Oh My Aching Debts » Income

Cash Crate Update and Tips

cindys — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 14:40:52 +0000

I started my Cash Crate challenge yesterday and spent about 15 minutes yesterday and 45 minutes today filling out registrations and surveys. My balance has grown to 12.85. I will get a check once my balance reaches $20. Most of my 45 minutes today was spent filling out one of the daily surveys. It took about 20 minutes but paid 80 cents without having to give any personal information.

These are some things that I have learned about Cash Crate that might help you to earn more.

Maintain a separate email address or two or three. Some offers use the same companies and sometimes they require separate email addresses.
Use your phone number but make sure that you uncheck any boxes that say you want a call from a representative. Also do not accept any offers for educational or college as these representatives will call you.
Search 100% free offers for the offers that state: Complete registration. These do not require you to accept any offers, however, they usually dont pay as much as the offer ones. They are much quicker and require less information, often only requiring a name and email address.
Be sure to confirm any registrations that require email confirmation.
When you are completing the offer surveys, make sure you know what the requirements are and then look for things that you are interested in or that only require registration or are a newsletter.
Delete cookies between offers.

I hope this makes Cash Crate a little easier for you. If you have any other questions or tips, please let me know. I will be happy to help out if I can.

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Earning Money Online with CashCrate

cindys — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 12:01:41 +0000

You see a lot of advertising on the internet about earning money online. There are tons of websites that offer surveys, questionaires, etc and what I have found is that I wasted a lot of time filling out questionaires to qualify for surveys for which I ended up not qualifying and not getting paid to take. It was frustrating and for the months that I spent filling them out, answering emails, etc. I never got paid one cent. I earned lots of points, clicked on lots of emails, filled out loads of questionaires but never earned enough to get a check.

I signed up for one though that has paid with very little effort. Cash Crate has continued to earn money even though I had forgotten about it. I saw an article online about it and remembered my account. I was surprised to find that my CashCrate account had continued to increase with very little or no time spent there. And while I was tickled with my little earnings, the blogger who referred me to them has earned over $400 this month. I was so tickled that I spent 10 minutes filling out surveys and doubled my earnings in 15 minutes.

CashCrate has both cash offers and points offers. They also tell you whether you are going to need a credit card to complete the offer or if it will cost you anything in postage, handling, purchases, etc. so it makes it easy to decide which offers you are interested in. I have made a commitment to myself to spend 1 hour per day doing offers in CashCrate and see how much I can earn in a month. I am going to keep a running total of dollars and minutes spent under the CashCrate button in my side bar.

If you decide to use CashCrate, I would recommend that you open a special email to use when completing offers and surveys. I get way too much email already and don’t want to have to sort through advertising on a daily basis. I set up a special email address for CashCrate and all of the offers and newsletters go to that address. In this way, I can read through them when I have time to devote to them.

Have you tried CashCrate? Are there any other ways that you have found to earn money online?

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Life in Poverty: What is Poverty in the US?

cindys — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 13:48:27 +0000

In 2007, 12.5% of Americans were living at or below the Poverty threshold. What causes them to fall into poverty. The answers might surprise you. With all of the focus on middle class tax breaks and stimulus payments, we forget that we have a percentage of our nation who are living in deep and abiding poverty.

Three years ago, I had a management position with a large corporation and an income over $60,000 per year. I owned a small house and a new car. Sounds pretty good doesn’t it? It is deceptive because the cost of living where I was located was so high that even with my income, I couldn’t afford to live.

This was before I discovered personal finance. Had I known then what I know now, the decisions that I made would have probably been different. Hind sight is always 20/20. I decided to make some changes in my life. I was looking to significantly lower my cost of living and keep my income in the same range. You can read more about the decisions that I made in the post 4 Good Decisions that Brought Me to My Financial Knees.

So here I am, an intelligent, moderately well educated 50 year old woman whose income is at or below the poverty level. I am not however, destitute. I am not living on welfare or food stamps. I eat well and I have heat but I can’t pay my consumer debt. I’m actually fairly happy. Of course there are holes in this situation. It allows no saving for retirement, I have no health or life insurance as my income just won’t stretch that far. I live on the brink of disaster all the time. If I have an accident or a major illness and can’t work, there is very little cushion to fall back on. My tiny little emergency fund is all that stands between me and disaster.

