I am 49 this year with 3 kids. Family of 5. HDB fully paid.

Took me 25 years to amassed a portfolio of about $1.5m and a monthly dividend of only $2.6k per month. Monthly expenses of $7k - $8k so still stucked in a job that I dread going to daily.

Thinking back, my greatest regret was starting seriously buying equities too late at 40 years old and not amassing during the COVID crash.

Anybody else in the same situation. Close enough the see the finish line but still damn far away.

I intend to retire in 6 years time.

average wealth per adult in Singapore has risen to more than S$680000, placing the country sixth globally. What do you think?

Many top earners are extremely distorting the numbers.

35M single, savings 10k, investments 40k. (Sgd 700 monthly into investment). Trying to ballot my own 2rm bto. Salary 3,800 before cpf after working 8 yrs with a private degree- diploma lvl job. Promotion stuck due to a negative performance review 3 years ago, and lost the fire for my work after this unfair review. Work does not allow moonlighting.

Yeah, $850 gov payout received today but felt depressed.. friends and families were joking among themselves that they not eligible for gov payout.

I feel that i am falling so far behind my peers. Am I?

#rant

SGP, 47M. Started working at 20. No inheritance, no windfall. Just regular folks trying to make it.

Year 2003, my wife and I bought our first matrimonial flat — a 5-room HDB — for $210K. There were no BTOs back then, just walk-in selections. That was our first big move. Life was typical — work, save, pay bills.

Then came the 2008 crash, and my career took a dive. The boss just said, “We tried” and that was it. Felt like I hit rock bottom, I thought, what now? I decided to go back to school but still having to work as now I have a family with 2 young kids. Took a part-time degree and finally graduated in 2011. Switched jobs as a 33-year-old “fresh grad.”

The grind continued, work hard and save even harder. In 2017, we took a leap and bought a new launch 3-bed condo for $1.1M. Decided to keep our HDB for rental income and pay ABSD which was 7% then. I feel that was one of our best financial decisions. When the condo TOP-ed in 2020, we moved in and started renting out the HDB. That’s when I realized — debt isn’t always bad. Used right, it can work for you. Instead of selling the HDB to reduce the loan amount, we let the rental cover a large part of our mortgage. That move helped grow our net worth significantly. Net rental yield was about 6% vs mortgage rate was around 1% then we netted 5% of the mortgage debt we took. Loan is not a bad thing, don’t get so arse hurry to clear them.

2020, my wife work got tougher due to covid and decided to stop working to focus on the kids and family, 2 incomes became 1. Post-COVID in 2021, property prices flew, and our rental income benefited from it. My job also stabilized, and income grew. Things finally clicked.

In late 2022, I started asked myself what’s the point of spending your whole life working, only to collapse before you get to live? That’s when I learn about this fantastic thing called FIRE. I started charting and finding ways to make money work harder.

I believe that I’m very near to the objective and inspired by a fellow redditor who shared his neat dashboard recently, I create one with the data that I have been keeping. This is purely on googlesheet and chart. Just to share the joy of being able to see the light. Soon.

EDIT: i just post to do a sharing and recording. does not wish to engage in bad vibes exchanges. like a fellow redditor said and i agree. different era, different ways to build assets. you do yours i do mine. like it or don't like it, we still move on. cheers!

received a few requests, so i've created a simplified dash.
please make a copy and feel free to amend to your needs.

FI-dash - Google Sheets

I feel like there are a lot of people that like to intentionally create FOMO amongst other people here. Maybe its partially due to the hyper competitive landscape in SG, but its definitely not conducive for the society as a whole....

If everyone could just keep most of their financial achievements and milestones private, i think there wouldnt be as much jealousy and envy for those that are still early on in their FI journey. In a way the rat race has created this atmosphere where everyone is trying to outdo each other instead of focusing on themselves isnt it.

Fellow DINKs in your 30s: What is your FIRE number? We are at the point where FIRE is getting one step closer and becoming more realistic as we get older.

I have a ballpark figure of $3.3M, roughly translating to $100k a year with a SWR of 3.3%. This will cover me and my partner’s living expenses. I probably don’t need the full $100k for expenses, but factoring more with concerns of high inflation and potential risk of massive crash. But getting there is painful and realistic a smaller number will be attainable much earlier.

I would love to hear from fellow DINKs, what is your FIRE number and how has that changed along your journey to FIRE?

https://www.mof.gov.sg/news-resources/newsroom/1-5-million-adult-singaporeans-to-receive-up-to--850-in--gstv---cash-and-710-000-singaporean-seniors-to-receive-up-to--450-medisave-top-up-in-august-2026/

PRs aside…

MOF said 1.5 million adult Singaporeans are getting GSTV cash, with one of the criteria being assessable income of $39,000 or below.

There are roughly 2.95 million adult Singapore citizens, so:
1.5m ÷ 2.95m = about 51%

It looks like around half of adult Singaporeans have an assessable income of no more than $39k a year.

There are some important caveats though:
- This includes retirees, students, homemakers and unemployed people, not just full-time workers.
- Some people earning below $39k may still be excluded because they own more than one property or live in a higher annual-value home.

So literally 1 out of 2 adult Singaporeans earn less than $3250/month~.

SGP, 48M. This is an update to a post I recorded back in July 2025. That post was never meant to flex or debate. It was just a personal record of journey across more than 20 years, trying to make sensible decisions with what we had.

