I was checking the 1/1/2011 opening balance of my credit card account online when I noticed that an odd 'purchase authorisation' transaction for 10c had been processed on the 4th. I'd read somewhere that crooks will often make such a small transaction using stolen credit card details, and if the transactions gets processed without any problems they will then make large purchases a few days later. It seemed especially odd as the transaction was visible in the online transaction listing, but was missing from the electronic monthly statement that included transactions up to the 7th.
So, this morning I phoned the bank to check what the transaction was for. After being on hold for ten minutes before getting through to a customer service rep, I then had to wait another five minutes for her to find out that the transaction was 'probably' a test transaction done by FlyBuys. Apparently before they processed my recent request to 'redeem' some rewards points for a $100 credit onto my credit card account, FlyBuys made the test transaction to check that the CC account details I'd provided were valid. This 'test' transaction should be reversed off my account eventually. All in all, a total waste of my time.
Subscribe to Enough Wealth. Copyright 2006-2010
Monday, 10 January 2011
Making progress
I feel I had a fairly productive weekend - I started assembling the six 'cube' bookcases I bought from Aldi 18 months ago, and so far things are going OK (the first two packs went together easily and the finished product looks even better than I expected). Next weekend I'll need to assemble and then cut in half two of the remaining bookcases, so that the resulting 'L-shaped' bookcases can fit either side of a large, teak carved panel that is the feature piece of our lounge room. I visited the local hardware 'superstore' today to buy the few planks of DAR lumber I'll need for installing the wood carving and putting ends onto the four half-bookcases, a small tin of varnish/stain, a paint brush, some removable picture hooks and an el-cheapo jig-saw for cutting the bookcases... total cost just under $150! The timber was quite expensive considering it was only cheap plantation pine (and full of knots), whereas the jig-saw for less than $20 was a bargain. I paid the hardware store $4 to have the timber cut up into the required lengths as I'm not sure exactly where my circular saw has gone. I'll varnish the raw pine pieces after work this week and should be able to assemble, cut-down and install the corner book cases around the teak carving next weekend. That will leave one more weekend to finish off the project while DS1 is still visiting my parent's farm.
I've made progress with a couple of my other goals - sticking to my diet (lost 2kg in the first week - mostly water I expect), and also making it down to the air pistol range yesterday and shooting a decent score (533/600). Not quite 'A grade' (540), but close enough considering I hadn't done any target practice for nearly 12 months.
I also finished off my 'final' draft of the application for an AAO student fellowship position and sent it to my MAstron lecturer at JCU for some review.
All in all, decent progress on 3 of my 12 goals. I've decided to change on of my goals though - after installing Quicken 2008 on my 'new' laptop on Friday, today when I launched Quicken a message popped up saying that it had been previously installed on a different computer (my old desktop), so I'd have to phone the Quicken support (toll charge) number to be able to use it on my new PC. Instead I've uninstalled Quicken and decided to track my expenses using an excel spreadsheet this year. It's much easier to keep a spreadsheet on my USB stick so I can update it at home or at work than try entering everything in Quicken at home, and Quicken was over-kill for my needs this year anyhow.
Subscribe to Enough Wealth. Copyright 2006-2011
I've made progress with a couple of my other goals - sticking to my diet (lost 2kg in the first week - mostly water I expect), and also making it down to the air pistol range yesterday and shooting a decent score (533/600). Not quite 'A grade' (540), but close enough considering I hadn't done any target practice for nearly 12 months.
I also finished off my 'final' draft of the application for an AAO student fellowship position and sent it to my MAstron lecturer at JCU for some review.
All in all, decent progress on 3 of my 12 goals. I've decided to change on of my goals though - after installing Quicken 2008 on my 'new' laptop on Friday, today when I launched Quicken a message popped up saying that it had been previously installed on a different computer (my old desktop), so I'd have to phone the Quicken support (toll charge) number to be able to use it on my new PC. Instead I've uninstalled Quicken and decided to track my expenses using an excel spreadsheet this year. It's much easier to keep a spreadsheet on my USB stick so I can update it at home or at work than try entering everything in Quicken at home, and Quicken was over-kill for my needs this year anyhow.
Subscribe to Enough Wealth. Copyright 2006-2011
Thursday, 6 January 2011
Goals, New Year Resolutions, and other fantasies
I don't think I even bothered doing a post about my goals last year, but looking back at my 2009 post I can see that I still haven't achieved several of my main goals, so here they are again for 2011, plus a few new ones:
After losing a few kg when I was sick last year, I put it all on again. So I still have to lose about 20kg to have a healthy BMI, and ideally I should lose 25-30 kg. I also want to achieve at least 3.2 METS of exercise 3x a week - preferably every day. This week I've lost 1 kg by sticking to my 'standard' diet since the 3rd, and exercising 3 days (avg. 2.25 METS).
