Tracking my income growth since graduation

There’s something about the end of the year that makes you particularly reflective. We tend to do a yearly round up or set new year’s resolutions, hoping that the next year would finally be the year that we make it.

While I didn’t set any new targets for the year, I decided to still do something to take advantage of the do-something-to-feel-like-im-adulting-right feeling that I was having. 

And being the slight psycho that I am (I might be the only person I know who enjoys tracking my net worth monthly), I decided to reorganise my personal finance sheet - by extending the number of tabs I have to include more aspects in life. 

Please tell me I’m not the only one who feels like my life’s more put together after noting down life’s figures on an excel sheet? Haha. 

Anyway, after drawing inspiration from a few finance YouTubers/bloggers, I decided to track the following in this holy personal finance sheet that I now proudly own:

- Financial portfolio (what I’ve always been tracking monthly, aka my net worth and where my savings/investments are at)

- Breakdown (graphs of my financial portfolio so that I can see my allocations visually)

- Insurance

- Salary tracking

- Monthly salary allocation

- Monthly expenses

It’s nowhere as comprehensive as what others have, but good enough for me to work with.

I can go into detail what each tab consists of, but this post is mainly to cover my findings of my salary growth since I graduated 6.5 years back.

I am ashamed to say that while I have always been big on personal finance, I have never truly looked into my yearly income and how it changes over the years. 

So creating this tab actually took quite some time because I had to dig out past contracts and salary slips lol. Some numbers are also slightly off as I didn’t have monthly salary slips, but I based it on my monthly bank statements and they shouldn’t be too far off.

Ok to set some expectations, I am:

- In my late 20s

- Working for 6ish years (since 2016)

- Not a hustler (which means I’m a commoner and not one who chionged for promotions etc lol)

- Did a career switch and took a pay cut in between

How much did my income grow (or shrink) over the years?

Note: Figures represent monthly gross salary, and do not include bonuses and allowances

I started off with my first job at $3,100. It was at a government agency, and I didn’t graduate with good results which probably caused my starting pay to be lower than my peers.

Stayed in the same job for almost 4 years, which explains the slow climb in pay.

I did a job switch in 2020, which essentially was a career switch. I took a pay cut, one greater than the graph above because I had to forgo my bonuses. This essentially brought me back a few years again in terms of my salary.

After slogging out for a year plus, I switched jobs and had a pay bump. And then did another switch which brings me to where I am today.

Am I satisfied with my income growth?

To be very honest, with my peers around me switching jobs and getting 20-30% salary bumps each time, I slowly fell into the insidious rat race as I unknowingly found myself comparing what I had with what they were getting.

This caused a feeling of lack which stayed on within me, as I felt like what I was earning was never enough.

It didn’t help whenever online articles showed how fast the incomes of fresh graduates climbed every year, and these people were receiving crazy annual packages as they land jobs in highly coveted fields. Truth to be told, there were times where I felt sorry for myself.

It was only after this very exercise of revisiting my previous salaries, digging through old contracts and salary slips which kinda grounded me again. It pulled me back to reality, reminding me of what I have been through to get to where I am today. Noting each month’s income down brought me down the memory lane of the numerous difficult decisions I had to make, including forsaking overseas opportunities and leaving a comfortable job to deal with uncertainties - and these are moments worth celebrating. 

It’s quite interesting how I started this exercise with the sole purpose of kaypoh-ing my own income growth, but I ended up feeling so grateful and sentimental haha.

Final thoughts

Firstly, I recommend doing this because it’s so fun! And refreshing haha. I also recommend starting this earlier so that you don’t have to go through the logistical/administrative nightmare like I did.

Also, I think it’s so easy to tag our self-worth to how much we’re earning. To our positions at work. I remember not caring about anything when I first started work. I didn’t feel small when I earned $3k. Weirdly, I feel more inadequate with my current income. Comparison is indeed the thief of joy, and so I’m going to actively remind myself of my identity and value - which definitely extends way beyond who I am at work.

