S$550K to Retire in SG: Have You Planned Your FIRE Number?

Tiger_SG
06-11

You’ve probably come across headlines like "How Hard Is It to Retire in Singapore?" on social media or news sites. So, what’s the reality?

In February this year, $DBS(D05.SI)$ analyzed data from 2 million customers and came up with an answer: To retire comfortably in Singapore, you’ll need at least S$550,000. If that sounds too high, you might want to revisit our previous discussions: Earn in SGD, Live Like a King Elsewhere?

How Much Cost Do We Need For Ideal Retirement?

DBS breaks retirement into three tiers (assuming a 20-year retirement and 2.5% inflation, excluding healthcare):

  • 🟢 Basic Lifestyle (Monthly spending: $1,600) → $550,000 needed

  • 🔵 Moderate Lifestyle (Monthly spending: $2,800) → $950,000 needed

  • 🟣 High-Quality Lifestyle (Monthly spending: $4,000) → $1,300,000 needed

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In other words, if you just want to maintain a retirement spending level similar to the 2023 Singaporean average, S$550,000 is the baseline. Yet, the reality is that most younger people (aged 35-44) aren’t investing aggressively enough.

According to DBS, this group invests only 15%-17% of their income, mostly in fixed-income products. While stable, these often fail to outpace inflation.

The Good News? Hitting S$550K Isn’t That Far Out of Reach!

For example, if you earn $4,000/month, your CPF contributions amount to ~$1,480/month—that’s $17,760/year and $532,800 over 30 years, not even counting CPF interest. The key factors? Stable employment, consistent self-investment, and early planning.

Tell us your thoughts—your insights might inspire others!

  • Have you calculated how much your ideal retirement would cost per month?

  • How much are you saving to achieve FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early)?

  • What do you think about the S$550K retirement benchmark? Is your savings on track?

  • Is your investing enough?

Reply in the comments with: "My retirement goal is ____."

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# S$550K vs S$1.87M: 3x Gap! How Much Do You Really Need?

Disclaimer: Investing carries risk. This is not financial advice. The above content should not be regarded as an offer, recommendation, or solicitation on acquiring or disposing of any financial products, any associated discussions, comments, or posts by author or other users should not be considered as such either. It is solely for general information purpose only, which does not consider your own investment objectives, financial situations or needs. TTM assumes no responsibility or warranty for the accuracy and completeness of the information, investors should do their own research and may seek professional advice before investing.

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Comment（39）

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  • 1PC
    ·06-11
    TOP
    My retirement goal is the Moderate Lifestyle  💪 hence practicing & tweeting the strategy with Tiger 🐯 Platform on my journey ❤️💕. Less saving currently other than the "Needs" , transfer most of the 💰 into Tiger 🐯🐅 [OMG] @Jes86188 @JC888 @Shyon @Shernice軒嬣 2000 @Barcode @koolgal @yourcelesttyy
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    • koolgal: 
      Brilliant idea 😍😍😍
      06-12
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  • DiAngel
    ·06-11
    TOP
    I don’t think we should determine what lifestyle we need but rather save as much as you could. Need to bear in mind of the inflation and high cost of living.


    $1600 or $2800 or $4000 is just a figure. It doesn’t mean that we need to spend every single cents. There will be some overflow to next month.


    I hope to be 🟣 as I love purple colour. [LOL][Happy][Smile][Chuckle]


    @MHh @melson @HelenJanet @Wayneqq @rL
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    • MHh: 
      Agree!
      06-16
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  • Ah_Meng
    ·06-11
    TOP
    My retirement goal is obviously to live comfortably. However this statement by itself is problematic. What do I mean by comfortably? Comfort means different things to different people. Then, is $550,000 enough then? At 65 and with maybe 20 odd years more to go… we probably need more when we are still healthy and can go about our way, meaning we might want to go on holiday now and then. As we get older, the desire to travel should probably decrease. However, healthcare cost on the other hand increases. I am not sure if S$550k will see us through then, comfortably I mean. For me, besides banging on CPF, which is on track to hit that “magical” number of S$550k, I am keeping up with various investment vehicles like stocks, properties, silver, etc. I am concerned about the current state of global economy, especially that of America 🇺🇸 with Donald Trump as its disruptive President. Increasing instability and insecurity will eventually led to market volatility, and crash.
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  • MHh
    ·06-15
    TOP
    My retirement goal is S$1.5-2million.


    S$550K is way too little. I recall the figure floating around has been S$1million for a long time. So, S$550K comes as a surprise.


    I think 3K per month is ideal. This would help to account for basic expenses, hobbies to spend time meaningfully with and also for travelling. This is also to account for the scary inflation.


