Georgia law firm sues Cosmopolitan over $3.4 million in transferred funds

A Georgia law firm says the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas owes it $3.4 million — money a partner improperly transferred from the firm’s accounts in 2012 for gambling there. The firm, Morris Schneider Wittstadt, recently made the allegation in a federal lawsuit filed in Las Vegas.

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Australia’s top selling car is a what?

IT’S the little car that started the $13,990 drive-away craze in the late 1990s, and now it’s beaten all the big names, taking out the number one spot last month.

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Sisolak throws water on Culinary’s UFC complaint

Culinary Local 226 and Ultimate Fighting Championship are mixing it up again, and this time the Clark County Government Center has become the Octagon.

Source Business http://ift.tt/1GLbY2l

Review-Journal owner GateHouse Media taps CFO for Western newspapers

Review-Journal owner GateHouse Media announced Tuesday it has chosen John Perdigao as chief financial officer for its Western newspapers. Perdigao, formerly CFO at the Houston Chronicle and director of finance at the Los Angeles Times, has served as division controller at GateHouse since May.

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How to Pay for College When You Haven’t Saved Enough Money

My husband and I always planned to save for our two daughters’ college educations, but when my oldest graduated from high school in May, we realized we had a fairly major financial crisis on our hands: We’d saved nothing, nada, over the last 18 years.

Even with the scholarships she’s been awarded so far, we’re facing a $20,000 per year bill for tuition, room and board, and we’re not sure how to pay for it.

It’s not too late to find funds, though! We’re learning there are quite a few options out there, even at this late date. If you’re a parent or a student staring down the barrel of an emptier-than-you-thought college fund, here are some last-minute ideas to help pay for college.

1. File for Federal Financial Aid

If you haven’t already filed the Free Application for Financial Student Aid (FAFSA), it’s not too late. The federal government accepts FAFSA applications throughout the year, although your state and college may have their own deadlines.

Federal financial aid probably won’t pay for your entire school year — undergraduate students can qualify for up to $5,775 in Pell Grants, based on income — but it can make a dent. Other U.S. Department of Education grants, loans and work study programs can help supplement that amount.

2. Complete a Special Circumstances Form

Life happens. If you’re in a pinch for last minute funds because of job loss, illness, divorce or other special circumstances, you may qualify for additional help.

Meet with your school’s financial aid officer about completing the school’s special circumstances form. You’ll have to go through a verification process that will require documentation of the change in circumstances, but it could be financially worth it.

3. Meet With an Aid Officer

Whether you have special circumstances or not, if you need additional funds, you should sit down with your school’s financial aid officer. Maybe there’s a work study program that can provide some extra cash, or a generous alum who wants to help students just like you.

The financial aid officer can also let you know about scholarship cancellations and late-deadline scholarships.

4. Follow Up With Scholarship Committees

Didn’t get that scholarship you were counting on? It doesn’t hurt to follow up with the scholarship committee or your school’s financial aid office.

Students who were awarded scholarships to multiple schools may decide to attend another one, freeing up the funds you wanted. Or, maybe, the student who won that scholarship won’t be able to attend college after all. (It happens!)

5. Apply for Late-Deadline Scholarships

Not all college scholarships have springtime deadlines. You can find substantial scholarships, like the $10,000 Ayn Rand Institute’s Atlas Shrugged Essay, with summer deadlines. You may have to do a little sleuthing, but here are a few to get you started.

6. Get a Part-Time Job During the Semester

You may have planned to get a summer job, but working while you’re in school is also a smart choice. You probably didn’t picture yourself flipping burgers on a Saturday night while your classmates partied, but steady part-time work can help finance college. And, if you’re lucky, you may even be able to find meaningful employment in your field of study or a job that lets you do homework in quiet moments. Or, if you prefer, give freelancing a shot.

Parents, you may want to consider working overtime when it’s offered to help foot the bill, or picking up some freelance work on the side of your day job.

7. Sell Stuff

Big ticket items — cars, boats, trailers — can pay for a year or more of college, but even the little stuff adds up. List your collection of vintage Star Wars action figures on eBay, park your ATV on the corner with a For Sale sign, or put your mountain bike on Craigslist or your local Facebook garage sale group. It adds up quickly.

8. Ask Family and Friends for Help

Most of your family, friends and even coworkers want to see you succeed. Ask them if they can help pay for part of the costs outright, or at least loan you the money.

It’s probably best to approach them in person, especially if you want help from your grandparents or Aunt Doris, but a letter explaining your situation and your goals can be effective, too.

9. Take Out an Emergency Loan

Here’s another good reason to meet with a financial aid officer — some colleges offer temporary emergency loans to students in dire financial straits. Typically, these are short-term loans for small amounts, but if you can’t afford books and other necessities, an emergency loan may just do the trick.

Heads up: You will probably have to prove there’s been an unexpected emergency, so don’t think you can get a loan to pay for extra beer money.

10. Set Up a Payment Plan

If all else fails, you may be able to set up a payment plan with the college. Many colleges offer no-interest payment plans that allow you to break your tuition into more manageable monthly payments. Usually, you’ll have to pay a small fee each semester ($30-$50) for the payment plan and a similar small amount as a penalty for returned payments, but you can have up to a year to pay the full amount.

Your Turn: Are you worried about paying for college this fall? What strategies are you using?

Teresa Bitler is a freelance writer with one daughter heading to college this fall, another two years behind her, and zero in the bank to pay for either.

The post How to Pay for College When You Haven’t Saved Enough Money appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.

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Facebook Tries Out New 10-Second Video Ad Option, Offering Advertisers Cost-Per-View Rate

Facebook spokesperson says the new 10-second ads aren't the best advertising option, but they do offer advertisers more flexibility.

Please visit Marketing Land for the full article.

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Monroe commissioners sue seller of Main Street building over roof rights

Monroe County commissioners have demanded financial damages from the owner of a downtown Stroudsburg office building it plans to buy, after the seller sold leasing rights to its roof to a telecommunications broker.

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Even after death, Kerkorian’s legacy through Tracinda will wield influence

At some point, the estate of Kirk Kerkorian will no longer have ownership in MGM Resorts International. But disposing of more than 91.2 million shares in the casino giant won’t happen overnight.

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Obama says Greece’s financial crisis won’t shock U.S. economy

President Barack Obama said on Tuesday the financial crisis in Greece should not create a major shock for the U.S. economy, but warned that its fallout could dampen global growth and encouraged both sides to reach a deal.

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Monroe’s unemployment grows to 6.9 percent in May

The jobless rate for Monroe County jumped two-tens of a percent in May. It has the second highest rate among the state’s 18 Metropolitan Statistical Areas.The numbers were released Tuesday by the Center for Workforce Information and Analysis of the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry.Both the state and U.S. jobless rates increased one-tenth of a percentage point, to 5.4 and 5.5 percent, respectively. Over the year, the drop in the Monroe MSA rate mirrored that [...]

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One of Monroe County’s Largest Employers Looking to Expand

Devereux is hoping to hire up to 40 full-time and part-time employees in the coming months.The search for qualified candidates will kick-off with an open house and career information session from 9 a.m. — noon on Saturday July 11, at Devereux Pocono in Newfoundland.Staff from Human Resources and various programs will be on hand to speak with interested applicants. For those looking to get information in advance, details about open positions can be found at jobs. [...]

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Marketing Day: Pinterest’s Buyable Pins, YouTube Previews Updates & Visual Content Marketing

Here's our recap of what happened in online marketing today, as reported on Marketing Land and other places across the web.

Please visit Marketing Land for the full article.

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Good Roads Shouldn't Cost More Money

It's summertime and that means millions of Americans cramming in the minivan and criss-crossing around the country on family vacation. But how safe are the roads, and will they be backed up for miles of gridlock?

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Calling All Early Birds: 14 Awesome Jobs for Morning People

Once, I had a job where I had to show up for work at 4:45 a.m. It was nice to be off work in the early afternoon, but the 4 a.m. wake-up call wasn’t exactly my cup of tea.

But, for many people, getting up bright and early is the best way to get a jump-start on their workday. While some prefer for night owl occupations, if you’re naturally inclined to get up before the sun rises, some of these “early bird” jobs might be just right for you.

1. Baker

When bakeries open in the morning, staff need to be ready to serve people with a smile and dish up their freshly baked goods. Since picking up a muffin or croissant is a morning ritual for many, someone needs to be there nice and early to make sure the tasty treats are ready.