May we never forget how far we’ve come. Here’s to celebrating our own progress and growth. :-)

Money beliefs that have changed since graduation

Personal finance is a topic that I’ve always held very closely to heart, especially so after graduating university. After earning my own income, I’ve worked to be more educated in this area so that I can make informed and intentional financial decisions because I knew of the downstream impact it could have on my future self.

Also, with the basic fresh grad pay that I was getting, it felt imperative to stretch every dollar I had. So it felt like any knowledge on money management would be extra useful for someone who didn’t command a high pay.

After being in the workforce for slightly over 6 years, I came to realise that my money beliefs have shifted quite a bit since I first stepped into the workforce. Thought it might be interesting to jot them down to see how much I’ve grown as a person.

1) Some things that seemed frivolous, are actually worth spending on

I was someone who was really strict with my own finances. I do my daily expenses tracking to make sure that my expenses were reasonable, though it’s not like the numbers would be shocking since I do not make any random big ticket purchases haha. Spending on “unnecessary” items was never in the equation. 

Fast forward to today, I am now more willing to part with my money on things that I feel makes me or my loved ones happy. This includes experiences, like going for a theatre production or trying out slightly more premium seats at the cinema. Or grabbing durians for my family (it’s really expensive to feed durians to a group of 5 haha). 

I’ve learnt that spending on things like that doesn’t mean that I’m being financially irresponsible or being too indulgent. It means making a conscious choice to enjoy and appreciate these moments in life, which is actually the very reason why I’m working hard to earn my keep to begin with.

2) Cheap is not always good

I was someone who was a big Taobao fan. I would look for alternatives on this wonderful Chinese shop and buy bags that were 1/5 the price of what I would find in stores in Singapore. I was really big on these cheap thrills, but looking back, it wasn’t as cheap as I thought given how I’m not really using any of these items anymore.

While there are probably items that are cheap and of good quality, the reality is that most of them unfortunately do not satisfy both categories at once. I realise that I was tossing out items pretty frequently, because the cheap clothing and bags I got were either not comfortable for me, or were spoiling earlier than expected.

Today, I still get some of my cute stationeries and homeware from Taobao. But for items like bags and clothing, I’m more willing to spend a little more on good quality material that would see me for the years to come. :)

P.s. I’m really enjoying leather bags and cotton/linen clothing! 

3) Don’t be penny wise, pound foolish

I was a hugeeee fan of discount apps and making small money through methods like doing surveys. I would spend so much time scrolling through diff apps to decide on where to have my next meal, and would always chionged when a new survey popped up.

And then I would somehow spend that hard earned $5 survey voucher so easily on some small frivolous purchase because it felt like “bonus money”. 

It took me a while to realise that the effort I was putting in to earn these bits of money wasn’t proportional to the value that I’ve gotten out of it. The great lengths I would go to earn that $0.50 was probably not worth that effort with the way I spent it. 

4) Growing your income > increasing your savings rate

I started off with an income of $3,100. Back then, I felt like that was more than enough for me. I could pay off my bills, save a little and even create different savings goals. It felt a little difficult to understand why people were on the endless wheel of wanting a higher income. 

While it was good in some sense that I was feeling contented and not on a hedonic treadmill, I realised that feeling fully content wasn’t the most ideal at that stage of my career as well. I could easily become complacent, and I needed more push to stretch myself in order to maximise my work and earning potential. 

With a not-so-high income, you could imagine that my savings were also moving at a rather slow pace. 

Over time, I found myself giving more thought into this whole career thing, and that saw me making some intentional moves in my career which led me to where I am today. The past six years saw me pivoting into entirely new fields with new responsibilities, in which I’ve gained new skills and might I say, allowed me to stay more relevant in today’s world. 

I am very grateful for the opportunities that have been given to me during this period, and while my current income might not seem high in any way to some, I am very proud of how far I’m come. 

