Disneysteve's Common Cents Blog

For the newbies, I'm a family practice physician and have the opportunity to participate in a lot of medical surveys and market research programs and advisory panels. Some are fun, most are fairly tedious, but they pay well. I get in and out of the habit of doing them regularly but try to keep myself on track by recording my earnings to encourage me to keep at it.

For the month of March 2012, I did quite well. I earned $932! That is among my best months ever. I'm not really sure how it got to be that high as I usually only accomplish that when I do an in-person program, not just online surveys, but that's what it is so I'm certainly not complaining. It definitely gives me some added motivation to respond to as many of the invitations as I can.

For the newbies: I am a family practice physician. I participate in numerous medical survey and market research panels. They pay well but can be pretty tedious to do. My participation rate waxes and wanes as I get busy with other things or just get tired of doing them but I try to stay on track since the money is so good.

For the month of February 2012, I earned $500 from the surveys. Not bad but not great. I know I've missed a lot of opportunities but I keep trying to stick with it.

My wife and I have always been theater fans. We both did theater work in college and beyond. In fact, it is because of theater that we got back together in 1989 and ultimately got married. I was working as a lighting designer and invited her to come be on my lighting crew.

Despite our love of theater, a love we have also passed on to our daughter, we don't often go to see live shows. The cost is a definite factor.

My daughter recently heard about a new show on Broadway called "Seminar" starring Alan Rickman (Professor Snape from Harry Potter). We decided we'd go up and see it. I ordered tickets today for next Saturday for the low, low price of $404.75 for 3 tickets. Of course, that doesn't include transportation to and from NYC, parking, meals, subway passes, etc. We are also planning to spend the night. Fortunately, we're using Marriott reward points for the hotel so no out of pocket cost but they still have monetary value. So by the time we're done, we'll probably spend at least $800 for an overnight stay and the show.

I'm happy to do it, and my daughter is thrilled, but it is a lot of money. Yes, we could see a touring company production of a show in Philadelphia which wouldn't be quite as pricey and wouldn't have the travel costs, but it isn't the same and if you want to see a new production, like this, NYC is your only choice. My wife and I did see "Rain" 2 weeks ago in Philly and it was great but still wasn't cheap. I think we paid over $90/person for that.

Any other Broadway/theater fans here?

I realized I didn't post at the end of the month.

For January, I earned $603 from surveys. Not a bad start to the year at all.

It is getting tougher to keep up with them as I get busier at work and with my volunteer obligations but I'll do my best. The money definitely comes in handy.

If you read my November entry, you'll know that I had really slacked off on keeping up with the medical surveys I have available to me and had vowed to get back on track to boost my income.

I think I did a darn good job as in the month of December, I earned $1,058 making it the second best month of the year. That gave me a total for 2011 of $7,828. Not bad at all. For those wondering if I do anything special with that money, I do report it as self-employment income which allows me to fund a SEP-IRA that I started a couple of years ago. The rest just goes into general spending. I figure it covers our annual Disney World vacation and then some.

For the newbies - I'm a physician and get to do a lot of medical market research suverys (mostly online). I post my monthly income totals here in part to try and keep myself motivated as I tend to fall off the wagon and not keep up with the invitations and then I kick myself when I realize how much more I could have made.

For November, I earned $432. Looking at my sidebar, I see that was within $1 of tying for my worst month this year. I knew it would be bad. I've missed many, many opportunities. Sometimes it was because I was busy but honestly sometimes it was because I was spending time on the forums or facebook or doing other stuff that wasn't making me any money.

Once again, I'm trying to get back on track. I did a few surveys this past week and I'm going to try and keep at it more regularly and get back up to the $600/month range on a routine basis.

I took my wife's van in for service today. It needed an oil change and I also knew one of the window motors needed to be replaced so I was expecting a big bill. But then 2 days ago, the check engine light came on. I know many different things can cause that.

Turned out that two sensor banks were bad related to emissions. So the sensors and the emissions stuff all needed work. Also needs spark plugs, rear brakes and a couple of other things. All together, the work would come to over $2,000.

The van is a 2000 and has about 140,000 miles. I think putting that kind of money out at this point is going down a costly slope. I wasn't expecting to keep it much past 150K anyway. I just thought it would make it through the winter at least.

So time to start hunting. I'll scour the web this weekend. We'd like another Sienna but I don't know if I want to spend that much, especially since my car is even older and we don't know when that'll die.

