Hi! I’m Liz.

It’s short for Elizabeth.

Before you scroll down to read more about my story, I just want to say a quick “thank you” for visiting this blog; it means a lot to me.

Me visiting Japan

My Story

I’m just your regular 27-year-old (I turn 27 in October of 2020), queer, FIRE-chasing, super-introverted, frugal Singaporean. I don’t earn a lot of money, so I don’t have a lot to spend, but I still manage to live a full life, nonetheless.

But my life wasn’t always this way.

The Turning Point

I was born into a wealthy family, and for many years, I spent money without a second thought. I squandered thousands of dollars every month on frivolous things.

However, this all changed when I started dating someone of the same gender, and came out to my parents as queer. They were certainly not pleased about this discovery, and promptly took away almost everything I once had. Overnight, I went from riches to rags.

But this turned out to be a blessing in disguise. It was during this period that I discovered the joy of frugality, the peace of mind that came with simple minimalist living, and gratitude for the fact that I still have many dreams and loved ones to live for.

Most importantly, I learnt that happiness and freedom can still be achieved without a lot of money.

Reservoir Walk

Walking through a reservoir near my home during sunset.
A beautiful, simple pleasure of life that costs nothing.

Early Retirement on a Modest Salary

These days, I work as an analyst in a small financial institution. (This is my main job and brings in the bulk of my income each month, although I do also have side hustles that I’ve been doing for more than 5 years now.)

I worked full-time for more than 3 years, earning a gross salary of around $3,500 to $3,600 Singapore dollars (equivalent to about $2,500 U.S. dollars) a month. It’s not a lot of money, and I don’t love my job, but I’m grateful for the fact that it’s still enough for me to eventually reach early retirement.

At the end of 2019, I found myself with cash, stocks and bonds of $186,000. Coupled with retirement accounts containing $45,000, I had a total net worth of slightly north of $231,000.

As such, at the beginning of 2020, with the confidence that came with a net worth of more than $200,000, I decided to switch over from full-time work to part-time work. By taking a 40% pay cut, I now work 3 days a week, instead of the usual 5 days a week.

Currently, I’m also planning for a mini-retirement sometime in 2021, and I expect to see minimal income during this period.

Despite all these decisions, I’m still on track to retire with a nest egg of $1,000,000 by the time I’m 40. (This nest egg excludes retirement contributions.)

FULL TIME

PART TIME

MINI-RETIREMENT

I don’t plan to ever work round the clock at a 6-figure-salary corporate job, and I don’t care very much for rushing toward early retirement as soon as possible.

Instead, what I’m going to do is:

  • Minimise full-time work to at most 6 more years in my entire lifetime;
  • Go for a few mini-retirements; and
  • Work part-time until I eventually reach full early retirement.

That’s why this blog is around; it’s to document my journey to early retirement, despite having only a modest salary, as I truly believe that time is more important than earning bucketloads of money.

Travelling Itoshima, Japan

Otherwise, how would I have time to travel the world?
That’s me visiting a temple in Itoshima, Japan.

What Can You Expect to See on this Blog?

Since I don’t expect to ever earn a lot of money, I have to double down on embracing frugality, living simply, and always being grateful for the little things around me. You’ll see a lot of this on the blog.

You can also follow my journey to early retirement closely, as I provide monthly updates on my financial progress.

And since I’m currently not working full-time, I’m spending my extra time with loved ones, relaxing, and of course, working on fulfilling passion projects that make me happy.

These passion projects include writing, reading, language studies, travel, music, photography, the outdoors, sports, and entrepreneurship. In 2020, I plan to focus on writing on this blog as a passion project.

Writing

i

Reading

Travel

PHOTOGRAPHY

BUSINESS

I hope to be able to earn a small income from numerous passion projects in the future, so I can stop working in the corporate world. I’ll probably post updates on this if it ever happens.

To read more blog posts, click on this link. It’ll bring you to the full archive.

If you’re interested in staying updated, do consider subscribing to this blog.

As a subscriber, you’ll receive a copy of my book, Become a Millionaire and Retire Early on a Modest Income, absolutely 100% free. This is my way of thanking you for being such a valued subscriber of the blog.

In this book, you’ll find everything important you need to know about retiring early as a millionaire, despite having only a modest salary. I also go into detail about my personal financial life – I’m fully transparent about things like my gross and net salary, expenses, savings rate, investment portfolio, net worth journey, and more.

And that’s the gist of my story. Thank you for making it this far, and if you entrusted me with your name and email, thank you for that as well. I’ll keep you updated as I keep inching toward early retirement.

Elizabeth