Should I save aggressively during my late 20s?

samfly

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Hello,

I am 25 foereigner living with my wife in SG. While my wife cooks most of the time, I love frequent eating out and travel. Currently, my savings is slightly below 1/3rd of my income in that lifestyle. I don't have any loans outstanding for me and we plan to have kids around 29. My wife still don't work, but planning to start soon.
Now my question is, I can cut around $S500 per month if I am a bit careful with my money regarding my lifestyle. Is it worth to live frugal and save money for the future?
 
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luvalist

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Will be good if u do so now coz with kids drain a lot of money (for us) but again depending on how u use the money.
 

BBCWatcher

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For perspective, for what it's worth, comparably situated Singaporeans and Permanent Residents are saving as much as 37% of their gross incomes from work, because that's the maximum savings rate for their CPF contributions (including employer contributions). So, in that sense, many people are doing a bit better than you are currently in terms of savings rate.

However, if your wife is going to start working, and thus household savings will rise more or less in line with her income (after tax of course), then your household savings rate is going to be higher than most households in Singapore.
 

Solano

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When I was at your age, I saved more than 80% of my pay and then invested those.

Hello,

I am 25 foereigner living with my wife in SG. While my wife cooks most of the time, I love frequent eating out and travel. Currently, my savings is slightly below 1/3rd of my income in that lifestyle. I don't have any loans outstanding for me and we plan to have kids around 29. My wife still don't work, but planning to start soon.
Now my question is, I can cut around $S500 per month if I am a bit careful with my money regarding my lifestyle. Is it would to live frugal and save money for the future?
 

Solano

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The first and most important investment is buying a flat so I and my wife could stop wasting money on rentals. Then I moved on to unit trusts and stocks. Of course at first not exactly profitable but slowly improved over the years.

What did you invest in and how did the investment go?
 

Solano

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Back then my wife and I had combined income around 4K+, so 20% of that was not too bad. My tip: marry early, buy your first flat early and have kids early, then you can concentrate on accumulating wealth. Another tip: learn to cook.

also, what was your salary roughly then? do you have any tips on living on just 20% salary
 
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Purplestars

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Back then my wife and I had combined income around 4K+, so 20% of that was not too bad. My tip: marry early, buy your first flat early and have kids early, then you can concentrate on accumulating wealth. Another tip: learn to cook.

What year was that? 2 people living on $800 a month is incredible
 

SBC

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That’s history. After next election, we should be looking forward to 9% GST and higher.
 

easyippt

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haha 400 per person is alright if rental isn't an issue. i'm in the process of tracking and tightening my wallet... realised (at least now rather than later) the importance of saving for an early and comfortable retirement.

thanks for the advice! but marrying early i'm not too sure..............

btw all you pros out there, how do you come up with a target figure to hit? is it based off your estimated needs (target figure derived from housing loans etc), or more of a personal target thing (figure derived from a % of your annual salary - like if i earn 50k pa I'd want to save say 60% of that so my 10 year goal might be 300k assuming things are stagnant).. or something else

Back then my wife and I had combined income around 4K+, so 20% of that was not too bad. My tip: marry early, buy your first flat early and have kids early, then you can concentrate on accumulating wealth. Another tip: learn to cook.
 

Solano

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Well, we bought our first flat shortly after marry so could quickly get our CPF to handle the mortgage fully. So really not too bad.

I didn't have a target to have how much by when. I still don't have a target now that I retired to handle my investment full time. If you always spend minimum and save/invest maximum then really there's no need for a target.

haha 400 per person is alright if rental isn't an issue. i'm in the process of tracking and tightening my wallet... realised (at least now rather than later) the importance of saving for an early and comfortable retirement.

thanks for the advice! but marrying early i'm not too sure..............

btw all you pros out there, how do you come up with a target figure to hit? is it based off your estimated needs (target figure derived from housing loans etc), or more of a personal target thing (figure derived from a % of your annual salary - like if i earn 50k pa I'd want to save say 60% of that so my 10 year goal might be 300k assuming things are stagnant).. or something else
 

ExtremeWays

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Well, we bought our first flat shortly after marry so could quickly get our CPF to handle the mortgage fully. So really not too bad.

I didn't have a target to have how much by when. I still don't have a target now that I retired to handle my investment full time. If you always spend minimum and save/invest maximum then really there's no need for a target.

How about staying with parents so that CPF can be compounded?
 

SibehHL

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Everyone needs to save up but not sure why we need to "discipline" ourselves to save "aggressively"? If you are drawing 10K per month, saving 80% is of course reasonable but if one is making 2K monthly?

Personally, I believed a young person need to spend some money. Go out, do things you can't do but wish to when you were a poor tight budget student. Not telling anyone to spend every cent you have and then some more....

Get a taste and the good feeling when spending money, for some, including myself, it provide the push to go make more money. Just remember, someone saving 50% of his 10K salary is 2.5x of someone saving "aggressively" 100% of a 2k salary.
 

maumu

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it's good to save aggressively younger than older. with the savings u can start making small investments and let them roll... compounding over time.

it depends on your lifestyle - do you party a lot? splurge on techs and atas food? any habits like smoking, etc.? some things are hard to change.
 
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