April has come and gone and I've been a very bad girl during that month with my financials. My company issues a paycheck to us every other friday which equates to 26 paychecks in a year versus 24 paychecks to those that get paid on the 1st and the 15th of the month.
This translates into a lesser paycheck amount but it does make it up for it in quantity. My next 3 paychecks would again be in October.
To my dismay, I was only able to save 1 of 3 paychecks.
I saved my first paycheck entirely. My second paycheck was used to pay for the mortgage. My third and final paycheck was spent...well.. on vacations. Yes, that is vacation with an "S". But these are just small vacations that I will be taking very soon later this month.
One to Dallas and the other to Cancun Mexico. But all in all, both trips cost under $1500 for airfares + hotel.
How was everyone else's month? Any upticks on your financials.
Showing posts with label personal. Show all posts
Showing posts with label personal. Show all posts
Monday
Friday
Receipts with Discounts
The next time you purchase a meal at a restaurant or items at a clothing store, be sure to check the back of your receipt before throwing it away.
Businesses like to entice shoppers to come back and visit their stores by giving out discounts on their next purchase. These discounts can be found in the back of the receipt by way of participating in a survey.
I had dinner the other night at a local chain restaurant. After paying, the cashier pointed out to me the discount I could receive on my next visit. It was a simple phone survey to tell them how my experience was at the restaurant.
There is usually a code displayed for you to refer to in order to participate. All it took was a mere 2 minutes on the phone.
1.I dialed the number.
2.Followed instructions to enter the code found on the receipt.
3.Answer their survey.
4.Then a confirmation code was given back to me.
So the next time I eat at this restaurant, 25% will be taken off my total bill.
I think this is a good way for people to save money and for businesses to welcome back their customers. Don't you?
All it takes is a few minutes to save a few bucks.
Wednesday
Car Shopping
Alright, this will definitely be of some damage to our bank account.
However, we need to make this new car purchase because DH has over 220,000 miles on his junkmobile and it's been misbehaving such as sudden engine stoppage for no reason. 220,000!!! only if we were paid $1 to drive each miles. I'll be $220,000 richer. Kidding.
We've been eyeing Japanese cars in particular. At first we opted for European cars but it was out of our price range and since being used as a commuter's car raking in an average of 12,000-14,000 miles annually, it just doesn't make sense to spend so much on a nice european luxury car. Repair expense down the line will also be a headache.
Therefore, we've decided to go with the Japanese brand models.
We're looking into either an Acura or a Lexus. Both have very good reliability ratings and are pretty luxurious in its class. We're hoping to spend around $25K to no more than $35K for this car with an average of 25MPH on the highways.
In terms of payment, I think we're leaning towards financing with a reasonable down payment.
However, we need to make this new car purchase because DH has over 220,000 miles on his junkmobile and it's been misbehaving such as sudden engine stoppage for no reason. 220,000!!! only if we were paid $1 to drive each miles. I'll be $220,000 richer. Kidding.
We've been eyeing Japanese cars in particular. At first we opted for European cars but it was out of our price range and since being used as a commuter's car raking in an average of 12,000-14,000 miles annually, it just doesn't make sense to spend so much on a nice european luxury car. Repair expense down the line will also be a headache.
Therefore, we've decided to go with the Japanese brand models.
We're looking into either an Acura or a Lexus. Both have very good reliability ratings and are pretty luxurious in its class. We're hoping to spend around $25K to no more than $35K for this car with an average of 25MPH on the highways.
In terms of payment, I think we're leaning towards financing with a reasonable down payment.
Tuesday
$200 for Pet Health
So my sister's pet guinea pig has an eye infection and we brought him into a vet this past weekend. The visit set us back $200. We thought it was just a routine check-up which is $65 with prescribed medicine another $40 but the vet recommend us to check his teeth to see if the eye infection is caused by his cavities.
The darn piggie won't allow them to check so we had to sedate him which cost another $70. Once sedated, they were able to examine the teeth and concluded that it was not the cause. So they prescribed him additional medication for another $25.
All in all, this visit was $200 for just a guinea pig. Pets are expensive.
