Archive for May, 2009
Tuesday, May 19th, 2009
I’m constantly baffled by people that are the front man for credit card purchases.
You know the types… the people that have a credit card that fronts the purchase for someone without a credit card and will be reimbursed with cash?
For instance, I know someone (Person A) that bought plane tickets for someone (Person B) because they didn’t have a credit card. The Person B gave them the cash immediately, but instead of paying the credit card down the Person A will spend it elsewhere and continue paying on the payments.
It’s literally throwing money away. Lets say, the plane tickets cost $400. With interest and the continuouse minimum payments building up on the credit card, Person A might as well pay Person B $150 so they can front the $400 plane ticket purchase the non credit card user.
And that’s a low estimate since credit card interest rates are higher than normal. And considering that it could take YEARS to pay down a credit card on minimal payments, they could end up paying double.
It doesn’t add up nor make sense. You’d be better telling the person NO or telling them you don’t have a credit card if all you’re going to do is burying yourself deeper and DEEPER in debt.
Posted in Informational, purchases, relapses | 1 Comment »
Monday, May 18th, 2009
Found this gem by Rachel Zupek on cnn.com
With an abundance of job losses, salary cuts, eliminated bonuses and diminished 401(K) matching contributions, your income is shrinking — but the bills aren’t.
If your regular job isn’t earning you enough cash or you’ve lost your job altogether, these simple side gigs can help put some padding in your pockets until — maybe even after — you get back on your feet.
Here are 10 ways real people are creatively taking home some extra dough:
1. Do freelance work
Felice Premeau Devine left her lucrative, full-time job two years ago to raise her son. In the interim, she’s picked up writing and editing freelance work and started a blog, where she is able to earn a little cash from advertising.
Nowadays, almost any job can be done on a contract or freelance basis. Check out sites like Sologig, which lead job seekers to contract, consulting, freelance, temp-to-hire and part-time project opportunities in your field.
2. Sell your books
If you’re a college student or you hung on to your college textbooks thinking you might want to read them again somewhere down the line, select retailers like Barnes & Noble allow you to sell your textbooks for some quick cash. Or, take some classics from your personal library and sell them at a local second-hand bookstore.
3. Search circulating coinage
Susan Headley, the “guide to coins” on About.com, is a lifetime coin collector who has been boosting her income by searching through circulating coinage for the past six years. In 2008, she made about $2,500 and so far in 2009, she has earned approximately $500 from coins she’s found.
People who search circulating coinage successfully for a side income do so in very large numbers, she says. They buy rolls of coins from banks, typically in whole boxes, and sort through it to find stuff that just doesn’t belong, Headley says. Half dollars, for example, were no longer made from 90 percent silver after 1965, but they still had 40 percent silver in them until 1970; either of these turn a nice profit. Presidential dollar errors can be worth $50 to $5,000 each; uncirculated state quarters can sell from $10 to $50 per roll; and rare error coins can value up to $35,000.
4. Start a “business”
Turn your hobby, skills or expertise into a part-time business. Sites like Jobvana can help you do so by providing you with free tools to market your services and offer specialized skills to those looking for help.
Peter Olson says he built a profile in September 2008 offering to teach guitar lessons. He has since gained two students, earning about $240 extra dollars per month and grossing around $1,000 since he started teaching.
5. Enter local and online sweepstakes
Wendy Limauge has been entering sweepstakes since 1993 and teaching others to win through her Web site, Sweeties Sweeps, since 2002. Though winning sweepstakes rarely provides actual cash, her winnings have consistently provided her and her family with 200 to 300 prizes a year, many of them large items she and her husband couldn’t afford on their incomes alone.
Prizes she has won include three TVs, two of which are flat-screens; a home theatre system; three dishwashers, each won on separate occasions; at least $1,500 in grocery gift certificates; an $18,000 voucher for the vehicle of her choice; a trip to France valued at $25,000; and, in March 2009, she won $5,000 in an instant-win game.
“The Internet has so many options for saving money, getting something for free, winning a prize or earning money from home,” Limauge says. “You just need to find those resources that offer helpful information and point you in the right direction to get you started and keep you motivated.”
