How much are you earning per annum?

Originally Posted by Unregistered

For fun, here is my earnings from the IRAS statements since I was 35

35 58,148
36 120,086
37 164,961
38 183,002
39 204,204
40 453,470
41 380,093
42 385,727
43 621.284
44 815,212
45 906,064
46 654,075
47 456,108
48 333,701
49 407,790
50 683,410
51 769,832
52 785,233
53 782,908

Single income. Banker. Total assets $16.3m Liabilities $3.1m. Bungalow, Sports Car, SUV

O_O is this the exception or is this the norm?

Low income graduate couple, 42 & 45, earning a combined salary of only $12k pm (annual/12). This is indeed low if you compare with the many here. However, we are happy because:

1. We live in a condo, which is paid up. We upgraded from HDB to condo in 2003. Paid $400k for the condo, now it is worth $1m. 85% of Singaporeans live in HDB flat, so we are happy because we are in the top 15% of Singapore society.

2. Our income is still higher than the median income of $7.8k pm.

3. We own a conti car, which is paid up. Not many families have cars, so we are among the fortunate ones.

4. Our kids go to good schools.

5. We are debt free.

6. We can afford to go holidays. Our strong Singapore dollar allow us to spend a lot overseas.

7. We combined net worth is $1.5m. This is also higher than many families. I think the net worth of the average family is only $500k.

8. Most importantly, we come from low income families last time, lived in small HDB flats. Now we live in a condo.

Life is good if you are hardworking in school and at work. Our retirement plan is to sell our condo and buy the studio HDB flat for the elderly (cost $100k) and use our estimated $2m in cash to retire.

Sole breadwinner, 50. Income, $210k pa. Condo, $1.75m, paid up. Car, paid up.
Annual expenditure, $145k pa. Savings, $65k pa. Cash and CPF savings, $300k.

My retirement strategy is to sell my condo and buy a 3 room HDB flat, say costing $400k in 15 years time. I will have about $2.6m cash by then. Will invest in some investment giving me 4% dividend pa or $105k pa. This should be more than enough.

Or I could sell everything and convert to RM, can get RM8m. I can retire in KL or Penang like a rich Malaysian multi millionaire. Will let my wife decide.

Looking at the posts here, many people benefit from their property. There are those who plans to downgrade from condo to hdb flat to get cash and there are those who are selling their property to retire in malaysia or thailand. There are also people who lost their job and had to downgrade.

All these shows how important property is to many Singaporeans. Their property helped them to survive in this challenging economic environment. I hope the property market will stabilise so that more people can use their property to solve their money and job issues. if the property market falls, many people do not have valuable assets to help solve their problems.

However, i would also want to caution people here not to depend so much on your property to become rich. Don't be like some people here who are greedy and overleverage. If the property market crash and they lose their jobs because of economic downturn, they will be in big trouble. The best is to save as much cash as possible so that if you lose your job, you still have money to survive.

It is about moderation and balance. Don't swing from one extreme to another.

In 1997/8 during the Asian financial crisis and in 2008/9 during the sub-prime crisis, the pessimists wailed that the world was over them, hoarding cash was all they could think of. The optimists and opportunists came out and cherry picked the hammered down assets - stocks, properties and what not. We all know who came out richer. The optimists and opportunists now have more options whether to retire in Singapore or elsewhere, but those cash hoarders can only watch helplessly as they remained stuck in their old positions with cash whose value depreciated over time.

If you have the wherewithal, yes you should invest and spread your investment over different asset classes to mitigate the risk. And if you don't have the means, don't over stretch yourself.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Looking at the posts here, many people benefit from their property. There are those who plans to downgrade from condo to hdb flat to get cash and there are those who are selling their property to retire in malaysia or thailand. There are also people who lost their job and had to downgrade.

All these shows how important property is to many Singaporeans. Their property helped them to survive in this challenging economic environment. I hope the property market will stabilise so that more people can use their property to solve their money and job issues. if the property market falls, many people do not have valuable assets to help solve their problems.

However, i would also want to caution people here not to depend so much on your property to become rich. Don't be like some people here who are greedy and overleverage. If the property market crash and they lose their jobs because of economic downturn, they will be in big trouble. The best is to save as much cash as possible so that if you lose your job, you still have money to survive.

Wise move to continue working. Singapore has one of the world’s highest life expectancies. Half of Singaporeans aged 65 today are expected to live beyond 85, while a third of us will live beyond 90.

Work gives us purpose. To retire at 55 and to do nothing meaningful for 30 to 35 years is a terrible waste.

