Stacking Pennies . . .

I was clicking along through TaxAct, and it asked if I'd made any contribution to an Health Savings Account (HSA) this year. It instructed me not to include employer contributions or contributions made by my employer through a cafeteria plan. I thought, "why yes, I did make contributions. My salary was reduced by $1500 this year, and it went into my account." Cafeteria plan? I pictured my workplace cafeteria, and wondered how they were involve in health care. I never ate there, so that probably didn't apply to me.

Uh....

I later noticed that my $1500 was double counted as a deduction. I looked up "cafeteria plan" and realized that was exactly what my HSA was funded through! Ooops. I had selected my benefits from a "menu" of choices, thus it was a cafeteria plan. Ohhhh, I see! Why don't they just say what they meant?!? I corrected it, and my refund fell by several hundred dollars. Still, I haven't received any tax information from my HSA administrator, so I suppose I should wait to file until I get that. Which doesn't make sense to me, because those distributions were tax free anyway. Why would I even need to report them?

To be honest, I'm not certain I filed my 2006 taxes right with regards to my HSA. I got a lonely form that looked suspiciously like a tax document sometime in March, long after I filed my taxes. I do know that I paid the right amount: Money taken from the account is tax free and my contributions were pre-tax. Simple. I just don't know if I documented it right.

Also, I moved to California this January and I obviously entered my current address on my tax return. TaxAct helpfully assumed I would need a CA state return in addition to my Iowa one. I had to click through the entire California state return for it to figure out that I didn't owe any taxes here for 2007, nor do I have to file a return.

Well anyway, I'll hold off a week on officially filing them, and if nothing shows up from my HSA, I'll give them a call.

Projected refund is about $1000 total. I owe the state $200 and the federal government owes me $1200. Oh sure I'm giving the government a tax free loan, blah blah blah. Assuming a 5% return in my savings (which isn't likely these days) I missed out on $50 of interest, which would have been taxed anyway.... And now I have $1000 that I did not spend and can use to replenish the e-fund. It is already back to about $8500, so another thousand will boost it quite close to the 10k goal.

While filing my taxes using TaxAct, I clicked on a pop-up that gave me tax tips for 2008. One interesting suggestion that had was to own a home.

A Real Tax Shelter
Purchasing a home is one of the best tax shelters available. The interest and points that you pay for the purchase are deductible as itemized deductions. The property taxes that you pay on the home are also deductible as itemized deductions. Best of all, when you sell the home, you probably will not need to pay any tax at all on the gain. There is no other investment that can provide the tax advantages like home ownership.

Though it was a friendly little tip, it got me thinking and got me a little mad. Why is does owning a home provide such great tax benefits? (Deductions for dependents is another story.... But raising kids is ridiculously expensive so this doesn't bother me much.) Is it fair? If so, why is it fair? Do most developed countries do this? Where did this idea come from? Of course, popular belief is that the main reason is to encourage people to own homes. It is the American Dream. But why? Why does the government want to encourage home ownership for everyone? Why am I seen less favorably because I'm priced out and relatively uninterested in locking myself to a property?

How about another viewpoint? The New York Times says that is simply a nice "American folk legend: the government invented the mortgage-interest deduction to help people buy their own homes, and the level of homeownership has risen ever since." The real story, they claim, is much less middle class friendly. It stems from the government originally having all interest as deductible, which was really intended to help business. The average American didn't have a mortgage (or credit card) and wasn't paying interest in the first place (can you believe that!), so interest was a business expense and therefore deductible. Later this broad rule was changed, for obvious reasons, but the mortgage interest stayed (for less obvious reasons.) Further, the author claims tax is actually regressive with "the rewards are greatly skewed in favor of the moderately to the conspicuously rich." Wow. This is stuff I'd never heard of before. I will stop myself from regurgitating the whole article, but it is a great read!

So, how much of an impact does this really make on me anyway? I assume if you own property, you must itemize deductions. I generally take the standard deduction. What kind of itemized deduction would someone on my salary with property get, assuming my rent is equal to their housing expenses? It would be an interesting exercise. The more expensive the house, the bigger the difference.

Ho much impact does it make on the government? A lot, actually: "The mortgage-interest deduction. We all love the deduction for home-mortgage interest. But renters and those who own their homes free and clear get nothing. Cost to the government: $402.7 billion." That number is from 2006.

If most people are deducting mortgage interest, why can't I deduct anything for my rent? There is interest and taxes built into the price of my apartment. Is someone else taking those deductions for me? Actually, a few states do allow a small tax break for renters, based on the fact that we indirectly are paying someone else's property taxes. In California, it is only for senior citizens with low incomes. Yet you can deduct interest on mortgages values over $1 million.

What can a renter do? This article suggests deducting student loan interest (which saved me a couple hundred this year) or a hybrid car deduction (can't afford a hybrid). For some reason, I don't feel like that evens things out at all. Apparently all I can do is write my congressman or buy a house.

What do you think? And is your view skewed by the fact that you either do or do not own property? Is it possible that eliminating this deduction could actually benefit the majority of people?

I get paid tomorrow (yes, on Thursdays) and finally was able to view my paycheck online. Though I only am being paid for 40 hrs instead of 80 this period, they did process my signing bonus in the first check (yes!) so I finally have some money to work with. They got all my direct deposit stuff set up in time (nice work!). I have it split between three different accounts, checking, short term savings (insurance, travel, car) and a long term savings (e-fund, maybe house/condo fund one day). I still may have to transfer between these, but this should minimize that. Make savings automatic!

I'm still not ready to finalize a budget, as I'm not certain what my take home pay will be. I tried to figure out exactly how much I'll be paying in taxes each month by taking total taxes paid divided by total gross pay in this check. I came up with about a 39% tax rate! Yikes, that can't be right! Google tells me that taxes on bonuses, while calculated as normal income, are withheld at a different rate, up to 40%. Well, that makes more sense! Good to know.

Is it logical to just use 25%, my marginal tax rate? Then again, what about FICA, Social Security, etc? If I do that, I come up with about $1700 after 401k and medical or $1500 if I go all the way up to 20% in my 401k. It isn't likely I can live off the $3000/month, at least not if I want to grow my cash savings. Though the way some people dream about buying a house, I dream about maxing out my 401k....

My 401k still isn't ready for me to enroll. I hate when systems are not automated enough. My last job I could enroll in my 401k on the first day (through Fidelity). It has been a full week and CitiStreet still isn't recognizing my user ID. When I called the number to ask if this was normal, I was told "Please listen carefully as options have recently changed." Then, there was a single ring, then silence. More silence. I was never given any options! I hung up and tried again, only to have it happen again. I pressed all the numbers and was directed to an operator who could not help me unless I "went through the system and entered my PIN" (which I did!). He suggested waiting another week, or trying the number again. Lame.

