Cheat Sheet For Long Term Investing

We have all heard that one needs a lot of money to retire in Singapore.  The truth is, it is possible to retire with less (money), if you can moderate your expenses and have passive income.  My wife and I are in our 50s and are now semi-retired. We can afford to retire fully but, we still have energy to work so we work part time. In case it may help others, below are the things that have helped us go into retirement. 1) I am a Singaporean and my wife is a permanent resident. We enjoy subsidies from the government. 2) We bought an HDB flat (public housing) that we have  paid off fully before retiring.  3) We rented out a spare room to give us passive income. 4) As much as possible, we eat in hawkers and kopitiams where the food is cheaper, and we sometimes cook. We reserve eating in restaurants for special occasions. 5) We go to GPs, polyclinics and government hospitals, where healthcare and medicines are cheaper. 6) We don't buy goods and services because...

At different stages of our adult lives we will have different levels of disposable income as well as different needs. Hence, what we spend our disposable incomes on will depend on the stage of life that we are at. How much to spend on a particular item depends on how much you can afford. At the beginning of our careers, it would be prudent to buy health insurance unless you are working for somebody and your employer provides insurance.  If you plan to have a family in the future, it would be good if you buy life insurance beforehand as the premium is cheaper when you are younger. Note, life insurance has a cash value. When you don't need a life insurance anymore such as when all your kids have grown up and you have enough savings and investments to support you for the rest of your life, you can surrender your life insurance for its cash value. After insurance, the next thing that you should save for is an emergency fund. The size of the emergency fund depends on how muc...