This is starting to annoy me. There will be another slight increase in our housing loan interest rate from next month Nov 2019 onwards. Not as big as the one back in Mar 2019. But we would still be paying a slightly higher home loan monthly instalment amount. Just the last thing I need as we prepare for our child’s arrival.
I’m just realising how expensive having kid(s) can be. And I’m only at the maternity costs and preparation for kid’s arrival stage. I can only imagine our expenses climbing once the kid is here. Which brings me to the next point about this topic on “Sandwich Generation” that I have been reading about. Defined as working adults who have to support both their parents and children.
To be honest, it’s not that bad for us yet. We contribute about S$500 each to my parents and parents-in-law every month. This adds up to a total monthly cost of living contribution of S$1,000 to both of our parents. We are fortunate it’s not going up anytime soon because our parents are still living comfortably on what they have. Healthwise, they seem to be doing okay so far.
My parents can rely on their enbloc proceeds, CPF Lifepayouts and contributions from my siblings. While my mother-in-law went back to work and could continue her career from when she last “retired”. We still find it amazing she can outearn the both of us combined at her age (she’s 59 this year 2019). Not being ageist but just impressed with her career achievements. Especially when you consider how middle aged PMETs are usually hardest hit by layoffs.
Anyway, this has resulted in us not being “sandwiched” that badly. It may change in the future but this gives us the opportunity to accelerate our wealth building in the meantime. We are in the process of adjusting our cash-investment-retirement asset allocation percentages to have more funds flowing into our investments.
My wife just finished her performance review for this year 2019. While my wife’s performance rating is higher than last year 2018, her salary increase and bonus might be lower. It’s not a good sign when a better performance outcome translates to a worse remuneration outcome. It means the company is not doing well and the outlook is bad.
We are in the 3rd trimester and my wife is really feeling the strain of pregnancy now. She has about 1.5 months of work more to go and just needs to finish up her remaining stuff. Hang in there love! I know it’s tough and I’m proud of her pushing through. While there’s not much I can do to help my wife with the actual pregnancy itself, I can support her from the side by ensuring there’s nothing else for her to worry about. My wife just needs to focus on herself, work and the baby.
Thank goodness for strong financial and parental support. Paid maternity benefits and leave goes a long way in relieving our financial burden. And her parents have been helping us out as much as they can. It’s almost time now for everything to change and we just have to keep going!
hi there, long time never hear from your update. nice to get an update.
i just had a baby 3 months and while do agree on the costs for maternity, delivery and preparation for baby’s arrival can be high, i think it is all up to you on how and where you want to spend the money. consider hand me downs and whether getting an expensive ticket item i.e. cot / rocker / play mat / bassinet is worth it or do you even need it. carousell has many good deals! good luck and smooth delivery!
Hello, yup, there has been many changes and it’s taking a while for me to adjust. Anyway, congrats on your baby and I hope it’s going well for you! Yes, having a kid sure is expensive and all those maternity, delivery & preparation costs add up quick. Yeap, we have been asking and looking around for 2nd hand items to reduce the costs. Thanks and all the best to you too!
Do you need help refinancing to a lower interest package? We work with 16 banks & financial institutions in Singapore. 🙂
No worries for now as we are planning to reprice our housing loan instead. We did read about your service from Brian’s blog and will check it out the next time. Thanks!
Father of a 9 month old, expense rocketing. Not just the baby but also other accumulative expenses. Today parent knows more about baby needs through scientific means. There are so many do and don’t. And you want to avoid and therefore spend more, even if the probability is less than 1%. Still well spend. So bo pian ….
Congrats on the kid and I hope things are going well for you! Agree that there seems to be so many more things to spend on now. Thanks for the advice and appreciate it!