Chicky Finance

I love my Job!

Posted on Friday, October 03, 2008 comments (7)
Labels: Career, CPA Exam

What a week right? I know I disappeared as soon as the calendar hit Oct 1st. Good news is so far I am loving my job. If I can prove myself at this position, there is so much room to grow. I am doing stuff that I never done before so right now it is challenging and fun. Another thing is I have a room! When I left my previous company I was little worry that the new company might have put me in a cubicle. I was dead wrong, I have spacious room with nice furniture, glass doors, two computer screens. The day I started they gave me a blackberry with Verizon and of course they will pay it fully. Otherwise I wouldn’t take it at all. In fact I don’t understand people who pay for email service themselves but they say it is for work. If it is for work then company should pay. My colleagues seem very nice people. I went to lunch with one of girls. She seemed very friendly and funny even though she looks very quiet from outside This week was very much learning, learning, learning by asking thousands of questions. Next week is hopefully the time to shine and impress my manager!
Besides my new job, other important things are going right now. I have my very first client outside of my fulltime job. This subject deserves a post itself. I dont think I will make much money but I will end up with beautiful designer jewelries without paying a dime. Also my favorite CPA prep teacher, Roger Phillips, is doing favor for Chicky Finance readers who are accountants or students who wants to become a CPA. What is the favor? You gotta wait for next post for that! :)

September Debt Update

Posted on Tuesday, September 30, 2008 comments (8)
Labels: Debt, Progress

Tomorrow I will be starting my new job. I am excited and at the same time little nervous. I hope I like my work and new colleagues. My last day at work was today. I went to lunch with my close colleagues, they all wished me luck from their heart which was really sweet. Now it is the time to turn a new page in my life. BTW, I am really curious about my next paycheck, in fact I already start dreaming about it. :) Before I lose myself dreaming about my salary, I should summarize the Ugly debt currently I have.

CC#1: Paid Off

CC#2: Paid Off

CC#3: Paid Off

CC#4:$3,200 interest %0 until November. It was $4,000 last month.

Loan: $14,500 interest %8.9 Same as the last month

Total: $17,700

As you can see I am under 18K to be exact $17,700 which is $700 less than last month. I guess I could do better but if you consider all the travel I've been doing since my mom came, I am happy with my performance. In October and November I plan to get rid of CC#4 and pay off around $2,000 towards IRS and start attacking the personal loan ($14,500)...

It's boy: I am Aunt now

Posted on Sunday, September 28, 2008 comments (8)
Labels: News, Travel

Life is unpredictable. This weekend this assumption proved itself true one more time. As I planned to spend time with my sister, my mom and meet with Budget Mama for lunch, instead something else happened. My sister suprisingly delivered her baby 2-3 weeks early. In fact her baby decided to come while I was on the plane so I ended up driving directly to the hospital from the airport and helped her out for 15 hours to deliver the baby. It is a healthy,cute,adorable baby boy. What a miracle! I am very happy but at the same exhausted (I can not even imagine how tried my sister must be), I really dont know how I am going to handle this week. I will have my last 2 days at my current company and start working for a new company as of Oct 1st, Wednesday.

Funny Resignation Letter

Posted on Thursday, September 25, 2008 comments (1)
Labels: Career

Is my Credit Card debt “good debt”?

Posted on Wednesday, September 24, 2008 comments (7)
Labels: Career, Debt

Normally CC debt would be considered “bad debt” but what if you finance your education with credit card? In the beginning of this year I couldn’t believe my eyes when I say almost $26K credit card debt and nothing to show. I thought I must have gone to fancy dinners, vacations and shopping sprees. After going through my past statements I had a shocking reality. I actually financed my education in the US via credit cards..My credit card statements show that I charged my tuitions, books and park fees all on my credit card and paid minimum for 2 years. Apparently I’ve accumulated $26K CC within two years! Eeek..I feel better though just because at least I feel I went into debt for something good. I would not still call it “good debt” but I would call it for good cause. As of September of this year I have $18,500. I know it is still a lot but at least I can see the light to pay it off by the end of 2009 and become debt free. Becoming debt free is a hard process. It takes being persistent and patient. I sometimes feel I am falling off the wagon but then I pull myself together and fight harder. Lately, I’ve been feeling the debt is not going down as fast as I want it to be and it is really frustrating. I just try to keep in mind that as long as I don’t add additional debt and pay thousand something dollars per month, I will become debt free. I am just trying to use simple logic and stick to my plan.

