3 New Local Early Retirement Blogs I Am Following

I am actually quite intense when it comes to reading. Especially on personal finance or early retirement stuff. When I stumble onto a great blog, I am the kind who will spend a couple of hours digesting the “About” pages, rationalising the blogger’s finances and even putting myself in the shoes of the blogger to savour the journey better. And then proceed to re-read the exact same articles again some time later.

This has applied to blogs like ERE, MMM and LivingaFI. Although two of them are not exactly Americans, they pulled off early retirement/financial independence/a long sabbatical (you get the idea) before the age of 40 in the US.

When I was still working from 9 to 6, I was pretty obsessed with emulating them. And I yearned for a Singaporean example to show me the way and help me to navigate some of the obstacles better in the local context.

Sadly, 5 years ago, there was probably none. Heck, that was probably one of the main reasons why I started this blog in the first place. So lucky you.

And even better now, there are 3 relatively new early retirement blogs that I highly recommend and am following really closely.


Early Retirement SG

ERSG is a guy in his mid thirties who has enjoyed some form of early retirement in the past few years. Even before this, he had already taken a long sabbatical during his late twenties, so he’s really no stranger to taking breaks from work.

Interestingly, right now, he’s actually on the lookout for some form of sustainable and enjoyable part-time work, which sorts of lend credence to my idea of semi-retirement and 15 hour work weeks.

Besides household chores, sending the Mrs to work and pursuing his own interests, ERSG is really prolific with his writing these days, writing up to three or four posts a day. I check in once a day and learnt quite a bit from him. Case in point, my shaving costs have dropped from about $4 to less than $0.40 a week.


Favourite Posts

More About Me

How Do You Run Marathon?

Identity Crisis


 

Minimalist In The City

This is a blog with two writers, Dave and Kate. From their blog title, you would know that there is a strong focus on adopting a minimalist lifestyle. Well, if you don’t believe me, just click on the link about their home below.

I have been trying to psycho Mrs 15HWW to reduce clutter and move in this direction and this blog has definitely helped! Their shopping ban is something I would definitely consider as the stock of new clothes from JB keeps on piling up.

For people like me who is curious to know how a child’s expenses add up, you can take a look at their expenses update too. My impression is that although the expenses are definitely not on the low side, it’s mainly due to fixed expenses like full-day childcare, parental allowance and their insurance costs.

Very impressively, they are on course to achieve Financial Independence (FI) within the next three years, before they turn 40. Even with a kid in tow.

Favourite Posts

Our Minimalist Home

The Road To Financial Freedom

The Big Plan – Counting Down With 1,000 More Days To FI


 

Sipping Coconuts

This is another blog shared by another married couple, Mr C and Miss K. (Shoutout to Mrs 15HWW: It’s time to pull up your socks!) They are really really new to the blogosphere (two months) and both of them are in their early thirties.

And very impressively, Miss K is sort of 4 months away from early retirement. At that point in time, she will leave her job to care for their second bundle of joy. It also appears that Mr C will be able to leave the corporate world and join her and their two children sometime in 2019.

Which is really wow. Just picture two young adults with two kids in tow and having the finances to leave their jobs and travel the world. And of course, sipping coconuts on the beach.

My guess is when it’s time for the children to enter Primary School, they would likely resettle back in Singapore and if they manage to find fulfilling and reasonable-paying jobs then, it will give many confidence to take a long sabbatical in this new economy.

Favourite Posts

The Inception

Our Grand Plan!

OMG, I Am Retiring at 32!


 

 

15 Replies to “3 New Local Early Retirement Blogs I Am Following”

  1. Thanks for the feature!

    Oh yes, I am following the other 2 blogs too (other than yours). I love ERSG’s witty’s style of writing and can gel personally with a lot of his topics.

    Sipping Coconuts is also another gem! It is extremely exciting to read someone who has a rather similar profile as us and aiming for the same thing! We don’t get to meet so many of such like-minded individuals in our daily lives!

    1. Hi Kate,

      No problem on the feature. Hope it gave a small boost to the traffic!

      Ah, ERSG will be happy that a lady approves of his writing and beliefs.

      Mr C and Miss K definitely shares many similarities with you and Dave. When I came across their blog, I realise I can group all three of your together. I can imagine many readers being inspired by all three blogs and at the same time, also cheering your on.

    2. Hi Kate,
      Thanks for using the words “witty”. haha.
      Sometimes I wonder if my tone is a bit too aggressive and may tend to offend people.
      When I first started posting, I was a lot less expressive and was more careful with my words but it became boring to post. It got more fun after I decided to bochup and post what I really felt about things.

  2. Hey, thanks for the hat tip! Ms. K is gonna be so excited to see this. Haha!

    It’s super awesome to see more people in Asia buying into the mindset of “enough” and joining the FIRE community. We hope that blogging about our journey helps others to see that FIRE is possible (fingers crossed :D) and we can learn together and cheer each other on.

    I like Dave and Kate’s blog…and have much to learn from them. They’ve taken decluttering to a whole new level. Haven’t come across ERSG before, so thanks for sharing.

    1. Hi Mr C,

      Your write well and I really enjoy the articles on your blog so it’s only right that I share it. I also benefited from the shoutouts of other prominent bloggers back when I first started blogging too!

      Actually I think there are more Asians with the “enough” mindset, just that Asians are generally not the kind to blog and show the world how they did it. But well, we are getting more Westernised. =p

      On decluttering, you have done a good job at getting Miss C started on that process too. Kudos!

  3. Good recommendation! Since they dun blog about investment stuff, never came across these blogs (except for ERSG, he’s really active in StocksCafe. lol).

  4. Hey Bro, Thanks for the feature.
    It’s pretty cool that there’s quite a number of us, but yet we seem to be all lost in the crowd and in one fell swoop, you managed to connect the 4 of us together in one post.
    It’s really great to read about others who think and share the same values as us, and write about their experiences.
    I knew about Kate and Dave, haven’t heard of Sipping Coconuts, I’ll be reading thru their posts as well.
    Although I think currently you’re the one most successful in phasing into this nice balance in semi-retirement.

    1. Hi ERSG,

      One of the main perks of blogging is getting to know and keeping in touch with other fellow bloggers. So glad to be able to play a small part in helping others too.

      Me, the most successful? I really don’t think so. For instance, we have no kids yet and I think there are many others that have done a good job balancing taking care of their kids and their jobs.

  5. Sip coconut is not recommended for now. Nothing concrete there I feel compare to yours. The credit card case i feel like overwhelming. Although there are a lot freebies with credit card. Understanding it also needs to work and think. I would choose other things more interesting than comparing credit card benefits. Anyway financial independence starts with saving. Too many credit cards are just the opposite direction.
    Maybe need to wait and see what is the new updates there to make it interesting to read.

    1. Hi Considerposb,

      Interesting and critical take! Let’s hope they will write something that’s more to your liking soon.

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