SGD $1 = USD $0.829476
The rising singapore dollar.
I remember 10 years ago, the exchange rate was 1 USD = 1.717 SGD. And that time USA was a superpower nation. We all thought back then, that USA will never fall. But look at today. It is shaking. Its economy unstable, investors pull out their stocks and shares from US bonds, and much more is going on inside.
What is before is never what will be in the future. We cannot be too comfortable with what we have now. Instead, we should keep ourselves on the lookout of the world happening around us, because we do not know when we will need to change our living strategy in order to get ourselves on the upper hand of the society again.
This world plays on the survival of the fittest. Whoever is unable to follow this trend shall say goodbye to comfort. And live in poverty. Not in terms of finacial ability, but in terms of lifestyle. They will find themselves work and work like there is no end to it. but whoever is able to detect this trend, or phenomenom way before and do something about it will get to enjoy a safe and peaceful, or even exciting ride through the economical waves.
What i am stating here is not a fact; it is just an opinion of what the world is coming to today. This is an era where a lot of people in different parts of the world have different mindsets towards life. Towards their way of living. But whatever it is, we just know one thing: we are responsible for our future. And we better be, for no one else is going to look after our arse.
It's the survival of the fittest, after all.
The things about liabilities.
With the rising cost of living in Singapore, it is time we who live in this gergraphical boundary of Singapore start to think about how we are going to live inside this 649km^2 of land space. I must admit that the large part of the rising cost is due to the limited land space available for movement, and for settling down.
But let's talk about the cost. What defines the cost of living?
I believe everyone will have their own definition of "cost of living", be it whether they will be happy or not, whether they got friends or not, etc. But i shall be a Mr. Typical Singaporean. I talk about MONEY. Expenses.
It is a well known fact that Singapore is one of the HIGHEST cost-of-living countries in the whole world. 2nd in ASIA, 8th in the WHOLE WORLD. (correct me if I am wrong) So how high is the cost of living to be considered a cost-of-living as such?
Living in Singapore you need to consider a few factors, and that few factors are enough to let everyone of us gauge how much income we need in order to support ourselves, our family and our housing, and thus lead a comfortable lifestyle.
Expenses list:
1) House
2) Parents
3) Children (start thinking of this already!)
4) Insurance
5) Transport
6) Food
7) Utilities
8) Miscellaneous.
Of course, LUXURY families have far more than that. a LAUNDRY LIST of expenses await them. But let us say we are a NORMAL family. What kind of expenses do we expect?
1) HOUSE. If you are living in a typical 4-room flat, congrats.
$1500/mth. Condo?
$3000/mth. That is the installment. DOWNPAYMENT 20% (ie. $75,000 for 4-room, $140,000 for condo). For downpayment please save it up before the age of 30. And we are not sure whether the prices will go up when we hit 30.
2) Parents. Your parents are not going to settle for some $200/mth are they? So I say you are some not-so-stingy guy. $500 per parent, total 4 X $500 =
$2000/mth. Why 4? Ask your wife. ^^
3) Children. That is the killer. As any parent we want the BEST for our children. We can afford to eat grass, but our children cannot. We have to set aside large amounts of money for education, food, allowance, courses, skills, and the laundry list goes on. But on average, $800/mth per child doesn't sound too harsh. Agree? An average family gets 2 kids. so that makes
$1600/mth.
4) Insurance. Whole family, (your side plus your wife's) get an average of 2 savings/medical/investment policy. That sums up to
$1600/mth (considering an average of $100/mth per policy)
5) Transport. Car? or BMW? Let's settle for a good budget car. TOYOTA VIOS. $800/month, $10000 down payment. plus fuel and road tax and whatever-nots, should go up to
$1200/month. If you are a good saver. What about BMW? Average per adult (if you bother to buy concession) $200/adult, $30/child, $100/parent. Makes up about
$1000/month. That is slightly cheaper, but at the expense of squeezing with the bangalas, sniffing other people's armpits, having to endure people's body odour. Well, at least you got a free human sandwich for breakfast.
6) Food. You are a healthy family. Your parents, finding nothing better to do, decide to prepare meals for the whole family EVERY SINGLE DAY. Average $300 for the whole month for the family eating at home? Is that enough? Plus your meals outside at work. Another $400. That makes
$700/mth.
7) Utilities. Not so bad... If you play some tricks here and there and managed to tie up with some corporate plans. $200 for Handphone and internet, $200 for water and electricity. Saver enough?
$400/mth.
8) Miscellaneous. Family outings? Are you really that no-life? Can't you bring your family out for a good meal outside to relax? Or are you one that coops the whole family up at home just because you don't want to spend any more money? Hmm. But still on average some events are unavoidable! Birthdays? BOMBS? Car summons?
$200/month is that really that a lot? I don't think so.
These are the basic expenses that i am able to think of. That every family should spend at least. Let's sum up together all these list of expenses (i take the cheaper option if provided)
1) $1500
2) $2000
3) $1600
4) $1600
5) $1000
6) $700
7) $400
8) $200
TOTAL: $9000/month.
CONGRATS. That is your monthly expenses. At the age of 30.
Can you earn at least $9000/month by age 30?
Not even DOCTORS can. They only start earning that at the age of 32.
