SINGAPORE: A woman recently shared on social media that she’s grown increasingly baffled and mildly alarmed by some of her friends who keep ‘joking’ that she should leave her money to their children when she dies.
She shared her story on the r/askSingapore subreddit on Saturday (Jan 3), explaining that she has lived in Singapore for more than 15 years and eventually became a citizen. She is single, as are all her siblings, and she lives a fairly ordinary adult life.
“I am not even rich,” she said. “I work and own my own house and am not in debt other than the mortgage, and I probably will have very little left by the time I die, if I die of old age, but some friends keep ‘jokingly’ asking me to leave my money to their kid.”
One of her close Singaporean friends, who has a four-year-old son, has particularly made these comments over the course of their friendship.
“It’s just a bit weird to me,” she wrote. “And they are not the only one. Another friend had 2 daughters, but this friend only made that comment 1 time.”
Although these remarks were made in jest, she admitted that they somehow made her feel ‘disturbed.’ After all, she is still very much alive, not elderly, and not planning her funeral anytime soon.
Moreover, she pointed out that this was not something she had ever encountered in her birth country. There, friends neither casually joked about inheriting each other’s money nor were children subtly positioned as potential beneficiaries of someone else’s life savings.
This left her wondering if the remarks were tied to local culture. “A question to Singaporeans, especially singles… Have you come across these sorts of comments?” she wrote. “Is it something in the upbringing here? If they encourage their kids to treat me well, is it with ‘inheritance’ in mind?”
“It’s best to avoid them for the sake of your mental health.”
In the discussion thread, one Singaporean Redditor chimed in to say that such remarks are generally fine if they are only made ‘one or two times.’ However, if they are made repeatedly, then it is no longer a ‘joke.’
“Repeatedly in your face every time you guys meet is beyond a joke — get new friends. Also, it’s just me, but the idea of asking someone to leave all their money to a stranger’s kid who’s not even a godchild or any relation is just weird.”
Responding to this comment, the post author said: “Not every time, but more than once or twice. That’s why I feel disturbed. I am a close friend of the parent, but I still think it is such a weird remark to make.”
Another Redditor suggested a solution, writing, “If you want to address the issue indirectly, the next time they make the same comment, ask if they’re low-key looking forward to you dying or something. If they have a sense of shame, that should cause an awkward tension in the air.”
A third shared, “My wife and I are DINKs (Dual Income, No Kids), and we have a distant relative who made a similar joke once. She wanted us to take her son as a godson and leave him an inheritance. I said no. We no longer speak to her.”
A fourth commenter told her, “Oh, I have noticed this breed of extremely materialistic sociopaths amongst us Singaporeans. They are absolutely a pain to be around, and it’s best to avoid them for the sake of your mental health.”
In other news, a jobseeker shared on Reddit that the “marketing executive” job he applied for turned out to be far more demanding than what the job title suggested, with the employer expecting him to take on multiple roles for a salary below S$3,500.
Posting on the r/askSingapore subreddit on Friday (Nov 7), he explained that the job description initially looked like a standard marketing role involving day-to-day campaign and branding work.
However, during the interview, the employer revealed that the position would also require him to handle sales outreach, manage social media accounts, assist with HR tasks, take on administrative duties, design graphics, coordinate events, create content, and manage CRM systems.
