Since I’ve been living a fairly transient lifestyle for the past three years, I’ve definitely come to appreciate things that make it easier to handle the mundane things like receiving my mail, paying bills, calling friends, doing my banking, etc. Now that I’m heading home, I thought I’d give you a list of things that have helped me out in this regard, in case you too would like to take a romp and live out of a suitcase for a few years…
Mail Management
MBE: First on the list has got to be Mailboxes Etc. I’ve had a box there for going on three years now, and it’s allowed me to keep a stable address where I can receive all my mail no matter where I might be. Once a month, I usually get the mail forwarded (for a small fee plus the forwarding cost) to wherever I physically am at the time.
Remote Control Mail: If only this had been around a few years ago… I haven’t used this service, but it takes the idea of using MBE as an address proxy to the next level. Remote Control Mail will actually allow you to view your mail pieces online, have envelopes discarded, shredded, or opened and scanned for reading online. You can then elect to have mail selectively forwarded to you physically should you choose to do so. Pretty nifty!
Phone Management
Skype: Skype is pretty much all you need in this department, especially if you’re overseas. Talk for free to other Skype users, or even video-conference, totally cross-platform (well almost… the Linux version doesn’t have video). And, for a few cents a minute, you can also call internationally to any regular landline, and if you wish, get a regular phone number that people can call you at on Skype. A definite must have.
Grand Central: I haven’t used this yet, but it’s an interesting idea and I thought I’d mention it here. Basically the idea is you get a US phone number and keep it for life. People call this number and it will automatically ring all your available phones, mobile, home, office, etc., in an effort to find you. You can accept it, send it to vm, even screen it while the caller is leaving a voicemail. The main sell is a unified voicemail box for all your lines, and you can easily change your various numbers while keeping the main one constant. And it’s totally free.
Financial Matters
Paytrust: I’ve used these guys for a couple of years with no problems. If you already do bill payment through your online banking, then you know the concept, receive and pay your bills online. Paytrust is pretty much the same deal except they do have one kind of cool feature where they provide you with a real postal address where you can receive your paper bills that can’t be received electronically. They then scan them and present them to you online for payment.
While not a service in itself, I thought I’d mention one strategy that I’ve found to work quite well for bill payment; if you can, rather than paying every bill individually every month, have them automatically charged to a credit card. Then all you have to do is pay the credit card bill at the end of the month, and you’re done in one transaction. It’s also a nice way to rack up a lot points, miles, cashback or whatever your card is giving you…
Online banking: You do do online banking right?
TurboTax: The last two years I’ve filed using a totally online process over at TurboTax. If you’re a bit jittery about giving your financial data to them, then perhaps this isn’t for you. However, if you’re willing to take the leap of faith, it is hands down the easiest way to file from abroad. File electronically, get your refund electronically, no tearing your hair out trying to find US Letter sized paper when the rest of the world uses A4…
Well, that’s all that I can think of for the moment. If you have any more tips, please let me know, I’m always interested in new stuff :-)