2019 Schedule Book

I had so much fun with my schedule book in 2018 that I've decided to get myself another one for 2019. So I went to Kinokuniya with the intention of getting something similar to last year's book, but then I found these instead, a Moomin home planner. It's so cute!!! There was a Hello Kitty one as well, but it was 2SGD more expensive, and Hello Kitty is so yesterday and pink. This book looks so professional.

See how it blends with my Mackus and headphone? They were meant to be together. I love Japanese annual organiser/planning book. I read that these are mainly for the housewife to handle the home affairs. I actually have a very nice daily cooking planning book for year 2017 which I haven't started using. But I had so much fun with my schedule book last year, I decided to continue on. The fact that it forces me to reflect at least on a  monthly basis and post an entry on this blog helps justify the price I pay for such a fancy notebook.

The other reason I like to get such a book is, that it forces me to read Japanese at least once a year. I tried reading all the instructions on how to use the book etc, and although I could roughly understand it, I decided to download google translator to be sure. My main goal was to use the monthly overview section as a month blog post summary here on this site. But this book seems to focus a lot on budgeting, which also fits into my other goal of keeping track of my spending as I move slowly towards early retirement. 

Without much to do at work, I have been drafting out my retirement and investment plan on almost a daily basis. I started tracking my daily expenses as a trial run since 20-Dec-2018. So with the start of 2019, shit is about to get real! I actually have an allocated budget for every category of spending, so now I'm just monitoring to see if my planning is accurate or I need to make adjustment to it. 

So this book is super handy cause it keeps me track my daily expenses, and even has a full page category for me to use as a suggestion. This gives me some guidance and suggestion on how I want to position my spending. For example, I'm still confused on where to park restaurant meals. Are they considered food? Or entertainment? In the end I decided to just park it under Credit Card spending.

One of the things I checked before I bought this book was whether it comes with stickers! And yes, it did, just like any respectable Japanese schedule book. I think I have a Moomin Diary somewhere in my book drawer as well.... I bet when I retire, I'll have a lot of time to use those awesome books eventually! They should be able to last me two decades!

So what's the damage of my fancy marketing book? SGD17.40. But considering you use it for a monthly post, each month would only cost me SGD1.45. Surely I have allocated sufficient monthly budget for that! My global sms to my mum sometimes cost more than that! I really wish she would switch to WhatsApp real soon! 

Anyway, let me try to quickly finish up Nov-2018 and Dec-2019 schedule book entry soon as I am eager to start posting on this year's schedule entry! Cause each page is so elegantly designed! So different as compared to 2018 which was like an under-12 girly book. Can't blame me, I bought it together with a 12 year old manga magazine! So 2019 seems like its going to be a more professional, elegant year! Even if I do retire early, there will be no regrets, cause I've calculated everything in advance and I know I can make it quite comfortably now. More on that if I have the time!