I was going to go hang out with the boyfriend tonight, but I think I'll cancel. He has a lot of school work, and I have needed to do laundry for at least a week. This will give me time to start working on yesterdays to-do list. First up, taxes!

I have some major financial housekeeping to do within the next month (or maybe two months). With switching jobs and moving 2000 miles, I feel like everything is a mess! It is time for some clean-up.

Taxes: Self explanatory! I did start them on TaxAct, but got distracted.

Retirement Accounts:
Well, first, I assign myself some homework. I've had "Random Walk Guide to Investing" hanging out on my bookshelf for months. I need to read it. I also want to re-read Jonathan's series at MyMoneyBlog.com about asset allocation, and look for other good internet information. I need to consider rolling over my old 401k to an IRA or even to a Roth IRA. I want to at least consider moving my Roth from Fidelity to Vanguard. I need to get enrolled in my new 401k ASAP, and contribute at least 8% to get the match.

Emergency fund: I want to get it back up to 10k, then evaluate if I need to increase it further due to increased costs. It briefly hit 10k before Christmas, but has dwindled to just over 7k (!) in the move process. Well, 1k went to the Roth to kick off 2008 so it isn't so bad. This should easily be taken care of if I simply apply the relocation allowance and signing bonus. Also, I want to investigate moving it from HSBC to something better.

Actually implement plan to buy car insurance. I have to do this soon, because I have get my car registered in my new state. It's just... I recently designated an ING accout to save up for bi-yearly insurance purchases... but so far I've only stuck $25 in it! Ug.

Figure out a reasonable budget. Having scaled back income and paying two rents for a month has totally messed with my head. I have no idea what I can afford, what is a splurge, and what I absolutely shouldn't be buying. So I'm just guessing. . .

Rebates, rebates, rebates: I need to send in rebates for my cable service, my internet service ($50 each), and for my modem (about $80). Then I need to sell my modem online, since it turns out I didn't even need it! After that, I might cancel cable since I haven't been watching it at all.

Set some 2008 goals: It's been hard to do with so much up in the air.

Well, I feel a little better just writing it all down.....

I'm thinking it is (way past) time to add a blog roll to this site. If I've ever commented on your blog, that means I read you and probably will be adding you to the list of blogs I read anyway. But perhaps I have a reader or two whose blogs I have not yet discovered. I have a special interest in twenty-something females, particularly unmarried ones, because I relate best. But of course, I do read all sorts of blogs!

If you want to be added, you can comment on this post, or send me an email. I can be reached at SJean0 (and that is a zero, not the letter "O"). I use Google for my mail.

I also need to update my sidebars and goals to be current. I like writing, but the backend part of blogging is so unappealing to me. I have a mini-dream of getting a prettier site (wordpress?), but it seems like a lot of work. I also don't think that I can justify shelling out the cash to pay someone to figure this out for me... So I will do it myself, eventually!

Also, if you do read my blog, please consider adding me to your blogroll if you have one and if you feel like it. Thanks!

I feel like I'm being scammed out of my money left and right!

I signed up for cable service online (because I do everything possible online) and followed the clear instructions on the web page to obtain a cable modem before the cable guy came. There was a promotion for a "free" modem, after rebate, which turned out to be about $20 with shipping and tax (after rebates... which are always a bit sketchy to redeem).

Yesterday the cable guy set up my internet and TV, and started installing a cable modem from the company. I said I had one already, and would not be needing to rent one from the cable company (as that is how it often works.) He told me that there was no rental, the modem was part of the service.

I am still fuming about this, a little. (Ok, a lot, if you ask my boyfriend.) Why would they tell me I needed to buy a modem when I didn't? Now I have a modem that put almost $100 on my credit card bill for the month (which I pay off, of course) and two rebate forms to fill out and hope get credited to me. What a hassle!

I looked up the modems on Amazon (I'm not very ebay literate, but i should probably check out ebay too) and I can probably sell my new modem for at least $35, even if I cut off the upc to get the rebate. In theory that is a small profit, but it is a bit of a hassle to do all this.

I'm super annoyed that they convinced me to buy a modem I didn't need!

Also, as mentioned in my last post, I ordered some transcripts from my undergraduate institution. I ordered that two official transcripts be sent to the graduate university I am applying to. Yesterday I received two transcripts at my home address, clearly stamped with "issued to student". I didn't need or want these. I can only assume they didn't send any to the university. Now I have to call them and find out what happened. I hope I don't have to pay $12 to have them do this again!

Last, I sent my laptop in for repair in early December, and they sent it back with a note that the battery had failed. It was still under warranty, so I called them and asked why they didn't replace the battery. They said, "Hmm, I'm not sure! I'll send you a new one!" Which they did, along with a box for me to send the broken battery back in. In the meantime, I moved cross country and the old battery and box are long gone. Vanished! They just sent me a letter requesting that I return the part, or they will bill me for it. I assume a battery is around $100. Ouch.

This battery incident is primarily my fault (though they could have just replaced it when they had my laptop), but still annoying. I can see why they make people send in defective parts, but I'm going to call them and see if there is any flexibility in this policy. I don't have high hopes, but it can't hurt to call, explain the situation, and ask if they really have to bill me for a new battery. I've had mixed results with companies forgiving things like this, but it never hurts to ask.

I am frustrated that my money is disappearing for these things. Granted, they aren't really scams (except maybe the modem promotion), but I'm not getting anything of value out of them.

I just completed my first week at my new job, and will get paid next week. Let me just stay, I can not wait!

Work, so far, is horribly boring. I know it will get better, but they haven't exactly fit me into a program, so I've just been chillin' and doing a LOT of online training. But I'm a hard worker, so it is frustrating to just be sitting here, when I know all my friends at my last job are working their butts off.

By the way, applying to graduate school is expensive. I was accepted to a pretty good school at my last job (usually ranked about 30 or so in my major), but I now have access to a degree from top ten university. They will accept 2 of the 3 classes I have taken, and are on a quarter system, so I will be done with my M.S. degree more quickly. It will be a lot of work, but a better education overall. It will also help my resume out, as my undergrad institution is relatively unknown. My current company will pay for pretty much everything, including books.

In order to apply to the new school, I have paid:
-$60 application fee
-$24 for 2 transcripts from my previous grad school
-$12 for 2 transcripts from my undergrad school

I have opted NOT to send transcripts from my study abroad university (too much of a hassle, probably only about $15 plus international mail) and not order official GRE scores ($20 or so). Still, it is easily $100 a school to apply!

They will eventually be reimbursed to me, as long as I remember to file for it once I've completed my first class. My fees for the previous school I applied for were also reimbursed (and the GRE fee), so I am fortunate. But had I gone to grad school right away, I'd be facing these costs as a poor college student. That just seems wrong, but there aren't many ways around it.

This is one of many reasons I am really excited for my paycheck. Thank goodness for a healthy savings account!

