Thursday, June 20, 2013

Hot, cloudless weather

Excited for this upcoming weekend where I am not going anywhere and not working. Well, I'm going back to the office to work on a research project that is way overdue. It's the first time in a while that I have two full days to dedicate to working on the project. I think I made some good headway last Sunday although I wish I could have started earlier in the day last week. But had to meet up with a friend and that whole process took a while. I also didn't want to stay in the office very late. I went shopping (walked around the mall) afterwards and that was nice. Haven't done that in a while either.

It's been so hot lately! There has been an anticyclone over the area which means that there is an extra high pressure system. This corresponds to very clear days with no clouds in the sky. While this may look nice, it means it's really, really hot. The UV index is also off the charts. I've been putting on sunscreen like crazy everyday. A good sunscreen is definitely worth the investment now that I am working outdoors a lot. I used to never be able to finish a bottle because I don't use a lot.

I've been cooking a lot these days since I don't want to walk all the way down the hill to eat lunch. And because I have to cook lunch, this kind of forces me to cook dinner. If I eat out for dinner, it's because I don't want to cook in the first place. So actually this is saving me a lot of money. I'm also eating healthier because eating out tends to mean eating more grease and oily stuff than you realize. I've been pretty good about tracking my spending for the past month and that is actually a pretty good deterrent for spending money. Because if I spend money that day, then I have to open up the spreadsheet to enter to data! My lazy self usually decides to avoid unnecessary spending so that I don't have to enter data at night.

I also transferred money back to my US account again. Now that I don't have student loans to pay off, I can put more towards investments. I put another chunk into my Roth account, making me almost at the limit of my Roth contributions for 2013! I think I should really max it out since I don't have to pay US taxes at the moment. I also started a Lending Club account. But recently, it seems like they have an imbalance of more investors to lenders. All the notes get funded really quickly, often before Lending Club is able to verify the status of the loan. Anyway, I'll just invest a little bit and see how it goes. Investors get a payout every month, which is nice. Doesn't feel like your entire investment is tied up, although it still kind of is.

1 comment:

yalu said...

No clouds? One would be able to see big buddha! Sounds really hot though.