Tuesday, 19 August 2025

Evolving Raison D'etre and Name of this Blog

Since I'm way past 35 at this point of time, I think the name of this blog needs a refresh. 

Well I mean the premise of this blog was "retireby35 in Singapore". 

Having "retired" just before 33 it kind of renders the blog name moot ain't it? 

And oh yeah, what exactly is "retire"? Someone call up the internet retirement police please! 

As such I am moving to imbino.substack.com (name subject to change).

You can perhaps follow me on that medium if you wish. 

I make no promises on posting frequency or content, but it's basically whatever floats my boat at the end of the day. 

And it's kinda boring blogging about "retirement" now that I'm there so I'm also scratching my head about the rationale of keeping this blog alive, whose main purpose for me was to inspire myself to get to that stage. 

So maybe I'll expand my repertoire of content on substack I guess. But well that's something to ponder on. 

If you guys have any comments or suggestions for topics you want to touch base on, do let me know how can I help / contribute.

Till then, see you guys and best wishes. 


Saturday, 18 January 2025

2024 in review and plans for 2025

Now that the marks for 31 Dec 2024 have come through, here's completing the review for 2024 and I'll touch on a bit of my plans for 2025. 

Financials

Taking reference from my post on net worth update for the calendar year ending 2023, as of 31 Dec 2024, this is the split of contribution for items 1 to 4: 

1) Cash (inclusive of ST Trading) - 9%
2) CPF/SRS - 18%
3) AUM - 70%
4) OI - 3%

The breakdown is roughly similar when looking back.

The positive thing is that all categories have seen increments in value.

11  1) Cash (inclusive of ST Trading) – Down by 0.4% (contributed largely by rebound in tech stocks and Chinese counters that helped to almost make whole my cash spend for the year)

22  2) CPF/SRS – Up by 13.8=9% (general market increase, especially in the STI and other ETFs invested through Endowus precipitated the increase. My CPF OA is more or less fully invested externally.)

3)     3) AUM – Up by 8.8% (general positive global market increase)

4)     4) OI – Up by 46.8% (crypto prices really rebounded)

As a result of the above, Total Resources (combining all of the above) increased by 9.6%.

This is quite a different “F.I.R.E” + 1.5 years financial picture compared to the first time I did so back in 2018, where looking just at the main components of liquidity, 31 Dec 2020 closed at AUM decrease of 3% and cash position actually (naturally) being lower than the “F.I.R.E” start date of 31 Aug 2018.

I guess I was lucky to benefit of a different “sequence of returns” this time around, while being gainfully unemployed.

I do have to admit that I picked up the process of selling options in 2024, which yielded me a small inflow of c. US$5k, but other than that and going back for 2 weeks of reservist duties and getting S$500 for my IPPT gold, that really was the entirety of my “earned income” for the year.

From a financial perspective, I think nothing much to worry about. Only real concern is underperformance of one of the funds I’m invested in, and I might pare down some monies and reallocate to other funds, but that’s a consideration to ponder on.

Health

I put on 3 kg in 2024. And I don’t think the majority of it is the good kind of weight lol. Diet in 2024 wasn’t really the best with minimal controls of input and alcohol consumption – basically it was whatever works whenever I want.

So even though I do exercise quite regularly, given the diet, the weight gain was not really a surprise. I guess given I’m turning 40 soon, the metabolism isn’t exactly the best. Same goes for the recovery time that I need when I exercise.  

I’ve also gotten back into Yoga in 4Q2024, and am enjoying the process of turning up for classes, and enjoying the stretch in.

Day to Day Life in 2024

Sans travels and the associated planning for them, I spent quite a bit of time chilling, exploring and picking up new hobbies, such as kombucha brewing, sourdough baking, cooking for the wife, reading and gaming. Only kombucha brewing has been discontinued because of my gastric reflux issue.