6. Give your opinion — and get paid
Linda Childers, a California-based freelance writer, says many of her friends participate in focus groups. Contributing an hour of your time can earn you up to $100, sometimes more. Online surveys, phone surveys and product trials can also earn you anywhere from $5 to $150. Check out Free Paid Surveys or FindFocusGroups.
7. Sell your junk
Terri Jay earns $2,000 - $3,000 per month just by selling junk. On eBay, Jay not only sells stuff she isn’t using; she hits up local thrift stores on 99-cent days, garage sales and tack sales, looking for things of which she knows the value. She says her best sale was for a drink tray from the 70s: She paid 25 cents for it and it sold for $87.
“The trick is to [sell] what you know,” she advises. “Therefore you can list them [at correct prices] so they will get picked up in searches [on eBay].”
8. Join a direct selling company
Direct selling is one of the easiest ways to earn some extra cash, especially if you sell products you love. Avon, for example, allows you start your own business for $10 — your take home depends on your efforts. Some full-time representatives earn six-figure salaries, others own licensed Avon Beauty Centers and many just sell Avon part time around their families schedules.
Haizel MacIntyre started her Avon business in June of 2008 to earn supplemental income to her full-time job when her husband was laid off. Since joining Avon, MacIntyre averages $1,800 a month in sales and her husband is helping her run the business. Her Avon earnings help pay the bills, provide extras for her three kids and she is hoping to earn enough to put towards her college tuition when she goes back to school to get her Masters in Social Work.
9. Be a secret shopper
Keen eyes for detail as well as a good memory are really all that it takes to succeed as a secret shopper, says Zippy Sandler, who has been mystery shopping for about 13 years. After registering with a secret shopping company, you are paid to basically go undercover and report on a company’s operation from the customer point of view.
Sandler decided to start secret shopping not only to earn money eating, traveling and shopping, but also to learn customer service skills to pass along to the employees she managed at a retail store. Depending on the clients she is shopping for, Sandler says she has earned everywhere from $100 to $2,000 per month.
10. Sell your photos to stock agencies
It doesn’t matter if you’re a hobbyist, an amateur or a seasoned photographer - anyone can submit their photos to stock photo agencies like Shutterstock.com. If your images are accepted, they will be available for download by subscribers. Each time someone downloads your photos, you get 25 cents.
Posted in Generate income, Informational, Inspirational | No Comments »
Friday, May 8th, 2009
This is one of those days where I just start writing and write until stuff comes to mind. Having said that, I have no responsibility of what may be said and the order they’re presented.
I guess you can call it my “hmmmm” moment in RDL.
For starters, I’m currently wondering when will the tattooing thing going to take off like I want it to? I’ve been handing out business cards to at the oddest of places. Fast food drive thru attendants that have tattoos. Waitress’s that have tattoos. I’ve even posted my portfolio on a couple of message boards. I’ve since tattooed on one customer from a message board and none by manually handing out my cards. For some odd reason, I’m getting customers out of the blue through word of mouth though.
Another thing that’s been on my mind is my income and outcome. For some reason, I have money even though I feel like I’m broke as hell. I’ve been spending a lot lately and it doesn’t seem to be catching up with me. Hopefully it’s all in my head.
Seems like I’ve inherited my middle daughter’s softball team. The head coach officially asked me when did I want to practice in front of the other parents. Kind of caught me off guard as I rambled while trying to think of the audacity. We all finally agreed on Saturday morning (tomorrow).
I’m at a cross roads with the wife and her job situation. It’s nice having her home taking care of the home but at the same time, it’d be nice to have another source of income coming in. To top it off, (not saying it’ll happen) I was reading about this guy that had a stay at home wife and as soon as the kids left, she got bored and wanted a divorce. A divorce I could handle (not want to but could deal with it), but she get’s half of his everything all because she was a stay at home mom. Oh well, I guess you can’t live thinking of the possibilities, or can you?
Now I’m left with wondering how much spending money I should take on the October cruise we’re going on? I did my first betting goal on my first cruise (bet $100) on one blackjack hand. Now I want to accomplish my next goal of placing $500 on one blackjack hand. By the way, I lost the $100 bet. Not only will there be gambling, we’re going to South beach the day before the cruise for a day of partying. I’m thinking $1000 should be enough for the entire trip.
