[Day 1] FIRE Log of a ¥200,000-a-Month Office Worker | The Most Overtime I’ve Worked Since Joining
Nice to meet you. I am Anto.
Starting today, I will keep a record of an office worker with a monthly income of ¥200,000 aiming for FIRE.
⚠️ This is not a success story, but a realistic log that includes progress, emotions, and numbers.
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1. A one-line summary of today's work
The busiest day since joining the company, and the first day I lost my "composure."
It has been about 10 months since I joined in April last year.
Today was probably the day I worked the most overtime so far.
My regular hours end at 5:30 PM, but before I knew it, it was past 6:00 PM.
Since I chose this company specifically because it had little overtime,
honestly, it was a very tough day.
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2. Today's mood (5-point scale)
2 / 5 (Honestly, as a person, maybe around 1.5)
I just didn't have any emotional margin today.
With the busyness and tension, I felt a constant sense of unease in my chest.
Even in situations where I would normally respond with a smile,
I feel like I gave a cold response today.
Looking back, that is what I regret the most.
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3. Progress on money, investment, and side hustles
Investment and asset building
I have been doing installment investments since I was 20.
I manage it by "living expense ratio" rather than by amount,
• Student days: Monthly investment of about 40% of my current monthly living expenses
• Working adult now: Monthly investment of about 60% of my current monthly living expenses
It is not a significant amount of assets yet,
but since last year, I have had a "sense of accumulation" little by little.
Side hustle
The online side hustle I started in college is entering its third year soon.
Current earnings are about ¥3,000 to ¥4,000 per month.
Honestly, it has been stagnant for a while now.
However, I received a comment from a user saying, "This is my favorite," and
when my motivation drops, I look back at that screenshot.
Today, I worked on my side hustle from 5:30 AM to 7:30 AM.
I plan to take the night off and do muscle training instead.
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4. Something I noticed today (one thing)
Emotions and facts must be consciously separated.
When things get busy,
the "feeling of frustration" and the fact of "work that needs to be handled calmly" get mixed up.
Even if I take it out on people while emotional,
it doesn't reduce the work or make it finish any faster.
Especially when busy,
I realized that the ability to separate emotions from facts is necessary.
If I want to be a person with composure,
and a wealthy person with composure,
I think it starts with daily life.
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5. Things to do tomorrow (one thing)
If my emotions move in a negative direction, I will think in terms of "facts" once.
When I get frustrated,
I will verbalize "What is the current fact?" once.
And first of all,
I will prioritize leaving work on time.
Recently, my workload has increased and overtime has continued, so
I will be conscious of that tomorrow.
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A little bit of small talk
Today is Wednesday.
I am taking a break from my side hustle tonight and will do muscle training now.
If I don't exercise,
I feel like I will end up with a body that can't move even if I achieve FIRE.
I used to run full marathons, so
now I am moving my body mainly through muscle training.
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I hope this record
will be a reference for my future self and someone somewhere.
I will continue to write calmly again tomorrow.
Thank you for your hard work.
Nice to meet you. My name is Anto.
Starting today, I’ll be documenting my journey as an office worker earning ¥200,000 a month, working toward FIRE.
⚠️ This is not a success story.
It’s a real log that includes progress, emotions, and numbers—exactly as they are.
⸻
1. One-line summary of today’s work
The busiest day since I joined the company—and the first time I truly lost my sense of calm.
It’s been about 10 months since I joined the company last April.
Today was probably the day I worked the most overtime so far.
My official end time is 5:30 p.m., but before I knew it, it was already past 6.
I chose this company partly because overtime was supposed to be minimal,
so honestly, today was pretty exhausting.
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2. How I felt today (5-point scale)
2 / 5 (to be honest, as a person, maybe closer to 1.5)
I had no emotional margin today.
The busyness and tension left me with a constant uneasy feeling in my chest.
In situations where I would normally respond with a smile,
I think I came across as cold or short.
Looking back, that’s what bothers me the most.
⸻
3. Money, investing, and side hustle progress
Investing & asset building
I started investing regularly when I was 20.
Instead of tracking amounts, I manage everything as a ratio of living expenses.
• As a student: invested about 40% of my monthly living costs
• Now as a working adult: investing about 60%
My assets are still modest,
but since last year, I can finally feel them slowly building up.
Side hustle
I started an online side hustle back in college, and it’s almost been three years.
Current income is around ¥3,000–¥4,000 per month.
To be honest, it’s been stagnant lately.
But I once received a comment saying, “This is my favorite,”
and when my motivation drops, I look back at the screenshot of that message.
This morning, I worked on my side hustle from 5:30 to 7:30 a.m.
Tonight, I’ll take a break and do some strength training instead.
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4. One thing I realized today
Emotions and facts need to be separated—consciously.
When things get busy,
my frustration (emotion) and the tasks that simply need to be done (facts)
start to blur together.
Taking frustration out on others doesn’t reduce the workload
or make things finish any faster.
Especially when things are hectic,
the ability to separate emotions from facts becomes crucial.
If I want to become someone—and someday, a wealthy person—with real calm,
it has to start in everyday situations.
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5. One thing I’ll do tomorrow
When my emotions turn negative, I’ll pause and think in terms of facts.
When I feel irritated, I’ll ask myself:
“What are the facts right now?” and put them into words.
And above all,
I’ll prioritize leaving work on time.
My workload has increased recently, and overtime has been creeping up.
Tomorrow, I want to be more conscious of that.
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A bit of casual talk
Today is Wednesday.
I’m taking the night off from my side hustle and heading to work out.
If I don’t stay active,
I feel like even if I achieve FIRE, I won’t be able to fully enjoy it.
I used to run full marathons in the past,
so these days I focus mainly on strength training to keep moving.
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I hope this record will be useful
to my future self—and to someone else, somewhere.
I’ll keep writing again tomorrow, calmly and honestly.
Thanks for reading, and good work today.