Disneysteve's Common Cents Blog

Ok, this entry is NOT about saving money. It is about spending plain and simple. Our 6-year-old iMac has gotten incredibly slow. I think the last couple of software updates really did it in. It had gotten to the point of being almost unusable at times. Also, we have had Verizon DSL for years and from time to time, the service would be very undependable but lately it has gotten really bad. We never knew from day to day or hour to hour if we'd have internet access. As I'm sure you all understand, we depend on our net access a great deal at this point for all kinds of reasons from financial stuff like home banking to entertainment like streaming movies from Netflix to making travel arrangements to DD doing school assignments. Having access that we can't depend on just is no longer acceptable in 2010.

So... we are now the proud owners of a brand new 21.5" iMac and Comcast cable internet with a wireless network. The computer is beautiful, the screen is huge and the processor is way, way faster than the old one. And the internet access is now 3 times faster than the DSL and, I anticipate, much more reliable.

Oh, my wife also got her iPhone last week, so we now have 2 iPhones, an iPod touch, a netbook, a laptop and a desktop on the network. On the phones, the new cable hook up is superfast. On DSL or 3G, there was a very noticeable delay when checking email or viewing a website. Now, it is instantaneous. I literally hooked it up 10 minutes ago but I'm already loving it.

For the newbies, I am a physician and have the opportunity to do lots of medical market research surveys, mostly online, some by phone and occasionally in person. For various reasons, mainly schedule conflicts and plain old laziness, I often fail to do a lot of the programs I'm invited to do and basically leave money on the table that could have gone into my pocket. Once again, last month I "saw the light" and vowed to get back on track and do all the surveys I possibly could. There will always be ones I simply can't do because of timing, location or failing to qualify, but I can't control those.

Anyway, in April, as reported earlier, I earned $396 doing surveys. Not bad but not great. I was sure May would be better and it was. Since there is no mail on Monday, I think my total as of today will be the final figure. For the month of May 2010, I earned $599.25, so just over 50% more than last month. That's more like it. There is really no excuse for me not earning at least $500/month from surveys. Now that I am doing that $150/month program on the iPhone, that number really should be at least $600-650. I just started that 2 weeks ago so I haven't yet gotten my first payment. That will come in June.

I realized that I never posted my survey income for March. Now April is over, too, so I'll update the last 2 months.

March was good and I earned $514 on surveys.

April I slacked off a bit again, partly because I was really busy all month between work, Passover and business at my synagogue and honestly partly due to laziness yet again. Still, for April, I earned $396 but I know it could have been a lot better than that.

Thanks to some increased expenses currently and upcoming including a costly car repair, some home repairs, an unplanned vacation (the cruise I posted about) and our usual summer vacation, I am more committeed than ever to maximize my survey income. The past couple of weeks, I have been really good about doing every possible survey program I can. I don't track money until it is received but I know I've done a few hundred dollars worth of surveys that I haven't gotten paid for yet (there is usually a lag of 3-4 weeks) so May should be a pretty good month.

I've also sold 6 books gotten by doing surveys since April 1 and I've gotten back on ebay. I had 2 items sell yesterday and listed 3 more last night. I will update my Ebay Challenge numbers as soon as I get a chance.

We went to the travel agent this morning and booked a family cruise for July. My mom is turning 80 in August and told us recently that she'd like us all to go on a cruise to celebrate. The date that worked best for all of us was actually early July. It will be DW, DD, me, my mom, my cousin and my MIL. We're doing a 7-night trip from New York to Bermuda. We've cruised 3 times before, most recently in 2005. My cousin is the only one of the 6 of us who has been to Bermuda before but it was about 20 years ago so he is looking forward to going back. I've always heard great things about Bermuda like how clean it is and how friendly everyone is so I'm excited about finally getting there.

My mom actually wants to treat us to the cruise but we're definitely paying part of the cost. Of course, we'll also have plenty of incidentals to pay for, like excursions, tips, souvenirs, meals off the ship, etc. We won't have airfare but we will need a limo service to take us to and from NYC.

I just transferred $1,395 to my Roth and $1,570 to my wife's Roth. That maxes both of them for 2010. I'm pretty sure this is the earliest in the year that we've ever gotten them funded. That was partly because I had some money designated for savings toward the end of 2009 that I hadn't put anywhere yet so on 1/1 I sent it to the Roths. For a variety of reasons, we also ended up with a larger than anticipated tax refund which got direct-deposited last week so I used that to help finish them off.

I haven't fully invested all the money yet - some of it is in the MMF - but at least it is all in the Roth accounts.

