Busy investing

I've been a busy investor this past week. My roth solo 401k is finally funded and invested. I had a bit of fun buying Birkshire Hathaway and General Electric. I could have bought in for a bit less than I did, but I'm still happy to be able to buy so low. I've not gone stock-crazy though. Most of it is in mutual funds (heavy on international and small cap).

I read a fair number of personal finance blogs. Most of them have mentioned Lending Club by now. I decided to take advantage of a $25 for signing up offer. I mean, why not? Sign-up turned out to take about 2 minutes. I was expecting it to ask a lot more questions. Guess you can skip all that if you're just going to be a lender.

I went through loans today, and decided to lend my $25 of free money to an optometrist in Kentucky. This seemed appropriate, as Billy's dad's an optometrist, and I was born in Kentucky. If I decide to put some more money into Lending Club - and I do think I will - I'll stick mostly to the less risky loans. This particular one was a level D and came with about 15% interest. For comparison, an A is about 9%. But a lot less risky. These attractive returns don't come with FDIC insurance. If we invest any 'real' money, I'll be more picky about income verification, credit scores, etc.

If all goes well, you're sure to be hearing more about Lending Club in the future.

So now I'd like to offer you $50 to sign up too. You're free to withdraw the cash as soon as you complete sign-up - or invest it like I did. It's free money, so what do you have to lose? In fact, I'm a bit bummed I only got a $25 bonus when I can offer you $50!

For the record that I will get paid a small bonus for the referral. And you'll be able to refer friends too after you sign up ;) May sound a little like a pyramid scheme, but I'm not one to turn down free cash. Still, I couldn't bring myself to spam my address book about it. And I discourage you from going that route either.

On a travel-related note - our stay has been extended until at least March 13th. The paperwork is all submitted. We hope it will be sorted out before his visitor pass is up for renewal again. We really don't want to go home yet! There's not a lot of jobs going on and Billy'll drive me nuts hanging around the house while I try to work!

[Update 7/1/09] Seems they've reduced my referral bonus to $25. Bummer. It's still free money though.

Heaven is Where:

Heaven is Where:
The Police are British,
The Chefs are Italian,
The Mechanics are German,
The Lovers are French
and
It's all organized by the Swiss.

Hell is Where:
The Police are German,
The Chefs are British,
The Mechanics are French,
The Lovers are Swiss
and
It's all organized by the Italians.

I couldn't find the author of this quote on Google. But I had to share it anyway.

Birthdays in Brazil

Once again, Billy and I celebrated our birthdays in Brazil (Feb 7 & 13). Billy worked on his birthday, but only a half day. We went out for lunch at the Churasscaria. It was fantastic. We spent the rest of the day watching movies on my laptop. In the evening, we went to our favorite ice cream shop for petit gateauxs. They are delicious there. We were so full of delicious meat and chocolate :)

For my birthday, Billy got stuck working late. I was hoping for gnocchi at our favorite pizza place. I thought they had a list of pastas at the back of the menu. I was right that there was a section listing gnocchi. But it's only available on the 29th of the month. Some weird Italian tradition that very popular in Latin America. I'm going to go back on the 29th of March, and probably every month after that :)

Since I couldn't get my pasta (there aren't any decent Italian restaurants in this town), we got pizza. My pizza was probably the best I've tried there - Canadian bacon and pineapple. And the onions I stole off of Billy's half. Yummy. I love hawaiian pizza. We got the small size (only 2 slices each) so we could hit up the ice cream shop for cake. They have a whole cooler full of awesome cakes - and we hadn't tried any of them yet! Billy had black forest cake with black forest ice cream. I had a vanilla cake with layers of vanilla and chocolate custard and marshmallow topping. And a side of ice cream (chocolate/vanilla swirl with tiny chocolate flakes - called pavé).

We'd hoped to go to the churasscaria again on Saturday. Billy had to work at 10-4, and the place isn't open for dinner. Why, I don't know. I asked the receptionist if there were any Italian restaurants (maybe we'd just missed it). We got a recommendation and a map. As it turned out, it wasn't Italian. But it was fantastic. So we were very happy. And too full for dessert! We ate too much to turn around and stuff ourselves at the Churasscaria today. Oh well, maybe next weekend.

Kindle... are you the answer to my problem?

