Dimples' Divine Domain
My journey to financial empowerment.

I received my offer this afternoon . :-D I tentatively accepted the position because I wanted to fully understand what exactly was on the table. I was able to get off work an hour early and headed to the HR office. I only had to renegotiate a couple of items. Once I was satisfied with everything I accepted the position. My new position is higher than what I applied for and I also received a 3% pay increase. I signed my offer letter, took my benefits package, and left that office one happy lady. My new salary, which will be a little over $75,000 per year, opens new doors and opportunites and offers a shorter and better paved route to those goals I have set for myself. Here is a list of some of those new/revised goals: - I will be going for my MBA come this spring. - I will be credit card debt free before the year is over. - I will be a home-owner within the next year. - I will have my personal loan paid off before the end of 2009. My detailed plans on achieving each and every goal is to...

Yesterday was my first day at the new job. First three hours were spent at HR going through a benefits presentations and creating my employee file. Benefits Summary: Great medical, dental, and vision plan. Only $120 a month for me and my daughter. Even though I have been used to paying zilch on the medical coverage front, the $120/month is a lot better than I thought. Hit the nail on the head here or way off? The company is only offering 2% towards my 401K and there is no additional match. I think I am going to elect to have 0% of my salary applied to my 401K. There is 2.5 months left on the contract which equates to about 5 paychecks. The company's retirement plan only allows roll overs if the account is more than $1000. Any account below that will be required to cash out. Even if I do the same percentage of contribution I did with my old employer (4%) and plus the 2% from the current employer, $840 max would be contributed to my 401K by the time the contract ends. So I...

I gave my two week notice on Monday. Supervisor wasn't to cool with me leaving but he said he was extremely happy for me. I spoke to the folks in accounting at my current employer and I do anything with my 401K until annual distribution packages are sent out and that isn't until February 2009. Needless to say that cashing out my 401K is no longer an option. The only reason I entertained the idea was to ensure I was in a good financial state come October 1. I will either roll the money into my the 401K account I will have with my employer at that time or I will roll it into a traditional IRA. I have some time to think about it. Thanks to all who were concerned about my initial decision to cash out my 401K. Please realize that I would only entertain this thought in the case of an emergency. ' The folks at the new job can't wait until I start. Seems like news of me coming on board has spread like wild fire and I had a director stop me in the hallway on my way to lu...

Well not 100% financially free but close to it. Read my last post, The Job Offer ??? If you haven't then do so now if you want to understand the following madness that is about to ensue. Here we go: I officially received a job offer on Thursday which I have accepted. My start date is the 21st (I wanted to give my current employer the standard two weeks). Here is the catch: The company whom I will be working for is the same company who's contract ends on Doom's Day. Crazy huh?! Yeah I know but I have my reasons for taking such a risk. My position with my current employer is foggy after Doom's Day . There is a big chance that I would be laid off due to lack of work, especially since I primarily worked the NASA contract. My position with the new company after Doom's Day is also foggy, but not as much. There is a high probability that the department will get picked up onto the new contract. Very high probability. And on top of that, I am making $25K more than I...

Here is a little insight into what has been going on at my job. Hopefully it won't be too hard to follow: I work for a consulting engineering company that relies on contract work. We currently work a number of different contracts. Our biggest client is a major company out at NASA. That company's contract with NASA ends on September 30 (we will call this day Dooms Day) on this year and so does our contract with them. My employer joined some different companies on 3 major contracts that were being bid on. None of the companies we joined with won. So at the present moment we are in shits creek. My employer is trying desperately to pull some work from the winning companies but no bites as of yet. If Dooms Day comes (and even before then) and they haven't managed to secure any additional work, they will not have enough work and money to go around. Layoffs will then be inevitable. In the past two staff meeting the president basically told us to get our resumes ready. F...

A lot of things have been taking place Dimples' world. I am going to try and sum up some of the what's been going on in this post. Finances were looking a little fuzzy for a moment but I do believe that I see a light shining at the end of my debt tunnel. I'll go into a little more detail on the shining light on another post. I was hoping that the summer would be real chill and inexpensive but that turned out to be big fat negative. Here is what I have had to spend in the past month: -$40 for swimming lessons (went through the my city's park and rec department) -$140 for summer camp registration -$77 for before and after care registration for school starting in the fall -$100 and counting for school uniform -$50 for school supplies -$75 for summer clothing (bathing suits, shorts, tanks.....Florida is hot as hell) -$300 for items for brother's dorm TOTAL = $782 and counting And on top of all this, my electric bill is starting to rise. Jumped about $30 in one mon...

I had to realign some of the due dates. Changes will be in green. I may hold off on school this year. With everything going on my job I am not sure if I want to add school on to my list of ish to deal with. CAREER DEVELOPMENT PLAN FOR 2008 GOALS: * Become a Lead Engineer on one or more projects. – 11/1/08 * Increase knowledge and skill level in following programs: + AutoCAD – 7 /1/08 + Pro E Drafting – 11/1/08 + Access – 6/1/08 + Oracle – 8/1/08 * Pass the Fundamentals of Engineering (FE) exam. --> I took the test on 4/12 but I won't get the results until July. – 7/08 * Initiate steps to obtaining a graduate certificate in the following program: + Applied Operations Research – 7/15/08 * Complete online certificate program at AMBAI for following programs: + Management and Business Administration Certificate – 8/1/08 + Finance and Investing Certificate – 9/1/08 TASKS: - FE EXAM: > Register for the April FE exam - 1/11/08 > Study with co-workers - 1/08 à 4/08 ...

