Retirement Goals

Saan ninyo gustong mag-retire? Do you have a number (i.e. retire by 50, retire when I have insert amount of money here in investments, etc.) Are you on track? What steps have you taken so far to achieve your goals?

I’ve been interested in this FIRE movement (Financial Independence, Retire Early) philosophy since my early 20s. While retirement planning may not be something that keeps me up at night, it’s something I’ve been pursuing for the last several years so our kids can learn financial independence early on and build generational wealth.

I’ll start: Currently on track to have the option for full retirement at age 42 from a military career (barring any changes, I’m fortunate enough to get a pension), but I’ll probably transition to a part time civilian job if I still love what I do when I get there. I’ll probably take 1-2 years off right after retirement though to focus on our kids while supporting my spouse to pursue his career and continuing education.

Steps to get me there:

  1. Reading personal finance books, followed FIRE blogs like getrichslowly.org which led me to early-retirement.org forums. Simple Path to Wealth by JL Collins is a good book to get you started. Salary increases over the years goes directly to retirement funds.
  2. Saving in my early 20s and often. Paid off high interest loans as fast as I can. Learned about stocks and invested in index funds (time in market trumps timing the market).
  3. Living a simple lifestyle - minimalism is key. Never kept up with the Joneses.
  4. Using credit cards to my advantage - travel hacking (may be another thread), never carrying a balance
  5. Tracked my progress using Excel and Mint.com
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Balak naming bumili ng beachfront property ni hubby :umbrella:.

Ingat sa global warming! haha

I plan to retire when I’m 50.

I want to build my own foundation catering to education needs. Every year may school supplies drive ako and I go to the province to distribute them. I want a more concrete and long-term project though but I’m still thinking about it.

I also want more ME time by then and patravel travel nalang. Visit sa future real estate properties/farm.

Anong ginagawa ko ngayon para ma-achieve yun? Save and invest for retirement, and most importantly taking care of my health.

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I will only retire when I know I cannot perform my job efficiently.
I have 401K and will be getting a pension so I’m set financially by the time I do retire.
My idea of retirement is simple. Having a happy and content life with the love of my life.
See the world together. And have time to read as much books, go to museums, learn something new together.

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Planning to retire by 45, or as soon as I have passive income of 150k a month. Investing in real estate and stocks. Medyo malayo pa sa goal hehe.

Gusto ko ng bahay malapit sa bundok at ilog/lake, pero malapit din sa mall :lol: Haven’t thought what to do yet, siguro something that would allow me to travel occasionally.

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@whims and I talked about setting up a foundation too. I think magmamaterialize ito when we are a bit older and have enough funds. Idea on a napkin pa lang.

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Seriously rethinking this in light of what’s happening now…a lot of uncertainties which might just upset exclusively financial objectives not tied to purpose driven goals

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I haven’t really thought of the actual retirement phase. I cannot see myself idle or thinking of myself as retired (I don’t know how it would feel). I’m just working on having a highly productive and sustainable farm, with steady flow of income to sustain the people who works in it. It will always be a work in progress. This is how I see myself living the rest of my life. Well…in addition to traveling more places, learning new things, meeting new people and helping others in whatever way I could. :heartpump:

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Haha remote pero hindi ganung ka-remote.
We are around 5 yrs away from my retirement goal age pero hanggang ngayon hindi pa kami decided on location.
I like your specifics na retire by 45 and 150k passive income. How did you come up with that number?

Target income based on projected expenses plus savings and investments. :slightly_smiling_face: I need to be specific para alam ko kung may progress ako every year, na fo-force ako to allocate portion of my active income for investments accordingly.

I want to retire early para may energy pa to travel and do other activities. Pero di ko pa alam anong activity, might do volunteer work or farming hehe.

