@OP: I have no advice. I believe that shoppers should do what they want, if they can. What do you want to do about mystery shopping? If you were certain that you would not incur an unwanted SS situation, would you continue to be a mystery shopper? To me, this sounds like an opportunity. You have enjoyed mystery shopping, such as it is in your area, and you are not certain what would happen to your SS income if you did more or significantly more of the mystery shopping. It's an opportunity to think about your area, other work there-- and whether you would be an employee or an IC, and the true costs and offsets of traveling as a mystery shopper.

Being an Independent business, yes we all have to consider what works for us, does one want to do routes, hopefully providing bonus, or stay closer to home, venturing into the closest city without bonus, but perhaps, doing four jobs in that one area. or work for smaller pay and perks...it's all available, one must figure it out on their own, trying different things. This industry does allow you choices, figure out what's best for you. I started working a lot and made decent money doing my Vegas jobs then. The past year have cut back, and that's o.k. I've built good relationships with my companies, so appreciate the fact that at my age I can still do as much or as little as I choose.

One thing I wish they would do is to raise the taxable wage from $600 total to maybe $5000. The first $5000 would not be taxable by Social Security or Medicare.

I think someone could make $50,000 a year if they have security clearance for certain areas, or have a Private Investigator license.

In S. California it would be tough to do shops long distances because of the freeways being bumper to bumper during parts of the day.

@johnb974 wrote:

I believe it's possible. Depending on where you live and the type of shops you do. If I lived in Orange County (20 miles from me), I could be mystery shopping everyday, all day.

You'd get burnt out or have a heart attack. Neither one is good. Central Orange County has brutal traffic.

You can mystery shop all day, every day in LA, San Diego or San Francisco too. It's a grind though. I don't recommend it.

I have offers for more shops than any one shopper could ever do in central LA...but could never approach $50k shopping in this city. The majority of the money I make is out of LA, with much of it being outside of CA. I'm happy when I make $50k annually in reimbursements.....

For me, my overall profit for assignments is better when I take shops in my immediate area, or ones I can access with public transit. I'm also considering airplanes to be public transit for the purpose of this discussion

The ones that know are the ones actually doing the work, above post by Steve is right on....traffic just takes too much time and hard to tell how long it will take to get there. I used to be able to do more, but traffic keeps getting worse, gas is now 3.29 and so on. I have other income and Steve has a job other than MSing, we all have other income. Making 50 grand doing straight MSing, sure I'd go for it, but the quality of life wouldn't be what i want. I don't count reimbursement, that's my perk and my money..and my lifestyle enhancement.

There are burger flippers and then there are Michelin star chefs.

Viva la difference...kinda like telling your kids to be a Dr.,pressure. those that can, do, and don't need advice.

There is a lot of apples to oranges when comparing southern California or NYC to most other areas. Where I live we actually have off-peak traffic hours. Even during rush hour a 30 mile trip with traffic can often be done in no more than 45 minutes because traffic accidents are the exception rather than the norm. If I head the opposite direction I can easily drive over 100 miles in less than 90 minutes. From what I've seen it could easily take that or longer to go 30 miles in L.A.

I wanted to add a response to this, "those that can, do, and don't need advice." If I had not received advice early on, there is no way I could have ever pulled it off. My guess is bgriffin and others would say the exact same thing. I make a point of telling others it is not easy to get established with MS and suggest they keep their day jobs before making the leap. The reason being nobody can tell someone in another part of the country what they may be up against. OTOH, if someone is in between jobs and has their finances in order, it may be worth a shot to them.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/01/2018 05:33PM by LisaSTL.

