Andy Hough

August Income – $688.22

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Here is a breakdown of my income for August.

Online Income

$324.55

Interest

$96.70

Bonuses

 $150

Stock Dividends

$7.97

Medical Study

$100

Survey

$9

Total

$688.22

Income for August was pretty good considering only $100 of it was from a medical study. Some of the figures might be slightly off since I don’t have access to all my records here in Guatemala. My interest was almost enough to pay my rent for September. My goal for September is to make more in alternative income than expenses this should be possible even without a job because my expenses are so low here. Check back next month and we’ll see how I did.

Guatemala Update 1

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I have made it to Guatemala safely.  I started the trip by trying to sleep in the Miami airport overnight while waiting for my flight to Guatemala the next morning.  It was good to save the money a hotel would have cost and know from experience that I can sleep in the airport if I have to but I probably won´t do it again.  The lights are on in the airport all night and there are announcements every few minutes.  That combined with a hard floor made sleeping very difficult.  I probably slept an hour at most.  There were lots of other people there attempting to sleep but I don´t think most of them had any better luck than me.

When I arrived in Guatemala on Wednesday I was extremely tired.  I didn´t think to negotiate with the taxi driver before I took it to the bus station.  I probably overpaid a couple of bucks but not enough to worry about.  The bus was a little better than I remembered.  The bus used to stop everywhere and pick up more passengers.  Now they don´t do that because of bandits.  This made for a 3 1/2 hour bus ride rather than a 4 hour bus ride.  There were only 6 passengers on the bus and it was a Greyhound style bus.  The bus ticket was roughly $8 and the taxi to the bus station was $12.  I´m not sure how the bus company is making a profit but I´m guessing there are usually more passengers.

Once I arrived in Xela I got a hotel room for the night.  The hotel I remembered was only $4 a night back in 1996.  In 2009 it is still $4 a night.  This is a great bargain.  The rooms are small and you have a common bathroom but for the price it is a great deal.  The cleanliness was better than some hotels I´ve stayed at  in the States.

The next day I went to get my room for the month.  The place I wanted to stay at didn´t have any rooms available though.  I spent most of the day walking around the city looking for a place to live for the next month.  I decided on a hostel that charges about $100 a month.  I have a private room and share bathroom and kitchen facilities with the other guests.  This is the same setup as the place I wanted to stay at although the first place only charges $85 a month.  It is still a pretty good price though.  I spent one more night in the hotel and moved into the hostel this morning.

Now I need to go shopping and get some food.  I´ve been eating at fast food places like McDonalds and Pollo Campero so far.  Fast food costs about as much here as in the U.S.    It is strange that I could pay as much for a fast food meal as a hotel room.

I haven´t found internet service that I´m happy with yet.  The first place I went to had extremely slow computeres.  The next two places (including this one) I´ve gone to have had pop-ups on the computer all the time.  This makes me think the computers probably have viruses so I don´t want to do too much on them.  Hopefully, I can find a better internet place tomorrow and I will have another post then.

August Expenses – $1057.14

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Here are my expenses for August.

Household

$304.02

Entertainment

$34.98

Transportation

 $95.48

Food

$94.13

Medical/Dental

$61.66

Phone

$36.51

Travel

 $241.36

Debt

 $189.00

Total

$1057.14

My expenses were reasonable this month. I would have been under $1000 but Chase raised the minimum payment on my debt from 2% to 5%. I might just go ahead and pay that off.  September expenses should be much lower.  I will be able to rent a room for $85 a month in Xela.  The cost of the plane tickets has been accounted for in earlier months so my only travel costs will be the bus to Xela and the taxi to the bus station and perhaps one night in a hotel.  My next post should be from Guatemala.

August 2009 Goal Review

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It is the end of the month and time once again for my monthly goal review.

My first goal is to increase my passive income. I didn’t do anything substantial toward this goal this month. I did reinvest some dividends but I need to do a lot more than that if I want to make a noticeable increase in my passive income. Passive Family Income’s eHow 100 Article Challenge has produced some good results for him and I’m thinking of making a similar challenge for myself in September.

My second goal is to lose weight. I made progress on this goal since my weight dropped from 225 to 221. I’m not happy with this result though because my weight was down to 215 at one point this month. My goal is to weigh 180 pounds by the end of the year. This means I need to lose 10 1/4 a month for the next four months. In the past I’ve lost 10 pounds a month in Guatemala without trying. I’m hoping that is still the case. Once I return from Guatemala though I will have all the Thanksgiving and Christmas feasts to contend with. It would probably be best to lose all the weight while I’m in Guatemala. At the end of next month I’ll know whether that is a reasonable goal.

My third goal is to increase the number of RSS subscribers to this blog to 500. I had a high of 448 subscribers this month up from 430 the month before. I’m making steady progress toward this goal but I need to increase my rate of progress if I’m going to reach my goal by the end of the year.

I made progress on two out of three goals this month. That is what I expected before this month started. Since I came back early from my hiking trip though I should have made some progress on the passive income goal as well. In September I should hit all three goals.

Guatemala Travel Plans

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I will be leaving for Guatemala next week. I thought I would share my travel plans so far although they are subject to change. And like my AT plans they probably will change.

The return date for my plane ticket is at the end of November which would give me three months in Guatemala. I’m now unsure if I want to be gone that long. I’ll make up my mind after I’ve been there for a while. Changing my ticket will likely cost me more than the original cost of my ticket but maybe I’ll be able to find a good deal.

I plan to visit all the Central American countries on this trip. It looks like this can be done fairly cheaply by bus. I’m not sure if I want to spend some time in Guatemala first and then travel or travel first and then spend some time in Guatemala. Or maybe fit the travel in the middle of spending time in Guatemala.

One of the reasons I wanted to visit Guatemala was to prove to myself that I could live on my online income if I were living in a low-cost country. Based on my past experience living in Guatemala I think this is entirely possible. When I’m traveling my expenses will be higher but when I’m just relaxing in Guatemala my monthly expenses should be very low. That is why I want to spend at least one month just staying put in Guatemala.

I will need to find something to occupy my time while I am in Guatemala. I’ve decided not to take my laptop since internet access is widely available and cheap. This will be a little inconvenient since I plan to do a lot of writing while I’m there and I’ll have to visit an internet cafe any time I want to write. I suppose I could just write longhand in my room and transcribe what I’ve written later but that seems like too much trouble. The fact that I have a hard time reading my own handwriting makes that even more of a pain. One way or another I will get some writing done. I’ve planned on doing a lot of writing this summer but I haven’t written very much. Once I am in Guatemala I won’t have any more excuses for putting it off.

Another reason for Guatemala is to lose weight. On my past trips to Guatemala I’ve lost 10 pounds a month without trying. This time I will be trying which will hopefully lead to even better results. I plan to exercise regularly. If I can rent a place with kitchen facilities I plan on preparing almost all of my meals. That should help keep my expenses down and help me lose weight.

My flight to Guatemala leaves Wednesday morning but my flight from Kansas City arrives Tuesday just before midnight. In a strange coincidence my best friend is also going to be staying in Miami at that time. I considered sharing a hotel room with him for the night. The problem is that there is no public transportation at the time I arrive and taking a taxi to the hotel would likely cost more than the hotel room. I can’t justify the cost and plan to just stay at the airport. According to Sleeping in Airports it should be doable.

I’ll let you know how it works after I arrive in Guatemala. My flight arrives in Guatemala at about noon but I have a 4-hour bus ride to my final destination of Xela so I probably won’t get online that day. I plan to have an update from Guatemala on Thursday. There will be a couple more posts before I leave also.