How much are you earning per annum?

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Car ownership is not for everyone. We need to have less cars on the road. Car lite.

You need to spend $2k pm to own and use the car.

If your family income is less than $12k pm, then best not to own a car.

Better to take bus and MRT. Call a taxi if you need.

Fully agree possessing car require family income $12k or more.
In actual fact how families are sticking to this good criteria, 80% of car owners?
hmmm ...

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Fully agree possessing car require family income $12k or more.
In actual fact how families are sticking to this good criteria, 80% of car owners?
hmmm ...

I am of the view that Singapore has a very well connected public transport system comprising MRT, bus, taxis and now Uber and Grab services. Singapore is also a small city state. There is no need to own a car, and I have not even talked about the cost of owning one.

But if it's your aspiration to at least own one in your lifetime, how about owning it through passive income? At least it would not be so painful. Paying for it with money that was earned by your investment rather than by your own "blood and sweat" will make owning a car sweeter.

Of course, this will take some time. Instead of plonking down payment for that car, you could start by investing that money. Build up the investment year by year (be patient) and see the passive income grow. You will also see that newer car models look better than older ones. As you wait, you can get a newer model than your friends/colleagues who bought earlier.

Once your passive income grow to $2k to $3k pm, and you really cannot hold back anymore, you can proceed to buy your car. At least the passive income will have to cover the monthly installment.

For us, we are fortunate that our passive income from last year was sufficient to pay for the popular, mass market Jap car outright. Use that car for 10 years, don't change car unnecessarily and while letting your passive income accumulate - for your next newer model.

You can also afford to own a new car from capital gains. You can sell your home and then buy a cheaper home. Use capital gains to buy a new car, pay in full or pay downpayment.

We Singaporeans are very lucky. Can buy cheap BTO flat and then flip after 5 years MOP. Then buy another cheap BTO flat. Not surprising why many families can afford to own a car. It is because of our cheap BTO flat system. That's why demand for BTO flats is so high.

One way for COE prices to go down is to only allow buying BTO flat only once and make MOP longer, maybe 15 years. Then there will be lesser capital gains from flipping BTO flats to drive demand for new cars.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

I am of the view that Singapore has a very well connected public transport system comprising MRT, bus, taxis and now Uber and Grab services. Singapore is also a small city state. There is no need to own a car, and I have not even talked about the cost of owning one.

But if it's your aspiration to at least own one in your lifetime, how about owning it through passive income? At least it would not be so painful. Paying for it with money that was earned by your investment rather than by your own "blood and sweat" will make owning a car sweeter.

Of course, this will take some time. Instead of plonking down payment for that car, you could start by investing that money. Build up the investment year by year (be patient) and see the passive income grow. You will also see that newer car models look better than older ones. As you wait, you can get a newer model than your friends/colleagues who bought earlier.

Once your passive income grow to $2k to $3k pm, and you really cannot hold back anymore, you can proceed to buy your car. At least the passive income will have to cover the monthly installment.

For us, we are fortunate that our passive income from last year was sufficient to pay for the popular, mass market Jap car outright. Use that car for 10 years, don't change car unnecessarily and while letting your passive income accumulate - for your next newer model.

Many Singaporean families becoming rich by flipping BTO flats.

This is not healthy as it encourages property speculation.

We need to change the system by

1. Increase MOP from 5 to 10 years

2. Only allow ONE chance to buy BTO flat not two times


Our system is encouraging foreigners to seek citizenship and then after flipping their BTO flats twice, make big profits, they go back to their home country to retire. They may even give up their Singapore citizenship. They take advantage of our system to make money. We lose as BTO flat are heavily subsidized.

This forum has gone unusually quiet. Is it the sign of the times? Has anyone contributing here lost their job? Are the "resident" writers on vacation or sick? Run out of topics?

The economy doesn't seem to be doing well, with retrenchment figures going up - even SPH, our national newspaper has had to let go staff. Stock markets are weak. But we are still nowhere near to 1997/8 Asian Financial Crisis nor the 2008/9 US subprime crisis situation. Some new condo launches are still doing well. Car COE prices are maintaining a steady level and are likely to trend upwards because of diminishing quotas.

