I often hear my younger colleagues talk about financial freedom after they managed to save just shy of VND1 billion (US$38,600) on a VND25-30 million monthly salary. Some even believe that they can retire early with VND3 billion (US$116,000). It seems many people have a distorted understanding of these concepts.
Financial freedom is not just quitting your job after saving up some money. It is when enough money is generated every month to cover living expenses even if you do not work. That money must come from passive income sources, such as rental properties, investment returns, dividends and royalties, not from gradually drawing down your savings.
I know a younger acquaintance who earns a little over VND40 million a month and managed to save nearly VND1.5 billion after more than a decade of working. He said he wanted to quit his job to “slow down.” I tried a simple calculation: if his average monthly spending is VND15 million, then VND1.5 billion would only last about eight to nine years, assuming there are no major accidents, no inflation and no unexpected medical or family expenses. But living costs rarely stay still. Accounting for just inflation, that amount of money would be depleted much faster than imagined.
The core issue is that once you stop working, your active income disappears. Without high passive income, you are simply consuming the value of your past labor. Your money
no longer generates more money; it is only spent. At that point, what initially feels like freedom can quickly turn into anxiety: how long will the money last, what happens once it runs out, and how will you re-enter the labor market then?
I am already in my forties. I have a house, a car, and VND3 billion in savings—not a small amount by general standards. Yet I still go to work every day. Not because I am obsessed with working, but because I understand that I do not have enough passive income to stop. If I quit my job, money will not automatically flow into my account. That means I am not financially free yet.
I do not deny that it is a good thing for young people to think early about financial independence and retirement. High income is an advantage, but if it comes only from a salaried job, you are still trading time for money. In my view, working more years is not a failure. Only when I can live comfortably and with peace of mind without working will I consider myself to have genuinely reached early retirement.
*This opinion was submitted by a reader. Readers’ views are personal and do not necessarily match Read’ viewpoints.
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