Savvy Saver is hosting this week’s spectacular Carnival of Personal Finance.

Lots to read there with some new faces too. Nice.

Wow, already week #31. Pretty soon it’ll be a year. Is there going to be some crazy one year edition??

No crazy amount here, but I have racked up over $110 from three online survey sites. There are lots of these online survey sites out there, so it’s pretty difficult to separate the good from the bad ones. Some of them even require membership fees! (Stay away from those).

Anyhow, I’ll be listing two sites that I recommend.

The first site is SurveySavvy from Luth Research, LLC.

I found out about SurveySavvy.com from HowStuffWorks.com. They used to have an ad for SurveySavvy back in the days. My flawless logic dictated to me that, since HSW links to them, SurveySavvy must be a legit company. Luckily for me, they are.

I’ve mentioned SurveySavvy before in an old post when I first started the blog, telling Jonathan that I actually got a $20 check from them for just two surveys. I’ve since racked up $67 total from SurveySavvy, $14 of them from referrals taking survey! You can click on the picture below to see the earning report and to take a peak at the site interface.

SurveySavvy notifies you about survey through email, with each survey taking various time to complete. Generally the longer it takes to complete a survey, the higher the payout amount. I think they usually overestimate the time required to complete a survey though. Before being able to take a survey though, you’ll be required to answer a few screener questions to see if you qualify for the survey.

SurveySavvy also has a referral system in which you get about $2 for every survey your referrals complete and about $1 for every survey their referrals complete. If you click on the image or link above and join up, I’ll get you as a referral. I’ve also notice that the high paying surveys ($20+) are generally geared towards IT questions. So if you’re working in some IT department for some company, you might want to try SurveySavvy out.

The amounts of emails/surveys you’ll receive from SurveySavvy will be pretty limited, so it’s fairly safe to use a primary email account to sign-up.

The next site is MySurvey.com from National Family Opinion.

I can’t recall where I found out about NFO MySurvey, I think I was searching through a list on a forum somewhere. NFO MySurvey pays you in points amount, which can be redeem for cash or other rewards. 1,000 points = $10. Most surveys are very brief. They notify you of new surveys available by emailing you; you then login on the website and complete the survey there. So far I’ve only gotten a $10 check from them, but I’m getting close to my next $10.

The neat thing about MySurvey is that it allows for you to create a profile for each individual in your household, so the surveys you’ll receive can be either for you or your family members.

MySurvey.com also has a referral system, in which you get 150 points per referral that signs up. You’ll need to login to their site and fill out a form, in which they’ll send out emails for you. This is mostly to prevent spams. They also have a website affiliate program which is pretty much the same deal, but you’ll need to apply to the program and get an okay from them first.

The amounts of emails you’ll receive from NFO MySurvey will be between limited to moderate, depending on how many profiles you have on your account.

Here are some other noteworthy sites, Gozing and Pinecone Research.

Gozing can get a bit annoying. They get quite spam happy with the survey emails; half will be paid surveys while the other half will be sweepstakes reward surveys. I’ve actually got $19 from them in a one month period, but I’m not sure if it’s really worth it. As you can seen from the link, many of them are $1 surveys. It was a bit of a hassle to answer those $1 surveys, but it was summer and I had time.

I’m not even sure if Gozing is in operation anymore. I know their parent company, Greenfield Online is still sending out survey, but the amount has been drastically reduced. The only reason why I’m mentioning Gozing is because I did got paid, albeit it took awhile. They also have a referral & affiliate program which you can read more about at their site.

Pinecone Research is the elusive online survey company. I’ve heard many good things about them from various other bloggers. The pay seems to be fair and the surveys legit. The only problem is that they’re not open for enrollment. Occasionally they’ll be open for sign-ups, but that doesn’t seem to guarantee membership too. I’m mentioning it because it might be worth a bookmark.

That’s all folks.

This is a pretty long (and boring) post on online surveys. Whether it’s worth it or not to enroll in these online surveys is up to you. The survey from the two sites I recommend doesn’t take up much of my time though, and I answer most of these surveys while doing other things online. Some of the surveys from SurveySavvy are actually pretty interesting too. So uh… check them out, if you’re interested.

Wow, what a boring post. Ah well, it’s six in the morning and I can’t sleep.

Related Post and Links

• Sweet, Another $40 From Survey Savvy
• MyMoneyBlog’s Bored Money
• Survey Police

So I got this package on the doorstep a few days ago… and when I picked it up to look at it, I knew immediately what it was.

The famous Emigrant Direct baseball cap. Yes! I finally got one!

The design could be a bit better though. I don’t think I’ll be wearing it - not a real baseball cap person anyway. If I have a son though, I’ll be forcing it on him when we go out. It’ll be a great conversation starter!

I remember reading somewhere that, if you’re going to do promotional gears, you should at the very least spend the effort to get some good design out of your t-shirt, hats, etc. Ah well, not a lot of companies bother to follow that guideline.

It’s unfortunate though that Emigrant Direct is slowly falling behind the competitive APY game. HSBC is definitely pushing their high-yield online saving accounts, I have twice seen two different TV advertisements during prime time now. I’m not really a rate chaser, but if the rate difference is big enough, I’ll be jumping ship - again.

The Five Lessons a Millionaire Taught Me
About Life and Wealth

Author: Richard Paul Evans

Publisher: Fireside, Simon & Schuster

ISBN: 0743287005

URL: www.thefivelessons.com

I received a copy of the book via the publisher’s marketing department, whom I must commend for sending the book at such lighting fast speed. Thanks again for the book.

