How much $ do you give your parents every month?

[poor and stupid]

Originally Posted by Unregistered

be careful. these graduates will pwn you any time.

you know "pwn"?? (no typo here)

Dun worry, this graduate doesnt like owning people...

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Wow... a graduate who does not know the difference between 'own' and 'owe'.

Pathetic fellow! Can only point out other's typo error to feel better about himself.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Pathetic fellow! Can only point out other's typo error to feel better about himself.

I wish it was a typo error... so I wouldn't have to explain why Singaporean graduates do not know the difference between 'owe' and 'own'.

[returningtoSG]

A slightly different perspective: I work in Australia and the taxes + cost of living is a little different. For example, mortgages here have to be paid out of salaries rather than a CPF type of account. I gross about AUD$6500, but a stack of that goes to the tax man. I set aside about $1k a month for my parents. When I got a PhD scholarship, we decided (as a family) to buy a house. My parents sank about AUD$60k as the deposit and I paid the mortgage repayments out of my part-time job and stipend. We sold it about 3 years later and made about $250k. They bought me a car ($32k) and kept the rest for their own investments back home. This was about 6 years ago now.

Mum seems happy with the arrangement, although I always wish there was more I could do for them. The Labour government has done a lot to change the tax schemes here so that there isn't a huge discrepancy in wages, but this also means that PhD qualified academics don't earn a huge amount more than the check out chick at the supermarket.

[bladez87]

Originally Posted by Unregistered

You fail to comprehend cos you're lucky enough not to be burdened by such traditional practices. It is common among Asian culture, at least in this part of the world, to give reasonable allowance to parents.

I too give allowance to my parents both sides, about 20% of our combined 20k income. But I wish my kids will be lucky enough not to be burdened by such a practice.

Wish I can afford to give that kind of money...wish i can even earn more than the allowance you are providing now. How old are you if I may ask.

Money is not everything. I believe it is a tool to make us and people around us happy. That said, I firmly believe in spending on parents, since they are the reason we are around.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

You unfilial sob....your parents were better off giving birth to char siew than to you.....at least can eat the char siew...

People need to stop bringing in the thing about filial piety without knowing the situation of the person at all. That sentence, "your parents were better off giving birth to char siew than to you", leaves a bad taste in my mouth, and this is coming from someone who is emotionally abused. I never asked my parents to give birth to me, they can give birth to char siew if they wanted to. In fact, I'd rather they give birth to char siew than to me, if they were only thinking about selfish reason when they gave birth to me. I was being treated like an object and I had to constantly meet their needs, they failed to realize that I have my own emotional needs too. I wonder how anyone would feel if their parents treat them like some sort of investment: investing the least amount of money to get the maximum returns. Now I'm plagued with anxiety disorder and I'm socially impaired in some ways due to the trauma. I need to go for therapy to get all these fixed. Now, tell me about filial piety again.

If I give allowance to my parents, it's because I really don't want to owe them anything. As much as I'm grateful to them feeding me and educating me, the damage they have done to me probably exceeds the amount of money they have invested on me. I do give my parents allowance, but my parents are never satisfied. And mind you, my parents, although not very rich, have enough money to last them a few decades.

Hi all, I've just turned 60 and have 3 children, all are working, some overseas, after I spent about $1m on their overseas education in the U.S. Through a mixture of good fortune in stocks, property and working in banking for 30+ years, I am worth about $20m (about 50% physical property), including 3 trusts that I have set up for the kids.

The children each have a trust that pays them income from the trust, but are owned by me until I die. Each of the trusts has $1m in stocks (reits, SPH, Singtel etc) that yield about 6%, giving them about $5,000 per month worth of income on average. The income should grow over time in step with inflation. When I die, the children do not get control of the trusts. Rather, they simply get the income for the rest of their lives. When they die, the trusts go to their children (my grandchildren) assuming that they have children. If they have no children, they go to charity and I've selected several. Unless I die suddenly and I am still healthy, I plan to put more of my remaining worth into the trusts during the last year or so of my life and distribute the rest to charity. In some ways, I am reluctant to put too much. Otherwise each kid will get something like $15K-30K/month in today's moneyand may not be a productive member of society. If I die suddenly, the trusts get all my money according to my will (less half for my wife if she survives me).

This way, I hope that I have provided for my children, even after my death and for my grandchildren, should I have any. What I have saved should last through the next two generations.

I am blessed that my parents are in good health and well to do. My dad is 65 but still draws a top executive salary. My mum is recently retired and gets a good steady rental income from the flat she inherited from my grandfather. I am thankful that they have their retirement planned out with enough cash, rental income and property in their twilight years.

I give them a token $50 each every month and buy them expensive gifts for their birthdays, Christmas, and on father's / mother's day.

My in-laws are working. My MIL is comfortable in her finances but my FIL squanders his (not high but decent) salary on 4D and god-only-knows-what. my wife gives him about 10% of her salary.

When my father passed away and we opened his safety deposit box, in it were all the ang pows and gifts like gold coins that I had given him over the years. He never banked it it. He was wealthy enough so he never needed the money I gave him, but he must have treasured it to keep it all in the original packaging.

Why give parents money when they are still working?

Seriously? They should spend within their means till age 67 and hopefully prudent enough to have saved enough for old age.

Not saying that we don't need to give them money.. but it should be on a needs basis. Also, if they are senile and have too much money lying around.. we young savvy professionals should take care of their money for them.. lest they waste it on stupid holidays or other unnecessary expenditures. Society has evolved to take advantage of the silver dollar.. we should help the older generation to be more financially prudent.

Singapore is build on meritocracy. We should rely on ourselves and not others. If we spend beyond our means.. then suffer the consequences when we get old - or pray for filial children.

Don't expect and you won't be disappointed. Rely on yourself and noone else would be able to let you down- but you.