DH Got a New Job!

I'm so proud of my own prince today. After months of waiting today I am happy to announce DH accepted an offer for a new and exciting job!

His salary will increase by over 20%! And they're giving him $8,000 in company stock, three weeks of vacation a year and a guaranteed annual bonus worth 12% of his salary. They also match 7.5% of his 401k contributions. It's almost too good to be true!

He starts in two weeks!!

Also I'll just throw this in here as well. We recently combined finances. It was long overdue to be honest and it makes things a lot simpler. Hopefully I can post our new budget soon. I'm going to have to get used to budgeting monthly. Luckily just as we started doing this our budget suddenly got bigger thanks to the new job. We're motivated to working together as a couple to pay off debt and save for our future.

Another Pension Update

I have some good news about my progress on obtaining credit for the time I worked before joining the pension system.

Luckily it didn't take the pension people five months to figure out what my buyback costs would be as they predicted it may.

Not so luckily is that I forgot I would have to pay interest on the amount owed. That, plus finding out there's an outstanding balance of $67 that my employer was supposed to pay on my behalf but didn't brings my new total owed to $824 (not $660 like I predicted). I guess that's only fair considering that money had I paid it initially would be sitting in the state's pension fund gaining interest this whole time. I'm just glad I got off my butt and started this process now, not ten years from now when the interest would have been astronomical. $800 now means 8 less months of working before I can retire!

It turns out I was right that I could pay this money with pretax dollars (yay!). So I signed up to begin payroll deductions of $45 which will pay the balance off in 17 pay periods, just in time for my new vesting date of September 14, 2011 - only 290 days to go!

Trading Vacation Days for Cash

First: a warning. I know I'm going to sound like a whining whiner who whines, but I realize this and write anyway.

One of the great perks about my job is the generous amount of paid time off I get. And a lot of this time can be carried from year to year and used for a dream vacation, a maternity leave, or cashing out at retirement. I currently have 16 vacation days saved and that's after taking nearly three weeks off for my wedding and honeymoon in July. I accrue a new vacation day every two and a half weeks (or 4 weeks a year to be exact). On top of that I get a week of Personal time come January 1 of the new year. And I have 28 sick days accrued. There's more (overtime) but I'll stop bragging.

Anyway, I've always really appreciate this about my job and the fact that we aren't discouraged from actually using our time like so many Americans apparently are is something I don't take for granted. Sure, time off has to be approved but I've found as long as it's not during our crazy busy time of the year it is usually approved.

So when I got a notice saying that I could exchange 3 vacation days for $500 towards my my share of the health insurance premiums, I had to think about it.

First, I did the math. I make $1861 a pay period pretax. Out of that amount, $110 is taken out pretax towards my health insurance premiums for DH and I. $1861/10 = $186 a day x3 = $558.

Then, I thought, it's not like I'm actually earning more money if I'm working three more days a year for it. In fact, after taxes this will only net me like $10 a year if I consider the extra time worked. And isn't a vacation worth more to me than $10 a year?

I told all this to DH. He said I was using fuzzy math and I should take the money. When I pointed out that I could save up a lot of time for a potential two week African Safari in 2012, he told me there was no safari in our immediate future. :-(

Bubble bursted, I submitted the form to H.R. today.

I still want to go on that safari though, but DH is right that we have other financial goals we need to focus on instead.

Sorry lions.

Where it Went 10/13 - 10/26

Boo for this budget report. Not fun "boo" as in ghosts and Halloween but boo as in "boo hoo, I''m broke" or "my boo boo costs what?!"

After declaring I was gonna go out and spend some money, well, spend money I did. Then...I had a bit of a health scare, resulting in the following charges:

Urgent Care Center co-pay - $20
E.R. visit co-pay - $70
Prescriptions (including those not related to the health scare) - $20.
Grand Total = $110, which puts my total health care expenses at $180 in the PAST TWO WEEKS if you count the random $30 I owed my OBGYN.

Seriously boo to all of that. The Emergency Room is definitely a spooky place to spend your Saturday. And I don't even know if I will be charged a co-pay for my followup appointment today. Plus I went out and got some OTC things to help with my condition after the appointment. (Note that expenses today don't count towards the budget report, it's just aggravating.)

