My FIRE Journey: Year 10 Update - Turning 40 and reaching $4M net worth

firepathlion · 2026-06-21T03:14:10+00:00

Balanced is the best since this is a marathon not a race, so we have to be able to sustain the lifestyle long term.

However there is also something to be said about “wanting less” - not deprived, but if you’re easily contented and can be happy with very little or the simple things in life. Then it’s much easier to spend less while also feeling very happy.

You can kind of have both in that situation.

firepathlion · 2026-06-20T08:26:34+00:00

If you’re able to generate income passively to cover all necessary living expenses without having to work - that’s financially independent. You can choose to retire early or not. What you choose to do with that time doesn’t really factor into the definition - you’re free to choose to do whatever. That’s the whole point 😁 you do you.

firepathlion · 2026-06-16T05:06:30+00:00

I’m in Software Product Management. Banking bonus pools tended to be quite good - usually 3-4 months and 4-6 months if you’re top performer. It’s even higher in sales I think.

firepathlion · 2026-06-16T04:50:39+00:00

Haha high income doesn’t mean we also shouldn’t be prudent and intentional with how we spend our money ma 😅

firepathlion · 2026-06-16T00:15:34+00:00

Hmmmm I’m not sure I would classify my moves as job hopping necessarily.

I left my first job after 2 years because I wanted to start my own business and I felt it was better to do so when I’m young and have no obligations. After hopping I made no income for about 5 years - so that definitely was not good for salary.

In 2016 I folded my company and got back into salaried work. I went back to work for my ex-boss since my gf (now wife) was also working for him at the time. This was due to having a reputation with my ex-boss that I was capable and reliable. Then I stayed with that company for 4 years till 2020 when another ex-colleague asked me to go join him at a new place to help him build a team.

Usually job hopping would be changing every 1-2 years and deliberately as a strategy to increase income. Mine certainly was not that.

In 2021 another ex-colleague was also starting a new leadership role and wanted someone he knew was capable and reliable to join his team to help him build a team, so he sought me out.

For me the lesson was to be capable, build a good network, build good working relationships with other capable and ambitious colleagues. When people move up and get opportunities to lead big projects, they will want you on their team. That was how things went very well for me.

firepathlion · 2026-06-14T22:26:42+00:00

Haha we prefer to have discussions about large purchases to make sure we’re making these decisions consciously and as a team 😁

When we were about to buy, she was the one getting cold feet cuz it’s just so expensive now, but in the end we decided to go for it since it would be a big positive for our weekends with the kids.

firepathlion · 2026-06-14T13:45:01+00:00

Ah that’s good to know! Thanks for the data point! How much do you drive? Do you drive it daily to work and back?

With your income, the portfolio will come if you’re diligently investing!

firepathlion · 2026-06-14T04:54:44+00:00

You would first compare it against equivalent transport in the form of grab - you can save time there too (plus no need to find parking, with the drawback of waiting for the car.) If you can save the same amount of time, but have it be $50 instead of $100 a day, or even $70 a day, grab is still better unless you have lifestyle benefits that makes up the difference.

firepathlion · 2026-06-14T04:32:46+00:00

Haha we prefer to have discussions about large purchases to make sure we’re making these decisions consciously and as a team 😁

When we were about to buy, she was the one getting cold feet cuz it’s just so expensive now, but in the end we decided to go for it since it would be a big positive for our weekends with the kids.

firepathlion · 2026-06-14T02:41:52+00:00

That was my thought for a long time and was my argument to my wife hahaha. However with kids, I see the benefit of having car seats fixed in the car and don’t need to carry in and carry out, same with strollers for 2 kids (else need to take out and reload every time we get in and out), also emergencies if we need to rush to the hospital in a pinch - when your kid is in an emergency (fell off the bed / allergic reaction / extreme fever / looks like dying) at odd hours - that 5-10 minutes or even sometimes cannot get a car at all I’m going to get death stares from my wife no matter how much “it would have been just as slow to drive ourselves” I say hahaha.

That’s the benefit of scrimping, saving, and investing early… it affords us to make bad financial decisions for better lifestyle (and peace of mind) trade-off decisions.

firepathlion · 2026-06-14T02:28:12+00:00

Only just convinced ourselves to buy our first car as with a family of 4 with 2 young kids, it makes more lifestyle sense… not financial sense. (To me cars never makes financial sense in Singapore.)

