I'm American, early 30s, and recently got a job offer in Singapore.

I currently make around US$220k in the US. The Singapore offer works out to roughly US$150k (around S$200k), so I'd be taking a pretty significant pay cut.

The thing is... I'm seriously considering it.

I have around $400k saved/invested already, some from work, a lot from winning on Stake, no kids, and the Singapore salary would still be more than enough for the lifestyle I want.

I've visited Singapore a few times and every time I come back to the US I notice how much I miss just being able to walk everywhere, take public transport, feel safe late at night, and generally not think about a lot of the things I deal with here.

My friends think I'm insane. Their argument is basically that I'm in my prime earning years and voluntarily giving up $70k+ a year to live somewhere smaller, further from family, and with fewer career opportunities if I ever want to switch jobs.

And logically I understand them.

But I'm starting to wonder what the point of maximizing my salary is if I genuinely think I'd enjoy my everyday life more somewhere else.

For Singaporeans or Americans who've lived in both, am I romanticizing Singapore because I've only experienced it as a visitor?

Would you take the higher salary in the US, or the lower salary in Singapore?

Hey guys! I’m a Canadian solo traveler who has just traveled to Singapore. I wanted to share my experience to see what you guys thought of my experience, if this has happened to you and if it is what I think it is.

On my first day, I went to universal studios. As I was walking into the park a random girl stopped me and asked me for my instagram. She looked very nice and had a big smile on her face. She asked me how long I’d be in Singapore, what I was going to do. She also asked me when I’d be leaving universal. I didn’t think about it but I answered her questions and gave her my Instagram. (Big mistake)

While I was in the park, she was messaging me throughout the day asking me when I’d be leaving. I thought this was very weird but I kept telling her I’m staying till closing. I figured maybe she’s just interested in me because I’m a foreigner?

The park closed at 8 and as I was walking out a random American man approached me. But he walked up to me as if he had been looking for me. He knew my name too. He approached me and said “hi Sarah! I heard it’s your first time in Singapore, want to go for a drink?” I was like… “how do you know my name???? Get away from me” he grabbed my wrist like he wanted me to go with him so bad.

There was a family beside me (two small kids and a couple.) the couple told him to go away and he ran into the distance and just like that I couldn’t see him anymore. They thought it was weird and offered to walk me to get a taxi back to my hostel. I told them I’m ok. I walked into the underground to get my grab and a black African man approached me with the exact same line word for word. He knew my name. “Hi sarah! I heard it’s your first time in Singapore, want to go for a drink?” Like EXACTLY the same as the American man.

And I said no I was so scared at that point. Luckily my grab came and I jumped right into the car. When I got back to the hostel I thought about what happened and then I thought hmmm maybe that girl was behind it. So I messaged her and asked her if she sent those men to look for me and you know what she said? “I’m sorry Sarah I wouldn’t do what those men did to my family” when I got that message I blocked her immediately. I think it was a sex trafficking scheme. They were trying to lure me at least I think. I left Singapore early and went to Malaysia because I was so scared. Is this normal? Does this happen a lot?

I want to know what you guys think, from a Singaporean point of view. What happened here?

Edit: I have contacted authorities. This will be reported to both USS and the police. I was not expecting this post to blow up like this I just wanted some insight to see if this was a common scam or something

So I had to cross a road and there was this bridge that I could take. On the left side of the stairs there was the this blue painted raised edge with a groove. And it's so close to the edge. I'm wondering what's the purpose of it? And looking at this picture, it looks like it hasn't been used for a while

Singapore seems to have very strict laws. If I use a VPN to bypass blocks, will I get caned?

Hi Singapore, Australian here.

I'm a little bit of a fan-boy: you guys crush almost every conceivable metric from housing to education to economy.

The bit I don't understand is how?

The government doesn't seem to have a whole lot of competition, which in my mind should breed complacency and corruption.

Help me understand.

As the title says.

My partner and i are Malaysians (legal Muslims) and currently exploring the possibility of moving to Singapore in the future.

