Dear TR,
Thanks for publishing the article by Ms Judy Eng. It really
strikes a chord in my heart as I am in the same situation as her
too.
I am 28 this year now working as a teacher in a secondary
school.
My fiancee just found a job in a GLC as an engineer after six
months of looking for one. The pay isn’t fantastic as there is an
abundance of foreign engineers in Singapore. He considered himself
lucky to finally secure a full-time job after months of being on
contract.
We are planning to get married in July and just bought a 4-room
resale flat at Sin Ming. Guess how much it costs? You won’t believe
it, we bought it at almost $500,000. No kidding, it’s true! All the
flats in the vicinity cost above $500K. After paying about $30,000
in COV partially paid for by our parents, we do not have a single
cent left for our wedding which we will have a simple afternoon tea
buffet at our church instead of the traditional 8-course Chinese
dinner.
I am really worried about our future. We earn barely $5,000
together and the mortgage loan already took up 30 percent of our
income. We still have to cough out some cash after using up the
entire CPFs. The moment I think of this, I lost all the mood
already.
People used to say that marriage is the happiest moment in a
girl’s life, but I am not looking forward to it. I feel very heavy,
like a burden placeed on my chest, sometimes choking me, it is so
suffocating. Can we buy a new flat? I do not wish to wait for
another 3 to 4 years, anything can happen to our relationship
during this period of time. It is a risk I cannot afford to
take.
My hubby-to-be is burnt out everyday from work – OT, OT and OT
and he is not paid for it. For me, my weekends are either burnt in
school CCAs or marking the homeworks of my students. We hardly meet
each other at all, sometimes just enough time to have a meal or
catch a movie. Somehow I feel apprehensive startinig life together
with another person, am I ready for it? I don’t think we can
start a family, at least for the next three years or so. How to
have children when we are not financially stable?
I will pay the loan mostly on my own as my hubby still have to
pay for his student loan and car loan. I have only a few thousand
dollars in my savings now and I wonder how long they can last
me. What happens when there is an emergency? Or if we are
retrenched? I dread to think of the worst…but women being women,
they always think alot.
Every month, my pay gets used up almost immediately after it’s
deposited into my POSB account – living expenses, allowances for
parents, and now with housing loan, I really don’t know how
far we can continue like this. Did we do our Maths before we make
the purchase? Yes, but what can we do, the flats are expensive
everywhere and we want to stay near our parents. Even 4-room flats
in Jurong are calling above $400,000 nowadays! The prices are
really going crazy, the agents told us that they will only go up in
the future as the govt will never allow them to come down.
Sorry for the ramblings. There are so many things on my mind
now, I can’t think or type clearly…..Thanks for providing me an
outlet to vent my frustrations, who can understand what we are
going through? Sigh, maybe I am one of those few unlucky souls.
Please edit and publish this rant of mine as you see fit. Thanks
again for listening.
Melissa Quek
