Rich By Retirement
How Singaporeans Can Invest Smart and Retire Wealthy — Joshua Giersch, fourth edition (2021)
It is a short, opinionated book with one job: tell a Singaporean beginner exactly what to do with their money, in what order, and with which kinds of funds. It does not hedge, and it does not try to make investing interesting.
This page sets out the method in the book's own sequence, because the order is the part that matters: each step assumes the one before it. The calculators on the other pages only make sense once you have this shape in your head.
The method, in eight steps
This is the sequence the book itself lays out. Read it top to bottom — skipping ahead is what gets people into trouble.
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1
Build an emergency fund
Six months of living expenses, held where you can reach it immediately — a bank account, not an investment.
Why it comes first: without it, one surprise bill or a lost job forces you to sell investments at the worst possible moment.
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2
Insure the disasters, not the small stuff
A MediShield-based hospital plan, and term life cover if anyone depends on you — the book suggests around 20 years of cover worth roughly five times your annual income.
Why: insurance exists for costs you could not absorb yourself. Investment-linked policies mix insurance with investing and typically cost more for less.
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3
Split your money: "110 minus your age" into shares
Shares for growth, bonds for stability. At 30, that is 80% shares and 20% bonds; at 60, 50/50. The rule adjusts itself as you age.
Why: the more decades you have to recover from a crash, the more you can afford to hold in shares.
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4
Halve the share portion: Singapore and the world
Half into a fund tracking Singapore shares, half into one tracking global shares — both as low-cost exchange-traded funds.
Why: Singapore is a small market. The global half spreads you across many countries, companies and currencies.
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5
Put the bond portion in Singapore bonds
A fund tracking Singapore bonds — held for income and steadiness, with no currency risk attached.
Why: bonds are the part of the portfolio that holds up when shares fall, so you are less likely to panic-sell.
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6
Invest every month — into whatever you're short of
A fixed amount each month, sent to whichever fund is furthest below its target share.
Why: it turns "buy low" into an automatic habit and removes the decision about when to invest.
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7
Rebalance twice a year: May and November
On two set dates, buy and sell back to your 110-minus-age split — usually with new money rather than by selling.
Why: rebalancing mechanically sells what has run up and tops up what has lagged. The book treats this as the closest thing to a free lunch.
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8
Then leave it alone
The book's final instruction is, more or less, to go to the pub. Keep contributing, check in rarely, and let time do the work.
Why: the biggest risk left at this point is you — tinkering, timing, and reacting to headlines.
Why the book says this works
Costs compound too
A 1.5% annual fee is not a one-off charge; it is a slice taken out of every year's return, for ever. The book's test for a fund is blunt: cheap, large, and "physical" rather than synthetic.
You are not going to pick the winners
Most professionals fail to beat the market after costs. So the book does not ask you to try — it asks you to own the whole market as cheaply as possible.
Risk should fall as you age
"110 minus your age" means the portfolio gets safer automatically, without you having to make a judgement call at 55.
Behaviour is the actual edge
A fixed monthly amount and two rebalance dates a year remove almost every decision that investors usually get wrong.
How the book is organised
What to invest in
Why invest at all, why funds beat stock-picking, how shares and bonds differ, and why you split between Singapore and the world.
How to invest
Opening a broker account, your first purchase, using CPF and SRS, and the scams and traps to walk away from.
Keeping it going
Rebalancing, drawing an income in retirement, and the discipline to stop fiddling with a plan that works.
What this site does — and doesn't — take from the book
The book covers insurance, brokers, CPF and SRS mechanics, scams, and how to draw money down in retirement. This site deliberately focuses on the middle of the method — the split, the monthly habit, the rebalance — because those are the parts you can model with numbers. It is a companion, not a replacement: the book is where the reasoning, the local detail and the warnings live.
This is an independent summary in our own words, for educational use. It is not affiliated with, sponsored or endorsed by the author or publisher, and it is not financial advice. CPF and SRS rules change — check current figures at cpf.gov.sg and iras.gov.sg.
Nothing to practise yet. Reading the method in order is the exercise — the rest of the site applies it one principle at a time.