Life insurance - dilemma AGAIN

One of my October goals is to have some of the insurance stuff sorted out - I met up with the agent with SO last week, I have asked the agent to show me the different options for a Life Insurance plan for moi. He had made 4 different payment plans, the insured amount + insured age + terms being the same for all plans. The plan was, of course, not for me (I'm not a beneficiary but my parents will be).

I did the math at home, the shorter the payment cycle is, the smaller the overall amount I need to pay in total. The 4 different payment plans can be paid monthly or yearly, in essence the math is:

(1) $113,860 per year x 5 years = $569,300 i.e. $9,488 per month.

(2) $59,680 per year x 10 years = $598,600 i.e. $4,973 per month.

(3) $41,660 per year x 15 years = $624,900 i.e. $3,471 per month.

(4) $34,720 per year x 20 years = $694,400 i.e. $2,893 per month.

................That's a tough math! But what in life isn't?

Option (1): As much as I want to pick this, there's hardly any money left for savings per month after all my expenses are deducted, and we're talking about 5 whole years without savings (!!!). This is out of the question I think?

Option (2): It's thinkable, it'll leave me a bit of wiggle room for savings (down by half than I plan to save per month), but shall I decide to buy a house, it also means the down payment sum will be smaller/slower than I want it to be.

Option (3): Not so much different than (2) above, but even more wiggle room for savings. Not the most ideal but thinkable.

Option (4): This one is easiest to manage, if I can stick to my budget each month, I'll still be able to achieve the minimal savings goal set per year, albeit I have to keep telling myself I"m walking a tight rope. Here we are talking about 20 years of payment so things will become easier when I get raises across years. BUT, I don't like the thought of owing something and paying something for 20 years (except mortgage)!!!!!! Also, bear in mind that the difference of the total sum between Option (4) and Option (2) is > 98,000!

If you know PJ, PJ is the sort of person that if she wants something done, she wants it to be done quick, neat and efficiently (cost, energy, effort).

In 5-7 years time, I plan to buy a house and get mortgage. I don't have exact figures or plans yet but I know I want to do that, better as soon as possible. I also would like to add that anyone of my age should easily have at least 300k net worth and I'm falling far behind.

Have you faced such dilemmas? How and what did you end up deciding?

Losing patience with the city strikes

At the supermarket checkout, I got 2 small bottles of shampoo (for my family) for HK$9.9 each. They're not big bottles but enough to last 20-30 washes I guess, that's not so bad but looking back, it might not be the best value for money. Not sure. 

(Note to self: Don't buy any stuff that's not listed on the to-buy-and-needed-necessity list.)

On Friday I saw there's a cute set of figurines from a fast food chain that includes Batman, Wonder Woman, the Joker, Superman, Cat Woman. I asked my colleague who patronize that fast food chain to help me get the set and I'll pay him. Then 3 hours later I thought, I don't need anymore junk or clutter at my home. I am not going to get any value from the figurines apart some tiny joy (upon getting it) which will subside to nothing a week later. The figurines will be as cute as looking at them on printed papers. So, I told my colleague he doesn't need to get it anymore. Money saved!

Lately I've been thinking of keeping a sleep log book, in an effort to make moi get enough hours of rest per day. Does anyone do that and how did it come around?

The various strikes that's been going on in the city has driven me nuts. Not only did I have to walk to the nearest train station whenever I go out, I have to walk back home from there. I do the former frequently on weekends but I"m not happy that I have to do this on my commute to work in the morning. 

Plus the train journeys are costing me MORE than my usual commute, although the cents and odd dollars can be absorbed in my budget, it's not something I want to continue, nor is this disturbance to my sense of ease/peace (when going out) can be further tolerated. Don't forget that I sweat much more and clothes have to be washed once I got home - here's to the rising laundry-related costs. Yes I may be walking more than usual but let's not forget the roads are busy roads with cars, so more fumes and dust during the walk. Imagine walking home so slowly and painfully on a stomach in paralysis (some sushi I had last night), lugging a tote full of stuff, sweating profusely. It's dire, it's pathetic.

Note to self: Have less and less raw fish because stomach paralysis due to unclean food is not. worth. it.

