First Road Trip!

We're heading out on our first Tesla road trip today! We're driving to Arizona from Washington, going down through Oregon and California. I've planned a route that uses only superchargers. It should take about 3 days each way. Stay tuned to hear how it turned ou...

Read More

Net Worth Update: End of November 2018

At the end of each month, I post an update of my net worth, including a brief discussion of any notable events that might have occurred. The latest month's figures can always be found under the Featured menu in the menu bar at the top of the blog. Last updated: End of November, 2018 Net Worth: $911,270 Change from last Month: +$43,458 Events Of Note Last Month: My SQL courses on Udemy generated $47.60 of income. My courses on...

Read More

It's That Time Of Year Again - To Ask For A Gift

Time to ask your credit card companies for a gift - a credit limit increase. I have a detailed post on why you want to do this here, but the short version is: Increasing your credit limit, decreases your credit utilization, which increases your credit score. See the above referenced post for why. This assumes you do not go out and spend your new credit. If you can't control yourself, don't do this. I got my credit limit increased by $3,000...

Read More

How I Almost Fell For A Slick New Phishing Scam

I like to think that I am fairly savvy when it comes to phishing scams, but I came very close to falling for one last week. It was pretty slick and if I was not sitting at my computer when the call came in, I might have been a victim. The Scam I get so many telemarketing calls on my cell phone these days, I never answer the phone unless it’s from a number I know. One of the tricks telemarketers are using now is to fake a local number that shows...

Read More

Two Month Ownership Update

I've owned my Model S for almost two months now, so I thought I'd post another update on my ownership experience. Electricity Cost I recently got my first electric bill that included a full month of Tesla ownership. You may recall that I estimated my monthly Tesla electricity costs to be around $42.74. And although that was what I calculated, I actually have budgeted $50. Turned out, I was pretty close. My electricity bill for September...

Read More

Net Worth Update: End Of October 2018

At the end of each month, I post an update of my net worth, including a brief discussion of any notable events that might have occurred. The latest month's figures can always be found under the Featured menu in the menu bar at the top of the blog. Last updated: End of October, 2018 Net Worth: $867,812 Change from last Month: -$45,658 Events Of Note Last Month: My SQL courses on Udemy generated $53.57 of income. Not all that impressive....

Read More

My Tesla Energy Costs Versus Gasoline

The Caveat I'll state right off, that this whole post is based on very limited data. Sixteen days worth, to be precise, and my driving during this time involved mainly just my work commute and driving about on the weekend here and there. No long trips. I'll revisit this subject in the months to come, but because the Tesla is a new toy, I wanted to look into energy price comparisons now. I thought I'd take a look at how much money, if any, I...

Read More

An Energy Primer And My Tesla Energy Usage So Far

(Not actually from my car) I remember back when I first got my Prius, I was totally fascinated with gas mileage and how to maximize it. There is a whole community dedicated to hypermiling - trying to get the maximum miles per gallon from their cars. After owning a Prius for a while, my interest in gas mileage gradually tapered off and I just accepted that I would get between 48 and 53 miles per gallon. Tesla owners are no different only instead...

Read More

My First Week Of Tesla Ownership

Ava, The Quickening Wow. What a fun week! The car is amazing! Here are some random highlights: What's In A Name? In the Tesla software, you can name your car. I tested out an Easter egg by naming my car 42 - which was changed to "Life, The Universe, And Everything." I ended up going with a suggestion from my wife: Ava, which was the name of the robot from Ex Machina. Not sure if that means she thinks the car is going to kill us. The...

Read More

Net Worth Update: End of September 2018

At the end of each month, I post an update of my net worth, including a brief discussion of any notable events that might have occurred during the month. The latest month's figures can always be found under the Featured menu in the menu bar at the top of the blog. Last updated: End of September, 2018 Net Worth: $913,470 Change from last Month: +$848 Welcome To The New Monthly Update Page! Now that I went out a bought my Tesla, I no longer...

Read More

Don't Leave Money On The Table: My Credit Card Cashback Rewards Year To Date (Sep. 2018)

This week, I'm going to take a short break from all the Tesla posts and get back to some personal finance topics. My post on my first week of Tesla ownership will be next week, I promise! I got an email from my Chase Freedom credit card a week ago showing me how much I've earned in cash back bonuses so far this year. That's a pretty big chunk of change! It's higher than I would have guessed. But this was only for one of my credit cards....

Read More

The Tesla Purchase Experience: Week 6 Plus One Day

Sunday The last time I spoke with the delivery advisor, she mentioned that her workweek was Sunday to Thursday, so on Sunday I was waiting for the written confirmation that my trade-in quote was actually good for 1,000 miles or 4 weeks, not the 500 miles or 2 weeks the paperwork said. Sunday night came and I hadn't heard anything, so I sent her an email asking for confirmation. Checking the weather forecast, it looks like there is a slight...

Read More