friend owes more than $15k.. am I able to find a debt collector to help recover the amount?

A friend owes about $15k (14k++) in money and was initially repaying about $500 a month for the debt and was paying for last 6 mths but started to Mia for the last 1.5 months. Either giving holding answer or saying (will transfer tonight but disappears or doesn’t answer when pressed)

Started exploring getting a debt collector but not too sure if its possible if its loan to an individual and what’s the success rate?

Edit: I know there is a lesson learnt here and he usually returns promptly but at this point I’m not asking for “you deserve it or u shldnt have XXXX” I’m exploring options on getting it back and knowing the success rate/ what to look out for etc

2nd edit for more context: most conversation is via WhatsApp and transfer done by paynow so I do have the nric and (of course) mobile number, so we do have a paper trail of the debt

Normally I will say hey u still owe xxx after ur transfer of (eg) $500 today.

OR it will say hey u still owe xx when u transferring and he will just go ok transfer u tonight/tmr / insert random date here

Netizens’ comments

How did you give him the $15k initially? By cash or by bank transaction? The more paper trail of the debt, the stronger your case, the debt collectors are only willing to take on the case of debt recovery if you have enough evidence like I said, whether through transaction records or phone messages. Also, be prepared to split the money from the debt with them if they do get it back.

NUS alumni here with 5 years working experience in 2 high paying jobs in the finance and investment field; evaluated multiple MNCs and high growth start ups in my career, and currently working on my own side hustle.

Finding a dream job is an extremely painful process. It is nerve wrecking and its not a fault of your own, the current recruitment is loob-sided with employees holding all the information but job seekers literally shooting in the dark.

That being said. There are really 3 types of companies that are hiring. They land in different points across the pay and work-life balance spectrum.

#1 The high paying MNC jobs – Note that its only in selected departments within the tech, finance and consulting space (ie not all IT jobs are equal and don’t be fooled by the job ad). Extremely high pay but don’t expect any work hours to be easy. Work here for 3 years can guarantee a very good exit if you choose to, most which can continue matching your pay.

#2 High Growth Startups – There are the well-funded ones with potential to scale, usually backed by government inc or high profile venture capital. Trust me, these companies will pay for talent, they are in industries that will eventually reap high profit margins and hence have to ability to pay for capable people to build the business. Even if they are loss making today, see the valuation that they are raising capital at, they are lying if they say money is an issue. They definitely have the budget to pay you if you are in an important role. If you are offered a job if such companies that offers a low-ball pay, truth is you are just not applying for the right roles and it is not crucial to their growth.

#3 All others – Relatively lower paying jobs, cannot afford to pay you more and limited growth prospect. This is where you find relatively stable working hours.

In terms of choosing your job, #1 and #2 is the way to go. #1 is straightforward but is extremely competitive, I have seen many undergraduates taking a GAP year to eventually get a fighting chance to get into #1

#2 is tricky. Finding the good ones are like a needle in the haystack, if you find one, congratulations and learn from the founders how to dream big. If the entry pay is low make sure you are getting vested in the company via equity to compensate for the lower upfront compensation. Anything else, lets face the reality that you are just not important enough to the company, hence its best for you to move on and look at other options

#3 Here’s the sweet spot. Compensate the slightly lower pay with more spare time, your biggest asset in your 20s. Work on up-skilling, take online MOOC courses, work on side hustles, monetise your hobbies, learn how to invest with tiger broker or robo funds. Treat your job as a day job but make sure you spend enough time on what really matters to you.

Remind yourself that. Once again, your biggest asset is time and make sure you are exchanging value for that.

I’m relatively new at posting, hope I do this right! Fake names, approx. ages for privacy.

I have a 400K debt left by my parents. I know that the moment I graduate, I’ll have to take over and clear it for them.

They’re old and do not have much qualifications nor enough savings, so counting on themselves to clear the debt is impossible.

I can’t move on in life if I don’t clear this debt first because, can you imagine, having my own family, my own house on top of this debt? I can’t. My family will suffer with me. I’m not going to leave my parents in the lurch either.

What are some ways I can clear this debt ASAP (within 5 years)? On average, a normal grad salary is between 5K to 7K(?) a month even after 5 years.

Maybe certain jobs get you 10K but I’m an average joe. I’m planning to scrimp and save as much but it will still take me forever to clear the debt.

Which means I need a second income. I’ve thought of investing once I’ve accumulated about 30K. I’ve been reading up on investing (stocks, forex, etc.) Many people said investing is long term, but I’m thinking along the lines of scalping and day trading. If this is not a good idea, is there anything else I can do? Am at a loss.

I’m still pretty mad at the whole ordeal. My hubsand’s colleague and his wife are both mad at us, and think I humiliated her but I think her lack of common sense is what did it.

