The year in review.

2009 has been a big year for me. I don’t even know where to start. I’ve traveled to a bunch of places, found a wonderful girl, changed colleges, etc.

First off, my finances are shot. I’m not in debt but I’m exactly sitting pretty like I was at the start of the year. This wasn’t due to poor decisions or anything but this year I decided to do a lot of traveling and that’s where the majority of my money has gone.

Back in February I visited Vietnam, Singapore, and then Bali. In March I went to the Dominican Republic with a bunch of friends for spring break. In June I went out to Los Angeles which included a mini road trip out to Las Vegas. In August I went back to Vietnam with two friends and it was even more enjoyable than the February trip. Last week I went back to Las Vegas with my girlfriend and a big group of people. Kinda strange how I ended up in two places twice this year although I didn’t exactly plan it out that way.

Now onto Kiva which I still feel passionate about but have scaled down my lending considerably this year. In my 2008 update I think I ended the year with 1,008 loans. It looks like for 2009 I’m going to end the year with 1,126 loans which means I only funded another 118 this year. My portfolio was hit with 37 defaults and with the total amount lost being $479.08. My default rate is however only 1.53% which is still lower 1.87% average default rate.

Although I’m worse off financially after the conclusion of 2009 I can confidentially say I’m a lot happier than I was in 2008.