An initial "insight" needed

[soulsearching]

Hi all…..

probably the latest member to the forum, so be kind 

I am currently in talks with a company in region, hence seeking your opinion. If the talks move in the right direction probably will be posting a lot more questions for your advice.

So seeking a role in the region, which I initially interviewed for in London. however during the process it was thought from them that taking the role in Singapore will be much better as being the head office it will be beneficial.

So an initial number has been mooted from them. Which is around SGD 150K. My questions is whether this is a decent package (as a base salary alone).

I will be moving with a young daughter (she is 3) and my wife to the region. So we want to assess that is this a right sort of salary (obviously there will be other bonus / benefits etc). But I am seeking advice on this yearly package on base alone. In my mind I have more of a SGD 200K+ number, however I haven’t said this outright yet.

Any insight will be most sincerely appreciated at this critical juncture of making up our minds.

We will be doing a scouting trip shortly to the region as well if things go well.

regards ……

[FOX711]

My package is 11K SGD per month before tax, plus 20% total salary bonus each year. I heard its already a good package, especially for me, as a single.



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[soulsearching]

My package is 11K SGD per month before tax, plus 20% total salary bonus each year. I heard its already a good package, especially for me, as a single.



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what sort of job are you in? what sector? As a single I'd say it sounds great, but family wise 12.5K SGD, I dont think its wise, even if the income tax is low there compared to here in UK

[sundaymorningstaple]

I wouldn't pay too much heed to the naysayers. I don't know what you were on in the UK but that salary here puts you in the top 15% of earners here and therefore, as a single person, you are going to fare pretty well, truth be known. You can survive nicely on less than 8k/mo here without touching the rest at all, even after holidays throughout the regions say once a quarter. Now if you had a trailing spouse and school aged sprog, it would be a different story when you consider 20K/semester school fees at the International Schools. But that's a fair bit off I'd say.

[Strong Eagle]

I wouldn't pay too much heed to the naysayers. I don't know what you were on in the UK but that salary here puts you in the top 15% of earners here and therefore, as a single person, you are going to fare pretty well, truth be known. You can survive nicely on less than 8k/mo here without touching the rest at all, even after holidays throughout the regions say once a quarter. Now if you had a trailing spouse and school aged sprog, it would be a different story when you consider 20K/semester school fees at the International Schools. But that's a fair bit off I'd say.

SMS... OP is moving with wife and non school age daughter. Most expensive international high school about $29K per year... others a lot less.

OP... you can live fine on the money... but if you have a $200k figure in mind, why are you asking us?

[sundaymorningstaple]

Oops! I didn't back up the thread far enough! My mistake. In my morning before the first cup of tea stupor, I took Fox711's post as the OP. My bad!

[FOX711]

I wouldn't pay too much heed to the naysayers. I don't know what you were on in the UK but that salary here puts you in the top 15% of earners here and therefore, as a single person, you are going to fare pretty well, truth be known. You can survive nicely on less than 8k/mo here without touching the rest at all, even after holidays throughout the regions say once a quarter. Now if you had a trailing spouse and school aged sprog, it would be a different story when you consider 20K/semester school fees at the International Schools. But that's a fair bit off I'd say.

UNLESS, ur wife/husband is working in the school, and education fees will be free! haha

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[soulsearching]

I wouldn't pay too much heed to the naysayers. I don't know what you were on in the UK but that salary here puts you in the top 15% of earners here and therefore, as a single person, you are going to fare pretty well, truth be known. You can survive nicely on less than 8k/mo here without touching the rest at all, even after holidays throughout the regions say once a quarter. Now if you had a trailing spouse and school aged sprog, it would be a different story when you consider 20K/semester school fees at the International Schools. But that's a fair bit off I'd say.

SMS... OP is moving with wife and non school age daughter. Most expensive international high school about $29K per year... others a lot less.

OP... you can live fine on the money... but if you have a $200k figure in mind, why are you asking us?

thanks chaps for the insight. For UK I am doing pretty decent on the salary front. However life demands change and I am looking to broaden horizons. Hence the reason of looking eastwards. I know there is a huge tax "equation" to do regarding the difference between UK and Singapore. However with a wife and child in tow .... I would rather want a decent living out there. Hence the number of 200 that's in my mind.

[FOX711]

What does your wife do? full time house wife?

I think the issue with "family", is the education fee.
There are two options:
1. Your wife can find a job in an International School, and your kid will go to the school for free(well, almost free).+extra income from your wife.
2.Your wife can do home tuition, thus save the school fees, I don't the necessarily to a three years old girl into buildings to learn rules and boundaries...

[soulsearching]

What does your wife do? full time house wife?

I think the issue with "family", is the education fee.
There are two options:
1. Your wife can find a job in an International School, and your kid will go to the school for free(well, almost free).+extra income from your wife.
2.Your wife can do home tuition, thus save the school fees, I don't the necessarily to a three years old girl into buildings to learn rules and boundaries...

