A mild obsession
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This retirement goal had been a mild obsession. It seemed legitimate to me with many positive reinforcements and social rewards in the urbanized Singapore society of the early 21st century. I didnât get this from my family growing up. My family saw finances as one of many goals to balance in life along with family and their spiritual roles in the church. One day around 2001 when finances were tight I remember turning the tap and the water didnât come out because the water bill hadnât been paid. We were renting at the time in a modest house in a working class suburb in West Delray Beach, Florida called âCountry Club Acresâ. The bill was eventually paid and in general I never went without, went to a private school and was well taken care of.
Around the same time in my sophomore year of high school I also wanted to get out of Florida motivated by among other things a new brief romantic relationship with a girl that was from New Jersey that I met on a recent school trip to DC. Also around this time I was confronted with a new competitive environment and forced to deal with the reality that my athletic performance in baseball was mediocre compared to my peers. As a young kid my identity as a baseball player was an important source of pride, fulfillment and was a big motivation for the high school I selected. I quit baseball and later the football team as a junior and changed how I spent my extra curricular time to pick up a part time job at a tux rental shop. It was a combination of these factors that set me on a decision making path that prioritized maximizing my savings and shaped many of my decisions for how I structured my life.
From 2003 things didnât get any easier. The next few years in college were a period of perpetual financial precarity and doubt as to whether I would have enough money to finish my degree. That was a bit of bad luck. I could have gone to the state - University of Florida for free but instead I set off on a more risky financial venture to go to Georgia Tech and the out-of-state tuition premium of US $10,000 per semester price tag. That wasnât intentional but a coincidence of unfortunate circumstances. A con-artist had infiltrated my familyâs personal affairs and âpaidâ for my first yearâs tuition with a fraudulent personal check. By the time we realized what had happened it was the first week of classes in Aug 2003 it was too late for me to change course for that semester at least. I ended up staying the course and eventually got through at a total cost of $150k USD including living expenses financed in roughly equal proportion of student loans, family contribution and my own savings from working for oil and gas internships. I also was able to substantially reduce the out-of-state tuition burden by studying overseas in Hong Kong, Singapore and France for half of my semesters. That precarious experience had only deepened my resolve to orient my life strategy towards financial security and independence. I graduated in May 2008 like many millennials with a negative net worth from student loans and disrupted by the financial crisis that would come just 4 months later. While my move to Singapore in 2010 was initially a hit financially by taking a 50% cut in salary I was able to recover by changing jobs and ultimately the savings in cost of living paid off and set me well on a course to early retirement.
From 2001 until 2017 most of my major life decisions - my degree in Chemical Engineering, career in petrochemicals, move to Singapore, resolve to not have children, live a modest lifestyle and even to some extent the person I chose to marry shared the common denominator of how those decisions would affect my bottom line and path towards this end.