Lockerz — Get free stuff for very little work!
by Austen on Nov.16, 2009, under Uncategorized
I was told about ‘Lockerz’ by a fairly close friend who is fully aware of my various money making ventures and rightfully thought that I would appreciate being informed about this site.
Lockerz, owned by ‘Liberty Media’, (one of the largest media companies in the United States) is essentially a website that gives you free stuff. Sounds good, no? Although it isn’t *quite* that easy to get these name brand, in demand items, it certainly comes close.
Following the initial ‘PTZ catching’ game that is played immediately after signing up, you earn points, or PTZ (which are redeemable for prizes) by simply logging in daily and answering the daily question. It’s easier than I would have thought possible.
At this point you’re probably wondering how I know this is legit? “It’s probably a big scam — they just want our addresses.” I would be completely agreeing with you, had my friend not received a PSP Bundle in the mail from Lockerz a week ago. This, along with a few of the many ‘Lockerz Unboxing’ videos on Youtube made any doubts I had before disappear. In addition to this, the following site: http://www.libertymedia.com/interactive-lockerz.aspx proves that Liberty media is in fact involved with Lockerz, and owns 80% of it, thereby rendering them susceptible to legal action should the need arise.
The site is fairly easy to navigate, though it is still in its Beta phase, and thus is missing many of the features that it will have at launch, which include: Movies; games; a store; and potentially music. Right now the only available pages are ‘Redeem’, ‘Connect’ and ‘Dailies’, all of which are relatively straightforward.
Now for the part you’ve all been waiting for — the PRIZES! Lockerz, for whatever reason they’ve come up with in their generous minds, has decided to give away prizes including: 3rd and 2nd Gen iPod Touch’s; new iPod Nano’s; (large) Flat Screen TVs; various gaming systems (PSP, XBOX 360, Wii, PS3, etc.); Macbooks; games for the aforementioned systems; cameras and much more. The only requirement is to either invite friends, or consistently log in daily and answer the question (this takes a looong time).
To give you an idea of how long it takes to get a ‘good’ prize, I’ll create an example.
For a Nintendo Wii System (with Wii Sports): 250 PTZ.
Considering you get 2 PTZ for logging in each day, and 2 PTZ for answering the daily question, as well as around 40 PTZ when you first sign up (from the game), it would take roughly 50 days of dedicated logging in/answering.
There is a way to significantly shorten this time, however — by inviting friends. For each referral you receive 4 PTZ, and once you have 20 Referrals you’re put on the ‘Z-List’ and thereon after receive double PTZ for EVERYTHING. Log in? You get 4 PTZ. Answer the question? You get 4 PTZ. Invite a friend? You get 8 PTZ!
So, let’s say you invite twenty friends in your first week or so. You have 44 points from your first day, and each day for the next week you get 4 PTZ per day. That gives you 72 PTZ overall. By this time you’ll have invited 20 people, so you now have 152 from logging in and referrals. This leaves only 98 PTZ required to get a wii, which, if you’re getting 8 PTZ per day, is a little over a week!
Lockerz, shockingly enough, pays everything to deliver your prizes — duty (if there is any) and shipping are COVERED. And, if you’re wondering, the company does ship worldwide. So, my fellow Canadians (and anyone else who may be reading), you don’t have to worry about not getting your prizes.
Lockerz is currently invite only, and I would, of course, prefer that you get your invite from me rather than someone else. To request one just email me at dave@teenmoneycanada.com, or simply comment on this post (if you don’t mind your email being public). If you don’t want an invite (yet), and just have some questions, PLEASE don’t hesitate to ask… I’m desperate for a conversation of any sort! Haha.
Until tomorrow (controlled spending?),
Austen.
Net Worth – November 2009
by Austen on Nov.15, 2009, under Uncategorized
I never really planned on doing anything like this, but I thought that since Teen Money Canada is having a bit of a fresh start with a new website, I might as well start doing something new. In addition to this, I’ve always been curious as to what my real ‘net worth’ is, so this is a reasonable excuse for me to calculate it. Hopefully some of you will find it interesting.
