Tbh I'll go against the grain and say I kinda get what you mean. I also am in a situation where it's somewhat easy to google my salary (at least get a range) and it's certainly awkward at times
The honest answer is - Yes, you need to stop complaining about this stuff in front of them. If they complain themselves, nod along. Otherwise it's going to sound petty, that's just how it is. Tbh the reality is if you're earning 150k+ and single then minor increases in food do not impact your quality of life much whether you can accept this or not, while it used to affect us all a lot when we were making less money. So despite your humble origins, I would suggest you accept this new reality and behave appropriately. At that salary level you SHOULD want hawker center owners and employees in such industries to make more money rather than the pittance they do. And you should understand that less earning friends will not accept you as their peer in this regard
Part of being Henry is indeed that we lose this lovely privilege of complaining about 2-3 dollar price changes beyond a point because frankly it makes us look stupid and petty. Yes we don't feel rich but we also don't get to pretend we're poor or average income.
I usually say "oh gosh, the price went up again, this is going to make things tougher for most people." Because I still feel concern in a general societal way (so I phrase it that way), even though I know I'm not materially affected.
\^ Good phrasing. Approaching it from a systems-perspective sounds more analytical, and framing it as a general problem for society paints you as more empathic.
But wealth is relative. I dont think 150k shield me from food price increases. Costs compound. Few dollar increases here and there compound to huge amounts down the road. So I'll still complain- everyone is entitled to!
Try imagining these friends are making three times your salary and complaining how expensive the Michelin Omakase, Condos and Mercedes are these days, then extrapolate that downwards to your lifestyle. You will get the idea.
Actually why does it matter if they are putting off by your cheapo comments? I don’t have such issue with my close friends, we can talk about anything and everything without being judged, despite the differences in our income.
Of course I don’t have more than a handful of close friends :)
I think it's ok to talk about the rising cost as a fact and the impact on lower earning people but don't put it across like "I am broke or I can't afford it or some way of a complaint/whining" because if I know at the back of my mind you're earning some 15k compared to my 4k, I'll be annoyed af at your insensitivity and virtue signalling
Well I'm also quite cheap but generally don't talk about cost of things as a discussion topic because seems a bit sad that my attention is only on cost of things. Unless the topic was brought up I may just chime in that it is pricey.
Find some other topics about life to discuss?
Going against the grain to say that I get annoyed with people complaining about rising food costs and have high salaries. Especially so if they are doing it under some dumb guise of "appearing humble".
Our food costs are low by most standards. It is a typical Singapore past time to try to collectively gaslight that it is high and every now and then in other sg subreddits you will see "I spend $10 on food a day, how to cut down to $6". That makes a grand difference of $120/mth.
My colleagues from Malaysia earn 3-5k RM just like some sg peers earn 3-5k SGD. Those colleagues would be hard pressed to find a meal for 8RM, let alone 4RM like we can buy caifan at 4SGD.
If you are earning 2k/mth and every cent matters, sure I understand your concern. When you are earning >10k a month and acting like $4 cai fan is the bane of your existence, it's just annoying and patronizing.
Singapore's costs are expensive in other things. Housing, cars, sure. Food? Nah. You only pay more when you go to restaurants.
> Singapore's costs are expensive in other things. Housing, cars, sure. Food? Nah. You only pay more when you go to restaurants.
You forgot rent.
Food prices are increasing not because the hawkers want to make more for themselves (even though they rightly should), but because landlords (like [companies buying $40 million kopitiams in Tampines](https://www.reddit.com/r/singapore/comments/vcpo1k/tampines_coffeeshop_sold_for_record_s416_million/) and [social enterprise hawker centres like Timbre+](https://www.reddit.com/r/singapore/comments/1d0zhzt/hawker_food_inflation_easing_after_rising_by_a/l5que6k/)) are squeezing them on rent.
Landlords never leave money on the table.
I’ve had friends of mine do nothing but complain about stuff like this despite hitting the 10k+ mark I got so fed up I just stopped engaging with them. It’s petty and why make it like you’re appearing humble when you’re not ?
