About Buta Airways Baku - Tbilisi fight

13 August, 2019 | Travel guides | 12 seen

Buta Airways is an Azerbaijani low-cost virtual carrier, headquartered in Baku, with its primary operational base at Heydar Aliyev International Airport. It is a fully owned subsidiary of Azerbaijan Airlines.

We fled with Buta Airways at the start of August 2019 from Baku - Tbilisi. The flight was served from Heydar Aliyev International Airport Terminal 2. And that's what I really enjoyed - Terminal 2 is quite small, no need to travel long distances to find gates and so on. Really compact and neat.

We bought three adults tickets and paid about $300 for that. Our baby girl (13-month-old) for the first time in her short flying carrier got a separate seat

Air distance between Baku to Tbilisi is about 450 kilometers (280 miles). The flight takes about 1 hour. Despite labeled as a low-cost carrier  - Buta Airways serves free onboard snacks and what's more important has plenty of the legroom. Buta Airways fleet consists of Embraer 190 aircraft., which can take up to 106 passengers. 

The E190/195 models are a larger stretch of the E170/175 models fitted with a new, larger wing, a larger horizontal stabilizer, two emergency overwing exits, and a new engine, the GE CF34-10E, rated at 18,500 lb (82.30 kN). These aircraft compete with the Bombardier CRJ-1000 and Airbus A220-100, the Boeing 717-200 and 737-600, and the Airbus A318. It can carry up to 100 passengers in a two-class configuration or up to 124 in single-class high-density configuration.

By 2018, the first E190s value was below $10 million and can be leased below $100,000, while most recent ones are worth $30 million and can be leased for less than $200,000 per month.

Top Best Selling NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti Gaming Laptops

12 August, 2019 | Laptop Reviews | 39 seen

The GeForce® GTX 1660 Ti and 1660 are built with the breakthrough graphics performance of the award-winning NVIDIA Turing™ architecture. 

Get amazing performance and image quality while live streaming to Twitch or YouTube. GTX 1660 Ti and 1660’s dedicated hardware encoders deliver 15% improved efficiency over prior-generation graphics cards and are optimized for Open Broadcaster Software (OBS).

Unlike with PC's where you can extend your computer with a GPU, when choosing a laptop your options are more limited and in general, you cannot change the graphics card.

In this article, I've listed some of the best selling NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 TI gaming laptops available for sale on Amazon.  Most of  the gaming laptops listed below feature either latest 9th generation intel core i7 or AMD quad-core Ryzen 7 processor 

• Top 20 Gaming Laptops with NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 6GB Graphics card
• Top 5 Best Selling Intel Core i9 (Gaming) Processor Laptops
• Top 10 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 Gaming Laptops

A quick note: This article contains affiliate links to Amazon.com, by clicking on links on this page and by making a purchase on Amazon site, I will earn an affiliate income at no cost to you. Prices for laptops listed on this page are retrieved using Amazon Product Advertising API and is updated daily. For actual prices please refer on the product page on Amazon.

Acer Predator Helios 300 Gaming Laptop PC, 15.6" Full HD 144Hz 3ms IPS Display, Intel i7-9750H, GTX 1660 Ti 6GB, 16GB DDR4, 256GB PCIe NVMe SSD, Backlit Keyboard, PH315-52-78VL

Ready for battle and eager for a fight, the Helios 300 drops you into the game with everything you need. Only now we’ve armed it with NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti graphics, the latest 9th Gen Intel Core i7 Processor and our custom-engineered 4th Gen AeroBlade 3D Fan Technology. With the 144Hz IPS panel and 3ms Overdrive response time you can say farewell to blur and hello clear, crisp, high-octane gameplay.

• 9th Generation Intel Core i7 9750H 6 Core Processor (Up to 4.5GHz) with Windows 10 Home 64 Bit
• NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti Graphics with 6GB of dedicated GDDR6 VRAM
• 15.6 inches Full HD (1920 x 1080) Widescreen LED backlit IPS Display (144Hz Refresh Rate, 3ms Overdrive Response Time, 300nit Brightness and 72 percentage NTSC)
• 16GB DDR4 2666MHz Memory, 256GB PCIe NVMe SSD (2 x PCIe M.2 Slots | 1 Slot Open for Easy Upgrades) and 1 Available Hard Drive Bay
• Backlit Keyboard | LAN: Killer Ethernet E2500 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet LAN | Wireless: Killer DoubleShot Pro Wireless AC 1550 802. 11ac | 4th Gen All Metal AeroBlade 3D Fan

List Price: [amazon B07QXLFLXT listpriceformattedprice] Buy this laptop on Amazon

ASUS TUF (2019) Gaming Laptop, 15.6” 120Hz FHD IPS-Type, AMD Ryzen 7 R7-3750H, GeForce GTX 1660 Ti, 16GB DDR4, 256GB PCIe SSD + 1TB HDD, Gigabit Wi-Fi 5, RGB KB, Windows 10 Home, TUF505DU-EB74

Featuring AMD Ryzen processors and GeForce GTX 16-Series graphics, TUF Gaming TUF505 adeptly handles modern game titles while providing reliability and stability to stand apart from the competition with anti-dust cooling and a durable MIL-STD-810G rated chassis with RGB backlit keyboard.

• Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 Ti 6GB graphics (base: 1455MHz, Boost: 1590MHz, TDP: 80W)
• Quad core AMD Ryzen 7 3750H Processor
• 15.6” Full HD (1920x1080) 120Hz IPS Type Display
• 256GB PCIe NVMe SSD + 1TB HDD | 16GB DDR4 RAM | Windows 10 Home
• Gigabit wave 2 Wi Fi 5 (802.11AC)
• Portable design with 1.02” thin profile | durable MIL STD 810 military standard construction
• Rgb backlit Keyboard rated for 20 million keystroke durability | Dual fans with anti dust technology

List Price: [amazon B07QQB6DC1 listpriceformattedprice] Buy this laptop on Amazon

Acer 2019 Predator Helios 300 15.6 Inch FHD Gaming Laptop (9th Gen Intel 6-Core i7-9750H up to 4.5 GHz, 32GB RAM, 1TB PCIe SSD, Backlit Keyboard, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti, WiFi, Bluetooth, Win 10)

• 15.6 Inch diagonal FHD IPS micro-edge WLED-backlit multitouch-enabled edge-to-edge glass with Corning Gorilla Glass NBT (1920 x 1080). NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti, 9th Gen Intel 6-Core i7-9750H (2.6 GHz base frequency, up to 4.5 GHz burst frequency, 12 MB cache)
• RAM is upgraded to 32GB memory for multitasking Adequate high-bandwidth RAM to smoothly run multiple applications and browser tabs all at once
• Hard Drive is upgraded to 1TB PCIe SSD provides massive storage space for huge files, so that you can store important digital data and work your way through it with ease. It gives you enormous space to save all of your files. Enhance the overall performance of the laptop for business, student, daily usage.
• 1 x USB 3.0, 2 x USB 3.0, 1 x SD Card reader, 1 x HDMI, 1 x USB-C 3.1 Gen 1, 1 x Headphone/microphone combo jack
• Windows 10 Home brings back the Start Menu from Windows 7 and introduces new features, like the Edge Web browser that lets you markup Web pages on your screen. | 1-Year UpgradePro Limited Warranty* | View description and warranty section below for more details.

List Price: [amazon B07VN8PTW8 listpriceformattedprice] Buy this laptop on Amazon

Acer 2019 Predator Helios 300 15.6 Inch FHD Gaming Laptop (9th Gen Intel 6-Core i7-9750H up to 4.5 GHz, 16GB RAM, 512GB PCIe SSD + 1TB HDD, Backlit Keyboard, GTX 1660 Ti, WiFi, Bluetooth, Win 10)

• 15.6 Inch diagonal FHD IPS micro-edge WLED-backlit multitouch-enabled edge-to-edge glass with Corning Gorilla Glass NBT (1920 x 1080). NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti, 9th Gen Intel 6-Core i7-9750H (2.6 GHz base frequency, up to 4.5 GHz burst frequency, 12 MB cache)
• RAM is upgraded to 16GB memory for multitasking Adequate high-bandwidth RAM to smoothly run multiple applications and browser tabs all at once
• Hard Drive is upgraded to 512GB PCIe SSD + 1TB HDD provides massive storage space for huge files, so that you can store important digital data and work your way through it with ease. It gives you enormous space to save all of your files. Enhance the overall performance of the laptop for business, student, daily usage.
• 1 x USB 3.0, 2 x USB 3.0, 1 x SD Card reader, 1 x HDMI, 1 x USB-C 3.1 Gen 1, 1 x Headphone/microphone combo jack
• Windows 10 Home brings back the Start Menu from Windows 7 and introduces new features, like the Edge Web browser that lets you markup Web pages on your screen. | 1-Year UpgradePro Limited Warranty

List Price: [amazon B07VN81SVN listpriceformattedprice] Buy this laptop on Amazon

XPC MSI GL75 Gamer Notebook (Intel 9th Gen i7-9750H, 16GB RAM, 512GB NVMe SSD, NVIDIA GTX 1660 TI 6GB, 17.3" Full HD 120Hz, Windows 10) Gaming Laptop

• Processor: 9th Gen Intel Coffee Lake Core i7-9750H Six Core (2.6GHz-4.5GHz, 12MB Intel Smart Cache, 45W)
• RAM: 16GB DDR4 2666MHz | Hard Drive: 512GB NVMe SSD
• Keyboard: Steel Series per-Key RGB with Anti-Ghost key+ silver lining | Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 (64-bit) Multi-language
• Display: 17.3" Full HD (1920 x 1080) IPS-Level 120Hz 45% NTSC Display | Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 TI 6GB GDDR6

