Stacking Pennies . . .

This month was quite unimpressive--an increase of just $132! There are a few reasons I have to explain this. I was sure I'd hit the 10k mark, but I missed... by four dollars!

• Of course, the stock market uneasiness. Between me and my company, we contributed about $1000 this month, yet the overall balance increased by just $300.
• Also, there was a slight student loan mess. I was charged some back interest which was capitalized into the loan (not by my choice!), which increased the balance by about $350. I paid some, and ended up owing $51 more than I owed this time a month ago.
• Last, there was spending. I took two trips to visit my family, at about $100 in gas a pop. I bought my plane ticket for the holidays for another $400 or so. I also went through some personal issues and indulged in a teeny bit of retail therapy.

Next month should be great for my net worth. Even though there will be Christmas shopping, just as much driving, and a new years vacation, I get two paychecks along with a bonus equivalent to about another two paychecks.

I'm also apartment hunting and I'll probably need to come up with a hefty security deposit.... The following month will be interesting with the cross country move, but it seems my future company is covering just about everything, so that is grand.

I have a confession. I did something very wrong. I crossed a line I should not have. I feel guilty, but at the same time, slightly relieved at what I found. I'll start with some background on why I did it before I get into what it is I did.

I mentioned before we had some financial issues when I was growing up, namely a chapter 13 bankruptcy that ruled my parents life as they made large monthly payments for 5 (or seven?) years. My life wasn't too disrupted and it qualified me for federal grants for college, but it still left me anxious about my parents financial situation, and probably greatly affected how I feel about my own.

A couple months ago I discovered some financial missteps my father had made, yet again. I truly think that this incident has finally made him realize that he needs to take control of his finances. But when I first heard about it, I was upset and nervous. My mom does fine with money, but I still worry about my parents having enough in their old age. Heck, sometimes I worry about them having enough right now.

So I did something wrong. I went online and pulled a free annual credit report for myself, and then.... I pulled one for my dad. It was really a stroke of luck that I was even able to do this. Of course I have my parents social security numbers (I needed them to list them as beneficiaries on my 401k), but they also have a few qualifying questions about where a recent loan is from and the amount of the payments. I made some educated guesses, and guessed right, and suddenly all of the information was right there on my screen. Wow.

The report itself was sort of spotty. Some missed payments, and even some accounts marked as "charge-off". I had to Google that to learn that is when you still owe a company money, but they never expect you to pay it, so they charge it off to balance their books. A few accounts noted as settled as part of the Chapter 13 bankruptcy, and many were simply closed. What comforted me was the fact that I didn't see credit cards with huge (or any) balances, I didn't find a thousands of dollars worth of loans owed. Sure it showed past problems, but no current problems.

Still, I shouldn't have done it. While I may have a good financial head on my shoulders, it is crossing the line to pull his report without his permission or knowledge. that is my anxious controlling side and I gave into it. I should have been an adult and gathered the courage to talk about it with my parents, but I took the cowards way out. I snooped. It was wrong. Still, I'm relieved at what I found.

Many people fret about asking for their first raise at work. My company is fairly large and structured with raises, so I didn't have the issue of how to begin the process.

Performance reviews are given in October. Prior to the review, each employee is required to fill out a self review, stating accomplishments and noting how we met our "goals" of the performance review. This year we also had to name 3 coworkers that we wanted to fill out evaluations for us, and we also filled out at least 3 reviews of others (I did five!). Our managers then compile the information into an overall "score card", and we are given an overall rating of 1 to 3 in two categories. They roughly are "what you do" and "how you do it", but they have some HR-type names. HR imposes rules that disallow managers from rating everyone too high or too low.

The process is structured, and seems very fair. Good raises don't just go to those who gather up the courage to ask. They go to those who can list accomplishments, whose peers speak highly of their work, and who's manager is impressed with them.

My review went really well, I was rated a 3 and a 2.9 in the two categories, and my manager talked about getting me into some leadership classes in the coming year. I was hoping to be promoted to the next grade, but I do not have the 2 years of full time experience that they generally require. So I wasn't. I received a great review this year, yet still got "only" a 4.5% raise. It isn't bad, but it isn't great. I really need to get moved up to the next pay grade level in order to get a larger raise, which would probably happen next year.

The best advice I heard about reviews was to step up your level of effort a bit for the two months before the review. People's memories are short, and that is what they will remember. I didn't do this. However, not long before my review I was in a meeting with my manager (along with about 7 others) and was speaking up and questioning why we were doing something, if it was "value added" (no I didn't use that jargony word!). In my review, he specifically commented that he had noticed that I was speaking up and expressing my opinions and questioning the process when necessary. I didn't do it to impress him, but I don't have a lot of direct interaction with my manager, so this probably helped give me a slight boost.

