Here are my monthly financials for January 2022.
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
Dividends – S$239.44
These are dividends from the STI ETF and SingTel.
Other – S$171.20
I got S$10 from signing up for Dash PET and S$161.20 as reimbursement for my medical bills.
Merch Sales – S$109.00
I received US$81 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.
Top 3 Expense Sources
Allowance – S$600.00
I decided to help my mother top up her RA as there is the one for one Matched Retirement Savings Scheme. Every dollar, up to S$600 a year, will be matched by the Government.
Investment – S$200
S$200 of it is my monthly DCA into STI ETF using POSB Invest-saver.
Social Life– S$100
I had to attend a family member’s wedding so I contributed S$100 to the family Ang Pow.
CLL’s Infrequently Curated Videos
What do Filipinos Think Of Axie Infinity?
Axie Infinity, a play-to-earn NFT game, is most played by Filipinos and the most searched game in the Philippines in 2021. This has also given the Filipinos more exposure in Cryptocurrencies.
By playing the game, they are able to make comparable salaries to other available jobs. At its peak, they make about US$1,000 a month but now they can only make about US$200 a month. For reference, a regular job makes them about US$300 a month. They spend about 6 hours a day playing the game. Some that started playing early even bought a house with the money earned. However, with the price of SLP dropping from its high of US$0.30 to US$0.01 today, the in-game currency, it is no longer as profitable to play the game anymore.
Let me explain Blockchain gaming and Play-to-Earn
Talking about play-to-earn games, this gaming developer veteran has called out Blockchain gaming. As an insider in the gaming industry and involved in multiple game developments, he cannot fathom the need for blockchain in games. There is the game economy issue where if any individuals can bring an item into your game, it can disrupt the balance of the game. This “outsider” can then disrupt all the actual players of the game, making your original players leave. There is also the problem of compatibility between games. How can a +1 sword in one game word in another?
He also talks about the immorality of play-to-earn games. If the grinding is fun, there wouldn’t be a need for players to help other players grind for certain in-game currencies. So, the only people grinding are those that are in developing countries, selling currencies to other players in developed countries that don’t want to spend time grinding.
I will be posting an article on NFTs soon so watch out for that.
Global Junk Food: How the Fast Food Industry is Making Poor Countries Fat
We all know that fast food isn’t the healthiest thing out there. Without strong legislation in these poorer countries, these fast-food companies produce foods that appeal to the masses while totally ignoring nutrition. They also compare the nutritional data for the same products across different countries and those developing countries are served products that are unhealthier, with higher fat and sodium content.
There is also a problem with their advertising laws. These fast-food companies advertise to kids via in school indirect advertising via performances and also free games on mobile. It’s all very subliminal where it will trigger the demand for certain products and they will ask their parents to bring them to these fast-food restaurants or to purchase sugary drinks and snacks from stores. Both parents and kids do not see these as advertising but as fun games. When you are not mindful that certain things are ads, it will work even better as you will not reject the message.
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.
