Disneysteve's Common Cents Blog

Thinking about paying the mortgage

sgitler@aol.com (Steve) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 12:38:18 PST

I'm typically one of the regulars on the forums who advises investing first, pre-paying the mortgage second (if at all). I find that my view is slowly changing. I think it is partly due to my mortgage balance shrinking and partly due to my getting ever closer to retirement. I've still...

October 2009 Survey Total

sgitler@aol.com (Steve) — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 11:27:38 PST

Recap for the newbies: I am a family practice doctor and I have the opportunity to do a lot of medical surveys and market research programs, mostly online but occasionally in person (focus groups and such). Each month, I post the total I've earned from surveys for that month.

As...

Super Survey Thursday

sgitler@aol.com (Steve) — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 17:05:01 PST

As you know, I do a lot of online medical surveys (I'm a physician) and earn a good amount of money doing so. One thing I've also done periodically in the past is participate in survey and market research programs in person. There are 3 or 4 companies in my area that do this. I used...

Medical expenses on the horizon

sgitler@aol.com (Steve) — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 05:58:58 PST

And things were rolling along so well this year...

My wife has been having some gynecological issues which her doctor has been trying to correct with medication without success. So she is going in on Tuesday for a D&C/Hysteroscopy. Once that is done, they will be scheduling her...

September 2009 Survey Total

sgitler@aol.com (Steve) — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 16:36:41 PST

I am a physician and have the opportunity to do many online (and occasional in-person) surveys and market research programs. They can be fairly quick and easy or they can be quite long, boring and tedious, but in either case, they pay quite well, on the order of $100/hour or more sometimes....

5 survey checks in 5 days

sgitler@aol.com (Steve) — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 19:01:41 PST

I usually save my monthly medical survey update for the end of the month but I had a particularly good week. As I posted last month, I had gotten out of the habit of doing all the surveys I get offered and my survey income had really dropped off as a result. So I hunkered down and...

Another ebay update

sgitler@aol.com (Steve) — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 12:46:38 PST

I had a big half.com sale today, a medical text for $29.95. My price was well below the next lowest price. I did that on purpose. I got the book for free and figured if I could get $30 for it, I'd be very happy. That brings me to 16 sales and $158.86 for the month. I'm quite happy with that.

Ebay Challenge Update 9/17/09

sgitler@aol.com (Steve) — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 16:02:03 PST

As I've reported before, and as my sidebar shows, I got off track with my Ebay Challenge for a while in late spring and summer, earning absolutely nothing for July and August.

This month, I listed a bunch of books on half.com. I love that site. It is simple to use and stuff sells...

Loving Half.com

sgitler@aol.com (Steve) — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 12:05:27 PST

I posted about this on the forums, but wanted to elaborate here. I have sold books on half.com for some time and it really seems to go in waves. I'll sell nothing for weeks and weeks and then all of a sudden, I'll have a slew of sales.

Last Sunday night, I listed 9 copies of a medical...

August 2009 Survey Total

sgitler@aol.com (Steve) — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 11:25:54 PST

For the newbies - I'm a physician and get to do a lot of online surveys. They pay pretty well though they can be rather boring and tedious to complete. I tend to go through phases where I do everyone I get invited to and then slack off and fall off track. I'm trying to get back on...

Vacation Countdown

sgitler@aol.com (Steve) — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 17:45:53 PST

4 days from now, we'll be on the road on our way to Disney World! We'll leave Friday afternoon, hopefully by 3pm. We'll drive until about 10pm or so and stop for the night. We'll get back on the road about 8am Saturday morning and arrive at our rental house in Kissimmee by around 6pm...

Back to the ebay challenge

sgitler@aol.com (Steve) — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 18:12:29 PST

I admit it. I've failed at my own challenge. At the beginning of the year, I posted the ebay challenge, to have average monthly sales of $100. I got off to a strong start as you can see on my sidebar. Then I just dropped off to nothing.

So now I'm determined to get back on track....

May, June, July Survey Totals

sgitler@aol.com (Steve) — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 10:48:13 PST

I kind of fell out of the blogging habit and I realize I didn't do my usual monthly post about my survey income, so I thought I'd post now and update the last 3 months.

Along with not blogging, I also got off track yet again with doing surveys. I blame Facebook and that darn poker...

Our house is falling apart - Part 2

sgitler@aol.com (Steve) — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 09:22:36 PST

Several months ago (January, I think) I posted an entry entitled, "Our house is falling apart."

Six months later, we've fixed several things on that list, though not all of them. In the meantime, a few new ones have cropped up.

We had to have our oven repaired not long ago. I...

Great casino trip today

sgitler@aol.com (Steve) — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 15:39:48 PST

Hi. I haven't blogged much lately. Just haven't felt like it. Thought I'd report on a nice casino trip today, though.

My wife and I went to Harrah's Chester for a few hours. A few days ago, I had a dream that I was at a casino and won $4,500 on a slot machine. Now I'm not into supernatural...

ROTHs fully funded!

sgitler@aol.com (Steve) — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 19:07:35 PST

I realize I haven't blogged for a while. Just haven't been in the mood. I thought I should post that I just sent in the final 2009 contributions to our ROTHs so each is fully funded for $5,000.

Now I need to decide what to do with that portion of our savings for the rest of the...

April 2009 Survey Total

sgitler@aol.com (Steve) — Thu, 07 May 2009 16:57:08 PST

I realized today I hadn't done my monthly post about survey income. For the newbies, I'm a physician and get to do various online surveys on medical topics. I also do Pinecone and Opinion Place.

For April, I earned $433 from surveys. Not my best month. Not my worst month. Solidly...

More Decluttering and Ebay Stuff

sgitler@aol.com (Steve) — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 11:51:00 PST

Today is a beautiful spring day, the first we've really had this year. I spent a couple of hours attacking the disaster area we call our garage. I managed to make some progress, get rid of some trash, put some stuff in the recycling bin and condense some of what remains. I also made...

Ebay Challenge Update 4/15

sgitler@aol.com (Steve) — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 14:11:51 PST

I finally got back to ebay this week. I had 4 items ready to list (photographed, descriptions written) but when I did a quick search, I discovered that 2 of the 4 weren't worth listing. They don't sell well or bring enough to be worth trying. I did list the other 2 items. As of right...

$1,000 to the Roths

sgitler@aol.com (Steve) — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 07:28:18 PST

I transferred $1,000 to my wife's Roth last night. This is part of the tax refund money. I haven't sent all of that money in yet because I ended up lending my mom some money. Her taxes ended up being more than expected due to some investment gains and it made more sense for us to lend...