List Price: [amazon B07W8WLPWN listpriceformattedprice] Buy this laptop on Amazon

XPC MSI GL65 (Intel 9th Gen i5-9300H, NVIDIA GTX 1660 Ti 6GB, 15.6" Full HD 120Hz 3ms) Gaming Laptop

• Processor: 9th Gen Intel Coffee Lake Core i5-9300H Quad Core (2.4GHz-4.1GHz, 8MB Intel Smart Cache, 45W)
• RAM: 8GB DDR4 2666MHz | Hard Drive: 512GB NVMe SSD
• Keyboard: Steel Series per-Key RGB with Anti-Ghost key+ silver lining | Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 (64-bit) Multi-language
• Display: 15.6" Full HD (1920 x 1080) IPS-Level 120Hz 3ms 94% NTSC (100% sRGB) Display | Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti 6GB GDDR6

List Price: [amazon B07W5R4T4M listpriceformattedprice] Buy this laptop on Amazon

Goodwill Gori Higway

11 August, 2019 | Shopping Venues | 71 seen

Goodwill near Gori - Tbilisi Highway is a convenient rest area/supermarket/ eatery while driving to Tbilisi (from Kutaisi or Batumi, for example)

Goodwill was one of the first supermarket chains in Georgia. I wouldn't call this store a supermarket in the classic sense, as mostly here are sold long-lasting food items, though there is a stand for fresh products, like milk, eggs and so on).

We keep stopping here, to buy some milk, coffee or Pringles chips and to take some coffee, when returning back from trips to Tbilisi

Goodwill near Gori - Tbilisi highway

There is also located Socar gas station

On the opposite side of the highway (driving from Tbilisi), there is a Wendy's store

How To Withdraw Funds from Deribit

9 August, 2019 | Crypto | 105 seen

Withdrawing funds from Deribit platform is very easy. Keep reading to learn more.

Disclosure: This article contains affiliate links to deribit.com options trading website, by clicking on links on this page and by making investment on derbit.com, I might earn affiliate income at no cost to you.

I'm not a financial advisor and I don't give you any advice, I'm just sharing my own experience. Investments in stocks, funds, bonds or cryptos are risk investments and you could lose some or all of your money. Do your due diligence before investing in any kind of asset. 

Withdraw Ethereum​ from Deribit

Log in to Deribit.com , make sure you have selected Ethereum tab from the upper navigation menu:

Ethereum tab

from the menu on the right side, under your username click on Withdrawal

Ethereum withdrawal from Deribit platform

Warning: Only withdraw directly to your Ethereum wallet, not to other exchanges. Withdrawing to other exchanges might result in losing your funds.

Enter details for Ethereum withdrawal address 

Click on the Edit button to register new ETH withdrawal address, a popup window will appear, click on Create a new ETH address

Creating a new ETH withdrawal address on Deribit

Enter your Withdrawal Address, I will use ETH wallet at MyEtherWallet. in the field Address Name I will name in MyEtherWallet

Click on the Create a new address button

Close the popup window and now you are good to go - transfer ETH out from Deribit

Withdrawing ETH from Deribit

Enter the amount of ETH you want to withdraw and click on the Withdraw button

Now is the good time check your email inbox for Link for withdrawal confirmation from Deribit

Confirm from email.

It took less than a minute for funds to arrive at MyEtherWallet.com

Withdraw Bitcoin​ from Deribit

The steps for withdrawing Bitcoin from Deribit platform are the same as when withdrawing ETH. Except you should enter your bitcoin address instead of ethereum.

Antalya Aquarium

8 August, 2019 | Tourism objects | 10 seen

As one of the biggest aquarium complexes of the world, Antalya Aquarium offers inspiration, entertainment and education all at once.

After touring the 40 thematic aquariums, you will come across the biggest tunnel aquarium of the World with a length of 131 meters and a width of 3 meters.

We paid about an hour and a half long visit to Antalya aquarium in June 2019. We booked a trip here while staying at Kirman Belazur Resort &Spa from Pegas Touristik, and paid about $100. The fee included a ride to and back from our hotel for two adults and a baby and entrance tickets at the aquarium. 

Antalya aquarium

Antalya aquarium features - worlds biggest tunnel aquarium (length of 131 meters), Snow World Ice museum, XD cinema, Tropical reptile house (separate tickets should be purchased)

Different species of fish at Antalya aquarium

The largest tunnel aquarium of the world will be waiting for you with a length of 131 meters and width of 3 meters inside the main tank with a capacity of more than 5 million liters. Please remember to take a look at the story of the aircraft wreck at full-scale that will confront you at the very beginning.

