melion
Dryer sheet wannabe
- Joined
- Feb 3, 2010
- Messages
- 16
Hello.
I am 48 years old male living in Singapore. It’s a long way away from the typical post and I hope that my posting is still relevant. I am close to making a big leap into FIRE and would like to seek confirmation that I am fine to go
DW and I have 3 children (a boy at 17 and twins at 5). I am suffering from burned-out and I am fast losing interest in my job (used to be an aggressive corporate climber). I have been taking more time from work for trips with family and friends. Just return from a one-week trip from Bangkok with wife. Just great…. The downside is coming back to work.
Financial
I have grouped my assets in several buckets
1. Basic retirement fund (US$2.35 million) – I plan to draw 4% per year (US$95k/yr) from this account for my retirement spending budget. I have been tracking my expenses for the past 2 years and it was US$72k in 2008 and US$80k in 2009. For 2009, it includes US$11k for holidays. I plan to do more travel once FIRE and expect higher expense. But there isn’t a lot of headroom for the additional expenses. OTOH, I can reduce my basic spending down say 20% quite easily. There will be some taxes to pay as well. I can structured a tax efficient investment and will pay very little tax (say $5k)
2. Schooling fund (US$430k) – college is not expensive in Singapore and they are of pretty high standards. Other alternative is to send them to either UK, Australia or USA which will take more than the US$145k per child. On average, it is probably more than sufficient.
3. Gratuity and Retirement fund (total US$460k) – I have a gratuity fund from my previous megacorp as well as retirement fund (run by government of Singapore). I can access to these funds when I am 58 and 65 years old respectively. I see these funds as very secure and they would be used to top-up my basic retirement fund, if and when they run low.
4. Primary house – I paid about US$1.15 million and it is probably worth about 20% more today.
5. Investment apartment – paid US$500k for it and it also worth about 25% more today. Net rental is about US$15k/yr, which I do not plan to touch for now. We would like to pass them as part of our estate when we move to a better place but I am not against monetizing them if needed.
6. Debt – Absolutely ZERO. I do not believe in accumulating debts and have always LBYM.
7. Oh yes, I have 2 small money pots as well; a fun pot ($35k) which I set aside for..."fun spending". I intend to add to this pot any surplus that I have left over from my basic retirement budget at the end of each year. I have another pot for house maintenance (currently has $17k and I add $220 each month, which I treat as a on-going expense). House is pretty new but I know some expensive work is needed sometime in the future.
Other considerations
1. The work stress is getting to me and I noticed my bp has been creeping up in recent years (now about 150/100 without medication). I manage to exercise about twice a week and I would like to do more exercise but lack the time. Job also requires traveling and late night telecon.
2. I am getting good remuneration in my current job (total US$400k in 2009 plus another 50 to 100k in shares that is locked up for 3 years). I joined my current megacorp a few years ago and I am doing fine here, which make it difficult to leave. I have been given new responsibilities recently and been acknowledged for good performance.
3. Medical care is relatively inexpensive here. My 2009 expenses include some increased medical spending (did all the necessary treatment before FIRE!). Although they are covered by megacorp, I have included their full cost in my 2009 expenses. I also bought health insurances for all my family members, which covers major illness and medical treatment.
4. I develop several hobbies in the past few years partly in anticipation of my FIRE, which include fishing, travels with family s as well as with friends, reading, gardening, biking etc. I am also into investing my own money and have been doing it for many years now.
5. It has been my dream to retire early. I remember setting a target of retirement by 45 years old when I started my career. So I am sort of behind my target now. Having the twins somewhat makes it more difficult to retire by 45 but I would not have it any other ways. The twins are great and the thoughts that I can spend more time with them now really make me want to retire today!
The next step – my megacorp is restructuring now. Although I am have re-confirm in my current job, a few of my colleagues are not so lucky. I am thinking of not accepting the role and just leave (I am not entitle to severance as I do not have the sufficient length of service). I need to decide very soon. If I reject the offer, I can leave in May as I need to serve 3 months notice. My 2009 bonus is only paid out in March and technically I could lose it if I quit before then. My original plan is to quit in March but I feel bad about accepting the job now and then quit one month later.
Questions
1. Am I good to go?
2. Are there any things that I need to consider? Have I left out any thing else?
3. Should I work for another 1 or more years to build bigger buffers for my additional expense expected in RE.
4. If I am good to go, do I tell megacorp now and wait till March when my bonus is in?
I have been planning this for years. DW is supportive. As I am so close to FIRE, I am having some cold feet
Thanks for reading this long post and any help you can offer.
