Phone Bills: How those calls can boost your phone bills?
September 29, 2008 | Posted by InvestorBlogger | Be the first to leave a comment
Travelling can be a lot of fun. It’s only when you come home and open your phone bill that you realize how much international dialling and roaming can cost. After my trip through the UK, I just opened my first bill (there’s one more due) and it’s more than 10 times my bill.
This would be okay but for the calls you receive from people you don’t know. For example, it is 3am in the morning UK time, the mobile rings and you pick it up. They’re asking for your wife who is 10,000km away and are unable to identify who they are. So all you have is the phone number: who can it be?
Enter Reverse Phone Lookup services: visit their website, enter the mysterious number and find out who they are, or at least where they’re calling from. Then you can determine whether it’s worth calling them or not. The last time I was traveling in the UK, I spent quite a bit of money chasing calls; but this time I refused, I was able to decide which calls were important or not. Give it a try! Oh, and if you’re getting nuisance calls at 3a.m., then check out the National No Call Registry and see if signing up can prevent it! Either way, you can save a lot of money and trouble!
The only real question is: do you have enough of a problem that purchasing a $40 annual membership will make it worthwhile? I do like the guarantee though if a number is unavailable you get your money back! Perhaps it would be useful for those of us on SOHO business who make a lot of calls daily. Pity there’s no free trial.
Sponsored Post.
Using Google Docs to track your expenses: Simple Step-by-Step Approach
August 26, 2008 | Posted by InvestorBlogger | Be the first to leave a comment
Keeping a track of expenses is truly a nightmare especially when you’re on vacation. You have all those little bits of paper, phone numbers, receipts, credit card receipts, cash, foreign coins, etc., etc. Soon you end up with a wallet that looks similar to this. If you’re anything like me, being organized is a real challenge. I do have folders and organisation, but there are times when the whole system seizes up! You know what I’m talking about if you take a look at this wallet of mine.
Things flopping out everywhere, terrible. Well, a blog I was reading suggested using Google Docs new forms feature to create an expense list. It’s a brilliant idea if you have a mobile device, or prefer to tally your expenses at the end of the day or like to do it at work (when the boss isn’t looking). So here goes: a step-by-step guide to setting it up.
You will need:
- a bunch of receipts to set it up;
- a Google Email account so you an access Google Docs;
- and a little patience!
Step 1: Create a new form - look in the image to see how it’s done. Click on ‘new’, tab down to ‘form’ and release the click or click on it again.
Step 2: You will now see a screen with the form tabs and fields.
A field is the area of the form that you need to type some data. So, in the Untitled form, you can enter the Form Name. In the Question area, you can write: “What is this expense for?” or similar. If you need help text, enter something useful so you know what data to enter. Then choose the question type: “Text” is most straightforward at this point. Then click ‘done’ and ‘required’ (if need be).
Step 3: To add a new field, press ‘Add Question’ and repeat as necessary. Repeat this for the date, the form of payment, and the amount.
Step 4: I’ll show you my completed form which you can see for yourself.
That’s pretty much the form set up. Don’t forget to hit ’save’ so you don’t lose the changes. You can click to see the form which I have published and you can try it out!
So what happens to the data? Well, let’s take a look. The data is auto-saved in the base spreadsheet for later. You go to your Google Docs again and you’ll see the new spreadsheet sitting there. I’ve entered several of my favorite ’sins’ and you can see the result.
Each item is stamped with the entry time and the fields you required. You can then perform any calculations you like using traditional spreadsheet functions. You can then email the form, embed the form in your blog or online documents, or go back and edit the form as you wish.
I’ve set my form to be published and republished as data is entered. You can take a look at it yourself, just click on the image above. Please enter some items for purchase, and you’ll see it updated dynamically. Pretty simple, I’d say. No doubt, far more complicated than it looks, under the hood!
Should I blog about my own finances?
August 14, 2008 | Posted by InvestorBlogger | Be the first to leave a comment
One of the reasons I set up my blog on DollarTravels was to encourage me to put more effort into my financial life. While I’ve been very succesful as a blogger, and earned not a small amount of money!, I haven’t really posted any personal financial details on any of the blogs I write before. I do share my credit card spending from month to month, but I don’t share my expenses, my cashflow or my investment holdings at all.
I’ve already settled part of this discussion in my mind: I’m resolved to start posting my investment holdings at some point, but my own financial situation: somehow that seems like a whole new ballgame.
Privacy: is it that important?
Unlike Flexo who writes fairly anonymously, a lot of people in Taiwan actually know me, and they know where I live and work. So this would be highly personal reporting and attributable to some they know. I’m not yet convinced that this is a good thing. An article in Business Week that featured another Money Blog actually has a source that is attributable, known and trackable. I don’t know if this is something I would like to be. Part of me urges caution, part of me wants to celebrate success and share failure with EVERYONE! I’m torn.
Breaking Taboos
Coming from Britain, where I grew up and with friends, personal financial details were rarely shared amongst even the closest relatives. We were brought up such that you didn’t talk about death, sex, politics, religion, health, and money! While some of these seem obviously inappropriate at certain times, such proscription seems so intolerable that it’s a wonder anyone was able to learn anything about any of these sensitive topics. So for me to discuss some aspects of our financial situation, it’s definitely running counter to my experience as a child or younger person.
The Power of the External
Having seen my blog help me focus my mind more on generation money through the number of routes that I choose, I can see how having an external pressure, a barometer, an audience, etc.. can help me keep on the straight and narrow. Perhaps it will stop me splurging on a third 28″ monitor or a brand new BMW when I can ill afford, perhaps not. Even the failures will provide a good lesson: I’m ever hopeful that our ’shared experience’ online will help others develop their own self-discipline, goals and means, even when I have demonstrably failed.
So what should I do? Reveal ALL my personal financials, lift the veil on some of finances (e.g. Net Worth and Investments), or keep them away from prying eyes? Comment your answer if you dare. I’ll be making a decision by September 1st. I’d like to say that some from my audience helped me gain perspective whichever outcome I decide.
July Credit Card Spending Post
July 27, 2008 | Posted by InvestorBlogger | Be the first to leave a comment
Post Moved.
Should you use savings to pay debt? It’s tempting
June 28, 2008 | Posted by InvestorBlogger | Be the first to leave a comment
This is something we’re looking at right now: our mortgage rate is now rising again after rising each quarter for nearly 2 years. Would it make sense?
Would it make sense? Apart from keeping some cash for emergencies… what would you do?
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