You could start your own baked goods enterprise or work for someone else, but either way, working at a bakery is a good way to start your workday bright and early. To get this gig, you should have food service and baking experience, though some bakeries will train people eager to learn the ropes.

2. Barista

Every morning, hordes of uncaffeinated workers stop at their local cafes for a cuppa joe to help them start their day. Baristas and cafe workers have to be at work bright and early to get everything ready for people stopping in for their morning fix.

Job duties typically include preparing drinks, serving customers, cleaning and running a cash register. Restaurant and barista experience is helpful, but many coffee shops are willing to train the right person who can have a smile on his or her face at 4 a.m.

3. Pilot

When your flight takes off at 7 a.m., guess who has to be there far earlier? That’s right, the people flying the plane. If you love being up in the air, consider training to become a pilot. Plus, the travel perks of the job are huge. Spend this weekend in Barcelona and then spend next weekend in New York City!

The qualifications are rigorous to become a commercial or private pilot, and you’ll have to pass extensive training and be able to pass a pilot physical. While many commercial pilots have extensive military backgrounds, not all private pilots do.

4. Flight Attendant

Want to spend your days in the air, but have no desire to become a pilot? Airlines need flight attendants to help keep everyone safe on the plane in addition to serving drinks and meals, cleaning up and helping people use those tricky in-flight entertainment systems.

This is a great job for an early bird, since a 7 a.m. flight starts boarding far earlier and flight attendants need to be there well in advance. While different airlines have different requirements, generally you need to be at least 21 years old and have a high school diploma or GED.

5. Airport Ticket Agent

When people need to check in two hours early for their crack-of-dawn flight, airline ticket agents need to be there to greet them, help them check their bags and offer assistance in getting to their gate.

This is also a great job for travel lovers with other commitments like kids to pick up from school and other regular obligations. You can often work at one airport and keep a somewhat regular schedule, yet you can still have a lot of travel perks.

Shifts can begin at 4 a.m. or even earlier, so this is definitely a job for the early morning crowd. Of course, some shifts last late into the evening as well, so be sure to find out the specific schedule of any position before committing.

6. Morning Radio DJ

Do you have boundless early morning enthusiasm? Consider becoming a morning radio DJ and picking the right tunes, hosting the best contests for listeners and giving traffic updates to help everyone else get to work. Working as a morning DJ offers plenty of benefits, including free show tickets, local notoriety, and getting o skip rush hour since you’re at work so early.

Morning radio DJs often start off with small community or college radio stations, sometimes as volunteers, before moving on to paid gigs at larger stations. You’ll need a great radio voice, an ability to be cool under pressure and some reels of previous broadcasting experience to prove your mettle in this competitive field.

7. Mail Carrier

Spend your workday making the rounds and delivering letters and packages to people along your route as a mail carrier. People who work for the post office have to show up bright and early in order to get the mail organized and ready for the day before they hit the road and start delivering. Many shifts end in the early afternoon.

To qualify for this gig, you must be at least 18 years old, a U.S. citizen or permanent resident, have a good driving record and be able to pass a number of screenings (including criminal, drug and medical checks).

8. Newspaper Delivery Person

The days of tween newspaper delivery people are largely over. Now, instead of kids on bicycles lobbing rolled papers into neighborhood bushes, many newspaper delivery people are adults who drive their routes.

Since people want to read the paper first thing in the morning, this gig can start very early. Some routes involve delivering to businesses and pay boxes in bulk, while others involve door-to-door subscriber delivery. Generally, you’ll need to have a good driving record and reliable vehicle (though some bulk deliveries provide a truck for you to drive), and many of these positions pay mileage in addition to an hourly wage.

9. Morning News Producer

If you love working with breaking news, consider becoming a morning news producer. The producer typically runs the show and organizes the director, studio crew, reporters, field crew and photographers, getting everyone ready to put together a high-quality newscast each day. Duties include monitoring the wire for stories, finding leads, communicating with everyone, making sure the timing is right and editing and organizing the show so the flow is perfect.

You’ll need relevant experience for these positions and a college degree in broadcasting is very helpful, in addition to good communications skills and social media savvy.

10. Refuse and Recyclable Collector

Refuse and recyclable collectors start their days long before you hear the trucks rumble through your neighborhood first thing in the morning. Trucks typically have drivers and helpers.

If you’re driving, you will need a commercial driver’s license. While experience is preferred, drivers and helpers typically learn the details of their jobs as they work, including how to operate the Dumpster trucks and side-loaders. Refuse collection experience is preferred, especially for drivers, though helpers can have diverse backgrounds, including construction and manual labor. Many of these jobs also require people to pass a background check and drug test.

11. Truck Driver

You don’t want to get stuck in rush hour traffic if you’re a truck driver. That’s why many drivers start bright and early (think 4 a.m. or earlier) to beat the rush and get a start on their days on the road.

To qualify for a driving job, you need to obtain a commercial truck driving license, pass medical exams and demonstrate the attention to detail and aptitude needed to safely maneuver your huge vehicle through heavy traffic, in bad weather and through big cities.

12. Supermarket Stocker

If you venture into your local supermarket early in the morning, you’ll likely see a stock team working hard at filling the shelves and getting groceries ready for people to pick up that day. To keep the aisles clear for shopping rushes, supermarkets typically have an overnight or early morning crew hard at work stocking the shelves. Be ready to do some heavy lifting during your shift as you organize and stock a variety of cans and boxes.

13. Farm Worker

Farmers are traditionally known as people who are up well before dawn, getting to work in the fields and barns as soon as the sun comes up, if not before. If you want to work hard first thing in the morning, consider getting a job on a farm. From milking cows to firing up the tractor and maneuvering it across the fields during planting or harvesting season, this job will provide you the early morning hours your crave.

Experience operating farming equipment and working on a farm is preferred, though many farmers are willing to train people with a good attitude and work ethic.

14. Freelancer

If working a set schedule isn’t your thing, consider one of the many fields where you can be your own boss.

Freelance writers typically set their own hours and work whenever they have the time or find the inspiration. For this job, you need to be able to write well and adhere to deadlines. No formal training is required, but having a collection of published clips is a good way to get your foot in the door.

If you work for a design firm, you typically have to keep office hours, but if you work as a freelance graphic designer, you can largely keep your own hours, aside from specified times to meet with clients. This means you can wake up at 4 a.m. and work until noon if that’s the schedule the best suits you. You need a good eye for design, and many find a college degree in graphic design or a related field to be very helpful.

Need more ideas? Here are a few other ways to make money as a freelancer.

Your Turn: Are you a morning person who’s found a great job that fits your early-bird nature? We’d love to hear about it in the comments!

Kristen Pope is a freelance writer and editor in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

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Want to Win $5,000 in Free Gas? All You Need Is This Sticker

Convertible top down, wind blowing through your hair, cruising down the open road. Is that how your summer road trip usually goes? Mine is more of a mad scramble to throw things in the car, over-packing or under-packing every time, and then realizing there’s barely enough gas in the car to make it to the gas station, let alone the final destination.

This summer, one company is offering a promotion that could help you solve that problem (the gas problem, that is, not the forgetting-your-toothbrush problem). Just enter Sunoco’s Free Fuel 5000 contest for a chance at winning $5,000 worth of free gas.

It’s super simple. Just slap a decal on your car and, if you’re spotted by judges, you win a gift card on the spot and you receive an entry to the $5,000 grand prize drawing.

How Does the Contest Work?

First, you must be a legal resident of one of 48 U.S. states or D.C. (sorry, New Jersey and Virginia) and 18 years of age or older. This promotion runs from July 1 through August 31, 2015. The sooner you get a decal and put it on your car, the greater your chances of being seen by a “third-party spotter” out looking for stickers.

To obtain a decal, go to a Sunoco retailer and ask for a free decal (list of locations available on their website) or hop on Sunoco’s Facebook page and request one. If you prefer, you could also send a self-addressed, stamped envelope with proper postage (along with a 3-by-5-inch card with your name, home mailing address, age and phone number) to 2015 Sunoco Free Fuel 5000 Sweepstakes Decal Request, PO Box 5014, Department 817510, Kalamazoo MI 49003-5941. You can get one decal per request.

Win Free Gas

Once you have your decal, put it on your car in a visible location such as your bumper or rear window and drive around past participating locations; hopefully an “official representative” will see you. These third-party spotters will be looking for vehicles bearing the decals in 11 different regions throughout the country, including Florida, the Southeast, Mid-Atlantic, New York Metro area, Upstate New York, Western Pennsylvania, Eastern Pennsylvania, New England, the Midwest, Ohio and Texas.