I am 48 years old male living in Singapore. It’s a long way away from the typical post and I hope that my posting is still relevant. I am close to making a big leap into FIRE and would like to seek confirmation that I am fine to go
DW and I have 3 children (a boy at 17 and twins at 5). I am suffering from burned-out and I am fast losing interest in my job (used to be an aggressive corporate climber). I have been taking more time from work for trips with family and friends. Just return from a one-week trip from Bangkok with wife. Just great…. The downside is coming back to work.
Financial
I have grouped my assets in several buckets
1. Basic retirement fund (US$2.35 million) – I plan to draw 4% per year (US$95k/yr) from this account for my retirement spending budget. I have been tracking my expenses for the past 2 years and it was US$72k in 2008 and US$80k in 2009. For 2009, it includes US$11k for holidays. I plan to do more travel once FIRE and expect higher expense. But there isn’t a lot of headroom for the additional expenses. OTOH, I can reduce my basic spending down say 20% quite easily. There will be some taxes to pay as well. I can structured a tax efficient investment and will pay very little tax (say $5k)
2. Schooling fund (US$430k) – college is not expensive in Singapore and they are of pretty high standards. Other alternative is to send them to either UK, Australia or USA which will take more than the US$145k per child. On average, it is probably more than sufficient.
3. Gratuity and Retirement fund (total US$460k) – I have a gratuity fund from my previous megacorp as well as retirement fund (run by government of Singapore). I can access to these funds when I am 58 and 65 years old respectively. I see these funds as very secure and they would be used to top-up my basic retirement fund, if and when they run low.
4. Primary house – I paid about US$1.15 million and it is probably worth about 20% more today.
5. Investment apartment – paid US$500k for it and it also worth about 25% more today. Net rental is about US$15k/yr, which I do not plan to touch for now. We would like to pass them as part of our estate when we move to a better place but I am not against monetizing them if needed.
6. Debt – Absolutely ZERO. I do not believe in accumulating debts and have always LBYM.
7. Oh yes, I have 2 small money pots as well; a fun pot ($35k) which I set aside for..."fun spending". I intend to add to this pot any surplus that I have left over from my basic retirement budget at the end of each year. I have another pot for house maintenance (currently has $17k and I add $220 each month, which I treat as a on-going expense). House is pretty new but I know some expensive work is needed sometime in the future.
Other considerations
1. The work stress is getting to me and I noticed my bp has been creeping up in recent years (now about 150/100 without medication). I manage to exercise about twice a week and I would like to do more exercise but lack the time. Job also requires traveling and late night telecon.
2. I am getting good remuneration in my current job (total US$400k in 2009 plus another 50 to 100k in shares that is locked up for 3 years). I joined my current megacorp a few years ago and I am doing fine here, which make it difficult to leave. I have been given new responsibilities recently and been acknowledged for good performance.
3. Medical care is relatively inexpensive here. My 2009 expenses include some increased medical spending (did all the necessary treatment before FIRE!). Although they are covered by megacorp, I have included their full cost in my 2009 expenses. I also bought health insurances for all my family members, which covers major illness and medical treatment.
4. I develop several hobbies in the past few years partly in anticipation of my FIRE, which include fishing, travels with family s as well as with friends, reading, gardening, biking etc. I am also into investing my own money and have been doing it for many years now.
5. It has been my dream to retire early. I remember setting a target of retirement by 45 years old when I started my career. So I am sort of behind my target now. Having the twins somewhat makes it more difficult to retire by 45 but I would not have it any other ways. The twins are great and the thoughts that I can spend more time with them now really make me want to retire today!
The next step – my megacorp is restructuring now. Although I am have re-confirm in my current job, a few of my colleagues are not so lucky. I am thinking of not accepting the role and just leave (I am not entitle to severance as I do not have the sufficient length of service). I need to decide very soon. If I reject the offer, I can leave in May as I need to serve 3 months notice. My 2009 bonus is only paid out in March and technically I could lose it if I quit before then. My original plan is to quit in March but I feel bad about accepting the job now and then quit one month later.
Questions
1. Am I good to go?
2. Are there any things that I need to consider? Have I left out any thing else?
3. Should I work for another 1 or more years to build bigger buffers for my additional expense expected in RE.
4. If I am good to go, do I tell megacorp now and wait till March when my bonus is in?
I have been planning this for years. DW is supportive. As I am so close to FIRE, I am having some cold feet
Thanks for reading this long post and any help you can offer.