About Us

I am Dutch, my wife is Russian, we’re both in our early thirties and we have 3 great kids aged 2, 4 and 7. For the last decade we have been living overseas with the first 4 years in the UK, then almost 7 years in the Philippines and since early 2009 we are living in Oman. Longer term we intend to migrate to Australia, as we no longer see our home countries as a place where we want our children to grow up. I work for one of the oil majors and that explains our time overseas.

I have always seen myself retire early and since my late twenties I have aimed at retiring at the tender age of 45. Now in my early thirties, with 10 years overseas experience with a large multinational I am confident that this is the right target: challenging but feasible without having to sacrifice too much.

Don’t get me wrong I’m not in the luxurious position that I make so much money that I will simply work another 5 or 10 years and then stop without having to make any compromises. I have put a tremendous effort in over the last 6 to 7 years educating myself on investing, financial planning, retirement planning, taxation, property investing etc. I have read many books, studied tons of the material on the web and have spent hundreds of hours working on spreadsheet models and a detailed personal financial strategy that should takes us to early retirement by the age of 40 or 45 at the very latest. I am talking hundreds of hours of learning and dozens of late evenings after long days at work.
At the same time, together with my wife Olya we have made a very conscious effort to live below our means and avoid the typical consumerism that most of us exhibit nowadays – the result is that we save around 50% of our annual income.

As an expat we have a relatively high disposable income and living in Asia and more recently the Middle East, the cost of living can be low, but it is all about your attitude.

We know people who buy the latest electronic gadgets, stay in the most expensive hotels when on holiday and frequently buy the latest designer clothes. Consequence is that their savings rate is marginal. We don’t have all the latest gadgets (but have splashed out on an iPod and an iMac), we often go on holidays but stay in cheaper accommodation like farm stays which the kids seem to enjoy much more than fancy hotels anyway.

We have no credit card debt, no outstanding car loans, no outstanding payments for any consumer goods.

In another words no bad debt.

We do however have significant investments in shares and funds and own 10 investment properties in Australia, with a plan to add at least another 3 or 4 in the next few years (so we do have heaps of good debt!)

So why all this effort, why bother with all this when we have a comfortable life?

Simple.

I want to spend much more time with my wife and my kids. There are still many things I want to do, places I want to see and things I want to learn.

And so if there is a chance to spend my days doing this rather than work in an office till the age of 65, then I will do all I can to get to that place. For now, my job is a necessary evil in the sense that it generates the money we need to live our lives comfortably and it still remains the main source of cash flow to fund our investments.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t hate my job or career, but it is not my passion.

By the time I’m 45 – in 2018 – I will have worked just over 20 years and our children will still be in their teens. We should have built a portfolio of at least 10 – 15 investment properties and own our family home outright. We expect to have no problems filling our days and we will continue to spend a few hours every day investing in property as it has become a passion.

In the meantime we have some investing to do!

Erik Hupjé
December 2008
Manila, Philippines