晚年经济独立 Being Financial Independent during the Golden Age

新洲日报 大霹雳 2019年5月18日 第15页

老实说，我从来都不相信养儿防老。因此，我的信念是不要给孩子们增添烦恼，我们俩老自个儿照顾好自己就好了。我们的规划是供养孩子们到经济独立或至多25岁。至此之后，在钱财方面，我们不会烦他们，也希望他们也别烦我们。

也许大家会觉得我好像不尽人情。其实，只要我们俩老不因为金钱而麻烦他们，好让他们能更好的管理好自个儿的家庭已是给他们最好的礼物了。若到了自立的年龄还指望俩老供养，是不是太过分了？我们俩老还要享受下来的日子。若他们有孝心，应该不要因金钱过来烦我们俩老。所谓谈钱伤感情。只要他们日子过得好，也就是给我们最好的报答了。

要做到晚年经济独立，年轻时的规划是绝对不能少的。我的规划是从我25岁时开始的。我是边规划边学习。重点是要有一个精确的最终目标。下来要做的就是画出路线图前往目的地。此图就是所谓的计划书。画出图后，还必须实践，不要只是纸上谈兵。 跟着路线图走的时候需不时检讨路线是否实际并适时调整以确保在指定的时间内到达终点。这就是整套的财务规划。说难不难，说容易也不见得。最难得地方在于自律。许多人就败在这里。当你不能自律的跟随方案进行的话，还谈什么成果。下来就是不愿意学习。财务管理和投资都需要学习。学习过程中难免会有错误。这时以其灰心，不如自我检讨，从错误中学习才是前往成功的不二法门。

那你们开始了你们晚年经济独立计划了吗？

This Chinese article is talking about being financial independent during the golden age. For some parents, they believe that their kids will take care of them when they are old. As a matter of fact, their kids will face other life difficulties as well.

To me, I never expect my children will take care of us. My belief is that we, as parents, will provide them financial support until the age of 25 at most. By then, we will not ask for financial support from them as we hope that they could put more effort on settling down their family. If they success, this will be the biggest gift to us.

To be financial independent during the golden age, you have to start your financial plan as early as possible. I started mine at the age of 25. I learned and practiced at the same time. The first time you need to have is where you want to go and by when. Subsequently, you have to draw a roadmap to get to your destination. Your map will be useless without action. You also have review your progress against your roadmap and make necessary adjustment to ensure you will arrive your destination within the stipulated time. This is the whole financial planning about.

It is actually not that difficult. However, people fail mainly due to lack of self discipline. If you can't even follow your roadmap, don't even talk about success. Also, if you unwilling to learn, you will also not get what you want. The whole process is talking about mistakes and learning form mistakes. By doing so, you will be able to fine tune your route to make sure you reach your destination.

Have you started your financial plan for your old age? 

3 Months after Early Retiremeent

Some of  my friends told me that I would be bored three months after retirement and soon I would look for a job again. Now, 3 months has passed, I don't even have any feeling on going back to be an full-time employee again. This is simply because I very much enjoy my time being filled up with various activities such as having daily morning exercise, having my each meals slowly, taking care of my plants, slow reading, learning Japanese and Hakka, watching my favorite dramas, tutoring on my kids school subjects, helping my wife on house work and cooking, shopping around with my wife during weekdays...(the list goes on). What surprise me is that I only realize that I have so many activities when I am writing this.

Recently, I have dig out my long lost-touched guitar. After replacing the broken first and second strings, I started to play with it a week ago. Since I could only play simple guitar music, I would like to learn more on guitar playing skill at the lowest possible cost.

Health or Wealth, Which One Would You Choose?

Money is important. Without money, we can't even meet our basic needs nowadays. That is why we all work for money in order to survive. We work so hard that we fully utilize almost every awake minute to earn. So hard until we have no idea that we have gradually deteriorated our health. Here comes a question, is it worthy to forego health for wealth?

2 Months after Early Retirement

It has been 2 months after starting of my early retirement. There are some significant changes over my life which I would like to share in this post.

First, my life focus has been gradually diverted from boring & pressurized daily full-time job to life enjoyment. When I was still an full-time employee, most of my day time had been occupied by my then employer. Of course, this is a must according employment contract. Each and everyday then, after a-day work, I was so exhausted. I didn't have any mood to enjoy the rest of my day as my mind was still filled up by work related issues. I still had to consider solutions of those issues even though I was already so tired. I couldn't sleep well due to anxiety. This was really torturing and my health had been affected. 

Things to Look into Before You Quit Your Full Time Job to Become A Free Man

It took me years to finalize my decision to quit from my full time job. You might think that I should not have any worry as long as I am financially ready. As a matter of fact, there are also others areas I need to look into before I am ready. Here I would like to share my experience about things to look into before I make such decision.

Myth of Your Personal Net Worth

Do you know how much do you worth? Your net worth is the same as a company's balance sheet. It is as simple as the difference between Total Asset you own and Total Liability you owe. A positive figure means you own more than what you owe or vice versa.

My Friends' Response on My Early Retirement

I was in very low profile on I resignation. My friends who know understand that I have my own way on financial management. Normally, everyone can see that I am different from the others on handling monetary issues. Because of this, my friends sometimes like to get my consultation on financial questions. However, if they unwilling to reveal more information about their financial status, I could only share general advice. Because I share my personal experience which are somewhat different from what they generally precept, they normally deny my advise. I recognize that there are three types of learners during my sharing:

我认识的朋友们对我提早退休的反应（非常有意思）

我在辞职时是非常低调的处理。认识我的朋友们都晓得我在财务管理有一套自己的方式。在平时，大伙儿都能看出我在钱财处理上和他们的不同。也因为这样，朋友们也不时想我请教财务上的问题。若他们不给于我更多他们的财务状况的话，我至多只可以分享一些表面上的管理建议。因为我分享的是我个人的经验，有些与他们一般所知的有些不同，他们会问我为何不“如此如此，这般这般”。我也乐意分享为何我不“如此如此，这般这般”。我发现在分享后，不同人会有不同的反应。基本上，我可以把他们分类成三大学习者：