ADVFN stands for Advance Finance Network, they are located at www.ADVFN.com. They basically provide free data to investors. When I first went to the page, the first suprise I noticed was that George “Fat Pitch” from Fat Pitch Financials was on the front page listed as one of their bloggers. I guess if it’s good enough for George, it’s good enough for me. As long as they’re free, I don’t mind using them. The message boards at Yahoo! are useless so hopefully I can find better discussions on investments here.
Oct 132006
Here’s an update to my short-term portfolio over at Sogoinvest. I bought on the dates 9/12, 9/22, and 9/27 for an average cost of $9.72/share. I sold yesterday at $10.38 and netted about a 6.7% gain in a month. I think the price will retreat and I can pick up the shares in the future cheaper.
I bought shares of YHOO at $24.15. This buy was extremely tempting because the price is so near their 52-week low. I think Yahoo! will definitely rebound. Their drop in price was due to yet another downgrade. I think Yahoo is oversold and if the price sinks further, expect me to buy more.
Oct 112006
I’m starting a series where I detail my adventures in signing up for credit cards and bank accounts simply for the bonuses. I signed up for a number of different credit cards in the past week in order for the rewards. Before anyone gets started on the possible negative effects this will have on my credit score, who cares? I’m young and not looking to have any loans or buy a home, etc. for years.
Credit card inquires (Hard pulls) are when you apply for a credit card and the issuer pulls your credit file to determine if you are credit-worthy. Having too many inquiries is generally bad for your credit score. The inquiry stays on your credit report for 2 years but the effect of the inquiry on your score only lasts for 6 months.
If possible, it is always better to try to combine credit limits (consolidate) rather closing the card outright. Say you applied for 2 credit cards with $1000 limit each from Citi, after you reap the rewards and say 6 months later you decide you don’t need one, you should call them up and ask to consolidate the cards and you’ll end up with one card with a $2,000 limit. Why does this help your credit? If you normally charge $500 in a month, your utilization percentage (which is a key factory in your score) would be 50% on that $1,000 card if you closed the other card. However, since you consolidated, your utilization percentage would be 25%, which is significantly better.
Back in May I signed up for the MBNA New York Jets Extra Points card for a free iPod nano after spending $100 in either purchases or balance transfers. So this time around I decided to do another MBNA offer so I can just consolidate easily the cards later on.
Here are the credit card deals I applied for:
MBNA Extra Bases Card – You get a free baseball jersey after $75 in spending. I’m not a big baseball fan but I wanted this card so I could consolidate it my existing MBNA card. You need to spend $2000 for a free iPod nano and I already have one so I guess I’ll stay out of this one. I got a flat tire and the bill total came out to $125 so I just charged it on this card and now I’m awaiting my free jersey.
United Mileage Plus Card – You get a bonus of 25,000 miles which is good for one roundtrip ticket after $250 in spending. The annual fee is waived for the first year. I plan on combining this card with my existing Chase Cash Plus rewards card. I got a $4,000 credit limit with this card, this is extremely weird considering the credit limit Chase gave me on my Cash Plus rewards card last month was $200.
Citi Hilton HHonors Visa Card – You get a bonus of 15,000 points which is redeemable for 2 nights stay. You get the points after your first purchase regardless of amount. I have not yet received the card yet.
Basically I’m gunning for a free airplane trip + free hotel stay. The jersey is going to be an xmas gift. Also note that I’m not spending more money than I would already otherwise spend on purchases.
Oct 102006
Heads up, Zecco launched yesterday.
Here’s some other things to add to my original post on Zecco here.
- Max 10 stock trades per day, 40 per month. $3.50 per trade after that.
- No inactivity fees.
- IRA accounts are available, $50 annual fee.
- ACAT fee is $50.
I’m still turned off by the $2,500 minimum at this point. They’re too new to just plunk down that much money to “try out”.
Besides being a hot toy, it’s also a great invstment. My brother apparently saw the craze coming. He grabbed as many of these toys as he could. At $40 a piece, the TMX Elmo was sold out insanely fast. On eBay the toy goes for about $80-$120, that’s a 100%+ return on your investment! I expect prices will drive up further as we head towards Christmas and more parents are desperate to find the toy for their kid.
I have to admit the TMX Elmo has come a long way from the original Tickle Me Elmo. The “X” is for 10 as this is the 10th year anniversery edition. Here’s a video from YouTube displaying the toy in action:
Amusing to watch isn’t it? I wish I had someone to give one to so I could watch it. Too bad my girlfriend doesn’t want one. More info on the TMX Elmo can be found at www.tmx-elmo.org.
