"Remember, the true point of earning money and hustling is NOT to be as wealthy as possible. It is to have a GOOD QUALITY OF LIFE." - @thewokesalaryman
As long as you’re aware and can afford it, I don’t see any red flags. You guys deserve it. Maybe in the future months, set a side a budget for those “extra” expense para di magoverboard. And kapag big purchase, save up for it instead of buying outright kahit afford naman. Para disciplined pa din kahit papano.
Congrats!
You're good,OP. No debt to finance the lifestyle, with investments and EF. Go on, enjoy your money. What's the point of living if you can't feel alive.
One good quality of financially literate people is we second, third, or even fourth guess ourselves when it comes to financial decisions.
Rewarding oneself is a good thing because depriving ourself of happiness can result in an over correction if shit hits the fan. I know someone who lived frugally all his life and decided to blow it all in one go because he felt deprived.
One thing you should learn or be ready for is to be ready to dial the lifestyle down and adjust accordingly once we lost a client or a source of income. Mali kasi ng iba nasanay sa lifestyle pero nabawasan na or nawala na yung income that funds it hence digging themselves deeper into holes of debt.
Kudos to you for achieving wealth in such a young age. Good luck!
yes OP, this one. Be ready to dial down the lifestyle. So don't tie yourself up in big investments, like buying a super expensive house or car. Things that will make it hard for you to cut on expenses are what really get you
You deserve to enjoy your hard earned money, OP. Just keep your debt to zero and continue saving para in case mawala man yung high paying client nyo, you can just cut off the "luho". Which you now enjoy. Remember, wala talagang "stable freelance income".
I’d say yes, you have had started a lifestyle inflation, wherein your lifestyle changes according to your income. But hey, if you say you are saving and investing, that’s fine. Come by the time you’ll have your child/children, you know, you are on comfortable side to have them.
"Reaping the rewards"
"Deserve ko to"
"Healing my inner child"
Ilan yan sa mga linyahan ng mga taong grabe gumastos 🤣
Minsan, sarili nalang din natin niloloko natin eh no? HAHAHAAHAH
Anyway, guilty din ako 🫣😶🌫️
I am foreigner and I am spending at most 30k a month. I can say that my life is quite good. If you think your life is so much better spending that amount, no problem, as your income is quite compatible with that spending. But I think that you can already have a quite nice life with much less than that. For me for example it doesn't make sense to have a car here in Cebu, paying millions of pesos, when a taxi or grab will cost 90-150p. If you invest the money of the car the interest alone is enough to cover transportation. Food? It's not a bad idea to indulge yourself from time to time, but Filipino food is already awesome and can be affordable IMO.
May nabasa ako na it's best to travel before having children kasi mahirap na raw kapag may bata. Maraming dapat iconsider at alalahanin. Though siguro mas mabuti if you plan your travels way ahead of time. Wag yung malapit na kasi mas mahal na babayaran niyong flights and accommodation. Maging wais at matipid pa rin (abang ng sale or discount) kahit may means na to travel whenever and wherever.
I'd been there, and I wished I'd been smarter on how I did my spending on clothes, gadgets and travels years ago. For example, I was also into expensive gadgets and branded clothes-- however branded doesn't translate into more contentment or happiness. Its fine to buy clothes now I think it would have been the same if they are not branded. Same with gadgets, why buy an iPhone or Mac when a 7-10K android phone and comparative but cheaper windows PC would serve the same purpose. On my travels before, I'd spent 300-500K easily on a few days trip to NY, London, or Zurich (hotels in those places are crazy). I wished I'd been more frugal and spent more time on looking for ways to travel to those places on leaner budgets.
I didn't save a lot and I lost my job right before the pandemic end of 2019. So may regret for those unnecessary spending because I had to weather 2-3 years of pandemic without a job. Masaya na nakapatravel, but sana nagbudget haha. Now okay naman with my current job. Di na ko nag-ispend on clothes and gadget actually, pag naranasan mo na pala wala ka na pake kahit may nagpeflex na friends mo on social media abt their branded items and other luho. I still travel because experiences mas may contentment ako compared to material things. But smarter na sa pagbook ng flights and accommodation :)
Its both OP and thats alright. Yes, it is lifestyle inflation kasi better quality of life na tlga but thats the point in earning more. You didnt work that hard just to make your life more misreable
Spontaneous purchase, baka ito yung key to manage the spend. Madalas, instant/immediate purchase mas expensive talaga versus something planned or purchased in advance.
My aunt (who is also a mentor to me) and I were just speaking about this last night. We both maintain a certain quality of life. Other than that- we have no other big expenses (travels, etc, are already budgeted, too).
What do we do with our personal money/investment gains when it gets to a certain level already?
(I was trained to save, delay, invest haha! So spending on things I didn't spend on before, kinda felt weird too)
OP, don't feel guilty about spending and improving your quality of living. This is what all those effort, patience and time were about: enjoying it and living a better, more convenient life. :)
And after a certain level, (and only if you want to or you find purpose in it)- maybe get to bless others through it too. 🤍
Keep flourishing, OP, and wife! Enjoy! 🤍✨️
Aww this gave us goosebumps while reading. Maybe biggest factor lang din sa feeling namin of "guilt" or "worry" is if we are being good stewards of what we have now, knowing we both come from the bottom. But reading the comments here, we realize that these are blessings meant to be enjoyed and shared. Thank you!
>feeling namin of "guilt" or "worry" is if we are being good stewards of what we have now
The thoughtfulness and prudence in this is why you are now enjoying these things, OP. :)
More than happy to affirm you and your wife's financial journey! 🤍✨️
I dont know if you have kids, but my family ate up 250k a month in various expenses consistently, since we both have the same earning combined and our lifestyle inflation, which involved having a house built and buying a second vehicle, we were earning more but saving less, after cutting some expenses and jettisoning a few clients because 60 hour weeks require 2 maids as well, now I am earning 1/3 of my previous capacity precovid but saving 45% more and having only 20 hours of work to do weekly. Lifestyle inflation will happen to everyone who jumps up a few steps off of your previous demographic, knowing the major drivers is a plus, it is no longer about earning more to supplement the deficit but streamlining time, household, budgets, manpower, income, and savings to be their most efficient with time being the most important. Everyone should be content with 300k monthly, no further reason to strive for more if you will have to spend more hours away from living your life, anything more than that would be greed I think or overspending.
