Surviving Your Review

I received my first annual review for my job at the end of last week. It was probably the most stressful lead up to one that I have had. It is a completely new position for the company, new boss for me AND fairly nebulous goals outside of the ones that I set for the sales portion of my job.

It actually went quite well, and even the slightly critical feedback was couched as a growth scenario.

It started out with me being told that my boss is a "very hard grader" so don't be surprised by several people. After hearing that multiple times I started thinking...wow, this must be a massacre coming. I had visions all of poor grades, except for safety, which I still don't understand why it is on our review from for Directors and VPs.

Our Grading system is this: 1-5 Point scale with 5 being top. 3 means you are doing everything asked of you, 4 means you routinely go above-beyond, 5 is near perfection. On the other side a 2 means you need improvement and a 1 means you are a moron :)

My review was a solid 4+. Only one 3, mostly 4's and three 5's. By the time we got to the accomplishment section I was feeling pretty good. I had my list of accomplishments with me, even though I had submitted them before. When he had 5 of my key 7 I brought up the others, which were added to the report!

After the final comes the raise part...I knew that even though there was a 3% raise pool, it was very tough to get more then that as a Director. Many friends had been told "That's why you have an MBO; Go earn more."

But I got 4%...Not gonna shake up the world, but it means in April my Debt Snowball can grow and I can chop down those debts faster.

For all of the stress I survived because I was prepared:

• Get accomplishments to Boss before they write reviews
• Clearly state what you want. In my case the end paragraph of my self review clearly laid out why I deserved a raise outside the norm.
• Bring all of the same material to your review
• Don't be afraid to accept constructive criticism; it will only make you better.
• Don't be afraid to defend yourself either!

Best of luck on your next review. Get what is yours!

The Personal Finance Week That Was Is Again

Time to look at those more deserving...The best of the week.

This was an incredibly busy week that led to long hours and a multitude of Issues and Opportunities. Retailers are pretty nervous (i know we are) that store traffic is slow, an early Easter may save 1st quarter for some, but it is to be seen the impact of the stimulus checks and seeing if the cash registers ring or we all put the money under our collective beds.

March is going out like a Lion!

The following Bloggers are always very inspirational to me, in all different ways.

Best of the Week:

• Fiscal Musings: A great piece about selling his first rental property he owned and the lessons learned. My Financial Youth!
• Simplicity in Kansas: An amazing journey for me watching how and what someone can accomplish with their income if they decide to live life well within means. I don't even want to print the number of achieved savings, but a click-thru will blow you away! My financial Brain!
• Paradigm Shifted: If Kansas is my brain, then sometimes deepali can act as my soul. Great perspective. My Financial Soul
• Iowa Hippie Chick: Super piece on recycling you books and videos for cash! My Financial Heart!
• Mrs Micah: Heartfelt Post about a tough week, burnout and pulling yourself up y the boot straps! She is my Financial backbone!

My Most Read Post of the Week:

• When Not to Give Personal Finance Advice

That is it from rain-ville!

See ya Monday!

Better, Stronger, Faster...

OK I have to give up...For the last two weeks I have done everything I could (within financial reason) to fix my data that was lost with the computer crash. I saved most everything except...my Microsoft Money File...

I have a back up of mid-January, and I had been doing the autoback up, but to the desk top...doh!

So I have to rebuild nearly three months worth of data...Luckily have have been doing double entry with the checks so all written checks are backed up...with paper (which never crashes BTW).

So this weekend I have make like Dr. Rudy and take something broken and mangled beyond recognition and rebuild it: Better Stronger, Faster.

Goofy segway, but The Six Million Dollar Man was a favorite show growing up. Had all of the toys including Maskatron! What's the real Colonel (Austin NOT Sanders) have to do with Personal Finance?...We'll: It is at least a great way to examine inflation. I don't think the Government can buy a toilet seat for under $6M now :)

The other lesson is that no matter how mangled, you can rebuild it...it just take a plan...That my weekend :(

New Home Sales Froze Over In February

It is getting tougher and tougher to say that the worst has come in the housing market as every time we do...another part of the floor gives out. But there are signs of a very light thaw starting.

In February, new home sales were down 29.8% year over year. While this is better then expected, home sales still hit a 13-year low as no one wants to buy while things continue to slide. Home inventory is now at a 9.8 month supply and while the median price tick up a little month over month it is still down 2.7% vs last year.

