I have been here for five or six months. My coworkers are nice, although I have not made any friends. I absolutely love the kids and it is always sad when my students meet their goals and I need to stop wasting their time. Let it go and all of that. I have visited zero parks, monuments, or anything, I drive to Mom's house after work on Friday, and I drive home Sunday afternoon. Mom always acts happy to have me around. I spent my entire Christmas break there. We hardly did anything, but I spent the first week studying for the GRE. I still wished I could stay longer. I keep hoping that an SLPA job opens up near Mom because I am tired of driving ten hours each weekend! That really only leaves Saturday to do projects, and I could never maintain this if I get into grad school.
Yeah, about that...
I submitted everything before the deadline for the program I wanted, but they did not acknowledge some of it until it was too late. If I did not get in this year, I would start retaking speech classes through them, but school started the next day. I will take classes this summer and in the fall.
This job pays great, but it seems that I cannot afford the full student loan payment, around $500. With deductions my paychecks are the same as my old job, where I averaged thirteen hours a week, but I see about four times as many kids, and have all of the time I need at my desk to work on activities and paperwork and I just walk back and forth inside the school, instead of fighting traffic for two hours a day, dealing with cancellations, no-shows, and attempting to make up lost sessions.
I think I was waiting for my cash to flow in the right direction before signing up for NorthPointe Bank's Ultimate Checking Account (which paid 5% interest on up to $10,000). Unfortunately, they stopped offering that back in November.
I transferred my credit card to one with a 0% introductory rate and I have been using that while accumulating money in my checking account. I could have made about $60.86 in interest!
It looks like Consumers Credit Union is the next best, they offer 4.59% on up to $20,000! The interest is actually tiered based on your activity. You can earn 3.09% for
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Complete at least 12 Debit/Check Card point-of-sale purchases (transactions must be made without using your personal identification number (PIN) to count toward the minimum of 12 and must post and clear your account as a credit transaction on or before the last day of the calendar month)
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You use your debit card as credit? If you spend at least $500 each month in any number of transactions they give you 3.59% and the 4.59% requires $1,000 a month (in any number of transactions).
$500 student loans, $395 rent, $80 car insurance, and $25 food?
Hey, if I can find enough 0% introductory balance transfers and I keep up this for twenty months, I will make an extra $918 a year! :P
Somehow I feel like I need an alternative long-term plan. Once I took the GRE I talked to the SLP that works for the only speech agency in the area. I applied and tried to follow up through e-mail. Whenever I go to call something comes up, but that would pay better than anything else I could do. If I picked up five clients a week I could finally start paying off my credit card (or at least have enough money available to do so, but earning 4.59%), purchase groceries besides oatmeal and beans, and maybe start fixing up my cars.
You guys have a great night!