The Weight of Money

My time in the personal finance community grows, my bookmark list grows to greater and greater lengths, my personal preferences evolve. I’ve gone from devouring everything I can find and reading every tip and suggestion to searching for the personal connection in finances. In congruence with my preference to talk money with peers, I want to see and read those same conversations in other sites as well.

Thanks to my time in the personal finance community and the many fiscal achievement in the past few years, I feel secure with my finances and when making financial decisions. The security leads to wanting to focus on the connection with other personal finance writers on a personal level. I want to see their personality shine through their writing and hear about the challenges they faced due to personality characteristics while reading about their financial successes and strategies.

I’m moving away from reading sites that mostly focus on tips, strategies, and suggestions because I can no longer see the person in the personal finance. I’m also going to be sure that my writing keeps the personal in personal finances.

Sometimes you need to vent your concerns and then take a step back. Today was the first day at the new job and it lived up to my worst nightmare. I spent almost an hour contemplating walking out the door and never returning. Then reality slapped me and I realized it was my fault the day wasn’t going well; I set myself up to dislike the job and wasn’t giving it a fair chance, nor was I acknowledging the positive aspects of it.

Right now, I’m delighting in the fact that it took me 13 minutes to get home. I’m home early enough to greet the daughter as she gets home from school and early enough make some yummy pork chops for dinner. Tomorrow, I’ll be prepared for a positive experience and will back off developing too many opinions.

note: Yes, that’s my desk in the photo with the shared office printer sitting on it – that printer has got to go somewhere else.

I posted our goals for 2007 and include a stretch for saving $1,200 a month for the purchase of a house later this year. This was to combine $700 in direct savings and $500 in ebay sales. I figured the ebay portion would be the stretch, but we’ve already hit a snag 15 days into January.

Last month we were on budget until the partner and I started stroking checks for magazine subscriptions – most for several year subscriptions. This was more his thing and I just happened to be holding the pen at the time. However, this plus some organization dues (that we’ll be reimbursed for) threw us over budget by more than $500.

Also, as I’ve recently mentioned, we’ve had another round of car trouble to the tune of $350. This time it is the partner’s van that blew out a brake line while going in for the semi-annual emissions testing. Our repair shop must be liking us a lot right now, almost $800 in a little over a month.

So, January’s available funds are short by about $900. I’ve scrutinized all our budget categories and just there is nothing we can reduce spending; everything has already been slimmed down to the bare minimums.

I know that the best plan would be to trim back on our new savings plan to avoid increasing credit card debt and get back on track, but I’m not ready to take that step. Instead, I’m going to take a major leap of faith and hold to our steep savings plan despite the crunch we’re under.

My only real action plan is to push the ebay button very hard this month in the few weeks we have left. We need the $500 for savings and another $500 to help ease the deficit. Considering that the ebay income is less than $100 at the moment, this will take some serious work. Our upcoming vacation is also going to put another kink in sales too.

The remaining $400 shortage will be carried over to February. Thanks to how we manage our finances, we can spread the $900 out over two months to help ease the strain and get back on track.

This comes one month before our finances will really get tight. Next month we’ll be seeing less money coming home because 1) my new job is part-time, 2) medical insurance premiums increase, and 3) the partner signed paperwork for 5% contribution to the 401K since the company began offering matching funds (working out to a 4% raise – free money).

For now, I’m going to have faith that this will work out and that we must keep with our planned savings contributions because dropping the ball in round one jeopardizes our overall success.

Tomorrow is the last day at my current position with an organization I admire. Wednesday will be the first day at my new position with some reservations. This is mostly just my initial reflection on the workplace change and a much needed break from my impossible to do list. I’ll get into the money issues next week when I’ve had time to consider them.

I work for an organization that I can truly believe in and know that they are making a positive difference in the field of education – my field of interest. In leaving this office and finding a place closer to home, I knew that I would have to compromise on my high standards in terms of morals and values. I’ve found a place that is not-for-profit and is in a field I’ve never considered working in – health care. Initially, I rationalized that this was close enough to doing good in the community, but my heart isn’t behind it 100%. But, I’ve taken the job anyways because it is clearly much better that working for Defense-Widgets-R-Us.

In reflecting on the workplace logistics, my concerns are increasing. I’ve accepted a part-time position to help me have more time at home with my family. However, I’ve be work 30-32 hours a week; every full-time position I’ve held has had a 35-hour work week and this isn’t really part-time to me. Also, their holiday and leave policies are the worst that I’ve ever encountered. Finally, they are a huge corporation of 20,000+ employees with all those annoying policies and procedures that come with the staff numbers.

I’m starting to feel a little overwhelmed by my choice and am wondering if maybe my compromise is be closer to home will actually be more difficult that I originally thought. But of course, I’m not going somewhere that is out just to make a buck. Health care is an important field in terms of community and helping others, but I’m just not feeling happy, go, lucky about it all just yet.

In a recent post, I mentioned crossing a major hurdle at work. I forgot to mention the upcoming one that was equally difficult and time consuming. After the end of this week, I will have my time back and be able to catch up on all the writing and reading I want to do.

However, life beyond work is simply transitions to sleep right now. Oh how I look forward to having a little less stress in my day.

Look for upcoming updates on a continued car saga, challenging employment questions, double-take on benefits, december recap, 2006 overview, and goals for January.

This of course, will also come in conjunction with some major budget changes and some positive notes to sing.