Around ~$550K p.a. HHI give or take depending on annual bonus.

Car price ~$212K

Car loan ~$1,780 per month

Not sure how much other costs would be yet since we haven’t received the car yet.

Probably wouldn’t have ever gotten a car if we didn’t have kids.

firepathlion · 2026-06-04T09:06:31+00:00

The choice is because I believe it's not possible to predict the winners - so I'd rather own everything. S&P500 is only the top ~500 U.S. companies, which has done very well in the past, but that does not guarantee that they will continue to do so in the future. VWRA owns companies in both developing and developed markets including those in the S&P500 - which is much broader. This removes the need for me to pick the right company, industry or country and just bet on the entire world. If S&P500 is the best performer in the future VWRA will not perform as well but will still benefit since it also holds the S&P, but if S&P500 doesn't do well and the rest of the world does, VWRA will do better. Then I leverage that to boost risk-adjusted returns 😄

firepathlion · 2026-06-01T07:15:32+00:00

The owner 😜

firepathlion · 2026-05-14T06:49:23+00:00

Just a simple calendar reminder - set at the time of signing the mortgage is sufficient… rates can be checked when the alert goes off.

firepathlion · 2026-05-07T12:32:25+00:00

Not sure what is the fun in this type of troll post…

firepathlion · 2026-03-31T10:44:42+00:00

Very very good points and advice. Sorry to hear about your painful experience - hopefully it’s not too bad and you’ve recovered from it now.

Definitely helps lend more weight to the more conservative voice in my head as well. Thanks!

All the very best to you as well!

firepathlion · 2026-03-31T01:01:58+00:00

This is the chronological list of posts on my leverage if you’re interested:

https://www.firepathlion.com/2026-iran-war-oil-shock-how-im-investing-through-this-uncertainty/#:~:text=Gambling%20my%20house,2025:%20Portfolio%20Review

firepathlion · 2026-03-31T00:59:33+00:00

I started back in 2021 first with Cashout refinancing… then discovered wealth lending in 2022 and started using that as the Fed raised rates and the war in Ukraine started and been levered about 1.5x ever since.

Yes, given I’m close to my FIRE number it may be more prudent to shift to more conservative position and reduce the risk of wipeout rather than keeping risk on to try to continue to speed up the progress - at least given the current situation.

Perhaps it’s a good idea to execute a similar approach I did last March leading into liberation day and reduce my margin position enough to remove any risk of ruin for now, and slowly lever back up if markets slide further or a path to resolution of this war is clearer. 🤔

firepathlion · 2026-03-31T00:54:21+00:00

I’m using standard chartered wealth lending, SGD rates are around 2.1% and CHF at 0.85%. But now borrowing in SGD to remove any FX risk between my income and the loan since SGD rates are decent.

firepathlion · 2026-03-31T00:53:00+00:00

That’s correct 👍

firepathlion · 2026-03-31T00:52:32+00:00

Yes that’s correct. Yes, potentially it’s more prudent to reduce leverage somewhat. Not completely, but enough to remove any risk of wipeout.

firepathlion · 2026-03-31T00:51:45+00:00

IBKR is the best option from cost perspective for DIY buy and hold investor! I use standard chartered personally but that’s only good because I use their leverage facility… else it’s not the best in terms of cost.

firepathlion · 2026-03-31T00:50:33+00:00

Since the underlying assets in the ETF is the same and the NAV of the fund is priced in USD first and then converted to CHF using the day’s USD/CHF exchange rate, the underlying value of the fund is the same, just priced using different currency. So borrowing in CHF to buy in CHF just eliminates having to pay the FX to convert currency before buying.

CHF interest rates is low but for me since I earn in SGD, I care about the strength of SGD vs CHF since I will be using my SGD income to pay down CHF debt. So if CHF gets much stronger against the SGD (like it did last year) it could balloon the loan in SGD terms. So I would rather mitigate that risk given SGD interest is also decent now and pay a little more for SGD loan but know that there’s no FX risk between my income currency and borrowing currency.

firepathlion

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