First day at the new job!

Today was my first day at my new job! The commute was less bad than I was expecting - about 45 minutes in the morning and I think would have been the same in the afternoon, but we were sent to another facility about 30 miles north of the office, so it was only about an hour fifteen total. I could have done it in an hour if I'd taken the first toll road, but I wasn't in a hurry.

I was a little stressed this morning trying to get out the door - one of my cats went out for his daily constitutional and stayed out much longer than I expected, and when I finally convinced him to come in, the other one decided today was a great day for one of her twice-monthly excursions and shot out the door as he was coming in. Luckily, she came in just as I was ready to leave. I had already set up a bed outside and food and water under the assumption she would just have to chill outside until I came back. 

Anyway, because I was so frazzled about the dang cats this morning that I forgot my gym bag! I had everything all packed and ready, too - I even remembered to get socks this morning when I forgot to pack them last night. I know myself really well and I knew that if I came home I wouldn't go to the gym... and sure enough, I did not. Instead I ordered pizza to celebrate my first day! I regret nothing.

I have some other stuff I want to post about (I forgot my June net worth update - but at this point I may just wait for July to be over - and I went on a last-minute trip to Boston last weekend and want to break down my spending), but for now this is good.

Two weeks' notice

Well, I did it. Last week I put in my two weeks' notice. It was bittersweet - my job has been insanely stressful (my blood pressure has been creeping up the last two years), but I really love (almost) all the people I've worked with. And as I mentioned in my last post, they had been very pleased with my performance (even though I personally don't think I was working up to my potential). I've been ready to move on, though, and hopefully to a position with less stress.

Where am I going? I got a job in an industry I'm very excited to be joining. It's a pre-IPO start-up doing some amazing things. They met my salary ask without negotiating me down (I had intentionally over-asked assuming they would), and I'm getting stock options. They also agreed to let me have a week off about one month in (vacation doesn't usually start until 90 days out) in exchange for me starting on the earlier of their two proposed starting dates.

However... I messed up a bit. I didn't negotiate to cover the bonus from my soon-to-be-former job, and when my old company mentioned a retention bonus, I didn't get a number from them to take to the new job. Live and learn! I was very ready to just get everything over with. Sadly, this means I won't be paying off my credit cards as soon as I wanted/expected, but the pay increase I'm getting will be going toward my credit cards. My current projection is that they will all be paid off by the end of June 2022, but I'm making a lot of guesses about my net pay and budget with the new job. 

Another minor bummer about the new job is that it's on the opposite side of town from me, which means I'll have a heck of a commute. Luckily, I love audiobooks, and once I get past downtown, it will be a reverse commute. My gym has a location on that side of town as well, so the tentative plan is that I'll go work out after work, which will give traffic time to die down. I had offhandedly mentioned an off-peak schedule to the hiring manager on my way out from my interview and he didn't immediately shut that idea down, so that could be a possibility as well.

I am considering moving to that side of town next year, if the commute really gets to me. My condo is enough of a disaster that I wouldn't be able to get it on the market in the next couple of months, and if I moved now, my housing expense would basically double, which would cut into my credit card repayments. A one-year delay, though, gives me plenty of time to declutter and make necessary updates (new flooring, for example) without having to stress too much. Even if the housing market cools off, I should still make a tidy profit on this place.