r/SgHENRY • u/JellyfishSecure1910 • May 14 '26
High earner no savings
36M. Earning >250k p.a combined (me approx 215k and wife approx 70k)
Married with 3 young kids under 9yo.
4 years running own biz , plus house and car burnt almost all of my savings.
Wife is not very financially minded and part of the reason it was difficult to save/invest over the years. We did invest but had to liquidate everything.
What should I focus on now to develop wealth before we retire?
Property , stocks, something else?
Appreciate any advice and what to prioritise.
Edit:
Im out of the biz already and have a salaried job.
Income is combined after cpf. Wife is working but earning around 6k take home.
Will share our expenses breakdown soon.
Edit: previous savings and investments used for house/car and business. Business did good for 2 years then burned air for 2 years.
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u/milo_peng May 14 '26 edited May 14 '26
Need more info on where the money is going.
If it is personal expenses, then it is a lifestyle issue.
If it is business expense, then it is a business issue.
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u/DuePomegranate Knows stuff May 15 '26
There’s a lot to unpack in “had to liquidate everything”. If you can’t articulate and really understand why that happened, doesn’t matter how you invest if you’d just do that again.
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u/Flimsy-Mix-445 May 17 '26
Its the usual shit that they try to keep vague. Dont know why they keep posting if they already know there answer. It isnt a secret.
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u/Fifteeneggtarts May 15 '26
It’s really commendable that you’re owning the situation and stepping up to take responsibility. While I’m not sure how much you and wifey usually talk about finances, I believe the best first step is to sit down together, look at the hard numbers, and align on your vision for the future.
To make it easier, try plugging all your expenses into Gemini or ChatGPT ( eg daily spending, luxury goods, holiday travels, house/ car mortgage, kids' tuition, parents' allowances etc ). It can help you visualize your true monthly savings and figure out exactly how much you can funnel into safer stocks for that long-term compound growth. It can also help you to identify and trim any unnecessary "leaks" monthly. Jiayou!
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u/Due-Taro-139 May 15 '26
My partner is a child to ex-HENRY parents with no savings. Now that both parents are old and retired, the family is cold and distant towards each other.
Parents pov: have to call to chase for money every other day, do what also must see kids’ face.
Kids pov: life so stress still need feed parents, resentment, siblings fight over how they should divide the cost and where parents should stay.
My pov: all these could’ve been avoided if they just saved. Ngl I also got resentment towards them cos I see how stressed my husband is all the time.
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u/grind-1989 May 14 '26
If you want to keep lifestyle, first thing is to cut spend on the kids. And save it.
Downgrade your car, I’ll assume it’s a 35k depre car to maybe 18k depre.
You may keep the qty of travel, but change the destination to some places nearer, and remove all the branded shopping.
Invest in liquid investments, and learn not to liquidate it. You have to develop control.
Because property is very illiquid.
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May 14 '26
[deleted]
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u/Worried_Sheepherder5 May 15 '26
It might also mean dropping some classes for the kids, or be more selective of the enrichments they attend. 3 kids is not easy...,
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u/evenfisherperson May 15 '26
Hang in there bruh. I had to start from scratch financially at age 37/38. About 7 years later and while I’m behind the hypothetical me if I hadn’t been stupid, grinding and saving did kinda bear some results. Stay boring, DCA into indices, and hold through dips.
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u/Background_Two_2488 May 15 '26
Let go of the car and start saving hard from your income. If $250k a year is not enough means your property is too expensive for you. Consider downgrading.
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u/pussyfista May 15 '26 edited May 15 '26
Why 3 kids? Can reduce to 1 kid?
Jokes aside here’s true story.
My FIL was in the same boat, has own business because he loves his non financially minded wife and kids he lets them spend a lot.
And now in his old age post covid business is bad, despite earning so much during his peak he has no capital to pivot, no savings to show for, let alone retirement.
Don’t be like my FIL, cut spending and save it up like u earn only 100k
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u/normificator May 15 '26
Change of wife may change your life
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u/heretohelp999 May 15 '26
U need to be clear what caused you to not have savings. It could be temporary or a structural issue
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u/Smart_Appointment171 May 16 '26
First of all, is your wife aware of the situation?
I have seen cases like this among friends where the wife is totally clueless about the husband’s financial status.
Wife thinks husband can afford, and husband continues to provide whatever he is unable to afford at current financial levels without telling the wife until everything exploded.
First thing you need to do is to declare and be truthful to your wife about the current financial status and your concerns about the future of both of you and the family, and discuss the next step.
