It's funny how for all my pessimism/cynicism, I remain an optimist where my dreams are concerned. I seriously thought I had a chance at a regular credit card. Even with an outstanding balance from another credit card company and a repo on my record, I thought I had a chance.
Alas, I was denied, and with the current unreliability of the stock market, there's no way we'll have the funds to move on time.
I can't think about how if we'd saved more when we were flush with overtime dough, that maybe we'd be able to pull this off now. It's spilt milk, can't be helped now, so why do that to myself. Instead, it brings home to me the level of budgeting and planning that needs to occur if I'm ever going to make this move a reality.
Thursday, August 11, 2011
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
A Learning Trip
It was a very good trip, albeit short-ish and seriously hot. Driving 6 hours in August in the South is not the time to discover that your car's A/C isn't fully up to the task. The ride up was seriously grueling, a LONG and grumpy sauna because we drove during the worst heat of the day. When we discovered that adding refrigerant wasn't going to magically fix it, we left at 6:15 a.m. to come back to Florida, and thank the gods we did, because only the last 2 hours or so were sweaty ones.
Poor Lil Sis was fighting a severe sinus infection that's lasted 2 weeks, but she put her big girl pants on, as she puts it, and drove us around on Monday, giving us a quick guided tour of downtown Charlotte and parts south. It was interesting, because something occurred that I wasn't expecting...the feeling that I don't want to live so close to so large a city...or rather, that a suburb of Charlotte rather than Charlotte proper is looking better and better. I'm just not a big city person, and thanks to some serious expansion and aesthetic renderings in the last decade, Charlotte is just that. I had forgotten that Charlotte became the East Coast finance hub post-9/11, because both Bank of America and Wachovia have their corporate HQs there, so a large chunk of NY's money men relocated while the country scrambled to maintain stability...and the city evolved to accommodate those individuals, in the hopes of winning some of them as residents (which also happened in surprising numbers, if you believe the statistic). Not saying I don't want to move there, if that's where I'm able to find work...gotta remember that what's important is just getting the hell out of Florida. But the shiny wore off the city, and I'm able to look at it critically and question it. Yes, a large city is where the jobs are, but in this economy, any move is a crap shoot, and I'll be the first to admit that I haven't been trying hard enough.
Brought my camera and didn't take a single picture...they're all in my head. Doesn't make this post more exciting, but does allow me to scroll back through the weekend and make fresh lists and talk to Husby about what I want out of this move. Husby's a loving sheep; he'll go wherever I drag him, but I've heard him complain about Aiken's size and quaintness (though I'm sure his beratement of the town has more to do with him not being able to imagine living in the same town as his folks, b/c their home life is such a cluster)...but of course, I want him happy too, after the initial freakout about uprooting us has worn off.
We can go up again in 2 weeks in conjunction with an SC trip...thinkingthinkingthinking...
Poor Lil Sis was fighting a severe sinus infection that's lasted 2 weeks, but she put her big girl pants on, as she puts it, and drove us around on Monday, giving us a quick guided tour of downtown Charlotte and parts south. It was interesting, because something occurred that I wasn't expecting...the feeling that I don't want to live so close to so large a city...or rather, that a suburb of Charlotte rather than Charlotte proper is looking better and better. I'm just not a big city person, and thanks to some serious expansion and aesthetic renderings in the last decade, Charlotte is just that. I had forgotten that Charlotte became the East Coast finance hub post-9/11, because both Bank of America and Wachovia have their corporate HQs there, so a large chunk of NY's money men relocated while the country scrambled to maintain stability...and the city evolved to accommodate those individuals, in the hopes of winning some of them as residents (which also happened in surprising numbers, if you believe the statistic). Not saying I don't want to move there, if that's where I'm able to find work...gotta remember that what's important is just getting the hell out of Florida. But the shiny wore off the city, and I'm able to look at it critically and question it. Yes, a large city is where the jobs are, but in this economy, any move is a crap shoot, and I'll be the first to admit that I haven't been trying hard enough.
