Out of the blue, I’ve been put into a new position at work. We had someone leave and the department needed a new person.
And they asked for me!
It was really flattering to be asked. I was really nervous at first. After all, the devil you know beats the devil you don’t. I was excited to try something new, but that team is known for hard work and lots of yelling and frustration. I can handle hard work, but I wasn’t sure I wanted to be yelled at every day.
Turns out, I much prefer the yelling to the backstabbing. At least when someone yells at you, you know what they think. I very much prefer that to my old team’s method of being nice to your face, then trying to sabotage you behind your back. Yes, this is a great place to work.
But in all honesty, I’m really surprised at how happy I am with the new team. I actually haven’t been yelled at yet, and in fact, I’ve been complimented quite a bit. I had forgotten how nice that is. I’ve been doing a lot more writing than normal, and it turns out that our editor was instrumental in getting me transferred to this new team because when he edited my work, he didn’t have to do much of anything, and apparently, he ends up rewriting a lot of the stuff that crosses his desk. I knew that English degree was good for something!
I’ve still got my application out at a number of places, but right now, I’m really happy with the work I’m doing. I can’t talk about it a lot, but it’s a very unique job, and definitely one that’s fascinating to talk about. And best of all, when I do a good job, they point it out. I don’t need compliments all the time, but it’s sure nice to hear them. I think we could all benefit by remembering that.
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.