Anyway, the good news is I'm okay. And really considering opening up a Flex Spending Account since open enrollment season is coming up.

So here's where it went:

Projected/Actual

Sallie Mae - 407/407
Defaulted Student Loan - 260/260
Sprint - 74/74
Health - 60/180
Event Tickets - 60/60
Charity - 30/50
Groceries - 100/100
Clothes - 150/0
Misc. - 144/289




Booooo! Totaling everything up is scary. A lot of the miscellaneous is household stuff as I went on a kick of sprucing up our condo. But reality has set in and I'm done with shopping sprees for now. And I didn't even get any clothes!!!

I was able to earn $50 for consenting to take on another court assignment. I'm excited that these are coming in more frequently now as I definitely enjoyed spending the last $500 I earned. There may be more news in the area of additional income soonish so stay posted.

Where it Went 9/29 - 10/12

The great news about this budget report is that I was able to bring in $500 in additional income from a court assignment I received. The good news is that I paid off A LOT of debt.

The not so good news is that I also spent more money than I had planned, partly due to the windfall. And the bad news is that I still have a big credit card balance mocking me. I'm just gonna put this out there as I've sort of been evasive about the amount in the past month as I've been trying to attack it: I have $2700 in credit card debt. There I said it. It was actually quite a bit more a month ago. It's "only" at 8.9% interest rate but it's pissing me off and I want it gone as soon as possible.

So without further ado, I will show you how I spent my paycheck plus my windfall the past two weeks:

Budgeted/Actual

Credit Card - 700/700

Law School Loan - 200/434

Perkins Loan - 94/94

Health - 65/100

Gift - 60/60

Misc. - 167/180

Beauty - 0/59

Clothes - 0/198

Yeah yeah, I know. It's pretty bad. If I hadn't overpaid the law school loan so much I would have had money for the clothes. AND if I didn't have such a high credit card balance to work off I would have had money for both the loan AND the clothes. I just really wanted to use the windfall towards erasing debt and it did to a certain extent. Look for a big student loan announcement later this week.

Also I showed up at a doctor's appointment to find out that my health insurance decided not to cover my flu vaccination. What the heck? Luckily I think I am going to be able to reduce my prescription co-pays going forward so that will help a bit. It's also open enrollment time for Flex Spending Accounts so I am looking into that as well.

If all goes according to plan, I can have the credit card paid off by the end of the year. Wish me luck!

2010 Financial Goals Checkup

Happy Fall everyone! The weather is getting cooler and things are finally slowing down for the newlyweds - at least for now. We spent three out of four weekends in September at home - which is sort of a record for us the past five months. At work I'm experiencing the "calm before the storm" and expect things to pick up significantly in the next couple of weeks.

And in a few days a six week period of family birthdays start up, including most likely the birth of my parent's first grandchild (I'm gonna be an aunt!), Thanksgiving and then the winter holidays.

But for now, I have a moment to reflect on the financial goals I set for 2010. Here's how I'm doing:

1. Get married without going into debt. Pass. We achieved this goal - however we did not save up enough money for the honeymoon and pretty much depleted our financial reserves which we're working now to build up.

2. Increase 457 contribution. Pass and Fail. I did increase my contribution for most of the year but lowered it when we decided it was more important to max out Roth IRAs.

3. Max out Roth IRAs. Fail. We're pretty focused on debt repayment right now but I'm still optimistic we can do this by April.

4. Buy Back Pension Credits. In progress. I just submitted the paperwork to do this last week.

5. Eliminate Law School Loan. In progress. The balance stands at $634 and hopefully will be down to zero by the end of the year.

So that's how I'm doing so far. I also changed my beneficiary to DH on several of my accounts.

Budget 4/28 - 5/11

I am crossing my fingers that my wedding dress arrives in the next two weeks (oh please go back to that post and read some excellent troll comments!).

Ticker update alert - with today's contribution I believe we have just over $5000 left in the Wedding Savings account. We're just about on target with our wedding savings with under three months to go.