5) You think you won’t invest FOMO-ly, but you would

I would like to think that I am a rather disciplined person… Until I wasn’t. Hahaha. In a world where we’re jam packed with new information every single day, it can get difficult to remain focused on your own thoughts and ideology. It became tougher when the field I was in required me to stay up to date with such news. In terms of investing, I took in a lot of hyped up news and ended up dabbling into different stocks, holding on to the idea that I was young and could take on more risk. I ended up holding a bunch of growth stocks which I now see as a portfolio of regret hahaha.

What I didn’t realise was that I was buying into the hype and was following the noise, which on hindsight seemed like the worst, yet most common mistake investors tend to make. I thought I knew better, but I ended up being just like everyone else. :’) 

Regardless, I’m still thankful that this happened relatively early so that I could get a clearer idea of my investment style, and the method I wish to take from here on. The difficult part is always staying on course, but this portfolio of regret serves as a very good reminder for me.

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Looking back, it’s interesting to see how much I’ve grown and how my mentality has changed towards personal finance. I used to think that this mindset that I have wouldn’t shift haha, but I guess this shows how we’re always evolving as individuals. The older we get, the more clarity we gain in the way we wish to spend our lives. And that’s the beauty of adulting (i think!).

Excited to see how different I’d be in another six years’ time! 

Finding my footing

I was 18 when I first set foot in the CBD for work. Back then, I managed to secure an administrative position in a private bank, earning $7/hour. I remember squeezing alongside adults decked in office attire – ladies in killer heels and body-hugging dresses, and men in neatly tucked shirts and pants. I also remember feeling engulfed by this overwhelming feeling of adulthood, thinking that that was what I was supposed to be working towards once I graduate from school.

 

“Is this it….?” 

 

I remember that there was this moment of realization that this didn’t seem like my way of living. Is this what adult life is all about? Rushing beside frantic working adults everyday after alighting from Raffles Place, feeling anxious as I fumbled for my card at the gantry, because I delayed my card-tapping by 0.2s which might be causing a potential queue to form behind me. Fighting for a seat during lunch at one of the crazily crowded hawker centres (because who can afford $12 salads everyday with a median salary?), hoping to be able to spot a newly-cleared table before the other eagle-eyed humans do. Wondering whether I need some tea to survive my post-lunch food coma. Looking at the clock and counting down to the end of work.

 

 

I remember 18-year-old me telling myself to never work in the CBD. I guess the idea of 16 years of education and ending up as one of them ‘corporate zombies’ just didn’t sit well with me.

 

Well, why the sudden reminiscence, you might ask?

 

Because that was what I just faced this morning. Just that in today’s situation, I’ve become one of the adults I vowed not to become. A corporate zombie.

 

I now work in the CBD, and walk alongside other busy-looking adults in the mornings. I’ve joined the peak hour crowd and am squeezing my way in MRTs to get to work. I now chope my lunch spots with tissue packs, and hop on equally packed trains to head home as the skies turn dark.

 

While this lifestyle has been going on for the past few months, the reality only kinda just hit this morning. Where I felt this sudden and momentary wave of disgust at myself as I recalled the thought 18-year-old me used to have.

 

Have I lost my direction?

 

I started my first job after graduation in the West. As such, my direction to work wasn’t of the general public, and so I didn’t have to squeeze on public transport. My subsequent jobs hovered around other areas in Singapore and was never based in the CBD. While I’ve always been in corporate jobs, I think being physically situated in the CBD reaffirms that feeling that I am INDEED just one of the others now.

 

Am I… losing myself?

 

Upon settling at my desk and on deeper thought, I realised that I have been pretty hard for myself.

 

Over the years, my career priorities have shifted. Right at the beginning, my focus was to just do what interested me. Money, career advancement, job opportunities and benefits weren’t things I thought about.

 

I’m thankful that I decided to be more introspective afterwards, and thought deeper into crafting my career. I realized that it wasn’t practical to just focus on one aspect in a role – there are many factors that affect a job. A job cannot be sustained with merely passion, it has to be able to pay the bills, it has to come with a decent supervisor, a healthy work environment etc. In fact, having just passion tend to lead to burn out, and that’s… really not ideal.

 

What does your job mean to you?

