How to get Aldi groceries delivered

IF THE biggest thing preventing you from buying your groceries at discount stores like Aldi or Costco is convenience, there is now a solution.

Source NEWS.com.au | Business http://ift.tt/1SG0pp8

Coles’ excellent response to complaint

FINDING a family of insects in what was meant to be your dinner is pretty gross, but Coles saw the funny side.

Source NEWS.com.au | Business http://ift.tt/1M1ZJF4

Revenue and net loss both increase for Scientific Games

Scientific Games Corp. said Monday a second quarter net loss of $102.2 million was the result of costs and charges associated with the company's acquisition and integration of slot machine manufacturers WMS Gaming and Bally Technologies in the past 24 months.

Source Business http://ift.tt/1P1Kiwq

Is this the solution to dodgy reviews?

SHOPPERS will soon be able to review businesses while paying for items, if a revolutionary UK ratings system takes off in Australia.

Source NEWS.com.au | Business http://ift.tt/1IUJ5s1

New dance studio- where fitness meets art

A new dance studio has opened in Stroudsburg that’s taking a multidisciplinary approach to meshing art and fitness that appeals to a wide range of participants.The McElligott School in a newly renovated facility at 11 Foundry Street, Suite 104, features four separate schools or disciplines within its umbrella; the CK Dance Theater, featuring jazz, ballet and tap; The McElligott School of Irish Dance, Zumba and Yoga tune-Up, a specialized form that blends classical Yoga with [...]

Source Business - poconorecord.com http://ift.tt/1DogpVC

Rooftop-solar official: NV Energy proposal spells death of industry

CARSON CITY — A solar company official representing an alliance of rooftop solar firms said a filing Friday by NV Energy to create a new rate class for Nevadans who install the systems will mean the death of the industry in Nevada along with its 6,000 jobs.

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Business Briefcase: Matamoras native named insurance co. exec

Losee named vice president of sales at LCBA Community based life insurance company Loyal Christian Benefit Association of Erie has promoted Matamoras native and Delaware Valley High School alumnus Walter H. Losee to vice president of sales. Losee previously was a Regional Manager in LCBA's Pre-Need market where he was responsible for the northwest corner [...]

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Marketing Day: Facebook News Feed Updates, Email Tips & Placed’s New Revenue Tracker

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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Caesars creditors would control proposed real estate trust

Creditors owed billions by Caesars Entertainment Corp.'s largest operating division will control the board of the planned real estate investment trust the company plans to set up through a bankruptcy court-administered reorganization.

Source Business http://ift.tt/1Uj38lS

Car Talk, BestRide.com share a ride

NEEDHAM, Mass. — BestRide.com, the destination for savvy online car shoppers, announces that Car Talk has chosen the nationally recognized vehicle purchase site as a partner to bring creative content and trustworthy car buying services to Car Talk users.“There are lots of sites on the web that just want to funnel car buyers to dealers, and pluck out a commission for it,” said Car Talk Executive Producer Doug Berman. “BestRide’s roots in the [...]

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How I Paid Off $8,100 of Credit Card Debt in Just 3 Months

As a personal finance blogger, I share the juiciest details of my money mistakes with the Internet.

I’m known for being an industrious side hustler and burgeoning real estate investor, but the truth is, I have also struggled with recurring credit card debt. I got into a lot of credit card debt in college, but eventually was able to pay it all off over the course of 18 months, thanks to my first full-time job.

I took the slow and steady approach then, because that kind of income was new to me, as was building a budget and sticking to it while living on my own for the first time in New York City.

I was so proud to be debt-free after years of bad habits (including a shopping addiction I had to go to therapy for), and I remained debt-free with my credit cards safely in my freezer until I bought my first home in 2013.

Back in Debt Again

When it came to my first home purchase, I’d seemingly done everything right: I bought a home well within my price range, earmarked a windfall for the down payment, leveraged city and state down payment assistance programs to cover the closing costs and incidentals that come along with a first home purchase.

I bought a foreclosed home, which, after renovations, left me with a chunk of equity in the house. However, the renovations went over budget, and by January 2014 I was $9,000 in credit card debt.

Now, $9,000 isn’t an overwhelming amount of money compared to the debt some people carry, but for me, with my car paid off and no student loan debt, it felt big.

Still, I turned back to my trusty “slow and steady” method. I thought, “I’ve done this before, I should have no trouble doing it again!”

But it was different this time. I had a mortgage and needed to grow my emergency fund. I struggled to pay off my renovation debt for the entire 12 months of 2014, but ended the year $8,100 in debt.

The “Get Aggressive” Debt Challenge

As I began 2015 still in debt, I finally decided to get serious. But I also knew if I wanted to get rid of the debt once and for all, I’d need to get creative and try something new.

At first, I thought about paying off the debt in six months, but this seemed like forever to me.

Instead, I ran the numbers to figure out if I could pay off $8,100 in three months. It wasn’t likely, but with a lot of hard work and penny pinching, it was possible.

I kickstarted my progress by putting $1,000 from my emergency fund toward the balances, which meant I’d need to pay $2,400 each month to wipe out my debt by my self-imposed deadline.

Then I began to look at all of my monthly expenses. I couldn’t save much from my “fixed” costs like my mortgage and utilities, but if I did a “Spending Freeze” where I didn’t spend any money outside of groceries and gas, I could allocate $800 from my full-time paycheck — roughly half of it — to my debt repayment.

But I’d still need to come up with another $1,600 a month to meet my goal.

I earned this remaining cash from my side business of freelance writing, income from my blog, and getting creative with the rest.

I sold items on eBay, babysat and did some paid voice-over work for a friend who needed talent for her business video. Basically, anything I could do to bring in a little extra cash, I did.

I didn’t buy anything aside from what was necessary. No shampoo if I ran out (I had to use the little hotel-size bottles I found in the back of my cupboard), no eating out (although in months two and three I gave myself $25 a week for “play money”), and no drinks out or fun events.

For three months, I had to hunker down. It actually wasn’t that noticeable, since my challenge went from January to March, the coldest months of the year, and I was working so much.

Why the Aggressive Approach Worked Best for Me

It all depends on your personality, but as someone who has never been able to stick to any type of restriction-based diet for very long, my idea to be aggressive with debt repayment seemed just crazy enough to work.

Paying off debt requires a lot of dedication and focus, and while it was tough to be so regimented for three months, I prefer that over torturing myself slowly and making small cuts over months and years of debt repayment.

By shortening the timeline, I was also able to focus on my goal to ensure success and save a lot of money in interest. This strategy helped me save about $100 per month in interest charges, or about $1,100 in 2015.

After all, you can do anything for three months, and now the debt is gone and I have my life back.

It’s been about four months since I finished the challenge, and I’ve since been able to use the debt freedom to begin working for myself full time. I built in rewards along the way, but my “big treat” to myself for paying off the debt was buying a few things for my house.

Could the Aggressive Approach Work for You?

Before taking on your own aggressive debt challenge, look at your habits in other areas of your life.

Do you prefer to be extreme for a short amount of time? Are you the type of person who likes to “just get it over with?”

If so, this strategy may work for you. Think about what you want to pay off, choose a timeline and monthly amount you can work with, and then brainstorm a payoff strategy around your schedule and lifestyle.

My aggressive debt challenge worked so well, I’m thinking about doing another 90-day challenge, maybe around getting to 20% equity in my home, or hitting a specific savings target. Either way, it feels nice to finally have my life back from credit card debt.

Your Turn: Have you ever tried an aggressive debt-repayment timeline like this? How did it go?

Lauren Bowling is the blogger behind L Bee and the Money Tree, where she shares the wisdom of her past money mistakes. Bowling’s expertise has been featured on Forbes.com, Business Insider, The Huffington Post, U.S. News and World Report, and Lifehacker (among others). She is also the host of the award-winning internet talk show, Awkward Money Chat. Find her on Twitter and Instagram — @lbeemoneytree.

The post How I Paid Off $8,100 of Credit Card Debt in Just 3 Months appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.

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EFF Launches New Do Not Track Standard With Coalition Of Web Companies

New standard works in tandem with privacy software with the aim of preventing sites from tracking users' internet activity.