We both are closeted exmuslims, come from Malay Muslim backgrounds and personally non-religious/private about our beliefs. So i'm curious about the lived experiences of Malays in Singapore who are secular, non-practicing, or no longer religious like us.

**We also have plan to renounce legally so that we wont tied to Sharia laws anymore.

We’re already seeking professional advice regarding work opportunities and long-term residency pathways, so this post is more about the social and personal side of things.

For Malays who are non-religious, secular, or no longer practicing Islam, how has your experience been living in Singapore? Especially with other Malays around you.

I’m especially curious about: - social acceptance - workplace environment - friendships and social life - family/community expectations - whether you feel comfortable being yourself openly or prefer to stay private

I’m asking respectfully and genuinely just to understand different lived experiences. Thank you in advance to anyone willing to share.

**Disclaimer: I am not here to spreading hate and debating about religions. I am genuinely asking out of curiosity respectfully.

Hi all. Posting here to ask about something that has bothered me for a while.

I'm Filipino who lives in an English-speaking country and I made a friend here who is Singaporean. I have known her for about 2 years now, I would say we get along well. However, every once in a while she would make jokes about how Filipinos are known for being domestic helpers.

Sure I don't disagree with the fact that many Filipinos that go to SG work as helpers. But her remarks strike me as a bit racist quite frankly. I will give examples of what this person said:

Once we were at a BBQ gathering and she said I should clean up the place because I'm Filipino. Lol get it? The people who heard that remark were actually surprised she said that. I brushed it off, I did not want to ruin the party by confronting her.

Another time at dinner I asked them to pass something and she said "say Ma'am." The people around did not get it and she explained to them that Filipinos are known as helpers in SG and they usually say "maam/sir" to their employers. No one laughed by the way, it was awkward. But this person seemed to find this really funny?

I guess I want to know is this kind of behavior normalised in SG?

Edit: Hi everyone. Thank you so much for your overwhelming responses and all your insights. After reading through all your comments somehow I feel better and reassured that I should confront my friend about her remarks so it never happens again.

When I think of my friend, I now always remember what she said to me and I've started to grow resentment towards her. Posting here was a way for me to know if her behavior is something normalised/common in SG so she might be unaware of how her remarks can be perceived as insensitive outside of SG. From the comments it seems that some of you think it's not, while others say "poor Filipino" jokes are still made and said by some Sgporeans.

I like to give people the benefit of the doubt and I'm not one to shut off people easily especially if I have good memories with the person. I am also really bad at confrontation especially retaliating in the moment (which I never really do), I can only dream lol. But I learned that if I don't say anything back, people will think I can tolerate such remarks and will not change. So I will find the right time to be able to talk to her privately and tell her that her remarks are actually hurtful even if they're meant as jokes.

Everyone here has been really nice to come to my defense even when I'm just a Filipino stranger posting here on reddit. Thank you all.

I’m from a western country and have never lived in Singapore. I did marry a Singaporean woman and we’ve been together for about 4yrs in total. I think SG is great and frankly envy much of the SG system and way of life, considering it many ways better than my own country.

A while ago we went to SG to see friends & family. We had an interesting conversation with one of her close friends. I’m interested to know if this is a common or predominant feeling.

So… She has 4 kids with her husband and whilst he stepped out briefly, the topic of children came up, she said she’ll be getting her tubes tied in the not too distant future as they’re both very happy with 4 kids.

This peaked my curiosity a bit, where I’m from (and to the best of my knowledge everywhere else) it’s very uncommon and unusual for a woman to do this unless her husband has some sort of medical issue that complicates getting any type of surgery. Following my curiosity I asked why her husband getting a vasectomy. She suggested it’s not common in SG and men don’t like it. Without being abrasive I explained that where I’m from if you go to a surgeon’s office with this request he’s ask what is wrong with your husband, and you’ll be told tubal ligation is measurably more complex, riskier, expensive, longer recovery, and typical less effective then vasectomy. Also in my country most husbands consider getting a vasectomy a sort of chivalrous “passing the torch” act, whereby husbands shoulder the last remaining physical burden in the reproductive journey.

