Brutal Truths about Modern Dating in Singapore Part II

The previous generated quite a number of hilarious exchanges in the FB finance forums so I thought a follow-up post should be in order.

I think a large part of the hilarity came from the piece de resistance that was this table I posted which, in my humble opinion, is as revolutionary as Copernicus' heliocentric model applied to the dating context in Singapore.  

Let's look at some of the feedback from my fans and critics. 

a) Why some guys who rank 7/10 in income do not have air stewardesses throwing themselves at them

The first criticism I received was a question from a relatively high-earning guy. He ranks about 7 on the income scale and complained to me that air stewardesses are not exactly throwing themselves at him. 

There can many reasons why mismatching occurs in markets. I had a field day buying UMS as it rose from $0.50 to $1.30. Sometimes, a stock is priced way less than what it's truly worth. I think my friend is a hidden gem.

One question is whether my friend is signalling a seven from his external mannerisms and deportment. He admits that the way he dresses signals at best a 4 which is about how much I signalled when I was single. 

At the end of the day, guys need to know that women cannot telepathically figure out what their salary is when they swipe to the right on Tinder. Gen X female private bankers even help their pals assess the net worth of their potential boyfriend salaries.

If all else fails, just buy a Lambo. 

b) Table alignment of top actresses does not match with income requirements 

A lot of folks KPKB (particularly lawyers not married to hot actresses) about this point, so I need to make a clarification of my table. The argument is that the women who score an appearance of 9 are rated along with international actresses and many men felt that even with a monthly income, $15k is not enough to marry such a successful actress. 

My table is a comparison guide based on appearance to help people benchmark themselves. At the 90th percentile, this is only two standard deviations better than the mean. While Elisabeth Olson is the benchmark at 9/10, a lot of women who look great are actually not actresses. She can even be a hot chick next door.

If you don't believe me, google "Gal Gadot stunt double" and check out the images.

c) Low earning men in Singapore can become high earning in another part of South East Asia

It's probably Divine Providence that this article arrived on Mothership. The owner of the Vietnamese Marriage Bureau was my history teacher in secondary school. A discussion on my alumni group confirmed that his Vietnamese bride is his third wife. 

Readers have rightfully pointed out that the power of the Singapore dollar allows single men to translate their salary to another regime to get higher scores. So theoretically a Singaporean rated 3 at $4,000 SGD per month becomes $12,000 per month MYR in Malaysia which puts them straight away at a score of 9. 

I agree with the general logic that low earning Singapore men can resort to getting foreign brides, but the truth is that while they are settling down on Singaporean soil, their expenses would still remain high. Also while foreign brides acclimatise to Singapore society, their preferences will become local as well and this can create a lot of friction within a marriage. 

A better approach would be to set up a new family within that foreign country. 

Of course, the model will only have as much explanatory power as single-factor models do in finance. If you examine the way women make decisions, the way they screen men can be quite strict. 

A good screen some women mentally use is like this :

• Height above 50th percentile
• Income > My earnings
• Take the highest score that is willing to date me. 

We know that if a stock screen is positioned too strictly, it often results in 0 stocks. 

We can't blame women because parental investment for the female gender is high. Women need to undergo nine months of pregnancy and can only raise a few kids at most simultaneously. 

Men can generate millions of sperm from 10 minutes of hands-on effort.