I just realized

or maybe remembered

a quirk about my current financial situation. I have a grant that pays for my studies and an extra money for myself, which is what I consider my income. This value can't be changed on grant renewal, but it does change every year to match some factor (I think it matches inflation, but I'm not sure). However, my current arrangement is that I actually don't renew my grant, and instead I'll get a bunch of different grants in sequence.

Does this mean my income might increase year-over-year? I think the answer is yes. Good to know.

I bought a sashiko kit thing, not sure if I mentioned this last time. Excited to try it out when it arrives.

The Warriors are on a 4 game losing streak. This isn't particularly worrying, on the surface, but the streak includes both OKC and the Suns, and while the OKC game was close, the Suns game wasn't particularly so.

On one hand, I look at the statistical performance of the team and my worries subside, if only slightly.

Curry didn't play the OKC game and only shot well in the Nets game. It's good that he underperformed, in this case

that is to say it bodes well for the team

because Curry isn't likely to keep underperforming, meaning he'll improve, meaning the chances of victory are going to increase proportionally. His TOs were fine as well. Also, he's playing barely over 30 minutes a game... Which I get, to a certain extent, but also strongly dislike, on account of the losses.

Wiggins played big minutes in all 4 games, and shot poorly in a couple of games. I'm a little split, when it comes to Wiggs. On one hand, I know what he's capable of

what he's shown to be capable of

but on the other hand, what have you done for me lately? He's been doing well, this season, and his 3-ball is falling fine, but I don't know how much I should rely on this. If I assume his shooting is real, then this is fine. I'd like him to rebound a bit more, but that's life. His TOs are fine. Defensively, I know he can do the job. We can blame his poor shooting, for the few games.

Draymond also shot shit! His PFs are a bit concerning, he even fouled out against San Antonio, but overall his shooting seems to be the culprit.

I can justify the underwhelming performances with the poor shooting streak from the relevant players, I suppose. At least partially. Still, frustrating.

As I think of living on few things, I realize the need for repair. If I have things worth having, they are also worth repairing.

Sashiko is super cool, and probably a good thing to learn if I want jeans to become a staple of my wardrobe. I need to learn to sew.

Will work on it.

Being on the internet as much as I am, it gets tough. I'm thinking meditation is becoming a must in my everyday life.

I shall start doing that.

I'm back home.

Had to do a few stressful things today I had been putting off for this and that reason, but it feels good to finally have absolutely demolished that fuckass albatross around my amazingly shapely neck.

Additionally, I weighted myself right after eating lunch. 76 kg. This bodes very well for me. I don't know how much I'll lose overnight, but I know I'll lose quite a bit. This is great because last time I was at 75.75 kg, which means I'll clearly be way below that. Perchance 74? Not sure. 73?! No way right?! Maybe, we'll see, I suppose. Excited. Regardless, I'm feeling good. I'm not satisfied with my physique, but I'm proud of what I've achieved.

My parents bought me a rice cooker for Christmas. I don't want a rice cooker. I love my parents though... I'm trying to see the positives, y'know. I'm finding it hard to see the positives.

This is why I hate holidays, especially gift-giving holidays. And birthdays. I don't want people to give me stuff, because 9 times out of 10, I don't want their fucking garbage. At the same time, I get what they mean, I get they're just trying to be nice, so I can't be mad at them or something, that's unreasonable. I just don't want garbage, why would you give me garbage? I don't want a fucking rice cooker. I thought about it, then I didn't buy it. Why do you think I didn't buy it? You know I have the money. It's because I don't fucking want it. So why would you buy it? I don't want it, regardless of who buys it!

I don't even have anywhere convenient to store it. I'm already stressing out about this and it's not even December yet.

In the call, my parents were kinda pressing me about whether I wanted something. I used the rice cooker as an example of something that I was pondering, but then decided not to get because I don't need it. Then they hit me with the "well, I already bought it" FUCKING WHYYYYYYYYYY!!? WHYYYYYYYYYYY!!?

Christmas, birthdays. I hate them.

Especially my birthday, actually. I hate it so much. What do you think I want to do on my birthday? The answer is relax and enjoy the day. Eat nice food, maybe read, watch my favourite show or something, listen to music. That's what I want to do on my birthday. Not have to answer a bunch of calls and reply to a bunch of texts from people I don't care about. Not receiving a bunch of trash I'm gonna throw away. I mean, I don't even really like receiving things I don't want to throw away, though at least then it feels a bit more justifiable. Like, my grandma just gives me money, which really I can't be mad at. She knows where it's at. It's still a bit meh, why gift things at all, but sure. Other people though don't have the decency to spare me the trouble of throwing their garbage in the garbage.

I'm annoyed.

Something that bothers me a little is when I see people talk about how they can't save. They're counting every cent and they can barely afford to put a few tens away for a rainy day.

Now, don't get me wrong, there's a lot (a lot) of people out there that really can't do this and by no means am I trying to shit on those people and try to downplay their financial situation. I've heard stories of my grandmother, who grew up in poverty, and I know for a fact her family didn't have a cent to spare and they weren't really wasting their money, they just didn't have money. I know other people personally that experience very intense poverty. I know poverty is real, this isn't about that.

