I just paid off over four grand’s worth of debt thanks to the bonus. I’ve got kind of a natural high going on right now; it’s pretty awesome. It’s almost as much fun paying off the debt as it was to gain it. Okay, that’s not true, but intellectually, if not subjectively, paying it off appeals to me much, much more. I can’t wait to be back at zero.
I received some discouraging news yesterday. In a group meeting , my boss told us that, because our company had had such a good year last year, “associates” could expect to receive as much as 10% of their annual salary as a bonus, and “analysts” could expect to receive anywhere from 25% to 40%. This distressed me because of the fact that I, while I am doing the work of an analyst, still technically have the title of associate, and, as I am sure you have realized, there is a large disparity between 10% and 40%. However, I knew that my boss was impressed with my work, and so I crossed my fingers and hoped that it would all work out for the best, even though I slightly grumbled to myself about how foolish it was to not address my issue of doing an analyst’s work without having an analyst’s title sometime prior in the year. There was also some grumbling to the effect of, “If somebody else wants to do this job, they can help themselves.”
Today, I received a statement that told me how much my bonus would be, and, much to my surprise, it was over twice as much as the figure that I had been bracing myself for! I computed the percentage the bonus was of my income, and it turned out to be 27%, which is amazingly high considering that the best I had told myself that I could expect was 10%. In addition, I received an 8% raise, which is also pretty high, considering that my boss said that if management was expecially pleased with you, you could expect as high as a 6% or 7% raise. This will essentially, after taxes, equal another hundred bucks a pay period that will help to pay down that doggone debt.
In short, I am pleased.
I receive my bonus from work on the 23rd of this month.
This is something that I’ve been dreaming about for over a year. My response to even hearing the word bonus is Pavlovian; my mouth salivates.
While it won’t be enough to eradicate my debt, it will certainly be enough to eliminate a double digit percentage of it, and that is certainly going to help me sleep better at night. I can’t wait until my debt is all gone.
The longer that my show runs, the more I consider the viability and volatility of acting as a career. After one show ends, one finds oneself essentially unemployed unless you have another show directly lined up, which is potentially difficult, even if you are auditioning all the time. In addition, just because you get a pretty good contract at one theatre doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ll receive another pretty good contract at another theatre, particularly for actors like myself who are currently not a member of the actors union. Theatres can pay non-equity actors horrible wages, and the actor is generally forced to take it knowing that if they don’t, they just won’t have a job.
I am very happy that my boss at my “regular” job has been pretty flexible with the amount of time that I have missed at work because he knows that I make sure to provide excellent service to my customers. However, in the long run, a traditional 9 to 5 job in conjunction with working in professional theatre isn’t really going to be an option, I don’t think, because the combination of working two essentially full-time jobs, no matter how fulfilling one of them is, is a huge drain on both my sanity and my relationships.
I am therefore forced to think about supplementary income. I have a bit of that from this site and a few others that I run in the form of advertising revenue, but a hundred bucks every couple of months, while nice, isn’t exactly going to pay the rent and keep food on the table.
As a musician, I could also give lessons, but I would need to be careful to ensure both that my lessons didn’t interfere with commitments for rehearsals and auditions, and that my students were getting a fair value for their money. I know that this is potentially lucrative as I taught voice lessons for two years, and the rate that I charged, which was actually a bit low for the area considering that other teachers charged, in some cases, nearly twice as much, was $80 a month for four or five half-hour lessons, depending on how many times our lesson day fell on any given month. This would average out to around $40 an hour, which is a pretty sweet gig. However, the issue with this is that you need to have at least 15 or 20 students to be able to make a living wage out of this.
I sometimes wish that I would have been given a love for business, so that I would be fulfilled by working for a large company like I work for now and have the potential to live comfortably up until retirement. Dreams are a funny thing.
Ah, Chase Credit Card, How Do I Love Thee?
I recently received a card in the mail from Chase Manhattan Corp, with whom I have one of my credit cards. The card had various pictures of what appeared to be groups of friends smiling at one another. The inside of the card said something along the lines of, “Why don’t you take this opportunity to pay down some of the balance of your card? A credit card that is close to its limit can reflect poorly on your credit score. if you need help or credit counseling, feel free to call this toll-free number.”
By this, they of course meant, “Dear deadbeat, we’d like our money back, so please send us a check lest we send Vito and Tony over to your place to put various parts of your anatomy into vices.”
Sigh…I’m working on it, Chase. Thanks for sending the pick-me-up.
Although this is something that I have wanted to do and have thought financially prudent for a long time, I have finally started an emergency fund with ING Direct. Their offer of a free $25 dollars with the startup of a new account was music to my ears. My eventual goal is to get up to a thousand dollars in there. I am currently an eighth of the way.
I want to briefly address why I didn’t go with another online bank, especially with the advertisements saying that HSBC is giving interest at 6% currently. The truth is that I already have a small account open with HSBC, but the customer service has been deplorable ever since I signed up several months ago, so I simply have no desire to bank with them any more than I need to with my small account. In fact, I will likely close that account shortly.
There are other options, of course, but friends of mine who have gone with ING Direct have had nothing but good things to say about it. I can only say for myself that no negative experiences have come to light as of yet.