My 'standard' diet (at the moment) is:
Breakfast:
100g apricot halves in juice
125g tub of mandarin segments in syrup (drained)
1/2 of 420g tin of pineapple pieces in juice
1 glass grapefruit juice
Lunch:
420g tin of baked beans
2 slices hi-fibre bread
Dinner:
100g meat (skinless chicken breast, fillet steak, pork fillet or tin of tuna slices in spring water)
150g frozen vegs (eg. peas, carrots, broccoli, corn)
2 slices bread, or 100g boiled rice, or 2 medium roast or boiled potatoes.
Dessert:
1 apple
1 banana
1 orange, or 100g grapes
I also consume about 1-2 2L bottles of diet coke each day, which I'd like to reduce. I'll try replacing one of the bottles of coke with a bottle of filtered water flavoured with 1 soluble aspirin. I should also switch to 'no added salt' baked beans, as the normal baked beans contain around 1000mg of Sodium (salt). I suspect I might be sodium-sensitive, so restricting my sodium intake to under 2,000 mg/day might let me reduce my blood pressure medication once I lose some weight.
Overall, this 'standard' diet provides around 1,800 kcals/day which would result in around 0.75 kg/week weight loss initially. As my weight reduces my maintenance calorie requirement will decrease, so this diet would be sufficient for me to maintain a healthy weight of around 70-75 kg in the long term.
This diet plan also provides high dietary fibre (~40-50g/day), low fat (~5% of daily cals), and about 80-100 g protein. As I also take some vitamin supplements it should be reasonably healthy over the long term, being similar to a moderate level of CRAN (Calorie Restriction with Adequate Nutrition) which some animal studies suggest could help maximise life span. If nothing else, the weight loss would provide immediate health benefits!
I start each year setting up a new Quicken file but then not keeping it up to date. It used to be easy (before I got married and had kids), but I'll try to find the time this year. So far so good, although I haven't yet entered all my stock holdings and purchase details (which would make tax time a lot easier).
I seemed to have a higher than expected CC bill almost every month last year, so this year I'll try to stick more closely to my budget.
My retirement (superannuation) savings are on 'autopilot' (my employer SGL amount and salary sacrifice get automatically deducted from my pay each fortnight), and the home loan and margin loan interest payments don't vary much from one month to the next, so this shouldn't be too hard. One of our home loan mortgage accounts is due to revert to variable interest this year, but the rate increase should be offset by the recent increase in rental income from our investment property. On the other hand, everything is currently on 'interest only' and we didn't manage to pay off much of the loan principal last year.
So, another goal for this year is to reduce my total investment debt balance by $12,000 this year. I'll calculate my investment loan balances as at 1/1 in the next post and calculate them each month when I do my Net Worth post.
6) Keep my job! ;) (And maybe get a pay rise that's more than the inflation rate this year?)
I'm enrolled in another two subjects for my Masters of Astronomy course this year. I'm aiming for a High Distinction in one or both of these subjects. I won't include getting a student fellowship at the AAO as a goal, as realistically it's a very long shot, and the outcome is pretty much out of my control.
8) Attend the target range often enough to keep my shooter's licence. I should also setup my 'SCATT' computerised training system at home so I can do some 'dry fire' target practice and get back up to A-grade standard.
I haven't had any success using my CCD camera with DS1's small telescope (can't bring the image into focus), so I want to 9) install a permanent pier for my 10" telescope in the back yard and get started on differential photometry and astrometry of minor planets (asteroids) this year.
10) Build a new base board for my old HO railway setup, so DS1 and DS2 can have some fun with all the model railway stuff I have packed away in our garage.
11) Finish landscaping around our swimming pool.
12) Renovate our lounge room/library and setup the aquarium I bought last year.
**************************************
So, an even dozen goals for this year. Maybe tracking progress towards them each month will help achieve them?
Subscribe to Enough Wealth. Copyright 2006-2011
- HEALTH: 1) Lose weight and 2) exercise more:
After losing a few kg when I was sick last year, I put it all on again. So I still have to lose about 20kg to have a healthy BMI, and ideally I should lose 25-30 kg. I also want to achieve at least 3.2 METS of exercise 3x a week - preferably every day. This week I've lost 1 kg by sticking to my 'standard' diet since the 3rd, and exercising 3 days (avg. 2.25 METS).