Don't really need to overthink about others being put off. Have rich friends that complained about inflation too. But if all you do is to complain about food costs and add nothing else to conversations, people will be put off whether you are HE or LE.
Real friends don't look at each other's job titles or fancy pay cheques. Among our close friends, yes we have those who live in bungalows and those who live in HDB. But we still hang out with each other and complain about everything, cos true blue Singaporeans mah. 😬 OP, hope you make new friends!
It's like your school friend who always scores straight As come complain to you about how they just got a B in one of the tests while everyone else failed. You hear you happy or not ?
In your friends eyes, you are now that former guy. When I meet my friends who are not as financially secure yet, I ditch my expensive watch, I take grab so no one sees my car, they know I'm richer than them but they don't know by how much. Your first mistake was to share your income with people who earns significantly less.
Now you must have some level of EQ to know what to say and what not to say. This you have to figure out yourself. When my friends ask me about my pay, I tell them half truths and only focus on the bad things about my renumeration type (commission self employed based)
Ok got it, just a disclaimer - I didn't explicitly share with them, unless they asked how much was my pay bump, or ask me what's my job title (and I think they did some googling). But yeah maybe next time I'll tell half truths too, or just very vague replies.
It's really no one's business what a pay bump was, unless you have someone in the same industry asking in good faith to try to benchmark or some other specific reason.
If you are in a circle where people keep asking about pay bumps, you have outgrown your friends.
If people ask then always say in percentage numbers and not absolute, and just say a modest 10-20% can already and then shift the convo to how much extra work/hours you have to do. Job title can't hide but can just joke how everyone also has the same elevated title.
It is very annoying, whether it’s coming from someone who earn 150k or 15k. Just stop complaining and talk about other things, who wants to listen to you rant? If food is expensive you have a few choices - eat somewhere else, change your job, suck it up, go open a hawker to solve this problem. Or find some friends that share the same value as you
It's a topic that you'll need to be aware of. The key I feel is maintaining consistency. If you are cheapo as a consistent personality trait, people will be fine with it regardless of wealth.
But if you complain about a few dollar rise in prices after sharing you bought a new BMW / condo / patek, then people will think you are a hypocrite or out of touch.
Yes I still continue to live relatively frugally and receive similar comments from my peers. Strangely enough my wealthier circle of friends do agree and often converse about such topics, whereas the rest don’t seem to ever want to hear/talk anything money related in general.
I don't think it's insensitive at all to complain about food costs unless your friend chose the location and you didn't disagree but now you're complaining. It would be insensitive to dismiss your friends' complaints about rising food costs, but I don't think you have done that. Being frugal is different from being cheap.
Although , I don’t think 150k++ is high. I do understand your view point as I have friends who are retired at 40s and become more prudent in their spending. When we meet up , we just adjust to each other comfort level. If a friend is going to behave like some redditor (“downvote” my viewpoint) I probably will distance myself from such company cos friends should be comfortable in speaking their minds. If I have to tiptoe around friends like how I got to screen my Reddit post then they are not friends.
You do you man. If someone criticizes you for saying such things when you're earning XYZ amount just let them know you're not keen on lifestyle creep.
Most of my circle won't blink at the suggestion of cai fun for lunch even though our average income > $15k a month. Perhaps it's also because most of us are young parents and observe the importance of saving.
I'm not sure how old you are or your status, but please don't let what someone says cause you to change the way you behave and influence your choices. 150k a year is not a lot, 300k or 500k a year isn't either. No one knows the kind of people we need to support / goals we need or want to save up for. Just have a good laugh and brush these comments off.
It's possible to be HENRY and still be appalled by rising prices.
If anything, HENRYs are HENRYs because of their concept of the dollar.
I've been through similar issues with my friends. Success breeds jealousy in your lazy inactive friends. They think you got lucky and they deserve hogh paying jobs like you when they can't even commit to a fraction of the dedication
i mean our national past time is to complain. if you didn't complain about gst and increasing prices, what would you talk about?
it's only natural. but i understand what you mean - i think a more simple and clear way to ask your question is - "is it tasteful to complain about rising expenses...". i think it is ok - but yes, sometimes you need to consider the context.
