A Penny Saved

Ok, so I finally buckled and signed up for Amway Agloco.  It sounds a lot like a pyramid scheme.  And as my dear friend The Cookie Monster is fond of saying… “smells like a” pyramid scheme, “looks like a” pyramid scheme, “tastes like a” pyramid scheme, “must be a” pyramid scheme.

Except that it isn’t.  Technically.  You see, in order to properly be a pyramid scheme, you must have to pay to get in.  On that technicality, Agloco gets a pyramid scheme waiver.  It’s Free!  Well, almost.  That largely depends on how you value your time.  You see, Agloco installs a bar on your computer that displays ads while you surf.  You only need to surf for 5 hours a month and you can turn the bar off.  I bet I average that much surf time in a week so getting the 5 hours quickly shouldn’t be a problem.

What might be a problem for me is getting people to sign up underneath me.  Since, like a pyramid scheme, you get paid more for more people underneath you, this could affect my revenue from Agloco.  Not to worry.  It’s only a test so far anyways.

If you haven’t signed up yet, please use my link and check it out.

My Agloco Referral Link:http://www.agloco.com/r/BBBM1291

There seems to be no end to people who will tell you that Real Estate is the best investment a person can make.  Recently, those people meant that in a “flipper” kind of way.  Buy low, renovate cheap, and sell really, really high.  At the time, real estate was gaining value at ridiculous rates.  Sometimes gaining as much in a few months as it would have normally done in a year before.  Most of that has come to an end.  There are plenty of people who were “flipping” that are not doing so well right now.

All that craziness may give some people an amazing opportunity for passive income.  Using real estate for passive income is simple.  Buy affordable, rent for more than the mortgage payment.  Well, it sounds simple.  There are lots of things that you have to take into account.  If you already own a house, you probably already know that.  Costs of maintenance, taxes, repair and even vacancy must be taken into account.  Each of those things are still your responsibility if you rent the house out.

While none of them individually is much, added together, they can be quite the burden.  Depending on your location, taxes can add thousands per year.  Even if it’s $1200, that’s an extra $100 a month that you need to account for.  Your average maintenance won’t be much, but lookout for the big breakdown.  The water heater will pick the most inopportune time to go out.  Having a escrow account for such things is necessary.  Depending on how much you plan on making the account total, this could mean a negative cash flow for several months.  And then there’s vacancy.  Nobody wants to think about vacancy, but you really must.  You have to have a plan for paying all the bills for the house if there’s nobody living there.

As you can see, there are lots of potential pitfalls to using Real Estate for Passive Income.  Of course with higher risks can come higher returns.  If you are careful in your selection of property, you could stand to have a source of income that will last as long as you own the property.  Eventually, as you pay down the mortgage, more and more of the rent income becomes real income.  And don’t forget that each payment you make on the mortgage increases your equity in the property.

Real estate is probably one of the best, if not the best, option for passive income.  Not only do you get a passive income stream, you get a tangible asset that can be sold later if need be.

Technorati Tags: passive income, passive, real estate, flipper, rent income, mortgage

Amazon unveiled a new marketing ploy earlier this week called Customers Vote.  Basically, they’ve got 4 deals listed and you vote for the one that will be available.  Only the winner will be available.

Voting closes at 9pm PST Tuesday and the item will go on sale Thursday the 23rd(thanksgiving) at 11am PST.  Currently, the xbox 360 is winning.  Not surprising considering they retail for $300 and sell on eBay for $200-$250.  Buying one at $100, even with shipping could be a pretty quick profit buy.
Hopefully they will continue to do this sort of thing.  I can’t imagine it wouldn’t be popular.

Technorati Tags: amazon, amazon 100 xbox, xbox 360, xbox, customers vote

Passive income comes in many forms. Each and everyone of them has it’s own risks, methods, and rewards.

One such method, one that most people will be familiar with is Dividends. Usually coming in the form of stocks that pay dividends. While many stocks pay a dividend yield of 2-10%, there are some that pay up to 18%.