Here in our little mecca in the woods the home values have been hit hard..of course that is directly proportional to the crazy rise in values here for the last 6-years as well. Frankly in you bought 5+ years ago here, you are in good shape even with the slide. But if you just moved back a year ago like I did you are down.

On the upside, open lots in our neighborhood (its about 2-years old) are now all sold out and a bunch of houses are being built. It feel a bit like Field of Dreams as I think the are trying to build their way out of this mess. That being said the other house we looked at in our neighborhood when we bought this one is still on the market 15 months later.

Things are tough all over brother!

How's your area doing?

The Marathon Wall

I have said in this blog over and over again, "Personal Finance is Marathon not a Sprint." But like a marathon often even the best runner hits a wall.

The wall is where you just tire out. For others it is a loss of concentration. And even others describe it as a system breakdown.

Well...I have hit the wall. I am pretty sure it came from a series of Ninja Bills, that, as they do, jumped out of nowhere for their attack. The first was my computer going down, the second was prepping for my presentation, a bonus issue, a late review and finally the last one was just time...or the lack thereof.

It isn't like I have gone off the rails and started charging things, but I am just tired of thinking about my debt all of the time...it really is at times disheartening. It is a long road.

I know what I have to do...I have to get the train back on the rails and then get it moving. Get back on the horse. This weekend, when I have 10-mins...and not at 1am in the morning! I am gonna get caught up and back on track. I look at my sheet and we have accomplished a lot in the last 120 days that it would be a really shame to turf it.

How about you? Hit a wall in your quest? Did you go through it, around it, or are you there right now as well.

Personal Finance QuickTake: To Hell with Homeowner's

Treasury Secretary Paulson said today the housing prices should be allowed to continue to fall in order to allow markets to stabilize and allow buyers to come back into the market.

In other words...That $1.2 Trillion worth of Home Owner equity at stake in the crisis should evaporate. That $1.2T is from a seperate report looking at the write-offs that may happen in regards to loans. It doesn't take into account the lower values of homes that people will hold onto. Regardless $1.2 Trillion equals $4800 for every man women and child in the US, or $24,0000 for my family alone.

The problem with that statement is that it does forget families, which is whose skin this is peeled from. Imagine...they believe the sending my family $2100 is going to be a big stimulus to the economy...what do you think asking me to pay back that $24,000 is gonna do to the economy?

Unless a stabilization plan is put into place, people en masse are going to walk away from their homes. It is already happening. Then the next ripple is to those like me that hold our home and make our payments is that the value further erodes.

Hey...it is my debt, I signed for it. But if you are the government, make sure to see who your are flipping off before you raise the bird!

My Bonus Saga Continues...

So my bonus saga continues. Actually this happened a few days a go and I have been too upset to even write about it.

During my business trip my Boss called my to say that he was going to hand out bonus checks that day and people were going to be upset as since they were all tied to the overall company OI (Operating Income). Tough year, no money. Mine was tied to this as well buy with a slight twist.

I also manage the ad sales portion of our business. You know when you get a magazine or catalog a page says "Advertisement" or "Advertorial?" Yep that stuff. We had a great year with that part of the business and over achieved plan by more then 10%. This would meant that I should have still earned 25% of my bonus + 10% more of that money for aver achieving.

Anyway, he is telling me that I need to not be too happy acting around the others as it would put salt in their wounds...I know this as I have managed people for years, but great, thanks for the heads-up.

About an hour later he calls to tells me that i did NOT make that number, in fact it was well under plan...HUH???

I have my tracking on this and I always know my numbers to the penny...Finance was just wrong. I again give my Boss the numbers and he insists we will get it fixed. I send him the spreadsheet for him to show we made it...comfortably.

Well our crack finance department wrote off over $1 Million worth of advertising! As they say the paperwork wasn't filled out right! I had a size 17 cow...

This is a year later, if there was an issue you would think before writing the amount off, they would...I don't know...check with someone? First my Guys ,so they could fix it, or me, so I could make it happen, or my Boss, the EVP of the company?

Nope the payroll clerk and the Account Receivable person made the call to write it off.

So now my team has to go back after every sale and collect for them...

The real moral of the story is...always know your numbers better that you need to. This is true for your job, budget, bank account etc.. Mistakes can be made and if you know them backwards and forwards you will be able to find out quickly and hopefully remedy the situation! Keep the personal in personal Finance!