How much cash does an average MCFer have?

[Pisces69]

Yes 70k to pay off the house mortgages, credit card bills and car loan. Cant last long if no income maybe need to borrow T2

 

 

U try to borrow from him.......Let men know can get or not n how much?

 

Then my turn to try.

[Thaiyotakamli]

 

 

U try to borrow from him.......Let men know can get or not n how much?

 

Then my turn to try.

Maybe if cannot then apply to be assistant table wiper haha

[Pisces69]

Maybe if cannot then apply to be assistant table wiper haha

 

 

Ya lor.

 

But dunno he need an assistant or not?

 

He might not wan to share such a good job with u.

 

Maybe he scared later u try to take over his position as Head table wiper. Then how?

[Baal]

Agreed! Blessings, family n friends r things money can't buy. In fact, it's when u are down n out when the people u can really rely on are family n friends. They nvr let you down!

Its also this period, u know who ur real family & close friends are.

[Spring]

 

Its also this period, u know who ur real family & close friends are.

Well said bro Baal, it is true that when the chips are down, some close friends and relatives will shun you. The saying a friend in need is a friend indeed is very true!!

[Alpha78]

is this is to justify $1M pigeon hole and $100k COE is considered CHEAP

why property is high ... why coe is high ... because household income no $10k no talk liao ...

 

wah ... those stay in EC ... no $20k no talk ... huat ah!

i better stay put in my cck 4-room flat ...

 

 

 

Average household income says NOTHING. What if there are 2 families cramming in the flat because they cannot afford their own flat?

 

Show us the per-capita income by dwelling type, that's the real deal.

[Myxilplix]

I am below average cos I make less than 10k/month and I live alone.

 

Got handout for me boh?

[Enye]

T2, your answer here

i am guessing you save more than 50k a month

 

 

How much are S'poreans saving?

A lot, it seems, with savings rates of 33% to 69% as per latest data. But about 25 percentage points is probably due to CPF

BY

CAI HAOXIANG

CORRESPONDENT

[email protected] @HaoxiangCaiBT

PRINT |EMAIL THIS ARTICLE

After crunching the numbers, the typical household probably saves S$1,500 in cash every month, while the above-average household by income can put about S$3,000 in the bank.

How Singapore earns and spends

ONE of the regular messages from this column on managing one's personal finances is to track one's expenses religiously.

That is, to painstakingly catalogue how much of your money goes into food, transport, clothing, healthcare and so on. But have you ever wondered how the entire nation spends?

A treasure trove of data was published last Thursday when the Department of Statistics released the results of its latest Household Expenditure Survey, held once every five years.

What are its implications for the investor?

The data can prove useful in benchmarking yourself against the population to see where you stand in saving and spending.

The survey ranked households according to how much they earn and dissected their expenditures accordingly.

From the charts, one can see that the lowest fifth of households spends more than what they earn. That puts them in a deficit every month. The other four fifths of households are in surplus every month.

Interestingly, this group is increasingly spending a smaller chunk of their income over time. By implication, they are saving more over time. Similarly, the deficit of the lowest fifth of households as a proportion of their income is narrowing over time.

We can calculate a "savings rate" based on how much is left over after spending, as a proportion of one's original income.

For example, in 2002-3, the fifth of households that is second from the bottom, the 21st to 40th percentiles, saved 20 per cent of their income. In 2012-3, they were saving about a third.

The top fifth of households saved 63 per cent of their income in 2002-3. In 2012-3, they were saving a whopping 69 per cent.

Even the 41st-60th percentile, a group that is solidly middle class, appear to be saving 44 per cent of their income every month.

The numbers are puzzling, given the vociferous complaints about how Singapore has become a much more expensive place to live in.

Are expenditures understated?

The survey looks extremely rigorous. It covered over 8,000 households in Singapore, and spanned over a year to ensure spending patterns during festivals and holidays were captured. Mortgage payments and renovation expenses were also included. Ad-hoc spending on big-ticket items like holidays, weddings and funerals were also included to minimise under-reporting of expenditure. The latest survey even included a section on spending on Internet purchases.

However, non-consumption expenditure such as loan principal repayments, income taxes, and the purchase of houses - a major distortional figure - were not included.

Income taxes are not significant for most of the population except for the highest earners. So the top fifth of the population probably save less than they appear to.

Are income numbers giving a wrong impression then? These include employer Central Provident Fund (CPF) contributions to give a fairer reflection of what constitutes income.

Money in the CPF, however, is not perceived to hold the same value as money in the bank because there are restrictions on how one can spend that money. Let's say that we just want to figure out how much money is going into the bank every month, excluding money going into CPF accounts. Once we exclude employer CPF contributions from our definition of "savings", savings rates fall to 24 per cent to 43 per cent for the middle three-fifths of the population.

We then take out employee CPF contributions, which can be up to 20 per cent of one's income. If we assume that the maximum 20 per cent is put into CPF, we are left with more modest savings rates of 9 to 28 per cent for the middle three-fifths.

In other words, if your household belongs to the middle three-fifths of the population by income and the household saves anywhere from 10 to 30 per cent of its total income in cash, it is saving at a rate comparable to its peers.

In essence, enforced CPF contributions probably contribute another 25 percentage points to one's savings rate.

After crunching the numbers, the typical household probably saves S$1,500 in cash every month, while the above-average household by income can put about S$3,000 in the bank. Money for the top fifth of households, meanwhile, is probably piling up at the rate of about S$10,000 a month.

