Dodging the Bullet
By Jay | May 14, 2008
It’s been a while since I’ve written an entry. When I don’t write much it means either that something is on my mind, or that I’m very busy. In this case, both of these scenarios were my reality.
Word has been going around at my company for the past couple weeks that layoffs were imminent. Over the past 5 days about 10 managing directors have submitted their resignations. Today the layoffs hit in earnest; about 35% of my department was let go. Layoffs are still rolling through the firm, and won’t be finished for another two weeks.
Those of us who are left in my group though are safe. We got the “All Clear” meeting this morning.
I’ve been through numerous layoffs since I started with this company in 2000. But this was by far the most stressful. It’s hard to explain why. I wouldn’t have minded if I had been laid off. Severance packages are good, and I have my bookselling business to fall back on. I had even mapped out the long Summer sabbatical that I would take, and thought through all the things I would do with this blog if I just had the time.
But most of my co-workers don’t have anything to fall back on. And the job market in New York is the worst that it has been in years. I am not normally the most empathetic person in the world, but times are tough now, and I see that a lot of people who I have worked with for a long time are very concerned about their financial well-being. If you have a mortgage and a family, a layoff can be a real problem, especially in this economy.
Well, at least it’s over. I may be a wage slave for a few more months (that severance package would have been nice; I can’t afford to quit), but now I should have more time and bandwidth to do things not related to work.
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Topics: Work | 3 Comments »
Monthly Financial Update for April
By Jay | May 3, 2008
As expected, it turned out that April was a good month financially.
I hit two milestones: my net worth is above $60,000 for the first time, and I have over $100,000 in assets. I never thought that would happen! Too bad most of it’s in my retirement account and can’t be touched for another 15 years. Now, if I can just get my debt down to zero……
I have $5,200 more in savings than at the beginning of the month. About half of this is from my tax refund, and the rest is from my book business. My retirement account is up by more than $2,000, and I’ve paid off almost $700 on my credit cards since last month.
I have $10,000 on a zero percent credit card and the promotional rate on the card expires this month. I am planning to pay off the full amount. It’ll wipe out my savings, but I think I’m ready to take that risk. My monthly expenses will be lowered by $300, and if something happens to my job there’s always severance. I’m still $1,200 short of $10,000, but if I really stretch, I think I can do it by 5/30.
Getting my credit card debt down to $20,000 will be a real milestone!
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Topics: Budget, Finance | 2 Comments »
Summer Vacation?
By Jay | May 1, 2008
I got out of work at 5 tonight (a half-day for me), and decided to take the night off. I was home by 6, had eaten by 7, and now it’s 9:30. The dishes are done, I’ve caught up on my blogging buddies’ blogs, and now I’m settled in to write a blog entry of my own before going to bed early & reading for an hour or two. It feels good to relax.
Storm clouds are on the horizon at work again. Looks like another big round of layoffs, as soon as next week. The last round, back in February, felt mainly tactical — like they were getting rid of non-performers. But I have a feeling that this round of layoffs is going to be more extensive. I’ve written about this before, but I can’t say I’d mind terribly if I got laid off. My financial situation is much better than it was four months ago. My book business has picked up quite nicely. And I’ve heard from people I know that got laid off in February that the standard severance package for people at my level is one year of pay. One year — imagine that. I could have a summer vacation, just like when I was a kid and school let out for 3 months. I could get back into excellent shape. I could build my book business and start some other ventures. I would have time to make this into a real blog! It wouldn’t be such a bad thing.
Well, we’ll see what happens next week.
It’s May 1, and about time to update my financial information. I’ll do this over the weekend. I think the news will be pretty good!
Popularity: 20% [?]
Topics: Budget, Work | 1 Comment »
Buy, Carry, List, Pack, Mail
By Jay | April 27, 2008
That’s been my life this weekend. My book supply has been running low so I decided to really make an effort to increase my inventory. And I sure picked the right weekend. Saturday morning I went for a bike ride and hit all the stoop sales in my neighborhood. And there were dozens of them. I brought back about 6 full loads of books, all worth over $10. Then in the afternoon I hit the thrift shops and Salvation Armys. I have a couple where I usually do well, and this weekend was no exception. Today I did the same thing.
I’d say I bought about 200 books, spending maybe $500. I listed them for well over $4,000. They started selling quickly, and I’ve already made my $500 back, so the rest will be profit.
