We have updated our ever-popular income benchmarking tool to use Iras’ latest data.
Our income comparison tool needs no introduction. If you have not heard of it, see last year’s edition. The past 4 editions of this tool have attracted a total of more than 230 comments.
To use it, just type in your annual income (assessable income) and see how well you rank against all resident taxpayers in Singapore:
Notice that if you earned the same amount as the previous year, you will rank worse than before. People are making more money, obviously. A 100k income would give you a 79.9th percentile ranking a year before, but the same amount places you only at the 79.0th percentile this year. Guess what – four years ago, it was 83.1!
54 Comments
in school, i was in the top 1% of my cohort (i was told), but now my income is not even near the top 10%. i think life is fair to all in certain ways.
U chose the wrong career.
What to do?
Money is not the only thing that matters.
As long as you are happy, that matters.
Having said that, I have classmates who earned millions but are not happy.
Then there are those who earn much less than me but are very happy:)
1) the income gap is clearly widening.
2) taking the route of ‘being happy’ and ‘being contented’ with what you have is really sad and defeatist. It is like you know you cannot make a lot of money and you find a reason to justify your existence. That’s sad.
3) you can be rich and happy as well. This myth of a trade off between riches and happiness need to be dispel. In singapore, most of the jobs sucks essentially, because options are limited, so naturally, high paying job equates miserable life.
4) the income disparity will widen over time. If your pay or income stagnants over time, you are getting poorer every year.
Happiness is a lame excuse the poor made up for not being rich.
I made more than 200k a year all over the world. I am not rich yet but I am happy just counting the money.
Money can buy your family member happiness and seeing their smile will bring you that happiness you seek.
Hence, money can find you happiness.
Work hard and smart
I think the adage that “Money cannot buy happiness” was created by the smart Rich so the dumb Poor will never try to get rich and stay happy and contented to continue slaving away for their rich bosses.
Sister Mary: Money can’t buy happiness, Gabrielle.
Gabby: Sure it can! That’s just a lie we tell poor people to keep them from rioting.
–Eva Longoria as Gabrielle Solis
The definition of true happiness is very simple, it’s basically the fullfillment of your childhood dreams. For some people, the dream is to be super rich, so in that sense more money = more happiness, but most people mistake contentment with happiness. The poor is not happy not because they have very little money but because they know they have almost zero chance of pursuing any dreams whatsoever.
How can everyone be rich like doctors and lawyers?
We all just need to be realistic to be happy.
If a fringe player wants to play regular football, he has to go to division one or even division two.
If he stays in EPL, he must accept that he wont be chosen all the time.
Just be happy with what u get.
Then u be happy.
Dont strive for the moon.
There is only one CEO so if being CEO will make u happy, a lot of people will be unhappy.
Well, a fringe player in EPL gets 50k a week and a first team player in Div 2 gets 5k a week. Which one do you want to be?
> top student – Cohort as in what? School? You need to peg yourself to the nation. Anyway why does it matter? As others have said there’s the rule of diminishing returns. Mo’ money doesn’t mean mo’ happiness.
nation.
i was in top 1% by my SAT scores too. and that’s international.
top students usually end up as unhappy adults if they aren’t as “successful” as before. more expectations => more unhappiness.
You should have become a civil servant and work for the government… You might not have been happier, but at least you can be unhappy in comfort! And it is an Iron Ricebowl 🙂
The stats refers to tax paying residents. Given that not many working adults pay taxes in Singapore your percentage is generally higher.
While it’s naive to think money can’t buy happiness, it’s also important to keep in mind how much money one needs, and whether you are willing to go the extra mile, whether you have the skills, temperament, aptitude, etc.
More important than the pursuit of happiness is correctly identifying the source of happiness; it’s a lot like traveling–white sand beach paradises are wonderful, no doubt, but they’re not for everyone.
For some, the pursuit of money is itself the source of happiness. While their wives find happiness in spending that money.
Financial freedom can be the key to your kingdom of happiness.
life is always not very fair if you keep comparing income, money, wealth, lifestyle.
Alamak, sgdoc, coming to a site that worships $$$ and tell people here that “money does not equate happiness” is like walking into church on Sunday morning and shout “God does not exist!”
are foreign talents included in this comparison?
Of course. As long as they are paying taxes, they should be.
Note that a lot of young foreign talent is now coming to SG with half-expat or even local contracts! Reason is the sluggish job market in western countries and the urge to get into Asia…
how are we protected from these “FT”? or are we going to be cheaper, better and faster to fight with them? why doesn’t the c,b,f objectives apply to our civil servants and ministers? i think we can hire 3 obamas, 10 hilary clintons, 20 hu jintaos and 100,000 of the top government servants in the world with their salaries. seriously.
No protection needed, just play on your strengths. Singaporeans are effectively bi-lingual: English and Mandarin. You are a valuable commodity for any MNC who wants to expand to China (which is almost all of them).
