Monday, March 02, 2009

What is comfortable salary in Singapore ?

Recently I am getting lot of comments which in my Cost of Living in Singapore post around comfortable salary in Singapore. Also some readers directly give their salary they are being offered in Singapore and ask whether this is enough. Most of these questions are covered in my Readers Mailbags

Even then I do get questions like these. So I thought of writing about it.

Q: What is comfortable salary in Singapore ?

A: Now do you think any one can answer this ? Meaning of comfortable can be different for everyone because it actually depends on what your are earning now and what is your expectation when you start living in Singapore. Singapore offers comfortable living to all levels of people who come here. So defining what is comfortable for you is upto you. If you are a bachelor and sharing apartment with 4-5 friends then you save big amount on rent. This way your comfortable salary comes down as compared to someone who is married and not sharing the apartment.

More than earning comfortable salary, I believe people are looking for more and more savings when they are moving to Singapore or for that matter USA. It cannot be like that. Earning and savings are two different things as it all depends on how much you spend(expenses) over a period of time. So always try to put the savings for a period of 1 year or 3-5 year term rather than trying to see how much you will start saving once you land here or any new country.

Q: I am going to get $3500 or $2500 will it comfortable for living ?

A: This is a typical question again. As you can understand that there are some basic costs involved in any country you live in. You can only reduce some of the stuff like Rent, if you are sharing with someone. But some other costs like Grocery, School Fees, Utility Charges, Commute etc is something for which you must budget some minimum amount depending on your own lifestyle.

So the answer to above question is something you need to figure out by researching the facts(Google is your best friend!) and probably asking questions to your friends.

If you still have more specific questions, I will try to answer as much as possible based on my own experience. Which will provide good starting point for you to research further.

cheers




Related Posts :


Tips for Renting Good Apartment in Singapore
Cost of living in Singapore for Married Couples
Cost of living in Singapore for Bachelor not sharing Apartment
Cost of living in Singapore for Bachelor sharing Apartment
Cost of living in Singapore for Married couple with one kid









4 comments:

Anuj Mittal said...

Hi Sandeep,

I am asking you a very similar question. A company is offering me SGD 5500 per month. Is it good enough to leave my permanent job here and go for this contract job? They are offering me a contract for 1 year and based on conditions they will renew my contract after that. I have makeup my mind to move Singapore but not able to decide what kind offer i should accept. Any help will be appreciated.

Thanks
Anuj Mittal

Shreya Sharma said...

Hey
Am an Indian student. Gonna leave for NTU in a month. Your blog's been very helpful! Just wanted to know if it would be easy for an Indian student to find a job there.

Anonymous said...

Hey Sandeep,
Are you a job consultant in Singapore ?
Of late i got to speak with a couple of job consultants in Singapore..they sound excalty like you ! just wondering if you where one among them :-)

Thanks,
Software Engineer ;-)

Sandeep said...

HI Shreya,

Thanks for reading my blog.

Yes you can get job here with some search. All you need is to find a role matching your profile.

regards
Sandeep