End of year goals/budget
I am funding my Roth for 2017, so that feels good. I should have saved a lot more...I wish we would have decided to retire in 2018 earlier this year...maybe i would have saved more! For now, I am working on living in the moment and enjoying all my city and CH has to offer. This is my last winter this far north (not that I am that far north - just the farthest north I have ever lived). Tomorrow is the shortest day of the year, winter solstice. Then the days start to lengthen again. Hallelujah!
I got on one yoga class so far and I am doing another tonight. I will either walk Fri or Sat and then I will have at least moved around 3 times this week! I just go to work and was thinking of how this time last year I was going through a lot of tests still. My specialist finally diagnosed me with IBD. Inflammatory bowel disease. I am doing ok, but I ate a piece of home made bread late and woke up twice coughing and gagging from acid in my throat, so I will never do that again. I had my typical protein smoothie last night around 6:30, but I will still hungry so I ate a piece of bread. I had to get up and take about 6 tums during the night. This week I was trying intermittent fasting to give my system a break and to avoid overeating. Essentially I have been skipping breakfast and then eating a good lunch and maybe another snack in afternoon and then my smoothie evenings. Well, I think I can do this better if I keep busy. But my job is so boring and tedious, it is harder than weekends when I am busy. I just sit here at my desk and think about what I can eat!
Today, my actual employer is coming to town to bring us lunch. There are a few of us here at this location, we are all temps. We work AT a big business, but we actually work FOR a firm that places us here. We are excited to see what they bring. Last year it was pizza (2 of us cannot have dairy) and year before that it was Italian (I can usu have salad and chicken and make it work) and year before that it was bagels and cream cheese.
More about year end. I do not have any paid time off as a temp. So, a couple years in I started my own vacation fund. I have been supplementing this fund with proceeds from stuff I sell. I have made it a point and shown my husband that stuff that had meaning to him that he has sold I have put into this fund and have used it to make improvements/buy appliances for our RH. This past summer we took out an unvented fireplace and put in a giant picture window looking out over our back patio and back yard. I did 200 hours of overtime and bought a new range, (will buy) a range hood, and dishwasher. I also bought my anniversary bands out of this. I have enough left to fund my Roth and pay for the tile work we will have in our master shower (the contractor says February - my fingers are crossed, I have had the tile sitting in my garage for over 2 years). I also started a tax fund and I fund it 75-100 every week. I just paid all our pers prop taxes in RH (we moved couple cars/motorcycles down there 2 years ago - rate is much cheaper than city we work in). And last week I paid city pers prop on the single car we have registered here in city. I will keep funding this same fund until March, then I should have enough for pers prop in retirement town for vehicles and for our real estate. Once we move (I am calling them in January), we will get our $350 homestead tax credit back. Once DH turns 65, our real estate taxes will be locked in and never increase.
