My family and I were in Target buying a birthday gift when all of a sudden there were like a dozen employees standing around with a trainer explaining to them how to “help” customers. Being naturally curious I listened in for awhile. What these new employees were really being trained to do was not help customers but to sell them more products.

If you ask a Target employee for help about diapers, they are supposed to also mention or ask if you need wipes.  If you need help in electronics about a DVD player, the employee will ask you if you have cables. It was one big sales training event.

It was a reminder to me that salespeople are really there to help the company, not necessarily there to help you – unless, like I said, it helps the company. So the next time you are shopping at Target, or anywhere for that matter, remember that a sales person’s “help” comes at a price. Don’t let them sell you what you don’t need. Know what you want / what you need and stick to it.

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Something that I do on the side to bring in a little money is do surveys. One survey company in particular that I like is PineCone Research. I have been a member (you need to be accepted) for over a year, and it has been easy and enjoyable. The surveys are not particularly long, and you are paid cash- not points like a lot of others. Right now they pay $3 a survey. You can receive payment either by check or through Paypal, which is what I use. Also, I have been fortunate on several occasions to receive free products to try. My product testing experiences  need to remain confidential, but I have enjoyed them and it has saved me some money!

Right now, PineCone Research is looking for more survey participants. If you are interested you can register at http://www.pineconeresearch.com/signup/RR570DS1.asp.

One thing to remember is that only 1 member per household may sign up. If you have further questions, you can email PineCone Research at scott@pineconeresearch.com or click on the attached link to learn more about PineCone Research: http://www.pineconeresearch.com//about.HTM

Just an FYI – this is not a paid referral program, so I do not get any compensation or benefit from recommending them. I just think it is a good company, and it is a pretty easy way to earn a little money.

Their web site is: http://www.pineconeresearch.com

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Twice a year we do this – once in the summer, and once after Christmas.  The Great Toy Clean Out, which is really a room by room  (including play house) clean up of little girl stuff, has just been completed. It is amazing how much stuff 3 little girls can collect. Of course they collect a lot from grand parents, uncles and aunts, even some close friends; plus all the papers and projects they bring home from activities. It doesn’t take long to pile up. My wife pulled out 9 rocks in one bedroom (they were hiding under a bed)! Clothes that were supposed to be hung were stuffed around stuffed animals. Used tissues in drawers – ugh! Although we have them make beds and put toys away daily and clean rooms weekly, it is amazing how children will find ways to put things were they do not belong! They work really hard to not work!

Anything that is broken and cannot be fixed or is not worth fixing, tossed out. Things that are inside that belong outside, taken out. Things that are outside that belong inside, brought in. Toys that they no longer play with are given to friends or taken to Goodwill (or some other charity). This time there were two big bags of garbage thrown out (mostly puzzles with missing pieces, papers from school, etc.), with just a little bit given away. Usually with the after Christmas clean out there is a lot more given away (to make room for the new stuff that came in).

We are not yard sale people, but if you are, this is one way to make a few bucks. As I mentioned, we take some things to charity which saves us money on our taxes. Either way, you are making or saving pennies which is a great thing. It also teaches our children to learn to give things away and to make decisions. When they realize other children have less than they do, they get excited about giving things away – that is priceless.

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We are trying something new this year – bartering. My wife is a stay at home mom, and a home school teacher. But she is also a certified school teacher. When you home school in our state, once your child reaches a certain grade, you need an evaluation by a certified school teacher. So for the last few years my wife has been doing evaluations to earn a little bit of money to go toward our home school needs.

Well, this year, in addition to money, she will barter. So far, she is exchanging an evaualtion for some reading tutoring for our oldest daughter, and has also bartered for our bikes to get checked and serviced. Not bad.

If you think about, almost all of us have a skill, talent, maybe even some items sitting around that we could exchange for something else. We are just doing it locally, but there are even web sites to facilitate bartering. One I checked out is www.tradeaway.com. They calim to be the world’s largest online barter exchange auction site. It was pretty impressive. They list everything from antiques to vacation or travel trips. Not bad.

You do need a realistic evaluation of what your goods or services are worth, and it helps to have some idea of what you want to barter for is worth. But overall, it can be a win win situation. So far we have found it to be a great idea and really useful.

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I am sure you have read or heard that there are only two ways to improve your finances: make more money or reduce expenses. And many blogs will tell you how to do one or the other, or even both. But there is also another way. Timing.

Let me explain. If you owe  $1000, you usually can either pay it right away or you make payments (usually with interest). But sometimes there is a way to pay it later with no interest owed – and you can make interest on the amount in the mean time.

Example. Many people allow their mortgage company to add an escrow to their monthly mortgage payment to pay for something like real estate taxes. Each month the mortgage  company, in addition to your house payment, takes an amount, say $100, to escrow against your taxes, which they will then pay for you. But why allow them to make money off of you (interest) when you can delay this payment yourself and save the money and pay your own taxes – in the mean time collecting interest off the amount you are saving?

It’s just timing. But by paying your taxes yourself you are using timing to your advantage- letting your money accrue and earn interest. You can do this with your federal or state taxes: why get a big refund with no interest when you can weekly or monthly be putting that money aside and earn interest?

This can be done with “same as cash promotions”. You’ve seen the 1-year same as cash financing deals (although they are getting harder to find right now). As long as you are disciplined, get the item, keep your cash, and make interest. Then make the payment on time. Even a credit card (the grace period) is a small way to do this on a monthly basis, although the amount of interest earned might not be worth the headache. But if you can automate the payments and the savings, over the course of a year you might make a few dollars.

