One Job at Last!

For a year and seven months, I worked two jobs - my "day job" in sales and nights and weekends at a retail store. Forty to fifty hours a week at the day job and an additional 20-25 at the store.

At the end of March, I quit my second job. I finally understand again why people look forward to Fridays.

It was a long time coming. I have wanted to quit for... well, forever. I never really enjoyed relinquishing my precious free time for $8.50/hr. Sure, I made the best of it and had fun when I could, but I was never in it for enjoyment.

The first weekend in April was revolutionary. Friday night I came home from work and had a nice relaxing evening at home with my husband. Saturday we awoke to no alarm and spent the day taking care of errands and cleaning up around the house. That Sunday we went on a fantastic hike. All in all, I got to remember what it is like to have 2 sequential days off.

It was great to have the extra income, and it enabled us to put about $8,000 towards our debt snowball. The time had come, however, when the cons outweighed the pros. I am happy I was able to do it for so long, and happy to no longer have the two jobs!

Stepping Up

Well the last couple of weeks have been crazy, to say the least. Most of the insanity has revolved around my job. Last week I spent a whirlwind two days in New Jersey for a sales conference. In addition to that, I have started taking on a larger workload.

Back in January, my boss asked me if I would like to be considered for a promotion, so like any normal person, I accepted. Once I was in the running, there was a lot to do. I had to complete online courses and tests, which were required to be done on a tight deadline and during non-working hours. This translated into coming home from work and spending 1-2 hours doing the online courses. The after-work time had formerly been referred to as "blogging time". :)

Fortunately, my efforts paid off and I will take on my new position starting our second quarter in May! It is still a sales position, so I will continue to be paid with a salary + commission structure, except the salary increases and the commission potential is better.

Since the only portion I can absolutely count on is the salary, I crunched the numbers to determine the difference this will make to our budget. My salary base will increase by $5000, which breaks down to $192.30 per paycheck (I get paid bi-weekly). After taxes, my take-home will be approximately $150 more per paycheck. Pretty sweet!

With the promotion, however, I plan to definitively quit my second job. Long time readers will know that I have wanted to quit for quite some time, but there's always a good reason to keep at it. Once I have the increased responsibility, I simply won't have time to do both jobs. So my drop-dead date on the second job is May 1. I am so excited! (Perhaps even more excited about that the the promotion itself!)

At the second job, I take home roughly $600 a month. So in actual hard paycheck figures, I will be taking a pay cut in taking this promotion. The plan, of course, is to make up the difference in commissions and I am confident I will be able to do so. Not to mention my quality of life will increase as well!

A Day Off!

Today, in the US, we celebrate Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday. Which means, for some people, including myself, a day out of work. It was a little unexpected, as my company isn't known for having a lot of holiday time. We didn't have Columbus Day, Veteran's Day or Patriot's Day off last year. (In MA, almost every company is closed on Patriot's Day. We're the only state to celebrate it - with the Marathon!) Yet they give us MLK Day and President's Day off. Not that I am negating the importance of these holidays, but you have to wonder how they decide which days to have as company holidays and which to have as work days.

In any case, most holidays I have off from my first job find me working at my second job, or traveling to visit family. Today, however, I have completely to myself. No work. No place to go (unless I want to). No errands that need doing. Just time, sweet time, a whole day of time to do as I please.

So today I am here and there, doing this and that. I had breakfast on my mom (Thanks Mom!) this morning, did some laundry, read some emails. My plan is to write a few blog posts to go up throughout the week, visit the library and update to Quicken 2008. I'm just really enjoying having time to do things - the things that get pushed aside when everything else is going on. It's strengthening my argument to quit my second job. Just another straw for the camel.

Moving Down to One Job - Soon?

The other day, I got into a fight argument with my husband, which revolved around my second job. Words were exchanged, things were a little heated, but the gist of it was that the pros no longer outweigh the cons of keeping my second job.

My primary job is picking up, both in my commissions and responsibility and the second job is starting to affect my work there. More importantly, however, is the way it's affecting my sanity and my relationships. I rarely, if ever, see my friends and extended family. I try to see my parents frequently, but I find myself saying "I have to work" all the time. My husband's schedule is difficult to work around, so we don't always align our "off time", and when we do, it's mostly spent doing chores.

On top of all that, I am feeling rather burnt out. I knew it was bound to happen, and quite frankly, I'm surprised I made it this long. I started working two jobs in September 2006. Since then, I have worked almost every Tuesday, Friday, and weekend. I have only made about $11,000 from this job in that time. It was great to throw that right to our debt, but I am just... done.

There is a bump in the road, however. Due to some extenuating circumstances, our February paychecks may not be up to our regular income. This is causing a LOT of stress, and we should find out within the next 10 days or so if we'll be making enough money in February to cover our bills. (I apologize for being so vague - believe me, I am dying to discuss this.) Once I know that we'll be OK, then I plan to quit the second job. I am crossing my fingers that I will be able to enter February with only ONE job!

Commissions Resolved!

All the way back in November, I wrote about my commission problems. In short, my company charged me back about $2500 due to a billing error. Not good.

Although they never asked me to pay them directly, all the money I have earned in commissions has first gone towards the deficit. With no intention to do so, I added to our debts. I haven't received any commissions since October, and I still owe my company about $1900. At least it's at 0%, right?