Personal training has been going well too, though I'll have to scale back my sessions to once a week instead of twice of week due to money and time constraints. A month of intense training gave me the foundation I needed to work out on my home and was, in my opinion, money well spent. It's tough to stay motivated every.single.day but with a lot of hard work, I have seen some results.

I am also anxiously awaiting the busy time at work to be finished - we all are - but right now it seems everything is in such a state of flux that there's no telling what will happen. My workload has doubled and while I am getting tons of hands-on experience, it's hard to juggle three projects at once. Last night I had a dream about my boss! (Not that kind of dream I swear, but he bought me mozzarella sticks....weird, right?)

Anyway, enough non sequitor, let's get to the budget!

Starting Balance = $1261

100 - Credit Card
500 - Wedding Savings
93 - Perkins Loan
80 - Law School Loan
100 - Groceries
90 - Health*
140 - Personal Training
157 - Misc

*I'm pretty frustrated with my insurance company. They never tell me I owe them anything at the appointment and then I get a phantom bill in the mail several weeks later (still directed to my old address even though I moved six months ago and have told them that). Anyway, today I sent a check for my $25 annual dental deductible and have another $20 to pay for labwork. I finally found my checkbook!

Where it Went 3/31 - 4/13

Personal Training is going great! I have lost ten pounds in three weeks!* And inches too. I'm feeling pretty good even though it's really hard work and the diet is kicking my butt.

*Note that it's only healthy to lose about 2 pounds per week and my trainer wasn't expecting that much to happen so quickly so I have to be careful I'm getting enough calories and don't hurt myself, etc.

Expect a longer post today about the final stages of wedding (budget) planning but for now here's an accounting of my budget for the previous pay period:

Budgeted/Actual

Personal Training - 280/220
Perkins Loan - 93/93
Law School Loan - 80/80
Credit Card - 0/200
Groceries - 75/0
Health - 45/40
Wedding Savings - 580/580
Misc. - 163/140

In other news, I learned an expensive internet lesson: just because something looks awesome on a web site doesn't mean it will look awesome in person. Sigh, have to return a too expensive dress I bought to wear to my shower but at least I'll get my money back!

And since I was having too much fun with my April Fool's Day post, I neglected to mention that it's been a year since I've been at my "new" job. Woohoo! Hopefully this means I will be seeing a pay bump soon.

March Savings Madness

Wow, it's March! Which means the wedding is only a little over 4 months away. Yowser! My fiance and I sat down and wrote out the remains of what we need to pay for and how we're doing in our current wedding savings and it's time to step it up.

Which brings me to the March Savings Madness.

In the month of March, I, Sallie's Niece, will save $2000 for the wedding.

You may be saying "but Sallie, you only get net $2400 a month and have $925 in monthly debt obligations, however will you accomplish this goal?"

Well, a few ways:

• I still haven't gotten my state tax refund, which brings me to a tax related conspiracy theory but I'll save that for another day. Assuming it comes this month that's $184 towards my goal.
• It's a three paycheck month! So I can divert almost $1000 of the "extra" paycheck towards the wedding savings.
• I got some extra work! Almost a year ago, I wrote about a court case I was assigned to, which sadly only netted me $50 at the time. Well it's finally ready to go to court so I get the remaining $500 of my statutory fee!
  

Plus my regular savings and a bit of belt tightening, I am confident I can reach this goal. Wish me luck everyone!

Where it Went 1/06 - 1/19

I'm 30!!!!!!!!! I celebrated my birthday last weekend with my fiance and some friends. It was a nice, low key evening and luckily all my fears of "getting old" quickly faded into the background. I don't know why I was so focused on a number.

Anyway, I'm in the midst of my busy season at work, getting a little bit behind on wedding planning, trying to get in better shape and dealing with some health and family issues. Such is life at 30 I guess!

But here's where my money went for the past two weeks compared to the budget I set:

Budgeted/Actual

Credit Card - 100/150

Groceries - 75/90

Sallie Mae - 407/407

Defaulted Student Loan - 260/260

Nice Collection Agency - 125/125

Sprint - 73/73

Misc. - 236/214

And I finished the pay period with about $102 to roll over, which is good because my birthday commands a hefty $350 payment to the state court administration (boo!) in order to remain a licensed attorney.

