My First Home in point form....by Gentlerock .
Age 28+: Did a heck of a lot of research and calculations to see if
I could afford a place of my own. Made sure that every angle was
covered and that there would be no surprises later.
Age 29: Bought a small apartment at the East Coast as a bachelor's
pad. Small bedroom, small living room, small kitchen, small
bathroom.....HUGE balcony. Thats why it was cheap. 
It faces the beach directly (which is about 400 m
away), but I can't see anything because I'm on a low floor and
blocked by trees. What I liked about the place were the facilities
and the environment. All colours, all nationalities (including
Africans!), all languages....makes life a bit more interesting and
colourful. Everyone finds the surrounding landscaped garden
pleasing.....including, unfortunately, the pregnant lady
mosquitoes.
Age 30: Property bubble continued to grow and my apartment
appreciated by S$30-40k. Was going well on the job front and kept
two cars by myself.
Age 33: Asian currency crisis struck. My apartment lost S$150k in
paper value. Business started to fall. New management in the
company brought in a new set of politics. Feeling insecure, I
decided to get rid of one car so that I can have some cash to
partially quench my thirsty property mortgage loan. Unfortunately,
no one wanted to buy a 2.2-litre car in times of bad economy, so I
was stuck.
Age 34: Got married 
Started giving angpows every CNY 
Age 35: Got retrenched, house aircon broke down, water pipes
started leaking, car gearbox broke down, and everything else bad
which you can think of happened. Quickly ran to wife and lovingly
suggested making this apartment our matrimonial property (ie.
"honey, please contribute some CPF money to our home" ). Was jobless for 8 months, spent some time
backpacking and going for cheap tours, then came back and got
employed again.
A *short* while later: Also known as 'present time'. Now more
mature and thinking of more important things - eg. how to keep
long-sightedness at bay, how to prevent balding.....how to keep it
up till at least 65 
.....
I'm still living here and still loving it. I mean we're at the east
coast.....parents are at Upper Thomson, in-laws are at Choa Chu
Kang - implies no surprise visits by naggy elders (When are you all
gonna have kids huh? How long you never sweep the floor har? etc
etc). And we get to see free cheapo fireworks every new year
(emergency flares of ships), we can go cycling at the beach, etc.
When Metro or Robinson's have their warehouse clearance sales at
Singapore Expo, we can be the first ones there too. Yes, we're also
very near Ossia International, which holds clearance sales at their
carpark twice yearly. I never go to all this cheapo places
lah....just heard friend say only. 
Food here is good too. Kangkong Jiuhu (?), satay, fanciful cafes,
Killiney Kopitiam, rojak, full range of Indian foods, Siglap area,
Bedok Central, Bedok Corner, Katong Tau Kwa Pau, CMC coffee shop,
Hill Street Char Kway Teow (yes, its in Bedok), UMDC Seafood Centre
by the beach, etc etc.
Lets see....what else.....ah yes, if war comes, Changi Airport is
just 5 minutes away.
