Uber driver pepper sprays attacker

AN UBER driver fought off a drunken attacker with a blast of pepper spray to the face in a shocking incident captured on the car’s dash camera.

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The 3 Best Bank Bonuses and Promotions of 2015

Ready for a new bank account? You might be after you see these bonuses.

We found three awesome checking/savings accounts that will give you a huge sign up bonus just for signing up…

1. Chase – $250 Bonus When You Open a New Checking & Savings Account

• Visit this Chase Total Checking® page and enter your email address to get a unique coupon code. You’ll need this code in order to get the bonus.
• Open your email and click the “Open Now” button for Chase Total Checking, and then select the “I would like to start a new application” option under the Getting Started section. This offer expires on 1/15/16, so you’ll need to complete the application before then.
• If you make a direct deposit in your account within the first 60 days, Chase will credit your checking account with $150.
• You can earn an additional $100 if you open a Chase savings accounts with a $10K deposit and maintain that balance for 90 days. You are not required to open the savings account to earn the $150 Chase checking bonus.

Fine print:

Checking offer is not available to existing Chase checking customers, those with fiduciary accounts, or those whose accounts have been closed within 90 days or closed with a negative balance. To receive the $150 checking bonus: 1) Open a new Chase Total Checking account, which is subject to approval; 2) Deposit $25 or more at account opening; AND 3) Have your direct deposit made to this account within 60 days of account opening.  Your direct deposit needs to be an electronic deposit of your paycheck, pension or government benefits (such as Social Security) from your employer or the government. After you have completed all the above requirements, we’ll deposit the bonus in your new account within 10 business days. You can only receive one new checking account-related bonus per calendar year. Bonus is considered interest and will be reported on IRS Form 1099-INT.

**Account Closing: If your checking account is closed within six months after opening, we will deduct the bonus amount at closing.

 

2. Santander – Open a New Account and Earn $150

If you’re a new customer, Santander Bank will give you $150 for opening a new checking account. Use this account to hold your holiday savings, and you can start the New Year with free cash!

The offer works for Basic, Classic and Premium checking accounts, which offer a variety of options to fit your needs.

Here’s how the deal works:

1. Open an eligible new Santander checking account with a minimum deposit of $25. Just click this link to open an account. (if you prefer, they’ll send you a coupon code to open your account in person at a local branch.)

2. Have direct deposits totaling $500 or more within the first 90 days.

3. Keep your account open for at least 90 days.

4. Once you meet these conditions, your $150 will be paid within 30 days.

3. How To Earn Up to a $500 Bonus with Capital One 360 Savings:

1. Open a Capital One 360 Savings account by the bonus expiration date (11/30/2015 at 11:59 PM Est). If you’ve had a Savings product with Capital One 360 or ING DIRECT before, you won’t be eligible for the bonus offer.

If you’ve already opened an account, be sure to forward this article on to your spouse, relatives, friends, etc. so that someone you know can earn a little extra cash.

2.       To qualify for a bonus, your account must be funded within the first 10 days of account opening. Deposits from an existing Capital One 360 account will not qualify for the bonus.

3.       The amount of your bonus will be determined based on the highest amount you deposit within the first 10 days of account opening and maintaining that balance on a daily basis for the next 90 days following the 10 day period.

You must deposit a minimum of $5,000 and maintain a daily balance of $5,000 for 90 days after the initial 10 day period to qualify for any bonus. The amount of the bonus you actually earn will be determined based on the following balance tiers during the initial 10 day period and the 90 day period after that: $5,000+ earns a $50 bonus, $10,000+ earns a $100 bonus; $20,000+ earns a $200 bonus; $30,000+ earns a $300 bonus; $40,000+ earns a $400 bonus; and $50,000+ or more earns a $500 bonus. The maximum bonus you can earn is $500.

4. Capital One 360 will deposit the bonus money into your account within 10-15 days following the 90-day period – once it’s deposited, the funds will be available immediately.

Good luck Penny Hoarders!

Editorial Disclosure
This content is not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Opinions expressed here are author’s alone, not those of the bank advertiser, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. This site may be compensated through the bank advertiser Affiliate Program.
UGC Disclosure
These responses are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser’s responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.
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This site may be compensated in exchange for featured placement of certain sponsored products and services, or your clicking on certain links posted on this website

The post The 3 Best Bank Bonuses and Promotions of 2015 appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.