Unfortunately (or fortunately, perhaps) there is nothing that takes the place of solid hard work. If people are requesting you to work on projects, leaving you good feedback, and entrusting you with responsibility, you should make sure your manager knows it. But if they aren't, no amount of effort on a self evaluation review will make a difference. Perhaps some clever wording and bragging can separate those in the middle a bit, but they can't separate the good from the great.

My mom wants to buy a new car. A mini-cooper convertible. From now on, I will bite my tongue every time she talks about it, as I will when she ultimately (probably) buys it. She does not tell me what to do with my money, and it is certainly not my place to tell her what to do with hers. I've heard she says she has plenty saved for retirement (but how much is plenty?) so if she really can afford a new car, then good for her.

My older sister encourages me to buy a new car every so often. I graduated about a year and a half ago, and it seems to be the thing to do. "You can afford the payments. You are a single person making plenty of money." This is true, I can. Still, I don't yet feel financially secure enough to spend that kind of money, and I don't want to finance it. Not yet, at least. It isn't as though I'm sitting on a bunch of money. My net worth is only just creeping up to 10k (and creeping so slowly with the volatile market!), and purchasing a car would plummet it down into negative numbers. Besides, my car works just fine, and it should work just fine for several more years if I want it to.

Maybe I'm more cautious than she is, but she is also married to a very nice young man whose grandparents happen to have set aside a pile of money sitting in investments for their use. It isn't that they are wasteful of that money, but I think having a giant fund to fall back on gives you a little more confidence in purchasing. Maybe once I have some sort of fund to fall back on, I'd feel more comfortable in purchasing a newer car.

I've run into some personal issues and wound up driving to visit my family this past weekend. I didn't blink twice at paying for the gas (even at the ever rising price) because I really wanted to be with them for a couple days.

Among other things, my sister suggested some retail therapy. Not only that, but she performed some herself, giving me some new pajama's and a nice little present. And really, it did help, maybe more than material items should. It is just nice to get a present. Thoughtful.

I'm not that much of a shopper, but I do believe in retail therapy. Why is it that new things make us happy? But since I also believe in frugality and not shopping senselessly, I think I'll just purchase things that I need anyway (lightbulbs, mascara...) then try to buy some Christmas presents. And maybe a small luxury for myself....

I'm not a strict budgeter. I set monthly goals in excel based on fairly narrow categories, and I track my spending for each category. If I buy a magazine at the grocery store, I sometimes it slip into the grocery budget, even if it should be in entertainment. If I go over my budget, I don't really worry about it. If I save $100 less one month, it's not a big deal. As long as my net worth continually grows and I'm conscious of my spending, I'm not strict at all. I'm great at making a budget, but after that, I ignore it!

This week I decided I wanted new running shoes. Usually, I'd just buy them and worry about it later. This time I actually went into excel, and tried to see where the money was going to come from. If it was going to detract from my savings, fine, but I just wanted to know. I was able to take a little bit out of my utilities (low energy bill in the fall), a little out of "personal", and was able to come up with an extra $75 for running shoes. There is a chance the shoes will be a little more, but the vast majority won't affect my savings.

While I was there, I set up a rough December budget. Due to the year end bonus, I should be able to put $1000 towards my student loan, $2000 in my e-fund, and leave plenty of wiggle room in my new years vacation budget. I love bonus month!

Paints a horrible picture, doesn't it? You may have known what this phrase means for a long time, and if not, you may have heard it today. On the radio on the way home, the newsman reported that stocks had a recovery today, "deaceased feline or otherwise." It took me a minute to understand what he was talking about.

A dead cat bounce is when stock prices jump up after a significant decline, only to continue to fall again after the recovery. Supposedly it comes from the idea that even a dead cat will bounce, if it falls far enough down. Well that's an unpleasant thought!

Why do these bounces occur? Wikipedia suggests that there are at least two factors coming into play. Some investors might have standing orders to buy certain stocks if they fall below a certain level. Other investors might speculate that it is the bottom of the market, so they buy hoping to make a profit.

The only way to tell the difference between a dead cat bounce and a recovery from the bottom is hindsight. So what do you think? I'd love to think that today represented a recovery, but in reality I think we haven't seen the bottom yet.

I found a little note at the end of the Wikipedia entry amusing: "More recently, the term has been used colloquially during extended drinking binges to describe the apparent recovery of individuals previously thought "out-of-commission", only for them to quickly return to sleep, vomit etc." Ah, college.

