Money & Life Report: September 2020
October 5, 2020
If you’d like to join me in helping Lakota families and/or rural libraries this year, please read this post. Over 6 weeks in 2019, we raised $2669.94 for the Lakota families, touching 27 lives. What can we do in 2020?
Current total: Lakota, $1,886.35; Rural libraries, $346.69.
On Money
Income
Our primary income comes from our full time jobs. We have minimal income from an investment property (which is all saved for maintenance) and investing in 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 (Ebates, 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 $435.94 in dividends in September.
Spending
THERE WAS ALL THE SPENDING THIS MONTH. *moment of silence for my nerves*
First, there was the tax debacle in the four figures.
Then we had to replace two large pieces of furniture which also quickly added up to another moderate four figures. The furniture had been discussed as a sometime thing, I hadn’t intended it to be this year. But both our mattress and sofa are over ten years old, our sofa was already used before that, and neither of them are providing the support I need anymore. I noticed a massive increase in pain every morning. When I retreated to the sofa to get a good night of sleep, it could no longer serve as my back up. Alas. I might have tried to put up with it longer but nope. Not happening with the pandemic stress + pregnancy physical stress + the lack of sleep from everything. We did an intense search and picked all the pieces within a couple of weeks, which is unheard of for us. It turns out having a hard deadline by which certain things must get done really helps us focus and make a final decision.
We had to spring for an air purifier. $$$. With the dozens of wildfires so far, our air quality has been in the bin all month and I was getting serious headaches from it even inside.
We also added shelving to a few of our rooms that were half finished. This ran another $350 – a small price to pay for additional sanity? Probably. I’ve been getting strong claustrophobia surrounded by so much disorganized stuff. I’ve always got an organize AND declutter mentality so we’re not just paying for more storage solutions for junk, but the stuff needed for a family of 3.5 humans and 2 dogs is a bit more than what I would ideally possess as a sole adult human.
And then I had to cough up some money for new clothes that would fit my very quickly expanding body. Once upon a time I would have hemmed and hawed and refused to “waste” money on being comfortable for several months. I have since revised my stance on that.
Seamus had two UTIs. It runs $200 per urine test to confirm what KIND of infection he has and what medication to take, and another $50 each round of antibiotics. We’re on Round 2. We’ll have to do another round of testing in October and we’re also treating an ear infection. My poor old guy.
Not spending
Don’t rightfully feel like we can put anything in this section but also partly because I can’t remember!
Oh yes, PiC discovered that we can get free wall anchors for furniture from Room & Board so he requested a few sets for the furniture we need to earthquake proof.
Giving
- Our Lakota families balance is creeping up! At $231.85, we’re getting closer to having enough to help our tenth family. Most of the current requests are for larger family’s needs, and so I expect we need in the range of $500 to fulfill a whole family’s needs.
- We gave to tight Senate races through ActBlue.
- We donated to We Need Diverse Books this month.
- Next month, I will send off our rural libraries money. I also need to get in touch with our local library to find out if they can take a mailed check donation for this year’s donation. We have several more donations to make on our list.
Saving and investing
- Since the rental sale is now complete *hooray! huzzah!*, we have transformed my headache investment into cash for investing. I set aside about 20% for taxes, then set aside the remaining 80% to sit for a bit. We will need to spend some portion of it for home maintenance, but I also want to make some measured decisions about where to reinvest.
- No surprise at all that savings account interest rates dropped to 0.60%.
- We are making some progress on our refi! I am really looking forward to seeing a lower monthly payment which means more of our payment can go to principal.
Net worth
It’s crept up a little bit, we’re halfway to our pie in the sky goal. This was a bit of a surprise considering the big ticket items we had to pay for but it was offset just in time with the cash from the rental sale.
I would prefer to hit that goal line at the top entirely on the basis of our investments but that particular line isn’t even half way there. I imagine that if we did reach that goal line, we could replace one of our incomes. We’d probably still need to work for a while yet after that but it would be reassuring to have the choice of being one income at some point.
I am still debating our long-term approach. It’s a blend between a projected 3% drawdown and living off the dividends. This could be a matter of doing two things, and doing neither of them very well.
On Life
Heat and smoke, and not just in our kitchen. I managed to burn myself with hot oil, boiling water, and cut myself deeply while cooking this month. But that’s nothing compared to the fiery devastation of the wildfires here in CA for the past several weeks. At last count, we came out of the weekend with 27 active wildfires.
Recipe experiments. It was a big month for testing out new recipes here. The urge to comes and goes so I try to take advantage when I can.
This slow cooker lamb curry (doubled the recipe spices minus curry powder and added spinach) would have been perfect with some salt. Next time I’m going to do half smoked paprika and half cayenne. I didn’t have paprika on hand and it brought the heat but not the depth of flavor I’d like.
I skipped the shallots and ginger in this ca kho (using catfish) and just used a spoonful of chili garlic sauce instead of the chili powder. It was just right. I’ll make more of this to freeze for later meals.
I should have linked to this easy baked ribs recipe when I last tried it. I just eyeballed the measurements last time so they came out too salty but I will strive to do better with the spice rub this time! I didn’t do BBQ sauce on them, I don’t think, the spice rub was flavorful enough.
Entertainment.
The Empress of Salt and Fortune, Nghi Vo (Amazon, Bookshop.org, Indiebound) SO well written, highly recommend. This review is spot-on: “An elegant gut-punch, a puzzle box that unwinds itself in its own way and in its own time. I cannot recommend it highly enough. Gorgeous. Cruel. Perfect. I didn’t know I needed to read this until I did.“–Seanan McGuire
The Bellmaker, Brian Jacques (Amazon, Bookshop.org, Indiebound) A comfort read!
Recipe for Persuasion, Sonali Dev (Amazon, Bookshop.org, Indiebound) SO well written, highly recommend. A nuanced Indian take on Jane Austen’s Persuasion, with complex family and cultural issues, but still somehow light enough to feel manageable in this moment.
The Sleeper and the Spindle, Neil Gaiman (Amazon, Bookshop.org, Indiebound) A twist on Sleeping Beauty. Bit of a comfort read more than anything.