Please visit Marketing Land for the full article.

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How to Get Paid $5 to Read a Book

It’s not uncommon for me to cruise through 8-10 books a month, so I was pretty thrilled when I found a way to make a few bucks from one of my favorite hobbies.

In fact, this tip doesn’t even require you to really read. Someone will read to you.

I know it sounds weird, but just follow me to the end here….

Here’s how it works:

1. If you haven’t already joined Swagbucks, you’ll need to create a free account (it takes about 15 seconds). If you’re not familiar, here’s my beginner’s guide to earning Swagbucks.

2. Use the Swagbucks search tool to find the offer called “Audible”. Audible is one the leading audiobook sites (it’s run by Amazon) and they have more than 150,000 titles that you can download onto your smartphone.

3. Here’s the really cool part: Swagbucks will give you 600 Swag Bucks just to sign up for an Audible account. The Audible membership is only $1/month for the first two months, so you can see where this is going.

You can redeem 600 Swagbucks for up to $6 in Paypal or gift cards, which means you’ll net around $5 right away. Plus, you’ll get free access to thousands of books for free on Audible!

4. You can of course cancel at any time, but I chose to keep my Audible membership because it’s so cheap and I like listening to audiobooks when I’m out running (yeah, I know that makes me crazy).

Plus, if you keep Audible for 2 months, you’ll be rewarded with an additional 1,200 Swagbucks (worth another $12 in rewards).

The fine print: This offer is only available to new Audible members. It can take up to 7 business days for your Swagbucks to credit. If you cancel your free trial within the first 14 days your Swag Bucks will be revoked.

Good luck Penny Hoarders!

The post How to Get Paid $5 to Read a Book appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.

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Moving? How to Break Your Lease Without Paying Huge Penalties

Signing a lease is a big commitment. While you might have every intention of staying in one location for the next year or two, you never know what might come up.

Sometimes an amazing job opportunity takes you across the country unexpectedly, or you have to head back to your hometown to take care of an ailing relative. Or, maybe you’ll feel a calling to quit the rat race and move to Bali.

Whatever your reason is, the day might come when you have get out of your lease before the term is up — and that can have serious financial repercussions.

A lease is a legal contract, so be sure to consult a lawyer or legal aid office to find out your rights in your specific situation and location, as well as potential negative impacts on your credit.

While the tips below are not legal advice, they offer some ways to work with your landlord and hopefully find a mutually agreeable solution to get out of your lease early without spending a ton of money.

Before You Sign a Lease: Know What You’re Signing

Before you sign any lease, make sure you read it carefully and understand all the terms and conditions. Ask questions and find out exactly what you’re committing to before you sign anything.

Find out what the penalty for breaking your lease is, and if you’re allowed to sublet (including the procedures, fees, approval process, etc.).

You may even be able to negotiate more favorable terms, especially if you’re dealing with a private party. Corporations and property management companies often refuse to budge on their boilerplate contracts, but private parties can be open to more negotiation.

Once You Know You Have to Break Your Lease

Once you make the decision to break your lease, try to make the process go as smoothly as possible.

While it’s never ideal, most reasonable landlords know that things come up and sometimes people have to leave early. Take these steps to hopefully increase your chances of finding a mutually beneficial outcome.

Read Your Contract Thoroughly

Once you realize you’re going to have to go, the first thing you need to do is carefully read through your lease.

Refresh your memory about all the fine print that you carefully read when you originally signed the lease. Look for clauses that outline the terms and procedures for leaving early.

Communicate and Be Honest

If a great job opportunity or a family tragedy causes your plans change to change with little notice, be honest and upfront about what’s going on.

Property rental companies and landlords understand that life happens, but they’re also in the business of running their business. Tell them what’s going on as soon as you can; the more notice you can provide, the better.

Offer Solutions

Do everything possible to not break your landlord’s income stream. If they’re reasonable, they’ll be a lot less likely to charge you extra fees if you help them seamlessly find a new tenant to replace you.

Re-renting a place is a lot of work and most landlords will not be pleased to hear they need to do it sooner than planned. Anything you can do to make life easier for your landlord is a step in the right direction.

If you have a friend who might like to take over your lease, be sure to mention it. If you don’t mind taking some photos and putting the apartment up on Craigslist, why not ask if that would be helpful? If you’re happy to show the property to prospective tenants, offer to do so.

By offering solutions and working with your landlord to solve the empty apartment problem, you’ll have a better chance of helping with a smooth transition.

Find a New Tenant or Sublet

Many states require you and your landlord to both search for a new tenant if you need to break your lease early. This is often called “mitigating damages” and refers to reducing the financial loss that either you or your landlord would face from an empty apartment.

Be sure to check with a lawyer or legal aid office to know your rights in your state and the steps you need to take to do your part.

Know Your Legal Rights

While your lease is a contract and you owe your landlord the sum of it even if you pay monthly rent, your landlord can’t simply sit around after you leave in most states; they must try and re-rent the place and do their part to “mitigate damages.”

Typically, your landlord must only take reasonable steps to re-rent it, which doesn’t mean re-renting it must be their top priority. If you’re in a market with a lot of available properties, it might take a while before someone can move in. While the landlord must take steps to rent the home, they aren’t required to make this their top priority or accept the first person who is interested.

When You May Be Able to Break a Lease for Free

Regardless of the conditions of your lease, it may be possible to break your lease without penalty in a few special circumstances.

Nothing is guaranteed, but if your apartment is unlivable, you receive a military order to move or are called to active duty, or you have a serious medical issue, you may be able to get out of your lease.

To see if these rules apply to you, consult a renters’ rights group or call your legal aid office or lawyer to explain your situation and ask about special exemptions.

If It Gets Ugly

While ideally you’ll come to a solution that works well for everyone, it doesn’t always happen.

To protect yourself, get everything in writing. Keep a log of all communications (including verbal ones), save all your emails and keep all the paperwork and any notices you may receive.

Know that you may be legally liable for the full amount of your lease or a substantial portion of that amount plus other fees, such as the costs to advertise it. However, many landlords will be happy to work with you to mitigate damages and hopefully you won’t end up in court.

For more information on your rights, select your state from this list put together by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Under each state, the site lists resources to help you obtain more information on your rights and how to obtain low-cost assistance.

Your Turn: Have you ever had to break a lease early? If you’re a landlord, what would make life easiest for you if a tenant needed to leave early?

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

The post Moving? How to Break Your Lease Without Paying Huge Penalties appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.

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Struggle to Save Regularly? 4 Tools That Turn Loose Change into Savings

I don’t know about you, but it’s virtually impossible for me to save regularly. My ends don’t meet nearly enough for recurring transfers to a savings account, and as a freelancer, I’ve learned to live with an irregular cash flow.

So how can I save the money I know I should be putting in the bank?

While there are lots of ways to make a little extra cash or trim a little spending to squirrel away into your emergency fund or toward a big purchase, it’s easier to build up that money when you don’t notice it disappearing from your budget. That means putting away a little at a time, in increments you’re not going to miss, but that will add up to a considerable total. That’s right — you’re going to be hoarding pennies.

If you’re like me and struggle to save regularly, try one of these free apps and services that build automatic savings into your daily life.

1. Digit

Digit is a service that links to your checking account, monitoring your daily spending habits and income history. Every two or three days, it uses that data to identify a small amount of money, usually between $5 and $50, it can safely set aside, then transfers that money to your new FDIC-insured Digit savings account. The company is so confident in their math that they have a no-overdraft guarantee! If they get the calculations wrong, they’ll cover your overdraft fee.

When you want to access your money — whether it’s to pay for a financial emergency or because you’re ready to make a big purchase — you simply text Digit, and it transfers the money back to your checking account within 24 hours.

What makes Digit great is its flexibility. You’re not locked into a recurring dollar amount or  frequency. I’ve been plunged into the red enough to realize that regularly scheduled bank savings transfers aren’t for me! The company’s goal is for you to “save money without thinking about it.”

Digit doesn’t charge any fees for this service, which is both a perk and a drawback. You won’t pay any fees, but you also won’t earn any interest on your savings, as this is where Digit makes its money. Not being able to earn interest on your money may not be ideal for some people, but I certainly prefer that to maintenance fees. Because of this, it may be better for shorter-term savings goals rather than longer-terms ones where you’ll want to take advantage of compound interest.

