Saved Pennies How to save your money one step at a time

It’s hard to imagine that an entire corporation could be based off a scam, but that’s exactly the case for Amway and Quixtar. This article will detail exactly how Amway and Quixtar work, and why it is a scam you should avoid. Because Amway and Quixtar are the same company, I’ll just be using the name Amway from now on.

Like many scams, the Amway scam is based off people’s urge to be rich, drive a nice car, and live in a big house. People often want to live that lifestyle so badly that they will do anything and believe anything in order to achieve that goal. This is where Amway steps in. The main idea is that you become a salesperson and sell Amway products, such as vitamins, electronics, and various other goods. Of course, you won’t get rich selling knifes door to door, but that’s where the twist comes in. The idea is that the more people you recruit into Amway, the more money you’ll make because you’ll get a percentage of their earnings. If the people you recruit, recruit more people in turn, you’ll get a percentage of that, and so on. So the main idea is to recruit as many people as possible, and have an automatic stream of revenue. Does this sound like a pyramid scam to you? Well, it basically is. Technically, it’s labeled as multi-level-marketing, which is nothing more than a legal pyramid scam.

So where is the harm? So far, everything sounds legitimate, and harmless. That’s exactly what they want you to think. The fact of the matter is that once you’re recruited, Amway starts selling things to YOU. That’s right, anything from motivational tapes, to motivational books, to tickets for conventions and rallies, and even entire bus trips to rallies. Through a series of talks, basic brainwashing techniques are used in order to convince you that you will succeed and become a millionaire, but only if you buy motivational tapes which hold the key to your success. In fact, it is commonly said that Amway rallies resemble religious revival meetings more than anything else. Now, I’m not trying to knock on religious revival meetings, but Amway preys on your desperation, and preys on your dreams. They tell people over and over that they will become rich if they follow the Amway business plan. Unfortunately, virtually the only people making any sort of significant money are the people selling motivational tools at the rallies and so forth. According to Amway itself, the average amount of money people make at Amway is a measly $1,400 a year. This doesn’t include all the money for meetings, rallies, travel, books, tapes, and everything else. When all is said and done, most people actually lose their money, friends, and a huge amount of time.

Posted under Avoiding Fees, Avoiding Scams, Hidden Fees, Making Money

Recently, I took a daytrip to Henry W. Coe State Park, in California, and I just wanted to share my experience with all of you. Getting to the park was fairly straightforward, you can just follow E. Dunne Ave. until you get to the main visitor’s center. I believe the address is 8000 E. Dunne Ave. for the main entrance; however some GPS units like mine did not have that address. Still, finding the entrance to the park was fairly easy. The road winds and turns an awful lot, with numerous hairpin turns, so be sure to drive extra carefully. Google Streetview is available for this road, if you’re curious to see what it’s like before getting there.

For day hikes, the standard fee is 5 dollars per vehicle, and it’s worth every penny. You’ll get a double-sided map printed on a standard piece of paper. However, unlike many other state parks, the map is detailed and accurate. As long as you have the map, you should be able to get wherever you’re trying to go without getting lost. All the major trails, along with the distance of each trail are clearly printed on the map. I told the ranger that I was interested in walking about 6 or 7 miles, and he recommended a route for me to take.

Henry Coe State Park is massive, and provides a lot of different environments. When I first started, I found myself going into a forest. Unlike some parks like Castle Rock, there were not many bugs or flies at all. The forest sections of the trails were nice because of the shade, and the trail was well-kept. For parts of my day hike, I had to walk on a dirt road to get from one trail to the next, which was a little bit of a bummer. The only good news is that the traffic is extremely light. I probably spent a total of forty minutes walking on a dirt road, but I didn’t see one car driving on it the whole time. Other than the dirt road, I went on Springs Trail which went on went through a lot of wheatgrass. I also walked past several campgrounds, and a small pond called Bass Pond. The pond had fish and other natural wildlife in it. Another trail I went on was called China Hole, which was predominantly in the forest. However, as I approached Manzanita point, the trail opened up, and the view of all the other hills around me was just staggering. The view was excellent. The best part about this is that there are absolutely no signs of man-made structures in the view. Usually, there will be some road, or some buildings, but not in Henry Coe State Park. There’s just you and the wilderness, which I thought was great.

