In 2024, my total spending excluding rental and parental allowances came up to about S$63,597 or S$5.3k per month, which is within my budgeted amount of S$5.3k/month and coming in slightly below 2023 annual spend of c. S$65k.
My share of the rent and parental allowances came up to be c.S$23.4k or S$1.95k per month and I reckon these cash payments will come down by quite a substantial amount to be below S$300 per month once I get the keys to my BTO, given my share of the BTO will be fully funded by my CPF OA going forward (i.e. it is more than 100% covered).
Expenses Review
1) The largest contributor to the expenses line in 2024 was undoubtedly travel as total category spend (including diving) came up to be c. S$22.8k, or c.36% of total spend.
The travel schedule was a somewhat more relaxed in 2024, with 66 days spent overseas compared to 88 days in 2023 (excluding the multiple JB day trips that were made in 2024😊).
1) c.2 weeks in Italy;
2) c.3 weeks in China;
3) c.3 weeks in Thailand, Malaysia and Vietnam exploring SEA on land; and
4) c.2 weeks diving in Indonesia (35 dives in Komodo and Nusa Penida)
So it works out to be close to 2+ months overseas in 2024, or c.18% of the time.
Expenses in this category here includes S$8.2k diving, with half of that being prepaid for 2 weeks in Indonesia in Mar 2025. Enjoyed the diving so much that I’m going to hit the same spot again in March but it will be a different seasons so we’ll hit different dive spots with different climate and hopefully more interesting or novel sea critters to see.
This expense will definitely drop in 2025 as I will more definitely have to spend more time in Singapore sorting out the BTO renovation and move-in process. There are other personal development aspects I would like to focus on for the year itself, but I will save that for a post down the road.
In any case, my travel schedule is looking, comparatively, kind of light at the moment, with only March being largely blocked out for c. 2 weeks in Japan and c. 2 weeks in Indonesia, and probably another 10 days in Sri Lanka in June.
2) The second largest category was Food & Beverage, or expenses for dining out. This totaled S$11.3k, or c.18% of total spend.
This is roughly in line with what I spent in 2023, given we do eat out as a couple quite a bit, even as I did try out home cooking for a period of time when I was in Singapore. Alas, similar to last year, there isn’t much insights to be had in this category. The highest single expenditure for each meal was perhaps c.S$350 and these were limited to certain occasions, and if the partner wants to go for a nice meal or two as a way of dealing with work stress lol.
As an aside, for more special occasions such as birthday / anniversary celebrations, this was categorized under “Gifts”, especially if I was the one buying the meal.
I do think this category might rise in 2025 though, given the increase in prices overall in Singapore and if I actually do stay in SG more often. Again, my travels in 2024 only served to reinforce the notion that it is really pretty expensive to eat out in Singapore comparatively (hawker centres and coffee shops aside) to the other places that I have visited last year. One really does not get bang for buck for what you pay here.
3) Coming in for the 3rd largest category in 2024 was Technology at S$5.2k, or c.8% of total spend. This largely comprised a 55” Sony Bravia 8 TV at S$2.9k and a 256GB iPhone 15 Pro at S$1.6k.
The former is a massive upgrade from a 43” Prism+ which was close to 4 years old, and will be a mainstay for the next 5 years as I move into my BTO flat and the latter is a bit of an upgrade from a “free” iPhone 13 Pro Max that I received 1.25 years back. Thought of changing that given I’m not a big fan of the bulky Pro Max. There’s only so much my pocket can take lol.
Also, I bought a new Kobo Libra Color for S$291 when I was purchasing the Sony TV. Was quite a steal given I was already going to spend S$3.2k+ on a TV and had a S$120 voucher, but if I did upsize my transaction value to S$3.5k I would have gotten a S$350 voucher, so technically the new Libra cost me about S$80 bucks before selling the old one, and I “made money” by selling the old one. I guess this is F.I.R.E math lolol.
Surprisingly I managed to find takers for my old equipment, sold the iPhone 13 Pro Max at S$800, the Prism+ TV at S$180 and a 5 year old Kobo Clara B/W for S$120. I guess if you wait around long enough and manage the “fast deal” fellas in carousell, one might find a new nesting place for old undesired items at decent prices.
As a sidenote, to be conservative, my expenses are gross and not net of revenue earned from sale of used items.
4) Special mention to the fourth largest category this year round, which was unsurprisingly "Gifts" that came up to be c. S$4.6k or c.7% of total spend.
Weddings, birthdays of loved ones, ang pows for CNY and some treats for my wife here and there to celebrate special occasions like our anniversary contributed to this category. I note that while this has decreased by S$1k y-o-y, it is probably unlikely to decrease much more, and might slightly increase as we engage in different experiences for special occasions with loved ones.
In Summary
The headline monthly expense of S$5.3k has surpassed my original FIRE budget (back in 2018) of S$4k for the second year running, and while I do think the data points to this level of spending becoming the new normal, I suspect recurring expenses might actually moderate slightly downwards over the next two years as I spend more time in Singapore once I move into my new abode for at least the next 5 years.
In any case, total spend of S$63.6k falls below 2.5% of AUM (won’t be exact about this figure and see definition of AUM in last years’ expense review) and I do still have a 47-54 months cash runway before I start drawing down my AUM, so I take a bit of comfort in that.
I will do a more holistic review of my net worth, thoughts of life in 2024 and some plans going forward in a future post, once 31 Dec 24 numbers are finalized and after I get to finish with my reflections and plans.
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