The retirement fund calculation some time ago is still bugging me. To retire without relying on anyone while maintaining a post-retirement budget of about $1500 per month (in today's terms) assuming 7.5% inflation, I have to make at least 5 million SGD in 40 years.
This calls for a plan. It simply cannot be accomplished by consecutive short-term goals.
1.25million per decade is 120k per year in savings alone average, which is also an average of 10k saved per month from today onwards.
Or assuming I can find ways to get an ROI rate of 2% per annum over the 40 years, I only have to save about $8k a month, $96k a year, a million per decade.
How is this even possible without working really hard?
I'd have to double my gross income within the next 5 years just to have a glimmer of hope at reaching this level.
And this is assuming that I won't encounter any major money-draining issues for the rest of my life, which is as close to impossible as anything IRL can get.
Another assumption, though, is that I will stop having any income beyond my investments by 67, a reasonable estimate of the retirement age in the future. I can't make any prediction on whether I will actually retire by then, but for now the money I can possibly make from working past retirement age acts as a sort of buffer for the whole thing.
The status quo is far from satisfactory; expansion is now of utmost importance. Making the first million in my thirties is no longer a far-fetched dream - it may very well be a necessity if the calculations are accurate.
Life can never be easy, can it?
First world problems are still serious problems.
These numbers may not surprise some people, but my parents never planned for retirement themselves and therefore I had little idea what I need for it before this.
Compared to my future, people retiring today only need a fraction of what I need. A person aged 55 today retiring at the current retirement age of 62 in Singapore would only need about S$400k in savings for a monthly budget of $1000 up to the age of 85, or just under $600k for $1500/month, both assuming 5% inflation throughout.
Sounds easier but isn't, mainly due to inflation and buffers against unforeseen circumstances in my case.
Another uncommon request from someone calling to conduct a research survey today.
"Can you redirect me to the senior HR manager or director of your company?"
Dohohoho!
Yet one more nuisance caller who ends the conversation right from the beginning.
The Standard Chartered banker needed me to sign another document and surprisingly, she sent a courier from Speedpost Islandwide Services to my office.
Even more surprisingly was that it was a 2-way service so that the courier would deliver the document back to her immediately.
So I talked to the courier and asked him how much this service cost. He told me there were a few options and this was the 1-hour delivery service and cost about $20, finally adding with a laugh that the commission was also "very high" for himself.
According to a Speedpost PDF document this is the fastest courier service Singpost offers, "guaranteed delivery within 1 hour of collection".
Since this included a return delivery and the minimum price was S$18 for the lightest package (up to 3kg), just getting me to sign a single sheet of paper cost them $36.
Apparently my bro got the same from Citibank when he applied for his account and it was fully paid by the bank, so I guess I can expect this to be free for me too.
I'm pretty sure the banks get subsidized rates but the thing is that I've never received such treatment before, hence my surprise. Neither of us signed up for simple basic savings or current accounts on these occasions so I don't know if this is only for such accounts or if it applies to all their account holders.
Regardless, I'm still slightly unhappy that this could mean that the two weeks only began today. I didn't actually ask her but it would make sense.
I've already explained to my staff and asked if they could accept a postponement of their wage payments by a week, so if the chequebooks don't come by Thursday, I'll have to talk to them again, and it won't reflect well on myself.
I'll probably have to ask them for their account numbers to transfer cash directly through internet banking from my personal account.
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