Money & Life Report: November 2023
December 6, 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 $983.94 in dividends from the stocks portfolio.
Spending
Woooof. This was a month.
That water bill crept up again. Rude.
We’ve known that the e-bike loan would end eventually and it did, suddenly, last month. I sent PiC on a scouting / shopping quest to find one that he’d like to keep, something that would grow with the kids. It’s a huge expense but it’s been so good for his mental and physical health. I can’t even describe the difference adequately between pre-biking and now, it’s just a world of difference. Smol’s along for the ride and love the sightseeing from the kid seat. He managed to find out that’s $$$$, really aimed toward the much richer folks in the Bay Area, but one he feels will hold up over time and have resale value when they’re done with it. I defer to his judgement on that, I just pay the bill. The kids really love riding and were playing together very happily during their evening rides.
We committed to another full year of self defense at a 30% discount. $$$$.
Black Friday sales: I delayed buying things we needed until the sales for the latter half of the year. This worked for less than half the list. Did anyone else feel the sales were underwhelming this year? Still, I will appreciate what we did get. Four pairs of jeans on sale with 12% cashback from Rakuten, and another 15% cashback from my credit card. Final total: $50. Two pairs don’t fit me so I’ll regift those. The kids also need sandals, their cheap sandals are worn out. 4 pairs of Crocs, final total: $65. We picked up the power station that I’d researched last year (originally $3500 last year), along with a cartload of basic household supplies: lotion and toothpaste, mostly. Soap was on sale
Daycare hit us with their annual increase, another 5%, in January. Luckily, Smol Acrobat has aged into the next age bracket, the older they get the lower the rates get, so we pay nearly the same amount with the tier change reduction and the 5% increase. Winning by not losing, I guess?
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.
November is when I make my last big push for fundraising and helping out families.
I had hoped to send lots of supplies in bulk to the Allen community like last year but we didn’t have as many funds as last year.
We were very fortunate that despite the disintegration of reach on Twitter and a hard financial year for many, our regular contributors were still able to pitch in enough that we could make a huge difference for a few families.
Our two families in November:
A grandma raising four teenage grandkids (or more, they might only have been asking for help for some of the kids) is medically fragile and needs to go on home dialysis. She didn’t have a bed to sleep on, and two of the kids didn’t have beds either. We put out the call for help and were able to set them up with a bed for Grandma, a bunk bed with a pull out cot, and bedding for all four beds. One thing I’ve noticed is these families will take in kids regardless of how full the household is rather than let them go to foster care. I can understand that, but I know it makes life harder and harder as resources don’t swell in response to the added mouths to feed and bodies to clothe. We also bought each of the kids a mini wardrobe and some basic hygiene and household cleaning supplies for the whole family.
Our second family, S, with twelve members, adults and kids, was running short of food. This is such a fundamental need. I shopped and shopped and shopped to get them several hundred dollars worth of food. I can’t believe how much it costs to feed the four of us, sometimes, shopping for 12 was eye opening. As I suspected, though, a friend with experience in these matters sadly confirmed that as much as it seemed to me, that would only last twelve people about a week.
Saving and investing
This is the last month of the year that I’ll be saving since: see above. Looking ahead, I had to pause a whole month of saving to have enough cash between what I’m keeping on hand normally plus what we’d normally save to pay off the credit card bill in full. That did not feel great! But again, they were choices for our quality of life.
Net worth
The market did a little dance this month and shot upward. No idea if it’ll hold or not, but it was a nice moment of hey, that’s pretty high!
On Life
Anticipation. I had a mournful talk with my therapist about the possibility that things could change with my job significantly. If it does, I have no idea what form it’ll take but it’s almost certain I will lose this ideal combination of autonomy and flexibility. It’s dependent on several things, all out of my control, so all we can do is wait and ride it out when and if anything shifts. I know that I’ve been lucky to have had this much stability for this long but I also don’t have the graciousness of spirit to let go without a few angry tantrums if it has to change. The best case scenario is that nothing changes and I can steer my ship more efficiently and effectively in the coming year.
Reading.
I got my turn at John Scalzi’s Starter Villain and Martha Wells’s Witch King this month which was a little bit of a shame because my brain was simply not equipped to truly appreciate either. They’re well written but it only wanted familiar easy old reads like the Kate Daniels series so I went back to the library. I keep checking out those ebooks but the sixth e-book in the series is now out of circulation and it’s got me wondering if I can justify just buying the series for myself. Usually I don’t. Usually my book budget is donated to the library to buy ebooks for everyone to enjoy the books I want to read.
Witch King was a really difficult read, even more difficult than many of her earlier books. I definitely would have benefited from the x-ray feature on the kindle version or getting the paper version so I could flip to the dramatis personae.
Starter Villain was fine– I was a little let down because I read a lot in that odd genre and it’s not that new for that genre, and I’m used to new with Scalzi. I can see how if you’re not immersed in those tropes it might be a little hard to follow, whereas I found it a bit predictable and not as good as most offerings. It was fine, but not as good as his other humorous fantasy which truly is groundbreaking.
nicoleandmaggie recently posted…RBOC
Whew ok, it’s nice to hear you also felt it was difficult (WK) and not particularly good (SV). I was so sure that my low level of enjoyment, of two authors I have liked a lot, meant I was really off my game.
I think that if a series holds up for multiple re-reads, and it’s comforting to you, then yes, it merits a purchase. I bought the Murderbot series 1-6 on audio (in a humble bundle, I admit) and then bought them in ebook (full price) and have been using them in combination for entertainment AND sleep-lulling. I am a heavy library user and rarely purchase but I’ve already received many hours of enjoyment and will continue reading and re-reading them.
Yes, owning your own copy of your favorites and being able to access it whenever you want is well worth it. <3 And if brain weasels try to sneer that "just you" enjoying them isn't important enough to spend $ on, just remind them that purchasing your own personal copies benefits the author(s) too!
@Bethany D: It’s like you read my brain weasels! They are totally rude. And you make a really good point.
It IS comfort reading! Kate Daniels, and Seanan McGuire’s Incryptid and Toby Daye series have been my painsomnia companions. I sadly missed the Seanan McGuire Humble Bundle. Hopefully there will be a next time.