Originally Posted by Unregistered (Post 47446)

cut down on drinking in pubs. unhealthy. buy good wine and drink at home.

Originally Posted by Unregistered (Post 47443)

Not bad. Are you married? How old is your hubby?

Originally Posted by darkstar (Post 47523)

Actually, I am male......

No girlfriend or kids, what i have now is what I have been scrmping and saving for the past 4.5 years. I am trying to desperately do better, as a male, I feel that I should be earning more...

Originally Posted by darkstar (Post 47438)

Maybe try to slowly increase up to saving 1K a month?


You and your fiance are really thrifty!

But i think a large chunk of your salary seems to go to paying off your housing loan?

Originally Posted by Unregistered (Post 46866)

Both my fiance and I are 28, and our combined salary is 6.5k. We're both diploma holders and have been working since we graduated from poly.

Our 3-room BTO will be ready this year - I have the following questions:

1. Our combined savings are about 28k, is this a good amount?
2. We have no debt, nor investments are we are both too chicken for it so we save up the traditional way by plonking all our savings into a savings account. We try to save about 800 each month combined. Is this a good amount? (Ha similar question to #1, I know)

We lead a comfortable lifestyle and we eat out/drink regularly. We also have a habit of buying higher-end clothes, but only as a treat. We hardly take cabs and rely mostly on public transport. We aim to keep our home renovations minimal (read: really plain) and hope to DIY and keep it to below 8k.

As for other expenses such as wedding, I don't think we'll be having a lavish one or even holding one at all... yes, we're pretty much non-traditionalists haha.

How do you guys feel about our lifestyle and method of saving? Is this realisti?

Originally Posted by Unregistered (Post 47794)

I have shared my savings in this thread previously but was mocked by some that I was dreaming. In our mid 50s, our combined savings of $3.5m (not including our primary home - now valued at $1.7m) should be attainable by most working professional couples who have worked continuously since graduation at 25. That is a good 30yrs of working, saving and investing.

There were 3 groups of responses generally. The first group is those who were incredulous that ordinary salaried workers can accrue this kind of wealth. They can't imagine in their lifetime earning this much not to mention saving this amount.

The 2nd group is those who have reached or are on track to reach around this amount of savings. Some may have reached this even before their 50s while others are there now and they are in their 60s.

The 3rd group is those that find this amount chicken feed and laughable. I mean what is $3.5m or (even $5.2m total) when their annual salaries are between $500k to $1m? These people probably consider anyone with less than $10m investable net worth as poor.

Originally Posted by Unregistered (Post 47796)

Your net worth is on the low side. On average a successful graduate couple should have a net worth of $8m by the time they reach their 40s. You should consider selling your property and downgrade to a $400k HDB flat. The rest of your wealth can use to buy dividend stocks which give you 3% pa in dividends. Then you can get $140k pa in passive income.

Originally Posted by Unregistered (Post 47797)

If what you said is true, I don't think there are many "successful" graduate couples out there. Or are you referring to people like Kong Hee and Clemen Chiang?

Originally Posted by Unregistered (Post 47796)

Your net worth is on the low side. On average a successful graduate couple should have a net worth of $8m by the time they reach their 40s. You should consider selling your property and downgrade to a $400k HDB flat. The rest of your wealth can use to buy dividend stocks which give you 3% pa in dividends. Then you can get $140k pa in passive income.