There are a few privileged travelers that you encounter from time to time who don’t really seem to have any sort of budget. Often they have saved for several years and intend to continue traveling until it simply runs out. But for the rest of us, traveling for more than a week or two often means that we have to stick to a pre-defined budget for a particular trip. I know personally that spending money is the one main aspect of traveling that causes me stress, more so than worrying about theft or how to get to and from places. That’s why I try to set aside a certain amount of money beforehand ...

Last month I blogged the first part in my ongoing series in how to make money from a travel blog. You can read How to Make Money from a Travel Blog: Part One here. Basically my goal has been to find a way to make a modest amount of money from my website so that I can offset some of the rather large expenses I incur while travelling around the world. While I’ve become quite adept at finding good deals, airfare and hotels are still expensive. So I set out with a rather modest goal of trying to make an extra $500 per month from this website. This Month’s Results In the month of September I made ...

When the protests started in Egypt, they were over something relatively benign: the increased costs of basic food items. That led to full on revolts, and the eventual toppling of the government in Egypt. We now see what’s happening in Libya, and it’s possible that these are just the first few pebbles in what will undoubtedly be a much larger avalanche. People who are hungry are motivated for change. Make no mistake, the increased costs of commodities and food is in large part the result of the United State’s loose monetary policy, especially concerning QE1 and QE2. You simply can’t double ...

Photo By kiwanja on Flickr Obtaining money has little idiosyncrasies in every part of the world. In the Caribbean for example, it’s easy to obtain money in US dollars, but hard to get anyone to break any of the bills the ATM machines give out. When I was in Costa Rica, we had issues because many bank machines only allowed 4-digit pins, while some banks in Canada (notably Royal Bank at the time), used five digit pins. So we had to drive nearly 60 minutes out of town to find a bank machine that would take five digits. Buenos Aires is no different, although the situation is slightly better. I commented ...

I’ve been walking around spending pesos like they were going out of style this week, so I thought a post about money would be an interesting subject. I picked up around 1200 pesos when I arrived (which is about $300 CAD), and that’s lasted me until now. I’m starting to get a little bare (I think I have around 300 left or so), but I’ve stocked up the fridge, eaten out a few times, and gone on a few drinking adventures. First, the 100 peso bill. It seems to be the main one that banks and currency exchange places dish out. The only problem is many of the smaller establishments don’t seem ...

Yesterday the Canadian government alluded to a plan to completely remove the penny from circulation in the next 12 months. Their main motivation for this change is cost – the currently cost of a penny is around 1.5 cents, but the value of the coin is only 1.0 cent. So, the government would like to get rid of the penny. Now what does that mean for the average person? To be honest, not a whole lot in my opinion. First, retailers are supposed to round the final values to the nearest 5 cent value. If the item is less than 2.5 cents away from a lower price, retailers are supposed to round down. ...

Ron Paul, one of the most vocal opponents of the monopoly the Federal reserve has in the United States, has just been appointed to the head of the Federal Reserve oversight committee. He’s been denied the position twice before, most likely because he’s been itching to audit the Federal Reserve and finally make the Fed accountable. Well, today Ron Paul finally got the job, which is a good thing as far as I’m concerned. Ron’s been a long time advocate for abolishing the Federal Reserve completely (he wrote the popular book, “End The Fed”). The Federal Reserve has contributed to the ...

I was talking to someone the other day, and we were both sort of lamenting the long gone days of adolescence. I remember being 17 years old, working a part-time summer job at Bonanza. While summer was only two months off, a good chunk of that was spend up at Cultus Lake, working as a dishwasher 20 hours or so a week, and spending as much time with my friends as possible. As a kid, you really don’t have to worry about where your money is going to go since you really don’t have much to spend it on, other than the world’s crappiest car and the occasional trip to the waterslides. Unfortunately, ...

I tweeted about some rather recent banking problems I’ve been having, so I thought I’d tell the whole story. About five years ago (probably longer to be honest), I opened a business account at TD bank on Broadway in Vancouver. I was going to start doing a little consulting on the side while doing my master’s degree, so I thought having a business account would be a good idea. At the time, I also got a small mastercard as well. I never really ended up having time for the consulting, so the account kind of just sat there for a few months. Eventually I ended up cancelling that mastercard and ...

I read this interesting article today that basically said that most people in the United States were only 11 days away from financial ruin. That is, if they were to lose their jobs tomorrow, they only have enough money to last for about 11 days: More than a third of adults could survive financially for only 11 days if they were to lose their job or be too ill to work, according to a survey. The finding gives a worrying insight into the lives of millions who are living on a financial tightrope. Researchers looked at how much people spend every month and how much they have in savings. It found ...