The official rules say, “If you are at or near a participating Sunoco, Price Chopper, or Shop ‘n Save retailer, and if a Spotter spots the Decal on your vehicle, the Spotter will approach you, determine your eligibility to participate based on these Official Rules, and collect your personal information, including a valid mailing address.”

Once the spotter sees you and determines you’re a winner, you’ll receive a $10 Sunoco card on the spot and be entered into the Grand Prize competition for a $5,000 gift card. Don’t count on circling the block and racking up the prizes, though. You can only receive one first prize and one grand prize drawing entry each day.

What About Taxes?

If you win one of the 11 $5,000 Sunoco gift cards, you’ll also receive a check for $1,500 to cover the tax liability of the prize. This is a great deal, since many contests leave the winners on their own to deal with taxes.

Of course, Sunoco doesn’t guarantee that the $1,500 will fully cover your tax liability, but it should at least defray a good chunk of it if you’re lucky enough to be a winner.

How Else Can You Save On a Summer Road Trip?

Winning a $5,000 gas card is a great way to save on your summer roadtrip. But how else can you save?

Cruising the country doesn’t have to be expensive. These tips and tricks can help you save on your summer road trip, including advice on how to avoid ATM fees, pay less for lodging and even save on car repairs. And, while free gas is the best kind, you can also use other tricks to save on gas or even download apps to help you find the cheapest gas in town.

Where Should I Go?

If you have all summer for your trip, consider taking the “best road trip ever,” created using an algorithm to hit the highlights of all 48 contiguous U.S. states. The trip was developed by Randy Olson, a Ph.D. candidate at Michigan State University, and Discovery News Reporter Tracy Staedter.

If you don’t quite have time to visit all 48 contiguous U.S. states this summer, consider a shorter tour of some of the best national parks in the western half of the U.S. This route lets you use an $80 national park pass (which also gets you into other national parks and monuments for free) to hit the highlights along your way.

Your Turn: Where are you road-tripping this summer? What tips do you have to save?

Kristen Pope is a freelance writer and editor in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

The post Want to Win $5,000 in Free Gas? All You Need Is This Sticker appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.

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10 Fun Summer Activities for Kids That Won’t Break Your Budget

The kids are out of school, the weather is beautiful and you want to have some summer adventures with your family. But with vacations, meals out and special activities, sticking to a budget during the summer months can be tough. It isn’t impossible, though!

Our family loves to spend time outdoors, and there are plenty of options for having fun in the sun without spending a fortune. Our toddler’s current favorite place to hang out is the zoo, and while admission can be expensive for a family of four, we asked the grandparents to buy us a membership for Christmas so we can go whenever we want without paying a dime!

While we prefer to be outside, if it’s rainy or too hot for outdoor fun, we take advantage of discounts for places like local museums and science centers. That way we can still get out of the house, but our budget doesn’t suffer.

Here are 10 ways you can have summer fun with the kids without breaking the bank.

1. Frequent Local Parks

Take advantage of nearby parks and have a picnic, fly a kite, throw a frisbee or kick a soccer ball. If it’s too hot for fitness fun, spread out a blanket in the shade of a big tree and play board games, read books or just chat with one another.

2. Visit Public Beaches

You may have to pay a small fee to enter the beach area, but if you pack a lunch, water and plenty of snacks, you can have a full day of fun in the water for very little money. Just make sure to bring the sunscreen!

3. Head to a Community Pool

If there isn’t a beach nearby or your family prefers the pool, find a community pool in your area. They’re usually free or have a minimal fee to get in, and you can spend the whole day splashing around and cooling down.

Make sure to ask about food and drink policies before you go, though. If there’s no food allowed by the pool, leave a cooler in your vehicle and have a lunchtime parking-lot tailgate rather than a poolside picnic.

4. Watch Outdoor Concerts and Movies

Most neighborhoods have some type of outdoor concert or movie series during the summer. If you’re lucky enough to live in or near a larger city, you can probably find a number of options to choose from. And if not, you can always set up your own outdoor movie theater in your backyard.

5. Volunteer

It may not seem like your typical family fun activity, but there are plenty of outdoor volunteer options that you can enjoy together.

Join in on a community clean up, help start a community garden or even get involved in a Habitat for Humanity build. Whatever you choose, you’re getting outside, having some fun and teaching your children a valuable lesson in giving.

6. Explore the Night Sky

Who says all the fun has to happen when the sun is up? On those really hot days when you can’t bring yourself to be anywhere but in the air conditioning, you can take advantage of cooler nights.

A blanket, a telescope (if you have one) and a star chart can provide plenty of excitement. Add some snacks and you’ve got a stargazing party!

7. Plan a Scavenger Hunt

Scope out a local park or tourist area (or even your own backyard) and come up with a list of things the family can search for. On hunt day, give each family member (or team if you have little ones) a list and set them loose.

Need some ideas for your hunt? Parents.com has some suggestions for you. Make sure to set a meeting time and place, and then celebrate the winner with an ice cream cone or Italian ice when everyone is back.

8. Go Geocaching

Don’t feel like creating your own scavenger hunt but want a little adventure? Try geocaching, a fun family activity that doesn’t cost a thing.

Grab your smartphone or GPS, load the family in the van (or set out on foot if there’s a geocache close enough to you) and find some treasure!

9. Look for Ideas on Deal Sites

Groupon and LivingSocial frequently offer up discounts for local family-friendly activities. Make sure you sign up and regularly check out their deals on admission to museums, zoos, amusement parks, festivals and special events.

Certifikid, a kid-specific deal site, offers discounts on activities and events, camps, classes and even parties, so don’t forget to sign up for their deal emails, too.

10. Check Attraction Websites for Specials

Your local aquarium, zoo and children’s museums may offer specials on admissions. Some have half-price days, theme months where admission is discounted, or significantly reduced admissions if you arrive later in the day.

If you plan to visit a location frequently, you might also want to look into memberships, which may be costly up front, but generally save you money over the course of the year if you visit more than a couple of times with your family. While they’re not necessarily outdoor activities, these can be great options for rainy and hot days!

You don’t have to spend a lot of money to have a blast as a family. Get outside, get moving and enjoy what your town or city has to offer. You may not even need to spend a dime!

Your Turn: What’s your favorite low-cost way to have fun with your family in the summer?

Ami Spencer Youngs is a freelance writer and yoga teacher, raising her career alongside two boys under three. Learn more about her life and her writing at writingherlife.com or on Twitter at @writingherlife.

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How This Couple Paid Off $186,000 in Debt and Became Millionaires In Their 30s

Sure, we all want to be millionaires by the time we’re 35. Or, you know, ever. But how many of us do it? How many of us do it while starting off $186,000 in debt?

FrugalTrader did it.

The anonymous Canadian engineer and his wife paid off their debt and now have a net worth of $1m, all in eight years. They shared an inside look at their strategies with Forbes. Here’s how they did it.

Invest

Since he was 16, FrugalTrader has been investing, inspired by his stock-obsessed father. At the beginning he was only investing $20 or $50 each month, but those little bits helped and started to add up. He learned a lot during this process, but overall it taught him to risk big. “I believe in the long-term growth of the market,” he told Forbes.

Today, he uses both dividend stocks and index funds, “which he likes because they are cheap, easy, and beat active funds after fees. His tolerance for risk is high, though: Some 95% of his entire portfolio is in stocks, with just 5% in bonds,” writes Lauren Gensler at Forbes.

Live Like a Student

“Aggressive saving” was a huge part of the family’s road to millions, having regularly put 15-20% of their income into savings. Any raises, bonuses or tax refunds went straight into savings or debt payments. FrugralTrader told Forbes that unlike their friends, he and his wife “banked” their raises instead of extending their means.

Frugal habits didn’t hurt either, as the family resorted to typical student habits of bringing brown-bagged lunches to work and getting books for free at the local library.

Don’t Just Rely on Your Day Job

Both FrugralTrader and his wife work full time, bringing in a combined income of $105,000. But they didn’t stop there. By working overtime and taking on side jobs like consulting, the couple got out of debt faster than they would have otherwise. Now that they’re out, FrugalTrader is no longer working 80 hours per week and is spending more time with his family.

Within the next five years, FrugalTrader hopes to achieve complete financial freedom. At this rate, there’s no doubt he can do it. Can you?