I was clicking along through TaxAct, and it asked if I'd made any contribution to an Health Savings Account (HSA) this year. It instructed me not to include employer contributions or contributions made by my employer through a cafeteria plan. I thought, "why yes, I did make contributions. My salary was reduced by $1500 this year, and it went into my account." Cafeteria plan? I pictured my workplace cafeteria, and wondered how they were involve in health care. I never ate there, so that probably didn't apply to me.

Uh....

I later noticed that my $1500 was double counted as a deduction. I looked up "cafeteria plan" and realized that was exactly what my HSA was funded through! Ooops. I had selected my benefits from a "menu" of choices, thus it was a cafeteria plan. Ohhhh, I see! Why don't they just say what they meant?!? I corrected it, and my refund fell by several hundred dollars. Still, I haven't received any tax information from my HSA administrator, so I suppose I should wait to file until I get that. Which doesn't make sense to me, because those distributions were tax free anyway. Why would I even need to report them?

To be honest, I'm not certain I filed my 2006 taxes right with regards to my HSA. I got a lonely form that looked suspiciously like a tax document sometime in March, long after I filed my taxes. I do know that I paid the right amount: Money taken from the account is tax free and my contributions were pre-tax. Simple. I just don't know if I documented it right.

Also, I moved to California this January and I obviously entered my current address on my tax return. TaxAct helpfully assumed I would need a CA state return in addition to my Iowa one. I had to click through the entire California state return for it to figure out that I didn't owe any taxes here for 2007, nor do I have to file a return.

Well anyway, I'll hold off a week on officially filing them, and if nothing shows up from my HSA, I'll give them a call.

Projected refund is about $1000 total. I owe the state $200 and the federal government owes me $1200. Oh sure I'm giving the government a tax free loan, blah blah blah. Assuming a 5% return in my savings (which isn't likely these days) I missed out on $50 of interest, which would have been taxed anyway.... And now I have $1000 that I did not spend and can use to replenish the e-fund. It is already back to about $8500, so another thousand will boost it quite close to the 10k goal.

While filing my taxes using TaxAct, I clicked on a pop-up that gave me tax tips for 2008. One interesting suggestion that had was to own a home.

A Real Tax Shelter
Purchasing a home is one of the best tax shelters available. The interest and points that you pay for the purchase are deductible as itemized deductions. The property taxes that you pay on the home are also deductible as itemized deductions. Best of all, when you sell the home, you probably will not need to pay any tax at all on the gain. There is no other investment that can provide the tax advantages like home ownership.

Though it was a friendly little tip, it got me thinking and got me a little mad. Why is does owning a home provide such great tax benefits? (Deductions for dependents is another story.... But raising kids is ridiculously expensive so this doesn't bother me much.) Is it fair? If so, why is it fair? Do most developed countries do this? Where did this idea come from? Of course, popular belief is that the main reason is to encourage people to own homes. It is the American Dream. But why? Why does the government want to encourage home ownership for everyone? Why am I seen less favorably because I'm priced out and relatively uninterested in locking myself to a property?

How about another viewpoint? The New York Times says that is simply a nice "American folk legend: the government invented the mortgage-interest deduction to help people buy their own homes, and the level of homeownership has risen ever since." The real story, they claim, is much less middle class friendly. It stems from the government originally having all interest as deductible, which was really intended to help business. The average American didn't have a mortgage (or credit card) and wasn't paying interest in the first place (can you believe that!), so interest was a business expense and therefore deductible. Later this broad rule was changed, for obvious reasons, but the mortgage interest stayed (for less obvious reasons.) Further, the author claims tax is actually regressive with "the rewards are greatly skewed in favor of the moderately to the conspicuously rich." Wow. This is stuff I'd never heard of before. I will stop myself from regurgitating the whole article, but it is a great read!

So, how much of an impact does this really make on me anyway? I assume if you own property, you must itemize deductions. I generally take the standard deduction. What kind of itemized deduction would someone on my salary with property get, assuming my rent is equal to their housing expenses? It would be an interesting exercise. The more expensive the house, the bigger the difference.

Ho much impact does it make on the government? A lot, actually: "The mortgage-interest deduction. We all love the deduction for home-mortgage interest. But renters and those who own their homes free and clear get nothing. Cost to the government: $402.7 billion." That number is from 2006.

If most people are deducting mortgage interest, why can't I deduct anything for my rent? There is interest and taxes built into the price of my apartment. Is someone else taking those deductions for me? Actually, a few states do allow a small tax break for renters, based on the fact that we indirectly are paying someone else's property taxes. In California, it is only for senior citizens with low incomes. Yet you can deduct interest on mortgages values over $1 million.

What can a renter do? This article suggests deducting student loan interest (which saved me a couple hundred this year) or a hybrid car deduction (can't afford a hybrid). For some reason, I don't feel like that evens things out at all. Apparently all I can do is write my congressman or buy a house.

What do you think? And is your view skewed by the fact that you either do or do not own property? Is it possible that eliminating this deduction could actually benefit the majority of people?

I get paid tomorrow (yes, on Thursdays) and finally was able to view my paycheck online. Though I only am being paid for 40 hrs instead of 80 this period, they did process my signing bonus in the first check (yes!) so I finally have some money to work with. They got all my direct deposit stuff set up in time (nice work!). I have it split between three different accounts, checking, short term savings (insurance, travel, car) and a long term savings (e-fund, maybe house/condo fund one day). I still may have to transfer between these, but this should minimize that. Make savings automatic!

I'm still not ready to finalize a budget, as I'm not certain what my take home pay will be. I tried to figure out exactly how much I'll be paying in taxes each month by taking total taxes paid divided by total gross pay in this check. I came up with about a 39% tax rate! Yikes, that can't be right! Google tells me that taxes on bonuses, while calculated as normal income, are withheld at a different rate, up to 40%. Well, that makes more sense! Good to know.

Is it logical to just use 25%, my marginal tax rate? Then again, what about FICA, Social Security, etc? If I do that, I come up with about $1700 after 401k and medical or $1500 if I go all the way up to 20% in my 401k. It isn't likely I can live off the $3000/month, at least not if I want to grow my cash savings. Though the way some people dream about buying a house, I dream about maxing out my 401k....

My 401k still isn't ready for me to enroll. I hate when systems are not automated enough. My last job I could enroll in my 401k on the first day (through Fidelity). It has been a full week and CitiStreet still isn't recognizing my user ID. When I called the number to ask if this was normal, I was told "Please listen carefully as options have recently changed." Then, there was a single ring, then silence. More silence. I was never given any options! I hung up and tried again, only to have it happen again. I pressed all the numbers and was directed to an operator who could not help me unless I "went through the system and entered my PIN" (which I did!). He suggested waiting another week, or trying the number again. Lame.

