Like Monopoly Money in the Bank

www/gampeddler.com

I know several posts over the last year I've been saying I was finally going to finish the task to get my AdSense payout. This week it was accomplished. $316 into the bank! I must say, it was very satisfying seeing the little deposit show up. Never mind that I've been blogging for five years, so it amounts to $60 a year or just $5 per month, but a hobby that has given me so much enjoyment and new friends, buying me a cup or two of coffee, sounds like a win. 

DH's Met Life Statements came. This is the account we have set up as  life insurance and a retirement annuity. The verdict is still out on whether we got our money's worth compared to any other kind of investment with the same level of life insurance separately, but the cash value is about 2X more than the cash we've paid. I'm not sure why only his came, so we'll see if mine has increased proportionately. We also received a settlement at one point as part of a class action suit that determined that Met life hadn't adequately marketed the policy as a whole life insurance and more so as an annuity for retirement. While we knew full well what we were buying, we still received the stock payoff. This nets us about $250 a year in a cash dividend. We just tuck them into the bank with the rest of our money.

DH determined we are at the next level to cash in our VISA points. This periods earnings will be $500, a nice sum to apply towards Christmas gifts. As with the other payouts, we'll just deposit and most likely not treat as anything different-no wild nights on the town to blow the wad. 

All these little payouts feel a little like playing Monopoly. We roll the dice and occasionally land on Community Chest or Chance and a little perk is handed over. Like Monopoly, it seems like we equally have the payment cards as well. Fortunately, we haven't had too many of those that have caught us off guard. The timing may be slightly off, but we try and plan in our budget for those occasional items like license tabs for the car, office co-pays, or the extra birthday or retirement party. We've had a lot of those office co-pays in the last few weeks, plus new eye glasses and a new retainer for DD2. Fortunately, I still have enough in the medical flex account so will get reimbursed. Those are $500 worth of expenses that were covered with the $500 I could roll over from last year into this year. The other co-pays and out of pocket are coming for the amount set aside for 2019.

2019 is not turning out to be spectacular financially in either direction. Knock on wood, we'll keep humming along through December. With our slow and steady life style, we should continue to keep passing Go at the end of each month, hopeful the $200 is enough to offset the bad Chance cards.