Money & Life Report: May 2022
June 14, 2022
On Money
Income
Our primary income comes from our full time jobs. We have minimal income from investing in index funds and dividend stocks (all reinvested). We earn money on the side to supplement our main incomes. We get a bit of income from Swagbucks, cash back sites (Rakuten, Mr.Rebates) and affiliate links to Bookshop and Amazon sometimes pay a micro-commission to keep the blog running. There are ways to support the blog and our charitable giving in the sidebar.
Our long term goal is to replace our day job income with passive income before my health prevents me from working. I know from my Mom’s experience that qualifying for or relying on disability is incredibly tough or near impossible here in CA. Aside from that, I aim to do my best to make the most of what we can do while we can.
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Dividend income. We received $904.36 in dividends from the stocks portfolio.
- PiC sold a big set of hand me down stroller accessories in a big bundle for $140. Cha-ching! Love freeing up space and putting away cash (the equivalent of which is already long spent).
- Closing a fallow checking account brought home a $100 check.
- Ibotta: $0.10 for a total of $0.30 this month! One more dollar to go before I can cash out.
- Bing: I’m over the 32500 point redemption threshold! I may have to redeem to replenish our Target gift cards because we’re nearly out. We use it for diapers, wipes, and other household essentials when we’re not spending it on our Lakota families.
Spending
JB’s school gets out earlier than most so we had teacher thank you gifts to buy this month. I know families who are getting creative with their gifts. Not us because I’m exhausted: $250.
I have packed up a carload (or two) of baby gear for our young friends. We’ll add some small new gifts from us as well. After digging through the gifts box for some new baby things, it’ll be $15 out of pocket.
We try not to buy much kid stuff but a bubbles and water play table went to 50% off. I would never have paid $65 for that but I was persuadable at $33. Some people believe that you should only buy things if you’re willing to pay full price, and the thought is that you shouldn’t buy something only because it appears to be a bargain, but for me some things simply aren’t worth the price tag. I’ll only get them if they’re in my price range, used in good condition or new. As we’re now going into October without childcare, we need to give Smol a little to do outside. They’ve got some empty milk jugs and few beach toys they can use to rake the wood chips. It’s a bit sad.
Ink for my printer. Since I primarily used it for JB’s schoolwork and shipping labels this year, I didn’t feel right charging it to the work account. 4 ink cartridges plus a pack of generic brand envelopes plus a $15 off coupon: $81. That netted 30% back in rewards. Next month I will remember to recycle my ink cartridges for $2 back per cart.
Not spending
It occurs to me that my socks are so threadbare by now that even the super thin cotton socks I don’t want are an improvement. 😄 I still won’t buy them because when I spend money I want it to be for something I want, but the silliness did occur to me.
I was holding out on my phone replacement on (also silly) principle but now it’s mostly decision fatigue. So much research to find a phone with the right bells and whistles (lots of storage, reliable / excellent quality camera, right size, a few other things I’m forgetting). I’d actually like to get it now but I can’t figure out what “it” will be! I’m tired of it shutting off right when I’m whipping it out to take a picture of something cute.
Giving
On giving: we have worked really hard and been very fortunate that our hard work paid off in significant ways that I couldn’t have dreamt of when I first started this blog. Though we have not reached our FI number where I can feel like all income is gravy, we’ve always felt it was important to lend a helping hand. Many people say they’ll give back later, when they’re financially set. I say that if we don’t practice and prioritize giving now, we won’t give later either.
All year round I run the Lakota Giving Project, donate to organizations that help people and animals in need and do direct aid.
I need time to get together the next Lakota giving update. I’ve been spending most of my limited free time getting the actual shipments out.
Saving and investing
You already know I hate the Treasury Direct site* but since I set up accounts to buy Series I bonds last fall (7.12% interest), I decided to get another batch for this year at the even higher interest rate (9.62%).
As I understand it, my first set were purchased in November, so they were earning 7.12% for six months. That interest was added to my principal value at the end of April and then the rate reset on May 1st to the new rate of 9.62%. My second set purchased in May will earn the 9.62% interest rate for six months and then the rate will reset November 1st.