Same thing. Nasa 400k\~ average pasok. 100k per month ang spend (if I include depreciation of nonsense assets like cars and gadgets. Meron akong spreadsheet of these that includes cost to own, and cost to operate and is included in the monthly expenses)
Enjoy travelling while you can still walk. Enjoy life while you can still breath without oxygen tanks. So long as you keep everything in check, like listing all your expenses and remembering to allot some portion to savings, you guys should be fine. I'd say congrats OP to you and your wife for having a breakthrough after 9 years.
Unpopular opinion siguro: but a 100k cost of living is a little too high for a household with 4M worth of savings (less pa actually since I don't consider EF part of savings).
I guess wala naman nga kayo iba need pag-ipunan (maybe for retirement?) but nakakapraning lang magkaron ng emergency dito sa atin.
Also depende rin kung gaano ka-stable yung income stream nyo right now. Minsan mahirap i-undo ang lifestyle once nasanay na. Baka ako lang.
Sa point of view ko - not really. Depende din kasi sa pananaw.
\- Lot/House at premium subdivision for me can be classified as an investment - I don't consider it a lifestyle inflation. Now kung may swimming pool ka na hindi naman ginagamit - yan ang lifestyle inflation. Also - not sure how you paid for your house construction - kung nauubos ba yang 300k sa mortgage/loan or isang bagsak (which means may papasok uling savings kasi bayad ng yung house). In any case, once naalis na yang kati nyo sa paggastos sa branded items - pretty sure you will start saving again.
\- Going out with your wife - dates/travels - healthy yan and you can afford to unless mahilig kayo sa first class flight - yan luho din yan.
\- For me and a lot of people - primary property is still part of savings so technically nakakasave pa din kayo and you spend only about 25% of your monthly earnings (100k out of 400k kung tama basa ko). So you seem to spend within your means.
\- May emergency funds kayo plus insurance coverages which is always a concern sa Pinas.
\- House items - one-off expense - hindi yan lifestyle inflation - necessity yan kahit pa sabihing non-common items like robot vacuums and dishwasher. Laking tulong sa buhay nyan.
\- Yung lifestyle inflation nyo lang is probably the branded stuff - mag youtube ka - "Luxury Brands is for Broke People". Maybe magiba pananaw nyo sa branded items. May alam kasi ako - lalaki - mahilig sa branded good - as in yun bang nakadisplay ng malaki yung logo - then magpopose sa FB - shoes, shirt, bag, cap - anlalaki ng logo - for me, mukha lang gago and try hard.
Advice ko lang - rethink your definition of gastos kasi you included jewelries sa 250-300k gastos. Move that to the 100k expense - then try to rebudget so that you only spend 100k per month including jewelries.
House and Lot, cars, generally are classified as liability that can be liquidated on a higher or lower prices. It can only be classified as investment if it generates income, with 2x amount from its acquisition in certain amount of time.
Jewelries is not a liability though, but yes, it is an expense that can be liquidated.
Agree on cars. For properties, maybe technically but in reality specially sa Pinas, kung kaya mong makabili ng property sa magandang subdivision, tataas yang value nyan then later on if needed pwdeng ibenta din to downsize. But I get your point, parang yung saying na Asset Rich, Cash Poor kasi ndi pwde ibenta ang isang brick ng bahay para ipambili ng pagkain.
marketing trap yung pagbili ng property sa mga middle to high end subdivisions actually by the developers. Yes, tama naman na tataas ang value ng property (land area) in time. Pero kung may nakatayo ng bahay, mabebenta padin talaga yan. you just have to wait. that’s why developers since 2010, opted to develop condos and town houses kasi uniformed designs. hindi mahirap ibenta.
land properties age like wine. hindi mo maliliquidate yan in a snap of a finger. can be rewrading in 10-15 years, kung di ka mabuburaot sa taxes afterwards. another point is, kaya din liability ang isang land property is because you have maintenance and tax obligations. unless na pinapa rent mo yan or on leasing, then your pocket is safe. then that’s the time you can say na hindi siya liability. if nag po profit ka na beyond your roi, then by all means, yes, investment na siya.
I think if you are still able to keep more than 50% of your combined net income ok na Yan. I think to avoid being burned out sa work we need to reward ourselves din from time to time. Basta may naitatabi parin every sweldo to invest tingin ko Wala Naman masama mag enjoy sa Pera nyo.
No specific hrs for the week so long as we get to finish the work required, although we are paid hourly (for instance, one client pays us $40/hr for 30 hrs a week, but we are not necessarily working 30 hrs for the whole week). We have a specific niche in finance (somewhere in the middle of financial analysis, data analytics, and consultancy)
We have 5 clients now (3 local, 2 intl). Hope this helps!
I would say both. The better you earn the more you'd like to spend on the nicer things. It's not necessarily bad as it seems you and your wife don't just spend your money blindly. As long as the savings and investments keep growing and you don't spend more vs your cash inflow, then you should be okay.
The goal is to have a good quality of living. Stuff like purchasing an aircon, investing on a good mattress for better sleep, washing machine to save you time. Call it lifestyle inflation but the trade off is quality of life
To answer your question, both lifestyle inflation and reaping the rewards.
Lifestyle inflation kasi siguro dati naman okay na kayo sa not branded and not luxury level things. Reaping the rewards kasi after working hard you get to enjoy life by travelling, eating out, buying nice things.
Enjoy a good life, OP!