Recently, however, the billing issue has been resolved and the order reinstated. Meaning, I will re-earn my $2500 in commissions and get paid out on the $600 that I have already put towards the deficit. Finally.

Here is the good news, though. When I originally was paid on the order, it qualified me for a quarterly bonus (based entirely on revenues brought in). Since the order was originally placed in the 2006 fiscal year, and is now reinstated in the 2007 fiscal year, it's possible that I could qualify for another bonus. Technically, the revenue has been brought in again during 2007. I am still waiting to hear about that - I should find out around the middle of January.

In the end, though, I am just happy to have it all evened out and back to normal. Without commissions, my income is cut pretty substantially. The commissions go straight towards our debt, so getting them back will go far towards our debt payoff.

Standing on the Brink

My darling husband started his own blog today, Standing on the Brink. On his blog, he writes about growing his company and the trials, successes and failures along the way. In my completely unbiased opinion, he is a fantastic writer. Plus, reading all about his company will help explain how we took on this debt in the first place - much of it was used to get Servprise off the ground. So take a minute and check it out!

Commission Backslide Part 2

I did it. I sent the nasty-gram to try and save my $2500. Thanks for all the support and cross your fingers for me!

Commission Backslide

As I've mentioned before, I work in sales. My salary isn't very large, and a good chuck of my income is made through commissions. In January 2007, I helped to sell a large deal that was worth $2483 in commissions to me (before tax). For comparison, the majority of my deals are worth $200-$600 pre-tax. So this was obviously a big deal (pun intended).

In October, we ran into an issue with the billing of the customer. Turns out that there was an error and the customer never received any invoices. They hadn't made a payment on the equipment in the 9 months that they were using it. After much back and forth and getting the runaround, visiting the customer 4-5 times, the two companies decided that an agreement couldn't be reached that everyone was happy with. So the equipment is going to be returned and the sale will be effectively canceled.

Why is this relevant? My company has asked me to pay them back the commissions I earned on the deal. All $2483. On paper, this is the correct way to deal with the situation. They have to protect themselves from anyone who places false orders and then cancels them, cheating the system.

However, this is an extenuating circumstance and a rare case. I was advised to write a strongly worded letter protesting having to pay the company back. Two weeks ago. But I haven't done it yet. I don't have any good reason why not. I'm a little bit of a procrastinator (example: I started writing this post Monday morning). I think I'm almost embarrassed to ask for my own money. Which is ridiculous, of course. I earned the money to begin with and did everything in my power to prevent the order being canceled.

I just need to man up and do it. Writing this post is a start - it will hold me accountable if I try to wimp out again. I will have my protesting email sent by midnight Wednesday. It's not like I have $2500 laying around to give back to my company. It's already been applied to the credit cards! Months ago! Having to pay it back would seriously inhibit my budget and debt payoff.

Pros and Cons of a Second Job

As I've mentioned before, I work a second job in a retail store. Some days I hate it, some days I only dislike it, some days I actually enjoy it. Since I love making pros and cons lists, I made one for my second job.

Cons:

• The pay is lousy. While I make above minimum wage, it still doesn't add up to that much at the end of the week.
  
• There's temptation to buy. Ever want something really bad, but resist buying it so you can meet your financial goals? I walk by items I want every time I'm in the store.
  
• Dealing with customers. Don't get me wrong, I love helping people pick out merchandise. Kind of like shopping without me actually spending money. But there are a few witchy customers that can really get to me.
  
• Scheduling. If I need a day off, I have to ask for it 2 weeks in advance. Kills all spontaneity.
  
• It takes up time. Not just a little time. I work at the second job 24 hours a week. I work 2 nights during the week, Saturdays and Sundays. All my housework, errands, and any social activities are planned around my hours at the store.

Pros:

• Employee discount. I get a neat 25% off everything in the store. I don’t buy a lot, but every now and then there are items I legitimately need (shower curtain liners, anyone?), so it’s nice to save some dough. Plus, about half of all gifts I’ve given this past year were from my store.
• Access to the Deals. Every now and then, we mark some items WAY down. Whether it’s discontinued bedding or display glassware, we sell some things at unadvertised low prices. I’ve snagged replacement dishes for my sister and some sheets for my mom for a fraction of their actual cost. Not to mention I know what’s on sale before it’s on sale – even for Black Friday.
• Friends. I’ve been working there for just over a year and have met a bunch of people. They help the time pass in the store and we socialize outside of work as well. Good people make everything better.
• It keeps me busy. Not that I would sit around doing nothing otherwise, but working all the time has its advantages. I’m sure I would go out more and spend more money if I had the free time to do so. Working every day of the week naturally keeps that in check.
• Pay down debt. This is the number one reason I have a second job. Even though the pay isn’t all that great, every little bit helps. The $650 I make working the second job in a month is $650 less on my credit card balance and $650 less that I am paying interest on. At the end of the day, it’s the paycheck that keeps me going.

At the end of the day, the pros still outweigh the cons. I'm pretty sure that once the credit card debt is gone, that will change. My number one reason for working a second job is to pay off the credit card debt, and I don't know if any other incentive will be able to overcome the pitfalls of the second job.