Thanks, it is something we might consider. But instead of a 2M condo, maybe a $1.5M condo for own stay & a $800K condo to rent out to help cover the mortgage. Is this plan advisable?

Thanks for the encouragement.

No, I am not married.

I am from non-local uni.


Based on your post, it is pretty impressive, that means that in your 5th year, if you were getting $250K per year, that is roughly about $20K per month in salary for you; even in the 8th year, you are getting more than $8/year!

May I ask what industry and sector are you in and what are you working as?

Industry: Private Education/Training and Development

Department: Course Administration/Sales

Nature of Job: Sales (Non-Commissioned) and Back-room ops

Where am I going to get the money from? I am saving up for my HDB...

before pte uni bashers come in, i must say that $250k was extraordinary due to where i was posted.

not trying to rub it in but i honestly feel underpaid for what i do compared to my peers.

Non-grad, 43, $73k pa. Regretted not working hard enough in school and lazy to upgrade. Wife, grad, 38, $80k pa. We live in a 4 room HDB flat, still paying our mortgage. CPF and cash savings, not much. I hope I will still have a job when I reach 50. May need to retire in JB after selling our flat when we reach 75.

I’ll give you an assessment from my perspective, will have to build in a lot of assumption. I don’t have enough detail to provide any proper insights.

Firstly lets discuss the industry, what salary range do you know of for your industry? For example banking operation ranges between 3K for analyst to 15K and above for management, or engineering 2K to 20K and above for management. From this you can gauge how well paid you are in comparison, if the range is too limited that also goes to show what prospects you have and if it makes sense to move to another industry altogether.

Focusing on your immediate job scope it sounds like your role is more admin based, if your sales are non-commissioned its likely the nature of it is quite structured and the firm has someone calling the shots to bring in the biz. The question is given your day to day how essential are you to the firm, can your role be passed to a younger colleague without too much fuss or impact to the operations. If so then again it limits your chances at a raise as the firm will always look to replace you with cheaper alternatives if the pay gets too high. It’s a fact of business.

If I am to be really honest from this industry (which is alien to me) it seems to me higher pay which you seek will always be limited, think about where you see yourself in 10 years and if you do a similar non commission sales role I doubt you are going to get much higher than what you already have. Ultimately in all business sales get paid the most since they bring in the moolah and operations paid the least. If you are doing backend for an industry where revenues are limited it’s a double whammy, so either you do some real sales (comms based) if you want to stay in the industry or you move to another higher paying industry. However you need to list out in detail what you can offer from an Ops perspective to get some real advise about which industries / department you will have a chance at given your current age.. (I,e Accruals, Accounting, Reconciliation etc)

Ex corporate high flyer. Made small fortune in stocks. Home is a 3 bedroom luxury condo worth $3m. Drives a European car. Both condo and car are paid up. Debt free. Now retired, 47, earning passive income of $100k pa from stocks dividends. Wife, 40, working, earns $120k pa. Family expenses $100k pa. Now devoting time to religious study and charity work. I am a more enlightened and learned person. Also thinking of doing a PhD for my self actualization.

This thread is getting ridiculous. 90% cannot be trusted.

If you think the posts are ridiculous you should speak to private bankers!

You will be shocked off your pants what some Ah Beng looking men are making. They may not be dressed in suits and work in shenton way but they are millionaires nonetheless.

Congratulations to you. It is heartening to know of young people like yourself, who are selfless in devoting their good part of their youth towards serving the under privileged. Keep up the good work, young man. You are an inspiration to many, even old folks like myself.

Makes sense. Buying your groceries in JB can lower your cost of living, which is important for retirees.

still, it is extremly well-paid, and quite the pay jump too!

May I ask which country were you in, which industry and sector and your job role?

coming 30yo this year..

working for 4.5yr in the IT industry since 25yo after graduate.

cash: 50k
shares: 18k

annual income: 57.6k

feeling the mid life crisis, and had been having the illusion of me myself now wasting my time away not changing job for more growth due to the fact that i'm 'locked' by the company's performance bonus.

just rejected a 67k senior position job offer due the above.

am i a loser?

You are not yet a loser. Losers are those who thought they earned enough and quit early in their career and found out the painful truth they actually don't have enough and are trying to get back into employment.

The biggest losers are those who are now unable to get employed and dependent on their wives or parents. To make things worse they are still unemployed in a full employment situation here where labour supply is tight.

You are definitely not a loser.

Someone I know is a big loser. He saved millions and wanted to retire at 60 but he died at 54 due to a road accident. His children fighting among each other for his wealth. His wife became mentally ill. So sad.

Yep, poor thing. But he is not the loser. The losers are the kids who wanted to retire early and thus are fighting hard for their share of their father's money. So sad.

And the biggest winners are those who earned and saved millions and yet enjoyed fulfilling work till their 60s. These people are usually good role models and looked up to by their children and grand children and society at large.

Sounds like a loser.

46, $250k pa. Condo valued at $3m, no more loan. Stocks worth $4m, dividends $200k pa. Aiming to join my seniors who retired in their 40s. I will retire at 50. My total net worth $8.5m. Annual expenses $130k pa.

We are a professional couple in our late thirties. Day and night working like hell, not much rest. Earn $300k pa combined. No much time for family, social work. We want to save as much as possible so we can retire at 50. We live in a $1m condo, cleared the mortgage. We have $2m in the bank. We hope to save another $2m by 50.

Statistics have shown professionals of your profile and lifestyle will die early, mostly in their mid 50s. So you better get your will ready.

Are you running a business? If not, what kind of work need day and night attention? Some more $300k pa combined is like kinda low. For that kind of "devotion" and "commitment" one would expect that you are doing your own business or have better remuneration.

