Our guest today is Matt Jabs, blogger and founder of Debt Free Adventure, a blog designed to help the author stay accountable for getting out of debt. Debt Free Adventure is one of my favorites among new personal finance blogs.
Today’s discussion focuses on the concept of giving yourself a raise, an important way to improve your financial condition, particularly in an economic environment that is supporting fewer raises from your employer. Tom Dziubek and I explore this concept with Matt Jabs and discover a number of ways you can give yourself a raise today.
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[00:00] Introduction from Tom Dziubek
[00:33] Interview with Matt Jabs of Debt Free Adventure
– [01:10] Matt’s inspiration for writing about personal finance
– [02:57] Giving yourself a raise at home
– [04:26] How to give yourself a raise
– [08:41] Creating a personal trigger to change your mindset
– [10:24] Living outside the box
– [12:16] Finding and following your passions
– [14:29] The journey is as important as reaching the goal itself
– [15:59] Dealing with customer service reps
– [21:39] Do it yourself
– [25:17] How it adds up
[28:04] End
We always welcome feedback from listeners. If you have any comments for this episode or for any other, or if you have suggestions for future episodes, please leave us comments here or email us at podcast at this domain name.
Earlier this year, a new position opened up in my department when a co-worker left for a better job within the company. The open position is similar to my current one, with some added responsibilities, a higher “salary grade,” and the same reporting lines. I decided to put my hat in the ring for the new job, so I applied for the job and “interviewed” with my boss over a month ago.
Even though this position is with my current department, the company requires everything to be processed through its recruiting (”talent acquisition”) service. Unfortunately, no one I’ve ever spoken to has had good experiences with the company’s recruiting service. They are slow and unorganized. A few years ago, they sent me on an interview at another location, but the hiring manager wasn’t expecting me because the recruiter didn’t communicate the scheduled interview date. With an open position in the same department, at least I can speak directly with my boss, bypassing the recruiter when necessary.
The hiring process at my company is incredibly slow, but I was still beginning to wonder by the end of last week. Whenever I asked about progress, I received the response that they’d have an answer soon. Earlier this week, I finally received my answer — I got the job.
The good thing about the jump in salary grade is my bonus range has changed from 0%-9% to 0%-25%. It’s an “exempt” position, so I won’t receive payment for overtime. Our department is not permitted to work paid overtime, anyway, so there is nothing lost.
I’ll be starting on Monday with a raise of 6.8% following my recent raise of about 4.5%, so in total, I will receive an increase of 11.6% this year. My attempts at salary negotiation following the newest job offer faced a dead end and the new salary is not very competitive with outside companies. I’m not as concerned with this inequity as I used to be thanks to being in a working environment that I like and the fact that most of my income no longer comes from my day job anyway.
Still, the news of the “promotion” was a good birthday present.
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