Money Diary #100

Morning: Dad wakes me up around 6:45 since Mom wants to drink tea. Brush my teeth, drink tea, and eat a couple of coconut crackers. Turn on my laptop to get started on work projects. Another cup of tea and some croissants for breakfast. Work for a couple of hours and then go shower. Watch the French Open with Dad. 

Afternoon: Lunch is fried rice & air-fried shrimp. Do a coconut oil pull. Finish work, send a couple of follow-up emails, and see if I can move up my weekly meeting with my manager for tomorrow. I'm trying to clear the calendar on Tuesday so I can run some errands. My manager reschedules our meeting for tomorrow. Pour bbq chips into a container. Have some chips & Coconut Thins with tea for a snack. Mom offers a banana to me (ewwwww!) and she laughs. Read for a while, and here is what I learn:

• Don't take selfies in front of the scoreboard: "Having won the game means not having to take selfies in front of the scoreboard."

• "Lifestyle creep is real": "I'm a high earner sub-30-year-old, but live on about $2,000 per month. Lifestyle creep is real, but it's slow, especially if the people you hang out with aren't living large. I can see from older people in my industry though that once you have a major purchase like a high mortgage on a nice house or a few kids, you likely spend your full earnings."

• Look for user-unfriendly moments: "They still personally fill out “friction logs” of any user-unfriendly moments they encounter using the product."

• A good trait to have: "Change your opinions when the facts change."

• From a Money Diary: "OP is just content in her solitude and the way her life is. She has her SO and her job to cater to her interests. Not everyone exercises a ton and likes to cook."

• "It's really a game of how long is a piece of string": "The biggest test is whether your monthly passive income exceeds your monthly expenses for a sustained period of time. Then you have to also consider whether kids will increase your spending going forward. Can you take a sabbatical from your role and see how you go? I took 6 months off last year between jobs. I loved it and my net worth actually increased given the property market, but cash flow ended up becoming an issue."

• Look for the story behind the numbers: "His current NW is $3.4 million, however $500,000 of that is due to appreciation of his current house, purchased for $1.3 million with proceeds from the sale of their $2.4 million house, balance of the proceeds taken in cash. Their NW four years ago was $2.5 million (and apparently a significant portion of that net worth was from an inheritance). So ignoring the home appreciation, their NW has only increased $400,000 in four years. So while OP says they make $800k-$850k annually with expenses of only $80k per year, they have actually only added an average of $100k annually to their NW."

• On privilege: "The inherent privilege in being able to choose to shop at Goodwill versus being forced to out of necessity. Or feeling ashamed that all you can afford is the $1 section."

• A few kind words: "I try my best to live a positive lifestyle and know that sometimes a few kind words can mean a lot to someone."

Evening: Watch Munsters & Game 2 of the NBA finals with Dad, dinner is fried rice & green beans, and do a coconut oil pull. Brush my teeth and bed around 10:30.