Celebrating 3 months of leaving toxic job environment without another job lined up, yet it is fine

Today marks the 3rd month-niversary of leaving a toxic job environment. Leaving without another job lined up, yet it was without hesitation or stress. Leaving was therapeutic instead. So today is the 3rd month of being "unemployed". The 3rd month of not seeing a regular paycheck hitting my bank account.

The milestones in your life
Thankfully, I have my side hustles, dividend and options premiums to support me through such times. Thanks to them, I could just resign without any serious financial consequences, and I'm in no rush to find a new job just yet. I could do what I want to do for quite some time. Being able to do so is quite a milestone for me. Reflecting back, it is 4 critical decisions that I had made that granted me this freedom of "choosing what work I want" instead of "being trapped in a job for a salary".
I will talk about them in accordance to the impact they had on my journey.

1. Avoid lifestyle inflation
Being raised in a low income household, being trifthy had been my default mode of operation. Not by choice, but I just had no money to splurge. Earning the first paycheck was awesome as it opens up a whole new world for me. Want to dine at every restaurants, it's possible. Want to drink and party, it's possible. Want to own a car, it's possible, but what for? Mindless splurging is novel, it's new and exciting, but it just doesn't click.
Therefore throughout my career, despite multiple pay raise, my expenses didn't grow. My hair is cut twice a year. I haven't bought new clothes for a couple of years now. Cai png (economical rice) is still the food of choice, sometimes with fish. It is a simple but enjoyable life. Having low expenses makes it so much easier to survive during these times.

2. Having side hustles
While working a 9 to 5, I have been working on a few side hustles too. I operate an ecommerce store in $Sea(SE.US)$'s Shopee platform, as well as developing software solution for companies. So after work, I starts to pack and ship my online orders at night. It became a daily routine. After numerous years of doing so, the online store starts to get more and more orders, as there are more and more great reviews. The software business too have a great potential to grow as there is a shortage of software developers globally. Thus, I will focus on building that up instead of finding a new job for now. Thanks to those side hustles, I could stay unemployed and do what I love to do, for the time being.

I'm finally reaping the fruits of the seed I sowed a long time ago

3. Investing in dividend paying stocks
On top of the side hustles, I had been investing in quite a number of dividend paying stock during the covid crash. My investing journey was covered in Mooers' Stories Vol.2 - Doctorpot1.
Many investors hate dividend stocks and prefer growth stocks, but it is during such time that dividend stock shines. It provides a regular income source, which could be used for daily expenses or you could plow the money back into the market. This flexibility of dividend is often neglected.
Currently, I hold 21 stocks that are paying me sweet sweet dividends and they are:
$UtdHampshReitUSD(ODBU.SG)$, $Olam Group(VC2.SG)$, $Wilmar Intl(F34.SG)$, $Keppel(BN4.SG)$, $DigiCore Reit USD(DCRU.SG)$, $Daiwa Hse Log Tr(DHLU.SG)$, $UOB APAC Green REIT ETF(GRN.SG)$, $Suntec Reit(T82U.SG)$, $CapitaLandInvest(9CI.SG)$, $SGX(S68.SG)$, $Lion-OSPL China L S(YYY.SG)$, $Singtel(Z74.SG)$, $CapLand IntCom T(C38U.SG)$, $PropNex(OYY.SG)$, $CapLand China T(AU8U.SG)$, $Aspial Lifestyle(5UF.SG)$, $HongkongLand USD(H78.SG)$, $FRASERS PROPERTY LIMITED(TQ5.SG)$, $FRASERS CENTREPOINT TRUST(J69U.SG)$, $ManulifeReit USD(BTOU.SG)$, $PARAGONREIT(SK6U.SG)$ and $Astrea VI3%B310318#(6AZB.SG)$

4. Learning how to leverage options for additional income
I'm thankful that I had learnt about options too. Especially on strategies to leverage on options to build an additional income. Be it using the WHEEL strategy, Poor Man's Covered CALL strategy, covered CALL strategy or milking theta using PUT options strategy. These strategies had helped me earn extra income source while investing in companies that I'm bullish on.
2022 had been a painful year for many investors, as the bear market hits hard on growth stocks. Many of us are HODLing, many of us are not selling. So while HODLing, I'm using options to generate some extra income while waiting for the bull to finally be awake.
For those who are interest, I have posted many posts that talks about how I used options, so you can check em out
Currently, I am using options to generate extra income on 10 stocks and they are:
$Twitter (Delisted)(TWTR.US)$, $Grab Holdings(GRAB.US)$, $DiDi Global Inc(DIDIY.US)$, $NIO Inc(NIO.US)$, $Bed Bath & Beyond Inc(BBBY.US)$, $Palantir(PLTR.US)$, $UP Fintech(TIGR.US)$, $StoneCo(STNE.US)$, $Warner Bros Discovery(WBD.US)$ and $ContextLogic(WISH.US)$

Summary
What I had learnt from my experience is that

Financial Independence helps to maximise our Freedom of Choice

We won't ever have 100% true freedom of choice as there are always constraints. But by being financial independent it allows us to maximise our freedom of choice. That will be what I will be working towards, and I hope everyone in Moo Moo can achieve Financial Independence too invest safe

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