By: Revanche

Money & Life Report: April 2024

May 7, 2024

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 $280.60 in dividends from the stocks portfolio. It all gets reinvested into our index funds.

Spending

I doubt it’ll make a dent in our grocery budget but my hobby spending on the garden hit $32 and counting. I’ll need some trellises. See the life section, below. I’m making my peace with this. If I average $50-75 a year on growing some treats for us to eat, well, it’s an expensive hobby but it won’t break us. My seeds won’t all be used this year, and they’re good for 2-3 years.

We’ll be paying Sera’s April bills in May and they are a doozy.

This part of the year is usually financially rough apart from that. Spring through summer is when we have to pay for home insurance ($$$), earthquake insurance ($$$), car insurance ($$$), life insurance ($$$), and summer camp ($$$$, which costs basically a third mortgage), some travel ($$$$).

Again, deeply grateful we still have PiC’s income this year, so many people have been affected by layoffs, or this season would feel even harder.

Not spending

My 12 year old iPad isn’t cutting the mustard anymore. It can’t handle any up-to-date apps and can barely handle the old ones. Of course, I am slow to replace luxury / optional electronics. A tablet has been sitting on the “nice to have” list and was likely to stay there for a good while longer. Then, spring cleaning happened across multiple households and we found ourselves in possession of a hand me down factory reset iPad. When I tried to set it up, though, it refused to let us in without the previous owner’s apple ID and / or activation code. The only way to reset it entirely is to have private information of friends of friends. Sigh. And this is why I hate Apple products. The iTunes/Apple ID thing put me off their products forever ago. A factory reset, by definition, should have wiped out the previous set up information. The factory reset was done by the original (tech savvy) owner! There was no reason for it to keep holding on to prior set up information. Dratted Apple.

Our friend figured out the problem in the end, thankfully, and I managed to set it up. This gives us a computing option for JB to read Libby on since I have had to temporarily (🤞) hijack the home laptop for work, once I get that all set up for them. Grateful for friends handing things down, I appreciate a good handing down culture/community.

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.

We have been giving to GoFundMes for people trying to escape Gaza and just learned of Operation Olive Branch: “Grassroots movement to support & amplify aid requests of Palestinian families” from Lyndsay on Bluesky who then posted this offer: This week I’ve worked on a 4×6″ linocut print of the official bird of Palestine, the Palestine Sunbird. I will send a print to any US address if you donate $25 or more to a family through Operation Olive Branch. Get the details at http://sunbirdsforgaza.org

We’re stretched to the limit for a bit so we have to hold off until our bills are paid off.

I spent all of April trying to keep Sera alive and comfortable, so I haven’t yet chosen new families. I’m giving myself some time to grieve before starting again, but I do have to send out an update for the last two families we helped.

Saving and investing

Savings are paused for at least four weeks so we can pay Sera’s bills.

Net worth

Everything is creeping upward slowly, though the brokerages dipped a bit this month. I’m primarily interested in seeing that yellow investments line reaching the goal line. My hope is that’s enough for us to live off at a 3-4% drawdown but it’s a pretty rough estimate. I might have to move it up as we get further along. In 2-3 years we drop daycare costs, except for the summer months, but then we’re only 5 years away from college costs. The kids have about $75k each saved for college, which sounds like a lot until friends tell me what tuition numbers they’ve gathered during their kids’ college search. I don’t see $75k going all that far, then. I don’t know, it’ll depend on what the kids eventually want but I assume we’ll cash flow some part of their undergrad degrees. I can only hope they are as dedicated to their chosen paths, and as satisfied with their careers, as my younger cousins are. Or at least as successful as I eventually became but my path took so much overtime and is still less lucrative than theirs.

On Life

New levels of growing up (or just ADHD).

After never having any interest in it in my entire life, my brain decided it’s time I learn how to do my own hair in more than the standard ponytail or braid. This is in preparation for an upcoming family wedding. I’ve never felt this urge before any special occasion of any kind, but here we are. I say “my brain” rather than “I” because this very much feels like it was an internal directive issued to me, not something I consciously decided. In fact, I have consciously tried to decide this in the past but the idea slid right off my brain like a car hitting a patch of ice. Zero traction, get outta here with that nonsense. (Actually, a week after writing this I wondered if this was (also?) related to therapy developments. Am I finally allowed to be frivolous and care what I look like? I never could afford to before, literally, beyond learning to do enough makeup to make myself look older at work for a few years but once my reputation was established I quit that cold turkey. Food for thought.)

In very related developments, I also very suddenly felt like I had to plant something new. It started with an uncharacteristic search for color: “Maybe I can put in some tulip bulbs, are they annuals or perennials, also am I too late in the season to start them?” To which a knowledgeable gardening friend said “definitely too late” and my brain merrily proceeded down the path of “if I can’t have that, how about something else to tide me over” which led to … now. We are expecting a shipment of seeds for two kinds of green beans, two kinds of cucumbers, lettuce, and Napa cabbage, plus flowers. Me, who has insisted on only growing potatoes for the least amount of effort possible. Yes I did add onions, purely to avoid waste. But this was the blueberry and blackberry bushes all over again. Those were completely impulsively and compulsively wanted.

As a friend described it: “the manic episode, classic way of ADHD”. I don’t think she’s wrong.

I’ve known all my life that there was something wrong with me because there are some things I absolutely cannot force myself to learn. Not even in the “well I have to do this so I’ll do the bare minimum” sort of way. I feel like my brain turns to Teflon and the knowledge slides right off. Until I utterly randomly develop an interest in it. It’s like getting hit by a lightning bolt of MUST DO THIS THING. In my very frugal days I found other ways to scratch the itch or clamped down on myself and refused to give way to wild spending but we have enough money to withstand a splurge or two, and so $32 of seed is coming our way. Sure hope the plants actually yield some food!

:: How was your month?

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