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

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Quite sensible advice.

For me and family, we make 290k pa and instead of buying a car, we prefer to save the $ to buy property. We are now looking forward to collect passive income from our HDB while we enjoy the condo for a few years.......

I agreed with the conservative approach. My husband and I earns $700k pa but we take taxis/grab/uber everywhere we go. My husband takes the bus to work in the morning sometimes, because its empty and its a quick 20mins from our place. We own 2 properties, one in London and another in Novena. We (or I) were thinking of getting another property but the husband wants to quit the job to run his own business. I would only get a car if my job really calls for it (i.e. if I have to work in Changi). Otherwise, I think its less stressful to be chauffeured than to drive. We do rent cars every now and then, but Singapore drivers are scary. They do not know how to use the signal switch and changed lanes without any notice.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

What do you think is the average net worth of people who drive E200 or BMW 320?

I think the NW should not be the only factor when considering whether to buy a car. For us, we considered our passive income as well.

When we were younger (in our early 40s), it will take 3 years of passive income accumulation to fully pay in cash for a mass market jap car. Now, our passive income every year can afford us a brand new mass market jap car.

If we had wanted the E200 or BMW320, it will take us 1.5 years to 2 years of passive income accumulation to pay in full for a new car.

My advice is to build up your wealth first which in turn will allow you to build up a stream of passive income. With that, splurging on things you desire (including that BMW or E200) will be more rewarding, less painful and that will not hurt your retirement plans.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

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!

You are not ultra conservative enough.

I earn 1.5m a year, have a NW of 10m, and I take MRT to work. MRT got aircon too.

Every $1 saved is a plus one to my bank account.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

I agreed with the conservative approach. My husband and I earns $700k pa but we take taxis/grab/uber everywhere we go. My husband takes the bus to work in the morning sometimes, because its empty and its a quick 20mins from our place. We own 2 properties, one in London and another in Novena. We (or I) were thinking of getting another property but the husband wants to quit the job to run his own business. I would only get a car if my job really calls for it (i.e. if I have to work in Changi). Otherwise, I think its less stressful to be chauffeured than to drive. We do rent cars every now and then, but Singapore drivers are scary. They do not know how to use the signal switch and changed lanes without any notice.

Who quits from a $700k job?

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Who quits from a $700k job?

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

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

I'm 47 and semi retired. Was an executive in the financial sector. I have made enough.

Now I do some advisory work to spend my time. I also have a lot more time to spend with my family. My children loves me so much more now as I have more time to talk to them, to advise them. I'm like their best friend.

I don't want to be super rich. I'm happy with my wealth. My quality of life is a lot better. Very happy now.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

You are not ultra conservative enough.

I earn 1.5m a year, have a NW of 10m, and I take MRT to work. MRT got aircon too.

Every $1 saved is a plus one to my bank account.

Why does money have value?

What do you spend on?

Originally Posted by Unregistered

You are not ultra conservative enough.

I earn 1.5m a year, have a NW of 10m, and I take MRT to work. MRT got aircon too.

Every $1 saved is a plus one to my bank account.

Your money is only a number on the screen of the ATM. You have become a slave to money. You are poorer than others who earn 100k and know how to use their money.

I feel quite sorry for you.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Your money is only a number on the screen of the ATM. You have become a slave to money. You are poorer than others who earn 100k and know how to use their money.

I feel quite sorry for you.

My point too but your comments are more direct. But I don't feel sorry for him/her though. Some people are happy to spend on themselves, some are happy to spend on their loved ones, and some are just happy to see the numbers in their bank grow.....so no need to feel sorry for him/her lah. Moreover, it is probably a fake post anyway although such people do exist.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

My point too but your comments are more direct. But I don't feel sorry for him/her though. Some people are happy to spend on themselves, some are happy to spend on their loved ones, and some are just happy to see the numbers in their bank grow.....so no need to feel sorry for him/her lah. Moreover, it is probably a fake post anyway although such people do exist.

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.