread the virus to others. It really didn’t make any sense to me.

I was incensed. And a little resentful.

One good thing did come out of that episode of my life though. Enlightenment, my awakening that if you work for others, they dictate the majority of your life.

You don’t question whether their policies make logical sense. You just obey.

In exchange for? They pay you a tiny fraction of their profits in exchange for your time. In exchange for a substantial amount of your life. In exchange for the best years of your life that you can never get back.

I hate that.

Obedience means exchanging my life, for money. (A small sum of money to tuck away for my future.)

But disobedience means no food on the table. It means no roof over my head. (At least until I build my own business or freelance career.)

Again, is there any seemingly viable choice?

The Absence of Choice Spurs My Desperate Desire for Financial Freedom

Between my experiences growing up and my experiences at my first job, I got dejected, wondering if there was any way out.

I thought that maybe, having no choice was just a natural process of life – The rich and powerful have complete dominance over those who don’t have money and power.

I thought that maybe, for the majority of us, all we were meant to do was pay bills and die. But I thought wrong.

A little while later, I was fortunate enough to have stumbled my way into the “Financially Independent, Retire Early” community.

So began my pursuit of financial freedom. My pursuit of endless choices. My pursuit of happiness.

And I haven’t looked back since.

Love,
Liz