Where did my salary go?
I’ve been wanting to write this one down for a while. Not because I think my spending is particularly clever or worth copying — but because I’ve never seen anyone actually show their full breakdown in black and white. Most personal finance content uses hypothetical numbers. This one uses my own, as close to reality as I can track.
I earn around $10,000 gross a month. My wife and I split shared household costs roughly down the middle, so what you’re seeing below is my half. The mortgage, the kids’ expenses, the car — all split. My own insurance and my personal savings are mine entirely.
Fair warning: when I first put this table together, I sat with it for a while. Some categories surprised me. I’ll flag those as we go.
First, what leaves before I see it
At $10,000 gross with an OW ceiling of $8,000 (updated Jan 2026), my CPF deductions work out to:
- Employee CPF (20% of $8,000): $1,600/month — into my OA, SA and MediSave
- Employer CPF (17% of $8,000): $1,360/month — my company pays this on top of my gross
Take-home after CPF: $8,400/month. That $1,360 from my employer is real money going into my CPF every month that most people forget to count. Over a year that’s $16,320 in employer contributions alone. It’s sizable to wealth building, just that I cant use it to buy my kopi now.
The full breakdown
Everything below is monthly. Yearly premiums have been converted to monthly figures for an honest apples-to-apples view.
Family & Parents — $930/month
| Item | $/month | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Parents allowance | $750 | Non-negotiable. They will nag if I don’t give. |
| Parents home upkeep | $100 | Utilities, misc repairs. Like when the light bulb blows. |
| Grab for in-laws | $80 | Transport for when they want to see the kids and go home after, and I can’t pick them. |
Home — $1,397/month
| Item | $/month | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Mortgage (my half) | $700 | Cash |
| Town council fees | $51 | |
| Utilities | $210 | Electricity, water, gas. |
| Broadband | $36 | Starhub 5gbps |
| Helper | $400 | My half only. Full cost split with wife. |
Kids — $2,002/month
My half of shared costs for both kids. The yearly insurance premiums are spread monthly here.
| Item | Kid 1 | Kid 2 | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Childcare | $722 | $650 | Biggest single kids expense. Drops off when they hit primary school. |
| Personal accident insurance | $4 | $4 | $50/yr each — cheap peace of mind. Especially helpful when they get stomach flu. |
| Life plan insurance | $62 | $62 | $740/yr each. Building cash value + coverage. Cheaper when they are young. |
| Hospital plan insurance | $52 | $46 | Integrated Shield Plan. Covers private hospital if needed. |
| Savings/ Investments | $200 | $200 | Their headstart fund, which I intend to grow to at least $100k by the time they reach uni. |
My Insurance — $748/month
This is probably the category most people underestimate until they actually add it up. I did.
| Policy | $/month | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Personal accident | $35 | Must have because I don’t know when I will get injured playing football |
| Hospitalisation (Integrated Shield) | $133 | $1,600/yr. Goes up with age — revisit annually. |
| CareShield Life supplement | $68 | $820/yr. Long-term care coverage. |
| Critical illness | $178 | $2,141/yr. If I can’t work due to illness, this buys time. |
| Life plan (whole life) | $232 | $2,780/yr. Coverage + cash value. Biggest single premium but will have some cash value after 20 years. |
| Term plan | $102 | $1,223/yr. Pure coverage, no cash value. Cheapest way to cover income replacement. |
Car — $755/month
My half of the car, shared with my wife. This is the one that adds up quickly. Almost 7.5% of gross salary, or about 10% of take-home. And its a second hand car, with one year left. Imagine getting one brand new at today’s COE prices.
| Item | $/month | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Car instalment | $450 | $900/month |
| Petrol | $120 | 2 full tanks every month, 45 litres x $3.42 x 23% discount |
| Season parking (home) | $55 | $110/month sheltered carpark |
| Parking (ad hoc) | $50 | $100/month. Varies from month to month. |
| Car insurance | $54 | $1300/yr. |
| Road tax | $26 | $626/yr. |
Investments & Savings — $3,050/month
This is the part I’m most deliberate about. I treat these as fixed commitments — not optional top-ups after everything else. These are deducted automatically from my bank account so less friction.