I was going to go hang out with the boyfriend tonight, but I think I'll cancel. He has a lot of school work, and I have needed to do laundry for at least a week. This will give me time to start working on yesterdays to-do list. First up, taxes!

I have some major financial housekeeping to do within the next month (or maybe two months). With switching jobs and moving 2000 miles, I feel like everything is a mess! It is time for some clean-up.

Taxes: Self explanatory! I did start them on TaxAct, but got distracted.

Retirement Accounts:
Well, first, I assign myself some homework. I've had "Random Walk Guide to Investing" hanging out on my bookshelf for months. I need to read it. I also want to re-read Jonathan's series at MyMoneyBlog.com about asset allocation, and look for other good internet information. I need to consider rolling over my old 401k to an IRA or even to a Roth IRA. I want to at least consider moving my Roth from Fidelity to Vanguard. I need to get enrolled in my new 401k ASAP, and contribute at least 8% to get the match.

Emergency fund: I want to get it back up to 10k, then evaluate if I need to increase it further due to increased costs. It briefly hit 10k before Christmas, but has dwindled to just over 7k (!) in the move process. Well, 1k went to the Roth to kick off 2008 so it isn't so bad. This should easily be taken care of if I simply apply the relocation allowance and signing bonus. Also, I want to investigate moving it from HSBC to something better.

Actually implement plan to buy car insurance. I have to do this soon, because I have get my car registered in my new state. It's just... I recently designated an ING accout to save up for bi-yearly insurance purchases... but so far I've only stuck $25 in it! Ug.

Figure out a reasonable budget. Having scaled back income and paying two rents for a month has totally messed with my head. I have no idea what I can afford, what is a splurge, and what I absolutely shouldn't be buying. So I'm just guessing. . .

Rebates, rebates, rebates: I need to send in rebates for my cable service, my internet service ($50 each), and for my modem (about $80). Then I need to sell my modem online, since it turns out I didn't even need it! After that, I might cancel cable since I haven't been watching it at all.

Set some 2008 goals: It's been hard to do with so much up in the air.

Well, I feel a little better just writing it all down.....

I'm thinking it is (way past) time to add a blog roll to this site. If I've ever commented on your blog, that means I read you and probably will be adding you to the list of blogs I read anyway. But perhaps I have a reader or two whose blogs I have not yet discovered. I have a special interest in twenty-something females, particularly unmarried ones, because I relate best. But of course, I do read all sorts of blogs!

If you want to be added, you can comment on this post, or send me an email. I can be reached at SJean0 (and that is a zero, not the letter "O"). I use Google for my mail.

I also need to update my sidebars and goals to be current. I like writing, but the backend part of blogging is so unappealing to me. I have a mini-dream of getting a prettier site (wordpress?), but it seems like a lot of work. I also don't think that I can justify shelling out the cash to pay someone to figure this out for me... So I will do it myself, eventually!

Also, if you do read my blog, please consider adding me to your blogroll if you have one and if you feel like it. Thanks!

I feel like I'm being scammed out of my money left and right!

I signed up for cable service online (because I do everything possible online) and followed the clear instructions on the web page to obtain a cable modem before the cable guy came. There was a promotion for a "free" modem, after rebate, which turned out to be about $20 with shipping and tax (after rebates... which are always a bit sketchy to redeem).

Yesterday the cable guy set up my internet and TV, and started installing a cable modem from the company. I said I had one already, and would not be needing to rent one from the cable company (as that is how it often works.) He told me that there was no rental, the modem was part of the service.

I am still fuming about this, a little. (Ok, a lot, if you ask my boyfriend.) Why would they tell me I needed to buy a modem when I didn't? Now I have a modem that put almost $100 on my credit card bill for the month (which I pay off, of course) and two rebate forms to fill out and hope get credited to me. What a hassle!

I looked up the modems on Amazon (I'm not very ebay literate, but i should probably check out ebay too) and I can probably sell my new modem for at least $35, even if I cut off the upc to get the rebate. In theory that is a small profit, but it is a bit of a hassle to do all this.

I'm super annoyed that they convinced me to buy a modem I didn't need!

Also, as mentioned in my last post, I ordered some transcripts from my undergraduate institution. I ordered that two official transcripts be sent to the graduate university I am applying to. Yesterday I received two transcripts at my home address, clearly stamped with "issued to student". I didn't need or want these. I can only assume they didn't send any to the university. Now I have to call them and find out what happened. I hope I don't have to pay $12 to have them do this again!

Last, I sent my laptop in for repair in early December, and they sent it back with a note that the battery had failed. It was still under warranty, so I called them and asked why they didn't replace the battery. They said, "Hmm, I'm not sure! I'll send you a new one!" Which they did, along with a box for me to send the broken battery back in. In the meantime, I moved cross country and the old battery and box are long gone. Vanished! They just sent me a letter requesting that I return the part, or they will bill me for it. I assume a battery is around $100. Ouch.

This battery incident is primarily my fault (though they could have just replaced it when they had my laptop), but still annoying. I can see why they make people send in defective parts, but I'm going to call them and see if there is any flexibility in this policy. I don't have high hopes, but it can't hurt to call, explain the situation, and ask if they really have to bill me for a new battery. I've had mixed results with companies forgiving things like this, but it never hurts to ask.

I am frustrated that my money is disappearing for these things. Granted, they aren't really scams (except maybe the modem promotion), but I'm not getting anything of value out of them.

I just completed my first week at my new job, and will get paid next week. Let me just stay, I can not wait!

Work, so far, is horribly boring. I know it will get better, but they haven't exactly fit me into a program, so I've just been chillin' and doing a LOT of online training. But I'm a hard worker, so it is frustrating to just be sitting here, when I know all my friends at my last job are working their butts off.

By the way, applying to graduate school is expensive. I was accepted to a pretty good school at my last job (usually ranked about 30 or so in my major), but I now have access to a degree from top ten university. They will accept 2 of the 3 classes I have taken, and are on a quarter system, so I will be done with my M.S. degree more quickly. It will be a lot of work, but a better education overall. It will also help my resume out, as my undergrad institution is relatively unknown. My current company will pay for pretty much everything, including books.

In order to apply to the new school, I have paid:
-$60 application fee
-$24 for 2 transcripts from my previous grad school
-$12 for 2 transcripts from my undergrad school

I have opted NOT to send transcripts from my study abroad university (too much of a hassle, probably only about $15 plus international mail) and not order official GRE scores ($20 or so). Still, it is easily $100 a school to apply!

They will eventually be reimbursed to me, as long as I remember to file for it once I've completed my first class. My fees for the previous school I applied for were also reimbursed (and the GRE fee), so I am fortunate. But had I gone to grad school right away, I'd be facing these costs as a poor college student. That just seems wrong, but there aren't many ways around it.

This is one of many reasons I am really excited for my paycheck. Thank goodness for a healthy savings account!

