How much are you earning per annum?

Originally Posted by Unregistered

This is absurd advice. He is a good husband and father. He is kind and gentle to me, does not smoke, drink nor womanize. He treats our kids well and they adore him. We are a happy family, the only issue I have is that he is not earning much. However, with my income, we are coping well. Our expenses are $100k pa, so we save $80k pa. I just wished we can save more and I can go to more luxury holidays and buy more branded goods. Some of my friends say it is ok as long as we are happy. They say there are husbands who earn a lot and rich but they abuse their wife, womanize, and make the wife feel lousy. I'm feel blessed actually to marry him. How can I convince him to drive a taxi? Should I force him? Am I being selfish?

For branded goods and holidays, u want to change husband?Not worth at all, as i may ended later with a broken family, causing hurt to your lovely children..

I don't know to laugh or to cry at some of the posts here.

And I cannot tell which stories are real/fake and which ones are sarcasm poking fun anymore. Lol !

It's almost unreal over here in this forum. There are people out there are struggling to pay for their monthly mortgage or those scraping all their money from everywhere to buy a decent housing. And then we have people here saying 100K pa is low income and feeling . Seriously? 100K pa is low income? Or does this forum has some kind of chart to base it against that I'm unaware of ?

Why isn't there a ROTFL icon..... !

Originally Posted by Unregistered

The advise of promptly paying down housing loans is not always good advise especially in today's low interest climate. There are such thing as good loans and bad loans. Housing loans are considered good loans and they are the only ones that come with the lowest interest rate. Banks give low interest rates because the collateral is the property the loan is taken for.

So let's say you have study loans, car loan, renovation loan and housing loan, your priority should be to pay off the ones with the highest interest rates. And after that, if you still have money left over, you should explore investing those money for higher returns than the housing loan rate.

In my case, I took a $1m loan for my condo and the interest was slightly above 1% pa. Instead of paring down the loan, I invested the money into blue chips and reits for 5% or more returns pa. Even my CPF OA gives 2.5%. Be nimble, not need to rush to pay off a good loan when you have one.

Lucky you mention it, i am in the same shoe as you. Just sold off my condo for a profit of >$500k in CPF/CASH. Bought another private condo with a $1m loan (still constructing staying with my parents) and invested most of our cash in REITs and Bluechips now. Wanted to get another studio but quite hesistant due to the high price now, from experience of peps here, do you think it's advisable to invest in property now? Or hold off the purchase.

Me and my spouse combine income about $170K+ per annum excluding dividends etc.

I am now about 38, married with one kid. Combined income about 460k from work and another 100k from rental.

Have a landed property, two condominiums, one in the east where I live and a freehold one at Robertson Quay all rented out. I also have a property in Vietnam and half a share of a industrial property that I rent out.

Currently, I am up 4.7mio based on my savings and assets less the loans that I took. The loans are going to take a very long time to clear. But plausible if I save a bit more.

I don't really care what I spend anymore, but will clear about 220k a year on all the odds and ends including about 1 holiday every month or so, with at least one to Europe and one to Japan.

On retirement, hoping to be able to pay everything off and live on just the rental. That should work out to approximately 16k a month assuming that nothing goes wrong.

Fingers crossed that this still remains intact but we never know.

You can actually retire now. Just downgrade to a $1m condo and invest the balance $3.7m in 5% dividend yield blue chips. Your dividend will be $185k pa, this is a luxury amount for a retired couple.

I am 40 and retired, enjoying life. Stays in a nicely renovated 3 room hdb flat, paid up. Earning $100k pa passive income from my investment portfolio. Family expenses $60k pa. Debt free. Combined net worth, $2.5m.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

I am now about 38, married with one kid. Combined income about 460k from work and another 100k from rental.

Have a landed property, two condominiums, one in the east where I live and a freehold one at Robertson Quay all rented out. I also have a property in Vietnam and half a share of a industrial property that I rent out.

Currently, I am up 4.7mio based on my savings and assets less the loans that I took. The loans are going to take a very long time to clear. But plausible if I save a bit more.

I don't really care what I spend anymore, but will clear about 220k a year on all the odds and ends including about 1 holiday every month or so, with at least one to Europe and one to Japan.

On retirement, hoping to be able to pay everything off and live on just the rental. That should work out to approximately 16k a month assuming that nothing goes wrong.

