I wonder about this.

First off, I have only saved the textbooks that I thought would help serve me later in life. Books on accounting (my major) from financial to managerial. I've saved my legal and negotiation books.

I've even saved my psychology & human resources books. Books like "How to Work With Difficult People", "Type Talk", along with books for hiring like "Top Grading".

In the end, I haven't touched a majority of these books in a long time and as I stare at my monsterous Becker books for the CPA exam - I wonder, will I ever use them again?

My accounting textbooks from undergrad are easily 6-7 years old. My tax book is from 2008 and already outdated.

Maybe my legal book will serve to be a good reference. Surely with my anticipated job search the TopGrading and other human resource books should be helpful, along with my books for conflict resolution & negotiation.

Hmmm... maybe I just don't see the value in these books because I just don't have the time at the moment. I'm sure at some point I will be glad to have them in my library.

Ok, maybe not my undergraduate accounting books. Aside from being out-dated, I haven't touched them. Yet maybe I'll stand to part with them a few years after I've been working as an accountant. The overall rules may change, but the fundamental principles usually don't.

Since I'm not a working accountant now, I'm sure I'll feel more confident parting with them after I have experience to reassure me that the knowledge has become a part of my everyday information. Till then, I guess we're going to have to take it with us on our move.

All these thoughts sparked from DH. He is working on his associates degree and should graduate before we move.

Anyhow, he told me the company he rented his textbooks from (Chegg) planted two trees for the two textbooks that he rented. I thought that was a wonderful idea & for $92, he has textbooks rented for the semester.

Those same textbooks would have cost $150 used. I think I like this idea of renting textbooks if I wasn't so interested in holding onto mine.

Having one of those "blah" days.

My Aunt called a couple days ago saying she had finalized all of my Dad's affairs so I would be getting another $5500. Off to savings that goes.

The doctor regarding the surgery called. $9K and I'd have to front the money whether or not insurance covers it. So I think I'm just going to wait. I'm doing my best to try to adapt to it. As much as it annoys me, I know if I end up having the surgery and we end up in a bad financial position because of it... its not worth it when I compare the discomfort.

My son finally got his soccer coach assigned to him and practice starts Thursday. So off to get cleats, a soccer ball, shin guards, socks, and some other practice clothes I go.

I think I'll probably have to go alone though. DH is stuck at work late today.

He also left me for a lurch for my CPA exam. For weeks I have been saying "Ask for the fifth of April off" "When should I take the exam?" "You're SURE I can take it on the 5th?"

So I schedule the exam and he calls me yesterday saying that I may have to reschedule it.

By this time I'm fed up. My life has been on hold trying to accommodate his schedule for years now. I realize that if I'm going to take this exam and get it done in my planned schedule, I'm just going to have to find another way. Sometimes I just can't rely on him.

Luckily, my neighbor down the street said she'd watch the older kids for me.

Its a pain, but I guess I better get used to it. Something about the Navy doesn't equate to being reliable even though I know my husband completely means well to.

I wonder if this means I'll have to have 2 or 3 backup childcare providers when I start working outside the house.

Not sure what happened this weekend, but we were frivolous. $40 on shoes & a $12 belt for me since my frequently used belt is pretty much ripping now.

The shoes, keep in mind I only have about 5 pairs TOTAL, I'm not one of those women who have 40 pairs of shoes. Then DH got shoes for $80. He doesn't buy shoes often but I've been so tired of him complaining about how I can always get stuff when I want it but tell him 'No'.

$150 on clothes for the kids. The baby really did need clothes. Which I guess I should stop calling her a baby, she's two now. Yet, she's the baby of the family.

$30 on eating out.

I think I'm going to stop watching Oprah. All this sort of sparked from her shoe & handbag show. And while I didn't go out and buy the 6 different types of shoes every woman must have in her closet, I doubt I would have wanted to buy shoes at all if I didn't watch the show.

Pretty much wherever I go, I wear sneakers. So I bought a pair of black high heels.

It was a derailment to say the least and something to make me very aware that I still have a long way to go before I feel like I'm really able to justify spending my inheritance. The behaviors, although fewer and farther from each other, still happen so if I were to go out and pay off my credit card... I could offer no assurances that I wouldn't repeat the behavior that got us into this situation.

But at least now I know I still have lots more work to do on my behavior.

I did the finances today. I can't believe I'm already planning for April, the first quarter of the year is almost over. Where did it go? We'll be moving before we know it and we still have so much to do.

I scheduled my Auditing exam for the 5th. Just keep debating about BEC. I did the first section of BEC and it seemed easy but I'm sure it'll get harder and I don't want to threaten my chances of success on the other portions of the exam.

So what has this weekend taught me?

Spend less time watching Oprah and more time studying for the CPA exam and planning our upcoming move.

So I've been plugging away at studying. I can't take another exam until April so I'm studying for the Business section while I review Auditing.

