Last year was pretty rough and the new year doesn’t seem to be treating me much better so far.  I have decided to go about my goals in a gentler, kinder manner this year, with the overall focus being on simplifying all aspects of my life.

Be present. 

I need to accept that I can’t change the past and I don’t know what tomorrow will bring. I will focus on each day and find the blessings within it.

Family first.

I have a very small family and I feel like I haven’t done enough to show how important they are to me. I will spend more time with them beyond birthdays, holidays, etc.

Nurture relationships.

I will focus on my marriage this year.  It has taken a beating the last couple of years. My husband is my partner and should have input in all significant decisions. We will start traveling again.

Unclutter my life.

I will let go of the past. I will let go of broken relationships. I will get rid of material clutter.

Learn.

I will read personal finance, blogging & leadership resources. I will continue to blog. I hope to attend Fincon 2013.

Eat less.

I will eat real food. I will try new things. I will eat slower.

Move more.

I will walk and bike along the beautiful parkway I live on. I will walk my dog.

Spend less.

I am doing another no spend challenge. This time I will try not to buy any new clothes from Jan. through March, with the exception of undergarments. I’d love to make it through the year, adding other categories along the way.

Save more.

Use automatic methods to save with 401k (s), Impulsesave & Roth IRA(s). I am also participating in the 52-week savings challenge.

2012 turned out to be a very difficult year, particularly in the area of my health. I was on a medical leave for 3 months and still find it nearly impossible to work a 40 hour week, which has subsequently affected every area of my life.

Health

Adopt a healthier lifestyle through better food choices and exercise. Fail. I’ve made efforts to eat better, but haven’t been consistent. I have not exercised at all, beyond getting out to walk occasionally.

Lose 50# with the help of Weight Watchers online tools and possibly meetings. Fail. I only lost 5#.

Continue to work with health professionals to develop a management plan for my fibromyalgia. Pass. I still do not know what is going on beyond fibromyalgia, but the list of things I don’t have keeps growing so that’s a start, I guess.

Wealth

Pay off $12K of credit card debt while not incurring any additional debt (with the possible exception of a used car loan if one of our 1997 or 2000 model year vehicles dies a terrible death). Pass/Fail. I cashed out two of my retirement accounts to pay off our credit card debt, when I thought I wasn’t returning to my job. We also replaced our 1997 Acura CL and now have a car payment.

Contribute 6% to my company’s 401K (from 0%) and have husband increase his contribution from 3 to 6%. Pass. I’ve increased my contribution to 7%.

Pay cash for a trip to Portland in April and Fincon 2012 in the Fall and start saving for my sister’s destination wedding in Winter 2013. NA. We did not travel to Portland or Denver & doubt the destination wedding will be held next month since nothing is booked.

Donate to worthy charities. Pass. I did the majority of my giving on MN Give to the Max Day.

Start to earn a passive income from blogging by the end of the year. Pass. I’ve earned less than $1.

Growth

Blog 3 times a week minimum. Fail. Once again, I failed at consistency.

Learn WordPress. Fail (?) I decided to pay someone to redesign my site.

Read 12 or more books on personal finances, leadership, blogging and WordPress. Fail. My reading selections were limited to mysteries.

Attend Fincon 2012. Fail. My husband got laid off the week before Fincon, so we just couldn’t justify attending.

Life is a journey and is why I will attempt to achieve more goals in 2013. Check back in tomorrow.

I returned to work full-time on Sept. 19 and my husband will start his new job on Oct. 22. We are out of debt due to cashing out two retirement accounts because I wasn’t planning on returning to work.

We are painfully aware that we are sorely underfunded for retirement, but we also have a 1997 Acura that is on its last leg. We would also like to own a home (a modest one this time).

We are struggling to prioritize these purchases while still saving and investing. We also know we have to do what’s right for us. So far this is what we have:

1. Emergency fund, savings for income taxes and 401k contributions.
2. Tuition – My husband is going back to school in January.
3. Buy a car – We’ll need to replace the Acura before we have cash to pay for one outright, but we intend to pay it off early.
4. Buy a home – We will probably take advantage of a VA loan and hope to have a mortgage payment that less than our current rent.
5. Vacation – We don’t know where or when since my husband is starting a new job.  There is a possibility my sister will still have a destination wedding this winter.
6. Additional retirement investing beyond 401k and house value.

