Buy a private condo and wage slaves we become?

Over the years, quite a number of male readers have asked me if they should upgrade from HDB flats to private condos.

For some reason, it is always the wife's desire for an upgrade.

I wonder if the husbands were being honest with me.

Hmm...

I wonder also if there is some truth in the saying that it is easier to sell luxury goods to females than males?

Hmm...






Aiyoh!

Did some (female) readers throw shoes at me?

Ouch!

Wait, I see some branded ones.

Maybe, I can sell these later.

OK, yes, I know.

Bad AK! Bad AK!






Well, these readers should know that, easily, on a per square foot basis, a condo is going to cost 3x to 4x more than a HDB flat.

Just getting something that is the same size as their current HDB flat would be quite a big deal.

So, it is not surprising that many who upgraded from HDB flats ended up downsizing.






A home is probably the biggest purchase we will make in life especially with home prices being what they are in Singapore.

If we want to upgrade, be sure that we can pull it off comfortably and this should also be in the unfortunate event if we should lose our job (or if we cannot continue working for some reason).

That is the ultimate stress test.

We should also bear in mind any other financial objectives which we might have and how this upgrade in housing could impact our ability to meet those objectives.






Even if we can afford the upgrade, remember that it is not just about affordability.

In order to upgrade our housing, if we have to become wage slaves, the price, to me, is way too high.

Not overstretching will allow us to stay financially resilient in good and bad times.

Of course, if you are financially a "jin satki" (very capable) person, please ignore this blog.






Related posts:
1. https://singaporeanstocksinvestor.blogspot.com/2018/09/free-ourselves-from-wage-slavery-now.html
2. http://singaporeanstocksinvestor.blogspot.com/2016/08/wife-wants-to-sell-hdb-flat-to-buy-condo.html

How to be ready for unemployment? (He took a 50% pay cut but was unemployed again one year later.)

Reader says...

I am with you on achieving Financial Independence.

It's a fallback plan in the midst of a super competitive employment environment flooded with Foreign Talents.

Government can raise the retirement age to whatever they want but how many companies are willing to offer those above 50 YO decent paying jobs, except fast food outlets and a few others.






Speaking from experience on this.

Once retrenched, even in our 40s, it is hard to get back the same job.

I took a 50% pay cut for a 1 yer contract job and then became unemployed again.

Every year that passed, my market value is dropping.

I will go to McDonalds to be a cleaner soon.






I also know of a 30 YO friend who studied finance in NXX (a local university) and was retrenced from finance industry after working for 5 years.

After 1 year of job searching, he gave up and resorted to joining WSG program to find a job which paid $2K+ a month and restarted his life all over again.

My engineering cohort, 30% are unemployed by now and not by choice.






With so many government assisted programs on WSG website, we can make a guess how "good" the situation is.

So, no surprise that many young people are talking about F.I.R.E. (Financial Independence Retiring Early) these days.

It's a by-product of the current day situation and fear.

I also started reading your blog when I became unemployed 4 years ago.






What does AK have to say?

Don't ask 

"When we need to stop working, are we ready?"

Instead, ask 

"If we want to stop working, are we ready?"





How to be ready?

The best insurance in life is having sufficient passive income to maintain our lifestyle.

Be ready!

If AK can do it, so can you!






Related posts:
1. Freedom from wage slavery.
2. Best insurance in life.

Free ourselves from wage slavery now.

I have blogged about how someone told me that I should be ashamed of myself.

I should be ashamed that I am unemployed although, more accurately, I am economically inactive.

See:
AK should be ashamed!

I have also explained why I worked hard to achieve financial freedom and why I chose early retirement.

To put it quite bluntly, I didn't want to be a wage slave forever.

See:
Why want an early retirement?

What is a wage slave?

If we are 100% dependent on our monthly wages to support our lifestyle, we are wage slaves.

What does this mean?








If we need $500 a month to live and if we make $500 a month, we are wage slaves.

If we need $10,000 a month to live and if we make $10,000 a month, we are wage slaves.

So, even if making $50,000 a month is considered very high income, if we need $50,000 a month to live, we are wage slaves.

Wage slaves are absolutely dependent on their monthly wages to survive.






Now, although I do not fancy being a wage slave, there are people who seem to be quite happy being wage slaves.

Ignorance is bliss, after all.

Ask those who lived next to a dormant volcano which decided to erupt one day.

Horribly blissful!

This video shows an example of what could happen to wage slaves:






To break the chains of wage slavery, I start by asking three questions.

1. How much money do we need in life?

Are the needs really needs?

Or are some wants disguised as needs?

We should keep our needs simple and our wants few.

After all, we only need so much money in life and the rest is for showing off.






2. How much money are we saving?

To save more money, we should increase income and reduce expenses.

It is quite simple.

Not easy, perhaps, but quite simple.

Find legitimate and ethical ways to increase income.

Reduce expenses where possible but remember to be reasonable.





3. How hard is our money working?

If we are leaving the bulk of our money in savings accounts with low interest rates, we are doing ourselves a disservice.

Make our money work harder.

Make sure to ask if the investment is legitimate.

Ask how is it generating income and how is it rewarding us?

If we do not find a way to make money in our sleep, we will have to work till the day we die.

One way to make money in our sleep is to make use of weaknesses in the stock market to accumulate some stocks that will generate income for us.






Dividends will start as a trickle but after some time, we will see dividends pouring in!

We should take a long term view and invest in companies which are here to stay.

Investing for income for the long term, market volatility is nothing to fear.

This video is pretty succinct as to what we should do:







If we want to be free from wage slavery, we have to free ourselves and we have to start now.

We should work because we want to and not because we have to.

Related post:
Happiness and slavery.

83 yo Ah Gong can do it, so can we! 孙子都跪服!

A reader sent me a video clip and had this to say:

"saw this and reminded me of u, ak.

"u have close to 40 yrs to compound to be super experience gamer like this chinese uncle!"






There is much that we can learn from Ah Gong in this video clip.

【83岁大爷每天打3小时游戏，20年玩遍500张碟，孙子都跪服】


The video clip is in Mandarin and with Chinese sub-titles.

So, unfortunately, some might not be able to understand it.





Ah Gong's grandson calls him a 老頑童 (i.e. a senior who is a child at heart).


Ah Gong spends 3 hours a day gaming and says playing video games has made him a bit smarter and a bit braver!

I don't even have a PS4!

Ah Gong, you win!





So, what can we learn from Ah Gong?

Retirement is not about staying at home the whole day and being bored stiff.

There is always something new to learn and something fun to do.

Retirement can be full of fun and it should be fun.

If Ah Gong can do it, so can we!






Related posts:
1. AK is a full time gamer! (宅男?)
2. Retirement adequacy 101.
2. Financial freedom or freedom in retirement?