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bjarvisEven while monitoring election results, I managed to be somewhat productive through the evening.
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kent4str and I traveled up to Columbia, MD, to borrow Dayle Hodge's square dance sound system to have as a back-up for this weekend's upcoming Harper's Ferry Hoedown.
I sorted through some papers and caught up on filing. Bills were paid, one donation was sent, automated billing for both my Earthlink and Bell ExpressVu accounts were updated and I cleaned the master bathroom a little.
Importantly, I finally had a chance to dig through the medicine cabinet and located the stash of contact lenses I was sure was in there somewhere. I don't need those lenses yet but we're going through open enrollment at work and I needed to know if I needed to set aside funds for a year's supply of contacts. Clearly, the answer is no. However, since my dentist is leaving Aetna's dental plan, I have to increase my medical savings account appropriately from $300/year to $700/year. That should easily cover all medical checkup, prescription and dental care co-pays for the year.
Just now, I've finished my benefits open enrollment. The medical, dental, life insurance and long term disability all remained unchanged; I increased my medical savings account funds and re-enrolled for purchased vacation: I'll buy an extra week of vacation time for a max of four weeks. I'm waiving group legal services and dependent medical savings accounts. We're also skipping on the domestic partner bennies askent4str has a very good array of benefits through his own employer: we've done the math and it's financially advantageous for us to stay on our individual employer plans than to combine ourselves under one or the other.
It occurred to me that my 401(k) contributions weren't included in the open enrollment list, probably since we can adjust our contribution rates throughout the year without penalty. I'm already pegged to the maximum and the ceiling for 2007 is only increasing by $500 to $15,500 so there's no problem there. If I do indeed get a promotion early next year, the potential increase in salary would easily offset any increases in my benefits contributions.
kent4str and I traveled up to Columbia, MD, to borrow Dayle Hodge's square dance sound system to have as a back-up for this weekend's upcoming Harper's Ferry Hoedown.I sorted through some papers and caught up on filing. Bills were paid, one donation was sent, automated billing for both my Earthlink and Bell ExpressVu accounts were updated and I cleaned the master bathroom a little.
Importantly, I finally had a chance to dig through the medicine cabinet and located the stash of contact lenses I was sure was in there somewhere. I don't need those lenses yet but we're going through open enrollment at work and I needed to know if I needed to set aside funds for a year's supply of contacts. Clearly, the answer is no. However, since my dentist is leaving Aetna's dental plan, I have to increase my medical savings account appropriately from $300/year to $700/year. That should easily cover all medical checkup, prescription and dental care co-pays for the year.
Just now, I've finished my benefits open enrollment. The medical, dental, life insurance and long term disability all remained unchanged; I increased my medical savings account funds and re-enrolled for purchased vacation: I'll buy an extra week of vacation time for a max of four weeks. I'm waiving group legal services and dependent medical savings accounts. We're also skipping on the domestic partner bennies as
kent4str has a very good array of benefits through his own employer: we've done the math and it's financially advantageous for us to stay on our individual employer plans than to combine ourselves under one or the other.It occurred to me that my 401(k) contributions weren't included in the open enrollment list, probably since we can adjust our contribution rates throughout the year without penalty. I'm already pegged to the maximum and the ceiling for 2007 is only increasing by $500 to $15,500 so there's no problem there. If I do indeed get a promotion early next year, the potential increase in salary would easily offset any increases in my benefits contributions.
no subject
Date: 2006-11-09 01:21 am (UTC)And what are you doing with an Expressvue account deep in the United Snakes, Mr. Expatriate Canadian?
no subject
Date: 2006-11-09 01:38 am (UTC)The downside is that the purchased vacation can only be used after all regular vacation is taken, and it can't be carried forward. Any unused purchased vacation is paid back in the first pay of December so that the books can be closed cleanly in the calendar year. The implication is that those who purchase extra vacation must exhaust all possible vacation days before November 30, meaning there's no ability to use them to pad one's xmas holidays.
We can only arrange for purchased vacation during the open enrollment period so my group usually buys in to the max knowing we'll get the $$$ back again if it goes unused.
As for ExpressVue, it works really well! It took a little geometry to figure out where to point the dish but we get 88% signal strength and I can keep up with events back home whenever I feel the need. Alas, it's become more expensive: four years ago, it was $9/month and now it's north of $33/month. In Canadian dollars, of course.