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Unwitting ‘face of HIV’ wins lawsuit

A MODEL who had her image unwittingly used in ads declaring she was HIV positive has won a major defamation lawsuit against a photo company.

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Amazon’s Black Friday Deals Start Now. Here’s What You Need to Know

Can’t wait to start Black Friday bargain-hunting? If you’re shopping on Amazon, you don’t have to!

Today, the world’s biggest retailer launched its Black Friday deals store. And although Thanksgiving is more than three weeks away, you’ll already find reduced prices on a variety of products.

Some sales last the entire day (Daily Deals), while others are only available for a matter of hours (Lightning Deals).

Amazon Prime Members Get Early Access to Lightning Deals

In conjunction with the launch, Amazon announced that, for the first time, Prime members will have early access to the 30,000 Lightning Deals it plans to offer — with the ability to purchase deals 30 minutes before anyone else.  

Though the majority of deals offered today didn’t sell out, that extra half hour could be a game-changer when Black Friday gets closer — and the deals get hotter — so if you’re not already a Prime member, you might want to sign up for a free trial.

To see what deals Amazon’s offering right now, surf over to their Black Friday store.

Your Turn: Will you shop at Amazon now? Or will you wait until Black Friday?

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!

Susan Shain, senior writer for The Penny Hoarder, is always seeking adventure on a budget. Visit her blog at susanshain.com, or say hi on Twitter @susan_shain.

The post Amazon’s Black Friday Deals Start Now. Here’s What You Need to Know appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.

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How to Earn $300+/Month Watching Movie Previews

I know it’s sounds far-fetched, but it’s possible to earn extra money watching movie previews.

In fact, if you’re really committed, you could earn $300/month or more with the tips listed below. Let me explain…

1. Earn Up to $225/Month at Swagbucks

Most of you already know about Swagbucks, but did you know that they will pay you to watch movie previews, along with dozens of other videos?

(Never used Swagbucks before? Here’s our guide for beginners.)

You need to watch all of the shows in a specific playlist to earn your bucks, so be prepared. Swagbucks lets you know how long the playlist runs before you start watching, and playlists range from a few minutes to about a half hour.

And it’s possible to earn up to $225/month watching these videos!

2. Earn Up to $30/Day With “In-Theater Checks”

I actually got paid $30 to attend one of the Harry Potter movie premieres. And it’s the 5th movie premiere I’ve been paid to attend. Let me explain.

Theaters and movie studios are interested in collecting data about the audience that attends their movie premieres. They want to know how many people buy tickets on opening day, what screening time is most popular, and what previews are being shown. And they want independent data from 3rd party evaluators.

How to Apply for the Job

They are known as “in-theater checks” and to apply, you’ll need to fill out an application with one of the largest mystery shopping companies, Certified Field Associates. The application is just a few questions long and nearly everyone in the US & Canada is eligible to be hired.

(Note: I get a lot of questions about how to know if a mystery shopping company is real. Here’s a hint: you should never have to pay a fee to join! That’s a big red flag!)

Once you’ve been accepted as a new auditor with Certified Field Associates, you will want to keep a close eye on their online assignment list. As new assignments become available, they will be posted to that list. If you find a movie that you would like to attend, you have the ability to self-assign the project to yourself.

“In-theater checks” don’t have huge paydays attached to them, but you can usually expect to make between $10-20 per hour.

Good luck Penny Hoarders!

The post How to Earn $300+/Month Watching Movie Previews appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.

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Marshalls Creek woodworker to be featured on PCN Tours

You zero in on what works and what doesn’t work and you maintain the authenticity in traditional designs using modern equipment, David Nauman said.

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Macca’s says all-day brekkie coming

MACCA’S has made up its mind — all-day breakfast will roll out nationally. But there’s another big push to get kids in the store.

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

Tax Reform Is on the Comeback

Overshadowed by this week's CNBC versus the Republican presidential nominees brawl, was the release of Ted Cruz's flat tax plan.

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Coffee Drinkers: Would You Part With Your Favorite Mug for $375?

You might have an easy moneymaker shoved away in the back of your cupboard — and not even know it.

I don’t know why, but I know that as a coffee, er, enthusiast (read: addict), I understand the obsession with finding just the right mug.

It’s not only about the shape of the handle or the size of the cup. Every coffee mug tells a story, and we each want ours to tell the right story.

So it doesn’t surprise me that eBay found five everyday mugs that are selling for more than $50. If you’ve got one you’re not using or don’t mind parting with, you could make extra money by listing it on eBay.