Overall, my day trip to Henry Coe State Park was excellent. I ended up walking about 7.9 miles, which is just about my personal limit for a day. I was able to see birds up close, far away, and even circling above me. I saw a deer, a couple wild Turkeys up close, many butterflies, and some fish, all in one day. The forests were nice and light, which meant that bugs aren’t going to eat you alive. All the trials I went on were fairly easy, (Corral Trail, Forest Trail, Springs Trail, Manzanita Point Road, and China Hole Trail) so this is a suitable place to bring the family, or even children for a short walk. This is a great place to visit if you want a casual day hike, or even to camp.

Posted under Uncategorized

There has been a lot of buzz around nVidia’s ION platform, and the central question being addressed in this post is simple. Is the nVidia ION platform really worth the money? If you’re planning on building or buying a media PC for a home theater, then the simple answer is yes.

What is nVidia ION?

The nVidia ION platform consists of an nVidia chipset which is connected to Intel’s Atom processor. The Atom is a very small processor that is not powerful enough to display any sort of decent graphics or video. In short, the Intel Atom processor lacks the ability to play video, making it seemingly worthless for home theater PCs. Luckily for Intel, nVidia’s chipset saves the Atom processor by making it useful for home theater computers. The ION chipset contains a graphics processing core which is more than capable of displaying flawless high definition, video. 720p, 1080p, everything plays flawlessly with the nVidia’s ION chipset because it can do the complex and computationally intensive task of displaying high definition video. Of course, the ION platform is fully capable of outputting with a regular DVI or HDMI connector, making it ideal for connecting it to your television. Without the ION chipset, you can not connect an HDMI connector to a computer with an Intel Atom processor. Period. Intel’s default chipset is extremely primitive when compared to the ION.

Other advantages

Aside from being able to flawlessly play HD content with the ION chipset, there are other advantages as well. The ION uses about the same amount of power on average as Intel’s default chipset. This means you aren’t going to need any additional fans or any noisy components in order to keep the computer cool. The ION is also advanced enough to enable playing 2d and 3d games on your computer. Intel’s chipset for the Atom processor is simply too primitive to play any sort of modern game. Having said that, please keep in mind that the ION is not, and is not meant to be, a high end gaming solution, but it can play most modern games at reasonable settings.

The cost

This blog is about saving money, so what sort of cost will the ION add to any computer? Reports have been claiming that the addition of the ION graphics processor will add approximately 50 dollars to the total cost of the system. This is actually pretty reasonable considering that it allows you to play and display video in true HD quality, even with the puny Atom possessor. The ION is worth every penny because there is simply no alternative. If you’re building or buying a media or home theater PC, the absolute best choice is anything with nVidia’s ION processor inside.

Posted under Shopping, Technology

If you live in California, you’re likely all too familiar with all of California’s green and renewable energy initiatives. Many of these eco-friendly programs are funded by taxpayer’s dollars. However, I’m going to let you in on a little secret that California doesn’t want you to know. Many of the renewable energy programs in California are dysfunctional at best.

Last week, I decided to take a trip to Death Valley National Park. In the 500 miles of driving I did, I passed by two wind farms. The first wind farm I passed was small, only containing about a dozen wind turbines. Because the turbines were built on top of a hill, it was easy for me to drive and keep an eye on the turbines for a couple minutes. None of them were turning. That’s right, not a single wind turbine was turning, and that means no electricity was being generated at all.

Later, I passed a much larger wind energy farm, containing at least a few hundred wind turbines. I kept a close eye on them, and I’d guess that only about 10 percent of them were turning. It appeared that many weren’t even pointed in the right direction to capture any wind. Maybe it wasn’t a very windy day, but it looked like an absolute economic disaster.

The fact of the matter is that the technology needed to make reliable, clean, renewable energy just isn’t here yet. Sure, there are reliable sources like hydroelectric dams, but California’s wind energy programs are a complete failure. There is absolutely no excuse to have a wind farm where barely any of the wind turbines were spinning at all. On my way back a few days later, perhaps 25 percent of the turbines were functional. Still, I shudder to think of how many tax payer’s dollars are wasted on trendy yet dysfunctional systems. The state of California is nearly broke, and the taxes have been increased very recently. Yet the state still manages to lose an incredible amount of money to projects that barely work.

