Originally started writing this last night then fell asleep. So here’s to a Round 2. My partner is in the windy city right now for work and I’m sitting in cozy 87° Dallas. I’ve never experienced this in March and enjoy the warm weather. It makes me feel more active than I would be otherwise.

Have had a lot on my mind lately. What I’ve learned is change doesn’t happen overnight. It takes discipline and in many scenarios staying the course. Also knowing when to take a different course when the time is right. Still figuring out the 2nd part of that process.

Three people at my job put in their two weeks notice. One a manager, one at my level and a third in between. They’ve all been there longer than I. I’m really curious to see where they’re going off to. Is the grass really greener on the other side?

I check my credit annually and was very surprised to see my credit score is a 798. All the years of my mom’s worrisome mentality of being able to pay the bills on time and my grandmother’s use of the expression borrowing from Peter to pay Paul has rubbed off on time. It also helps that I’ve had people looking out for my best interests for quite a few years now. I’d love for it to be 800+ next year. I’m right on the cusp.

Student loan will be under 41k soon and that’s something to celebrate. I can’t believe I’ve almost been at this a year and will have only knocked down about 10% total of what I owed. When you’re young you don’t realize where all the money goes. Think you can live under your parents roof forever or they will help you out if you’re on your own. Then reality hopefully sets in. I earned about 30k for the last year but I honestly couldn’t tell you on what I bought. I earn 300/mo more now than I did in New York though household expenses and actually paying down my loan eat up a chunk of that.

Using my credit card again, earning my Thank You points. The 1% cash back through using my debit card really wasn’t earning me much over the course of a year. Still spending very little overall though. I ordered a set of airline tickets to New York next month. I paid half, bf paid the rest 390 round trip through American Airlines. It will be nice to see my family and friends a lot less rushed than last Fall.

Once I hit 5000 in savings, I still plan to use a majority of my income above to accelerate my debt payoff efforts. One of the biggest challenges thus far is getting to that point…

Going in with the sincerest of intentions, not sure where it will lead me, but I recently enrolled into an IT course. I found it through one of the deal sites I was looking at. I have wanted to do some training for a while, but not go into $20k of more debt as I would with the University of Pheonix online or a traditional university. Not to say the programs compare, but I’m all about not sinking in huge amounts of cash into an investment I have no guaranteed return on.

CompTIA A+ certification validates foundation-level knowledge and skills necessary for a career in IT support. It is the starting point for an exciting career in IT. The international, vendor-neutral certification proves competence in areas such as installation, preventative maintenance, networking, security and troubleshooting.

Network+ certification: The exam covers network technologies, installation and configuration, media and topologies, management, and security. Candidate job roles include network administrator, network technician, network installer, help desk technician and IT cable installer.

Security+ not only ensures that candidates will apply knowledge of security concepts, tools, and procedures to react to security incidents; it ensures that security personnel are anticipating security risks and guarding against them.

Project+ validates that project managers have the necessary skills to complete projects on time and within budget. The exam covers the entire project life cycle from initiation and planning through execution, acceptance, support and closure.

The cost was $2695 $99. If it works out for me I’ll be a step closer to getting a much higher paying job and I will open up my career options. My MBA is great, but it’s been five years and Finance / Accounting is not the direction I want to pursue. My current line of work has limited long-term potential.

If I eventually become an iOS developer, I could earn double my current salary or more. Some of the other roles such as Linux support, computer programmer, systems administrator, computer systems analyst. I’ve been using computers for over 20 years and they’ve always fascinated me. The fear of being burned out or having to start over from scratch aren’t as valid as they used to be. Stay tuned.

Little late with this one, lots of things have been going on. Basically it’s still in progress. My bf was semi-interviewing recently with a company on the east coast. The job that he is trying to get  would pay amply more, but expenses would be significantly higher and my pay would be about 10% less off the bat, then tack on 5.75% income tax and much higher food prices / cost of living. Basically for him it would be a win but for me it would be a loss.

The job market in this location is much worse off than the DFW area and the night life / culture / gay friendliness of the area is all leaps and bounds behind. I would be guaranteed a job however. After much deliberation I decided against it, as we’re homeowners now, would need to rent out or sell our house, long term it would be a step back for my career unless I somehow wowed the owners and got a promotion. This all was over the course of the last few days.

Now there are rumors of layoffs at my bf’s company. Other factors going on that complicate things, but I’m not at liberty to discuss them. I still think I made the right choice, but if he is axed in the next week, based on tradition he will get severance pay and his new employer won’t have to buy him out of his contract. We shall see.

Onto an update of my finances…

Interest rate on my 0% APR credit card jumped up to 11.99%. It was a good run and I’m doing everything within my power not to use it again. Credit card debt is still 0 and the occasional online purchase goes on it, paid in full before the due date and not used for much else.

I’m still reluctant to making any principal payments right now. Much uncertainty about my future  and my emergency fund isn’t up to snuff yet. Doing my taxes, getting ~$650 back. Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans. I’m just glad I haven’t made any large scale purchases recently.