The plan is to take AUD on 4/5 and BEC on 4/9. Then take REG just before Memorial Day weekend. I just want to get this exam over with so I can focus on moving, finding a new job, and spending time with my family... and allowing my home time to really be HOME time.

I have a feeling BEC will be like a nice break. I'm almost done with the first module & because I already have a love of legal and some private company experience... it seems pretty easy. But I'll see how the other 4 modules go.

AUD, that ones sort of tricky. I need to review several aspects and make sure I'm comfortable with the simulations. Thank goodness I have around 3 weeks for that.

So we'll see. I am scoring better on AUD than I was for FAR, so I'm really hoping FAR was the worst of it (but I'm not going to underestimate it either)

I hope I can pass them all on the first time. That would be great to have the exam done with 5 months after graduation.

At least I can hope.

Its been 5 months since my Dad passed and I keep thinking about the money and using it to pay off my credit card.

That would leave just DH's credit card balance.

I'm tempted to do it for a few reasons:

1) We already have our $1000 EF
2) The $10K isn't earning much interest while the balance is costing me about $15/mo on my CC
3) I don't want to have a $9K CC balance when I start applying for new jobs and having to explain that. My other debt... two cars, two houses, and student loans are stuff that are easily explainable... Cars are in both our names, houses are rental properties, and student loans were for my education.

I've debated a lot about using the money to pay off my CC. My Dad was always a source of rescue for me, but by paying off the cards... and then CANCELING them... I think it also gives me a sense of freedom.

I don't want to be in debt, and CC debt is the most annoying of all debts.

So I continue to debate this. I don't think it would be an unwise move so long as I take the necessary steps to ensure I never get into debt again.

We do have the move coming up, and if I get a job outside the house I'll have to plan for additional expenses (work clothes, etc) so I hesitate sometimes.

Honestly, some days I'm really not sure. But to have the CCs in my name GONE, I would be thrilled. I'd then cancel them or at least reduce the credit limit to something really low.

I passed! I passed!

I wasn't even expecting my results to be out since I thought I was in the 2nd wave of test scores.

I got a 78 (75 is passing)

But I am just sooo elated passing the first time around. I used both Becker's regular course and the final review.

Couldn't have done it without that program and here I thought I wasn't ready and was preparing to retake it

There are some things as a parent that I'm just extremely grateful for...

- "Free" healthcare (It's not really free, any active duty service member knows that) but we don't pay a deductible or copay for it

- Living just down the street from a hospital with an ER that has virtually NO wait

- FANTASTIC neighbors

The elementary school called me and told me to take my son to the doctor. He had fallen and cut his eyebrow. So I grabbed the baby, let my boss and coworkers know that if I wasn't around - it was because I was taking my son to the ER. This was at 10:40/11:00 am.

By 11:15, my son was in the car and we were on the way to the hospital. I hadn't taken off the bandage since I had remained fairly calm and composed, I didn't want exposing the wound and seeing what was REALLY going on to suddenly cause me to panic.

I quickly parked and walked right in to the receptionist to check my son in. No one was in the waiting room and directly from there, they triaged us, and then immediately gave us a room.

The doctor was in shortly after and said that he'd need three stitches. Getting to see my son's wound at the hospital made me realize it wasn't so bad, the blood on his shirt, chin, and seeing it soak through the bandage made me think it was worse than it was (Hence, the apprehension to unveil the wound prior to getting to the hospital).

I've never seen anyone get stitches before so I didn't know how he would react. As a precaution they wrapped him in a blanket and told him it was so he wouldn't get his clothes bloody. I wanted to cry right there with him when they put the needle in to numb the area. It looked painful as the medicine was injected causing it to puff up the area.

Keep in mind, during all this, my 2 y/o is in the same room but is just sitting there so quietly in her chair looking at her stickers. You wouldn't have even known she was there. Honestly, how did I get blessed with such great kids?

Three stitches later, we were quickly discharged and in the car by noon. Two hours later my neighbor calls to see how he is doing. Our kids are in the same class and her & another classmate that was having a playdate over there were so concerned because DS went to the nurse after a bloody scene at the playground... and never came back.

They came over bearing gifts of cards and sweets. It was so adorable that the two girls cared so much to bring those over for him & see how he was doing.

So to say the least, today was an eventful day. To top it off - I did at least get some stuff accomplished. I finished listening to the lectures for the 2nd Auditing module and put in a few hours for work.

So after I make dinner and finish 100 M/C questions to study for Auditing... I'll be sooo ready to relax. Nevertheless, I'm so grateful to be blessed with the above three things. I can only imagine how much more stressful something like this would have been if I didn't have such wonderful insurance, availability to quality urgent care, and having such caring neighbors.

When the time comes that I do leave my company, I think I'm going to seek out a career in auditing.

I've discovered that my interests are primarily related around auditing & discovering how the internet affects the way companies do business.

Virtual businesses pop up everywhere nowadays. It started with virtual e-tailers like Amazon & Blue Nile. But those places still have a main headquarters.

However, now we have work-at-home companies that have outgrown their "home" and are now completely virtual.

