thank you, Genjo Osho-san!

Many thanks to Genjo for his very generous PayPal contribution!


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my finances

This post will be updated periodically to reflect the most current state of my finances. The most recent updates will appear at the top of this post.

(Skip the following boldfaced section to see the most recent update.)

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UPDATE: 28 September, 2008

Now that I'm home in northern Virginia and wintering here until March of 2009, it may be time to do a bit of reassessment regarding the true cost of the Walk. As I look back on my original predictions, I can't help laughing at their naïveté. What I have now, after 600 miles on the road, is a better idea of my worst-case scenario, financially speaking, which doesn't include medical disasters. The scenario looks like this:

Assuming a 30-day month, let's say I stay in a hotel every night. Hotel costs, at their worst, are about $140 a night (that $200/night stay in Bellingham was a fluke). So thirty nights at $140/night = $4200.

While on the road, I tended to eat one or two meals per day, but getting a single meal for under five dollars was well-nigh impossible. My fear along the way was that, if I ate too little, I'd have too little energy to get through the day, so I tended to eat large portions. I've had meals that varied in price from $5 to $30-- the latter would include an appetizer, a soup or salad, a main course, a dessert, and as was often the case, tip. For the purposes of the worst-case scenario, let's fix food costs at $40/day. I never ate $40/day worth of food on a routine basis (in fact, I spent several isolated days without food), but such a rate of consumption is at least conceivable. So thirty days at $40/day = $1200.

Replacement costs for equipment and supplies were fairly low after the initial outlay (somewhere around $3000 before I even started the walk). I'd say that I've replaced various items (detergent, Q-tips, shoes, etc.) at an average rate of about $100-200 per month. For our purposes, let's stick with the $200 figure.

Incidentals-- such as paying for someone's gas, paying rent, mailing things back home, etc.-- have probably run me about $150/month, maximum.

So let's look at where we stand, then. The cost of this project, using the worst-case scenario, is $5750/month. Assuming a maximum of 24 months to finish the walk, we're looking at a cost of $138,000. That, folks, is probably why George Martin budgeted $150,000 for his trans-America walk, which took him nine months.

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As of 6 March 2009:
Checking account's available balance = $304.85
Ledger balance = $304.85
Pending deposits = $0.00
Pending withdrawals = $0.00
PayPal balance = $0.05
My employers are behind in paying me. (As of December 2008, I've been working 2 jobs for two different Korean firms, doing proofreading and editing work.)


As of 28 September 2008:
Checking account's available balance = $62.96
Ledger balance = $404.63
Pending deposits = $0.00
Pending withdrawals = $341.67
PayPal balance = $0.08
Trip expenditures to date (since previous entry) = BE TO CALCULATED


As of 11 September 2008:
Checking account's available balance = $761.30
Ledger balance = $977.04
Pending deposits = $160.00 (transfer from PayPal)
Pending withdrawals = $215.74 (plus approx. $425 for hotel)
PayPal balance = $5.96 (sadly, I've had to shunt funds early due to the great expense of staying in hotels)
Trip expenditures to date (since previous entry) = BE TO CALCULATED


As of 25 June 2008:
Checking account's available balance = $5428.87
Ledger balance = $5482.19
Pending deposits = $0
Pending withdrawals = $53.32
PayPal balance = $1719.22 (thank you to all who have contributed! the goal is $6000 and I'm already a fourth of the way there!)
Trip expenditures to date (since previous entry) = $2278.52 (yikes)


As of 5 June 2008:
Checking account's available balance = $7825.73
Ledger balance = $8241.05
Pending deposits = $0
Pending withdrawals = $415.32
PayPal balance = $1642.44 (thank you to all who have contributed! the goal is $6000 and I'm already a fourth of the way there!)
Trip expenditures to date (since previous entry) = $1278.57 (yikes)