I don't mind sweating a bit more when becoming frugal, I was doing exact that all along, until now. It's not frugal by any measure. What can I say, the strike and its strikers should be damned!!!

Flappy arms and October goals

[edited at 22:35 to add point (7) in the goals recap section]

Did a bit of half-jog and half-walk today, it was really hot outside. I have came to notice in mirrors that my upper arms look a bit "flappy". I've come to pick up signs of ageing here and there even in my age: first lines, bloated face (read: dreadful), now the "flappy" arms. My arms could use some help from the rowing machine at the gym, am figuring where to get into a gym near my home now. The one that I can access is rather far away: 2 hours of commute + commute costs. The plus side is I can get in for free. On a side note, I will google some exercises that can help with toning the upper arms as well.

Tomorrow I will be meeting up with my insurance agent as well, so hopefully something will be sorted out this month. For the magazine subscription, I feel quite certain that I won't be renewing it this year because it'll take some time before I go through the unread backlog, plus I don't need more clutter on my desk. I"m looking at re-purposing things as well, I have 2 scented candles which I don't want anymore, am thinking of giving it to a friend who will be moving to her new house next month. It shall make a great housewarming gift. 

This month I'll be mainly looking at driving down food costs (minimize eating out, no shopping for yogurt, relying on oatmeal for breakfast at work). I'm waiting for the weather to cool down so jogging/walking becomes more tolerable, ideally 6x per month, each time I will do at least 3 miles. I enjoy walking a lot (maybe too much) so when the weather becomes nicer it won't be a problem.

To recap:

1) Get some of the insurance matters sorted out;

2) Hit the trail/park 6x, 3 miles each time (already did once today);

3) Look at the gym options near my home;

4) Have more meals at home;

5) Finish reading 1-2 issues of the magazine backlog;

6) Review my budget at the end of the month to see if it needs tweaking. I'm wondering if I should draw up a different budget for each month of the year? Months like parents' birthday will see extra costs spent on meals, grannies birthday/festivals will see extra dollars going to the meal chip-in and pocket money for grannies, haircut during various times of the year, etc. The list could go on and on. Would love to know your thoughts / ways of managing this!

7) Money from side-hustle slowed down a bit since mid September, really need to get the ball rolling again! Need to get in touch with the company in mid or late October. Will test the person I know who work there to find out whether the company is busy at the moment first.

Lucky Day!

Had a friend coming from UK this week and I took her and her friend out today. Due to the strikes in the city, we decided to venture to the islands. There was two kinds of ferry - the regular and the express, the express is double the price. Didn't take that long for us to decide which one we're taking since the express one won't come until half an hour later (too much wait time). When we returned to the city, there was a large queue for the express one. The regular one would come 45 minutes away so it'll be a long wait (plus we were all tired, sweaty), so we took the express!! Money to buy time. 

We bought bottled drinks, and a snack on a skewer for a light lunch on the island. No qualms on that since I had to eat lunch anyway, and there's no bloody way I'll chug along a bottle of water when I'm doing walking from my home to the pier (blame the bloody strike!) We had seafood dinner and my friend generously paid for me.

I mentioned previously I want to get jogging bottoms for winter season, well today is my lucky day. I waved my friend goodbye and then I passed by GAP. Vaguely remembering that I read someone mentioned that GAP makes decent gym attire, I entered the store. I tried on a pair of capris legging on sale. Then I remembered that GAP had those little lucky draw boxes they put at the entrance, where you can draw a card from the box and see what discount they give you for the purchase (even free purchase/item!). So I asked the SA at the fitting room whether she knows if the discount card applies to sale items, she said yes!! I went out and back into the store with a card drawn (30% off any purchase!), today is really my lucky day don't you think? :-)

