Spendings

I’m not a big spender myself, comparing with most people. Am I a miser? Well, yes - according to some people that close to me, those who claim to know me. Though I don’t I’m that much a miser, cos I ‘m not very good with my personal finance which is something I’m not proud of, considering that I went to business school and work in financial company. I think I’m just not financially secured, particularly for years down the road. That’s why I’m a bit of penny pincher myself sometimes.

I think it has a lot to do with my personal belief that only change is forever. But what would be changed, change for the better or worse. It is so unpredictable. Certainly, I bought insurance which is a logical way to manage those of kind risks, but I just never feel comfortable that would be enough. Cos, many things are just not covered by insurance, and I don’t want to buy every kind of conceivable types of insurance out there. Saving is an old way, in views of the inflation and depreciation of currency. Investment is the only way to go. Real estate is hot and common here, but I’m not comfortable with that as an investment to keep value. It is just not liquid enough. Stocks, bonds and funds are the way to go. However, I’m not good at that as my personal investing experience has shown to me. I did incur quite some losses, some of them have yet to realized. Namely, I’m still trapped by some bad decisions that I made. I still continue to invest, hopefully things will look up in long run. But, nothing is for sure.

My life has certainly been changed after each milestone. As being a dad now, financial responsibility becomes heavier than before. Thanks to my wife’s contribution, things are ok so far. My son is still very young, the largest expenditures – schooling and other accessories, are still on the way. That makes me a bit nervous. Certainly, there are folks here are poorer than me but have more kids than me. They seem to be doing fine. But, hey, who know? Maybe they are much worse off privately that we don’t know. Or, I don’t want my kid to be deprived from opportunities that….just a little more money can buy. I don’t believe in OVER expended on kid stuffs, like toys or clothes. However, I don’t want him to be worse off just because of money, especially something long term, like education.

So, for my monthly balance sheet, with a permanent job (for the time being), my income is largely stable. In terms of spending, except the essential expenses like rent, utilities, groceries, payment to my dad and investments that set aside, I don’t spend much on other things. That’s what my wife says to me. Cos, I just don’t have much spare time to spend or to enjoy what if I spend. Is it kinda sad? I don’t know, but that’s what is happening to me now.

For example, for clothes, other than the working clothes, I have enough spare casual clothes, they are not broken or really torn, consider the small wardrobe the I have, I just don’t feel like buying anything new. Also, I don’t really have much time to go hangout anymore. Going to park, or supermarket, doesn’t need to dress up. For movies and music, I don’t have time to go movies anymore. Back in my college days, I went to see 40+ movies a year. Now, I think half a dozen is too many. Also, I still have dozens of movies that I either brought or was given have not been watched. For music, who will pay for that these days? Actually, I’ve enough music in my collection to last a lifetime already. I don’t have time to buy much comic books, I don’t own a video game console. I am not into any of those expensive hobbies like photography, home theaters. Constructing models, or any kind of collection are out of the scope as there isn’t much space at home. So, my mere interest is related to internet which only incurs a fixed cost, doesn’t take extra space, and can be managed at my own pace. Well, still, once in a while, I would still buy a magazine, like ezone or PC weekly, not something I need. That’s all.

I’m not sure if my spending pattern is ok or not objectively, honestly, I don’t really care what others think of me. I earn my money and I spend the way I see that fit.