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Home > Archive: January, 2010

Archive for January, 2010

Quick entry

January 6th, 2010 at 05:56 am

...before I go to bed.

I am still working on getting my health, dental and vision insurance cleared up with the benefits department. I'm pretty sure it was an error on their part considering half of the information on the form I sent them got processed, the main part... the health insurance didn't. Strange. So I sent a couple of emails out and probably going to follow up with a phone call to get this straighten out.

Other finance news for me? My net pay is slightly lower now that half of my benefits that I elected are starting to come out. And hopefully my 401K deduction will kick in soon. Not that I want my net pay to decrease, but I guess I can't wait to not have to think about it anymore and can move on to other things on my agenda.
Plus I really want my vision plan to kick in (pending no issues arise, with the current investigation) because I have to get new glasses soon.

I am planning to get turbo tax this weekend and start getting ready to start my taxes. Most of it is pretty easy and I can usually figure out a lot of the information from my last paystub. And it's nice a lot of my accounts online have a section for Year-to-day interest and so on. So hopefully I get a nice refund that I will save half of and the other half I will most likely use towards my student loan.

And then the last thing. I am not renewing some of my magazine subscriptions. Saving some money there, even if it's only $10 for the year. The thing is that sometimes I don't even get a chance to read the magazine because I am busy doing other things. And plus it just adds to my clutter that I am trying to eliminate. Last year I got People Magazine as a gift for Christmas. It's one of the ones up for renewal this month. I didn't realize that the 1 year cost $116. That's kind of crazy, considering that I get Entertainment Weekly for only $10(52 issues just like People). So People is one of the ones that I am definitely not renewing. I can think of a lot of other ways I could use $116.

Alright, so much for the quick entry. I have to get to bed now or I'll never want to wake up in the morning to go to work. Ugh. Work. Wishing it were Friday Night right now and that tomorrow was Saturday. Smile

Savings Bonds

January 3rd, 2010 at 02:54 am

I decided to look up the value of my paper savings bonds that my Grandma had bought for me back in 2000, 2001 & 2003.

The one that was bought in 2000 is a $500 I-Bond earning around 6.4%. And then the 2001 is a $1000 I-Bond earning around $6.1% and the last one is a $500 I-Bond earning around 4.3%. So I was thinking of cashing them in at least the that was bought in 2000. But.... now after I see the interest rate, it's a lot higher than most of my savings accounts, I think I'll just keep them in their savings bond form. Not like I'm in dire need of the money. I just was just going to use them to pay towards my student loan. But now the interest rate is higher than the interest rate on my loan.

But my first achievement on saving in 2010 is the fact that I have yet to buy Christmas paper or Christmas cards. I usually buy wrapping paper and cards on deep discount after the holidays. I think mainly just because it's ON CLEARANCE. But I have 4 boxes of cards unopened and I have about 4-5 rolls of wrapping paper. So I'm planning on being good just use up what I have instead of being a hoarder and accumulating in excess of things that I have more than enough of.

Yep, 2010 is going well so far. Only 2 days so far, but those 2 days are doing pretty well. Thinking positively, Smile. The only thing I have to do is on Monday I need to call the benefits department for my job. I got a letter in the mail today stating that I had declined medical, dental and vision coverage. WHICH IS NOT TRUE AT ALL! I'm a little annoyed at the letter because I sent in my paperwork the same time I sent in the paperwork for the voluntary life insurance and personal accident insurance paperwork that was processed according to the letter. In fact what doesn't make sense is that everything was on the same form and it was all filled out when I sent it in. So, I don't know what's up. Going to find out on Monday.

But yet until next time.