Moving to Singapore from India : Questions Answered !!

Thanks to my readers in 2011 who ask me questions via email or comments. I try to respond to as many as I can and to my best of knowledge.


There is this one particular question which I get asked in different ways. Look the following! :


Question 1) : I am Mr. X salary offered to me is SG$6000/month

• What will a 1 Bed Room condo, in a reasonably close by area, cost?
• Should I take an additional 10% margin over the numbers posted in your 2010 blog for 2012 cost of living?

I am paid close to INR 120,000 pm (After Tax and monthly saving of 40,000) in India do you think the salary offered in SG, I can meet a similar/better life style with the similar savings?

Question 2)  Is it enough for us to live comfortably with that salary in Singapore as we do live a very sophisticated and comfortable life in Chennai/Bangalore/Mumbai/Pune !.

My Answer :   First of all there is no simple answer to these questions!. But I will try to make your decision simple as I have gone through similar stage in my life when I was moving to Singapore. What you need to is to  breakdown your questions in to different logical ones rather than defining them like 'Comfortable' , 'Similar' or 'Reasonable' !!.

Most important is to understand that moving to a new country is your decision and you are trying to do this for your better prospects in life/career. You are moving to Singapore because you decided so and not due to the fact that you could not move to USA/UK or Australia!!. Once you are clear in your mind about the objective of moving to Singapore. The questions related to money part can be sorted out quickly.

Now coming back to comfortable salary and maintaining similar lifestyle as in your present country/city.

Questions you need to ask yourself :

1. What is present Salary + Perks ?
2. How much do I spend today per year ?
3. How much do I save today per year ? Yes per year makes more sense!
4. In my current occupation/job, what is my growth potential ? 
5. What is my current lifestyle ? here are some examples!
• I go and party every other week
• Play a game or Swim everyday
• My kids go to some activity every other day and that costs more than 30k INR p.a.
• I like to travel every 2 months and spend INR 1 Lac on each trip
• My Grocery bills in India goes up to INR 30k p.m.
• I enjoy driving and have 20 Lacs worth car which I drive!

Does above questions makes you more confused? Should not !! ..In fact these are the questions which will put value against the terms like 'Comfortable', 'Sophisticated' etc .

Now coming back to moving to Singapore from India. The biggest question readers ask is "How much I would be able to save if I get $xxxxx.xx Salary ?".

This depends on following lifestyle options you will choose to when you start living in Singapore! :

1. Accommodation : Condo or HDB, 2 BHK or 3 BHK ..Remember there is no 1 BHK!
2. Grocery : From Fairprice(a branded Shop in Singapore) or from Mustafa only. Indian Vegetables only or will have local ones.
3. School : Local or Indian International or US/AU International.
4. Transportation : Local Public Transport(Bus,MRT) or Private Car or Taxi!
5. Activities : Club Membership, Gym, Swimming etc
6. Outside Food : Indian or Local or International Cuisine.
7. Recreation : Going to Pub, Movie every week, Fine Dining every 2 weeks!
8. House Maid: DIY or Keep one! . Singapore has given an excellent choice in this area but it sets you back by $700 pm.

I hope this gives you more insight into Singapore Lifestyle!. Also comparing lifestyle in India and Singapore is different when it comes to overall facilities. Singapore is an International country with most sophisticated and modern facilities to offer but with a cost. So if you think that you can maintain similar lifestyle as in India, please do some comparison based on above questions and you will get a fair answer yourself.

Most of the time we calculate cost of living for basic necessities only like Accommodation, Grocery, School etc. You need to consider that when you start living in for longer duration(within 2 months infact!) you would need other things as well in life to live 'Comfortably' :)

You surely need to define the most important question of all, that is "Savings per year". If you keep this goal very clear in mind and with realistic calculations(they are still approx!). You will be able to meet your goal fairly good. Remember don't keep savings goals on per month basis rather on per year basis. This makes life easy!

Best of luck for your moving decision to Singapore and Happy New Year 2011!. 

Please email me on the above email address and I will respond

 Related Posts :

• Cost of Living in Singapore 2010
• Cost of Living in Singapore for Bachelors
• Cost of Living in Singapore 2008
• What is comfortable Salary in Singaopre ?

Moving to Singapore! ..Prepare yourself....

If you have already decided to move to Singapore, this post will help you to plan your move more systematically. What I will share with you all is my own personal experience on moving to Singapore 3 years back. I expect readers share their experience too which will help others.

• Plan things in advance : This is very important. You need at least one or two months in advance to plan things properly before you can actually take a flight to Singapore!. This also depends on whether you are moving as a bachelor or with family.
  