I'm thinking of buying pet insurance for him. Do you think this is a good idea?
The darn piggie won't allow them to check so we had to sedate him which cost another $70. Once sedated, they were able to examine the teeth and concluded that it was not the cause. So they prescribed him additional medication for another $25.
All in all, this visit was $200 for just a guinea pig. Pets are expensive.
I'm thinking of buying pet insurance for him. Do you think this is a good idea?
Friday
2009 Tax Return
So I got a phone call from my tax accountant that he was done with our 2009 Income Tax. Both DH and I dutifully drove down to meet our accountant and signed documentations to prepare our filing.
Usually around Mid-March, we should have our return money in the bank by now. But this year, we got a bit lazy and procrastinated.
You're probably thinking why in the world would we let the government hold onto our money interest free? We knew we were getting a nice return but just didn't know how much.
Low and behold it was nice to see that we were getting back $15K from Federal and $5K from the State of California. Well this return is justifiable since we paid close to $80K in tax withholding in 2009. Moreover, we were able to claim the interest of our two mortgage.
I already have $7K of this return money earmarked to pay off the lingering debt of $12K.
Husband also decided to give $5K of this return to his mom. She has fallen on some tough times and he wanted to help out.
Usually around Mid-March, we should have our return money in the bank by now. But this year, we got a bit lazy and procrastinated.
You're probably thinking why in the world would we let the government hold onto our money interest free? We knew we were getting a nice return but just didn't know how much.
Low and behold it was nice to see that we were getting back $15K from Federal and $5K from the State of California. Well this return is justifiable since we paid close to $80K in tax withholding in 2009. Moreover, we were able to claim the interest of our two mortgage.
I already have $7K of this return money earmarked to pay off the lingering debt of $12K.
Husband also decided to give $5K of this return to his mom. She has fallen on some tough times and he wanted to help out.
Wednesday
Costco Auto Program
It's been so long since my last blog. Been inundated with work and personal events.
I have convinced husband to buy a new car. He's been driving his toyota camry for 7 years. He purchased it used with close to 80K miles and clocked in another 120K since.
With our jobs being stable and many car dealerships hoping to revive their business amidst this see-sawing economy, there are some great deals to be had.
A friend refered us to a Costco Auto Program. This program is offered to card members. Costco is similar to Sam's Club where you can buy items in bulks for cheap.
With this program, it's said you can get below invoice pricing on selected vehicles at participating dealerships. All you need to do is provide them with your membership number and the car of your choice.
We then proceeded to give this a try. We put in our card number and the vehicle we wanted. Hours later, the dealership contacted us via email and gave us a quote of $4000 below the MSRP price.
This sounds too good to be true. We'll take this current quote with a grain of salt while still trying to get multiple quotes from other dealerships that are not participated in this program. We're in no rush so we have time and negotiation on our side.
What's the best car deal you've gotten and what was your haggling experience like?
Tuesday
Trading compliance checklist
Just got out of a mandatory meeting with our compliance department. The meeting was surprisingly long and very mundane. This clearly shows why I do not have a personal stock trading account. You see, our company is very stringent with the way their employee handles their own investment accounts. Every quarter, we have to disclose information about our assets.
This is industry policy when working for an investment firm. We are under strict provision from the SEC which is a group that regulates the stock market and prevent corporate abuses relating to the offering and sale of securities and corporate reporting. Our compliance group is the middleman between us and the SEC making sure everything is handled and reported diligently.
Every investment company have this requirement whether they are extremely strict having to know every detail information or rather lenient having to know only minor info. In my case, you can tell it's the former. Failure to comply to such reporting can result in termination of my employment and serious monetary fines.
Here are some key points, but the list goes beyond this repertoire. Therefore, this is a reason why I do not have a brokerage account with securities other than a 401K. I just feel this isn't worth my time for now atleast to go through this checklist of reporting every 3 months.
Friday
preview to my annual review
I had a one-on-one monthly meeting with my manager. To my surprise towards the end of my meeting, he mentioned that he is preparing to write-up our yearly review. I joked and mentioned to him that our company must be doing well since they offered us a 1% profit sharing match to our annual salary.
