Family and salary consideration

[JohnSin]

Hello everyone
Been doing a lot of research lately about a possible relocation for our family to Singapore. I need your help assessing the viability of the proposed package and my associated/suggested budget:

Our family: 2 adults + 2 young children (1 & 4)

The package (negotitation ongoing)
salary $140K
housing: "only" 3 months of service apart, no further help
relocation: moving expense and airfare for the 4 of us.
"Generous" health insurance

The proposed budget (according to current research/various inputs)
Housing: $48K per year or $4000 per month
Schooling/toddler care: $35K including transportation (I know it is cheap compared to other intern' schools, but that's the costs from the school in question)
Tax: $11K
Food: $20.4K or $1700 per month or $55 per day
Utilities $5K or $460 per month
Travel $13K includes $4K for the annual trip back home
Transportation $3.3K mostly public or $280 per month
Health insurance: only $2K as heavily covered by company
Misc $7K
Total $144K (looking to negotiate more than the current $140K, if not succesful will not go...)

Potential upsides:
annual bonus
spouse income

We are not looking for a fancy life style (that's for sure with our budget ) just enjoying local life ans some travel.

Please be free to comment, add you constructive criticism
or experiences from a similar family expatriation?

Thank you in advance,
John.

[nutnut]

Hi John,

I'll do my best to help, I know families of the same sizxe who have lived off that kind of money with no issue.

Hello everyone
Been doing a lot of research lately about a possible relocation for our family to Singapore. I need your help assessing the viability of the proposed package and my associated/suggested budget:

Our family: 2 adults + 2 young children (1 & 4)

The package (negotitation ongoing)
salary $140K
housing: "only" 3 months of service apart, no further help
relocation: moving expense and airfare for the 4 of us.
"Generous" health insurance

The proposed budget (according to current research/various inputs)
Housing: $48K per year or $4000 per month Perfectly viable for a 3 bed condo outside of the main city, not an issue
Schooling/toddler care: $35K including transportation (I know it is cheap compared to other intern' schools, but that's the costs from the school in question)May I ask which school? bear in mind they may put their rates up at new year!
Tax: $11K Probably won't be that much with 2 kids, you get a rebate.
Food: $20.4K or $1700 per month or $55 per day This sounds reasonable, maybe a little on the high side, we spend $300 a week on groceries
Utilities $5K or $460 per monthwith aircon on all the time in every room, probably, if you get some ceiling fans then you can half this
Travel $13K includes $4K for the annual trip back home Cannot comment, this is personal how you travel
Transportation $3.3K mostly public or $280 per monthfor 4 of you on MRT and bus and the odd taxi, this is fine, maybe a little high actually.
Health insurance: only $2K as heavily covered by company
Misc $7K
Total $144K (looking to negotiate more than the current $140K, if not succesful will not go...)

Potential upsides:
annual bonus Ask if you get a 13th month bonus, this normally pays your tax Then you can rule that out above.
spouse income

We are not looking for a fancy life style (that's for sure with our budget ) just enjoying local life ans some travel.

Please be free to comment, add you constructive criticism
or experiences from a similar family expatriation?

Thank you in advance,
John.

Are you looking to save anything? Or is this just a few years of enjoying Singapore for what it's worth?

Bear in mind with extra curricular activities and stuff, schools can be very much more expensive.

Just a note

[JohnSin]

Thank you very much for your comments and sugestions!

Following up on your questions:

School: The French School, you are right for the fees, it's for this school year. Good point it may very likely go up!

Tax: I used the excel spreadsheet from the ministry to compute it, I saw the rebate associated with children, but I understood it was for citizen only? hopefuly I'm wrong

Savings: annual bonus and possible spouse job

Yes, if the package is right, doable for a family of 4, it will be about enjoying 3-5 years Singapore and doing a bit of travel in Asia.

Thank you again!

[the lynx]

Yes, if the package is right, doable for a family of 4, it will be about enjoying 3-5 years Singapore and doing a bit of travel in Asia

Trust me, Singapore is a great hub to hop around Asia for travelling and it is cheap too, especially within South East Asia. Think about the islands, beaches and the FOOD!

You will look forward to it

[nutnut]

Thank you very much for your comments and sugestions!

