Money & Life Report: June 2023
July 4, 2023
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 $387.50 in dividends from the stocks portfolio. All reinvested, of course. Someday it’ll add up to a real income.
We picked up $20 from the Lithium Ion battery class action settlement.
PiC is signed up for our city’s bike commuting incentive and rode enough to redeem $25 in gift cards. That’ll pay for more bike equipment: A better bike light, safety is important!
Spending
We’d talked about replacing JB’s old mattress, off and on, for years. While flagging other things we need coming up, I spotted a sale that was good enough and after a quick chat with PiC, pressed purchase. Oddly enough, in CA, buying a mattress from Amazon gets you free mattress haul away. That was going to be his balking point – not wanting to deal with getting rid of a mattress right now – but problem solved!
I went overboard and bought four cases of wipes, because we’ll use them eventually, to get the Buy $100, get $20 GC back promotion. Then I kicked myself when, three days later and too late to change it, I realized we were running low enough on diapers that we could have gone with diapers and 2 cases of wipes. 🤦🏻♀️
I returned two cases for a refund and an unopened case of diapers that Smol had outgrown for store credit. Better than nothing.
Not Spending
We didn’t buy a bigger car this month. We’ve been searching for a larger car at a palatable price for the past two years with little to no luck. I’m preparing our cash reserves in case we might buy sometime this year.
Giving
We have worked really hard and been very fortunate that our hard work paid off in significant ways that I only 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.
We donate to organizations that help people and animals in need and do direct aid.
The Lakota Giving Project is year-round now and we always welcome donations to support Lakota families. See how you can help at the link.
I’m still waiting for everything to be delivered to the second family but the first of two June families has received their refill of propane and will be able to heat their water for the summer! 🎉
Did a lot of direct giving to folks with limited income and medical needs this months. This just comes straight out of our cash flow.
Saving and investing
Someone on Twitter mentioning TGT being unpopular caught my attention. Oh? Yes? Stock down? I was pleased to see it’s down to the $130s range. Twice as much as I paid several years ago but not the 4.5x my original purchase price at the high last year ($280?). Good enough! I stole from our emergency funds to buy another 100 shares.
I’ll have to calculate how to repay the emergency fund without utterly cannibalizing our normal investing schedule. Can’t do both. I’ve been primarily focused on collecting as much VTSAX as I can each week but TGT is a reliable stock for income and I also want to yell at them as a stockholder to stop caving to right wingers. Feels like I have a little more oomph if I own more shares, though it’s a laughable number compared to a majority shareholder, I’m sure.
I calculated a break even point on the purchase. It’ll take 9 years of dividends to make back the initial cost of investment and after that, I’ll still have the stocks to sell after that point if I wanted to.
Net worth
Small creep upward this month. Mainly due to the market, I think.
My Vanguard investments for the past decade: the progress is good. I’ve made a ton of catching up contributions, that accounts for 3/4 of the increase. The other 1/4 was the contribution gains. It doesn’t feel like compound interest is working any real magic yet but that might be because I was expecting the gains to be doing the heavy lifting by now. Based on… Absolutely no math at all. I should revisit some numbers and expectations probably.
On Life
Reading.
As my annual birthday gift to myself, I write the library a big check and ask them to buy a stack of ebooks for their collection. Then I spend the next few months savoring all the new reads. I did that extra early this year.
I’m on a Seanan McGuire Toby Daye kick (affiliate links: Amazon, Bookshop). I couldn’t get into the Wayward children series, the subject matter is wrong for my present state of mind, but the Incryptid and October Daye books are up my alley.
Thanks to a Twitter recommendation, I’m also whizzing through Devon Monk’s Ordinary Magic series (affiliate links: Amazon, Bookshop). It satisfies my itch for urban fantasy but it’s not as strong throughout as the Incryptid or October Daye, or the Ilona Andrews series. These fit in the same general category, and I loved the premise and the town, but the writing gets a bit weak in the middle of the series. I don’t love the character POV shift in Book Four. Seanan McGuire does this with the Incryptid books, a trio of books per character for the first nine. While I didn’t react positively on the first read and unexpected shift, that’s because I like to stick with my one main character(s) forever. But I came to love it as I went on because it’s so well written. Monk’s character POV shift seemed a bit confused and maybe gratuitous? It firmed back up towards the end but I wished for a little more meat on the story bones. I’m now starting Monk’s Wayward Souls series.
I’m also re-reading KB Spangler’s Rachel Peng series (affiliate links: Amazon). I really like this series and especially relate to Rachel here: “…you were either made of raw charisma or you weren’t, and she wasn’t.” I am missing Books Two and Four. I may have to splurge and fill in those gaps before Book Five comes out. I rarely preorder books but I like to support authors and preorders are important.
A trusted friend recommended Hench, by Natalie Zina Walschots, saying it was right up my alley. Most people don’t know me well enough to say that sort of thing but she does and she was right. What she didn’t do was warn me it would take some TURNS. It was a hell of a read, in some very unexpected ways.
We bought a new car this year, after looking for 3 years, for the most trivial of reasons: so we can haul kayaks for this summer and the next 3 before the oldest kid goes to college. (And also because our second car is 23 years old, has 205,000 miles on it, and occasionally gets stuck in park.) I’m not sure car prices are coming down any time soon! It was a bit painful to spend that much money.
Not that you needed any kind of justification but I feel like you buried the very non trivial reason of getting stuck in park! 😅
I think hauling kayaks is as good a reason as any, though, if you’re into that! You may or may not remember but we bought our second car for Doggle transport 😁
I agree about prices and boy oh boy is it going to sting when the time comes. I’m bracing myself.
Well but we only are both driving places one week a year and my spouse walks to work so we didn’t NEED it NOW but one day soon…. the ancient car will be the starter car for Kid 1 if it’s still running in 2 years, which is at least frugal. It’s already a junker so it’s a perfect first car! Also the high-school is only a couple miles away and he could walk home in a pinch.
Nice to be set up for the future!