Google Flights - My favorite way to get there!

Google Flights officially launched their site a few weeks ago. Although I've been using their flight search option for at least the past six months. Little did I know it was a Beta version, well it's worked just perfectly for me. I've booked at least 4 flights and searched for numerous others with no issue.

I've used other sites in the past, but Google Flights so far is my favorite.

It's a simple design; just a clean look and a lack of clutter. 

There are some standard options such as selecting which city to start from.
One neat feature to try is the plus (+) next to your city.
This will display surrounding cities which might give you a cheaper priced flight.

There are also options for number of stops, maximum price, preferred airline, specific travel times, and more.

Of course you'll also want to pick the date you want to fly. 
(I'll show you a cool option later for a new way to pick what dates you travel.)

You can select alternative for your destination as well.
 I actually used this option this past week. My family and I are traveling to Disney World later this summer. I found some awesome priced flights a few weeks ago, but I waited to long and the price went up.
I expanded my search to include Melbourne, Daytona Beach, and Sanford. I found a flight into Daytona Beach that was $84 cheaper per person. For a family of 6 that saved us quite a bit.

Once you've picked your options sit back and let Google do the rest!

Choose your outbound flight.

Google makes choosing easy. They even move all the best flights to the top of the list!

The also give you a "TIP". In the search above they found that if I left 2 days later and returned two days later I could save $76 per ticket. Google has got my back :)

There you go! Now that you've selected you options, you book your flight directly with the airline. Or you can save your itinerary for later.

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” - Mark Twain

I mentioned above about a new way to search for travel. One of the new ways Google is helping me find new places to travel is the "Explore Map" option.

You can explore the map by clicking on the map on the main search page or by clicking the link on the left hand side.

The cool thing about their Explore Map is that you do not have to input a destination. You can see the cost to travel to different destinations and see their cost.

Expand your horizon, maybe that trip is cheaper than you thought! It's free to look!

Simple Start Budget Continued.....

In my first post I mentioned that my wife and I started with a template from vertex42.com. 

A budget can be intimidating at first; So let's start simple. ( you will need Microsoft excel) 

There are multiple templates you can use. I chose the Personal Budget because it gives me a month by month breakdown for the next 12 months.

1. Browse to vertex42.com
2. Click on the excel templates at the upper left hand corner
3. Select budget templates
4. I suggest starting simple with the "Personal Budget"
5. Click Personal Budget
6. Scroll down - in the middle of the page you'll find the link to download
6a. There are two options - if you have Microsoft Excel click the Green link
6b. The second option is for Open Office - which is an open source product that gives you a free alternative for office products. They include a Word Processor, Spreadsheet etc.
7. Click Continue to Download 
8. <Just a few more clicks :) >  On the next page you'll need to click download again. Be careful there are ads on this page that make you think you're downloading something. The official download is located on the left hand side of the page. Click Download - it should be a green bar.
9. You should notice that the download is now at the bottom of your browser page. The download is quick!
10. Click on the file - once you click Excel should open up.


They hard part is done!

Start simple......

Let's walk through getting started.

In the "Starting Balance" section, input you existing checking account balance. ( you will modify this as your checking account balance goes up and down)

In the "Wages and Tips" area you'll input you salary. If you work hourly, then you'll want to input the lowest average that you've had over the past few months.

This is calculated monthly, so you'll need to add two paychecks together to get the total. 

If you are getting paid bi-weekly ( every other week) you get three paychecks in a month twice a year! Nice bonus.

Like I said start simple. The next thing I would add is your rent or mortgage payment. 

Put in your payment and then click the lower left hand corner of the cell and then drag it across. This allows you to populate all the fields in a category without having to type it twelve times.  There you go!

Now you have a simple budget!

The two places to pay attention to are the "Projected End Balance". This is the amount of money left in your account at the end of the after all income is earned and expenses are withdrawn. The goal is to be above 0 ! This will let you know if you're living within your means. It provides you a way to see how much money you can save. If you are below zero you'll need to take a look and see what expenses you can cut. Otherwise you'll need to use credit or you'll be incurring NSF Fees in your account!

