Money In My Pocket

End of the Cable

The semester is nearly over and I am preparing to return to school. Many things are going through my head such as ending and beginning housing arrangements, their associated bills, relocating my personal belongings, school tuition, and budgeting for the summer and into the fall.

My lease will end appropriately but a new sublease will be required back at school. I figured that I should give a month’s notice for all my bills. These bills included cable, electricity, internet, and water. A month should be enough to avoid any late termination fees.

As for moving my personal belongings, I will need to recruit a friend and a large truck. I am very thankful that I had the opportunity to defer my scholarships to this upcoming summer term. Although, I need to confirm the account transactions are complete. Budgeting? That’s a huge question mark. Once I have a break, I will make a final budget to last until the next work term. If there is a surplus, I’ll tell you about the wise investment plan. Feel free to offer ideas.

Assessment

At the end of each semester/work term, my company gathers all the co-op students and their supervisors for a conference. For this very important day, everybody travels to the corporate office in order to report on their work activities. The final presentation offered a wonderful opportunity to impress all the chief supervisors across the system. Do I need to mention how much stress this PowerPoint caused?

The co-ops were expected to share their experience and lessons learned to the whole group for a gruesome fifteen minutes. The next work placement is dependent upon this presentation and evaluation by the supervisor. The supervisors also offered creative criticism for improvement. The conference was especially helpful for us, because we were also exposed to other sections of the company.

The company did assess a large expense for hosting the whole group. But the value of the conference is priceless to them. They learn which co-ops will benefit the company upon graduation. Also, the supervisors are held accountable for giving valuable and challenging work assignments to the co-ops throughout the work term. Therefore, the assessment could be considered an audit of the students’ work and an interview for next semester.

Selections

Many of the campus organizations I am in that have selections for new members completed them recently.  This means that new member receptions are upon us.  I sometimes complain about the amount of time these meetings take up, but for the receptions, we get free food.  Sometimes our advisors will bring food or sometimes our officers will order it, but regardless of who gets it, it is still free food.  Always as the end of the semester is approaching, students get more and more desperate for cash and different food.  I am suffering from both along with many of my classmates, so now you won’t hear me complain about going to these meetings no matter what else I need to be doing because free food is involved.  I will gladly welcome our new members and satisfy my hunger at the same time. 

Earth Week Giveaway

I went into the grocery store today to pick up a few things I needed (and a few things I didn’t) and ran into some great deals, including one free giveaway.  As you may know, earth day is on Wednesday, April 22 this year, and my local grocery store is going green for the occasion.  When I went to pick up some essentials this afternoon, I ran across some cute little packets of seeds.  They came in a pot with soil, so all you have to do is plant them, water them, put them in a sunny spot and (hopefully) watch them grow.  I was thinking at the time that they were really cute, so I picked a couple up, but later I remembered about earth day and so I thought planting them would be my earth day contribution.  When I was checking out, the cashier put my items in an eco-friendly bag and said the store was giving them away for earth week, and to remember to bring it back on my future visits.  It was great to get a free bag and help the environment now and in the future too!

Charity Walk

There is always some sort of charity event underway on campus. College students love to volunteer their time and donate their little amount of money to a just cause. I still receive emails about how this group is bagging groceries, or this group is scooping ice cream, and that group is selling cookies. Every group brainstorms and generates amazingly creative ideas on how to raise money. Unfortunately, I can not partake in any event due to my travel distance.

When I was on campus last weekend, my friend was the co-chair for a charity walk. Being the good friend that I would want to have, I decided to lend a hand for a few hours, fifteen hours to be exact. She and the rest of the team were grateful for the assistance. They raised a large amount of money which will be donated to their cause. Everybody achieved the sense of accomplishment for their kind work. Every event may not be published in the newspaper, but you would be surprised by the amount of time and energy college students contribute to philanthropic causes.

Unexpected Scholarship

This week reaffirmed in my mind that hard work pays off.  I got a letter in the mail from the office of my major department saying that for my work in the major I was being awarded a scholarship.  This was cool because I never applied for it, and indeed, you cannot apply to receive the award.  The letter explained that the award was determined based on faculty nomination and agreement of the department in an annual meeting.  This could not come at a better time.  As I am looking into ways to finance my law school education, this scholarship (despite its small size) will help me along that route.  I just have to fill out the information about where I will be attending and they will take care of making sure it will be credited toward my tuition account for law school for the fall semester.  What a welcome surprise that really proves that we are always being watched, and that hard work pays off.  It really made my day.

Parking

My trip back to school was one for the history books. I thoroughly enjoyed myself and was greatly entertained by wonderful company throughout the weekend. It made me reminisce and wish I was back in school this semester. Then I realized how much I value the real world and my job. I am sure I will be ready for classes when summer school rolls around.

One hang up of the weekend was the lack of a hanger. By this I mean, my parking permit which hangs from my rearview mirror. I completely forgot to park in the correct zone, and the ticket police busted me. When I left campus last semester, I sold my parking permit to a friend at half price, because he needed it more than me. Pertaining to the parking side of my life, I am still in the black but down a few dollars that I did not anticipate. Next time I am on campus, I will be more cautious of where I park.

Apartment Stocking

Since I have never lived in an apartment before, I do not have many of the things considered standard to living a life in the “real world.”  Because my dorm rooms have come furnished for my four years while living on campus, the only things I have are twin sheets, a comforter and little knick-knacks that I have needed throughout the years.  I now have to look into getting everything from a bed to a desk.  Thankfully, we have some stuff in our attic that I think I can use as far as a sitting chair and coffee table go, but I am having to ask around about the other stuff.  A friend of mine has offered me her sofa because both she and her roommate have one so hers is just sitting in storage.  I think I will just take my bed from my house as long as that is okay with my parents.  We have a bed in our guest room of our house that I could sleep in when I come home.  I suppose I will need to budget for a few things like a toaster and desk chair, not to mention the bigger things.  At least I have realized that now instead of it hitting me hard later.

Hitting the Road

After that last post, I guess I better practice what I preach. So, I am hitting the road in the morning and returning to my long missed college town. I just have the desire to kick it with my old friends from school. (There might be a specific girl in the mix also.) Who knows what we are going to get into. At this point I do not particularly care what it is as long as it is the company of my good friends.It has been tough not socializing with my true amigos but technology has kept us in touch. I have made a few friends in the working community, but my long hours have hindered the social scene. I figured if I heavily tipped the scale working this semester, I can make up for the social life during the weekends and next semester at school. For right now, that is my happy medium.

Value of Life

With everything that has happened to my family recently, it got me thinking about life (I know a big topic and rather deep). At the same moment, I thought about my responsibility to this financial based blog. Then these thought processed proceeded to how money affects life

Money can compliment, hinder, benefit, or drive your life. As the cliché goes, you either live to work or work to live. I believe I am in a career that I will enjoy arriving to every morning. My life would be miserable if I dreaded my occupation. Either way money is essential to your survival in the modern world.

Also, how can you place a dollar value on a human life? Ponder this question about your family, and you will realize there is not a figure. In the end, where are you going to take your mountain of fortune? True money may improve your quality of life but it will not change your appreciation of life. Now think about the intangibles that money can not buy. These intangibles can also be removed at a moment’s notice just like your fortune can be whisked away with a few ticks on the stock market. True, money buys the essential tangibles. The hard part is to find the happy medium on the lopsided scale that fits you. The point that I am aiming for is that you should actually go out and live life today but prepare for tomorrow. As my mother always said, “You should always take time to smell the roses and enjoy the sunshine.”