See also buffer ratio: SG^US^HK #BRBR
Q: Wall St after-tax salary sounds higher than SG, but how about after tax-like outlays?
A: Disposable income is higher in Singapore than U.S. at this stage of my career
U.S is a high-cost country due to
- med insurance
- pTax
- car ownership
- ^^^^ These are the classic Melvin3
- even if pTax drops a bit, other housing costs are still higher in U.S. than HDB. Consider renting in Edison
- private schools or private tuition are cheaper in SG.
These “Melvin3+” factors probably reduces my US peers’ disposable income to become inferior to that in SG, China or India. Some of my U.S. friends (from U.S., India, Europe, Taiwan) presumably can’t imagine burn rate level that’s possible in SG. In the U.S., their relative cash flow strain is real, not imaginary. At a glance,
- modest burn rate – in SG as family
- easy burn rate – in US by myself
- heavy burn rate – in US as family
Combined income? too early to tell. Depends on
- wife’s income
- rental property