So I had a pretty tight schedule this week and a person contacted me about a potential opportunity to be involved in some ad campaign that would be fairly lucrative. The thing is, he confirmed that I would attend to the event as he assumed I would say yes anyways.

Of course I had pre-arrangements already made and so time wise it wasn’t doable. I then asked why he did that and he simply mentioned that it was potentially worth over $10,000 and so he thought there was no way anyone would turn that down.

Thing is too, this was like of those out of your hands as it was more like an audition or quick interview of some sort where you go through a process and then it is up to a panel of say “judges” who decide your fate. That wasn’t exactly a guarantee thing either as it is just an “opportunity”.

While you obviously need to take risks to a certain extent, it’s kind of silly if you had say two loyal clients that you committed to and then simply throw that away for a potential opportunity to be involved in what can be a more lucrative project.

I received a phone call today from a company that was interested in doing some kind of consumer research about people who work in or have connections with people in the IT industry involving servers during normal working hours. They mentioned that as a form of compensation they would give me $20 for my time for an hour interview.

The interesting thing is that I would probably do it for free under normal circumstances. I must admit, for some reason the $20 figure turned me off. I think the main reason was that I have done simple things like food tasting before and even for those items they offer about $30 plus a free meal. They last for like 30 min only too.

Would it of made a difference if they said $30? Not really for me personally. There’s just something about asking you to go out of your way in this case that makes me think the time is worth more.

Interesting comment I heard today where a person was saying how she worked overtime one day and then another person commented on how at least she made more money. The lady then responded by saying she wasn’t really making any money as the income goes directly to paying a bill.

Kind of a dangerous way of looking at it I thought as essentially in her view it was almost as if she was constantly working off a debt of some sort. In essence, she wasn’t really getting any money at the end as she was working to satisfy others.

In my opinion, cash flow is just like a river and it’s really your choice as to how you want to distribute it. Example, even if you only made $10 a month with two $5 bills you have to pay, there are so many ways to go at it.

You can just say it goes towards paying the bills and that’s it. At the same time, you can use tools that are available to you such as a credit card in a responsible fashion to allow you to do something with that $10 for another 30 days to make more money. Like most things though, it does come to attitude and perspective. Cause at the end of the day, it’s something that you control and not the other way around.

I was reading and browsing through Microsoft’s “Live” search which of course is in competition with companies such as Google. It seems that they are trying out a new program called Cashback at http://search.live.com/cashback/ where people can search for thousands of products from various merchants. Once the user makes a qualifying purchase, they will receive some form of credit.

I suppose the hope with that incentive is that people like us will start flocking over and use Live as our preferred search engine. Unfortunately, I was unable to test it out as it seems to be restricted to US residence only at this time. While I suppose it is a great way to save money, I don’t know if that will necessarily persuade people from switching over.

I still use Google most of the time personally as the search results just seem to be better. Another way to save and make some money I suppose though.

When it comes to managing money there are usually two types of people that I meet when it comes ensuring one’s financial security in life. You have one group of people who focus heavily on saving a lot of money with the intent that they won’t have to work anymore afterwards and the other that concentrates in creating streams of passive or residual income to achieve a similar goal.

While I personally do both, I personally try to focus more in finding ways to create those streams of income. It made more sense to me when I thought about it at an earlier age. For example if it was a situation such as my food supply was currently fine and dandy, I could just focus on somehow storing it for an emergency incase the supply stream runs out temporarily. On the other hand, wouldn’t it make more sense to spend energy exploring different sources or ways to grow food as well?

It’s the same thing when it comes to money in my mind. While obviously you do want to save still, spending your time and energy figuring out different ways to generate streams of revenue that will fit your particular lifestyle just seems like the logical thing to do. Speaking for myself, I personally wouldn’t rest unless I have developed a passive or residual income stream that is strong enough to get me through some kind of drought without funds in a savings account being a factor.

While obviously nothing is 100% bullet proof, I think focusing more on creating multiple income streams rather than relying on just saved money per say is a wiser way to really be prepared for emergencies or times of need.