A millionaire or a HNWI (High Net Worth Individual) is someone with a liquid investable wealth of US$1 million or above. The amount only includes cash, debt-free residential properties, and listed company holdings.
Henley & Partners, in partnership with wealth intelligence firm New World Wealth, released the 2024 World’s Wealthiest Cities Report. It tracks the movements of over 150,000 HNWIs in the world’s top 50 wealthiest cities. The top five cities with most millionaires are New York, The Bay Area, Tokyo, Singapore and London.
If you are a millionaire in Singapore, you are one out of 244,800 or 4 percent of the population living here. The number excludes 336 centi-millionaires and 30 billionaires.
A millennial wants to be a millionaire?
Recently, The Straits Times published an article titled “Journey to a million: Young Singaporeans on the fast track to ‘financial freedom’ bare all”.
“Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” is a popular television game show that began airing first in 1998. I could recall back in the 1990s, millionaire is a popular term and the dream of many. But that was three decades ago. With inflation and inflated asset prices, isn’t it outdated to talk about being a millionaire in 2024?
Furthermore, the article mentioned FIRE (Financial Independence Retire Early) – a concept from the book Your Money Or Your Life published in 1992. That was 32 years ago before the birth of millennials!
Did The Straits Times notice that the younger generations are not so materialistic like the baby boomers and Generation X or Y? Our new generations have long lost their interest in the 5Cs. Instead, they care about work-life balance. They are busy buying experiences and chasing their dreams.
Anyway, the article covered how some millennials go to social media to post their journey of making a million in a few years. I admire their courage to bare it all for strangers to scrutinize their finances. Frankly, I don’t have the guts to do so.
Imagine you were underperformed academically. But you swear that you would start with failing all the subjects, from this moment work your butt off until you reach the top in class. Do you dare to share your efforts in Youtube or TikTok, report every test and exam result, and let everyone monitor your progress?
It can inspire others. But this is definitely not for me, especially not in front of thousands of followers. I don’t need that authenticity, relatability or validation thank you.
My journey to be a millionaire
Instead of live streaming to chronicle my journey to a million, I would rather talk about it after reaching there. It is much less stressful sharing experiences in retrospect.
I also once aspired to be a millionaire in my 20s after relocating to Singapore in 1998.
Don’t laugh at me. Being confused with lack of direction in my younger days, there was only that much imagination I had back then. When I came to Singapore with only six hundred dollars, a million dollars in either Singapore dollars or US dollars was an astronomical figure to me.
Below is an abstract from my book Behind The Scenes of The Property Market: Finding The Truths and Exposing The Lies of A Not-So-Transparent Industry:
“30 June 1998 is a special date for me. This is the day I boarded a flight alone to relocate to Singapore. I brought nothing but a small suitcase of personal belongings and some banknotes equivalent to six hundred Singapore dollars. When you were in your 20s, you don’t think too much because you have nothing much to lose.
In the middle of the Asian Financial Crisis, as a foreigner, I was lucky to find a job paying $4,000 a month. It was not a lot but enough to pay for my rent, living expenses, student loan, and also some money to send back home.”
There is nothing interesting in my wealth accumulation journey. Surprisingly, somehow my two daughters found it fascinating coming from the mouth of a good storyteller. So I shared the story in my blog post “The journey to financial freedom: My personal story”. It ended up being the most viewed post in 2019.
Being a millionaire in Singapore is achievable
The 1M65 movement teaches couples how to save S$1 million in their CPF accounts by the age of 65. If you told my conceited younger self, I would think 65 is too late to make a million.
In Singapore, saving for an investable wealth of US$1 million with a well-paid job is achievable. Thanks to the country’s high income and low income tax system (Singapore and Hong Kong employees pay the lowest income taxes in Asia). If I hadn’t invested in properties and relied solely on working and saving, I could still be a millionaire. But it would be a decade later in my mid or late forties.
If you too aspire to be a millionaire earlier in life, start early. Do it when you are still young. Before you need to care for your ageing parents.
