Tuesday, April 24, 2018















1) poor health, either personal or of closed ones
2) freedom to pursue other life goals
3) sucky work environment
4) for family














Unintelligent Nerd said...

Hi LP,

Another great reflective post!

With the benefit of maturity, I now cringe at my older blog posts.

la papillion said...

Hi UN,

Haha, thanks :) Actually cringing when you read your older post is a sign of growth, so that's a good thing!

Singapore Man of Leisure said...



The strength of youth who does not know what cannot be done has morphed into the wisdom of experienced ;)

I still remember rolling my eyes on your posts detailing your book reading goals and annual savings. Snigger, snigger.

Feel like reading? Read.

Feel like spending? Spend.

If this is not freedom? What is?

Competitive financial freedom goal setting?

Reminds me of communist china during the Great Leap Forward years... That era resulted in the greatest man-made famine in human history....

I tell you. It would be a matter of time before the next generation of youths will come up with retire by age 30 goals!

la papillion said...


Hahaha, sometimes we have to go through the extremes to truly understand the middle moderate path :)

Retire by age 30?? The die early way is it? LOL

Anonymous said...

Hi there

While the idea of FIRE has gained traction and certainly is a worthwhile idea to consider, one also has to factor in the probability of certain unexpected circumstances (sudden illness, accident, etc) as well.

Say you're indeed able to live frugally and manage to amass enough assets with sufficient returns to successfully reach the FIRE goal. You're financially independent with enough passive cash flow to sustain you through the rest of your life without having to depend on an external source of income. What if one fine day, you're hit with one of the abovementioned unexpected circumstances and your expenses suddenly gets jacked up (increased medical care)?

Suddenly you find yourself in the unenviable situation of becoming un-FIRE again. With the added constraint that you might no longer draw the similar income which you previously enjoyed when you decided to "f*** the rat race" upon hitting FIRE status years ago (either due to poor health/out of job market for too long/boss has found a better and cheaper replacement).

Something worth thinking about, eh?

la papillion said...

Hi anonymous,

That's one of the major complications of FIRE, or life for that matter. Usually people will have some layers of financial protection against such things. One of them will be insurance products designed for such scenarios. The other will be money stashed in the CPF-MA account and the last will be the cash for self-insurance. I think honestly, nobody can really tank the worst of such medical circumstances, but should be able to withstand some hits without sacrificing much quality of life. If it's something major, then unless it's already included in the planning stage, we have to adjust accordingly.

That's just the financial part. The other part about it is to hedge against both a short life and a long life. Usually people hedge against a long life, hence retiring is such a problem, but I always joked that if we live an unexpectedly short life, retirement is never an issue.

Thanks for commenting, but can you pls put a nickname so that I know who to address? There could be many anonymous but only one you :)

EY said...

Hi LP,

I'd much prefer FILL - Financially Independent, Live Life :)

Maybe FILLED if I live by my motto that life is an adventure.

Financially Independent, Live Life Extremely Dangerously.


By the way, would like to thank you plenty many again. Shein got offered a place in both NUS and NTU. Likely to choose NUS. It's been quite a journey and he has come a long way under your patient guidance. Can't thank you enough. You keep up your great work!

la papillion said...

Hi EY,

Haha, then next time we can ask each other whether you have your FILL? lol

Wow, that's great news, very happy to hear that. I will also choose NUS over NTU, all things being the same. Great news :)

My 15HWW said...

Hi LP,

Let me be the first to admit that I was one who was/is participating in competitive financial goals.

The positive aspect is that somehow, subconsciously, you will just save more. The dark side? Well, you already established that.

When I started the blog, I desperately wanted to FIRE at 35. When you want to escape, even a day is too long.

Now, FI at 40 would be quite shiok. Maybe a few years later, I will push back by another 5 years?

Now, the bigger worry is if there is work for me, not the other way round. But considering I have been in this line for >10 years already, there should not be reason for worry! =p

la papillion said...

Hi 15hww,

Don't say you, I'm also like that in the past. I realised it's very toxic, and I'm also contributing to that, so I stopped.

Once you understand that why we need to FIRE, I think the timeline is not so important anymore. That's really freedom, because we're not bound by artificial constraints.

Regarding work, I worry about it all the time lol