Brought my camera and didn't take a single picture...they're all in my head. Doesn't make this post more exciting, but does allow me to scroll back through the weekend and make fresh lists and talk to Husby about what I want out of this move. Husby's a loving sheep; he'll go wherever I drag him, but I've heard him complain about Aiken's size and quaintness (though I'm sure his beratement of the town has more to do with him not being able to imagine living in the same town as his folks, b/c their home life is such a cluster)...but of course, I want him happy too, after the initial freakout about uprooting us has worn off.
We can go up again in 2 weeks in conjunction with an SC trip...thinkingthinkingthinking...
Tuesday, August 02, 2011
Progress
- Applied for credit card...even if it's just for emergencies, it's a step in the right direction.
- If it gets declined, I'll pay off those two small issues on my credit and refile.
- Confirmed there's no point in Les trying for one, because even with the joint account, it's still his name trying for a card when he has no income.
- Only loan that could be feasible would be straight from the credit card, because we own nothing of value outright.
- Maybe in a couple of months when we own the car free and clear, we could try for something then; but do we really want to use the car as collateral? Luckily, not an issue at present.
- Made lists today.
- Planning to re-expand the potential locations of our move, to include:
- SC: Columbia, maybe Spartanburg
- NC: Asheville, the Piedmont Triad (Winston-Salem, Greensboro, High Point), Charlotte and its suburbs (including Concord, Kannapolis, other points just north of there); possibly Jacksonville & Wilmington (but have a feeling they're too small to be realistic).
- GA: Athens (probably only Georgia option for now, because we already know we don't want to look at Atlanta or Augusta).
- KY or TN options...
- Attacking the job hunt old-school:
- Internet search to identify every single web design/advertising company in those cities.
- Create form cover letter for those industries
- Create sample web pages and essays for my writing sample blog.
- Send resume and personalized cover letter to every single company's human resource department.
- Follow-up with biweekly emails to the HR depts and snail-mail cards right after first send of material, phone calls 1 week later, 2nd card 3 weeks later.
- Really don't care if this option turns out to be a waste of time, because at least I'll know I'm giving it my absolute best try.....
- Will also, of course, still monitor the decent job search websites out there for new, viable positions in my skill set.
- Additional income options:
- Transfer novel to CD and edit; submit to appropriate publishing companies.
- Start book of short stories and/or essays
- Start children's book (this isn't a "cold" idea: the stories are from my childhood, just need fleshing out).
- Research just how difficult it would be to pick up freelance contract work.
- Quarterly taxes involved, how I go about hiring myself out (diff websites geared specifically toward freelancers), how I sell myself as a freelancer, etc.
- Encourage DH to learn to type and engage him in discussions about what part-time work he'd be comfortable doing (this part may sound really kid-gloves to some, but the poor guy's teeth are really bad, so he's extra sensitive about public-facing work, while on the other side of the coin, the constant fluorescent lighting of your standard office job - and his hunt-and-peck current typing speed - make it difficult for him to handle customer service phone jobs).
- One thing I'm NOT looking at: taking a 2nd job. I know myself and that's not a viable option. The above options are more feasible, and there's less chance of them shredding my sanity in the bargain.
I feel SO much better since this morning. I have tasks in front of me, thinking to do and talking to Les. We're still going north this weekend; I want to see my Mommie and Lil Sis, and reaffirm my desires to live up there, and sell Les a little more on it too. I know he'll go wherever I end up, but I want him happy too.
Black Cloud
If I'd only remembered...
I'm reasonably certain we're going to have to hit the snooze button on the move to NC. We simply won't have the funds in time.
My brain feels like it's overheating. I'm so very deeply frustrated to discover this.
My initial plan was to fund the move through two key sources of income: a partial liquidation of my 401(k) and full liquidation of my vested stock options. A couple of things have occurred to thwart that plan:
1. I'd forgotten that 401(k)'s are set up to protect you from yourself. Because you're getting the privilege of a pre-tax retirement account, the US tax laws also prevent you from withdrawing ANY of said account, while you are still under the employ of the company that originated it. This means I would need to have my new job established before I could even think of moving. The logistics of that become highly complicated when you tie in that my apartment complex requires 2-months' notice to break the lease, so we'd have to have a new home established before we could cut free of the old one...which isn't possible without the above-mentioned funds. My current paychecks are barely keeping us in food, and our savings has been going toward Les's injection therapy (which appears to be working, so I won't let him begrudge how it's draining our first spare dough in like, ever).
