Quote:
Originally Posted by Unregistered
When it was reported that Singapore's average household income was $10,503, quite a few people protested in the social media questioning if it was realistic. It seems they could not believe that households could have such incomes.
What the report should have included was the median household income. That would give a better perspective of how each household does in terms of whether they are in the upper half or lower half. Averages do not give one a sense of how well the "average" household really does. For eg. 9 in ten families could be earning $5k per month, but the last family could be earning $20k per month, and you will see the average household income for the 10 families as $6.5K per month.
But the important point to note is that the household income is rising every year. Currently our household income is comfortably above the average, but if either my wife or I were to stop work, our income will be lower than the average. We can really feel the pressure to build up our passive income to be able to replace one of our salaries as we approach retirement. Rising income levels usually leads to higher cost of living!
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High growth rate will attract high inflation. High income associated with high cost for every type of services including workman. Cost of living is not govern by goods sold in market only. Affluent society like Singapore, most of take home pay goes to rental, restaurant food, entertainment, healthcare, house maintenance and repair.
Low income will stay in
HDB flat, upper low income in EC, middle income in private condo, the rich in double storey terrace, very rich in bungalow, super rich in Sentosa Cove.
To compare living in Malaysia, the poor living in flat, upper lower income in single storey terrace, middle income in double storey terrace or semi-D, rich will stay in bungalow, very rich in resort home in exclusive zone, super rich in Sentosa Cove.
Quality of life is actually relative to your neighbour. Sad to see forumer keep on saying my pay is so much, my wife's pay is so much. It does't make sense at all. Actually what do you want to say? If you think you want to upgrade your living quarters, you should know better than others if you can afford it. No body know whether you have any undeclare source of income/ investment/windfall, neither is your other commitments.
In nutshell, live within your means you should be ok. To have too much comparison will make your life very miserable.