    I save/ invest at least 30% of my salary to try to beat inflation. I think I am currently on track with my savings and investment to reach my target amount.


    Importantly, I try to ensure that while I try to have a good quality of life, I do not have overt lifestyle inflation and steward my money to have the maximal sum for retirement. It is always better to have more than less but also important to have a certain quality of life. Balance is the key!


    @Success88 @Kaixiang @Wayneqq @Fenger1188 @HelenJanet @DiAngel @SPOT_ON @LuckyPiggie @Universe宇宙 come join
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  • ECLC
    ·06-12
    TOP
    No idea if S$550k sufficient to retire in SG. For now, just keep saving and investing to buffer for any unexpected expenses besides the CPF monthly payouts when reach 65 years old to live a simple retired life.
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  • Cadi Poon
    ·06-11
    TOP
    星展銀行將退休分爲三個層次（假設退休20年，通貨膨脹率爲2.5%，不包括醫療保健）：

    🟢基本生活方式（每月支出：$1,600)→需要550,000美元

    🔵適度的生活方式（每月支出：$2,800)→需要950,000美元

    🔋高品質生活方式（每月支出：$4,000)→需要1,300,000美元

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  • Alubin
    ·06-11
    TOP
    Being conservative I think I will need >1million to have a sizable monthly dividend amount to sustain my desired future lifestyle. $550k feels quite little for a comfortable retirement
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  • TameLion
    ·06-16
    My retirement goal is S$100K income per year without me having to work a single day and without my principal being depleted at all.
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  • 云大烨
    ·06-12
    My retirement goal is to enjoy a financially secure, healthy, and meaningful life, with the freedom to travel the world, pursue my passions, and spend quality time with loved ones — free from work obligations and daily stress.
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  • LucasOng
    ·06-12
    Retirement in Singapore is like a layer cake. Work hard to build your layer cake so that when you retire, you have multiple layer of income stream. 1) CPF 2) SRS 3) dividend investment 4) 4% withdrawal from your investment each year 5) insurance annuity. Work hard for your layer cake
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  • Tiger_SG
    ·06-17
    Thank u for joining hot topics discussion. Tiger coins have been sent to your account. Don’t forget to check them
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  • Madscientist
    ·06-15
    Yes, our CPF savings might be our greatest savings for retirement but we don’t forget a big bulk will go to pay for our housing. Hence, we still need stable investments to sustain and build our retirement funds.
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  • Success88
    ·06-14
    My retirement goal is 950k to 1.1m as now I have already CPF combine with saving and investment around 890K quite near to my goal already. The good thing is my hosing fully paid 😆 @Tiger_SG
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  • TCC1970
    ·06-14
    Not forgetting the assumption did not take into healthcare cost. If you try out the CPF website Health care financing planner, you will realise that as one aged, the MediShield premium will increase at a rate of about 9% every year. Hope the projection is on the high side while the actual increase in premium is lower than 9%.
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  • Tigerwong
    ·06-14
    My retirement goal is to live comfortably while I will max out my CPF life which will give me more than 3K monthly when I reached 65 and my endowment plan will give me another 2k. Investing my spares in income generating equities such as banks and REITs will provide the buffer needed to go for holidays and other purposes expense.
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  • JCIHPL
    ·06-14
    the more the merrier. as a bare minimum one should match the expenses with some buffer preferably so that the buffer can help to bring up income to cater for inflation. bare minimum isn't always enough so the next step is to have a buffer. when that is achieved, one can look towards trying to match employment income and thereafter to match employment income+investment income. depending on how driven one is you don't need to meet all the steps but a bare minimum is to at least be able to match one normal expenses plus some buffer for emergencies and inflation and hopefully with a bit of increases year on year to improve life a bit.
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  • GGCS
    ·06-14
    bullshit.. just trying to lure the dumb money to speculate market, and lose their ass using speculative instrument thinking that they are investing
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  • FortuneMeow
    ·06-12
    Does this also include mortgage and car loan instalment? Or assume all retirees have fully paid up properties and either don't own a car and take public transport. Both are expensive ticket items in SG, not mentioning health care and insurance expenses.
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  • SPOT_ON
    ·06-12
    it can be much lesser than that if we can lead a much frugal life .

    however the retirement amount , we have to sure we have limited or no more hefty financial obligations to pay monthly , so it has to be a nett amount to be truely  F.I.R.E.Once no more liabilities then we can sleep in peace

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  • xvaen
    ·06-12
    My FIRE number is 1 million by 42. I don't have a lavish lifestyle so that number is a goal that gives me a peace of mind. I hope to travel more in future as I did not get to travel much in the past.
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