I'm sitting here pretending to work

I've been away from work for 2 weeks. Unfortunately, it was because of a death in the family and not for anything fun. Today is my first day back at work and I haven't done any work all day. For the next day and a half, I'll just be here getting used to being back at work, answering coworkers questions about why I was off, and taking care of personal stuff that needs to get done.

Maybe by Wednesday I'll be ready to start actually working and stop wasting time. If not, then I'm totally fine with waiting until Thursday. With deadlines looming early next week, I can't afford to wait much longer than that.

Gold just keeps rising

The value and price of gold just keeps rising. Even though the pundits keep saying that gold is a bubble and that you can't rely on it to increase, the value is up a hundred fold in the past couple of years. It's a crazy good time to buy gold coins for investment purposes. US Gold Bureau will send the coins to you or they can arrange to have your coins held in a private storage facility. If you're going to just buy a coin or two, you can probably keep them at home. But if you're buying a lot of coins, it's probably best to have someone else keep them safe for you.

Since it's Christmas, you can even ask for gold for your present. Or you can ask for cash or gift cards to buy gold for yourself. Either way, it's a great item to invest in.

I am not going to meet my savings goals

I set savings goals for the next 2 years that I probably won't make. I'm almost on schedule to meet my goals but my salary is not increasing as fast as my expenses. It's ridiculous too. My car insurance has increased again, my bus pass for work is going up next year, and my rent will increase. When you add everything together, it's almost the amount of what my raise will be.

I need to find a new job and fast.

I want to upgrade my cell phone

I love having my cell phone and I want to upgrade both my phones and my plans. I don't mind paying for the phone because with a contract, my phone will be pretty cheap. The plan is another matter though. I don't want to add $25 to what I pay now which is what it would cost me to upgrade.

I'm going to try to cut my expenses starting in late October to see if I can eek the money out of my regular budget. If so upgrade here I come.

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I miss getting tuition reimbursement

I never realized how much money I was getting from tuition reimbursement until I'm not getting it anymore. I have 3 coworkers who are in school right now and I get jealous every payday that one of them gets their reimbursement and have these huge checks. I know the money is for school so you don't actually get to spend it but I still miss it.

I know it's just psychological and I have to put money out to get money back but it stinks.

Where did all of my money go?

I don't know what I've done with my money this year. My savings account is in shambles but I can't figure out what I did with all of my money. I was supposed to have been on a savings plan but I don't have what I'm supposed to have in my account. I have no idea where this money is going either.

I really need to plug up the leaks in my account and fast.

I can not wait to get paid

I get paid every two weeks but it seems like I haven't been paid in forever. This is a 3 paycheck month so the weeks seem extra long even though I know it's the same amount of time between pay days.

I have a lot of plans for my next couple of pays which is one of the reasons I'm so anxious to get my hands on the money. I want to pre-pay one of my bills because I like to have a little bit of breathing room. I'm also looking into adding some bullion or a coin or two to my investment portfolio. I feel like gold is a great investment right now. Especially since it's on a recent tear. The best part is I don't have to buy any kind of fund to invest. I can get a real piece of gold in my hands.

When you consider that diversification is the key to any well rounded portfolio, I'll never doubt my decision to add gold to my personal holdings.

I am so bored

But I'm not ready to go back to work. I've been on vacation all week but because I don't have any money, I wasn't able to go anywhere. I started to go and visit my mom for a few days but I decided not to go at the last minute. That's why I'm already looking towards next years vacation.

I will not sit home for another week doing nothing.

I'm looking for a 2nd job

I have 3 credit cards with a balance. One is a little over $2K. The other 2 are less significantly less. One is about $250 and the other is about $450. I want both of those cards paid off by the end of next year. Taking interest into account, I need to pay an extra $15 on both cards. That's not considering the payments that I have to make on my largest card.

I'm not sure where I'm going to get the extra money so a second job may be in my future. I'm not looking forward to getting another job but it may be a necessity. I'll wait until October to make a final decision though.

