Earlier this week I wrote a post on how to make money by shopping at pharmacy’s. In sticking with this theme for the week, I wanted to provide an update on my latest transactions. After shopping at CVS last week, I earned $22.08 after using coupons and receiving Extra Bucks and Mail-In Rebates. I also made $1.12 by shopping the deals and using coupons at Rite Aid. I want to point out that all of the products purchased using this plan are items that we can use and will not go to waste.

So far this week I made one trip to CVS to continue this money making opportunity. My transactions this week are as follows -

• Dawn Dish Soap
• Cost = $.88
• Coupons Used = $.50
• Net Cost = $.38
• Crest Toothpaste
• Cost = $2.49
• Coupons Used = $.75
• Extra Bucks Earned = $1.50
• Net Cost = $.24
• Oral-B Toothbrush
• Cost = $2.49
• Coupons Used = $1.00
• Extra Bucks Earned = $1.50
• Net Cost = $(.01)
• Children’s Advil
• Cost = $5.79
• Coupons Used = $1.00
• Extra Bucks Earned = $5.79
• Net Cost = $(1.00)
• Sunday Newspaper - It was well past Sunday, but the CVS had some extra Sunday papers and there were so many great coupons this week, I couldn’t resist buying another.
• Cost = $1.50
• CVS $2 Off Purchase of $10 Coupon = $(2.00)
• Tax = $.66

NET TOTAL = $(.23) - I made $.23 off of my transactions shopping at CVS. This was possible by only shopping the best deals for the week and month and combining these deals with coupons and Extra Bucks that were offered. So in the past two weeks since I have been tracking my purchases through PFI, I have made $22.31 by shopping at CVS. The goal is to not necessarily make a lot of money from these transactions, but to reduce our monthly grocery budget. If we can reduce our spending on products offered at CVS, then it frees up more money in our family budget. More positive cash flow in the monthly budget means more money can flow into investments like high yielding stocks!

I will be heading out to CVS one more time this week and will also make a stop at Rite Aid and Walgreens to pick up some more great deals!

For those of you who use Microsoft Windows, the thought of upgrading to Windows Vista can be a scary thought. Some of the more common PC issues that can occur on a daily basis for Windows Vista users include -

• Problems with connectivity and performance can occur when connecting to a wireless access point.
• New User Account Control functionality prompts the user for authentication from third party programs outside of Microsoft’s requirements, which can become very annoying.
• Lack of sufficient hardware on a PC will make it difficult to run advanced features including the new Aero interface.
• The new features of the operating system drain the battery quicker than Windows XP.
• Issues with compatibility in existing third party vendor software.

Most of these problems that occur on a daily basis seem to happen at the most inopportune times. Connectivity issues and battery life seem to crop up the most for users as the biggest annoyance. Most mobile users need to have a sufficient battery in order to power the operating system. Carrying along a battery pack can help, but having access to plug into an outlet may be limited to some users. Even more frustrating for mobile users is the connectivity and performance issues with the new operating system. These issues seem to crop up when you need to quickly access email or the internet.


When users experience some of these more common PC issues when using Windows Vista, they can contact the customer service department offered by the Windows Vista team. There is a Windows Vista Solution Center available that includes references to top issues, error messages, how to install and upgrade, security, and much more. This feature can be used for some of the more common issues that are experienced when using Windows Vista. For the more complex and less common issues, Microsoft offers additional support from the customer service department by email, phone, and online.

Welcome to Passive Family Income (PFI) and the weekly updates. I didn’t participate in any carnivals over the past week. Instead, I continued to devote a lot of my time creating alternative income streams. I wrote a few sponsored posts last week to help increase that income source and I continued to spend time working on creating a new niche blog, along with a keyword blog. I also focused a lot of time researching how to make money by shopping. I would like to once again thank my readers for following my blog and offer a warm welcome to any newcomers.

Articles I liked this week
1 - The Dividend Growth Investor posted a stock selection criteria used to screen high quality dividend stocks.

2 - Dawn at Fighting Foreclosure compares selling items on eBay vs. having a Garage Sale.

3 - LuLuGal at How I Save Money.net discusses her CVS savings for the week. I am into this CVS savings thing right now!

4 - The Family CEO discusses eHow. I am still trying to find the time to work on that alternative income stream.

5 - The Frugal Dad discusses how to make your income more passive.

6 - Pinyo at Moolanomy discusses why everyone should be focusing on earning extra or alternative income.

Have a wonderful week!

