Expenses - July 2019

Total - S$12,350.24

Massive month of expenditure. Total amounted to S$12,350.24, which made up more than 25% of my annual budget. Let's do a quick recap of the constituent expenditure.

The largest category was no doubt "Europe Trip", coming up to S$5,645.39. My partner and I have decided to head to Europe for about 14 weeks come end September, and this represented most of the front-loading for fixed expenditure in Europe, such as car rental, air tickets, and most of the accommodation during that period.

This will certainly be an exciting trip for us, and I must say that we have seen much value in pricing for long term accommodation in Europe. We'll be staying in one of the PIGS countries, and our monthly rental through AirBnb works out to be c. S$1,900 or so for some sweet and spacious digs that come with a decent view.

The second largest category was "Diving". This came up to S$4,770. Decided that there is some merit for proceeding with advanced certification, and paid up to undertake training for my Rescue Diver and Divemaster courses, of which the latter would be the first step for being a professional diver and open up new streams of income.

Frankly, I don't weigh the income bit much, but I do think being a Divemaster would allow me to have access to future dive trips without forking out cash, with the quid pro quo being to have to take care of the diving detail and doing some work, things that I have no qualms doing. I also purchased a full set of equipment, given it'll be more bang for buck than renting equipment for all the diving I'll be doing in the foreseeable future.

The third largest category was "Eating Out", which came up to S$516.34. This was a little bit below the normal monthly expenditure levels, given I spent most 18 days of the month away in North America and Indonesia. So not much to delve into here.

July was way over budget, by c. 208%, but that's fine, given most of it is front loading for the future, and I'll be roughly in line with my annual budget of S$48,000.

One thing I've noticed over the last 12 months or so is that I've come to realise that I might not actually have to gut it out that much on a monthly basis, if I can keep the overall picture in check. That being said, it'll still be at least 4.5 years before I actually have to draw down on invested capital, and I'm not quite sure how I'll feel when the time comes, so let's see how this goes.

It has been almost 12 months since I've left the work force. Perhaps I shall write about my general thoughts and perceptions on my journey in my next post.