Tax season.
Spendings Report: $6,910
The spending this month is wild. The top three expenses were Canadian taxes, flights for the summer break, and a donation to the PCRF. This is a finance blog where I reflect on my spending each month in the form of spreadsheets, and I’m particularly satisfied with where my money went for May.
Another thing I’m satisfied about this month: $0 spent on clothes or beauty! I’m very content with the state of my wardrobe right now and happy to coast. Oh, I just realized Living Expenses and Education both use the same colour…Oops. The smaller light blue portion is from Education, purely Chinese classes right now. I’m likely to sign up for another art class in the next month or so once I’m confident I can draw regularly.
Now the other light blue slice, I plan to travel to 5 different countries over the summer break so flight costs made up likely 50% of my spending this month. Two of the flights I decided to put into the Living Expenses category because I always try to go back to Canada in the summer and I don’t consider that an optional luxury or leisure spend. One flight back to Canada, and one of the returning flights to Beijing.
The Health and Hygiene category this month is also high as I pay for another installment of my braces. There are a few other chronic conditions that I’m getting medicine for, thankfully covered under insurance, however the trips to the clinic are not. I did my best to keep the transport expenses down by walking, cycling, and subwaying — it seems to be working ok because although it was more than I’d like, it’s relatively cheap for the distances I travelled. I deeply deeply empathize with anyone who deals with ongoing health issues because in addition to the conditions themselves, there’s also the additional work of keeping track of medication, trips to the hospital, refilling medication, and lifestyle changes to manage symptoms.
Lastly, for the sharp-eyed readers, the savings rate is indeed -8%. Negative. 8%. Haha. I’m going to do my best to live cheaply while I’m with my parents (other than buying groceries etc.)
Net Worth Update: positive!
Here’s what shocked me, despite spending more than I made this month my net worth has went up!
Last month I mentioned market fluctuations now outpace my income contributions, and I’m still not quite over the surprise seeing that this month. To be clear, my income would still have made a good contribution to the total, but it’s not the main driver anymore.
I’ve got some delightful charts of the last (almost) 6 years you guys can look at in a week or two of how my spending habits have changed.
One thing I want to mention at the end, due to some events in my own life, is realizing that being financially secure is a huge part of my confidence. There’s just been a few incidences where younger me would have been devastated whereas now I would only be mildly put off. They’re not actually related to money but viewing it through “it doesn’t impact my early retirement plan” is really nice as a mental rock.
Anyways, stay safe out there, and be kind and generous when/where you can 🙂