the september 2024 list

was this month actually...a good one?

This month’s favorites: cooking something that actually ends up tasting good, cooking for other people (i now understand why this is any asian immigrant parent's love language), playing pickleball with/against asian aunties and uncles (dare i say grandmas even)

Vid staffliet by August Malmström (1929-1901)

The Wheel Of Life is a self-assessment tool that breaks down different areas of your life and meausres the strength of each, on a scale of 1 (worst) to 10 (best).

My average score for this month was a 7.5—my highest overall score in 2024 since April (the month I started tracking them on these lists).

Health (7) — Used to be called physical, now renamed to health. This encompasses everything from my eating habits, exercise routine, and any ailments. In September, my yeast infection and scratches from when I fell during pickleball began to fully heal. I’ve started cooking homemade meals and learned what the paddle system meant in pickleball. I’ve also started adding vitamins into my routine—this isn’t always necessary and I still do believe this industry is rampant with scam products; however, there are some vitamins that can generally help my day to day health (e.g., probiotics for bloating, Vitamin B for angular cheilitis).

Emotional (8) — Even though I cried a lot this month (what’s new), they were spurts of tears, not so much for a prolonged reason or incident. I’ve felt more in control of my emotions and have been able to regulate them through healthy coping mechanisms (e.g., journaling, reading).

Relationship (10) — This score stayed consistent from last month, which is always a great feeling. Even though Mr. Beans has been extremely stressed with work and coursework (he’s enrolled in two Master’s level engineering courses outside of his 9-5 job because he’s an academic at heart), we’ve been able to find a good balance in spending time with each other but also me giving him space to laser focus on his priorities.

Friendship (6) — This score is slowly increasing! Ever since communicating with Egg about the friendship, I’ve felt this pressure I didn’t realize I had lift off my shoulders. It’s not like we’re back to where we used to be, but there is some progress being made between the both of us.

Professional (6) — Work is…work. As the main project that’s funding my salary is coming to an end, our team is scrambling to put together a massive final report. It’s been such a headache for our project manager (the poor lady has to work weekends and nights). I’ve found myself working into the night too, but that’s mainly an issue of poor time management.

Finances (8) — I hit a big net worth milestone ($150,000) and felt relatively in-control of my finances despite spending around $1,500 for a roundtrip flight to Taiwan! The combination of self-control and diligence with keeping up with YNAB has helped me tremendously this month.

A detailed overview of my income sources, mandatory expenses, non-essential expenses, and savings/investments. I use YNAB, a budgeting tool that allows me to budget with the money I already have, instead of what I plan to make. This section does not contain any financial advice; please do research on your own prior to making any investment-related decisions.

Net Worth: $151,680.63 | last month: +$5,508.47 | +$3.8%

first few months are incorrect so ignore them

Income: +$4,035.74

• Substack ($37.82). If you are a paid subscriber, you have my entire heart.

• FB Marketplace ($10). Sold a Madewell shirt I’ve had since around 2015! I think I purchased it for $30 and got so much good use out of it over the years.

• Interest: ($106.82). Wealthfront is the GOAT. Feel free to use my link for an additional 0.5% to the current APY!

• 9-5 Paycheck ($3876.60). My gross yearly salary is $76,814, and I work in academia as a staff researcher.

• Upwork ($4.50). This is a new category, and a strange one. I accepted a project for $40 for some light research paper editing work. I thought there was a withdrawal fee for amounts less than $100, but now that I’m taking a closer look (it’s now October when I’m writing this), I’m realizing that I can initiate the funds transfer without that fee. It’s too bad that this amount could’ve been a bit higher this month!

Perishable Expenses: -$2,005.13

“Perishable” expenses significantly impact my ability to comfortably live my life. So yes, I will “perish” (and yes, I get that this is an overstatement but I am a dramatic woman) without budgeting for these expenses. These are ordered from first to last by importance.

average perishable spending across 2024

• Rent ($1430.89). I split rent with Mr. Beans each month. He pays $2,300, and I pay the remaining balance. He generously covers utilities, including electricity, water, trash, trash valet, parking, and any pesky fees that get added to our bill.

• Health: ($182.60). Purchased 3 different types of vitamins, got boric acid supplements, bandaids, and some more.

• Groceries ($390.15). Ah, went a bit over budget. Standout purchases were grapes and strawberries for a total of $28. I also let a few produce items go to waste this month—something I’m really trying to work on!!

• Gas ($). I hate filling up gas. Period.

• Therapy ($48.51). Because I’ve hit my hefty insurance deductible of $3,000, my insurance plan is covering 80% of my sessions. The reimbursement from 3 sessions hit in September.

Privileged Expenses: -$295.60

These are items that, with my privilege, I am gratefully able to afford them. They impact my life positively, but not to the point where I would “perish” if I didn’t have them. These are ordered from first to last by importance.

average privileged spending over 2024

• Spotify ($16.99). I’m the main subscriber on a family plan with a group of friends.

• Maintenance ($63.60). Anytime this number is below $100, it’s a good month. I purchased some Simple Human trash bags, Marley’s Monsteres unpaper towels, and Daye pads.

• Sunsama ($20.00). Surprised at how great this app is for to-do lists.