Assets:
- PC Financial Savings Account: $2584.60
- PC Financial Chequing Account: $11.56
- Cash: $185 CAD
- One American Fender Stratocaster 60th Anniversary edition guitar — $2100
- One Epiphone Les Paul Slash Edition guitar — $1450
- One Epiphone Acoustic guitar — $300
- One Yamaha Pacifica Electric guitar — $200
- One 15 watt Marshal practice amp — $100
- One 75 watt Line 6 ‘Spider II’ guitar amp — $275
- One Acer Laptop — $450 (computers decrease in price too quickly!)
- iPod Touch 16GB — $250
- LG Chocolate Flip — $75
- Other relatively random items, including trading card collections (some relatively rare ones), various models, some old unopen lego sets that I bought as collectors items several years ago, and other misc. things — $400
TOTAL NETWORTH = $8481
I was genuinely surprised when I read the final total — I knew that I was worth well over $5000, but didn’t know that my networth was so close to $10 000 (it’ll hopefully be there a short time after Christmas). I’ll likely do an update on the first of every month, recounting the changes over the prior thirty days. This will obviously start on January first, as I did this month’s calculations early.
Hopefully you enjoyed this article, and maybe gained some (inspiration?) from it.
Until next time,
Austen.
Credit Cards Pt. 1
by Austen on Nov.15, 2009, under Uncategorized
Note: This was originally published at the beginning of September, 2009. All prior articles were published before this at various times. This is the final article transferred from the old blog, and everything following this will be new. Enjoy!
Sorry about the (unexpected) hiatus. I went on vacation to California and a local island, and seemingly forgot to post about it… even though I was almost sure I had!
I’m back for good now, and am very much dreading the return to school in a little over a week. The only good thing(s) about it are that I’ll be able to see friends who I haven’t seen a lot of over the summer, and I’ll be able to start making some money again!
Now, enough about me, and on to the article! Around two days ago I discovered that I am legally able to get my own credit card, as long as someone over the age of majority (e.g. my mother or father) co-signs with me. Now it’s pretty much every teen’s dream to have his or her own credit card… spend money anytime you want, anywhere you want, and AS MUCH as you want, right?!
Unfortunately, it’s not that simple. Contrary to popular belief, credit cards are not the source of an unlimited amount of money. A better way to describe them is: ‘a source of an instant loan which must be paid back by the end of the month, lest you invoke the wrath of a multi billion dollar company that charges 20% interest.’ Yeah, pretty depressing isn’t it?
Despite this grim possibility, credit cards can really be a great thing. They’re basically letting you use their money for a month at NO interest (provided you pay them back immediately). This means that YOUR money can be used for whatever you want: you can let it sit in your high interest PC financial bank account (which you should have if you’re following my advice) and gain a dollar or two a month; invest it in the stock market (kind of risky); or just gloat about the fact that you’re burning the credit card company by not paying any interest.
Now this is all fine and dandy, but unfortunately for us teens under eighteen, we can’t start to build credit until we hit the age of majority (which differs throughout the provinces). I called three different credit card issuers (CIBC, Vancity & RBC, who are all Visa) and went in person to speak to a PC Financial salesman/whatever you want to call them, and they all said the same thing: “Your credit (report) does not exist until you turn eighteen.”
Despite the fact that I am getting my Dad to cosign on this card with me, I found out that, contrary to my prior beliefs, I am not able to receive and pay my own bill. The best thing I can get is my own name on my card & bill — whoop dee doo! According to this site: http://financialplan.about.com/od/studentsandmoney/a/TeenCreditCards.htm and many others you can find by simply typing in ‘teen credit cards’ on Google, teenagers ARE allowed to get a credit card, get their own bill, and develop their own line of credit: provided the card is cosigned with an adult, blah blah blah. The only reason I can see that the institutions I spoke to would be against doing this is because these articles are American, and laws are perhaps different in Canada — don’t take my word for this, though, as I haven’t looked into that aspect of it.
This article, as you could likely tell from the title, is going to be a two — if not THREE part ’series’. I’ll have the next part up fairly soon.
