Tuesday, January 03, 2012
Happy New Year!!!
Ah 2012, you harbinger of Mayan ill portent, how nice you've finally arrived. Flipping the cosmic odometer aside, things are looking up here in the good 'ol US of A, and people are starting to pop out of their holes, much like Punxsutawney Phil. Although it's anecdotal, the most interesting evidence I can find for all this is the complete lack of hotel rooms in any of the places I would have spent New Year's: Miami Beach, Key West, Las Vegas, Niagara Falls, or Montreal. Even the hostels were packed. I was crestfallen to admit the trip wasn't meant to be, but there's a silver lining to this dearth of lodging: I couldn't spend money.
While I've discussed my salary in this space, and that I expect to have my pay and benefits reduced at some point soon, I don't believe I've covered my fiscal situation. The reason? Shame, pure and simple.
Until very recently, my money management has been atrocious to say the least. I've accumulated monumental debts since 1994, and only recently have I made any serious attempt to eliminate them. I almost gave up in 2005, and the consequences of my irresponsibility are still reverberating to this day. The rocks on which I've crashed are the various loans I've borrowed since I started college. Some of these loans are short-term, while some have payments over a 30-year span (and not just my mortgage!), and all are directly debited from my checking account. Ouch. The shorter-term loans are from my dipping into my retirement account, and they must be paid within 5 years of borrowing. I've been edging closer to solvency since 2005, but I only really stopped the bleeding around 2 years ago. Since then, I've been fitfully trying to pare down what I owe and otherwise eliminate unneeded expenses.
Although I have been grasping for only the low-hanging fruit, I have been somewhat successful overall. Nonsensensical wastes of money, such as World of Warcraft and my storage unit, are history. I paid off my credit cards, although I use one on a daily basis for airline miles. I pay it off daily as well. I also sold my scooter, the ownership of which was a decent idea on paper, but horrible in the execution. I did recover some of my initial investment, but in layman's terms, took a bath on the whole exchange. I just paid off my car (Camry 2.5 - the first Camry was worth only a 0.5 rating), which was purchased last July. That was a fun check to mail, though the figure was painful to write. I also paid off 2 retirement loans, and arraigned to pay off an additional two. As good as all of the above may be, it really isn't enough.
I still owe a small sum on one retirement loan, major amounts on two other retirement loans, a huge amount on my student loans, and the mortgage on my apartment. While the debt figure is high, the monthly payments are actually manageable. Much like overpaying for a home bought in 2006, you may owe a princely sum, but low rates keep the bills affordable. This brings me to this registration period, and the horns of my dilemma.
Whether July/August/September or December/January/February, registration is always difficult, and any blog post from either point on the calendar would bear that out. Spring registration is lighter than the fall, and the overall timespan is shorter, but it's still a grind. The lines are long, the students are woefully under-informed, and we're open late 4 nights a week. All these extra hours are overtime, and if I so chose, I could work late every night of the week, and even the weekends. Weekend work has been required (i.e. needed, though not scheduled...) in the past, and I doubt this year will be any different. Insane? Maybe. Stressful? No doubt. Incredibly, wonderfully profitable? Oh Lord yes. My mouth is watering just thinking of all the yummy delicious overtime I'll scarf in the next 6 weeks. The work is there, so it's not like I'm just sitting on my ass doing nothing. I don't work for the MTA for fuck's sake.
I owe insane amounts of money, and have the opportunity to work insane extra hours. So how insane to I intend to be? Could I work 16 hours a day for the entire month, with only 8 hours a day on the weekends? Would HR investigate me? How much money would I earn? Would they kick me off campus if I wanted to work MLK weekend? Will I have a breakdown in my office and get carted away in restraints? These are rhetorical questions of course, and I've tried to answer them. I was up until 2am some nights, actually.
Staying up late to obsess about money is very unlike me, or at least the me I understood myself to be. Yes, it would be nice to pay back these loans (at least the retirement loans), and no longer watch my bank account reflect my poor financial choices every month. Still, working as much as I possibly could isn't healthy. With my financial, mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual health held in the balance, I've tried to work out a compromise.
I will work late every night of the week, but how late is another matter. If I am scheduled to work at the main campus, I'll stay until 11pm unless I have a prior commitment that cannot be met at another time. If I must attend to something, then I will leave after 3 hours. If I was not scheduled to work late at all, then I will stick around and help out at the counter or do paperwork. Again, if I have nothing else to do that evening, then I'll stay really late. Weekends are going to be required, and there's nothing abnormal about that. However, I won't work the holiday weekend. The college will be closed, and I have Rocky Horror Show tickets for Friday evening and the midnight Saturday show. I'm a little annoyed with myself about tying up the long weekend, but going to the show prevents me from...... going away and spending tons of money! Pardon me while I thank God for saving me from myself yet again.