He responded by saying we are indeed profitable this year and hinted to me that a raise might be in the horizon. You see, last year he had lobbied for a raise for me but due to the state of the faltering economy, our upper management rejected the idea to give me more money. So this year, he did drop some hints that he had requested a raise of more than 3% for me.
It made my day to know that the company had a good year and that I might see an increase in my next paycheck. More to come.....
He responded by saying we are indeed profitable this year and hinted to me that a raise might be in the horizon. You see, last year he had lobbied for a raise for me but due to the state of the faltering economy, our upper management rejected the idea to give me more money. So this year, he did drop some hints that he had requested a raise of more than 3% for me.
It made my day to know that the company had a good year and that I might see an increase in my next paycheck. More to come.....
Monday
Company Profit Sharing
So I came into work today and logged into my company's email account. To my surprised, I saw something flash before me about our Employer Discretionary Profit Sharing Contribution. Like a bee in a honeycomb I was so excited. I knew it was free money honey but just didn't know how much.
Our company use to have a pension plan where they would contribute a 3% match to our annual salary. But this plan has now been frozen due to the economic situation. So seeing this was a huge surprise.
Nonetheless before opening the email to continue my pleasant reading, I thought my profit sharing would be atleast 3% or better to make up for the lost in pension.
I opened the email and read the following:
I’m pleased to announce that the Board and senior management team have approved an Employer Discretionary Profit Sharing Contribution (“Profit Sharing Contribution”) to your ABC Company 401(k) Plan account. Despite the challenges of 2009, your hard work helped make it a year of great achievement, and the Profit Sharing Contribution recognizes your efforts.
Here is when my jaw dropped:
You will receive a Profit Sharing Contribution of 1% of your eligible pay.
Really! That was sure a buzz kill... 1%. All I'm getting is a paltry 1% match to my annual salary for this profit sharing. I didn't know whether I should be happy or nonchalent. I understand that 1% is alot considering the size of my company and the number of staff employed. We have a little bit over 250,000 employees so the payout can easily run up into the millions.
But when comparing my company's sudden profit sharing to my husband's company profit sharing, I was downright ambarassed. I don't have the exact percentage, but DH company profit sharing this year was almost 35% of his salary. Then again, DH company size of 3,000 is not as big as mine. So there's more cheese to go around, but I'm just getting the crumbs.
Again, this is discretionary. They have the right not to profit share. I know there are companies out there that don't even offer a company profit sharing plan.
Am I just being plain right ungrateful? Does your company give our such perks?
Our company use to have a pension plan where they would contribute a 3% match to our annual salary. But this plan has now been frozen due to the economic situation. So seeing this was a huge surprise.
Nonetheless before opening the email to continue my pleasant reading, I thought my profit sharing would be atleast 3% or better to make up for the lost in pension.
I opened the email and read the following:
I’m pleased to announce that the Board and senior management team have approved an Employer Discretionary Profit Sharing Contribution (“Profit Sharing Contribution”) to your ABC Company 401(k) Plan account. Despite the challenges of 2009, your hard work helped make it a year of great achievement, and the Profit Sharing Contribution recognizes your efforts.
Here is when my jaw dropped:
You will receive a Profit Sharing Contribution of 1% of your eligible pay.
Really! That was sure a buzz kill... 1%. All I'm getting is a paltry 1% match to my annual salary for this profit sharing. I didn't know whether I should be happy or nonchalent. I understand that 1% is alot considering the size of my company and the number of staff employed. We have a little bit over 250,000 employees so the payout can easily run up into the millions.
But when comparing my company's sudden profit sharing to my husband's company profit sharing, I was downright ambarassed. I don't have the exact percentage, but DH company profit sharing this year was almost 35% of his salary. Then again, DH company size of 3,000 is not as big as mine. So there's more cheese to go around, but I'm just getting the crumbs.
Again, this is discretionary. They have the right not to profit share. I know there are companies out there that don't even offer a company profit sharing plan.
Am I just being plain right ungrateful? Does your company give our such perks?
