40 Years of Breathing Air,
Living and Achieving FIRE
On money, health, life, and what financial independence really feels like from the inside — on my 40th birthday.
Today is my 40th birthday.
Forty years ago, some unremarkable baby drew its first breath in Singapore. No silver spoon. No trust fund. No financial head start of any kind. Just air, food, and the slow accumulation of days.
As of today, that unremarkable baby has a net worth of S$2.2 million and a passive income stream of roughly S$4,000 a month. He lives in his parents' HDB flat. He still eats cheap, good food. He still breathes the same free air. And he still thinks the best things in life and intangible experiences are genuinely free.
This is not a flex. This is a reflection.
Because forty is one of those birthdays that forces you to look back before you dare look forward. And what I found when I looked back surprised me. It wasn't the money milestones that mattered most. It was everything around them.
The 40 Things I Learnt in 40 Years
I'm going to skip the listicle format. You've read enough of those. Instead, here are the principles that actually compound — the ones that shaped everything.
On Money
The single most powerful financial insight I have is this: time is the only input that cannot be purchased. Every dollar I invested at 25 is worth more than ten dollars invested at 35. Not metaphorically. Mathematically.
CPF is not a government trap. It's the most underrated forced savings and compound growth engine available to any Singaporean. I maxed my SRS every year. I treated CPF top-ups like a subscription I refused to cancel. The boring stuff compounded. The exciting stuff fluctuated.
I learnt that the enemy of wealth accumulation is not market downturns. It is lifestyle inflation. Every time my salary grew, I resisted the gravitational pull of upgrading everything at once. The gap between what I earned and what I spent became the engine.
Passive income is not magic. It is deferred lifestyle. Every S-REIT unit I hold today is the echo of a dinner I did not upgrade, a trip I kept budget, a gadget I did not buy.
"The gap between what you earn and what you spend is not deprivation. It is freedom, stored in future form."
On Health
I nearly got this one wrong. For years, the grind consumed me. Financial independence was the goal; everything else was secondary. I did not exercise enough. I did not sleep enough. I treated my body like a machine that would run indefinitely if I just fed it enough kopi.
I know better now. What is the point of S$2.2 million if your body gives out before 50? The CPF LIFE payout that I'm building toward requires me to be alive and mobile enough to enjoy it. Health is the only asset class with no recovery mechanism once it crashes.
The habits I am building at 40: regular movement, real sleep, less screen time after 10pm, and eating actual food — not just anything cheap. Being frugal with money does not mean being frugal with vegetables.
On Life
I spent a lot of my 30s optimising. Portfolios, returns, yields, expense ratios. I became very good at optimising. What I lost sight of occasionally was the thing I was optimising for: a life that felt worth living.
Financial independence, I now understand, is not the destination. It is the vehicle. The destination is still being defined. And at 40, I am okay with that.
The most meaningful moments in the last decade were not net worth milestones. They were slow mornings without an alarm. They were being present for family in a way that salary slaves cannot be. They were choosing what to work on because it mattered, not because debts were due.
I learnt that the Singaporean definition of success — 5Cs, condo, car, prestige — is one version of a life well-lived. Not the only version. I chose a different equation. And the result is a kind of quiet freedom that I am deeply grateful for.
The Journey, Honestly
December 2020. Net worth crosses S$1 million. I remember sitting with that number and feeling simultaneously proud and certain that I had been extraordinarily lucky to reach it. The market had been kind. CPF had been tireless. The discipline had been real.
Five and a half years later, the number has more than doubled to S$2.2 million. Here is the honest breakdown of how:
| Milestone | Year | Net Worth |
|---|---|---|
| Blog started, journey documented | 2019 | — |
| First S$1 million achieved | Dec 2020 | S$1.0M |
| S$1.735M — bonuses & dividends surge | Dec 2024 | S$1.735M |
| Lean FIRE declared | 2025 | ~S$1.9M |
| Today — 40th birthday milestone | May 2026 | S$2.2M |
Here is how the engine actually runs:
- CPF — the unsung hero. Years of OA, SA, and MA accumulation, boosted by voluntary top-ups and employer contributions, compounding silently at 2.5–4%. Boring. Powerful.
- SSB and bonds. I maxed my S$200k SSB limit in August 2024, just before yields fell below 3%. Lucky timing, but also deliberate attention.
- S-REITs. My core equity engine — CLAR, Keppel DC, Keppel REIT and others. I participated in preferential offerings, not just passive holding. 10,000 units of CLAR and growing.
- SRS maxed annually at S$15.3k. The tax deferral compounds silently — my SRS portfolio has crossed S$200k on less than S$150k of cumulative contributions.
- Options income. Selling cash-secured puts as an acquisition and income strategy. A layer most Singapore FIRE bloggers do not write about. It works.
- US growth tech. A smaller allocation but meaningful. The AI supercycle added real tailwind.
- Staying invested through noise. The Iran war of early 2026 dropped my portfolio on paper by six figures. I did not sell. I wrote about it. Markets recovered before the ceasefire was even signed.
S$1M to S$2.2M in five years.
The market helped. But the discipline was mine.
