Well, now I've received word that I will NOT be an independent contractor, I'll be a real employee. However, I still have no idea when I'm going to start, which is really starting to aggravate me. It is nice though to have the prospect of being a real employee, because on the day that I found out that they were going to pursue that line, I also found out that I had been denied for health insurance. So being a real employee will get me health benefits, although it comes with less money. But it equals out, especially since I have no idea where I would have gotten health insurance - I've been turned down twice, once for my preexisting condition (heartburn - seriously, people?) and this time for being overweight, despite being perfectly healthy other than heartburn which is well controlled on OTC stuff.
Here's hoping I actually start this job sometime soon - I'm hoping that since they do hire people on a regular basis, they can get that accomplished faster than trying to write up a contract. I was supposed to go for training on Monday in Kansas City but that didn't get set up before the person who was supposed to train me left for vacation. I just hope things aren't this badly confused once I actually start working.
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Sunday, November 16, 2008
Finally some news!
I feel bad about not updating but when there isn't anything to report, I don't feel the urge to share. Now however I do have news to report. I've been offered a position in my field, at a company I really like, and I have accepted and am waiting for my contract to be emailed to me. Now you may say, contract?? Yes, I will be an independent contractor for this company and not a real employee. This was not the world's best situation, but due to the nature of the position it was what the lawyers ended up with. Basically the job is a partnership between a mail-order pharmacy and a pharmaceutical company. The pharma wants to conduct a study on people who use certain medications for multiple sclerosis, and the mail-order pharmacy has people in their rolls who are taking those medications. So the pharma is paying for research coordinators at three different mail-order pharmacy companies, and the pharmacies will provide the patients for the study. So I'll be physically located at the pharmacy's offices, but doing work for the pharma. It's an interesting setup.
The good thing about this setup though is that they did agree to give me more money than had been offered before, when it was going to be a regular employee position, to cover health benefits and the additional self-employment taxes. And they did come through with plenty of money to cover that, which was nice. Now I'm just waiting for the dang contract. This apparently has been held up in the pharma's legal department for some time as they haggle over it. So I am getting a little annoyed that I haven't been able to start work (and start getting paid) as I was supposed to start last Monday, but the contract wasn't done. Now I am supposed to start maybe Wednesday of next week, but since they need a couple days after I send the contract back, and I don't have it, it might be pushed back further. And then next week is Thanksgiving, so all the people who need to train me may be out of town. Sheesh.
This is going to be an interesting position - I'm essentially the only person at my location working on this study, and while there are other coordinators working on this project at other pharmacies, and people above me to advise me and train me, I'm not really sure that I'll have coworkers, per se. There are certainly other people working at this location, but I'm very interested to see if I have a real office, what the facilities are like, how much interaction I'll have with others, etc.
I'm going to restrain myself from making a five page post here so I will try to spread out my musings about the ramifications of going totally Schedule C over a few days. Plus more adventures in homeownership and more animal health issues. Stay tuned!
The good thing about this setup though is that they did agree to give me more money than had been offered before, when it was going to be a regular employee position, to cover health benefits and the additional self-employment taxes. And they did come through with plenty of money to cover that, which was nice. Now I'm just waiting for the dang contract. This apparently has been held up in the pharma's legal department for some time as they haggle over it. So I am getting a little annoyed that I haven't been able to start work (and start getting paid) as I was supposed to start last Monday, but the contract wasn't done. Now I am supposed to start maybe Wednesday of next week, but since they need a couple days after I send the contract back, and I don't have it, it might be pushed back further. And then next week is Thanksgiving, so all the people who need to train me may be out of town. Sheesh.
This is going to be an interesting position - I'm essentially the only person at my location working on this study, and while there are other coordinators working on this project at other pharmacies, and people above me to advise me and train me, I'm not really sure that I'll have coworkers, per se. There are certainly other people working at this location, but I'm very interested to see if I have a real office, what the facilities are like, how much interaction I'll have with others, etc.
I'm going to restrain myself from making a five page post here so I will try to spread out my musings about the ramifications of going totally Schedule C over a few days. Plus more adventures in homeownership and more animal health issues. Stay tuned!
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Adventures in Homeownership
So we're all moved into the house.. we had the floors sanded and refinished, the electrical system redone, fence installed, painted several rooms, to the point that the house doesn't really look like what we bought at all, and definitely feels more "ours". Truly, this house could have a million things wrong with it, and Boyfriend and I would be fine with that, because we can actually FIX things around this house. Our rental was a nice property but it was never really maintained, and there were so many things that, if fixed, would have made it much nicer. I guess we won't really have the shock of "but our landlord used to fix that!" because they didn't fix anything, so we did end up just living with a thousand little problems. Now of course we have the to-do list that's a mile long.. much of which costs money, naturally.
We had our first minor emergency - the central AC and the fan unit that's part of the furnace that runs the cold air through the house were both leaking water. Like lots of water. Considering that an air conditioner should not produce more than condensation, this was Bad. Luckily, we did get a home warranty on the place, and called in for that. Apparently we were very, very low on Freon. I am not certain that that alone would cause This Much Water, but if it doesn't fix it, we can call the contractor back within 30 days and not even have to pay the deductible again. So that's nice. The AC seems to be working fine now and isn't producing much, and we will watch it for the next few days. If it turns out to be a big problem, the warranty will cover replacement, at any rate.