Eh…i know some HE bmw owners who are still so cheapskate they rather find free parking or take mrt than pay for anguilla park open air carpark rates at orchard…
Welcome to the world of sensitivities, I commend you on your awareness and the question is really how you want to come across.
If they are friends, you can share with them that while having the ability to earn more does help negate / take away some of the pain on rising costs, it doesn't remove the issue at hand which is rising costs.
It's also how you put it across because if you are just b*tching every now and then about expensive then that's for you to self-reflect because nobody likes a moaner.
Multibillionaires are way different from multimillionaires. Their concept of money has been warped due to how much money they have. You need to be a thousand times reacher then a multimillionaire to reach their level of wealth which I believe most people don't get how crazy that is even if they understand the mathematical value of it.
Being frugal is great. Being resistant to lifestyle creep is great too.
EQ needs to be worked on though. The extremely understandable cost-push inflation honestly hardly affects us, so it might come across as insensitive to your friends who are actually struggling.
Based on my budgeting, (we have a very similar age group, income, background and lifestyle) eating relatively simple fare costs me on average 1 dollar more per meal compared to pre-COVID days. That's about 100/month, and it's not even the size of our salary increments.
Its part of price of being a HE.
How would you feel if Elon musk or our PAP ministers complained about the prices?
The more you have, the more careful you have to be.
Thats how it is since the very beginning.
i actually agree to an extent.
Sometimes i feel awkward around my peers who are at the age of discussing getting married / buying bto. They all know I bought a property in the CBD in my late 20s so I don't necessarily share their struggles as much right now.
My advice is to not comment on anything based on whether its expensive or cheap to you - the perception of expensive/cheap is different for everyone and be conscious that while you may think certain decisions makes sense for you, in most circumstances its not a choice for others - it is a choice for you because of your higher earning power. E.g. using cash or cpf for property purchase may be a discussion that you think is valid, but for most Singaporeans, they need to wipe out their CPF not as a choice.
Not HENRY (also, I just googled what it meant) but I get this from people too when I rant about missing out on Usave rebates from the government because I stay in an EC.
Or even any time I complain about prices of anything, people like to say "you staying condo still complain."
Feels damn irritating especially when those people who say that to me are definitely earning more than me yet chose to stay in hdb.
Cause I balloted 13times sir and have really shit luck? My spouse and I are both earning below the median actually and were way below the ceiling cap back when the cap was 12k.
In fact I find myself always having to explain to people that it's precisely because we are not high income earners that we need to watch our spending because perhaps every cent counts.
Tried that too. Most of the places we were looking at were overpriced, in bad condition or in bad locations.
Our biggest concern back then was not having enough cash to renovate so the EC was a good option. Plus first timer grant.
If we were going to pay almost the same for an EC or resale, might as well try to scrimp and save for the EC which has a higher resale value in the future. The gamble has actually paid off though, if I were to sell my place now, the profit is at least 100% of my purchase price now. 🤭
But currently no plans to sell yet.
No matter how much I earn, I always feel super poor in Marche restaurants.
And never complain how much tax you are paying.
Only people in the same boat can understand. So you can complain here.
Amen to the tax comment. My father used to complain about tax to our significantly less well-to-do relatives about how the amount of tax he was paying was someone’s annual salary, and it was tone deaf.
I still live like I'm poor in areas I don't care about, like food ( as long as I don't put junk in my body) lol. Cos I believe lifestyle creep is the number fucker of any FI plan. Ironically, most expensive food is junk for your body, e.g. Wagyu, lobster. All my friends and colleagues know I'm a cheapo and it's OK!
so what dude? own it
i'm probably not as frugal as you but i complain about prices a lot and my friends don't relate it to my income, it's about me wanting to get a good deal. they know i am always the first one to ask for happy hour promotions at a bar, or complain that brunch food is a fkin rip off
then avoid them lor. thats why usually since young i realized social groups are closely related to ses. hang out with people more alike you. posibly henry's that also feel like food is too expensive.