We will not miss the following about city we work in: taxes! They are really high here. Our family in retirement town figured their taxes were bad until I researched it and learned that our real estate taxes are almost double and our pers prop taxes are 3 times higher in the city than in the retirement town! So we moved 3 cars (we have 4) and our motorcycles to retirement town and saved approx. $3k. We will not miss the commute - we live on the other side of the river from this city. We have to cross the river twice a day. When there are accidents, it is horrible. When it snows, it is horrible. When it rains, it is horrible. We will not miss living in a patio home where we have $200/month (not quite, but is going up now to $190!) HOA fees. We will not miss having to bundle up, put our yapping dogs on leashes and walk them outside 3 times a day. We will not miss the stairs in our house. We have a basement and we have 3 steps down to the garage - I told my husband the other day, you know you are getting old when 3 stairs down in the morning is considered a hassle. HAHA. We will not miss the main living area of our house (living room/master bed room) being on the southwest (hottest) side of the house. We will not miss our front steps being in the shadows on the north side (when it snows our ices - these steps take forever to thaw, making it treacherous to walk on them). We will not miss paying $90/month for parking - my husband. I park 2 blocks away, saving myself the $100/month parking where I work. In March, I will have been here 10 years. If I paid 100/month for 10 years, that would equal = $12,000! I have literally saved $12,000 by walking 2 blocks from free public parking. But I have fallen down on snowing sidewalks/parking lots, I fell once in the rain this summer and I avoid all morning appointments if possible, because I don't know if I will be able to find parking. We will also not miss our jobs. DH has been in his position 20 years, works to help indigents and the disadvantaged. So, that part is good, but there are really negative/sad aspects to what he has to see and is exposed to and I know he will not miss that. The entire system is so broken...well, that is a whole other topic. And, it is not my story to tell. It is his and his co workers. People who do what they do, not because they wanted a cushy government job to lounge, but because what they do is critical to our system of justice. My job, well...I had burnout pretty early in my career...more on that another time. But my current gig is very boring, the pay is not great, I have no benefits, I have not had a performance review in 10 years and we are either sitting still doing very little bored out of our minds are we are on multiple projects, everything is a crises, we are expected to jump in and "figure it out ourselves" while being yelled at and talked down to like we are 5 years old. The main guy who has been here at this firm all the years I have been here is good to us, respectful and really does try to take care of us and keep us on projects as people come and go. Over ten years I have been part of a core group of about 25 who have been here 8 - 12 years. We have had projects come and seen 50-100 people hired and we have seen most of those people let go. Summers can get slow, but for sure, in this industry things slow to a crawl at Christmas/year end time. There were years I was very nervous if I would be let go at this time of year. Some of my long time co workers have been let go for a couple of days, to a couple of years, only to be brought back as projects dictated. The partners at this firm are wonderful, nice and gracious, giving us praise and credit for our hard work. Also, the associates, senior project managers and paralegals are nice. The people I work with on a day to day basis who have awful are 1) paralegals, 2) junior project managers and 3) staff attorneys. I don't know if it is just because these newer in their careers people are just so stressed and busy, they are short tempered and under pressure and take it out on us or if they resent us because we are just "temps" and we get paid as much or more than they do and we can leave at 11 on Fridays. Sometimes we hear this in a "joking" way when we are leaving at 11 and I always reply the same way..."I will trade you my uncertain temporary position with no benefits and Fridays off at 11 for your salaried position with vacation and sick days". They just smile and waive.
Today, I try to focus on the things I love about my working city: There are lots of wonderful people here, Midwest people are very polite and welcoming and love their sports and their food and their guns and their heroes (sports, political, religious and historical). This city is a city with a rich tradition of history and commerce. There is a big sense of "community" here. I lived for a time out west and the people there were mostly transplants and really lacked this sense of pride and community. My city has a lot of arts and attractions to see, lots of great shopping and restaurants. We can go to all the concerts and live music we can find time and money for.
We have a lot of family here. DH 2 brothers and my 2 maternal aunts and their families and my paternal aunt and her family. My dear grandmother (DGM) lives here. I honestly cannot yet comprehend how we are going to be separated...I just have to avoid thinking of it, really. Last time I was at her apartment, we were going through and arranging some of her santas. I asked her where her cute little scarecrow for her door was...she said "I threw it away". I usu take her seasonal stuff home or store it up high in her closet. I asked what about next fall? She said "I will be dead by then..." Then she laughed and said "I hope". This is not the first time we have had this type of conversation, we talk about death pretty freely. I feel like if I make it to 98, I hope I have someone I can talk about death with. More on that later too.
Have a great mid week. We are leading in to the Christmas weekend. Enjoy your family and friends. Hug people because they need it, not just you. Do a random act of kindness. Budget in a donation to a charity, it will make you feel every bit as good and a useless trinket you buy for yourself or someone else that will just end up in a landfill. Enjoy the moments...I am working on that too. Thanks for stopping by!