With only a minimal investment, you can create a income stream that matches or exceeds many of the High Yield savings accounts that many personal finance blogs tout. Obviously, the risk is higher that your money will disappear. But it has also been shown that stocks that pay dividends are less likely to drastically change.

If you don’t need the income directly and simply want your money to go to work for you, consider a DRIP account. A DRIP account takes that passive income in the form of dividends and re-invests them in the stock. Each time you reinvest, you end up with more shares of the stock. More shares of the stock mean more dividends.

As an example, let’s say you purchase $1000 of a $20 stock. You have 50 shares of the stock. The stock pays a 5% yield. Each year, the company pays you $1 per share. That’s $50 the first time the dividend is paid. Reinvested, you would get 2.5 more shares. Next time the dividend is paid, you receive dividends on 52.5 shares. You receive $52.5 dollars in dividends. You’ll purchase 2.625 shares. And so on. You can see how it would quickly compound and build.

Of course, fluctuations in the price of the stock can drastically change how many shares you buy at each reinvestment. But, over the long term, you’re also taking advantage of dollar cost averaging. Some times you’ll buy lower, and others you’ll buy higher. Overall, it averages out to a median price.

Whether you participate in a DRIP or not, you can see how investing in dividend paying stocks can create passive income. If you keep the stock for the long term, it really has little to no maintenance.

disclaimer:When investing in stock it is important to remember that there are risks associated with that investment.  Research any stock before purchasing.  I’m not a professional, you should consult one before investing in anything.

Technorati Tags: passive income, drip, dividend, invest, reinvest, yield, dividend yield

Everybody want’s to make more money right? Many of you own and run websites. If you don’t, maybe you should look into it. It’s like the newest version of a lemonade stand on the corner.

The reason that many of us own and run websites is to spread information and interact with a community of like-minded individuals. A nice side-effect of this is that we have the ability to make some money on the side from our websites. The most popular way to do this is Google Adsense. There are affiliate links in the sidebar at Green Llama (aff) if you want to sign up.

In my experience, the best income generator that I have is (aff)Text-Link-Ads. I make easily double and triple the amount that I make with Adsense with TLA(aff). Easily. All it takes is a little modification of your template code and *kazaam* people can start signing up to pay you to have a text link on your site.

So, if you have a website and want to make a little more money with it, do yourself the favor of stopping on over to Text-Link-Ads(aff). It will be worth your time.

Technorati Tags: TLA, Text-Link-Ads, adsense, google adsense, revenue, income

This is the first of three short articles based upon the principles and plans in the book “The Automatic Millionaire by David Bach.  Read my full review of the book!

Everybody want’s to be a Millionaire right?  So, besides winning the lottery or having wealthy aunt Harriet die, how do we accomplish that?

David Bach has a few ideas in The Automatic Millionaire.  His simple plan can be broken down into three easy sections.  This is the first.

Find the Money.

You can’t be a Millionaire with out a million dollars. Sure you have to save money.  You have to make your money work for you too.  But where does the money come from?

David introduces the readers to “The Latte Factor” early on in the book.  “The Latte Factor” is a really, really simple premise.  There is something in your daily routine that you spend money on that can easily be cut out.  For some, it’s a morning Latte.  A normal Latte can cost upwards of $4 each.  If you buy one 5 days a week, that’s $20 a week.  $80 a month.  So, David says, if we merely cut the Latte out of the daily routine we free up $80 a month for investment.

It’s not just Lattes either.  If you don’t drink a Latte every day, maybe it’s a pack of cigarettes.  Or a donut.  No matter the vice, cutting it from your daily routine could get you on the right track to becoming an Automatic Millionaire.

What’s your “Latte Factor”?  How much is it costing you?  If you account for growth, $80 a month could add up to hundreds of thousands of dollars over 20+ years.  Is that Latte that important to you?

Come back Monday, July 10th 2006 for part 2: Make it Automatic.

Read my full review of the book, The Automatic Millionaire.  Pick a copy of it up at Amazon.