We seem to be looking at some more money come in soon. My wife is getting a small settlement (under $5k) from when she got in a car accident last year. It’ll basically be money we spent on her medical expenses being reimbursed plus some small additions of pain and suffering of her sphincter or whatever.
I’m also wondering when will this egg sized hematoma inside my scrotem from vasectomy complications go away? The doctor says it may be a couple of months and it feels like it’s shrinking a little bit but I’m skeptical of doing anything active because I know it’s there. It’d be nice to play some softball or flag football (might even give it a shot at quarterbacking tomorrow)
Another thought is… when will the market be up to near it’s all time peak again? We’d tend to make a lot of money if that was the case since we currently have about $40k in the market at the moment. This weeks gain was nice but somewhere near it’s all time high would be GREAT!
There you have it… those are my most current random thoughts I decided to write about. What are some of yours?
Posted in Informational, Personal debt, goals, purchases, success | 2 Comments »
Tuesday, May 5th, 2009
We’re done! My wife and I set out on a mission to give 10% of our generous gift to various family and friends in need. Do you know how hard it is to give money away to people not only in need but deserving?
We figure, we could have blown the money on dumb stuff ourselves so we wouldn’t give it to friends and family members who had no business with a lump sum of money. So we had to quietly (since no one knew we even inherited the money) weed out qualifying targets.
We gave the money on 2 conditions:
- They don’t tell anyone we gave it to them
- They help someone else out in the future.
There were tons of people that needed the money but we were skeptical as to if they’d actually be responsible with it. Some we KNEW wouldn’t be, so we paid bills off for them. Others we gave straight cash to because they had no choice but to be responsible with it. You know the types that have plenty of mouths to feed or young ones depending on them and just need a small “push”. Some just bought a house and since they were first time home owners, didn’t expect bills to mount so quickly and the utilities to be so expensive.
I must say, the feeling it gives you to be able to help someone is AWESOME! We all talk about what we’d do for each other if we ran across some money. The wife and I, actually followed through with it. What’s amazing about it is we all fantasize about the million $ lotteries, all the while, we were able to make a difference in a lot of people lives with only $4,000.
The reaction from people was various. It’s amazing how many people quickly turn to God to thank you for their blessings. Some started tearing up. One confessed that we’d changed his life (beyond comprehension) since he was dealing with some personal issues and he’d let me know when it all got sorted out (still waiting).
Truthfully, after having the money for about 6 months, it started to feel like a curse. It started feeling like, “we had good intentions”, and would just pocket the rest. We were constantly trying to identify people to give the remaining $1000 to. It got to the point we were like Will Smith in seven pounds where we were trying to see if people had a bad side to them before we sacrifice the money to them.
I actually, ran across one person (who shall remain nameless) that kept ignoring me over the Internet when I asked him a questions about how much things were going to cost to get him out of a rut. Only after I’d already given the remaining $536 away would he respond with “what did I want again”. His loss.
All in all, I’m happy to even have the had opportunity to bless people. Giving should be something that we all practice. I’m even leaning towards a new idea that instead of going Xmas shopping for the kids this year, we take that money to do a sort of Secret Santa type deal during the holidays. That’s only in thought at the moment, because right now, we’re in the brunt of the recession just like everyone else.
Maybe I’ll compromise my thoughts and get them all one gift a piece and plant a bigger seed in their heads with the gift of giving.
So what would I do differently if the opportunity presented itself again? Not a damn thing. The experience was awesome and right up there with the births of my children or swimming with the dolphins in Nassau.
Posted in Inspirational, Uncategorized, success | 3 Comments »
Monday, May 4th, 2009
I just hit another milestone on RDL. People ask me why do I have ads and what’s the point of doing this “little stupid website”.
Well for the most part, I do it to help others realistically look at their financial situation and understand that it can be overcome. As a by product of that, I also use it as a resource for additional income.
During RDL’s inception, I was pumping out articles at a pretty frequent rate (not frequent enough) considering my schedule. That turned into more visitors. Then when my schedule got really hectic, I had to take a small hiatus.