I need to make more money

I have plans for it. Most of it will go into my different savings accounts. I have a emergency fund account, a new furniture fund and my house savings account. I'll definitely have enough in my house account in 2 years but it will slightly longer to get my other accounts where I want them to be without making more money.

I also want to make some investments. Of course, my own home is a great investment but it is a place to live and not a atm after all. I also want to buy some bullion to add to my portfolio. I already have a coin and I'm looking to add more. I also want a ingot or two to diversify my holdings. They'll also help increase my purchasing power and maintain wealth.

Besides, it never hurts to make more money.

At least I have opportunites

That's what my coworkers and friends keep telling me. One of my friends doesn't feel like there are any opportunities at the company that he works at. He's pretty much stuck in the job that he has. The only way he'll get another job is to go to another company in the same field but he won't get any more money. He can also go to a totally different field than the one he's in now but he'll likely take a pay cut at first.

That would totally drive me nuts. The last time I felt trapped, I bailed on the company and started the job that I have now. While I wish I would have done things differently, I do not regret leaving at all.

So where are all of these jobs?

Every time I hear someone from my company talk about the economy and/or recovery the first thing that they say is that our company is hiring. Meanwhile the job postings are pretty slim pickings unless you're looking for a upper management job or a very low entry level position. There is almost nothing in between available right now.

It's extremely frustrating to say the least. I'm really ready to move on but I can't find anywhere to move to. At least not yet.

I just bought my first piece of gold

Not gold set in jewelry but a real piece of gold. I bought a gold coin and I'm thrilled with both my decision to buy it and my actual purchase of the piece. After I did a ton of research into buying a gold bar I decided that a coin would be my best option. I could have gotten a ingot or a piece of bullion but coins are small and portable. I could have had United States Gold Bureau hold the gold or set me up with a intermediary bank that would have held the gold physically, but since I bought in such a small quantity, I'm holding it myself.

Actually I'm on my way to the bank to put it in my safe deposit box. Hopefully this will just be the first purchase of many more to come.

I haven't found a second job yet

I'm only looking for something extremely part-time so it's pretty hard to find anything. When I say part-time, I mean one day per week or so. I would prefer to only work on Saturday or maybe 2 days per week for about 4-5 hours each day. In total I would only work 8-10 hours per week which is enough.

Unfortunately there's nothing that limited out there right now. With so many people out of work they're gobbling up anything that's out there so I may or may not find something.

I may be getting a second job

But only for a few weeks though. I want to buy a house in a little over 2 years and I have my money pretty much planned out. I didn't take credit card payments into consideration though so I need those payed off before I make the big move. I would only need to make a few hundred dollars in order for me to stick to my budget.

Hopefully I'll find something soon that I like. I don't want to start until September but I don't want to work past the middle of December. That should be enough time. I sure hope so because I don't plan on doing this for very long.

I should be ok with a small gold investment

I was watching a tv program the other day and one of the callers wanted to make a huge investment in gold. I'm not really sure I would be comfortable with putting more than 10-15% of my money in gold. I've been looking at gold coins from the US Gold Bureau for my portfolio. I can buy a small denomination coin starting at less than $200 or I can go up to a full ounce of gold at over $1200.

Coins actually have a currency value or I can keep than as ingots. Since gold is one way of preserving my wealth and purchasing power, I don't feel like I can go wrong. Now I just need to look through my finances and decide how large of a investment I want to make.

What have I been doing with my money?

I have no idea. My savings are anemic and pathetic to tell the truth. The cupboards are literally bare and it makes no sense. I didn't have a lot of money this year but I did have enough that I should have something to show for it.

I'm not very comfortable having the amount of money in savings that I have. I'm used to having much more. I like having some "just in case" money. If I need it or just get fed up and want to go to Vegas like I did a few years ago, it helps knowing the money is there. Right now I don't think I have enough money to go across the street let alone across the country.

