By: Revanche

Money & Life Report: November 2022

December 6, 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. The sidebar has ways to support the blog and our charitable giving.

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 $916.56 in dividends from the stocks portfolio. There are two times in the year that the dividends are this big, and this is one of them. Gives a real false sense of income security coming into the holidays!

Spending

JB’s self defense: When we had just started up, the flexibility of month to month was worth paying a 10% premium. We’d save 10% for committing to a full year but I really didn’t know how well they would stick with this, or enjoy it, or if it was a good fit for the family.

Now that it’s been a few months. They seem to really enjoy it. So when the place offered an additional 20% off the prepaid year, I couldn’t turn down 30% savings. We’d break even after 8.5 months which is a little more than our original planned commitment (the rest of the school year). My hope is that they will continue to be this interested. I am wary of committing to anything more than 3 weeks out these days but this seems like less of a gamble than it did when we first started out.

Black Friday shopping: the vast majority of our shopping was for other people. For our own personal shopping, I picked up a supply of next size up clothing for the kids at 40% off: socks, underwear, hats for Smol, and a sweatshirt for JB. We got a great deal on 3 pairs of shoes for PiC and JB: $80 after tax and discounts. The pair for PiC alone was $95 regular price and he’d been patiently waiting for ages for the price to come down enough. I found him an additional 15% coupon and $20 cashback on our credit card. I treated myself to a skirt I’d been eyeing at Svaha for 50% off. Even after paying for shipping because they don’t offer free shipping with minimum purchase during the holiday, plus three shirts for gifts, I paid a touch less than the original full price total.

I also picked up another gift, making that a total of four gifts I’ve now completed. Late in the season, to be sure, but at better prices than I could have gotten in the summer.

Masks. I’ve left this REALLY late but for the holidays, I ordered Flo Masks for the family.

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.

We’ve been hard at work with the Thanksgiving+Native Heritage Month focused part of the Lakota Giving Project. I also independently picked up two more families from the Okini list that needed direct help ($$$).

We sent an Emergency Food Package which can feed a family of 8 members for five weeks through AseelApp.com. A group of folks, one of whom is a friend, have launched a larger scale fundraiser: The “Child and Family Relief Fund” campaign aims to support families with children who are significantly impacted by the ongoing crisis and famine in Afghanistan.

Our goal is to provide 500 food packages to families in need in different provinces of Afghanistan. Aseel’s Emergency food Package Emergency Food Package 1 (92 USD per package) feeds a family of 6-8 members for five weeks.

We also sent Tinu support. She’s battling cancer at the same time as having Long COVID. Either would be life altering, the costs of both of them together are staggering. I hate that this country forces people to fundraise for care. If you can help, please do.

Saving and investing

I’m holding about 15.5 months of emergency money in cash (70%) and i-Bonds (30%). The i-bonds are a longer term portion of my emergency funds, replacing the CDs. Maybe they shouldn’t even be considered part of my emergency money at all because I intend to hold them for 4.5 more years (making that 5 years) before selling them. Any emergency warranting the use of our cash reserves would require accessing that money before that 5 year term is up. Then again, the CDs were still counted as emergency funds and they were locked up similarly. I suppose the point is moot until and unless I need them.

Now my question is: do I want to park any of the remaining 70% in Brokerage CDs (about 4.8% for a 12 month CD at last check)? I might do that for up to 20% of our cash. The cash is earning 3% right now.

Net worth

On Life

Entertainment.

I discovered Cristela Alonzo in a rabbithole / spiral down Netflix situation. Her bit on immigrants and swimming with the dolphins reminded me of my horseback riding. I laughed so hard it hurt my stomach. And: “The McRib came back more times than my dad. I say that in every city in case he’s out there.” Boy I hear that feeling.

I finally got the chance to try Ms. Marvel ok Disney+ and I love it so much. So much of the immigrant family experience, though from different countries entirely, resonated strongly for me. Her visit back to Pakistan, seeing a whole new country alongside the eyes of her cousins (reminding me so strongly of my own cousins swarming me when we saw them the first, second, and third times), complicated mother-daughter relationships across time and cultures, discovering the homeland cuisine and having to ask “is this spicy?”. I also really like the changes they made to her origin story, connecting her to her parents much more than she was in her comics origin. I loved G Willow Wilson’s run on the comics but these changes actually fit really well (for once!). This article about the family dynamics was lovely: Ms. Marvel head writer hopes to see more ‘bara Hulk, choti Hulk cosplay’. I also loved their gentle takes on teen awkwardness (Kamran/Bruno’s reintroduction), how loving her family is, and that little twist at the very end, with the musical riff callout to the X-Men, was DELIGHTFUL.

Reading! I think a few of these are from October.

An older elementary schooler recommended Chris Grabenstein’s Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library for JB. I read it first to vet it. It was entertaining enough but I remember having a few moments of ???

I reread CL Polk’s Midnight Bargain – still good. I read St Valentine, St Abigail, St Brigid and that was sad. Good but sad.

Rin Chupeco’s Wicked as You Wish was excellent, and led me back to rereading The Bone Witch Trilogy since the last book arrived in the library.

Charlie Holmberg’s Keeper of Enchanted Rooms was a lot of fun with a touch of stress.

I got a copy of T Kingfisher’s The Twisted Ones but frankly I’m afraid to start it yet. She’s really good at writing horror, and I enjoy all her other books but I have a limited appreciation of horror. I can do gory horror like Cassandra Khaw’s books but I’m not sure I am up to handling T Kingfisher’s.

Alexis Hall’s Rosaline Palmer Takes the Cake was light fun mostly minus that one gross bit.

I’ve been making the rounds of all the available Terry Pratchett Discworld books for soothing reading in between newer books.

CB Lee’s A Clash of Steel was a good adventure story.

:: How was your month?

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