Its Offical - I'm looking for a New Job

I knew this day was coming, every thing had been building up but the explosion happened yesterday. Yesterday, I have officially decided to seek a new job (in Atlanta). Wow -- even typing it for the blog makes it seem more final and more scary.

It's been a really hard decision for a number of reasons but I've weighed all of the pros and cons and have really thought out all of my options and I think this is the course I need to take. So as of yesterday, I'm officially one the job search. I'm going to take things slow thought, primarily because I have a large bonus coming from the project I just completed and it won't be distributed until September 19th. My second reason for taking things slow is that I'm the eternal optimist and I can't help but hope/wish/dream that things will change and I can stay with my current company.

Since deciding that I need to seek a new job I've been trying to think out my action plan so here's what I've got so far:
-By Next Weekend update my resume
- Tuesday, May 20th have dinner with my old mentor to seek guidance
- Start contacting people I know that work for other GC's to feel out their job market
- Talk to my old boss about being a reference and if he has any suggestions of places to look
- Contact people through professional organizations that I'm involved with.

Any other good ideas?

Stimulus Check is HERE --- I think...

Yay! I had almost given up hope on when I'd recieve my stimulas check but I think it will officially hit my account tomorrow.

I logged online to my bank just now in order to schedule payment for my power bill and noticed that my account balance was exactly $600 more than my available balance. When this happens it usually means that there is a direct deposit pending. So yay - I think my rebate check is coming.

For those of you who've not yet received your check you can check on the IRS website for the status of your check, just make sure to enter your exact refund amount and all of your other pertanant details to find out where your check is. The one catch is that the status check only works if your check has already been released per the IRS Schedule.

I hope you all enjoy your stimulus check as much as I am enjoying mine aka my new LCD TV.

Advice for 18 Year Old Future Millionaire

Two of my fellow PFBloggers, Kevin from No Debt Plan and Kristy from Master Your Card recently shared advice they would have given themselves when they were 18. It got me to thinking and reflecting on how my life has shaped up in the years since I was 18 and I decided to join them by posting the advice I would give myself when I turned 18.

I have a few words of wisdom to share to myself at 18 but nothing major. I think every experience I've had from 18 to now has shaped me to become the person I am today and I very content and happy with who I am in general and also financially so I wouldn't want any radical changes.

1. Watch out for that Curb!!! -- My first semester of college I was carrying my freshly laundered clothes back to my dorm from the laundry mat and misstepped on a curb and dislocated my shoulder. Three surgeries and almost a year of physical therapy I was finally back to normal, if I had it to do all over again I'd never pile up so many clothes I couldn't see where I was going.

2. Study Abroad, the Money will work out. -- The summer between my 1st and 2nd year I had the opportunity to Study Abroad in France (to date I've never been out of the country) and after much debate and number crunching I decided against studying abroad because I was concerned that I would not have enough funds to cover that semester with out working and be able to pay tuition the following semester.

3. Stay in touch with your High School Friends. -- This is not a financial advice but good advice none the less. College is a new exciting experience and unfortunately I got distracted with new experiences in college and as the years went by I lost touch with several of my friends from high school. To date I only stay in close contact with one of my high school friends.

4. Negotiate Harder for your salary. -- In my opinion I am well compensated for my job, however I can't help but think about some of the potential I might have given up by not pushing a little harder instead of accepting the first counter offer.

5. Have Fun, Enjoy College, it ends sooner than you think (even thought its well over 4 years). -- I don't really have any regrets, but I do miss the good ole days. :)

What about you? Any good advice for yourself at 18?

Monday's Money Funny - Budgeting

One of the regular features on my blog is "Monday's Money Funny" which are humorous (at least to me) articles/jokes/just about anything that I've discovered over the weekend when I catch up on all my on line reading that spark a need for knowledge. For example the previous Monday Money Funny was a about Americans seeking second jobs.

This week I thought I'd continue the theme of the economy's recession. Heck all of the media are sensationalizing the recession by running daily series like "Surviving" and "Your Daily Cents," so this week's Monday Money Funny is about budgeting.

Lately the City of Atlanta has been having some budgeting issues, that's putting it mildly there's a $141 Million budget deficits that the city was unaware of until recently. In fact they thought there was a surplus and has already spent what they thought was the surplus. To get the budget back in line the city is laying off 441 workers. If you're curious about the back story check out this AJC article.

This week's Monday Money Funny is a video from CNN show casing how the City of Atlanta is spending $300k on toilets despite being in a $141 Million deficit. Talk about mismanagement of funds.

Since obviously the City of Atlanta needs some help figuring out how to budget I thought I'd provide some links for their use (not that the Mayors reads my blog but you never know) and also for those of you who'd like more information about budgeting.

Check out:
About.com's article explaining How to Set Up a Successful Budget
eHow's article explaining How to Budget Wisely
and Jonathan's at Master Your Card post explaining the Basics of Budgeting Money

Stay tuned for next week's Monday's Money Funny. If you run across any Money Funnies please email them to me at future.millionaire.blog@gmail.com and if I use them I will give you credit and link to your blog.

Weekend Round Up!

Happy Mothers Day to all the Mothers out there. This weekend I've caught up on my blog reading from posts this week so I thought I'd share some of the highlights from the PFBloggers world.

Living Almost Large shares a story of how one of her husband's fellow grad students wants to just Add it To Her Tab, and doesn't get the big picture about how much debt she's going to be in.

Penelope @ Our Four Pence Worth reminded us all that the cost of mailing via the USPS is increasing on Monday. Unfortunately I still have stamps from when it only cost 39 cents to mail a letter, looks like when I mail letters I'm going to have a total of 4 stamps (one 39 cent and 3 one cent stamps) on each letter.

Get Rich or Die Trying's JB reminds us all of why to save.

Seb @ Pinching Copper draws paralells between Grand Theft Auto IV and personal finance.

Wide Open Wallet's Mom share's her father's own Millionaire Next Door Story. I love stories like this - it reminds me to keep on my saving path so I can become a Future Millionaire.

Continuing with the Millionaire Theme, Kevin from No Debt Plan shares 10 steps to Avoid Becoming a Millionaire in response to Kristy from Master Your Card shared 10 steps to becoming a Millionaire.