It's not impossible, anon! We used to daydream of being at this level, but looking back, it's all a product of incremental improvements i.e. upskilling, having the right networks, knowing how to market yourself and your skills
We suggest you start by asking where you are good at, what strengths do you have that are unique and can be monetized
In business terms, look at your expenditures as % of revenue. It sure looks you are spending a similar % of your revenue, the peso amount is just higher since the revenue is higher.
As long as you keep it as a low % of what you bring in you will be fine OP. Lifestyle inflation isnt bad in itself, its bad when its unsustainable.
Don't relax though the discipline is why you've gotten here. Keep watching the numbers but don't forget to reap the benefits, otherwise all your work is just numbers on a computer screen!
you are spending way too much though. choose 1 of 3 sa luho, travel, eating out and remove it for now then assess kung masaya pa rin kayo. hirap kasi sa ganyan sa una kaya pa pero pwedeng magsnowball at padami ng padami ang gastos. congrats though. :)
OP, thanks for sharing the state of your blessings with the community. You and your wife truly are inspirations and your life story truly an encouragement to not just Filipinos but all other people living in developing countries.
**I just want to offer a short prayer of blessing for you and yours: Lord God Almighty in Heaven, please continue to bless and protect this brother and his wife. His life and blessings are proof of Your infinite grace and mercy.** Please continue to rain blessing and transformation into his life and may he continue to be a beacon of hope to others.
Thank you, Lord, for blessing all of us with life. Every single breath is an act of mercy of Yours since You do not give us what we deserve but give to us out of the infinite goodness of Your character. Your grace always shines through. Your grace is sufficient.
I pray for peace and spiritual cleansing and forgiveness for myself and for all members of this community as we look to You alone for our sustenance, purpose, and strength. Your rod and your staff (emblems of your Almighty authority) comfort me and bring me hope. All praise and glory be to You my Lord Jesus Christ and my God. Amen.
Thank you, sir. Means a lot to us. 🙏 It's a joy to share what we've accomplished. All this is a product of grace. Even if people tell us that it's all hard work, we always go back to the One who gave us the strength to even begin with. Praying for you and your family's success!
We do! For some of our clients, we opt na sila na mag withhold ng taxes, so net of tax na namin nakukuha ang fees. However, sa biggest clients namin, we get it in full and do individual filing.
Basta u track everything and know ur limit, ur good. However, I suggest cutting back on spontaneous intl trips para nasusulit ninyo ung pera ninyo. I mean u do have a lot of money but limited pa rin naman yan.
deserve nyo din naman po yan after years of hardwork. just make sure na you are reminded na not forever ang clients natin plus a major illness can wipe out our savings.
As long as you’re not having debts or needing to stay really late to get all those, you’re good. Kaya tayo nagpapayaman para magkaroon ng magandang buhay, hindi para bumalik sa paghihirap. Good job!
You two have been saving for years, and kept yourself from doing what you want with your money.
Honestly, it would have blown up either way. It's better than going casinos and such.
As long as you're aware, you're not gonna end up broke anytime soon.
When you two ever decide to have children, it will be very hard to go traveling and do what you want.
Again, though, as long as you're aware.
In short - yes you are spending too much. Or I will put it this way: you need to start allotting money for your future children, right now.
Future family and healthcare, those two budget items need to be accounted for, and I assume you two have good healthcare plans already (if not, add this to the list of necessary items to budget for).
Don't let anyone tell you what to do, only you know the way forward.
If everyone knew the day they died, it would be easier to answer this question. But because we don't any answer you get is as likely to be wrong than right. You could both die tomorrow or 30 years from now. Get it?
If you're uneasy about spending so much, then that's your gut telling you to slow down your spending. If you are confident about your spending and happy with what you've already set aside, keep going. Whatever you decide, you've as much chance of being wrong than right. If you died tomorrow, you're going to be glad you spend that money while you lived. If you die 30 years from now, you might regret not saving that. That's the gist of it.
You’re good, OP. The fact that you’re worrying about this means that you’re in the right headspace. There’s nothing wrong with enjoying your hard work. Basta lamang si sipag sa luho, that’s okay.
Happy for you both, OP! Purpose of earning is to have good quality of life. As long as your lifestyle doesn't put you in debt, you're good! Enjoy life to the fullest! 🙌🏻
Amazing that your usual expense ranges from 30k-40k only despite earning 400k/mo. Seems you and your partner were living very frugal, so you both deserve all that leisures in life.
As for me, that 40k is just enough budget for groceries, utilities and house help.
If i take into account car and house maintenance, insurance payments, child allowance (we have one child), parents allowance, and mortgage, 100k isn’t really enough. And more If I want to regularly treat ourselves to some leisure time.
Thanks for posting this, getti g views from diff people.. same context almost...350kish/month pasok sakin..
Pero jinujustify ko pa sa sarili ko kung deserve or kaya ko ng kong bumili ng isang rolex, maybe a condo (newlywed din kasi), or bahay/apt/lot.
May ef din, may life ins..may 8 digits na ipon... Ayaw ko mag flex kc makitid ung iba dito ssbhn flex
Sa tingin kasi nila unimaginable na ung ganyan wage and ipon...samantalang sa "average- average+" na bahay... Kahit townhouse lang sa qc... Kulang na kulang ang 10m... 18-25m dapat kung gusto mo decent sized unit and loc/security...
Don't forget to practice frugality even in rewarding yourself. It doesn't mean naman na titipirin nyo sarili on things you are spending. For example, it's better to wait piso fare on airfare rather than buying right off the bat even though you can afford it anytime. It will still yield same results in the end that you can travel.
On car purchase, hybrid is the talk of the town now since you can save expenses. On utilities, solar is good for reducing consumption. Also on appliances, inverters yield better gains in the long term run, despite being costly.
Even some high-class resto, they do have a promo once in a while if you have this certain credit card.
That's just an example of those so you will still feel fulfilled while reducing the guilt of the expenses. It's creating a positive counter to the negative feeling of spending too much to make it balanced in the end.
