A 46-year-old Singaporean is working up to 15 hours a day as a taxi driver after losing $95,000 of his family’s life savings in an investment that failed to deliver the promised returns.
Travis Wong had hoped that selling his family’s HDB flat in 2025 would give him and his wife the financial breathing room to rebuild their lives, manage his health issues and grow his consultancy businesses.
Instead, much of the money disappeared after he and his wife invested in a company run by an online acquaintance.
Wong said the acquaintance had promised monthly repayments of the principal together with interest of between 10 and 15 per cent over two years. But after two months, no payments arrived, and repeated attempts to recover the money went nowhere.
The couple eventually accepted that they were unlikely to recover the investment. Wong subsequently filed a police report alleging fraud, and investigations are ongoing.
The financial loss left the family facing a monthly rental bill of $3,500 for their HDB flat, where Wong lives with his wife and their two sons.
With their remaining funds being used for rent and daily expenses, Wong decided that becoming a taxi driver was the quickest way to generate a steady stream of income.
“I need money coming in every day,” he said, explaining that his priority was to cover the family’s housing costs while slowly rebuilding his savings.
From career setback to financial crisis
Wong’s financial difficulties came after a major career change.
In January 2023, he said his former employer asked him either to resign or accept a demotion after he requested time away from work to seek treatment for his mental health.
He chose to resign and focus on treatment. He later started consultancy businesses, but his income remained unpredictable, partly because he had to manage several health problems.
The family eventually sold their Jurong West HDB Executive Apartment, which they had purchased in 2007. Wong said the sale gave them slightly more than $100,000 in cash.
The couple intended to invest the proceeds carefully and eventually purchase another home in 2027.
Instead, the investment loss wiped out most of their financial cushion.
Driving long hours just to stay afloat
Wong obtained his Taxi Driver’s Vocational Licence and was cleared to drive full-time in March.
His calculations are stark: he estimates that he needs about 13 hours of driving each day just to cover his housing rent, taxi rental and petrol. Another two hours would allow him to put something aside as savings.
That means a target of roughly 15 hours on the road every day.
But the job is physically demanding, particularly because Wong suffers from herniated discs in his neck and back.
He also has sleep apnea and other health issues, meaning that pain flare-ups can prevent him from working.
“I don’t really stop for meals,” he said, describing a routine focused almost entirely on staying on the road and earning enough to pay the bills.
His situation became even more difficult after he was involved in a traffic accident on Aug 4 involving a Traffic Police vehicle along the PIE.
Wong and his passenger were taken to hospital. He suffered a neck sprain and aggravated his existing herniated discs, leaving him unable to work while waiting for a replacement rental taxi.
The accident kept him off the road for nearly a month and further disrupted his already fragile finances.
A family struggling with rising expenses
The family had received more than $12,000 through an earlier fundraising campaign, which helped them get through part of the year.
But Wong later launched another fundraising campaign with a target of $6,800 to help cover rent for both his home and taxi, as well as medical expenses related to his spinal problems.
He said asking for help was difficult because he did not want to depend indefinitely on other people’s generosity.
His immediate concern remains keeping a roof over his family’s heads while dealing with his own health and returning to a more stable financial position.
A costly lesson in investing
Wong said he takes responsibility for the decision to invest the family’s savings, particularly because the money belonged not just to him but to his wife as well.
The experience has left him determined to rebuild rather than give up.
His longer-term hope is to obtain an HDB Flat Eligibility letter and qualify for a housing loan next year. A mortgage on a new home, he believes, could eventually reduce the family’s monthly cash expenses and allow him to spend fewer hours driving.
For now, however, survival comes first.
Despite the accident, mounting expenses and continuing health problems, Wong continues to drive whenever his condition allows.
For him, the taxi is more than a new career. It is the means of keeping his family afloat after a financial setback that wiped out years of savings.
“It’s about survival. This is literally make or break,” he said.
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