Accountant by Day

There is something wrong with the fact that I’m wearing running tights under my pants, a long-sleeved shirt, sweater, plus a fleece, and it’s still cold in here. Meanwhile, we’re freezing away, and we are hitting 80 degree temperatures outside. What is with this obsession with over-air conditioning?

I have a very nice job - well paid, more freedom than most employees, benefits, challenging work… But last week one of the partners wanted to review some tax returns that I had been working on that I had finished, but had not printed out and reviewed. I was away at a client, so at 11pm that night, I did a quick review in our tax software. I pretty much only checked the diagnostic that lets you know if the balance sheet is balanced.

I have been slammed at work for the past two weeks, and busy for the past month and a half. I took both days off from work this weekend, but I still feel drained - I just don’t have the stamina for prolonged periods of long days. Last night I was up until 2:30 am finishing a return for a partner who will be out of town after today, so needs to get all returns signed today.

[caption id=“attachment_1003” align=“aligncenter” width=“504”] Atlanta ca. 1865[/caption] I wrote a long post with net present value calculations and everything, but then I decided that wasn’t a great post, since the short summary is this: I have to pay $125 of PMI monthly, which adds between 1 and 2% expense to my mortgage interest. Once I have 22% of the loan balance paid down, I can stop paying PMI, and I will have an annual interest rate of 3.

Photo by ubo_pakes on Flickr Unlike most people our age (24), my boyfriend and I seem to be pretty aware of the importance of saving for retirement. Well, actually a lot of people my age know that they need to start now, but they still haven’t actually gotten around to doing it. Meanwhile, both of us already having some savings in Roth IRAs, and try to set aside more each month to add to this.

Did you know that “making it rain” in a strip club can result in a positive ROI? At least in Atlanta, strip clubs can now be a marketing powerhouse. (For record labels.) I was driving to pick my father up from the airport yesterday, and I heard an interesting segment on NPR about how record companies head for the Atlanta strip clubs first when they’re trying to promote a new rapper.

You can follow along with my progress on paying off my student loan on my balance-tracking page here. Every time I receive a paycheck, there are 4 places that I can put the money: spending emergency fund investments towards my student loan Of course, number 1, spending, is where I would like the least amount of money to go. But how to decide how to split up the rest?

Okay, student loan balance for the end of 2012 is: $2,166. (Unless I decide after Christmas that I have a little extra cash to get it to $2,000). As of 12/31/2011, the balance was $9,929, so I managed to pay off $7,763 in principal this year. Doesn’t sound like as much as it felt like I had to pay each month! Buying a house in March didn’t help, since I had to put off making any large payments towards the student loan for a couple of months.

NPR.org has posted a list to feed my obsession with reading young adult novels. Oh, I read books for grown ups too, but I always find that I enjoy the ones written for young adults the most. So, NPR has creating a list of the top 100 young adult novels, based on a reader poll and some careful judging. All of my favorite books are on it - The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, His Dark Materials series, a bunch of books by Tamora Pierce, and others that I haven’t read as many times, but I do remember them vividly - like Flowers for Algernon.

Things I’ve been reading, in the blogosphere … Retire by 40, who plans to become a stay-at-home dad, interviews another stay-at-home dad and blogger, Hunter from Financially Consumed. Read about what it’s like to be the only dad on the playground. EngineerYourFinances gives some tips and encouragement for negotiating your salary in a down economy. If you’re looking ahead to an annual review soon, don’t forget to read this post and negotiate your pay increase!