Fingers crossed that this still remains intact but we never know.

[Hermit]

Originally Posted by Unregistered

This is absurd advice. He is a good husband and father. He is kind and gentle to me, does not smoke, drink nor womanize. He treats our kids well and they adore him. We are a happy family, the only issue I have is that he is not earning much. However, with my income, we are coping well. Our expenses are $100k pa, so we save $80k pa. I just wished we can save more and I can go to more luxury holidays and buy more branded goods. Some of my friends say it is ok as long as we are happy. They say there are husbands who earn a lot and rich but they abuse their wife, womanize, and make the wife feel lousy. I'm feel blessed actually to marry him. How can I convince him to drive a taxi? Should I force him? Am I being selfish?

I am sorry to hear about your husband's situation. But I think you should not push him too much regarding driving a taxi. Let him keep his dignity. Explore other ways to increase his income. Couple that with some control over family spending. Your friends are right. Family togetherness and harmony is the most important. You are indeed fortunate that he is a loving husband and father. But in this season of his life, he is also struggling inside regarding his identity and ability as the leader of the household. So give him time to sort that out and encourage him instead of pushing him into a corner.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

I don't know to laugh or to cry at some of the posts here.

And I cannot tell which stories are real/fake and which ones are sarcasm poking fun anymore. Lol !

It's almost unreal over here in this forum. There are people out there are struggling to pay for their monthly mortgage or those scraping all their money from everywhere to buy a decent housing. And then we have people here saying 100K pa is low income and feeling . Seriously? 100K pa is low income? Or does this forum has some kind of chart to base it against that I'm unaware of ?

Why isn't there a ROTFL icon..... !

It is of course impossible to verify the stories here. But 100k pa for household income (not personal) is really quite borderline. The 2013 median HH income is approx $8000 x 12 - 96k (source singstat).

Assuming that different forums attract different types of people egEDMW OF HWZ attracts younger (and hence lower pay) forummers, this forum may well attract older types (and hence higher pay) people from Higher income HH.

So it is possible that 100k pa HH is below the median mark for the forummers here.

Anyway my HH is 260k pa. 42 y.o. Have checked before. Should be on the 89th percentile for HHs in 2013

I am 39 yo and my wife 38. I am a VP in a medium size company, earning some 100k per year including bonuses. Wife is government scholar and doing a PhD full time. Two kids in secondary and primary school.

We invested heavily in properties. Currently own two properties outside Singapore, one is a high-rise condominium unit worth 500k, fully paid up and a landed property worth 600k, fully paid up. We live in a 5-room HDB flat in district 03, bought in 2008 for 600k, now worth 900k, with loan remaining close to 400k. Other property is a condo unit is also in district 03, worth close to 2mil, loan remaining 600k. Our cash and other savings worth 200k. Total net worth is 3mil. Serving total debts of 1mil (interest rates of some 2.5%p.a).

We live a modest life, cook at home and only go to restaurant on special events (birthdays etc.), no car. Holiday once every year for kids to Japan or Korea and neighboring countries. The only luxury is Club memberships for all family member of four.

Want to quit current job to look after kids and start a small coffee shop. A preparation for semi-retirement. Is that viable?

Among the many forums I visited, this forum attracts forumers who are among the high income groups and millionaire households in Singapore. Many are graduate couple households, with average HH income of $300k pa.

My wife and I are also graduate couples in our mid 40s, but we consider ourselves as low achievers among the graduate couples here. Our HH income is only $200k pa and we only own a $1m paid up condo in the OCR. Our cash and CPF is only $500k in total, we no longer invest in stocks as we got burnt very badly last time.

Our total net worth is only $1.5m, this is lower than the average net worth of $3m among graduate couples in this forum. We just need to be contented with the fact that we are debt free.

Are there any graduate couples in this forum whose net worth is lower than us? Do you know of any such graduate couples?

I am so impressed by the large annual salaries you guys have! What kind of jobs are you all in? e.g. Private sector or public sector? professionals or managerial? Do enlighten me, thanks.
I am a graduate in arts, 7 years of public sector experience doing general work e.g. policy, industry development, some marketing/ branding. Salary $72k per annum.

How can I jump to $200k per annum? Do I need to go out to private sector? What shall I do?