Long time no see (or write? 🤪)! The first quarter of 2024 has been eventful to say the least, but I really can’t complain too much. I’ve had an amazing start to 2024. To wrap up the first quarter of 2024, I will do a mini recap that will be a bit different than my usual budget/debt review format. Travel To start with, I went on a Northern Lights chasing trip to Alaska which unfortunately ended in a failure. We…
As I was getting ready to write my June post, I was stumped to realized that there wasn’t anything truly memorable about June. As I started doing last month, I’ve been tidying up the house a bit with more home decorations. I’ve also picked up some homebody activities like Paint by Numbers which is perfect for a non-artistic person like me. One highlight this month was I went on my first business trip to visit the main office. Flight and…
A couple years ago, I worked in a contract position (yes, the one I was laid off from) where my trainer was someone who normally works from home, but was coming into the office to do the training sessions. While WFH is a dream for an introvert like me, I was shocked at a remark she made about sometimes going “for days” without leaving her home. While I’ve never been a super social person, I couldn’t fathom the idea of…
March has been a pretty rewarding month for me. As I mentioned last month, I received a raise, the first paycheck of which was reflected this month. On top of that, I received my bonus and March also happened to be a 3-paycheck month! I allocated the majority of my bonus paycheck to my 401k so for the rest of the year I only have to contribute the minimum to get my employer’s match. Of course, with every high comes…
I’m riding on quite a high this month. My manager was finally able to secure the raise I had been asking for! And I’m not kidding when I say I’ve been asking for it. I point blank asked for a raise over a couple of 1:1s with her because I honestly made a mistake when switching over to her team by not bringing it up. In hindsight, I realized that’s when I would’ve had the most negotiating power. Anyways, at…
November was one of the best months I’ve had in a while. I went on my last trip of the year and it was so relaxing. I definitely went into it with the mindset that I wanted to have a really relaxing tropical vacation after the year I’ve had so while I did some planning, it was a pretty laid back trip. Mid-November, my team also finished up a huge project for work and since then, if I’m being completely…
July was an anxiety-filled month. Work has been crazy and my manager broke the news that she spoke with higher ups and I will not be getting a salary increase. Their rationale is they have hired a dedicated person to help alleviate the work I was helping with for a different department. Another person from my department is also finally coming back after having taken a month leave. I was assured that once that’s in motion, she’d take back the role…
I’ve gone absolutely crazy with work this month. 2022 welcomed me with a very rare opportunity to work overtime in January with overtime pay. As a salaried employee, overtime pay is very rare. So I took this opportunity and ran with it. With no limit to the amount of overtime I was allowed to do, I worked 70+ hours per week for the entire month of January. I’ve only taken two days off this entire month! The things I do…
The first month of 2021 has been a month full of confusion for me. I have a bad habit of keeping things bottled up until everything has cleared up which is why I have been lagging on writing any new posts. Sadly, everything is still muddy in my mind, but I’m hoping that by writing through this, it’ll provide some clarity. Thanks Ms Afro Penny for the much needed nudge to put my thoughts into words (or at least try)…