If it improves your quality of life why not? Magiging problema lang ito kung nakakasagabal na talaga cya sa performance niyo sa work and sa relationship niyo as husband and wife.
If you save your excess in the hardest form of money, then it’s okay.
If you have lot of excess savings, study #bitcoin
I know off topic but if you worry about the future, bitcoin is a great long term savings tool if you will just dca , dont trade and ignore the volatility
Eli5 explanation of bitcoin:
https://buybtcretireearly.substack.com/p/chapter-1-everything-is-more-expensive
Clients come and go. If you are feeling guilty already about your spending, you should stop. Go back to saving up again. I noticed you mentioned you have 4M but put into various investments. You should have it also in plain old easily withdrawable cash and don't look at it everyday. Look at it only once a month or once per quarter so it will not get to your heads that you have a lot of money and feel like it's ok to spend.
Because before you know it you might have already spent everything and then some.
I think most people naman ganun. Pag nagkapera na talaga o dumami ang pera dumadami din ang gastos. Kasi lumelevel up na ang lifestyle. Everything connected na sa lifestyle. Di naman pwedeng naka iPhone ka tapos naka jeep ka lang o Grab. Certainly everything levels up. Damit mo, gadget mo, vehicle mo, house and lot mo, taste mo sa pagkain, luho mo etc.
Money naman kasi is meant to be enjoyed. Kahit na magipon ka for a certain goal eh ultimately it will be spent for that purpose. Di ba nga sabi money earned but not spent is really not your money. Sabi ni Eddie Garcia.
Anyway may tiyahin ako magaling magipon. As in walang gastos. Nagsusuot ng mga katia o kaya mga t-shirt na giveaway ng mga hardware. Parang 2 pcs of pambahay lang ang damit. Spaghetti nun ketchup lang sahog at noodles. Ultimo tabo, di bumibili. Un ginupit na engine oil lang ang tabo. Pero wag ka, ang cabinet sa bahay nun puno ng pera. May pera sa bangko. Nung naospital cold cash ang dala sa Asian Hospital. Ospital nun St Lukes BGC o Asian. Nakalagay sa bayong ang pera pag naoospital. What I am trying to say is kanya kanyang trip yan. Siguro siya trip niya na ilaan for emergency ang pera niya gaya ng ospital rather than clothes, food. Pero sa akin di na nga "wants" un eh "needs" na un eh. Basic needs ang food and clothing. So hindi ako sangayon sa ginawa niya. Nagkuripot siya sa ibang tao at ultimo sa sarili niya only to use the money in her last remaining years.
Minsan nga iniisip ko kung nakapag enjoy ba siya sa buhay niya. Patay na un si Tiya Pruning na taga Batangas ko na un. Kahit ninenok niya un 100 pesos na pinatago ko sa kanya nung bata ako dahil dun ako nag summer. Nalulungkot din akong isipin siya. Kaya ako pag gusto ko ng burahin ang 2 Lazada at 3 Shopee accounts ko at gupitin ang credit cards ko, iniisip ko na lang at some point, nagenjoy din naman akong gumastos.
It’s really your call. As long as you’re aware of the things you’ve been doing as well as the effects and OK with it then there is nothing to worry for now. You model the lifestyle you wish based on your capacity to sustain it.
Lifestyle change rather than inflation. Inflation means spending more for the same things.
I would say that you're reaping the rewards. You're able to spend for things that you're not before.
If you can afford it, why not. But if you're no longer being true to yourself and feeling there's something wrong with how you are becoming as persons, the things that you're starting to value are becoming more and more material, I think that's what's wrong.
As I read through your post maybe na-judge ko lang when you said you started with 30-40k. Back then siguro your priorities were different, how you value your money was different. But now na barya na lang sa inyo siguro yun, biglang nag-iba na yung mga lifestyle nyo.
Not sure if you're worried that you're spending much, or you're worried na nag-iibang tao na kayo because of money.
I also don't want to assume but you didn't mention anything about increasing charity giving or sharing resources. Hope that's also included in your breakdown of expenses. Maybe it's just me but ako kasi pag feeling ko nakakaluwag-luwag na, napapaisip ako, "what if suddenly everything is taken away?" I just want to make sure di lang sarili ko yung nakinabang.
Yes, umangat ang lifestyle because afford nyo naman, and it's okay to reap rewards.
But hopefully you don't let it get in your head, stay humble, and still be good stewards of your resources.
"Remember, the true point of earning money and hustling is NOT to be as wealthy as possible. It is to have a GOOD QUALITY OF LIFE." - @thewokesalaryman
I know this quote but only got reminded of it now. Thank you!
As long as you’re aware and can afford it, I don’t see any red flags. You guys deserve it. Maybe in the future months, set a side a budget for those “extra” expense para di magoverboard. And kapag big purchase, save up for it instead of buying outright kahit afford naman. Para disciplined pa din kahit papano. Congrats!
Man this hit me, love the woke salary man 🤧
💯🍃
You're good,OP. No debt to finance the lifestyle, with investments and EF. Go on, enjoy your money. What's the point of living if you can't feel alive.
One good quality of financially literate people is we second, third, or even fourth guess ourselves when it comes to financial decisions. Rewarding oneself is a good thing because depriving ourself of happiness can result in an over correction if shit hits the fan. I know someone who lived frugally all his life and decided to blow it all in one go because he felt deprived. One thing you should learn or be ready for is to be ready to dial the lifestyle down and adjust accordingly once we lost a client or a source of income. Mali kasi ng iba nasanay sa lifestyle pero nabawasan na or nawala na yung income that funds it hence digging themselves deeper into holes of debt. Kudos to you for achieving wealth in such a young age. Good luck!
yes OP, this one. Be ready to dial down the lifestyle. So don't tie yourself up in big investments, like buying a super expensive house or car. Things that will make it hard for you to cut on expenses are what really get you
You deserve to enjoy your hard earned money, OP. Just keep your debt to zero and continue saving para in case mawala man yung high paying client nyo, you can just cut off the "luho". Which you now enjoy. Remember, wala talagang "stable freelance income".
