monthly - $7k (my wife saves all of hers)
Other assets <$5k .. yes, hardly any o.O


Why?
I bear all cost for kids/car loan/utilities etc

My wife better off than me o.O as she keeps her salary/rental income etc.....
House/condo/shophouse (under her name) - $6m~$8m
cash/stock/share - IDK... nvr ask.

So, yes, she's from a well to do family. But as I a man, i need to bring in the bread and butter. And I'm proud of it, although my net worth is miserably low.......

Average Family
 

Omg…How could you guys be saving THAT MUCH???

I am female, hitting 30 this year, Local Uni Grad…Annual Income about $70K (is this considered ok??)

After deduction of CPF and monthly expenses, I only save about $25K a month…

And the first few years of work, I barely save much as I was earning a pittance….

Now I only have about $85K in cash…oh dear!

Think about it this way, given a combined income of $10K, with 2 kids and a car and a maid, how much can a couple save??

If you include about $1000 to parents ($500 each side), plus insurance for the whole family…I think we are looking at only about $3000 in savings…

Sorry I mean $25k a YEAR!

That's why we in Singapore just can't stop working working working!!!! Either that we migrate to somewhere else..

Your situation is the norm. A middle class lifestyle which includes maid, kids, some enrichment classes, mortgage, insurance, education savings, transport, some shopping and dining out and income tax would mean cash outflow of about 7k a month. If a car is added with holidays, the cash outflow will be closer to 9k.

I think a couple with kids needs to earn combined at least 16k to be able to build up retirement savings comfortably.

Average Family
 

I totally agree with you...Our joint income now is about $180K per annum...it's no where near the $16K you mentioned...That's why we are hesitant in having kids....if we have no kid, we can probably go for more holidays or have a higher standard of living...*sigh*..now we understand why there are so many childless couples out there...

WTF, $180k/annum not enough, ppl earning 3k per month can bring up 3 kids. You should blame yourself for not saving.

The joy and happiness you will derived from your children every day will be so much more fulfilling than what you will get from more holidays, driving premium cars and dining at fine restaurants. How high you want your living standard to be?

Your world will be different with children. You won't understand until you experience it yourself. Seeing your friends' children or your nieces and nephews are different.

Average Family
 

I am not saying $180K is not enough for kids...I am just saying we have to lower our standard of living....We are just average income earners with a car, no maid, just part time helper, staying with in laws now....we do dine at restaurants a few times a month, go for holidays twice a year....currently I do have a few facial and spa packages (I guess it's the norm for most ladies)...and I must admit I splurge on 1 branded bag a year as well...but other than that, I am saving about 1/4 of my annual income...

And I do think that's fairly reasonable...

Average Family
 

I know, a few of my friends who have kids told me the same too...But they also did tell me the truth regarding sleepless nights, $$ out and stress increasing with kids...Anyway it's a personal choice at the end of the day...I know fairly well if I do have a kid or two...my savings will definitely diminish...Either that or I have to cut back on holidays (maybe once in 5 years) ...We are not even driving a 'premium' car now...It's only a Jap model...7 years old...

And I definitely will not be able to hit the amount of savings most pple in this forum claim to have....Childcare rates are about $1000 a mth now (for the slightly more premium chains)...Even if I send them to a 'normal' childcare, it would cost $500...and if I have 2 kids, it would be $1000!....Most likely I have to hire a maid if I have kids, so that would be about $600 gone...(excluding the expenses for the maid like food etc)...

Not to mention I would have to save another $50K for my kids education (assuming they are hardworking and make it to a local Uni)...if not, I have to cough out another $100K+ for their overseas education....:(

True?

My household income is about 200k PA. We have 1 kid and another on the way. Since my first child came along, our savings have not grown the last 2 years (though I have to admit that there are more frugal ways to bring up a child, but we chose to indulge in some ways). We share a jap car and have a maid. We give our parents about 1.5k total per month.

I agree that the joys of having a kid far outweighs any material indulgence or holiday joys we can buy. That's the reason why we want to have the 2nd kid. With the kid, we also have no time for holidays (also it's really inconvenient), and it's harder to dine out at nicer/ fine dining places with a young child so we save on that aspect too.

That said, i don't think it takes 200k PA to raise children as I said we chose to have some frills. Since this thread is about savings, we have about 200k cash combined but this is saved from before the kid came along. We target to save at least 35% of our earnings every month.

If you always do cost benefit analysis about having kids, you'll never have any. Your career only ends when you retire. By then, it is too late to have any. You'll be too old to be active enough in their lives. In addition, you'll always play catchup as you may drive a jap car now. But when you are better off, you drive a premium car. Again by then you will say, I don't have enough saving to have kids.

Another thing is that please remove any ideas that 'anytime' you can have kids. Having kids (conceiving) is not easy. I have 2 kids and it wasn't an easy journey for my 1st one. It took us a while to have a kid (almost 2 yrs). Some couples tried longer and some unfortunate ones, never had any even after spending thousands for IVF etc. When you have conceive a kid, you face another round of challenges. Your kid may or may not be normal. As our environment gets more stress and polluted, chances of abnormality get higher. Forget about stories that its a piece of cake to have a normal kid. Reality is not like that.

