Plans for 2015-2016?

[djfourmoney]

Thanks Jester -

I had to do something to dramatically increase my income quickly.

When I decided to buy a car, I started out looking at used. Below $3K is dangerous to your financial well-being; at some point that car is going to see at least $1,000 in some sort of work. It could be transmission, suspension or climate control. Not to mention the deployment of air bags would easily allow your insurance company to total your car with no recourse on getting another one.

Also my interest rate while already high would be even higher on a used car. Since my supply of cash was limited, I decided new was the best route. I saved $2K by buying it up in Washington State. Even if with paying sales tax and license fees in California, I still come out $1,200 ahead. It cost me $190 to fly one-way to Washington and about $60 to drive back, but I also did a merchandising job in Paso Robles, CA on my way back. I made $128 on that job alone, so $122 out of pocket.

Unfortunately I wasn't financed by Hyundai so I didn't get the 90 day delay to my first payment which could have been very useful. I made my first payment at the end of Feb and I will be making my next payment this week; it's due by the 28th of every month.

I was already working for Footprint Retail Services but was unable to do most work assigned to me because I didn't reliable transportation. Once I made the decision to buy a new car, I applied at RMSI and Driveline both are retail services companies. I was hired by both to add to the other. I am paid $10.50 by Driveline, my last check (this past week) was $339 including mileage. RMSI pays me $12.00 an hour and I've been getting 20-32 hours of work. I am currently on a project to reset Chevron Extra Mile cold doors (Soda) that is suppose to end mid April but some have been cancelled and will be rescheduled which will extend it into late April.

Footprint pays $12, though some projects go up to as high as $15 an hour.

This type of work is available nation wide so there's no excuse. Some areas will be sparse because of the lack of significant population centers. That said it's fairly reliable work between Jan-Nov. Most companies by Dec are doing Christmas sales and will follow that up with Inventory. I know Footprint, RMSI and RGSI do inventory so if you want to make sure you work all year,then I would apply there.

Not sure if doing merchandising will be my ticket to Brazil, but it's the first step to completing my goal(s).

My official goal list of 2015 -

1) Get two credit cards, possibly a third (Status: Done)

The myFiCO forums are possibly the best place to learn how to control your fiances. The other is Dave Ramsey's Baby Steps, you can easily find these via Google.

I am currently looking at my options for a third credit card. Using the cards frequently boost your and keeping your balances low (under 30%) will boost your credit scores quickly; this is based on the algorithms used by the FICO computers.

2) $1,000 Emergency Fund (Status: $68 in savings)

This is Dave Ramsey Baby Step 1. The easiest way to financial wreck and ruin is to borrow or get into serious credit card debt. A $1,000 will pay for most emergencies that crop up, like automatic transmission failure, high auto insurance deductible, water heater failure, storm damaged roof or appliance failure.

3) Put up a DJ Website (Status: Under construction)

The URL is up and a status page is up but that's it. I need content for it and even if I used stock footage of weddings, it's not free and cost money. So I have put that on the back burner for the moment, I will start this back up in April in preparation for May 2015 and beyond.

4) Re-Finance the Accent

I hope my FICO score (Experian) is 650-660 by June/July of 2015. This will allow me to get down to 3.99% interest from my current 18.23%. This will save me up to $100 dollars a month. I will try either of the two credit unions I am currently a member of.

[onethousandknives]

I for some reason do not think it's good to tell anyone your exact plans. Any plans I tend to tell anyone/a large amount of people tend to fail, and any plans I just do without telling anyone my whole plan or intentions tend to succeed. I really wonder sometimes similar to starchild on this board if people's negatives energies or whatever can affect you and telling plans and dreams too much, too publicly, gets people mad at you, even if not to your face. Then of course, people will second guess your plan, give you all sorts of advice more meant to discourage you, etc. I think in general most people do not like plans as they themselves cannot make and keep them, especially any sort of long game or radical plan. Even in the Bible, for example, with Joseph and the dream. His brothers tried to kill him for his dream.

So, my plan is... to continue making my plan from 2014 work. I don't think it's so much that even you need a perfect plan or whatever, you eventually just have to find a plan and try to stick to it the best possible, at least 80%. Obviously not everything will work out perfect or 100% according to your plan, but things should still be the same as the framework and major details of your plan when you're through. Or maybe rather, your original goal must stay the same or in tact, but the methods or maybe timeframe used to reach it may change.

[starchild5]

MY CHALLENGE TO STARCHILD FOR 2015:

Turn off the internet, completely. Disconnect it. Cut it off. Get the modem or whatever out of your house. Cut off the contract to the phone company or cable company that provides it.

Then see what the Universe brings you.

You can carry your laptop to the library or a coffee shop once a week to stay in touch with family and friends (including us here!).

But live without connectivity for the balance of calendar year 2015.

See what happens.

....That would be brutal for a third world guy living in a shit hole surrounded by darkness and ignorance in India .....I'm already living in a small town with barely 512 kbps connection and there are no coffee shops etc here....Plus my work is online....

However, I can see the value in your challenge...It will change me for better....The thing is I planned to do that for many times..completely cutting myself off the grid..In India the place I'm in now, is very rural, so I'm like 80% cut off from the world ...

I was planning to do that actually for a long long time....things are going in the right direction...earlier it was like 50% done...now its 80%....I need few more things to clear and then I can be completely off Grid.....I like that...I want to go natural....