Some recent events:

• Partner forgot to lock the doors to his car and someone opened his door at  night between midnight and 7am, taking only a dollar and an old iPod Nano device he got for free. Since then I started locking the garage door which I really should’ve been doing in the first place.
• Starting to think about applying to other companies again. My bf said I should focus on how to make 60k in the next two years. That is not going to be an option at my current company. I don’t even think a base of 40 is likely.
• Got a raise. Slightly more than I expected and earning more than my last job, but still not anywhere near where I want to be. Don’t expect to get another one for the rest of the year.
• Likely not getting a bonus. We didn’t meet numbers as far as getting our customers to renew and our director basically said we’re f*cked. He hit home that a large part of that was people not taking accountability for their work. Would’ve been an extra $4-500 or so take home pay.
• Pretty sure the guy I used to work with / was DJing on the side got fired or was on the verge of it. He really wasn’t even trying.
• Sold bf’s old phone on ebay for $50. Cost me $13 to ship.

It’s 3:30AM and I’m having the worst sinus pain right now and my nose has been running what seems like nonstop for the past 24 hours. The weather in Dallas is especially cold, some nights even colder than NY. I really loathe seeing the doctor. Quickly prescribe a medication that is likely to wreak havoc on my gastrointestinal system. I may or may not call in sick for MLK Day. I have never not worked that day though perhaps I should on principle.

For the first time in a while I might have more than 2k in my bank account come next paycheck. ::Knock on wood::

So in 2011 when my partner and I moved to Dallas, I was very aggressively looking for jobs. Basically anything remotely related to the banking industry which I spent several years in. One of the companies I interviewed with was a consulting group that basically had larger banks as clients and took outsourced work. I was on the fence for some weeks. I wasn’t thrilled about the idea of working in banking again. Basically it was very repetitive, pressuring people to sign up for products they might not really need or be able to afford and one mistake stays on your record forever. I specifically wasn’t too thrilled about the idea of talking to people whose homes were foreclosed on or very close to that step.

I reached a breaking point where I was willing to do something that my heart wasn’t really in for a paycheck. The idea of $30/hr when I was making $0 and ineligible for unemployment wasn’t bad either. So I interviewed there and made a good impression with the recruiters at least in my opinion. A total of 3 interviews, then after waiting a week I didn’t hear anything from them. At the same time, the company that filed for Ch 11, laid me off after 6 weeks and bounced my paycheck made me an offer. I was told they couldn’t make me an offer at the last minute because their client pushed back their start date. 3 Months later another recruiter there approached me and I ignored the e-mail.

Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me. I never want to beg an employer for a job, I want it to be a mutual fit between alignment of my skills and what the organization is looking for in a candidate.

To make a long story short, they laid off all employees in their office this week. I would be jobless again and probably unable to collect unemployment since the people who worked there are considered contractors.

I was listening to some audiobooks the other day and a part touched me personally about perseverance and giving up. A lot of people you meet completely give up on their dreams or the ability to earn more / acquire more skills throughout life. I am guilty of it myself, there are always times when I wonder if this is as good as it gets. Successful people take more risks and area always on the lookout for new opportunities.

I kind of like entertaining the idea of being a modern-day Renaissance Man. Not sure if I can pull it off, but I am constantly interested in learning new things provided I have ample alone time to let my mind wander and process.

OT, it’s raining like crazy here in Dallas. Super glad we got the roof fixed and the brickwork out back fixed because surely there would be water damage after neighbor’s foundation work and sizable gaps. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

Wrote a decent blog post tonight, thought I posted it and deleted the original file. Guess the moral of the story is don’t blog when it’s time for bed. We all make mistakes.

Fail Often, Fail Fast, Fail Cheap

I will retype / repost tomorrow. 🙂

I started this blog in April 2012. This was about a month after getting hired in my current role. A lot has happened this year.

• Beginning of the year I had 3300 of credit card debt. Since September I have had 0.
• Before June 2012 I was renting a 3br/2br floor 1300sq ft apartment for 1285/mo. Today we have an 1800 ft townhouse with a lower monthly payment. My partner’s company covered the bulk of our closing costs. 3.5% down payment, under the 20% so PMI is involved but still the mortgage payment is around 1020/mo while still building equity.
• In February I got laid off from a company I worked at for a mere 6 weeks before they filed Chapter 11, bounced my semi-monthly paycheck and haven’t been paid for the time I worked since.
• Visited New York. The trip itself was fun though getting sick, laying out a couple hundred for a housing situation, missing my flight, paying for a cab and getting into a heated discussion with my bf all put a dampener on how much fun I had.
• Networking – I made some new friends at work and outside. Some of them are not exactly complimentary to me though. The ones who spend $100 on a dinner without flinching, I’m really not at the same level they are.
• Car – Been doing preventative maintenance. Got new front rotors and pads, though the rears need to be done soon. In June I got a great deal on 4 tires for 396 installed.  Need to get my CVT drained and filled soon. My car was built 5 years ago and though it’s not the most fun to drive, it has been pretty reliable other than the one hot day when a valet left it on.
• Living less paycheck to paycheck. Weeks have gone by where I literally didn’t have enough in my accounts to not have to tap into credit. Knock on wood, I am 2-3 weeks ahead and plan to increase this buffer to several months.
• Applied to over 30 jobs positions this year between losing my job in February and starting a new one in March. Went on an interview for a job that would pay near double my current salary and due to a technicality was not offered the job at the last minute.

