Traveling Wallet

06Dec 2014 by The Roamer 2 Comments

Weekend Wanderings: Include Language in your Journey

Counter Culture, Finance, Parenthood, Weekend Wanderings

I have a little ritual I developed at work to cope with my dissatisfaction. I had listened to 7 habits cast and realized that effective people take responsibility for their lives. I was feeling rather passionless when I started but I found that watching some TEDx talks always gave my mind a work out whether it was inspirational or informative or controversial. It got my juices flowing. So I've made it a point that every Friday I schedule 30 min. To be inspired. After watching these I find a few that just are Wow and I want to share them. I use to email them out but it felt weird to just include specific people. And it seems limiting. But now, I own a blog a place where I can…

01Dec 2014 by The Roamer 5 Comments

Extra Income Challenge Wrap Up

Earning, Finance

Last month I visited money manifesto, he had posted a throw down which I though was a great idea. So I took the extra income challenge. Here is my pledge The Pledge I, The Roamer, accept the extra income challenge. I challenge myself to make an extra $100 of income this month. I plan to make this income through a yard sale where I get rid of unneeded items.I will also be registering to UBER to provide lifts. I will report my progress next month on the next Extra Income Challenge update. And challenge it was. I'll just start with the punchline. I failed. Oh man did I fail. Now let's get to the details. The Yard Sale My yard sale was actually a community sale hosted by my son's…

26Nov 2014 by The Roamer 4 Comments

Lets give thanks

Parenthood, Special Occasions

Happy Thanksgiving Hi everyone. We prepped the Turkey today and got other things ready for tomorrow night. We are hosting our thanksgiving and I'm looking forward to having people over for delicious food and family games. Maybe we'll play Pictionary, Euchre or some Wizard. Since it is Thanksgiving time, today I wanted to take the time and talk about the things I am thankful for. There are many things. My Children [caption id="attachment_431" align="aligncenter" width="168" class=" "] Have to make sure the little ones are taken care of.[/caption] To be able to come home to my kids and spend time with them. It doesn't happen everyday that I get this feeling, but I still get days where I look at them and am blow away and so overwhelmed. It seems…

19Nov 2014 by The Roamer 4 Comments

This Year Lets Focus on Thanksgiving not Gift Giving

Parenthood, Special Occasions

On today's travel we walk carefully, opening and closing our wallet through the treacherous holiday season. An open letter from the Roamer about the Holidays. Just recently I was thinking about how Thanksgiving is getting closer and that of course means that Black Friday is around the corner. As the holidays get closer you are probably starting to think about all the gifts you need to purchase. You are excited! Shopping is so much fun and gift giving is even better. Right? And all those bills you'll have to pay off next January, those are just a minor inconvenience. Right? What about getting gifts? Just thinking of all the gifts you'll get, makes you so happy! You never get stuff you don't like. Well except for those silly salt and…

09Nov 2014 by The Roamer 3 Comments

Design your own Wedding dress

Finance, Maximizing money, Savvy Spending, Special Occasions

Hi everyone today at Traveling Wallet we will be talking about wedding dress design. Design your own wedding dress Let's talk about why you would want to Tips for how to Why design your own dress? The Cost Do you know the range for the cost of already made wedding dresses? The average is $1,100 But designer dresses can even be north of $6,000. ( Boing, as eyes pop out of sockets) The average cost would have been 20% of my budget. I designed my own wedding dress and as it were my actual dress cost was $173. Which was more like 4% of my total cost. Its funny I thought that designing your own stuff meant it would be more expensive. Guess I was wrong. Uniqueness I'm going to…

05Nov 2014 by The Roamer 4 Comments

I accepted the Extra Income challenge

Earning, Finance

As the Roamer here at the Traveling Wallet, I am reading up on how to optimize. One of my goals is to retire early and another is to be a better parent. One of the methods I plan to use to reach these goals is by diversifying my income stream. If I can earn income from home then I can be home with my kids. If I can earn side hustle income while holding a 9-5 then I can save more aggressively and reach FIRE.(That's Financial Independence Retire Early for any new to the term.) Which means that the sooner I reach it the sooner I can stay home with my kids. It's a never ending circle of finding a way to spend more time with the kids! So one…

