Tan Kin Lian's Blog: Public transport in Singapore

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Public transport in Singapore

What percentage of people in Singapore uses public transport to go to work? I guess that it must be 80%, but I wonder if the proportion is lower? Can someone help to do some research?

21 comments:

walks & walks said...: Your guess is probably within the actual number, Mr Tan.

I gave up driving and owning a car more than 8 years ago and I am enjoying the savings.Even if the COE were to be $1 only, I will refuse to buy/own a car.

The savings were enough for me to buy 2000 shares of UOB ( at $15 a share approx )that paid me a dividend which a car will not.

I take public transport to work.
even to Tuas. just get up earlier and sleep earlier too.
I cannot understand why people are so crazy to pursue owning a car, especially here in Singapore:

It is the world's most expensive!

Well, to each, his own.; March 31, 2010 10:23 PM
Anonymous said...: When you buy a car, most people would think that you are buying an asset. It is only an asset if the car generates an income stream for you be it directly (eg taxi) or indirectly (a salesman car).

However I think most car owners do not fall into the above categories. Therefore most of us are not buying an asset when we buy a car but instead we buy a liability. A liability is a fixed financial outlay that occur regularly (e.g. insurance, fuel, road tax, parking etc and these do not even include the cost of the car or other unforseen outlay).

Why do we fork out cash to buy a liability?

But, if you are rich, it is a different story altogether. How many of us are really rich financially?; March 31, 2010 11:41 PM
Anonymous said...: A single, middle aged person like me and also not holding a sales job don't need a car and I don't have one.

However, for a young man who need to go dating or those with small kids may need one when they go out. I think many do as I do not often encounter people with kids on public transport. Or maybe many do not want kids which is why our birth rate is below replacement level and the worst in the world.; April 01, 2010 12:46 AM
Ex-Con said...: Well, I do not own car or motorcycle. Just take MRT, LRT and buses to work or leisure. Once in a while will take taxi, if need to transport heavy stuff, or late at night & shack already. :-)

Agree that this really contributes to much savings. Me & wifey were able to pay off our mortgage within 4 years. And we also enjoy a combined dividends payout of average $2,800 per month (which we mostly re-invest too). All from diligently putting our savings into regular & long-term investing into blue-chips over the past 16 years and ETFs more recently.; April 01, 2010 12:57 AM
Anonymous said...: I seldom complain. But, nowadays the train is simply jam packed, especially the evening rush hours in CBD area. It's common these days that many commuters are not able to get into the train and have to wait for the next train...; April 01, 2010 6:45 AM
Anonymous said...: Some of us missed the point: many of us buy car not because we need a car to go to work.

Many of us buy a car for family activities. When you have a wife and one or two or three kids, and need to visit parents and in-laws, and bring kids for tuition and swimming lessons or to kindergarten, the car becomes useful.

The car is most utilised on Saturdays and Sundays and public holidays.; April 01, 2010 10:00 AM
Anonymous said...: Owning a car is like having a certain status just like staying in a condo is definitely better than staying in a HDB flat but there is always a price to pay for in having that status.

Anyway, LTA or the govt already acknowledge that aspiring status by an unique scheme called OPC or red plate car. This scheme is a win win for the govt and the people who aspire to have the status of having a car.; April 01, 2010 10:19 AM
Committed Commuter said...: Buying a car to visit relatives, in-laws, tuition for kids, activities is necessary because many choose to live far out in Sengkang or Jurong West. The cost of owning a home in these areas may be cheaper.

But think again. The car would cost approximately $60K and over the next 5 years, would milk you for another
$45K just to maintain the running costs.. and yet depreciation too.

The $45K+ could have helped you afford a home closer to town or nearer an MRT station.

Once you sign up for financing of a car, generally you are committed for life. After 4-5 years, the car feels old and dated, the agents call you to tempt you with the current model and a "better" finance.."dont worry!.. we can adjust the payments to consider your previous loan"

To sell the car, there will be a capital loss, not to mention withdrawal symptoms.

Weigh the total cost and ask if a car is really needed, just to give the kids a great ride and to go for ballet, piano, swimming, maths, mandarin, English lessons?
( which incurs even more costs!!.. but then again.. anything for my kids rite? )

Spending time with the kids can be done without a car. Taking MRT/Bus together as a family can as fruitful.. you do not have to keep locking the doors, windows, and finding a place to park. I have seen parents doing commando style pick up and drop off at school entrances.. where they drive slowly to allow the child to open the door to embark or disembark!
Wow!.. really responsible parents!
Just to avoid parking or there is no parking available.

It is no wonder that the CTE,PIEs and all the Es are jammed ( LTA is also to be accountable )even on weekends!.. every family need to send kids to far away places for tuition etc. What is wrong with tutors coming to the home? expensive?.. how about the car?

