Target networth

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BBCWatcher

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Electric and water tariffs up and up.
The kWh rate for electricity is not “up and up.” SP Services publishes the past 4 1/2 years of electricity rates here. The kWh rate today is 2 cents below what it was in January, 2014 (the oldest rate published in that particular report).

It’s very common for people to overestimate inflation because they naturally notice price increases and don’t notice (or don’t remember) price decreases as much. There’s a lot of research demonstrating that phenomenon.

erm tuition to me means those private tuition which are much costly than public school fees
Yes, but people do pay tuition fees in Singapore. If you attend a professional development course and pay a course fee, that’s tuition, too. It belongs in the basket, and it’s somewhat correlated with other goods and services you buy even if you don’t pay tuition in a given year.

however one issue i have is e.g 10cents increase will appear highly inflated for small ticket items. is it possible to adjust to make it more reasonable?
If a steamed bun priced at 80 cents increases in price by 10 cents to 90 cents, that is indeed a high rate of inflation on steamed buns at that particular survey site. It’s a 12.5% increase. But then steamed bun expenditures are included in a statistically weighted basket. They don’t just take all the inflation figures for each of the goods and services, add them up, and divide by the number of goods and services. It’s not a simple average. It’s a weighted average. Whether 80 or 90 cents, steamed buns don’t represent a significant part of consumer expenditures in Singapore. So they cannot affect the CPI very much because they are weighted in accordance with their significance in consumer spending.

Yes, OK, if you are a steamed bun addict, enter steamed bun eating contests every week, and buy the most expensive Michelin starred steamed buns you can find every day and every meal, for you steamed buns are a huge part of your budget. OK then, monitor steamed bun prices closely, because they matter to you. But that doesn’t mean a single, distilled CPI number for the country should be adjusted for you, Mr. or Ms. Steamed Bun Addict.
 

Toni90

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I am not going to re-produce my 5-year financial statement against gahmen CPI here to "substantiate" my comment.

All I can say is the pattern is pretty consistent. E.g. Reported that CPI for a period is 0.6%, but my total costs of living increased by > 3% for the same period.

And I am a poor peasant. But NTUC "Fair"price raised the prices of several items. Kopi-O up by 10 to 20c from $1. Cai png up by $0.50 from $2.50. Electric and water tariffs up and up. Town council fee up and up. And definitely not up by 0.6%.

Instead of CPI, you can try to compare with MAS core inflation as it does not include housing rental and car.
 

bigrooster

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Instead of CPI, you can try to compare with MAS core inflation as it does not include housing rental and car.

Done that too. Different figures but same conclusion.

Again, how different it is depends on individuals and their income, lifestyle and spendings. For me, that has been the conclusion all these years (> 10). That includes utilities costs among others.
 
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Can be done when u stay with parents . No kids . No commitment.no bad habits .

I saved most of my income , invested in some REITs . Blue chips . REITs were depressed then .
e commerce during that time has a high margin . I was selling something that was profitable and demand was high . Margin was good .

Bravo! I had at most 40K at that age...
 
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For me, i feel that sometimes i can be abit obsessive with FIRE. I have hit my target of maxing out FRS and built up passive income that exceeds my standard living costs. Next target will be clearing off my hdb loan when i reach 40 next year. After that, i think i can basically relax n do anything i want w my career. Whether its switching job or taking a long break n go see the world. No need to stress over money.

That is great. Can you share your porfolio? Are they concentrated on divident stocks? Thank you.
 
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I did some calculations, my current networth of 800k SGD needs to about double to 1.6M SGD for me to retire comfortably in India. I am estimating it will take me another 5 to 7 years to achieve this level. By then I will be 45 years old. That should be perfect time to retire.

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Where in India? I am curious how you came out with 1.6MSGD.
 
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Just the 2 fixed cost items alone is about 35k pa. If you save 50k, that leaves 15k for the other expenses.

I applaud you for your saving rate. Well done.:)
Many Singaporeans can't do that (me included)...

Rev must have done some great investments. 50k per year over 9 plus years gives ~500K. And he now has 800K. That is great investment. Is it all from fixed income?
 

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Rev must have done some great investments. 50k per year over 9 plus years gives ~500K. And he now has 800K. That is great investment. Is it all from fixed income?
Not great investments, just the power of compounding. Most of my investments has be in Indian fixed deposits, with interest rates of 8%. Rupee has depreciated quite a bit, but I seemed to have timed my remittances reasonably well. I didn't remit from 2012 to 2013 when rupee depreciated a lot. I remitted in 2014 quite a lot and since then rupee has been stable. Now it has started depreciating again. My equities investment have been quite modest around 20% of my networth, so it didn't really contribute a lot.

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revhappy

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Where in India? I am curious how you came out with 1.6MSGD.
Bangalore. I will need about 2k SGD a month to live comfortably. Then add 8% inflation and some buffer for daughter's higher studies and medical expenses. 1.6M seems good enough. So I will need to double my networth and I am estimating it will take another 5 to 7 years. If markets tank may be 10 years.

