One Month To Go – Time well spent (Part I)

In one month, I will be officially in Benin participating in PST (Pre-Service Training – the Peace Corps apparently loves acronyms). Emails have started flooding in from different PC offices with information about the staging and training processes and the realness of my situation is starting to finally hit me. Here are some of the things going through my head at the moment.

Summer Expectations vs. Reality

I thought that I was going to spend the summer traveling to visit friends, maybe try and learn to sail or scuba dive or something crazy. Basically, I wanted to enjoy what would probably be my last relaxing summer until retirement.

Although I visited some friends and will visit some more, I didn’t do anything as wild as I’d wanted. I spent the bulk of the summer with the three youngest of my siblings. They are all in high school now and this has been the first opportunity for me to spend quality time with them since I, myself was in high school and they were noogie-height.

Frisbee,

barbeques,

swimming,

hiking,

board games,

card games,

made-up games,

softball,

weird insightful conversations, the list goes on. Basically, we played all summer long.

I was also able to spend a couple days on the Appalachian Trail, go fishing with my Uncle up in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont (right around the corner from Bubble F*ck Nowhere, USA. Honestly, it might be in Canada, who knows . . . ).

 

Fresh Brook Trout

 

All in all, I did not get as much alone time as I had anticipated, nor did I learn any new skills as I had hoped. However, I don’t think I could have dreamed of a better way to spend my summer than with my family. Distance can make you forget how wonderful having a close family is. This time with them was more important than any of the things that I thought I wanted or needed to do this summer.

My uncle and I at camp in the Northeast Kingdom

 

One Month To Go – Preparation (Part II)

I love traveling, but packing is truly a royal pain in the ass. Some circumstances make packing even worse . . .

-Packing for a long duration trip (eg. the Peace Corps)

-Packing for the unexpected (eg. the Peace Corps)

-Having a long time to pack where you can second guess your packing choices (eg. the Peace Corps)

. . . I think you get the point. Fortunately, there are numerous sources for sample packing lists including the one furnished by the Peace Corps, PCV’s blogs as well as speaking directly with current volunteers (they are quite a outgoing, helpful group). The sum wisdom of these sources can be boiled down into three crucial tips.

1. Clothing is not as important as you think! – Business Casual seems to be as formal as anyone ever will expect from a volunteer. You can get local clothing in your country that is cheaper and, more importantly, culturally appropriate and relevant. The PC emphasizes that Cultural Integration is paramount to a volunteer’s success, so dressing like the locals is a solid start. Maybe bring some quick dry clothing like this.

2. “Pack light” does not mean, leave free space empty! – Every current volunteer that I have spoken with has told me that my initially idea to bring as little as possible, was ridiculous. As a volunteer, you will be moving to another country for two whole years. Things you bring will wear out. And shipping anything at all is more expensive than the free 100lbs of checked baggage and your carry on luggage. Don’t waist free space, volunteers don’t get paid enough to afford that luxury.

And the most important according to virtually every volunteer with whom, I’ve spoken . . .

3. FILL ANY EXTRA SPACE WITH FOOD! – You can get almost anything, anywhere in this globalized world. Unfortunately, a taste of home is evidently still hard to find. Herbs, spices, and non-perishables are all good things to bring. Protein and vitamins are also in short supply in many developing nation’s diets. So, dump the extra clothing and pack every nook and cranny with Nutella, Frank’s Red Hot, Protein powder and jerky.

Food (excluding condiments, protein, & vitamins)

My IRA Asset Allocation

Here is a short description of my asset allocation for my IRA. Before I get into it, I’d like to say first that it is incomplete and imperfect in many ways. I am not a professional investor and do not have access to more complex financial instruments that I would use if available. My IRA portfolio is therefore a rough approximation of my ideal portfolio. I have a relatively high risk tolerance and this portfolio may not be suitable for other investors.My portfolio is currently invested 80% in equities through the use of ETFs (allowing for investments in over 800 companies with some overlap) and 20% in short- and medium-term debt.

This allocation description does not constitute financial advice and is merely meant to be thought provoking.  I have not and will not go into a description of my broader strategy or a justification of my investment choices. I have simply added a short description of my reasoning for each investment. That being said, go ahead and take a look.