By the way, thank me for not including an image with this post!

This month was quite unimpressive--an increase of just $132! There are a few reasons I have to explain this. I was sure I'd hit the 10k mark, but I missed... by four dollars!

• Of course, the stock market uneasiness. Between me and my company, we contributed about $1000 this month, yet the overall balance increased by just $300.
• Also, there was a slight student loan mess. I was charged some back interest which was capitalized into the loan (not by my choice!), which increased the balance by about $350. I paid some, and ended up owing $51 more than I owed this time a month ago.
• Last, there was spending. I took two trips to visit my family, at about $100 in gas a pop. I bought my plane ticket for the holidays for another $400 or so. I also went through some personal issues and indulged in a teeny bit of retail therapy.

Next month should be great for my net worth. Even though there will be Christmas shopping, just as much driving, and a new years vacation, I get two paychecks along with a bonus equivalent to about another two paychecks.

I'm also apartment hunting and I'll probably need to come up with a hefty security deposit.... The following month will be interesting with the cross country move, but it seems my future company is covering just about everything, so that is grand.

I have a confession. I did something very wrong. I crossed a line I should not have. I feel guilty, but at the same time, slightly relieved at what I found. I'll start with some background on why I did it before I get into what it is I did.

I mentioned before we had some financial issues when I was growing up, namely a chapter 13 bankruptcy that ruled my parents life as they made large monthly payments for 5 (or seven?) years. My life wasn't too disrupted and it qualified me for federal grants for college, but it still left me anxious about my parents financial situation, and probably greatly affected how I feel about my own.

A couple months ago I discovered some financial missteps my father had made, yet again. I truly think that this incident has finally made him realize that he needs to take control of his finances. But when I first heard about it, I was upset and nervous. My mom does fine with money, but I still worry about my parents having enough in their old age. Heck, sometimes I worry about them having enough right now.

So I did something wrong. I went online and pulled a free annual credit report for myself, and then.... I pulled one for my dad. It was really a stroke of luck that I was even able to do this. Of course I have my parents social security numbers (I needed them to list them as beneficiaries on my 401k), but they also have a few qualifying questions about where a recent loan is from and the amount of the payments. I made some educated guesses, and guessed right, and suddenly all of the information was right there on my screen. Wow.

The report itself was sort of spotty. Some missed payments, and even some accounts marked as "charge-off". I had to Google that to learn that is when you still owe a company money, but they never expect you to pay it, so they charge it off to balance their books. A few accounts noted as settled as part of the Chapter 13 bankruptcy, and many were simply closed. What comforted me was the fact that I didn't see credit cards with huge (or any) balances, I didn't find a thousands of dollars worth of loans owed. Sure it showed past problems, but no current problems.

Still, I shouldn't have done it. While I may have a good financial head on my shoulders, it is crossing the line to pull his report without his permission or knowledge. that is my anxious controlling side and I gave into it. I should have been an adult and gathered the courage to talk about it with my parents, but I took the cowards way out. I snooped. It was wrong. Still, I'm relieved at what I found.

Many people fret about asking for their first raise at work. My company is fairly large and structured with raises, so I didn't have the issue of how to begin the process.

Performance reviews are given in October. Prior to the review, each employee is required to fill out a self review, stating accomplishments and noting how we met our "goals" of the performance review. This year we also had to name 3 coworkers that we wanted to fill out evaluations for us, and we also filled out at least 3 reviews of others (I did five!). Our managers then compile the information into an overall "score card", and we are given an overall rating of 1 to 3 in two categories. They roughly are "what you do" and "how you do it", but they have some HR-type names. HR imposes rules that disallow managers from rating everyone too high or too low.

The process is structured, and seems very fair. Good raises don't just go to those who gather up the courage to ask. They go to those who can list accomplishments, whose peers speak highly of their work, and who's manager is impressed with them.

My review went really well, I was rated a 3 and a 2.9 in the two categories, and my manager talked about getting me into some leadership classes in the coming year. I was hoping to be promoted to the next grade, but I do not have the 2 years of full time experience that they generally require. So I wasn't. I received a great review this year, yet still got "only" a 4.5% raise. It isn't bad, but it isn't great. I really need to get moved up to the next pay grade level in order to get a larger raise, which would probably happen next year.

The best advice I heard about reviews was to step up your level of effort a bit for the two months before the review. People's memories are short, and that is what they will remember. I didn't do this. However, not long before my review I was in a meeting with my manager (along with about 7 others) and was speaking up and questioning why we were doing something, if it was "value added" (no I didn't use that jargony word!). In my review, he specifically commented that he had noticed that I was speaking up and expressing my opinions and questioning the process when necessary. I didn't do it to impress him, but I don't have a lot of direct interaction with my manager, so this probably helped give me a slight boost.

