2014 in review

I struggled whether this post should be written or not, but then I decided what's the point of a blog if I can't be honest with myself and be accountable?

A few things came into mind when summarizing 2014 financially. "Haven't tried hard enough", and in similar vein - "gave in too easily", frailty. 

I began tracking my expenses during latter half of 2014, while the balance sheet is still far from being financially healthy, it allowed me to have a clearer picture of what areas are my weaknesses, what my priorities are, and where shall I head to, financially-speaking. 

But I did take the very first step into putting money for conservative type investment, this practice shall continue when I learn more about investment. No I'm ready to dump my hard-earned cash in one go into the market, I'm going to stick with the least risky side of things. It's that I believe getting it started should allow me to catch up with peers of the same age / situation. I'm not that positive about getting "ahead" of most others, but in the likely event I'm getting a raise next year, that shall leave me with more wiggle room and accelerate the savings rate, and hopefully figure out how to get ahead. 

The hardest part is how to get started, of course. But this is no excuse to sit and do nothing.

My keywords for 2015: Stay focused. Try harder. Don't succumb to the "wants" easily. I would try very very hard to stick to my budget in January, if I succeed in doing so even for a mere 1 month, I'd be ecstatic. 

(Random thought: maybe I should change the profile picture to Scrooge McDuck...)

In 2015, I will repeat this thought daily.

Getting ready for 2015!

It's been 2 weeks since I last reviewed the mini weekly goals *gasp*, and we're coming to a close of 2014, in fact, SO CLOSE. My dad suggested we go for a buffet to celebrate my birthday early, but I declined. You all know I am not a fan of buffet and my body doesn't need extra fat. There. I just want to stay home these days and avoid the crowds.

Beginning with the review first:

- Tidy up room (clothes and shoes) Sort of a YES

- Pick up remaining ticket from cinema Will do that this week

- Continue to search for new glasses To be continued

- Post remaining 2015 goals on the blog YES

- Outfit plan on Sunday for the week ahead Sort of a YES

- Track cashback transactions x 2 YES

- Track refunds x 2 To be continued

- Apply body cream and hand cream every night YES (and I'm writing this off for the lists to come as this is pretty much established)

And the icing on the cake: 

- Jogged 2x this week! More shall come;

- Read a few dozen pages on the book I put down and pick up a few times previously! No it wasn't a fun book to read but nevertheless I bought it at the time (now I know there's libraries I can always turn to), and so I must go through it and learn a thing or two;

- Mom mended the coat buttons for moi last night, I am so grateful for that!

- 11 No-spend days this month! Record broke :-)

Fast forward to the coming week:

- Read 50 pages of the said book

- Jog 2x

- See whether DB needs help with his house move

- Hand tiny gifts to DB's mom

- Pick up free ticket from cinema

- Track refunds x 2

- Make outfit plan on Sunday

- Ship 2 parcels to friends abroad

- Make a list of items for blog sale

- Continue the glasses search

If the progress with reading is good, I will begin borrowing books from the library. At this stage I'm not so sure of the reading rate hence I'm not confident to start borrowing as the books might get returned without a page being turned.

I can foresee a bit of cleaning is going to come as Chinese New Year advances in February. Will be meeting up with a friend from down under during that period and another friend from UK in mid January.

*the tags for the 2015 goals' posts have been changed to "2015 goals" instead of "goals" for easier review*

A chillaxing day

I know I shouldn't be complaining about having holidays, but I stayed home pretty much 3 out of 4 days and was kind of bored. Which got me thinking since when holidays must be related to shopping / going out / traveling? What's wrong with staying home?

I dragged myself to do a few things yesterday while at home: read quite a bit of the book I put on and off for a while; went for a jog (3 miles); trimmed my nails; cleaned some shoes; helped out mom with her groceries; washed some towels... 

The only thing I dreaded on was stitching my coat buttons! I had bad experience with stitching back buttons and they kept falling off not once, but twice afterwards (they were nowhere to be found of course...) and it felt like I wasted my time to do something which doesn't last. I told mom about this and said I'd rather go to the tailor's and have them stitched properly (maybe I wasn't doing it right) so that will save my time, and I don't have to worry about losing buttons everywhere! Deep down I know this kind of money shouldn't be spent (make do and mend with your own hands), but a part of me said it's just a couple dollars and it can save me time and effort from bobbling down my head with the stitching and buttons! Plus it may last longer if I take it to the tailor's and have them done properly...

