Ask Sherry: Investing during COVID, Closet Rental, Excel Skills and Little Bun

You asked, and I am answering every Friday once I have enough questions!

You can ask any question using the form here.

What do you think of closet rental services such as Rent the Runway? Are they worth the money? Great motivating blog for working women–keep it going! 🙂

Thanks!

I think this is a great idea for one-time event dresses, like going to a wedding or something where you want to wear something nice but don’t want to pay for a $500 dress you’re not likely to (or won’t) wear again.

I don’t really do events, like black-tie, or weddings but I’d absolutely use this service if I did/could.

I was wondering how and where you learnt you excel kung fu?

I am self-taught.

Are you still putting money into index funds during covid times? If yes, what % of your cash will put into index funds?

Yes and no. I usually do it with leftover money after buying dividend stocks. I can’t tell you what % of cash, I don’t know. I just have an emergency fund for 3 years, and I am slowly draining that by putting all my side income into investing.

I find it so interesting that you son is so grown up in some ways (he can read, do math, reason, etc) but also that he is quite child-ish (I mean – obviously he is a child lol) in others

– like you having to get his milk and spoon out yogurt for him and feed him his pasta. I’m wondering if you think that the areas where he is childish is a reflection of his ability to do those tasks but you and your partner not wanting him to (like he’ll maybe make a mess) or if it’s because you don’t think he’s ready for those tasks?

He will make a serious mess. He is 100% ready for all of these tasks, and helps us wipe cutlery down, do laundry, and even now is excited about putting his bowl in the sink after eating, and so on.

We have yoghurt in glass jars that are very big (even I find them difficult to open without a rubber glove for traction), and heavy to hold. He wouldn’t be able to spoon yoghurt out onto a bowl, not to mention that all of our bowls are high up in the cupboards for the most part, along with cutlery.

As for feeding him pasta — I don’t spoon feed him.. not sure where you got that. I prepare the bowl of food for him by getting the pasta into a bowl, warming it up in the microwave and adding cheese (he would add the whole bowl of grated cheese in there if he had his way), and he feeds himself.

I ask because since lockdown I think I’ve realized that one of my friends is complaining about how much work something is like for example having to wash and put away dishes 3x a day…and I’m thinking “you have three kids with tiny hands! Make them do some of the work!” but I realized part of it is that she doesn’t want to change her systems (like putting her kids dishes in an easy to reach drawer so they can empty the dishwasher right into the drawer, or get their own bowls to put food into).

Yes that is partly us. I don’t want to put bowls down at his level because it’s not practical for us. I’d rather just wait until he is older to get his own food and so on. Even opening the fridge is a bit difficult for him, as it has a serious vacuum seal on it.

In the meantime, his motor skills are fine – both gross and minor. He can handle all he needs to handle, and doing it himself in the future is not an issue.

I have three kids -7,5,3- and I know it’s faster and easier if I do things myself but then I think “These freeloaders need to start pulling their weight around here!” And, you know, it does work. Like, yeah, there are messes but we can clean them up (we have nowhere else to be and not much else to do) and they are learning to do stuff like scrubbing the dishes.

Anyway, I’m curious about your thoughts on this!

I give him tasks he can do — like helping me carry dirty laundry or dumping it into the machine, then throwing in the bag of soap nuts, and then I start the washer (it’s high up).

Then I get all the laundry out and he helps me put it into the dryer, and add the wool dryer balls, then I start the dryer.

Then, we do all the laundry together – he separates my and his clothing, he puts his stuff away, and helps me fold towels, etc.

He also enjoys vacuuming. We will vacuum together but it is obviously too heavy for him to do on his own, so I handle it and let him steer / hold the button down, or we do things like clean the bathroom by wiping the sides, floors, and cleaning on hands/knees.

He also likes (as I mentioned), wiping down cutlery, and putting away what he can reach that has dried on the counter like Tupperware lids.

Can I make this work making less than $28,000 per year?

Make what work? I have no point of reference here.

Still have a burning question?

You can ask any question using the form here and all of my previous Ask Sherry posts are here.