Some prayer and medition completed, I am ready to tackle the mountian of folders in front of me. With a keen grasp of the obvious, I am ready to state the next 37 days will suck. Still, there is the chance it will all be worth the extra effort.
While I've discussed my salary in this space, and that I expect to have my pay and benefits reduced at some point soon, I don't believe I've covered my fiscal situation. The reason? Shame, pure and simple.
Until very recently, my money management has been atrocious to say the least. I've accumulated monumental debts since 1994, and only recently have I made any serious attempt to eliminate them. I almost gave up in 2005, and the consequences of my irresponsibility are still reverberating to this day. The rocks on which I've crashed are the various loans I've borrowed since I started college. Some of these loans are short-term, while some have payments over a 30-year span (and not just my mortgage!), and all are directly debited from my checking account. Ouch. The shorter-term loans are from my dipping into my retirement account, and they must be paid within 5 years of borrowing. I've been edging closer to solvency since 2005, but I only really stopped the bleeding around 2 years ago. Since then, I've been fitfully trying to pare down what I owe and otherwise eliminate unneeded expenses.
Although I have been grasping for only the low-hanging fruit, I have been somewhat successful overall. Nonsensensical wastes of money, such as World of Warcraft and my storage unit, are history. I paid off my credit cards, although I use one on a daily basis for airline miles. I pay it off daily as well. I also sold my scooter, the ownership of which was a decent idea on paper, but horrible in the execution. I did recover some of my initial investment, but in layman's terms, took a bath on the whole exchange. I just paid off my car (Camry 2.5 - the first Camry was worth only a 0.5 rating), which was purchased last July. That was a fun check to mail, though the figure was painful to write. I also paid off 2 retirement loans, and arraigned to pay off an additional two. As good as all of the above may be, it really isn't enough.
I still owe a small sum on one retirement loan, major amounts on two other retirement loans, a huge amount on my student loans, and the mortgage on my apartment. While the debt figure is high, the monthly payments are actually manageable. Much like overpaying for a home bought in 2006, you may owe a princely sum, but low rates keep the bills affordable. This brings me to this registration period, and the horns of my dilemma.
Whether July/August/September or December/January/February, registration is always difficult, and any blog post from either point on the calendar would bear that out. Spring registration is lighter than the fall, and the overall timespan is shorter, but it's still a grind. The lines are long, the students are woefully under-informed, and we're open late 4 nights a week. All these extra hours are overtime, and if I so chose, I could work late every night of the week, and even the weekends. Weekend work has been required (i.e. needed, though not scheduled...) in the past, and I doubt this year will be any different. Insane? Maybe. Stressful? No doubt. Incredibly, wonderfully profitable? Oh Lord yes. My mouth is watering just thinking of all the yummy delicious overtime I'll scarf in the next 6 weeks. The work is there, so it's not like I'm just sitting on my ass doing nothing. I don't work for the MTA for fuck's sake.
I owe insane amounts of money, and have the opportunity to work insane extra hours. So how insane to I intend to be? Could I work 16 hours a day for the entire month, with only 8 hours a day on the weekends? Would HR investigate me? How much money would I earn? Would they kick me off campus if I wanted to work MLK weekend? Will I have a breakdown in my office and get carted away in restraints? These are rhetorical questions of course, and I've tried to answer them. I was up until 2am some nights, actually.
Staying up late to obsess about money is very unlike me, or at least the me I understood myself to be. Yes, it would be nice to pay back these loans (at least the retirement loans), and no longer watch my bank account reflect my poor financial choices every month. Still, working as much as I possibly could isn't healthy. With my financial, mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual health held in the balance, I've tried to work out a compromise.
I will work late every night of the week, but how late is another matter. If I am scheduled to work at the main campus, I'll stay until 11pm unless I have a prior commitment that cannot be met at another time. If I must attend to something, then I will leave after 3 hours. If I was not scheduled to work late at all, then I will stick around and help out at the counter or do paperwork. Again, if I have nothing else to do that evening, then I'll stay really late. Weekends are going to be required, and there's nothing abnormal about that. However, I won't work the holiday weekend. The college will be closed, and I have Rocky Horror Show tickets for Friday evening and the midnight Saturday show. I'm a little annoyed with myself about tying up the long weekend, but going to the show prevents me from...... going away and spending tons of money! Pardon me while I thank God for saving me from myself yet again.
Some prayer and medition completed, I am ready to tackle the mountian of folders in front of me. With a keen grasp of the obvious, I am ready to state the next 37 days will suck. Still, there is the chance it will all be worth the extra effort.
