On Monday, I speculated that oil prices may be subject to a bubble rather than real fundamentals. Sure enough, oil prices has fallen back to $126/barrel from its high of $134/barrel based partially on the belief that the prices are not warranted based on supplies and retail demand. I will continue to blog on oil prices as it is becoming the personal finance issue this year.
Without further ado, our regular guest columnist, Mom2KG, is back to update you on how her family is doing in meeting their personal finance goals.
Thank you to all who posted with suggestions on my budget and angst last month. There was a general consensus that there should be fun money, or a slush fund, the spending of which is free of guilt and restrictions. Setting this aside in the budget is a great idea. I was also relieved to hear about food costs being out of control for everyone. (It’s not just me!) There was also a post about averaging the fun money spending over a few months, rather than focussing on the pennies month to month. Thanks again.
Tax time – that was a good experience for me. I work on contract. My husband nagged me all through 2007 to put away money not just for GST remittances but my own taxes and deductions. My accountant did some fancy work in getting my taxable income down, and it turned out we had calculated the tax pretty well – in fact I had money left over. However, my husband was hit with a much bigger tax bill than we thought (something about allocating a bonus for 2008 but it still being taxed in 2007). So his nagging paid off, just not where we thought it would.
In other news, I also negotiated a raise for the first time ever. (I actually have two jobs, the contract one and a part-time permanent one. The raise was for the PT one.) I had not gotten a raise in four years (the company is cash-strapped, blah blah) so it was time. I got a whole speech ready, got my negotiating hat on….and got exactly what I wanted! I felt pretty good about that. I was a bit confused though – I gave my boss an opening number, and he asked “What’s your real number?” I thought he meant my bottom line, which I told him (and got). He said I should have given him a higher number as my “real number” than the opening gambit. Anyone know what he was talking about?
I’m also thinking about taking a new job. It would involve a significant raise. But there are downsides – I have a pretty good situation now where I can spend time at home if needed (e.g. a sick child), and my Fridays are a half-day of work at most. This is pretty sweet! The new job would still have predictable, reasonable hours, but would mean more work and less time at home, and certainly less flexibility. But then again, more money means hitting our financial goals sooner (which are a big priority, and will translate into more freedom). So let me pose a question – does everyone really have a price? How important is making more money, especially when we’re already reaching some lofty goals?