As of 25 May 2008:
Checking account's available balance = $8677.29
Ledger balance = $8677.29
Pending deposits = $0
Pending withdrawals = $0
PayPal balance = $1040.49 (thank you to all who have contributed! the goal is $6000 and I'm already a sixth of the way there!)
Trip expenditures to date (since previous entry) = $0.00


As of 24 May 2008:
Checking account's available balance = $8372.54
Ledger balance = $8275.93
Pending deposits = $300
Pending withdrawals = $103.39
PayPal balance = $1040.49 (thank you to all who have contributed! the goal is $6000 and I'm already a sixth of the way there!)
Trip expenditures to date (since previous entry) = $0.00
[Parents have elected to pay all BlackBerry bills! My brother David is paying for a year of GPS "Spot" bills! My brother Sean forgave me a $230 Mother's Day debt!]


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for the first time ever... but not for long

My Smoo pension payment came, so I've got over $10,000 in my bank account. I'm expecting another $500 from the accounting office of my old job in Kangnam (you'll recall that the National Pension Office washed its hands of the problem), so for a brief moment I'll be enjoying what it feels like to be the proud owner of a five-digit sum.

After I finish buying supplies, this will dwindle to four digits (about $9000), and that's what I'll be left with for the rest of my walk. That's not much: if we include the $1000 I currently have in PayPal, I have enough for a ten-month walk. I'm either going to have to earn money along the way, or will need more contributions to keep on going. In theory, the walk can be completed in ten months' time, but in reality I expect it to take longer, hence the need for more money.

One possible mitigating factor is that I've tried to include a $400 buffer every month to allow for expenses incurred en chemin. Because of my scholastic debt, I know I'll be spending at least $600 per month. Because I've budgeted $1000/month, the remaining $400 will cover things like the occasional food purchase, the very occasional hotel/motel stay, cell phone usage, equipment and medicine/vitamin replacement (unless some kind souls are willing to toss me hand-me-downs), and so on. I'm walking on a tightrope, here: $400/month is enough to anticipate mundane occurrences, but the entire budget goes out the window if I'm seriously injured or laid low by by a nasty illness.

This is a journey based on faith, though, so let's keep our fingers and tentacles crossed, think positively, and hope for the best. I won't be trying any adventure hiking and have no desire to take any risks of any sort along the way, which I'm betting will minimize the dangers in which I might find myself. Once I'm hooked up with a decent phone that offers access to GPS and weather forecasts, I'll be even better prepared for what's out there. I hope.

People are encouraged to help out by buying my book or other Walk-related CafePress products (the list of products continues to grow, so check back now and again)... I'll be much obliged if you do. Donations are also welcome; see the PayPal button on the sidebar.

[NB: Some people are uncomfortable using PayPal. If you're one of them and prefer to do things old-school, I'll be renting a PO Box in the next few days and will publicize that address when I have it. You can then send a check or money order there. I wouldn't advise sending cash through the mail.]


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pension woes revisited

What would a walk across America be without setbacks, eh? This week, I'll be receiving the pension payout from my recent job at Smoo, and it promises to be disappointingly small.

I had originally hoped to receive about $7200 based on a rough calculation: I was paying about $100/month into my pension plan, and Smoo was matching it. 36 months at $200/month comes out to $7200, right? Seemed like a fair assumption, anyway. When I found out I had actually paid almost $4400 into my plan, I briefly thought I might be getting $8800.

But, no: consistent with its history, Smoo has kicked me in the head one final time. As noted earlier, Smoo's pension plan doesn't pay an equal share into my fund, so I was told a few weeks back that I would be receiving about $6200 (W6.2 million won). The email that arrived today, however, said (1) my net pension (what the hell is net pension? no one mentioned any deductions!) would be only 6,060,000 won, and because of the weakening won, I would be getting only $5752 before wire transfer deductons. So: from lofty (albeit brief) hopes of receiving $8800, we've come tumbling down to a reality of around $5700. Quite a fall.

