The problem with you fresh graduates is that you approach all this all like your Finance 101 text book. 30-40% of income to service mortgage assumes you are some normal joe. someone who earns $600K doesn't spend 60% of his income. In fact, oldman already told you he only spends 30%, so he can use 70% of his income to service mortgage.

Also, you are very slippery.... change the discussion from servicing the mortgage on his $10m bungalow, to accumulating $20m of assets just to try to win. chey! Anyway, based on your calculation (which by the way is waay miscalculated, but I don't care), $10m bungalow is $32K/month = $384K/yr. If oldman earns $600K/yr, can easily make mortgage payment on your own calculations.

Also, dun forget that oldman's wife worked and generated income too. I think some poster sometime back said that at 50 yrs old, if both you and your wife work, CPF is already $2m.

His assets are $20 to 25 mn, not $10mn.

If you want it that way, then why 20 years. He is 63, and has worked for 40 years.

Ok just to show the ridiculousness of your assertions.

Assets $25 mn
Loan 80%
Tenure 40yrs
Interest 4% (v conservative over long time horizon ... by way of context, interest rates were about 10% in the early 80s )

Mortgage pmt $84k pm = c $1mn pa

Assume 20% tax and no other expense except mortgage, u need to make c. $1.3mn pa.

Pls feel free to check numbers with mortgage calculator.

*gracefully bows out after home run argument*

More like chickening out after being backed into a corner

You are just jealous that he makes more money in year than you can in your entire life.

If he now have $25m, that means when he buy 20 years ago only cost $2m, instalment is peanut and more than enough with his pay.

Simple concept duno no wonder you will never strike rich.

That was my whole point - His riches are from opportune investment, not steady high income.

Sigh. From finance 101 to English 101.

Sorry oldman, for using your life story as a conversation topic. We all admire your life circumstances and hope to get there someday. Cheers.

Actually, you have missed the point. His riches are from steady high income and steady conservative investment.

You say until might as well dun say. All rich people get rich by investment + income except TOTO strikers & rich kid.

Stop being negative for a change and think big instead of pressing calculator all the time.

Despite the disagreements here, everyone is full of admiration for Oldman. Some admire his foresight in investments, some admire his steady high income.

Has anyone realised that both "foresight" and "steady high income" are actually common attributes of the same type of person?

In contrast, we see here in this forum many people with Oldman's exact opposite attributes, who have only "hindsight" and "steady low income", constantly predicting that the property market is going to crash because of this and that crisis.

In the 1980's, Singapore experienced a very severe recession.

Singapore and the Recession of 1985

While Oldman was deliberating whether to buy his semi-d for $450k, I'm sure there were also the same type of negative people telling him that the property market was going to crash and that he could perhaps buy his semi-d for maybe $350k if he had waited another few years.

Obviously, Oldman, being a high calibre executive of a Fortune 10 oil company with guts made of steel, ignored these naysayers and went ahead with his property purchases.

Look at the piece of news below, do you see amongst the buyers an ambitious young man working in a Fortune 10 oil company?

Straits Times Dec 13, 2011

New private home sales trickling in despite cooling measures
Freehold project near Kovan 80% sold despite market-cooling moves

http://www.straitstimes.com/STI/STIM...GES_ETSING.jpg

SingXpress Land has sold 17 of the 21 units at its Charlton Residences development near Kovan MRT station. The buyers of the freehold houses are all Singaporeans, the firm's executive director said. -- PHOTO: SINGXPRESS LAND

SingXpress Land has sold around 80 percent of its units at Charlton Residences, a 21-unit freehold luxury development in the Kovan area, at an average price of S$2.8 million each (around S$500 psf).

“We are very pleased with the strong sales of Charlton Residences. It demonstrates the demand for housing with quality design and situated at a good location which the project offers,” said Chan Heng Fai, Managing Director of SingXpress Land.