TravelAddict.org Blog

Today is the last day of the month and also happens to be a Sunday. I try to schedule my monthly financial review around this time to see where I stand. Am I over or under budget? Where did i splurge? How can I improve? How am I doing now versus a year ago?

These are all questions I try to answer. This month I am over budget since I splurged a bit more than I would have liked too. I also review my net worth and it should always be rising. It has this month as I have paid down some debt. My savings did not increase much but I am working on reducing expense. Not an easy task when I am already cut to the bone.

I am now getting into the habit of transferring money to savings when I am under budget. Any time i earn a little extra here or there I put it directly into savings. Otherwise I may be tempted to spend it elsewhere. This has helped me save a fair amount already and I want to increase it. This will be vitally important when I become self employed. It will help me cover sudden drops in income as well as force me to increase actual savings.

I keep a spreadsheet of all my monthly costs, some are fixed and that is easy, other are difficult such as food and gas and entertainment. I have come up with budgets for those based on past historical spending and try to stick to them. This month, for example, I went over. That means next month I will have to come in under budget to break even. My downfall is eating out. I love to eat great food and there is no shortage of it in Atlanta.

Overall I did pretty good this month. I am more or less on the right track and now I need to watch my spending as I have been, maybe a littler closer. I also need to pick up some side projects to supplement the savings and further increase my net worth. The more disciplined I am the faster I will get to my goals. I have to find the right balance to maintain my sanity, though.

I finally broke down and got one. Major factors were the piggy-back SIM unlock I mentioned before and I can sell my old unlocked one on ebay for more than I paid for this one! I got a free iPhone!

I was impressed at how easy it was to unlock my old one as well. They have made it easy enough for the average Joe to do it now and I wish I knew people needing unlock so I could charge $50 a pop. Either way I am happy!

Well it looks like my database is hosed so my photo site is down until I have time to completely recreate and reupload everything. I am evaluating my options as to what is the best approach now. I am not sure if I will simply reuse my current software or change.

I will post more when I know more.

I just got 3500 bonus miles for investing $50 in a gold tracking ETF. I did this thru sharebuilder.com which has Delta bonus promotion going. The bonus is 2000 miles for members and 3500 for medallions. I am Silver Medallion so I got 3500. Not bad for something I intended on doing anyway.

This now put me back over the 100,000 mark which means I am 10% there on my goal of 1 million miles. I also have to consider that I want to travel each year for vacation using miles so that will deplete them a bit. I must keep an eye out for all the bonus opportunities that I can utilize to keep the free flights coming.

If you are interested in this promotion make sure to follow the link from Delta’s website so you get to the right page. For those who are wondering it is ok if you are a current member of sharebuilder. You will still get it. This is the second time I have done this promotion.

I found a neat little sim card that allows you to use any sim with either version of the iPhone. it also will not void the warranty since you do not have to modify the firmware. The only catch is you need an unlocked phone with EDGE or 3G abilities in order to program the SIM to work correctly.

The Rebel SIM card fake the phone into thinking it is using the correct carrier. With simple modification of the “invalid” SIM you are up and running in minutes. I definitely want to try this when I go to Colombia and see if it really works. Only time will tell!

I have noticed a lot of people I know and people they know getting laid off from work. I only have 2 friends that have a job. This is not good. Granted, I only have about 5 people that I consider friends.

When I got back from traveling I found a job in 2 months and I thought that was bad. I am now learning that there are people 6+ months without work and credit cards are starting to mount. It looks like it will get worse before it gets better…if it gets better. Only time will tell.

I find myself working longer and harder than normal to prevent the same from happening to me. I am more or less hosed if I lose my job at this point. I am working diligently to get my own side business going so I can eventually be able to quit my job.

One problem I ran into on the road was all of the small things that had no real “place” in my backpack. I have found a solution. I have a couple hard plastic containers with snap on lids that are also spill proof. They hold about 1 liter each.

I will use 1 for liquids that tend to get smashed or come open during transit. This is even more important now that they cannot be carried on in large quantities any more. The other I will use for extra cables and small items such as electronics, cooking utensils when not in use, and leftover coins. They also make a good base for a backpack which makes it easier to stand up.

They will be placed at the very bottom of the bag. The stability and shape holding make it easier to pack the rest of the bag. By only having 2 of these I reduce the extra weight they add. The only thing left to test is durability.

Seems that something crapped out my database for gallery. This has lead to my photos site not working.  I am trying to get it fixed but it does not look good.

I may end up having to redo it completely. I am not looking forward to reuploading over 8000 photos but I may have no choice. I am going to look into alternatives as well. I will keep you posted.

I am a huge fan of music. The Stone Temple Pilots are a band that i grew up listening too and have always wanted to see. Now they are on a reunion tour and they did most of their recording here in Atlanta. It should be a great show. I am going with a few friends and I have pit passes.

I am making preparations now getting the cooler, beer, etc ready to go. I will be leaving my iphone in the car for safety. So that means no pictures.

I have now been investing/lending through prosper.com for over a month now. All of my loans that have come due for the first payment have done so thus far. My current avereage interest rate is 18.79% and growing. I am earning just under 1 dollar per day in interest. So far I like how this is going and will continue with it.

I am also borrowing money through prosper.com and re-lending it out. That is going well and I am almost fully invested which will total $2200. I have a definite strategy in place that I believe will pay off well. I am seeking double digit returns and lower risk. I have found my niche (for now).

I also turned a friend onto prosper.com who needed to pay off some late credit cards. Through my group I was able to get his loan fully funded and even his interest rate lowered a bit through the bidding system. He is much better off as a result.

If you are interested in giving prosper.com a try please comment below. I can send you a referral email where we both get a nice bonus ($25)!