Before “The Five Lessons,” the only work I’ve read by Richard Paul Evans was his first book, “The Christmas Box” – a pretty good book, and like many people I enjoyed it. As Richard Paul is a writer of inspirational and moral stories (mostly Christian themed), it was a bit interesting to see him write a book on the subject of money.

“The Five Lessons” is pretty short, at about 133 pages (24 of those forms), it’s a pretty quick read. The actual length of the book is at about 100 pages, with about 10 pages of resources & tips. I enjoy a long, entertaining novel as much as the next guy, but if someone is going to drill some important points to me, they better do it fast, sweet, and to the point. “The Five Lessons” did a pretty good job at that.

I’m not sure if these qualifies as spoilers, but here are the Five Lessons:

1. Decide to Be Wealth
2. Take Responsibility for Your Money
3. Keep a Portion of Everything You Earn
4. Win in the Margins
5. Give Back

The author divides each of the lessons as chapters, and smoothly lays out the topic to the reader. Each lesson is accompanied by decent stories to entertain, and mostly good examples to support and help explain lessons further.

“The Five Lessons” certainly doesn’t present anything new in the categories of money book (nor does it claim to), but if it was the first “money book” you’ve ever read, it’ll be a good choice – especially for those new to the genre. It covers many of the basic concepts in achieving financial independence: mentality of choices, control of cash flow, saving and investing, and wise purchasing decisions. All in a small 133 pages package. Not too shabby.

For those of us that have read many money books, it would be a good reminder. Many parts of the book reads like “The Millionaire Next Door,” emphasizing the fact that average people with average income can become millionaires with careful spending, saving, and investing methods.

Some of the examples given in the book made me raise my eyebrows though. His example on Xango Juice, a multilevel marketing company made me flinch a bit, as did his story on hypnosis; where he relates hypnotizing his friend to the bombardment of advertisement we receive.

Complaints aside, the book was right on target with its principals. You may see them under different name and phrases, but they are still the same concepts that you’ll need to take control of your financial life.

What I especially like was that throughout the book, the moral aspect of money, and its ability to influence both positively and negatively was discussed at length (for a 133 pg book).

At the end, “The Five Lessons A Millionaire Taught Me About Wealth and Life” is a pretty good book. It’s certainly not the greatest in the genre, but it’s definitely not the worse. There are plenty money books out there that takes 5 times as long to convey the concepts to its reader - and to the reader’s woe, at a much less entertaining pace.

Pros:

• Short & Basic
• Moral Values
• Not Boring

Cons:

• Short & Basic
• Some Questionable Examples

Its old news, but last Tuesday I read a “funny” article in the WSJ.  I was reminded of it again while watching the news last night.

Apparently unpaid parking tickets, library fees, and trash-collection charges are making their ways to the collection agency.

Some poor guy in Portland, Oregon had his credit score plunged to “below average” due to a $40 late book fee, which the library turned over to a private collection agency. Needless to say he’s not too happy about it.

So anyway this has been going on at selected cities for some time now, but the trend is starting to spread. So try to watch out for those fees and fines, check if your city or county utilize hardball tactics such as collection agency. Better yet, avoid getting those fees in the first place.

I’m pretty lucky that this isn’t an issue in my county yet. Once, I unknowingly owed $22 in late fees to the library (friend in high school borrowed book with my card only to return the book months later). Imagine my surprise when I found out about the fee years later.

I also have a tendency to forget. So here’s to hoping my city/county leave the collection agency out of the picture.

Stop Buying Crap #1 | #2 | #3 | #4 | #5 | #6 | #7 | #8 | #9 | #10 | #11 | #12

Exercise Machines / Equipments

Alright, time to fess up Internet.

I know we’re not the only household with this silly thing in it.

Yup. Thats right, the Ab Roller.

I’m not even sure if that is the original Ab Roller, nor how much it actually cost. It’s been sitting in the corner, gathering up dust for a long, long time. I think my family used it a total of five times. 10 years ago.

Searching around the house reveals even more wasteful exercise equipments.

Here’s another expensive one that’s hardly used. I’m not sure how long the treadmill has been in my house. The last time I used it, I was putting a dog on it to see if the dog can run on it without falling off. That was also 10 years ago.

The thing about exercise machine is that they’re generally pretty expensive. These wouldn’t really be such a waste if we had use them more, but unfortunately we didn’t. *Looks down at his gut*

Speaking of expensive, here’s a $15,000 one. I can’t even figure out how you get on that thing. Thanks to Ian Ybarra for the link.

So finally, here’s the latest edition of exercise equipment in my house. An EverLast Freestanding “Heavy” Bag.

I use to go at it frequently, whenever someone ticks me off. What I’ll do is stalk them and take their picture. I then print the pictures out, tape it onto the punch bag, and swing away like a madman.

Just kidding.

The heavy bag was a birthday gift from a few years back. A pretty neat gift that I actually like - it’s a great work out, its fairly durable, and best of all, it’s free.

But the last time I used the punch bag was also 10 years ago.

2006. Yuck. Go away.

Flip it around and its 6002.

Which really has no significant, I’m not sure why I mentioned that.

Here’s the deal, I have a few post saved up ready to go, and a jury duty to attend to (or get out of) in January. I have a good feeling about this year, it should be a legendary year.

So why all the fuss about 2006 going away? I don’t know.

No no, I’m totally sober. I don’t drink. I think it gets rather expensive, plus, there’s all these other things…

2006. Let’s rockkkk.