Bad day - work study funding

As I’ve mentioned before, I’m studying a Masters degree and a Graduate Diploma as well as working.

My Masters degree is directly related to my job, and was directly related to my past job.

It is 8 subjects, with a cost of $2,010 per subject (total cost $16,080).

In my old job:

• I would pay for a subject (actually I would put it on HELP - Higher Education Loan Program);
• I would pass the subject;
• Work would pay for the subject 100%;
• They would pay for all subjects, but if I left the firm within 12 months of paying for a subject I had to pay them back.

I started my Masters in 2008, and left my old job in December 2008. As such, my old work had only paid for my first semester of study, which I had to pay back.

When I started my new job, I was told they would pay 50% of my remaining subjects. I have four left, so it will cost $8,040 – of which work was going to pay half. Now, I have found out that this may not happen.

I’m annoyed for so many reasons:

• I took approximately a $10,000 pay cut when I came here.
• My study expenses (having to pay back my old job, and my new job only paying 50% of my remaining subjects), was effectively another $12,060 I was losing.
• My new job told me they would pay for it, but it’s not in my contract, which makes me annoyed at myself, because I have a law degree! I know to get everything in writing! I think I was just so happy to be leaving my old job that I didn’t focus too much on the details of my new contract.

So really, there is nothing I can do if my work refuses to pay the $4,010. Quitting in this economy isn’t really an option, and even if I found another job, I doubt they would pay for any study expenses (and even if they did, by the time I started I would only have two subjects left). And at the end of the day I do like my job.

But when I went back to Queensland a few weekends ago, I caught up with some old people from my work, and I realised how much I missed working with them. I miss Queensland, I miss my friends, I miss my Mum. I knew financially I was taking a big hit by taking this job. Pay is less and Sydney is more expensive to live than Queensland.

But one of things I loved about my new job was that they really seemed to appreciate me, whereas in my old job it was very much about how many billable hours I had. Things like this happening (not paying for study when they said they would), reminds me of my old job – and at least they did pay for my study (although it did take a lot of ‘discussions’ to finally get the money out of them).

I hope my current job does end up paying for my study – at the end of the day it’s not the money so much as the principle.

$900 Stimulus payment

Well I received my $900 at the end of last week (part of Kevin Rudd's stimulus package) (See information from the ATO).

Now the aim of this stimulus package is that people receive the money, spend it, hence "stimulating" the economy. On principle I disagree with the stimulus package - $42Billion - how long will it take for Australia to get out of budget deficit? And I planned to put my $900 straight on my credit cards.

But I think I might have mentioned previously, I have been needing a new computer for a long time. It does still work, but it is an 7 year old laptop, and it has been on it's last legs for a while. Now the internet is playing up on it.

I do have a computer at work (what I'm using now actually - some personal use is allowed), but I don't really like the idea of using my work computer for personal stuff. I am going to try to hold out for a bit longer - would like to get some of my other income from marking etc through, and am going to list some things on Ebay this coming week/weekend.

I do want to look around and compare prices/brands etc. I always refer to myself as "computer illiterate" when it comes to working out what I should actually buy. Have no idea about things like processor speeed/RAM etc. Luckily my brother has a PhD in information technology (and yet he still couldn't fix my computer!) so he can help me work out what to get.

I'm tempted to buy a desktop to start with, and then once I have saved up some more money buy a mini laptop.

Weekend summary

I had a good weekend money wise. I didn't spend anything except for buying some panadol last night, which was a necessity because I had a killer headache and was all out. However, because it was Sunday night I had to buy it at a gas station, so it cost $5.60, when I think from the supermarket it's about $3.00.

I spent about 7 hours marking assignments, which should earn me over $200 (I'm not sure of the actual rate). (I also did about 5 hours last weekend). Of course, tax will be taken out, but the year is flying by and before I know it, it will be tax time again.

On the note of tax, my brother finally did his tax return over the weekend (it was due October 31 2008). We co-own a rental property, and it turns out that I had underclaimed the depreciation in my tax return. Oops! (That's what I get for doing my tax return in a rush). Anyway, I will lodge an amendment request, and I should hopefully get back almost $500.

So it was quite a profitable weekend!

Extra work/income

Has it been almost a week since I last posted? (Well, 5 days). Time flies when you are having fun .... or should I say time flies when you are working.

However this week I did have "fun", went to the movies Wednesday night and caught up with a friend from Qld for dinner on Thursday.

It is now Saturday and I'm spending most of the day marking assignments. Fun :) But it is extra income, (I'm paid as a casual teaching assistant in addition to my regular research assistant pay), so I can't complain. (Except when you don't give students a choice of topics, reading about the same thing over and over and over and over gets pretty boring after a while!)

Belated March Summary

Two weeks late, but here is my March summary and details of my March expenses.