I'm interested in learning more about how accountants and auditors handle those challenges. Where people nowadays send contracts virtually through PDF files in email along with credit apps.

I'm also learning the challenge of trying to communicate to marketers that revenue retention is just as important if not more so than revenue generation.

There's a lot to learn out there and the internet has changed the way we do business & I'm completely curious to see how the accounting and legal field has adapted to those changes.

So I was planning on taking a week off of this CPA stuff

Come Monday I soon discovered that I had all this energy & free time, that by 8 pm I was bored. I had put in 8 hours at work, made dinner, did dishes, and watched a movie.

Then once the kids hit bedtime... I went back to the books and began studying Auditing.

Tell me how the plan to take 1 week off became just 2 days?

Oh well, I think I'm actually going to like auditing and hopefully its easier. Most of my graduate courses were on auditing & I like finding other people's errors... also have an interest in interrogation & fraud examination.... so I may actually like this one.

We'll see, I'm just in the first section.

DD just called me from school to remind ME to sign her Wednesday folder when she gets home. My response "You do know its YOUR responsibility to bring that to me, right?"

"Yes"

"So bring it to me when you get home"

In fact its all of the kids' responsibility to manage their own paperwork. With four kids, work, and studying and trying to keep up with DH's crazy schedule - I can't keep up without their cooperation.

I also make them follow a budget. They had been doing well with it for months, $20 at the start of every month for school lunches at $2/lunch. They'd sit down at the beginning of the month and plan out which days they would buy and which they'd make lunch.

Well, they didn't do that for February and just started buying whenever they felt like it. I got into them today and said they need to have a budget otherwise they are spending money they don't know if they have & then when they run out they'll have to owe the cafeteria money (since I know they won't let them go hungry).

I was tempted to force them to draw up a budget before spending, but then thought... What if I let them fail this time? If they learned the lesson now of what it would be like to owe money and not have any - maybe they wouldn't make the bigger mistakes later in life? If I didn't rescue them when it comes to a $2/lunch - maybe that would be a better lesson.

I swear, if my kids do nothing else... I will be soooo proud of them if they can learn independence, responsibility, and accountability. Because I know if they have those skills, they'll succeed in whatever they put their mind to in life. Of course I'll also teach them about doing things for the benefit of the family & community, but its just soo important to me for them to want more out of life and demand more of themselves.

BTW, this is my 9, soon to be 10, year old. Oddly enough, my 8 year old is more fiscally responsible and can manage her paperwork. Which is surprising because my 9 year old is more conscientious and my 8 year old is more absent-minded. However, the 9 y/o wants to be a fashion designer... the 8 y/o a veterinarian. So I think my 8 y/o developed this philosophy because we tell her all the time that vet school costs a lot of money. Meanwhile, my daughter who wants to be a fashion designer just sees so many things she wants to buy because she loves fashion.

My 5 y/o isn't held to these standards yet. But he's pretty down-to-earth and wants to be a police officer. At this rate, I feel like my 2 y/o could do anything. She's musically inclined and loves animals.

Ok, so after the exam I went over to a coworker's house that recently joined our team.

The day before I talked to our CFO about additional opportunities to move further towards accounting.

Well, at the coworker's house I discovered that she discovered an affiliate fraud ring within the customer service department and thats how she progressed so quickly.

And I kept thinking about this... WE (as a company) should have caught that sooner. Why did we not?

The answer came to me today. We already have "accounting roles" but we are so separated throughout the company that the right hand isn't talking to the left.

When she started seeing chargebacks go up, we should have also been seeing that in our department (which is similar to purchasing because we make the contracts and spend the money). We also look at profitability anaylsis... so we should have been seeing delinquency rates per advertising partner. But we don't see that, delinquencies are the customer service side of things.

I also help with the budget to help our treasurer project cash flows.

Seems to me that what is currently being done in customer service is receivables, my department is purchasing/payables, and then the CFO and Treasurer are the executive management.

SO I emailed the CFO today (he wanted to know how I felt about the test) and I told him, what if we were able to create an official internal accounting department to enhance our communication, focus, and be able to detect frauds sooner, reduce the redundancy, and probably create further progress through this improved communication?

Its a shot. But I think thats the problem, I just hope the CFO is receptive to the idea that we really could have our own department without taking away from the people who actually receive the invoices and sign the checks. There is so much we could improve on that could still be done virtually.. improving our internal controls, budget planning, and purchasing functions.

I have been jaded the past few years cause I was continuously told "No, we don't have the resources" or "I don't want to take anything away from the payables people we already have." But maybe we don't have to take away from them... they can keep doing what they are doing & we can become better organized to help management?

It just took someone "new" to the team to re-inspire me to present these ideas again.

Well now its just a waiting game. I think DH wasn't prepared for it to be an all day affair, by 4 pm he was calling me like crazy and I didn't answer cause I was on my way home and couldn't hear the phone.

