I thought this is a very apt picture that I copied from my friend’s website. Thanks erlin.
Don’t you think this is actually in fact very true? I’m stupid enough to fall for it enough times already. I totally finally agree. Don’t you think its weird that you see things in a different perspective when you’re made promises to yourself.
with the current number of jobless people in singapore reaches 70,000 and many are graduates, it got me thinking about how much do we need or expect as a salary to live comfortably. more importantly, i was thinking about our expectations as undergraduates are well founded.
while these numbers are not guarenteed, but my own guess of the salary of various graduates. Arts - $2.2k, Science - $2.4k, Engineering - $2.6k. All assumed to be an average student lacking of a 2nd upper honours or better. So I would use a pay of $2.5k as a basis. i may be wrong, but i believe we have to contribute 20% of our pay to cpf (thank you singapore government for helping us save because we don’t know how to), that means our take home pay is $2k. to make my calculations, not gender bias, i am going to assume that the undergraduate is part of a couple which helps out in financially greatly. a hdb flat is estimated to be around $300k, which we assume you pay in 30 years. which translate to $300k/(30*12) = $830/mth. Each part of the couple has to pay $415/mth if the burden is evenly shared. car wise, i believe i have discussed this matter earlier and i would just put it as $800/mth for a small car e.g. vios. Each part will then have to pay $400/mth for it. Assume you pay for basic insurance, which costs about $50/mth. Food wise, lets say we spend $5 on a meal on average. That is 30 * 3 * $5 = $450 on food. You can’t save on food, unless you’re on a diet, but hey that would be gender specfic already, not meaning that males do not diet. but seriously? (probably offending some people here). Anyway that translate to $2k - $400 - $415 - $50 - $450 = $685. Thats a very pathetic amount of money left, and you would be wise to save as much of it as possible.
i didn’t really go into detail, but it dosen’t look good dosen’t it. Even as a graduate, we are limited to quite a basic level of living, what else to talk about holidays, shopping and luxuries. if you are single, you will be in deficit already, so don’t even bother to buy a car.
am i being pestimistic again. i always find myself doing these calculations. next time i shall do a posting regarding an income analysis of the coffee shop just outside my house.
