February 3, 2009
Found this article: More families move in together during housing crisis over at Boston Gal’s.
This made me laugh that I’m completely poised on the edge of the diving board, just waiting for my chance to move OUT.
It’s so ironic in that I’m finally emotionally ready, and more than ready, to stop (mostly) coddling my family, spread my wings, and discover the world on my own, right when the economy is swirling down the drain and I can’t find a job to suit my next career move.
Yes, I’ve always had good timing.
In keeping with BG’s other post recommending that we try not to focus solely on negativity, though, I can be grateful that I’ve had some darned good training in Financial Savvy!
Can’t beat the School of Hard Knocks š
Here’s an excerpt (hee):
I’m not one of you. Okay? I can’t relate to who you are and what you’ve been through. I graduated from the University of Life. All right? I received a degree from the School of Hard Knocks. And our colors were black and blue, baby. I had office hours with the Dean of Bloody Noses. All right? I borrowed my class notes from Professor Knuckle Sandwich and his Teaching Assistant, Ms. Fat Lip Thon Nyun. That’s the kind of school I went to for real, okay?
……
[SINGING]
Now don’t hang on, nothing lasts forever but the Harvard alumni endowment fund.
It adds up, has performed at 22 percent growth over the last six years.
Dust in the wind, you’re so much more than dust in the wind.
Dust in the wind, you’re shiny little very smart pieces of dust in the wind.
I particularly like the song. š
The experience of moving out, whenever it actually happens, may not look anything at all like I envisioned, but that’s not necessarily a Bad Thing. It could be better! (As a perpetual realist, that’s my biggest concession to optimism, ever.)
January 12, 2009
LAL at Living Almost Large and Grace’s comment at Meg’s World of Wealth articulated something I’d been feeling rather strongly this weekend about financial security. Meg’s original article, My 2009 Gift Tax Exclusion, discussed the money gifts she’s received over the years from her family, and Grace’s comment resonated with both LAL and me:
That’s one of the big differences between the truly poor and the middle/upper classes–no one to turn to in a financial emergency.
It’s so very true. This weekend was rough because I realized that I’m running out of time to secure a job before losing this one, and I got scared. And I mean s-c-a-r-e-d.
Frankly, the tizzy was my fault because I read the New York Times knowing that there’s no good news to be had. I should know better. Several articles about layoffs upon layoffs upon terrible economy upon too many overqualified applicants for too few jobs sent me into a Spaz Out.
Yes, I’ve been proactive about formulating an exit strategy, getting my resume out and searching consistently for a good position. And kept busy by cleaning and purging stuff, and dealing with family troubles. It’s more than enough to keep me emotionally even-keeled. But ….
1. I have 8-10 months of emergency money, but it doesn’t take into account the cost of COBRA. (So yeah, the next budget I draw up is for a jobless existence.)
2. An arthritis flare-up this weekend reminded me that I really can’t go without meds or health insurance.
3. Most fundamental: Once I go through that money, and call in one of the loans for extra cash, that’s it. That’s all the money and support I have. That’s the point at which I’d be broke and start going into debt to get by. [Horror]
I had a heck of a time working through it. My bag lady fears were out in full force because as Grace pointed out: I have no one to turn to. Certainly not my parents, and my extended family doesn’t have money to spare. As my friend put it, “You have you.”
I couldn’t understand why my friends pooh-poohed the gravity of the situation. This is the worst economy we’ve seen in how many years? I’ve been searching for months now, and have one paltry lead. [Today, a lead is a lead. I only need one full time job for now. Side income is always welcome.] Lengthy unemployment is a reality for so many people, what makes me special enough to be spared? I’ve always been a go-getter but there is so much that’s out of my hands in this situation.
Anyway, not only was I panicking, I was frustrated, until this morning, that everyone dismissed it as no big deal. It’s because they all have safety nets: they could move home. They could borrow money. They could be given money. They have family members who are an implicitly accepted resource.