Last week I wrote a post that provided a list of alternative income streams that I am currently using or plan to use in the future. One of those income streams was to Shop at Pharmacy’s and make money. How can you make money shopping at pharmacy’s you may ask? I thought the same thing until a few weeks ago. I have always loved to shop at the national pharmacy chains including CVS, Walgreens, and Rite Aid. In the past I would try and use coupons when I could to get the best deal, but never really paid that much attention to monitoring the ads really close. Then I came across several other blogs (i.e. Money Saving Mom) devoted to shopping at discount stores using any coupon, rebate, or cash back reward available. That is when I realized that I could actually make money by shopping at some of these stores and get products that my family can use!

Over the past several weeks I started to pay very close attention to the Sunday ads for the national pharmacy chains to find the best deals and opportunities available. I also started to collect any coupon available that came in the Sunday paper or that I found online. I have a goal to reduce my families grocery budget, so clipping coupons was one logical start in reducing this expense. After monitoring the ads and reviewing other blogs, I found two opportunities last week that allowed me to make money and get some products that my family can use. Now I will mention that I didn’t make a lot of money off of these transactions, but it is hard to pass up getting free products that you can use and where you can actually make a little money The list below provides details on the two opportunities that I found at CVS and Rite Aid -

Rite Aid

• Colgate Toothpase
• Bought four 7.6 oz. Colgate toothpaste for $15.96.
• Used four $1.50 off 1 Colgate toothpaste coupons for $6.00 off.
• Received a Single Check Rebate for $10.99.
• After Tax and discounts I made $.33 off of this transaction.
• Fructis Conditioner
• Bought one 6.8 oz. Fructis Conditioner for $2.99.
• Used one $1.00 off coupon.
• Received a Single Check Rebate for $2.99.
• After Tax and discounts I made $.79 off of this transaction.
• Total Made - $1.12

CVS

• One Touch
• Bought One Touch Glucose Monitor for $29.99. We gave this to my brother-in-law who was just diagnosed with Diabetes.
• Used $20.00 off coupon.
• Sent in Mail-in Rebate for $29.99 for the Glucose Monitor.
• After tax and discounts I made ~$17.98 off of this transaction.
• Revlon Makeup
• Purchased Revlon Makeup for my wife for $9.99
• Used $3.00 off CVS coupon received a few weeks earlier.
• Used $2.00 off manufacturer’s coupon.
• Received $9.99 back in Extra Care Bucks that can be used in the future at CVS.
• After tax and discounts I made ~$4.66 off of this transaction.
• Band-aid’s
• Purchased 1 pack of Band-aids for $2.99.
• Used $.50 off coupon.
• Received $2.00 back in Extra Care Bucks that can be used in the future at CVS.
• After tax and discounts I spent ~$.66 on this transaction.
• Total Made - $21.98

After both transactions listed above, I made approximately $23.10 by shopping at CVS and Rite Aid last week. I will note that this amount may be smaller depending on the One Touch Glucose monitor rebate for $29.99 that we sent in. I have heard that the rebate may not be for the full amount as our entire CVS bill was around ~$15.00. Some blogs have reported that they will only return the amount of your total bill if it is less than the total rebate amount. Either way, we still came out making money during the week and got products that we will use!

Will this income stream make me rich? No. However, what it will do is allow my family to reduce our money grocery budget which makes more money available to purchase assets.

Do you shop at pharmacy’s to make money or get free products? What kinds of deals do you find?

I recently visited the VistaPrint website which specializes in printing for businesses and special occasions. They are currently offering a Special Sale, which includes several free offers on all sorts of products. The free offers include:

• 250 Free Business Cards and 1 Card Holder
• 1 Free Rubber Stamp
• 25 Free Business Card Magnets
• 100 Free Postcards
• 1 Free T-Shirt
• 10 Free Invitations and Announcements
• 140 Free Return Address Labels
• 1 Month Free Website

Once I visited the VistaPrint website, I decided to create a FREE T-Shirt with the PFI logo on it. They make the process of designing your own T-Shirt very simple, easy, and quick. I went through the entire process in less than 5 minutes with very nice results. Unfortunately, the resolution of my PFI logo was not high enough which resulted in a blurry image that got uploaded. Once I realized my image was not at a high resolution to put on the T-Shirt, I decided not to make the order. Once I go back and fix my logo, I plan on ordering the first ever PFI T-Shirt. The free offer includes a front image that you can select or upload your own, along with a white shirt. It costs a few dollars more to get a black or gray T-Shirt and additional costs for XXL size.

Overall, I thought the website was very nice and they appear to have very good products. Once I get my free T-Shirt, I hope to use it on PFI in a contest for my readers. I think this is a very nice and cheap way to promote PFI with the T-Shirt. The only costs associated with this free T-Shirt are the shipping and handling fees.

