The next few days I will be posting on different methods to help increase alternate income streams. That is, income received by you that is not from your primary job, whether it be active or passive. By the end, I also hope to develop plans for implementing some of these options.
One popular method, which I have been doing for at least seven years now, is completing surveys for cash. There are various companies out there, each one with a different type of payment system. Some give away prizes, some send cash, and some enter you into a pool with every survey filled out to win. I personally stick to programs that give cash rewards. Since I can only attest to the companies I've completed surveys for, below is a detailed list of companies and feedback on their program.
1. Pinecone Research: I've been a member for at least 7 years.
Length of Surveys - The household surveys they send out are quick, around 5 minutes. There typical surveys for cash last anywhere from 15 to 30 minutes.
Incentive - The current process pays $3.00 for every completed survey. They do send out frequent household information surveys, which are not included in the pay out, but you get entered into a pool to win bigger prizes for every one of the household surveys you fill out. There incentive recently dropped to $3.00 from $5.00.
Frequency - This probably depends on your profile, but I'd say there is at least one survey invite a week.
How to Sign Up - This is the tricky part. They don't allow the option of going to their website to sign up. As far as I know, they offer sign up through advertisements if you happen to catch it websurfing. Or, current members get emails a couple of time a year inviting them to offer this opportunity to friends and family. Yesterday I received one of the friends and family invitation email from Pinecone. If you interested in joining, leave me a message or email me and I will forward you the invite!
2. MySurvey (NFO): I've been a member for at least 7 years.
Length of Surveys - Their surveys range from 5 min to 30 min. There are a few rare opportunities of getting a survey that has you keep track of something over a few day period. With this type of survey the incentive is usually high enough for a payout.
Incentive - They use a point system. 1000 points is equivalent to $10.00.
Frequency - I've realized that these surveys come less and less frequently. This probably depends on your profile information, but I'd say I get a survey at least once a month, but the point values for these surveys can really vary from 10 pts to a couple of hundred. My mother, who is also a member, rarely gets survey invites. Like I said, I assume its based on demographics.
How to Sign Up - You can sign up with them directly on their website.
3. Global Test Market: I've been a member for a year now.
Length of Surveys - Again this really depends, and can range from 5 minutes to 30 minutes.
Incentive - Similar to MyPoints, they work on a point system, but 1000 points = $50.00. If you do not qualify for a survey, they credit your account 5 points for filling out the basic information. If you do qualify, the point range seems to be anywhere from 30 points to 100 points, depending on the length of the survey.
Frequency - Multiple survey invites come a week. I probably only qualify for 25% of the incoming invites. In a one year period, I believe I was able to cash out twice.
How to Sign Up - You can sign up with them directly on their website
3 e-Rewards - In conjunction with Upromise: I've been a member for 3 months. I believe you can sign up with them without being associated with Upromise. In that case, the incentive are different than described below.
Length of Surveys - Again, these seem to range from 5 tgo 30 minutes.
Incentive - They also use a point system, which they call e-Rewards Dollars. For the upromise program, there are different tiers for payout. For example, $25.00 e-Dollars payout $10.00 to your upromise account, where $100.00 e-Dollars pays out $50.00.
Frequency - Since signing up three months ago, I average about two surveys a week. I'm saving for the $100 level reward, and am about 75% there.
How to Sign Up - If you have a upromise account, go to the upromise website, log into your account, and there should be a link directly on their website. Otherwise, I'm not exactly positive which, but various vendors offer this opportunity for incentives as well.
Note that even if you belong to multiple panels, the amount of money coming is pretty minor. And because of the frequency that the surveys come, when you get payouts is not guarenteed. It really is just a little bit extra that seems to help every now and then.
You also have to take into mind how time consuming these survey can be. As noted above, these surveys can range from 5 to 30 miutes. When I was in college, the timing factor affected me alot less. This is probably more because I had very little funds to begin with, and this little bit of extra had a much larger impact. Now that I bring home a decent salary, in the overall scheme of things, this amount seems minor, and many times I find myself thinking my time would be better spent working on other projects. So far, none of the panels drop you if you reduce the amount of survey offers you accept.
Beyond Your Horizon
Saturday, December 6, 2008
Advertising Affects - Discovercard
Has anyone seen the recent Discovercard commercial? I don't think this is a new commercial, but last night was my first encounter with it. Or at least the first time I paid attention to it. And let me say it irked me. The fact that I thought about it last night, and I'm blogging about it this morning tells you how much it affected me.
The commercial states:
"We're a nation of consumers. And there is nothing wrong with that. After all, there's alot of cool stuff out there. "
Isn't it this thought process why so many people are drowning in debt? After you've read enough personal finance blogs, it's evident that it was this sentiment that got many into trouble in the first place, and now trying to climb back up the rabbit hole.
It also closes with the claim that the company helps you attain "Less debt and more fun".
