FIRE Is That Easy As We Have Thought (3)

Read? Single elderly households in Singapore need S$1,379 a month for basic needs: study

Read? FIRE Is That Easy As We Have Thought (2)


Last week; Uncle8888 went back to his ex-office cafeteria to have kopi with his ex-colleague who will retire next week at 60. 

Official retirement age is at 62 and can be re-employed till 67.

Why retire early when we can still work for a few years to build up fatter retirement fund?

For one simple reason?

Yes, we may love our job; but we may not love the workload throws at us especially during the tail end of our career on stagnant salary. 

We seriously like to slow down; but the work environment may not allow it. 

That is the dilemma! 

Yes, we can deliberately slow down our works; but we will become liabilities to the team. One day; our bosses may have no other choice; but find ways and means to get rid of this liabilities in their team. 

Like this ex-colleague explained. As employee one day we have to retire or  "force" to retire so we might as well plan to retire on our own term.

Here another real life example of employees planning many years well ahead for their own voluntary retirement and then has the option to retire on their own term.

Uniquely Singapore way of retirement - CPF OA, CPF Life and dividend income.

But no SRS! Hmm ... steady!

Walau! No FB too! Lagi steady!

How I likely to avoid sequence-of-returns risk from my investment portfolio

Read? Investment Portfolio Management : Know enough, Know your yield, Know your risk

Read? I Can Depend On CPF For Passive Income Upon Reaching 65 In 2021 To 85 in 2041


Spur21 July 2019 at 13:46:00 GMT+8

Usually any drawdown is taken from the least volatile asset i.e. cash then bonds.

Not ideal to drawdown from equities unless size of equities is >= 30X annual expenses.


We have to be realistic with retirement income for life as not every one can afford Fat FIRE or Fat retirement.

For Lean FIRE or Lean retirement; we have to be very cautious over sequence-of-returns risk. Like it or not; long-term investing for income is a Game of Capital size and investing strategies. For Lean FIRE or Lean retirement; there is little room to recover from any large draw-down at market low. 

FIRE Is That Easy As We Have Thought (2)

Read? FIRE Is That Easy AS We Have Thought


Case 4 : She took 6 months no pay leave and went back to work to fulfill the one month notice for retirement. During her 6 months no pay leave; she managed to find some other activities to pass time and survived the six months test.

Update for

Case 4A : Last year at 59; he took few months no pay leave to test run. Next month; he will early retire @ 60.

CW8888: It is wise to test run your retirement for a few months on no pay leave to see how effective you can burn your plenty of spare time without job responsibilities and tasks. 

Don't Time The Market???

Chun bo?

Uncle8888's own investing experience and outcome over the last 20 years find it really hard to accept this common investing advice - Don't time the market!

On hindsight wisdom and back-testing on own data points. 

Look more rewarding is to time the market and then let those good ones spending time in the market to provide you with decades or lifetime of cash flow.

Uncle8888's three little pigs core holding

Factors for lifelong investing:

1. Position sizing

2. Money management for capital recycling to diversify, filtering and concentrate down the better ones for time in the market and also accumulating sizable war chest to time the market.

Yield of dreams: Investors have "a once in a lifetime opportunity" in blue chips (8)

Read? Yield of dreams: Investors have "a once in a lifetime opportunity" in blue chips (7)


No nightmare from Kep Corp to wake up from yield of dreams!

Interim dividend of 8 cents translating to 6.1% yield on cost.

On Blog Leave From 15 to 18 Jul 2019

Monday, 17 April 2017

Read? Six Months After Not Doing Anything To Increase GDP As Jobless Man! (3)


Gone fishing for three days and nights!

Hope to catch big yellow tails!

War chest for fishing!

Bye Bye Before Retirement??? (2)

Read? Bye Bye Before Retirement???

Life can be unexpectedly shorter while we plan decades ahead for our retirement; so we must remember to spend some of our money for the present too. Money not spend by us is not ours but belongs to others.

Just heard one ex-colleague at age of 39 who is single had stroke last night and in ICU on life support. His family decided to let him go tomorrow.

Read? Life Is Fragile And Can Be Unexpectedly Shorter!

Investment Portfolio Management : Know enough, Know your yield, Know your risk

Read? Not Just Financial Independence. Build Sustainable Retirement Income For Life!!! (3)


Assuming 2.5% annual inflation rate from 2020 to 2032.

Uncle8888 has more than 12 years or up to 2032 at age of 75 over the next market crash to deploy significantly his war chest to achieve his net worth asset allocation through this strategy of know enough, know your yield, know your risk.

Temasek posts 1.49% one-year return; divestments outpace investments

TEMASEK Holdings on Tuesday reported a one-year total shareholder return (TSR) of 1.49 per cent for the 12 months ended March 31, 2019, reflecting market volatility as it warned of lower returns expectations for the longer term amid weak global growth.

This compared with the 12.2 per cent TSR posted in the year-ago period, with TSR a compounded and annualised measure that includes dividends paid to its shareholder but that excludes its shareholder's capital injections. Compounded over 45 years since its inception in 1974, annualised returns stood at 15 per cent.

The Singapore investment firm's net portfolio value grew to S$313 billion, up from S$308 billion a year ago on a Sing-dollar conversion basis, it said in its annual report released on Tuesday.

During the year under review, Temasek shifted into divestment mode, divesting S$28 billion in assets, and investing about S$24 billion in the same period. Temasek had guided a year ago that given the market outlook, it may recalibrate and slow its investment pace over the next nine to 18 months.

Temasek received dividend income of S$9 billion from its portfolio.


20 Years CAGR TSR

CW8888 : 6.3%

Temasek : 7%

Life funds post poor 2018 returns but smoothing mechanism keeps bonus rates intact

So you can outsource your investment to professional and then okay to pay them professional fees for poor outcome?

Your Wealth Mostly From Human Asset Or Financial Assets?

Uncle8888 admitted he is lousy wealth builder on financial assets even close to 20 years of investing in the stock market!

This picture proved it as data doesn't lie! 

Green label : Wealth from his human asset

Brown label: Wealth from financial assets

Walk and Walk

Read? When You Have Nothing To Do???

National steps challenge season 4 is over but still tracking the steps count.

Crossed 2,000 KM in 6 months

GIC’s real returns hold steady at 3.4%, maintains cautious investment stance amid uncertainties

GIC boosts cash, bond holdings in defensive stance amid trade war

Read? GIC’s real returns hold steady at 3.4%, maintains cautious investment stance amid uncertainties

In US dollar nominal terms, GIC’s portfolio returns were 5.5 per cent per annum over the last 20 years, slightly above the 5.2 per cent annualised return from its reference portfolio. The latter, made up of 65 per cent global equities and 35 per cent global bonds, refers to the risk that GIC can take to generate good long-term investment returns.