Today I am driving 300 miles / 4.5 hours home for Christmas. I am leaving directly from work and will arrive around 11:30pm. I have to work remote tomorrow which should be “fun.”
I will return to Atlanta on Friday.
I have run the numbers and weighed the risk in my head. Starting Jan 1, 2009 I will no longer carry health insurance. This will save me $1,300 in a year and free up some cash to service debts and reach my goals faster.
To me it is worth it to roll the dice and try to get ahead. These days we need to do anything we can.
Yesterday it was 70 F. Tonight it will get down to 19F. I find this very odd for the first official day of winter. I am also shocked that I have not gotten sick from the constant warm/cold changes the seems to happen each week.
I find it annoying to have to go through 4 seasons in a week. I have to be sure to have all sorts of clothes with me to be ready for all of it. Sounds like the scientists were not too far off on the whole global warming idea…
I am working this weekend and know I should finish my Christmas shopping. I am somewhat appalled at the whole thing but it is something I have to do. Looks like gift cards all around again. I just can’t be bothered with it anymore.
I am becoming more and more distanced from the hyper-consumerist mindset that plagues this country. Everyone needs the best and most expensive everything and it makes me angry. I am happy with what I have. I suppose it is the jaded traveler inside me that sees the other side of it.
It also helps that I am atheist so I don’t believe in it anyway. My family always asks me what I want and they always get the same response: money. I usually use the money to pay down my debts to get out of here faster. Its all going towards the goal.
I have decided that I am going to go through my file of important documents, scan everything, and destroy anything that I can. I will then keep backups on my laptop, desktop, DVD, and external hard drive to make sure I have it all covered.
This will making living and working remotely a lot easier and less clutter that I have to deal with. I know their will be certain documents that I cannot destroy. I plan to keep those in a heavy duty envelope and stored in a safe place.
This will make finding things much easier and faster. I already do this to a certain extent and need to finish the job. I have access to good scanners at work where I can get it done easily and for free. One of my goals for next year is to have this completely done.
Since the freeze imposed on prosper.com by the SEC I have been casually monitoring my account and removing money as the balance grows large enough. I figured between the freeze, bad economy, and holiday season I would see more people go delinquent or at least late on payments.
This has not been the case. Aside from my 1 bad loan everyone is paying on time. This makes me happy and I hope this continues until they have all paid up. I am earning about 17% on all of the loans together and hope that once the freeze is lifted I can continue to invest. This has great long term potential.
I am using the proceeds from these loans to invest in other ventures and stocks that I have been keeping an eye on. I have to put my money where it keeps working for me so I can get ahead!
I am cutting it close on money these days and I am still toying with the idea of ditching my insurance. I currently carry insurance that is useful if something major, such as a broken bone or worse happens. It does nothing for small stuff such as colds or aches and pains since I have a $3,000 deductible.
This means that I have to pay for $3,000 in expenses myself before they pay anything. I am paying $106 per month for this insurance and am beginning to wonder if it is worth it. I know it will be the first thing to go if I am laid off from my job.
Canceling it would save me $1,300 per year. I must decide if that is worth paying or if I should just roll the dice and save the money. If something did happen I would be bankrupt more or less. I need to look at my policy closer and see what I would really have to pay if a $20,000 problem came up.
$20,000 Medical Bill:
$3,000 Deductible out of pocket
$150 ER co-pay out of pocket
30% I must pay for all above deductible = $5,100
This totals $8,250 that I must pay. That is 41.25% of the total bill. Their may be an out of pocket cap but I am not sure if that is the case. With these numbers it is not worth it in my mind.
Today was a very long day. I got up at 4AM to fly to LGA and head off to the first job site. I took a cab, in New York fashion, of course. I did the work there and headed for a quick lunch at Wendy’s ($7!). Took the Subway over to Brooklyn for the second stop.
I got the job done there and came back outside to snow. Keeping in mind it was 60F when I left Atlanta! I do not have the proper clothes for this type of weather. Fortunately it was my last stop of the day and all I had to do was head over to JFK to fly home.
Travel Tip: Turns out this takes over 1 hour on the Subway. It only cost $7 which is not bad. I had to go back into Manhattan and over to Queens. This cost $2. I then took the Air Train to JFK for $5. I was in time to change to the 4:40PM flight home.
I ended up running through JFK to be the last one on the plane. One saving grace was that I was handed my first class upgrade when I reached the gate. Free drinks and food! It was also an international configured plane and was a nice flight. I got home early enough to go get a beer first.
It was an exhausting day but a nice change of pace. I got some miles out of the deal and New York is always a cool city to wander around. Maybe next time I can stay and see more.
Days like today at work remind me why I need to become self employed and find multiple sources of income. The potential is there but the money is not. I need to get some businesses going where I can work remotely and have residual income from them. They will eventually turn into investments which pay me monthly over time.
My dream is to not have to come back at all except for passport renewals and family visits. I want to live full time abroad near a nice beach. I would have my businesses and investments to keep me busy. I would also have this blog.
I am working on many side projects at once at the moment and hope then turn out well. If they do then I can expand further into other things and snowball the money. This is my only chance at getting what I want. I am determined and will get out of here ASAP.
That said I am off to New York at 4AM for work tomorrow! I hate waking up early.
I ended up having to go straight to work off the plane setting up for the reception. I had to crawl around on a roof for 3 hours for all the lighting and help hang it. I then went to my dad’s house to get dressed for the wedding and headed over.
The wedding was fairly short and we headed to the (dry) reception. We had a champagne toast otherwise no alcohol. The band was good and I got to visit with some family that I don’t see to often. I then found out that I had to tear it all down that night. We finished around 1AM. I was quite tired.
Today I went to breakfast with my dad and uncle, visited with my grandma for a bit and headed off to the airport to come back. I went with my cousin around town for a bit. I made it back to Atlanta and now getitng things unpacked and ready for work tomorrow.