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In Fight Club, Tyler Durden famously said that “the things you own end up owning you.”  I have written about how hard you have to work for your possessions once before, but I decided to take it a step further and find out how much time I have to work every month to pay bills.

It turns out that I spend nearly 75% of my time at work for recurring bills, including rent, student loans, and utilities.  That means only about ten hours every week are for the things I like to do, such as eating and entertainment.

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You can also build a calendar like this.  I have put together a free spreadsheet on Google Docs to help you figure out how much of your paycheck goes to fixed bills.  From that spreadsheet, I created a second Google Calendar that I used to input the work days per month.  It turns out that my biggest fixed expenses are taxes, rent, and student loan payments.

This was an eye opening exercise.  Take a run through and let me know how it goes in the comments.

In the recent past, my company announced that it is being sold.  It is a large public company, so it made pretty big news in the industry and locally, as it is the biggest private employer in the state.  For the sake of privacy, I am not going to disclose the name of the company I work at as long as I am an employee.  (I’ll just say that I work in one of the buildings in this picture)

At the time the “merger” was announced, we were told that the deal is expected to close in the first half of 2010.  Based on that knowledge, I figure that I have a year or so left at this company.

I recently asked the readers whether they would focus on saving or loan payments in the short term.  One astute commenter, Suba from Wealth Informatics, asked if I expected my financial situation to change in the near future.  That clearly is a yes.

I expect that I will receive a 3 month paid severance at the time I am let go.  That will be after March 31^st.  There are a lot of questions surrounding my team’s position in the merger.  I am in the treasury department, but my specific group does not have a counterpart at the new company, so our value to the company would not be duplicated.  I would say I have about a 20% chance of not being laid off at all.  My employer told me that I should have notice of three to six months before the layoff occurs.

I have been thinking about building up my savings a bit more for safety’s sake.  I have taken solid steps to do that.  While it is not automated, I am taking $200 per paycheck and stashing it away in a savings account.  I have maintained my $250 per paycheck student loan payment and paid off my car completely.  My only big fixed costs are rent ($615 per month), utilities ($150 per month including TV and phone), car insurance ($120 per month), and eating.

Having just finished an MBA, I am not too worried about finding a job.  However, there is always a risk that it will take time.  I am hoping to be able to spend a month backpacking in Europe and two months job hunting with the severance pay.

So, now that you know more about my future financial situation, what would you do to keep on top of things with the knowledge of a pending layoff?

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of IZEA. All opinions are 100% mine.

This week I signed up for the paid blogging service SocialSpark.  I plan to use the site to supplement my income from this site and my Israel blog.  I was contacted by the company in February and finally got around to signing up this week.

So far, I am impressed with the site.  It is affiliated with respectable bloggers and has a very strong Code of Ethics policy.  It offers pay for post and affiliate marketing as a primary source of revenue for partnering blogs.  This post is actually my first paid deal from the site!

If you have a blog, you can sign up for the site quickly and easily.  Once you are accepted, you are given a list of offers based on your site’s traffic and content.  If you qualify and accept an offer, you are given parameters and required links for the blog post.  Once you write the post, you submit the URL and text of your post.  After a quick review by the site’s staff, you are paid via PayPal.

I do not plan to use this service excessively or dilute my content.  However, I am excited to have found a service that allows me to match up relevant advertising to supplement my regular content.  If you have a blog of your own, you might be interested in signing up for SocialSpark.

A while back, I wrote about eBaytrage.  That is my word for buying a product somewhere in the world and reselling it through a website, such as eBay or Craigslist.

I have some research of ways you can become an eBaytrage reseller.  I have found some fun and interesting ways to source your items for sale.  Just a note, there is no guarantee that this will work.  You do put some money on the table to get started.  I have made a little over $100 in my eBaytrage exploits, but I know people who have made thousands reselling.

