Is SGD 9000 enough for a family of 4 per month?

[SivaprakashAyyadurai]

Hi,

I received a job offer from Singapore, which offers 9000 SGD per month.

I have 2 kids, one is doing her grade 3, and another one is in UKG. Currently in India, I can save about one lac per month after house rent and other expenditure.

In Singapore, whether I can save the same since the rent and school fees seem higher? and do you think the above salary is enough.?

Thank you.

[abbby]

Can refer to this thread, almost similar that one is $7.5k salary

viewtopic.php?t=149367

[malcontent]

Hi,

I received a job offer from Singapore, which offers 9000 SGD per month.

I have 2 kids, one is doing her grade 3, and another one is in UKG. Currently in India, I can save about one lac per month after house rent and other expenditure.

In Singapore, whether I can save the same since the rent and school fees seem higher? and do you think the above salary is enough.?

Thank you.

Budget between $2500-3500 per month for housing, including utilities.

For kids that age, budget between $1500-3000 per month combined for both your two kid’s school expenses, depending local or Indian International School. It’s important to work out what school they will attend in advance, as their can be waiting lists.

Those are your biggest monthly expenses.

Food for 4, including eating out on occasion should come in under $1000 and taking the train and bus around should be under $100 per person.

Consider other miscellaneous expenses, plus larger one-off expenses, plus trips back to India, but most of these categories should be lower 3 figure amounts when spread monthly over a year.

If you have a non-working spouse, you might be able to save money by not hiring a helper, tutors and/or spending on daycare, etc… that helps.

If you budget carefully, you should continue to be able to save at least 1 lakh, possibly more. But more important than that, you should consider your career growth potential if you move versus stay.

[smoulder]

Wow Mal.... Impressive that you know what a lakh is

[malcontent]

Wow Mal.... Impressive that you know what a lakh is

Lots of friends from India.

[Lisafuller]

Hi,

I received a job offer from Singapore, which offers 9000 SGD per month.

I have 2 kids, one is doing her grade 3, and another one is in UKG. Currently in India, I can save about one lac per month after house rent and other expenditure.

In Singapore, whether I can save the same since the rent and school fees seem higher? and do you think the above salary is enough.?

Thank you.

Depends on where you decide to school your kids, where you decide to live and how you decide to get around, in addition to other miscellaneous expenses of course. The key here is that these are all personal choices, at a certain point it’s not about how much money you have but rather how you spend it. If you school your children locally, and live in an HDB or small condo, travel by public transport and don’t eat out very often you will absolutely be able to save one lakh per month. I did a short search and that’s about 1700 SGD, which is very much doable.

[Lisafuller]

Hi,

I received a job offer from Singapore, which offers 9000 SGD per month.

I have 2 kids, one is doing her grade 3, and another one is in UKG. Currently in India, I can save about one lac per month after house rent and other expenditure.

In Singapore, whether I can save the same since the rent and school fees seem higher? and do you think the above salary is enough.?

Thank you.

Budget between $2500-3500 per month for housing, including utilities.

For kids that age, budget between $1500-3000 per month combined for both your two kid’s school expenses, depending local or Indian International School. It’s important to work out what school they will attend in advance, as their can be waiting lists.

Those are your biggest monthly expenses.

Food for 4, including eating out on occasion should come in under $1000 and taking the train and bus around should be under $100 per person.

Consider other miscellaneous expenses, plus larger one-off expenses, plus trips back to India, but most of these categories should be lower 3 figure amounts when spread monthly over a year.

If you have a non-working spouse, you might be able to save money by not hiring a helper, tutors and/or spending on daycare, etc… that helps.

If you budget carefully, you should continue to be able to save at least 1 lakh, possibly more. But more important than that, you should consider your career growth potential if you move versus stay.

With concession, public transport will come out to less than $50 per person. If the kids have student cards, even cheaper.

[Lisafuller]

Wow Mal.... Impressive that you know what a lakh is

Lots of friends from India.

