Rebateprocessorjobs.com. and ProcessAffiliateRebates.com
This one just does not make sense to do. You will have to spend money in order to make money and most people spend money and then lose even more money. Getting money for processing rebates is ridiculous! Stay away!

FreelanceHomeWriters.com
These guys charge a fee to be a member and then charge you $47 per month after than in order to get $20 per article that you write. The problem is that you may never get paid and then it’s a bear to cancel the monthly fee.

Any Multi-level marketing company (Mary Kay, YTB, Amway, Quick Star, etc…)
These are actually legit companies with real products, the problem is that the only people who make money are the companies themselves- not the individual sales people. A study back in the 80′s showed that the top 1% of Amway participants lost $900. That’s sad. Multi-level is only a successful venture if you are focusing on selling the product- not the opportunity. And even then, you are making pennies for your efforts.

I have heard of a few others, but now I want to hear about the ones you know of.

-Griff

Financial Secrets 101.com

I wanted to share with you a little “gem” that I found yesterday and pass it on to you as a Christmas gift. PerkStreet Financial^SM is giving away $50.00 for simply opening up a free online checking account with them. The cool part is that it offers more rewards than a regular checking account and is free with no minimum balances.

I just opened an account with them – it took me 4 minutes and 37 seconds to do. You have to deposit at least $25 into the account initially, and after keeping the account open for 90 days, they will deposit $50 into your account. There are no other obligations outside of that.  Not a bad deal for less than 5 minutes of your time, huh?

Be sure and choose the regular checking account rather than the “checking plus”. I think the “checking plus” contains small fees for extra features.

So, go ahead. Sign Up for a PerkStreet Online Checking Account and get a $50 bonus.

Why open another checking account when I already have one?

• Use it for your spouse or another family member
• Use it to keep track of separate expenses
• Earn larger rewards than normal checking accounts
• Get a free $50 bonus for only 5 minutes of your time

Again, Merry Christmas!

-From Griff (and the rest of the 5G Team)

There is a lot of junk on the news these days, so you really have to be careful to what and who you listen to and make sure to take it all with a grain of salt and open mind. I do not watch the news very often, but lately I have paid close attention to what the “financial experts” are saying about the economy. There is still a large disagreement. One side says that we are pulling out of the mess and the economy is on the rise, and the other side says that we are in for another “doomsday” or “dooms-YEARS.”

Unfortunately, I agree with the latter. I’m not one to be pessimistic but you simply cannot deny the disheartening facts: We have to pay for our irresponsible actions… literally.

Because of congress’s overspending, our debt is now over 12 trillion. If the debt continues this direction, it ensures that one of two things will happen: The value of the U.S. dollar will drastically decrease, thereby creating mass inflation and lack of trust from foreign investors, OR worse yet, America will go bankrupt, lose ALL trust from foreigner investors and be forced to start all over again which may take decades to do.

Even thought it is hard to swallow, I can see good things coming from either one. People will be forced to sacrifice and live within their means, and the U.S. patriotism and community will hopefully become much stronger as we work together to rebuild the great nation that this used to be (and still is in many ways).

In my humble (maybe even naive) opinion, I think these two fates can be avoided if congress would stop spending unnecessary money, educate Americans on the consequences we will face if we do not pay off our debt, and then charge a tax to be placed on everything (like a sales tax, but where every single individual part from manufacturer to the retailer is taxed). This would be an extremely large amount of money and would still take years to pay the entire debt off, but it is worth it in the end for the future of this nation.

Regardless of what ends up happening to our economy, it is up to individual Americans to be prepared. This means, paying off personal debt, saving for emergencies, and living on less NOW- not later.

Another way you can take action is to write your state’s representatives and senators by going to defeatthedebt.com. I just did, and I encourage you to take two minutes to do it as well. Simply share with them that you are concerned about the debt and woud like them to stop spending money. Let them know that you are willing to make small sacrifices if that is what is necessary.

Let’s be proud of the country we are in and start taking action to protect the future our families, our friends, and our country.

I am in debt. There, I said it. For some reason it is our natural tendency to hide this from the rest of  the world. The whole “I want to look like I have it all together” vibe is one that tends to resonate much stronger with Americans in general. The truth of the matter is that 97% of American have some sort of debt, even if it’s only a mortgage, it’s borrowed money which therefore puts it under the category of debt.

Debt is nothing to necessarily be ashamed of, but it is to be feared and avoided at all costs. If you have debt like I do, you may feel a little weighed down as if there is some kind of unspoken and unseen burden on your shoulders. It makes me feel trapped. I hate feeling trapped. I think I’m half-claustrophobic.