Unfortunately (or fortunately, perhaps) there is nothing that takes the place of solid hard work. If people are requesting you to work on projects, leaving you good feedback, and entrusting you with responsibility, you should make sure your manager knows it. But if they aren't, no amount of effort on a self evaluation review will make a difference. Perhaps some clever wording and bragging can separate those in the middle a bit, but they can't separate the good from the great.

My mom wants to buy a new car. A mini-cooper convertible. From now on, I will bite my tongue every time she talks about it, as I will when she ultimately (probably) buys it. She does not tell me what to do with my money, and it is certainly not my place to tell her what to do with hers. I've heard she says she has plenty saved for retirement (but how much is plenty?) so if she really can afford a new car, then good for her.

My older sister encourages me to buy a new car every so often. I graduated about a year and a half ago, and it seems to be the thing to do. "You can afford the payments. You are a single person making plenty of money." This is true, I can. Still, I don't yet feel financially secure enough to spend that kind of money, and I don't want to finance it. Not yet, at least. It isn't as though I'm sitting on a bunch of money. My net worth is only just creeping up to 10k (and creeping so slowly with the volatile market!), and purchasing a car would plummet it down into negative numbers. Besides, my car works just fine, and it should work just fine for several more years if I want it to.

Maybe I'm more cautious than she is, but she is also married to a very nice young man whose grandparents happen to have set aside a pile of money sitting in investments for their use. It isn't that they are wasteful of that money, but I think having a giant fund to fall back on gives you a little more confidence in purchasing. Maybe once I have some sort of fund to fall back on, I'd feel more comfortable in purchasing a newer car.

I've run into some personal issues and wound up driving to visit my family this past weekend. I didn't blink twice at paying for the gas (even at the ever rising price) because I really wanted to be with them for a couple days.

Among other things, my sister suggested some retail therapy. Not only that, but she performed some herself, giving me some new pajama's and a nice little present. And really, it did help, maybe more than material items should. It is just nice to get a present. Thoughtful.

I'm not that much of a shopper, but I do believe in retail therapy. Why is it that new things make us happy? But since I also believe in frugality and not shopping senselessly, I think I'll just purchase things that I need anyway (lightbulbs, mascara...) then try to buy some Christmas presents. And maybe a small luxury for myself....

I'm not a strict budgeter. I set monthly goals in excel based on fairly narrow categories, and I track my spending for each category. If I buy a magazine at the grocery store, I sometimes it slip into the grocery budget, even if it should be in entertainment. If I go over my budget, I don't really worry about it. If I save $100 less one month, it's not a big deal. As long as my net worth continually grows and I'm conscious of my spending, I'm not strict at all. I'm great at making a budget, but after that, I ignore it!

This week I decided I wanted new running shoes. Usually, I'd just buy them and worry about it later. This time I actually went into excel, and tried to see where the money was going to come from. If it was going to detract from my savings, fine, but I just wanted to know. I was able to take a little bit out of my utilities (low energy bill in the fall), a little out of "personal", and was able to come up with an extra $75 for running shoes. There is a chance the shoes will be a little more, but the vast majority won't affect my savings.

While I was there, I set up a rough December budget. Due to the year end bonus, I should be able to put $1000 towards my student loan, $2000 in my e-fund, and leave plenty of wiggle room in my new years vacation budget. I love bonus month!

Paints a horrible picture, doesn't it? You may have known what this phrase means for a long time, and if not, you may have heard it today. On the radio on the way home, the newsman reported that stocks had a recovery today, "deaceased feline or otherwise." It took me a minute to understand what he was talking about.

A dead cat bounce is when stock prices jump up after a significant decline, only to continue to fall again after the recovery. Supposedly it comes from the idea that even a dead cat will bounce, if it falls far enough down. Well that's an unpleasant thought!

Why do these bounces occur? Wikipedia suggests that there are at least two factors coming into play. Some investors might have standing orders to buy certain stocks if they fall below a certain level. Other investors might speculate that it is the bottom of the market, so they buy hoping to make a profit.

The only way to tell the difference between a dead cat bounce and a recovery from the bottom is hindsight. So what do you think? I'd love to think that today represented a recovery, but in reality I think we haven't seen the bottom yet.

I found a little note at the end of the Wikipedia entry amusing: "More recently, the term has been used colloquially during extended drinking binges to describe the apparent recovery of individuals previously thought "out-of-commission", only for them to quickly return to sleep, vomit etc." Ah, college.

By the way, thank me for not including an image with this post!

