Category: %%curBrbr

day2day burn rate. diff from cashflowPrjn and expenseTrak

Q: while cutt nonessential spends,where Not2cut #rich-n-frugal

Posted on by tiger40490

Trigger: I decided to cut burn rate on tuition, piano learning, Siloso hotel … to keep burn rate under 4k/M.

Q: so where DO we allow ourselves to spend more? A lifestyle creep question.
A: PEK trips, hote, dining out, healthy fruits and salad, blogg infra,

I think for many individuals, this question is extremely tempting and powerful. You probably feel deprived if you see a windfall investment gain (or bonus), small investment gains accumulating, or months of consistent savings accumulating … but somehow unable to spend it.

Many wealthy families are frugal.

This is yet another example of “time-honored but tough guideline”, as explained in the open blog.

— Singapore past reserves … is a semi-relevant case study. PAP government refuse to spend the reserve. I think every year’s investment return is split 50/50 so half of this return is spendable, but none of the principal.

As a family, it’s important to recognize we are not a country, so I want to be much more frugal with my reserve.

PAP government was proven right when the past reserve had to be deployed (not depleted) in rainy days. Without the fiscal discipline over the decades, the reserve would have been depleted.

— plowback .. see [18]invest salary{high earn`phase #plowback
At the moment, I don’t see a lot of worthwhile plowback choices. It’s easy to become infatuated with the “plowback” notion, and waste money:

  • tuition fees? questionable

##which midclass aspiration ≠ LG2

Posted on by tiger40490

So far, all the bposts on this broad topic (..) have called out aspirations that are non-consequential:

  • branded college
  • SDXQ
  • spacious new home with a view
  • car ownership
  • overseas vacations

Q: Is there one middle-class aspiration that I do subscribe to?
A: here are some choices. Not sure which ONE I would pick.

  1. a safer car
  2. orthodontics, skin surgery
  3. wife staying home? Common among the upper class, but some lower-class families also have this pattern.
  4. safe, conducive school and Safe, clean street? No. This is not just for middle-class
  5. yoga classes

buy+!oth #wife网购

Posted on by tiger40490

 

many purchases were bought-without-OTh but the rmSelf would inevitably become critical, and with guilt we will remember the purchase as a failure. Out of sight, out of mind… I would feel less guilt if I get rid of the physical objects.

creep/ctbz/guilt^buy+!oth .. Harmony and reconciliation between two conflicting directives can lead to a revelation and (personal) growth. There is a related case of reconciliation — frugal indulgence ^ ctbz

— keeping track ..
Related to “merchandize return”, another major tcost and stressor is keeping track of “stuff bought and disused long ago”.

When I lose such an item (perhaps at home or discarded), and have to buy again, I feel an acute self-hate, but this self-hate goes against use-without-care

For example, I removed the red pedestal pair from my bike after boy stopped using them. I kept them at home for a few years and discarded them. Then my daughter needed them so I had to buy online. Actually I did all the right things so regret is not justified.

— Directive 1: Below are SMS for many relatively small purchases. I invented these SMS’s more than 5 years ago. They are still valid.

  • use ….. without care
  • discard without guilt
  • buy ….. without oth
  • buy ….. without fear (of guilt, regret)

— Directive 2: ctbz@small spends

ctbz is my traditional strength in burn rate control. However, $2 wasted spend in Daiso .. is to be tolerated, given my nonwork incomes. Buy without oth, discard without guilt… Sounds like lifestyle creep !

Q: Will these spends accumulate beyond $1000/Y?
A: I doubt it. ctbz in this case can be ineffective. My due diligence (System 2) is sometimes too slow before spending such small amounts.

Over the years, Let’s record 10 – 20 small wasted spends (below $10) so as to calibrate System 1:

  • bicycle seat (boy) and helmet (meimei)
  • small paper punch (boy)
  • long cloth  hangers
  • Note: fancy indulgence/luxury foods (or consumables like battery) are never “wasted” esp. if eaten with pleasure
  • extra laptop .. now I feel a _burden_ to use it once a while to avoid disuse->oxidation
  • badminton net .. luckily, I didn’t make the buying decision.

Toilet blue flush .. I used to think this is unnecessary lifestyle creep. Now I think it can
* reduce water consuption because wife (and I) will not “flush again” when the blue conceals the light-yellow. Half flush never worked with my wife.
* reduce conflict with my wife

— How about wife’s online shopp habit? She bought many small furniture items (often non-durable models), used each for about a year and discarded them (regardless of damage) when she buys a replacement.

Beyond furniture, many of her purchases are decorative so she enjoys “churn”.

I think her practice is “buy without oth and discard without guilt“.