Are you out of debt? How did you make decisions regarding your future?

Over the past 28 years of my life I have only held 4 jobs and that is if you count the Army Reserve.  At age 17, I started working for a small local pharmacy and I joined the Army Reserve. After 7 years of catching every persons cold that walked thru the pharmacy I was let go because the post office portion was short some 3000 stamps and obviously I was the one using them to wallpaper my small apartment.  (Never mind the other dozen or so people who ran that counter also.). I didn’t let that get to me too much.  I had been going to a community college to get some of my electives out of the way with every intension to go back and get a degree at some point.

At the suggestion of my girlfriend at the time (Now my wife) I  had applied with a temp service and was working within the next week.  As a temp at this new job I started as a machine operator cutting electrical cords for vacuums and other small appliances.  While still being a temp, I was already noticing that I could be far more productive if only I could learn to do all of the set-ups my self, so every time I went to get my supervisor, I paid close attention to what he was doing…after a while, I started to set my own machine up and had the supervisor check it before I turned the machine on.  After some time, the company hired me on full-time.  This was a piece work job, and it didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that the more I cut, the more money I was going to make.  After a lot of hard work I was now able to run 3 machines at the same time, something no one they had previously done.  I eventually became the lead person of the cutting department…this allowed me to start learning other things within the company.  At my peak, I was running the cutting department, and fixing or setting up every other machine  in the factory.

After 10 years working here I was offered a job working for a “friend” at a start-up business selling Rotary Lobe Pumps. He was a salesman working for a German pump company that wanted to open a branch here in the U.S.  So it started…we worked out of the basement of the duplex he was living at for the next 3 years…during this time I was sent to Germany on September 10th, 2001…that’s right the day BEFORE the twin towers were attacked.  This would prove to be a difficult 3 weeks in a country that I did not speak the language…in fact, each night after work I would try to watch tv to see what was going on back home, but with only 2 channels to choose from (German or Dutch) it was real hard.  I was there to learn as much about the pumps and the company as possible, and that is what I did.

Over the next 11+ years I learned (primarily on my own) how to do the basics in accounting, how to do CAD drawings using a German CAD program (not a stitch of English), process and fill orders for both pumps and parts.  After 3 years we moved into our first facility.  We bought some general equipment, and decided to start assembling the pumps here to save a lot of money on freight expenses…as we got bigger and moved into an even larger facility so that we had the room to do our own manufacturing and save even more money.  Over time, I had essentially became in charge of final assembly and shipping.

The last few weeks we had a large-scale training event for our reps to come and learn more about out products.  It was at this point that many meetings between the German owner and the one who ran the U.S. facility was held…two weeks later, I was called into his office and told that the company was going in a direction that no longer needed me to work in the office…I was given two options.  I could either step down and take a 6 week severance package or I could go back to assembling the pumps with a pay cut that would put me back to $4700 LESS than I made when I was first hired 11 1/2 years ago.

Well, this was the easiest (and hardest) decision I have ever had to make…I am currently unemployed…but over the past few years, I have been increasingly unhappy with how I was being treated, and by leaving, I now have the opportunity to go back to school to do something that I really have interest in…Graphic Arts!  Over the past 25 years, I have had full support from my now wife…while I was working, she had the excellent chance of finish her schooling…now that I am unemployed, she is urging me to finally get back to school and do some thing that I am interested in and will enjoy.

I wrote this post once and then lost it to the ether.  Let’s see if I can re-write it without having a complete meltdown.

I have been fighting for short-term disability pay for a couple of weeks (seems like MUCH longer). I have also been waiting for a FMLA approval letter that extends my medical leave until August 27. During the course of my leave, the only thing that has been resolved is that I am no longer hypertensive.  I suffered through a sleep study only to find out that I do not have sleep apnea. Meanwhile, I STILL have not found any relief from my fibromyalgia pain and subsequent insomnia. My regular physician has thrown up her hands and recommended that I see someone in Internal Medicine. I also need to see a Rheumatologist. Last Sat., my dad asked me if I was going to apply for disability (he is legally disabled).