I also achieved Lean FIRE formally in 2025 — the milestone where passive income covers essential living expenses. I did not quit my job. I did not move to Bali. I kept working, but everything changed about why I was working.
Work became a choice. That is the whole game.
What S$4,000 a Month in Passive Income Actually Feels Like
People always want to know the number. S$4,000 a month. About S$48,000 a year. In Singapore terms, that is a liveable income for a single person with no mortgage and a modest lifestyle. It is not FAT FIRE — the Michelin-star and business-class version. It is enough.
And "enough" is profoundly underrated.
What does it feel like in practice? It feels like checking my bank account on the 15th and seeing dividends arrive without me lifting a finger. It feels like a work email that irritates me and knowing that I could walk away. I do not always walk away — but I could. That knowledge changes everything about how you show up.
It feels like my money is working three jobs while I sleep: the CPF earning 4%, the REITs distributing quarterly, the SSBs quietly accruing interest. I am running a small, diversified financial operation. The CEO barely has to manage it day to day.
It also feels like responsibility. At S$2.2 million, a 1% drop is S$22,000 gone in a day. The discipline required to hold, to not open the app every ten minutes, to think in decades rather than days — that is a skill that had to be built. Slowly, and deliberately.
"The FIRE investor's real superpower isn't picking the right stocks. It's having a portfolio durable enough to not care about 40-day wars, and the emotional discipline to hold while everyone else is panic-selling into headlines."
What Comes Next — The Next Chapter at 40
This is the part I find most interesting to write. Because the conventional FIRE narrative ends here. "I hit my number. The end. Subscribe to my newsletter."
But that is not how it feels from the inside. Hitting your number is not a finish line. It is a platform. And at 40, I have a long runway ahead.
The FAT FIRE Target: S$3M by 2028
My declared next milestone is S$3 million, with a S$1 million investment portfolio generating at least S$60,000 in annual passive income. That is the FAT FIRE threshold — where the passive income comfortably covers a full lifestyle upgrade, not just essentials.
Three years from now. S$800,000 of additional net worth to accumulate. Compound growth, continued saving, market performance, and continued selective deployment will do most of the work. The machine is already running.
Housing: Security Before Investment
The private property question has been on my mind. Not as a pure investment play, but as housing security — for myself and for a parent. The Singapore property market is unforgiving, but a 2BR unit near an MRT line, bought right, is also a form of insurance against life's uncertainties.
This is a decision I am approaching slowly and deliberately. The budget is defined. The criteria are clear. The urgency is low. And the foundation to support it is solid.
Health: The Real Long Game
At 40, I am starting to understand that health optimisation is just another form of compound investing. The habits I build in my 40s will determine the quality of my 60s and 70s. No amount of passive income can buy back a body that was neglected for two decades.
This is the chapter where health takes a higher priority than it has ever held before. More deliberate movement. Real rest. Less ambient stress about things outside my control.
Purpose: What Work Looks Like When Money Is Not the Driver
I am still working. I genuinely do not detest my project management work in cybersecurity and identity management — the challenges are real, the stakes matter, and the intellectual engagement with stakeholders keeps me sharp. But the psychological relationship to work has permanently shifted.
When money is no longer the driver, what remains is legacy, contribution, and craft. What can I build that outlasts the paycheque? What can I share — through this blog, through mentorship, through this platform — that helps others compress their own journey?
That is the question I am sitting with at 40.
What I Would Tell My 20-Year-Old Self
Start earlier than you think you need to. The compounding is real, and the first decade feels like nothing is happening — until suddenly everything is happening.
Use every tax-advantaged tool Singapore gives you. CPF, SRS, SSB. Use them fully. The government built these vehicles and most people ignore them while chasing the next hot stock tip.
Do not confuse lifestyle for wealth. The colleague with the BMW and the condo may have zero net worth. Appearances are the enemy of actual financial progress.
Your biggest financial risk is not market volatility. It is your own behaviour in a downturn. Build conviction before the crisis, not during it.
Live below your means, but not below your dignity. Being frugal should never mean being joyless. Find the cheap pleasures — kopi instead of Starbucks, hawker over restaurant when it doesn't matter — and spend freely on what genuinely enriches your life.
Take care of your health like it is your highest-returning asset. Because it is.
And write things down. Journal the journey. This blog has been one of the most unexpectedly valuable things I have ever done — not because of the audience, but because of the clarity it forced on my own thinking.
At 40, I am not at the end of the story.
I am at the best part of it.
Forty years of breathing air. Forty years of eating food. Forty years of compounding, slowly and then all at once.
I am grateful for every boring CPF statement, every quarterly REIT distribution, every dividend that arrived while I slept. I am grateful for the discipline of past-me, who made it possible for present-me to breathe a little easier.
And I am genuinely excited about what comes next. Not because I have everything figured out. But because at 40, with S$2.2 million and S$4,000 a month in passive income, I have the rarest thing money can buy: Options.
Here is to the next forty. 🌱
Disclaimer: This article is for informational and personal reflection purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. Please conduct your own research or consult a qualified financial advisor before making any investment decisions.
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