Money & Life Report: March 2021
April 6, 2021
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 $285 in dividends. Our YTD monthly average is $105.
Spending
Our spending on takeout has gone up again this month. Work has been especially busy and we’re still figuring out our routines and commitments and the trickiness of how to balance them. I’m not going to make myself feel bad for paying for convenience that gets us fed with a minimum of fuss, we’re all stretched molecule-thin and we still need to eat.
Not spending
We’re still not using any childcare. There is one place that takes enough precautions that is worth considering, but we also have to be willing to send Smol along. Right now, as hard as this all is, I get the baby giggles and cuddles along with the frustrations and if we send them off to daycare, all I get is the frustrations of bad night sleep. I don’t want to miss the good stuff and neither does PiC. This isn’t how we envisioned getting to soak up the baby days but I’m loathe to pass them up.
Giving
We were able to help two more sets of folks from the Okini! I owe our contributors an email update.
Saving and investing
I increased our automated savings transfers to account for a couple of small cash inflows and to see if we can get by on a little less each month. We have a relatively respectable savings rate but I’m feeling some anxiety about our ability to retire. All the retirement calculators I’ve been playing basically say that our success for any short timeline (less than ten years) will depend entirely on the market’s rate of return and that is entirely out of my control. I don’t know how to think about this goal that’s so nebulous between the need for the market to break our way for many years AND for the ACA to be more accessible and affordable. I want to be relaxed about whether or not it happens, but I’m not really built that way.
I also have a lot of anxiety pegged to a certain age because my mom died unexpectedly and far too young. I know my circumstances are quite different now that I’ve found ways to alleviate a little of my chronic pain symptoms but knowing that and releasing the sense that I’m running out of time one way or another are totally different things.
Also also, I don’t see how this job which is the best fit of all jobs I’ve ever held can possibly last until retirement. I always expect good things to end, and it’s a scary thought for once. I don’t want to give up any of the perks I have at this job for some other half decent job: trust, autonomy, respect, a decent wage, flexible hours, a great staff.
I’m trying not to borrow trouble but the idea of replacing this with something not soul-sucking feels like it’ll be tough.
Net worth
Nothing interesting going on here. We’re fortunate enough to have both jobs so I continue to save and invest as aggressively as we can. I don’t know what the future holds but I hope we have a lot of good years in front of us and to have enough money to enjoy those years.
On Life
Reading. The less sleep I can get, the more I read to fill the time. And I haven’t been getting much sleep this month.
Rick Riordan: The Titan’s Curse (Amazon, Bookshop.org, Indiebound)
Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Battle of the Labyrinth (Amazon, Bookshop.org, Indiebound)
Rebecca Roanhorse: Race to the Sun (Amazon, Bookshop.org, Indiebound)
Kwame Mbalia: Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky (Amazon, Bookshop.org, Indiebound),
Tristan Strong Destroys the World (Amazon, Bookshop.org, Indiebound)
The Rick Riordan Presents books are great.
Ilona Andrews: Clean Sweep, Book 1 (Amazon, Bookshop.org, Indiebound), Sweep in Peace, Book 2 (Amazon, Bookshop.org, Indiebound), One Fell Sweep, Book 3 (Amazon, Bookshop.org, Indiebound), Sweep of the Blade, Book 4 (Amazon, Bookshop.org, Indiebound), Sweep with Me (Amazon, Bookshop.org, Indiebound)
The Innkeeper Chronicles are my favorite of all the Ilona Andrews books. They’ve reached comfort reading level. I can’t decide who my favorite character is.
I think your conclusion on savings rates and early retirement possibilities is one of the reason I don’t do detailed calculations – I probably will not very much like the answers that I get once I dig into things that my simplistic calculations gloss over. Other reason being it would be time consuming and not change any near term plans for us… but mainly, why go through effort to just get disappointing news š
I suspected it would be that way but I couldn’t help myself. I still can’t help myself noodling around a bit mindlessly … !
Childcare was the biggest thing I missed during the pandemic, though I know how lucky we were to have the option to telework.
I don’t know that I will ever feel comfortable retiring without some firm answer on healthcare. The rest of it seems doable with a low enough withdrawal rate and a strong stomach, though I continuously move the goalposts in terms of what level of spending and withdrawal rate I’m comfortable with. It is a nice security blanket, though, as our levels of burnout get worse and we have to fight for our right to keep teleworking.
I miss the freedom that childcare gave us to work uninterrupted. But we still don’t know when it’ll make sense to use it yet.
I agree, the lack of a real solution to healthcare is a real impediment for our plans, though the lack of sufficient principal is too!
Thanks for the interesting post, Revanche! It is always interesting to know what other people do for a living and how other people manage their savings. This is especially interesting to me, since I am a big spender. If I go to the children’s store, I can not help but buy a basket full of all sorts of things.
I wish you to quickly replace your daily income with passive income!