MiB Smarter Money » advice

How Do You Earn Money From Affiliate Programs?

Maricel — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 18:36:46 +0000

Don’t let the title confuse you. This is just another way of earning passive income online via one type of internet marketing called affiliate marketing. Simply put, it’s the income derived when an affiliate website sends traffic or generates sales for a merchant website. Affiliate websites post links to merchant sites and are paid through a certain agreement. If the links bring traffic or sales, the merchant site pays the website according to the agreement. This works well with content-driven websites (blogs for example) that brings in high traffic. The higher the traffic to the website, the bigger is the chance for visitors to click on the links and generate sale.

Popularized by Amazon.com in 1996, they have grown very popular nowadays. A lot have even banded into affiliate program networks. But how do affiliate websites get paid?

Basically are paid according to three basic arrangements: pay-per-sale, pay-per-click or pay-per-lead. In the pay-per-sale arrangement, merchant pays the affiliate when it sends a customer that purchases something. It could be in terms of percentage of the sale or fixed amount per sale. In pay-per-click the affiliate gets paid for number of visitors “just clicking” on the link without necessarily generating sales. When an affiliate generates a lead, somebody gives the merchant site specific information that could lead to a sale; the affiliate gets paid via pay-per-lead scheme. There are a lot of other arrangements with some providing residual income for the affiliate. This happens when the visitor continues to pay from the merchant site.

Sounds easy? Let’s make it easier for you to earn as an affiliate from the traffic on your website, blog, etc. by mentioning the most popular merchant sites now that have successful affiliate programs:

Amazon.com of course tops the list! It has now more than 900,000 affiliate websites making it successful as the world’s largest on-line retailer.

Google AdSense lets you earn when it displays Google ads on your website. You can either earn via cost-per-click (also known as pay-per-click) or cost-per-thousand-impressions (unique page views). Launched in 2003, it has ever since become a favorite among affiliate marketers and online passive income earners.

PayDotCom now boasts of 400,000 affiliate websites and 1,000 new affiliates every day. It has received positive reviews and endorsements from online passive income blogs and affiliate marketing blogs.

ClickBank is actually an online digital retail store offering 50,000 products with over 100,000 affiliate sites. They pride themselves of up to 75% commission, presence in 200 countries and reliable tracking and payments. There are varied reviews on ClickBank especially on their payment schemes but suffice to say it is real and one can earn money from it.

There are still a lot out there and the number of affiliate programs and its networks grow daily. Don’t take my word for it; look for what’s best for your website or blog.

Affiliate programs are easy to set-up but they

do not earn money overnight. If you have an existing website or blog already, you can easily join any affiliate program. The good

thing about it is you can invest a few hours weekly and generate real passive income online. You can also get die-hard, turn into a pro and create multiple income streams from multiple websites. Bottom-line is you can earn money from it!

10 Easy Tips to Reduce Your Income Taxes

Jason — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 18:35:25 +0000

Photo by John Morgan

By Jason Van Steenwyk

In the end, it’s not about how much you earn, but about how much of it you get to keep. In most cases, this means that you want to minimize your current year tax bill. There are, however, cases where it is better to pay the tax bill now in order to avoid having to pay higher taxes in future years.

November and December are prime time for forward-thinking individuals and business owners to do some tax planning for the year. Moves you make now can pay off very quickly. Here are some of the things you can accomplish now, before the end of the year, to keep the tax man at bay.

Do an AMT assessment. AMT stands for “alternative minimum tax.” The AMT is a supplementary set of income tax rules designed to ensure that families with significant incomes can’t use deductions and tax loopholes to avoid income tax altogether. When it was first passed in 1969, it was only intended to affect the wealthiest families. But they never indexed it to inflation. As a result, more and more middle class families are falling prey to AMT rules. If you have a lot of deductions, you own your own home, you normally have a significant state income tax liability, or you have several children, and your household income has been on the rise, or you got a bonus, you may well have an AMT liability this year.

Contribute to an IRA. Provided you meet the income qualifications, a traditional IRA allows you to deduct up to $5,000 in contributions. Double that for married couples, and add another $1,000 each for qualifying individuals over the age of 55. Yes, the rules give you until April 15^th, 2012 to make your contribution for tax year 2011, and April 15^th, 2013 to make your contribution for 2012. But by contributing early, you give your investments that much more time to compound. You also set yourself up to make manageable monthly contributions to your IRA for 2013. Better yet, you don’t even have to itemize your deductions! Traditional IRA contributions are “above the line” adjustments to income. You can deduct the full contribution, provided you meet the income guidelines, even if you don’t itemize.

