. So I learned yesterday what my merit raise will be: 1.5%. As mentioned before, I didn't really expect anything since I haven't been perm for a full year yet. But I guess because they do raises at the same time of year for everyone, they included me in. It's better than nothing although I'd sort of been expecting 2%.
Inflation for the first 2 months of this year was running at -0.1%, so that's good.
So I will use 1% of that, or $800, to increase my Roth 401k contributions from 22% of pay to 23% of pay. The remaining .5, or $400, will simply wind up in my net pay; I believe it will come out to about $18 more per paycheck. Ahh, living large....
By right I should put the entire raise into the 401k because I don't spend every penny of my net pay now as it is, which means I will just wind up paying more in taxes on my taxable savings.
However, there is something to be said for having the flexibility to spend the money on home improvements or other worthy purchases and if I don't feel I have the money at hand, I won't do it. So for the sake of having "options," I will allow a few hundred to come to me in the form of taxable income.
On tap for this year will be replacing the very worn rubber stair treads on my basement stairs with new vinyl treads, which I've already bought. They do need to be trimmed to size and glued on, and I think I'd rather have my handyman do it rather than have to sniff that glue.
I'd also like to get my upstairs fir floors refinished and get some treework done in terms of pruning branches or taking down dead trees.
That's just the start.
Oh gosh, I just glanced at my 2015 resolutions and see that I was supposed to have lost 16 pounds by the end of this month. I haven't weighed myself in weeks, and I'm pretty sure my weight hasn't budged at all. I still have been walking at least 30 minutes on most weekdays and I've been doing an incredible amount of snow shoveling here these past few weeks.
Earlier this week my new tire pressure gauge and portable air compressor arrived from Amazon. A friend at work told me she'd been driving on her tires for a week after her low tire pressure alert came on in her car becus her husband was going to get the tires filled, the following weekend, with whatever that gas is that apparently doesn't leak like air in cold temperatures.
So I felt it would be "ok" to keep driving on the tires until my delivery came. I'd been to the local gas station twice to fill up one tire that was low and he said if it happens again we'll want to take a look at it. Which to me meant, examine the tire for a nail or whatever which I felt there wouldn't be, since the low tire pressure has only been an issue this winter and last, and not in between. So I didn't want to spend the money.
Well, I checked the pressure with a highly rated gauge and it was fine, even slightly overfilled, in 3 of the tires. The PSI should be 32. But in the one tire it was 10 PSI!! And yes, when I pressed on the side it "gave" a little, unlike the rock hard other tires. Geez, I could have really damaged the tire/rim; I didn't think it was THAT low.
I filled it up Thursday night and my low tire pressure light has remained off. It was a pain to fill it, though, because the air compressor doesn't seem to indicate the PSI while I'm filling the tire. It has a dial on it that goes from 0 to 300, but when I turned it on the needle jumped to 80. Like I said, my correct PSI tire pressure should be 32 and it was down to about 10 when measured with a separate air gauge. So I don't know exactly what that dial measures. I had to run the compressor a while and then remove the attachment and check the pressure with a separate digital gauge I'd bought.
My teeny weeny weeny merit raise
March 7th, 2015 at 10:42 am
March 7th, 2015 at 04:39 pm 1425746368
March 7th, 2015 at 06:28 pm 1425752935
Congrats on the raise, even if it wasn't as much as you'd been thinking.
March 7th, 2015 at 07:35 pm 1425756921
Joan of the Arch: i would send link but can't remember where online i bought these.
March 8th, 2015 at 07:27 pm 1425842855
I agree on the money front...put some in retirement, but have some in an accessible account too. I know some folks say you shouldn't spend anything and make do, but I think you have to have a moderate view...you work so you can have some things and keeping your house updated and nice is an investment in my book.
March 9th, 2015 at 01:25 am 1425864358
March 9th, 2015 at 05:26 am 1425878799
March 9th, 2015 at 07:46 am 1425887180
For example, at my university, you must be rated at least an 8
March 9th, 2015 at 07:49 am 1425887386
[out of 10] by every student registered for your classes that bothers to fill out the rating forms. That hurdle puts you on the voting list for other instructors/adjuncts in your faculty to pass your name on to your director who decides if your work and attitude