TGIF

I know its been a short week but its been up and down. I'm exhausted and ready to crash for the next two days (if only I truly had the ability to indulge in that luxury.) I've busted butt, settled a couple of cases, done some work on some hourly cases and actually felt like I made progress towards billing my first 50K in fees for the firm (which is relevant because when I hit that benchmark I get a raise.)
I have a check on my desk for $96.25 for a fee split bonus from work. This is from the same source as the last $60 bonus. I'll be good and put 1/3 towards my IRA and another 1/3 to my student loans. That last 1/3 that should go to saving for DR in 2010 will probably end up getting spent next month. My sorority chapter's 35th anniversary is next month and I'm going back for the party. It would be nice to be able to take a couple friends out for drinks and not feel guilty, so I'm thinking that would be a good use for this money.
It looks like these small bonuses will become a regular occurence, provided we stay a provider with the pre-paid legal services plan that I got our firm hooked up with several months ago. My boss thinks it's great - this is a source of clients that never would have come to us before, as they have legal services available as an employee benefit, but to use those services they have to go to a provider under that benefit plan. The clients call in, they get what they need, and we get guaranteed payment for providing services to them (and no pulling teeth to get the client to cut the check to pay for those services.) The rates are a little lower than normal for some services, but it's made up for with the lack of hassle in billing for those services. Ray liked the initiative I took in getting us signed up so much that he's giving me 25% of what the firm receives for these clients. Which is pretty slick as far as I'm concerned.
My normal fee split arrangement is 1/3 for what I business bring in. This is essentially people who know me and want to have a will done, or people who want me to do their bankruptcy (as I'm the only attorney in the firm who works in this practice area.) Since the prepaid legal clients don't know me, and most of them don't need bankruptcy services, they wouldn't normally qualify me to get a fee split at all. So I'm making a little extra money by doing something that I only did because it would help bring in some extra bankruptcy customers down the road.
As long as I don't count on the money it remains a bonus, even if it is likely to get paid twice a month when the legal plan cuts checks to the firm. So this is a bright spot in my Friday and helps me continue on the road to debt freedom. I've promised myself I will continue to put 1/3 of each check to retirement, 1/3 to student loans and the remaining 1/3 will be spent flexibly or saved for DR depending on what I've got going on at the time.