My Wife Is Beginning a New Career

My wife has enjoyed working at her current job, but has always wanted to have a career in a health related sales field. Since college, she has focused on learning about this competitive industry and what it takes to get into it. Long story short, over the past four weeks, she has been in a series of interviews with a company and yesterday, received an offer. . . and accepted!

This is such a blessing and something we have been praying for for quite awhile. I am very happy that my wife will be able to work in the industry she is passionate about. Her hard work and persistence paid off.

This new job will also greatly increase our household income. Check it out:

• $52,500 base salary
• $20,000+ annual bonus
• $20,000 annually for entertaining clients
• Company car and gas card
• Computer
• Matching 401(K) plan
• Excellent health and dental insurance
• 3 weeks vacation
  

She starts next month and already really likes her future co-workers.

May 2008 Net Worth Update (+$4,247.51)

NOTE: This net worth update is a week early because my wife and I are going on vacation.

What worked:
May was an awesome month for our net worth. It increased $4,247.51 from last month to $35,685.46. This puts us at 74.66% of our 2008 net worth goal of $47,800.What worked: Our retirement accounts lead the way. We invested a total of $1,771 in our retirement accounts and saw an overall increase of $2,296.99. We also were able to increase our savings by $1,358.10, primarily because of my wife's "extra" check this month.

What did not work:
Our taxable accounts total went down a whopping $14.45.

Next month:
June may end up being a mild month for our net worth. It is likely that we will have to pull some cash out of savings to pay off the vacation we will be on next week.

Economic Stimulus Tax Rebate Check

In anticipation of receiving our Economic Stimulus Tax Rebate Check on the May 16, we made a $1,200 contribution to our Roth IRAs. We've contributed $3,400 total so far this year, leaving us with $6,600 more to go to reach the 2008 max of $10,000 ($5K each) .

During a BBQ with our neighbors over the weekend, we discussed what we were going to do with our stimulus checks. One of my neighbors said he has already spent his on various items, including $400 shoes. When I mentioned that we planned to deposit ours into our Roth IRAs, he asked why we bother to at such a young age. My response was, "Because I do not want to work after age 52". He said he did not want to work past 50 either. More power to him.

Does She Not Stop?

My wife scored a $944 commission this check from her company this month!

Her commission checks are great because they are "extra" money that we can put towards savings and/or retirement investments since our regular saleries cover our month-to-month expenses. What a blessing.

May is turning into a very good net worth increase month for us. I can't wait to update our numbers at the end of the month.

Closing The Deal

Great news! My wife has been working on a large business deal and last week obtained the signed contract. It's great to see her hard work pay off. She will receive a $3,800+ commission from the sale when the invoice is paid in a couple of months.

In addition to the awesome initial commission, there is a good likelihood that this account will produce additional commissions for her down the road thru maintenance of the system she sold and other work this customer needs done.

My wife is a CLOSER.

April 2008 Income Statement

We did a great job of staying within our budget this month (click on spreadsheet below). In fact, this is the least amount of money we have spent in quite awhile, which is great after last month.

One of the few areas we went over budget was $222.30 in our Entertainment category because we had a couple of nights out with friends celebrating their birthdays. Incomewise, I received a 2.07% raise. My wife earned $466.91 in commissions and $40.80 in reimbursements. We also received a $66.65 cash back reward from our Citi credit card and a $50 gift card to a restaurant from our American Express. We earned interest income of $12.10.

May should be a another great income month. My wife gets 3 paychecks next month (extra one going to savings) and hopefully a ~$700 commission check. We possibly should also receive our $1,200 tax rebate which will be apllied to our Roth IRAs. Our expenses will be a bit higher because we have a week long vacation up the coast planned.