If you have spent any time at all in law school, you can probably use your car and driving delivery skills to become a process server, either on your own (you'd have to put up a bond and register at the courthouse and the drum up business by passing out flyers or cards to attorneys) or by working for a legal service. It pays much better than pizza delivery. I have done this and actually found it fun, at least most of the time. You can use your athletic skills as well since it pays to be able to move fast after you serve a resentful person. My most exciting moment was serving a guy on an estate guarded by geese. I used a big bag of bread crumbs but ran out as I was leaving and left at full speed chased by a flock of geese. Those "hard serves," as they call them, pay better than the usual ones. I think I got $150 for that one and that was about 15 years ago.
Some legal services will also pay you to file papers at courthouses, with more pay for courthouses further away. Filing is pretty easy and takes no special skills.
Ralphy's Journal
@Ralphy Congrats on following through with the trailer! How was the maiden voyage? I'm glad you were inspired by my plan; sadly, I didn't follow through with it. As I noted somewhere, I bought a cheap-o Aosom trailer from eBay. It totally sucks; the hitch didn't fit my dropouts and ruined my skewer. I'm either returning it or--since it's so heavy and I don't have the box anymore--selling it on Craig's List; I'm sure it will fit somebody's bike.
My latest scheme.
My latest scheme.
@Lauriejane
Your post brought back memories for me. Last two years of college I was a process server for a law firm in Kern County that represented the public housing. I would have to go to the most depressing neighborhoods and serve multiple parties. By the time the first one realized what they'd just gotten, my goal was to be running back to my car from the last one served. Fun times. My best serve was convincing a secretary to let me serve a gag subpoena on her boss for a surprise party the wife was hosting. In actuallity, the dude was being sued for a multi-million dollar fraud. The secretary was probably collateral damage, but the business was going to be wiped out in time anyway. I still harbor a little residual guilt on that one.
Bottom line: serving process is great if you are an adrenaline junky with a fast car. Added tip: dress in brown polyester pants and a brown, short-sleeved shirt. Thank you UPS for giving me good cover.
Your post brought back memories for me. Last two years of college I was a process server for a law firm in Kern County that represented the public housing. I would have to go to the most depressing neighborhoods and serve multiple parties. By the time the first one realized what they'd just gotten, my goal was to be running back to my car from the last one served. Fun times. My best serve was convincing a secretary to let me serve a gag subpoena on her boss for a surprise party the wife was hosting. In actuallity, the dude was being sued for a multi-million dollar fraud. The secretary was probably collateral damage, but the business was going to be wiped out in time anyway. I still harbor a little residual guilt on that one.
Bottom line: serving process is great if you are an adrenaline junky with a fast car. Added tip: dress in brown polyester pants and a brown, short-sleeved shirt. Thank you UPS for giving me good cover.
@ Zev - the first trip went OK, but the cart will probably need adjustments. The hinges I used to build the axles don't sit 100% flush with the wood frame, which causes the trailer tires to run just a little out of parallel to the frame, which adds a little pulling resistance. And I'll probably want to add some eye bolts around the edges so I can strap cargo down more securely.
Your link to the trailer you're buying touches down pretty close to home for me. I see those guys hauling papers all over town - I never knew they sold trailers, too. Makes me want one, too
Your link to the trailer you're buying touches down pretty close to home for me. I see those guys hauling papers all over town - I never knew they sold trailers, too. Makes me want one, too
NEW NUMBERS
Reading Jacob's blog post from yesterday reminded me that I haven't made much mention of ERE-related progress lately.
Savings Rate (after tax)
56% - July
57% - August
82% - Sept
87% - Oct
68% - Nov
------------------------
72% - Five month total
July and August were decent, but I didn't make the full ERE commitment until I decided to start delivering pizza again at the end of August. September and October were particularly good for saving because I was busy with cross country season and delivering most weekends. November's dip was mostly due to my accounting methods (I expensed 6 months car insurance and a years worth of contact lenses to this month instead of amortizing them). Otherwise, Nov income and expenses were in line.
Overall, I've been very happy with the progress of the past five or six months. I was at ground zero on January 1st (net worth = 0), and so far this year I've put away about 2 to 2.5 years worth of living expenses. And that was after half-assing things for the first half of the year, and sustaining an injury this summer that cost a few K and kept me out of work for a few weeks.