Thursday
Grass is Greener on the other side
I love my front lawn and I try my best to maintain it. It's been raining alot lately so the grass has gotten greener. This weather has saved me time and money. However, during the summer months, it gets dry so it needs more attention and upkeep.
Currently, a gardener is hired to service my lawn. He is paid $25 to mow and hedge my lawn twice a month. DH thinks this is a waste of money spending $300 a year just cutting grass. But I feel this money is well spent. It helps to maintain the look and vitality of the grass since most of our neighbors outsource this kind of service to a gardener. Our community also fines a penalty if grass is not well kept and maintained a certain height. I also think it's beneficial that we are giving our business to someone since so many have cut back on spending during such tough times.
As I buzz down my neighborhood in my luxmobile, I can't help but admire the front lawn of this certain neighbor. I have pointed this out to DH everytime we drive by. Their grass appears to be healthier, greener, and more luscious. I sometimes wish I could trade lawns with this neighbor.
But today my DH pointed out to me as we pushed out of our driveway that our grass is just as green and nice as that neighbor's. I realized he made a good point. Our grass is just as green and well kept.
As the old saying goes "Is the grass always greener on the otherside?"
It's human nature to want what the other person's got. After all, we have greed in us. I know this term often times apply to relationship, but I also think that it applies to money, wealth, and material things.
We're always going to compare ourselves to what our neighbors have - bigger houses, nicer cars, bigger boats, nicer clothes, and a nicer lawn (as with my case). But this constant comparison won't make us happy. We need to be happy with what we currently have.
I need to stop looking at my neighbor's lawn and start noticing that I have as good as a lawn as theirs.
Sometimes the "grass is just as green on our side".
Friday
Deadly Sin: Gambling Addiction
This is going to sting because I just found out from my best friend a few days ago that her husband is in $12K of credit card debt. She inadvertently found the statement and confronted her husband about these charges. He had no other choice but confessed to having advanced the cash to support this addiction.
When I was told of this along with my other friends, we were appalled! We all are very close and often share our personal life stories with one another. It just threw me off track because I never knew my friend (her husband) had this kind of problem. This is very serious because they recently had a kid and are saving to buy their first house. My best friend is currently living with her parents.
I consoled my friend and told her that she is lucky to have found this problem early on. $12K in gambling debt is not too serious if the buck stops here. It's comparable to traders that sometime lose this much money over bad investment decisions. As of now, my friend is thinking of dipping into her own savings account to pay off this debt that her selfish and irresponsible husband has created. Could this be an early indication to a serious problem? Should my friend bail out her husband so easily without letting him realize how long it takes to save $12K? I just hope she is able to convince him to go down another path and put his family first before himself!
On a personal note, I know first hand how this addiction can tear a family apart. My DH's dad leads this kind of life. He has always been a gambler. He has no self control and frequents the casino on a daily basis. The mentality of these gamblers is that they believe they are able to win back their losings. But next thing they know, they get deeper and deeper into debt. Their whole paycheck helps pay for the existence of the casino. We have another friend of whom we do not keep in touch with anymore that has this problem. He constantly bet on sport games and also has an affinity for casinos. He works just to pay off his bookie.
I guess I will never understand what drives a person to gamble away their life savings that they work so hard for on a daily basis. There's so much potential in these people and the money that could have been used to fund for their retirement, savings, buying a house, vacations, and just living an ordinary day to day life outside the casino.
VEGAS here we come
Want to wish all you lovers out there an early Happy Valentine's Day!
DH and I will travel out to the desert this Valentine's Day weekend. It's not just any desert, it's LAS VEGAS. We wanted something special this year and not just the usual stay in town celebration. Because of the rare sunday/monday holiday combo, we saw it as an opportune time for a short getaway.
We made plans to book this back in January. The economy must still be in a doldrum because there were some amazing deals on flights & hotel. Our stay is at MGM's newest hotel and casino called ARIA. After doing an estimate on other costs for this trip, it turns out to be quite expensive. Close to $1,500!!! (That is if we really do lose all of the $500 allocated to gambling)
Fixed Expense
Flight & Hotel - $519.96 which includes a $75 casino credit for us to spend freely at the resort. We can redeem it at their restaurants, shopping, spas, shows, or in the form of money to gamble.
