Year: 2017

Bonuses…and a Shocking Lack of Excitement

by A Purple Life, posted in Finance, Jobs

I had lunch with our new HR/recruiter person at work the other day. In addition to wanting to get to know her since she’s new to town I had a few questions for her of course 🙂 . What I learned about our job over the course of our lunch was extremely helpful. For example, I’m not sure I’ve mentioned this before, but my pay structure at this job is unlike any I’ve had before.

Previously I was given a set salary and that was it. In ad agencies they don’t really give you raises or bonuses so that wasn’t ever expected. I did receive $1,000 from one of my ad agencies because I planned the company holiday party (which I did the next year as well without payment 🙂 ).

They told me not to tell anyone about it. Since I am a strong believer in financial transparency I totally told people. You shouldn’t tell your employees not to tell others when they get a raise or a bonus. I understand why companies do it – to keep them in complete power – but how about we actually pay people fairly so they are not angry when they hear a colleague got a raise or bonus and are instead happy for them? I’m getting off topic. The lack of transparency in most aspects of the American jobs could take up multiple books. Continue reading “Bonuses…and a Shocking Lack of Excitement” →

Autopilot

by A Purple Life, posted in Early Retirement, Finance, Musings

WARNING: Prepare yourself for a seriously “first world problem” piece of whininess.

I’m bored 🙂 . The key to long term investing success is to set it and forget it: put your money in the market and let it ride. Since we are entering a new year I still had things to optimize: how much should I try to spend so I can save the maximum amount with my new salary? Would I get my bonus? If so, how would that increase my savings rate? How much of my budget should I allocate to vacations? Should I travel hack more of my flights? Sadly all of that has come to an end. I’ve solved them all and booked all my flights until March 2018. Now I seem to just be waiting for the end of each month so I can budget my money, move it into my investments and update my spreadsheets. This process sadly only takes a few minutes. Then I’m back to waiting. Continue reading “Autopilot” →

10,000th Day and $150,000 Net Worth

by A Purple Life, posted in Net Worth Update

While I was on vacation in Thailand I hit my 10,000th day of being alive. That went quickly! The market was also at an all time high and I hit $150,000 in net worth. WOAH. I expected that to happen when I got my next paycheck in March, but the rampaging market made it happen sooner. I started the year 2 months ago with $137,000 and we’re already at $150K with only 1 paycheck under my belt. I almost can’t believe it and I know it won’t last: the market will drop, maybe this month, maybe this year, maybe in a few years – I have no idea, but it will and I will see myself lose maybe half of my savings. Watching it grow in this current market and feeling that satisfaction will hopefully get me through that darker time. But in the meantime I will celebrate :). This was my first vacation where I had no job stress to think about. I even deleted my work email from my phone. I believe I am 1500 days (or less) from retirement and living life on my own terms. Bring it!

Lessons Learned from My Mom

by A Purple Life, posted in Musings, Spending

When I look around I can tell that I’m different from other people. Some have even told me so. I’m not sure if they meant it as an insult, but I didn’t take it that way. When I look around even a less consumer city (compared to NYC) like Seattle I see people in name brand coats with name brand bags wearing the same name brand boots. They like to talk about the other name brand things they are planning to buy while decked out daily in jewelry and make up. Continue reading “Lessons Learned from My Mom” →

Writing for Myself

by A Purple Life, posted in Hobbies, Musings

I seem to be writing several posts lately about what I don’t want to do 🙂 . I’ve learned a lot this year and it’s only early February. While working as an advisor for this financial start up I was asked to write blogs for her. I originally declined saying I had to write blogs for my current company (true) and was already struggling with that. That is still true to an extent. I find it a lot easier to write about a subject I am passionate about (finance) without a hidden agenda or a particular tone I need to hit that is not my own voice.
Continue reading “Writing for Myself” →

Writing Cured My Writer’s Block

by A Purple Life, posted in Hobbies, Musings

My latest job is unlike anything else I have done in my adult life. Instead of being a cog in giant ad agencies where everyone has their place and sometimes I’m asked to lend a hand in another part of the process, we are now all responsible for creating every part of the process. There are no writers or designers or strategists. There is no one dedicated to client service. We are all of these things. We are consultants. We’re whatever the client needs us to be. This is so refreshing and exciting. In the ad world I am usually bored with my work after 3 months and hungry to quit after 6, but now what we do changes so rapidly I’m always learning or doing something new. Continue reading “Writing Cured My Writer’s Block” →