DesignerLaundry.com offers celebrity fashion for the greater good.

Liz Hurley’s Dress for

1/3 the price + feel good bonus =

Nice! 

I admit it. I’m an Internet shopaholic. This is not necessarily a good thing. Especially when it comes to buying clothes–it’s all too easy. There’s a reason why Ebay weighs in as the most highly trafficked website in the world. (I actually consider it a woman’s equivalent to Internet porn, but I digress). My point is, if you’re gonna go there, you may as well link your shopping experience to bettering the world. At the new online boutique DesignerLaundry.com, they’ve managed to combine selling hot designer clothing with giving back. And they’re definitely on to something.

At first glance DesignerLaundry.com looks similar to Bluefly, but with more panache. The designers in their wide rerpetoir-Malandrino, Rick Owens, Marni, Yohji Yammamoto and Comme Des Garcons (too name a few) are edgier than what you’ll find while cruising the everyday Shopbops and Yoox’s of the net. Their prices? Surprisingly affordable. I picked up a Catherine Malandrino silk chiffon sundress as seen on Elizabeth Hurley according to their blog for $175.00. This is about 30% cheaper than prices published everywhere on line. Including Ebay.

Beyond offering edgey designer clothing at affordable prices, DesignerLaundry gives the everyday shopper the chance feel to and look a like a rock star. Literally. Their CEO, a 15-year vet of the entertainment biz, has been utilizing his celebrity connections to stock his shop. So for a few extra bucks shoppers can seize the opportunity to pick up or Nicolette Sheridan’s “red-carpet-worn” Calvin Klein Collection gown , or Lindsay Lohan’s “well-loved” Chanel blazer or Angelina Jolie’s “mint” leather bomber rumored to be the genuine McCoy from Mr. and Mrs. Smith.

Perhaps the most admirable twist that sets DesignerLaundry apart from the increasingly crowded e-commerce space, is that they’re actually working to make a positive difference in the world. Currently 40% of their proceeds from the sale of celebrity-worn items are donated to charities such as The American Cancer Society, The Fisher Center for Alzheimer’s Research and Musicians on Call (to name a few). They call it “Fashion for the Greater Good.”

I call it *fab.*

*Hot Tip* Shop DesignerLaundry.com and use the code CASHIONISTA at check out to receive 10% off your total purchase.

Earn 3K a month from the comfort of your couch.

I just made $36 dollars in 15 minutes.
Not bad for filling out a form while watching Letterman and eating a cupcake.

It’s not a scam. Companies are actually paying to have us try their products and services for free. At CashCrate.com they pass the cash on to you. Just complete free offers and get paid without spending a dime. If you complete one $10 offer each day, you’ll end the month with over $3k in earnings. You have the potential to earn between $100 to $3k per month; the choice is yours.

How it works: Register on line for (easily cancel-able) free trials with companies like Netflix, Yahoo, and Stamps.com, you’ll get paid up to $20.00 per form.

Tips:
You’ll want to pursue the higher dollar offers for the obvious reasons. If you check everyday, there are tons of offers paying out over $10+. Use the e-mail & phone numbers you created to enter information so you will receive credit for the lead. They promise not to sell your info or spam you, nevertheless it doesn’t hurt to give them an email address you specifically use for, well, filling out forms on line. Just make sure it matches the same email address you registered with.

Getting Paid:
Cash crate members must accumulate at least $10 in earnings before receiving a payout via check. Payments are processed on the 20th of every month. Check them out!

Become your own hedgefund at Prosper.com

Click here for money. Seriously.

Prosper, America’s first people-to-people lending marketplace has launched to make consumer lending more financially and socially rewarding for everyone!

Think of it as a more intuitive and much cooler combination of Facebook, Ebay and your local bank.com. Instead of listing and bidding on items, people list and bid on loans using the online auction platform.
People who want to lend set the minimum interest rate they are willing to earn and bid in increments of $50 to $25,000 on loan listings they select. People who lend can easily diversify using “standing orders”, which automatically make many small loans to different borrowers.
Borrowers create loan listings for up to $25,000 and set the maximum rate they are willing to pay a lender. Then the auction begins as people who lend bid down the interest rate. Once the auction ends, Prosper takes the bids with the lowest rates and combines them into one simple loan. Prosper handles all on-going loan administration tasks including loan repayment and collections on behalf of the matched borrower and lenders.