I was clicking along through TaxAct, and it asked if I'd made any contribution to an Health Savings Account (HSA) this year. It instructed me not to include employer contributions or contributions made by my employer through a cafeteria plan. I thought, "why yes, I did make contributions. My salary was reduced by $1500 this year, and it went into my account." Cafeteria plan? I pictured my workplace cafeteria, and wondered how they were involve in health care. I never ate there, so that probably didn't apply to me.

Uh....

I later noticed that my $1500 was double counted as a deduction. I looked up "cafeteria plan" and realized that was exactly what my HSA was funded through! Ooops. I had selected my benefits from a "menu" of choices, thus it was a cafeteria plan. Ohhhh, I see! Why don't they just say what they meant?!? I corrected it, and my refund fell by several hundred dollars. Still, I haven't received any tax information from my HSA administrator, so I suppose I should wait to file until I get that. Which doesn't make sense to me, because those distributions were tax free anyway. Why would I even need to report them?

To be honest, I'm not certain I filed my 2006 taxes right with regards to my HSA. I got a lonely form that looked suspiciously like a tax document sometime in March, long after I filed my taxes. I do know that I paid the right amount: Money taken from the account is tax free and my contributions were pre-tax. Simple. I just don't know if I documented it right.

Also, I moved to California this January and I obviously entered my current address on my tax return. TaxAct helpfully assumed I would need a CA state return in addition to my Iowa one. I had to click through the entire California state return for it to figure out that I didn't owe any taxes here for 2007, nor do I have to file a return.

Well anyway, I'll hold off a week on officially filing them, and if nothing shows up from my HSA, I'll give them a call.

Projected refund is about $1000 total. I owe the state $200 and the federal government owes me $1200. Oh sure I'm giving the government a tax free loan, blah blah blah. Assuming a 5% return in my savings (which isn't likely these days) I missed out on $50 of interest, which would have been taxed anyway.... And now I have $1000 that I did not spend and can use to replenish the e-fund. It is already back to about $8500, so another thousand will boost it quite close to the 10k goal.

While filing my taxes using TaxAct, I clicked on a pop-up that gave me tax tips for 2008. One interesting suggestion that had was to own a home.

A Real Tax Shelter
Purchasing a home is one of the best tax shelters available. The interest and points that you pay for the purchase are deductible as itemized deductions. The property taxes that you pay on the home are also deductible as itemized deductions. Best of all, when you sell the home, you probably will not need to pay any tax at all on the gain. There is no other investment that can provide the tax advantages like home ownership.

Though it was a friendly little tip, it got me thinking and got me a little mad. Why is does owning a home provide such great tax benefits? (Deductions for dependents is another story.... But raising kids is ridiculously expensive so this doesn't bother me much.) Is it fair? If so, why is it fair? Do most developed countries do this? Where did this idea come from? Of course, popular belief is that the main reason is to encourage people to own homes. It is the American Dream. But why? Why does the government want to encourage home ownership for everyone? Why am I seen less favorably because I'm priced out and relatively uninterested in locking myself to a property?

How about another viewpoint? The New York Times says that is simply a nice "American folk legend: the government invented the mortgage-interest deduction to help people buy their own homes, and the level of homeownership has risen ever since." The real story, they claim, is much less middle class friendly. It stems from the government originally having all interest as deductible, which was really intended to help business. The average American didn't have a mortgage (or credit card) and wasn't paying interest in the first place (can you believe that!), so interest was a business expense and therefore deductible. Later this broad rule was changed, for obvious reasons, but the mortgage interest stayed (for less obvious reasons.) Further, the author claims tax is actually regressive with "the rewards are greatly skewed in favor of the moderately to the conspicuously rich." Wow. This is stuff I'd never heard of before. I will stop myself from regurgitating the whole article, but it is a great read!

So, how much of an impact does this really make on me anyway? I assume if you own property, you must itemize deductions. I generally take the standard deduction. What kind of itemized deduction would someone on my salary with property get, assuming my rent is equal to their housing expenses? It would be an interesting exercise. The more expensive the house, the bigger the difference.

Ho much impact does it make on the government? A lot, actually: "The mortgage-interest deduction. We all love the deduction for home-mortgage interest. But renters and those who own their homes free and clear get nothing. Cost to the government: $402.7 billion." That number is from 2006.

If most people are deducting mortgage interest, why can't I deduct anything for my rent? There is interest and taxes built into the price of my apartment. Is someone else taking those deductions for me? Actually, a few states do allow a small tax break for renters, based on the fact that we indirectly are paying someone else's property taxes. In California, it is only for senior citizens with low incomes. Yet you can deduct interest on mortgages values over $1 million.

What can a renter do? This article suggests deducting student loan interest (which saved me a couple hundred this year) or a hybrid car deduction (can't afford a hybrid). For some reason, I don't feel like that evens things out at all. Apparently all I can do is write my congressman or buy a house.

What do you think? And is your view skewed by the fact that you either do or do not own property? Is it possible that eliminating this deduction could actually benefit the majority of people?

I get paid tomorrow (yes, on Thursdays) and finally was able to view my paycheck online. Though I only am being paid for 40 hrs instead of 80 this period, they did process my signing bonus in the first check (yes!) so I finally have some money to work with. They got all my direct deposit stuff set up in time (nice work!). I have it split between three different accounts, checking, short term savings (insurance, travel, car) and a long term savings (e-fund, maybe house/condo fund one day). I still may have to transfer between these, but this should minimize that. Make savings automatic!

I'm still not ready to finalize a budget, as I'm not certain what my take home pay will be. I tried to figure out exactly how much I'll be paying in taxes each month by taking total taxes paid divided by total gross pay in this check. I came up with about a 39% tax rate! Yikes, that can't be right! Google tells me that taxes on bonuses, while calculated as normal income, are withheld at a different rate, up to 40%. Well, that makes more sense! Good to know.

Is it logical to just use 25%, my marginal tax rate? Then again, what about FICA, Social Security, etc? If I do that, I come up with about $1700 after 401k and medical or $1500 if I go all the way up to 20% in my 401k. It isn't likely I can live off the $3000/month, at least not if I want to grow my cash savings. Though the way some people dream about buying a house, I dream about maxing out my 401k....

My 401k still isn't ready for me to enroll. I hate when systems are not automated enough. My last job I could enroll in my 401k on the first day (through Fidelity). It has been a full week and CitiStreet still isn't recognizing my user ID. When I called the number to ask if this was normal, I was told "Please listen carefully as options have recently changed." Then, there was a single ring, then silence. More silence. I was never given any options! I hung up and tried again, only to have it happen again. I pressed all the numbers and was directed to an operator who could not help me unless I "went through the system and entered my PIN" (which I did!). He suggested waiting another week, or trying the number again. Lame.