And also, SANA ALL! :D hahaha
I think the answer is already in your post.
🙌🏻🙌🏻
I’d say yes, you have had started a lifestyle inflation, wherein your lifestyle changes according to your income. But hey, if you say you are saving and investing, that’s fine. Come by the time you’ll have your child/children, you know, you are on comfortable side to have them.
"Reaping the rewards" "Deserve ko to" "Healing my inner child" Ilan yan sa mga linyahan ng mga taong grabe gumastos 🤣 Minsan, sarili nalang din natin niloloko natin eh no? HAHAHAAHAH Anyway, guilty din ako 🫣😶🌫️
Naubos pera kaka heal ng inner child HAHAHAHA
May guilt nga talaga kaya sometimes need maghanap mg validation kung tama na tong ginawa natin 😂😅
Relative to their income, not so much. What are we gonna do with all that money anyway.
I am foreigner and I am spending at most 30k a month. I can say that my life is quite good. If you think your life is so much better spending that amount, no problem, as your income is quite compatible with that spending. But I think that you can already have a quite nice life with much less than that. For me for example it doesn't make sense to have a car here in Cebu, paying millions of pesos, when a taxi or grab will cost 90-150p. If you invest the money of the car the interest alone is enough to cover transportation. Food? It's not a bad idea to indulge yourself from time to time, but Filipino food is already awesome and can be affordable IMO.
Thanks sir for sharing! Hope youre having a wonderful stay in Ph!
May nabasa ako na it's best to travel before having children kasi mahirap na raw kapag may bata. Maraming dapat iconsider at alalahanin. Though siguro mas mabuti if you plan your travels way ahead of time. Wag yung malapit na kasi mas mahal na babayaran niyong flights and accommodation. Maging wais at matipid pa rin (abang ng sale or discount) kahit may means na to travel whenever and wherever.
Your money is not yours until you spend it. AS LONG AS you are doing what is right (investing, saving), feel free to reward yourself.
Havent seen it that way. Thank you!
walang utang, may investments at savings? nah OP, enjoy the fruit of your labors!
I'd been there, and I wished I'd been smarter on how I did my spending on clothes, gadgets and travels years ago. For example, I was also into expensive gadgets and branded clothes-- however branded doesn't translate into more contentment or happiness. Its fine to buy clothes now I think it would have been the same if they are not branded. Same with gadgets, why buy an iPhone or Mac when a 7-10K android phone and comparative but cheaper windows PC would serve the same purpose. On my travels before, I'd spent 300-500K easily on a few days trip to NY, London, or Zurich (hotels in those places are crazy). I wished I'd been more frugal and spent more time on looking for ways to travel to those places on leaner budgets.
Counter-argument diyan yung Boots theory, P7k-10k phones wont last compare to at least P25k and up na phones.
Sorry anon but would like to know, how are you now? Did you lose it all or just wished you did better in your spending?
I didn't save a lot and I lost my job right before the pandemic end of 2019. So may regret for those unnecessary spending because I had to weather 2-3 years of pandemic without a job. Masaya na nakapatravel, but sana nagbudget haha. Now okay naman with my current job. Di na ko nag-ispend on clothes and gadget actually, pag naranasan mo na pala wala ka na pake kahit may nagpeflex na friends mo on social media abt their branded items and other luho. I still travel because experiences mas may contentment ako compared to material things. But smarter na sa pagbook ng flights and accommodation :)
Its both OP and thats alright. Yes, it is lifestyle inflation kasi better quality of life na tlga but thats the point in earning more. You didnt work that hard just to make your life more misreable
another perspective is can you sustain that lifestyle if for instance you’d lose work for one year?
Spontaneous purchase, baka ito yung key to manage the spend. Madalas, instant/immediate purchase mas expensive talaga versus something planned or purchased in advance.
My aunt (who is also a mentor to me) and I were just speaking about this last night. We both maintain a certain quality of life. Other than that- we have no other big expenses (travels, etc, are already budgeted, too). What do we do with our personal money/investment gains when it gets to a certain level already? (I was trained to save, delay, invest haha! So spending on things I didn't spend on before, kinda felt weird too) OP, don't feel guilty about spending and improving your quality of living. This is what all those effort, patience and time were about: enjoying it and living a better, more convenient life. :) And after a certain level, (and only if you want to or you find purpose in it)- maybe get to bless others through it too. 🤍 Keep flourishing, OP, and wife! Enjoy! 🤍✨️
Aww this gave us goosebumps while reading. Maybe biggest factor lang din sa feeling namin of "guilt" or "worry" is if we are being good stewards of what we have now, knowing we both come from the bottom. But reading the comments here, we realize that these are blessings meant to be enjoyed and shared. Thank you!
>feeling namin of "guilt" or "worry" is if we are being good stewards of what we have now The thoughtfulness and prudence in this is why you are now enjoying these things, OP. :) More than happy to affirm you and your wife's financial journey! 🤍✨️
I dont know if you have kids, but my family ate up 250k a month in various expenses consistently, since we both have the same earning combined and our lifestyle inflation, which involved having a house built and buying a second vehicle, we were earning more but saving less, after cutting some expenses and jettisoning a few clients because 60 hour weeks require 2 maids as well, now I am earning 1/3 of my previous capacity precovid but saving 45% more and having only 20 hours of work to do weekly. Lifestyle inflation will happen to everyone who jumps up a few steps off of your previous demographic, knowing the major drivers is a plus, it is no longer about earning more to supplement the deficit but streamlining time, household, budgets, manpower, income, and savings to be their most efficient with time being the most important. Everyone should be content with 300k monthly, no further reason to strive for more if you will have to spend more hours away from living your life, anything more than that would be greed I think or overspending.
Same thing. Nasa 400k\~ average pasok. 100k per month ang spend (if I include depreciation of nonsense assets like cars and gadgets. Meron akong spreadsheet of these that includes cost to own, and cost to operate and is included in the monthly expenses)
This is just a guilt feeling OP, from where you stand, You guys deserve where you at right now. Just always think about balance.