I was today years old

[malcontent]

Depends on where you decide to school your kids, in addition to other miscellaneous expenses of course. The key here is that these are all personal choices. If you school your children locally, and live in an HDB or small condo, travel by public transport and don’t eat out very often you will absolutely be able to save. Even saving yourself on utilities means a lot, electricity bills are on a high and it is often best to have a power saving companion with you

Access to HDB and local schooling is not always a personal choice… when you are an expat.

[smoulder]

Depends on where you decide to school your kids, in addition to other miscellaneous expenses of course. The key here is that these are all personal choices. If you school your children locally, and live in an HDB or small condo, travel by public transport and don’t eat out very often you will absolutely be able to save. Even saving yourself on utilities means a lot, electricity bills are on a high and it is often best to have a power saving companion with you

Access to HDB and local schooling is not always a personal choice… when you are an expat.

Access to HDBs on rent is not the hardest thing - but for sure access to local school is a huge challenge for kids of EP holders. That can significantly increase cost of living. The other thing is that even though renting an HDB can be achieved, the rent paid is almost always much higher than the owner's monthly mortgage. Not to mention the grants and subsidies that many HDB owners received from the government which further widens the gap in cost of living.

^ Just to highlight to some locally born folks just how much more it costs a foreigner for some basic things. Many do not understand this.

[Lisafuller]

Depends on where you decide to school your kids, in addition to other miscellaneous expenses of course. The key here is that these are all personal choices. If you school your children locally, and live in an HDB or small condo, travel by public transport and don’t eat out very often you will absolutely be able to save. Even saving yourself on utilities means a lot, electricity bills are on a high and it is often best to have a power saving companion with you

Access to HDB and local schooling is not always a personal choice… when you are an expat.

Access to HDBs on rent is not the hardest thing - but for sure access to local school is a huge challenge for kids of EP holders. That can significantly increase cost of living. The other thing is that even though renting an HDB can be achieved, the rent paid is almost always much higher than the owner's monthly mortgage. Not to mention the grants and subsidies that many HDB owners received from the government which further widens the gap in cost of living.

^ Just to highlight to some locally born folks just how much more it costs a foreigner for some basic things. Many do not understand this.

If the cost of school is footed by the employer, living here can be a great joy. Otherwise, it puts quite a bit of stress and burden on parents.

[malcontent]

Foreigners should be very careful about their affordability assumptions, with rents skyrocketing and the low cost schooling options eliminated, you really have to ensure you are financially supported by your employer, otherwise you could end up like me… with sore teats from all the milking.

[smoulder]

Access to HDB and local schooling is not always a personal choice… when you are an expat.

Access to HDBs on rent is not the hardest thing - but for sure access to local school is a huge challenge for kids of EP holders. That can significantly increase cost of living. The other thing is that even though renting an HDB can be achieved, the rent paid is almost always much higher than the owner's monthly mortgage. Not to mention the grants and subsidies that many HDB owners received from the government which further widens the gap in cost of living.

^ Just to highlight to some locally born folks just how much more it costs a foreigner for some basic things. Many do not understand this.

If the cost of school is footed by the employer, living here can be a great joy. Otherwise, it puts quite a bit of stress and burden on parents.

The employer isn't going to be footing school fees at that salary level.

[Lisafuller]

Foreigners should be very careful about their affordability assumptions, with rents skyrocketing and the low cost schooling options eliminated, you really have to ensure you are financially supported by your employer, otherwise you could end up like me… with sore teats from all the milking.

Yup. Singapore is very quickly becoming unlivable as a foreigner/middle income earner.

[Lisafuller]

Access to HDBs on rent is not the hardest thing - but for sure access to local school is a huge challenge for kids of EP holders. That can significantly increase cost of living. The other thing is that even though renting an HDB can be achieved, the rent paid is almost always much higher than the owner's monthly mortgage. Not to mention the grants and subsidies that many HDB owners received from the government which further widens the gap in cost of living.

^ Just to highlight to some locally born folks just how much more it costs a foreigner for some basic things. Many do not understand this.

If the cost of school is footed by the employer, living here can be a great joy. Otherwise, it puts quite a bit of stress and burden on parents.

The employer isn't going to be footing school fees at that salary level.

I know, just making a general comment.