Craiglist– By far, the best way to guarantee a profit is to minimize your expenses and find a desirable product.  Fortunately, Craigslist is a popular place for people to unload their junk with little effort, which often translates to free.  I once found a desk on Craigslist that I picked up for free.  I left it in my garage for a few months before I found a buyer that wanted it for $50.  Good deal, right?

The tricks to finding items on Craigslist are perseverance, a big truck or van, storage, and patience.  I have two full encyclopedias that I have been patiently waiting to resell.  Every couple of months I give it a shot.  Maybe I should lower my price?  Maybe I just need to be patient.

eBay – People are always trying to sell collectibles and miscellaneous goods on eBay.  If you can find one that is below the market price, you can likely buy and resell.  Just be careful that the item is in new or very good condition and well below the market price.  You often have to beat the market to resell, and you have to beware of thin margins.  You don’t want to get stuck with a product that you either can’t sell or have to sell for less than you paid.  To take advantage of eBay for sourcing, you have to be a true expert in the products you are buying.

Woot– If you have never heard of a Woot Off, you are missing one of the finer things in life.  Woot is a discounted product website that gives one deal each day, and you can buy up to three of whatever is being sold.  These products often come at a steep discount, but sometimes do not.  You have to do your research.

Every once in a while, you might be lucky enough to see a “Woot Off.”  A Woot Off is the equivalent of a Las Vegas casino for online shopping.  The site hosts a series of short Woots that last until the item sells out.  Once it is sold out, the next item begins.  This can be an opportunity to stock up on products to resell.  However, Woot reselling is popular and you will have competition, so margins might be low.

Overstock  – Overstock.comhas deals that could lead to a resale opportunity, but actual overstock is even better.  Many websites and companies offer overstock items.  Overstock consists of retail items that were bought in too large of a quantity.  The overstock is sold at a discount in bulk.  If you can stock up on a good deal that is desirable, you might be able to keep going on eBay or Craigslist for a while.

SlickDeals– SlickDeals is one of my favorite deal websites.  It is the deal crowd-sourcing home of the Internet.  Slick Deals is updated constantly throughout the day with new tips.  Most are about some sort of electronic item, but I have seen many exceptions.  I once bought a digital camera through a Slick Deals tip and sold it on Craigstlist for a profit of about $25.

Big Box Retail – Every big store has sales, and that can be a great opportunity to snatch an item quickly.  Wise Bread recently ran a post about buying and selling for a profit from Office Depot with heavily discounted supplies.  Every store needs to sell off inventory to make room for new stuff.  If you can time it right, that can turn into money in your pocket.

Conclusion – Have fun buying and selling stuff to make money.  I can attest that this is a thrilling and fun hobby, but it takes work and has some risks.  I suggest starting small and working up to having a fun business for side income.  If you have had any success, or failure, with this in the past, be sure to leave your tips in the comments.

A new website popped up recently that lets you post jobs you would do for $5, or find people willing to do things for you for $5.

People are willing to do everything from settling an argument or sending you a postcard from an exotic location to graphic design, social media, and SEO projects for five bucks.

On the other hand, you can create an account and post jobs that you are willing to do for others.  You get $4 and Fiverr keeps $1 as a transaction fee.  You get your $4 deposited by PayPal once everyone agrees that the a satisfactory job was done and everything is complete as advertised.

I posted a very specific blog consulting gig on the site, but no one is interested yet.  If you can get on the featured jobs on the front page, I imagine you can make $5 a lot of times very quickly.  If you post any jobs, let us know in the comments so we can take a look.  Who knows, you might even make five bucks!

Fiverr [Hat Tip to Lifehacker]

This is part two in my look back at my various efforts to make money online.

Amazon Affiliates – While this could have been a subset of blogging, I put it on its own.  It was a miserable failure for me.  I didn’t make one affiliate sale despite a handful of positive book reviews.  But now, that doesn’t matter anyway.

