A Singaporean In Australia

Rules on cpf or hdb or visa can change anytime. Health can also change anytime.

Hi Johari,

If you would leave your email, I'll like to ask you some questions regarding what you suggested.

Indeed, Perth is living hell as described. In fact, I'm thinking of moving to Somalia. I hope they don't tax.

as for me, Singapore medishield system doesn't benefit me. I cannot upgrade due to my medical condition. if I do upgrade, I will not be compensated for any surgery remotely related indirectly to the existing condition I have.

so far so good, I have made use of the medical levy pretty good as a single, as well as the pte health insurance. I even have acquaintances who had a good laff at OZ govt to accept such a money losing goods as me for a migrant. I wud say I exceeded the $ (4 figure sum) I paid for the pte insurance :))

Nick, it's better to move to Dubai...ZERO tax.

I.S, for your condition I would stay in OZ till I die.

http://www.straitstimes.com/news/singapore/courts-crime/story/police-recover-legs-dismembered-body-found-along-syed-alwi-road-20

Everywhere is the same. Just a matter what you want to shut off in your mind.

donald - your comments about perth sound interesting. so are you back in sg or are you already a citizen in perth?

Ok, Donald, what I am about to write is not personally targeting you but I am trying to bring a perspective to what you wrote. Certainly the problems you listed may seem very real to you but I think some readers out there may be mislead to think that you signed on into a siong unit the way you make it sound like you did.

If you are the sort who cannot tahan anyone saying something different from you, you are in the wrong blog forum and you better stop reading NOW





YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

Firstly, there may be burglary and car rams in Perth every day for all I know but I know in eastern Australia, it is very rare. People are a lot smarter and the ram ATM machine or bottle shops, even then it's like 2or 3 cases over last 5 years at best. If you are so worried about burglary then you can install the nice grills we see in every single HDB flat in SG, and if you own your own pity, you can install your own locked gates and wall. Simple. Having 'issues' with landed property security is a first world problem. Except the first world SG have replaced it with iron bars in hole in the sky flats happily paid for by the citizen tenants (since you don't really own the HDB flat like the way Aussie or Malaysian do with their home). Same deal about your rant about luxury cars.

2. Everybody and their mother knows Australia have higher taxes; that's why they can have welfare and other 'freebies'. Even your regular 80 year old ah soh selling tissue paper knows that. So unless people are uninformed when they sign on the dotted line to become Aussie resident, you can't say you don't know and then keep comparing SG and au tax rates. Furthermore the taxation actually got a bit fair over the last 20 years under John Howard time where the threshold for the highest personal income rate of 48% actually got raised so that many middle income family can keep more of their earning.

3. As much as I am critical about how many people perceived Medicare as a unlimited free nationalised health care insurance, it is very beneficial for many people who are just starting out to saving some cash, and get sick when young. You whinge about not actually owning the right to direct money you contributed to Medicare to your own personal use. But it is like complain in Singapore that you pay taxes and yet you can't call mata police to guard your property. Furthermore I dare say neither you or nix have contributed enough taxes to pay for one big illness requiring hospital admission, surgery, drugs and on going care. Remember your contribution to Medicare is at best 1.5% of your annual taxable income.

4. You complain there is no job prospect; not sure if you meant there is a glass ceiling in your workplace or that there is no creation of higher level jobs for you to move into. If you had no one pointing a gun at you to come to Australia, I am sure a smart man like you should have recce the area you want to work in. Not forgetting that Australia produce thousand of brand new hungry graduate with big debts willing to work for lower pay, I am sure that a merticulous check on the labour market should reveal how likely the employment prospects are and where If any are the opportunities to grow. But ah then I am assuming you did the sensible thing to start with. Btw I don't know what kind of work you are in but even lawyers and accountants and doctors and managers stay in exactly the same positions for years until they retire in SG in Au and for that matter the rest of the world.

5. Australian government comes and go. Labour spend, liberal save, green and democrats stand on high moral grounds but expect everyone else to pay for their policies. You vote, and hopefully you get what you vote. Don't whinge if you have a real choice in deciding who gets in.

Australia can be a bed of roses for some who come with open eyes, those who come wearing only tinted glasses will find the thorns quickly underneath the roses.

XYZ, I can tahan people keep saying good things about OZ but I also want to highlight the bad things about OZ from my perspective. I know you like to condemn Singapore but i did not compare those things with Singapore. Please take it easy!

XYZ, I also want to highlight I am not a Singaporean. Please do not keep saying about Singapore. Basically, I do not understand what you were saying.

