Funding our Future

My 2010 Resolution

2010-01-07T16:46:00.000-06:00

My mind constantly is in grind thinking about what to do next and how to get myself ahead. I always had this fire in me to be something and I could never define what that something is well I was when I was in teens, wanted to become a C.E.O. I bet most of us did. Its something that anyone can come up with because its easy to say to ourselves, Yes, I want to become a C.E.O. so what I want to do today is to get my mind out of this thinking rut and actually start focusing on what is achievable and what’s just wishful thinking. I am aware aiming for something so high takes a lot of discipline and a grain of luck but today I want to look into myself and see if this is really what I want.

That to me is a difficult task, because I wanted to be many things. I wanted to be a part time model while growing up. I wanted to be a social worker when I encountered helplessness. I wanted to be a traveler while I was reading Eat, Pray and Love which I should admit made a lot of impact on me and how I view my relationship. I wanted to married when I was single and I wanted to be single when I was married. I wanted to be an entrepreneur when I came to know about all my friends making progress in their lives.

All this time I only wanted, I never really did anything. I thought I was working hard and performing up to potential but sadly did I not realize that I wasn’t

I see a future for myself, but I clearly cannot visualize what it is. I wanted to start on my CFA prep for quite sometime now. Getting into the corporate finance group was what was on my mind all of last year. Now it’s the last thing I want to do. I want to be honest with myself. Do I want to give CFA just because I told myself 3 years ago that I want to or because I am passionate about it like how my husband is? I think not later.

I want to listen to myself every single day, pay close attention to how mind is thinking and how my thoughts are swinging with every changing moment.

What I realized now is that, the question what I want to become cannot be answered right away. It needs a lot of self retrospection and being honest with myself. As famous saying goes, Know what is achievable and what it not and the wisdom to know the difference.

So this year, I want to take it by stride. Not to fret over things. Take life as it comes. Give my best at work and let things unravel for themselves.

This is my 2010 resolution.

Happy and a Properous 2010!!!

2009-12-31T17:50:00.001-06:00

One great year ended and another to begin, I look forward to a challenging and joyous 2010.

All the very best everyone :)

Payments..Payments...

2009-11-03T15:38:00.000-06:00

Mr. Scorpio is getting ready for Business school, as exciting as it sounds its also getting me a bit worried. There are a lot of moving parts to our journey right now. Our immigration status has been in a state of flux for quite sometime now and I am not sure how it’s going to affect us once my husband starts the business school. The monthly payments are a kill. I really want to do something about those but when two people are involved, the decision making process slows down. I have been contemplating for sometime now about withdrawing money out of my 401K and pay it towards the car and bring down the balance to 6000 which I can pay off in 6 months. I am not sure what to do. The land and car payments are the biggest road blocks for me right now. I wish I could put that money towards savings instead of paying towards something that is not going up in value. I guess it’s the price we are paying for not making informed decisions. Ideally I would like to have only one payment apart from the rent before my husband starts to go to school. Not sure how I am going to tackle this problem right now.

Its Deepavali - The Festival of Lights

2009-10-17T21:20:00.002-05:00

Today is Deepavali for us, what most people know as the Festival of Lights.. Its the day the Good overcame the evil. I logged in today to start blogging again..about my Finances,...but I have changed my mind. Instead of focusing on material stuff, I want to reflect on my life today , take a moment and Thank God for blessing me in so many ways.

Thank you for blessing me with good health so I can live every moment

Thank you for blessing me with an amazing family that love me unconditionally

Thank you blessing me with a job so I can provide for my family and take care of my loved ones

Thank you for getting the messages to my ear when ever I need them.

Finally , Thank you for the good food, air, water and home that you have blessed me with.

New Tires for my car - $640.. Ouch

2009-10-16T10:19:00.000-05:00

Money Diary - Aug-20th

2009-08-20T20:46:00.002-05:00

Hurried to a meeting at 9.00 and grabbed some breakfast on the way - money spent - $4.04

Grabbed some lunch at the cafeteria for $3.84 - tried something new today, it turned out to be a good meal and good price.

Came home early, @ 5 and went grocery shopping with hubby -money spent - $65

On our way back to the car, he and I discussed about how much we can save if we went to the local farmers market for veggies, though HEB has good stuff, its bit pricier, I usually spend around $25 dollars for my 2 weeks worth of vegetables. HEB is definetly the choice for meat though, fresh meat at an affordable price plus it comes from local vendors unlike other chains.

Hubby's fav dish Lamb curry is cooking on the stove right now.....

Total money spent today - $73 ..oouch....

Money Diary - Aug -19th

2009-08-20T16:49:00.002-05:00

Breakfast at work- $ 3.46

Lunch - $4.24

Total Spent - $7.70

Reached home to my b'day gifts, hubby ordered 212 and light blue from Amazon. Love'em, another suprising gift - Kitchen Confidential from Anothony Bourdain, my fav- host on TV - He Rocks..!!!!!!

Money Dairy - Aug 18th

2009-08-18T20:50:00.002-05:00

I felt like my day was cut short by 3 hours or something. The whole day passed by in a hurry.

Got to work at 8 this morning, completed some work before my mgr got to work and hurried down to get my usual breakfast for $3.07 before the cafeteria closed.

Hurried down to the conference room for a 5 hour meeting which turned out to be more like 7, got to gym at 5.30 pm, played basket ball for 10 mins before I had my fore scrathed by another players sharp finger nail, I get paranoid when its nails and stuff..left the court and worked out for sometime and got home at 7.30 , cooked, had dinner with hubby and now I am getting ready to pick up the book he gifted me..Stop Pissing meOff(LOL), but its for the work place though...

Total money spent today - $3.07

Money Diary - Aug 17th

2009-08-17T21:40:00.002-05:00

Got up this morning to a nice cup of tea , got ready and left to work.

Got a muffin sandwhich with egg whites and coffee for $3.07

Transfered $3500 to my ING savings account. I had subscribed for ESPP at work and was able to stack away $4300.

Came home for lunch -money spent - $0

Hubby paid $600 towards our land mortagage.

Went to see my Sis after work and reached home at 7.00pm and cooked , had dinner with hubby -money spent -$0

Its my birthday today, got a nice Godiva chocolate collection from my cousin, waiting for the perfumes my hubby ordered for me..

June -Round Up

2009-07-01T16:21:00.003-05:00

This has been an awesome month financially for two reasons. First, being that I was able to get my CC balance under 5000 dollars and Second, for being able to save $3600. I subscribed for ESPP (Employee stock purchase plan) at work and it had an automatic payroll deduction even before I saw the money. It was hard initially to cover all the expenses but as time passed by I was able to manage and was able to save another 150 on top of that after all bills are paid. ESPP for first part of the year ends today but I did not opt myself out of the plan which means that I would be able to save another 3000 dollars by the end of December and make a cool 15% profit since employees are given a discount on the existing market price (of course we need to pay the capital gains tax).

Seeing my CC balance under 5000 dollars makes me feel good because the number makes me feel more comfortable. I will do my best to save every dollar that I can to pay this off quickly. Ideally I would like to have it knocked out by the end of August but it would be a long shot. Nevertheless, I am happy as long as I can knock it out 3months before my India Trip.