In other news, I now have two sick animals - one of the perennially ill guinea pigs has a kidney stone causing a bladder infection, so she's on antibiotics for that while we wait for her to pass the stone. She was pretty cranky last week and seems OK this week, so I'm really hoping she already peed it out. She goes in next week to get an X-ray to see what's going on (another $90 for that alone.) I really, really, really hope that she has, both because with being still unemployed it would be painful to come up with the $700-800 for the surgery and inpatient stay, and I also really don't want her to have to live in a cat carrier for three weeks and get antibiotics and pain meds and be cranky. We've had quite enough of that thank you. The dog incurred her first vet bill (other than the first visit after we got her) since she helpfully let us know she wasn't feeling well by peeing on the couch. While sponging it up, I saw that it was pink, and off to the emergency vet room we went. Luckily we live very close to the Ohio State veterinary college, which has 24/7 care, and we weren't even the only ones there. I said when we came in that I thought she had a urinary tract infection, and $250 later, plus a pack of pills that we already had some of at home, they confirmed this. Sheesh. Hopefully that will be it for her and she will feel better soon. I also hope she didn't pick it up at daycare, since she went for two days while we were moving. The cat and dog have always been the cheap pets - luckily Kitty has never come down with anything more serious than hairballs.
In job news, the woman I interviewed with a few weeks ago is very interested in me and said that it would take about three weeks for them to create the position. It is hourly, which is nice, and I asked for $21-22 plus benefits, which I think is pretty reasonable considering that I will actually be performing three different tasks for them, all of which I am fully qualified to do. I called earlier today to check in but my contact person was gone.. hopefully she has good news tomorrow. It will be three weeks next Tuesday.
I also applied for unemployment - why the heck not - and do not seem to be excelling at the system. My social security number apparently didn't match my name (I don't have a middle name, which confused the computer) so I have to send in some documents to prove that I am who I am and they should give me $365 a week. Which, I have to say, seems like a lot of money to me because I am not paying my own rent or buying much of my own food, but if I were, dang, that's tiny. I mean, it's more than Boyfriend made while in school, but not much when you have a house, sick pets, dependent significant other, etc.
I have spent much of the past few days unpacking and contemplating the sheer volume of STUFF that we own. And also contemplating the fact that the cheese drawer in the fridge, by cubic feet, was one of the most valuable boxes we moved (minus laptops and flat-panel monitors.) I like my cheese.
We had our first minor emergency - the central AC and the fan unit that's part of the furnace that runs the cold air through the house were both leaking water. Like lots of water. Considering that an air conditioner should not produce more than condensation, this was Bad. Luckily, we did get a home warranty on the place, and called in for that. Apparently we were very, very low on Freon. I am not certain that that alone would cause This Much Water, but if it doesn't fix it, we can call the contractor back within 30 days and not even have to pay the deductible again. So that's nice. The AC seems to be working fine now and isn't producing much, and we will watch it for the next few days. If it turns out to be a big problem, the warranty will cover replacement, at any rate.
In other news, I now have two sick animals - one of the perennially ill guinea pigs has a kidney stone causing a bladder infection, so she's on antibiotics for that while we wait for her to pass the stone. She was pretty cranky last week and seems OK this week, so I'm really hoping she already peed it out. She goes in next week to get an X-ray to see what's going on (another $90 for that alone.) I really, really, really hope that she has, both because with being still unemployed it would be painful to come up with the $700-800 for the surgery and inpatient stay, and I also really don't want her to have to live in a cat carrier for three weeks and get antibiotics and pain meds and be cranky. We've had quite enough of that thank you. The dog incurred her first vet bill (other than the first visit after we got her) since she helpfully let us know she wasn't feeling well by peeing on the couch. While sponging it up, I saw that it was pink, and off to the emergency vet room we went. Luckily we live very close to the Ohio State veterinary college, which has 24/7 care, and we weren't even the only ones there. I said when we came in that I thought she had a urinary tract infection, and $250 later, plus a pack of pills that we already had some of at home, they confirmed this. Sheesh. Hopefully that will be it for her and she will feel better soon. I also hope she didn't pick it up at daycare, since she went for two days while we were moving. The cat and dog have always been the cheap pets - luckily Kitty has never come down with anything more serious than hairballs.
In job news, the woman I interviewed with a few weeks ago is very interested in me and said that it would take about three weeks for them to create the position. It is hourly, which is nice, and I asked for $21-22 plus benefits, which I think is pretty reasonable considering that I will actually be performing three different tasks for them, all of which I am fully qualified to do. I called earlier today to check in but my contact person was gone.. hopefully she has good news tomorrow. It will be three weeks next Tuesday.
I also applied for unemployment - why the heck not - and do not seem to be excelling at the system. My social security number apparently didn't match my name (I don't have a middle name, which confused the computer) so I have to send in some documents to prove that I am who I am and they should give me $365 a week. Which, I have to say, seems like a lot of money to me because I am not paying my own rent or buying much of my own food, but if I were, dang, that's tiny. I mean, it's more than Boyfriend made while in school, but not much when you have a house, sick pets, dependent significant other, etc.
I have spent much of the past few days unpacking and contemplating the sheer volume of STUFF that we own. And also contemplating the fact that the cheese drawer in the fridge, by cubic feet, was one of the most valuable boxes we moved (minus laptops and flat-panel monitors.) I like my cheese.
Monday, July 14, 2008
In Which Our Hero Encounters A Ton Of Bad Things
So.. about that new job.. it turned out to be a really, really terrible place to work where everyone is unhappy and dreads being around the top doc. I got fired, but since I was about to quit anyway, it kind of works out. This was definitely one of those situations where it is not worth putting up with crap like that just for a paycheck, and I could not see myself there long-term. I had trouble envisioning myself there the next DAY, each evening. Your job should not be something you withstand.
Anyway. So, unemployed again. I do already have an interview tomorrow though. Someone called me half an hour after I had accepted the previous job, and I had to decline the interview. However, they were very very interested in me, and offered to beat whatever I was getting there.. but it's not a terribly good idea to turn down a known quantity for a potential, is it? They then said "well, if it doesn't work out, give me a call." So that I did, and I'm going in tomorrow. They're still very very interested and it at least from the outside appears to be a much better opportunity.
