Ownership

Did you realise that you don't really own any of the big ticket items in Singapore?

Take for example, a car. It costs you an arm and a leg, and most probably you'd be in debt for a lone time to have one. But you never really own it.

You get the car, you have to get permission to own the car in the form of a COE.
This "COE" allows you to have the car for 10 years. After which, if you intend of continue owning it, you'll have to pay again for permission.

Of course, should you decide to keep the car for more than 10 years, you'd have to pay an increased road tax and you don't get any of the taxes that you paid when you first bought the car back at all.

So do you really own the car?

I doubt so.

Housing is about the same. For the 75% of us that live in public housing, we lease the house, paying rent and at the end of 99 years, have to return it to the government.

Says a lot about what we pay for doesn't it? It seems that we're spending more time paying "rent" than anything else. We're just tenants in this country.