I'm tempted to say that the moral of the story is Game the system. When in Korea, teach a ton of illegal private lessons and charge exorbitant hourly rates, because that's the only way to ensure you're paid fairly. The more practical moral, however, is Be prepared to be screwed, because you can't prepare for a specific screwing: you can only prepare yourself for the fact that somehow, somewhere, it'll happen. If you think I'm feeling frustrated right now, you're right.


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...nope

The National Pension Office and my old hagweon have talked with each other, and the conclusion seems to be that the trouble lies entirely on the side of my old hagweon, which despite having claimed to pay (and despite having given me pay stubs that do indeed show deductions for pension), gave not a cent to the National Pension Office.

So the NPO told me there's nothing more they can do. I offered to let them have the forms I filled out plus all the other paperwork, but according to them, it's up to my previous employer to provide me the money they failed to pay into the pension plan.

I have the sinking feeling that this means that the hagweon will simply reimburse me the pension I paid into the plan. Meanwhile, the National Pension Office will not match the pay; as far as they're concerned, there's nothing more they can do for me (jeo-hui-neun amu-geot-do hal su eopseoyo-- "we can do nothing"). This is because there's some sort of three-year statute of limitations on solving pension difficulties, and we're beyond that now.

This assumes I see my money at all, of course. The guy at the hagweon's accounting office, who spoke shaky English, said the process might finish "in six month," which could mean either "in six months" or "in June" (the word for "June" in Korean is yu-weol, literally, "Month 6"). Neither sounds promising. They're supposed to email me next week with some sort of news.

So not only am I getting a thousand dollars less than expected in pensions from my current job, I'm also likely to receive nothing from my previous job-- a loss of $2200 in total. Not good.

Wanna do me a favor? Buy some Walk-related products. (More designs are on the way!)


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national pension woes

My previous job, the one I had before coming to Smoo, was at a hagweon* (an extracurricular institute; in this case, a language institute) in Kangnam, the rich part of Seoul that is, as the Korean name implies, south of the river (gang = river; nam = south). I had thought that obtaining the roughly $1200 I am owed in national pension would be a cinch, but as I found out yesterday (Thursday), because I had a different foreign resident's ID back then, matters weren't so simple.

I walked into the National Pension Office with all my documents at the ready-- plane ticket, old bankbooks, passport, alien registration card, and the 10- or 15-page form I was required to fill out (well, not every page: only 6 or 7 pages). I quickly learned, though, that my current foreign resident's ID provided no access to my payment records from 2004 to 2005. That was the first obstacle.

So I had to call the office of my former employer, but since I didn't have the number, I had to ask the National Pension Office employee to track the number down via Internet and give it to me (she wasn't willing to do this at first). I called my branch and was told to call the guy who hired me, Bob, at a different branch. Bob turned out to be quite helpful (I'd been dealing with buck-passing all Thursday, so this was a relief); he was able to track down my old foreign resident's ID and give it to me. I thanked Bob, hung up, and relayed the number to the lady across the desk from me.

Second obstacle: the lady punched in my old number and found my records, only to discover that I had no pension funds, which looked suspiciously as though my old hagweon had decided not to fulfill its end of the contract. By law, a teacher is supposed to pay about $100 per month into the pension fund; while a university might have its own (stingy) pension plan, a hagweon is supposed to match the employee's payment, meaning that I should have had about $200 per month stored up in pension funds for this job. Having worked at the job for a little over six months, I should have had about $1200 or so stored up. This was the money I was hoping to have sent to my US account.

So I called Bob again and told him the situation. He said he'd have to dig around a bit and discover what was going on, and that I should call him the following morning.

So that's where we're at with national pension. It's entirely possible that my previous place of employment has somehow skunked me on this. Even though my own personal payment records show that my ex-employers did deduct pension from my pay, the National Pension Office has no records of such funds. This whole mess is one huge mystery. We'll know more in a few hours. Yeesh.

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*"Hagweon" is often annoyingly mispronounced by English-speaking foreigners as a drawled "haah-gwaaahn." More properly, it's "hah-gweon," with the "eo" in "gweon" being somewhere between an American English "aw" (as in "saw") and an American English "uh" (as in "fun"). The entire word should be pronounced with a certain tightness in the speech organs, and should be spoken briskly, not drawled with lazily protracted vowels.