I think I read more than 10 different books (I only started tracking my books read towards 3Q24) of wide ranging genres in 2024 and the two that immediately comes to mind was “The Fund” by Rob Copeland and “Floating on a Malayan Breeze” by Sudhir Thomas Vadaketh.

A bit of a reminder that there is more than meets the eye than public image, and how some things don’t or take a long time to change, with fissures being structurally exacerbated.  

Gaming took up a fair bit of time. Had the opportunity to engage in some really good ones, such as Baldurs Gate 3, Death Stranding, Dying Light, Horizon Zero Dawn, and EAFC24/25. Some of these titles were pretty awesome with great storylines. But the one which really took up quite a fair bit of time was ultimate team on EAFC24/25 – don’t get me started on why.

I did spend quite a fair bit of time with my family here, having had the chance to bring my parents for a couple of short overseas trips while they are still in good health. I have siblings who were spending some time transiting jobs / on sabbatical as well, so it was nice to have them for company on off-peak activities, especially for nice value lunches and off peak gym classes.

I do think the only “work” I really had to put in in 2024 was taking the real estate salesperson (i.e. real estate agent) course and taking the licensing exam.

In light of potentially selling my own BTO 5 years down the road, a high likelihood of my parents downgrading in the next few 5 to 10 years, and marred by my own experiences of considering property purchases back in the days of employment, I decided that it might be worthwhile to go through the process of the course, exam and license, so at least I know whether someone else is smoking me / I can actually conduct my own sales and save fees, so I went ahead to do that.

I also deduced that in the event I would like to ramp things up again, I’ll have some transferable skills and still be able to have full autonomy over my time.  

Anyhow, the course was conducted by zoom and took up 8 full weekdays, which was simple enough. The exam was over an entire weekend but the prep work that went into it was substantial. And to be honest, it wasn’t straightforward nor easy. But I guess I got lucky and passed that, so now I am a licensed agent.  

Plans for 2025

I think I mentioned this earlier but there isn’t much travel on the cards. Only in March am I traveling for the full month and I might go to Sri Lanka in June for a week or so.

I have signed up for a yoga teacher training course set to be conducted over the weekends of late June, July and mid August, so if that comes to fruition, this would be something I’m really interested in doing.

We have to move to our new BTO by early 2026, given the lease on our current place expires then. So that would take up some mindspace as we plan the renovations and execute the move.

I’m looking into rebalancing some of my financial portfolio, so that will also take up a bit of time in 1Q as I look to get the research done.  

I’ve also decided to launch my services as a licensed relator to my network of friends and family on social media such as Linkedin and Facebook recently, on the unique selling point of my professional background and that I’m financially independent since 2018 thus having no commission driven bias.

Realized creating that awareness of my offering could be pretty interesting as I think I do have the ability to help people make better decisions when making what could be the biggest purchase or sale of their lives, and I gather it could also help fill up the meter gauge for social interaction together with the application of some professional skills.

Whether or not this model of real estate advisory takes off, who knows? But I gather I’ll be better for it through the expansion of my domain specific knowledge base and expanding other skillsets which could be useful in life.  

In any case, let’s see how things go.

Here’s hoping 2024 was kind to you, and also wishing all you guys best of luck and health in 2025!

 

 

Wednesday, 8 January 2025

2024 expenses in review

In 2024, my total spending excluding rental and parental allowances came up to about S$63,597 or S$5.3k per month, which is within my budgeted amount of S$5.3k/month and coming in slightly below 2023 annual spend of c. S$65k. 

My share of the rent and parental allowances came up to be c.S$23.4k or S$1.95k per month and I reckon these cash payments will come down by quite a substantial amount to be below S$300 per month once I get the keys to my BTO, given my share of the BTO will be fully funded by my CPF OA going forward (i.e. it is more than 100% covered). 

