Guide to Investing

You need $4.0 million to be Top 1% net worth at age 40 in Singapore?

Financial Horse

October 25, 2025

You know how $1 million net worth is the “aspirational” goal for 30 year olds.

This got me thinking – what is the equivalent for 40 year olds?

How much net worth do you need, to be considered in the top 1% of net worth in Singapore, for age 40?

So I got AI to crunch some numbers for me.

And the results are actually really interesting.

Interesting enough that I wanted to compile what I learned into this article.

I know this deviates from the usual content we cover on FH Premium, so let me know if you like it (more of this) or hate it (back to original programming please)!

What is the top 1% net worth in Singapore across all ages?

Let’s start with all ages.

According to Knight Frank’s 2024 Wealth Report, a net worth of US$5.23 million (approximately S$7.06 million) was required to be in the top 1% of individuals by net wealth in Singapore as of Q4 2023.

Singapore btw, is the highest top 1% net worth threshold in Asia and ranks fifth globally – and has a big increase from the year before.

So if (like me) you thought that things have been getting really expensive and everyone seems to be really rich, I suppose you’re not wrong.

This is an FH Premium article that I am releasing to all readers. If you found this useful, more premium articles like this, including my latest personal portfolio and stock watch are shared on FH Premium.

What is the top 1% net worth in Singapore at Age 40?

So… S$7.06 million to be the top 1% net worth in Singapore, across all ages.

What about age 40?

Naturally, you would expect the number to be lesser than S$7.06 million.

Because the older you are, the more time you have to accumulate and compound wealth.

But how much lesser than S$7.06 million?

I got AI to crunch the numbers:

“Executive summary

Entry cutoff (age 40): ~S$4.0m, with a defensible range of S$3.4m–S$4.8m.
Built from first principles: income → savings/returns → CPF → home equity → other assets.
The figure is the minimum to “join” the age-40 top 1% (not the average above the bar).

What exactly are we estimating?

This estimates the entry threshold to be in the top 1% by net worth for 40-year-olds in Singapore. That is, the minimum wealth of someone at the 99th percentile within the age-40 cohort. Because there is no official table of net-worth percentiles by age, the only rigorous way to get here is to rebuild the number from first principles and make all assumptions explicit.

Modelling framework (first principles)

We construct the estimate in four blocks:

Financial capital from savings (excluding CPF).

Income path from ages 23–40 → investable savings rate → compounded at a prudent nominal return.

CPF balances at 40.

Top earners at 40 usually sit above the cohort average, even after using OA for housing.

Home equity at 40.

Typical owner-occupier private condo purchased at age 30 with 75% LTV, standard amortisation, modest appreciation by 40.

Other assets.
Vested RSUs, carried interest, private deals, and cash buffers common in higher-earning professions.

We then sum the four blocks and run sensitivities around the key inputs.

Assumptions (explicit and conservative for an “entrant”)

Career & income path (ages 23→40):

Average total compensation S$330k per year.

Rationale: fixed pay at 40 for upper-percentile roles typically falls in the mid-teens thousands per month; adding modest bonus/allowances/RSUs places total comp in the S$300–400k band.

For an entry-level top-1% candidate, I use the lower half of that range (S$330k).

Investable savings rate (excluding CPF):

32% of total compensation. High, but realistic for top earners with disciplined expense management.

Investment return on savings:

5% nominal per annum (balanced allocation, 17-year horizon).

CPF at age 40:

S$300k for an entrant (above the 40–45 cohort average, reflecting higher wages and voluntary top-ups).

Housing:

One private condo bought at age 30 for S$2.2m, financed at 75% LTV, 30-year mortgage at ~3.5%.

By age 40: +15% price vs purchase and 10 years of amortisation.

Downpayment and fees (impacting the ex-CPF portfolio):
- Downpayment 25% = S$550k; assume S$150k from CPF-OA and S$400k cash.
- Buyer’s stamp duty ≈ S$79.6k on S$2.2m.
- Legal/misc ≈ S$5k.
- Total cash hit to the portfolio ≈ S$484.6k at age 30. (This is not lost; it reappears as home equity.)
Other assets:

S$250k in vested RSUs/carry/private holdings/cash buffers (conservative for an entrant; the mean above the bar would be higher).

Step-by-step math (transparent)

A) Financial portfolio from savings (excluding CPF)

Annual investable saving = 0.32 × 330,000 = S$105,600.
Years = 17 (ages 23→40).
Nominal return = 5%.
Future value of annuity

Compute the factor: .
So .

Adjust for housing cash outlay at age 30:

Cash portion of downpayment S$400k + stamp duty S$79.6k + legal S$5k
→ S$484.6k reduction to the ex-CPF portfolio.
Financial portfolio (ex-CPF) at 40 ≈ S$2.73m − S$0.485m = .

