Best of the Transparent Hummingbird
i went to the US for college, and then i went to graduate school (for one thing that meant i didn’t have an independent income) and average time to graduate in the humanities is 7-9 years so i wasn’t expectig to be graduating before 2012 maybe, and that was an estimate, it might have taken a bit longer and after that iw ould have naturaelly looked for academic jobs, tenure track positions and if i had got one, i would have been expecting to spend most of the rest of my life outside of singapore and even if i didn’t get one — and it wasn’t likely right away i would have been looking at post doc here or there for a few years while looing for tenure posion, visiting lecturership stuff or god forbid, maybe i’ll end up being an adjunct or whatever but i’d easily have spent another 5-6 years, post gradudation so really i mean, if i did come home — and i idn’t rule that out by the way — i never rueld that out if i did the earliest was going to be what, coming back in very late 30s, early 40s? by then, i would have some income and savings, and then if i came back that meant i got a job here,s o i could still buy hdb or whatever so thinking about living ins ignaproe buying proepty that kind of thing it was just never really on my radar it’s ot something of concern anytime in the next 25 years or somehting i am much more concerned about coping with rental prices in the boston housing market
when my life plans changed i came home that was unexpected, but at the time, 2008, you’re in your late 20s, you can’t buy hdb yet i’ve been a stuent all y life, i have no money anyway — gettig my first job and at that time and also i wasn’t sure i was going to be here long termb i had a storng desire to go back to the us and i thought — i might take 2-3 years off, recharge, reorientate yourself, work a bit, save some money, go back to the us so i was treating my first few years bck as i’m not here for long, it’s a bridging period
and i got a job, and i worked for 4ish years, in the meantime, i took stock of muy life, what do i wnat to do next and i decided i’m going to stay on in singapore then what, i’m in my early 30s now i’m still undersage for hdb, do i want to look on the resale market that would have been the first possibilty — or first windw where i could have said, ok do i want to think about getting a place
and in anycase at that point i decided to go to law school there goes any plans for buying my own place right cos i have no income for the next four years so forget about paying mortgagig right and i’m depleting my savings big time — pay law sch but nd also i’m living off savings so fore sure, now i have to keep living at home, i can’t move out
so now the question is: do i want to move out when i get a job now i’m saying realisticallyspeaking foreseeable future let’s say i get a job after i get called to the bar, 2016 aug then what it would be like starting out like a fresh graduate, cos i’d have no savings, i’m building up mysavings again from scrach, again, and my pay as an assoicate, will be v low, bottom rung of ladder again and i’d want to be working steadily for at least 4-5 years partly to build up my savings again for one thing but also, if you’re going to saddle youreslf with a mortgate i’ve got to be sure im going to be in a job for the furture and that it’s a job i’m happy in if 5 years later i say, i’m done wiht this, i can still quit and do something else but if i have a mortgagte i’m stuck the other thing is also practically spaeking lets sayi graduate and work 5 yearts at 40 i’ll look for my first place i’m back on my feet, i’ve got a steady job and ti’ve replenished my savings to the point before i went ot law school okay, doable but then i’ve got the house you see i keep saying teh house is mine one ay and it’s true BUT my parents are going to live healthily until 80s, i would be easily 60 before i am looking at the house so between 40-60 i would want to move out howeev nice it is to have my own place, i really od prefer this house it’s near the mrt, it’s near the town centre and yet it is quiet and secluded and private and it’s a good size - not too big
20 years of mortgage spend money doing up the house i’d rather psend that money to do up the upstairs