Following up on your questions:

School: The French School, you are right for the fees, it's for this school year. Good point it may very likely go up! They should be able to advise now what this will go up to, our kids school has already identified the increase in rate

Tax: I used the excel spreadsheet from the ministry to compute it, I saw the rebate associated with children, but I understood it was for citizen only? hopefuly I'm wrong Yes, I have two kids too, there is a foreign allowance, not the same as the PR/Citizen one

Savings: annual bonus and possible spouse job

Yes, if the package is right, doable for a family of 4, it will be about enjoying 3-5 years Singapore and doing a bit of travel in Asia.

Thank you again!

[JohnSin]

Yes, looking forward to the travel

School: I'm going to check the new fee schedule for the upcoming year

Tax: That's good news, did not see that in the IRAS website, I saw it was for children born in Singapore and/or for parents who are Singaporian citizens:
Source: http://www.iras.gov.sg/irasHome/page04.aspx?id=1528

Thank you again

[nutnut]

Yes, looking forward to the travel

School: I'm going to check the new fee schedule for the upcoming year

Tax: That's good news, did not see that in the IRAS website, I saw it was for children born in Singapore and/or for parents who are Singaporian citizens:
Source: http://www.iras.gov.sg/irasHome/page04.aspx?id=1528

Thank you again

The travel is excellent, cheap and food as Lynx said is brilliant!

Here is the link for the tax deductables Check the QCR.

I am not even sure what else can be claimed, I only knew of the QCR< I'll be calculating the rest in my next tax bill

[JohnSin]

Just looked at the link from IRAS and found the following "personal reliefs for tax residents" (as expatriate)

- Spouse relief: $2000
- Qualifying child relief: $4000 per child

Am I reading it right? It is $10000 tax relief per year? (with 2 kids)

Wow, on a tax bil of $11000, the remaining balance would be $1000...
Impressive tax system in Singapore if I'm correct on that one.

[sundaymorningstaple]

Sorry to burst your short term bubble, but the child reliefs & wife reliefs are reductions of taxable income and not direct tax credits.

sms

[JohnSin]

Yes, I had that reading in mind, all right, the net gain is $1400 considering the reduced taxable income. Thank you for the info.

Any green card holer out there to give the magnitude of US federal tax on $140K? (no rental income, mortgage or complex deductions)

[zzm9980]

The first ~94k USD (adjusted for inflation every year, not sure the current rate) of earned income (which it sounds like thats all you have) is excluded. Everything above the excluded amount is taxed at your calculated bracket for total earned income. So at 140k, you're taxed on everything over 94k at the bracket if you had no exclusion.

any reason you're keeping that green card? Pretty expensive annual fee for that piece of paper

[zzm9980]

oops, two different currencies... $140k Sin -> ~$110k USD. So not quite as expensive. You'll be paying taxs on about $15k USD (but at the ~$110k bracket). I'm guessing ~$4-5k USD?

[aster]

Ok, so it's basically a 140k package but housing and school fees come out of your own pocket?

I think housing is the key here. If you can stick to 4k then you'll be alright. But prices have shot up tremendously in recent times so I'd give the housing market a quick check so that you know where you stand.

[JohnSin]

Thank you zzm9980 for your replies, you are right this piece of paper/plastic could be expensive after several years in Singapore
From the IRS website:
"Maximum Foreign Earned Income Exclusion Amounts by Year"
- Tax year 2012: $95,100
- Tax year 2011: $92,900

So as married filed jointly, with US$109K (current exch rate), we are in the 25% bracket, so the annual tax bill would be $2725
(the minimum of this bracket is $69K we don't have many deductions

Thank you also aster for your answer, yes no support for housing/education and I agree, I have been browsing the site . like a madman
It seems that $4000 in districts 19 or 14, not far from the school and close my work, give us some good flats (3+1) Those districts are OK? Family wise? (i.e. some parks, etc...) I know "ok" is so subjective in this case, but maybe someone has a strong opinion about those 2 disticts

[zzm9980]

If all you need is some stuff like parks and playgrounds for the kid, take a look at a few HDB rentals too. You have three months for your service apt, so that should be plenty of time. When I was looking, 5-room (3-bed, ~1200sq/ft) HDBs on the East Coast were ~$3000/month. They should be a bit cheaper in other areas.