笨mummy is an ordinary person
working toward her goal of FIRE (Finance Independence and Retiring Early). She
planned to follow the common path that most Singaporeans would take - study
hard, go to a local University, graduate and find a job and work till the day
you cannot work anymore.
However, things change when she was in university.
Being a business student, she was exposed to the stock market, as this was one
of the modules in her course of study. This was the moment when she realised
that, other than working a job, there are actually another ways to earn money -
dividend, coupon payout from bond, etc. She bought her first stock in the
second year after her graduation when she accumulated a small sum to invest
from her full time job.
Unfortunately, she did not really spend effort and
time to learn more about investing as she just see it as a fun thing to do. It
was only during the Global Financial Crisis when 笨mummy saw the
share price of her stocks dropping and the market was in a panic that she
started to pay more attention to investing. It was also lucky for her that most
of her stocks are considered blue chips stocks and their share prices recovered
after the crisis.
Why FIRE
The desire of achieving FIRE grows stronger after she
started her family and when Baby 1 came along. Having a family results in a lot
of struggle especially finding someone to take care of the children. Although
the Singapore government is encouraging her citizens to have more children, it
is still rather tough in today context. Finding an infant care and/or childcare
is an uphill task that 笨mummy experience first hand. She did not managed to
get Baby 1 into an infant care or childcare despite considerable effort spent
in calling/visiting the nearby centers, queuing overnight for registration, and
writing in to MP for help.
As a backup measure, Baby 1 is taken care by her
in-laws as well as her own mother. However this results in another set of
challenge - conflicts in teaching styles that often strain relationship between
the grandparents and the parents.
Another reason that 笨mummy wanted out
of the rat race is as 笨mummy moves up the corporate ladder, she started
feeling tired of working. It is not from the work itself, but more of dealing
with people that are your "buddy" and backstab you in the back when
you are not looking. She actually prefers working as a low level employee when
such office politics are less or people see less benefits from backstabbing you.
Setting
mini milestones for FIRE
FIRE may seem to be a far fetch goal. However, by
breaking down it into smaller milestones would make it more achievable and
motivating as it is easier to reach these smaller milestones. 笨mummy has listed down her mini milestones as follows:
1. Clear mortgage of her 4-room HBD flat (this is her
only debt)
2. CPF Special account to reach minimum sum of S$161K
to cater for retirement
3. Having enough passive income (from dividend,
interest, etc) that is sufficient to cover HER recurring expenses
4. Having enough passive income (from dividend,
interest, etc) to cover the household expenses
Working
toward FIRE
Just like the opposite of losing weight - decrease
input (eating less) and increase output (by exercising), to reach FIRE, one
needs to increase input (increase income) and reduce output (reduce spending)
and then the overall net worth would increase. 笨mummy aims to increase income by
(i) increasing
passive income received from her investment
(ii) earning more income from her full time
employment
(iii) finding possible part time job if time permit;
and reducing spending by
(i) Spending less on the stuffs that she need to buy
(looking for special offers, etc)
(ii) Reducing her desire on stuff that she does not
need, such as branded bags, etc
Purpose
of Blog
This blog logs her adventure in the never ending
journey in reaching FIRE. The postings are her personal views. Let the adventure begins ...
