Navigating the closing process
Well, the home purchase is moving along. I've had my inspection, the seller has agreed to do some (but not all) of my requested repairs, and the loan paperwork has been sent off to the underwriters.
Of course, buying a home in the middle of busy season is ridiculous. My father agreed to have power of attorney for me, so that he can go to the closing if I can't get off of work that day. Then again, his job has been sending him traveling on short notice quite a bit recently, so then we set my mother up as 2nd back up with a power of attorney too. I am so used to being able to do all the signing and providing paperwork electronically while traveling that I was not prepared to have to go to my own closing in person!
The costs of buying a home are already adding up quickly. So far, prior to the actual closing and down payment, I've had to pay:
$375 for the inspection
$410 for the appraisal
Today I had to authorize payment for the lawyer to hire a surveying company
$375 - 400
And after the seller has finished their work on the house, I have the option to hire my inspector back to reinspect for another $75!
So that's over $1,100 on top of anything the bank quoted me to start with! A few more of these charges, and I won't have any cash left after closing.
Luckily, my roommate has found a likely victim friend to take over my lease in May, so I won't have to pay rent and mortgage at the same time for too long. My lease runs through July, so that frees me up from 3 months of it, and I believe that my first mortgage payment will only be due in May, since I have to pre-pay some at closing.
Ah well - it will be a nice quiet place, and there won't be any noisy roommates, or random guests sleeping on the sofa, and the only dogs in residence will be mine! Even if my boyfriend doesn't move in, I should be able to afford everything. If he DOES move in, I should be able to continue paying off my student loans quickly, and maybe even buy some furniture 
.
Quick note to clients
If you are going through a financial audit, and the auditor asks for a "detail" of an account, the detail you provide should equal what your trial balance says the account balance is!
Before we can audit the underlying financial information of an account, that information needs to sum to the total balance!
House on the line
Happy Superbowl Monday! Big happenings in the land of AccountantByDay! (Although this is the time of year where I am mostly an accountant by night too.)
I decided to get back into the housing market, and today I made an offer on a home and it was accepted!! Now I have the inspection, appraisal, and a whole lot of paper work to get through.
I've checked out of the world of blogging recently - mainly reading Clarissa, the Grumpies, and Mutant Supermodel. Also some Brave New Life and Mr. Money Mustache. Clarissa has mentioned several times that being in the habit of writing is really important, and I am feeling that habit slipping away.
With the new commitment, assuming all goes well, I think this blog will be more important than ever for helping me keep my finances under control. I have a lease that doesn't expire until July, although my landlord is going to try to get someone to take over my lease before then, so for about 5 months I'll be paying the mortgage and rent. I have enough to cover it, but it'll still probably stress me out to have to pay so much each month.
Alright, off to fill out some paperwork.
Pledge reminder
I have a "pledge reminder" taped to my wall reminding me of the $1,500 I pledged to donate to my school over by first few years in the workforce. I pledged $100 the first year, probably something like $500 the second year, and the remained the third year. And yet, it seems like a lot more money to fork out now. I obviously thought when I signed this that these would be small amounts to pay once I was working full time. Instead, I seem to be valuing each dollar more and more, as I realize how difficult it is to "get ahead" and increase my salary by more than inflation each year.
Of course, the longer I put off paying this pledge, the more guilty I feel, and the more I owe at once. I think I just need to decide on an amount that I think I can afford this year, and tell myself its an unavoidable expense. Maybe an unavoidable expense that I don't need to pay until... say... July?
By the way, busy season is not a good time for budgeting. I end up being owed thousands in reimbursements at the end of each month, and it's tougher to keep track of with all of the traveling. I think I will post budget updates again in March, when I'm not traveling anymore. I am out of town again next week, back for a week, and then gone for the rest of February. It'll be March in no time!
I've been spending time thinking deep thoughts recently instead of blogging - do I want to commit to making it at my firm? Do I want to switch firms and try to get a bump in salary in a year? Do I want to do a PhD?? That last one is a tough question, and probably deserves a whole post of its own.
Anyway, busy season is keeping me focused on just working - which is actually much more interesting and fun when there is so much to do! I'm glad I'm not a senior yet though, because they are already slammed and stressed out... ah, a bright future ahead of me, right?
Accounting Resume Advice
Enjoy the following guest post from Mark - tips for crafting the perfect resume for your Accounting job search.