Digit doesn’t have a mobile app, but it will text you regularly to keep you abreast of your savings. The service works with 2,500 banks in the U.S.

2. Acorns

Ever wanted to start investing, but worried that you didn’t have enough money? Acorns is a mobile app for Android and iOS that lets you invest the leftover change from each transaction using your credit card, debit card or checking account.

Every time you swipe your card, Acorns will automatically “round-up” what’s left to the nearest dollar. If you don’t want to automatically round-up every purchase, you can manually choose your round-up transactions.

I usually round up any transactions where the cents are over $0.50, like my $3.60 cup of coffee. I find this keeps me from taking too much from my checking account because I’m so eager to round up enough to invest. Rounding up 40 cents here and 25 cents there moves me swiftly enough to $5 so that I can begin investing without putting myself into the red. Unfortunately, Acorns doesn’t offer any overdraft protection guarantees, so you’ll need to manage it a little more closely than Digit.

Once you have accumulated $5 worth of round-ups, Acorns will transfer that money from your checking account and you can invest it into your chosen portfolio. Acorns offers five types of portfolios, ranging from “Conservative” to “Aggressive.” They consist of various stocks and bonds, “diversifying across multiple asset classes,” similar to a mutual fund.

Not a banking wizard? Are you totally lost when it comes to the stock market? Acorns makes it easy to invest by removing the responsibility of choosing individual investments or worrying about trades. You don’t need any previous investment knowledge or history. Simply choose your portfolio based on your age, income level and how aggressive you’d like to be with your funds.

You won’t grow your money overnight, but you’ll see real-time returns on your investments. Like with any investment, your losses and gains are subject to market fluctuations. With a Conservative portfolio, I turned $15 into $19 within a few weeks. You can withdraw your funds at any time within three to five days, and it took the full five days for the funds to hit my bank account.

Downloading Acorns is free, but you will pay a low fee to invest. If you have less than $5,000 in your account, you’ll pay $1 per month. Investors with more than $5,000 will pay 0.25% per year. However, they just announced that the program is now free for anyone under the age of 24 or anyone enrolled in college.

The cool thing about Acorns is that you’re not simply monitoring your assets, you’re creating them. It’s a great place to store those leftover pennies from your Netflix and Hulu payments. Just round-up your transactions to the nearest dollar and let Acorns do the rest.

3. Keep the Change

It’s easy to see where Acorns got its inspiration; Bank of America’s Keep the Change savings program has been around since 2005. Every time you make a purchase with your debit card, Bank of America rounds up the next dollar and transfers the difference to your savings account.

To join the Keep the Change program, you’ll need to a Bank of America checking account, savings account and debit card, but if you’re already a customer, it’s a good option. You can even monitor your extra savings through the Bank of America mobile app.

This program takes some of the worry out of saving, since it’s all automatic. You do have to be mindful, though, and start thinking of your purchases in whole dollars, or you might overestimate how much is left in your checking account.

4. Way2Save

Wells Fargo offers a special Way2Save savings account that transfers $1 from your checking account into your savings each time you make a debit card purchase, pay a bill online or make an automatic payment from your checking account. If you choose, you can also set up automatic daily or monthly transfers.

As a Wells Fargo customer, I’ve found both pros and cons to this account. It’s nice not to manage the savings at all, since the program takes such a small increment automatically. The money in that savings account also acts as optional overdraft protection for your checking account, though since it takes money out of your checking account, it can also cause overdrafts if you’re not careful. Sometimes the money moving out of my checking account and into my savings account leaves me with a negative balance, so it gets pulled back out of my savings and back into my checking account — resulting in zero savings.

However, this overdraft protection is optional and situation is pretty rare for me, occurring only when I use my debit card more than usual and not often enough for me to discontinue using the program. I have saved a substantial amount of money using Way2Save, easily the most I’ve ever been able to save with a bank account. Plus, it’s convenient because I can manage it within my Wells Fargo mobile app.

These programs won’t replace the hard work of creating and sticking to a budget, but they do help you capture little bits of extra money and turn them into savings. If you struggle with regular saving like I do, try capturing your extra pennies this way and watch them start to add up.

Your Turn: Have you tried any of these apps or services to help you automatically save money?

CJ Reid is a writer, blogger, small business owner and consummate penny hoarder. When not freelance writing or editing, she is flipping furniture or doing transcription work.

The post Struggle to Save Regularly? 4 Tools That Turn Loose Change into Savings appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.

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Placed’s New Revenue Tracker Monitors Mobile Ad Impact On In-Store Sales

A recent survey by xAd indicated that a lack of clear ROI was holding some marketers back from a more aggressive use of mobile advertising and location-based mobile ads in particular. The question was: “What is the biggest factor holding back brands from spending on mobile location...

Please visit Marketing Land for the full article.

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Skipton and Post Office lead moves to higher rates

Sylvia Morris

Person pushing piggy bank up arrow.jpg

Rates on online easy-access accounts continue to edge up with the launch of two accounts paying 1.4% before tax (1.12% after tax).

Rates on online easy-access accounts continue to edge up with the launch of two accounts paying 1.4% before tax (1.12% after tax).

The new Skipton Limited Edition eSaver Issue 2 pays 1.4% (1.12%) and there is no initial bonus to boost the rate for the first year.

Skipton and Post Office lead moves to higher rates

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Rates on online easy-access accounts continue to edge up with the launch of two accounts paying 1.4% before tax (1.12% after tax). The new Skipton Limited Edition eSaver Issue 2 pays 1.4% (1.12%) and there is no initial bonus to boost the rate for the first year. Post Office Money, where the deposit taker is Bank of Ireland, also pays 1.4% (1.12%) on its new Online Saver Issue 15. But this rate includes a bonus for 12 months after which the rate drops to just 0.65% (0.52%). They join other top payers that include BM Savings, part of Halifax, at 1.6% (1.28%) with its Online Extra Issue 18. But it comes with a 12-month bonus after which the rate falls to 0.5% (0.4%). Paragon Bank Limited Edition Easy Access account pays 1.46% (1.17%), with no bonus and no withdrawal restrictions. RCI Bank - part of French automobile manufacturer Renault - pays a higher 1.65% (1.32%) on its Freedom Account. With this bank you are covered by the European deposit protection scheme for a maximum €100,000 (around £70,600). On fixed-rate bonds the top one-year rate of 2.06% (1.65%) comes from new challenger banks Charter Savings and RCI. For two years you can earn 2.35% (1.88%) with RCI Bank or 2.34% (1.87%) with Paragon Bank. On easy-access cash ISAs Virgin Money pays 1.51% tax-free but you are limited to making three withdrawals a year from your account. National Savings & Investments pays 1.5% but you can't transfer your existing cash ISAs into this account. Nationwide at 1.4% has no withdrawal restrictions and you can transfer your existing cash ISAs into its Instant ISA Saver issue 3. On fixed-rate cash ISAs the top deals include 1.75% from Shawbrook Bank for one year or 2% from Halifax, Shawbrook, Virgin Money and Skipton Building Society for two years. Coventry Building Society pays a slightly higher 2.05% fixed until 30 November 2017.

BM Savings and Tesco offer top savings rates

Best Children's Savings Account 2015

read more

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10 Popular Retirement Lifestyles

Here’s how to fill your retirement years with activities that are fun and meaningful.

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

The 5 Types of Content That Attract the Most Backlinks

In most cases, how you present your content is just as important as what you write about.

Depending on how you structure your articles, what you include in them, and what media format you use to present them, your results will be different.

Some posts are great for spreading through social media, but they may not attract many backlinks. Others create a ton of engagement, but not much else.

Some can even help you begin a valuable relationship with an influencer.

My point is: All content you produce should be with an end-goal in mind. Know what you’re trying to accomplish.

One of the most common and important goals of content is to attract links. Links are still a major part of SEO and probably will be for the foreseeable future.

Backlinks to a post not only help that specific post rank better in search engines but they also help all other posts on your site. Get enough quality links, and you’ll be getting tens of thousands of organic search engine visitors a month to your site.

