Well, we have to wait for the people who bought their cars when the COE was very low to scrap their cars. With the present high COE, hopefully many will give up owning another car after they they scrap their cars.

The roads are just too jammed up, not to mention the full car parks. I can't wait to go back to the days when driving was smooth and enjoyable.

Self 37 - 140,000 pa
Wife 29 - 65,000 pa
4 room HDB, fully paid
1 daugther
Save 80,000 pa
No car
No maid
Not thinking of upgrade to condo as not worth it.
Thinking of investing but based on comments in the forum, the return is about 5% which haven't taking into consideration the risk involve.
Should I top up my CPF special accounts to the max? At least the risk is lower and still can generate 4% return?

Don't worry, I am one of those guys who will scrap their cars. I plan to retire next year when I reach 50. I am not in the best of health due to the long hours of work, frequent overseas travel, and all the bad habits. I will not live long if I continue with my current lifestyle.

Since the property market is expected to fall drastically over the next two years, I will sell my terrace house now. I will sell it at $2.5m, pay off the $500k mortgage, and have $2m in cash. I will use $400k cash to buy a resale 4 room HDB flat, and invest $1.6m to buy stocks to give me dividends of $64k pa. Without a car and a maid, I will save $3k pm. My household expenses will then drop to $60k pa. My wife, 40, will work part time to take care of me, she can earn $30k pa, so our income will be $94k pa while our spendings will be $60k pa and we can save $34k pa. We will also clear all our loans. Luckily I have bought medical insurance in my early working years to take care of the bulk of the medical bill. I can also your my Medisave.

Thank you. Actually some of the stress come from driving on our crowded roads. So fewer cars mean lower stress.

And I guess what they say is true. When young, we spend our health to get wealth. When older, we spent our wealth to get health.

Take care!

In Singapore, there are 2 big things that the government is giving you as big gifts:

1. BTO flat - This is the cheapest property which is sold so cheap that it will make you laugh so hard. You can clear the mortgage in just a few years if you earn a decent salary and not a spendthrift (buy cars, employ maids, go expensive holidays, gambling). After MOP, you can sell at big profit. You have 2 chances to buy BTO flats. EC is also another big present because it is sold so cheap, compared to PC.

2. CPF rates - 2.5% in OA and 4% in SA and MA. These are risk free. I repeat, risk free. No where in the world can you get this type of big presents. Max up your SA as fast as possible so that you can enjoy the 4% risk free rate as long as you can. I don't understand why some people don't want the CPF min sum to increase, I want to top up my SA as much as I can and as fast as I can so that my SA will grow steadily for many years. In fact, if allowed, I want to top up my SA to $1m now. Remember, risk free. If you put money in stocks and investment properties, these can crash any time. Many people lose money investing in stocks and property.

You are absolutely right. With so many goodies, why are people still complaining?

Best not to be politician. Can never please everyone.

But regarding the purpose of earning money, and saving -- what is it for? It is for living a good and meaningful life for yourself and family.

What is a good life? - living in a good home.(good condo with privacy and facilities) Eating well (in restaurants away from the crowds and dirty tables), seeing the world (annual holidays), moving around in comfort (in a good car), have aircon in home to avoid the hot and hazy environment.. etc...

You are right. What is the point of working so hard and not enjoying a good life. That is why I told my wife that we need to upgrade to a condo. A condo not only gives us a good life because of the nice landscaping and facilities, but it also gives us security, status and prestige. Someone here said that only the top 15% of Singaporeans live in a condo.

Upgrade to EC ? haha.......

No, not EC. Different class from PC.

There is a right price for everything.

The problem with cpf is not thatch there is any risk. It provides decent risk free return. BUT when I pay the best paid cabinet in the world, I expect outsized returns, not decent returns only.

What I want, and I think is achievable is a guaranteed REAL (not nominal) return of at least 2% for OA and 3.5% for SA.

The problem is not with the gift, the problem is with teh size. When kids go CNY visiting, the Angpow is a given. They grumble over the SIZE of the angpow..