I left the house at 7:30 and got to the place by 8:30... I didn't know what traffic would be like and its 40-50 miles away so I figured it'd be better to be on the safe side.

I don't know when I started the test, my appointment was at 10 but I went early and was back in my car by 1:30. I finished with just 5 minutes to spare and I just hope I passed.

I didn't anticipate being crunched for time but towards the end I saw that I had only a 50 minutes for 2 simulations, so I went as fast as I could through them to make sure that I answered everything (I figured it was better to answer everything vs leaving some stuff unanswered).

Only part I really question is the one simulation part... just one of the tabs... but I hope I at least did well enough on everything else that I still pass.

After that, I drove to my co-worker's house. I had never met her before but she lived really close to the testing center, so I spent about an hour and a half there.

Then left her house at 3:30 pm and didn't get home till 5:15 or so cause DH wanted me to pick up milk.

Of course at this time since I didn't call, he's freaking out asking why I never called. But really, as soon as I got back in my car I programmed my Garmin to take me home and just went cause I wanted to miss rush hour traffic.

Plus its a stick shift & I'm not confident about driving while talking on the phone with a standard.

So I'm just now starting to relax, but I feel like it went okay. I tried my best so whether I pass or fail, I did my best.

That said, the questions were soooo different than what I saw on Becker. I kept seeing the screens and thinking... is this next module easier? harder? To gauge how I was doing (the test is supposed to give you an easier testlet if you aren't doing well on the previous one)... and I really couldn't tell. They all seemed the same.

I keep trying to remind myself that I already know this stuff... if I don't pass then its because I panicked. I know this stuff, its now just a matter of trying to get my brain to properly recall the information when I need it to.

I've got anything related to the income statement & comprehensive income down. Marketable securities, depreciable assets, and such should be good to go.

Not even going to discuss my weaknesses because even with my weaknesses, I know the "basics". So we'll see how it goes.

Here is hoping I pass =)

To pay something small OFF or put your money where it'll make the most difference based on the numbers

I'm seriously debating this because I'm paying off my $7K card today but I have about $1250 left over to pay down on another card.

What we have remaining is:
$9500 at 1.99% till July
$27500 at 7.75% (no special promotion, thats the normal card rate)

The minimum amount that I pay is $154 and $468/mo, respectively.

I could POSSIBLY pay off the smaller card if I take my inheritance and apply it to the card... but that leaves little for contingencies that will happen from moving & traveling this summer.

DH and I are still in a holding pattern regarding whether or not we are visiting his family while driving back. We're going to be doing the cross country move driving and have 4 kids and 2 pets (one really big golden retriever at that and the cat will have a litter box) during this move so I'm not exactly thrilled.

Dh wants to stay a week, and I don't get that much time off. But we also see his family maybe once every 2-3 years USUALLY, we just saw them last March though so this would be the shortest amount of time we went in between visits if we see them.

I told him we could do a couple things:

1) Stay longer but I just won't get paid that week since I won't have PTO

or visit some other time. His Dad isn't in the best health but he's not dying either so after losing my Dad I'm hesitant to tell him to wait to see family.

So I don't know. I have my inheritance of $10000 plus our $1000 EF... an upcoming move and credit cards to pay off. And I have no idea what I want to do with the money.

On the upside I talked to my CFO again and with us moving out to Nevada he said it wouldn't be a big deal for me to travel out to Los Angeles so I could finally meet the accounting team & what they do. He's really been my sounding board in trying to help me get to where I want to be professionally & has told me that if I'm in commuting distance from Reno, he may be able to help me get more connected to something that could help me get my CPA license.

I will probably be just outside of commuting distance unless I want to be like DH and travel 1 hr to work everyday. So we'll see. But I feel fortunate that although my growth in the company may be limited so long as I'm not in Los Angeles, the CFO has my back.

I finally reached a point where I was NOT learning anything else on governmental or not-for-profit accounting, so I resorted to my fail-proof method of studying... napping while listening to the lectures.

I don't quite know WHY it works, but it does. I don't really fall asleep, but I think its a form of self-induced hypnosis and the results speak for themselves.

Prior to the "nap" - I scored a 55% on governmental accounting

After the "nap" - I scored an 84% and "knowing" which one was the right answer almost seemed intuitive

I think this method works through in two ways:

1) It allows my brain to rest while my body still takes in the information. Ever fall asleep with the TV on and dream about what's on TV? Yes, that's what I do - CONSTANTLY

2) It keeps me from over-thinking while I'm "learning". With my eyes closed, focused on relaxing & taking in my surroundings (including what I'm listening to on the lectures) I'm able to take the information in without second guessing myself or over-thinking the situation.

Definitely an unconventional way to learn but something that has been a critical study habit of mine. In fact, I used it when studying for my controllership class. I had recorded the lectures on my Livescribe pen & when my mind had turned to mush on variances - I plugged the headphones in and fell asleep to the lecture.

