Wrapping up my Third Month of FIRE

The third month of FIRE came and went like the wind. 

Below are what I ate, what I did for fun, the amount of exercise I managed to do, and a record of my expenses. 

Eating

Heng Long Teochew Porridge

Beef Noodle at Zion Hawker Center

Some workshop at a hotel I attended

Some workshop at a hotel I attended

Fun

I didn't specifically go anywhere for fun, but my weekdays were spent going to workshops and conferences, keeping myself up to date in my technical field. 

Exercise

On the fitness side, I definitely walked more than in my previous desk-bound job. 

Expenses

I busted some of my expenses this month. Hardly surprising I guess, since you got to spend to have fun...

Eating Out Target: $650

Eating Out Actual: $547.12

Household Target: $600

Household Actual: $437.10

Travel Target: $100

Travel Actual: $44.20

Entertainment Target: $50

Entertainment Actual: $0

Personal Target: $100

Personal Actual: $165 (Bought a business shirt for a ceremony I have to attend, subscribed to chatGPT,...)

I only managed to find time to do a few food deliveries this month. All in, I only managed to earn $15.20 this month.

Onwards to the fourth month of FIRE!!

What do you seek in life? Is FIRE enough?

I came across this news about our local celebrity Felicia Chin:

https://sg.yahoo.com/style/felicia-chin-study-meaning-work-singapore-074702386.html

In the article, she shared that she left to study because she "couldn't find meaning in her work".

She explained that she felt like a fraud as an actress and had nothing more to contribute. That's when she left for studies and find a bit of herself.

I can empathize with her. We all seek to move higher, and not remain stagnant on the spot. 

"May you find what you seek"

This brings to mind another video that came to my feed from George Yeo.

In the video, he explained that he visited the Grand Ayatollah of Iran. In his parting words, he said to Mr. Yeo: "May you find what you seek". Mr. Yeo has these words in his mind from then on. The question then is: so what do you seek?

Mr. Yeo then went on to talk about parents with Down syndrome kids, where he was surprised by a remark made by one of his staff that Down syndrome kids can be very 'loving'. He then went on to say that we should help them because "if we enhance others, we enhance ourselves at the same time". 

He ended with these words:

We seek meaning. We seek fulfillment. It is an inward journey. But that inward journey in the end has to be expressed in our relationship with other people. With our parents, with our siblings, with relatives, our teachers, our friends, with strangers, with those with whom we are divided politically, religiously, or ideologically. 

I resonate with these words.

So what do we seek? We seek meaning.  

You can find the video here:

https://www.tiktok.com/@mothershipsg/video/7241753087625448711

Wrapping up my Second Month of FIRE: No Time to be Bored

Have you heard of people getting bored after they retired, with nothing to do?  

Perhaps I had scheduled too much stuff. In fact, I feel I don't have enough time to finish the things I want to do!

Here are some of the stuff I ate, and places I went to:

Eating

This is famous, right?

Not too bad...

Chin Mee Chin - iconic.

Heng Long Teochew Porridge - this is good!

Fun

Springleaf Nature Park - always wanted to go.

I also did a day of volunteer work for Racial Harmony Day at my kid's primary school. Hopefully, I can do one day of volunteer work a month.

Exercise

On the fitness side, I definitely walked more than in my previous desk-bound job. 

Expenses

I busted some of my expenses this month. Hardly surprising I guess, since you got to spend to have fun...

Eating Out Target: $650

Eating Out Actual: $547.12

Household Target: $600

Household Actual: $791.80 (Signed up for a parenting course - I think its a necessary expense)

Travel Target: $100

Travel Actual: $61.80

Entertainment Target: $50

Entertainment Actual: $23

Personal Target: $100

Personal Actual: $200.47 (Bought new shoes and vitamins to keep me healthy...)

Separately, I started doing food delivery again. I achieve a few objectives by doing food delivery:

• Exercise
• Earn kopi money
• Collect steps on my national steps tracker, which I can eventually use to redeem Sheng Shiong vouchers
• Collect steps on my AIA Vitality app, which I can eventually use to redeem Cold Storage vouchers
• I tend to get some groceries along the way back 

On to my third month of FIRE!

Do you have any questions about my FIRE journey or about my 'retirement'? Please ask below. 

Breaking Free: I have achieved FINANCIAL INDEPENDENCE 3.0!

I have achieved the FI 3.0 target I set for myself. Let me share my journey to get to this point:

I achieved FI (Financial Independence) 2.0 in Jun 2021.

I have been aiming for FI 3.0 since Dec 2021 (see this post: http://financeopti.blogspot.com/2021/12/revisiting-my-fi-fi30.html).

