Chitchat A Singaporean in Australia - Against the Herd

[krafty]

From where I came from, we are being brainwashed at young age for 2 decades through "national education", to working as suppressed wage slaves for the rest of our lives competing with a never ending stream of "cheaper, better, faster" foreigners, to consuming products mindlessly to numb ourselves from stress due to over exposure to manipulative advertising from young. We were hard coded to obey rules and laws and believe in propaganda from the authority using state controlled media, to be passive and uncreative, suppressing ourselves in all aspects of our lives, throughout our lifespan yet too fearful to do anything to overcome it.


Most of us do not realise we live in a sick country. We feel proud to achieve a state of correct representation of what such a society expects of us. The successful Singaporean. The model citizen. However, to be well adapted in a convolutedly sick society is by no means a measure of health. Being caught in wheel of insanity, we are unaware how every revolution afflict us with a heavier dosage of sickness let alone realise we are actually part of it. If you think about it, the paper chase, the obsessive accumulation of 5Cs and the perpetual need to feel validated, to be looked up to and rewarded by society makes us the walking dead or puppets on strings. We are soulless from within, dying way before our official death dates.


What do we really gain from the prosperity and progress of our nation? I've seen the earning power of my friends double and triple over the years but their wells of wealth are still as dry as a spinster. They are volunteering their best time away to get their children into good schools, effectively molding them into the upgraded version of themselves, the cogs of the machine.


Only 1 out of 10 Singaporeans chose to leave Singapore. It is not easy doing so. Those who contemplate a different path of life are being ridiculed. They call us "Quitters" back there. We are being looked down upon, being labelled as those who "cannot make it." At best we are considered weird or crazy. We are none of the above. We are just the lucky ones who broke our mental barriers unconsciously fortified year after year from the day we are born. To break through, we need to be constantly calm so that the desire in our inner voice shines through. We have to maintain this state to give us the strength to confront herd mentality and overcome the hardships along the way.


Angie must resonate with the above at this stage now, when virtually everyone around her is asking her to reconsider moving overseas. When nobody is able to understand you, they naturally try to suppress you and help you fit back into the machine. The biggest challenge of migration is the psychological anguish one has to experience. Whether or not she makes it or not, is up to anyone's guess.

https://asingaporeanson.blogspot.com.au/2017/02/against-herd.html

 

[krafty]

The Exit Plan for Singaporeans

Singaporeans have a unique challenge. We are the most modern country in South-East Asia, one of the richest country in the world. As described in the previous post [link], foreigners flock to Singapore and solve their retirement problems by working in Singapore and leveraging on currency differences. Sure, we are glad to lend a helping hand and so our foreigners have achieved their early retirements, what about us Singaporeans?


Forget about pledging your HDB flats. Old folks should always watch out for scams. Anyway, if you are old and have not saved your pot of gold by now, be prepared to suffer a little in the only self acclaimed world class city with no safety nets. In the meantime please make yourself useful by educating the young for a change instead of brainwashing them to walk the paths you did.


My target audience is young Singaporeans earning median wages. If you are high flying on a corporate ladder, your earning power and your ability to retain your wealth will solve future problems. You don't need to plan early. For the rest, the exit plan start from, if it isn't obvious enough, getting the fuck out of the place. Please, I don't mean travelling to a new country for holidays every year. That's dumb. If you would like to spend your hard earned money this way and decide that you know a country so well because you did a speed trip across every city possible and deem Singapore is "still the place best on Earth", by all means join the old folks back there to rot. Your turn will come, just wait for it.


A good exit plan is near impossible to execute. The SG government (giving them a huge benefit of doubt) unknowingly made it that way. (I'll explain later) I believe there are plausible models all around but I don't have the space (and the patience) to list them all. One will look something like that:


Find work

Work immediately after graduation.