Well, I suppose we can all drive into JB and get cheaper stuff.. the thing is: everyone else is doing that too!!.. so thats where the crowd begins..

My opinion: dump the car, save the $$$ and go to Jordan and visit Petra.. while there.. hire a car!
beautiful uncongested highways..
petrol costs per litre: S$0.50cts
unlimited mileage too!
Think about it.. better than endless shopping malls, which I think many of us have already visited 3 times over..

Thanks for reading this rant!; April 01, 2010 11:00 AM
Anonymous said...: As the saying goes for every crisis/problem there is opportunity.

When the operating cost of the public transport companies remain the same but the number of commuters increase exponentially due to increase in tourists, PRs, foreigner workers, etcs, the profit for transport companies such as comfortDelco, SMRT will increase.

So instead of wasting money on a liability such as car, it is better to use the money to invest in stocks in these companies. You will get dividend and the chance of the stock price increasing more than 5% this year is high. Better return then fixed deposit.

Now when I am in a crowded mrt, I smile because smrt will make more money from the same number of mrt trains. Transporting more commuters on the same number of train frequency. More profit for smrt hence more dividend and share price increase.

Merlion; April 01, 2010 12:25 PM
Anonymous said...: If you work in the town area, both buses & trains are packed daily.; April 01, 2010 1:01 PM
OTB said...: To Ex-Con

Your dividend of $2,800 per month is huge !

So envious ...can you teach us your investment ?; April 01, 2010 1:20 PM
Anonymous said...: Take for example using an internet service provider Starhub.
You subscribe to a 2 year plan that costs you $70+ a month. Over 2 years its $1680+.
Buy their shares, currently at $2.30.
Buy 2000 shares costs $4600.

Starhub pays dividends, about $0.18cts a year ( 2009 ) 2000 shares, you get $360. Very likely they will pay roughly the same again: that makes it $720, which is about 40% discount to the cost of $1680!

Dont forget that you normally will stick to the same provider for more than 3 years, which means your recontract price plan will be even cheaper than $70. Meanwhile you still own 2000 Starhub shares which pays you a dividend which actually is a cash back to your subscription plan! Furthermore, you own equity and it may appreciate in value too!

I own SMRT & Delgro shares, so my commuting expenses are subsidised.
And, I own the company too!

You cant have it with a car.. unless LTA is publicly traded.. or the ERP system.. I will be the first to buy their shares!!; April 01, 2010 3:08 PM
Anonymous said...: To OTB:

Just buy shares with good dividend yields and throw the key away.

You should have 5 to 6 core stocks that you will never sell in the next 10-15 years.
What happens if the share price drops?.. well, will the dividend payout change? if not, buy even more!

You can add another 5-10 stocks that you sell whenever it meets your price targets. These are the ones that require active monitoring.

Buy shares of companies that are not likely to fail ( blue chips)
Yes, no guarantees, but these are risks that you need to have in order to have gains. There is no free lunch.

Kay poh; April 01, 2010 3:17 PM
Anonymous said...: To Kay poh,

I totally agree with you. I also think spending money buying sharing is 100% better than buying a car.

For example, say you have $20k to spend. When you use it to buy a car, in 1 year time when you sell your car, you may have less than $15k left minus the road tax, insurance, erp, carpark and maintenance cost.

On the other hand, with $20k you can buy 9 lots of smrt share at the price of $2.05/per lot (current trading price).In 2008 and 2009, smrt gave out at least 7cent of dividend. Assuming that they give out the same amount of dividend in 2010, for the 9 lots of share you will get $63 dollars in dividend. In addition, assuming by end 2010, the smrt price close at $2.15. You will make around $900. So by end 2010, the $20k has increase to around $21k.

Assuming there is another market crash in 2010 and by end 2010 the closing price is $1. You will only suffer a loss of about $10k on paper. But this is a paper lost. As for a car it is actual money lost.

Without a car, you may not be able to "act rich" infront of your friend but you may be more financially stable then your friend. Face value is temporary, financial freedom is forever.

I have never own a car so far as I still can't convince myself to spend $50k plus for something that I would use less than 5hours a day. The cost verse usage ratio just doesn't make sense to me.

Merlion; April 01, 2010 4:44 PM
Ex-Con said...: I & my wife started buying stocks back in 1993. We are also fortunate to have stable jobs in the past, and also reasonable pay. Not fantastic but ok. E.g. for myself I started with $1.8K salary back in 1991. After putting aside 1 year's worth of emergency funds, we started to get our feet wet with stock investing.

We are very thrifty and seldom splurge on things like faraway holidays or cars or expensive homes. I am able to save 40% to 50% of my take home pay, which I used to regularly buy blue chip stocks. Some of my friends used to laugh at my stock holdings becoz they are all "ah pek" stocks.

