Posted on: July 24, 2009 by Matt
Over the past couple of weeks I have been pondering and finally decided to act upon throwing my hat back into the job hunting ring. I am currently gainfully employed but have been suffering a bit from the stress of the job as well as the isolation that I live in while at work. Since I work remotely for a company nearly 2,000 miles away I sit in an office and work via email and phone all day. Some days it is nice and I enjoy the quiet but others I kind of miss having an actual office environment.
Overall I have enjoyed working for my company for the past three years or so but some events as of late have transpired that prompted me to start browsing around again. I suppose that if I was to sum up the reasons I have for wanting to move on I would say:
- The stress is getting to me: My job is pretty stressful and the effects of having to deal with the stress are rubbing off on my family. I come home tired and grumpy at the end of the day. I want to enjoy the time with my family.
- I am a bit burnt out: I suppose this goes along with the stress but I just feel burnt out with this job. I have not got much left to offer and need a rest or a change.
- I do not have a clear job description: I am at a loss to know exactly what is expected from me or how my performance is being monitored. I have raised this issue with my boss and was told that a job description did exist – which he could not produce.
- Extra responsibilities, less money: Need I say more? I am being assigned more tasks on a regular basis and being told that I am now “in charge of X” and actually end up making less money! I also get frustrated as “X” changes on a weekly basis at least.
- Broken commitments: It seems my boss blows me off a lot. My requests are not responded to and when he does respond the result is normally problematic. The requests that I do make are generally fairly simple requests for the benefits I was told I am entitled to. Examples include: Health insurance – it took me a long time to get this started up, my HSA account still is not working properly despite having set it up two months ago, requests for information on the company simple IRA plan have gone unanswered, business cards were never printed despite asking several times (clients had requested I provide a card).
- A lack of proactive HR: As I just noted – getting benefits is like pulling teeth. I am not sure if everyone else had this much trouble or had to ask 52 times to get health insurance working but it is tiring. Other companies I have worked for actually had a procedure and would provide you all the forms on the day you were eligible for a benefit.
I think the real awakening came on my last full day in Denver during my last business trip out. I was having lunch with another manager I work with and he said something to the tune of “What we really should do is hire a few junior guys, pay them between $XX,XXX and $YY,YYY a year and just run them all around to handle the reactive work. You know – like make them our run around guys“. It really sounded like a great idea when he said it but then I realized that I make $YY,YYY per year! Not to sound petty but if we are talking about bringing “junior technicians” in and paying them basically what I make then something sounds off to me. I have a proven track record with the company and am frequently turned to when other (some more senior) people either need relief, to hand something off or are unable to resolve an issue on their own. So the casual conversation with a coworker lead me to believe that not only am I stressed and burnt out but I am probably under paid for it as well.
So I have decied to move forward with seeing what else is out there. What I am hoping to find is a position that will provide a good compnay culture, some structure, to know my job definition, recieve the promised benefits without a fight and to make at least as much as I currently make now (and have my salary tied to my level of responsibility level somehow). I suppose it may sound like a lot but at this point in time I am really wanting to simplify my life, reduce stress and spend better quality time with my family. I suppose we will see where it goes from here.
Posted on: July 9, 2009 by Matt
Last month I decided to give myself the gift of a rebuilt emergency fund by setting up a public challenge to get it back to the base of $1,000 by the end of the year. My reasoning for the amount was that $1,000 is the recommended starter fund from Dave Ramsey’s The Total Money Makeover, an attainable goal as well as an amount that makes me feel somewhat safe should something unexpected come up. When I kicked the challenge off I had $108 in my savings account, currently my progress has been a little slower than I had hoped for but is progressing just the same.
So for my current status I have $259 in my emergency fund account – an increase of $151. In addition I have also increased my health savings account from $0 to $99. So my total savings for the past month is about $250 but some of that went into savings for health care as I am planning to get a doctor’s visit in by the end of the year (it has been about 12 years since I have had a physical).
I am also hoping to jump start a couple of extra income steams by the end of the year in order to add to my savings and debt repayment plan. Currently I am working on:
- Blog income via ads and adsense.
- Writing EHow articles: 8 published so far and about $5 in earnings after one month. I have not devoted much time yet but am encouraged.
- Selling stuff on EBay: I have a handful of things that I could sell without really even noticing. Why not get rid of some clutter and make a few dollars?
In addition – my final car payment will be next month and that will free up an additional $400 per month for me to work into the budget. I am really excited about having another debt repaid and crossed off my list!
Posted on: July 8, 2009 by Matt
Many of you are probably familiar with the Food Network Show $40 A Day with Rachel Ray. If you are not – the basic premise is that Rachel Ray goes out on a trip to a city and tries to get through the day spending $40 for all of her meals. While I was out of town on business I figured I would see what I could do to stay around her benchmark and still eat relatively well for the 10 days I would be gone.