A few months ago, before the winter, we discovered that the paneling on one wall of our family room was rotting. We had never seen any water coming in but we had a contractor come out and he found where water was getting in. The roof over the family room is about 14 years old and the roofing material is generally expected to last 10 years so we were overdue for a problem.

The contractor said he should be able to do the job by the end of January. Of course, snowstorm after snowstorm kept pushing that back but he finally came out today to start the job. So far, so good. When he opened up the wall and poked around, there was no more damage than expected. I was afraid he would find rotten ceiling beams but he didn't. Hopefully, that means the work will come in close to the estimate he gave us which was about $2,200. I set the money aside back when he first came out so that's no problem. I just didn't want it to balloon much higher.

My wife's been home supervising. I'll see it in a couple of hours. Hopefully, everything will be done by the end of the week.

As you know, I do a ton of medical surveys and market research programs. Almost without exception, they are pay as you go. Do a survey. Get a check. Do a survey. Get a check. No contracts. No commitments.

Last April, I was contacted by a company to join their panel. I was to enter data weekly online and after 52 weeks, I'd get a lump sum payment of $1,000. I signed the contract and went live with them in May. I've been doing the data entry ever since and it now being mid-March, was looking forward to the $1,000 that would be coming in a few more weeks.

Well, forget that. I got an e-mail today saying that due to the economy and consolidation within the pharmaceutical industry, they have been unable to sell the data we provide. They have let all of the staff go and filed chapter 7 bankruptcy. Of course, there is no money with which to pay the physicians as per the contracts. Poof. No $1,000.

I do believe that if I'm ever approached again to do an ongoing study, I will do so only if payments are made on some regular basis, not only after doing months of work. Lesson learned.

We got hit by a major Nor'easter storm today that dumped a couple of inches of rain on our area, some of which ended up in our basement which has been known to happen during particularly bad storms. As a result, I spent a good part of the day down there running the shop vac to suck up the water as it came in. Since most of it was leaking in around one window, I was able to position the vacuum just right so that I could let it run without having to hold it.

While that was happening, I spent time cleaning the disaster area we call our basement. Every time I'm down there, I tell myself I have got to start selling on ebay again since so much of what is there is my sales stock. Just looking at the table where I do my ebay work made me tired. The table was a mess, strewn with merchandise, papers, tools, craft stuff and more. There was no way I could do anything without cleaning that up, so I did. I put away a number of things that don't belong there, put some sale items on the shelves to clear table space and finally, I reset the cloth backdrop I use to take pictures of items I'm selling. There, that actually looked nice and made me want to start using the space again for its intended purpose - selling on ebay.

I photographed and wrote descriptions for 3 auctions and just finished posting them online. These are my first auctions since December. I have tons and tons of stuff to list. Now that I cleaned up my work space, I'm going to keep it that way and make ebay a regular part of my routine again.

I thought my income from surveys for February was going to be low because it felt like I passed up a lot of programs, but it actually turned out to be $503 which was fine. It was kind of skewed, though, because I only count money actually received during the month. One company I do ongoing programs for only pays when I accumulate $100 in credit and that happened in February. Now I won't get anything from them for another 3-4 months.

I was really busy in February with other things, especially at my synagogue, so I didn't get to do many of the surveys I was invited for. That may impact the March numbers. I'm trying to get back on track as things have calmed down some. We'll see.

Those of us on the east coast have been buried under record snowfall this year. We've officially broken the all-time snow record by over 6 inches as of last night (and it is only early February). This week alone, we've had two major storms totaling over 40 inches which is unheard of in this area (hence the record).

Anyway, while most people have been snowed in, we actually got snowed OUT. Last night while I was washing the dinner dishes, I saw a bright flash out the back window. My wife happened to be looking out the front window at the time and saw the transformer blow on the electric pole and out went the power. Considering it was still snowing heavily and the number of homes without power was in the tens of thousands, we figured it could be quite a while before a crew got out there to fix the problem and restore power. So we decided to escape and spend the night at a hotel.

I called the local Fairfield Inn and booked a room, then went out and cleaned off the car and shoveled enough of the driveway so I'd be able to get out. My wife and daughter packed overnight bags while I was doing that and we hit the road. It was kind of eerie as roads that are usually heavily traveled interstates were deserted. Between home and the hotel, I doubt that we saw more than a dozen cars. We made it there safely and checked into a nicely lit and heated room, two things that were lacking at home.

