Bye bye high salary – monthly update August 2022

In August I took a nice vacation to the Spanish Basque country and otherwise was in a lot of stress at work. On my last day I had to work till 6:30 pm, including an urgent meeting at 5 pm. Very weird feeling once it was all over.

I then moved myself to Germany, as unfortunately I need to take up tax residency there for my new startup job.Goodbye high salary…

Now that I have started at the startup, the contrast in salary is enormous:
Old net salary after taxes: SGD 13.591 / month + lots of benefits
New net salary after taxes: SGD 3.640 / month + no benefits

We are working on our next funding round and once it is done, my salary will be increased to net SGD 5,675 / month, hopefully sometime next year.

Why the hell did I take this job?

My five reasons were:

1) Equity: In return for the mini salary I got a very large chunk of equity in the startup. The startup itself is in a highly profitable niche with a very good product, so should the startup work out after launch in 2026, I would stand to gain a fortune

2) Super job: the job is very interesting and I have a lot of decision making power as part of a three people leadership team. With the experience under my belt I would be able to find a new job easily

3) Fully remote: I will bugger off to Southern Spain to skip the winter

4) Nice colleagues: I have been working with them for over a year and like them a lot so far

5) Finally I can put my frugality muscles to good use

Portfolio in August

In August my portfolio increased from SGD 830,173 to SGD 840,531 (~ USD 598,000). Fresh investments of SGD 14,707 were offset by unrealized losses of SGD 4,349.

Expenses

In August I spent SGD 6,656. Way way too much. I consider it my last wasteful spending month, as now I am going full frugal mode with my lower salary.