I must say that we went thru a lot of hard knocks, especially the Asian Financial Crisis and the Dot-Com/911/SARS. But with regular investing, we are able to ride out the troughs and even out the returns (about 7% to 8%pa).

With the above 2 major recessions, plus the fact that our combined stock holdings were way over half million, in 2003 I started to research more on dynamic and tactical asset allocation, in order to have defensive strategies and to protect capital. Hence in Jan 2008, my system kicked in and I exited most of my holdings in Feb 2008. OK ok, I know -- not suppose to market time. :-)

My system told me to get back in end of Apr-2009. But I had started buying back stocks in late Mar & Apr. At that time, even the STI ETF was yielding almost 6% dividend yield, which I feel is like once in 30 yrs opportunity. Many blue-chips were yielding 8%-9%. Good REITS with low gearing were giving 10% to 14% dividend yields. Really was chance of a lifetime. By beginning May 2009, we were back being fully invested.

Do not just see the absolute amount of dividends; waah, $2.8K a month. Actually the dividend yield of the entire portfolio is only about 4%pa. What I'm trying to say is that it is possible for an average tertiary educated couple to amass a sizeable stock portfolio on their own. No need to have financial planner, personal banker etc (in fact I think will be much worse). But you definitely need very hard work to read a lot, study financial reports, keep abreast of current affairs and world economics, also sacrifice a lot becoz have to avoid instant gratification, postpone splurging etc.

I also have a very boring personality, which I think helped too. Coz I'm not interested in achieving 15% or 20% capital gains a year, like some of my friends. Also not interested in any high risk high gain type of stocks, or those penny stocks, or S-chips etc.; April 01, 2010 6:28 PM
Prudence said...: Steady, focused investing is the tried and tested method.
Being invested is key to financial preparedness.

I am nearing 55 years and I have resigned from my job of 32 years.
I am not afraid of being jobless for the next 2 years because I have sufficient funds. My kids are still young: 20 & 18.. my wife works but can also afford not to.

Household expenses are capped at $4500 with a maid and no car. I live in HDB. I travel overseas ( not regional ) for annual holidays with the whole family.

How is this possible?

No car.
No Rolex or LV
No 55inch LCD TV
No selling of my one an only HDB
No day trading but long term holding
No country club
No newspaper subscribtions
No more than 2 credit cards
No more than medishield Plan A

Yes to annual dental checks
Yes to paying in full all credit
Yes to being debt free
Yes to occasional restaurant meals
Yes to home cooked food
Yes to quality shirts and pants
Yes to $250 shoes
Yes to MRT/BUS/TAXIs
Yes to quality home appliances
Yes to donations

A prudent lifestyle helps to keep finances on an even footing.

I agree with Kay Poh & Ex-Con's views; April 01, 2010 11:38 PM
Ghim Moh Resident said...: Very selfless advice in this blog.

I agree to many of the views here.; April 02, 2010 12:54 AM
lilian tan said...: i used to have a car, i still remember my 1st car was a 2nd hand, fully paid by my father.

i never quite like driving in SGP, i have to go out early in order to beat the traffic n find a parking.

i cannot read/write/shake leg/sms while i'm driving.

i cannot stop wherever i like and park my car when i drive.

in SGP, taking the bus/taxi are really ok with me with the exception of MRT (not on time, unable to board, stall in middle of track for no reason and etc)

worse of all, season parking at home cost $, campus parking (last time) also cost $, now office parking also cost $ n the hassle of tearing coupons and inserting cashcard

i rather pay a nominal fee, in relative, and get transported by bus/taxi/mrt drivers

and save my car's $ for better use.

1 co-worker of mine will be collecting his 1.6L car tmr (which he save 2k on his COE) just after working 1.5mth together with me

he bought an OPC and not intending to use for work because he feels $67 season parking is exp.

i did advise him to save his $ but is his choice afterall; April 02, 2010 1:30 AM
Anonymous said...: This is a positive thread and I totally agree with the above comments. We should have more of this positive sharing instead of the insurance agent bashing, trashing and finger pointing. These are positive examples of people taking responsibility for their finances and financial literacy. Thumbs Up!!!

Btw does any of you have must read books for people to get started with investing? E.g. how to read reports and etc and know if it's a good or bad stock.; April 04, 2010 3:35 PM
sunbear said...: Hi Ex-Con

Do you mind sharing with us what are the current 'ah pek' stock counters and also high dividend yielding counters that you are holding ? Would like to follow your 'foothpath' also.
Thanks; April 05, 2010 8:38 AM
Anonymous said...: My guess would be.

1) REITs
2) Starhub
3) SMRT
4) ???; April 05, 2010 3:11 PM

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Public transport in Singapore

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