Yesterday, I had the formal graduation ceremony for my fellowship program. Technically, I’ve been done with the program since October, but the deadline for the entire fellowship class to complete was this past week (I think), so we had our ceremony yesterday, in order to get the most attendees possible.
It was really interesting to talk to the other fellows and find out what everyone was up to. It was especially interesting to people who accepted fellowships at offices where I turned down fellowships (I was offered four positions). I definitely ended up jealous of one of the people. Her job sounds absolutely incredible. But when I accepted the fellowship, I wanted to move to D.C., and this offer was elsewhere in the country. Plus the pay wasn’t as good, which I realize now shouldn’t have been as big of an issue as it was for me. I know that I made the best decision with the information that I had before me, but that doesn’t make it any easier to not have regrets.
The speaker at the ceremony as well as my conversations with others have definitely renewed my dedication to finding a new job. Don’t get me wrong – I’m very thankful to be employed and to have a steady paycheck, but I have a job. I would like to be in a career. Even if that means more hours for less pay (though I’d rather not work more hours, to be honest – I like having a life!), I need to make a change.
Of course, for now, that means nothing. I expect to hear back soon on a job I applied for in November (I expected to hear last week, but that’s another story). If that doesn’t go where I hope it goes, I will be polishing up my resume and sending out applications throughout the month. Big fun, I tell you.
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.