I am probably more representative of American poor than the unwed mother living on welfare or the drug addict who is homeless and unable to hold down a job. Over 37 million people live below the poverty threshold. Paul Harris writes in a 2006 article for the Observer:

A shocking 37 million Americans live in poverty. That is 12.7 per cent of the population – the highest percentage in the developed world. They are found from the hills of Kentucky to Detroit’s streets, from the Deep South of Louisiana to the heartland of Oklahoma. Each year since 2001 their number has grown.

He has some interesting stories on a few people who are living in poverty. I don’t believe that they are the norm but it made interesting reading.

What Is Poverty?

Officially the poverty threshold is determined by the US census and the full tables can be seen at the census website. According to Wikipedia “This measure recognizes poverty as a lack of those goods and services commonly taken for granted by members of mainstream society.”

Poverty Guidelines are issued by the Department of Health and Human Services and are a simplified version of the poverty thresholds. They are used largely for administrative purposes in determining benefits for citizens.

Most industrial nations use a relative measure of poverty (income of 60% of the median income) and this actually increases the percentage for the US. Our national median income is $50,233 and 60%

The following table is from the US Census bureau website.

Poverty Thresholds for 2007 by Size of Family and Number of Related Children Under 18 Years
Size of Family Unit	Weighted Average Thresholds	Related children under 18 years
Size of Family Unit	Weighted Average Thresholds	None	One	Two	Three	Four	Five	Six	Seven	8 or more
One person (unrelated individual)	10,590
..Under 65 years	10,787	10,787
..65 years and over	9,944	9,944
Two people	13,540
..Householder under 65 years	13,954	13,884	14,291
..Householder 65 years and over	12,550	12,533	14,237
Three people	16,530	16,218	16,689	16,705
Four people	21,203	21,386	21,736	21,027	21,100
Five people	25,080	25,791	26,166	25,364	24,744	24,366
Six people	28,323	29,664	29,782	29,168	28,579	27,705	27,187
Seven people	32,233	34,132	34,345	33,610	33,098	32,144	31,031	29,810
Eight people	35,816	38,174	38,511	37,818	37,210	36,348	35,255	34,116	33,827
Nine people or more	42,739	45,921	46,143	45,529	45,014	44,168	43,004	41,952	41,691	40,085
Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Stop for a moment and imagine that you had to support your family on this income. One factor in determining the poverty thresholds is the amount of money that a family spends on food. The Department of Agriculture found that families of three or more spend one third of their after tax dollars on food so that the threshold was determined by multiplying the cost of food by three based on the Thrifty Food Plan.

Now stop and think about how much you spent at the grocery store last week. A family at the poverty level would be spending approximately $35 per person on food per week. In fact, this is the amount that food stamps are based on. It differs based on sex and age but according to the Cost Of Food for September 2008, you should be able to feed a family of 3 a nutritious diet for approximately $110 per week. This amount differs based on the ages and sex of the family.

And if you think that you will never be “poor” statistics may prove you wrong. Interestingly enough 58.5% of Americans will spend at least one year living below the poverty level between the ages of 25 and 75. Why and how does that happen?

One Example of a Fall Into Poverty

David was a 55 year old man. He had a good job with decent benefits. He wasn’t rich but he wasn’t poor either. Two years ago, he was diagnosed with cancer. When his doctor told him what his treatment schedule would be, he was concerned about taking that much time off work. His doctor informed him that he would never work again.

Just that quickly he lost all his income and soon after his benefits. His savings was eaten up by medical bills and living expenses. He was thrust rudely into the disability nightmare. He was lucky, if you can call it that, because he had a terminal illness and recieved disability quickly (less than the two or three years that it sometimes takes). He receives medicaid because he now has no property and little income.

He exists now on under $1,000 per month. That pays for his food, rent, electricity, tv, phone, gas, and believe it or not, child support. He is frugal with his money, he has to be. He schedules his doctors appointments early in the month because by the end of the month, there is no money to pay for gas to get to them.