Oct 072006
I just joined uPromise just now. Basically the premise of the program is you can link up your store shopper cards (From A&P, Pathmark, Stop & Shop, etc.) and credit cards and you’ll earn free cash on various purchases. This does not affect your current rewards with your credit cards in any way. There is no further effort required other than just inputting your current shopper cards. uPromise just uses your credit card to track your eligible purchases. The money earned is suppose to be earmarked for education but you can withdraw it by sending them a letter (instructions are on their site). This is basically a free cash back program. I plan to actually use this money to save for my future kid’s college education. Is this kid lucky? You bet. He (or she) isn’t even born yet and someone is thinking about saving up for his college education.
My thinking is this: College tuition grows at a rate that far exceeds inflation. So in today’s dollars, college tuition in the future may be insanely expensive. This is a free way to save money and by starting early, I’ll have about approximately 28 years worth of free savings for college (Based on me planning to have a kid in about 10 years when I’m 29, kid goes to college when he is 18, hence the 28 year number).
Note: This is not an alternative to saving for college. It is merely a means to supplement college savings for FREE.
For example, one of the credit cards I registered was the Chase Cash Plus Rewards card which gets me 5% off gas, supermarkets, and pharmacies. Because the fact that I already get 5% off of gas by using the credit card, I’ll also get 1 cent per gallon free deposited into my uPromise account. This is just one of the examples of where you are basically getting free money.
My plan is just to forget about it and occasionally log in to register new credit cards as I get them and occasionally remove the ones that expire. Maybe I’ll update yearly with earnings, they may be measly as my spending is not that high right now, but free money (with no real effort) IS free money.
Use promotional code BN5 to get a free $5 head start from Beechnut.
The United Mileage Plus Visa Card is offering 25,000 bonus miles after $250 in spending. The first year’s annual fee is waived. You also get two free certificates with the offer: a free one-way 1,000 mile, one class upgrade certificate and a $25 United Discount travel certificate.
Spend $250 and get a free plane ticket? Good deal for me. FYI 25,000 miles is good for a place ticket. I applied and I’m planning to cancel the card before the free first year without fee expires.
Note: You’ll need to be a member of United’s mileage plus program which is fee-free. Go to United.com beforehand if you are not yet a member.
Oct 062006
I found out about this awhile ago but I’m finally getting a chance to write about this now. Here’s the lowdown:
The idea? Zecco is offering free trades starting October 9th. Penson Financial Services, the 5th largest clearing firm in the U.S. will clear their trades. The current minimum to open an account according to their support staff is $2,500.
How can they offer it free? They claim they will make money by running a lean operation and maximize its revenue from interest accrued from margin loans, broker accounts and additional premium financial services. One of the ways they will run a leaner operation is by not advertising and relying on word of mouth, forums, and bloggers.
I think the $2,500 limit will scare away a lot of potential customers for them. Scottrade’s minimum is $500 and Sogoinvest does not even have a minimum. I have no idea how much it really costs to clear a trade and if their claim that their competitors use most of the money paid per trade to re-invest in advertising for more trades is true so I don’t know how well their business model will work. The $2,500 minimum is a bit pricey for me at this point in my life. I would rather sit on the sidelines and watch this one first, there’s no benefit to being one of the first guinea pigs.
Come October 9th we’ll get all details. In the meantime you can signup to be a member of their MyZecco community.
To turn one cent ($0.01) into ten million dollars ($10,000,000) you would have to double that penny about thirty times. Here’s the process of doubling a penny thirty times.
$0.02, $0.04, $0.08, $0.16, $0.32, $0.64, $1.28, $2.56, $5.12, $10.24, $20.48, $40.96, $81.92, $163.84, $327.68, $655.36, $1,310.72, $2,621.44, $5,242.88, $10,485.76, $20,971.52, $41,943.04, $83,886.08, $167,772.16, $335,544.32, $671,088.64, $1,342,177.28, $2,684,354.56, $5,368,709.12, and finally $10,737,418.24.
That’s the concept behind Moola (www.moola.com). Moola will give you a penny free of charge. Sometimes you’ll get the random Moola booster which will give you an extra bonus of $0.01 to $0.10. You then risk this penny in a chance game of which there are currently three to choose from:
Hi/Lo – Simple game where there are 10 cards and you have to determine whether the next card is going to be higher or lower than the current card. Winner is one who progresses farthest, you have 4 lives.
Ro-sham-bo-fo – Basically rock, scissors, paper with a twist.
Gold Rush – Basically a strategy game where you have 6 pieces of gold and have to bid for the gold in the middle. I’m not really too good at explaining this one but the game is like the others, low learning curve and easy to pick up.
