December (and 2008) Net Worth Wrap-Up

Despite the recent dips in the markets, when I look back on the past year of my blogging life, I realize that I really have made tremendous progress. I have a budget, where I never did before – specific, measurable goals where I previously had wishes, and a bit more confidence where I only had questions. More than that, my attitude has been focused on simply making progress. My budget is more accurate than it was even a few months ago, and I try not to get sidetracked when I have a few dips or when I disappoint myself. It’s all about the journey… I get it, and I’m happy with that.

So with all of those reflections, just past my one-year blogging anniversary, I will note for the records that I’m ending December and 2008 with a Net Worth of $39,460, nudged up nominally since November, but up a lot since I started!

Mini-Rant on Megaplex Movie Theaters

So much for saving money being back home for the holidays. Out of our enforced boredom, the Guy and I decided to crown our monotony with a visit the local megaplex to see a few holiday flicks.

> Night 1: Marley & Me – really cute, more-than-I’d-hoped-for fun, until the fire alarm went off at 10:45, 30 minutes into our movie
> Night 2: Used our readmission passes to see The Curious Case of Benjamin Button – Profound, moving, get-you-excited-for-Oscar-buzz-already, until the fire alarm again went off at exactly the same time, with only 10 minutes to go in our movie.

More worthless readmission passes later, we still wasted $36 seeing not one full movie over the holiday break. Geez… Makes me glad for my AFI Movie Challenge – in December, I checked five off the list already! $50 to the Dog fund!

Ending the Year with a Sigh (and not of Satisfaction)

As the year closes and most bloggers of any sort turn to indulgent predictions, recaps or lofty goals for the following year, I have to admit that I am feeling a bit of impatience at my own lack of progress. It seems I will probably have to change my already-declared 2009 goal because of all these forces out of my control, but I’m leaving it on the books for now… and simply declaring my very-human impatience at the lack of progress or sign of any pay-off at all for all this diligence. Maybe it’s that I haven’t been diligent enough (and don’t have it in me, at this stage in life, to be any more frugal than I already am) – or maybe it’s just that I can’t see that parallel track of “what might have been,” the non-blogging road not taken. Still, I am ending this calendar year, feeling a bit off-kilter.

'Above my Pay Grade'

I’m rather fond of the expression “must be above my pay grade.” I most often use it to crack a wry joke about something that is complicated to the degree of farce (ridiculous furniture assembly instructions or the insane views on foreign policy espoused by my uncle, for example).
But thinking of getting back to work in a few more days, and in the context of what I am actually paid, a pay grade speaks to a unit in monetary compensation – which my company employs strictly. And though some may disagree, I do appreciate this system (as opposed to alternatives of free negotiation). Some might argue that pay grades could be employed arbitrarily and that negotiation might enable employees to have more meaningful variables considered (like past experience and how much value those specific roles might bring to the current). I, however, would rather embrace these distinct levels, because my sensibilities are highly attuned to fairness (I blame my having a sibling remarkably close in age). In reality, I see that negotiation could really reward the best negotiators and the most obnoxious and whiny.

However, in researching a bit, I have found it interesting that legally, companies are not required to adhere to pay ranges of any sort, and more interesting to me, that if they do employ pay ranges, they are not required to publish them at all. In short, you can never be certain of fairness, I suppose.

What my company does disclose is their theory on employee market value. They maintain that they will always pay me at 85% of my market value. When my friend in HR tried to explain this to me, she said it was based on my skills in that role, and that I would move to the next role too fast to ever reach a level of 100% proficiency which would essentially equate to that 100% of market value level. Makes sense, but it still feels funny when I see that huge number listed as my market value and my salary listed well below.

But in this time, I know I would be grateful to be paid at 50% of my market value, so long as I kept that job.

My own Christmas Reverance for a Transitional Year.

The Guy and I are at my parents home in the South - celebrating Hanukkah privately - and my favorite Christmas rituals publicly with my entire family. Sleeping in separate bedrooms and cooking dinners and revisiting childhood haunts in this low-fifties winter (quite refreshing from the sub-zero temperatures we left in the midwest). It's a transitional year for us. I'm waiting to hear back about grad school, and thus, potentially moving us to a new city. We're poised to become a blended family - though not quite there yet, it still feels like family to me.

It feels like a transitional year for the nation as well. So while there will be moments of uncomfortability over the holidays for all of us, I am certain we will look back to remember this year's close profoundly. So I am keeping that quasi-optimistic, reverant outlook for the lull of these next two weeks... before grinding into the next year again.

Indulge Me On This

I’ve been disappointed in the quality of the articles in the Sunday Styles in the past year. Often the writing itself is still stand-out, but the articles and actual topics chosen have seemed almost purposefully out-of-touch, like some editor’s pet interests are being indulged, week after week after “really? A brand of napkins sold only in the Hamptons?” week. The topic of this past Sunday’s headline - Indulge Me On This - struck me as no different. But some of the writing itself didn’t disappoint, and as Dave Eggers has famously said, got right to the business of “speaking eloquently about what it’s like to be alive right now.” The indulgences – the beach, the Nutcracker, the right Scotch, a culinary treat, nice cardstock for greetings, the right pacifier of diet coke – were appropriate for the paper’s readership.

For my own readership and indulgence, I would say my own indulgences this Christmas Eve are really good wine, splurges on family and friends, an excess of ‘wasting time’ pleasure reading.

What I'm Learning from Dog Adoptions this December

I’ve recently started volunteering at my area Animal Humane Society, facilitating adoptions of abandoned dogs, which has been significantly more fulfilling than I expected. I am no animal activist, by any means. In my entrance interview even, I stumbled over the questions regarding what part of animal rights I was most concerned about. Umm, general animal cruelty? I wasn’t even sure of what the options were for such a question. I was motivated by a fond feeling of nostalgia for the string of miniature dauschands our family had growing up, as well as, yet another hare-brained business idea of the Guy and I’s (a doggie day care which would be based on the premises of big companies, much like the actual day care service that many large companies already provide). So far I’ve been truly impressed by the charming, devoted people I’ve interacted with as well as the professionalism and well-oiled engine of the AHS.

Two observations on volunteering around this time of year:

ONE. I’ve found the benefits of volunteering at such an organization with such a clear, simple, single-minded mission blissfully uncomplicated. Sure – Darfur, Iraqi refugee, and women’s or immigrant rights funds may be more politically important and impactful in our society. But no one really disagrees that Fido shouldn’t be abused, and witnessing the love and real connection and meaning that an animal can bring to a somewhat haphazard or lonely set of owners, is really quite majestic – in a small, authentic way. As a poet friend of mine always says, ‘What a good and fine thing it is to do a good and fine thing.’

TWO. This experience is helping correct my unasked personal stance that in the whole ‘Time vs. Money’ debate on charitable giving, your money is far more impactful. After experiencing this organization’s operations, in this case, it really does seem that giving of my time and energies provides them maximum benefit, and leaves me devoid of angst over the absolutism of the financial experience of charitable giving (one unaltered number, un-wishy-washy: can I afford this?, is it too much?, Is it nearly enough?)