Sharks floating around sculptures

The first section of the tunnel is the place where tropical reef is described. The decoration here is one of the largest tropical reef decorations of the world. The first part of the tunnel is connected to the underwater cave. The windows here are the ones from which you can take a look at the creatures inside the tank the closest. The second part of the tunnel describes the Sunken City Atlantis and Mediterranean themes and then leads up to the pirate wreck observation point. You can rest by sitting in amphitheater order here and watch the sharks that wander around the treasures. When you enter the third and the longest part of the tunnel, you will see that the submarine here hosts many interesting underwater creatures. Remember to see the sharks and rays passing over you.

Worlds biggest tunnel - aquarium

You need to brand it somehow, right? lol

July 2019 Dividend Income Report - $247.06

7 August, 2019 | Investments | 18 seen

Welcome to the twenty-seventh (#27) dividend income report, covering earnings I've made from dividend-paying stocks and peer to peer lending in July 2019.

Hawk-eyed blog readers will notice that I have dropped cryptocurrency lending from the top. And that's true, I have stopped lending crypto online on Poloniex.com, instead, I'm trading crypto options on Deribit. 

Our baby daughter last July turned 1, and for that special event we traveled back to Latvia (spent 2 weeks there) - had a nice family gathering and very awesome 1-year birthday celebrations at Baltvilla hotel

Birthday decorations for our baby girls birthday at Hotel Baltivilla restaurant terrace

Disclosure: This article contains affiliate links to mintos.com peer to peer lending and deribit.com options trading websites, by clicking on links on this page and by making investment mintos.com or derbit.com, I might earn affiliate income at no cost to you. Also, I'm not a financial advisor and I don't give you any advice, I'm just sharing my own experience. Investments in stocks, funds, bonds or cryptos are risk investments and you could lose some or all of your money. Do your due diligence before investing in any kind of asset. 

Sign up for Mintos.com here. By using my affiliate link for registration both you and I will receive — 1% of our average daily balance which should be paid in 3 installments for the first 90 days.

$247.06 was taken from dividend stocks and peer to peer lending in July 2019. That's actually about $50 less than expected, but I will take that.

Additional $527.20 were made from options trading, but as options trading is not actually a passive form of making money while you are sleeping it wouldn't be fair to include them in dividend income report. On the other hand option income is a nice way to give a boost to the overall portfolio.

Last but not least, last July I traded options on cryptocurrencies using Deribit platform, which resulted in + 1.738944 ETH ($374.88) and + 0.00851 BTC ($85.19). In total $460.07

When counted all together (dividends + options + crypto options), it seems I have made $1,234.33 in total last month. Wow. 

Last month, income from dividends + options + crypto options helped to generate a 3.69% yield from the total value of the portfolio. That's about 44.28% annually.

Interest income in July 2019

From the stocks and Mintos.com peer to peer lending  I got following income last month:

Ticker

Earnings

GZE1R

€49.49

NRZ

€48.70

Mintos

€47.92

PNNT

€21.39

EDI

€11.59

OLF1R

€8.10

CODI

€7.78

EDF

€6.90

CLM

€5.51

RA

€4.27

NCV

€3.83

AWP

€3.83

Total: EUR 218.64 / USD 247.08

In total there were 12 great companies paying us dividends in July, that's 4 companies more than in July 2018

Mintos has slipped to 3rd place in terms of interest income generated, that's because I got yearly payment from Latvijas Gāze (GZE1R) and quarterly payment from New Residential Investment Corp (NRZ)

Mintos.com Review After 24 Month of Investing in Peer to Peer Lending

The YoY growth rate for my dividend income in July 2019 was + 21.80% or  $44.22 more than a year ago on July 2018. Now, this is not quite the growth rate I'm happy with, would love to see at least $60-$70 growth in a year. But I will take it.

Monthly income

My journey towards million dollars in savings account now is more than 2 and a half years old. The result, so far, looks quite good. Dividends are growing. 

Monthly Income chart as of July 2019

The cumulative earnings for 2019 now are $1,373.30 which is exactly 67.15% from my goal of 2019 ($2,045). On average, it would ask me to generate $134.34 every month for the next 5 months to reach my goal. Looks quite doable

2018 in Review and Financial Goals for 2019

Goals for July 2020

This is my favorite part of the reports - trying to forecast/set goals for the next year. But before setting a goal for 2020, let's see what I forecasted/said a year ago (July 2018)

Now, when speaking about July 2019 - I will set a goal to crack $300. Hard but doable.

Now, I missed my goal by some lame $50, on the other hand, I made more than $1,000 with the help of options trading. So I will take that!

For 2020, I'm looking to take at least $400 in dividend income. I believe to get there I will increase my stake with NRZ, PNNT (quarterly big payers) and probably some monthly dividend-paying stocks (EDI, EDF, RA, AWP)

Now, how about you? Did you make some extra last month? Leave me a comment, readers and I would love to hear!

Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS STM Zoom Lens Review

26 July, 2019 | Digital Photography School | 14 seen

At the end of July, I finally got replacement lens for original Canon Rebel T5 (Canon 1200D) DSLR camera - I ordered online from Amazon Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS STM Zoom Lens.

