Goals February Review

Here's how I did on my February Goals:

1. Look for more places to apply: Met and Passed. I applied to 10 more places with in the last month.

2. Gain full time employment: I got an part time job, but have yet to gain full time employment.

3. Find more ways to bring in non-salary income: Counting the Part Time job towards this goal as well. I've tried to doing surveys, and have found one thing out I'm not a survey type of person. Through CashCrate.com I've only qualified for 1 and earned a total of .80 (wow!) and it was irritating, it was a movie survey and basically it was trying to get me to see this one movie, it was very bias to that one movie. I still need to go through Linkworth's and start implementing that, so I'm going to say this is 70% done.

4. Post more articles on Helium: 100% I posted a total of two articles this month.

Am I the Only One Who Thinks Some THings Happen for a Reason?

I know I'm not, but I can't help to think sometimes I am. This morning I talked about the lows and highs I went through these past couple of days. I'm sure you might recall me posting about how I turned down the Edward Jones job. Well after I did I sort of regretted it, but I didn't pay it no mind. Because I often regret choices I make. I'm use to it right about now. Well this one wouldn't go away and something about just kept nagging me. Well this morning when I went to check my many emails, I found a email from Edward Jones asking me to reconsider the possibility, adn you know what I am?

I'm not positive on what I'll do but I'm going to take a closer look at it this time around for sure.

Vacationing from The Edge: Mood Swings

It's amazing how one can go from a high to a low in space of a day. Well maybe in the space of a weekend. Last week I wrote how I had gotten a part time job, well I still have it, she just pushed back my start date. I was suppose to start this morning, but she wasn't quite ready for me. Hopefully I can start next week. Then my dad did my taxes, I was slated to get almost $300 back from Federal and just over $200 from state. Which I was glad to get, since I had only worked technically part time the whole year. Well they rejected both state and federal and my dad had to re-file for me, the problem? There had been a tax update within the week he had did my mom's and sisters and mines. That update affected me and the tax limit bracket I guess I was in, thus I get nothing from federal and only $54 from state, that's a big difference. Although I wasn't that upset because taxes are something you should never count on having. The government is to fickle to rely on, so oh well.

So I was bit bummed about that, I was going to use half of the money to pay off some debt, but oh well. I'll just use half of that to start the high yield savings accounts. Later that day the post came, and I must admit I love getting mail, even if it's just junk mail. I like it to see my name on it, it's weird I know. I don't necessarily like to get bills, but it is mail so I'm torn on it. Well yesterday there were several things for me, I felt so special. There was a first class envelope with no returned address, some samples I had sent off for, a coupon for free kid's yogurt, and a letter from my student loans provider.

Of course I was curious over the first class mail, no one ever sends me something so important it has to come in a priority mail envelope, not even my college degree was sent in one. So I tore it open, and it was a letter from some government agency conducting a survey. The survey was about how American students pay for secondary education. In gratitude they send you a $30 check after you finish it, since it was a web survey I logged on and completed the survey in about 25 mins. So in about four weeks I should be getting a $30 check. That of course lifted my spirits.

The samples and the coupon lifted my spirits even more, another thing I love is free stuff. I'm really excited to try the kid's yogurt. Even though I'm no where near a kid, the things they put out for kids tend to be more nutritious than the things they put out for grown ups. This one has less sugar than normal yogurt and plus its free.

But the biggest boost was the letter from the student loaner, I thought it was just my monthly statement that they send. But no it was a letter say that two of my loans were being dropped because of no disbursal. For some reason when you graduate in December they still give you financial aid for the spring semester. I had to wait for my alma matter to say I was no longer enrolled before they took away the loans. So a total of $2,751 was dropped from my total debt. Bringing my total to $15,190.98 in student loans and $17,904.00 in total debt. That's not bad, compared to some other's (got to stay positive.)

Well with all that good news coming back to back how could I get into a low? Well I received an email from one of the jobs I applied to and they decided to go with some one else, oh well. Then I sent an email to my mom asking what's the hold up on that job. Apparently they too went with someone else but that person declined the offer. So I'm just going to go ahead a say I didn't get that one. My mom thinks I should send an email to the head inquiring about the job and how I would really love to work for them, but I'm like I wasn't there first choice and they aren't my first choice, I'm not going to "beg" them for the job when I don't really want it. So back to the hardcore grind of applying for non-existent jobs.

I think the good and the bad have just even me out, I'm bummed but not to bummed. I would really like to get started some where in a job, just to give myself something else to think about.

Some Things I Wish I Knew Then That I Know Now

I honestly don't know who said hindsight was 20/20 but sometimes I like to think they were just a clueless about things like I am sometimes. As I come up on my second month of being a college graduate, there are more and more things I wish I had known when I was in my second month of high school graduation bliss that I now know now. But isn't that the case for a lot of people? To keep it in tune with this blog, there are some financial things I wish had known then.

Not all banks are the same.