The big hang up for me in getting jobs in my field is that I am not willing to draw blood. For my own part, I would rather have my blood drawn by a nurse with years of experience than by some girl who just tried it out on her coworker once. However, for some reason, my not wanting to do this is rarely taken seriously. The example I usually use is that if you were afraid of the water, no one would ever suggest you learn to swim and become a lifeguard, but if you don't want to stick needles in people, most healthcare workers will just say, "oh but it's so easy! we can teach you and it's not a big deal." Few people actually respect that I really, really don't want to stick needles in people's arms. If I didn't have this hangup, I'd probably be a nurse. But unfortunately in some situations blood-drawing skills are an absolute requirement of the job. I had an interview some time ago with a place that seemed otherwise great, but the coordinators were required to do various tests on the patients and draw blood, and while I am perfectly willing to perform an EKG (which is pretty easy actually) I was not willing to draw blood, and by the end of the interview both me and the interviewer knew that I would not be back because of this. I don't apply for jobs that state in the description that phlebotomy skills are required or preferred, but it's often the case that they don't say one way or the other. So I'm really hoping that it won't be required, but it would not surprise me if it were, at this place I'm going tomorrow. Here's hoping not.
Of course, this has come at the worst possible financial time - we just got our gas meter read for the first time in months and the catch-up bill is $330, my car is in the shop for a bunch of bad-sounding things and who knows how much that will cost, we just went to visit both sets of relatives this weekend (hotel $100, car $300 since I am under 25 and they charge a LOT extra, plus I had to keep it for tomorrow because my car is in the shop), and on top of all that one of my guinea pigs is again peeing blood and went to the vet today, and is staying overnight. She has already had lab tests and an X-ray ($90 for 2 shots) and will require at the very least a bunch of medications three times a day for the next two weeks and then perhaps surgery after that. (she has kidney stone sludge in her bladder, which she may pee out, and if she doesn't, she will need surgery, but she is also pretty weak at this point since she also recently had to be spayed because of uterine cancer and she hasn't regained any weight yet. And that was $1100 too.) So in all likelihood, the 3 1/2 weeks of pay that I will get from my short-lived stint at That Place will all go to cover all of this recent stuff and I still won't be able to save any money or keep from going further into debt. Hooray. At this point I can't even begin to fathom how I am going to get back to where I was before. I have pretty close to a negative net worth despite having saved what now feels like a fortune in retirement money. It is somewhat tempting to think that I could just cash it all out and pay everything off, but the power of compound interest makes me leave it there. All of my debt is at 5.9% or below (much at 3.5% or 0%) so I know that is the smart thing to do.
In other news, we (or I should say Boyfriend) successfully bought the house and will take possession Wednesday, upon which we will start paying a bunch of other people to do a bunch of stuff. At least since I am unemployed, I can do the painting myself and save some money there. Might buy a paint sprayer but I have never used one and am wary of spending $100+ on something I don't know how to use. I do know how to use a roller on a stick. I will try to do what I can on my own - although some things are recognizably beyond my ken, such as installing chain link fence.
Anyway. So, unemployed again. I do already have an interview tomorrow though. Someone called me half an hour after I had accepted the previous job, and I had to decline the interview. However, they were very very interested in me, and offered to beat whatever I was getting there.. but it's not a terribly good idea to turn down a known quantity for a potential, is it? They then said "well, if it doesn't work out, give me a call." So that I did, and I'm going in tomorrow. They're still very very interested and it at least from the outside appears to be a much better opportunity.
The big hang up for me in getting jobs in my field is that I am not willing to draw blood. For my own part, I would rather have my blood drawn by a nurse with years of experience than by some girl who just tried it out on her coworker once. However, for some reason, my not wanting to do this is rarely taken seriously. The example I usually use is that if you were afraid of the water, no one would ever suggest you learn to swim and become a lifeguard, but if you don't want to stick needles in people, most healthcare workers will just say, "oh but it's so easy! we can teach you and it's not a big deal." Few people actually respect that I really, really don't want to stick needles in people's arms. If I didn't have this hangup, I'd probably be a nurse. But unfortunately in some situations blood-drawing skills are an absolute requirement of the job. I had an interview some time ago with a place that seemed otherwise great, but the coordinators were required to do various tests on the patients and draw blood, and while I am perfectly willing to perform an EKG (which is pretty easy actually) I was not willing to draw blood, and by the end of the interview both me and the interviewer knew that I would not be back because of this. I don't apply for jobs that state in the description that phlebotomy skills are required or preferred, but it's often the case that they don't say one way or the other. So I'm really hoping that it won't be required, but it would not surprise me if it were, at this place I'm going tomorrow. Here's hoping not.
Of course, this has come at the worst possible financial time - we just got our gas meter read for the first time in months and the catch-up bill is $330, my car is in the shop for a bunch of bad-sounding things and who knows how much that will cost, we just went to visit both sets of relatives this weekend (hotel $100, car $300 since I am under 25 and they charge a LOT extra, plus I had to keep it for tomorrow because my car is in the shop), and on top of all that one of my guinea pigs is again peeing blood and went to the vet today, and is staying overnight. She has already had lab tests and an X-ray ($90 for 2 shots) and will require at the very least a bunch of medications three times a day for the next two weeks and then perhaps surgery after that. (she has kidney stone sludge in her bladder, which she may pee out, and if she doesn't, she will need surgery, but she is also pretty weak at this point since she also recently had to be spayed because of uterine cancer and she hasn't regained any weight yet. And that was $1100 too.) So in all likelihood, the 3 1/2 weeks of pay that I will get from my short-lived stint at That Place will all go to cover all of this recent stuff and I still won't be able to save any money or keep from going further into debt. Hooray. At this point I can't even begin to fathom how I am going to get back to where I was before. I have pretty close to a negative net worth despite having saved what now feels like a fortune in retirement money. It is somewhat tempting to think that I could just cash it all out and pay everything off, but the power of compound interest makes me leave it there. All of my debt is at 5.9% or below (much at 3.5% or 0%) so I know that is the smart thing to do.