I have had a career in the IT industry for the past 8 years in various types of positions. Over those 8 years, I have been a systems analyst, business analyst, and developer for a variety of software applications. When I first started out in this industry, I came in with very little programming knowledge other than understanding some of the concepts. This was an entry level position that provided me with real life work scenario’s and gave me the foundation to start my career in the IT industry. While the entry level position gave me the opportunity to build my skills, I found that I needed additional training and education in order to move up and succeed in the software field. As a result, I decided to get a Master’s Degree in Information Systems. This degree fit well with my undergrad degree as I had already received a Bachelor’s in Business Administration majoring in management. Together, my work experience along with my educational background and training provided me with a complete package that was very marketable to future employers.


Why do I mention both my educational and work experience as beneficial for a career in the IT industry? I believe that both are extremely important when pursuing a career in IT. The on the job experience provides you with the real life business situations that all companies face. While the educational and training background give you the ability to learn new skills and receive certifications. Becoming certified in various IT fields first and foremost helps job seekers land interviews. An employer likes to see that an applicant has various skill sets and experience, which certifications can provide. In addition, the IT industry has a lot of competition with contractual workers, so IT certifications can help to single you out compared to other job seekers.


One of the more respectable programs available is the Cisco certification. While I don’t currently have this certification, I have first hand knowledge in the industry that the program is very well respected and marketable. Receiving Cisco certification will more than pay for itself over time with tremendous job opportunities and career growth!

I came across two great articles yesterday on other blogs that fit with my overall long term goals in generating as much passive income as possible to become financially independent. The first article was posted on Moolanomy where Pinyo offers a guide to earning extra income. The post describes different sources and types of income that are available. It goes on to say that people should focus on building multiple income streams as a career instead of focusing only on a job as a career. I would highly recommend reading this article as there are several other links to other good stuff on this site that discuss alternative income and passive income.

The second post that I came across yesterday with a similar theme was posted on Frugal Dad which discussed how to make your income more passive. It also covers the importance of making your income as passive as possible. Both these articles are the reason why I started PFI and motivated me to put together a list of alternative income streams that I am currently receiving income from, working on, or am thinking about.

Income Streams currently earning money
The following list of alternative income streams are currently earning some sort of income for me and my family.

• Stock Dividends
• Prosper Interest
• CD Interest
• Savings Account Interest
• Deep In the Money Option Calls
• Selling Covered Call Option Contracts
• Sale of Stock
• Credit Card Rewards

Income Streams in process
I am currently working on developing the following list of alternative income streams and in some cases have earned money but not received a payment yet.

• Ebates
• MySurvey
• CashCrate
• Kontera
• SocialSpark
• Pepperjam Network
• Adding a Roommate
• Creating a Niche Blog(s)
• Create a Keyword Blog(s)
• Shop at Pharmacy’s and make money
• Domain Parking
• PayPerPost

Income Streams that I am thinking about
The following list of alternative income streams are ones that I am currently researching or considering creating in the next 12 months.

• Big Crumbs
• eBay
• Amazon Affiliates
• Craiglist
• Tax Liens
• eHow
• Buy/Sell Coupons on eBay???
• Purchase rental property

The 3 different lists above is a brainstorm of where my income is coming from or that I am thinking about creating that are other than my day-to-day job. Over time, I hope to make as many of these income streams or new ones as passive as I can. Once an income stream has been established and is successfully bringing in income, I can focus on reducing the time I spend on it to make it as passive as possible.

What types of alternative or passive income streams do you have?

Welcome to Passive Family Income (PFI) and the weekly updates. Thanks again to all the readers who have visited over the past week.

Carnivals
July 24, 2008 - I participated in the Finance Fiesta No. 8: Austin edition hosted by Taking Charge. I would like to thank Taking Charge for including my post - Revisiting house guests and added expenses in the Carnival.

Passive Income Ideas
Over the past week, I haven’t had a lot of free time to focus on Passive Family Income. Instead I have been focusing on building two new Income Streams that hopefully will become passive in nature a few months down the line. If I am successful, I will share my results with my readers at that time. I will say that both income streams that I am working on involve two other domains that I purchased a few months back.

Articles I liked this week
There were a lot of great articles over the past week on other blogs, but today I wanted to focus on a blog that I found recently that I find to be very useful. I like to shop at CVS as most frugal shoppers do. I came across the Money Saving Mom site which has a wealth of tips and examples of how to get the best deals when shopping at CVS. The site also includes a ton of other useful deals from Walgreens and other grocery stores. I was so impressed with the network of other bloggers posting on this site with their deals, that I added the site to my blogroll. If you have like to shop at CVS, I suggest you check out the site for yourself. My wife and I have a budget of $650 per month for groceries in which we have gone over the past two months. I hope to not only meet this grocery budget going forward, I plan on reducing our budget by $200! If we can reduce our grocery budget to $450 per month, then we can use the leftover money to buy assets. I think using the Money Saving Mom site will help us reach our goals!

Have an excellent week!

