everySecondPaycheck.com

I heard on the way home from work this evening that as a result of the Democrats overwhelming election victory, Donald Rumsfeld is stepping down as Secretary for Defense. I would imagine it’s quite likely he was asked for his resignation. Whatever about his abilities as a defensive leader, which are questionable if you believe Bob Woodward, the one known known is that his press appearences will be missed my many.

In other US election news, it’s looking very much like the Virginia Senate race on which control of the Senate is resting will be decided in the courts. Some excellent early analysis over on the Election Law Blog. It also looks like Andrew S. Tanenbaum, the genius behind the addictive Electoral-Vote (poll analysis) site got his predictions very close. His left leaning site was definitely more accurate than the right wing imitators setup after the last election for propoganda purposes.

Meanwhile, in an effort to prove the point in my last post, that Irish people are well capable of electing our own morons, South Tipperary County gave an interview on a local radio station not only advocating drink driving but also admitting to a few swift pints and a spin in the car from time to time. His comments, niave at best, are repeated and rebutted here. Looks like Enda Kenny and Fine Gael are going to do the right thing and help Mr. Fitzpatrick onto his sword, which is good to see. It’s a pity that other political parties don’t have the same view on such important issues.

Nothing like a good election to get the pulse racing and despite tonights election being a few thousand miles away, it’s generated quite a bit of interested on this side of the pond too. Unfortunately, my cable tv is out tonight due to a problem with my set top box so I’m trying to keep track of the news online via both traditional news sources and also blogs.

So far early exit polls data being carried by a few brave bloggers will to stick their necks on the line, with plenty of health warnings albeit, seem to suggest things might be going the Democrats way in 6 of the closely contested Senate seats. I’m not buying that just yet though, early exit polls favoured the Democratic nominee, John Kerry, in the last Presidential election but as more information came in things swung back to the Republicans, as is wont to happen - apparently.

I have my own opinions about who I’l like to win but since my fellow Irish men seem intent on electing morons I would rather were running anything but my country, I can’t really fault American for voting in their own.

I recently reached the first goal I set for myself, which was to save three months worth of paychecks (€6,000) as an emergency fund. I had set a deadline of the end of the year for this goal so I am a bit ahead of schedule but rather than slack off I’m going to continue saving hard.

It is almost six months now since I started this blog and began thinking about getting my finances in order, so it’s nice to be able to cross a goal off my list. The next goal I set for myself back in May was more of a medium term goal so I’m going to have to come up with a new interim goal, part of which will be to get back blogging regularly again as I’ve been lax in this respect for the past couple of months. While I’m still thinking about my finance when I’m not blogging, I find it easier to stay disciplined when I’m blogging more regularly.

I went over budget for the first time last month! It has also been three weeks since I posted, maybe the two are linked - but I have been so busy at work recently that I haven’t had the energy to browse, let alone blog.

So first things first, why was I over budget? Primarily due to some large bills coming in that I hadn’t been expecting. The unexpected bills were roughly equal to my overspend, although that’s no excuse. I was getting pretty down in the dumps about blowing the budget and potentially having to put less than the full monthly amount into my savings account but I was cheered up by one of the most unlikely saviours, the taxman.

I recently received a letter from the Revenue Commissioners about a new (to me at least) service they’ve launched called PAYE Online. Getting access took a bit of work, I needed to sign up to a goverment portal called Reach Services first, but that was smooth enough. I then checked through my old details and when I noticed some discrepancies contacted the Revenue call centre to query them.

All credit to the Revenue staff, I found them very good to deal with, I just gave them my details and they logged my query. When I asked if there was anything else I needed to do they reassured me that they’d take care of it all and send out their reply. I got their reply just over a week ago, with a nice crisp €2,000 cheque attached! Seems I had been overpaying tax for a year or so.

After feeling so bad for spending more than my monthly budget in August, I am not even tempted to splash out using my refunded tax. It’s staying where it is, in my bank account, until I can figure out the best place to use (save/invest) it. The extra breathing room to cover unexpected expences that this unexpected windfall provides is pretty welcome too. As a result, I’m looking pretty good to meet the first of my goals, which was to save up three months worth of paychecks as an emergency fund, though there is still plenty of work in the grand scheme of things.