For the original kit lens, the autofocus stopped working properly and for the most time I had to shoot in manual mode, it's perfectly fine for me, but I admit having working autofocus is really neat, it can help a lot (for example in bright sunlight).

I was inching between 18-55mm zoom lens and 24mm pancake lens, but after all, I went tor the 18-55mm (as I have been shooting with it for the last 4 years)

Top 5 Best Selling Canon EF / EF-S Lenses 2019

Designed for high-quality still image and video capture while being compact and lightweight, the new EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS STM lens features the optics, AF and image stabilization necessary for shooting in any number of situations.

Please note this article contains links to Amazon by clicking on links on this page and by making a purchase on Amazon site, I might earn an affiliate income from that at no cost to you.

Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS STM Zoom Lens

In total, I paid ~ $79 for this STM zoom lens, which is a fair price. The STM is quiet and will work for video shooting excellent.

When you see a Canon lens with STM in the name, it means that it features Canon’s Stepper Motor technology. Canon introduced this motor design to be a quieter and smoother focus system that allows for near-silent focusing during video recording. When Canon’s lenses were first designed many years ago, DSLRs could not shoot video so there was no need for them to be extremely quiet. These days, not only do Canon’s DSLRs and mirrorless cameras shoot video, but they also have the Cinema EOS line of movie cameras which also use the same EF Mount lenses.

Capturing details with Canon EF-S 18-15mm lens

For brilliant image quality, it has one high-precision aspheric lens to reduce chromatic aberration throughout the zoom range. It features optimized lens coatings to ensure exceptional color balance while minimizing ghosting and flare and a 7-blade circular aperture to ensure beautiful, soft backgrounds. For outstanding performance, the EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS STM lens perfectly complements the Movie Servo AF feature found on select EOS Cameras with a compact six-group zoom system and a new stepping motor and focus mechanism to deliver smooth and quiet continuous AF during movie shooting. Still photography benefits from a high-speed CPU and an optimized AF algorithm.

Full-time manual focus is available in AF mode and the front element does not rotate during focus, perfect for use with polarizing filters. Handheld photography is enhanced by the lens' Optical Image Stabilizer system, offering the equivalent of four stops of compensation. Compact and highly versatile, it is the ideal lens to carry anywhere.

Landscape photography at 55mm

Specifications

• Focal Length & Maximum Aperture: 18–55mm 1:3.5–5.6
• Lens Construction: 13 elements in 11 groups
• Diagonal Angle of View: 74°20' – 27°50'
• Focus Adjustment: Inner focusing system
• Closest Focusing Distance: 0.82 ft. / 0.25m
• Filter Size: 58mm
• Max Diameter x Length, Weight: 2.7 x 3.0 inches, approx. 7.2 oz. / 69.0 x 75.2mm, approx. 205g

Fix for Drupal 'Social Share Counter' module - Facebook Counter Not Working

16 July, 2019 | Drupal Development | 9 seen

I have been using Drupal's Social Share counter module for some time already. It worked great until recently it stopped and all posts were showing 0 shares.

After a quick research on the modules issue page, I found the solution: Facebook share counter not working

Facebook has changed its API recently, so the URL http://graph.facebook.com/?id=URL, which is used by the module no longer works and the share counter is always 0.

There is also a patch provided to fix this issue:

After patching social share counter was back and counting. Hope it helps

Gonio Fortress

14 July, 2019 | Military Heritage | 19 seen

Gonio fortress, previously called Apsaros, or Apsarunto, is a Roman fortification in Adjara, Georgia, on the Black Sea, 15 km south of Batumi, at the mouth of the Chorokhi river. The village sits 4 km north of the Turkish border.

Gonio has been on my radar since I probably first visited Batumi back in the Summer of 2011, but for the first time, I visited this ancient Roman site at the end of April 2019, while doing an easy weekend trip around the region of Adjara.

The entrance fee was 3 GEL (April 2019)

Fortification walls at Gonio Fortress

For those of you interested in history:

The oldest reference to the fortress is by Pliny the Elder[ in the Natural History (1st century AD). There is also a reference to the ancient name of the site in Appian’s Mithridatic Wars (2nd century AD). In the 2nd century AD it was a well-fortified Roman city within Colchis. The town was also known for its theatre and hippodrome. It later came under Byzantine influence. The name "Gonio" is first attested in Michael Panaretos in the 14th century. In addition, there was a short-lived Genoese trade factory at the site. In 1547 Gonio was taken by the Ottomans, who held it until 1878, when, via the San-Stefano Treaty, Adjara became part of the Russian empire. In the fall of 1647, according to Evliya Çelebi, Gonio was captured by a Cossack navy of 70 chaikas, but quickly recovered by Ghazi Sidi Ahmed, ruler of the Tortum sanjak, with a force of 1,000 Turks and 3,000 "Mingrelians".

