Andy Hough

Domain Registry of America Scam

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I recently received a domain renewal notice from Domain Registry of America telling me one of my domains was about to expire. The notice was misleading because at first glance it would cause one to think that their domain name is registered with Domain Registry of America. If read the notice more carefully you will see that when you “renew” the domain with them you are actually transferring your domain. I didn’t fall for this because I know who my domain registrar is and it isn’t Domain Registry of America.

After doing some research on the internet it appears they send out similar notices all the time. If you receive a domain renewal notice from Domain Registry of America or any other registrar other than the domain registrar you signed up with tread carefully because it is probably a scam.

March Investment Income – $98.43

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My investment income rose from $89.50 in January to $98.43 in March. That is a great increase and it is almost entirely due to gains in my stock portfolio and Roth IRA. I did add $100 to my Roth but otherwise haven’t made any contributions to my investment portfolio this year. If the stock market doesn’t decline I should be able to pass the $100 mark in the next couple of months. There is also a possibility that I will be making a large contribution to my portfolio which would speed things up a bit.

Disclaimer: This is not my actual investment income. To get this figure I first add up my retirement savings, emergency fund, and any other money I consider permanent savings. What the total of my savings would earn at 6% interest for a month is my monthly investment income. My goal is to get this amount to $1000 a month. If I have $1000 in monthly passive investment income I will be able to retire early

No TV and Productivity

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Day 90 - Couch Potato
photo credit: DaGoaty
I got rid of my TV before I went on my hike. Now that I have returned I’m going without a TV. You often read posts about all the things you could accomplish if you didn’t spend so much time watching television. So far I have used my extra time to surf the internet and read. And I have been watching DVDs (I watched the first season of “Dexter” last week which I really liked. I’ll have to watch the other seasons now.) on my laptop and TV shows on Hulu.com and other sites. You could say not having a TV has given me more time to watch television. Or should that be not having a television has given me more time to watch TV?

My point is (and I do have one) that if you are not getting things accomplished it probably isn’t just because you are watching too much TV. If I don’t waste time watching TV I waste it another way and I imagine that is true for a lot of people. My lack of productivity isn’t a matter of time it is a matter of motivation or you could call it a matter of laziness but I prefer to call it motivation. I am going to have to find something to get me motivated because there is a limit to how many hours of the day I can read and surf the internet.

Does anyone have any suggestions on getting motivated?

March Income – $1218.21

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Here is a breakdown of my income for March.

Online Income

$602.19

Interest

$34.60

Stock Dividends

$92.79

Job

$378

Bank Bonuses

$110

Cashback

$0.63

Total

$1218.21

It was a decent month for income considering I was hiking and without computer access for half the time. It was less than my expenses though which isn’t good. It will be a challenge to make $1000 this month since I won’t have any job income.  My job starts at the end of the month and I won’t receive a paycheck until sometime in March.  If I can make $500 in alternative income as is my goal then I should make at least $1000 total with my online income, dividends, and interest added to the extra income total.

March Expenses – $1730.96

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March’s expenses got a little out of control. I spent quite a bit more than I had planned. Since I was hiking most of the month I don’t have expenses divided up by category. Even the total of $1730.96 is a rough estimate that I came up with by adding up my debit and credit card charges and my ATM withdrawals.

April should have a much lower level of expenses. Expenses should be under $1000 and I hope to have them well under that amount.