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humble thanks (5)

I spoke too soon. As of tonight, I'm just about at the $1000 mark with donations. Wow. My hope had been that I might make my goal of $6000 sometime during the one- or two-year-long walk, because I knew I'd have enough money of my own to sustain me for most or, very likely, all of the journey. But to be, already, one-sixth of the way toward that goal is nothing short of amazing.

Thank you, folks.


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humble thanks (4)

Contributions from another few people have boosted my funds up W250,000, or roughly $250. I won't know the dollar equivalent until I've made the exchange at the airport on Sunday, but again I'm wowed by people's generosity, and will do my best to be worthy of it.

Thank you.


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saeng-gak bo-da... (pension woes)

I found out two things about my pension payment today: unlike what I had been told, the pension payment from Smoo will not be wired directly to my American account. Instead, it will be wired to my Shinhan bank account around May 10, which is precisely the sort of snafu I wanted to avoid. This means I need to make extra arrangements and pay extra fees to get my money.

Worse, I've learned that the pension amount will be a full thousand dollars less than anticipated. This may be my fault for not having checked the pension scheme down to the nittiest, grittiest detail, but the general expat assumption is that the government (or, in our case, the university) exactly matches whatever funds you pay into your pension plan. Was this a bad or false assumption? Is my university an exception to the rule?

What a fool I was for thinking I'd have my payments matched; I now know that such is not the case at Smoo. I paid a little over 4.4 million won into my pension plan, which meant, in principle, that I would get another 4.4 million won from the university upon leaving the country. Instead I was told by a supervisor that my total payout would be about 6.2 million won, not the 8.8 million (4.4 mil from me, 4.4 from Smoo) I would have liked to have gotten (before I knew these figures, I had been assuming a payout of 7.2 mil, roughly W200,000 per month, based on my putting about W100,000 per month into the plan, plus W100,000 from Smoo, for three years).

I've enjoyed working at Smoo-- I truly have. But the entire campus is amazingly stingy about pay. We work longer hours than at other universities, and do so for less pay. It's obviously silly to complain about this after three years of working here (and I'm again reminded of the parable of the vineyard workers, the most industrious of whom complained about being paid the same as the Johnny-come-latelies... the reply? "You knew what you were to be paid before you started the job!").

My buddy Tom keeps quietly urging me to try his university when I come back to Korea. I might think about it. While I'm eternally grateful to my bosses, my coworkers, and my students for their various kindnesses, I can't say I have much love for whatever offices or committees set the campus budgets and dole out the pay. I heartily agree that some things are far more important than money-- one's sanity, for instance-- but if one can safeguard one's sanity while also earning a bit more to live on (you'll recall that I'm not getting rich anytime soon), isn't that better than abusing one's own wallet?

It's a shame that an otherwise decent university should leave me thinking such thoughts, and while I'm normally good at viewing such problems positively, at a time like this it's hard to see the up-side. I don't blame my immediate supervisors for the situation; they're not the ones who control the salaries, the pension, etc. But someone's responsible for this. I blame them.

OK... end rant. For now.


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humble thanks (3)

More anonymous contributions have driven my funds up to $443.01. This really blows me away. Thank you, all.


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humble thanks (bis)

The contributions continue to roll in, and we now stand at $343.01. As always, my sincere thanks to all and sundry. I'm still wavering about putting up a Hall of Fame for contributors; too many of you have privately emailed to say, "Please don't list me" or "If you list me, use my superhero alias," or something similarly frustrating.

Anyway, I am sincerely grateful for the various kindnesses I've already received. This bodes well for the walk. My current plan is to save all contributions for as long as possible. One cool thing about PayPal is that your stored funds can actually earn a wee bit of interest (approx 2.8%; it varies) while they gestate. Over time, this can make up for the 4% chunk that PayPal bites off each transaction.