I spent some time teaching M. how to list books, and it turns out that he’s got a knack for it. He’s attentive, and enjoys the pricing part of it. He listed over 100 of the books today, and I paid him $1 each. Tomorrow he can finish up the rest.
Next weekend I’ll teach him how to pack the books. Maybe then I’ll finally have time to blog consistently again ;-)
One reason I’m pushing hard on the books again is that I have a credit card with $10,000 on it, and a zero percent interest rate. In June it goes up to 19.9%. I could transfer the balance to one of my other low interest cards, but then I’d have to pay a 3% fee, or $300. The credit card companies seem to have gotten wise to the habits of people like me who shift balances around to take advantage of low interest rates.
Anyway, I have about $5000 in savings, and will have another $1000 by June, plus my $600 refund from the IRS. That means I’ll need another $4,500 to pay off the full balance. It would be nice to make $4500 from my books in the next couple months. It’s a challenging goal, but I think I can come close if I really push. Especially if M. lists and packs — then I’ll have a lot of time to go out looking for more inventory.
So this will be my goal over the next couple months…..
Popularity: 23% [?]
Topics: Budget, Business | 1 Comment »
A Brief Respite
By Jay | April 21, 2008
So for the first time in a few weeks I got home at a decent hour tonight. Was out of work by 5:30, and home before 7pm! So I will take some of my time to write a blog entry, and then will do a full hour of yoga after I’ve finished.
Matt from Onemillionandbeyond asked if I was still finding time to work on my book business. Yes, I have been. I went out Saturday armed with my scanner and picked up several hundred dollars of inventory for about $50. I came home last night to find that I’d sold 32 books already, so was up until midnight packing them. I’ve got 16 to pack tonight. The money is good though, and it offers an escape route from my day job, so I can’t complain. btw, love the new blog design!
I looked at a blog I used (it had gone dark for a while) to read called Bizarro World Debt Elimination Freakshow and saw that Basil and Bianca have finally paid off all their debt. Congratulations! I hope to follow in their footsteps. I certainly understand their inability to blog AND pursue their business. It’s tough.
Other than that I don’t have much to say right now, so it’s off to do my yoga routine. It’s warmish tonight, so I think I’ll do it in my back yard. It’s dark, so none of the neighbors will see me!
Popularity: 28% [?]
Topics: Book Selling, Work | 3 Comments »
Light at the End of the Tunnel
By Jay | April 16, 2008
I’m finally seeing the end coming for my recent busy spell, and it can’t come soon enough for me. Today was a beautiful day in NYC and, for the first time in about a month, I took a real lunch hour. I heated up my lunch (leftovers from last night’s beef stew dinner) and brought them to a little park at Worldwide Plaza, on 8th and 49th. I sat down in the sun and savored a lunch outside, soaking in the Spring.
I don’t know how people manage to work 70 hour weeks, for weeks on end. I’ve done it for a month and it’s killing me. Many of my co-workers do this 50 weeks a year. Investment banking employees have a bad image in our culture now, but one thing I do give them (them — what am I saying: I’m one too…) credit for is that they work very very hard.
But me, that’s not what I want. An hour sitting in a park on a warm day in April is worth more than any satisfaction I could ever get from a job. It’s been a rough period, and I’m glad it’s finally winding down.
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Topics: Work | 2 Comments »
Transitions
By Jay | April 11, 2008
Whew! What a week. Another week of 12 hour days. I found myself arriving at work around 9am, leaving at 9pm, without even taking a proper lunchbreak — every day this week. It’s not healthy. I’m used to working out three times a week, biking, rollerblading, walking a lot. I haven’t been doing any of these things. I’m just working like a dog.
It has been a crisis atmosphere at work. The financial markets are still bad, which unsettles everybody. Long-time employees have been laid off. Our systems aren’t working properly and the knowledge base for maintaining them no longer exists. It’s a bad situation. We have a small footprint in the US now, with most of the work outsourced to India. But things in India are good now and people there tend to work with our company for a year or two and then move on, along with their knowledge. My boss has been overly demanding, but then I watch what he’s dealing with — a blow-up or a screw-up of some kind every single day — and I feel more pity than anger.
