Are All Singaporeans Rich? | Street Interview

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For the non-Singaporean viewers, cars are not a necessity, as the interviewers might mislead you to believe. It's a very very small country with a very efficient public transport system. Cars are more of a want than a need and can sometimes turn into a liability if you aren't earning enough to afford the monthly expenses. Also, there are much cheaper alternatives to 8 dollar lattes. We do have our own coffee culture and a cup of local coffee would cost under 2 dollars. You could get a bottle of beer at a local eating house for under 10 dollars or pay 20 dollars for a pint an upscale bar. You could get local noodles for 5 dollars or pasta for 10 dollars. So it's really about where you go and what you look for. But Singaporeans love indulging in the latest trends and of course that will be costly. Not saying Singapore is cheap but you can find cheaper alternatives when living here if you're willing to live a simpler live, which is still pretty decent. Edit: So many Singaporeans throwing a tantrum over the car comment. Needless to say, there will be people out there who absolutely need their own transport but for most Singaporeans, there are alternatives like car-sharing and ride-hailing services, alongside our trains and buses. Not being able to own a car doesn't mean you're oppressed or there's a conspiracy against you. There's simply not enough land nor the infrastructure to hold so many cars and traffic congestion is bad enough as it is, no need for it to get worse. Yes cars are expensive but not without reason.

One thing I feel that most don't talk about is the fact that Singapore allows you to choose your preferred lifestyle. You can have simple lifestyles where public transport is affordable and readily accessible, hawker food and food courts are relatively affordable at $4 - $5 a meal and if you want to have a baller lifestyle, you've also got a huge array of luxurious restaurants and drive your own car. This is of course if you live within your means, i.e if you have a modest income you live a modest lifestyle. It's only a problem if you try to live outside of your means. Grass is greener wherever you water it - focus on improving yourself :)

The last guy quote , ( If you can make it in your own country , you don't have to leave your family for that ) . That is some wise words :)

As a broke singaporean poly student, answer is 'No'. But that being said although our house and cars are crazy expensive here, at least our daily necessities like food and public transport are still quite cheap as compared to many other countries. You can still live in singapore comfortably if you opt for the cheaper options like dining at hawker centres or food courts instead of restaurants.

I have never felt the need for a car here even with a young kid!! Public transport is super comfortable affordable and convenient!! Super organized public transport I would say.

I had an opportunity to study in SG for a semester last year and I have to say that I absolutely love my experience. Fortunately, I got to have local friends rather than only hang out with other international students, and I have to say that getting to know the local is the best way to immerse yourself in this experience rather than sticking with only tourist places like marina bay

As a regular tourist in Singapore, I could live off from their hawker centres. Their public transpo is so efficient too and pretty much most parts of it are walkable.

Quite a bit of misinformation in this video which I would like to correct. By the way, I'm just a local in my mid 30s, with an average salary and I have two kids. So that's my context. 1) You don't need a car to survive in Singapore. Our public transportatiom is so good that cars are just luxury items. Though person with physical disability or families looking after a person with physical disabilities might argue that the expensive cost of a car is affecting them. That's true and government will probably have to look into that. But otherwise, only the rich will own a car. If you do not have a good 10k salary, just don't fall into this trap and you will be fine. 2) Most government houses are not 750k. That's exaggeration. You can get a 3-bto in a non-mature estate for less than 300k. And I live in one. And a family of 3 to 4 max can still fit in there. Youngsters who complain about houses clearly do not know how fortunate they are because they can use their Cpf to slowly pay a house that are appropriate to their income. If you want to show off and get a big house, and face alot stress to afford the loan, then your own stupid problem. Young people have aspiration, but they are clearly over their mind to go for 750k housing if their pockets are not deep enough and still complain. That's poor financial planning. 3) We clearly do not have the rights to complain about the rising food cost if we are willing to pay $8 for a bubble tea when we can in fact bring our water bottle along. People are just having their priorities wrong when they go for expensive cafe hopping. I eat almost 6 days a week at Hawkers and food courts. They are still affordable by all measures. Just don't dine at restaurants and you will be fine. 4) Lastly, the responses are just so skewed towards the interviewer bias.

