A year of thankfulness in (a credit card) summary

Today I got the year end summary for my primary credit card. As I looked through it, I was struck yet again by how blessed I am. I was able to visit amazing places, do fantastic things, and eat great food. I am so very fortunate and thankful for the opportunity to experience all the things I did in 2012.

Wondering what might have been

Today would have been a milestone birthday for someone very important in my life. The sadness has caught me off guard several times. I have wondered how would my life be different if that person were alive to celebrate it. The short answer is I will never know. As humans we can only see a very small part of the world. We usually have no idea of the way decisions and events impact our lives in ways both big and small. I just know that I wish this person was still living part of my life.

Misdirection in action

Have you ever caught someone in something they said and enjoyed watching them squirm? This happened to me recently. I was mad, but I was also laughing on the inside as the person tried to evade answering my question. The person told me something (A) in passing that also revealed he had done something else by extension (B). When I asked how he knew about A, he tried to totally avoid the question by acting like he'd heard me ask something else. I could just see him trying to dance around it. Of course, it didn't work. I zeroed in and went for the kill. I was quite rightfully unhappy, but I was smiling on the inside too. As the saying goes- "Be sure your sins will find you out".

Man reportedly outsources his own job to China, watches cat videos

If you haven't heard this story yet, the title pretty much says it all.

The Year in Financial Review

If you've ever spent much time around me or you've read my blog just a little, you've no doubt figured out that I'm a money management nerd. I find it fascinating, and I could talk about it forever. Thus, it should come as no surprise that I perform a year end financial review.

My review consists of two parts. First is a net worth statement. As the name implies, I total up all my assets and liabilities and see my status on December 31st. I've been doing this for several years, and of course the goal is to see the number increase each year. A lot of times as you move through your daily life it can feel as if you aren't making any financial progress. This shows the true picture in black and white. Sometimes you might be happy, and sometimes it might show there's lots of work ahead, but either way, you'll know exactly where you are.

Last year I added a second part to the year end review. I totaled up what I spent across all categories throughout the year. Of course as a true money nerd I've documented my spending for several years, but I'd never done anything like this before. Oh my. Last year was eye opening. It explained why I always felt like I had no cash in my day to day bank account. I was simply not allocating enough money for the items I expected to pay out of it. I did some rearranging, and now the feeling of insufficient funds is gone. This can also help you make a budget if you want to do that, and it can also show areas where you might really need to clamp down. This year I was able to compare my 2011 to my 2012 data. It was interesting how similar the numbers were. Thankfully everything looked good, so no changes needed to my current habits.

If you've never done a net worth statement or a year end spending analysis, I'd highly encourage you to give them each a try. The data can be very useful. If you do give it a whirl, I'd love to hear your comments.

If you're looking for a job...

I spent part of my afternoon setting up testing times for candidates for an opening in our maintenance department. If you or someone you know is looking for a job, I offer the following advice based on my experiences.

1. If your cell phone is your primary phone, SET UP YOUR VOICEMAIL

I called a candidate today. When it got to voicemail, I received the following message "The subscriber you are calling has not set up voicemail. Goodbye." And then hung up on me. Grr. I then had to e-mail the candidate. You can be sure I mentioned about the voicemail not being set up. Had I been in charge, I would have been done with this candidate entirely.

2. If you use a template to build your resume, be sure you delete all the the template info when you're done

I was confused by the address on the bottom back page of a candidate's resume. It's several states away, and this position is not one for which we are doing relocation. Then I looked at the front and saw the person's address. He'd used a template to build his resume which is fine, but he hadn't deleted all the stock information from it when he added his data.

I hope you enjoyed today's helpful hints.