miclason's Personal Finance Blog

for some strange reason, I was thinking about red shoes this morning...more specifically, I was thinking about the beautiful red mary-janes that my next-door neighbor's, from when I was about 6... Oh, how I admired those shoes...I begged, and begged, and begged and Mom never bought me red shoes...not that she wouldn't buy me shoes...I had tons of them...clogs, mary-janes, sandals, knee-high boots in 3 different colors, tennis shoes...just...never red ones!...Mom said they "don't go with anything"...and, even now...30 years later, whenever I see red shoes, something inside me goes: ooooooooooohhhh! ... I do own a pair of red loafers...I just love them! ...I guess I was thinking that maybe someday I should buy Ale some of those deliciously frilly, silly go-with-nothing shoes that she sometimes asks for....if they are not too expensive...((sigh))

Right now, money is tight(er) because there's a lot tied up in toys that still haven't been delivered...so I have to be careful and not overspend, so as to stay out of trouble for the next 2-3 weeks, but then, on weeks 3-4 I have to be careful because there's going to be lots of cash coming in (most already committed, as we get credit in some places for the toys, so we have to make sure to pay that first) and temptation to splurge instead of applying it to old debt will be strong!...we should be getting about $1,300 between the last week of Nov and the first one of Dec, for example, but, only $365 are really "profit"...and, I want to make sure that ALL $365 gets allocated towards debt!

Just in case you were curious:

1 - seeks opportunities
*is proactive
*grows the business towards new areas, products or services
*Takes advantage of unusual opportunities to launch a business, get financing, equipment, land, facilities or help

2 - takes risks
*Deliberately calculates risks and evaluates alternatives
*takes action to reduce risks or control results
*places him/herself in situations that present a moderate challenge or risk

3 - demands efficiency and quality
*tries to do things better, faster and at lower cost
*takes action to guarantee that guidelines for excellence are met and exceeded
*Develops or uses procedures to make sure that the work is completed and that it meets the established guidelines

4 - Persistence
*Takes action in the face of a great challenge
*Repeatedly takes actions and changes strategies to face a challenge or overcome obstacles
*Taks personal responsibility for doing all that is necessary to reach her/his goals and objectives

These four are part of the ACHIEVEMENT aspect of entrepreneurial behaviour....will post behaviours pertaining to PLANNING and POWER tomorrow...

As an exercise, you could try and discover which characteristics are stronger in yourself...

...and not with my money!!!!....Our team-building box got stolen from one of the cars last weekend, so all the stuff had to be replaced!...they gave me $$$ and a shopping list!!...it was a bit like Treasure hunting, getting all those things...I am proud of myself, I looked for the best prices, got everything from 3 different places only...well, 4, I'm still missing the food coloring!...and I have to go to the hardware store tomorrow to pick up one storage box (they only had 1 and I needed 2!)...

Oh, did I mentioned I also took some time to run 2 personal errands? (went to the jewelry store to look at stuff for my niece...NO way, the cheapest thing they had was $121...while not too pricey for a graduation gift, it IS too pricey for my budget! -- will have to keep looking!)...and also looked at some beds for Ale...saw some gorgeous ones...real wood, too...the furniture at that store all looks like someone took it out of a doll house and then zapped it with a "maximizer" or something...it is sooooo cute!...you can pick the style and colors and have it custom-made, too! (and prices are about the same as at the dept store!)...still too high for my budget, but, they do sell only the headboards, so I could buy a "normal" twin bed and then order the headboard from them and, perhaps if we go order it together, Ale won't think that I'm just trying to con her....(she gave me "that look" the other day when I suggested we could buy just the box spring and mattress and then later on I would buy her a nice headboard...you know the look...the one that says: "I wasn't born yesterday, you know!" LOL!)

about a year and a half ago, one of our previous managers gave me a letter to cancel his local credit card...since he's a foreigner, he had been requested to secure the cc with a deposit covering 150% the credit limit...aside from canceling his cc, I was supposed to make sure the deposit got cancelled and the money transferred to his savings account... I have been fighting with the bank and, honestly, the last time I contacted them over this must have been about 2 months ago...I had temporarily forgotten about it, even...and, today, the bank exec called and said they ARE transferring the deposit into his savings account!!!...I cannot believe it!!! it's such great news! (1. I get to take that off my "pending" list and 2. the poor guy gets his money back, finally! -- I was afraid he was going to think I had cheated him out of his money!)

