November continued last year's trend to earn a lot and spend a lot. Side hustles were very lucrative, with lots of music and writing going on. BUT I had to re-register my car and pay for a year's worth of car insurance. That was around $800 altogether, and that doesn't even include gas or my car note for the month. Also, I paid for my visa for my trip to China, which was like $300 (definitely the most expensive visa I've ever gotten).
But hey, the extra income offset that, and I ended up saving 15,650 AED ( $4,264 USD), which is great! It's about 61% of my income for the month, or about 5 months of Thailand expenses ;) With the increase in the stock market this month, I'm now at 20x ThaiFIRE expenses (I can live for 20 years without income, following the 4% rule). The magic number is 25, and that just keeps getting closer!
Besides that, I went out to eat A LOT, including some expensive celebratory meals (I got a new job for next year and HAD to celebrate ;) ). And I did not skimp on my groceries either. My food spending would shock hardcore FIRE enthusiasts (it was like $800 last month, just for me), but whatever, I'm saving a ton of money and have very few vices left and the food is healthy! I also take people out to eat fairly frequently and cook for others as well, so that's not just for me, I guess.
Dividends were slow last month, only $150, because it's the month in between my big quarterly dividends.
December will be interesting. I should make good money from my side hustles, but I have like 3 weeks of holiday as well, between the national day 5 day weekend then Christmas. There will be writing money as well as a bunch of gigs with the band. I usually plan not to save anything in December to give myself more leeway when I travel. We'll see.
The other thing is that I finally sold some lenses that I've kept around and not used for the last 5 years. It was hard to let them go because I had emotional attachments to them, but I need to get out of the "I might use this in the future if I go back to shooting Nikon". It's not going to happen. Now that I know I'm really leaving Dubai in June, I need to start selling all I can.
What about you? Is there anything you're holding on to for bad reasons? Could you sell it and re-allocate the capital?
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