Following other thread about investing!
I started investing in ETFs from 2016. I hold 5 etfs only.
VTS
NDQ
TECL
VAS
TCHI
Plan is to continue to withdraw 5% every year from my balance for the next 5 years and increase to 8% - 10% annual withdrawal after 5 years. I don't own any individual stocks or any investment properties. I spend 8 months of the year living outside of Aus and 4 months in QLD.
What is your favourite pizza topping?
I'm guessing shredded $50 notes
.
So OP mustn't be Italian.
How old are you? How long ago did you stop working?
39 and stopped working fully 9 months ago.
Oh no, are you still under warranty?
LoL
How old are you and do you have to spend quite frugally with your 5%?
where exactly in SEA. Describe lifestyle.
Philippines with questionable age women
94k AUD (4% SWR on 2.3M) in Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam and Malaysia goes a very very long way. Its around 2X Thai average, 4X Malaysia, 7X Indonesia and Phillippines aas well as 8X Vietnam average income,
OP probably lives with friends or family in the 4 months they're in AU.
wow didn't believe that the avg thai income was ~$45k and thought you had a typo, only to google it and see its correct.
Thailand's come an impressively long way in incomes over the last decade
average income is easily bumped up by a few billionaires - more meaningful is median income - 50% of the population earn less, 50% earn more
quick google -
'What is a middle class salary in Thailand?
Middle Income: 30,000-60,000 THB per month. This income range often encompasses professionals with more specialized skills, such as IT professionals, engineers, and mid-level managers. Upper-Middle Income: 60,000-100,000 THB per month' - https://www.learn-thai-podcast.com/good-monthly-income-in-th…
that suggests to me that AU$1300-2600pm or AU$15K-30Kpa is considered middle professional income in Thailand
and upper-middle income may be around AU$30K-50K
Yea its surprisingly one of the more expensive places to live if you're talking Bangkok, KL and Jakarta.
Spot on pretty much.
I live with family when i am back in Aus….
I don't think you look at comparison with the average incomes in those countries when calculating your expenses (or 'required' income) for 'comfortable' living. Average incomes are quite often skewed on a lower side anyway because of a high proportion of the population at a super low income. BUT, it doesn't mean your required income for the comfortable living is only 5x that, for example. This only works in a country where the income spread isn't big and distribution is relatively more even.
Its not meant to compare expenses. Its meant to show (in a quick and dirty way) the purchasing power OP has from their investment vs those on the average wage in those countries.
I spend 8 months of the year living outside of Aus and 4 months in QLD
Do you want to buy a letteR for your username?
I'm guessing DCA regularly but what numbers are we talking?
So you're a foreign resident for tax purposes meaning your tax rate is higher, and no tax-free threshold?
He's still a resident for tax purposes.
Most people prefer to be foreign resident for tax purposes but it is a very high bar to pass.
Its actually not easy to sever your Australian tax residency and you need to take specific intentional steps to do so. In this case, he can keep his Australian tax residency fairly easy even if he's abroad.
What are TECL and TCHI? Not showing up for me
Direxion Daily Technology Bull 3X Shares ETF
iShares MSCI China Multisector Tech ETF
TECL Leveraged US Tech. TCHI China Tech.
How much did you earn while working and what was your savings rate
I was earning 160k driving a truck
How much did you spend per year on ETFs?
Over 70%
UnAustralian to not own property. Total disgrace
Hes going to buy a private island in Thai where it's only enough for a 2bdr apartment in Sydney.
How did you amass the 2.37m is all from working and investing it into ETF since 2016?
Was this your game plan from when you started, or did you reach a point where you were like "oh wait I have enough to stop working now"?
Has part of this come from some sort of self managed super sort of thing, or is that sort of on top?
What made you go for ETF instead of property?
When i sold my property in 2015 i had 420k which i chucked into the market 3 months after selling the property, i also had 220k in the market already before selling the property.
Did you anticipate being where you are today, at this point? Or was there a lucky break along the way somewhere?