Accounting Resume Advice
Jobs in accounting are increasing faster than average in the current job market, and many aspiring accountants are ready to fill those positions. To stand out above the throngs of other candidates for the job, one should be sure to present the best possible image of themselves to their prospective employer. An excellent resume is the way to get the interview and get ahead of the crowd. Here are some tips for impressing hiring managers who read your resume.
Maintain An Eye For Detail
Errors in punctuation, grammar, or spelling will make any resume look worse. On accounting resumes, even the smallest errors could undermine the rest of the presentation--hiring managers don't want inattentive accountants on staff when they're crunching numbers that represent big money to the company. Read, re-read, and have a friend review it as well to ensure that your resume is not ruined by something so easily prevented.
What Accounting Employers Want To Hear
Always remember what hiring managers want to see on your accounting resume. Keep in mind skills, accomplishments, and certifications in your accounting areas of expertise. The employer will want to be able to clearly see that qualifications for the job are well-met by the employee, and that they will be worth interviewing. Remember to use the language of the accounting profession; the proper lingo can go a long way in creating an image of somebody who meets the qualifications and fits in at the job.
Accounting-Related Skills
List all of your computer and technical skills that are used in the accounting profession. These can include computer programs you have mastered, special skills you have taken courses in, and unique specialties gained through experience in a previous job. You can look at accounting resume examples for ideas on what to write about. Be colorful in describing value you imparted in past job accomplishments--make them interesting to further set you apart in terms of your value as an accountant.
Lifestyle & Character
Employers will prefer somebody who is lively and passionate, not just a boring number-cruncher, so it can be valuable to mention one's hobbies and activities outside of work. Mention any volunteering experiences as well. This helps to paint a picture of somebody who is well-rounded and active, who is more likely to show initiative and be a joy to manage and work with. Take the time to emphasize your social skills, leadership abilities, and more to show just how valuable you can be to the team. However, be wary of divulging info that gives away race, age, or religion--a prospective employer might respond by trashing your resume to avoid being accused of discrimination in hiring.
Testimonials
Testimonials from past employers can go a long way in impressing hiring managers. The praise of a former boss or prominent member of the community could improve your status significantly in the eyes of a prospective accounting employer. Listing references on a resume has become less common, which makes the tactic of including a written testament initially even more effective by comparison.
Social Networking Info
These days, online social networking is ubiquitous and practically everyone is online--including accountants and their employers. With this in mind, profiles and online utterances should be kept in line with what you would want current and future employers to hear. You should strive to keep a professional image on sites like Facebook and Twitter to avoid sabotaging your accounting career. If you've kept everything clean and are comfortable, you may wish to include LinkedIn or even other social networking site handles on your resume so prospective employers can further check you out. If you list your email address, make sure it is a professional one that reflects well on you as a potential employee.
Welcome 2012
In the days following the excesses of the holiday season, when the cold of winter has finally settled itself in, a strange feeling fills the air. A sense of impending battle, tainted with the fear of possible , stretches itself across the populace. Our heroes are busily preparing themselves, rushing to do what they can in advance. The world of public accounting stirs and awakens - busy season begins.
Okay, so public accounting may not lend itself well to dramatic story lines... I've tried to think up a comic where an accountant could be the superhero, and it just isn't happening. Nope, all anyone ever wants from us is to answer their tax questions, and it turns out that us auditors don't typically even know the answers to those questions. (We all do audit AND tax at my firm, but I still don't know a whole lot about individual taxes.)
Our busy-season interns began work this week. I feel like I have plenty to do, but end up billing so little, because I have been running around the office, meeting with different people, making sure the interns know how to use the software and the scanner whenever I give them a task... nothing takes as long as I think it will!
I'm trying to make an effort to redistribute some work to the interns and the first-years, because I want to practice assigning other people work before it's a required part of my job. I've already made a few mistakes where the first year staff did the work completely differently than how I wanted it, but it was perfectly understandable that they'd think that's what I wanted! I have a manager who gives me assignments without taking the time to fully understand what he's assigning me, and it drives me up the wall some days. I don't want to be managing like that when I'm a 5th or 6th year, so hopefully if I practice more now, I'll be an expert by then!
Some thoughts about managing other people
There is a certain art to this process. I am lucky enough to work with a manager who is good at knowing better than I will exactly how long work should take me, and he anticipates where I'll run into problems. I need to learn (for starters) how to answer the following questions:
- How much to show someone, and how much to let them figure out on their own? Am I explaining something obvious, or missing out on some key information?
- How long will this assignment take them? If I'm having an intern do the cash section for me, is it going to take them four hours, or is it going to take them two days?
- How long will it take me to review this work? I need to be able to factor that into my own schedule for the day.