My medical survey income for October came in at $527. Not bad considering how little I feel I actually did. I can live with that even though I know I could be doing a lot better.

For the newbies, I'm a family practice physician and get to do a lot of medical market research programs. I post here what I've earned each month from doing this. These are not open to the general public (though I also do Pinecone which is).

As expected, my income for September was down because I was away for two weeks in August. Still, I managed to earn $431 which isn't that bad although it is the least I've earned in a month this year.

I'm trying to get back on track but I've been incredibly busy so I've passed up a lot of opportunities.

I realized I haven't posted this yet.

For August, I earned $668 from medical surveys. I was quite pleased with that. I expected it to be lower since I was on vacation for one week in July. I'm waiting to see how September goes because I was away for 2 weeks in August and I know I skipped a bunch of opportunities.

My doctor/medical survey income for July was $605, a decent month. I expect August to be on the lower side as I know I slacked off a bit keeping up with the invitations plus I was away for a week and didn't do much. I'm trying to get back on track but I'm away for 2 weeks this month so it will be difficult.

For the newbies, I'm a family practice physician and get to do a lot of medical market research surveys. These are not available to the general public. They can be fairly straightforward or quite tedious, but they pay well.

For the month of June, I earned $644 from surveys, a good month.

Total for the month was $701, a nice rebound from April. I'm doing my best to keep on top of all of the invitations but I can't ever do them all. Wish I could but I'm quite happy with $701.

For the newbies: I am a family practice physician and get to do a lot of online (and occasionally in-person) surveys and market research programs for doctors only. These are not available to the general public. They pay well but can be very tedious to complete.

April was a slow month. I've been very busy at work because my partner has been out of the country for an extended period due to personal issues. As a result, I haven't had as much time, or energy, to sit and do surveys. For the month, I earned $465. While that certainly isn't a bad thing, it is $200 less than last month and almost $700 less than the month before (which was a fluke on the high side). I'm trying to refocus my limited spare time on doing the surveys as so many of them get ignored due to my schedule. I could do better though if I'd stop spending so much darn time on the forums and other tasks when I could be making some good money.

A conversation in the forum got me feeling somewhat defensive of my iPhone. I used to think they were a huge extravagance, and I suppose when they first came out and the price was sky high, they were. I think has time has passed, though, the price has dropped dramatically but many people still have the image of them being hundreds of dollars. So when you see someone who may not have a lot of money sporting a smart phone, you might think they are blowing money that could be going to better things.

Assuming you already have a cell phone plan with AT&T, you can get an iPhone for $49 and the cheapest data plan for $15/month. That's hardly a wild purchase for most people, even folks with relatively modest incomes. $180/year for the service isn't likely to make or break anyone's budget.

So why get a smart phone anyway? Here's the list I posted on the discussion thread:

My phone is:
A telephone with free long distance
A computer with full Internet access
A camera for still photos
A video camera
A video game player
A tv and movie viewer
A radio
An mp3 player
A calculator (regular or scientific)
An educational device
A GPS unit

I think that used intelligently, a smart phone could actually eliminate the need for various other devices, thus saving money overall. We don't need GPS in the car - we have our phones. We don't need a video camera - we've got our phones. We don't need iPods - they are built into our phones. You get the idea.

Certainly, if someone is truly struggling, a smart phone remains a luxury item, but if someone is doing basically okay, having or not having a smart phone isn't going to be the deciding factor in whether or not they are making it financially.

My daughter is 15. She has talked about getting a job but has found that virtually nobody will hire her until she turns 16. She has talked about babysitting but hasn't really made any major effort to find jobs.

Last week, the religious school director at our synagogue asked her if she could fill in on Sunday for the aide who would be out that day. She did that and the other night, I picked up her first real paycheck. It was for $28 ($7/hr. x 4 hours). Not a lot of money but pretty significant to a 15 year old who gets $10/week allowance.

Even better, they asked if there is an opening in September, if she would like that job regularly. She definitely would, so there is a good chance that from September until May, she will have a regular position there for 4 hours each Sunday.

She's excited, as are we. I hope it works out and they are able to offer it to her. If she gets it, I guess it will be time to open her Roth and I'll help her fund it to match her earnings.

For the newbies, I am a family practice physician and get to do a lot of professional surveys and market research programs. These are not available to the general public. They pay quite well though can sometimes be mind-numbingly tedious or boring. Most of the time, they aren't too bad.

