I'm spending time thinking about our goals for 2015, wrapping up our 2014 budget & goals, and working insane hours. Q4 is our busiest time of year, by far.
In super great news, I received my annual bonus & salary increase. I'm getting a roughly 12% salary increase (much more than expected) & a $48,000 bonus (also more than I expected). Wow. Almost makes all of those crazy hours worth it. ;-)
I'll receive the bonus in January, and my salary will also take effect at that time. I'm undecided on where to put the salary increase, but will probably direct it to the kids college savings. On the bonus, the plan is as follows:
- $24,000 - estimated tax & deductions. I aim high, but with all of the taxes, 50% is pretty close to what I see
- $15,000 - travel fund for 2015. This will include a few family visits to see my parents, flights back and forth to our vacation house, Christmas 2015 travels, and our 10 year anniversary in the fall! :-)
- $9,000 - save for the emergency fund. I'd love the deductions to be less, so I can shove an even $10K in, but we'll see!
We have a bunch of holiday things happening this weekend, so here's our list of activities & things to get done:
- Birthday party
- Tea party
- Holiday party (all parties are on Saturday! Phew!)
- Send out Christmas cards
- Put up last decorations (our tree is up, but we have a candle set & some other stuff that I need to put out.)
- Exercise! It's been crazy rainy & stormy here, so I haven't been exercising as much as usual.
- Cooking
- Laundry
- Packing for the holidays
- Final wrapping & prep
- Perhaps holiday baking, if I finish the first 10 items on the list.
That's it! What about you? Any festive plans this weekend?
Wow! That's a huge bonus! I don't think that I could work as many hours as you do even with the amount that you make. I make in the low six figures and I'm already at the point where I won't work more than 45 hours a week because I don't think the extra money is worth it. Good luck with your list!
ReplyDeleteAhhh, you are very correct. If I could give up half of my salary for half of the work, I most definitely would. It's not an option. I need to switch roles/companies - the place I work would not allow me to work part time, even if my role worked with that schedule. Someday very soon I will make it happen!
DeleteAwesome numbers! Looks like this move was a good one financially (and, also the weather ... not the bad weather now, but the good weather you have for most of the year!)!!!
ReplyDeleteThe weather has been amazing (current storm excluded :-)). The finances are kind of a wash. With the California state tax, we're making roughly the same, and the cost of living is much, much higher. We'll see what happens in the long-term!
ReplyDeleteCongrats on your raise and bonus - that is amazing! We have had incredibly crappy weather with flooding and state of emergency which was just lifted due to all the rain but we are high on a hill so not effected. Our last official work day for our Company was yesterday, although I need hubby's office for at least 1 full day to catch up on accounting on Monday. We already went to a Christmas party - so things are quiet now till Christmas (excluding driving lessons for stepdaughter, cookie making sessions and drinks with friends) Cheers!
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