How much are you earning per annum?

With the MRT network expanding, there is no need to drive any more.
It is faster to go to work by MRT than by car.

Live in a condo next to an MRT station or where the condo provide shuttle bus service to the nearest MRT station.

Don't buy a condo which is neither next to an MRT station or not far enough to have a shuttle service, you end up having to walk to the MRT station in the hot sun and rain.

Many will give up driving, especially the old retirees.
With huge supply of COE next year, prices will drop.
Let's all hope the days of $10k COE will come again.

Let us hope that COE price will crash.

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Despite Certificate of Entitlement (COE) premiums softening, the profile of cars here has aged dramatically over the first nine months of the year, as the total car population shrank marginally.

Based on latest figures from the Land Transport Authority (LTA), as at Aug 31, there are a total of 619,139 cars on the road. Of these, 165,527 cars are between eight and 10 years old – making up 26.7 per cent of the total car population.

In contrast, cars in this age range made up just 18.7 per cent of the total car population of 621,480 as at Jan 31.

The car population here has been getting older over the past decade or so. For example, in 2007, four in five cars on the road were less than four years old. Currently, the proportion has fallen to less than one in five.

The trend has been attributed to the soaring COE premiums, which have gone up significantly compared with the early 2000s. As a result, most motorists have been holding on to their cars.

After hitting a peak in January last year, the premiums have been heading south because of a higher supply of COEs due to a growing number of cars being taken off the roads. But industry players said that motorists are waiting for the COEs to fall further before they replace their ageing cars.

While this pent-up demand for new cars could delay deregistrations, Singapore Vehicle Traders Association honorary secretary Raymond Tang said he expects COE premiums to drop over the next three years when many cars reach the end of their 10-year lifespan based on sales data.

Agreeing that the premiums will fall gradually in the coming years, Mr Ricky Tay, director of RTMT Motor, noted that for now, COE premiums have stabilised.

OWNERS PUTTING OFF REPAIRS

Even though cars are getting older, several automobile workshop owners said they are getting less business because many motorists are putting off repairs.

“If there is only one year left (in the COE), major repairs are not worthwhile to (the owner),” said Mr Hanip Abdul, owner of Hanip Automobile. He added that customers tend to request for minor repairs in order to minimise cost, compared with the past, when they would ask for brand new parts.

Mr Yao Ming Pao, manager of Arrow Tyres, said fewer motorists are buying new tyres to replace worn out ones. While his firm used to sell about 80 to 100 new tyres a day, now it is down to 30 or 40.

However, BCC Automotive has seen a slight increase in demand for repair services. Its managing director Francis Lim, who is also President of The Singapore Motor Workshop Association, said: “Most (motorists) would prefer to keep their cars till the end of the COE lifespan instead of changing to a new car due to the high new car prices.”

Tow recovery companies contacted said they have seen a rise in tow services, involving both old and newer cars – the latter mostly due to battery and electronics problems.

Mr Tom Lim, owner of Island Recovery Services, said he saw a 75 per cent increase compared with last year.

Mr Ong Pang Sok, a mechanic from Shanghai Towing Service, added: “We’re much busier nowadays as there are more cars to tow and repair than last time. They keep spoiling because they are older now. Like elderly people, as they age they’ll have more sickness.”

-TODAY/cy

Next year, more than 100,000 cars will hit that ten year mark.

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669 reasons why high COE prices won’t last

Thursday, 10 July 2014 05:31

COE Prices, July 2014, 1st Round
Category A (Cars up to 1.6 litres and 130bhp) $61,990 - up $101
Category B (Cars above 1.6 litres or 130bhp) $64,889 - down $811
Category E (Open) $63,001 - down $2,300


SINGAPORE — Don’t despair. Price changes for COEs (or Certificates Of Entitlement) may have ended up mixed this week, but that is most likely due to a quirk in the Quota System. Long-term, the picture looks rosy for people hoping for lower COE prices.

