Eating well on the road

Eating well on the road is tough. I am getting better at it but when I am tired after a 12 hour day and not familiar with the area I go for what is close, fast, and easy. Usually means mediocre food that may or may not be healthy. I am trying to change that.

Tools I use:

• Yelp. I look for a place that has at least 20 reviews with 4+ star rating average. I find great local places this way that I can go back too.
• Ask my customers. They live here! I have gotten some good suggestions over the years.
• Ask hotel front desk staff. They also live here and work where I am staying so they can suggest healthier options. 

The results are like the Lebanese meal I had last night:

Free Stuff: American Express Social Media Sync Promotion

American Express has been giving free money by "syncing" your AMEX card to twitter, facebook, and foursquare. You register for the deal and then spend at the business using your AMEX card. You get a credit on your statement 3-5 days (or less!) after you meet the spending requirement. There are some great deals. Here are a few:

• Spend $5 and get $5 credit at McDonalds
• Spend $10 get $10 credit at Best Buy (I got a $10 gift card)
• Spend $5 get $5 at a few of my favorite bars/restaurants
• Spend $5 get $10(!!) in Austin, Texas (dead deal)

As you can see this is free money. You have to register your AMEX card (took me less than a minute) and spend as usual. I have gotten around $100 in "free money" from various offers from this. I'll take it!

Reasons to own an iPad

Now that I have an iPad and have been using it for a while I find that I use it most often for certain things. I decided to share my list for those who may be on the fence about buying one. They are expensive!

What I use my iPad for:

• Travel. Great for watching movies, reading, and light web surfing and email. Good for short trips where you don't want to lug around a 10 pound laptop. Weekend trips ideal.
• Netflix. The screen is large enough to watch shows and movies on. The battery lasts a long time so no issue there. Quality is great!
• Second Monitor. I bought the $10 app that allows me to use it as a second monitor for my laptop. It works over wifi and very well at that!
• Web Surfing and Email. This is great for doing small things just before bed. Send a quick email or surf a couple of pages. 
• Light Gaming. Games look great on the iPad and the large screen is awesome!

Other lesser uses include: iMessage (texting), calendar, and news. iPhoto app just came out and it is very nice for editing photos while traveling. I am also looking into the camera kit for offloading pictures to it for viewing on a larger screen. iCloud syncing is nice so I have my data on it too. It is a nice toy with some great uses!

The Travel Bonanza Begins!

I leave on Sunday for 6 days / 5 nights in Michigan. Probably one of my least favorite places in the world. It is relatively inexpensive for America so I can make the most of per diems and my time there. I have a lot of work to do and a lot of ground to cover. I am just keeping my eyes set on all the points and miles I will earn and the trips I will get from them!

I will be back home for St. Patrick's Day weekend then back to Michigan again the following week for 5 days / 4 nights. I am going to get a feel for what I real road warrior does "commuting" by air each week.

After that I have a couple of days and nights in northern Maine and finally Easter Island for spring break! I am looking forward to steak, wine, and of course the awesome sights. It is going to be a lot of time in the air and the airports but certainly worth it in the end. I love to fly so this all works out great!

How much savings will make you sleep better?

That is the question I am trying to answer. I am still saving for my emergency fund and have been back and forth in my mind on a target number. I have now decided:

I need 1 year's worth of bare bones bills saved up to not worry about job loss or some other life event.

That changes my new target to roughly $20,000.00. That seems like a lot but to live an entire year, 365 days without income, is a nice safety net. That is also the amount I would need in order to attempt starting my own business or going to consulting/contracting full time. This target represents that goal.

My main goal in life is to be financially independent enough to not have to work 40 hours per week. That leads to other goals like travel and part time contracting to fill the gaps. The more I have in savings the less I actually need to work in order to live. I don't want to quit working completely at this point just not have it be the focus of my entire life.

Having time to do what I really want is the most important. I don't need a Mercedes, 18-bedroom house, or 67 plasma TV's. Just time to do what I like (mostly travel at this point). Without having to work 40-60 hours per week I can enjoy myself more. That is the real aim here.

I know that if I had a savings account that could cover my bills for the next 365 days I won't be as worried about losing my job due to some unforeseen event. I can focus on other things and move forward. My patience is thin but I am getting there. Hopefully another year or so and I will be in a much better position.

Being Productive While Flying

I spend a lot of time on airplanes. I love flying. I get to go to a new place (sometimes) and just relax and enjoy the ride. After a while though I get bored. This is when I try to do something productive with the free time in the air.

