How much savings do you have?

Originally Posted by ATAScouple

Me (Harvard Grad, 32) + Wife (MIT Grad, 31)

Cash 150k
Stocks 400k
Treasuries/Bonds 350k
2 cars 180k (fully paid)
HDB - 500k (fully paid)
SG Condo - 1.8m (60% loan left)
AUS Property - 700k (fully paid)


We are not in banking or consulting. We are in IT and Science. So this proves you do not have to be in banking to become a millionaire. But you have to play politics and be the guy bringing in the money for the company if you are salaried people

Good Luck all.

4 million plus worth. that means you n your wife had been earning above 5K a mth after graduation & now you guys are earning in the bracket of abt 20K per mth?

I have friends who are in IT. At age of 37, they can be earning 6K to 12K. Heard of 18K salary in IT. But at your age, I am doubtful you have reach those kinda positions. So how did you guys make it?

I think the wife recently appeared in the papers. The saga involving our SCDF chief? IT sales role la! Where else can make so much

Originally Posted by Unregistered

4 million plus worth. that means you n your wife had been earning above 5K a mth after graduation & now you guys are earning in the bracket of abt 20K per mth?

I have friends who are in IT. At age of 37, they can be earning 6K to 12K. Heard of 18K salary in IT. But at your age, I am doubtful you have reach those kinda positions. So how did you guys make it?

Originally Posted by hardluck

I envy you. So different from my background.

My father was a drunkard and never home. My mother a seamstress. My brother was in jail.

We lived in a rental HDB flat. No car. No motorbike. No bicycle.

We owed relatives money and always had to hang our heads in shame and I even got slapped by my cousin in front of everyone.

But at least I made it to NUS.

Buy HDB flat for parents. Pay for siblings education.

Hey i think you did fantastic for yourself given your background. Only those who have been through what you have been through would be able to tell so I really can't comment.

Originally Posted by NotSoAtas

impressive. don't mind can you share what is the % of your assets earned through investments vs earned income?

i'm 35 and my wife isn't working, so far managed to reach a net worth around 2.3m. i hope to be able to reach 3m like you in a few years' time

Hi, you are not too bad yourself. 2.3m single breadwinner is definetely commendable.
Its hard to say what % earned through investments because at early stages of career, its always near 0%. But one thing is for sure, you can never be rich working for someone else. I don't consider ourselves 'rich'. We cant take holidays whenever we want, we still have to kowtow to boss, we dont fly first class. To be rich in SG these days, you need at least imo, $15-30m.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Ah yes, I missed out 1 more high earning group. Anyone who does sales. So both u and wife doing corporate sales is my guess?

Also, did most of your wealth creation happen on a exponential curve and pay increased and investments rose in last 3 years due to liquidity bubble?

Of course it happened on an exponential curve. No way in hell can we accumulate those assets from income. Afterall, its only paper value, if property price crash tomorrow, we will also see drop in nw.

Yes sales is the best place to be if you are hungry, driven and hardworking. The money is education-blind and prestige-blind. I know a poly grad who started out as PFC because he was persuasive and good at talking, but education was not his forte. Made 100k+ in his first year. In middle of his 2nd year he was headhunted by foreign bank and promoted straight to assistant manager, by passing almost 2-3 years of exp.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

4 million plus worth. that means you n your wife had been earning above 5K a mth after graduation & now you guys are earning in the bracket of abt 20K per mth?

I have friends who are in IT. At age of 37, they can be earning 6K to 12K. Heard of 18K salary in IT. But at your age, I am doubtful you have reach those kinda positions. So how did you guys make it?

Hi, we worked few years overseas before returning to SG. We no bond mah. So starting at 5k SGD/mth is actually not out of this world by overseas standards.

How did we make it? We work hard, we play politics, we play taichi, we perform, we make our boss like us. In sales, you eat what you kill.

