January 3, 2023

Money & Life Report: December 2022

Net worth and life update: Image of nest with 5 blue blackbird eggs.

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.

***

Dividend income. We received $400 in dividends from the stocks portfolio.

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December 6, 2022

Money & Life Report: November 2022

Net worth and life update: Image of nest with 5 blue blackbird eggs.

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.

***

Dividend income. We received $916.56 in dividends from the stocks portfolio. There are two times in the year that the dividends are this big, and this is one of them. Gives a real false sense of income security coming into the holidays!

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November 1, 2022

Money & Life Report: October 2022

Net worth and life update: Image of nest with 5 blue blackbird eggs.

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.

***

Dividend income. We received $216.40 in dividends from the stocks portfolio.

*****

Many Californians should be getting a Middle Class Tax Refund between October 2022 and January 2023. Whatever we get will come in useful.

I’m getting ready for a lean start of the new year. Traditionally our income is always much lower in the first half of the year thanks to pre-tax contributions. Why did it take me so long to finally remember this is a pattern?

Now that I DO remember, I’m trying to stash some cash ahead of the turn of the year.

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October 4, 2022

Money & Life Report: Sept 2022

Net worth and life update: Image of nest with 5 blue blackbird eggs.

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. There are ways to support the blog and our charitable giving in the sidebar.

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.

***

Dividend income. We received $384 in dividends from the stocks portfolio.

*****

I will be getting a decent raise this year. It’ll help reduce the pain of daycare. Not that daycare only comes out of my paycheck. We pool our income and everything comes out of the one pot. It’s just the money pot is feeling the squeeze of higher prices everywhere plus daycare. Every bit of income helps.

*****

I finally won my battles with the IRS! They finally correctly calculated my tax rate for my long term cap gains and are coughing up the last $41 they owed me. I’ve had the bulk of the money since last October, but hesitated to deposit the check because it’d throw off my account balances and I wasn’t sure if they would issue a check for the difference or if they’d stop payment on this check and issue a new one. The latter solution wouldn’t make much sense but it’s the IRS and they don’t make much sense. I didn’t want to take any chances. So the big check has been deposited, yay! The last $41 should be coming in 4-6 weeks. ::skeptical face::

Update: they paid up! Woo!

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September 6, 2022

Money & Life Report: August 2022

  • Net worth and life update: Image of nest with 5 blue blackbird eggs.

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. There are ways to support the blog and our charitable giving in the sidebar.

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.

*****

Dividend income. We received $909.36 in dividends from the stocks portfolio.

*****

JB gets McDonald’s once or twice a year and this year’s Happy Meal treat came with a bottle of spoiled milk. I gave them a chance to make it right, but they didn’t, and so I went to charge back that portion of the meal. It’s the principle of the matter: we paid extra for the milk even! But Citi is a terrible card issuer in terms of customer services. After four tries, I went back and followed up very firmly with the management. After four weeks, and several follow up calls, they coughed up a $25 Visa gift card. I’m still irritated with Citi but that just reminds me why I must prefer using American Express. I’ve never had any trouble using their services when there was a problem with the merchant. I used the card to buy diapers.

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August 2, 2022

Money & Life Report: July 2022

Net worth and life update: Image of nest with 5 blue blackbird eggs.

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. There are ways to support the blog and our charitable giving in the sidebar.

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.

***

Dividend income. We received $214 in dividends from the stocks portfolio. All reinvested.

*****

PiC’s company did a compensation evaluation and decided they were underpaying large swaths of employees and bumped up their salaries. Turns out he was one of them. Bummer that he’s been underpaid for the past who knows how long but yay for the out of cycle increase now.

I wasn’t surprised he’s been underpaid. He changed jobs in the middle of the pandemic and there’s been a lot going on with layoffs and suchlike. Despite being married to me, he’s never been in a situation where negotiating his salary was possible versus my consistent and persistent self advocacy for raises and promotions through the years. There’s an irony in that I’ve very actively grown my career at every step and I still don’t make as much as he does. I’ve been in a quiet competition all these years trying to beat his salary.

Anyway, I’m glad the dust has settled enough that they’re bringing people up to standard. As usual, I’ll take this opportunity to bump up our savings rate a bit to assuage my guilt over our spending.

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July 5, 2022

Money & Life Report: June 2022

Net worth and life update: Image of nest with 5 blue blackbird eggs.

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. There are ways to support the blog and our charitable giving in the sidebar.

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.

***

Dividend income. We received $270 in dividends from the stocks portfolio.

We recycled 5 ink cartridges to earn $10 in Staples rewards. That brings our rewards total to $30.70. That $0.70 is just going to keep on rolling over for a while since we don’t buy a lot from Staples regularly. I wonder if they will expire after 6 months… Ah ha: “Unissued Rewards will expire at the end of the following calendar quarter, unless a qualifying purchase is made.” I suppose I can just keep them alive with a periodic purchase if I actually need something. Otherwise those rewards under $5 will just expire. JB is obsessed with Staples now, btw. PiC took them to run errands for me and they’re obsessed with ALL THE OFFICE SUPPLIES 🤩😍🤩 Just like me. We are absolute suckers.

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