Pay your property tax early. These are normally deductible expenses. But if you are subject to the AMT, that deduction may be disallowed. If 2012 is likely to be an AMT year, but 2013 is not, you may be better off making the payment in 2012.

Cancel out your capital gains taxes. If you sold property at a gain in 2012, you will probably have some capital gains tax liability. For long-term gains, this tax maxes out at 15 percent of your gains. If you held the property for less than a year, however, expect to pay taxes at your higher marginal income tax rate, which could be as high as 35 percent. However, if you have investments outside of retirement accounts that lost money since you bought them, you can sell some or all of them and cancel out some or all of your capital gains taxes – a technique known as “tax loss harvesting.” If you have excess losses, you can deduct up to $3,000 in losses against income per year, carrying any additional losses forward to future years. Beware, however, of “wash sale” rules. To get the benefit of claiming a capital loss, you cannot repurchase the same or substantially identical securities for 30 days.
Use your Flexible Spending Account. If you have a flexible spending account at work, you may well lose that money at the end of the year. Now’s the time to schedule that Lasik surgery, or take care of that medical treatment you’ve been putting off. Otherwise, that money goes back to your employer and you lose the opportunity. Check with your HR department for your balance and to learn how the rules apply to you.
Bunch medical deductions. Did you have substantial medical bills in 2011? You can deduct medical expenses against your income, but only to the extent they exceed 7.5 percent of your income. If you expect more medical spending in the following 2012, try to commit the funds this year, bunching your expenses into a single tax year. This will allow you to maximize your deductions, which would be substantially reduced if you spread them out between 2011 and 2012. Actually, this strategy works with all kinds of itemized deductions. Miscellaneous (non-medical) itemized deductions have to exceed a threshold of 2 percent of your income for you to begin benefitting from the deduction. Whether the applicable threshold is 7.5 percent or 2 percent of your income, you want to concentrate as much deductible spending as you can into one year. Otherwise, you’ll have to get all the way through the threshold amount all over again next year before you can begin taking deductions.
Give. You can give up to $13,000 per year to any recipient you choose, without incurring any kind of tax liability (subject to a lifetime exemption of $1 million.) If you’re married, you and your spouse can give $13,000 each, for a total of $26,000 per recipient. A deliberate gifting strategy can be a great way to move money out of your taxable estate, as well as protect it from those who may target you in a lawsuit. It may also help you qualify for Medicaid in later years, provided you make the gift more than 5 years before applying for Medicaid benefits.
Pay down your mortgage. The interest you pay is normally deductible against income. By bumping up your payments in December, you can make a noticeable reduction in your tax bill for this year.
Put Off Profitable Sales. If you don’t have any capital losses to offset gains, try to put off selling property at a profit until after the end of the year. You may have some losses you can use to offset your gains next year, and you’re putting off the due date on capital gains tax liability.
Check Your RMDs. If you are over age 70, it’s time to pay close attention to required minimum distribution requirements. The IRS requires you to begin taking money out of your IRAs and 401(k)s beginning on April 1^st of the year following the year in which you turn 70½. Thereafter, you must take the distribution by December 31^st of each year. This will create an income tax liability for you, since distributions from these accounts are taxable. But the penalty if you miss the deadline is severe: If you blow your RMD, the IRS will assess a penalty of 50 percent of the amount you were supposed to have taken.

Remember, tax planning is complicated – even for professionals. Very few people who don’t do taxes for a living can efficiently keep track of all the tax issues, traps, pitfalls and planning opportunities that may arise. Except for the very simplest of cases, it almost always makes sense to invest in the services of a tax professional.

Can I Fund My Spouses IRA If They Don’t Work?

hank — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 16:00:26 +0000

Dear Hank – My wife is a stay at home mom. With a traditional IRA she is eligible for the “spousal IRA.” Can she open a Roth IRA as her spousal IRA, meaning I can invest $8,000 of my income, with half of that in her name? – Peter from Mississippi

Hey Peter – Good news – As long as one spouse has at least $8,000 of earned income, and your joint MAGI is under $160,000 (as you’ll reach your phase-out for ROTH in 2007) both spouses can contribute $4,000 ($8,000 total) to their respective Roth IRAs. Each spouse can contribute an additional $1,000 if he or she is age 50 or older by the end of 2007. So tap it out if you can! Thanks for the post!