Over the past several weeks I have been increasing the number of Prosper loans that I have by about 1 per week. My current loan activity includes -

• Number of Loans - 45
• Average Interest Rate - 16.79%
• Daily Interest Accrual - $.95

At the current daily interest accrual rate of $.95, I am bringing in around $28.50 in interest per month. My long range goal is to fund 1 new loan per month just from interest accumulated. In order to reach that goal, I need to increase my daily interest accrual rate to around ~$1.66 per day which translates into 28 more loans. At my current pace, I anticipate hitting this goal sometime in March/April

While I am progressing on my long range goals for my Prosper income stream, I want to point out some recent concerns that I now have with 3 loans. The following loans are now in collections and are all over 1 month late.

The first loan in the list is my biggest concern. This loan was funded back in May (2008) and not one payment has been made yet. The other 2 loans in question have had at least some payments made on the loan. The 1st loan, actually has a loan value of $53.13 which is $3.13 more than the original $50.00 loan amount as no payments have been made to date. I will continue to monitor these 3 loans very closely and will see if the collection agency can recoup any funds from them.

My wife and I have a new roommate! A few weeks ago my brother-in-law flew in from out west to spend the 4th of July holiday with us. He has been a little down lately on his career and life goals. He is single with no children and has jumped from job to job and in and out of several different colleges. He is a very hard worker, but too often let’s his emotions out which negatively impacts him. He also, unfortunately, tends to focus too much on the short term and not at all on the long term. This mindset and the lack of a long range plan has put him in this situation.

On his visit to our home, he finally realized what my wife and I had. A nice home, with two great boys, and a good wholesome life. We could tell that he was jealous and wanted that for himself. He saw that staying focused and working hard could give him these things in life. Before he got to our home, my wife and I discussed extending an offer to come and live with us for a while so he could land on his feet and we could help him with some of life’s lessons that he hasn’t picked up yet on his own. Well, about a day after he returned home from our house, he called up and accepted our offer. I was very happy he accepted our offer, while my wife (his sister) was worried that it would hurt us in the end.

Prior to his arrival earlier this week, my wife and I sat down and wrote down our plan on how we wanted to help him.

• Job - Obviously very important. He needs to find a job, or better yet a career. He has had many jobs, but needs a career. We are working on a plan to help him think differently about jobs/careers which hopefully will change his mindset.
• Rent - We are not charging any rent until he finds a career. However, once he finds something, we will begin charging him a few hundred dollars per month in rent. I want to stress that this is not to pad our income, but help to teach him about budgeting. We plan on using this rent to pay the difference on the extra money going out of our budget on utilities and food. The money left over from that we plan on putting into an account that will earn some interest. Once he lands on his feet and decides he wants to move out, we will give him back this money to use for a down payment on a home for himself. We are not planning on telling him about this.
• Budget - To me, one of the most important life’s lessons that I can provide him with. I take great pride in myself for being able to keep a very good budget for my family. I am the sole income provider for our family and I think we do an excellent job in living the frugal way. I only hope that I can instill some of these values in my brother-in-law!

What do you think? Are we crazy for taking on this task? Have you ever been in a similar type of situation?

I recently took the Bills IQ quiz which asks 5 different questions in 5 specific categories for a total of 25 questions. The goal of the quiz is to give you an understanding of your overall financial health and ways to improve your financial score. I received a total score of 94 which is considered an A. The detailed results of each of the 5 categories are as follows -

• Credit - 95%
• Debt - 97%
• Budget - 98%
• Wealth - 93%
• Life Plan - 85%

Overall I thought the quiz was right on with how I view my financial situation. The quiz reaffirmed my strong areas when it comes to money in the Debt and Budget categories. The only debt that we carry (other than our mortgage) is a lease payment on one car. My family pays off all the bills each month which is possible because of our well laid out budget. The budget category scored the highest for me.


The quiz also help me to realize that I need to focus more on my family’s life plan which scored the lowest coming in at 85%. As I am the only money earner in the family of 4 (my wife is a stay at home mom), I am responsible for all of our income. While I have a good job at a strong company, I need to focus more on my long term career goals, retirement, and purchasing additional life insurance.


Having a family with two young children, I often struggle with how much to budget for medical expenses. I feel that any money that goes to medical expenses is money that isn’t going into my family’s savings, our 401k plans, and our children’s 529 College Savings Plans. My oldest son has severe allergies and asthma so I need to ensure that we have enough money saved up in order to offset any unforeseen medical expenses. Having a sound budget and financial plan can help to meet these goals.


Bills IQ offers help on several financial categories including Debt consolidation, Debt help, and Debt relief.

I am participating in Prosper as both a lender and a borrower. I lend money to fellow borrowers to help them get out of debt and also to generate a form of passive income. I borrow money from Prosper at a low rate in order to invest in higher yielding income streams to generate positive cash flow. I use both accounts (borrower & lender) as part of a larger portfolio of tools to generate passive income which will put my family and I one step closer to financial freedom.