Expenses Review

 

1) The largest contributor to the expenses line in 2024 was undoubtedly travel as total category spend (including diving) came up to be c. S$22.8k, or c.36% of total spend

The travel schedule was a somewhat more relaxed in 2024, with 66 days spent overseas compared to 88 days in 2023 (excluding the multiple JB day trips that were made in 2024😊). 

1) c.2 weeks in Italy; 
2) c.3 weeks in China;
3) c.3 weeks in Thailand, Malaysia and Vietnam exploring SEA on land; and 
4) c.2 weeks diving in Indonesia (35 dives in Komodo and Nusa Penida)

So it works out to be close to 2+ months overseas in 2024, or c.18% of the time. 

Expenses in this category here includes S$8.2k diving, with half of that being prepaid for 2 weeks in Indonesia in Mar 2025. Enjoyed the diving so much that I’m going to hit the same spot again in March but it will be a different seasons so we’ll hit different dive spots with different climate and hopefully more interesting or novel sea critters to see.  

This expense will definitely drop in 2025 as I will more definitely have to spend more time in Singapore sorting out the BTO renovation and move-in process. There are other personal development aspects I would like to focus on for the year itself, but I will save that for a post down the road. 

In any case, my travel schedule is looking, comparatively, kind of light at the moment, with only March being largely blocked out for c. 2 weeks in Japan and c. 2 weeks in Indonesia, and probably another 10 days in Sri Lanka in June. 

2) The second largest category was Food & Beverage, or expenses for dining out. This totaled S$11.3k, or c.18% of total spend

This is roughly in line with what I spent in 2023, given we do eat out as a couple quite a bit, even as I did try out home cooking for a period of time when I was in Singapore. Alas, similar to last year, there isn’t much insights to be had in this category. The highest single expenditure for each meal was perhaps c.S$350 and these were limited to certain occasions, and if the partner wants to go for a nice meal or two as a way of dealing with work stress lol. 

As an aside, for more special occasions such as birthday / anniversary celebrations, this was categorized under “Gifts”, especially if I was the one buying the meal. 

I do think this category might rise in 2025 though, given the increase in prices overall in Singapore and if I actually do stay in SG more often. Again, my travels in 2024 only served to reinforce the notion that it is really pretty expensive to eat out in Singapore comparatively (hawker centres and coffee shops aside) to the other places that I have visited last year. One really does not get bang for buck for what you pay here. 

3) Coming in for the 3rd largest category in 2024 was Technology at S$5.2k, or c.8% of total spend. This largely comprised a 55” Sony Bravia 8 TV at S$2.9k and a 256GB iPhone 15 Pro at S$1.6k. 

The former is a massive upgrade from a 43” Prism+ which was close to 4 years old, and will be a mainstay for the next 5 years as I move into my BTO flat and the latter is a bit of an upgrade from a “free” iPhone 13 Pro Max that I received 1.25 years back. Thought of changing that given I’m not a big fan of the bulky Pro Max. There’s only so much my pocket can take lol.

Also, I bought a new Kobo Libra Color for S$291 when I was purchasing the Sony TV. Was quite a steal given I was already going to spend S$3.2k+ on a TV and had a S$120 voucher, but if I did upsize my transaction value to S$3.5k I would have gotten a S$350 voucher, so technically the new Libra cost me about S$80 bucks before selling the old one, and I “made money” by selling the old one. I guess this is F.I.R.E math lolol.  

Surprisingly I managed to find takers for my old equipment, sold the iPhone 13 Pro Max at S$800, the Prism+ TV at S$180 and a 5 year old Kobo Clara B/W for S$120. I guess if you wait around long enough and manage the “fast deal” fellas in carousell, one might find a new nesting place for old undesired items at decent prices.  

As a sidenote, to be conservative, my expenses are gross and not net of revenue earned from sale of used items.

