blah said:Once in a while, a forumer will appear with details about his salary and expenditure and seek the advice of fellow HWZers about whether he can afford a car.
The answers will predictably fall into four categories.
(1) "Wah, you earn so much, can afford any car you like" (for any salary above $2.5k)
This type of answer is usually posted by non-working forumers like students or those serving NS, who think that anything about $1k is a lot of money.
(2) "I like honda civic type r because chio. u shld buy"
This type of answer is useless for budgeting purposes, but simply for +1 purposes. Again, this type of posting is usually by students or those serving NS.
(3) "I earn $5k/6k/7k per month but still take bus and eat rice + tau you"
This type of posting is usually by a forumer who earns a fair amount, but thinks he earns a lot and wants to show off how financially savvy he is.
(4) "Singapore cars so expensive if I go live in USA/Australia/Europe/Africa/North Pole the cars are so much cheaper, women more beautiful, jobs plentiful and food is tastier"
These are postings by 'politically aware' (i.e. PAP bashing) Singaporeans who seem to think that their job skills will allow them to migrate easily to other countries to work, when they don't realise that their skills can be done by a Chinese/Indian at twice the speed and half the price.
However, today, I will answer this question for you once and for all.
Step 1 Take your average monthly salary over the last 6 months and minus your average monthly expenses over the last 6 months. Note: If you don't know how much you earned or saved over the last 6 months, car ownership is likely to leave you in financial ruin.
Step 2 Add car allowance (if any).
Step 3 Minus public transport costs.
Step 4 Do you have enough money left to maintain the car you are thinking of (car loan, insurance, road tax, petrol, parking, ERP, maintenance, upgrade budget)? Note: If you never owned a car before and you do your calculations and you think 'oh my god, this cannot be right as it is so expensive'. Congratulations, add 10% to your figure and you now have the cost of car ownership in Singapore.
If YES, you can afford a car FOR THE TIME BEING (assuming you are happy to reduce your savings by the same amount). Note: If circumstances change (change job, lose job, lose car allowance, get married, got baby, loved one falls ill and needs medical expenses), then depending on whether you can sell the car without having to come out with money, you may be financially screwed.
If NO, you cannot afford a car. Sorry. Work harder or spend less, then maybe in the future can.
I just bought a Civic! lol...really ex...min have to spend 1.3k/mth, and that's excluding ERP,fines,servicing,parking outside home.