Update - finances, work etc

I can't believe it's been almost 2 weeks since I posted. Work and study have been flat out, although I'm finally starting to get over my flu/virus/chest infection/whatever I had.

Finance wise, things are looking up. I spoke to my boss about tuition fees, and it's all good - put in my expense claim today, although I don't know how long it will take to come through. But when it does it will be $2,100.

I've been doing some lecturing which I didn't think I was going to get paid extra for - I was workin gon the "it's a good experience and will help on my resume", but my boss came and spoke to me last night and said she will pay be as a casual for any lecturing I do because is so far outside my job description. Which it is - I'm meant to be a research assistant and I'm taking 3 hour lectures on tax law. They are at an introductory level, but still!

Still have to finish my tax - it's on a very long list of things I have to do for study and work.

But once I get my tax refund etc, I'm hoping that I'll only have one CC left with an amount owing - one where I am on a lifetime balance transfer rate, so although I want to get it paid off, I'm not as stressed about it as my other ones.

In bad news, my flatmate (whose parent's own our flat) has put my rent up. Good news - only by $5 a week. :) And I love living here so much that that doesn't bother me. Our clothes dryer is also broken, which in summer I wouldn't care about, but since it's winter in Australia, it's been a hassle drying off clothes. We are getting someone to come and look at it on the weekend, but I'm thinking it won't be cheap getting it fixed.

Back to the study - have an assignemnt due tomorrow as well as stuff to do for work. I think it will be a late one!

Weekend of work ahead

I've finished my exams for my Masters this semester, which means I don't have to study this weekend.

However, I think I will be pretty much working all weekend, marking exams for other courses. It's all extra income, which is great, but I'm looking forward to having a weekend off at some point!

I'm seeing a friend for dinner tonight - and it sounds like it is an expensive restaurant. However, he doesn't live in Sydney, he lives a couple of hours drive away, and is just here for the night before going overseas. I haven't seen him for over a year so it will be good to catch up.

Queen's Birthday Weekend

It is a public holiday here on Monday. It is now Friday 5:34pm so officially the long weekend :)

This week just gone has also been a four day week for me, I took Monday as annual leave and went back home.

Not much planned for this weekend. Tonight I have to iron as I have no clothes in my wardrobe (slight exaggeration, but really all the clothes left in my wardrobe are shorts/t-shirts - it is now officially winter here).

I'm going to see Angels and Demons tomorrow night with my brother and Dad. Last time we went to the movies I used movie money and also bought the popcorn/drinks - so I'm hoping this time my Dad will offer to pay. But it's always weird with him and money, if he does pay (in the sense that he pulls out his wallet first etc), you never know whether to offer to chip in or not. It seems if you do he refuses to take the money, but if you don't he thinks you should have.

Rest of the weekend will be work and study. I'm doing some extra work (marking) (which I have been doing for the past few weeks - it should add up to a nice little extra sum in my pay). And on a positive note - it looks like my comments "Do not use Wikipedia - it is not a scholarly source) has been heard by the students. I'm the first to admit I use Wikipedia sometimes for general knowledge - but not for postgraduate tax assignments!

Final exams are coming up (at least all my assignments are finished), and I have a conference paper to write which I'm starting to slightly panic about. I'm second author, but I'm basically taking the reins.

Another fun weekend planned

Another fun weekend of study in front of me. I mentioned back at the start of the month that I had 7 assignments and 2 exams in May. I've completed both exams and have handed in 4 of the 7 assignments. Have two more assignments due Monday and my final one on Wednesday. Then, have 3 weeks of freedom from assessments before having 2 final exams in mid to late June.

The only good thing about having to spend the weekend studying is that it means I'm not out spending money - as long as I can resist fast food. (Which I seem to eat an awful lot of when studying). Going to cook a bit stir fry tonight which should do for a lot of the week.

Warning: This post will be a bit of a rant!

I mentioned back in March that I wanted to study a Masters of Tax in the US, and that doing so would cost about $100K AU. Well, after spending the last hour trying to decipher some US Tax Regulations, I'm realising that maybe studying tax in the US wouldn't be as fun as just going on holidays there!

I'm sure in reality US tax is no more confusing that Australian tax, but when it's almost 10pm at night; there is no one I can talk to about it (and even if it wasn't almost 10pm at night there is really no one I work with who is a specialist in US tax law); and the US tax textbooks I have are pretty useless (note to self, never buy US tax textbooks again unless I can look at them first!), I wonder why on earth I had a desire to study it!

I'm working on a very annoying research paper comparing certain provisions of Australian and American tax law. I would prefer to be at home, but considering it's due Monday I really need to keep working on it!

Rant over.

Textbook frustration

Back at the end of March, I posted about how I spent $311.95US on U.S. Tax Textbooks.

Well now I'm p*ssed off. I bought two books - essentially a "Basic Principles" and a "Comprehensive Topics" book. Well, it turns out that all bar two chapters of the Basic Principles Book (and not two chapters I need) are reproduced EXACTLY in the Comprehensive Topics book. So buying the Basic Principles book was completely unnecessary and a complete waste of money.

And although I work at a university and there is a big market for second hand textbooks, there really isn't a market for U.S. Tax Textbooks.

Very frustrating.

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.

I'm a geek

I just spent $311.95 US (think it will be around $450AU) at Amazon. And they weren't even fun books! (Sigh, how many "fun" books could I have gotten for $312US? A lot!)

I just spent $311.95 US buying two textbooks on US Federal Income Tax.

I'm a geek.

If any of my friends ever say "I've spent too much money", it's usually followed by "I shouldn't have bought another pair of shoes", or "I shouldn't have bought that bag", or "I really need to stop going out so much". Me, I just blew my budget on tax textbooks!

At least they are tax deductible!

I have some hard-core saving to do

Obviously my first financial priority is to pay off my debt. But after that, I have some hard core saving to do.

It's a dream of mine to study tax in the U.S. - there is an international tax program at NYU; and an LLM with a tax specialisation at Harvard.

This is from the Harvard website:
"A year in Harvard Law School's LL.M. program is expensive. Tuition for 2007-2008 is $39,325; in addition, the costs of dormitory housing, food, medical fees, books and supplies, activity fee, and personal and travel expenses for a single student come to at least $23,097, for a total of at least $62,422".

And that's US dollars! I feel so depressed about it, it is something I really want to do, and although I will be trying for a scholarship, it seems like unless I get one (and they are extremely competitive) I will never get there. I'm expecting to take until the end of next year (2010) to pay off my debt, and that was "only" $25K. (Yes, I know it is still an incredibly high amount but compared to approx $100K AU which the program + living expenses would be, it isn't much!)

Unless there is a kind reader with almost $100K AU reading this who feels like helping me out?? ;)