I was going to go hang out with the boyfriend tonight, but I think I'll cancel. He has a lot of school work, and I have needed to do laundry for at least a week. This will give me time to start working on yesterdays to-do list. First up, taxes!

I have some major financial housekeeping to do within the next month (or maybe two months). With switching jobs and moving 2000 miles, I feel like everything is a mess! It is time for some clean-up.

Taxes: Self explanatory! I did start them on TaxAct, but got distracted.

Retirement Accounts:
Well, first, I assign myself some homework. I've had "Random Walk Guide to Investing" hanging out on my bookshelf for months. I need to read it. I also want to re-read Jonathan's series at MyMoneyBlog.com about asset allocation, and look for other good internet information. I need to consider rolling over my old 401k to an IRA or even to a Roth IRA. I want to at least consider moving my Roth from Fidelity to Vanguard. I need to get enrolled in my new 401k ASAP, and contribute at least 8% to get the match.

Emergency fund: I want to get it back up to 10k, then evaluate if I need to increase it further due to increased costs. It briefly hit 10k before Christmas, but has dwindled to just over 7k (!) in the move process. Well, 1k went to the Roth to kick off 2008 so it isn't so bad. This should easily be taken care of if I simply apply the relocation allowance and signing bonus. Also, I want to investigate moving it from HSBC to something better.

Actually implement plan to buy car insurance. I have to do this soon, because I have get my car registered in my new state. It's just... I recently designated an ING accout to save up for bi-yearly insurance purchases... but so far I've only stuck $25 in it! Ug.

Figure out a reasonable budget. Having scaled back income and paying two rents for a month has totally messed with my head. I have no idea what I can afford, what is a splurge, and what I absolutely shouldn't be buying. So I'm just guessing. . .

Rebates, rebates, rebates: I need to send in rebates for my cable service, my internet service ($50 each), and for my modem (about $80). Then I need to sell my modem online, since it turns out I didn't even need it! After that, I might cancel cable since I haven't been watching it at all.

Set some 2008 goals: It's been hard to do with so much up in the air.

Well, I feel a little better just writing it all down.....

I'm thinking it is (way past) time to add a blog roll to this site. If I've ever commented on your blog, that means I read you and probably will be adding you to the list of blogs I read anyway. But perhaps I have a reader or two whose blogs I have not yet discovered. I have a special interest in twenty-something females, particularly unmarried ones, because I relate best. But of course, I do read all sorts of blogs!

If you want to be added, you can comment on this post, or send me an email. I can be reached at SJean0 (and that is a zero, not the letter "O"). I use Google for my mail.

I also need to update my sidebars and goals to be current. I like writing, but the backend part of blogging is so unappealing to me. I have a mini-dream of getting a prettier site (wordpress?), but it seems like a lot of work. I also don't think that I can justify shelling out the cash to pay someone to figure this out for me... So I will do it myself, eventually!

Also, if you do read my blog, please consider adding me to your blogroll if you have one and if you feel like it. Thanks!

I feel like I'm being scammed out of my money left and right!

I signed up for cable service online (because I do everything possible online) and followed the clear instructions on the web page to obtain a cable modem before the cable guy came. There was a promotion for a "free" modem, after rebate, which turned out to be about $20 with shipping and tax (after rebates... which are always a bit sketchy to redeem).

Yesterday the cable guy set up my internet and TV, and started installing a cable modem from the company. I said I had one already, and would not be needing to rent one from the cable company (as that is how it often works.) He told me that there was no rental, the modem was part of the service.

I am still fuming about this, a little. (Ok, a lot, if you ask my boyfriend.) Why would they tell me I needed to buy a modem when I didn't? Now I have a modem that put almost $100 on my credit card bill for the month (which I pay off, of course) and two rebate forms to fill out and hope get credited to me. What a hassle!

I looked up the modems on Amazon (I'm not very ebay literate, but i should probably check out ebay too) and I can probably sell my new modem for at least $35, even if I cut off the upc to get the rebate. In theory that is a small profit, but it is a bit of a hassle to do all this.

I'm super annoyed that they convinced me to buy a modem I didn't need!

Also, as mentioned in my last post, I ordered some transcripts from my undergraduate institution. I ordered that two official transcripts be sent to the graduate university I am applying to. Yesterday I received two transcripts at my home address, clearly stamped with "issued to student". I didn't need or want these. I can only assume they didn't send any to the university. Now I have to call them and find out what happened. I hope I don't have to pay $12 to have them do this again!

Last, I sent my laptop in for repair in early December, and they sent it back with a note that the battery had failed. It was still under warranty, so I called them and asked why they didn't replace the battery. They said, "Hmm, I'm not sure! I'll send you a new one!" Which they did, along with a box for me to send the broken battery back in. In the meantime, I moved cross country and the old battery and box are long gone. Vanished! They just sent me a letter requesting that I return the part, or they will bill me for it. I assume a battery is around $100. Ouch.

This battery incident is primarily my fault (though they could have just replaced it when they had my laptop), but still annoying. I can see why they make people send in defective parts, but I'm going to call them and see if there is any flexibility in this policy. I don't have high hopes, but it can't hurt to call, explain the situation, and ask if they really have to bill me for a new battery. I've had mixed results with companies forgiving things like this, but it never hurts to ask.

I am frustrated that my money is disappearing for these things. Granted, they aren't really scams (except maybe the modem promotion), but I'm not getting anything of value out of them.

I just completed my first week at my new job, and will get paid next week. Let me just stay, I can not wait!

Work, so far, is horribly boring. I know it will get better, but they haven't exactly fit me into a program, so I've just been chillin' and doing a LOT of online training. But I'm a hard worker, so it is frustrating to just be sitting here, when I know all my friends at my last job are working their butts off.

By the way, applying to graduate school is expensive. I was accepted to a pretty good school at my last job (usually ranked about 30 or so in my major), but I now have access to a degree from top ten university. They will accept 2 of the 3 classes I have taken, and are on a quarter system, so I will be done with my M.S. degree more quickly. It will be a lot of work, but a better education overall. It will also help my resume out, as my undergrad institution is relatively unknown. My current company will pay for pretty much everything, including books.

In order to apply to the new school, I have paid:
-$60 application fee
-$24 for 2 transcripts from my previous grad school
-$12 for 2 transcripts from my undergrad school

I have opted NOT to send transcripts from my study abroad university (too much of a hassle, probably only about $15 plus international mail) and not order official GRE scores ($20 or so). Still, it is easily $100 a school to apply!

They will eventually be reimbursed to me, as long as I remember to file for it once I've completed my first class. My fees for the previous school I applied for were also reimbursed (and the GRE fee), so I am fortunate. But had I gone to grad school right away, I'd be facing these costs as a poor college student. That just seems wrong, but there aren't many ways around it.

This is one of many reasons I am really excited for my paycheck. Thank goodness for a healthy savings account!