Now, if only it wasn't insulting to fall asleep during a meeting/lecture in person. LOL I'd have a hard time explaining to someone THEN "No, No, I retain all the information better this way"

But of course, I only recommend this if you find your brain turning to mush, you're over-thinking the situation, and your mind just needs to rest but you still need to study.

I started doing Becker's Final Review course over the weekend and I think that course is like a godsend to me. I feel a bit more confident now about some of the material, especially the simulations.

I can say that I'm fairly confident about depreciation, the income statement, comprehensive income, and a few other topics. I think I have accounting for installment sales, percentage of completion, completed contract, and cost recovery down.

What has me sweating is consolidations, pensions, and government & not-for-profit accounting. But I haven't covered that in the final review course yet.

I am getting a little more confident on bonds, and the whole amortization and effective interest rate stuff. I was making a lot of silly mistakes before.

By now I'm sure I've lost most of you because all this will sound like greek unless you're in the accounting/finance world. Yet, I'm glad I didn't reschedule my test.

I'm not sure what it is about Becker's ACTUAL course that makes my eyes glaze over and I feel like I'm not retaining anything. Maybe cause there is soooo much? I mean, the book alone is over 1000 pages. It's overwhelming in itself.

The final review course is much more condensed and the lectures are now more than an hour at a time, some as little as 8 minutes. The focus there is more on showing you HOW to do the problems instead of the concepts (the course focuses more on the concepts).

Sure concepts are important, but I need to know how to do the problems to let the concepts REALLY sink in for me.

So we'll see how it goes. My panic is a bit more subdued and I'm feeling like I can actually do this after all.

Now, I'm just hoping I pass.

I take the Financial Part of the CPA exam on Friday and I'm stressed. Incredibly so, I have no idea if I'll pass. I wish I was more confident, but in the meantime I'm just trying to study as much as I can.

I took a simulated exam last night and only got a 61% on the multiple choice. Immediately I wanted to reschedule my test but two problems with that

1) My DH is leaving sometime this month (not sure when) and Friday is my only FOR SURE GUARANTEED date I know I'll be able to take it this month

2) If I push it back till April (can't take it in March cause the testing window is closed) then I'll be doubling up on tests which will probably be more stressful since we'll also be showing the house that month for prospective tenants.

DH calmly reassured me I have about a week left to study and to just give it my best. It sucks that I have about $225 riding on this exam but I'm going to try my best and see where I go from there.

I'm also taking Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday off from work so I can focus on the exam. So I'm keeping my fingers crossed that by some miracle I can pass or Becker's CPA Final Review course will magically help get me through this.

I hope.

I hope.

We got our state tax return today & its amazing how paying something off feels

I paid:

* The interest that was accruing on my deferred student loans
* Paid OFF my daughter's braces
* Prepaid the homeowner's association fees for our rental property for all of 2010
* Paid an extra $1000 on my credit card & when our federal return comes we will pay that off

Hopefully 2010 is a kinder year to us financially than 2009 was.

I just calculated what we owed at the end of the year and I can't believe how much in denial I was.

On 12/31
$8K on CC #1
$9K on CC #2
$28 on CC #3

That's $45K in credit card debt... and the sad part is I know where EVERY penny went to

We started with $8K in CC debt, then we incurred $15K in rental property repairs, $10K in our personal residence, our computer died & we spent $2K for a new desktop so I could work, then my Dad died and that made up the rest with having to fly 6 people to Hawaii... the rest is interest & fees.

I always knew the balances on the cards, but never added them up. And never disclosed them here cause I was ashamed. When I came here, we were just down to $8K in credit card debt from $17K.

But after this next month, it should be

CC#1 Gone
CC#2 $7500
CC#3 $27000
Total CC Debt $34500

An improvement but we still have a long way to go & I just hope this upcoming move doesn't set us back. I don't think it SHOULD because the Navy will move us & my job is going with us, so I won't have the usual expenses associated with a move except setting up a new house. But the Navy gives around $2400 to help take care of that stuff and rents in the new place look like they are around $1200 or so.

*shrug*

We'll see. I still have the inheritance & our emergency fund of $1000, so we have a total savings of around $11K that should be able to cushion us if something comes up.

I'm still not sure what to do about the surgery but I realize I'm going to have to take it one day at a time. I had the consult with the surgeon, its just now getting an estimate of charges & finding out what insurance will or won't cover.

So I was thinking much of our money issues would be solved by giving DH an allowance. Instead I feel jipped because when he takes these trips & gets extra money - that goes to just him.

He came home today and we got into an argument about it. He told me that he doesn't see why I'm making a big deal out of it because he's going to use the money to pay for the things that he needed that we didn't have money in the budget for.

But what I wanted to do was to put the money in the bank account & then use the checking account to pay for what he needed as he got the money.

What caused the blowup is that I found out he took all the money out in cash. We have an online bank... so how are we supposed to pay for his books that he gets online if we have cash? I don't send cash in the mail.

So now only does he get $50/mo in allowance, he also gets $137 from his trip and next week he'll probably get another $100.

I feel jipped. Especially when my $300 office technology reimbursement money goes directly into the joint checking account and is used to pay bills.