This is about those people that make, say, as much as I make and struggle to save money. I'm not rich, by any means, but I'm doing OK. I make about the median in my country! It's not a very rich country, by western standards, but if you make the median income over here you are doing fine. Not great, mind you, but fine.

I save about 60% of my income. I know this is a bit extreme, and I don't mean to say that I should be the standard. I'm a very weird guy, I'm totally aware of that

I've been made aware of that

so I don't mean to impose my lifestyle on others. My issue is that people act and say that this isn't enough to save.

On Reddit, someone replied to me on a post wondering how I could possibly save as much as I do, and saying that their sister was actually in the same situation as me and was struggling to save. Look, 60% savings rate is high, hell, 30% is high. But struggling to save? She was struggling? With the median income? No, she wasn't. She wasn't struggling to save, she was overspending and being reckless with her money. She lacked planning, discipline, and sense!

Well, I'm being a bit hyperbolic here, but I do mean the general point. If you can't save with my income, you're doing something terribly wrong. Look, I even did some math. I live in a small room, but I could rent an apartment

maybe she wanted more privacy and freedom, which is understandable on a human level

for something like 3x what I spend monthly. Even if I spent 3x what I do on rent, I'd still save about 15% of my income. 15% is a very reasonable saving's rate, for most people, so I'm struggling to see where this person was spending all this money.

I did another experiment actually. I'm losing weight (on purpose), so I'm eating in a bit of a particular way. Normally, I'd buy a bunch of veggies and stuff and cook them daily for my meals, but because I'm lazy and trying to lose weight, I've decided to eat lunch at the canteen, and then just scrap together an evening-time meal. You can say what you will about this, I'm getting my calories and my nutrients and I'm doing well both on the mental side and the physical side. My point is that, if I had an apartment, with a kitchen all to myself, you know damn well I'd be cooking. If I were cooking, I'd be saving money. The canteen offers great food for a cheap price, yes, but it's still more expensive than buying stuff and cooking it yourself! I spend under 10% of my income on food, and I could keep that number easily by cooking with an apartment. The experiment I did, little calculation, was to see how much I would spend if I actually ate fast-food for dinner every day. That's right. On top of my lunch and evening meal, if I went out and ate a fast-food menu everyday for a month, how much would I spend on food? The answer is about 24% of my income, turns out. I could eat out everyday, no exception, and still save 47% of my income. Like, come on man. On my income and this person was struggling to save?

It genuinely baffles me what she could possibly have been spending all her money on. I could rent a studio apartment right now for less than 3x my rent, by the way.

I've also considered they may have had to pay tuition, if their grant didn't cover that. Even with that, I would still be able to save over 50% of my income.

Well, I say it baffles me, but that's not quite true. It's very easy to come up with a situation that sounds reasonable and takes up the whole income. Sure, doable. The issue is, however, that if you're struggling to save, you're living above your means. That's my opinion. To save, you must live below your means. It is easy to live below my means when I make as much as I make.

On top of that, this person was telling me about their sister. Now, I don't know how old the person commenting was, maybe they were a child, but it was a financial subreddit so I find that to be unlikely. Regardless, we now have two people that just kind of accepted that it's hard to save on an income like mine.

I'm left wondering how many people live like that. Living past what is reasonable and then complaining they can't save and there's no financial future. Clearly, you need to make your own financial future, not just expect it to be laid at your table. If you keep spending, you'll keep having nothing left. Obviously. So spend less!

I get not wanting to live in a tiny room, I get wanting to go out with friends, I get wanting a car, I get not wanting to eat at the canteen, but damn it sometimes you have to. Sometimes that's the way forward.

If you're broke, act broke. If you're broke and act rich, you'll stay broke. That's what I'm getting from all this, basically, that this person's sister was just acting way out of their tax bracket.

Which is fine, I guess. I mean, at the end of the day, I don't really care what people do with their money. It's upsetting on a surface level because it's so weird that someone would choose to do that, but it's their choice, so I don't really care.

On one hand, I find myself looking at people like this and wondering how many others are the same way. I hear about the country going to shit and people can't save money, but then I hear of this kind of stuff. I have a great family that I know I can rely on. I'm not scared that things are gonna go wrong for me, as long as I'm trying to get them going right, I have trust everything'll be fine. I realize the privilege I've been born into. Still, how can someone just sit there and talk about not being able to save money when I can clearly save money? On the same income!

I've had a lot of help getting here, but most people where I am don't have debt like the Americans, it's not like we're out here drowning in debt and she'd have to be paying off a bunch of student loans.

Whatever.

It takes me back to those things people say about avocado toast and Starbucks. Some people say to stop eating avocado toast and going to Starbucks, because that's money that you could be saving. How can you talk about not having money when you're doing that? I've no clue how much avocado toast or Starbucks cost, but I do see the point. At the same time, people say that that's not the real issue. Hard-working people should be able to go eat an avocado toast and drink Starbucks! Which I also think is a valid point. I guess, how can these two feelings coexist, is the question.

