cdnxpatq wrote:Thats one of the things i really wanted to know,if the standard of living is much lower because I also heard the other side where some expats are saying its great given the relatively affordable regional travel and kid friendly environment.
Then again, life is what you make it to be. I'm here in Canada but my daily life is work, come home, play with the kids and watch a bit of tv before bed, repeat. But the weekends are pretty free.
I'm in the banking/finance sector. And no disrespect to anyone but based on the salary on offer, after the rent (4k?) schooling (5k?) food/transport(2k?) insurance/other expenses (say 1K) and then tax deductions, it doesnt leave much for savings or travel....but then again its pretty well the same for me in canada as well but at least i'm ever so slowly paying down a mortgage!
Hi, from my own experience for a family of 4, I am finding that my expenses are lower and my standard of living has gone up in Canada than when I was in Singapore.
Food: Used to be hawker center office-hour lunches for the adults and school canteen lunch for the kids, and home-cooked meals for dinners. We tended to put more beef and salmon on the dinner table to make up for the lunch quality. Now, its home-cooked meals lunch & dinner from Loblaws, Btrust, Fortinos, Longos and our food bills are lower.
Car: We scrapped our 2L car to get the rebate from LTA, and spent half of it to buy a 3L car of the same type, age and mileage. We used to mix our use of car with taking the MRT, but never taxis. Now we use the car 100% of the time.
House: We rented out our house on a 3000 sq ft plot and use a third of it to pay the mortgage for a house on a half-acre plot close to Lake Ontario. Income tax rates notwithstanding and for the same standard of housing it is easier to pay down a smaller mortgage in Canada than a large one in Singapore.
Work: Our work had not required traveling and evenings and weekends are relatively free. However, I see my friends fly the region for work a few times a month and work late evenings and weekends, and they have very little time for their kids. Incidentally, they are now out of Singapore too in search of a balanced family lifestyle.
Leisure: We used to spend our free time at home watching TV and hanging around at home or in the malls. Now we tend to spend more time outdoors and walk the numerous trails.
Sport activities: My kids and I like to cycle off-road and there are only limited places to do that in Bukit Timah, Mandai and Pulau Ubin, and the trails are too technical for my kids anyway.
Kid friendliness: For very young kids, there are well-equipped public playgrounds within HDB estates, in West Coast Park and Pasir Ris Park. But when they grow into tweens and teens, the options get fewer. Hanging out in airconditioned malls to beat the heat become their choice activity. There are no laws requiring kid safety equipment when cycling, if it is even possible at all to cycle safely on the streets. In Canada, the facilities extend the age ranges from young kids to older teens. Tennis courts in summer that become skating rinks in winter, organized structured fun swims and length swims in public swimming pools, street side hockey and basketball, grassy parks, leash-free dog runs, trails, lake and waterway canoeing, skiing etc.
Please note that what I have described applies only to me and you may have different circumstances. For example, your work might allow you evenings and weekends for the family, or it might not.
About the DVP, I'm afraid I am not familiar with it at 5pm. I am familiar with the QEW and 403 in rush hour, and I think that though it looks bad, the cars do move along albeit slowly in an orderly manner. After all, the cars do get to disperse somewhere into some suburb eventually. There are the occasional jerk who cut in and out, but it is better than having everyone driving bumper to bumper dueling with each other using their cars as weapons. The Singapore highways can be smooth flowing outside of rush hour, but when the jam builds up, the cars all got nowhere to disperse to because the endpoint is a HDB estate multistorey carpark, or the sea.
As you are a young family, your priorities will be different from those who are alone or without children. Those will have a different experience, and I'm sure it can get interesting for the unattached party types. I don't wish to discourage you from moving, after all, its not everyday one gets an opportunity to try living in a different environment. If you do, do it for the experience and adventure, to open your horizons. Its not always about the dollars and cents.
