Japanese man saves for early retirement by eating extremely simple meals for 21 years
Japanese man saves for early retirement by eating extremely simple meals for 21 years
A 45-year-old man in Japan ate extremely simple meals, such as rice in cold water, to save up enough money for an early retirement.
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The article says he saved up 1.18 million Singapore dollars, which is about 892,000 USD. Are they seriously saying that's ”never have to work again” money?
Is it not close?? The man is 45, it's only 15 years until the man is eligible for state pension and average life expectancy gives him 36 more years.
40,000 USD/year, tax-free for 15 years, with no travelling-to-work or uniform or work lunch costs, free to live wherever he likes and is cheap. And then he still has 300,000 USD plus state pension (I have no idea how good Japan's pension is).
Add on minor income / cost offsets from whatever retirement hobbies like gardening, it doesn't seem crazy to me.
From the info I found, you won't be eligible for pension until you reach 65, so that's 20 years. I guess it's not as bad as it initially seemed, but then again no more company dorm to live in after quitting.
It's probably invested too. So a compound interest on 5% on $800k for 20 years (assuming no taxes) and a withdraw rate of 30k per year ($2500/month) he's still looking at a cool $1m at retirement.
I have no idea about Japans tax-system but he probably still have around $800k when he retire.
Also, that's assuming market doesn't crash...
If you don't have a million dollars you can't even have a house in the US so I have no idea how much money this actually is
Cw: finance brainworms
The principle of FIRE mentioned in the article is FI financial independence (first/and/or) Retire Early. The $1.18m sgd figure may not be enough to retire on, but enough that if he were made redundant he would have savings to live, or if he wanted to career pivot/travel/buy a house he would be less dependent on his salary. Basically it's the buffer to help achieve independence from his primary source of income (salary). I'd take it to mean he's achieved the FI of FIRE with an eye to the RE after his (vulnerable) savings are converted into real estate or investment.
Yeah the entire FIRE community is all about creating """passive income""". The whole thing is PMC proles with petty-bourgeoise aspirations.
I browsed a fire subreddit and it was the most miserly, boring, spreadsheet obsessed losers arguing over which single etf they should drop their $50,000 inheritence into. A smaller portion was those who scrimped and saved to eventually become slumlords and a smaller portion still were people who stole ideas from r/povertyfinance and repackaged them as the true path to wealth as though earning six figure salaries isn't a surer path to bourgeousification than not buying a latte twice a week. Truly a bizzare community.
It's incredibly sad but it's a very insightful step into that class aspirational mindset. All of these people are completely impossible for communists to reach, they really believe in this system and they're playing it like you would play a videogame.
im trying to save up to retire early and here i am.
in my case its not out of hope for the system but utter hate at having to spend 6 days a week and all my youth in a shitty artificially lit office.
i have enough money where i can tell an employer to fuck off if they try to pull shit, and have time to find another job.
Yeah but unfortunately many of these people are not just trying to become un-exploited, but trying to become exploiters. It's full of boasting about it in fact too. Vile.
when education isnt liberating, the oppressed's dream is to become the oppressor.
It also might be enough if you keep eating cold rice every day. Not having to work just doesn't seem like it'd be worth it if your only hobby was existing.
at 4% withdrawal, thats $35680 usd a year to live off of, which is not hard at all if you have a house paid off.