Money & Life Report: September 2026
October 7, 2026
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, cash back sites (Rakuten, Mr.Rebates) and affiliate links to Bookshop and Amazon sometimes pay a micro-commission to keep the blog running. The sidebar has ways to support the blog and our charitable giving.
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 $ in dividends from the stocks portfolio.
Bing changed their earnings thingie and now we can only earn between 170-250 points a day, but if we complete certain activities on their app, we can get a monthly bonus. Last month I bothered with all the things, so at the start of this month I reaped a 4500 point bonus, roughly about 13% of a 32500 point redemption. I wish we could redeem for Costco gift cards but that’s not an option.
Spending
I bought more: lanterns for power outages. Pants for JB who outgrew their sweats but didn’t tell me because they didn’t notice. Medical supplies for their leg. Dinner with a friend and their family. I need to buy some DoorDash gift cards from Costco in advance to bank against the occasional delivery order.
Not spending
We were averaging takeout about twice a week when the work stress was at the highest. We’ve been slowly doing more cooking (from scratch, me; veggies and mains from Costco prepared stuff, PiC) so that it’s once a week or less.
Giving
We have worked really hard and been very fortunate that our hard work paid off in significant ways that I only dreamt of when I first started this blog. Though we have not reached our FI number where I can feel like all income is gravy, we’ve always felt it was important to lend a helping hand. Many people say they’ll give back later, when they’re financially set. I say that if we don’t practice and prioritize giving now, we won’t give later either.
We donate to organizations that help people and animals in need and do direct aid.
The Lakota Giving Project is year-round now and we always welcome donations to support Lakota families. See how you can help at the link.
We took care of a family battling hantavirus. They asked for household cleaning and hygiene supplies. I was able to fulfill their list and added some food as well.
The coordinators had messaged: “Food is in short supply and there is no help to be had.” I’m working on checking for a way to get bulk supplies to the community rather than just to one family but if we can’t do that, then I’ll supply a family.
Update: They were able to find someone willing to do the heavy lifting on the recipient end so I put out the call, here, on Bluesky, through friends on Mastodon, and emailed my regulars. We had a good wave of contributions, and I set to ordering food and supplies to help them divide the pantry foods. To give you a sense of the need, he organized the large first shipment and invited 10 families to come get what they needed. Everything we sent went in one afternoon.
A week later, I did a second extra large order and it’s taken the better part of two weeks to track it all down and make sure it all arrived. This was an attempt to get a week or two of food to every household. Final call on that pending once the person I’ve sent it all to gets the second lot organized and distributed. It’s a ton of work on his end. He had to drive 100 miles RT to get some of the failed deliveries. He also plans to drive out supplies to more rural folks who won’t be able to get over to the gathering place. This comes at a time when gas is absurdly expensive – so I’ve sent him some gas money and One Spirit is matching it.
Saving and investing
I’m holding steady in the accumulation phase and mild to moderately disheartened by the fact that the growth in the past two years has likely been unduly inflated because of the largely artificial AI-related uplifts – there’s a lot of betting on a future outcome that isn’t assured at a very high cost to society and our environment. IF we could excise that, and I don’t know if that’s even possible, I don’t know where we’d be.
Net worth
I’m slowly breaking up this reporting into what matters and makes sense for my use rather than just a giant aggregate. The total net worth matters less to me now than the brokerage and retirement savings totals. I do care that we stay up on the net worth from the POV that that’s better than under, but aside from assurance that we can cover our debts, that particular line is not terribly meaningful.
I’m looking at the brokerage (before age 59.5) and retirement accounts as the two buckets we’ll need to draw on eventually. Sooner than later? My need for a break and a healing from the burnout makes that a really big question mark. My problem is, I can keep myself busy sixteen ways to Sunday but they’re all ways I’d spend money (helping folks, volunteering, helping critters). Not a single thing on my want to do list (and I’m definitely keeping one) is a thing that earns money.
On Life
Reading. BIG month for reading. 11556 pages! Not all of them were good pages but they were read.
The 10 issue Domino run Gail Simone wrote (2018-2019) is probably the first time I’ve read an all Domino run and it was a hoot and a holler. I didn’t know her full origin story and it, as most of them do, sucked.
Jessie Mihalik, Silver & Blood; The Queen’s Gambit, The Queen’s Advantage, The Queen’s Triumph; Polaris Rising, Aurora Blazing, Chaos Reigning; Honor and Shadows, Hunt the Stars, Eclipse the Moon, Capture the Sun; Books & Broadswords.
Jessica Townsend, Nevermoor, Wundersmith, Hollowpox. – I wasn’t sure if I liked this series at the start because I figured something out before the reveal and I never do that, but subsequent books are pretty good.
T. Kingfisher, Daggerbound. Always good, obviously.
Ilona Andrews, Iron and Magic, Magic Bites, Magic Dreams, The Inheritance
Sarah Beth Durst, Sea of Charms
AD Bell, The Bookbinder’s Secret, The Bookbinder’s Code (not out yet)
John Wiswell, The Dragon Has Some Complaints. TOO well done, honestly. Really good read.
Leonie Swann, Three Bags Full – DNF. I wanted to know the ending but not enough to get there, by the time I got 2/3 of the way through.
Grace Draven, The Undying King.
India Holton, The Ornithologist’s Field Guide to Love. It could have been fun but I wasn’t in the mood for that type of fun.
:: How was your month?