Of miscellaneous, at least $60 was spent on health care co-pays (boo) making me kick myself for not starting a Health Savings Account during the open enrollment period. Oh well.

In other news, my fiance got a promotion!!! Yay, I'm so proud of him. And it came with an extra week's vacation as well as a $5000 raise! He's the youngest one in his company to have made it this far. I guess success is one of the perks of getting older, though his 30th isn't for a few more months (yes, I'm a cougar).

Six Months at the New Job!

Today marks six months since I took my new job. I wouldn't say the time has flied by but I'm happy nontheless to reach this milestone, especially since it comes with a pay increase!

When I first got the job they told me my new salary would be $47,500 but that statement turned out to be slightly off. My starting salary was $47,000, which was $3400 more than I was making when I left my old job. Now with a 3% cost-of-living increase, my salary is $48,410. Overall this represents an increase of $6,410 more than I was making when I started my old job in May of 2008 and $9,077 more than when I started my first job after law school in September of 2006.

And luckily due to the way things work in my position, my salary will continue to rise in the years to come. After I have been here for two years (18 months to go!) I will earn around $55,000. I can't wait until my salary is more than $50,000. Even though it's close now, being in the 50's just seems like a lot more money than the 40's. Do you know what I mean?

It feels great to be in a job where I have some security with (almost) guaranteed pay increases on the horizon.

Thanks to the handy calculators at Paycheck City, I was able to figure out that this raise amounts to about $30 more per paycheck. Sure that seems like a small amount, but it also means I will be contributing $100 more per year to my 457 retirement plan.

Budget 9/02 - 9/15

A lot less wiggle room for me to get in trouble with in this budget. I am going to send a money order to the city court and get the process of renewing my license rolling. And I need to pay $34 ($17 each) for my fiance and I to attend my office picnic. Seems like a waste to me to pay $17 to eat corn on the cob and chat awkwardly with people who don't work in my division (or worse, the ones that do!) but I don't want to seem like I'm not a team person AND if you attend you get the day off. And I'm taking the fiance since he's dragged me to enough of his work functions.

So here's my budget for the next two weeks. We're going to a festival over Labor Day weekend so I've made sure to include sufficient walking around/buying a churro money:

Starting Balance = $1246

Sallie Mae - 407

Defaulted Student Loan - 260

Nice Collection Agency - 125

Driving Ticket - 135

Office Picnic - 34

Groceries - 75

Festival - 100

Misc. - 111

Bye bye money. I'm looking forward to the festival. I didn't spend so much at the last one we attended but then again we were in a camper as opposed to a tent so we had more supplies with us. I'll try not to spend too much but I'd rather be pessimistic this time instead of underestimating my spending again. Anything I manage not to spend I can throw towards the wedding savings.

I got a cost of living pay raise!

Happy news to really make me appreciate my newish job: we are all getting a cost of living adjustment of 3%! That's right, just as my own cost of living has decreased, I'm going to have a bigger paycheck. According to my calculations on my go-to paycheck calculator site, paycheck city, my new paycheck will be about $30 bigger after taxes and retirement contributions.

Incidents like this at work illustrate the difference between the public and private sectors. According to my research, the inflation rate has actually decreased since last year. Yet due to an agreement tying my pay to the pay negotiations by the public employee's union, we get a raise. Oh Happy Collective Bargaining!

And the best part, the raise is retroactive...meaning I will get a lump sum in tomorrow's paycheck of 3% of my pay for the past few months since I started the new job.

17+ Years Til Retirement

So I know I've posted recently about how my new job isn't as great as I originally hoped it would be. I've had a couple of nice conversations with some of the Old Guard in the past couple of days which makes me think it will get better though. Also, there's always the light at the end of the tunnel, retirement statements.

I just got my retirement statement and I'm still trying to figure it all out so what better way then to post about it?