Apart from the finances, I made a business proposal to one of good friend who lives in the same city as I do. She was looking to open up her own beauty salon but she is short on cash. I told her that I can invest 5000 dollars and asked her to think about it. Even though I do not have the skill set that is required to run a spa, I definitely do have some business experience coming from a business family myself. I will know something about it in the next few weeks and once I hear a yes from her, I will move forward. This would help me make some extra income and I can use my weekends to learn a new skill and find innovative ways to take the business to the next level.

Overall, has been a good month at work, home and financially.

How I got myself in and out of an embarassing situation at work

2009-06-22T13:29:00.002-05:00

This morning I have gotten into a worst situation I could ever get into at work. It all started with a call from my senior manager,let’s call him C for now, this morning while I had my immediate manager at my desk. I had asked C couple of days ago if he would have time to sit with me and discuss about another position with a different application we have within our group. Though the first instinct told me that I have to let my immediate manager know about my interest in this position, I kind of ignored it telling myself that its just going to be an informational session with C” , not like a real interview or anything. I even asked around people in my office on what the best approach would be and “them all” told me talk to C first. Again, for the 100th time in my life I went with what others told me instead of using my best judgment. Fast forwarding to this morning – C asked me if I had spoken to my immediate manager already, by this time, I can feel blood gushing to my ears(which happens to me when I am nervous, or in an awkward situation) and my heart pounding in my chest as my immediate manager was right next to me. I told C that I haven’t yet and he told me in a very casual voice to talk him and to express to him that I am interested in this other position within my group. By the time I hung up the phone , my immediate manager could already guess what was going on and asked with a corny sense of humor – “So when are you planning to tell me about this” , I was so embarrassed to look at his face. I apologized to him and told that I was not in this kind of situation before and I did not what the best approach would be in such a situation and that I was curious to know what the position was all about before I even started thinking about seriously pursuing it.

He said that it was okay and gave me good feedback on what kind of approach to take when in a situation like this. He mentioned one thing about how he thought that both of us had open communication and this incident made him think twice about the kind of professional relationship we shared. I apologized to him again and I told him that I was really sorry and did not mean to offend him in any way. He got over it and told me forget about it and put this behind us.

So for all you new Yuppies’ out there. Lessons to take away from my experiences are:

1.Think it through before you approach anyone above your manager in your organizational hierarchy.

2.Take only expert opinion. Don’t ask around anyone you see, because these folks don’t mean harm but they will advise you based on their life experiences.

3.Look at the situation based on the kind of relationship you have with your manager.

4.Take expert opinion but let the final decision be yours.

5.The first instinct is always...always always right when you are stuck in these kinds of situations.

Wall Street employee's humbling experience.

2009-06-03T14:27:00.002-05:00

I was reading an article on WSJ and it ran jitters through my spine. The article was about a Wall Street employee who lost everything due to the market meltdown. This person, who was once earning more than 200, 000 dollars a year, now earns 25,000 dollars and works as an escort to seat hotel guests. It’s hard for me to comprehend how people can go through or cope up with such transitions in lifestyles. Reading through the article, I felt like this person was making good financial choices like having an emergency fund, a saving account etc but in spite of all that his family could not escape the wrath of a failing economy. While I work hard and hope that I never get myself into those situations, it’s often too easy to forget the life lessons. Give it a read; it might make you more committed to your financial goals. Hey, the wise always learn from “Other people’s mistakes”.

May - Round Up

2009-05-30T09:35:00.001-05:00

Things are still running at a slow pace with expected but delayed bills coming our way. I have not been able to pay the same amount towards CC, I used to 2 months ago. I am consciously cutting off all the unnecessary expenses but it seems like paying bills is more like a daily affair now-a days. I received a bill for 360 dollars from my insurance company for my DNC procedure. It seems that the expenses are not covered for a female under 30. I paid off that bill with the amount I set aside for my CC payments. I still have to come up with 660 dollars for my Advance Parole application which gives me the flexibility of traveling in and out the country. I am planning a trip to India this year and I won’t be able to get back into US without an AP. (Green Card looks like a far away dream now). The bright side of this is that I still have a job to take care of the expenses and to not fall behind. I am shooting to pay off my CC balances 3 months before my Trip, that way I can save for my trip expenses instead of digging back to CC’s. I think I got a good hold on my CC expenses. I am able to the go to the mall, admire at a nice piece of clothing and walk away without being tempted to buy it or feeling bad for not being able to afford it. All that said, here is how I did this month.

Balance on CC – $6892 (was able to pay only 765 this month)

Auto Loan – $21300

Career Confusions:Suze.O comes to the rescue.

2009-05-17T23:31:00.002-05:00

The only thing on my mind these days is the “direction” of my career. I graduated with double masters in Finance and International Relations and what I am doing right now has nothing/very less to do with the years I have spent earning those degrees. I work as a financial systems analyst, managing the reporting systems. I should say that not being happy where I am does not stop me from giving my 100% to the job I am in right now. I have learned quite early in my age to do every task/job with utmost dedication. I know I do not want to see myself doing the same job 5 years from now, if I am, then there is something seriously going wrong but on the other hand I do not know which direction to take to keep myself from getting stuck in this job. I have been in this state of flux for the past 6 months. I had this drive in me to excel but I had no clue in what!. I picked up Suze Orman’s YF&B book the other Friday and she mentioned something relating to this problem which made a lot of sense. I have summarized the lessons that I have learnt below:

Do something about it: The most important thing I have learned through meeting people who have excelled in their lives and through reading books is that if you do not like the status quo in your life then “Do something about it”, people can go on and on about how much they hate what they are doing or how much they love to do such and such but if you do not take action to change the status quo then things are not going to change or get better for you. Identifying the problem and taking action are two different things. We need to push ourselves to go beyond the first step.

Do some research: Now that you have identified the problem, the next step is to do some thorough research, I had no clue how to go about this, but again Miss.O’s (not Oprah! it’s Orman) book threw some light on it. Her advice to the YB&F’ers is to pick a career that interests them and do some research on it for at least a week. A thorough research will bring to light the pros and cons of choosing that particular profession.

Make the shift early: If you are in your 20’s or early 30’s making the shift now is much easier now than waiting for couple of more years even if that means settling down for a lower salary. The longer we wait the harder its going to be to make that shift because of the family and financial obligations we might get into. Mr. Scorpio just hit 30 last year and has been working as an IT consultant for the past 7 years. He wanted to get an MBA and make the shift to Finance for a long time and finally he has taken action and is enroute to make that change.

and finally,

Keep the faith: Once we have decided to make the shift or have had made that long waited shift, the initial obstacles might make it tough to ease into the transition and the best thing to do at that point is to keep the faith and have the eyes on the prize. Its more like practicing "frugality", its hard intially but in the long term turns out to be fruitful.

Have you been in situations like these, of so what did you do and how did you make that transition?

Amex just closed off my account that had the longest credit history!!!

