Impromptu Speech

          What is high cost of living? It means that the cost of living is the monetary cost of maintaining a particular standard of living.  It is determined by the amount of money needed to buy the goods and services necessary to maintain a specific standard of living. For example items such as food, clothing, rent, fuel, and miscellaneous items such as recreation, transportation, and medical services are considered. The cost of living is usually measured by calculating the average cost of a number of these particular goods and services; the average cost is then used as an index.

          The cost of living in Singapore is high as Singapore is a well developed country. It is necessary to maintain high cost of living so that 90% of the population do not accumulate excess wealth. If Singaporeans starts to accumulate wealth, nobody wants to work and there will be insufficient labor to fill up the plants set up by foreign investors. Factors affecting high cost of living are housing, healthcare and transport. This is to ensure that the people are easily manageable. With loans, mortgages, and monthly expenses to repay, the population will be gainfully employed and no one could afford to slack.

         Hence, living expenses are foremost on everyone’s mind, particularly in today’s bleak economic times. The biggest expenses are likely to be on schooling, housing and transport. For housing, in order to minimize rent costs, we could do so by sharing a flat, living in an HDB, or living further away from the city center. Vicinity that is less favorable to most of the people would be less expensive.

       For transport, we could do so by taking MRT (Mass Rapid Transport) or taking a bus. This would save money than buying a car, which is far more expensive as it needs to pay the petrol, maintenance, which could spend more than expected. By taking MRT or bus, we could be environmentally friendly and saves more money than buying just a car.

       For schooling, families whom have low income could have a problem sending their children for education. They could use the FAS ( Financial Assistant Scheme) from the school by the government. This could help the families to not worry about their children’s education as the school would be providing free resources. For example, textbooks, assessment books from school. It could help parents to be less worried about money for their children and they could possibly send their children for education.

      Hence, problems could be resolve if they think wisely about what they buy or do. They should plan beforehand to get the head start of how much things cost. This could ensure the preparations would not be wrong when they plan.