Would you like to ask a question on MyInvestingBlog.com? I’m happy to answer it if I can – Contact me to submit the question.

Photo by: dittaeva

Credit Card Funding For Business Start-Ups and Entrepreneurs

Hank — Mon, 17 May 2010 16:44:53 +0000

Credit cards are often touted as an evil spending device and it is true that you can very quickly and very easily get into trouble if you use your credit card incorrectly or inefficiently. However if you are looking at funding the start-up of your business as an entrepreneur then not only does the business credit card makes a lot of sense to help you get your business dream and unique product or idea up and running, you are also in good company.

Why Use A Credit Card As An Entrepreneur To Cover Start-Up Costs For A New Business?

We’ve all heard the business adage that you have to spend money to make money, however you may be wondering about how clever it really is to use the bank’s money to cover the start-up costs of your new business. Consider the benefits and reasons that you can benefit from as an entrepreneur with a new business to fund:

Many successful businesses have used credit cards in their start-up periods. The founders of Cisco Systems for example use their personal credit cards in the early stages of starting their business, and so too did the founders of Google who needed to cover the costs of computers and office equipment, so consider where we would all be if the founders of Google had decided not to take the risk of using their credit card to start their business, because those debts are well and truly paid by now.
You don’t have the opportunity or want to get a loan. Borrowing money from family and friends to start up a business can get messy down the track and you may also not want to worry with the hassle of a personal loan or a business overdraft in the early stages, and more importantly you may not even qualify as a start-up business for a loan. However your credit card can help you find the business items you need to bring in customers and of course income.
You already have a credit card. The reality is that most of us have at least one credit card in our wallets already and if you are careful in your spending and plan your repayments you can use your personal credit card to fund your business start-up. While it is not always wise to use a personal credit card for business expenses, in the case of a business credit card the debt will still be your personal responsibility unless your business is an incorporated company, and sometimes this does not even remove you from all liability.

How To Use A Credit Card For Funding

As with your personal credit card spending, there is also a right way and a wrong way to use a credit card to fund the start-up of your business. No matter how much of an innovative or creative entrepreneur you are, you can still benefit from following these few simple business credit card funding tips:

Choose a dedicated business credit card. A credit card designed specifically for business use will allow you higher credit limits which can be especially useful in the start-up period where there are a lot of equipment, advertising and wage expenses. A business credit card will also offer you more flexibility in the number of additional cardholders you’re able to have seen you can monitor your staff spending as well. Business credit cards will also offer you business rewards, such as discounted or free travel or discounts or special offers on office stationery will stop
Manage your account online. This allows you to always keep up-to-date with your spending and the spending of your staff, and ensured that you don’t spend more than you can reasonably afford to repay.
Compare interest charges. While the interest charges on your business credit card will be largely tax-deductible, you still want to shop around for a business credit card with a lower interest rate or a long interest-free period because you have to pay the interest before you can play it back at the end of the financial year.
Check the debt accountability. Unless your business is a company there is little doubt that you will be held personally responsible for any debt the business gets into. However even as a company you may have to go guarantor for your business credit card and can still be held liable for your business debts. Therefore try and exclude your personal assets, or look for a guarantor option where the guaranteed portion declines as the business grows.

No matter how many brilliant business ideas you have they will remain just ideas unless you can get them out there to your customers and for that you will need funding. Using credit cards to fund a business start-up has proved successful for other entrepreneurs in Australia and around the world but that doesn’t mean that using your credit card for your business start-up will automatically be successful too. Instead make sure you maintain the same financial responsibility with your business credit card and business debts as you do for your personal ones to ensure success now and long-lasting success into the future.

Should I Buy a Loaded Mutual Fund?

hank — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 08:01:48 +0000

My mother is not very financially savvy – and when I try to explain anything to her; it can often times take the better part of an hour. It may be her age or the fact she never had any financial education being a stay at home mom, but I like to try to give her the best info possible. This was a specific instance of that time.

She mentioned that she was heading into an Edward Jones investment rep this afternoon and wanted me to chime in with a few questions to help her make a good decision. Like I said, she is 55 with no retirement money aside from about 20k she cashed out of a universal life insurance policy she had out on my dad that was taking payments out of the equity it had built up.

