Super Changes in my life!

Last update was on the 17/02/2010, which was my last week at my old job. After that I took a one week sabbatical where I spent as much time as I could doing things I love before starting my new grad job. This consisted of bowling, tennis, fishing and going out to see friends. It was a blast and even though I blew my budget out of the water I don't regret a single thing. But i'm glad that I had saved enough of a buffer to afford to go over budget.

Why is that? Its because I used to scrutinise my excel worksheet as much as possible, trying to squeeze out every last dollar so that my checking account would only hover around the $200 mark. As I realised, sometimes things can happen which force me to withdraw more money than needed. This led me to budget for more money, as I couldn't withdraw from my Emergency Fund when they were clearly not emergencies. So i've become a bit more relaxed in this aspect, and hope i'll further loosen the reigns. Studying for my Management Accounting module for the CA right now, I realise that this is similar to what businesses term "Working Capital Management". You want to utilise every dollar you have and make sure its not sitting idle (in this case a low rate checking account), but you don't want to pare down so much that if something happens you're in the red (in this case, an overdraft).

Could this mean that if one were able to be in control of their personal finances, they would be able to make adequate business owners? Maybe. Maybe not.

Since my last blog post, i've started at my new graduate job. I applied for this in March last year after my big holiday and after a 2 month long process was offered a position which I immediately accepted. Except it started a year later so I had to wait. And my gosh its been a long time, and its definitely been worth the wait. This firm is an easy top 10 global accounting firm but more specifically, with a great bunch of new graduates and a new team to look forward to working with. This also means a 50% salary increase (I really didn't make much at my last job) so my personal finances in the next few months will hopefully skyrocket!

You can see my progress here!

Lets see if I can maintain a solid budget. After all, friday work drinks can be a little bit pricy.