By: Reditter DaveDashFTW commenting on the post ‘Some Ang Mo lived in SG and Sweden compares living, taxi and food‘.
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I think life is better outside Singapore under a certain income threshold, but life is pretty good here over a certain income threshold.
Apart from the lower tax rate, It is because there are a lot of convenience services here; foreign workers, excellent taxi services, to your door services for a whole bunch of services, etc. You can’t get a lot of this back home, even if you have money, because these services simply don’t exist.
Singapore though is remarkably safe and exceptionally clean, multi-cultural, and schooling here is fantastic – if not a bit too grades focused – so there and great things here regardless of income. Those factors combined with the lack of drinking and drug culture here, compared to where I come from, makes it ideal for raising kids.
I’m pretty happy to be here honestly. I just need to work out the local shortcuts to live a cheaper life.
I find I am bleeding money in SG at a rapid rate, more so than where I came from – Melbourne – which isn’t exactly cheap either. But I am starting to work out there’s two Singapore’s.
There’s the “cheap” Singapore where life isn’t actually that great (comparatively to where I am from) – the quality of life is better back in Australia I reckon for lower/middle income earners. Then there’s the expensive SG, which is incredibly convenient – life is better than Australia in this Singapore – but also very draining on the wallet.
There’s a big difference between the two. In Australia at least, the gap between the blue collar and white collar is no where as big as it is here. You can still have a pretty decent way of life if you’re a lower (not too low of course) income earner.
One noticeable difference here, especially for us exPats, is the heat. The heat I find forces you to do things indoors constantly, and most indoor places are basically shopping malls, which are designed to drain your wallet. Back home there’s way more outdoors things you can do with the family, that are free, far away from shopping malls, and vastly more comfortable… and owning a car is MUCH cheaper so you can get to these things cheaper and easier.
Example: Australia – 5 minutes walk to the park where you can play for a couple of hours – free. Here, if I want to take my kid to an indoor playground it’s $70 when you include taxis, entry fees, etc.
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Republished from Reddit.