Financial Irresponsibility

Blog updates

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 17:44:00 +0000

So I have decided to change my tactics with the Blog. I am trimming the ads and concentrating on initial impressions and improving content. The basic theory will be before I go on a huge promotional campaign, I want any visitor to get a good impression and valuable information so as to attract them back again.

I will worry about compensation after I get something resembling a readership.

More Expense Reductions

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 17:49:00 +0000

I moved away from my land line phone and DSL provider to Comcast. I got their Cable Internet and Cable TV package at $66.

I dropped our land line with DSL in favor of our cellphones.

Was:
Land line and DSL: $120/mo
Cable: $45/mo

Now:
Cable/Internet: $66/mo

We increased our cellphone plan to include international long distance and extra for an extra $30/mo to account for the extra dependence upon the cellphones.

Savings: $66/mo

In the Save a G game, I now need to reduce my costs by $918. Savings so far $82/Month.

Checking in with Google

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 21:01:00 +0000

It appears that in order for Google to find my new shiny Blog, I needed to register myself at the Google Webmaster Tools Section and verify my site.

I then added a sitemap by simply selecting "add" under the sitemap column, selecting "General Web Sitemap" from the dropdown and adding "atom.xml"

This enables the crawler to find my Blog and all the juicy search terms.

This is, I'm sure, is a big deal.

I also added my Blog to a syndication service called Blogrush. This, apparently, will send traffic to me. Some people seem cynical of that on the internets but we'll give it a shot. You can see the widget on the left side of the Blog.

Cheap Flights

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 20:12:00 +0000

I have to go on a flight to Europe. Have been checking around for the best airfares, here is what I found.

Since I was pretty much tied in by 2 factors, the time Feb 2008 and I have a 3 year old and no way I am not flying overnight when he is sleeping and I don't want to travel much longer than a direct flight would.

I checked all the usual sites (Expedia, Orbitz, Travelocity etc.) but found the site with the suspect title of Cheapoair to be the best. The load times were very good on the site, decent control and the prices were the best but note that the final price is what you shop by (the fees and taxes are quite large)

Cheaper, not super cheap but $100-$200 with the options I needed.

One caveat, It had some suspect reviews online by some and great by others so I am hoping for a happy ending, not a sad tale.

UPDATE: A little more investigation found that Economytravel beat Cheapoair (These names inspire confidence, don't they) by over $100 for the same flights.

My First 46 Cents

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 16:29:00 +0000

Well folks, here it is ...

PENDING PAYMENTS FOR "NETWORK ADS"
Transaction Date	Total CPC	Your 75%	Payment Date	Number of Clicks
01/01/2008	$0.51	$0.38	Approximately on or after 03/01/2008	4 click(s) recorded
12/31/2007	$0.10	$0.08	Approximately on or after 02/29/2008	1 click(s) recorded
Total:	$0.61	$0.46	2 record(s) found

Adster came through with my first blog earnings. I just got Adsense set up fully yesterday so I am not saying Adster won but I will say it is delivering with less than optimal (at least per the online experts) placement. I have some concerns about the ad matching that adsense is doing to my core topics but it is getting prime placement so we will soon see.

The reason this is significant is that I have done little to create heavy promotion or optimization of advertising. This blog is effectively a baby with little useful content or linking to it. I might be on to something here.

"Creating a new Blog" topic has dominated a little lately but that is just while I implement the core subject of the Blog which is improving your finances. Real content should be showing up with some real results to promote over the coming month. That said, it may be very valid if it can produce new income at some considerable level (say $300 a month to start).

Starting Some Expense Reductions ...

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 20:53:00 +0000

I am attacking my utilities and phone bills first.

I will be moving to energy efficient light bulbs and fixing a few draughts in my apartment and watch my bill.

On the phone side, I will be evaluating Fring to see if it can dramatically reduce the phone bills and remove the need for a land line. We use the land line for international rates.

Not much to report until the first bills come in.

More Blog Promotional Activity

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 22:01:00 +0000

I listed my beautiful baby blog on Technorati which, from investigation, is a major method of increasing visibility. I also used a site called Pingomatic to automatically get me onto several blog search engines.

Checking out the various adsense competitors but details on that to follow.

Need to concentrate on content now .....

Additions to the Blog

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 00:02:00 +0000

Quick update.

I added the various social networking links via the Feedburner site so that there is a chance for better visibility. Added a few Ads and a "Donate a dollar" button.

I posted a nice review of Mint.com and posted my review and the link in their forums (I hope that is considered OK). By viewing my statistics on Statcounter, I actually got 3 unique visitors from there.

Overall this is been relatively easy for not having done much research.

From tiny acorns do mighty oaks grow ....

Setting up the Blog

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 17:56:00 +0000

Basic requirements for setting up my blog were simple - It had to be free and it had to allow some method of generating income.

Wordpress (which I had some previous experience) does not allow the income part but Google's Blogger meets the criteria of both. I am also generally impressed with Google as a company so I decided to use Blogger. There may be more out there but I am not that patient.

