Just a quick check-in to say I was notified of my promotion today, and I am over the moon.  I was promoted to the next level and received a $30k increase.  This is more than I was expecting, and I know it is because I advocated for myself.  It goes into effect on Wednesday, and is reflected in my 7/15 paycheck.  I have an idea of what my net pay will be but very excited to get the actual amount so I can start planning, it should be a nice chunk more every check, and I already have my plan for how to allocate.

Yay!!!!!

It's been a few weeks since my last post - since then, not much to report. 

School is going well, and I have adapted to the workload.  I'm happy to say that it feels much more doable, I was just overly excited and doing a lot at once lol.  I've fallen into a good groove, and can't believe that the end of next week marks halfway through the session.  

Work is still nuts, and I haven't heard about the promotion yet.  It would be in effect for July 1, and they usually notify people a few days to 2 weeks before.  So basically, I could hear at any point now.  

Finances are chugging along.  Things are slowing down but that's to be expected.  Some big chunks of money are coming in over the next few months, but I already have the plan on what is going to happen with those, so it's just execution.  I still think that it'll be a very successful year financially, and even though I am not following the plan quite as strictly as I was at the outset, I've found balance that I can live with.  

Yesterday was payday.  Nothing out of the ordinary.  Paid a bunch of bills, debt went down some, savings went up some.  Again, I'm waiting with baited breath for news of the promo so I can figure out how this impacts my budget for the rest of the year.  

A question has come up that I am wondering if anyone here can answer.  When my grandfather passed, there were quite a few fairly high value savings bonds (series EE) left behind.  All have a POD/TOD.  He was listed as the sole owner on the bonds, and did not pre-emptively pay any taxes on the interest earned over the years.  The bonds are all at full maturity.  His heirs, my mother and her sisters, have agreed that they are aligned with having his estate pay the income taxes on the accrued interest, and the plan is to cash all of the bonds this year, so that the 1099s can be included in his & my grandmother's 2021 taxes (MFJ, Grandma has advanced dementia, so she unfortunately is not a part of these discussions).  The tax implications make no difference for their/her financial situation. 

Of the PODs, one of them is on Medicaid, and is concerned that if she cashes in the bonds left to her, that she will get bumped into the next income bracket, which would boot her off Medicaid.  On the flip side, she is unemployed, and really could use the cash infusion.  From my research, it appears that it would have been easier if the bonds were cashed while he was alive, because he would still be the owner....but that's not where we ended up.  So I guess the main question is.....since there are PODs on the bonds, are we able to have "him"/his estate be responsible for reporting the income/paying the tax on the interest?  Is it as simple as the POD takes their bond to any bank, and brings the required documentation (assuming ID, and his death certificate), then the bank cashes, and generates a 1099, which I then have his tax preparer include in his 2021 tax filing?  If this is the case, it would seem to me that the PODs would not be the ones reporting the income, but he would.  Anyone have any insight here?  I have been researching on the Treasury site, but of course, it's not super clear.  FWIW, the other PODs don't really care who reports the income/pays the tax - it's just this one person with a tenuous situation.  As the person handling all of the paperwork, I have just asked that if indeed the 1099s will have his name on them, that all of the bonds be cashed in 2021, so that I can include them all with his final tax filing.  I don't want to be filing taxes for him years after he is gone.  I am trying to simplify all of the estate matters for my grandmother as well.  

School has officially started, and while I'm really enjoying it so far, it's definitely a lot more work than I was anticipating.  In the past 2 days, I've put in probably about 6-8 hours of work so far.  The work itself is not difficult (which is a relief because these are fairly intro classes that I would hope I could handle at my age and at my life experience level lol), it just takes a lot of time.  I am hoping this is just me getting into the groove, and that I don't feel overwhelmed in future weeks.  For week 1, I have completed all of my work for one course, and still have a lot of reading and two more assignments for the other course.  I'm now glad that I was only able to take 2 courses this summer, as I think 4 would have been completely overwhelming haha.

In the course of doing the schoolwork, I realized that my current personal computer (trying to do the majority of the work from my own computer rather than my work computer) is just not a good fit.  It's a teeny tiny little Macbook, and it's just not big enough to be comfortable to work on for any extended period of time, especially when doing writing.  I did pick up my mother's new laptop, and we've decided that I am going to keep it haha.  It wasn't terribly expensive, and it's a good investment to be able to efficiently do what will be a LOT of work over the next two and a half years.  She'll take a look at it, and decide if she likes it.  If she does like it, I will just buy another one, and that will be hers.  If she doesn't like it, I will just send the payment for it to her credit card, and then we will go shopping for hers together whenever she is ready.

On the same day, I received an offer to increase the amount of this summer's loan to cover education related expenses.  I decided to take them up on the offer, to pay for the laptop as well as whatever other tools I discover would be helpful in this journey.  I was eligible to request another $5,000, but didn't think I remotely needed that much.  However, the school has to certify the additional funds, so I decided to request more than I needed in case they certify me for a lower amount haha.  I requested $4,000, and if approved, will add it to the private loan row in my summary tracking.  This loan will be moved into the priority debt section once it's all finalized and fleshed out, and I am hoping to have it paid off before I graduate.  Since I won't need to pay any of my other student loans until 6 months after I grduate (including the ones that existed before I went back to school), I can focus on this one.

There have been a lot of conversations at work so far this week (which is impressive considering we were off Monday and Tuesday).  I had a conversation with HR, and it went really well.   I feel confident that I will be getting the promotion I have earned, and I was able to communicate what I expect from a salary/title perspective.  No promises of course, but enough to make me withdraw from consideration from the external job I was set to interview for.  The idea of changing companies right now was stressing me out, but I was willing to go for it as long as I was unsure what was happening with my current job.  I still don't have confirmation, but am feeling secure enough to let it go.  When asked what salary I was targeting, I replied with between $110k-$120k.  This is within the salary band for the next level up, albeit at the high end of the range, but I also mentioned that I believe I have been working at the level that's two above mine (which obviously has a higher salary band).  I feel like it was a very productive conversation, and I felt heard.  Even if I don't get what I asked for, I feel confident that what I am offered/awarded will be enough for me to not consider a move.  

Of course I have been busy doing projections....obviously since I am not sure what the salary would be, I have no way to know how much extra money I will be netting.  I'm playing with the different take home amounts to see how my budget can evolve.  The first priority will be funding grocery spending in my budget....til now I've been making it work but it's not actually working that well haha.  The second priority will be funding payments for the private loan.  Third will be saving to purchase a new piece of fitness equipment, fourth will be adding in funding for other sinking funds, fifth will be increasing revolving debt payoff, and then finally will be increasing savings (both retirement and general).  Obviously, as debt goes down, I can increase savings.  Excited to see how this affects my budget, but the order of events works for me, and I hope to have some info before the end of June, so that when I do an end of quarter goals review, I have some insight into where this will bring me in the second half of the year.