29Oct 2014 by The Roamer No Comments

Waging the War on Wireless

Finance, Saving

A battle for better internet rates Hello All, Guest post today.... Mr. Roamer, but don't worry, my grammar and story telling isn't much worse than the Mrs. Well lets get too it: After returning from the mail box last Monday afternoon, we discovered that AT&T no longer was providing us with the promo rate of $25.95 a month (6 mbps down, 1 up for the tech savvy). They had hiked the rate up to $52.00 a month. I was speechless and frankly, kinda pissed off. I told the wife that I would call the next day and talk some sense into them. [caption id="attachment_464" align="aligncenter" width="300" class=" "] Look at it just look at it! DOUBLED![/caption] Flash forward to the next day. I called during my morning "break" at work (first mistake). And proceeded…

27Oct 2014 by The Roamer 7 Comments

Fun on the Fly: How not to Vacation

Special Occasions, Travel

The fancy pants trip to Wisconsin. We recently returned form a very short adult only vacation. We traveled to Wisconsin from California to attend one of my friend's wedding. It was great to see people and catch up again. Since we were on vacation we threw caution to the wind and spent freely. I knew it was going to be painful to see the numbers added up later. [caption id="attachment_416" align="aligncenter" width="168" class=" "] It was lovely![/caption] Vacations can be very expensive when you get caught with your pant down. In other word when you're not prepared. I am not adept with purchasing flights with points but I still think we got a good deal with the flights. However, after that everything else was poorly planned. Trip Costs The Flights…

11Oct 2014 by The Roamer 10 Comments

A Wedding or A Marriage? Part 1

Counter Culture, Finance, Special Occasions

Here at the Traveling Wallet I am trying to talk about the journeys we go through in life, and one of the many stops people encounter is indeed the wedding. At 27 I'm at the age where everyone seems to be getting married or having babies. Seriously its every where. But today I'd like to focus on marriage, lets start with a story. Maybe you've had a conversation like this lately maybe not but what's the first thing to talk about when there is a proposal and therefore a marriage on the horizon. Well The ring of course... what follows is an actual conversation Coworker " I'm going to propose to Jenny*, how much did you spend on your wife's ring?" "I spent about $300 on it" Coworker "Oh I'm…

01Oct 2014 by The Roamer 2 Comments

Got Interest? Making your money work hard for YOU

Finance, Maximizing money

We are all looking for the holy grail, passive income and interest growth is the first step. I've been managing money for longer then I realized. I thought it started after I graduated college but really it was before then. It was really in high school. I use to have an account at a credit union that I rarely had access to. It was 2 cities away and it's were I kept my emergency money. How funny to look back now and realize I always had an emergency fund. This was the money I had saved while growing up. It totaled $1,000 but it fluctuated up an down but I almost always had at least $700. It was my child hood account, so I had no debit card for it…

24Sep 2014 by The Roamer 2 Comments

Versatile blogger Award: Random facts about ME

Uncategorized

WOOH! HAHA well I just got nominated for the Versatile Blogger Award! First I'd like to thank my husband, and the children and (SCREECH!) Just Kidding. It's funny really, this reminds me of chain letters. Do you remember those chain letters in middle school? Still I'll be a good sport and play along. It's all for fun so thank you Mrs.Tips for nominating me. So the way this works is that the nominated get to share random facts about themselves. Sweet! So in no particular order. AMAZING FACTS ABOUT THE ROAMER REVEALED! 1. You guessed it, I'm a woman! When I started this blog I felt it was really important to remain anonymous BECAUSE, I felt people respect male opinions more when it comes to the topic of money. Which…

11Sep 2014 by The Roamer 3 Comments

Why I don’t endorse student loan forgiveness

Debt Destruction, Finance

Are you telling me you want to exempt and forgive people from paying student loans that they consciously got into of their very own volition. Have you ever heard the phrase necessity is the mother of invention. In plain English that means if you need it you will figure out a solution. As a person who just recently conquered student debt I have to ask myself, Why is this topic even on the table? The truth is the real problem is that so much money is being borrowed so let address the real issue not the symptom. People being way in debt is not the cause of the problem it's the result. The real problem is that students go into college not really understanding how money works and what it…

31Aug 2014 by The Roamer 1 Comment

Saving on a Vacation: Traveling alternatives

Travel

Its labor day weekend and so the summer officially ends. Many are out and about trying to get in their last stint of travel. We had the chance this year to explore some new territory but looking back I'm interested to see what the cost was and whether we could have done it differently. I'm not a travel hacker by any means. The travel I did when I was younger was largely due to school. Thinking about it I was able to do it for really cheap maybe at a cost of $100 or less for climbing trips to West Virginia and Kentucky. That was for about 3 nights with food and logging included. I would venture the trip to Chicago and Philadelphia for a conference where about the same.So now…

26Aug 2014 by The Roamer 2 Comments

Entering the World of Investing

Finance

I finally did it! I opened my own Vanguard Account! I took the plunge, and opened my first independent investment account.Don't ask me why, but I felt a rush and anticipation as I worked towards owning my vanguard fund.I felt like I am finally jumping into the pool of investing. It's kind of amusing and silly as I have a 401k which I just currently set up to max out. That is of course also investing. I know why it feels different, because really it isn't my choice when it comes to the 401K. The company pick who will run our investments, then the investment firm decides what funds they will offer. You (I) just pick how much. Currently the that portfolio is running off of a target retirement date. Even…

20Aug 2014 by The Roamer No Comments

Why Didn’t I think of that?

