Indeed life is better overseas?
I was a local graduate with honours in Computer Engineering who worked in a couple of major firms in Singapore back in 2011. I used to presume that Singapore wage system is fair and just but when I was given an opportunity to work in Australia. That changed my perception of what is it to live my life.
Back then I was making approximately SGD$70k after 4 years of experiences and I would say it’s decent income and getting a car and property wasn’t out of the picture. While being brought up as a skeptic, I was presumptuous to assume countries like Australia will never be able to offer a better balance between ‘cost-of-living’ and ‘quality-of-living’.
Fast forward, I took a leap of faith and accepted an offer to move in Australia with a starting renumeration package of AUD$100k and ever since never looked back. It’s been 8 years now and I’m making more than AUD$210k and the best part is I learnt how to cook and have time for self cultivation.
Now I have so much more time to focus on how to get my work done and how to improvise on the quality. Apart from that, I have time for me and my family’s well-being. We don’t hit the malls every other weekends because of the need for air-conditioning and retail therapy, we have beautiful parks and reserves for our kids to explore nature in a different way.
Witnessing so many base-less comments, I sincerely feel for Singaporeans.
I wish to also take this opportunity to correct some misled folks surrounding concerns such as high food cost, high taxation, racism and climate can be remediated with options.
High taxation system
Every Jul, you get to justify what you spent on work related items and get a portion of your tax back. Items like car depreciation, work wear, property leasing, utilities etc and these are just some examples of what you could potentially claim back in taxes and ultimately you pay lesser tax than someone who works in singapore and ‘own’ a car.
High food cost (cost-of-living)
The convenience is Singapore is undebatable. We have convenience at our finger tips but at the expense of ‘how busy your day to day life is’. In Australia, if you learnt to cook and enjoy a good home cooked meal while only eating out on weekends, you will find that cost of living ain’t that bad. Over the years, there are plenty of affordable ‘cai fan’ popping all over various suburbs and these variety ranged from $5 to $12 depending on the time you buy them.
Racism
No qualms that racism exists everywhere even in Singapore in today’s context. We are lucky because we are the other end of the spectrum in Singapore when we past on racism related topics in general. Many who couldn’t adapt to a foreign country and returned complaining how ‘horrible racism is’ often fail to assimilate into the local culture but rather tried to acculturate their own beliefs to the local dime. That would be the crux of the issue here.
Climate
Indeed Singapore considered a safe place in terms of 365 days of single climate zone – wet and humid and often many dished out at Australia being overly-hot during summer and we get floods and experience other natural elements. My answer often is would you prefer 365 days of summer or 90 days of summer ? Is that surviving or living ? If your choice is the latter – welcome to Australia.
Ultimately as I got older, I learnt to experience what is life without experiencing the ups/downs while harvesting the fruits of nature apart from the ‘equatorial’ style living in Singapore. So far, I have multiple offers (similar wage range) back in my home – Singapore but I rejected them flatly even though I will always be a Singaporean but my heart is already with Australia.
There ain’t too many rights or wrongs that we have debate in life since life is so short after all. Go with your heart and live the best of your life without regret.
I hope more locals in Singapore are willing to step out of their comfort zone and perceive life from a different angle and perhaps that will land you in a better place.
Just my 2 cents and no offence to any opposing views