I was clicking along through TaxAct, and it asked if I'd made any contribution to an Health Savings Account (HSA) this year. It instructed me not to include employer contributions or contributions made by my employer through a cafeteria plan. I thought, "why yes, I did make contributions. My salary was reduced by $1500 this year, and it went into my account." Cafeteria plan? I pictured my workplace cafeteria, and wondered how they were involve in health care. I never ate there, so that probably didn't apply to me.

Uh....

I later noticed that my $1500 was double counted as a deduction. I looked up "cafeteria plan" and realized that was exactly what my HSA was funded through! Ooops. I had selected my benefits from a "menu" of choices, thus it was a cafeteria plan. Ohhhh, I see! Why don't they just say what they meant?!? I corrected it, and my refund fell by several hundred dollars. Still, I haven't received any tax information from my HSA administrator, so I suppose I should wait to file until I get that. Which doesn't make sense to me, because those distributions were tax free anyway. Why would I even need to report them?

To be honest, I'm not certain I filed my 2006 taxes right with regards to my HSA. I got a lonely form that looked suspiciously like a tax document sometime in March, long after I filed my taxes. I do know that I paid the right amount: Money taken from the account is tax free and my contributions were pre-tax. Simple. I just don't know if I documented it right.

Also, I moved to California this January and I obviously entered my current address on my tax return. TaxAct helpfully assumed I would need a CA state return in addition to my Iowa one. I had to click through the entire California state return for it to figure out that I didn't owe any taxes here for 2007, nor do I have to file a return.

Well anyway, I'll hold off a week on officially filing them, and if nothing shows up from my HSA, I'll give them a call.

Projected refund is about $1000 total. I owe the state $200 and the federal government owes me $1200. Oh sure I'm giving the government a tax free loan, blah blah blah. Assuming a 5% return in my savings (which isn't likely these days) I missed out on $50 of interest, which would have been taxed anyway.... And now I have $1000 that I did not spend and can use to replenish the e-fund. It is already back to about $8500, so another thousand will boost it quite close to the 10k goal.

While filing my taxes using TaxAct, I clicked on a pop-up that gave me tax tips for 2008. One interesting suggestion that had was to own a home.

A Real Tax Shelter
Purchasing a home is one of the best tax shelters available. The interest and points that you pay for the purchase are deductible as itemized deductions. The property taxes that you pay on the home are also deductible as itemized deductions. Best of all, when you sell the home, you probably will not need to pay any tax at all on the gain. There is no other investment that can provide the tax advantages like home ownership.

Though it was a friendly little tip, it got me thinking and got me a little mad. Why is does owning a home provide such great tax benefits? (Deductions for dependents is another story.... But raising kids is ridiculously expensive so this doesn't bother me much.) Is it fair? If so, why is it fair? Do most developed countries do this? Where did this idea come from? Of course, popular belief is that the main reason is to encourage people to own homes. It is the American Dream. But why? Why does the government want to encourage home ownership for everyone? Why am I seen less favorably because I'm priced out and relatively uninterested in locking myself to a property?

How about another viewpoint? The New York Times says that is simply a nice "American folk legend: the government invented the mortgage-interest deduction to help people buy their own homes, and the level of homeownership has risen ever since." The real story, they claim, is much less middle class friendly. It stems from the government originally having all interest as deductible, which was really intended to help business. The average American didn't have a mortgage (or credit card) and wasn't paying interest in the first place (can you believe that!), so interest was a business expense and therefore deductible. Later this broad rule was changed, for obvious reasons, but the mortgage interest stayed (for less obvious reasons.) Further, the author claims tax is actually regressive with "the rewards are greatly skewed in favor of the moderately to the conspicuously rich." Wow. This is stuff I'd never heard of before. I will stop myself from regurgitating the whole article, but it is a great read!

So, how much of an impact does this really make on me anyway? I assume if you own property, you must itemize deductions. I generally take the standard deduction. What kind of itemized deduction would someone on my salary with property get, assuming my rent is equal to their housing expenses? It would be an interesting exercise. The more expensive the house, the bigger the difference.

Ho much impact does it make on the government? A lot, actually: "The mortgage-interest deduction. We all love the deduction for home-mortgage interest. But renters and those who own their homes free and clear get nothing. Cost to the government: $402.7 billion." That number is from 2006.

If most people are deducting mortgage interest, why can't I deduct anything for my rent? There is interest and taxes built into the price of my apartment. Is someone else taking those deductions for me? Actually, a few states do allow a small tax break for renters, based on the fact that we indirectly are paying someone else's property taxes. In California, it is only for senior citizens with low incomes. Yet you can deduct interest on mortgages values over $1 million.

What can a renter do? This article suggests deducting student loan interest (which saved me a couple hundred this year) or a hybrid car deduction (can't afford a hybrid). For some reason, I don't feel like that evens things out at all. Apparently all I can do is write my congressman or buy a house.

What do you think? And is your view skewed by the fact that you either do or do not own property? Is it possible that eliminating this deduction could actually benefit the majority of people?

I get paid tomorrow (yes, on Thursdays) and finally was able to view my paycheck online. Though I only am being paid for 40 hrs instead of 80 this period, they did process my signing bonus in the first check (yes!) so I finally have some money to work with. They got all my direct deposit stuff set up in time (nice work!). I have it split between three different accounts, checking, short term savings (insurance, travel, car) and a long term savings (e-fund, maybe house/condo fund one day). I still may have to transfer between these, but this should minimize that. Make savings automatic!

I'm still not ready to finalize a budget, as I'm not certain what my take home pay will be. I tried to figure out exactly how much I'll be paying in taxes each month by taking total taxes paid divided by total gross pay in this check. I came up with about a 39% tax rate! Yikes, that can't be right! Google tells me that taxes on bonuses, while calculated as normal income, are withheld at a different rate, up to 40%. Well, that makes more sense! Good to know.

Is it logical to just use 25%, my marginal tax rate? Then again, what about FICA, Social Security, etc? If I do that, I come up with about $1700 after 401k and medical or $1500 if I go all the way up to 20% in my 401k. It isn't likely I can live off the $3000/month, at least not if I want to grow my cash savings. Though the way some people dream about buying a house, I dream about maxing out my 401k....

My 401k still isn't ready for me to enroll. I hate when systems are not automated enough. My last job I could enroll in my 401k on the first day (through Fidelity). It has been a full week and CitiStreet still isn't recognizing my user ID. When I called the number to ask if this was normal, I was told "Please listen carefully as options have recently changed." Then, there was a single ring, then silence. More silence. I was never given any options! I hung up and tried again, only to have it happen again. I pressed all the numbers and was directed to an operator who could not help me unless I "went through the system and entered my PIN" (which I did!). He suggested waiting another week, or trying the number again. Lame.

