🔥FIRE: How I Achieved Financial Independence at 38

[@KyithNg]

Thanks for having me guys!! Always love to chat!

[@TheFifthPersonChannel]

Thanks for joining us, Kyith!! 😁

[@daniellin569]

At age 40, I am nowhere close to where Keith is right now. He is definitely an inspiration.

[@shingkwongyt]

Keith is outstanding; I see him as comparable to AK, but younger. I've been a devoted follower of his blog for over a decade. He tends to downplay his accomplishments, displaying a remarkable level of humility.

[@meldavies9909]

A great new video. I don't think that Kyith realises just how capable he is, or how in demand his knowledge might be. As a long time reader of his blogs I am always amazed at the level of detail he goes into in each topic. A very impressive and thoughtful person around investing. Thanks for including this in your content.

[@TheFifthPersonChannel]

Thank you so much for kind words, Mel! Kyith will be happy to hear that!

[@KyithNg]

Thanks for the vote of confidence!

[@hatchegg80]

this guy makes a lot more sense than all the fake gurus out there

[@KyithNg]

Thank you

[@user-ff2kd8ex8g]

Hear, hear!

[@kevinlai6851]

I've been a follower of AK and Kyith for many many years. Thanks to Fifth person for bringing them on.

[@TheFifthPersonChannel]

Happy to!

[@nadiaaljunied7225]

Huge fan of Investment Moats. Thank you for featuring Kyith. Could you guys bring in Financial Horse please?

[@dennishoe1397]

I have been reading investments now and then, and his articles are always another level. He is also very transparent in sharing his own portfolios out to the public. Very inspiring to people who wish to build wealth and be better financially.

[@KyithNg]

Thanks a lot Dennis!

[@samueltay9016]

Thank you for bringing Kyith on! Have been following his blog for the last couple of years and appreciate that he shares the nuances of his investing journey and rare nuggets of gems along the way!!

[@KyithNg]

Thank you Samuel!

[@karenlye4493]

Thank you for being Kyith.Learn more on investment.

[@jacksonyang2577]

Wow, he achieved FIRE much younger than AK71. Ya, i like Keith blogs and enjoy reading it.

[@tuatara80]

I have learned so much from you guys Adam, Rusmin, and Victor, and especially from Kyith. Plenty of takeaways. Thank you so much, guys! This video will definitely be shared.

[@TheFifthPersonChannel]

Thank you so much!

[@applecrosser]

Can you make a video about insurance? Like what should the average person get and stuff like that? Tips and tricks…

[@chinaberg]

Why do I keep on getting FIRE channels in Singapore and Malaysia? 😂 In all honesty, keep up the good work. Great video.

[@TheFifthPersonChannel]

Thank you!

[@ShujunTan]

Thank you for bringing Kyith on for this ep! Been reading investmentmoats since I started working 💪

[@TheFifthPersonChannel]

Our pleasure!

[@LoyceLeeber]

Making money is not the same as keeping it there is a reason why investments aren't well taught in schools, the examples you gave are well stationed, the market crisis gave me my first millions, people shy away from hard times, I embrace them.. well at least my advisor does lol.

[@kphuah]

Insightful discussion. While everyone focusing on accumulating wealth, will be a good discussion on if one day SGD depreciate what should investor do to protect their portfolio value. As we seen a number of countries currency dpr and investor portfolio took a hit

[@TheFifthPersonChannel]

If you are worried about the SGD depreciating, you can always diversify and invest in securities denominated in other currencies.

[@KyithNg]

Hi that is a good question, I think this is a question we get at work on and off from clients as well. The truth is that each of our time horizon is different and we are not sure how the currencies will do by the time we retire, and during our retirement. But I take it you have this worry whether Singapore is the odd place where our local currency is remarkably strong. I think that concern is valid but first and foremost, from a financial planning perspective, the rule of thumb is to be ok with the currency where you will retire at. If you are going to Europe to retire, having a portfolio in Eur is okay. Aside from that, one way is to be globally diversified, because in this way each of those companies earn in different currencies. We are depending on the growth of the group of companies over time to drive our returns. Whether the ETF is denominated in EUR, GBP, USD, or SGD, the returns tend to be "the same" For example, suppose the group of companies in 2023 return 10% in USD. You can own the fund denominated in USD, but if SGD strengthen 5% against the USD, and you are retiring this year, if you sell all of it and convert into SGD, the gain in value is 5%. That looks not so good, but if the fund is denominated in SGD, the gain in fund value may only be 5%. so net net it is roughly the same. The reason we take our chances to be globally diversified is less about the currency risk but to hedge the bet that local listed business might not be the best growers out there and we don't be so concentrated locally, and tap upon a larger pool. hope this helps.

[@rucacc]

great video

[@TheFifthPersonChannel]

Thanks!

[@BoonTee]

Kyith is the man 🫡

[@KyithNg]

Thanks Boon Tee!

[@user-vt5ln7qq4j]

hi kyith, can't download your portfolio spreadsheet. each time i open your website featuring the spreadsheet, my pc system hangs. had to reboot. can't even download the file as opening the online article causes my pc system to hang. tried to do so several times but fail. any way i can download your spreadsheet? thanks.

[@accqpqp2339]

16:00

[@stanicng]

Can invite Christopher to your channel as well

[@KyithNg]

If you all wish to and if the Fifth Person team is open, I can always linked up

[@jalanjalan7099]

Both AK and Kyith are single and not married. do you know of a blogger who 1) is married with kids and 2) have parent to support and the person has FIRE like AK and Kyith?