2009-05-04T10:41:00.000-05:00

Did it ever happen to you that the credit card you had for the longest time is closed off by the issuing company without even letting you know or sending a notification? Well, it happened to me, I have had Amex for 6 years now and infact it’s the first ever CC I got when I first came to US 6 years ago. I have always paid my dues on time and never over charged it; however, I recently paid off all the balance remaining on this CC about 8 months ago and haven’t charged anything on it since. I went to the website recently to see if I have any outstanding balances since I also have a Corporate Card, to my dismay I saw a message on my account website stating that my account has been closed due to inactivity. I am not sure why they would do that, at first thought I assumed that it’s because of the recession. Companies could be streamlining all their accounts and businesses. Amex has been different all the while; they are very stringent on their lending policies, I have had an experience 4 years ago where I was running close to my credit limit and once I paid off the balance they cut my credit limit too. I understand that but cannot comprehend why they would choose to close an account that is in good standing for the past several years. My biggest concern is not loosing the CC but the credit history attached to it, I am aware that credit history accounts for 15% of the FICO score, and its just not right to close an account without notifying the customer, that’s just not good customer service. I will be calling the company today to enquire about the reason that had led to the closing of my account.

Has this happened to you before, if so what did you do, any advice?

April Round –Up.

2009-05-01T12:50:00.002-05:00

April has been an expensive month, with some unforeseen expenses coming my way. I had to dig back into the CC that was paid off. The 1000 dollar emergency fund that I had set side has been used to meet another expense. Below is where I stand as of end of April.

Credit Card 1 = $6700
Credit Card 2 = $955

Emergency Savings = $300.00

Balance on CC = $7655

I am planning on bringing up my emergency fund to at least $3000 and pay only minimum on my CC until I meet my emergency fund goal. With only myself working I think we need to have a better cushion for any expenses that come our way.

Finding meaning in chaos

2009-04-13T12:51:00.000-05:00

I haven’t been blogging for more than a month now. So many events took place within this time that brought quick joy and sorrow to our lives before we could take it all in. I came to know I was pregnant at six weeks. We went to the doctor and she detected the heart beat and asked us to come back in 2 weeks. I had so many emotions during that two week period, excited but tensed, I wasn’t sure if we both were ready to start a family as my husband was preparing for B-school and we had only one income coming in and lots of debts to pay. Mr. Scorpio was like a rock all through this time, assuring me that everything would be “ok”. We went in for the 8 week check-up and that’s when the sad news hit us, that the fetus is not growing anymore. As per the doc, this was quite normal, 70% of the people have miscarriages and sometimes they do not even know it. It was new for us, because I have not known anyone in my family that had one. We still had hopes that may be another 2 weeks into it, we might somehow miraculously find the fetus still growing but that wasn’t the case. We went to a radiologist and at the end of the check-up she gave it away saying “I hope to see you in a better situation next time”.

Devastated, that we were, by the news I had a DNC last week and I am recovering from it. Through this journey I have learnt one thing that is “How important an emergency fund is”. I ended up paying 1200 dollars for the procedure and that is only the beginning, I am not sure how many medical bills are in store for us. Only 80% is covered by my employer insurance after a 1000 dollar deductible which I haven’t met yet.

I had 1000 dollars set aside for rainy days like this but I had to take it out to help out my sister in India. Though I am grateful that I am able to help my family in need, the pressure of not having saved enough is setting a fire in me to push harder. My credit cards are in control now. I haven’t charged anything on them for the past 7 months up until last week, I paid the 1200 contribution from my side through the CC. I am all motivated to pay it off. I have been religiously making payments to my CC. My initial plan was to pay everything off by May but looks like that date will be pushed to July. As long as I can clear off all my debts by August, I am good with it because I need to tackle Mr. Scorpio’s debts next. He is looking for a job right now and also researching some B-schools, not sure which path he will take yet.

Like my Mr. Scorpio always says, I am trying to find the meaning of life amidst all this chaos and I am hopeful that this too shall pass.

February - 2009 Round Up

2009-03-01T11:35:00.001-06:00

After a slow start this year, things are finally starting to fall in place again. I have paid off all credit cards but one that has the highest balance - $7568. I moved all the cash from my petty savings account into my emergency account to bring it up to $1000. I will start monthly deposits of $150 to my savings account until I pay off all the remaining balance on my credit card. I had a performance review at work last week and it went very well. My manager told me that he is very happy with my work and the way I progressed within a short period of time. That meant getting a raise, however, that happiness did not last longer. I received an email later from our company's VP that the management decided not to consider salary increments for this year until after they review the first quarter results. I am ok with that, I guess. Its good to have a job right now and I am grateful for that. Keeping that aside.

Below is how my finances look at the end of February.

Credit Card: $7568

Auto Loan: $22,325

Emergency Savings: $ 1000.

Lessons learned from Dave Ramsey’s Total Money Makeover Book

2009-02-10T16:28:00.000-06:00

I just finished listening to the Total Money Makeover audio book by Dave Ramsey; I like what he says about managing our finances. The eternal optimism he injects into his readers throughout the audio tape is fascinating. All of us have been in those situations: where our impulses take over our wallets and vanity our common sense. That is not the end of the journey; it’s just the beginning because it’s from these precipitous falls we raise to great heights. These experiences teach us life lessons which help our minds to continuously probe into our past and help us make sound decisions in the present. It’s always good to know what the outcome of a bad judgment would be. Some are wise enough take those lessons from others mistakes and some are smart enough not to repeat them.

Dave talks about being “gazelle intense” – Gazelle is a small swift antelope from Africa which escapes 99% of the time when being preyed on by a leopard: an analogy that he uses to describe how unrelenting our efforts should be towards attaining financial independence. The basic underlining statement is that –Don’t buy stuff unless you can pay for it. Sounds very simple and straight forward, then the question comes- Why we do we fumble? Each of us has our own reasons; mine was that – I deserved to be happy. Little did I know that delaying those gratifications could have kept me happy for as long as I could live. Like Dave, I am an eternal optimist too, I believe in giving and taking second chances. I believe that people are always willing to work towards a better life except that some need big kicks on their behinds and some a jerk on the knee.

So, no matter if we are 18 or 28 or 39 or 56 years old we can always start NOW, start making wise choices and most importantly – BE HAPPY.

January- 2009 Round- Up

2009-01-30T16:12:00.002-06:00

It’s been a busy month at work with new implementations going on. However, I cannot make that an excuse for not blogging regularly (Does someone care? LOL). So, I took look at my financial progress and realized things have been taking a slow turn. Until December I was able to knock off 2000 dollars off my CC balances that has been slowing down. I have my reasons (well we all do). I have registered for Employee Stock Purchase Plan at work and maxed out my contribution, so that’s taking 1000 dollars off my pay check every month. On top that, I have registered for MS-150 last October and I see some expenses coming my way. I have been researching online to find some good bargains for the stuff that I need. Keeping that aside, this is where I stand at the end of January

Credit Cards
Bank of America CC-1 = $7875
Bank of America CC-2 = $845
Balance as of January: = $8720

Auto Loan
Jan Beginning Balance: = $23420
Jan Ending Balance: = $22760

Savings
Emergency Savings: = $60
Long Term Savings: = $605
Parents Health Fund: = $40
House DP Fund: = $40

I would have to set aside around 150 dollars for MS-150. Still need to get the shoes, gloves, tubes and pump. phew. I am going on my first training ride with a group of people from my company tomorrow. Hopefully, I keep up the pace and am ready for my 150 mile ride on April 15th.

How to Pay it Down?

2009-01-07T16:25:00.003-06:00

Last year has been great for me, most importantly because I realized the value of money. I never had my money organized; it’s ironic that I have my masters in Finance. I came across couple of PF bloggers that have really motivated me to gain control of finances. I started blogging in June-2008 with a debt of around $ 20,000, today I have $ 8000 remaining. I am proud of myself that I have come a long way. For anybody out there who is starting your “Pay it down” journey right now here are a few tips to get going.