I saved 70% of my income and invested it, i had an invesment property up until 2015 and sold put the entire proceeds from the sale into the market.
What do you do for a job?
Takes money from his ETF
I live using the money i withdraw from my etf portfolio
70%? Did you have free housing and expenses paid for by someone else?
He was earning 160k… I could easily put away 70% on that income
@Mr Haj: With rent/mortgage & living expenses? If I was living in a share house or at home, and eating a poor nutritional diet and not doing anything in my free time, maybe
How much do you get in dividends? Asking because I just want to compare against rental returns from owning a property instead.
You can find out dividend % in profiles and stock, its not a secret.
I made about $6,000 from about $230,000 worth of shares (mostly ETFs) last year. If I was focused on dividends my portfolio would look very different.
Investing in Australian stocks will tend to yield higher dividends, but is considered more risky because you are less diversified, and the Australian market probably won't provide the same capital growth. However, you will receive the tax advantage of receiving franked dividends. VAS provided roughly a 4% dividend yield last financial year. An ETF that focuses on dividends such as YMAX has paid significant dividends over the past 12 months, however the fund has only returned 6.77% to its investors after fees.
Do you tavel a lot?
R R R
he must be a pirate R
Member Since
1 hour 27 min ago
Seems legit…
Yeah no worries champ
What made you sign up to ozbargain just to post an AMA?
My guess you will say you have been a long time user but never signed up before, it's what they all say.
I been using this site for years and it i could motivate people why not
Knew it!
Yup another LTL-JSU (Long Time Lurker Just Signed up). ;-)
Congrats! In 8 years you killed it and living the dream
Did you do lump sump or DCA?
How much did you put into investing? ~2.4 mil / 8 years = 300k/year?
If you don’t mind sharing, what was your job?
Didn't get reply so I did my own numbers to see if this checks out
Assumption:
- What he says is true
- earned a flat gross 160K from 2016-2023
- didn't earn salary for 2024 as he retired
- invested 70% of salary (after tax approx 110-112k, so 70% 77-78k investing depending on year due to tax changes)
- equal split of the 70% between the ETFs (TCHI only accumulated at 2022 and 2023)
- each trade incurred $29.95 (commsec fee)
- lump sum trade first of the year
2016
VTS 142 @ $135.69
NDQ 1805 @ $10.66
TECL 6060 @ $3.18
VAS 303 @ $63.50
2017
VTS 124 @ $154.80
NDQ 1637 @ $11.75
TECL 3473 @ $5.54
VAS 271 @ $71.07
2018
VTS 107 @ $179.40
NDQ 1321 @ $14.56
TECL 1406 @ $13.68
VAS 250 @ $76.91
2019
VTS 101 @ $189.55
NDQ 1214 @ $15.85
TECL 1907 @ $10.09
VAS 259 @ $74.29
2020
VTS 79 @ $248.56
NDQ 883 @ $22.26
TECL 733 @ $26.84
VAS 222 @ $88.75
2021
VTS 77 @ $255.09
NDQ 711 @ $27.64
TECL 503 @ $39.08
VAS 233 @ $84.36
2022
VTS 50 @ $317.30
NDQ 447 @ $35.18
TECL 230 @ $68.33
VAS 176 @ $89.11
TCHI 639 @ $24.60
2023
VTS 55 @ $285.76
NDQ 636 @ $24.71
TECL 557 @ $28.23
VAS 170 @ $92.44
TCHI 761 @ $20.67
2024
Current valuation
VTS 736 @ $404.28 = $297374
NDQ 8655 @ $42.05 = $363949
TECL 14858 @ $82.64 = $1227877
VAS 1884 @ $99.92 = $188246
TCHI 1400 @ $14.97 = $20957
Portfolio = $2098403 from investing $623380 over 8 years
Numbers seem plausible, apologies if my numbers/maths can be wrong
From the looks of it, just earn high salary early on and invest practically the salary of the average worker
If invested only 1 ETF over 8 years - can still make money but diversifying helped increase more profits so well done for that choice so lesson is don't put all your eggs in the one basket
VTS 3045 @ $404.28 = $1231032.60
NDQ 35699 @ $42.05 = $1501142.95
TECL 60263 @ $82.64 = $4980134.32
VAS 7882 @ $99.92 = $787569.44
Invest only over 2 years (made loss)
TCHI 7000 @ $14.97 = $104790
Also had investmest property up til 2015. Which can mean anything from a few dollars in a property to a investment property from a large inheritance.