Either way I'm going to ask her to show me how (she mends some simple stuff for me at times), or I'll have it done professionally. In the past I have made a mistake which took up a lot of my time and didn't yield good results! The coat can't wait any longer as the buttons are falling off...that happens with cheap coats that I bought. UGH.

Oh, and yesterday was a no-spend day as well ;-) gotta love it.

Christmas Day

First and foremost, Merry Christmas to anyone who is reading this :-)

It rained pretty much the whole day and it was cold. Today afternoon was spent (unplanned) on putting away clothes that had been piling up in the room, and (also unplanned) decluttering! A few tubes and jars were on the brink of expiration and they re-surfaced during the decluttering, they've been put to use already. 

Conclusion: I have way too many clothes, shoes and bags. Oh the horror! I can't fathom doing this decluttering every few times in the year and every year. Time-consuming.

In other news, I spotted some lovely Christmas charms with little gifts inside on sale, they were at 50% off original, plus the 25% off that I have, I got a handful of them and that's next year's Xmas gifts sorted out ;-)

A friend of mine will be visiting in February and suggested maybe doing a whole day out browsing (she won't be buying a lot on this trip she said), ideally half a day would be enough as I'm not sure if I can handle a whole day out, I'm getting old.

Hope everyone's enjoying the holidays!

FOMO (and a good one)

I woke up with a cracked throat, went to work, and went home shortly afterwards because I was feeling awful and might be having a fever. Anyhow, I got sick around this time of the year (around Xmas and birthday) without fail for every year known to me. 

Back to the topic: FOMO (Fear of Missing Out)

I went to visit a friend in her new apartment last week, the same friend I talked about HERE before.

Well, she and her bf bought that house (notice the word bought), and now the price of that property has gone up, way up. I know some of the figures incurred in the home purchase, together with down payment, closing and mortgage fees, fitting out (a handful of furniture and decor), now that's where my problem is.

If I were to shell out this amount of money, I can just barely make it. 

Mind you, the above sum is minimal by any standard: by that I mean, the apartment is not big, its price is not too unreasonable for its size, it's not a prime location, it's a rather new-ish property, the house is furnished with decor and stuff so only a handful of furniture, new lock, and electrical appliances had to be added. In short, it's second-handed but still new, with the bonus of existing decor and furniture. I would say that's a gem in the market. The view was quite nice, it's high up in the building, reasonable price. It's hard to come by now, because the housing market has gone crazy high. Her house has become an investment in itself if she wishes to sell it or rent it out in future.

Back to the problem: If I were to shell out this amount of money, I can just barely make it. That amount makes me cringe. Although I can foresee the amount of payment I expected to pay when buying my own home is higher than hers, it (still) even makes me cringe further.

"I make more money than her, and I can't help but wonder where has my money gone?!"

OK, ready to move on for more?

This said friend also has money in stocks, funds, US stocks, investments, and they are up and running, generating money. After graduation, she has studied for a full year WITHOUT INCOME. She's thinking about taking up another program for 2 years ALSO WITHOUT INCOME. She has confidence that money won't be a problem (tuition fee, living expenses, mortgage). At this time, she is paying her monthly mortgage, still give money to her parents monthly, daily expenses, YET she is confident she can make it through 2 years on no income!!! She told me she never check her bank balance, as long as she can withdraw money out she doesn't care what the number is.

Let's pause: How is that even possible? Can that possibly be true (with the amount of money she's making)?

Or maybe I should ask: How can I do this? Why does it look impossible to me now and in the near future? Where has my hard-earned cash gone?

Of course, everyone's (financial) situation is different. Maybe I pay more to my parents than she does, maybe she already was sitting on a mountain of cash when she graduated, maybe she's way more frugal than she looks (I'm sure she is), maybe.......maybe.........

That made me really unhappy where I'm at right now, ultimately it's not (only) about comparison, catching up, but really something was wrong. With the salary that I'm making now, I should be doing much better than her (and yet I ain't). Really unhappy about that. PJ, you can't let this silly spending continue, a complete overhaul of your mindset and your life is direly needed. 

In that sense, this FOMO is a good wake-up call (I'm sure I said that in the last post already)!