Last week, JD at Get Rich Slowly had a great post about finding the balance between time and money. As someone who’s working incredibly hard to get out of debt, I know that struggle too well. Last Saturday, I went to my hometown to visit with my parents and attend a family party. Everyone was talking about what they were doing for Easter. My grandmother asked me if I’d be coming to Easter dinner, and I sadly had to say no, I couldn’t come because I had to work.
I miss a lot of family parties. My Sunday shifts at the inn mean that I can’t attend birthday parties, or christenings, or anniversaries. I can’t go to Easter dinner. Missing these times with my family is hard. My grandparents aren’t going to be around forever, really no one will be, and it hurts to think that I’m missing spending valuable time with them now. At the same time, I don’t really have much of a choice if I want to get out of student loan debt before I’m 35. And I really, really want to get out of student loan debt by the time I’m 35.
I wish I had the financial stability to have only one job so that I could see my family whenever I wanted to. Having more than one day off per week would be nice, too. I’m still young, but all this working is starting to get to me. Not only do I work a full time job plus Sundays at the inn, but I also often pick up cover shifts for my co-workers at the inn during the week from 5-10 after I’ve already worked a full day at my other job. Not to mention the emergency phone, which starts to get busy this time of year with heating/cooling complaints; I had my first one at 12:30am this morning. It would be great to have just the full-time job, but I don’t think I can afford to do this for a few more years.
I hope I’m making the right decision, and that I haven’t died of exhaustion by that point.
Showing posts with label work. Show all posts
Showing posts with label work. Show all posts
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
What I did with my bonus this year
On Friday I received an annual performance-based bonus in the amount of $6,000. Well, let me rephrase that: On Friday I received roughly $3,500 of my annual performance-based bonus, with a little over $2,000 going to taxes (*tears*), and the rest going to my 401k (gotta love those automatic pre-tax deductions).
I was originally planning to put the entire bonus towards my Roth 2010 fund, which would have nearly maxed it out, leaving me with less than $200 to deposit for the rest of the year. When I thought it through, though, it thought it would be nice to also put some money into my other savings accounts, combining this with my usual mid-month savings deposits. Here's how I broke it down:
$3,000 into Roth 2010 fund. This leaves me with a little over $600 left to deposit this year in order to max out this fund.
$300 into Downpayment fund. I'm still about two years away from maxing out this fund, but once the Fun Fund and Roth 2010 fund have been maxed out, I can throw more money in here each month
$300 into Emergency fund. My emergency fund will be maxed out before the year is over; I'm going to make it my goal to do this before I move out of this rent-free apartment
$100 into Fund Fund. I should get this maxed out next month - woo hoo!
I love saving, but I will do at least one fun thing with some of this bonus money. C recently started a new job at his company, and I'd like to take him out to a nice dinner to celebrate. I also need to add some new clothes to my wardrobe - I can't even close my dresser drawer anymore, it's so full of old clothes that I don't even wear anymore. I haven't really made any major clothing purchases since last February in Fort Myers, so I'm due. I need some nice casual skirts that aren't from college (no joke) and another solid pair of jeans that look and fit great. I'm planning to keep my eyes open for sales to see if I can pick some of these items up at a greatly reduced price.
In other news, I also got a 5% raise last week. This breaks down to roughly $40 per paycheck, after taxes. I haven't figured out what I'll do with the extra ~$100 per month. I thought I'd put it into savings, but now I'm thinking of paying an extra $50 towards my highest interest loan each month, and putting the other $50 into one of my savings funds. I also have close to $500 coming my way in the form of a tax return, which I'm thinking of throwing entirely at my Roth 2010 fund. Decisions decisions...
I was originally planning to put the entire bonus towards my Roth 2010 fund, which would have nearly maxed it out, leaving me with less than $200 to deposit for the rest of the year. When I thought it through, though, it thought it would be nice to also put some money into my other savings accounts, combining this with my usual mid-month savings deposits. Here's how I broke it down:
$3,000 into Roth 2010 fund. This leaves me with a little over $600 left to deposit this year in order to max out this fund.
$300 into Downpayment fund. I'm still about two years away from maxing out this fund, but once the Fun Fund and Roth 2010 fund have been maxed out, I can throw more money in here each month
$300 into Emergency fund. My emergency fund will be maxed out before the year is over; I'm going to make it my goal to do this before I move out of this rent-free apartment
$100 into Fund Fund. I should get this maxed out next month - woo hoo!