This morning, I called the house and the answering machine picked up so I knew the power was back on. We had breakfast (included with the room) and packed up and came back to the house. Other than one large tree branch coming down (no damage done), everything was in order. So ended our little snow adventure. And only a tiny ding to the savings for an unplanned hotel stay.

For the month of January, I earned $572 doing my medical surveys (and a couple from Pinecone and Opinion Place). I'm shooting for a minimum of $5,000 for the year or an average of about $417/month so I'm on track so far (and I've already got $205 for February and it is only the 4th).

In the past month or so, I've really taken notice of the fact that we do not take advantage of many things that are in our own backyard particularly as far as inexpensive entertainment is concerned.

When I was off from work over winter break, my daughter and I rode the train into the city to do some sightseeing, lunch and shopping. We try to do that every year but for some reason, this year really opened my eyes to what is out there. We walked through the downtown area and passed endless shops and restaurants that would appeal to all of us, even if just for window shopping. Of course, there are also a ton of historic sites, museums and other places of interest within walking distance of the train stations.

Then yesterday, a school friend of my daughter's was performing in a play at a nearby college. This time, we drove into the city (not near a train station). For $10/person, we saw a very good show. We did pay another $13 to park plus the $4 bridge toll, but that's still less money than if we had gone to NYC to see even an off-Broadway show. The colleges in the area offer all kinds of entertainment - concerts, live shows, art exhibits, film festivals, etc. We never go to any of that stuff and we really should. It is usually inexpensive and sometimes even free. It is close to home. And it is not mainstream stuff so there is an educational/cultural/expand your mind aspect to it, too.

I'm going to start looking around online to see where they list upcoming events and make an effort to do stuff like that occasionally throughout the year.

I realized I haven't posted since the 2nd of January. I've been extremely busy at work. Not much time for anything else.

I have started getting things organized to do our taxes. Today, I worked on my ebay and half.com sales to start putting those numbers together.

I also scheduled the February mortgage payment online today. Last year, I was paying an extra $100/month to principal. I've now upped that to $200/month starting this month.

I added $215 to my wife's Roth last week and will add to mine with this next week's paycheck.

I'm continuing to do almost all of the surveys that come my way, at least the ones I qualify for. I did a $95 one today and got 2 or 3 checks this past week.

We've actually been to the casino 3 times since the first of the month which is extremely unusual. The first trip on the 1st, I won $310. The 2nd trip I went with a friend while my wife, daughter and his wife went shopping. That was more to hang out and talk than to gamble, but I did win $30. The last time, a week ago, I did extremely well. I won $800 playing three card poker though I did lose $93 of it at other games before leaving. Still, that gave me a $707 profit for the day. That puts me up over $1,300 for my last 4 casino visits. My wife and I will be going to Atlantic City probably the first or second weekend of February so hopefully, the good luck will continue.

I've sold 2 books so far this month on half.com but still haven't listed anything on ebay. I've just been too tired after work or had meetings at night. I do need to do that sometime soon.

Guess that's all for now.

I just made our first Roth contributions for 2010. I sent $1,550 to each of our accounts so just 2 days into the year and we are nearly 1/3 funded. This is the first time I've ever put money in this early and definitely never this much so soon. I'm hoping to max them by April or May, a month or more earlier than usual, after which I plan to start attacking our mortgage more aggressively.

Retirement is about 17 years away but I know that time will go faster than one might think and I want to get the mortgage paid off in 10-12 years and use the last 5 to really sock away cash and get everything in place to retire.

For the newbies, I am a physician and get to do a lot of online (and occasionally in-person) surveys for doctors only. These are not things open to the general public. They pay quite well though are sometimes quite tedious to complete.

For the month of December, I finished up the year on a strong upswing, taking in $845 in survey income.

That gives me a grand total for 2009 of $5,542.00.

The actual total is even higher than that because some surveys pay me in merchandise, like a textbook. I generally turn around and sell those items on half.com, which is reflected in my ebay challenge numbers. Almost all of my half.com sales consists of books I got from doing surveys.

For a combination of reasons, we've accumulated an unusually large amount in our checking account. July 1, I increased the percentage of my pay going to savings from 20% to 21%. DW's surgeries didn't cost us nearly as much out of pocket as I had anticipated especially thanks to the 50% discount she got for being a hospital employee. We didn't do any particularly costly travel this year. We paid off our HELOC last year and DD's braces came off. And overall, I think our spending has been down in general.

Anyway, the end result is we're sitting on a fair amount of cash that really isn't needed for any particular purpose.

