I'd delay the wedding if i were you. Probably not so smart to dump your entire savings into a dog and pony show. If she loves you she will understand. Wait till you're 30, at least..

Poorest? I know some jobless people your age.. they're in even deeper sh!t , so calm down and dont be too greedy.

relax man... work hard and plan well. Look ahead, speak to people who are just a couple of years ahead of you. Or up to 10years older than you. Where are they now, how did they do it? I honestly wouldn't take too much of a guidance from people who are of a different generation - our parent's generation. Simply because they had one of the best years to grow up in Singapore.

During their time, incomes grew tremendously and most most importantly housing values increased significantly. HDB x10, landed houes x30 to 50. I know for sure cause my dad bought his bungalow STRAIGHT OFF out of uni in a govn job. The value of that house is now worth 40x.

So basically alot of the previous generation's wealth was built on tremendous property price appreciation. Mostly because Singapore has done well as a whole. Will we see the 10x property price appreciation. Unlikely no, I can't even imagine my present HDB appreciating x2, because our incomes are clearly not increasing as much to compensate for such increase in property values.

So basically, model yourself after people who are at most in their early 40s. They would give a better perspective on how they built their wealth.

Basically, our generation has it harder but it's still doable.
1. Plan your career well. Known what industry/job you are aiming for
2. Save as much as you can. Invest your spare amount in good investment with lower and regular returns. Don't need to go for the fast and high returns
3. Marry the right woman, if you want to get married soon, just do a simple wedding with dinner in a nice restaurant with good food. Don't spend too much on hotel banquet expenses. But this will be hard to convince your wife and your parent's in law.
4. Don't buy car if you can afford to for now. You can get a decent car in future when you and your wife have higher combined income of 10k.
5. Buy HDB BTO flats. Now got additional housing grants to take advantage of. Also fiance and fiancee scheme i believe just need to do downpayment of 10%.

Being from the "older" (pre-'65) generation, I beg to differ on your assertions that our generation had it easier.

However there is one big factor which I thought was important. And that is, in our time, only 5-10% of each cohort was a graduate. This meant that graduates were sought after and we were able to earn relatively better wages than non-grads, and had more promotional opportunities. Today, I think up to 40% of each cohort are graduates! Job opportunities are not as great and wages are suppressed by available foreign talents.

Other than that, there are "old timers" (and there are many of them) who are struggling now as they near retirement! They didnt have the best years as you may think.

When i made that statement, i do not mean any disrespect to you guys. Your generation had it good not just if you were in Singapore, but it was the case in almost all developed countries or developing-developed countries.

One key difference for your generation was education. Education made all the difference between a good life and mediocre life. And that's why many people from your generation value education and force their kids (our generation) to study well, believing it made all the difference. Well we all know now that it only makes abit of difference. As you rightly put, everyone has education now, many are uni grads. So the key difference now in our generation is connections, family background. This unfortunately is nothing something one can just work hard for. It's either you have it or not.

One key wealth building method which your generation could do is use the house appreciation value to draw equity loans against it and buy more properties. These was very much more possible during the years before ABSD or SSD or property loan curbs existed. Those who did it well can have 3-4 properties under their name fully paid up and now enjoying the fruits of their labor.

I'm not complaining or what. I'm just stating the differences. TS has a very valid reason to be worried as his children and my children will have it EVEN tougher in future. But then, how do we deal with this then? I believe it's about CONTENTMENT. Being contented with little and working hard and being happy with not much. Materialism affects the poor just as much as it affects the poor. It's definitely a much harder ladder to financial freedom to climb than our parents generation but we can only look forward.

Yes certainly, if we compare to the previous generation, those who bough properties in the past, we will definitely lose out (by a lot)

But this is a fact that we cannot change, what we can do is to save and earn as much as possible without giving up certain level of comfort.

I have some problem as well, especially on housing issue. I am 27 as well, just started work last year and I also prepare to get married before 30 years old. On top of that, I have some limitation which deters me from purchasing HDB but only left me a choice to purchase condo.

Not sure whether I am able to achieve that but I have a set of plan and set a budget in google excel sheet to monitor my progress and my expected goal in achieving the goals that I have.

As some of the people mention, we cannot determine our success or failure at the beginning of the race, because we are just starting and there are unlimited opportunities ahead (be it good or bad, lies in our decision)

You make it sound like all in the older generation are wealthy and own multiple properties. This cannot be further from the truth!

I think at most, less than 1% of the older generation can be considered wealthy with networth exceeding $2M (including their homes)? You can see around you especially in HDB void decks many retirees sitting idly and many uncles and aunties still working at low level jobs in their lates 60s. These people dont have much savings!

Those who became wealthy through property investments took great risk! No one knows how the market would turn out. The poster who said the father bought a bungalow which grew multifold in value could have gone sour had the government acquired the land for MRT line for example or gone bankrupt had the economy turned south and he could not keep up with the loan repayment.

This, by the way, happened to many hapless property investors in 1997/98, 2008/09 financial crisis. They had to sell at great loss or were made bankrupt.

Those who really made good are the educated ones who had stable jobs, hold senior positions and good incomes (eg $200K - $500k pa) and invested well. These are the people who had holding power and even accumulate more investments during poor economic climate. But like in every generation, there are not many of such people. Then there are the power couples - where both husband and wife are high flyers. Imagine if each earns $200k to $500k pa, then their combined income is anything from $400k to $1m pa.

We are not a power couple, but suffice to say that our annual savings exceed $300k. So can you imagine what the power couples could be saving!

I didnt say all, but those who have property like HDB, condos, landed and etc. This is certainly true, if u look at the valuation. However, along the way with their children or unexpected spending or as you say economy crisis, some has lost their property and money for retirement. Which is why we can see older folks continue to work despite their old age.

But u cannot deny the fact that 30 years, 40 years ago the price of a HDB is around few thousand dollars, and now, it become more than few hundred thousand. But this kind of growth will hardly been seen in the current generation.

saving 300k per year is really really a lot. You are belong to the high tier income earner. Not many people can earn 8k per month, not to say over 10K per month. I certainly can image those power savers. But your illustration of your personal example cannot be applied to most people in Singapore.

I am 30 this year, earning $3.8k in a engineering firm. Reading the posts in this forum makes me feel like the lowest strata of the society. Seems like every other person here is earning $100K & above, with many income range in the $200K-$300K bracket! i used to thought only doctors & lawyers can earn this level of income... but seems like many are professionals & positions can reap this level of payoffs too

You will likely regret if you stay as an engineer all your life. If you are an engineer, you will definitely still be working and reporting to a much younger boss even until you're are a 55 years old man. You will not have enough to retire. If you are a high flyer in finance, or a top doctor or top lawyer, you can retire or semi retire in your 40s. I know of such high flyers who are enjoying the relaxed retired good life in their late 40s. They are definitely not engineers working in an engineering firm.