The Category A COE ended July’s first auction at $61,990, a tiny $101 increase over the price set at the last COE auction. But this time around, there were three weeks between COE auctions (instead of the usual two), and even with the extra time to pick up orders, car dealers didn’t see enough action to bid the price up significantly.

All the more reason to cheer Category B’s drop in price to $64,889, a fresh low for 2014 and $811 cheaper than in mid-June.

The Category E COE had the decency to do the same, dropping by a hefty $2,300 to land at $63,001, the lowest level for the year.

If you like the look of that, then there’s even better news: the worst seems to be over for COE prices, and the trade is looking forward to seeing prices drop below $50,000, perhaps as soon as next year.

This won’t be because demand for cars is going to dry up in that time, but because the COE supply is poised to expand.

MORE COES FOR ALL

The main reason is a demographic one: a large number of cars is turning 10 years old soon. When that happens they will be due for COE renewal or deregistration, and every deregistered car makes way for a fresh COE.

Next year, more than 100,000 cars will hit that ten year mark.

“We expect deregistrations to come in, and therefore with more COEs, the gap between demand and supply will not be so much,” says Koh Ching Hong, the managing director of Borneo Motors. “Therefore we expect prices to come down.”

He also pointed out that the current COE supply has been artificially tightened because the Land Transport Authority has had to correct for over-projections in 2008 and 2009 by clawing a few hundred certificates from the monthly pool.

This clawback is set to end in January, and should see an extra 669 Category A, B and E COEs added to the monthly quota.

So, the trade is looking forward to an extra 669 COEs a month from January onwards, plus more replenishment COEs from rising deregistrations.

That being the case, unless there’s a sustained and serious increase in demand, there seems to be no way that COEs will stay at today’s high prices.

RETURN OF THE $40,000 COE?

“It will not come down to the $10,000 level, but it has come down from above $80,000 now to today around $60,000…” says Mr Koh. “Hopefully, it’ll come down to $40,000 to $50,000. Hopefully.”

It’s perhaps worth mentioning that Mr Koh spoke to CarBuyer not directly on the subject of COEs itself, but in the context of Suzuki’s two new models, both of which will thrive only if prices come down. Consider their launch a marker of his conviction that COEs really are set to become cheaper.

It’s worth pointing out too, that in addition to running Borneo Motors, he is also the managing director of Champion Motors. When a man who rises to the post of managing director for not one but two car companies says something about COEs, you should probably listen.

Hello everyone,

I found this forum very useful as it contains a lot of information and sharing by many people. I realized that many people discussed about how much they earn, where they live and most importantly how they will retire. Retirement is the goal of many people here. Of course there are those who prefers to continue working beyond 65.

My wife and I have a different perspective in life. We both aspire to retire early so that we can do the things we love without having to worry about our livelihood. That was why we worked very hard in our early years. Today we are successful professionals. However, we have now decided to retire next year when we reach 55 & 54. All these years we have invested in stocks. We have good experience investing in dividend stocks which gives decent yields of 4%. So what we plan to do is to sell our current penthouse and buy a two bedroom condo in the OCR and invest the cash. We expect to have a portfolio of stocks worth $2m, giving us dividends of $80k pa. Our expenditure would be about $50k pa for just two of us (no kids). We will also be debt free.

Don't mind my asking, but for a successful no-kids-dual-income professional couple, some more at age 54/55, your net worth (estimated $3m) is on the low side. From the many posts here, even those with 2 - 3 kids seem to have higher net worth. How come?

You said you realized that many people here discussed how much they earn - I supposed you are aware the title of this forum is "how much are you earning per annum?" Duh.

So what is your income - successful no-kids dual income professional couple?

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Hello everyone,

I found this forum very useful as it contains a lot of information and sharing by many people. I realized that many people discussed about how much they earn, where they live and most importantly how they will retire. Retirement is the goal of many people here. Of course there are those who prefers to continue working beyond 65.