Today I would like to provide a status on the Prosper loan that I took out earlier this year. For a history of activity prior to this month, please check out the following post - Loan Status - June (2008). When I last posted the status of my investments using this $1,000 Prosper loan, I had accumulated the following assets -

• Stock - I purchased 46 shares of HTE (Harvest Energy Trust).
• Cash Generated - As a result of selling Covered Call Options against my HTE (Harvest Energy Trust) position, I have generated $40.20 in positive cash flow.
• Remaining Cash - I had $14.55 remaining in leftover cash after making the purchase of HTE (Harvest Energy Trust).

Current Status
There have been a few updates since the last status to these assets associated to my Prosper loan -

• June Dividend Payment - I received approximately .535 shares of HTE (Harvest Energy Trust) as a result of the June (2008) DRIP payment. This brings the total number of shares owned up to 46.535.
• Drop in Oil - There has been a significant drop in the price of oil since I last posted, which has resulted in a significant drop in the price of HTE (Harvest Energy Trust) shares. I purchased the 46 shares for an average cost of $24.99 (commission included). Since then, shares are off by more than 20%.

As of today (July 23, 2008), I estimate that value of the assets listed above at -

• Shares - 46.535 @ $20.22 per shares = ~$940.94
• Cash - $54.75
• GRAND TOTAL - ~$995.69

While I am disappointed in the drop in price of shares of HTE, I believe the monthly dividend payments will help me continue to grow this asset. The last time I posted an update in June (2008), my total assets available was estimated at $1,164.09 and has since dropped by ~17%. The total payments required over the course of the 3 year loan are $1,095.07, so I am now ($99.38) behind. Any jump in oil prices should quickly push me back over this amount.

It is not often that you come across a chance to write a sponsored post that is truly touching and deep in your heart. However, I came across the opportunity to promote the Alzheimer’s Memory Walk which I think is an excellent campaign. My grandfather came down with Alzheimer’s several years ago and I can tell you from personal experience it is one of the hardest things to deal with for family members. Before my grandfather passed away from this terrible disease he would leave his house in the middle of the night and wander off and then someone would find him several miles away just walking around not knowing where or who he was. He was eventually put into a nursing home and was heavily medicated to help control the disease which didn’t really make things any better. Not too long ago, my wife’s grandmother was also diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and we are starting to see the same signs in her as we did with my grandfather. I can attest from personal experience that this is an awful disease to witness. That is why I feel so strongly about the Alzheimer’s Memory Walk. If you are interested in participating in this event, please see the information below for more details.

The Alzheimer’s Association Memory Walk® is the nation’s largest event to raise awareness and funds for Alzheimer care, support and research – and it calls on volunteers of all ages to become champions in the fight against Alzheimer’s. There are walks in more than 600 communities. A typical Memory Walk is a 2-3 mile walk held on a weekend morning in the fall.

By teaming up with the Alzheimer’s Association, you can walk with a purpose – and move us closer to a world without Alzheimer’s. Together, we can MOVE a nation.

Welcome to Passive Family Income (PFI) and the weekly updates. It was a quiet week, but here are some of the updates and highlights.

Carnivals
July 17, 2008 - I participated in the Finance Fiesta #7: Mamma Mia Edition hosted by LivingAlmostLarge. I would like to thank LivingAlmostLarge for including my posts - Researching Foreclosure Information as a New Income Stream in the Carnival.

July 16, 2008 - I had a post included in the Money Hackers Carnival #20, Chicago style hosted by This Writer’s Wallet. I would like to thank This Writer’s Wallet for including my post - Financial Benefits of a DVR in the Carnival.

Articles I liked this week
As usual, there were a lot of great articles over the past week on other blogs, but here are a few that I liked the most.

1 - The Dividend Growth Investor provided a nice book review on “Stop Working” which is something I am going to check out.

2 - Dividends4Life wrote an analysis on Lowe’s (LOW) stock which is one that I have my eye on right now.

3 - Jacob at Early Retirement Extreme posted an article about buying stocks lately. I feel the same way and think it is time to dig in!

4 - Dawn at Fighting Foreclosure provides 8 tips on how to fight foreclosure.

5 - Scott at the The Passive Dad discusses purchasing stocks for passive income.

6 - I found a new site this week that I like called The Family CEO and an article about making money online writing for eHow.

Have an excellent week!

Yesterday was my youngest son’s 1st birthday! For weeks my wife and I struggled to figure out what to get him. We have almost every toy imaginable that a 1 year old boy would want to play with from our first son. We also have so many clothes that are in good condition from our older son that he doesn’t really need any new ones. The struggle was that there really wasn’t anything to buy for him. We didn’t want to go out and buy a bunch of things that he would use for a few months just to buy him something. At the same time, we didn’t want to favor either child so we felt like we needed to do something.

