Money & Life Report: April 2019
May 6, 2019
On Money
Income
Our primary income comes from our full time jobs. We earn money on the side, including tiny cash flow we don’t touch from an investment property and investing in dividend stocks.
Our side income comes from Swagbucks, rare sales on Poshmark, cash back sites (Ebates, Mr.Rebates), and tracking physical activity through Achievement (my introduction to it). Some posts have affiliate links that pay a tiny commission to keep the blog running.
The long term goal is to replace our day job income in case my health prevents me from working.
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Dividend income. We received $184 in dividends this month. Our year to date net dividends are $1,113.44. I reinvest all our dividends.
Merch sales! Maggie was so kind as to give me some pointers on how to get started with Merch last year. She’s had serious success with it. I’m neither a fast learner or a great designer but I tried my hand at it and worked up several designs, and then waited. They sat there all year long with no movement so I’d forgotten about them in all the end of year work. It turns I had a couple of sales at the end of last year! The revenue showed up earlier but I wanted to wait until the 90 day return window closed before counting it. Exciting! No idea how to replicate that, and it was a drop in the bucket ($10), but it was neat.
Spending
Taxes. I actually left this section blank for a while because I blocked it all out! It was that bad. I didn’t take the time to adjust our withholdings last year because, well, I just didn’t. So we pun intended paid the price this year. It ate up every penny of our “extra” cash that I had really hoped to put into extra savings but I’m focusing on being glad we even had it to cover. Another $450 went to our tax preparer.
A few household things. Seamus and I are officially old codgers together. I’m moving us both into heavy duty pill organizers this month in preparation for handing him and his sack of medications to a dogsitter. I picked this colorful one for him and we are quite pleased with the functionality. Reasonably easy to open for my high pain days, the pods are big enough to hold all the doses of his meds which do occur four times a day. My needs aren’t quite so complex so I’m using an old one (that used to be Seamus’s, hah!) with just 7 boxes for now.
A story could be extrapolated from our history of buying tissues. A case of 24 boxes of tissues only lasted us 11 months in 2016 – the year that JB was fully in daycare and I stayed sick all year long. The next case of 24 boxes of tissues purchased February 2017 lasted until this month, we’re down to the last few boxes in Month 26. How long will this new case ($36) last??
Alterations. My splurge on clothes in December created more expenses: Both pieces were wonderfully luxurious but both of them needed alterations ($80). Then I also really wanted to wear a dress that had been altered for my pre-pregnancy body several years ago and only got to wear once, that was an unnecessary splurge ($45) considering I don’t have any real reason to wear it other than “I want to.”
Dental health. All the work stress (I assume) has resulted in the grinding down of my fillings in the back of my mouth. I had to pony up for a nightguard: $110.
Swim gear. We need to put JB in real swim lessons this year so we finally picked up some kid goggles (and a pool floaty that ze will need to share with me for when we visit a friend with a pool): $40
Clothing.
- Accessories, 2019: $0
- Clothes, 2019: $32
- Shoes, 2019: $0
Not spending
Free and not free fun. We pay for an annual membership to a museum and aquarium. It’s mostly to support them because we care about the work they do but we started making a real effort to go there more frequently and we’ve gone 3 times this year. That’s a record! Also it’s a record in that I’ve been with them each time – normally it’s been a PiC and JB outing so I can work. We also discovered, as a result of being in the city, the deYoungsters Studio isn’t the only free thing at the DeYoung Museum, they also host free family crafts some days as well.
Giving
Because of the aforementioned dear friend in an abusive situation with vulnerable dependents for whom I am saving much of our spare monies, our giving is down to practically small change but we’re still giving what we can: supporting good causes and small creators.
Saving and investing
In an effort to reduce our ordinary dividends for tax year 2019, I’m timing our purchases for the 4 periods in a year when our purchase will be held at least 60 days before the dividends are paid out. Here’s hoping that I got the calculations right! I’m also waiting patiently (or not) for the next purchase date in the summer.
Miles & points
Alaska miles: 286,813
Marriott Bonvoy: 616,673
Chase Ultimate rewards: 218,568
Net worth and Goals
Mini check-ins for our money goals this year.
Cash Investing: 39%
Mortgage Principal: $15,000: 31%
On Life
Food experimenting. Flaxseed meal as a low net carb replacement for bread crumbs seemed like a better choice than coconut flour in our meatloaf but I was wrong. It was gross and slimy. We powered through an otherwise great meatloaf but never again. A mix of both for a coconut pancake is so-so and I haven’t been inspired to try again. Last month’s new recipes were far better: mini frozen fruit desserts, carnitas.
I did try a nice layered grilled everything (except the avocado) dish and PiC LOVED it but JB was just eh about it. Ze has been pretty lackluster about food lately and I hope it’s just a phase because we can’t have two of us being MEH about food.
Did you end up adjusting your withholding for 2019 to help with next year’s tax bill?
On qualified dividends, the holding period actually extends to 61 days after the ex-dividend date: (from Investopedia)
“Common stock investors must hold the shares for more than 60 days during the 121-day period that starts 60 days before the ex-dividend date, or the date after the dividend has been paid out and after which any new buyers would then be eligible to receive future dividends.”
So you don’t have to specifically time buying them before the dividends are paid out, but if you do, you need to hold them for at least 61 days after the ex-dividend date. The ex-dividend date is normally one business day before the record date.
Yes, we did change our withholding! It’s a big bite out of our monthly income but I suppose that’s less painful than the alternative.
Hm, I don’t know why I skipped the entire rest of that sentence or why I’m having trouble grokking the rule.
Agreed – I find the additional withholding painful. I honestly find it more painful than paying a tax bill in April though? My spouse’s employer now offers the choice to do 22% or 27% (or some higher options that aren’t interesting to us) withholding on bonus income and we can really cherry pick the pieces they do it on, plus there is a chunk near the end of the year, so we will probably try playing with that rather than increasing paycheck withholding.
I used to always see interest/dividend dividend income as inconsequential, so it didn’t need to be accounted for with withholding, but then it crept on me and now it does require accounting for in withholding, which feels so weird!
$15,000 in mortgage principal? Woot! I know your mortgage is huge, but that’s still a pretty darn good number!
My April has been relatively uneventful (thank goodness) but I’m on the hunt for a dining table. It’s not going well. Turns out I have expensive taste in tables. Meanwhile, the table will really only get used for game nights (and mail, probably) so I can’t rationalize spending a ton of money on it. Which is a shame because I found a gorgeous Thomasville set for $899 at a consignment store. But after taxes and delivery it’d be around $1,060 and… No, just no. So the hunt continues.
It’s literally a drop in the bucket for our overall mortgage *sob*
Yay for a quiet month!
Ooh yes, nice tables are $$$$. Crossing my fingers you happen across a great one that’s underpriced.
We have an annual pass for the aquarium too. I love it, it’s great. My goal was the try and go every month to check on her.
Check on who?