No More Moderate Comments

Posted on Wednesday, September 24, 2008 comments (4)

Just a quick note, I am not going to moderate comments anymore. That means as soon as you comment, it will appear on my blog. Please be nice to me ok? :)

SF trip this weekend..

Posted on Wednesday, September 24, 2008 comments (3)
Labels: Travel

As you might remember I was in SF last weekend. I spent quality time with my mom and two sisters but honestly I was exhausted while coming back. This weekend I am flying as well, in fact this time I will meet with Budget Mama and her DS! We will most likely eat lunch together and chit chat about our lives.. Budget Mama probably knows more than most of my friends. :) I am really excited about this blind meeting! After this weekend I need to focus on my new job. Before I know it will be Oct 1st and I will start working. It sucks that I don’t even have one day off between jobs. Also on October 24th-25th Mr. Finance and I will be going camping in Santa Barbara which is already paid for. While I was reading Krystal’s blog I saw that she posted her to do list and I thought I’d better do the same thing otherwise the list getting longer every day.

Go to dentist for cleaning
Go to optometrist and get more contact lenses
Take our female cat to vet to fix her and vaccines
Pay car loan
Try to reschedule INS biometrics appointment (part of immigration process)
Get ready for camping in Santa Barbara
Purchase 2 plane tickets to SF for November. I don’t think this time my sister will pay for it.
Go to hairdresser for coloring
Make a new adjusted budget for my new pay scale
Help my friend out to set up her accounting software for her retail store
Get ready for tailgate party on Oct 18th for UCLA football game
And moreeeee……….

No more stressing out myself..

Posted on Wednesday, September 24, 2008 comments (1)
Labels: Career, Lessons

Life is unpredictable..I just need to accept this fact. After stressing out a couple of days for my new position, I finally gave up. There is nothing I can control at this moment about the US economy. While the congress is making decision, they are not going to ask my opinion. The only thing I can do is to be on top of my own finances and be positive about the whole job thing. If worse comes worse and they draw the offer, so be it. I’ll pick up myself and continue my life stronger.

I am Stressed..

Posted on Tuesday, September 23, 2008 comments (10)
Labels: Career

Like many, I have been disturbed by the financial turmoil we've been experiencing. I'm also worry about my new job situation. Do you think they might call me and take the offer back? And I become jobless suddenly? I hope they would not do something like that but I am trying to get ready something like that just because I want to be ready for any bad news. At the same time I'm aware that it is not healthy to think the way I do... My first day will be in Oct 1st and I can not wait to start. God please I hope they dont change their mind..

More SF Trips!

Posted on Friday, September 19, 2008 comments (4)
Labels: Travel

Today after work I will be leaving for Bay Area. This weekend and following weekend I will be flying there (southwest) because I’d like to spend more time with my two sisters and my mom. I can see your eyes right now rolling and asking me how I can afford to fly SF every other weekend and sometimes every weekend. Thanks to my generous sister..She pays for all my flights. If she didn’t pay for them I could not see my mom and sister as many times past few weeks. She can afford it, I can not and she knows that. Two round trips to SF cost her $350. In the beginning of this year I owed her $700. Slowly I paid that off by writing articles for her new venture but now she is getting me all these trips and she does not want me to worry about the cost, how sweet is that? When I go there I will probably spend not much and I am not going to make the same mistake I did last time about parking at the airport. Mr. Finance is taking me to the airport and picking me up on Sunday which will save me from $45 parking fee, Eeek.