 

Over time, I discovered what a job meant to me. While we’ve been fed the romantic narrative that we should absolutely love what we do and thus not work a day in our life, I’ve come to realise that it is okay to be in a 9-5 role. It’s okay to not feel fiery passion in my role, and it’s enough to feel just okay (not hating on it sounds easy to achieve, but really, it’s pretty easy to start feeling that ‘meh’ in a role after some time), provides me fair compensation, allows me to feel like I’m contributing to society, and use that income I’m earning to fund my passions outside of work instead.

 

It’s okay to find my own balance and enjoy that. And that I can be an ordinary employee and still feel accomplished about my life.

Right now, my role is challenging yet not overwhelming. Allows me to grow in my own pace and learn new things. Allows me to head home on time and not type furiously in front of the laptop at 9pm. Allows me to take a guilt-free break while I’m on leave. Gives me an income that lets me live comfortably by my standards. Provides me colleagues that are relatively easy to work with. Allows me to stay relevant in the job market. Offers decent benefits so that I can visit the clinic without worrying (lol). 

 

Takeaways from a working millennial

 

I guess the main lessons I’ve gotten from my career path so far would be:

 

1) Always ask yourself what you value in a job. It doesn’t have to make sense to others, but you got to make peace with it.

2) Opportunities can sometimes happen when you least expect it. If you never try, you’d never know.

3) Try your best to not compare yourself with others. It’s almost too easy to do that these days with LinkedIn and all, but everyone is on a different path. Really. What we see is just a small segment of their lives.

4) It’s easy to forget our priorities after being in our jobs for a period of time. It might be useful to do a self-check-in every once in a while. :-)

 

In any case, while 18-year-old me might have gawked at the current me for tapping at the Raffles Place gantries every morning today, I am proud of how far I’ve come, and am truly appreciative of the opportunities that came my way, to be who I am today. 

 

Here’s to evolving career priorities, and finding our own voice in the midst of a very noisy crowd.

Would I ever be satisfied with my job?

 Hey guys, it’s been a while since I’ve popped by.

After realising my interest in writing and pivoting my career into the content space, I’ve ironically turned into one of those who have unknowingly made something they’re interested in into a job. 

That means tragically turning what I’ve previously enjoyed into something I find a chore.

Nevertheless, I’m trying to make it a point to jot my thoughts down here to make sure that future me would have something to laugh at.

Anyway, back to the main point of today’s post.

I’m currently covid positive, which means I’m stuck in my room nursing my health back while enjoying this mandatory solitude. 

Which means loads of space to think and ponder about life.

Woohoo!

Being away from work for a week also meant that I had some headspace to not think about work.

Which made me realise how much I don’t feel like heading back to work next Monday.

And then I suddenly felt pretty sad - am I supposed to have Monday blues for the rest of my life? 

Like… is this it?

As I’m typing right now, I’ve been working for almost 6 years full-time since graduation, and am on my third job.

I also thought I was the kinda person who would stick to my first job till my retirement years, but look where we are at haha. I guess I can even be considered a ‘job hopper’ to some based on the number of roles I had.

Looking back, I think my priorities towards a job have shifted so much over the years.

I’ve since learnt the dangers of mixing passion with work. And that it’s not all roses and butterflies if you do so. And it’s OKAY to not be 100% passionate with what you do at your day job.

That your day job can be just a vehicle for you to earn your keep and allow you to sustain your standards of living.

And was what gave me the push to move on from my previous role to my current one.

But… why do I feel like I still dread work? 

Am I just too demanding, or asking for too much?

I tried to compare what I used to have and what I have now.

I’m earning slightly more than my previous role, with lower stress levels and better work-life balance. 

But now that I’m doing something that doesn’t interest me as much, I can’t seem to feel motivated at work.

I can’t help but to feel like there should be more to this.

Am I the only one feeling this way?

Will I ever find the perfect balance in a job?

I guess there’s still so much for me to figure out in this career journey of mine.

Can I Really Retire Early?