My 'standard' diet (at the moment) is:
Breakfast:
100g apricot halves in juice
125g tub of mandarin segments in syrup (drained)
1/2 of 420g tin of pineapple pieces in juice
1 glass grapefruit juice
Lunch:
420g tin of baked beans
2 slices hi-fibre bread
Dinner:
100g meat (skinless chicken breast, fillet steak, pork fillet or tin of tuna slices in spring water)
150g frozen vegs (eg. peas, carrots, broccoli, corn)
2 slices bread, or 100g boiled rice, or 2 medium roast or boiled potatoes.
Dessert:
1 apple
1 banana
1 orange, or 100g grapes
I also consume about 1-2 2L bottles of diet coke each day, which I'd like to reduce. I'll try replacing one of the bottles of coke with a bottle of filtered water flavoured with 1 soluble aspirin. I should also switch to 'no added salt' baked beans, as the normal baked beans contain around 1000mg of Sodium (salt). I suspect I might be sodium-sensitive, so restricting my sodium intake to under 2,000 mg/day might let me reduce my blood pressure medication once I lose some weight.
Overall, this 'standard' diet provides around 1,800 kcals/day which would result in around 0.75 kg/week weight loss initially. As my weight reduces my maintenance calorie requirement will decrease, so this diet would be sufficient for me to maintain a healthy weight of around 70-75 kg in the long term.
This diet plan also provides high dietary fibre (~40-50g/day), low fat (~5% of daily cals), and about 80-100 g protein. As I also take some vitamin supplements it should be reasonably healthy over the long term, being similar to a moderate level of CRAN (Calorie Restriction with Adequate Nutrition) which some animal studies suggest could help maximise life span. If nothing else, the weight loss would provide immediate health benefits!
- BUDGET: 3) Track my expenses using Quicken to help stick to my budget:
I start each year setting up a new Quicken file but then not keeping it up to date. It used to be easy (before I got married and had kids), but I'll try to find the time this year. So far so good, although I haven't yet entered all my stock holdings and purchase details (which would make tax time a lot easier).
I seemed to have a higher than expected CC bill almost every month last year, so this year I'll try to stick more closely to my budget.
- SAVINGS: 4) Save and 5) Pay off some debt
My retirement (superannuation) savings are on 'autopilot' (my employer SGL amount and salary sacrifice get automatically deducted from my pay each fortnight), and the home loan and margin loan interest payments don't vary much from one month to the next, so this shouldn't be too hard. One of our home loan mortgage accounts is due to revert to variable interest this year, but the rate increase should be offset by the recent increase in rental income from our investment property. On the other hand, everything is currently on 'interest only' and we didn't manage to pay off much of the loan principal last year.
So, another goal for this year is to reduce my total investment debt balance by $12,000 this year. I'll calculate my investment loan balances as at 1/1 in the next post and calculate them each month when I do my Net Worth post.
- WORK:
6) Keep my job! ;) (And maybe get a pay rise that's more than the inflation rate this year?)
- STUDY: 7) Get Distinction (or better) for my MAstron subjects
I'm enrolled in another two subjects for my Masters of Astronomy course this year. I'm aiming for a High Distinction in one or both of these subjects. I won't include getting a student fellowship at the AAO as a goal, as realistically it's a very long shot, and the outcome is pretty much out of my control.
- HOBBIES:
8) Attend the target range often enough to keep my shooter's licence. I should also setup my 'SCATT' computerised training system at home so I can do some 'dry fire' target practice and get back up to A-grade standard.
I haven't had any success using my CCD camera with DS1's small telescope (can't bring the image into focus), so I want to 9) install a permanent pier for my 10" telescope in the back yard and get started on differential photometry and astrometry of minor planets (asteroids) this year.
10) Build a new base board for my old HO railway setup, so DS1 and DS2 can have some fun with all the model railway stuff I have packed away in our garage.
11) Finish landscaping around our swimming pool.
12) Renovate our lounge room/library and setup the aquarium I bought last year.
**************************************
So, an even dozen goals for this year. Maybe tracking progress towards them each month will help achieve them?
Subscribe to Enough Wealth. Copyright 2006-2011
Monday, 3 January 2011
Net Worth Update: December 2010
Assets___________$ Amount______$ Diff_____% Diff Stocks_*__________$26,717_____$10,226______n/a % Retirement_______$358,678_____$11,110_____3.20 % Properties_______$949,702______$6,945_____0.74 % Debts____________$ Amount_____$ Diff_____% Diff Home Mortgage(s)_$363,552_________$81_____0.02 % Net Worth________$971,576_____$28,200_____2.99 %
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