Back I went to the gym attire area and gleaned to see if there's any styles that I'd also like to get, then I found the all black, long leggings that comes with a concealed zip pocket for keys at the back of the waist. Nice. I calculated the price before checking out and there were no nasty surprises (the discount applies to sale + regular items). I got 2 pairs of gym bottoms for HK$403, one capris and one long pants, not bad at all! A pair from Nike would have costed $350 after discount. Without the GAP discount card, I wouldn't be thinking of getting a second pair. Everybody likes a pleasant little surprise - be it 10%, 15%, 20%, 25%, 30% off. And it doesn't hurt for the store to create a moment of suspense and excitement by giving away little discount cards in a sealed box for random draws. If you have nothing in mind before entering the store, then that could be a potential danger of spending. The discount cards are good for the whole week so one can always go home and sleep on it. I'm thinking that if it's true as they say (one free purchase/item per day in the lucky box I guess?), then it wouldn't harm to draw a card there whenever I go past the store, if I happen to draw that lucky card to win a free purchase, I will go home and sleep on the things I can get with the card.

I wouldn't say both the jog pants are perfect (ideally should come with drawstrings at the waist, more light-reflective patches for style, color-versatile) but I figured that for a starter, getting the right gear (read: not professional athlete) is important. More important is to know that I'm no professional athlete so unless I"m really an avid gymnastics fan, I'll probably do well in basic offerings from mainstream brands. I've done a bit of research lately on gym attire and some of them (Lululemon) could get really expensive (more so than Nike and Adidas!). I'm new to picking and wearing gym gear so I'll need a bit of time to experiment and later figure out what kind of designs/functions I need. So even though I haven't budgeted them in for October I'm happy to say that these would last for a while.

Mid Week Update

Last Friday and the past two days of this week went by in a whiz. I was pressed tight at work and my migraines + nausea came out rather mercilessly. I felt shit last week to a point that my boss asked if I'm feeling unwell (well, clearly I was). Coupled with that was the crisis going on in the city right now - strikes everywhere so buses are cut. 

Now to give you a clearer picture, I don't live near a train station. So, for the past two days I've been WALKING to the nearest train station (sweated profusely may I add), take the train and go to work; take the train from work to the train station nearest to my home, and WALKED back to my place. Never had I seen SO MANY people on the street walking about, because the buses and the stuff are cut due to strikes. This additional time and effort in my daily commute for the past two days also come with a few cents higher in commute costs than usual. A few cents shouldn't be the cause of concern, but I'd rather not have that (plus the extra leg walk! This is lose-lose situation). 

Due to the strikes going on about the city, I had a panic moment on Monday on my way home. I thought "what if the strikes went on and the supermarkets weren't re-stocked properly?"And so off I went buying a few spring rolls from a noodle shop and mush them into the freezer. Yesterday I thought today and tomorrow will be a public holiday so I might eat one or two meals at home, so off I went to the supermarket and got some asparagus (not on sale, bummed) and peppered ham (on clearance price but not so much cheaper...). The ham will expire (tomorrow) before I can cook them all but I plan to stash them into the freezer for later use. Thus these spur-of-the-moment purchases bumped up my food spending (see last paragraph). 

Lesson to learn here: ALWAYS, ALWAYS have ready to cook/eat food in the stockpile. Be it dehydrated or frozen food, add in some quick-to-cook pasta or noodles and voila! This morning I cooked the asparagus with the ham and the ready-made pasta. To be honest the flavored pasta packets suck in flavor but they'll have to do. At least I don't have to panic at the thought of having no food!

At work, there had been a particular guy who just came to the office (but is not new to working in the department), he was being an @$$ to people who work around him, myself included. That affected me, but I wasn't the key to the solving of the problem either so there's not much I can do on my level. 

The tax notices came in on Saturday and I had a shock (a good one). I had been putting money away every week for "tax payments" and it looks like I'd be dipping into 5% of it. The remaining funds would be tucked away towards the savings pile or the "travel" fund (I don't have one set up). Thoughts??

I just calculated my finances for September, realizing I overspent in the beauty and clothes category. The food category was overspent but bear in mind that it covered my parents' birthday dinner. I'll budget for this come next year. I had stopped buying yogurt altogether, so that was quite a (key) change. Really need to work hard on trimming the beauty and clothes budget. In previous post I mentioned that I want to get a few serious jogging bottoms for the winter season. I did not end up getting any in September (indecision, indecision), please see the upcoming post for an update on this. I put aside and maybe dismissed the thought of renewing my magazine subscription as well, so that's money saved (for now)!