Anyone jobless for a long time before?

Originally Posted by Unregistered

He is warranted to say what he said if his parents are rich, he has a condo bought in his name by his parents, he has a trust fund paying out a few thousand to his bank account a month.

There are some people like that. Yes, life is unfair. But hey, you can be happy regardless, whether you have rich parents or not.

i have a rich man son friend like that and ironic that he actually end up having no pride, dignity, integrity, happiness, treasuring & enjoying life. everyday just cheong, party, hook up with some girl, break up, then get emo, see psychiatrist, cheong more and hook up with another spg.

since school days he always want to be a videographer. but because his family so rich give him >10k allowance a month, he never bother & give up easily on small stress & problem.

sometimes having rich family make the situation worse instead of helping.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

i have a rich man son friend like that and ironic that he actually end up having no pride, dignity, integrity, happiness, treasuring & enjoying life. everyday just cheong, party, hook up with some girl, break up, then get emo, see psychiatrist, cheong more and hook up with another spg.

since school days he always want to be a videographer. but because his family so rich give him >10k allowance a month, he never bother & give up easily on small stress & problem.

sometimes having rich family make the situation worse instead of helping.

he can exchange places with me anyday

Originally Posted by Unregistered

he can exchange places with me anyday

I've have taken a very philosophical view about this. The question deep deep down is to ask yourself - "would you rather be your friend?". For me, being 100% honest and not prideful, the answer could be yes.

Think very very deep.

People without rich parents, we are working each day to survive. I'm not sure about you, but my quick math tells me you need at least $10k a month for a decent HDB, a car, a baby, savings and insurance. And each day we are working simply for that.

Now, put aside your ego for once and imagine every month, you've GIVEN this $10k. Will you say no? The reason why your friend decided to go to his vices because he can afford to. I can't.

Life is unfair. And after thinking about it long and hard, I think only one thing should remain. You can smile at the end of the day if you earn $3k or if you are given $10k.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

I've have taken a very philosophical view about this. The question deep deep down is to ask yourself - "would you rather be your friend?". For me, being 100% honest and not prideful, the answer could be yes.

Think very very deep.

People without rich parents, we are working each day to survive. I'm not sure about you, but my quick math tells me you need at least $10k a month for a decent HDB, a car, a baby, savings and insurance. And each day we are working simply for that.

Now, put aside your ego for once and imagine every month, you've GIVEN this $10k. Will you say no? The reason why your friend decided to go to his vices because he can afford to. I can't.

Life is unfair. And after thinking about it long and hard, I think only one thing should remain. You can smile at the end of the day if you earn $3k or if you are given $10k.

Dun drama lah. You don't need $10k salary just to live an average lifestyle in Singapore. If not 90% of the people will be out begging in the streets or living on cold porridge everyday.

He is not far wrong. You don't need $10k pm to survive if :-

1. You are single
2. You are staying with parents, and don't need to help with the housing loans
3. You are married, but without children, no maid and no car

But if you are married, have children, stay on your own with housing loans to pay off, and a car, a maid, you will need $10k pm to be financially comfortable.

My family is a mature family meaning my children have already graduated, so I know what it was like to bring them up to that stage, sponsoring them through their studies, having a family car, having a maid to help out, paying for our housing loans and still have money for yearly vacations and retirement savings. Our family expenses hovered around $10k pm for many years and in fact exceeded that amount when my children were in the unis. And we don't live a lavish nor luxurious lifestyle!

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Dun drama lah. You don't need $10k salary just to live an average lifestyle in Singapore. If not 90% of the people will be out begging in the streets or living on cold porridge everyday.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

He is not far wrong. You don't need $10k pm to survive if :-

1. You are single
2. You are staying with parents, and don't need to help with the housing loans
3. You are married, but without children, no maid and no car

But if you are married, have children, stay on your own with housing loans to pay off, and a car, a maid, you will need $10k pm to be financially comfortable.

My family is a mature family meaning my children have already graduated, so I know what it was like to bring them up to that stage, sponsoring them through their studies, having a family car, having a maid to help out, paying for our housing loans and still have money for yearly vacations and retirement savings. Our family expenses hovered around $10k pm for many years and in fact exceeded that amount when my children were in the unis. And we don't live a lavish nor luxurious lifestyle!

Totally didnt know that having yearly vacations is essential to surviving in singapore.

Sarcasm aside, 10k/mth expenses is actually quite a large sum. I too come from a mature family with 2 kids and my father is the sole breadwinner of my family. We managed to survive on my father's 7k/mth with a japanese car, fully-paid housing loan and CPF loan to sponsor me and my sister's uni fees. We do have the occasional family trips although not yearly.

Cant afford that BMW 5 series? Get a cheaper japanese car or even better, take public transport.

Cant do yearly vacations? Choose a cheaper location or not go at all.

Need a new running shoe? Get the Erke running shoes instead of the Adidas Ultraboost.

Ultimately, it is all about living within your means.

It is not making sense to count maid pay into the man salary. If you got a maid means your Wife is also working, your income is not the whole family income & your Wife should be the one paying for The Maid since The Maid is doing her job. If your Wife is not working, she should be the one cooking & washing clothes.

Car is also not a must as there are now mrt stations islandwide in sg. In fact most new immigrants don't buy car as there is no such thing as Coe in their country.

Children Uni only once a lifetime as Long as its done locally, it's not going to cost a lot too. Not to mention, from PAP to JC / Poly, school fees are all so cheap.