I'm considering scrapping the whole allowance thing. I don't know what the answer is. Maybe I should just start putting that $300 every quarter into my "own" money. That seems to be the cause of the resentment, that I get money but don't even think twice of it becoming part of OUR money to pay down the bills (you know, since we have about $40K in CC debt)

Maybe I am being unreasonable. I don't know, but the whole argument soured his homecoming. I honestly wish he was more hands on with the finances. My whole desire to control the money comes from the stress I get dealing with it & again I asked him to help me but he just told me it'll do no good because I'll do whatever I want anyway. Basically saying its either him or me handling it, there is no middle ground.

So I have no clue. Will probably have to think about this one for awhile cause its hard to be objective about the situation when you're in it.

Well I filed today.

And with that I'll be able to pay off one of my credit cards, re-fund my $1000 EF, and put a substantial amount towards paying down my other credit card.

I'm still not 100% sure what to do about the surgery though. I have a consult set up on Monday to discuss my options.

However, I did find out that even if I get insurance to cover 80% of it, I will still need to front the money and they will reimburse me when the insurance company pays.

So I am not sure what to do because even if I have to front the money and insurance reimburses me, that would eat up all of my inheritance.

Oh well, one day at a time.

DH and I are sort of at a crossroads with a decision.

I have something wrong that causes me daily discomfort. But the surgery to fix it is in the range of $9K to $16K. Healthcare won't cover the surgery because it seems popular in the cosmetic practice.

However, at times I've found myself at such desperation I've been tempted to do something myself. But I know having a physician do the procedure is best... if I try to attempt anything I'll probably just be another ER case.

There aren't many doctors in the area who do the procedure, just one. I had a consult with her & didn't like her bedside manner. I felt like she barely examined me... to top it off she was extremely cheap - $1300.

She also uses another technique than the one I'd like which I've heard results in the most complications.

So the doctor I would want to do the procedure, is the one I quoted the $9K-$16K because he's more expensive & I'd have to travel to his office.

All of DH's arguments against doing the surgery make sense. I completely agree... until the next minute where I'm reminded of my daily discomfort.

So I wonder, does it ever make sense to finance something like this? I know I'm definitely not objective & I can't be in this case. I'm trying very hard to accept this as it is and tell myself we can't afford to "get it fixed". I won't die as a result of not having the procedure, but it seems to be getting worse over the years so I know at some point... this WILL have to be done.

*shrug*

As I said, I know DH's arguments make sense and I don't want to argue with him about this, but its getting to a point where I just want this fixed and I'm tired of crying over it. So I keep wondering, if not this year - then when? There never seems to be a right time.

So I thought about doing one of those surgery financing things. Its not something I'm excited about, but I just want the daily discomfort to stop.

There is one part of my resume that always trips me up and I KNOW a future employer will ask...

"How do you live and go to school on East Coast but your place of employment is on the West Coast?"

And if I state that I've been telecommuting 100% of the time for the past 5 years, does that make my job any less legitimate? How do employers look at that sort of work?

Our CFO has offered for me to use him as a reference, and I know my prior supervisor would be a good one too. Which I'm sure is another red flag, my CFO is on the West Coast but my prior supervisor is on the East Coast.

So how do you explain this in a resume? Do you omit that?

I could see the resume being tossed out completely if it doesn't have locations. So I'm not entirely sure how to navigate this.

But I like how our HR person words the company description in the latest job posting she listed:

__________ helps people improve their lives by connecting them with expert advice. Founded eight years ago, we manage four brands with over 30 products that help men and women become more successful in their relationships. We are the dominant provider of relationship self-help advice, as well as have other products in categories that include entrepreneur and business coaching. Our entire team works from home (we have no physical office) and we have about 70 people in 28 different states in the U.S.

What job title would you give this?

My company isn't big on titles. You could call yourself whatever you want essentially. The only purpose they develop titles is to let outside companies know what role that person serves internally. For example, I've seen my boss refer to herself as the Partner Manager or as an Account Rep. The person who coordinates the deals has called himself the VP of Business Development or Advertising Director.

So just to give you guys a background as to WHY I'm confused.

But anyhow, I'm updating my resume and for my current job I don't know what to put. I don't work in Quickbooks. So I don't want to put a false title associated with my resume as I plan to apply to public accounting firms.

So here's what I do... essentially I have been called a "Data Analyst", "Business Analyst", "Budget Analyst", and I'm just not sure what the most appropriate "title" is.

 Developed & evaluated compliance with the departmental budget in accordance with the company’s overall strategic planning.
 Performed variance analyses to identify areas for improvement in the department’s budgeting process.
 Reconciled vendor invoices against contracts to ensure proper billing.
 Ensured that vendor accounts were paid on time and in accordance to contract terms.

I updated my resume today & kept asking myself - what type of salary would my resume command?

And then... will I be ready to enter the work-outside-the-home workforce by September?