You risk your penny and if you win against another player, they lose their penny and you have effectively doubled your money. You can keep continuing with the process and doubling your money as many times as you like. If you lose all your money, Moola will supply you with another one free of charge. You can’t put your own money into Moola so everything is essentially supported by advertisers.
This is a great concept, however let’s be realistic here. After a certain dollar amount, the amount of players starts to dwindle. Here’s why: You can cash out of your winnings once they are above $10. I highly doubt there will be any players playing past level 16 ($655.36). There might be a few but would most people really risk $327.68 to win $655.36? The goal of level 30 ($10 million) gets even crazier in that another player and you would have to risk $5 million each in a game of say rock, scissor, paper. I would definitely just cash out long before that, wouldn’t you?
The concept certainly is entertaining and there are tons of people I know that do reach the $10.24 or $20.48 mark and cash out. The highest level I have reached is level 8 ($2.56), I was two level away from $10.24 but I lost it all in crazy game of Rock, scissor, paper. Do I feel a loss? No, not really. I did start out with only a penny, which was free from Moola. I think that you shouldn’t expect to make any money off of this but I have to admit the whole thing is very entertaining. Turning a penny into $2.56 was fun. Hey, it would’ve even been more fun if I went further, but now I’m back to a penny.
Here’s the tutorial from Moola: Watch
Currently Moola is in beta so membership is closed, you can add your e-mail to their list and get an invite when the site opens. However, currently I have 3 and only 3 referrals which I can give out. The first 3 people to e-mail me with the subject “Moola Referral” will get them. After my 3 referrals runs out, I will request that one of the 3 people I referred originally send you a referral. Note: If you get a referral from me, please include if you are willing to give out referrals to other people. It’s okay if you don’t and would rather give them to family/friends.
Kinda reminds me of when G-Mail referrals were limited. I was dying to get one. E-mail me at hejustlaughs@gmail.com (use subject: Moola referral).
Edit: Just e-mail me if you want a referral. I guarantee that I can find someone that can give you a referral.
Edit 1/8/07: Due to comments that claim this is a “get rich quick” scheme. This is not a make money fast scheme or anything. As I’ve stated in the post, treat this more as entertainment value, if you win any money, then good for you. Moola will never require you to spend any money whatsoever. It does not even possible to deposit money into Moola. I treat moola as a free online game for entertainment with the miniscule chance you’ll ever get any money.
InstantProfitz is essentially a incentive site. You will literatally get paid to do things. It is the real deal, I have gotten paid on numerous occasions. The question is, is it worth your time?
Yes. Definitely.
How does it work?
Advertisers pay sites like InstantProfitz for leads (potential customers). InstantProfitz in turn passes onto you some of the money they recieved from the advertiser as an incentive.
Say Netflix is offering $24 for every customer lead. InstantProfitz will then offer you $21 to join Netflix. Different offers vary from advertiser to advertiser, but if you’re interested in say Netflix, it doesn’t hurt to get the free cash.
The best part is you can get paid for free trials of various services. I got paid $28 for trying Blockbuster Online for one month. The trial of Blockbuster cost me $10. I profited $18 and got to try Blockbuster online. Blockbuster sucks ass compared to Netflix so I subscribe to Netflix only now.
Ever wanted to try out the dating service True.com? Well there’s an offer on there for a free 7 day trial and you’ll get $20.
Why use InstantProfitz as opposed to other incentive sites?
I use to use Fusioncash before I switched over to InstantProfitz. Fusioncash has a better site design but is lacking in several key areas. InstantProfitz probably has more offers than Fusioncash and pays more for the very same offers Fusioncash offers. I follow the money. For example the Blockbuster Online offer will net you $28 at Instant Profitz an $25 at Fusioncash. $3 isn’t a big deal for one offer but over the long run it adds up. InstantProfitz has also been around for over 2 years so they also got the bonus of history. However, both sites have cashed me out in a timely manner so no complaints there.
How does the payout work?
In any given month where you cash out, you get paid on the 20th of the next month. Therefore the ideal time to cash out is the last couple of days of the month. The most popular method of payment is either check by mail or PayPal.
How much have I made so far?
Well I’ve been averaging about $100 for the past 5 months. It’s basically free gas money. I’m running out of good offers to do, however new offers are always appearing on the site. $100 isn’t hard to get. You can probably get hundreds more easily. $100 is generally 4-5 offer completions.
Tips/Suggestions
If you go crazy, use Excel to keep track of all the offers you’re involved in. If your credit card issuer offers virtual credit card numbers, use them. Using virtual credit card numbers prevent you from headaches if your number is ever stolen. You’ll find that there are a ton of offers you’ll just be interested in trying and it won’t hurt to profit from it either.
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