Fabulous Financials & Fitness

A new year is upon us and everyone is reflecting on the past or planning for the future.  I’ve done well in 2009, but there are more things I want to accomplish in 2010.  For example:

1.  Financials: As always, I will pay myself first before I distribute one red cent to anyone.  In order of priority: 401k ($16,500), IRA ($5,000) BabyGirl’s college fund ($2,000), investments ($12,000), regular savings ($12,000), and remaining debt free – these are my basic financial goals.  I divide each goal by 26, the number of paychecks in a year.  Then I set up an allotment through payroll and authorize them to send a specific amount to each account automatically.  The money never touches my hands.  Barring any major life emergencies, it creates a fool proof way to reach my financial goals by the end of the year.

2.  Vacation: We are definitely going to Europe in 2010 – Paris and London to be exact.  We’ll spend 3-4 days in each city and my budget is $5K-$7k.  I was hoping to travel in July as a graduation gift to BabyGirl, but depending on which school we choose, she may have to attend an 8 week summer session.  For now, our travel plans are pending college decisions.

3. Decide What’s Next: Now that I’ve mastered the basics of personal finance, talking about paying off debt, saving money, retirement investing, and living within your means is boring to me.  In addition to that, I will soon have an empty nest and enter a new phase in my personal life.  What does the future have in store?  Who knows.  I have to create it.

What are YOUR goals for 2010?

We often talk about work/life balance in terms of having a successful career, as well as quality time with loved ones to enjoy the fruits of our labor.  Many people think if you focus on your career, then you have to work all the time with no personal life.  Or conversely, if family is your number one priority, then you’ll never get ahead in your career.  The either/or mentality makes it difficult to find a happy median.

In the world of personal finance, there’s a similar challenge – goal/life balance.  Many people associate financial goals with giving up something of pleasure to reduce expenses – no more eating out, shopping, video games, books, electronics, etc.  Or conversely, if you enjoy life, it is assumed that you spend frivolously and incur debt.  Again, the either/or mentality makes it difficult to find a happy median.

But you know what?  Single Ma wants it all!  Work/Life balance and Goal/Life balance.  I’ll admit, both are difficult to achieve, but they are not impossible if you have realistic expectations, set boundaries, and exercise discipline.  I’ll give you an example of how I try to manage them all:

THE GOAL

Back in April, I mentioned that I wanted to save $50,000 in cash.  At the time, I only had $36,600, but I wondered if I could reach $50,000 by the end of the year.  In May, I decided that I didn’t want to be too restrictive with my finances because I had a lot of expenses planned for the year.  As a compromise, I settled on a target date for next summer.  Since then, I hadn’t thought much about the $50,000 personal challenge.  I didn’t give up or lose sight of it.  I just figured next summer was a more realistic target and continued saving as usual.

WORK

I’m a single parent and I work a full time (40 50+ hr) job.  When I’m at work, I give 110% and I’d like to think that I’m pretty good at what I do, but my child always comes first.  When work demands conflict with my #1 job,  there is no debate – I’m gone.  Not only do I leave work when there’s a problem or she’s sick, I take vacations to spend time with family, I attend her school functions and P/T conferences, and I work a flex schedule that allows me to volunteer at her school on Fridays.  The BB may be buzzing the whole time and I do work from home occasionally, but my boss is aware of my boundaries.  I may never run a company while I still have a minor at home, but I am happy with my career progression to date.

LIFE

While I was working hard and saving hard, I also enjoyed a normal life.  I went on an extended weekend beach trip with my family and a cruise to the Bahamas with my girlfriends.  I also participated in Spa Week (pampered myself with luxurious warm stone goodness) and Free Night of Theater (saw Of Mice and Men performed on stage).  I did a little shopping and some volunteering, attended Shecky’s Girl’s Night Out, saw a few movies, ate out a lot, suffered 16 weeks of abuse by my personal trainer, maintained our monthly Mother/Daughter Day, and paid for BabyGirl to attend an overnight writing camp for 2 weeks, professional driving lessons, an 8 week SAT test prep course, and numerous senior year expenses.  Sheesh! $$$$$$!

BALANCE

Although I have strong boundaries at work, my dedication has paid off with a recent promotion and higher salary.  This, in turn, makes it possible to achieve my financial goals and enjoy a full life.  However, more money doesn’t automatically make everything easy nor does the progress happen on its own.  Balance, of any kind, requires discipline.  When I earn a promotion, I do not immediately begin to spend more money just because I have more money.  I may indulge on a few things after I’ve planned for it, but for the most part, I want to avoid lifestyle creep.  So I took the salary difference and increased my savings.

Now guess what?

After reviewing my expense spreadsheet, I noticed that I’m only $2,965 away from my $50,000 personal challenge.  With four paychecks left in the year and another month of accrued interest, it looks like I will reach $50,000 by December after all. Woo-hoo!

It is a very subtle occurrence that is closely related to the “Keeping Up With the Joneses” phenomenon. It happens so quickly that you don’t notice until it’s too late.

First, there’s an initial event…

You earn a promotion or raise at work, receive a windfall, or free up a little cash flow by paying off a lingering debt.

Then, of course, you have to congratulate yourself.  Except, the one time celebration continues.