Posted under Politics, Saving Electricity, Technology

Sometimes, you need to spend some money in order to save money at a later time. Such is the case with an AAA membership. The current rate for the American Automobile Association, or AAA, is $75 for the first year, and $50 for each year after that. It’s best to think of AAA as a form of insurance. For the membership price, you get a magazine about once every two months, along with special discounts at hotels, car maintenance, and more. Just with hotels alone, I was able to save more than a hundred dollars simply by being an AAA member, which is great. A lot of businesses claim that their product pays for itself, and often times that simply isn’t true. However, I have found that an AAA membership truly does pay for itself.

Not only do you get discounts, but AAA also gives massive discounts and free emergency roadside assistance. Just last week, I took a vacation to Death Valley national park. I was driving on a desert road with gravel shoulders. I tried to zoom out on my GPS unit while I was driving. Unfortunately, I went off the road and onto the shoulder, slammed on my brakes, and spun out off the road. There I was, stranded off the road, in the middle of the desert. Fortunately my cell phone worked. I took out my AAA card, dialed the number, and within an hour and a half, a tow truck pulled my back onto the road, and I was back to my vacation! How much did I pay for this service? I paid absolutely nothing. If your car is less than 30 feet away from the road, AAA pays for 100% of the service! You don’t have to get your credit card out or anything; it’s all a complimentary service. I did end up tipping the tow truck guy 20 bucks because he kept complaining about how little AAA pays him, but that was my choice. Had I not had AAA, it probably would’ve taken much longer and cost much more in order to get my car back onto the road. Please keep in mind that there are limits to the free service. If you’re car is fifty feet away from the road, for example, it could cost you.

In short, if you drive a lot, or spend a couple nights in a hotel each year, AAA might very well be worth the membership fee. I’ve found that having an AAA membership truly does pay for itself if you know how to take advantage of all its benefits.

Posted under Saving Money, Shopping

In the ultimate quest to save money, people often look at how to save or reduce their gasoline consumption. There has been a lot of buzz about promising technologies like HHO, or burning salt water as a fuel instead of gas. First, let me be very clear; HHO technology is nothing more than a scam. Many HHO venders use pseudo-scientific explanations and videos of electric cars (which don’t use HHO) as a well to sell their fake gas-saving product on the unsuspecting masses. But this article isn’t about HHO; it’s about burning sea-water as fuel.

About 70% of the planet’s surface is covered with salt water. This means that if there were a way to burn the sea-water and use it as a fuel, it would completely solve all of the world’s energy problems. There has been a lot of buzz about an invention by John Kanzius. His invention uses radio waves to actually burn saltwater. The chemistry is a bit complicated, but for now, it’s confirmed that 14 MHz signals do indeed ignite saltwater.

This is great, isn’t it? Well, there is no such thing as a free lunch. Unfortunately, the amount of power needed to generate the radio waves exceeds the amount of power produced by burning the saltwater. Unless an even newer technology is developed, this means that it is impossible to generate any power from seawater. It’s an unfortunate truth, but it is what it is. So the next time to you a Youtube video about the saltwater torch, just remember that an enormous amount of electricity is used to generate the flames, and that electricity has to come from somewhere! While it was an interesting discovery, it is extremely unlikely that this technology will ever be able to power cars, power plants, or anything else. Save your money and don’t buy any fuel savings devices that claim to work by burning saltwater.

Posted under Avoiding Scams, Saving Gas, Technology

Housing costs account for the majority of most people’s spending. During hard economic times, reducing your housing costs can have a tremendous positive effect on your total income. There are a variety of cheap housing options available, which can help you obtain a more stable financial future.

Being homeless

Of course, the cheapest housing option is no home at all, followed shortly by a cardboard box. Before choosing this option, it’s usually best to try something a little higher end.

