How much are you earning per annum?

49 & 48, middle class workers.
2 children.

Live in a condo. Bought in 2003. Paid up. Current valuation $1.5m.
Drive a 2L car. Paid up.

Total income $153k pa. Total savings $40k pa.
Total net worth $2m.

We like the idea suggested by someone about downgrading to a small condo when we retire.
If we retire at 60, we will sell our current condo and buy a studio condo.
We can then use the cash to buy private annuities for our retirement.
CPF Life will also pay us.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Really got many big cannon fairy here.

If really earn that much, they wont be coming here liao, enjoying life or working even harder to achieve more. Only those paid lowly ones will come here to big cannon fairy to make themselves better.

So dont trust too much on the info in this forum. (My uncle is really rich, so I roughly know his schedule, he practically have no time to relax only except on Sunday to accompany his family for outing or when he take overseas leave).

Gotta agree with you on this.

Take what u read here with a pinch of salt. This is a forum where basically anyone with an internet connection can post.

People who come here are usually job seekers who wish to find out the salary of their prospective career, or looking for a career/industry switch.

But in this section, suddenly everyone is earning $200K and their spouse $100k. Even have those who claim to be drawing $250K but feels bored at work. This is more like a place for people to fulfil their fantasy more than anything.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Gotta agree with you on this.

Take what u read here with a pinch of salt. This is a forum where basically anyone with an internet connection can post.

People who come here are usually job seekers who wish to find out the salary of their prospective career, or looking for a career/industry switch.

But in this section, suddenly everyone is earning $200K and their spouse $100k. Even have those who claim to be drawing $250K but feels bored at work. This is more like a place for people to fulfil their fantasy more than anything.

interesting, came across this blog and share with you. looks like those who claimed super high salary is the 9% of Singapore.

Over 174,000 – or nearly nine per cent – earned upwards of S$10,000 a month
(source :://.pressrun.net/weblog/2014/08/how-much-singaporeans-earn.html)

“Jobs paying less than $12,000 a month cover about 94% of the local workforce, hence most jobs would be covered by the advertising requirement. Many employers typically recruit for positions paying $12,000 and above using executive search firms, rather than through open advertisements. We expect employers to instruct their headhunters to source for candidates on merit, including Singaporean candidates. If complaints are received that a firm may have nationality-based unfair hiring practices, they may be subjected to additional scrutiny and have their work pass privileges curtailed.”

So there, 94% of our local workforce makes less than S$12k a month.


://.salary.sg/2015/94-percent-of-local-workforce-makes-less-than-12k-a-month/

Well, i guess statistics don't lie.

the forum paints a very skewed picture. for example, if u look at the posts here, one might conclude that 94% of our workforce earns $12k & above
and add to further confusion, some trolls would even say $10k per month salary is the norm today, everyone else they know earns $20k & above

In short, read everything but form your own judgement

Was busy trying to make some $$ off the stock market the last 3 days, so didn't have the time to do my regular posting.

I see we are going into yet another round of arguing whether claims of high income, high networth are real or not. If you care to look through the posts of old, I think this is probably the third cycle of questioning the veracity of the claims. Have we learnt anything from it?

These are the few points to consider:

1. Rich people and high earners have no time to come here and post/boast - this is not true. Rich (those with >$5m) people and high earners (salary >$200k pa) do have lull time. For eg. when traveling, at airport transits, I would normally come to this forum to bemuse myself.

2. Same poster making multiple postings. This gives the impression of many posters posting.

3. They say only 9% of workers earn more than $10k pm? 9% translate to a lot of people. We just need 10 of them to post here and the picture is skewed.

4. The more successful people tend to be more boastful (especially when anonymous). This is one of few outlets they have to tell the world how much they earn without public backlash.

5. Disbelievers and losers will tend to chip in to add their own grandiose fantasy. You can see loads of it here..

My main purpose of coming here. For relaxation and to put my thoughts down. When looking back at some of my posts (from 2011), I am reminded of what I was going through and my thoughts at that point in time.

I am the poster who like to give a title to each new post eg. Income Tax, What do you define rich, etc....

Originally Posted by Unregistered

interesting, came across this blog and share with you. looks like those who claimed super high salary is the 9% of Singapore.

Over 174,000 – or nearly nine per cent – earned upwards of S$10,000 a month
(source :://.pressrun.net/weblog/2014/08/how-much-singaporeans-earn.html)

We are not as successful as you. We are around your age. Our retirement plan is to rent out our fully paid 5 room EA for $3k pm. On top of this we have other sources of passive income giving us another $2k pm. With $5k pm, we can get RM15k pm. We will then retire in Penang, where we can rent a big bungalow with swimming pool for RM5k pm. Our other expenses will be RM3k pm so our total retirement expenses will be RM8k pm. We will save RM7k pm. We envisage our children will be working and married when we reach 58. We will retire at that time. The bungalow will have 5 rooms so our children and our future grandchildren can visit us twice a year. They can enjoy the pool with complete privacy.

