Year 3 sem 1 Exchange Cost

Hi Friends,

Even though in my previous post, I have said that I am unable to have a complete Uni experience, I was fortunate enough to somehow afford an exchange in Korea. I had this opportunity to do so and there would not be a significant impact on my portfolio.

After being away from home for roughly 4 months, I am excited to go back to a familiar place. But before that, I would need to sum up the cost of my exchange. Trust me. It does not look pretty.

Total Cash (brought, withdrawn) = S$4473
Flight = S$895
Other expenses= Shall not be included. As I am not confirmed about the amount either.
Cost to maintain life in SG: S$296

But looking at what I had to experience:
1. Forced to be independent in a foreign land that I didn't know the language or the culture
2. Managed to clear 7 modules hence, "freezing my grades" in NTU
3. Made a few friends that I wouldn't have otherwise
4. Joined a local community that has motivated me to grow and be more mindful of my actions.

When I first came to Korea, I didn't know what would happen. I was actually worried that I will not do well in my studies here. I was also worried that I will not enjoy my time here, seeing how I am not into Korean Cuisine at all. However, I realised that there is more to Korean Culture beyond what we are exposed to in KPOP and Kdrama. It was a refreshing experience as I interacted with the local students here and seeing how similar we are in terms of the academic pressures and facing disappointments from their family when they do not perform well in life or in school.

I would say that this exchange was one that is fulfilling albeit one that is expensive. I deeply treasure the interactions that I had with the people during the exchange.  Honestly, I look forward to my upcoming internship which is happening the month I'm back in Singapore. I hope to experience how is it like to be an engineer and make an informed decision when I graduate in 2 years.

Speaking of that, here are my allocation plans that I have come out with for the allowance that I receive from the internship:
1. S$450 goes to food. $5 a meal for 3 meals 30 days in a month.
2. S$52 goes to the monthly bus concession
3. S$80 goes to pay for wifi and phone bills
4. S$150 allowance (This is money for me to spend on anything I need) 3 drinking sessions would deplete it all.
5. S$216 goes to my CPF MA account (This is mainly because of my medical condition, hence, having the money in MA which can earn interest would help me in the long run)

I hope that I would have money left over that I can use to invest. By luck, this can be from the savings when I don't eat $5 a meal. With that, I will be updating my financial situation again at the end of the month and I will update the blog with my spending each month during my internship.

Have a Merry Christmas!

Stay vested, stay frugal my friends.

#update 7th Jan 2020, I managed to get a part time job for the duration of my internship. I'm hoping that the money from the part time job would allow me to put at least $200 every month. I can forsee myself doing this when I have a full time job in the future as well :')

All for the sake of achieving financial independence ^^

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Using this blog to help myself

Hi friends,

I've recently decided to use blogging as a means to update my financial journey. So there will be a monthly update at the end of every month. I hope that through this blog, I can have a clearer understanding of how my portfolio is changing over time.

To give you a background of myself, I am 23 years old at the moment. I grew up in a family that would struggle financially for periods of time. I was (un)fortunate enough that I had loving parents who decided not to let me face reality when I was still young. However, during my post-secondary education, it became clear that my family was not as well-to-do compared to others.

It became worse when I enlisted. My father lost his job and we had to depend on our extended family to support us financially. Thankfully I had my allowance from NS. I didn't need to take money from my parents and I could give back to them on occasions. It was at this time that I was determined to do well in life as I do not want to be a burden to the people I care about. It was a really bad time in my life.

And, after the long-awaited ORD, guess what? UNIVERSITY, I managed to enroll in a public university, so the cost was lower. But it was still way out of my means, and I did not want to take money from my parents (They were willing to pay, I'm not even sure how). In the 8 months between my ORD and my enrollment, I worked. LIKE HELL. I was trying to earn as much of my university fees as I could during that period of time. I gave up on my social life, worked 2 jobs, essentially a 50 hours work week and lost a lot of weight.

Before enrollment, I managed to save up a 5-figure amount that could theoretically last me through my university education. (Since both of my parents were not working, I qualified for bursaries and all that). YES, I thought to myself as I enrolled, there was a slight sense of regret as being in my financial situation, I could never get the full uni experience of going for an exchange, suppers, living in hostels and all that. But I could afford an education. AND I WORKED FOR IT.

Honestly, I don't think that you should follow what I did and what I am doing. I am going to be extremely frugal as I plan to achieve financial freedom by 40. These are financial milestones that I hope to achieve;

30 - S$100,000 in liquid assets like stocks, bonds, cash, insurance policies cash values etc.
40 - S$1,000,000 in net asset.

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Currently, I have the following in my asset:
~20,000 in insurance cash value
- 6,000 in endowment
- 11,217 in fixed deposit
- 3,364 in PSEA
- 5,900 in CPF
- 2,520 in P2P lending
- 800 in stocks
- 1,000 in Singapore Saving bonds
- 20,000 in cash
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In terms of liquid asset: 35,537
Net asset: 70,801

I plan to update this again at the end of the month. Hopefully, I will come up with something that can allow me to get a good visualisation of my portfolio.

With that, thank you for reading my blog. I hope that my story will inspire you to start planning for your own finances.

Stay vested, stay frugal my friends.

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