I have to really sit down, come up with a budget and stick to it.

My bank stinks!

Ughhhhh I hate them, hate them, hate them. They super suck. They're trying to stick me with 5 yes 5 overdraft fees. Now 1 is totally my fault and I won't even challenge that one. It's the first 4 that I have a problem with. They're trying to say that they cleared some payments on Friday (they don't even process Friday or Saturday night) and I deposited money on Saturday. I should have been ok but they're trying to pull a fast one.

The last fee is because of the first 4 which caused my account to go negative on Monday. I was so ticked off that I didn't go deposit any money until Tuesday and they hit me with another fee. Now that one I'll accept because I knew I should have gone to the bank on Monday but I wasn't thinking.

I can't wait until my new direct deposit goes through so I can totally close this account.

I'm moving my savings

I've been having big time problems with my main bank lately. They've not been properly crediting my deposits and then playing around with my withdrawals. Considering they pay a pittance for interest rates, I can easily move my money and get a better return elsewhere. That's why I'm going to buy gold coins to hold my savings. Gold has been on a tear lately and that value just seems to keep rising.

I can buy coins and hold them myself since I'll just be getting a small quantity. However, when I buy through the US Gold Bureau they can also arrange to have them safely and conveniently stored at a independent bank or depository. By keeping the coins in my possession, when gold increases by 10-20% or higher, I can cash them out and make a great profit.

Which will be much more than the anemic interest rates everyone is paying.

I did not get the job - again

Which is the bad news. The good news is that my coworker is being considered for a new position that they may have available. That's good news for 2 reasons. 1 - someone is finally getting out so I have hope. 2 - That's one less person that I have to compete with.

In all honesty, my coworker is very capable and qualified so this shouldn't be a surprise. I'll be thrilled if she gets another job. I will be glad when it's finally my turn though.

I'm switching banks again

You would think I have a ton of money the way I keep switching banks every year. But I haven't had a bank that was willing to value me as a customer no matter how much money I have (or don't have as in my case). I do belong to a credit union but they don't offer their own credit cards which is something I want to get in the future. So I'm looking at some of the big national banks and they all rub me the wrong way.

I would prefer to have most of my money at 1 or 2 institutions but it's not working out that way.

I know just what to buy with my new job money

If I get the job that is. I still haven't heard and I don't know if that's a good thing or not. All I can do is sit and wait until they make a decision. But once I do get some extra money I'm going to buy gold bullion to round my portfolio out. There's a organization called the United States Gold Bureau that makes it really easy to buy gold in both coin and ingot form. That way I can keep gold myself at home or in my safe deposit box. However if I buy a large amount of gold, they can arrange for my gold to be held at a independent bank or depository.

Now I just have to wait until I get a new job and some extra money.

I need to set up some mock interviews

I've interviewed quite a few times but I haven't got the jobs. I'm waiting to hear about 1 exciting opportunity this time. It's a natural progression from some of the jobs that I've had in the past. I don't know how I did on the interview though. I thought it went well but I always think that.

Now one of my friends is on a quest to help me with my interview skills. I think that will really help.

I'm still waiting to hear about a job

This is getting ridiculous. It seems like every other week I'm interviewing for another job. My coworkers said that I'm lucky because at least that means that the hiring manager thinks I'm a viable candidate. It's starting to get really old though. Especially since I don't know why I'm not getting the job.

I just wish there was a way I could get some feedback.

I'm looking for a second job

I really need some extra cash right now. My utility bills are slowly creeping upward while my paycheck is staying the same. I'm almost to the point where I spending the money that supposed to go into savings which is not a good thing.

There are several jobs that I would like to do that I think I would be good at. I just got my hair cut and that made me think about going to Cosmetology school in Colorado or at least a school here locally. Regency has over 30 campuses in 9 states which is great considering they started with only 2 locations in Minnesota back in 1992. The people that graduate from their program are sought after and they have a placement program which would work for me.