Get married early

ROM only if possible. If not, throw a banquet that you can afford without requiring any money contributed by guests. That is the size of the banquet you should be doing. Unfortunately, this is out of our control at times, marrying young that is, not the size of the banquet because it is your fucking wedding not your parents'. Dump the narcissistic wife who dream of a princess wedding. This is serious business. If your partner doesn't share your financial goals and future dreams, it will not go well down the road anyway. Open your eyes mate.

Buy a HDB flat

Most unfortunately, we need to get married to do this. So forever alones will have to choose another exit plan. Fret not, there are many ways you can do this. This is just an example. The government effectively twat the plan by coming out with the BTO scheme, changing our accessibility to public housing into a lottery game. Time is precious in this game and we have to waste a lot of it here. To make it worse, even if you strike 4D and get a BTO flat quickly, it takes a few years to build that bloody thing. Then the worst thing of all, a 5 year-MOP on top of those years wasted waiting to acquire a flat. A resale flat is not at all ideal for this plan. This is the reason why getting married early is essential. Ideally, we don't want to be over 30 years old by the time the MOP expires. Keynote: Spent not more than $10k on renovation. Make it livable and move in. Not able to do it with $10k? Change your definition of livable.


Work for 8-10 years

In the meantime trying to get a HDB flat, bear with the bosses, work hard for a decade.

Save every penny you earn

Save everything you earn. I mean, every fucking cent. No vanity tours, delay all gratifications. Cars are out of question. No buying of fancy kettles. You exchange your soul and blood for these money. Don't spend them away to nurse a bruised ego. Respect your time and youth.

Apply for Permanent Residency in another country (preferably a country with competitive currency)

Do this after working for 5-8 years. There isn't a lot of choices for Singaporeans. Just pick somewhere you like. Plan your career from Day 1 to fit the immigration criteria of your country. In fact, plan your education for it as well. If you want to come to Australia for instance, don't fucking do a Business Degree. Simple to understand?

Move overseas to work

Once you get your PR, move.

Rent out the HDB flat

The MOP is over. Rent the whole damn thing out. It will be enough to self finance its mortgage payments. There will be excess, on top of the minimum required payments. Use the excess to reduce the loan faster, unless you need extra funds to tide you over in the new country.

Rent cheap, get jobs and work to build savings and credit ratings

Squeeze in a room, don't rent a whole house unless you already have kids by now.

Buy a small place in the new country

Keyword - SMALL.

Work for 3-5 years

Save as much money as you can. Feel free to tour but keep it within the new country. Minimise flying back to Singapore. No overseas trips for now.

Get a second property

The Chinese has a saying, “养兵 一世 用兵 一时” (Nurture an army for a lifetime, activate it for a decisive moment) This is where the fund you put aside from not doing pointless wedding banquets, liability renovations, not going for the tours that makes you fat and the useless home trophies you didn't accumulate comes useful. Park the funds in an offset account for the little small house you bought. Use the equity to buy get a loan for a second property. You are now officially 1 million dollars in debt. No you don't really have 3 houses. They belong to the bank. You own nothing but debts. From now on, it's a good time to die. Still better than being dead broke every end of the year driving a shitty $150,000 car in Singapore and getting fat and even more dead broke from overseas trips, looking like walking dead from overworking everyday.


Overwork-stress-holiday to destress-broke-need to work-overwork. SG life in a sentence.


Rent small property out

Yield may be shitty but a half paid property may not be that bad. The reason to keep this small is to keep all expenses down. Maintenance, rates, repair etc etc. The smaller it is, the less expenses. So what if it fetches the lowest rent in town? It actually means you will have a higher chance to get a tenant as compared to the landlords with expensive flashy houses. If will be ideal if this property breaks even. A positive cashflow is a bonus. A small negative cashflow is acceptable. You have done something wrong if the negative cashflow is too much.