That’s what I have for you today: a guide to the 5 best types of content that can attract not only a good quantity of links, but also high quality links. 

1. People have and will always love list posts

I write a ton of list posts and find they work especially well as guest posts.

Just look at some of the posts I published on NeilPatel.com during June:

• 21 Resources For Mastering Online Marketing
• 15 Quick Tips to Convert Visitors Into Email Subscribers
• 5 Scientifically Proven Techniques to Attract a Loyal Audience
• 5 Copywriting Strategies That Will Improve Your Conversion Rate by 113%

But it’s not just me who loves them.

In an in-depth study of over 220,000 articles, Fractl and BuzzStream found that list posts were the most shareable.

These results confirmed an earlier analysis by Buzzsumo and Okdork of 100 million articles. List posts were only beat by infographics:

But what’s really interesting is that the popularity changes drastically by month:

The most important takeaway is that list posts are remarkably consistent, which will help you get more steady results from producing them. It makes it much easier to determine an accurate return on investment (ROI).

For one more example of list posts being a great type of content, look at the top posts published on Boost Blog Traffic:

That’s right, three out of four are list posts. Also note that they are long lists, and if you visited the articles, they are also really in-depth.

But I told you something at the start of this post: we’re looking for content that can produce links.

It turns out, people also like to link to list posts:

Other than its homepage, both Boost Blog Traffic’s top two posts (in terms of referring domains) are lists posts.

Why people love list posts: Despite the fact that a lot of people complain about having to read “just another list post,” list posts remain one of the most popular content types. That’s because lists have a few key things going for them:

• they make a specific promise: a reader knows how much attention they’ll have to spend on the article
• they are scannable: almost all readers scan articles. Since each list item is usually a subheader, it’s easy to get the gist of an article quickly.
• they invoke curiosity: it’s almost like a test. Can you guess the X ways to do something? Sure, you probably know one or two off the top of your head, but that leaves a big curiosity gap that you want to fill.

A final reason why list posts are great for you as a content creator is that they are among the cheapest to make. As you’ll see with some of the other content types, it’s not uncommon to spend thousands of dollars to create content that attracts a ton of links. It’s rare for a list post to cost much more than a few hundred (in expensive cases).

Here’s how you make a list post…

Step 1 – Pick a topic where more is better: The potential obstacle that you may run into is that most bloggers write list posts on a regular basis, whether on purpose or by accident.

What this means is that there is a ton of competition when it comes to list posts. Search for just about any topic, and you’ll find at least a couple of lists posts.

In order to get someone to link to you, you need to produce content that is worthy of linking. If you’re just producing the same lists as everyone else, it’s going to be a tough sell to get someone to link to you.

The solution? Go bigger, go better.

What sounds more impressive to you:

“6 Low-Calorie Snacks That Are Great for a Diet”

OR

“The Complete List: 56 Low-Calorie Snacks That Are Great for a Diet”

Without even seeing each article, you can tell the second option is going to be more impressive.

What you want to do is find a topic in your niche where more is better.

Some topics do not work well for list posts. No one is interested in “60 Ways to Use Scissors,” or “25 Ways to Use a Spoon.”

In general, you want to find topics where list posts are already doing well. If you search a phrase or keyword and see three or four other list posts in the top few results, you’re onto something.

Ideally, you found shorter posts. Looking at the results above, I can tell it’s going to be harder to make a piece of content that is way better than any of the long lists. But it is still possible if you really want to target that keyword.

In addition to making a post longer, you can also make it:

• more detailed
• more visual/usable
• more accessible (maybe a printable or downloadable version)

You’ll need to look at each of the top ranking results and see what they are missing. Some things will be obvious, but you can also look at the comments of each article for hints about what is missing or what can be improved.

Really, you can pick any keyword or phrase that you’d like to target and check if it’s a good candidate. If you just want to find the keywords that work best with list posts, use the Adword’s Keyword Planner to look for the following:

• best [niche]
• [niche] tips
• ways to [niche]

For example:

Just from that search, you could create:

• The X Best Nutrition Books
• The X Best Nutrition Apps
• The X Best Nutrition Bars

And you could replace “nutrition” with other niche-related keywords to get more ideas.

Step 2 – Write your list, and format it: Creating the post will take up most of your time. First, decide how you’re going to improve on what’s out there.

Remember, your list doesn’t necessarily have to be longer. If you can make it more valuable in other ways, do that.

Research has shown that lists with 10 items receive the most social shares by far. In fact, they get 4 times as many shares as the next closest list number – 23. Other top performing results were 16 and 24.

That being said, there isn’t a great sample size for longer posts, and from past experience, we know they also do well.

Here’s how I suggest you lay out your posts:

• Introduction
• Your list
• Conclusion

Use your introduction to explain to your readers why this topic is important and how the list can help them. Use the conclusion to highlight the best items on the list and to engage your readers.

I see too many writers simply throwing a list at their readers and then getting surprised when their results are poor. It should be just like a conversation: you greet someone, and you say your goodbyes at the end.

2. Go beyond expectations with guides

I honestly don’t think there is another marketer who has invested as much time and effort into creating “definitive” guides as I have.

Take a look at the Quick Sprout sidebar if you don’t believe me:

Each of these guides are tens of thousands of words long and have a customized design that helps them standout from other guides.

When you write one of these guides, your goal is to create an “ultimate guide.” If the topic you’ve written about comes up in a discussion in a forum or on social media, you want people to be able to link to your guide and say “this is all you need.”

If you do that well, you will attract a ton of links and, subsequently, traffic:

Before you get too excited, I need to give you a quick reality check.

Creating a guide of this level is not easy.

It will either take you several (possibly over a hundred) hours to create or it will cost you thousands dollars to have someone else create it for you. If you cut corners, you won’t get the same type of results as shown above.

With a long-term perspective, I think the ROI on these guides is fantastic. It works out to under $20 per link, and the guides drive a ton of traffic and considerably increase the value of your personal brand.

You instantly position yourself as a leader in your niche (e.g., SEO) by creating a guide like this. Create more (like I have), and you’ll be considered a leader in a broader subject (e.g., marketing).

If you’re considering making this investment, here’s what you’ll need to do…

Step 1 – Find a topic and define the scope: The topic and scope will help determine how expensive the guide will be to create.

Remember, this is an “ultimate” guide. It needs to contain everything on your chosen topic.

If you pick a really wide topic, such as “The Ultimate Guide to Marketing,” you would have to write hundreds of thousands of words.

It’s better to err on the narrow side (e.g., “The Ultimate Guide to Structured Data”) and have a guide that’s only 5,000-10,000 words but covers everything about the topic rather than go too broad and have to leave things out or send your costs through the roof.

Note that you can limit your scope in other ways as well. For example, I have created a guide for “online marketing,” but I wrote it for beginners. That way, I can cover everything that a beginner needs to know without covering everything that an expert would need to know.

Step 2 – Lay out the guide: If you’re going to hire a writer, now is the time. I recommend posting a description of the job on a job board such as ProBlogger.

Yes, it will cost money to post the job. You will also have to pay a decent amount for the writing.

This is because you can’t just hire an average writer—you need a great writer. Everything about your guide needs to be top-notch for it to work.

If you have a bit of a reputation in the niche, you might also be able to hire an up-and-coming blogger in your niche whose work you like.

While I contribute to my guides and help lay them out, most of the writing is done by a collaborator. For example, I co-wrote my guide to content marketing with Kathryn Aragon, my editor at Crazy Egg:

Once you know who’s going to write the guide, it’s time to lay it out.

Create an outline of the guide for all the main topics you’ll cover—similar to a table of contents.

Then, create an outline for each of these sections. Treat them as separate pages/posts.

Once you’ve done so, write the individual articles as you usually would. Just keep in mind that quality comes first.

Step 3 – Find a designer: Most writers and marketers might be able to put together a simple custom image when needed, but for a guide like this, you need a whole different skill set.

You’ll need custom images, fonts, backgrounds, plus an experienced eye for laying it all out in the best way:

Again, you can’t cheap out here, or the quality of your guide will suffer.

I personally like Dribbble to find a designer, but you can also find good ones on Upwork and Freelancer if you don’t mind wading through the low-quality designers.