Inside the Gonio fortress

The grave of Saint Matthias, one of the twelve apostles, is believed to be inside the Gonio fortress. However, this is unverifiable as the Georgian government currently prohibits digging near the supposed gravesite. Other archaeological excavations are however taking place on the grounds of the fortress, focusing on Roman layers.

Gonio fortress

Gonio is currently experiencing a tourism boom. Most tourists come from Tbilisi in the summer months to enjoy beaches that are generally regarded as cleaner than Batumi's beaches (located 15 km to the north).

Free parking in front of the main entrance gates of Gonio fortress

One Year Anniversary for the Child's Stock Investment Portfolio

13 July, 2019 | Investments | 13 seen

Today, on July 13th, we are celebrating both 1-year anniversaries for our baby daughter and her stock investment portfolio.

In today's article, I will shed some light on the second (investment portfolio) a year after.

Originally I come up with a plan to build a high-yield $10,000 child investment portfolio by the time our baby girl will turn 2. (July 2020). Right now we are looking at $80-$100 monthly dividends by the time she will turn 2.  

Since July 2018 we have invested $5,485.07 in 8 stocks. In our first year, we have generated a dividend income of $241.36 ($71.12 back in 2018; $170.14 in 2019). That's about 4.4% dividend yield.

Unfortunately, we have experienced a -4.75% value drop, luckily dividends level things up, and after the first year, the value + dividends = -0.13%. 

Market value

Our child's portfolio now has as TTM at $590.64, giving daily $1.62 and hourly 0.07$. 

• On the average portfolio generates $49.22/mo

Plans / Goals for Second child's Stock Investment anniversary

We are looking on about invested $10.000 by July 2020, our goal is to reach on the average $110/mo from dividend income.

For the next year, I will look for more stocks on which we could sell options to generate additional income, and boost our dividend income portfolio for baby daughter. 

Investment Goal #7 - Selling Puts to Own / Generate Income

HP ENVY x360 - 15-cn0003ur Convertable Touchscreen Laptop Review

9 July, 2019 | Gadget Reviews | 44 seen

HP ENVY x360 - convertible touchscreen Laptop is the latest addition to our home office. Bought at the local Tbilisi shop in early June 2019. Paid about $1,150 but I believe you could get one much cheaper on Amazon

Equipped with Backlit keyboard, FULL HD 1920X1080 screen resolution, this laptop will make many envy it. lol

Top 20 Laptops with Full HD 1920X1080 Resolution

From its distinctive materials and iconic design, this PC exudes unparalleled beauty. Built thin and light for those on-the-go - expect premium design features including a brilliant backlit keyboard, seamless profile, and geometric pattern speaker grill.

Top 20 Best Selling Laptops with a backlit keyboard 2019

Please note this article contains links to Amazon by clicking on links on this page and by making a purchase on Amazon site, I might earn an affiliate income from that at no cost to you.

HP Envy in a box

More power, more security, and more ways to do it all. The convertible 15" (38.1 cm) HP ENVY x360 lets you adapt to anything your day has in store, without sacrificing power or security. With the power and versatility you want and a suite of cutting-edge security features you need, you can stay productive and protected like never before.

Top 20 Aluminium Chassis Notebook / Laptop Computers

HP Envy x360

Last, but not least this laptop easily converts into a tablet

HP Envy x360 tablet mode

Technical details

Kirman Belazur Resort &Spa Review in Antalya, Turkey

5 July, 2019 | Hotel reviews | 27 seen

Situated at the seafront, Kirman Hotels Belazur Resort & Spa has a private beach but you don't need a beach when you have one of the longest warm water outdoor pools. 

There is a water park and a bowling alley on site and guests can enjoy the restaurant and bar. Free WiFi is featured throughout the hotel and free private parking is available on site.

We booked a tour package from Tbilisi to Turkey's region of Antalya and chose this 5-star resort hotel in Belek (the total amount we paid for this tour package with a charter flight from Tbilisi to Antalya and Back was about USD 1,200 for a 6-night stay). Our trip took us here in early June 2019. For booking this trip we chose the local Georgian company Discovery which sold us a tour in partnership with Pegas Touristik

Top 5-star Luxury Hotels in Belek (Antalya /All - Inclusive)

For me, this was the first time experience booking all-inclusive tour package with a charter flight. Actually, there are not many all-inclusive hotels from my travel list, the last one I remember was back in 2016 in Spain's Torremolinos (see: Hotel Parasol Garden Review in Torremolinos, Spain) 

Kirman Belazur Resort & Spa hotel in Belek, Turkey

During our 6 night stay here I made about 200 hundred photos here, mostly family portraits and just in the last evening I took a tripod and made the above long exposure picture.

What can I say - rooms are decent, we got a seaside view room in a separate building, the room was soundproof, or there were little guests during our stay there.  Cannot complain about sounds issues.

