— पांच हजार तीन सौ उनतालीस —
I suppose the most significant news from the past 24 hours is my meeting with Eric, who is only officially still my supervisor until next month. He applied for, and got, a Senior Financial Analyst position, and I guess a new person replacing him in his current position should be coming in the next few to several weeks. Eric will be having to spend a lot of time training that person though.
For now, he's still my supervisor. I still need to fill out a self-evaluation by Thursday next week, for what will now be the final performance review he does for me this year. Next year: yet another new person with their own ideas of how well I do my job. I guess we'll cross those bridges when we get to them.
Most importantly, yesterday Eric informed me that I will be getting a 4% raise. Washington State has a new-ish law that all minimum wage must be raised every year in proportion to inflation, which meant the state minimum wage increased on January 1 by 8.63%. Shobhit had this wild hope that I would get the same percentage increase, which I knew would never happen. Seattle proper's minimum wage is even higher, now $18.69, but I still make roughly double that—and if PCC had to raise
all their salaries by more than 8%, that would be a gargantuan expense. And they've been talking for two years about the hit they took having to add $4 an hour for hazard pay through the pandemic, so I knew there was no way they would ever offer me the same percent increase as they were required by law to give anyone making minimum wage.
I suppose, by some measures, given all of that, 4% is "generous." It's half a percent more than I got last year, actually. Of course, it's still only "generous" in that they didn't give me as
little a bump as they could have. And at 4%, functionally speaking with nearly 9% inflation, I am effectively enduring a pay cut. Fun!
On top of that, I can't cash out PTO at the end of the year anymore. That's another huge hit, on top of all this. With my 2023 budget, I am adding temporary budget items so that I set aside enough from every paycheck that I can spend about the same as I usually do every year, to cover calendars and Christmas shopping. I've decided to do the same, as a separate budget line item, for potential Christmas events I might want to buy tickets to. This way I'll have about $700 earmarked for Christmas spending needs by mid-November.
I still don’t know how my take-home paycheck amounts will be affected, as today was the first paycheck of the year; my raise won't be reflected until the next one, on January 20; there has been a slight decrease in the deduction for my annual Orca Card pass but there will be a notable change due to my switching from $1000 to $150 annually contributed to my FSA card. I'll have a crown I have to pay half of out of pocket at the dentist this month alone, but at least I'll be able to use money that was transferred pre-tax. Shobhit is also encouraging me, for the first time, to change my tax deduction code so I get more per paycheck and the tax return next year will thus be smaller. I'm still looking into making that part happen.
And, of course, all of this will be factored in when we reassess after our return from Australia in March, to determine what else we can afford to do over the rest of the year, in terms of any other trips taken anywhere.
— पांच हजार तीन सौ उनतालीस —
— पांच हजार तीन सौ उनतालीस —
As for last night, I took myself to see a movie:
MEGAN, about a killer AI robot doll. I had thought I could see
Women Talking last night since its official opening is today, but it's only playing at SIFF Cinemas so they have no Thursday night showings like the big multiplexes do. I'll see that one tonight.
Anyway, this was the first movie I was able to see this year, and I had just gone online to see what options there were. This seemed to be the best option, and when I saw its MetaScore at Metacritic.com was 73, I was surprised to discover it was getting a generally positive response. So, I was like, okay I'll see that then.
It was nothing special, but it was fun. It cost me nothing more than seeing anything else using my monthly AMC subscription would, so it was worth the price. Solid B movie. In more than one respect.
Having just missed any relevant busses when the movie let out, I had to walk home. I took longer than desired to write the review, only because it took me so long to find a screenshot I was satisfied with. As a result, it was nearly 9:00 by the time I had it posted, and then Shobhit wanted to talk about my budget for 2023. That took a while, and then we both got into bed to read for a bit, until he zonked out before even I did.
— पांच हजार तीन सौ उनतालीस —
[posted 12:28 pm]