You just need to be adventurous and willing to move around the world!
I was in the top 0.01% of the national cohort, studied in a top university which is obviously not in Singapore, and today I’m making S$180,000 a year in my 20s.
I am not elated or complacent but I can say I am fairly fulfilled. If I had been a trader I’d make a lot more but I may also burn out sooner. Moreover, the sense of purpose I feel in the work I do outweighs just dollars and cents.
It’s true that after a certain percentile you pass on the income bell curve, money really does little to motivate further. The other things do.
For people who claim money is the only factor that determines job satisfaction, they must be paid very little..like less than S$70,000 per annum in their 30s or 40s.
What sector are you in? Tell me so I can switch.
What’s your occupation?
Must be a good one to enable you to both earn so much and get a big kick from it as well. So envious…….
I am from NUS, bizad grad from 1996.
Starting salary was $1800 in 1996.
Salary was $5600 in 2001.
Salary dropped to $4300 in 2007
Salary increased to $10500 in 2010.
Now waiting for my next offer.
These are statistics, it pays my bills, but it does not make me happy or sad.
What makes me happy is that there is value in what I do to the relevant people. I can contribute. I feel useful.
Life is not just about myself, and my salary.
I am happiest when I don’t think about money.
Contented, don’t mind sharing which industry are u from? Thanks.
Service provider for the Energy Industry
Is a salary of $360000 enough to live a comfortable life
Dear IT-specialist,
I am sad to see you wrote that seeing your family smlie means happiness and counting ONLY 200K make you happy.
Tell me again 5 years time.
I think the bigger problem is that the survey is inaccurate. Popping your salary in produces a comparison with other taxpayers. That leaves out a large chunk of people who do not pay income tax.
If you follow the link to the IRAS report it states the number of resident tax payers at 1mil and a bit. So if your income is at 60% of all resident tax payers then you would be earning more than 4.5mil-1milx40% = 4.1mil other Singaporeans and PR. Equivalent to the top 9% of residents. However the data is based on assessible income meaning total income less any deductions you are entitled to. Most people won’t have a lot of eligible deductions but it will be skewed by people with a lot of dependants etc.
assessable income is not the same as chargeable income. chargeable income is as what you said: “total income less any deductions”, but assessable income is your earned income plus rental plus other sources of income _before_ any reliefs, rebates and other deductions.
To the NUS bizad grad, your pay took 15 years to increase to $10k (including bonuses)..That means you’re between the age of 37 and 39 (if you’re male, with NS added) and that pay at your age is really shitty man.
No wonder you’re happiest when you don’t think about money.
To post #38,
My pay is less than $7k and I graduated in 1998.
Tried to get an offer that will bring me above $100k pa, but hey, FTs are cheaper, though not better. So, still stuck here. And bear in mind, the last 12 years have been a decade of crisis. Happy just to be alive!
As my nick suggests, I played too hard during my 4-year stint in NUS. There is no doubt that i belong to the top 5% of my cohort from the bottom. Luck was on my side when i managed to join a mega MNC right after my graduation in 2004. Otherwise I cannot imagine ending up being a insurance/property agent or even being a half-bucket MOE teacher as most screwed-up NUS graduates would end up. So Work really hard to prove my worth. After 6.5 years, I’m still in the same company, earning S$160K a year. Planning to do my EMBA in INSEAD or Chicago Booth as my next step.
Money and happiness are correlated up to only a certain level and thereafter, not much. Do you think a person with $101mil is much happier than another with $100mil?
but i’m sure i’ll be happier with $101mil than with $100k! give your spare millions to me please…
A better example may be: would a person with 50 million be much happier than another with 500 million?
Money does make you happy. It doesn’t necesarily mean that when you have money or you earn more, your life gets miserable.
Hi,
I am planning to immigrate to Singapore in banking sector.
I have international qualification viz. CAMS and stand a good chance to gain a senior management level in good banks in singapore.
I would like to know what should be my expectation per month.
Whether SGD12500 per month is good enough?
Regards
Ganesh
12.5k is analyst pay. Since you are going for senior management role, ask for 25k base and a 4k car allowance per mth.
Please do not immigrate to singapore. overcrowded.
you have not been to India.
eh, have we met b4? else how would you know that i have never been to india? anyway this place is really too overcrowded with foreign talents. Try HK or China. Happening places.
top 1% in SATs or results doesnt mean u are the top 1% effective worker dude 🙂 a good student doesnt always = to a good worker/boss/manager/leader.
Median, 50th percentile, is at 53400 per annum.
That’s 4450 monthly salary.
That means many fresh grads these days who’re offered between 30-60k per annum pay package are
doing pretty OK, considering the relative age of fresh grads vs all tax payers
When i typed in mine, it didnt work. Why is this so sheesh was so interested in doing this you know. So upset now