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About Me:

Monkey Mama

Just a 46-year-old mom of 2 in Northern California. My kids are Monkey Monkey(MM) and Drama Llama (DL). I am married to Monkey Hubby (MH).

We were a one-income family for 13 years. In late 2015 my spouse returned to work (minimum wage/part-time/seasonal). Something recent on his resume just buys us more options for the long run. The main benefit of this job is that he just works while the kids are in school. As always, we are saving 100% of his income.

{2023 Update: I expect that MH will retire from this job when kids are done with college and/or home is paid off. I think he likes the idea of finding more interesting or full-time work, with kids both adults now. But practically, might just stick out the *good* and very flexible job as long as possible. The very part-time job is allowing him to pursue his film passions. We are only about 5-ish years away from financial independence. Would be very different if we "needed" the money or he thought he might have decades of working years ahead of him.}

We saved a lot while we were very young and also moved to a lower cost-of-living area, to make life much simpler. We still live in California though (in one of the most expensive regions of the U.S.). *Simple* and *inexpensive* is relative.

Likewise, we have never had debt aside from our mortgage.** My blog is a testament to how much simpler life is without debt; how we have that much more money to both save and enjoy!

**Caveat: I have no problem whatsoever with credit cards paid off monthly, or low-risk credit arbitrage (for example, 0%-interest debt while earning 5% on FDIC-insured cash). These are the kinds of debt we have had. Just not interested in high-interest debt, using debt to buy beyond means, and not interested in the hassle that comes with loans and payments. With age and means, the latter (hassle) is our biggest debt avoidance motivation.

-------------------------------

2024 Goals

[ ]Small monthly Charitable Contribution
...($35 @ 1/31/24)
...Trying to be more mindful about how the little amounts add up and are helpful.
...This is not an all inclusive list of charitable giving but it is a new habit I want to add in addition to other donations of time, goods and money

[ ]Pay cash for college
...This is so much a given, to me. But I realize not everyone can read my mind, and so will memorialize in my goal list.
...#1 We don't do Debt
...#2 The student loan system is a scammy and corrupt mess.
...Seriously, wouldn't touch these student loan servicers with a ten foot pole.
MM YEAR 1 ✔
MM YEAR 2 ✔
MM YEAR 3 ✔
MM YEAR 4

DL YEAR 1 ✔
DL YEAR 2

[ ]$10,000 to savings
...($4,529 @ 3/31/24)
...$1,000/month, plus interest
...Topping off with snowballs

[ ]$7,500 to investments
...($1,750 @ 4/30/24)
...$350/month, plus snowflakes
(Snowflakes: credit card rewards and dividends)
...Topping off with snowballs

[ ]$2,025 to mortgage
...($0 @ 4/30/24)
...Topping off with snowballs and/or excess cash
...Keeps us on track with $10K principal paydown per year

[/]9% of household income to work retirement plans
...(9% @ 3/31/24)
...This is the minimum for the match; I'd otherwise rather fund IRAs.
...Note: Total retirement savings rate is 20% (with IRAs)

Goal savings rate = 25% of gross salary, plus funding IRAs from other sources.

[ ]$14,000 to IRAs 2024 (MAX)
...($0 @ 4/30/24)
...Will fund with MH's income
...Will not fund until the year is over. This is for tax and planning reasons. I won't know what mix of Traditional/ROTH IRA we literally can contribute until we do our 2024 taxes. In addition to that, can make a more informed decision based on our financial and tax situation for the entire year.

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**Long-Term Goals**

[X]$500,000 in retirement accounts by age 45.

Current big picture goal:

[ ]$1 Mil in retirement accounts by age 52.

Stretch Goal: Achieve by age 50

Have decided to pretty much stay the course. Keep saving 20%+ to retirement. This means taking 401K match & maxing out IRAs.

NOTE: WE HAVE NEVER CONTRIBUTED LESS THAN 10% TO RETIREMENT. NO EXCEPTIONS.

If we can't achieve at least 10%, then something else has to give. I share because it's infinitely easier to save for retirement if you start early. Let the investments do the hard work for you.

-------------------------------

Debt: $85,000 mortgage
{Home Purchase Price $290,000}

Ongoing goal is to *never borrow money again.*

Took on a $230k mortgage in 2001 and have not added to that.

-------------------------

Net Worth: Increase net worth by $600,000 in the next 10 years. This is my "financial independence" goal.

2017: +$ 70,000 (partial year)
2018: +$ 51,000
2019: +$105,000
2020: +$104,000
2021: +$215,000
2022: <$ 65,000>
2022: +$ 85,000
TOTAL: +$565,000

This is in line with prior goal, saving 100% of our expenses every year.

{Our expenses are far more consistent than our income. Also, helps to prevent "living up to income."}

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My Pages

COOL Decorating Idea...

January 13th, 2008 at 09:39 pm

How's this for frugal?

http://homokaasu.org/rasterbator/gallery/i/10229.jpg

If you click on the link above you will see a print out on the floor, of a baby. It's a bunch of sheets of paper put together to put together a big poster actually.

At the party yesterday we saw one of those. So cool. So this morning I played around with it. I came up with a picture for each of my Monkeys. I just happened to have 2 framed posters sitting in the closet. Just poster-sized, cheap black frames. So I uploaded my recent favorite Christmas picture of LM and printed it out. It came out really good.

BM and I chose a picture for his room.

They are framed; I haven't put it up yet. If you can live with the white lines, it wasn't that hard. I wasn't going to bother slicing the pages down to chop the borders, though we do have a paper cutter. I figure that would just be too complicated for me. I don't do good with putting things together. But this was rather simple and fun.

Anyway, I didn't figure it out yet but it looks like you can do the same for top quality prints. It's just free on their website. Look at some of these!

http://homokaasu.org/rasterbator/gallery/i/10668.jpg

We have to fix up LM's room and I saw that one. Is giving me IDEAS. (Oh yes I know that one would be tough to implement. But looks more fun than painting anyway. Big Grin

)

http://homokaasu.org/rasterbator/gallery/i/8884.jpg

http://homokaasu.org/rasterbator/gallery/i/10311.jpg

Well here is the website to give it a whirl:

http://homokaasu.org/rasterbator/

I can just see my house being covered in art in no time. LOL. But I was also thinking it might be a nice gift to put together one of my dad's photos on one of his walls some day. Sneak over there and put it up as a giant poster or something.

So much you can do...

Posted in Just Thinking | 3 Comments »

3 Responses to “COOL Decorating Idea...”

nomorecredit Says:
January 13th, 2008 at 10:11 pm 1200262313
1200262313

That's awesome! So many ideas sprang to mind!! Thanks so much for posting this as I've been looking for a change around the house and don't want to spend the $$$ to paint or buy posters, etc., but we have all the stuff we need to do to do this.
MariRDH Says:
January 14th, 2008 at 12:27 am 1200270473
1200270473

So cool! I just made a really neat picture to put up in my daughter's room. Thanks!!!
Broken Arrow Says:
January 14th, 2008 at 02:09 pm 1200319797
1200319797

8884.jpg is hilarious! I do like 10311.jpg a lot!

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Monkey Mama*s Monkey Money Blog

Over Prepare, Then Go With The Flow

COOL Decorating Idea...

3 Responses to “COOL Decorating Idea...”

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