It's funny how things come full circle.
One of the most defining moments of my personal finance life took place last February, when I had an epiphany moment. Essentially my job was instituting furloughs, my rent was going up, and I didn't know what to do. Plus it was snowing. It took a phone call home to put things back into perspective for me.
Not even a full year later, while I was out in Colorado Springs attending a conference for my job, I received word that my parent company was reneging on its promise it made this past May to wait until the end of 2009 to reassess furloughs. Instead, the powers that be decided to tack on another day in November and December, making it a total of two days per month. Then there will be a reassessment.That will be fun, I'm sure.
Oh, did I mention the fact that it was snowing like crazy in Colorado Springs? Deja vu all over again.
There are many ways I could take this post, but let's just say that I'm not entirely enthusiastic about my company's plan for recovery. If you want to really find out more, take me out for a drink.
What I'd like to focus on instead, though, is taking experiences from the past and using them to make better decisions the next time around.
For example, in February I had been planning to make a few purchases and investments — a BlackBerry, gym membership, bolster my Roth IRA and other savings, and I was ready to throw that all away and be miserable because of the furloughs.
My mother urged me to go back and take another look at my finances, making me realize that I was saving money without really having any specific plans to use it. Then, I felt like I was a bad person when I would draw against it.
Instead, she urged me to take a different tact: allocate and save toward more specific goals. That way, when I used the money it was for a reason and there was no guilt associated with it. One BlackBerry and gym membership later, I'm glad I took my mother's advice. Everything has been fine, considering the circumstances.
One of the most defining moments of my personal finance life took place last February, when I had an epiphany moment. Essentially my job was instituting furloughs, my rent was going up, and I didn't know what to do. Plus it was snowing. It took a phone call home to put things back into perspective for me.
Not even a full year later, while I was out in Colorado Springs attending a conference for my job, I received word that my parent company was reneging on its promise it made this past May to wait until the end of 2009 to reassess furloughs. Instead, the powers that be decided to tack on another day in November and December, making it a total of two days per month. Then there will be a reassessment.That will be fun, I'm sure.
Oh, did I mention the fact that it was snowing like crazy in Colorado Springs? Deja vu all over again.
There are many ways I could take this post, but let's just say that I'm not entirely enthusiastic about my company's plan for recovery. If you want to really find out more, take me out for a drink.
What I'd like to focus on instead, though, is taking experiences from the past and using them to make better decisions the next time around.
For example, in February I had been planning to make a few purchases and investments — a BlackBerry, gym membership, bolster my Roth IRA and other savings, and I was ready to throw that all away and be miserable because of the furloughs.
My mother urged me to go back and take another look at my finances, making me realize that I was saving money without really having any specific plans to use it. Then, I felt like I was a bad person when I would draw against it.
Instead, she urged me to take a different tact: allocate and save toward more specific goals. That way, when I used the money it was for a reason and there was no guilt associated with it. One BlackBerry and gym membership later, I'm glad I took my mother's advice. Everything has been fine, considering the circumstances.
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