Blog Archive: November 2019
Nergiz Restaurant in Baku
| Restaurant reviews | 23 seen
Nergiz restaurant is located on Fountain Square in Baku, this places serves typical Azerbaijani cuisine and let me name it as of the best Baku restaurants.
Discovered in early August, during my birthday trip to Baku.
Just like another excellent Baku restaurant Dolma, Nergiz also is located in a basement.
Dolma at Nergiz restaurant
If there is a reason to visit Azerbaijan, then it's because of Dolma. The best Dolma I've tried so far. And I love Dolma.
Kebab at restaurant Nergiz
Delicious. We spent here good time ordering traditional pilaf, dolma, sweets and homemade lemonades (compot)
Traditional Azerbaijani sweets
Orio al Serio (Bergamo) International Airport
| Airports | 14 seen
Orio al Serio International Airport (IATA: BGY, ICAO: LIME), officially also known as Il Caravaggio International Airport, is the third busiest international airport in Italy.
The airport is located in the municipal territory of Orio al Serio, 3.7 km (2.3 mi) southeast of Bergamo in Italy. The airport is 45 km (28 mi) north-east of Milan, where it operates alongside Malpensa Airport and Linate Airport, the city's other two primary airports.
In 2018, airport served almost 13 million passengers
The airport is a hub for the low-cost Ryanair Avio carrier, and that's how we got here actually - I had a chance to travel to the Bergamo airport in November 2019 flying with Ryanair from Tbilisi (Georgia)
The airport is called Milan-Bergamo by several airlines and it is managed by SACBO, a company partially owned by SEA – Aeroporti di Milano, the operator of Linate and Malpensa airports. SEA, the company that runs the latter two airports, also holds a 31% stake in SACBO. It is named "Il Caravaggio" after the Baroque painter Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, who lived as a child at Caravaggio in the Province of Bergamo
There are several public transportation links to and from downtown Milan, including express coaches. There are further connections to/from Bergamo city center, Arezzo, Bologna, Brescia, Monza, Turin, Malpensa Airport, and Milan Trade Exhibition Center, Parma, Torino, Verona.
Taxi to Milan city cost ~ 90 EUR. Unfortunately, as we arrived after midnight there were no buses, shuttle or even taxi willing to take us to the Bergamo city to the hotel.
That's my recommendation if you are traveling to Bergamo airport, plan to stay in Bergamo city and you arrive after midnight - arrange a shuttle service from the hotel to the airport. We were lucky to catch Giacomo a local driver for Mercure and GHP hotels. He took us to the GHP hotel in Bergamo for EUR 26.
Gino Paradise Water Park in Tbilisi
| Tourism objects | 92 seen
Gino Paradise is a multifunctional water park located in Tbilisi near Tbilisi sea. At the complex, there is located a grand aqua park and unique relaxation wellness center, fitness hall and catering objects.
Gino Paradise is one of the most recommended places to visit with kids.
Tbilisi for kids (17 Places to Visit)
First discovered already a couple of years ago, while cycling to Tbilisi sea, but visited for the first time at the end of September 2019 together with our little baby girl.
One time visit for adult cost GEL 40, and it includes pretty much great stuff, a multi-pass is also available.
Gino Paradise Water Park in Tbilisi
The best of all - Gino Paradise is four seasons resort! GINO Paradise is one of the large scaled water centers with many attractions in the Eastern Europe, and the only one in South Caucasus, 31 meters toboggan and closed and open pools GINO Paradise also includes Tbilisi Sea coastal zone and offers full comfort to the customers. Coastal zone is equipped with chaise longue, umbrellas, different attractions, dressing room and showers.
GINO Spa Center offers you relaxation, aroma and health improving procedures, and also unique saunas and hydrotherapy rooms or equipments. Fitness center offers newest cardio and strengthening simulators, aerobic hall and many landers which are used for different complex exercises.
Weekend trip to Dedoplis Tskaro and nearby vicinity
| Travel guides | 13 seen
This is a round-up post from a very easy weekend trip to Dedoplis Tskaro and the nearby vicinity. We did this trip the end of June 2019, traveling by car.
It was actually Summer Solstice if other years we had a large fire and amazing sunset photography, or at least a grill on Tbilisi apartments balcony, then this year it was completely different.
Originally it was planned to visit only lavender fields at Nukriani lavender, but then we extended this route to Dedoplis Tskaro, from here on we decided to find some local lake to take a swim while searching for one, the car malfunctioned and it was a question will we be able to get even back to Tbilisi this night. After having an unexpected stop at an interesting picnic area near the highway we booked a 5-star hotel and had a lovely morning swim there.
October 2019 Dividend Income Report - $201.36
| Investments | 18 seen
Welcome to the thirty (#30) dividend income report, covering earnings I've made from dividend-paying stocks and peer to peer lending in October 2019.
Wow, thirty income reports so far, that's a quite impressive track of the record, covering more than 2 years of dividend income.
