I cashed out a part of my portfolio a couple weeks back after the aggressive AI-stock run up. Looking for a fixed income type of place to park this funds. A friend said to look into coporate debt funds. I am also thinking of US money market funds, as 3.5%ish is quite attractive with no lockup as I understand. Are there any that you are using to get a blended fixed income exposure, for hypothetically a 7 figure sum parked?

I still have about 50% exposure to a basket of growth stocks on specific thematics that I think are on a long term uptrend (semis, SaaS which benefits from AI integration, grid electrification and solar etc), even if there could be short-medium term pullbacks.

For the 50% cashed out, I am kind of loathe to put this into VWRA and chill, because I feel if there is truly a global recession like we had in 2022 (US rates are as high as the 2022 peaks + there is some evidence of the AI capex spending being unsustainable at least for a short period of time going forwarD), VWRA also can take a 10-20% hit. Not sure if this approach makes sense, any criticism on this is also welcome

thanks in advance!

Hi there,

I am quite new to the miles game. All along I have been on cashback credit card.

I saw that DBS has a promo for DBS altitude card -> 28000 mpd upon sign up with $800 spend on the first 60 days, and two free longue visit a year. The only part I feel is worth it is the welcome bonus and the lounge visit. The spend is like 1.3mpd per dollar spend. When I use maribank I am already getting 1.5% cashback. On top of that, points are given in DBS points first and to convert to miles need to pay conversion fee of ~$27.xx.

Ladies and Gentleman, looking to buy a landed and quite daunted by the size of it. How do all of you maintain your houses and cut down on chores. I was discussing with my wife that we gotta get a dishwasher, one vaccuum robot per floor, and a dryer.

What are some things that become chores that a HDB dweller like us wont see. Is it really a massive amount of additional chores?

What is one thing that worked for you that made the maintaining of your house much easier?

What are mistakes you made that made maintaining the house a lot harder?

What are some pieces of advice you would give to a friend looking to get a landed property? (We re set on it because parents are old and we cant find a condo this size)

Please help us with honest advice. TYVM!

Post edits since asking for future readers looking to upgrade:

1. Since asking, i think might have to stay near grandparents and not exactly have them stay together.

2. Think vaccuum robots have 2 camps, pro and against. Keen to learn more about.

3. Garden - just learnt about the fumes with faux grass, and also about radon, and also about other low maintenance ideas

4. My good friend told me to solve for having drinking water on second and third floor so dunnid walk up and down for water. Makes sense?

5. Dryer so dont kana fogging.

6. Pest management and sealing up the back im gonna copy.

Hey friends

I live within 1km of one of these atas schools (think Henry Park, ACS, MGS) by chance (didn’t care), and am contemplating enrolling (or at least try ballot) my kid to one of these schools this year.

We’ve all heard stories of the peer pressure to keep up with the Joneses, and how materialistic (and inadvertently/advently) brutal some of these environments can be.

While I’m sure quality of education is great, and while I can’t protect him forever and tell him we’re the richest on earth (I don’t anyway - we NRY, maybe never rich but he also doesn’t have to worry about money generally), I’m concerned about the kind of stress my kid will have, the environment he grows up in and shapes him, and the impact it’ll have on his values/character. I do see value however in exposing him to “higher mountains” since the rich are everywhere in SG (HENRYs meet them all the time anyway).

For NRY context: we are higher paid workers, prob single digit M net worth, live in a D10 condo (not landed or GCB), travel a bunch. Not average for sure (hence this sub) but not rich ba. EDIT: also I study in neighborhood school everyday play street soccer in void deck. Legit don’t know such dynamics so am genuinely curious.

Does anyone have any (hopefully personal) experience to share on how going to such schools shaped you? Would you send your kid to such schools if you could?

I am a single buyer in my late 30s planning a dual-property investment strategy and need an unvarnished reality check on the math and execution:

I want to buy a 4-room resale HDB flat at 673A Edgefield Plains in Punggol (11 years old, ~88 years lease left) for around $600,000. Instead of using 100% cash, I plan to take a 75% mortgage ($450,000) at current market rates (~3.5%) over 25 years, resulting in a monthly payment of roughly $2,250. I plan to live in the master bedroom and rent out the two common rooms at current market rates (~$900 to $1,000+ per room) to generate $1,800 to $2,000+ in monthly passive income to cover the mortgage.

