Money & Life Report: November 2020
December 8, 2020
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 and cash back sites (Rakuten, Mr.Rebates). Some posts have affiliate links that pay a micro-commission to keep the blog running and I’ve added a way to support the blog in the sidebar to the right!
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 $752 in dividends in November from my individual stocks portfolio. We have two months in the year that are this high: May and November. It’d sure be nice if all months were this high, I’d feel like I was really getting somewhere with our income replacement. Our YTD monthly average is $350.
Our annual dividends from our index funds total is about 70% of the individual stocks portfolio total. Our YTD monthly average there is only $236.
This isn’t anything to sneeze at but we’re a far way away from income replacement.
Rakuten. I mostly do my shopping through MrRebates but sometimes there are shops that only do cashback on Rakuten. I wonder why Target still hasn’t come back to MrRebates. This was an accumulation over quite some time because we don’t use them as much, but we also had a $34 payout from Rakuten.
Spending
Holiday gifts. I’d done a lot of our shopping sales in June or so, but there are always a handful of gifts I add on to the list later. I should stop pretending that the list won’t grow and just make up a full complete list from the start.
Maybe I’ll spend a bit of my copious spare time organizing that list for 2021. Anywho, I decided that an entire branch of cousins were just getting cards and cash, and the smaller branch that can’t be weaned off physical gifts were squared away, and then I built up a small stash of gifts for JB. It’s partly to make up for the incoming sibling situation and partly to have our own small tradition of Christmas at home this year since we normally have to travel a fair bit for some portion of the holidays. This year I’m doubly glad not to be traveling, I didn’t relish the thought of leaving Seamus behind when he’s declining so quickly and needs so much. He’s been such a good dog, he deserves to have us with him until the end, whenever that might be.
One very small favor from COVID, we were able to cancel all travel for the year as early as June without an ounce of guilt or hearing it from the relatives.
Not spending
Very kind friends sent us some baby supplies. While it’s hard to know what we need until the baby arrives, we are ever so grateful for their sharing previously loved items.
Giving
Our donations to our two previously selected rural libraries went out this month!
We also had a small rush of late donations come in so I picked a tenth and final family to help out this year. This year-round giving experiment must have been skewed by how strange this year was.
I can’t tell if we would have been better off with a 6 week concentrated period of giving like we did in 2019 but I think I felt much less stressed spacing the purchasing across the entire year.
Saving and investing
Everything is on auto-pilot here. I’m continuing to buy VTSAX weekly and didn’t have much time to do any more than that. Next month I will make some time to assess where we are and where we need to be going.
Net worth
We’re peeking up above the halfway to goal point but I’m still questioning whether that goal post is sufficient for our needs.
On Life
Entertainment.
Netflix: The Dragon Prince. I knew this was a good show but I never put it on for background since I didn’t want to have to pay attention to it. This month, my concentration was shot anyway so putting it on actually had an oddly balancing effect.
Netflix: The Legend of Korra (season 1). I didn’t actually get to watch this the first time around so I needed to vet it before we let JB watch it. I’m not sure they can watch this yet. It feels like it’s a few years “older” in themes than ATLA.
Netflix: Grace and Frankie: Season 6. I adore Lily Tomlin and Martin Sheen, and that’s why I started watching this but I enjoy the whole cast now which is unusual for me.
Netflix: Over the Moon. I thought PiC and JB would enjoy this movie but they didn’t. We got 55 minutes in and left it at that. I finished it later on my own.
Netflix: Queen’s Gambit. I had planned to avoid it, the promos made it seem like it was going to be mockery of mental illness or misogynistic but a friend said it was quite good. It was interesting to see a story that didn’t waste time on useless theatrics, where the players were interested in the value and beauty of the game more than being horrible sports, and I enjoyed it. Also I enjoyed this article on it (spoilers! (I think)): ‘The Queen’s Gambit’: Let’s Celebrate Beth Harmon Doing Whatever the Hell She Wants
Under the Pendulum Sun, Jeannette Ng. (Amazon, Bookshop.org) I struggled my way through this one. It was very well written but my ability to read certain kinds of books this year is deeply curtailed and this was one of those I just couldn’t make real headway into. It’s really good though.
Stealing Home, Sherryl Woods. I caught the first season of this on Netflix as background “watching” (listening, really) so was curious about the book. I usually prefer the book form of any story but not in this case.
The Wedding Date, Jasmine Guillory. This one felt a bit choppier than the earlier Guillory books I’ve read.
Slayer, Kiersten White. (Amazon, Bookshop.org) I had this ARC from Comic Con a couple years back and was going to give it away but felt like I needed to actually vet it first. I grew up with Buffy so the very anti-Buffy POV was weird and interesting. It was a fun read.
Kingdom of Ash and Briars, The Nissera Chronicles, Hannah West. (Amazon, Bookshop.org)
Pride, Prejudice and Other Flavors, Sonali Dev. (Amazon, Bookshop.org)
Children of Virtue and Vengeance, Tomi Adeyemi. (Amazon, Bookshop.org)
Hmm, I hadn’t heard of Mr. Rebates before, I’d been using Rakuten. Will have to try it!
They’re good! I’ve been using them for quite a few years and at least half their customer service team is great 😉
Thanks for sharing in-depth – I just discovered your website and am on my own journey to FIRE, albeit early on. I hope 2021 is a good year for you all.