My wife and I have been frugal people for a very long time. However, when our first son was born 4 1/2 years ago, we had a major meltdown. We bought every type of toy and clothing item you can think of. Add on top of it some very proud grandparents who wanted to spoil their first born grandson and we had a basement full of almost brand new toys. We didn’t want to make the same mistake again for our younger son. The following list is the plan that we came up with on our son’s birthday gifts -

• Family Gifts - Are boys are fortunate enough to have excellent grandparents who love to spoil their grandsons. We let them (along with other family members) buy him all the fun toys that we may not have had. Grandparents tend not to be frugal with their grandchildren. I think it is more important to them to see the smile on their grandchild’s face when opening a present. My wife and I feel that if they want to spoil the kids, then let them! Our son had a blast opening up all of these gifts but soon ran out of interest so it didn’t matter if we bought him anything or not.
• Keepsake - We did purchase a few small keepsake items (i.e. piggy bank, cross) for our son that he could keep forever. These were small purchases and I think it made my wife feel better that we got him something he could hold on to forever.
• Water Toy - Our son loves the water so we purchased a water table toy that he can play with outside. This was one type of toy that we didn’t previously have and we actually got it on clearance because the stores are trying to move out all of their summer toys.
• 529 Plan - Instead of buying a bunch of new toys that will be used for a few months and then sit in the garage or attic, we are investing additional money into our son’s 529 Plan. We have a 529 plan setup for both of our son’s college education and figured that he could use the money while in college more than he could use a new toy!

How do you spend on children or adults who have everything?

As part of my ongoing goals to become financially independent, I have been busy creating as many new income streams as possible. For example, at the beginning of this year (2008), I opened up a Prosper account in order to participate in P2P lending which would allow me to earn interest off of lending money. I have also created new income streams by using my strategy to combine high dividend yields with covered call options through purchases of BAC and GE. I have also been working on a few things on PFI to help generate additional passive income by adding advertisements for Pepperjam & Foreclosure.com and by writing a few sponsored posts for SocialSpark.

Today I would like to begin posting monthly updates on the passive income that I have earned from the previous month. I use the term “passive” very loosely here, as most of these income streams are not truly “passive”. I hope to continue to make process improvements on these income streams to reduce the time spent on them so I can focus on creating new income streams in the future. The table below shows the “passive income” or “extra income” that I made during the month of June (2008).

June Passive Income Analysis
While I was very impressed with my first ever month of tracking my passive income, I have noticed several items that I want to work on in future months to come. Below is an analysis and breakdown of items that I will be working on to help increase my passive income earnings in the future -

• Dividend Income - The June (2008) dividend income included several quarterly distributions which will not be included in July or August, so I expect a huge decrease in monthly dividend income for the next few months. I anticipate between $15 - $20 of dividend income for the month of July and August.
• Options - I made a few Deep In the Money (DIM) Option Call trades that produced $100.99 in additional income for June. When good opportunities arise, I like to trade Deep In the Money Options on quality stocks. I took advantage of a few quick trades in PFE & PAYX. Trading these types of options can be very risky if you don’t have a good strategy. Given the significant downturn in the market in July, I don’t anticipate any income generated from this source.
• Interest Income - I earned $9 in interest during June from some of the cash I had on hand. I don’t expect to ever see a large amount of income generated from this source, but these little streams add up over time!
• Covered Call Options - The biggest source of passive income for the month of June was selling Covered Call Options against several of my portfolio positions including BAC, GE, and HTE. Today is expiration day for the majority of these contracts, so I will begin to re-evaluate what trades (if any) I will place starting next week.
• Stock Sale - As part of my Covered Call Options strategy, I had two positions (HTE & FRO) get called during the month. This required me to sell the shares I had in my portfolio for the strike price with a net result of $276.91 in earnings.
• Prosper Interest - I earned $24.72 in Prosper interest during the month of June. I was very pleased with this income as I believe my Prosper account is becoming more and more passive. I look for this income stream to steadily increase over time.
• Online Income - I did not earn any online income from PFI during the month of June. I expect this to obviously increase in July as I have started bringing in some money this month.

Recap
While I expect my July & August passive income totals to come down from the $889.59 I earned in June, I think I am off to a great start! I have set a 1-year goal to be bringing in $1,000 per month in passive or extra income by July 2009. I also have a longer range goal (3 - 4 years) set of $4,000 - $5,000 per month in passive income which will more than cover our monthly expenses and give my family and I the financial freedom we desire.

How do you track your passive or extra income earned? Do you have goals set that you hope to eventually reach?

