It’s been more than a year since I’ve gotten married (you would know if you’ve been diligently looking at the counter to your right), and it’s more than half a year since I’ve got a place of my own and moved out. I’ve also graduated for a year now and have been working since I graduated.

Looking back at the past year, a lot has happened, and the transition from being a student to a working adult is certainly a big one. When I was a student, there are many things that I never had to concern myself with but now that I’m a married and working person, I realise there are many things to juggle by myself which my parents used to take care of.

A large number of things that hit you when you’re working and married concerns money. When living off parents, mortgage repayments, utility bills, conservancy charges, tv licenses and other expenditures are in the furthest recesses of the mind. Only when you move out to a place of your own you realise how much all these add up every month, and you wonder why you have to incur so much costs each month just for being alive.

And before you even start wondering about incurring these monthly expenditures, you are already hit with the 10% down payment for your home and a five-figure renovation bill (these days, given inflation and all, the cheapest renovation will set you back at least $10,000). For someone who just started working, you find yourself penniless, or worse, in debt because you have to take a home renovation loan.

It gets even worse if you took a tuition fee loan and computer loan during your university days. Now that you’ve started working, the financial institutions are all too eager to start you on your monthly repayment. The end result of all these is that you never seem to be able to accumulate much in your bank account. The pay comes in and then in a week, 50 percent or more is gone.

When I was young, I wanted to grow up so badly. Now that I see and feel the price of growing up, I wish I can be a permanently carefree teenager.