Business Travel

Traveling Perks

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I just returned from a business trip and am happy to be home. Each trip, I try to earn as many “kickbacks” as possible.


Delta SkyMiles

Before my trip, I started with 29,233 SkyMiles (after using over 100,000 miles to get two free tickets to Hawaii in September. I now have 32,928 SkyMiles, but need them to still give me credit for part of my trip. My total should increase 1,500-2,000 SkyMiles once that is done. Since I am Silver Medaliion status, I was also upgraded to first class during one leg, each way.


Holiday Inn Priority Club Reward

I stayed at Holiday Inn’s each night which increased my points from 15,737 to 21,592. I now have enough for one free night. A couple of the Holiday Inn’s that I stayed at will be emailing me surveys to fill out that will give me an extra 1,000 points.


HSBC Credit Card Cash Back Rewards

I spent enough money on business expenses to earn a $25 HSBC Credit Card Cash Back Reward. My company reimburses me all of my expenses, so this is totally free money.


I will be traveling again next month and look forward to racking up the perks.

Income

Already Thinking About Next Years Taxes

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Since short selling our condo, my wife and I have taken a few steps to help reduce our tax bill for next year, since we won’t have the large mortgage interest write off.

  • When my wife started her new job a couple of months ago, she only claimed 1 dependent to have more taxes withheld (she usually claims 2).
  • We just increased my 401(k) contribution from 5% to 8% to reduce our AGI. This will go into effect beginning my July 1st paycheck.
  • When my wife’s company has their 401(k) open enrollment, she will increase her contribution from 5% to 8% to reduce our AGI.

We’ll still have some mortgage interest we can write off since we just sold the condo, but hopefully these extra steps will help minimize what we owe next April 15th.

Income Statement

May 2009 Income Statement

As I outlined in my May Net Worth post, it’s been a crazy month (click on spreadsheet below).


As far as income goes, it’s actually been a above average. In additional to our regular salaries, my wife received an unexpected $1,000 bonus ($536.65 net), $110 in reimbursements, and we received $125 is credit card rewards. Pretty good.


It terms of expenses, money absolutely flew out of our accounts in May. We spent ~$9,500 with our short sale and move. In addition, we spent $980.46 for a new bedroom set, $204.79 for my Wife’s medical bill, and $270 for our dog’s annual shots and teeth cleaning. Since we were blowing through money, it was easy to get a bunch of misc little things too that added up to a few hundred dollars.


Next month, we tighten our belts.

Net Worth

May Net Worth Update (-$12,703.04)

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May was the craziest month we’ve had in quite awhile. We ended up short selling our condo and moving into a rental unit. The rental unit is twice the size of our old place and will save us $1,000/month. Because of this, our net worth dropped $12,703.04 from last month to $33,251.66 (click on spreadsheet below).

Since the short sale is better for us in the long term, but not great in the short term, I’m skipping my standard “what worked” and “what didn’t work” in this net worth post. Here are the details for May, good or bad:

The costs involved with selling our condo and getting a new place totally decimated our savings account. Here’s a quick rundown:

  • $5,000 cash to our 2nd mortgage as part of the short sale deal
  • $2,050 for rental deposit
  • $2,015 prorated rent for new place
  • $260 for movers

On top of all of that, we spent:

  • $980.46 for new bedroom set
  • $204.79 Wife’s medical bill
  • $270 for dog’s annual shots & teeth cleaning

With all of the cash outlay, our cash and savings dropped to $4,122.93. We should be able to start building our cash back up with $1,000 we are saving every month renting. We contributed a total of $1,025.19 to our retirement accounts, and saw them increase $2,945.13. Our taxable accounts also increased $198.76.

I’m not sure what to expect for next month yet. We’ll still be dealing with some of the transition costs from owner a condo to renting. God willing, we should be able to start filling our savings account back up.

General

$1,000 bonus – spent!

