They only pay joining fees for the uniformed services.

Looks like you are going to have a pay cut. Doubt you can get 7k. Joining the public service mid career is often not very lucrative in terms of money.

Base pay was higher in the private sector but you have to deal with crazy workload, politics, cyclical fluctuations in the market. I got wage freeze and no bonuses for a year. Public sector offered less but add in the garanteeed PB, AWS and random bonuses, your yearly income is maybe 10-15% less? but workload is like 60% of private sector??

So what do you want??? secured and relaxed job or wish to make it big in the corporate game???

I chose the former as I realised that we Singaporeans are a privileged brunch. We tend to earn more than we actually think we need. You can live on very little. Just look at the rest of the world. Part time in something using your spare capacity to earn extra cash or have fun. Invest wisely and hopefully you can have a decent sum of money when older to do a small business or migrate to some cheaper country.