Salary.sg – Your Salary in Singapore

There’s a quite informative and definitely entertaining “edutainment” show on CNBC (Starhub cable channel 15) every Saturday night. It’s called “The Millionaire Inside“.

Tonight, the show hosted 4 guests who had these pointers on “how you can also be a millionaire”:

1. Pay yourself first. Put away a sum of money, say 10% or more, every single month to an interest-bearing tax-free account (i.e. any good savings account).
2. Don’t rent a place to stay. Own your home. It’s better to pay for a mortgage than to make your landlord rich.
3. Invest in property, especially during a property slump. Apparently one of the gurus – Barbara Corcoran – said the US is currently experiencing a property slump. So it’s time to invest there now (well, if you are living there…)
4. Invest in stocks of well managed and well known companies that are “on sale”. The self-made millionaire stock expert Phil Town did not elaborate much on how to identify stocks that are “on sale”, except to say that sometimes when big funds sell out certain stocks, their prices will nosedive. I suppose you gotta identify stocks that are selling at below their actual values. Easy?
5. Be an entrepreneur. Start on the side part-time, build up your business, and then take the plunge when ready.

What is not expressly mentioned in the show is that it takes money to make money. How are you going to make the downpayment of your house (in Singapore, you have to put at least 10% down), buy shares, start a business, or even pay yourself when you have little or no income?

First things first. You gotta find a job that pays well. Then you find ways to grow your money. Get your priorities right.

A study by Ohio State University found that people with high IQ (measured) do not necessarily have more net worth than people with below average IQ.

Jay Zagorsky who is the researcher behind the study said:

“Your IQ has really no relationship to your wealth. And being very smart does not protect you from getting into financial difficulty.”

Nonetheless, the study did find a correlation between income and IQ – smarter people tend to have higher income. Note the difference between income and net worth. Income is what you take home (i.e. your pay); net worth measures how wealthy you are (i.e. your assets, minus your liabilities).

The study suggests that smart people are not as prudent as others. They don’t save enough, and they get into financial difficulties.

Are you smart enough to make a lot of money and also accumulate wealth?

Straits Times reported that SIA pilots’ salaries were revealed in the pay dispute court case between SIA and its pilots’ union.

Captains flying Boeing 777 planes take in a median of $271,888 per annum, which excludes allowances. Their First Officers receive a median income of $149,258. First Officers are “junior captains” – they become Captains upon promotion.

According to AskCaptainLim.com, a national airline pilot in the US commands up to US$250,000 per year. According to the same website, a Captain with the Malaysia Airlines (MAS) receives a gross pay of up to RM35,000/mth including allowances.

There’s an interesting letter in the career adviser column of today’s Sunday Times.
Basically, the letter writer in his 20s is asking if it is worthwhile taking the chartered financial analyst (CFA) exams. He is considering switching from his engineering career to a finance/investment one.
The adviser’s answer is that all things equal, passing the CFA exams [...]

The Straits Times released some interesting income figures today.
As you may know, the income benchmark for ministers and top civil servants is pegged at 2/3 the median income of all the top 8 earners in these 6 professions: lawyer, accountant, banker, MNC executive, local manufacturer and engineer. These means that we take the 48 top [...]

According to the Straits Times, the average starting pay of SMU graduates is $2,850 per month.
The ST article mentions:
The top 20 per cent of wage earners among them earn an average of $4,630, about 20 per cent higher than the $3,840 average in 2005.
Among them are 26 graduates who earn more than $4,000, with eight [...]

SM Goh is encouraging high-income Singaporeans to donate at least 0.5% of their income to charities, as reported in today’s Straits Times.
He defines high-income as making $7,000 or more every month. The ST article also mentions that the top 10% of income earners made $5,625 or more in 2004 based on Manpower Ministry data.

Business Times reported today that there have been signs of strong hiring in certain high-growth sectors.
Among the industry sectors cited are: financial services (i.e. banking and finance), engineering and technical, call centres, life sciences, and healthcare.
The BT report is based on information from Kelly Services’ Singapore Salary Guide 2007, which provided minimum and maximum salary [...]

Business Times reported today that the number of taxpaying millionaires has increased to 1,738. It was just 1,481 in 2004.
According to the latest IRAS Annual Report, there were 1,724 resident taxpayers with assessed income of more than $1,000,000. Non-resident taxpayers in the same income group numbered 14.
The number of taxpayers who reported income in the [...]

The current chairman of the Singapore Medical Association (SMA) contributed an article to today’s Straits Times.
The gist of Dr Wong Chiang Yin’s article is that heartlanders, i.e. those who stay in HDB flats, are under-represented in the medical profession.
While 80% of all Singaporeans stay in HDB apartments, only about 45% to 50% of doctors live [...]