Budget Freak

For the past 6 months, I had been using Money Manager Ex to keep track of my finances. It had worked out pretty well for keeping track of my day to day expenses, but the more I used it, the more it was lacking. Not to say that it’s a bad program, but I wanted to keep track of more than the program would allow. I had tried using a demo version of Microsoft Money, but ultimately, I didn’t want to have to pay for the software.

Enter GnuCash. A free, open-source financial program, that has just become available for windows (before it was Linux only). GnuCash offers a much more robust program, forcing you to use double-entry accounting (ie. for each transaction, you need a balancing credit and debit), can track investments and fixed assets, and has much better method of splitting transactions. The reporting functionality is also much better, and is customizable.

One of the biggest differences, is I’ll be able to track taxes and pre-tax deductions. Before, when I got a paycheck, I would only input my Net Income, or after tax and deduction money. For example, if I had a $1,000 gross paycheck, I might only enter $600 income, thus losing my tax, health insurance, and 401k deductions. Now, I can record my gross income, as well as all the taxes and deductions. I can now also track my car loan better. I can now not only keep track of payments, but also expense the interest I’m being charged. If nothing else, I’ll be able to actually see how much money the loan is costing me.

I’ve spent a few hours over the last week migrating the past 6 months worth of transactions over, and I’m now completely switched. As a result, all my monthly expense totals for the past 6 months have changed. One of these days I’ll go back and make a note of the changes, but for now, just know that June’s expense report will look a little different. Anywho, I’ll keep you updated on how the software is working, but my so far, it’s working great.

The company I’ve been working for as a contractor for the past 10 months, opened up a full time job for my position. After a few months of waiting for the job to post, a round of interviews, and another 2 weeks for them to make a decision, they offered me the job. In the mean time, I told my current employer about the new job, and they made me a counter off with a pretty big promotion and a nice raise. It was a fantastic position I’d never been in before.

The job I had before was with a small company (~20 employees), and was still a pretty young consulting company. The new offer came from one of the largest businesses in the world (~100,000 employees), a major oil company. The consulting company offered me a project manager role, a nice promotion with lots more responsibility, where as the oil company offered me a data analyst position, which is basically what I’ve been doing for the last year. The salaries were comparable, so how was I going to decide??

I decided to go with the big oil company. Ultimately, it came down to the benefits, and potential career growth.

The project manager role would have been a fantastic promotion, but there wouldn’t have been much room to grow after that. At the oil company, I may have less responsibility at first, but two years down the line, my options are almost limitless. They have opportunities on 6 different continents, in just every aspect of business. I know people who work there now that have taken 2-3 year assignments in remote parts of Alaska, the middle east, and all over Europe. I’m working in the Environmental department now, but I could easily transfer to a process control group, health and safety, or any number of different departments.

As for benefits, I had to make a spreadsheet listing all the benefits and do a side by side comparison. The big oil company had a huge advantage when you looked at the standard medical and retirement benefits. They matched 7% of the 401k contributions (vs. 3%), they’re about $100 cheaper per month for health and dental insurance, and, amazingly, they have a pension plan. They use a strange formula to calculate contributions, but for my salary and age, I would be getting over $4,000 per year, free. Of course I couldn’t touch it for 40 years, and it doesn’t vest for 5 years, but thinking long term, that’s a huge advantage.

There were also some fringe benefits I had to examine. For example, as a consultant, I’d get to work from home 3-4 days per week. That would save me about $200 per month on gas and car expenses. The consulting company also pays for my telephone and internet connection, another $70 or so a month. On the other side, the oil company has a 9/80 work schedule, which means I’d work 80 hours every 9 days, which in other words, I’d have every other Friday off. They’re also flexible with the day off, so if you time them around holidays, you can easily get 4 day weekends pretty routinely. The other benefit of the 9/80 schedule, is that my girlfriend works a 4/10 schedule, so she gets every Friday off, and I would definitely spend more time with her.

The biggest factor, which trumps everything above, is that the oil company will pay for my MBA. Specifically, they will pay 90% of tuition, books, fees, etc, with no maximum. That means if I decide to go to either of my top choices, Pepperdine ($60,000) or UCLA ($80,000), I would only have to pay $6,000 or $8,000. That’s a huge advantage in my book.

So there you have it. I gave both opportunities a chance, but when I calculated everything out, the choice became pretty obvious. Hopefully this will give other people an idea of what things to look for when they’re deciding between jobs. I have another week and a half at my old job, and then I’ll start at the big oil company the first week of July. Wish me luck! Our online pharmacy is the perfect resource for people to get their drugs without any hassles or awkwardness. buy cialis We work hard to make sure you save money every time you shop with us. buy levitrabuy soma At our online store, you pay less and get more. buy viagra

I’d like to nominate myself for ‘Idiot of the Year.’ After explaining all the pitfalls of 0% balance transfers, how dangerous it can be, and how careful you need to track your due dates… I miss a payment. I was reconciling my checking account and my bank showed I had $148 more than my records, exactly one payment on my Citi Professional card. Panic sunk in, and I rushed over to Citi’s website, to realize my worst fears - I had missed May’s payment. Now well into June, I now had 2 minimum monthly payments, a $102 finance charge, and a $39 late fee starring at me. Worst of all, my 0% promotional rate had ended, and I was defaulted to the standard 12.99%.