Housing should be the only main living cost, however it depends on what type of house each individual buy (bto or condo, size, location) or stay with parents.

End of day is how you plan your living expenses and money.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Totally didnt know that having yearly vacations is essential to surviving in singapore.

Sarcasm aside, 10k/mth expenses is actually quite a large sum. I too come from a mature family with 2 kids and my father is the sole breadwinner of my family. We managed to survive on my father's 7k/mth with a japanese car, fully-paid housing loan and CPF loan to sponsor me and my sister's uni fees. We do have the occasional family trips although not yearly.

Cant afford that BMW 5 series? Get a cheaper japanese car or even better, take public transport.

Cant do yearly vacations? Choose a cheaper location or not go at all.

Need a new running shoe? Get the Erke running shoes instead of the Adidas Ultraboost.

Ultimately, it is all about living within your means.

All right. My mistake. $10k/month should only be applied to my situation and preferences. It's not some magical number I pull out of my backside. I'm already 30 plus and I made some spending errors in the past. So maybe that's why I over budget. Basically, it goes like this:

- 1,000 sqft Serangoon condo $3k/month installment.
- BMW 3 series $1k/month loan. (Something like $180k - selling value over 120 months)
- Food is $1.4k/month or $40 a day.

So I'm left with $4.6k/month right? We'll be conservative with insurance, but my two plans and installment income tax is about $500/month. So say I got $4k/month left.

You can ask the daddys around here, but I budget this for savings and child's education. See, I learn my lesson liao. Is $100k for child's education - from primary school to university including boarding and books - a good estimate? Next, parent's health. I dread the day my Dad goes to the hospital and I, as a good son, should pay for the bills.

Child's education, approximate, $100k over 10 years or $833/month.
Parent's health, approximate, $40k over 3 years or $1,111/month.

So from $4k/month, I'm left with $2k/month, which is left for savings and discretionary spending.

Thank you for listening to my life budgeting plan. I know the second part is an approximate as I'm not at the age to work out the details. That's why I have a FEEL that $10k/month is about there.

I can only say you really dont know what you dont know.

I am a generation before you and my circumstances growing up was like what you are going through now. My dad was also a sole breadwinner supporting a big family.

Because he wasnt earning much and yet have to support so many of us till we graduated, you can imagine he has no retirement savings.

Now it is my turn to take care my ageing parents. I am what the government described as the sandwich generation having to care of my own family as well as my ageing parents. We also have 2 sets of parents - including parents-in-laws, to take care of.

Having a family car and a maid is a necessity if you aged parents to move around. And we only have Jap cars. To support our family expenses both my wife and I have to work.

Our expenses of $10k a month is just enough for us to have some semblance of a decent lifestyle.

Some posters ignorantly said studying in the local unis would be cheap. Yes, local Uni fees are highly subsidised but still can come up to $8k to $10K a year just for fees alone. What living and transport expenses? Then there are the exchange programs with overseas unis. What if your children cannot qualify for local uni? Then the expense will balloon!

Luckily for us, we are doing well in our careers. We are earning enough to support our current lifestyle and yet have enough saved up, invested to take care of our own retirement.

Knowing how hard it is to be in the sandwich generation, we dont want to perpetuate this situation to our children when we retire.

Some of the things we did to prepare for our retirement:

1. We intend to work as long as we are needed. So we constantly upgrade ourselves and keep ourselves healthy
2. We invested our savings to establish alternative sources of income. Here I am happy and proud to say that our passive income can almost cover our annual expense (including our CPF interests)
3. We keep a tight lid on our expenses. For the longest time, our annual holidays was a drive up to M'sia. Only recently did we go for US, Europe and tours down under.
4. We ensure that our CPF are padded up. Our SA are maxed out, our MA are maxed out, our RA are maxed out and we keep pumping extra money back into our OA. You may ask what's all this for? It is to earn "almost risk free" interests. Last year, the combined interest we got from CPF came up to $50K!
5. We eat home for all meals except when at work and once a week we will have family lunch at restaurants.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Totally didnt know that having yearly vacations is essential to surviving in singapore.

Sarcasm aside, 10k/mth expenses is actually quite a large sum. I too come from a mature family with 2 kids and my father is the sole breadwinner of my family. We managed to survive on my father's 7k/mth with a japanese car, fully-paid housing loan and CPF loan to sponsor me and my sister's uni fees. We do have the occasional family trips although not yearly.

Cant afford that BMW 5 series? Get a cheaper japanese car or even better, take public transport.

Cant do yearly vacations? Choose a cheaper location or not go at all.

Need a new running shoe? Get the Erke running shoes instead of the Adidas Ultraboost.

Ultimately, it is all about living within your means.

Just to share. My mum had a hip fracture recently. She has to go to a community hospital after discharged from a hospital. I was shocked to learn that a bed without air-conditioning and TV, and shared with 11 other people was being charged $300/day not including other miscellaneous expenses like medication, physiotherapy session, etc. This is a part private/public community hospital. It is more expensive than in a public hospital or having a full-time maid to look after them. It would have been better if they are staying on their own as they will pass the mean test. But they are staying with me and we failed the mean test. I saw some of them staying there for more than a month. Imagine the big bill of $9000/mth. My mum has the PG card. How about us who are just above average and no PG card. The $10,000 is not unrealistic for those retiring in 10 years time. Medical bill will be even more hefty.