Note that it doesn't say NO debt and more fun. Just less debt. What is less debt? Less debt than what? And is that to mean that without debt, you're not having any fun in life?
Just needed to vent.
And the worst thing about it, I own a discovercard. Ha. Guess it doesn't annoy me enough to want to cancel the card.
Beyond Your Horizon
The commercial states:
"We're a nation of consumers. And there is nothing wrong with that. After all, there's alot of cool stuff out there. "
Isn't it this thought process why so many people are drowning in debt? After you've read enough personal finance blogs, it's evident that it was this sentiment that got many into trouble in the first place, and now trying to climb back up the rabbit hole.
It also closes with the claim that the company helps you attain "Less debt and more fun".
Note that it doesn't say NO debt and more fun. Just less debt. What is less debt? Less debt than what? And is that to mean that without debt, you're not having any fun in life?
Just needed to vent.
And the worst thing about it, I own a discovercard. Ha. Guess it doesn't annoy me enough to want to cancel the card.
Beyond Your Horizon
Friday, December 5, 2008
Freebies and Samples
Just wanted to share a couple of freebies I've found around the web tonight!
1. As recent post on Wisebread provided details on getting a one year, free subscription to SELF magazine!
2. Free sample for Gain laundry detergent. I have to admit I've never tried this brand, so a free sample is always a good way to test the product.
3. Actually, the Gain free sample came from Walmart's free sample page. There are other free sample offers, such as various female products. Check back there every now and then for updated products. Alot of the time these samples are accompanied by decent coupons!
Feel free to share any other goodies you come across!
Beyond Your Horizon
1. As recent post on Wisebread provided details on getting a one year, free subscription to SELF magazine!
2. Free sample for Gain laundry detergent. I have to admit I've never tried this brand, so a free sample is always a good way to test the product.
3. Actually, the Gain free sample came from Walmart's free sample page. There are other free sample offers, such as various female products. Check back there every now and then for updated products. Alot of the time these samples are accompanied by decent coupons!
Feel free to share any other goodies you come across!
Beyond Your Horizon
Thursday, December 4, 2008
November Net Worth
Right on the heals of my November spending, below is my updated networth status.
Although it's not huge progress, at least each sector is going in the right direction. Right now, my mantra seems to be slow and steady. I'll continue to work at this, and keep you updated!
Oh, and I'm still having issues with the header and my graphic .. so if anyone has any advise on how to fix it, I'm open ears.
Beyond Your Horizon
Monday, December 1, 2008
November Spending
Now that November has come to a close, posted below reveals our spending for November, and provides a comparison to Octobers' number's to see if there were any improvements.
It's obvious that the additional travel expenses related to work put us way over budget. This temporary expense will be duplicated again next month, with nothing much that can be done to curve it. The clothing category saw a big jump, as I'm trying to increase my work wardrobe. Overall, I am happy the trend we saw in most of the other categories.
We'll have to wait and see our progression next month!
Beyond Your Horizon
Monday, November 24, 2008
Header Note
Sorry for the header issues. I still haven't been able to work out those kinks. Either it's the correct size, until the page is minimized or its automatically shrunk to a portion of the size.
I'll eventually get it.. hang in there!
I'll eventually get it.. hang in there!
Searching for the best deals on flights!
My fiance has a few interviews scheduled next month scattered across the country, so the last few days have been busy around here trying to nail down all the arrangements. I pretty much took on the responsibility of making the arrangements, so he can take the time to focus on preparing for the interviews. For these plans, not only am I looking for the best monetary deal, but I take into consideration the ease of him getting around, with the least amount of stress and hassle.
I usually take great satisfaction in finding great deals, but I don't enjoy searching for the best flights deals. However, I do the best I can when the time arises. And since I am diligent in my searches, people tend to rely on me to find them the best flight prices too, which has given me alot of practice navigating this process.
I find that no one website is consistent at finding the best deals, and the prices seems to change daily, if not multiple times a day. I tend to start with kayak.com, playing with dates if this is a flexible option. Then I start looking at one way flights, seeing which airlines have the best deals in each direction on the dates I want. I may surf over to other 'discount' airline websites, but usually, from here, I go directly to the airlines websites to see if I can come up with an even better deal than found. Sometimes I'm sucessful, and sometimes I'm not.
After going through this process tonight, I had a "Doh" moment right after confirming my flight. When shopping online, there is usually a way to double dip and find other benefits or promotions. Since I have a upromise account, I try to always check their website right before paying for anything online. Forgetting completely to heed my own advice, I didn't check the upromise website before searching and booking my flight, and missed out on some additional savings. Not a huge bummer, but just something to keep in mind for next time. At least I did remember to take advantage of this by the time I got around to booking the car rental!