Try interviewing the middle aged, especially who has started their own family, if you ask the young they usually share what they think, they hear, and I don't believe they would be the best to give opinions in managing finances

As a Singaporean, I don't think the interviewees went into enough detail about our extensive public transport system (so you really don't need a car), cpf schemes (that help afford public housing/medical bills) and cheaper food alternatives (if you don't want to spend $8 on a latte). Not saying their responses aren't an accurate reflection of the situation, just felt they left a lot unsaid.

I lived in Singapore for 1 year (2015-2016) I never needed a car. You can take public transport everywhere. Their system is so efficient. I rented a room at an HDB and it was walking distance from the MRT. I only paid around S$850/month. Food is super cheap if you eat at a hawker or maybe cook at home. I earned about S$4k a month. I survived and had extra money to eat out with friends, travel, and fly back home (to another SEA country) a once a year. It really depends on the person's lifestyle and if single/married.

Me as an Asian foreigner working in SG for 10 years+, at first my salary is $2.2k and i spend on room, food, transport still can save 1.5k. 3 years ago before covid, my salary was $3.5k and my room rental increase, transport, food increase and i am still saving $1.5k which is quite low. And I don't spend on luxury things and clothing. I just spend to live only. the salary is not much and the work load is too overwhelming. Like a staff work load in SG equal to 2 or 3 staff work load in other countries. Now I decided to go back to my country after 10 years because over work consume me so much until I feel like living is no better than dying.

I used to live in Tokyo , once the most expensive city in the world years back. I visited Singapore once this year and I could say considering the inflation, SG is quite high

Actually mrt and buses in sg are really not that bad as compared to transport in other countries. I used to study in Australia and you really need a car there. Bus timings are often unreliable (sometimes they just don't show up), long waiting times (if you miss one, you may have to wait 30 mins, the travelling time is much longer than cars and some places are inaccessible via public transport. I used to complain about my long travelling time in sg but recently I took a grab share and it took like the same amount of time as the mrt. The cost is 14 times higher though. So I got to say mrt and buses are really not that bad. Especially when you consider that in sg, cars are more of luxuries than necessities and cars are less environmentally friendly.

I work with SG company, but I live in KL. I did some of their payroll, and I can see the average people in my company earns more than sgd5k (they all experienced not fresh grads) the highest one being sgd30k per month. I went to SG few times and felt the expensiveness due to currency rate. It also make me more grateful that where I live, I got to own a car, live in 1000sqft apartment comfortably, with no financial issues.

I like what the last guy said about appreciating what I've got, work, staying with my family, and making it here in PH, I'm blessed.

Why you interviewing people from Orchard road? It's like a big duh... That's already a skewed survey. Asian Boss, your team needs to try harder. Unless, you are telling me you are doing a survey called, "Is it expensive to come to Singapore, what do the tourists think?" Don't say I didn't provide you suggestion - Raffles Place MRT, I suspect you will get very different, and imho, more accurate answers to your question. Anyway, what kind of question is "Are All Singaporeans Rich?", do you intend it to be a click bait?! Edit: Think I figured out why Orchard road, interviewer finished job can go straight to shopping with friends, lol...and people in Shenton Way probably way more fierce and tougher to interview... Nice try SG team, you managed to pull a fast one over your Korean team bosses.

It's really wonderful to come across people who freely share valuable information online. You never know what kind of knowledge you might stumble upon that could have a lasting impact on your life.

We all struggle these days as the quality of life keeps decreasing worldwide but the struggle means something different for each of us. For people in poorest countries it is difficult to afford food to feed their families, for upper developing or developed countries like UK people struggle to pay their heating bills and for the richest countries like Singapore the issue may be not buying a car or not being able to afford holidays.