In other news, we (or I should say Boyfriend) successfully bought the house and will take possession Wednesday, upon which we will start paying a bunch of other people to do a bunch of stuff. At least since I am unemployed, I can do the painting myself and save some money there. Might buy a paint sprayer but I have never used one and am wary of spending $100+ on something I don't know how to use. I do know how to use a roller on a stick. I will try to do what I can on my own - although some things are recognizably beyond my ken, such as installing chain link fence.
Monday, June 23, 2008
Phew.. a lot can happen in a week
It's been a bit busy. I started my new job last Wednesday and things are going pretty good. There was actually some back and forth about how much I was going to get paid.. I talked to Top Doc on the phone who just said, come in and talk to the office manager. So I showed up Wednesday morning and he had a very fuzzy recollection of me - apparently he had gotten about 15 seconds with Top Doc who just said, she's coming. So they had not had a conversation about my salary. He says he'll talk to her, and then for the next few days, I can never find him, plus I keep shuttling between two of the offices. Finally on Thursday evening before I leave, I sent him an email listing what I wanted to talk about (salary plus a couple other things) and said if I couldn't get a hold of him I would call him. I finally got him on the phone about 2PM on Friday and he said that they'd set me at $40k. Which is fine, I told them $40-45k in the interview, and while it is a little less than I used to make, I probably would have accepted less, but it does seem like bad form to cheap out on someone who's already BEEN there three days.
Something that is definitely a bonus though is that instead of working at the main clinic, which is out in the suburbs and is about 20 minutes of highway to reach, I'll be assigned to the downtown office, which is literally about five minutes from my house. So that's pretty awesome. Unfortunately it'll be longer after we move, but definitely not bad at all - about 12 minutes, none highway. If I REALLY wanted to, I could take a bus, with only a few blocks' walk to get to the stops at each end. But that's $41 a month for the bus pass, and I don't know how much the garage pass is going to be, but unlikely to be that much, and 12 minutes drive in each direction is pretty good on gas too. I'm also excited to be downtown because it's actually in a hospital, which means there are a lot of resources (like a cafeteria, a lot more bathrooms, gift shop, etc, as well as being able to schedule tests for my patients onsite.) Downtown also has a lot of lunch restaurants and some street vendors, so I could go out and get all kinds of good stuff.
(for those who used to read regularly, yes, I do now own a car. It is a 2002 Chevy Cavalier with about 9823498 dents, which is why it was about $2700. But it hasn't required much in the way of maintenance and I'll probably drive it into the ground. Driving is WEIRD but fun.)
One really awesome bonus though is that they FEED YOU LUNCH on Mondays and Tuesdays, and sometimes Fridays. Today I actually got two lunches, because I was in the suburban office in the morning when they were passing round the menu. Apparently the drug reps pick a restaurant and we all get to choose what we want off the menu. Most people got an appetizer or dessert in addition to a meal. So I picked out coconut shrimp (which they ended up not having) and chicken parmesan with pasta. Then at about 10:30 I got a call saying that there was someone to see down at the downtown office. I am meeting with the most experienced coordinator down there frequently for training. So by then the order was already in, and I went downtown before lunch arrived. And what do you know but they had Panera boxed lunches. Five kinds of awesome. So I got Panera for lunch, and my chicken parmesan was there when I got back to the suburban office. Hooray for free lunch! I am totally going to milk that. I don't think they do the menu ordering at the office I'll be at, but free food is still awesome.
In house news, we did our inspection on Tuesday, and there are of course a few problems. The ones we were most concerned with were the wiring and the hot water heater. The house is about 100 years old, so the wiring is pretty old, but it looks like someone rewired the downstairs but not the upstairs. The upstairs is not grounded at all, and there is knob and tube wiring in the attic that is under a foot of insulation. How this was explained to me as bad is that knob and tube has nice big copper cables, which can be good because they are much thicker than wires used today, and usually enclosed in a wall with air all around them to let heat escape. So being under a foot of insulation means the heat can't escape and this is a fire safety issue. So that's bad. The other big issue is that the hot water heater's air outlet is not drafting properly. The house has two chimneys and the air is supposed to go up one of them, and it's not. This might be because the chimney is full of leaves and crap, or it might be that the chimney has collapsed internally. Who knows. Not our problem. It's a safety risk. So we asked on our request to remedy that they replace and ground the upstairs wiring, and that they fix the hot water heater so it's drafting properly and the basement doesn't fill up with carbon monoxide. That's bad. We're waiting to hear back from them probably tomorrow about what they're going to do.
We also went in early this morning and Boyfriend signed lock papers. We are locked in at 6.25% paying half a point of discount (probably covered under what the seller is paying) and given the way the markets look now, that's probably the best we'd be likely to get, even given what our mortgage person was up to. When we first met she had said 6.25% with no points, but this is acceptable given that we are putting so little down.
In completely unrelated news, I've also been spending money on clothes. This is kind of new for me, and I forgot how much I actually really enjoy having nice clothes and looking like an adult. At my last job I kind of fell into wearing the same pants every day with different solid colored t-shirts and long sleeved t-shirts, and I felt like I was starting to look my age. (this is not something you want when you are as young as I am in the professional world where people have to trust you are providing accurate, potentially life-altering decision-making information.) So I spent some time at the outlets on Tuesday and spent about $250 on clothes, and for this got six dresses, a couple tops, and some assorted other items. Went to a different store a couple days ago and spent $75 on four dresses. Kind of getting into dresses now, to some extent. But like the commercials say, feeling like a grown-up at your new job: priceless. I'm going to try to weed out some of my older, less attractive clothes and slowly turn over my wardrobe. At this point, if I can't wear it to work, there hardly seems a point in buying it since I already have plenty of t-shirts and shorts, and you can wear black pants any day. I do need to buy some black closed toed shoes that I can wear barefoot, since I a) hate pantyhose b) bought a bunch of knee length skirts and dresses and c) you can't wear open toed shoes in a hospital. So that might end up costing more than my outfit on any given day, but hey, no one said looking like a grown-up was cheap.