According to my statement, I joined the Retirement System in April, 2007. While that is technically true, I have credited service going back to September, 2006. What this means is sometime between now and retirement I have to buy 8 months of service from the system. When I do this, hopefully in the next two years, I will be on track for a retirement date of September 2027! Woohoo, I'll only be 47 years old then!

Actually, damn, I just reread that part about how your benefits are reduced if you have less than 30 years of service...but they're a lot better after 20. I don't know, the wording is really vague. Must do more research. (I've posted about my retirement system before if you want a little more background.)

My account balance (3% of what I've earned since joining) is currently at $2,433.22. This would be what I get back from the system if I leave before I vest. It isn't much but it's good to know. I earned a whopping $83 in interest this year too!

Death benefits! Yikes! In case of my untimely demise, my younger siblings stands to inherit my ordinary death benefit of $43,260 plus my contributions to the retirement system. As long as this figure is less than $50k it's tax free. That's all well and fine but let's hope he never needs to know about it.

My fiance and I love to talk about our hypothetical early retirement plans, maybe moving to the islands and working "fun" jobs. In the meantime we plan on keeping our noses to the grindstone.

Oh wait, there's also my 457 retirement plan. This program is optional and I'm glad I joined because making my savings automatic (coming directly out of my paycheck before I can touch it) has proved the only successful way I have learned to save money. And look how well my funds are accumulating compared to the last time I posted about it? What recession?

All in all I am learning to appreciate my job just a little more.

My New Job Sucks!

Where have I been? Inquiring minds want to know. Well the answer is working and unlike my first impression, my new job is not all it's cracked up to be.

First, the money. My paycheck is still being lagged so I am making LESS than I was at the old job despite the fact that my salary is technically more.

Second, the rules. For some reason I am now obligated to tell my receptionist every single time I have to use the bathroom, grab a soda or go to lunch. And when I come back. Despite this, my new boss glares at anyone that dares to leave the office for even a minute. Well not everyone....

Third, the double standards. Due to a weird office layout, dumb luck, or my perceived incompetence, my cubicle is in Siberia. Everyone in Siberia is exiled from the rest of the office where the non-stop office party takes place. They have a fridge, breakfast treats, a couch, chats, etc. But God forbid anyone from Sibera dares to intrude on the fun! Blank stares, dead expressions, the fun literally is frozen if you stop by ("what, do I smell?").

Next up is my "mentor." She sits in the non-stop office party and if she is on the phone and you come by her cube (trekking all the way from Siberia!) she will turn her head the other way and pretend she doesn't realize you are there (never mind the fact that she summoned you). But if she dares come to your cube and YOU are on the phone she will just stare at you until you end the conversation. She comes equipped with such motivational phrases of "I don't know why we do it this way," and "this is good enough I guess."

The last and very best of it all is the Newer Girl! She just started last week and through some freak happenstance (or my percieved incompetence?) she was placed in a cubicle right in the middle of the non-stop office party! No Siberia for her. She gets to hang out on the couch and socialize with everyone else.

The work itself is okay. Just every day is a lesson in humility. I am getting very frustrated and just wish my co-workers had some basic human decency.

I'll try to post more about money tommorow (it's budgeting time again!) but I can't guarantee I'll be in a better mood by then. :-(

I'm Floursing at my New Job (and so is my plant)!

Three weeks have gone by at my new job and I'm really loving it! For the first time in a while I have been excited to go into work! And yes, sure, there are times when it can be tedious and all the stereotypes about office life are there - especially since I'm now sitting in a cubicle instead of my own office (sigh). But I really think that this position is a place where I can bloom. And much to my parents' delight, I now have an official legal position as opposed to my less traditional title in the last office. "A lawyer at last!" they proclaim - just in time for them to publish my Engagement Announcement in the paper. Coincidence?

Shtinkycat recently wrote about her late blooming flower and what it means for the market (a great entry!) so I'm going to borrow this concept to explain my career progress as demonstrated through my little office plant.


I got this little guy a few years ago when I first started my last job. It was a gift from my ex-boyfriend and it's actually sprouts from a larger plant. It sat in my office window for a long time and although the leaves turned red a bit, it never really grew. Still I brought it along to my new job because I liked it and there was no way I was leaving it at home to my destroyed by my cat.