Prosper makes several claims insisting they don’t sell, rent, or share members’ personal information with third party marketers. Their security and identity verification systems are state of the art and reportedly consistent with those used by banks, brokerages and institutional creditors.

Hmmmm. When it comes to a loan, would you rather chillout at Citibank or surf your social graph?

Click Send. Get Cash. I like the sound of that much better.

Your income=Your value. Give yourself a raise.

By Steve Pavlina, Author of  Personal Development for Smart People 

The essence of successful income generation is value creation. If you want to earn income, you must provide something that matters enough to someone else that they’ll pay you for it. The act of providing value may be direct, such as selling a useful product or service, or it may be indirect, such as providing a free service and monetizing it via other means. But in either case the core activity is to create and deliver value to others.

The notion that you generate income by trading value is a simple concept, but it’s amazing how many people still don’t get it. Here are a couple examples of incorrect thinking about income generation that seem to trip up a lot of people:You may have done a great job of energetic house-cleaning, but if you want to generate income, that energy needs to flow into some form of value creation and delivery. No value, no money.It’s like you’re looking at a fire (a metaphor for your financial problems), and you’re running around scrubbing the fire hoses, polishing the nozzles, and setting up a reverse-osmosis filter for the water supply. Meanwhile the fire is continuing to burn, seemingly unimpressed by your elegant fire-suppression system.Turn on the freakin’ water! Stop cleansing, balancing, and saging your aura, and start directing your energy into the physical reality all around you. If you do this correctly, your physical body will move — a lot! You’ll be taking lots and lots of action. You are a part of this world, and it’s time to recognize that your physical body is the primary mechanism through which financial abundance will manifest. This is a key block you must still address. Like it or not, if you want a physical result like cash in the bank, you’ll have to use physical mechanisms like your voice and your body to get things done. Energetically there are a lot of different “manifestation frequencies” at play here. Some, like those that can cause amazing synchronicities, tend to work in subtle ways and can take a long time to weave their way through the physical plane. You’ll probably feel them working long before you see them working. However, here in the physical universe, the fastest and most direct manifestation frequency is plain old physical action.

Focusing on getting money instead of providing valueIf you’re too wrapped up in your own little world of me, me, me. Where’s the value? To provide vale, there must be some level of innovation or risk-taking involved. If hundreds of others are already doing a better job performing essentially the same service you’re trying to perform. Your service is comparatively useless. It just isn’t needed. You’re trying to milk a system instead of using that system to provide real substance. Recognize that if someone else created what you’ve created, you’d never patronize them.By focusing on trying to get money, you’re missing the point. The point is to provide value to others. This means serving people in a way they aren’t already being served, in a manner that aligns with your unique creative self-expression. Share what only you can share. Express what only you can express in the way that only you can express it.On some level you already sense where this focus will take you. In the long run, trying to get money is a business model from hell. It’s ironically more fun to fail at such an attempt than it is to succeed, and failure in this case is a lot healthier for your spirit.Try to look past your own needs and recognize there’s a pretty interesting world around you. Through your actions you can have an impact on it, for better or worse. Think about how you can provide something that people want or need in a way they aren’t already being served, something that will make a positive difference. Then act on it. The solution is to get out of your head and focus on creating something of value for other people. With a value-driven mindset, you’ll be properly centered on the very thoughts and actions that will produce a sustainable income stream.

Become instantly well-read (no reading required).

Join the literati–listen to your books.

For all you info junkies that would rather subscribe to an RSS than the NYT, listen to a 5 minute podcast rather than the 11 o’clock news, or long to indulge in the latest Grisham novel but simply can’t find the time–don’t hang up your your cerebral cortex just yet. Check out RedAloud.com or Audible.com and absorb novels by osmosis! Get learned while waiting in line, commuting, getting ready for work, or maximizing any headphone-appropriate opportunity you can muster. Find peace with The Dali Lama, plan your next investment strategy with Rich Dad, or Brush up on your Transcendentalism at Walden Pond. Audiobooks are addicting. Thankfully with technology so advanced you can fit a hard drive in your pocket, opportunities to learn from books can be revived through simply going abut your daily routine.