When I entered college I had a savings account at a then local bank, but when I went to my student orientation, there were sales reps for Wachovia. They were offering free student checking to all students who signed up through them. I had no clue what all entailed in a checking account but it was free and I got checks. So I signed up and a month or so later I got my card, only to find that my name was spelled wrong. After five years, two cards, numerous calls to customer services, and conversations with bank tellers, my name is still spelled wrong. I wished I would have known that not all banks are the same, and I should do some research to find the one that works for me. I've written a total of five checks from that bank in five years, and maybe withdrawn money from a teller once every blue moon. If I would have did a little research even say after my first year, I might have stumbled on some of PF blogs now and been a bit better off now. But I also would have come across high yield accounts, which would have been a good thing.

Not all credit cards are the same.

I hate to admit that the only reason I got my credit cards is because I was tempted with a free shirt, now I still wear my shirt and in way I kind of don't regret it. But again research would have helped a long ways. Compared the rates and find the one that was right for me. I lucked out that the cards I did get were the ones for me with pretty good rates.

The art of saving for the long haul

I've tried multiple times to save, and always ended up saving for short term purpose. Usually to buy something for myself. It never occurred to me to save for the long haul, to plan for longer than an end of a semester. An emergency fund would have come in handy right about now, but then again I didn't know what that was and how to go about it.

Investing in the future and myself

I always thought you had to be a 30 something with a full time job before you could even think about investing. Even now I'm not so sure that's the case. But I know it's not, it just seems like something that's so overwhelming that you need at least 30 years of knowledge just to read through the literature. But here's where PF bloggers come in handy again, by no means are they all knowing. But they probably read more books about the subject then you have, when I'm trying to learn something new, I peruse the blogs read for the basics and then read the literature for myself. By doing this I'm not going into the book blindly, I have some handle on the lingo and the basic structure. It helps.

The difference between a spending plan and a budget

I thought I knew what a budget was, but really I was creating spending plans. I've realize that a combination of both works for me. I budget how much money goes into each category and then devise a spending plan of how to spend that allotted amount, with an eye to save as much from each that I can.

These are just a few things I wish someone had felt the need to tell me before I waved my parents goodbye that August morn.

Vacationing From the Edge: Preparing to Buy the Plane Ticket Back Home

Yesterday I told you that I was able to get a part time job, which is the first part in what I am now thinking of me returning from the edge of sanity (hence this blog post title). If you recall I already have a preliminary working budget, (and also here) where I figured out that I would need $23,769.60 (after taxes), or rather about $1,980.80 (after taxes) a month. I already planned on getting a part time job, although be it I had planned on getting one after I got a full time job, but I'm looking at in a positive light. I was mighty fortunate to find this job and to have my boss understand that I am still looking for a full time job and is more than willing to accommodate this. I'm more than excited to work for such a wonderful group of ladies and want to do my best to help them expand their business. At the rate it is now, it more than compensates for the pay I was looking for in a part time job. So in the grand scheme of things, I might be going about it in a backwards fashion but it'll balance out in the end.

I'm still waiting on the teacher position and I hope to hear something this upcoming week. I'm not all that confident that I will get the position and am still actively looking. I received an email from a former work colleague who asked if I had found work and he would be keeping his eyes opened for anything. So keep the fingers crossed, I still have six days before the end of the month to find full time work in order to meet one of my monthly goals.

Despite the fact that I don't have the full time job I still wanted to come up with a plan of action to jump start my personal finances. I know me if I don't think of it before hand then I'll just go on as before. The first thing I have put down is I can't loan money out, I won't be bringing a lot in so I need to be able to control where that money goes. You might have noticed I put back up my progress bars, although they have been paired down quite a back. I have a bar for Other debt (debt not related to student loans), Student Loans, Car Fund, and Apartment Fund, I might be putting one up for Savings as well.

Other Debt

I currently have $2,713.02 in other debt not related to student loans: credit card 1 ($1,468.00), credit card 2 ($ 777.19), class ring payment ($137.83), and medical bills ($330.00). I plan to get rid of this first for a couple of reasons the main one being it's the smallest amount and I could in theory (if it doesn't grow) knock this one out with in the year.

Student Loans

I currently have $ 17,192.00 in student loans and $749.98 in interest on those loans. I still have four months left on my grace periods and I haven't consolidated it yet either. Which I will be doing most likely in the last month of my grace period. I've already started the process of looking up different options. I have all my loans through the College Foundation of my state, and they boost that they save you money on your consolidation loan, which I would think they all did but guess not.

Car Fund

I live in the south and it's not easy to live in the south without a car. I would like to manage to do without a monthly car payment but I am so particular in what I want: small to medium size and mid-90's to early 00's that I'm more than likely going to have to have a car payment. If I could keep it to under $350 a month I would be good. I've set a $2,000 limit for the down payment. I don't really want to use the whole amount on just the down payment, but on all the other things that goes with starting insurance, tags and licensure, and the payment for driver's license. I've managed to put it off for 23 years I don't think I push my luck any more. Plus I'm getting a bit tired of depending on others for rides.