[@kevinlai6851]

I know someone like that. fired around 40+, married with kids and have parents to support. but he is no blogger. from what i know their family expenses is around 7k+ monthly and their combined passive comfortably covers that. His parents reside in malaysia and he manage a separate sg dividend portfolio for his parents similar to AK style, SG banks and Reits, which generates passive income for his parents. And with increasingly favorable SGD to MYR exchange rate it works to support his parents passively.

[@lawrencecheung1628]

I’m confused as some one who doesn’t live in Singapore. But Singapore is one of, if not, the highest cost of living of all places. How does one even survive on 2000 Singapore dollars?! Does he have family/children? If single, may just about manage. Disclaimer - each to their own and not trying to discredit any one. Please enlighten.

[@KyithNg]

When i plan out $2000, it was with a view of able to support a family with 2 aged parents. I was single back then when i was 38 years ago. Since then both my parents have passed away (one in 2017 and another this year). Even with both of them, i paid for almost all the expenses so they work out to be $24,000. Singapore is high cost but i think that is misleading because the articles are often through the lens of expat living. for locals if you have a family with 2 children it usually cost about $4000 for a frugal one to $7000 for a normal one. I think since all of them passed away, my recent expenses fluctuates around $1500 a month. If we break my expenses into the inflexible portion, which is those expenses that don't go away when situations change and very affected by inflation, it tends to be below $800 a month. Why the cost can be lower is because i don't have a mortgage to pay for. So typically for most of us, the biggest concern tends to be food, transport and housing. since housing is taken care of, usually my food works out to be $200 to $400 a month, transport $100, utilities $70, broadband $40. Hope this helps.

[@ShujunTan]

Sorry to hear about the passing of your parents

[@lynnchua1890]

What about insurance and income tax?

[@KyithNg]

@@ShujunTan no issues there!

[@KyithNg]

@@lynnchua1890 are you ask how much is it typically? usually my tax is not included in this expense because it is an either or. if i stop work, that income tax goes away. if i continue to work, then that income tax is a need to earn the income. my insurance is roughly about 360 a month

[@chrono9428]

Does Kyith have children and elderly parents to take care of?

[@KyithNg]

Both my parents passed away. I am single. One parent passed away about 6 years ago and one this year.

[@carnesir]

@@KyithNgmy condolences. Looking forward to more articles from you I do enjoy them alot

[@KyithNg]

@@carnesir thank you

[@futurederrick]

FIRE = Financial Independence Retire Early?

[@TheFifthPersonChannel]

Yes!

[@leanne2330]

FIRE at 38? What for? Live is only begin abt 40yrso that u know the head and tail of living and network.

[@zyan3131]

Not everyone wanna spend their live working, especially if you hate your job

[@conniechan4576]

👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍

[@ivanp9222]

老鸟😂

[@user-fr1fy7fp9c]

You need at least 5m at age of 38 to comfortably claim to be in position to FIRE. $1.1m is very common for a 40 yr old professional even without investing aggressively.

[@KyithNg]

Think about it this way, if someone inherits $10 mil due to a relative, and just put in a very safe portfolio he or she is not investing aggressively, i would consider him to be able to FI, if his spending is not too much. He doesn't have an investment track record but his wealth allows him to do that. Track record just shows us whether this person can accumulate based on investment returns. I would say i don't have that good of an investment record. You have spend enough time to beat it in me. But i doubt it is always we need $5 million at 38. It depends on the lifestyle of a person. I put it very clearly that i need $500,000 on my blog because what i desire is financial security and a diversified portfolio will allow me to conservatively have that income. It doesn't cover all my expenses, but it buys the kind of security that I valued highly. I think you have put up enough comments on my blog about my poor returns and enough question whether I qualify to talk about FI. Personally I think FI is not about investment returns only. Hope that is a good enough response.

[@kevinlai6851]

I think it is not as common as you think. According to multiple public sources, depending where you look at, there is around 50-60 Million USD millionaires in the world. That is around 1-1.2% of the world's adult population, or less than 1% of the world's overall population. That means ~99% do NOT have 1M usd NET worth. Kyith has a 1.1M sgd portfolio which does not include property and CPF, so i would imagine he would easily qualify as within the top 1% globally, but not necessarily in singapore. It is very commendable already. Kudos to Kyith. FIRE is relative. It is dependant on the person's lifestyle, life stage and commitments. At this junction he is comfortable with 2k a month. Even SG/US Tbills can give him 4-5% and considering his portfolio he could easily get 4-5k a month, double his desired lifestyle expenses. Who is anyone to say he needs 5M? no need to project our wants and desired lifestyle on anyone else.

[@KyithNg]

@@kevinlai6851 thank you

[@fade0ut]

1.1m is sufficient to generate close to 4k income a month at a conservative rate of return. That's definitely enough for an average person. 5m means your living costs are very high compared to most.

[@nellyho128]

Why 5m? I thought as long as passive income can cover expenses you can be considered FIRE? It can be 1m, 2 m, or any amount. For myself, I consider myself FI since my passive income of 2.7k per month has exceeded my 2.5k monthly expenses. Mortgage paid off and I have more than ERS level of savings in CPF OA SA combined. Never gonna have 5m in my entire life.

[@godzillaenergy]

Whats Kyith hwz ID?