The big news (at least to me) is that I'm pregnant. C and I are expecting our first child in May. I have been out of town, working crazy hours. Once I get back to my hotel, I just work more. I was about to have a nervous breakdown today, but it's only until the rest of this week. My performance manager called last week, but I only had about 2 minutes to talk with him. I didn't even get a chance to ask if he knows what my bonus is going to be. We have time scheduled to talk next week. I hope to post more soon, but not sure how much time I'll have.

Today only, you can download the "Start Over, Finish Rich" e-book by David Bach for FREE! The download link is on this page. I haven't yet read the book, but I have read several of David's previous books, including the Automatic Millionaire and Smart Women Finish Rich.

When I lived in NY, he did a book signing at the Barnes and Noble across the street from where I lived.

He is probably the author who first helped me get interested in personal finance.

Thanks to 2 million for the heads up.

p.s. I plan to post some announcements later this week. Sorry for the lack of posting, if anyone is still with me.

-Since I started using Twitter, it's been hard finding motivation to blog.
-I really want to buy a house now, but prices are still pretty high. I hope that C and I buy a place where we can cover the mortgage with only 1 of our incomes.
-Mortgage prices still seem to be very low. I used Zillow to get some mortgage quotes, and I can get around 4.5% (with some partial points, but we plan to keep whatever place we buy for a long time).
-New job is going well. I got my first paycheck last week. There is something to be said for getting paychecks, rather than direct deposit. I think that was the largest check in my name that I've ever received.
-I've held checks for $1+ million in relation to past jobs.
-Somehow I decided that I really like Pottery Barn. Not good for the wallet. Luckily I haven't completely lost my frugality and I'm searching craigslist for cheaper Pottery Barn stuff.
-I also bought a Pottery Barn gift card for about 75% of the value. I used it to purchase an floor model rug.
-I've been preparing a networth statement less and less frequently. The tanking of the markets gave me a good excuse to not prep one for a long long. I finally did one in mid-July and another one yesterday. In about 2 weeks, our retirement accounts went up 5% with no contribution from us. Go market!
-After preparing these recent net worth views, we realized that we are close to a pretty major milestone (cash savings of X amount, with X being a nice round number). If we save really aggressively, we could get to it, but I don't think we have the inclination to save that hard anymore.
-I believe in a 10% tithe, but I have been undertithing for the past 2 years or so. I didn't change my tithe to keep up with my income. Now an I over-tithing (only a little over) to make up for it.

Inspired by FMF

Year 1: I got my first job out of school. I made several mistakes. I first suggested a salary range and then I didn't negotiate above what was offered. Later I found out that I could have easily made 6% more starting.

Year 2: 8.5% increase, but since I made a mistake starting out, others in my job may have started here.

Year 3: Job change. 7% increase. Didn't negotiate this amount.

Year 4: Promotion, 13% increase. Year end raise, 8%.

Year 5: Market adjustment, 7%. Promotion, 15%. Year end raise, 5%.

Year 6: Promotion, 6%.

Year 6.5: Job change, 20%.

Year 5 was a big year for me. By this time, I had learned that I was paid much much less that I was worth. I asked my boss for more money and he said he would see what he could do. I would ask for the status of the request every so often. Finally about 6 months after my initial request, I got a 7% raise (during that time period I actually got my year end raise, but I was still below market even with that 8% increase).

This year, I was promoted, but I got a very small pay increase, once again putting my below market range for my position. I believe that is the major reason I was able to negotiate such a large salary increase in this tough economic times. There was also one extenuating circumstance that caused the company to give me a bonus, worth about 5%.

What I've learned from this - do good work, ensure you have a strong reputation, research what the market is paying, and don't be afraid to ask. If you don't ask, no one is going to hand things over to you.

I was promoted several times which contributed greatly to my salary growth. Without those promotions, there is no way I'd be making what I am today.

I am excited to say that I accepted a new job, starting later this month. I'm taking a bit of time off before getting started. I am excited to be working with really smart people, in more of a startup like environment, but doing similar work to what I'm doing now.

The best part . . I was able to negotiate a fairly large pay increase. I am finally going to be over the 6 figure mark!

The way I was able to get this offer was by continuously doing good work and over-delivering! Just the things that FMF is always blogging about.

I'll post information about my salary growth in my next post. This is something I'm really proud of since I think I made some mistakes early in my career in not negotiating what I'm worth, but I've since made up for that.