Give-up SPR for my son & apply for Student Pass

[Beeroclock]

@ Beeroclock: 20-30% increase in cost of living is real. My rental itself has gone-up by 25% vs previous year & next year also its headed in similar % increase. Added to that, as I mentioned previously, vegetarian food is really a premium product here in SG.. the prices are just sky rocketing.. even if I cut corners and make sacrifices, I still face a minimum of 20-30% increase in my cost of living.

As stated earlier I don't dispute it's expensive here and inflation can be high too. However 20-30% p.a. is obviously not sustainable, maybe it can happen for a year or two, but not long-term otherwise no-one will be able to afford to live here (or want to live here anymore). When I faced a 20-25% rental increase some years ago, it was a prompt to look for alternatives, move to a different area and in the end we decided to buy instead of renting. So I still believe we all have options and trade-offs to mitigate cost of living, also as per what WD40 wrote.

[CharMPN]

Its becoming more & more clear that on a longterm there are definitely advantages to continue here....

Once again thanks to all of you for sharing your own experiences and suggestions.

[PNGMK]

Look for the country that's likely to have long term, sustainable mid to high growth.

That's not Singapore.

Years ago I was in China. Two of the engineers I worked with were adamant about migrating. They both did and are both pretty much under employed.

The guys left behind are all super stars now in China. 8 to 10% year on year growth does a hell of a lot for middle class people.

[Wd40]

Its becoming more & more clear that on a longterm there are definitely advantages to continue here....

Once again thanks to all of you for sharing your own experiences and suggestions.

I dont know, my view is Singapore is a good place to stay as long as you can save enough money. Its a place where you dont live for the present but rather for the future. I cant ever imagine living here on a hand to mouth basis or a few months without salary. It just doesnt make sense. For the long term(or to live for the present) I would choose a better place like Australia where there is better quality of life and its a much friendly and nicer place to retire. The only drawback I hear is that the job market there is bad. I dont understand how. When I look at Seek.com.au, I see lots of job ads in my field compared to Monster.com.sg.

I am really attracted to Australia and I am going to do lots of research about it. Right now IT is an in demand skill there for PR application, but not sure how long it will remain on the list. I hope it remains for a few years.

[Wd40]

Look for the country that's likely to have long term, sustainable mid to high growth.

That's not Singapore.

Years ago I was in China. Two of the engineers I worked with were adamant about migrating. They both did and are both pretty much under employed.

The guys left behind are all super stars now in China. 8 to 10% year on year growth does a hell of a lot for middle class people.

I watched in Bloomberg TV today, Chinese cities are choking with pollution, there is a real danger that the middle and upper class will migrate out to the US. Same case with Indian cities. There are lots of jobs and you can lead a great life, but the future is uncertain. Nobody knows whether the infrastructure will keep up with the rising population and whether growth and jobs growth will continue in the next 20-30 years. Thats the real challenge and thats why you see Indians collecting PRs for all countries possible as a safety net.

[PNGMK]

Look for the country that's likely to have long term, sustainable mid to high growth.

That's not Singapore.

Years ago I was in China. Two of the engineers I worked with were adamant about migrating. They both did and are both pretty much under employed.

The guys left behind are all super stars now in China. 8 to 10% year on year growth does a hell of a lot for middle class people.

I watched in Bloomberg TV today, Chinese cities are choking with pollution, there is a real danger that the middle and upper class will migrate out to the US. Same case with Indian cities. There are lots of jobs and you can lead a great life, but the future is uncertain. Nobody knows whether the infrastructure will keep up with the rising population and whether growth and jobs growth will continue in the next 20-30 years. Thats the real challenge and thats why you see Indians collecting PRs for all countries possible as a safety net.

I didn't suggest either India or China in my post.

Your country of choice (Australia) has has unparalleled growth in the last two decades but will probably go negative this year or next.

[Wd40]

Look for the country that's likely to have long term, sustainable mid to high growth.

That's not Singapore.

Years ago I was in China. Two of the engineers I worked with were adamant about migrating. They both did and are both pretty much under employed.

The guys left behind are all super stars now in China. 8 to 10% year on year growth does a hell of a lot for middle class people.

I watched in Bloomberg TV today, Chinese cities are choking with pollution, there is a real danger that the middle and upper class will migrate out to the US. Same case with Indian cities. There are lots of jobs and you can lead a great life, but the future is uncertain. Nobody knows whether the infrastructure will keep up with the rising population and whether growth and jobs growth will continue in the next 20-30 years. Thats the real challenge and thats why you see Indians collecting PRs for all countries possible as a safety net.

I didn't suggest either India or China in my post.

Your country of choice (Australia) has has unparalleled growth in the last two decades but will probably go negative this year or next.

Yes, Australia is starting a phase of transition of reduced reliance on China and mining sector. The RBA wants the AUD to fall to atleast 0.8 USD so that the manufacturing sector becomes competitive. I also agree, considering the prices of goods and salaries in Australia, the AUD is grossly overvalued. It should fall to about 10% below SGD and only then prices and salaries there will match Singapore, which itself is considered as an overpriced country. Whether it will fall is a different matter.

[Beeroclock]

The challenge for the RBA is while they do want the aud lower, but house prices are starting to move up with the cash interest rate at a 50 year low, so they may need to initiate an upward cycle on interest rate sometime this year and once that is signaled the aud will get bought up again for its yield...

[nutnut]

Some friends of ours had their son do NS as a PR, their son really thoroughly enjoyed the experience and wanted as a PR to join up as a regular. He was told he was not allowed to, however, he is expected to be reservist moving forward.

How is this fair? How can it be that he is eligble for NS, but, cannot sign up for regular army - If Singapore do not consider him worthy of regular army, he should not be forced to do NS.

[the lynx]

Some friends of ours had their son do NS as a PR, their son really thoroughly enjoyed the experience and wanted as a PR to join up as a regular. He was told he was not allowed to, however, he is expected to be reservist moving forward.

How is this fair? How can it be that he is eligble for NS, but, cannot sign up for regular army - If Singapore do not consider him worthy of regular army, he should not be forced to do NS.

That's pretty backward if you ask me. Forced to do NS but not allowed to be a regular when you have a willing PR? If there is anything military-sensitive, they should have omitted in NS phase.

Pretty much like how the citizens are assigned into different divisions based on race and ethnicity. Should have seen that in parallel. :-/

[Wd40]

I think its unfair to speculate, without full information. This person enjoyed NS and wanted to join army. But we dont know if he was capable enough to join the army. Not everyone who does NS are good enough for army. AFAIK, during reservist people are called upon to do all kinds of jobs, for eg, traffic police, bomb detection squad etc

[sundaymorningstaple]

Additionally, only citizens can get all the benefits when you become a regular. If you want full access of all that the military can offer, like additional tertiary educations, OCS (Officer Candidate School), or more sensitive postings other than cannon fodder, then you must be willing to take up citizenship before that will happen.

This is what happened to my son-in-law. He was doing his NS as a PR and while he was doing his BMT, he was offered OCS and citizenship. He took both. and when he finished NS he was a BMT training officer with the rank of captain. He didn't sign on as a regular but the offer was made to him. He's 31 now and his parents are still PRs here.

[PNGMK]

Interesting to know the above...

[chefbalaji]

actually don't do that . now ur son is 13 years old and in 5 more years he will do the national service for 2 years and he will be eligible for citizenship from that he can gain more benefits from the government , till that keep up the pr and raise him back in ur country for solving the education cost !
because now getting pr is not as easy