• Create a task list of all MUST do things before you move : I am not big fan of task list, but this one helped me a lot. I used task list to manage all my tasks I had to do before I moved out of India. To start with just list down all things comes to your mind as things you need to manage. This could include things like bank accounts, rental agreements, billing arrangements, selling your stuff or moving to some other place etc. Once you make the random task list go through it to make sure you categorize into 2 labels : Must DO and Optional. Tasks which are must do are the ones which requires your physical presence and important like Bank Accounts, Selling your Car, Settling Employer dues or incoming funds. Optional are stuff which can be managed even if you are not living in India.
  
• Money matters first! : Yes give importance to money matters first. If you are leaving your current employer make sure that you give them a date 5 days prior to your actual leaving date from current location. This way if things gets delayed, you have some days to manage those things!. Settle all current bills such as Utility bills, Telephone bills etc. Take stock of all your bank and investment accounts to see what things you need to do.
• Internet Banking is superb!: Till date if you were not having your bank and other investment accounts internet enabled, please do so immediately. Most of the banks are pretty fast in enabling accounts for internet. So just go to your bank and make sure you accounts are accessible from anywhere in the world!.
• Selling or moving your stuff : If you are not living in your own house or you do not have anybody taking care of your house then you need to decide on moving or selling your stuff on a immediate basis. There are many ways you can sell your old stuff like eBay, craigslist etc. If you are moving some of the household goods to some other city, keep sufficient time in your hands to manage that as well.
• Book your Air Tickets in Advance : This is more important if you are paying yourself for your relocation. There are many airlines now fly to Singapore from India like Kingfisher, Singapore Airlines, Air India, Malaysian Airlines etc. Instead of just looking for cheap tickets, look at the value provided by the airlines like check-in baggage allowance, cancellation policies, date change charges etc. I would prefer Singapore Airlines anytime for their flexibility in terms and conditions. One must check the T&Cs before booking. As these keep changing.
  
• What to carry to Singapore from India : Well this depends on whether you are moving goods using Air Cargo or just trying to manage stuff with your check-in baggage allowance. As a guideline I will suggest following things to carry if you are a family :

-- Basic Kitchen Utensils : For Indian specially Kadai!
-- Clothes : Formal as well as casual wear
-- Some Kitchen Appliances you are used to : Like a Grinder, Blender etc
-- Avoid carrying woolen clothes except a jacket or 2 in case you need to travel out.

• School Admissions in Singapore : This one is the most stressful part for parents back in India. Once you have decided, make sure that you make all arrangements with your school in India to get all documents and date finalized with school to get your deposit back!. In Singapore you need not worry too much about admissions in Indian International Schools as there are 3 of them and most cases your kid will admission in any one of them depending on your location preference.

I hope this helps everybody who is looking for some tips while moving to Singapore!.

cheers
Sandeep

Restuarant Review: Delicious Soup in Singapore!

If you are in Suntec sometime. Do try the Souperlicious @ Suntec Tower 4 1st floor. Till today they had only 1 veg option, but now they have 3 in total ..wow ..that makes lot of sense. It seems they had many requests from people like me asking for Veg. Soup. So the options are

• Minestrone
• Broccoli
• Tomato

I have tried Minestrone and Broccoli, both are excellent. They have regular bowls and large bowl options. Along with soup to make your meal more better they have Salads and Sandwitches too :) ..If you order a Combo(Soup + Salad + Choice of Drink) it comes to around $10+. Which is good deal for healthy meal.

Their preparation is good and the soup is always hot for your to serve. But do avoid going there when they are closing, as the taste seems not so fresh at that time and also you might not have the choice of soup you are looking for!.

So if you are coming to Suntec for shopping or visiting Flyer nearby. Do try this shop for their delicious soup :)

Enjoy!
Sandeep

Power of Less! ..use Craglist or eBay or whatever!

I am great fan of Leo. I am yet to order his book Power of Less. I had very good experience with Craigslist today. We recently bought a new bed for our daughter and I was thinking how should I dispose off her old baby bed. I though of ebay first!. Also at the same time I had put in the ad in craigslist.com ..its a great website with no frills advertising and connecting with buyers for your stuff which you want to sell. I posted the Ad and got 3 responses in just 2 days!. Today one the guy who was interested came in and took the bed :)...May be I was lucky to get fast response and deal over just in 3 days ..but I found this very useful.

So instead of using the ebay or Ezlink Yahoo Group. One can look at craiglist as well. So to multiply your chances of selling fast do post on all websites you know in your region.