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Hello! How and when to retire are questions that keep me up at night. Feeling ko I’ve hit my career peak, there are retrenchments all the time in my company and I’ve been there 10yrs so feeling ko my time is up, and can only hope for a decent retrenchment package and not get ‘managed out’ without one.
I find it funny na when I used to hangout at the old peyups forums, I was always in the fun threads and now I find myself looking for a retirement thread. Gosh, the years just flew by. :joy:
I want to FIRE too but I’ve been out of the Phils for so long, I don’t have a good understanding of how much it costs to retire in Manila. My insurance agent tells me around Php 250-300k a month is needed. Accurate ba?
I don’t own property sa pinas and would probably need to rent. How much would I need per month? For an old-ish but not geriatric couple renting a condo in Manila?
I am deep in the pits of my midlife crisis, I just want to FIRE already. :pensive:
I’m stuck in this country for another 12 effing years at least, until my youngest son finishes his 2yr conscription (he’s only 8). Maybe I can leave the kids here after the youngest turns 18 and just retire by the beach in the Phils? Sigh

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Baka sa ibang bansa na lang kami manirahan kung mananalo pa din ang partido ni PRRD sa 2022.

@Jane so what’s your number? For retirement sa Pinas ba?

I just did a post-covid computation of our net worth (I do it by hand, in a pink furry notebook, no fancy excel spreadsheets). We’re about 5yrs away from being FI (USD 282k away), lean-ish FIRE. 1M USD away from a fat FIRE. :rofl:

I don’t think I’ll follow the 4% rule strictly, especially now that I’ve seen what kind of impact a black swan event can do to my finances. Was thinking of doing a “bucket” strategy, with more cash in the first 5 yrs of retirement, targeting 50yrs old for retirement.

@UniquelyMe - I don’t have a specific $, but my goal is to save very aggressively before my planned exit from the military - my calculation says I have to save 58% of my gross income for the next 5 yrs to make this happen. Tbh I’m a little bit anxious because leaving the service also means giving up some perks we’ve been accustomed to i.e. currently 1/3 of my pay is not taxed, ridiculously cheap health and dental benefits, and ability to travel on government’s dime. I love my job and if I was single I would totally stay in longer, but I feel that it’s time to establish some sort of normalcy for the kids during their formative years. This is our 8th move in the last 16 yrs. My oldest has had 5 school transfers and she is barely 11. Military life is great but some aspects of it can take a toll on parenting and marriage, not to mention my spouse has to put his career on hold every time we move kaya 5 yrs is what we’ve established as timeline to hang up the uniform. If everything goes according to plan, net worth at that time will just have hit 7 figures, conservatively speaking, and just let it grow for another 20-25 yrs until mandatory withdrawals. I’ll be 42 then and we’d love to just live on my pension for a bit (leanFI muna) while hubby pursues a career in nursing and grad school (another perk of military, I get to transfer my education benefits to him).

Meron ding holes sa plan namin - no college funds for kids. My rationale: they can go to any University of California public school for free as part of Veteran services/benefits and I feel that if they really want to go to college they’ll find a way to work harder and find scholarships themselves (just like what their parents did lol). Trade schools are also an option. Or they can get the military pay for it (just like they paid my post-grad) - i.e. Academies or ROTC route ideally.

Retirement in Philippines is something we can entertain when all our kids are in college (so at least 15 yrs from now) - we’ll be FatFIRE by then, we have more funds in our disposal to really give back and engage in meaningful activities to serve/educate others, on our own and without being tied to an entity. That would be the dream.

@Jane I’m not worried about education. I’m saving for our retirement, first and foremost. We’re getting older, economy going into recession, we’re mere employees without much passive income. When we hit FI, we probably won’t stop working until 55, if possible, for the medical benefits.
Usapang middle age na ugh), but my family’s medical needs are 100% taken care of by my company’s insurance. His monthly doctor visits and maintenance meds cost between USD 450-600 a month. He has hypertension, diabetes, gout, allergies, etc. Malaking tulong yung company benefits.
For college education, my kids have whole life investment linked insurance policies. I can take out money to fund their uni, kung kelangan talaga. Singapore is generous with their scholarships naman, they can get an education but they’ll have to serve a bond for a few years, work for the government.
It seems like you’re in your 30s, baka you’ll change your mind when you hit your 40s about when to quit a full-time job with lots of benefits. 40s is when the health problems come up.
Hitting lean FIRE by your 40s (lalo na ngayon with this economy) is super important. Good to know you’re well on your way to that!

