In just 1 weeks time, 2019 will come to an end and we will welcome a new year 2020. I have still been tracking my income and expenses on a monthly basis so I thought its good to do a self check on my financial health as the year comes to an end.
Over the years, my expenses have gone up as I decided to relax the tight budget which I used to keep back in 2015. In 2016, I wrote a post titled " The day I stopped tracking my daily expenses". Of course after that decision, my expenses started to go up and has almost tripled from 2015 to 2019.
Here's an overview of my expenses for the last 5 years:
In case you're wondering, in 2019, my expenses came up to be almost $23,000. I'm not sure if mine is considered high or low expenses in Singapore but to me this expense is still a manageable one. No matter what expenses we have, the most important thing is we do not spend more than we earn and still have savings for the future. For me, the higher expenses is a result of a conscious decision to spend more.
Does spending more money makes me happier? I think it actually does. I've felt less restrictive towards spending money than how I was 5 years back. I would eat out at restaurants more often, buy gifts for people more generously and go for more overseas trips etc. I managed to go Japan this year which is a place I've always wanted to go. Even though the cost is not low for a Japan trip, but still it was worth every cent.
However, due to my savings habit which I had since young, it was a struggle for me to increase my expenses initially. I was sort of constantly worried if I would be ok if I spend more but always at the end of the year when I do my financial health check, I would still have quite a substantial sum of savings. I always remind myself every year that its ok to spend a bit more to remind myself to live life to the fullest.
Having more income helps in this journey of increasing expenses while still accumulating savings for financial independence. I would honestly say I have worked harder this year than any other year after I changed jobs and taking on more projects and responsibilities in order to get better work performance which leads to higher pay and promotion. Unfortunately, it has lead to some health issues such as insomnia and migraine headaches which I had to see a neurologist recently and be on daily medication to control it for the time being.
Here's an overview of my income, other income and expenses:
Basic income comes from my full time job which I am currently in my third job now which I switched to back in Oct 2018. This has lead to higher basic income year after year. Other income has naturally dropped due to lesser time for this category because of the busyness of my full time job. Nevertheless, combined income has increase year after year due to higher basic income. I am still able to save more than half of my combined income as a result of this strategy.
I am still trying to increase my basic and other income as I feel there is still much room to grow. For basic income, I am targeting a promotion which hopefully I am able to get in 2020. This will bump up my basic income by a substantial percentage else the normal increment will be around 3%-4% only. For other income category, I'm planning to increase my investments in stocks further. It is not easy to spot good stocks which are at a good price to invest in at current market conditions. Hope 2020 will present some opportunities for investment.
Moving forward in 2020, I expect expenses to go up further as I prepare for my big day in year 2020. My new house will come in 2020 also. Its going to be a busy year ahead. I realised I did not make any new year resolutions in 2018 for year 2019 but well, I think life still went relatively well for the year.
Hope your year went well too and may a better year come for all of us in 2020. Merry Christmas and Happy new year to everyone!