New hobby and new phone means new levels of emotional damage on my wallet.
I continue this worrying trend of lifestyle inflation but I’m learning to let it go, or get better at repressing the guilt. Generally, still meeting my savings goals and finding a better work-life balance. The numbers say I’m fine but my spendings feel like a slippery slope to consumerism.
Spendings Report: $1,932
I’m consistently going bouldering twice a week now and each time the pass is about $25, and taxi fare ends up roughly also $25. This ends up being $50x2x4=$400 extra each month. I can cut it down to $250 if I take the subway instead of taxing however the subway takes 2 hours instead of 1. Currently, this is exactly offset by the extra tutoring I’m doing so I’m content to keep it going. I’ve also picked up Math Club so that’s an extra little bit of money I’ll see in my next paycheck.
To all my friends’ relief, I have finally purchased a new phone, the One Plus 8t. 10/10 would recommend it to everyone especially as it’s now on sale with the launch of the latest One Plus 9 series 😉 I waited months for it to go on sale and I almost miss the constant ‘low memory space’ warnings on my old phone. Can you believe my old one only has 32GB of memory? Mad. My goal for this new phone is to keep it for at least 5 years and then get China Telecom to activate the cellular function on the microchip they’ve injected into me when I got the vaccine.
Net Worth Update: $157, 684
I’m pretty confident I can reach $165k by the end of August but not too sure about $170k. April has two big financial events: Canadian tax season and tuition for the start of the new semester. I’m predicting those two alone will take at least half of my salary for April. I would like to achieve coastFI by the end of next school year, meaning the amount invested is enough to afford a traditional retirement at 65 even if I do not contribute another cent.
Another thing I’m considering: a wardrobe update. The clothes I got 5 years ago since I started teaching no longer feel like…me. Still thinking about this because this might just be me using retail as therapy again.
All in all, a very personally satisfying month and I don’t regret any of the purchases I made, but there’s room for improvement next month 🙂
Hi, love your blog. Are you still in China? $25 seems pretty expensive for Bouldering in China, but that would be a normal price in North America. Either way, your savings rate is 67% even with the education costs, so don’t feel guilty for the new hobby.
Thank you for the kind words! Yup still in China. The gyms I go to are in central Beijing so the prices would probably be quite comparable (boo!).