Money Diary #101

Morning: Wake up around 7, brush my teeth, and drink a cup of tea. Eat a croissant for breakfast, check emails, and prep for my 10:30 meeting. Jump on that call, connect with a colleague, and she requests a follow-up email to another colleague. I send that email and then review projects that have come in throughout the morning. A meeting later this afternoon gets canceled and moved to tomorrow. 

Afternoon: Lunch is rice, veggies, and fish stew. Do a coconut oil pull, prep for my upcoming meeting with my manager, and head to that call. Our office is having an off-site at the nearby baseball stadium, and she says if I go, she'll go. I'm the biggest baseball fan, and these seats come with unlimited free food (lol), so I tell her I'd love to go except for the fact that the day of the offsite is my meeting-heavy day. She tells me it's okay to miss the meetings that day, but I'll feel bad for missing for a baseball game & ultimately decide to pass on it, haha. Head to another call with her and another colleague and then I'm done with calls for the day. Drink a cup of tea for a snack and review projects. I follow up with the hiring manager regarding a position in an international office & set up time with him to chat later this week.

Evening: Watch TV; dinner is rice, veggies, and fish stew; and brush my teeth. Do a coconut oil pull and bed around 10. 

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.

Money Diary #99

Morning: Dad wakes me up around 6:45 since he wants to get Mom some meds. Get up, brush my teeth, and drink a cup of tea & eat a couple of crackers. Get dressed and head out to the nearby CVS. They don't have it, so we visit another CVS and a Target. Dad wants to check another CVS, so we head there and decide to get it from Target on the way back. Head to Sprouts to grab 4 mangoes, bananas, and some meds for Mom. Visit Target on the way back and get more meds for her. As we're heading out, I can smell the nearby Chick-Fil-A (even while wearing a mask!) and I joke with Dad on how CfA always knows how to reach its customers. When we get back home, everyone drinks a cup of tea, and I go shower. Watch some French Open with Dad, and read for a while. Here is what I learn:

• "Wealth comes in different forms": "I don’t have dollar signs in my eyes but an hourglass with sand slipping through."

• A good career skill to have: "Listen and try to find any potential disconnect between 2 or more very smart people who just need multiple perspectives to fully grasp/align on things."

• How to maintain independence: "The only way to maintain independence is if your appetite for stuff – including status – can be satiated."

• What they don't teach in med school: "A doctor once told me the biggest thing they don’t teach in medical school is the difference between medicine and being a doctor – medicine is a biological science, while being a doctor is often a social skill of managing expectations, understanding the insurance system, communicating effectively, and so on."

• Like hanging out with an old friend: "I loved the Anne of Green Gables series. I re-read them every few years. It's like hanging out with an old friend."

• Good advice: "Don't change jobs just because you are unhappy with something else in your life."

• More career advice: "Tell people what they want to hear and you can be wrong indefinitely without penalty. Being nice to people is the easiest career competitive advantage."

• "Things change": "You have to prepare for something worse than you what you hope for."

• A good reminder: "What others do for leisure is your bartender friend's livelihood."

• "Position yourself to be successful": "My advice is to not focus on money, keep your head down, work hard, go way above and beyond, and align yourself with the people who can be decision makers in your career. CHRO, CEO, GC and who you think is up next for those jobs. Do whatever you can for them. Always be available. Be pleasant. Don’t be the type of person who always says no. Focus on “how.” Play the long game. Believe in yourself but position yourself to be successful. It’s more important than how smart you are or how good a lawyer you are."

• Savoring infrequent feelings, storing them, & how to remind myself of them: "I feel like a boss after killing everything today! I savor this infrequent feeling and channel it toward the next big steps for my research. This is the best time to think about risky ideas, store them in my head, and revisit them for validity when I'm perhaps feeling less confident." 

• The end goal: "You have such a simple and fulfilling approach to life that I really admire and I absolutely love the dynamic of your relationships from romantic to work."

• Truth: "I dial into a call with the lawyers on a deal we're currently working on, which drags on for awhile. I like the team on this deal, though — especially the female associate. It's true what they say — liking the people you work with literally makes all the difference."

Afternoon: Lunch is rice, potatoes, and hard boiled eggs. Do a coconut oil pull and watch golf. Fall asleep for a couple of hours until I hear my dad trying to wake me up, lol. SO texts that he's in the fancy city's Costco and if I want anything. I tell him to check if they carry Tatcha over there, but unfortunately, they don't. Veg for the afternoon, drink tea with Coconut Thins & potato chips for a snack, and watch TV while reading multiple Money Diaries. My favorite kind of afternoon :-)

Evening: Mom reminds me I need to wake up early tomorrow, so I decide to veg on the couch & start the work projects tomorrow. Watch baseball while continuing to read Money Diaries, dinner is rice with egg stew & lamb stew, and do a coconut oil pull. Brush my teeth, and bed around 10:30.

Money Diary #98

Morning: Up around 6:30 and check email. A few projects have come in, so I brush my teeth and work on those for an hour. Eat a croissant & drink a cup of tea for breakfast. Walk around for a bit. Go shower & use the psoriasis shampoo. Jump on my 10 am call. It goes until 11:30, and I'm done with meetings for the day. 

Afternoon: Keep an eye out on my inbox, wait for Dad to shower, and then have rice & lamb stew for lunch. Mom isn't feeling well, so she sleeps while we have lunch. Do a coconut oil pull. A work project comes in around 1, and I decide to do it next week. Read for a bit, and here is what I learn:

• On mental peace: "The cost of living is rising for all of us at the moment, and I've had to make some sacrifices mentally -- maybe I won't ever save enough for a house? Maybe I'll have to rent forever? Maybe I won't be able to afford kids, or live somewhere with a yard big enough for a dog? Verbalizing these possibilities is scary because it has meant the life I pictured for myself has changed, but it's brought some peace as well."