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My wife and I already spent her unexpected $1,000 bonus she learned about on Thursday. Yeah, it didn’t take us long.

We purchased a new bedroom set yesterday for $920 including tax, delivery and set-up. The photo below is of the complete set, but we only purchased the bed, nightstand, and the dresser (without the mirror).

We had planned to pull money out of savings to get a bedroom set, so word of her extra bonus came at a perfect time.

-1MansMoney

Career, Income

$1,000 Unexpected Bonus

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My wife was informed by her company yesterday that she will be receiving a $1,000 bonus this weekend. This is in addition to regular bonus that she should receive in July.


Her company has exceeded their sales targets and, therefore, they are hooking up all of the sales reps. This is a huge blessing. We’re going to use the money to buy a bedroom set that we were planning to pull money out of savings for.

My wife has been doing such an awesome job with her new company. She’s working hand-in-hand with the VP to secure a huge account. They have a meeting with the account next week that will include both the VP and CEO of her company. Talk about great face time!

Deals and Bargains, Vacation

Vacation To Hawaii

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My wife and I just booked flights to Hawaii in September using my Delta SkyMiles. This is my first trip to Hawaii (my wife’s 2nd) and we’re both looking forward to some time off.

It was 52,000 SkyMiles per ticket, plus $10 per ticket in taxes. If we would have had to pay for the tickets, they would have cost $610.64 each.

It’s nice to score two free tickets from miles I earned on business travel. Using the 104,000 miles knocked my SkyMiles balance down to 29,233 miles. I will be adding more miles when I go on my next business trip in a couple of weeks.

Income Statement

April 2009 Income Statement

April was a pretty typical income month (click on spreadsheet below) and a reasonable month in terms of expenses.

My wife’s paycheck was reduced because she began her 5% 401(k) contribution and a $50/check HAS contribution. She also received $66.80 Citi cc reward, $100 wife’s internet and cell reimbursement, and $14 state tax relief check.

After spending too much last month, we worked hard to keep our expenses down in April. It helped that I was on a business trip for 1 week this month. Our expenses totaled only $6,201.35, but that included a large $1,100 payment for 15 months of my gym membership. So, we would have been well below our $6,040 monthly budget if if the gym bill was not due this month.

Next month should be another average income month. Outside our regular paychecks and my wife’s standard monthly internet and cell reimbursement, we should receive $50 HSBC cash back credit card reward. We have a $204.79 medical bill for my wife and might be spending $160 to get our dog’s teeth cleaned.

Net Worth

April 2009 Net Worth Update (+$3,318.51)

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We had another really good increase to our new worth this month. It increased $3,318.51 from last month to $45,954.70 (click on spreadsheet below).

What worked:

We invested a total of $975.19 in our retirement accounts (401k, Roth IRAs & Traditional IRA) and saw them increase a total of $2,926.45 over last month. Very nice. My wife’s began contributing 5% to her company 401(k) this month.


What did not work:

We are in the process of trying to short sell our house (we began this when my wife lost her job). Our banks are considering an offer now, so our 1st mortgage balance did not go down even though we made our payment this month. We also weren’t able to put any money into savings and actually spent ~$80 from it to cover part of my $1,100 gym membership. We’re way off track to meet our 2009 net worth goal of $75,600.


Next month:

May has the potential to be another good month. I’m taking a trip to go see my family, but other than that, the only non-standard expense we have a $204.79 medical bill for my wife.



Health

Health Savings Account (HSA)

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My wife’s has severe allergies and recently began getting weekly injections to help. It’s not cheap, so she opened a Health Savings Account (HSA) through her new company.

The HSA is a tax-advantaged medical savings account that allows her to pay for the shots (and other medical costs) using pretax dollars. Unlike a Flexible Spending Account, funds roll over and accumulate year over year if not spent.

She’s having $50/check taken out and pays for the doctor visits using a “debit” type card. The HSA should help save us a good chunk of money on the injections.

Our path to financial independence and retiring early.