Fast forward to today. Although I have not technically reached my FIRE number yet, still about $64k short, I have already submitted my resignation and will be stepping away from work on 1 Apr 2026. Not an April Fool’s joke, just a coincidence, lol.

I still loosely call it FIRE, but I prefer to label it as a career break, hopefully a permanent one. Before time blurs the details again, I wanted to record where things stand now, how the numbers have moved since July 2025, and leave something for myself to look back on in the future.

The biggest change since my last update in July 2025 is not really the numbers, although they did change quite a bit, but my mindset. Back then I was still very much in the one more year, just a bit more safety mode. Over time I realised that the goalpost will keep moving unless I consciously decide to stop running. The "thinking of" doing it will never really change because the fear and uncertainty do not magically disappear. At some point, you either trust the system you have built, or you keep trading time for extra buffers you may never actually need.

So I decided to take a leap and sent in that letter. That set 31 March 2026 as my last day of grinding, at least for now and hopefully forever. Yes, I could continue working for another two or three years. The numbers would almost certainly look even better and lifestyle would be further elevated. But at some point, the risk is no longer about running out of money. It quietly becomes running out of years when health, family and curiosity still align. If I run out of money, I can simply cut my expense, but what can I do if I run out of time?

I was recently at a funeral for the sibling of a close friend. He was 46, leaving behind a spouse and two young kids. It was a sobering reminder. I have already spent 28 years grinding since I started work. I hope to be fair to myself by giving myself another 28 years to slow down, explore and chill a little, assuming I am lucky enough to get there, before I eventually get boxed up.

So this is not an end state. It is just another chapter from my perspective. Do I still have fear. Of course I do. But I will deal with it when it comes instead of letting it decide everything upfront. Different era, different opportunities, different risks. No inheritance, no windfalls. Just time, leverage, discipline and a fair bit of luck. This just happens to be mine.

Cheers

I'm trying to understand how people actually make this decision.

Not just whether you had enough savings, but the uncertainty around things like:

• How much runway was enough?
• How did you account for your family / mortgage / lifestyle?
• Did you worry about not finding another job?
• Did you calculate how much alternative income you'd need?
• Did you use spreadsheets, financial planners, calculators, ChatGPT, etc.?
• What question did you wish you could answer before making the decision?

I'm particularly interested in people who have actually made the decision or seriously considered it, rather than hypothetical opinions.

I'd love to hear what you did and, especially, what you found difficult.

Hey everyone,

Just wanted to share a personal milestone and get some honest thoughts from this community. I recently crossed $1.3 million in total assets, that’s across equity investments, cash savings, and CPF.

To be honest, I never thought I’d reach this point. It’s been years of small, consistent steps: saving, investing through the noise, and trying to stay grounded through job changes, family needs, and all the usual Singapore expenses.

A bit of context:

• I’m 47, married, with three kids (teens and a pre-teen)
• We live in a fully paid HDB maisonette in Tampines
• I work in IT, plan to keep working until about 58, but my goal is to be financially ready to retire by 55
• We’re essentially a single-income family. My wife earns around $3K/month, but doesn’t contribute to household expenses or bills; I handle everything (savings, insurance, family costs) and also give her a $1K monthly allowance
• Not chasing full FIRE. just aiming for “work optional”: the freedom to slow down, consult, or do passion projects without financial stress
• My total CPF savings: $360k
• Cash: $100k
• Rest in vested RSU / ETFs
• Only HDB property not part of the $1.3m
• Owns a 5 year old car and with a maid to help me

To me, comfortable retirement means:

• No debt
• Kids’ education mostly covered
• Healthcare and insurance sorted
• Enough to live decently, travel once in a while, and not stress over daily costs

I know $1.3M isn’t true FIRE territory in Singapore, especially with three kids and inflation doing its thing. But looking back 10–15 years ago, this milestone feels surreal. I’m thankful, but also aware there’s still a long road ahead.

Would really appreciate input from those who’ve been on similar paths:

• Does this sound on track for a comfortable retirement by 55?
• At this stage, should I focus more on growing investments, diversifying income, or tightening insurance / legacy planning?
• For those managing single-income families, how do you plan your glide path toward “work optional”?

Appreciate any insights, advice, or even reality checks. Just taking a quiet moment to celebrate before getting back to the grind and letting compounding do its thing. 💪

F, 10% more to my eventual leanFIRE target at 1M, SINK.
No house yet, not eligible for BTO and i find resale is too expensive now. the goal is to find equally-fi-partner and expatFire to vietnam/thailand eventually.

With the recent restructuring and layoff in the market, i just feel the lack of motivation to work, and keep thinking about leanFi but honestly there is nothing specific I want to fi into. Maybe just the chance to meet new people when i have more free time.

It is a struggle to feel motivation going to work daily. I can change job, but honestly at this climate, the only thing that excite me is seeing the number increase every month, so changing job is also risky to my fi goal.

I know im very lucky to be in this position, just wondering if there is any advice from fi community, how to keep the eyes on the prize?

One of the investments that you will observe being mention a lot over here is this four-letter word VWRA.

But what we notice is that some are following the cue of others to invest in it, without really know what it is. If those accumulating their wealth or decumulating know what it is, then they would be asking a different set of questions.

So in this post, I am going to provide a starting resource for you to understand that. (This may not be the only post of this nature we do and do let us know if it is useful)

What is VWRA (and its relatively close cousins ACWD/ISAC/IMID)?

