Starting around 5 October, the temperature dropped significantly. After a week of rain, until the last raindrop, the temperature also dropped permanently to an average of below 10 degrees Celcius. It’s a must to wear a light jacket when going outside to keep yourself warm, and also wearing gloves when riding a bike is important to keep your hands from freezing, especially if going out in the early morning (before 10 AM) or late at night (after 8 PM).
In this blog post, I’m going to speak about things concerning my age. I’m about to hit 28 in the next 2 months, which is late December, and I don’t really think much about celebrating it, the point is, I don’t ever have a birthday after the age of 10. So basically, I would celebrate it myself, by dining out alone, or on most occasions: sleeping. But recently, I have been thinking about my future financial health a lot, it’s not that I’m having issues with my job or having debt, which I really try to avoid having a debt, so I rarely buy anything that costs huge like over 5K or something like that. My primary goal is to build up my investment and savings accounts. Therefore limiting spending is the way to go. My view of getting wealthier is similar to getting a slimmer body. It’s easier to save more money than to earn more money, and it’s easier to cut down on food consumption rather than increase energy expenditure (like doing exercises, or going to the gym).
There are reasons why I’m reducing costs to an extreme due to 2 primary reasons:
1. I don’t really feel long-term happiness when I go shopping
Most of the stuff that I wasted money on in 2023, are electronic devices, clothes, and food (when dining out or doing groceries). After all, it just does not give me the right mood after just a few days after spending. Yes, I may feel happy about what I got but I get bored rather quickly after just a few days playing with it. And now most of the stuff that I purchased in the last years is simply being left unused or being given away.
I believe true happiness is not really about spending more. It’s like when you are hungry, and you eat something, quite minimal, it still tastes really good. What I mean, by transferring the context, is that it’s important to spend on the right thing, by living just enough and purchasing what you really need, and you can afford it – then this would definitely be more meaningful and bring you more job. For instance, in my situation, if I really need to upgrade my laptop, I can do it anytime, and the feeling of being affordable is what makes me happy because just 2 years ago, I had never thought about being able to purchase a Macbook Pro. But now I can, although it is still a huge expense for me I rather not make the decision with haste, but still, I can do it as my savings account is large enough to purchase it.
2. It’s the feeling of security and confidence with higher capital in the bank
So it’s not really about saving for my first home or for retirement, not just yet. Although, at some point in life, the capital that I’m able to accumulate will be transferred to real estate later. It’s just that I feel like having somewhat money in the bank, or investment account (stocks, ETFs) although right now it’s not very big it’s at least growing over time, is really brings me a huge boost of confidence. I don’t really need anyone to think about what I’m wearing or what I’m riding, as long as I have money in the account then that is my real confidence. You see, I’ve been riding an old bike for 7 months now, of course, I feel like owning a car is a huge upgrade in my life that would bring far more experiences and conveniences. But I’m not yet truly able to calculate the profit from it. Like if it’s really worth it to spend extra up to a thousand dollars a month for a car that I rarely use? I mostly work from home and the only thing that I use most of the time (like 24/7) is my laptop, and second to it, is my phone, and 3rd is the coffee machine, that is.
Another thing about financial security is the sense of feeling safe you always have a surplus in your balance sheet, like if I always spend less than what I earn it basically makes me feel a wealthier paycheck. Also, I believe that until my investment account becomes large at some point, it will contribute to my yearly income. Right now it’s not much, the number is quite low but it’s growing slowly. still, I have huge faith that in the next 3 to 5 years or so with my current habit of saving and investment, I will certainly have quite an amount of passive income.
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That is, one final thing I want to mention is that I believe that you can only care about others or benefit other people if you’re already able to take care of yourself. If you have issues financially, or emotionally or you’re sick, then you can’t take care of your loved one.