Finance Review: April 2022

Yup, things sure are happening.

Spendings Report: $4,208

Taxes and tuition!

In. The. Same. Month. So much pain.

All else as usual.

A few other major expenses in order:

1. Tuition: just over $1,000
2. Taxes: just under $1,000 (in living expenses)
3. Shipping gifts to friends, cheaper than flights, wish they were flights, $400 ish
4. Hotel for the Chinese May Holiday, going hiking in the mountains! $100 ish
5. Quality walking shoes, $100

Every year for tax month I shed a tear for my wallet as I pay taxes, however, I am also quite happy to pay them. My Canadian upbringing and citizenship have given me a lot of privileges that are worth a couple of grand a year. For expats, you can choose to declare yourself a non-tax-resident and not pay but I want the RRSP and TFSA room.

I have added Transport as a category to my expenses. When I go climbing, the taxi fee is more or less the same cost as the ticket so I wanted to track it separately. On the topic of transport, my school offers a $2,000 flight reimbursement every year and I bought tickets for my summer holidays to max this out. If the school did not offer this I wouldn’t have purchased the tickets or would have bought significantly less expensive ones. I kept this cost out of my tally this month for this reason, though it factored into my net worth. When I actually take those vacations I’ll put the cost in.

Reflecting over the last few months, there is definitely a shift in my thinking. I’m much more willing to spend money now, not #YOLO style yet, but I don’t think over it as long. Part of it is experience, I understand more of what my values are now and am willing to spend for better quality/experience/memories. The bigger part of it, however, is that I feel much more financially stable and have a bigger safety net.

When I started my career in 2016, my safety net was the price of a plane ticket back home to my parents. Now, it’s still that, plus an additional $200k. It was wild to realize that when my bag (with my passport and laptop inside) was stolen during my second year working, it took 40% of all I had to replace everything. Now, it would take 2%.

Net Worth Update: things are messy

We can all name at least a couple of reasons why this graph has taken a sudden downward turn.

It seems crass to continue posting this section of my finance report in light of current events. I’ve kept it up since the start of this blog as motivation for myself to see an upward climb, but I feel odd about it now that it’s reached a certain level amongst the current global climate. In addition, it’s starting to feel like I’m bragging.

I’ve thought of a few options, feel free to chime in if you’d like.

1. I get rid of this part completely and only talk about my spending
2. An annual net worth update instead of a monthly one
3. I post only the net gain or loss amount
4. A ranking of my best and worst purchases of the month and why

I am also open to other suggestions if there’s something else you’d be interested in reading!