Skip to main content

Expenses of a middle-classy Singapore uncle with family

I don't know what exactly is considered middle-class in SG, but I figured its the fat range in the middle section if we were to line people up based on income. There will be a steep drop off from the bottom 5% and a steep surge from the top 5, and another galactic surge from the top 1%. Uncle is pretty sure I am in that middle chunk of 90%, and based on my estimation, should be in the front 30 percentile in this chunk.

Now, this is how my expenses look like for myself (excluding what my wife contributes). The numbers are on per month and in SGD


Car expenses (loan, insurance, maintenance, tax, fuel) = $2,500

Insurance premiums = $800

Utilities bill = $350

Mobile lines for 5 = $90

Home internet line = $30

Services (Netflix, Spotify, iCloud) = $60

Condo maintenance fees = $350

Property tax = $250

Groceries and take out meals = $1200


Allowance for my parent = $1000

Allowance for kiddos = $200

School fees for kiddos = $150

Tuition fees = $270

Piano, and music classes = $900


Sub-Total for above : $8,150


Uncle still have a mortgage, of which I pay my portion of $5,500 in cash

Income tax is around $4,000

Total of cash outlay per month for Uncle = $17,650

Uncle not sure how much Uncle beautiful wifey per month cash outlay is exactly, given her random haul of bags and clothes every week plus lots of bubble teas. But I can estimate it's max $10,000 including her share of mortgage payment. 

So there you go, if combined as a household, that would be $27k bleeding of cash per month.

Sibei Chor 

But that's the lifestyle we adopted based on our income and budgeting. Maybe you can say we spend a lot, but based on the breakdown above, I don't think so. The big tickets are mortgage, tax, and car. Mortgage can be paid off, car can sell or pay off, so those will go away. Large tax for income will go away when we retire. 

So minus all these extras, its probably $10k per month bah when we retire 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Getting comfortable without a salary from working

 Not sure if I am there yet. Basically I am effectively drawing down my cash each month, primarily due to 2 things : mortgage and income tax mortgage (after CPF) is about $9k per month income tax is about $5k per month My investment cashflow covers all my other expenses, including utilities, groceries, handphone/internet bills, insurance, property taxes, condo maintenance fees, personal spending. With some input from wife who is still working, I am still out of pocket by almost $11k per month.  She will continue to be able to save a decent sum per month and I'll let her grow that and managed it for her via safe investments. Am I comfortable? Not really. I will if I am not out of pocket per month. If I really stop working for good, the income tax amount will go to $0 after 2025. So only mortgage left We can pay off the mortgage but I think I said before, it doesn't make sense since it's our home and we will be locking the money up with little leeway to do other things. So I ...
Post a Comment
Read more

CPF balances 24 July 2024

  I think for SA, my balance is considered "self-sustaining" as the 4% pa for SA could ensure my balance will continue to meet the FRS requirement every year until I reach 55. from CPF website, my SA balance already exceeds FRS for 2024. Every year, the FRS increases a little for inflation. E.g. the FRS for 2025 is 3.4% increase compared to 2024. But SA interest rate is 4%, so as long as you already reach FRS amount for current year, you will be fine I think, even if you stopped working (i.e. SA stops having contribution)
Post a Comment
Read more