The good news is that his cancer is in remission. He still takes chemo therapy but there is no sign of cancer. Once his chemo is over, there is the chance that his disability and medicaid will stop and he will be faced with trying to find work as a 57 year old man in a poor economy.

Poverty can happen to anyone and does happen to over half of the American population.

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10 Steps to Budgeting with Irregular Income

cindys — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 17:47:23 +0000

If you look around the web, you will find plenty of advice on making a budget. It’s actually pretty simple to do. You write down your income and keep track of your spending. You analyze your spending habits and adjust accordingly. The process is simple, right?

Ah, but if you are like me and you do not have a steady paycheck with a set amount of income, how do you budget? How can you plan your spending every month if you don’t know exactly what your income will be? What do you do if you don’t have enough income? What do you do when you have more than you expected?

If you have irregular income, you really need to budget more than people with a fixed income. You need to plan ahead for both the slack months and the months with excess income, otherwise you will find yourself in the debt hole.

Steps to Irregular Income Budgeting

Go back over your income for the last 12 months or as far back as you can. Write down your total income per month. You can use your bank statements, receipt books, paycheck stubs, etc. If you are in a seasonal business, you will probably notice a trend of which months are good and which aren’t.
Total your monthly income and divide by the number of months that you have to determine your monthly average income. Write down your monthly average. Look at the months with the least amount of income and write down the two lowest.
Determine your monthly spending. Write down the amount spent, who it went to and label it as necessary, perk or waste. Bills such as rent, mortgage, heat, groceries, health insurance and debt payments are pretty much necessary. Movies, dinners out, vacations, entertainment may be labeled as a perk. Money spent at Starbucks, the local convenience store, etc may be something you want to label as waste. It’s up to you to decide what the basic necessities of your life are.
Prioritize your necessary bills. Make a list of your bills in order of importance. For most of us, the mortgage or rent is going to be on the top of the list. The next thing may be the utility bills and then any debts for cars, credit cards, etc. The list should include who the payment is going to, the amount and then keep a running total. It would look like this Name ***** Amount***** Total so that when you are done, the total column will show the total amount you need to pay by the end of the month.
Analyze. Go back to your monthly income and look at the two lowest months. If you were to only earn this amount, would it be enough to pay all your bills and still allow you living expenses? How many months does your income fall below the amount of your monthly bills? Would the average monthly income be enough? How much do you have left over in the months with excess income?
Annualize. Take your necessary expenses monthly and add them up to get an annual amount. Subtract it from your annual income. If the result is a negative number then you need to either reduce your spending or increase your income. If it is a positive number then you can move to the next step.
Take the months where your monthly income is below your monthly spending and subtract the amount you spend from your income for that month. This should be a negative number and we are going to call it the shortfall.
Establish a shortfall fund. While there is lots of talk about an emergency fund in personal finance, if you have an irregular income, you need to establish a fund for those months where your income is at a low point. This is not an emergency fund, this is money planned to meet those normal everyday living expenses that you have to pay even when your income is not enough. The shortfall fund should not replace your emergency fund. Your goal should be to have an amount equal to the shortfall you determined in the previous step. On months where you have more income than your spending, put that money towards your shortfall fund until it reaches the annual shortfall amount.
Pay bills in order of priority. When you pay bills, pay them in the order of priority and mark them off the list as you go. You should be able to look at your list and determine exactly how many you can pay.
Eliminate Waste. You designated a certain amount of your spending as waste. Get rid of it and put that money towards establishing either your emergency fund or your shortfall fund.

Budgeting on irregular income is not easy. It does require planning and saving to not end up with more month than you have money. I personally have found that I have to put a certain percentage of my income into savings before I spend a single penny of it. Otherwise it will get frittered away on important but probably unnecessary things.

Do you have an irregular income? Any additional tips on how to budget for it? I’d love to hear from you regarding challenges and successes with it.

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Starting a New Business: My Son Actually Listened!

cindys — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 10:00:00 +0000

by Steve and Sara

Once in a very great while you realize that something you said to your children actually sunk in and they acted on it. It’s a very good feeling. Now my son will probably deny me having anything to do with his decision but I am going to take a tiny bit of credit for this one anyway.