Something that is definitely a bonus though is that instead of working at the main clinic, which is out in the suburbs and is about 20 minutes of highway to reach, I'll be assigned to the downtown office, which is literally about five minutes from my house. So that's pretty awesome. Unfortunately it'll be longer after we move, but definitely not bad at all - about 12 minutes, none highway. If I REALLY wanted to, I could take a bus, with only a few blocks' walk to get to the stops at each end. But that's $41 a month for the bus pass, and I don't know how much the garage pass is going to be, but unlikely to be that much, and 12 minutes drive in each direction is pretty good on gas too. I'm also excited to be downtown because it's actually in a hospital, which means there are a lot of resources (like a cafeteria, a lot more bathrooms, gift shop, etc, as well as being able to schedule tests for my patients onsite.) Downtown also has a lot of lunch restaurants and some street vendors, so I could go out and get all kinds of good stuff.
(for those who used to read regularly, yes, I do now own a car. It is a 2002 Chevy Cavalier with about 9823498 dents, which is why it was about $2700. But it hasn't required much in the way of maintenance and I'll probably drive it into the ground. Driving is WEIRD but fun.)
One really awesome bonus though is that they FEED YOU LUNCH on Mondays and Tuesdays, and sometimes Fridays. Today I actually got two lunches, because I was in the suburban office in the morning when they were passing round the menu. Apparently the drug reps pick a restaurant and we all get to choose what we want off the menu. Most people got an appetizer or dessert in addition to a meal. So I picked out coconut shrimp (which they ended up not having) and chicken parmesan with pasta. Then at about 10:30 I got a call saying that there was someone to see down at the downtown office. I am meeting with the most experienced coordinator down there frequently for training. So by then the order was already in, and I went downtown before lunch arrived. And what do you know but they had Panera boxed lunches. Five kinds of awesome. So I got Panera for lunch, and my chicken parmesan was there when I got back to the suburban office. Hooray for free lunch! I am totally going to milk that. I don't think they do the menu ordering at the office I'll be at, but free food is still awesome.
In house news, we did our inspection on Tuesday, and there are of course a few problems. The ones we were most concerned with were the wiring and the hot water heater. The house is about 100 years old, so the wiring is pretty old, but it looks like someone rewired the downstairs but not the upstairs. The upstairs is not grounded at all, and there is knob and tube wiring in the attic that is under a foot of insulation. How this was explained to me as bad is that knob and tube has nice big copper cables, which can be good because they are much thicker than wires used today, and usually enclosed in a wall with air all around them to let heat escape. So being under a foot of insulation means the heat can't escape and this is a fire safety issue. So that's bad. The other big issue is that the hot water heater's air outlet is not drafting properly. The house has two chimneys and the air is supposed to go up one of them, and it's not. This might be because the chimney is full of leaves and crap, or it might be that the chimney has collapsed internally. Who knows. Not our problem. It's a safety risk. So we asked on our request to remedy that they replace and ground the upstairs wiring, and that they fix the hot water heater so it's drafting properly and the basement doesn't fill up with carbon monoxide. That's bad. We're waiting to hear back from them probably tomorrow about what they're going to do.
We also went in early this morning and Boyfriend signed lock papers. We are locked in at 6.25% paying half a point of discount (probably covered under what the seller is paying) and given the way the markets look now, that's probably the best we'd be likely to get, even given what our mortgage person was up to. When we first met she had said 6.25% with no points, but this is acceptable given that we are putting so little down.
In completely unrelated news, I've also been spending money on clothes. This is kind of new for me, and I forgot how much I actually really enjoy having nice clothes and looking like an adult. At my last job I kind of fell into wearing the same pants every day with different solid colored t-shirts and long sleeved t-shirts, and I felt like I was starting to look my age. (this is not something you want when you are as young as I am in the professional world where people have to trust you are providing accurate, potentially life-altering decision-making information.) So I spent some time at the outlets on Tuesday and spent about $250 on clothes, and for this got six dresses, a couple tops, and some assorted other items. Went to a different store a couple days ago and spent $75 on four dresses. Kind of getting into dresses now, to some extent. But like the commercials say, feeling like a grown-up at your new job: priceless. I'm going to try to weed out some of my older, less attractive clothes and slowly turn over my wardrobe. At this point, if I can't wear it to work, there hardly seems a point in buying it since I already have plenty of t-shirts and shorts, and you can wear black pants any day. I do need to buy some black closed toed shoes that I can wear barefoot, since I a) hate pantyhose b) bought a bunch of knee length skirts and dresses and c) you can't wear open toed shoes in a hospital. So that might end up costing more than my outfit on any given day, but hey, no one said looking like a grown-up was cheap.
Monday, June 16, 2008
Employed once more!
Hooray, today I actually got not one but two jobs. Had to turn down one. But this is great news. I had signed up with Spherion (temp agency) a couple weeks ago and they were very excited to talk to me, being that I am a college graduate with computer skills, phone experience, and can speak easily without saying like or ain't. Yesterday they called me to come in and take a Word and Excel test and a drug test for a potential full-time temporary administrative-type position with the bakery branch of a local grocery store chain. So I went in and did that today. The secretary thought I was great and told me semi-confidentially that she pretty much figured I'd get the job because the woman who interviewed me had suggested me individually for this position (the secretary read me the email - the gist was, start with her and you won't need to check 4 other people.) So that was pretty exciting, having been without normal full-time employment for 3 months now, and at home for the last three weeks. After a number of phone calls, they confirmed that I had the position, and I was to start tomorrow morning 8AM sharp. This meant that I would miss the home inspection on the new house but they did not seem to be willing to negotiate starting time. So everything got lined up, and I even got the dog a doggy interview at doggy day care tonight so she could start tomorrow.