The places where the less experienced manager frustrates me are the following (I'm noting these to try to figure out how to avoid them myself - the bits in italics are my thoughts on what I can learn from this):
- Assigning me work that he doesn't know how to do - not because he's bad at his job, but just because with all the different state tax forms, forms pop up now and then that neither of us have seen before. The issue in these cases is not that I can't figure it out the same way he would - the issue is when he has done some of the research, say, calling the state revenue department, but since I wasn't on that call, I'm not really understanding the 2nd-hand instructions from the revenue department.
- Perhaps a solution to this situation is to make sure whoever is working on an unknown issue has all of the information I have? Be sure to forward all emails related to the situation to the staff member who will be researching it, and tell them to feel free to call the state again if they need to talk to someone there.
- Pointing out errors in my work that are not my errors. Now, this is probably more of an issue on my side, but in accounting, it's very important to pay attention to details. So when someone points out you've made a mistake, and it turns out it's their mistake, I find it difficult to just smile and nod and not point it out to them.
- I think the only answer to this as a manager is to be prepared for other staff being defensive as well - it doesn't mean I shouldn't point out true errors to them - it's important for them to get in the habit of using spellcheck, to continue the example - but if I feel it's important enough to point it out to them, then I should also be okay with it being important enough for them to be defensive about, if it's not their error.
- Telling us that we should use his advice on all of our jobs, when it's well-known that every partner's team does things differently. It's always best to check with your manager on that specific job how things should be organized.
- At the very least, I don't want to have the ego to insist that my way will be useful on every job. When giving advice to newbies on best-practices - make sure I understand myself what different methods are in use in our firm, and whether my way is contradicting any firm policies.
My main takeaway from working with this manager is - don't be afraid to tell people you don't know. This guy is inexperienced, and it shows, but he tries to bluff his way through, and act confident, but it just makes him seem like a jerk. The sad part is that as regular people, I would much prefer to hang out with the inexperienced manager rather than the experienced one. In a work setting though, I vastly prefer having the experienced manager, and our interactions have much less tension involved. Being friends with the staff members who work under you doesn't make you a better boss to them.
Any thoughts out there on the growing pains of learning how to manage other people? Ever had someone who was your supervisor/boss who just drove you crazy with their management style? Please share your advice/thoughts/stories of horrible/awesome bosses below!
The reach of the internet
I think one of the best things about the web is the ability to reach an audience that is spread far apart geographically. So even though fans of a product may be pretty rare, you can reach all of them, and that makes the product viable, while also allowing those odd-ball consumers to buy exactly what they want.
The artist of Dinosaur Comics attributes a lot of his success to this factor. For those unfamiliar with the comic (I'm a big fan), the concept is that the comic uses the same exact visual layout, but different dialogue in each strip. The author posts a strip every weekday, and has more than 4 years of comics, which all manage to maintain originality and hilarity. However, it's a comic than many people find weird and different, and not at all what they're interested in.
Twenty five years ago, Dino Comics would probably have been a 'zine photocopied and distributed in local used book stores. The comic likely would not have been popular enough with mainstream readers to ever get syndicated in a newspaper. Thanks to the internet, those of us who do like this type of comic can easily access it, the author has access to as many fans as possible, and no one who dislikes it is forced to read it (by having it show up in their daily newspaper.)
As an avid consumer of words, I love the access the web gives me to other people who like to put their thoughts down in writing on their blogs. It assuages some of my yearning for a world where we would still write handwritten letters to each other - really putting some thought in before writing. E-mails are a great way to stay connected, but they are more like a quick phone call than a letter.
So, what has the web allowed you to do that would be unimaginable without the far-reaching tendrils of the internet? What would you like to use the web for more in the upcoming year?
I'd like to use the web more to connect with people this year. I was better at developing lasting relationships with people online when I was 14 and the internet was a place where I could share my (awful) poetry and art and be inspired by other people who were interested in those same things. I guess I was ahead of my time then, haha. But I would like to get involved in more communities of things that interest me, and learn from them. All I need is a little time to practice my hobbies in, once I've learned more about them online...
Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas to my fellow savers and accountants!
Did you get everything you hoped for under your tree this Christmas? My sister and I had similar ideas - I made and dried homemade pasta as gifts, and my sister made chocolate truffles for all of us! We used almost the exact same type of containers to present our gifts in too!