##low-cost pain relieves #counsel`@chen2mi2

Posted on by tiger40490

How about mesh router? Sounds like creep.

How about Bata sandals as a pain relief? Depends on durability.

see also

“low-cost” is subjective (No debate please.) but Indisputable value-for-money.

  1. — half-ranked by impact and value of the pain-relief
  2. eg: dhost.. relieving those countless pains on the free wordpress.com site
  3. eg: small laptop with git-blogg .. without it I couldn’t work on my active ideas. A kind of pain.
  4. eg: 2-printer lifestyle, with plenty of paper + spare cartridge
  5. eg: standing desk .. often feels very comfortable. Therefore I call it a pain relief.
  6. eg: powerline networking .. relieving pain of wifi dead zone
  7. eg: $10 LED lamp .. relieving pain of power sockets + heat from a table lamp

Items below are medium-cost pain relieves.. not really belonging to this blogpost.

  1. eg: counselling on chen2mi2?
  2. ElderShield

The rest of this blogpost are extensions of the theme.

— Sophia Cui said cars are real pain relieves even in SG. I don’t understand it, but she  has freedom to spend her own money. Not low-cost enough to be a lifestyle creep.
— I asked Umesh why his stay-home wife needs a maid, when his 67-year-old mom can help with childcare. I liked his detailed answers.  I think old habits are the biggest obstacle, if someone in his shoes really wants change (i.e. remove helper). Many families similar to his could make do without maids.

One old habit is home-cooking-as-default. His mom is possibly rather old for a change in this habit, though some grandmas do change.

I guess the #1 decision maker is likely the wife (rather than husband or mother-in-law). Without the maid, the wife would take on most of the workload. Attitude and perception is possibly the key (difference from my wife). She actually worked for a while before having first baby, and after the baby girl grew bigger. She was possibly less used to stay-home-mom lifestyle than other Indian housewives.

— creep? Lifestyle_creep is a vague concept. This blogpost provides valuable clarification using sharp examples.
Jolt: dhost is a great example. I couldn’t afford it in my younger years.
Jolt: 2-printer does sound like unnecessary luxury, but so did powerline when first deployed
(jolt: two-car family sounds like creep, but so do my multiple laptops, but this jolt doesn’t belong to this blogpost.)

Q: What specific criteria disqualify dhost as lifestyle creep?

  • criterion: total hours saved (less measurable than $cost)
  • .. total annual cost is not really a criteria per se but a crucial factor
  • criterion: In hindsight, do you see it as wasted spend or overpriced product?

##def2 [creep]=semi-conscious small luxury spend

Posted on by tiger40490
  • eg: movies
  • eg: taxi
  • eg: simple gadgets
  • eg: simple shoes, dresses
  • eg: toys

When we feel [1] we have more disposable income, we tend to loosen up a bit and spend here and there for a bit of comfort and indulgence. In general, I feel it’s best to be more conscious (ctbz) when spending money, though “conscious” may run against “buy-without-oth”

  1. suggestion: avoid credit card or NETS. They are too unconscious.
  2. Suggestion: expense tracking
  3. Suggestion: enforceable budget

[1] Note we often fail to recognize the tax-like expenses. We do notice them after we stop paying our mortgage or school fees.

— On vacations (sometimes even at home) my family sometimes question me “Why are we so careful spending money?”

People want “freedom” to spend. Similarly, people want freedom to eat whatever they want, and the freedom not to exercise or brush teeth, the freedom to sleep any time they want and get up only when they want to. All of these freedoms are detrimental to the body, not to mention the mind.

careful ≈ conscious ≠ frugal. I do spend quite a bit on education, reunion flights, piano courses, wpress hosting, multiple laptops, books, … Not so frugal, but conscious spending, not mindless spending.

splurge #sis,athletes #cf Creep

Posted on by tiger40490

Splurge is more conscious than semi-conscious luxiry spend . Splurge is different from creep. Splurge is more conscious and faster; Creep is more recurring and seldom big-ticket items. (splurge is both a noun and a verb)

I need to watch out for this tendency in my kids. This tendency is found in every one of us, including me. The earliest eg: At the end of our New Silk-route venture, we had some bank account balance. In the end each person received $200+, but before that, I proposed (more than once) that we spend the balance on a feast. Luckily, the other shareholders decided to divide the balance and take home.

— I think my ctbz(寸土必争) micro-saving habit helps curb the splurge tendency + semi-conscious spend.

— Q: Why don’t I feel “safe” giving my wife a bigger monthly allowance?
eg: A: exactly because I have seen how my mom increased her spending 3 folds or more when we relocated to Singapore to earn a much higher income.

