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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.

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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
...($1,250 @ 3/31/24)
...$350/month, plus snowflakes
(Snowflakes: credit card rewards and dividends)
...Topping off with snowballs

[ ]$2,025 to mortgage
...($0 @ 3/31/24)
...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 @ 3/31/24)
...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.

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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

Credit Rewards Update

October 8th, 2011 at 08:23 pm

**Just paid off dh's Southwest Chase rewards. Just waiting for the rewards to show up so we can redeem $250 in Amazon gift cards. Mine took a few days, so I will just keep checking.

**Earned $50 on Fidelity AmEx this month. We had switched back to it mid-August for ongoing rewards. With vacation and all, it's possible we will earn another $50 in October. These rewards go straight into my ROTH.

**I got my new Citi Card. Plan is to charge 2 months of health insurance. I might just pay ahead this month so I can kill this card sooner. That and about one tank of gas on the minivan should do it. Hope to earn those rewards by the end of the month.

**I plan to send an e-mail to Chase Monday to close all my accounts with them. DONE!

**Dh needs to call Citi and also to close two Chase cards. His rewards are all earned! I will wait until we get these Amazon gift cards in hand, first. I suppose he can call Citi next week and then we can e-mail Chase when we get our reward. Heck, can probably e-mail Citi, but I probably don't remember the login at this point. So many to keep track of!

I had personally wanted to get approved by Citi before I closed all my one-time rewards cards. That is done, so I can move on.

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Officially Received, between 1/1/11 and 10/10/11:

$1230 cash (Chase Sapphire $1030 + Chase Frdm $200)
$1265 gift cards (Citi $500 + SW $515 + SW $250)
$ 400 deposit to ROTH (Fidelity Am Ex)
-$99 annual fee (SW card)
-$69 Fee (SW card)
-$23 lost value for exchanging some Citi gift cards for cash and amazon gift cards
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$2704 TOTAL

**Still expecting $300 gift cards from Citi - should be able to redeem in November. One or two more AmEx $50 redemptions will ensure we hit $3,000 by 12/31/11. I am also expecting 1% cash back on our regular visa (for places that don't take AmEx). That may be another $35 or so, cash.**

***Both dh and I applied for 3 cards each for one-time rewards, so far this year. Our regular AmEx is 2% cash back on all purchases, and our regular visa is 1% cash back.***

Posted in Credit Card & Bank Rewards | 2 Comments »

2 Responses to “Credit Rewards Update”

Paul Says:
October 8th, 2011 at 10:59 pm 1318114758
1318114758

Wow you dominate with the credit card rewards. I need to get better at that.
ceejay74 Says:
October 13th, 2011 at 04:33 am 1318480419
1318480419

Hmm, what are we at?
$2000 from the 2 Chase Sapphire cards
$150 from MasterCard
$100 from Amex
minus $75 fee & $15 (paid late fee & interest from missing 1st Amex payment)
= $2160 (plus dribs and drabs of rewards money from all the cards; we buy almost everything on CCs now and the rewards really add up, especially the 6% on Amex for groceries!)

We have a MasterCard that we just need to spend $500 on to get $200 back, and AS will apply for a Capital One card that will get us $100 after we spend $500. So if both those work out, we'll be at $2460 for the year, not counting the incremental rewards coming in. And it's all thanks to you, Monkey Mama! If anyone less level-headed had talked about doing this, I'd have been too suspicious to try it.

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Monkey Mama*s Monkey Money Blog

Over Prepare, Then Go With The Flow

Credit Rewards Update

2 Responses to “Credit Rewards Update”

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