Wow ang sarap naman ng 7 figures in US$ haha.

Sa Pinas, depends on the size of the family and level of spending pero if you have 250k a month and you live in the suburbs, super comfortable nang buhay yon.

Ako for some reason I thought I wanted to retire early when I was you ger. Pero now that I think about it, parang di ko kaya kasi masaya naman ako sa ginagawa ko and wala naman ako ibang alam gawin or gustong simulang gawin.

Although may dream business ako na gusto ko mapalago. Di ko pa sya nasstart now, pero medyo nakapag-practice na sa small businesses na nastart ko. May mga failures (of course! And costly ang failures haha) pero may nagsucceed din so bottomline may learnings. Yun na siguro ang magiging “retirement plan” ko. Medyo cynical kasi ako sa “passive income” ng insurance and funds. While meron din ako maliit na investments don, feeling ko i cannot put all of my eggs in one basket. Lalo na di naman maganda ang pension system sa pinas.

Oo nga. Unlike CPF/401k/Super hindi enough yung SSS/GSIS pension. Kailangan mag sariling sikap mag-build ng supplemental retirement funds at mag invest. May PAGIBIG MP2 and PERA accounts na available pero voluntary at walang contribution si employer. Siguro maganda din i-raise yung SSS/GSIS contribution. Also allow members to use a portion of it for investments, but with all interests withdrawable only upon retirement. Though with high tax rates sa Pinas, kawawa din si employee sa dami ng kaltas.

Teka, may pension system ang Pilipinas? What happens pala to your SSS contributions if you leave the country and then you return? You still get something?

Php250k a month is fine if you’re healthy. Nakakatakot yung hospital bills, ilang days lang in ICU, 1 million na. Well actually, if you have a heart attack you could die in traffic before you even get to the hospital, isa pa yun. Php 250k a month x 25 years = 75M pesos. Yikes. That’s 2M SGD, 1.5M USD. :scream:

Di ko talaga alam kung makakabalik pa ako. Parang mahirap iwanan ang healthcare system dito.

Share ko lang na this is exactly why we need to be educated on financial literacy as early as possible (once you start earning that first paycheck) because catastrophic events can happen. I’ve lived it myself - my dad was diagnosed with heart, lung, and liver disease in his early 40s, was in and out of PGH and Heart Center and died before he turned 50. Sa probinsya pa kami nito at kelangan talagang isanla ang maliit na bahay at kapirasong lupa just to pay the hospital bills. Measly savings completely wiped out. Yung nanay ko had to go and try her luck abroad as OFW para makatapos kami ng HS, but it would take several yrs before I got to see her again. When I did, I was disheartened to learn na wala siyang savings or any retirement - one because she doesn’t know any better (aaand too stubborn to take advice from her own kids lol); two she’s very generous to a fault na tinutulungan pa rin niya mga pinsan, kapatid, pamangkin, and everyone else who asks for money even when these people are able bodied to find work. Padala lahat sa Pinas, kahit wala ng matira sa kanya. So in a way, bata pa lang, I knew I had to do something different to change this arc so my own children and their own children don’t carry that financial burden. We also have to take into account that people are living a lot longer and tech advancements also come with novel diseases and cancers. Staggering health care costs are prompting majority of our workforce to keep their jobs as long as possible, even when some no longer have the drive or heart to do it.

Financial independence is a hard sell on young people who don’t have families yet :lol: I just tell them being FI doesn’t mean you’ll never work a single day in your life… if you still enjoy what you do at 18 or 81 then great! It just means you’ve created options and now have the flexibility of choosing whatever you want to do without worrying about money.

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