So please think carefully if you ever want to have kids. If you want, plan early. Else, just have pets and accumulate your savings. Biological clocks for ladies are ticking. Once you hit a certain age, its just simply not worth taking that risk to have kids. Be merciful to your kid by letting them born normal than to suffer from abnormalities.

Its a joy seeing them smile everytime I saw my two kids. It was a difficult journey to have them and I'm thankful each day. Plus they are like my lucky stars. I get promoted a few times ever since I have them.

It seems you are looking it at a negative side of things. The smile on your kid is "priceless" when they call you "MOM" for the 1st time, that 1st walk, I can still remember the date and place. Those are the thing that $ can buy.

Things come and go, and you may never know what is ahead of you,, when your child is born. If you think too hard, then you may not want to have it. It is the bonding that brings the family together, through thick and thin.

Life can be very simple and you can enjoy life from simple pleasures instead obsessing over accumulating wealth! Once in a while, on my way home, I just need to spend $2 on a packet of gummies at the petrol kiosk and I will be antipating the beaming joy from my 5 years old son when I give it to him. Such feelings of happiness from the children is contagious.....When you finally have $2m in your bank, you may feel happy and a sense of pride that you have arrived, but such hapiness will not last. Trust me. In time, it is only a number in your bank account and you will realise that you do not need a lot of money to make yourself happy. You will feel happy when you spend on your loved ones like your parents and children.

Fully agree. I used to think that this "the smile on your kid is priceless" thing is cheesy until I became a father myself. Hahaha.....being a parent makes me want to be a better person!

Eh.. Can you pple go ans start your own you own thread on " The joy of parenthood"... Your commnets are out of point here..... Thanks...

Eh, cannot let uncles/aunties cho cho abit here, u will be 1 soon

You are right. Can't help it sometimes.

We have many rich uncles/aunties here leh who are trying to educate youngsters not to get too caught up with comparing savings.

Average Family
 

Thank you all for your encouragement! Hopefully my kid will be healthy and happy, maybe once I have a kid, I should stop visiting this forum and go to forums such as the Parenthood forum...Haha!

My savings will definitely dwindle but I sure hope my increase in happiness will more than make up for the dwindling savings! :D

I'm in my 50s and have 2 kids at university in the U.S. Their university education will cost me about S$700,000 by the time they are done.

Wow, that's a lot of money compared to studying in local U.

Wow you guys really have so much money:(

me and my wife both 29

Cash 100K

Stocks 50K

CPF 100k (OA)

Condo worth 1.2 m (40% paid)

Car value 200k (30% paid)

Combined income 200K p.a

Wow!! What industry and jobs are you both doing?
At just 29yrs old, each already earning $100,000 a year??!!!!

Hi going to 30 later this year, i am in consulting and she is in civil service..

but i feel like wow how come you all can have so much cash!!!!

how do you do it? no expense really?

i believe most of the cash savings are from investment capital gains, mainly property and stocks. unlikely to be through salary alone.

i know one lady in her late 30s, probably earning about tee same as you 10 years back but was very shrewd and bought a few properties in the years 2002 leading up to 2006 when property was less than half the prices today. basically she saves to the max, dumping all into property, and using the rental and savings to fund the next property while borrowing to the max. every ounce of her free time was used for viewing property. her net worth is in the region of S$3m now, 80% of that from property gains. really impressive for a single income person to achieve.

of course, not everyone has the timing luck or appetite to take the risk. i did some property punting myself, managed to achived a net worth of S$2.3m now at age 35, 65% of that from property gains. we are now staying out of the market and building up cash reserves (around S$800k currently for me) to re-enter the market at the next financial crisis.

don't bull la. 29 y.o couple. wife civil service. pay 40-50K. So u earn 150k a year at 29 y.o consultant. what consulting u do? tokkok lor.

Whats there to bull about? wife graduated at 22 with first class honors been working for 7 years already, if you work for 7 years and you dont earn 100 k at least p.a. i think its quite sad. i do mgt consulting. so dont slam people when you do not know the industry facts...

Your probably cant earn that much thats why you are slamming others?

Agree...I think this is a realistic figure..I am 30 this year..annual income $70K...but considering that I am only 2nd lowers honours and I stopped work for 1-2 years to 'rest' at home.....therefore $100K for someone who has worked 7 years is highly possible!

100k used to be a big deal 10 years ago, but it's the average pay for degree holders in their thirties. 200k is within reach of the average grad in his forties.

300k and beyond requires some luck and effort.

Agree, if add bonus, for a couple with at least 2nd hons upper and both working in banks, mncs, law firms or big4, hitting 200k per year is realistic and easily achievable at age 30.
Increasingly Singapore will see two distinct tier of graduate class - the hdb type earning <8k/mth at early 30s and condo type earning >20k/mth at early 30s.

actually my question is how you all accumulate so much cash???

Well said, Daddy Unregistered. :)

assuming your statement is correct that will be 7% increment for 10year to go from 100K to 200K.

This assume you have not hit the salary ceiling.

cash and stock 750k

Mid 30s, household savings in cash and stocks around 800k, with another 100k in endowment and savings plans. Still have outstanding housing loan though.

household
 

Annual household income $400k
paid up 1 condo, 1 car
Cash $500k
CPF$100k
both of us just crossed 40 age

CPF OA only or CPF OA+SA+Medisave?

100k seems low for people in their forties.

$100k in OA only... all CPF cleared to pay up the condo earlier...