New Savings Account

Another short post this morning. I just opened a new savings account with Ally.  The rate is 1.65% and the rate on my old savings account  was 1.00%.  I should earn just shy of $200 a year on my savings with this new rate! I know $200 a year isn't going to make or break me, but it's definitely a nice addition to my savings. 

 I also learned that a company named Marcus was is offering 1.8%, but I have not looked into the details yet.  If it is offering no minimum balance and no fees, I might have to open another savings account!

Retirement Goals and Milestones

Another short post today on retirement goals!

Just a quick reminder, my employer does not offer any retirement benefits.  I am currently saving for retirement in a Roth IRA and a taxable account.  My goal is to contribute $10,500 to my retirement accounts for the year.  I will give specific number updates in my quarterly update at the end of the month.

Anyways on to the point of this post, I'm getting so close to my next retirement milestone of $30,000 in my retirement accounts! I am at $29,364, but the market keeps dropping.  Nevertheless, I was pleasantly surprised last week when I made my mid- month contribution and found the total to be just shy of $30,000. Overall $30,000 is so small, but so big in that I've never had that much money saved at one time before! I cannot wait to see the numbers at the end of the year. 

Getting Too Comfortable At Work

Have you ever noticed that some people get really comfortable at work? It's very strange.  My boss takes naps in his office during business hours.  He is the owner of the firm and announces to everyone that he is going to take a nap.  He stores his kids' old toys in the office.  He has also brought boxes of stuff to the office from when each of his parents died. All taking up valuable work space (this is a small office- one floor of an old house).  

We have a paralegal who lists the office number for her physicians, friends and family.  There is a legal assistant who has files for her personal businesses on the firm computers.  She makes personal business calls from the office telephone and personal business faxes from the office fax number.  There is another legal assistant who lets her step children make personal calls from the office telephone.  Sometimes her step-son's friends will call when he is not there which of course requires office staff to answer the phone for a 14 year old. 

I've never been that comfortable at work.  I don't nap at work, I don't list my work telephone number as a contact number for my doctor offices, I don't even email my friends from my work email address.  I try to maintain a strong separation between work and home life.   I don't have personal knickknacks at work, no pictures, nothing.  I don't even have my degree hanging on the wall.  I always think I don't want to have to lug a lot of stuff around if I get fired or the office moves.  Are you that comfortable at work? 

Emergency Fund to the Rescue

I have not had a chance to post over the last couple of weeks.  It's just been a lot of coming and going.  This will be a short post as well.  Last Friday, after I got home from work I was sitting in the living room working on a project and I heard a loud sound.  It sounded like a metal rack had fallen over.  I looked around the house and in a few closets, but I could not find anything that seemed amiss.  The next morning I went out to the garage so I could drive to a local park and go walking with a friend.  I got into my car and pushed the garage door opener.  The garage door partially opened and then closed.  I was confused.  I got out of my car to see if anything was blocking the door...nothing.  Anyways, to make a long story short, one of the torsion springs on the door had snapped.  How inconvenient!  My sister was flying out of town the next day and I was driving out of town Monday through Tuesday.  I called around and found a company that could come out and fix it that day, of course for a premium, due to weekend work.  The total cost was $335 for about 20 minutes of work (I need that job).  BUT....It was totally worth it to pay extra to get it fixed on the weekend.  My EF had plenty of money to cover the expense and I did not have to take time off from work (where I am already behind) to get it repaired.  We have a lot of rain here in the summer and its best to have a car parked indoors (especially for my 12 year old car that often smells like mildew after it rains).