Start with a plan: I know this is what many PF bloggers say and they say it for a reason- because it works. I did not plan anything fancy. I just used Excel on my computer. I listed all the debt I had, the target pay off date and how much I paid down as I progressed. I had it color coded to keep it interesting. I had red in the debt column and green in the ones I paid off. I was always curious to see how my excel page would like if everything was green, and I have only one column in “RED” left now. Having a plan gives you a purpose and acting with a purpose in mind will always yield results.

Start paying your debt by paying yourself first: I am a big fan of Ramit This was the tip from him. I opened ING Savings account and automated 50 dollars bi-weekly to it,when I decided to get control of my finances,even before paying my CC’s ,I slowly increased that amount 200 now. This way you will be saving money for unforeseen expenses instead of digging into your CC again.

Don’t Nickel n Dime: When I started paying off my debt, I was trying to save every cent which really did not make me feel good. I wrote a post about how I saved 10 dollars a month by making breakfast at home but I realized its just waste of time and resources. If having breakfast is something that you look forward to, go and get it from your cafeteria at work. It’s the big items that save you money not the small ones and that’s my next tip.

Save on big ticketed items: The reason I was able to pay off 12,000 in 6 months was because I kept myself away from making big purchases. I loved to shop so I kept myself away from the mall. I enrolled in 24hr fitness with a friend for 30 dollars month and started going to GYM after work. This way I got my workout and I had to go home to freshen up instead of going out elsewhere. I haven’t been to the mall for more than 4 months until last Dec-2008.

Keep yourself busy: You end up spending more money if you have too much free time. Pick up a book and start reading or learn something that will enhance your career. This way by the time your have paid off your debt you would have learnt something new that might lead to an increase in your income.

Follow the snowball method of paying down debt: Seeing results sooner will keep us motivated than having to wait for longer periods. I followed the snowball method to pay down mine. You simply have to arrange your debt from the lowest amount owed to the highest and keep paying if off in that order that way mentally it keeps you motivated to clear off the remaining debt. I followed this method, however, I called up my CC Company and transferred the high balances on to a zero interest card that way I won’t be accumulating too much interest when I am knocking off smaller balances.

I hope these tips will help you pay off your debt as they helped me. Let me know if you have any more tips. All the best and remember that;

" You cannot go back and have a new beginning but you can always start NOW and have a new ending."

New Year Resolutions?

2009-01-05T15:42:00.004-06:00

I have been thinking about coming up with a list of resolutions for this New Year- 2009 and to my surprise I couldn’t think of any and yes that raised an alarm. I think one should be able to think of something that they want to take up or give in at any point in their life, which is a true symbol of progress to me. So this morning when a colleague that sits across me asked me what my New Year’s resolution is/are, I replied saying “I haven’t thought about it and that I would really like to think about the resolution that I want to take up and stick to this year”. As I pondered through the day I came up with a lot of things but then I decided to cut it down 3 that encompass personal , social and professional aspects of life.

Personal - Just relax, be happy and take one day at a time. (Just take action)
Social - Become part of a voluntary organization:
Professional - Get Six Sigma certification by the end of the year

I think these resolutions are attainable with the right attitude; as a matter of fact anything can be achieved with the “right” attitude. Lets see how I do this year.

BTW, here is a video that I took while vacationing in Vegas. Its called the "Living Garden" and is performed at the Palazzo. ENJOY

Reflecting - 2008

2008-12-22T14:49:00.004-06:00

As the year 2008 comes to and end paving way to another year full of hope and excitement, its time to look back and see how far I have come in fulfilling my ambitions and goals. Rather than focusing on the goals that I did not meet, I would like to start this post on a positive upbeat note and focus on the things that I have achieved so far:

Career Wise: This has been a very good year for me. I have landed a fulltime position in a very good company. I report to a manager who is attentive to my needs and has been helping me grow professionally. I have taken an Advanced Excel training session which is helping me get my work done faster. This training was long due on my resume. I work in a team that is laid back and yet delivers everything on time. The people in my team have kept me motivated through out to go after my goals.

Marriage: The year started off pretty rough between Mr. Scorpio and I. Things started changing slowly through the year. We had our up's and down's but both of us have taken deliberate actions to understand each other and make things work albeit the differences. I have realized that the only way to keep my relationship work is to keep it first. I thank god for giving me the wisdom I needed to get it back on track. In the beginning I was constantly complaining about my marriage not working but it suddenly hit me that I need to put effort to make something work. My husband and I can watch Joel Osteen’s episode without being judgmental about the whole religious thing since both of us are born Hindu’s and have different perspectives towards “other” religions. This is a big achievement for me. All is well now.

Personal/Spiritual Life: 2008, has been a remarkable year for this part of my life. I participated in the Susan G Komen- 2008 race for cure and raised $140. I completed my first 5k run which has been long due. I registered for MS-150 and bought a bike to train myself for the 180 mile ride. I have been going to the gym 4 days out a week and playing volley ball twice every week. I started taking Piano lessons in June and gave my first piano recital on Dec 6th. I was nervous during my performance but it was an awesome experience while it lasted.
Spiritually, it has been an exciting journey. I got involved heavily into Art of Living and experienced a new level of spiritual growth. I cannot say that I have found myself a good place to start this journey; however, it was not a bad place to start either.

Wealth Wise: I have done the best in this category. I am not debt-free but I realized how important it is to be so. I started putting a plan together to rid myself off debt as soon as I got back from India.

I was able to bring my CC balance to $9000. Started with 16000 this year.
I paid all my relatives and friends that helped me during my education. (Paid off $5000)
I put $1000 in my savings since June 2008.

I started tracking my financial journey through a blog and that has kept me motivated to get rid off my debt. I am on way to paying it down. 3 more months to go. As Joel Osteen says, “it has been raining on me” and I am thankful to God for making this a smooth journey.

Health and Happiness: Mr. Scorpio and I are doing well; again we would like to thank God for blessing us with good health. My parents are doing great and so are his. My father-in-law is coping well with his leg injury too. All my folks back home in India are doing great too. All in all, it’s been an outstanding year.

Vacations: My husband and I visited India for first time after our marriage in 2 and half years. I had an amazing time in India and cannot wait to make another trip. We had a family reunion in Virginia in August and it was so much fun. My husband and I are going off to Vegas the day after tomorrow. It’s going to be our first vacation together in a long time and yes we made it. Can’t wait to have fun. I got some nice stuff for my husband to wear. He rarely spends money on clothing these days. We had fun shopping together in a long time.

This post has left me feeling better than when I started writing. I did not know how much I progressed until I have put the pen to the paper. I just got out of a 30 min meeting with my manager who has filled my mind with good words of encouragement. It feels good to walk out of a meeting knowing that “I matter”. . All in all, it’s been an outstanding year for me and I hope to take 2009 up a notch.

So how did y’all do this year?

December Goals – Week 2 Check in.

2008-12-15T17:15:00.001-06:00

The past two weeks have been a bit disappointing financially. I have spent some considerable amount of money on eating out and it was not just for myself, I paid for my colleagues as well. So here is how I did with my goals.