I will let you know the date when I'm ready but sorry not now....or it can never be....The last mile is the most difficult one...and I'm not sure what the end result would be...If i win..This is the first challenge I would be taking

[Jester]

Okay then, StarChild.

Since you workonline, let me revise.

A news fast. No politics, philosophy, religion, spirituality or newsof any kind via electronic media including internet. Maintain that as long as you can.

if you feel the need to learn, communicate or pray, look to your fellow man or to God.

See how long you can maintain that. An hour, a day, whatever. And feel to post and brag a little.

[starchild5]

Okay then, StarChild.

Since you workonline, let me revise.

A news fast. No politics, philosophy, religion, spirituality or newsof any kind via electronic media including internet. Maintain that as long as you can.

if you feel the need to learn, communicate or pray, look to your fellow man or to God.

See how long you can maintain that. An hour, a day, whatever. And feel to post and brag a little.

ok that i can try ..starting now

[Jester]

Guts.

I like it!

I can feel it 12000 miles away.

[djfourmoney]

I for some reason do not think it's good to tell anyone your exact plans. Any plans I tend to tell anyone/a large amount of people tend to fail, and any plans I just do without telling anyone my whole plan or intentions tend to succeed. I really wonder sometimes similar to starchild on this board if people's negatives energies or whatever can affect you and telling plans and dreams too much, too publicly, gets people mad at you, even if not to your face. Then of course, people will second guess your plan, give you all sorts of advice more meant to discourage you, etc. I think in general most people do not like plans as they themselves cannot make and keep them, especially any sort of long game or radical plan. Even in the Bible, for example, with Joseph and the dream. His brothers tried to kill him for his dream.

So, my plan is... to continue making my plan from 2014 work. I don't think it's so much that even you need a perfect plan or whatever, you eventually just have to find a plan and try to stick to it the best possible, at least 80%. Obviously not everything will work out perfect or 100% according to your plan, but things should still be the same as the framework and major details of your plan when you're through. Or maybe rather, your original goal must stay the same or in tact, but the methods or maybe timeframe used to reach it may change.

People can second guess all the want. The problem that is they are them and you are you. People are seldom very honest about their failures in life and rather blame others.

I don't mind telling people my failures, it's mostly do you don't repeat them.

I agree that sticking too your plans is the most difficult and why most plans are not seen to their completion. I had plans for a podcast but when I found I didn't have much content because I wasn't moving forward fast enough, all I would end up talking about what could be. I decided to push that back until I have completed a few of my task to give me something to talk about and to prove it can be done with the parameters I set.

So I have replaced that with another online media idea that is rooted in something I am doing and will be solving a problem, which is key to the success of most businesses.

For example being a DJ is solving the problem of entertainment for most people. Even when most people had hi-fi systems at home, they still opted for a DJ because most people's music collections are not varied enough to satisfy most people invited to social gatherings. But a bad DJ can easily ruined business for other DJ and I have done some very minor things before that might not have soured people on using DJ services but it meant I didn't get return business which is key to any businesses success.

Reducing or controlling your expenses is likely more important than naysayers. If you simply can't control your spending, you'll never properly fund your projects or goals.

Even with large infusions of cash, unless it as a destination, it will just get spend on "stuff" and not either double/triple itself or allow you to jump into a position to earn more.

Ask me what I did with $63-64K in life insurance money... I can tell you it took me roughly 24 months to spend every last penny but for some shares of PG&E and I even sold a few of those.

I share so you don't make the mistakes I have made. I stop posting on a regular basis because there are too many complainers and not enough doers. The constant monitoring of threads and replying to threads was taking productive time away from other things.

Increasing productivity is also important, I just got 18 hours of my life back!

[xiongmao]

I think my 2015 is turning into a completely chaotic year. But I am no longer sure that I need a concrete plan. A vague plan will do.

The CELTA is not going according to plan, well actually it is, but as I suspected it's probably better to do one by way of doing a year's teaching first or maybe do a lesser TEFL qualification (like the one I started back in January).

I do like living in Barcelona though. It has been raining all day, I was stuck doing in a boring assignment, so tonight I ventured out and wandered around the gothic quarter. It really is a good place to feel inspired. Street art spontaneously appears here, and there's a lot of vibe that gets pushed out of expensive cities like London. Maybe I should quit the CELTA and search for IT startups to get involved with.

It's very telling that we did a group exercise to find the geeks in the class, well there was only one (me). Geeks don't make good teachers the tutor reckoned. Maybe true but geeks are good at making money. Well those that can do, those who can't teach. Myers Briggs strikes again.

Anyway, if anyone wants to live in Southern Europe, then the hard facts are:

room: 400 euros a month (you can get cheaper if you speak Spanish and have time to room hunt). But its pretty good considering I can walk to central Barcelona.
food: I tend to cook ramen noodles for lunch (<2 euros) then find a pizza place when I go out (4.65 euro for pizza and a drink). Pasta based meals are very cheap if you cook at home. Also I'll say that the food quality is excellent here. The love of fine food is a religious devotion, and there is actually a ham museum.
travel: 42 euros for a 50 journey metro ticket
entertainment: went to a trendy bar in el Ravel and mohitas were 3.5 euros. Or go to a local bar and drink 1 euro San Miguel. Or buy a 1L carton of red wine and entertain yourself at home.