What is Retirement ?

[Temperament]

agree that cars are truly expensive in s'pore. ang mo expatriates used to drive bmw and benz in their country. come to singapore, it's not unusual to find an ang mos neck flexed and driving a toyota or mazda. their 1.9m build would be quite a torture to fit into a jap car, but no choice if want to keep their expenses down and still live in s'pore.

for me, i would go for older used cars and pay for them in full and the total transport cost(depreciation, petrol, tax, insurance, repairs) kept to around 5% of my income.

today, even a 1.6 litre altis would need 20kpa, all costs added in. even a 120kpa (ie 10kpm) income person would blow off ard 20% of his income on a entry level family car. add that to his housing expenses, family expenses etc, really, he would not have very much left out of his 10kpm salary. and 10kpa salary would already placed him on quite high up the salary scale in s'pore, maybe top 20% of people.

so with a 10kpm salary, owning an executive condo and an altis, with a family, would not have much savings...in reality. if u add the occasional holidays and eating outs...sometimes pocket can become tight even.

Ah.... older used car. Quite wise.
My car's workshop technical supervisor advises me to keep my car (brand-new from Borneo M.) if i thinking of buying a used car after the end of my car's 10 years COE. The reasons are quite obvious. My car only clocked about 15KM to 20KM per year. It is really a shame to scrap it.

Can anyone advise if i want to extend for another 5 years of COE, how to calculate "Total expenses" of owning such a car? 5k/month or more? Sorry!
Only have elementary maths.
Thanks.