Yesterday, I found out that I will be getting a very small performance-based bonus. I’m pretty pumped about the recognition, and the money’s a nice plus too.
Except that I’ve already spent it.
And not even on anything exciting. Dental work and continuing legal education courses. To be honest, I’m not sure which is more painful. But both are things that I need to spend money on, and it’s nice to not have to scrounge around in my other budget categories to make it happen.
So really, it’s a good thing. This bonus is going to good use. It’s just a little disappointing to not be able to have any fun with it. Typically, I try to put half of every bonus into savings, but I’ve decided to let this one go straight towards these two expense categories, with any excess going into savings.
I feel like such a grown-up. A boring, boring grown-up. Maybe I’ll use a few dollars of the money and buy some ice cream to eat while watching the CLE courses. Though that might undo the benefits of the dental work.
Being a responsible adult is no fun. But making a good financial decision, while boring, feels pretty awesome.
Megan is a 40-something government employee in the Washington, DC area. She got interested in Personal Finance when she got out of college and realized that her paycheck wasn’t going to go as far as she had hoped. Since starting this blog, she has managed to buy a house and make a solid start on her retirement goals, and hopes to help others do the same. Here is her story:
In 2007, I was a gainfully employed 20-something with no debt but not a lot of knowledge about personal finance. It was a co-worker’s comment about Roth IRAs that sent me to the internet, searching for information. It was then that I realized that I really didn’t know a whole lot about personal finance and that my current financial situation was due a lot to inherent frugal tendencies, generous family members, a fear of debt, and good luck. While that was working for me, clearly I needed a better plan.
While I had no debt, I was also pretty much living paycheck to paycheck and not worrying about going over budget (I say this as if I had a real budget) because I had an emergency fund set aside to cover any overages.
Except that’s not what an emergency fund is for.
So I did a lot of research, read a lot of blogs, and decided that I needed a plan. I needed to budget. I needed to know what I was spending my money on. I needed to prepare for the future.
I decided to create a blog not only to make myself accountable to others but also to share the knowledge that I gained along the way. I’ve learned so much from my fellow bloggers, and I hope that my readers can find something useful in what I have to share as well.
I feel ya. I recently had to spend a bunch of money on dental work. And right as a nice chunk of money is coming that I want to put toward debt, a one thing broke that needs replacing and there was a sale that required a bunch of money to stock up properly. So most of that next check is already spoken for. Sigh. It’s so disheartening really.