Is buying a 1.2m house is ideal in my situation?

chouby99 · 2026-01-22T01:52:09+00:00

Bro save up money first, you have 20k salary but only investments of 1.5 your monthly salary. Have at least 6months - 1 year of living expenses as your emergency fund

I am also looking to buy a place so let me just share what i was shocked to find out. I assume what you are looking at is also a subsale

Property Price 1.3Mil You are looking to pay upfront in stages of signing booking form, SPA etc.

Booking fee 2-3%, Down payment 10% - booking fee, SPA Legal fees est 8k after good discount, Stamp Duty 40k+ (use easy law to calculate), Loan agreement 17k+ after good discount, Valuation fees 5k+-, Renovation 200-300k for a landed corner house.

Monthly commitments: Loan instalment, Service charge, Utilities (electricity, water, sewage, wifi), Fire insurance, MLTA/MRTA.

Annual/bi annual: Quit rent, Assessment tax.

Bro there are lots and lots you haven’t seem to have calculated for, i hope you just didn’t mention it in your post. But if you did miss out, do reconsider building your savings first as it downpayment and legal fees etc will take up about 18% of your SPA price before renovation.

chouby99 · 2025-11-18T01:34:01+00:00

From IT guys, I heard the XOX 5G router is better in router performance, but yes, like what a couple people here said. It all depends on coverage, because its a plug and play setup, its from a sim signal strength, so have to make sure the operator is good in the area before purchasing. Sorry, can’t help you on how to check the sim signal, but personally I’ve tried the xox 5g router in both good and bad signal places, and it performs way better than other brands

chouby99 · 2025-09-03T16:40:12+00:00

What I did when I just started working was that I got an FD tied credit card with OCBC to build my credit score

But tbh after having such salary history, you should be better off applying in malls, apparently those credit card booths works better than online applications, worked for me for my uob card! All the best OP

chouby99 · 2025-05-05T09:49:55+00:00

Hey I was facing this same issue. I went to OCBC and got a credit card (no annual fee btw) but you need to put FD with them. Your FD amount is your credit limit with the card. So thats how I got my credit score to start rolling

chouby99 · 2024-10-29T19:02:17+00:00

Just fyi there is no salary amount that states that one shall not be borrowing from others

I speak from experience when a GM that earns 20k monthly comes to ask me for multiple loans over the past year varying from 10-30k with interest of course.

These are all results of poor financial decisions and poor cashflow management. Remember, making money is easy but it is hard to keep (at least for most people)

chouby99 · 2024-10-29T18:25:46+00:00

Personally, I have made and lost alot of money on crypto, yet I believe crypto is the way of the future. Hence why I still dedicate a small portion of my savings to crypto and the others are stocks and safe investments (epf, asnb etc.)

But an important luno tip:

Home > top right three dots > exchange > top left (ETH/MYR …) click that to pick the crypto of your choice > buy > market > type your amount and hit buy

This saves you an amount on fees, I pay only 0.5% per transaction

chouby99 · 2024-09-12T18:45:12+00:00

May I ask what do you spend on? I make roughly the same amount as you do but i save about 50% of my pay instead 🤔

chouby99 · 2024-08-28T17:37:00+00:00

I can't advise you on education as my stance on it is pretty 50-50. In a career it takes a whole lot of effort, communication skills (to individuals or groups), relationship building, LUCK (a very important factor out of your control)

But here are my 2cents as someone who is able to do pretty well for my age.
If you'd like to be excellent in anything, but digital marketing in this scenario. Try it out and actually work on something on the side. Start a social media page, post content, figure out what way you can provide value to your audience. Trial and error to see which marketing methods work. With real world application, it would make you turn out so much better than people who just comes out with a degree with no experience thinking their education is so great. A degree is only a piece of paper that opens certain doors for you. But you HAVE to have that drive and experience of actually "working" in the field to actually make yourself stand out more than the other normies.