If all goes according to plan, I'll have about $14,000-$15,000 in the bank by the time the walk begins in late May (minus the monthly scholarship debt and the plane ticket to the Vancouver area). That doesn't include donations, which I'll be storing on the side (in PayPal) and holding for as long as possible (the goal is to reach $5000; see here for a detailed explanation). If I finish the walk before my main supply of money runs out, I'll be giving the donations to charity. If I dip into the contributions I've received but still have some money left over when the walk is finished, then as per what I wrote in the post about finances, I'm still giving the rest to charity.

Thanks again!


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a word about money

I. Donations versus Purchases

The human world, like it or not, requires money to go 'round. While the romantic part of me would like to reject all monetary contributions, the hard fact is that this Walk won't go very far without help from the readership.

As mentioned in the FAQ, you, Dear Reader, can help out by sending money via PayPal (the donation button is on my sidebar), or you can visit my CafePress store and buy a product or two. I make a few dollars off each CafePress purchase.

For me, accepting donations is somewhat awkward because I can't shake the feeling that I haven't earned the money. I realize this isn't the point: people donate out of the goodness of their hearts, not because they're measuring one's worth or work. All the same, when someone purchases a CafePress product, I feel as though I've actually given something back to the purchaser: it's a transaction, a two-way street. I'm the one who made the design that appears on the CafePress product, and the buyer can enjoy that design.

Truth be told, I'm likely to receive less money through CafePress purchases than I am through direct donations; anywhere from 75% to 90% of the listed price goes to CafePress. But when you make a CP purchase, I'm giving you something in return-- something tangible. Not to sound crassly materialistic, but isn't it occasionally nice to receive something that has heft?

So yes, donations are always, always welcome and deeply appreciated, but you'll be doing yourself a favor if you buy a CP product. Like my book.


II. My Finances

I'm not particularly secretive about my finances, and don't quite understand why we Americans act so territorial about them. Are we that status-conscious? Revealing the state of one's finances isn't quite like stripping naked in front of an audience.

Is it?

I've never been rich, and somehow doubt that I ever will be. No one has ever accused me of being a financial whiz, and with good reason: I'm not. If I had lived a different life, a fiscally wiser life, I would have self-financed this Walk instead of burdening you with my petty requests.

As a teacher at a university in Seoul, my take-home pay isn't impressive: until recently, my net monthly pay hovered around the 2.1-million won mark (roughly $2200, US; we expats often joke about being millionaires in terms of Korean won). A few months ago I was suddenly appointed "coordinator" of my little corner of our English department, which meant a W200,000/month increase in pay (about $200/month, US).

I say all this not because I'm one of those over-confessionalistic freaks who appear on daytime talk shows, blabbing about how proud I am that my wife is also my sister. I mention this because, if I'm permitting myself to receive donations, it's imperative for you, the reader and contributor, that I be as open as possible about where all the money is going. So at the risk of making you feel awkward by being so open, let me lay things out for you.

I currently have about $2500 in my US bank account, and about $400 in my Korean account. The Korean account normally isn't this low, but I just purchased my one-way ticket home (for me, home is Alexandria, a city in northern Virginia), which has set me back about $1030. I also wired $1450 home last week (hence the total in my US account). So: $2500 in the US account.

On March 25, I'll be paid about 2.3 million won and will send $1450 of that to my US account. In April, right before I leave, I'll receive my final payment of 2.3 million plus a 1-million won bonus-- i.e., 3.3 million won. All of this, plus most of my remaining Korean money, will be wired home. Once that's done, my US bank account will have about $8000 in it by the end of April.

Along with this, I'll be receiving-- sometime between now and late May-- money from two pension sources: the Sookmyung proprietary pension system and the National Pension System. I taught for about six months at my previous job before switching over to Sookmyung; having paid roughly $100/month into that pension fund (a number matched by the language school), I should have-- at least in theory-- about $1200 coming back to me from National Pension. I've been paying into the Sookmyung pension plan for 36 months, which means roughly $7000-8000 coming my way.