I began this whole personal finance journey proper only after graduation, when I got my first proper 9-5 job. I had this whole ‘the world is your oyster!’ mindset, and I felt like I could finally have the freedom to exercise my own financial choices, and be fully responsible for it.

When I first came across the idea of FIRE (Financial Independence Retire Early), I was hooked. You mean, it’s possible to not slog away 40 years of my life and then reach the point of retirement? What wonderful amazing idea is this! 

Wow, now THAT sounds real tempting. 

I started reading up sites and blogs, looking through articles which were written by people who were already on this journey, and I was feeling super pumped. 

Not just random people living in the States too, there were articles written by Singaporeans, as this FIRE trend started taking over globally. 

Something about people practising it in Singapore which makes it more.... relatable? 

Like, even Singaporeans ARE achieving it! It’s proven! It’s possible! 

Also found variations of FIRE (Fat FIRE, lean FIRE etc) and with these variations, you could set a goal for yourself to create more leeway, which makes it slightly more realistic or achieveable.

There were a few things which these sites mainly focused on, which were stuff like:

1) Frugality (in terms of spendings and lifestyle) 

2) Focusing on delayed gratification 

3) Saving xx% of your income 

4) Having a diversified investment portfolio

It usually revolves around these points (probably more, just off the top of my head). I read on and felt like even though it seemed that it could be doable (with a truckload of discipline exercised), it just seemed really tough. 

I mean, I have an always-below-the-median pay. Most of these people who are well on track for this journey are making it by leaping through promotion hoops at work, they are bright people who have high incomes and are able to save a large chunk of their income by living way below their means, and then achieving independence at 35 or something.

It was pretty discouraging, especially when you know you’re just an average joe who’ll only earn an average keep. 

However, determined to at least give this whole journey a shot, I decided to break this whole seemingly unattainable journey down into little digestible pieces. The road is long, and I didn’t want to give up just right at the start. 

I started little goal posts for myself, little achievable targets which might keep me encouraged and to keep going.

I'm gonna start sharing what some of my targets are in the next couple of blog posts.

P.S. They aren't BIG things, just something an average salaryman like me can handle. Little baby steps.

Keep ya posted! ;)

Changing My Job in the Midst of COVID-19 (& Impending Recession?)

Here we are, already in the middle of 2020.

Time is sure flying by in the scariest speed possible.

Here’s one thing about Aging - nobody tells you how your perception of time changes.

I truly understand why they say that time waits for no man lol. Once you’re in your 20s, you just gotta blink once and the next thing you know - you’re someone in your mid-30s, being all astonished because you’ve survived unknowingly in the workforce for more than 10 years.

BAAAM. #adulting

Now, now. I almost forgot how Dec 2019 was like. I guess I was a different person back then. I was still comfortably in the govt sector, and happily collected my AWS.

Who knew how much the world would’ve changed in a span of.... 5 months?

Worldwide pandemic. Markets hitting a new low. Us being forced to accept lifestyle changes as new norms.

It felt so surreal. It was as if the world were suddenly moving at twice the speed.

In the midst of all these, I was struggling with my own personal choices. What a time to be making life-changing decisions, huh? My brain can be such a joker sometimes.

Remember my post on my career?

So, I took a leap of faith..... and left my first job.

What a scary time, really.

And as of today, I've been at my new workplace for a month.

(Happy monthsary to me!)

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Onboarding at my new workplace was a whole new experience.

I had a kind delivery from the company's HR, where I received my work laptop and company tees.

I stared at the tees, still slowly trying to absorb the fact that I was going to join this company that I have been a fan of.

The first week went by in a blur.

I slowly got used to the new laptop, while trying to be up to speed with the new jargon and applications I had to use.

Besides a complete shift in industries, I was now facing a completely new job role, while juggling this new change with the COVID-19 work-from-home situation.

It was definitely overwhelming.

I struggled to keep afloat, regularly checking my Google calendar to make sure that I wasn't missing out on any Zoom calls or Google Hangouts.