I could have accomplished much more this year, but I’m celebrating all the baby steps along the way.

Month 9 Update

$1800 in the bank before my 2nd loan  payment to Sallie Mae. Estimating my new balance after payment but today my balance is 42361.98. Assuming the same amount goes toward principal as last month I will owe around 42057.

January 2013 Sallie Mae Update.

2013 is just around the corner. Here’s to making headway in getting these loans paid off!

I also started reading Early Retirement Extreme by Jacob Lund Fisker. It’s a good read, packed with information. I’m only on Chapter 2. I never really connected the dots before, but now it makes more sense on how people can retire early and how liberating living below your means really can be over time. I’m beginning to see how working constantly can leave little time to develop new skills to make a person more competitive in the marketplace. Basically an ongoing cycle of experienced workers being phased out by recently college graduates who have time to undergo more training.

Early Retirement Extreme

Slightly bummed out overall with the way life is going. I’ve become a bit boring, trying to spice things up a bit and not be a slave to work. Lately though it’s like I go to work, eat dinner, watch some tv show I’m only half interested in watching to begin with, veg out on my laptop and repeat. Trying to find people to meet on craigslist who don’t sound shady, but that is an ongoing process…

I am on a budget yes, but I also want to find ways to keep things exciting. I’m grateful to have a job and be able to pay my bills, but the 33k salary I earn plus overtime and the occasional 700 or so pretax bonus isn’t enough. Started looking at job postings again and it’s a bit overwhelming and discouraging. I really don’t want to start this whole process over from scratch.  However… I do see the writing on the wall. I don’t think I will get a bump up to a higher paying position in the next 12 months.  Just because of how the division and positions are structured. You basically need to put in close to two years before you’re considered senior and even then it’s like a $5000 pay raise. Most of the people who have been with the company that long have left. I suspect we will have a lot of churn some next year around the summertime in particular. I’ve had 2 managers since I started and both have gone to other areas of the company. Soon I will be reporting to my 4th manager in less than 9 months. I like all my managers but big picture I don’t see a whole lot of growth for me here without putting in 3 years minimum. Of course something unexpected might open up. It seems that’s often how it works. Can’t sit and twiddle my thumbs waiting though.

In other news, I’m making a big shift again in my health after some recent issues that have come up. Basically there are times after eating certain foods that I go into a diabetic-like shock where I will start sweating, feel lightheaded. I know being overweight and addicted to certain foods isn’t helping. I plan on doing a fasting blood test to see if there is a serious medical issue or my body is just having a reaction to excess sugar consumption. 

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all the people who have been looking at my blog this year. I am happy to be able to be able to share a few hours each week sharing my journey to become debt free with each and everyone of you.

My bf and I recently saw the Trans Siberian Orchestra at the American Airlines Center in Dallas. Bought the tickets from a guy on Craigslist. It’s not the first time I’ve bought / sold something on CL, but I always have my guard up since I know there are a bunch of scammers out there. The cost was 150 for both of us, plus $10 for parking and around the same for tolls.

I thought the show would be boring and uneventful but it really wasn’t. They played Christmas music infused with rock, blues and a pyrotechnics show. Not sleeper music by any stretch and that was a good thing.

This Christmas, I didn’t go into any credit card debt. I didn’t buy any gifts for my friends or parents. They know I’m in the midst of getting my financial house in order. I felt no guilt for not buying them any gifts. I’d much rather spend time with people who are important to me than buying expensive items they probably will quickly forget anyway.

Tonight we had some friends over for a Christmas feast. Good food, some alcohol and crazy kids running around. I honestly don’t think I was ever that wild running around. Today I’m very even tempered, no-nonsense. Definitely not the kind of person who would want to deal with children all day.

It’s interesting to see opposing viewpoints on the same issue. Take one in particular. Person I work with who doesn’t pull their own weight so to speak, always comes in late and leaves early, does probably 50% of the work I do, living on a social networking site. Complaining about coming into work for 4 hours and getting paid for 8 and his commute in general. I can identify with some of what he’s saying, but I also have been on the other side of the equation. On days when you don’t have work, you don’t get paid. Those doing contractual work or self-employed. I’m grossing around 175-200/week extra by giving a few hours over the weekend and an hr or so a day in the week. He does a side job that is much more time-intensive and probably earns about the same but off the books.

Raises are coming up soon. Should get one on the paycheck after my next one. I do work pretty darn hard at my job. I’m thirsty for success. Even a very slight 3% raise would be an extra $20/week or 1040 a year. That’s two months worth of loan payments. Also if I can sustain the 8 hours overtime a week (debatable), I basically will be grossing 33% more. We shall see…