WOO-HOO!!...Now, let's hope they don't ruin things with the transfer!!

What does she have to do with anything on this community? you may ask...
Well, I haven't seen Ugly Betty, but I did watch the whole Yo soy Betty, La Fea (Original, Colombian version) and La Fea mas bella (Mexican re-make, where Betty is actually called Lety)...The characters are all very interesting, but,the one I have been pondering lately is Alicia (a.k.a peroxide blonde)...she's a very ambitious (or should I say rapacious?) woman, who married a very rich guy, got used to "the good life" and then got dumped by her husband...in true Latin-american fashion, all she got out of her divorce was her Mercedes Benz...
Since she refused to see the reality (that she wasn't rich anymore!) and continued to spend lavishly to keep up appearances (God forbid her rich friends should find out she's poor now, they'd shun her!) she gets into so much debt that her car gets taken away until she can come up with ~$5K to pay the cc debts!...now, this is the biggest drama of her life...she has no car, what is she going to do??...(take the bus, her only true friend -- rich girl who owns the company Alicia works for, who is alreay tired of having to pay for Alicia's lunches and stuff) Now, this friend had counseled Alicia long ago that she should sell the Mercedes, settle the debt and get a smaller, inexpensive car (GASP! give up the Mercedes??NEVER!)...
So, Alicia starts taking a cab to go to work, but, guess what? there comes a point where she doesn't have enough money to cover the fare, and there's a big scandal in front of the office building (where all the secretaries, whom Alicia looks down on because they are "low class" and "ugly", get to see how Peroxide Blonde is humiliated by the taxi driver for not having the money to pay)...Alicia's mission in life right now is to catch another rich husband, to get back her Mercedes and "not be poor anymore"...Another thing that is noteworthy is the way Alicia (eventhough she's peniless) keeps reminding the secretaries (a.k.a The Garrison of Uglies) that she's much better than they are, because she's rich and beautiful ...
Why am I rambling about all this?...because I know many Alicias in real life...

I couldn't sleep last night...I don't know if it's because I haven't been feeling well (getting over a cold), because I feel like my bills are catching up with me again (money is tied up with the toys until we deliver the orders, sometime between the 27th/Nov and the 5th/Dec)...or, because I still haven't got the materials to go print and the training starts on Saturday, so the boxes have to be ready on Friday!....might even be a bad combination of all!

...cousin calls today and says 2 more orders for toys have come in...she then proceeds to tell me her friend who had asked if we could include her in the venture, and that she could lend us up to $5K, provided she got a percentage of the earnings and did not have to get involved other than with the money side of it, has suddenly backed out and said that she lent her money to someone else...cousin then says: what can we do?... do you know anybody who might be willing to lend us $2K?...(she knows the answer is "no" -- outside of the people in my office, we all know the same people!-- ) ...I know where this is headed, so I play dumb...eh, no. Noone comes to mind...so, since I'm not saying it, she suggests it, finally: "and, you don't think any of the managers would...you know"...No, I don't know them that well - I say. ...In reality, I know a couple of them well enough to ask, but, it's MY NAME on the line, they would be lending that money TO ME, not TO US...and, bear in mind, that money would have to be at HER house so that she could go buy the toys...remember what happened last time??....now, what is there to assure me that it won't happen again??...that D. gave his word and that he has the judges orders that say he can't drink, or go out after 9pm and that he has to go to rehab and family therapy??...((ALARM BELLS)) don't think so!!!...now, admitted, I AM investing some of my own money into this, but, worst case scenario, I'll end up in more debt than before ((knock on wood))...but, if I ask these guys to invest THEIR money, my reputation is at stake, too!... no, I cannot risk that and, NO, I'm not going to ask! ...I'd rather we lose the business that could be generated by those 2 orders!!...Besides, as I told her: this wouldn't be necessary if she had fixed her problem with Bank S. (she had a cc, and she had arranged for her last employer to deduct the payments for the cc directly from her salary...as per Bank S, she owes them 2 payments....and the accrued interest for the past 5 years!...as per cousin, those 2 payments came out of her severance and, if the employer didn't pay it, it's not her responsibility -- HELLO??!! -- I've been telling her for years to get that fixed!)...if she had, she would be eligible for a "seasonal loan" for micro-business...but, it's "too much hassle"...
and "she doesn't have the time"...uh-uh, as I said before: not gonna happen!!
(I know she's probably thinking that I'm silly -- or a much harsher word!-- for not taking this opportunity, but, I'm not budging!)