Now back to Power of less!. We have decided to sell many of the things which are just lying in our house with no use ..e.g. a DVD Player. As we bought a new one recently(well that's against Power of LESS!), we need to sell off the old one. Why we bought the new one and how it benefited us in some way is a interesting story and I will post about that next time!

So being in Singapore which is your preferred website for selling off old/new items ? eBay or craiglist or ezlink @ Yahoo Groups ..or somthing else ..please share your experience for others benefit!

cheers
Sandeep

Money Transfer to India from Singapore..

Many people use Electronic Money Transfer services to transfer money to India from Singapore. I though of sharing my experience with everybody here. This will help you to make an informed decision about the services generally offered in Singapore and also I hope my experience in dealing with these parties helps.

Primarily I have been using two services

• Money2India
• Quickremit from HDFC Banking

Above services requires DBS Bank Account in Singapore. I would prefer DBS Savings bank account due to lower charges from them. Also understand that in Singapore every bank has Savings and Checking bank account seperatly, as in India we know that this is typically bundled together. So when you open an Savings bank account, you don't get a cheque book and also the deposit is lower. For availing cheque book facility, you need to open Checking Account and that has more deposit(typically SGD 3000 or more). The other option when banks offer checking account with no deposit is when you deposit your salary with them every month!

Money2India
This is a ICICI Bank service. They offer to transfer money electronically in 1 day to most of the Indian Banks who have Electronic clearing facilities. I found the service very good and reliable. They offer HTTPS security too. Most of the cases the money is transferred to the Indian bank in 2 days(it all depends when you initiate the transaction from Singapore!).

Quickremit
Although their exchange rates sometimes looks better. The website is managed by timesofmoney.com and does seem very professional to me. Many times I have found that after entering the login details, you are taken to the first page and when you click for transfer..it says you are logged out!. This typically happens on weekend's :) .. I am not sure whether other customers have also faced this problem. Again I am not very comfortable with dealing with money transfer services which are outsourced by HDFC to someone else. Not sure why HDFC is doing this.

The other good option to deal with this international money transfer is to have bank account with some of the International Banks like Citibank, HSBC or DBS etc(but again DBS may not have branches all over India). This way your money transfer is instant.

I have personally used Citibank and found it very good. As the Money is transferred instantly to my Citibank Account in India.

Most of the people are looking for better rates while transferring the money, that's why they look for these 3rd party services like money2india, quickremit, western union etc. But I guess it is better to deal with one bank and do transactions with them.

For example for today although Yahoo Currency rate shown is INR 32.52 for 1 SGD. Money2India is offering INR 32.20 and Quickremit is INR 32.19!. So it does not make difference which one you use. So it is better to use some good internet service which is reliable and offers support in case some issues. I believe in that case using your own bank is always better!

I hope you find this information useful!.

Please let me know if you know any other good services to transfer money to India from Singapore.

enjoy
Sandeep

Saving time with Internet Banking in Singapore

I remember my days when I first got my ATM card in 1998 in India from ABN Amro Bank!. Wow.I was so exited I showed it to everybody I met after that for few days !. Well it sounds crazy but now people have more credit cards and ATM/Debit Cards they ever need. ATM / Debit Cards saved lot of time as you would never need to goto Bank Branch to get cash!..also it made people spend more too :)

After that came Internet Banking and that saved more time. Also enalbed us to do more with ease any time any where ;)

So now how this is in differnet in Singapore? here u go ...

Adding post dated Fund Transfers or Payments

• This seems to me the best feature I have ever seen in Internet Banking after coming to Singapore in DBS iBanking. I am sure it would be there in other banks too. This saves lot of time for me as I can put my Utility or Rental Payments by setting a future date on it and it get tarnsferred on that date! It also enables me to schedule my payment activities in one go.

Setting up Maximum Limit on Transfers

• This feature for some faint hearted who feel that if they do some automated payments via Internet banking one day due to some software code malfunction bank would transfer all of their money to someone including some more in over-draft!. You could think of this scenario but essentially we need to keep good faith in the system and legal stuff so that Banks and other Institutions can improve their softwares to provide more sofisticated features to their customers. I heard there is a feature too by which you can open an non-transactional Internet Banking account too - that sounds cool!

Pre-defined list of companies for GIRO and Payments

• Again this is a cool feature which provides you list of most of the companies to which you would ideally pay like - Supermarket, Income Tax Authority, Utility etc. So with few clicks you can select the Payee and do your work quickly.
• GIRO(It is Inter banking payment facility). Again I hear about this term more in Singapore only. This is what is Electronic Clearing System(ECS) is all about.The best part I found is that when I do a GIRO ..I can cancel the GIRO arrangement anytime by going to my Internet Banking portal. Similar systems are in place in I guess most of the countries. But the feature is only good if it is fully automated. For example ..Indian Railway has excellent online tickting portal but when you need to cancel the ticket you need to visit the counter!