4) Special mention to the fourth largest category this year round, which was unsurprisingly "Gifts" that came up to be c. S$4.6k or c.7% of total spend

Weddings, birthdays of loved ones, ang pows for CNY and some treats for my wife here and there to celebrate special occasions like our anniversary contributed to this category. I note that while this has decreased by S$1k y-o-y, it is probably unlikely to decrease much more, and might slightly increase as we engage in different experiences for special occasions with loved ones. 

In Summary

The headline monthly expense of S$5.3k has surpassed my original FIRE budget (back in 2018) of S$4k for the second year running, and while I do think the data points to this level of spending becoming the new normal, I suspect recurring expenses might actually moderate slightly downwards over the next two years as I spend more time in Singapore once I move into my new abode for at least the next 5 years. 

In any case, total spend of S$63.6k falls below 2.5% of AUM (won’t be exact about this figure and see definition of AUM in last years’ expense review) and I do still have a 47-54 months cash runway before I start drawing down my AUM, so I take a bit of comfort in that. 

I will do a more holistic review of my net worth, thoughts of life in 2024 and some plans going forward in a future post, once 31 Dec 24 numbers are finalized and after I get to finish with my reflections and plans. 


Monday, 29 January 2024

F.I/[R.E] and relationships

Financial independence can be distilled down into a simple formula.  

Income >= Expenses. 

There are different degrees of F.I. but the common notion is that you are only really F.I. once your level of passive income surpasses your expenses to a certain degree. 

In any case, consider a fresh graduate out of school trying to get to a state of F.I. 

It is really quite formulaic - 1) maximize your income and replace income that is earned trading your time with that which is earned via capital; and 2) reduce your expenses.   

There are many ways to go about part 1) but the focus of this article is on the fundamentals of part 2 above and the main factor that drives it. 

In my humble opinion, in the context of Singapore and discussing this purely from an expense point of view, whether you can get to F.I./[R.E], how fast you can get there and remain there will depend on certain major factors described below, not whether you can suffer on S$3.50 cai png vs the need to consume S$20 avocado toast. 

Sure - it all adds up, but I believe these 3 factors are the big ones that can cause massive impact on your journey. I think the pareto principle holds true here. 

Key Factors

1) Your partner in life - Basically the person you will be living with in a long term relationship, whether its through a marriage or just a simple long term partnership. 

2) Your accommodation - I believe everyone needs a base of operations. Some prefer HDB which goes for a minimum S$300k, but others prefer a private apartment which will be at least 2 to 3x the price. 

3) Your transportation - Need to own a private vehicle? If you want one with four wheels, that's at least S$10k per annum in running costs. Two wheels might start at S$2.5k per annum. Unlimited public transport in Singapore will cost you S$1.5k per annum. 

What is the one major factor that will drive your F.I./[R.E.] process?

My own personal experience is that the choice of your partner will not only drive your path of F.I./[R.E.], but will also determine whether you will remain F.I./[R.E.]. 

This is because your partner will generally have a say (I guess for chauvinists it might be different) in the lifestyle aspirations for the both of you. And these aspirations will revolve around: 

1) Housing aspirations - Where and what kind of housing do you both want to stay in? 

2) Lifestyle consumption aspirations - Do you want to travel and how flash you both want to go? Where do you want to do most of the boring day to day eating? How do you want to get around Singapore? 

3) Children - Do you aspire to build a nest for 2 or do you want to play the game of life on hardcore mode and build a family in Singapore?

4) Career aspirations - How ambitious are the both of you in rising to the top of rat race? Do you love your jobs or are you the sort that work to get paid to live ? Do you want to set up a business of your own which requires a heavy infusion of capital? 

5) Familial obligations - Do you or your partner need to support your immediate family? Maybe you have ailing parents who actually require financial support, or perhaps a younger sibling whom you need to help foot their education expenses? 

6) Others - The list can go on.

Qualities I look out for in a partner

So what do you look out for in a potential partner? 