Donald, you can plead innocence about Singapore, but you cannot deny what I wrote about Australia. Simply take out all references about SG in my post. It will still stand on its own.

Furthermore your posts so far over the last 2 weeks has been very negative about Australia. Maybe if you are unhappy about living in Australia for these main reasons, may I suggest migrating to Singapore then?

Lower tax rate
Lower interest rate than Oz
Better security than Oz (definitely no car ramming)
Few landed ppty worries (since it is very hard to get one)
Few luxury car worries since many people cannot afford one
Excellent job prospects for those with right qualification, willing to work very hard and for less money
Stable government, who don't like to spend money

You can join the 20000 Australians living there.

So Donald, you're not a Singaporean - what are you then? I'm quite interested to know where you're from and where you are residing now to be able to understand and quantify the post you made about Perth......

...was thinking of dissecting your comments..but xyz beat me to it.....

I am a Malaysian living in Perth. Actually, emigrate to Singapore is not bad as an expat and i do not mind.
"Excellent job prospects for those with right qualification, willing to work very hard and for less money" that's not right. I have friends work less for more.
"Stable government, who don't like to spend money" - Govt can spend money but spend wisely on taxpayer money.
Migration is not for everyone it might be good for you but might not for others...those may think that this is a heaven some may not. So you can say the positive sides and I can say the negative sides. Freedom of speech, no offence.

Precisely my thought.

What ever you want to say, you can go ahead and say it. Be my guest. But in a open forum (albeit moderated by Nix) you also need to say things that can stand up to scrutiny. Otherwise be prepared to be challenged and holes in your post exposed for everyone to see.

I am not a troll, and if you look back far enough, I am not SG govt's sycophant either for that matter. But I do not like it if anyone can only complain about something and not offer a balanced view of things. For other people who found Nix's blog because they (singaporeans) want to find out about Australia (and more importantly, Perth), then I want to ensure there is a counter balance to every thing within reason. Like I wrote, all your posts for the last 2 weeks is so negative that it is misleading, that a naive person will think that Singaporean migrants in Perth are living in fear of their wellbeing, and cannot get a fair go at opportunities. Maybe it is true for you in WA, but certainly less so in the Eastern seaboard.

And as you can see, I have taken on everyone (including Nix) when there is such a need.

Although I dont mind been paid by SG government as a sycophant... I head they pay well :))

Oh BTW Donald

There is sizable number of Australians working in Singapore, but very few of them has benefits and pay of the "expat" as we used to have. Most have local conditions or slightly better pay (up to 10%) for your "international experience" but only 1/3 have car and housing allowance unless you are headhunted or sent there by your MNC.

Worse still because you and I look like Singaporean, speak English like Singaporean, you will be treated like SG and then if you dont do something well, they say they shouldnt have paid you like a foreigner.

It's a bit like Singaporean Chinese in 1990s going to China to do business. They thought they have an advantage over the Westerner with special relationship but the SG do business in Western style whereas the Chinese officials expect chinese way of doing business (plenty of red packets and entertainment big spending). Ironically the Chinese does not expect Western companies to bride them and understands and forgive them more if the Westerners dont grease the Chinese with money.

Which is why I dont intend to go back to work in SG unless it is on my terms

I think is WA. I would have the negative impact if I were in the eastern states. Things are more expensive here even tourists can feel it when they travel across the states. WA is the most expensive state in Australia and also not as safe as other states.

Pardon me, I would not have.

Xyz, "Although I dont mind been paid by SG government as a sycophant... I head they pay well :))" - I was going to do that.

I think NT is the most expensive state. I have been working in all states except tas. Food in nt is at least 20% more, up to 50% if fresh food. Housing is limited and expensive since the council limits residential development

Btw Donald

If you do get contracted to SG government as syncophant, insist on Australian rates, don't spoil the market by offering yourself too cheap

Sounds like a good plan.

The only flaw is the assumption that conditions stay exactly the same for the next 10 years. And we all know uncle lee and his mates often changes the game plan. For example, who can originally predict they will introduce the cpf minimum sum scheme.

So, don't pray pray ok?

XYZ ,

Lets us agree to disagree on the issue of one's opinion .In my own observations, it doesn't matters how long does someone's has been living in Australia,as Australian or PRs to be seen as true Australian.

The Fact always remains, We are all migrating to Australia, in our mid-life from somewhere else. In these case, Singapore. How hard we can trying to prove ourselves to be seen as 100% Australian, the truth,this is not possible .We will always carry along with us the past baggage load of Singapore where-ever we are, Good example unlike Nick's daughter Albany,that being born as local, breed as Australian she's will definitely, truly be 100% Australian unlike both of his parents.