In Meg’s second installment, The Effects of Not Having to Struggle Financially, she lists all the things she’s never had to do:
I’ve never had to save for long periods of time before getting something I really wanted. I’ve never had to wonder how to make ends meet that month. I’ve never had to work a job I didn’t like. I’ve never had to say “no” to a trip or dinner or experience because I couldn’t afford it. I don’t have to worry about having health care coverage or getting laid off or not being able to make my mortgage payment.
I’ve lived all of the above for years, but my friends haven’t had to do a single one of those things. She’s got a good point about the probable “deep level of peace and satisfaction that they now have by having gone through all that to get where they are.”
There’s still a long way to go before I reach peace, clearly, but at least I’m more Zen even if my friends can’t understand the mindset that sends me into flurry of worry. They’re just not poor; I’m looking forward to a time when I don’t have to think that way either.
September 23, 2008
I got a random email from BF’s relative the other day, a forward actually, asking if this relative was the person who had told Other Friend that I “also had an econ blog.”
Hrm. How did friend, much less relative, know that I had anything to do with blogging????
Uh huh. BF!!
Grr….. BF got his, of course, and I let the matter drop telling relative that the blog was a secret and I wasn’t sure that I was ready to come out with it to the rest of the world. I assumed (hoped) that was the end of that.
Today, however, I was chatting with Mentor who mentioned that she’d overheard that another friend of mine, connected with the same group, was sharing that I was interested in financial-related work and if anyone knew of any position for me …? ARGH! What the heck is going on? And to add insult to injury, Mentor scolded me, “BAD idea. Now is the WORST time!”
I know. I know that it’s the worst time, I don’t have any interest in jumping into the shark-infested waters while they’re roiling with blood, and I especially know that dabbling in PF blogging does not a financial advisor make. I don’t have any formal education or background in finances or banking, so I would obviously pursue some form of education like accounting classes or an MBA program if I decided that was the route I wanted to take. *huf*
I’m just a little aggravated that practically a whole congregation of people are now aware of my propensity to finance blog, and that … really … bothers me. And the fact that random friends are trying to scare up jobs for me in the financial sector without my knowledge, without my consent, and I’m sure with good intentions but apparently little or no comprehension of the market, sort of bothers me, too.
I might be overreacting, but I’m a bit annoyed.
Please. Good intentions I understand, but a little consideration? It’s not just that I’m less than comfortable with that particular kind of networking because it’s little more than trolling, and indicates a lack of finesse or professionalism that comes with knowing your industry and your goals. I think it comes off as naive and desperate, as though I’m incapable of focusing my efforts where they’d be most effective, and I’ve got to take the shotgun approach in an attempt to drum up any opportunity, anywhere.
I’ve never been terribly concerned with the exact opinions other people had of me, but I do insist on projecting at the very least, professionalism. I don’t much care for the potential of gaining a reputation for naivete, desperation or aimless. And I know that it’s pretty easy for that impression to form.
I don’t plan to say anything about it just yet, I don’t have the whole story and I haven’t spent time with this group of people in a while so I don’t know if it’ll just die out without my saying a word; it’s still more like a scratchy clothing tag that pokes me every so often.
Would this bother any of you? Would you simply accept that your friend had good intentions at heart and leave it at that?
June 24, 2008
Yikes, it’s already nearly the end of June! Two weeks ago, I realized that June had well and truly started, and if I was going to visit Portland and Phoenix this summer, I’d better get my tuckus in gear!
I missed my chance to make the Portland trip this month, and the Phoenix trip in August, so I thought to cram them both into August. Then I was informed that I was attending a wedding in August with BF. Hmm….. August will be insane if I go on a trip every weekend. Yes, the opposite of relaxing. Also, there’s a sporting event to be attended in October, also for BF. Portland will have to happen in August, Phoenix will probably get pushed to September, I believe. Work is claiming one of my weekends in August, so there’s just more than enough going on that month.
