Wednesday, May 03, 2006

life is difficult w/o $$$

no money no talk
for poor souls like us, location can't be e priority anymore. money is so impt. in fact, money seems to determine how good one's life can be. m scott peck says tt life is difficult. i say it's more difficult for pp like me than those who stay in landed properties, frequent high class restaurants 5 times a week (e remainder 2 days are spent tricking mums into thinkng tt they are better than din tai fung chefs), and those can get married anytime they want (like those korean dramas).

retirement
been spending my free time in e office scouting for flats (other than finding info on lasik) & calculating e costs. and in e midst of doing this, i realise tt it's so impt to set aside sufficient funds for retirement!

let's say i need $1K a mth if i'm being frugal, and i happen to retire at e comfy age of 55 - yea yea i'm lazy. and i die @ 75 yrs old.

amt needed = $1K x (75-55) x 12 = $240K

fucking hell where am i gonna get tt kinda money?! my cpf is prob gonna give me only abt $100K (after all e deductions of instalments). so wat else can i do? save up & invest in unit trusts?

savings = $500 x (55 - 26) = $174K

wif a bit of conservative investment, prob can hit $185K lah. and i think i still got some insurance funds wif hsbc which i can withdraw in my 40s. but bear in mind, tt's only if i can tahan being frugal!

final verdict
no cash for buying flat @ toa payoh. too expensive & might be smaller / older. ya lor i eating sour grapes now. budget has to be cut down greatly to $200K (meaning: settle for a plce in yishun liao). would rather set aside some funds to renovate e place till nice nice. stay liao feel more comfy... happy!

for e 1st time in my life, i genuinely wish tt i strike toto or 4D!

(hmm wonder how much tt gold chain is worth? =p)

2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

dun worry darling our savings are enuff for our new home! we only have to find the one place that both of us like, k :)

im so happy for u, knowing that u are not bogged down by work.

as long as we manage our finances properly, we should be able to save enuff by then k. I love u!

9:38 PM  
Blogger Crystallis said...

Savings does nothing except be numbers in your bank book. Look at how you can invest your money to get higher returns.

If you are adverse to risk, then put them in term deposits or similar. I think many funds have a plan where you put aside a certain amount (even $500) a month and gives you a guaranteed 3-4% return. That's 3-4% more than what the money is going to earn for you in a savings account!

Bonds work the same way, with guranteed returns, but required more capital outlay, which I assume you wouldn't have now as you want to spend on a house right?

Then there's those funds you can invest in which really consolidates your investment with other investors, and invest in a portfolio of shares. These can earn you much higher returns of even 15%. Higher risk = higher returns.

Do your homework, get a good fund manager.

Cheers to early and comfortable retirement!

yes, accounting and finance double major speaking. :)

4:21 PM  

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