SINGAPORE: A Singaporean in his mid-thirties has started to realise that perhaps his elderly father, now in his late 60s, was right all along, that most people only really manage to save their year-end bonuses.
Posting on r/askSingapore on Tuesday (Mar 17), the local said that his father’s total compensation packages were “quite good” back in the day and that they were able to live a “comfortable” life because of it.
However, as the sole breadwinner with a wife and two children, his father never managed to save anything from his monthly salary.
“Every month, the salary was essentially fully spent on household expenses. The only real savings each year came from the year-end bonus,” the local said, adding that his father only told him this a few years ago.
He might have brushed this off at the time, but now that he is older and actually paying bills himself, he is starting to think that his father “might have been onto something.”
Wondering if this is simply how things are, he asked the online crowd, “Anyone else find that they can’t really save much from their monthly salary… only from bonuses? Curious if this is common for others in Singapore too. Do you actually save from your monthly salary? Or mostly from bonus?”
“It is what it is.”
In the comments, many of those who joined the discussion turned out to be parents who were the sole breadwinners in their households.
One user, a father in his 50s, said, “I resonate with this. My wife was a stay-at-home mother but did go back to doing part-time work after the kids were old enough but earns less than half of what I do. I still pay all the bills, including the entire flat’s mortgage.”
“But my philosophy has always been I will not deny them things they want or need. I have come to realise CPF is a lifesaver. That’s honestly the one where I have truly saved. Don’t discount or misunderstand CPF.”
Another shared that “he’s pretty much in the same boat.” As the sole breadwinner supporting a family of four, he said his entire monthly salary gets fully used up, leaving little to nothing to set aside.
“My family lives modestly. 5-room HDB flat on the northern side of SG. My grocery and food bills are very high, as we cook every day, and we also blend vegetable and fruit juices everyday,” he wrote.
“We eat out once or twice a week at food courts, fast food spots, or casual dining spots. I rack my brain over how to cut my expenses all the time…but it is difficult. So I stash away my bonuses in investments, cover the shortfalls, and use the balance to bring the family for holidays. It is what it is.”
A third user, meanwhile, wrote that for those who don’t have any family yet, not being able to save anything is mainly due to “lifestyle inflation.”
“It’s lifestyle. Until my mid-30s, I was living paycheck to paycheck. I had a wake-up call, left the industry, and went to a job that paid about half what I used to get. But I still managed to save from that job because I was now motivated to live more simply.”
Supporting this view, a fourth user shared, “My salary is considered very low in SG standards. But yes, I do save from my monthly salary. Mainly because I literally do not spend money anymore apart from necessities, bills, and PC gaming.”
“I don’t buy Starbucks or bubble tea, and I don’t eat in restaurants or cafes. Only buy food from hawker centres daily. I don’t have any subscriptions; I frown on them and cancelled Netflix 2 years ago when they raised the prices. Also don’t have kids, so there’s that.”
In other news, a 32-year-old worker expressed on social media that he’s had enough of working for small and medium enterprises after being told he didn’t pass his six-month probation.
“I got pretty pissed, and I seriously do not want to join any more SMEs. I’m sick and tired of [them],” he wrote.