Step 4 – Promote it (easy if you did the previous steps right): If you have a truly great guide, it’ll take only a bit of promotion to get it out there and spread awareness.

A good place to start is Reddit. If you’re not familiar with Reddit, it’s a massive site where users can vote on links to content. Since your guide is so awesome, if you post it in the right community, it’ll get a ton of upvotes and traffic. Before you try, though, learn how to use Reddit the right way.

The next thing you should do is promote your content in a similar way to the Skyscraper Technique. There will be other guides to your topic, but yours will be the best by far. Email anyone who has linked to inferior guides, and tell them you have one that is way better.

Finally, email blog owners who have an audience who would be interested in your guide. For a guide to SEO, don’t email other SEO bloggers—they won’t be very receptive. Email bloggers who write about building online businesses, e-commerce sites, niche sites, etc. These aren’t direct competitors, and they’ll likely love your guide and link to it in the future.

3. Make a work of web art (aka infographics)

No, infographics aren’t what they used to be, but they can still attract a ton of great links.

Infographics are currently the most viral type of content you can produce. When they were a novelty, they used to go viral fast because people were fascinated by infographics. Today, you’ll have to produce a higher quality one for it to get traction.

Recently, I analyzed the results of my infographics. Although the results of my newer infographics (in the last two years) weren’t even close to the two years prior, they still drove 21,582 visitors and 371 backlinks from 34 unique domains on average.

Not a bad return.

Until that diminishes a lot further, I’ll continue producing infographics on a regular basis.

Step 1 – Pick the right topic: Infographics are great because they can communicate almost any type of message. However, I’ve found that infographics that are based on data or those that break down a topic step-by-step work best.

Researching the data you need can take quite a while, but it’s worth it.

Step 2 – Find a great designer: You can go about this in a few ways. You can either hire a designer who specializes in infographics (from Dribbble or similar), or you can hire an agency.

Visual.ly is the most popular agency when it comes to infographics, but it’s not cheap. Expect to spend about $1,000 on average for an infographic.

You can usually save money with your own designer, but you may have to do a lot of the legwork yourself.

Additionally, consider if you’d like to take your infographic to the next level by making it a “gifographic.”

Gifographics are just like “gifs” you see all over the Internet. They combine animations with infographics. These will attract extra links and social shares but cost more to make. Here’s an example of one.

Step 3 – Promote it: Unless you have an audience the size of mine at Quick Sprout, your infographic won’t be linked to unless you get it in front of the right people.

Refer to the section on promotion in this guide to creating a popular infographic.

4. Make an influencer look amazing

What is a link from me worth? Or any other influencer in your niche?

Although it’s just a single link, it’s an extremely high quality one. In addition, it would get you exposure to thousands of people in your niche, many of whom may link to you in forum or social media discussions or blogs of their own. That one link will likely turn into several more.

What if you could force an influencer to link to you?

You can—you just need to make them look amazing.

Here’s the plan…

Step 1 – Pick an influencer to target: There’s no shortage of popular bloggers that give out advice. Your first job is to pick 5-10 influencers you’d love to connect with and get a link from.

Order them from most to least favorite. With this strategy, you can only really target one or two influencers at a time, but you can repeat this strategy as many times in the future as you want.

Step 2 – Follow his/her advice to the letter: When you reach a certain level of popularity, your blog becomes an echo chamber. You’ll get a ton of comments and emails saying “great post, it was really helpful,” but you never know if your work is actually helping your readers.

Every once in a while, an email or comment comes along that puts a smile on your face. Not only did this person apply your advice, but he or she got great results as well.

This is what you’re going to do. Pick one or two major pieces of advice, apply them, and document everything from start to finish. If possible, put any techniques they have created into practice.

This advice can be from a blog, but it’s even better if it’s from a product. If you can share a success story from a product you bought, the influencer can also showcase your results as a testimonial in addition to a case study.

Step 3 – Tell them about your results: The last part of this strategy is to get in touch with the influencer. All you really need to do is tell them your results in a short email (or comment on a relevant page). In most cases, they’ll do the work from there.

Here’s a template you can use:

Subject: I just wanted to say thanks

Hi [name],

I read your article about [topic] a while back and decided it was about time I took action on your advice.

So, I [briefly describe what you did].

Now, a few weeks later, I’ve seen the following results:

• result #1

• result #2

• result #3

It wouldn’t have been possible without your help, so I just wanted to say thanks.

Best regards,

[your name]

Step 4 – Get great links: If you were able to show that you got great results by following your target influencer’s advice, most of the time, they’ll ask for more details. Give them the details, and suggest helping them write a case study if they’re interested.

Additionally, you can write a post about your results on your own blog and talk up your influencer there. Then, email them a link to the post. Although you might not get a link right away, the next time your influencer wants to highlight a success story in a post, they’ll likely link to you. In fact, it may happen several times in the future.

When done right, this strategy will lead to links over 50% of the time. Just make sure you follow the influencer’s advice as intended and get a great result before sharing.

Examples of this strategy in action: Just to help clarify things a bit, I found two cases of this strategy working perfectly.

First, Jimmy Daly put Brian Dean’s Skyscraper Technique into action. After he got some impressive results, he contacted Brian, and it led to this case study.

Not only did he get multiple links to his site, Jimmy also got his company highlighted in the article, which likely led to a lot more business.

The second example involves Ramit Sethi as the target influencer. Ramit is one of the most popular bloggers in any niche, and this technique can still work to get a link from him.

Chris and Kerry documented the results of applying a lot of Ramit’s advice, and once it was impressive enough, they were featured in a case study, which included a link to their website.

The bigger the influencer you target, the higher quality the link will be, but the more work will be needed to impress the influencer.

Alternatively, targeting a slightly less popular blogger can be a good thing because they’re more likely to link to you multiple times in the future as they don’t have a ton of other successful examples.

5. Show your community that you care

Your community is filled with influencers, small bloggers, readers, and hobbyists interested in your niche.

If you want to attract a ton of attention and links, you need to create something that all those people care about.

Step 1 – Find a complex problem that’s begging for an answer: By far the most common problem for bloggers and enthusiasts is that there’s not enough support for their passion.

They want to introduce others to their interest without looking stupid or weird.

In the marketing niche, for example, everyone is always looking for statistics so that they can back up their advice.

If you can find a particular aspect of marketing where statistics are lacking, you could be the one to create them.

Even large companies such as HubSpot continually invest in analyzing data to produce useful statistics for their communities because it works. Good data attracts a ton of links.

Heck, I’ve already linked to two in-depth studies earlier. First, the in-depth study on shareable content by Fractl and BuzzStream. Then, the analysis by Buzzsumo and Okdork of 100 million articles.

And I’m not the only one to link to them. The first article has links from 90 unique domains. And the Okdork analysis has over 460 linking root domains and over 23,000 backlinks. That’s from one article!

Step 2 – Invest time and resources: The reason that content like this gets so many links is because it’s really valuable. It takes a lot of time and effort to create.

Figure out what data is most interesting to your community and find a way to make it happen. You may have to survey experts one-by-one, analyze a ton of data (great in online niches), or conduct in-person product tests.

You may not have the skills to do the studies such as the ones featured above on your own. In that case, you can try to reach out to a collaborator that might have access to the data but hasn’t published it.

That’s what Noah (Okdork) did with his analysis. He saw that Buzzsumo had collected data from millions of domains and got in touch with them to get access to the research. Buzzsumo gets a lot of credit in the content, and Noah gets his awesome link-attracting article.

Step 3 – Pick out the most interesting data and present it: After you’ve put in a ton of work, it’s tempting just to publish it all, effectively saying “I’ve done enough, here it is.”

But if you really want great results, you have to keep going until your work is done.

Now, you need to present your data in an attractive way. Create graphs and charts of the most interesting data that gets your point across. This will help spread it on social media. For example, the post on Okdork had attractive graphs with embed codes for all the main points:

If you really want to go the extra mile (and I encourage it), think about creating an infographic from your data. The big benefit from this is that your infographic should get a lot of attention because it is all original data.