I was pushing myself to an edge, forcing myself to adapt as quickly as I could, in order to be a more efficient worker, and in some way, I wanted to prove that I wasn't a waste of company's resources - especially in a time like this, where companies were trying their best to save costs.

I would be lying if I were to say that this whole job transition was a breeze.

But I'm incredibly thankful for patient colleagues, who have been trying their best to teach me everything they could, in this very new and strange work environment.

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Onboarding in the time of COVID-19 also robbed me the ability to create regular first impressions with my new colleagues.

Goodbye to regular hellos and handshakes, and Hello faces on computer screens and communication channels.

We are now in a slightly awkward phase of 'knowing, yet no knowing' each other. Building rapport is definitely more challenging without seeing one another physically, but yet again, very thankful for them for being encouraging and patient despite having a mountainous load of work on their backs.

I can't wait to meet them in person and get to know them proper. :-)

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I know that I'll be looking back at this in a couple of years down the road, and laugh at how memorable and special this situation is.

But I just want to note it down here to remind myself of my progress and my efforts, and that leap of faith I took to make that career switch at this extremely scary period of time, and that I am proud to have made this jump, because I know that this decision will provide me with new challenges, and help me grow in ways I wouldn't have if I were to choose to remain comfortable.

Ah, another experience for the memories.

Losing Track of Your (Financial) Purpose

The thing about drafting a blog post is that it isn't like posting instastories - you don't get that instant gratification, and if you let your thoughts sit around for a bit, the feelings of jotting it down start dissipating.

So that kinda explains my (almost) 2-month long hiatus from this space. I had these fleeting thoughts about life and such (#adulting, y'know. life thoughts errday everyday), but my mentally exhausted self couldn't find that motivation on weekdays. We all read articles on the routines of billionaires, them waking up in the wee hours of the morning and breaking their days into chunks of productive work, and I'm like "ok. I can never be like them.".

Anyway, I woke up this Sunday morning to lovely weather, and felt extra happy to snooze in bed without an alarm. I ate my breakfast at 10:30, and while working through the meal, I had a sudden thought about the productivity these billionaires had. Though I mostly enjoy sleeping in on the weekends, I do sometimes think of how these hours spent in bed could potentially be turned into hours of productivity, and ultimately becoming little building blocks of my eventual 'success'.

It's weird but I kinda feel like I'm losing track of my financial goals.

I started my post-graduation journey feeling very motivated, excited to use my youth as my advantage, to learn as much as I could so that I could have a 'head-start' with these newly gained knowledge. However, it feels like thoughts like these have taken a backseat recently. The desire to swim against the current has always been purely self-driven - people around me seem settled with the fact that they are going to be part of the norm. Advancing through the career ladder, settle down with kids, retire at 65 with a fat cpf account. I have always felt like the only one wanting to do something different, and lead another version of life. I've been seeking motivation from people online, keeping a lookout for a like-minded community, which undoubtedly provides a level of reassurance and inspiration.

However, on days where I don't remind myself of what I ultimately want, I feel like I slip comfortably back to square one. Sometimes, I have thoughts of being okay with where I am. Hustling along with life, safe in this comfort zone. Getting used to the notion of having Monday blues, and looking forward to weekends. And this scares me. It scares me knowing that if I don't want something hard enough, I might just lose sight of it.

All these while, I have been focusing on saving, learning the basics of investing, learning to stretch my dollar through the various apps, finding tips and tricks of credit card rebates and such. Even though it always feels shiok to see that money credited to your Shopback account, or seeing the figures in your bank account slowly climbing up, it sometimes feels like I'm getting nowhere with it.....? Not sure whether it even makes sense. It's like you are painting this huge painting with this incredibly tiny brush, and you wonder how long it's gonna take for the painting to be completed. Or whether it'll even turn out to be a decent painting.

And it feels like if I don't remind myself of this big goal that I have, I might just slip back to being a regular wage slave, struggling to survive in SG. Clocking in and out through my daily life, doing what I told myself I should never do. :'(

What a scary thought huh?

This journey is indeed a marathon. So how do you keep the momentum, and the drive to do so?