Money, Money, Money

Yesterday I called the office handling my retirement cash-out to see what kind of time line I was looking at in regards to receiving my money. They mailed it yesterday and I should be receiving it today or tomorrow. Woot!

Now the big question is what to do with it. I want to stash some of it away, thus providing me with a fully funded emergency account. I'll need to use some of it to carry me through the next two months until I'm up to speed and only working serving shifts and not hostessing shifts. Not to mention that there are a few big bills that need paying. Some of it needs to be put away for our basement remodeling as Mr. Irony and I are each contributing to that from our retirement accounts.

I guess that means I really need to sit down this weekend and figure out exactly what I owe and to whom. Time to be a responsible adult.

Retirement Account Decision

I am finally done with training and am able to work the restaurant floor. Saturday night was my first night. It was very quiet due to an in-town food event but thanks to the pooling of tips system that they run, I came home with $80. If that's a slow night I can't wait for a busy one! I have also been hostessing 4 days a week. That averages about $10 an hour but when you only work 2.5 hours at a time, it doesn't add up to much. I'm hoping to move away from the hostessing shifts and into more serving shifts.

I made the decision, probably a bad one, to pull out my retirement in cash and take the 20% hit in taxes. There are things I need to use it for and rolling it over into an investment account will cost me in administrative fees and fees for when I take money from the account. This way I have it and allot it where I need to. I do plan to put $2000 into an IRA and use some to fully-fund an emergency fund. I plan to purchase health and dental insurance for the kids and I and pay that for a full year with one payment.

Now I just wonder how long it will take before I actually receive the check from my retirement fund?!

Serving It Up Soon

After two (very long) weeks of job-hunting I was finally offered a job last weekend! Tonight will be my first night of training. I can't tell you the hourly pay because I don't know. Shocking! Yes, I know. I will be working as a server so the hourly pay really doesn't matter. It won't even be minimum wage, and in the restaurant industry the hourly pay is not what you're working for; you're just lucky if the hourly pay covers the taxes on the tips that you claim.

I'm hoping that the training will be intensive and short as I need to get on the floor as quickly as possible. My bank account has hit an all-time low and there are bills looming around the corner.

I'm down more than expected as school supplies hit the bank account hard and the unexpected funeral for my grandma necessitated some purchasing of funeral-worthy "good" clothes for Actress and dress shoes for Action. Not that I'm complaining. This is where an emergency fund would be useful. That is my first goal in my list of goals for financial responsibility.

Ideas On Cutting My Bills Down

In that lovely list of monthly bills I forgot the cell phone bill. I need to print that out and take it in with me to find out what some of these new charges are for. When I redid my plan I was told it should be about $20 cheaper than my previous plan. Instead it's $20 more! I may have to see how low I can take if for now and give up the luxury of having internet on my phone. Can you downgrade your plans, I wonder? I know you can always upgrade them.

On my list of to-do's is to get myself to Kinko's to fax in my last Alack claim for my medical savings account. That's about $400 worth of income that could be used right now. I also need to take a pic of my oven and get that listed to sell.

One other thing I'm considering is trying to sell my car. I owe roughly $10,500. If I could sell it for that, I could take some from my retirement fund that I'm liquidating and buy something less expensive and not have that payment each month. I do love my car. It's the first vehicle that I have ever purchased entirely on my own and it represents independence to me. But I need to put emotions aside and focus on cutting, saving, and being financially responsible. I guess the first step is to find the blue book value for it and see if it's actually worth what I owe.

Starting Over

No, I haven't forgotten about this blog, although I did have to dust a few cobwebs off the computer before sitting down.

Not much to update. We are moved in to our new house and will be heading out today to open our joint checking account. This is a little scary for me, sharing the responsibility with someone else. Our plan is to each contribute $1000 per month to the joint account for mortgage payments, utilities, and groceries. That leaves me with $240 car payment, $110 school loan payment, $63 for car insurance as other monthly bills. That's also not counting various medical bills that I'm trying to pay off.

I've just received the COBRA forms for carrying over our dental plan. That would be $100 per month. Plus I have the option to also carry over my life insurance plan. I haven't looked at the cost of that yet. I am still waiting to receive the COBRA forms for my health insurance, although I'm pretty sure that I won't be able to afford that. That's pretty scary.

I do receive $600 a month in child support but I have tried very hard to use that only for the kids expenses, not for bills.

I do have the option to pull out my state retirement now that I'm no longer with a school system. That account is just below $23000. I plan to pull it but the question is what to do with it? I can take a guaranteed 20% hit in taxes and take it in cash (and possibly pay another 10% in taxes at tax time, have to research that a bit more) or do I find something to roll it over into? Here's where I turn to you, my lovely readers, for any and all suggestions as to what to do with these funds.