Throwing Away Junk and Finding Money

Last year I got this book "The Courage to be Rich" by Suze Orman at a garage sale, and I'm just now getting around to reading it. In the chapter I just finished she encourages the reader to throw away of 25 things.  This is to make room for more abundance to come into your life.  I have to admit I'm a bit of a pack rat. Once in a while I watch that TV "Hoarders" to make myself feel better.  I'm not that bad, but I'm always worried about throwing things out in case I'll need them some day.  So in the past half hour I looked around to find things I was willing to part with.  Here's what I found:

• Several pairs of socks (either they didn't have a match, they had a hole or I just never wear them)
• Used zip lock bags I thought I'd re-use
• Ring box
• Lollipop from my niece's birthday party
• Yellow highlighter (we have 3, so I got rid of the oldest one)
• Glass jar with a chipped cover
• Pack of gum with only 1 stick left
• Expired debit card
• Employee discount card from an old job
• Jokers from a card deck
• Pile of old receipts
• Old box (I thought I would use for a gift or something)
• Nail file a cat chewed on (why do they love those things?)
• Part of packaging that came with my humidifier.  (I store it in the box it came in during the summer, but of course everything doesn't fit in the box as well as the manufacturer put it in)

The next thing you're supposed to do is look for money you have laying around the house, and then put into a "jar of abundance".

I didn't go through the whole house, but I'm actually fairly good at not leaving money around, but I still managed to find 78 cents (most of which was at the bottom of my purse). I had already been putting my spare change into a jar, but my jar is pretty small and already full, so I may have to look for a larger jar because it may be physically and psychologically preventing me from accumulating more.

Wage Envy

I overheard a co-worker say he makes $2,500 take home every week. I don't even make that much in a month - even when I was working a lot of overtime. It's very frustrating to go to work for the same amount of time as he does but he makes about six times as much as I do. And no, I don't believe he works harder than I do. If anything I think I work harder. I'd say over 50% of the time I walk by his desk he is reading his personal email or surfing the Internet on non work related websites. His job title, has "engineer" in it, but he doesn't spend his time in a lab or doing complicated calculations. I'm not even sure what he really contributes.

Me on the other hand, I've struggled to get past the $30,000 a year mark. I just barely reached the $30,000 mark one year, and that was way back in 2002 when I had a decent job. Unfortunately I moved away in late 2003 and have struggled the make any decent money since then.  My wage earning ability has been absolutely pitiful. I found a part time low paying job in 2004, then found a full time job in 2006, but it still didn't pay that well. Then we moved again in 2007 and I struggled to find anything other than temporary jobs.  I can't find my most recent SS statement, but as you can see my income has been embarrassing:

I made more money in 1995 while I was still in high school than I did in 2008.  It's no wonder we are still struggling financially.  I'm almost thinking it is a mental thing that I can't make over $30,000. If my job still offered overtime, I most likely would have surpassed the $30K mark this year, but since they no longer offer overtime, I probably just miss the $30K milestone. It's mid year and if I work 40 hours for 26 more weeks, I'll make $13,520 before taxes for the rest of the year. I made $15,397.37 in the first 6 months, but was offered overtime for the first 4 of those. So as of right now I'm projected to make $28,917.37. So once again, still below $30K. Maybe a new wealth goal for next year is to make well over $30K. The sad thing is my slacker coworker will make $30K in about 2 months.

IRA Asset Allocation and Balance: July 2

If there is anything more volatile than the constantly changing home values, it's value of mutual fund investments. This time it was actually good news. Just 2 weeks ago, my IRA balance was $18,653.13 and as of this morning with only an additional $600 invested the balance has skyrocketed to $20,141.42!

I knew that I'd see a good number after seeing the news about the value of stocks rising this week, but I didn't expect to surpass the $20K mark. I was actually a little disappointed earlier this week when I heard the Dow was doing so well because I knew that meant I'd be buying my shares at a higher price. Now I wish I would have purchased some shares last month when they were a little cheaper. Oh well, at this point the only thing that matters is that I get some money invested and actually contribute the maximum since I don't have a 401K.

My asset allocation is pretty much the same as 2 weeks ago, but starting next month, I plan to increase my growth stock percentage.