Word Eatage

So, I will have to eat my words on the last post.

Yes, it doesn't take long to write. However, this thing called the brain can get overwhelmed at times and in those five minutes that are free, a post will not come forth.

Such has been my last few weeks. I've worked over 115 hours (officially), but unofficially it's been about 125-130 hours. And, it's required a lot of focus on reading documents, analysis, and decision making that impacts a lot of peoples lives as far as their day jobs are concerned.

I'm still not done with the entire process, and along with that we are hiring more people internally and I've been trying to catch up on all of the emails. It took 15 hours last weekend to get caught up - meaning only about 100 emails left in the work inbox when I started work last Monday.

Wow. I'm too old for this. I remember working 90 hour weeks all the time in my 20s and juggling 3 jobs. Now, I can't make it. No more super woman multi-tasking coming from me.

Ok, well, maybe a bit of it behind the scenes.

Where did those lazy days of summer go? When did we actually have lazy days of summer? I have no idea when they actually occurred. It must have been sometime in junior high.

and so I digress...

Now it's 11 p.m. on a Saturday night and all I did today was work, walk, take toilets to the dump, eat at a Caribbean restaurant, go to the post office, track my finances, cut my man's hair, and read part of a book and take a 10:00 p.m. stroll in the moonlight.

Hmmm. Now, what am I actually complaining about?

Saturday Morning Spreadsheet

Every Saturday morning I get up and fill out my personal finance spreadsheet. Yes, I could do a lot of this in even more electronic ways. But, the act of filling out the spreadsheet actually helps me internalize what is going on with the money. Saturday is the day with the least rigor in my life and most susceptible to money spendage. Filling out the spreadsheet is the psychological reminder that I really don't have anything to spend when I walk out the door on Saturday morning.

This morning I filled out the "Investment" tab and realized that my accounts are down around 40%. Wow. Some are down 80% and some are not down much, but the grand total is about 40%. Yet, on the "Debt" tab, my debt is barely moving. Of course, it doesn't help that my mortgage payment, the yearly home and car insurance fee and the yearly neighborhood association fee all came out of this last check. Still...even if that hadn't come out it would still not be chipping away.

I could stop contributing to the 401K, but then I would end up giving that money to Uncle Sam anyway because the 401k helps lower my taxes (and apparently no actual savings benefit right now).

Just a sign of the current times I guess, but it is a glimpse into how bad it must really be. What about those that are retiring, lost their jobs or are stuck in any kind of non-perfect situation (divorce, random health issue, fewer hours, or this thing called life, etc.).

I don't have the answers, I just have my spreadsheet.

It looks like I will just be buying some gas and a couple of carrots today.