One of the most annoying things about long trips is that I tend to have a lot of time to read... but only a limited amount of room in my luggage for books. Books are bulky and heavy. And since I try to bring books with me I like, I not only have to lug them with me, but lug them back again when the trip is over.

This has become a big problem this trip for two reasons:
(1) I didn't bring a couple dozen magazines with me like I did last year (because I canceled my subscriptions to reduce junkmail)
(2) The more I read, the more I want to read. Thereby increasing the amount I do read.

Now I'm conflicted. I love building a library of books. I normally by used paperbacks for less than $5 each. But my location independent lifestyle is not compatible with my desire to read, and keep a lot of books. (It would work just fine if I didn't mind disposing of the books along the way.)

My proposed solution: get a Kindle. I'm not sure why I didn't think of it last year. I knew Amazon had come out with an eReader. But that was about all I knew. And now the second generation device is about to start shipping. If it weren't for some blog post about the new release, this solution may not have even occurred to me! Generally speaking, second gens are way better than first gens. I don't care one bit about the 'wireless downloading' - I can't use that internationally. I already know I have to download to my PC then transfer the content. I'm speaking from a purely spatial standpoint - the Kindle would save me space and weight in my luggage. The books will (mostly) cost me more than they do from Powells, but a book I can bring with me and read is better than one I can't. Even if it's a bit more expensive. And most titles are still under $10. Older books seem to be in the $6-8 range. Some are even less. I can always ask for Amazon gift certs in lieu of physical presents.

The catch? Well, first there's the price. A brand new second gen will set me back $359! For $100 less I could pick up a used first gen. Normally, I go for the late model to save some cash (I did for this laptop, for instance), but I don't think it's worth it in this case. And I think I can mentally justify the cost as long as I use it for more than 2 years. The second problem is shipping. Amazon doesn't ship to Brazil, or anywhere else in South America for that matter. I'm guessing a combination of customs and fraud concerns. So I'm gonna have to ship to to either Billy's parents or his office, then have them ship it to us. Since his office has more experience with international shipping (and will probably already be sending us some stuff in March, assuming we stay), I think they're our best bet. But it still makes me nervous - will the package arrive with my fancy new toy?

If you have any experience with using a Kindle, or thoughts on my plan, please let me know!

25 things about me. Yes, I broke down and did it too.

I don't usually participate in meme's, but I happen to like this one. And it's a nice way to get back into the swing of blogging. I know, I've been silent far too long.

1) I've lived in at least 16 towns and 19 different addresses (by 'lived' I mean was my legal address, or the place where I slept at night & received mail for at least 2 months): Louisville KY, Bowling Green KY, Mission Viejo CA, Walhalla ND, Canton NY, Bradford PA, Wilson NY (x2), Cobh IRE (x2), Rochester NY (x2), Washington DC, Owenton NY, Baldwinsville NY, Owenton KY, Ypsilanti MI, Irvine CA, Moreau NY. And that's not counting the hotels I've 'lived' in since we became semi-nomadic. I can't even imagine what it would be like to live in the same place for a decade, let alone a lifetime. To me, home is wherever I'm sleeping that night.

2) I'm a bit obsessive about tracking our personal finances. That may not be healthy, but at least I know where all our money came from, is, and is going. Do you?

3) I was Salutatorian of my high school graduating class. That means I was #2. I got to give a speech at graduation and everything. Unfortunately, I had to do so with a fever of 100+ degrees and don't really remember much from the ceremony except sitting on stage clinging to my chair hoping I wouldn't pass out. Thank you mom for forcing me to get up, drink some soup, and go, even though I felt like I was dying!

4) I had an article published on the front page of the newspaper in 1st grade. The teacher had assigned us to write journals. I HATE writing in a journal, so I asked if I could write an essay instead. I wrote about how I was going to save the world when I grew up. She was so impressed, she sent it to the newspaper. The Union, Sun & Journal is so lame they actually printed it.

5) I can't swallow pills. I take them in a bite of food, or in peanut butter like a dog. I choke on any solid floating in liquid - so I also try to avoid ice in my drinks.

6) I'm terrified of fireworks and knives - two of Billy's favorite things.