1. Starbucks City Mugs

These collectible coffee souvenir coffee mugs featuring iconic images from cities around the world have been on sale since 1994. You, a friend or a family member are bound to have picked one up in your travels over the years.

Depending on the destination — and the bidder — these mugs are going from $50 to over $250 on eBay.

(Last week, editor Heather accidentally smashed her New York City Starbucks mug while doing the dishes. When she sees it was worth $55, she’s going to cry.)

2. Disney Mugs

Someone you know has been to Disney World without you, and they most certainly returned with one of these coffee mugs.

Or maybe the mug was your way of remembering your own trip to the most magical place on earth.

Either way, if it’s been demoted to collecting dust or wasting cupboard space, put it on eBay! You could earn $50 to $80.

3. Vintage Advertising Mugs

Nothing reminds you of your age more than seeing a relic of your own childhood marked as “vintage”.

Thankfully, that label often comes with a generous price tag.

This mug featuring the classic AOL Running Man, for example, is commanding $60. This vintage Honda mug was sold for $375!

Ready to Raid Your Cupboards?

You won’t believe what these simple items are selling for. See more sought-after mugs in the full article at eBay.

Your Turn: Have you made money selling collectibles on eBay? What surprising items have you seen for sale?

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!

Dana Sitar (@danasitar) is a Staff Writer at The Penny Hoarder. She’s written for Huffington Post, Entrepreneur.com, Writer’s Digest and more, and now she’s thankful for an addiction to coffee and kitsch that might mean her cupboard holds an unexpected payday!

The post Coffee Drinkers: Would You Part With Your Favorite Mug for $375? appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.

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Revealed: Best current account for UK customers

Tom Wilson

Halifax branch.jpg

The Halifax Reward Current Account has been named the most popular among people looking at ‘personalised’ best buy tables from GoCompare.com.

The Halifax Reward Current Account has been named the most popular among people looking at ‘personalised’ best buy tables from GoCompare.com.

Almost a fifth (19%) of people using its ‘midata’ service – which is government backed and compares current accounts based on consumers’ actual usage habits – chose the Halifax Reward Account.

The best current account for UK customers revealed

Feed Copy: 

The Halifax Reward Current Account has been named the most popular among people looking at ‘personalised’ best buy tables from GoCompare.com. Almost a fifth (19%) of people using its ‘midata’ service – which is government backed and compares current accounts based on consumers’ actual usage habits – chose the Halifax Reward Account. The Yorkshire Bank Direct account was the second most popular, chosen by 17% of users, and 10% of people chose the TSB Classic Plus Account. Santander’s 123 account was the fourth most popular, though the account may become less attractive when its fees increase in January. These top accounts contrast with traditional best buy tables, which compare current accounts on product features, but can’t take factors such as overdraft usage or ‘hidden fees’ into account. Nationwide’s FlexDirect Account, the TSB Classic Plus Account and Barclay’s Cash Card account are the most popular products for people browsing traditional best buy tables, according to GoCompare; but of these, only TSB features in top products for people who choose based on their own behaviour. Matt Sanders, Gocompare.com’s banking spokesman, said: “Some of the main drivers of current account switching have been the proliferation of incentives, cashback rewards and in-credit interest earnings. These are understandably attractive, and may well be ideal for some people, but they don’t provide a clear picture of the pros and cons of the current account. “Midata-enabled comparisons lay bare the true benefits and drawbacks of current accounts by attributing a monetary value to each account. Using midata is the only way that people can determine exactly how a new account could benefit them, financially, before they switch.” How does midata work? Midata lets you download a file containing all your transactions and charges from your bank, which you can then upload at GoCompare.com to get a comparison of the best current accounts for you. It’s available to customers of RBS, Lloyds, Nationwide, Santander, HSBC, Barclays, Tesco Bank and their subsidiaries. The datafile you upload stays on your computer, meaning your personal data isn’t shared with GoCompare or anyone else.

read more

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Fees and Charges That Destroy Investors' Portfolios

No investment or advising comes without fees, but they can be reduced if you know learn the ropes.


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10 Free Apps to Manage and Maximize Your Holiday Budget

Have you made your list? Have you checked it twice?

If so, you might be overwhelmed at the thought of battling the crowds to find the perfect gift for everyone. And trying to save money on top of it? Forget it.

Don’t fret: With today’s technology, you’ve got some powerful sidekicks for your holiday shopping.

