Of late, we have been hearing about how Singapore is becoming more and more expensive each year.

ECA International, a global HR consultancy firm, published a survey recently on the cost of living in various cities in the world. Unsurprisingly, Singapore’s ranking went up by two positions in 2016, as our island state ranked 16th.

Exhibit 1: Top 20 global rankings for most expensive cities in the world

This leads us to the next question of how expensive Singapore will be if we continue on this trajectory in the future of becoming more expensive.

But first, let us take a look at how Singapore has performed in the last few years after the Global Financial Crisis (GFC).

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How Singaporeans can lower their cost of living

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Inflation has come down quite significantly in the last two years

To start off, inflation as defined by Investopedia, is the rate at which general level of prices for goods and services is rising, and consequently, the purchasing power of currency is falling.

In short, it simply means our currency is losing its ability to buy the same amount of goods as time goes by (e.g. chicken rice today cost $3.50, compared to $2.50 10 years ago).

Inflation is generally highly correlated with the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth. In the last two years, GDP growth for Singapore has been at an all time low since the end of the GFC. Inflation likewise has actually been negative (i.e. deflation).

Given the current situation, we expect Singapore to enter into a new norm with low growth and relatively lower inflationary pressure in the future.

Exhibit 2: Deflation in the last two years

Food: How much will my chicken rice cost in 2050?

We recently went to a famous food centre located in the Central Business District (CBD). A bowl of fish soup had just increased its price from $4.50 to $5.00, a staggering 11.1 per cent increase.

Being the curious team we always are, we asked the storeowner what caused their price increment. We were told it was due to inflation. We were surprise to hear that, as we thought inflation has been declining, as seen in Exhibit 2. Why did the hawker raise his prices then?

Unlike overall inflation, food prices have never turned negative before in Singapore. Being in a country with no natural resources, we tend to be more vulnerable to prices set by others.

The average 10-year food inflation was 2.9 per cent, slightly more than all-inflation of 2.4 per cent.

Using the 10-year food inflation rate, we should be expecting the $3.50 chicken rice today to cost about $9.16 in 2050, or 2.6 times the amount today.

Exhibit 3: Food price has not declined since 1990

Shelter: Things are not expected to be very bright here

Ever since 2009 to 2013, when cooling measures were introduced to curb the surge in housing prices, the housing market has become dull and unexciting. Price levels have been declining for multiple years. More significantly, from 2015 to 2016, inflationary pressures for housing have been in the negative zone.

Deflation for 2015 and 2016 was 3.5 per cent and 4.1 per cent respectively. Nonetheless, this deflationary pressure will not last indefinitely as the bulk of our wealth is still pegged to our homes. Therefore, we are expecting housing price inflation to be along the 10-year average for all-inflation at 2.4 per cent.

What this means is that we can expect a house that cost $400,000 today to be about $902,000 by 2050, 2.3 times the amount today.

Exhibit 4: Housing prices have been weak in the last few years

Education: A long-term pain

Unlike housing prices, education inflationary pressures have less correlation with Singapore’s economic growth. This comes with our “Lifelong Learning” motto that we have adopted for Singapore. Inflation, on average, remains stubbornly at about 3 per cent since the mid-90s.

Using NUS’ undergraduate tuition fees for AY06/17, the average 4-year fees would be at about $33,720 (excluding courses like dentistry, medicine, law and music).

With 3.3 per cent education inflation rate per annum, we are looking at fees of $102,000 from today, an increase of 3 times from today.

Exhibit 5: Education inflation stubbornly remains high

The simple conclusion here is that the amount of money that we will need for basic cost areas such as food, shelter and education would become a lot higher in the future. Hence, we need to save and invest today so that we can prepare ourselves financially for the future.

The rhetoric of earning a keep and just saving up does work well for the baby boomers because they live in an era where wages actually do keep up with inflation. However, we are living in a new world today where wages remains relatively flat while costs continue rising mercilessly.

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6 items S’poreans who want to save money shouldn’t buy in S’pore

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DollarsAndSense.sg is a website that provides bite-sized and relevant articles to help Singaporeans make better financial decisions.

This year’s Chingay Parade will take viewers back in time, with a re-enactment of 1970s performances, such as The Blossom Flowers Ladies and Heavenly Blessings.

Adding to the nostalgia, local xinyao heavyweight Liang Wern Fook, famous for his hit song, Friendship Forever, will also take the stage.

An ensemble of international performers and performing groups have also been lined up for the parade, to be held on Feb 10 and 11.

The three-hour fiesta, taking place at the F1 Pit Building near the Singapore Flyer, will feature performing groups from Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, South Korea, Thailand, and Taiwan.

