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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
...($1,750 @ 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.

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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.

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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

Small Update

November 2nd, 2011 at 07:31 pm

Financial Doings:

Dh ran my paycheck to the bank today. Mil did slip us $100 for the weekend - so he deposited that as well. (Retirement makes in-laws want to give us lots of money - I won't complain, but I still find it odd!) The total is about $400, for this month alone. $100 for piano lessons, $200 for Disney, $100 for Napa. Plus, free babysitting to boot. Next year I will probably put ALL that cash to the mortgage. This year was all unexpected and so we thought, "Might as well splurge." Which is her wish. But I think we splurge plenty and those will be nice mortgage chips, if they continue. At the time I was so surprised that I couldn't quite thank that clearly. But going forward, it's good to have a plan.

So, anyway, with money in the bank, I paid the mortgage and the CU visa...

Waiting for Citi credit card to close so I can redeem points. I suppose I could have paid that one off to, but I wanted to check in Quicken and make sure my cash flow was okay.

I turned off medical insurance payments for the rest of the year. I pre-paid this month. I will have to go in around 12/31 and set it up again with increased 2012 premium. I figured I better just turn it off before I forget and pre-pay another month by accident.

I checked credit karma and my score went up 10 points - only change was another closed credit card showing up. Big Grin This is the second or third time I noticed an immediate score boost for closing a credit card. I am not concerned about score in the least - it is in the top tier no matter what I do. I share for the "Fear of FICO" crowd - more evidence of hype. I think the credit card companies profit from the fear of closing cards, but not sure who else does.

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Thankfully, I dropped 2 pounds as of this morning. I didn't expect all that "restaurant weight" to stick.

Funny enough? We went to Sizzler for dinner on Monday. Kids ate FREE. I don't think they advertised heavily since I saw a lot of seniors and not really many other kids. OF course, kids got endless salad bar, so was a great value for my high metabolismed bottomless pits. We had kind of planned ahead for that, and had no food at home anyway, after vacationing. So though I was reluctant to follow through (see last blog post), I decided a nice salad couldn't hurt.

So, restaurant food Monday night means no weight dropped off until I stayed out of a restuarant for 24 hours. Funny. The scale was not nice to me until this morning.

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Small Update

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