Proof that everyone works in their own way. I started having been retired 5 years working part time for a Art Gallery in town. I didn't know a thing about this industry and no one I know ever heard of it. I just took whatever was offered and figured it out, knowing it's not brain surgery, I'll get experience as I go along, and the fact I love shopping was in my favor, stores and restaurants weren't new to me, growing up in the garment profession and San Francisco who has always had innovative restaurants. I learned a lot the first four months and quickly moved up. I didn't have a forum until three years into it. I have been a worker preferring to work alone,( right up my alley). I didn't need advice, just experience, there you have it. this can be done on your own, and bad advice is no advice. What I like about this forum, is we're all in it together, so, it is nice to have a place to go and share our experiences, maybe pickup a good MSC or finding some great people and making friends. Don't need to be told how to drive in this extra ordinary city of Los Angeles, having been raised in No. CA., and living in So. CA since 1970, I know about the state and traffic, my cousin was Major of SF. Presidents coming to town, streets closed and all the construction, as the saying goes, L.A. has two seasons, summer and constriction.....
Being in this industry does require one work alone, basically, we all know that.

@Irene_L.A. wrote:

...as the saying goes, L.A. has two seasons, summer and constrction.

That's actually been modified in recent years, Irene. We are currently in awards season!

@LisaSTL; You are fortunate in your ability to drive during 'rush hour'. My 18-mile cross town commute to my dentist takes around an hour each way during the better hours of the day. Could be two hours in bad traffic.

@steve....right, it is that season...have you become an Uber person? we now have movie permits available to the industry as they are less expensive and less time getting cleared than L.A. CSI is filmed here, with Disney building new headquarters, and our town is getting busy , although nothing like L.A. proper. Still much easier.......

Who the F drives during "rush hour".....only the 9 to 5'ers.

@Irene_L.A., there are actually many travel options available these days for us 'city people'. I travel with my laptop and leave the car at home most days. I can do that hour commute to the westside on a train instead and be productive during that commute, or from any cafe when I need to submit something. From there, we have Uber, Zipcar and bike rentals available throughout the city.

And on the original topic; If I was on a limited income, I would be focusing my mystery shopping on reimbursements. Heck...I'm on a full income and do that!

My MS income gets pushed to my schedule C with the majority of the other work I do and it it will just get added there to my passive income in retirement, so I don't ever see a need to quit.

Who the F said I drive during rush hour? It was just an example. I'm not trying to encourage or discourage anyone and will refrain from commenting lest it be misconstrued as more "bad advice."

@SteveSoCal wrote:

@Irene_L.A., there are actually many travel options available these days for us 'city people'. I travel with my laptop and leave the car at home most days. I can do that hour commute to the westside on a train instead and be productive during that commute, or from any cafe when I need to submit something. From there, we have Uber, Zipcar and bike rentals available throughout the city.

And on the original topic; If I was on a limited income, I would be focusing my mystery shopping on reimbursements. Heck...I'm on a full income and do that!

My MS income gets pushed to my schedule C with the majority of the other work I do and it it will just get added there to my passive income in retirement, so I don't ever see a need to quit.

I do that 80% of the time, reimbursements are what i shop for and a little extra income. I'll do banks and dealers that pay well in my town, but my reimbursements are what's it's all about for me. My daughter living in the heart of Chicago also takes uber, rides her bike to work in the summer, and avoids the high cost of Ins. and parking.
Sounds like you've got it down to a science.....you still owe me Four Seasons brunch.....

Right now I'm doing mostly reimbursements, moving away from other shops. I enjoy eating out and it cuts down my food bill. Well it use to, now I'm buying higher end food items at the store.

@johnb974 wrote:

I enjoy eating out and it cuts down my food bill. Well it use to, now I'm buying higher end food items at the store.

You have to supplement the restaurants with grocery store shops!

@SteveSoCal wrote:

@johnb974 wrote:

I enjoy eating out and it cuts down my food bill. Well it use to, now I'm buying higher end food items at the store.

You have to supplement the restaurants with grocery store shops!

I've done a few grocery store shops around here. Most require way too much work for the low pay they offer. I don't do them.

Isaiah,
I wanted to make sure I understand your point. Is your point that in order to make a better income from MSing, one needs to be involved in video, auto-related and/or route shopping?

The issue of Social Security is complex enough that one might be best served by referring to either the Soc Sec website itself or an expert.
I can vouch for www.obliviousinvestor.com. I have been a client of his. His website has excellent Soc Sec advice.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/02/2018 06:03PM by BarefootBliss.