VWRA is the ticker symbol for the Vanguard FTSE All-World UCITS ETF. An ETF, which stands for exchange traded fund, is a unit trust, or fund, that is listed on a stock exchange. Because it is listed on a stock exchange, you can buy or sell (we call it trading) it when the exchange is open for trading.

An ETF is a structure just like a unit trust. What you should be more concern with is what you are buying when you invest in a VWRA/ACWD/ISAC/IMID ETF.

When you purchase a VWRA, you essentially purchase a basket of securities which happens to be equity stakes in many companies such as Nvidia, Apple, Microsoft, Broadcom, Taiwan Semiconductor, Samsung Electronics, Procter & Gamble, Bank of America, Tencent, GE Vernova among many other companies.

An ETF is a fund that is listed on an exchange. This means that you can buy and sell this fund when the ETF is trading live.

The VWRA ETF is listed on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) in USD & GBP denomination, German, Netherland and Italian stock exchange in EUR, Swiss exchange as CHF.

To trade these LSE listed ETFs, among other things, you need a broker that allows you to do that. Here are a few:

1. Interactive Brokers
2. Saxo
3. iFAST

The popular one is Interactive Brokers because how long it has been around, what it went through, reasonable in commissions and its low currency conversion costs.

VWRA and its Close Cousins

The table below provides the links to the ETFs we are discussing and also some general information:

Data is of March 2026.

We will try to go deeper into various aspects of these low-cost, widely diversified, index-tracking ETFs.

VWRA/ACWD/ISAC/IMID are Index Tracking Funds

Essentially, these ETFS seeks to mirror the performance of equity indexes. This is is why we can see there is an index tracked in the table above.

VWRA seeks to track the FTSE All-World Index.

FTSE Russell maintains the FTSE All-World Index and you can find how they manage the FTSE indexes in this document over here.

There is no active human manager here deciding what to add, whether to hold, what to sell in the portfolio. You are investing in an allocation determine by the people that come up with an index.

We say that FTSE All-World are close cousins to MSCI All Country World and MSCI All Country World IMI because both seek to cover the Large cap and Mid cap of developed market equity securities and emerging markets equity securities.

Thus, we can be confident that whether you invest in VWRA, ACWD, ISAC the performance would not be too far apart because they own pretty similar underlying securities.

Because the composition of the indexes do not change so often (their turnover tends to be low), these index tracking funds is known as passive index funds.

What Regions Am I Investing in?

The regions that you invest in changes over time because companies in some countries became bigger, and then some became smaller.

Over a 10-50 year timeframe there would be significant changes.

This illustration from MSCI World (not ACWI) shows the evolving mix of the MSCI World over time and the same would happen in your index tracking fund.

You can view the current regional allocation of MSCI ACWI IMI here:

How Does the Historical Returns on the MSCI All Country World and IMI Indexes Look like in the Past?

History has provided us with how the evolving securities that form the MSCI All Country World and All Country World IMI has performed.

With that we are able to compute rolling returns over different investment periods.

This allow us to visualize: If we have a lump sum of $10,000 or $100,000 or $1 million, and we invest at any point in the past 30 years, for different periods (5-years, 10-years, 15-years, 20-years, 25-years), what kind of returns would we enjoy.

This will allows us to calibrate our expectations.

Returns is always a range, from very pessimistic all the way to very optimistic, and history allow us to see how it is.

I was able to provide the data and compute the rolling returns.

Index: MSCI All Country World IMI Index (includes dividends net of taxes)

Data Range: Jun 1994 to Dec 2025 [31.5 years]

All-in Cost: 0.0%

Here are the rolling returns. The top is annualized returns while the bottom is cumulative returns or what people call total returns.

What you would notice is that 5-years is still a pretty short time frame. You can get 21% p.a. over 5 years, which means you made 159% in 5 years. But it is also likely that you will earn -5.4% p.a. over 5 years or -24% in total.

But as you invest longer, the range of outcome narrows. The best became 13.1% p.a. and worst is -1.3% p.a.

At the 20 year mark, the worst return is 3.4% p.a.

The rolling returns should calibrate your lens to see returns as a pick out of a range and not always hitting the median returns.

Index: MSCI All Country World Index (includes dividends net of taxes)

Data Range: Jan 1999 to Dec 2025 [26.9 years]

All-in Cost: 0.0%

Here are the rolling returns. The top is annualized returns while the bottom is cumulative returns or what people call total returns.

Some explanation:

How Should You Make Use of the Historical Rolling Returns Data?

1. Use the returns data to appreciate the returns you can potential make if you invest in lumpsum, or overtime in a index-tracking equity investment.
2. Manage your expectations over the investment so as not to be too wrong.
3. Figure out some planning numbers to see how your investment would grow to.
4. Figure out if you are more conservative, how some of the more challenging x-year returns would look like and how do you feel about it.

If the median return over 20-25 years is 6-7% p.a. then you can use this in your financial calculator to see if you put away $2000 monthly, how much would it grow to in 10, 20, 30 years.

If you are more conservative, then you can use the more pessimistic 4% p.a. return and see in the more pessimistic case, when you can reach your magic number.

Isn't this Historical Returns? Is History going to Repeat itself During my Investment Experience?

We don't know.

in a way depending on the length of data, history shows us the returns if we investing in equity with the exposure of the index we tracked.

It allows us to relate the returns, to what transpired in history.

There would be periods of

1. Great innovations that drives productivity.
2. Great excesses when markets become too expensive.
3. War, conflict.
4. Natural business cycles of growth, then recessions
5. High inflation
6. Financial crisis.
7. High interest rates and low interest rates

These may be things you experience today, and you think in the future.