2. Our stock has dropped, thanks to this crappy economy, Congress, and an abysmally dry summer at the office. Websites are literally trickling in right now, and they doubled our team in anticipation of the company's growth (and the fact that they're hanging onto the newbies is an indication of a strong business plan for the near future, but still.....). But having double the editors means we're scrabbling on a daily basis for sites to keep our paychecks in the pink. Meanwhile, the stock plummetted back to its old value of 9 months ago, which means I'm breaking even on some options and making only a seriously modest profit on the cheaper ones. It's simply not enough of a nest egg to realistically draw from at present.
3. I've started applying at staffing agencies, but my skills aren't meshing too well with what an average staffing agency looks for. There's an excellent chance I could apply and apply and still be jobless come October, given how poor the economy is right now. I need to secure some contract work elsewhere, edit my book, and submit it to publishers on the side; and Les needs to come out of hiding and look for part-time work here.
Can't move without securing a job, can't secure a job without moving.
I'm so bloody frustrated...it feels like my brain keeps short-circuiting and needing a reboot. 4 years ago, we weren't ready and now, we STILL aren't ready? That's so bloody unacceptable, I'm having trouble recognizing it's reality. I'm going to the bank today to see about acquiring a credit card for emergencies, and I'll ask about the possibility of a loan. But a loan would probably require collateral, and the car isn't even in our names yet. And any APR probably isn't worth throwing the entire move on a credit card, even if I could get a decent credit limit. We're still going up there this weekend, to scope out the area and visit my mom and Lil Sis. But there's a lot of thinking to do in the meantime.
I'm reasonably certain we're going to have to hit the snooze button on the move to NC. We simply won't have the funds in time.
My brain feels like it's overheating. I'm so very deeply frustrated to discover this.
My initial plan was to fund the move through two key sources of income: a partial liquidation of my 401(k) and full liquidation of my vested stock options. A couple of things have occurred to thwart that plan:
1. I'd forgotten that 401(k)'s are set up to protect you from yourself. Because you're getting the privilege of a pre-tax retirement account, the US tax laws also prevent you from withdrawing ANY of said account, while you are still under the employ of the company that originated it. This means I would need to have my new job established before I could even think of moving. The logistics of that become highly complicated when you tie in that my apartment complex requires 2-months' notice to break the lease, so we'd have to have a new home established before we could cut free of the old one...which isn't possible without the above-mentioned funds. My current paychecks are barely keeping us in food, and our savings has been going toward Les's injection therapy (which appears to be working, so I won't let him begrudge how it's draining our first spare dough in like, ever).
2. Our stock has dropped, thanks to this crappy economy, Congress, and an abysmally dry summer at the office. Websites are literally trickling in right now, and they doubled our team in anticipation of the company's growth (and the fact that they're hanging onto the newbies is an indication of a strong business plan for the near future, but still.....). But having double the editors means we're scrabbling on a daily basis for sites to keep our paychecks in the pink. Meanwhile, the stock plummetted back to its old value of 9 months ago, which means I'm breaking even on some options and making only a seriously modest profit on the cheaper ones. It's simply not enough of a nest egg to realistically draw from at present.
3. I've started applying at staffing agencies, but my skills aren't meshing too well with what an average staffing agency looks for. There's an excellent chance I could apply and apply and still be jobless come October, given how poor the economy is right now. I need to secure some contract work elsewhere, edit my book, and submit it to publishers on the side; and Les needs to come out of hiding and look for part-time work here.
Can't move without securing a job, can't secure a job without moving.
I'm so bloody frustrated...it feels like my brain keeps short-circuiting and needing a reboot. 4 years ago, we weren't ready and now, we STILL aren't ready? That's so bloody unacceptable, I'm having trouble recognizing it's reality. I'm going to the bank today to see about acquiring a credit card for emergencies, and I'll ask about the possibility of a loan. But a loan would probably require collateral, and the car isn't even in our names yet. And any APR probably isn't worth throwing the entire move on a credit card, even if I could get a decent credit limit. We're still going up there this weekend, to scope out the area and visit my mom and Lil Sis. But there's a lot of thinking to do in the meantime.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)