How This Singaporean Retired At 35 Without Getting Rich | Money Mind

[music] >> Colin did something unexpected when he lost his job at 35. He bought a flat with his savings. That one move became his retirement strategy. He didn't retire young because he got rich. He retired because he prepared for his paycheck to [music] disappear. >> I lost my job at age 35. And at age 35

we Singaporean singles can buy a HDB flat. So, I told that to the property agent. And then the property agent said, "Okay, now you have lost your job, right? So, how are you going going to planning to pay a 30-year mortgage? You buy the cheapest flat you can find in Singapore that you can afford to pay in full.

Because if you borrow money from the bank, the 30-year mortgage would mean that you buy a flat for yourself and you buy a flat and give it as a free gift to the bank." >> So, Colin bought an aging three-room flat for 87,000 Singapore dollars. In 2007, that was around 32 times a

fresh graduate's median monthly starting salary. Today, comparable older three-room flats can cost about [music] twice as much relative to starting salaries. The trade-off was lease decay. >> I paid it in full and I have a nice flat to stay on the top floor, very breezy, uh quite nice, lovely neighbors, direct lift, and near Orchard Road. See, the reason

why it is uh cheap is because of the lease decay. So, in the case when I bought it, uh I had about like maybe 64 years left. But, you know what the funny thing uh is my flat was built the same year I was born. Technically, I'm allowed to stay here until I'm 99 years old.

>> Colin was able to buy that flat because of a mindset he had built [music] years earlier. Long before the term FIRE existed, he had already created his own strategy. Save aggressively, spend as little as possible, and lower the cost of survival before retrenchment could ever happen to him. It all traced back to one memory from