This was supposed to be a post about the pros and cons of returning back to work full-time, but in the meantime I made a decision and then flip-flopped. I am not going back to my job. I think my work environment is what put me where I am today.  It is very toxic and none of the people in my department are happy with their jobs. Despite all this, I requested to go back at 32 hours per week on a permanent basis and it was denied. That made my decision final.

This leaves my husband and I with a HUGE problem. We can not afford to live on one income with $21K in credit card debt. We looked into debt relief, but still couldn’t afford the monthly payment. That left only one option, dip into what is already a paltry retirement fund. Yesterday, I cashed in one of my Traditional IRAs. My husband will also have to cash out a portion of his. Unfortunately, that still leaves us with no ($125) emergency fund, no way of paying for hotel and spending at Fincon and much-needed truck repairs.

My husband has signed up for his health insurance, which is nowhere as good as mine and changed his withholding. He has never complained once.  I feel like such a failure yet again.  He has been my rock and  stood by me through my three layoffs and the short-sale of our dream home. He deserves so much better.

What’s next you ask? I am going to sell 2 Kindles, a Wii and woman’s golf clubs and anything else I can find on Craigslist. I am also seeking a part-time accounting or finance job. I am considering resurrecting my jewelry business and will definitely focus on making an income writing.

Go ahead and judge if you must. I’m pretty sure that I couldn’t feel worse if I tried. I hope some of you will be compassionate. I will be calling on some of you for your expertise and advice in coming weeks and months.

Credit: New York Times

Back in January, I made my first attempt at the Yakezie Alexa Challenge. My initial Alexa ranking was well over 4 million.  In the 6 months of the challenge I managed to lower it to about 500K.  FAIL.  In the months since, I have watched my ranking start to climb because I wasn’t posting.

I am here today to announce my second stab at this challenge.  I look forward to finding more PF blogs to read and share as well as contributing my own content.  FINCON12 will be an invaluable lesson for this “sort of” newbie. If I stick with it, I know I can break the 200K milestone! Wish me luck.

I have been dealing with health issues ever since my trip to the ER with angiodema and anaphylactic shock. It turns out that I was allergic to my blood pressure medication.  A second medication was prescribed that resulted in edema in my lower legs and feet.  I was told by my doctor that it was an acceptable side effect.  I couldn’t fit in most of my shoes anymore and it was causing my fibromyalgia to flare continuously.  Not acceptable!

On June 27, I went to see my regular physician.  I wanted to quit all of my meds and start over. My doctor would not agree to this, but was willing to make changes.  I had a complete meltdown and told her that I could not function and that I thought my situation was serious enough to consider a medical leave of absence from work.  My doctor consented. After my appointment, I went directly to work to file for FMLA.

For those that don’t know, the Federal Medical Leave Act entitles eligible employees of covered employers to take unpaid, job-protected leave for specified family and medical reasons with continuation of group health insurance coverage under the same terms and conditions as if the employee had not taken leave. The maximum alloted time off is 12 weeks per year.

I have been waiting on pins and needle for a month to find out if my leave was approved or not.  I am happy to say that I received my approval letter in the mail today with my leave being approved through the end of this week.  My doctor has already submitted a form extending it through 8/27/12, since I haven’t had all of my testing completed. I am participating in a sleep study Wed. night. I am not looking forward to it, especially if I am diagnosed with sleep apnea and need to buy a C-PAP machine. I have not met my deductible, so it will cost me $1388.

I have not been earning any money, but luckily July was a three paycheck month for my husband, so we’ve squeaked by. August is a big question mark as I have no idea when I will begin to receive short-term disability checks, at 75% of my salary.  I am already looking around the house to see what we can sell. Our emergency fund went to car repairs and I went out on leave before we could replenish it.  The coming weeks are bound to be interesting! And stressful!