Running with JCT

What he said! I know what you mean about headwinds. This spring I felt like a weather vane! What TA says about truck selection is right on. The highest scores in my class were people who had a study partner. It's an open book test, so find the next smartest driver in the class (we know that you're the smartest because you're reading here!) and work it out together. Today was truck selection for this orientation. There were two 2014's, and they went to the first two to pick.

Welcome aboard TA! Be sure to write a review when you get your ScanGaugeD. And for your following post, yep, the gears seemed to mash together better.

 

Yeah, it was good seeing you and hanging with some drivers for the weekend. My timing could have been better since I just got off almost a week of home time!

I got a load of chicken nuggets from Ponca City, OK to Stockton, CA. That's 1,730 paid miles. Great load! The only problem, and it's not really a prob for me, is that it delivers on Friday - after the cutoff time for to get paid on the 29th. That means that following my below zero check this week, I'll have about 1,500 miles for next week! It can't be stressed enough, you MUST have some financial discipline to make it in L/P or O/O. I guess now would be a good time to go over some of this. Again, I'm no financial expert. I'm not representing that this is the only way to go. But this works for me:

When I first started in lease purchase, I was told to hold back 20% of my pay in a separate account for my quarterly estimated taxes. Get a $1,200 settlement, transfer $240 to your "TAX" savings account. With experience I have found that 15% works fine for me. My deductions and tax situation (e.g. no state tax in Nevada) justify that, YMMV. I added a second savings account that I named, "Estimated Tax Escrow" with a few online clicks. Wells Fargo loves automatic transfers between accounts. I think that I even get some kind of benefit or something, but I believe that I'm getting free checking from the direct deposit anyway. Now you COULD manually transfer 15 or 20 percent every payday, but I set up an automatic transfer of $700 on the 15th of each month. That builds up and covers my quarterly estimated tax, usually with $$$ to spare.

That account is sacrosanct! Believe me, you don't want the IRS to be upset with you! I don't touch that money for ANYTHING but what it is intended for. That's the kind of attitude you must have to make it in my opinion.

This week will be negative and next week will be, oh I'd guess $4-500, then there's the first of the month. I get nervous if my checking account goes below $3,000. This is another one of those numbers that is just for my own situation. I'm single with few responsibilities, YMMV. So I'll probably dip below my personal poverty line for a week. This load will give me a nice head start on the following pay period, so it's all good.

Ponca City is no joke when they start loading! An hour after I hit the dock and I'm outta here!