financial zen

I’m finding myself stumble across a rather broad array of articles talking about “getting that raise you deserve” or “asking for what you deserve.”

Maybe it’s time people should turn that greedy green eye inward and think - what can I do to deserve that raise?

Simply put - keep yourself focused on your client, and make sure the company benefits from you. If you maintain these two, simple rules, you can both have a higher outlook in your job (especially with the economic downturn) but when times are good - have a better bargaining chip for a raise!

Its been a long time coming, and after the birth of my son, a change of employment, and still married and in school full-time!

So of course certain areas suffer - my writing was side-lined, my goals got side-lined, and my sleep is side-lined.

In terms of goals - in my transfer of employment, I upped my income, my wife took on a part-time job - every little bit helps! This has lead to a reassessment of our payment schedule, and our income. Since I changed jobs, I haven’t set up my new 401k yet - but I’ve sent the emails to get the details so I won’t be losing the company match for much longer! But it’s cause me to change our spending habits, as they were starting to get out of control - large purchases, a lot of “nice to haves” and not “needed to have” items.

So that’s lead me to utilizing the local craigslist to sell a few items I no longer need - an old TV, old game systems - but we’re having trouble coming up with other items we can actually sell! We tend to give away items instead of selling to local charities (church, goodwill, et al.) so when it comes to “selling” it seems we only think of the items like electronics and entertainment!

Put the quest for financial zen hasn’t been ended, it’s still an adventure.