By: Revanche

Money & Life Report: November 2024

December 5, 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 $1060 in dividends from the stocks portfolio. One of two big months in the year.

Spending

We needed a new home laptop since the old home laptop had to become my workhorse. I had just enough awareness of how badly scattered I’d be this November so plopped this on my gigantic to do list and thank goodness I did or I’d have missed the sales. Both the laptop and the Microsoft license (not the subscription which I will avoid for as long as humanly possible) were on sale: $750.

Book gifts for niblings and underwear for three of us: $130.

I usually look at their stuff and then hop off the site but this time the sales at Sanrio were good enough to pick up a lot of gifts: $100.

PiC is gearing up for really big spending in the next few months (?, timeline still TBD): ROOFING. Quotes are between $30-45K. Not great!

Not spending

Swappity-do: neighbors and I have been “trading” necessities now and again. In quotes because it’s not specifically trading, we just offer up stuff that the other might need. They text me about kid clothing or toys: “could you use…?” I text them about the last of Sera’s dog food or treats, “do they want…?” It’s not quite a Buy Nothing group but it’s definitely in the spirit of one, and I love the timing has always been serendipitous: they’re often clearing out things just before we need them even though we hadn’t mentioned it. I appreciate this little bit of community.

Refunds: $210 and $12 fees for mistakes.

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 families have been simultaneously a huge success and a huge question mark. The first family was a mother who needed a sewing machine and supplies for quilting. Speaking of serendipity, my quilting friend tapped their quilting community and my own friend happened to have a sewing machine in excellent condition to offer and lo: for the cost of shipping, we were able to ship them a sewing machine, more than 20 lbs of quilting fabrics, and we purchased a giant pile of sewing notions necessary for quilting. I could not have done any of this without folks happening by on Bluesky and my friend’s quilting expertise. And in the same vein, shipping costs were only manageable because another friend had confirmed that PirateShip just sounds scammy but they are a legitimate shipping discounter and I had just set up an account for it to use for JB’s business! Everything made it there safe and sound, everyone was thrilled on all ends.

I shipped a TON of household supplies and clothing to the second family. I received emails notifying me that all the packages were delivered AND delivery failure notices for all the orders. UPS and USPS both failed big time, possibly, but we’re having trouble getting through to the family on the reservation to find out what actually made it to them. I’m still waiting….

Saving and investing

I was going to be “same old same old” about these numbers but you know what? It’s amazing that we have been able to hold steady on our savings and investing plan all year. I haven’t been the most frugal ever, we have given lots of money to people who needed it ($$$$), and we’re still paying our bills and saving money. I remind myself repeatedly that I’m self insuring us against the future and we can’t give away all our money because we don’t have anyone to catch us if we aren’t our own safety net. So I’m going to remember to be terribly grateful. There was a time this “boring” update was only a fever dream.

Sadly my pretty chart refuses to be downloaded so I have to summarize. We’re about 22% away from my minimum required investment goal for someday-retirement but the big uncertainty of healthcare has become even more uncertain now with the incoming administration. If we lose access to non-employer sponsored affordable healthcare, self-insuring gets even more expensive. This minimum is based on today’s spending plus a little. Take away affordable healthcare and it’s going to have to be plus a LOT.

Net worth

Maggie mentioned the markets must be totally irrational at the end of the month. When I went to do our numbers, wow, she’s right. It’s way up for no discernible (to me) reason. As I don’t time the market, I also don’t intend to discern the reasons, I’m just going to shake my head at it all and hope this doesn’t explode in our faces later (that’s just catastrophe brain whispering in the background like it always does).