Thursday, December 30, 2010

New Year - Refreshed goals

Typically I like reading other blogger s new years goals and their year long wrap ups. To my horror I looked at my blog and have not posted since July. Wow. I am not sure where all the time passed to.

In quick summary I have had a new DD child#3. She is beautiful and wonderful I am so happy she is here. She arrived via C-section so my recovery was slow. I also fought mastitis, bladder infection and nursing. Toddler adjustments to a little sister being born were tough but he is handling it OK and we are on the road to being a happy family. Lots of family visitors this time and my DD#1 home from school. In Nov I returned to work for 2 weeks only to skip out again for Thyroid surgery. It took a LOT of effort on family to make that happen and I cant say enough how grateful to my mom I am that she came for a stay.

So here we have arrived at the end of December.
Yesterday was an insane day and I want to blog about the choices I made.
As this is pretty much a pf blog lets look at yesterday from a financial perspective. I am still not sure I made the right choice and I am a bit nervous about it. It really helps me to see things written down

Yesterday was Health Care. So here we go...

Currently I have been paying $578.26 per month

If I left my health care alone it would cost me $855.82 per month. So Obviously we are NOT going to spend that kind of money

The PPO plan is $369.28 per month
The ALT plan is $288.64 per month

So.... I am going with the ALT plan. It makes me nervous but we are going to try it for one year to see if we like the plan. If I don't like it, I will change it to the PPO. We are done with the HMO.

I will save $289.62 per month by making the switch. That adds up to $3475.44 per year. Hmmmm that is two credit cards in a year. Well there is the reason right there to do it. Done. I just needed to see it in black and white. And if we end up paying a lot of $ out of pocket will deal with it when it comes.

Here were my last years goals:
  1. Pay off 28,077.53 amount of debt, or this year about $9000.00. That equates to $750.00 per month. I am budgeting about $800.00 to debt but some of that is interest. So we’ll see how I do.
  2. Lose 20 lbs
  3. Learn to be a SharePoint developer/programmer
#1 was not so hot. Over the course of the year despite paying down some debts here and there they were also increased here and there the net sum for the year: I paid down $ 581.81 total. UGH So goal #1 will be renewed. Pay off $9000.00 of debt.

#2 I have indeed lost 20 pounds. Goal for 2011 Keep it off and loose 20 more.

#3 I did not start a blog and I did not write enough code to be considered a developer. But that is a higher priority this year. Baby is here. No more kids I have the IUD to prove it. Focus is going to be on self and career. Because if I truly want to get out of credit card debt I will have to increase my salary. I have one more year at my employer so they pay the % of my DD tuition. After that I want the economy to be solid enough to risk looking. But I think I can do it. I just have to sharpen a few skills first. So Goal #3 is really #1 and I have a plan on how to accomplish it.

I have a SP environment in which to practice writing code
I have 3 developer books that I can use
I WILL sit down each morning for 1 hour per day and write code. To be a good author you have to journal and write every day. Same with programming to be a good developer you have to write code each Day. The blog has somewhat successfully helped me to be accountable to my finances and I hope the same effect will happen with SharePoint.

So there we go nothing new under the sun except t scars and a beautiful daughter. Good bye 2010. Welcome 2011!