Once you’ve published your content, it’s pretty easy to promote it. Essentially, you can email influencers and go to forum and Reddit communities and say something along the lines of “I spent X hours creating Y for people in this community like you. Please take a look.”

Most will take a look, and if you’ve chosen a good topic, they will love it and spread it for you.

Conclusion

Why did I give you five types of content that attract links? Why not just one?

Because not all content types will produce the same results in every niche.

I recommend that you try each type of content mentioned here two to three times over the next few months, then track how much you spent to create it and what results you were able to achieve.

Based on that, you can focus more on the most effective types of content for your website.

Remember that great content will continue to attract links over time past your initial promotional efforts—as long as your site is growing.

If you can publish great content on a consistent basis (for at least six to 12 months), you’ll likely see your results explode. Don’t give up if you have one or two pieces of content that don’t meet your expectations.

Before you plan how you’ll use these types of content, tell me in a comment below: Which types of content have you had the most success with in the past, and which types of content will you try in the future?

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Silvio Calabi: Ever seen a Ford Focus sedan?

Ford Foci run in large herds, but if it hadn’t been for the mini-Aston Martin grille, and maybe the Ford blue, I might not have known what this was for a second. (I still mix up the Focus, Fiesta and Fusion, too. But I’ve only been doing this professionally for 30 years.) The Focus was mildly restyled for 2015, but to my eye the sedan body looks dated already. In compact economy cars, the five-door hatchback is king.The disconnect continues inside: Not only did [...]

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5 Things You Should Never Do While Waiting to Hear Back About a Job

Don't make these anxiety-induced mistakes after you've interviewed. 

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For Potent Email Campaigns, Timing Is Everything

The time of day at which you send out an email can have a huge impact on whether or not your recipients click on it. Columnist Eric Dezendorf helps you figure out how to test and find that sweet spot.

Please visit Marketing Land for the full article.

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Macau casinos experience 14th straight monthly revenue decline

Macau gaming revenue fell 34.5 percent in July, the Chinese casino market's 14th straight monthly decline and the sixth straight month the region has experienced drops of 30 percent or higher.

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The Dark Side of Freelancing: Here’s What No One Will Tell You

For the past four years, I’ve worked as a writer, making a living through freelancing and my online business.

If you’re considering this path, you’ve probably read advice from dozens of sources on details like optimizing your email list, engaging followers on social media, reaching out to potential clients, making the most of your time when working from home and other nuggets of wisdom for success in the new economy.

What you don’t often hear from those of us doing this work is . . . how we actually make a living. Where does the money come from?

We’re not blatantly lying about our income. But we’re all kind of reluctant to admit when we can’t pay the bills from our solo businesses. So we just sort of omit other funding sources.

What We Will Tell You About Making Money

Over the years, I’ve made my living as a writer in a variety of ways. First, I focused mainly on writing for clients in areas like:

• freelance blogging
• freelance journalism
• manuscript editing
• newsletter editing
• web copywriting
• web copyediting

Then I moved into creating my own products and services as a solopreneur and making money through:

• ebook sales
• coaching
• online courses
• webinars

I’ve also built my blog audience up so that I can make money from:

• sponsored blog posts
• affiliate sales

Advice on starting an online business tends to focus on tips for success in these areas. But there’s a lot of luxury – free time, energy to spare, money to invest – assumed in that neat, clean path – and most of us don’t have it. Most of us take a much messier path.

What We Usually Won’t Tell You About Earning a Living

Building a full-time income as a freelancer takes time.

You have to establish your expertise, gather clients and build a reputation simply by doing the work for a while.

As a solopreneur, you have an even steeper hill to climb: building your own audience, developing your own products and never-ending self-promotion.

In the meantime, you still have to house and feed yourself and maybe a spouse, kids, pets and more. When freelance work has dried up, coaching clients stopped calling or self-promotion became tiresome, I still had to pay the bills!

To do that, I have:

• worked odd jobs like house-sitting, babysitting, dog-walking and house-painting
• worked part-time as a barista (sort of a cliche for a writer, right?)
• split expenses with my boyfriend, or relied entirely on his income between clients
• taken loans from my parents
• relied on gifts from friends and family
• lived with my parents, rent-free

And I’m not the only one.

This work does not support me 100 percent, but I used to believe it should. I felt like a failure. Why was everyone else doing just fine striking off on their own, but I couldn’t make ends meet?

It was because of the income they weren’t talking about.

Many writers, coaches and other solopreneurs I meet are paying the bills with odd jobs and other financial support, just like I am.

And it’s OK!

It’s a grave disservice to new freelancers and solopreneurs to omit these alternative sources of income when we talk about launching lifestyle careers. We’re setting you up for failure by suggesting you ought to be able to support yourself entirely with your solo business, even early on.

Believing this myth was a huge detriment to my career as a writer, so I want to offer the advice I wish I had heard early on while I worked to make a living writing:

1. Keep Your Day Job as Long as Possible

I quit my job and tried to make a living freelancing way too early. This meant I was constantly struggling to keep my head above water, and I had to take on work I didn’t love just for the money.

I couldn’t focus on finding work that was right for me, because I just had to take whatever would pay.

2. Don’t Be Shy About Gifts, Loans and Support From Family and Friends

A $100 bill in a card from my sister when I moved out of state was the push I needed to invest in my first self-published ebook, which became the centerpiece for my brand.

Also, I forgo the whimsical stuff for Christmas and birthdays, and instead ask for gifts that support my work: an iPad, podcast equipment, gas cards for travel, etc.

3. Move Into Your Business One Step at a Time, Instead of in One Giant Leap

Oh, the leap sounds fun, I know. It sounds brave and exhilarating and admirable — and, sure, it is.

But it’s also reckless and a little miserable. I definitely wish I had eased out of traditional work and into working for myself in a few smarter stages.

Lifting the Financial Burden

In the past year, I’ve gone back to work, to the dreaded day job, to supplement my writing income.

It may seem like a shame now to punch a clock and work for someone else. But I’m easing the financial burden from my writing and giving myself the room I need to breathe and finally build a career I can truly love.

Your Turn: If you’ve built a career as a freelancer, what did you do to make money while you built your business? If you’re in the process of launching a small business or side hustle, how are you funding your work?

Share your stories in the comments to help others learn from your experience!

Dana Sitar is an author, blogger and person living in Wisconsin. She manages A Writer’s Bucket List blog network and She Loves Comedy podcast network and blogs insomnia-induced personal essays at danasitar.com.

The post The Dark Side of Freelancing: Here’s What No One Will Tell You appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.

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Questions About 0% Loans, Home Brewing, Insecurity, Everyday Carry, and More!

What’s inside? Here are the questions answered in today’s reader mailbag, boiled down to five word summaries. Click on the number to jump straight down to the question.
1. 0% loan? Why not?
2. Wedding registry ideas
3. When to retire?
4. Using 401(k) for loan repayment
5. Everyday carry?
6. Reusable freezer containers
7. Insecurity theory
8. College student using food pantry?
9. How is home brewing cheap?
10. Trust fund “allowance”
11. Leave online orders unpurchased
12. Safety razors

One of the hardest parts of being a friend is watching that friend going through a painful journey and knowing that you can’t really help them through it. Instead, you can just be there waiting for them on the other side.

I’ve been on both sides of that picture myself. I’ve had friends who wanted to help me during times of trouble and simply could not. The best friends were the ones who were still there when I picked up the phone a month or two later.

At the same time, I’ve watched friends go through really painful experiences where they seemed to shove me away. Sometimes, they never came back; sometimes, they did.

You can offer help, but sometimes it’s not what they need. Sometimes friends just have to figure out their own path and the best thing you can do is be waiting there for them when they need you.

Q1: 0% loan? Why not?

For the last month some local banks and credit unions have been running ads for 0% personal loans in the newspaper and mail flyers and signs around town. I am trying to figure out what the “catch” is for these loans. They usually have pictures of a cruise ship on them and talk about having that great vacation now. What is the catch??
– Bonnie

There are a lot of catches, depending on the exact specifications of the loan.

Most of the time, the “catch” is that the 0% interest rate is a teaser rate. It lasts for, say, the first three months or the first six months of the year. After that, the interest rate jumps – and it often jumps up pretty high.

