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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.

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

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

Dh has Good Debt Collection Skills

November 18th, 2008 at 03:35 pm

LOL.

We had a non-payer on Ebay. What else is new. In the past it was things like a kid using his parent's account, or an international ebayer who didn't understand why we would charge more to ship to Europe (doh - our listing clearly said US only and we were trying to be nice). Anyway, I guess ebay has a separate place to indicate you don't want international ebayers bidding on US only auctions. Why would this be a SEAPARATE setting? I found all those buyer settings, but I have to say they wouldn't have helped in any of our situations but the international one. So I am not that impressed.

When the kid used his parent's account he was avoiding us and heck if I was just going to clear the non-payer. But it wasn't going to be resolved for a million years until he told ebay he wasn't going to pay. SO dh CALLED him. I am not exactly sure how, but you can look up your buyer's phone #.

So he called and the guy was caught a little offguard. LOL. He said he didn't have the money and it was his parent's account or something. I don't remember the details, but he hung up or something and dh called back and left a message to please clear it with ebay so we could resell our item.

& the guy DID. He responded to Ebay he couldn't pay and we were FREE!

So we had another non-payer. Dh called them yesterday. I guess this person was also very thrown off that we had her phone #. So dh caught her a little offguard as well.

She said that she had e-mailed me that she was going to pay me when she got her paycheck Friday.

Yeah, whatevah. Never received a message or an e-mail, so I am rather wary of this excuse.

But I have to say I am proud of dh. He is a good collector. I don't know. Never would have thought to CALL. !

Also, I think all these non-payers are kind of a sign of the times. I've been really annoyed at Ebay's new policies, but I admit is probably a combo of that AND the current economic client.

But it still leaves me in a dilemma. What do I do? Can't leave negative feedback, so you can't warn other sellers that this person may take 2 weeks to pay?

?????

I don't understand Ebay's new system at all. I think I will just leave no feedback. BUT if money does not show up Friday, we'll file a complaint, for sure. For now, will be nice and give her a few days.

Posted in Just Thinking | 4 Comments »

4 Responses to “Dh has Good Debt Collection Skills”

kdmoffett25 Says:
November 18th, 2008 at 03:45 pm 1227023120
1227023120

Give her a few days. Common practice lately has been that I, the buyer, has to place feedback before the seller does, usually. I always place feedback when I am the seller as soon as I receive the money, but that's just me.

Yes, over the years, I have had to call some ebayers, but if I am not mistaken, it sends them your phone number when you ping them for theirs.
whitestripe Says:
November 18th, 2008 at 09:25 pm 1227043503
1227043503

hmm, i had someone like that too (actually - the husband told me the wife, who bought the item, had cancer! CANCER! i believed them, til i looked at their profile a week later to see that they were still buying and selling merrily... how LOW is that?!)
i just wrote in capital letters that they didn't pay. i too hate the new system. i've stopped selling on ebay since they changed it to paypal only, and i've only bought about two things as well.
Blue Eyes Says:
November 19th, 2008 at 12:15 am 1227053730
1227053730

All of my experiences with international buyers have been negative. I absolutely will not, under any circumstances,
deal with "foreign" buyers any longer. I have lost too much money trying to be nice and working with them. I've only had one non-paying domestic buyer (just last month) in the years I've been selling on Ebay.
monkeymama Says:
November 19th, 2008 at 12:39 am 1227055174
1227055174

My understanding is certain markets have more non-payers. I would say video games is one of them (we've had more than one instance of kids buying with parent's account - could be a reason why).

Anyway, sold 40 items since July. (35 were games/gaming systems). 2 absolute non-payers. & another 2 that dh had to track down. & then the international buyer debacle. Who just decided not to pay until we filed a complaint. (So we have filed 3 non-payment complaints in the last few months. The int'l one eventually paid up, but not the other 2).

The non-payers are always on the games. You could argue we sell more games though, too. Kind of what came first, the chicken or the egg...

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Monkey Mama*s Monkey Money Blog

Over Prepare, Then Go With The Flow

Dh has Good Debt Collection Skills

4 Responses to “Dh has Good Debt Collection Skills”

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