Summary:
Income: $4,713.72 (salary (net of tax) + a small amount of interest).
Expenses: $3.398.06
Credit card debt: $22,557.06
Cash/savings: $5,514.89

Amazing... my income was more than my expenses for once! BUT: Due to my pay dates, I was paid 3 times this month rather than 2. So my monthly income won't usually be that high.

Details of my March expenses:

Slack slack slack

I've been very slack with my blog lately. It was one of my things to do this long weekend and it's already Monday! Back to work tomorrow.

The long weekend has gone far too quickly. I still have most of today, but I have study to do, going to force myself to go to the gym as well.

Work is getting busy, I went in and did a bit of stuff on Friday even though it was a public holiday. I look back and how many hours I was working last year, and the 3 hours travelling I was doing a day and wonder how I did it? But it wasn't exactly good healthwise.

I work at the one place but have taken on some extra work to try to get some extra income (marking assignments - joyful task!) So add that to the two post-grad degrees I'm doing and things get pretty busy! I made up a schedule a couple of weeks ago ... yeah, that hasn't really been followed.

Anyway, no matter how busy I am, this recent Dilbert joke puts things in perspective!

Transport costs

Back from my weekend back home. It was great to catch up with people, although feeling tired now. I flew back this morning and came straight to work.

I love that airlines such as Virgin Blue & Jetstar have cheap fares, my flights this time from Sydney to Brisbane were $55 each way. However ... my taxi and train fares associated with my trip were more than the flights themselves!

Taxi fare to Sydney airport: $17 (I should have stuck to my plan of getting the bus)
Air train from Brisbane airport to Gold Coast: $22.60
Train from Gold Coast to Brisbane City: $7
Taxi from friend's place in Taringa (Brisbane) to Brisbane airport: $50!!! (I was shocked it was this much, but with the time my flight left this morning I couldn't get public transport and get to the airport in time)
Taxi from Sydney airport to work: $30

Total taxi fares: $97
Total train fares: $29.60

So the cost of my flights (travelling around 2,000km): $110
Cost of taxis and trains (travelling less than 250km): $126.60

Anyone else think that is a bit odd?

March update - credit cards + savings

This will be a very brief update, I still need to finalise my March expenses.

But in terms of my credit card debt vs. cash/bank accounts etc.

My credit card debt as at 1 April 2009 is $22,557.06, meaning I paid off $1,251.04 in March.
My cash/bank accounts as at 1 April 2009 is $5,514.49, an increase of $800.68 from March.

Just an explanation of my bank accounts etc:
My transaction accounts are what I use for day to day banking. As at 1 April they had over $2,600. This was due to getting paid just before the end of the month, I don't usually keep this much money in them.
My short-term savings is saving up for things like a new computer (which I desperately need), but basically any large purchases which I am going to make.
My long-term savings are just that - saving for longer term goals.
My emergency fund is only to be touched if someone is dying or I lose my job.

My main priority at the moment is to pay off my debt, but I'm trying to put a bit of money into each of my savings accounts & emergency fund each pay-day.

I'm very disheartened at the moment over my credit card debt. It's going down, but it still just seems like so much money. I posted a while ago that the Australian government was going to give most taxpayers a bonus. This was challenged in the High Court as to whether it was constitutionally valid. It's been determined it is, so I should get a $900 bonus this month, which will go straight to my credit cards.

Weekend/updates

I still haven't updated my figures for March. Tuesday night I have lectures, Wednesday night my internet was playing up, and last night I worked late and then was busy doing housework etc so didn't get a chance. Will try to update tonight.

I'm going away for the weekend, back to Queensland. It's probably not a good time to go. One, the weather has been awful up there, but I've been feeling homesick of late, so on the one hand it will be great to see family and friends, but on the other hand, I quite likely to not want to come back Monday morning!

My plans for the weekend are:

Saturday
Leave insanely early tomorrow morning. Catching a bus to the aiport and I already have a bus pass so won't cost be anything.
Get the airtrain from the airport to home: think that is a bit less than $20
Meet a friend for coffee/brunch/chat: less than $15 even if I get food
Tomorrow night hopefully go to another friend's for BBQ, she has just bought a house so can't wait to see it. Depends on the weather though. I will take some drinks which I will need to buy: $15?

Sunday
Meet friend for breakfast: $20
Dinner in Brisbane with people from my old work: Train: $10/Dinner: $50 (I'm allowing a fair bit for dinner as I expect there will be some cocktails involved!)
Staying with a friend Sunday night.

Monday
Taxi to airport: $30? (Honestly don't know how much it will be from my friend's place. I should see if I can get public transport).
Hopefully bus back to work on Monday morning from Sydney airport which will be free (well - already paid for bus pass!)

All that comes to $160. I'm going to try to keep it under $150. Much more expensive weekend than usual. However I haven't seen these friends for 3 months so would prefer to spend the money seeing them than wasting it on something else!