Here is my list of things one can do:

• Respond to emails and send if the flight has WiFi. I save drafts if not and send when on the ground later.
• Organize my expenses. I have tons of receipts to get reimbursed for. May as well get a head start!
• Read about my destination. Using either a guidebook, print outs, or WiFi if available
• Update to do lists
• Write in a journal. I like to do this when coming back from an international trip.
• Talk to others. You never know who you are sitting next too. Network with them!
• Organize files on my computer. They seem to get in a mess quickly!
• Sleep: If I can. Sleeping while in motion is very efficient!

I also write posts for here when in the air if I have time. I always seems to fall behind and then have a post-a-thon to catch up. I wish I could write everyday but there are simply not enough hours. I also have to be in the right mindset which is not always the case after a 12 hour day of work travel. 

When Hotels go Above and Beyond!

I travel a lot for work. I usually have to change hotels every night or maybe 2 days in one spot if my job sites are close enough. That is a lot of packing and unpacking! These days its the little things that hotels do that make me a repeat customer. Here are some examples:

• Free bottle of water at check-in. I have gotten this fairly often lately. It is great after working all day on the road to have some much needed water. I always take it!
• Free dinner. Some hotels order pizza or have some sort of small buffet set up free of charge. This saves me per diem money and is convenient when I need to get work done.
• Free beer! One hotel has a snack cart that goes around and you can have whatever you want for free. Awesome!

As I spend more time on the road these things mean more to me.

Ignore Discounts! Stop Wasting Money!

It is not secret that I get very irritated by marketing. Marketing people are no better than politicians. They use specific wording so that you hear what you want to hear. In the end they are all lies then end up with you spending money (whether it be taxes or buying a product/service).

My biggest pet peeve is when an advertisement says "Save $X dollars!". You are not "saving" anything. You are getting a discount on an already overpriced item. The simple fact is that you are being tricked into thinking it is a good deal. That may or may not be the case!

You only save money when you do not spend it. Buying at item for $5 that was "normally" $10 does not mean you saved $5. It means you spent $5. That "extra $5 saved" doesn't get automatically transferred to a savings account. You just got a lower price. Don't be fooled by advertising!

Rule 1: You only save money when you do not spend it and move it to some sort of savings vehicle like a savings account, CD, investment account, etc.

Rule 2: Discounts are good but shop around first. Just because you "save $5" or the item is 50% off does not mean you are getting a good deal. Do your homework before buying anything.

Rule 3: Ignore advertising. It's sole purpose is to make you spend more than you plan to. You are almost never getting a good deal. 50% off a price that is 4 times what it should be is still an awful deal. Knowledge is power. Self control is the only way to really save money!

Being on a tight budget really makes you look at the bottom line and not "what's on sale". If your budget is $50 it doesn't matter what the sales are. You are interested in the bottom line price. Bring a calculator and figure it out for yourself if you have too. Using Google to find out if the item is priced better elsewhere--"on sale" or not.

Dining for miles: on the road!

One of the joys of travel is having to eat out for most of my meals. I try to go to supermarkets for salads and healthier things if time permits but that is not always the case. My usual fallback is chili and/or a salad at Wendy's. You can only eat so many hamburgers in one week...

I have been doing dining for miles for many years now. It has paid off a lot for me and has single-handedly gotten me an award ticket to Asia! I always look online for restaurants in the area I am traveling too so I can grab a few miles from a meal I would buy anyway. I have actually found some good, reasonably priced places that I go back too. It is also nice to stay way from the chains as much as I can.

I now credit all of my dining miles to United. As it stands now they have the best "bang for your buck" miles program. Finding seats on the flights I want is leaps and bounds better than Delta. Hopefully this will change in the future but I doubt it. Dining for miles is a great way to beef up the account balance while supporting smaller, local establishments. A win-win in my book!

Goals Shifting a bit

Since my new raise kicked in I am allocating the new income to more savings. I am accelerating the emergency fund transfers and also starting a fund for a new laptop. I am approaching 5 years with my current MacBook Pro and will need an upgrade soon. Either this one will die or Apple will stop supporting it. I need to be prepared.

I am transferring $50 per month to a new savings account just for my new laptop. My target is $2000 so I will add to it later as I get more side income and have a larger emergency fund. It all starts with the first $1 saved and snow balls from there!

I am doubling my contribution to my emergency fund to hit my target sooner. I want to have 1 year's worth of bills saved up and I am about 1/3 of the way there. Doubling my transfers will get me there a lot faster!

The main point here is that I am immediately putting my new income into savings and not letting lifestyle inflation eat into it. All other aspects of my budget remained the same. This is a big win financially!