As smart Alec once say You can remove Singaporean out of Singapore But you can't remove Singapore out of Singaporean.

that's my opinion.

Johari

Notice I didn't actually say you are wrong. What I wrote is that the SG government changes the law on important long term things like cpf, medisave and HDB scheme, so much so that every one can safely assume the rules in 5 years time will be different. What works for you and anyone who already started their plan 2-3 years ago will reap the benefit of your scheme. But most people can hardly do their calculations and then move out of SG with your original predicted monies, if they only start now. I am sure that the government will tweak the system even more after the next election, that only ppl who stay in SG will benefit from nationalised services like HDB and education, and they will make sure they extract their pound of flesh for those 'quitter' migrants.

Surely you cannot disagree with this prediction?

Exactly,

Singaporean has been astray for a decades, because they fails to understand of this government long term policy, As Singaporean,we need to be smarter to foreseen and counter this Govt. We are going to be their victims if we are not carefully plan our future.

They only value us as Singaporean ,when we are about to starts entering N.S and till Ends of NS period co-incident with our early forties ,they value us to work for them till our productive days of early forties. After this they're going to discarded us as rubbish(They expected us to have many kids)you see their main policy "WE MUST BE PREPARED"

Rejuvenate Singapore ever turn ,they don't really care about you when you're above forties unless you're in elite group?

We MUST NOT fails to understand their games ,or by letting our fortitude waver because of this govt. policy either we like or not, we make use and overturn all this policy to our advantages.

.
That's Why I suggesting how to beat their system at their game.

One more things, If you're happened to be Singaporean Couple ,Don't let your wife to give birth in Singapore ,If you think of making USA, Canada, Australia ,your future retirement .

BUT never to Forget REGISTERED THEIR BIRTH immediately at respective Singapore Embassy. So He/She will have the privileges of acquiring dual Citizenship till 21

I totally setuju with your post 16.51 and notice your English got alot better now, your msg is now loud and clear.

But I disagree with your 18.46 post. If a SG couple have a son, think twice and thrice and even more before signing him up as a SG citizen. Classic example of catch 22: SG law says you can't renounce your citizenship until 20 or 21 as you are not mature enough, but the law also says you must enlist at 17 or 18 years old. So Lan lan must serve no choice unless you want to be on the run forever and avoid changi airport for the rest of your life like my friend in case the SG supercomputer can find him even in transit lounge.

Ignorance is no defence: a case in 1990s where SG father brought 2 very young sons back to india, until father dies. The 2 sons now 30 years old wants to come back and find work (india still not developing much early 1990s) and was arrested at airport. Judge belives the 2 men that they did not know anything about National service and the father did not tell them. BUT the judge is forced to send them to detention for desertion since the NS law says ignorance is NOT an excuse.

As for baby SG girl, no problem except must apply early otherwise the SG Ministry of National Development is very NEEOOOOWWWW (fussy and bitchy) and make it very very difficult for the parents

BTW Johari

I of all people know SG government's habit of changing rules all the time.

My father was a civil servant at a certain statutory board (he join them within a year of its creation). When he retired 30 years later they FORCED him to sell his pension (a very attractive income since the points accumulated over 30 years) for a lump sum, of which part of that sum MUST go into CPF so obviously not easily used.

Then I found out the MPs and Ministers still get to keep their pension and now pegged to high profile CEO income.

Dear Sinkie Over,

Everyone does has its priority, The idea of being a slob during younger days, if you're aware that you're not coming from elite family is not bad idea at all,to accumulated wealth the fastest way for your later days.

I'm only suggesting to Nick, as his situations is familiar as mine. We have to be pragmatic of the situations ,that we all in, Australia offers a better place off-course for our offspring,same time,we needs the dollar backing to be advantage in enjoys his society level.

In Nick situations, where he got to take the opportunity where 12-15 years is crucial to make that dollars, economic sense using his CPF before 55 to buy BTO as investment,as the interest rate is way below. Take the situations of Grants given being as Singaporean.

Since you mentioned about 3/2 years PRs situations. It just some balancing acts of ways.Since HDB don't care where you're getting the money from in paying the mortgage loan beside finish off your CPF ordinary account and wife.

Its up to you on how to beat the system,You can stay SG 3 years period to save the Aussie Pr, You can go back to Australia for the remaining 2 years holding aussie job,by leaving your wife or son to carry occupied the another 2 years term,They can spent short holiday to Australia in between. Once you completed the 5 years MOP the rest is History..

Another complicated stuff is the ATO.