Technorati Tags: The automatic millionaire, save, retire rich, retirement, david bach, the latte factor, millionaire

Ebay Inc. announced that it will be starting a program called “eBay AdContext” at eBay live this weekend. The new program will allow website owners to have ad units similar to those by Google Adsense and Yahoo Publisher Network on their site in exchange for a share of any resulting sales. That share could end up in the 40% to 70% range.
This could be great news for those of us that sell on eBay. The extra exposure could be phenomenal and could allow for greater sell rates and selling prices. Any little boost to my bottom line would certainly be good. There wasn’t any word on whether the sellers would incur extra fees from the appearance and sale of their products through eBay AdContext, but I would certainly think they would need to pass that on a little.

As a publisher here at A Penny Saved, it could make a little extra padding for the bottom line a second way. As long as it doesn’t violate the Terms of Service of the other ad systems that are in place currently, you just might see some eBay ads soon.

Technorati Tags: ebay, ebay adcontext, adcontext, ebay ads, ebay affiliate, ebay live, adsense, google, yahoo

Ever heard of a site called mypoints?

Mypoints is a site with a pretty good premise. They send you email. You read the email, and click the link in the email. You get 5 points. When you get enough points, you can redeem them for gift cards at your favorite retailer. It’s simple, easy, and actually fairly quick.

If you’re like me you hate spammish emails, but mypoints usually only sends one or two a day and all you really have to do is click to the site, let it load and close it. Both my wife and I have been using the service for a little over a year and have received about 4 $10 walmart giftcards. Those are 1500 points a pop. It’s nothing great, but it’s free money if you’re willing to put up with a couple of extra emails a day.

You know what’s even better? You can refer up to 5 people a month and get extra points when they join up. You also can use their site as a portal when you do online shopping at places like OfficeMax, Bed Bath and beyond and earn points that way too. The average is about 3 points earned per dollar spent. If you do a lot of your shopping online, it’s a quick and easy rebate.

ADDED: I just redeemed the points I had accumulated for $50 in Wal-Mart gift cards.
If you want a referral, please email me your email address (thatedeguy AT gmail DOT com) or leave a comment as that will give it too me and I’d be happy to send you one. Of course, you don’t need a referral, but I certainly would appreciate the extra points.

Technorati Tags: mypoints, frugal, save, rebate, online shopping, save money, my points

I’ve just added Text Link Ads to A penny saved… Perhaps you’ll soon notice them along the right hand side of the site. Unlike other ways to monetize a site, Text Link Ads sells the ad for the entire month and then splits the revenue with you. There is no depending on click throughs, only viable ad space.

If you’d like to try it out, I would appreciate it if you used my affiliate code. Which you can use by clicking here –> Sell Ad Space Or by clicking through on the banner on the lower right hand side that says Text Link Ads!

I’ll try and keep updated on how well this works out for me.

Technorati Tags: Ads, Text Link Ads, TLA, Revenue, Advertising

With all the talk of the Real Estate market and where it’s headed, it may be time to start looking for a new area to make your profits from. No, I’m not talking about forclosure auctions, although they could become quite popular soon. I’m talking about a different type of Real Estate. Internet Real Estate. Domains.

Just like the ever popular “house flippers” who buy a rundown house, remodel it, and then sell for a huge profit, domain flipping is becoming popular. Business 2.0 had a short article on the subject in this months issue. (unfortunately, there is no link up to the article just yet) Essentially, people are buying domain names that have potential, fleshing the site out and gaining traffic, then selling for decent profit.  They suggest sites like sitepoint and DNForum to begin looking at for potential flippable domains.

Certainly, domain flipping isn’t for everybody, and some related experience with web programming and domain hosting is probably suggested.  I have some limited experience with my research for articles at Thatedeguy and at SuperGeekBlog, but still will have to take a much closer look before I try domain flipping for the first time.

Technorati Tags: domain flipping, business 2.0, domain, internet, flipping, real estate