For more ideas, read the full story at Forbes.

Your Turn: What do you think of the strategies this couple is using? Do you do something similar?

Marian Schembari is a writer and traveler based in Germany by way of San Francisco.

The post How This Couple Paid Off $186,000 in Debt and Became Millionaires In Their 30s appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.

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Amazon Offers Free Shipping on Small Items (Even if You Don’t Have Prime)

Amazon’s newest perk for shoppers: If it’s small and light, you can get it shipped for free, no minimum order required.

The free shipping option is available to all Amazon customers, not just members of Prime, the e-commerce giant’s $99 annual membership program offering free two-day shipping on millions of items. Until now, you had to be a Prime member or make a $35 minimum order to qualify for free shipping.

It’s an effort to woo cost-conscious consumers who shop on eBay, at Target or Wal-Mart, Bloomberg reports.

“The new offer gives online shoppers an opportunity to order inexpensive goods one at a time without worrying that shipping costs are more than the price of the item or feeling compelled to buy additional products to meet a free-shipping threshold,” Bloomberg said.

How to Get Free Shipping on Amazon

The free shipping option applies to items that weigh less than 8 ounces, are smaller than 9 x 6 x 2 inches, and cost less than $10, WLS-TV said. The small, light items will ship out of a new Amazon fulfillment center in Florence, Kentucky. Delivery will take four to eight business days.

The bulk of the small, light inventory will come from third-party sellers who give Amazon a portion of each sale for providing storage, packaging, delivery and customer service, Bloomberg said.

“Customers love that even if it’s a $5 item, shipping is free for everybody, Prime member or not,” Neil Ackerman, a senior manager at Amazon, said in an interview. “Customers love it and sellers love it.”

Your Turn: What do you think of Amazon’s free shipping option? Will it make a difference in your purchasing decision?

Disclosure: We have a serious Taco Bell addiction around here. The affiliate links in this post help us order off the dollar menu. Thanks for your support!

This post originally appeared on Money Talks News. Since 1991, MoneyTalksNews has been producing both video and print to help you make more, spend less and avoid rip-offs.

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What Can I Do If My Credit Card Application is Denied?

If you’ve ever applied for a credit card and been denied, you’re probably wondering whether you did something wrong. Let’s face it – rejection hurts, even if it wasn’t a personal decision.

Still, it makes little sense to wallow in embarrassment when you could learn from the situation instead. Chances are, your application was denied for good reason. The best (and only) thing you should focus on now is figuring out what that reason is – and working to rectify it.

Here are a few of the most common reasons credit card applications are denied:

• Insufficient work history or income: If your work history or income aren’t thoroughly documented, you may not qualify for the credit card you want. Further, banks may see a low income and determine it isn’t enough.
• Bad credit: FICO scores above 720 are considered excellent. Scores between 690 and 719 are considered good, while scores between 630 and 689 are considered average. Having a score below 630 can make it difficult to qualify for an unsecured credit card.
• Too many hard inquiries or credit cards: If a credit card issuer sees that you have too many credit inquiries or open credit accounts on your credit report, they may see you as a higher risk and deny your application altogether – even if your credit is good or excellent.
• A high debt-to-income ratio: Even if you pay your bills on time, banks often frown upon huge debt loads relative to one’s income. In other words, even when your score is excellent, you can be denied altogether if you owe too much money.
• Your credit history isn’t long enough: When you’re first starting out and have very little credit history to speak of, banks are often unsure of the risk you might pose.

Steps You Should Take When Your Credit Card Application is Denied

If you’re curious which of these reasons applies to your situation, the best course of action is getting your free credit report from the only government-approved site, AnnualCreditReport.com. Then spend some time analyzing your report to figure out what your shortfalls might be. You should also receive a letter from the card issuer stating the reasons for denial within 10 to 14 business days. Most of the time, they lay it out clearly for you and tell you exactly why their answer was “no.”

Once you’ve figured out why your credit card application was denied, it’s time to take some steps to get back on the right track. Here are some steps you should consider taking based on the scenarios above:

If your work history or income are insufficient…

When your work history at your current employer is too short, the only course of action is to wait it out. Continue working at your place of employment and this problem will soon solve itself.

Income, on the other hand, is trickier. However, it’s important to note that most credit card applications ask for household income, not personal income, meaning that you can list your spouse or partner’s income on your application as funds that could be used for repayment. Improving your credit score over time may also help you qualify for a credit card with a low limit.

If you have bad credit…

If you have bad credit, the only issue you should focus on is repairing it – not getting more new credit. Some steps you can take to repair your credit include paying all of your bills on time, paying down debt, and paying off any delinquent accounts. Once you complete some of those steps, you may also want to consider applying for a secured credit card that can help you build your credit in a relatively safe credit environment.

• Related: How to Build Credit
• Related: Best Credit Cards for Bad Credit

If you have too many hard inquiries or open accounts…

If you are denied a new credit card because you have too many hard inquiries or too many open accounts, that is probably a good sign that you don’t need new credit anyway. There are a few steps you can take, however. Since card issuers generally only look at the number of hard inquiries you have during the last 24 months, that part of the issue can generally solve itself if you wait long enough.

You can also close some of your open credit cards if you think you have too many. Just remember, closing an open line of credit has consequences. First, it decreases the overall amount of available credit you have – a move that can potentially increase your utilization rate (how much of your available credit you’ve used up) and negatively impact your credit score. And second, your credit score may go down a few points with each account you close, although the effect is usually temporary.

If you have a high debt-to-income ratio…

If you owe a lot of money, you should really be asking yourself why you are applying for a new line of credit anyway. If you’re already in debt, your priority should really be paying off that debt before you make any other significant financial moves.

Unfortunately, the solution to this problem is one that will take time and a lot of willpower. Pay down your debts… and don’t stop until they’re all gone. Then, and only then, should you consider getting a new credit card.

If your credit history isn’t very long…

It takes time and consistency to build a healthy credit history. You can usually do the most amount of good by putting utilities and small loans in your name whenever possible and paying your bills in full and on time, every time.

If you need a little extra help establishing a credit history, you can also consider signing up for a secured credit card. These cards require a deposit up front but can help you build your credit, and establish responsible credit habits, over time.

• Related: Best Secured Credit Cards

Facing a denial might seem like the end of the world, but it could actually be a blessing in disguise. Most of the time, a credit card application denial is a symptom of a bigger problem, whether it’s high levels of debt, credit that has room for improvement, or other risk factors that should be managed.

If you face a denial, it’s probably best to see it as a warning that something you’re doing isn’t working. Your credit score is too important not to.

The post What Can I Do If My Credit Card Application is Denied? appeared first on The Simple Dollar.

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Pinterest Takes E-Commerce To Next Level With Launch Of Buyable Pins On iPads & iPhones

Currently available only on iOS devices in the U.S., Pinterest says it already has 30 million buyable pins from a number of retailers.

Please visit Marketing Land for the full article.

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Taxicab Authority poised to implement tax increase, other changes

Big changes lie ahead for Southern Nevada’s taxi industry as the Nevada Taxicab Authority gears to implement a series of changes approved in the 2015 legislative session.

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4 ways new overtime rules could help your paycheck

By 2016, millions of employees around the country could become newly eligible for overtime pay due to a change in federal rules.

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YouTube Creators Get Preview Of New Features, Including 3D Videos & Studio App Updates

Without offering any specific release dates, YouTube says new features will roll-out over the course of this year.

Please visit Marketing Land for the full article.

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5 Ways to Retire Early

You may be able to retire sooner than you think by employing these strategies.

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Rugby tournament returning to Las Vegas through ‘19

United World Sports, owner and operator of the USA Sevens International Rugby Tournament in Las Vegas, and World Rugby said Tuesday the tournament is returning to Las Vegas through 2019 after five straight years of attendance growth at Sam Boyd Stadium.

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When It Comes to Cybersecurity, Millennials Throw Caution to the Wind

Studies show young adults' risky online behaviors leave them more prone to cyber threats.

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Visual Content Marketing: Building Digital Stories That Really Connect

Visual trumps text, so make it a key part of your marketing strategy, says columnist Jim Yu. He outlines seven steps to follow when telling your story with visual content.

Please visit Marketing Land for the full article.

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10 best home improvement apps

YouTube video tutorials and home improvement guides are a great resource for learning how to repair and redecorate your home, but don’t overlook the usefulness of your smartphone or your tablet. These top 10 home improvement apps transform these devices into DIY tools.

