Zero overseas travelling expenses in 2020 and 2021!
High medical costs as a private patient (previously on company's Class A medical benefits and down-grading is unlikely as it is better to stay with current specialists)
Health is wealth; but some health issues are not really within our control. Blame our DNA!
Posts
CW,
ReplyDeleteMiddle path.
Need to avoid extremes like earn $10 spend $11; or earn $10 save $9...
This Wuhan virus has turned out to be "forced" austerity for many of us.
Not that hard, is it? (Although frustrating)
Now imagine the reversed scenario where household expenses shoot up BEYOND retirement incomes through no fault of anyone (medical emergency)...
Those who don't believe in emergency funds and/or opportunity funds - cash must be fully invested at all times to prevent rotting - they'll learn raising liquidity in a short amount of time is a lot harder than austerity!
Uncle8888,
ReplyDeleteBasic living in S'pore still pretty much doable at roughly $1,300/mth per adult or about $16K per year ... this even includes regional holiday.
Healthcare or disasters are always the wildcard. That's why appropriate term-type insurance should be in-place beforehand e.g. Shield-types for hospital/cancer/dialysis, home & home-contents, personal accident, HPS or MRTI if got mortgage, and term life if got dependents.
Regarding the recent hoo-ha over researchers' $6,500 ... they are NOT that wrong. Their mistake is labelling it as a blanket "Minimum Wage", without giving a high weightage to the SES level of most of their survey participants.
As Smol says, different people different shoes. What is "minimum" is different for people with different incomes, lifestyle expectations, and individual & family-specific situations.
The govt's own Household Expenditure Survey in 2018 shows the following:-
$5,000 -- overall average monthly household spending.
$4,500 -- average spending for household with $8,000-$9,999 income (this is median household income).
$3,900 -- average spending for 4-rm HDB.
$5,500 -- average 5-rm & exec HDB.
$8,000 -- average condo. (Researchers' findings likely combination of 5-rm HDB & condo people LOL)
$5,900 -- average spending for household of 4.
$5,800 -- average spending for household with 2 working adults.
$2,500 -- average spending for retiree households.