30 Y.O WOMAN BRINGS HOME $2.1K/MONTH, SAD TO SEE YOUNGER PEOPLE EARN MORE THAN HER (2025)

I’m 30 yrs old with still such a low pay. Is anyone in a similar boat as me?

I saw another post from a couple of hours ago, where ppl were stating their starting pays, and many of them were stating like $4k. (Most of them were university science graduates).

My pay is $2.6k.. I’m an art teacher. After cpf I only take home $2.1k, and im already 30. It does kind of suck seeing what other people are earning who are younger than me.

Is anyone in the same conundrum as me?

Netizens’ comments

1. Hey was in the same boat as you. Start freelancing aside from teaching art at an enrichment centre to earn more. If you have an established art portfolio it’s even better to teach art at your own capacity than at a centre as well.
2. 30 in a few years time, and my pay is only 2.8k. Most of my former classmates earn $3.5k and above as their starting pay.
3. Somehow, I’m getting the feeling that you’re confusing yourself. Your actions doesn’t seem financially driven, and I’m not saying that’s wrong – everyone has different wants in life. What I’m saying is: if what you do, i.e teaching art, is bringing you happiness, then don’t cloud yourself when you read posts talking about paygrades. Art and Education unfortunately doesn’t make its worth in Singapore, and I suspect this is something you knew going in, but went ahead anyway out of passion.
   If you continue down the enrichment centre route, it’s not going to be any much different monetarily than what you make now. Worst yet, most of them are importing younger and cheaper teachers who are fully qualified for a fraction of the price. If you do go back to NIE, find out what the MOE teachers are making and work out your cost and time-cost of going back to school. The 2-3 years of studying downtime needs to be factored in as cost as well given the loss of income.
   I’ve recently met a painter who moved to NZ to teach horse-riding. After expanding her network and horizons for a few years, she just headed back home earlier this year to start her own art gallery with some friends she met in NZ.
   Life could literally take you anywhere, you just have to decide if you are passion or financially driven.
   I’m envious that you have found a calling so strong that you could see yourself chasing after as a career. Not many of us are lucky that way – most of us just pick what we can stand doing and pray we get better at it.

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