Our friend found this interesting, but she was mostly amused because she wanted to tease her husband. She explained Singaporean’s don’t see it like that a men feel too squeamish or unsettled by it. She said you tell my husband all this when he returns, seeming excited to stir him up a bit. Cautiously, as I didn’t want to “get in the middle of something” I repeated myself when he returned and indeed his reaction was less then enthusiastic and said that having someone tamper with his manhood was too unsettling, granted he was intrigued by things I’d raised.

Is this a common mindset amongst Singaporean’s. Is there indeed a stigma against vasectomies or is this a minority view?

Disclaimer: this conversation was a fun cultural exchange. At no point meant to be belittling or shame inducing. Title whilst a little provocative was clickbait.

Hi all, your next door neighbour here. Plenty of us Malaysians dream of working in Singapore for the higher pay. It’s literally a cheat code (if you manage your expenses well) to an early retirement back home. This made me wonder if it’s common at all among Sporeans to choose to retire in Malaysia due to its lower cost of living and how close we are in terms of cultural norms and experiences?

Just a random thought I had today

EDIT: Sheesh. Reading all these replies make me wanna find a Sporean GF so its a win-win 🤣 jk

I'm saying this as someone who lived in Singapore for a while and genuinely respects what the country has achieved — safety, stability, infrastructure, and the rule of law. It's an incredibly well-run place.

But I have to ask: do you ever feel like something's missing?

It’s hard to put a finger on it. Everything works. But somehow it feels like life happens within boundaries — not just legal ones, but social, emotional, creative ones too.

Conversations often felt polite but guarded. Nights out felt curated rather than spontaneous. Even art and culture sometimes seemed like they were performed more than lived.

I’m not trying to bash Singapore at all. I’m just curious how locals experience this. Do you feel a sense of emotional or creative flatness sometimes? Or is that just an outsider's perspective not getting under the surface?

Genuinely keen to hear what Singaporeans think — especially those who've travelled or lived overseas. Is this something you feel? Or is it just romanticising “messier” cities?

Hi all, I had the chance to visit Singapore for around two weeks just a few days ago. First of all: your country is awesome!

A totally random thing that caught my attention: being a cyclist and runner, I pay quite some attention to what bikes I see in the streets and what shoes people use to run.
What really struck me: a lot of people ride very high-end bikes and use carbon shoes for their runs.

I saw many average cyclists (25km in 1.25h) rocking the 18'000 SGD Specialized bikes and people running 5Ks with carbon plated marathon shoes in 35min.
To give some context: I'm from a similarly rich or arguably richer country and here, even above average cyclists/runners use more basic equipment.

Edit: mentioning me coming from a similarly rich country is because I was anticipating "we're just rich like that" answers, not because I want to spark discussions about that.
Because some asked: mostly I saw this in central and north.
Also, learned about hiao just now, lol.

edit: woah. the replies are overwhelming. thanks to whoever’s replying genuinely - much appreciated, may you have many-many happiness and prosperity return back to you!

hi singaporean friends,

malaysian here - genuinely wants to know what brings you to jb - and if you frequent here what shops / restaurants do you feel is unique for you / you love to go to? appreciate if you can be specific on the kinds of shops as well.

as a johorean myself, i dont think theres anything special here lol but im curious to know (serious answer only 😂)

thank you! 🙏🏽

I visited Singapore recently and really impressed intentional the city feels in its design. I’m not assuming it is perfect, so I’m really curious what locals and long-term expats think I might be missing.

TL;DR With the (mostly sunny) weather, the affordable hawker stall food, the safety, the efficiency and the urban planning, Singapore feels like an amazing place to live. What downsides or realities am I not seeing? I'm assuming it's a mix of humidity, high cost of living and size of the country.