After returning home I promptly went through my spreadsheet of expenses to submit an expense report to my boss. All said and done I had about $565 out of pocket for the 10 days I was gone and another $1325 or so for the base trip expenses (airfare, rental car, hotel) that my boss picked up on the company card. The $565 I spent breaks down like this:
- $112.45 – Parking for the airport I was departing from or 10 days. I used an economy lot with shuttle service to the terminal which saved about $5 – $10 per day.
- $101.28 – Rental car taxes: I guess these were not covered by the reservation booking.
- $74.06 – Gas: One fill up for my car to get to the airport and two for the rental car.
- $23.50 – Parking in Denver: Parking in downtown Denver can run up to $20 per day. Most uncovered lots are in the $10 – $12 per day neighborhood. I generally parked a few blocks outside of downtown in a lot that ran $2.50 per day. I had to walk about 15 minutes to get to downtown but saved the company about $10 per day here as well.
- $253.26 – Food total: That was all of my meals for the 10 day trip plus coffee, snacks and anything else I ingested. That totals out to about $25 per day which is $15 per day less than my baseline. I did have a couple of dinners that spanned two nights but also treated coworkers to coffee as well as one coworker to lunch. This makes me wonder if maybe I should get a show similar to Rachel Ray’s and search out the cheap eats in a town for people that need to spend less than $40 a day. Of course I am not a fan of cameras and have no interest at all in the idea but it is an idea just the same…
So for the entire trip my total came to about $1890 which is $110 less than the $2,000 I set as my goal to stay under. I am not sure what my boss had in mind for a baseline for expenses or what other coworkers have spent while out of town on business but think I did a fairly decent job of keeping costs low. How about you? Do you have a standard amount that you spend while out of town on business?
Posted on: July 6, 2009 by Matt
Well I have safely returned home from my work trip to Denver and work is still a little crazy. I hope to get back into a regular posting schedule this week and get my blog back on track here. Work is still a little bit overwhelming and I have some family in from out of town so I hope to try to kill two birds with one stone and post some on topic blog items from my normal to do list. Right now I still need to:
- Work out my budget for July.
- Get together a list of stuff to sell on Ebay.
- Balance out my finances and expenses from my trip to Denver.
- Submit the expense report to my boss.
- Get a bunch of work done for work!
I hope that incorporating a blog post around a couple of these topics as I accomplish them will allow me to start my normal routine back up – we will see how my plan works out!
Posted on: June 18, 2009 by Matt
Back in the beginning of the year I posted on some of the things I am looking forward to in2009 and considering that we are now about half way through the year I figured I would post an update of where I stand. The past few months have been pretty interesting and quite a bit has happened so I will get right down to it.
- Getting back in shape: I have been going to the gym for 5 months or so now. Lately I have been getting up early in the morning and going to work out four or five days a week. My gym is closed on Sundays thorough the summer so I am really only missing one or two days per week that the gym is available. Since the gym closed for Sundays a couple weeks ago I have been working to get outside and do something on Sundays as well. Overall I now: get a pretty good amount of exercise, have quite smoking for over a year and do not drink. My diet is still a bit unhealthy and I tend to overeat and have a sweet tooth but I am making progress.
- No more car payments: Next month will be my final full payment followed by a half payment in August and that will be done. I am very much looking forward to not owing money to my ex-girlfriend any more and am looking even more forward to having the extra cash every month!
- Giving my site a new look: I have changed my theme twice and am thinking I will settle with this one for a little bit. So far so good I think.
- Paying off my credit card: I no longer carry a balance on my credit card from month to month! I am still getting to a point where I do not spend at all on it but my balance of nearly $2,000 that was carrying over and accruing interest fees is now gone!
- Rebuilding my savings account: I am getting there. I have my own little emergency fund challenge for 2009 running to give myself some public incentive and accountability to get my savings account back in shape. Right now I am up to $250 in the emergency fund and am aiming to reach $1,000 before the end of the year.
So far 2009 has been a pretty productive year and I am really looking forward to seeing how it all wraps up. I am hopeful that my personal financial situation will continue to improve. My girlfriend has also been taking some pretty impressive steps to improve her financial fitness as well and has impressed me with her ability to reach her goals as well. I think that right now she has more in savings than I do and was telling me the other day that now that she has the money in savings she does not want to touch it. Needless to say – I am proud of her and am awed by her ability to accomplish her goals.
Tags: Debt, Debt Reduction, Goals, Health, Personal Finance, Relationships, Savings Filed Under: Debt, Debt Reduction, Goals, Health, Planning, Relationships, Savings
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