I'm not very smart

I wrote a whole blog yesterday detailing how my company was screwing everyone out of their 401k matching funds, but it turns out it's just me. Matching funds are dispersed in January and June, and you have to have worked 1000 hours to receive them and be working on the dates of disbursement. So since I started last July, I did not start accruing matching funds until January. As it turns out, however, you have to work 1000 hours during every 6 month period. I was told that if I was on leave in June, I would still receive my disbursement. However, because of my leave (and my 20 hours of LWOP on my honeymoon), I only worked 978 hours and therefore was not eligible for disbursement. I think if someone had told me that earlier I would have figured out how to get that extra 22 hours. And thus be over a thousand dollars richer. But alas.

(In case you were wondering how I first thought this screwed everyone, it goes as follows. 40 hours x 26 weeks = 1040 hours. 5.86 hours PTO per pay period = 76 ish. 1040 - 76 =964 <1000. As it turns out PTO hours count for hours worked. The only thing that doesn't count is leave without pay.)

So basically because I took a honeymoon, I did not get my 401k. Bastards. That oughta be some sort of discrimination.

Photos and Credit Reports

I was feeling that my blog was a bit drab lately, without any visual stimulation. So this morning I took a few pictures to post. Part of the problem is that it turns out my digital camera, which is less than 1 year old, is not compatible with Windows Vista. My brand new computer can not see the images on it. So I have to download them to another computer and then transfer them over, which sucks. But anyway...

Jenga! Matt thinks it's funny to make it as unstable as possible as early as possible.













My new desk set up! (Gotta love the wood paneling background.) I got rid of the topper thing and bought some new recycled stuff from the Container Store. I have so much more room now - I love it.










Our mantle of wedding gifts! The pictures for the frames are in the mail now. (Of course the pictures above the mantle are old hat.) By the way, we have that cute ring frame, and we have no idea who it's from. Please let us know if it's from you or you know who it's from. We'd like to thank the proper person!










Our new plants! It wasn't very smart to buy them before we leave for 10 days, but if they die, so will all the others. So sad. This is when I wish I had friends. (Note China Doll!)










Our wedding album! Okay so I am lazy and I ordered it off snapfish, but I like it. Except the cover picture has some problems. But the inside is nice! (I am also in the process of scrapbooking the wedding. Just waiting for a few more things...Dad and Matt D. Not that they read this blog I'm sure.)











On a completely different note, take advantage of those free annual credit reports. I found some errors in mine. In fact, I couldn't access one of them because my name was spelled wrong in it, so I ended up having to pay for a combined report from all three in order to see it and then discover it had errors. Nothing major; just name spellings and addresses and an employer. (Logo Cruz?) But anyway, just do it. It might help you out in the long run. Some people estimate as many as 80% of credit reports have errors.


On an entirely different note, Matt and I leave for our honeymoon tomorrow! So probably no blogs for awhile. Unless something really exciting happens or we upload pictures. You know how I love my blog. I can't part with it or a computer for the honeymoon...

Mwah!

Money

I realized it was silly for me to have money sitting in my Bank of America savings account making about 0.5% when it could be sitting in my ING savings account making 4.5%. So I tried to transfer money from my Bank of America savings account to my BofA checking account so that I could then transfer it to ING. No luck. Apparently BofA thinks it needs to help me save money but not letting me transfer it out of my savings account. At that point I realized that BofA is stupid and opened an ING Electric Orange account that will make 4% instead of 0%. That is a much better deal too. The downside is that there are no paper checks. You can bill pay online for free, send electronic checks, or have them send paper checks, but that might be difficult for quick turn-around-times or for sending people money unexpectedly. Therefore I think I still have to keep money in my BofA checking account for such instances. I am now trying to decide if I should change my direct deposit or just keep transferring funds. I wonder if it is bad for your credit to close multiple bank accounts in one year and open up a ton too. I hope not. I would be screwed. But I recommend ING to everyone. Great rates on everything from checking to CDs and more. (FDIC insured, but good rates because of no overhead.) See http://www.ingdirect.com