everyone starts off low. i had around your net worth when i got married at 28. combined with my wife's savings we bought a home, saved, invested, upgraded and had increments along the way. now 10 years later my last drawn is $17K and my wife $7K private. home value net of loan is 1.8M and liquid assets (cash, unit trust and stocks) is $900K. we are not in financial sector and last drawn household monthly income is $25K (including stock dividends)

In 2013, the median household income was $7,872 pm. Yours is $10,833 pm. So, you are doing much better than many people. Don't compare with other fellow graduate couples. There are graduate couples where only one person works and the household income can be like $5,000 pm.

Graduate couple, 50 & 53, combined income $210k pa. Own and live in a luxury condo in a prime district, now worth S$2m, paid up. Cash and CPF savings, S$600k in total. No other assets.

We plan to retire in Malacca when we reach 65. By then, the HSR is ready and we can travel to Singapore easily every weekend. We will sell our condo and convert alll our cash to RM. By then, after selling the condo and plus our cash savings, we should have about S$6m and after we convert we will get RM15m. We will be multi millionaires in Malaysia and will live in a big bungalow and can employ 2 maids.

Hes not lying, I am a fresh grad starting as a support function in an investment bank. I am offered 55k P.A (pre-bonus), my ex-boss (during intern) stays in a condo, drives an audi a4 (hes a foreigner being here only less than 10 years), you tell me how much he need to earn (at early 30s) to sustain this kind of lifestyle? oh he has kids and his wife doesnt work.

Looking at your age and pay (38 yo and $17k pm) I would hazard that you are superscale G in the CS or a colonel in military. Which one is it?

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I doubt is either. I arm chioed. Where got COL or superscale folks so free come to forums to post? Name me an example.

Singaporean born couple, both 44... senior managers, monthly $28,000. Life is good in singapore. We are so fortunate to have PAP as garment.

You count this way issit? You totaled up your combined annual income (inclusive of bonuses) and then divide by 12?

Like that many people will be earning more than $20k pm combined. It works for me.

My monthly income is actually $13k pa, my wife $7.5k pm. Our total bonus is 4.5months (including the 13th month). Annual is thus $338k, then divide by 12 months, our monthly income becomes $28k pm.

We are also in our 40s.

Was thinking like that, how can property prices and car COE ever go down?

That's what we all think. But they are also humans. They got their free time too. Some play golf, some collect watches & pens, some read, some cook and some visit forums like these and boast about their wages anonymously.

We used to earn a high total income but my wife got retrenched last year. After a year of trying and not getting another job, we decided to downgrade from our big landed property to a smaller 3 bedroom condo unit, which we paid in full cash. We also use the cash balance to clear our car loan and other personal loans. Today, we are debt free.

We also stopped having a maid and stopped tuition for our kids as my wife can teach them easily. She spends a lot of time nurturing the kids and taking care of the household. My kids are now doing very well under my wife's guidance, much better than when we sent them to tuition classes.

As a family, we have more quality time together. As a couple, we argue less as my wife is less stressed compared to when she was working. We also have more quality couple time together.

All that happened is a big blessing for our family. Even though we live in a smaller place and our income has halved, our quality of life has improved tremendously. We are lucky to own a valuable landed property which allows us to make the necessary adjustments.

The kids actually love living in the condo as they can swim in the condo pool.