Saturday, 7 December 2024

Can Your Portfolio Survive the Lost Decade? Mine Did (With Backtesting)!

In my previous post, I discussed using a 5.5% return to sustain a consistent drawdown for retirement expenses, primarily through investments in index funds or ETFs. In this post, I’ll dive into how I’m currently implementing this strategy as I prepare for my future retirement.

Since this is my retirement fund, ensuring its resilience during economic downturns is critical. For instance, it’s essential that the portfolio remains sustainable even during harsh periods like the "Lost Decade", a time when the return of the S&P 500 was Negative. To address this, I will be backtesting my portfolio against this worst-case scenario in market history. This helps me evaluate its performance during extended periods of low or negative returns, ensuring that my strategy is robust enough to withstand such challenges. I’ll also explain why this portfolio is particularly suitable for my retirement goals.

Tuesday, 3 December 2024

Do You Need $3M to Retire? Breaking Down the Numbers

In my previous blog post, I discussed key findings about retirement from the OCBC Financial Wellness Index 2024 report. These findings were also highlighted in local papers, where it was mentioned that retirees would need an estimated $1.5 million to $3 million to sustain monthly expenses of $6,000 to $12,000.

This is quite disheartening because based on the report below, Singapore has approximately 350,000 millionaires, which means over 90% of the population may fall short of this threshold. This raises a sobering question: Are the majority of Singaporeans destined to work indefinitely to sustain their retirement lifestyles?

Monday, 2 December 2024

Fewer Singaporeans Are Preparing for Retirement—WHY? : OCBC Survey 2024

The latest OCBC Financial Wellness Index reveals a concerning trend: the percentage of Singaporeans actively planning for retirement has dropped from 60% to 54%. This means that nearly half (46%) of respondents have not begun preparing for their retirement. 

Alarmingly, one in four Singaporeans only plans to start—or has just started—retirement planning in their 50s or later.