woo-hoo! collected another $100!!...

...we HAVE popcorn at home, much cheaper than what she can buy in the store at school!...I explained this to her...she asked if I could put popcorn in her lunchbox as a snack...done!...now, let's see how much money she can save this week! (last week was $0.10!)-- sigh--

we have to put together a training for 40 people....that's ok, we've known for months now and, ALMOST everything is ready...want to know what is NOT ready?...the training materials have not been updated, which means I cannot print them or make copies....AND, everything has to be ready by Friday noon, because the training starts on Saturday...the training comprises about 23-25 modules...each module has at least 1 handout...which has to be printed, then copied X40....and then re-distributed into 6 boxes, properly separated and labeled for each of the trainers...

The stress is building up!!

Add to that, there are 5 people on the Logistics team and, we can only really count on 3 because 2 have been allocated to a Priority 1 project that is ending in 2 weeks - our unit got called at the last minute because the area finally figured they were not going to be able to complete all their deliverables on time!... so these 2 team members really cannot afford to help us this time...

Can I start screaming now??

I delivered my last payment request at 16:59 ! woo-hoo!!! no "leftover" payments for next week! ....of course, once again, my desk looks like it exploded!...oh, well, it's raining very heavily, so I'm stuck in here for at least 1 more hour!...guess I'll be working on putting everything away! (given the state of my desk,it will still look like it exploded, but it'll look like it was a smaller blast! :P )

wait! There IS a rule against this...but, as usual, they have made an exception!...I'm inputting travel expenses from SEPT 2005!!!

I like to compare year over year so I can see whether there has been some progress...while my financial situation is still far from being in order, at least it's much better than it was last year...There are still spending issues, and I'm still struggling, but, overall, things are better (of course, that thing with the phonecalls didn't help a bit!...I'd be much better off today if I hadn't had to pay for that! -- hopefully, my cousin will repay me out of the toy money -- I will insist on this, as I know otherwise I will end up waiting for another full year to get my money back!)

forgot to add up the $20 challenge for October

Total for October
Challenge statistics:
to discount from challenge this month:
-$6 (taxes)

Earned in September: $440.00

net for January: $12.15
net for February: $318.40
net for March:$380.00
net for April: $222.00
net for May:$336.86
Net for June: $32.50
Net for July: $210.00
Net for August: $835
Net for September: $430.00
Net for October: $434.00
Total ytd for 2006 (net):$3,210.95

TARGET: $4,000

$789.05/ 2 months to go!

It was my turn this weekend, we were out of milk (and, following my newly inaugurated custom, I bought a 1,800g bag of powdered milk--$9.98), and out of dog food ...I was also out of hair mousse (ran out last week, but waited until this weekend to get it...best to avoid temptation!) ...and I was almost out of deodorant....that's almost $20 !...Add all the other stuff and I paid $75...and still haven't gotten the vegetables/fruit for the week! (have allocated $10 for that, and will wait until Tuesday, when the supermarket by my office has their "veggies at cost" day...it is almost as cheap as going to the marketplace...except you don't spend additional money on gas!)