Discipline is the key. You must not touch the money! But if you have (or can develop it) discipline, you can use timing to slowly improve your financial situation. I have done this in several areas (mostly taxes, but also with some larger monthly bills) and have seen my interest build up over time – a very rewarding endeavor!

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Yes, I did it. Several weeks ago I pulled the trigger and refinanced our home mortgage. Our previous mortgage was only 5 years old (fixed, 30 yr), but with a discount for refinancing with the same lender, and with interest rates at that time at historic lows, I went for it. At the same time, I rolled over my Home Equity loan (which was at 6.8%), so now I only have one loan. I ended up with a 4.75% fixed rate for 30 years. By doing so, my cash flow increased by almost $300 a month. I am putting an extra $110 a month toward the mortgage (should decrease the loan length by about 7 years and save me $33,000 in interest), putting another $125 a month toward my emergency fund, and the rest is helping to ease some budgets that weren’t quite working out.

One big diference between now and five years ago is how much they are checking everything. Last time, I don’t think they checked anything! This time, everything got checked, which is the way it should be. Some good news for me is that my appriasal came in very strong – our house is still worth a lot more than what we paid for it five years ago, so I am thankful for that.

What stories do you have out there about refinancing, good or bad?

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In this week’s U.S. News & World Report, I read through an article on the U.S. Economy by James Pethokoukis entitled “Gloom and Doom, or Zoom.” Most of the article was about whoever wins the Democratic Nomination will be a shoe-in for the Presidency based upon the economy (with a little back-tracking at the end). But what really interested me was this statement he made near the very end of the article: “As it is, with wages up 7 percent the past year and consumption up 6 percent, consumers seem to be crying all the way to the mall.”

Two things bothered me about this statement. First, wages up 7 percent? I have not read that anywhere else. If true, that would be good news (at least for everyone else – I didn’t get that this year!). Second, that spending rose almost as much as wages. Can’t we Americans ever save anything?

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This past Saturday was a sad day. I spent part of it helping my mother-in-law, who is in her eighties, with a financial problem. It took me about two hours to figure out everything she had done. The brief:

• She purchased 4 curtains by phone from a catalog company
• She returned two of the curtains to the company, but did not follow any of the directions they gave for returning items. Hence the catalog company had no record of the return items.
• She unknowingly signed up for a credit card through this company- either because of hearing problems (she just got a hearing aid), or by being misled. The purchase was then placed on this credit card.
• She paid the catalog company by check, not realizing that the order had been placed on this new credit card. She paid for two curtains, but only a partial payment. I am still not sure how she came up with the figure she paid, but it was about $10 dollars short.
• She received the new credit card in the mail, but not realizing she had signed up for it, she sent it back; to the curtain company; whole.
• She received the credit card statements every month, but she threw them away because she did not have their credit card, she had sent it back.
• She also unknowingly signed up for credit protection on the card for $99 a year

It took me awhile to figure this all out:

• I called the credit card company- I got India of course. Was told I had to pay something on the card (it had been months, so there were late fees, excessive interest, etc.) before they could “help” me. I told them I was not paying anything. Repeatedly. And louder each time.
• I had to convince them that I was authorized to deal with them (which I was).
• I had to tell India to skip the script and get me to a supervisor who could help solve this. I only had to say “transfer me to a supervisor now” six times. Not bad.
• I was able with the supervisor to begin the process of getting this all straightened out. Thankfully my sister-in-law was able to finish this up on Monday.

My Mother-in-law is a smart person. She helped run the family business for years and did the bookkeeping. So this made this day especially sad. It appears that she is starting down the path of needing more help. It’s going to be a hard journey. It took us years to get her to go for a hearing test and get hearing aids. It will probably be the same thing with us helping her with finances, and in other areas (she still lives in her own townhouse).

I am now officially part of the sandwich generation – caring for aging parents and for young children at the same time.

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I got an email from Prosper with info on some free online seminars from the folks at Prosper.

Interested in learning how to earn a great return on Prosper loans? Join us for a free online seminar!

You will learn how to:

• Create a bidding strategy
• Create standing orders that will “carry out” your bidding strategy
• Set up watch lists to notify you when choice listings come up
• Use additional lender resources

Registration for this seminar is free but space is limited.

Looks like there will be three dates, 6/26/07, 6/28/07, and 7/3/07. You have to be a Prosper member to register, so if you aren’t a Prosper member, sign up before trying to register. I’ve tried to link the dates to the proper registration page, so just click on the date you want to attend to register.

If you’re serious about lending on Prosper, this is probably a must attend for you. You can never know enough about making money.

Technorati Tags: prosper, money, make money, lending, prosper lending

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Ok, so it officially started about a month ago. My wife and I have been going to garage sales for the last two years and buying things to sell on eBay. This year, with a one year old toddler, we haven’t been to but one weekend of garage sales. It’s a little more difficult when you have to pull him in and out of the car at each stop.

This week, my wife and her friend decided to host a garage sale rather than go to one. I’ll be holed up at work all weekend doing a major software upgrade and our son will be with his grandmother, so they figure it’s probably the best option they’ll have for putting one on this summer. Probably be better for our pocketbook than going to garage sales anyways.

You never know what you’ll find at a garage sale either. Some of the most random stuff for great prices. We bought a baby gate for $1 right before we had our son. We’ve found numerous baby toys and don’t get me started on the clothes we’ve found. A basic baby outfit at Wal-Mart can cost anywhere from $5 to $15. For that same money, you can buy about 5-10 outfits.

Garage sales have got to be one of the best ways to save money that I know of. Care to share any of your great finds?

[tags]garage sales,ebay,walmart,baby toys,baby clothes[/tags]

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