January 6, 2009
Does the idea of your salary or net worth being public knowledge make your skin crawl? And I don’t mean within the relatively sheltered PF blogging community where many of us blog anonymously, I mean in your everyday life. Would you share the details of your financial life, to any degree, with friends and family willingly?
I always thought that salary transparency in the workplace made sense for the employees. After all, as the question is commonly asked, what does the company/employee have to lose? The opportunity to be paid a fair wage? The arguments for sharing salary information are cogent, as blogger Penelope Trunk points out that “the only party protected by secrecy is HR ― no one can see how arbitrary salary decisions are. Who wins the highest dollars? Good negotiators, personable people and people who bring in intangible benefits, she says.”
Then again, those not in favor of transparency argue that comparing salaries by job title doesn’t take into account many other factors, like abilities, performance, and motivation. Or negotiation skills.
I’ve recently used both PayScale and Glassdoor to suss out the salary range for my current job as well as my boss’s job to get an idea of what kind of salary requests and expectations are reasonable in my field, yet find myself strangely uncomfortable with the notion of telling a personal friend how much I make.
I feel like I goofed big time this holiday when my best friend in the whole world, with whom I can discuss almost everything, asked me in front of another longtime friend how much I made. (The longtime friend and I aren’t terribly close.)
My big mouth slipped and revealed my base salary, even though she thinks what I consider a modest salary range to be “a lot of money,” right in front of the other friend. Their body language both said “whoa!” Immediately, my reaction was, “aw crap, I should not have gone there!” It’s silly – my discomfort stemmed from not wanting them to think I was rich. I’m not! And I did point out that if I were to make a little more than that, it still wouldn’t be much because moving out would create two households to be supported. But even if they were aware that I make ok money, what does it matter? If they’re going to be part of my network, doesn’t it make sense for them to have an accurate sense of what I’d expect to be paid? Yeah, that doesn’t matter, I still feel weird about it. Even my family doesn’t know how much I make! (There’s a good reason for that: my …special…. brother would definitely assume that I was rolling in easy money and try to take even more advantage of me than he already has.)
How would you feel if your friends knew how much you made? Would you feel comfortable discussing that?
Related reading:
The case for sharing your salary details: MSN Money UK
What Am I Worth?: TheGlassHammer.com
December 5, 2008
Surprise surprise, I scored a nine on this quiz found at Boston Gal‘s: Some personality types may view economic uncertainty as ‘an opportunity’.
That makes me a little t, and the opposite of a Thrill Seeker. What was really a surprise was that I was nearer to the cutoff than I expected: 9 on a scale of 0-10 for the little t end of the scoring system, while the Big T was 11-20.
Careful planning and conservative habits can’t be too poor a substitute for my lack of thrill-seeking flexibility in this economy. Sure hope not, anyway.
Where do you score?
September 26, 2008
If I were big money and already had up to my FDIC limit in Chase banks, I would be a little concerned because I’d have to find another home for my ex-Wamu money. But the grace period for separate deposit coverage for each bank lasts six months, so that’s not too shabby.
The good news is that the deliberate takeover means that JP Morgan has assumed the responsibilities for Wamu’s deposits so we won’t be taxing the limited resources of the FDIC reserve fund. I think it’s sad that everyone keeps referring to the fact that no one has lost their insured deposits since the FDIC was formed, and ignoring the fact that the fund isn’t a bottomless pool.
In the meantime, as a new Chase bank account holder, I can expect the following:
http://www.chase.com/welcomewamu/
What’s different?
* Your deposits at WaMu are now backed by the financial strength of Chase in addition to continuing to be insured by the FDIC.
* If you bank at both WaMu and Chase, your deposits continue to be insured separately today just as they were yesterday, and generally will be for another six months. At that time, your deposits will be insured by the FDIC for up to $100,000 per depositor (with an additional $250,000 for self-directed retirement accounts), and will continue to be backed by the strength and security of JPMorgan Chase.
* Learn more about the size and strength of our company.
What stays the same?
Continue to bank just as you usually do:
* same account numbers,
* same Washington Mutual name on your account,
* same checks, debit cards, credit cards, deposit slips,
* same online banking website and passwords,
* same branches & ATMs,
* same familiar bankers, and
* same great service!
What will change?
Soon
* You’ll be able to use over 9,300 Chase ATMs fee-free – jointly, that’s 14,000 ATMs for your banking convenience!
In the future
* You’ll begin to see the Chase name on your statements, online, and on your credit cards as they reissue.
* Your branch will be re-named Chase and you’ll be re-issued new debit cards with the Chase name. Until then, bank as you do today.
* As our systems merge, you’ll be able to use any of the Chase branches nationwide. This won’t take place this year, and we’ll let you know well in advance of any changes.
I get to keep my checks! And my money.
July 17, 2008
Geez. I had it all worked out: the amounts I had to pull from the expense account, and from the other maintenance (short term savings for car, insurance, and travel) for the enormo credit card bill that was due on Tuesday. And I made the payment when due.