Today I am featuring my first Guest Post on PFI! Dawn from Fighting Foreclosure has been kind enough to write a post about her perspective on Prosper.com. I am always intrigued and interested in other blogger’s opinions about Prosper and P2P lending in general. I am both a lender and borrower on Prosper since January 2008 and have had success thus far. If you have not had a chance to visit Dawn’s blog, I suggest you check it out. It is on my blogroll and one of the sites that I read daily.

Here is what Dawn has to say about Prosper -

Passive Family Income asked me to write a little about my experience with Prosper.com. I am a fairly new recruit to the site, having just started working with it in June, but so far I have been really happy with it. For anyone unfamiliar with the web site, the concept is fairly simple: people who need loans apply and other people with money bid on the loans. While I suppose if you had enough money you could bid to fund an entire loan, the usual way is that a lot of people come together to fund one loan.

I am currently a lender on two loans and am in the process of transferring money over so I can bid on a third. Outside of the returns, which are important, (but not guaranteed,) there are several things I like about the website:

I like that it works for me.

I have a very restricted budget right now, but at the same time, I am looking towards my future. It is important to me to find investments and ways I can build up passive income streams. The minimum amount to bid on a Prosper loan is $50. Even I can come up with that! Plus I got a $25 bonus for signing up, which is what helped fund my second loan. The third loan is being funded with a referral bonus combined with my own money. This means the dollar amounts here aren’t scary - I don’t have so much out there in one place that I fear losing it, should the worst happen and someone defaults.

Prosper also has a fairly easy to understand website. They make it simple - something more websites could benefit from! I used their portfolio plans to indicate my risk tolerance and they did the rest. However, after reading a few of Passive Family Income’s articles, I think the next time I may search and choose a loan on my own.

I like that it works for others.

One of the best things about Prosper is learning about the people you are lending to. They aren’t some meaningless number - the requests for loans come with photos, family stories, and details on what they plan on doing with the loan. Knowing who my money is going to has meaning for me. I guess it is the humanitarian side of investing - my Prosper loans make me feel like I am helping someone out by helping them consolidate their credit card debt or pay off their wedding. That is a lot more personal then, well, most every kind of investment I know! There were times in my life where I certainly could have used this assistance myself, had it been available. And who knows? I still might.

I am a big believer that people can do far more working together than they would ever dream. The grassroots feel of Prosper is part of what appeals to me - a group of people coming together to lend money to an individual who needs it, and on top of it getting a great return for their investment? Sounds perfect.

I recently signed up for the Pepperjam Network Affiliate Program that would allow me to place advertisements on PFI that met with the theme and concept of this blog (Register Here for Pepperjam Network.). I really only like to place advertisements on this site that I can personally recommend (i.e. Prosper, etc.). After joining the Pepperjam Network, I have been very pleased with the available partners (advertisers) they offer. In fact, I wrote about one such advertiser in a earlier post that I was personally trying out for myself. See my post for more details - Researching Foreclosure Information as a New Income Stream.

I have already earned a quick $17 in almost passive income. I say almost passive income as I spent about 20 minutes completing the following steps listed below to earn this extra income -

• Pepperjam Account - The first step I took to earn the $17 was to open up my Pepperjam Affiliate Account and get a $10 sign up bonus just for opening the account! This took about 10 minutes to complete.
  
• Joined Foreclosure.com - As I mentioned in a prior post, I signed up for the 7-day free trial period for Foreclosure.com after adding them as an advertiser to PFI. I am interested in learning more about foreclosed properties and tax liens as an added source of income, so the 7-day free trial offer actually came in handy. I have since canceled my subscription with them as the rate goes to $9.95 per week after the 7-day free trial. Signing up for this promotion took about 10 minutes to complete.
  
• NET RESULT - So after spending about 20 minutes, I found a new affiliate marketing program that I signed up for and got a $10 bonus for opening the account and also signed up for a free trial of another account I was interested in for another $7. The net result was an extra $17 in extra income in a very short time!

Do you use any Affiliate Marketing programs like Pepperjam? How much success have you had with them?

Welcome to Passive Family Income (PFI) and the weekly updates. Thanks again to all of the readers who are now following my blog and for their participation. Here are some of the updates and highlights for the past week.

Carnivals
July 14, 2008 - I had an article included in the Carnival of Personal Finance #161: The “Feeling Renewed” Edition hosted by The Budgeting Babe. I would like to thank The Budgeting Babe for including my post - Adding a Discover Credit Card Income Stream in the Carnival.

July 9, 2008 - I had a post included in the Money Hacks Carnival #19 - Personal Finance Destinations hosted by Pinyo @ Money Hackers Network. I would like to thank Pinyo @ Money Hackers Network for including my post - June 2008 - Family Budget Review in the Carnival.

