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About Me:

Monkey Mama

Just a 47-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. We've always saved 100% of MH's income, but we are starting to dial that down a bit in 2023-2024.

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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2025 Goals

[ ]Small monthly Charitable Contribution
...($115 @ 2/28/25)
...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 ✔
MM YEAR 5

DL YEAR 1 ✔
DL YEAR 2 ✔
DL YEAR 3
DL YEAR 4

[ ]$10,000 to savings
...($2,156 @ 2/28/25)
...$1,000/month, plus interest
...Topping off with snowballs

[ ]$5,000 to investments
**STRETCH GOAL $7,500**
...($700 @ 2/28/25)
...$300/month, plus snowflakes
(Snowflakes: credit card rewards and dividends)
...Topping off with snowballs

[ ]$1,700 to mortgage
...($0 @ 2/28/25)
...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% @ 2/28/25)
...This is the minimum for the match; I'd otherwise rather fund IRAs.

Goal savings rate = 25% of gross salary, plus funding IRAs from other sources.

[ ]$6,000 to IRAs 2024
**STRETCH GOAL $14,000 (MAX)**
...($0 @ 2/28/25)
...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 2025 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: $75,000 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: +$ 90,000
2024: +$95,000
TOTAL: +$665,000

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

Feeling Spendy...

July 7th, 2010 at 06:25 pm

**My expectations were high since we had such a good swim instructor for the kids past years. Well, phew! These lessons are a lot more expensive and out of the way, BUT well worth it. They have GREAT teachers and the kids loved it. (I don't know why - teacher seemed all business, but they loved her - she's got some hidden charm I suppose). After one lesson, both kids are where they left off last year.

The nice thing is that it is an indoor pool. I may consider getting LM a set of lessons next spring. To refresh him before summer starts. Though really, this year may be the last year he really needs it. BM is very comfortable in the water, so he is working on swimming technique. He could also work on diving. He can stay very buoyant, but is not very good at diving down to the bottom of the pool.

It's funny because we had a private swim teacher come to our community pool the last 3 years or so. (We MISS her!). If you go down to the pool, the kids of all ages swim like little fish. She was a VERY good teacher. Good with the little ones.

Outside of our own community, everyone is just in awe of my kids' swimming skills. We were at a pool party the other day and everyone was shocked we let BM in the big pool without us. We were keeping an eye on him, but wasn't too worried about him. Was just thinking about it because dh and the kids and ran into one of LM's many girlfriends, at the pool yesterday, and dh was telling me she was a really good swimmer. She's 4. At first I Was surprised. & then I thought, well, yeah, all the neighborhood kids are pretty good swimmers.

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I did some more school shopping. Stocked up on shorts, and got LM a backpack. I suppose he is ready.

Will have to buy some pants in September, I suppose.

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I am behind on my financial chores. This week is kind of crazy busy. I suppose Sunday I will have to look at my June totals. MIL is taking the kids for a couple of days.

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I am still always amazed at the bad wrap that TV gets. I don't quite understand why reading is good/TV bad. If you could describe my family in one word, it would be, MODERATION. We like our TV and our video games. Thing is we probably lean heavily towards educational, anyway. But it always puzzles me when TV is painted as the evil of the world, TV watchers being overweight couch potatoes. It's laughable because we are probably the most active people we know.

ANYWAY, I feel behind. I am behind on household chores and financial chores and everything. BEcause I have been reading. I finished book 2 of the Golden Compass series, over the weekend, and started Book 3. Half way through.

I was musing how it is socially acceptable to neglect everything for a book, but the very few hours of TV watching I do is so often poo pooed. Rolleyes

I am not sure I am ready to jump into the 3000-4000 page Game of Thrones. I am not sure I have the time to get sucked into that!

Posted in Just Thinking | 6 Comments »

6 Responses to “Feeling Spendy...”

Looking Forward Says:
July 7th, 2010 at 07:34 pm 1278527658
1278527658

DD was a good swimmer when she was young too.
I also neglect almost everything when I get into reading a book.
Frugaltexan75 Says:
July 7th, 2010 at 08:24 pm 1278530667
1278530667

My dad was a lifeguard and swim instructor during college. He taught both my brother and I how to swim. It's a great skill to have!

I think tv really depends on how you watch it. It can be a major timesuck where you mindlessly sit there watching hour after hour, or it can be used as an entertainment tool with specefic programs chosen for limited amounts of time. I have to say though, since I weaned myself off of tv, the few times I *do* watch it, I get bored really, really quickly. Even Lost (my final show before being completely weaned) started to lose its allure towards the end. I can get majorly lost in my reading too, but usually my mind is engaged or it's good fun fluff that makes me laugh. (Stephanie plum??)
MonkeyMama Says:
July 7th, 2010 at 08:40 pm 1278531633
1278531633

Yeah, I suppose that is my pet peeve that TV is made out to be so all or nothing, as with anything.

I was actually raised on little TV and have leaned the other way, with age. Of course, DVRs change the way we watch TV, drastically. Skip through the commericals, and only record the really good stuff. It's nothing like old fashioned TV viewing, where you are just kind of stuck with whatever crap is on the TV at the moment. There's still a lot of crap, but also a LOT of quality programming.

I never understood the allure of Lost, myself. (I was going to say, boring doesn't come to mind when I think of TV. But it does come to mind when I think of Lost - hehe).
frugaltexan75 Says:
July 7th, 2010 at 10:42 pm 1278538960
1278538960

My Tivo came close to creating a tv monster. I *Loved* it and found myself spending more time watching tv than I ever had before -- and I'd watch a lot of tv! So when I cut myself off from cable (when they doubled the cost) and cut myself cold turkey from the Tivo, it was a lot easier to wean myself off of tv.

My mom and stepdad concur about Lost. They feel/felt about Lost how I feel about Bachelor/ette -- just don't understand the appeal. 5 minutes of it and my eyes are rolling back in my head so hard I have a headache.
whitestripe Says:
July 8th, 2010 at 01:01 pm 1278590515
1278590515

i love tv BUT, I think when it comes time for us to have kids, we'll be careful with their usage , and i'd prefer it if it wasn't watched until 2-3 years of age. just interesting things i have read about attention disorders and that kind of thing. plus its probably not really neccesary for young ones, though i doubt it would hurt every now and then. can't stand when parents dump their kids in front of it as a babysitter though!
monkeymama Says:
July 8th, 2010 at 03:38 pm 1278599936
1278599936

whitestripe - I roll my eyes at those studies. Another post for another day. Moderation, moderation, moderation. Or, common sense. Don't plop your kids in front of the TV all day.

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Monkey Mama*s Monkey Money Blog

Over Prepare, Then Go With The Flow

Feeling Spendy...

6 Responses to “Feeling Spendy...”

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