Juicy News about…

Posted on Wednesday, September 17, 2008 comments (21)
Labels: Career

I have great news! I GOT the JOB! The one I went to million interviews. I am really really excited about the whole thing. I think this job will be challenging but at the same time very rewarding for the future of my career. I gave my resignation today and I will be starting the new position on Oct 1st. The exit interview was smooth, my manager was upset because he said he is loosing “valuable, terrific” employee. :)

Let’s talk about money now! My base salary will be $51K + “guaranteed” 8,000 minimum annual bonus! What do ya think? I will be making $19K more than what I am making right now. Yay! I also put together a chart to see my salary progress since I’ve come to USA as an immigrant in 2002 with little to no English. I was making $8/hr working fulltime and going school full time at the same time. Six years later here I am and the whole picture is different. Brighter and happier..I hope that inspires some of you who struggles in life but never give up...

How am I dealing with Google Page Rank Issue?

Posted on Sunday, September 14, 2008 comments (4)
Labels: PPP Strategies

This is how…I don’t care…Whether my “real” Google PR 2-3 or even higher I don’t care it shows “0” because for me Chicky Finance is just a way of me dealing with consumer debt. Google as many of us know is penalizing “paid blogs” especially PayPerPost related ones. Let me ask you this if I don’t do PPP, is google going to pay me $100 per month (that’s average what I am making every month through PPP)? NO, they will not pay me $100 just because I have a “pure” blog. Having said that almost a year I don’t plan to add Chicky Makes Cents to PPP so, I can see if there is any opportunity cost by having PPP.

Citibank, it is time to separate our ways

Posted on Sunday, September 14, 2008 No Comments
Labels: Lessons

I had three accounts with Citibank. I decided to close them several months ago and I did. At least I thought I did. A couple days ago I receive a letter from Citibank saying that my account $43.50 overdraft and will be suspended. WTF??? I closed these accounts long time agoooo. It turns out that they’ve only closed 2 of my accounts so one account was still open and $43.50 service fee+overdraft charge (which is caused by service fee). I called their customer service and they assured me they corrected their mistake. After couple of days, I received a voice mail from Citibank saying that my account is still overdraft and will be suspended. Arggg..Called again again and again…They said this time they corrected their mistake for sure! I will still keep eye on them and call within couple of weeks to see everything is ok. Lesson from this experience is always open your mails even if you think they are junk mail. Don’t expect any customer service will be flawless and always FOLLOW UP..

Free Credit Card Machine?

Posted on Saturday, September 13, 2008 comments (1)
Labels: PayPerPost

Nowadays seems like almost everybody loves using those plastic cards when it comes to shopping. I personally use my debit card for almost every transaction because at the end of a month I can have a spending report without spending too much time. Whatever shop I go, I just expect to have a credit card machine to swipe my debit card. However do you know how much even that little machine costs? Let’s put it that way a lot. If you are starting a new retail business, I have news for you. I came across http://www.onlinecheck.com/ and they offer free terminal your to keep ($295 value) if you use their credit card processing service. They offer next day merchant funding, you can process orders today-get paid tomorrow. Once you sign up their merchant account, you can accept credit cards: Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover*and there is No long-term contracts. (I don’t like contracts), Process month to month, 1.59% transaction rate(I am not sure how good this rate is, you need to make your own research on that), There is NO Annual Fee and you can Cancel anytime. Also they offer Free Terminal Replacement Insurance/Warranty – If anything happens to your terminal, they will replace it free of charge. This service is offered for the life of your account with Merchant Advisors. And last, there is 30 day free trial so nothing to lose!

Gym Membership Experiment

Posted on Saturday, September 13, 2008 comments (2)
Labels: Experiment

I stopped my gym membership several months ago when I started this blog. Just a side note, when I had my gym membership, I was a kind of person who goes to gym ever single day. Nowdays, I feel depressed because I really WANT to start gym again. But this time I dont want it monthly month basis. Instead I 'd like pay 3 months ($99) or yearly membership($299). Yearly membership when you divide 12 costs much less then monthly dues and also I dont have to pay for initiation fee and processing fee. There is only one problem though I dont have $99 to get 24 Hours fitness 3 month membership so I decided to have a little experiment.I will try to make $99 today and tomorrow just using PayPerPost. Can I do it? We shall see!

Gym Experiment:

Goal: Earn $99 this weekend through PayPerPost

Time: Only this weekend