How to retire in 10 years

image credit to asiaone.com

You may have came across this article in today’s The Business Times,,, an interesting article in searching of “ The Freedom formula “ for early retirement.

The big word “ R”  or retirement is very subjective and one may not want to retire if he/she really enjoying the works and some may want to retire earlier to pursue their dreams and passion.

Here is another article on “ 10 good reasons to retire early “ (here ), some may choose to retire early because of “health issues, work stress, spending more times with kids etc … “ once they achieved a level of enough “passive income “.

In the article appeared in The Business Time, the writer seems more incline to “ saving rate “ vs “ yield of investment return “. He tries to explain and illustrate that by increasing the saving rate from 60% to 70%, one can shorten the years to achieve financial freedom by 5.2 years !! ( assuming the return yield of 3% on investment ). And in a more extreme case, if one can increase the saving rate from 40% to 70%, you will be able to shave off some 19 years of the time you need to work. !! Furthermore, the saving rate is something within our control as compared to “ return on investment or yield “.

What is your saving rate?

We ( STE and Mrs STE)  don’t really monitor our saving rates in our early stage of wealth accumulation.  We just spend within our mean and maintaining a “simple lifestyle “.

You may find more detail in my blog on ( About Me ),  we came from not a wealthy family and need to work extra hard and save more since we are not born with a silver spoon. We stayed at 3 rooms flat while we could afford for 4-5 rooms and we hardly eat at the restaurant except on some special occasions.  

Also, we don’t chase for branded or fashion goods, including the “ latest IT gadgets “ .. to the extreme that we are using “ dial-up “ modem for our internet access while broad-band was very common at that time and continue to use our old-type of TV while others are looking for the latest model of “Flat-screen TV “.

Working Part-time :

Other than increasing your saving rate, I think one may try to increase your “income “  by working part-time after office hour.

I used to work part-time since young, still remembered I worked as a waiter at “The Ship Restaurant “ near Taman Sentosa at JB after my O-level exam where we have few months waiting for the result. ( those frequent traveller to JB may know that Taman Sentosa is a hot place to go for shopping/eating and of course Karaoke& Pubs in the early 90s).  I worked from 7 pm to 3 pm as you know the restaurant is catering the customers from night clubs and pubs )…

Another interesting part-time job after A-level was working at the factory near Jurong area. A textile manufacturing factory right in-front of Jurong Baird Park called “ Southern Textile Pte Ltd “ in the early 1990s and  I am sure the factory no longer there. 

Working 3^rd shift allows us to have “ night shift allowance “ and also we slept in the dormitory at the factory in order to save the travelling time in case we work extra shift OT (from a night shift of 11pm-7 am and continue at 3 pm ).

Even after graduating from university and working as full time, we also working part-time as “sales assistance “ at our uncle’s watch shop near Bugis after work and also during Sat / Sun /Pub Holidays.

Mrs STE even going to the extreme of doing some “ freelance account “ for some of the small sole-proprietor or private company since she has an accounting background.

Life is not easy and it will never be, we saved and invest for the past 18 years and now we can enjoy the fruit of “ freedom to choose “. How many youngsters are willing to work “part-time “ after office and procrastinate our “wants “ of buying branded goods and enjoying exotic destinations holidays.

“Saving rate vs Investment Yield “ or “ Time vs Timing in the market “

I would opine that both are equally important, high saving rate plus good investment yield will shorten our search for early retirement and the same for good “ timing “ in entering the market.

Of course . “luck “ may play a part in my early investment in the Singapore stock market, right after liquidating all my asset in Malaysia prior changing of our citizenship and have the chance to buy “double-digit yield “ stocks ( REITs ) in early 2009.

How about you, do you work part-time to increase your income? or any other ways to boost your income.

Cheers !!


Quote Of The Day :

“We have this culture of financialization. People think they need to make money with their savings rather with their own business. So you end up with dentists who are more traders than dentists. A dentist should drill teeth and use whatever he does in the stock market for entertainment. “ by Nassim Nicholas Taleb