SINGAPORE: Many young working adults struggle to build their savings while balancing the cost of living in Singapore. However, one 26-year-old Singaporean woman has managed to save over S$75,000 since she started working at 22.
Posting her story on the r/askSingapore subreddit, she explained that her journey to accumulating this amount involved years of strict budgeting and financial sacrifices. To maximise her savings, she chose an incredibly modest lifestyle while working part-time jobs at university and transitioning into a full-time teaching profession.
To save money, she skipped breakfast and “mostly ate Maggie for lunch and dinner.” She also didn’t go on dates with her friends, didn’t buy herself new things, and worked hard to earn points on apps like Lumi and Yuu that she could trade for NTUC vouchers.
“I don’t buy new stuff, not even for birthdays or CNY. I also ran errands for money. My pay is quite low for my age group at around S$3.6k. So considering the amount of effort and self-restraint I need to save up for that S$75k as compared to my peers earning S$5-6k, going out and having fun but still have higher savings than [I do], it’s really not much,” she wrote.
“Money to me is always a sensitive issue as I have first-hand experienced how it affects one’s quality of life, health (medically), education, and relationships which may be why I am so hell-bent on saving no matter the means,” she added.
The woman also shared that she remains committed to growing her savings but is uncertain about how to achieve this, given the physically and mentally demanding nature of her job as a teacher. Additionally, with her responsibilities as a caregiver for her grandmother, she has limited time to take on extra work.
She looked to the online community for advice on doable and practical strategies to boost her income without taking on too much work in light of these difficulties.
She asked, “Is there any advice on anything stable to work on, like maybe investing (?) to get more side income without affecting my main job and my caregiving time for my grandma?”
“The best approach to earn more is to leverage your existing skill set.”
Her post quickly gained traction, sparking a range of responses from fellow Redditors. Some were amazed by her discipline and praised her strong financial habits, while others were concerned about her health.
One Redditor said, “You should not compromise on your health – it doesn’t cost that much to eat healthy, and that bit more you spend will pay great dividends in the future. Food is cheap. You know what’s expensive? Heart surgery.”
Another commented, “Actually why are you reducing your quality of life by skipping breakfast, eating Maggie and saving so much money? It defeats the purpose, seriously. Sounds like something is wrong. Hoarding so much money also doesn’t make sense. For health, buy [a] hospitalisation plan, accident plan and Pru women’s plan, [and] you will be well covered.”
Several Redditors also offered practical suggestions for growing her income without overworking herself. One suggested, “Maybe go into teaching tuition? Heard tutors with teaching experience fetch a higher hourly rate. The idea is to get paid more while doing lesser admin work. Any teachers turned tutors can share their experience???”
Another recommended, “Maybe [you] can consider creating high-quality teaching materials and selling them. The best approach to earn more is to leverage your existing skill set and domain knowledge in a different context.”
Her experience raises an essential question: how do we save effectively without sacrificing our entire well-being? What does a sustainable approach to saving and living well look like?
In other news, a Singaporean worker took to social media to vent about her “useless” colleague who hasn’t been pulling her weight since joining the company.
In a post on the r/askSingapore forum, she explained that this colleague holds a “lead title” but has only been handling the tasks of a temporary staff member whose contract expired because she could not manage her original responsibilities.
Read more: Worker says her ‘useless colleague’ earns more than her but is doing less than a temporary staff
Featured image by freepik (for illustration purposes only)