bankrate
I forgot to include the information on a great site to search interest rates;
birthdays, cycling, school, baseball, work, monsoons, and money
My birthday is coming up, and I just can't seem to be excited about it. I guess I'm gettting old. I do have plenty of other things to talk about though, so here we go.
The tour de france is going on, so that means it's time to sit in front of the tv entirely too much and watch cycling. This year's race looks to be a good one, with no one being a clear leader after about a third of the race being done. I really enjoyed watching Lance win, but it did get kind of boring and predictable.
Tonight I just finished my 11th class since I returned to school, totalling 33 credit hours. Assuming I get the grade I expect in this last class that will mean I have a 3.35 GPA since returning. It's not perfect, but I'm proud of it considering all the other things going on in my life. I do have plenty of time left, but the key part to all this is that I'm more than half way through my core classes now, with only 10 more to go. Sometime between 1 year and 1.5 years should have me done with the core classes and focusing on the rest of the various credit hours I need to graduate.
So I went to my second Diamondbacks game of the year with my dad on Friday and watched them beat up on the Padres a bit. The previous three years I had a part in season tickets so it's been a hard change only going to two games so far this year, but I think I'll manage. I have been following the team pretty actively still and didn't like the last few weeks of the first half of the season where they went from looking like a first place team, to looking like a third place team. It's funny how that is exactly what they did in the standings. I'm not ready to give up yet, but is it too early to start being optimistic about next year?
Work
has been interesting lately. I mentioned previously that I had to lay
someone off, and the layoffs have been hard on the company as a whole.
They've made me go back to my previous thoughts about how secure my
career really is? I am a pretty integral part of technology decision
making on one of the largest networks on earth. Sounds impressive
doesn't it? Not really if it doesn't mean career security. It doesn't
necessarily mean a thing if I can't find a job in Phoenix. Would we
move? Would we live with less money? Should I change jobs now?
There are some new folks in our marketing organization that I get along with that have me tempted to work on getting a job over there to help branch out my resume in to some business focused areas. There is also an open position in Sales Engineering where I have been asked if I'd like to go work. I'm not sure I'm ready for a move yet, but it is a good thing to make sure I'm getting the most out of my employment at the moment. It is nice to be in a situation where I have some choices that I didn't have a few years ago, that means I've done a good job of growing in my job and skills. What do you all think? Add Marketing or Sales to some Engineering and Management background? Keep doing what I've been doing? If I keep doing what I've been doing I definitely need to start talking to people in my industry at other companies more so I could have a place to land if difficulty/buyouts happened over here.
It's raining outside still. We had our first good non-middle-of-the-night storm of the monsoon season this evening and we sat out on the porch as a family to watch. It's those little things that make life great. Sitting outside and watching the rain is so much fun for us rain starved desert dwellers.
Money Money Money.
It's an interesting subject for everyone, and between getting married and taking an economics class I got motivated to do a bunch of research on it. It's funny how awkward the world is about making it public, but I'll conform and not give specifics, just the mentalities we're working with and maybe some periodic updates.
After buying the house, some things to furnish it, and a wedding, we're looking at what our priorities are and what we're doing to get there.
I won't go through the whole thing now, but I'll start off with what our first step and what I've learned about it.
At a high level, we have assets and we have some debt. We are in the black overall, but we still have plenty of room for improvement.
Step 1 - Save 3 months of combined take-home salary in a FDIC insured high interest bank account.
The key to this step is being fairly liquid in an emergency and having the ability to respond to a number of situations with little impact to your lifestyle. This step is underway.
I've found that the highest interest rate account that anyone recommended was;
The two incumbents appear to be;
and
These accounts all should grow at or above the inflation rate and are government insured against loss ($200,000 per bank for a joint account, or $100,000 per bank per individual - no concern there!) like any standard bank. Leaving this account alone after it has 3 months is recommended, and aggressively repaying any money that has to be removed from it for an emergency should bea priority.
I'll talk more about it later, I hope someone out there finds this a little useful. If for no other reason than remembering it myself, I know it won't be a complete waste of time.
kaelyn's first zoo visit
From Lori's company picnic in March;
http://www.disturbed.org/gallery/v/mikes_pictures/events/apollo2007/