Making Easy Money

My brother came to me the other day about a plan he had of buying Iraqi Dinar. When I asked him why he wanted to buy Iraqi Dinar, he gave me the whole sales talk on how buying the “NEW Iraqi Dinar” at the current exchange rate will make him a millionaire once the Iraqi Dinar hit the open market.

Do I think he should have bought them? Not really. My motto is: If something sounds to easy to be true, it usually is.

But I did do some research on this, and found quite a few sites that were offering to sell me the New Iraqi Dinar. For example, one site could sell me 1,000,000 Iraqi Dinar for $700. And that it was so low due to the Iraqi wars. Some sites have evidence showing how war-torn countries’ currencies go up in value almost exponentially in peace time.

I guess I’m just a chicken when it comes to something SO risky. If you’ve had any experience buying Iraqi Dinar (or some other foreign currency) ovr the internet, please let me know.

Some people seem to have forgotten all about saving money. In my parents’ day, it was always a case of putting 10% of your earnings aside every month. My parents tried to teach that to me, but saving money isn’t always that easy.
For example, an article in a recent “Fortune Magazine” (end of March 2006) talks about how the rate of household saving in the U.S. has dipped to -0.4%. That is SHOCKING. (A side note of depression: China has an average household saving rate of 30%, also bad in it’s own way, though).

An article on MSN Money called “Leave your ATM card at home” talks about how paying with cash helped save a person money because it made her stop and think if she really needed the item.

The article does mention a few reasons why Credit Cards are helpful, such as:

• They’re easier to track. With debit and credit cards, you know exactly what you’ve spent where…
• They offer some protection. Credit cards, and debit cards with MasterCard or Visa logos, promise “zero liability” for consumers if the cards are lost or stolen…
• They give you rewards. Many credit cards and even some debit cards offer reward points, frequent-flier miles, cash back or other fringe benefits. The more you use them, the more rewards you pile up.

But overall, they talk about how using cash is better than credit because you can’t spend what you don’t have. If you have put cash away for such things as entertainment, and you have run out, it isn’t as easy to just go out and spend.

Definitely an interesting read, along with the Fortune Magazine.

As illegal as this post’s title sounds, it’s not actually that bad. 😉 It’s actually related to an article I read a couple of months back on MSN Money called “4 real jobs you can do from home“.

I really enjoyed this article and thought you might as well. It highlights 4 ways you could work from home and make money. The 4 jobs the writer mentions are:

1 – A call center in your home:

This talks about how companies are “outsourcing” their sales and problem-solving call centers to home-based workers, thanks to the internet and improved call-routing capabilities.

2 – Start a Web Business:

This section talks about how you can start a profitable online business using skills you might already have…

3 – Mystery shopping and survey taking:

An interesting thought, being paid to go and shop, and then write reviews on your experience. (I wonder if you get to keep your purchases…)

4 – Online auctions:

And, finally, I’m sure we’ve all heard about how you can make money trading with online auctions like eBay.

It all sounds so easy to make money online these days. But it’s still hard work. Remember though, it can be hard work, but if it’s fun, it kind of makes it Easy Money. 🙂