I had a few months in my past of over $4000 in fees alone from shopping. Those days are behind me though, as I have also moved on. Now I only accept shops I enjoy completing for companies that I value my business relationship with. Usually, these companies make the shops worth my time.

Scheduling allowed me to experience a different side to mystery shopping. I can't say I liked it more; I enjoyed talking to shoppers. At the same time; I saw the darker side of some companies- one of the reasons I reconsidered this environment.

I love my current position. I work from home or wherever I want to work from; it's salary, with bonuses and profit sharing. I've had offers to schedule for other companies and politely decline them.

@BarefootBliss
* "Better" is a subjective term. However, there are some types of shops/shopping that will tend to maximize income.
* Video shopping tends to have higher pay with less/equal time spent working. Sometimes the pay is quite high when compared to similar, non-video shops.
* Route-shopping is really about efficiency and, therefore, making more money on a given trip. If somebody plans to make a living doing this, routes are a must. Routes can be single day - or several days, or even weeks. If you have a $100 shop two hours away, on a route you would pick up several shops on your way there/back to add money to your route without increasing your drive time. You might increase your driving time from four to five hours, but your $100 can be come $300.
* Auto sales shops can pay very well. (Sometimes they are terrible.)

@BarefootBliss wrote:

Isaiah,
I wanted to make sure I understand your point. Is your point that in order to make a better income from MSing, one needs to be involved in video, auto-related and/or route shopping?

@kimmiemae wrote:

When my coworker retired last year, she said they look at the last 10 years. Must have changed recently???

I seem to recall that in order to qualify to receive soc sec you need to have earned at least a minimum amt during at least 40 quarters. That would be equivalent to 10 years if you did them consecutively. Perhaps that is where your co worker saw 10. They have calculated based on 35 yrs for as long as I can remember.

Oh, OK. That makes sense. Thanks!

@sandyf wrote:

@kimmiemae wrote:

When my coworker retired last year, she said they look at the last 10 years. Must have changed recently???

I seem to recall that in order to qualify to receive soc sec you need to have earned at least a minimum amt during at least 40 quarters. That would be equivalent to 10 years if you did them consecutively. Perhaps that is where your co worker saw 10. They have calculated based on 35 yrs for as long as I can remember.

@SoCalMama wrote:

@johnb974 wrote:

I believe it's possible. Depending on where you live and the type of shops you do. If I lived in Orange County (20 miles from me), I could be mystery shopping everyday, all day.

You'd get burnt out or have a heart attack. Neither one is good. Central Orange County has brutal traffic.

You can mystery shop all day, every day in LA, San Diego or San Francisco too. It's a grind though. I don't recommend it.

Did you notice that LA has bumper to bumper traffic too! I can shop all day but probably would not get more than 4 or 5 shops in. It takes a long time to drive between shops and find parking and then walk. If you park in one place for several hours should you have multiple shops there parking would cost most if not all of your fee and most companies will not pay for parking. Some of the lots in places that might have multiple shops charge $1.50-$2 for each 12 minutes.

@Want985 wrote:

Im sorry but i dont believe anyone is making $50k a year. Big cities mean more people to spread shops around at lower pay.

I've got a feeling that most of those claiming $50k annually are calling reimbursement of client-required purchases as income.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/12/2018 06:11AM by AZwolfman.

I do no know how anyone else works their work. I surmise that some people have the ability (opportunity?) to work series of shops into time frames that others do not have. I have little time and am an hour away from a slightly shopped town and two hours from the nearest heavily shopped town. In addition, I have a daily, local job. As a result, I have little time for mystery shopping etc. But if I did not have the local job, I would be free to shop whenever and wherever my little heart and car could take me. Heck, I might even fly somewhere. Under those circumstances, I really would be able to travel and work around the clock as needed in order to accomplish sets of tasks and/or diverse assignments. .I would have the time to pursue bonuses and additional money. (I am not motivated to earn more from mystery shopping etc. I like that I have the variety of jobs.)