I got my first social security statement from the government! It listed all the social security wages I've earned since I started my first job at McDonalds in 1999. It inspired me to go right to the library and check out my first Suze Orman book. I'm growing up!
I spent the last week or so reading finance books, reviewing my monthly budget and setting some financial goals for myself. I'm a fairly frugal person, but I decided to give myself some new guidelines and challenges. The first challenge is to go the entire month of April without buying any coffee, Jamba Juice smoothies or candy bars. Sometimes when I'm having a rough day, or it's cold and rainy, or if I simply get to work early, I'll buy one of the aforementioned products to lift my spirits or just kill some time. Lately, I've been thinking about the sources of my happiness- and as truly wonderful as those things are, I don't want to use them to cheer myself up, at least not as frequently as I do. When I have a crappy morning at work, I'll skip the candy bar and call a friend or family member or go for a walk.
To increase the stakes, I bumped up my monthly student loan payment and my automatic savings transfer by $50 each. That's a hundred bucks I'll have to account for and hopefully it'll help me resist the urge for a Dunkin Donuts iced coffee, even if it's the perfect supplement to a hot New York City day.
I also upgraded to a better cashback rewards program on my credit card and applied to consolidate my student loans. Next step is to open a Roth IRA and start saving!
As far as the resolutions are going, I think this is a good start. My next move is to think of some sort of exercise/diet plan I can stick to with my new schedule, which changes week to week.
I faltered for a month or so with the new jobs, getting sick, best friends moving away and my mom coming to town, but I think I'm finally back on schedule. I got an e-mail the other day for a possible assistant design position. I'm going to be away for their week of tech, but I'm still crossing my fingers.
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