This month was quite unimpressive--an increase of just $132! There are a few reasons I have to explain this. I was sure I'd hit the 10k mark, but I missed... by four dollars!

• Of course, the stock market uneasiness. Between me and my company, we contributed about $1000 this month, yet the overall balance increased by just $300.
• Also, there was a slight student loan mess. I was charged some back interest which was capitalized into the loan (not by my choice!), which increased the balance by about $350. I paid some, and ended up owing $51 more than I owed this time a month ago.
• Last, there was spending. I took two trips to visit my family, at about $100 in gas a pop. I bought my plane ticket for the holidays for another $400 or so. I also went through some personal issues and indulged in a teeny bit of retail therapy.

Next month should be great for my net worth. Even though there will be Christmas shopping, just as much driving, and a new years vacation, I get two paychecks along with a bonus equivalent to about another two paychecks.

I'm also apartment hunting and I'll probably need to come up with a hefty security deposit.... The following month will be interesting with the cross country move, but it seems my future company is covering just about everything, so that is grand.

I have a confession. I did something very wrong. I crossed a line I should not have. I feel guilty, but at the same time, slightly relieved at what I found. I'll start with some background on why I did it before I get into what it is I did.

I mentioned before we had some financial issues when I was growing up, namely a chapter 13 bankruptcy that ruled my parents life as they made large monthly payments for 5 (or seven?) years. My life wasn't too disrupted and it qualified me for federal grants for college, but it still left me anxious about my parents financial situation, and probably greatly affected how I feel about my own.

A couple months ago I discovered some financial missteps my father had made, yet again. I truly think that this incident has finally made him realize that he needs to take control of his finances. But when I first heard about it, I was upset and nervous. My mom does fine with money, but I still worry about my parents having enough in their old age. Heck, sometimes I worry about them having enough right now.

So I did something wrong. I went online and pulled a free annual credit report for myself, and then.... I pulled one for my dad. It was really a stroke of luck that I was even able to do this. Of course I have my parents social security numbers (I needed them to list them as beneficiaries on my 401k), but they also have a few qualifying questions about where a recent loan is from and the amount of the payments. I made some educated guesses, and guessed right, and suddenly all of the information was right there on my screen. Wow.

The report itself was sort of spotty. Some missed payments, and even some accounts marked as "charge-off". I had to Google that to learn that is when you still owe a company money, but they never expect you to pay it, so they charge it off to balance their books. A few accounts noted as settled as part of the Chapter 13 bankruptcy, and many were simply closed. What comforted me was the fact that I didn't see credit cards with huge (or any) balances, I didn't find a thousands of dollars worth of loans owed. Sure it showed past problems, but no current problems.

Still, I shouldn't have done it. While I may have a good financial head on my shoulders, it is crossing the line to pull his report without his permission or knowledge. that is my anxious controlling side and I gave into it. I should have been an adult and gathered the courage to talk about it with my parents, but I took the cowards way out. I snooped. It was wrong. Still, I'm relieved at what I found.

Many people fret about asking for their first raise at work. My company is fairly large and structured with raises, so I didn't have the issue of how to begin the process.

Performance reviews are given in October. Prior to the review, each employee is required to fill out a self review, stating accomplishments and noting how we met our "goals" of the performance review. This year we also had to name 3 coworkers that we wanted to fill out evaluations for us, and we also filled out at least 3 reviews of others (I did five!). Our managers then compile the information into an overall "score card", and we are given an overall rating of 1 to 3 in two categories. They roughly are "what you do" and "how you do it", but they have some HR-type names. HR imposes rules that disallow managers from rating everyone too high or too low.

The process is structured, and seems very fair. Good raises don't just go to those who gather up the courage to ask. They go to those who can list accomplishments, whose peers speak highly of their work, and who's manager is impressed with them.

My review went really well, I was rated a 3 and a 2.9 in the two categories, and my manager talked about getting me into some leadership classes in the coming year. I was hoping to be promoted to the next grade, but I do not have the 2 years of full time experience that they generally require. So I wasn't. I received a great review this year, yet still got "only" a 4.5% raise. It isn't bad, but it isn't great. I really need to get moved up to the next pay grade level in order to get a larger raise, which would probably happen next year.

The best advice I heard about reviews was to step up your level of effort a bit for the two months before the review. People's memories are short, and that is what they will remember. I didn't do this. However, not long before my review I was in a meeting with my manager (along with about 7 others) and was speaking up and questioning why we were doing something, if it was "value added" (no I didn't use that jargony word!). In my review, he specifically commented that he had noticed that I was speaking up and expressing my opinions and questioning the process when necessary. I didn't do it to impress him, but I don't have a lot of direct interaction with my manager, so this probably helped give me a slight boost.

