Nineth Month of Phase 1 Barista FIRE

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This post is just for personal reference, to record my personal income and expenses in my journey towards Barista FIRE.

For the month of September, it was another simple month for me.  Simple life, simple expenses.  However, occasional spending spiked because I have exchanged some funds to MYR when exchange rate was favourable, above SGD 1 : MYR 3.20 in preparation for the annual insurance premiums I need to pay for at the end of the year.  Besides this large one-off expense, the others were just expenses for annual health check-ups and some other miscellaneous spending in preparation for the upcoming trip with my mum and aunt.

Besides expenses, I also receive 'bountiful' dividend harvest this month from REITs and other stocks in my portfolio, and that concludes my Q3 dividend harvest.  Looking forward to the final quarter's earnings and dividends, and hoping I can achieve my annual dividend goal for 2026.  

All in all, after 9 months of phase 1 Barista FIRE, I think I am doing ok balancing income and expenses.  So far I have not incurred any deficit, and I hope this will hold true till the end of the year.  For now, as I enter October with less tutoring assignments, as students are done with exams, and students preparing for O and A levels generally have less predictable schedules, I need to actively start looking for students again so that moving into 2027, the transition will be smoother.  Hopefully I will be able to maintain my active income next year.  Barista FIRE, here I come...!

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