One Family’s Personal Finance Tale, May edition

Posted by admin on May 30, 2008 in Mom2KG Columns, Uncategorized

On Monday, I speculated that oil prices may be subject to a bubble rather than real fundamentals. Sure enough, oil prices has fallen back to $126/barrel from its high of $134/barrel based partially on the belief that the prices are not warranted based on supplies and retail demand. I will continue to blog on oil prices as it is becoming the personal finance issue this year.

Without further ado, our regular guest columnist, Mom2KG, is back to update you on how her family is doing in meeting their personal finance goals.

Thank you to all who posted with suggestions on my budget and angst last month. There was a general consensus that there should be fun money, or a slush fund, the spending of which is free of guilt and restrictions. Setting this aside in the budget is a great idea. I was also relieved to hear about food costs being out of control for everyone. (It’s not just me!) There was also a post about averaging the fun money spending over a few months, rather than focussing on the pennies month to month. Thanks again.

Tax time – that was a good experience for me. I work on contract. My husband nagged me all through 2007 to put away money not just for GST remittances but my own taxes and deductions. My accountant did some fancy work in getting my taxable income down, and it turned out we had calculated the tax pretty well – in fact I had money left over. However, my husband was hit with a much bigger tax bill than we thought (something about allocating a bonus for 2008 but it still being taxed in 2007). So his nagging paid off, just not where we thought it would.

In other news, I also negotiated a raise for the first time ever. (I actually have two jobs, the contract one and a part-time permanent one. The raise was for the PT one.) I had not gotten a raise in four years (the company is cash-strapped, blah blah) so it was time. I got a whole speech ready, got my negotiating hat on….and got exactly what I wanted! I felt pretty good about that. I was a bit confused though – I gave my boss an opening number, and he asked “What’s your real number?” I thought he meant my bottom line, which I told him (and got). He said I should have given him a higher number as my “real number” than the opening gambit. Anyone know what he was talking about?

I’m also thinking about taking a new job. It would involve a significant raise. But there are downsides – I have a pretty good situation now where I can spend time at home if needed (e.g. a sick child), and my Fridays are a half-day of work at most. This is pretty sweet! The new job would still have predictable, reasonable hours, but would mean more work and less time at home, and certainly less flexibility. But then again, more money means hitting our financial goals sooner (which are a big priority, and will translate into more freedom). So let me pose a question – does everyone really have a price? How important is making more money, especially when we’re already reaching some lofty goals?

3 Comments on One Family’s Personal Finance Tale, May edition

By DRA on May 30, 2008 at 7:57 am

Hey Mom- try this with the new job. Pre-negotiate each or each second Friday PM off. we have a few folks here who do that. It costs the boss less and , really, it’s only half a day!
Good luck,,,

By Quick Lunar Cop on May 30, 2008 at 10:13 am

To me, there are two things that are more important than salary when weighing your options:

1) Do you *love* your job? There’s nothing worse than loathing going to work every morning. Even a job you love has its less interesting days, but in general, the best jobs are the ones that you would even volunteer for if you had free time.

2) What are the the *intangibles*? It can be a boss that is truly supportive, a generous training budget, a flexible schedule, great co-workers, etc. These unofficial benefits play a huge part in how much you enjoy your work.

By 45free on May 30, 2008 at 11:51 am

I suspect what your boss meant by real number is “you told me $2”…that is your opening salvo but also the most you think I will pay…but what will you accept? It sounds like they were in a good mood and in a position to give you the raise so were trying to circumvent the negotiating process.

As for a price, yes I think everyone does but it changes. There is a sum of money that will allow all of us, at least for a certain period of time, to do something we would otherwise not do. The flip side of this is, there is also a sum of money we would consider giving up in order to do something we like more (I recently was looking at a role that would be a sizeable overall pay cut vs. consulting but with a unique company and the opportunity to influence the direction of its growth which may not be enough to take the cut but enough to consider). Is the extra money worth the extra time for you? How much is that “sick child” freedom worth and do you really have to give that up.