Old and poor is not a good idea. Please take care!

Old and poor is not a good idea. Please take care!

I read this news in nst.com.my “Mandate kids to care for parents.” and I immediately felt a tinge of emotion. Why do we need legislation to ensure parents are taken care of?

Healthy and able to work is not for all jobs

Then again, I was jogging the other day in Singapore and I saw an uncle, probably in his 70s sweeping the floor outside an MRT station. Further down the road, two foreign workers were cutting the grasses outside the Parliament building. I would have hoped that the uncle would not need to wake up so early if he does not want to and certainly not sweeping the floor at 8am in the morning… By the way, this has got nothing to do with people being healthy and thus they could work. My parents gave everything they have to their children, it’s time we give back too.

Planning for post-working life is important

My wife and I decided that we will do our best to ensure our kids get their degrees and a property each. That’s all we have planned because we really hope that we could travel a bit more after they have started their tertiary education years. Hopefully by then, I could do some occasional training / consultancy but the rest of the time, just relaxing.

By the way, we are not aiming for every week in another country yea. Perhaps one week in Langkawi, the other week in Kota Kinabalu and etc. My wife’s requirement is just 2 overseas trips per year. I think that’s doable. Haha. We also have no intention to stay in a big house by then. A condominium of 1,000 sq ft should suffice because we may not be home that often anyway.

Investment is critical

This is why investment and the ability to do so is critical. Do not believe too much in anything which can go up super fast. If that’s the case, it can also come down super fast. I wish everyone will be lucky and is able to catch the right timing. Just remember, luck do run out occasionally. Remember, when we do not know WHY the returns are so high, that’s no longer an investment yeah. More like a gamble.

Continue to reduce unnecessary spending. One does NOT need a better car to show off to peers who are driving worse cars. There are MANY more who drive better cars anyway. if we can afford a RM200,000 car, congratulations! Just remember to buy a RM100,000 car instead and the extra instalment savings every month, invest it. Both cars will reach the destination yeah.

One does NOT need a luxury handbag unless of course the handbag can be bought without the need for installment and the price is just a small amount versus the salary.if the cost of one handbag is a few months of the salary or that installment is needed, be financially savvy and avoid it. It’s NOT within your league and whatever you do to try and show off will not work.

Old and poor is not a good idea

One day, someday we will become old. We may think it’s very far away but every year we did not do something to prepare for it means that we are closer to the possibility of being old and poor. That’s really not a good idea. By the way, every RM5,000 we save is not RM5,000 when we retire yeah. Even at 5% returns, that RM5,000 will double in 14 years and you can continue to do the calculations for the 2nd year RM5,000 and 3rd year RM5,000 and so on. Suddenly you will realise that hey… I am half a millionaire just by saving RM5,000 per year consistently for 30 years.

I know, you want to say RM500,000 is not a lot of money by the time you retire. It’s still way better to have it versus nothing yeah. 🙂 All the best.

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