I gave my mother a book on setting up her new vegetable garden, which will used largely by me as I'm supposed to be in charge of the vegetables. The book says we should plant in "early spring." Does anyone know what counts as early spring? In Georgia, the weather can be lovely and spring-like as early as February. Usually by the time busy season is over in April, the weather is getting almost uncomfortably warm already. Hopefully I can steal a few Sundays to get some planting in.
Tomorrow is my last day of holiday/PTO until April. (We don't get any holidays and are not allowed to take PTO during busy season - except for illnesses and sick children, etc.) I'm dreading it a bit, but I think it'll be fun once busy season begins and I start getting into the swing of things.
Have you been planning out your New Year's resolutions yet, or are you waiting for the holiday daze to wear off first?
Photo by http://www.flickr.com/photos/carodeanroaddesigns/
Responsibility
I've always considered myself a fairly responsible person - not driving drunk, getting my work done on time, making sure that any animals I have are well cared for. But I'm only good at being responsible for myself - I am terrible at being responsible for other people.
I've had a huge fight in the past with fellow college students who got upset with me for not driving them home when they were drunk (they had to walk the mile back to their dorm.) I know of other people who happily shepherd their group of drunk friends to wherever they need to go, but I just can't be bothered to hang out with people who can't figure out how to get themselves home.
Responsiblity for other people
Mostly, it seems this is a problem around drunk people, but at what point do you think you are responsible for taking care of your drunk friends, and at what point do they need to start thinking responsibly before they get drunk? The worst-case scenario I've heard of is a group of friends I made when I studied abroad. The previous semester, they had been friends with another American exchange student. They went to a party one night with her, but when it was time to leave, she refused to go with them. They talked and tried to convince her, but short of picking her up and shoving her in their car, they didn't think there was much else they could do. So they left her at the party and she ended up getting raped that night. I don't think that she blamed her friends, but they carried around a lot of guilt for that night. For not going back to the party after an hour, and seeing if she would leave then for example.
How far does your responsibility for drunk humans extend? How well do you need to know someone before you find yourself their appointed guardian for making sure that they get home in one piece?
$1000 a month debt payment plan
This is the second month of my new debt-repayment plan. I'm paying off $1,000 plus each month, with the idea that my student loan will be paid off by November 2012. My student loan will be under $10,000 going into 2012, which is a great feeling!
Initial thoughts on the debt pay-off plan so far
Paying over $1,000/month towards my student loans really cramps my lifestyle. I hate the fact that by this time next year, I won't be in any better position to buy a home, because I'm not putting any cash aside right now for a future down payment. I will be debt-free though - two and a half years after graduation. I only took out student loans for my final year of college, but it's going to take me 2 years of working, even with a good salary, limiting my travel, eating out, and clothes shopping, in order to pay back the money I spent in one year as a student.
I'm glad that I did take out these loans though, because it's a fairly small amount of loan to pay off, but has really given me a taste for how easy it is to get in debt, and how difficult it could be to get out of it.
Getting into debt is scarily easy
Monthly pay outs make debt seem so much larger than the original borrowing ever was.
Last year, I set myself up with a credit card that had an introductory 0% APR for 12 months. We buy plane tickets and book hotel rooms on our own credit cards at work, and it can take a few weeks to get reimbursed. Since I wasn't sure I'd always have enough cash on hand in my own account to pay this off at the end of each month (if I hadn't received reimbursement yet), I opened the 0% APR card so that I wouldn't need to pay any interest if I had to let a balance sit for awhile.
So, in April last year, let's say I had a balance of $2,000 of reimbursable expenses on the credit card. I received a reimbursement check for $2,000. But I decided to keep the cash from the check, and pay off the credit card a little bit each month, so that I would have more cash in the bank in case of an emergency.
The 0% rate expired on November 1st, so I had 6 months of payments. Even with a small debt of $2,000, that's still over $300/month! I realized how much of a pain it was to pay that $333 each month. I realized that without sitting down and figuring out my monthly payments, I didn't really have a great idea of how much delaying repayment would take out of my paycheck each month. It took more discipline to make the monthly payments, and to avoid using the extra cash in my bank account, than it would have to just repay the money with the reimbursement check to begin with.
Luckily, if you need help with debt management, there are plenty of companies and organizations out there that will help you develop a realistic debt management plan that works for you.
Debt in the future
At some point, I would like to be able to buy a house. Preferably sooner, rather than later. Right now, I'm not sure if I'll still be living in the same place in five years, so I should probably wait to buy until then. I'm hoping that will be my only debt acquired in the next 30-or-so years. And hopefully, the debt management practices I've learned from these smaller debts will help me making paying off the mortgage a priority!
Photo by Shazwan
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