Greetings from Singapore !

[Invictus666]

Hi, my name is Chris Ng. Let me introduce myself.
I am a finance author of three books in Singapore. I advocated a very similar approach to Jacob's ERE and was very happy that to know that this model will thrive in the USA as well.
My model was to save as much as possible and replace one's daily expenses with dividend payments. In Singapore, we do not have taxes on capital gains and dividends are taxed at a corporate level of 18% and many real estate investment trusts yield over 8% after taxes. Our large caps can give about 6-7% so i would say that Singapore is very a ERE friendly place ( but you can't have a car and need to stay with your parents - an Asian thing which may be hard to understand ).
When I wrote my books and got featured on the papers, many people were very negative thinking that it was not possible to live on dividends early in life ( i started at age 32 ).
There are some differences in my approach so let me share them with you here. A lot of these differences may stem from differences in Western and Asian culture and taxation.
I thoroughly believe that Jacob knows something many professional folks in finance don't and programs like the CFA and CFP should cover some of Jacob's theories.
Here are some tweaks from ERE's approach :
a) I put a lot of emphasis on advanced degree and getting into a vocation that pays. In Asian cultures, the pay gap for people with differing qualifications is very wide. And my country does not provide social welfare so skills matter a lot.
b) I advocate ruthless earning of income in one's twenties because it's really hard to get to ERE's 75% target. I recommend that my readers moonlight, provide tuition or sell stuff online to max out on their savings. Many readers find life under this regime harsh, but in Singapore and we work longer hours than many other parts of the world anyway because we lack strong unions.
c) There is less emphasis on DIY because personal services in Asia is cheap and we have a lot of foreign labour to do small repairs for us. My approach is to specialize in a skill people pay for and let the investment income provide for home repairs and other stuff. ERE has taught me to respect DIY more and I will be doing more in the future. Of course, ERE's caution on specialization is a good wake-up to remind me to keep an ear to industrial trends.
d) My personal belief is not to stop even when all your personal needs are covered by investment income. One possibility is to start a family and then accumulate more investment income and then move onto having some kids once you become comfortable again. In Asia, our families are close and kids are somewhat better investments to hedge longevity risk than annuities if raised properly ( Annuities are rarely understood where I come from and we have government annuity program which is forced upon the citizenry ). of course, people in Singapore look at me funny when I point to their kids and call them a longevity risk hedge.
e) Even if everything is well taken care of at home. It may be prudent to get a basic job from 9 to 5 because have colleagues and friends let you keep in touch with the rest of the world. Studies have shown that early retirement can affect your lifespan so why not just work and do or travel ? Of course, Asian's generally have a stronger bequest motive so even money that's not spent will be passed down to future generations.
Anyway, just a shout out to Jacob to say, well done, keep on writing, if you come down to Singapore and need a place to bunk in write to me !

[jacob]

Hi Chris, it's interesting how differences in pay scale determine tactics. In the US a 2-3 hour technical repair job, say a plugged drain, can cost two days worth of professional after-tax salary. Here it makes a lot of sense to learn to DIY some jobs.
Are your books available in English?

[Invictus666]

Ok, in Singapore, our median income is about $125 SGD a day so getting some plumbing work is about $80 SGD. A fresh specialist degree holder gets about $150 a day. A hair-cut is $8-$10 for men here so we can compare the costs of that as well.
Hey I'll mail you one of my books free of charge. Mail me your address at waichung.ng@gmail.com.
I learnt a lot of your works, I had an engineering background so i really appreciate your use of equations and sigmoid functions to get your point and personal philosophy across to your readers.
All I get since I got published is calls to for me to simplify my ideas.