<< Back to all Blogs

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.

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

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.

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

**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>
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."}

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

My Pages

DIE Call Waiting, DIE

January 20th, 2009 at 05:16 pm

Well, it only took 8 years of marriage, 9 years of living together, but I *WIN*

LOL.

(& it cracks me up some of the responses in my last post).

I posted yesterday I was reviewing the phone bill and decided to drop long distance. & since dh had talked about HBO Recently, I thought maybe I could talk him into dropping the ridiculous $6/month charge for call waiting.

I wasn't optimistic. At all.

So, I called him and the second I said the words "call waiting" he started to go off. BEcause we have had this fight quite a few times. & he likes to argue anyway.

But he said something about how we HAVE to have it, blahdeblah.

& seriously, all I said was, "But we have our cell phones. If anyone NEEDS to reach us they have our cell phones."

& he stopped his little tirade and just said, "YEah. You are right. We haven't had this discussion since we've had cell phones, have we?"

LOL.

So I didn't even have to offer HBO - I could have talked him into it.

Woohoo.

Boy, that was too easy. Should have done this a few years ago.

I mentioned the HBO anyway. I was surprised when told me he only wanted it about 3 months for a particular show.

Since it was his birthday and we hadn't gotten him a thing, I figured 3 months of HBO was a fair enough present.

So now everybody is happy. Big Grin

It's a wash with the HBO, but when he drops it again, we will be saving about $16/month.

We just slashed our land line bill in half. From about $30 to $15 monthly. We had discussed a lot lately dropping it, but it's a little luxury we like to keep. We only use our cell phones for emergency and calling family (long distance) for the most part. We don't want to use our cell phones for EVERYTHING. Plus, if we did, we would need a more expensive plan with more minutes. So I think this is a pretty good compromise.

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

P.S. If you want to know why I HATE call waiting more than anything. My dh INSISTS we have it so people can get through. Anyway, I can't tell you how many times HE has ignored me when I was trying to get through, and he was talking to someone else. Seriously. "Oh it was an important call." "Oh, it was my grandfater long distance." Blahblahblah. God forbid I ignore the call waiting. But he seems to ignore it an awful lot for being so "call waiting holier than thou." I mean that is just the final nail in the coffin for me. If he would walk the walk as much as he talked the talk, then it wouldn't be so aggravating.

The cell phones have call waiting of course, but it's not quite the same. It's not a separate charge. & if I Want to ignore call waiting on my phone, that's my problem. He has his own phone. So the issue doesn't come up much. It's not like he misses calls because I ignore my call waiting. So, phew. May we never argue about call waiting again. Wink

Posted in Just Thinking | 10 Comments »

10 Responses to “DIE Call Waiting, DIE”

fern Says:
January 20th, 2009 at 05:31 pm 1232472690
1232472690

I recently cut long distance service on the land line, too. I use a prepaid calling card if i need to call long distance now, or in the past, i used calling cards (.03 a minute) when doing freelance work.

So now i'm paying $24 for the land line and $21 for Basic high speed Internet.

I suppose that's the best i can do.
disneysteve Says:
January 20th, 2009 at 05:59 pm 1232474340
1232474340

I think I'll try the cell phone argument with my wife. I hate call waiting. I think it is incredibly rude to put one person on hold to go talk to another. We only have it because my wife insisted in case of emergency. We do all have cell phones now, though. Maybe I can get rid of call waiting the same way. Thanks for the idea.
frugaltexan75 Says:
January 20th, 2009 at 06:06 pm 1232474789
1232474789

RIP Call Waiting.
Broken Arrow Says:
January 20th, 2009 at 06:20 pm 1232475639
1232475639

Hehe, kind of reminds of back in my married days. The funnier, more amusing married days.
my english castle Says:
January 20th, 2009 at 07:37 pm 1232480222
1232480222

I think you've inspired all of us to go over our phone bills and look for leakage.
And worse than call waiting? The store clerk who walks away from you to answer the phone.
monkeymama Says:
January 20th, 2009 at 07:43 pm 1232480582
1232480582

My new pet peeve is store clerks yacking on cell phones. The guilty rate seems to be about 100% with gas station attendants. (I guess since no supervision? I only frequent 2 gas stations - same offenders over and over too, I guess). Literally do not pause their conversation to check you out, or to deal with any customer. Ugh!
Joan.of.the.Arch Says:
January 20th, 2009 at 09:12 pm 1232485967
1232485967

"call waiting holier than thou."
mjrube94 Says:
January 20th, 2009 at 09:35 pm 1232487359
1232487359

Great work! Now you need to call the cable/satellite company and tell them you're thinking of switching because you can get a better deal from the other, but you'd really like to keep them, is there anything they can do? I usually get a $15 discount for 6 months. Maybe they'll give you HBO for free. Worth a try!
swimgirl Says:
January 20th, 2009 at 09:36 pm 1232487417
1232487417

Oooh! Isn't it great to win?!
I am cancelling home long distance, too. I've been thinking about it for a few months, and just haven't gotten to it.

We also blocked text messaging from all our cell phones...not that expensive, but I hate getting "advertisement" texts, and having to pay!
monkeymama Says:
January 20th, 2009 at 11:56 pm 1232495782
1232495782

mjrube - pfffft. HAs anyone tried that with Dish? Problem is we are REALLY going to drop their service in a few months (dh wants to wait for the new Direct TV Tivo coming out soon) BUT they could care less. Tried that one already. Their response, as usual, was to hang up on us. Gotta love Dish! They also insist they have no retention department and could care less if we leave. YEs, we had noticed that from Day 1. ! That they could care less about their customers. Oh, leaving Dish can not come soon enough...

(Note: If you were logged in, we could automatically fill in these fields for you.)

Name:	*
Email:	Will not be published.
	Subscribe: Notify me of additional comments to this entry.
URL:
Verification:	* Please spell out the number 4. [ Why? ]

vB Code: You can use these tags: [b] [i] [u] [url] [email]

Monkey Mama*s Monkey Money Blog

Over Prepare, Then Go With The Flow

DIE Call Waiting, DIE

10 Responses to “DIE Call Waiting, DIE”

Leave a Reply