How much are you earning per annum?

Originally Posted by Unregistered

48, $80k pa.
wife, 40, $60k pa.
condo, worth $800k, paid up.
2 year old car, loan left $30k.
total net worth $1.4m.

You have done quite well. Your.Net worth is quite high considering the 60-65th percentile HH income you are at.

I see a lot of people here compare their earnings and net worth. While comparing can be useful in knowing where you are in life, it can sometimes be self defeating if it makes you miserable if you know that you are not performing as well as others. For instance, a 55 year old person with a net worth of $5m will feel unhappy if someone else who is 40 years old shares that his net worth is $10m. Even though the older guy is actually doing very well by any yardsticks, he still feels inadequate and continue to be a corporate slave. By the time he reached a net worth of $10m, he is 70 years old and then die at 75. He just enjoyed 5 years of retirement and leaving behind $9.8m of his wealth to his children you then spend all this wealth on gambling, drinking, smoking and womanizing.

So, the best is to set a target for yourself. Once you have achieved a certain amount of wealth, then retire and plan to spend 90% of your wealth till you die. Just leave 10% of what you have earned to your children so that they too will work towards their own retirement. You don't have to work so hard for your children's early retirement. That is foolish.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Please get your facts right. While 110k + 90k is not little, it is probably only the 80th percentile of HH.

Go use salary.sg HH income tool for verification.

I'm referring to his status as a millionaire. Since there are only 105,100 millionaires in Spore, this means he is among the top 2% in terms of investable assets, i.e. (105,100/5,000,000) x 100.

I have not come to and write in this forum for some time because of the repeated postings on car COE which I found boring.

But seeing this post compelled me to share my thoughts. This forum is after all about income, so that's what people will post and that's what people will read. I come to see what people say they earn and how much their net worth are primarily because I wanted to know where I stood.

From posters in my cohort, I would know if I am generally in the ball park in my networth for my generation. From posters younger than me, their earnings / net worths will tell me what the cost of living will be like in the future. Let me elaborate.

Long ago, when I was still in the uni (back in the early 80s), people in my cohort were aiming to have $1m and retire. In those days, a $1m was a lot of money, and hard to earn! But with better wages through the years, many in my cohort hit the $1m mark in our mid to late 30s especially for those of us who had wives who are also working. But we knew the $1m will not last long if we were to retire young simply because the cost of living has been going up. And we know that this will continue to be so when you see younger workers earning the kind of salary that we could only earn when we were older. New uni graduates are now commanding starting salaries of $4k or more! We only earned this salary after 5 years on the job back in our time.

So, I am not unhappy because younger people are earning more and have higher net worth than me, I am concerned that my savings may not be able to keep up with the cost of living that will follow the higher wages. $1k psf condos have become the norm. $60k COE looks like it's here to stay. You know, when I bought my first home, a condo, the psf price was only $380! Then there the cost of health care. Right now, I am still healthy and working. My family and my medical bills are covered. Once retired, we will be taking on all the bills on our own.

You can choose to lull yourself into complacency by keeping your eyes shut to what's happening around you, but the longer you keep those eyes shut, the harder it will hit you when you find your savings running out faster than you planned for.

My wife and I intended to maintain our current lifestyle in retirement, and we know how much we need to maintain and sustain that lifestyle. The sum is building up nicely, as in, for every year we work, we will save for 3+ years of retirement expenses. Meaning if we work for 3 years, we would save enough for 10 years of retirement expenses and so forth.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

I see a lot of people here compare their earnings and net worth. While comparing can be useful in knowing where you are in life, it can sometimes be self defeating if it makes you miserable if you know that you are not performing as well as others. For instance, a 55 year old person with a net worth of $5m will feel unhappy if someone else who is 40 years old shares that his net worth is $10m. Even though the older guy is actually doing very well by any yardsticks, he still feels inadequate and continue to be a corporate slave. By the time he reached a net worth of $10m, he is 70 years old and then die at 75. He just enjoyed 5 years of retirement and leaving behind $9.8m of his wealth to his children you then spend all this wealth on gambling, drinking, smoking and womanizing.

So, the best is to set a target for yourself. Once you have achieved a certain amount of wealth, then retire and plan to spend 90% of your wealth till you die. Just leave 10% of what you have earned to your children so that they too will work towards their own retirement. You don't have to work so hard for your children's early retirement. That is foolish.

In order to quit the rat race or retire for good, you need to look at your passive income rather than net worth. If your passive income is greater than your expenses, then you are financially independent as you no longer need to earn an active income. If your expenses are high, then you will need to earn a high passive income. For instance, if your expenses as retirees is $200k pa, then your passive income will need to be $300k pa. If your expenses is $40k pa, then $50k pa of passive income would be enough.

Many retirees in their 60s retire comfortably earning passive income from their investments. They don't lavish much neither are they stingy.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

I see a lot of people here compare their earnings and net worth. While comparing can be useful in knowing where you are in life, it can sometimes be self defeating if it makes you miserable if you know that you are not performing as well as others. For instance, a 55 year old person with a net worth of $5m will feel unhappy if someone else who is 40 years old shares that his net worth is $10m. Even though the older guy is actually doing very well by any yardsticks, he still feels inadequate and continue to be a corporate slave. By the time he reached a net worth of $10m, he is 70 years old and then die at 75. He just enjoyed 5 years of retirement and leaving behind $9.8m of his wealth to his children you then spend all this wealth on gambling, drinking, smoking and womanizing.

So, the best is to set a target for yourself. Once you have achieved a certain amount of wealth, then retire and plan to spend 90% of your wealth till you die. Just leave 10% of what you have earned to your children so that they too will work towards their own retirement. You don't have to work so hard for your children's early retirement. That is foolish.

This week will be an exciting bidding exercise as we will witness how much the COE till plunge with the avalanche of quota.

My guess.

Cat A - $58k
Cat B - $68k

Huat ah

Chart of the Day: See the massive spike in car de-registrations due in 2015

Singapore Business Review – 8 hours ago

But COE premiums will stay elevated.

This chart from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) shows that there will be a sharp surge in vehicle de-registrations this year.

This comes on back of over 100,000 vehicles that will be between 9-10 years old this year. Under the Certificate of Entitlement (COE) system, most cars will have to be scrapped after a decade.

However, the MAS warns that COE premiums will remain elevated as there is firm replacement demand.

“Current car COE premiums remain significantly higher than in early 2010 when quotas were at similar levels, partly owing to firm replacement demand. Thus, even with the expected surge in car COE quotas for the rest of the year, arising from the large number of cars due for de-registration, COE premiums could fall only moderately,” stated the MAS.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

This week will be an exciting bidding exercise as we will witness how much the COE till plunge with the avalanche of quota.

My guess.

Cat A - $58k
Cat B - $68k

Huat ah

h t t p : // sbr.com.sg/transport-logistics/news/chart-day-see-massive-spike-in-car-de-registrations-due-in-2015

My predictions for Cat A COE

May 2015 - Dec 2016 - between $67k - $80k

Jan 2016 - Dec 2018 - between $80k - $90k

Jan 2019 - Dec 2020 - between $95k - $110k (or higher)

Huat Ah!!!!!!!!!

Originally Posted by Unregistered

h t t p : // sbr.com.sg/transport-logistics/news/chart-day-see-massive-spike-in-car-de-registrations-due-in-2015

There goes my $30k Coe dream
Sob Sob....