Letter to Mr. Free At 33 (And his reply!)

Hello guys! This is Jerry Siu, the author of this blog. I read a lot of blogs on the topic of financial freedom. Mr. Free At 33 is definitely one of my favourites. Today I decided to write him some words and asks for his advice. Please take a look if you find it relevant!

Mr. Fieber,

I have recently come across your blog. After reading few posts, I immediately bought your book 5 Steps To Retire In 5 Years. It is eye-opening. It gave me some great advice to achieve financial freedom. On the other hand, I also have some concerns as I find my situation quite different from yours.

Let me introduce myself first: I am a 26 year old guy from Hong Kong. I have a Vietnamese girlfriend. (I met her in my trip to Vietnam. We are love at first sight!) We are going to get married few years later and we plan to have children(I read that you chose not to have kids). I hope I can retire early and move to Vietnam with my girlfriend.

Do you think I could achieve so by 5 years? I also wonder: if I build a similar Full-Time Funds like yours, can  I manage to raise a kid in South East Asia countries like Thailand or Vietnam?

Thank you in advance! I am pleased to provide you with more of my financial situation. Thank you!

Best regards,
Jerry

Hi Jerry,

Thanks for writing!

Appreciate you picking up a copy of the book. Glad to hear it opened your eyes. That's exactly the purpose of it. I want to inspire people to live their best lives.

It's impossible for me to say if you'll get there exactly in five years. I don't know anything about your finances (income, expenses, etc.), nor am I privy to information about your character (such as your persistence). But I can say that I laid out exact numbers in the book. You can scale them up/down to suit your needs, but the savings rates and passive income needs will translate very well to what you're talking about. Vietnam is probably just a tad cheaper than Thailand, comparing apples to apples. What you'll need will largely depend on your lifestyle choices, which are up to you. 

Having a child might alter things a bit, but I've never met anyone who decided whether or not to have children based purely on economics. I don't think it'll change things drastically, as a child does not inherently require a terrible amount of money. But that process of raising a child can be expensive. It really depends on how you approach it. Some parents choose to do so very cheaply. Others make very different choices. Schooling, clothing choices, food choices, etc. It's impossible for me to quantify for you, but I imagine that having a child will change the trajectory a bit. How much it changes your trajectory is up to you and your partner. 

In the end, I want the book to inspire. It's not necessarily getting there exactly in five years (although that is very possible). It's more about taking a much more enjoyable, flexible, and meaningful life path. If someone reads the book and retires 10 years earlier than they otherwise would have (even if they take 10 years to go from zero to FIRE), that's still a huge win. 

Hope that helps!

Best regards,
Jason Fieber
Founder and Publisher
Mr. Free At 33

Should I buy a property in Hong Kong?

Hi guys!
This is Jerry, the author of this blog. Before sharing my views on the topic, I would like you to read the following article from a famous Hong Kong blogger.

股與樓的10年挑戰-止凡


We all know that how expensive the properties in Hong Kong are. It is extremely difficult for a young adult like me to own a property without the financial support from the older generations. I have a friend who is a professional. He bought a subsidised flat from Urban Renewal Authority. His parents made the down payment while he is paying for the instalments. I visited his place. It was quite good even though the size is about 200-300 square feet. So here come the question: Is it really worth it?

The answer is NO, at least for me. There are two reasons.

First, it is not necessary for me to move out of my parents' house and live in my own place at the moment. Unlike the Western society, it is not rare for Hong Kong people to live with their parents even when they enter the workforce.

Second, paying instalment is a negative cash flow which eats up passive income. My friend told me he has to pay about 50% of his salary for the flat. Therefore, he does not have much left for investing in other assets such as stocks. If he does not invest in other stuff, how can he create a passive income?

Some might say my friend need not invest in other stuff because the property price will rise and he could enjoy the growth. When the price rises to a certain level, my friend could get a second mortgage and buy another flat. Then he rents out his first flat so that the rent generated could pay the instalments of the second flat. Ultimately he will have more assets than me if I do not purchase any property.

Well, what if the property price did not rise? It might be unfair the assume the property price will drop. Yet, if the property price soars, will my friend be 'brave' enough to buy another at that time? or could his salary allows him to do so?

My ultimate goal is financial freedom. By definition, financial freedom is achieved when your passive income (no matter it is rent or stock dividends or anything else) covers your expenses. So far I could not see how buying a property could help me achieve this goal.

To sum up, I should not buy a property in Hong Kong at the moment. Thank you for reading! Please leave me a comment if you agree or disagree with me.

Regular Financial Updates 2018 Q4

Hi guys!

This is Jerry, the author of this blog! This is the first post I made since the big change in my blog. I decided to post the total asset I have so that you guys could witness my growth.

This is a chart of my asset:

The chart is quite simple, right? Because I only know how to make a chart with Excel! Please let me know if you know any other programs that generate better chart.

The data before June is not shown because I only started recording data that time.

My goal of 2019 is to make it through one million. Do you think I will be successful? Please comment below!

Thank you for your time! See you next time!

I'm back!

Long time no see! 

This is Jerry, the author of this blog. It has been a while since I updated this blog last time. This blog will undergo some big changes as I find these changes necessary for me to write consistently and reach a larger group of audience.

1. Blogging in English

Yes, this is the first and biggest change. I decided to write in English for several reasons. 

First of all, I want to regularly practise my English writing skills. I excelled in English when I was a student. (Top secret: I got an "A" in English in Hong Kong A-Level Examination.) Yet, my English has become less proficient since I entered the workforce as there is little, if not none, needs for me to use English at my full-time job. 

The second reason I decided to write in English is that I am not good at typing Chinese. I used a Chinese input method called Q9 (九方) which is very slow if I cannot use a number pad and unfortunately my Macbook Air does not have a number pad.

2. More Diverse Content

I used to focus on money-related topic in my previous posts. True, money is of great importance in my journey to financial freedom which is still my goal. Yet, I believe I have so much more things to share which might shed lights on the world of people in my generation.

In short, I will start three series:

1. Monthly Spending Summary- I will detail my spending here each month.

2. Regular Financial Updates- I will share about my net worth and any investments I make on a regular basics. I am thinking whether I should do it half-yearly or quarterly because there will be little changes in my net worth for a month or two (probably just add the salary).

3. Irregular sharing on some random things- including topics of moving abroad, freelancing, travel tips (Vietnam is one of my favourite destinations), or even some of my hobbies such as video games, reading and photography.

As for the old posts, I will translate them into English soon but I will not delete the Chinese posts in case some of you might want to re-visit them in the future.

Thank you for your time! That's all for the post. Please leave a comment and let me know if you like these changes or not.