You should inform the thousands of bus captains, restaurant captains, retail sales people, technicians that they have hardly enough to own a flat and raise a family.

Which fact are you referring to? The fact that they actually own property, or the fact that they successfully raise entire families?

You are comparing someone who needs to take care of himself in SG for S$2500 vs someone who lives with parents in KL for RM2500.

I am comparing someone who needs to take care of himself in SG for S$2500 vs someone who needs to take care of himself in KL for RM2500.

Most Malaysians coming to work in SG are not from KL. I'm from Ipoh. When I worked in KL, I had to rent a house, buy a car and pay for my own food. Exactly the same now as in Singapore. That's why I can safely tell people that it's better to earn S$ vs RM no matter what.

If you factor in Daddy's money,.. then it depends entirely on who your Daddy is. If your Daddy has enough power, he can buy you a condo and a car in Singapore. Then even if you earn S$2500 in Singapore, you will have a pretty good life.

This post has been edited by seantang: Nov 14 2012, 05:03 PM

Seen today at the money changer in Northpoint Yishun basement (near KFC). 2.495 for S$1000 or more changed. 2.49 if you change less than that.

This post has been edited by seantang: Nov 18 2012, 02:35 PM

But you just said you still need to do your ACCA? So you not actually an ACCA member.

Some clarity on dutiable items brought into Singapore. IMO, the key word is "new".

Of course it's okay. Some people want to work as many hours as they can in order to get more money. The law has no idea whether you want or don't want to work 24/7. It has no idea whether you negotiated to get your $2K+ monthly salary in return for working 40 hours a week, or 60 hours. That's why you and your employer have a contract. The law does not not understand why an educated, independent adult would contract to do something he doesn't want to do.

Congratulations. Do update your LinkedIn with your new job.

As for where to stay, how do you intend to go to work? I'm 100% dispassionately utilitarian when it comes to this stuff.

- are you going to drive? If so, doesn't matter where you stay although a shorter drive is of course better in all respects.

- are you going to taxi it? Then staying next to a main road or commercial hub is better to get taxis in the morning.

- are you taking the train? If so stay along the same train line as the station nearest your work place. Changing trains is a hassle you don't need.

Staying right next to a bus stop with buses that go to the train station is also workable to reduce rental as you pay a premium for "walking distance to MRT". There's a big bus stop below my block. A good balance between convenience and cost. But you have to put up with the noise of the buses.

- are you taking the bus? If so, stay at places along the express bus routes to the CBD, and close to the bus stop.

- Otherwise, stay around the city center or inner fringe and walk, take a bus or taxi.

Quite convenient for Ipoh too. With Firefly, I can go door to door from my office in Orchard to my house in Ipoh Gdn within 3.5 - 4 hours.

This post has been edited by seantang: Dec 7 2012, 12:23 AM

About RM600 for a return trip and S$20 + RM15 for taxi fare. About 3-4X the price of bus tickets.

Question is... How much do you value your time and convenience? This does avoid an 8-9 hour overnight red eye bus ride... which basically burns one day of your weekend or annual leave each way as well because you're sleepy the entire day.

This post has been edited by seantang: Dec 7 2012, 08:36 AM

A 2 bedroom flat anywhere within 5-10 minutes walk from MRT is at least $1500-1800 per month. You don't expect the master bedroom tenant to pay more than 70% of the rental, no?

Just boarded my flight back to Ipoh. Will be back in SG after the new year. Actually... I can't be 100% sure I'll be back. Company has just undergone a huge global restructuring and my next role has not been communicated to me yet. Luckily... even my boss in US has not been announced yet.

Anyway, whatever will be will be. In the meantime, Merry Xmas to those who celebrate, Happy Holidays to those who don't and Happy New Year to all. And oh yes, best of luck in your year end performance appraisals, increments and bonuses!!!

Thanks.

I'm actually as front office/customer facing/rain making as a finance person in a MNC can get... doing business partnering accountable for profitability.. But am in one those "developmental" roles in fast growing biz units & geographies where every US or European finance person hoping to escape to Asia, will target my role in their development plan. My survival depends very much on the survival of my sponsors and supporters in the new global mgt team.

Who said I was single? Why do you keep posting here and there like you know me personally? Stop being a troll.

Big 4 has the highest turnover and lowest rates of long service employment in any accounting or finance industry.

Wah, you wait until now to book? Difficult to get anything reasonable by now.

Resume is much too long... filled with jobs that are of no consequence.

Rather than list those waiter, phone salesman jobs that last for one or two months, and under each one, list down a big bunch of rubbish attributes (we all know what these jobs do, so trying to make it sound better than it is just makes you look superficial)... put just one item that says "did jobs ranging from xxxx, yyyy, zzzz and aaaaa from 20xx to 20yy.

And get rid of that picture. It's not doing you any favours.

1:1 ratio for MYR:SGD salary is pretty good if the new job is not a promotion or is not a bigger job than your old one.

Fair would be 0.8 to 1.0 : 1.0

Anything at or better than 1:1 would be good.

Good catch... yes, SGD to MYR. In my experience, SGD salaries are usually a bit lower than MYR, unit for unit, for the same role.

S$7.5K is pretty good lah. Assuming you spend 2K for 2 bedroom HDB and transport (ie. if you spend less for accomodation, you'll spend more for transport and vice-versa), spend 50/day for food and necessities, and buy a 1K handphone every 2 months, you'll still have 3K savings each month (tax at this income bracket is quite low... at most a few hundred/mth). At an exchange rate of 2.5... you will have saved your entire Malaysian salary. Your savings rate is easily 2X what it was before. If working in KL, you can only afford to own the house you want in KL in 20 years; you will now be able to do so in less than 10 years.

And don't discount the power of the larger market, more MNCs, less skin-colour based economics in Singapore. If you are not living off your daddy's connections or your race's bullshit, the potential for promotions and job opportunities is immense compared to KL.

This post has been edited by seantang: Dec 19 2012, 05:38 PM

I think there are car rental companies with offices in both Penang and JB. Rent a car in JB, drive back to Penang and then drop it off. They'll probably charge you a surcharge for dropping the car off at a different location from where you picked it up, but should still be worth it.

I was thinking of doing that until I found out there are zero established car rental companies with offices in Ipoh.

Why are you being so vague?

What is so special about how you treat Malaysians? And how did your friends advise you to treat Singaporeans differently compared to that?

And what exactly is this darker side of the Singaporean character that is absent from the Malaysian character? ie. this gap you're talking about?

The main difference I see in Singapore vs Malaysia is that in Singapore, there is a real cost or opportunity cost involved in not making the standard, or not playing by the rules, or not getting ahead. The competition here is real. You screw up at school or at work, you're done for. It's not like if you happen to fail, you can still balik kampung tanam jagung. It's not like if you don't get into a good JC but go into a neighborhood secondary school instead, you will still be selected for overseas scholarships if you work hard. Or if you choose not to queue, you will still be able to buy that famous chicken rice before they run out. This constant state of competitiveness produces a certain disposition towards "guaranteeing" you don't lose out. The name for that is kiasu. But it's not like it's a "darker" side. It's simply that if you lose to your peers, there will be a real cost imposed on you... for that is the very nature of competition.

This post has been edited by seantang: Dec 31 2012, 12:09 AM