July 8, 2008 - I participated in the Investing Carnival #2 - A July Celebration! hosted by Dividends4Life. I would like to thank Dividends4Life for including my posts - Adding Bank of Amercia (BAC) to the portfolio in the Carnival.

Guest Post
I will be starting to include guests posts from time to time on PFI starting this week. I think it is an excellent opportunity to promote fellow bloggers who I enjoy reading! Be on the lookout for the guest post sometime this week.

Articles I liked this week
As usual, there were a lot of great articles over the past week on other blogs, but here are a few that I liked the most.

1 - The Passive Dad wrote about ‘How To Pay Off Credit Cards’. There are some very good tips in there for people who need to stop using thier cards. I am actually going to start helping my brother-in-law get out of credit card debt, so we will start with some of these tips!

2 - LuLuGal at How I Save Money.net talks about using her Discover card between July - September to get 5% back on gas purchases. I just opened up a Discover Open Road card to get the 5% back which I estimate will bring in an extra $60 per month in passive income.

3 - Mark at Personal Finance discusses his Prosper status for June (2008). I always love to read how other bloggers are fairing in the Prosper world!

4 - Frugal Dad wrote about an article featured in Parade Magazine this past Sunday about how thrifty families are saving money. I can relate to some of the saving’s tips while others seem to be a little extreme.

5 - Living Off Dividends gives an update how his monthly passive income broke the $3,000 barrier. I must say that I find these updates from this blog to be very motivating and helps me to keep going!

6 - Dawn at Fighting Foreclosure gives a run down on her Kiva lending experience. I am going to check out Kiva in comparison to Prosper in the next few weeks.

7 - The Dividend Growth Investor gave some interesting analysis on the average time a bear market typically lasts.

Have an excellent week!

Well our house guests (the in-laws) who visited us for two weeks are now gone back home. It was a nice visit and our family budget withstood the added expenses that I posted in a previous article found here - Preparing for House Guests and added Expenses. Today, I would like to revisit those items that I previously posted and add some additional comments on preparing for house guests and the added expenses.

The following list details the anticipated added expenses of house guests that I previously posted -

1. Food - The food budget saw a bit of a spike but I think it will be manageable for the month. Fortunately, my wife and I stocked up on a lot of food prior to my in-laws arrival which helped us eat in more than going out. In fact, my in-laws felt so bad that we were spending all the money on food that they took us out to dinner twice and paid!
2. Gas - While we did drive a lot when they were in town, I don’t believe it was too many more miles than we would normally drive. The one exception was an unexpected 90 mile round trip to the airport to pick up my brother-in-law who decided to come in for the 4th of July weekend.
3. Water - Unfortunately, the water bill will see a big spike in the next month. As anticipated, my father-in-law took his 20+ minute showers two times per day. Add on top of that my mother-in-law and brother-in-law taking added showers will increase the usage. During that time, I decided to shower at work during the week and limited myself on showering on the weekends at home. My wife also did an excellent job of managing the laundry duties and combining as many loads as possible. The dishwasher also ran once per day while they were in town instead of once every 3 or 4 days.
4. Electricity - The other problem expense during the visit is the added electricity bill. We ran the A/C more often and dropped the temperature from 84 degrees to 80 degrees. We had more lights on, ceiling fans runnings, and the tv was on more. We should be ok as we budget $150 per month for electricity and have not gone over $100 yet. We just wont be able to save as much this month.
5. Entertainment - The entertainment category was a nice surprise. While we had expected an increase in this category, we really did not spend very much money here. My in-laws took our 4-year old son out a lot on their own and paid for any costs (i.e. movies, etc.) which was nice. Anytime we did something together, my in-laws also picked up the tab to offset the money we had spent on food which also helped out a lot.

Forgotten Expense - One forgotten expense that I didn’t think of will be an increase in the gas bill. While it is summer and the furnace is not running, we still will see an increase in the monthly gas bill. The extra showers (hot water), dishwasher runs, and laundry cycles will add to our gas bill.

Overall, it was a very nice visit and we will miss our house guests. I feel fortunate to have family members who want to help out with the bills from time to time. In the case of my in-laws visit, they wanted to pay for things like eating out and entertainment expenses. We even got into an argument with them about a check they wrote us when they were leaving. They wanted to give us $200 for the food they ate at our house and the gas we spent while they visited. After a few hours of negotiations, we decided on $100 instead to offset any costs. While my wife and I are frugal in nature, we draw the line when it comes to money and family. We value our family much higher than our frugal ways and didn’t feel right taking the $100 check from my in-laws, but also knew that it made them feel better. My in-laws also told us they were going to come back for another week to visit at the beginning of August, so we told them we would use the money to buy food again and stock up for their return.

How do you handle situations with family or friends who want to pay? Do you take their money?