See also 20% savings rate^lifestyle creep

There’s another blogpost on plowback of spare time.

Opening example: professional NBA athletes (and some entertainment stars) — most of them earned huge salary but ended up in poverty, because they didn’t /squirrel away/ their high income during their peak years. Contrast them against my friend JackZ, who lost his MS in early 2020 but could survive as family of four without any salary.

U.S. job market is more age friendly (among other advantages), but U.S. healthcare, social support,, are not great. When I get older I may have to return to SG and Live with the challenges in SG. (For a similar example in my family, look at grandparents — they rely on their home country healthcare because SG healthcare is too expensive.) When I am forced to return to SG, I would appreciate the savings habit during my peak earning years. 

By the way, In addition to the savings habit, my healthy living habits will be greatly appreciated, too.

Critical review .. How have I done so far in my saving “project”?

• (My peak earning years are not completely over yet 🙂
• Overall, I had high savings rate and most of my savings went into properties (and other) investments
• My Singapore home is not an investment, but I was wise to pay off the mortgage quickly, during my peak earning years. Xia Rong did the same.
• As of 2020, I continue to resist lifestyle creep, and “save” (excluding allowance transfers) at least half my salary.

In conclusion, I feel I have done well to put aside a good portion of my peak-time salaries to prepare for my declining years + rainy days.

— plowback is tricky. My only (arguably)successful plowback was investment.