Student, 26, graduating with close to $0 after paying off all my school fees. Going to start work soon. Any tips on adulting?

I would love to know which company / industry in Singapore is giving $5k per month in this tough economy to fresh graduate. Even experince professionals they are not getting $5k.

Congrats on getting a 5k renumeration on your first job! You have a head start among the majority and you are still very young, I believe once you paid off your school fees, you should be able to save up more. Do save up as much as possible for your BTO, renovation and wedding. Those are big tickets that you need to think and set a budget to it. Since you already started investing, I think there is no need to mentioned further on starting the journey early for FIRE aka Financial Independence, Retire Early. One last thing, focus on getting better renumeration and progression during the early stage of your career.

Starting off life as fresh grad with no student loans is a great start actually! There are a lot of fresh grads who begin with a hefty loan of $40k~ to clear and with a lower pay than $5k.

I would recommend you to start detailing out how much you will take home a month ($4k after cpf), fixed expenses (insurance, ILP, anything else like bills?), and then allocate a monthly budget for variable expenses (food, transport, entertainment etc.). With this, calculate your monthly saved, then extrapolate to a long-term calculation culminating at when you are 30 years old, and see if whatever you save a month will get you to your 100k goal. If it doesn’t, then maybe some sacrifices in monthly expenses will have to be made (eating fancy food less etc). Awareness of monthly expenses and what you save is the first step towards long term financial planning. You can also take into account big payments down the road like your downpayment for bto.

Personally, I actually noted down every expense for the first few months after graduation just as an exercise to see how much I would spend per month - you will be surprised and how some expenses you thought weren’t much can add up to a big amount at the end of the month. That definitely pushed me towards cutting out some habits! I’m also following a philosophy of living your journey-to-100k-life as a frugal student, because once you hit 100k the huge sum you have in investment generate much larger returns - more money makes more money. But of course, don’t cut expenses to the point where you are suffering, I still have plenty of room for enjoyment like staycays, nice dinners!

I calculate my monthly saved+investments together, meaning money I set aside for emergency funds and those I put into stocks. Also, don’t let the goal of hitting 100k by 30 affect you in making rash decisions in investments and try to make a quick buck, just be patient and let the market do it’s thing.

All the best!

You are 26 with $5k salary. I started at 28, $2.8k salary with lots of debt and a second hand car. In your case, it is very doable. Watch your monthly expenses (e.g. don’t buy a car) and budget for everything such as food, entertainment and stick to the plan.
Determine your net income after deducting all the must haves (e.g. tax and insurance). Stash away as much as you can, and if you can live on $1k a month, simply saving the rest will get you there. Don’t forget inflation so don’t just save but also learn how to invest. I made lots of mistakes when I started out and broke even with my stock investments at 45. Fortunately I was an avid saver that saved the day. At 45 I started learning all about investments and read 50 books a year for 2 years. I am still reading but now it’s about crypto, etc. Never invest in anything you don’t understand.
To me, having a million or two in your life time is so easy for someone like you. I could go on and on….
Good news, you can certainly retire at 50. Once you get there, you’ll probably never ‘retire’. I’m 60 and retired but got back into an online program to learn more about the new world of eCommerce and Social Media. Making money is fun, just don’t be greedy and do not forget your true self and give back to society.
Good luck and never stop learning.