Unfortunately (or fortunately, perhaps) there is nothing that takes the place of solid hard work. If people are requesting you to work on projects, leaving you good feedback, and entrusting you with responsibility, you should make sure your manager knows it. But if they aren't, no amount of effort on a self evaluation review will make a difference. Perhaps some clever wording and bragging can separate those in the middle a bit, but they can't separate the good from the great.

My mom wants to buy a new car. A mini-cooper convertible. From now on, I will bite my tongue every time she talks about it, as I will when she ultimately (probably) buys it. She does not tell me what to do with my money, and it is certainly not my place to tell her what to do with hers. I've heard she says she has plenty saved for retirement (but how much is plenty?) so if she really can afford a new car, then good for her.

My older sister encourages me to buy a new car every so often. I graduated about a year and a half ago, and it seems to be the thing to do. "You can afford the payments. You are a single person making plenty of money." This is true, I can. Still, I don't yet feel financially secure enough to spend that kind of money, and I don't want to finance it. Not yet, at least. It isn't as though I'm sitting on a bunch of money. My net worth is only just creeping up to 10k (and creeping so slowly with the volatile market!), and purchasing a car would plummet it down into negative numbers. Besides, my car works just fine, and it should work just fine for several more years if I want it to.

Maybe I'm more cautious than she is, but she is also married to a very nice young man whose grandparents happen to have set aside a pile of money sitting in investments for their use. It isn't that they are wasteful of that money, but I think having a giant fund to fall back on gives you a little more confidence in purchasing. Maybe once I have some sort of fund to fall back on, I'd feel more comfortable in purchasing a newer car.

I've run into some personal issues and wound up driving to visit my family this past weekend. I didn't blink twice at paying for the gas (even at the ever rising price) because I really wanted to be with them for a couple days.

Among other things, my sister suggested some retail therapy. Not only that, but she performed some herself, giving me some new pajama's and a nice little present. And really, it did help, maybe more than material items should. It is just nice to get a present. Thoughtful.

I'm not that much of a shopper, but I do believe in retail therapy. Why is it that new things make us happy? But since I also believe in frugality and not shopping senselessly, I think I'll just purchase things that I need anyway (lightbulbs, mascara...) then try to buy some Christmas presents. And maybe a small luxury for myself....

I'm not a strict budgeter. I set monthly goals in excel based on fairly narrow categories, and I track my spending for each category. If I buy a magazine at the grocery store, I sometimes it slip into the grocery budget, even if it should be in entertainment. If I go over my budget, I don't really worry about it. If I save $100 less one month, it's not a big deal. As long as my net worth continually grows and I'm conscious of my spending, I'm not strict at all. I'm great at making a budget, but after that, I ignore it!

This week I decided I wanted new running shoes. Usually, I'd just buy them and worry about it later. This time I actually went into excel, and tried to see where the money was going to come from. If it was going to detract from my savings, fine, but I just wanted to know. I was able to take a little bit out of my utilities (low energy bill in the fall), a little out of "personal", and was able to come up with an extra $75 for running shoes. There is a chance the shoes will be a little more, but the vast majority won't affect my savings.

While I was there, I set up a rough December budget. Due to the year end bonus, I should be able to put $1000 towards my student loan, $2000 in my e-fund, and leave plenty of wiggle room in my new years vacation budget. I love bonus month!

Paints a horrible picture, doesn't it? You may have known what this phrase means for a long time, and if not, you may have heard it today. On the radio on the way home, the newsman reported that stocks had a recovery today, "deaceased feline or otherwise." It took me a minute to understand what he was talking about.

A dead cat bounce is when stock prices jump up after a significant decline, only to continue to fall again after the recovery. Supposedly it comes from the idea that even a dead cat will bounce, if it falls far enough down. Well that's an unpleasant thought!

Why do these bounces occur? Wikipedia suggests that there are at least two factors coming into play. Some investors might have standing orders to buy certain stocks if they fall below a certain level. Other investors might speculate that it is the bottom of the market, so they buy hoping to make a profit.

The only way to tell the difference between a dead cat bounce and a recovery from the bottom is hindsight. So what do you think? I'd love to think that today represented a recovery, but in reality I think we haven't seen the bottom yet.

I found a little note at the end of the Wikipedia entry amusing: "More recently, the term has been used colloquially during extended drinking binges to describe the apparent recovery of individuals previously thought "out-of-commission", only for them to quickly return to sleep, vomit etc." Ah, college.

By the way, thank me for not including an image with this post!

