April is going to be a Good Month

April is going to be a good month. By then we should have our tax refund and our emergency fund should be five digits for the first time ever. And, in April my raise is going to be reflected on my paychecks.

Did you hear that? I'm getting a raise! On March 31st!

I found out today at my performance review. I am getting a 3.75% merit increase and a 2.36% adjustment for a total of a 6.11% raise. I think that's pretty good! It's a bigger raise than I've received in the recent past. I'm excited to be receiving one at all in this economy but to then receive one so big is just a big, huge bonus!

This raise will give me about $5000 more in income (gross) each year and raise my salary even closer to the six digit range. I am one lucky, lucky gal. Or I just work really hard, am really smart and really respected at my job. One of those. Maybe a bit of each. Heh.

Anyway, I've of course already started plugging numbers in to spreadsheets. I'm guessing this will mean about a $300/month boost in income. That's a pretty big number! We're going to stick it all in our emergency fund of course. We're not going to raise our discretionary amounts at all (well, maybe the gas one but that's due to the rise in gas prices, not a change in our driving habits).

This additional income should help us achieve our goal of a complete emergency fund by the end of the year. maybe even in November according to my calculations. I am so excited for that I could cry. Just think - next year we could focus on paying down our mortgage, saving for the basement finishing project, take a big vacation, fully funding Roth IRAs for us - it would be completely up to us what to do with our extra income each month. I'm so excited!