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Keep Funemployment From Draining Your Bank Account

Balance funemployment and financial responsibility with these expert tips.

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Boyd Gaming announces $45 million expansion at Louisiana race track

Boyd Gaming Corp. said Tuesday it will add a hotel tower and other amenities the Delta Downs.

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5 Tips for Newlyweds Merging Bank Accounts

If your checking accounts are tired of being single, you need to have 'the talk' first.


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6 Ways to Increase Your Retirement Rental Income

Here is how to boost cash flow from a rental property overseas.

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Business chief savages supermarkets

“PLEASE, no. Enough.” A key business leader has launched an extraordinary spray at Coles and Woolworths, saying their “duopoly” decides Australia’s economic health.

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Greece Not Likely to Meet Debt Deadline

At least part of Greece's international bailout expires Tuesday, making this crunch time for the cash-strapped country.

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Companies Are Telling The Wrong Story: We Forgot The Hero And It’s Killing Corporate Creativity

Who's the hero of your company's story? Columnist Patrick Armitage explains why great storytelling starts with the customer, not the company or the product.

Please visit Marketing Land for the full article.

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Some Thoughts on Privileges and Advantages

The other day, I received a note from a reader who informed me that the only reason that my story of financial recovery was even possible was due to my own “privileges.”

So, let’s talk about those.

I am a white male. I was born to a family that didn’t have very much money at all.

I was born blind in one eye. I was born deaf in one ear. I was born without a functional thyroid gland. I spent more than a year of my childhood in the hospital.

I grew up outside of a tiny, tiny town in Illinois in a school district where my graduating class had 29 people in it. We didn’t have AP classes or any sort of college prep classes.

No one in my family had ever attended college – no grandparents or parents or siblings. My parents kept food on the table, but the concept of college savings wasn’t something they even thought about, and their income was insanely variable from year to year. Some years they would earn so little that we would have easily qualified for food stamps, while other years they earned somewhat more (and usually dug themselves out of the hole of previous years).

In the end, college really didn’t seem like a realistic choice for me during my high school years, so much so that I was planning to work at a factory after I graduated from high school. I mostly applied for scholarships at the incessant request of a few teachers at my high school along with the guidance counselor and unexpectedly cobbled together enough to go to a four year state school.

I went to college without a clue of what I should do there or what it would even be like outside of what I had read in a few books. I managed to stick around, complete two degrees, and make some great connections that led straight into a post-graduation job thanks heavily to one of the professors in my area of study.

Starting in 2006, in my spare time in my own living room, I launched The Simple Dollar. I basically worked two full time jobs for two years as I got the site going – my main full time job and The Simple Dollar. Eventually, The Simple Dollar’s audience grew to the point that I was able to work on it full time, then I was able to hire a few assistants to work on some aspects of the site as it continued to grow. Eventually, it kept growing to the point where I was essentially going to have to become more of a manager than a writer to keep it going, so I sold the site and stayed on solely as a writer – the part I really loved.

So, sure, you can pull several elements of privilege out of that story.

At the same time, you can pull a lot of challenges out of that story, too. I’m half blind and half deaf. If I don’t take my Synthroid each and every morning, I’m a mess. I went to school in a tiny district that didn’t do very much to prepare me for college. My biggest success was something that anyone willing to devote absurd hours to could have built.

Here’s the real truth of life: some people have privileges you don’t have. My ethnic birth was an advantage in the area where I grew up and has been an advantage many times in my life, whether I’ve seen it or not.

At the same time, others have disadvantages that you don’t have. My awful hearing has caused me to completely botch more conversations than I can ever count, has alienated potential friends and professional associates, and made some aspects of day to day life far more difficult than they are for others.

I could go on for hours listing privileges and advantages (like my work ethic, my ability to write reasonably good content fairly quickly, etc.) as well as disadvantages (my rural background in many situations, my Synthroid requirement, etc.).

There have been times in my life when I felt that the advantages others had over me – good hearing, good vision, better background, more powerful families, more opportunities growing up, etc. – were simply unfair.

I knew people who came to college from good preparatory schools and good backgrounds, with good vision and good hearing and good health. They walked in the door with big advantages over me and, if they used those advantages at all, would likely maintain a lead over me for the rest of my life.

I was tempted to buy into using them as an excuse to not work, to not trust others, to not do my best to make a good future for myself. I believed that the deck of life was already stacked against me, that the “winners” and “losers” had already been decided.

But, instead, I learned some things.

No One Else Decides For Me How I Use My Time

Every single day, I have the choice of working hard for a better future for myself and my family. I can choose to do that work, or I can choose to take it easy.

Taking it easy is tempting and, sure, sometimes I do that. Sometimes I goof off when I should be working, doing things like reading uninformative websites or playing computer games. Sometimes I don’t even work at all.

The vast majority of the time, though, I choose to work. I choose to take on the hard tasks, whether I really want to or not.

I decide how I use my own time. I can use it to channel surf and watch mindless television, or I can use it to build a better career path. I can goof off or I can try to get useful work done. I can build my skills or I can browse websites.

Those choices are mine. They come up many times every single day, and each one plays a part in determining what my future is like.

College was a spectacular place to see this phenomenon at work. During the times when I didn’t work hard on my classes, I saw poor grades. During the times where I did work hard, I saw good grades.

The same thing repeated in my professional life. During the times where I chose not to put in my full effort, things just seemed to jog in place or even go downhill a little. During the times where I chose to use my time to put out the best effort I could in my professional life, I basically built a job for myself in a research field and then, later on, I built a business for myself out of whole cloth.

The ways I chose to use my time made all of the difference.

I Chose to Interact Positively with Others

You choose how your interactions with others go. You can choose to be negative. You can choose to be angry. You can choose to backstab. You can choose to act like you assume that the other person has it out for you.

Or, you can choose to be positive. You can choose to be pleasant and funny. You can choose to speak good things about others when they’re not around. You can choose to act like others are on your side.

The vast majority of the time, the second route is the one that pays off, while the first route leads nowhere.

Sure, there are times where someone will try to take advantage of your positivity. That’s going to happen every once in a while.

Yet, time and time again, I’ve witnessed people speaking positively of the nice people and the helpful people when they’re not around. I’ve seen others step up to help good people when those good people are going through a challenge.

I’ve never really seen that with people who choose the negative path of interacting.

You choose, with every interaction, whether it’s going to be a positive one and whether that’s going to build into a positive relationship. You choose whether to smile and whether to find something worthwhile to say. That’s your choice.

I Try to Take on Challenges Rather Than Shy Away from Them

Not every challenge in life is going to be an easy one. There are things in life that are attainable, but they’re hard to reach.

I’ll give you an example. I’d love to have one of my novels reach the bestseller lists. I know it’s possible, but it’s hard. Not only do I have to write something great and get it published, it requires a ton of media work to promote that book, too. None of those steps are remotely easy.

It would be really easy to simply tell myself that such a thing is unattainable for me. It’s clearly not. There are no true obstacles standing between myself and a bestseller. It’s just hard to get there, with real challenges to overcome.

There are lots of personal goals that fall into that category. Things like running a marathon, for example, or learning a new skill. They’re possible, but they’re hard work, and that hard work makes people want to convince themselves that the possible is impossible.

I make a conscious effort to try to take on challenges like this. They force me to work hard and to test my limits.

Sure, sometimes I fall on my face. I find that I’m not up to the challenge, or that the peak is just so high that my current life doesn’t make it realistic.

At the same time, there are times where the big mountain actually turns out to be attainable. I manage to build a business or make something simple and amazing that I never would have thought possible.

Don’t back down from big scary challenges. You may just find that they’re attainable.

I Work on Having a Social Network Full of Positive Reinforcement

Most of the people in my life are oriented toward the things I describe here. They’re positive people with positive goals and moving in positive directions in life. They’re willing to help each other when the chips are down and lift each other up when it’s needed.

My social network is a source of useful advice, of people who come through when I need them, and sometimes open doors for me.

What do I do for them? I give them useful advice when they ask. I come through for them when they need me. I sometimes open doors for them, too.

I usually offer these things without asking to people who might become friends. In fact, not long after I write this, I’m going to go spend several hours moving boxes around for someone I’ve only met a few times. Why? He (and his wife) might become this kind of friend. (If they don’t, it’s honestly not a big loss – just a few hours of doing something that constitutes exercise, too.)