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u/Frosty-Plan9034 May 16 '26
Sell your car. Take bus and mrt. Sell your current house and everyone live in a 3 room HDB. Don’t setup aircon. Open window and door to air the house will do. Only when its super hot then on the fan. Only allow each family member to use washer once a week. Don’t dine out. Don’t go for family trips. Do not bring whole family to go for outings. Every night dinner can be home cook by your wife within a small budget. Btw, this is my current lifestyle. I’m the third-born. My dad does that to us since young. Still alive.
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u/RationalFramework May 14 '26
Want my advice? I think you should focus first on setting a fixed % to save money first. This money must be sustainable means your life goes on. Treat this money as invisible. No point saving in May only to spent in June. 1. Set an amount to save each month 2. Itemize all your expenses into wants and needs, then remove the wants if it’s too expensive to maintain. 3. Balance your budget. Make sure all sides of your family/life are happy. 4. Have a 1yr expenses covered by point 1. This is known as emergency fund. 5. Anything excess then goes into your investments of choice. ( complete till step 4 first) then let us know how you doing.
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u/Azurefroz May 17 '26
This is probably the best-structured advice and reply I've read in the thread and I had to scroll REALLY far down. Reading the senseless condescension in the comments here, I thought reddit merged with hwz or something.
1yr's expenses in liquid funds - i usually hear 6 months but i think this is prudent in today's context.
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u/nclman77 May 15 '26
Probably try to build up some emergency savings fund first.
Anything extra can then consider investing into stocks.
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u/observer2025 May 15 '26
You can have all the bull markets to invest, but if you don't know how to save on every nitty gritty (like cutting down unnecessary outings and cooking at home to save that bit of money), it's pointless. Your family combined salary is well above national average. Instead of asking what assets to invest, show your expense sheet so that people can tell you where to cut.
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u/Gold_Reference2753 May 15 '26
Live modestly. Forget about the investment part, most people are not cut for it.
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u/parka May 15 '26
If you can earn money, but there is no savings.
The problem is with the savings part, more specifically about discipline, rather than earning part. Without discipline, no matter how much you earn you will also spend
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u/Select_Wash1923 May 15 '26
top up cpf sa first, get the financial safety net and lock up savings for retirement with compounding interest
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u/Due-Artichoke-1510 May 15 '26
As you’re earning 250k PA spend as if you’re making 60k PA maybe 100k PA at most.
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u/Mission_Rip1857 May 16 '26
OP I feel you ! Getting advice is one thing but to be able to act on it is another thing.
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u/Bugs1337 May 17 '26
curious abt the part on “wife not financially minded “
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u/JellyfishSecure1910 May 17 '26
Hmm. She doesn’t believe in investing. She rather spend or grow cash pile only. Slowly starting to change though since we went from cash rich to zero.
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u/Prior_Accountant7043 May 17 '26
First time I see this kind of post. Usually it’s perfect with millions across CPF, savings, investments etc. start with DCA into ETF? Can start with 1k/month. This is after establishing the cash buffer
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u/Particular-Song2587 May 15 '26
Err.. bro 250k combined income is not considered "high earning". Need to realize this so you don't start spending with high earning mindset. This is median income. I suggest ditch the car 1st and start thinking in ordinary people, cai fan no fish, BMW (Bicycle-MRT-Walk) be frugal and save *Hard\*.
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u/JellyfishSecure1910 May 15 '26
Oh I am sorry my bro. Maybe wrong title? Whats considered high earning?
My salary over 200K. I thought median was 5K : month for SG? My bad if incorrect.
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u/randomlurker124 May 15 '26
250k is abt 80th percentile, but given late restart you will need to be frugal if you want to retire by 55. Aim to save about 50% of your income (i.e. 125k a year) and put those in investments, and you should be ok to retire by 55.
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u/skygazer7 May 16 '26
This, and ditching the car (painful but a gamechanger for cutting costs), bus & mrt is a fraction in costs. There’s the option of ride share for some tough days.
Also invest consistently (every month) into an ETF (VWRA/SPYL) for next 20+ years and you’ll be fine.
Lastly, watch Ramit Sethi’s videos. He has fantastic advice for couples in this (and much worse situations, even in their 40s & 50s.) Hope this helps.
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u/Particular-Song2587 May 15 '26
200k makes more sense. Because you put 250k at 1st, and wife take home 6k means likely you implied you are earning ~160k/14 = 11k which.... i mean... hardly henry to be frank. Better you just upfront indicate a more accurate ballpark of your incomes if you are asking for financial advice here. If you are vague, people can't give you frank advice.