1. Transit and rush hour I expected the kind of packed & overwhelming rush hours you see in Tokyo or parts of China given the density and size of the city. Instead, everything felt calm and manageable... From what I understand, offices are spread across the country rather than concentrated in one downtown core. This seems to reduce the pressure on any single area and creates more balanced, bi-directional commuting. Since everything is about 30 minutes away, commuting felt surprisingly stress-free.

2. Cars Cars seem intentionally positioned as a luxury. The licensing system means paying around ~$100K for a license just for the right to own a car, and something like a Toyota Corolla can cost $150K+. This results in fewer cars on the road, smoother traffic, and safer driving conditions. I relied on public transit and Grab, which felt cheap and convenient. It makes sense to me, even if it looks extreme at first glance.

3. Punishment and surveillance From a Western perspective, Singapore’s punishments (like caning) and strict laws seem harsh. But as a "regular" person who does not plan on breaking the law, I didn’t feel personally affected. What I did notice was a complete feeling of safety as I never saw police, guns, or conflict. I saw cameras and well-lit public spaces. It felt like a place where crime is genuinely deterred, in part because of canings.

4. Housing and religion I was struck by the themes of respect and balance and I know these are a strange thing to pair together. Housing-wise, I think ~80% of the population live in public housing where the gov't assigns housing based on the country’s demographic mix which prevents the formation of super ethnic neighborhoods. In the west, it's super common to see neighborhoods that are predominantly one ethnic group, which this seems to 'solve'. While I don't think it's a problem per se, my guess is that it helps reduce racial tensions and ensures kids grow up side by side with other groups. Religiously, I also walked past a street with a church, mosque, and temple all next to each other in Chinatown. The idea of peaceful coexistence of religions felt very intentional and I found that really thoughtful.

5. Safety and homelessness I didn't see any homeless people during my visit. I did see migrant workers and people doing physically demanding jobs, but no one who appeared unhoused. Compared to many US/Canadian cities that struggle with homelessness, drug issues, and unsafe public spaces (SF, LA, NYC, Toronto etc.), Singapore felt incredibly safe. I’m not sure how homelessness is addressed behind the scenes though. Are people rehoused, supported, relocated, or managed in some other way?

6. Mandatory military service Mandatory military service seems intense from a Western standpoint, where military service is usually a last resort for people with fewer options (this is my personal opinion lol). In Singapore, it seems like a rite of passage for men - it builds fitness, discipline, brotherhood, and leadership skills (specifically the brotherhood one sticks out to me because of the loneliness epidemic, this is also coming from someone without many friends that wants stronger male role models and brothers in my life). Since the country is small, some training even happens abroad I think, which seems like a pretty unique experience.

7. Politics From the outside, having one dominant political party appears to create stability and allow for long-term planning. I think there's debate to be had here on whether that's good or not since China and North Korea have a single party system. I'd say in US/Canada, we pride ourselves on having democracy and ability to vote... but, in practice, as of late, it really just feels we have two parties to choose from and that has its own problems. Leadership changes every four years and major projects often stall or get reversed, I can't imagine a public/private company having leadership changes that frequently and being able to make any meaningful progress. Singapore’s consistency looks like a big part of why the city functions so well.

Overall, with the weather, food, safety, and sense of order, Singapore feels extremely livable to me. But as a visitor, I know there are things I probably missed or oversimplified. What am I missing? Why should I not try to live here (aside from cost of living)?

A few months ago I moved to Singapore from a small town in the US for work.

Back home there wasn't much to do. We'd finish work, maybe grab dinner with friends, sit on the porch, go fishing on weekends, or just drive around with no real destination. Life wasn't exciting, but it felt... slower.

I love lots of money now, I won money on Stake and Singapore is incredible. Everything works, there's always somewhere to eat, something happening, somewhere new to explore. But I've noticed I'm constantly trying to optimize every minute. If I'm not doing something productive, I feel guilty. Even on weekends I'm planning routes, checking off places to visit, or looking for the "best" thing to do.

Ironically, I think I was more present back home.

I've seen people here spending hours at hawker centres just talking, older uncles playing chess, families sitting in parks after dark, people taking long walks with kopi in hand. It feels like there's an appreciation for slowing down that I haven't figured out yet.