401K, Finance

Today I had an Ah-HA moment. Honestly, it was a face palm moment and I really did think. Why in the world did I not think of that. Lately I have been learning a lot about finances. I've been getting nice and friendly with the idea of investing, and dipping my toes into optimization. So understanding the purpose and usage of a 401K has been one of them. So we finally committed to maxing out our 401K's every year. To do that we did the math and figured out what percentage of our paychecks we had to contribute to get there. The Problem When we started doing this calculation we were assuming a year of contributions. Which means how do we need to spread this out in a 12 month…

04Aug 2014 by The Roamer 6 Comments

Save Money: by not guessing what’s for dinner

Finance

Do you get home from a long day at work and walk around wondering what is for dinner . Just to throw your hands in the air with exasperation say " F it "and jump back in the car looking for your favorite eats. Well you might not know but you are suffering from a sickness that result in a chubs belly and endless amount of money being flushed down the drain. I know it sounds terrible. Would you like to get the cure! It's actually easy ( no pills involved) all you have to do is grab a pen and paper ,then start making some lists. That's right a few list will get you back to sexy waist and pockets of money* (Cut infomercial) Ahh, it's the beginning of the month…

01Aug 2014 by The Roamer 2 Comments

A love for Reading: Introducing the reading list

Finance, Reading

When I was young I loved the library, we went often. We would kill hrs there weekly. I got to know the layout really well. I knew where all the math books were and the music books. I knew the kids section, teen. I knew exactly where to find Edgar Allan Poe, Stephen king and Mary Higgins Clark. I searched for time travel books and read entire series ( Animorphs and A Wrinkle in Time). It was amazing, I loved it. Somewhere along the way I was given a sheet to track all the books I was reading. I liked that too, it was great to go back to it. I still have it. A year or 2 ago it made me sad to think I hadn't read in so…

31Jul 2014 by The Roamer 2 Comments

RIE, a parenting philosophy that makes sense for baby and wallet

Finance, Parenthood

A review of why the RIE philosophy mixes well with people who go against the grain. A practice where money and babies don't collide. On this blog I have set 3 main goals for myself, not just of things I want to talk about but of things I want to learn more about and get better at. The journey includes retirement, travel, and parenthood, the common denominator is using money as the tool that ties it all together. So why would someone who is budget conscious like Janet Lansbury's blog , well simply put the child rearing philosophy she speaks about does not encourage immersing your baby or any child into a sea of toys and one trick ponies. Parents are encouraged to let children develop on their own. That means…

11Jul 2014 by The Roamer 10 Comments

Choosing between the Baby and the Budget

Finance, Parenthood

When numbers like $10,000 on baby's first year get thrown around regularly, and anecdotes like it cost half a million dollars to raise kids these days. Well it isn't a surprise that most parent or would be parent feel the walls closing in even as they choose the decor for baby's room. $10,000 is what baby center says it will cost ya for baby's first year. Well I'll have to disagree as many comment-er on that page did because we just welcomed baby number 2 last year and as far as I can tell those numbers are wacko! We just celebrated the first birthday of our youngest (a little girl) and it was a nice relaxing event. Our one year celebration was just us and it was nice to not…

25May 2014 by The Roamer 2 Comments

7 years of travel: The power of looking back

Travel

How well do you remember your past? I would not consider myself a traveler. It is more a goal and aspiration. In comparison to some family members with less means than myself, I have been to fewer places. And I definitely learn a lot from travel hackers ( by default I guess that means I don't know a lot ) but I guess I haven't given myself enough credit. Sometimes looking in the past has it's benefits... During the application process for a job I was asked to provide my addresses for 7 year to do a background check. 7 years!I knew I moved around a lot for school but I guess I never thought of it before. As it turns out I had a really hard time coming up with 7…