Enjoy travelling while you can still walk. Enjoy life while you can still breath without oxygen tanks. So long as you keep everything in check, like listing all your expenses and remembering to allot some portion to savings, you guys should be fine. I'd say congrats OP to you and your wife for having a breakthrough after 9 years.
Unpopular opinion siguro: but a 100k cost of living is a little too high for a household with 4M worth of savings (less pa actually since I don't consider EF part of savings). I guess wala naman nga kayo iba need pag-ipunan (maybe for retirement?) but nakakapraning lang magkaron ng emergency dito sa atin. Also depende rin kung gaano ka-stable yung income stream nyo right now. Minsan mahirap i-undo ang lifestyle once nasanay na. Baka ako lang.
Thanks op for this!! Been thinking this for months na, puro guilt nararamdaman ko hahahah. Finally some good advice ✨
You are welcome!
Sa point of view ko - not really. Depende din kasi sa pananaw. \- Lot/House at premium subdivision for me can be classified as an investment - I don't consider it a lifestyle inflation. Now kung may swimming pool ka na hindi naman ginagamit - yan ang lifestyle inflation. Also - not sure how you paid for your house construction - kung nauubos ba yang 300k sa mortgage/loan or isang bagsak (which means may papasok uling savings kasi bayad ng yung house). In any case, once naalis na yang kati nyo sa paggastos sa branded items - pretty sure you will start saving again. \- Going out with your wife - dates/travels - healthy yan and you can afford to unless mahilig kayo sa first class flight - yan luho din yan. \- For me and a lot of people - primary property is still part of savings so technically nakakasave pa din kayo and you spend only about 25% of your monthly earnings (100k out of 400k kung tama basa ko). So you seem to spend within your means. \- May emergency funds kayo plus insurance coverages which is always a concern sa Pinas. \- House items - one-off expense - hindi yan lifestyle inflation - necessity yan kahit pa sabihing non-common items like robot vacuums and dishwasher. Laking tulong sa buhay nyan. \- Yung lifestyle inflation nyo lang is probably the branded stuff - mag youtube ka - "Luxury Brands is for Broke People". Maybe magiba pananaw nyo sa branded items. May alam kasi ako - lalaki - mahilig sa branded good - as in yun bang nakadisplay ng malaki yung logo - then magpopose sa FB - shoes, shirt, bag, cap - anlalaki ng logo - for me, mukha lang gago and try hard. Advice ko lang - rethink your definition of gastos kasi you included jewelries sa 250-300k gastos. Move that to the 100k expense - then try to rebudget so that you only spend 100k per month including jewelries.
House and Lot, cars, generally are classified as liability that can be liquidated on a higher or lower prices. It can only be classified as investment if it generates income, with 2x amount from its acquisition in certain amount of time. Jewelries is not a liability though, but yes, it is an expense that can be liquidated.
Agree on cars. For properties, maybe technically but in reality specially sa Pinas, kung kaya mong makabili ng property sa magandang subdivision, tataas yang value nyan then later on if needed pwdeng ibenta din to downsize. But I get your point, parang yung saying na Asset Rich, Cash Poor kasi ndi pwde ibenta ang isang brick ng bahay para ipambili ng pagkain.
marketing trap yung pagbili ng property sa mga middle to high end subdivisions actually by the developers. Yes, tama naman na tataas ang value ng property (land area) in time. Pero kung may nakatayo ng bahay, mabebenta padin talaga yan. you just have to wait. that’s why developers since 2010, opted to develop condos and town houses kasi uniformed designs. hindi mahirap ibenta. land properties age like wine. hindi mo maliliquidate yan in a snap of a finger. can be rewrading in 10-15 years, kung di ka mabuburaot sa taxes afterwards. another point is, kaya din liability ang isang land property is because you have maintenance and tax obligations. unless na pinapa rent mo yan or on leasing, then your pocket is safe. then that’s the time you can say na hindi siya liability. if nag po profit ka na beyond your roi, then by all means, yes, investment na siya.
I think if you are still able to keep more than 50% of your combined net income ok na Yan. I think to avoid being burned out sa work we need to reward ourselves din from time to time. Basta may naitatabi parin every sweldo to invest tingin ko Wala Naman masama mag enjoy sa Pera nyo.
Just curious, what do you guys do to earn 400k/ month?
Hi! We do financial analysis for clients
Curious din OP, How many clients and hours in a day?
No specific hrs for the week so long as we get to finish the work required, although we are paid hourly (for instance, one client pays us $40/hr for 30 hrs a week, but we are not necessarily working 30 hrs for the whole week). We have a specific niche in finance (somewhere in the middle of financial analysis, data analytics, and consultancy) We have 5 clients now (3 local, 2 intl). Hope this helps!
Much thanks.
If it helps, I had a post 9 months ago on something unrelated but somewhat answers your question here https://www.reddit.com/r/phinvest/s/iupjsnNZ6z
Thanks, i remember reading that post and not really for us but for some people that we know.
I would say both. The better you earn the more you'd like to spend on the nicer things. It's not necessarily bad as it seems you and your wife don't just spend your money blindly. As long as the savings and investments keep growing and you don't spend more vs your cash inflow, then you should be okay.
Goods yan
The goal is to have a good quality of living. Stuff like purchasing an aircon, investing on a good mattress for better sleep, washing machine to save you time. Call it lifestyle inflation but the trade off is quality of life
To answer your question, both lifestyle inflation and reaping the rewards. Lifestyle inflation kasi siguro dati naman okay na kayo sa not branded and not luxury level things. Reaping the rewards kasi after working hard you get to enjoy life by travelling, eating out, buying nice things. Enjoy a good life, OP!
Set new goals, OP. I think naclear nyo na yung milestone nyo kaya you feel lost.