Here are 10 apps that will save you time, sanity and money on your shopping adventures this holiday season. The best part? Every one of them is free.

1. RedLaser

This app might be my favorite on the list. Use RedLaser to scan the barcode of any product with your smartphone’s camera, and it will automatically check thousands of online and offline retailers to find you the best price.

You’ll never again buy an item at one store, only to find it at your next stop for a lower price!

2. ShopAdvisor

Know what you want, but don’t want to pay full price? You need ShopAdvisor.

Search for your desired item (or scan its barcode), save it to your shopping list, and wait. The app will alert you when its price drops at any store.

And even better, you’ll quickly know whether it’s a good deal, since ShopAdvisor shows you price history graphs from a database of 16,000 online and offline retailers.

3. shopkick

Penny Hoarders, rejoice: With shopkick, you earn rewards simply for browsing — no purchase required.

You’ll earn between 30 and 100 “kicks” for simply walking into participating stores like Macy’s, BestBuy or American Eagle, around 10 kicks for scanning certain items, and of course, more if you purchase anything.

You need approximately 1,250 kicks for a $5 gift card (redeemable at stores like Sephora or Target) — which shouldn’t be too hard to earn during the holiday shopping craze.

4. Ibotta

We’ve talked about Ibotta before, and since it’s so easy and rewarding, we’re including it again.

With this app, you receive cash rebates for everyday purchases in over 80 stores. It even has GPS, so you can easily check and take advantage of nearby rebates. As soon as you earn $10, Ibotta will send you a cash payment through PayPal.

5. RetailMeNot

You may have used RetailMeNot to search for online coupon codes. Though you can still do that with the RetailMeNot app, our favorite feature is its ability to geo-target.

Say you walk into your local mall, not thinking about coupons. This app won’t let you forget the deals, sending you an alert about any specials available nearby.

Two other neat features: if you’ve previously searched for and saved offers, it’ll notify you when they’re about to expire, and if you find a deal through the app, you can present the coupons directly to the cashier on your phone.

6. Mint

Money can be tight over the holidays, so it’s helpful to see where it’s going (and what you have left). For this, try Mint.com’s app.

This comprehensive personal finance tool quickly lets you see the status of all your bank accounts, track spending, create budgets and set savings goals.

It’ll even remind you when bills are due (since they’re easy to forget during the holiday madness!). Whether you’re a big holiday shopper or not, this app is a must-have.

7. Santa’s Bag

Though its emphasis is on Christmas (with a countdown to the big day and everything), Santa’s Bag is a handy shopping list app no matter what holiday you’re celebrating.

You can set a holiday gift budget, add gift recipients and assign gift ideas to each person. Make sure you don’t forget anyone — or any gift — with this app.

8. Coupons.com

The Coupons.com app allows you to browse thousands of coupons for use online and offline.

It’s also got a lot of cool features: You can save your store loyalty cards (no more carrying them all around!), show digital coupons at checkout and link your credit cards for automatic coupons and statement credits.

9. onereceipt

Have you ever decided to return a gift, but you just can’t find the receipt? It’s a frustrating experience we’ve all been through, and one that onereceipt is trying to prevent.

Scan your receipts into this app, and you’ll never lose another one. It also pulls in e-receipts automatically, storing them all in one place so you can see where your money is going.

10. Ebates

If you’re looking for a one-stop app that includes a lot of the features mentioned above, Ebates might be it. We’ve talked before about using Ebates to make money shopping online, because it gives you a cash commission for online purchases.

But that’s not all it does; with this app, you can also search for coupons, comparison shop and receive sales alerts.

Your Turn: What’s your favorite holiday shopping app? Did you find any new ones in this list?

Disclosure: Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. We would have shared them with you anyway, but a true “penny hoarder” would be a fool not to take the company’s money.

This post originally ran in 2014, but we thought we’d bring it back to help you maximize your 2015 holiday budget, too!

Susan Shain, senior writer for The Penny Hoarder, is always seeking adventure on a budget. Visit her blog at susanshain.com, or say hi on Twitter @susan_shain.

The post 10 Free Apps to Manage and Maximize Your Holiday Budget appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.

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Cars We Remember: Plymouth fondly remembered

Q: Hello, Greg, I’m writing about the Plymouth automobiles. I enjoyed your articles on the “Melrose Missile” and the Ronnie Sox Barracuda funny cars from the 1960s but want to know about the Plymouth nameplate and what happened to it. Why did Chrysler drop it from its lineup of cars? I always loved Plymouths, and I owned my first one in 1958, a 1952 Cranbrook that I bought used for only $500. Werner K., Illinois.A: Thanks for your letter, Werner, and [...]