Food is good, and you can eat all day along, including taking free alcohol, there are two coffee bars (the lobby and on the ground level, where you can get drinks all day long). We opted for cappuccinos and sprite with ice instead of sipping wine or something stronger. Also, I didn't notice any drunk persons during our time here. Probably because this is because the hotel is very kid friendly, and there were many families with kids, including us with our little baby girl, during our stay here, she was 11-month old.

There are many activities for kids, starting a small baby pool, ending a separate aqua park, which unfortunately we didn't visit any time this time. There is a gym, which is basic, just a few treadmills, dumbbells and a few machines. I visited gym twice and was very satisfied taking a swim after a workout at the outdoor pool.

About rooms: Each room comes with a flat-screen TV with satellite channels. Some rooms include a seating area where you can relax. Some units have views of the mountains or pool. Each room has a private bathroom. For your comfort, you will find free toiletries and a hairdryer.

The resort offers a spa and wellness centre. There is a sauna, hammam, and a fitness centre on site. You can also engage in various activities, such as golfing and canoeing.

My partner visited SPA in the first day and spent about USD 100 for more than  2 hour (anti-stress package, face-lift, massage with oils and so on). Very professional SPA, not touristic service. You got what you paid for..

June 2019 Dividend Income Report - $299.51

3 July, 2019 | Investments | 18 seen

Welcome to the twenty-sixth (#26) dividend income report, covering earnings I've made from dividend-paying stocks, peer to peer lending (both fiat and cryptocurrencies) in June 2019.

At the start of June, we booked an All - Inclusive tour package from Tbilisi to Turkey's Antalya and spent a week in a 5-star hotel SPA and resort in Belek.

I made the following long exposure picture in the last evening while in the resort:

Kirman Belazur Resort and Spa 5-star hotel in Belek, Turkey

Learn more: Kirman Belazur Resort&Spa Review in Antalya, Turkey

$299.51 was taken from dividend stocks and peer to peer lending in June 2019. Ahh, so close to crack $300, that we could even smell it, but unfortunately not this time.

Actually, I doubt I will manage to crack $300 anytime soon (at least not this year, though anything could happen), but on the other hand we are in the two hundreds

Additional $408.80 were made from options trading, but as options trading is not actually a passive form of making money while you are sleeping it wouldn't be fair to include them in dividend income report. On the other hand option income is a nice way to give a boost to the overall portfolio.

And in fact, last month, income from options + dividends helped to generate 2.32% yield from the total value of the portfolio. That's about 27.84% annually.

Dividends + income from options trading made pretty decent $708.31 income last June. Awesome. 

I have a plan for the next 3 months to make at least $600/mo. Let's see how it will work at the end.

Last but not least, last June I resumed my trading efforts with cryptocurrencies, and I made 0.232 ETH trading ETH options on Deribit. 0.232 ETH was worth of $71.68 at the end of June 2019.

Trading Bitcoin / Ethereum Options (Selling Puts) on Deribit - Part 1

Disclosure: This article contains affiliate links to mintos.com peer to peer lending and deribit.com options trading websites, by clicking on links on this page and by making investment mintos.com or derbit.com, I might earn affiliate income at no cost to you. Also, I'm not a financial advisor and I don't give you any advice, I'm just sharing my own experience. Investments in stocks, funds, bonds or cryptos are risk investments and you could lose some or all of your money. Do your due diligence before investing in any kind of asset. 

Sign up for Mintos.com here. By using my affiliate link for registration both you and I will receive — 1% of our average daily balance which should be paid in 3 installments for the first 90 days.

Interest income in June 2019

From the stocks, Mintos.com peer to peer lending and from cryptocurrency lending on Poloniex.com I got following income last month:

Ticker

Earnings

Mintos

€56.42

BGLF

€48.00

NCN1T

€21.59

TVEAT

€20.24

WPG

€16.55

PEI

€15.79

ATRS

€13.50

XIN

€12.74

USA

€11.76

NHCBHFFT

€10.00

VTA

€8.70

EDF

€6.77

CLM

€5.41

EDi

€5.11

RA

€4.19

Poloniex

€3.85

AWP

€3.76

NCV

€3.71

Total: EUR 267.42 / USD 299.51

In total there were 18 great companies paying us dividends in June

Mintos continues to be #1 in terms of interest income generated

Mintos.com Review After 24 Month of Investing in Peer to Peer Lending

The YoY growth rate for my dividend income in June 2019 was + 103.14% or  $152.07 more than a year ago in June 2018. Now, that's some serious growth.

Monthly income

My journey towards million dollars in savings account now is more than 2 years old. The result, so far, looks quite good. Dividends are growing. 

Monthly Income chart as of June 2019

The cumulative earnings for 2019 now are $1,126.24 which is exactly 55.07% from my goal of 2019 ($2,045). On average, it would ask me to generate $153.13 every month for the next 6 months to reach my goal. Looks easy now, as I'm pretty confident reaching this goal, as there are more months planned to have dividend income at the level of $200/mo and more.