Trent at TSD was writing the other day about using the period between Thanksgiving and Christmas as a time to look back on the current year and plan for the next, which is kind of where I'm at right now, too. I turn 30 next year, and the goal is to be FI by my 35th birthday. I'd been treating this second half of 2010 as my ERE trial run, both to see if 35 was realistic and to see if I'd enjoy the journey there. Right now, the answer to both counts is a resounding yes!
Reading Jacob's blog post from yesterday reminded me that I haven't made much mention of ERE-related progress lately.
Savings Rate (after tax)
56% - July
57% - August
82% - Sept
87% - Oct
68% - Nov
------------------------
72% - Five month total
July and August were decent, but I didn't make the full ERE commitment until I decided to start delivering pizza again at the end of August. September and October were particularly good for saving because I was busy with cross country season and delivering most weekends. November's dip was mostly due to my accounting methods (I expensed 6 months car insurance and a years worth of contact lenses to this month instead of amortizing them). Otherwise, Nov income and expenses were in line.
Overall, I've been very happy with the progress of the past five or six months. I was at ground zero on January 1st (net worth = 0), and so far this year I've put away about 2 to 2.5 years worth of living expenses. And that was after half-assing things for the first half of the year, and sustaining an injury this summer that cost a few K and kept me out of work for a few weeks.
Trent at TSD was writing the other day about using the period between Thanksgiving and Christmas as a time to look back on the current year and plan for the next, which is kind of where I'm at right now, too. I turn 30 next year, and the goal is to be FI by my 35th birthday. I'd been treating this second half of 2010 as my ERE trial run, both to see if 35 was realistic and to see if I'd enjoy the journey there. Right now, the answer to both counts is a resounding yes!
NEW YEAR'S EDITION
ERE TARGET DATE
June 2016 - I'm aiming to have passive cash flows cover my expenses by my 35th birthday. This leaves me about 5.5 years or 66 months or 285 weeks to accumulate sufficient assets.
2011 PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT RESOLUTIONS
(1) Save $2,000 per month - This might seem like a paltry sum to some of our forum's bigger income earners, but it's a good target for my current income and expense levels. It's low enough to be within reach, but high enough that I'll need to make some sacrifices to get there (i.e., working well over 40 hrs per week, developing new side incomes, maintaining discipline over spending, etc). My rough plan is well summarized in this post.
(2) Complete a set of 10 pull-ups - I've pretty much completely ignored upper body strength in my years of distance running, so this should be a bit of a challenge for me. I have some other fitness goals in mind for race times, but I'll feel a lot more bad-ass and well-rounded when I can knock out a big set of pull-ups.
(3) Read 50 books - That's about one a week, which would be a fairly significant increase from my present level. I don't have a specific reading list in mind, or any preference for fiction/nonfiction. It'll probably be a mix of classics, biographies, ERE-minded education...
Those are the big goals, the ones that will receive the most energy this year. I'm planning to update progress on those in this space in the coming weeks and months. Other less-specific goals for the year inlcude -
- learning to brew beer
- taking advantage of educational opportunities at work (my maintenance job will pay for classroom training for certain certifications)
- increasing food production from our little apartment patio garden
- buying a more dependable delivery car
- visiting parents more frequently
Best wishes to everyone in the new year!
ERE TARGET DATE
June 2016 - I'm aiming to have passive cash flows cover my expenses by my 35th birthday. This leaves me about 5.5 years or 66 months or 285 weeks to accumulate sufficient assets.
2011 PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT RESOLUTIONS
(1) Save $2,000 per month - This might seem like a paltry sum to some of our forum's bigger income earners, but it's a good target for my current income and expense levels. It's low enough to be within reach, but high enough that I'll need to make some sacrifices to get there (i.e., working well over 40 hrs per week, developing new side incomes, maintaining discipline over spending, etc). My rough plan is well summarized in this post.
(2) Complete a set of 10 pull-ups - I've pretty much completely ignored upper body strength in my years of distance running, so this should be a bit of a challenge for me. I have some other fitness goals in mind for race times, but I'll feel a lot more bad-ass and well-rounded when I can knock out a big set of pull-ups.
(3) Read 50 books - That's about one a week, which would be a fairly significant increase from my present level. I don't have a specific reading list in mind, or any preference for fiction/nonfiction. It'll probably be a mix of classics, biographies, ERE-minded education...