How do you guys negotiate your salary when job hunting?

I know that this topic isn’t something easy to talk about in public, but I would like some advice from you guys.

I am working in the pharma sector and my current contract is ending in 6 more months. With no obvious signs of my superiors wanting to convert me to a permanent staff due to budget freeze, work wise having no room to learn more stuff as my colleagues are always busy with work, rumours that they are cutting down manpower, I am job hunting and I hope to do more than what I am currently doing, which is routine testing. (To be frank, anybody can do routine testing, it is just following SOP)

While job hunting, I can’t help but to note that a lot of jobs that I found on Linkedin, mycareersfuture and so on are from 3rd party recruiters, and applications to companies directly through their websites are either in-processing or outright rejected without any interviews. My current salary is around $4.2k, so I feel that it isn’t too much to ask for mid $4k-low $5k for someone that is having ~2years of experience in the pharma sector.

However, from a quick chat with a 3rd party recruiter sourcing for a major company in the pharma sector, I was quite surprised to note that this 3rd party recruiter isn’t willing to match my current pay, saying that my salary (~$4.2k) is too high and if they were to factor 13rd month AWS, variable bonus, transport allowance and so on, it would be too much. (Note that my current contract role doesn’t have any AWS and there is only a tiny amount of transport allowance, contract completion bonus of 0.5 months of my current monthly salary). Another chat with another recruiter recommend me jobs which I need to take a pay cut, which obviously I don’t want and rejected.

How do you guys negotiate your salary when job hunting? Honestly speaking, I don’t have any skills to shout about, except for knowing various testing methods, and I wanted to jump to something within the industry that is not so stagnant, such as R&D or related fields, but having no experience in this field is putting me at a disadvantage compared to other applicants who have advantage in these fields, and there is no formal learning opportunity for me to learn what other departments are doing (such as cross department immersion program, shadowing other departments etc)

I am honestly quite done with everybody I know or met of.

Just some background info, I am 23M studying in computer science and never had a relationship before.

During my secondary school days, I was betrayed and backstabbed by a group of friends which frankly speaking, I deserved it because at that point of time I was the top few percentile and thus despite hiding it, I do have some ego issues where I secretly look down upon them. (Ever since poly however, I met people who are a lot better than me and it humbled me a lot). But this incident regardless haunt me during my first two years in poly until I was able to start letting go slowly.

I tried looking forward, except without any friends nor family to help. Although my family is rather traditional, and my mom has the say in the family. She constantly berate everyone like how my dad is not a good husband (and frankly speaking although he earns lesser but he was IMO a good husband), I am never good enough for her and my two sisters will always be better than me.I constantly endured as I had no one to talk to. I could not tell my two sisters as since young they had always stick together and bully me. Even my mom will side them or remain silent most of the time. My father (despite being closer with me as he understands and feels what the same thing we went through) is not a person I can share with either as being a traditional person, he believes man must be tough. The last time he witness me having a mental breakdown secretly, he berated and lectured me for being weak.

Because of the incident in secondary school, this somewhat caused me to develop a sense of cautiousness where I am more observant and rather accurate at reading people’s character. However, the people I met in poly and university did not really click. In poly and uni, many would spend lavishly or have some weird habits such as obsession of watching porn/hentai. Nothing wrong with watching pornography nor spending more, but I come from a thrifty family where I develop the saving money habit as well. As for watching porn, I admit I do watch as well but not on a regular basis. I am also ashamed of watching it as I regard it as me giving in to the temptation.

I had most of my lunches, dinners alone. My parents also refused to let me move out to the halls available in NUS where they threatened me with suicide claims, stating I am their sole son and thus have to take care of them. I cannot breathe sometimes and when having mental breakdowns, I have to do it secretly. They refused to let me out even at night to have some fresh air or some breather, where they will get physically abusive if I tried to force my way out. As they are my parents, I also couldnt strike them out of respect as well as fear.

As for relationship wise, this is more a controversial topic where I may get cancelled (since this is anonymous however, i will carry on). Despite never been on relationship before, I had crushes as well as went on dates with some girls. For my first crush in secondary school, I was rejected badly after my Os despite liking her for 4 years. I felt crushed and self esteem dropped further when she made degrading remarks stating how I can never compare to even her male friends. Being broken, I decided to have a makeover and to be frank, have a 180 degree change in look. Despite having a glowup, I lost my passion and interest in everything. My grades were inconsistent in my poly and uni sems.

During NS, I was constantly shouted and screamed by the higher ups (particularly my PS). They sometimes make degrading remarks such as guniangs etc when I am physically weak, despite doing my best for everything. I wanted to voice out my anger, but out of fear and in order to adapt, I endured again.