I looked into childcare options for the four kids. The older three could go to after school care for about $300/mo. My youngest would be the most costly at around $600-$700/mo. So I would be spending approximately $1000/mo in childcare. Summertime would be horrible at around $2000-$2800/mo

On top of that, gas and work clothes expenses. Probably an additional $200/mo in gas and an initial upfront cost of $300-$500 for work clothes depending on the type of attire.

Right now, I make $2165 take home. In order to net the same amount, I need to make about $3200-3600/mo.

I'm skeptical. And DH's hesitation is related to having to take a pay cut w/no guarantees of what the pay growth really is. How long would we have to struggle?

I am volunteering for VITA this year & after I pass the CPA exam, I'm going to take a Quickbooks Certification course online to add that to my resume. That along with my 5 years of work experience in the payables process for my current company, I hope will at least command a salary that will allow me to leave my current job w/o forcing my family to struggle.

I'm nervous... incredibly so. But I feel like the longer I am not in the accounting field after graduation just serves as a negative to my career.

Sure, I'm home with the kids and get to spend precious time with them - but at some point I'm going to have to fit in those "entry-level" years to really get anywhere. With my youngest turning 2, she's almost ready to start preschool. So I figure starting a new job in September would be good, I just hope I can earn at least $45K or more because even at that level... it'd be a net paycut to me due to the additional expenses I need to incur.

Well, its official... we're moving to the West (not so much Coast).

Middle of nowhere, but thats what DH wanted. To be back West.

Not sure what to do with this house. If we short sell it will trash our credit, but if we rent it out - it'll be at a $500-$700/mo loss. Otherwise we have to estimate coming to the closing table with $80K.

We could deal with the $500-$700/mo loss. But trashing my credit score with a short sale be a tough one.

With my degree in accounting, maintaining a good credit score is important to me if I want to get a job in the field.

So we'll see.

On top of that, the base itself is so remote that they don't have internet available except dial-up and satellite. The nearest town that has DSL that would allow me to keep my job, is 50 miles from the base.

The schools are better there, but still - that is a 1 hr and 15 minute drive and sometimes longer depending on the weather during the winter months.

Its close to my Mom, and 12 hours away from my brother, and my Aunt could visit us easier - so thats a positive.

But I've also been informed we may need to look at getting a 4WD vehicle. We just got DH's car less than 6 months ago and it'll be paid off in a year. For a brand new car, I made him promise it was the LAST car he was getting till he retired.

Well, obviously something has to change. And we really don't want to get rid of the car since we plan on keeping it after this next duty station... so we plan on trying to find a beater car with 4WD to use during the winter months.

So these will all be big changes, but I have two hopes for this year:

To pay off both of my credit cards

To have our TOTAL debt (including homes) under $700K this year. To put that into perspective, we are currently at $740K. $11K of that will be paid off in the next couple of months.

Stressful, but we're going to try to find a rental home in the new area. Dh will have to commute the 1 hr and 15 minutes, but the commute seems unavoidable regardless because the area is so remote.

However, living in the larger town will allow me to keep my job and IF I ever did lose my job, there are CPA firms in that town & the next town over that I could try to get a job.

I have something sort of embarrassing to admit, especially considering my background.

I've been operating my rental property as a sole proprietorship but have not taken the effort to actually put any specific "business" things in.

Yes, me, an accountant, has kept my own personal business things in essentially a "shoebox" compiled somewhere between a folder I label for "taxes" and our general "rental property folder" with income and expenses flowing through our personal checking account.

So, in an attempt to get things right. I spent much of the day sorting through the mess & getting all of my 2007 stuff together. It took me awhile because, to be honest, when we started renting out the house - I had no idea what we had. Just that we were losing money on it so I didn't see a point in really "caring" about the loss beyond the fact that the loss reduced our personal taxable income.

Yeah, I know - dumb. Normally I'm supposed to be helping OTHER people make sense out of shoebox chaos - not myself.

But on the other hand, I also figured getting my own house in order is a pre-requisite to any potential I may have at starting my own bookkeeping service.

So I had to do a lot of investigating to figure out what we were really working with. But once I knew what assets I brought into the rental property, everything seemed to flow easily from there.

I'm going to try and work on 2008 & 2009 over the weekend. The biggest challenge I had was just sorting out the beginning balances, what amount was personal & business.

I downloaded Peachtree to get this all started. More so because I also want to gain experience using different accounting software programs & I feel better about trying something out with my own company before someone else's.

My boss is supposed to let me know about Quickbooks access this coming week, so if that all works out I can add both software programs to my resume as I figure all this out.

So yes, thats what I was doing on Christmas eve... spending about 6 hours going back all the way to 2007 to get my "books" for my rental right.

I figure from now on it should be easier & now I have firsthand experience of knowing what to do should someone come up to me with a bunch of invoices, receipts, escrow statements, etc.

The good news though is, once I had it all laid out in front of me. The rental wasn't really doing as bad as I had thought. It was nice to see an "Owner's Equity" account w/a balance in there. From my end, I usually just see the investment that I put into the property.

