YTD 2026 Networth tracking thread

[limster]

Subsidised public healthcare is already too clogged with aging Singaporeans (many took mRNA vaccines), and is no longer acceptable by my standards.

Need to project 10 to 20years later.
Cannot look at current situation and assume the situation will be status quo.

you just posted that you are looking at current situation so I asked why you think current public healthcare in Singapore is no longer acceptable? Is that the experience of your parents who will probably be more frequent users than yourself? My elderly parents are doing just fine with public healthcare. They have their regular checkups and quite regularly the polyclinic will refer to specialist for extra tests and all this is done in reasonable time.

 

[stanlawj]

you just posted that you are looking at current situation so its totally reasonable for me to ask why you think current public healthcare in Singapore is no longer acceptable? Is that the experience of your parents who will probably be more frequent users than yourself? My elderly parents are doing just fine with public healthcare.

Demographics cannot be disputed.

But I also painted the worst case scenario.
My inlaws parents went to public hospital, so I 'm aware of the situation there.
(surgery, hospitalisation, etc).

 

[stanlawj]

you just posted that you are looking at current situation so I asked why you think current public healthcare in Singapore is no longer acceptable? Is that the experience of your parents who will probably be more frequent users than yourself? My elderly parents are doing just fine with public healthcare. They have their regular checkups and quite regularly the polyclinic will refer to specialist for extra tests and all this is done in reasonable time.

I think you need to investigate the situation in public hospitals more thoroughly, and then make your own decision about what kind of healthcare service you want to enjoy after retirement.

I have two tiers in my financial planning for medical care:
A. Comfortable - private hospital.
B. Backup - public hospital

Plan A is default what I'm aiming for and already have budgeted for.
Plan B is only activated if I suffer catastrophic losses that deplete most of my financial buffers.

Also, I don't need MC and have no chronic disease, so I never need to visit polyclinic at all ever since I quitted my last major job five years ago. But my food costs are much higher than average person in order to get higher quality.

 

[limster]

I think you need to investigate the situation in public hospitals more thoroughly, and then make your own decision about what kind of healthcare service you want to enjoy after retirement.

I have two tiers in my financial planning:
A. Comfortable - private hospital.
B. Backup - public hospital

Plan A is default what I'm aiming for and already have budgeted for.
Plan B is only activated if I suffer catastrophic losses that deplete all my buffers.

Demographics cannot be disputed.

But I also painted the worst case scenario.
My inlaws parents went to public hospital, so I 'm aware of the situation there.
(surgery, hospitalisation, etc).

I am involved in my elderly parents' healthcare so I have a good idea of the current level of healthcare service quality. but good to get different data points. For starters, the govt healthcare apps allow children to help manage their parents appointments etc, pretty well and fully integrated even if they go different polyclinics/hospitals.

Could your negative experience be a difference in healthcare availability/quality by location? For example, someone living in Central area can choose between SGH and NUH, and furthermore SHC, SNEC are in the SGH compound, but someone living elsewhere has fewer public healthcare choices.

My own plan is:
Plan A: public hospital (integrated plan for public hospital, reinvest savings in premiums over private plan in stocks)
Plan B: private hospital (in the rare case that I will really need private [many others have observed, when it comes to emergency, public healthcare is very good, non-urgent, some people may not have the patience to wait for public], I have surplus funds to draw down, returns in investing premium savings).

Just sharing, YMMV.

 

[stanlawj]

Could your negative experience be a difference in healthcare availability/quality by location?

You basically need referral from polyclinic to get specialist. Then your specialist has to diagnose and make arrangements for your surgery. God knows how many weeks long that can be.

In private hospitals/clinics: you just step into the specialist clinic and get the treatment same day or next day or within a few days for surgery if it is emergency. If this specialist clinic not available, then go find another one available.
But everything has to be paid upfront. (I am assuming the insurer got no time to approve same day etc).

This is the scenario being planned for, but I hope never to happen.
It's like buying $1M accident life insurance but I'm definitely NOT hoping for the payout.