On a personal level, I am just glad that it's the weekend again. The week just ended was a busy one. I put in more money into the stock market during the week. My intent is to build up my passive income source while I am still working. At almost 57, I can literally count the number of years I have left to work with one hand. While I do look forward to finally retiring, I know I will miss many things about working life such as the adrenaline rush in getting and completing Projects, business trips, medical coverage and all the other benefits of being an employee.

For this month (Oct) my passive income was $9k comprising $5k+ from shares and $3k+ from rental.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Fully agree possessing car require family income $12k or more.
In actual fact how families are sticking to this good criteria, 80% of car owners?
hmmm ...

It's no big deal, my personal income already exceeded that. That's why we have 2 cars in my family.

There's an eerie silence in this forum. Definitely signs of the bad times.

If you still have a job, don't be too happy. You may be next to be let go, especially if you cost too much and don't contribute much value to your employer. Say, you earn $350k pa. So what. Your job may be gone just like that next week.

So, what must you do? First, you must be a humble person. Don't be a snob. Treat everyone kindly. Don't gossip and tell lies about other people. So, even if you do get fired, at least people will be sympathetic towards you and not say behind your back "serves him right". Humility is an important virtue.

Next, be ready to be fired any time. Don't overspend. Get rid of all your debt NOW. If you now live in a $2m condo with an outstanding mortgage of $1m, best you sell it away and clear your mortgage. Then with the $1m balance, buy a cheap $1m condo and be debt free. So even if you're retrenched, you don't have to worry about paying your mortgage. Better still, buy a cheap $500k HDB flat and keep your $500k cash for you to spend when you're jobless.

Next, make sure you clear your car loan. If you are driving an expensive big car costing $200k while you have a loan of $100k on the car, then you should just downgrade to a smaller car. Don't need to show off. If you can't afford to pay your $200k car in cash, then you can't afford it. Just sell your $200k car, pay off your car loan and use the $100k balance to buy a small, cheap car costing $100k. No loan.

Next, don't be an ego, big headed person. If you're jobless and you need money to buy food, then you may have no choice but to drive a taxi or become an uber driver. So, if you are a humble person, it is easier for you to be a driver.

Once you're debt free, you own your car and home fully, you can sleep in peace. The only things you need to worry about is money for basic things like food and utilities. You can be a taxi or uber driver to feed your family.

40 yo now retired with passive income 18k a month. Originally wanted to get at least 30k monthly passive income before retiring, but decided to do things I like earlier.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

40 yo now retired with passive income 18k a month. Originally wanted to get at least 30k monthly passive income before retiring, but decided to do things I like earlier.

You are the most successful person I know. Can you share your life story? How do you manage to achieve this? What was your job before you retired? What do you now do to spend your time?

The thread has gone quiet likely because participants were getting tired of the lone ranger who keeps talking about his past glory days and believing his is some kind of role model.

Moving on coincidently I was actually let go not too long ago, but after a 3 month vacation I got another job which pays even more. Xibei lucky haha, won't say more later accuse me off topic.

I'm learning how to use dividends to build up my passive income, my primarily passive income source still comes from rental which I need to diversify if not to other avenues than least property markets in other countries.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

This forum has gone unusually quiet. Is it the sign of the times? Has anyone contributing here lost their job? Are the "resident" writers on vacation or sick? Run out of topics?

The economy doesn't seem to be doing well, with retrenchment figures going up - even SPH, our national newspaper has had to let go staff. Stock markets are weak. But we are still nowhere near to 1997/8 Asian Financial Crisis nor the 2008/9 US subprime crisis situation. Some new condo launches are still doing well. Car COE prices are maintaining a steady level and are likely to trend upwards because of diminishing quotas.

On a personal level, I am just glad that it's the weekend again. The week just ended was a busy one. I put in more money into the stock market during the week. My intent is to build up my passive income source while I am still working. At almost 57, I can literally count the number of years I have left to work with one hand. While I do look forward to finally retiring, I know I will miss many things about working life such as the adrenaline rush in getting and completing Projects, business trips, medical coverage and all the other benefits of being an employee.

For this month (Oct) my passive income was $9k comprising $5k+ from shares and $3k+ from rental.