| Item | $/month | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Syfe Core | $1,000 | Globally diversified portfolio. My main investment vehicle. |
| SRS contribution | $1,400 | Maxing out at $15,300 over the year for tax relief. |
| STI ETF (cash) | $500 | Singapore index exposure. |
| Endowment | $150 | $1,800/yr. Took this up in 2009 when I didn’t know any other options. |
Personal & Lifestyle — $237/month
| Item | $/month | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Mobile | $30 | I use Maxx for myself and my parents. Cheap and good plan. |
| Facial/Massage | $80 | Skincare/Massage. Not blessed with a good face, so need to maintain and pamper myself. |
| Spotify | $7 | To listen to music and podcasts, and to play kids music in the car |
| Football | $120 | Weekly game. Sanity maintenance, not optional. |
Food & Daily Living — $1,077/month
| Item | $/month | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Weekday food | $330 | Lunch and dinner on working days. Budget ~$15/day. |
| Weekend food | $320 | Family meals out. Adds up faster than weekdays. |
| Groceries | $250 | My half of household groceries. |
| Public transport | $80 | Weekday commute when not driving. |
| Entertainment / misc | $100 | Catch-all for everything that doesn’t fit elsewhere. |
The full picture
| Category | $/month | % of gross |
|---|---|---|
| Family & Parents | $930 | 9.3% |
| Home (my half) | $1,397 | 14.0% |
| 2 x Kids (my half) | $2,002 | 20.0% |
| Insurance | $748 | 7.5% |
| Car (my half) | $755 | 7.5% |
| Investments & Savings | $3,050 | 30.5% |
| Personal & Lifestyle | $237 | 2.4% |
| Food & Daily Living | $1,077 | 10.8% |
| Total committed spend | $10,196 | 102% |
Through this, I realised that every month I am still having a shortfall of $1.8k since my take home is only $8.4k. I had been overspending! Without doing this exercise, I would have kept assuming I was fine. The money was moving — I just didn’t know where from!
But there’s an important point too: $3,050 of that total is investments and savings, not lifestyle spending. If you strip that out, my actual lifestyle cost is $7,146/month — still within my take-home of $8,400, with about $1,250 to spare each month.
And if you add CPF on top — $1,600/month employee, $1,360/month employer — the total going toward wealth building every month is $6,010. That’s 60% of gross income being saved or invested in some form. Most of it locked away, yes. But it’s real and at some point in the future, I will be able to use it.
Also, with the above outlined, there is almost no buffer space for any other big and/or unexpected spends (aircon repairs, need to upgrade to the latest phone, buying new clothes from Uniqlo etc). Additionally, tax has also not been factored yet! At current levels and after tax relief, I will be paying about ~$2,500 in tax per year. I should start thinking about catering an extra $200 a month into the budget too.
Three things this exercise showed me
Kids are darn expensive, but hopefully temporarily so. $2,000/month is my half of what two kids in childcare costs right now. That number should drop significantly when they hit primary school — probably by $1,200–$1,400/month. When that happens, I’m redirecting every dollar of it straight to investments. That’s a step-change in savings rate that’s coming whether I plan for it or not — but better to plan for it.
Insurance adds up to more than most people realise. My own policies alone are $748/month. Add the kids and that’s close to $1,500/month across the family (excluding my wife) on insurance premiums. No other choice — a critical illness or hospitalisation without coverage would be far more expensive — but it’s worth doing a proper audit every few years to make sure you’re not over- or underinsured as your life stage changes.
I still love to drive but I wish COEs were cheaper. $755/month for my half covers a family of four plus ferrying parents around, plus my freedom to use it when I want to go JB or play football with friends. I’ve done the mental exercise of going car-free and the maths doesn’t work the way people think it does once you factor in Grab to childcare, weekend family trips, and having a place to change their diapers.
- On $10K gross, take-home after CPF is $8,400 — total committed spend is $10,196, but $3,050 of that is investments.
- Actual lifestyle cost ex-investments: $7,146/month — within take-home, with ~$1,250 to spare
- Total wealth building (investments + CPF employee + employer): $6,010/month — 60% of gross
- Childcare ending in a few years = $1,200–$1,400/month will be freed up for investing
- The squeeze is real even with a $10k income but hopefully it is temporary
- I need to find more ways to make money to plug the gap. Will document what I am trying/have tried/will try here.
Want to map your own numbers and see your milestone ages? Try the FIRE milestone dashboard — it factors in your CPF contributions automatically.