I'm not an expert in this field, though I have been through a couple of relationships since my junior college days, and in my experience, I found the below qualities to be important attributes:

1) Compatibility of aspirations and values - Are your aspirations largely compatible? How about your financial values? What is your lifestyle consumption habits like vis a vis your partners'? How about thoughts on contribution to household and life expenses - do you go 50-50 or you have to take it all on your chin?

2) Conflict resolution style - How do you both resolve conflict, which will invariably come up. Is there a mechanic which you can find some common ground in how such situations are taken care of? Basically can you work together as a team to face life? 

3) Openness to experiences - Do new experiences generally invigorate your partner, or does it cause terror and fright. Does your partner prefer routine instead of trying to deal with new experiences, whether sought after or imposed upon?   

5) Ability to learn and adapt - Is there a desire and ability to learn new tricks? How adaptable is one to changes, such as work requirements or lifestyle changes, especially in a situation where income is not exactly regular and subject to the vagaries of the stock market?   

Personal experience

Readers who have been with me from the start would probably know I only found my partner 5+ years ago in 2018 when I left banking - certainly helps when you have a clearer head and more control over your time. 

We dated for a while and decided to get married in mid 2022 - I have my own views on marriage in Singapore but that is for another topic. 

In all aspects, I must say I am a really lucky guy for being to find a gem like her, what more through one of those dating apps - a really curious personality who is open to new experiences with an ability to adapt and desire to learn and improve herself, and I am very grateful that she is in my life. 

From a financial standpoint, although her income levels then was slightly below the median in Singapore (creatives really do not get rewarded financially (at least at the start) in our society), I found the following behaviors to be positive and helped to give me the green light: 

1) Contribution to expenses - An early indication was her desire and actual contribution to lifestyle expenses on a joint and equal when it comes to eating out and traveling. 

2) Living below her means - Although her income was not high, she still managed to save money no matter how small the quantum.  

3) Ability and desire to learn - She is open to learning and improving herself in life. Be it financial knowledge and investments, budgeting works, etc, she is always looking to learn new things which might be helpful to her

4) Openness to experiences - Let's just say she has an open mind especially when it comes to how people live their lives, otherwise she would not have dated a "guy on extended sabbatical". I think we both have the shared belief that as long as you are financial responsible for your own expenses, you can choose to live the way you like. 

Perhaps for the single folks who are on your on financial independence journeys out there, maybe this list of qualities might be helpful if you are actually looking out for a partner, because this will help to mitigate any conflicts that might arise down the road. 

Maybe the other topic of interest is how do my wife and I live well together and share the financial burden, despite having different lifestyles - she is currently working full time, having found her groove in another industry that pays well, whereas I have been on an extended sabbatical for 8 months and counting. 

But that is another topic for another time. 

Remind me again - what is the one constant in life? 

Having said all that... the kicker for the spiel above is that such aspirations and values can change even though it might initially be green lights on all fronts. 

That is because your partner will change. 

You will change. 

Say maybe you start off working and think to yourself - all jobs suck balls, fuck I really want to hunker down and get F.I./[R.E.] ASAP.  

But after 10 years of living like a monk and working your job you realise hey maybe I have a bit more autonomy now and it is more tolerable and I enjoy this and that aspect, what the heck... 

Or you both started off not wanting kids, but 5 years down the road, suddenly you want a human kid and not just a fur-kid. 

Or maybe your partner didn't mind a HDB flat last time but upon seeing all her friends upgrading, she decided she wants to stay in a private apartment now?  

The list of potential conflicts that could arise is endless. 

What do you do then? 

The simple truth is I do not know - I am simply making life up as I go along, but I suspect such situations will resolve according to your individual priorities and how you work together as team in melding those priorities, so it comes down again to values. And I do find that it does help to be on the same pages in those aforementioned items at the start. 

But perhaps the wiser and older people with more relationship experience can help shed some light in these aspects? 

Friday, 26 January 2024

2023 finances and net worth thoughts

Hope everyone has had a great start to 2024. 

Well, I reckon I could have had a better start. 