— why I want to live a long life and control the rate of “release” to my offspring.
eg: On 31 Dec 1993 on his return to China grandpa left some 5-digit sum for my sis. In 1994, she asked me to release it to her and subsequently spent it over a short period. I tend to say “12M” but possibly 6M or a few years.

— splurge tendency and the quick easy money
eg: Many professional athletes squander away their peak income, and descend into cash flow low ground after retirement.

eg: Many homeless people receive an inheritance or and squander it away within a year. It’s hard for such a individual to suddenly learn responsible spending.

eg: https://www.getrichslowly.org/how-and-why-i-sold-get-rich-slowly/ described the temptation to splurge.

##[17] frugal indulgence #din`

Posted on by tiger40490

By “indulgence” I mean things not absolutely necessary for work, study or well-being. Creature comfort.

Depriving yourself of all indulgence is harsh/punishing , unfair/unjustified, and unsustainable.

Q: is there a (cognitive) conflict and tension between ctbz and frugal indulgence?
A: not sure. Frugal indulgence is supposed to be guarded by my ctbz habit, so frugal indulgence should not create guilt or degenerate into lifestyle creep

Frugal indulgence are personal. (In contrast, luxuries are more universal, like nice clothing/gadgets, spacious and new home/hotel …) Look into your heart. Each of us need to identify those nice little luxuries with the highest pleasure and enjoyment for “ourselves”. For me:

  • [Feb 2023] Saizeriya: $4.90 fancy dessert.. small but not frugal indulgence. Not worthwhile
  • [Christmas 2022] $35 log cake
  • [S] coffee shop 杂菜饭 (mixed vegie rice)
  • exercise or yoga classes
  • free: jogging in big park
  • [S] free: stadium. In contrast, activeSG swimming pools and gyms are low-cost
  • movies — luxury
  • [S] taxi to bring family to east coast
  • [S] free: Pasir Ris resort next to the beach
  • free: beach
  • dining with old friends
  • tech books, even though ebooks are widespread nowadays.
  • [big ticket] frequent flights to see my immediate family
  • WPCH
  • [S=SG specific]

For grandma

  • swimming pool

— family dining out .. up to $15/pax .. not really “frugal” but it has become a conscious joint decision of me and wife. We spend this extra money and time to have a “good time” for the family, hopefully something fancy and memorable. You can call it a small luxury, but always in a family context.

[22]G2 costs: middle-class immigrant]SG

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— The trigger .. In Oct 2022, I overheard a pantry conversation when a Filipino finIT said half his income goes to school fees and a quarter goes to accommodation. Later I double-checked with another immigrant colleague (From Shanghai). She said that was not exaggerated and not uncommon. Obviously, we were careful to avoid naming a (typical, presumed) salary figure.

Now I agree that school fees and accommodation are the top 2 costs to a higher middle-class immigrant in SG. How can an immigrant cope?

  • sugg: rent HDB … practical for me and some colleagues, but seems impractical for majority of my immigrant colleagues.
  • sugg: stay in outskirt, not prime locations. I think many of my immigrant peers do that already.
  • sugg: if no slots in public schools, then go for the least expensive private school. Lowest price tag was $2k/M as of 2015/2016
  • .. Luckily, my kids are good enough to cope with public schools.

— Medical cost … Luckily, my employers provides good health benefits for entire family, but
* what if you have a grandparent staying with you, like Umesh? They are not covered and they tend to incur high cost
* what if your employer provides only partial coverage?

— brbr and savings rate .. My Filipino colleague implied a brbr barely above 1.1. Saving rate would be very low, as Lancy pointed out.

— How about my immigrant friends in the U.S.?

food cost≅20% of monthly burn rate #Zeng

Posted on by tiger40490

Hi Zeng Sheng,

Thanks for the tips on

团购. My wife actually does use grocery 团购 once a while. I don’t think it saves us a lot.

Today I want to explain why nutrition accounts for about 20% of monthly burn rate.

( In Consumer Price Index, mortgage payment and investment amounts are excluded. So the total monthly burn rate in CPI calculation could be lower than the total monthly outlay in your calculation. )

I think my nutrition expenses is $800-1000 a month including

  • about $100/M restaurant dining. Every time I bring my son out, he would pick some Japanese restaurant. Typically $20-$30 each visit.
  • supermarket + wet market — perhaps $150 a week. My wife’s Supermarket spend adds up to around $400-500. I spend at least $10 each trip, more than 6 times a month.
  • desserts and drinks (excluding purchases in restaurants + supermarkets). Sometimes $10 in a day. For example, after every exercise trip with my kids, we would reward ourselves with these sweet indulgences.