Firstly, a recap of what is FI 3.0. It has a few buffers baked in:

• CPF is not included in the Starting Balance - this is the first buffer
• The withdrawal rate is reduced from 4% to 3% - this is the second buffer
• Certain expenses are assumed to last till perpetuity, even if it may not be the case. An example is children's class fees. 

Below is the amount I have accumulated up to now:

Which is more than the 'Required Savings' necessary for FI:

In other words, I have achieved FI 3.0!!

I have started this journey ever since I completed my graduate studies. Roughly, it took me 11 years to get to this point. 

I just want to share some practices that helped me get to this point:

• I own only 1 property - my HDB flat, which is my matrimonial home
• No car
• I use freebies whenever possible - my watch is free, my shoes are free, and my bag and jacket are given free from my previous companies
• For 2 years, I took MRT to work at unearthly hours (exit station before 7.45am) to spend $0 on transport
• Side hustles - I took up side hustles including food delivery, paid surveys, writing 2 blogs (one technical blog and one FI blog)
• I do repayments to my mortgage loan regularly - now my loan has only ~$950 remaining
• I invest regularly - in stocks and bond
• Whenever I get upset at work, I keep in mind I have a bigger goal in my life - to achieve FI and I endured it to get to this point

In hindsight, some points above actually didn't help much on my FI journey (paid surveys paid peanuts for example), but they helped build the discipline and the conviction I needed to achieve FI. No regrets.

What's next for me? Well, I plan to take a sabbatical (minimum 9 months) from my present company.

Here are some of my reasons for taking a sabbatical:

• Be able to sleep better at night - e.g. for the past week I can't get to sleep until after midnight, or very often I wake up 2-3am, think about work, and then am not able to get back to sleep
• I burst the income ceiling for BTO long ago - by taking a sabbatical, I will draw no CPF, which will qualify me for our dream 5-room BTO
• Issues at work - unsupportive and unhelpful colleagues that only care about themselves, not enough support from bosses, too many whiners and complainers at work thus creating a toxic environment, etc. Typical work gripes I guess
• Real-life test of my FI expenses - all my expense calculations to date are based on when I am still working full-time. Will my expenses stay the same after I stop working full-time? Only by stopping full-time work will I know for sure
• Find time to work on my technical blog
• Find time to create more quality articles for my FI blog (yes, this blog)
• Find time to spend more quality time with my kids e.g. if my kid is sick, he can stay at home instead of going to my parent's place, or I can avoid a scenario whereby I have to juggle taking care of him and working at the same time
• Find time to do some self-study
• Find time to rest more - I got too many comments from colleagues and family that I look tired over the past few years. I want to do something about it by finding time to get proper rest and doing something that I am truly passionate about
• Find time to start exercising more regularly instead of just once a week - need to take care of my health. Now in my 40s, health issues are starting to pop up: eyesight not good, catch bugs easily, knee pain, etc. 
• Find time to have the freedom to travel a bit further to get a good lunch instead of eating the same stuff around my neighborhood because I have to get back to work 
• Find time to do volunteer work and help the community - I find this to be meaningful
• Find time to be closer to nature - will like to go for regular nature walks and not have to take leave to do so
• Find time to do some administrative things - writing my will, fixing my laptop, and changing to a cheaper phone plan are some of them
• Find time to launch my startup. Yes! I have many ideas! Now that I am FI, coupled with my work experience over the past few years, there is no better time to start!

Do you have any questions for me? Ask below!

Spotted ANOTHER Misconception about FIRE

 Recently there is another comic published by TWS which really resonated with me:

https://www.facebook.com/2250666538582187/posts/pfbid0J56M6pCuB6jsGUBpkdXnKvX8E5PoALfhbAuK1fYoLyfvrPsePpR1EZ87DUC23dz7l/?mibextid=cr9u03

It started off well with the couple celebrating their valentine's day:

However, things started to go wrong when the girl gifts the guy an expensive gift and he does not agree:

I have no issues with the comic itself, it is simply pointing out a difference in opinion. To each his own, as they say. It is up to the individual whether he/she wants to pursue FIRE or not. 

However, I have issues with the comment given below, where an individual uploaded this in her comment:

I believe what the individual wanted to say is: "No point saving up so much money now and not spending it, by the time you realize it, you will be on your deathbed and have no more opportunity to spend it".

How wrong this is!

The whole point of FIRE is that you can retire BEFORE you hit your deathbed. Imagine! If you can retire at age 45, how much time you will have to enjoy life! 

If it were up to me, I will insert another pic in between the 3rd and the 4th in the above illustration to show the character enjoying her life because of FIRE, BEFORE hitting the deathbed.