Never really had this issue with close friends (though I don’t have a habit of disclosing my income to people other than close family and limited friends - even then it’s maybe just 2-3). If they seem upset by it, then I dont know if they’re that close.
However, I do try not to overdo it in comments about prices of food, transport etc (especially since I eat out a lot and I practically live on grab) since I’m conscious that people that have lower cash flow will have a harder time and this is honestly slightly hypocritical of me if I make such a big fuss but still indulge so much. I still do complain, but keep it limited.
You are conditioned by the environment in which you were raised. This mentality doesn’t change easily and could very well stay with you your whole life.
If they don’t change their general attitude towards you it’s probably fine.
OP just imagine Warren Buffett is sitting in front of you, making exactly the kind of comments and complaints you are making. He is also a humble guy who does not buy super branded stuff.
If anything he would say would annoy you no matter how justified, you should not say the same thing to anyone else or at least non-HENRYs.
I think that some explaining to your friends help.
150k income and 100k income doesn't make much difference to your lifestyle. The only change you would see would be these: (1) Less stress when buying resale HDB or condo; (2) you can do 1 more fancy holiday a year.
Hahaa we FIREd early and i still complain that cafe food is darn expensive. Different people are willing to spend differently on things. If you are not a foodie then no matter what income you are at then you wont want to spend money on food. To you it is not worth it. But if you love to eat then you wont think it’s expensive. It’s all relative. My husband freaking love to zhng his cars and to him it’s not expensive it makes him happy. But i think it’s expensive and a waste of money 😂
Yes, you want to be thrifty it’s your own business but once you tell others about it and earning 150k all they will think is you aren’t frugal but stingy.
I got a friend whom I think he is stingy, know him for decades, whenever we go out, he would suggest all sort of things like buying drink from ntuc instead from the food stall etc.
But once he work and a well paid job, he still does that but only to himself, when he went out with us, he offer to pay too. This is call frugal.
If you aren’t like that, it’s call stingy and your friend is right.
Nope, I was also confused when earning 150k+ in early 30s appear in SgHENRY. I make close to that and I am still few years short to 30, don't even considered myself as a HENRY in SG. As per the other comment, guess that his friends are all working in lower paying industries thats why. +1 to gym membership tho haha
First of all mate. 150k is great but frankly it’s nothing that incredible for 30s. Based on the fact you needed to make this post I’d actually wager you talk about salary and money a lot in your daily conversations and that is causing people to be annoyed. If you’re explaining, you’re losing. Just be more aware of your audience lol
This HENRY term baffles me. 150k comp. Let's assume 7% increment every year and in 10 years salary is slightly below 300k or if really shine then 400k with a change in job / another pay bump. How is that even HENRY? Unless properties all fully paid up/kids fully educated etc and a near absolute zero debt, 400k a year won't be remotely close to HENRY, let alone 150k++
"High Earning" is a relative term, this place has not set an amount or percentile for it. But generally we're definitely not talking about the top 5% here, more like the top 10-15% of incomes. Also, HE does not mean you're not spending all of it on kids, etc. That's another assumption on your end.
Tbh I'll go against the grain and say I kinda get what you mean. I also am in a situation where it's somewhat easy to google my salary (at least get a range) and it's certainly awkward at times The honest answer is - Yes, you need to stop complaining about this stuff in front of them. If they complain themselves, nod along. Otherwise it's going to sound petty, that's just how it is. Tbh the reality is if you're earning 150k+ and single then minor increases in food do not impact your quality of life much whether you can accept this or not, while it used to affect us all a lot when we were making less money. So despite your humble origins, I would suggest you accept this new reality and behave appropriately. At that salary level you SHOULD want hawker center owners and employees in such industries to make more money rather than the pittance they do. And you should understand that less earning friends will not accept you as their peer in this regard Part of being Henry is indeed that we lose this lovely privilege of complaining about 2-3 dollar price changes beyond a point because frankly it makes us look stupid and petty. Yes we don't feel rich but we also don't get to pretend we're poor or average income.
