Work At Home Jobs

[Chopper]

How has everyone been doing? Sorry I've been out of the game for so long, things are kinda crazy over here.

I've been cruising a lot of these online ads for work at home opportunities and a lot of them sound good, but almost TOO good when you think about it.

Has anyone out there ever done these jobs? If so do you know of any trustworthy companies that offer these jobs? Thank you, hope all is well with everyone.

[odinn7]

Most of them are scams...well, let me say that any that I have seen are scams. They usually charge you something up front to get you started and claim you will get it back but it doesn't work out so well.

[Chopper]

yeah a lot of them sure do look shady. as the ol' saying goes: "if it's too good to be true it probably is." guess it's back to sitting with crackheads on the bus. thank you for the warning though Odinn.

[ulthar]

If they are soliciting you, they are probably scamming.  On the other hand, do a Google search for "freelance job," "telecommunting jobs" or "work at home" or variations, and you will find some legit sites (some do have a membership fee).

What are your skills?  That's the key.  Forget about jobs that say "just sit back and let the money roll in."  If you type or are good at proofreading, there's at-home work available.  For example, I do some freelance work for textbook publishers doing (among some other, more specialized things) accuracy review.  I review problem sets and study guides to make sure they are (1) correct and (2) presented in a manner helpful for the students.

[Chopper]

oh that's cool. i'm skilled in typing and a lot of everday office software stuff.

[Ash]

What's "telecommunting"?

Lol!  Just kidding.

[Susan]

if you have to buy anything, it's a scam. My friend tried one of those "mail from home" deals and she got stuck with a ton of envelopes and stamps she bought. Something like, she realized after she bought all the supplies that they wanted more money for some reason. And jobs like that aren't going to offer health benefits and such. Heck, even freelancing you'll have to make enough money to pick up your own individual healthcare policy.

But work at home jobs i know of that are legit tend to be the medical transcriptionist type deals where you have to type fast and know a lot of medical terminology. They'll either be typing out what's on doctors audio tapes or they do coding or something. I know a few people who do that, it's a real job.

I used to work at home helping my brother out running a business (which he still runs). What ultimately led me back out to th workforce was lack of a good salary and benefits. If it wasn't for that I wish i could work at home again.

On a similar note the other day I was thinking about how kids today earn money. The paperroute has gone by the wayside since the surburbs are huge and a car is required. Then there's the kids who mow lawns. But lots of people here anyhow hire mexican lawn service guys cheap to do all that. I live in an apartment and I don't have trash curbside pickup..so to speak. I don't know if the apartment managers would allow it but in ungated communities - who's to know? If I were a kid i'd go to a complex with flyers and advertise that for a small fee i'd pick up your trash AT YOUR DOOR and throw it out each morning if it was set out before a certain time. If you charged each person let's say $7 a week and you got 20 people to participate, you made yourself $140 for the month for that complex. And keep in mind most complexes are clustered together and each has around 200 units. So there's plenty of potential. Some people just hate taking out the trash, My dumpster is around the corner and most mornings i'm in a hurry and forget. And I once made the mistake of forgetting it was in my trunk until the next day when a foul odor hit the interior.

[ulthar]

Susan Wrote:
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> Heck, even freelancing you'll have to make enough
> money to pick up your own individual healthcare
> policy.

That's not that big of deal, really.  You pay for your own insurance anyway in the form of your employer does not pay you your 'full' salary.  I've worked freelance jobs for $30+ per hour, and I know of even higher rates for similar work.  Now, if that were full time, that'd be about $55,000 per year.  Those 'employed' doing the same kind of work are probably making in the mid thirties plus their benefits.

Is that health insurance benefit really worth close to $20,000 per year to you? Last time I had a policy that I paid out of my own pocket, it was only about $1200 per year, and the coverage was about as good as many employer benefit policies (that is, it stunk).

This way, *I* get the money and can choose the policy I want from the carrier I want.  Or, I can gamble on staying healthy and not have insurance, and invest that money so IT GROWS (rather than being insurance company profits).

Sorry to sound like an iconoclast, but being self-employed, this kind of issue comes up a lot for me.  One of my best friends started his own home-based business several years ago, and was doing very, very well.  His wife was never happy.  At one point, when he was making over $3000 (net) per month, she tried to get him to take a job making $900 per month, just so he would not be 'self-employed.'  He recently *did* take a job (with a serious cut in pay from what he was earning in his own business) to finally satisfy her concerns.  Yet at the same time, she always complains they don't have enough money.

There is a lot of cultural pressure to not go out on your own.  The idea that you have to work for someone else to get those 'benefits' is just one of the subtle pressures 'society' imposes.

>  If you charged each person
> let's say $7 a week and you got 20 people to
> participate, you made yourself $140 for the month
> for that complex.

I think you mean $140 per week, or about $560 per month.

[Susan]

I guess I can't say chopper, i work for a health insurance company so my monthly deduction is around $20, one of the perks of the job. But I do know that individual policies are far more than working for a company where your employer takes up some of the cost. It depends on the type of work you do of course. Freelancing and contracting is a different ballgame than running your own business which can take more money out of your pocket for business expenses. I know people who just opted not to take any insurance or catastrophic simply because individual policies, especially family ones run a high cost. And depending on where you live you dont' always get much of a choice...which is a situation that someone close to me is in. Your right, some companies plans suck because ultimately the plans they choose are not in the hands of the employees but the employer and whatever quote is cheapest.