I tried going on dates with people I met online through social media (tiktok, Instagram), through classmates (or classmates’ friends), through clubbing once, through social work and through people that approached me. While I clicked with only one of the many girls (mutually), I decided not to go on further and made it clear to her as she spends very lavishly (where she can spend up to $50 a day and I knew in long term it will be bad as I am in no financial power to take care of her). The other girls ended up in failure however, with many claiming I am not “tall enough” or ” rich enough”. Some were nice however, telling me directly that they are not interested to carry on further. Some were worse, when I tried contacting them after the date, they immediately blocked me where I felt extremely humiliated and used as they could directly make it clear to me. I tried to believe not every girl are not like the ones I met (as I mentioned there is one nice girl I went on a date but we didn’t carry on due to lifestyle habits) but am beginning to lose hope. I read online where people claimed that I look for the wrong places, which perhaps it is except my places are pretty much limited to school, work so frankly speaking I feel I do not have luck meeting people.

I really cannot take it anymore sometimes. It seems I have no one I can confide in. Furthermore, because of society perception and judgement of mental illnesses etc, I cannot seek help in fear of being judged or unfairly treated (future jobs opportunities, relationships, etc). I had deleted all forms of social media, because I did not want to have contact with the many narcissistic, bigoted, materialistic and two faced people I met. I also felt my social media was such a fake representation of myself as despite people pointing out how good or even flawless I look in those photos, I didn’t even have the basic love and respect and understanding received by my family. I do not have friends. I get humiliated by some people I went on dates on. What is the point of keeping a fake representation about myself?

And while not many people may understand how I feel, I hope readers of this post can be more self aware and empathetic to others. To the parents, please do not pin so much expectations and pressure on your children. Or at least give your children a chance to take a breather. To the females out there, I understand some guys are not rich or tall enough for your standards. Nor could we satisfy your demands. But please give some basic respect to us that we deserve as a normal human being. Please do not make use of us, whether it is our feelings or money. To the ordinary people out there, please let go of society traditional beliefs and stereotype judgements. Or at least, don’t hurt others just for your sense of ego.

What is the average amount of savings (in cash) singaporeans have at 30?

Im a single mother (unwed). My daughter is turning 5 and i have been working very hard through the years to save, but i often felt demoralised by how much others are saving/owning at their age. At 30, My bank account is currently at $60k Is that sufficient or normal? What is the average amount of savings (in cash) singaporeans have at 30?

If i want to purchase bto for a flat as a single parent, who can I contact directly with?

Here are what netizens think:

• Considering being a single parent at 30 and able to save $60k, your capabilities are really commendable. Don’t compare with what others have. Each person lifestyle and situation is different.

• Focus on earning more than enough for your retirement and your daughter’s University education. What’s seen on the surface may be just the tip of the iceberg. Your level of savings.

• For a single parent, having such savings is commendable. There are people who are single with x zero savings. You should keep your current pace and getting your own place within the next few years shouldn’t be a problem.

• BTO sure contact with HDB lor, who else. But not sure if you can get as an unwed mother with a child since you’re below 35.

• It is not healthy to compare. Everyone has different life style. Live within your means plus some backup cash and be happy. Check with HDB for your housing needs. All the best.

• Go to the MP they will help u to write to HDB. I’m single mum (unwed) below 35yr. HDB have approved my application to purchase a BTO/ resales flat under single plan. You are doing a good job so there’s no need for you to compare with others.

My GF (28F) and I (30M) have been together for about 2 years.

We don’t live together, but we’ve talked about it. We both live in town and the cost of living is only going up, so we could both save money if we got a place together. Although Singapore has pretty good public transportation some places are not public transport friendly my GF doesn’t drive.

This means that when we want to go somewhere out of town, I am the one driving.

Me (26F) and my bf (25M) have been living together for a few years (September 2019). When we moved in together he was working and was helping around the house, as was I of course.

When the pandemic started he lost his job and for about a year I was very lenient and patient with him finding a job. He didn’t want to, he liked getting money from his parents and when that ran out he didn’t try again because he was almost banking on his mother giving more money.

Since February 2020 he has been out of work and I have been paying for everything we need. He also seems to think he still has a say in finances and making purchase requests. In turn, I said if you want that kind of luxury (deciding what gets bought or spent when you contribute nothing) he will have to help out, and since he can’t help with money he needs to help with house care.

There is no reason I should be the only one working AND taking care of the house. Even now, he complains about doing one load of dishes when I worked 9 hours. Mind you, there are no kids, he just plays video games all day or invites his friends over because he’s “depressed”, so am I. I’ve had my med doses raised 3 times in the last 2 years from the sheer stress as it’s breaking down my mental well-being. Thank