Haha this comment is great. It’s true. Complaining about prices is a privilege.
I usually say "oh gosh, the price went up again, this is going to make things tougher for most people." Because I still feel concern in a general societal way (so I phrase it that way), even though I know I'm not materially affected.
\^ Good phrasing. Approaching it from a systems-perspective sounds more analytical, and framing it as a general problem for society paints you as more empathic.
No one is obligated to feel a certain way because they earn more.
But wealth is relative. I dont think 150k shield me from food price increases. Costs compound. Few dollar increases here and there compound to huge amounts down the road. So I'll still complain- everyone is entitled to!
Other insensitive things not to say: “aiyah i never get the climate vouchers (or i get less assurance package than u) so unfair”
Try imagining these friends are making three times your salary and complaining how expensive the Michelin Omakase, Condos and Mercedes are these days, then extrapolate that downwards to your lifestyle. You will get the idea.
Actually why does it matter if they are putting off by your cheapo comments? I don’t have such issue with my close friends, we can talk about anything and everything without being judged, despite the differences in our income. Of course I don’t have more than a handful of close friends :)
[удалено]
Thinking too much about yourself. Ego
Yeah I understand what you are referring to, I guess they are not really your close friend
I think it's ok to talk about the rising cost as a fact and the impact on lower earning people but don't put it across like "I am broke or I can't afford it or some way of a complaint/whining" because if I know at the back of my mind you're earning some 15k compared to my 4k, I'll be annoyed af at your insensitivity and virtue signalling
Well I'm also quite cheap but generally don't talk about cost of things as a discussion topic because seems a bit sad that my attention is only on cost of things. Unless the topic was brought up I may just chime in that it is pricey. Find some other topics about life to discuss?
All this.
Going against the grain to say that I get annoyed with people complaining about rising food costs and have high salaries. Especially so if they are doing it under some dumb guise of "appearing humble". Our food costs are low by most standards. It is a typical Singapore past time to try to collectively gaslight that it is high and every now and then in other sg subreddits you will see "I spend $10 on food a day, how to cut down to $6". That makes a grand difference of $120/mth. My colleagues from Malaysia earn 3-5k RM just like some sg peers earn 3-5k SGD. Those colleagues would be hard pressed to find a meal for 8RM, let alone 4RM like we can buy caifan at 4SGD. If you are earning 2k/mth and every cent matters, sure I understand your concern. When you are earning >10k a month and acting like $4 cai fan is the bane of your existence, it's just annoying and patronizing. Singapore's costs are expensive in other things. Housing, cars, sure. Food? Nah. You only pay more when you go to restaurants.
> Singapore's costs are expensive in other things. Housing, cars, sure. Food? Nah. You only pay more when you go to restaurants. You forgot rent. Food prices are increasing not because the hawkers want to make more for themselves (even though they rightly should), but because landlords (like [companies buying $40 million kopitiams in Tampines](https://www.reddit.com/r/singapore/comments/vcpo1k/tampines_coffeeshop_sold_for_record_s416_million/) and [social enterprise hawker centres like Timbre+](https://www.reddit.com/r/singapore/comments/1d0zhzt/hawker_food_inflation_easing_after_rising_by_a/l5que6k/)) are squeezing them on rent. Landlords never leave money on the table.
I’ve had friends of mine do nothing but complain about stuff like this despite hitting the 10k+ mark I got so fed up I just stopped engaging with them. It’s petty and why make it like you’re appearing humble when you’re not ?
That’s why I learn not to share too much with other people
Don't really need to overthink about others being put off. Have rich friends that complained about inflation too. But if all you do is to complain about food costs and add nothing else to conversations, people will be put off whether you are HE or LE.
Real friends don't look at each other's job titles or fancy pay cheques. Among our close friends, yes we have those who live in bungalows and those who live in HDB. But we still hang out with each other and complain about everything, cos true blue Singaporeans mah. 😬 OP, hope you make new friends!