Oh but I did end up getting everything ready for Christmas... but like I said, the first 6 hours of the day was getting my books right to get everything into Peachtree. Which I doubt too many other people were doing today.

So yesterday I posted about how I completely forgot about my graduation mug that I had purchased in September.

I JUST remembered it last night. Called the company this morning & they said it was sent to me this month.

It arrived in the mail today.

Talk about coincidence. The mug completely leaves my mind for 3 months & I don't remember it till the NIGHT before I receive it.

I keep studying for this CPA exam and keep finding that I'm struggling. I keep making silly mistakes, or I do the calculations & I can narrow my choice down to two... but I end up picking the wrong one.

I wish I knew what I was doing wrong.

Right now I'm studying exchanges in the second section of the financial portion of Becker's review course. And I keep wondering, how do I know when the exam asks a question - whether its an exchange lacking commercial substance or not?

The questions I'm looking at state a fair value for the other asset, so I assume it has commercial substance - but then I get the answer wrong because it lacks commercial substance.

I hope this is normal... to take an exam on these prep things & feel like even after studying for 4-6 hours everyday - you know nothing. Then when I do pass the section I wonder if its only because I've stared at the same questions over and over that I've memorized the answers w/o really learning.

I did find out I have till December 2010 to take all four parts of the CPA exam... so if I don't know the material as well as I'd like by January/February - I'm going to take my time. Its more important for me to PASS the exam than to simply take it. But wow, this stuff is tough & just when I think I have a concept down, I take a quiz to test that info & I get 40-60% correct even though I got 80-90%'s on the homework quizzes.

Things slip through the cracks when you're dealing with a loss.

I forgot until today that in September, I wrote a check to the University's bookstore for a specialized graduation cup with my name on it for $44.09.

The check was cashed 9/21

I still have yet to receive a mug and the thought didn't even occur to me until I drank hot chocolate tonight in my high school graduation cup & DH asked why my cup was bigger than his.

So I emailed the bookstore, hopefully something can be done. I'm not sure when I should have received the mug or if they are mailed after graduation.

Its been three months though... but I know why I didn't realize it till just now. Towards the end of September, all I could focus on was my Dad... the month of October was like a fog, and things have been in such a rush since then related to graduation that I just NOW realized it.

But as I said, hopefully I can still get the cup or they get my money back. I can't believe this went unnoticed for so long.

I truly believe in the end, if you stay true to your purpose - regardless of the circumstances you are given, hard work will pay off.

Not knowing where we are going to live in 6 months is unnerving. Especially as I'm preparing to take the CPA exam in a state that I may very well not be living in. However, this is where we are now... there are no residency requirements for me to be CPA licensed in this state & I've already achieved my master's degree which seems to be a standard requirement.

So I've decided that regardless of what happens in the future, I'm going to try to be licensed in this state. I want my CPA license bad enough that if I end up being licensed in 2 or 3 states in this process of DH being in the Navy & me wanting to maintain an active CPA license... well, that's better than having no license at all IMO.

But of course I have to pass the exam first.

As I attended my graduation on Saturday, it was surreal. The day before, I kept checking online to see if grades posted just to make sure. I knew I'd had to have bombed the exams to NOT pass, but a part of it didn't feel real till I had that final confirmation. In the end, I graduated with a final GPA of 3.53 for the program. Which is better than the 3.34 I had in undergrad.

I was nervous about DH & him being there alone with the four kids. But they ALL behaved. The older two were excited and my youngest just chomped away at the snacks I had put in the diaper bag for her. She hadn't napped so I tried to do whatever I could to set DH up for success.

In 2003, when I got my associates degree, he sat there with a 1 & 2 year old and at the end of it, he was MISERABLE. I didn't want a repeat.

But I had to explain yesterday to my daughter why, although I graduated and I'm done with school, I'm still stuck in books preparing for a test. Thankfully she is 9 and managed to get the general idea.

Anyhow, so that is where I currently stand. Preparing for the exam & contemplating which state(s) to get licensed in.

If we go to the West Coast, then I'll probably be less stressed about the whole process. But if we go to the border of California & Nevada, I probably will. Primarily because the town we'd be moving to has NO CPAs within an hour's drive (sometimes through a seasonally impassable road) unless I cross the border to Nevada.

All that stuff is unknown though & I'm not going to wait forever on DH's career to get my license. Hence, why I plan to pursue a license in my current state regardless of where we end up stationed.

Maybe its all silly, and I'm making stupid moves trying to get licensed here and wherever we end up - but I used that rationale when I graduated from school in 2004. I didn't take the CPA exam because I didn't know where we'd be, then they sent us back to this state where - had I taken the CPA exam back then - I'd be a CPA now because I would have been grandfathered under the old rules. I could have gotten a job at a CPA firm & gotten my masters degree still.

So I don't believe in waiting because of that. It didn't work last time & I'm not going to wait for my situation to tell me what to do. I plan to make my own path in life.