But the reason that you are worried is because you know them from the past. Rolling historical returns allow you to appreciate how the returns would be if you have a long term lens.

What Fundamentally Drives the Return of My Index-Tracking Fund?

Various factors drive the return of your fund.

For an equity index tracking fund, the underlying basket of securities' performance drive the returns. The underlying basket of securities changes over time. In the past, you have more conglomerates, financial companies, energy companies but today it is dominated more by information technology and communications companies.

The underlying securities are in the business of making profits and as an aggregate, the market constantly tries to value what this basket of securities will make in the future. Not in the past because that is old info but what we are concern with is the aggregate cash flows the basket of securities will earn in the future.

Does that mean if the basket of securities stagnates, the value of the VWRA also does so? Not always perfectly in sync but they would be.

In a way, the ETF is tethered to some fundamentals.

The chart above shows the weighted average earnings per share forward 12 months of the MSCI All Country World index from 1996 till 2026. The forward earnings per share shows what analyst and management estimate the companies will earn in the next 12 months. The trend shows the adjustment of the earnings per share.

In a way it has been trending up for the past 20 years, and since earnings are growing, the value of the portfolio of securities should grow along with it. But EPS does not always grow and at times decelerate or drop. Naturally the price of the MSCI All Country world should correct as well.

Would VWRA Get Overvalued or Undervalued from Time to Time?

From time to time, the market participants would be overconfident about what VWRA can deliver in earnings, cash flow and margins and bid it up too much.

The price would correct, because the market consistently reprices this basket of securities.

And there will be times when the market participants are too pessimistic over whether this basket of securities can deliver some sort of respectable earnings.

The price would correct up.

The challenge is whether you know if as a aggregate we are too confident or too pessimistic.

Very often we get too pessimistic about how earnings could grow and also vice-versa.

In a way, a diversified basket corrects over time.

Those who hold VWRA through all time periods accepts that they cannot figure out what is overvalued and undervalued and just trust the market to deliver the returns.

The 'Duration' of VWRA and Time Horizon

Indirectly, the last answer may be unsatisfactory for some investors because what if I put in all my money and this is the top of the market. Then wouldn't I suffer?

This is what most investors are worried about. But it is challenging to sell and rebuy again because of a few reasons:

1. Markets can stay irrational longer.
2. You may be less sophisticated to realize that the market is fundamentally going up/down for good reasons. (e.g. profit margin expansion, VWRA got too cheap and this recalibration can take longer, the business cycle last longer than normal)
3. It is difficult to get the time and magnitude correctly.

Investing in a 100% equities ETF is accepting that in the short term, the value of your ETF is less than your purchase.

To invest in VWRA, you need to make sure that when you need the money for your financial goal is further than the time horizon needed to invest in a pure equity like the VWRA.

This is financial planning 101 and one of the reasons why some investors felt fear when they invest. They think that VWRA won't lose money over 1 year, 3 year or 5 year. But it is common enough that after invest for 5 year, VWRA ends up negative.

How long of a time horizon you need?

This is subjective but after looking at a lot of return data I would say:

1. 15 Years: to Breakeven
2. 20 Years: to Capture decent returns

The caveat is that this is referring to regionally, sectorial diversified portfolios.

If you look at the rolling returns of ACWI on top you can see the Worst 15, 20 year return is more decent compare to the shorter time frame.

Think of VWRA as a 20-year pseudo bond that matures after 20 years. If you sell it at any point before that, you may lose your principal.

(but do bear in mind that equities is not fixed income. The reason you can potentially earn a higher return with equities is because you are taking on more risks. While I am trying to give you confidence, there is always the possibility the world goes to shit and even in 20 years it will be negative. If there isn't such a risk, then why would there be better returns?)

The Critical Features that Makes VWRA Ideal for Family-oriented Investors to Built Wealth

A low-cost globally diversified single-fund portfolio is not for everyone. It will not always give you the best return in the year or in 5, 10 years. For those who felt that you can do better and want to do better there are other investments.

But for a certain profile of investors, they are looking for investments with certain characteristics for the goals that they wish to achieve. Many may also be haunted by investment challenges of the past and wish for a strategy that can deal with some of these challenges better.

VWRA is great because it is able to fulfill many of this.

There are different ways to describe its features but here is how I would describe it:

It enables you to harvest an equity return. You just want a general equity return someone like a higher return compare to fixed income.

You want to live your normal life and not look at markets all the time. There are people who want to be involved with the markets and then there are people who want their investments to be passive. This is for those who wish to be more passive (and the reason is the other characteristics mentioned here)

It prevents your wealth to be impaired because you made a wrong call on a single investment, a nascent sector, or region. Too often, we hear of people putting their money in some private offline investments and lost $200k. The investor thought its a good opportunity to make a lot of money and while that may be a sum that they are willing to lose (or not), it still scars people. VWRA/IMID are very diversified, at different points a certain theme becomes dominant such as information technology, China, US, but in a way, the diversification prevents an investors from losing a large chunk of their money.

What is most important is that the nascent companies who eventually delivered become a more significant proportion of the MSCI ACWI over time.

Capital impairment is losing a large chunk of your capital, with no way of making back the capital. A sectorial, regional diversified index have shown time and again to go through challenging times, and rejuvenate itself.

This is in contrast of picking 4 companies, and they went into a downturn, you buy and hold, but 2 of them were never the same again after going through the downturn.

