Salary.sg – Your Salary in Singapore

Sometimes when we look at other countries, we can’t help but appreciate (or wonder in awe) how efficient our government implement things, such as salary hikes for political appointments and civil servants.

Look at Hong Kong. As reported in today’s Business Times, their proposal to increase civil service salaries has drawn “fire and ire”. Hong Kongers are complaining that the proposed wage increase of up to 30% is divisive because the hike is not across the board and will mostly benefit new entrants to the service.

In contrast, our Public Service Division has just revised upwards, without much fanfare or ado, the starting salaries of our civil servants.

(I recall that the Hong Kong public were also strongly against a proposed sales tax akin to our GST. Subsequently, the HK legislators dropped the idea.)

We should be proud of ourselves. Or should we?

My Paper interviews the co-creator of the “Chicken Soup for the Soul” self-help books.

Mark Victor Hansen made his first million at age 35. He’s now an accomplished wealth guru coaching people and giving seminars around the world (obviously making more money).

Like other self-help gurus, Mark has advice for people who aspire to be wealthy. Let me gloss over the standard stuff and highlight what I think is important.

Standard stuff (mostly vague):

• Have a vision
• Be a team player, work with people
• Have a system of generating wealth quickly (but how?)
• Have “tools”
• Save 10% of what you earn, donate 10%, and invest 10%

Here’s what I think is useful: find a mentor. Yes, get someone who’s been there and done that to coach you. (But I don’t think this is the same as attending get-rich seminars, so please save your money.)

If you’re lucky to find such a mentor – maybe a close relative or a good friend – ask him these questions politely:

1. How did you make your first million?
2. How long did you take?
3. If you were to do it again in today’s context, how much time do you need? Would you do it differently and how?
4. If I want to be rich, what’s your advice for me?
5. What is the most important lesson you picked up in the process of getting rich?
6. What do you think is the most important habit that helped you?
7. Any missed opportunities? Can I make use of these opportunities?

I want to add one more question: Do you think luck plays a part?

The reason for asking this question is that luck is a very much underrated “quality” for getting rich. Too many people are saying it’s just hard work, having a “system”, perseverance, networking, etc. But you actually need to be lucky to have a good brain, to meet the right people, to be at the right place, to invest at the right time, and so on.

So, it helps if your mentor can give you an understanding of how luck plays a part in getting rich.

As we brace ourselves for an IT job boom, here’s a ZDNet Asia report on IT employment trends in the region.

According to the report, the top 5 skills in demand are:

1. Project management
2. Business analysis
3. Microsoft .NET
4. J2EE (Java Enterprise Edition)
5. General programming skill

Not surprisingly, the top industry is Legal & Finance, with an average annual salary of about $76,000 (SGD), followed by Government, Education & Health ($66,000), Manufacturing & Services ($63,000), IT, Web & Telecom ($60,700), and Media, Marketing & Sales ($59,500).

I hope the much-touted Digital Media industry is not part of “Media, Marketing & Sales” which earns the least.

The average annual income of an IT professional is $38,600 (SGD) if he has less than 5 years of experience, $61,700 if he is 5 to 10 years into IT, and a comfortable $98,500 if he is at least a 10-year veteran.

The “job function” that earns the most is IT Management, followed by Project Development, and then Systems Development.

I guess IT Management refers to being in the senior management positions overseeing IT operations and IT development in big companies. Whatever it means, I’m quite sure that being too technical (geeky) doesn’t get you far in terms of earning power.

You wanna make big money, you gotta be in management!

Following up on Tan Kin Lian’s advice on avoiding whole life insurance policies with regular cash payments, here’s a tip that your insurance agent will probably never tell you: Insurance can be de-linked from investment. In other words, it’s possible for you to buy pure insurance – insurance that gives you and your loved ones [...]

The ST Digital Life reports that a whopping 55,000 IT jobs are up for grabs from now till 2015. This is the projection of Infocomm Development Authority (IDA), which is currently seeking public consultation on its IT manpower development strategies as part of its iNtelligent Nation 2015 (iN2015) masterplan. IDA also maintains a talent development [...]

Specifically, avoid those whole life insurance policies that come with a cash payment every few years. This advice comes from Mr Tan Kian Lian, the retired CEO of NTUC Income, in My Paper today. He gave an example and computed the overall return to be just 1% per year, even with the regular cash payments [...]

The Public Service Division has announced hikes in the monthly starting salaries of fresh graduates employed under its civil service schemes. The announcement is made in a press released dated yesterday and reported in the media today. I took a look at the press release. The biggest increase is found in the engineering profession scheme [...]

Business Times had an editorial today cautioning investors to “look very closely at the fee structure” when considering funds. Take the the controversial case of CitySpring Infrastructure Fund charging performance fees. BT said: CitySpring’s managers chose to pay themselves most of the management fee in shares, rather than cash. There are investors who think that [...]

Are you considering a mid-career switch to the lucrative finance sector? Thinking of becoming a private banker, or work as a financial analyst crunching numbers in an investment bank? Hoping for more money and big bonuses coming your way? Are you an engineer thinking of doing some finance courses (CFA, MFE, CMFAS, IFPAS, etc.)? Think [...]

[Update: the 2009 version of this post is here: Income Tax Calculator 2009.] [Update: the 2008 version of this post is here: Income Tax Calculator 2008.] We have all filed our tax returns. But we’re not sure how much tax we’ll be paying. Here’s an income tax calculator for this year (YA2007). Just enter your [...]