One of the secrets to my job security is that I understand how a certain highly important compliance system works, that no one else in our group or even the firm understands. There’s some risk involved if there is a failure in this system, which makes it s something that no one else wants to understand. I haven’t been happy lately, and as I wrote in my last couple entries, I’m thinking about moving on. So today I told my boss that it is risky to the firm to leave this knowledge all in one person’s head (I used the old “what if I get hit by a bus” line), so we are going to start working on documenting what I do and training other people to take on parts of my responsibilities. By agreeing doing this I have just increased my workload exponentially for the next month, but once I have finished documenting my knowledge, I will have a lot more freedom. I know that I could just give my two weeks notice & let my boss and co-workers deal with the problems, but this wouldn’t be ethical. I have been protecting my knowledge and using it to my advantage, so now that I am thinking of moving on, the right thing to do is to make sure that someone else can transition into my responsibilities.
On another note, someone at work noticed that I look thinner. While I haven’t been exercising, I also haven’t been eating nearly as much as usual, and I have lost weight. I look forward to the next time I get on the scale.
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Topics: Work | No Comments »
Other Random Thoughts
By Jay | April 6, 2008
I’ve updated my little weight tracker on the right. I’ve lost 4 lbs over the past month. How about that! The funny thing is, I’ve been too busy to even think about my weight. And I’ve been too busy to get up and buy my afternoon sweets. About 2 weeks ago I stopped eating sugary things entirely, so I guess it’s having a good effect.
Another note about my debt; when I get as busy as I’ve been lately, I tend to order take-out more. And this really runs up a bill. My company will pay for dinner if I’m in the office after 7, but often I’ll come home at 6 and log in to finish up my work, in which case I have to pay for my own food. I ended up spending almost $500 for lunches and dinners, which is money that could have gone to debt. I’m not sure that I can avoid this — after working a 15 hour day the last thing I want to do is cook — but it irks me that I have to spend this money.
As I’ve written in a couple other posts, I’ve been going through my own hell at work lately — a lot of people have been let go and the rest of us are desperately trying to keep things afloat. I’ve been doing my part for the last month, but I’ve never wanted a job that took up 60-80 hours of my week, and I’m really thinking about moving on. I keep thinking I see light at the end of the tunnel, but every time I see that light another program breaks or another request comes in that I have to deal with because the people who used to deal with it are no longer there.
So, I’m realizing that I am not happy. I could quit at the end of April, but with only $5000 in my savings fund, and with my debt, I’m not sure that just quitting is a great idea. I am making about $1000 per month with my little side business, and am spending just 4-6 hours per week to do so. If I could bump that up to $2000 this month, I would be more willing to make a drastic career-related move. I used to freelance with Microsoft Office — Powerpoint, Excel and Word, and made $25 per hour doing so. If I could do that 3 days per week, and make $2000 per month on my book business, I’d probably end up taking home more than I do today, and have more free time to think up other opportunities as well.
I’m not sure what I’ll do yet, but I am definitely thinking hard. I put it out to the universe that I would like a positive work-related change in my life in the next couple months.
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Topics: Weight-loss, Work | 2 Comments »
Monthly Financial Update for March
By Jay | April 6, 2008
I wrote at the beginning of March that this would be a “Treading Water” month financially and, sure enough, that’s exactly what it was. My credit card debt is exactly the same as it was at the beginning of the month. I paid down about $500, but I have $500 now on the card I use for monthly expenses. I pay this card off every month, but have been waiting for my income tax refund to do so this month. The refund should come any time now.
My retirement account bounced back and is above $80,000 again, bringing up my net worth a bit. This is artificial though, as I don’t plan on touching that money for another 15 years.
April will be better — not a treading water month. I’m getting back over $1000 from the IRS, and hope to draw some profit from my book business. My goal is to add $2000 to my savings before the end of the month, bringing my emergency savings fund to $5000.
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Topics: Finance | 1 Comment »
A Long Day
By Jay | April 1, 2008
Things haven’t slowed down yet for me at work. I put in 10 hours Saturday and 6 hours Sunday, and didn’t leave the office until 9pm last night & tonight. Ah, the life of an employee of an investment bank. But I do see the light at the end of the tunnel. I’m hoping that by this weekend I’ll be finished with the project that I’m currently working on, and that I’ll have more free time to blog and to do the other things that I like to do.
I’ll be updating my finances this weekend on my blog. It’s been a good month. I’ve sold lots of books, and have been so busy working that I haven’t had time to spend money. So for one of the few times in the last few years, I’m earning more than I’m spending. It took a long time to accumulate $50,000 in debt, and it feels real good to see that total go down.
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Topics: Work | 1 Comment »