For awhile now, I’ve been making a little bit of money here and there by doing surveys. I’ve heard about these types of websites and programs before, and they’ve never really worked out or at best they paid a couple of cents per survey. However, I’ve now found a site where you can earn a couple of dollars per survey and have a check sent to you. I’m not being paid to promote them, but I thought I’d share with you what has already worked for me.

The site is Opinion Outpost, and it’s actually run by a company that my college entrepreneurship professor started and then later sold. All you have to do is sign up with an email address and then fill out the profile questions so they know what surveys to send you. You then wait for them to send you emails with various opportunities and your account gets credited with the associated points. Once your account reaches $5.00 you may request a check which typically comes in about 3 weeks or so even though the site says it may take 4 – 8 weeks.

I’m not going to promise quick riches with this program, but it never hurts to get a bonus check every once and a while. It’s also something that I actually do myself and know works. So try out the program and see what you think.

Last weekend I wanted to do something nice for my wife. I know that she really likes Italian food so I thought it might be fun to take her out to a new place that we hadn’t been before. We don’t normally go out to eat all that often, so this seemed like a nice treat for the both of us.

So I went to Restaurant.com to try and find a place that I could take her to. After browsing for a few minutes, I found La Gra Italian Tapas. A $25 gift certificate usually sells for $10, but they were running a 70% off promotion so I only paid $3 for it. The only stipulation is that we had to spend a minimum of $35 to use the gift certificate.

The restaurant was a nice small place in an older area of town. Tapas style apparently means that the dishes are meant to be shared which was nice since we both got to try out a couple of different things. We started with an arugula salad followed by a sausage and shrimp pasta as well as a beef speidini dish. Overall it was a great time.

If we hadn’t used the gift certificate from Restaurant.com, the bill would have come to $42.21 which is nothing extraordinary for such a place. However, with the gift certificate the bill came to just $17.41. So I have to ask the question. Why wouldn’t you want to use these gift certificates if you’re going to go out to eat anyway?

Fiscal Musings has secured a spot on Alltop Personal Finance which is basically an aggregator of all the top personal finance articles, hence the name. It’s a project started by Guy Kawasaki, who’s site you should check out if you don’t already know who he is.

Many other well-known personal finance blogs are also a part of Alltop already and I’m sure there will be even more eventually. The site is at least worth checking out to see if it’s a resource you’d enjoy.

Last night as I was working on a few things (including this blog) I had the show American Idol on in the background. I don’t really get that wrapped up in the show, but I don’t mind having the music on in the background. Last night, however, wasn’t the usual weekly show, but it was instead the yearly Idol Gives Back show complete with all of the stars and musical performances.

Having it on in the background got me to thinking again about the importance of generosity and the impact for good it can have on others’ as well as our own lives. I understand that it can seem counter-intuitive for a financial blogger to espouse the giving away of money, but I guarantee you that it’s one of the most fulfilling things that you can ever hope to do with it. There are few things you could spend your money on that will make you feel better about yourself.

I’m not trying to convince anyone to give specifically to the Idol Gives Back promotion, it’s just what got me to thinking about the subject. There are so many various ways that you can give of your money, time, or other means for the benefit of others. All you have to do is find a cause that you’re passionate about, and you’ll know where to go from there.

When it comes to the subject of giving and generosity in general, I always think of one my favorite phrases, something we’d all do well to keep in mind: Remember, Living is Giving.

I’ve run across a couple interesting articles recently, and I thought I would share them with all of you as you may find them of interest as well.

The first is a book review of a book review. It’s called measuring my performance against the Edelman secrets and is a review of the book by Ric Edelman. This is from a blog that I recently found and am looking forward to seeing more from.

Here is an article from Yahoo that discusses when you can tap an IRA. Taking money out of a retirement account usually isn’t a good idea, but for some situations, like purchasing your first home, it could actually make sense.

About a year ago I wrote a post entitled, Living is Giving. With all of the focus that we put on our finances and trying to improve them, it’s important that we don’t forget what really matters: people.

In this spirit, I wanted to make everyone aware of an opportunity to give. JohnChow is asking for the help of his readers to support the Union Gospel Mission for their Easter meal. Apparently so far the support has been lacking and he has stepped up the incentive. He will personally match every donation 2 to 1 as well as recognize the readers who made a donation in a blog post some time today. You’ll want to check out his call to action so you can participate. It’s as simple as a PayPal transfer. Nothing complicated here.

As John says on his blog, the true measure of success is not how much you make but how much you give. Every little bit helps, and even just a donation of $2.59 is enough to feed one person. I’ve already made my donation and wanted to make you all aware of this opportunity as well.

As an added incentive, if you decide to make a donation, I will also provide a link to your site here at Fiscal Musings. I’ll be trusting and ask that you just leave a comment to this post, with your website address, stating that you donated. You don’t need to divulge the amount. Thanks in advance for your support.

It’s hard for me to believe it, but Fiscal Musings went live exactly one year ago today. Back then I wanted a place where I could share things that I’ve learned about personal finances and investing. I also knew that there was so much more to learn, and I figured that I could increase my own knowledge through this site. I actually never thought that this site would be where it is today, but it’s been a great ride so far, and I’m looking forward to another year.

A Brief History of the Site

I started this blog as a free site with Blogger. The site design was fairly simplistic since I had never had a website before. After a while I decided that the site deserved it’s own domain name, even though I still had it hosted for free with Blogger. I continued to publish articles on a fairly regular basis, but I was never quite content with the site’s overall layout. I didn’t have the flexibility that I had seen on so many other sites that used WordPress. So a little while ago I finally took the plunge and purchased my own web-hosting from Bluehost.com and began using the WordPress platform. This brings us to the current layout that you now see. Through all these changes though, the content has been consistent and will continue to be so.

Some of the Favorite Posts

1. An Interesting Perspective: This is an article that shares a perspective I heard from an older gentleman at work. Too often we get caught up with our own thoughts, and it’s great to see things from another’s point of view.

2. Answering a Reader’s Question: As the title says, a reader emailed me a question about what investments to pick in an IRA. This is my response. Also, if you’ve got a question or would just like my take on a subject feel free to contact me.

3. Developing a Wealthy Mindset: A lot of what we talk about doesn’t really matter too much if we don’t ever change our mindset towards our finances.

Looking Ahead

I’m looking forward to another year here at Fiscal Musings. As many of you know, I’m going back to school in the fall to get my MBA, so I’ll be able to share many of the experiences I’ll have and much of what I’ll be learning. I enjoy writing for this blog, and I hope you enjoy reading it just as much. As always, let me know of any suggestions you may have as well as any questions. And while you’re here, go ahead and subscribe to the feed so you don’t miss anything else.