I’m determined ✨to retire at 40✨(from corporate)

Shall start posting more positive things instead of just work complains 😅 My struggles with work made me want to achieve this goal even more. How am I trying to achieve this? I’m not sure if what I’m planning for makes sense and is the right thing to do.

Here’s my plan:

1. Invest consistently in stocks - I want to be aggressive in the next 10 years. My goal is to accumulate to $1M by 40. To do so, I need to invest $2.6k/month and work towards at least 12% ROR annually. Currently I alr have some $ in stocks now. My current strategy is to only invest in high mkt cap stocks aka only s&p and nasdaq top 10. Also, I am not trying to do dollar cost avg - I am trying to buy the dip and sometimes sell the stocks to actualize the profits. This strategy has been working in recent months because stocks were generally uptrend. One of the biggest win so far this year is that I turned around from paper loss of -11k in Feb to +22k now!!! 1 lesson I learnt from 2022-2023 is not continuing to invest when market went down.. I was at -30+k at some point, I was just too depressed to even open the trading app and was just trying to escape reality by ignoring this issue.

2. Watching my spending - no Chanel bags no Hermes no Rolex for me and luckily I don’t really care about those things. I shall stop buying clothes as well… just go overseas buy la like bkk. Also I feel that having some basic tops and pants is the best idea because every morning I auto pilot, anything mix and match works. I don’t need to spend extra time dressing up and choosing clothes = I can sleep more!! Ok but I do sometimes splurge on meals but I think it’s still considered reasonable cos it’s not like omakase or Michelin restaurant - maybe like $10+ dinners dabao and my husband and I eat cafe or restaurant 2x a week. I don’t drink bubble tea much so can save on those. Omg I know another reason why I can save $ on f&b - I don’t drink!!!! Drinking is too damn exp in sg. Also, in recent years, I always try to head home before 11 to avoid taking cab

3. Property(?) - this is still an area I don’t 100% believe in it. Or ppl may think I’m silly because I kinda believe more in stocks than sg property. We got an EC last year.. every agent is saying EC confirm earn. Erm yes confirm earn but earn how much? Earn 100k also considered earn - but if over a span in 8 years, that’s considered low right . lol I say until like I regret buying EC. I don’t but I’m not like celebrating too because the opportunity cost is sig such as not having that $ in stocks investing (due to higher mortgage & maintenance fees), staying at a ulu area and not being able to have our new home immediately. But ok glad we bought the EC because prices of this yr’s EC had increased and also resale prices damn siao now??

4. Continue traveling - something I will never give up is traveling. Even when I’m working towards this plan.. I will not scrimp and save to the dollars. This 10 years is important to work towards my retirement plan but it is also important for me to enjoy life. I want to bring my parents overseas while they still can walk. I want to hike mountains and swim in lakes with my husband. Work is shag so what’s the point of working hard if there’s nothing in life to look forward to and enjoy. The money I save from not buying luxury and also not splurging on f&b is used to fund my travels. I also don’t really go budget traveling I like to enjoy 5 star hotels hahahaha so I trying to utilize credit cards, hotel memberships and coupons on apps to get good deals! Of cos staying in the miles game is a must.

5. Career - career wise I’m really not sure. I don’t think I am someone who can just work for the money even though I have an aggressive goal.. if I stay in my current company for the next 10 years and not get retrenched, I’m quite sure retiring at 40 is very achievable. But idk if I can endure this kind of fast paced and stressful work so I might need to move somewhere else with pay cut for more wlb which I am open to that. Just have to watch my expenses and mental health is more important - if I enjoy the work and people and culture, I wouldn’t mind postponing corporate retirement by 2-3 years. Also so many people seem to have side hustle??? Like ppl creating their digital assets or becoming influencers and earning from affiliate marketing etc. I really salute them because it’s not easy monetizing this kind of things and it takes time to build them. Unfortunately im a lazy pig who doesn’t have skills.. so for now, dk what side hustle I can venture to but I’ll definitely lookout

I want to keep myself accountable on my financial goals so I will use this platform to document that, aside from my word vomit about work.