While waiting for the heavy rain to stop before rush home after work, i make used of my time to stuff my brain with current issues from today’s newspaper. 

I came across an interesting article, and wish to share with you all.

A survey has been conducted by Canadian insurer Sun Life Financial, and the results shown that Asians believe in order to retire comfortably at their early age, one must have at least 100 times of their monthly salaries in their savings.   The survey was conducted among respondents in India, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia and the Philipines.  

Indonesian is among the population who save more for their retirement, at least 345 monthly salary set aside in their reserve fund, where there was no provision for health coverage after retirement.

While most Chinese has the desire to retire early at age of 50s, if compared to Indians who see themselves retiring in their early 60s.  Chinese prefer to retire early so that they can enjoy their lives after retirement.  However, chinese ”long term” plan of early retirement is defines as only up to five years whereas for most Indians it is seen as greater than 10 years.  In other words, Indians are more well plan in their life after retirement if compared to Chinese. 

Only 36% of the population in India wish to stop working and retire early, while in China, majority of them which is 55% or more from their population plan to retire early and enjoy leisure.

In short, Chinese are looking for early retirement if compared to others, because they may think that life is too short, and wish to enjoy their lives after so many years of hard work in the workforce and wish to experience the true meaning of living in this world besides working for money to support their day to day living.

In conclusion, early retirement for everyone is possible provided you have a good plan for it.  It is advisable to seek for professional advice from license financial planner or insurance agent on your early retirement plan so that your goal for retire early can be achieved!

Saving is important for everyone.  There are many reasons why people save.  Be it save for future, save for marriage, save for education, save for retirement or save for emergency, it is essential and vital to all of us living in this world.  But do you know how much you need to save every month from your monthly income is considered an ideal amount? 10%, 20% or even more from your monthly household income?  The answer is between 20 to 25 percent of the household income.  Of course, the more you save the better you are!

Some people will ask what is included in a household income?  Household income is the total income made by all individuals in a household which is including monthly fixed income, yearly bonus, allowances and etc.  So for example, you have 3 family members in your family who are in the workforce and the total combined income is RM10,000 per month.  So the ideal monthly savings should be at least RM2,000.00 to RM2,500.00 a month. 

Most Malaysians save 10 percent or less from their household income.  This is obviously not enough!  So in order to save more money for future, you either need to cut down your monthly household expenses or increase your monthly household income. 

So ask yourself, do you save enough every month for your future?  I do!  How about you?