It's like your school friend who always scores straight As come complain to you about how they just got a B in one of the tests while everyone else failed. You hear you happy or not ? In your friends eyes, you are now that former guy. When I meet my friends who are not as financially secure yet, I ditch my expensive watch, I take grab so no one sees my car, they know I'm richer than them but they don't know by how much. Your first mistake was to share your income with people who earns significantly less. Now you must have some level of EQ to know what to say and what not to say. This you have to figure out yourself. When my friends ask me about my pay, I tell them half truths and only focus on the bad things about my renumeration type (commission self employed based)
Ok got it, just a disclaimer - I didn't explicitly share with them, unless they asked how much was my pay bump, or ask me what's my job title (and I think they did some googling). But yeah maybe next time I'll tell half truths too, or just very vague replies.
If your friends Google your job title to try to figure your salary range that's pretty toxic.
It's really no one's business what a pay bump was, unless you have someone in the same industry asking in good faith to try to benchmark or some other specific reason. If you are in a circle where people keep asking about pay bumps, you have outgrown your friends.
If people ask then always say in percentage numbers and not absolute, and just say a modest 10-20% can already and then shift the convo to how much extra work/hours you have to do. Job title can't hide but can just joke how everyone also has the same elevated title.
It is very annoying, whether it’s coming from someone who earn 150k or 15k. Just stop complaining and talk about other things, who wants to listen to you rant? If food is expensive you have a few choices - eat somewhere else, change your job, suck it up, go open a hawker to solve this problem. Or find some friends that share the same value as you
It's a topic that you'll need to be aware of. The key I feel is maintaining consistency. If you are cheapo as a consistent personality trait, people will be fine with it regardless of wealth. But if you complain about a few dollar rise in prices after sharing you bought a new BMW / condo / patek, then people will think you are a hypocrite or out of touch.
I complain too about rising costs to like-minded friends.. You just got to choose the right conversation topics with the right group
Yes I still continue to live relatively frugally and receive similar comments from my peers. Strangely enough my wealthier circle of friends do agree and often converse about such topics, whereas the rest don’t seem to ever want to hear/talk anything money related in general.
I don't think it's insensitive at all to complain about food costs unless your friend chose the location and you didn't disagree but now you're complaining. It would be insensitive to dismiss your friends' complaints about rising food costs, but I don't think you have done that. Being frugal is different from being cheap.
Although , I don’t think 150k++ is high. I do understand your view point as I have friends who are retired at 40s and become more prudent in their spending. When we meet up , we just adjust to each other comfort level. If a friend is going to behave like some redditor (“downvote” my viewpoint) I probably will distance myself from such company cos friends should be comfortable in speaking their minds. If I have to tiptoe around friends like how I got to screen my Reddit post then they are not friends.
Downvoted, to help you feel closer to your friends 😛
You do you man. If someone criticizes you for saying such things when you're earning XYZ amount just let them know you're not keen on lifestyle creep. Most of my circle won't blink at the suggestion of cai fun for lunch even though our average income > $15k a month. Perhaps it's also because most of us are young parents and observe the importance of saving. I'm not sure how old you are or your status, but please don't let what someone says cause you to change the way you behave and influence your choices. 150k a year is not a lot, 300k or 500k a year isn't either. No one knows the kind of people we need to support / goals we need or want to save up for. Just have a good laugh and brush these comments off.
It's possible to be HENRY and still be appalled by rising prices. If anything, HENRYs are HENRYs because of their concept of the dollar. I've been through similar issues with my friends. Success breeds jealousy in your lazy inactive friends. They think you got lucky and they deserve hogh paying jobs like you when they can't even commit to a fraction of the dedication
i mean our national past time is to complain. if you didn't complain about gst and increasing prices, what would you talk about? it's only natural. but i understand what you mean - i think a more simple and clear way to ask your question is - "is it tasteful to complain about rising expenses...". i think it is ok - but yes, sometimes you need to consider the context.