My wife, well she needs some convincing. She is doing quite alright in her career here in London, hence the scouting trip to Singapore is going to be full on to convince here. She works in an investment bank (same as me). So hopefully will be coming out very shortly (next 2-4 weeks), depending on our initial thoughts and if talks move in the right direction.

[bgd]

Good luck convincing the wife then. The trailing spouse often bears the brunt of such a move and the novelty wears off pretty quickly. Don't assume she will be able to work, if that is your intention. Sg isn't the easiest of places for a foreigner to get work and investment banking isn't exactly booming in the region, or anywhere for that matter.

On the plus side, Sg is a nice place to live. Safe, good infrastructure, a nice climate (if you like the heat) and a great base to travel the region. A good place to start in Asia.

[JR8]

The 'how much is enough [or equiv. to back home]?' question is a tricky one, as your current income/outgoings/lifestyle are not known. Or at least not known with enough granularity to give particularly useful answers.

Have a look over the various sub-topics, and amongst the sticky/FAQ posts at the top of each one. There is one titled 'Where should I/we live?'. IIRC it's in the Moving to/Living in, area.

Either way (I can't search for the links now), there is one topic re: deciding what area might suit you, and what type and size of place you rent. Once you've an idea of that, then that can indicate a range for rent, likely your largest single outgoing.

Then there is another topic, IIRC something along the lines of 'How much is enough?'. That takes in where you want to live, whether you'll want a car (2nd biggest outgoing, or maybe children in school is...). Then you can bring together all of that, plus dining out, holidays, booze and other 'vices', fine-dining, and the rest, taxes etc., and work bottom upwards to see what local deal would provide something similar to what you have right now at home. Then you might add for inconvenience/risk of moving here, vs career opportunity.

It's bottom-up, and quite a bit of triangulation, but hopefully an enlightening process, with useful output.

[soulsearching]

Good luck convincing the wife then. The trailing spouse often bears the brunt of such a move and the novelty wears off pretty quickly. Don't assume she will be able to work, if that is your intention. Sg isn't the easiest of places for a foreigner to get work and investment banking isn't exactly booming in the region, or anywhere for that matter.

On the plus side, Sg is a nice place to live. Safe, good infrastructure, a nice climate (if you like the heat) and a great base to travel the region. A good place to start in Asia.

Well whether she will be able to work or not is another topic (to be opened once I sort myself out). But having said that, the area of IB we both are is booming (cant be too explicitly precise at the forums... haha), so I am cautiously optimistic about her own career prospects. However we have a clear sight on thinking that to start off with "ONE" salary i.e. mine should be enough so as to manage a good life with decent standard of living.

@JR8 - I completely resonate on your point. One can be only that precise here on the forums when making a sweeping statement such as "lifestyle". Everyone have their own definition of one. One thing I will for sure miss or atleast initially is a "car". Looking around I have seen it is one of the true luxuries in Singapore (currently I have an E-Class AMG, and to let her go is probably even worse then letting go of London).

But we are taking one step at a time and assessing the whole picture i.e. myself, her and our daughter. One perks of my job if I get it there is travelling to APAC region, so at times I can tow the two of them around and introduce them to wonderful regions around.

[JR8]

Yr thoughts/point 1, in reply to BGD is a wise way to go. Assume no work initially for the non-working spouse; to decide what you need to earn, then if he/she is able to get it together then it's a real double bonus... mind you life as a 'trailing spouse' isn't thaaat bad hehe
Ooh-arrh nice car, yeah some things you have to temporarily let go off, but the other things - as you suggest the great travel opportunities - present themselves instead. Some of the places you can get to from here, that realistically you're never likely to during your working career from back in the West, i.e. places that are really remote are amazing*... the car, garden, and so on are in this temporarily dispensable category, but they can be re-acquired as and when you return home.

*We're just back from our 2nd visit to Malapascua Island in the Philippines... Then there are so many other options, several we did, a couple we still hope to one day But this is one for the Travel topics...

[soulsearching]

Yr thoughts/point 1, in reply to BGD is a wise way to go. Assume no work initially for the non-working spouse; to decide what you need to earn, then if he/she is able to get it together then it's a real double bonus... mind you life as a 'trailing spouse' isn't thaaat bad hehe
Ooh-arrh nice car, yeah some things you have to temporarily let go off, but the other things - as you suggest the great travel opportunities - present themselves instead. Some of the places you can get to from here, that realistically you're never likely to during your working career from back in the West, i.e. places that are really remote are amazing*... the car, garden, and so on are in this temporarily dispensable category, but they can be re-acquired as and when you return home.

*We're just back from our 2nd visit to Malapascua Island in the Philippines... Then there are so many other options, several we did, a couple we still hope to one day But this is one for the Travel topics...

tell me about it! Seriously, and I only got it like 7 months back, but oh well, to gain something bigger one has to loose something else ... so I shall brood a bit but then carry on.

Over 14K posts ... wow you have been a real long timer here.

Lets hope things move pleasently .. am suppose to hear an update today. currently I work as a global director but with a mainly european focus in my IB, so travel a fair bit around. However the chance to do the same in Asia, is truly something all "3" of us are looking forward to.