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January February Update

February 25th, 2009 at 01:57 am

I know it has been a while since I updated, that seems to be the standard thing for me to say!

Things here at the state have been pretty crazy and now we have two days off a month and a ten percent reduction in pay. I did find out today that my step increase (5%) in July should be based upon my regular salary not my salary during these furlough times. Right around the end of the furloughs in June 2010 when our salaries go back up to our regular amounts I also get another step increase so it will be like getting a 15% raise all at one time. I am hoping that if I am making it ok I am going to put 10% toward my 401k (which got cut to almost nothing with these furloughs/10% cuts) and the other 5% toward my 457. We will see how I can live on this salary for the next few years.

I took close to $4350 out of my bank accounts and used it to pay off some credit cards, two of them! Taking those usual monthly payments and putting it toward the final card means I should be out of credit card debt around this same time or a little later next year. Then all I have left is the student loan. At that point I will put the amounts I am currently paying toward the credit card debt and put it toward the student loans, which means I am paying more each month than the minimum payment. If I could up that to $500 then I could pay off 48k in a little less than 10 years. So… we will see how it goes all pie in the sky ideas right now.

Buying a house is a goal in the next 12 months. I want to be able to take advantage of the tax breaks from the state and the feds. It looks like to housing tax breaks by the state are taking 10k and dividing it over three years of returns and the federal tax break is 8k without having to pay it back like last year 7500 credit. That would be awfully nice to take advantage of!! I know the state is limiting to time period and limited to I think 100 million dollars. (?) So my tax person said she would do some more research for me and send it to me with my completed return.

I sent off my tax paperwork and am waiting to hear if I have to pay or if I get money back. I am hoping that I get just a little back and not have to pay anything. Last year I got money back from the Feds but had to pay the state. That scenario would be fine too!

I am waiting for my state union to begin negotiations with the state. One other union has renegotiated their bargaining unit contract and has limited it to one furlough day and only a 5 % cut. That would be so great!

The hard part for me with these furlough days is that I work an alternate work week (every other Friday off) and I just can’t afford to miss every Friday for the next year and a half. It would be nice but realistically when I sit down and see the work load that I have and the expectations of my agency it just cannot be done. But there comes into play the alternate work schedule, what to do? I figured out that I can work half days on Fridays and keep my hours matching the required numbers of hours so that is nice! My boss is happy because I am still here five days a week for the non furlough days but I still have the afternoons off on Fridays and still get that feel of having the time off. It was a good compromise. I will not have to use a vacation day for the next 18 months with this new schedule. Every weekend feels like a mini vacation.

I have been reading all the blogs and keeping up with everyones exciting news!!

Can you believe already 2 months of the year have gone by?

1 Responses to “January February Update”

  1. monkeymama Says:
    1235573458

    I was going to ask if you were house shopping. Someone just snatched up a house in my neighborhood (a NICE house/nice neighborhood) for about $210k. You can get $18k from the government towards a home. IT's a great time to buy.

    That is true - the $10k is limited - it is only for new construction and first come, first serve. That's a big catch since a lot of the new construction is half finished. Not sure if those are neighborhoods I would buy in. But, good luck!

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