Leaving Home: This young couple living together have break-up contracts just in case

Leaving Home is an original AsiaOne series where we speak to young people who have taken the leap to move out of their parents' homes. Who says you have to wait till marriage or the age of 35? They share just what it takes to have a space you can call your own

---

Living together before marriage is taboo to some and an essential rite of passage to others. For this serial entrepreneur couple, it's simply the most convenient option.

Joella Lum, 19, and Dalton Ng, 20, run an e-commerce business together and use their swanky one-bedroom condominium unit as their home and office.

When we first meet them at their apartment in central Singapore, Joella and Dalton tell us they're aware that their lifestyle is pretty unconventional.

For one, they've moved out of their family's homes and are paying their own bills at an age where a majority of their peers are still studying full-time.

And for another, the young couple started dating just last year.

From Instagram to real life romance

As most Gen Z romances go, the pair met online — Joella followed Dalton after seeing him in a CNA documentary covering his various tech start-ups, but it was Dalton who sent the first DM after noticing that she was also a young entrepreneur.

"The first time we met was actually more like a networking thing. But then we ended up at Starbucks, talking for over three hours over random topics like business and crypto," says Dalton.

After hitting it off, they decided to go on a proper date. A year later, they're running a business and making investments — not to mention they are parents to an adorable pupper named Jax.

That's a lot of responsibilities for any adult, let alone two young people fresh out of their teens.

But the pair say it was necessary for them to leave the nest.

Joella gets straight to the point, revealing that she's not on speaking terms with her parents and that they weren't the most supportive of her passion projects.

"They basically wanted me to just be a normal person, which I wasn't very okay with."

Joella, who started flipping clothes on Carousell in secondary school and moved on to selling on Shopify, adds: "I spent a lot of time working and I need the so-called solitude and freedom to focus on my work."

Dalton concurs, adding that he, too, felt like he needed more freedom and independence.

Work before play

True to their word, their priorities are pretty evident from how they've organised their space — Dalton's standing desk and PC takes up nearly a quarter of their living room, while their study has been turned into a storage space for their store inventory.

With all their various commitments, the pair say they usually spend the day working, sometimes until as late as 10pm.

But it's not all work and no play. Now that they are living together, instead of just meeting once a week, they're able to spend more time together, says Dalton. "Because we have a lot of little pockets of time during the day. Five, 15 minutes."

"Maybe at night, like, after we've finished all our work, we can watch a movie together," Joella adds.

As solid as their relationship seems, they say they're no stranger to judgemental comments when it comes to cohabiting.

They've had landlords "blue-tick" them after learning of their age, they tell us. And then there are the random internet strangers and their unsolicited comments.

"People always ask us what if we break up," Dalton tells us, with a hint of exasperation.

[[nid:530708]]

Well, it might seem fresh out of a K-drama, but the pair actually have break-up contracts in place.

The contracts serve to protect their assets in the unlikely event things turn sour, as well as keep things delineated clearly if they decide to take on debts together, Dalton explains.

Fortunately, the pair say that living together hasn't caused any friction between them.

"There wasn't a lot of, like, either person looking after the other one or cleaning up any messes," Joella adds.

Eventually, they hope to find their "forever home" in their thirties, but they're happy to continue to rent in the meantime.

While rent is often the one thing Singaporeans loathe to spend on, Dalton says that it simply makes financial sense for them.

"The thing that people always fail to realise is opportunity costs. That money that you sink into real estate can be used to start a business and can be used to invest in the stock market."

And rather than thinking of rent as money down the drain, he explains: "You're paying for a place to live, so you're not wasting that money. With renting, you still have that 'get out' option."

kimberlylim@asiaone.com