Tsukistar's 2024 (II): spending big just to buy some happiness
In past years, since I had the habit of keeping accounts, I would look at my income and monthly expense list at the end of each year to plan next year’s spending. But in the last two years I haven’t kept accounts, and I also haven’t had time to sort out my finances. So taking the year-end review as an opportunity, I decided to take stock of my financial situation, and also record a few major expenses over the past two years.
Startup Spending
When I first decided to build something of my own, I believed too much in “logistics before troops,” so I spent a lot of money and energy preparing “infrastructure.” Later I realized I didn’t actually have that many “troops,” and didn’t need such a big scale. It would be better to start with something more realistic around myself: figure out what I can offer, what other people need, and what other people would actually click to read.
Costs of Starting a Studio
In 2023, I tried creating a studio. Setting up the studio, registering trademarks, bookkeeping services, renting a place—every item was expensive. Altogether it cost around 30,000 RMB, and I also paid for some lessons and got taken advantage of in the process. Although in the end I sorted out the corporate bank account, taxes, annual reports, and so on, in reality doing these things didn’t help me earn any extra income. It mainly just satisfied a bit of vanity.
At first I wanted to try paid communities like “knowledge planet” and some consulting services. Later I tried to find some work I could take on, but the number of smooth and completed transactions was only around 1–2. I never clearly defined what I can do, what I want to do, and how much time and energy I can invest. So in practice I didn’t build many unique businesses; there were very few presentable results, and operating income wasn’t much.
Spending on Being a VTuber and Running Channels
A few days ago, I started organizing my existing MiHuashi commissions into folders, so I can quickly provide reference images when I use those works or commission again later. During this process I suddenly found that MiHuashi thoughtfully calculated the commission cost for each folder. After roughly adding things up, I realized that in just one year, MiHuashi commissions alone were close to 20,000 RMB. If I include commissions on other platforms, the money spent on raising an OC and being a VTuber in commissions exceeded 20,000 RMB in a year.
In recent years, as the VTuber supporting industry has developed rapidly, prices for commissions, stream room decoration, widgets, and similar products have dropped a lot. But as a male VTuber, many nice outfits and illustration templates are designed for girls, and many artists clearly state they won’t take male character commissions. So relatively speaking, commission costs are higher, and there are fewer good-looking outfits to choose from.
Besides materials needed for streaming and videos, Twitter verification, and memberships for Telegram and Discord were also expenses at some point. I bought a new microphone hoping to improve audio quality. Adding everything up, I’ve spent more than 20,000 RMB on my channels over the past two years. Even so, I’ve never paid for promotion—because there isn’t really anything worth promoting yet. So being a VTuber is truly a money-burning hobby. On the revenue side, even though Twitch monetization is enabled, it’s mostly just supportive subscriptions from close friends and around $0.01 USD of ads per stream.
Investment Situation
In late September this year, before the policy stimulus, I identified two stocks and invested nearly 30,000 RMB. During that crazy period, I made over 7,000 RMB in total, offset my past losses, and earned the travel money for Singapore. I missed two later opportunities, and the two new stocks I bought recently are currently at low levels. I’m not sure whether I can catch the next wave when policies take effect.
Besides A-shares, after opening Wise I’ve kept investing in US stocks for the past year, with both gains and losses. I once bought Tesla and HP at low prices, but didn’t hold them for the long term. I also lost a lot trading silver. Starting from when I fully got out of Intel around October, my US stock account finally began making profits to fill past losses. Currently I’m about 100 SGD away from recovering all early investments. With a few more operations, there should be a chance to win it back.
At year-end I suddenly saw bad news: OCBC started closing accounts for non-resident overseas users who do not live in Singapore. That means next time I go to Singapore, it won’t be as smooth to deposit the remaining cash as last time. Without a debit card, if I have cash left, I can’t just deposit everything into my bank account on the last day before leaving like I used to. I also don’t know whether the securities service on usmart will be affected. Anyway, I registered for usmart HK first, and next I need to open a Hong Kong bank account for investing.
Other Spending
In the past two years, my biggest spending in other areas has been my cats getting sick. Vet visits for cats really consume both money and energy, and you never know what kind of trouble they will cause. Like I once tweeted: from the day I rescued my cat Nori to now, I estimate I’ve already spent more than 20,000 RMB on medical treatment. Recently I’ve been controlling its weight, and after it returned to a normal weight, its condition became much healthier.
Recently I’ve also been sorting out everything at home. Items that can be sold are already being sold; items that can’t be sold are being simplified as much as possible. The overall direction for the next year is still “subtraction”: own less.
Financial Status
After taking stock of my net assets, with all savings and debts offset, my cashflow isn’t very ample. If I calculate based on current income expectations, increasing income and cutting costs are non-negotiable tasks for the coming year. I hope I can switch to a job with a higher monthly salary this year. Working harder is fine. At the same time, I need to significantly reduce unnecessary expenses, make annual and monthly budgets, and avoid wasteful spending.
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