I had a good friend look over my career plan for this year and he offered some very good advice. I am very serious about the goals I have laid out for myself this year. Over the past few years I have allowed fear or failure and the comfortability of my present state to hinder my steps towards success. No longer will I create a plan of action only to procrastinate and push it off to do next year. So in order to make my plan more concrete I have given myself a deadline for each particular tasks. I incorporated these deadlines into my Windows Calendar (awesome program). I also incorporated each specific task into the my calendar and set alarms. Definitely procrastinating on this plan. Below you will find my updated career plan. I also updated my original post: Check that out here . CAREER DEVELOPMENT PLAN FOR 2008 GOALS: * Become a Lead Engineer on one or more projects. – 11/1/08 * Increase knowledge and skill level in following programs: + AutoCAD – 5/1/08 + Pro...

After reading a number of blogs this past weekend, I noticed that one common theme this year is career development. As I focus in on my own 2008 Career Development Plan, I am finding more and more great resources that will definitely help me achieve my goals. So being the wonderfully divine being that I am, I decided to share those awesome sites with you all: * CLICK - Ten Truths for Building Extraordinary Relationships : I heard this gentleman, George C. Fraser, speak on a popular talk radio show that I listen to on my drive home from work. Topic of discussion: Networking. He has a book out called Click and in the book you will find 10 simple principles that will help you master the art of networking. -If you are interested in purchasing the book, click on the Amazon link below *Business and Professional Women Foundation -Career Advancement Scholarship : Grants specifically for women who are continuing their education in order to advance their careers, change careers, or reente...

I have been promising this for a while now. I finally sat down this weekend and wrote out an outline of my career development plan for this year. I finalized it today. I'll start with a summarization of where I am at in my career at this moment and what I do: I graduated from UCF with a BS in Industrial Engineering. My last semester, I interned with a local, small engineering consulting firm whose main contract is with NASA. I was hired on full-time after I graduated in 2005. My job title is Engineer and the projects I work on involve a variety of different engineering disciplines. I currently head up a number of small projects under the main NASA contract. I am also the training engineer for many of the programs and processes we use. My main expertise is in database generation and management, project management, and cost analysis. CAREER DEVELOPMENT PLAN FOR 2008 GOALS: * Become a Lead Engineer on one or more projects. – 11/1/08 * Increase knowledge and skill level in foll...

Yes indeedy! Today was an awesome day. The president of the company came in today and wanted to speak to me. My heart started pounding. What in the world was going on? Was I bout to get the pink slip? Nope! Mz Dimps got herself an 8% raise and a nice chunky bonus . A very chunky bonus! OMG!! My cheeks hurt so much from smiling so hard. God is good! I prayed and prayed about this and then out of the blue the blessings came. You ever notice that when you get good news like a bonus or a raise at work that you can't get any work done the rest of the day? I spent about an hour or more calculating my new salary and trying to figure out what I would be taking home every paycheck. If my calculations are correct I will be taking home an extra $125 EACH paycheck. YEAHH BOYYYY!!! And if you thought the good news ended there you were dead wrong buddy. LOL. I just realized that because my daughter is staying with her grandparents this summer I do not have to pay for her scho...

I finally reached a settlement amount on a case that I have been going through for the past 2 years. I have been trying to figure out what I will do with the money. I have already put $500 into my E-fund and another $500 into my Home Fund. I also took $500 and put into my personal spending account. My mom is going to have surgery in the next month or two so I am going to keep some of the money on the side to help her out in anyway possible. Either it be to pay some of the out-of-pocket expense for the surgery or to pay some bills while she rests at home and recovers. The remainder of the money will go to paying off some of my credit card debt or my personal loan or both. I'll do an analysis later and see what works best. With that said I have inserted my monthly report for May below. I realized I skipped out on April's report. The "Last Month" column in the report is referring to April so April's monthly report is kinda there. I increased my credit card ...

After much debating, researching, and comparisons I have decided to go back to school for my MBA. Wooohooooo! LOL And I am terrified. Why? I am scared of failure. Big time. I am scared of struggling again. I went through my undergraduate college years as a single mother working part-time gigs and still managed to obtain my Bachelors in Industrial Engineering. So why be scared now? Well now I have a career....a full-time position with many responsibilities. I am still a single mother who's 4 year old is having behavioral issues at her private school. A 4 year old who is starting to wonder why other kids have fathers who pick them up from school and she doesn't. (FYI her dad is an a-hole who wants nothing to do with his child...he has never even seen her........his loss) Will I be able to handle the pressures of a engineering career, raising a 4 year-old, and pursuing my Master's degree and still accomplish all the goals I have set forth for myself? As long as ...