How much are you earning per annum?

Originally Posted by Unregistered

My income is so low that, after all the reliefs, I dont pay income tax.

Who is like me? I'm 38, btw.

Do not despair, you are not alone. But you must remain grateful, there are many millions in this world who live in great poverty. They dont have a home and they live on the streets and in slums. You still have a proper home. Be grateful you are born in this beautiful country.

This world is just a temporary place, the hereafter is permanent. Believe in the One and Only Creator, be good to your parents, be good to others, do not drink, do not gamble, do not smoke, do not womanise, do not sodomise and do not become homosexuals.

There are many like you. In s'pore, 2/3 of workers end up not having to pay income tax at all because of various reliefs. Those who do pay taxes also pay one of the lowest tax rates in the world. Personal income is capped at 20%.

What is important is to save and invest whatever you can. At the end of the day, you might still end up better off than a person who earns more and pay taxes. I suppose you are single?

At 38, you still have a long way to build up a nice nest egg for your retirement. Let's say you retire at 65, that's a good 27 years to go. Even a savings of $20k pa will give $540k at 65. And if you invest that to get 3% ROI, you will have $1m! More than enough to afford you a very comfortable lifestyle throughout your retirement.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

My income is so low that, after all the reliefs, I dont pay income tax.

Who is like me? I'm 38, btw.

You should read this : Income Inequality in Singapore: Our Annual Peek (2013) | MoneySmart.sg

Originally Posted by Unregistered

My income is so low that, after all the reliefs, I dont pay income tax.

Who is like me? I'm 38, btw.

Thanks for the useful tips.
I think I'll go for either Caspian or Lakefront because I like the idea of living near a lake.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

There are not many condos in the West where an MRT station is next to the condo. There are condos where you have to walk quite a bit and even need to cross the road to reach an MRT station.

3 condos which are highly sought after are THE CENTRIS, CASPIAN and THE LAKEFRONT RESIDENCES. The first is located next to the Boon Lay MRT station and the other two is next to the Lakeside MRT station. You can travel easily if you stay there. These condos are very cheap when compared to D9 condos.

We are a married couple with children. We do not earn much, only $150k pa in total. We are lucky to have the opportunity to buy an old EC at a very low price, only $500k many years ago. We have no more loan on the EC and now it is worth $1.2m. We own a Jap car too. We support our parents financially. We only manage to save $20k pa due to the high expenses and commitments.

Our retirement plan in 20 years time, at age 65, is to sell our EC and buy a studio HDB flat, which we hope will remain to be priced at $100k. If this is so, we hope to have about $1.8m in cash to retire on. This is more than enough to last us 30 years. On top of that our CPF Life payout will be $2000 per month ($1000 each). This is an added bonus which we can use to travel round the world, twice a year ($24k annual travel budget).

What do you think of our retirement plans? Any comments? Thanks.

Hi

I'm a low income earner who earns only $42k pa but I live in a 10 year old condo which was given to me by my late grandma. In her will, she stated that I cannot sell it and I must stay in it. So, I don't dare to sell it away or rent it out.

Do my family and l qualify for social assistance by any charity?
Appreciate your advise.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

My income is so low that, after all the reliefs, I dont pay income tax.

Who is like me? I'm 38, btw.

1 am also 38 years old. I earn $150 000 last year but thanks to the $10k parent hood tax rebate, I do not need to pay any tax for several years.
The thousand + dollars of tax is slowly deducted against this tax relief.

And I plan on retiring soon, surviving on my rental income , so I foresee I prob do not have to pay or pay very minimal tax even after I use up my 10k tax relief!

[lazyplane]

Originally Posted by Unregistered

1 am also 38 years old. I earn $150 000 last year but thanks to the $10k parent hood tax rebate, I do not need to pay any tax for several years.
The thousand + dollars of tax is slowly deducted against this tax relief.

And I plan on retiring soon, surviving on my rental income , so I foresee I prob do not have to pay or pay very minimal tax even after I use up my 10k tax relief!

Sometimes, it is good to state some details and assumptions.

S$150k salary , no need to pay tax because of 10k PTR ... wow.. u either are a woman or you have extensive reliefs....ie handicap spouse, grandparents etc...

And if you have extensive reliefs as above or woman, u should have lots of "liability" eg kids etc to manage. But yet, there is this claim u are surviving on rental income in the near future.

Rental income is charge-able income.... hence , this should eat further into your PTR ..... So how can PTR last several years ?

All in all, i cannot make sense of your post and your assumptions.

My own rough calculations for a 150k salary for a SG male is around 6-10 k income tax expenses...

Originally Posted by Unregistered

We are a married couple with children. We do not earn much, only $150k pa in total. We are lucky to have the opportunity to buy an old EC at a very low price, only $500k many years ago. We have no more loan on the EC and now it is worth $1.2m. We own a Jap car too. We support our parents financially. We only manage to save $20k pa due to the high expenses and commitments.

Our retirement plan in 20 years time, at age 65, is to sell our EC and buy a studio HDB flat, which we hope will remain to be priced at $100k. If this is so, we hope to have about $1.8m in cash to retire on. This is more than enough to last us 30 years. On top of that our CPF Life payout will be $2000 per month ($1000 each). This is an added bonus which we can use to travel round the world, twice a year ($24k annual travel budget).

What do you think of our retirement plans? Any comments? Thanks.

The plan would depend on the worth of your leasehold-EC 20 years from now. I would cash out of the EC at this point, seeing that you have made a decent profit (but that is not sustainable due to the decreasing lease of your EC) and buy a freehold condo, say costing 1.5 mil. No cash outlay, just take a 300 k loan and get leverage for another 20 years. Or, if you don't want more loans, buy a freehold one for the same price, but maybe in the outskirts.
You can sell 20 years later- the value should hold better than that of the EC.
Then, I would sell 20 years later.

Originally Posted by lazyplane

Sometimes, it is good to state some details and assumptions.

S$150k salary , no need to pay tax because of 10k PTR ... wow.. u either are a woman or you have extensive reliefs....ie handicap spouse, grandparents etc...

And if you have extensive reliefs as above or woman, u should have lots of "liability" eg kids etc to manage. But yet, there is this claim u are surviving on rental income in the near future.

Rental income is charge-able income.... hence , this should eat further into your PTR ..... So how can PTR last several years ?

All in all, i cannot make sense of your post and your assumptions.

My own rough calculations for a 150k salary for a SG male is around 6-10 k income tax expenses...

Sorry I did not give more details...

Yes, I am a woman and I have 2 kids so have a lot of rebates. Taxes comes to thousand odd each year so PTR can last several years.

My husband and I own a terrace and a soon to TOP MM unit in Sg and we are also awaiting state consent for a semi d in JB.

We plan to rent out our Sg properties and stay in JB. Our rental income should be sufficient for us to retire in JB as we should have 3k to 5k depending on when we retire. If we retire a few years later, we can pay off more of our outstanding mortgage and have more net passive income. When converted to RM, S$3000 to S$5000 should be sufficient for us to retire in Malaysia where costs of living esp cars are much cheaper. I intend to send my kids to international schools there which will be much less stressful on them.