That’s another conversation, but for this one, we’re focusing on how her conversation went.So the rep called me up and we had a conversation about what my mom had, and what she was doing now, and where she was headed. The first thing he mentioned was that “we need to start making your Mother’s money work for her NOW!” I obviously agreed and mentioned to him, “what funds do you recommend she get in?”

He came back with a handful of loaded mutual funds and I just stopped him in the middle of it and ask him why he wanted to put my mother in loaded funds. He actually was very up front about why. He said, “Clearly because that is how I make my money.”

I agreed and proceeded to tell him that we weren’t interested in his services and thanks for his time. He proceeded to tell me how “scary” and “difficult” and “dangerous” it was to be investing on your own. He said, “There are a lot of pitfalls along the way. Wouldn’t it be nice if you had someone to help you?”

I responded, “Yes, that would be nice to have someone that would warn me about financial advisors like yourself.”

That stopped him in his tracks and my mother took off.

New to the blog? Asking yourself, “what are loaded mutual funds exactly Hank?”

When I say “loaded mutual fund,” I mean a mutual fund that carries a sales load. A sales load is a mutual fund commission paid to brokers like this Edward Jones rep for selling you something you don’t need their help in buying. Sales loads do not benefit you, they benefit, and ONLY benefit the person selling them to you, much like an insurance policy.

Load fees typically range from four to eight percent and the way they are paid varies:

1. Front-end load (usually class A shares) – you pay the sales fee up front to the helpful broker.
2. Back-end load or deferred load (usually class B shares) – you pay the sales fee on your way out to your helpful broker.
3. Constant load fund (usually class C shares) – you pay the sales fees every year and might even have to pay a full load when you sell to the fine person selling you this.

Well Hank, I really like paying extra money for things I can do for myself (joking) what else is it costing me?

Well, think of it this way. By purchasing a loaded fund, you’re starting two steps behind. Let’s use simple numbers, say you bought a loaded fund with $10,000 that carried a 5% front end load. Well, as soon as you sign on the dotted line, you’ve just lost $500, so you’re starting with $9,500.

Think of the same guy that has the entire $10,000 to run on – who is going to be ahead in 1 year? 2 years? You can’t catch up because you’re starting behind. Think of it like an oval race track. If you are both running in the same lane, you are starting 5% of the way behind them, and will likely not catch up.

But Hank, they broker told me that these funds were spectacular and that I should make more from them than a no-load fund. Isn’t that worth it?

If a broker really did tell that to you; you are in a bad situation. Turn and run immediately. Do not pass go, do not collect $200. I can almost guarantee if you give me a loaded mutual fund ticker symbol, I can find a very similar NO-load fund out of the 12,000+ funds out there.

Feel free to contact me if you don’t believe me; I’ll find one for you. How many different ways can a sales guy scare you into buying the fund? Anyone else have some wise lines brokers have used to get you in their grasps and in to your pockets? I think if I wouldn’t have figured it out on my own, I’d still be playing Poker to take care of my retirement.
Photo by: Snap@

What Does It Mean When The Federal Reserve Cuts Interest Rates?

hank — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 08:01:39 +0000

Photo by: gerrietWe hear all this talk about how the “Feds are lowing rates again today” on the news a lot recently, and that we’re falling into a recession. But what does all that mean? How does that help me in the situation I’m in? What do I do now as far as investing?Well, to put it simply, when the feds lower federal fund rate, it reduces what it costs banks to borrow money from them. When the banks costs go down, banks typically trim rates for consumers and business borrowers. That encourages businesses to expand and households to spend. Homeowners with adjustable mortgages and consumers with credit cards linked to the prime rate often see their rates move down, which is good.

Why is The Fed pushing rates down hard and fast?

Because the government is seeing a danger that troubles them. The housing market could create a downward spiral that would do widespread damage to consumers and businesses. The main problem comes from several things that get started when home prices start the fall. When home prices fall, it inherently fosters large numbers of foreclosures. That throws a bigger supply of houses onto the market, which in turn push prices down further.

Another problem happens when falling home prices force banks and other lenders to take losses on housing-related investments. They certainly don’t want that because it takes a bite out of their capital and reduces the amount of money they have to lend. That in turn makes it harder for home buyers to borrow, and lending banks to lend. If this housing problem continued for an extended period of time, the damage to banks and consumers could become so profound that the economy plunges into a recession the likes of which we don’t want to see.