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rrr2015

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are you able to afford landed property in Bangalore which your target?
Bangalore. I will need about 2k SGD a month to live comfortably. Then add 8% inflation and some buffer for daughter's higher studies and medical expenses. 1.6M seems good enough. So I will need to double my networth and I am estimating it will take another 5 to 7 years. If markets tank may be 10 years.

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rrr2015

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no use one, like penny stock, small price variation becomes big percentage changes
Instead of CPI, you can try to compare with MAS core inflation as it does not include housing rental and car.
 

rrr2015

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i already said am going to track my personal CPI and not asking nor expecting the country statistician to adjust for me

so in the end using CPI still complicated, need to have good discretion on how much weight for each items

thanks much for sharing your views

I
If a steamed bun priced at 80 cents increases in price by 10 cents to 90 cents, that is indeed a high rate of inflation on steamed buns at that particular survey site. It’s a 12.5% increase. But then steamed bun expenditures are included in a statistically weighted basket. They don’t just take all the inflation figures for each of the goods and services, add them up, and divide by the number of goods and services. It’s not a simple average. It’s a weighted average. Whether 80 or 90 cents, steamed buns don’t represent a significant part of consumer expenditures in Singapore. So they cannot affect the CPI very much because they are weighted in accordance with their significance in consumer spending.

Yes, OK, if you are a steamed bun addict, enter steamed bun eating contests every week, and buy the most expensive Michelin starred steamed buns you can find every day and every meal, for you steamed buns are a huge part of your budget. OK then, monitor steamed bun prices closely, because they matter to you. But that doesn’t mean a single, distilled CPI number for the country should be adjusted for you, Mr. or Ms. Steamed Bun Addict.
 

revhappy

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are you able to afford landed property in Bangalore which your target?
Landed house starts at about 400k. Not worth it. It is better to stay in condo style apartment with all the facilities, that will cost about 300k. Yes 300k apartment is within the target networth. However, it much more cheaper to rent in India. Property prices are very high and rental yield is very low, like 2% and mortgage rates are 10%.

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rrr2015

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wow nice … that's a renter's market!
hope there are renter protection law in case of dispute with landlord?

Landed house starts at about 400k. Not worth it. It is better to stay in condo style apartment with all the facilities, that will cost about 300k. Yes 300k apartment is within the target networth. However, it much more cheaper to rent in India. Property prices are very high and rental yield is very low, like 2% and mortgage rates are 10%.

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revhappy

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wow nice … that's a renter's market!
hope there are renter protection law in case of dispute with landlord?
Renter protection or landlord protection, not as good as first world countries. Generally the landlord is at a higher risk, if the tenant refuses to move out. The law enforcement is not as efficient as developed countries.

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Soul77

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Kopitiam Cai Png 2vege 1meat in my place increased from $3.2 to $3.7 to $4.2 in just 3 years...thats 50cents increament yearly.. half the kopitiam stalls are empty. Cai Png queue reduced drastically. No surprise they allow themself to be bought by NTUC. Business very bad.
 

MikeDirnt78

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no use one, like penny stock, small price variation becomes big percentage changes

Same analogy with CPI.

Big items will move the CPI. Small items like steamed buns won't move the CPI much.

The small caps are unlikely to move the MSCI Singapore Index.
 

havetheveryfun

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Is this the reason why costs of livings, particularly food and basic necessities are increasing by a lot, but because they are small % components vs items like rental which is dropping (but >90% of Singaporeans don't rent but own their properties), and vehicles prices dropping (but >60% of Singaporeans don't own cars), so the CPI has been distorted to become rising very little when the real basic necessities cost of living is increasing by a lot but the CPI didn't capture it? :eek:

if u think about it, one of the main reasons why food costs are going up is mainly still because of rental.

many hawkers and f&b stalls are unable to sustain due to high rental costs, so when they can't think of anything else to help increase their income, they can only resort to increasing their prices.

Thats why in those very old market food centres, usually a lot of stalls only open on weekday mornings and afternoons and closed at nights and on weekends. Why are they able to do this and yet sustain? Because some of them are the stall owners themselves and had bought over the stall many many years ago, compared to people who are only starting out now and have to pay hefty rental fees.
 

rrr2015

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but it's the small items that matter to most of us. we may not change car frequently but we do need to eat bun/rice daily.

calculating personal CPI compared previous price result in big inflation figures for small items.

am thinking of comparing with annual budget instead which should be able to show percent changes in annual budget required

Same analogy with CPI.

Big items will move the CPI. Small items like steamed buns won't move the CPI much.

The small caps are unlikely to move the MSCI Singapore Index.
 

rrr2015

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never eat at kopitiam, crazy prices
hope NTUC bought over to control food prices to more reasonable level
Kopitiam Cai Png 2vege 1meat in my place increased from $3.2 to $3.7 to $4.2 in just 3 years...thats 50cents increament yearly.. half the kopitiam stalls are empty. Cai Png queue reduced drastically. No surprise they allow themself to be bought by NTUC. Business very bad.
 
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