I still think I can have a total grocery bill for the month that is under $140, though!...wish me luck!

*************
Forgot to add, Ale wanted me to get the "supermarket bag"...the supermarket where we usually shop is having this promotion where, if you buy $50 in products including 3 participating brands, you pay $0.01 for a canvas bag filled with products...now, I didn't know about the products, I thought it was only the canvas bag...which I can use for the marketplace and, at $0.01 was a good deal in itself...so I got a nice surprise when I found out it had a 2.5 lt of Ale's favorite soda, 1 loaf of white bread, 1 pack of paper towels and 1 bag of cookies...while not on my regular shopping list, all are items that we CAN use around the house, so..added bonus!

Believe it or not...we were fish food!...we went to the Termos del Rio park (very nice, very clean!...didn't get to taste the food, although my sister did, and she says the burgers were awful!)...well, we went into the thermal water pool and...there were fish in it!...and, they thought feeding off our skin was the greatest thing!!!! it tickles!!!...my niece thought it was EEEWWW...but, curiosity got the best of her and she ended up getting into the pool with us!

Ale enjoyed the "wave" pool the most...and, it was shallow enough for her to swim around a bit (at the other parks we've gone to, wave pools have been very deep!)...

There were a lot of people but, my friend - the other admin- tells me it was even more crowded when she went there on a weekend!...

It ended up being very cheap, since a friend of our family went with us and he paid for the entry fees and parking...we didn't bring any food, but the other admin shared her sandwiches with Ale and myself...and then we treated her and her children for ice cream!...so I spent about $7 in all!

We took a lot of pictures...will post them once they've been developed!

tomorrow is Day of the Dead, and, the company decided that anyone that was willing to sacrifice 1 vacation day would have the 3rd pre-approved!!...needless to say, I'm off to much needed rest (only 5/22 people in my unit will come to work!--but that is mostly because the projects they're working on are operations-related!...)

We ARE going to try Termos del Rio (www.termosdelrio.com.sv) I'll let you know how it goes!

Ugh! This month was good!:

the categories where I was at or below budget were:

CELLPHONE
CAR
SCHOOL
CLOTHES
LUNCH

That leaves me overbudget in
GROCERIES
EVENTS
ENTERTAINMENT
OTHER


so, for October, the result is 5/9
The great news is that, OVERALL, I was overbudget by $6 only!!

Hoping to have better results for 061201!

((remember this covers variable expenses only))

sent this to our VP:

********
…and before I forget to mention: Maria did a great job in helping them set-up on Monday - e-mail account, getting enough chairs, internet connection - all of that was not really ready, but Maria did a fine job (once again) in overcoming these difficulties.
****

he was so very busy this Monday, when we got 6 interns who will be working with us on a special project for 2 months...I hadn't known until Monday 8:15am that they were coming and, someone else from another area was supposed to have everything set up for them (no, it wasn't! -- 2 chairs for 6 people, the phone line and data lines were not activated, there was no telephone to plug in, either!)...not that they are fully settled at the moment, but, at least they can work!

we each received a diploma and a letter with comments/critics to our business plan..
mine reads:

*Emphasize tourism companies in target market section
*Review proyections, growth is overestimated,rework financial analysis
*Salaries are not according to the reality of an emerging company (so...they think I can hire good translators at $300/month, or what?...the first year, the only salary contemplated is MY salary, and of course it is based on me making enough to cover all my living expenses....)
*Review sales forecast (ok, I agree with this!...this has always been my greatest problem: getting customers...marketing plan was supposed to take care of this!)
*Consider cultural change in target market
*Be realistic regarding profit margins (sorry, the costs of translating are NOT high!...most of the investment was my education, how much does it really cost me to translate a 20-page document? ...next to nothing!...unless I pay myself a high salary!...so, even with the "unreal" salaries, they think the profit margins are too high!)