Past Web Sites- I started my first website in high school.  I will admit, it was a professional wrestling fan site.  I just deleted it from Yahoo! GeoCities a few months ago actually.  While a webmaster about ten years ago, I signed up for Yahoo’s pay per click advertising.  I made about $5 from that one.

Selling Rap CDs – I am a professional Jewish rapper.  I don’t mention that much on this site.  Maybe if I did, I would sell more CDs.  I have sold enough HWChet albums to pay for the costs, but those were all sold in person.  I have never made an online sale, but I do have PayPal on the site if you are interested.  A CD is just $5 plus shipping.

Paid Surveys- I used to try to fill out a lot of surveys online at Survey Savvy.  Over several years and many, many rejections from the screening process, I have earned about $60 on Survey Savvy.  If you are interested in signing up, please do so through my referral link.  Or, contact me for a referral e-mail.  I have referred two friends who have also been paid out for their surveys.

Honorable Mention – Swag Bucks

I have earned enough from Swagbucks to buy a season of one of my favorite shows on DVD for free.  Swagbucks is a hybrid Google search engine that rewards you in Swagbucks for searching.  For doing nothing more than I normally would, I have earned seven $5 gift cards for Amazon.com.  There are thousands of prizes.  You can also cash your bucks in for cash through PayPal.  If you want to take advantage of this one, sign up through my link to give matching Swagbucks for your first 1000 bucks earned from search.  I have had a friend sign up and she was thrilled with the site too.

Honorable Mentions – Free Stuff

I have earned lots of free stuff from e-Rewards.  To join the site, you need a referral from one of the sponsoring companies.  I got my invite through the Priority Club rewards program (Holiday Inn), though I have seen friends join up through the book store Borders as well.  You can cash out for miles, hotel reward points, free magazines, and gift cards.

Ideas – Freelancing and eBook

In the future, I am planning to do a little online freelancing.  I plan to do a combination of finance and writing projects.  Sites like Elance show opportunity.  I have also completed an eBook and I am in the final stages of editing and production.  Expect to see it on the site in the near future.

I was going to include the Amazon affiliate program with just a short blurb in my next post on how I make money online, but it is now in the list of how I don’t make money online in a big way.  My account was closed along with every other affiliate in Colorado.

I know of many bloggers, such as Darren at ProBlogger, who make a lot of money from Amazon referrals.  In my neck of the woods, that program is no more.  Here is the letter from Amazon:

Dear Colorado-based Amazon Associate:
We are writing from the Amazon Associates Program to inform you that the Colorado government recently enacted a law to impose sales tax regulations on online retailers. The regulations are burdensome and no other state has similar rules. The new regulations do not require online retailers to collect sales tax. Instead, they are clearly intended to increase the compliance burden to a point where online retailers will be induced to “voluntarily” collect Colorado sales tax — a course we won’t take.
We and many others strongly opposed this legislation, known as HB 10-1193, but it was enacted anyway. Regrettably, as a result of the new law, we have decided to stop advertising through Associates based in Colorado. We plan to continue to sell to Colorado residents, however, and will advertise through other channels, including through Associates based in other states.
There is a right way for Colorado to pursue its revenue goals, but this new law is a wrong way. As we repeatedly communicated to Colorado legislators, including those who sponsored and supported the new law, we are not opposed to collecting sales tax within a constitutionally-permissible system applied even-handedly. The US Supreme Court has defined what would be constitutional, and if Colorado would repeal the current law or follow the constitutional approach to collection, we would welcome the opportunity to reinstate Colorado-based Associates.
You may express your views of Colorado’s new law to members of the General Assembly and to Governor Ritter, who signed the bill.
Your Associates account has been closed as of March 8, 2010, and we will no longer pay advertising fees for customers you refer to Amazon.com after that date. Please be assured that all qualifying advertising fees earned prior to March 8, 2010, will be processed and paid in accordance with our regular payment schedule. Based on your account closure date of March 8, any final payments will be paid by May 31, 2010.
We have enjoyed working with you and other Colorado-based participants in the Amazon Associates Program, and wish you all the best in your future.

