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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

Moving Towards Normalcy

March 31st, 2021 at 03:08 pm

Vaccinated! All of us but DL (because he is not 16 yet). He will at the least be able to get vaccinated this summer, when he does turn 16.

They had a pop up vaccine event (in our neighborhood), intended to hit the uninsured and less privileged groups. But... They had 300+ vaccines leftover.

I still am in disbelief, honestly. Not only that one of us got a vaccine, but that we all did.

It will probably take a while to process what all this means.

Things discussed already:

--MH wanted to make travel plans to see his Grandfather this summer.

--MM(17) can (safely) get a job this summer. We had kind of just given up the idea of our kids working at all this summer.

--MM(17)'s high school graduation seems to be a go. I wasn't particularly enthralled with that (when a date/venue was announced a while ago). But... Now it seems more realistic and doable.

I am sure there is a lot I haven't thought about yet.

Edited to add: I personally haven't skipped any regular appointments. So I have nothing to catch up on. But both MM and MH have not gotten a professional cut in over a year. They may want to get hair cuts.

{In the end, my health insurer is highly prioritizing essential workers that work outside of the home. & I mean, they are not following state guidelines. They are making their own priority list. I was offered an appointment today. So... I gained 3 days?! But the leftover vaccines were *great* and life changing for MH/MM, who are at the absolute bottom of any priority list}.

If that's not enough excitement for one weekend...

My parents came up, for the first time in over a year. My Dad took some sports photos of MM(17). It was worth the wait! I thought I missed the boat, but he just happened to get his uniform back a couple of months ago (they've been doing scaled down track meets this year). So I was able to get the 'professional' sports photos I never would have otherwise gotten. Will do a repeat when MM(17) gets his cap and gown. My Dad will do his senior photos.

In other total random news, MM(17) gets his braces off today!

Financial stuff:

Taxes are (were) on hold again. I got an email about an unexpected tax loophole (unemployment in community property states). This will save us $555. Phew! So glad I didn't file yet. I was waiting for more firm confirmation (on this grey area), but got it a few days ago. I may file our tax return tonight and get that rolling. Especially now that we are getting a refund.

Oh yeah, I did also get confirmation in that email (from a tax publication I subscribe to) that the IRS has (or will) delay the IRA funding deadline to May 17th. (I started typing this out a few days ago, it's been officially announced at this point). I expect to have a lot more information by then and probably would be prudent for me to wait a while to make a final decision (Traditional versus ROTH). But with the stock market being rocky (more oportunity to buy lower) and college costs getting more clear, I had already transferred $12,000 out of our savings account, ready to fund our 2020 ROTH IRAs. Will probably just rip off the band aid and be done.

This still leaves $10,000-ish in addition to our 9-month emergency fund. I updated sidebar (with stimulus and unemployment received this month). We've got MM's freshman year of college well covered. Will probably spend next school year (MM freshman year) saving up for Year 2 of college. That is the rough plan, for the moment.

Still no college decision. MM is too busy with school. His task for spring break is to make choice (still a coin flip) between two public schools. Should also hear back from last college next week. It would sure make life easier if they would get back to us before spring break. It's plausible, but that would probably be too easy.

Posted in Just Thinking | 6 Comments »

6 Responses to “Moving Towards Normalcy”

CB in the City Says:
March 31st, 2021 at 03:53 pm 1617205984
1617205984

So much good news!
LivingAlmostLarge Says:
March 31st, 2021 at 04:50 pm 1617209442
1617209442

I got a late k1 just yesterday. ANNOYING. From ETF we owned. Anyway though I'm not filing for a bit to let these things trickle in. Usually I never file earlier than april 1.

Congrats on getting vaccinated. DH and I did too on Monday by just deciding to take a chance!
Petunia 100 Says:
April 1st, 2021 at 01:22 pm 1617283341
1617283341

Congrats on getting your vaccines! The difference in distribution is startling. In our county, we were alotted an additional 250 vaccine doses, and the appointments were all snapped up in literally a few minutes. SB and I are getting our first doses today, 4/1/21, because we were 2 of those lucky 250.
MonkeyMama Says:
April 1st, 2021 at 02:22 pm 1617286922
1617286922

@Petunia - For sure. My employer is actually *mega* wealthy and I presumed that would be our "in" for early vaccine. Who knew that living in a school district with impoverished zip codes would be how we got vaccinated so quick. Boy, that went the other way.
starfishy Says:
April 2nd, 2021 at 11:57 am 1617364662
1617364662

Nice to take advantage of unclaimed vaccines. I say whatever works! Did you get the one shot J&J or do you all need to get second appts? I'm signed up for a J&J vaccine next week at a local dr's office and fingers crossed that the recent unfortunate manufacturing mishap won't effect the distribution for at least this next week. Good luck to MM with college decision. My youngest nephew is in the throes of that decision making scenario, too, and thankfully has some good choices.
MonkeyMama Says:
April 2nd, 2021 at 01:12 pm 1617369136
1617369136

@starfishy - we got a 2-shot vaccine. We will get our second shot at the same place, they scheduled both doses for everyone. If it was a '5 leftover shots' situation might be different, but it was open to anybody and they had probably 30% of their shots leftover and filled by walk-ins. (We'd been searching for leftovers before this, and that does seem to be the catch: that they often won't schedule a second dose. In that case, sounds like our health insurer schedules second doses and so does CVS. Is what I have heard in our state).

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Monkey Mama*s Monkey Money Blog

Over Prepare, Then Go With The Flow

Moving Towards Normalcy

6 Responses to “Moving Towards Normalcy”

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