I got a job!

 I officially start on 6/30. I'm very, very excited, relieved, happy & thrilled not to have to continue the job search. I did a call with the recruiter at 7:30 am yesterday (from our Las Vegas hotel room, do not recommend, as I was *very* tired from the night before), & got it done. 

The compensation was much better than I expected. My previous employer is the highest paid in the industry, so I had set my expectations much more realistically. But, they came pretty close to my previous compensation, which is very exciting & unexpected. The salary was great, bonus was good, I'll be getting some stock (this is the biggest difference between new & former company), & they also added a generous first year sign on bonus, as well as a second year sign on bonus. 

I'm excited to not pay for COBRA again! I was planning to deep clean the house before I went back to work, but they asked for an accelerated start date (they are actually trying to make 6/23 work on their end), which means I don't need to pay for COBRA for July. I'm going to use a very small amount of that COBRA savings to pay for a deep cleaning for the house, allowing me to tackle a bunch of other stuff I need/want to get done before I head back. 

I will be maxing my 401k & HSA accounts, so I'm guessing my first few paychecks will be pretty small. The company offers a small 529 match ($1k/year per kid), so I need to look into that as well, and see if there are any other benefits worth exploring.

And, on to what I need/want to tackle before I head back:

• Friend get togethers! I have a couple of friends that I've been trying to get together with for months, and need to lock in these dates.
• Help Sam open up an investment account, so he can save some of his summer earnings. (My dad has generously agreed to do a match for him.)
• Send off Nick's tshirts for the Tshirt quilt I'm having made
• Sort out whether I'm going to Boulder with M & Nick, or, more likely, it will just be the boys. Adjust travel plans, particularly as I booked the hotel using my Hyatt free night awards, which M won't be able to use without me.
• Remove myself from a bunch of survey & focus group sites, which I won't have time to do while I'm working, and they clutter up my inbox.
• Get a good start on helping Nick with his college set up (gear he needs, move in sign ups, health care, class placement exams, etc). 
• Some additional decluttering, particularly paperwork
• Decide what to do with my workout studio membership. I'll definitely still be attending, but may drop down the package size
• Come up with a new budget
  
  

What has everyone else been up to lately? Any good news to share?