How much savings do you have?

34 yr old wife & me (2 kids 4 & 1 year old)

Singapore stocks: 20k
US$: 10k
S$: -24k in a personal loan

HDB worth 500K 250+K remaining

I, 50+ yr old unassuming uncle you see regularly in the coffee shops or NTUC stores. Still working but think can retire. Wife also 50+ and working.

Combined CPF : 1M+ (700K OA, 300K SA, 79K MA)
Cars: 1 MPV and 1 Saloon (fully paid up)
Condo: 1.4M (4 bdrms, fully paid)
Condo: 1M (2 bdrms, fully paid and rented out)
Cash: 500K (cash, FD, Endowment, Single premiums)
Stocks: 300K (mainly bluechips)

Someone said older people have fewer needs. True. Can save 75% of monthly income

Originally Posted by common man

I, 50+ yr old unassuming uncle you see regularly in the coffee shops or NTUC stores. Still working but think can retire. Wife also 50+ and working.

Combined CPF : 1M+ (700K OA, 300K SA, 79K MA)
Cars: 1 MPV and 1 Saloon (fully paid up)
Condo: 1.4M (4 bdrms, fully paid)
Condo: 1M (2 bdrms, fully paid and rented out)
Cash: 500K (cash, FD, Endowment, Single premiums)
Stocks: 300K (mainly bluechips)

Someone said older people have fewer needs. True. Can save 75% of monthly income

Uncle, if you are truly unassuming, please share tips on how you accumulated so much wealth. Are you and your wife high earners making 200k to 300k a year? Did you make a lot of good investments in stocks and properties?

I'm asking because my parents also worked hard and saved hard and even invested rather well, but they don't even have half of what you have.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Uncle, if you are truly unassuming, please share tips on how you accumulated so much wealth. Are you and your wife high earners making 200k to 300k a year? Did you make a lot of good investments in stocks and properties?

I'm asking because my parents also worked hard and saved hard and even invested rather well, but they don't even have half of what you have.

Wow uncle, you are in the position I dream to be when I'm older. Do help us youngsters out a bit and share some of your strategies, please! How you would build wealth given the conditions we are experiencing today (inflation, rising house and car prices, etc). What advice would you give to young people?

[undiscern]

Originally Posted by common man

I, 50+ yr old unassuming uncle you see regularly in the coffee shops or NTUC stores. Still working but think can retire. Wife also 50+ and working.

Combined CPF : 1M+ (700K OA, 300K SA, 79K MA)
Cars: 1 MPV and 1 Saloon (fully paid up)
Condo: 1.4M (4 bdrms, fully paid)
Condo: 1M (2 bdrms, fully paid and rented out)
Cash: 500K (cash, FD, Endowment, Single premiums)
Stocks: 300K (mainly bluechips)

Someone said older people have fewer needs. True. Can save 75% of monthly income

if that is true, congrats. u should learn to let go and enjoy your fruits. no point work n work till health drop n cant enjoy watever you have. there is no end to the amount you xan earn, but there is an end to one's healthy life time.

Originally Posted by common man

I, 50+ yr old unassuming uncle you see regularly in the coffee shops or NTUC stores. Still working but think can retire. Wife also 50+ and working.

Combined CPF : 1M+ (700K OA, 300K SA, 79K MA)
Cars: 1 MPV and 1 Saloon (fully paid up)
Condo: 1.4M (4 bdrms, fully paid)
Condo: 1M (2 bdrms, fully paid and rented out)
Cash: 500K (cash, FD, Endowment, Single premiums)
Stocks: 300K (mainly bluechips)

Someone said older people have fewer needs. True. Can save 75% of monthly income

this is bogus..... MA acc has a limit of 39.5K. Anything more spill over to SA. SA also limit at 135K (I think).

Originally Posted by Unregistered

this is bogus..... MA acc has a limit of 39.5K. Anything more spill over to SA. SA also limit at 135K (I think).

He said combined. Read carefully.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Uncle, if you are truly unassuming, please share tips on how you accumulated so much wealth. Are you and your wife high earners making 200k to 300k a year? Did you make a lot of good investments in stocks and properties?

I'm asking because my parents also worked hard and saved hard and even invested rather well, but they don't even have half of what you have.

Ok, share some more. Me and wife combined annual income about 350K (not as fantastic as others who posted). No loans, just daily normal expenses and kids studies to fund, so annual spending is about 85K or less. Lucky to have bought condo units earlier. Also constant savings is important.

One guy questioned how can SA be more than limit. The SA limit currently is 131K. This limit prevents people from transferring more than 131K to the SA. However CPF continues to take portion of your salary to add to SA every month and every once a year, the interest earned in SA is left in SA whether you hit the limit or not. So if you have topped up your SA to the limit in earlier years, it will now grow to more than the current limit.

I think common man shows that you don't have to have an extraordinary job like an investment banker to be rich.

Say he and his wife get 6 months bonus, so this implies that his combined base is about $260K and each have base salary of about $11K/m. At 50 years old after working for 20-30 years, $11K/m isn't that hard to reach if you are a graduate.

Saving and doing some mild investment in property and stocks, he has accumulated net worth of about $4m and a lot of it is in CPF. That is mighty impressive and shows that if you don't blow all your money on toys, clubbing and expensive vacations, you can have an extremely comfortable retirement.

common man, its time for you to enjoy some of your savings. you never know how long you are going to live and spending $85K per year in Singapore means that you are very frugal. Go buy that Mercedes S350 with all the trimmings and enjoy. You deserve it.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

I think common man shows that you don't have to have an extraordinary job like an investment banker to be rich.

Say he and his wife get 6 months bonus, so this implies that his combined base is about $260K and each have base salary of about $11K/m. At 50 years old after working for 20-30 years, $11K/m isn't that hard to reach if you are a graduate.

Saving and doing some mild investment in property and stocks, he has accumulated net worth of about $4m and a lot of it is in CPF. That is mighty impressive and shows that if you don't blow all your money on toys, clubbing and expensive vacations, you can have an extremely comfortable retirement.

common man, its time for you to enjoy some of your savings. you never know how long you are going to live and spending $85K per year in Singapore means that you are very frugal. Go buy that Mercedes S350 with all the trimmings and enjoy. You deserve it.

if you have children, you may want to save up $300k for each of them, so you can send them to better overseas universities and out of this pressure-cooker society where foreigners come first.