Look around to plant a 3rd flag, the country should be a "Third World" country with good and affordable healthcare

I'll let you know when I figure things out


Work for another 10 years

You are only 40 at this stage. It is time to slow things a little. Smell the roses, go camping, enjoy parenthood, go for road trips and even an odd overseas trips. You'll gain those things you have been depriving yourself back double. Triple. If your wife is not dumped or left you yet, she begins to see why not buying that $10,000 gown was a good idea.


The HDB flat should be paid up by now

Or another 5 more years to go. The first stream of retirement income is almost ready. Not a lot of money, but well..... peasants cannot be choosers. That beats cardboard picking. If you are still working now, put aside the funds every month. Go for holidays as long as your annual leave allows. In another couple of years...


The small house should be paid up by now

The second stream. Smallish but at least you need 2 governments to fuck you up simultaneously to get into trouble. Sure beats putting everything in one fascist country.


Move to 3rd flag

Kids grown up. Moved out. If they are financially independent, it's time to move on. If not, leave them in the third house. Get them trained early to operate an Air Bnb to lease the spare rooms out whenever possible. Use the funds to pay the mortgage for the remaining payments. When the property is paid, the kids will have it as a gift.


Meanwhile, third world country, third world cost of living. What's so first world about struggling in a first world country anyway?


Alternative plans

There are 1001 ways to do this. The above is just a hypothetical one. It is by no means perfect, ideal or optimised. There is surely many better ways to do things. So let's hear it from the smarter brains.

https://asingaporeanson.blogspot.com.au/2017/02/the-exit-plan-for-singaporeans.html

 

[krafty]

actually hor... i met quite a few elderly AMDK aussies and they told me that Oz is no longer the place they used to know. life was much better during their time. nowadays, far too many crazy migrants. They dun even have to lock their door when they go to bed at night.

 

[winnipegjets]

actually hor... i met quite a few elderly AMDK aussies and they told me that Oz is no longer the place they used to know. life was much better during their time. nowadays, far too many crazy migrants. They dun even have to lock their door when they go to bed at night.

Immigrants bad guys again ...so these Aussies move to third world countries, they are immigrants ...should they expect the same kind of treatment they dished out to immigrants back home?

 

[tanwahtiu]

Did u see they still hv union jack ob their flag.

Old aussies are plain lazy arse worst than m&d. Still dream if common wealth and never thing where their givernment or Queen Victoria cheebye get their mobey from.

Opium drug trade in China was where they got plenty of money from for 50 years .

Niwcthey hv to struggle le everyone else start to kpkb migrants spoilt their life sryle.

actually hor... i met quite a few elderly AMDK aussies and they told me that Oz is no longer the place they used to know. life was much better during their time. nowadays, far too many crazy migrants. They dun even have to lock their door when they go to bed at night.

 

[EnBloc]

Ungrateful Singaporeans can ship out if they don't like the progress, peace, happiness and prosperity under PAP

The rest of us will enjoy ActiveSg credits, Skillsfuture credits, S&C rebates, housing grants, CHAS subsidies, Career Support Programme

 

[scroobal]

The exit plan should be to apply successfully to get PR. The rest most can figure out. 90% would talk day and night about it but have not even filled in the forms, the majority thinking they do not quailfy.

 

[tanwahtiu]

Australia is a shit place to migrate. They allied with america go to wars in past 30 years. Spent $$ on wars 17 times in 30 years leaving their infrastructures like shits.

If u are Asians dont go to any angmohs countries allied with America that go to wars.

New world new cities in Asia like China, Vietnam Cambodia are developing into modern 21st century cities. Go there.

Fuck all angmohs cities where now they become 3rd world country by 2025.

 

[longdongsilver]

The exit plan should be to apply successfully to get PR. The rest most can figure out. 90% would talk day and night about it but have not even filled in the forms, the majority thinking they do not quailfy.

it takes great courage for a person to move out of their comfort zone to go into an uncharted water. more so if you are already singkified from the day you were born. i would not have made the move if my wife had not prodded me to do ,if i had not worried about own future and my kids..it was a long journey..

to make the move easier you must prepare yourself for the worse..meaning you may end up doing something you dont like to do , something thats so different from what you have been doing in terms of position and monetary reward back home ..but if you are really good and persevere you will most lable live a happy life after that, a life much better than when you would spend your twilight years in sing

but for those who think of coming to sydney , the ship has sailed in terms of housing..unless you are rich the dream of owning a house within 20km radius of the cityis almost impossible.