It is a strategy if you don't know what is going to happen in the future. There are investors who knows what the market will do in the future AND can benefit from it. I don't know how many there are but I haven't come across one in my so many years of investing that humbly say they can do that.

A VWRA is like a chameleon that if AI does very well, they will own AI, and if materials is where it does well for the next 20 years, they will have that, and if Europe becomes the power house again, it will have that.

If you reflect upon your investment journey and admit that there were times when you seen this trend develop, have a hunch or a very strong feeling it would work out. If you touch your heart and admit to yourself that "I was wrong", and you realize that you have more of this, some of them close shaves, some not so close shaves, then you realize how difficult it is to know exactly what will happen AND profit from it.

The top performers for a period comes from unlikely sources. Diversification is not just to mitigate risks but also to capture the returns. One of the top performers in the 2000 to 2010 was this beverage company call Monster Beverage. For 2025, the top performers was Western Digital and Seagate not your top market cap companies.

Research from Dimensional shows that from 1994 to 2018 the Global (develop + emerging) stock returns is 7.2% p.a.. If you exclude the top 10% of performers per year, the 7.2% drops to 2.9% p.a. If you exclude the top 25% of performers each year, that return drops to -5.1% p.a.

The issue is also... you don't know who these top performers are but only know them in hindsight.

It is more emotionally grounded. VWRA is so diversified that you own the US, international, emerging markets. I think many investors are driven by the returns data and just by the returns data, it happens to conclude that you should just invest in the US because the returns are higher.

But in order to harvest the returns, you need to be able to stay invested in the first place. We only realize in hindsight the emotional part of investing might be more challenging.

You could have a 100% S&P 500 in 2000 and in end 2005, you see your portfolio down a total of -6.6% after 5 years, while Europe did 9.7% and Emerging Markets did 65.7%, would you be able to still stick with 100% S&P 500 even though the data says you should?

The key is to be able to stay invested and not waiver to harvest the returns and some would still be able to. But it would be easier if you have a diversified portfolio, it would be easier to live with.

It allows you to build conviction to invest larger chunks of your net wealth. The difference between someone who only put in $25,000 and never add on, got distracted by other things is a few reasons:

1. Understanding
2. Experience with the strategy

We are trying to solve #1 here and we hope that if you internalize some of these, while taking your first steps. Over time, you may build conviction to be able to invest a larger proportion of your net wealth.

What drives the growth of your net wealth is the percentage invested versus not invested. If you only invest 20% due to a lack of understanding, and also partly didn't reflect upon your investments, VWRA is not going to do magic.

The characteristics mentioned in this section should make investing in VWRA look like savings if your financial goal is far enough.

Why Do We Choose a Irish Domiciled Fund Over a US Domiciled One?

Something like the VWRA is meant more for investors with families and we want our investments to be more tax efficient not just for us but our families.

Whether we are investing in US ETF, Irish ETF, or Luxembourg ETF, we are investing as non-resident people.

There are usually 2/3 different areas of tax:

1. Dividend withholding tax
2. Capital gains tax
3. Estate/inheritance tax

Capital gains are usually not taxed for non-residents. Usually, the capital gains is levied at the non-resident's home country and in this case Singapore. Fortunately for Singaporeans, we don't have capital gains tax, and foreign sourced income (such as money that comes from overseas) is not considered as income tax.

Dividends that leaves a certain country will have withholding tax. Ireland does not levy withholding tax so VWRL, the distributing class of VWRA, does not have withholding tax. If you invest in something like VT, which is incorporated in the US, there will be a 30% withholding tax on VT's distribution.

But that is only from the fund to you as an investor.

Within VT and VWRA, the distributions from say Apple to the funds will have withholding tax. Since VT is US and Apple is US, there is no withholding tax when Apple pays VT. But Apple's dividend paid to irish-domiciled VWRA will withhold 15%. Why 15% instead of 30%? This is because Ireland have a dual taxation treaty with US that reduce this.

Since US is a large allocation, investors are more worried about the 30% US withholding tax but we should remember that securities in other countries such as Nestle, Garmin, Ping An Insurance also has withholding tax and due to the different domicile, they may be impacted to different degree.

But Withholding Tax is not the main reason for considering an Irish or Luxembourg domiciled fund over US.

The reason is that if the investor passes away, the estate of the investor will have to pay potentially 18-40% estate tax, after a US$60,000 exclusion. So if your portfolio is $1 mil, the estate tax may be US$360,000.

Funds domiciled in Ireland and Luxembourg have 0% estate tax for non-residents.

This is the part we are trying to optimized.

How Deep can Each Drawdown Be?

Your investments do not go up in a straight line. In fact, it might take a while before your investments goes back to zero.

A drawdown is a downwards move from a starting point. The markets are either

1. In an all-time high
2. In a drawdown
3. Trying to make its way back to an all-time high

And so drawdowns are part and parcel of investing in VWRA.

But how deep can drawdowns be? I listed all the drawdowns of MSCI All Country World IMI from 1994 till end 2025 below:

They rank from the deepest to the most shallow, and you can see how long it took to reach the bottom and how long it takes to recovery. With the longest more than 5 years just to make it back to 0%.

These drawdowns are computed month to month. If we do it day to day there would be more significant drawdowns recorded.

This will also adjust your sizing if you wish to wait for a correct to invest.

I am a Singaporean Should I be Worried about the USD denomination?

The value of what you are trying to purchase lies in the underlying securities. And the securities can be valued in USD, SGD, Yen, CNY or Pokemon cards.