Feeling the wiggle room, you begin dining out more often and attending more social activities that don’t seem too expensive.

Next thing you know, you’re shopping in more upscale stores because you think you can afford better quality.  Yes, you’ve adopted the mantra that more expensive equals better.  Besides, you  loved _____’s new shoes/handbag/sweater/etc. and you must have one.

Next up is a new car.  You’ve changed your style, so you have to keep up with all other outside appearances.  Actually, you tell yourself you want one because you can “afford” it now.  The truth is, you really can’t, but you think your  college car looks raggedy compared to your friends’ luxury cars.

Now, as you park your brand new car in front of your old apartment, you think your place is a dump, so you decide to redecorate for a new and refreshed look.

After you finish redecorating, you throw a dinner party to show off. By the end of the night, your apartment feels way too small and you hate your neighbors for blasting their strange music all night.  So you make a mental note to begin searching for a bigger place on the better side of town.

Instead of looking for a bigger/better apartment, you find yourself in the car with a Realtor looking at houses because your friends have convinced you that paying rent is a waste of money.  Everyone else owns a home, so you should too.

And the cycle continues…

Are you guilty of lifestyle creep?

I have been and it was a constant internal battle.  Want to know how I fixed my problem?  I found some poor(er than me) friends! LOL!  No, I’m just kidding.  Next post, I’ll explain what I did (and continue to do) to avoid lifestyle creep and maintain self control.

I love my life!  It isn’t perfect, but it’s perfectly imperfect and I wouldn’t change a thing.

Here’s a glimpse…

I’m waiting for my new job to send me the final offer with the final numbers and terms.  We’re waiting on one more critical piece of information.  It’s something that could make or break the offer.  I think God is trying to teach me patience again.  I’ve never felt so on edge in my entire life!

Within a week of my old tenants moving out, my rental is all clean and move-in ready.  The ads have been posted and the property has been shown several times. This year’s experience was nothing like last year, which cost me nearly $1,500 and two months vacancy (read: loss of rental income) just to get it move-in ready.  Thank God for a reliable, trustworthy real estate agent and friend! *I know he reads – waving – heeeey*

This morning, my leasing company had leasing agents standing near every exit of the access gate passing out free breakfast kits: a ‘go green’ recycle bag (wiith their logo), a granola bar, apple, bottle water, and a pocket size card with tips on how to reserve energy.  How nice…and smart of them – free advertising!

<proud mommy moment begin> My BabyGirl is doing so well in my office this summer.  Everyone is completely enamored with her.  Either they’re talking about how cute she is, how smart she is, or how well mannered she is.  I have no idea how well she’s doing the job (lol!), but I’m super proud anyway because she’s representing her mommy.  The head honcho stopped me in the hall and said “fine job you’re doing with that little girl of yours.” I beamed! </proud mommy moment end>

I’m very angry with my own mother right now. I got wind from my little brother that she convinced him to get a credit card, told him to charge a few things and pay it off ‘little by little’ to build credit.  I was so mad, my anger was seething through…you know what…I’m going to make this a post of its own.

I bought my BabyGirl’s Christmas present already.  I got it for a GREEEEEEEEEEEEAT deal and couldn’t pass it up.  She’s going to be so happy!  I don’t know if I’ll be able to hold out until December, I wish I could give it to her right now!

I’m going to give her this other surprise right before school starts.  It’s not as big as the Christmas present, but she’ll love this one too.  My BabyGirl has blossomed into a young lady right before my eyes, she is assertive and sassy and very compassionate.  I love watching how she interacts with others.  It’s like looking in the mirror at a little mini-me! LOL!  She’s also overcome many obstacles this past school year/summer and I want to reward her with something to show my support, love, and adoration.  When she does great things, I have to be careful because I just want to spoil her to death.  Then again, teens are known to ruin a good thing, so let’s hope she stays on the right track for a few more weeks!

BabyGirl is going to work for 2 more weeks after this week.  Her last day will be on a Thursday and school begins on the following Tuesday.  No summer break for her!  By the end of summer, she will net over $4,000.

The comments and emails I received in response to the statistics post were very sweet.  I have no doubt, what God has in store for me is for me.  What’s interesting though – I received three emails from men who read, but never comment.  Only two know me in real life.  But they all seemed surprised that I’m still single. Go figure…

I should start a weekly column with little career tips – short, sweet, and to the point.  What do you think?  Career Tip #1, coming up this Friday!

One of my clients sent a payment over and my boss got wind that he included an extra undisclosed amount earmarked just for ME.  My boss called him to discuss proper protocol and he was told “I’ve never met anyone like her before. You better take care of her before someone else snatches her up!” Ha!  I wonder if he told the client that I’m leaving yet?

I passed around a card in my office and collected donations for a well respected colleague who lost both of her parents to cancer within days of each other.  We wanted to make a donation to the Cancer Society in her family’s name.  Most people gave at least $5, managers gave a little more.  Our boss…let me say it again…OUR BOSS…gave me $3.  *blank stare* Three, as in 1…2…3. *drops the mic*

Is it Friday yet?

When I woke up this morning, a thought occurred to me.

Now that I’ve cracked the glass ceiling and my BabyGirl is a high school senior, I’m ready to find a suga daddy get married.  When I shared this with a friend, she said I think like a man. *shrug*