But I forgot one thing. I forgot to transfer the entire collected amount from the expense account to the checking account. Now how do you forget something important like that???
Igh. I still can’t believe that with my obsessive little system, I had all the money, and I still forgot an essential step. Now I have to throw myself on the mercy of Citibank in hopes they won’t charge an overdraft fee since I’ve never made this stupid mistake with them before. Seriously, this is why I’m always paranoid: I make stupid stupid mistakes.
May 19, 2008
I officially declare today, Monday, May 19th a ME DAY. [Fun nerd fact: In 1998, May 19th was our D-Day for an AP test. I can’t believe I still remember that.] The bosses owed me a freebie day off (off the books) since they gypped us before our last business trip, and the way those fellas have been acting, I decided I’d better take it before they “forgot” about it. It’d just be too too convenient.
But, before I go on out and play, I’d better get some of this money madness off my mind or I’ll be distracted all day.
Unbudgeted Spending:
Amazon – Friend’s gift – $32
Grocery store – household supplies on sale – $23
Post Office – few sheets of Forever stamps to last a year – $23
Parents’ gas and grocery spending – way too much. ~ $220?
My personal spending doesn’t seem like much, but it’s outside the budget entirely which throws a major kink in the expense account. And I’m still brainstorming about which tailoring jobs I can afford before the end of July because I need some of my nicer clothes to fit me for another business trip. I’m going to need to get even more creative to pay for these expenses without dipping into the mini e-fund, because I’m already doing that for rent. Grr.
Misc Income:
PayPerPost – I’ve not had ANY new opportunities for at least a week or two now. 🙁 Why am I suddenly unqualified? I am getting the payouts from last month’s posts, though, so I can add $33.50 to my fledgling house fund.
Ebates – A check should be coming my way at the end of the quarter.
Chase rewards – I love my cash plus card, with 5% on gas and groceries, I’m already near my next $50 check! That’ll help cover half of the expenses above. At least something reduces the sting of $50/tank of gas!
Regular Income:
It’s just not cutting it. I was able to make do with creative juggling for a while, but I’m going to have to do something drastic to increase my take-home for at least a month or two. There’s a big ole knot in my tummy as I say this, but I’m going to cut out my contributions to the 403(b). I don’t get a match on that anyway, so I won’t be losing free money, and I’ll start up again as soon as I find out what the heck’s going on with my salary come July 1st. It’s time to be an adult about this decision, and not pout about it. (I’m totally pouting.) My biggest fear is that I’ll get comfortable with the “extra” income and not want to start contributing again, much less contributing more at the end of the year to make up the difference. Also, it’s felt like the retirement contributions were the only goals I was meeting this year.
Alright! So I’m off to find a Macy’s because I have a gift card and I’m not afraid to use it if I find my holy grail of bags. And then I’m taking myself to see Ironman. Yeah! (Prepaid ticket.)
May 18, 2008
I don’t wish I were less organized and more rich, no, no, I’d like to retain my level of organization and be richer than that. I know, apples to oranges. But it’d sure make booking last minute fares for a holiday weekend seem less painful/impossible.
I’d rearranged my schedule and wanted to visit BD in June, but it turns out he has to be here for the weekend. That means no us time. Instead, he asked me to see if I could make a Memorial Day weekend trip happen. Compared to the $600+ prices for just a regular, round-trip ticket, the $300 fare plus an unnecessary rental car on Travelocity almost seems like a deal. Uh, I don’t think so, Tim. And with gas prices, driving would cost at least … $120 each way. Eeep! Even with an awesome 400-450 miles per tank average, that’d still be a doozy of a gas bill. Oh, plus over 8 hours of driving each way.
But if I were rich and had $7000 in my travel fund, not just $700, I would probably go ahead and spend up to $350 to go see him for a long weekend.
Phooey. Times like these, I can’t wait to be financially secure and even well-off.
April 9, 2008
To continue the GN/BN series …..
Good News: It’s been two months since I switched to AT&T. After all my griping and moaning about the expensive plans, and most especially, the lack of minutes with those plans, I was pleasantly surprised by my usage of the past two months. I was going from 1000 minutes to 450. I was fully using those 1000 minutes every month, as well as 400 text messages, so the concern that I was either in for a smackdown reality bill, or wouldn’t be able to talk to anyone at all seemed pretty valid.
Instead, I’ve closed each billing period with a little over a hundred minutes to rollover, so I’m pretty happy about that. Granted, I have been imposing pretty strict limits on my chatting, and it helps that I ride to and from work with a friend most days now so I don’t have to spend an hour on the ride home on the phone anymore. Oh, and he’s on AT&T so even if I did talk to him because we took different trains, that just comes out of my mobile to mobile minutes.
Bad News: I’ve reviewed my latest bill, and there is no corporate discount!! Grrr …..
