All RIGHT. GEEEESH!
My bonus this year was $30,000. After taxes, it was $17,000. I received it at the same time that I received my unexpected, adjusted-in-my-favor-by-the-feds tax return of $2,300. For about 3 days, I had $20,000 in my checking account. This was just one month ago. As of today, after all checks clear, my account will have $4.16.
Gross financial mismanagement? Well, it's not perfect, but that's not it. After paying off a credit card that got a little out of hand thanks to Kevin not pulling a paycheck for over a year, we had $10,000. Then we started buying shit for the business. Well, I bought $3,000 worth of furniture (for home and office), and I must say I got an ark-load of furniture for that price. EVERYTHING used, antique, or bargained way down. I also paid ahead one month on the house, and paid ahead a few months on Kevin's truck. We kept buying things and I kept paying off the credit card on about a weekly basis. We bought a pallet jack (to remove heavily-laden pallets from trucks), pizza, and new brakes. We bought $1,000 worth of carpet for a house we're selling. I bought a Radio Flyer wagon full of toys at a silent auction for the school's playground equipment that Stevie will never climb upon. We bought shingles (another $1000--why does everything cost $1000?!), groceries, and a month's worth of karate lessons. We wrote checks for doctor visit co-pays, school lunches, and water bills for a building in MO that we aren't really using yet.
And it's all gone.
And then we bought a plotter (cuts the stencil for the monuments--$7000), design software that goes with the plotter ($2200. Yes, you read that right), and paid for getting the plotter shipped from Atlanta to MO ($112.00--surprisingly affordable!). All on our credit cards. So our zero balance is shot all to hell.
The house we're moving into is free. We lived there before, from 2000-2002. It's the converted carriage house across the driveway from my in-laws' house. Especially now that it's been remodeled, it's a very pleasant little place. However, I sense issues. I wanted to buy one of the MANY cheap little houses for sale in the town and fix it up--low monthly payment, our own space, and our money going to our property. But how can you say no to free? I suppose we coulda, but that's the help that was offered and we took it. We have our land, but we're years away from a house.
Let's see...what else can I amaze you with? Since I'm leaving this job, I should tell you that last year, when we blew our goal away, my bonus was 100% of my salary--$57,000. (That's all gone, too.) We didn't even make our number this year and my bonus was almost as much as I made as an editor ($34,000). My position should be posted now. If you want to make money, apply for it. I'm only telling you this to make you aware of things that you might want to know but no one ever tells you. We call it rude or crass to talk about money, but if you don't know how much the people beside you are making, how can you negotiate for a fair salary? I'm positive that all this "telling people what you make only leads to hard feelings" is corporate propaganda meant to protect the people who try to keep your salary as low as possible. Fuck em. Rise up and get a raise.
At my new job, I have no idea how much money we'll make. I don't even know how to set up our salaries. I don't know when we'll get our paychecks, or how to do that (I bought software, though, and it's my job to figure it out). We need to speak with an accountant pronto. We've collected checks for about $2,300--gross income. It will be a long time before we can hang our "First Dollar of Profit" on the wall. But here's the good news:
1. We haven't had to take out a bank loan. Yet. We might not have to. Credit cards aren't the best way to finance things fo sho, but the interest rates are really low and it's easy. Kevin's cousin has put up the majority of the money and only asks to be paid back in time, and live in the apt. in the shop. This may sound all scary loosey-goosey, but it's not like that.
2. Any and all stress (outside of that pertaining to moving back into the carriage house) is the stress that comes from DOING something; from moving forward. It's not like nickel-and-dimed, abject poverty stress. I really don't have anything to bitch about. Although that has never stopped me.
3. WE get to decide when we'll get our paychecks. The public willing, of course.
So that's it. A post written only to silence my critics. These things were, I guess, at the top of my mind. Go now, and prosper.