7) I'm an excellent shot. Duck hunt is the only video game I was ever good at as a kid. I impressed the range supervisor at the gun shop in Huntsville Billy took me to. I kicked Billy's ass (and most of the rest of the group) during target practice at our gun safety course. I legally own a .22, but we're away so much I've only gotten to play with it once!

8) I adore food. Eating new foods might be my favorite part of travel. Swan, Ostrich, and Guinea Pig all very tasty :) But spaghetti is still my favorite. I could eat it every day. If I'm stuck alone at the house, I'll often make a huge pot and eat that all week.

9) I may be smart, but I am incredibly lazy. I respect hard work, but hate having to do it myself. To be perfectly honest, everything I've ever excelled at has come easy for me. If it's hard or going to be a lot of work, I try to find a way out of it.

10) I'm comfortable with public speaking or in social settings where I have some 'official' capacity - but normal social gatherings make me very anxious.

11) I've never taken any illegal drugs, or any tobacco product. I didn't even drink alcohol until the end of my freshman year at RIT. Six years later I'm still a 'light weight'.

12) Caffeine does not wake me up. Therefore I've never acquired a coffee habit (saving me a ton of $$). But if you're buying, I'll drink a caramel skim latte. On the rare occasion I'm in a coffee shop, I'll usually get myself an herbal tea. Or a hot cocoa. Cheaper and yummy.

13) I like helping people. In high school, that meant feeding and hanging out with drug addicts and drop outs. In college, I kept the drunks for hurting themselves at frat parties. Now, I have to content myself with answering forum posts. I work much harder as a volunteer than as an employee. Go figure.

14) By a normal standard - people you speak with and enjoy the company of regularly - I have no friends (other than my husband, and my Mom). Moving a lot, I learned to just leave people behind. It's not that I forget the people, but it doesn't occur to me to maintain the friendship when my life moves on. If you'd like to be in touch more, just let me know.

15) I was a devoted church-goer from 4th to 12th grade just so I could be in the choir. I did it again for a while after we got married and moved to our house. I finally decided to stop being a hypocrite, but I miss the singing a lot. If I ever stop traveling, I'll have to find a community group to sing with. Or at least start attending the Unitarian services when I'm in town.

16) While on the subject of music... I grew up playing the flute. I was even in a marching band for a year. I got bored with it in high school and tried the oboe, then the bassoon, then french horn (success! my brother's cute friend gave me lessons). I stuck with the horn for 2 years, then finally quit the band and just did chorus my senior year.

17) I had my heart stopped in the hospital. I had supra ventricular tachycardia. One day it got up over 200 beats per minute and stayed there. So the hospital injected me with stuff to make it stop and reset. I got to watch it flat-line on the monitor, which was pretty cool. But it feels like an elephant jumping on your chest. They actually had to do it twice - the first dose was more like 'pause' than 'reset'.

18) An electrocardiologist later went in and zapped a few cells in my heart so #17 wouldn't happen again. Ironically, I had my heart procedure done on Valentine's Day. Since my 18th birthday was the day before, signing in to the hospital was my first official act as an adult.

19) I got a level 4 buzz cut at the end of 9th grade. I went to summer camp and everyone assumed I was a cancer patient. I would shave my head again if it wouldn't make Billy so sad.

20) I strongly dislike the sensation of falling. I'm so terrified I can't go near the edge of a cliff. But I'm not afraid of hights. Stick me in a harness and I'd be happy to walk over the edge :)

21) I am not EVER having children. I absolutely can't stand kids. I didn't even like kids when I was a kid. So at least my side of the family isn't surprised. When meeting babies, everyone's all 'don't you want to hold him/her?' I just say 'No, I can't stand babies.' Is it rude, yes, but no one tries to make me hold the baby again.

22) I don't like weather. All weather - sunny, windy, cold, hot, snowing... But I do love the sound of the rain, if not the precipitation itself.

23) I was named after my grandfather (dad's dad Jack E. Licht). He died a month before I was born. Otherwise they would have named me Laura Louise Licht!

24) My Myers-Briggs type is ENTJ. It hasn't changed since I first took the test in 7th grade. But I'm a borderline Extrovert/Introvert. I like being around people for a while, but at some point a switch flips and I just want the world to leave me alone. I also tend to be annoyingly logical and bossy.

25) I don't believe in funerals. So if you die, don't be surprised that I don't show up.