2million's Personal Finance Blog

My Journey to Financial Freedom

May 6, 2006

I'm Headed to Poughkeepsie, NY!

I will be taking a temporary assignment in Poughkeepsie, NY for the remainder of the year! This will be a big change with huge impacts both in my personal life and my financial goals.I will be taking this assignment as...
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May 17, 2006

Planning My Temporary Assignment

As I previously mentioned I am going on a temporary assignment to NY for the rest of this year. I know this going to affect my monthly expenses for the rest of the year, but how bad will it be?I...
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May 30, 2006

Even though I have agreed

Even though I have agreed to take a temporary assignment for my employer which will significantly increase my living expenses during the period, I have a couple ideas on how I can minimize the damage:1.) My employer will cover the...
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June 16, 2006

Finalized Temporary Assignment Living Arrangements

Whew! After getting over the sticker shock of rental prices in NY, I have reached an agreement to rent a room for $800/month. This is above the most likely estimate I was shooting for paying in rent, but I think...
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August 2, 2006

Temporary Assignment Tax Deductions

One of the hidden gems of my temporary assignment is I may be able to deduct many of my expenses from the temporary assignment on my income taxes. While this is a sizable opportunity to reduce my income taxes, there...
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October 11, 2006

Midpoint in Temporary Assignment Expenses

Amazing as it is to me, I am already halfway through my temporary assignment at work. NY has been nice (especially the cooler evenings), but being the tightwad I am it also been tough getting use to the higher prices...
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December 19, 2006

Sketchy Temporary Assignment Tax Deductions

Earlier I highlighted the major deductions available (as misc unreimbursed business expenses) available to me as a result of my temporary assignment for work. However, there are still lots of other "grey" areas that are on the fence as to...
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July 30, 2007

Cingular Reduced Rate Suspend

Since I am leaving the country for an extended assignment, I wanted to see what I could do reduce my US cell phone expenses. My top priority is to keep my phone number, but I have little use for a...
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July 31, 2007

Off to China for My Assignment

I am still getting settled in, but off to a good start on my assignment to Shenzhen, China. Once things settle down I hope to resume postings in more regular fashion. This assignment is something I have been working toward...
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August 27, 2007

Love Skype But Confusing Options to Upgrade

Since I have begun my China assignment, the most cost-effective tool I have been using is Skype. I tried it out on a business trip earlier this year before I moved to China and found it worked very well...
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August 31, 2007

Upgraded to Skype Pro

I have made some progress with my Skype service after initially finding the Skype service offerings very confusing. I decided to upgrade to Skype Pro. Its a bundled service for $36 a year. The confusing thing is the bundle changes...
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December 5, 2007

What Costs A Lot and What Costs Little in China

Per a reader request I put together a little list of items/services that has a signficantly different price point in China (at least in Shenzhen, China) compared to what I pay in the US: Walmart - Walmart does not seem...
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March 26, 2008

Why Take An International Assignment?

My wife and I are beginning to wrap up our assignment here in China. In less than 90 days we should be headed back to the US unless there is an unexpected change. I thought it would be a good...
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May 15, 2008

Planning Our Life Together and Reaching Our Financial Goals

My wife and I have been having a lot of life planning discussions recently. Now that we are married it is time for us to start putting together "our" big picture. Of course we have talked many times about this...
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May 26, 2008

We Were Asked To Extend Our Assignment In China

Not completely unexpected, I was asked today if we could extend our international assignment till the end of 2008. With only 4 weeks left, we are starting to look forward to everything that is going to happen when we get...
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June 27, 2008

We Are Extending Our Assignment 6 More Months

We were asked at the beginning of this month to extend our assignment for an additional 6 months. We had a number of issues to resolve when we were asked to extend, but somehow everything came together. I was able...
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July 4, 2008

Localizing in China - A Sign of the Times?

I recently had a coworker from the US localize in China. He is the first in our organization - someone from the US who decided that he would benefit more by quitting the US organization and hiring into the China...
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