At 55, and with your net worth, earning money is no longer the main motivation to want to continue working. It should be more about occupying your time meaningfully and contributing to society.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Graduate couple, mid fifties. Annual income $250k + $150k + $115k (passive income)

Annual expenses : $150k (including mortgage repayment for 2nd condo)

Net worth : $5.5M

Decided to continue working after 55. Next target is to work till 60 (till 2nd condo loan is paid off).

Never own a conti car before. Eat out only once a week. Overseas holiday once every 2 years, otherwise it's just to M'sia or Indonesia.

Haven't really treated ourselves to anything extravagant for as long as we can remember, not even when we turned 55. Thought of buying myself an expensive watch for my 55 birthday, but in the end still ended up buying a trusty Casio. Our only luxury is that we each have a Jap car, but this is more out of necessity.

RM8m is a lot of money. You will be a rich tycoon. If you retire in Thailand, you will richer just like a super Thai tycoon.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Sole breadwinner, 50. Income, $210k pa. Condo, $1.75m, paid up. Car, paid up.
Annual expenditure, $145k pa. Savings, $65k pa. Cash and CPF savings, $300k.

My retirement strategy is to sell my condo and buy a 3 room HDB flat, say costing $400k in 15 years time. I will have about $2.6m cash by then. Will invest in some investment giving me 4% dividend pa or $105k pa. This should be more than enough.

Or I could sell everything and convert to RM, can get RM8m. I can retire in KL or Penang like a rich Malaysian multi millionaire. Will let my wife decide.

There is this group of elderly gentlemen who would gather in the void deck of my block to while away their time. I think their ages ranged from late 50s to 70s. Most of the time they would just stare blankly into space just waiting for time to pass. Whenever I walked past them I would smile at them and they would smile back. Sometimes I would ask if they had eaten and they would reply yes, and then say they are waiting for their time - to die.

Now would I want to be just whiling away my time when I retire? No way. Firstly I want to work as long as I can. Not necessarily at the same pace or work as I am doing now, but something that will give purpose to my life and at the same time compensate me for my contribution. Secondly I want to live a comfortable life, one where I can still have my car, a maid to take care of the household chores and the occasional overseas holiday. I want to go for high teas / dinners with my wife and buddies, play rounds of golf, tennis and reminisce about the good old days. And of course trade stocks for fun.

I did an estimate of how much I would need to lead such a lifestyle and the numbers came to $6k - $8k pm - just $2k shy of what we are spending now. Using readily available financial calculators, the projected amount I would need to sustain that retirement lifestyle for 30years is estimated at $3.5m for a couple (net of inflation and investment returns).

Casual chit chats with my buddies revealed that most of us are on track to achieve or already surpassed that financial goal.

NTU ME 2nd Upper

My journey thru the years. I stayed in Eng field and worked in only 2 companies throughout. Slowly raised thru the rank from design engineer to senior management.

Monthly salary:
1994 Fresh Grad $2350
1999 5 years $5300 (2nd company)
2004 10 years $8800
2009 15 years $14300
2014 20 years $18100

Nowadays youngsters are impatient, they want to get high starting pay and reach 5 figures in 10 years or less. Took me 12 years to get there, i knew of classmates who are much faster who are either high flyers or know when to hop around every 2-3 years. I am not saying i have an excellent track record but overall i think i did fairly ok, maybe a B-. Not to show off here but to show what is realistic and achievable in your salary expectation My advice to young grads is to be willing to work long, hard & smart, be the expertise in your chosen field and the reward will come. You are your best investment!

Originally Posted by Unregistered

NTU ME 2nd Upper

My journey thru the years. I stayed in Eng field and worked in only 2 companies throughout. Slowly raised thru the rank from design engineer to senior management.

Monthly salary:
1994 Fresh Grad $2350
1999 5 years $5300 (2nd company)
2004 10 years $8800
2009 15 years $14300
2014 20 years $18100

Nowadays youngsters are impatient, they want to get high starting pay and reach 5 figures in 10 years or less. Took me 12 years to get there, i knew of classmates who are much faster who are either high flyers or know when to hop around every 2-3 years. I am not saying i have an excellent track record but overall i think i did fairly ok, maybe a B-. Not to show off here but to show what is realistic and achievable in your salary expectation My advice to young grads is to be willing to work long, hard & smart, be the expertise in your chosen field and the reward will come. You are your best investment!

Wow. Yours is impressive 20 years.

Is the amount monthly gross, or inclusive of bonuses?