This month was quite unimpressive--an increase of just $132! There are a few reasons I have to explain this. I was sure I'd hit the 10k mark, but I missed... by four dollars!

• Of course, the stock market uneasiness. Between me and my company, we contributed about $1000 this month, yet the overall balance increased by just $300.
• Also, there was a slight student loan mess. I was charged some back interest which was capitalized into the loan (not by my choice!), which increased the balance by about $350. I paid some, and ended up owing $51 more than I owed this time a month ago.
• Last, there was spending. I took two trips to visit my family, at about $100 in gas a pop. I bought my plane ticket for the holidays for another $400 or so. I also went through some personal issues and indulged in a teeny bit of retail therapy.

Next month should be great for my net worth. Even though there will be Christmas shopping, just as much driving, and a new years vacation, I get two paychecks along with a bonus equivalent to about another two paychecks.

I'm also apartment hunting and I'll probably need to come up with a hefty security deposit.... The following month will be interesting with the cross country move, but it seems my future company is covering just about everything, so that is grand.

I have a confession. I did something very wrong. I crossed a line I should not have. I feel guilty, but at the same time, slightly relieved at what I found. I'll start with some background on why I did it before I get into what it is I did.

I mentioned before we had some financial issues when I was growing up, namely a chapter 13 bankruptcy that ruled my parents life as they made large monthly payments for 5 (or seven?) years. My life wasn't too disrupted and it qualified me for federal grants for college, but it still left me anxious about my parents financial situation, and probably greatly affected how I feel about my own.

A couple months ago I discovered some financial missteps my father had made, yet again. I truly think that this incident has finally made him realize that he needs to take control of his finances. But when I first heard about it, I was upset and nervous. My mom does fine with money, but I still worry about my parents having enough in their old age. Heck, sometimes I worry about them having enough right now.

So I did something wrong. I went online and pulled a free annual credit report for myself, and then.... I pulled one for my dad. It was really a stroke of luck that I was even able to do this. Of course I have my parents social security numbers (I needed them to list them as beneficiaries on my 401k), but they also have a few qualifying questions about where a recent loan is from and the amount of the payments. I made some educated guesses, and guessed right, and suddenly all of the information was right there on my screen. Wow.

The report itself was sort of spotty. Some missed payments, and even some accounts marked as "charge-off". I had to Google that to learn that is when you still owe a company money, but they never expect you to pay it, so they charge it off to balance their books. A few accounts noted as settled as part of the Chapter 13 bankruptcy, and many were simply closed. What comforted me was the fact that I didn't see credit cards with huge (or any) balances, I didn't find a thousands of dollars worth of loans owed. Sure it showed past problems, but no current problems.

Still, I shouldn't have done it. While I may have a good financial head on my shoulders, it is crossing the line to pull his report without his permission or knowledge. that is my anxious controlling side and I gave into it. I should have been an adult and gathered the courage to talk about it with my parents, but I took the cowards way out. I snooped. It was wrong. Still, I'm relieved at what I found.

Many people fret about asking for their first raise at work. My company is fairly large and structured with raises, so I didn't have the issue of how to begin the process.

Performance reviews are given in October. Prior to the review, each employee is required to fill out a self review, stating accomplishments and noting how we met our "goals" of the performance review. This year we also had to name 3 coworkers that we wanted to fill out evaluations for us, and we also filled out at least 3 reviews of others (I did five!). Our managers then compile the information into an overall "score card", and we are given an overall rating of 1 to 3 in two categories. They roughly are "what you do" and "how you do it", but they have some HR-type names. HR imposes rules that disallow managers from rating everyone too high or too low.

The process is structured, and seems very fair. Good raises don't just go to those who gather up the courage to ask. They go to those who can list accomplishments, whose peers speak highly of their work, and who's manager is impressed with them.

My review went really well, I was rated a 3 and a 2.9 in the two categories, and my manager talked about getting me into some leadership classes in the coming year. I was hoping to be promoted to the next grade, but I do not have the 2 years of full time experience that they generally require. So I wasn't. I received a great review this year, yet still got "only" a 4.5% raise. It isn't bad, but it isn't great. I really need to get moved up to the next pay grade level in order to get a larger raise, which would probably happen next year.

The best advice I heard about reviews was to step up your level of effort a bit for the two months before the review. People's memories are short, and that is what they will remember. I didn't do this. However, not long before my review I was in a meeting with my manager (along with about 7 others) and was speaking up and questioning why we were doing something, if it was "value added" (no I didn't use that jargony word!). In my review, he specifically commented that he had noticed that I was speaking up and expressing my opinions and questioning the process when necessary. I didn't do it to impress him, but I don't have a lot of direct interaction with my manager, so this probably helped give me a slight boost.

