Thursday, December 02, 2004
Tryptophan Finally Worn Off - Gift Season's Here for Real
A fine December greeting to you all - I hope that you have worked off the Thanksgiving sluggishness. Some of you maybe even started (or finished) your holiday season shopping.
I seem to have succumbed to sluggishness myself - basically since I went on vacation last summer! While it appears that I have managed to write a fair amount, very little has been done on my Chance Sports web site.
Naturally I could give many reasons for this, but there isn't really much to say except that I've been fried. A lot of stress at work, a lot of extraneous stuff going on.
And, annoyingly, a lot of money problems. Thanks to a change of the commission plan at my employer, I knew that I was going to make less money than I made last year. Now it's official that I'm going to make about $17,000 less than I made last year. Ouch.
What really rubs me the wrong way about the change is that my employer did not see fit to raise our salaries all that much. To begin with, we are already the worst-paid salesforce in our industry. I have been courted by competitors promising as much as $20,000 increase in salary. The reason that I and my colleagues always stayed was because the commission plan offered more upside than anything our competitors offered. That's not true anymore. We are now very poorly paid by comparison, and people are clamoring to poach us. There was a mini-exodus in October, and now we're in the calm before the real storm. Feels good, except that I promised myself not to take another job. While getting paid a lot more to face the same set of problems elsewhere is tempting, I'm not going to fall into this trap. Instead, I'm going to get out of the rat race. So I guess they get to have my services at bargain rates for a little while longer.
It's amazing how hard it is to let go of the safe, secure job, but that time is coming soon. I'm amazed at how few companies actually agree to insure in New York State, because of these horrendous regulations. My first choice company doesn't underwrite in New York State, so I'm going to have to find another company. Possibly AAA, which I joined early this year. It's already saved me a fortune in train fares.
I've been looking at some of the new options that Bush managed to get pushed through, and one that I'm very interested in is the Health Savings Account. This is a tax-advantaged account that works like an IRA or Educational IRA, but it's for health care costs only. I already have something like this through my employer called a Flexible Spending Account. It allows me to recapture some of my medical expenditures in pre-tax dollars. This is useful because my general practitioner is not a member of my employer's health plan. The main drawback in that plan is that you surrender any money left in the account at the end of the calendar year. The HSA allows this money to carry over.
The net effect of this could be that someone like me - who is in my 20s - could save for old age, when I might (hopefully not) need long term care or a home health aide, etc. But I can't start this account until I have left my current employer and started a high-deductible insurance plan (with deductible of $1000 or more). Or my employer could start offering this type of coverage itself, and I could take the HSA with me when I go. But I'm unlikely to do that because the PPO plan offered by my company is very good.
Furthermore, I'm limited in what I can contribute to the account every year. What does this mean? I can't use this account to fund my retirement health needs. I suspect the contribution cap is a ploy for Congress to keep too much money from going tax-free. Too bad, it could really start to ease the Medicare funding crunch.
So, insurance is something that is on my mind right now, especially since I have to re-up many of the employer sponsored programs that I participate in. Any ideas? I'm all ears (or eyes).
Ha, thought you were going to hear about gifts, didn't you?? I guess the tryptophan hasn't completely gone yet... Stay tuned for my next post - I'll make an extra post in between the normal every two weeks just for the holiday season.
Holiday cheer (and lots of chocolate) for everyone!
I seem to have succumbed to sluggishness myself - basically since I went on vacation last summer! While it appears that I have managed to write a fair amount, very little has been done on my Chance Sports web site.
Naturally I could give many reasons for this, but there isn't really much to say except that I've been fried. A lot of stress at work, a lot of extraneous stuff going on.
And, annoyingly, a lot of money problems. Thanks to a change of the commission plan at my employer, I knew that I was going to make less money than I made last year. Now it's official that I'm going to make about $17,000 less than I made last year. Ouch.
What really rubs me the wrong way about the change is that my employer did not see fit to raise our salaries all that much. To begin with, we are already the worst-paid salesforce in our industry. I have been courted by competitors promising as much as $20,000 increase in salary. The reason that I and my colleagues always stayed was because the commission plan offered more upside than anything our competitors offered. That's not true anymore. We are now very poorly paid by comparison, and people are clamoring to poach us. There was a mini-exodus in October, and now we're in the calm before the real storm. Feels good, except that I promised myself not to take another job. While getting paid a lot more to face the same set of problems elsewhere is tempting, I'm not going to fall into this trap. Instead, I'm going to get out of the rat race. So I guess they get to have my services at bargain rates for a little while longer.
It's amazing how hard it is to let go of the safe, secure job, but that time is coming soon. I'm amazed at how few companies actually agree to insure in New York State, because of these horrendous regulations. My first choice company doesn't underwrite in New York State, so I'm going to have to find another company. Possibly AAA, which I joined early this year. It's already saved me a fortune in train fares.
I've been looking at some of the new options that Bush managed to get pushed through, and one that I'm very interested in is the Health Savings Account. This is a tax-advantaged account that works like an IRA or Educational IRA, but it's for health care costs only. I already have something like this through my employer called a Flexible Spending Account. It allows me to recapture some of my medical expenditures in pre-tax dollars. This is useful because my general practitioner is not a member of my employer's health plan. The main drawback in that plan is that you surrender any money left in the account at the end of the calendar year. The HSA allows this money to carry over.
The net effect of this could be that someone like me - who is in my 20s - could save for old age, when I might (hopefully not) need long term care or a home health aide, etc. But I can't start this account until I have left my current employer and started a high-deductible insurance plan (with deductible of $1000 or more). Or my employer could start offering this type of coverage itself, and I could take the HSA with me when I go. But I'm unlikely to do that because the PPO plan offered by my company is very good.
Furthermore, I'm limited in what I can contribute to the account every year. What does this mean? I can't use this account to fund my retirement health needs. I suspect the contribution cap is a ploy for Congress to keep too much money from going tax-free. Too bad, it could really start to ease the Medicare funding crunch.
So, insurance is something that is on my mind right now, especially since I have to re-up many of the employer sponsored programs that I participate in. Any ideas? I'm all ears (or eyes).
Ha, thought you were going to hear about gifts, didn't you?? I guess the tryptophan hasn't completely gone yet... Stay tuned for my next post - I'll make an extra post in between the normal every two weeks just for the holiday season.
Holiday cheer (and lots of chocolate) for everyone!