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4 U.S. Stocks That Are On the Rebound

Investors seem convinced that the U.S. economy is on firm footing.

Source U.S. News - Money http://ift.tt/1iy5CP8

How to Navigate Business Meals

Review these etiquette tips to make the most of your next corporate dining experience.

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How Your 401(k) Fee Disclosure Statement Can Save You Money

This annual statement can help you find the lowest cost funds in your 401(k) plan.

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How to Save on Holiday Spending Without Being a Scrooge

Make sure you price match when you're shopping this year. 

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How to Combine SEO with Content Marketing to Maximize Traffic

This post is a little different from my usual posts…

Typically, I write about one specific topic, e.g., SEO, content marketing, or social media marketing.

But often, when I read comments and emails from my readers, I see a big problem with their mentality.

It boils down to a question such as:

Should I focus more on SEO or content marketing?

And I get where that’s coming from, but it’s the wrong question.

You’ve seen the stats:

• 77% of marketers will increase their content production in 2015
• 91% of B2B marketers use content marketing
• 46% of marketers will increase their spending on SEO and SEM in 2015
• 54% of marketers think that use of SEO will continue to grow in 2015

And these numbers can, of course, lead to some confusion.

If both SEO and content marketing are useful for a business, then which one is better for you?

The answer is both.

Although content marketing and SEO share some similarities, they are two different things that can be used at the same time to benefit a business.

And while most of my posts talk about one or the other, this one is going to focus on how you should connect your use of content marketing and SEO in your business. 

Where SEO and content marketing overlap

The reason why so many people have trouble connecting SEO and content marketing is because they don’t have a clear picture of what each represents.

We can fix that with a few quick definitions:

SEO: Anything that is done to increase your organic search engine traffic.

Content marketing: Creating and spreading content to attract traffic.

Although you can get more precise with the descriptions, those simple definitions are all you need to understand both concepts.

They have a lot in common: Although they are separate types of traffic strategies, both content marketing and SEO often overlap…

…starting with content.

For SEO, content is a must. And for content marketing, well…it’s in the name.

In the past, they required different types of content.

You could get away with thin, 500-word articles around your target keyword for SEO.

I’m not saying that you can’t rank 500-word articles, but it’s much harder to rank the same junk that you could rank before.

In the past few years, the content needed for SEO started to resemble the content needed for content marketing.

Quality and value are the top priorities for this content.

How do they fit together at a high level? Imagine being able to create one awesome piece of content and then use it to attract traffic from all of the biggest sources.

When you use your content effectively (and optimize it for different channels), you can easily double or triple your resulting traffic.

Instead of just trying to get search engine traffic for an article, you can also use content marketing tactics and promote it on social media.

But there are differences: It’s naive to think that content marketing is exactly the same as SEO even though some over-optimistic marketers seem to think that way.

SEO certainly fits well into most on-page and off-page aspects of content marketing. However, technical SEO is pretty far removed from content marketing.

Some parts of technical SEO will affect your search engine rankings (such as optimizing your crawl rate) but won’t have any affect on your content marketing results.

So, although they share a lot of similarities, know that there’s more to SEO than just the basic on-page keyword targeting.

They can also benefit each other in big ways: One thing that most don’t realize at first is how much SEO and content marketing complement each other.

Here’s a list of basic SEO tasks you might do:

• optimize page load speed
• make content responsive
• fix dead links and bad redirects
• ensure that your content has a clear hierarchy (i.e., heading tags)

All of those things can help your content marketing efforts.

A faster page load speed is good for the user experience no matter where they’re coming from. Same goes for responsive content.

By fixing dead links or bad redirects, you improve the reader’s experience as well as keep them on your site reading your other content (a very good thing).

Finally, a clear content hierarchy improves the readability of your content.

Content marketing is all about the user experience, and SEO has been heading in that direction for the past while, which is why they complement each other now.

1. Which one goes first?

Although both SEO and content marketing are compatible with each other, they are different in a few key ways.

For example, if you created a great guide, you’d still want to include certain keywords in the most important places.

So, do you find the keywords first and then build the content around them?

Or do you create the content first and then find appropriate keywords to use within it?

