By: Revanche

A few plans for the new year

January 6, 2011

We rang in the new year driving down the highway counting down about ten seconds off the real time.  But never mind that, onward!   

Savings 
I’m looking at three specific areas to save money in January:

1.  Cell phones – consolidating my parents and PiC and myself onto one family plan

2.  Cable/internet/landline – PiC’s promotional rate for all three services has expired and he’s now happy to let me reduce to the most basic or do without some services. I’m considering the options, though my heart is sad to consider options that don’t include BBC. Alas. 
3.  Insurance – I’ve been carrying a variety of insurance policies and he and I need to take a closer look at whether we’re overlapping or if we can consolidate for better rates at some point.  This is mostly planning, I’m in favor of getting an umbrella policy if we end up combining finances and y’know, marrying it up this year.
Income
1. There’s bonus talk in the air this year, based on last year’s performance, and I had intended to put it toward a big fat trip this spring but as it turns out, that might not really take the form we once imagined.  (That bit goes under spending, doesn’t it?)
2.  My first year comes to an end this spring and I’ll be up for a review. I fully expect to make a strong case for a raise since my six month review was entirely positive but I’m not sure that the organization tends to be generous on either front (raise or bonus) in comparison to previous years and employers. 
Investing 
1.  PiC and I will be sitting down to evaluate his investment strategies for age and goal appropriateness. 
2.  My trading account has been dormant, accumulating bits of dividends, and it’d be nice to have a few more income-earning stocks.  Time for more research! 

Spending 
1.  Travel will take a chunk of money, depending where we go, and if we count honeymooning in there, that’s another chunk.  Then again, honeymooning might happen next year. 
2.  There’s the small matter of a wedding.  I’ve got no plans other than to keep it as simple as possible.
What are your plans this year? 

11 Responses to “A few plans for the new year”

  1. I can’t wait to hear about your wedding – I am sure that it will be fabulous. Spring trip sounds like a good honeymoon; the more time people give themselves to plan, the more complicated weddings seem to get.

  2. Sense says:

    AAAAGGGGGHHHH!!!! YOU GOT ENGAGED?! Congrats! I’m so excited for you both! I missed the earlier posts while away on vacation over New Year’s. That is AWESOME!

  3. Danielle says:

    I’m going to pay off my credit cards. When I pay off Discover, I’m going to vlog a viking funeral for it. The internet is going to love it.

  4. mOOm says:

    Plans? We might move country, or just city, or nowhere at all… Plan to visit Korea for the first time and otherwise earn some decent money for a change which we should mostly be able to save. Hope to continue to be really productive in my career as I’ve been over the last two years. I don’t think a baby is on the horizon, but you never know.

    If I was you I’d get married as soon as possible and keep it simple. No point stringing things out now you know what you want to do.

  5. Agreed. Just get the wedding done in a simple manner and you’ll be a lot less stressed 😀 EEEE!

    Also.. fix your blog please. 🙂 *poke poke*

  6. Nicole says:

    Since we’re on an academic calendar, we tend to do our spending goals in September. But here’s our mid-year update: http://nicoleandmaggie.wordpress.com/2011/01/05/spending-goals-updated/

    As state employees, there will be no raises. But we’ve been working on grant proposals so maybe we’ll see some elusive summer money.

  7. Carrie says:

    the boy is planning to move in with me in may so i’ll be working on how to manage the finances for two (he already decided i can be in charge).

    we also need to do a little spending for some improvements to my home like a refrigerator that doesn’t have pieces falling off so we can use the whole thing and a king size bed since we’re both over 6 feet tall and used to sleeping diagonally in order to fit.

  8. Love the way you think things through in advance! You’re so wonderfully organized.

    Me? I just hope to stay out of trouble in 2011. Anything more than that will be gravy. 😉

    Simple wedding…Dang, you’re in San Francisco. Get married in the park, have your reception at the Japanese Garden, and call it a day.

    Seriously, there’s soooo much to recommend a low-key, small wedding, not the least of which is LESS STRESS. And some extra money to buy yourselves a nice trip or something lasting for your home.

  9. saro says:

    Congrats on your wedding! Check out offbeatbride.com. It’s not all thrifty but it was a fun website to look at. The knot gave me the hives. Their timetables completely freaked me out.

  10. A simple wedding sounds lovely.

    My plans involve: school. school. school. My plans are boring and sucks. 🙁

    Also… *takes stick, stands next to FB and prods Rev together*

    Fix the banner. I wanna see the doggie pic again. o_<

  11. Serendipity says:

    As for me, I’m just hoping to get my financial goals taken care of, namely my braces. Looks like you have a lot in store for 2011, good luck with planning you’re wedding 🙂

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