2018 in Review and Financial Goals for 2019

Goals for June 2020

This is my favorite part of the reports - trying to forecast/set goals for the next year. But before setting a goal for 2020, let's see what I forecasted/said a year ago:

My goal for June 2019 is dividend income of $200. Should be easy.

Indeed, it was very easy. Not only $200 was reached and cracked, but almost $300 were cracked. Awesome.

For 2020, I'm looking to take at least $400 in dividend income. 

Latvian - Georgian Cafe 4You in Gori

30 June, 2019 | Restaurant reviews | 47 seen

Now besides hostel in Tbilisi, Latvians have a cafe in Gori

Latvian - Georgian Cafe 4You is located on Ilia Chavchavadze Avenue 34, Gori. 

Opened for the public in 2018, this place serves pastry, cakes and a huge menu of a different kind of meals (both Latvian and Georgian style), you can get here both some salty Gori style cutlets and even Kiev's cutlet, not to speak about salad olive and more. 

Overall feeling  - The Soviet Obshchepit (общепит) - sometimes I just can't resist it. lol

Cafe 4You in Gori

Pastry at Cafe 4You

Now, they had a very good cheesecake, a decent chocolate cake. Oreo cheesecake was a joke. The best oreo cheesecake I've found so far is at Tbilisi Hard Rock Cafe. 

Riga black balsam

Now, there is one more place in Georgia to find Riga Black Balsam

Kiev's cutlet with a balsamic sauce

This place serves wine from a small nearby winery Chateau Ateni.

Tbilisi - Baku by Train Ticket Information

29 June, 2019 | Travel guides | 24 seen

At the end of June 2019, I finally bought train tickets Tbilisi - Baku for early August 2019. I have plans to spend my 34th birthday in Baku, Azerbaijan. 

The train is departing Tbilisi daily at 20:35 and arriving in Baku at 08:50, In total it takes about 12 hours and 30 minutes to get from Tbilisi to Baku by train

It seems there is no option buying tickets online yet for Tbilisi - Baku line (although I found there are some tour agencies selling tickets online, see: International Tbilisi-Baku Train, though the price might be double when using travel agency).

The option we used was visiting Tbilisi Railway station and buying a ticket over the counter and what's even more interesting when buying over the counter it's asked to pay for tickets in cash, despite they have a VISA terminal. On my question why don't we pay by card, the kind cashier replied that the Tbilisi - Baku line is operated by Azerbaijani Railways side and they accept only cash. The cashier was able to speak very good English. 

For purchasing tickets, we had to show our passports (baby passport wasn't asked) and as noted  - cash.

Tbilisi-Baku trains are operated by Azerbaijan Railways

Luckily we had enough cash to buy 2 adult tickets in a separate sleeping car. The price we paid GEL 194 (USD 68) for 2 adult tickets (about GEL 97 per person) in a sleeping car. Our baby girl was allowed to travel free (by the planned travel time she will be 1 year old).

Ticket from Tbilisi to Baku

Ticket information is provided in Russian.

It's said that the cars are equipped with a climate control system and areas are non-smoking. Carriages are standardized too: SV (Spalniy Vagon) - comfortable sleeping car with 2-bed-compartments, Kupe - regular sleeping car with 4-bed-compartments, Platscart - economy class open "dormitory-style" couchette.

I was able to learn that a price for a person for a kupe is about GEL 54  (~USD 20) - in case you are traveling in a group more than 2 persons, that might be a great option to have a Kupe. 

Here is some additional information I was able to find about Tbilisi - Baku train

Speed: up to 90 km/h
The international train consists of:

• 1 SV sleeping car with 18 places
• 1 kupe-compartment carriages with 36 places
• 1 platskart carriage with 54 place

Unfortunately, it is only available to buy tickets in one direction from Tbilisi, if you are planning to return Baku - Tbilisi the tickets should be acquired in Baku (again it's the latest information at the end of June 2019)

Electronic Visa for Azerbaijan

Before entering Azerbaijan you should acquire a VISA for Azerbaijan, luckily you can do it online applying for a visa via Evisa.com.az.  The price for Visa ist 25 USD per person (3-5  business days)  or USD 51 (3-5 business hours) if urgent

Standard processing takes 1-3 business days. Urgent processing may take up to 3-5 business hours.

• e-Visa applications can be created for an individual or for a group.
• Citizens of most of the countries just need passport copy in order to apply for e-Visa.
• Your passport has to be valid for, at least, 6 (six) months after arrival date in Azerbaijan.
• You can make payment directly from www.evisa.com.az website by Credit/Debit Card.
• The e-Visa will be sent directly to your e-mail address OR you can download it from our website. You need just print it out and bring it with you when you travel to Azerbaijan.

If you are the citizen of one of the 95 countries who are eligible to apply for "easy e-visa", you need to provide just Passport copy. You can check your country's eligibility by clicking this link - "Countries eligible for easy e-visa". 

If you are a citizen of other countries, it is recommended to approach a consulate or an embassy of the Republic of Azerbaijan.