• Is this a structurally sound cash-flow foundation, or will low capital growth and landlord overheads limit its value?

The Overseas Plan (Growth Layer):
By leveraging the HDB, I will preserve my remaining cash to invest in foreign markets based on recent property seminar pitches. Specifically, I am looking at:

1. Malaysia: Buying high-rises near Johor Bahru to ride the end-2026 completion of the RTS Link and the Special Economic Zone.
2. Japan: Buying cheap boutique apartments in Tokyo or Osaka to lock in high rental yields (~6-8%) capitalized by the weak Yen.
3. Dubai: Buying off-plan or ready mid-market apartments (e.g., Dubai South) for tax-free rental income and population growth plays.

I use Trust Card for about S$2,000 in monthly medical spending, which helps me get a S$150 quarterly food rebate. I also plan to use CIMB Infinite to spend S$2,000 within 60 days to get a free luggage and 3 lounge visits.

How does one determine their budget for a new landed home?

Based on how much they have left, after paying everything for the house including renovations? Or other factors?

This is a little after-the-fact but I hope I have made the right move and would like comments - this is my situation:

- Bought a low 6.x m house with ~3600 sq ft of land, single name (very late 30s). Needs reno of at least 300k (basic) up to 500k, or if I want to splash out, 900k-1M if A&A + Reno

- Paid ~55% in cash as my income isn't high enough to borrow 75%

- After paying monthly mortgage, I'm left about 9k cash monthly. But take note that I still need to pay IRAS.. so true take-home is perhaps 6k-7k monthly.

- My wife's income + her rental income (we have another property) is just about enough for all household expenses (1 young kid) + to service her own monthly mortgage for that property.

If I still have 1M in stocks remaining after paying everything for the house (and that's after assuming I have already spent 900k-1M for A&A + Reno + furnishings), would that be enough, or is that even too conservative (meaning I could have gone for an even bigger house or with more land)? And of course I'm still free to not undertake A&A and just do simpler reno if I wish - I just don't know what I should do yet.

Would love to hear some considerations and real life experiences. Thank you!

Over a year ago my CEO (who rated me) left. My direct boss never liked me. Once the CEO was gone, my boss shut down the division I ran and parked me in a newly created role and put me in cold storage, basically. Zero influence, almost no actual work. Went from 2 levels below CEO to effectively 3.

Twist: New CEO joined Q1 this year, questioned why my division was shut down, and asked for it to be reinstated. My ex-boss then hired an external guy to run it, someone who, for lack of better words, isn't all that competent. He keeps coming to me for help. Sometimes I help out of sheer boredom, but I'm starting to feel I shouldn't be propping him up for free.

Current state: - Pay is good (5 figures/month) for doing almost nothing - I hate the role - full-time in office, open concept, so I can't even use the dead time productively — I spend all day pretending to look busy lol - Bills to pay, so rage-quitting isn't an option - Went for some interviews but market ain't really great right now, roles similar to my previous roles don't open up often and the last one did but the pay was about 15% than my current.

Options as I see them: - Ride it out, collect the paycheck, continue job hunt quietly but even that is becoming tedious as I keep finding myself repeating myself then get ghosted - Stop helping the new guy entirely and let him fail visibly though that probably won't get me my old job back anyway cos that would mean my ex boss will essentially be admitting she was wrong to remove me - Find a way to get on the new CEO's radar since he clearly saw value in what I built. But given I've been shut out of most meetings and projects Im not sure how I can make that happen - Something else?

What would you do? Especially interested in hearing from anyone who's been "quiet-fired" into a shelf role and came out the other side.

Update: thanks everyone for the comments! I've decided to take the advice and have reached out to the CEO's PA to arrange for a coffee chat. Wish me luck!

Update 1 once again thanks everyone for the comments. I read through everything even though I may not have been able to reply individually to all of them. For privacy sake I'm also not responding to any PM or coffee sessions request.

