56% of high earning millennials do not feel successful?
I refer to the article “Are high costs of living why 56% of high earning millennials in Singapore do not feel successful?” (The Singapore Daily, Dec 1).
It states that “Even with a minimum income of $100,000, only 44% of the top 20% of earners in their age bracket surveyed felt that they have already achieved success or are confident about being financially successful.
Most expensive city in the world?
While the report did not mention any specific reasons, it could appear that the high costs of living in Singapore are some impediment to affording material goods which are symbolic of success.
This 44% optimism can be contrasted with an average of 59% for the other markets which include the Britain and Australia. The most confident were millennials from India with 77%.”
Fear of losing one’s “success”?
The primary reason for the lacking in confidence may be the fear of losing their jobs and wage cuts due to competition from foreigners.
In this connection, the percentage of non-Singaporeans has been increasing to about 47 per cent of the workforce now (without any adjustment for the huge numbers of new permanent residents (PRs) (about 30,000 a year) and new citizens (about 20,000) granted in recent years).
The statistics now indicate that the higher one’s education, and the older one gets – the higher may be the probability of losing one’s job – and the harder and longer the time needed to find another job.
Can’t afford private property?
To illustrate with an example – if a person earning $100,000 a year uses about $2,000 a month (about 25 per cent of income) to buy a private property – one can only get a housing loan of about $542,000 (80 per cent loan).
Thus, being only able to afford a property price of $677,500 – not to mention that one would have to save $135,500 to pay for the typical initial 20 per cent down-payment in the first place.
Generally, $677,500 may not even be enough to buy a 2-room private apartment.
So, is it any wonder that “The report also noted that “Millennials in Singapore feel their progress is stalling compared to their parents’ generation””.
With regard to “For instance, a new entry-level BMW 3-series – which is widely seen as a car for successful young professionals – start at US$33,000 in the USA while the same car costs S$174,000 in Singapore” – if one owns a car with the typical monthly motoring expenses of about $1,500 – there may not be much left of the annual $100,000 income to pay for the home mortgage, living expenses and save for retirement.
Leong Sze Hian
