I've seen this point made before and it almost offends me [no offence CG lol, and I've no idea where you're from].curiousgeorge wrote:That's about SGD15k a month at today's exchange rates...well over three times what the average household makes here.
No offence, taken. I am originally form the UK also.JR8 wrote:I've seen this point made before and it almost offends me [no offence CG lol, and I've no idea where you're from].curiousgeorge wrote:That's about SGD15k a month at today's exchange rates...well over three times what the average household makes here.
If you're a 'Westerner' and get expatted it's invariably a brief, planned, career move; it's not an opportunity to a future life in SG. It's complete upheaval, and expensive. So, you want to get well compensated.
You don't and can't move, and instantly live on the same outgoings as a local. Neither should you expect to. Everything especially before you know the ropes is hugely expensive.
So saying that's 'Xtimes a local household' is meaningless, since they're not a local household living in an HDB and shopping at wet-markets.
Do you think so? Then why do people ever wish to leave? .curiousgeorge wrote:You see, the expat expectation is a condo with pool/gym/sauna/childrens playground, the Club membership, the domestic help etc when in reality the lifestyle is far in excess of what they enjoyed back home.
Living in an HDB block is fine, but the £ for £ comparison for most UK people will be with living in a small house, out of the big cities, with a garden and plenty of green space around. Most of my friends would struggle to see how they are enhancing their standard of living if I took them to, say, Sengkang.curiousgeorge wrote:But the comparison with local salaries still stands - any expat *could* live in an HDB and shop at the wet markets and save a ton. AND still have a higher standard of living then they did back in the UK.
This I find very hard to believe. Having kids here is horrendously expensive - you are barely going to survive on 6k a month. I would guess that the employees with kids you are talking about have a spouse earning a second household income.curiousgeorge wrote:For comparison, I have four UK employees on my staff, earning between 4.5k and 6k a month, two of them with their own kids. They do fine here.
Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 2 guests