Money & Life Report: June 2019
July 8, 2019
On Money
Income
Our primary income comes from our full time jobs. We have some tiny cash flow we don’t touch from an investment property and investing in dividend stocks. We earn money on the side to supplement our main incomes. Our side income comes from Swagbucks, cash back sites (Ebates, Mr.Rebates), and tracking physical activity through Achievement (my introduction to it). Some posts have affiliate links that pay a tiny commission to keep the blog running.
Our big long term goal is to replace our day job income before my health prevents me from working.
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Dividend income. We received $268 in dividends this month. Our year to date net dividends are $1,896.42. I currently reinvest all our dividends into new stocks / funds.
I’ve removed “occasional sales on Poshmark” from our income summary since I’ve neither listed new items or made a sale in months. I’ve got a stack of clothes that should be listed but I just don’t have the time right now.
Spending/not spending
With San Diego Comic Con coming up, and with my terrible pain week (and then some), it’s been a bigger challenge reining in the gimmes and the take out than it should be. I don’t know why it’s so much harder when we have something to look forward to but this always happens before a trip. NRGH!
JB needed more socks, having sprouted holes in half a dozen socks in the same number of months, a pair of shoes that are easy to slip on and off before SDCC lest we all lose our minds struggling with zir shoelaces, a new pair of flip flops as ze is rapidly outgrowing this pair (yes we have hit another growth spurt). We need more sunblock before we spend time in sunny San Diego, and I need replacement sneakers before we go. I used part of our gift card stash (rapidly dwindling) at Target to pay for most of that stuff.
Knocked out half the Christmas presents for the numerous niblings through a sale at Primary.com (referral code to get 25% off and free shipping). FINALLY. It’s been making me antsy that their Christmas gifts haven’t even been started. We still only give practical gifts but I might switch to one outfit and one book this year.
We happened across a 50% discount off the Waterpik I’ve been waiting to buy for two years. It’s not returnable so I REALLY hope it works!
Deferred spending: I’m still putting off my backpack replacement, trying to squeeze out another several months, or a year, out of this backpack before that strap goes entirely. I still haven’t replaced that leash that Sera chewed up but I probably should, soon.
Clothing.
- Accessories, 2019: $0
- Clothes, 2019: $32
- Shoes, 2019: $0
Giving
Care packages are love. Every care package I’ve ever received has been a boost to my spirits over the years, whether it was a get well box, a condolence box, or a thinking of you box, so I’m doing my best to pass along the good. I managed to get one out this month and I’ll have another one ready at the end of summer.
RAICES and KIND. After crunching the numbers ten thousand times, I’ve found money in the budget to donate to the fight against treating migrants and migrant children worse than we treat our household pets. The US is in a dark period of inhumanity and we can’t just let it happen.
Supporting the Library. We love our library so much. We try to give them money at least once a year and I’m trying to make more contributions in the summer to avoid the end of the year bank drain. Of course that’s turning into a summer bank drain.
Saving and investing
I’ve been gung-ho VTSAX and VTBLX a year to build up our taxable brokerage account to make up for the ten years I couldn’t max out my 401(k) but the dividend yield is awfully low (1.98%). It may be time to bring in the international market. I don’t have any desire to complicate our portfolio, but it’d be foolish to invest solely domestically. I already hold VTIAX in my Rollover IRA but that account can only grow by $6000 a year so I’m pondering adding VTIAX to our brokerage account. Hattip to Jonathan for nudging my thoughts on this area.
The Admiral Shares have an expense ratio of 0.11%. That makes me grumpy compared to VTBLX’s expense ratio of 0.05% and VTSAX’s expense ratio of 0.04%. Of my entire Vanguard portfolio (ignoring PiC’s 401K and IRA at Fidelity), VTIAX comprises 14% of all our holdings which are otherwise all VTSAX and VTBLX. Across both our portfolios, it’s likely a lower ratio even though I know some of his 401K likely holds some international stocks. What proportion of our total portfolio do I want to be an international fund? Probably not as high as 40% but it could stand to be higher than 20%.
Unrelated: I’m embarrassed at how long it took me to dump my treasury bonds for VTSAX in my Roth IRA, btw. I sat on that for years and it never grew. If I’d moved it over to VTSAX a couple years ago even, it would have made up so much lost ground.
Net worth and Goals
Mini check-ins for our money goals this year.
Cash Investing: 55%
Mortgage Principal: $15,000: 39%
On Life
Random money fact. I’ve been using ebates over ten years. I’ve been deleting a lot of old emails to free up space and ebates emails go back to early 2019.
Seamus‘s new medication regimen of three different pain meds costs a mint. One of them is $3 a pill! We are ever so grateful to Felicity who spotted an opportunity to help us out briefly with some of their leftovers bought in bulk, that’s bought us some breathing space. The other is the same pain medication that I take so I am sharing that prescription with him. We’ve found savings at Costco on the cheapest of the three meds, cutting that cost in half, but I sure do wish it was possible to get those savings on all the more expensive ones too! On my next visit to Costco, I need to sign up for their Discount Card program since pets are eligible as uninsured family members for discounts.
I love ebates & have been a member for 8 years. Lately, we’ve been doing the Raise/ebates combo to buy gift cards for home projects & travel – it’s really boosted my ebates earning.
Hawaii Planner recently posted…Checking in on 2019 yearly goals
I should take a second look at Raise. I didn’t like using them the first time for some reason but it may be a good way to bring back in some extra cash!
I am STILL invested way too conservatively in my Roth IRA. When I read JL Collins’ website, I dumped a bunch into the market while cringing at the idea that I was investing at the peak… this was in 2016. Now I’m kicking myself for not dumping it all in.
I’m trying to decide how to share my net worth on the blog… maybe I’ll do like you and just share percentages.
Howww do you spend so little on clothes! I have a problem.
Sarah recently posted…Sarah’s Grand Unified Theory of Parenting
I lost YEARS of growth in that account because I dragged my heels but believe me, I still have trouble investing now thinking this is a peaky period. It’s kind of always a peak.
Net worth – whatever you’re comfortable with! I am tempted to look at sharing year on year growth but if I do that from the inception of the blog, it’s really messy. As were my finances.
How: Nothing fits me usually, which makes me hate shopping, so I save by not shopping 😀 Also I’m trying to cultivate a “use it until it falls apart literally” mentality and that works well with my preference for long-wearing non-trendy styles. Mostly because I wouldn’t recognize a trend until it bit me.
[…] what follows is a summary based more on percentages and trends (as inspired by StackingPennies and Revanche), at least until I’m as brave and badass as […]
I’m a bit behind on my blogs. What did you end up deciding to do with your international stocks? I think you need to not worry about the fact that VTIAX is more expensive than VTSAX because that just goes along with the fact that it’s cheaper to invest domestically and they’re both still pretty cheap. Have the allocation you want and pick the cheapest funds you can find for it, but don’t compare apples to oranges.
I’m sorry you’ve had your Roth IRA in treasury bonds for so long 🙁 mine has almost always been VTSAX and I’ve had such great returns. I refuse to put bonds in there because of the fact that I’ll never pay taxes on the money.
I decided to quit overthinking things and just make the VTIAX purchase 😆