I chose my topic, name and made a little banner using Paint.net (Free) to quickly throw it together. The results are before you.

Next thing was setting up some sort of ad revenue. I tried setting up Adsense (Googles ad "engine") but it gave me an error when trying to register so I am waiting on that to see if I can get it working. I did a search under "Adsense comparison" and found another service called "Adster" which was very easy to set up and claims greater revenue to the Client so I thought I would give that a try too. Once again there are probably more there but I figured I would give these to a try.

Blogger does not have statistical analysis so I signed up for Feedburner and Statcounter. Both pretty easy to set up but Feedburner seems to have more than just statistics and I will review that later once I work out what it fully does but it seems to have services to help promote your blog.

Now, onto posting content and lots of it.

Another Income Source - I'm a blogger now!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 17:10:00 +0000

I can't believe I didn't post this earlier.

I started a Blog! Its called "Financial Irresponsibility" (Duh!).

The reason for this is that bloggers can make good money. I don't expect to make anything near the quantity of cash they make but a few hundred extra a month would be nice.

I am doing this blindly. I didn't do hours of extensive research but what I did pick up was that "content is king" so I hope my little or large gains are both interesting and helpful to people. I chose finances because everyone uses money, wants money and needs money. I have a certain amount of experience over the past year that might be helpful and I know i would have read my blog a year or two ago when times were at their darkest. I also think that my project to save $1000 a month on expenses is valuable if I achieve my goal or get close. I could see people using this project themselves.

I don't have a lot of time with Jobs, wife, 3 year old and volunteering at a non-profit so lunchtime and little spare time blogging for dollars it is.

Updates on how to stumble through setting up a blog on the chance it might make a little cash coming up ....

Expense Initial Analysis

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 22:18:00 +0000

First problem I ran into is this is the Christmas period and income was increased due to a nice bonus and outgo was unusual due to the extra cash and the holiday spending.

But here is what I could work out:

Rent $1400
Bankruptcy Payment $1350
Sons School $650

There is half my money gone and not much I can do about those. Rent is cheap since we know the landlord and have an excellent deal, the Bankruptcy payment is what it is and my sons school is awesome and have no interest in either changing or decreasing his time there.

So the rest is going to Food, Car, Cable, Phone, Utilities, Clothing and Entertainment. Lets see how this breaks down.

Car: This includes upkeep, gas, insurance and parking. I spend $9 a day parking for 20 days in the month which equals $180, Gas is around $160, Insurance is $80 and upkeep averages to $50 so that brings car expenses to $470 per month. I bet we can do something there, especially on Parking and possibly gas.

Cable: This is the Phone, internet and cable package from Comcast for $99. Maybe I could drop the landline since myself and my wife both have cellphones. Our main consideration is we have family abroad so long distance has to be looked at. Last bill was higher by far than this so I will have to investigate.

Phone: Namely cellphones. I have to look into this. These get expensive and I have seen web services that can chop these down.

Utilities: Wife said the last bill was $120. It is winter and we have been using the heaters a lot.

So far, of my remaining $3000, $690 is accounted for with Food, Clothing, Cellphones and Entertainment making up the remaining $2300. That seems like a lot. This, I suspect, is the area we will make our greatest gains.

The plot thickens!

Save a G game!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 21:08:00 +0000

OK so based upon me pulling in about $6000-$7000 Net income per month (for those of you who do not live in San Francisco, don't get too excited, it goes fast here), I have decided to see if by clever means I can reduce my expenses by $1000 per month.

Being a tech geek, I decided to harness the power of the internets for both information and services that may help me on my quest.

First up, I need a fair estimation of where I stand, where is my money going?

I went to a handy Web 2.0 review site called Webware and searched under "personal finances" and found a site called Mint.

REVIEW: I can say I can be hard to please with services like this. I don't like to have to work very hard at any administrative tasks (This may be a reason I got into financial difficulty). I expect things like this to be simple, easy to setup and intuitive.

Mint delivers so well in this category. I gave it my email address and a password, gave it my bank account online log-on details and it went to work. It categorized about 66% of my bank account transactions over the previous 2 months and gave a nifty and fast method of mass categorizing the remaining third. Selecting the "Spending trends" tab brought up a full display of graphs and details regarding my spending and income. I can honestly say that the task of tracking my spending was 90% done in 10 minutes of using this site.

There is a section called "ways to save" but I did not have enough information for it to do its thing so I cannot comment on this function. Apparently it is in beta and will offer best credit cards, savings account and cellphone and other potential savings. Shame about that since that is the core purpose of my even looking for a site like this.

I was initially going to check out its competition but feel no need to search any further as Mint handles what I need so there may be better but I am pleased with this.

A

Additional Income

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 19:47:00 +0000

Another part of my plan was to pick up some nights and weekends contract work. I am a programmer so this is not uncommon. I found the best method for doing this is using Craigslist "Gigs" section and post under "Services".