The answer is that either way can work, but they both have their own strengths.

The case for content marketing first: With this process, you’d focus on coming up with ideas for content that your target audience is interested in.

Once you create the content, you do some keyword research around that specific topic to find some keywords you think you could rank for. You add them mainly to your headings.

Finally, you find a way to get that content in front of as many people as you could.

There are two big benefits of this option.

First, if gives you a lot of flexibility.

If you choose the keyword first, you create the content around that specific keyword, so you don’t have much choice later on.

Here, if you’re having a tough time ranking for your keyword(s), you can just choose a longer tail keyword that will be easier to rank for.

Second, search volume doesn’t equal value to a reader.

This is actually really important.

That’s because depending on which approach you take, you generate content ideas in different ways:

• content marketing first – you learn about your target audience and figure out what their problems are. You create content to solve those problems.
• SEO first – you do keyword research and go after the highest volume keywords.

When you do typical SEO research, you find keywords searched for by the highest number of people. That means that it’s a common query.

However, that doesn’t always translate into value.

For example, a new business owner is likely to Google something like:

What is SEO?

Not surprisingly, that phrase is searched for a decent amount, about 10,000 times a month.

But all they’re really looking for is a simple definition in most cases.

No matter how good your content is, it’s not going to have a huge impact on their lives (they won’t value it highly).

But after they learn a bit about what SEO is, they have a bigger problem: “How do I actually do SEO?”

So, they search for:

SEO plan for a small business

or something along those lines. They find a really detailed guide that shapes their SEO work for years to come. This is an example of something that is truly valuable to a reader.

But guess what? That search phrase (and other similar ones) gets a negligible amount of search volume.

If you only create content based on highly popular terms, you’ll often miss creating content that solves your target audience’s biggest problems.

This is a big deal for two reasons:

1. You have a limited usefulness - When someone comes to Quick Sprout, I want them to find everything they need about marketing. If they can’t find what they’re looking for, they’ll go to another site. I want to be the expert they come to for content, and later for business.
2. High value converts higher - If your content solves a big problem for your readers, they’re going to remember it. That’s how you get loyal subscribers, who later turn into customers. Getting hundreds of thousands of visitors is nice, but it’s not if none of them turn into customers because they’re coming for low value content.

That being said, low volume searches aren’t necessarily high value problems, and high volume searches aren’t necessarily low value problems. You have to take it on a case-by-case basis.

The main takeaway from this is that if you rely on a keyword tool—like most SEO-first marketers do—you’ll miss some big problems and interests of your target audience.

Missing those will significantly lower the potential results of your marketing efforts (i.e., sales).

The case for SEO first: After reading the first case, you might be all set on focusing on content marketing first, but there are a few advantages of going with the keyword-first method.

First, it can improve your content.

When you create your content first, you do everything you can to make it as good as possible for the reader.

If you have to add a keyword for SEO purposes, you’re detracting from the optimal phrasing that you originally had. It won’t necessarily be awkward, but your new version of a title might not be as intriguing as the original was.

But if you know your keyword from the start, you’ll always keep it in mind, which will likely change the overall message you create (compared to content first).

The second main benefit is that you do find out what the common problems might be, but they might not be as valuable to solve.

If you only get topic ideas from observing or talking with your target audience, you’ll typically hear from them when they’re having a big problem (a high value situation).

You won’t hear them express small problems very often because they’ll simply try to find an easy solution by searching for it.

By creating content around keywords, you ensure that you find all of the medium to high volume keywords, regardless of the value they hold for your target audience. Ranking for these terms is still a good thing even if those visitors don’t directly convert as highly.

If you’re smart, you can direct those initial visitors to other more valuable content that you’ve created after you’ve solved their first problem.

How about a hybrid? To me, it’s clear that both approaches have their own strengths and weaknesses.

The obvious solution is an effective one: use both methods.

You should spend time researching good keywords to create content around.

You should also spend time researching your target audience to find out what their biggest problems are. Then, create content to solve those problems and add keywords after.

2. Focus on evergreen content for the best of both worlds

Although SEO and content marketing both aim to raise your website traffic, they typically do so in different time frames.

When you create a new great post, you typically promote it hard right away. This includes emailing your list and doing a lot of email outreach to other site owners in your niche.

This results in a few quick bursts of traffic to that post, and then it’ll die down.

On the other hand, you’ll likely get no (or very little) search engine traffic right away unless your domain is very authoritative.

