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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.

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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

Rewards, Rewards, Rewards

October 21st, 2011 at 08:39 pm

The rewards Gods LOVE me this week. (Yes, I am sick of the subject too, but holy crap!)

My reward card just bumped up bonus by about $200 for new applications. I will e-mail Citi this weekend and ask if they will give me the new reward, since I have only had the card a couple of weeks before this shinier new offer came along.

Big Grin

If they approve, we will be getting to the point of about $3700 in rewards for 2011. I'd probably chuck the extra $200 to the mortgage and be done with that goal. Mortgage goal 2011 largely funded by rewards - no need to touch savings. Woohoo. This I did not foresee!

It will be tricky to reach points since I might have to spend $1000 more to get said points. Card is in my name only. The only thing I really pay for is health insurance. (Dh charges up 99% of our variable expenses - and the utilities are not big enough to make much difference). But, I can probably figure out something. A bunch of insurance is coming due, for one. I'd probably rather charge a couple of big things rather than take the hassle to move little things around. Regardless, I will be pre-paying some expenses in the next 2 months. I will be jumping through some extra hoops to get my points ASAP, but I suppose I Feel it is worth it because I expect this to be our last rewards frenzy for 2011. (But, who knows).

For reference, minimum wage is on the high side here. I'd have to work about 10 hours a week all year round to make that much money, minimum wage. Like a second job or whatever. Holy Cow.

This is the perfect example of MY kind of frugal. Other people see it as deprivation (frugality in general). I just see extra money practically falling from the sky. Big Grin

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Dh wanted to buy his parents a kindle, and we decided to buy my mom one too. We also will get the Kindle Fire for ourselves, and dh got some new DS for the kids - DS3?. We bought a few other things, and still have enough amazon gift cards left over to easily fund Christmas and then some. Not that we buy much for Christmas - I think all these kindles will be the bulk of it. I've got amazon gift cards coming out of my ears, basically. All things Kindle and amazon will be free, with all these rewards.

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P.S. Here is the link for the card. Annual fee is waived for Year 1. Spend $2500 in 3 months for $500 in gift cards. They don't have Amazon gift cards, but you can sell Wal Mart for Amazon gift cards at about $95 on the dollar, or for cash at about $90 on the dollar (Plastic Jungle). They have other retailers, too. I'll personally be stocking up on Kohls gift cards, and selling other gift cards for cash.

http://www.mymoneyblog.com/citi-thankyou-premier-card-50000-...

ETA: My info may be bad because I think Mr. mymoneyblog said he was able to redeem points directly for amazon cards recently. Interesting!

Posted in Credit Card & Bank Rewards | 4 Comments »

4 Responses to “Rewards, Rewards, Rewards”

scfr Says:
October 21st, 2011 at 09:58 pm 1319234311
1319234311

Hi MM - I'm still on hiatus from SA but I came on b/c I wanted to let PatientSaver know that my employer is looking for temporary work-from-home employees and I thought your DH might be interested, if he's looking to pick up a bit of extra cash. It's not high-paying but it's 100% legit and the hours are really flexible. I'm not going to write the name of the company here b/c I work at their physical location, but if you are interested let me know & I will send a PM to you with all of the details.
MonkeyMama Says:
October 22nd, 2011 at 01:01 am 1319245297
1319245297

I just e-mailed a reply.
rob62521 Says:
October 22nd, 2011 at 02:10 pm 1319292608
1319292608

Bravo on your rewards!
FrugalTexan75 Says:
October 23rd, 2011 at 03:39 am 1319341144
1319341144

Wow! You guys are really rolling in the rewards!

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Monkey Mama*s Monkey Money Blog

Over Prepare, Then Go With The Flow

Rewards, Rewards, Rewards

4 Responses to “Rewards, Rewards, Rewards”

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