Tuesday, January 7, 2025

Wrapping up my 19th month of Financial Independence

I just finished my 19th month of FI (Financial Independence) in Dec 2024.

Below is what I ate and did for fun, and a record of my expenses.

Eating


Christmas season so ate Hot Tomato



SIA food! The potatoes were really good.

Oxtail soup in Korea.

The highlight of this meal was the rice. Not too dry, not too soggy, very chewy.

Scallops! In Busan.

Some fancy restaurant with artisan dishes in Busan. 

Abalone rice.
More abalones in Jeju Island!

                                                    

Top it off with cake.

And ice cream snow dessert.

And coffee.


Fun


Vivaldi Ski Resort in Korea.



Nice ski slopes.

Busan. Leaves are still red even though it is Dec.

Mound in temple.

Busan.

Gamecheon village Busan.

Busan beach. I think Busan has better beach, though Jeju locals tell me otherwise.



Expenses

 
Eating Out Target: $650
Eating Out Actual: $864.63 (Dec holidays so ate more)

Household Target: $600
Household Actual: $1,242.11 (Bought a new washer dryer)

Travel Target: $100
Travel Actual: $66.07

Entertainment Target: $50
Entertainment Actual: $36

Personal Target: $250
Personal Actual: $1,002.84 (Wedding angbao)

Even though I busted the monthly budgets for some months, for the entire year, I did not bust my annual budget.



In fact, I underspent my yearly budget by $4,731.13. I will save this for a rainy day, when I need to spend more on household items.

For the record, also will like to add that I earned $567.80 doing my side hustle (food delivery) in 2024.

Onwards to the next month of FI! 

Author's note: I was pondering whether it is worth the time to write share these stuff.  In the end, I decided to continue this series for a while more, as it serves as a good record of my life at this point of time and how I manage my money.  

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5 comments:

  1. maruJanuary 10, 2025 at 2:32 AM

    I am a long time lurker on this blog and usually follow the updates. Since you posted the "author's note" i feel compelled to write a comment. I personally find these post very interesting. I wonder about your yearly budget. Your portfolio of SGD 1.4m would easily support a yearly total withdrawal of 3.5% or nearly SGD 50k. Your budget is less than half that. Is your plan to solely live off the dividends and to grow the portfolio even further?

    ReplyDelete
  2. finOptiJanuary 10, 2025 at 4:24 AM

    Firstly thank you so much for your comment it is very encouraging. For the numbers in your comment, about portfolio size is incorrect. Regarding your comment about my 'small' budget, please note what I shared as 'Expenses' above are **discretionary** expenses. There are also **necessary** expenses which are not included above, such as property tax, children school fees, utilities payments etc.

    ReplyDelete
  3. finOptiJanuary 10, 2025 at 4:42 AM

    You can see here for more information: https://financeopti.blogspot.com/2024/10/my-fi-status-after-17-months-of-fi.html

    ReplyDelete
  4. finOptiJanuary 10, 2025 at 4:47 AM

    Thanks again for commenting!

    ReplyDelete
  5. maruJanuary 10, 2025 at 7:07 AM

    Thanks for sharing, very interesting! I missed the FI Status update post. Looks like you can happily enjoy Financial Independence with the conservative 3% WR, congrats!

    ReplyDelete

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