Enjoy Internet Banking!

Subscribing to mio TV from Singtel, ready for rough ride!

My last post was about savings on home entertainment. Well savings comes with a cost too!. I subscribed to mio TV recently and I am experiencing something which is never expected from technology solution like this. Well the reception quality of mio TV is good. One day i switched off the mio TV HD Box. After switching on it is not showing me TV Channels any more. It takes around 25 minutes to reset the HD box. It shows 1 Gear symbol first & then 2 gear symbols with some progress bar, but finally it shows red X and no TV channels :(

I called the mio TV helpdesk. The first thing he mentioned me is that I should try HARD reset of mio TV box. I did that too by pressing Power+Ok+down arrow button together. It did the same thing, again some progress bar, but nothing good after that. The Internet is working fine as well as the telephone line.

So I called the helpdesk again. This time he said that he needs to send an technician to my home to check the line. Also the appointment of the line man would be after 4 days :(. Wow ..what a technology.They don't know what's happening and most of the time they replace the HD box itself to correct the issue. This is not at all acceptable service level from a company selling technology solution like IPTV. One more thing, the help desk is immediately offering me the waiver for days when the mio TV is OFF. So that clearly means that they know this is a known issue.

Finally the technician arrived after 3 days. He is again doing the same reset procedure to understand the issue. This clearly shows the lack of technology know how with the support personnels. He is also calling the help desk to do some reset at their end.

So before you go for mio TV. Understand that this is a new service and could have teething problems like these. Be ready to expect some issues and do not switch off the HD box ever :)

I writing this post while the singtel technician is still at my place and the problem is still not resolved. I will update the post again about the outcome of the visit and waste of my 1 hour.

Update

Finally the mio TV is working fine as earlier. But in the process I lost 10 days of watching TV & they replaced 4 HD Boxes to get everything right :). Every time the technician came he wasted 2 hours of my time in running diagnostics on router & resetting HD Box. Also spent 30 minutes chatting with his fellows on backend support to pretend to do something!.

So next time you have issues with mio TV, make sure that it is not showing you progress bar or 1/2 gears on the screen and then red X at the end. If that happens it is most probably an issue with the HD box & get replacement immediatly rather than waiting long to diagnose it on your side and backend side :)

btw ..I could be wrong here in my judgment ..but hope this helps you next time you face any issue with mio TV!

Indian Restaurant Singapore : Raj Prime

Having been to the place 3 times in last 2 months, I think it is right time to write about it.

Location : 76 Syed Alwi Road near Mustafa

This is a typical Indian Restaurant in Singapore. Which serves North Indian & south Indian dishes too. I got reference about this restaurant in one of the excellent blog about food in Singapore : http://eatbma.blogspot.com/.

Overall the place is good for chat items(Papdi chat, raj kachori , paani puri etc ..) but for other dishes like Pav bhaji, north Indian dishes(I have not tried many though) I am not sure how good it would be ..I personally did not like the pav bhaaji, veg. cutlet at all. Also specially if you need to give any suggestion about the dish, busy evening is not a good time to talk to the manager about it :) One other thing is that sometime the dish is not served hot which is supposed to served hot ..e.g. pav bhaji !. While I find this problem in many Indian Restaurant's here, I like to eat Idli / dosa with Hot sambhar rather than having it served cold :(

If you are going on a weekend evening, then it is not the right place really as it really get crowded. Which is true for any restaurant though !!. About the service, they are quick but surely not good in serving with passion(which I have seen in some of other places ..specially at Khana Khazana in Hong Kong)

Though it is better than other usual places I have tried like Komala's(this is good for fast food like quick lunch, idli, dosa ..), Ananda Bhavan(same as Komala's) , it is certainly not a place where you want to go for a special occasion & expect a great food served to you !. I would still try this place few more times for chat items & write about it for the benefit of people who are searching for good Indian food in Singapore !.

btw till date I have not found a good Indian Restaurant in Singapore, which is reasonably priced & also serve authentic Indian Food ..may be I am expecting too much :)

website for HDB flats on rent in singapore

I got to know about one more website today which allows people to see HDB flats or Condo's on rent in Singapore. It is quite simple website with relevant information only. Also the good part is that it has many listings which are from direct owners too !!

Website : http://singapore.roomsdb.net/

enjoy !

Customer Service in Singapore Post !