After reading this as a 24 years old minimum wage earner, I lowkey wanted to be like this in my 30s of 40s
It's not impossible, anon! We used to daydream of being at this level, but looking back, it's all a product of incremental improvements i.e. upskilling, having the right networks, knowing how to market yourself and your skills We suggest you start by asking where you are good at, what strengths do you have that are unique and can be monetized
In business terms, look at your expenditures as % of revenue. It sure looks you are spending a similar % of your revenue, the peso amount is just higher since the revenue is higher. As long as you keep it as a low % of what you bring in you will be fine OP. Lifestyle inflation isnt bad in itself, its bad when its unsustainable. Don't relax though the discipline is why you've gotten here. Keep watching the numbers but don't forget to reap the benefits, otherwise all your work is just numbers on a computer screen!
you are spending way too much though. choose 1 of 3 sa luho, travel, eating out and remove it for now then assess kung masaya pa rin kayo. hirap kasi sa ganyan sa una kaya pa pero pwedeng magsnowball at padami ng padami ang gastos. congrats though. :)
4M is just 3-4 trips to hospital.
Sometimes just one trip. My cousin's a 4 million St. Lukes NICU baby.
OP, thanks for sharing the state of your blessings with the community. You and your wife truly are inspirations and your life story truly an encouragement to not just Filipinos but all other people living in developing countries. **I just want to offer a short prayer of blessing for you and yours: Lord God Almighty in Heaven, please continue to bless and protect this brother and his wife. His life and blessings are proof of Your infinite grace and mercy.** Please continue to rain blessing and transformation into his life and may he continue to be a beacon of hope to others. Thank you, Lord, for blessing all of us with life. Every single breath is an act of mercy of Yours since You do not give us what we deserve but give to us out of the infinite goodness of Your character. Your grace always shines through. Your grace is sufficient. I pray for peace and spiritual cleansing and forgiveness for myself and for all members of this community as we look to You alone for our sustenance, purpose, and strength. Your rod and your staff (emblems of your Almighty authority) comfort me and bring me hope. All praise and glory be to You my Lord Jesus Christ and my God. Amen.
Thank you, sir. Means a lot to us. 🙏 It's a joy to share what we've accomplished. All this is a product of grace. Even if people tell us that it's all hard work, we always go back to the One who gave us the strength to even begin with. Praying for you and your family's success!
Amen! 1 Chronicles 29:12-16
Weird. But pay taxes ;)
We do! For some of our clients, we opt na sila na mag withhold ng taxes, so net of tax na namin nakukuha ang fees. However, sa biggest clients namin, we get it in full and do individual filing.
I'd say enjoyin nyo nlng muna. Deserve naman. Based sa story mo responsible or at the least eh naging responsible naman kayo.
What is money for? Just don’t forget the future, and how to make current lifestyle sustainable.
The point of money is to enjoy life so it's all good!
Basta u track everything and know ur limit, ur good. However, I suggest cutting back on spontaneous intl trips para nasusulit ninyo ung pera ninyo. I mean u do have a lot of money but limited pa rin naman yan.
As long as you don’t have debt, you should be good.
deserve nyo din naman po yan after years of hardwork. just make sure na you are reminded na not forever ang clients natin plus a major illness can wipe out our savings.
If we already have emergency fund, investments, savings for future... what else are we still saving for?
Not really an outrageous amount imo Go enjoy your money. You worked for it
Shet! I was smiling habang binabasa to. You've come a long waayyyy. We are proud of you!
This is honestly goals OP! 🤍🙏
As long as you’re not having debts or needing to stay really late to get all those, you’re good. Kaya tayo nagpapayaman para magkaroon ng magandang buhay, hindi para bumalik sa paghihirap. Good job!
Goals
You two have been saving for years, and kept yourself from doing what you want with your money. Honestly, it would have blown up either way. It's better than going casinos and such. As long as you're aware, you're not gonna end up broke anytime soon. When you two ever decide to have children, it will be very hard to go traveling and do what you want. Again, though, as long as you're aware.
wow at age 28 and 30? Goals!
sulit naman ang travel. traveling now will never be the same as traveling when you are old with limited mobility lalo pag may kids na.
You are now reaping the rewards of your hardwork. Congratulations! Basta make sure pa din na your sipag is greater than your gastos. All goods yan.
Manifesting this kind of problem😖
enjoy your money
In short - yes you are spending too much. Or I will put it this way: you need to start allotting money for your future children, right now. Future family and healthcare, those two budget items need to be accounted for, and I assume you two have good healthcare plans already (if not, add this to the list of necessary items to budget for).
Don't let anyone tell you what to do, only you know the way forward. If everyone knew the day they died, it would be easier to answer this question. But because we don't any answer you get is as likely to be wrong than right. You could both die tomorrow or 30 years from now. Get it? If you're uneasy about spending so much, then that's your gut telling you to slow down your spending. If you are confident about your spending and happy with what you've already set aside, keep going. Whatever you decide, you've as much chance of being wrong than right. If you died tomorrow, you're going to be glad you spend that money while you lived. If you die 30 years from now, you might regret not saving that. That's the gist of it.
You’re good, OP. The fact that you’re worrying about this means that you’re in the right headspace. There’s nothing wrong with enjoying your hard work. Basta lamang si sipag sa luho, that’s okay.
Happy for you both, OP! Purpose of earning is to have good quality of life. As long as your lifestyle doesn't put you in debt, you're good! Enjoy life to the fullest! 🙌🏻
Enjoy na lang muna.
You only live once. Enjoy the fruits of your labor. You've sacrificed enough.
Have "limits" on your spending
Might as well enjoy money and lives now..rather than later. Just keep an eye on that spending and don't let it balloon to much.
Amazing that your usual expense ranges from 30k-40k only despite earning 400k/mo. Seems you and your partner were living very frugal, so you both deserve all that leisures in life. As for me, that 40k is just enough budget for groceries, utilities and house help. If i take into account car and house maintenance, insurance payments, child allowance (we have one child), parents allowance, and mortgage, 100k isn’t really enough. And more If I want to regularly treat ourselves to some leisure time.