...I think what saddens me the most is that it must have cost me about $200 to participate in the competition thing...at least I consider that money as an investment and not a waste!...I did learn a lot! (mostly about myself!) and, as I said before, I still believe I have a GREAT business idea...and, you'll see, I WILL start this company, even if it takes me a year just to get enough money to get it started!

...Ale's school went on a field trip to a park near our house today...since I had to meet with my cousin for some shopping (toys!-- to sell...) it was ideal for me to pick her up there (and, our transport lady couldn't make it, since she has Ale scheduled for 3pm and the kids were being sent home at 11:30am)...well, my car was trapped (we have parking problems, as the municipality is fixing the street that we park on!, so there was one car parked behind me and, being 11am, the owner was nowhere in sight!...had to call him, he was nice enough to come, but, I was late anyway!)...since the kids weren't there anymore when I got to the park, had to go halfway across town to Ale's school and then back again to meet my cousin at the toy store...well, it came 1:40pm and we still weren't done, so I just left Ale with my cousin and came back to work...notice I haven't had lunch?? ...I settled for a wonderful delicious sinful "oblea" (two thin wafers with luscious caramel in the middle!!)...and then a friend came by and offered some home-baked carrot cake!...so, now I'm not hungry (for the time being), but, I am about to OD on sugar!!! (water, I need water!!)...I still have about 1 hour to go (it's 4:45 here!) before I leave for the hotel where the closing ceremony is taking place....
water!!

This evening we'll have the event to close this phase of the business plan contest...there's a presentation and then a cocktail party and, they will be announcing the 24 finalists!!!!

I guess I'll be blogging about it (one way or another!) when I get home!

...well, I guess this one dropped off the radar somehow!...niece is graduating HS and, we have the party on Nov 16th...of course, I want to give her a nice present, but, I don't want to go broke over it....I went scouting for parfums today...a nice boxed gift set of Amarige Mariage (100ml parfum + body lotion + shower gel) is $74!...I'm thiniking of asking one of the managers to quote how much it would be at the duty free store at the airport (they travel almost every week!)...I could even ask them to buy it if it's around $60, for example...

Still, before doing this, I might look into other (hopefuly, cheaper) options...

1. keep better track of my spending- I have been very good at writing down EVERY expense this month! Yay me!...I have also done better at staying on budget! (right now, I’m overbudget by $6 – I can live with that!- and, today and tomorrow should be no-spend days!)

4. continue to lower my overall debt - I started Jan 05 with ~$17K (out of which ~$4K were for a loan and the rest -~$13K!-pure cc debt) and, am starting Jan 06 with $~11K (with ~$8K for a loan and ~$3K in cc debt)... expect to be able to end Dec '06 with ~$7K, which I expect to be purely for the loan... to come partly from the English classes/$20 challenge. ...current situation is: $13.4K total: ~$8K (refinanced) loan, ~$2.7K car loan, ~$799 personal loan, $1.5K other personal loan… Phone bill is $400...a work in progress...another one that won’t get taken off the list! ..some days it feels as if I’m not progressing with this, so it’s good to see how things are going…

5. Help Ale find a way to earn those $3 she's missing to open her account with HER OWN money...didn´t open the piggy bank in October, either…Ale has only been able to save about $0.25 for the whole month out of her $2/week…I guess I have to work harder to try to make her understand that it’s not a matter of spending the $2, no matter what, but of trying to save as much as possible!

I got a migraine while Ale was at her swim lesson (the heat did it!) and, was all for buying lunch today, just so I wouldn't have to think too much, but, migraine and all I made it home and just put some leftovers in the microwave for Ale and myself...yay, me!
(believe me, the way I was feeling, it IS a great victory!)