Variable Expenses
Shuttle/Taxi - Shuttle transportation is needed to and from the airport. Taxi cabs will be used to get to far away casinos and venues.
Dining - There will be 3 breakfasts, 2 lunches, and 2 dinners. This is a total of 7 meals. I would guess an average of $40 per meal is enough although breakfast tends to cost less so extras will be allocated toward dinner or other munchies.
Shopping - I probably won't be doing too much shopping. But if I was, it will go towards souvenirs and maybe clothing.
Gambling - Now this is the fun part. Who goes to Vegas without trying out their luck? Who knows, maybe I'll come back a lucky winner. But we plan to do some serious light gambling at the tables, slots, and poker room.
This pretty much covers everything. We don't have plans yet to watch any shows since we've seen a couple from trips before. No plans either to hit the clubs or bars.
Recently, President Barack Obama made a remark on people that takes vacation out to Las Vegas. He said “You don’t blow a bunch of cash in Vegas when you’re trying to save for college.” I feel this comment was a bit harsh. At first I thought maybe I shouldn't go ahead with this trip since so many Americans are still struggling financially while I blow away money in Vegas. But then I realized that our jobs are pretty stable and we deserve to have a mini vacation from all the hard work. So I didn't feel as bad.
Do you agree with Obama's comment and what are your plans for these special days?
Tuesday
Credit card fraud
Bad News! Just logged onto online banking and noticed two suspicious transactions pending in the account. Called billing dept and voiced my concerns to them. They said they cannot do anything about the charges until it hits my account. In the meantime, a new card will be issued to me in about a week. Now this is really scary because I still have the credit card in my possesion so I'm really not sure how the perpetrator managed to charge up the card. The inconvenience in all of this is that I only have 1 credit card. So in the meantime, I would need to go to the ATM to withdraw cash for all my usage. I feel so helpless without the plastic.
Has this happened to you before or anyone you know of?
How long have you gone without needing to use your credit card?
About Me... Mrs. Bee
Mike from the blog "PersonalFinanceNinja" asked if I can write a bit about myself and background into my field of work. So here's my response. Hope I don't bore you.
I graduated from a State University with a major in Finance and a minor in Accounting. Yes, you can call me a number geek. Anyhow, business has always been in my blood since childhood. I recall having an entrepreneur spirit during fund raising week at school. No matter what the weather was rain or shine, I would go door to door around my neighborhood in pursuit of selling the most candies/books/gifts/etc. Growing up, my parents were into stocks and talked alot about their rental properties. That intrigued me as I began to realize that we can do so much with our earnings by the way of investing and tinkering with it creatively. And so my goal was to learn as much as I can about this field through school, magazines, internet, and television. That was when I decided to Major in Finance. But while attending college, I was lucky to work part time in an Accounting position. That was when I decided to also graduate with not only a Finance degree but a minor in Accounting.
Upon graduation, I immediately landed a job with a medium sized investment management firm. This is where I got introduced into the basics of equities and fixed income securities. Had worked there for a few years and ventured into the world of hedge fund working to settle trades alongside floor traders and portfolio managers. Found that hedge funds operate differently than investment management firms. The salaries were higher with bonus options and security structures were traded differently. Lastly, after leaving the hedge fund due to the company’s bad financial standing, I am now settled into this current company for over 5 years as a financial reporting analyst. So you can say I have pretty much worn the hats of a few if not some positions in my short investment career span since college. I intend to stay in this securities investment field for many years to come due to the nature of the work where I find challenging and ever changing due to the economic climate and the attitude/demand/philosophy of the client investors.
My job is not investment banking such as Goldman Sachs or JPMorgan where the hours are so demanding but their salaries sure are high with great bonuses. My job is quite at ease and not as stressful as these high flying firms. I enjoy this balance in my life currently. Thus, if you’re a people person who enjoy looking at numbers all day and working in a so-so fast pace dynamic environment dealing with stocks, bonds, mutual funds, derivatives and all these crazy “jargonic” investment terms, then this field maybe right for you.
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