The final battle of every Singaporean.
We excused these 2 all the way back in Step 3, because attacking them early would have stalled everything else.
Now, they're the only obligations left.
The car is worse than you think.
Not the car. The financing.
COE alone tells the story. In the 1st bidding exercise of September 2026, Category A closed at $133,009, a record high. At the end of 2020, the same category closed at just $40,556.
Roughly 3.5x, in under 6 years, for a piece of paper.
Then the loan.
A car loan advertised at 2.78% flat interest rate is actually 5.19% effective interest rate over 7 years. That’s because a flat rate charges you interest on the full amount for the entire term, no matter how much you've already paid back.
Thankfully, MAS caps the tenure at 7 years and the financing at 60 - 70% of the vehicle's value, which is the only thing stopping this from being worse.
One worked example from DollarsAndSense put the ten-year cost of owning a Toyota Corolla Altis at $304,136, around 54% more than the sticker price, once interest, road tax, insurance, petrol, parking and servicing are added.
Their assumptions, not ours.
But the shape is right, and the shape is the point.
The house is the bigger number and the quieter one.
HDB resale prices have kept climbing. In the 2nd quarter of 2026, 4-room flats were changing hands at an average of around $679,570, with a record 491 million-dollar flats transacted in that quarter alone.
Most of us finance that over 25 years at the HDB concessionary rate of 2.6%, and then never look at the number again.
Look at it. Work out what you'll have paid by the end, and how many years of your working life that represents.
Then work out what happens if you finish early.
Imagine owing nothing.
No mortgage. No car loan. When you sell either one, every dollar is yours.
Your income stops being spoken for before it arrives. Nobody has a claim on your next month.
That is where the fun begins, and where most people never get to.
Welcome, to the NORA life.
Every dollar now goes into building a future that most people cannot even imagine.
You can change jobs because you want to. You can take the year off. You can say no.
The first million isn't a goal. It is the gateway to saying no to living life on other people's terms.
No Obligations. Retire Anytime.