Jake’s Life

When I check my invoices and see this, it makes me feel good.

Sandro and I got on the waiting list for an apartment where I currently live. When we were walking to the office to give them deposit checks to hold it really kicked in that we are actually doing this. When we were looking at the model unit and planning where to put things, and writing the checks out, it really made me excited. We are a few months short of two years together now, and even with earlier…complications…this is going to be really good for us.

About a week ago I found a few transactions on my account that were for $24.99 each. No big deal: Internet porn. The problem is I didn’t buy any recently.

First tip off, they have my address in New Jersey. Second, the printed web site doesn’t exist. If you Google “Market Billing Solutions” you’ll find thousands of other people who have had these checks passed through their accounts. Good time of year, with plenty of transactions to hide in, except I don’t buy gifts during the holidays so I caught it right away. As soon as my next paycheck gets deposited I need to close my account and open another. SO check your transactions for this company.

I’m very self-critical: I have expressed this on my blog in the past, either proactively or through my natural writings. Some of you that have talked to me, and all of my friends, know how self-critical I am, but that I balance it with confidence. The main issues I find myself harping on myself for are my weight and fitness, my finances, and my place in life (largely because of my finances).

I’m tall, he’s short: Some of you noticed this from photos of us, but I’m 6’4’’, 200 (-ish) pounds, and Sandro is 5’3’’ and 135. This makes for some interesting looks at us when we’re in public together because I look older than I am, and he looks young enough to be in high school.

I’m an organized chaotic: Everything in my life is organized. For instance, I have a calendar with due dates and amounts for all my bills, I constantly check them online, I have a to-do list on my desk at all times (I recently converted from a notepad to a small dry-erase board), and I set tasks for myself each weekend and constantly monitor them. I do have an issue with procrastinating though, including responding to blog posts and comments. I also have issues with actually completing the tasks instead of staring at them on my list.

I only own one firearm: My pride and joy, a Springfield XD .45 ACP. Classic black, tactical rail standard, 1911 style grip safety and angle, no external hammer (it has a firing pin indicator on the back to show that’s it’s cocked), and a chambered round indicator (a small nub which sticks up on the top of the slide to let you know there’s a round in the pipe). I originally was planning to buy a Glock 22 (.40) but a friend let me shoot his XD and I fell in love with it. I prefer Hydrashok rounds, in case you were wondering. I have been promised a one year anniversary firearm though…hmmm, what to get? (No Adam, an AR-15 is out of the question.)

I love doing nothing: My week usually kicks the crap out of me. You’d think driving around for ten hours is easy, but it’s not. I think the fatigue is more mental because I juggle driving, anticipating others’ driving, radio, cell phone, Nextel, MDT, and am constantly having to be aware of what’s going on around me and my vehicle. By the time I get home my brain is fried. On my weekend, I love sitting around and watching TV, spending time with Sandro, and find it hard to respond to e-mails/blog comments and post comments to others’ blogs because of how much time I spend looking at a computer screen during my week.

Stephen over at Inside Stephen recently admitted that he has been doing some reflection on his position lately, and so has Closet NS. I have to say that I have been too, and without their posts being catalysts. I am looking at two things, which are related in many aspects, and a third that is always looming over my head.

Finances. While the Holiday Season overtime is nice and certainly helps any time of the year I hate having to take away from sleep or my time with Sandro to be able to save money or just have enough to get by. With student payments looming over my head on top of other bills I’m going to be heading into rough times in the coming months.

Last year I was in a similar spot and looked at my monthly income. I owned my car, paid very little insurance, downgraded my cell phone plan, got rid of my storage unit, and took care of some other things to bring monthly expenses down. This year I’m looking again, and have financed a brand new car, pay twice the amount for insurance, will now have to pay student loans (an extra $138 per month), as well as having my rent raised. I also need new work boots and contact lenses. All of my current bills are mainly based on need or obligation and therefore cant be realistically eliminated.

What I have done is look at my daily spending: Starbucks twice a day on work days means $132 per month, on top of my stops at fast food and convenience stores while at work. That’s my loan payment right there and then some. I’ve also canceled a few…ahem, web site subscriptions…which should add about $40 per month.

Work. Travel to and from is perfect (a take home car would be better though!), and despite the previous work issues I’ve had the atmosphere is fine now.With my shiny new degree I would also like to be able to tap into more of my potential and continue upwards. Its the money that is killing me, though. Which leads me to my third item.

Fitness. I’ve covered it before but not recently, and that’s my issue! I need to test for a better job, but the physical area is the worst for me in the testing process, specifically core strength and pushups. Yeah the test isn’t that many but for me it seems very daunting. There’s really only one way to combat that though!

I was checking my balances online this evening and noticed something that I have never seen on the WaMu web site before:

Yeah, that’s a pending transaction, for my web host obviously. Instead of the old distinction between “Current balance” and “Available balance” it shows which transactions are pending, and whether they are check or debit, along with the transaction name.

It’s about time!

I have longed for a solid, convenient, and mobile way of tracking my finances for a long time. When it comes to finances, right now I keep receipts, check my online banking daily, and keep track of things in my head. While I haven’t overdrafted my account in a long time I still feel as though my finances are scattered and need to be more tightly tracked.

I need a solution that I can track on my computer, on my Pocket PC, quickly and easily. I need to keep track of my account balance, bills, and pending transactions. With these needs a Web 2.0 solution makes sense but I have yet to find one that has everything I need. Mint accesses your bank account information for you and displays your bills, spending, and balances all in one spot but has no mobile version. Moneytrackin’ has a great service which allows you to track your account balances and provides a mobile version, but won’t let you track bills (it does let you enter transactions to be made periodically, for example a bill which is set up to auto-withdrawal, but the service enters it into your account on the day you specify instead of reminding you about it ahead of time).

One desktop financial app I like is MS Money Essentials, but it cannot export files (to be transferred to a mobile device for instance). I have tried MS Money Plus and it’s too involved, way more than I need. Quicken is nice, but the GUI is nasty looking and some tasks are way more complicated than they need to be.

How do you track your money?

Starting today T-Mobile is dropping prices on its data plans. Total Internet is dropping from $29.99 to $19.99 to match their Blackberry Internet Service price. They are also beginning to offer a $9.99 service plan for Blackberry which offers e-mail only,for those BB addicts who don’t surf the web (if there are any).

Woowoo for my cheaper phone bill!

via Boy Genius Report

I prepared my taxes last night, which is both a blessing and a curse. It really shows me how much a year I don’t make, but like all things this will change as time goes on. I make enough to get by without scraping by most of the time.

Anyway, I was thinking of itemizing and claiming all of my work gear (from my handgun right down to my handcuff key) but I get a hell of a lot more back with just being a student. Last year I got a nice return, but this year I got twice as much because I was a student for the entire year. I’ll probably end up getting things out of collections and saving the rest, or getting work done on my car. Who knows. A new notebook crossed my mind…

I also found something that I had to share. Now, I’ve used this brand of shave cream in the past in a nasty Sandalwood odor variety, but while at QFC last night I found a bottle of Alba Coconut Lime Shave Cream. They also had Mango Vanila and Aloe Mint. I absolutely love this stuff because after shaving it doesn’t feel like my face was put in a blender like it usually does. Alba makes shave foam too, although I’m a creamy kinda guy.