• 30% Aerospace / Defense – (ITA) is an ishares ETF with holdings in companies like Lockheed Martin, General Dynamic, Boeing and so on. Lets face it all you hear about in the news is violence and with markets the way they are this is about as safe a place as any. These are also low Beta stocks that should help cushion your portfolio in times of high volatility. Plus a lot of these companies offer solid dividends. My major issue with this ETF is that the companies are all American not Global.
• 15% Alternative Energies – (GEX) is a VanEck ETF offering global exposure to companies producing energy from renewable sources like solar and wind. This market segment can be more volatile, but I think in the long run the world needs to end up using these sources so its worth taking the risk. First Solar and Tesla are two of the American companies held in this ETF. One of the plus sides of this fund is that you can feel good about holding these companies (where you might feel a little lousy for owning those held in ITA).
• 5% Energy Exploration – (FILL) is a globally diversified ishares ETF that holds companies like Royal Dutch Shell and BP. While the oil market might be soft, rock bottom prices leave the market with only one direction to go. These companies pay good dividends and have relatively low Betas. At only 5% of my allocation, I feel fine taking the risk. The ice caps are melting and who knows what we will find beneath them. I don’t condone drilling and destruction of the environment but if these companies are going to ruin our environment they might as well pay us dividends to deal with the consequences.
• 10% Global Pharmaceuticals – (IXJ) is another ishares globally diversified ETF and includes companies like Pfizer. Global climate change is causing increased rates of natural disasters. Natural disasters exacerbate disease issues. These companies also offer decent dividends and relatively low Betas to help cushion a portfolio. Share prices change depending on drug development schedules not broad market movements; this asynchronous behavior helps smooth out portfolio performance.
• 5% Global Telecom – (IXP) I hate utilities but they offer stability. Companies like AT&T included in this ishares ETF are like the U.S. Treasuries of the stock market. That being said, they are overpriced in the current market. These do offer great dividends and low Betas as well though and will make a good addition to a safer portfolio.
• 5% Du Pont – (DD) is a chemical company that also produces things like HAZMAT suits. Share prices popped during the Ebola epidemic and I am including this company in my portfolio for the same as Global Pharma. This company has a higher Beta but pays a decent dividend.
• 10% S&P 500 – (SPY) is a SPDR ETF that approximates the performance of the S&P 500 (ie. the broad market in general). I have a relatively high risk tolerance and I bought in when the market was down earlier this year. While I think the market is bound to take another dip in the near future, I am happy to be long from where I bought in and welcome a little more risk over the long term.
• 10% Income – (DODIX) is a fund made up of intermediate-term bonds. This is the eminence of a previous allocation that I have not yet reallocated. In the mean time, it has performed fairly well.
• 10% Money Markets – The remaining assets in my IRA are held in money markets. I will be doing more research to decide where best to put these funds. Between this and the other 10% income allocation, I have sufficient liquidity to take on new investment opportunities during the summer. I have a feeling the market might go on sale soon with all the Brexit, U.S. elections, and Fed-rate-hike shenanigans going on.

I will likely be making some changes in the not too distant future. 

Financial Preparations for an International Life

If you want to live abroad or work abroad, I am sure there are countless professionals and human resource people that would be happy to help you prepare your finances for the move. If you don’t feel like paying for the help or don’t work for a company that provides it, you may have significantly fewer options. I have decided to put together a list of things that I have done to prepare for my move abroad with the Peace Corps. I hope that these things will help other people that are more limited in there resources.

