Net Worth & Life Report: May 2016
June 1, 2016
ON MONEY
I use Swagbucks. Here’s a handy tutorial if you’d like to join and earn.
- MTurk experiment, total earned: $12.65. I originally planned to try it out for ten consecutive days. Since I can’t stay not-sick for more than a few days at a time, that didn’t work out. No big deal, this is still just an interesting experiment. This will be added to our side money when I cash it out. So far, most of the HITs (human intelligence task) have been very low payouts. We’re talking about less than a dollar. I happened across one that paid more than pennies on a Wednesday evening, completed it immediately, and banked $6. I suspect that, for my purposes, if I just use this intermittently as I have time on weekdays, I’ll build up a tiny nestegg of earnings. This isn’t likely to be a true source of income replacement unless I’m willing to put quite a few more hours into it. If I do get past the beginner’s hurdle, and am offered the more lucrative HITs, it’ll be worth the time I put in. Like I said, it’s an experiment and I’m willing to see how it plays out, picking and choosing the higher payouts from this point forward.
- I still hate that daycare doesn’t make it easier to automatically pay them. I still refuse to set up autopay at their site because I will NEVER authorize withdrawals of “any amount” from our checking account, are you kidding me?
- On the subject of being stuck in the Paper Ages, I don’t understand why our new FSA contractor refuses to do direct deposit. They mail a paper check and statement for every redemption. I wish the company had consulted us even a little before changing but it’s done now. What a waste!
- You would think that offending the stomach gods and being unable to eat for 5 days running would translate into savings, but that has not been true at all.
- Three notices from TradeKing this month: Dividends paid! Woot! My portfolio is still small enough that three dividend payouts only add up $100 but we’re heading in the right direction. Bearing in mind that my investing strategy is to buy and hold, I also intend to earn income from the dividends with the expectation that they will provide income before retirement age. My body hasn’t done what you’d call IMPROVE with age so we have to plan for the scenario in which I’m still alive but too disabled to work for income at an early enough age that it creates financial hardship. I refuse to be complacent and pretend that won’t happen in hopes of getting better – that’s not yet done me a lick of good and believe you me, I spent plenty of time in denial.
- We spent money and bought a car. That deserves a post of its own. Especially because it looks like more money is needed.
- We spent money and refinanced the mortgage. That also deserves a post of its own. Coming soon.
- I’ve been just as frustrated as you might imagine with all our free time being monopolized by the car, the mortgage, and the estate planning. So much so that I’m happy we spent money and resolved the issue. Mostly.
- Our net worth is down 0.1% this month. The aforementioned expected, not awesome, spending took us down a tiny peg.
ON LIFE
Traveling during high season is never my bag but this year, it was worth the hassle of making it affordable. This is the first time in years I truly felt like I was on vacation.
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Speaking of travel, the older Seamus gets, the less I want to leave him. But driving everywhere adds days to family trips. It’s hard to balance.
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I’m plotting a surprise for PiC that’s going to involve food and friends but the food part is going to cost more than originally planned. I haven’t been well for a week all year, the wise thing is to plan for the possibility likelihood that cooking and hosting will be too much. That means having it catered. For some reason, that makes me feel like a bad hostess, as if cooking = love.
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We still harbor hopes of getting Hamilton tickets when they play at the Orpheum. We priced out subscription tickets but even the cheapest available made me blanch: $1070 for two. We’ll have to take our chances with buying non-subscription tickets.
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We found a couple possible babysitters that we like a lot, but they charge $25 an hour. Whoooooo doggy. We’ll need the help enough, occasionally, but at those rates, we’ll have to use it pretty sparingly.
:: How was your May? What’s in store for June? Would you try to see Hamilton if it was close to you?
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I remember that FSA nonsense, but could never figure it out if it was our provider or just how it was. Can’t even remember who it was but everything was manual. We had to send in documentation for every claim, and could you scan it and e-mail it or upload it? Nooooo….it had to be sent in by paper, or you could *drum roll* fax it in. And, I’m pretty sure that we got paper checks after that.
What a nightmare. Glad we now have an HSA now and they don’t make you send in every single item.
Fax?? Where are we, 1950?
I’ll admit that I don’t mind a bit of the manual work if it means I get credit card rewards in addition to the reimbursed pre-tax money but wasting time and paper on mailing checks stinks.
I’d probably see Hamilton again if they toured in my city if I could get in early for a good seat. Otherwise, I don’t really feel like it’d be worth the $150-200+/person.
I know they’re opening in Chicago and then in LA and SF, I wonder where else it’ll go next.
Wait – again? You’ve seen it already?
$25/hr is way more than I make in my PhD.
Gah.
(Good luck with all of the above!!)
It’s a bit breathtaking. Though, is that taking into consideration the COL differences? I don’t recall how different prices are where you are, vs here.