Normally, I fund our Roths every 2 weeks with a portion of my pay, beginning with my first check in January and usually maxing them at 5K each by June. As it stands right now, I plan to send in $3,100 to the Roths on January 1 as soon as we're eligible to make 2010 contributions. That should put us on track to max them for the year by the end of April or maybe first check of May, at least a month earlier than usual.

The other thing I want to do with spare cash is start chipping away at our mortgage more aggressively. I've been paying an extra $100/month for a while, but if we stay on track the way we've been, I could potentially pay off as much as 8-10K extra in 2010 if I choose to do so.

I have just started all the year-end financial review stuff so my 2010 plans aren't all firmed up yet, but this is where I am right now.

It started snowing about 6 am Saturday and forgot to stop. By the time it was done, we had recorded the record high snowfall for the month of December beating the record set in 1909. We also got the 2nd highest snowfall ever after the storm of 1996.

Needless to say I've spent a good part of the past 2 days snowblowing and shoveling snow. I'm done now. Well, not done in the sense that all the snow is cleared but done in the sense that I'm not going out there again. I've got my car shoveled out. The van is mostly cleared but needs a little more work. I'll probably do that tomorrow night after work and DW and DD can work on it tomorrow, too.

It has been a long time we've seen snow like this (13 years to be exact). I just hope this isn't a sign of things to come this winter.

We got a nice surprise today. Before my wife's first surgery on 10/23, the office required us to make an upfront payment of $316 which I assume represented the percentage of the bill they anticipated wouldn't be covered by insurance.

Today, my wife got the mail and saw what she thought was another bill from the practice and wondered why because she thought we had paid everything. It turned out to be a check refunding the $316 because insurance had covered everything.

Today is her birthday so that was a nice little bonus gift.

As I reported a couple of weeks ago, we've been working on some house cleaning lately. The first round turned up some monetary rewards by finding stuff to sell on ebay.

This week, cleaning actually turned up money. Wednesday night, I was cleaning in the basement. I came across a file box of papers from when my wife and I ran the Girl Scout cookie sale for our daughter's troop 3 years ago. I realized there was no reason to still have that stuff and started pulling everything out to recycle. In one of the folders, I found a $20 bill. I'm certain that we handed over all money due to the troop so this $20 probably belonged to us for some reason, but I have no idea why it would have been in that file. So the next day, I stopped at the Girl Scout office and told them the story and to give the money to her troop (she's not a scout anymore).

Today, my daughter found a $20 bookstore gift card and $8 cash plus some change while cleaning.

So that's almost $50 turned up in a few days. Get rid of your clutter and get organized. It may pay off more than you realize.

I'm a physician and get to do a lot of online and occasionally in-person market research projects and surveys. Here in my blog, I report my monthly income from these. I also do Pinecone and Opinion Place and that is included in the total.

For the month of November, I received $441 to survey income, a pretty decent month. I'll keep at it and keep shooting for at least $400/month.

All 3 of us got on a cleaning binge this weekend. As has happened before, that has resulted in me listing some items on ebay. Yesterday, my wife came across a book/CD set from a work seminar. An identical set sold last week for $22.50 so I listed her set.

Today, my daughter unearthed her Game Boy Advance. I searched and they have been selling for $20-$30 for the player alone and DD also has a lighted grip thing that should add a few dollars to the value, so I listed that.

In the process, I also listed 5 other items that I didn't find due to cleaning but it put me in the mood to unload some things.

So I've listed 7 items in 2 days. Three items already have bids and I know from experience that most bids happen on the final day so I'm sure some of the others will sell, too. So cleaning the house may bring in $50-$100 in sales if we're lucky.

I haven't listed anything on ebay for months, despite my own ebay challenge for the year. As the sidebar shows, I made nothing in July or August. September was great with book sale on Half.com and a little came in in October and November.

My wife actually spurred me to get back on ebay. We've been doing some housecleaning this weekend and she handed me a book/CD set she got at a work seminar last year and asked if I could sell it on ebay. I just listed it and found that an identical set sold last week for $22.50. I've be happy to get even my starting bid of $14.99.

Now I'm going to go down to my stock area and prepare some listings for Christmas collectible items. This week is prime time for selling that stuff.

Right now, my monthly average is only just over $70, not nearly the $100 goal I set for myself, but it's my own fault. Without this self-imposed challenge, though, I doubt I would have done anywhere near that much in sales so it certainly wasn't a failure.

I'll post a year-end summary at the end of next month. If anyone else took on this challenge, make sure you post your final numbers, too.

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 got about 17 years before my goal of retiring at 62, but that is close enough that some planning needs to be done.