On a side note, I went to the AC/DC concert on Saturday night in Vancouver (this was in August)… this leads up to my next article (following the credit card series?) on Controlled Spending.
Until next time,
Austen.
What bank is best for YOU?
by Austen on Nov.15, 2009, under Uncategorized
Canada certainly has a fair number of banks, and choosing the right one can be a daunting prospect — especially for a teen. Contrary to popular belief, the BIGGEST is not always the best. Since I had enough money to open an account, I’ve done business with ‘Presidents Choice Financial’, which is a branch of CIBC. It is purely online banking, which is both an advantage and disadvantage.
ADVANTAGES
Higher Interest Rates than top 5 banks (0.75% with an Interest Plus Savings account)
Typically better customer (phone) service
Easy online banking
You can use CIBC bank machines at no charge
DISADVANTAGES
No tellers are available to talk to (online only).
Few Presidents Choice Financial locations — they are only located in Superstores.
Now compare this to a larger bank, such as Toronto Dominion
ADVANTAGES
Tellers/Clerks available to talk to in person
Locations all over Canada
Online Banking, albeit with few features than PC
DISADVANTAGES
Comparatively LOW interest rates — take a look at this chart: http://www.tdcanadatrust.com/accounts/compare_savings.jsp
Charges for various transactions, including: debit (after the first two monthly free ones), cheques and bill paying, though the last element of fees shouldn’t be a problem for most teens.
These ‘features’ are basically true to each of Big Five Banks, those being CIBC, TD, BMO, RBC and SB.
As you can see, Presidents Choice Financial offers higher interest rates to those who do not have a minimum of $5000 to get a lower interest rate than you would get with $1000 at PC.
If you’re willing to sacrifice tellers, and perhaps lots of bank machine locations, I say DEFINITELY go for PC Financial. You make the most money long term, especially when you have under $5000 (a necessity for reasonably high interest rates with the ‘big banks’). If you don’t have a Superstore near you, you may end up needing to choose one of the ‘big banks’.
Out of the Big Five, CIBC is likely the best choice, as it not only has the highest interest rates, but also (in my opinion) has the best level of customer service & lowest average fees.
There you have it. PC Financial is a great online based bank with no fees & high interest rates. It does have some ’sales associates’ in Superstores all over Canada — they can answer most of your basic questions if you prefer person to person talking rather than the phone. If you’re unable/unwilling to get an online bank account, CIBC is most certainly the next best choice.
Austen.
Hits4Pay.
by Austen on Nov.15, 2009, under Uncategorized
).This post is about a ‘click for cents’ site called ‘Hits4Pay’. It’s the first legitimate ad clicking site that I’ve come across, having had this verified by a close friend of mine. They currently have a $10 sign up bonus — with a $25 cashout (to Paypal) and an average of $.20 cents a day, it would be worth it to register just for the bonus.
You sign up with your email (hotmail works fine), and have to provide whatever email you use for paypal as well. Unfortunately they do require you to file a tax form online, which you luckily can do with fake information (I did — but don’t tell anyone ).
There is a 24 hour activation period, in which you do not receive any ads. Don’t quit because of this though — your account does work at the end of this period, and usually before the end of it.
All of the ads are sent to your internal mailbox — not your actual email, but to the website, which requires you to log in every time you wish to do your daily clicks. You browse the site for 30 seconds, which seems to go by quite quickly. Most of the advertisements are for online money making sites (mostly scams) which does provide some interesting information at the least.
The ads pay $0.02 per view, and you get an average of ten ads sent to you per day. This works out to about $1.40 a week USD, or around $1.65 CAD. This, however, is not where the REAL money comes from. Hits4Pay has an excellent referral program which is composed of two levels, both of which give you $0.01 per email read by your referrals and theirs.
“That’s enough reading about non-important info! How much can I EARN?” An excellent question! This is a relatively rough estimate, and I’m no rocket scientist, but here it goes:
You: $0.20 a day from ads.
You have 20 referrals: $2 per day.
They have five referrals each: $10 per day!