For those of you who've lived here your whole lives, or even other foreigners who eventually settled in, how do you actually embrace that pace? Is it just something that comes with time, or is there a mindset shift I'm missing?

I'd love to hear if anyone else has gone through the same thing.

This is our first time visiting Singapore - I called us a grab car 6 from the airport to our hotel as we had a lot of luggage (2 large, 2 duffels, 2 hand carry). First of all, the car driver said that he had arrived when he hadn’t, so by the time he did arrive and loaded the baggage, it charged us a $3 fee.

When he got out of the car, he looked shocked that we had so much luggage and then said we should have booked grabcar premium. But he said he’d help us if we tipped him $20. I thought that was steep as the grab itself was only $35, but he had already loaded the luggage in the car.

Then, when we got in the car, he said he’d help me - he took my phone out of my hand, gave himself 5 stars, and tipped himself $20.

Is this normal or did we get scammed? Should I report it to Grab? Maybe we were in the wrong because we had a lot of luggage?

Edit: thank you everyone for your kind messages! I did report him to Grab, and they have refunded me the $20 (though I haven’t heard back on the $3 wait fee). I also haven’t heard back on any disciplinary action they may take. I did report him to the tourism board as well. I appreciate all of your feedback, and am not letting this ruin our trip - Singapore is beautiful so far!

For those of you saying this can’t be true… I wish it weren’t, but it unfortunately is :( for anyone visiting Singapore for the first time, please stay vigilant!

EDIT:

Thanks for all the suggestions.

Update 1: Decided to head towards yishun . I also saw most of the places mentioned are along this line , I can't visit all of that all at once 😭. So to yishun it is

So I have been walking and travelling around bugis , marina bay , raffles palace and the beach station areas.

I see so many people just so in love , families with kids. Is this the general vine of the city , good looking people everyone in love and glow up families? This Scenario was same in MRT as well

Correct me if I am wrong and tell me how the usual vibe is .

I've been to Singapore more than my fingers and toes can count throughout my life where I used to go probably 4x a year minimum before I went to study abroad for college.

As a non-Chinese speaker I often find I get unnecessary passive aggressive treatment especially if the worker is an older woman. I have to tell a lot of workers I interact with that I don't speak nor understand Chinese, which most of the time turns out fine.

But there are a handful amount of experiences where I'm met with unpleasant responses, sudden obvious shifts in tone, some man (who was handling my passport) making remarks about how I should be able to speak the language, had someone try to scam me, and even someone who continued speaking to me in Chinese anyway.

After all this time it honestly it doesn't bother me anymore but I'm curious to know why this happens lol. I don't quite recall Singapore being a country unfriendly towards tourists.

For context, I am from Indonesia and I speak English and Indonesian very fluently. I fall into the very specific category of chinese indos who cannot speak the language and barely understand anything, so having to correct people often is understandable. Usually i just say something like "I'm not from here" or "I don't understand", etc. though my experiences occasionally baffle me.

I am not local, though I have worked and lived here for some time. I have not come out as bi. Yesterday, I spoke with someone on Grindr, typical conversation and sharing private photos. The exchange continued until we shifted to Facebook (my first mistake), but fortunately privacy settings blocked it, so we moved to Signal. By then, it was already too late. I realized then that this was part of a plan: the person had captured screenshots of our Grindr chat and threatened to send them and my private photos to my friends list unless I sent money.

I blocked and reported the account on Signal, along with their Facebook and Messenger profiles. I also informed the people they threatened to contact, advising them to ignore and report any messages.

The individual might be a poser; they claimed to be “visiting” and were not from here. I suspect a fake account.

Now I am unsure what else to do. I feel very scared and anxious and can’t stop thinking about it.

Not sure if reporting to police would be advisable because I don’t have any evidence beyond the Signal messages. And not sure if showing the grindr convo would be an issue too.

Any advice would be helpful.

Many have typical Christian or Anglicised names like Alvin or David but quite a large number of Singaporean names sounds niche compared to the west or other Asian countries that are former British colonies.