Last year, I started adding $100/month to the mortgage payment for extra principal. That was done after we made the last payment for our daughter's braces. That payment was $150/month. I figured we were living fine without that money for 18 months. We could keep living fine without it, so I put most of it toward the mortgage. Our regular payment (principal and interest) is just under $700, so that means almost 2 extra payments per year. Also, a couple of times when some other extra money came in, I added more to that month's payment.

There is a medical survey program that I do. It is an ongoing study and I do data entry almost daily. Unlike the other survey programs I do, this one doesn't pay each time I do it or even monthly but just one payment per year of $1,000. I've decided that when that payment comes in (I'm not exactly sure when my year is up) I will send that $1,000 all to the mortgage. It is totally found money and isn't needed in any other area of our budget or savings plan.

I have not sat down and run numbers to see when we could be mortgage free but I see no reason why we can't knock off at least 3 years. That would have us paid off when I'm about 60, though I know that as the balance gets smaller, I'll want to just write one big check and get rid of it, so we'll probably be done before that. That would give us a solid 2-3 years (or more) to sock away cash in anticipation of retirement.

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 I've posted in recent months, I tend to get in slumps where I pass up a lot of the survey opportunities that come my way. A couple of months ago, I got back on track and focused on doing as many of them as I could. That turned out well with my income turning around from $171 in August to $428 in September. I figure if I can consistently bring in $400 or more, that's an extra $5,000 a year in income, enough to pay for a couple of weeks vacation for my family.

Well, October turned out to be a gold mine for me. I received payments for 17 surveys plus got to do 2 in-person programs. I collected a grand total of almost a grand - $986.00! Of course, I am quite happy with that. If that doesn't motivate me to keep doing the surveys, I don't know what will.

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 to do them more often and stopped simply because I've been busy in the office and haven't had the time or energy (they are often in the evening and after a full day of work, the last thing I want to do is sit in some conference room for 2 hours answering questions).

Anyway, I got a couple of invitations recently and decided that with the upcoming medical bills (see my previous post - my wife is having surgery shortly), perhaps I should go do a few of these programs. They are reasonably easy and enjoyable and pay very well.

As it worked out, I was able to schedule 2 of them for this coming Thursday - one at 3:30pm and one at 7:30pm. The first pays $130 and the second pays $225, so in one day, I'll pick up an extra $355 in a matter of about 2 hours. Both places are located about 15 minutes from home in office buildings so travel and parking aren't an issue. I have a feeling I'll be paying more attention to those invites from now on.

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 for a total hysterectomy in the near future.

Obviously, my first concern is that she get better soon as she really has been miserable lately, but there will be a significant financial impact to her surgery, too. We have insurance but there is a deductible and co-insurance to deal with. Her gallbladder surgery a few years back cost us about $3,000 as I recall. I suspect this ordeal will run more than that between the 2 procedures. I'm guessing about $5,000. She is supposed to get a discount of some sort because she works for the hospital but I don't know what that will amount to.

Then there are lost wages. I'll probably lose about $1,500 in income from taking off. She will probably lose another $1,000-$1,500 depending on how long she has to be out of work.

So all together, we're probably looking at about $8,000 in unexpected costs. We have the money, fortunately, but it is still a lot, not that you can put a price on your health.

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. Here in my blog, I report the income I received during the month from doing surveys. It is not the amount generated during the month as there is a lag of several weeks between survey and payment.

For the month of September, I collected $428. I'm quite pleased with that. If you have been following my blog, you'll know that the past few months I had been slacking off and not doing all the surveys I got offered. No reason. Just laziness. So in August I only made $171. In July, I made $160. September was my best month since June (actually $2 more than June). I'm planning to stay on track doing what comes my way and keep the monthly total up over the $400 mark.

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 started doing as many as I could again. There is some lag time between when I do a survey and when I get paid so that renewed commitment is starting to show up in the mail.

This week, I received one survey check each day from Monday through Friday for payments that totaled $210. There are still 4 more mailing days in September so I can't give a monthly total yet but this week alone I've earned more than in all of August or all of July. It is just totally stupid when I don't do these surveys. I need someone to smack me when I get in those ruts.

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.

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 very well. The best thing is that almost all of the books that I sell are things that I get for free by doing surveys and online pharmaceutical details, so it is is pure profit.

I have sold 15 books so far this month for a total of $128.91. That puts me over my $100/month goal, though I have to exceed that to make the average for the year $100 since I didn't do much for 4 months. RIght now, my average over 9 months is only $78.18/month.

I still haven't gotten back on ebay. That is more time consuming and I just haven't had the get up and go to do it. Maybe after the Jewish holidays are over.