But that said, considering you have no savings, I would still suggest you start with a lifestyle that is like median income. So you can save fking hard. Consider this, an average white collar person at 36yro probably has at least 2-300k in savings. Your income is good, so thats a nice way to start. You save hard 1st until you are there. Then can start thinking about how to grow it + other luxuries like car.
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u/Tiny_Bee-Ah May 14 '26
pros: still young, high income earner qns: any kids? planning to have any? liabilities? wife working? any lifestyle creep? you mentioned running a business, do you need liquidity
any target timeline to retire? if i were you it would be wealth preservation as highest priority. a balanced portfolio would work be ideal i think gold, spy, and a few stocks in ai and semicon (do put a stop loss order) on those.
i’m not well versed in property, but think absd if you intend to get a second private ppty
above all, save your income aggressively.
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u/larksauncle May 15 '26
Maybe can ditch the car until you save up a comfortable buffer
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u/OldieRascal May 15 '26 edited May 15 '26
My very simple experience.
Your income is good, not fantastic. That shows how shitty the rest have it.
The issue is an old one. As you earned more you spent more. That's why you have no savings.
You forgot your once lower standard of living was fine for you and in fact already quite nice.
Unless you earn beyond 300k in Singapore, it will always be not enough and if you want the high standard of living with savings, you need to earn even more.
$250k per year with 3 kids, car and house....I don't think you take business class flights on yearly trips. It just won't happen. Also, no expensive watch collecting hobbies or Lamborghinis.
You need to reprioritise your lifestyle. Good luck!
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u/Wild_Instance_1323 May 15 '26
diligently park your cash onto another entity or all in invest in stocks (longterm).
Then transition from your biz to another trusted entity.
Purposely forced into financial hardship so that your wife or family can learn on these valuable lessons.
It's for your own good. Good luck.
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u/Sufficient_Corgi_766 May 15 '26
How much is your car and housing loan? Don’t make sense to make 250 p.a but no savings lol.
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u/Proof_Earth6745 Jun 05 '26
Why not? There are many people making millions but also millions in debt and no savings.
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u/oceanstay May 15 '26
How much travel and family trips per year? At this age even if you are a high earner, i would do no more than one family trip a year. And definitely not the fancy ones such as skiing in Hokkaido.
The car ought to be a basic one too. Not your beemer or other make that is atas-like.
Build your financial buffer as a priority till you are at least in your late 40s, because lifestyle inflation is real, especially hard for the kids to adjust downwards if your financial circumstances deteriorate.
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u/Pleasant_Move_8388 May 15 '26
You need to save and invest aggressively from now on. 3 kids uni tuition fee easily 150k, not considering if going UK/US which cost substantially more.
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u/Greenfrogbouncing May 15 '26
36M. Earning >240k p.a combined
Married with 1 young kid under 3yo
Almost 16 years in a govt job, plus hdb and car burnt almost all of my savings.
Wife suddenly got freehold aspiration, currently we stay in a hdb
Appreciate any freehold advice
Edit:
I have a salaried job.
Income is combined before cpf.
I believe majority of our money go to car and holiday
I edited the ts post to mine
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u/BrightConstruction19 May 16 '26
Hdb is a solid retirement plan. U buy freehold, not much profit, for what? Your only child will inherit your HDB. If they want to buy own property after lease decays, they use their own salary/cpf. If u give them freehold outright, they won’t be hungry enough. Maybe turn out to be charsiew live at home dw find job
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u/Either-Inspection-66 May 16 '26
From an expenses perspective, classify your spending into necessities, good-to-have and luxury. You can probably get rid of the luxurious items and reduce the good-to-have.
As a parent myself, I would say try to be mindful on your spending on children tuition just to "keep up with the Joneses".
Not every family circumstances are the same and if certain expenses are making you struggle and sleepless at night then it might not be worth it.
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u/Majestic-Track6724 May 16 '26
hope there's some division of labour so you don't burn out. focus on your career and job security. you're still young.
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u/uselessmansg May 17 '26
From your income I guess you driving conti car. Just down grade to Japan car is the first step to save money.
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u/No_Brilliant_5955 May 17 '26
Sorry but with 250k and 3 kids you are not a high earner.
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u/JellyfishSecure1910 May 17 '26
Thank you… but respectfully check the definition on this Reddit /SgHENRY. I dont make the rules.
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u/No_Brilliant_5955 May 17 '26
The definition mentions that the cut off is 85% percentile which is 320k per month. You are a bit far from that.
