I just read this article where a person was giving financial advice and the main topic was how people often focus a lot in cutting back on small items such as gas or a cup of coffee but not the bigger ones such as their house mortgage. One of the other main points was how if you go to a financial adviser most of the time they are simply telling you things that will not necessarily be the best choice as they want you to use their service as long as possible. Then, the last main advice was to invest your money in low risk methods such as mutual funds.

I guess in some ways it is true as with a lot of big purchases like a house most people would simply be happy just to get a mortgage let alone shopping around for the best price. The comment about a financial adviser is kind of interesting though as in my opinion if you want to be that broad in saying that people in that field are telling you answers that will also ensure that they will get a bigger commission cheque you can kind of say that for any field or profession as if no one uses your service then you have no business. I’ve never used one myself, but I would think you would at least learn something that you didn’t know before and then it would be up to you on what you do with your newly acquired knowledge.

Now this low risk investment advice is the one that usually gets me wondering if people feel it is really worth it. For example, there were examples on how if you invest $1000 in a “safe” method that in five years you are guaranteed to make around $500 before adding in fees and all. Even if we pretend that there is no fee and you get a full hundred per year, is leaving your money idle for the whole year really worth just $100? For myself, I would rather take that thousand and find a way to turn it into $1500 the first year. People often say that more risk means more reward as well. In terms of “risky” methods being too much of a gamble, if you know what you are doing with your money then really it is no riskier than say leaving your money in an account and then having the value of it decrease due to things like inflation. At least with the “risky” way you are taking an active role in managing your money.

It mostly just comes down to being knowledgeable about your options I’d say and actually looking at the hard numbers yourself as I think even when it comes to saving money you should still be pro-active with it.

It’s that time of the month again as my credit card bill has arrived and January is usually one of the bigger ones due to buying all those gifts for friends and family members during the Christmas season. I was pretty generous this time around again as I bought people things such as digital cameras for Christmas. My monthly balance up till the 16th of this January is $2742.83.

As I mentioned in my spending what you have post, I personally treat credit cards as a form of a payment rather than a way to buy something without actually having enough money to begin with. Now with that in mind, it’s just a matter of transferring funds from one account to the other. I know online banking is still a large concern for most people, but I have personally found it to be very secure and convenient. I simply make a request as to how much funds I want to transfer and to where as it shows me what my credit card balance is.

Afterwards, I wait for one of the banking agents to complete my request. The next thing you know, the funds are transferred and my credit card balance has been wiped out.

No crazy interest rates to worry about or fear of not being able to make the payment on time. Of course, this comes down to properly managing your credit card spending habits in the first place as if you can’t afford something without a credit card then maybe you shouldn’t be buying it at all yet. I’ve never had to pay interest on my credit card bill as I always pay it off in full and I can’t see how people can stand the thought of paying those crazy interest rates when you think about how much of your money is being thrown away by doing so.

There appears to be this very convincing e-mail arriving in the mailbox for many which looks like an official e-mail from Canada Revenue. This e-mail basically mentions how you qualify for a tax credit refund and that you simply need to provide some personal information like your social security number to claim it. This is basically one of those phishing scams and for this one they actually use what appears to be the Canada Revenue letterhead to make it appear as if it is very legitimate.

Most of the people I know haven’t even done their taxes yet and so getting this refund e-mail should be a red flag trigger by itself. Would of been a nice way to get some tax money back though.

So I am now casually telling people about AGLOCO offline and as mentioned I think regardless of what happens with this program this will be a great thing to blog about as All Advantage was a big thing back during the dot com boom and it will be interesting to document my experience with AGLOCO.

Now getting a different variety of people I think will make this very interesting and so I am hoping to find people ranging from one’s who were successful with get paid to surf programs in the past and ones who are just so skeptical about it that they wouldn’t normally touch it with a 10 foot pole. If they are within my network, I also plan to interview some of them so that everyone else can also get a general feel on the type of people who are trying this program and of course to document how well they are doing afterwards.