THEN I come back from the grocery store and there is an email from the head doc at the private clinic/research organization I interviewed with last Tuesday, who liked me bunches.
Hi Kira --
please give me a call
I'd like to talk with you about a job.
So I call, and Top Doc says, are you still looking for a position, and I say yep, and she says, we're still looking for someone to fill our open spot, and I say, what an amazing coincidence! and she laughs. She asked if I would like to start tomorrow and I asked if Wednesday would be OK so I could go to the home inspection, and she said that was fine. (This is also beneficial because I could totally see the staff getting notice that I'm coming about 5 minutes before I show up. They know that I'm coming in general, but probably not specifically when. So this will give them some time to, say, find an extra desk.) I was so excited I forgot to ask her how much they were going to pay me, but the office manager had asked what my salary expectations were and I said $40-45k so if they're within shouting distance of that, that's great.
These people are as sane as medical clinics get, and just seem like reasonable human beings. I am excited to get back into the thick of things. They have a matching 401k and a health savings account medical plan, so I can bet I'll be posting about that when I get that set up.
Off I go to take Maggie to her doggy daycare interview - there's several doggy daycares in the area, and this one is about five minutes from our house so she won't throw up in the car. (Motion sickness.) It's $75 a week to take her every day, but I'll probably only end up taking her two or three days a week.
This is also excellent timing in that both of my guinea pigs have been seriously ill in the last few weeks, and I'm literally just today not going to be squirting medications and food into either little mouth five times a day. So it's good that I was able to be home to give them more frequent care when they needed it, but also good that when I won't be able to, they won't need it.
Hooray for money! This is exciting!
THEN I come back from the grocery store and there is an email from the head doc at the private clinic/research organization I interviewed with last Tuesday, who liked me bunches.
Hi Kira --
please give me a call
I'd like to talk with you about a job.
So I call, and Top Doc says, are you still looking for a position, and I say yep, and she says, we're still looking for someone to fill our open spot, and I say, what an amazing coincidence! and she laughs. She asked if I would like to start tomorrow and I asked if Wednesday would be OK so I could go to the home inspection, and she said that was fine. (This is also beneficial because I could totally see the staff getting notice that I'm coming about 5 minutes before I show up. They know that I'm coming in general, but probably not specifically when. So this will give them some time to, say, find an extra desk.) I was so excited I forgot to ask her how much they were going to pay me, but the office manager had asked what my salary expectations were and I said $40-45k so if they're within shouting distance of that, that's great.
These people are as sane as medical clinics get, and just seem like reasonable human beings. I am excited to get back into the thick of things. They have a matching 401k and a health savings account medical plan, so I can bet I'll be posting about that when I get that set up.
Off I go to take Maggie to her doggy daycare interview - there's several doggy daycares in the area, and this one is about five minutes from our house so she won't throw up in the car. (Motion sickness.) It's $75 a week to take her every day, but I'll probably only end up taking her two or three days a week.
This is also excellent timing in that both of my guinea pigs have been seriously ill in the last few weeks, and I'm literally just today not going to be squirting medications and food into either little mouth five times a day. So it's good that I was able to be home to give them more frequent care when they needed it, but also good that when I won't be able to, they won't need it.
Hooray for money! This is exciting!
Friday, June 13, 2008
Not amused
So although Boyfriend's name will be on the title and mortgage of our new house, I'm pretty much handling everything. He doesn't really have the inclination to gain more knowledge about house hunting and everything that involves, so we've only seen houses I've picked out with the realtor I selected and gone to the mortgage person I contacted. Mortgage Lady seems to not be terribly on the ball though and it may have just cost us several hundred more dollars. Our offer on the house was accepted on Wednesday and our realtor sent her the contract. She called me about 2PM on Thursday to tell me that rates had gone up a little from when we saw her last Saturday (we are getting an FHA loan, and the rate at par then was 6.25%) and that we could choose to pay a half point to get it back to 6.25% or we could take 6.375% without the half point. I asked her to email me the Good Faith Estimates for both scenarios and I would discuss it with Boyfriend and get back to her. I said I would do that and call her in probably about an hour. Then I called Boyfriend and asked him to check my email in half an hour and look at the estimates. By 4:30 I still had no email so I called and left a message. She had apparently left for the day - had not bothered to call me when she didn't hear from me - and I didn't get the estimates until 8:15 this morning. I checked email at 9 after finishing force-feeding one of the guinea pigs who has some bowel issues (she of the multiple tumors) and got the estimates. Boyfriend and I gmail-chatted about them and decided to go for the 6.25% with paying the half point. This scenario wouldn't have cost us the full half point, because part of our offer is that the seller pays $3300 towards closing costs, and it was looking like the costs weren't going to be that much, so the extra would go towards paying for the half point.
So I email her back to say that we'd pay the half point, and she replies saying:
Hi Kira,
Well.......................please don't shoot the messenger. About 1/2 hour
after we talked yesterday, our rates were suspended because the market took
a bad turn for mortgage rates and are still suspended this morning. I will
have new rates around 11:00 then I'll call you as soon as I know we still
have that, ok? Keep your fingers crossed that Friday the 13th will be a
good day and I'll lock you in at a good rate.
Ok, now why exactly didn't she say that when she sent me the estimates at 8:15? When she ALREADY knew that these estimates were no longer valid because she had no idea if we could get the rates or not? (Note: she works for a quasi mortgage broker place, they use internal funds on some loans and then sell all of them off. So I assume she means their internal bank's rates, or something.) I looked on Bankrate and the national average is already up to 6.29%, which means we probably will be quoted 6.5% or worse.
