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Monthly Archives: November 2007

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Travel Guides for Free

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Do you love breaking out a new travel guide?

Have you dreamed of becoming a writer for Lonely Planet or the Rough Guide?

I’ve done my share of traveling; both with and without travel guides. There are some times when these can come in very handy. There are other times when you discover areas of a guide book that need some updating. There’s nothing like searching out some hard to find place only to discover that it is no longer there.

In college I traveled to Ecuador with a fourth edition of the Lonely Planet, meaning four groups of Lewis & Clark students had taken the same guide book and made edits in the margin for changes and comments on where to go. My favorite was the warning for roosters – complete with a drawing.

Next time you are on the road, consider taking notes and editing the latest edition of your preferred travel guide. Send these edits to the publisher of the guide book and kindly ask for a free copy of the guide book for the next place you are headed, promising to send edits of this book. If your edits are well done it will be worth their while to send you free books.

Things to consider updating:

1) Prices for hotels, meals, and transportation – these change often so you’ll have good material
2) Restaurants – updated menus or possible new ownership.
3) Newly opened hotels, guesthouses, restaurants, galleries, etc.
4) Class information – many people these days like taking classes – consider art, language, dance, cooking, music, etc.
5) Transportation updates – there might be a new bus line or an airline may be out of business.
6) Phone numbers, addresses and websites.
7) Local festivals, markets, and fair trade shops.

Keep in mind that you can start by trying this close to home. Many guidebooks have books that may include domestic destinations. You will be in a good position to scout out the latest info and share fun places to visit in your neighborhood. Its also a good way to get to know your local area in case you have guests!

While the effort that goes in to making edits may outweigh the price of the guide book, just think of the advantages. It’s a fun task that encourages you to explore new places. You’ll have the satisfaction of knowing that you’ve helped a fellow travel avoid woes or discover a great travel adventure. Plus, you’ll get to see you latest work in print!

I’ll admit that in my Peace Corps group I was voted most likely to become a writer for the Lonely Planet. Perhaps the dream is still alive!

Happy Travels!

Miel

P.S. We thought our readers would love to hear that we got an offer to get a free travel guide to review within a day of this post! We’ll be reviewing a travel guide for hiking the western coast of France in the new year when it is hot off the press! Yeah!

DINKs Frugal Travel Week

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This week DINKs will share tips on frugal travel – whether free or reduced.

Now while we DINKs are known to be frugal, this doesn’t mean that we have to rough it. We’ve both experienced days as back packers with nights on buses and trains, not to mention train stations, to save a buck. These days we’ll admit to being hotel snobs.

We’ll share tips on how to:

  • Get free travel guides
  • Maximize your frequent flyer miles
  • The best of hotel rewards
  • Talk your way into free rooms
  • Cruise for free
  • Trade your skills
  • Couch surf
  • Shop for your friends
  • Design your own tours
  • Drive cross-country
  • Go farther on less cash

Our tips wouldn’t be complete without the tried and true backpacker tips from those who have been there, and done that.

Enjoy fabulous tips all week long! Trust me, there’s something for everyone – unless your version of travel is the only on the Discovery Channel!

Safe Journey!

Miel & James

Second Mortgage Payoff

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We know it isn’t too exciting, but our main financial goal these days has been paying off our second mortgage. We are just starting out and wanted to share with folks how we track our progress towards goals. We now have one spreadsheet with several different tabs; one for each of our big savings goals. Thus far we have 1) House Savings; 2) Wedding Savings; and now 3) Paying Off Second Mortgage.

It’s really a very simple tool, but we’ve found it to be very effective. Looking at it makes me think of all the future tabs we might have to represent our mutual goals.

After taking a look at our budgets, our goal is to pay it down to $15,000 by the end of the year.

Note: If you look carefully at the spreadsheet you may wonder if our math is right. That is simply the magic of interest working against us.

We are still trying to get a handle on exactly what Miel’s take home pay will be. So far payroll has managed to mess up her last three paychecks, making it so she hasn’t actually received an accurate paycheck since she’s been in Afghanistan. Once we have things steady we should be able to make a pretty good dent on the second mortgage.

Our goal is to pay off the second mortgage by June 30, 2008.

We both commit to paying off set amounts each month, and then contributing whatever else we can in addition to that. We’ll keep our readers posted from time to time as we pay this bad boy off!

Wish us luck!

Miel & James

HANS takes a Haircut

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Ouch. – Thats about all I think this morning. If you recall we DINKs are shareholders in the Hansen’s Natural corporation. Well, a couple of days ago they missed their earnings numbers and the stock promptly lost 30% of it value. Reuter’s has the full story here. I’m including a picture of the stock’s price drop you can see the carnage.

In terms of what this means for the stock, and for our portfolio, on reflection I’m not convinced that Hansen’s growth story is over. The company has come from out of nowhere to take 27% of the energy drink market with its Monster energy drink. Their gross sales are up 44% from last years quarterly numbers and they’re introducing a new coffee product to try to compete with Starbucks.

The market seems to be responding to the fact that Hansens has higher legal and raw goods costs, but also that their core product – Monster – slipped by 3 to 4% in addition to some difficulties in making the transition to the Anheiser Busch distribution system.

My take is that HAN’s story is essentially unchanged. They’re still selling a boatload of energy drinks so its highly likely that in three months the price of the company will be back up in the 60 dollar range.