 

[longdongsilver]

actually hor... i met quite a few elderly AMDK aussies and they told me that Oz is no longer the place they used to know. life was much better during their time. nowadays, far too many crazy migrants. They dun even have to lock their door when they go to bed at night.

those you met were loser aussies...the rich and middle class baby boomers are having a whale of a time due to ever increasing property prices especially in sydney

 

[scroobal]

Agree on all counts.

I met a Malaysian lawyer last weekend who graduated in the UK and practiced in KL and married to an Engineer. Went to OZ, and became a Medical receptionist at a clinic. Her husband who has a PE equivalent qualification in OZ, removed all his post grad qualifications from his CV after a poor run on responses and got a job immediately from the State Govt. They are loving it.

In the 1990s, the application form cost only $12 but the mindset is the big issue.

it takes great courage for a person to move out of their comfort zone to go into an uncharted water. more so if you are already singkified from the day you were born. i would not have made the move if my wife had not prodded me to do ,if i had not worried about own future and my kids..it was a long journey..

to make the move easier you must prepare yourself for the worse..meaning you may end up doing something you dont like to do , something thats so different from what you have been doing in terms of position and monetary reward back home ..but if you are really good and persevere you will most lable live a happy life after that, a life much better than when you would spend your twilight years in sing

but for those who think of coming to sydney , the ship has sailed in terms of housing..unless you are rich the dream of owning a house within 20km radius of the cityis almost impossible.

 

[krafty]

actually hor, i agree with him on this : Most of us do not realise we live in a sick country. We feel proud to achieve a state of correct representation of what such a society expects of us. The successful Singaporean. The model citizen. However, to be well adapted in a convolutedly sick society is by no means a measure of health. Being caught in wheel of insanity, we are unaware how every revolution afflict us with a heavier dosage of sickness let alone realise we are actually part of it. If you think about it, the paper chase, the obsessive accumulation of 5Cs and the perpetual need to feel validated, to be looked up to and rewarded by society makes us the walking dead or puppets on strings. We are soulless from within, dying way before our official death dates.

i can't help it but bring up this video again cos' i think it's classic case of sinkies mentally warped by the society and i bluntly think it's damn farni:



please ask FM mr bala to have agreement like china with OZ to grant sinkies 10 year visas to prevent the above from happening to themselves. i believe aussies also want to get out and experience life in the lion city. it's natural pple tend to get bored staying at the same place over many years.

 

[krafty]

i refrain from mixing with sinkies in oz. when i hear them speak, i know they are full of envy and jealousy. the other day, i was at the car workshop, the china boss is a friend of mine. when i over heard the conversation between him and the sinkie, i know this sinkie is fucking jealous of the booming business my china friend has. that is why i say i stay away from sinkies. they are a bunch of jealous sissies.

 

[JohnTan]

actually hor... i met quite a few elderly AMDK aussies and they told me that Oz is no longer the place they used to know. life was much better during their time. nowadays, far too many crazy migrants. They dun even have to lock their door when they go to bed at night.

It's pretty much the same in many parts of the developed world.

Many young professionals are renters, not owners of their homes. They rent for years or decades, regardless of whether they work in the same city or move from city to city every few years. The 'American Dream' is only in the movies. The real Dream can only be found in a few places, and singapore is one of them.

Here, most sinkies buy and start paying for their mortgages from their mid 20s. By their early 30s, the MOP is over and they are probably sitting on a healthy $100-$200k paper gain.