Those are the big goals, the ones that will receive the most energy this year. I'm planning to update progress on those in this space in the coming weeks and months. Other less-specific goals for the year inlcude -
- learning to brew beer
- taking advantage of educational opportunities at work (my maintenance job will pay for classroom training for certain certifications)
- increasing food production from our little apartment patio garden
- buying a more dependable delivery car
- visiting parents more frequently
Best wishes to everyone in the new year!
February 1
One month down, 65 to go until target ERE date
January expenses
----------------
87 - Food
80 - Utilities
30 - Garage rent
87 - Health insurance
8 - Clothes
20 - Haircut
45 - Gifts
141 - Out of state wedding
-----
498
Notes - Also spent 261 fueling/maintaining delivery car, but received 340 in vehicle comp. Both numbers excluded from income/expense calculations.
Jan. Savings Rate - 76.8%
Passive Income / Expenses = 9.7%
PROGRESS ON RESOLUTIONS (see previous post)
(1) Came up a couple hundred dollars short of savings target, but it was more of an accounting thing than anything. I worked a lot of extra delivery hours right at the end of the month that will be paid in February. (Incidentally, extra delivery shifts brought my food expenses down quite a bit:) )
(2) Have been doing some body-weight general strength work at home, but nothing specifically geared toward pull-ups. I did manage to drop all of the 5-6 pounds that I picked up around Christmas, which should help toward the pull-up goal.
(3) Read four books this month -
Steppenwolf - Hermann Hesse
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter - Carson McCullers
Cash from Square Foot Gardening - Mel Bartholomew
The Little Book that still Beats the Market - Joel Greenblatt
Other happenings -
- track season starts later this month, which will mean extra exercise and income, but extra commuting
- I'm working on a deal to operate an arcade machine in the pizza restaurant I work at. Have the enthusiastic support of the GM, still need to sit down with the owner. Could be a nice passive income stream (especially given the investment), as this is one of the most frequently visited restaurants in town (aside from the chain drive-throughs, I suppose).
One month down, 65 to go until target ERE date
January expenses
----------------
87 - Food
80 - Utilities
30 - Garage rent
87 - Health insurance
8 - Clothes
20 - Haircut
45 - Gifts
141 - Out of state wedding
-----
498
Notes - Also spent 261 fueling/maintaining delivery car, but received 340 in vehicle comp. Both numbers excluded from income/expense calculations.
Jan. Savings Rate - 76.8%
Passive Income / Expenses = 9.7%
PROGRESS ON RESOLUTIONS (see previous post)
(1) Came up a couple hundred dollars short of savings target, but it was more of an accounting thing than anything. I worked a lot of extra delivery hours right at the end of the month that will be paid in February. (Incidentally, extra delivery shifts brought my food expenses down quite a bit:) )
(2) Have been doing some body-weight general strength work at home, but nothing specifically geared toward pull-ups. I did manage to drop all of the 5-6 pounds that I picked up around Christmas, which should help toward the pull-up goal.
(3) Read four books this month -
Steppenwolf - Hermann Hesse
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter - Carson McCullers
Cash from Square Foot Gardening - Mel Bartholomew
The Little Book that still Beats the Market - Joel Greenblatt
Other happenings -
- track season starts later this month, which will mean extra exercise and income, but extra commuting
- I'm working on a deal to operate an arcade machine in the pizza restaurant I work at. Have the enthusiastic support of the GM, still need to sit down with the owner. Could be a nice passive income stream (especially given the investment), as this is one of the most frequently visited restaurants in town (aside from the chain drive-throughs, I suppose).
I experimented a bit with self-haircuts last fall, but without a clippers it was pretty spotty. I did talk GF into giving me a haircut two or three months ago, which was better than what I did on my own, but she didn't feel quite up to the challenge of making me presentable for the wedding we went to, hence the pro cut.
My food costs usually end up around $100/mo. Also keep in mind that I work part-time delivering pizza, so I'll eat dinner for free at work those nights, which is 3-5 meals per week.
My grocery strategy is probably not too different from Jacob's, except I'm sure we usually have more junk food around. We stock up on cheap staples like potatoes, onions, rice, eggs and buy bulk when non-perishables like frozen veggies and frozen pizza are on sale.
I still drink more pop than I should, but now I tend to buy $1.00 two-liter bottles instead of $1.75 20-oz bottles.
One of my favorite staples right now is homemade whole wheat bread. I'll usually bake two loaves on Sunday and eat that with meals all week.