For the rest of the population, the CPF system is helping them save a considerable amount of money - equal to or more than what they can leave in a bank.

Most people will probably not see their bank balances grow at the same rate as CPF's, leading to worries about not making ends meet and angst about how much money is locked away in the provident fund.

But seen from the outside - with Americans typically having personal savings rates of just 5 per cent - Singaporeans aren't doing too badly on the savings front.

 

[DavidOh]

Interesting Story today - it quickly reminds me only to judge myself and not others when comparing wealth.

 

The "poor" looking road sweeper or toilet cleaner or table wiper may be richer than me. Just because they don't have private banking services doesn't mean they don't have plenty of money. There are many whom I know drive expensive cars and stay in private properties (bungalow), but have hardly any asset but lots of debt. Of course, there are those who are truly rich and flaunt their wealth around.

 

 

Being cynical, look if everything was to go to plans, the tour guide would have been $40million in wealth

 

 

The bottom line of the story is:

it doesn't matter what you do, you can be rich too if you plan.

 

 

A toilet cleaner's key to riches

Monday, September 22, 2014

{C}

As prices of small and medium-size homes soar, real estate experts fear an eventual crash. But a top manager of a leading developer believes prices may still rise another 5 percent.

The subject also came up when I was having tea with relatives. We were saying there were scarcely any urban homes left below HK$3 million these days, when the plainly dressed couple sitting on the other side of our shared table joined in the conversation.

They said they had just bought a flat of 300 square feet at HK$2.8 million in Sham Shui Po for their son. Why then would ordinary folk like this couple take the bold move of making a purchase when experts are apprehensive?

They told us they had actually made big money from property investments, netting HK$3 million from a Sai Kung property two years ago. And as they were not first-time buyers, they had to pay double duty.

They further revealed that they also owned two units in an old Tsim Sha Tsui residential block, one of which was bought from Fook Lam Moon founder Chui Fuk-chuen.

They then received an offer from someone who said he represented Henry Ng Chun-for, then chairman of Henry Group Holdings, to acquire the building.

The representative booked a room at a restaurant in the vicinity and invited flat owners to tea every day in order to convince them to sell. The owners gladly enjoyed his treat, but none were interested in parting with their properties including the couple as they intended to hold their units.

The coupl

 

 

e couldn't hide their joy when talking about having bought properties cheaply. From what I could gather, they owned at least four.

When they bought their first one, the husband was a house painter, while the wife was a janitor, responsible for cleaning toilets.

They leverage on income from one property to finance the next acquisition, reaping a fortune over the years. Now they have a diverse portfolio of real estate, stocks and foreign exchange, but they still go to work every day, happy to keep busy. Siu Sai-wo is publisher of Sing Tao Daily

[Wt_know]

walao ... how come recently so many reports, surveys, articles in the newspaper to showcase sporean sibei rich ...

Edited September 22, 2014 by Wt_know

[Mockngbrd]

Interesting Story today - it quickly reminds me only to judge myself and not others when comparing wealth.

 

The "poor" looking road sweeper or toilet cleaner or table wiper may be richer than me. Just because they don't have private banking services doesn't mean they don't have plenty of money. There are many whom I know drive expensive cars and stay in private properties (bungalow), but have hardly any asset but lots of debt. Of course, there are those who are truly rich and flaunt their wealth around.

 

Here got table wipers lor

[frenchfly]

 

somebody working over time

[Throttle2]

T2, your answer here

 

i am guessing you save more than 50k a month

 

 

 

Bro, mai suan until like that lah.

 

I barely earn $50k a year......

 

 

 

You are the one who say average singaporean got $700k spare cash mah......

[lausai88]

I am below average cos I make less than 10k/month and I live alone.

 

Got handout for me boh?

You earn $9,999.99/month (less than 10K)

 

call yourself below average, seow boh

[Wt_know]

this song lyric say it all ... but bo pake liao

ji ba ban ... bei sai liao

now at least ji jing ban then ok ...

everyone got 1 chance 1 year ... TOTO $10M ...

Edited September 22, 2014 by Wt_know

[Jamesc]

Giving can be in many forms, to your family or strangers, people in need and is not only in monetary terms. it can come it the form of free tuition to children from low income families. Giving can be time spent with your parents / grandparents, spending time with them bring them out for a good meal, help extended to your neighbors in fixing a broken pipes or to sibling to look after their young kids...

 

Live within your means and give within your means. A healthy body is much more important than a healthy bank account. I have a friend who has many properties and watches but is down with cancer and final stage... very say for him...

 

Its always the case.

 

People who are rich don't have the health to spend it.

 

People who are healthy like me don't have any money to spend.

 

Maybe we need more cooperation in life.

 

People with lots of money and no health to spend it should

 

just pass it to healthy people like me to help spend it for them.

 

Giving can be in many forms and this is one way I can help give.

 

[Thaiyotakamli]

 

Its always the case.

 

People who are rich don't have the health to spend it.

 

People who are healthy like me don't have any money to spend.

 

Maybe we need more cooperation in life.

 

People with lots of money and no health to spend it should

 

just pass it to healthy people like me to help spend it for them.

 

Giving can be in many forms and this is one way I can help give.

 

And then what u give to the wealthy?

 

 

Ur kidney ah? Haha

[Jamesc]

And then what u give to the wealthy?

 

 

Ur kidney ah? Haha

 

Haha! Like the film The Island.