The only issue I have with Singapore is overpaying for a car. It's crazy enough to pay over $100k for a car, let alone topping up the stupid COE every 10 years with $50k or so. Even for well-off folks like myself, it's a lousy way to spend your cash. Car in singapore is a huge money drainer.

Young folks should stick to public transport or their parents' car until they are financially well-off. But of course, easier said than done. Most people prefer the freedom of driving their own cars.

 

[tanwahtiu]

those happier days which period?

Yes, opium drug trade money is easy money and plenty to share amony them as in sharing common wealth at the expense of Chinese in China.

Then rolled back further 1400s- 1600s Sugar plantation industry economy kidnapped Black Africans for slavery plantation workers. Why work when you can steal humans for slaves. Over 1.4 million Black Africans and hundreds of thousands Chinese kidnapped for slavery.

Well done Pommies and French-cheebye.





Yes all the good old days they dreamed of being lazy and all they do was illegal criminal trades.

actually hor... i met quite a few elderly AMDK aussies and they told me that Oz is no longer the place they used to know. life was much better during their time. nowadays, far too many crazy migrants. They dun even have to lock their door when they go to bed at night.

 

[frenchbriefs]

actually hor... i met quite a few elderly AMDK aussies and they told me that Oz is no longer the place they used to know. life was much better during their time. nowadays, far too many crazy migrants. They dun even have to lock their door when they go to bed at night.

i sympathise with them,when i first went to australia back in 2012,i was shocked to see how many India shitskins and PRC chinks there are in australia,the situation is almost half as bad as in SG.....disgusting.so many beautiful countries marred by these 3rd world roaches and pests.....the truth is most of the migration in the world are not between developed countries and other developed countries,90 percent of it come from 3rd world countries assisted by the floodgate policies of globalisation.

immigrants get a bad name because of these hordes of 3rd world garbage rushing to get out of the shitholes from where-st they come from encouraged by globalist governments and corporations.squeezing and crowding out the locals out of the limited resources available and making everybody lives miserable.

 

[Leongsam]

i refrain from mixing with sinkies in oz. when i hear them speak, i know they are full of envy and jealousy. the other day, i was at the car workshop, the china boss is a friend of mine. when i over heard the conversation between him and the sinkie, i know this sinkie is fucking jealous of the booming business my china friend has. that is why i say i stay away from sinkies. they are a bunch of jealous sissies.

I thought you had left??!! :*:

 

[krafty]

I thought you had left??!! :*:

i want to hear it from you, i have been waiting to fuck you cos' i think you are a real psycho.

 

[Ash007]

The exit plan should be to apply successfully to get PR. The rest most can figure out. 90% would talk day and night about it but have not even filled in the forms, the majority thinking they do not quailfy.

I'm at the second property stage. Unfortunately, house prices has gone up so much, I'm thinking investing in shares might be a better alternative.

 

[MadrigalWheel]

Good or for you. Met up with an old classmate in Perth recently and he's been there for 10+ years.

In in our conversation, he recounted how his first years were painful as it took him a while to adjust to their culture. But now he leads a life many Singaporeans envy but won't understand. On the surface, his investments are doing well, quite a few properties, new cars for him and his wife, kids doing well in secondary school, family actively volunteers in church and still gets to spend time every weekend with the family.

His secret? Oz made him realise that the Singaporean pursuit of material happiness was just that, a perpetual pursuit. As soon as he learn to let that go, he realised how people started to see the "real" person he was and it was just a matter of time when people started to like the person he was and it made it easier to know people and get around.

Needless to say, that must have helped him network, but at least it was the real him doing so and not a chore to maintain that facade of success so many Singaporeans nowadays pretend to be just to impress.

But like I said, a Singaporean like me will envy, but can never fully appreciate this enough to achieve this state of confidence, self awareness and peace of mind. Even now, I can't fully describe it, it is almost oxymoronic to say that he succeeded financially just by being content????

I'm at the second property stage. Unfortunately, house prices has gone up so much, I'm thinking investing in shares might be a better alternative.