Every penny spent was worth it. September has been such a great and fulfilling month for me; settling into a new school, getting together with friends, making this apartment into a home, and finding hidden gems around the neighbourhood.
Spendings Report: $2,738
The biggest cost was a week-long trip to Shanghai to see a friend I haven’t seen in 3 years! Covid times were wild. We went to 横店影视城, a city where they built sets of old palaces and filmed all the period dramas! Then we hopped over to a city an hour away that’s the Chinese Mecca of woodworking and saw this AMAZING museum for free! Free!
A lifestyle upgrade I’ve made is hiring an ayi (aunty) to come to my place twice a week to help me clean and cook, it’s been a fantastic time saver and I feel like I can build a personality outside of being a Math Person again. With the freed-up time, I’m aiming for fluency in Chinese, I want to prioritize being able to read up to a middle-school level in Chinese in a couple of years. I also would like to improve my art and my climbing, in that order haha.
At the start of this year, I was worried about my increased spending, they’ve been trending higher ever since covid lifted and not looking to be decreasing any time soon. In reflection, I do feel like I’m getting good value out of the things I spend money on. I wouldn’t have chosen to not visit my friend in Shanghai, and I can obviously cook and clean by myself but I really want to spend time learning a language/art/climbing instead. The balance between saving and spending is tipped more towards spending and I’m feeling ok with where it’s at right now. I won’t be able to retire as quickly as I planned 5 years ago, however, I am enjoying the extra time I’ll take to get there much more this way.
Net Worth Update: bumpy ride!
The markets are sure doing something this month. I really hope it’s not going to be a repeat of 2022. I would prefer if my graph looked like an exponential curve rather than a set of poorly constructed stairs…
A bit of better news, the exchange rate for RMB to CAD is much better now so I’ll get an extra little bit when I send money back.