March has been a pretty rewarding month for me. As I mentioned last month, I received a raise, the first paycheck of which was reflected this month. On top of that, I received my bonus and March also happened to be a 3-paycheck month! I allocated the majority of my bonus paycheck to my 401k so for the rest of the year I only have to contribute the minimum to get my employer’s match. Of course, with every high comes…
I’m riding on quite a high this month. My manager was finally able to secure the raise I had been asking for! And I’m not kidding when I say I’ve been asking for it. I point blank asked for a raise over a couple of 1:1s with her because I honestly made a mistake when switching over to her team by not bringing it up. In hindsight, I realized that’s when I would’ve had the most negotiating power. Anyways, at…
I can’t believe the first month of the year is officially over. As for the title of this post, it is very literal. I really did get a brand new vision this month. After years of thinking about it, I finally got LASIK surgery! LASIK Experience I opted for Contoura Vision LASIK which is a newer technology that I was a candidate for. I’ve been having a harder time using contacts especially with allergies and dryness making my eyes itchy….
After two years of pandemic, 2022 marked the year of a new start. It marked a turn as I restarted international travel. It also marked the turn of a decade for me as I entered my 30s. But it was so much more than that. It was a start to a new mentality, one that I aspired to have ever since learning about FIRE as reflected in some of these highlights of 2022. A Stressful Start The first quarter of…
Goodbye 2022, hello 2023! This post will be a short one as I plan to do an in-depth 2022 Year In Review. December was fairly low-key. I didn’t have any big family gatherings this year so it was a pretty relaxing month. I was biting my nails to see how the market would end this year and if I would hit any net worth goals. I’ll keep the suspense going until my next post! December Budget Fixed Spending I went…
November was one of the best months I’ve had in a while. I went on my last trip of the year and it was so relaxing. I definitely went into it with the mindset that I wanted to have a really relaxing tropical vacation after the year I’ve had so while I did some planning, it was a pretty laid back trip. Mid-November, my team also finished up a huge project for work and since then, if I’m being completely…
I’m super late for my October updates, because I’ve been busy since the start of this month. First, right after coming back from my Europe trip, I went straight back to work. It was a lot of catching up at work especially as my PTO was back to back with my manager’s PTO. So not only was I catching up, I also had extra work as her back up. On top of that, my friend really wanted to go on…
I’m overdue for my October 2022 updates but before I get to my financial updates on a different post, I figured I’d recap my trip to Europe! I’ve wanted to go to Europe for as long as I can remember. For one reason or another, it just never happened till now. 2020 was the closest I got to a definite plan but everything went sideways with COVID. So for two agonizing years, I’ve been waiting to go. I was initially…
September was a crazy roller coaster of a month when it came to my net worth. For the first time since I started tracking my net worth, despite working full time and not blowing off all my money, my net worth has gone down this quarter compared to what it was six month ago when I last reported. 3rd Quarter Net Worth I touched the elusive $250k net worth last month a couple times but it never seems to be…
I couldn’t wait to post my updates for this month! August was the best month I’ve had in a while. It honestly seems like things are finally coming back to normal, whatever this new normal is. Things have started to settle down with work so the stress level has definitely gone down. Things have also settled down in terms of home furnishing and home improvement spending so this month’s budget is starting to reflect my usual spending. Even getting COVID…