<< 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

Pasadena & Looking Ahead

January 5th, 2024 at 03:02 pm

We are back from our New Year's trip to Pasadena.

The trip was mixed. MM(20) was too busy and basically only had five minutes for us. We had brought him some stuff from home, and so we met him at his hotel, just as he was taking off. He did invited us to lunch with him and the group of students he was driving back to the college, but some of them had COVID and others were sick with whatever else. We declined lunch with the sick people.

We didn't do the parade, but we went to the float showcase afterwards. The downside is that for the most part there weren't any animations (the float operators were long gone). But we did see one of the floats operating. The plus side is you can get up so close and see the floats from all sides.

I have lots of pictures to share, but will just start with a few.

MH and I had a nice dinner in a pub on New Year's eve. We had found a free charger for the car and so just took our time. As we thought ahead to the New Year, all I could figure was that it's going to suck. That's my take on 2024. Mostly thinking to health issues of various loved ones. 😔

I can see the theme is that it will be a challenging year on the health front. This is the most obvious. But I also think it's going to be a crazy bucket list year. Some mix of low lows and high highs, probably. The Pasadena New Year's thing was a magical 'once in a lifetime' way to start out the year. Next month MH should be getting his movie made. Those are the biggies. But if we have any time and money left after that, we had been planning to make it to the Grand Canyon this year. I think it's ridiculous we still have not made that work after 2013 canceled trip. & it may very likely get pushed to the side *again*.

On the challenging side... GMIL's health is starting to slide. Both our parents with cognitive decline seem to be worsening significanly in recent months. & I am probably the most beside myself about the girlfriend. She's so young. It sounds pretty unlikely that she can return to school this month. The pandemic really slowed down our parents' cognitive declines. So I have been bracing myself for some obviously rougher years, but I think this is it. 2024 is obviously going to be rough. My BIL is also still battling some mystery illness.

Posted in Just Thinking, Picture Project, Vacation Lifestyle | 2 Comments »

2 Responses to “Pasadena & Looking Ahead”

Suemn Says:
January 5th, 2024 at 07:26 pm 1704482783
1704482783

I'm so sorry to hear of the health problems with some of your loved ones. I hope they don't get noticeably worse in 2024. You took some terrific pictures of the floats. Those floats are amazing aren't they?
Carol B. Says:
January 6th, 2024 at 07:36 pm 1704569785
1704569785

Thank you for the float pictures! They are wonderful.
I, too, am sorry for the health struggles. I hope in the end that 2024 is more up than down.

(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

Pasadena & Looking Ahead

2 Responses to “Pasadena & Looking Ahead”

Leave a Reply