By the way, to bring everyone back down to earth here with so many people bandying around sky-high salaries > 150k etc.

Stats will show that <4% of people here aged 30-34 earn more than 12k.
If it was so common, I would expect the percentage of those earning that amount to be 20%.

So, don’t feel bad if you earn less than what people proclaim to earn here. As long as you earn more than you did the previous year or a few years ago, that is already progress. No point being envious and unhappy when people throw about their ‘salaries’.

If you go ask people in industry, they will let you know that early 30s salary for most jobs are on the more realistic side.

s://stats.mom.gov.sg/iMAS_Tables1/LabourForce/LabourForce_2020/mrsd_2020LabourForce_T33.xlsx