Hurrah for raises.

I will see a raise and a small bonus in my first December paycheck. Yay!

The bonus, after netting for taxes, will be applied to: a) boosting my withholding so that I don't owe taxes for 2007*, b) paying off my credit card bill so that I get out of payment cycling (I invariably pay my balances in full, but lately it's just meant I charge them up again later), c) boosting my overdraft and condo downpayment funds, and d) taking about $50 for my own jollies. I do have holiday spending to do, but I have other funding resources for that, so I'd rather pad my savings accounts to meet my annual goals.

The raise is 5.25 percent, which is average, but that is strictly the merit pay increase. I will receive an additional locality pay (cost-of-living) adjustment for the first calendar 2008 pay period (which will pay out in February) of between 3.5 and 4.5 percent, so the overall total will be pretty respectable.

In the interim, I've upped my retirement contributions to 11%, upped my fixed dollar contributions to savings to keep that total around 10%, and intend to increase my charitable contributions. I won't see much more in my actual take-home pay, but that's all right.

Also, my student loan balance total will now be officially less than my annual salary. Point and laugh if you will, but that's a milestone to me.

*I'd rather risk a few dollars in foregone interest than owe taxes and have to pay fees (for e-file or certified mail delivery).

I have been REALLY sick.

As in, I had last Friday off. I could theoretically sleep in and knock out the cold. I was STILL on the couch for most of the weekend and stayed home Monday and Tuesday as well. And then I spent the rest of the week trying to catch up, and am still only about halfway there.

Sigh.

On a brighter note, I managed to get a submission into the Carnival of Personal Finance over at A Geek's World. I'm not the most regular contributor to carnivals. I'm forgetful, but I also don't want to contribute a less-than-personal-best post just to get some link traffic. But I felt that my post on life lists as shortcuts to estate planning was sufficiently on-topic, specific, and actionable to send on in. I also really liked The Finance Buff's post on Open Enrollment (as I'm dealing with it myself), Dogberry's comparison of 529 plans for the Dogberry family's OWN tax situation, and Tired But Happy's feelings about (not) planning for inheritances.

Also, I had my full annual review a few days ago. Despite receiving a mid-year (and completely unexpected) promotion, I still received a raise and a small bonus. Two raises in a year is quite all right by me. The bonus is mainly going to be funnelled back into my emergency fund. While ideally I would replace ALL the money I took out for my car repairs, if I can get $800 from "extra sources" (bonuses, gifts, and tax returns), I'll probably let myself go back to a normal contribution schedule and focus more on my downpayment fund.

And now, to catch up on still more work.