Wednesday, March 3, 2010

A Bit of Everything

It's month end round up time for me and in February I was able to bring home $567.72 net more than projected. Pretty pleased with the bonus.

On a fun note, I will be able to make up for the cancelled driving lessons/classes last year this coming April. It will bring me one step closer to taking a rally driving course some time in the future.

D has his first interview Friday. Fingers and toes crossed that they will be a good fit for each other.

He has applied to both full time and contract positions and we have been discussing the pros and cons of contract work. The pay is higher, most often 50 - 100% more than full time salaries but you get no benefits, no security and no chance of unemployment insurance after.

So why would you consider such a beast? Larger companies may wish to see what you can do first before offering a permanent position. Some professions lend itself to contract work -- D is in one such profession.

That would also mean both of us would be self employed. There would be increased bookkeeping duties and need for more savings put aside as we would have to create D's own version of "unemployment insurance". So I for see the first year of such work to be a foundation building year.

A small glitch with respect to attaining currency for my trip. The Iceland Krona has become devalued enough whereby currency exchange places are having a hard time getting it and do not want to buy it back. I've decided to bring Euro to exchange once I arrive.

Apparently Iceland is pretty much a cashless society. People are actually known to buy ice cream cones with plastic. For foreigners like me, it may sound neat but the exchange fees that get charged with each debit/credit purchase may not be so neat. I tend to only used credit cards overseas for moderate to large purchases.

2 comments:

  1. I'll be crossing my fingers as well. =)

    Some companies have great benefits so it would be beneficial as a full-time employee. There are companies out there that match 100% of 401k (that's an additional $16,500/year) and minimum health insurance cost.

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  2. Thanks Sandra! The first one is supposed to start in a few minutes!

    D's current position is full time with good health benefits. I don't know that we have as good a benefit as 401k matching in Canada.

    Our equivilent is the rsp and you are allowed to contribute up to 18% of your net income each year and you get the equivalent tax benefits but I've never heard of companies here matching it.

    What D has is at matching up to 6% of pay, that's all. Now that I know there is such a 401k match, I'm going to pass that on to D. He may want to start searching for jobs in the US.

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