*In fairness, my hatred of the TD site is limited to the worst case scenario of being unable to access my own personal account after having to reset access to it. I still don’t have access to it and hope that it doesn’t have any money in there because I simply don’t have time to go to a federal court to verify my identity right now. Maybe eventually I’ll get around to it. The log in and purchase process is reasonably straightforward when you do have all your info and I was able to make both purchases in under ten minutes.
Useful tax info for the Series I bonds: The interest that your savings bonds earn is subject to
– federal income tax, but not to state or local income tax
– any federal estate, gift, and excise taxes as well as any state estate or inheritance taxes.
I’m not yet fluent in the language of tax efficiency but it is nice to have something be tax exempt somewhere.
Net worth
On Life
Books!
Lock in, John Scalzi (Amazon, Bookshop). This is my second read and I appreciated the little details a lot more this time around.
Head on, John Scalzi (Amazon, Bookshop). Second read of the sequel, it’d been long enough that I forgot enough details to try to solve the mystery alongside the characters. I almost never do unless the book is too shallow but it was enjoyable getting there. I like this world and wish there were more in it.
The Collapsing Empire, John Scalzi (Amazon, Bookshop). I was looking in forward to the next book in this trilogy. Scalzi frequently says he’s a very solid SF writer for the masses and I’m one of the masses.
The Verifiers, Jane Pek (Amazon, Bookshop). This was very much out of my usual genres, a friend recommended it, but it was worth the venture. Aside from the main plot, there were quite a lot of unexpected family dynamics layers for me to absorb and process as an immigrant’s kid as well.
Of Dragons, Feasts and Murders, Aliette de Bodard (Amazon, Bookshop). A short story from an author I reliably enjoy, from her Dominion of the Fallen series.
The Chosen and The Beautiful, Nghi Vo (Amazon, Bookshop). DNF. I really liked everything else she wrote so I figured this would be a sure thing. This was an aptly described “lush story” built on The Great Gatsby with supernatural elements. I never liked the Great Gatsby so I needed more to stay interested but there weren’t enough supernatural elements to keep my attention. I got a third of the way through.
Greek Key, JB Spangler (Amazon). A large portion of my reading in recent years has been because of a friend’s shenanigans on Twitter and this was one of them. Shep has been tormenting KB Spangler about koalas for weeks, months!, and I didn’t understand any of it until I read this book. It’s entirely tangential to my enjoyment of the adventures therein, it was just a funny impetus. I like Hope Blackwell so far.
Valor’s Choice, Tanya Huff (Amazon, Bookshop). I’ve been meaning to read more Tanya Huff, so randomly picked one of her series to start with. I’ve mixed feelings about the space opera and military SF genres at the moment. It’s partly what I grew up on (David Weber mostly) along with the fantasy from Mercedes Lackey, Anne McCaffrey and Brian Jacques. But lately, particularly with current events, it’s not the same escapist reading that it used to be. Still, the books are good so far.
We didn’t do teacher gifts at all, but DC2 wrote thank-you notes. Zie got a lot of hugs and was astonished with how much teachers love getting thank-you notes. I’m like, I like getting thank-you notes too!
That’s so weird that some people think you shouldn’t buy something on sale if you wouldn’t get it at full price. Even with minimalists that doesn’t make sense because you might be able to get a multi-tool to replace individual tools or something if the price drops enough. It seems like something someone who doesn’t have real budget constraints would say.
We did both thank you notes and gift cards, but I don’t know how they were received. JB and PiC did the deliveries. I think the world should do more thank you notes.
It’s very weird! And it even came from a minimalist, I think, though I can’t remember who.
Okay glad it’s not just me who never replaces her socks!
I definitely do suggest changing phones before your hand is forced if you can… makes it much less painful to do the transfer (possibly).
Hah you’re in good company!
I really need to, you’re right, it’s just that finding one that fits my hand and is the quality I hope for is way more difficult than it should be.