Newsletter › #19
Invest NT$5,000 a Month and You Could Be a Hundred-Millionaire
【What I've been up to】
Hi, Reader,
Happy Lunar New Year!
How was your holiday? Did you go anywhere?
Every New Year I play mahjong with my family.
When my uncle was still alive, we'd all gather at home to play cards with him.
Sometimes we'd play all day — and he'd get grumpy if we didn't.
After he passed away, we kept the tradition,
and it's become a way for our family to get together.
It's the only time I play all year, and it's always fun.
Does your family have a New Year tradition?
I meant to write to you yesterday, but I woke up with a fever.
After resting all day, it finally broke in the evening. I hadn't been laid up that long in ages.
Today I'm fully back to life.
Every time I'm sick, I'm reminded how important health is!
Do you feel the same?
By the way, since the start of this year I've exercised every single day without a break.
Even with yesterday's fever, I gritted my teeth and finished my yoga 🧘
Writing this, I wonder: is that another kind of “sickness”? 🤣
Now, on to today's content.
【You need less than you want】
Last week over dinner, I mentioned to a friend that I do personal financial consulting, and he asked me to work out his retirement fund.
First I asked how much he thought he needed.
His high school teacher had said you need NT$30 million to retire, but with inflation he thought he'd probably need NT$50 million.
He spends about NT$15,000 a month — NT$180,000 a year; call it NT$200,000.
Even if prices triple with inflation over 45 years, his inflation-adjusted yearly spending would be about NT$600,000.
I said, “You don't need that much. NT$15 million is enough — and that already accounts for inflation.”
“15 million? That little?”
“To have NT$15 million in 45 years, do you know how much you'd need to put into 0050 each month?”
“40,000?”
“A bit less.”
“30,000?”
“When I say a bit less, I mean one less zero. You only need NT$2,500 a month.”
Put NT$2,500 a month into 0050, and in 45 years the account will have about NT$15 million.
In retirement, withdraw 4% a year from it for living expenses: NT$600,000.
My friend was stunned. Only NT$2,500 a month?
Yes — you need less than you want.
After consulting with a number of people, I've noticed a mistake most of them make: treating “what others want” as “what I need.”
Like my friend, who took his teacher's retirement number as his own, ignoring that retirement planning is deeply personal.
Some people can live a month on NT$30,000; for others, NT$30,000 lasts a week.
Most people's idea of how much they need to retire comes from what others say — but that's what others need, not what you need.
Before you can calculate your retirement fund, you have to know how much you spend, which is why tracking your expenses matters so much.
The retirement formula
Annual living costs × 25 = the retirement fund you need
For example, if you spend NT$360,000 a year, 25 times that is NT$9 million — your retirement target.
9,000,000 × 4% = 360,000.
So NT$9 million is enough for your retirement.
Then use a regular-investment compound interest calculator to work out how many years you have until retirement and how much you can invest each month.
At this point you might ask: what about inflation?
From a present-value table,
if you retire in 40 years, the present-value factor at 2% is 0.453, and at 3% it's 0.307. That's what future money is worth today. To keep it simple, take a midpoint of about 0.33: future money will be worth about a third of today's — in other words, prices will roughly triple.
Over 40 years inflation roughly triples prices: 9,000,000 × 3 = 27,000,000.
27,000,000 × 4% = 1,080,000
So NT$27 million is your retirement fund after inflation.
It isn't hard — if you can add, subtract, multiply and divide, you can work it out.
NT$5,000 a month in 0050 and you could be a hundred-millionaire
The headline may sound like hype, but the math checks out: it really is possible to have NT$100 million in your lifetime (as long as you live long enough).
Assuming 0050 averages 9% a year,
here's a table for investing NT$5,000 a month (e = 100 million, w = 10,000)
The table shows that the longer you keep investing, the bigger the compounding effect.
NT$5,000 a month, and after 80 years you'd have NT$689 million!!
That's why Buffett is so rich: he started investing at 12 and is now in his nineties — more than 80 years of investing.
You might say: but I don't have that much time.
Simple — save a bit more and you'll reach your goal sooner.
Invest NT$10,000 a month and in 50 years you'll pass NT$100 million!!
From starting work at 20 to dying at 80, a person has about 60 years to invest. NT$5,000 a month in 0050 would end up as NT$100 million.
So you really don't need to spend so much time researching ways to make money — just grow with the market. A 9% annual return isn't high, but it's enough to make you a hundred-millionaire.
I hope this simple way of calculating your retirement fund eases your retirement anxiety.
Remember: saving NT$5,000 to 10,000 a month (about US$150–300) is enough to meet most people's retirement goals.
When you're no longer anxious about money, you can make decisions that are good for your life in the long run, not just the fastest ones.
【FIRE Life online book club】
Thanks for waiting — I've set up an online book club every Wednesday evening. Each week I hope to share a good book I've read, and I'd love you to join.
📖 Every Wednesday evening, read a good book with Doug
This week: Four Thousand Weeks
This isn't an ordinary time-management book; it's a liberation movement for your life.
⏰ Time: Wednesday, March 4, 20:00–21:00 (Taiwan time, in Mandarin)
🔗 Sign up: accupass.com/go/firebook1
【Creators' reading meetup — Kaohsiung】
If you're a creator too, join my in-person reading meetup.
The event is still under review; once it's approved you can sign up through the link:
accupass.com/go/4kh02
Event details
Date: Sunday, March 15, 2026, 14:00–17:00 (please arrive 15 minutes early)
Venue: Warehouse C9-17, 2-3 Dayi Street, Pier-2 Art Center, Kaohsiung
Places: 10 (first come, first served)
Fee: NT$300 per person (includes a box of pastries)
Organizer: FIRE University
Host: Doug
Group-buy deals
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——
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🈹 Enter the code 【FIRE150】 for NT$150 off right away!
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——
🎓 Don't Want to Go to Work Lab (an online course, in Mandarin)
👉 Course page: eleanorfilmacademy.tw/VlRMg
⚠️ Enter the code 【FIRETW】 at checkout for a special price of NT$4,200.
My sign-up link: eleanorfilmacademy.tw/NfK0d
That's it for this issue of the FIRE Life Weekly.
If you have any questions about the show or the newsletter,
just write to me at doug@firetw.com.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Have a lovely day,
and see you next time.
Doug