Events seem to happen more often when you pay attention to them, and it appears to me that 2024 ends with more events than a typical year. Is it because within 3 months I will have spent a decade in the U.S., or is it because of the recency bias?

I could reflect on the recent assassination attempt of the President-Elect back in July; the 37-year low of the Japanese Yen to USD in June; the pathetic Democratic loss in the November 2024 Election; or the recent CEO killer this month. But I ought to maintain my growing apathy towards sensationalized politics over the last 2 years, and start my 2024 review with the most boring object in one’s life: my personal finance.

Personal Finance

Student Loan

My 2024 started off with my student loans completely paid off. Its highest balance was around 14,500 USD, around August 2023. The decision to keep the loan until Jan 2024 was probably due to Biden’s administration (failed) attempt to cancel the loan. 2023 was still in the “forbearance” period which allowed me to get a refund of the loans to put in high yield saving accounts. The gains were probably not much, but at the time it probably served as a very good emergency fund - one which I should’ve kept, since their rates are still at 4.5%, while my loans were either 2.x% to 3-4%.

Paying off the college debt early also meant my accounts are closed earlier. This opportunity to improve my credit score was sadly missed. My fear of debt should get a serious self-psychological assessment.

Quick Stats

Looking at my YNAB’s Reflect page:

• I’ve saved roughly $3100 this year – a pathetic amount. I am expecting another paycheck this month, but that only adds around $1k.
• If I remove my Roth IRA from the equation, I’ve saved only $1700 this year. That is less than $200 a month.

What do I include in the calculation? I removed my car loan and Roland RD-2000 from the calculation, since I’m unable to valuate them. Including them means my loan payment each month has a $0 effect. Now, if I include them both, I will get a number that is “how much do I have left if I had to pay all my debt right now?” which is $7400. So, I am fine there.

Worst Offenders

Why did I save so little? Here are some offenders:

Trips

• $ 475.01: March Trip to Boston (for Anime Boston). Plane tickets were bought in 2023.
• $ 221.16: April weekend trip to PDX. The cheapest trip for this year.
• $1717.77: July Trip to LAX (for Anime Expo), including associated expenses.
• $ 815.++: November Trip to PDX (for Kumoricon). I’m not quite sure how this trip is more expensive than the Boston trip. Probably the hotel.

Education

• $2100.00: Tuition for 1 Quarter of an online audio productions class at UW. (not worth the price)

Car

• $ 765.22 avg PER MONTH: On my car. Payments, tabs, Oil change, fluids, services, etc. Also includes Lyfts, transit.

Eating out

• $ 487.51 avg PER MONTH, on eating out combined. (Eating out includes outside coffee/drinks (incl. those bought at groceries store that does not happen on a grocery run), or fast-food for lunch or breakfast.). This is 10% of my monthly pre-taxed income, which is ridiculous.

Goals for 2025.

Planning a trip for Japan. I plan to cut down on eating out to $200 a month. So, $50 per week for eating out, including random snacks and fine dining. Let’s see how that holds up.

Anime Conventions

I knew I was going to an anime convention some day but I didn’t expect it to be this year, and even 3 times within the 12 months: Kumoricon, AX and Anime Boston. I don’t cosplay nor do I consider myself “weeb” enough so my convention experience wasn’t exactly the most “elated”. It’s probably because vocaloid isn’t exactly a huge thing at the conventions, so I didn’t find much opportunity to genuinely socialize.

I’m not going into the individual experiences I had at these cons, but I was impressed by how different they were, depending on the city hosting them, how many people were going there and how well they’re organized. AX is too much because DTLA is too much. I ended up getting COVID (for the first time!) there. Anime Boston was fairly cold but the venue is cute. I was also super sick at that time and didn’t remember much. Kumoricon is the chillest one since there weren’t as many people, but there’s also less varieties and quantity of content.

Chis-A song

I bought Chis-A in March and successfully forced myself to produce a pop song in May, June, before Anime Expo happened. I wanted to write more about it, but after I was done with, I was and still am a bit sick of the song to write a full write-up. It’s not a good song, but I am proud that I completed the project (including the music video and hiring an artist) on time.

Japanese

My dormant motivation to learn Japanese has been exposure to anime/manga consumption over the past 13 years (I’m 26 now), and my interest in vocaloid/vocalsynth/歌い手(utaite)/jpop after circa 2020. However, I didn’t seriously learn the language until 3 years ago (2021), when I drilled hiragana and katakana within 1-2 months by writing out the alphabet almost every day with pen and paper. Progress stagnated as I accumulated more grammar/learning books without a proper study schedule/routine. Luckily, I found one simple trick that really increased my learning speed:

In October 2024, I deciding to go to Japan for one full month to study the language (20 hours/wk during my trip), in October 2025. This so far has psychologically forced me to ramp up my learning activities, since I am committing a considerable time off work and money; and I really don’t want to be in a country where I don’t know the language whatsoever. The result so far (after 2 months) has been my daily learning with WaniKani and Bunpro, where I both have lifetime membership.

Will I succeed? You’ll have to find out after 10 months. In the past, I have tried Duolingo, and some Anki decks, but I found them ineffective. Currently, there isn’t a lot of listening and speaking skills that I could practice on Bunpro, but I will be finding resources for these shortly.

December 27th, 2024. kn. (Originally written for my Bunpro profile bio)

Mood changes

I wanted to write about existential topics but it’s hard to get capture that mood. So I doubt I’ll have enough time to have that section in this review.

I think 2024 consisted of some rough circumstances but towards the second half the year, my mood was markedly dulled; to say that I could “regulate my emotions” better would not be correct, since they are more diminished than they are “regulated”.

For example, I am not anymore bothered when people take forever (beyond a reasonable timespan) to respond to my texts. A year ago, that would’ve evoked some emotions which I would curb. Now, there’s the emotion/feeling isn’t even there.

My sensitivity to caffeine seems to have also increased. Specifically, Vietnamese coffee has a distinct effect on me (since supposedly they have double the caffeine amount). I’ve also become better at recognizing when a bad feeling is because I had coffee earlier in the day.