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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
...($0 @ 1/1/25)
...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

[ ]$10,000 to savings
...($0 @ 1/1/25)
...$1,000/month, plus interest
...Topping off with snowballs

[ ]$5,000 to investments
**STRETCH GOAL $7,500**
...($0 @ 1/1/25)
...$300/month, plus snowflakes
(Snowflakes: credit card rewards and dividends)
...Topping off with snowballs

[ ]$1,700 to mortgage
...($0 @ 1/31/25)
...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% @ 1/31/25)
...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 @ 1/1/25)
...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.

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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.

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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>
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

4 Cars (for 10 Days)

December 8th, 2024 at 02:50 pm

Life has not gotten any better since my last life update. This past week was particularly exhausting.

I am not going to bore you with the details, but I am compiling a list of 2024 'crazy' that I will share at the end of the year. The one thing that I do appreciate is at least there was some (big) good things thrown into the mix.

Which I guess is what this post is about. The good and the bad all rolled into one. I am just seperating this out so that I don't have one long monster post.

FIL stopped driving, which is long overdue. It's obviously a difficult thing. But my in-laws wanted to make lemonade out of those lemons, and so they gave their older car to my kids. They wanted the car gone ASAP. MH and I told them to give it a minute and that we could sort it out Thanksgiving week. The car is a 2014 with 135K miles.

MM(21) picked up the car Thanksgiving week, on his way home from college. I got all the paperwork signed Thanksgiving day and submitted the title transfer to the DMV this past Wednesday. On Thursday the car died. It's DEAD.

For a while Friday, I didn't know what in the heck. We will take a gamble on repairing the car. But one of the first things they threw out was helping us sell the car. I am just, "But I don't even have the title!" Even if we just decide to donate it, what a big hassle this whole thing is. It's not why we are repairing the car, but I do think it works out nicely that we have a couple of weeks for the DMV red tape to sort out. It's a no brainer to repair the car that was free to us. But it is a gamble because the engine might not be salvageable.

Silver lining: This would have been a much more expensive repair in our parents' high cost locale. It could just work out for the best. Fingers crossed.

It seemed obvious to give this car to DL(19), who has a college commute. He was enjoying the smaller and more fuel efficient vehicle. MM(21) will just drive his car home a handful of times per year; it will mostly sit in his garage. So the other silver lining is that we didn't give this car to MM(21). At least he's not stranded in the middle of nowhere, or we aren't dealing with this 300 miles away.

Note: The kids were sharing a car before.

One more positive thing. We have never had a catastrophic car repair. It's eventually bound to happen, something like a transmission or engine rebuild or replacement. We were lucky we made it this far.

I knew the car was likely dead when DL(19) arrived home with an overheating car. My first car (also a Toyota) suffered the same fate. It was a 20yo car that I had gotten 7 years out of. I don't count that as a 'catastrophic repair'. I count that as the obvious end of its life. Because of that past experience, I was able to prepare my household for this possibility. It wasn't too shocking.

I guess we will be in car limbo for a couple of weeks and then will go from there. Plan B is to just go back to the way it was. We were doing just fine with 3 cars.

Edited to clarify: They are attempting to repair the engine (thousands of dollars) but it's possible the car will need an engine replacement.

Posted in Just Thinking | 4 Comments »

4 Responses to “4 Cars (for 10 Days)”

Tabs Says:
December 12th, 2024 at 04:56 pm 1734022570
1734022570

20 years for a car is not bad these days though.
LivingAlmostLarge Says:
December 12th, 2024 at 09:05 pm 1734037539
1734037539

Is that worth paying for an engine replacement? Are you sure more things won't go wrong? a 2014 with engine replacement seems pretty newish for that.

I am about to give my DK1 a 2011 subaru with 30k miles. So I'm really on board with old cars but I would hesitate on a major repair if it's just a lemon car versus i would not consider 2014 old.
MonkeyMama Says:
December 12th, 2024 at 09:31 pm 1734039103
1734039103

It's a very common problem on this car (now we know). It will easily last another 100K miles (re model track record).

I don't disagree with you if it's a car we put any money into. But it's free. There's no way my in laws will let us pay for this repair. If we have to replace the engine (if this repair fails or they decide it can't be salvaged) then it is a discussion we will have. A new engine ($4K) will give us a much newer/safer car than we can otherwise. The car is also very well cared for. No decisions on that, but would seriously consider.
ceejay74 Says:
December 16th, 2024 at 05:33 pm 1734370417
1734370417

Went back and caught up on some of your posts...jeez. I'm so sorry life's been so rough these past 7 years. My life since COVID hit has had many WTF dramatic highs and lows but I don't think nearly as bad as yours. (Your post about the hospital hit home; sitting in ICU watching my mom die slowly and painfully over several days while mostly not knowing I was there was my lowest point of the past 4 years.)

I guess the one consistent silver lining is that you prepared yourself financially during the relatively calmer years. (I just shared your tagline "overprepare then go with the flow" with a buddy this past weekend; I think it's a good rule of thumb for many things.)

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Over Prepare, Then Go With The Flow

4 Cars (for 10 Days)

4 Responses to “4 Cars (for 10 Days)”

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