Money In = Money Out

Things are going great. However, it seems the minute we get our hot little hands on some cold hard cash, it burns a hole through our pockets (see post below re: Google Adwords).

Take the fact that my laptop computer just up and died a few days ago. I've had it for four years, since right before law school, and it's served me well. So off we went to Fry's, Wal-Mart, and Best Buy. We ended up purchasing a replacement at Costco.

It's gorgeous. A Hewlitt Packard G60-243CL.

What I really like about it is that it has a bigger keyboard. My old laptop was tiny. I wanted it that way because I had to haul it around campus most days. The new laptop won't need to be dragged from room to room, so I got a wider keyboard (and screen) and it has an additional number keypad to the right of the main keyboard. Sweet.

Speaking of the number keypad, it was easy to cook up a monthly budget for our law firm. We're slidding in at about $550/month in fixed expenses.

That amount covers:

• Rotary (two clubs, we each belong to a seperate Rotary. Our motto is divide and conquer. Rotary is, by far, the largest chunk of our monthly budget).
  
• Utilities
• University Club (our "office" for meeting prospective clients).
• Internet
• MyFax monthly fee
• Monthly website hosting fee

Adding a few extra fixed expenses such as health insurance and undergraduate loan payment (the mega law school loan is still on deferral) brings it to about $900/month. I did not include our ridiculous obsession with Google Adwords either. I'll have to gird up my loins for that one.

It's good to know the numbers up front and now they're on the office wall. It's certainly motivation to keep on truckin'.

A nickle ain't worth a dime anymore.
~Yogi Berra