Just a 48-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). It was a very good money week.
I mentioned my work bonus. This is how it shook out:
Taxes: $4,900
401K: $600
Taxable Investments: $2,500
Car Repair $1,000 (we already paid for the other half)
Savings $2,000
Me: $1,000
I know, I know. A 'chunk' did go to taxes. But I don't think any of that tax was for my salary the rest of the year. That's just all the taxes (including FICA) that came along with the bonus. I did a tax calculation and this literally is the tax I owe on the bonus. I expect $0 back at tax time.
I will hit our taxable investment stretch goal, with the bonus.
The $2,000 to savings is probably mostly earmarked for MM's last couple of months of college rent. It feels good to have a plan for that. (Other than just pulling from DL's 'college rent' money).
The 'me' thing is new. I've never pondered any mine/yours in our marriage. But after a year (or two) of paying college x2 and supporting my husband's movie. 😒 I am just over it. I had an emotional conversation with MH about this in 2024 and the next day a surprise $1,000 check showed up in the mail. From my parents! That's the thing, it's MH's parents who are generous. It's not like I am going to be, 'I am going to take some of that for myself.' & it's further complicated by my favorite things being library books and hikes (free stuff). So this check shows up out of nowhere and I tell MH I am keeping it for myself. & he says, "Obviously". (If I didn't say it, he was going to.) So I haven't spent the 2024 $1,000 and lord knows how long until I spend this $1,000. But I think it's somewhat symbolic and it's important. In the meantime, I didn't deny myself anything in 2025. So... It may be this ends up being a 'saving for a bigger purchase' fund. I don't know how it will work in combination of me already getting in the habit of just buying whatever I want (within reason).
I'd like to carve out more spending from future bonuses. Not just for myself, but for the household. But this wasn't the year. Though I later remembered that I really want to replace a piece of furniture (~$500) that is broken. We will do that. (We will save more money by the time we pick out and pay for a new chair.)
Our cash will be up $3,500 over where we started last January 1. I felt a lot better about that. That we are starting on more solid cash footing.
Then...
I got a bigger raise than I was expecting. What!? To be fair, I asked, due to a specific set of (random) circumstances. So it wasn't a total surprise. I got the feeling it might have already been in the works, given the response when I asked. But the whole thing was all very last minute.
Per usual, I am just grateful when any raise covers health insurance increases and taxes. I expect to have a $6,000 tax increase in the next couple of years. I am hoping to eke out $400/month from the raise and will just keep in cash for the short run. Longer run, I will just reduce this amount as it starts going to taxes. (The rest will go to health insurance, as most raises have while supporting a household of 4.)
We usually work more and spend less the first 5 months of the year. So I expect cash will start to pile up quickly.
Then...
We received a $10,000 cash gift.
🤯
My in-laws have been pretty generous with cash gifts in recent years. Probably a combo of RMDs (that they have no intention of ever spending) and an inheritance.
At the end of last year, MIL sprung on us that we would not get a gift at all. She was skittish about end-of-life care, and I don't know what their pension situation is when FIL passes. I think it was wise for them to back off on the gifts. & I got a big work bonus last year (with promises of future big bonuses) and so I thought the timing just kind of worked. You can't beat a tax-free gift! But I was quickly filling in the void with my own compensation.
So imagine my complete shock when MIL handed us a $10,000 gift over the weekend. What!?
We had already parsed out my bonus and given up on IRAs in 2025. & I think it's wise to stay the course. We have just been treading water on 'barely dipping into our emergency savings' for the last few years. After we put a bigger gift mostly to our mortgage (3 or 4 years ago).
I know the one thing we can do to make our lives easier right now, is to just park this money in cash. After five college years and being a little too aggressive with the mortgage... We literaly have $0 cash saved for anything other than an emergency fund. I will probably consider the $10K to be a start on a home maintenance/home down payment fund. & if the gifts resume or my bonuses do continue to get bigger over time, it may be wise for us to just start a mortgage payoff fund. Keeping it in cash is wise because we will likely buy our next home with a mortgage, and briefly own two homes. & we'd want to put 20% down (~$100K) even for a very temporary mortgage. (Crap happens; I wouldn't want to be stuck with anything too crazy.) I also think that investing in some home maintenance is more wise than throwing every penny at the mortgage. If nothing else, I foresee an A/C replacement in our nearer future.
Note: I have no idea if we will pay off this mortgage before we sell the house. Which is all the more reason to start on a 'mortgage payoff' fund and keep things more liquid in the interim.
Anyway, consider my mind blown. I really was not 'expecting' any of this. I was hoping for a nice bonus year but wasn't confident about it.
Oh yeah, and I forgot that I sent $1,000 of the gift (10%) to the credit card. I knew we'd have a little extra spending this month. I decided with my bonus to not worry about it, if we had a couple of 5-person meals out. (DL's girlfriend is visiting from out of town and staying with us for two weeks.) I'd otherwise more specifically plan for meals out with less people. $1,000 was more than we spent, and so some of that will just funnel back into our savings. But I'd say it served its purpose, even if we didn't spend a lot of it. I didn't want to stress about money during a spendier month.
December 28th, 2025 at 09:05 am 1766912719