You can use this handy calculator to find out how much you need to retire right now.
You can edit the orange cells to play around with the numbers to make your own calculations.
You can edit the orange cells to play around with the numbers to make your own calculations.
Regular expenditure is for all your current expenditure in a year. This includes food, transport, travel, loan repayments, insurance premiums etc.
Future capital expenditure is for all your expected future large expenditures, like a large house or a long vacation. ie. your dream purchases.
The amount you need to retire right now is the total amount needed to fund these 2 types of expenditures.
Future capital expenditure is for all your expected future large expenditures, like a large house or a long vacation. ie. your dream purchases.
The amount you need to retire right now is the total amount needed to fund these 2 types of expenditures.
Regular expenditure example
The default numbers you see above is my current situation. To pay for
1) my wife and 2 kids
2) a car
3) 3-4 regional (Asia/Australia) vacations a year
4) a maid
5) other miscellaneous expenses
it costs about $72,000 a year or $6,000 a month.
Let's have a look at how much I will need to fund my regular expenditure:
1) my wife and 2 kids
2) a car
3) 3-4 regional (Asia/Australia) vacations a year
4) a maid
5) other miscellaneous expenses
it costs about $72,000 a year or $6,000 a month.
Let's have a look at how much I will need to fund my regular expenditure:
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Scenario 1
I found the rate of inflation here. The rate of return used is the CPF ordinary account interest rate. It comes up to a whopping requirement of $3.14 million right now just to meet my existing expenditures. I don't have $3.14 million. How can I say I am financially free? |
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Scenario 2
Using the same rate of inflation, this time I change the rate of return to something I have been consistently achieving, which is 15%. The amount I need to retire now drops to $520K, which is far more attainable for most people. |
Future capital expenditure example
I dream that in 15 years time, I would like to buy a nice landed property to live in with my family. Let's just say my dream home is fairly modest and can be bought at about $3 million right now.
Let's have a look at how much I will need to fund my dream purchase:
Let's have a look at how much I will need to fund my dream purchase:
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Scenario 1
As it is very difficult to predict how much the price of a similar property would have inflated to in 15 years time, I used the same inflation rate as above. Feel free to play around with the inflation rates if you think 1.21% is unrealistic. So if I had $2.1 million to put into my CPF ordinary account right now, I should be able to buy the property in 15 years time. Again, I don't have $2.1 million right now. |
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Scenario 2
Using the same rate of inflation, instead I invest the money I have right now and if I consistently achieve 15% in the next 15 years, I only need to have $430K right now. |
So if I can generate a return of 15% on my total wealth consistently over the years, instead of requiring $5 million to retire, I can comfortably retire right now with a little less than $1 million.
So the trick to becoming financially free becomes clear. It is a 2 step process. First you need to generate a large amount of cash ($1 million in my case) but much more importantly, you will need to be able to passively grow this cash by a reasonable rate.
So the trick to becoming financially free becomes clear. It is a 2 step process. First you need to generate a large amount of cash ($1 million in my case) but much more importantly, you will need to be able to passively grow this cash by a reasonable rate.