Had Second Court Hearing Yesterday

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The court hearing for my second case was yesterday.  This one went much more smoothly than the prior one and everything was resolved as planned.  I was still very nervous and have plenty of room for improvement but I got the job done.  The nice thing is that I am now basically finished with my law clinic.  I just have to send out a couple closing letters and I am done.

Now I need to concentrate on finishing my research and writing project.  I have about 20 of 30 pages done.  That sounds like I am pretty close to finishing but the 20 pages I have done are very rough and will need a lot of revision.  I might be skipping a day of posting here and there until I have the paper finished.  This is the only thing I need to worry about for meeting graduation requirements so I need to concentrate on it now.

A Million Dollars is Too Much and Not Enough

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There is something about a million dollars that seems to evoke strong feelings in people. Compare the following two posts about a million dollars.

“84 Year Old Social Worker Saves 1.4 Million Dollars” at Get Rich Slowly. Most people found this to be an inspiring story but there were some who felt that she must have had a miserable life if she was able to save a million dollars. And there were others who said that what she did couldn’t be done now.

“What Would You Do With a Million Dollars” at Bargaineering. Most people here feel that a million dollars isn’t really that much money.

My thoughts are that a million dollars is still a lot of money and I could comfortably retire if I had that sum right now. Saving a million dollars is a reachable goal for most people with an average income. I believe I could save a million dollars if I made that a primary goal. I’d prefer to spend less time working though so I’ll attempt to live like a millionaire rather than be a millionaire.

Living in a Foreign Country

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I’ve mentioned before that living in a foreign country is something I’m considering as part of my plan to retire at 50. Based on my past experience of living for three months on $450 in Guatemala I know that living in a foreign country can be substantially cheaper than living in the United States.

I am also considering living in a foreign country before retirement. This is not just to save money but because I like living in a different culture. This could be done as a geoarbitrage type situation. I currently make $300-$400 a month online. Not enough to live on here in the U.S. but it would be enough to live modestly in Guatemala and a few other countries. If I did this the most likely scenario would be that I would work in the U.S for a few months to build up savings and then live in Guatemala or elsewhere the rest of the year. I wouldn’t build up savings during that part of the year but I wouldn’t be depleting my savings either.

Another thing I’m considering is joining the Peace Corps. Financially, it doesn’t make much sense but that wouldn’t be my motivation for joining. That would be 27 months that I most likely wouldn’t be saving any money. On the plus side I would be totally immersed in a foreign culture and get to help people. They do have programs that would allow me to put my student loans on hold while serving and the time would count towards the 10 years of public service for loan forgiveness also. This is something I have to study more in the future.

Living in a foreign country is more practical than many people think. If you live in Mexico or Central America a plane ride back to the U.S. is about the same as flying from one coast to another. I most likely won’t be living within driving distance of most of my family if I continue to live in the U.S. so I’d be taking a plane trip either way. As far as friends I’ve found that I meet more people and am far more social when living in a foreign country. There are other things to consider when living abroad but it isn’t nearly as difficult as many people think.

Had Court Hearing Yesterday

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I had my first court hearing yesterday for one of the cases from my law school clinic.   Things didn’t go real smoothly but that was due to unanticipated events which I’m guessing happens often.  We were able to get at least part of what our client needed done.  I think I did fine and my supervising attorney was pleased with my performance. I was much more nervous anticipating this hearing than actually doing it.

Now that I have this hearing done I get to have another one next Friday and then I will probably be done for the semester.  I feel more confident about this one.  I’m still not sure that I’ll sit for the bar but now I can truthfully say I was a practicing attorney with court experience.

My Online Empire

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When I post my monthly income usually about $300-$400 of it is online income.  This isn’t much but apparently many people see it as somewhat of an achievement because I get lots of questions asking how I do it. I usually reply I make money from Adsense, text links, direct ads, and affiliate sales.  I’m sure many people would like a more detailed answer so I am going to give details on all my online sites.

BankBonuses.info– This is my oldest site. I started it in December 2005 on Blogger.  I made my first Adsense payment in the summer of 2006 but it wasn’t until last year that it really started making money.  This site used to bring in the large majority of my earnings.  It still makes up the majority of my earnings but my other sites combined make almost as much money as this blog.

BankBonuses.com– This is a static site. It doesn’t make a lot of money but considering I only update it about once a month my return per hour is very high.

TightFistedMiser.com– This is my second highest earning site. I resisted putting ads on here for a long time. Unlike Bank Bonuses, my primary purpose here isn’t to make money. Since I’ve added them though my readership has gone way up so maybe I should have placed ads here earlier.

CreditCardBonuses.info- This site doesn’t make much money. It might break even. I started this as a blog but I think I’ll convert it to a static site. I haven’t updated it in a while and writing more than two blogs takes up more time than I want to spend. I had a couple more credit card sites planned but credit card sign-ups are way down this year so I’m putting those plans on hold.

FrugalBlogNetwork.com- This site doesn’t make any money but that is not its purpose.  It has made me money indirectly since it brings more readers here.  I haven’t done as much with it as I should.

Those are all the active sites I have right now.  I have some more planned but those will not debut until after I have finished my hike.  I also make a little money online from places other than my web sites such as eHow.  That isn’t a significant source of income now though.

Read Christian PF’s detailed post on how to make money with a blog for much more information.