echat75

my monthly wage will be $6900 with a housing allowance of $3500 per month. i will be working in central singapore. Will the house cleaner (husband) have to get a job or could we manage as a family on this? kids are currently 6 and 4 so no extravegant spendng on them needed. they also have free school places. we will have medical insurance. we also have no plans to live a lavish lifestyle and can budget well if we need to/have to!

Englishmum

No, it's not a great package re; your housing budget. The locals get subsidized housing or live with their parents, foreigners don't unless they become permanent residents. The housing budget is small, you might be able to get an apartment in an HDB block or live in a shoebox quite far away from the central area.

You will need money put aside for trips home (what if a family member back home is seriously ill or dies?). One of the main attractions of going to SE Asia is to explore the region, you will want to put money aside for that. Living on a small overcrowded island causes you to get 'cabin fever' after a while so every few weeks you will want to get out of Singapore and go somewhere!


You say the kids will have free school places - is this in an international school or a local school? Pros and cons for both - but there will always be
'extras' to pay for even if the tuition fees are covered. Have you got confirmation that the children have been registered and admitted into school(s)? The good international schools (the trust ie. non-profit making schools) usually have long wait lists and some people resort to home-schooling until a place becomes available - it can take months.

School trips are expensive, certainly the older the child is, as are birthday parties and gifts - typically the whole class gets invited for those in infant school lol! For local schools you are the bottom of the pile regarding school choice, all the local families get priority over school places for the Singapore public schools, so although your children will be offered a place it could be far away from where you are renting an apartment. Perhaps if this is the case, ask the company to put you up in an serviced apartment for the first month - which they ought to do in any case whilst you are looking for a home.

If your husband gets a job, you will probably need to have a live-in maid to look after the children before/after school and in the school holidays. The local schools have very different hours and holidays compared to British schools. I used to hear some Singaporean kids in our condo leaving for the bus at 6.10am in the dark....

Utility charges are very high in Singapore....it's the most expensive city in the world for expats, it has overtaken Tokyo and Zurich. You will have to be very frugal and you may have to forgo eating mainly Western food and alcohol. You will need to live more like a local on a budget like that.

Don't even think about having a car - it's just not do-able.

Sorry to be a Debbie-Downer, but that is how it is.

echat75

Yes, it's an international school ( st Joseph's) they will automatically get places. The head teacher said that prices for rentals have dipped and you can now get a decent place for around €3500 Singaporean dollars?!

ex reg

Great stuff from englishmum as per usual.
I was going to mention a lot of what she has but she's described things perfectly.

I dunno about schools in UK, assuming you're from UK, but schools here are very 'keep up or better still outdo the Jones's' with stuff for their kids.

echat75 you are correct and accom costs are now lower but I don't know about availability and not yet a lot lower.

I take englishmum's point about Sing being the cosliest city or was it country in the world in which to live and that fact did put off my nephew from coming here to work, but I believe that survey may well have been skewed by the cost of cars and accom. Still not cheap and we spend more here than we do in UK on our 6 months here 6 months there thingy. Accom and cars are paid for in both places so out of the equation for us.

A live in maid will cost around S$1200 per month with Gov taxes her wages and her food. That's OK but maids can bring a lot of difficulties for many varied reasons.We're on our fourth now over the last 12 years or so.
Two were great, one was only here to get away from an abusive husband and was happy to return home when we'd had enough of her and the present one is just on the acceptable side of average, but who knows for how much longer. Very difficult having a non-family member staying with you long term and the chemistry is difficult to get right.

Whether to come or not is entirely down to you and your family, the kids schooling may be the deciding factor. It's tough but if they are bright and willing to work they'll probably benefit as much as you and your husband.

dean350

You will also need to check what your annual trip home arrangements are. Some people get annual airfares for themselves and family - others get this once every two years - others get nothing. Also check about moving furniture out here and then back again. You can get 3 bed condos for $3500 but they will be 6-7 miles from the City Centre. Unless hubby is going to take the kids to school by public transport everyday then you will have to budget for the school bus. That's quite expensive at $600 per child per term at least. If you are careful with aircon usage then the elec and water bill will be about $190 a month. Try and get a condo that has ceiling fans as they will cut down your aircon usage. The bright spot is that of your S$6900 you will get to keep about 94% of it because income tax is very low here.