Are you holding your Gold and Silver positions?

[Beeroclock]

I would love to see interest rates rise. This cheap money has made lot of people take on too much leverage and made prudent people like me who has never invested in property due to high prices, look foolish. I am desperate for vindication.

Sounds an unhealthy cocktail, desperation mixed with vindication !

I used to think that way too, but then I decided if you can't beat 'em, join 'em....

Am sure there will be a day when high interest rates return, all these things cycle. Might have a while to wait though. You're right some people will surely be found out, and it will also be much desired by retirees/savers who planned to live off their interest that has been eroded by all this stimulus/QE.

The prices have gone up so much, especially in Singapore, that now, I cant even afford them, so the decision is easy

If there was no ABSD, I could still afford a $1M condo at these prices, but I will have to put all my savings of the last 10 years of working life, just on the 20% downpayment. I still have about 25-28 years of working life left, its still a damn tough decision

I see what you mean, we were very lucky to get in early 2011 before ABSD. I have the SSD but provided I don't sell before early 2015 that expires. With these cooling measures it is very risky/ tough decision now. You need a decent capital growth just to break even.

[Beeroclock]

2. It's a very legitimate question, and any serious retirement planning will go through the exercise to work this out. Several assumptions needed (annual living expenses, interest/dividend rate, tax rate, inflation rate) and you can back-calculate the lump sum needed to be financially independent. Which doesn't mean you will never work again, just that you will never HAVE to work again. Quite a luxury to have this choice.

Interesting. I've had to edit it down to have a chance of getting to any of your points (you raise many! ).

I take your point about estimating expenses, but heavens it's not easy is it? I mean I sit here in SG, and have to try and predict what my 'running costs' might be if I retired to New England, or indeed England, or 'N E Where' . Hmmm. Yes yes, I appreciate the way of crossing this psychological rubicon... just take a stab, give it your best go (Q. 'But how can I if I don't know?', --- A. 'Just try, your best!'). Aghhhh!

I think you make an excellent point, about visualising your expectations in retirement.
- Where will you live
- what will it cost
- what will your recurring overheads be
- what will you need for discretionary spending (holidays, 'treats' etc) be?
> Work it all backwards, to reach the lump-sum required to reliably generate the above...

and so on.


It's a difficult thing to sit down and consider if you've always followed a path of 'saving and just getting by'. Suddenly the reality bites...

@Z. Yeah, and I also saw Wall Street get KO'd when the Dot-Com bubble popped. It took down a lot of people... ...

If you look around you can find average figures published for after tax $ p.a. needed for a couple to retire with "basic" / "comfortable" lifestyle. These definitions are vague, I think "basic" is quite limited bordering on frugal, and "comfortable" means one overseas holiday per year, dining out 1-2x per week, some hobbies golf, etc. For Australia I've seen numbers like $35k basic / $60k comfortable. I guess you should be able to find such generalised figures for other places too. At least a starting point, but not a complete substitute for doing the detailed planning yourself.

[KyanTine]

well both silver and gold positions are important and 10-year chart i checkout and find out that war really effect those. Sometimes extreme technical positions of Singapore and quite smooth in many ways compare to Malaysian, Canadian and Arabians.

[sundaymorningstaple]

tic...toc...tic...toc...

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[archcherub]

i keeping some gold bars for insurance sake.
but im giving up my silver coins.
it is taking up too much space in my safe and i don't want to buy a bigger safe lol