Dawn's Evolution

I just had the weirdest, scariest weekend ever. My week or the last few weeks have been a bit stressful with work and school exams coming up, but I am trying to maintain a bit of positivity through it all.

I do have some good news though. As of this month I have reached my tuition goal!
Yep, it's at 100%. I am so happy with it.
I also have a small buffer or emergency fund saved up that I will be fattening.

Right now I am realigning my goals to add on some fun/play time. It's been a while since I have done anything just for fun and I have yet to set foot outside my country.
I plan on traveling, either spending a week abroad or spending a weekend outside the city just having fun.
I'm setting up a budget, I'm hoping to vacation in either September or October. I have to start my internship in November and want/have to be well rested by that time.
At this point my budget is not air tight, most of the amounts are guesses and I will be spending the next month ironing out the needed details.

What do I need:

• To renew my passport. I have been a procrastinator, this is bad as it could take me a few months to get this in order.
  
• Ticket costs of ~$400.
• Play money of ~ $300.
• No hotel cash needed as I have friends and family there who can and want to take me in.

I plan on staying a week, packing lightly and spending as much time outside as possible.
I'm being intentionally vague as to where I am going, but there will be further details when it is all set in stone.

Earlier this month I payed of my laptop, woohoo!
When I made my last payment I received some money back that I then transferred to my tuition account.

With a monetary gift I received from a friend, I fed my tuition account some more and am happy to say that I now have 30% of my tuition saved up.

Yep, I did not blog for a month and that's all the news I have for ya!

Part of the Carnival of personal finance
I had the rudest awakening this weekend.
Nothing is certain, I could lose my job just as easily as everyone else.
I always felt like I was on the outside looking in, not really feeling the crisis, just waiting for it to blow over.
And then I woke up.
The crisis is here and it affects me as well.
So I am making my emergence fund my priority and pushing paying back my debt back a bit.
I can do this because I don't have to pay interest on my debt.
I'm not sure how much my E-fund needs but I will be feeding it cash every month from now on and not set a limit.

For February I put 500 in savings and 500 in the E-fund.
For March I will put 900 in my school account and 300 in my E-fund account.
I don't have any more books to buy so I expect it to be a frugal month for me. The only thing that could set me back would be my sisters birthday, I have a set amount that I am willing to spend on her gift and am now on the lookout for that special something.

At the end of the month I will placing all my extra cash into my extra account, the one I keep forgetting to feed even though I absolutely have to.

That is the plan for now.
If I lose my job now I am in deep trouble, loosing my job would mean no more school tuition, books or anything. My schoolfund is way too small right now.
But my E-fund will be my priority, while I plan on continuing my set saving plan for my tuition.

Since I have already defined what my ultimate goals are, it’s time I listed my short term goals. To do this I will be using the SMART method just to put my schooling to good use. Hehe
What is the SMART method? You may ask, the SMART method helps you properly define your goals. SMART is an acronym for:
S=Specific
M=Measurable
A=Attainable
R=Realistic
T=Time based

So here goes:
My Specific goals:

• Pay my school Tuition
• Receive my 2010 goal salary in 2009 ( I need $14 more, hehe)
• Build up an Emergency fund

How will my goals be Measured:

• Save 2000 Euro’s by the end of February 2010, I still need 1500 Euro’s to pay for next schoolyear
• Get a great performance review and receive more than the minimal salary adjustment (+$14)
• Save up to $1400 and place this amount into a special account for my emergency fund

What do I need to do to Attain my goals:

• Put 150 Euro’s into my school savings account for 10 months
• Educate myself in my new work-project and make use of my contacts. Network some more.
• Put $200 into a separate savings account until I reach the desired amount in my E-fund

Are my goals Realistic based on my current resources:

• I can live comfortably off the money that will remain in my account.

Are my goals Time based? When will they be reached?

• I will reach my tuition goal before February 2010 when I have to make my last tuition payment
• I have my performance review on January 23 2009
• I will reach my E-fund amount within 7 months

I also have goals for this site but before I can fully flesh them out I will need to do some more research. When I have the information I need I will blog about it.
Now all I need to do is figure out how to put a tracking graph in my blog’s sidebar.

These are my short term SMART goals, what are yours?

I need to pay my school tuition in April 2009.
I right now have the beginnings of a E-fund on my bank account and am contemplating transferring that cash to my school fund.
But if I do that I won't have an E-fund anymore.
Decisions, decisions...

This month I will be opening up 2 bank accounts:
1- for salary: this will be opened by my new employer as is standard
2- for savings: I will be automatically relocating about $300 of my salary to this account.
This will be my car-fund.

I still have a few accounts that need to be either closed or be made into savings account. I'm still not sure what I'm going to close yet, I now have a account for every mayor currency. This makes it hard to track my cash. So I need to close a few and move my cash to other accounts I can better keep an eye on.
I will be going to the bank(s) later this month when it's quieter.
Experience has taught me never to go to the bank at the end or beginning of the month.

I still have to figure out when and how to pay for my laptop, I thankfully do not have to pay any interest on it :). But I hate being in debt.

I am still focusing on increasing my income not debt reduction. How?
I took a new job which increased my salary by 31%, (also new stress as it is way above my current skill set).

I am also looking into new ways to increase my income, trying to figure out what skills I can use to make money. Maybe I can get a part time job?

We'll see

How do you increase your income?