SINGAPORE: When their jobs began to interfere with their responsibilities as parents, one Singaporean couple decided to make a major life change. Despite holding stable, well-paying roles in Singapore’s civil sector, they eventually left the country and relocated to Australia in search of a more balanced lifestyle.
On Sunday (Apr 12), the husband shared their story in a Reddit post titled “Are local-born Singaporeans leaving the country for greener pastures?”
He said he and his wife were Singapore-born and raised, both from modest backgrounds, and met while studying at NTU before going on to work as civil servants in Singapore.
While their early years together were relatively smooth, life grew more demanding following the arrival of their children.
“Singapore became unbearable for my wife and me when we had kids. The long hours and the culture of never switching off from work meant our kids were in the childcare for the full 12-hour duration daily.”
Even outside of office hours, he said work continued to follow them home. “Weekends were spent with family, but the constant WhatsApp messages and emails meant we weren’t 100% present most of the time. That was not acceptable for us, as we really wanted to be hands-on in their development.”
Wanting to play a more active role in their kids’ lives, they relocated to Australia a few years ago and accepted pay cuts in the process.
“We make the median Aussie salary, while in SG we were slightly above. Add on the high taxes in Aus, and our take-home salary is significantly lower than SG.”
More relaxed lifestyle
Financially, the move meant tightening their spending and slowing down their savings progress.
But in return, they said their quality of life improved in ways that mattered more to them.
Despite earning less, they now live in a landed home and own two cars. More importantly, their daily routines have changed in ways that feel meaningful.
Their jobs are flexible enough for them to pick their children up from school at 3pm, giving them the chance to spend unhurried afternoons together at the park or simply at home. Work still exists, but it no longer dominates every waking hour, as they can complete outstanding tasks later in the evening after their children are asleep.
“We do need to be more careful with money here, but overall it’s so much more relaxed, and we feel our quality of life is immensely better,” he said.
Singapore vs. Australia
When friends ask about the move, he explains it in a simple way. He says Singapore is better in things that can be “measured with money,” like higher pay for PMET (Professionals, Managers, Executives, and Technicians) jobs, lower taxes, cheaper food, and more efficient public transport and infrastructure.
Australia, on the other hand, stands out in ways that are harder to quantify.
“Australia is better in ways you can’t measure with money: work-life balance, drivers who actually give way when you signal, bosses who ask you to take another day of carer’s leave to take care of your sick child, kids looking forward to attending school daily, society frowning upon people who ‘wayang’ at work (‘I bring laptop to Bali and answer emails at 1am’), strong workers’ protection so you don’t need to be as worried about getting retrenched.”
That said, he does not believe Australia is the right choice for everyone.
“Is Australia a greener pasture for everyone? Probably not. I always advise younger folks especially to work hard in SG when they are young. Get on the property ladder and build up your savings. It’s much easier in SG than Aus to do that due to favourable govt policies and just easier to save money overall. Go to Aus only when you have a comfortable base because it’s really much harder to make more money here.”
“I admit a lot of the factors I mentioned are quite specific to my situation. I’m sure there are Singaporean companies that are very family friendly.”
Read also: Woman says she worries about dating someone who earns less, asks Singaporeans if she is ‘tone deaf’
Follow Google News
Join us on WhatsApp
Follow us on Telegram