B) CPF balances at 40

Assumed: S$300k for an entrant into the top-1% (above cohort average; still conservative given higher wages and SA top-ups).

C) Property equity at 40

Initial loan at purchase: 75% × S$2.2m = S$1.65m.
Remaining principal after 10 years on a 30-year mortgage at ~3.5% ≈ S$1.28m (standard amortisation math).
Current value at +15% vs purchase: S$2.53m.
Home equity ≈ 2.53m − 1.28m = .

D) Other assets

S$250k (vested RSUs/carry/private deals/cash).

E) Assemble the entry cutoff (central case)

Component	S$ (approx.)
Financial portfolio (ex-CPF)	2.24m
CPF	0.30m
Home equity	1.25m
Other assets	0.25m
Total (entry threshold)

Rounded entry bar: ~S$4.0m.

Why this level makes sense

Life-cycle logic. By 40, a high earner has 17 years of saving and compounding and 10 years of mortgage amortisation, so wealth ramps materially above age-35 levels.
Leverage converts income into equity. With 75% LTV, even modest price gains and routine amortisation translate into ~S$1.25m of home equity by 40 in this setup.
Equity-linked compensation appears. RSUs and carry begin to matter in the 30s and 40s, adding hundreds of thousands on top of pure salary savings.
CPF is a real contributor. A disciplined contributor with occasional top-ups can plausibly sit around S$300k by 40 even after using OA for housing.”

My thoughts?

You can see the full assumptions and calculations above.

So anything that you disagree with, you can rerun the numbers using the assumptions you think are right.

I think generally you can dispute some of the numbers here and there.

But 80/20 rule – I think the assumptions above are probably about 80% accurate.

And should get you close enough to a reasonable estimate.

Being approximately S$4.0m to be in the top 1% of net worth at age 40 in Singapore.

But hey if you think the numbers are not right feel free to let me know below!.

This is for individuals (families adjust accordingly depending on children + working adults)

A couple of qualifications.

You can see that the above numbers are assuming you are an individual who works hard, gets a high income, does everything right.

So you (theoretically) don’t need any big windfall or lottery win to get here (although that definitely helps).

They are also for an individual, so if you are married and have kids, you will definitely need to make some adjustments to the numbers above.

But like I said, the goal here is 80/20 – doing the 20% of the work that gets us the 80% of the answer.

It’s by no means meant to be perfectly accurate, just a ballpark figure.

What influences net worth the most at age 40?

Because we know all of the assumptions that go into the net worth breakdown.

We can also do a sensitivity analysis to determine what affects net worth the most.

And here are the numbers:

Savings rate (28% ↔ 36%): ±~S$0.28m.
Portfolio return (3% ↔ 7%): –~S$0.22m / +~S$0.24m.
Property appreciation (8% ↔ 20% from ages 30→40): –~S$0.14m / +~S$0.18m.
Purchase price at 30 (S$2.0m ↔ S$2.4m) with stamp duty/downpayment effects: –~S$0.07m / +~S$0.09m.
Other assets (S$0.1m ↔ S$0.6m): –~S$0.15m / +~S$0.35m.
CPF at 40 (S$240k ↔ S$360k): ±~S$0.06m.

In chart form:

What does this mean in plain English? Which factors influence net worth the most at age 40?

In plain English?

At 40 years old.

The biggest impact on your net worth (assuming you do everything else right in getting a high income and buying private property etc).

Is (a) investment returns, followed by (b) savings rate.

Property and returns on other assets matter, but the compounding engine from savings + investment returns is the core.

How does this compare vs age 35?

By contrast – this is the same chart at age 35.

It’s very interesting because at 35 the factor with the biggest impact on your net worth is actually the amount of other assets you have.

And property returns compares quite favorably to savings rate and investment returns.

But jump forward to 40 and investment returns by far outweighs all the other factors.

This just goes to show you the power of compounding.

Once you get a large enough investment portfolio.

And once returns start to compound.

Investment returns starts to dwarf everything else.

Fast forward to 45 or 50, and portfolio returns will become even more crucial.

Long story short.

When you are young, how much you earn + save + spend are key.

But as you get older.

Investment returns become more and more important.

If you draw a $300,000 salary and save 50% of that, that’s $150,000 a year.

If you have a $3,000,000 portfolio and deliver 10% investment returns, that’s $300,000 a year and double what you save.

Which is why I always say young investors should focus on increasing income and savings rate – but invest to build up knowledge and familiarity with markets.

Because all that knowledge (and mistakes) you pick up when you are young, will pay off 10x when you are older and the size of your portfolio increases dramatically.

Anything that I missed out?

Love to hear what you think!