A couple weeks ago my buddy called to say he got free tickets to a seminar about how to make money online using eBay, Yahoo, Google, MSN, etc. He asked me if I wanted to go. I told him yes, that I love I love these free Get Rich seminars. A day or two later, I got the same free tickets. Since my buddy had RSVP for the both of us, I didn’t bother.
Yesterday was the day of the seminar. I got out of work at 5pm, and the seminar was at 6pm across town. They were going to serve us free dinner, but that was after a 90 minute seminar. Seeing that I wouldn’t be eating until at least 7:30, and probably more likely 8pm, I grabbed a chicken sandwich at McDonalds, and got on the road.
I arrived at the airport Holiday Inn a little after 5:30, and found the check in line for the Internet Marketing Conference. But there was no sign of my buddy. People kept coming. Part of me was thinking that my buddy has possibly checked in, and was inside already. But I was kind of doubting that he we do that. I overheard a guy tell another guy behind the table that there were only 4 chairs left inside. It seemed that they were trying to find more chairs. Finally at close to 6pm, a guy came out, appologised, and said the room was full. He said we would still get our free gifts (a day planner), and they would give us money for the dinner. About this time my buddy showed up and asked what was going on. I quietly told him what the deal was.
They took us into another small room, and the guy gave us an overview of what they would have gone over in the other seminar. They represented a place called Stores Online (or StoresOnline ?). The people in the other room were part of the “preview team”. The main purpose of this free seminar was to tell us about another all-day seminar that cost only $20 (us and a guest). At the all-day seminar, they tell us how about how to set up a website, and marketing on the internet. They would also teach us about drop shipping, and affiliate marketing, etc. They would cover 8 different techniques that we could use. There would be a 15-20 minute personal consultation to find out what kind of store we would like to set up. Then apparently they would invite us to buy a website for $2700 (or $2800 programmed?). Apparently this $2700 is an annual fee. Ouch!
Frankly, I can buy prebuilt websites on eBay for a fraction of that. The problem with generic stores like these, is they are too much like the other generic stores. Since they are so much alike, they get lost in the search engines. I can and have built my own websites and don’t pay $2700 a year.
Anyway, they gave us our free organizers, and $10 each to cover dinner. We managed to get out of there around 6:30pm. I went home, and checked my own websites to see how much money I made. 
I mailed off my extimated tax payments today. $930 to the IRS, and $90 to New York state. I am glad I checked the dates. Just the other day it popped into my head that the due date might be coming up. I checked, and sure enough it was September 15th. I had just made a big payment on my credit card, and we had just made our mortgage payment, etc. But we managed to scrape together the money to pay the estimated tax payments on time. Our last payment snuck up on us, and we accidently paid it late. We had just paid our taxes AND estimated taxes in April. I was expecting the next due date to be three months later, but NOOOOO! The next due date was TWO months later in June! What is up with that? But whatever! Taxes suck! But at least as our taxes owed are going up, it means we are earning more money.
Regular Brokerage Account:
| Name | Sym | Shares | Value | Gain/Loss |
| Advance Auto Parts | AAP | 31.336 | $962.02 | ($283.52) |
| Amazon.com | AMZN | 32.090 | $1,019.18 | ($124.76) |
| Cabela’s | CAB | 26.247 | $525.73 | $27.82 |
| Carnival Cruise Lines | CCL | 20.882 | $878.51 | ($138.08) |
| Dick’s Sporting Goods | DKS | 52.390 | $2,177.85 | $336.91 |
| eBay | EBAY | 25.911 | $730.17 | ($273.99) |
| GOOG | 0.936 | $354.20 | ($42.35) | |
| MSCI Emerging Markets Index | EEM | 1.059 | $104.67 | $4.74 |
| S&P Smallcap 600 Value Index | IJS | 35.777 | $2,487.57 | $34.18 |
| Lowes | LOW | 50.004 | $1,366.61 | ($133.10) |
| Red Robin Gourmet Burgers | RRGB | 31.934 | $1,352.40 | ($121.59) |
| Target | TGT | 17.544 | $858.78 | ($98.59) |
| Total | $12,817.69 | ($812.32) |
My Roth IRA Account:
| Name | Sym | Shares | Value | Gain/Loss |
| DJ Select Dividend Fund | DVY | 0.061 | $4.04 | $0.27 |
| MSCI Emerging Markets Index | EEM | 40.816 | $4,034.25 | $520.52 |
| US Real Estate Index | IYR | 80.407 | $6,092.44 | $923.86 |
| S&P SmallCap 600/BARRA Value | IJS | 24.053 | $1,672.41 | $157.67 |
| Pengrowth Energy Trust A | PGH | 26.273 | $606.38 | $88.28 |
| Primewest Energy | PWI | 21.988 | $669.09 | $102.36 |
| Total | $13,078.61 | $2,296.44 |
Wife’s Roth IRA Account:
| Name | Sym | Shares | Value | Gain/Loss |
| MSCI Emerging Markets Index | EEM | 9.987 | $987.12 | ($9.89) |
| S&P MidCap 400/BARRA Value | IJJ | 14.618 | $1,086.56 | $75.00 |
| US Real Estate Index | IYR | 33.234 | $2,518.14 | $460.58 |
| Total | $4,591.81 | $525.70 |
401k:
| Name | Value |
| AF GRTH FUND AMER | $62,997.58 |
| DREY MID CAP INDEX | $61,660.06 |
| DREYFUS SM CAP STK | $61,981.19 |
| SPARTAN INTL INDEX | $65,141.51 |
| Total | $251,780.34 |
A few days ago, my calls me up and tells me he got free tickets to a seminar titled Internet Income Training. The ad says learn how to make money online using eBay, Yahoo, Google, MSN and other online resources at this FREE Conference. As I have said before, I love these free conferences and seminars. I even learn a little bit sometimes. But I really enjoy seeing the sales pitch. I am always interested in seeing the people who show up to these.
Anyway, my buddy asks if I want to go. It even includes a free lunch or dinner, and you get a free business organizer (looks like a small DayRunner). He wanted to go at lunch, but seeing as the thing is supposed to be 90 minutes long, and there is always a waiting around time, etc, I said after work would be better. So we are going to do it.
Then yesterday I got the same letter in the mail with a free ticket. I am guessing they got our names from the same source.
I already make a lot of money online. If I learn anything at this conference, great. If not, I will post about it on here, and probably still make money from it. Great! But I will have fun, get a free meal, and day planner out of it. It’s a no lose situation!
Taxpayers have been paying a 3% federal excise “luxury” tax on long-distance service dating back to 1898 that was put in place to pay for the Spanish-American War. According to my sources, that war is now over. But the taxes was never discontinued. Well, until now. We are going to be getting a refund on our 2006 federal tax return. The refunds will be $30 if you’re filing a 2006 return with one exemption; $40 for two exemptions; $50 for three exemptions and $60 for four or more exemptions. The IRS said that these figures are based on “the long-distance phone tax paid by similarly sized families and households.”
If you still have your old phone bills, you can dig through the last 41 months worth and find out how much you actually paid in taxes, and claim that amount on your return.
Not sure why we are only being refunded for the last 41 months, since the tax dates back to 1898? I find it had to believe that it took over 100 years to pay for the war. My guess is they just don’t want to, or feel they need to pay all that money back. I am a little surprised they have bothered paying back anything at all.