I got my raise!!!!!! $4k!!!!

(Can you believe this is one of my smallest raises ever? The industry is crazy...).

Anyway, yeah a measly $4k raise and a promotion to more management. I have gotten $6k raises without promotion, but whatever. I was VERY pleased and doing a dance of joy until I sat down to really think about this.

That is the good for sure.

The bad, if I had not lowered my health insurance plan, my raise would have been completely eaten up by health insurance. For now we pay less monthly but are open to more out-of-pocket costs. We'll see how it pans out.

As I started to realize this and think ahead my next year's raise will probably be eaten up by increases in premiuns (& maybe this year's eaten up by out-of-pocket expenses) then I Wasn't to thrilled.

though the bright side is definitely that I have enough raises to cover these - geez louise.

Anyway, planning ahead I decided to get my boss's insurance rates. I am looking at them right now, $730/month for a family of 4, boss would pay $250, $480 out of my pocket, for a plan with a high deductible, but not high enough to be a eligible for a HSA. I think my current insurance is around that for a HSA-qualified plan. *sigh* Just the writing on the wall that we will likely switch to high-deductible next year, or soon, and so I am feeling down about it. I can not believe still my boss's plan does not offer much benefit - I guess his rates have raised accordingly over the last years.

So anyway, I am super stoked that I am looking to set aside $300/month EASY and $500/month when the car is paid off (soon) and that is super duper awesome, brings me to about 10% savings rate. & I told dh I would not be bugging him to get a paying job this year - 1 more year to work on his movie ventures and strike it big (with no pay). This is all very well and good, and great and awesome, but the whole health insurance thing still stresses me out. *sigh* All this cash will be needed perhaps if we switch to high-deductible plan later. Well, at least we'll have it. I did not feel comfrotable switching with so little cash right now. So overall is a step up. & dh is pleased!

Anyway, if I ever come across bitter, just had to say I am not. LOL. I am not bitter at all. It is so funny how we come across over the computer sometimes. When I am PMSy yes I can be a pain, but most of the time I Am pretty happy, if you didn't notice. Just a side note. I Cirnge that I would come across bitter I guess because I am no NOT a bitter person.

Oh yeah - so though I am going to save my entire raise going forward and pretend like it is not there (too bad no direct deposit - would make it so much easier but I Am discilplined enough - it's okay). But we decided to eat out tonight to celebrate. Nice to splurge once in a while. The funny thing it has been SO LONG since we ate out really we weren't really sure what to do. Decided to order in greek.

The other thing today is that I changed my investment portfolio. I am feeling very bearish on the market and moved more over to bonds. BEfore I had cash and stocks and I Was fine, but I noticed recently that my portfolio did semi-decent in the 2000-2003 years because my bond fund was making some really big returns. I Decided I made some nice stock gains these last few months, but with this bearish feeling it was good to move some back over to bonds. My old 401k had a new PIMCO bond fund that was actually pretty decent, easiest way to move to bonds and avoid fees (401k has no fees no matter how little I put in each fund). So I exchanged my stock market index, which is the worst performing, but cheapest (13% of funds in my control) over to the bond. Dh has about 35% of our money in a total stock market index now, so was a good move, and the rest in other stock mutual funds, so it works out well I think. IT was hard to see how bonds were helping us in the short-term but I See the bigger picture now... So we're at 15% cash, Around 15% bonds overall (in all mutual funds) and 70% stock. Good enough for me. I am a safe person, but I See the value in the stock for the long-term, I have already ridden 1 bad wave and came out ahead. But at the same time I like to have a little cash just in case - at least it is not under my mattress.

I really still have no idea how bonds work and probably why I shy away. But my conclusion is they do good when the market is otherwise bad. This may be a bad assumption, but cash rates were low and market was way down, and bonds were pulling 10% in the early 2000s. For now I put some in, and a loger-term goal for me is to really understand the bond market better. One of these days. I should look for a "bond market for dummies" book...

Anyway, I have to rework my budget now!!!! WIll get cracking tonight... See where this puts us. In the green at least for this year - phew!