So, let’s say you borrow $2,400 and they put you on $20 minimum payments. For the first three months, there’s no interest – you pay that $50 minimum and the balance goes down to $2,340. At that point, the interest rate goes up to 10% per year.

From that point forward, it will take you 445 months to pay off the loan. In total, you’ll pay $6,550 in interest alone along with the remaining $2,340 in principal. You’ll end up paying over $9,000 to borrow that $2,400.

Now, most arrangements won’t be quite that stark and unfair, but that gives you an idea of how they’ll work. The interest is free for the first few months, but it goes up after that.

Q2: Wedding registry ideas

My husband-to-be and I are getting married in November and we are in the process of setting up our wedding registry. Right now we live in a small apartment and most of our stuff is pure Goodwill. Do you have any suggestions for good items to put on our registry? We are registering at Target definitely and maybe at a few other places.
– Danielle

I would fill up the list with “buy it for life” items that replace things in your home that you actually use a lot. For example, I’d suggest putting a chef’s knife, a paring knife, a bamboo cutting board (or two – one for meat and one for non-meat), a stainless steel ladle, a cast iron skillet, and an enameled cast iron pot on there for starters. And that’s just your kitchen.

The goal is to receive things for gifts that you’ll actually use and that you’ll likely never have to replace, at least not for many years.

Unless you really can’t come up with anything else, I strongly encourage you to just add quality versions of items you already use a lot in a cheap form rather than adding items that you’ve never used before. Even if it’s something simple like replacing a beat-up plastic spatula with a new silicone spatula, it’s a much better move than putting something like a peach de-fuzzer on there.

Q3: When to retire?

How do you decide when it is the right time to retire?

I am currently 61 years old. I have been contributing 10% of my salary to a 401(k) for the last 23 years and for most of that time my employer has been contributing 5% too. The total balance right now is $1.3 million and most of it is in a target retirement 2020 fund.

I will be eligible for Social Security in a year but if I hold off the benefits will be larger.

Right now my living expenses are about $3000 a month between my wife and myself. We live in a nice neighborhood with a homeowners association and pretty heavy property taxes and insurance. We have thought about moving to an apartment and buying a RV and living mostly out of the RV in the future.

Is it okay for me to retire?
– David

If I were in your shoes, I’d retire as soon as I had a plan in place to fill my time in retirement. In other words, I wouldn’t just go in there and sign my papers unless I knew how I was going to fill every day with something worthwhile.

If you have $1.3 million in your 401(k) and adopt a relatively safe 4% annual withdrawal rate, you’ll be pulling out $52,000 per year. You’ll have to pay income taxes on that, you’ll still be taking home somewhere around $40,000 per year.

If your living expenses are $3,000 a month, that adds up to $36,000 a year. Thus, right now, your 401(k) alone should sustain you for the rest of your life.

Of course, you’ll soon gain Social Security. When that kicks in, you can reduce your 401(k) withdrawals appropriately.

Unless you hit a ton of unexpected expenses – and I mean an avalanche – or your lifestyle rapidly inflates, you’re going to be fine in retirement from what I can tell.

Q4: Using 401(k) for loan repayment

I have about $47K in total debts, of which $12K is credit cards. I have $22K in my 401(k) from my old job and I am thinking about emptying it out to pay off debts. From what I understand I have to pay 10% of the balance to the IRS so that would leave me with just under $20K to pay off the credit cards and most of one student loan. Is this a good idea?
– Mary

It’s a very bad idea, because you’re forgetting something with that 401(k) withdrawal: it’s also going to be taxed as regular income.

That 10% you mention is just an additional penalty for early withdrawal. You will also have to pay income taxes on that money that you pull out, which can be anywhere from 15% to 40% – and that’s just federal income taxes (depending on your other income). If you have state income taxes, it’s going to be even more.

Since I don’t know what your income is actually like, I’ll just assume you’re paying a 25% income tax rate. That means that you’ll have something like $15K for your debt repayment, not $20K. That’s a big difference.

Unless that debt is absolutely killing you, you shouldn’t tap your 401(k) to pay down debts.

Now, some 401(k) plans do allow you to borrow money against the balance. If that’s the case, you should compare the terms of that loan versus the ones you’re wanting to repay and if you get better terms, go for it.

I would just avoid purely tapping money from your 401(k).

Q5: Everyday carry?

I have started reading and enjoying everydaycarry.com recently. I also read The Simple Dollar. Can’t help but wonder what your “everyday carry” is like.
– Andrew

I’ve answered this question in the past, but I figure I’ll answer it again.

On my body, at any given time, I have a wallet, a pocket notebook (usually a Field Notes pocket notebook), a pen (almost always a Uniball Signo 207 black ultra micro), a Spyderco Tenacious pocket knife, my keys, and my phone.

In my “go bag” that I take with me for almost every excursion outside of the house, I have a lot of things. In there, you’ll find:
– My laptop
– My laptop charger
– My Kindle Paperwhite
– A spare charger for my cell phone
– A Leatherman Juice S2
– Several spare pens and a spare pocket notebook
– A Streamlight ProTAC mini-flashlight
– A notebook dedicated to whatever online class I’m taking at the moment
– A backup bottle of my prescription medicine
– A water bottle
– Some sore throat lozenges, usually Fisherman’s Friend
– A tiny toiletry bag with a toothbrush, a mini-tube of toothpaste, a mini-bottle of mouthwash, a razor, a mini-container of shaving cream, and a deodorant stick
– A few granola bars
– A backup t-shirt for myself with a backup t-shirt that would fit my older kids and another one for my youngest child wrapped up in it
– A copy of whatever book I’m currently reading if it’s not on the Kindle

That’s what you’ll typically find in my everyday carry bag. It does change somewhat when I am going on a specific trip, though, as I repack everything.

Q6: Reusable freezer containers

Do you have any recommendations for reusable freezer containers for storing individual meals and maybe small casseroles? I can’t really find anything at the store for freezer storage other than quart and gallon Ziploc freezer bags which would just make a giant mess.
– Danny

Honestly, we use these containers from Ziploc. They work really well over a lot of uses – at least a dozen and they’re still ticking. We bought a bunch when they were on sale at a local store.

To label them, we just use ordinary masking tape and a marker. We mark them with the contents, the date we packed it, and usually a “use by:” date, too.

I have seen more reliable freezer containers that will theoretically work for hundreds of uses, but we haven’t even worn out one of these Ziploc containers yet, so those may not even be worth it. These seem to do the job really well.

Q7: Insecurity theory

I really enjoyed your “Road to Financial Armageddon” post series, especially the part about the “Yuppie years.” Let’s just say it sounds familiar.

One big aspect of that kind of lifestyle especially for young professionals is that there’s some real insecurity tied into it. Often young professionals are insecure in their career path so they try really hard to “fake it until they make it.” They try hard to act like they are a big success because they don’t have the confidence yet to not worry about it.

I am middle age now and I see it at work. The newer employees are always dressed up and have the latest smartphone and are driving nice cars. The middle aged guys like myself are usually driving way cheaper cars and have older phones and replace clothes only when they’re old.

I have confidence in my skills so I don’t need to “act” successful any more. I am successful.

I think that “Yuppie years” phase you talk about is part of a natural evolution of a professional.
– Bob

I absolutely agree with you that there was a lot of insecurity tied up in that lifestyle, at least for me. I felt very insecure in the professional world I found myself in. People were asking some pretty complex and difficult things of me and basically just expecting me to achieve them. Often, I wouldn’t have any idea how to actually pull those things off.

The easiest way to handle insecurity is through bravado and through “faking it until you make it,” and I think that’s much of what was going on during that time. I didn’t feel secure in the professional area that I was in during those first few years in my career, so I would find other ways to give off the impression – and somewhat convince myself – that I belonged. Often, that involved spending money on things like golf clubs, smartphones, restaurant meals, and so on. It made me, in my eyes, look like a professional.

Here’s the thing, though. Most of the older professionals in my field didn’t act that way. They mostly drove older cars and didn’t really dress very nicely most of the time, unless there was a key meeting or something. They didn’t brag about their tech, either.

I would have been a lot better off looking at them as examples rather than trying to cover up my own insecurity with spending.

Q8: College student using food pantry?