Been battling a bug and sinus infection in the early weeks of 2024, but it looks like it is more or less healed up now. 

Certainly serves as a timely reminder that good health is a foundational piece to live the good life. 

Anyhow, I had some time to take a look at my finances for 2023 and this mainly serves as a pulse check now I have the time to sit and reflect for a bit. Personal financial planning and analysis - lol. 

In 2023, my total spending excluding rental and parental allowances came up to about c. S$65k or S$5.5k per month. 

My share of the rent and parental allowances came up to be c.S$31k or S$2.5k per month and I reckon this will come down by a few hundred per month in 2024 as my partner ramps up her contribution to the rent, and it will probably come down to S$1.5k per month once I get the keys to my BTO flat.  

Expenses

1) The largest contributor to the expenses line in 2023 was undoubtedly travel as total category spend came up to be c. S$28k, or c.43% of total spend. 

To give some context, this was the schedule of travel in 2023: 

1) c.2 months in Europe across France, Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom over 2023; 
2) c.3 weeks in Japan;
3) c.2 weeks in Vietnam;
4) c.2 weeks in Hong Kong and Bangkok; and
5) c.1 week diving in East Malaysia 

So it works out to be close to 4 months overseas in 2023, or 33% of the time. I do think this expense might potentially drop in 2024 as I am contemplating basing myself more in Singapore to focus on building routines to develop and improve my skills. But hold that thought as contemplation is still underway.  

2) The second largest category was Food & Beverage, or expenses for dining out. This totaled S$13k, or c.20% of total spend. 

We do eat out as a couple quite a bit, even as we are currently trying to move towards home cooking for some part of the week. Alas, there ain't much insights to be had in this category. The highest single expenditure for each meal was perhaps c.S$350 and these were limited to special occasions.

I do think this might rise in 2024 though, given inflationary conditions and if I actually stay in SG more often. It is quite expensive to live in Singapore comparatively to the other places that I have visited last year.

3) The third largest category was surprisingly "Gifts" and that came up to be c. S$5.6k or c.9% of the total amounts. Weddings, birthdays of loved ones, ang pows for CNY and some treats for my old team at work over the course of the year to keep these guys going and motivated.

Now that I am an unemployed and unproductive member of society, I am going to heavily underweight the CNY ang pows and be more selective of the weddings I attend, especially when it comes to the extended family.

In summary - while the headline monthly expense of S$5.5k has surpassed my original FIRE budget (back in 2018) of S$4k, I think 2023 was an extraordinary year and I do expect expenses going forward to moderate accordingly within reason. 

That said, I do have some other thoughts on my increased flexibility towards expenses vis-a-vis experiences that I would probably espouse on in another future post. 

Net Worth - Total Resources and Total Liquidity 

I thought it might be helpful for the F.I.RE aficiondaos out there if I gave a breakdown on how I measure my net-worth while embarking on my F.I.RE plans. 

For measuring my own personal finances, I divvy it up into various categories below: 

1) Pure Cash and Deposits on Hand ("Cash") - Cold hard cash split into various traditional and digital bank accounts earnings meagre ST interest and also staggered ladder of T-bills. This is used to pay for my daily operating expenses. 

2) Cash Equivalents ("ST Trading") - Once used primarily by me to convert USD into SGD given the best exchange rates on market, this has morphed into a short term trading account where I test out various stonk strategies, like selling options, short term growth stock trading etc. 

This was only set up in 2020 and is currently 40% underwater due to perfect market timing and a lack of knife juggling training lol. This account is fully fungible with Cash and will be liquidated to supplement lifestyle when Cash runs low. 

3) Central Provident Fund and Supplementary Retirement Scheme ("CPF/SRS") - To the uninitiated, the Central Provident Fund is Singapore government's version of social security, with mandatory employer and self contributions which are awarded certain returns that are risk-free in nature. It comprises the Ordinary Account, Special Account and Medisave Account. 