So there’s a lot of travel juggling going on. My travel budget this year is a wee one, so I have to be very creative in mixing award flights, gift cards, and real cash money.
The wedding flight ran $149, just within the $150 budget I’d allowed. I wanted to buy it immediately, and use the $100 GC for the October flight. But I didn’t take my own advice because I wanted to consult with BF about dates and times before I purchased the tickets. He’s still out of town, but I just guessed and purchased the tickets before they went up more than the $15 they already had. *tsk* Yeah, the price went up. No, I’m never going to learn.
I might as well get that SW gift card now so I have the GC and discount code ready at hand when I have to purchase the October flight.
There’s a quiet voice inside me whisper-screaming: Hey!! Skip one of those trips and use the money to pay bills! BILLS!!!
I’m ignoring that voice. I’m ignoring it.
The temptation to skip it all and leave the money in the travel fund “just in case” is overwhelming, but I just don’t see how I can renege after promising over and over that I’d visit these friends for the last few years. The PF blogger in me keeps saying that I’m going to use up ALL of my travel money by October and then what’ll I do? Things at work are still chaotic and I’ve got no plans for replenishing this fund. But that’s what the e-fund is for, Chicken Little. The sky’s not going to fall down if I go and have a nice weekend with childhood friends, and it very well might if I go back on my word!
Terrorism isn’t the reason I’m going, though. If I don’t do it this year, I might never. If I talk myself out of a promise this year, I very well may do so again next year. There’s never going to be a perfect time, at least not for the next ten years because I imagine the perfect time is something like, I have 5 months’s worth of vacation time, $100,000 in the bank for nothing but pleasure, etc. Not. Going. To. Happen.
As it is? I have nearly 180 hours of vacation time. I could be out on sick and then vacation leave for two months.
I’m going to play, dangit.
June 23, 2008
If anyone in the Southern California area didn’t have the news on, they probably still realized that it was hot-hot-HOT this weekend.
The news reported on the heat every five minutes: Boy it’s hot out there. Let’s go out to so-and-so at [the beach, the beach or the beach] and report on exactly HOW hot it was. They’d throw a few international travelers on, who all say, of course, they’re here for the CA sun so they love the 104-107 degree weather, and then back to the studio to talk about how hot it still was.
That got old really quickly.
A couple nights ago, it was in the nineties at midnight. Tonight? There’s a coolness in the air I haven’t felt since I stood in front of the air conditioning unit at work. Since I was at a friend’s house, friendsitting all weekend, and basking in their 68 degree, air conditioned house. Since two weeks ago, before this insane heat wave.
Thank you, weather, for finally giving us a break from the constant, stifling heat.
We managed to survive without turning on the a/c once. Thank heavens, because the bills are already cripplingly high.
June 18, 2008
is Sense to Dollars who says she can put up with anything for 4 months. I sure thought I could, but it seems that other people have other plans for me. Like driving me HALF MAD.
Frustrating person: “So that big stack (of about 200-300 pages worth of work) that you took with you, you’re not done with it all?”
Me: “Uh, no, did you expect me to be? That’s a LOT of work.”
FP: “Well, no, but you took it all over there.”
Me: “Yes, but I always take all my work so that if I’m working faster than usual, I’ll have all my work there and ready.”
FP: “Well, so you’re saying you’re not done with all of it?”
Me: “No, that’s a LOT of work. I just put in 3 hard hours on the two hardest chunks of work (100 pages).”
FP: “Well, you said that you had to do all of it.”
*sizzle*
How in the Good Lord’s name am I going to manage to get through months of this? Or days of this?
I don’t think it’s healthy to have your blood pressure skyrocket at least two times a day.
June 8, 2008
I once counseled a good friend: Figure out what you love doing, what you REALLY love doing, something you would do whether or not you were paid to do it. Then figure out how to get paid for it.
His dad overheard and congratulated me for my insight.
Now, I just need to take and tweak my own advice: develop a passion for something that will make real money! š