Reflecting - 2008

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.

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!!!!!!!

(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

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

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

Wish me luck people

No Spending Days

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?

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

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.