Back at Christmas time, my son was talking about financing a tow truck and branching out into his own business. He has been working evenings and weekends in addition to his regular job for about a year at this and likes it. At the time, he was thinking about driving the tow truck full time.

I expressed some concerns about it and related my experience over the last year with my own business. I suggested that he continue working where he was and save the money up for a tow truck rather than financing it. I also suggested that if he was going to do this full time that he needed to have enough money saved up to live on for a period of time.

He hasn’t mentioned it since then but in talking to him this week, he mentioned it again. I asked him if he had been able to save any money. He has actually saved up about $5000 to put towards the purchase of his truck. I am so pleased! He has definitely grown up in the instant gratification generation and saving money to buy something rather than getting credit is a new skill for him.

He has also decided that he will keep his full time job and either hire someone to drive the tow truck during the day or go into business with someone who can take the day shift. As he puts it, my job pays the bills. This is one of those moments in parenting (parenting never quits even when your children are adults) that make me so proud.

If you are thinking of starting a new business, here are a few suggestions. Some of these I did prior to purchasing my business and some I didn’t. I hope that a few people might learn from my mistakes.

Start with as little on credit as you can. Building a business takes time and the fewer bills you have starting out, the easier it will be to make ends meet. If I didn’t have a loan on my business I would be sitting pretty.

Do your research on the demand for your business. If it is a local business, know your demographics and who you expect your customer to be. You will want to target your marketing to this segment of the market.

Have a business plan. This should go without saying but you need to have written goals and plans. You should know what your target income is monthly and how you are going to achieve it. Know what expenses you will incur along the way. Be conservative in your income estimates and plan for your expenses to be a bit higher than you expect.

Have enough in savings to support yourself for a year or an alternate plan for supporting yourself. Again, this is the biggest reason why start ups fail. It takes time to build a business and if you plan on yours supporting you for the first year, you are setting out to fail. So far I have managed to keep my head above water or close enough to not drown but it has been a struggle and not a pleasant one.

Plan for long hours and doing most of the work yourself. For your start up period, you need to plan on working long and hard to get your business going so that you can invest the profit back into the business. If you are thinking that being a business owner means hiring someone to do the hard stuff, think again.

Review your plan monthly and be prepared to change. If you look at your plan and see that your business is coming from a different segment, you need to be flexible enough to take advantage of it. If your expenses are higher than you planned initially, you need to be able to compensate for it quickly.

Owning your own business is rewarding both personally and financially. Statistics show that the majority of millionaires own their own business but it takes time and dedication to get to that point. Are you willing to invest the time and hard work that it takes to follow your dream? Are you willing to sacrifice to make it a reality?

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Revolution Money Exchange Sign Up Bonus Offer Extended

cindys — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 11:10:48 +0000

If you sell anything on the internet whether it’s through eBay, Craigs List or Etsy. Or if you are a non profit and take donations, you will want to check out Revolution Money Exchange. This is similar to PayPal without the service fees. Revolution Money Exchange has extended their $25 sign up bonus through May 15th. It takes about 2 minutes to sign up and the $25 bonus will be waiting for you when you log in.

I have verified my accounts and transferred my bonus into savings already. It seems to be a great service.

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Frugal, Investment or Foolish?

cindys — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 10:27:40 +0000

by freedryk

When the phone rang yesterday and the caller id said Unknown, I just knew it was a sales call and I hate them. I answered the phone and they asked for me using my full name. I put on my best suspicious voice and asked who was calling. When they said it was the State, I almost died.

We set up the interview for Monday afternoon and as soon as I hung up, I did a mental review of my closet. Having recently lost a little over 40 lbs and 4 sizes, nothing I have fits. I know from prior experience that I have to be really comfortable with what I am wearing on an interview or it adds an incredible amount of stress and nerves to an already stressful event.

I had to go to the city last night anyway and I had an extra hour so I swung by Ross Dress for Less to see what they had. I found an awesome suit and blouse that was priced at $69.99. Ouch! It’s really not terribly expensive for a quality suit (the suit was tagged at $200 and I found a smilar one by the same designer on Amazon for $170) but that is my food budget for the month.

