On money and March !7

So today is March 17' 2012. Satu hari yg tanpa liat agenda gua sekalipun, ga bakal gua lupa apa yg perlu gua kerjain hari ini. 

Firstly : tiap taon ini hari ulang taon Fabio Suhartini, officially my housemates for a total of close to 8 years. Somebody's joining the 30 club :) 

Secondly : gua kerja hari ini. It was not my original schedule, tapi gua tukeran sama temen laen buat kerja har ini, since my original schedule was on my cousin's wedding date. 

Thirdly : Though bukan gua yg jalan2, tapi somehow gua hafal mati kl ini tanggal Gill & Raimond fly for their 2nd honeymoon :P ahhahaha :P emang gua kaypoh :P... Speaking of which: seriously Gill gua beneran tiba2 merinding  kira kira 3 second setelah baca SMS loe yg bilang : oh udah dapet bomb ! Puji Tuhan, kita terbang same day :P .... gilaa !! gua bingung napa gua yg merinding :P ahhahah ... 

erm...karena Tuhan baek seh intinya :P ehhehe 

Fourthly : ...... udah ga ada lagi :P hahahah :) yah 3 event di atas itu aja menurut gua udah cukup bikin gua ga bakal lupa kl hari ini is March 17' 2012. 

And now on money issue. 

Nope, not that I'm in urgent need of Toto / 4D to fall upon me ....heheheh :) 

Kl look back, ngomong kasarnya waktu pertama kali dateng ke SG, itu pertama kalinya kita harus ngatur finances & expenses kita tanpa pengawasan orang tua kita kan ? Pertama kali gua landed in SG (26 Juni 2000), tangan gua pegang 4K. Dan 4K itu buat idup gua selama 5 bulan termasuk bayar uang sekolah. How do I / or any other of my friend who came and bring almost same amount of money, can survive 4K for all those months, sampe hari ini gua masih cukup amazed :P 

At one point of time wkt kita masih di NUS, gua pernah kengintip stranger's Singaporean account balance yang jalan tinggalin mesin DBS ATM tanpa ngecheck lagi balancenya udah di refresh atau belon. Then I saw, balance dia sekitar 54K. When I share that to NUS peers, kita sempet bilang : gilaaa !! kapan gua bisa liat balance segitu di account gua yah ? 

Fast forward to my graduation, gua kerja di starhub. Awalnya gua temp staff, jadi gaji gua masih SGD 9 / hour and 1.5 X for OT.  Di masa2 itu gua bisa dapet SGD 2K - 2.5K a month lah. Terus gua convert ke perm staff. Gitu convert, langsung my starting pay drop ke cuman 1500 en masih potong cpf. Dulu segitu cukup gara2 sewa rumah gua yg 280 (the cheapest), terus 325, terus the most expensive 380. How good those days can be :P 

Anyway, 3 bulan setelah SGD 1500/ bulan, gua quit. Terus waktu gua masuk ct, gua cukup kaget (walaupun ng-expect jg) kl di ct gua dapetin apa yg emang udah jadi rumor starting paynya banking : 2500. Ada lebih dikit lagi seh benernya..

Kasarnya gua ngitung kl 1500 aja gua bisa idup, dengan gaji 2.5 K berarti minimal 1000 harus masuk savings, and so that's what I did. Di taon 2004 gua kerja, dengan cepat dan semangatnya gua ngumpulin 10K. Yay !! Terus come 2005, dimana cpf gua naek percentagenya en I don't know what happen actually, point is : gua mulai slack sama my savings plan. I didn't do my allocation. Gua just live happily dengan duit yg masuk en keluar ( off course ga gua abisin ) tapi gua jg ga ngitung berapa yg gua harus save. Gua spend aja sesuka gua :P 

Somewhere down the road, I can't remember when, gua berasa ketemplak with my financial condition, especially knowing that my pay is not high, but it's not low either, but my savings is not fantastic at all. So mulailah gua bekerja giat lagi bangun my savings. En my the time gua decide to save again, gua kerjain dengan sedikit tangan besi. Ga kurang minimal 50 % dari my take home pay harus masuk savings. Thank God it has been going well ever since. 

But not every road a rosy path. My savings journey too. Kadang, or mostly, gua definitely cross my savings line and spend a lil bit extraz. From food, clothes, shoes, u noe ... whatever extra, whatever so me :P 

Till this year. Recently. I love food and it's obvious. And my best food lists have grown from the hawker centre to whatever in town, orchard, city and restaurants behind my office.

And, it has taken a toll into my finance growth, or so I think. lt has made me crave for the better share the town can offer, not the simplicity of what the neighborhood kopitiam can offer. 

So in view of that, I've have arranged a list of my better culinary, wallet friendly, acceptable in tummy food list, and force my self to do the maths before I throw another $$ into the bowl of Pasta / ramen. Coz it got me thinking of how much $$ I could have saved should I cut down my appetite. 

And my friend, knowing the cause of my action makes the food taste good :) Even though it's not the best Pasta or ramen in town. 

Coz when it comes to money, one got to know when to stop wanting & wasting more. 

Oh, just for the last record, this is my spending allocation : 

10 % tithes

50 - 60 % to savings

30 % monthly expenditures

juz my 2 cents :P 

bombie {=^o^=}