My wife and I have a different perspective in life. We both aspire to retire early so that we can do the things we love without having to worry about our livelihood. That was why we worked very hard in our early years. Today we are successful professionals. However, we have now decided to retire next year when we reach 55 & 54. All these years we have invested in stocks. We have good experience investing in dividend stocks which gives decent yields of 4%. So what we plan to do is to sell our current penthouse and buy a two bedroom condo in the OCR and invest the cash. We expect to have a portfolio of stocks worth $2m, giving us dividends of $80k pa. Our expenditure would be about $50k pa for just two of us (no kids). We will also be debt free.

40, 41, middle class couple, $156k pa combined.
Home is a 3 bedroom EC, still on mortgage.
Drives a small, old car.
Total net worth (EC, cash, cpf, stocks), $1.2m.
How are we doing? Are we on the low side among our same age group peers?
Any gurus here care to comment? Thank you.

Age 31, single, VP, 240k (not including bonus and share option).
Am I on the low side among our same age group peers?

I have started following this forum recently and got many valuable information and advise through the experience people. Here is our information

Hubby 32, Engineer, working in MNC, 7 years exp
base 89k + approx 1.5 - 2 months bonus if company revenue hit the target
Wife 31, Engineer, working in MNC, 8 years exp
Base 91k + variable bonus, but not much
Home is a small OCR condo, worth 900k, bought in 2012, no car.

We are engineers and already hit the typical engineers salary limit for our working experience, henceforth I do not see any possible fast growth of income, maybe max 3-4% annual increment over the next 10 -15 years to adjust inflation, and once we reach 45, pay most likely will be freeze. However, we are happy with our current situation and it would be acceptable to us even if the growth is slower as long as we are employed. We are planning to start doing savings in cpf and cash, later will think of low risk investment only. It is too early to decide for retirement age, if the health condition is good, we are planning to work at least till age 60.

This is good news for those who want to get rid of their cars after their COE expires in 2015 or 2016. Many living along the DTL2 will switch to riding the MRT to Shenton Way.

COE prices will tumble. Good news indeed.


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The Downtown Line 2 (DTL 2) mass rapid transit line will be opened in the first quarter of 2016, a few months ahead of schedule, announced Transport Minister Lui Tuck yew during a site visit to the Bukit Panjang MRT station Monday morning (Sep 29).

Mr Lui said additional manpower and innovative work processes committed to it helped to accelerate the project, adding that safety and standards remain a priority and were not been compromised.

He added that roads affected by the DTL 2 construction will be restored by the third quarter of next year.

Last year, works on the line was delayed from end 2015 to mid 2016 when one of its main contractors went bust.

Mr Lui said the project team will continue to attempt to find ways to speed up the completion of DTL 2 to even earlier than the first quarter of 2016 and recover even more time caused by the delay.

"LTA (Land Transport Authority) and all the contractors will continue to work hard to recover more of the time and bring forward the opening to even earlier than first quarter of 2016 ... many of them have been working round the clock, seven days a week. But all these acceleration must be done without compromising safety standards," said Mr Lui.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

I have started following this forum recently and got many valuable information and advise through the experience people. Here is our information

Hubby 32, Engineer, working in MNC, 7 years exp
base 89k + approx 1.5 - 2 months bonus if company revenue hit the target
Wife 31, Engineer, working in MNC, 8 years exp
Base 91k + variable bonus, but not much
Home is a small OCR condo, worth 900k, bought in 2012, no car.

We are engineers and already hit the typical engineers salary limit for our working experience, henceforth I do not see any possible fast growth of income, maybe max 3-4% annual increment over the next 10 -15 years to adjust inflation, and once we reach 45, pay most likely will be freeze. However, we are happy with our current situation and it would be acceptable to us even if the growth is slower as long as we are employed. We are planning to start doing savings in cpf and cash, later will think of low risk investment only. It is too early to decide for retirement age, if the health condition is good, we are planning to work at least till age 60.

Technical profession won't earn much unless you be your own boss. Many engineers switch to become doctors or management/ finance. Don't dream much if you want to remain wage earner.