While I think it’s a worthwhile investment, I am not sure it is the most frugal thing I have ever done. I feel a little guilty about spending the money on it but I am not second guessing the decision to purchase it. Right now, I think I am considering it an investment. If I don’t get the job it might move to the foolish category.

Coming in on the good investment side of things are the following articles. Almost every one mentions that it is important to dress appropriately for an interview.

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17 Tips on Finding Your Dream Job covers more than just interview techniques but touches on them as well.

Have you found that the way you dress is important on an interview? Any interview skills or techniques to share? What was the most difficult question you were ever asked on an interview? Do you know of a good article to help me prepare?

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A Hobby Can Be Additional Source Of Income

cindys — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 10:38:50 +0000

One of the areas of my life that I don’t talk about very often here is raising dogs. This has been a hobby of mine for many years. My parents bred dogs and we traveled all over the U.S. showing them so I guess I come by it naturally. I delivered a puppy to North Carolina this weekend and thought I would touch a little on the economics of dog breeding and making money from a hobby.

While breeding dogs is not a business for me, I treat it as one for several reasons. I earn an income from it and I prefer to be able to deduct my expenses from it. The income from the puppies insures that my dogs get the best of care and in normal times that income is put back into care, feeding, stud fees, veterinary bills and showing them.

Most years the expenses are equal to the income due to the care that I take to both improve the lives of my own dogs and the health testing that goes into making sure that the puppies will not be born with any genetic problems. Before my dogs are bred they visit a canine ophthalmologist and cardiologist as well as their regular vet annually. They also have x-rays of their joints to make sure they do not have joint problems.

Then there is the expense of actually having puppies. There is the occasional operation to actually have the puppies, the vaccinations, worming and care of the puppies after they are born and then advertising expense if they are not all spoken for before they are born. Because I have been breeding for so many years and my puppies are known for being beautiful and healthy, all the pups are often spoken for before they are born.

This year for the first time in my life, the income from the puppies will go to my emergency fund, catching up and paying ahead debts and making life a little more secure for both the dogs and I. There is a list of things that the dogs would like such as fencing in the yard for them so they could stay outside while I was at work but that will have to wait for better times. Last year they got an air conditioner for their room while I sweated the summer out with box fans.

Income from Any Hobby

My point is not the economics of breeding dogs but that you can turn any hobby into an alternate stream of income. With some hobbies you have to be a bit more creative than others but it is possible.

Sewing – Make something simple and sell at craft shows or on Etsy. I love these shopping bags and have considered making them to sell at the local craft cooperative.

Crafts – This is another project that is on my horizon. These magnets are simple and inexpensive to make and I plan on selling some in my shop.

Knitting and Crocheting – If you are doing this anyway, why not look for a project to sell.

Golf – This is one of the more difficult but perhaps lessons to kids or teens. Finding old clubs at thrift stores or yard sales, reconditioning them and selling them on eBay or Craigs list.

Reading – This is one of my favorites. If you read a lot, why not sell the used books on Amazon, eBay or Alibris. I did this for awhile and made a fair income from it. I expanded from my own books to purchasing some at yard sales or thrift stores.

Woodworking - You don’t have to be an expert at this to make small shelves or birdhouses to sell. Birdhouses are all the rage lately both to put outside and to use for decorating inside.

Whatever your hobby is if you think about it creatively, you can make an income from it. If you treat it as a business and track of your expenses and income, something that you love to do can turn into a snowflake to pay down debt, go into a vacation fund or be put aside for your emergency fund.

Is there any better way to make an income than by doing something you enjoy? What are your hobbies? Have you ever considered making an income from them?

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Is Network (MLM) Marketing Evil?

cindys — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 00:28:35 +0000

Everyone loves to hate Multi Level Marketing (or Network Marketing) schemes. I remember back in the 70s when I was invited to a party that turned into an Amway presentation. Talk about leaving a bad taste in your mouth. Ugh.

But are they all really bad? There are a host of Network marketing companies that are well respected and sometimes even household names. Who hasn’t heard of Tupperware? And I bet most households even own some. What about Mary Kay? Again, it’s a very common and accepted product line with well respected products.