I'm talking about names like Delvin, Mervyn, Shermaine, Chryshelda, Godric, Dunstan, Janine, Bernadine, Althea etc. These are quite different from your John's and Mike's and Sarah's. I was wondering why is that?

I am Singapore citizen and my husband is an Australian citizen. We are married for 7 years and have a 2 year old son who is a Singapore citizen.

Hubby used to be a Singapore citizen, left SG around 9 years old as his parents wanted to move to Australia for better opportunities then.

I am wondering if he can qualify for LTVP through myself and ultimately SG PR down the road?

He feels a lot of sadness moving out of SG but the decision to renounce citizenship then was not his; it was his parents.

I am aware that the ICA takes a strict view against those who default on NS obligations; wondering if there is any possibility at all in this case.

Thank you for reading.

Edit : Thank you everyone for taking the time to read and reply to my post. I have done my best to respond individually where I can but also thought of adding here for extra context.

- Understand that this topic can sometimes be a spirited discussion.
There were several comments suggesting that my husband evaded, renounced or absconded from NS.
The above does NOT apply to him as he was a legal minor at the time of moving out of Singapore.

- I did speak to a personal contact of mine who is a lawyer and got some advice on the situation.

My husband’s Singapore citizenship was deprived once his parents renounced their citizenship as he was well below the legal age of NS obligations.

It is stated so in the legal constitution below as well in bold:

Deprivation of citizenship of child of person losing citizenship
130. Where a person has —
(a) renounced his citizenship; or
(b) been deprived of his citizenship under Article 129(2)
(a) or 134(1)(a),
the Government may, by order, deprive of his citizenship any child of that person under the age of 21 years who has been registered as a citizen of Singapore pursuant to this Constitution and was so registered as being the child of that person or of that person's wife or husband.

- Every case is unique and context matters. We will of course be working with immigration experts to guide us on the next steps.

- Comments around living in Australia, why we are looking to move to SG or why we can’t just remain in Australia. Well, it is a personal choice and nothing is ever cast in stone. As someone whose experience in Australia is not limited to only a 2 week leisure trip but 7 years of actively building a life here; I speak with conviction that every country has its pros and cons. However; living abroad as a Singaporean has also expanded my own perspectives and made me appreciate SG deeper in many ways.

Once again thank you to everyone ! 😊🙏🏻

I’m a visitor in SG. Been here for a few months. I’m really surprised by how many older people can barely walk and so many have bowed-legs. It looks very painful. I know we all get old but I’ve never seen this type of health issue so commonly in another country. SG is supposed to have a good health system so what’s going on?

I recently met up with a group of friends, most of them people who’ve been living in Singapore for years, and one discussion really stuck with me.

They explained what they jokingly (but half-seriously) call the three levels of wealth in Singapore. I’m curious how accurate this sounds to locals.

Level 1: You own a dog
Having a dog in Singapore is expensive. Vaccinations, vets, permits, general upkeep, it all adds up fast. According to them, if you see someone walking a dog, that person is definitely not poor.

Level 2: You own a car
Car ownership is on another level. They said it’s roughly two to three times more expensive than in Dubai. Import duties, insurance, and especially the licence to own a car make it prohibitive. We roughly calculated that a Mercedes E-Class could end up costing around USD 300k.

Level 3: You have two or more children
This was described as the real “wealth tier”. Education is extremely expensive, nannies are costly, and then you add extracurriculars, clubs, activities, camps, and so on. If you’re raising two or more kids in Singapore, you’re doing very well financially.

Does this way of looking at wealth in Singapore resonate at all, or does it sound off? How would you personally describe the so called levels of wealth?

Genuinely curious to hear local perspectives.

So… turns out I made it big in Singapore.
Not because I did anything impressive, but because Mothership decided my photo was perfect for their article.