Wouldn't you know that a mere week in the office and the plant has sprouted up so much! Like me, it is very content with the new light and finally has somewhere it can grow!

Does anyone know what kind of plant this is by the way? I am so dense when it comes to these things.

Call Me Justice Niece

A while ago I signed up to be a court-appointed attorney, trustee or guardian. I figured it would be a good learning experience and would also help bring in a little money on the side. I had almost forgot about the application - friends of mine told me it operates very much on a crony system where I live and not to expect anything for a long time.

I learned yesterday that I have been appointed as a referee in a mortgage foreclosure case. Admittedly I know very little about what a referee is but I think it's similar to an arbitrator. I guess the mortgage crisis has one positive side - an excess need for attorneys.

I'm very excited to learn more about this process. Obviously I won't be able to post anything about the case but I will tell you how much it pays as soon as I know. I think I am supposed to keep track of the hours I spend on the matter and will be reimbursed at a rate of my choosing...maybe $100 an hour, sweet! Wish me luck!

Last Day of Work

So today's my last day at my current job. I've got all my stuff in boxes. I've copied over all my personal files and deleted the rest. I'm saying goodbye to the people I've worked with for 2.5 years, many of whom will be out of work tomorrow.

It's a very bittersweet time for me. I'm excited to be moving on. Relieved to still have a job. At the same time I have a big case of survivor guilt. Gifts and well wishes are being exchanged and I've gotten a whole lotta of "good luck" comments. I don't really know what to say to the people who are out of work. I should be stopping by the farewell "party" at the bar this afternoon but probably just for a little while to pay my respects.

I wish I could take a few of my coworkers with me and I hope that they will land on their feet.

In the meantime, wish me luck tomorrow on my first day at the new job. April 1st, hope that's not a bad sign.

It's Spring!

I apologize for the lack of posts. Work has been really depressing. I haven't told anyone that I have a new job because I feel so bad that most of my co-workers are being laid off. In the meantime everyone (like me) who has no more personal time left comes into work everyday and does little to no work.

I only have to last two more days. I feel really bad and anti-social. Everyone wants to commiserate but I just stay out of it. Today they removed our vending machines which just sucks in so many ways.

On a lighter note, I've been picking up some new work clothes. My parents said they would send me some money for this cause but no luck yet, my budget will have to be adjusted to reflect this change. My new position is more formal and requires me to be more visible than I'm used to. Instead of the person on the phone or sending emails I get to meet with live people...yay for my career, bad for my budget.

I'm going to the season's first bbq tommorow which makes me infinitely happy. It's not warm out just yet but it's getting there. Makes me realize how much I need a new light jacket, something like this one. It's not in the budget just yet but hopefully soon. I'm very grateful to have a new job to look foward to.

Have a nice weekend!

My New Salary is....

$47,500, an increase of $3900 per year over my current salary!!! Hey it's not much considering I have to work longer hours and some weekends now, but I'll take it gladly thankyouverymuch.

According to the handy paycheck calculator I used online, I will be netting $128 more a paycheck, for a total of $256 a month (more in the glorious three paycheck months like this coming April). That takes into account my pension (3% of my salary) and my continued participation in my 457 retirement plan (7% of my salary).

The fiance and I were talking last night trying to figure out the strategy for my newfound wealth. There's the wedding to think about. The student loans. Retirement. Emergency fund. Cash savings. New professional clothes. Yikes, so many things are happening at once!

We need to save about $5000 by this summer in order to pay some deposits. Photographer. Band. I think that's about it for now. My folks will pay the reception venue deposit. We opened an account in his name (that I'll have access to) in order to merge these savings.

Oh and did I mention I still have to move? Finding a new tenant for my apartment is currently the biggest wrench in our savings plan but hopefully that will happen soon. Worst case scenario I continue to pay rent for the remaining 4 months of my lease.

I'm also going to be getting a check in about a month or two cashing out my unused vacation time (now at about 54 hours = $800). I think I am going to lump that all into our Wedding Savings.

Stay tuned for more progress bars - though I am so enjoying seeing them mostly completed for the time being.