Scour : Getting Paid to Search the Internet

I'm a pretty big participant in internet survey programs as a way to make a little money and work on adding it to my debt snowball. I am a member of SurveySpot and MyPoints. 

I've just joined a new program called Scour as a way to make some extra passive income. Scour is a user driven search engine that rewards you for doing regular searches and then voting or commenting on the results. 

When you search with Scour, it pulls the top results from Google, Yahoo and MSN. You can then vote or comment on them, which helps Scour to determine their usefulness. This allows the "right" results to be given a higher place on the page. 

You receive 1 point for a Search, 2 for a Vote, and 3 for a Comment, and you can earn a maximum of 4 points for each Search. 

When you've earned 6,500 points you can cash out for a $25 Visa Gift Card.

Obviously you'd have to do a lot of searches to earn that, but here is the really neat part. If you invite a friend, Scour will give you a matching bonus of 25% of what your friends earn. If you send it out and everyone does just three searches a day or so, along with the searches you yourself are doing, the points can rack up quite quickly. 

I'm really interested and excited about this program. I like the idea of users being able to effect search engine content and improve how relevant certain sites are. 

So click here if you want to join me on Scour, and let me know what you think!

A Nod to Frugal Dad from my Google Reader

This is the best list of money saving tips I have read in a while. Frugal Dad is right on the money with a lot of these. I particularly like these ones:


1. Switch to cloth napkins. I’m not sure why it took a down economy for this one to dawn on me, but cloth napkins are a great alternative to paper napkins, which increase waste and add to our non-food budget.

10. Buy a used car, and drive it until the wheels fall off. My grandfather has driven two vehicles in 34 years! Sam Walton drove a twenty year-old pickup truck right up until the time he died. Don’t tell me it can’t be done. Remember, a new car is “used” the minute you drive it off the showroom floor.

28. When eating out, divide entrees in half and save the rest for a second meal. Ask for a to-go box as soon as your meal arrives and save half for tomorrow’s lunch. Restaurants are notorious for piling on portions, so this move will help you spread out the calories and cost of the meal.

34. Plant a tree next to your outside air conditioning unit. By shading your outside unit you may improve the operating efficiency of the overall system by 20%. Take care not to plant to close to the unit to maintain proper airflow.

40. Reuse bath towels. Sounds gross at first, but think about it - you are clean when you get out of the shower. Hang up towels after each use to thoroughly dry, and only add them to the dirty clothes pile after every three or four uses.

55. Divide credit card minimum payments in half and pay that amount twice a month. Interest is calculated based on the average daily balance of your account for the entire month. By making a payment every couple weeks you are reducing that average balance and therefore reducing the finance charges assessed, as opposed to waiting until the end of the month to make a single payment.

I subscribe to about 35 different blogs and you can see links to most of them in the section entitled What's in My Google Reader in my right sidebar.

When Are You Wealthy Enough?

I read this article from Todd at Harvesting Dollars about the stages of wealth accumulation and it made me wonder what my magic number is. How much would my net worth need to be for me to stop working hard to accumulate more?

I think that I would like to have enough passive income to provide me with about $30,000 a year. So I would probably need investments or interest bearing savings of about $900,000 - $1.2 Million. I would also need to own my own house and have no debt. I'm guessing that this will take me about 20 years to accumulate that much more wealth if I play my cards right. So I have a goal of having the option of living off my passive income by the time I am 45. 

Of course, just because I could stop working doesn't mean I would. Who would want to give up writing?

So, I ask you, what is your magic number? How much wealth do you want to accumulate before you are willing to stop working?

Why All the Fuss About ING Direct?

ING Direct Sign Up Bonus Links

These links will take you to a sign up page. If you fund your account with $250, you will receive a $25 bonus from ING. If link doesn't work, try the next one on the list.

Sign Up Referral 1
Sign Up Referral 2
Sign Up Referral 3

I've raved about ING Direct here and there and feel that it deserves it's own post.

ING Direct is an online banking company. They work very similarly to a regular bank, except that they lack branches.
They have both checking and savings accounts. Their checking account, Electric Orange, is actually interest bearing.... a rare thing to find in America. I have not used their checking account as I get physical paychecks that I really need to deposit at branches, but I've heard good things.

I am, however, familiar with their Orange Savings accounts. I've had one for several years and have been very happy. It has no minimum balance, no fee, and an interest rate holding steady at about 3%APY. When you open an account, if you use a referral link and deposit $250, they'll give you a $25 bonus. This account can be linked easily and harmoniously with other banks checking accounts, with a transfer period of about two to three days between the two.

With ING Direct you can also open as many accounts as you like. I personally have three different accounts with them that are labelled for different purposes.

I especially like that you get to see how much interest you are earning each day. There is an interest earned this month total and an interest earned this year total, and you can also see how much you earned last year.

Setting up automatic transfers is very easy as well. I have a weekly transfer from my checking account to my savings account.

ING also have some fairly good CD's for in the short term, and if I had the funds right now I would certainly be constructing a CD ladder. They offer decent rates for 6 month and 9 months CD's, which is where I would start when making a ladder. It also gives you the option of depositing your interest into a different account, like your regular ING savings account

So, to sum up, I have had great experience with ING Direct and their Savings account, and would highly recommend it.

Related Posts

The Importance of An Emergency Fund

Twelve Cents a Day

Weekly Financial Round Up 07/13

Another bad week for Medical, and next week will be just the same. I'm also due a very hefty bill for the MRI on my shoulder. This accident has financially devastated me, and I'm really hoping that something good happens to me soon. Andrew (my husband) and I have decided that we aren't going to eat out at all for the rest of July. He has expensive taste when it comes to food and I struggle very hard, often going out with him but ordering the least expensive thing on the menu. I'm glad that we are taking a break from doing that.... I think it will really help. 

Spent - $72

Entertainment - $9
Food - $23
Medical - $40

Made - $10

$10 ING Referrals

Click here to see how I did last week.

I have the opportunity to buy a really great car at a really low price and I am trying to figure out how to make that work this weekend. I've got someone interested in buying my scooter for parts, and if that happens then I might just be able to make everything work. As soon as I'm out of this sling permanently, I'll be working on getting a weekend job for a few months. 

Saturday Handy Tip - Getting the Most out of Citrus

I cook often and hate juicing lemons and limes with a passion. I tend to have to press down really hard and rarely get enough juice. Luckily I have a handy trick that makes juicing easier and more productive. 

When you are getting ready to juice the fruit, microwave it for 30 seconds and then roll it on a counter with the heel of your hand, pressing firmly. The fruit will feel much softer. Be sure to cut it in half over a bowl because the juice will likely start coming out as soon as a knife is inserted. 

I find this usually gives me about 25% more juice when I use this method. 

Previous Handy Tips

Photocopy Your Wallet

Power Strip Your TV

Overcome Writers Block

Frugal Salad Dressing