Tag: t_outlay_figure

These are various estimates of the expense level in each (retirement) city.

2018/Jun~Dec burn rate ] 104+108+OC

Posted on by tiger40490

I like the simplicity in the question

Q: Over the “away” 6 months since 11 Jul, how much SGD went out from my DBS accounts to outside the family, so all transfers to wife, waigong, grandma, boy are excluded?

  • For 104 account, total debit – $1k gift to waigong = $1303
  • For 108 account, total debit = 41743 but 30396 is transfers including $1200 I brought to BGC then deposited to OCBC, so total burn rate is $11347
  • For OCBC, I had a burn rate of $550 ($547.31 actually), bringing total to $13,200
  • Is there another account to burn? I don’t think I missed any.

DBS/OC both let you download 6M transaction history as a *.csv file…. saved in my office PC.

[18]early retirement ] SG #YW.Chen

Posted on by tiger40490

ffree cashflow projection has the latest figures

Update: Today YW gave some numbers. He felt 60k/Y burn rate is the minimum for his family of three . With 2M asset he would need something like 3% annual return but he dreams of 8%. He feels 2% annual return is seriously insufficient but I doubt it.

Key Differences between me and some my peers:

  • I really really want to work till old age. Many of them wish to retire in 40’s.
  • Burn rate – my determination and discipline on burn rate control.
  • My wife and I have Singapore citizenship

See also eg@personal financial independence within%%family

YW mentioned early retirement. I guess with their combined savings, they probably can do it. Assuming their burn rate is USD 5k/month, their passive income and savings can probably last 30-50 years.

I estimate my family burn rate now at SGD 5k to 6k a month. I have around SGD1.5k passive income now. If my entire family stop working, we would move to a rental apartment in Singapore (US rents are much higher) and lease out our current apartment, with a net rental income about SGD 1k. Hopefully my Philippines property could contribute SGD 1k passive income. If we also maintain our burn rate at SGD 3k as planned, we would be able to survive in Singapore without touching our savings. (After age 67, CPF-LIFE should contribute SGD 800~1600 for each spouse.)

SGD 3k/M is a reasonable estimate. See CPF-Life/covid19 $handout reflect`(jobless)burn rate

“Survive” comfortably, I hope. I have reason to hope so, since I follow a primitive system to track my expenses for years, so I know where we spend. I’m fairly good at it.

My family’s major medical expenses are largely covered by integrated shield plans in Singapore. We are debt free.

In reality, situation is better — my wife and I both can work till old age. As I told everyone I want to work till 65+ in technology, and till 75+ in some other domain. That plan has never changed. I think my wife also prefers to work and earn her own living.

Other cities? Once we stop working, we could move to cheaper locations in Malaysia, as described in multiple blog posts.

I used to fancy other domains outside banking IT. Now I have mellowed up. I keep my options open, but I accept banking IT jobs for the rest of my career. At VP salary, the workload is non-trivial but manageable. If I grow old and can’t cope, then I will settle for a lower salary in banking IT.

Even with our relatively low combined income, I’m positive about our capacity for relatively early retirement, because of

  1. burn rate — my confidence to control our burn rate, based on insight into our past burn rate
  2. our confidence to keep earning two salaries and growing our retirement nest egg, up to whatever time I want to retire
  3. college — my decision to leave college education funding to “other people”
  4. medishield+polyclinics — for Singapore citizens
  5. properties — in relatively good locations and inflation-proof

S$2500 family burn rate excl.hous`driv` #BizTimes

Posted on by tiger40490

I think household expenditure data is very hard to collect. Most households have no reliable [1] “system” to record expenditure. Big ticket items are often mis-classified as one-off.  Therefore, the practical estimate is an educated guess. A 2017 BusinessTime article entitled [[How to retire in 10 years]] shows an educated guess — a typical SG family spends SGD 2400/M assuming

  • target age group of this entire article is 35-44
  • with or without kids
  • take-home (after CPF) SGD 4k/M
  • mortgage payment not counted
  • non-driver

I think the target population is Chinese, Malay or Indian, including many families below the median.

[1] My system, XR’s system and grandpa’s system is fairly reliable.

— Brbr: this article assumes max-save i.e. Brbr = 3 to 5

[16]reduce burn rate$7→5k like some SG families #vacation

Posted on by tiger40490

Look at the posts about the computed non-mortgage spend, excluding Zofia’s personal spend. Latest calculation shows $5800/month in late 2016. With or without this data, it’s possible to propose some answer to this question:

Q: some families (such as Raymond [1] or Wenqiang) have monthly take-home income of 7k. Our monthly spend + mortgage + wife’s personal spend is at least 6k. So if we were such a family, how could we reduce the monthly spend from 5k to 4k, practically?

A: (luxury) fewer vacations. Budget airlines; 3-star hotels.
A: (luxury) avoid yoga centers. Try (though it’s been very hard) to do a bit by yourself every week.
A: (luxury) less eat-out
A: (luxury) /rationalize/ boy’s training regimes. We have paid for many things and most don’t show result.
A: have better tracking of the unaccounted “personal” spend

Q: what’s the “comfortable minimum” non-mortgage spend, given kids’ fees, taxes, bx, utilities…
A: I guess 3k. Breakdown:

  • I think the “taxes” category could be $1500k/m (currently $2k+/m). would need to avoid MindChamps.
  • I think medical category would be $300/m excluding medishield premium
  • I think the “intangible investment” category would be be $700/m (currently $1200) including bx and boy’s training. Would reduce piano and bx.
  • vacation/dining budget of $200/m (currently a whopping $1k/m !)

[1] around 4k+ take home for himself, and 2k for his wife.

savings enough2last20Y now5Y#with kids

Posted on by tiger40490
Burn rate can either reduces or contributes to long term look-ahead worry. Since my bachelor years, My monthly burn rate has increased all the way to $5k – $6k, largely due to the taxes (https://tanbinvest.dreamhosters.com/2016/10/21/after-tax-income-be-careful/)

One reason — when living alone (like White Plains) I enjoy and take pride in my “simple lifestyle”. However, when my kids are with me, I see such a lifestyle not as simple and beautiful but impoverished and deprived. I want a bigger home for them, toys, enrichments …

When a bachelor, my burn rate was below $1k excluding rent. Contrast the recent peak, when my burn rate exceeded $10k/m
  • $2.5k mtg
  • $2k on average UChicago
  • $1.5k on average allowance paid to wife and GM
  • up to $1000 “taxes” including utilities, MRT, town council, school bus
  • —– (7k so far) ——
  • $1200 on average pre-school fees. $1400 -> $800+$300
  • $300 insurance — annually Aviva $600 + AIA $1700 + AXA $1100 + Prudential $400 + MSIG $300
  • $500  training for boy (on average swim $100, fitness $300, piano $60, home tutor $150, ad-hoc community center courses)
  • $400 NTUC
  • $500? (on average) travel + dining
see also https://tanbintpy.wordpress.com/2016/10/09/reduce-monthly-spend-from-5k-to-4k/