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Conventionally, retirement planning gives you the time to set achievable financial goals in line with your career – to ensure you enjoy the rest of your life in a fulfilling and intentional way.
For some, however, retirement represents freedom to live a life away from the constraints of a career and is something to be achieved as soon as possible. There is a growing number of people who think this way, and they are part of the Financial Independence, Retire Early, or F.I.R.E., movement.
The origins of the F.I.R.E. movement lie in a combination of intense saving through an almost radical lifestyle of cost-cutting measures and accompanied by astute investment decisions to build a long-term sustainable financial portfolio to ultimately pay for this low-cost lifestyle. Once they have enough, they can leave the working world behind them.
It’s a lifestyle choice that has captured the imagination of many around the world.
While this is the broad understanding of F.I.R.E., three main variations have emerged, and all present legitimate expressions of the F.I.R.E. movement:
#1 Lean F.I.R.E. – this remains the truest form of the original F.I.R.E. movement, focusing on cutting down expenditure, living as frugally as possible, to build up their savings, allowing for early retirement as long as the low expenditure lifestyle can be maintained.
#2 Fat F.I.R.E. – this evolution focuses on building up multiple sources of income without compromising one’s current standard of living. This is usually achieved through taking on higher paying jobs, building an investment portfolio with substantial passive returns, and even growing side hustles that bring in extra cash to invest. While the ultimate aim remains to build a portfolio that can pay for your retirement, the lifestyle that you live and aspire for is a comfortable one rather than an extremely frugal one.
#3 Barista F.I.R.E. – this is a middle ground variation where one’s portfolio of investments provides a basic passive income, freeing you to build a career of your choice at your own pace.
Achieving any one of these variations is tough regardless of where in the world you live, work and play. In Singapore, where cost-of-living pressures are persistent, it’s almost unimaginable. A combination of several other factors also makes Singapore unique, potentially requiring a much more complicated variation of F.I.R.E.. Simply put, F.I.R.E. looks different in Singapore.
This brings us to the annual InsureXpo by CIMB, where the theme for the year is From Protection To Prosperity – Discover the Flexibility of Insurance. Held on Saturday, 12 April, at Suntec Convention Centre, the goal of the event is to help you figure out the best financial strategies for you to secure your future and achieve F.I.R.E. in Singapore through presentations, panel discussions, breakout sessions and more with leading industry experts and those already on their path to achieving F.I.R.E.
A Unique F.I.R.E. Strategy That Has To Complement Government Insurance Policies
In Singapore, CPF is a key aspect of our lives. Acting as a safety net, its goal is to ensure we have the basic needs for a comfortable retirement – a home, regular retirement income, sufficient insurance coverage, and enough savings for any emergency healthcare needs.
CPF may initially appear to be antithetical to the F.I.R.E. movement, diverting a significant chunk of your salary away, only allowing excess cash withdrawals when you turn 55 years old, while starting regular CPF LIFE payouts at 65. All this seemingly slows you down from an early retirement.
Fortunately, CPF is consistently evolving to ensure that it can adapt to changes in Singapore society. For example, CPF LIFE, which provides lifelong monthly payouts, was only introduced in 2009 as Singaporean life expectancy trended upward.
Other examples of evolving policies include MediShield Life and CareShield Life, low-cost national medical insurance schemes designed to provide an adequate basic coverage so that there will not be bill shock in a medical emergency and if you ever find yourself in the unfortunate situation of being severely disabled.
For a further discussion on how government insurance schemes, such as CPF LIFE, are designed to adapt to citizens’ evolving financial needs, drop by the panel discussion at 12.20pm featuring Mr. Daniel Teo, Director, Policy of the CPF Board and our very own Mr. Timothy Ho, Managing Editor and Co-Founder of DollarsAndSense.
Should you want to learn about maximising the potential of your CPF accounts, make it a point to hear from Mr. Loo Cheng Chuan, founder of the 1M65 movement, at 2.35pm as he shares how he and his wife managed to accumulate S$1 million each in their CPF savings.
Why Insurance Remains The Bedrock Of Achieving F.I.R.E. In Singapore
As useful and affordable as CPF policies are, insurance policies that provide more comprehensive coverage can be explored to ensure that your F.I.R.E. ambitions are not suddenly wiped out by an unexpected illness or accident.
At InsureXpo by CIMB, six major insurance providers in Singapore will be represented – and you can get a sense of how the insurance policies they offer may be suitable to your own F.I.R.E. journey. CIMB Singapore is known to adopt the open architecture model – choosing to work with multiple insurers instead of one, which is the common practice of most banks in Singapore. What it essentially means is the ability to provide more options for one’s financial planning.
Which then brings about the blockbuster panel discussion at 11.40am, where you can hear from industry titans including Singlife’s Ms. Helen Shen, AIA Singapore’s Mr. Kelvin Kua, Income Insurance’s Mr. Steven Teo and FWD Singapore’s Mr. Joseph Lim as they sit down with CIMB Singapore’s CEO, Mr. Victor Lee, to discuss the future of insurance in Singapore.
Achieving Financial Freedom By Mastering The Housing Market In Singapore
Unlike some parts of the world where Lean F.I.R.E. can be achieved by switching to a mobile home and saving on the both the initial costs and the regular upkeep, Singapore simply doesn’t offer this option.
Uniquely, the comparison of renting vs buying is also a concept that may not be as applicable in Singapore.
Instead, a significant portion of many Singaporeans’ income goes into CPF during our working years, which can be used to pay off our significant property loans.
Pursuing Financial Independence As A Family In Singapore
Working towards F.I.R.E. in Singapore as an individual already considers many factors. When you extend your goals to encompass a family, there are even more things to take note of. You want to be able to have confidence that should something unexpected happen to you, your financial and healthcare decisions do not impact your loved ones. One way to do this is to set up an estate plan and a legacy plan.
Learn more about making a Lasting Power of Attorney and Advance Medical Directive, as well as starting the process of Advance Care Planning at InsureXpo. Ms. Low Seow Ling, managing director of Emre Legal LLC will guide you through these three tools for a holistic estate plan at 2:55pm.
On a broader scale, join Mr. Patrick Tan, TEP, founder and CEO of Fortis Law Corporation at 3:15pm as he shares about legacy planning, and aligning wealth preservation to ensure your values, vision and impact endure for generations.
Gain Wisdom From Those Who Have Started Down The F.I.R.E. Path
When embarking on an ambitious goal like F.I.R.E., it helps to hear from others who have been working towards financial independence. Two of the most prominent leaders in this space are Mr. He Ruiming and Mr. Goh Wei Choon, founders of the popular personal finance platform The Woke Salaryman. Ruiming was one of the first in Singapore to work towards F.I.R.E. and publicly document his journey.
Over the past 10 years, his perspective on F.I.R.E. has evolved and matured, and together with Wei Choon, will share their experiences of living realistically after achieving F.I.R.E.. Don’t miss their session at 3:50pm on the day.
Get Your Tickets For InsureXpo Now
With a whole day of content-packed learning and credible leaders to hear from, InsureXpo by CIMB may be the bargain of the year at just S$20 a ticket for the Event. Each ticket also entitles you to a complimentary goodie bag worth S$50* (for the first 2,000 attendees) and a lucky draw entry with over S$12,000* worth of prizes to be given away.
What’s more, if you use the exclusive promo code DS100, you can enjoy 100%* off your event tickets. See you at InsureXpo by CIMB, on 12 April 2025.
*T&Cs apply. Visit www.cimb.com.sg/insurexpo for more details.
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