Best Regards,
The Amazon Associates Team

To recap: “We don’t love you anymore because of something someone else did.  Now fuck off.”  My account has been closed.  While Amazon was not a big money maker for me, it was an option.  Now it is not.

Like many of you, I have tried my best at finding opportunities to make money online.  I have tried a handful of methods.  Some have worked out really well.  Some have not quite paid off.  I hope to continue to expand my online income streams, so please give your best ideas in the comments below.  The list is roughly in order from best to worst, but I did not use a scientific method to pick the order.

eHow Writer’s Compensation Program – eHow has been my biggest paying online money maker since I joined at the end of 2007.  Over the roughly two years I have been a member, I have earned well over $1,000.  Not a living by any means, but not too shabby either.  After being accepted for the program, I wrote a total of about 35 articles over my two years.  The best thing about eHow is that you make residual earnings on your articles.  I make about $30 a month these days for not doing anything.  For some reason, the earnings have fallen over time.  You can see my articles under my user page: Eric1985 at eHow.

Demand Studios – Demand Studios is a subsidiary of Demand Media.  Demand Media is the owner of eHow, so this overlaps a little bit.  At Demand Studios, I am paid a fixed rate (I only take $15) or a residual for writing articles for eHow or a list of other affiliated sites.  Something nice about Demand Studios, which requires a professional application, resume, and writing samples, is that the work is always there.  I could potentially earn a full time income from the site if I put in the time.  If has been my best success lately.

Blogging – Blogging is not something I do for big profits by any means, but it does produce a small income stream.  I have made the $100 AdSense cutoff one time before, but it takes a long time to earn anything there.  I have also earned income from sponsored posts and direct advertising sales.  However, hosting and domain registration across my several domains makes blogging just a bit more than a wash.  The hourly rate is dismal.  I do it because I enjoy doing it.  If you want to “pay me” for what I do here, the best way today is to sign up for one of my affiliate sites.  I only choose affiliates that I really use in real life.  You can sign up for Lending Club and get a $25 bonus or high interest checking and/or savings at ING Direct and I get a little something.

Stay tuned for part 2 later this week.

This year I had an unexpected and pleasant surprise at work.  I was awarded stock options for 700 shares pricing in March.  The options vest 33.3% per year over the next three years.

It is exciting to be awarded options.  This ties my compensation to the company’s performance over the next three years.  From the company perspective, it is better to have employee compensation tied to company performance, as employees may work harder to ensure the company is successful.

Here is how employee stock options work, using my situation as an example:

• First, I am notified that I will receive options.  I was given the number of shares and the pricing date for the options.
• On the pricing date in March, my options are given a fixed value per share.  This is tied to the market price on that date.  The price is called a strike price.
• Every year for the next three years, a portion of those options become vested, or available for use.
• If the market value of my company stock is higher than the strike price on any date past the vesting date, I have the option to buy shares of the company stock at the strike price.  If the price is higher than the strike price, I can sell immediately for the market price and keep the profit.  If it is below the strike price, the option is “out of the money” and I will not exercise the option.

As you can see, the mechanics of options depend on the market price compared to the strike price.  No one would ever exercise options “out of the money,” because they would have to pay for the stock at a price higher than the market price.

While employee options have similar mechanics to buying and selling options on the market, there are many differences.  Do not use this as a guide to buy and sell options.

I found an interesting new website a few weeks back and have been impressed enough to pass it on to you.  The Residuals and Royalties blog keeps cranking out ideas on how to make money through unique opportunities.

The author, an LA based actor named Michael-John Wolfe, scours the web for ideas on turning income sources into long term income streams.

It is definitely worth a read.  I am an RSS subscriber so I don’t miss any new ideas.