Looking forward to July

Just got word that my next rotation is going to be focused on security and risk analysis. I'm super excited. Not only was this my top choice, but I was one of many who applied for this rotation. The skills I will get to build out in this rotation will definitely be good on the resume for my switch to i-banking.

This may come as a shock to some readers, but that is my real end-goal. As a young MBA, ibanks will not hire me as an Associate level. Instead, they would make me work my way up.

Knowing this, I have chosen a leadership program to go through to pick up all the necessary soft skills I would need in a condensed period of time. Along the way, I'm selecting my rotations that easily translate to the ibank world.

In addition, when I do rotate in July, I should also see a pay raise. My guess is 5-7%, but I have heard of numbers as high as 10%.

Keeping my fingers crossed.

Apartment found, sold, and moved all in one weekend

I officially start at my new position on Oct. 15, which meant I had to find someone to take up the rest of my lease, find a new apartment, and me moved prior to October 15. Somehow, I managed to do all that this weekend, even though everything came down to the wire.

For a while, I was contemplating forgoing the $2500 security deposit, figuring my sign-on bonus and better job satisfaction would more than make up for that small financial hit.

Thankfully, I'm getting that back. Add to that my relocation bonuses and my old company paying me for unused vacation time, I've got some large checks coming.

My plan is to save a large portion of it, but still have money to buy a new LCD TV and a cheap sofa set.

At the same time, I have to come to grips with living by myself, which means I pay for 100% of the utilities, rather than the 3-way split I had. For utilities like cable, that was a great deal. For now, my way to cut back is to decrease my monthly discretionary budget, until I see how much utilities actually end up being, and then I can readjust accordingly.

The week, moving, and reader questions

This has been a hectic week. In my trading, I caught a great dagger in USU last week and made about $1000 from the trade. I thankfully dumped it about 3 hours before it started crashing two days ago.

While I was very excited about this, I also had other things on my mind. Primarily, I have been looking for a new job since I believed I had no real future career at my current position. I resigned this week, and I will write more about this subject over the weekend.

To reader questions who are curious about how I learned to trade and want to learn to trade, I will try to run a series next week.

For now, I need food and drinks or else I will go crazy.

Working on July 4th...

...pretty much sucks. My only consolation was knowing that my managing director and the financial controls team were also in the office today.

I guess I'm finally understanding the sacrifices I am being compensated for with my salary.

Life Updates

Its getting ever closer to April 2 (19 days!), that day of all dreadful days when I turn my soul in for a biweekly paycheck.

This week, I'm finishing off finals, and by next week, I'll be adding debt.

If you recall (Car Post), I am still looking to buy a 350Z. I am still in negotiations with two dealers, where oddly enough, both contacts there have been fired recently for incompetence. The car will set me back probably $37K.

Following that, I have to start buy nice suits, shirts, and other business gear. That's probably another $3K down the drain.

By far the only person rubbing their hands in glee right now are my credit card companies, or if you happen to own any of the stores I'll be shopping at soon.

I always thought it'll be a good feeling to graduate and go to a new job. I just never thought I'd be paying so much out before I even get my first job.

Oh, and did I mention I'll need a place to live soon? *shudder*