Apartment Fund

This is the biggest for me, other than getting rid of the debt of course, I need my own place. More for keeping my elusive sanity. I've set a goal of $3,000 for application fees, security deposit, first and last months rents, utilities deposits, first round of food stocking, furnishings, and a house warming party. A friend of mines advised me to have at $1,000 set aside to do the first four items on the list but I like to have a little insurance so I added another $500 to it and the rest of the $1,500 is to do the food stocking, furnishings, and the party all on a low cost budget of course. I would like to find a two bedroom in a decent and safe neighborhood under $600 which I can do, the only aspect would be the commute. Honestly I would be willing to do a longer than average commute if I found my dream apartment. I know with the gas crisis that's a big pf no-no but sometimes it's about filling a want rather than a need.

The Plan

Well like I've said there isn't going to be a lot of money coming in just yet, but I would like to start paying down some debt and saving some money. So the first thing to be paid will be the other debt in a SanityGurl fashioned snowball plan. The class ring payment, then the medical bills, then credit card 2 and credit card 1. There's tons of information on handling a snowball debt plan, which was first thought of (I believe) by a guy name Dave Ramsey. A lot pf bloggers would go with the Highest interest method (I'll discuss at another time along with the snowball debt method) but my credit cards don't have high interest rates and the amount is not that great.I plan to pay off the class payment in full and then take that amount and split equally amongst the other debts on top of the minimum. So in a way I'm doing it the way he prescribes but I'm not over paying just one and not the others. Hopefully buy the end of my grace period in the end of June I will have paid off the class ring and the medical bills, and made a noticeable dent in the credit card debt. I no longer use my credit cards so I don't see it growing much outside of the interest. At the same time I'm paying out for debt I want to make equal payment into a savings account. I plan on opening an high yield one, (another topic for another day) and have three sub-accounts, Car Fund, Apartment Fund, and Savings. I think this is a good start, don't you? It helps that my mom is allowing me to stay here rent free, although I'll still give her some kind of money to help out.

Job Search: Part time job

Well the interview went well, better than expected (sort of). She offered me the job right there, and as I thought low pay and no benefits. But it's okay. Because know there will be some kind of income coming in, which means I will have some personal finances, not much but some. I'm excited, can you tell? So what's the job? It's an office assistant for a beauty consultant firm. I get to do all the things I love to do. I'll be an assistant, web designing, marketing, organizing, PR(ing), inventory, customer relations, accounting, product buying and more. And a few things I don't like answering phones, not one of my favorite things to do but I'll do it. Right now it's only two days a week, it might increase to more days if I'm needed.

It's going to take an initial large sum of hours to get started, mainly because they have been with out an assistant and the head admitted that she had no system so she's opened to suggestions (yay!) and you can totally tell. The first thing is to do an overhaul inventory, it's suppose to be done every January but that didn't happened. She's willing to work with me once I find a full time job to adjust my hours, which is a good thing. I would hate to leave her in a lurch if I were to get a position soon.

So right now I'm probably looking at about $400 a month from this position, like I said not a lot but it's something. I still haven't heard something from my mom's job, hopefully I'll hear something next week. I honestly don't know why they are lagging. It's almost not worth it, but right now that pay is to much to pass up. The next thing to happen is me making a action plan to get the most out of the pay for this part time job.

Job Search: Another Interview

Today I have another interview, for an office assistant. I don't know how much it's for and I don't even know if there are any benefits. Somehow I doubt it. Why am I pursuing this position? Well the lady who I would be working for is a contact of my mom's. She told my mom she was looking for an office assistant and my mom suggested me. So there is a rather good chance that I will get, but the real question is for how long will I keep it. I'm still going to be looking for a better job, I know this just isn't the one for me.

I'm meeting with her this afternoon to discuss the position, I'll let you guys know how everything turns out.

In other news, I've kinda come at a stall point for things to write in this blog. It's not easy to keep an PF blog, when you don't have PFs. I've actually stopped hardcore reading the many PF blogs I fav. Mainly cause I haven't found blogs that are really talking to me. It might be where I'm looking, but I'm not finding any PF blogs for single recent college grads, especially women. What does that mean? That there aren't any other single female recent grads that take an interest in the pfs? Or does it mean that these people just don't write about it? Like I said it could be where I'm looking. I would like to find some blogs that really are aimed at a person such as me. I'm sorry I can't really get into a blog that talks about family life with a husband/wife/significant other and their kids/lack there of. I'm 23 I'm not looking for a family life just yet.

I would also like to find blogs that don't force their opinions onto their readers. Not that there is wrong with having opinions but some bloggers have strong opinions and they don't take the time to address the other side. I guess that's what I'm suppose to do but if your going to tell me your opinion it would be nice to see your take on the other side to show that you aware of it.

Sorry about that rant, it's just something I've been thinking about.