Once place we could have saved money would have been the optional rental insurance on the rental car. This fee was actually more than the charge for the car for two days!! Unfortunately, my fiances' car insurance is held by his parents, so we were unable to confirm if it included rental coverage. It is my understanding that it is included most of the time, but not wanting to chance it, we did pay for this option.
Oh, and one other thing to keep in mind when looking for best prices - discount cards. However, my advice is to not always assume you're getting the best deals with them! While searching for hotel deals, this is the pricing difference we got:
1. Hotel website, regular price - $80.00/night
2. Hotel website, with AAA discount - $84.95/night
3. Discount website, hotels.com - $80.00/night
I did a double take after I selected AAA discount and the price increased. Actually, I laughed out loud. Just something to consider!
So my overall advice:
1. Don't just assume that your discount card gives you the best priced deal. Try the same deal using multiple promotions and no promotion at all. For todays example, no promotion at all on the hotel booking gave me the best price.
2. If you see a great price, try not to hesitate. Before you know it, its gone, and has been replaced with a higher priced ticket. This happens to me all the time. I don't know if it's true, but when I end up oversearching for the best deal for a specific flight pattern, it seems to create a temporary artifical demand, and the prices inflate for a couple of days before returning back to the original price I spotted them for.
3. When flying, you don't need to take the same airline for both legs of a round trip segment. Using multiple websites, both the airline sites and discount sites, over a course of multiple days saved us $300! We actually booked the departing flight first, and didn't find a good deal on the return flight for another two days. We took a risk hoping flight prices would decrease, and this time it paid off.
4. On previous trips, we have saved by ordering a package deal with flight and hotels, or flight and a car rental. This sometimes does the trick. Sometimes, it doesn't. In our case, we needed a specific hotel, which was not an option in any of the package deals.
All this work, and only one trip scheduled. Two more to go! It is a positive that these interviews are going on, but on the flip side, I think (know) this will blow the November goals..
Beyond The Horizon
I usually take great satisfaction in finding great deals, but I don't enjoy searching for the best flights deals. However, I do the best I can when the time arises. And since I am diligent in my searches, people tend to rely on me to find them the best flight prices too, which has given me alot of practice navigating this process.
I find that no one website is consistent at finding the best deals, and the prices seems to change daily, if not multiple times a day. I tend to start with kayak.com, playing with dates if this is a flexible option. Then I start looking at one way flights, seeing which airlines have the best deals in each direction on the dates I want. I may surf over to other 'discount' airline websites, but usually, from here, I go directly to the airlines websites to see if I can come up with an even better deal than found. Sometimes I'm sucessful, and sometimes I'm not.
After going through this process tonight, I had a "Doh" moment right after confirming my flight. When shopping online, there is usually a way to double dip and find other benefits or promotions. Since I have a upromise account, I try to always check their website right before paying for anything online. Forgetting completely to heed my own advice, I didn't check the upromise website before searching and booking my flight, and missed out on some additional savings. Not a huge bummer, but just something to keep in mind for next time. At least I did remember to take advantage of this by the time I got around to booking the car rental!
Once place we could have saved money would have been the optional rental insurance on the rental car. This fee was actually more than the charge for the car for two days!! Unfortunately, my fiances' car insurance is held by his parents, so we were unable to confirm if it included rental coverage. It is my understanding that it is included most of the time, but not wanting to chance it, we did pay for this option.
Oh, and one other thing to keep in mind when looking for best prices - discount cards. However, my advice is to not always assume you're getting the best deals with them! While searching for hotel deals, this is the pricing difference we got:
1. Hotel website, regular price - $80.00/night
2. Hotel website, with AAA discount - $84.95/night
3. Discount website, hotels.com - $80.00/night
I did a double take after I selected AAA discount and the price increased. Actually, I laughed out loud. Just something to consider!
So my overall advice:
1. Don't just assume that your discount card gives you the best priced deal. Try the same deal using multiple promotions and no promotion at all. For todays example, no promotion at all on the hotel booking gave me the best price.
2. If you see a great price, try not to hesitate. Before you know it, its gone, and has been replaced with a higher priced ticket. This happens to me all the time. I don't know if it's true, but when I end up oversearching for the best deal for a specific flight pattern, it seems to create a temporary artifical demand, and the prices inflate for a couple of days before returning back to the original price I spotted them for.
3. When flying, you don't need to take the same airline for both legs of a round trip segment. Using multiple websites, both the airline sites and discount sites, over a course of multiple days saved us $300! We actually booked the departing flight first, and didn't find a good deal on the return flight for another two days. We took a risk hoping flight prices would decrease, and this time it paid off.
4. On previous trips, we have saved by ordering a package deal with flight and hotels, or flight and a car rental. This sometimes does the trick. Sometimes, it doesn't. In our case, we needed a specific hotel, which was not an option in any of the package deals.
All this work, and only one trip scheduled. Two more to go! It is a positive that these interviews are going on, but on the flip side, I think (know) this will blow the November goals..
Beyond The Horizon
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