Category Archive

I get so impatient with my goals. I decided having an emergency fund of $15,000 was important to me, but it isn’t an exciting goal. Once I reach $15000, what do I get to do? Feel secure that I have a nice sum of money in the bank? While that gives me peace of mind, it isn’t exactly thrilling. It’ll probably take me more than the rest of 2008 to accomplish this goal!

From here on out, it’ll be as boring as auto-depositing an allocated amount into my account each month, then updating the sidebar by similar quantities each month. No more tax refunds, no more reimbursements for moving, no more signing bonuses. I know that making it simple and automatic is good, but I’m convinced I would thrive on more complicated and involved process! Slow and steady is BORING!

I just feel like there isn’t a lot for me to do towards these goals, other than just try to do well at my job in hopes of a promotion this fall. I have about 7 months to earn a promotion, and I still am having a lot of self-doubt about how well I will be able to do this job. I know in my last job my manager was much more impressed with me after 18 months in than he was at 6 months. It is hard to come up to speed and become a valued team member in just 6 months, at least in this particular job. I might be able to do it, but I might not. I’ll certainly try. If I don’t get a promotion in late fall, then the yearly salary reviews are in February.

Wasn’t this personal finance stuff more fun when I could at least count on my retirement portfolio to actually increase in value?

The tortoise and the hare fable talks about how slow and steady wins the race. But if the stinkin’ hare would have just been steady, he would have won. Fast and steady will win over slow and steady any day!

I got a mysterious $760 deposit into my checking account today!  Ok, so not so mysterious–the number looked like the amount of relocation reimbursement I was waiting for.  I assumed that it would go through payroll, which it did not, though I did get some tax information on it last week.  I did some checking and it is indeed my relocation money–about half is reimbursement for a hotel and car rental that I put on my personal card, and the rest is per diem expenses during the move process.  Since money during the move was borrowed from the efund, this money will be going straight back into savings.  Sidebar updated!  If I had only not increased my efund goal yesterday, I’d be 94% of the way there!

This makes me feel like my reimbursement for the interview is lost in the corporate vortex, as it was filed about a month before I filed this paperwork.  I filed it before I was an employee and I have no idea where it went.  Ooops.  Poor organization on my part.  It was probably about $100 for various meals and some gas.  Perhaps I can try to do some checking on that….

I also have roughly $200 in rebates from my cable company that I’m not convinced will ever show up, and a $100 rent.com gift card that I’m fairly sure will eventually (I got one for my last apartment).  If they do show up, they will also go into savings.

Payday tomorrow!  Payday is the highlight of my financial life!