This boils down to three practices: budgeting, saving and investing:
1. Budgeting
Everyone can be a Financial Controller. Frugal is a virtue. Examine every spending. If you think there is something you must buy, think again. Be resourceful. There is always a cheaper way to get the same thing done. If you can’t manage your own budget, you can’t save.
2. Saving
Since I started working, I always saved 70 to 80 percent of my monthly salary. I don’t believe in investing with other people’s money. There is no fast track to financial freedom. Without saving, you can’t do any real investing.
3. Investing
Be conservative and discerning. Only invest in what you know well. Lack of investment is better than a bad investment. And as I said in my book No B.S. Guide to Property Investment, “Till this day I have yet to know anyone who really became a millionaire by joining any unproven get-rich-quick program or investing in any high-return overseas venture.”
It may not be for everyone. But we spent only $4,000 for our wedding. We bought our matrimonial home when our first child was two years old.
I am a strong believer of deferred gratification. As T. Harv Eker said in his book Secrets of the Millionaire Mind, “If you are willing to do only what’s easy, life will be hard. But if you are willing to do what’s hard, life will be easy.”
Of course, we need luck too.
Until recently, I didn’t know that we can calculate a person’s years of big fortune (大运) using Chinese astrology Bazi (八字). If you have wealth in your fate, it is not difficult to make your fortune. Some people achieve it through diligence and discipline. Others do it by luck. Under the right timing, if you do the right thing at the right place, your luck will make it possible.
For the rest of the time, we work hard every day to prevent ourselves from being unlucky.
Making a million versus having financial freedom
Honestly, one million is not a lot of money. It all depends on what you want to do with the amount. If you don’t plan to spend it, you might not even feel it when your wealth crosses that mark one day.
However, having one million is different from having financial freedom. Because making money and keeping it are two different things. Financial freedom only happens for some but not all ex-millionaires.
Financial freedom means having enough savings or income from investments to cover your expenses so that you are free to make your own life choices.
Below is an abstract from my book Behind The Scenes of The Property Market: Finding The Truths and Exposing The Lies of A Not-So-Transparent Industry about financial freedom:
“There are three things to prove that you have attained financial freedom.
1. You are financially free and have time freedom
2. You spend time the way you like
3. You don’t think about financial freedom anymore
In Gisela Enders’ book Financial Freedom: How People Live When They No Longer Need to Work, the seven interviewees who attained financial freedom were all motivated by the same purpose – to be free of a full-time job so that they can have more time for themselves and their families.
They succeeded by doing two things: disciplined saving and prudent investment in real estate, dividend stocks or their business. All of them accumulated their wealth the traditional and boring way – saved hard (at least 50 to 70 percent of their income) and invested in assets they were familiar with. For those invested in properties, they bought undervalued properties in their own country under their name or with their spouse. Then they increased the properties’ rental value and managed tenants during their spare time.”
Five lessons after the journey to a million
I have long forgotten I once wanted to be a millionaire and the day I became one. Nonetheless, there are five important lessons I learned along the way.
1) Make money, save and grow it. Wealth allows you to have things under control. You are free to walk out of situations you don’t like and walk away from people you don’t want to see.
2) Having financial freedom is a means, not an end. It is more important to know what you want to do and achieve in life. Money is meaningful only when it has an impact on you, your loved ones, and the people or things you really care.
3) What wealth accumulation teaches you in the process are more vital than the money you made. Above all, the journey and milestones will tell you a lot about yourself and the people around you.
4) Whatever you think you have achieved, don’t stay there too long. Close that chapter and press the restart button. Forget about money. Pick something new and start from zero. Learn and grow. Allow yourself to fail.
5) The most valuable lessons you learn in life are not when you win and succeed but when you lose and fail. The best occasions to build your resilience is not when life is good but when times are tough.
My book Behind The Scenes of The Property Market is available for preview and order online.
If you need advice on property matters or residential properties in Singapore, you can check out my one-to-one consultation service.
Check out my new online courses How To Buy Good Quality Properties and Buy The Right Condos.
You can watch the recording of the presentations at the 2023 Mid-Year Singapore Property Review and Outlook seminar.
The video 2023 Singapore Private Home Market is available for viewing here.
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