Here are my monthly financials for May 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$263.12
These are dividends from DBS and QAF.
Allowance – S$176.13
I went for reservice this month and this is the rank pay I received.
Interest – S$174.84
This is made up of the coupon payments from Singapore Savings Bond and interest from Singlife and Dash PET.
Top 3 Expense Sources
Investment – S$200
S$200 of it is my monthly DCA into STI ETF using POSB Invest-saver.
Food – S$174.30
This is for food. I spent a lot more this month because of Mother’s Day.
Groceries – S$62.06
This is for groceries at Don Don Donki and Giant.
CLL’s Infrequently Curated Videos
The Danger of the Pomodoro Method (why most people are using it wrong)
I first came across the Pomodoro Method when I did a free course called “Learning How To Learn”. It was taught at a very basic level where you work or study for 25 minutes and then take a 5-minute break. However, this does not take into account many things like if you are on a hot streak (do not stop after 25 minutes) or personalization (25/5 or 50/10). This uploader has provided a number of tips that can bring the original Pomodoro Method to another level.
Why Companies Can’t Design Sustainable, Eco-Friendly Products
The theoretically best thing to do would be to have a sustainable product from source to end-life. However, it is not that easy at this point in time as a company most probably would not be able to overlook the entire production process. Additionally, plastic is a superior material in price and functionality. However, we also know that they can be impossible to break down plus they leak microplastics into the environment that ends up in our food. Even if we get rid of all the plastics in the product, we are still comfortably ignoring the non-visible parts of the supply chain, the logistics. How much fuel and packaging are required to bring the product to our doorstep? This is why it is not as straightforward to just switch to a sustainable product. We need consumers, designers, corporations and lawmakers to come together to help improve the situation.
Solar Panels Plus Farming? Agrivoltaics Explained
Singapore is a place with land scarcity. Food security has risen up to the table when globalization has taken a back seat due to geopolitics. Could we have a dual-use of getting solar energy plus agriculture on the same piece of land? The kinks still have to be worked out as the owners and maintenance of the solar panels and farmland might be done by separate groups of people, making the relationship complicated. Solar panels can also lower the yield by limiting sunlight plus the land required to set up the solar panels. The question is whether the sum of benefits for the dual use of the land leaves enough margins for the two groups of people to make the entire venture worth it.
The Recession We Need To Have
Money has been cheap for decades with low-interest rates, allowing the economy to “grow” to unprecedented levels. This means that even “bad” companies are getting money invested into their businesses. Money put into these companies is “wasted” as they do not really bring much productivity or yield to the entire economy. Inflation is so high that interest rates have to be increased to attempt at tampering with it. When interest rates rise, spending falls, profits fall, employment fall and the cycle repeats until we reach an equilibrium. How much and how long do interest rates have to rise before we reach this equilibrium? We are about to find out.
Is the Global Housing Bubble About to Burst?
We don’t really feel it in Singapore yet but public housing is still relatively affordable compared to other countries. We might feel that HDBs are expensive, but their housing is downright unaffordable in some places abroad. Although the economy contracted during the pandemic, we see housing prices still climb and this means that people are parking their money in property for speculative purposes. The pain will hit when interest rates will inevitably rise in the coming years and when it is time to refinance. Bank loans have been lower than HDB loans for many years and people seem to forget that it is not a given. I predict that it will exceed the golden 2.6% very soon. Interest to be paid will increase while property prices fall.
How This Man Just Caused a $45 BILLION Crash
If you are following crypto or finance news in general, you might notice that the market has been tanking. In particular, Terra and Luna, a stable coin and its governance token, has taken a nosedive. A stable coin is supposed to stay stable and it can either be backed by collateral (e.g. USDT or USDC) or not backed at all and is controlled by an algorithm like Luna and Terra. The yields were super attractive, reaching 20% per annum, leading to many people choosing to park their money with Luna and Terra. They might have the impression that stable coins are safe and even if they lose their yield, their capital is still safe. However, as we can see, it is not safe at all. It doesn’t help that the founder is cocky and dares people to attack his protocol. One thing you should never do is to piss off the internet. The people behind the screens have skills and capital that one can never even try to fathom.
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.