1.Loose 8 pounds. I am 148 right now, would like to bring it down to 140 lbs. Lost 4 pounds already so that’s a good start
2.No spending days on Tuesday and Thursday. I think I am doing ok here and sticking to the plan
3.No rice eating days – Monday and Friday. I have actually managed to take it 4 days out of a week.
4.Start a good book, yet to decide the pick. I haven’t looked for any book per se, but spotted a book from my husband’s collection named Magic of Thinking Big and started reading it
5.Try to go bike riding once in two weeks. No action taken

Coming to Credit Cards, I started out this month with an outstanding balance of $ 10419, I should have knocked off 1000 dollars off as planned but I have an outstanding balance of $10029 which is very disappointing. I am actually not sure where all that money went. I need to stay focused especially when I am so close to paying it down.

An intensified WANT!!!!!!!

2008-12-04T19:49:00.003-06:00

(This post is just a week late :)
I woke up this morning to what ended up being a very sorrowful Thanks Giving day. My husband told me about the attacks on Mumbai in our country, India. My mind cannot comprehend what could be going through these terrorists minds while they are mercilessly killing innocent people. All this chaos and mayhem for what? While a part of the world is mourning the deaths of the unfortunate people, the rest of us our are getting ready to be the first in line for what’s supposed to be the day for the mother of all deals- The BLACK FRIDAY. I tuned into CNN as usual to see what’s going on in the world around me and heard that a Wal-Mart employee has been killed while opening the doors in the early hours of the Friday morning to let the people in. People were so caught up in trying to be the first one to grab onto the “supposedly” best deal that they completely ignore that a person has fallen flat on the ground and is being stepped over by hundreds of people. How can people be so ignorant and how intensified is their want that they are trying to satisfy. Here is a picture that I took while walking adrift in the mall on Black Friday. BEBE had to close its store for sometime because it did not have enough people to handle the busy cash register and people made a huge line that went around the store and to the door. The store management had to close the doors for sometime before they could let anybody in. (Sorry, tried downloading pics from my blackberry, I guess I do not have the right software.. will leave the pics to your imagination.)

An action that is set to satisfy an intensified want will not result in satisfaction. Once a want is satisfied our mind will immediately come up with another one. I have experienced this first hand and I think all of you have to. I never wore watch for 7 years and I told myself the next time I will wear one is when I can afford an expensive one. My husband satisfied that want of mine last year when he got me a diamond studded Swiss Army watch. I loved to show it off, immediately within the next 2 days I had another want that I was looking to satisfy- Getting a Louis Vutton Bag for myself. Thanks to all the PF bloggers that kept me away from satisfying that want. I still want to own it but not now, when I really feel I can afford and will not feel guilty after buying it.

When I think of wants I get a picture of the Domino Effect, you knock off one and that leads to another and another and so on, it’s like an endless cycle that will not let us experience life as it is. Wants make us feel that we are not happy where we are. Though some might argue that WANTS propel us to go forward in life, I still believe that being able acknowledge wants and make rationalized decisions is what keeps us ahead in life.

November Round Up and December Outlook

2008-11-25T15:19:00.004-06:00

I will be working this weekend and I guess I am not going to have any time to post until Dec 1st. I decided to do it now rather than wait till I get to the next month.

November Round Up
It’s the end of another month which brings me one more step closer to my debt free month. November was a good month except for the fact that I had to put 300 dollars away for HOA fees instead of paying towards my Credit Card. My Wamu CC should be paid off by Dec-15th and then I will have to deal with only one Credit Card which is also a big kill. It has 9200 balance on it. I will be paying off 2000 dollars a month until I bring the balance to zero.

Coming to the monthly progress report. This is how I have faired in November. This month has gone by sooner than expected.

CREDIT CARDS

Wamu
Nov-Beginning Balance - $2845
Nov-Ending Balance - $1200

BAC- WP
Nov Beginning Balance - $9932
Nov Ending Balance - $9219

CAR LOAN
BMW
Nov- Beginning Balance - $ 24330
Nov Ending Balance - $ 23820

EXERCISE ROUTINE

As planned I have been working out 4 days in a week until date and I will keep up the pace until the end of this month. I have added 2 more Pilates’ classes on to my existing list. We have our Volley Ball play-offs coming up and I believe I am prepared for it now. Enough of loosing 10 straight games-phew.

I have stuck to my budget and commitments. I decided not to buy any piece of clothing until I knock off all my debts and this month has also been added to my success log(However, my evil twin is luringme towards the black dress I saw at Black and White Store, umh $125, should I or shouldn't I).

December Outlook
Oh, the end of the year, what an exciting 30 days these will be. I have always liked December; it makes me feel like I am going to be a whole different person even though except for making new resolutions there isn’t much change. Well, of course if I keep up with the resolutions there will be changes. On that note, I think it will be a good idea for me to start deliberating on the new resolutions or projects that I would like to take up in 2009. I will definitely try to fit in some voluntary work in there. I will be part of projects that I wanted to by starting out small.

DECEMBER GOALS

Loose 8 pounds. I am 148 right now , would like to bring it down to 140 lbs.
No spending days on Tuesday and Thursday
No rice eating days – Monday and Friday
Start a good book, Yet to decide the pick
Try to go bike riding once in two weeks

Wish me luck people

No Spending Days

2008-11-24T13:12:00.000-06:00

Though I can account for every last penny that goes out of my checking account, I would want to see how much I will end up saving by sticking to a NO-SPENDING day. By this I mean, no morning breakfast tacos, no going out for lunches and no nothing, absolutely –Nada. After careful deliberation I have decided on the two days I won’t be spending any money and those days would be Monday and Friday. Friday, is a long shot because my husband will be back home and we might end up going for a movie or something. So I will restrict Friday’s to my work day. Following this plan should save me 50 dollar’s a month. I will keep tracking my progress on the monthly budget evaluation that I do.

Looks like I will end up working through the holidays except for the Thanks Giving Day. It will keep me from shopping though its not as much fun.

What happened to all that love?

2008-11-21T16:21:00.002-06:00

I woke up this morning and suddenly remembered the initial days when my husband and I are started going out. It was a beautiful feeling of being in love. I used to look forward to the day at night and keep my cell phone right beside me so that I would not miss a call from him. I used to come out of class and immediately check my phone for any missed calls. Every day felt like a walk in a beautiful park. I had a smile on my face for no reason. I could sit through a boring class with his thoughts on my mind. I sit here and wonder as I write what happened to all that love. Did it fade away or am I caught up in some bad dream that I have looped my life around it. I want to feel like that again, I want to look forward to him coming home every Friday. I want to be like that old me again. I have so much love to give yet I hesitate. I dreamt of this beautiful relationship that we would cherish together, something like my Mom and Dad have. I have never seen two people being so much in love and being so expressive about it. My Dad constantly appreciates my Mom and my Mom showers her unconditional love upon him , its like I feel whole when I am amidst them. I want to be like that and I working towards being like that but I cannot control my thoughts, thoughts of me possibly having a better life if I was single, but I want to be with my husband , the problem is I have strings attached. I see him as a woman hater and I look for signs to prove me wrong. May be I am missing the fact that my actions lead to his opinions about women. I am aware of it sometimes I work towards it and sometimes I fumble, does fumbling once takes me back to square one again. Isn’t there room for empathy?