I love saving, but I will do at least one fun thing with some of this bonus money. C recently started a new job at his company, and I'd like to take him out to a nice dinner to celebrate. I also need to add some new clothes to my wardrobe - I can't even close my dresser drawer anymore, it's so full of old clothes that I don't even wear anymore. I haven't really made any major clothing purchases since last February in Fort Myers, so I'm due. I need some nice casual skirts that aren't from college (no joke) and another solid pair of jeans that look and fit great. I'm planning to keep my eyes open for sales to see if I can pick some of these items up at a greatly reduced price.
In other news, I also got a 5% raise last week. This breaks down to roughly $40 per paycheck, after taxes. I haven't figured out what I'll do with the extra ~$100 per month. I thought I'd put it into savings, but now I'm thinking of paying an extra $50 towards my highest interest loan each month, and putting the other $50 into one of my savings funds. I also have close to $500 coming my way in the form of a tax return, which I'm thinking of throwing entirely at my Roth 2010 fund. Decisions decisions...
Monday, March 9, 2009
Working for the Weekend
This weekend was rough. I had to go into work at the full-time job all day on Saturday to attend a conference we were holding at the office. It was especially painful because it was a gorgeous day and I had to spend it indoors listening to people talk about math - ugh! Then, yesterday, I wound up having to work the morning shift because my co-worker got the schedule messed up and thought she was working at night instead of the morning. Since I live the closest (you know, through a door in the office...) and I was working at night anyway, they asked me to come in for an abbreviated morning shift. It was nice to get out early, since it was a really nice day once again, but working in the morning (which I haven't done in over a year) combined with daylight savings really threw me. And it means, once again, that I didn't get a weekend. I'll get a comp day from the full-time job to make up for coming in all day Saturday, but I think I'm going to hang onto it until next month, since I just got back from vacation. I thought about taking today off, but then my boss gave me her broken laptop to have fixed today, so I have to go into work. Oh well.
Monday, February 23, 2009
Sick - again!
This is absurd. I rarely get sick. I took one pre-emptive sick day last year because I felt a cold coming on and wanted to rest up and avoid it. That was it. The last time I was sick before that was December of 2007.
Now, in the span of a few weeks, I get struck with a terrible cold twice. UGH! This is so frustrating. I'm going on vacation later this week to beautiful sunny Fort Myers, Florida - I don't want to spend my vacation blowing my nose and coughing like a maniac on the beach. Not to mention on the flight - I don't want to be that guy.
I worked a full day today, but let my bosses know that I'm taking tomorrow off as a sick day. Even if I'm feeling somewhat better, I think just getting a good night's sleep and some relaxation will help. I'm pretty sure that I caught this cold from some of my fellow office-mates and innkeepers, as both sets of co-workers have been passing a cold around lately. I guess that's the downside to having two jobs: double the cold and flu exposure. I also worked over thirty hours at the inn last week (not counting the late night shenanigans getting the hot water pump fixed last Tuesday night after pulling a double office/inn shift). Actually, between both jobs, as of this evening, I've put in73 hours of work since last Sunday without a day off. This isn't something I normally do - I was covering shifts for another innkeeper who was on vacation, hence all the extra shifts, but I really didn't expect it to hit me like this. I guess this is my body's way of telling me I need to slow down and get some rest. But I was planning to do with my week's vacation, damnit - why couldn't my body just hold up for another two days?? :\
Now, in the span of a few weeks, I get struck with a terrible cold twice. UGH! This is so frustrating. I'm going on vacation later this week to beautiful sunny Fort Myers, Florida - I don't want to spend my vacation blowing my nose and coughing like a maniac on the beach. Not to mention on the flight - I don't want to be that guy.
I worked a full day today, but let my bosses know that I'm taking tomorrow off as a sick day. Even if I'm feeling somewhat better, I think just getting a good night's sleep and some relaxation will help. I'm pretty sure that I caught this cold from some of my fellow office-mates and innkeepers, as both sets of co-workers have been passing a cold around lately. I guess that's the downside to having two jobs: double the cold and flu exposure. I also worked over thirty hours at the inn last week (not counting the late night shenanigans getting the hot water pump fixed last Tuesday night after pulling a double office/inn shift). Actually, between both jobs, as of this evening, I've put in73 hours of work since last Sunday without a day off. This isn't something I normally do - I was covering shifts for another innkeeper who was on vacation, hence all the extra shifts, but I really didn't expect it to hit me like this. I guess this is my body's way of telling me I need to slow down and get some rest. But I was planning to do with my week's vacation, damnit - why couldn't my body just hold up for another two days?? :\
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Working from Home
My cold has only gotten worse, but since I've been out for two weeks I really can't afford to miss a day of work. So, I asked my boss if I could work from home today. He gave me the OK, so here I am on my lunch break in my pajamas on my couch, but I get the feeling that people assume "working from home" means slacking off and not actually doing work. In reality, both times I've asked to work from home, it's been because I was extremely backlogged on the kind of work that's really hard to get done in an office setting, such as reading stacks of development and market reviews, or hand-proofing a manuscript. Neither of these activities requires me (or anyone else) to be physically located in an office. In fact, being in an office makes it a lot harder to devote the kind of concentration these tasks require for a long period of time; sitting in a thin-walled cubicle in a high-traffic part of the office with constant interruption by co-workers makes it hard to pay attention to anything longer than an email. Here at home, it's quiet (comparably), and I can read through a stack of reviews in a couple of hours. I can also listen to music as I work without having to worry about annoying the person on the other side of the cube, or having to wear headphones all day. Although I'm not important enough for a company laptop, I can check my email from my home computer, and work on creating or editing documents (which I send a lot of time doing in the office).