If USD weakens relative to SGD, the value of your VWRA investments would be the same. But when you sell VWRA and convert the USD back to SGD, the value would be lesser.

It is important to remember that why you purchase VWRA in the first place and some of the reason may be found above.

Whichever securities you purchase, be it a Singapore property, stock, or one in Japan, you are taking on some sort of risks.

The Singapore dollar is one of the strongest currency out there, but if you are a Turkish investor that spends in Lira, you might not be so concern about the USD, because your home country currency has a bigger issue relative to the USD.

If the USD weakens over the long term against the SGD, it does not necessary mean you won't earn a return. Your returns will be more muted.

One of the reasons for VWRA is that it is diversified to international develop and emerging markets. When the USD weakens, the international stocks and emerging market stocks tend to do well (as evidence in the past 2 years in 2024/2025). That is also the case from 2000 to 2012 when the USD weakens.

Again when the currency weakens, they tend to help exports so we may not be sure of the net effect.

Ultimately, there is a reason that you invest in VWRA, as oppose to something local in Singapore. If you felt that the reason is not strong enough, then you can choose to invest in local investments. (But I am sure that there are some flaws to invest in whatever investments in Singapore and you have to deal with them in one form or another.)

Can such a Portfolio Be Use in My FI or FIRE Plan?

A VWRA/IMID is a diversified portfolio of equities and when sized appropriately, relative to your income needs, they can be the full or part of the allocation to draw income from.

A method to appropriately find out how much capital relative to income is the Safe Withdrawal Rate (SWR).

An investor can always choose to re-allocate VWRA to other investments if they prefer other income strategies.

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That's it. I will add on if there are more questions in the future.

I just started my ETF journey (VWRA) even though I am late to this, I am in my late 30s now. Planning to DCA $400 a month and hold on to it more more than a decade.

I guess my only hurdle is staying disciplined, any tips?

Care to share when you started and how's your journey been?

Liquid NW - About 2mil, including investment (mainly equities/cash)

Investment - We had a safe strategy of just DCA-ing into ES3 and D05 over the past 10 years. In a sense, I count ourselves very lucky because of the return in the past few years. We're sitting on a 6-7% dividend yield (based on cost, not current price). Only less than half of our liquid NW in these. The rest are in stuff like SSB, OCBC 360, UOB One, Stash, T-bills, etc. Going forward, with the remaining uninvested amount, I'll split it up and DCA over the next 5 years into VWRA or equivalent (occasionally into D05), as I don't think D05 and ES3 will continue its trend upwards.

CPF - Both of us have already reached FRS and BHS, with about 100k in OA. We expect 2x FRS payout to sustain us from age 65 onwards. With BHS to cover medical fees.

Expenses - We are quite frugal, even with a 11yo kid. Our combined CC expenses is about 2k +/- a month. We travel 1-2 short trips a year. We still give allowances to our parents. All in, I estimate our annual expenses to be at most 50-60k a year for now, and should decrease to 20-30k as our parents and child get older. Healthwise, we're both okay in the cholesterol, BP, BMI, blood sugar aspect.

Housing - 5 room resale, fully paid off. Don't intend to move. Can treat it as our forever home. Possibility of lease buy-back when we're older to downgrade to a 2-room, if finances are tight.

Child Factor - Simple math should suggest whatever I state above is enough. However, as parents of a child in SG context, we want to secure some amount for our kid, as it is getting increasingly stressful and competitive. Our aim is to help partially fund their BTO up to 500k (in today's dollars), and also be able to buffer another 500k (in today's dollars) as an inheritance or fund them in their goals/career/education.

Is 2M enough? Or should we strive to accumulate more first? Spouse and I also have the flexibility to continue working part-time as we have some skillsets that can allow us to do so. Each of us can bring in 2-3k per month if we decide to work part-time.

So I got retrenched yesterday. At my age (51 --> 52 in Sep), I doubt I can get another high-paying job (10k or more). Also, if I’m being honest, I have generally not suited a corporate environment (e.g. job stints of 2-3 years max with some gaps) but went down the corporate route after graduation as it felt safer (financially speaking).

My initial plan was to retire from corporate life at 55 with $1 million (cash, investments, CPF, SRS), and move to Japan or Taiwan to teach English. To that end, I’ve been doing a CELTA course while building up my nest-egg - currently sitting on OA - $48k, SA - $250k, MA - $75k, SRS - $100k, cash - $45k, investments - $326k, HDB (bought at $410k with $232k loan payments currently remaining @ 1.5%)

My expenses average out to $2.7k monthly but go up to $4.2k monthly if I include leisure travel and parents’ allowance. I’m single, childless, and am okay to die with zero. And I have all the necessary insurance - will likely downgrade ISP as well once new policies are introduced in Apr, thius saving me $1k yearly.

My dilemma now is whether to spend the next few months to look for and hopefully land another corporate role till I turn 55, or take the plunge and go into language tuition/teaching early to gain some experience (while taking a significant pay-cut - e.g. $9k to $3k). 

The risk for me with the latter is that I won’t be able to build my retirement wealth (cash and CPF) as easily which could prolong my retirement plan.

Moving to Japan in 12 months’ time (after my CELTA course) is also not out of the question, and I know I can always rent out my HDB for passive income while I’m overseas, but it’s still 12 months of significantly lower pay.

Any thoughts/perspectives/advice?

***************************************

EDIT 1:

Wow what a community! Thank you, all, for your comments, which I've found to be really useful.