Added together this equals $12.20 EVERY DAY! As you can see, you don’t really start earning til you get referrals. The calculations I did were based on having quite a large number of referrals, but even having a few a lot of money.
Now let’s see what you would earn weekly, monthly & annually with these many referrals:
$12.20 per day x 7 = $85.4 weekly
$85.40 weekly x 4 = $341.60 monthly
$341.60 x 12 = $4099.20 yearly!
Now I’m being very optimistic with these figures, but if you put a bit of work into getting some referrals, you could easily earn $2000 a year with this service — not bad for 5 minutes a day of ad viewing!
Hits4Pay also has something called an ‘affiliate builder program’. By paying $6 a month, you can have new members that join without having been referred automatically given to you. This results in you getting $0.01 per ad from them, and also anyone they happen to refer.
I personally don’t think that this is worth it, but it’s certainly done by some people, so it’s really just up to you.
Happy earning!
That’s all I have to say about this program. I think it’s a great service, and one of the only legitimate ones out there. If you have a paypal account, this is a MUST.
As always, I would appreciate it if you could sign up as my referral — this can be done by clicking on the above banner or by going to the following website: http://hits4pay.com/members/index.cgi?Tyrannus
Happy earning!
Austen.
Homepages Friends.
by Austen on Nov.15, 2009, under Uncategorized
THIS SITE IS NO LONGER OPERATIONAL… it is now searching for ‘charity’ (though I’m unsure of the legitimacy of the donation part, the site is still a fine place to do your searching).
I first discovered ‘Homepages Friends’ in August of 2008, and I must say that it is a very interesting idea. The service pays you to make internet searches — just like you would do on Google or Yahoo. They give you a portion of the money they make from advertising on every (legitimate) search that you do.
As soon as I found out about this, I must say that I immediately started searching several times a minute for a couple hours, until I had about 250 searches (which is approximately 500 pence). The next day all of the searches were gone – it was then that I realized there was a cap on the amount of searches. A safe amount is more like 50/day, which amounts to a pound a day if you can keep up the pace.
As I mentioned earlier, only legitimate searches are counted — these are searches that you type in, and actually *click* on one of the results. Simply typing in hundreds of random searches won’t get you anything… I found that out the hard way.
The actual search engine is far better than I expected. It is based on and hosted by Yahoo, but I believe it is superior to it in some ways. As soon as I signed up with HPF, I searched for a site I had been looking for for ages on all the major search engines with no results… Guess what? It was the FIRST link on the page! After that I had pretty much decided that I’d keep using it even if I didn’t get paid.
Payment is at 20 pounds, which took me about three months to get. Their website says it takes a month and a half to two months to get your payment. For the equivalent of around $40 CAD, I thought it was definitely worth the wait. When payment time came around, however, I didn’t get anything. I figured I would wait another month, as they’re probably pretty busy… after that I just kept waiting until it was nearly five months past when I should have gotten my payment.
I e-mailed them via their ‘contact us’ page, and received a relatively speedy response:
The customer service rep. said she would pass on the details to the finance department, and I would receive my money soon. I was encouraged by this, and decided to search a bit more while I was waiting for my payment. After waiting for three weeks, however, I emailed them again and asked about it. I received yet another response saying it was on its way, but the department was tied up. Finally, in late July of 2009 I received my 51 dollars via Paypal, with a small note attached apologising for the long period of time it took for delivery.
This is most certainly one of my top money making sites. I’ve searched several websites/forums, and about 85% of them say that HPF is for real — check it out yourself if you find it difficult to believe.
If you want to start searching, you can click this button:
http://www.myhpf.co.uk/banner.asp?friend=166937
to sign up.
Enjoy,
Austen.
Reviewstream
by Austen on Nov.15, 2009, under Uncategorized
This article is about an online method of money making — writing reviews. I know the prospect of this may appear be a bit daunting for some of you, but believe me — it really isn’t that bad! The website with which we will make our millions is called ‘Reviewstream’.
I first found out about the site from a Google advertisement. Once I looked around to see if it legit (and found that it was), I was IMMEDIATELY hooked. I absolutely love writing — whether it be blogs, stories or essays, so I figured that writing reviews (and getting paid for it) wouldn’t be so bad.
