Random Thoughts

-Since I started using Twitter, it's been hard finding motivation to blog.
-I really want to buy a house now, but prices are still pretty high. I hope that C and I buy a place where we can cover the mortgage with only 1 of our incomes.
-Mortgage prices still seem to be very low. I used Zillow to get some mortgage quotes, and I can get around 4.5% (with some partial points, but we plan to keep whatever place we buy for a long time).
-New job is going well. I got my first paycheck last week. There is something to be said for getting paychecks, rather than direct deposit. I think that was the largest check in my name that I've ever received.
-I've held checks for $1+ million in relation to past jobs.
-Somehow I decided that I really like Pottery Barn. Not good for the wallet. Luckily I haven't completely lost my frugality and I'm searching craigslist for cheaper Pottery Barn stuff.
-I also bought a Pottery Barn gift card for about 75% of the value. I used it to purchase an floor model rug.
-I've been preparing a networth statement less and less frequently. The tanking of the markets gave me a good excuse to not prep one for a long long. I finally did one in mid-July and another one yesterday. In about 2 weeks, our retirement accounts went up 5% with no contribution from us. Go market!
-After preparing these recent net worth views, we realized that we are close to a pretty major milestone (cash savings of X amount, with X being a nice round number). If we save really aggressively, we could get to it, but I don't think we have the inclination to save that hard anymore.
-I believe in a 10% tithe, but I have been undertithing for the past 2 years or so. I didn't change my tithe to keep up with my income. Now an I over-tithing (only a little over) to make up for it.

My Salary History (%)

Inspired by FMF

Year 1: I got my first job out of school. I made several mistakes. I first suggested a salary range and then I didn't negotiate above what was offered. Later I found out that I could have easily made 6% more starting.

Year 2: 8.5% increase, but since I made a mistake starting out, others in my job may have started here.

Year 3: Job change. 7% increase. Didn't negotiate this amount.

Year 4: Promotion, 13% increase. Year end raise, 8%.

Year 5: Market adjustment, 7%. Promotion, 15%. Year end raise, 5%.

Year 6: Promotion, 6%.

Year 6.5: Job change, 20%.

Year 5 was a big year for me. By this time, I had learned that I was paid much much less that I was worth. I asked my boss for more money and he said he would see what he could do. I would ask for the status of the request every so often. Finally about 6 months after my initial request, I got a 7% raise (during that time period I actually got my year end raise, but I was still below market even with that 8% increase).

This year, I was promoted, but I got a very small pay increase, once again putting my below market range for my position. I believe that is the major reason I was able to negotiate such a large salary increase in this tough economic times. There was also one extenuating circumstance that caused the company to give me a bonus, worth about 5%.

What I've learned from this - do good work, ensure you have a strong reputation, research what the market is paying, and don't be afraid to ask. If you don't ask, no one is going to hand things over to you.

I was promoted several times which contributed greatly to my salary growth. Without those promotions, there is no way I'd be making what I am today.

I Accepted a New Job

I am excited to say that I accepted a new job, starting later this month. I'm taking a bit of time off before getting started. I am excited to be working with really smart people, in more of a startup like environment, but doing similar work to what I'm doing now.

The best part . . I was able to negotiate a fairly large pay increase. I am finally going to be over the 6 figure mark!

The way I was able to get this offer was by continuously doing good work and over-delivering! Just the things that FMF is always blogging about.

I'll post information about my salary growth in my next post. This is something I'm really proud of since I think I made some mistakes early in my career in not negotiating what I'm worth, but I've since made up for that.

Things Are Changing

I know that I shortly will have a new employer, I'm just not sure which one yet. I'm 95% leaning towards one company. I will post some more details soon. If I do go with this company, I expect to get a 10-15% pay increase (already discussed informally with my potential new manager). I'm pretty excited about that in this economy and with what's going on around me. Things have been pretty stressful on the work front for the past few weeks, but I have a couple of great opportunities in front of me.

Decided to Get on the Twitter Bandwagon

After I saw that even Madame X is on twitter, I decided to join. Follow me there @calgirlfinance for quick updates. I hope to post things more frequently there.

On another note, my job situation is going to be changing quite soon. I am not sure exactly what is going to happen, but suffice it to say that I believe in about a month I will be working at a new employer.

Thoughts on Spending Money

C and I have always been pretty good with our money. We’re not the best and I actually even stopped doing our budgeting by using the Force method since I realized that I could get a higher interest rate in our ING Checking account (referral link) with a balance over $50K. A lot of our savings are as liquid as can be since we’re looking to purchase a house soon. I’ve been busy (read: lazy) over the past few months in tracking how we’re doing.

One thing I did see: my company 401K says that it’s up 10% for the past 30 days and only done 30% for the past 12 months. That’s what the website provided analytics stated, but I’m not sure if that’s looking at the actual investments or just the balance. I hope that’s the actual investments since I’ve been contributing a lot to it over the past year.

So back to the point I was trying to get to: I think we are spending more in this economy than we were before. It might be lifestyle inflation, as we’re increasing our incomes. But I think it’s really because of the great deals that are out there. Travel is our major splurge. I’m a big believe in conscious spending (link). We normally pack our lunches and don’t spend a lot going out, compared to our demographic group (young twenties/thirties couple living in an exciting city). Once I get on a traveling project, I’m traveling every week and it’s easy to take a weekend trip somewhere rather than go back home. C takes probably 5-10 business trips a year. So we try to combine a lot of our business trips into weekend vacations. In 2009 alone, we’ve already taken 4 trips that have been somewhat subsidized by one of our companies.

What’s the point of this? When you life a modest lifestyle compared to your income, you can take advantage of deals when everyone else is hunkered down, trying to avoid all discretionary spending.

P.S. This posting has been brought to you by Credit-land.com. This is a good site for all your credit card application needs.

Overhead at my Favorite Clothing Store in the Mall

Salesclerk: “Would you like to open a credit card and save 40% on your purchase price?” (Aside - I’m pretty sure the clerk said 40% - I think it was some sort of promo deal since 40% is a lot!)

Customer buying one shirt: “No thanks. If you can’t pay cash, why buy it?”

I guess Americans really are changing and starting to think about what they are spending. I view this as a positive!