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You Know You’ve Become a Singaporean Adult When These 5 Things Happen to You
Becoming an adult in Singapore is not all about age. In fact, age does not define maturity, particularly for millennials. Adulting is a complex term, and it is the reason why even at age 23 a young man is still getting financial support from parents. Maturity and adulthood go hand in hand and go beyond the simple abilities like buying alcohol, driving, and completing the college education. Typically, it is rare for a teenager to start thinking about buying a home, investing, raising children, or purchasing insurance. Some even fear the responsibilities that come with adulthood.
Adulting is a natural phenomenon. Most people never realize when it happens as they’re too engrossed in identifying what is childish and focused on their own personal growth. When you begin looking at the different side of money, family, and work, it is a good sign that you are growing old. Young people as they start turning into adults begin by getting enthusiastic about work, feel embarrassed when borrowing money, begin devising money generating ideas, are cautious about their expenditure and knows the value of investing.
You give allowance to your parents
Now that you’ve started earning, it’s probably payback time. Just like how your parents regularly gave you allowances when you were in school, is the same way you begin sharing your earnings with your parents. Even if they have a regular income, it is the least you can do after depending on them for all those years. Your contribution could be used to offset various house bills for your parents or go into their retirement funds.
Helping your parents is an act of maturity that symbolizes your understanding of responsibilities. It also means that you apprehend that you are in charge of your own life and your parents’. It reassures your parents that you will take care of them when they age and prepares you for full responsibility as a mother or father.
You pay attention to how you use your time, money, data, and other essentials
Recent research found out that most millennials are extravagant particularly with their first salary. Most young people spend their money on parting and travelling forgetting that they’re working and have bills to settle. The study indicated that most millennials had to borrow loans within two weeks after paycheck. Some got into severe financial crisis when they couldn’t pay back what they owed the banks. Very few managed to save and cut their daily expenses to get them to end the month.
Adults, however, have in mind that they have bills like rent, electricity, water, and other household expenses. Wise individuals make budgets and stick by them. Long are the days when you never calculated the amount of data you use nor had an idea of how much it cost per month. Budgets make you responsible; they help you achieve more and manage your life. No more excess video streaming, online video games and partying like there will be no tomorrow.
You manage your holidays
In Singapore, the holidays are the most anticipated days in the Singaporean calendar. Families are less stringent with finances, and people are unusually generous during these celebration days. Singaporeans enjoy the company, and it is during the holidays that individuals meet, travel together, eat together, and give gifts to one another. Once you enter the working world, you become a holiday contributor. In simple terms, working-class individuals pay for their holiday expenditure or contribute to the family in case it’s a family tradition.
A responsible adult will budget and save for these days regardless of whether you have plans or not. If you are a touring enthusiast, you probably want to plan for trips to places you’ve never been. You can find smart ways of doing this such as booking plans when there is an offer or join a group of friends or colleagues who are planning a tour. Group tours are more economical as you will share the costs of renting a car, accommodations and even buying meals.
You are eligible for your credit card
Becoming an adult means you’re responsible for your credit card. Forget about those Singaporean supplementary credit cards that you used to have when you were still a student which had a credit limit of S$500. The student credit card is far different from the credit card you acquire when you start working. If not careful and responsible enough it may encourage bad spending habits and get you to severe debts. Credit card debt is not only harmful to your bills and your name but also detrimental to your credit score which only jeopardizes your access to loans in future.
As an adult, you want to be as responsible as possible. If saving is your priority, you know how much you should avoid loans unless you are ready and comfortable paying one. To avoid taking up additional loans, you have to spend within your means and only spend on what you need, pay your bills on time, earn cashback rebates, air miles or reward points to get you stable in your other social life.
Understanding that what you take home is less than what you made
If you’re a Singapore citizen or a permanent resident below the age of 55, 20% of your monthly income will be sent to your CPF account. That means that if your salary was about S$3000, you might be taking home only about S$2400. That would be quite a vast amount for a fresh employee, particularly if you had not planned about it. However, an adult will manage to navigate with this amount quite comfortably without feeling cheated on their first months.
It’s not easy to get used to the fact that all the money deducted in your CPF account will only be availed to you after you hit 55 years. Youths who begin working on investments and savings early have no problem with deductions; they will easily purchase insurances for their future and still manage to live comfortably. Keep in mind that you are not the only one contributing to your CPF account, your colleagues and even your employer are doing the same.
You may also like to read:
Pros and Cons of Paying Taxes Using Credit Cards
How Much Taxes to Pay in Singapore If You’re an Expat?
Guide To Singapore Work Culture For Expats
(By Molly Joshi)
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