Try doing this in your own life. Look for the people in the periphery of your social circle who might become a good, solid friend and then put forth effort to help that person, whether in the form of advice or opportunity or something else.

At the same time, I actively prune people who don’t do this from my social network. People who are mostly interested in taking for themselves don’t stick around. People who don’t help others don’t stick around. I just quietly minimize those friendships.

Over the last decade, all of that adds together into a social circle of people who I can rely on, who open doors for me professionally and personally, and who are continually positive about the life choices I make. They strive to help and build up, rather than hurt or take down.

Look at the friendships in your own life and strive to build up the positive ones and perhaps let the more negative relationships diminish a bit. You may quickly find yourself in a far more positive position, much more able to take on the challenges of life and overcome the privilege of others.

I Don’t Blame My Disadvantages for My Mistakes

Sometimes I mess up. I choose to be lazy. I choose to be negative. I choose to be afraid of big goals. I choose to not rely on my friends.

When I make those choices, others take advantage, whether I see it or not. Someone else might work really hard and get the contract that I wanted. Someone else might build a better set of relationships. Someone else might step up to the challenges before them.

However, it’s easy to not see it that way. It’s easy to try to find reasons why the deck is stacked against me because of disadvantages.

Other people have powerful families. They have perfect senses. They have this. They have that. And I don’t.

The second I start believing in those things as a reason for the lack of my own success, I do nothing more than guarantee my own failure. Period.

My mistakes are my own. When I choose not to work hard, it’s not because of my hearing. When I choose to present a negative self in public, it’s not because of my upbringing.

It’s because of me and the choices I made today.

There Are Some Mountains I Can’t Climb, But There Are Many That I Can

When I was little, I wanted to be a professional baseball player. I loved baseball. However, it didn’t take long for me to realize that I wasn’t all that good at baseball and no amount of practice would make me good enough to make a career out of simply playing the game.

As I grew older, I wanted to be an astronaut. I loved space. Then I read about the basic requirements to be an astronaut and how I fell short.

I am never going to be a professional baseball player or an astronaut. I am never going to be a four star general or a race car driver. Those doors are closed to me.

Rather than worrying about those mountains, I look for the mountains that I can climb. What can I do with the skills and abilities and attributes that I do have? What can I achieve if I put a good work ethic out there and a good attitude?

Here’s the truth: I do not accept that a door is truly closed to me unless I see a true skill gap that I can’t realistically cross or I see a basic requirement that I cannot meet.

Almost every mountain that I face in life can be climbed with work ethic, with good attitudes, with good relationships, and with a desire to improve myself.

Yes, there are some I cannot climb, but I don’t worry about those. I look instead at the ones that I can climb.

Final Thoughts

Yes, I have some privileges in life that give me an advantage over others in some respects. That’s true for almost everyone reading this, whether they see it or not.

In other areas, I have some disadvantages. That’s also true for almost everyone reading this, whether they see it or not.

The truth of the matter is that it’s up to me and my choices in life to determine how I make the most of my privileges and am affected the least by my disadvantages.

Every day is loaded with choices about how I use my time, how I use my energy, how I interact with others, and countless other things. Those choices determine how things turn out for me. The better the choices, the better the outcome.

Sure, everything in life won’t be laid out on a silver platter for me. I will never get to do some of the things I dream of doing.

However, the better the choices I make, the more doors are available to me and the higher I can climb on the mountains of life.

In the end, life deals you a hand of cards. Sometimes that hand of cards is good and sometimes it isn’t, but the game isn’t over after the deal. You choose how to play your hand and make the most of it.

The post Some Thoughts on Privileges and Advantages appeared first on The Simple Dollar.

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EDITORIAL: City Council can’t define Dotty’s ‘incidental’ gaming

The efforts of elected officials to stop the spread of the Dotty’s slot parlor chain have failed because the state body that could settle the legality of the business model has no interest in doing so.

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22 Creative Ways to Cut Your Food Budget in Half and Still Eat Well

Whether you’re a singleton living off takeout or a mom feeding a growing family, food is something we all have to spend money on, and many of us could stand to spend less than we currently do.

From the simple and easy to the somewhat extreme, here are 22 smart ways to cut your food budget down drastically.

1. Create a Grocery Budget

The first step to saving money on food is to think like a Boy Scout (i.e. “Be Prepared”). Setting up a monthly or weekly grocery budget will help you stay on track and keep your spending in check.

Want proof? One woman managed to get by on a mere $4 a day, while another feeds her family of five for only $64 a week. They manage these feats by knowing how much they intend to spend before they ever set foot in a store and developing clever ways to make their goals happen.

2. Plan Your Meals

Planning your meals for the week enables you to shop only for the ingredients you’ll use that week, reducing food waste, cutting meal prep time and saving you from that dreaded moment in front of the fridge where you ponder what on earth you’re going to make that night.

3. Use Coupons

This is Savings 101, but you’d be amazed how many people skip it. You don’t need to spend hours each week clipping and organizing like the overzealous savers on Extreme Couponing; all you need is this simple, efficient system.

4. Make More Meals at Home

The more you cook from scratch rather than buying premade and prepackaged convenience meals, the more you’ll save.

If you don’t like cooking every night, invest in a slow cooker and make a big batch of something over the weekend, then store it to reheat over the course of the week. Brown-bagging your lunch and brewing your coffee at home will also cut back on your costs.

5. Grow a Kitchen Garden

You can save a ton by growing your own produce — but make sure you know which produce to grow, and which is actually cheaper to buy from the grocery store. Here’s a breakdown of the most and least cost-effective veggies to grow yourself.

6. Regrow Your Veggies

It sounds like magic, but it’s not: You can actually regrow certain vegetables you’ve already used, getting the most bang for your produce buck.

7. Raise Your Own Animals

Already got a garden? Take things one step further by keeping animals. You don’t have to live on a farm to raise rabbits for meat or keep chickens for eggs — all you need is a little plot of backyard for them to roam in.

8. Cut Back on Food Waste

Tossing food in the trash is essentially throwing away money. To reduce food waste, schedule a leftovers day each week to clean out your pantry and fridge. Omelets, soups, salads and wraps are great ways to get creative with whatever odds and ends you have on hand.

You can also repurpose some of the food you’d normally toss. Stale bread can be made into croutons, for instance, and past-ripe bananas are ideal for banana bread.

9. Go Vegetarian

Meat can be expensive, and there are plenty of great recipes out there that use protein substitutes like soy, tofu and beans. Whether you go totally vegetarian or plan a few meatless meals each week, you’re bound to save money (and eat healthier!).

10. Buy In-Season Produce

Buy fruits and veggies in season, when they’re fresh and growing locally, to save money. Buy in bulk to save even more; you can freeze them or turn them into things like applesauce, preserves and more to enjoy them throughout the year.

11. Get Cash Back

Saving money on your groceries is one strategy, but you can also make money for the food you buy. Apps like Ibotta, Nielsen Consumer Panel and Checkout 51 will give you cash back for the things you’d purchase anyway.

12. Cut the Excess Weight

Not on you — on your produce. Remove any stems, stalks and leaves before you buy to reduce the weight for items that are paid for by the pound. Even if you only remove 5% of the produce, you’re still cutting 5% off your grocery bill!

13. Stockpile

When you can find an item for a great deal and you know that a) you’ll use in the future and b) it won’t expire for a long time, stock up on it.

Set up some shelves in your basement to keep overflow items in a cool place. An extra freezer can help you stockpile frozen food (and enable you to save more leftovers, big-batch meals and in-season produce).

14. Go Freegan

You’ve heard of dumpster diving, and some of you may have even tried it for items like electronics and furniture, but have you ever considered dumpster diving for food?

Freegans buck the system, reduce food waste and cut back on their expenses by reclaiming the food that’s thrown out daily by restaurants and grocery stores. (Obviously, sanitation is an issue here, so you’ll want to look for items that are wrapped and sealed.)

15. Go (Urban) Foraging

A close relative of freeganism, but a tad less gross-sounding, urban foragers scavenge for edible plants like weeds, mushrooms and herbs that grow throughout their neighborhoods. You can’t wander into someone’s garden and call it “foraging,” but anything growing in public parks and green spaces is up for grabs. Just do some research online beforehand to learn which plants are safe to eat and which are not.

16. Know the Tricks of the Trade

Grocery stores want you to spend as much money as possible, so learning the strategies they use to compel you to do this can help you stick to your list — and your budget.

