Monthly financials 1221

Monthly Financials – December 2021

Here are my monthly financials for December 2021.

Financials 122021

It is good to keep track and review your monthly financials so you can be in control of your finances.

Having a fixed income and knowing my expenses will not exceed my budget allowed me to not track my expenses before I left my job. I did not feel a need to track my finances strictly as I know I can control my spending. I only tracked my investments diligently.

Since I will not have a fixed source of income soon, I decided to start tracking my financials starting from January 2021. Money will be tight so I need to be extra prudent. This also helps generate content for my website. 

Top 3 Income Sources

Merch Sales – S$129.00

I received US$121.78 worth of commissions from selling merch on TeePublic and Redbubble. If you like to find out more about selling merch, you can look at an article I wrote here.

Interest – S$127.04

This is made up of the coupon payments from Singapore Savings Bond and interest from Singlife.

Dividends – S$103.12

This is a dividend from Aims Apac REIT.

Top 3 Expense Sources

Investment – S$200

S$200 of it is my monthly DCA into STI ETF using POSB Invest-saver.

Health – S$120.20

I went to a chiropractor to look at my ankle which is a bad choice and a waste of money. It didn’t help at all and it made it worse.

Groceries – S$110.26

I went to Mustafa to buy some dried goods like lentils, chickpeas and quinoa.

I also ordered from SSKIM, the frozen food supplier to take advantage of the 12% discount during their 12/12 sale. There is a 10% Christmas discount if you use coupon code XMAS2021. The sale ends on 31 December 2021.

Yearly Financials

Here are my yearly financials for 2021.

Financials 2021

Income

I am lucky that the net amount is a positive one and I don’t expect it to repeat next year. S$6,600 worth of allowance from SGUS will not be repeated next year. I also didn’t expect merch sales to hit S$1,302 in total.

Expenses

Over 65% is for investments so technically it is not an expense. I expect and hope the health expenses will drop next year. The others look quite normal.

CLL’s Infrequently Curated Videos

Why New York’s Billionaires’ Row Is Half Empty

There is a stretch of buildings in New York City called the Billionaires’ Row. These buildings contain homes that are extremely expensive but they are mostly empty. There is a trend of packaging and marketing these homes into assets that are more liquid than your usual real estate so that you can park money there and use it as collateral and sell them easily if need be. There is a tax loophole that allows these owners to pay much less property tax than an average joe. As we see the net worth gap between the top 0.1% and the general public get wider and wider, we might see people get angrier and refuse to participate according to the rules anymore.

China Has A Debt Problem Three Times Larger Than Evergrande

I have lost count of how many times Evergrande has defaulted that it has become a meme. Besides the property sector undergoing turmoil, there is a bigger debt problem in China, which is their high-speed rail system. It might look bright and shiny however, the revenue cannot cover the high operating costs. The railway companies borrowed about 1 trillion dollars from banks and the government and it looks like they will never be able to pay back the loan. The routes linking second-tier cities to first-tier cities allow access for the population however, the demand just isn’t it. They are unable to increase prices as the low demand will drop even more. These high-speed trains are also unable to transport heavy goods like steel or coal. A regular train system, although slower, would be more suitable as it is more flexible.

Why We Should NOT Look For Aliens – The Dark Forest

I highly recommend The Three-Body Problem from Liu Cixin that talks about humanity and our exposure to aliens. It is available to borrow for free from NLB. Not to spoil the storyline but basically, the dark forest theory is that we should keep quiet instead of keep looking for alien contact. We wouldn’t know where these alien civilizations are peaceful and malevolent. As we are located light-years away from any possible alien civilization and vice versa, a lot can change and huge technological advancements over the time travelled. The theory argues that it is risky to make yourself known so as a participant in the dark forest, we should just go about our lives and stay silent so as to not attract bad actors that might be able to destroy us.

One of the Most Powerful Card Trick EVER: The Invisible Deck

I came across a comment on reddit that explains how certain tricks are done and looked for a video that explains the invisible deck. They make use of friction on the surface of the special deck of cards to perform the trick.

Money Manager App

I am using an app called Money Manager to track my income and expenses. It is a free tool available on mobile available on Google Play Store and Apple App Store.

As far as I know, the data collected from the app is for tracking the ads you view and interact with on the app.

Please check out their privacy policy on what information they collect and what is it used for.

Personally, the value this app brings to me outweighs the value of the information I provide to them.

Comment and let me know what you think about tracking your finances.

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Trust Bank Sign Up – Free $35 NTUC eVoucher – Referral Code – 9YA868HD

SAFRA Might Be Silently Taking $40 Away From You Yearly

On a budget? See Free Stuff To Do In Singapore

Check out my Breaking The Marketer’s Code series here

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