Day 1977: 1 October 2026
After a rather disastrous (for my wallet) August, things are starting to look much better in September.
I’ve been a lot more mindful of my spending. I’ve not begun cutting expenses but thinking along the lines of “do I need this or am I being impulsive” whenever I buy stuff.
That said, even the reduced amount is still way too high for my early retirement goal. Let’s see how things go this month when I’m planning to start pruning the low hanging fruits.
Spending for September 2026
| Category | Amount ($) | Average ($) | Difference ($) | Cumulative (%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| housing | 2,832 | 3,444 | -612 | 24.7 |
| — mortgage | 2,800 | 2,800 | 0 | |
| — home maintenance | 32 | 644 | -612 | |
| travel | 2,297 | 1,686 | 611 | 44.7 |
| — airfare | 1,345 | 676 | 669 | |
| — hotel | 294 | 49 | 245 | |
| — misc | 658 | 961 | -303 | |
| bills | 1,481 | 1,408 | 73 | 57.6 |
| — gym | 103 | 223 | -120 | |
| — utilities | 391 | 107 | 284 | |
| — insurance | 580 | 717 | -136 | |
| — phone & internet | 72 | 52 | 20 | |
| — helper | 334 | 309 | 25 | |
| transportation | 1,369 | 752 | 617 | 69.6 |
| — car | 1,009 | 533 | 476 | |
| — grab | 261 | 115 | 146 | |
| — public transport | 99 | 104 | -5 | |
| family support | 1,000 | 1,721 | -721 | 78.3 |
| discretionary | 1,000 | 1,000 | 0 | 87.0 |
| food | 999 | 1,408 | -408 | 95.7 |
| — restaurants | 209 | 504 | -295 | |
| — cafes & snacks | 99 | 208 | -109 | |
| — hawker | 62 | 135 | -73 | |
| — groceries | 628 | 560 | 68 | |
| health & wellness | 266 | 207 | 59 | 98.0 |
| — dental | 0 | 69 | -69 | |
| — medical | 266 | 118 | 148 | |
| — personal services | 0 | 20 | -20 | |
| shopping & entertainment | 212 | 1,963 | -1,752 | 99.9 |
| — online shopping | 47 | 694 | -646 | |
| — general shopping | 64 | 731 | -667 | |
| — entertainment | 86 | 352 | -266 | |
| — appliances & gadgets | 14 | 125 | -111 | |
| — apparels | 0 | 61 | -61 | |
| others | 15 | 656 | -641 | 100.0 |
| — others | 15 | 656 | -641 | |
| — unknown | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| total spending | 11,471 | 14,244 | -2,774 |
Remarks
Travel — Looks a bit high but that’s because I’ve been purchasing tickets in advance for planned travels that are still a few months away. This should average out soon.
Car — I paid for the full year’s road tax and for the annual inspection this month. Again, this should average out.
I’ve spent 38% less this month compared to last month. Compared to my long-term average (6 months data only for now), I’m down 24%.
Things are about to get aggressive next month. It’s gonna be Kopi-O.
Monte Carlo Simulation
I’ve spent quite some time this month updating and reconciling my finances. With that, and with the reduced spending, here are the simulation results for this month:
Simulating retiring now with a mortgage of $2,744.10 per month.
| Expenditure excl Mortgage ($) | Probability of Success (%) |
|---|---|
| 1,000.00 | 100.0 |
| 2,000.00 | 96.3 |
| 3,000.00 | 86.1 |
| 4,000.00 | 71.6 |
| 5,000.00 | 55.8 |
| 6,000.00 | 40.7 |
| 7,000.00 | 28.4 |
| 8,000.00 | 18.6 |
| 9,000.00 | 11.6 |
| 10,000.00 | 7.1 |
| 11,444.19 (Actual) | 3.2 |
Okay that’s still a very low 3.2%, but hey that’s 4 times last month result of 0.8%!
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