I had a few option for the summer:

1. Take more summer courses than I’d like and study my bum bum off.
2. Get an awesome job and work my bum bum off.
3. Blow more of my savings and travel my bum bum off.

At the end, I went with option #2 (and most likely a bit of 1 & 3 too).

For the summer, you will find me uprooted from Orange County and shipped to Mountain View, California — working at the very neato MyMint.com.

Ah… lazy o’ me finally tricked some people into hiring me (just kidding please don’t fire me).

If you subscribe to a personal finance blog and you’re not a hardcore personal finance enthusiast, it’s okay!

Sure, some of us get intense sexual pleasure from debating the the pros and cons of traditional and Roth IRA (and why shouldn’t they? tax advantage accounts are so hot, just thinking about them requires a cold shower) — but just because some of us enjoy the nitty-gritty of personal finance, doesn’t mean you have to too.

Healthy personal finance has a few facade to it: the simple core values that can be explained in a few sentences; the complex concepts that may take pages to fill and reads like a different language; and everything else in between the two extremes.

Yes, having a full understanding of your employee benefit program would be awesome. Yes, being able to differentiate all the available retirement accounts and knowing specifically which to utilize based on life situation would be great. Yes, knowing your estate planning laws will land you marriage proposal from a certain personal finance blogger; however, being a personal finance encylopedia isn’t a requirement for you to achieve a healthy financial life.

Budget. Save. Spend sensibly. Save some more. Understanding these core values will get you going. Mastering them will put you ahead of the game.

Alright, signing up for a new credit card when you don’t need it is never a good thing, but receiving $250 after your first purchase may be too good of a deal to pass up for some people. The Chase Freedom Credit Card $250 sign-up bonus is available again!

Use this specific link:

http://www.chasefreedomnow.com/?CELL=6L3J&v=credit250 (link’s now dead)

And you’ll see this page (click to enalrge):

The catch: The bonus offer is valid only for first-time cardmembers with new accounts. Only one bonus per account. Existing cardmembers/accounts are not eligible for the bonus offer.

That means as a current card holder, I’m SOL! But perhaps not for some of you. A $250 check (not credit) to sign-up for a card that you might actually use? Pretty good deal I say.

Related Links:

• Review: Chase Freedom Rewards Credit Card
• Fatwallet discussion on $250 bonus

• Number of accounts opened: 7
• Inquiries: 2
• Total revolving balances: $0 ~ $99
• Total available credit: $83,900

I haven’t checked these scores in awhile, but I received my new WaMu (previously Providian) credit card today, so I decided to login and check. The scores rebounded to quite a degree once some minor balance transfers were paid off. Notice that my total revolving balance (when this score was acquired) is a low $0 ~ $99.

You may also notice the ridiculously large amount of total available credit I now have (the total credit lines I have available from the 7 accounts). Although I’m sure there are many more people with larger credit lines on their credit cards, for someone my age without any stable income, it’s pretty ridiculous how much credit these banks will extend to me due to my “good” credit. Take note: it isn’t difficult to establish certain level of credit once you’ve managed and utilize your credit sensibly. If I can do it, anyone can.

For those that have never read these FICO score tracking post, the scores are scores provided by Providian credit cards (now Washington Mutual). These scores are computed at an unknown time, but base on what I know, the scores are most likely a month behind. Remember that your credit score changes daily depending on what your account balance carries, thus the scores I have above are most likely already outdated.

As a free service, these scores are pretty neat, and although they aren’t the latest updated scores, they are genuine FICO scores as Providian claims, thus they are much more useful than some random scores you pull from X Company. If you check back some of the previous updates (#3), you’ll see that my score was a low 612 during November of ’05 — quite a contrast to this update’s 804!

Don’t forget: a score above 800 may seem impressive, but a high FICO score is hardly the only factor lenders consider when extending credit. If I walk into a bank today and apply for a mortgage, upon seeing my income level, the loan officer will most likely laugh in my face as he hands me the basket of free candy, rub my head, and tell me: “Maybe when you expand your lemonade stand, kid.”

Lending money to strangers online could be pretty silly or pretty awesome depending on which website you’re on.

I first read about Kiva.org from Ramit’s Friday Entrepreneurs back in August of 2006.

First impression? Pretty neat. Bookmarked it, fell asleep, and soon forgot about it.