I do utilize past contributions to my Ordinary Account for investments under the CPF Investment Scheme and this has been performing reasonably above the OA rate of 2.5% since I first started investing. The sole purpose of my OA is to fully cover my share of the HDB flat. I leave my Special Account alone as the base 4% rate of return is hard to beat and try to refrain from touching my MA (currently at maximum level) given the 4% rate of return. 

The Supplementary Retirement Scheme allows S$15.3k of tax deductible contribution annually, and is subject to a penalty and tax payment if this is withdrawn before your applicable statutory retirement age (was 62 when I set it up years ago).

This source of funds largely acts as a back-up in a shit hits the fan situation and I need an urgent emergency cash infusion. 

There are penalties to be paid but it will be lower than the tax rate I had to pay if I did not do these contributions then. 

4) LT Investments ("AUM") - This forms bulk of my net worth and is invested in a globally diversified managed fund across more than 1,000 equity counters. There is nil leverage involved and the fund solely invests in equities. 

This is the account where I am supposed to perform the much vaunted "safe withdrawal" method when my Cash and ST Trading starts running dry. But you know what the experts say - safe withdrawal also can make babies and cause you to change your plan lol. 

5) Other Investments ("OI") - This is my highly illiquid account which comprises private direct equity investments and crypto (only BTC and ETH). Also holding a right to receive liquidation proceeds from HodlNaut which I am ascribing a value of donut.

6) Employee Share Option Plan ("ESOP") - This is the see-through value of my equity I have earned with the start-up i worked for over 2.5 years, with a hefty discount applied on it.

I would think I do have a good handle on what the right discount is to apply since I actually led the fund raising efforts, but given the illiquidity and binary nature of things of such ESOP in these market conditions, even though the ESOP on a post discounted basis contributes to 20% of an aggregated list of items 1 to 5, I will be giving this a big 0 and excluding it from my net worth thoughts. 

As of 31 Dec 2023, this is the split of contribution for items 1 to 5 above: 

1) Cash - 8%
2) ST Trading - 4%
3) CPF/SRS - 18%
4) AUM - 69%
5) OI - 2%

I like to think of this as a indication of "Total Resources" on hand. 

To think of if in even tighter terms, lets see the breakdown of what I like to call "Total Liquidity" since these can be liquidated at ease to serve life purposes. 

1) Cash - 10%
2) ST Trading - 4%
3) AUM - 85% 

As of 31 Dec 2023, my cash runway (summation of 1 and 2) before drawdown of AUM is roughly 5 years, so I do hope that it will help alleviate any sequence of returns risk and allow my AUM to grow in the market before I actually need to enact drawdown actions. 

AUM did grow 8% in 2023 which contributed to Total Resources growth of 6% despite having zero employment income for 7 months, and this gives me some confidence going forward. 

Separately, I do feel that to go 5 years without any income at 38 years old is quite improbable, which is another one of these thoughts that have surfaced quite quickly during my second time taking a F.I.R.E sabbatical. 

It is a bit hard to put a pulse on things, and might be worthwhile expounding on in a future post, but generally doing this sabbatical for the second time has given me more confidence to adapt my plans accordingly and not dwell too much on the numbers or get into a form of "analysis-paralysis". 

In any case, hope this post is somewhat helpful to the public, as it is to me in reflecting on the state of my personal finances in 2023. 

Wishing all readers good health to come in the upcoming year of the Dragon! 

Monday, 16 October 2023

Live off the land? One Hamlet, One Family is an example to think about

 One Hamlet, One Family

<https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/ondemand/video/5001370/?fbclid=IwAR3EYlSwm1XSKBMvByyd1kA2_HsQxoeCdfwihlwU40PHYhK62wCxPe7ZhLY>

Came across this video above, describing a Japanese man who moved to an abandoned hamlet in Akita, Japan to set up a life of self sufficiency in 2012, after the 2011 tsunami in Fukushima impacted his life.  