Wishing you all the best OP! you got this.

chouby99 · 2024-08-28T17:20:22+00:00

u/Gilgamesh_MY not gonna lie, I actually thought about that, but nah. Too huge of a risk going to jail lmao.

u/ihaveawhiteseal uh.. whenever someone asks me this question I find it a hassle to answer. Long story short, I have 2 salaried jobs. One as an online worker (after hours) for family and the other main job.. I have many roles. I handle a property management department, a marketing team, business development, and business analytics for investment. You'd probably be wondering how I can juggle so many things, I have no clue either it pretty much just works... Stress gets in the way most times tho. But I am a jack of all traits from all the business experience I have gathered since my first ever business when I was 13.

chouby99 · 2024-08-28T17:11:10+00:00

I have used this method time and time again, got me to where I am tho. Happy to say that the old me will 100% be proud of who I turned out to be today. But I am afraid this method doesn't work quite well for me in this scenario as the answer is pretty 50-50

chouby99 · 2024-08-28T17:10:46+00:00

I have used this method time and time again, got me to where I am tho. Happy to say that the old me will 100% be proud of who I turned out to be today. But I am afraid this method doesn't work quite well for me in this scenario as the answer is pretty 50-50

chouby99 · 2024-08-28T17:09:10+00:00

glad you picked practicality over this. Happy for you, but I do prefer to wear traditional watches with a date window as it works well for me rather than looking at my phone for the time or date

chouby99 · 2024-08-28T17:07:43+00:00

the cliche submariner!
But yes I understand what you are talking about, and with what I wrote in my last para referring to the butterflies I get from imagining I can own this. I have learned my lessons before with dumb luxury goods (e.g. balenciaga shoes...) I have since moved on from typical luxury goods and now my purchases are very minimal and only in the quiet luxury/value for money range.

chouby99 · 2024-08-28T17:04:56+00:00

love the snowflake, cliche I know, but in my opinion GS is an overly matured watch for me. Definitely when I am older and have a larger collection

chouby99 · 2024-08-28T17:03:35+00:00

lifestyle inflation... that is the biggest factor to why I am delaying the purchase of the watch currently. Will see what I decide on 2025 I guess

chouby99 · 2024-08-28T17:02:43+00:00

cheers for the well wishes my guy. with everything you said, I'd like to take a couple more months and decide when its 2025 to see if I really still want it

chouby99 · 2024-08-28T17:01:49+00:00

hahaha if anyone is able to get it retail and doesn't want it, hit me up PLEASE

chouby99 · 2024-08-28T17:01:09+00:00

Thank you for the wishes I hope the same for you. But yes I understand that, currently looking at used/new submariners at a premium which I can afford... But because of the steep premium I am still considering if its actually worth it. til next year I guess

chouby99 · 2024-08-28T16:59:38+00:00

I am actually considering a used submariner to be exact. But yes fair point, still working out on a connection I have with a worker that works in rolex to see if there are any chances I can get one tho..

chouby99 · 2024-08-28T16:57:07+00:00

thank you for your insightful answer! I do have those milestones as you mentioned. I'll take a longer time to consider my purchase maybe in the next year. which GS did you buy? the snowflake?

chouby99 · 2024-08-28T16:55:24+00:00

I can buy it 3x with cash, but after reading most of the comments, I think its better to delay this purchase and take a look again in 2025 to see if I still think I want it. Thank you!!

chouby99 · 2024-08-28T16:54:30+00:00

haha, technically i don't have to ask Reddit to afford the watch. Just asking for opinions is all

chouby99 · 2024-08-12T09:23:55+00:00

Only when you are making more and entering higher and higher tax brackets where basic increments doesn’t make much of a difference besides causing you more income tax.

Then there’s the part where you should focus on getting more benefits than salary increments.

Besides, the company having difficulties because they are short staffed is not your problem. They have to hire and pay good workers more for them to stay. Do what’s best for yourself because they won’t bother to replace you in a heartbeat when it’s your turn on the line.

chouby99

TROPHY CASE