I'm seldom stressed about my financial situation because I don't really spend a lot and I save a major portion of my income. However, recently I've been trying to think out of my financial situation. Without giving specifics, I think I might have spent too heavily on both the COV of my resale and the renovation part. The COV of the resale cost me 40k and I don't even know what I'm paying for. At least for the renovation, I can see something tangible. COV? It's just an excess value above whatever valuation they come up with. It's something that I can do without. But this is Singapore - to get a flat fast in a matured estate, that is the price to pay.
The renovation bit is finally closed. Works out to be around 77k. Wah, jaws dropped... The bad thing about getting resale is that the condition of the flat is not that good. Hacking and planing the walls flat itself cost a few xxxx. I really really hope it's worth it after spending a big fortune on my house. If all things go well from next year onwards, I will be staying at home to work and making the best out of the money spent on the renovation. With such a big capital sunk into the home office, I've burnt my bridges. There's no turning back. I'll have to make it!
There's a couple of household appliances and furniture that still needed to be sourced out before the flat is livable. The major items include fridge, oven, dining table and a dining table for the study room (which is used for my work), sofa, a few tables (bedside table, coffee table, desktop for work), some lamps, a few fans, bowls and plates, cutlery, washing machin , cleaning equipment like broom, vacuum cleaner, mop etc. Did I put in TV and dvd player? No, I purposely left it out because that's going to be the last thing I'm going to need right now. That can wait...I'll have to do a few important things first in the proper sequence, so that my income stream can settle the cashout flow.
By end of this month, the bulk of my income stream would have run dry for this year. Hopefully my savings are enough to last me through the winter months as well as to settle whatever is necessary for the furniture and appliance part. I might need another 5k to tide me over, so perhaps I'll have to increase my saving target to 55k for this year. Just another 5k more to tide me through this extraordinary month, though 10k would seriously be nicer. If I can't hit that amount, I'll have to take off whatever bullets I have reserved for investments out. That would leave me with no emergency cash, though I still have quite a bit of holdings in equities that would serve as the emergency of the emergency. I don't think I'll come down to that though, unless I didn't stagger my purchases for the furniture wisely.
4Q plan:
1. Save up another 5-10k to bulk up my cash reserves before the winter month.
2. Work harder through the winter month instead of taking break. That would generate a low but still helpful cashflow in the winter months.
3. Stagger purchases of bulk items. More use of 0% credit installment, perhaps over 1 yr to ease out the cashflow bottleneck.
Wanted to put (4) Rely on help from family and (5) Buy cheaper and low quality furniture. No, I'll not do that. In life, one has to learn how to be independent, because ultimately, it's the way we can outgrow ourselves. It's also for the best because I'll be debt free - not those financial kind but the relationship kind. It's important for me to stand straight and walk tall among my family, so I'll best rely on my own. What about (5)? I'm thankful my journey learning the ins and outs of investing/trading taught me this very important lesson. Rather than buy cheap and low quality counters, it's better to be patient and wait for high quality counters to become affordable. Price shouldn't be the concern here - it should always be the quality. Get the best that money can buy so that time and energy would not be wasted hunting for new, cheaper ones again.
Alright, I feel better now. I just got to get it out so that it clears my mind. I know what I have to do now.
"Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice." ~ Steve Jobs