Renting a room

If you’re single or just living on your own, renting a room is probably the cheapest alternative. I’m not talking about renting a hotel room, or even an apartment. I’m talking about renting a room from a homeowner’s house. Homeowners that are stretched for cash often rent out rooms for anywhere from 100 to 1000 dollars per month. Even in the most expensive places in America to live in, like California, you can easily rent a room from somebody for $500 a month. The first place you want to check is Craigslist, which is a free website allowing people to advertise rooms for rent (or anything else) for free.

Finding a roommate

Renting a single room in a house when an entire family is living in it can be pretty frustrating. You can always choose to get a two, three, or four bedroom apartment and share it equally with roommates. This option is usually a little more expensive then renting a room directly from a homeowner, but you’re sure to get equal privileges to the living room and kitchen, which can be important. The only real danger is being stuck with a bad roommate! There are many websites to match up potential roommates, including Craigslist.

Living aboard a boat

I have to be honest; living aboard a boat is not for everyone. You will have an extremely limited amount of space. But the good thing is that it would only cost maybe $500 a month for slip fees and maintenance. Unlike renting a room and living with a roommate, if you live aboard a boat you will at least have privacy, which can certainly be a plus.

Living at your workplace

Some people choose to live in their workplace….and many of those people are fired when they are caught! Still, if you have an office and are feeling lucky, maybe you should gamble a little! Actually, on second thought, if you have an office, you’re probably making enough money to afford one of the options above.

Posted under Saving Money

You’ve probably seen commercials for Mozy.com, and wondered if it’s worth it. Mozy.com is an online business that allows you to back up your data online for free. The idea is very straightforward, and protects you in case your hard drive fails, or your computer is stolen, or catches on fire, etc. But the real question is, is Mozy.com worth it?

The simple answer is no. It is simply not worth your money to use Mozy in order to back up your data, and here’s why.

1. Free online backup exists from many different companies. For example, you can open a free Gmail account and store all of your documents online for free that way. Because Google owns and operates Gmail, you can bet that the data is backed up. Microsoft backs up all their source code in an old military bunker to protect their assets in case of nuclear war. I wouldn’t be surprised if Google took similar measures.
2. Mozy will cost you $4.95 a month. This is a whopping $59.4 a year! Much cheaper alternatives exist, and will be discussed shortly.
3. Mozy uses fear tactics in order to take your money away from you. It’s not worth doing business with any such company.

Cheap or free alternatives to Mozy

1. If you only have a bunch of small word documents to back up, just upload them to Gmail. Simple, quick, free, and safe.
2. If you have a few gigabytes of data that needs to be backed up, get a 4GB USB key for $20 dollars. If you go this approach, be sure to store the USB key somewhere safe, preferably in a different building from your computer in case of fire, earthquake, etc.
3. If you have many gigabytes of data that needs to be backed up, chances are they will take forever and a half to upload online. It might be worth it to get a cheap, $50 external USB hard drive and use that to back up your data. Remember, that will cost less than Mozy does in one year. Some hard drives even come with software for automatic backup. I have an external Seagate hard drive where I can simply push a button on the hard drive to initiate backup. This is appropriate if you want to update and backup files frequently.
4. Mozy can actually help you find your laptop in case someone steals it. Well, there are free alternatives for this as well. http://adeona.cs.washington.edu/ The idea is that if someone steals your laptop and is stupid enough to connect if to the internet, you can get their IP address and ask the police to retrieve your laptop at said address.

What not to do

However you choose to back up your data, do not burn CDs, DVDs, or blu-ray discs. These methods are not reliable as all of these recordable mediums degrade over time. I’m not kidding. If you’d like, burn a CD or DVD, leave the disc in the sun for a couple days, and then try to use the disc in your computer. USB keys are the absolute most reliable solution. I’ve never seen, or even heard about USB keys that stopped working. Hard drives are also very reliable. And again, using Gmail to store a handful of documents online is also extremely reliable.

Posted under Saving Money, Shopping, Technology

Making money online can be fun and rewarding, but it can also be very hard work! You’ve likely seen many sites promising to make you rich quick by taking surveys or writing articles, but there is much more to the story. This article is going to be about making money with Adsense versus making money with Associated Content.