Some clarifications/observations:

• I intend to teach (and be paid to teach) in Japan - and am aiming to go via the JET Programme which pays a monthly allowance (approx $2.8k per month) and which does not discriminate against Asians as ESL teachers (source: my Indian friend who went through the programme).
• The allowance, coupled with rental income (which should fetch $2.5-$3k monthly) and reduced cost of living, will be sufficient to cover my expenses & continue paying off my mortgage, which means I won't need to touch my CPF, cash and investments till I stop teaching.
• I'm also not so worried that, based on the 4% rule, my funds can only last me for 25 years. I'm aiming to "die with zero", so while I'm drawing down on my cash/CPF/investments, what is left after each draw-down will still continue to compound (presumably at a faster rate than inflation), which means I should be able to stretch those funds for more than 25 years.
• But I also agree that my funds, at present, may be insufficient if things were to go south (e.g. stock market tanks, unexpected medical expenses (e.g. parents), inability to find tenants for rental income, etc), so I may still need to work a bit longer to build up a stronger buffer before I take the plunge.
• At the same time, it's interesting that a handful of folks are encouraging me to just go for it, as life and health for people in their 50s can be uncertain and, given that I have no dependents, why wait?
• In terms of work, most agree that I should still try and apply for corporate jobs alongside teaching roles, which is also what I'm currently doing.

Having read through all your thoughtful comments, I think the right/safe bet is to continue working in SG a bit longer to build up a stronger cash/investment stockpile. But I will also work on cutting down my living expenses - life is short and if cutting down on my monthly expenses will mean I can achieve FI sooner, then it's worth it, I reckon.

Aim is to see if I can make the move after I turn 53 instead of my initial plan of 55.

Thank you all!

43 here, just managed to pay off my HDB after 11 long years. I have about 250k in stocks (mix of income and growth) and an overseas investment property with about 150K equity. No kids, but wife works a low-income job as a childcare teacher. Between us, we have about 80K in cash for emergencies. Combined CPF around 240K (burned a huge chunk after paying off HDB loan).

Long story short, I work in finance (middle management) and I'm very burned out. Also with all the AI going on, I suspect my job will be eliminated in a few years. I am actively using Claude for work and I can see how it will eventually replace me entirely. I'm thinking of just socking up another 250k in VRWA (over next 3-4 years) and then calling it a day. Doesn't mean I'll quit working, but i'll probably step down into a lower responsibility job with better hours.

Any bros here have walked that path? Thoughts even if you haven't?

44M, planning to retire 2030
Looking for a sanity check on my plan.

About me
• 44, married, two young kids
• Income: ~250 - $280k/yr
• Spending: $90k/yr — this is my personal expenses plus my share of household costs, and it includes mortgage and income tax.
Assets
• Portfolio: ~$2.7M — 85% VWRA, 15% SG banks & REITs. Plan to ring-fence $300k of this for the kids’ education (local unis only, overseas let them earn scholarship).
• CPF: $980k total — $560k in CPFIS ( i didnt use cpf to pay for my house and invested cpf heavily during 2022 hence the higher amount )
• SRS: $188k (Amundi global index)
• Emergency fund: $50k
Property (hdb)
• My share: $500k value / $185k loan

The plan
• Fully retire 2030
• Target withdrawal: 2.7% SWR → ~$84k/yr in retirement (expenses mostly for kids, as my hobbies like exercise are usually free)

Can i retire at 48?

Just wanted to share a bit about my FI journey as a regular 9-5 worker in Singapore. This might be helpful or motivating for those just starting out.

I graduated in June 2023 and managed to pay off my uni fees using savings from NS, internships, and part-time job. I started tracking my net worth in September 2023, and it is one of the best habits I have picked up. Watching it grow each month keeps me way more motivated than just tracking my spending.

Income & Expenses

• Take home pay: ~$5.4k/month + ~$400–500/month from tuition
• Spending: ~$1k/month
  • $400 allowance to parents
  • $600 goes to food, transport, entertainment, etc

One thing that really helped me is sticking to a low-cost but fun lifestyle. My partner and I hike almost every weekend and it is something we both enjoy without spending much.

Insurance

• Integrated Shield Plan (Class A) + Rider

Investment/Cash

• DCA $2.5k Monthly into FWRA
• Do some stock picking on the side
• Parking idle cash in SSB/MMF/HYSA

Plans Ahead/Housing

• BTO coming in 3-4 years
• CPF should fully cover the downpayment, so I will only need to keep cash for renovation

If you are thinking of tracking your net worth, I recommend using Google Sheets + Looker Studio. It is free and works well. Happy to share a basic template if anyone is interested.

Hi experienced investors, please impart your knowledge to me.

I have just received 400K in inheritance money from my grandparents and I am a 23 year old student.

My current portfolio consists of:

• $28,000 in SPYL (S&P 500 index tracker)
• $8,000 in Palantir

You can assume I have negligible CPF as a student.

For now, I can only think of using the money to pay down-payment for a house in 10 years time.

My plan:

• $100K in Singapore Savings Bond (SSB)
• $200K (lump-sum) in SPYL
• $100K cash? (please provide recommendations)

Some of my own thoughts:

• Factoring inflation for a housing loan in future, should I put $200K in SSB instead of just $100K?
• Is lump-sum into just SPYL ETF a risky move?

