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AK answers 3 questions on early retirement.

Saturday, January 23, 2016



Dear AK

I have been faithfully following your posts for the past year and have benefitted much in terms of my own early retirement planning.


What I applaud you on is not only having wisdom in value and passive income investing but also the willingness in imparting this knowledge to other investors aspiring to financial independence. Well done!

I figured from your posts that you have recently retired from full time work and are now financially independent reaping the benefits of your most commendable and lucrative passive income.

If you may and don't mind sharing, can I tap your experience on the following:

1) at what point or level of passive income returns did you make the decision that you had sufficient safety buffer to leave your full-time work? It's always nice to have the safety net of a monthly pay-check and medical coverage and it is not easy to let this go in return for more free time;

2) even after achieving financial independence and leaving full time work, are you able to occupy your time fully and meaningfully? I struggle with this aspect as I fear boredom and a meaningless daily existence wondering how to occupy my time.

3) how do you keep yourself up to date on your work related skills in case you decide to return to full time work?

Thank you in advance and appreciate your guidance and sharing from your personal experiences.

Regards
A Kindred Spirit




My reply:

Hi AKS,

Welcome to my blog. :)

#1. When my passive income was as much as my earned income, I was basically in a position when I worked because I wanted to and not because I had to.


However, I am Singaporean and KS. So, still worrying, I waited for my passive income to be a bit more than my earned income. How much more? Maybe 30% more?

As for medical coverage, I recognised a long time ago that I must have good H&S coverage and not depend on the coverage provided by my employer. Visits to the clinics don't cost much since I am a Singaporean and I go to Polyclinics when I am ill.

#2. Initially, retirement could be boring but I am hardly bored. Blogging and related activities took up quite a bit of my spare time. That kept me from being bored but I blog less now. I am also slower to reply to comments and emails.


Then, what am I doing to occupy my time? I am spending more time learning about health matters, especially matters related to nutrition, weight loss and exercise. I am doing Yoga again and I spend quite a bit of time in my planter gardening. I also read up a bit on the subjects.

I am always learning something new. I am not bored.

#3. For me, I have no intention to go back to active employment. So, this is not a burning question for me. I have an academic degree and not a professional degree. So, I guess this is another reason why this question is not really important for me.


I was teaching for a while and I could always do some relief teaching if I really want to, I guess.

I do know of people who say they don't ever want to retire. As long as they are happy and healthy, there isn't anything wrong with having no desire to retire.

However, if they say they can't retire or if they are unhappy and suffer in their jobs, that is a big problem. They should really have exit plans then.


Related post:
Retiring before 60 is not a dream!

New money habits led to saving $100K in 18 months - Part Two.

Wednesday, January 20, 2016


Updated (27 Dec 16):

I am such a kaypoh (i.e. busy body), I know. I told myself many times before that I should change. I should not talk to myself but it is very difficult for me not to.

Although I left the profession donkey years ago, I guess I am still a teacher at heart.

Source: Wife becomes tai tai...
If every day should see one person becoming financially more secure from reading my blog, I would be very happy.
----------------------




This is a continuation of an earlier conversation which generated quite a lot of discussion on my FB wall:


Hi AK,

Thank you for your reply!

Saw your recent post where you share my email and wow - it drew quite a few strong comments from your facebook readers. Haha.


 Anyway, im not sure why there are such strong comments about the S$100K but no one commented on the $50K loan. All I wanted to say was it is really possible for a couple to save $100K if we put aside 4K monthly and save up all the bonuses within that 18 months. =)





 Others may not believe it but its really not our incentive to convince them. As long as we continue to do the right things to help ourselves and achieve the results that we wanted, why bother about what others say. Right? =)


 My hubby and I had some discussion and decided that we will keep the funds as our emergency funds instead of paying down our loans. 


The purpose of the emergency funds are meant to cover our monthly routine expenses in order to maintain our current lifestyle.



Sleep tight. Sweet dreams.
 In the event if we are retrenched suddenly, with just a $50K cash on hand, this will shorten the period which will allow us to go on a "no pay leave" scheme and we are not quite comfortable with it. Given the current economic climate, perhaps its better to hold cash.

 Meanwhile, its time to build up our war chest. Hopefully the market will not crash so soon so as to allow us to build on our war chest.





Taking very sensible steps. I am glad.

Gambatte!


Related post:
New money habits led to saving $100K in 18 months (Part One).


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