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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

Purge Update & Expense Update

December 29th, 2008 at 11:29 pm

I never thought I would see the day!

Dh sold his Game Cube. He doesn't give up game systems lightly. I posted a while ago he has something like 10. I think that's before he started buying them up for BM. I don't even want to know how many we have now.

BUT, since the GameCube games can be played on the Wii, he decided to let it go. He was reminiscing about it today at lunch (I know, gag. LOL). All the memories. I just smiled and nodded. I may have rolled my eyes a bit too. But as he reminisced over the memories of his GameCube I realized I was lucky he sold it.

Proceeds gone back into his buying/selling games & systems.

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

Reminds me, I have another bag set out for donation today and another charity is coming by next week. They average once a week this time of year. It's been pretty sweet.

Set out our old drapes, some toys that the kids volunteered to give up, some old belts and a fan, etc., etc., etc.

Last week I set out a bunch of Christmas stuff. Old lights (we are going to buy LEDs) and a pile of Christmas crap MIL dumped on us. & whatever Christmas stuff we don't use, that was donate-able.

We also found a pile of boxes in the closet when we got out the Christmas stuff. We finally had room to stuff it in the recycle bin. Well, some of it. Broke down the rest of the boxes for next week, hopefully.

So, still in purge mode. IT never ends.

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Got the HOA dues today. They sent some notice, a while ago, about our first dues increase ever, but it made no sense. So I wasn't sure what our dues would be!

Got the bill today. Up $8/month. Eh. I can handle that. IT's a 12% increase but we went 7 years with no increase. We actually had our dues lowered in the early days.

So, now full of knowledge, I can say our bills are going DOWN $100 come Jan. 1:

Mortgage -$200
Health Ins. + 71
Short-term disability (mandatory state tax) +20
HOA + 8
------------------------------------
Bills going down $101/month in 2009
------------------------------------

We had a lot of our bills decrease last year, for various reasons.

Preschool bill goes down $300/month, come mid-2010. So I feel on a role. Big Grin

IT certainly won't always be like this, but enjoying it while I can.

I assume I will have enough raise to cover the $99/month expense increase, so I Can save the entire mortgage decrease, but we'll see...

Posted in Just Thinking | 1 Comments »

1 Responses to “Purge Update & Expense Update”

swimgirl Says:
December 30th, 2008 at 04:52 am 1230612778
1230612778

Thanks for the purge reminder. I need to clear some things out. Some to ebay, some to half-price, some to freecycle and a pile on the curb for the donation folks.

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Monkey Mama*s Monkey Money Blog

Over Prepare, Then Go With The Flow

Purge Update & Expense Update

1 Responses to “Purge Update & Expense Update”

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