Just Blabbing about Finances! Excuse my wordiness...
About Me
Monkey Mama
Just a 31-year-old mom of 2 in Northern California. Big Monkey (BM) is 5 & Little Monkey (LM) is 3.
We have been a one-income family for 6 years. This arrangement used to be "temporary." Our goal is to make this a long-term arrangement.
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. "Simple" and "inexpensive" is relative.
Likewise, we have never had much debt but 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!
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2009 Goals
**Financial**
[ ]$6k to Savings
[ ]$4k to ROTHs
[ ]Review Umbrella Insurance
[ ]Close BT Cards
[ ]Close IRAs with $0
**House**
[ ]Fix Gutter
[ ]Have Trees Trimmed
[ ]Plant Fruit Tree
[ ]Fix Tile/Sealing
[ ]Clear junk from Master Closet
[ ]Buy Mattress/Bedding for LM
[ ]Paint BMs room
[ ]Price Security Screen Door
[ ]Price Stucco Repair
[ ]Price Security Upgrades
**Personal**
[ ]Take it Easy
[ ]Monthly skype dates with mom/sister
[ ]2 weekends away, with just dh
[ ]1 camping trip
[X]1 trip to the snow
[X]More trips to the cabin
[ ]More biking & hiking
[ ]Season passes to Great America
**Long-Term Goals**
[x] 15% gross to retirement (2009)
[ ] 10% gross to cash savings
[ ] Max out ROTHs
[ ] Pay mortgage off by age 45 (before kids start college)
[ ] Paint Exterior of Home
[ ] Replace Fence
[ ] Replace 2001 Ford with a Prius (ideally, 2013 or later)
[ ] Purchase a used convertible in the $5k range
Increase Net Worth by 50% of expenses, annually:*
[x] 2007 +$30k [ ] 2008 down $2,750
[ ] 2009
*We measure our financial progress in terms of annual expenses because our income has been all over the map, and when we both worked we only lived on half the income. Likewise, we lived largely off savings in our 20s when we first had children. So I read an article about measuring net worth progress in terms of annual spending, and it made a lot of sense to me since our spending is, and probably always will be, more constant than our income.