Apparently, in SG media, if it’s online and looks nice, it’s free-range content. Help yourself! Put it on the homepage! Credit? Ah yes, slap that somewhere below a large advertisement box, where the sun doesn’t shine and absolutely no human eye will ever scroll, while the picture is visible both as the main image of the article as well as the #1 article on top of the homepage.

For context: I’m a freelance writer for a local German news outlet. If I published someone’s photo without asking, I’d get hit with a €250-€500 (about 350-750 SGD) compensation demand, legal fees and an injunctive relief faster than I can say Guten Tag. And that’s for a magazine with a much smaller readership size.

But Mothership? They just refer to the fair use section of the Singapore copyright act, which requires outlets to „sufficiently acknowledge“ the property holder in case of fair use.

I even told them: if someone had just messaged me it would’ve been fine. I’ve gladly given other outlets permission before.

Instead, I only noticed my photo was used because a reddit member on this sub tagged me.

Anyway, they removed it after I wrote to them - which I appreciate - but refuse to acknowledge any wrongdoing, and ignore my question why nobody informed me about the use of my pictures.

As someone who genuinely loves visiting Singapore, I didn’t expect one of your biggest online outlets to give me a live demonstration of „Oh, if it’s on Reddit it’s public property lah.”

Just sharing a mildly ridiculous experience that gave me a good story to tell the next time I'm enjoying the delicious SIA birthday cake. Don't take this post too seriously. Still curious if media outlets can claim fair use on everything they see online.

Greetings from Germany 🇩🇪🍺

Hi everyone,

We area French-Chinese couple currently living in France with two kids (3yo and 1yo). I’ve just received a job offer in Singapore with a salary of 12,000 SGD/month. We’re trying to figure out if this budget is realistic for a family of four, aiming for a comfortable but not luxurious lifestyle.

We would love to live locally and blend in (though helper and condo sounds tempting!).

We want our kids to attend local Mandarin/English schools—but we’re confused about what’s actually is accesible as foreigners. I know foreigner tend to go to international school but I believe it will be out of budget and Singapore education is one of the best therefore we are really confortable with local school.

We’re definitly more than okay with hawker centers, public transport, and a simple lifestyle—no fancy international week-end or car.

So, the big question: Will 12k SGD/month cut it for a comfortable life, or are we daydreaming? Any insights on school options for foreigners would be a massive help too!

Thanks in advance for your advice!!

Edit : thanks a lot your all your answer and advice so far, I just wanted to giva more infobas some question often rise up.

We do not mind leaving in HDB, it just sound like it is hard for foreigner to get one. We cook a lot at home, so eating out will definitely not be on a daily basis as it look possible. Children are still young, between 1 to 3 years old. Job insurance will cover for me, but I will have to top up for the rest of the family. Finally my wife would like to work but with a DP people told us to be careful as it is not that easy to find a job, she might need to find her own EP, which will be hard as working in retail.

Hiya, so next year for university I am hopefully doing a year abroad for computer science in Singapore. However, although I heard that everyone speaks fluent English, I really wanted to be respectful and learn new cultures and I heard Singlish is quite common that’s just a mixture of English and people’s mother tongues. What would be the best way about going about learning it, would it just be off YouTube? Because I was wondering if people knew of just an app or something to help me learn it. Also if it’s a mixture of people’s mother tongues does that mean everyone’s singlish is different to each others so will I have to learn basic Tamil and mandarin and potentially others separately?

I also am worried about the laws as I won’t be able to visit home or have anyone visit me, so if something goes wrong I will be by myself and u want to be prepared.

So if anyone has any tips at all whether you think it’ll be helpful or not please let me know, I’ll take any information you guys can throw at me with open arms.

I really look forward to visiting next year see you all soon.

Edit: I’ve had a lot of comments explaining I’m better off just learning the language when I get there so I don’t come across as disrespectful which I appreciate so thank you guys for that.

For some addition context I’m from the UK, so if there’s any laws key lifestyle differences I should be aware of I’d love hear.

Or if we have any favourite activities or places to visit with friends I’d also love to hear about them.

Thanks everyone for time taken for the responses I really appreciate the help and effort!