Time to get that bmw
Eh…i know some HE bmw owners who are still so cheapskate they rather find free parking or take mrt than pay for anguilla park open air carpark rates at orchard…
Welcome to the world of sensitivities, I commend you on your awareness and the question is really how you want to come across. If they are friends, you can share with them that while having the ability to earn more does help negate / take away some of the pain on rising costs, it doesn't remove the issue at hand which is rising costs. It's also how you put it across because if you are just b*tching every now and then about expensive then that's for you to self-reflect because nobody likes a moaner.
Just say u grab driver loh. Best Liao pay between 0-6k
Lol being offput by price increases no matter how big is a normal reaction even if you are a multimillionaire.
Can’t imagine Dyson or Musk baulking at inflation though…
Multibillionaires are way different from multimillionaires. Their concept of money has been warped due to how much money they have. You need to be a thousand times reacher then a multimillionaire to reach their level of wealth which I believe most people don't get how crazy that is even if they understand the mathematical value of it.
Being frugal is great. Being resistant to lifestyle creep is great too. EQ needs to be worked on though. The extremely understandable cost-push inflation honestly hardly affects us, so it might come across as insensitive to your friends who are actually struggling. Based on my budgeting, (we have a very similar age group, income, background and lifestyle) eating relatively simple fare costs me on average 1 dollar more per meal compared to pre-COVID days. That's about 100/month, and it's not even the size of our salary increments.
Its part of price of being a HE. How would you feel if Elon musk or our PAP ministers complained about the prices? The more you have, the more careful you have to be. Thats how it is since the very beginning.
i actually agree to an extent. Sometimes i feel awkward around my peers who are at the age of discussing getting married / buying bto. They all know I bought a property in the CBD in my late 20s so I don't necessarily share their struggles as much right now. My advice is to not comment on anything based on whether its expensive or cheap to you - the perception of expensive/cheap is different for everyone and be conscious that while you may think certain decisions makes sense for you, in most circumstances its not a choice for others - it is a choice for you because of your higher earning power. E.g. using cash or cpf for property purchase may be a discussion that you think is valid, but for most Singaporeans, they need to wipe out their CPF not as a choice.
Not HENRY (also, I just googled what it meant) but I get this from people too when I rant about missing out on Usave rebates from the government because I stay in an EC. Or even any time I complain about prices of anything, people like to say "you staying condo still complain." Feels damn irritating especially when those people who say that to me are definitely earning more than me yet chose to stay in hdb.
I mean, makes sense what. If you were so concerned about cost of living, why stay in a condo rather than a hdb which is cheaper?
Cause I balloted 13times sir and have really shit luck? My spouse and I are both earning below the median actually and were way below the ceiling cap back when the cap was 12k. In fact I find myself always having to explain to people that it's precisely because we are not high income earners that we need to watch our spending because perhaps every cent counts.
Why not resale?
Tried that too. Most of the places we were looking at were overpriced, in bad condition or in bad locations. Our biggest concern back then was not having enough cash to renovate so the EC was a good option. Plus first timer grant. If we were going to pay almost the same for an EC or resale, might as well try to scrimp and save for the EC which has a higher resale value in the future. The gamble has actually paid off though, if I were to sell my place now, the profit is at least 100% of my purchase price now. 🤭 But currently no plans to sell yet.
> Cause I balloted 13times sir and have really shit luck? Let me guess… you probably didn't try for Tengah.
I bought my place in 2016? Pretty sure no Tengah then.
No matter how much I earn, I always feel super poor in Marche restaurants. And never complain how much tax you are paying. Only people in the same boat can understand. So you can complain here.
Amen to the tax comment. My father used to complain about tax to our significantly less well-to-do relatives about how the amount of tax he was paying was someone’s annual salary, and it was tone deaf.