Now if she'd sent the emails on time yesterday, we could have locked in already and not had this rigmarole.. she already had issues sending things to Boyfriend by email because she didn't listen when I spelled it for her and tried to send it to juno.com and not gmail.com. So I'm thinking maybe we need a new mortgage broker.. and it would have to be fast, because the closing is scheduled for July 8th. But also, at this point, the rates have already gone up, and I don't know if anyone else could get us a better rate anyway. Grr.
Oh, and for the wildly curious, our offer was full price minus $3300 in closing costs, for closing July 8th and the tenants moved out by July 15th. They accepted with only minor revisions (the realtor asked for home and gasline warranties to be purchased, but they already have them.) The house has students in it and is owned by one of the students' parents, so they are flexible on the whole tenants-rights issues, although we have always given 24 hour notice and are giving 30 days notice for them to move out, plus allowing a week after closing (in case it doesn't happen.)
Boyfriend is understandably pissed. I would not be surprised if he wants to vote with his feet and we go to someone else.
So I email her back to say that we'd pay the half point, and she replies saying:
Hi Kira,
Well.......................please don't shoot the messenger. About 1/2 hour
after we talked yesterday, our rates were suspended because the market took
a bad turn for mortgage rates and are still suspended this morning. I will
have new rates around 11:00 then I'll call you as soon as I know we still
have that, ok? Keep your fingers crossed that Friday the 13th will be a
good day and I'll lock you in at a good rate.
Ok, now why exactly didn't she say that when she sent me the estimates at 8:15? When she ALREADY knew that these estimates were no longer valid because she had no idea if we could get the rates or not? (Note: she works for a quasi mortgage broker place, they use internal funds on some loans and then sell all of them off. So I assume she means their internal bank's rates, or something.) I looked on Bankrate and the national average is already up to 6.29%, which means we probably will be quoted 6.5% or worse.
Now if she'd sent the emails on time yesterday, we could have locked in already and not had this rigmarole.. she already had issues sending things to Boyfriend by email because she didn't listen when I spelled it for her and tried to send it to juno.com and not gmail.com. So I'm thinking maybe we need a new mortgage broker.. and it would have to be fast, because the closing is scheduled for July 8th. But also, at this point, the rates have already gone up, and I don't know if anyone else could get us a better rate anyway. Grr.
Oh, and for the wildly curious, our offer was full price minus $3300 in closing costs, for closing July 8th and the tenants moved out by July 15th. They accepted with only minor revisions (the realtor asked for home and gasline warranties to be purchased, but they already have them.) The house has students in it and is owned by one of the students' parents, so they are flexible on the whole tenants-rights issues, although we have always given 24 hour notice and are giving 30 days notice for them to move out, plus allowing a week after closing (in case it doesn't happen.)
Boyfriend is understandably pissed. I would not be surprised if he wants to vote with his feet and we go to someone else.
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Long time no see! An update
Here's an update on my life, for the curious. I decided I missed the pfblog community so I'm going to try to keep up on Penny Foolish.
Job: Between jobs currently. Left my previous job in March as it was not much fun anymore and I was not happy. Boyfriend is no longer a student and has a FT job. So it works out financially (at least someone is paying the rent, that much I am sure of.) On the upside, this means I have had some time to work on a new business, which is still far from complete - mostly because it costs a pretty penny to get custom PHP programming done, and I don't want to spend much until I get another job. (Funnily, if Boyfriend hadn't gotten a full time job, he might have done it on the cheap.) However, since I left, I was able to roll over my 403b into an IRA, so I may convert some of that to Roth if my taxes are going to be quite low this year, so that's sadly convenient. I am anxiously waiting to hear right now, actually, whether I got a job at a place I interviewed on Tuesday, which I really really liked and they seem quite sane. I happened to have interviewed there a year and a half ago, and they did not hire me because I didn't have experience in their specific medical field. Lo and behold, that field is where I got my next job, so I'm well qualified. It's mostly a matter of me (Ms Personality) vs someone else (Ms Way More Years of Experience) but it's definitely making it a tough choice for them so I feel good about that. Also, when I did the initial phone interview and mentioned that I'd interviewed there before, the head doc commented, "We should have just hired you then!" So fingers crossed on that one.
Life: Spending a lot of time with the dog, Maggie (acquired in January 2008) and the guinea pigs (both of which have now cost me an additional $1k or so since they both got uterine cancer and one of them appears to have an abdominal mass. Fun times.) The cat is perfectly healthy as always and is enjoying his new five-foot-tall cat tree which I got for a steal at a neighborhood-wide yard sale. ($25, and you know it's a good deal when 3 other people try to buy it in the 15 minutes while you are going to fetch your car.) Still working on CashDuck, and have recently opened CashDuck Global for the UK, Canada, and Australia. Working piecemeal on the new business. I had a temp job for a while grading the Ohio Graduation Test short answer essays, and as every generation has thought about the next, we are in trouble if this is the future of our country. :) I am cooking up a few other business ideas as well. I had planned on trying to get into business school to get an MBA, but basically if I don't work for the university, it'll cost buckets. So at this point, I figure I don't need an MBA to be a mogul, Andrew Carnegie didn't have one! Perhaps if it takes off and I need help, I will recruit from among my loyal readers like I did for CashDuck. :)
Home: Still living in a rental, although Boyfriend has put in and had accepted an offer on a real house, that we will hopefully move into by the end of July. Due to the inconveniently timed job loss, this was just the way it worked out best. We were also a little nervous (although willing) about being on the mortgage and title together if we weren't married - very messy if we parted ways. I am excited about finally owning something though, because now we can actually fix things when they go wrong, instead of having our landlord's maintenance men half-fix it and then cause a housefly infestation. (In the bathroom.) The house is quite reasonably priced and is right on the border of where the taxes double, so we get a nice neighborhood with low taxes. Although we might have been able to qualify for more, especially if I were working or did stated-income with the CashDuck income, I feel a lot more comfortable with a mortgage/taxes/insurance payment that is about or a little less than our current rent payment. Plus, there are several remodeling projects that we are planning that should significantly raise the value of the home, and its value as a rental if we choose to go that way in the future. Boyfriend also seems to have caught the homeowning bug and is anxiously awaiting being able to finish the basement and put his office in it.