After I calmed down a bit I made the $390 minimum payment and gave Citi a call. I explained the situation, how my records show I had made the payment, but neither Citi nor my bank showed the payment. He told me they might be able to give me back the 0% promotional offer, but I would have to call back the next day, after my payment had posted.

The next day, I made another call to Citi and explained again. The payment had gone through, and I asked about returning to my 0% rate. He put me on hold to talk with a manager. After about a minute of the most intense telephone on-hold experience of my life, the service rep came back and told me that, only this once, they could restore my 0% rate. Thank God. I asked about the finance charges or the late fee, and he basically said, ‘Too bad.’
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So, please let this be a lesson to everybody out there. Don’t forget to make your minimum monthly payments!! I think I got VERY lucky this time, and I only escaped with $140 in finance charges and penalties. That will cut into my profits this round, but I’ll still end up positive, so long as there aren’t any more mistakes.

Despite some heavier than normal expenses, and in turn, a fairly small net income, I was able to grow my net worth almost 6%. My cash reserves were down 11% for the month, mostly due to some index fund purchases. My retirement and investment categories were both up 10% and 62% respectively, between contributions and another great month in the stock market. Assets were up a total of 3% overall. Liabilities were down 1% for the month. I’m continuing to pay off my 0% balance transfer money each month, and I’m contributing $500 per month towards my car loan. All told, a moderately good month. Could have been a lot worse. Here’s to a better June. online pharmacy without prescriptionbuy silverbuy detoxbuy italian charmsdownload softwareonline pharmacy no prescriptioncanadian pharmacydownload moviesfarmacia en lineainternet drugstoremovie downloadmexican pharmacybuy gift basketsbuy levitrabuy hoodiaprescription drugsdownload moviebuy dvdcheap auto insurancebuy jewelrybuy jewelry onlinecheap online pharmacybuy alcohol testdownload filmdownload musicdownload mp3prescription drugsbuy notebook batterydownload moviesonline pharmacybuy charmsbuy piercingpiercingflash games onlinebuy propecia onlinesearchpiercingno prescription pharmacyonline pharmacyonline pharmacy no prescriptiondownload moviescanadian pharmacybuy soma onlinebuy carisoprodol onlineitalian charmsindian pharmacybuy viagra onlinegeneric viagra onlinebuy levitra onlinegeneric cialis onlineonline pharmacy without prescriptionno prescription online pharmacytransformers movieeuropean online pharmacyprivate porn moviesbuy phentrimine onlineonline pharmacy no prescriptionbuy jewelry onlinejewelry shopsilver shophealth articlespass a drug testbuy oem softwareeuropean pharmacydvd movies

Another months gone by, so it’s time for a checkup. Here’s my expense breakdown:

Automobile : Maintenance $ 26.79
Automobile : Gas $ 373.78
Automobile : Car Payment $ 500.00
Automobile : Parking/Tolls $ 17.00
Bills : Telephone $ 64.05
Bills : Gas $ 9.02
Bills : Rent $ 650.00
Bills : Cable TV/Internet $ 89.87
Bills : Cell Phone $ 85.90
Electronics : Cell Phone $ 108.49
Food : Groceries $ 128.90
Food : Dining out $ 151.24
Food : Booze $ 31.86
Gifts $ 50.81
Healthcare $ 10.00
Homeneeds $ 91.26
Homeneeds : Clothing $ 50.81
Homeneeds : Kitchen $ 41.76
Insurance : Auto $ 7.42
Internets : Domain Registration $ 16.53
Internets : Hosting $ 179.68
Leisure : Movies $ 21.50
Leisure : Newspaper $ 9.08
Leisure : Concert Tickets $ 180.75
Vacation : Lodging $ 134.40

Total $ 3,151.12

It was another expensive month for me, although I did manage to earn more than I spent (barely). I took care of a few important expenses now, so I wont’ have to worry about them later. The domain hosting for $180 is prepaid for two years. Normally I pay $10 per month, but by prepaying for 2 years, I saved about 20%. Also, I bought some things for around the house, cleaning supplies, toiletries, socks and underwear, and some cooking supplies that totaled around $180. Those should last me at least 6 months. I also attended a wedding last month up near San Francisco. I drove, so the Gas category is about $120 higher than usual, and I stuck paying for two toll roads for another $8. I also paid for one of the nights in a hotel, for another $135.

I bought 6 tickets for an upcoming concert (Flight of the Conchords if you’re wondering), of which, I should be reimbursed $120 from friends. I also got my ‘Booze’ category a little more under control. Last month I spend over $150, and this month, it was a more reasonable $31.

It wasn’t a great month, but I took care of a lot of one time expenses. I’m planning on buckling down in June. Less eating out, less entertainment costs, less Booze. Time to get my budget back on track. Stay tuned.

After talking about the most awesome cell phone deal last week, it’s gotten a little better. I read over at My Money Blog that you can get another $50 off coupon applied to your bill. I wrote up my email just like Jonathan did, asked them to apply the ‘SAVE50′ coupon, and sure enough, got the same response, that the customer service agent would be “happy to assist me” with my credit. A two minute email saved me another $50.