How to Travel and Make and Receive Calls on Your Cell Number Without Paying For Roaming

Apps Lets You Roam Over Wi-Fi or 3G

First Published Date: April 12, 2015

We all have heard one of those horror stories where someone accidentally placed or received calls while roaming and ended up paying sky-rocketing roaming charges. Well, no more. There are apps now that let you roam paying little to nothing. Today, I will talk about two such apps that will let you roam on your own phone number in foreign countries without hassle and paying big fees to phone companies.

Roamer – Roamer lets you use your own cell phone number abroad and you can make or receive calls either using Wi-Fi or local SIM card cellular networks. As of this writing, you can buy SIM cards for 40 countries on the Roamer website and it comes with free international shipping. The way it works is before you travel you buy a SIM card of that country and Roamer forwards calls made to your cell phone to that local SIM, making it like a local call with low local rates in that country. If you are on Wi-Fi, you can even receive calls for free in foreign countries. The rates to call back to your home country using Wi-Fi or local networks are much cheaper than your phone companies roaming charges. The Roamer app is easy to use and has a sleek interface.

YouRoam – YouRoam allows you to make or receive calls over Wi-Fi or 3G on your cell phone number anywhere on earth. YouRoam has an unlimited plan option for $4.99 per week that lets you make and receive unlimited calls over Wi-Fi on your own US phone number. Or you can call or text for 1 cent a minute to most US numbers.

If you do not want to use apps like Roamer or YouRoam, there are other apps such as Fongo, Groove, and many more that give you real US or Canadian numbers that you can use to make or receive calls (to/from USA/Canada) while travelling via Wi-Fi anywhere on earth.

Welcome To Real Estate Expedition

Let The Real Estate Expedition Begin

First Published Date: April 27, 2009

Entering the world of real estate is something that comes with its own risks, unquestionably. There is no point in sugar-coating the obvious – in the midst of a global recession not everything will be as straightforward as it once was. But that is certainly not to say that there will not be rewards for the person who judiciously and intelligently goes about the business of investing in property. For some it is absolutely the time to invest, with prices lower than they have been for some time. Fortune favours the brave, as the old saying goes. The tricky part is judging what constitutes bravery and what is naivete.

This website is devoted to real estate, and everything that you have come to understand by that term – and more besides. For anyone looking to invest in real estate there are so many possibilities, with the risks and the rewards that come with opportunity. It is a sector that holds an almost mythical aspect in the minds of many people, with everybody knowing that there is money to be made, but that fortunes are sometimes lost in property – not to mention that it can be tricky to get started in the first place. Real estate is not a business that you can get up and running in without serious investment.

The title of this website, you will have noticed, is Real Estate Expedition. The word “expedition” tells you something about what the world of real estate is like. There is something of a voyage of discovery involved in making a foray into the business. Even if you make plans beforehand – and there is no question that it is advisable to plan fully and comprehensively – there will still be a steep learning curve, and that is something that we will hope to help you with. Tips, case studies and opinion pieces will all be a part of that.

The idea of an expedition also pays respect to the fact that you will meet with a wide and varied range of opportunities and questions. Real estate can be as insular as you like – if you are looking to buy a house in a different part of town there will be no less a process to follow. It can also be something that involves a very broad search and a big step into the unknown. It is becoming more and more common for people to buy properties in another country for holidays or even for the purpose of emigrating. We will cover those topics too.

Venturing into the real estate business can be extremely rewarding, as long as you take full account of the very real challenges it will present you with. Challenge is not something of which to be afraid, because it is in taking the challenges on and overcoming them that you really earn your money and your invaluable experience, something that will serve you well if you intend to make a career or even a lucrative sideline in the property business. Let us be your guides on a journey that could be the most interesting you ever make.

To streamline and minimize blog maintenance, I will be discontinuing maintaining the realestateexpedition.com website (however, I will still hold the domain). I will gradually move all articles from this site to A Dawn Journal. This article originally published on the above website on Apr 27, 2009.

Money Saving Tips

Simple Ways To Save Money

First Published Date: Dec 8, 2008

Today, I will discuss how you can save money by taking these simple steps. Let’s look at five areas we spend money on a daily basis. 

Save Money On Cable TV

Cable TV can cost you from $50 to $100 per month – which translates approximately $600 to $1200 annually. These amount are hard cash you are paying with your after-tax money. If you think in terms of before-tax income, you will be saving a lot of money. Living without cable is not impossible. Many people watch broadcast channels, which are free and you can do it too. If you think this is not something you can do, switch from premium cable to basic cable – which will cut your cost in half. Do you really need to have 1000 channels that you hardly watch?