1. I opened a bank account that reimburses all ATM fees. I opened an Aspiration Summit Account. It is a mastercard so you can use it like a credit card as well as an debit card. This is a phenomenal, transparent new company that offers 1% interest on deposits over $2500. As a client you can choose to pay them any fee that you want for the services you receive (You can choose to pay $0). All ATM fees are reimbursed at the end of the month and they allow mobile deposits. The charge a 1.1% fee on international withdrawals but since the ATM fee is reimbursed it is still less than almost any other bank’s fees for the same transaction.
2. I opened a credit card that has no foreign transaction fees. I got a Capital One Quicksilver. It is a VISA, so almost anywhere that takes a credit card will take it. Credit cards are also great last resort if you are in a pinch. This card offers a flat 1.5% cash back rewards program, which is nice too. I recommend using the cash back to offset purchases, as there is no point in saving up reward dollars since they do NOT earn interest. This is especially true if you have opened the checking account described in number 1. (This is true for any rewards program.)
3. I also have had an American Express Gold Card for similar reason as the Capital One Quicksilver. There are no foreign transaction fees. Amex has outstanding customer service especially if you travel a lot. I have used Amex for several years and been very happy with them. The reason that I got the Quicksilver was to have a different payment option since many non-touristy businesses do not take Amex since it is so expensive to accept. This card has an annual fee after the first year but the points pay for it if you use it. I really have it for the safety that Amex provides and the credit limit flexibility.
4. Took my student loans out of deferment. As a Peace Corps volunteer, you are entitled to defer your loan payments. If you do not expect to have significant other income aside from your Peace Corps income, it would be a good idea to simply sign up for an income-contingent repayment plan (ICR). Odds are your payment will be zero or near zero and you will still have qualifying payments for the federal forgiveness program.
5. Set up auto payments for my student loans. These will be my only recurring obligation while I am abroad. I would recommend automating any mandatory recurring payments though just in case you forget or do not have internet access while abroad. While I am not actually obligated to make payments, it is a wise idea to at least cover the interest incurred so that your loans aren’t growing. I pay a nominal amount above the amount of interest being charged just so that I am at least picking away at the principal.
6. I rebalanced my IRA. I do not know how much time I will have to adjust my investments while away so I figured I should make sure I feel very secure with my investments while I have the time. I love ETF’s for the diversity they offer, their low management costs and their general liquidity.

The “Adult Playground”: Acadian Chill-Out

After graduating and having only four months before my deployment to Benin, I have decided to take a well-deserved summer break. Relearning to relax has been rough though. I have spent the last three-and-a-half years working full-time and studying non-stop with 18 – 22 credit hour course loads and summer internships.

My life has been a Redbull-black-coffee-fueled, sleepless, academic mad-dash for the past few years. I literally would have dreams about doing tax returns in French! That is how dominant education and work have been in my life. Not even in my sleep did I get to relax. So, now that I can, I am finding my work ethic to be somewhat of an –aholism. I’m working on it though.

People say, “The Peace Corps is the hardest job you’ll ever love”, and this has encouraged me to relax while I have the chance. I also want to spend as much time seeing friends and family while I can as well. Over the last week, I had an opportunity to do both.

One of my oldest friends got a fantastic job opportunity and was fortunate enough to have some transition time off. Since my schedule was wide open, I took a bus up to Maine to visit. We decided to go check out Acadia National Park on Mt. Desert Island. The place has a cool history and is absolutely gorgeous. My buddy appropriately dubbed it the “Adult Playground”.

My crack at oil painting some cliffs. Impressionism is back right?

We spent a day climbing over the rocks at the edge of the crashing sea.

Took silly photos that looked like we were falling off cliffs.

Had the worst fish sandwich of my life for lunch at a touristy bar in Bar Harbor.

Had some excellent lobster for dinner at a road-side shack in Bumble F*ck.

And had a harrowing ride home (too long of a story to tell).

The rest of the visit consisted of . . .

Chilling out.

Catching up.

Chowing down.

Drinking up

Sleeping in

And generally palling around.

I would highly recommend you try doing all of these things the next time you are in Maine! All in all, it was a hilarious time and I think it was a great way to spend some time before leaving for the Peace Corps.

Business Concept Series

I am finally getting started on the Business section of this blog. My aim is to make micro-finance and business in general as fun as the other parts of my blog. Challenging, I know, but I accept that. So, I am going to try and make my posts short and sweet. I want them to be helpful and interesting.

To start out, I will do a short series of posts on concepts that relate to micro-finance and will draw them in together as I move forward.

I will cover:

Interest Rates,

Savings,

Borrowing,

Spending,

Investing,

-Maybe some more if I think of them while writing these . . . on va voir.

In the mean time, I recommend checking out Investopedia for info on all things business related. Wikipedia can fill in anything else. Don’t listen to the haters.

Disclaimer: This is not a scholarly blog. I am not citing any sources, rather any information has come from my personal studies and any images or data used or referenced is easily accessible via Google Search.

Since I Suck at Photography

Earlier this week, the Summer Solstice coincided with a full moon for the first time since 1948. Now, I am not one for astrology but I figured someone out there must have had a blast writing fortunes for such a mystical and unearthly occasion. So, I googled it.

Turns out I had a couple moons in my centaur and might come to some wondrous realizations in the near future. Now, I don’t know about all that, but I did have a dream that I was using oil pastels to paint a sunset over a seaside cliff.