But back to the original question, a typical day's meals -
Breakfast - coffee + (toast or oatmeal) + (banana or orange if extra hungry)
Lunch - dinner leftovers
Dinner - we do lots of big batch-type meals, like stir-fry, chili, or egg-potato-leftover veggie scramble
As I've brought my food expenses down, the only area I feel like I'm sacrificing is alcohol. It's been hard to justify drinking lots of beer when each bottle would be 1-2% of my target food budget. I have a two-pronged approach to deal with this - (1) learning to brew, and (2) I've been talking to the GM at the pizza place and I think he's going to let me add on to the store's beer order, then reimburse the store for the wholesale price. We'll have to wait and see on that last one.
My grocery strategy is probably not too different from Jacob's, except I'm sure we usually have more junk food around. We stock up on cheap staples like potatoes, onions, rice, eggs and buy bulk when non-perishables like frozen veggies and frozen pizza are on sale.
I still drink more pop than I should, but now I tend to buy $1.00 two-liter bottles instead of $1.75 20-oz bottles.
One of my favorite staples right now is homemade whole wheat bread. I'll usually bake two loaves on Sunday and eat that with meals all week.
But back to the original question, a typical day's meals -
Breakfast - coffee + (toast or oatmeal) + (banana or orange if extra hungry)
Lunch - dinner leftovers
Dinner - we do lots of big batch-type meals, like stir-fry, chili, or egg-potato-leftover veggie scramble
As I've brought my food expenses down, the only area I feel like I'm sacrificing is alcohol. It's been hard to justify drinking lots of beer when each bottle would be 1-2% of my target food budget. I have a two-pronged approach to deal with this
- (1) learning to brew, and (2) I've been talking to the GM at the pizza place and I think he's going to let me add on to the store's beer order, then reimburse the store for the wholesale price. We'll have to wait and see on that last one.Have you figured out how to keep homemade bread good for more than a day or two?
Here is my site on cheap brewing:
http://cruisenews.net/brewing/infusion/page1.php
Be aware that brewing can lead to drinking too much and can damage your health. It can also lead to an endless need for brewing equipment that costs more than you could have bought the beer for.
Here is my site on cheap brewing:
http://cruisenews.net/brewing/infusion/page1.php
Be aware that brewing can lead to drinking too much and can damage your health. It can also lead to an endless need for brewing equipment that costs more than you could have bought the beer for.
-
movetoportugal
- Posts: 23
- Joined: Thu Jul 22, 2010 1:08 pm
March 7, 2011
Month 2 of 66
February Expenses
-----------------
126 - Food
58 - Utilities
30 - Garage rent
87 - Health insurance
.75 - Library fine
-----------
302
I spent a lot of my weekends delivering pizza, and we started our track season this month, so there wasn't a lot of spare time for spending money. This was my lowest expense month since I started keeping track over a year ago, which makes my savings rate for the month look very nice too. A typical month's expenses are more in the 500-600 range. In fact, as I write this, my March expenses are already almost equal to February.
Feb savings rate = 87.7%
Feb passive income / YTD avg expenses = 11.6%
PROGRESS ON RESOLUTIONS
(1) Save $2,000 per month - Success and then some. Made just about enough extra to cover January's shortcoming.
(2) Complete a set of 10 pull-ups - Have been getting back into good shape since we started track season, but haven't started the pull-up training yet. I'll do a test this week to see what my baseline is.
(3) Read 50 books - Fail. I read The Alchemist, but didn't finish any other books. I read some Sherlock Holmes (one of my favorites), some Peter Lynch, and a ton of Internet articles, but really slipped out of the book-reading habit I started in January. That means I have 10 months left to get the other 45 books read. Yikes.
OTHER HAPPENINGS
- one of my secondary goals for the year was to see the parents and family more often. Was glad that I made it home over the weekend to celebrate Grandma's 95th birthday and caught up with several relatives I hadn't seen for too long.
- haven't purchased a new delivery vehicle yet. Am planning to sell the Festiva this month and continue driving the Oldsmobile while I look for something better. Gas prices have gone up about 30% since I started at the current joint back in August, but our vehicle compensation rate hasn't changed, so I'm looking for something a lot more efficient than the Olds.
- I'm planning to start a small square foot garden on the patio. I have room for a couple 1x5 planter boxes, which I'll need to build this month.