Recession Sucks

2008-11-19T10:10:00.001-06:00

I was talking to my husband today and it looks like his project is going to end in a month. That brings us back to square one that is looking for another job. He has been trying to find something locally so that we could be together and avoid all the traveling and the expenses that go with it but it has become quite a challenge to find something where I work. Looking at the bright side of the situation, I think this will be a perfect opportunity for both of us to learn how to live on a single income like many other people do. While I was working towards my Masters Degree I was able to live on 731 dollars, my monthly stipend as a graduate assistant. It’s amazing how our expenses increase with our income. My rent right now is more than the stipend I used to get 3 years ago. I would have to accommodate another monthly payment from my salary if my husband does not a find a job by January. I wanted to buy a nice dress for my Piano recital that’s coming up next month, but I guess I won’t buy anything right now.

Well, I am not going to think too much about the situation, I will face it when I get there.

I hope this does not push my debt free month (Mar-09) further.

Can we afford to buy a house right now?

2008-11-11T14:47:00.006-06:00

I have been researching a lot lately about the precautions my husband and I need to take as first time home buyers. Though we are not seriously looking to buy a house, I wanted to break down the numbers and see how my expense sheet will look if I were to buy and home and then decide if I would still want to buy a house based on that. This is how I approached it.

Determining how much house we can afford.

I wanted to keep our income estimate extremely conservative while coming up with this number. Most PF blogs or sites advice to spend around 28% of a households “pre-tax” income while determining the amount of mortgage payments they can afford. I have decided to use a different approach. Instead of the pre-tax income I am going to use the after tax yearly income to determine how much in monthly payments we can afford. Also, I am going to use only my income for this estimate (the lower of the two incomes) reason being if one of us were to loose a job we can still afford the payments without digging into our savings-if we have any by that time J .

My after-tax yearly income = $51,767 (Rounded to the nearest dollar)

According to financial pundits:

I can afford a house that is 3 times my yearly income = $206000(rounded off to the nearest dollar)

If I were to use my after-tax yearly income the number would be = $155,300. I like the 206000 number better because I would like to buy a house in a good community with easy access to highways and good school districts and I believe I can find something for that price in Houston. In fact the price I am looking at is between $175,000 – $200,000. So I am within the ball park.

Say if I were to buy a home for $195,000 including closing costs, my hypothetical expense sheet post home buying will look like this assuming a 6.5% interest rate on a 20 year loan and 2.5% property taxes and zero down payment.

Monthly Mortgage: 1941 (Used http://www.mortgagecalculator.org/)

Electricity : 250

Utilities : 100

Maintenance : 150

Taxes (Pro.Mntly) : 410

Grand Total : $2,851

Monthly take home pay: $4,313

Mortgage payment to Income Ratio: 66.10%

This is way more than the 28% that they suggest probably because they used pre-tax income to come up with that percentage.

Using the balanced budget formula, I can spend 50% of my income on needs but if I were to buy a home I will be spending 66.10% without including the food expenses. So I would have a to either wait until I get a good amount of raise, or save enough for the down payment that will reduce my monthly mortgage expenses. I guess I will go for the latter instead of waiting for a raise.

For now, Home buying is out of question.

Buckle Up America!

2008-11-10T09:08:00.001-06:00

It’s another manic Monday with 1.2 million job losses reported till date. DHL is cutting 9500 jobs on top of the 5400 job cuts it has announced earlier this year and closing all its US domestic operations. Circuit City has filed for bankruptcy which makes job cuts apparent and AIG gets another forty billion dollar bail out. The time has come to fasten our seat belts for the bumpy ride ahead since the worst is yet to come. Most companies are being proactive in preparing themselves for the rough ride and are taking a close look at their operations and trimming the expenses where ever they can. Though loosing a job is something that we cannot control what we can control is how we perform at our jobs. It’s no time to slack off now. Now is the time to show what a great asset you are to the company.

It’s equally important to maintain fiscal discipline and delay any instant gratifications or what have you. My husband wants to plan for a Thanksgiving get away to Vegas which would cost us at least 1000 dollars in spite of booking the flights and hotel with all the points that he has accumulated till date. I do understand how important these trips are to bring us close to each other but I am not sure if I want to take it now. My debt free month March-2009 is just 4 months away and I do not want to do anything that might delay this. But if going to Vegas is imminent, I will possibly look for new ways to save more money. November is going to be expensive for us. We need 1500 dollars to pay towards the taxes and HOA dues for the 3 acre lot that we own.

Right now I am focused at doing my job right and keeping my job rather making myself another add on to the job-less statistic.

October goals round up and November outlook

2008-11-05T13:25:00.004-06:00

October has been a fairly good month financially, though I did not meet my personal goals. I paid for my credit cards as planned and in fact increased my contributions towards savings by 150%. Previously I was contributing 100 dollars a month but now I increased it to 275 dollars. I cannot wait for Mar-09 and be debt free. I realized that making breakfast at home isn’t working out well and what I learnt is that it’s actually more expensive to make my own breakfast than spending 1.94 at the cafeteria and top of that, this daily activity is something that I look forward to everyday. I get to work and go downstairs and get my BF taco and get some coffee from the break room sit down and browse through the morning news. It’s all worth it and I think it’s important that I am not too hard on myself that might actually lead to more spending.

I am going to buy a domain name to host my site so that it will be easier to log all my journals. It’s quite hard to upload excel sheets on to the blog spot. Well, you should find me there in couple of days and I promise to keep my journey interesting.

Ok, coming to November, I am not going to plan anything BIG and then try hard to keep up with it instead I am going to go with the flow. Just take one day at a time and do whatever I feel like doing at that moment. Gives me more flexibility that way. Before I leave it there, I think I do want to commit myself to one goal, which is to go to Barnes and Nobles and get back to the habit of reading. Reading is the only activity that keeps us from spending and at the same time helps us learn something new. I picked B&N as my reading corner because; I can read the books for free and the choice is endless, well almost and I can sit down have a cup of coffee if I really feel like having one as Starbucks serves coffee over there.

That’s it, November is the Thanks Giving month, I just want to thank GOD for giving me the ability and means to stick to my plans and helping me get through this tough financial times.

Saving for the Present!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2008-10-30T13:36:00.001-05:00

I have been trying to discover, the reason for my existence. What am I and why am I here and what motivates my action. I believe that human’s are always forward looking. We look forward to things and most of the time forget to live in the present. It’s like this constant battle in us to work towards something or save towards something. Seldom it makes me think, what if I keep saving every penny that I can hoping that it would provide me a good cushion when I grow older and suddenly one day I come to know that I have one day left to live. How will my perspective be towards life? I am pretty sure I won’t be thinking twice about going out for a lunch on that day. If that’s the case isn’t future always dependent what’s happening now? Then why do we save, when change is permanent and the only thing in our control is right this moment. I guess that’s what makes life so interesting. We live in anticipation that our future beholds something – a secured debt free life that gives us flexibility to do what ever we wanted all this time. I realized that the best time to live is not the past nor the future but the PRESENT moment. Present moment gives us a sense of control on life that we always wanted and our freedom lies in realizing in this.

I am not saying that we should splurge instead of saving but instead acknowledge the fact that life can take some unexpected turns and be wise about it.

Damned by Debt DON'T to be Afraid!!!!!!