• Dates ($0). Mr. Beans kindly paid for all of our dates.

• Social ($34.46). This was my and Mr. Beans’ portion of the Indian buffet when we went out with Bumble Beans.

Future: $0

Future funds are pots of money set aside for certain purposes. I will not be showing the amount of money I allocate to these funds, because it would be a headache to report. Instead, I will only show sinking funds that I’ve spent money in.

• Emergency ($0). Nothing this month, thankfully!

Rich Life: -$1,644.34

Rich life expenses are nice to have, but by no means necessary.

average rich life spending across 2024

• Travel (-$1,574.54). Purchased a roundtrip flight to Taiwan and purchased aisle seats for both ways. During the Rockies trip, I bought breakfast, coffee at a local shop, and the national park pass.

• Low Buy (-54.80). Purchased two Organic Basics tanks.

• Gifts (-$15.00). Venmo’ed a coworker some money since she was collecting for another coworker’s baby shower.

Retirement: +$1,386.32

I only display my net, not gross income, so the amount in Pre-Tax Investments do not make up any part of the Income amount.

• 403B ($500).

• 401K ($886.32). My employer contributed $472.70 (8% match) while I contributed $413.62.

Relevant Links: Low (Intentional) Buy Rules and a Quarter 1 Update.

I purchased 2 items in September, which put my running total number of items at 22. I remember being extremely anxious throughout the first half of the year because I was in the read (see photo below), which indicated that I was moving at a purchasing speed that would not allow me to reach my goal by the end of this year. I mean, look at January! Eleven whole items!

I am aware that my spending habits can be a bit sporadic, when when I’m at my spending spree tendencies, I do go all out. However, it is important for me to curb those with no spend months, so that it balances out evenly in the end.

I’ve been learning so much about myself throughout this challenge, but moreso, recognizing what would be considered an “essential” versus a “non-essential”. The conceptualization of this term is incredibly subjective based on the person doing the challenge, and at times, it has felt like cheating for me to consider something as essential when someone else might have viewed it as non-essential. There are always going to be reasons why something is deemed essential, and perhaps next year, I’ll be more rigorous with my criteria. I’ve noticed that the category that tends to land in the grey area is “maintenance” or “home supplies”. For example, is buying a more expensive version of a laundry detergent that I’ve run out of considered an essential or a non-essential? One might argue that I’m spending extra money for an item, upgrading my lifestyle when I could stick to what I’ve been buying for the past few years of my life (e.g., Tide). However, another can contest that since I’ve embarked on my sustainability journey, shouldn’t this intentional buy align with the act of becoming more gentle to the planet? And therefore, the increased spending of detergent is rather a necessity than not?

Here are some items I categorized as essential with their corresponding reasonings:

• Marley’s Monster’s Unpaper Towels - I went back and forth on whether to purchase these or microfiber cloths to clean and replace paper towels. I received a comment on a previous Substack post telling me that they disliked theirs since it got dirty so easily! I opted to get darker colors because stains on towels give me the biggest ick. I coincidentally ran out of one time use paper towels in September, so this was a really helpful purchase that allowed me to not only reduce waste, but also let me use the cleaners that Supernatural gifted me. As for a review, I’ve been using them almost every day (if not every day) to wipe down my counters and any surfaces. They’re good! Initially, the cloth fibers shed a bit but after a few weeks of use, that doesn’t happen anymore.

• Babolat Court Shoes - One of my personal health goals was to start incorporating some sort of exercise into my routine. I tried to go on dailyish walks, but that failed because I live in a busy area, and walking around my complex involves dealing with cars and honking. Pickleball in itself is a worthwhile hobby for me to pursue, and even though there might be non-essential expenses related to this sport (e.g., an extra racket, a cute bag to hold my racket), the court shoes are meant for my personal safety to avoid falling (again), therefore making it an essential.

• My trip to Taipei as a whole - Generally, I’d prefer to categorize all experiences and trips as essential. Unless I’m doing it every month, everything related to this trip is going to be coded as essential. There might be some exceptions when the trip happens, but we’ll deal with it when the time comes.

This section contains things I’d like to start incorporating into my routine, things I need to stop doing because they are detrimental to my health or wellness in some sort of way, and things I’d like to keep up with throughout the next month.

START journaling more frequently! I’d get into these “obsessive” tendencies of doing one thing very consistently for a period of 3-6 months. Because these types of journal entries were quite long and time intensive, I found myself not being able to prioritize talking about the mundane parts of my day and finding journaling to become more of a chore than a hobby. This month, I did a journal entry called “life updates” with a bulleted list of everything that’s happened in my life. Something like that, maybe once a week, is good enough for me.

STOP doomscrolling. I’ve found my Instagram screentime significantly increase this month—it could be attributed to my motivation to actually post on Instagram, but that doesn’t mean that it’s also a healthy thing to keep staying on the app for longer than what benefits me (e.g., responding to my comments/dms, engaging with other finance creators).

CONTINUE pickleballin’! Is anyone surprised at this one? I’ve talked about pickleball a number of times on Instagram, and am really loving this sport. It’s actually more tiring than you think, albeit nothing could ever beat singles in tennis (I was third singles in high school!), but it still breaks a good sweat nonetheless.

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from pinterest