Heading to California!

It is official: I'm returning to the mothership visiting my employer's corporate headquarters in Foster City, CA. I'm scheduled to be there Jan 4-10, 2011.

Now I just have to survive xmas & new year's...

And I'm definitely not planning a repeat of the kidney stones I had the last time I was there, although I now know of a lovely hospital with very nice staff.

Heading to California!

It is official: I'm returning to the mothership visiting my employer's corporate headquarters in Foster City, CA. I'm scheduled to be there Jan 4-10, 2011.

Now I just have to survive xmas & new year's...

And I'm definitely not planning a repeat of the kidney stones I had the last time I was there, although I now know of a lovely hospital with very nice staff.

Year-End Numbers

It's December so it's the usual time of year to review any last financial decisions while it can still count in 2010.

I haven't given as much to charity as I'd like this year, largely 'cause I've been spending most of the year paying down short-term debt and bills. I had hoped to end the year well but the furnace purchase set me behind severely. There are few spare dollars for donations and it has all been distributed.

The maximum 401(k) contributions for this year is $16,500. Checking my last pay stub of Nov 30, I'm sitting at $16,045 contributed so I'll hit the maximum with my next pay this week and will have none deducted for my last pay of the year. The extra money on that paycheck will go to credit cards.

I've taken only two floating and seven regular vacation days this year, leaving me with six unused sick days and 18 unused vacation days. I need to dig into the HR docs to find out how unused time is handled: are vacation days cashed out or accrued? Can sick days accrue?

No changes to either my employer-sponsored health insurance during open enrollment last month, except to re-enroll in the medical savings account because it resets each January 1. No changes to our house & car insurance either as I updated that in July.

I need to work on getting a personal savings account in place. We have a joint household savings account but I should put more of my own disposable income aside for my own emergencies rather than doing brief borrow-and-replace transactions against the household savings. Of course, there's little point in that until the credit cards are paid off...

And finally, Verizon Wireless assures me I'm eligible for a replacement telephone. My Blackberry Storm, while hardly sexy in any fashion, has been a solid & reliable performer so I'm not in a rush to replace it. It would be nice to have some of the more glitzy features and apps though...

As much as I like the iPhone, I despise AT&T's wireless network so that's not an option --unless I want to wait for Verizon to get their own version of the iPhone. Sadly, as sure as I know AT&T's network sucks, I also know that Verizon Wireless will demand Apple dumb down their telephone to force all customers to purchase every service & app from Verizon or pay a Verizon surcharge to access non-Verizon services & apps. I'm going to shop for an Android-based telephone in February or so.

Year-End Numbers

It's December so it's the usual time of year to review any last financial decisions while it can still count in 2010.

I haven't given as much to charity as I'd like this year, largely 'cause I've been spending most of the year paying down short-term debt and bills. I had hoped to end the year well but the furnace purchase set me behind severely. There are few spare dollars for donations and it has all been distributed.

The maximum 401(k) contributions for this year is $16,500. Checking my last pay stub of Nov 30, I'm sitting at $16,045 contributed so I'll hit the maximum with my next pay this week and will have none deducted for my last pay of the year. The extra money on that paycheck will go to credit cards.

I've taken only two floating and seven regular vacation days this year, leaving me with six unused sick days and 18 unused vacation days. I need to dig into the HR docs to find out how unused time is handled: are vacation days cashed out or accrued? Can sick days accrue?

No changes to either my employer-sponsored health insurance during open enrollment last month, except to re-enroll in the medical savings account because it resets each January 1. No changes to our house & car insurance either as I updated that in July.

I need to work on getting a personal savings account in place. We have a joint household savings account but I should put more of my own disposable income aside for my own emergencies rather than doing brief borrow-and-replace transactions against the household savings. Of course, there's little point in that until the credit cards are paid off...

And finally, Verizon Wireless assures me I'm eligible for a replacement telephone. My Blackberry Storm, while hardly sexy in any fashion, has been a solid & reliable performer so I'm not in a rush to replace it. It would be nice to have some of the more glitzy features and apps though...

As much as I like the iPhone, I despise AT&T's wireless network so that's not an option --unless I want to wait for Verizon to get their own version of the iPhone. Sadly, as sure as I know AT&T's network sucks, I also know that Verizon Wireless will demand Apple dumb down their telephone to force all customers to purchase every service & app from Verizon or pay a Verizon surcharge to access non-Verizon services & apps. I'm going to shop for an Android-based telephone in February or so.