2008-10-27T16:04:00.002-05:00

I was reading JD’s blog, getrichslowly, this morning and he was writing about a new book that has taken a lighter approach towards budgeting without the boredom that follows along with it. I agree that the balanced approach highlighted in the book makes it easier for rookies or people damned by debt not to be afraid of the word “BUDGET”. After reading his review of the book, I realized that the book and folks like me have one thing in common – WANT. As per JD, the book describes the HAUNTED word WANT as a good one for the first time in any finance journal that I have read. I am at a place where I am today is not because I like the word –WANT but I have attached too much of myself to it. So, all I have to do right now, is to balance out the attachment of the daunted word to myself and I will have it going. Sounds pretty straight forward isn’t it. JD, quotes from the book that we have to spend 50 % on Needs which includes housing, utilities, bills etc which should be paid before we even think of the word entertainment or saving. 30% to Wants and 20% towards Savings. The authors say this simple rule will set us on the path to freedom. I really liked the way they put it. Sounds easy on money slackers like me. If I were to spend my income according these authors, this is how it would look like:

Income: $4300

50% twds Needs - $2150
30% tads Wants - $1290
20% twds Savings-$860

Where in as of now, this is how my income is spent:

90.47% twds Needs - $3890
2.32% twds Wants - $100
6.39% twds Savings - $275

This is because I have $12,000 in debt that I am knocking off right now. I should agree that looking at my budget, I get a bit stressed but looking at the balanced budget suggested by the authors from the book JD mentions I feel more relaxed and happy. More so because for once I can see a WANT category in the budget without being guilt ridden. It’s actually been a positive reinforcement on me. Thanks JD, for this article,

Let me know how you guys matched up against the Balanced Budget

Birthdays and Expenses

2008-10-24T15:36:00.003-05:00

It’s been a hectic day today with lot of month end stuff going on. Somehow I got through it even though my manager tired to drive me crazy. We have a lot of expenses coming our way this month. We took our beamers for a service check up and both need around 1000 dollars maintenance that’s not covered by our warranty. I can’t blame myself enough for that beamer purchase. I went out car shopping with a 3000 dollar budget and ended up spending 35k. One of the most stupid purchases I have ever made. Something that goes down in value. Did not have my priorities straight then. My husband’s beamer is all paid off and mine still has 23k outstanding. On top of these expenses we have our annual HOA dues that need to be paid and need to do some maintenance on the lot. I spoke to a yard guy that luckily lives on the same sub division and he says he will mow our lot for 100 dollars. My husband’s birthday is tomorrow and he is hitting his big 3 – 0.

I have 2 birthdays coming up that I need to attend and buy gifts for. Spending money sucks. Its like, I had money and lot of free time so I ended up spending. Now I do not have enough money or time but I still end up spending. I guess there is no way out, we are social beings, we need friends and we need to make small sacrifices for friends and family. Hopefully, all this good karma will help me hit a lottery some day.. Oh shoot I still have to spend a dollar for the lottery… Damn, why can’t stuff be on sale for FREE?

Another day goes by

2008-10-21T14:53:00.001-05:00

I could barely sleep last night, I was s**t scared being alone. I wasn’t like this before while I was practicing my meditation and yoga may be I need to get back to doing it. I slept with the lights on waking up every 2 or 3 hours and making sure the doors are still locked. I watched the movie “When a stranger calls” last weekend and I guess the director did his best scaring me to shivers. I keep watching scary movies albeit their negative affect on me. Three more nights before my sweet hubby arrives and I will sleep like a baby until he leaves the following Monday.

I am very proud myself. I have come a long way managing my credit. I am progressing very well. I still have 6 more months to pay it down and then my husband and l will start saving for our house. I have been tucking away 100 dollars a month towards emergency savings and I will increase the contribution after I pay off my credit cards.

It been more than two and half months I have bought a single piece of clothing. This is the longest time during my six year stay in the US that I haven’t bought any thing. Its liberating actually and the best part is I don’t feel constrained, I am actually enjoying it. Another major achievement is turning into a vegan. I remember telling my friends that this is something I could never ever do and here I am two months hence holding my head up high- Yes, I am a VEGAN. I hope I don’t beat the drums too loud. You never know the person sitting up there watching all of us can put our strengths to test any moment.

BTW, I guess y’all are eager to know my number from yesterday’s posting, its $34 though I make only $25.096 per hour after taxes. I hope to come closer to this number within the next year. I have a performance review coming up and I hope it will be a smooth ride.

I have also joined the gym at work today. Its 15 dollars per month and I guess it’s a good deal. Except that I hate to take a shower during my workday but I think it will be easier with the jeans-pass we have at work.

Have a great rest of day people ;)

What's your number?

2008-10-20T10:51:00.003-05:00

In today’s crazy competitive world it’s very important to know what your worth. Not, what the companies that hire you think you are worth but if someone were to ask you today how much you are worth, do you have your quote ready? The question intrigued me when my manager and I were having a casual discussion about spending time on manicuring the lawns. He told me that he would rather pay 20 bucks an hour and the get the job done rather than him spending that time on the lawn. According to him he is worth $120. It is very important for a professional person to come up with that number. That shows how confident one is when he/she is trying to sell their services. Having this discussion previously with my manager helped me a lot to help my friend realize how much she is worth.

My friend Mel moved from Singapore to Houston a couple of years ago. She owned and worked in her own spa back in Singapore. She found a job as a beautician which was paying her $10 an hour here in Houston. She drives 25 miles to get work and pays $7 in tolls everyday to get to work. She was working long hours with no proper lunch breaks. She was always complaining about how much she hated to work there. One of her clients referred her to another lady who is planing on opening a spa quite close to Mel’s house. The lady called Mel for an interview and offered her $10 an hour and my friend happily accepted as she could save all that money she was spending on gas and tolls and the time to get to her previous work place.

She called me and asked me if she made the right choice. She is one of finest people that I have ever got my eyebrows and massages done with. I advised her to let the lady know that she will only be able to work if she is paid $12 an hour. My friend was hesitating initially (since there are quite a few people who will jump in for previous offer) but she gave the lady a call and the lady agreed instantaneously. Knowing what you are worth is very important. Mel just increased her weekly earnings by $80 and monthly earnings by $320.

Here is how I came up with what I think I am worth.

1. What sets you apart from others: This defines your skills and how you adapt to the changing needs of the market. Do you make a confident and conscious effort to equip yourself with the new technologies or are you happy to work within your own area.

2. How confident are you within your skill set: If you were to rate yourself with you skill set, what would that rating look like. Do you try to find ways to do the job effectively instead of efficiently?

3. How open are you to learning: I see people at my work processing the same invoices for the past 30 years. They have made their cubicle a second home. Though I don’t intend to lookdown upon what they are doing, I always wonder why they do not get bored of what they are doing. I believe the quest to always learn something new keeps me alive. Our department is going through a new implementation replacing COGNOS (a reporting tool); I keep hearing from people how they hate to learn this new tool all over again. I think learning keeps our brains active all the time and something to look forward to.

4. Do you invest in yourself: How much do you invest in yourself? Not just getting dolled- up and looking pretty J but investing in your career. Are you investing in yourself to get new certifications and learning to new applications from time to time that will boost your career?

If the answer for all the above questions is a big “YES”, I am sure you got a big number over your head. I have been working for the past 2 and half-years and I constantly find ways to boost my career. Having said all this, you guys might be wondering what number I will attach to myself. Any guesses?

