LVI56

This last month I have been trying to build my computer repair business. I have the overall business plan in place, some prices for services, a web page and some business card designs. Already I have had two customers. Now has come time to get down and dirty with the financial side of things.

Today I got Quickbooks simple start free edition up and running. Right now I’ll keep with the free edition and upgrade as needed. The free edition allows for 20 customers and tracks all income and expenses. It’s perfect for me right now. I put in my two customers as well as my expenses, and I’m still behind but that’s ok right now. So far I am very happy with what it can do.

I have been somewhat hesitant about how much money to spend on supplies. I’ve already put in about $150, and need about another $150 for supplies and advertising. I recently got permission to leave some business cards at a local Elks lodge, so I’ve been designing some. At the same time I still need to get a bit more service done on my car this week. the good news it that a lot of the start-up costs AND mileage used by my car can be written of on my taxes.

The write-offs include:

• Initial supplies
• Advertising
• Incorporation fees
• licensing fees

Pretty cool. Just need to keep an accurate record of everything, receipts, notes and such. For mileage write-offs keep customer address and print out a map-quest map with the miles on it as well as detail the exact mileage you drove including the time and date. Good to have all that to back you up incase of an audit.

Currently the rate is $0.55 per mile. that can add up for someone like me who may travel up to 30 miles to a customer. Quickbooks has a feature to track mileage and vehicle usage, but only in the Pro edition. A good reason to upgrade. Quickbooks Pro runs at around $200 retail, but can be bought for half that via Ebay.

Even though I don’t have an official business, any costs to get it started and make it official can be deducted. As long as it’s all within the first year. So with the financial tracking down, I can focus on advertising. I’ll post an update on that next week.

I now have my technology blog up and running. Spent a few days coding it just right. Will have all sorts of technology reviews and thoughts, things from my classes and more.

LVI56 Tech Blog

Meanwhile, I’ll be working on a few things on this blog. Though of changing the template again this one though cool is kind of complex. Would like one that is a bit more simple and incorporates some features I put into my tech blog. I’m also trying to work on some more constructive posts, as many of them have been quite random and unorganized. In fact, I may abandon many of my older posts and sort of give way to a rebirth of the site. Easy to do with little or no readers…we’ll see.

Updated: 6/28/09

Here is the cost summary for my Bachelors degree in Information Systems Security at ITT-Tech.

Full Spread Sheet

The spreadsheet features three tables. On the left side is the table with a layout of each quarter, the hours per quarter, and the cost per hour. The cost per hour goes up 5% each year (4 quarters).

Along the top right is the complete breakdown of how my tuition is being paid. This is broken up in sets of three quarters. At the end is the total of all the payment types (loans and grants), compared to the total of what those three quarters cost, taken from the left table.

Below that is my loans table, laying out each loan and for what quarter they represent. At the bottom is the total as well as accrued interest. I will create a separate sheet for my loans once I graduate and begin payback.

As you can see the total cost is near $87,000. And roughly 77% of that is covered by grants. Pretty cool deal.

I’ll be updating this page and the spreadsheet as things change. Feel free to comment and ask any questions.

Got to the Honda Center about an hour before the concert. Picked up my two winning tickets and headed in. Seats were on the plaza level about 10 rows above floor, dead center with the stage. Lights went out at 8:15 and the amazing show began.

It was better than I could have ever imagined. Started off with my favorite Santorini. Nathan’s voice was absolutely amazing, Ender gave tons of love to the crowd, Chloe sung and danced all over the place (including ON Yanni’s piano!), and Leslie took my breath away. Then there was Yanni and the rest of the orchestra, Within Attraction really got the crowd fired up with the two violinist going at it. Later on, a harp solo that was out of this world! Then a cello solo that had my jaw dropped. Marching Season came on, and the nearly forever drum solo that the crowd loved so much. The crowd as so into the music and very energetic. Niki Nana got everyone standing and clapping along. Then the Encore of the epic Standing In Motion, Nostalgia, and crowd favorite The Storm. Amazing night all around.

I am a huge and nearly obsessed Coldplay fan and I have to say this beats them by a lot. What other show will you get a harp solo? AND a cello solo, and so much more. Just an amazing show, I highly recommend everyone see and experience this concert. I almost cannot put into words how great it was.

A bit of good luck this weekend. Yay! Yanni Voices is on tour in the SoCal area this weekend. I’ve been following on twitter. They give away a pair of tickets for each show. I entered for the San Diego show but didn’t get it. Then, Yesterday I logged on to twitter to see a post for two tickets to Anaheim for the first person to respond with their favorite song from the Voices album. And YES!!!! I was first!!! So Tomorrow I’ll be going to the Honda Center for what will be a magical night. I’ve been there twice for Coldplay, it’s an amazing place for a concert. I have loved Yanni for many years and was afraid I would miss this show. I am so excited.

Financially, it is an unplanned trip, but well worth it. Free tickets after all. The friend I’m going with is will pay for gas and direct me to some cheaper parking in the area. So I won’t loose too much. This is by far my biggest win. Hopefully I can get some good pictures and have a little meet and greet. So excited!

Been working on financial aid. I should be gathering a full page to replace my old one later. So here is what I can say so far.

The total cost of my degree will be $84,620.

My last 3 quarters will not have CalGrant, I will have used it up this year.

I will continue to get PELL grant and should get SMART grant for the next two years.

I learned tuition goes up 5% every year. Ouch.

After adding up all my loans and grants, I can say that as of right now 77% of my tuition is paid for by grants!

I also learned that the Department Of Education is buying loans form Sallie Mae. Two of my loans were bought and transferred. This is good and bad:

• Sallie Mae offers incentives for on-time payments, etc…, by lowering the interest rate. The Department of Education does not do this.
• Having my loans in two places will allow me to shop for consolidation later on. If they were all on Sallie Mae, I would not be able to consolidate outside of them.

I am still finishing up everything on my spreadsheet and will have a full run-down later this weekend along with uploading my spreadsheet so everyone can see exactly what it costs for a bachelors degree and the various ways of paying. Wow, that was a long sentence.

Got my unemployment check, $97. That’s $72 plus a small stimulus added. Not much but it will help. As far as job searching goes, there hasn’t been many places to apply at. I’m back advertising for computer repair, had one repair the other day battling a virus and got $33 out of that. That with the unemployment has be at least stable for the next two weeks. I have really cut back on my spending, trying to stretch things as far as I can.

Meanwhile, an update on my car. The guy who worked on it won’t be able to see me till next week to check the speedometer. Through some research I found it is linked to a sensor on the transmission, so it’s likely a plug came loose or something. I don’t have the resources to check it out myself. Guess I’ll have to be careful driving. Thanks to lots of watching Nascar, I can gather my approximate speed through my RPM’s in each gear, along with the speed of other cars around me. So far no leads on a buyer, but it’s only been two days on craigslist. I may put it up on a car site later for the weekend.

I do have to say, there is some damn creative marketing going on. I received a few emails of people who appeared to be interested. They said they have “cash on hand” and asked me obvious questions that i answered in my ad, the proceeded to direct to me a website to have me check out a quote or something about my car. Obvious advertising at that point. Plus the email went straight into my junk folder, so that was another clue.