In other words, by May of this year, when I start my Walk, I ought to have about $16,000-$17,000 to my name, minus the monthly debt of about $600.

Let's talk about that monthly debt, now. It's entirely scholastic: I eliminated my credit card debt at the beginning of 2007, which meant freeing myself up from a millstone that weighed around $500-600 per month. If I still had credit card debt, I wouldn't be thinking about this Walk. Let me tell you, the sense of relief after eliminating that debt was almost intoxicating. There's no burden quite like a credit burden.

But I still pay $177/month to Sallie Mae, and $300/month to Sun Trust Bank for a loan I received in 1999 to help me pay for part-time grad school work. This, plus a $12 maintenance fee, an automatic $50 transfer to a savings account, puts me at a $549/month debt (I count the $50 transfer as a debit because it's no longer in my checking account). Add miscellaneous expenses, and the total is right around $600. So despite the lack of credit card debt, I still pay a goodly sum out to creditors every month.


III. What All This Means for You and Me

Let's say I begin this Walk with, pessimistically, about $15,000 of my own money (as you see, I'm starting off with a conservative calculation, because if there's one hard and fast law of the universe, it's Murphy's Law: unforeseen expenditures can nibble away at the best-planned budgets). My scholastic/miscellaneous debt, which will be with me until I'm old and decrepit, will run me about $600/month for the duration of the Walk (and beyond). I obviously don't expect you, Dear Reader, to be my Sugar Daddy and pay off my debt for me, so I have no plans to divert your PayPal contributions to my scholastic debt.

If $15,000 divided by $600 comes out to the number 25, then I will have roughly two years' (approx. 25 months') worth of money to pay my debts, and only my debts. This is relevant if the Walk ends up lasting two years. I'm hoping to finish sooner-- before I turn 40 in 2009, to be specific-- but one never knows.

But let's say the Walk lasts 18 months, with me incurring certain expenses along the way: replacement batteries for a digicam, a new pair of shoes every other state, a winter coat or new camping equipment, replenishment of first aid supplies, paying a fee to stay at a campsite for a night or two, etc. Trying to anticipate these costs is a mite difficult. What if they come out to around $300-500/month? I realize that's a big "what if," but this is the hypothetical that highlights the importance of your purchases and donations, to wit:

If the Walk lasts 18 months and my actual expenses amount to roughly $1100/month (I'm praying they will be far, far less than this total, given my hopes for free lodging, food, shower/laundry, etc.), then an 18-month walk will run me 18 x $1,100 = $19,800 (that's scholastic debt plus other expenses). If we subtract that total from our conservative estimate of $15,000, this puts me at about $4,800 in the hole. Let's round that to $5,000.

So now, having "thought out loud" here on the blog, we have a concrete number-- a fundraising total, if you will, to shoot for: $5,000 is approximately what I'll be needing to get me through an 18-month walk. Maybe I should set up one of those trite thermometer graphics to indicate how far along the fundraising has come, eh? (I jest, but I do plan on keeping fairly open records. I say "fairly" open, because I know some contributors would rather not have their names mentioned publicly. I do plan to protect people's privacy.)

As far as I'm concerned, money I earn through CafePress purchases is mine to use as I see fit. While the buyer might be specifically trying to help out the Walk (thankee), I won't feel guilty about using that money for other reasons, such as buying myself an electronic gadget that makes documenting the trip easier.

On the other hand, I have a very heavy conscience regarding donations, and have no plans to keep any money left over after the Walk is finished. So I'm telling you now: whatever money remains after the Walk is completed will be given to one or several charitable causes, and I'm willing to discuss with my readership just what those causes might be. We'll have to determine how trustworthy such causes are, but I'm sure we can arrive at a mutually agreeable solution.

Whew... money is a complicated thing.


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humble thanks

My good friends Dave and Andie were kind enough to send a very generous contribution to the Walk via PayPal. Thank you so much, guys.


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