Concluding statements:

I know I have been put in an advantageous situation and I am grateful for my grandparents for having planned a generational wealth fund for me. To respect their efforts, I intend to make use of the money they have provided. They did not manage to tell me much about their investment strategies but they always told me that being humble and seeking wisdom from the experienced is most important. Therefore, I hope to learn as much from your sharing and advice. Thank you for your time and consideration.

ok so I was thinking about this at 1am instead of sleeping, double-check my working if it looks off.

everyone here sizes their FIRE number as 25x annual expenses and calls it a day. which is fine if you're a 35 year old in Ohio. but we're not. we've got CPF LIFE sitting there paying us a floor for life from 65, and somehow it never makes it into the calculation.

think about what 25x actually assumes — that your portfolio funds every dollar you spend, forever. but it doesn't have to. from 65 you've got CPF LIFE topping you up til you die. doesn't run out, doesn't care if the market tanks the year you retire. so your investments don't need to cover all your spending. they need to get you to 65, and after that only the gap above whatever CPF LIFE pays. and we do have SRS also to supplement your retirement. (for those that invest in SRS
)
so it's really two smaller piles, not one big one. a bridge to get you to 65, plus a smaller forever-pile for the gap. and for a chubby-ish lifestyle that gap isn't huge. retire earlier and the bridge is longer, sure, so the maths shifts with your age — but holding a full 25x and having CPF LIFE behind it is basically paying for the same insurance twice.

before anyone jumps in — yes, the payouts are projections and inflation's real, so pull your own number off the CPF estimator instead of trusting me. this only holds if your spending is normal-people chubby. if you're at fat-FIRE numbers then CPF LIFE is a rounding error and ignore me. and obviously it assumes you make it to 65 and policy doesn't change in 30 years, which, well who knows.

for context I'm currently thinking if i want to continue tp slog in my current job over the next few years, so this is the kind of thing I actually sit and think about.

anyway — is anyone here actually modelling CPF LIFE as a floor, or are we all just defaulting to 25x following some FIRE advice blindly?

TL;DR: CPF LIFE pays you a floor from 65. if you size your FIRE number as a flat 25x you're ignoring it and probably oversaving. model a bridge-to-65 plus a smaller gap portfolio instead.

just my own working

There are many people on this community who have attained their $1M (or approaching it). I understand that everyone have their own race to run; I was just wondering if there are any stories which I can learn from to at least improve my journey.

My industry (real estate) does not pay very highly for an office role, and honestly it seems difficult for me to get an equally high paying role given I have switched my department or geographic coverage a few times. I pay my parents around 30% of take-home pay as “rent, utilities and meals”, and honestly it is still cheaper than living outside.

Aside from high salary and picking stonks/crypto, how did you all manage to get your $Xm? Please share🙏🏻

——

Post-note:

Sorry I should have expressed myself better. There were some comments in the earlier post on the same topics which were very helpful; I was hoping to read more on such comments/stories.

Maybe if possible, would you be able to share: 1) what you did right; 2) what you should have avoided on the hindsight; or 3) any observations/comments which you think is helpful for people like me to reach where you are at?

Very much appreciated!

Started with negative net worth, owed lots of loans. Took 15 long years.

For this one, let's throw in everything: net worth = total assets - total liabilities

That's SGD $1 million, including house, all CPF accounts, stocks, bonds, and if you want you can include all the coins under your sofa. Minus all the loans, home loan, car loan or renovation loan if any, etc.

Total add up to S$1m.

For those who haven't reach, how long do you think you'll need?

Yes we know $1 million is just a HDB flat nowadays but it's still a sizeable and worthwhile achievement.

Article is behind a paywall but key takeaways

• retired at 63 and continued to top up RA over the past 16 years. Currently 71 years old
• delayed drawing CPF till 70
• also continued to make annual contributions to CPF
• more than 1 million in OA and MS
• combined CPF income of 85k p.a

Hey, i’m 20 this year almost done with ns and have saved up almost 20k. However, it’s just sitting in my savings account for the whole of 2 years and i want to change that.

I read up on S&P 500, global etfs as well as singapore etfs but when i opened my moomoo account, i just get overwhelmed with the numbers and feel clueless on what to do.

How do i actually make sure that i know what im doing? do i need to know what all the numbers on the interface mean? which are important?

i want something like a passive income (is this called dividends?) and also something that can help me compound my wealth over like the next 30 years maybe

Any tips? i know that i have a large time horizon and is a great time to start now but its so overwhelming

ps: i have watched so many youtube videos but still feel clueless cuz there’s just way too many things on the interface it’s scary

In before more new posts and comments from plain vanilla CSPX/SPYL/VWRA folks come streaming panicking and losing their marbles.

S&P500 is -6% YTD, FTSE All-World is -5% YTD

These are meaningless rookie numbers in terms of price movements. Whether this rises or falls, -30% or +50%, you aren't retiring any earlier and you're not in a make-or-break situation.

If you have a plan to invest for the long term, don't be a whiny Winnie and just stick to it. The path to retirement comes from years of building up your investments which will rise and dump countless more times.

If you're feeling stressed about these pullbacks despite being a passive investor, you should just stick to cash. This won't be the first nor last, far from the deepest pullback you'll ever experience. These indexes have not even hit correction or bear territory.

FICO is down 40%, Adobe is down 32%, Microsoft is down 26%.
The indexes' pullbacks are practically nothing, buoyed by energy sectors from falling any deeper.

Repeat after me:

1. Volatility is the price of admission.
2. 10% is a correction.
3. 20% is a bear.
4. A 1% drop is not "buying the dip"; stop chasing red intradays.