Soon after, a woman came into his life, and they had kids, plus two dogs. 

The video captures their thoughts and their journey over the last 10 years. 

I find this really intriguing as one of my far flung pipedreams is to be able to live off the land and not have to depend on modern society or anyone at all. 

Anyway just sharing some of my takeaways from the c.50 mins video: 

1) Would you want to suffer for your ideals? 

I guess in all aspects of life, there is suffering. When you go to work for employment, there is the suffering of having to "do your job". 

Likewise, even if you choose another lifestyle, such as an early retirement, there is another type of suffering for that as you have to give up some important aspects, probably comfort, certainty of a pay cheque, and immediate commune with other beings. 

You can only choose your suffering and make the best out of it. Hard work is required in all aspects to have a life well lived. 

2) Money is still useful. 

In this world of today, even if you have self sufficiency and can grow your own food, you still need money as a medium of exchange to facilitate your desired lifestyle. 

There is no running away from that, unless you can really live off the land in absolutely all aspects for a indefinite period of time.  

So perhaps the right move especially in the Singapore context is to figure out the money problem first, being deciding what lifestyle you want to live. 

But more often than not, once the money problem is sorted, the lifestyle follows along, like a shadow. 

3) Community is important.

No man is an island. Humans are social creatures and need connection. One can only go so long without social connection. 

It is of paramount importance to find community in daily life. This can be in the form of friends, family, communities (say investment circles, telegram groups, etc) or even your workplace. 

4) Having kids certainly changes the picture

Sometimes I do think whether I am missing out. But I like my games on easy mode, and to me having kids is like playing life on hardcore mode. 

And this is quite evident where the protagonist of the video talks about his desire to give his kids more opportunities in life to find happiness and a life that they enjoy. 

Which means he needs income. 

Tuesday, 15 August 2023

Quick update on F.I.R.E since Sep 2020

It has been almost 3 years since I last posted and thought it might be worthwhile to update this blog on a gist of what has happened since September 2020. I'll keep this one short since I have to jet off in a couple hours. 

tl;dr - Started full time employment since late 2020 and put my nose to the grind again for more than 2.5 years. Left full time employment and back to the beach since late 2Q23.

Nothing like a pandemic to force one back to the drawing block. It became pretty crystal in 3Q20 that the pandemic wasn't like SARS. It was here to stay for the unforseeable future and like it or not, everyone was going to be grounded. 

So since we are going to be locked down for some time anyway, I thought perhaps I might as well find a full time role. Was offered a position to return back to banking, and another one with a local startup to be their guy to do finance things. 

I was not very smart - my decision was to join the hype train and embrace start-up culture. Well the thought process then was along the lines of after spending time in investment banking, how tough can a start-up get? Maybe its a reduction in pay but surely there's a some kind of intangible experience to be had? *nervous laughter* 

To surmise, it was a very very tough 2.5 years but in hindsight, I did learn a whole bunch of new skills. built a team from scratch, raised a lot of money, invested moneys for a corporate and well I got a seat to get on the pirate ship and drive certain key decisions. 

Made a decision post a round of fund-raising to get my old life back. So here I am back in the wilderness after a pretty intense 2.5 years. I would say it was more intense than banking. 

That said and work aside, the last 3 years have been pretty nice in other ways. Met my partner in life since 2018, moved out to rent together, bought a flat and got married, though no kids (at least that I know of).  

Feeling pretty grateful in life right now, and eager to explore the wilderness in my 2nd time out. 

Separately am also sharing an article that was shared with me. 

Hope you guys who are pursuing FI(RE) might find this as useful and interesting as I found it to be. 

https://knowledge.insead.edu/career/fulfilment-and-fire-movement-realities-life-after-early-retirement 

tl;dr - summaries the challenges and broadly categorises FIRE folks into three different profiles.

Let me know if there are any questions I can help address.