I don't think the sacrifices I'm making are sacrifices that should be made, only that they can be made. If someone refuses to live below their means and cut on extras to save, I find that upsetting. Especially if they complain about it. At the same time, the complaints have merit.

I don't know.

I've been watching lots of videos of terrible drivers. It's really frustrating to see people like that, so careless, with such little respect for their surroundings and for those around them, just driving around. Zipping by in hunks of metal, ready to take someone's life away. It really baffles me.

I think some people just honestly don't think about others, they just don't care, they don't consider it. They're inconsiderate, great word for the situation, I think. It's honestly upsetting.

The Warriors lost to the Nets, by the way, forgot to mention that last time. I mean, come on! THE NETS?!

They've actually been doing OK, I guess, but still. I was pretty upset at Kerr's terrible rotations, at first, but then came to the realization that maybe it's for the best. Who cares about the ego of winning against a bottom feeder, when you can rest your best player? Not me, that's for sure, and not Kerr either. I'm coming to terms with the fact we're gonna get a lot of these losses this season.

I've also found out about Polymarket. I mean, I heard of it a few weeks ago, but I learned more about it recently. It's an interesting concept, but pretty weird. Not sure how I feel about what that kind of thing means for the world... Maybe nothing, not sure at all.

I've been nothing about a whole lot of nothing these past few days.

Yesterday, I overspent on my food budget. Today, I underspent to compensate. Very reasonable. I wasn't even hungry at all today, quite honestly I didn't even notice I didn't eat extra. Admittedly, I had 4 oranges for a snack, but that's not even particularly notable in my usual routine. I think I can go some days without buying anything at all. That feels nice.

I've been daydreaming about fishing a lot, for some reason.

Is this the next level of hunger? I'm so hungry I'm fantasizing about hunting?!

I don't feel particularly hungry, and I haven't been feeling that way at all. I've been eating well, maybe even a little too much these past couple of days, actually.

Maybe I'll do some fishing one of these days.

I often think about the things I believe, as I believe that that is indispensable for coming to accurate and reasonable conclusions. In other words, I don't want to believe things just because I believe them; I want to have reasons to believe what I believe, and I want to inspect my beliefs and change them if they contradict or are incompatible with reality. I think that's the reasonable thing to do.

I was writing a lot for this post, but I keep bumping heads with my ignorance. To a certain extent, I think it's critical for everyone to speak their mind, even if they're wrong, so that their ideas can be challenged and questioned by others; I think that's a great way to find flaws in one's reasoning that might never be brought up individually. However, I don't know what to say.

I think I'm falling victim to party allegiance. Or rather, I'm relying on party affiliation to guide my vote, rather than thinking and analysing for myself. Really, that's the whole point of parties

to help people choose without them having to do all the research

but I'm not too comfortable with that. I want to think for myself and come up with a good set of ideas and morals that I can confidently follow, and then decide based on that.

Immigration is a big deal, where I live, though I do believe it's a big deal worldwide, as well. There's so much babble all over, and it's hard to make up my mind on the issue.

It's hard to make up my mind on a lot of issues. And it's hard to figure out what's just ideology and what's actually doable and effective.

Very frustrating.

Listened to the new Kendrick album. It's amazing, predictably. My favourite song is probably luther or reincarnated. Just an incredible project overall. I'm feeling a strong 4/5, possibly a 5/5. I thought some of the songs were a bit wack, but the kind of wack that can grow on me. I'll revisit this later.

Did my laundry today as well. Feels good to clean up a little.

I keep wanting to rush, and at the same time I don't want time to pass. Very frustrating.

My favourite streamer's having some voice issues so the streams've been very short... It's fine, I guess, but it's really annoying. I wish her the best and a fast recovery.

Let's start with money.

I got paid today, which is odd because I'm usually paid on the 23^rd^. Of course, it makes sense; I was supposed to be paid on a Saturday, so I get paid on the Friday prior. I just hadn't thought that that was what was gonna happen. Anyway, I get paid and, of course, I buy my ETFs and Bitcoin. At the ATH, as is customary. Still, it all went up today so I actually don't even mind it that much. Regardless, the whole point of this is to buy and forget, go with the market, don't time it. My mom gave me some money as well, for some reason... I keep telling her I don't need it

and I just end up putting the money towards my savings

but she keeps giving me some money every month. What am I even supposed to do, at this point? It's not like I don't want it, of course I do, but at the same time I always feel like she's coddling me or feels that I can't get on without her help, when I very much can! Well, I'm just saying "thank you, I don't need it though, you don't need to give me money..." but next month I'm sure I'm gonna get the same 50 bucks again.

Kendrick dropped a new album like 1 hour ago as of me writing this. Cool.

I've also been getting a little into watches. No reason, really. I'm not going to buy a watch, but I do see the usefulness of them... My little brother actually bought one on my advice. Not buying a watch, that he wanted to do before I ever brought it up, but just the brand and model. He knows I'm into value buying.

I might buy a G-SHOCK at some point.

I'm doing an Excel spreadsheet with notable items I want to fill my closet with.

That's it!

Oh, I'm almost 7% up on my investments in almost exactly 5 months. That's almost a 17% YoY pace. I planned for an 11% YoY pace. Wowzers.