Yesterday, with an In-N-Out burger in one hand and a greasy mouse in another, I trolled Bloglines and came across another pf blogger’s post on Prosper.com — which I promptly typed into Wikipedia’s search box to see how Prosper has changed since launch. (Anyone else type things into the Firefox search box while they read articles or watch TV?)

While reading about Propser’s shady handling of its online forum, I noticed the “See also” link to Kiva in the Wikipedia entry.

“Hmm, I wonder how’s Kiva coming along?” I thought to myself as I click on the link and flicked the onions out of my burger.

Minutes later, before I even finished my juicy burger and strawberry shake, I found myself lending money to strangers online — all it took was only a few minutes.

Microcredit what?

Kiva.org is a non-profit organization that partners with microfinance networks across the globe to provide microcredit to low-income entrepreneurs. In gist, microcredit is the lending of very small amount of loans. It’s like letting your friend Bob borrow $50. Except Bob isn’t going to use the $50 to buy a PS3 game — he’ll be using the $50 to further his business and create more wealth.

Easier than Buying that Beanie Baby Off eBay

Lending money to various entrepreneurs across the globe is incredibly easy. You browse through the list of lenders by clicking the “Lender” tab, pick the listing you want to lend to, select your amount, click “Loan Now” put in your PayPal info and you’re done.

Borrower Listing Page

Lender’s Profile Page

After you’ve extended the loan, you will receive email updates in regards to the status of the loan and the progress of the business in which you’ve extended the loan to.

The flow of money is fairly simple. You extend the loan via a credit card transaction; Kiva collects the fund (100% of which goes to borrower, since Paypal is waiving transaction fee); the funds are transfered to the field partners which administers and collects the loan repayment; you receive your repayment into your account and you can withdraw the amount or lend to another borrower.

Not Really a Handout

Loans extended on Kiva won’t generate interest for the lenders (although the microfinancing field partners of Kiva do charge interest to borrowers), thus if you lend money on Kiva — you will only get your principal amount back. There is of course the risk of the loan defaulting, in which case you may lose your money.

With those in mind, why should anyone lend money?

Kiva’s pitch: By choosing a business on Kiva.org, you can “sponsor a business” and help the world’s working poor make great strides towards economic independence. Hence, “loans that change lives.”

My opinion? Sounds good to me. On one hand, you’re helping someone. On another hand, you’re not exactly giving a handout — these are loans that should be repaid, after all. Plus, more often than not, these loans are a means for them to produce more wealth and value — not to pay off debt incurred from excessive shopping.

Thus far, Kiva has had a pretty amazing repayment rate of 100%, an on-time payment rate of +99%, and the microfinance institution that Kiva partners with are required to meet Kiva’s due diligence standard.

Microfinancing isn’t without problems, borrowers can easily use their funds on transactions other than the ones stated, and microfinance institutions can’t always find the perfect borrowers. Still, as a website that utilizes the Internet to increase the reach of funding for microfinancing institutions across the globe, Kiva is doing a pretty spiffy job.

Related Links

• Kiva.org on PBS Frontline
• Where to Microfinance?

After last month’s 25+ hour flights, and the 36+ hour train ride from a few days ago, I realized that traveling could be quite tedious unless you pay for the comfort.

Being the super famous, A-list, filthy-rich professional blogger that I am, I decided to get myself a nicer ride than the poor man’s M3 that I bought last year, the Gulfstream 550 (coincidentally purchased on the same date).

At a price tag of about $40 million, my new Gulfstream has a seating configuration of 16 (because all A-list bloggers should have a decent size posse). With cruising range of around 12,000 km, I can now travel to from Los Angeles to São Paulo without any issue.

Some Gulfstream 550 facts:

• Crew: 1-2 pilots, 2 attendents
• 14-19 passengers
• Cruise speed: 0.85 mach
• Range: 6,750 nautical miles
• Price: $33 ~ $43 million
• Annual fixed cost: $820,000
• Variable hourly cost: $3,500

At a somewhat hefty fixed cost of $820,000, about a quarter of which is for the captain and co-pilot, I decided to be the thrifty blogger that I am and get an airline transport pilot certification (and also lasik surgery to get my eyesights corrected).

Unfortunately pilot training was tougher than I thought, so I’m now down about another $60,000 for the non-refundable tuition fees. It’s alright though, the point was to travel in comfort, and although the Gulfstream’s four electronic flight instrument system displays are quite spiffy, looking at it for hours on end is not my idea of fun.

Now to look for some hot (male or female) flight attendants…