Nurul Raiyhani, meanwhile, is paying off a S$15,000 student loan using her credit card each month. She mostly pays her credit card bill on time but has, on occasion, incurred late-payment charges.
She has also booked a S$300,000 three-room Housing Board flat with her fiancé, which will be ready in three years. They are paying the down payment using Central Provident Fund savings and cash.
But it is the smaller, everyday items that are testing the 27-year-old’s resolve to save. Make-up products, for instance, can cost her around S$300.
“I’ll try not to make it (a monthly affair), but it’s becoming (so),” said Raiyhani, an account manager in an agency.
Online advertisements “promoting everything” are a distraction, and there is also peer pressure, she said. “Like your friends having the same make-up product, the same bag, and you kind of feel like you’ve missed out.”