Daddy’s Girl

2008-10-15T15:18:00.000-05:00

I have started writing a PF blog 2 years ago and then I discontinued it. Being born in India, our culture is much different from here. In the US, you grow up and you live your own life but in India we grow up and we live others life too (Others meaning our parents our siblings etc.) Though I am honored to be given an opportunity to give back to my parents what they have spend all their lives giving me, I become frustrated sometimes because these keep me from attaining my own financial goals. I love my parents and they mean more than anything in this world to me. When I was 3 or 4 years old, I used to always tell my Mom and Dad that I will take care of them when I grow up. My parents have given us a good infact wonderful life. They bought us whatever we wanted even if that meant sacrificing their needs which was always the case. I still remember that time when my Dad gave my mom 5000 rupees to buy a sari and my Mom bought three of us new clothes for a festival. One way I figured out to handle this problem is to re-define the word ME. For now, it includes my Parents and later my husband once I finish my commitments towards my parents. Below is what I am planning to do for my parents:

Arrange investment money for my Dad: $ 10000
Buy a car for my parents : $ 8000

My previous plan also included constructing a house for them, but my lovely Big B-I-L took over the responsibility. I am glad he is part of our family.

Married yet Single

2008-10-14T19:36:00.002-05:00

I have mentioned in my previous posts about maintaining individual bank accounts between my husband and I though we have been married for 3 years. There is a reason why I keep it that way. I have come out college with around 10,000 dollars in it. Though I paid off most of it after I was employed, I charged two huge transactions on my CC when I went to India last March for the first time since I have been married. We, in India have lot of rituals or obligations (as I would like to say) to not just marry off your daughter but marry her off the Joneses way. My father sold all of his business to pay for my education and my siblings’ weddings. By the time it came to me, he had nothing left. I got married to the man of my choice with absolutely no dowry and my in-laws were not so happy about it because I reeled in Mr. Scorpio for free. Though they haven’t made a big fuss about it, I often started hearing some rambling about it. When I went to India earlier this year, I knew they would be expecting my father to have some jewelry made for me. I did not want my father to take that burden, so the firs thing I did when I got off the plane was to buy some jewelry for myself on my CC. I told my in-laws and my husband that my father bought it for me. My smarty pants husband knew about it but he just kept quite.

Well, at the end of trip I was left with 15,000 dollars in debt and with a new job to get back to in the USA. I decided I will only maintain joint accounts once I paid off all my debt. I don’t want my husband to be paying for some choices that I have made (Though I really can’t justify it to be wrong). I am well on my way towards it. I will keep pressing on.

Goals not met

2008-10-13T21:09:00.002-05:00

I have set up some goals for myself last week and our the 5 I have planned to do, I did not accomplish even 1. Well I did go running once but my goal was to go for running 3 times. I have decided not to set-up any goals until I accomplish what I have already set. So there goes my this week's plan.

I pumped another 145 dollars into AIG. I got in at $2.50 per share for 55. I hold 319 shares of AIG now. I would like to keep buying below $2.50 until I hold 500. I am into AIG for the long run. AIG is the largest insurance company and has an abundant cash flow. The disposal of some of its assests to help pay out the loan from FED reduces the market cap AIG has, few years down the lane when markets adjust themselves AIG should come back up. So I am not going to panic by constantly refreshing my TV monitor.

My piano class was cancelled today so I went to HEB to get some groceries. I have been spending $1.94 every day for breakfast. I told myself I am going to save that money by making BF at home. So I got some food items to make the BF tacos at home. Usually I have eggs, cheese and hash browns in my taco. Here is the amount I spent on buying stuff for my D-I-Y breakfast.

Eggs: $2.39
Tacos : $4.29
Cheese :$ 2.20

Total : $8.88

I spend $9.70 per week for BF. The stuff I bought from H-E-B should last me two weeks. Savings for 2 weeks: $10.20

So how do you guys save money on little things.. Any tips?

Confused!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2008-10-07T13:27:00.000-05:00

It’s a busy day today at work. It’s good in a way, time goes by so quickly. I dread days when I don’t have much to do except to keep staring at the computer. I try to put that time into use by reading or learning about stuff that I do not know. But too much of anything doesn’t do much good. I am very confused lately about my professional career. Questions like:

1.Should I stick to what I am doing now?
2.Does this job take me where I want to be few years down the lane?
3.Is this what I want to do for life?
4.Which career should I pursue of meeting my goal of becoming a Project Manager in 3 years?

These questions keep creeping up in mind and not letting me give my 100% to whatever is that I am doing.
I have read an article in PINK magazine (that I just subscribed 1month ago) and one of featured guest gives a very good advice to young professionals like me to “Keep doing what you are doing instead of thinking too much about your ambitions”. She was very right in saying that and now days whenever I feel down and confused and keep thinking about her advice.

I have failed to keep up my 5th goal that I set for myself to have breakfast at home. No matter how much I try and go to bed early, I am unable to wake up at 6.00 and go to gym and make breakfast. Let me see how far my evil twin controls me tomorrow.

Weekend rewind and plans for this week!

2008-10-06T10:17:00.000-05:00

I ran my first 5K ever last Saturday. It felt nice to have finally done something that I was wanting to for so long. My timing was 36 min and I am very happy about it. I have attended two parties over the weekend by myself as Mr. Scorpio (My husband) was out of town. I love to observe people when I attend parties, not that I am judgmental or anything but I just love to watch how people react to things. It’s amazing how different people think differently about the same thing. I have met quite a few women with vibrant and active personalities and I started thinking of forming a team where in we can do activities together whenever we all get a chance.

Coming to my plans aka goals for this week. Below is what I would like to accomplish:

1. Go to gym 3 times during the week
2. Ride the bike twice during the week
3. Restrict to eating out only once.
4. Write up an email to all the ladies I met at the party proposing to form an all- girl team and come up with a name for it.
5. Have breakfast at home instead of spending money at the cafeteria.

No.4 on my list is exciting me; I have to wait and see what the outcome will be.

Snickers Financial Stand as of October

2008-10-05T16:57:00.000-05:00

I have been away to the world of blogging for almost two years. After reading several blogs of savy investors and frugal livers, I decided to get back on to track. I have been maintaining a record of all my expenses and investments. Going forward, I will be updating my blog imposing a check on all my finances. So, here it goes:

As of October 6th -2008 this is where I stand financially.

Balance on Credit Cards : $ 13950.00
Blance on Car Payments : $ 26000.00
Savings in ING direct : $ 375.00
Investments : $ 1200.00
401K : $ 2100.00

I have been paying off my CC sincerely for the past 5 months. I should be left with zero balance on my CC by Mar - 2009.

I bring home $ 2156.00 bi-monthly,thats $ 4362.00 every month.

$ 2000 towards Credit Cards
$875 for Rent
$100 for Piano Classes
$100 towards my savings
$150 for gas and other personal expenses.
$660 towards the Car Payment.

I have been trying to keep a tab on unneccessary expenses that I cannot account for every month. I will be paying off all the Credit Cards by Mar-09 if I keep up this pace and I will. Next I would like to knock off my car payments.

My husband takes care of food and other entertainmnet expenses. We have still not reached a point in our marriage that we could save and invest jointly. I will let time decided when that happens.