I started by making an estimate of how much I'd need to retire, and then working towards it. The first steps I took were (1) Save up a rainy day sum in Multiplier / Fixed deposits, (2) Put money towards CPF to grow my CPF retirement sum and get tax deductions, (3) Open SRS and invest in ETFs / blue chip stocks (and also get tax deductions), (4) Buy health and accident insurances.
For me, cash back is the winner since airlines can devalue miles anytime. Also less restrictions on actually using it, as compared to paying to redeem miles, being restricted to certain airlines, looking for award space and so on.
Sounds like you're already keeping track of your spending so that's a good first step! I "gamify" my non-essential spending (including bubble tea!) by trying to spend less than the previous month - and reward myself by topping up the budget set aside for special occasions!
Another speed bump you can impose is to delete all the credit cards stored on the online shopping sites, so you can't check out your cart straightaway.
Agree with SuperMan, depends on requirements.
The number of dependents and living standard doesn’t scale linearly with salary!
I'm a fan of Jewel coffee, bring your own cup for a discount!
@soulsensei - thinking about the rule of thumb for 10x last drawn income at age 67. What's the formula to use for earlier retirement? If say I want to stop working at age 55?
Any good guides for learning on the processes involved for switching from HDB loan to bank loan, including changes to lock-in, capital repayment etc?
(@HeyAnna - maybe a learning unit?)
Splurged on a month long trip in Europe and left the rest in my old-school savings account - wish I started investments early.
I started by making an estimate of how much I'd need to retire, and then working towards it. The first steps I took were (1) Save up a rainy day sum in Multiplier / Fixed deposits, (2) Put money towards CPF to grow my CPF retirement sum and get tax deductions, (3) Open SRS and invest in ETFs / blue chip stocks (and also get tax deductions), (4) Buy health and accident insurances.
Sounds like you're already keeping track of your spending so that's a good first step! I "gamify" my non-essential spending (including bubble tea!) by trying to spend less than the previous month - and reward myself by topping up the budget set aside for special occasions!
Another speed bump you can impose is to delete all the credit cards stored on the online shopping sites, so you can't check out your cart straightaway.
I am curious too! If the price is good then I lean towards the stock option so my investment “grows” but I’m worried about having odd number of stocks being hard to sell in the future…
Agree with SuperMan, depends on requirements.
The number of dependents and living standard doesn’t scale linearly with salary!
I'm a fan of Jewel coffee, bring your own cup for a discount!
I agree the threshold seems ridiculously low, With annual income of $4000, the spouse would only have contributed (together with employer) less than $1500 to CPF.