This is a rough gauge of how high the cost of living in Singapore is. Yes you may still insist that these are a bit too much. That my wife can work also. But, are you sure? When I had not even added a CAR to this expenses yet? Do you want your wife to work all the way suffering? There is a chinese saying, wifes are married over to be loved, not to suffer. As a real man, do you have that ego low enough to ask your wife work for you?
Think about it. If you still think your ENGINEERING DEGREE, ECONOMICS DEGREE or SCIENCE DEGREE is your trump card for your future, then I wish you all the best in the realistic world outside.
SINGAPOREANS WANT MORE SEX: SURVEY
That's kind of an interesting survey.. both man and woman wanted sex! Woohooo!
Ok but thats not the point im driving across. That's on a side note.
When i read this article i feel for us singaporeans. Seriously why are we not doing the things we wanted to do? NOT EVEN FOR SEX? I mean, are we really getting too hectic a schedule such that we dun even have time for ourselves? If that's the case then we should really take a step back and look at the whole situation. And realise that something's wrong with our lives.
The fact that singaporeans are not able to do the things we really wanted as and when we like has lit up a need in us: freedom. Not freedom of speech, not freedom of choice, but freedom of action. How many times had we wanted to do this and that yet ended up postponing, pushing back, even cancelling our dream tour package that we had waited for for so long? Why? Because work in our hectic lifestyle tell us we had to. So how? Still. SUCK IT UP.
Is that the life that we really want? That we are unable to do things we want? Then what do we live for? The sake of living? If you don't to be a living zombie then do sth abt it right now. So that you can have sex as much as u want in future.
"foreign workers conned in UK job scam."
So the "scammer" is actually a Singaporean.
But this article shows one simple word: REALITY.
A lot of people always wanted to have plans for themselves in future when they were young. Some wanted to be white collar, some wanted to be investors, MOST wanted to do business, and some of them just wanted to "live a simple life". Well, thinking of that is free, and everyone will just go about thinking of how their DREAM lifestyle will be - when they achieved it.
But as they grow older, they realise that their dreams are getting harder to achieve. Why? COMPETITION. Remember Singapore is only 5 mil worth of population, with 40% being foreigners. So what standing can we take when we are placed within the 6 BILLION population? And because of that, we start to see our DREAM lifestyle drifting further and further away. We can no longer keep them in sight, on mind.
As life progresses to adult stage, we saw ourselves entering the working society. Again, competition. We start to lose confidence in ourselves being the best of the best (which most of us view it as the ideal path to achieving our dreams) and we get stuck in the RAT RACE. Settling for an "ordinary" career, we set ourselves into working day and night, every single working day, for God knows how long, just to fulfill our daily needs. Thrown with the responsibility of a family to take care of, wonder if the meagre pay check we painfully exchanged our blood, sweat, health, family time, every single month is even enough to feed the whole family.
Coming to this stage, we turned back, and EH! WHERE DID MY DREAM GO TO? Didn't i say i wanted to be this wanted to be that? Come on snap back to reality please. Those dreams are a thing of the past. Do not think of that anymore. You can't make it. And reality just snaps your dreams apart. Congrats. You are now LIVING FOR THE SAKE OF LIVING.
Did anyone want this to happen? NO! But wad happened? It's the difference in CHOICE that we make in our early stages in our lives. We tend to be too comfortable in our lives as a student, as a part timer, and we don't intend to step out of our comfort zone and do something extra. What is that extra stuff? Well its up to u to research on; everyone has their own set of "extra stuff" to do, which could change their future.
The thing is, if you are SERIOUS about your future, take the first step NOW. Wait no longer. Opportunity dont wait for anyone. But dont be so stupid as to go around scamming.
u better noe how vulnerable sg is.
today's straits times: EUROPEAN SUICIDE RATES PUSHED HIGHER BY FINANCIAL CRISIS
well. this topic itself says alot.
the impact one financial crisis is able to make. in europe. a superpower continent once thought to be by the whole world. if u realise all the branded goods (gucci chanel prada lv bvlgari etc etc are all originated fromt there)
so in a first world country such things can happen, den wad abt singapore? wad abt us? what will happen in we citizens, NOT THE GOVERNMENT, take the full hit of economic recession?
as i feel, singaporeans are relying too much on the support of government for survival. look at the SG budget. look at the housing prices, the elections, the services provided and so on. and when the government fail to do one thing out of the 10001 things achieved, we just focus on that one issue that the govt did not address and bombard criticism on them. is that being fair to them? i mean.
watched a hk drama serial. 家好月圆. there comes this particular sentence,, or question, that we can ponder upon:
you have done 10000 good things, but at last u did one bad thing, are u considered bad?
you have done 10000 bad things, but at last u did one good thing, are u considered good?
up to u to decipher the essence of this qn. shall nt explain further.
but overall, yes government are trying to make singapore a better place to live in. but ultimately if we want ourselves to be able to lead a lifestyle we want IT'S ALL UP TO US. why are the rich able to make more money during recession? cos they never depended on anything else. only themselves.
are we going to depend on government for survival? if we are at that stage, its time to do sth about our current situation. or else if (touch wood) we were to receive the full impact of the next recession, only god knows what will happen of us.