The second number to pay attention to is the last "Projected End Balance". This is the amount left in your account at the end of 12 months. This figure is what you'll begin with if you decide to create another spreadsheet. This is a more advanced when you want to see past the next twelve months. You can save this until later.

Using this will allow you to feel confident. You can afford to live and create a savings account. Using this should allow you to get out of the living paycheck to paycheck cycle.

Now that you have started, feel free to fill in the rest of your expenses. This will give you the most accurate view

There are demo videos available to help you on vertex42.com. If you feel you need some more personalized help; leave me a comment and your email. I will be glad to help. I can offer assistance for $10 for an hours worth of time. I'll connect to your machine and walk you through. Make sure you have all your monthly expenses so we can make the most of the time.

Again I'm not an official financial advisor, I'm just someone who has figured out a way to live with a budget. 

Dream Big - "Aspiration"

"Do Well, Do Good"

These are good words to live by.

I believe we all want to "Do Well"; as in doing well financially.

I also think that for the most part the majority of people want to "Do Good". i.e. helping others.

So when I came across a relatively new company claiming something that I consider relatively "new"in the investment world, I had to take a look.

Aspiration is the company's name. They have one mutual fund which they refer to as the "Flagship Fund".

One reason to classify them as "new" is that they've been around since September 2014.

Another reason I used the term "new" in my description above is that they allow the investor to choose what they receive in compensation. They believe that if they do well for you then you will pay them a reasonable rate.

In comparison to other mutual funds I hold in my 401k,  the expense ratio can range from 0.1% for a Vanguard managed fund all the way up to 1.07% for a Blackrock manged fund.

Fees will eat into your earnings, over a long period of time they can result in thousands of dollars that end up in someone else's pocket.

So let's take a closer look at both portions of their motto:

Do Well

"....built on trust, focused on the middle class instead of millionaires, and founded on the idea that we can do well and do good at the same time." 

They advertise that they can provide access to investments once only available to those that have quite a bit of money to invest. While the premise is not really new: they pool everyone's money in order to get a discount on fees.It's basically like buying bulk; if you buy more then you get a price break. The same idea applies to mutual funds.

Minimum investment is $500. As of Friday the price per share was $10.28. Listed as ASPFX on the NASDAQ.

I decided to try it out; with my $500 I was able to purchase approximately 49 shares at $10.20 per share.

I currently have set my compensation rate to 0.0% of my holdings. Yes that is correct, they do allow you to choose 0.0%. If I end up doing well then I'll increase their compensation rate.

Do Good: Pay it Forward

Something else peeked my interest. They are interested in not only making money but giving some of it back.

They pledge to give 10% of their earnings to charity. Through a program they call "Dimes Worth of Difference" they strive to make a difference.

An excerpt from their site:

"Working with respected partners such as the Accion U.S. Network, America’s largest provider of micro-loans, we help struggling Americans transform their own lives – not a hand out, but a hand up."

It's by invitation only right now and I have three invitations I can pass out because I invested. Let me know if you're interested and I can send you one.

Disclaimer:

**Please be advised that this is in no way an endorsement of Aspiration's product. I have not and will not be compensated. This is a review only. As with any investment it may lose value. If you choose to invest, be sure the research and make a decision based on your level of financial flexibility. First and foremost take car of your necessities and bills. If you have some leftover, I say invest!

Portfolio, What Portfolio?

I received an email from Mint.com, because I had used their service at one time. It's been awhile since I've logged in and "by "awhile" - I mean years. They have been trying to get me to come back and use their service. I found an alternative and now I link all my accounts through the home banking site my credit union provides.

I'm getting off track here, so let's get back on topic: Your portfolio.

Let's connect the dots here, the email from Mint.com was introducing a service called "FutureAdvisor". I did a little reading and as it turns out "FutureAdvisor" is an automated portfolio analysis tool.

If you're like me , I thought it was a neat idea. I'm always looking for some kind of validation that I'm doing the right thing when it comes to saving for retirement. So I took 5 minutes and linked my 401k account and a couple of other small investment accounts. ( when I say small I mean < 5k).

If you have a few minutes, I encourage you to take a look. They offer some advice for free and provide a full management option. The full management option gives you 3 months free and then charges .5% of your assess managed. That could mean thousands of dollars saved in fees.