For the month of March, I earned $687. Not bad at all.

I've been very busy the past couple of weeks and have not had much time to do surveys so I've missed out on a lot. That probably means April will be on the lower side but time will tell. I never know what will come along.

For the newbies, I am a family practice physician and get to do a lot of professional surveys and market research programs. These are not available to the general public. They pay quite well though can sometimes be mind-numbingly tedious or boring. Most of the time, they aren't too bad.

I had a fantastic February, earning $1,126 in survey income! Looking at my totals from 2010, I see that I beat my best month last year by over $300. Got to love that.

I don't expect to repeat that anytime soon, but I never know what will come my way. I recently got an invite to participate in a new executive panel from a company I already work with. The info said the pay scale would be substantially above the usual surveys I've been doing. I'm waiting to see what comes of that.

I am a physician and get to do a lot of online, telephone and in-person surveys. These are for doctors only, not available to the general public. My income goes up and down based on how diligent I am at answering all of the requests I get. Sometimes I do more. Other times I slack off and do less, or I get really busy with other things and don't get to do them before quotas fill.

January was a slower month. I earned $484. Not bad, but a glance at my numbers from last year will show that is below average. Work has been very busy because my partner has been away a lot. So I often see the invites in my e-mail but by the time I respond, they've already closed the study. Yesterday alone, I got 5 different survey invitations. I managed to do 2 of them. I screened out of 2 more and the 5th one was closed by the time I responded. There simply aren't enough hours in the day for me to do 5 surveys, each taking 20-30 minutes. At least one of them I would have screened out of anyway because it was about a condition I don't deal with. And I did at least complete 2 of the 5. I did another today at lunch. I also have an ongoing survey that I do every week via the iPhone and I'm doing my best to keep up with that. I did not earn the payment in December due to not entering sufficient data so I'm being much more vigilant about that since it pays me $150/month. I won't let that happen again.

If you have followed my posts on the boards, you'll know that this past week, I decided to clean up some financial stuff. We had too much in cash accounts, well above what we needed for a comfortable emergency fund. I closed one money market account entirely (just over $2,700) and transferred $5,000 out of another.

I went online this morning and verified that both of those transactions had been completed and the money was in our checking account. Then I logged into Vanguard and fully funded both my Roth and DW's Roth for $5,000 each.

Never before have we maxed the Roths this early in the year - January 8. So that is crossed off the list of things to do in 2011. The focus now, along with all of the usual stuff, is going to be prepaying the mortgage. I don't think we'll be able to pay it off before our daughter goes to college, which would have been very nice, but we'll get pretty close.

For the newbies, I'm a family practice physician and get to do a lot of medical market research surveys, mostly online, occasionally by phone or in person. They can be tedious but pay well.

For the month of December 2010, I earned $789 which was quite good. That was my second best month of the year.

Despite a strong month, I was upset because I realized about a week ago that I had not gotten a check from the monthly study I do on my iPhone. I e-mailed them and they wrote back saying that I hadn't submitted sufficient data for the month to qualify for the payment. They spelled out the numbers they expect me to meet, but they had never given me those numbers before. They also didn't send any kind of warning during the month that I was not up to par. Had they done that, I would have had a chance to pick up the pace and earn the monthly check. So that cost me $150.

Still, a good month and a great year. This brought my total for 2010 to $7,478.75, well above my $5,000 goal.

I know this is the time when many of you are posting your goals for 2011. I haven't really given the topic much thought but off the top of my head, I don't really have any specific goals.

I do want to continue the decluttering I've been doing since September. I've made a lot of progress but there is still way more to be done.

I do want to continue prepaying our mortgage but I don't have a specific dollar amount in mind. Something in the neighborhood of $1,000/month extra I suppose. I'd be satisfied to pay $10,000 extra toward principal in 2011.

Fully funding both of our Roth accounts is always on the to do list but I don't really count that as a goal because it is something that I am 100% positive will occur. Last year I maxed them out on April 3, so it doesn't take me long.

Other than that, our financial life is pretty well on cruise control so there just isn't any pressing need to set goals. That's kind of boring, I suppose, but when it comes to building wealth, boring can be good.

For the newbies: I'm a family practice physician and have the opportunity to do a lot of medical market research surveys online and occasionally by phone or in person. These pay well but are sometimes long and tedious. These are not available to the general public. I do also do some general surveys like Harris and Pinecone that are open to everyone but the bulk of the income is from the medical stuff.

