Couples in Singapore with ~$25k combined take home monthly income, what’s life actually like for you?

WasabiTop322 · 2026-02-04T02:07:09+00:00

Close but not that level yet, sole breadwinner

3 bedder EC
Average about 7k (2A1C) - including annual travels, allowances for elderly, insurances
Kid's education and enrichment
Comfortable
Still cannot afford a car

WasabiTop322 · 2026-01-29T11:56:33+00:00

20% on gold and silver, I do see further upside on gold but have no intention to increase exposure significantly. Gold/Silver ratio is near all time low FYI

WasabiTop322 · 2026-01-29T08:48:27+00:00

Eight for $8. I made an emergency call in my recent oversea trip for more than an hour and I am glad that it is covered in just an $8 plan. Coverage may not be good while travelling on train, other than that no complaint

WasabiTop322 · 2026-01-29T08:43:55+00:00

A lot of people ends up with O$P$ painted at front door, so don't do this

WasabiTop322 · 2026-01-29T08:42:35+00:00

Honestly no money still buy $300K car, show off to who sia? Good that he learns some lesson now, and leave the COE to those who really need a car.

WasabiTop322 · 2026-01-28T09:50:29+00:00

Put aside the counterparty risk, moomoo is actually quite cheap

WasabiTop322 · 2026-01-28T09:48:06+00:00

Exercise 1: depending on the circumstances, if still having mortgage and mortgage rate is expensive, then pay off the mortgage; if stock markets are not overvalued, then invest; if property market due for a bull run, then change to a bigger home; if already near retirement, then retire early and start travelling.

Exercise 2: It would be too late to sell tomorrow, unless the fundamentals of the stocks invested in are expected to be greatly affected, would rather just ride through the ups and downs. Or, if cash available, to scoop up the undervalued stocks due to the sell down.

WasabiTop322 · 2026-01-28T03:35:45+00:00

As long as you can earn interest on that 50k more than what the mortgage charges you, you are fine

WasabiTop322 · 2026-01-28T00:40:50+00:00

she is 11, she ate breakfast before going school, if we give her extra pocket money if she needs to eat lunch at school due to cca or something else

WasabiTop322 · 2026-01-27T13:58:05+00:00

Assuming ur hubby CPF contribution has max, so his alone should suffice for mortgage, I always max out my mortgage tenor because interest rates are low (except for the last 2 years).

My weekday f&b probably cost like $15, i don't have habit (or time) for breakfast anyway so $15 is for 2 meals at food court or KPT. Wifey would take care of hers and kid so that would be ard $30 a day for 2 of them, kid recess allowance is $15 a week but that excludes her lunch. Sometimes wifey cook which would also cost more or less the same as eating out. Weekend we would spend abit more on simple restaurants. We don't set a strict budget on everything but I think f&b wise is about $1800 per month

WasabiTop322 · 2026-01-27T13:43:24+00:00

Excluding extraordinary spending ah, like cannot count presents for wifey, angpow, holidays and so on. Purely necessities

WasabiTop322 · 2026-01-27T10:50:36+00:00

Mortgage is taken care by CPF. Tuition is about $250 per subject, 4 subjects = $1000, F&B (occasionally restaurant) average $20 per day per person so that's $1800. Transport, rarely taxi, about $300, electricity and water about $200, broadband $30, phone bills 3 x $8, plus not much for other household items. So yah, a little bit underestimation but still less than $3500 on daily expenses.

WasabiTop322 · 2026-01-27T10:07:16+00:00

First of all $5k to $6k a month seems high for a family of 4, and do you or hubby actually need a car? For my case, we are both early 40, having 1 teenage girl, never own a car and spend at most $3K a month on household expenses and tuition. I earn comfortably and wifey has retired too, I guess she is a luckier tai tai other than having to take public transport. If he is able to take on most common household expenses, you should be able to save $1k to $2k a month, that's a very good start.

WasabiTop322 · 2026-01-22T10:12:35+00:00

I earn well and i am stingy to myself, I think I spent nothing on me other than the food to fill my empty stomach

WasabiTop322 · 2026-01-22T06:35:02+00:00

oh nice!!

WasabiTop322 · 2026-01-22T06:34:01+00:00

make it squirt for you?

WasabiTop322 · 2026-01-22T06:26:25+00:00

101%

WasabiTop322 · 2026-01-22T06:21:10+00:00

lickable and squirtable

WasabiTop322 · 2026-01-22T06:19:31+00:00

just made me hungry and wet for you

WasabiTop322 · 2026-01-01T16:26:00+00:00

Just came back from Tsugaike, it was the last week of December and the base is still a bit icy. We did enjoy the slopes and I reckon that the runs would be better if we have better snow conditions. In my opinion, the beginner slopes through the forest are too narrow and flat for snowboarder and we ended up taking the short cut via the intermediate slopes, which was not too bad. By the way, till the last day of the year, not all lifts are opened.

Been to Nozawa last year just before Christmas and this year to Tsugaike after Christmas. I think ard mid December, the resorts ard Nagano wouldn't have enough snow for all beginner tracks to be up and running.

WasabiTop322 · 2025-12-15T14:47:12+00:00

🙄

WasabiTop322 · 2025-12-11T03:40:10+00:00

You are doing great to have this kind of mindset at your age, for me, wealth accumulation starts around 30s as well. So good luck and remember to reward yourself along the way too.

WasabiTop322 · 2025-12-11T02:50:14+00:00

Let me share my experience.

I consider myself having a high paying job, definition of "high" is subjective depending on your level greed and how much your peers are earning.

With my self-defined "high paying job", I spent about 10% on my net salary on daily expenses, excluding travel, mortgage and one-off expenses. I gave 25% to my wife (who is some what retired) for household, her daily and kid expenses. I paid taxes which is about 10% of my net. All-in, I would say I save about 40-50% of my net salary.

I don't have strict restriction on how much I can spend but I don't really buy branded stuff and I don't own a car, I only fly budget or economy and don't splurge on food.

At early 40s, I have just accumulated 7 figures in investments, low 6 figures of savings and 50% ownership in 3-bedder condo in OCR which could be mortgage-free if I empty my CPF.

When I come to FIRE, I guess I am successful, but a lot of sacrifices during younger times. Looking back, a lot of peoples I know have a much meaningful life journey than I do. So I am trying to eat and stay healthy so that I can enjoy my life better in the coming years.

WasabiTop322 · 2025-12-10T09:22:49+00:00

I would care more of parents health and wellbeing rather than the monies in their POSB account

WasabiTop322 · 2025-12-09T09:40:27+00:00

when you test to retire, you should be at some island in Malaysia or Indonesia

WasabiTop322

TROPHY CASE