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In the last part of 2011, three of my friends got engaged. No, not to each other, to their respective significant others. And another got engaged earlier in the year.
So far, there are three weddings scheduled for 2012 and not one is local.
Yes, it’s going to be an expensive year. Flights, hotels, gifts, etc. Of course, I’m not complaining. I’m excited for my friends and delighted that I can be there. Thankfully, they are all getting married in their hometowns – no destination weddings for this group. I’m just going to have to be very smart about my budgeting this year so that I can afford all of this travel – and so I have enough leave available to use. That’s going to be the tough part, I think.
I’m lucky in that I have a boss who is extremely flexible, especially when it comes to important events such as a friend’s wedding.
So it’s all about budgeting. Both my time and my money.
Is anyone else really excited about tax season?
No, just me then?
But I have to admit it. I’m really excited to do my taxes. It’s like an adventure, hoping that I made the proper choices and that I’m getting close to breaking even.
(Actually, I’m hoping I’m getting money back – I made some changes to my withholding when I bought the house, but I wasn’t sure how much of a change to make. I’m hoping that I underestimated.)
I like the excitement of all of the paperwork coming in and entering it all into TurboTax to see what comes out. It’s fun! I know that it’s crazy. But I’m still excited. I can’t wait til the files come in!
One of my big goals for 2011 is to balance my budget and stick to it. I budget every month, but then I find myself exceeding those budget categories all too often. Once in a while happens, and that’s what the slush fund is for, but instead, I find myself pulling money from one budget fund to put into another.
Not a good plan.
So for 2012, I want to start the year with a solid budget in place and see where I can go from there. Sure, there will still be unexpected mishaps, but I want to do my best to control them – so that a budget flub isn’t a random shopping trip, but rather something truly unexpected, like a dental emergency.
We’ll see how long this lasts. Ideally, I’d like to create a large slush fund cushion so that I can have those random shopping trips again. Oh, the fun of home ownership. I love my home, and wouldn’t make a different decision, but sometimes I miss the financial freedom I had.
So I decided it was time to look back at my long-ignored 2011 Goals and see how I did, however inadvertently.
And guess what? I succeeded on all fronts.
Of course, my only goal was to start looking into a house and possibly buy one. Well, I managed to do that early in the year.
Victory! Seems a bit like cheating though.
So I guess I should do a better job of my 2012 Financial-related goals. I need to do a better job at sticking to my budget. I’d like to stay within my budget goals at least 6 months out of the year next year. I would also like to start setting aside money for a new fence. I need to get some furniture for the guest room so that I can actually have guests. Simple things, but important.
I do need a few more goals though. Time to brainstorm.
I have mentioned here before that I am a Federal employee in DC. I won’t go into any more discussion than that. Not that I am saying anything that would harm my position but because I believe that what I do doesn’t matter for the purposes of this blog.
But I do have to say something about the treatment of Federal employees in the media. We are not lazy bums sitting around all day doing nothing and getting rich off of taxpayer money. We pay taxes. We pay for our health insurance (in fact, I had a much better and cheaper plan when I worked in the private sector). We can get downsized and all the talk of reducing the size of government scares us.
When we downsize in government, it is a RIF – a reduction in force. If my position went, they would have to find me another job, but it doesn’t have to be something I like. So yes, my paycheck is safe, and I am not downplaying that. But going into a job you loathe isn’t exactly a good thing.
Right now, there is a reduction in hiring. That means that as people leave – which they do – no one else comes in to take their jobs and the rest of us take on more. Just like in private industry.
I won’t lie – I know we’re in a good spot. But I loathe the implication that we are a waste. The general public would be surprised if all of a sudden, everything shut down, including all the emergency services. We would be missed.
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