Found some work, the nicest being a $1500 job to fix up a mess left by a previous contractor.

Got some Resumes out

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 19:24:00 +0000

Got 300 resumes out in one week!

Phone ringing off hook.

Mainly headhunters at first. I have a strong negative opinion on most if not all headhunters I have worked with. They are trying to parasitically get between you and the jobs already on job-sites so they can pocket a commission. The danger is that when they speak with you they are trying to slow down your own efforts so they can place you. If they help you fine but don't depend on them.

Then the real McCoy! I got three interviews set up.

Got the job! My income will go up from $85,000 to $100,000 and a approximate $15,000 Christmas bonus with full benefits. Score!

Getting a New Job

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 19:07:00 +0000

This was easy for me since I did not really like my current job so if there is any inner conflict at you doing this, can't really help you except to say more money is good in this situation.

I have a very good method for finding a new job. I got this tip from a trusted friend and have applied it several times before and have gotten friends to try this method and it works.

Anyway, basic theory is you are now marketing and advertising - as a job seeker you are selling your services so it is fair to think that the same axioms apply to job seeking as selling product X. The secret is to blanket the place with your main form of advertising, your resume.

I get hundreds of them out in a week.

That may not make sense, and I am not saying it makes sense, I am just saying it works.

You will run out of places to send them after about 20 or so (going to Hotjobs, Monster, Craigslist etc.) but then I go to websites of any company I feel vaguely relates to what I am looking for and drop a resume to their HR dept. via the "Careers" page on the main company website with a generic cover letter.

Anyway, let the advertising campaign commence!

The Masterplan!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 18:51:00 +0000

Alright, so here I am.

Post-Bankruptcy.

The current situation is that I have a monthly payment I have to make that matches "What I make" minus "What I need to survive". Not a bad scenario but things get tight and luxuries are limited.

I have about 6 months before my next evaluation of my income vs. expenses (After taxes are filed). So my theory is, keep increasing income and reducing expenses to buy me the elbow room to live a little looser with money. Sure my yearly evaluations will make me have a bigger payment but at the end of this I will have a chance to actually pay off my debts and have a nice financial scene when all this is done. You hearin' me?

Onto the first step .... new job, increase in pay!

The B word!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 18:27:00 +0000

Without going into the misery of the collection phone calls and the abject misery that the IRS can do anything it pretty much wants. The abject misery came after looking at my anemic payroll deposit one fine day.

The first, necessary thing to do is panic! Hysterical panic!

Once that is out of your system, proceed.

OK, there is a simple fork in the road at this point unless emigration is an option. The first is that if you can handle the IRS minimum payment and work on credit counseling to get everyone paid, then do that but I have no clue how anyone could live on the IRS's minimum allowance, really, can't see anyone managing that.

Option 2, Bankruptcy!

I know ... the agony ... the word is even ugly

Bankruptcy is defined as "Being unable to pay ones debts" so I was, whether I liked it or not bankrupt.

But, I was going to apply for Bankruptcy protection, a sanctioned, legal method of handling the state of bankruptcy. Its a consumer protection law, a tool to use if you need it.

Lawyer visit....

I picked a lawyer off the web somewhat close to my workplace. I wasn't going to go around to my friends and ask advice - I was still coming to grips with the fact I was applying for bankruptcy protection.

Anyway, to make things simple - it's a piece of cake.

1. Hire lawyer (he may ask for an upfront fee of around $800, maybe more, maybe less.

2. He stops all the calls and charges immediately. (gloriously therapeutic feeling)

3. You get together all your papers on debts, file any tax years you didn't already and fill out forms. This was the worst part.

4. Your lawyer works out a monthly payment based off of your monthly income vs. expenses. This is a sane number compared to the IRS version. It accounts for being actually able to survive then takes the money left over and that is your payment.

5. You go to a hearing and your lawyer presents your case which is a rote affair (in fact the whole thing is) similar to going to the DMV except they swear you in and you have a lawyer.

6. You make your monthly payments.

7. Every year after you file taxes, they look at your income vs. expenses and work out that monthly payment again.

Repeat steps 6 and 7 for 5 years.

The whole thing is not too bad really. You will feel really good once you get it done as that worrying you were doing all the time goes away.

But don't get me wrong .... we have a long way to go. I dont intend to live poor for 5 years. That's no fun!

and you like fun, that's why you got in debt in the first place!

Prologue

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 25 Dec 2007 18:28:00 +0000

Alright, here's where I started

A few years back, I worked as a contractor and was paid without taxes included and was less than responsible about paying my quarterly tax amounts. "Less than responsible" is very generous, very generous. With this I also managed to build up a little debt on credit cards to the sum of $30,000. But hey!, I was making good money.

I made less money after the dot com bubble went pop!

I ignored my debts....

The years went by....

The IRS decided to garnish my wages - a lot of garnish.

Things were looking pretty grim for our hero.