Over time, as you promote it and it accumulates backlinks, you’ll notice that the search engine traffic continues to increase.

However, that only happens for certain posts.

On others, that are news-related, you’re more likely to get some search traffic right away, but it’ll quickly drop down to near zero as your content becomes irrelevant.

I don’t know about you, but I’m not a huge fan of spending the time and resources to create a great piece of content only to have it attract traffic for a short period of time.

I want it to continue to be seen for years after I create it. That’s how you get an overall traffic graph that keeps growing. Your content essentially builds on itself.

To make sure this happens, you should focus most of your effort on evergreen content.

There are some exceptions, but for the most part, it’s your best option.

Maximizing traffic with evergreen content: Evergreen content refers to any content that will be just as useful in the foreseeable future as it is today.

Compare that to a story about Google’s latest algorithm change, which will be interesting for a few months at the most and then become useless.

Think about all of those link building guides from five years ago. Almost all of them are irrelevant in today’s SEO world.

The idea behind evergreen content is that you can get the short-term traffic boost from content marketing as well as the steady, long-term traffic from search engines.

In fact, the work you do to get traffic initially will speed up the time it takes to get search engine traffic.

Identifying evergreen topics: In most cases, you can spot evergreen topics with a bit of common sense.

Think about what you plan to write about:

Will it still be useful a month from now? A year from now? Five years from now?

Hopefully, the answers to all those questions are yes or, at the very least, maybe.

You can also search for a keyword and see how old the results are. If you see multiple posts that are years old, it’s likely an evergreen topic.

Some topics are more evergreen than others: I just said that an acceptable answer to those questions is maybe.

That’s because in some niches, you’ll never be able to find enough topics to write a definitive guide on that will stay relevant forever.

Many topics evolve over time. So, just because you can’t guarantee that a post will be useful in a couple of years from now doesn’t mean that it isn’t worth writing.

A great example of this is Brian Dean’s complete list of ranking factors. As long as SEO continues to change, ranking signals will also change.

But instead of creating a one-time post and then letting it fall into obscurity, Brian continuously updates all his guides:

Most of his content is evergreen because he doesn’t need to change it radically. Instead, he continues to make small updates on a regular basis to ensure that it stays relevant over time.

3. Pick metrics that represent both sides of the coin

Some marketers don’t know if their content marketing or SEO efforts are actually working.

If you want to be successful, you can’t just say, “I think this is going well.”

Instead, you need to pick metrics to track. These metrics should reflect the results of your work and tell you what’s worth doing.

If you don’t see that they are improving over time, you need to rethink your strategy.

When it comes to both content marketing and SEO, you can choose metrics that correspond to each part separately and both of them together.

Although you can choose whichever metrics make the most sense for your business, let’s go over a few of the most common.

Metric #1 – Traffic (SEO and content marketing): One of your main goals for both SEO and content marketing work is to increase the amount of traffic you’re getting to your website.

Quality of that traffic is also important, but in most cases, getting more traffic usually leads to more profit.

It’s important to look at your traffic over a fairly long time. Everyone is going to have spikes and dips depending on the day of the week and month.

Record your traffic data in a spreadsheet for each month. Then, compare it not only to the previous months but also to the same month in previous years.

You’ll want to start by recording your overall traffic numbers, which you can get from your Audience Overview in Google Analytics:

But that doesn’t tell you very much about the results of your individual work.

That’s why you should also record both your organic search traffic as well as your referral traffic.

To find these numbers, just go to your acquisitions tab in Google Analytics, and select “by source”.

Of course, some of your SEO work (like building links) may result in direct or referral traffic, but these are the best metrics you have. They don’t have to be perfect, just indicative of your success.

Metric #2 – Keyword rankings (SEO): In addition to being important for tracking your overall search engine traffic, keyword rankings are the most important thing to track from an SEO perspective.

If you’re doing good work, you will see rankings rise over time.

It doesn’t really matter which tool you use—just find one that lets you look at your rankings over a long time frame.

Metric #3 – Subscribers (mainly content marketing): In order to judge the quality of your traffic, you want to see how many of your visitors turn into subscribers or customers.

But your subscriber rate is also indicative of how valuable and persuasive your content and call to action are, which makes this a good overall metric for content marketing.

To track this, you can set up goal tracking in Google Analytics:

Or you can just look directly at reports provided by your email marketing service provider:

Metric #4 – Engagement (mainly content marketing): Subscriber rate isn’t the only way to measure how valuable your visitors find your content.

