32 year old Singaporean: I am lucky to be born earlier
Dear TR
After hearing the stories from Judy and Melissa, I hope my story
can act as a counter-balance. In a way, I just want to show the
difference of being born 5 years earlier than both Judy and Melissa
blessed me with a little more luck. That since the last election
many government policies have gone wrong, and we need strong,
immediate change.
I am 32 now, and working in an MNC. My wife is of the same age,
and an accountant with another foreign firm. We had graduated from
the local university 9 years back, and had starting salaries of
less than $2,000.
When I proposed to her in 2004, my situation was very similar to
Melissa. We made less than $5,000 combined, but house hunting was
really a fun process for us. We had our pick – from a condo in
Hillview going for about $600,000 to a HDB executive condominium in
the west at around $400,000 (which we almost bought). End of the
day, we got very lucky and balloted a HDB flat, and chose a
$300,000 unit. Our queue number then was about number 4,000 with
only 1,800 units for the development, which meant that more than
2000 people had given up on their queue numbers before us, so it
was really lucky.
The next 6 years of our lives were quite painful for me. As we
didn’t have our own home yet, we had to stay with our in-laws which
really inconvenienced them. We took the opportunity to drive our
dingy OPC car whenever possible to pass by our building home, and
yearned for it till crazy.
When we collected our keys last December, our income has more
than doubled over the last 6 years, and I really count myself very
lucky. I felt that the government policies had served me well, and
that now I had a home that I could retire in, and leave as a legacy
for my baby who’s 3 years old now.
Whilst a lot of my colleagues are FT, they are really here
thanks to a warped government policy and by no fault of theirs. I
enjoy a very cordial working relationship with them, and can’t see
how anyone can detest working with colleagues from other countries
just because they came from different roots.
I am looking to quit very soon to venture a bit with a small
business, try to find a way to make a living whilst feeling
fulfilled. My wife’s income will support us during this period. I
promised her that if my venture fails, I’ll hang my head (in shame
LoL) and find employment again. Even if as a taxi driver, I don’t
think I’ll starve.
I never believe in “You reap what you sow”, and put my current
situation as downright lucky – lucky to have been born just a hands
worth of fingers earlier than Judy or Melissa.
———
With that, I want to say that I have benefited only at the lost
that many of my fellow Singaporeans are suffering from today, for
the sole reason that I was born earlier.
I empathize with the strain those who are very early in their
working careers, and being subjected to an education system that
did not allow them to understand any form of making a decent income
other than as an employee.
We need change, else it can only get worse. I am content and
happy for myself and my family. I hope people reading this will be
too.
If you feel jealousy, then you know that there needs to be
change. Maybe not in the form of a wholesale change in government,
but at least a counterbalancing voice to show them that the
policies currently being churned out are fallacies and hurting
everyone who wants this country and it’s people to succeed.
TR, feel free to print this out too as you deem relevant.
Devoran
Times has changed. Now people are becoming more
daring!