I am no artist, but I am really not a photographer. In the year that I lived in the south of France, I didn’t have a camera or even a camera phone. Any photos that I have of my time there were ripped off of friends’ Facebook pages. I have been trying to reconcile my photographic failure with my desire to remember my adventures. For this reason, I figured picking up some sticky, oily crayons might be just the thing to document my time in Africa. Between this blog and some waxy paintings, I hope I can create a colorfully messy, impressionistic memory of my time in the Peace Corps.

Or at least have some fun when I have nothing to do on a day off . . .

First few practice/playing around sessions are featured below.Light criticism welcome, I have honestly no clue what the heck I’m doing so if someone feels like sharing pointers or ideas, that would be awesome.

 

The Semester to End All Semesters: Quick Update (to be expanded upon . . . )

So, I will admit that starting my Peace-Corps-travel-business-life-whatever-you-would-like-to-call-it blog right before my last semester of college was a premature and overly ambitious venture. That being said, outside of the blogosphere, I have been quite productive:

Graduated: √

Taken all four parts of the CPA Exam: √   (last grade pending but so far 3 for 3)

Submitted information for Peace Corps Background check: √

Obtained Medical Clearance: √

Started to prepare for PC service: √

Started to get equipment and supplies for PC service: √

Thought about running away on a sailboat for the summer and resisted the urge: √

Spent quality time with family: √

Got a gym membership (turns out studying at a desk for several years straight really takes a toll on your fitness): √

Now, to make this a little bit more feasible for you and me, I am going to try to do this blog-thing in smaller, more frequent posts. Someone (everyone really) has told me that this is a better idea.

So, in my next blog I will talk about my experience with the Peace Corps’ medical clearance process! Heads up, it includes more shot than Cinqo de Mayo! Get stoked!

 

Goals for my 30th birthday . . .

I have decided to formalize a list of dreams that I have had bouncing around my brain for some time now. I’m using this post to challenge myself to meet these goals before I turn 30 years old. Some of them are a real stretches in terms of feasibility but you can’t do anything if you don’t try. The lists below are in no way inclusive of all of my dreams and are not in any sort of rank order.

Before I turn 30, I would like to learn to (through experience) . . .

• sail and maintain a sailboat (because it seems like the only way to be free and travel the world),
• scuba dive and free dive (there is just way to much that most people never get to see down there),
• fish including spearfish, deep-sea, etc. (mostly because I love fish, like the taste I mean),
• hunt in general (c’mon it’s practical),
• clean and cook what I catch (otherwise it’s just a waste),
• garden and cook what I grow (plants are pretty darn cool),
• speak Spanish on a informal, conversational basis,
• as much about micro-finance and micro-business as possible (obviously),
• trade weather derivatives effectively,
• trade synthesized stock and bonds (risk profiles and creating your own investments are just awesome and useful skills to have),
• about weather patterns and global climate change (everyone probably should),
• how nonprofits function effectively,
• I am definitely forgetting some things here . . .

I would also want to learn any other languages possible, which is a real stretch. I just think Spanish would be a good place to start after French. I will most likely be learning Fon in the PC, that is if I am posted in or around where I think I might be in Benin. I am really open to anything though.

Before I turn 30, I would like to go to / see . . .

• Benin (Obviously),
• Morocco (did a project on Morocco once, fell in love with the idea. Check out Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations episode on Netflix and you will too.),
• Algeria,
• Senegal,
• Mali,
• Egypt (pretty sure it’s a must see if you are in Africa),
• The Canary Islands (I’ve heard they’re just incredible),
• Kenya,
• Ethiopia (I love everything to do with coffee and I would love to see plantations here),
• South Africa,
• The Antilles,
• Somewhere in the South Pacific / East Asia (really anywhere will do, I’d like to spend some serious time in this world region at some point though),
• Anywhere else I can get to (I’m really not picky, North Pole, Sahara Desert, Middle East, whatever, I’m down) . . .

I would really like to go everywhere on earth, this is just what might be feasible before I turn 30. Also I am going to try to get all over Africa when I have time in the PC, the above African countries are simply my priorities.

Other things I would like to do include:

• obtain my MBA in Finance from a top-tier school,
• obtain my CPA license in the process,
• launch my Hedge Fund (I have an idea for this),
• Be completely self-sustainable,
• Feel like I have done my best to help the world,
• Be in good shape and eating healthy,
• Own a sailboat,
• Again, there are things that I am not thinking of right now . . .

Yeah, this is less feasible section of my dream list, but let a fella dream right?