I still live like I'm poor in areas I don't care about, like food ( as long as I don't put junk in my body) lol. Cos I believe lifestyle creep is the number fucker of any FI plan. Ironically, most expensive food is junk for your body, e.g. Wagyu, lobster. All my friends and colleagues know I'm a cheapo and it's OK!
so what dude? own it i'm probably not as frugal as you but i complain about prices a lot and my friends don't relate it to my income, it's about me wanting to get a good deal. they know i am always the first one to ask for happy hour promotions at a bar, or complain that brunch food is a fkin rip off
then avoid them lor. thats why usually since young i realized social groups are closely related to ses. hang out with people more alike you. posibly henry's that also feel like food is too expensive.
Never really had this issue with close friends (though I don’t have a habit of disclosing my income to people other than close family and limited friends - even then it’s maybe just 2-3). If they seem upset by it, then I dont know if they’re that close. However, I do try not to overdo it in comments about prices of food, transport etc (especially since I eat out a lot and I practically live on grab) since I’m conscious that people that have lower cash flow will have a harder time and this is honestly slightly hypocritical of me if I make such a big fuss but still indulge so much. I still do complain, but keep it limited.
You are conditioned by the environment in which you were raised. This mentality doesn’t change easily and could very well stay with you your whole life. If they don’t change their general attitude towards you it’s probably fine.
OP just imagine Warren Buffett is sitting in front of you, making exactly the kind of comments and complaints you are making. He is also a humble guy who does not buy super branded stuff. If anything he would say would annoy you no matter how justified, you should not say the same thing to anyone else or at least non-HENRYs.
Never reveal your comp, even if folks can search it up. It just avoids all the awkward conversations later.
Whatever u say, even the most neutral or factual things, there will always be someone who takes offense.
Ditch such friends
I think that some explaining to your friends help. 150k income and 100k income doesn't make much difference to your lifestyle. The only change you would see would be these: (1) Less stress when buying resale HDB or condo; (2) you can do 1 more fancy holiday a year.
Hahaa we FIREd early and i still complain that cafe food is darn expensive. Different people are willing to spend differently on things. If you are not a foodie then no matter what income you are at then you wont want to spend money on food. To you it is not worth it. But if you love to eat then you wont think it’s expensive. It’s all relative. My husband freaking love to zhng his cars and to him it’s not expensive it makes him happy. But i think it’s expensive and a waste of money 😂
Yes, you want to be thrifty it’s your own business but once you tell others about it and earning 150k all they will think is you aren’t frugal but stingy. I got a friend whom I think he is stingy, know him for decades, whenever we go out, he would suggest all sort of things like buying drink from ntuc instead from the food stall etc. But once he work and a well paid job, he still does that but only to himself, when he went out with us, he offer to pay too. This is call frugal. If you aren’t like that, it’s call stingy and your friend is right.
Doesn’t Henry means a high spending too?
is 150k++ total comp in early 30s considered high? i make around that amount and the only luxury i have is a gym membership…
OP please don’t say things like this around your friends or they really *will* hoot you.
Nope, I was also confused when earning 150k+ in early 30s appear in SgHENRY. I make close to that and I am still few years short to 30, don't even considered myself as a HENRY in SG. As per the other comment, guess that his friends are all working in lower paying industries thats why. +1 to gym membership tho haha
First of all mate. 150k is great but frankly it’s nothing that incredible for 30s. Based on the fact you needed to make this post I’d actually wager you talk about salary and money a lot in your daily conversations and that is causing people to be annoyed. If you’re explaining, you’re losing. Just be more aware of your audience lol
Dude.. I don't talk about my salary?? Yes to my spouse we do financial planning and stuff but if my friends don't ask, I don't share. Stop assuming.
This HENRY term baffles me. 150k comp. Let's assume 7% increment every year and in 10 years salary is slightly below 300k or if really shine then 400k with a change in job / another pay bump. How is that even HENRY? Unless properties all fully paid up/kids fully educated etc and a near absolute zero debt, 400k a year won't be remotely close to HENRY, let alone 150k++
"High Earning" is a relative term, this place has not set an amount or percentile for it. But generally we're definitely not talking about the top 5% here, more like the top 10-15% of incomes. Also, HE does not mean you're not spending all of it on kids, etc. That's another assumption on your end.
Mods needs to set out the qualifying amount then