So we will have a luxurious retirement in Penang and living in a big bungalow. In Spore, such bungalows will cost $20m and above.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

49 & 48, middle class workers.
2 children.

Live in a condo. Bought in 2003. Paid up. Current valuation $1.5m.
Drive a 2L car. Paid up.

Total income $153k pa. Total savings $40k pa.
Total net worth $2m.

We like the idea suggested by someone about downgrading to a small condo when we retire.
If we retire at 60, we will sell our current condo and buy a studio condo.
We can then use the cash to buy private annuities for our retirement.
CPF Life will also pay us.

There's a lot of talk here about pay. Some want more, some are envious of others.

3 years ago, I was in a job that paid 100k pa. Some would say that's not a lot for a 39 year old. But I was very happy.

The thing is, I switched to a job that paid 150k. And I have been miserable for the past 3 years.

I have concluded that there is a sweet spot on the pay-happiness scale, and around 100k seems to be the figure.

If I could do it all over again, I wouldn't switch.

Putting the $$ aside, there is a lot of factors at play in defining your career sweet spot. I will group them into 3 broad categories:

1. Character type - aggressive, high energy, ambitious, laid back, extra/introvert
2. Maturity level
3. skill sets/ training

At any job level, you need all the three factors to be aligned. Which of the factors do you think are causing you this discomfort in your current job?

For my own experience, many young ambitious workers, with the right skill sets and training were promoted too quickly for their own good. Without the right maturity level, they couldnt handle the people management properly. People management cover both their staff and clients. They wished they dont have to handle the people aspects.

On the other hand, we have not-too-ambitious staff willingly forgoing promotion to later regretting it when they get older.

For your kind of work and character, you may think that $100k pa is your sweet spot, but you definitely cannot apply it across other professions and people.

However you do bring up an interesting related point. It is about job longevity. Will you be able to last long in your job if you are uncomfortable and miserable?

Many people here talked about working till 60, but can they really?

Originally Posted by Unregistered

There's a lot of talk here about pay. Some want more, some are envious of others.

3 years ago, I was in a job that paid 100k pa. Some would say that's not a lot for a 39 year old. But I was very happy.

The thing is, I switched to a job that paid 150k. And I have been miserable for the past 3 years.

I have concluded that there is a sweet spot on the pay-happiness scale, and around 100k seems to be the figure.

If I could do it all over again, I wouldn't switch.

Money is meaningless if you're miserable. No amount of money can make you truly happy. If your condo is paid up and you don't have much obligation, you should quit your current job and find a job which you will be happy with even if it pays a lot lesser. Life is short. You deserve better. Don't be stupidly influenced by others.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

There's a lot of talk here about pay. Some want more, some are envious of others.

3 years ago, I was in a job that paid 100k pa. Some would say that's not a lot for a 39 year old. But I was very happy.

The thing is, I switched to a job that paid 150k. And I have been miserable for the past 3 years.

I have concluded that there is a sweet spot on the pay-happiness scale, and around 100k seems to be the figure.

If I could do it all over again, I wouldn't switch.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

“Jobs paying less than $12,000 a month cover about 94% of the local workforce, hence most jobs would be covered by the advertising requirement. Many employers typically recruit for positions paying $12,000 and above using executive search firms, rather than through open advertisements. We expect employers to instruct their headhunters to source for candidates on merit, including Singaporean candidates. If complaints are received that a firm may have nationality-based unfair hiring practices, they may be subjected to additional scrutiny and have their work pass privileges curtailed.”

So there, 94% of our local workforce makes less than S$12k a month.


://.salary.sg/2015/94-percent-of-local-workforce-makes-less-than-12k-a-month/

Well, i guess statistics don't lie.

the forum paints a very skewed picture. for example, if u look at the posts here, one might conclude that 94% of our workforce earns $12k & above
and add to further confusion, some trolls would even say $10k per month salary is the norm today, everyone else they know earns $20k & above

In short, read everything but form your own judgement

How come you cannot get bored everyday telling people how much you made and how much you spouse made.

I know pretty well everybody come to this forum all are very well educated and make a lot of money. Those who make little will find no time for all these nonsense as they have to make a living even late at night or over the weekends.

So whether you make a million a year or not, just keep it to yourself. Don't ask if you can afford to retire by 65 or 75. Always remember, third world country people still can survive with less than a dollar a day...........