Using Adsense to make money

Adsense is Google’s advertising program. You can place Adsense banners and advertisements on your website. When people view the advertisements you can get a very small fraction of a penny. When people click on an advertisement, you get anywhere form a couple cents to perhaps a dollar. Yes, there are advertisements that pay even more, but they are very uncommon.

Pros of Adsense

• Can be very profitable if you get a lot of traffic to your website
• Dynamically adapts to the content of your web pages, which increases advertising relevance
• Owned by a major company that is not going to go bankrupt any time soon

Disadvantages of Adsense

• You must own your own website. Typically, these can cost money to operate
• Payout starts at $100

If you’re trying to make money online, Adsense only makes sense if you’re planning on having a website which gets at least 10 unique hits a day. If you can’t get this many hits a day, not only will you probably lose money just by operating the web server, but it could take you a very long time to accumulate a hundred dollars, which is the minimum payout. So you should really only use Adsense if you’re prepared to spend some serious time to build a quality website.

Using Associated Content to make money

Associated Content is an interesting website where you can make money simply by writing articles. Not only do they pay you up to a couple dollars for each article you write upfront, but they also pay you $1.50 for every thousand views you get. There is no risk in using Associated Content, and there are no fees or expenses.

Pros of Associated Content

• You are paid for each article you write, generally in about two weeks after submission.
• The payout for Associated Content is only a $1.50, which means you’ll get paid much sooner than Adsense
• There is no risk. There are no operating fees.

Cons of Associated Content

• Associated Content only pays $1.50 for every thousand views. This is much lower than what you can make with Adsense or other advertising programs

Using Associated Content (AC) to make money certainly makes sense if you only plan to write a small number of articles that probably won’t get too many hits. For example, I wrote an article for AC and received $3.77 upfront. Unfortunately, the article has been online for several months and has had less than 20 views! So if you don’t expect your articles to receive a lot of traffic, then it certainly makes sense to use AC to make money.

The Verdict

If you don’t expect your articles to receive a lot of traffic, or if you don’t want to spend an enormous time building and managing your website, then it’s best to use Associated Content. Otherwise, Adsense is a much more effective way for you to earn money. However, you must be prepared to work in order to generate traffic to your website; otherwise you may never hit the minimum payout with Adsense. If you have a website, but you plan on writing some articles which may not receive many hits, it might be wise just to place those articles on Associated Content. I use both my website and Associated Content in order to make the maximum amount of money on the internet.

Posted under Making Money, Technology

You’ve likely seen Jeff Paul’s infomercial about how you can make internet millions with his money making system. You’ve seen the testimonials and the two incredibly hot girls in bikinis hosting his infomercial. But what if you want to try Jeff Paul’s money making system for free, without paying any money at all? Well, you’re in luck, because I’m going to save you more time and money than you can imagine. First, I’m sorry to say that it’s not possible to download Jeff Paul’s money making websites on Rapidshare, Megaupload, or any other file sharing service. The reason for this is that Jeff Paul’s money making websites don’t exist. That’s right, you heard me. Jeff Paul’s shortcuts to internet millions is a scam, plain and simple. But wait, in the infomercial, Jeff Paul says for a little money you can get 10 free websites, right? Well, wrong. Like I said before, Jeff Paul’s shortcuts is a complete scam, and the commercial is full of flat out lies. I’m going to save you some serious time and money by telling you to just walk away, it isn’t worth it. For $50 or so, you get a package with some vague information about how to make money on the internet, but you don’t get any websites as promised. Then, for thousands of dollars, they try to upsell you their internet website packages. These websites need to run on their servers, and they charge you absurd amounts of money for it. Remember in the infomercial when Jeff Paul said you’ll get new money making websites every month for free? Well, that simply isn’t true. You’ll be charged hundreds of dollars. Once Jeff Paul has your credit card number, he will never, ever stop charging you every month. It is not possible to cancel Jeff Paul’s program. The only way to have the payments stop is to cancel your credit card. Sure there are plenty of people who make money on the internet, but not with kits like Jeff Paul. Keep searching, and eventually you’ll find a genuine opportunity.

Posted under Avoiding Fees, Avoiding Scams, Hidden Fees, Making Money, Saving Money, Technology