Originally Posted by ATAS couple

How did we make it? We work hard, we play politics, we play taichi, we perform, we make our boss like us. In sales, you eat what you kill.

True gems. Thanks for the advice!

Originally Posted by Unregistered

i chanced upon this website from a URL referral from another website. find it interesting and hence i leave this comment here.

me 37 working, wife 38 housewife, 3 kids

cash: 3.1 million
stocks: 679k
cpf: 320k
condo: NONE
hdb: bought in 1996 when earning <5k salary, left 78k hdb 16yr of loan
cars: 2x >3Litres conti cars

now, before anyone say this is bullsh1t, i will tell you the way to go.

NEVER buy into the singaporean dream of condo and property, its heavily manupilated by the govt, the small market and its developers. stocks are liquid enough and good when everyone is in fear. how to see this? when you see people dumping their fancy properties and ferraris at firesale price. BUY! i admit i am not an expert, but i use a 8 mth lead moving averages of indices to all sgp asset prices. it worked the last 2 recession. however, i must also admit that now, with massive dollar printing all over the world, holding cash now is worrisome too but i will still NOT buy singapore properties no matter what. stay in HDB, take hdbloan of 2.6% if your salary level permits. earn enough $ and relax out of the rat race like me. i am taking 20k salary per month now with minimum 2month AWS until the day i decide to quit going to office.

live long and prosper. good luck.

u have 320k in cpf and yet u never think of paying off ur hdb loan? u must be damn lucky to accumulate that kind of networth.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Dudes, My wife and I are just over 50 years old and we each have over $900K in our CPF accounts (some in stocks and unit trusts) giving us savings of $1.9m through CPF alone! While its true that we both maxed out our contributions for the past 20 years and had a bit of success in the past investing CPF in stocks, most of it was just simply savings for the past 25 years since we started working.

Our combined SRS accounts are about $300K in value. We have been contributing since day 1 and have steadily invested in stocks since the scheme started. We're not agressive investors either.

So If you add our CPF and SRS, its around $2.2m already.... Even our combined CPF special account is around $280K. We have always tried to max out the special account since it earns 4%.

So everyone can be a millionaire through CPF and SRS

even if u max out ur cpf contributions for 25 yrs, u can never hit 900k, unless ur an investment guru which u said ur not.

Originally Posted by ATAScouple

Me (Harvard Grad, 32) + Wife (MIT Grad, 31)

Cash 150k
Stocks 400k
Treasuries/Bonds 350k
2 cars 180k (fully paid)
HDB - 500k (fully paid)
SG Condo - 1.8m (60% loan left)
AUS Property - 700k (fully paid)


We are not in banking or consulting. We are in IT and Science. So this proves you do not have to be in banking to become a millionaire. But you have to play politics and be the guy bringing in the money for the company if you are salaried people

Good Luck all.

how come you have so little when u r from harvard and wife from MIT? U must have done something wrong. Anyway u will need the little money u have now to take care of your future , sure to be, socially awkward kids.

Good Luck You Two!

TEST test test

Male, Single 26 getting married in 3 years

Cash - 25K
CPF - 30K
Equities - 5.1K
Watches - 20K
No loans, car, house. Earning 3 Plus a month in the civil service. Gross income for 2010 was 47K Gross. Projecting a 49K Gross Income for 2011.

Please tell me what kind of position am i in, good, bod or average.

Thanks all who give constructive advice!

For a Singaporean male you are pretty much screwed.

LOL at the watches. You saved 1 year for them/it?

A SG male should earn at least >$5k before thinking of getting married. Might want to consider 3RM HDB

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Male, Single 26 getting married in 3 years

Cash - 25K
CPF - 30K
Equities - 5.1K
Watches - 20K
No loans, car, house. Earning 3 Plus a month in the civil service. Gross income for 2010 was 47K Gross. Projecting a 49K Gross Income for 2011.

Please tell me what kind of position am i in, good, bod or average.

Thanks all who give constructive advice!