How much are you earning per annum?

Originally Posted by tchen003

Hi, thanks for your feedback.

In Chinese, there is a saying: you can get fish and bear pawn at the same time. (Forgive my noob translation haha).

Reason I VC to MA and SA is that:
1. The first 60k balance, these two accounts produce 5% risk free return.
2. These VC cash, can reduce my income tax which can equal to first year return of 7%+5%!

Above is my understanding and reason to do VC. But again, if thats the case, I may have hard time paying down new condo downpayment with my future wife.

One possible solution, just possible, is to utilize home equity loan. Say my small condo appreciate to 900k sgd after 6 years and I have 500k sgd home loan remains. I can cash out 900k*80%-500=220k sgd as my contribution to downpayment.

My reason for not doing the VC is because the tax relief end result only saved me a few hundred dollars of tax. I took 5 years of working to get a 900k condo, amid paying off my 2 education loans.

My main funding was derived from cash, OA and small portion from accumulated dividend income from stocks.

If you have not much cash, make sure your OA is well sufficient and vice versa.

Home equity loan is an option for mainly for emergency funding, not advisable for it to fund another house.

how r u all earning so much??

The reality for most couples is that at 55, their children are still studying either at college level or uni level. If at college level, the couple will have to set aside quite a sum of money for their children's uni education 2 to 4 years down the road. What that means is that if they have not saved up sufficiently they cannot retire at 55.


I have colleagues who are in their late fifties but are unable to retire (cannot afford to retire) until their last child finishes his/her uni studies. Only then, can they start saving for their retirement. They are thus looking at slogging until 62 at least!


Luckily for me and my wife, our 2 kids graduated from uni when we hit 56. We have also been frugal, saved diligently and invested throughout our working career. We are now looking at a passive income of $170k this year. Last year it was $160k.

The passive incomes have enabled us to save practically our full salaries each month which we promptly put into investment thereby increasing the passive income. A virtuous cycle of events.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

There is no need to worry so much about retirement. As long as you can afford to buy a cheap 3 room HDB BTO flat and pay it up, you can retire comfortably. Make sure your CPF SA is enough for you to choose the CPF Life scheme which is enough for you and wife.

How to retire at 65

1. HDB flat paid up
2. CPF Life gives you $2k pm per person ($4k pm for a retired couple)

Plan your retirement activities well. You can do volunteer work at old folks homes, join activities in the community, take up hobbies, go short trip holidays, learn to cook, and many more things to do. Do your own house work and chores. Exercise and keep fit.

For high flyers, they can retire earlier than 65 if their condo is paid up and they have enough retirement income before 65.

How to retire at 55

1. Condo paid up
2. From age 55 to 65, must have passive income from investments to fund their daily expenses
3. CPF Life from age 65 onwards


Some highly successful high flyers such as top bankers and good entrepreneurs can retire in their 40s.

Age 45, earning 260k a year
Contributed and maxed up the CPF SA account, now 200k now
CPF OA account of 150k
Dividend stocks/reits portfolio of 200k, earning around 5% return. I grow it by 30-40k a year depending on markets valuation.
SRS account = currently 80k, invested in diversified trust funds. I contribute 10k/year
1 condo investment = 3.5k/month rental - 3k/month mortgage payment
1 posb invest saving plan, contribute 400/mth into STI ETF and 100/mth into AB bond ETF
1 HDB fully paid up
Around 350k savings (150k in citibank maxi gain acct, 100k in philips mm funds, 50k SBS, 50k saving acct), earning 400/mth interest

I stay clear of endowment plans, structured products and high yield unit trusts recommended by my RM due to high cost or risks.

Looking foward to deploy my cpf OA account to unit trusts next year end when all wrapper fees are removed.

Looking to work until 62 and keep growing my stock/cpf/srs/saving pot, but many PMET I know are retrenched by early 50s, so living frugally and prudently.

Early 50s, earning $160k pa combined.
Two bedroom condo, paid up. Debt free.
Combined net worth $1.4m.

Is this considered mid or upper middle class?
Thanks.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Early 50s, earning $160k pa combined.
Two bedroom condo, paid up. Debt free.
Combined net worth $1.4m.

Is this considered mid or upper middle class?
Thanks.

Mid class imho.

1) No other property that generate (more) cash flow
2) If CPF is not ESS, then must assume you have some other plans to enhance your retirement regular income.

Nett savings 1.4m for 2 person is decent, considering mid range, not really considered upper middle class, unless:

1) You have other property (2nd property in SG/other countries )
2) You have stocks or other generating income instruments

What class are we ?

husband: 100k per year
Wife: 12k free lance +50k business/year

One marine parade hdb (left 90k)
One d15 landed house (inherit with 20% estimated 2.5mil at 100%)

Cash: 430k
Insurance: 100k surrender value

Both 38 n 39 year old

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Early 50s, earning $160k pa combined.
Two bedroom condo, paid up. Debt free.
Combined net worth $1.4m.

Is this considered mid or upper middle class?
Thanks.

You are clearly UPPER middle class because you own a private property.
Only the TOP 20% of the local population lives in private property.
80% lives in HDB public housing.
Well done. You’re very successful.
Where you live determines your social economic status.

Dont be obsessed and distracted by class or status. They are meaningless.

What is important is, is what you have giving you a good comfortable life? And does it have durability? That is, is what you have sufficient to last you a lifetime.

A person can be living a comfortable and happy life without staying in a condo and without owning car. He may have only $3m networth but is confident that this amount can see him living this comfortable lifestyle throughout his life.

On the other hand, a person living in a condo and has a car with the same networth of $3m may not have same confidence of his money lasting his life time.

Obviously the first guy will be better off now and in the long run.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

What class are we ?

husband: 100k per year
Wife: 12k free lance +50k business/year

One marine parade hdb (left 90k)
One d15 landed house (inherit with 20% estimated 2.5mil at 100%)

Cash: 430k
Insurance: 100k surrender value

Both 38 n 39 year old

You are in the mid middle class since you live in a HDB flat. If you are ambitious and wants to move up the social ladder to the upper middle class, you need to upgrade to a private condo. The top 20% lives in private properties.

Now is a good time to upgrade to a private condo since condo prices has not gone up much. Buy a resale condo as it is cheaper than new launch condos.

You can find very affordable resale private condos in the OCR such as those condos in the north region eg. Yishun, Sembawang and Woodlands. The north region condos are undervalued and will appreciate in the long run when the region develops further and when the Thomson MRT line opens.