A busy afternoon I went to Singapore Post's Branch office to send a letter to one of my friend in India. As soon as I entered I saw a big queue, I was about to stand last in the queue. But then one person comes to me(I was thinking why, is he trying to sell me some service to me :) ) ...No he was from Singapore Post Office !! . He asked me "What would you like to do sir ?", I said "I want to send this letter to India". He said no need to stand in the queue for that sir & he simply directed me to a Machine called as S.A.M.

S.A.M.™(Self-service Automated Machine) is your 24-hour automated post office that allows you to weigh your packages, buy stamps even pay your of bills and fines. And the touch screen makes it all so simple.

Now this is called as service !! .. I was not impressed by the Automation in Singapore, but the kind of service every person provides whether it is government office or privatively held company who cares for customers !! ...Is it something very hard to do this in India ? ...

I am from India & I know there are issues to implement things with growing population. But still there are ways where service can be better. Specially when it comes to post office, my experience with India Post is just great !!

Earlier post on the same subject :

Indian Postal Service ..Amazing !

Experince with Indian Postal Services

Blogging at Singapore Metroblogging

Hello everyone I have started blogging for Singapore Metroblogs. This will help me to write more about Singapore !!

Checkout : http://singapore.metblogs.com/

This blog will continue to get new posts about useful stuff & travel & recently personal finance as earlier !! ..so keep checking ...

btw Bangalore folks there is : http://bangalore.metblogs.com

Singapore : Rain City !!

Being coming here from Bangalore, India. I see lot of rain in Singapore since last 4 months I came here. Its good cooling effect when it rains. In Bangalore it used to rain only in a rainy season which is during june-july or sept ..



So when I first came to Singapore, I was asking this question about rainy season here & people laughed, it rains most of the time :)..So there is nothing like rainy season here ...



To checkout weather for Singapore : http://intranet.mssinet.gov.sg/nowcast/ ..pretty good forecast !!



Tips for people who are new to this city :

• Carry a small Umbrella always
• Book Taxi in advance when it is rainy day !..As there are more people looking for Taxi that day !!
• Plan more time for travel when it rains as sometimes there is heavy traffic on highways & busy lanes.
• go home early to avoid traffic :)

Some photos taken just now :

Choosinng Cable TV, Internet, Phone, Mobile Contracts in Singapore

I discovered it little late. So would like the people to understand this concept very well when they try to subscribe to any New Cable TV, Internet, Mobile, or Land Phone services from any of the companies in Singapore.

Being coming from India the concepts from getting into contracts for new subscriptions was little new to me.

For all the above services there are several companies like :

1. Starhub - http://www.starhub.com - Mainly for Cable TV
2. M1 - http://www.m1.com.sg/ - Phone + Internet
3. Singtel - http://www.singtel.com.sg - Phone + Internet

All the companies run "promotions" all the time. So this is very important to know that these companies run it all the time. They offer lot of discounts/gifts etc when they run promotions, one needs to choose between the discount & gifts they offer.

So points to remember before you finalize your contract with any of these companies :

• Research well to to understand which service you want & who is the best provider in your area
  
• Always look for best option in order to minimise the contract period & penalty in event of you breaking the contract
• Generally the contract is for 12 or 24 months
• The 24 months contracts is always better sometimes & offer maximum gifts like even Laptops in some cases !!
• Try to understand your need & subscribe based on that, not on the based on what you are getting as a part of contract ..e.g. One company is giving away Laptop(they say worth $1500) for your 24 months contract with them for taking 3 services(Cable TV+Internet+Phone). But if you break the contract within 24 months, you might have to pay $1000 back :) ..So decide what you want...
• Look for your needs - e.g. You want to make more local calls or IDD Calls.
• Some companies will offer Free IDD calls to India, USA etc for a fixed minimum rental per month. So if you are going to make more calls to that IDD destination make use of this facility.
• Generally breaking the contract is never profitable :(
• Never rush for the promotional offer or discounts, there is always something hidden in it. So take your time & then go for it.

Some more general Information for these services :

• Starhub Cable TV has only 3 Hindi Channels - Star Plus, Zee TV, Sony
• Internet Services by Starhub is advertised at upto 6000 kpbs speed. So it might vary, it is not a dedicated speed.
• Singtel promises to provide better Broadband than Starhub - I have personally not used it.
• Generally - the Local calls are charged at .15 cents per minute
• IDD to India from Starhub mobile is expensive, instead buy a calling card which gives upto 80 minutes for $10 value
• M1 has a 384 kpbs anywhere wireless broadband service which is cheaper & good if your Internet usage is not much : http://m1.com.sg/broadband/m1bb.htm

Disclaimer : The above points are written by me based on my own experience & may change depending on the offer going on by the company at any given time. So please check the offer before deciding.