How Much Do You Need to Earn Before You Even Think of Buying A Car In Singapore?

Originally Posted by Unregistered

You forgot to add another group of people who derive pleasure in posting highly inflated or totally fake incomes. Wonder how they feel about themselves.

I belong to the group that is happy to see "the numbers" grow. You may not believe it, but it is not totally about the money anymore after a certain point. To me at least, it is like a hobby that is successful and that gives us joy and satisfaction to see "the numbers" growing.

When I first started out on this "hobby", it was to grow my passive income with the ultimate aim to cover my annual expenses so that we can retire in comfort and assured. But when we see both our passive income and NW grow each year, it got us hooked.

Our very initial passive income target was a very modest $50k pa. This was easily met within 2 years of setting it. We pushed the target higher each time the old target was achieved. This year we hit the $150k passive income target, and have raised the bar to $180k pa. The increase in passive comes in tandem with our NW growth. The SIZE of the investment capital matters when investing for passive income. (By the way, we assessed that we would only need $90k pa in retirement)

Needless to say, the yearly passive income helps to accelerate our NW growth. It is like self re-enforcing spiral.

The simple rule in life is to have as little regrets as possible... So there is no absolute right or wrong of living one's life. In recent years, I have witnessed a number of friends and relatives whose lives were cut short before hitting 55. Better to live as well as you can afford to, no need to be over conservative. We only live once....if you can afford, go ahead and indulge yourself every now and then while you are still relatively young...

By the way, there is another group of people whose main purpose to have lots of money is to feel good and be a show off. Their money is not for the purpose of spending and enjoy life, but spend to make themselves look rich and successful....

Originally Posted by Unregistered

You forgot to add another group of people who derive pleasure in posting highly inflated or totally fake incomes. Wonder how they feel about themselves.

I belong to the group that is happy to see "the numbers" grow. You may not believe it, but it is not totally about the money anymore after a certain point. To me at least, it is like a hobby that is successful and that gives us joy and satisfaction to see "the numbers" growing.

When I first started out on this "hobby", it was to grow my passive income with the ultimate aim to cover my annual expenses so that we can retire in comfort and assured. But when we see both our passive income and NW grow each year, it got us hooked.

Our very initial passive income target was a very modest $50k pa. This was easily met within 2 years of setting it. We pushed the target higher each time the old target was achieved. This year we hit the $150k passive income target, and have raised the bar to $180k pa. The increase in passive comes in tandem with our NW growth. The SIZE of the investment capital matters when investing for passive income. (By the way, we assessed that we would only need $90k pa in retirement)

Needless to say, the yearly passive income helps to accelerate our NW growth. It is like self re-enforcing spiral.

Mind sharing what kind of investment portfolio you have? I presume it's low risk low reward but you guys have large capital?

My wife and I were driving our own cars before we got married, and we continued having our own car even after we married. We just celebrated our 29th wedding anniversary, which means that our family has been owning 2 cars for 29 years.

Now that we are nearer to retirement we planned to have just 1 car when we retire. As we stay very near to an MRT station (practically at our doorstep) we thought perhaps maybe we might even do away with the car altogether.

So we tried moving around using public transportation for a week. Here's our findings:

The good parts
1. The MRT and buses are comfortable enough to travel in (as long as not during super peak periods) - spacious and air conditioned.
2. The fares are very reasonable
3. Sometimes, taking the MRT brings us faster to our destination even with changes to different lines
4. No worries about finding car parking lot when you reached your destination.

The bad parts
1. No privacy
2. Have to squeeze and it gets worse when your fellow passengers are sweaty and smelly
3. No flexibility to change destination at your whims and fancy
4. Involves a lot more walking (ok granted walking is good for health)
5. It gets difficult when you have bulky items like your weekly groceries or other big items. (With a car, we never feel this is a problem as we just dump them in the boot.)
6. Difficult for elderly to squeeze with the younger crowd for space, getting up and down busses.
7. Not all destination are accessible by MRT and busses. You would need to take taxis or private hire cars.
8. When traveling as a family of four, it is difficult to sit together and not really cheaper from driving your own car.

After that 1 week experiment, we concluded we will still want a car even in retirement. We want flexibility and our family can continue to go out together in comfort and privacy. As we buy our groceries once a week, the car comes in very handy. We can just put everything in the boot and not have to break our buys into smaller batches over a few trips.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

You forgot to add another group of people who derive pleasure in posting highly inflated or totally fake incomes. Wonder how they feel about themselves.

I belong to the group that is happy to see "the numbers" grow. You may not believe it, but it is not totally about the money anymore after a certain point. To me at least, it is like a hobby that is successful and that gives us joy and satisfaction to see "the numbers" growing.

When I first started out on this "hobby", it was to grow my passive income with the ultimate aim to cover my annual expenses so that we can retire in comfort and assured. But when we see both our passive income and NW grow each year, it got us hooked.

Our very initial passive income target was a very modest $50k pa. This was easily met within 2 years of setting it. We pushed the target higher each time the old target was achieved. This year we hit the $150k passive income target, and have raised the bar to $180k pa. The increase in passive comes in tandem with our NW growth. The SIZE of the investment capital matters when investing for passive income. (By the way, we assessed that we would only need $90k pa in retirement)

Needless to say, the yearly passive income helps to accelerate our NW growth. It is like self re-enforcing spiral.

Haha....rich people no need to come to this topic anyways...I came bcos I am struggling to decide if I should spend $200k on down payment, when I earn $18k per month...
What’s the point of having so much passive income only to become too old and grey to enjoy it...? Siao.....

Once you have a car you'll always need a car. I have been driving for more than a decade since I got my lisen cos my family had a few car. When I start work move out although earn 3k still need to buy a car cos used to it.

My kidney are still in my body.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Once you have a car you'll always need a car. I have been driving for more than a decade since I got my lisen cos my family had a few car. When I start work move out although earn 3k still need to buy a car cos used to it.

My kidney are still in my body.

But how much you safe? After deducting the maintenance costs of the car away, I'm guessing really little?

Originally Posted by Unregistered

But how much you safe? After deducting the maintenance costs of the car away, I'm guessing really little?

I down grade from driving luxury vehicle to poverty can on 4 wheels. Sinagpore is tough, I save only my kidney.

Car is only affordable by foreigner, you cheap local chingchong chingaporean just go f u c k urself with low salary and sleep at cheap hdb.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

We earn $700K combined, me $300K and he $400K. He is turning 50 and considered very high paid. Looking at the financial sectors, there are a fair bit of trimming going around, especially the more senior level. We also observed that the seniors who are retrenched, usually has a very hard time to find another job with similar pay. Since I am earning decent money as well, it will be good for him to try setting up his own business. In any case, you can never be super rich being an employee. You need to be a business owner, to be rich.
://forums.salary.sg/images/icons/icon6.gif

How old are you？

What do you do？

Originally Posted by Unregistered

For sensible and conservative people, their household NW would be more than $5M before they buy those type of cars.

For the showoff, with no sense of long term planning (for their future/retirement), their NW could be anything from $600k to $1M and they would think that they deserve those kind of cars.

We belong to the ultra conservative type. With over $6M in HH NW, we are still happily driving our mass market Jap cars - just that my wife and I have our own car. And it makes a lot of sense too. Jap cars are efficient and reliable and come with a lot of new tech features!

What do you do？

How old are you？