Gross financial mismanagement? Well, it's not perfect, but that's not it. After paying off a credit card that got a little out of hand thanks to Kevin not pulling a paycheck for over a year, we had $10,000. Then we started buying shit for the business. Well, I bought $3,000 worth of furniture (for home and office), and I must say I got an ark-load of furniture for that price. EVERYTHING used, antique, or bargained way down. I also paid ahead one month on the house, and paid ahead a few months on Kevin's truck. We kept buying things and I kept paying off the credit card on about a weekly basis. We bought a pallet jack (to remove heavily-laden pallets from trucks), pizza, and new brakes. We bought $1,000 worth of carpet for a house we're selling. I bought a Radio Flyer wagon full of toys at a silent auction for the school's playground equipment that Stevie will never climb upon. We bought shingles (another $1000--why does everything cost $1000?!), groceries, and a month's worth of karate lessons. We wrote checks for doctor visit co-pays, school lunches, and water bills for a building in MO that we aren't really using yet.
And it's all gone.
And then we bought a plotter (cuts the stencil for the monuments--$7000), design software that goes with the plotter ($2200. Yes, you read that right), and paid for getting the plotter shipped from Atlanta to MO ($112.00--surprisingly affordable!). All on our credit cards. So our zero balance is shot all to hell.
The house we're moving into is free. We lived there before, from 2000-2002. It's the converted carriage house across the driveway from my in-laws' house. Especially now that it's been remodeled, it's a very pleasant little place. However, I sense issues. I wanted to buy one of the MANY cheap little houses for sale in the town and fix it up--low monthly payment, our own space, and our money going to our property. But how can you say no to free? I suppose we coulda, but that's the help that was offered and we took it. We have our land, but we're years away from a house.
Let's see...what else can I amaze you with? Since I'm leaving this job, I should tell you that last year, when we blew our goal away, my bonus was 100% of my salary--$57,000. (That's all gone, too.) We didn't even make our number this year and my bonus was almost as much as I made as an editor ($34,000). My position should be posted now. If you want to make money, apply for it. I'm only telling you this to make you aware of things that you might want to know but no one ever tells you. We call it rude or crass to talk about money, but if you don't know how much the people beside you are making, how can you negotiate for a fair salary? I'm positive that all this "telling people what you make only leads to hard feelings" is corporate propaganda meant to protect the people who try to keep your salary as low as possible. Fuck em. Rise up and get a raise.
At my new job, I have no idea how much money we'll make. I don't even know how to set up our salaries. I don't know when we'll get our paychecks, or how to do that (I bought software, though, and it's my job to figure it out). We need to speak with an accountant pronto. We've collected checks for about $2,300--gross income. It will be a long time before we can hang our "First Dollar of Profit" on the wall. But here's the good news:
1. We haven't had to take out a bank loan. Yet. We might not have to. Credit cards aren't the best way to finance things fo sho, but the interest rates are really low and it's easy. Kevin's cousin has put up the majority of the money and only asks to be paid back in time, and live in the apt. in the shop. This may sound all scary loosey-goosey, but it's not like that.
2. Any and all stress (outside of that pertaining to moving back into the carriage house) is the stress that comes from DOING something; from moving forward. It's not like nickel-and-dimed, abject poverty stress. I really don't have anything to bitch about. Although that has never stopped me.
3. WE get to decide when we'll get our paychecks. The public willing, of course.
So that's it. A post written only to silence my critics. These things were, I guess, at the top of my mind. Go now, and prosper.
posted by lulu | 6:16 AM
2 Comments:
Critically speaking, this is a motherlode of better-than-fiction Real Life Drama. I mean where else would I learn so much about pallet jacks, plotters, paychecks, profits, pizza, and propaganda? I look forward to many more episodes of this great story.
you're awesome, Lulu. i totally agree with you re money issues. it makes absolutely no sense for people not to share this kind of information.
years ago, i wrote a detailed narrative of my experience negotiating for a raise at the Corporation--complete with all facts, figures, confrontations, drama, and threats--and circulated it among a few people. it was met with silence and i considered most of my peers ingrates, but i know it was the right thing to do.
thanks for sharing.
and thanks for the balance sheet. it's fun starting a business, even if it means spending loads of money without any nearby return. it's nice investing in yourself, for a change. or at least investing in an experiment. that's fun, too.
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