Showing posts with label expenditure. Show all posts
Showing posts with label expenditure. Show all posts

Friday, August 15, 2014

To become rich, save more and spend less on your income!

It is actually quite possible for any ordinary person earning a very average salary to be able retire early - the secret is "save more spend less"!

Just give a very simple example:
Gross Median household income from work of employed residents (excluding non-employed and retiree) in Singapore is S$7,870 per month in 2013.
Note that this figure for Household income from work includes employer Central Provident Fund (CPF) contributions.

I can't find latest figure on household expenditures, but in 2007 the household expenditures of those household with income of $7000-$7999 is $4685 per month.  Assuming inflation of 3% from 2007 to 2013, let's assume the expenditure is $5,594 per month in 2013.

That means the median household can save $2,276 per month.
Let's assume the household maintain this savings for 30 years, and they are able to obtain 5% return per year.
At the end of 30 years, they would have: $1.894m !!!
You would ask: "Is your calculator faulty?", "Did you make a mistake in the calculation?"
Well, the answer is: NO!
You see $1.894m is because of the power of compounding return at 5% !
Thus, as you can see, your return need not be large over a long-term of say 30 years, you just need 5% compounded return or more!

BUT: Assuming you obtain low returns, or worse, you obtain 0% return, then at the end of 30 years, you would only have: $819,360.