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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.

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

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

Holy Cow

July 12th, 2013 at 04:04 am

**Dh saved a phones message for me today. He said, "Tell me what you hear." Not very clear, but sounded like a focus group offering $700.

Holy Cow!?!

They ruled out dh immediately because he just did that big $400-ish study a couple of months back. (Which I thought was the Holy Grail of focus groups, at the time).

Dh asked if I should call back later, but they said it was for 3 whole week days. I should probably call back and find out more details. As is, it was probably the only 3 week days in the entire next 3 months or so that just don't work for me. FIGURES!!

I don't even know if dh or I would have qualified otherwise, either. IT's probably easy to assume not.

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

I saw an interesting point of view that I don't think I thought of before. I saw someone in another forum mention that they had made enough in credit card rewards (in one lifetime) to pay for their last car purchase.

!!!!

I suppose I have done the same...

It's a huge sum and I am aware, but I just never thought of it in exactly those terms. Next time someone bothers me about how we can afford having two cars, I should throw that out there. "Paid for by credit cards." Not quite in the way that sounds. Wink

My LIFETIME credit card rewards? Heck if I know. I've had a rewards credit card for almost 20 years?

Rough and dirty estimate:

$1,000 2013
$7,000 2011 & 2012
$5,000 2006-2010
$1,000 All years prior
-------
$14,000 LIFETIME TOTAL
-------

Yup, that more than paid for my current vehicle!!

I just recall credit card rewards ramping up and doing well in the years since I had this blog. Earning $1,000-ish per year. & I have hard figures in this blog for the past two years (which were totally insane). I really don't remember racking up a ton of rewards before that and don't have the records. I am sure I am probably under-estimating though as I remember having 1% cash back. Then again, we didn't charge anything and everything like we do now. Maybe $1,000 is about right, for all the years prior. If there were better rewards to be had, I didn't know and/or I wasn't spending enough to get them. As far as 2013, the year is young.

I have to go wrap my brain around this now. WOW!!

Disclaimer: I have never paid a penalty or a cent of interest to any credit card company. My reward calculations are net of any "annual fees" that I have paid to earn rewards. IF you can't easily beat the credit card companies at their own game, then I wouldn't bother trying. Something like 90% of the population fails. Unfortunately, I understand that sharing my successes might sound like a credit card commercial. If this sounds like a good idea, proceed with extreme caution.

Posted in Just Thinking, Credit Card & Bank Rewards | 5 Comments »

5 Responses to “Holy Cow”

creditcardfree Says:
July 12th, 2013 at 01:15 pm 1373634954
1373634954

That is an interesting perspective. I know that MyMoneyBlog has an article about how a family can effectively double their savings rate with credit card rewards. It assumes $50K in wages, saving 4%, thus $2K in savings. He goes on to explain how a couple can accumulate $2K in rewards in a year. Thus doubling the savings rate.

I see you are putting disclaimers on your credit card reward posts, too.
ceejay74 Says:
July 12th, 2013 at 04:28 pm 1373646524
1373646524

I'm nearing $10,000 in CC rewards, and I've only been doing it since mid-2011! Here's how mine breaks down:
2011: $4,422.53
2012: $4,588.81
2013: $756.95
It's actually a BIT more than that, but I can't figure out how to total my 5% automatic discount on Target purchases (without tracking receipts, which would just get annoying). On the receipt it purports to list "REDcard savings this year," but I noticed my most recent receipt has the same total as the last receipt, so I'm not sure how often they update that!

Unlike you, I have paid a TON of interest on credit cards. I have no idea how much over the 12 years I carried credit card debt, but I'm sure it was a horrible amount if you add it all up. All BEFORE I started taking advantage of rewards, mind you -- I got CC-debt-free before I would even contemplate trying the churn -- but still, it's always at the back of my mind that I'm just trying to break even with the credit card companies!
MonkeyMama Says:
July 12th, 2013 at 04:56 pm 1373648197
1373648197

@ceejay - I only recently noticed the "Redcard Savings this year" but did not examine closer for accuracy. So that is a bummer to hear!

I actually just add up all our Target payments, February through January (for January through December purchases), and multiply by 5%. Obviously this is not very scientific for a variety of reasons, but gets me to a good ballpark in about 10 seconds. I suppose I should probably divide by 0.95 first, since what we actually paid was after 5% discount. But anyway, since I have it all in Quicken, it's easy to pull data.

I think you have extra motivation to stick it to the credit card companies. Which is kind of interesting because most people I know who have been in deep credit card debt either can't handle it OR are just very fearful to ever touch a credit card. I think it's awesome that you turn the tables and get as much money back as you can. Woohoo!
dmontngrey Says:
July 14th, 2013 at 08:02 pm 1373832136
1373832136

We EASILY covered the last car purchase with credit card rewards. Then again, DH's car only cost $2500. Unfortunately, I don't track these rewards like I should. Between the two of us, we netted over $1200 with our Amex gold cards earlier this year. It's not difficult to rack these rewards up when you have good credit.
MonkeyMama Says:
July 15th, 2013 at 11:53 pm 1373932417
1373932417

I hear you - we haven't spent hardly anything on most of our cars. We could surely buy many very reliable cars with a $14,000 sum, ourselves. With age and means we prefer to buy something newer and less hassle (& hope to keep for 20 years!). But, even so, my spouse's "almost new/should last 20 years" car only cost us $7800. We could almost buy two of those with our rewards total. !!

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Monkey Mama*s Monkey Money Blog

Over Prepare, Then Go With The Flow

Holy Cow

5 Responses to “Holy Cow”

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