In gacha gaming, there're early-game, mid-game, and late-game strategies.
Often, newbies to a gacha game get themselves all tangled up when they watch late-game players play and try to copy or replicate their play styles.
That's how some get burned-out or discouraged and left the game after a few months.
Similarly, when it comes to FIRE or retirement planning, there's walking up the mountain and walking down the mountain strats.
Before I begin, I would like to remind everyone words are very powerful as they do affect our thinking.
Be an open umbrella
Noticed I removed the Dividend from Dividend Income Model?
Dividends locked us parochially into equities only.
As some may have already discovered, once we just use a broad and grey definition like Income, we have a lot more options as in interests from fixed deposits, bonds, CPF; etc.
Then there's also income from rentals. Don't just think and limit yourself to properties. Anything you owned that you can "rent" to others also can! (Illegal money lending is a crime OK! So don't get carried away...)
How about private annuities to complement CPF Life for those who want to pump in more beyond the CPF Enhanced Retirement Sum (ERS) limits?
We can also continue working beyond retirement (freelance, part-time, ad-hoc); that's Retirement Income too. No?
Passive my foot!
Long time visitors to this watering hole know how I feel about passive.
Well, no one stopping you if you really believed no need do anything and money will drop from the sky to you.
Maybe you're best friend forever with your God/Gods? Or Luck is your superpower!?
Hence there will be no Passive in front of Retirement Income Model for me too.
Walking Up The Mountain
I noticed some youths have a goal to have $100K by age 30.
Let's use that as Index 100.
If you wish to FIRE at age 35 or 45, do you think an Investing/Retirement Income Strategy would help you get there? Or in gacha gaming, is that a meta strat?
OK, you enjoy your day job and not into early retirement and all that jazz; you just want financial independence when you retire.
If you just aiming for 1M65, that's probably doable. But if you want 4M65, would an Income Strategy help you now?
It won't take you long after doing the math that an Investment Income Strategy works better when you're doing splendidly in your day job; or you have your own business that's growing exponentially.
That's where the major compounding comes from - it's the annual cash injections into your Investment Income Portfolio!!!
Walking Down The Mountain
Once we have got our hands on the whatever amount that's "enough" for you, it's a lot easier to switch to the Retirement Income Model.
You think why I wrote Look at Goldfish instead of Modelling them?
If you bother to look under the hoot and at actual Goldfishes, the Retirement Income Model is not how most walked up the mountain in the first place.
Most got there through properties.
How many suck at their day jobs?
A well-paying job means more cash injections annually for the win!
Save More can oredi!
How many can show 10 baggers like our fisherman CW?
If day job sucks, must make up for it at investing/trading!
Earn More. Period.
P.S. After 10 years of journey, we are starting to see and read former youths starting to doubt their Investment/Retirement Income vehicles...
It's not surprising; it's science.
Same strategy, but it's different when you're walking up against gravity; versus when you're walking down with gravity now on your side. Wink.