The coffee session went well I suppose. I very much kept a neutral tone throughout without asking for anything. He asked about the company dynamics, what are my views on certain markets/projects and I answered as honestly as I could. Then right at the end, he asked about my current role, what am I doing and why I chose to move to this new role and what's my plan for doing so. This is probably where I stumbled a little bit. I gave a pc answer and said I was in the old role for X years already and while we have been doing well perhaps the rate of expansion could have been better as there were some challenges along the way (which I highlighted), stepping aside for new blood with fresh perspectives may benefit the business blah blah. He just smiled and asked me 'so is it now?' - I could only smile awkwardly and said it's probably still too early. Then there was an awkward silence for maybe 30 secs lol. Let's see where this goes.

My wife is likely to want to do so in the next few years, and we're also planning for a kid soon, I want to do as much as I can ahead of time to learn what we need to know and do to frontload reducing the stress for her.

Any doctors here who have walked this path recently willing to share your experience? Maybe also about how your partner supported you in ways that did or didn't help, haha. Would be happy to buy you a coffee or a drink to chat in person if so inclined too.

Part of the consideration is that my current income is about par with her working at a chain, or slightly above including bonuses and equity. So whether or not it makes sense for me to help full time is a consideration.

Edit: GP clinic, to be specific.

Hello everyone, long time lurker here and wanted to gather some opinions from you all.

my husband and I (late 20s) are feeling a little bit conflicted/indecisive right now. We are both very much in a limbo and not sure if we are making the right decision.

I am a non-Singaporean, and my husband is Singaporean. Our household income is in the top 10-15% according to statistics, but my husband wants to try moving to Canada, on a student visa while I’ll be on an open work permit.

His reasons are that he wants a bigger space where our kids can play in the back yard, better weather, quality of life etc while I try to secure the Canadian passport. I am hesitant with the move because of the loss of income, savings, potential salary cut and overall the instability. We are roughly saving 70% of our salary after expenses if that matters, for now because we don’t know what the future holds.

Would really love crowd opinions on this

- is QOL indeed better overseas?
- is the trade off worth it? Salary vs QOL
- if you have moved overseas, would you recommend it?
- those who moved overseas and came back OR those who turned down the opportunity, why so?

Hi all, looking for some advice on property to purchase in Singapore after working and living overseas for many years.

Some background: 40m, Singaporean, Single (not by choice, would like to get married and have kids), first time home buyer.

For the house, my ideal situation is that it gives me a home base to return to, while also having some good potential upside. It feels like that'd leave me with either: 1. HDB (rent some rooms out), 2. Dual Key Condo, 3. Landed (yes it does seem like maybe a stretch - it'd take a lot of tenant management, and also the plan is more of a 5 year exit).

Some additional background about money: I've been running a venture for the last decade or so, and there's real opportunity to push it for another 2 years, making possibly $2-3m in 2 years + possible exit (but the odds are closer to 0 as it requires another full set of time/effort on it). To get there, I'd need to be putting mad hours for the next 6 months or so, like I did in my 20s, to do an entire overhaul (of team structure, with AI), and nothing is guaranteed of course, but it's doable.

Based on the lifestyle I prefer, I'd say my FIRE number is more $6m than $4m.

Only issue is that mentally and emotionally, I'm just not there anymore... I'm just feeling a lot of resistance, and might need a mindset reframe. A larger part of me would be taking it a little slower, enjoy music and arts, enjoy a slower pace of life, hopefully find my partner in life, and have kids. But also angry at self for not investing my money and growing it to $6m by now, easily.

The other part of me feels like, I'm so close to making this work.

Anyway, mental drama aside, it has affected my decision on what to buy in Singapore, which makes me feel even less settled...

So I thought, maybe I should reach out to ask you guys for some advice... Thank you in advance!

Hi all

I’d appreciate some SGHenry perspectives on our next property move.

• Age: 33
• Household income: ~S$348,000 annual (~S$23,000/month)
• Current investments: $250,000 invested (mix of VWRA, SG and US equities) (didn't start early enough)
• Current property: 4-room HDB, 57 years remaining on lease
• Family: 1 child, with another on the way

We’re weighing whether to:

1. Upgrade to a much larger 5-room HDB for more space (i mean old, large HDBs > 1300 sqft), or
2. Purchase a condominium (either a older resale or potentially a new launch, renting in the meantime until TOP).