I wouldn't gamble on my health, personally, just to save a dime. I did that for 7 years and I was lucky, one car accident sent my bills into the thousand but luckily my car insurance company picked up most of it. One quick trip to the ER because of an accident can land you in a sad state of financial debt. Or if you suddenly have a heart attack, need surgery (which is insanely expensive including hospital stay) or develop a medical condition? And that is even worse, because if you end up with a medical condition when you have no insurance, good luck on getting ANY insurance to cover your costs. Nobody likes a high risk..and then if you want a decent plan you'll have to wait the 365 wait period for pre-existing conditions.  Sorry but working for an insurance company has shed light on things. I know people like to thing of them as greedy profiteers but the only reason their rates are so high is because of frivelous lawsuits and people getting every single unecessary expensive test. I just decided to quit playing russian roulette with my health. Plus I like the idea that I now have a 401K in which the company is matching up to 6% (free money), amazing dental plan, free life insurance and a pension plan.

Personally i think we should have something like in canada or europe where it's free. But then, they are taxed up the a$$

Oops - yeah, re: the apartment trash thing. that's a bit more extra pocket money. Hard to do math on antihistimites ;-)

[ulthar]

Susan Wrote:
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> where your employer takes up
> some of the cost.

That was my point.  Your employer does *NOT* take up the cost.  The money they pay for your benefits is money they are NOT paying you.


> I wouldn't gamble on my health, personally, just
> to save a dime.

But you ARE gambling, and not saving anything.

> I did that for 7 years and I was
> lucky, one car accident sent my bills into the
> thousand but luckily my car insurance company
> picked up most of it. One quick trip to the ER
> because of an accident can land you in a sad state
> of financial debt.

If you make $10,000-20,000 more a year from your current employer (as many would if they could trade the cash for the insurance benefits), and INVEST that money wisely, it will be worth FAR more than your insurance account.  Plus you'd have the satisfaction of knowing you are taking care of yourself with what you earn.

Think about it; if you got an extra $10,000 per year and invested it with a 5% return, over 20 years that's a pretty good chunk of change.  For example, after only 5 years, it's worth $58019, or almost a whole extra year's worth of that portion of your income.  Guess who's seeing that growth on your money now?

The insurance company execs and shareholders.

Insurance carriers don't pay out a tiny fraction of what they take in.

Let's take a look at Wellpoint, Inc, a holding company that 'owns' many health insurance providers and managed care groups.  From the Income statement linked to, note the following:

Revenue growth:  17 BILLION for 2003, 21 BILLION for 2004 and 45 BILLION for 2005.
Net Profit growth: 774 million for 2003, 960 million for 2004 and 2.5 BILLION for 2005.

Do you know where that money is coming from?  Your employer is giving it to them rather than to you as part of your salary with "no benefits."  *IF* you never use it, they still keep it; they don't give it to your family after you die if you never used it.

Me, I'd rather get the money and invest it myself.  Then, if I need it to pay medical expenses, I'd have it.  If I don't use it, my kids can have it after I die (well, about half of it, but that's another discussion).

The insurance business is largely a big legalized gambling racket, and you know what they say about gambling: the house always wins.

[Susan]

Ulthar, actually i'm saving plenty. But having insurance isn't a gamble, NOT having it is. Because even some insurance is better than NO insurance. Your medical costs are going to be to a point..paid for. And you have a greater opportunity of receiving better care. If you want to talk about saving you need to look at societies excess problem in needing to have EVERYTHING. If people would get rid of the cell phones, cable, third cars, expensive gas guzzling cars and their constant need to spend more than they make..they'd be able to save just find on even a meager salary.

I know plenty of people who make less than 30K who actually have more saved than a person making over 70K. It's really not how much you make, it's how you choose to spend it. I had a friend who for years has not had medical insurance, her company sure pays her more but they don't want to cover anybody. So she's got two kids on individual policies which are costing her a lot. She isn't covered because she can't afford it. Ultimately all that "extra salary" is going down the drain and all her medical problems are going ignored. She's trying to pay off her bills and debt and is barely scraping by. She finally had it and left her job so she could find a job that pays less but she'll finally get the insurance she's needed and be able to get back on her feet.

If you know about investing money and want to take THAT gamble, by all means. The average joe may not, and regardless of where you put that money even in so called "safe funds"..it's risky. Having a salary cut in order to get medical benefits to me is a better position than taking money and throwing it into the stock market.  But again, there are reasons why insurance costs have grown in the past few years as I listed above, although with new technology and advanced medicine that also factors in the rising cost. When I worked at home and had no insurance, I saved plenty and had money in stocks. But I thought about - it would only take one visit to the hospital to take ALL that hard earned money away and have me back at square one. And what if I required further care? What if my bills began to mount faster than I could make the money and I had absolutely no insurance to pick up any cost? What if I was no longer able to even work because of the condition and then there was no income? If you're making good money you aren't going to even quality for any assistance, and as stated above - most insurance companies won't take you if you have a pre-existing condition which requires expensive medical care unless you have had insurance for the past year. Sure you could go HMO but who wants that crap.

But then, I work for a health insurance company so I have a different perspective than when I was looking at it from the outside. I'm happily paying insurance and regardless of what company I work for down the road, I will continue to do so because my health is more important to me than anything. I'm also smart, and I watch my spending. I have a used car which i'm going to drive into the ground. I'm living modestly so I can continue to build my savings which is secure, because should i ever require medical care my insurance is there and I won't be closing out my bank accounts to foot a bill.