I have my annual evaluation coming up, and I'd like to ask my boss for permission to have the option of working from home once a month so that I can stay on top of this kind of work. I'm not sure how to broach the subject, though; I don't want him to think I'm try to get a free day off every month.
I'm kind of surprised my company doesn't already offer some kind of alternative work week, like a 4-day work week, or giving employees the option to work from home one day per week. I think it would save a lot of money and raise morale, which has been pretty low lately.
I have my annual evaluation coming up, and I'd like to ask my boss for permission to have the option of working from home once a month so that I can stay on top of this kind of work. I'm not sure how to broach the subject, though; I don't want him to think I'm try to get a free day off every month.
I'm kind of surprised my company doesn't already offer some kind of alternative work week, like a 4-day work week, or giving employees the option to work from home one day per week. I think it would save a lot of money and raise morale, which has been pretty low lately.
Monday, January 5, 2009
Back to Work Blues
After two lovely weeks off from the full-time job, I returned to the office today feeling kind of sad. I'm grateful that I have a job right now, in this economic climate, but it was really great to enjoy some time off to relax. I had resolved to return to work with a positive attitude, but certain circumstances made that difficult.
In preparation for the week ahead, last night I had brewed a pot of coffee to put in the fridge for the week (I strongly prefer iced coffee to hot, so I make a batch each week and store it in the fridge - I save over $10 a week doing this instead of hitting Dunkin Donuts every morning). Or should I say, I attempted to brew a pot of coffee after my innkeeping shift...however, I forgot to put the filter piece back into the coffee maker, so what actually happened was that the coffee maker spit hot water and coffee everywhere, and I had to clean all of the disgusting hot coffee grounds out of the machine at 11PM. I couldn't fall asleep until 1 or 1:30, so I only got about five and half hours of sleep. Then, as I was leaving my apartment this morning, I took two very hard spills onto the ridiculously icy sidewalk. It really hurt, but I guess I'm lucky I landed on the most well-cushioned part of the human body. Unfortunately, I landed on the same spot both times, and I can't sit down without experiencing severe pain.
After two weeks off, my body is now used to getting 10-12 hours of sleep per night, so the limited sleep I got last night did not cut it. In fact, I think it may have killed my immune system -- by the end of the day, I had come down with a pretty bad cold. I haven't had a cold in almost two years! I'm planning to go to bed nice and early tonight and hope that I feel better in the morning. Hopefully the rest of the week goes more smoothly than today did.
In preparation for the week ahead, last night I had brewed a pot of coffee to put in the fridge for the week (I strongly prefer iced coffee to hot, so I make a batch each week and store it in the fridge - I save over $10 a week doing this instead of hitting Dunkin Donuts every morning). Or should I say, I attempted to brew a pot of coffee after my innkeeping shift...however, I forgot to put the filter piece back into the coffee maker, so what actually happened was that the coffee maker spit hot water and coffee everywhere, and I had to clean all of the disgusting hot coffee grounds out of the machine at 11PM. I couldn't fall asleep until 1 or 1:30, so I only got about five and half hours of sleep. Then, as I was leaving my apartment this morning, I took two very hard spills onto the ridiculously icy sidewalk. It really hurt, but I guess I'm lucky I landed on the most well-cushioned part of the human body. Unfortunately, I landed on the same spot both times, and I can't sit down without experiencing severe pain.
After two weeks off, my body is now used to getting 10-12 hours of sleep per night, so the limited sleep I got last night did not cut it. In fact, I think it may have killed my immune system -- by the end of the day, I had come down with a pretty bad cold. I haven't had a cold in almost two years! I'm planning to go to bed nice and early tonight and hope that I feel better in the morning. Hopefully the rest of the week goes more smoothly than today did.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