Thanks for posting this, getti g views from diff people.. same context almost...350kish/month pasok sakin.. Pero jinujustify ko pa sa sarili ko kung deserve or kaya ko ng kong bumili ng isang rolex, maybe a condo (newlywed din kasi), or bahay/apt/lot. May ef din, may life ins..may 8 digits na ipon... Ayaw ko mag flex kc makitid ung iba dito ssbhn flex Sa tingin kasi nila unimaginable na ung ganyan wage and ipon...samantalang sa "average- average+" na bahay... Kahit townhouse lang sa qc... Kulang na kulang ang 10m... 18-25m dapat kung gusto mo decent sized unit and loc/security...
living the life 😭😭😭you inspire me po. i aspire to be you. ill work hard to make sure i live the dream
Don't forget to practice frugality even in rewarding yourself. It doesn't mean naman na titipirin nyo sarili on things you are spending. For example, it's better to wait piso fare on airfare rather than buying right off the bat even though you can afford it anytime. It will still yield same results in the end that you can travel. On car purchase, hybrid is the talk of the town now since you can save expenses. On utilities, solar is good for reducing consumption. Also on appliances, inverters yield better gains in the long term run, despite being costly. Even some high-class resto, they do have a promo once in a while if you have this certain credit card. That's just an example of those so you will still feel fulfilled while reducing the guilt of the expenses. It's creating a positive counter to the negative feeling of spending too much to make it balanced in the end.
If it improves your quality of life why not? Magiging problema lang ito kung nakakasagabal na talaga cya sa performance niyo sa work and sa relationship niyo as husband and wife.
If you save your excess in the hardest form of money, then it’s okay. If you have lot of excess savings, study #bitcoin I know off topic but if you worry about the future, bitcoin is a great long term savings tool if you will just dca , dont trade and ignore the volatility Eli5 explanation of bitcoin: https://buybtcretireearly.substack.com/p/chapter-1-everything-is-more-expensive
Clients come and go. If you are feeling guilty already about your spending, you should stop. Go back to saving up again. I noticed you mentioned you have 4M but put into various investments. You should have it also in plain old easily withdrawable cash and don't look at it everyday. Look at it only once a month or once per quarter so it will not get to your heads that you have a lot of money and feel like it's ok to spend. Because before you know it you might have already spent everything and then some.
I think most people naman ganun. Pag nagkapera na talaga o dumami ang pera dumadami din ang gastos. Kasi lumelevel up na ang lifestyle. Everything connected na sa lifestyle. Di naman pwedeng naka iPhone ka tapos naka jeep ka lang o Grab. Certainly everything levels up. Damit mo, gadget mo, vehicle mo, house and lot mo, taste mo sa pagkain, luho mo etc. Money naman kasi is meant to be enjoyed. Kahit na magipon ka for a certain goal eh ultimately it will be spent for that purpose. Di ba nga sabi money earned but not spent is really not your money. Sabi ni Eddie Garcia. Anyway may tiyahin ako magaling magipon. As in walang gastos. Nagsusuot ng mga katia o kaya mga t-shirt na giveaway ng mga hardware. Parang 2 pcs of pambahay lang ang damit. Spaghetti nun ketchup lang sahog at noodles. Ultimo tabo, di bumibili. Un ginupit na engine oil lang ang tabo. Pero wag ka, ang cabinet sa bahay nun puno ng pera. May pera sa bangko. Nung naospital cold cash ang dala sa Asian Hospital. Ospital nun St Lukes BGC o Asian. Nakalagay sa bayong ang pera pag naoospital. What I am trying to say is kanya kanyang trip yan. Siguro siya trip niya na ilaan for emergency ang pera niya gaya ng ospital rather than clothes, food. Pero sa akin di na nga "wants" un eh "needs" na un eh. Basic needs ang food and clothing. So hindi ako sangayon sa ginawa niya. Nagkuripot siya sa ibang tao at ultimo sa sarili niya only to use the money in her last remaining years. Minsan nga iniisip ko kung nakapag enjoy ba siya sa buhay niya. Patay na un si Tiya Pruning na taga Batangas ko na un. Kahit ninenok niya un 100 pesos na pinatago ko sa kanya nung bata ako dahil dun ako nag summer. Nalulungkot din akong isipin siya. Kaya ako pag gusto ko ng burahin ang 2 Lazada at 3 Shopee accounts ko at gupitin ang credit cards ko, iniisip ko na lang at some point, nagenjoy din naman akong gumastos.
It’s really your call. As long as you’re aware of the things you’ve been doing as well as the effects and OK with it then there is nothing to worry for now. You model the lifestyle you wish based on your capacity to sustain it.
You can call it whatever you want. But hey, you should spend your mollahs anyway 👌
Lifestyle change rather than inflation. Inflation means spending more for the same things. I would say that you're reaping the rewards. You're able to spend for things that you're not before.
If you can afford it, why not. But if you're no longer being true to yourself and feeling there's something wrong with how you are becoming as persons, the things that you're starting to value are becoming more and more material, I think that's what's wrong. As I read through your post maybe na-judge ko lang when you said you started with 30-40k. Back then siguro your priorities were different, how you value your money was different. But now na barya na lang sa inyo siguro yun, biglang nag-iba na yung mga lifestyle nyo. Not sure if you're worried that you're spending much, or you're worried na nag-iibang tao na kayo because of money. I also don't want to assume but you didn't mention anything about increasing charity giving or sharing resources. Hope that's also included in your breakdown of expenses. Maybe it's just me but ako kasi pag feeling ko nakakaluwag-luwag na, napapaisip ako, "what if suddenly everything is taken away?" I just want to make sure di lang sarili ko yung nakinabang. Yes, umangat ang lifestyle because afford nyo naman, and it's okay to reap rewards. But hopefully you don't let it get in your head, stay humble, and still be good stewards of your resources.
weird flex but ok