No Matter How Much You Earn, If you Spend Too Much, You Cannot Retire
AUGUST 20, 2017 BY KYITH
There is a large number of Singaporeans that are high income.
They are those who start businesses, the corporate high flyers in thriving industries, the ones who worked the Singapore school systems who eventually got into good secure government jobs.
They earn upwards of $80,000/yr.
And they are the ones their peers put on the pedestal of where they wish to get to.
That is not myopic.
Certainly, the cost of living in Singapore is not that low and with more income, it has the potential to increase the level of comfort for your family.
However, to look at only the high income is like only measuring the performance of a business by looking at its revenue. There are expenses that could be substantial which you did not deduct away.
Your feeble brain always assumes a higher income means inevitably a higher wealth buffer (difference between your cash inflow and cash outflow). This is not always true. If you are able to appreciate the cash flow statement of these individuals, you may realize that you are in a better position then them.
Earning a high income, gives you a privilege of a great opportunity to be financially independent.
However, not many can grasp this opportunity.
We explain the link of your income, expenses to your ability to retire in a perspective provided by a fellow blogger.
You can be high income, but unable to escape the Rat Race
Yet, one of the most enlightening articles written by Financial Samurai gives an example how someone having a $500,000 gross annual salary could be struggling. (Read Scraping by on $500k, why it is difficult for high earners to get out of the rat race)
The context can be very different in Singapore, particularly the tax regime, but there are similarities.
I always think that, other than the tax regime, what worked and doesn’t worked in the USA is very similar to Singapore.
If you look at their personal cash flow statements, you will appreciate that life has a lot of expenses that can potentially be thrown at you.
If you earn more, you spend more time at work, you also need services such as child-care, helper to buy more time.
If you spend a lot, even if you have high income, you will struggle to retire as well
Most of the time, I look at things from the savings perspective.
I realize that the majority of the folks look at savings as figuring out a responsible saving point, in order to spend the rest. (Read how much should you save in your 20s).
When Zack from 4 Pillar Investing presents his retirement grid, I thought its one of the innovative ways we can relate our spending to retirement.
http://investmentmoats.com/financial...cannot-retire/
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Originally Posted by Laguna