Best,

James

Alan Greenspan vs. Jon Stuart

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Hi All,

Here is a quick clip of Alan Greenspan when we went on Jon Stuart’s The Daily Show a few weeks back. I’m posting it because Greenspan and Stuart get a nice rapport going and Stuart asks some provocative questions about macroeconomics. – The one I think most pertains to your personal finance is his question about saving versus investing. – a topic you might consider at more length. Stuart asked Greenspan if the Fed’s actions in cutting interest rates hurt savers and rewarded investors. Greenspan elegantly sidestepped the question, but its an enjoyable exchange nonetheless.

Britney Spears: Not Frugal

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Between my late night sessions at the University and the rest of what’s going on with my crazy life, I still manage to catch the latest headlines. Evidently the Spears/Federline divorce proceedings have laid bare their family finances.

My take on that whole mess: Britney is not a frugal woman. Spending more than $100,000 per month on gifts and entertainment definitely puts you in the not frugal category.

That said, its hard for me to disapprove too much of Spears, she’s still got some hot moves.

Best,

James

Finances Abroad

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Living overseas alters a number things related to financial management. Here are a number of issues that I’ve had to contend with:

Time Difference – Being between 9 and half to 12 and half hours away from customer service hours takes some getting used to and planning ahead. This most often means that I’m up late at night to make calls. The good thing about this is that I get people when they are fresh in the morning. You’d be surprised what a great difference that makes! :-) I’m normally used to catching folks at the end of the day just before their shift is over.

Mail Management – My dear husband James has been fabulous with keeping up with mail. Normally during one of our weekly calls he goes through my mail and opens up my bills and so forth. While most of my financial matters are taken care of online, it is important to pay attention to the random piece of mail that might not be junk.

Online Banking, Bill Pay, Stocks, Retirement, Student Loans, etc. – Financial management from overseas wouldn’t be the same without the net. That can’t be overestimated. I had all of these systems already set up back in DC, so not a great deal has changed in this way. I just rely on it much more.

Skype Rocks! skype is the best invention ever and making keeping up with things that much easier. I love the silence that comes after a customer service agent hears that I’m in Afghanistan. Sometimes you can even get them to move a bit faster, but at two cents a minute I normally just let things take their course.

Random Quirks – One thing that does make are large difference is the absence of certain mechanisms that systems at home rely on. For instance, it’s not so easy for me to drop a letter in the mail. Fax doesn’t exist in Afghanistan. I don’t have paper checks. I don’t have a US number. If these things come up I rely on my dear husband James to help bail me out.

In general most things take about the same amount of management as they would back home. It just helps to stay on top of things. So far I haven’t experienced any major issues.

Wish me luck!

Miel

Generational Gaps

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There is something interesting about how more and more people tend to make more money than their parents. Perhaps it doesn’t work that way for more affluent families, but given my parent’s meager income it didn’t take much for me to surpass my folks on the salary scale.

My first real job made double of what my mother does as a school teacher in rural Oregon. I remember the first time it occurred to me that I would make more money than my parents. I was with my cousin in San Francisco when I was in college and she was talking about how much more her family made than her parents. (She was in her late twenties at that time.) She was talking about what an interesting role reversal it is when it doesn’t make economic sense for the parent to treat.

I recall this reality sinking in and wondered what that might be like. While I’m now making about five time what my parents do, it really hasn’t been as awkward as I might have imagined. Overall there’s never been much of a great issue over it. Not much had changed in terms of gift giving or treating. I’m generous when I can be and my folks do the same.

At times I do sit back and think about how crappy it is that people who work so hard can make so little and there are others in the world who sit on their bums and rake in the dough.

Readers: I’d love to hear from folks who make more than their folks and if this has been an issue for you.

Cheers,

Miel

Finances and Our Long Distance Marriage

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If you’ve been reading our blog you know that my wife Miel and I have a long distance marriage.
I’m living in greater Washington DC, and Miel is doing international development in Afghanistan. As you can imagine, this makes it difficult to have a marriage in the traditional sense. Its also challenging because the day to day stuff that makes up so much of the financial aspects of being married have changed also. After thinking about it

1) The internet makes communication easy. I can’t underscore this enough. Web programs like skype and email have fundamentally changed communication. Its possible to sit down and talk using voice over IP, as if the person were in the same room with you. If a situation comes up and Miel and I need to chat, we can simply go to the computer, log into skype and discuss it. – All of this is without charge. So, when seamless costless internet communications are available, its easy to stay connected. Practically, this means its feasable to finance goals and work together to follow up on them.

2) Greater distance means less conflict about small stuff. Because we’re on different continents, we don’t spend as much time around each other. So, we’re not as aware of each other spending habits. For example, Miel doesn’t like it when I spend money on taxis or junk food. I always harp on her when she spends cash on furniture, and dishes. Since we aren’t constantly monitoring each others spending habits we don’t conflict about these smaller things as much. Its a mixed blessing. The day to day interactions are whats wonderful about marriage, but I’m sure that neither of us miss the nagging.

3) Greater distances mean joint goals are more important. Since being apart means we focus less on smaller stuff, working on joint goals has become more prominent in our discussions about money. For example, we’ve set the goal of paying off our home equity line of credit, and are both throwing cash at the balance.

Just as a side note here – one thing about our marriage is that we’ve mostly approached it as a partnership between equals. We’ve maintained separate accounts and have set joint goals – as opposed to pooling our money or having one person set the financial decisions. It seems like this arrangement is working well. Since this separation is really the first major test of our marriage, its heartening to see that how we’ve got things set up working.

Best,

James

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