Finances: And now the part you've all been waiting for. Since my quitting coincided nicely with Boyfriend's full time job, we haven't had too much trouble in the cash flow department. Unfortunately I got into some debt from when Boyfriend was unemployed for three months (he didn't make a lot, but it did help) and mostly from taxes (self-employment income is a crap ton of money, and I have essentially paid for the economic stimulus checks of Everyone I Know.) But my retirement kitty has been untouched since we had some savings and I chose to do some balance transfers rather than dip into it. I will need to take out a little, since I am providing the downpayment for the house, but that's 3% of a not very expensive house so it won't be too much. But since I am not on the mortgage, it doesn't much matter how much debt I am in, and while I'm in more than I'd like, it's all on balance transfers at 4-5% interest, or on the 0% for 1 year card I got before quitting, so I'm not overly concerned about how much interest I'm accumulating. Cross fingers that I get this new job - with both of us having full time jobs, that would literally be like rolling in money. Does it mean I'm still a finance blogger at heart if the first thing I think of is, we could save so much money!!
Job: Between jobs currently. Left my previous job in March as it was not much fun anymore and I was not happy. Boyfriend is no longer a student and has a FT job. So it works out financially (at least someone is paying the rent, that much I am sure of.) On the upside, this means I have had some time to work on a new business, which is still far from complete - mostly because it costs a pretty penny to get custom PHP programming done, and I don't want to spend much until I get another job. (Funnily, if Boyfriend hadn't gotten a full time job, he might have done it on the cheap.) However, since I left, I was able to roll over my 403b into an IRA, so I may convert some of that to Roth if my taxes are going to be quite low this year, so that's sadly convenient. I am anxiously waiting to hear right now, actually, whether I got a job at a place I interviewed on Tuesday, which I really really liked and they seem quite sane. I happened to have interviewed there a year and a half ago, and they did not hire me because I didn't have experience in their specific medical field. Lo and behold, that field is where I got my next job, so I'm well qualified. It's mostly a matter of me (Ms Personality) vs someone else (Ms Way More Years of Experience) but it's definitely making it a tough choice for them so I feel good about that. Also, when I did the initial phone interview and mentioned that I'd interviewed there before, the head doc commented, "We should have just hired you then!" So fingers crossed on that one.
Life: Spending a lot of time with the dog, Maggie (acquired in January 2008) and the guinea pigs (both of which have now cost me an additional $1k or so since they both got uterine cancer and one of them appears to have an abdominal mass. Fun times.) The cat is perfectly healthy as always and is enjoying his new five-foot-tall cat tree which I got for a steal at a neighborhood-wide yard sale. ($25, and you know it's a good deal when 3 other people try to buy it in the 15 minutes while you are going to fetch your car.) Still working on CashDuck, and have recently opened CashDuck Global for the UK, Canada, and Australia. Working piecemeal on the new business. I had a temp job for a while grading the Ohio Graduation Test short answer essays, and as every generation has thought about the next, we are in trouble if this is the future of our country. :) I am cooking up a few other business ideas as well. I had planned on trying to get into business school to get an MBA, but basically if I don't work for the university, it'll cost buckets. So at this point, I figure I don't need an MBA to be a mogul, Andrew Carnegie didn't have one! Perhaps if it takes off and I need help, I will recruit from among my loyal readers like I did for CashDuck. :)
Home: Still living in a rental, although Boyfriend has put in and had accepted an offer on a real house, that we will hopefully move into by the end of July. Due to the inconveniently timed job loss, this was just the way it worked out best. We were also a little nervous (although willing) about being on the mortgage and title together if we weren't married - very messy if we parted ways. I am excited about finally owning something though, because now we can actually fix things when they go wrong, instead of having our landlord's maintenance men half-fix it and then cause a housefly infestation. (In the bathroom.) The house is quite reasonably priced and is right on the border of where the taxes double, so we get a nice neighborhood with low taxes. Although we might have been able to qualify for more, especially if I were working or did stated-income with the CashDuck income, I feel a lot more comfortable with a mortgage/taxes/insurance payment that is about or a little less than our current rent payment. Plus, there are several remodeling projects that we are planning that should significantly raise the value of the home, and its value as a rental if we choose to go that way in the future. Boyfriend also seems to have caught the homeowning bug and is anxiously awaiting being able to finish the basement and put his office in it.
Finances: And now the part you've all been waiting for. Since my quitting coincided nicely with Boyfriend's full time job, we haven't had too much trouble in the cash flow department. Unfortunately I got into some debt from when Boyfriend was unemployed for three months (he didn't make a lot, but it did help) and mostly from taxes (self-employment income is a crap ton of money, and I have essentially paid for the economic stimulus checks of Everyone I Know.) But my retirement kitty has been untouched since we had some savings and I chose to do some balance transfers rather than dip into it. I will need to take out a little, since I am providing the downpayment for the house, but that's 3% of a not very expensive house so it won't be too much. But since I am not on the mortgage, it doesn't much matter how much debt I am in, and while I'm in more than I'd like, it's all on balance transfers at 4-5% interest, or on the 0% for 1 year card I got before quitting, so I'm not overly concerned about how much interest I'm accumulating. Cross fingers that I get this new job - with both of us having full time jobs, that would literally be like rolling in money. Does it mean I'm still a finance blogger at heart if the first thing I think of is, we could save so much money!!
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