<< Back to all Blogs

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.

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

**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."}

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

My Pages

Great Few Days

March 15th, 2011 at 07:49 pm

Well, Saturday and Monday were pretty good.

Saturday:

**Made it to aerobics (2nd time since surgery?)

**Worked for 3 hours

**Finished parents' taxes

**GIL treated us to lunch.

**Took a nap

**Played tennis/enjoyed the nice weather

**Read some of my book

(Interesingly - now that I bought last book for nook - it is now available at the library. Probably for the best - there is no way I can finish it in 3 weeks! Way too big. Dh checked out 2 ebooks - all was fine but no renewal, which makes checking out giant books kind of useless).

PERFECT day. Put me in a very good mood.

SUNDAY:

**It rained, I worked alone all day. Not too much exciting.

**That said, MIL made us a St. Patty's day dinner - corned beef and cabbage.

MONDAY:

Monday was shaping up to be hectic.

Tried to re-arrange piano schedule around track schedule, and realized we had a parent/teacher conference.

**Crazy day so we all went to BM's track practice. Dropped him off and was running to Taco Bell. Dh suggested grocery store for sandwhiches. Ended up with sushi. YUM. Just kind of a nice spontaneous evening of sorts.

If it was crazy hectic like that all the time - wouldn't be my thing. But I suppose was a nice change of pace from our usual "plan ahead - plenty of time to cook/eat dinner" schedule. Just, a little spontaneous.

**Spent 1 HOUR chatting with BM's teacher. Telling each other how great we are. Have got to enjoy these parent-teacher conferences. IT seems to be how it goes (he is a great fit for BM and thus absolutely no issues since he is so happy). That said, went better than expected - if that is possible.

HE also has AMAZING things planned for next year. I am more excited about it than I was.

Since I know BM is a brain, I am always more impressed with behavioral praise than academic praise. We got some of that too, and an insight into how the teacher was rewarding him for that. I kind of presumed it was an "everyone gets a turn" thing, and was pleased to hear BM had been singled out for extra praise and as an example the other kids should follow.

What more could a parent ask for?

Posted in Just Thinking | 1 Comments »

1 Responses to “Great Few Days”

FrugalTexan75 Says:
March 16th, 2011 at 01:45 am 1300239936
1300239936

I think it is so fantastic that BM not only has a great teacher, but gets him/her for multiple years!

(Note: If you were logged in, we could automatically fill in these fields for you.)

Name:	*
Email:	Will not be published.
	Subscribe: Notify me of additional comments to this entry.
URL:
Verification:	* Please spell out the number 4. [ Why? ]

vB Code: You can use these tags: [b] [i] [u] [url] [email]

Monkey Mama*s Monkey Money Blog

Over Prepare, Then Go With The Flow

Great Few Days

1 Responses to “Great Few Days”

Leave a Reply