For the month of November 2010, I earned $618 from surveys. Not bad at all. That brings my total for the year to $6,689.75, well above my goal of $5,000, and I still have December to go.

For the newbies: I'm a physician and get to participate in a bunch of medical surveys and market research programs. These are for doctors only, not open to the general public. I also do some general surveys like Pinecone but the bulk of my survey income is medical.

For the month of October, I earned $781 which makes it my second best month of the year after July. I'm very happy with that. That brings me to $6,071.75 for the year, well above my goal of $5,000 and we still have two more months to go. I should end the year somewhere past $7,000.

I've been thinking about refinancing for ages, ever since the rates bottomed out, but just kept procrastinating even though I knew it would save us thousands. Not really sure why except that I see the whole process as a bit of a hassle and didn't want to deal with it.

I finally took the plunge today and applied for the refi.

We will be going from a 25-year loan with 17 years, 7 months remaining at 5.875% to a new 15-year loan at 3.99%. I haven't attempted to calculate the savings we will realize over the life of the loan but I know it is a significant number.

We have been paying extra on our mortgage and will continue to do so so I don't expect to have the new loan for 15 years. Most likely, we'll be rid of it in less than 10 years if things go well. Dropping the interest rate 2 points will make that even easier.

For the newbies: I'm a physician and get to do a lot of medical market research surveys, mostly online, that are for physicians only. My goal for 2010 was to earn $5,000 this year through these surveys. I also do a couple of non-medical surveys like Pinecone and Opinion Place so my numbers include everything, but 99% of it is medical.

For September, I earned $602.50. It was down from the past few months but I expected that because I was away for 2 weeks in August and 1 week in July so I wasn't able to do many of the surveys I was invited for. Still, I'm not complaining about $600.

That brings my total for the year to $4,776.75, just $223.25 short of my goal for the year. And today, October 1, I received $195.00 in payments, so I'm really only $28.25 from my goal. I should hit that within a week. I guess I needed to set the bar higher.

For the newbies: I am a family practice physician and do a lot of online (and occasionally phone or in-person) market research and survey programs. These are for physicians only, not available to the general public.

I thought August might be a little low because I was on vacation for a week in July and didn't have internet access meaning I couldn't do any surveys for a week. Despite that, I earned a total of $738 for August which was quite good.

I was away for 2 weeks in August though I did have internet access and managed to do a few studies while I was away, though not as many as I could have. We'll see what happens for September.

For the newbies: I am a family practice physician and do a lot of online (and occasionally phone or in-person) market research and survey programs. These are for physicians only, not available to the general public.

July was a banner month. In addition to all the usual stuff, I got the first payment for the new iPhone-based program I started doing in May. That brought my total survey income for the month to $808. I believe that is the most I have ever earned in one month when no in-person programs were involved (the pay a lot more). This was earned entirely online.

August will probably be a little lighter because I was on vacation for one week in July and missed out on several surveys since I didn't have internet access. We'll be vacationing in August, also, but I'll have internet access the whole time so hopefully I won't miss any survey opportunities.

As I've posted, I do a lot of medical surveys for physicians only. Most are hit or miss and aren't done on any regular basis. A few are regular, ongoing programs. I like those due to the predictable income that comes with them.

I just got an e-mail today that one of those regular programs is ending in August. I figured it would end sometime soon because it was a thinly veiled promotional program for a new drug. Now that the drug has been on the market for a few months, I knew it was only a matter of time before they ended the program.

I was earning a $50 Amazon gift card every month from them, so I'll miss that. Maybe something else will come along to replace it.

For the newbies: I am a physician and get to do a lot of medical surveys and pharmaceutical market research programs online and occasionally in person. These surveys are not open to the general public.

My survey income for June 2010 was $558, a very good month. My goal for the year is to earn at least $5,000 or $417/month. For the first half of the year, I've earned a total of $3,142 or $523.67/month so I am well on track to reach that goal.

Plus, I have not yet gotten my first monthly payment for the program I am doing via my iPhone. That will pay me $150/month. I started doing that in mid May so the first payment should come soon. I'm not sure what their payment schedule is. If I haven't gotten anything by mid July, I'll send an e-mail to ask when they send the monthly payment. That $150 will be above and beyond what I already earn which means my monthly average for the second half of the year should be $650 or more. I didn't know about that program when I set my goal for the year. It looks like I'll blow right past $5,000.