Another Update, More Income Stream News and Income Report

Well, its Memorial Day (Federally) and I thought while listen to Dr. Gary Null on one of my various rides on the bus I would update the blog.

 The Podcast is sort of coming along. I have come to the conclusion that I need a co-cost but that does not mean I will not do any solo shows. Indeed there's plenty I have to say and rather than talk to (and sometimes answer...) myself, I believe some people would like what I have to say. So development is coming rather slowly but compared to when I first had the idea for a radio show back in 2007-2008, I have made some progress.

 It has been suggested that you give your potential podcast subscribers plenty of content when first starting out, so that has slowed its debut. I have interviews lined up, the problem is getting schedules to match so we can conduct Skype calls.

 Once that is sorted out a bit more, I will make the investment in the other parts of the podcast to make it work.

 My nine months on General Relief has ended. Ideally, it would have ended with a job and it sort of did. Given my desire to develop my blogs so they will generate income, I wanted much of my time to remain open. I decided not to pursue any IT related work, I may revisit that, but right now its too late in the planning stages for my trip.

 But as I said, I actually do have a job, working for a merchandising company, part-time. The problem is while I have been hired, the job I was originally hired to do was cancelled, so there's no work for me at this time. I hope it changes soon, but until then all I have is reduced GR and my previous income stream.

 GR has been reduced to $111 to cover transportation cost. 

 I am having problems with Citi's web site so I can produce an actual income report, so I'll just give my totals.

 As of May 27, 2013 -

•  General Relief Balance (last payment on May 3rd) - $245
•  Plasma Donation Balance (missed two donations) - $44

That gives me a total of $289. I will add $80 by the end of the week bringing my total to $369

 Ah, but I spent $524 on a recent trip to Mexico City 

 That cost included $322 round trip ticket from LAX to Mexico City. I spent $16 to get to the airport, $21(4.5 days) for a great hostel which included breakfast every morning and WiFi. Also Metro was $4 and I spent too much money on the initial taxi from the airport (because I couldn't find the metro station) for $21.

 I could have easily gone under my $500 self-imposed budget if I had to do it again. This includes loads of sight seeing I might add and the rave I went too, which I didn't pay for by the way :)

 Next post I will go into my detail about my major trip and what going to Mexico City had to do with it.

  

Income Report

 From this point forward, I will be adding an income report to my blog. I think its important to share my financial status with those who are in a similar position.

 If you always thought traveling was only for the rich or upper-middle class, you are sadly mistaken. Armed with the proper tools and information, traveling abroad is in reach of the average person.

 You just need to prioritize, its really that simple.

 I currently have two income streams; General Relief which last for nine months and Plasma donations which I do twice a week.

 Gross earnings for a month average to $450. I try and net $400 savings per month.

 My other income stream that isn't cash based is EBT or Food Stamps. Yes I am one of 46 million Americans on the SNAP program, sue me.

 This allows me to save the majority of money I earn from my activities.

 Current GA balance - $487.54 (3/9/2013
 Current Plasma Debt Card balance - $233.53 (3/9/2013)

 I am lucky enough to not have any additional cost since I live with my parents.

 My goal is to hit $2,000 by May with some additional income from getting rid of stuff. I'll talk more about that in the coming weeks.

2013 is here!

 Its amazing how we move from one year to the next. The news since Obama's first term has been coming fast and furious as we continue the "he said, she said" nonsense that has become normal in American political discourse.

 I recommend that you pick up the book (or audio book) Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein. This book will explain what the term "Disaster Capitalism" means. I also highly suggest you watch Chris Martenson's "Crash Course" video that is available legally from various sources from torrent to You Tube.

 *I have linked to the condensed version above

 Both of those pieces of information will clear away any fog left to explain why we are in the situation we're in.

 From now on I will view any planning like businesses do. Currently we are in the 2nd quarter of 2013 which started January 1st. Meaning the 1st quarter of 2013 started Oct 1st 2012 and ended December 31st 2012.

 You'll notice that 1st quarter earnings contain Black Friday/Cyber Monday and Christmas earnings by retailers and other companies. So I will say that I had a income "glitch" from Oct 1st till just after the first of the year. For some reason my GA was cut off starting with the final payment Sept 3rd. I was never told it would be cut. So when I didn't get a check (electronically) Oct 3rd, I was concerned. When I didn't get a check Nov 3rd, panic mode started and I contacted DPSS (Los Angeles Dept of Social Services) and asked what was happening. It turns out my claim was stopped because of some form I didn't fill out, but I'm positive I never got. In any event, I had to re-apply. So I did that Nov 10th. I was paid for Jan, Dec and part of Nov.

 I ended 2012 with the cash amount of $389. I should mention that I paid for a Sony PS3 Super Slim during Black Friday. I have wanted a PS3 for awhile and was waiting for a price drop to $199. This happen around holiday time in 2011, but this time I figured no price drop will happen until the announcement of PS4. So I went ahead and pulled the trigger. I also tried to upgrade my current laptop with an SSD. That failed as I bricked the laptop. After returning the SSD and spending almost a month trying to un-brick my laptop, I decided to purchase another one. I will eventually fix that one, plus the other one I have from my father's estate, maybe when I return from my trip.

 By the end of 2nd quarter I should have at least $1700. That's if I do nothing else but what I have been doing. If you didn't know I have been working on a podcast version of this blog since the end of summer 2012. Well that podcast is about to start. Stay tuned for some changes to the blog's layout to make it easy to download the podcast, read show notes and visit the links provided to what I am talking about.

 To make my trip work and give myself maximum possibilities I need at least $2,000. If you noticed $1,700 is not $2,000. I would be $300 short or about a month's worth of donations. So the second part of my plan in 2013 is to launch my Sell It All campaign. I had previously thought about this but had put it to work. As a debt reduction tactic its been used by many followers of the blog Man Vs Debt. So I will be using Ebay, Craigslist and Amazon Marketplace to sell items I no longer need or frankly have been saving up to this point. I think its more important to get my media empire off the ground that to keep various anime related items and other stuff I have laying around here. My goal is to earn $1,000. I may earn more, but that's the target.

 Before I started donating plasma as regular income stream, I had sold a few things on Ebay totaling about $105. So I know with the rest of the stuff I got, I can make at least $500, but I though why stop there? $1,000 seems like a reasonable target.

 Next blog post, I will show you my earnings from donating Plasma in 2012, which is my first full year of donations. I will also show you how to link all this to Mint to keep track of all your spending.