‘Am I doing badly?’ Singaporean woman with under S$30k savings seeks reality check

SINGAPORE: Has seeing others flaunt their savings, property purchases, and investment successes online left many young adults questioning their own progress? 

Recently, a 29-year-old Singaporean who has less than S$30,000 in savings took to Reddit to ask fellow locals whether her financial situation is actually normal, or whether social media has simply distorted her perception of what financial success should look like.

In her post on the r/askSingapore subreddit on Friday (Apr 29), she shared that she’s been having doubts about whether her savings “are considered very little or fairly normal” because she frequently comes across conversations about goals such as saving S$100,000 by 30, buying a first condo by 35, or achieving FIRE, short for Financial Independence, Retire Early, by 40.

She also noted that a friend of hers, a 28-year-old male, has even fewer savings than she does.

“I was chatting with my friend (28M) yesterday about finances, and he mentioned he basically has no savings at all (<$2k).”

“Feels like online standards can sometimes be quite disconnected from reality, or perhaps I just need to work harder.”

Wanting a reality check from actual humans instead of finance influencers with suspiciously perfect spreadsheets, she asked fellow Singaporeans a simple question: how much do people in their 20s and around 30 realistically have saved these days?

She also invited others to share details like their age range, rough savings or investments, whether CPF is included, and what they personally consider “normal” financially in Singapore today.

“Everyone’s timeline is different.”

In the comments, many Singaporean Redditors told the woman that comparing her finances with those of others was neither particularly useful nor healthy.

As the saying goes, comparison is the thief of joy.

One commenter wrote, “Honestly, I think you’re doing ok. Comparison online can get quite skewed because people usually only share their best numbers. Having close to S$30k at 29 is already better than many people, especially with Singapore’s cost of living now. Don’t stress too much about those ‘$100k by 30’ milestones… Everyone’s timeline is different.”

Another commented, “Most people in their late 20s are still recovering from uni, NS delay, weddings, BTO planning, lifestyle inflation, or just plain old vanilla inflation. Having emergency savings at all already puts you ahead of many, if not most.”

A third added, “If you really want to compare, then ask your peers at work or friends of similar age/industry. Reddit is very diverse, and people lie every now and then.”

Meanwhile, others decided to share their own financial situations to give the woman a better sense of what life looks like outside of social media success stories.

One user shared, “I am 32. I have about S$8k in savings left. The remainder went into starting my business, which isn’t yet at a state of earning money back. It is essentially my unpaid full-time job until it does. All these other people in the thread citing big numbers look like Martians from another world to me.”

Another wrote, “I am in my 50s with less than S$1000 in savings.”

A third user admitted, “Mid 30s with about $3k in savings. After paying bills, I’d usually have around $1k+ left in my bank account to last until the next payday.”/TISG

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