How is the government planning on fixing this?

Well, they’ve hacked the interest rate 1.25% over the last 11 days. With this drop in interest rates, combined with a stimulus package from Congress, the hope is that they can stave off the looming recession, which isn’t fun. The goal of doing this isn’t pretty in the short term, but it can significantly limit the damage and keep things from falling into the ocean.

So do I want the Feds to cut interest rates or not?

Well, if you are a homeowners with an adjustable-rate mortgages, you like it. If you have an adjustable rate home equity loans, you like it. If you are a homeowners with a good credit rating and can refinance at lower rates, you like it. If you are a business with a loan tied to the prime Fed rate, you like it. However, if you are investing in CD tied to the prime rate, you DON’T like it. If you have a money market account, which is likely tied to that rate at which banks can borrow, you DON’T like it. If you have a savings account at a bank, you DON’T like it.

Overall there are a lot of pieces to the pie, and a lot of people complain about the setup and what the government is doing, but that is what people do, they disagree a lot. You don’t have a lot of choice in the matter so make the best of it and take advantage of the lower priced stocks, and mutual funds you find when the economy is slow.

What Do I Do During a Bear Market? What Do I Invest In?

hank — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 08:19:09 +0000

Photo by: artct45If you’re between 20-40 years old, don’t do anything. Stay where you’re at, markets fluxuate. That is their nature and that should have been something you learned before you got it. If this is your first time hearing about it, don’t worry and more importantly, don’t run. Let the traders panic. That is their job. They’re pounding down 15 cups a coffee per day and enjoy the stress. Let them deal with it. You’re paying a person that the traders are relaying information to in your mutual funds. You’re 3rd tier on that – sit back and enjoy the cheap stocks you’re getting into.If you haven’t sold, you haven’t lost. Stick to your guns and don’t get scared out of the market, recessions happen. But they always come back. As long as you still have a job, you shouldn’t be worrying. If you HAVE lost your job, you should probably not be reading this blog, try this one.

Buy technology stocks and fund. They’ve done really well this year, and think about it. We’re in the technology era; people WANT technology and are willing to pay for it still. As long as you’ve got a good time horizon for investing (10+ years left till retirement) I think you’ve got a good shot to get in at the bottom floor during the recession.

There are special recession ETFs geared towards recession. Look at medical, people always need to go to the doctor. Look at Claymore Securities.

Ultimately, my recommendation is to keep your money headed towards your investments as long as you’ve got a job. Keep your portfolio on track, this is the time when many people are getting out of the game, and as long as you’ve got time on your side, a perfect time for you to capitalize on the low prices being tossed around.

Do you have any secrets you’d like to share? Anything you’ve done in the past? Advice for the future?

Does My Beneficiary Have To Pay Taxes On My Life Insurance Policy When I Die?

hank — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 08:13:09 +0000

Photo by: lyndsey_matthews

Hello Hank, I see you have a Universal Life Insurance policy also. Do you know if it is taxed when I “expire”? Barney from North Carolina

Hey Barney, I actually DO know the answer to that. I checked with my accountant to be 100% sure and he agreed with me that your beneficiary will NOT (99.999% of the time*) have to pay taxes on it. This is the one time I don’t mind having my Universal Life Insurance through Hartford Mutual. I slashed the “investment” piece of the policy and am only paying for the insurance side of it now. Don’t mix investing with insuring. They mix similar to oil and water.

* – The time this doesn’t apply to you is very rare, but CAN happen if you die at the same time your beneficiary and 2nd beneficiary also die. So it is very rare, but possible.

Do You Still Clip Coupons? Do You Ever Get Any Of Them Online?

hank — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 08:13:01 +0000

Photo by: ninjapoodlesI grew up clipping every single food coupon from every single paper we could find. We’d ping our neighbors and relatives if we saw something worth clipping that didn’t have a limit on the number of coupons. We often times walk into the grocery store with a coupon for every item. My mom was very good at frugal shopping. I actually remember, back on my first job as a paperboy, my mother even proposed I put a note in all the newspapers if there were good deals to call me back; I had to draw the line somewhere though, cause Mom would be all for it, to my embarrassment!

So it has been pretty engraved in the minds of folks for years, and seemed to have fallen off in the 90′s but rumor has it coupons are making a comeback. A recent study by comScore, an Internet information provider that tracks consumer behavior, found that 53% of consumers say they regularly visit brand Web sites to find promotions. I admit, I still have a tendency to look for the food deals when I see them – Where have I looked?