The first person I have selected to interview who has joined within my network is my friend Raymond. He actually has used All Advantage in the past and so I would classify him as someone who is very comfortable and confident in using AGLOCO once everything gets going while recognizing the potential of it based on his past experiences. Here was my brief interview with him so that everyone else can get to know him:

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Me: Please tell my readers a bit about yourself and how long you have been a regular Internet user for.

Raymond: I am a student working part time and have been using the Internet since high school

Me: What do you usually do when you browse the net?

Raymond: When I am on the internet usually I check my emails, play games online, check out new products and shop online as well

Me: Did making money by using the Internet ever cross your mind when you first began?

Raymond: Making money online did not cross my mind when I first began using the Internet. It was more for information

Me: To my understanding, back in the day you discovered All Advantage. How did this come about?

Raymond: When I was in high school one of my classmates showed me one of his paychecks and that’s how it started for me.

Me: What were your initial thoughts when you first heard about it?

Raymond: Seeing is believing, free money, it was a no brainer I had to join

Me: How was your experience with it?

Raymond: All Advantage had a huge ad bar across the desktop and you had to actually click around. It would slow down your internet connection as well since this was back in the days of dial-up

Me: Did you find having that Viewbar on the bottom of your browser to be annoying or distracting in anyway?

Raymond: The ad bar was not too bad it was just the lag that got to me.

Me: When recommending it to others, did you get any negative vibes from people telling you that they thought you would never get paid or that they would somehow lose money?

Raymond: I think everyone is skeptical about free money, but once they understood how it works and when they see the check, it wows them.

Me: As we all know, the company was paying out too much money to its massively growing user base while not being able to generate enough revenue to sustain it and so the company folded. What was your reaction?

Raymond: It was pretty disappointing when the company went under. I just started to get more referrals at that time, but free money can only last so long.

Me: What were your thoughts when I told you about AGLOCO and how it is like a new incarnation of All Advantage?

Raymond: When I found out about AGLOCO it instantly reminded me of all advantage, free money on the Internet again

Me: What would you say is your main reason in signing up even though it is still in a beta phase right now?

Raymond: I signed up because I wanted to give it a try. I have nothing to lose

Me: Are you skeptical or worried in any way?

Raymond: With more people being aware of spyware and viruses it definitely crossed my mind that this could be some form of spyware, but on the website it talks about how it is not spyware. So I am not too worried

Me: Anything you want to do add about this AGLOCO journey?

Raymond: Hopefully I will be just as successful as I was with all advantage but its hard to say since agloco is still in its beta stages. We’ll just have to wait and see once the viewbar is available.
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So there you have. I’m personally expecting Raymond to be one of the more active people in this based on his experience in the past.

Build Your Own AGLOCO Network With Raymond

It appears now that a large bank here called The Royal Bank of Canada is preventing people within specific ethnic groups who hold a dual citizenship from being able to open a US dollar account apparently because of a strict US law that is suppose to help prevent terrorism financing and money laundering. If you hold a dual citizenship here in Canada that includes Iraq, Cuba, Sudan, North Korea or Myanmar you will now be unable to open a US dollar account with the Royal Bank of Canada. Not only that, but if you fall into this category and already have an existing account with them they are apparently being closed.

Now obviously this is creating some outrage here with people understandably calling it discriminating as it is racial profiling people. The bank basically says that they are simply following the rules that have been drawn out by the US to prevent being fined and that this action is aimed more at people who don’t live in Canada full-time. It was mentioned that this rule was apparently made around the 9/11 time and what I find strange is why would this come up just now? Maybe people were watching the season premiere of 24 on Monday which got everyone riled up…? Just kidding of course, but it is kind of odd that this just seemed to have popped up.

For businesses though, the good thing is that all the other banks haven’t followed suit and of course most people are hoping they won’t.