Month 2 of 66
February Expenses
-----------------
126 - Food
58 - Utilities
30 - Garage rent
87 - Health insurance
.75 - Library fine
-----------
302
I spent a lot of my weekends delivering pizza, and we started our track season this month, so there wasn't a lot of spare time for spending money. This was my lowest expense month since I started keeping track over a year ago, which makes my savings rate for the month look very nice too. A typical month's expenses are more in the 500-600 range. In fact, as I write this, my March expenses are already almost equal to February.
Feb savings rate = 87.7%
Feb passive income / YTD avg expenses = 11.6%
PROGRESS ON RESOLUTIONS
(1) Save $2,000 per month - Success and then some. Made just about enough extra to cover January's shortcoming.
(2) Complete a set of 10 pull-ups - Have been getting back into good shape since we started track season, but haven't started the pull-up training yet. I'll do a test this week to see what my baseline is.
(3) Read 50 books - Fail. I read The Alchemist, but didn't finish any other books. I read some Sherlock Holmes (one of my favorites), some Peter Lynch, and a ton of Internet articles, but really slipped out of the book-reading habit I started in January. That means I have 10 months left to get the other 45 books read. Yikes.
OTHER HAPPENINGS
- one of my secondary goals for the year was to see the parents and family more often. Was glad that I made it home over the weekend to celebrate Grandma's 95th birthday and caught up with several relatives I hadn't seen for too long.
- haven't purchased a new delivery vehicle yet. Am planning to sell the Festiva this month and continue driving the Oldsmobile while I look for something better. Gas prices have gone up about 30% since I started at the current joint back in August, but our vehicle compensation rate hasn't changed, so I'm looking for something a lot more efficient than the Olds.
- I'm planning to start a small square foot garden on the patio. I have room for a couple 1x5 planter boxes, which I'll need to build this month.
April 3
March Review - Month 3 of 66
March savings rate = 85.9%
YTD savings rate = 81.7%
March passive income / YTD monthly expenses = 12.1%
Net worth / YTD monthly expenses = 56 months
Notes
- 2011 continues to go smoothly financially. Hit my savings goal again. Had my second-lowest monthly expense total.
- Bought a new(er) vehicle for delivering. I'm now driving a 1999 Chevy Prizm with about 100,000 miles on it. Next project is to sell the two old beaters I was getting by with.
- Built two planter boxes for the patio garden...looking forward to getting some veggies planted later this month.
March Review - Month 3 of 66
March savings rate = 85.9%
YTD savings rate = 81.7%
March passive income / YTD monthly expenses = 12.1%
Net worth / YTD monthly expenses = 56 months
Notes
- 2011 continues to go smoothly financially. Hit my savings goal again. Had my second-lowest monthly expense total.
- Bought a new(er) vehicle for delivering. I'm now driving a 1999 Chevy Prizm with about 100,000 miles on it. Next project is to sell the two old beaters I was getting by with.
- Built two planter boxes for the patio garden...looking forward to getting some veggies planted later this month.
May 12
April Review - Month 4 of 66
April Savings Rate = 87.7%
Net Worth / YTD monthly expenses = 68 months
Notes
- I was very excited to grow my net worth by almost a full year's worth of expenses this month. A big part of that was learning about the Saver's Credit, which gave a nice boost to my tax return.
- I built 10 sq ft worth of planter boxes back in March, and got a few plants started this month - tomatoes, bell peppers, strawberries, cucumber, lettuce, spinach. Hope to have plenty to eat later this summer, but I'm a little worried about not having enough sun exposure on our patio.
- I've been working on putting together an informal running training group for the summer/fall, which has me pretty excited. Most of my personal running in recent years has been solo or with the high school kids I coach, and it's been pretty aimless, so I'm looking forward to some group training and getting back into racing.
April Review - Month 4 of 66
April Savings Rate = 87.7%
Net Worth / YTD monthly expenses = 68 months
Notes
- I was very excited to grow my net worth by almost a full year's worth of expenses this month. A big part of that was learning about the Saver's Credit, which gave a nice boost to my tax return.
- I built 10 sq ft worth of planter boxes back in March, and got a few plants started this month - tomatoes, bell peppers, strawberries, cucumber, lettuce, spinach. Hope to have plenty to eat later this summer, but I'm a little worried about not having enough sun exposure on our patio.
- I've been working on putting together an informal running training group for the summer/fall, which has me pretty excited. Most of my personal running in recent years has been solo or with the high school kids I coach, and it's been pretty aimless, so I'm looking forward to some group training and getting back into racing.