I am a sophomore at a large state university in the Midwest. I live in off-campus housing with three other people and have a part time job while also a full time student. There are times when I can barely afford food.

The other night I suggested that I might look into going to a food pantry that’s in our town and my roommates basically laughed at the idea, but it doesn’t seem dumb to me. I basically work 20 hours a week for $8 an hour which would surely be enough to qualify me.

Thoughts? Is this a good idea?
– Erika

If you’re eligible for that food pantry, you should use it. The point of a food pantry is to put food on the plates of people who really can’t afford it and that seems to be the boat that you’re in.

Another useful strategy is to hang out on campus more. Many campus organizations have meetings where food is provided out of the funds they get from the university. In my experience and from the stories of other students, clubs related to academic majors are particularly good in this regard.

What about other benefits? You might be eligible for SNAP, which would provide you with some additional food. SNAP is generally not open to college students unless they work 20 hours a week or have dependent children, but you may qualify under that 20 hours a week standard.

Trust me, you can eat when you are in college. There are lots and lots of sources for free or very low cost food.

Q9: How is home brewing cheap?

You’ve mentioned home brewing as a “cheap” hobby, but to me it seems anything but cheap. There is basically no way to make beer at home as cheap as buying Busch Light at the store. You’re probably making cheaper stuff than the cost of buying some of the top craft beers, but your quality is going to vary a lot. How can you possibly justify this as a frugal hobby?
– Kevin

You can turn water, a bit of malt, a bit of sugar, and a bit of yeast in a two liter pop bottle into beer. The core ingredients of beer really aren’t very expensive at all and you don’t need that much equipment, either. Here’s a recipe for doing just that – all you need are the two liter bottles, a big brew pot, and a lidded bucket for equipment, basically, and your only ingredients are water, a can of malt extract, a bit of sugar, and a yeast packet. You can make 20 liters of beer with about $5 in equipment and about $5 in ingredients. It’ll probably be a mediocre pilsner (think Old Milwaukee or something), but it’s beer.

Everything really scales up from that. Let’s say you wanted to use individual bottles – you’ll need a lot of empty beer bottles, a capper, and some blank caps. You might want to make an IPA, which will require some hops as an ingredient. Maybe you want to make your own malts, which will require raw grains and something to grind them and probably a mash tun (which can be a large insulated water cooler if you’re starting out).

I’ve received most of my “scaled up” items as gifts over the years. I have a large glass fermenter which was a gift, a copper coil for cooling the beer which was (mostly) a gift, a fermenting bucket which was a gift, a mash tun (an insulated water cooler) which was a gift with about $5 in additional modifications… you get the idea.

My only real expense has been in ingredients, and that can get expensive if you’re making really hoppy IPAs or unusually flavored beers. Still, it’s far cheaper per batch than buying a similar batch from the store.

Q10: Trust fund “allowance”

My wife’s grandparents were exceedingly wealthy and they set up a trust fund for each of their grandchildren. Upon turning 21 they receive a monthly stipend for the rest of their life that’s tied to the Consumer Price Index and currently it’s abut $5,300 per month.

This makes personal finance easier no doubt! Her parents were very down to earth and apparently her grandparents were too so we actually live below our means right now.

I am pretty sure there is more than enough in that trust fund to last her for the rest of her life. When she passes away, it is converted into a lump sum and split among her survivors.

My question is what you would do with this kind of income stream. Our instinct is to live off of the money from the trust fund and then use the other income we earn for special expenses like travel.
– Donald

I think your instinct is spot-on. If I were you, I’d live a lifestyle that was purely funded by the income from her trust fund. I’d then work, but choose jobs that fulfilled personal interests and passions, and use the income from those jobs to do special things.

You don’t really have the need to save for the future or save for retirement that other people have, which is a real blessing. However, you do run a real danger of escalating your lifestyle behond that trust fund income.

Just avoid that and you’re fine. Don’t even look at other income streams. Just bank them and use them for special occasions. A normal month shouldn’t come close to exceeding your trust fund income.

Q11: Leave online orders unpurchased

This is a really slick money saving tip my sister showed me and it has worked for me a few times.

If you are going to buy something online, go through all of the steps of buying it but don’t hit the final “buy” button. Instead just let all of that stuff sit in your shopping cart for a few days.

At some online sites they will email you with discounts to get you to complete your order and sometimes the prices will be lower when you go back and check in a few days.

I saved about $200 buying a computer this way! Going to try it everywhere now!
– Maggie

This actually works well at a lot of online shops – but not all online shops. Your mileage will most definitely vary with this tactic, even on trips to the same online store.

I’ve seen it work at Amazon, where the price of an item that sat in my cart for several days magically dropped by 10%. I’ve seen it work at Shutterfly, too, and I’ve heard anecdotes about it working in lots of different places.

It works just like Maggie says. Just add an item to your shopping cart and sign into the site, but don’t buy it. Let it sit there. Check the price in a few days. It very well might have dropped.

Q12: Safety razors

Do you still use a safety razor for shaving?
– Dennis

I experimented with using a safety razor for about a year, but eventually I abandoned it because it just didn’t work well with my skin. I had no problem trimming with it, but I would inevitably either cut myself badly or really irritate my skin over the larger patches.

Instead, I moved back to using cartridge-based razors, but with a twist. Instead of just disposing of them, I actually hone them a bit on a piece of wet rubber after each shave. It’s easy. The item I use for this is called a RazorPit, and it works like a charm. I now get about eight months of use out of a single cartridge, which makes it more than cheap enough for me.

Safety razors are fine. They just never really agreed with my skin at all.

Got any questions? The best way to ask is to follow me on Facebook and ask questions directly there. I’ll attempt to answer them in a future mailbag (which, by way of full disclosure, may also get re-posted on other websites that pick up my blog). However, I do receive many, many questions per week, so I may not necessarily be able to answer yours.

The post Questions About 0% Loans, Home Brewing, Insecurity, Everyday Carry, and More! appeared first on The Simple Dollar.

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Crystal Palace beat Man Utd to top house price league

Laura Whitcombe

View from Crystal Palace.jpg

Residents living close to Crystal Palace's Selhurst Park stadium have seen their house prices rise faster than any other premiership team over the past year.

Residents living close to Crystal Palace's Selhurst Park stadium have seen their house prices rise faster than any other premiership team over the past year.

Average house prices in the Croydon area, home to Selhurst Park, rose by 17% in the year to June to reach £341,309, according to figures from Nationwide.

Crystal Palace beat Man Utd to top house price league

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Residents living close to Crystal Palace's Selhurst Park stadium have seen their house prices rise faster than any other premiership team over the past year. Average house prices in the Croydon area, home to Selhurst Park, rose by 17% in the year to June to reach £341,309, according to figures from Nationwide. Meanwhile, firmly in the relegation zone, the area that houses Manchester United's Old Trafford stadium, saw prices rise by just 1% to £234,207. Stoke City's neighbourhood prices stood still at £135,513 and Sunderland's Stadium of Light postcode fell by 4% to £150,552. Unsurprisingly, the club with the priciest surrounding real estate remains Chelsea, where the average price was an eye-watering £797,558. Prices in the area rose by 5% on average during the year, and by 127% over the past five. The ground with the cheapest houses nearby is Stoke City's Britannia Stadium, where the average price is £135,513. Alan Oliver, head of external affairs at Nationwide, explained: "Our latest figures once again show that success on the pitch doesn't always mean high house price growth. The prime example is Manchester United - top four in the Premier League but relegation zone in the house price equivalent. In fact, half of the teams in the top 10 of the 'House Price Premier League' finished in the bottom half of last season's Premier League." He added: "The data also shows that areas containing Premier League football stadia are not immune from the wider national house price picture as annual growth rates are down. Across the UK, the annual pace of house price growth continues to slow - a trend that has been in evidence since mid-2014. In fact, in our most recent regional report, 11 of the 13 UK regions saw a slowdown in annual rate of growth in the second quarter of 2015." Nationwide reported that UK house prices fell by 0.2% to £195,055 in June compared to the previous month. Year-on-year, they were higher by 3.3% but in May the annual growth figure was 4.6%.

Spurs top house price Premier League

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