22May 2014 by The Roamer 5 Comments

University Debt Freedom

Debt Destruction, Finance

Hello Sunshine, Hello breath of fresh air, Hello Freedom! Today was the day, I recently sent in the last payment on my last student loan and today I received the marvelous confirmation that proves it all. When I started this student loan repayment journey it was 2011 and I was over $46,000.00 in the hole. The school loan companies(government included) in all their infinite wisdom gave me 10 years to pay it all off. How thoughtful and generous of them?? Let me see I thought I am 23 soon to be 24+10=34. I would be 34 years old when I would finish paying off my loans! 34! really? No thank you. Plus what about all the interest? Lets see if I did my math right it would come out to…

11May 2014 by The Roamer 1 Comment

Challenge: Save for your Emergency Fund

Finance

What do you do if you have an Emergency? DUDE, My car just diedHoney, I need a root canalThe pipes burst, and water is dripping form the ceilingI just got laid offLets face it an emergency can happen to anyone. Unexpected expenses can be a financial disaster waiting to happen. Usually when an emergency happens you are stressed out enough with out having to add the financial stress of "How am I going to pay for this?" So why put yourself in that situation? As you have learned finances are in your control you have the power to cut out the fluff to make room for what really matters. Do you want to have to deal with financial stress when your already stressing about some other emergency? NO! Great! So…

01May 2014 by The Roamer No Comments

Life is a strict teacher

Finance

I'll be honest I also started this blog because sometimes I felt like it was hard to relate to the pack leader Mr.Money Mustache himself. This guys is the alpha dog in early retirement ( plainly seen by all his followers) ....but as I was saying sometimes its hard to relate to this guy. He's already retired, he only has 1 kid and he didn't have to try to juggle raising that kid with work. He doesn't have to juggle living now with living later. He's already retired and free to do as he pleases. It's an inspiration but sometimes hard to relate. So I said, HEY.. I have to juggle work and kids, I have to budget for a 5 person household, I still have debt. I still work…

30Apr 2014 by The Roamer No Comments

Happy New Year Debt!

Debt Destruction

Narrator Note: So I've been pondering how best to make this post. I know it's an important one and highly needed to set the baseline of what I, The Roamer, am working with in regard to debt and to better highlight any accomplishments. So, I decided to take the plunge and just keep it short and to the point. The Start of 2014 greeted the Roamer clan with the following debt numbers, savings, and retirement contributions. Student loan debt $9046.44 with 6% Toyota loan $8902.75 with 2.99% Honda loan $17,479.69 with 1.99% That's a grand total of $35,428.88 With a joint saving account with ~ $11,000.00 Actively contributing to a 401k 15% of one earners income so less than 15% of our total earnings. But more significantly was the mindset…

15Apr 2014 by The Roamer No Comments

First Understand, Then Escape Plan

Finance

I. So, since the last post, there was lots of time to accept the challenge and calculate your financial health by figuring out your net worth. Lots of articles these days claim Americans are in a sorry state financially so maybe(and very likely) the numbers you saw didn't leave you feeling warm and fuzzy. Nope they most likely made you feel upset and maybe even angry. The uncomfortable truth for many is plain and easy to see. Maybe the idea of ignorance is bliss jumps to your head, but before you go dig your head in the sand realize the awesome power of knowledge. I know a little ditty that goes " If you can't see , you don't know, and if you don't know you can't control" The great…

05Apr 2014 by The Roamer No Comments

First things First

Finance

Now The best place to start is at the beginning. Before we can dream about staying home with our kids and supporting them as they develop into amazing human beings. Or dreaming about telling our bosses they can shove it because we have a steady stream of passive income. Or even before we plan that 3 day weekend to Las Vegas we really need to understand where is our money going. REALLY UNDERSTAND. How long have you been working? What do you have to show for all that time? What are you worth? You know financially. Have you thought of it before? If not its a good time to start. I personally have been reading financial blogs and articles for a while now. I devour the information hungrily and even…

05Apr 2014 by The Roamer 2 Comments

Break the Mold (Family, World and Riches)

Debt Destruction, Finance, Parenthood, Travel

Thanks for visiting me at traveling wallet. This Blog is about money and its relationship(role) to Parenthood, Travel and Early Retirement. (See tag line ;) ) I'm here to talk about my journey in working to optimize these 3 areas. Currently we (spouse and I ) are working parents. My current goals in life are to spend more time with my family( i.e. kids) and still save enough money to Travel and reach Early Retirement. But the first thing is to get rid of all my/our debt. The GOALS - Destroy Debt! - Actually raise our children -Travel (1-2 trips a year any combination of in state, out of state, and international) -Early Retirement (as in 50 or younger shooting for 45) So lets talk about why savvy spending and savvy saving…