The site pays you one of two amounts per review: $2 for a well written one (typically around 400-500 words, good grammer & such), and $.40 for a much shorter (200 words) review, with some grammer and/or spelling mistakes. I get $2 about 3/5 times, so it shows that it’s not that easy to get, but certainly not impossible.
The minimum payout is relatively high at $50, but when you think about it, it could be as little as 25 reviews. You could do that in a DAY if you were willing to put the effort in! The best thing about it all is that the company pays directly to paypal, and after requesting it only takes 2-3 days for payment.
The actually review processing typically takes much longer. My first reviews (I sent in 5 in one day) took four days to be published, whereas sometimes it takes as little as one-two days. It all seems to be pretty random.
You can also make money by getting ‘votes’. Every time someone ‘votes’ your article (meaning they liked it), you get $.10 added to your account, which is pretty fair.
One very interesting aspect of the site is that you do not actually make an account. Instead you use your Google information (whatever@gmail.com), and it automatically remembers that. Then you add your payment info and you’re good to go.
On top of being able to make a ton of money from this site, it’s actually a pretty darn good place to read reviews as well. You can find them on just about any subject, though movies and tv shows are the most common.
If you want to join, I’d appreciate it if you could do it via my referral link, which is http://www.reviewstream.com/writereview.php/?inv=14oF9ZAHABcR
It’s at no disadvantage to you, but helps me out a fair bit. If not though, then you can simply go to reviewstream.com — it’s pretty straight forward from there.
Good luck!
Austen.
Arbitrage.
by Austen on Nov.15, 2009, under Uncategorized
Alright, here it is — my first article! Today I’m going to be writing about one of the simplest, yet most profitable ways of making money at school — arbitrage, also known as ‘merchanting’ or ‘buy low, sell high’. Some of you probably still have no idea what I’m talking about, so I’m going to go into a bit more detail. Arbitrage is basically the purchasing of items for a relatively low price, and reselling them for (much) more money than you paid. An example of this is Coke. You can buy a 12 pack of Coke/some other soft drink for about $5 at Superstore or some other warehouse like supermarket. Now, you take that to school and you can resell it for *at least* $1 a can — I sell them for $1.50 That’s a minimum $7 profit. That may not sound like a lot yet, but there’s much more to come. You can do this with virtually any item, examples being chips, gum, candy, other types of food, school supplies (pencils, pens), and pretty well anything else you can think of.
If your school is like mine, very few people actually bring money, whether out of fear of it being stolen or someone begging for it and you giving it to them out of pity. The key to this is finding good customers: these can either be people who bring money to school, and are often wanting to buy food/drinks, or they can be people that you TRUST and you’re positive will pay you back the money that they owe you (this is my main customer base). If you play your cards right, you can make up to $100 a week – even more if your school is relatively large. If you plan on attempting this, you should follow these rules.
1. Establish a price for your goods: NO fluctuations or deals for enemies/friends! People won’t buy if they think they’re getting ripped off.
2. Check with a teacher/principal to ensure that selling pop and gum/candy at your school is allowed. They really shouldn’t be able to stop you, but it’s always best to make sure.
If it isn’t allowed, you probably can sell it ‘underground’, though I don’t recommend it.
3. Sell at lunch! In class can get teachers upset, and you may be banned from selling alltogether.
4. If you’re going to sell gum, make sure it’s allowed to be chewed in class – this is the only one that you REALLY shouldn’t sell if it’s banned at school.
I’m looking forward to comments on this, and hopefully some success stories ;P.
Austen.
New Website!
by Austen on Nov.15, 2009, under Uncategorized
Here it is! As promised, Teen Money Canada has moved to http://www.teenmoneycanada.com — yes, we even have a ‘real’ domain name!
I’m in the process of transferring all of the old articles to this site, and, of course, writing some new articles on how to make money, both online and in the ‘real world’ which does, contrary to popular belief, exist!
Looking forward to lots of good times,
Austen.