Yes although i did have 420k going into the markets after i sold my property in 2015. I also did have around 220k already in the market before the sale of my property + was contributing around 70% plus % of my income.
would you swap ndq to u100 to save half on expense ratio?
Remind me 10 years how this is going
My account will probably be 4M and i am taking out 10% a year instead of 5%.
OP next post after creating an account few minutes ago.
PM me for more details.
actually is not far fetch…. Many good paying professionals who plan not to have kids or partner ( if have a partner would be easier to achieve if both working decent jobs and invest and don't buy a mc mansion as their home and don't have kids)
He is 39… so working 15-20 years…
Having Kids and having a nice family home is always the problem to achieve financial independence.
I don't have any kids or married.
That should be the title of the AMA
What are you doing with your life now, other than waiting for death?
What is the biggest challenge you've had to overcome?
If you're smart enough to have so much in ETF investments, the proceeds from which are all taxable, then you must surely be smart enough to have invested a similar amount into Super, the proceeds from which are not taxable after retirement.
How much have you got in Super?
Came to ask the same. Look forward to the reply.
Not smart to put into super if you want to retire early like OP did. Untouchable until you turn 60.
not really, if you put into super and obtain all the tax-free benefits, all OP has to do is have a balance in his main ETF's that will support him to 60 instead of the rest of their life.
Modelling that out, lets say 50/50 split between ETF and super, assuming about 50% of the ETF balance is Profit (taxable after CGT discount), and using the avg VAS return for 5 years (7.1%) and a hypothetical 4% inflation rate, OP can have an inflation adjusted income of ~$65k p.a. for a 21 year annuity with a ~$100k lump sum available at the end, a more than comfortable life in SEA. They would then have the remaining half compounding and tax free in super and would allow intense spending in their later years (more than enough to live comfortably in Aus)
You make it sound simple but 21 years is a long time regardless
Gamble if you make it to 60.
I have a similar plan for my future, albeit I am including having a property to live in.
How are you managing that? At some point you have to calculate the rental price into your future projections and that will keep increasing. Are you not worried about the risk of running out of money purely from that? At 39 it seems almost premature especially if you push to 8-10% in 5 years which means you'll generally lose all your money by 65/70 if not sooner.
I spend most of my time out of Aus and when i am in Aus i don't pay for accommodation, i don't plan to get married or have kids so kind of happy with what i got.
Why no marriage or kids?
I live with family when i am back in Aus…
https://www.ozbargain.com.au/comment/15656995/redir
No kids, not married. Who are the family members you live with while you're in Australia?
Posts an AMA, answers one question. Good one.
I flex on the internet, AMA
Do you use your left or right hand?
Got enough moolah to pay someone else
.
Worst AMA ever.
Well "ask me anything" says nothing about answers. Should be AMAAIWDMBTAWMHO
Where are you when not in AU ?
How much did you put into them?
Do you earn enough from dividends to not work now, or some other arrangement?
I don't have a job anymore. Living life withdrawing from my etfs.
Don't you think its as much sustainable as gambling?
Any kids?
Did/do you keep any of your money in cash / HISA?
No kids.
I don't have any money in any HISA. I am 100% invested in the market. 75% of that is VTS/TECL/NDQ. 25% is VAS/TCHI.
It must be another slow day here in OzB.
When you were getting closer to ceasing employment, did you consider buying a small amount of high dividend-paying ETFs so there would be more actual cash coming in?
How did you manage to save 2.5 million? Have you been investing a certain amount each month?
He started invested in 2016, his shares went up hundreds of percent and also doesn't own a home. Add that with a decent paying job and is probably frugal with his money this is very achievable.
👍