What nonsense! Those who retire early and let their mind idle are the ones to go first. See here Fatal attraction? Access to early retirement and mortality | vox. In almost any society, country this phenomenon is observed.

Not only that, those who retired early also ended up poor if they are unlucky not to die young.
Conversely those worked longer, lived longer and have the money to maintain their lifestyle longer.

You best don't wake up, lest your dream be broken. Lol.

I am currently 25 years old earning a salary of $42,900 p.a after working for slightly over 3 years.

Does anyone know if this is considered average or low? Sometimes I feel abit underpaid because my peers in the same sector are earning over $50,000 p.a with lesser experience than me. It makes me feel like I'm incapable.

31 year old
 

Find this threat really useful so am also sharing . The truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth :)

Job: Business development in an oil major/MNC
Age: 31, 5 years working in this line. Unmarried but attached
Salary: 105k base (incl AWS) + 60k bonus. Bonus is highly variable depending on business results.
Assets: 2 bedroom condo city fringe, mortage remaining about 700k
Various stocks/cash about 30k.

I'm hoping to post overseas next year and get a promotion, which together with renting out my condo should be comfortable enough. Would be keen to hear about experiences from others in my line/age range.

I earn $190k pa, net worth $1.7m. Wife earns $120k pa, net worth $0.7m. We live in a condo in D21. We are in our early 40s. Our assets are our condo home, stocks, cash and cpf. We will continue saving and increasing our stocks. We should reach a net worth of $6m in total when we reach 55 years old. Then we retire.

$6m by 55 is on the high side. Your combined current income and net worth is quite typical of dual income graduate couples in their mid 40s, and most would accumulate $5m by 55 if they do not make any big expense along the way (eg. spending on overseas university fees for their children). I know of some who managed to achieve $5.8m at 55 but that is only because their combined income was $500k pa when they were 50. They were saving $400k pa combined with passive incomes. By the way these people only drive Jap cars.

How did you arrive at the $6m projection?

Actually, net worth of $6m by 55 is a low target. We will invest $200k pa (from our annual savings) in stocks, which is expected appreciate in value (capital gains) by at least 8% pa (my long term track record). The dividends (yield of 5% pa) will be saved. I am good at investing so this is possible. For those who are not good at investing, they achieve only 2% pa dividends yield and no capital appreciation.

The window of opportunity to pick up stocks at discounted prices is opening up! The US is stopping the QE and stocks around the region are crashing.

If you can pick up baggers you may hit your targets earlier or lose it all.

Get ready to dip into your war chest.

Let money work for us!!
 

Age: 33, married with a kid.
My wife and I are retired as I inherit $8m from my grandparents and earn about $4m thru sub-sale of condo from 2008 till 2012.
$5m invested in stock with annual dividend return of about 5-8%.
$3m set aside in bank for tour spending average of $60k/year.
Annual expenses is about 30% drawn out from annual dividend earned. I take public transport because I don't need to rush.
Projected to rch $15m in 30 years by reinvesting the dividend earned.
Staying in a freehold 9 bedrooms landed property in Jurong worth $6m.

Are some of these posters for real? Even if they inherited millions etc am not interested, as it has no learning value for regular people

I'm 44 while my wife is 38. I earn $120k pa as a working professional while my wife is a housewife, taking care of our 3 year old twin kids. We live in a condo in Chua Chu Kang which I bought in 2005 for $500k. Due to the good economic growth and the well managed economy, my condo appreciated to $1m today. I am very happy with this. I still have $100k in outstanding loans to clear over the next 20 years. I am richer today than 7 year ago. I love our government for making my property value grow because my property is for my retirement.

My CPF and cash savings is now about $400k. I hope to grow this until 65 when I retire. We plan to sell our condo when I retire and me and my wife will retire in our terrace house in JB. We will convert our cash to RM and expect to have RM5m cash for us to retire with.

lol why the hell do u wanna stay in Jurong when u guys are so rich

You have a good retirement plan. RM5m is a lot of money. I am also doing the same. I am living in a HDB flat in a matured estate near the city. It is paid up and now worth $850k. In 10 years time when I retire, I will sell it and plus my savings, I will have about RM4m to retire. I will go to Malacca as I have some family members there.

Married couple, 46 & 49, with 2 beautiful teenage kids.
Combined annual income, $150k.
Home is a condo worth $1.1m with outstanding loan of $500k.
Owns a European car, loan left $30k.
Holidays spending, twice a year, $12k.
Annual expenses, $120k.
Annual savings, $30k.

We are in the middle class group, struggling to survive in this modern life, full of high expectations. We are actually among the less well off as many of our friends and family members earn $300k pa (combined couple income).

23 going-on-24
Investment banking analyst
120K (ex bonus)

Income wise, your household is in the middle middle income group. But your lifestyle - staying in condo (I am guessing a 2 bedroom one), conti car and twice yearly holidays, is that of an upper middle income household. Keeping up with the Joneses is not a good idea. Better to set aside more buffer for emergencies. They have a bad habit of springing up on you without notice.

Saving $30k pa means you will need at least 6 - 7 years of saving before you can pay up for another car! At 46, 49 already there isn't that much time to build up a solid nest egg.

On the other hand, I know of many upper middle income people who are very frugal. Some of them will swear by their HDB flats - they are happy staying in the same HDB since they got married even though their incomes have increased many fold. Many prefer Jap cars for their reliability. The most extravagant car they are willing to spend on is the Camry or Jap MPV. Their watches are practical Casio watches. If they have multiple properties, they are not telling. They don't boast. But we know they earning at least $300k pa for the position they hold.