How much should you have saved at age 30?

It depends on your lifestyle and income. Major savings from not spending too much on our wedding. My husband and I manage to save close to 240K (cash and investment) excluding CPF at 30. Our wedding only costs 2.5k SGD. we did ROM 26 SGD, flower (friend - free)+make up (friend - 50 SGD)+dress (online 100SGD), we only invite 18 people to our wedding dinner. We started off 4 years ago with very little saved up and decided to work on it so we could retire early. Additionally, I also paid my dad back 50k SGD for the Uni education that he sponsored me. Every mth i giv my parents 1k + 10% income to church/charity and we stayed humbly at rented 3 room HDB (with 1 room lock by owner) while waiting for our house next year. Rental cost is 7% of monthly income. I have yearly business trip to Europe/USA on company (meal, hotel, transport, flight allowance) which i top-up 1k for couple of days for personal holiday. I dont know how friends around me could afford spending yearly EU/USA - the costs does add up. For income, it's important to upgrade yourself (for me - upgrade on technology/coding) and move to tech sector. Monthly we invest in S&P 500 and various tech/blue chip stocks. The key is patience and discipline. The most important thing is to find bf/gf/spouse who has the same money attitude as you if your goal is to achieve financial freedom. Our dating activities are mostly exercise outdoor @ the parks/beaches, cycling around east coast/punggol etc2. We really dont need to spend a lot to be happy :). ​​​

Hi there!

When it comes to, "How much should I have saved by the age 30", I'll like to think of it this way - What would I possibly need to spend or rely on when I hit the age of 30?

And that for an average Singaporean could be dependent on 3 requirements:

1. Be able to have 6 months worth of emergency funds
2. Be able to afford downpayment for a BTO (25% of the property price, 5% must be in cash)
3. Fulfilling our partner's dream of getting married before 30

Here are the breakdown and assumptions.

1) Be able to have 6 months worth of emergency funds

Say you're making an average salary of a Singaporean between the age of 25 to 30 and that's S$4K (inclusive of employer CPF contributions). Which means that you will need S$24K in savings to overcome any short term adversity in your life. Breaking that down into 60 months (12 months*5 years) you will find that you need to save at least S$400 per month to check this requirement.

2) Be able to afford downpayment for a BTO (25% of the property price, 5% must be in cash)

Say you're merely looking at a 3-room BTO with the assumption that the property will cost S$200K. Also, you will like to pay all 25% in cash and not touch the savings in our CPF. Which means that you will need to folk out S$50K cash in downpayment (Well, you might be able to share this load with your partner, case by case basis).

Breaking that down into 60 months, (12 months*5 years) you will find that you need to save at least S$833 per month to check this requirement.

3) Fulfilling our partner's dream of getting married before/on 30

Well, I won't go into detail on why the average cost of weddings in Singapore is S$27K You can read about it here https://blog.seedly.sg/cost-of-wedding/

Once again, Breaking that down into 60 months (12 months*5 years), you will find that you need to save at least S$450 per month to check this requirement.

This is an important requirement that you would want to check especially if you are with a "marry-or-flight" partner. In summary, if you're just like me, then these are the 3 things that will bother you when you're on your way to 30. Which means to check all three requirements, you'll need to save at least S$101K (S$1,683 per month) to achieve this goal. I say it's insane but achievable. Alternatively, just pick the requirements that are most important to you and work towards your goals.

1) 6 Months Worth Of Emergency Funds

Total Savings Target: S$24K

Monthly Savings required for the next 5 years: S$400

2) Downpayment For A BTO

Total Savings Target: S$50K

Monthly Savings required for the next 5 years: S$833

3) Getting Married Before/On 30

Total Savings Target: S$27K

Monthly Savings required for the next 5 years: S$450

I hope this helps!

It seems you’re looking for a general benchmark, so a good figure is probably $100,000. It’s what an average uni grad would have saved by that age.

Currently, the average grad earns a median salary of $3,400. That’s a take home pay of about $2,700 after deducting CPF contributions.

We’ll assume you’re an average spender (neither super frugal nor high-rollin') and have no loans to pay off (most grads’ uni fees are paid for by their parents).

Ladies will graduate at 23 years old (= 7 years of savings), while men graduate at 25 (= 5 years of savings). We’ll take the average (= 6 years of savings).

Most finance sites/experts recommend you save half your salary, so that’s like saving 6 months of pay per year. With the standard 5% annual salary increase, 6 years of savings comes to $110,188 - or $100,000 conservatively. (The $10,000 buffer can be for overspending, emergencies, etc.)

We could go further and assume you want a wedding (about $15,000 per spouse) and a renovated BTO ($20,000 downpayment per spouse) by age 30. After paying for these, your remaining savings will be $75,000.

Really depends on your goals.
People are a little obsessed with the idea of $100,000 for some reason. I'm not sure why.
Just try to associate it with your own personal life and then figure out how to get there.

If I'd like to build a life with my girlfriend, I need about 2.2 million.
So by 30 it has to be like...at least $400,000.
Whew. :(