To put it all in a numbers or payout perspective… I run google adsense within my site and get paid per click. This niche (financial freedom) is a pretty good niche to be in for paid per click ads. Some ads getting clicked can produce $4 or more per click. To put it into perspective, some ads on my other websites can produce only $.03. When google pays out it only pays out in $100 increments (no matter how frequent). Some site make $100-$1000/day. I only hope to be there one day
So basically within 2 months of launching this site along with kcpcrepair.com, I was able to get my first $100 check from google. After that, it’s been a long steady climb to receive my second $100 check. Today, I finally reached that plateau. It’s taken 6+ months for me to get there, but I’m as excited as all get out.
Hopefully, I can keep producing quality content which’ll keep you guys interested and in turn get more other’s interested. Cause (let’s be honest), this isn’t fun if I’m talking to myself.
So congratulations to me for getting my second $100 pay day from google and here’s to many more.
Thank you guys very much for supporting the site. Keep up the good work.
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
Saturday, May 2nd, 2009
By MP Dunleavey
So you’re having trouble saving money. Welcome to the club!
In the best of times, saving money is tough, and these are not the best of times.
In fact, sometimes it can seem as if the universe is conspiring against you.
“How is it that the minute you have a spare $25 to save, there’s a mysterious $25 expense?” asks Angela Bauer, a longtime Women in Red member.
That’s exactly the phenomenon I’m struggling with as I try to reach my $15,000 savings goal.
Luckily, say Bauer and several psychologists and economists I interviewed, when it comes to saving, money is almost the last thing you need to worry about.
It’s not the money
“What all the economics research suggests is that you don’t have to find more money to save — you need to be very intentional with the money you have,” says Bauer, who is a founder of the Women in Red Savers and has watched hundreds of women become successful savers. (See “How to save $200,000 in six months.”)
Socking away money is tricky, experts believe, for the same reason that diets often fail. The brain resists sacrificing immediate pleasures (eating, spending) for abstract, far-off goals, such as looking cute in a swimsuit or having money in the bank for a rainy day.
According to Princeton psychology professor Eldar Shafir, one obstacle is that the choices we make in one context become more or less appealing when circumstances shift. It’s like going to the grocery store when you’re hungry, Shafir says. “You promise yourself beforehand that you’ll only spend X, but if you shop when you’re hungry, you’re almost certain to spend more.”
To save successfully, you have to recognize that your choices are vulnerable to these unruly changes of heart. So don’t expect yourself to do the right thing; assume part of you is likely to fail. Then put your smarter self in charge.
For example: You depend on your practical side to put the alarm clock out of reach at night so that in the morning, your sleepy self can’t hit the snooze button. In the same way, when choosing to save money, rely on your most motivated self to make all the arrangements.
Embrace inertia
“It turns out that the most powerful force in our financial behavior isn’t knowledge — it’s inertia,” says Ray Boshara, the director of the asset-building program for the New America Foundation, a nonprofit public policy institute that develops savings programs nationwide.
Fortunately, much like gravity, fiscal inertia can be useful if you know how to handle it. The aim is to have to do as little as possible.
- Make it automatic. The best strategy: automatic transfers. “There’s no way we’d save without it,” Bauer says. One member of the Women in Red Savers automatically transfers a dollar a day from her checking account to her savings account. “It’s only seven dollars a week, and it doesn’t sound like much,” says Bauer. But without the automatic transfer of a single dollar each day, Bauer points out, she might not find that $30 a month.
- Move your money. Just moving funds from checking into savings seems to deter people from touching their own money. Putting the money into a certificate of deposit or money market account protects your stash even more. One woman even put her savings in a bank across town so she would be less likely to pass it each day. The point is, by understanding when and where you’re likely to fail, you can find clever ways to increase your chances of saving successfully.
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Enlist technology. Ask your employer whether it’s possible to have part of your paycheck funneled into a savings account, instead of direct-depositing the whole thing into checking. A growing number of companies offer this option — and so does the Internal Revenue Service, thanks to Form 8888 (.pdf file).
“The last thing you want,” Boshara says, “is to cash your refund check and expect yourself to save any of it.”
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