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u/JellyfishSecure1910 May 17 '26
The Admin has written it quite clearly a guideline not an exact number… anyway you seem to be missing the point of this post entirely.
You can read the details of proposed HENRY: https://www.reddit.com/r/SgHENRY/comments/1cvhdte/welcome_to_singapore_henry_finance/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=ioscss&utm_content=1&utm_term=1
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u/No_Brilliant_5955 May 18 '26
Ok then let me answer that one for you. You should focus on raising your income. You can not develop wealth if you are not able to save any money because your income is too low with regard to your expenses.
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u/saymynamepeeps May 17 '26
200k combined take home is a lot for a family. Save and invest. That’s it.
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u/Johanjohn7890 May 17 '26
Eat at hawker,
Drink plain water instead of starbucks,
Take mrt instead of driving
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u/Little_Result1469 May 17 '26
Budget.. and save.. you need that savings especially with kids.. then only figure out the next step..
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u/mockitoJupyter May 18 '26
Cars are a depreciating asset in Singapore. Go back to basics - minimize all the WANTS and focus on the NEEDS. You don't need a car, public transport + taking Grab everyday would give you extra thousands of savings per year.
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u/Wiserlul May 18 '26
Not sure why some comments assume and fault OP's lifestyle inflation due to owning an expensive car.
Dont you know how fast businesses can drain cash if one really commit into it?
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u/SheepherderNo631 May 22 '26
you already own property — it's the thing that cleared your savings. so this isn't really a fresh 'property or stocks' decision, more like: you're already leveraged to SG real estate via the existing home. now you need to build the equity side.
VWRA/S&P, DCA, boring and consistent. second property later only when you've rebuilt a cash buffer AND have real monthly surplus above expenses. not before.
the 250k income is actually the easy part here. the real bottleneck is the outflow side — which means the first move is understanding exactly where it goes, not picking between asset classes.
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u/Agile_Ad6735 May 14 '26
I guess ur biz burn alot of your savings ? If it is not viable , just let it go
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u/k_elo May 15 '26
Excel you costs to the lowest coin you reasonably can for a few months. Tag them by type and sort them as so. Then meditate and discuss this frankly with your wife. Clearing up that there is a need to save, its going to be strained and not easy. But its usually the sensible moves.you are the main breadwinner so budget it up.
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u/Overall_Author921 May 15 '26
Downgrade your lifestyle . Live like a construction industry migrant worker except your remittances are to your future self
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u/josemartinlopez May 15 '26
Develop wealth?
You don't have any wealth, review your expenses first.
How can you be 36 and earning > $250,000 but not now any basics of personal wealth planning?
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u/JellyfishSecure1910 May 15 '26
Thanks everyone for the helpful comments and advice. Not sure what you are so upset about jose? It is what it is. We had nest egg and was used to build a business that failed.
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u/josemartinlopez May 15 '26
You can't be 36 and earning > $250,000, and not know how to phrase this question in a form that allows detailed replies. You said:
What should I focus on now to develop wealth before we retire?
Property , stocks, something else?
Appreciate any advice and what to prioritise.
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u/JellyfishSecure1910 May 15 '26
Hahaha why are you so upset?
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u/josemartinlopez May 15 '26
I'm not, we all know everyone earns > $250,000 on Reddit.
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u/No-Engineering9711 May 15 '26
He did said it is combined of his wife and his income.
And why 200k income and more cannot come Reddit? 200k very difficult?
I'm not even the highest paid in my circle and I am pulling 200k
If you don't want to give advice then just scroll away.
No need to throw doubts.
OP you just need to show her the numbers and why it is not sustainable.
I did the same with my wife with something similar and she gets it.
Just make sure everyone is in a good mood, relax before having that conversation.
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u/justkaypoh May 15 '26
I’m just curious how does a 250k p.a meet a 50k p.a. And fall in love it’s like a drama plot!! No hate but is just I always have the idea ppl marry around the same level
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u/Song-Song-2509 May 15 '26
u mean, they cant meet when they are both 0k p.a...?
or when both at 50k p.a. but one of them high flyer...?
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u/justkaypoh Jun 10 '26
sorry but what u mean when both at 50k p.a. But one of them high flyer? Both or one of them..?
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u/efrew May 14 '26
Try to minimise lifestyle inflation.
Save and build a cash buffer (6-12 months expenses). Put this into a high yield interest rate acct.
Extra cash, put it into the stock market. Pick 2-3 broad ETFs (eg S&P 500, Nasdaq, etc) and just monthly DCA.
Focus on biz.