 

[spoon69]

5M will be very comfortable, thats about 200k in passive. Pretty hard to achieve unless u have strong salary, asset acceleration and rich spouse. IMO, 2m will be the goldilocks zone, 100k in passive, will be sufficient for most as long as majority of ur 2M is in asset classes. Time should be the most impt, having 5M at 70 vs having 2M at 50. i would rather choose 2M @ 50

 

[laokorkor]

Some of the posts here expressed concern over inflation and the experience narrated has been mostly based on foreign (eg US) inflation rates.

In Singapore, inflation has been mostly subdued historically, with the exception of 1970s oil shock stagflation. If we consider the super long term inflation rate from 1980, it's at 1.9 percent level.

Many futurists suggest the future cpi increase might be low due to AI productivity gain in both quantity and quality. We should be living in a world of plenty.

Nevertheless, it can never go wrong to be careful and oversave.

 

[stanlawj]

5M will be very comfortable, thats about 200k in passive. Pretty hard to achieve unless u have strong salary, asset acceleration and rich spouse. IMO, 2m will be the goldilocks zone, 100k in passive, will be sufficient for most as long as majority of ur 2M is in asset classes. Time should be the most impt, having 5M at 70 vs having 2M at 50. i would rather choose 2M @ 50

There are alot of assumptions in "$200k passive per year from $5M".
This implies $50k $40k passive per year from $1M.

Actually it is about half.

What I mean:

$1M split into two baskets:
Basket A: $500k just for passive income (eg. dividend) at 5% : $25k
Basket B: $500k for capital growth (no withdrawal pressure), average annualized return target about 15%: $75k

Basket A has no withdrawal pressure, but will suffer capital depreciation due to inflation, so Basket B need to periodically rebalance and transfer an amount corresponding to inflation rate back to Basket A.
Inflation rate = 4% -> Transfer amount is $20k per year.

Since Basket B is not under withdrawal pressure, the amount is not $20k per year, but variable amount and timing depending on several rebalance occurring over a period of two to four years.

If you look at the above figures from this strategy of two baskets, you only have $25k passive from $1M.
It's not $50k passive.

That's why need $2M and more for ordinary person.

The excess returns from Basket B?
Basket B will have excess return of $75k - $20k (return to basket A) - $20k (return to basket B) = $35k, but it is non-guaranteed, and so you shouldn't treat it as income during planning stage. If bear market occurs, and you do not shortsell the market, then you basically have zero or negative returns. Then the $35k from past year need to cover for this year both inflation rate + drawdown from bear market.

The key is your ability to grow basket B regardless of bull or bear market. If you can achieve super-returns from growth basket, say 30% consistently, you can reduce retirement figure from $2M to much smaller amount.
There are some forumers here that earn returns for basket B at >100% recently (or average annualized >30%).
These are frankly, NOT ordinary people and are RARE.

 

[stanlawj]

Why alot of FIRE tend to fail is because people

• over-estimate how much they can withdraw based just on bull market returns.
• underestimate spending due to medical and family needs (spouse/children/parents)

Profits during bull markets need to also cover the losses during bear markets.

 

[jywy2005]

If my health permits, aim to work part time to supplement my expenses, probably until I hit 65 yo. Currently 57 yo.

Meanwhile, I continue to grow my passive income in equities. Hope to reach $60K yearly dividend income in 8 years’ time. Now around $38K only..

With CPF life disbursement at ERS standard plan, should be able to achieve $7-8K monthly, without the need to work part time. Above based on 1 person only.

 

[yslvlys]

I would also say many pple also overestimate how much they need and end up keep on accumulating and never able to FIRE until 60+ (then it's not really FIRE anymore). Too many edge scenarios planned and also unknowingly or unintentionally planning to die a multi millionaire.

 

[hwmook]

Why alot of FIRE tend to fail is because people

• over-estimate how much they can withdraw based just on bull market returns.
• underestimate spending due to medical and family needs (spouse/children/parents)

Profits during bull markets need to also cover the losses during bear markets.

I can confirm base on your figures, 99% of Singaporeans need to work till they die. Please post more of this kind so nobody will dare of retiring early.