The grand finale will showcase simulated weather effects, including rain and snow, while 1,000 members of the People’s Association Youth Movement take centrestage.

On Thursday morning, Mr Nah Juay Hng, chairman of Chingay Parade Singapore 2017 EXCO and group director (engagement cluster-arts & culture) at People’s Association, led reporters on a preview of performances by the international groups.

“The parade will showcase the friendship between Singapore and other performing countries”, he said.

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong will be the guest-of-honour for the first parade on Feb 10, while President Tony Tan will grace the second show on Feb 11.

Other leaders such as Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean and Emeritus Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong will also attend.

The event, in its 45th year, is expected to draw a crowd of 160,000 people.

This article was first published on February 10, 2017.
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Upset that Mr Moss Salleh, 79, had thrown his belongings, a 91-year-old resident suffering from dementia pushed the fellow resident at the corridor of a nursing home, a coroner’s court heard on Thursday (Feb 9).

Nurses at the Lions Home for the Elders at Bishan Street 13 heard a loud sound and found Mr Moss lying motionless and unresponsive at about 9.30am on Aug 18, 2016.

He was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead at 2.55pm.

State Coroner Marvin Bay found the death of Mr Moss to be a tragic misadventure.

Mr Moss had been living at the home since mid-2015 while the other party, whom the court referred to as Mr A, had been residing there since May 2013.

Both had dementia, among other ailments.

Mr A’s medical history included major depressive disorder, speech disability and the bachelor also showed signs of Parkinson’s disease.

He had told a senior consultant psychiatrist and his niece that he was upset that Mr Moss had thrown his postcard out of the window.

According to the psychiatrist, Mr A had no intention of hurting or killing Mr Moss, and lacked the criminal intent to cause harm, given his cognitive deficits and underlying dementia.

The psychiatrist said the patient became severely depressed over his medical problems after his move to the home. He was assessed to be suicidal and was on anti-depressants in June 2013.

His condition stabilised after that but he had occasional spells of health-related anxieties and mild paranoia about his things being stolen.

In his findings, Coroner Bay said Mr A’s act appeared to be a sudden impulsive reaction.

“I should add that the existence of the postcard, whether as an actual document, or a figment of Mr A’s imagination, cannot be separately verified, as no postcard has ever been recovered by Home staff,” he said.

He said Mr A appeared to have been unable to anticipate or appreciate the consequences of his action when he vented his anger at Mr Moss.

“This being the case, Mr Moss’ demise from the fall he sustained in the Home, must be regarded as a tragic misadventure,” said Coroner Bay.

He said he was heartened to note that the home has taken steps to increase monitoring of its residents to detect stressors for timely intervention.

There is no substitute for conscientious and thorough monitoring of cognitively impaired residents in homes, added Coroner Bay.

He said it can be difficult to anticipate if such residents will put themselves or others in positions of jeopardy if they are left unsupervised given their medical and mental frailties.

The Straits Times understands that the Attorney-General’s Chambers agrees with the coroner’s findings that there is no foul play involved, and no further action may be taken.

This article was first published on February 10, 2017.
Get a copy of The Straits Times or go to straitstimes.com for more stories.

A woman who lived to 105 climbed seven floors and ate garlic daily, her family said after the centenarian died on Monday (Feb 6).

Madam Chen Zhen was an independent woman, her third son Ye Jinxi, a 70-year-old factory worker, told Lianhe Wanbao in a report on Thursday (Feb 9).

He said the mother of seven would do the laundry, bathe herself and climb seven floors at her flat in Ang Mo Kio before she turned 103.

Mr Ye told Shin Min Daily News in a report on Thursday (Feb 9) that his mother had moved to a third-floor unit in Ang Mo Kio more than 30 years ago.

She would climb seven floors daily to the 10th floor, where her eldest son lived, as she did not dare to take the lift.

Mr Ye told Wanbao that a doctor had said his mother was very healthy without any common old-age ailments in a health check-up two years ago.

Madam Chen had grown weak after a fall at home a year and a half ago, and was wheelchair-bound.

Her condition took a turn for the worse on Jan 31, when she began having breathing difficulties.

She was taken to hospital, where she was in a coma for a week and died in Tan Tock Seng Hospital at 2am on Monday, Shin Min reported.

Madam Chen, who was a kind and jovial woman, loved eating garlic and would eat cloves of it cooked or raw, which could have contributed to her good health, said Mr Ye.

This article was first published on February 10, 2017.
Get a copy of The Straits Times or go to straitstimes.com for more stories.