How much are you earning per annum?

Already advised you not to be judgemental.

The term "maid" is used here as a job title. There are many job titles that can be degratory, but being called a maid is not one of them. Take away your prejudices and come down from your high horse and we can have a meaningful discourse.

To simply ignore the rich-poor divide is to exacerbate the problem. Problems are solved not by burying one's head in the sand. We need to first recognize the problem, identify the causes and from there solutions can be devised.

One of the main preoccupations of governments worldwide is to ensure a vibrant economy where their citizens have jobs and opportunities. Jobs give people dignity, pride and sense of purpose. Jobs come about when there is demand for goods and services. And in this competitive world, the higher quality goods and services will have the upper hand. High quality goods and services come from well trained and well qualified workforce. That's where you get what you pay for. Conversely you are paid what you can deliver.

As long as people and countries have different capabilities, abilities and comparative advantages (such as natural resources, geographical locations etc), there will always be rich and poor.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

We have to constantly watch out the language we used here. Poor, rich, maid etc. the term of maid really ticks me off. We should not have a class system here. If we trace our root, most of us are poor migrants from all over SEA. Please don't think too much our little income and quickly distance yourself from the "poor". If being rich have a lots of reasons behinds, linking to your own abilities is worst of all kind of self indulgence. Please Be kind and gentle in this shallow and impatient society.

Profile: Married couple, both 47, with 2 kids in secondary schools.

Household expenses

Condo (3 bedroom) mortgage and maintenance fees $30,000 pa ($2500 pm x 12)
Car loan $9,000 pa ($750 pm x 12)
Car petrol, maintenance, insurance, road tax, parking, etc $12,000 pa ($1000 pm x 12)
Food, groceries, eating out, utilities $24,000 pa ($2000 x 12)
Children's expenses including tuition, enrichment, food, etc $12,000 pa ($1000 pm x 12)
Family insurance $21,600 pa ($1800 pm x 12)
Family overseas holidays $12,000 pa
Parents' allowances (both sides in total) $19,200 pa ($1600 pm x 12)
Others and miscellaneous $24,000 pa ($2000 pm x 12)
Total $163,800 pa

Household combined income $213,800 pa
Household combined savings $50,000 pa
Current combined household net worth $1.2m

By the time we retire at 65, our condo will be fully owned. We will retire in our condo and we will retire with the income we get from our CPF Life as well as from our cash savings. If our kids follow our footsteps of filial piety, they will also give us some allowances (we won't expect it, but if they give, it will be a bonus).

How about you? Please share your household income and details of your expenses. Thanks.

Profile: Married couple, 43,41, 2 kids

Household expenses

Condo (3 bedroom) mortgage and maintenance fees $30,000 pa ($2500 pm x 12)
Car loan $9,000 pa ($750 pm x 12)
Car petrol, maintenance, insurance, road tax, parking, etc $12,000 pa ($1000 pm x 12)
Food, groceries, eating out, utilities $24,000 pa ($2000 x 12)
Children's expenses including tuition, enrichment, food, etc $12,000 pa ($1000 pm x 12)
Family insurance $21,600 pa ($1800 pm x 12)
Family overseas holidays $12,000 pa
Parents' allowances (both sides in total) $19,200 pa ($1600 pm x 12)
Others and miscellaneous $24,000 pa ($2000 pm x 12)
Total $163,800 pa

Household combined income $100,000 pa
Household combined savings -$63,800 pa
Current combined household net worth $0

By the time we retire at 65, we should be able to pay off the interest of the credit card debts and sell the condo to pay off the principal.

How about you? Please share your household income and details of your expenses. Thanks

Lim Beh boh Lui.
No $$$
Fired from my first job.
Slipped into depression for 6 months
Depression not yet heal go to Dbs to work contact and I end up shouting at my manager and farking up the job. So I resign in a dramatic fashion.
After that I go to a call centre. My depression still persists, I didn't follow instructions. I farked it upside down too. After they tolerated me for 6 months I left the company by resign and I can sense they want to fire me and humiliate me.
I know I have depression so that's why I cannot survive.
I have no one to blame. Really. I blame myself for being so unlucky to get into a bad company where I was fired for no reason.

If I die, I will become a ghost and terrorize my former employers
My mother is very worried for me. She brought me to Polyclinic and referred me to IMH. They say I have mild depression and I told the doctor my first employer bullied me til death. I am really at a loss. I am only 28 years old this year.

You should seek professional help for your medical condition.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Lim Beh boh Lui.
No $$$
Fired from my first job.
Slipped into depression for 6 months
Depression not yet heal go to Dbs to work contact and I end up shouting at my manager and farking up the job. So I resign in a dramatic fashion.
After that I go to a call centre. My depression still persists, I didn't follow instructions. I farked it upside down too. After they tolerated me for 6 months I left the company by resign and I can sense they want to fire me and humiliate me.
I know I have depression so that's why I cannot survive.
I have no one to blame. Really. I blame myself for being so unlucky to get into a bad company where I was fired for no reason.

If I die, I will become a ghost and terrorize my former employers
My mother is very worried for me. She brought me to Polyclinic and referred me to IMH. They say I have mild depression and I told the doctor my first employer bullied me til death. I am really at a loss. I am only 28 years old this year.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

You should seek professional help for your medical condition.

Under medication I am okay now. How do I cover up my depression period and my being fired from a job. It was 6 months gap and 3 months gap in resume.