I was going to go hang out with the boyfriend tonight, but I think I'll cancel. He has a lot of school work, and I have needed to do laundry for at least a week. This will give me time to start working on yesterdays to-do list. First up, taxes!

I have some major financial housekeeping to do within the next month (or maybe two months). With switching jobs and moving 2000 miles, I feel like everything is a mess! It is time for some clean-up.

Taxes: Self explanatory! I did start them on TaxAct, but got distracted.

Retirement Accounts:
Well, first, I assign myself some homework. I've had "Random Walk Guide to Investing" hanging out on my bookshelf for months. I need to read it. I also want to re-read Jonathan's series at MyMoneyBlog.com about asset allocation, and look for other good internet information. I need to consider rolling over my old 401k to an IRA or even to a Roth IRA. I want to at least consider moving my Roth from Fidelity to Vanguard. I need to get enrolled in my new 401k ASAP, and contribute at least 8% to get the match.

Emergency fund: I want to get it back up to 10k, then evaluate if I need to increase it further due to increased costs. It briefly hit 10k before Christmas, but has dwindled to just over 7k (!) in the move process. Well, 1k went to the Roth to kick off 2008 so it isn't so bad. This should easily be taken care of if I simply apply the relocation allowance and signing bonus. Also, I want to investigate moving it from HSBC to something better.

Actually implement plan to buy car insurance. I have to do this soon, because I have get my car registered in my new state. It's just... I recently designated an ING accout to save up for bi-yearly insurance purchases... but so far I've only stuck $25 in it! Ug.

Figure out a reasonable budget. Having scaled back income and paying two rents for a month has totally messed with my head. I have no idea what I can afford, what is a splurge, and what I absolutely shouldn't be buying. So I'm just guessing. . .

Rebates, rebates, rebates: I need to send in rebates for my cable service, my internet service ($50 each), and for my modem (about $80). Then I need to sell my modem online, since it turns out I didn't even need it! After that, I might cancel cable since I haven't been watching it at all.

Set some 2008 goals: It's been hard to do with so much up in the air.

Well, I feel a little better just writing it all down.....

I'm thinking it is (way past) time to add a blog roll to this site. If I've ever commented on your blog, that means I read you and probably will be adding you to the list of blogs I read anyway. But perhaps I have a reader or two whose blogs I have not yet discovered. I have a special interest in twenty-something females, particularly unmarried ones, because I relate best. But of course, I do read all sorts of blogs!

If you want to be added, you can comment on this post, or send me an email. I can be reached at SJean0 (and that is a zero, not the letter "O"). I use Google for my mail.

I also need to update my sidebars and goals to be current. I like writing, but the backend part of blogging is so unappealing to me. I have a mini-dream of getting a prettier site (wordpress?), but it seems like a lot of work. I also don't think that I can justify shelling out the cash to pay someone to figure this out for me... So I will do it myself, eventually!

Also, if you do read my blog, please consider adding me to your blogroll if you have one and if you feel like it. Thanks!

I feel like I'm being scammed out of my money left and right!

I signed up for cable service online (because I do everything possible online) and followed the clear instructions on the web page to obtain a cable modem before the cable guy came. There was a promotion for a "free" modem, after rebate, which turned out to be about $20 with shipping and tax (after rebates... which are always a bit sketchy to redeem).

Yesterday the cable guy set up my internet and TV, and started installing a cable modem from the company. I said I had one already, and would not be needing to rent one from the cable company (as that is how it often works.) He told me that there was no rental, the modem was part of the service.

I am still fuming about this, a little. (Ok, a lot, if you ask my boyfriend.) Why would they tell me I needed to buy a modem when I didn't? Now I have a modem that put almost $100 on my credit card bill for the month (which I pay off, of course) and two rebate forms to fill out and hope get credited to me. What a hassle!

I looked up the modems on Amazon (I'm not very ebay literate, but i should probably check out ebay too) and I can probably sell my new modem for at least $35, even if I cut off the upc to get the rebate. In theory that is a small profit, but it is a bit of a hassle to do all this.

I'm super annoyed that they convinced me to buy a modem I didn't need!

Also, as mentioned in my last post, I ordered some transcripts from my undergraduate institution. I ordered that two official transcripts be sent to the graduate university I am applying to. Yesterday I received two transcripts at my home address, clearly stamped with "issued to student". I didn't need or want these. I can only assume they didn't send any to the university. Now I have to call them and find out what happened. I hope I don't have to pay $12 to have them do this again!

Last, I sent my laptop in for repair in early December, and they sent it back with a note that the battery had failed. It was still under warranty, so I called them and asked why they didn't replace the battery. They said, "Hmm, I'm not sure! I'll send you a new one!" Which they did, along with a box for me to send the broken battery back in. In the meantime, I moved cross country and the old battery and box are long gone. Vanished! They just sent me a letter requesting that I return the part, or they will bill me for it. I assume a battery is around $100. Ouch.

This battery incident is primarily my fault (though they could have just replaced it when they had my laptop), but still annoying. I can see why they make people send in defective parts, but I'm going to call them and see if there is any flexibility in this policy. I don't have high hopes, but it can't hurt to call, explain the situation, and ask if they really have to bill me for a new battery. I've had mixed results with companies forgiving things like this, but it never hurts to ask.

I am frustrated that my money is disappearing for these things. Granted, they aren't really scams (except maybe the modem promotion), but I'm not getting anything of value out of them.

I just completed my first week at my new job, and will get paid next week. Let me just stay, I can not wait!

Work, so far, is horribly boring. I know it will get better, but they haven't exactly fit me into a program, so I've just been chillin' and doing a LOT of online training. But I'm a hard worker, so it is frustrating to just be sitting here, when I know all my friends at my last job are working their butts off.

By the way, applying to graduate school is expensive. I was accepted to a pretty good school at my last job (usually ranked about 30 or so in my major), but I now have access to a degree from top ten university. They will accept 2 of the 3 classes I have taken, and are on a quarter system, so I will be done with my M.S. degree more quickly. It will be a lot of work, but a better education overall. It will also help my resume out, as my undergrad institution is relatively unknown. My current company will pay for pretty much everything, including books.

In order to apply to the new school, I have paid:
-$60 application fee
-$24 for 2 transcripts from my previous grad school
-$12 for 2 transcripts from my undergrad school

I have opted NOT to send transcripts from my study abroad university (too much of a hassle, probably only about $15 plus international mail) and not order official GRE scores ($20 or so). Still, it is easily $100 a school to apply!

They will eventually be reimbursed to me, as long as I remember to file for it once I've completed my first class. My fees for the previous school I applied for were also reimbursed (and the GRE fee), so I am fortunate. But had I gone to grad school right away, I'd be facing these costs as a poor college student. That just seems wrong, but there aren't many ways around it.

This is one of many reasons I am really excited for my paycheck. Thank goodness for a healthy savings account!