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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
...($6,653 @ 4/30/24)
...$1,000/month, plus interest
...Topping off with snowballs

[ ]$7,500 to investments
...($2,220 @ 5/31/24)
...$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% @ 4/30/24)
...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.

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

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>
2023: +$ 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

Glorious Sleep!

October 6th, 2006 at 03:06 pm

Ah, I wish I had more time to puruse the boards, but I have too much work to do today - LOL. Darn work! ; )

I did ramble on about rents which I know no one cares - I live in crazy land. LOL. This is why no one randomly visiting my blog and viewing my stats can not appreciate that I own a very nice house in CA and only owe $215k on it. It took a lot of blood, sweat and tears. I am STILL reisisting the urge to pay it down faster and put more money in savings. It is hard. I know I need liquid cash more. The fact that we owned a home at 22 (with 20% down) is cause for applause. Sometimes we dream of moving to ORegon and putting a good $400k in the bank (well last year when our house was worth more anyway). Plopping $50k down on a similar house and semi-retiring while the kids are young. But for now we are suckers and stay. More for family than anything... Though when our equity was up to $500k for a while I Was ready to throw family out the window - we could fly down and visit every weekend with that money. ; ) But housing prices have dropped considerably. So yeah if you paid me $500k I would move from family, that is what we have learned in recent years - the price of family - LOL.

In our first home we had over $100k equity when we committed to this house - we were going to have a $100k mortgage here when we moved. But it dropped overnight. So live and learn. I know friends in other states who can not get past our equity, but I can't get too excited about it. Here today, gone tomorrow. Even if we decided to cash out today there is no guarantee we would be able to get what we think we could - anything can happen tomorrow. So I no longer get excited about equity. Frankly I am just happy we own a home. Extremely extremely grateful. I grew up thinking we could never afford to live in California at all.

Oh anyway, I meant to post and tell everyone who is getting a good night sleep to have a good night sleep on me. ; ) You know those of you wihtout small kids and multiple jobs and staying up studying, those of you without sleep disorders. But I must say I have gotten some REAL sleep this last week. I really hesitate to say it without knocking on wood. But things are well in sleepy land. The only thing worse than my son not sleeping well, due to teething, is the constant input from other people about all we are doing wrong regarding sleep. Okay, my son has horrible painful teething and that is hy his sleep has been disrupted. But over time with the lack of sleep you ebgin to question yourself and wonder if everyone else is right. & then finally your baby sleeps full nights and even begins to put himself back to sleep when he wakes up in the middle of the night. Hallelujah. I don't know why I let other people get to me. Phew.

Ahhhhh, sleep is such a luxury these days and I feel in the lap of luxury today. Feels good...

I will enjoy but try not to get used to it. More teeth are on the way...

Posted in Just Thinking | 4 Comments »

4 Responses to “Glorious Sleep!”

JanH Says:
October 6th, 2006 at 03:18 pm 1160147939
1160147939

You don't get much more sleep when they are teenagers! LOL.
homebody Says:
October 6th, 2006 at 04:01 pm 1160150473
1160150473

Monkey ha ha! Dh and I have had the same conversation about moving to Oregon! But we actually own a house there, with our OD, who will be moving in 9 months. We originally took equity out of our current home thinking it was going to be an investment, but now we think we want to hold onto it and possibly retire there... Decisions, decisions! Our kids are not going to ever come back here and my siblings are all in Oregon and Washington. Mom still lives here though, so we won't move until we retire.... but then... who knows?
frugalmomof1 Says:
October 6th, 2006 at 07:49 pm 1160164169
1160164169

My DS just turned 1 and there has always been a reason he hasn't slept through the night....teething (started at 4 months), learning to stand up, separation anxiety, sickness, etc. It felt like we were always making excuses for him. And did we ever get advice! Anyway, this is day 5 of him sleeping 10+ hours through the night, so I am also feeling pretty good.
monkeymama Says:
October 7th, 2006 at 01:14 pm 1160226859
1160226859

Aaaah, I knew I would only enjoy sleep temporarily. You mean once you have kids you never get to sleep again eh, figures.

For now all our relatives are mad when we talk of fleeing the state. we decide to stay for now, but I wouldn't be surprised if they all flee and we stay. we were the only ones to take the leap and move out of the bay and overall I think we have it pretty good - I am happy with our work/life balance and our mortgage, etc. They are all gonna flee if they ever get the guts - they are killing themselves int he bay and the rest of CA has gotten too expensive in the meantime - no one is going to move near us anytime soon. When they decide to leave they will leave Cali altogether. Then I will be mad we gave up 500k tax-free to stay near family - LOL.

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Monkey Mama*s Monkey Money Blog

Over Prepare, Then Go With The Flow

Glorious Sleep!

4 Responses to “Glorious Sleep!”

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