Conservative FIRE

Eventually I cannot avoid writing about it. FIRE.

FIRE continues to trend and it stands for Financial Independence Retire Early. It has its fair share of detractors but in my personal opinion, it is an aspiration. Me being me, with the tendency to see others’ individual preferences and nuances, will not run it down if that is what holds dear to you. I might holler if you are starving rags and bones for its sake, otherwise yea, I am fine with FIRE; just that I may have issues on how one goes about it.

So what do I mean by conservative FIRE?

Let me begin first by stating an age old wisdom that it is not enough to live within your means but one has to live BELOW your means in order to generate savings. It is in this spirit that it would be wise to live below that 4% rule in FIRE. This means that you seek to generate 4% from your portfolio yearly but yet consume/spend/withdraw only 2% in order to generate a buffer for future volatility in income or portfolio for that matter.

“Simplicity is the Ultimate Sophistication..

So what will that take?

May 22, 2019 and $1379/month. Straits Times wrote that researchers found that retirees at age 65 will need that amount for a basic standard of living. That works out to be $16548/year. Divide that by 2% and the number $827400 appears. That is just mathematics.

Did you know that there are Unit Trust Funds that distribute monthly?

Well now you know. Unit Trust Dividend Portfolio.

• You can receive regular passive income!
• Enjoy a regular flow of passive income from your investment portfolio.
• Suite of professionally customised unit trust portfolios by licensed representatives.
• Dividends credited directly into your bank account.

Can you DIY?

Of course you are entitled to seek out the lowest cost platform to do that for you! But for a 0.5% wrap fee, at least there is someone, (Me, for example) to watch over the portfolio in case of market adverse conditions requiring appropriate fund switches.

Why never consider individual securities?

1. The simple purposes of this write up do not warrant it, but yea sure go ahead if you want to include the other asset classes as well.
2. Mental freedom is less when incorporating individual securities.
3. I have yet to find listed individual securities that pay out monthly dividends.

Wrapping Up.

Conservative FIRE is simply planning to live within the 4% generated by the portfolio, and with that it requires a higher capital target at onset. All that to buffer volatility both at income and portfolio level. It’s complicatedly simple.

For retirement planning, speak to Isaac.