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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

Credit Card Rewards Update

September 1st, 2017 at 10:34 pm

2017 TALLY:

$500 Gift Cards (AmEx Gold, Moi)
$525 Gift Cards (Citi Thank You, MH)
$499 Travel Rewards (Capital One Venture,MH)
$200 Cash (WF Wise, MH)
-----------
$1,724 TOTAL *ONE-TIME REWARDS*

**In addition, various monthly rewards that I will tally at 12/31.

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Today we spent some time redeeming $525 Citi gift card rewards.

Unfortunately, didn't see anything particularly useful as a Thank You gift for MH's parents. Might have to spend some cash on that. Will have to brainstorm a bit this weekend, and double check the AmEx rewards that we have coming due soon.

But MH is going to 90th birthday in Florida next month and thought a Cracker Barrel gift card would be nice for his Grandfather.

There's also some crazy deal out there where you can see unlimited movies for $10/month. ??? Doesn't sound particularly sustainable but MH is probably going to sign up for that, for as long as it lasts I guess. Yeah, he can pretty much see everything for free already, but that is a big time commitment. Anyway, so he mentioned getting a Regal gift card so that I could accompany him to some of those movies. Or the kids can. I think that's a good idea. That said, the Regal movie theater (close to our house) is not his first movie theater choice, so he didn't want any more than a $25 gift card. (For the most part, he wants to see 100 times more movies than anyone else in the household, so $25 would last us a while).

We did get a $50 Barnes & Noble gift card for his dad, like we always do. We can make that part of the Thank You, or hold back for Christmas/Birthday.

I'd otherwise like to fund the next "big" ($300 - $500) electronic purchase with this reward and I know a few ideas had been thrown around. But MH just doesn't have anything identified at the moment. So we decided to just get a $100 Best Buy gift card so that he could buy movies or whatever.

This left us $300 that we redeemed for Target gift cards. We will use for groceries and should leave a $300 budget surplus through the next three or so months. Then if something bigger comes up we should have some extra cash for it.

I updated the tally above because the actual reward ended up being $525.

I also had something like $15 to add to the travel rewards (from trip spending). I was able to apply that $15 to trip spending already.

Posted in Credit Card & Bank Rewards | 3 Comments »

3 Responses to “Credit Card Rewards Update”

Hawaii Planner Says:
September 3rd, 2017 at 09:18 pm 1504473512
1504473512

Nice! I transferred hotel points into 100K of mileage on Alaska (primary airline) for 2018 travel plans. I also redeemed hotel points for $100 target gift card. I know the straight up usage of points for hotel stays is a way better deal, but I earn hotel points through work travel, and we don't stay at chain hotels very often.
FrugalTexan75 Says:
September 3rd, 2017 at 09:26 pm 1504473980
1504473980

I signed up for the Movie Pass through Swagbucks - haven't gotten my card yet though.
rob62521 Says:
September 5th, 2017 at 03:33 pm 1504625638
1504625638

Wow, you have done quite well figuring out how to use those points.

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Monkey Mama*s Monkey Money Blog

Over Prepare, Then Go With The Flow

Credit Card Rewards Update

3 Responses to “Credit Card Rewards Update”

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