Save Money On Lunch

How much does lunch cost these days? It costs somewhere between $7 to $12 to have a decent lunch. Let’s assume you are spending $10 per day. How much money you are spending annually? $2,400 each year and this is your after-tax money. What it means that if you can eliminate buying lunch all together, you can give yourself a raise of about $4,000 (if you are in a 42% tax bracket) annually. If you can’t cut lunch daily, at least bring lunch from home three or two times a day and still you will be saving a lot of money.

Save Money On Home Phone

We subscribe to lots of features we never use. Cut all these features and live with a basic phone service. You  may be able cut your cost by about 40%. Keep an eye for other phone company offers and rewards. If they are giving the same services you have at lower costs, switch your phone company. Also, you can ask your existing phone company that their competitor is offering it at much lower prices and ask for discounts. Chances are high that you will get it.

Save Money On Cell Phone

Added features on a monthly plan can cost you a bundle. Try to stick to a basic plan that meet your needs. Pay As You Go is an option you should be looking at. Usually it costs a lot less except some extra features. One thing I like about Pay As You Go is that there is no System Access fee. Also, Pay As You Go already includes features like caller id, voice mail etc for free. Nowadays, you can buy unlimited evenings and weekends Pay As You Go services without breaking your bank account.

Save Money On Internet Phone

VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) gives you the opportunity to use your high speed Internet to make phone calls and save money. Home phone plans using VOIP can be as low as $10 per month. Many VOIP companies offer this type of services. To find one, just do an online search entering VOIP, Internet phone keywords. You can even make long distance calls for free these days. Here is an article which explains how to do it –

How To Make Free North American Long Distance Calls

Save Money On Internet Subscription

If you degrade your Internet subscription to a lighter version, you will be able to save 20% to 35% right away. Most likely you will not even notice that you are using a lighter version. This is huge saving as this is a recurring cost you are saving each month, month after month. Another way you can save by switching a no brand name Internet provider. Small Internet providers can offer better rates and savings than brand name ones. You need to do your homework to find one. Just do an online search by entering "Internet service provider" and look for better rates.

Save Money On Magazine Subscriptions

Do you really need to subscribe (or buy) all those magazines which you never have time to read? Most of the magazine publishers put  these magazine contents online for free after a few weeks. You just need to be patient  to save money sometimes.

After reading these tips, start following them to save money. You may not be able to follow each of these but at least try a couple of them and see where it takes you.

To streamline and minimize blog maintenance, I will be discontinuing maintaining the Canadapersonalfinancewebsite.com website (however, I will still hold the domain). I will gradually move all articles from this site to A Dawn Journal. This article originally published on the above website on Dec 8, 2008.

Money Hacks Sample Covers

One Money Hacks Cover Will Be Final Among Four Covers

First Published Date: November 22, 2014

My next eBook Money Hacks: How Small Changes Can Save Big Money is currently going through its cover designing. Cover designers will make four different covers and one of them will be finalized.

Today, I am presenting the first cover that is available as of this moment for my readers. I will try to post the other 3 covers as well to let everyone have a glimpse of how each cover would look like.

On a separate note, the format designer completed formatting the book from Word to Amazon compatible Mobi format. So you can say that the major work is done on the book. The only wait now is to get 3 more covers from a different cover designer and picking the best cover that suits the book.

I am looking at late November or early December when Money Hacks will be published. So in about 3 more weeks the wait will be over.

NB – After writing this, another 3 covers became available and I am also attaching it here.

Money Hacks: How Small Changes Can Save Big Money Has Been Published

Walk Into Stores With Confidence

First Published Date: November 25, 2014

Buy Money Hacks: How Small Changes Can Save Big Money

I am writing this post to let you all know that my second book Money Hacks has been published and is available to download on Amazon. Unlike my first paperback book Invest Now, which is available at physical bookstores and at all online bookstores, Money Hacks will be available only as an eBook. Money Hacks is a part of Amazon KDP Select program and available exclusively through Amazon Kindle.

Money Hacks delivers surprisingly simple steps to save money. By following practical steps to save money through various walks of life mentioned in Money Hacks, you should be able to save at least $100 monthly anywhere on earth, as Money Hacks has been designed for global readers.

Money Hacks will be available for free for 5 days (starting coming weekend) and you can download from the link mentioned here. However, to make it affordable for everyone I have priced it at only $2.99. So if you miss the free time frame, you can still buy it without breaking the bank.

As there will be several press releases and posts in the coming days, I will keep you posted on A Dawn Journal. I thank all my readers for their support.