So the next time your boss swoops by and notices you all diligent and headphone-clad concentrating intently on that excel spreadsheet, he’ll most likely leave you to your own devices. The fact that you’re on page 165 of Career Transitions For Dummies will be your own little secret.

Why you should break up with your bank.

Admit it….The thrill is gone. You’ve grown complacent. The whole thing has turned into a long, drawn out, uninspiring routine that’s getting you nowhere–It’s prime time for an intervention and I’m here to tell you to take a long hard look at your relationship and ask yourself: Is my bank just not that into me?

Be it less than exemplary service, high transaction fees, lines at the teller, or interest rates that just don’t stack up, just cut the cord and switch already.     Proceed directly to the nearest red carpet where the bank next door is ready to treat you (and your money) like royalty.

In the old days, all it took me to switch banks was a cooler welcome gift than a toaster. I admit my standards were low. They had to be. 10 years ago Citibank and Chase were the only gigs in town. Memories of endless teller lines and disgruntled customer service was the norm. Back in the day, going to the bank was just about as inspiring as waiting in line for 2-cent stamps at the post office. Thankfully, the retail baking landscape has changed dramatically in recent years. And now I’ll happily admit, I’m a tough customer.

Swarovski Encrusted Toaster. Now we’re talking.

Why wouldn’t I be a banking snob? A quick stroll through my neighborhood and I’m endlessly taunted by high-yield CDs and even more attractive on-line savings rates offered by more than 20 different retail banking newcomers. Espressos at Wamu, free change counting at Commerce, and concierge services at HSBC are just a few perks banks are using to stand out from the crowd. Toasters are a thing of the past.

Who is the best bank out there today? I’ve got my eye on WaMu. With an attractive suite of products and services such as a 4.75 On-Line Savings rate (at the time of this writing) and Free Checking (for life) topped off by a competitive 5.10 CD rate (for 12 months) and I’m intrigued. Add a clean and easy on-line banking interface, and new branches popping up faster than sub-prime-financed-hi-rise condos and I’m sold!

I confess. I have very little loyalty when it comes to my local bank. I’ve been a customer of 1st National, Emigrant Savings, Fleet, Chase, Citibank, Commerce Bank, HSBC and most recently Countrywide. Yes Countrywide for their 6-month CD at 5.25 APY (FDIC insured of course). Sound fickle? Maybe. But I see it like this: The 20 minute time investment it took to sign up and fund my Countrywide account on line will save me approximately $1100 in yearly interest–Money lost had I stayed asleep at the wheel while my HSBC on-line savings rate dropped a full point since I joined last year. The moral of the story is this: when it comes to banking, it’s OK to be a diva. Your bank should work hard for your money.

Save Money Shopping On-Line. Every Time.

Ebates rocks. I use it as my landing page before I purchase anything on-line. In a nutshell, it’s shopping site that pays an average of 5% cash back every time you shop on-line. They represent over 800 stores including Barnes & Noble.com, The Gap, Target, Buy.com and Expedia. Get into the habit of using them and watch your savings pile up over time. Plus you can still use your own promo codes get additional savings with exclusive coupons and free shipping offers found on the Ebates site.

Most recently I purchased a couch from Design Within Reach on line and ended up with a nice $160.00 rebate. The catch? They track your spending from their landing page. Now some may think this infringes upon their shopping privacy, but after 3 years of using them I’ve yet to be spammed and frankly, saving $200-$300 a year in rebates is worth them knowing I shop at the Gap for my skivvies. Sign up now and get a $5 bonus when you make your first purchase–For every friend you send their way, they’ll add $5 to your account and $5 to theirs. All they have to do is sign up and make a qualifying purchase.

 

Extrabux is also a new kid on the block with 600 stores under there belt and slightly higher payouts. They offer a $3 referral bonus as well.

It may seem like pocket change at first but if you’re a die hard on-line shopper like me, the rebates add up nicely over time.