I have been looking and looking for the best way to get out of my debt, accelerate my mortgage, and one day (sooner than later) be totally free from this bondage. I have found all of the traditional ways of getting rid of debt and have even tried a few of them out. Some of them have actually helped, others have not at all. But the ones that have helped have actually just bought me a little more time, that’s all. I realized that I needed something that is a little unconventional. Something that does not deal only with financial numbers, but with lifestyle and my wife and I’s ability to pay off debt quickly and practically. The good news is that I think I have an idea. The bad news is that it is going to take a little bit of time for that idea to be concrete and be ready to show you.

I’d like to hear your thoughts though. Please submit comments below about whether or not you are looking for debt elimination solutions, what you may have found that has helped you eliminate debt, and any other useful information that may help me as I build my debt elimination prototype.

I’ll keep you up to date with my progress.

Looking forward to hearing from you soon,

-Griff

Last Sunday morning, I decided to go for a little jog and just as I got to the end of my drive way I looked up and saw my neighbor approaching. He had just finished walking around the block. We exchanged small talk for a while and then he told me the bad news. The company he had been working with for over 15 years had just let him go. The man is 62 years old, has thirty five years of experience in commercial insurance – not to mention a college degree in insurance and marketing – and now he is applying for unemployment benefits, filling out his resume and trying to get social security earlier than expected.

There was something in me that thought this was just not right. It made me think about the fact that there really is no such thing as job security. We need to be prepared for anything.

I asked my neighbor if he had some money saved up in order to pay for his expenses in the mean time. He told me he would start pulling from his IRA fund and other investment funds, but all of that money would be taxable because he is not over the required age.

Again, I thought to myself about how great it is that he learned to put money away in case of an emergency, but the other side of the coin is that he forgot to keep it as liquid as possible. In my opinion, investment funds do not make great emergency funds. They can produce a lot more growth, but they can also bring loss. They are also a little harder to access in order to get cash when you need it, and they may, in this case, be taxable, which can sometimes out weigh any gain you may have produced.

This is the reason I like to keep my emergency fund separate from my investments. It’s important to have both, but a high interest savings account is a much better option for an emergency fund and should be the first thing you set up before starting to invest.

Let’s not be victims of life’s unexpected behavior. God is the only one who can bring security – Not jobs, money, pleasure, relationships, or anything else on this world. He calls us to be good stewards of what we have. Be prepared for the future.

-Griff

You can easily spend around ten or twenty bucks to get something that will probably end up in a closet somewhere and never be appreciated again. In fact, you probably end up doing this with half of the people in your family. It’s not that you do not want to get them something special and fun – you wish you could, but money prevents you from being able to get anything good so you settle for something cheap and useless. You end up giving ten stupid cheap gifts and only a few nice ones, and then you look in your wallet and have nothing left.

Here is a suggestion to help you and your family stop spending more than you need to without the quality if gifts to show for it. Around Thanksgiving or any time before Christmas get together with your immediate family and extended family who you normally give gifts to. Write down everyone’s names and put them in a hat, bowl, or bag. Pass this around the room to each individual and have them draw out one name. The name that you draw is the person that you are going to by a really good gift for that year. Determine the price range for what everyone is going to spend so that the value of gifts are fairly equal.

By doing this you will save yourself from spending four or five hundred dollars to get each person a cheap useless gift to spending fifty to a hundred dollars for a really nice gift someone will love.

Can you still get a gift for everyone else? Of course! But only if you make it yourself. By making something you will spend far less money and be able to give a meaningful gift that tells the person they were worth the time it took to put this together.

Try this gift giving method out  for at least one Christmas and see how it goes. You may find that a different version of this would be better for you and your family. Regardless of what you do, better gifts will be given and received, and you will still have money in your wallet when it is all said and done.

There are plenty of ways to travel and take vacations for much less without having to eat PB&J every single day. Here are a few ideas that may help you get away for a bit.

How is this a better and cheaper way to travel?

For starters, many non-profit organizations will have accommodations prepared for you. You may still need to cover some costs, especially for food, but it will be much less expensive than staying at a hotel and eating at restaurants every meal. Another reason is that you can get tax deductible receipts for the things you pay for. Or, if you know other people who care about the cause you are serving, you may consider raising the support and therefore not have to pay a dime. People who do not have the skill or the time to go serve enjoy providing opportunity for those who have the skill and time but no money.

What are some other creative ways to travel?

If you have any professional skill at all you may be able to find a temporary job in an exotic place. The same Everyday with Rachel Ray article told the story of a woman who was a massage therapist. She found a temporary job at findacrew.net where a sailor who owned a yacht in the Caribbean hired her to give five one-hour massages per week. In exchange she received a free flight down there, a spot on board for the whole trip where they visited 18 different islands, and a stipend of $1,500!

It’s worth taking the time to look for temporary positions to be able to travel and maybe even get paid to do it. Get creative, use sites like craigslist.org and monster.com to search for these opportunities. You could be traveling for a lot less.