| 17th March, 2002. 9:58 pm. So...yeah. yeah that'd be
great.
I've been playing with my financial planning for the next year and I am left with a startingly realization. If I keep to my current budget I am NOWHERE near where I need to be when I get out. The two grand I blew on new mics and preamp just DESTROYED ME. That $275 I'm throwing into the TSP (Thrift savings plan...a government mutual and stocks fund) every month is just KILLING me now too. I need that money to help pay for my car and credit card bills. Otherwise I won't have hardly a dime saved when I get out... And last night's entry got me really thinking long and hard about those first few months on the outside. If I don't score a good job right away...and I mean RIGHT away, there is just no way I'll be able to buy a house. I can't bank on getting a job as a paralegal so easily just based on experience. Without my degree or a paralegal certificate, I can't afford to hold onto that kind of blind hope. I doubt I would find an employer that would allow me to work part time while I finished my BA, and if I don't go full time, I don't get my Montgomery GI money. Conclusion...drop out of the TSP, try to find a second job and make SERIOUS cut backs in my casual spending. Trying to be as realistic as possible, if I can get a minimum wage job for like ten hours a week, I'll be looking pretty good. That'll give me about $7500 saved up and I'll be able to last about six months before having a house and no real job will start to hurt. My grandmother on my mother's side left me $2000 for either a home or marriage. I plan on using that for either the entire down payment or at least a decent portion of it, using a VA loan for the rest. All this means, of course, I won't be trying to go to those Tool shows before my class next month (not that I've had any luck getting tickets anyway). It also means the Yonaguni trip is off for sure...not just, well maybe I can go later...it means forget about it (period) Well...if I didn't take any leave to see Thailand or China or any of the other exciting opportunites I have out here, that is...something I simple CANNOT stomach. All is not lost just yet, however. I don't need to become a hermit just
yet. I'm going to talk to the education people and see if it's possible
to get that certificate in the time I have left here on Okinawa. Normally
it's a two year program, but maybe some of my old college courses and my
work experience will cut just enough corners that if I work my bloody ass
off, I'll make it. There's also a way I can bump my Montgomery GI money
from $425/month to $800/month (it doesn't grant me any extra money, just
gives me more of it at a time) so I can probably get by on a menial job
while i finish the last year of my BA at Hayward State U.
Sigh. Maybe I'll just sell the new taping gear. Not like I'm going to get any use out of it around here anyway. That is probably my safest bet. Later on, once I'm settled in cali, I can always rebuy it all. That way I could still have money to enjoy my time here. Double Sigh. I'm off to post notices to a couple taper sites. Current mood: distressed.
Comments:
rainingvodka
rainingvodka
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