Profile: Married couple, 43 & 45, with 2 kids

Household expenses

Condo in OCR (3 bedroom) mortgage $0 (paid up loan)
Car loan $0 (paid in full)
Car petrol, maintenance, insurance, road tax, parking, etc $12,000 pa ($1000 pm x 12)
Food, groceries, eating out, utilities $24,000 pa ($2000 x 12)
Children's expenses including tuition, enrichment, food, etc $18,000 pa ($1500 pm x 12)
Family insurance $24,000 pa ($2000 pm x 12)
Family overseas holidays $10,000 pa
Parents' allowances (both sides in total) $24,000 pa ($2000 pm x 12)
Others and miscellaneous 18,000 pa ($1500 pm x 12)
Total $130,000 pa

Household combined income $170,000 pa
Household combined savings $40,000 pa
Current combined household net worth $1.5m

In an environment of economic uncertainty and rising interest rates, it is good to be debt free. If you own your home in full, you can sleep in peace.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Profile: Married couple, 43 & 45, with 2 kids

Household expenses

Condo in OCR (3 bedroom) mortgage $0 (paid up loan)
Car loan $0 (paid in full)
Car petrol, maintenance, insurance, road tax, parking, etc $12,000 pa ($1000 pm x 12)
Food, groceries, eating out, utilities $24,000 pa ($2000 x 12)
Children's expenses including tuition, enrichment, food, etc $18,000 pa ($1500 pm x 12)
Family insurance $24,000 pa ($2000 pm x 12)
Family overseas holidays $10,000 pa
Parents' allowances (both sides in total) $24,000 pa ($2000 pm x 12)
Others and miscellaneous 18,000 pa ($1500 pm x 12)
Total $130,000 pa

Household combined income $170,000 pa
Household combined savings $40,000 pa
Current combined household net worth $1.5m

Was curious why the various postings on the family incomes and expenses did not include income tax as an item by itself. For us, income tax is one of the main item of expenses that I would highlight. Last year we paid $27k in income tax, and this year we are expecting it to go up to $30k. Property taxes would another expense item eating away our annual income by $4k.

Now that I got the income tax issue out of the way, I want to share our plan on retirement funding. This will be a modified plan. Our original plan was to depend on passive incomes from our various investments, which are stocks, rental property and FDs (including bonds). Rental income is another economy dependent variable.

We felt we had to modify (improve) our current retirement funding model after seeing the on-going rout in global stock markets in which our stock holdings declined in excess of $200k+ in value in a matter of 2 weeks! We are not sure if the dividends that we are counting on in our retirement would be affected, but to be on the safe side, we decided that we needed to set aside cold hard cash to draw down to ensure stability in our cash flow in retirement. We think a sum of $500k in cash should be sufficient to ensure stability in cash flow for 5 years giving sufficient time for the stock market to recover.

So our modified retirement funding model would be:

Steady income
Cash : $500k ($100k in real cash for expenses, $400k in term deposits of various duration). Drawdown at $100k pa.

So-so income
Bonds: $1m @ 3.5% giving $35k pa.

Variable income
Stocks :$1m to generate 4% dividends payout or $40k pa
Rental :$42k

In the first 5 years of retirement, we will use up the cash fund, while building up another round of cash funds with the passive incomes from the various investments. This will hopefully provide stability of cash flow in good times as well as bad times.

Good retirement plan in KL or Penang (retire in luxury) for a retired couple at 55 years old (assuming no dependents)

Passive income at 55
Rent out fully paid HDB flat S$2.5k pm
Stocks dividends S$1k pm
Total S$3.5k pm or RM10.5k pm

KL or Penang cost of living
Rent a 3 bedroom condominium RM2k pm
Car expenses RM500 pm (assume buy car in cash RM50k)
Food, groceries, restaurants and utilities RM2k pm
Medical and entertainment RM1k pm
Misc RM500 pm
Total spending RM6k pm
Savings RM4.5k pm

Passive income at 65
Rent out fully paid HDB flat S$2.5k pm
Stocks dividends S$1k pm
CPF Life (Enhanced Retirement Scheme), couple gets S$3.5k pm
Total income S$7k pm or RM21k pm
Total spending RM8k pm
Savings RM13k pm

This retirement plan allows you to live in a nice condo and drive a nice car. You can go holidays all over the world every year if you want to since you will have lots of savings.
Your key retirement assets are: 1. HDB flat 2. CPF Life 3. Dividend blue chip stocks.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Was curious why the various postings on the family incomes and expenses did not include income tax as an item by itself. For us, income tax is one of the main item of expenses that I would highlight. Last year we paid $27k in income tax, and this year we are expecting it to go up to $30k. Property taxes would another expense item eating away our annual income by $4k.

Now that I got the income tax issue out of the way, I want to share our plan on retirement funding. This will be a modified plan. Our original plan was to depend on passive incomes from our various investments, which are stocks, rental property and FDs (including bonds). Rental income is another economy dependent variable.

We felt we had to modify (improve) our current retirement funding model after seeing the on-going rout in global stock markets in which our stock holdings declined in excess of $200k+ in value in a matter of 2 weeks! We are not sure if the dividends that we are counting on in our retirement would be affected, but to be on the safe side, we decided that we needed to set aside cold hard cash to draw down to ensure stability in our cash flow in retirement. We think a sum of $500k in cash should be sufficient to ensure stability in cash flow for 5 years giving sufficient time for the stock market to recover.

So our modified retirement funding model would be:

Steady income
Cash : $500k ($100k in real cash for expenses, $400k in term deposits of various duration). Drawdown at $100k pa.

So-so income
Bonds: $1m @ 3.5% giving $35k pa.

Variable income
Stocks :$1m to generate 4% dividends payout or $40k pa
Rental :$42k

In the first 5 years of retirement, we will use up the cash fund, while building up another round of cash funds with the passive incomes from the various investments. This will hopefully provide stability of cash flow in good times as well as bad times.