For instance, stores like to lure you into purchasing more than you intend by placing more expensive items at eye level, using end caps to grab your attention and placing staples like milk, eggs, bread and milk at the back of the store so you’re forced to pass through several aisles to get to them.

17. Know Your Store’s Secrets

In addition to being aware of general grocery store sales tactics, you can also save by knowing what day of the week your store slashes its prices and the specific tricks and tactics you can use to save there. For instance, here are some ways to save money at Target, Walmart and Whole Foods.

18. Ignore Expiration Dates

You don’t necessarily have to throw out an item just because you’ve passed the date stamped on the package. “Sell by” simply means the date by which the store should sell an item in order to guarantee maximum freshness and taste for the consumer. “Best if used by” is also a means of ensuring best quality. If your item is a few days past its date, it should still be perfectly safe to consume so long as its appearance, smell and consistency seem normal.

19. Haggle

Think the only place you can negotiate price is at garage sales? Think again.

When it comes to the deli counter and bakery department, freshness is of ultimate importance. If a clerk isn’t able to move an item before it hits its expiration date, it will be tossed and the store will lose money. If you notice any meats or baked goods that are at or close to expiration, ask to speak with a manager to see if you can get a discount for what is essentially a “clearance” item.

20. Store Your Food Properly

How and where you store your food plays a big role in how long it will last (and still taste yummy). Check out sites like StillTasty to find out the best way to store your food and learn which zones in your fridge and freezer are best for keeping which items.

21. Pre-Game Before Dining Out

What about those nights you decide to splurge and eat out, or your friends invite you to join them somewhere for dinner? Do a little pre-meal munching so you don’t arrive at the restaurant starving.

Snack before you go and you can skip the appetizer, share an entree or just get dessert while you hang out with your friends and enjoy good company and conversation.

22. Take Home Leftovers

Of course you take home your own doggy bag from restaurants (right?), but you can also score some next-day meals by volunteering to clean up after office luncheons, school fundraisers and other events, where you snag yourself things like free slices of pizza, extra sandwiches or leftover baked goods.

Your Turn: What other ways do you save on food? Share your tips and tricks in the comments!

Disclosure: We have a serious Taco Bell addiction around here. The affiliate links in this post help us order off the dollar menu. Thanks for your support!

Kelly Gurnett is a freelance blogger, writer and editor who runs the blog Cordelia Calls It Quits, where she documents her attempts to rid her life of the things that don’t matter and focus more on the things that do. Follow her on Twitter @CordeliaCallsIt.

The post 22 Creative Ways to Cut Your Food Budget in Half and Still Eat Well appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.

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Which Job is Right for You? How to Research Different Careers and Employers

You might be pondering what to do with your new bachelor’s degree, or still trying to pick a degree to aim for. Maybe you need some work for the summer or to pay the bills while you look for your ideal career. Whatever your situation, you probably already have a few ideas about jobs you might like. So how do you choose the job that’s right for you?

It’s not an easy decision, but gathering some information is a good place to start. First you’ll want to know about the work itself. Then you’ll have questions about wages. If you’re deciding on a degree, you’ll want to check the latest employment outlook statistics to see if you’re preparing for a job that may not be there when you graduate. Finally, you’ll want to learn about specific employers before you fill out an application.

Ready? Let’s get started with our guide to how to research a job.

Use the Bureau of Labor Statistics

The Bureau of Labor Statistics, part of the U.S. Department of Labor, has one of the most useful websites for researching jobs. You can all sorts of useful information on any one of thousands of professions.

For example, the page for high school teachers has a chart showing that the median wage is $55,050 per year, you need a minimum of a bachelor’s degree, there are 955,800 of these jobs and the job outlook of 6% growth in the next 10 years is slower than average. Below that, there’s a paragraph of information under each of these headings:

• What High School Teachers Do
• Work Environment
• How to Become a High School Teacher
• Pay
• Job Outlook
• Similar Occupations
• More Information

Those headings are clickable links to pages that go into much more detail, giving you a great overview of what the job is all about.

In my experience, Google gives better results than using the search box on the BLS website. To get as much information as possible, do both of these searches:

• {job title} bls ooh
• {job title} bls oes

The first search should pull up the appropriate page from the Occupational Outlook Handbook (OOH), which is where you’ll find all information described above. Look for results that have “ooh” in the URL. The second search will lead you to the Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) for that position. These pages have a different set of information.

For example, if you search “high school teacher bls oes” you’ll find the “occupational employment statistics” page for “secondary school teachers” (the closest result — job titles don’t always match precisely). There you’ll see wage data by percentile, and learn that the top 10% of teachers have a median wage of $86,720. That lets you know how much you might make after a few years or if you work in the higher-paying districts.

The OES pages have additional information, including maps with state-by-state statistics. You can see that the median wage for teachers in New York is 45% higher than in Texas, as well as how many teaching jobs there are in each state.

Find Better Job Descriptions

The BLS is a good place to start, but for a better feel of what a job entails, use Google to search for personal experiences and to gather information on specific niches. For example, BLS information covers lawyers but not legal specialties. But if you search “I’m a patent attorney,” you’ll find practicing patent attorneys who have written about their experiences, which is much more useful if you’re considering that specialty.

Try a number of searches using search terms like these, with and without quotation marks:

• “I’m a {job title}”
• “what a {job title} does”
• “being a {job title}”
• “my experience as a {job title}”

Find Current Job Offerings

Even if you’re gathering information on a career you won’t begin for years, look at the current offerings. Reading through online job postings can clue you into what kind of work you’ll have, the benefits employers offer, and where the jobs are. Here are some of the job websites you can use for this research:

• Indeed
• Monster
• CareerBuilder
• Simply Hired
• Snagajob

If you see a particularly good job description, make a note of the company. Even if the job is no longer advertised when you’re ready, you know it exists, so you can apply just in case there is an unadvertised opening.

Check Out Specific Employers

When applying for a job, you’ll probably hear only good things about the company from your interviewer. On the other hand, when employees review their workplaces anonymously, they share all the good and the bad. Here are three of the best sites for reading those reviews:

• Glassdoor: Reviews, information on wages and interview processes
• Indeed: More reviews than Glassdoor for some companies
• RateMyEmployer: Reviews for Canadian companies

Glassdoor has actual interview questions for specific companies, which can be very useful when you’re getting ready to apply. The wage information is also good to have, and may lead you to seek a different position than the one you first considered.

Another way to check out employers is from the customer’s perspective. You can do that on these review sites:

• Yelp: Reviews on many consumer retail companies
• Insider Pages: Mainly medical service providers
• Yahoo! Local Reviews: A large variety of businesses
• Trip Advisor: Hotels, airlines and other travel-related companies
• Yellow Pages: A large variety of businesses

Google the company name and “review” to find out more about a potential employer. Customer opinions of a company are especially relevant if you’re going to be working in customer service, because you might be on the receiving end of complaints. Try to get a feel for whether the company will let you resolve them (you don’t want to be on the phone with customers you can’t help).

Finally, if you can, go the location where you might work. Visit on a Monday morning to see if the employees look happy as they arrive at work. Talk to a few if you can, and ask about the things that are important to you, whether starting salary, the kind of work you’ll do, possibilities for advancement or even the atmosphere of the work environment.

Your Turn: How did you investigate your employment options and the company you work for before choosing your last job?

Steve Gillman is the author of “101 Weird Ways to Make Money” and creator of EveryWayToMakeMoney.com. He’s been a repo-man, walking stick carver, search engine evaluator, house flipper, tram driver, process server, mock juror, and roulette croupier, but of more than 100 ways he has made money, writing is his favorite (so far).

The post Which Job is Right for You? How to Research Different Careers and Employers appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.

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Contractor or Employee? The New Rules of Working for Uber, Instacart or TaskRabbit

Whether you’re driving around town, delivering groceries or scrubbing floors, you have plenty of options to pick up work through the sharing economy.

This new world of work offers flexible gigs that can supplement other jobs — or sometimes even serve as your main income stream.

In most cases, you’re not an employee of the company you work for. If you’re driving your car for Uber, for instance, you work as an independent contractor instead of a regular employee who receives benefits and has taxes taken from his pay.

However, recent updates to the rules might change the way you can make money working for service providers like Instacart, Uber and more. Let’s take a look at what’s in the news and how you can continue to make money through flexible gigs.

Instacart’s Voluntary Reclassification

Grocery shopping and delivery service Instacart is transitioning 200 Boston-area shoppers and about 100 Chicago shoppers from contractors to part-time employees.

