Do something good for FREE

Hi Friends!

If you’ve ever wanted to be a Kiva lender but just haven’t gotten around to it, this is the time to do it!

Click Here: www.kiva.org/invitedby/jisk

There is a free $25 trial now so all you need to do is sign up and pick someone you want to lend to. The $25 is being sponsored by the Founder of LinkedIn. Which reminds me, I need to update my LinkedIn.

It’s really fun being a Kiva lender. If you don’t know what it is, it’s a community of people lending small amounts of money to entrepreneurs (usually in developing countries) who have difficulty getting a loan. This helps the entrepreneur make a living which helps to alleviate poverty.

All the previous loans I’ve made through Kiva have been repaid. The last one is 66% repaid but is on track to being repaid in full. Every few months you get an email updating you on the progress of the loan. It’s also fun to browse the business profiles to see which business you want to support with your free $25!

Please sign up for a new account and take advantage of this $25 offer. I almost want to re-sign up myself, because it’s really a lot of fun. But I don’t want to take $25 away from a potential newbie to Kiva, who I’m sure would like being part of the community. It’s a win-win situation, with no skin off your back and lots of potential for something really positive.

My Mom signed up and so soon will be whole family. Martin also!

HAVE FUN!

On Personal Finance

I’ve thought before that I wanted to turn this blog into a personal finance blog, since I‘m pretty into it and most of my favourite blogs are PF blogs written by young women. But, I quickly learned that I would rather blab about myself in here than write about money. While I am comfortable talking about money, writing about it is a lot of work. So when I found this questionnaire off of Girls Just Wanna Have Funds, I thought I would answer it as my PF contribution. Also so you can see a snapshot of what it’s like to live abroad whilst balancing things financially. Cuz it’s pretty interesting stuff, right?

• I think money is?
  A tool for independence that can grant me the freedom to say yes (or no) to opportunities. 

• Spending money is hard/easy for me because?
  Right now, spending money is very hard for me because I don’t earn an income. I’m a grad student with no time to do paid-work. Otherwise when I’m earning a regular income, spending money is not hard. I do tend to be more of a saver than a spender, and Martin doesn’t believe me when I tell him I can spend. But he will get the shock of his life one day when I revert out of ‘broke grad student’ mode.  I warn him but he just ignores me.

• The biggest waste of money is?
  Fast food.

• The best investment of money is?
  To invest in yourself. Whether that’s through education, entrepreneurship, your own health, learning new skills… something that you can use to improve your quality of life.

• I have [ ] in personal debt.
  $0. Like most students, I had several thousands of dollars in student debt but I worked 1-4 jobs at a time to pay it off before graduating – which means I also paid $0 in interest. Sometimes I regret working that hard, even though I now reap the benefits of being debt free. It’s all about a balance though, and were I to do it again, I would gladly graduate with debt.

• I use credit cards for?
  Booking things online. These days it has been mainly travel related, but when I lived in Toronto, I used my credit card to pay rent, so I could delay payments by an extra month and also to get points for ‘free’ groceries.

• I think car loans are?
  Not for me. I’m one of those city people who aspire to live without a car, so I find cars really annoying to deal with. If I had to buy a car though, it would be something I could buy in cash. My first car was a 1992 Toyota Tercel that I bought for $2,000 when I was 23. It was SUPER CUTE. Of course this assumes that I don’t need to rely on a car, which I hope I won’t ever because I love city living!

• Saving up to buy big ticket items is?
  A good idea. My big ticket ‘items’ are more experience based. e.g. I would rather go travelling than buy a car. So far I’ve visited 23 countries and counting, which is more valuable to me than owning a vehicle.

• My savings plan is?
  Simple and effective. I pay myself first, so to speak. I don’t deal well with complicated budgets or keeping track of all my expenditures. Instead, I keep a float in my account that is enough to cover all my expenses for the month, and transfer the rest to savings. It’s a bit like automatic savings, but I don’t do it automatically, I do it manually.

• My retirement plan is?
  Non-existent. Crazy huh? It didn’t make sense for me to open a retirement account, so I didn’t. Instead, I’m soon opening a tax free trading account which will stand in as my retirement account until it makes sense otherwise. It’s just annoying to deal with all this stuff while I’m abroad.

• I hope my spouse is a: saver, spender, somewhere in between.
  A Saviour Saver. keke. But not an over saver. Spending is important too, but spending more than you make or living pay cheque to pay cheque is too stressful a lifestyle to sustain. I know because I’ve done it.

• On a scale from one to ten, financial security is [ ] in importance to me.
  TEN. When you’ve been financially insecure then you never want to feel that way again.

• I want to save up to buy a?
  Flat in a the city. Paris anyone?

• The kind of house I want to own someday is?
  I’m not sure I want to own a house, that depends on where I will live. But, if I had to own a house for some reason, I would want to own a small one in the city. The city part being the important part. I would rather have a functional small space than a whopping big space. Cleaning is not my forte. P.S. I also think owning property is not a necessity, as renting is pretty awesome too and even makes more financial sense in most cases.

• Other items I hope to own are?
  One day I hope to own real estate around the world. By around the world I mean in places that I like to visit/live. So Hong Kong would be a good one, since I have family and residency there. I mention Paris because I love Paris, and have dreams of actually living there one day (which is not so far fetched as I live a 3 hour train ride from Paris right now – so I’m getting close!). For some reason, I’m also thinking that having a little chalet in The Alps would be nice too. But who doesn’t think that? lol.

• Charities I want to contribute to are?
  Charity:Water and Kiva.Org.