Coupons.com is the big dog I see the most ads about – I think it has the best advertising and I’m sure the domain name doesn’t hurt. It has a ton of grocery printable coupons for major household brands such as Johnson & Johnson, Unilever, Pepsi, General Mills, and Kraft. You can view available savings by category or by brand, print area-specific coupons by entering your zip code, and get an estimate of how much money they will save you.

I’ve stopped at CouponMountain.com a time or 2 specifically because they don’t require registration or a lengthy sign-up process in order to access coupons. They have coupons for all the big stores (Walmart, Toys R US, Home Depot). They also have discount codes for airfares, hotel reservations, car rentals, and online dating. And if you’re a fan of a specific store, you can subscribe for email notifications whenever special offers from that store are available.

CurrentCodes.com has a lot of well-known online stores like Barnes and Noble, Staples, and Amazon.com have a place within their shopping cart for a “coupon code” that gives a percent or dollar amount off your purchase. If you don’t know the code, you don’t get the discount, so find a coupon. A lot of times you can find these secret discount codes and coupon codes listed on in a google search, but the problem with these sites is that they’re usually personal homepages and they don’t keep the lists up to date very often.

Dealcatcher.com has a feature called SundaySaver that compiles the weekly sales circulars and Sunday ads into a similar webpage. Just enter your state to see all of the stores that had ads that week—click on a store to see the deal. You won’t find quite as many categories of coupons on Dealcatcher as on Coupons.com. Nonetheless, it has been known to cross my screen a time or two.

FatWallet.com is a big one, but it has a lot of ads, and is difficult for me to navigate. I don’t dig on it very much because of that. I like a site that has everything I want right out in the open. Check it out, but don’t spend too much time figuring it out.

All in all, I’ve got to admit, I visit them less the more my salary goes up, and time goes down; but they are very good places to find deals to live the frugal way if you’ve got the time!

Another Way To Make Money Online; Courtesy Of Microsoft…

hank — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 08:13:37 +0000

Photo by: A Fighting FaithNo, I’m not talking about the ol’ “Bill Gates will send you money if you forward this email” spoof. I am talking about Microsoft’s Usability Research team. Clearly Microsoft has a lot of new products that need testing, and it can’t all be done in house; they need a larger audience of NON-Microsoft employees. That’s where we come in. Before you jump off this post because you think it is a tag to get you to buy Microsoft stuff, don’t! I went over to the corporate office in Redmond, WA last week, took 45 mins worth of testing a new Windows Mobile product, gave my opinion, and walked out the door with a copy of Microsoft Office 2007 (currently on Amazon for 399.99).

I have no reason to use the product, so it’s likely going to find a home on Ebay. But that works out to $533.32 an hour! How about them apples? Well worth my 45 minutes to roll over basic questions and give your opinion.

“But Hank, I don’t have an ounce of technical savvy blood in my body. How can I make any money off it?”

Easy answer – they don’t always want the experts to give the opinions on their products. They want the entire gamut of people to test out their products; not just experts. Toss your name out there, you never know if you’re what they are looking for. It takes about 5 minutes to sign up and tell them what you do.

“Ok Hank it DOES sound like a good idea, but I don’t live anywhere near Redmond, WA.”

Again, no problem. A lot of their questions can come over the phone, or through a web interface to test out and poll on certain product aspects. Sign up and you may be pleasantly surprised what they can call you on.

“Fair enough, I’ll sign up; but what about tax-wise? They’ve given me a gift? Don’t I have to pay it on taxes?”

They’ll put your name in their database and send you out a 1099 form if your gifts are over $1000 for the year. Currently the most expensive piece of software I saw on the list was Microsoft Visio 2007 at 559.99. You can get calls back for as many of the items that you can qualify for. I signed up in December and got my first call last month, so I guess we’ll see how many times they call. Yea, they tax you, but the tax is only on free money. You’ll probably pay $100 of your $1000 to Uncle Sam, and that’s not too bad.

Yes, they’ve been dubbed “the Evil Empire,” but as frugal guy, I don’t care who is giving out the money, I’m happy (and so should you) to take the gratuity for a short stint of my time and quick returns like that. This new found cash is likely headed into my Charles Schwab ROTH IRA before the April 15 deadline.