 

[stanlawj]

I can confirm base on your figures, 99% of Singaporeans need to work till they die. Please post more of this kind so nobody will dare of retiring early.

If you retire at 50yrs old and then discover at 60 that you run out of money, .....

 

[hwmook]

There are alot of assumptions in "$200k passive per year from $5M".
This implies $50k passive per year from $1M.

Actually it is half.

What I mean:

$1M split into two baskets:
Basket A: $500k just for passive income at 5% : $25k
Basket B: $500k for capital growth (no withdrawal pressure), average annualized return target about 15%: $75k

Basket A has no withdrawal pressure, but will suffer capital depreciation due to inflation, so Basket B need to periodically rebalance and transfer an amount corresponding to inflation rate back to Basket A.
Inflation rate = 4% -> Transfer amount is $20k per year.

Since Basket B is not under withdrawal pressure, the amount is not $20k per year, but variable amount and timing depending on several rebalance occurring over a period of two to four years.

If you look at the above figures from this strategy of two baskets, you only have $25k passive from $1M.
It's not $50k passive.

That's why need $2M and more for ordinary person.

The excess returns from Basket B?
Basket B will have excess return of $75k - $20k (return to basket A) - $20k (return to basket B) = $35k, but it is non-guaranteed, and so you shouldn't treat it as income during planning stage. If bear market occurs, and you do not shortsell the market, then you basically have zero or negative returns. Then the $35k from past year need to cover for this year both inflation rate + drawdown from bear market.

The key is your ability to grow basket B regardless of bull or bear market. If you can achieve super-returns from growth basket, say 30% consistently, you can reduce retirement figure from $2M to much smaller amount.
There are some forumers here that earn returns for basket B at >100% recently (or average annualized >30%).
These are frankly, NOT ordinary people and are RARE.

I look at your maths and got completely lost. 200k from 5m suddenly change to 50k per 1m, shouldn't it be 40k from 1m? Then basket B to basket A transfer here and there but why cannot use 1 basket? No idea but your planning overly complicated and I don't think maths is your forte.

Are you retired now? What is your own planning figures?

 

[hwmook]

If you retire at 50yrs old and then discover at 60 that you run out of money, .....

I never asked people to retire early leh, I support no early retirement for most people. If everybody retire early then the cost of living will shoot through the roof. I can only enjoy life if everybody else is working hard.

 

[stanlawj]

For example, I only withdraw money from my portfolio, no deposits ever.
I used to fret about the lower returns because i had to sell winners from time to time, but now I realise, this is the price (opportunity cost) to pay to ensure liquidity for withdrawal. If didn't sell, my whole portfolio may go down at the time I need money and forced liquidation will cause a permanent loss.

Read the above and deduce it for yourself.

Are you retired now? What is your own planning figures?

 

[stanlawj]

I look at your maths and got completely lost. 200k from 5m suddenly change to 50k per 1m, shouldn't it be 40k from 1m? Then basket B to basket A transfer here and there but why cannot use 1 basket? No idea but your planning overly complicated and I don't think maths is your forte.

Are you retired now? What is your own planning figures?

You're already $5M portfolio or more... that math is only for those who thinking of retiring on just $1M. DividendsWarrior also dare not retire with just $1M.

 

[d5dude]

Some of you will eventually become big boys and join the UHNWI club too.

UHNWIs can also choose not to buy large stakes in small/private companies.

Many billionaires choose to invest in large liquid public companies for very good reasons, its really common sense.

 

[hwmook]

Read the above and deduce it for yourself.

Cannot tell, I saw a previous post that you mentioned past 5 years not working a job so I guess you should be retired.

 

[limster]

UHNWIs can also choose not to buy large stakes in small/private companies.

Many billionaires choose to invest in large liquid public companies for very good reasons, its really common sense.

totally agree. trust the stock market to do its job!

After hitting 5m, it seems a matter of common sense to just let compounding continue and its just a matter of time that you reach 10m. And if you still got enough lifespan left, you could even see it hit 20m, though you won't have time to spend it... (if your interest is to leave a big charitable donation, thats meaningful too)