Saturday 21 February 2015

First Week

          I have official completed my first week of work and so far so good. The first few days was basically me in an office completing compliance and anti-money laundering training: which I was already familiar with having come from my other banking job.  Funny story though, I was doing some reading in the office on my second day and my chair kept getting stuck, I thought it was the wheels so I kept trying and realized it was getting stuck on something under the desk. So I bent down to see what the issue was and there's this little box on the underside of the desk with a button that is now pressed slightly in. So I go to my managers office and ask her if, by any chance, a silent alarm in the office I’m working in, she said there in fact is and I let her know I believe I set it off by accident. LOL I was so embarrassed! 911 called the branch and even though we let them know it was an accident they said two RCMP officers were on their way and have to come check it out just incase. The officers (aka my husbands co-workers) came and joked that if I wanted to see G so badly I could have called his cellphone instead, lol. It was so embarrassing but my manager said she did the same thing about a month previous so not too worry. Still so embarrassing though! At least everyone had a sense of humour about it. 

            The one thing about this new job is instead of every week either G or I getting paid, we are now on the same bi-weekly schedule. That just means a bit more planning and watching things closer to make sure we have enough to last us the two weeks. I’m not too worried about it but this month kind of sucks because I missed this pay week but the next round of pay I will get three weeks instead of two – which will be nice.

            Other money news: we fully funded our $5000 Emergency Fund last week! We are still keeping our automatic transfer but now any extra money and interest accumulated will go to paying off our car. G hasn’t called the bank to see how we can set this up but we won’t until we get a couple thousand accumulated to put as one lump sum. Also, we moved our vacation savings to Tangerine. There’s $1400 in there right now. We don’t have any automatic payments set up at the moment but I hope once the LOC is paid off (that’s sitting at $2700) we can start adding more on a regular basis – I want to go on some nice vacations & G definitely deserves one.


- M

Tuesday 3 February 2015

47% Increase

February is going to be an awesome month. Guess what I signed for yesterday?

A NEW JOB!

Wait for it…

WITH A 47% INCREASE IN MY SALARY!!

Yayyyyyyyy!!!

So let me explain: Last April I was applying for different jobs that were a bit closer too home. I was sick of the hour long commute that I wasn’t getting paid for and it was tough as we only have the one vehicle between my husband and I. Things ended up working out in the end because the company that I worked for transferred me to a branch in my town. I really liked that I was close to home (5 min walk) but I still wasn’t completely happy with my job. However, the places I applied too weren't hiring so I just kind of went with the flow: I was lucky to even have a job, with benefits and bonus’ and such. 

Fast forward to the second last week of January and I got a call from one of the places I applied too! They still had my resume on file and wanted me to come in and interview (if I was still interested). So we booked the meeting for Thursday the 29th right after I finished at my job. It was an interview with their HR rep & the woman I would be reporting too if I got the job – it was really casual and more of a discussion of what I do now (I’m a bank teller at one of the ‘big banks’ in Canada and was being interviewed at the local Credit Union literally right across the street from my work now lol) and procedures, etc. I got a really good vibe from them. 

Friday (the next day) after work I noticed a call from the Credit Union so I called right back and they offered me the full-time permanent position!! I swear to God I have never squealed so loud in my life! I scared my poor dog lol. I made an appointed with her the following Monday right before work so I can sign the offer before I starting handing my notice in. Yesterday I went and signed, gave my notice to my manager and I start on the 17th J ! Also when I signed my papers she said the wage I have now is just a starting wage and after the three months of probation is up I will get an increase because of my experience! More money? Yes please!

There are sooo many things I know I want to do with this increase of income (i.e: invest) but I want to see how much I will be taking home each week after taxes and take it from there. So March is most likely going to be when I set all that stuff up. I haven’t used up any of my RRSP contribution room ever (my RRSP now is spousal) so that’s what I’m leaning towards and possibly increasing my TFSA contributions.


This is a great way to start off my year, I'm extremely lucky & grateful J

- M