January 2025 – Going to China

January 2025

As mentioned in the previous monthly update, we were quite sick in December. At the beginning of the month, we went to the doctor and we finally got a diagnosis. I got a bad case of pneumonia and my wife got sinusitis.

Once we got on antibiotics and other medicine, things started to improve rapidly. My wife got almost no side effects from the medicine. On my end, the pneumonia stopped rapidly, but I got some stomach pain. But compared to the pneumonia, this is really not much to bear. And after a while, all symptoms disappeared.

At this point, I have not yet filled our taxes (or those of the blog). We usually do that in January. But with the trip to China, everything is shifting. We will take care of that in late February or in March.

I am actually writing this article earlier than usual to compensate for the fact that we will be in China during the last few days of the month. As a result, some expenses may be moved to February to compensate.

Financially, it was a good month. We did not spend much money. The spending for the holidays will come later. Our income was average for January. As a result, we managed to save about 51% of our income, which is a great way to start the year.

Expenses

Here are the details of our expenses in January 2025:

In total, we spent 8231 CHF this month. Without taxes, this amounts to 4232 CHF, much lower than our goal (5387 CHF this year). This is a great way to start the year with our spending.

Of course, this level of spending will go up next month once we pay for the hotels, restaurants and such. But overall, I am happy about this.

We also see the difference since we have finished paying the federal taxes. Next month, we will only have the municipality taxes to pay. And in March, we will not pay taxes.

2025 Goals

Here is the status of our goals by the end of January 2025:

Overall, our results are mixed. We spent less than we wanted, so that is one good thing. Our income is totally average for a January. The larger February and March months will weigh a lot in the balance later.

The first ten days of the month, I was still a little sick and with low energy, so I did not do much on the workout side. But then, I could pick up my routine again and started doing exactly as planned. This still means I missed some workouts, but on the entire year, this should not matter at all.

With the pneumonia at the beginning of the month, I decided to get a small heater for my office. This room is not heated since it is in the basement, so it can get cold. I usually deal with it pretty well, but I really did not want to get sick again. So, I bought a small infrared heater. And except for the bad mobile app (why does everything come with a mobile app these days?), I am pleased about it. I am quite surprised about the infrared technology, it feels much better than convection heating. The power consumption is decent and the heating good. However, this still means that it is increasing significantly our power consumption. But I would rather miss our goal rather than to get sick again.

The last few days, we were in China. So I did not do any workout.

For water and power consumption, it is also important to note that this was a few days shorter. These days of consumption will then be picked up in February. This is because I cannot access my power and water meters while in China.

Next month, our water and power consumption will be very low because we will be gone for about 10 days. On the other hand, my workouts will be awful again. My steps will probably be bad as well since I will not have access to my treadmill. But we will walk more than usual in China. Our finances should be decent next month because of higher than average income.

Overall, our progress this month was highly hindered by the illness. And then next month will be highly disturbed by going to China. I will have to wait until March to get a full normal month. But there is really not much I can do about it.

FI Ratio

Here is the progress of our FI ratio as of January 2025:

Our FI ratio did a nice progress this month.

Overall, it was a good month for our finances. We managed to spend relatively reasonably given the consequences. And the stock market was good, so our net worth increased from both our shares and our added money. We have contributed to my third pillar this month, and we will contribute to my wife’s next month. In March, we will likely contribute to our second pillar.

This does not include any update in expense, since the calculation was done before the end of the month.

Overall, I am happy with our progress. It will be interesting to see how this progresses by the end of March 2025.

The Blog

I do not have much to share on the blog for this month. I focused on writing enough articles in advance so that articles could still get published when I am in China. And the idea is also to not have too much work late when I come back. This will highly depend on whether my VPN works when in China. Last time I went there, my VPN did not work whatsoever and I could not get anything. The idea is not to do any articles while in China, but to not let emails accumulate too much. I know it is not ideal while in vacation, but otherwise it will be very difficult to pick up once we are back (especially since I do not have any days off when coming back).

In the upcoming months, I plan to do a few things for the blog. I want to improve our broker comparison tool to have multiple scenarios (investing, selling and long-term). I also plan a few small updates for the e-book. And I plan to translate the free e-book.

Next Month – February 2025

We will still be about 10 days in China during February 2025. We will meet many friends and family members and maybe visit a little as well.

Once we come back, I do not expect anything special for the end of February. I will take a while to get back energy after this long trip and then handle all the late work on the blog. So things should pick up again in March.

Financially, it should still be a decent month, despite the holidays because I should get some shares from my company.

What about you? How was January 2025?