Why Most Singaporeans Are in Debt

[sleepy]

Just to chip in my two cents. I believe in 省钱有道，该花时不能省。


Differentiating between wants and needs is an important first step in 省钱有道.
That would sieve out unnecessary / excessive spending.
For instance, if a family needs a car for transport, do they need a BMW? It's a want but certainly not a need. I suppose a toyota would serve the transport purpose well enough.

And for the occasional indulgence, look for the best bargains. There are plenty of good deals during GSS for non urgent items like watches, branded handbags. Furthermore, with so many sales throughout the year, there is really no need to pay 'full' price for anything.

Also, 该花时不能省。For instance, eating instant noodles every day to cut cost is definitely not saving but commiting suicide slowly in my opinion. No offence to instant noodles manufacturers :siam: Eat nutritiously, be generous in quality but not quantity because need watch the weighing scale and defintiely not eating leftover or too much processed food.

The final point to add is - definitely must be pound wise at all times but alright to be penny foolish sometimes

[Mychildren]

To Imami,


I'm SAHM, my son egg mayo lover.

On diet, what kind of diet, is it those that wants to be slim? :scratchhead:
Yes, on diet to be slim needs a lot of discipline.
I can't do that because I thin to be on diet. I love to eat.

Yes, something can look for cheaper alternatives, but some cannot especially electronic stuffs, you need them to be reliable & quality counts here. :idea:
When its good, its lasting & don't need to be repair or replace so often.

Think u must be a good listener else they won't choose u to complain. Switch off your hears or go else where instead when u don't feel like listening to complains. Take a break, have a kit kat. :hugs:

[jedamum]

sleepy:

Mychildren:

Sleepy, the following might be sensitive, I must declare that I had nothing against u, OK? I've been pondering about your 50% and I always tends to think things the other way round.... :scratchhead:


Maybe your take home or earnings is double or triple of us, that's why u can save 50%........... :roll:

No la no la where got so rich (I wish though! )

Normally can loan up to 40% of income. If no loan, that 40% immediately become savings loh. And with small pay increment % accumulated over last 6 years and persistently thrifty & with lowering expenses (we used to spend more on kids when they were younger), we can easily save another 10%

Or I got my Maths wrong :scratchhead:

So you don't mean cash savings do you? Do you not use cpf for the housing loan? I think saving 50% is a great achievement, doable when above certain income level or if kids no tuition! We have little cash savings, but cpf 100%savings consider as 100% saving monthly?

[jedamum]

We sold our fully paid up car recently as it was underutilized and considering the kids are fully mobile to take public transport with little fuss. Even with the addition savings per month from carparking, petrol, car maintenance, insurance etc after factorimg in additional public transport cost, we have minimal saving as we opted to spend that money now on stuff that used to take us very long to convince ourself to commit, like that extra math class , a piano for our beginner learner, coffee machine, restaurant visit , couple dates outing etc. Dh feel so much more relax and stress free with this extra guilt free money. We maintain a fixed sum of savings from my working days and try to enjoy life a bit now with these little rewards.

[Mychildren]

jedamum,

I also do agree with u on this: try to enjoy life a bit now with these little rewards.

If you don't enjoy now, when then? Also $$ earn to be spend & save for rainy days. But spend wisely. I'm not good at this but my DH is good at it. I'm learning from him too.
Ya, also need to learn to love & appreciate life too!

Good day to jedamum, you want any makeover from Doc ksi???

[jedamum]

Mychildren:

jedamum,

I also do agree with u on this: try to enjoy life a bit now with these little rewards.

If you don't enjoy now, when then? Also $$ earn to be spend & save for rainy days. But spend wisely. I'm not good at this but my DH is good at it. I'm learning from him too.
Ya, also need to learn to love & appreciate life too!

Good day to jedamum, you want any makeover from Doc ksi???

Good day to you too!
Lol. DR Ksi has her plate pretty full, it seems.
Ds2 down today. And ds1 looks next. Thank goodness that school holidays are coming.

[Imami]

Mychildren:

To Imami,


I'm SAHM, my son egg mayo lover.

On diet, what kind of diet, is it those that wants to be slim? :scratchhead:
Yes, on diet to be slim needs a lot of discipline.
I can't do that because I thin to be on diet. I love to eat.

Yes, something can look for cheaper alternatives, but some cannot especially electronic stuffs, you need them to be reliable & quality counts here. :idea:
When its good, its lasting & don't need to be repair or replace so often.

Think u must be a good listener else they won't choose u to complain. Switch off your hears or go else where instead when u don't feel like listening to complains. Take a break, have a kit kat. :hugs:

The “enforcement on diet” I am referring to not just refer to those who want to be slim, also for instance a diabetic who needs to control his/her sugar intake. Something like one just cant eat as one wishes. Likewise for spending, one needs to scrimp and forgo certain things because one needs to save (for whatever reasons). These are painful situation to me. I love to eat too, so it is really painful to be on diet.