I'm sure there are a ton of local salons that would be happy to have a person dedicated to working every Saturday. It's something for me to seriously consider.

Competing for jobs really stinks

Not when it's against strangers though. I'm talking about when you're competing against coworkers and/or friends like I'm doing right now. There are 3 people from my area and 1 person from down the hall that all had interviews for 1 job. The question though is how do they decide between the 4 of us? We all have similar skills and similar backgrounds. Although I know that I have a skill set that 2 of them don't have and I know the other candidate is really strong in a area where the 3 of us lack.

I haven't even considered that they still have more people to interview. The next few weeks should be very interesting to say the least.

I totally wasted my income tax refund

Ughhh I am so disgusted with myself too. I know I had things that I needed to do with that money and things that I could have done. I wanted to go on a short vacation this year but I don't have anyone to go with. My friend that I usually travel with wants to go back to a place that we've been at least 5 times. I am so not interested in going there again. Especially since there are so many other places to go.

Hopefully I'll get my hands on some money that I can eventually put to good use instead of having a handful of nothing to show for it.

I need to put my tax refund to good use

I got a much larger refund than I anticipated. I had some tuition tax credits that I forgot about so I got over $1100 when I thought I would only get around $300. Huge difference that I can really use. I really want to put the money to good use. The value of the dollar is decreasing and the interest rates on cds and money investments is lower than the cost of inflation. Right now I want to buy gold bullion to add to my portfolio. I think gold is really cheap right now and it will make a great investment.

Gold is at a two week high right now while the value of the dollar decreases. Most people ignore gold and precious metals for their portfolio and only think of it as jewelry. I'm going to buck the trend and add some of the shiny stuff to my portfolio and watch it grow.

My sweepstaking hasn't been paying off

I love to sweepstake but I hate when I don't win. I don't expect to win most of the sweepstakes that I enter but I do like to win some. The only problem is that I haven't won anything in over 2 months. I didn't win anything at all in January and I've only won 1 prize in February. That win hasn't been confirmed yet either.

I would like to say that I'm patiently waiting to win but I'm not a patient person. Still I try. Here's hoping I win something soon.

Sweepstaking can pay off

But boy do you have to keep at it. I haven't been sweepstaking for a while though. I took almost a 4 year break between entering. I would enter here and there if it was something that I really wanted but I wasn't too gung-ho about it. Well in the past 4 or 5 months I've become really enthusiastic about it again. Especially once I started winning little prizes here and there.

As long as I'm having fun I'll stick with it. But once it becomes a chore again, I'll stop for a while. A hobby is not supposed to feel like work. Once it does, it's time for a new hobby.

I'm saving my pennies for vacation

I wasn't sure whether I could afford a vacation this year or not. Then my friend told me that her and her fiance were having one of those destination weddings and I just knew I had to go. Since it's only adults going, we're looking at the El Dorado Royale Spa Resort. It has everything that we need.

The suites at the hotel has king-size Jacuzzis and veranda hammocks. As if that's not enough for relaxation, they also offer a artificial river and a swim up bar. For us non-romantics they have scuba lessons and beach side fitness classes. Everything you need to have a good time.

I think I'll start packing my lunch to save money. This is one trip I'm not gonna miss.

I'm playing the waiting game again

I applied for another job. It's almost the exact same job that I interviewed for a couple of months ago but it's with a different group and a different manager. I've already pre-screened for the job and now I'm waiting to have a formal interview. One of my coworkers already had her interview for the job and was told that they have a ton of people that want the job. It really is a good career move so it's a pretty popular job.

I just hope I have better luck this time than I did the last time.

I really need a new computer

My computer is really getting on my nerves. It took me almost 25 minutes to post 1 item on eBay. That doesn't count the fact that I had to shut the computer down twice before I got the item posted. And I had to start over each time. I don't have the money to buy another computer so it's hard to deal with this one.

I'm supposed to have some extra money in April but I hope I don't have to wait that long.