Last October, just like September, we spent in Georgia, some relatives visited us and we made a nice day trip to the Kazbegi in Georgia at the start of October
Gergeti church in Georgia
The last October was quite OK in terms of passive income. At the end of the month, I have collected $201.36 from dividend stocks and Mintos peer to peer lending platform. Compared to the previous October in 2018, that is a growth of 19.09% (+$32.09). The growth could be better, but as long as there is a growth on a yearly basis I will take it
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.
An additional $2,777.23 was made from options trading (mostly vertical spreads on SPX, GC, AEX and ES, but also a few regular puts and calls on stocks I own or would like to have). As options trading is not a passive form of making money while you are sleeping it wouldn't be fair to include them in dividend income reports.
Last but not least, last October I traded options on cryptocurrencies using Deribit platform, which resulted in an additional $227.30
When counted all together (dividends + options + crypto options), it seems I have made $3,294.29 in total last month. That's absolutely the best income month from the financial markets so far.
Effective income yield last October was 9.29% That's about 111.48% annually. Holy smokes!
Interest income in October 2019
From the stocks and peer to peer lending I got following income last month:
Ticker
Earnings
NRZ
€48.74
Mintos
€46.32
PNNT
€21.41
LNR1L
€15.40
EDF
€13.81
EDI
€11.59
RA
€9.16
CODI
€6.69
CLM
€5.52
NCV
€3.83
AWP
€3.07
Total: EUR 184.99 / USD 201.36
In total there were 11 great companies paying us dividends in October 2019, that's 2 companies less than in October 2018.
Mintos has slipped to second place 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 October 2019 was + 19.09% or $32.09 more than a year ago in October 2018. Could be better (I aim to at least $70 growth YoY) but as long there is a growth I'm a happy hippo.
Monthly income
I've been tracking my journey towards million dollars in a savings account since January 2017. The result, so far, looks quite good. Dividends are growing.
Monthly dividend Income chart as of October 2019
The cumulative earnings for 2019 now are $2,093.43 which is exactly 102.37% from my goal of 2019 ($2,045). As it happened in last year's October I've reached my yearly goal 2 months ahead of the schedule. Now, the next two months are like a bonus.
2018 in Review and Financial Goals for 2019
Goals for October 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 (October 2018)
When setting goal/forecast for October 2019 I will forecast $230 goal for next year. It should be easy!
In the end, it wasn't so easy after all, and I didn't reach that $230 goal this year. I should take that in the account and when setting goals for October 2020, be more humble, that's why I will set a quite doable $300 goal for next year. I hope to get there with more US monthly and quarterly stocks
Ambassadori Kachreti Golf Resort
| Hotel reviews | 12 seen
Located in Kachreti village, some 75 km from nations capital Tbilisi this 5-star hotel offers a tennis court and air-conditioned rooms with a flat-screen TV.
We booked a night here, returning from Dedoplis Tskaro at the end of June 2019. We paid just $80 for a night here, the fee included free pool visits, which was awesome and our baby girl enjoyed a lot.
Ambassadori Kachreti Golf Resort
Guests of the hotel can relax beside the outdoor swimming pool, or work out in the fitness centre. Table tennis, billiards and a tennis court can also be found on site.
Hotel room
Each room at Hotel Ambasadori in Kachreti includes a classic-style interior and a minibar. Slippers are provided in the bathrooms.
Cottage houses at Ambassadori Kachreti Golf Resort
Not sure are they part of the hotel complex or are sold separately.
Free Wi-Fi and a private winery are featured at this hotel
The Ambasadori’s restaurant with exposed wooden beams and stone decorations serves Georgian cuisine. Local wines and international drinks are offered at the on-site bar.
How To Count Duplicates in Google Spreadsheets (COUNTIF)
| Servers | 54 seen
I've been using Google Spreadsheets literally for everything that can be counted or measured (dividend income, stock trades, body weight and so on).
And so did when I decided to build an option trading journal I built it using Google Spreadsheets.
Everything good here, except I decided to count how many trades there have been, how many are open, how many are closed, how many are winning, how many are losing and based on that make a simple calculation to figure out what is my winning rate
Here is the final result:
Win ratio calculation using Google Spreadsheets
COUNT DUPLICATES WITH COUNTIF
COUNTIF is a relatively basic Google Sheets function that counts cells that include numbers or text based on a specified condition. The syntax is simple; you only need to provide a cell range and criterion for which cells to count. You can enter the COUNTIF function in the fx bar with the syntax: `=COUNTIF(range, criterion)`. Source: How To Count Duplicates in Google Sheets
Spreadsheet setup
- Column L - Trade status (open/closed)
- Column M - Winner / Loser
Now to make count for open trade status:
=COUNTIF(L:L, "open")
closed:
=COUNTIF(L:L, "closed")
winning trades:
=COUNTIF(M:M, "winner")
losing trades:
=COUNTIF(M:M, "loser")
Works like a charm.