“When you look at the difficulty of shopping, picking and delivering items such as fruit or eggs that need to be carefully selected, you realize that grocery shopping can be complicated,” explained founder and CEO Apoorva Mehta in a June 22 statement. “For this reason, we want to provide supervision and training, which can only be done with employees.”

While personal shoppers for Instacart used to serve as both shoppers and delivery drivers, those tasks will now be performed separately. Personal shoppers in the two cities who wish to remain contractors can switch to a delivery-only role, as shoppers will be transitioned to part-time status. About 25% of Instacart’s Boston shoppers chose to keep their contractor status, a spokesperson told Slate.

The “new” employees will receive regular paychecks complete with minimum wage and the typical tax withholdings for social security, unemployment and Medicare.

Changes for California Uber Drivers?

Earlier in June, the California Labor Commission ruled that a driver was an Uber employee, not a contractor. The case applied to a single driver, and Uber was found to be involved in enough of the driver’s activities to be considered her employer.

“This is one of the first times that the people that make these decisions … sat down and evaluated a wide range of factors that they used to determine whether a worker is an employee or a contractor,” Inc senior editor Kris Frieswick said on the Inc. Uncensored podcast. “[Factors such as] how much control does the company have over the work hours of the person? Do they have control over the method by which the job is conducted?”

The IRS classifies a worker as an employee if the company paying him has controls how and when he does the job. Indicators that a worker should be reclassified as an employee include mandating a certain work schedule, requiring a uniform and enforcing methods of completing tasks.

“As a contractor, you say to me, ‘Kris, I need you to write a story about X, it’s due on X.’ You don’t tell me where to write it, you don’t tell me how many hours per day I have to spend writing it, you just say, ‘It’s due on this day, party on,’” Frieswick explained how freelance or contract work differs from traditional employment.

She went on to note that in this particular Uber case, the fact that inactive Uber driver apps are disabled after 180 days implied a required work schedule, and led the Commission to rule the driver was an employee. Uber has appealed the decision.

Similar cases against Uber have cropped up in other states; those decisions have confirmed the driver classification as an independent contractor.

How to Make Sure the Sharing Economy Takes Care of You

Sharing economy gigs provide some informal benefits for the people who provide services through them. The gigs are usually flexible, making them ideal for students and others who juggle a host of obligations. Some tasks can be performed around the clock, catering to both early birds and night owls. And for the most part, these flexible jobs aren’t too mentally taxing. While driving customers, walking dogs, cleaning houses and grabbing groceries aren’t tasks without stress, we can probably agree that the work is less stressful than, say, performing surgery.

So, how can you make the most of these gigs when you’re not sure if they’re going to change in the near future? Here’s how to make sure you’re looking out for your best interests as a worker while still looking out for your wallet:

Read Everything

When you sign up for a gig, don’t just skim over the terms, conditions and agreements you’re given. Note any caps on earnings or regulations you have to follow. If you’re unsure of something, ask. Companies that rely on independent workers to provide services to customers should be more than happy to clear up any questions you have as you join.

Think About Insurance

The amount of insurance provided by gigs varies widely, so you want to know what’s covered and what’s not.

As an independent contractor, you won’t be eligible for health insurance, so plan accordingly to get your own coverage. If you’re driving your car, you may want additional insurance coverage above what the company you’re driving for requires.

If there’s a chance you could get hurt at work — by falling off a ladder or suffering a bicycle crash — you may also want to consider buying disability insurance. If you’re relying on those bike deliveries to pay your bills, having a backup plan that includes insurance can make a physical setback a little less stressful.

Be Wise — and Skeptical — About Pricing

“Many gigs seem to offer decent pay,” Natasha Singer wrote last year for the New York Times. “But they may not look that great after factoring time spent, expenses, insurance costs and taxes on self-employment earnings.”

If you’re working for a company that sets your rates, make sure you’re comfortable with what’s left after the company takes its cut and the government takes theirs through your estimated quarterly taxes.

If you can, opt for a company that allows you to set your own rates. DogVacay, for instance, allows sitters to set their own rates depending on the complexity of the task to account for a pet’s length of stay or medical needs — or simply to lend credibility to a very experienced sitter.

Last year, TaskRabbit changed its business model so that service providers wouldn’t have to bid on tasks; now “Taskers” make at least $15 per hour.

Have a Back-Up Plan

If the company you work with changes its policies — or even shuts down suddenly — how will you react? Do you have a plan for picking up other work to supplement your income? Always be on the lookout for additional and alternate income options.

Your Turn: Has your work through the sharing economy changed? How are you maximizing these work opportunities?

Lisa Rowan is a writer, editor, and podcaster living in Washington, D.C. She knows all about doing taxes as a freelance worker.

The post Contractor or Employee? The New Rules of Working for Uber, Instacart or TaskRabbit appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.

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Why And How Publishers Will Force Advertisers To Engage Consumers

As the likes of Facebook and Google change the face of media buying, advertisers will need to focus on creating content that people actually like, says columnist David Rodnitzky.

Please visit Marketing Land for the full article.

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5 Tips for Planning a Frugal DIY Tour

You don't have to pay big bucks for the trip of a lifetime.

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6 Steps for Declaring Financial Independence From Your Parents

You don't need them to make ends meet. 

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How to Be an Excellent Reference

Seven ways to pay it forward by giving a glowing testimonial.

Source U.S. News - Money http://ift.tt/1egsuk5

Why Parents Should Charge Their Kids Rent

Grads who move back home shouldn't get a free stay at Resort de Mom and Dad.

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How to Boost Your Home’s Value on a Budget

These DIY projects will increase the value of your house with low upfront costs.

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EU Gives Google More Time To Respond To Antitrust Charges – Pushes Deadline To August 17

"We have asked the European Commission for additional time to review the documents they've provided us," says Google spokesperson Al Verney.

Please visit Marketing Land for the full article.

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How to make £20 on your holiday money

Laura Whitcombe

iStock_000042900886_Small.jpg

Holidaymakers are being urged to shop around for the best possible currency exchange rate as it emerged they could be at least £20 better off when swapping £500 for euros.

Holidaymakers are being urged to shop around for the best possible currency exchange rate as it emerged they could be at least £20 better off when swapping £500 for euros.

How to make £20 on your holiday money

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Holidaymakers are being urged to shop around for the best possible currency exchange rate as it emerged they could be at least £20 better off when swapping £500 for euros. Financial research group Consumer Intelligence said people who change £500 for euros with Moneycorp will receive €690.90, but the same amount of cash swapped for euros with Halifax would see them getting just €662.06 - a £20.53 difference at today's exchange rate. However, Consumer Intelligence (CI) says a good exchange rate isn't the be all and end all for holidaymakers, as the three most popular places to buy currency - Post Office, Travelex and Tesco - do not offer the best rates. The Post Office is the most popular provider, yet is only 12th for value in CI's exchange rate analysis - paying €10.90 less than Moneycorp when converting £500. Conversely, Moneycorp, which offers the best value, is ranked ninth for popularity. FairFx, which is second-best for value comes one place higher than Moneycorp at eighth in the popularity contest, while third-place for value was Ramsdens - which swaps £500 for €689 - which is a lowly 19th place for popularity. The top three currency companies for value are less well known to the public and Consumer Intelligence found that Moneycorp's lack of high street presence may put customers off. The company does, however, operate bureaux de change in Central London as well as airports including Bristol Airport, Gatwick, Stansted, Southampton and Southend Airports and it operates a free next-day home delivery service on orders of £500 or more. Ian Hughes, chief executive of Consumer Intelligence, said: "We need to shop around for travel money just as much as we do for car insurance or mortgages or we will lose out. People think that the price of a euro is fixed, it isn't - different people sell it for different prices. "The issue appears to be that many people like to buy travel money in a branch and get the cash in their hands rather than over the internet. Moneycorp provides an airport collection service but doesn't have the national coverage. "It makes sense wherever possible however to look for the best rate. People who really do prefer branches should look at Asda, Tesco, Ramsdens or Thomas Cook. And if you insist on a bank then it should be HSBC." Consumer Intelligence points out that some companies charge fees such as charges for paying by credit card (Moneycorp charge 1.95%). Some firms charge for home delivery too. Moneycorp charges between £5 and £18.50 for amounts less than £500 depending on delivery time, while Money Shop charges £3.99, Thomson £2.95, Lloyds £4.50 and Halifax £5.

Get a good deal on your travel money

read more

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