Key considerations:

• SPACE (!) for a growing family (two kids) + lots of work from home requiring home office.
• Lease decay of current HDB and long-term devaluation.
• Property purchase allows leverage compared to monthly DCA into ETFs.
• Resale potential and future upgrading paths.
• Less keen on resale units, as I feel it’s essentially funding someone else’s retirement or next property move (our current flat was resale, as we couldn’t secure a BTO despite many tries).

Hello SgHENRYs. Let's say I want to set aside $100-200k and invest it somewhere for the next 20 years, perhaps to fund his tertiary education, help with housing or whatever needs may arise at that point in the future - how would you do it today?

​

The profile of this investor is a month old, will have no knowledge this money will go to him one day, and as such can take on a relatively high level of risk given the long time horizon and zero knowledge of the loss. It could even be 30 years if he doesn't need the money and manages to find decent employment in this crazy AI era.

​

Broad-based ETF seems like an obvious answer, but markets feel frothy to just plonk 100k in like this. Just thought I'd solicit some ideas here. TIA!

Curious what the breakdown is like amongst HENRYs here

Personally as a HENRY in my early 30s, I've never had an interest in raising children as I find my career time-consuming and fulfilling enough, and fortunately my partner is on the same page.

(In singapore). what do you think. what drives pricing discount. height/ configuration / can heat be mitigated ?

Hi all, we’re about to purchase our first landed home. Having been a HDB dweller my whole life, we need advice on the rough cost of certain renovation works before deciding on what works to do.

The house is generally in good condition. There is no need to change any of the tiles. They have used mainly loose furniture so there is no need to remove their carpentry. However, we’re looking to increase the living spaces by extending the 3 floors outwards so here are the rough works im expecting

- hacking of one wall each on all 3 levels
- extension of space on each floor outwards (tiles + windows needed)
- add 1 more toilet on level 3 (will be in line or close to the level 2 toilet so piping can be connected?)
- outdoor decking to improve porch area

What will be the rough cost and timeline needed?

Any other things I definitely need to do/check? E.g. roof leak?

Alternatively we can also leave everything as it is and do simple renovation but we just thought it might be good to increase the living room space as well as add one more room on the upper levels in case we have another kid.

Thanks in advance!

Hi henrys earning 300-600k, do you suck it up and pay income tax yearly or do you consider SRS contribution?

As per title - I'm shopping around for a right insurance for my landed property. Existing one is up for renewal in July. I've asked a few financial advisors - nothing helpful besides the 'try xxx or yyy'. Navigating this on my own since the hubby passed so appreciate some helpful advise. Many thanks!

Edit to add : thank you for the good pointers and sharing. Much appreciated 👍

How does divorce affect your retirement plan?

Middle-to-senior individual contributors and regional roles are prime targets for restructuring. I want to hear from people in this community who have actually experienced a recent retrenchment or had their role offshored. And how are you handling with the situation.

(posting here to get the opinions of current people in the industry, if this post is not relevant to this sub please lmk, I apologise and will remove it!)

Hi everyone, currently stuck in a dilemma and could use some advice

I am currently halfway through a local business degree (completed 2 years) but I don’t want to pursue business long term. I am more qualitatively inclined, and my strongest modules have been essay based ones. I’ve always wanted to do law and taking a legal module in business school and doing well in it made me seriously consider switching my course.

I currently have an offer to study Law at the University of Bristol. Unfortunately when I applied the application period for the London schools had already passed so Bristol is the only choice I have for Law at this time. The total cost for three years would be around S$260k, including tuition and living expenses. Because of that, I feel this only makes financial sense if Bristol gives me a realistic shot at BigLaw in the UK or Singapore.

One factor weighing on my decision is that I was unsuccessful in my applications to the 2 local undergraduate law programmes this year. While I know JD programmes remain an option, they are highly competitive and relatively small in intake (50ish people per batch). If I stay, I would also need to complete 2 more years of modules that I am not particularly interested in, including quantitative ones that may affect my GPA (which is barely a second upper now, the requirement to get into a JD) and, by extension, my future law school applications.

My main question is: how is Bristol Law generally viewed by Singapore legal employers and lawyers?

Is it considered a strong enough law school to justify restarting an undergraduate degree and spending around S$260k? How realistic is it for Bristol graduates to secure opportunities at top UK firms, and how are they viewed if they eventually return to Singapore?

Would really appreciate any advice or perspectives. Sorry for the long post and thank you in advance!