• Signal vs noise: "In most situations, a handful of variables drive the majority of outcomes. If you've covered the few things that matter, you're all set. A lot of what gets added in after that is unnecessary filler that either wastes your time or is designed to confuse or impress you."

• Reasonable or bullshit: "In the same sense, if I say, “The stock market is forecast to return 16% over the next 12 months,” it sounds reasonable. But if I said, “I think people will be in a 10% better mood next June,” it sounds like bullshit. And it is. But those two lines are practically saying the same thing."

• Perspective: "There were definitely times when we would eat a bowl of beans as dinner or had the lights off for a few nights, but I never questioned it. Being the youngest, I truly had no concept of money for a long time. I just knew not to ask for anything that I did not need. If I wanted something, I would bargain with my parents to let me go without something else for a while so I could have it. I remember wanting something to listen to music on and my mom got me a portable cassette player for a few bucks at a garage sale because they were almost obsolete at that point. I treasured that thing for years and would listen to every cassette of old random music my mom had."

• A good life goal: "Create all the happiness you are able to create; remove all the misery you are able to remove. Every day will allow you, will invite you to add something to the pleasure of others, or to diminish something of their pains."

• On gratefulness: "I am very grateful to my parents as they allowed me to save and spend more money on wants rather than needs."

Make tea for Dad and myself, and drink it with a couple of Coconut Thins from Costco. 

Evening: Around 5:30, a colleague messages me, so I reply back to her. A project just came in that I'll review over the weekend. Veg for a while, dinner is rice & lamb stew, and do a coconut oil pull. Brush my teeth and bed around 11.

Money Diary #95

Morning: Up around 7 and migrate to the sofa. Keep an eye out on my inbox, brush my teeth, and reach out to a senior colleague with a question since my manager is out this week. Around 11, the senior colleague messages back and I briefly talk to her. Head to another call after that. 

Afternoon: Jump on another call at noon that goes until 2. Drink leftover coffee with almond milk, and head to my last meeting of the day at 3. That runs a bit past 4, and I'm done for the day. SO comes home around 5:30 & asks if I want to do IKEA for dinner since today is the last day of 15% off at the restaurant. I say yes obviously.  

Evening: Head to the gym first where SO works out & I play on the phone. Once he is done, we head to IKEA where we both get the chicken tender plate (double fries for me & fries/mashed potatoes for him since he's craving gravy). We also each get a drink. After eating, he finds a to-go box for one leftover chicken tender & fries. We walk around the store, and he gets a painting in the discounted section. Head to a TJMaxx-type store afterwards. Nothing there, so we walk to the Ross that's next door. No dice there either, so we head home. As we're walking out of the store, we see someone playing their electric violin, and it sounds really nice and peaceful. Back home, watch TV, and bed around midnight. 

Money Diary #96

Morning: Wake up around 7:30, brush my teeth, and migrate to the sofa. SO is WFH today (yay!). Keep an eye out on my inbox. Around 11:30, SO asks if I want to eat lunch, so I eat the leftover chicken tender & some fries, and he warms up the last of the pepperoni pizza. In the middle of eating, a couple of emails come in, so I send a few follow-ups and set up a call to discuss the topic. 

Afternoon: Head to a noon meeting that ends in 30 minutes. Then jump on back-to-back calls that start at 1 and run until 3. Take a break for a bit and then go shower. 

Evening: Realize that the Fantastic Beast movies are on HBO Max, so I start watching the first one. After 15 minutes, I'm super bored, so I switch over to Friends, lol. We had a BOGO movie coupon that expired yesterday, and I'm glad we didn't use it to go see the latest Fantastic Beasts movie. He goes to the gym, and I keep watching Friends. Once he is back, he makes ramen with eggs (yum!) and we eat that for dinner. He puts on laundry, and I fall asleep on the couch. Head to bed around 11:30.

Money Diary #97

Morning: Wake up around 8, brush my teeth, and take laundry out of the dryer & dump it in one of the guest bedrooms. Log on to review a project. He kisses me goodbye and heads to work. I pack up my laptop, call my dad, and head back to parents' place. Once I'm back there, take a shower. Eat a croissant and drink a cup of tea for breakfast. Keep an eye out on my inbox.

Afternoon: Jump on a noon call that ends at 1. Jot down some notes for the meeting with my manager next week, and complete a project that came in. Lunch is rice, spinach from the garden, and fish stew. Get dressed to head to the appraiser's office with Dad. We go there, and the lady is very helpful & gives us a form to complete. We'll fill it out at home and bring it back to her. Stop by Chick-Fil-A for 12 nuggets & 2 large waffle fries. Once we're back home, fall asleep for a bit. Wake up, read for a while, and here is what I learn:

• A good reminder: "It's only work if you would rather be doing something else. Find a way to carve a career out of what you already want to do."

• Buying vs renting: "Buying gives you a short term risk of losing 100k's of equity. Renting gives you a long term risk of losing 100k's in additional housing payments."

• Paycheck to paycheck: "Above a certain threshold, living paycheck to paycheck is about managing expenses. Below that, it’s about not having enough money, period."

Split nuggets with Dad for a snack, and everyone has fries & a cup of tea. Send a message to a colleague to see if a project will be coming in this evening or tomorrow morning for review. She replies that it'll likely be tomorrow morning. 

Evening: Veg on the couch and watch TV. Dinner is rice and fish stew. Split a dessert with Mom and share watermelon with Dad. Brush my teeth and bed around 10.