One of my alternate streams of income is from a network marketing organization. I made over $1000 in bonuses last year with very little effort. I had two in home presentations all year and did not even try to convince any of my friends or family to sign up as distributors.

Forget for a moment all the slick, negative and outright dishonest tactics that have been used by some companies in the past, and let’s look at the theory behind network marketing. When a company comes out with a new product, they spend millions of dollars promoting and marketing it to the general public. Even products that have been around for awhile are constantly being marketed for millions of dollars on tv, magazine and newspaper ads.

It has been well known among marketers that the best advertising is word of mouth. You like something, you tell your friends. You hate something, you tell more friends. That is why companies have been adding those annoying little surveys at the end of every phone call.

In theory, Network Marketing takes the millions of dollars that would be spent on advertising and marketing and puts that money where the mouths are. They give it back to the people who actively promote the products. Sounds like a great deal doesn’t it?

What Network Marketing isn’t is a get rich quick scheme. If someone is telling you that you can make $5000 a month with little or no effort, it’s a lie. It isn’t going to happen that way and that’s why Network Marketing gets a bad name.

Is it possible to make $5000 a month? In most network marketing organizations, yes. If you put as much effort into your “business” as you would put into a job, it is possible. I know people who have done it but it does take work.

If you are considering a Network Marketing business, there are a few things you should consider before you jump into it. Check out the products. If they are food supplement or food related, do a search on google and put Name of company + FDA. You will get a list of any complaints that have been listed with the Food and Drug Administration. You can do the same thing with FTC and get a list of any complaints that have been registered with the Federal Trade Commission.

This simple search will tell you quite a bit about the reputation of the company before you get involved. You will also want to find out how long they have been in business. Most importantly of all, try the products. Make sure that they are something that you believe in and will stand behind and that they give value for the price.

My own personal belief is that the products should sell themselves and when people use them for a period of time they may choose to get involved. My main method of marketing is called the Remote Control Simple System and it consists of sending out a flyer or postcard every month to about 100 people. I don’t ever bring it up unless they ask me about it and even then, I only give them the information they request.

Overall, I think that MLM or network marketing is a legitimate consideration for an alternate stream of income if the company is chosen with care and your business is run and promoted honestly. As with any business, you will get out of it what you put into it. I put about 15 minutes a day into mine and earned $1000. I think that is a pretty good return on my dollar.

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The Benefits and Drawbacks of Being Self Employed

cindys — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 10:49:05 +0000

There are days when I love being self employed. I really do. I don’t have answer to anyone. I can make my own decisions about the business. And then there are times when it sucks!

Whether your business is a blog, a service or a store, these are a few of the benefits and drawbacks. You will note that most of the benefits can turn into drawbacks.

Benefits and Drawbacks Of Being Self Employed

Taxes

It can be a great tax shelter. I am not truly very good at this but I am getting better. There are a lot of things that can be tax deductions if you keep good records such as computers, clothing, gas, business lunches, conferences.

Self Employment Tax. I don’t know if you realize it but if you are employed, your employer pays portion of your taxes. If you are self employed, you pay the whole kit and kaboodle. This can add up to a healthy chunk of change.

Hours

You have control over your hours. The business is open when you say it’s open and when you want to take off, you can. You can take vacations when you want.

The reality of this is that you usually end up working more hours for less money for the first few years. There are no paid vacations, sick leave, personal leave, etc. You will quickly learn that if you don’t work, you don’t earn.

Income

You have the ability to earn unlimited income. This is very true. You don’t have to share your income with anyone except Uncle Sam. What you earn is yours to keep or spend.

There are no paychecks. You don’t get paid at the end of the week. Sometimes you don’t get paid at the end of the month. You get what’s left over after you pay the bills and your employees. Some months I think I am only working for them.

All of these drawbacks will change with time and success. The reason that most businesses fail in the first year or so is because people start them and expect to make a profit in their first year. Most planners will tell you that it takes at least a year and sometimes several years to make a profit from your business. You need to plan on supporting yourself and your business for the first two years.

I thought mine would be different as it was already an established business but I am learning the hard way that it still is challenging the first year.

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