I am not exactly a 24/7 squirrel. I spare no expenses in terms of food, clothes, (esp inner wears like singlet, underwear, socks etc for my child and hubby), transport but I spend reasonably. E.g. a good % of our grocery bills is spent on fish and TCM stuff like American ginseng and bird nests. But I look for good deals and buy in bulk to bring down the costs. For clothes, I buy the pricier ones but those plain white/no frills (no frills no colour are cheaper but still same material) for my child. Something like that.

I console myself that they like me enough to tell me their problems

[Mychildren]

jedamum,

Do take care of yourself too else u might be next. Yes, thank God, CA2 over. My elder one p4 going camp today. Can't disclose the school & venue of camp if not some will know who I am. Kekeke

Imami,
U don't need to console yourself. You're doing a good job as a working mum. This year, I spent more on food cause they're growing up & eating more. My elder one can go for 3 bowls of rice, his metabolism high.
Clothes neither do I go for branded ones, but comfortable & not easily out of shape type cause I dump all into washing machine. Ocassionally, maybe once or twice a year, a few dresses during sales to keep for special occasion & chinese new year.
Most of my children clothings are 2nd hands one. Don't know why a lot of people want to pass theirs to my children. Kekeke. But this year, I need to start buying for my boys only, no more people passing me boys' clothing. Maybe their kids growing in slower rate or they smart enough to buy bigger size ones.
Ya, I heard white fungus has the same effect as bird nest & much cheaper. U can find out on this area as it'll definitely reduce your expenditure on bird nest. Kekeke, bird nest sellers will hate me after this. :evil:

[Funz]

Imami:

Funz:

[quote=\"Imami\"]Another example - they buy cut fruits from fruit stalls. I buy whole fruits like apples from Ntuc. We all get our daily dose of fibre but I pay $2-3 for one week. This $2-3 only lasts them 2-3 days...

While we should be not spending like there is no tomorrow, I think to spend a couple of dollars on coffee and fruits is acceptable, especially if you are not in dire straits lah. If you are nose deep in depts and trying to make ends meet then yah, should not even be eating out for lunch.

Everyone have areas where they are willing to spend a bit more on and other areas where they will stinge on. Your yardstick and theirs may be different.

For me I will not stinge on food but I do not see the need for the latest fastest coolest gadgets. DH is the other way around. He refuses to buy drinks for the kids at the foodcourt saying it is expensive but he buys them tons of toys. When my kids ask for books, I will not hesitate to get them, but DH does not think it worth it to spend money on books. But he will not hesitate to get them branded sports shoes which I think is a waste of money as the children outgrow them so fast.

The main thing is spending within your means. Give yourself some leeway for some luxuries so long as it does not put you into debts. There is no shame in that.

I am only trying to give some examples on how one can save without much pain. Many people fail to see how those little here, little there can amount to big sums.[/quote]Just had the impression that you were criticising your colleagues' choice. My bad. :imsorry:

I agree that little things do add up.

Just like I buy housebrand toilet & tissue paper or whatever is on offer now instead of scotts or kleenex. Houseproud floor tissue instead of magic clean and on the way back to good ole broom.

[Funz]

MMM:

First and foremost, don't , I just want to present another view. No right and wrong.

I agree that these are very good values. Dh used to think like that as well. He got very hung up on \"splurging\" because he felt that he can only do so when we are eventually \"debt free\" and sometimes he would become \"paranoid\" when we talk about the housing loans, etc.... Currently our outstanding loans is around 20%+ of the property value and we are targetting to repay everything within 15 years.

However, I also hold the thinking that life is short, if we work hard to earn a living, it's ok to pamper ourselves once in a while. There is nothing wrong with going for that holidays or buying that desired watch/ handbag. It's just my personal thoughts that there is a time for everything. I don't want to be going on holidays only when I am in my 50's and when my leg start to ache and couldn't take walking around to explore. Pls do not be offended as I am not talking about you. I am just thinking about myself. With that in mind we do bring kids + parents for holidays. To me, it's also an exposure for the kids to see the world. Whenever dh start to count.... oh we could have save so much every year if we don't do holidays and this could go into housing loan. I simply tell him, our parents are in their 60's and 70's, how many 10-20 years do they have???? So don't get too hung up and regret not doing so later on.

My fil only retired at mid 60's. He don't earn much, has 5 kids to bring up and mil was a housewife. But despite that, he managed to build decent savings through investment, etc.... They are very thrifty till the extent that they will keep leftover food though it's a little left. My parents is the opposite, don't believe in keeping leftovers, not rich and probably hand to mouth? I am not driving that we must keep leftover food to get rich... :roll: Fil used to work for one of SQ companies and heard that based on old scheme, they are actually entitled to free tkts when they retire. It has been 10 years since he retired. We've never seen them travelling on those schemes. Don't think they will as they are getting older now. Sometimes I tell dh that his parents are already old, they should 看开and enjoy life. Don't get too hung up with the dollar and cents since they can well afford it.

So agree with this. Save, we must but don't turn into a scrooge. End up with a lot of moolah but dunno how to enjoy.