...yesterday, when I gave my keys to one of the managers so he could take my car home (I took theirs, so I could leave straight from home at 6:30 am this morning for the police inspection!), my car had a bit less than 1/4 tank...today at lunch, when I moved my car out of the manager's spot, it had a full tank!...now, my car doesn't do that (fill up magically, that is!)so, that means the manager filled the tank yesterday!...that was really nice of him! (especially since his house is about half-way from our office to my house, so it's not like his taking it would have meant higher consumption!)...

woo-hoo!...that should last about 15 days (or, 8, if you take into account our planned "Termos del Rio" excursion with Ale!)...hmmmm, should I put $20 (about what it would have taken to fill the tank) into my $20 challenge??

we must come across as such a horrible family!...and we aren't, honestly!...

Nephew D - cousin's son, he of the phone calls!- is causing trouble again (not that he ever stopped, I guess it was just that he hadn't had the opportunity!)...

cousin got paid the 50% advance from two toy purchase orders, amounting to $2,100...for some strange reason (I really have no idea...I may ask later, but not right now -- you'll see why!)...well, for some strange reason she cashed the check and kept the $$$ at home! ...now, for some even stranger reason, she decided to tell D where she was leaving the money, in case anything happened to her -- maybe she hasn't been feeling well, I don't know, she's overweight and diabetic and, she doesn't exactly take care of herself! --now...I know EVERYONE here knows where this is headed, right?

RIGHT! He stole $300 and spent the whole afternoon binge-drinking with "friends"...he came back dead drunk and with $21 in his pockets...

I'm unlucky enough to have been there 1) when she discovered the theft -- which was obvious, as we HAD to take out the money so she could give me the money for the expenses that I had incurred!...I must say, when she mentioned she had told him, the first thought that crossed my mind was: WHY did you do that??...had to bite my toungue...and 2) when he arrived home!...oh, that was a scene from a bad soap opera!...really...I mean,at some point he said: search me, I don't have $300!...she got so mad she slapped him and he fell on the floor (he could barely stand anyway!) and he just went to sleep and started snoring!...it was just awful!...she had called a friend of hers to come help and, I waited there until he arrived...then I excused myself and left!...
I called her this morning, after coming from the Transport Protectin Division of the police (still trying to get the documents needed for that missing license plate for the company car! -- but that's another story!)...she told me she had called the police and they had come to get him...he was still sleeping when they got him out of the house...he is a minor and they had the mother's permission)...Apparently, he woke up sometime around 2am and tried to call his Uncle T. (cousin's best friend)...he couldn't take the call, he was out of the house, they know from a message in their machine!...

So, anyway, cousin is out $300 MORE ... which would be bad enough already if someone else had done it...but, being her son...Plus, obiously, now she has to 1) face the fact that the boy IS an alcoholic and 2) as a mother, living with putting your son in jail, whether merited or not, must be really difficult....

this doesn't go in the $20 challenge because this is a REIMBURSEMENT of expenses for the toy venture (this is coming out of the 50% advance payment, with this we buy the toys and reimburse expenses, the complementary 50% comprises money to finish paying our suppliers for the toys and to distribute between us -- THAT will go into the $20 challenge!)...

well, our VP said the other day that we should be passionate about our work and make sure we are creating value for our unit/company...I have already done that today!...I've input 4 post-trip reports ($$ and peace for 3 different managers!), and 6 pre-trips ($$ and peace for 1 manager)...and have still 7 more to input ($$ and peace for 2 managers)...I have also photocopied and sent originals of medical expenses ($$ and peace for the Director!) and a contract to have internet/phone line installed for another manager...and, right now I'm on my way out to quote repair of a scratch on one of the new cars -- don't ask! ...and it's only 2pm!

********************
I CAN'T belive this! ...the car was almost out of gas!!!...I had to go to the gas station and put in $5 (I've already submitted it for reimbursment!)...the pilot for the gas was already coming on (want to be they haven't put in any gas since las Thursday, eventhough they used it to go to the airport, which is 45 minutes away from the city?? (each way!)