Unfortunately (or fortunately, perhaps) there is nothing that takes the place of solid hard work. If people are requesting you to work on projects, leaving you good feedback, and entrusting you with responsibility, you should make sure your manager knows it. But if they aren't, no amount of effort on a self evaluation review will make a difference. Perhaps some clever wording and bragging can separate those in the middle a bit, but they can't separate the good from the great.

My mom wants to buy a new car. A mini-cooper convertible. From now on, I will bite my tongue every time she talks about it, as I will when she ultimately (probably) buys it. She does not tell me what to do with my money, and it is certainly not my place to tell her what to do with hers. I've heard she says she has plenty saved for retirement (but how much is plenty?) so if she really can afford a new car, then good for her.

My older sister encourages me to buy a new car every so often. I graduated about a year and a half ago, and it seems to be the thing to do. "You can afford the payments. You are a single person making plenty of money." This is true, I can. Still, I don't yet feel financially secure enough to spend that kind of money, and I don't want to finance it. Not yet, at least. It isn't as though I'm sitting on a bunch of money. My net worth is only just creeping up to 10k (and creeping so slowly with the volatile market!), and purchasing a car would plummet it down into negative numbers. Besides, my car works just fine, and it should work just fine for several more years if I want it to.

Maybe I'm more cautious than she is, but she is also married to a very nice young man whose grandparents happen to have set aside a pile of money sitting in investments for their use. It isn't that they are wasteful of that money, but I think having a giant fund to fall back on gives you a little more confidence in purchasing. Maybe once I have some sort of fund to fall back on, I'd feel more comfortable in purchasing a newer car.

I've run into some personal issues and wound up driving to visit my family this past weekend. I didn't blink twice at paying for the gas (even at the ever rising price) because I really wanted to be with them for a couple days.

Among other things, my sister suggested some retail therapy. Not only that, but she performed some herself, giving me some new pajama's and a nice little present. And really, it did help, maybe more than material items should. It is just nice to get a present. Thoughtful.

I'm not that much of a shopper, but I do believe in retail therapy. Why is it that new things make us happy? But since I also believe in frugality and not shopping senselessly, I think I'll just purchase things that I need anyway (lightbulbs, mascara...) then try to buy some Christmas presents. And maybe a small luxury for myself....

I'm not a strict budgeter. I set monthly goals in excel based on fairly narrow categories, and I track my spending for each category. If I buy a magazine at the grocery store, I sometimes it slip into the grocery budget, even if it should be in entertainment. If I go over my budget, I don't really worry about it. If I save $100 less one month, it's not a big deal. As long as my net worth continually grows and I'm conscious of my spending, I'm not strict at all. I'm great at making a budget, but after that, I ignore it!

This week I decided I wanted new running shoes. Usually, I'd just buy them and worry about it later. This time I actually went into excel, and tried to see where the money was going to come from. If it was going to detract from my savings, fine, but I just wanted to know. I was able to take a little bit out of my utilities (low energy bill in the fall), a little out of "personal", and was able to come up with an extra $75 for running shoes. There is a chance the shoes will be a little more, but the vast majority won't affect my savings.

While I was there, I set up a rough December budget. Due to the year end bonus, I should be able to put $1000 towards my student loan, $2000 in my e-fund, and leave plenty of wiggle room in my new years vacation budget. I love bonus month!

Paints a horrible picture, doesn't it? You may have known what this phrase means for a long time, and if not, you may have heard it today. On the radio on the way home, the newsman reported that stocks had a recovery today, "deaceased feline or otherwise." It took me a minute to understand what he was talking about.

A dead cat bounce is when stock prices jump up after a significant decline, only to continue to fall again after the recovery. Supposedly it comes from the idea that even a dead cat will bounce, if it falls far enough down. Well that's an unpleasant thought!

Why do these bounces occur? Wikipedia suggests that there are at least two factors coming into play. Some investors might have standing orders to buy certain stocks if they fall below a certain level. Other investors might speculate that it is the bottom of the market, so they buy hoping to make a profit.

The only way to tell the difference between a dead cat bounce and a recovery from the bottom is hindsight. So what do you think? I'd love to think that today represented a recovery, but in reality I think we haven't seen the bottom yet.

I found a little note at the end of the Wikipedia entry amusing: "More recently, the term has been used colloquially during extended drinking binges to describe the apparent recovery of individuals previously thought "out-of-commission", only for them to quickly return to sleep, vomit etc." Ah, college.

By the way, thank me for not including an image with this post!