You can also track other engagement metrics to help complete the picture.

Obviously “engagement” isn’t a metric you can track, but I’m referring to any metric that reflects engagement on your website:

• Average time on page
• Pages per visit
• Visitor recency (how often people return to your site)
• Comments

You want to track most of these over time, just like the other metrics. Measure them once or twice a month, and record the data (you should have an average for each time period).

After you collect data for at least three months, you can start to see if your engagement is increasing as expected.

For example, you can look at the number of comments your newest posts are getting:

And compare that to your older posts:

Since your topic will influence most engagement metrics, it’s important to look at averages over a period of time to even things out.

4. The best links for SEO are also the best links for content marketing

When you create a great piece of content (for your content marketing), what’s your goal for promoting it?

It should be to get large audiences to see it.

This might be in the form of direct traffic (like if you send it to your email list) or in the form of links on other web pages, which is even better.

Obviously, the best links are the ones that send the most traffic.

As it turns out, exactly the same links are some of the best links for SEO purposes (increasing authority and therefore rankings).

Type #1 – Guest-post links: One use of content marketing is to drive traffic back to your site by posting on other sites, i.e., using a guest post.

In these posts, you usually get one or two links back to your website in an author bio.

As long as you’re guest-posting on highly authoritative sites (the ones with a lot of traffic), these links will not only send direct traffic but also improve keyword rankings.

In addition, sometimes you can add extra links to other content you’ve created in the body of the guest post.

Type #2 – Contextual links: When it comes to SEO, nothing beats the value of a contextual link on an authoritative page.

These links are a part of a sentence and are as natural as they can be:

The better your content marketing is, the more of these links you will get, which will not only send you traffic but also improve search traffic over time.

5. Internal links serve two purposes

Most people include internal links in their content just because bloggers tell them to.

But it’s important to understand how they affect both your content marketing and SEO results.

Also, don’t forget that internal links include any link not only in your content but also in navigation elements on your site. They all affect your results.

In particular, they have two main benefits.

Benefit #1 – Send link juice to other content to help SEO: If your site doesn’t have much authority yet, it won’t have a big effect, but internal links can still help you rank better.

They help you do this in two ways:

1. Adding relevance – Google looks at the anchor text of the internal link, as well as surrounding content, to try to understand what your page is about in order to rank it for any queries.
2. Passing through authority (“link juice”) - Many SEOs focus all their energy on ranking a page by getting external links (from pages on other websites). If you have a strong domain, you can often rank quickly for easy keywords with new content by adding a handful of internal links to that page.

It’s a good idea to schedule a bit of time each time you publish a post to add a few internal links to your new page from older (relevant) posts on the site:

It only takes a few minutes to do and will help your rankings significantly.

Don’t use the same anchor text for all the internal links to the same post—use a variety of fitting anchor text.

To find those old relevant posts, use this search string:

(topic of new article) site:(your site name)

For example, if I wrote a new article about writing funny email subject lines, I would search for:

Writing funny email lines site:quicksprout.com

This will show you the posts that Google thinks are the most relevant to your new one.

Benefit #2 – Expose your audience to more of your content: Remember those engagement metrics from before?

Two of them are probably more important than the others:

• Pages per visit
• Visitor recency (how often people return to your site)

The reason why they are more important and useful than the others is that if you’re creating great content, they should both go up over time.

They are also less subject to large variations like comments (which depend a lot on the topic) and time on page (which depends a lot on the length of content) are.

Often, when reading a particular post, a portion of your readers will want more information. A well-placed link can get a click-through rate of 1-5%.

Considering that you can have several internal links in a single piece of content, you can almost guarantee that most readers who like your content will find more topics to read about on your site.

The more useful your internal links are, the more time visitors will spend on your site (if they like your content).

Additionally, if they run out of time before they can consume all of your content because they find so much of it through internal links, they will come back to keep reading.

Finally, other than the 5-10 posts on your home page, how many posts do your new readers see?

In most cases, it’s not many.

Which isn’t ideal, especially if you’ve created hundreds of posts. You want them to find as much relevant to their situation content as possible now. In order to do that, they need to find older posts.

The perfect way to show them those older posts is through internal links.

Conclusion

Both SEO and content marketing are highly effective ways to drive traffic, conversions, and profit for the vast majority of online businesses.

But you don’t need to pick one or the other. You can get the full benefits of both at the same time.

In fact, focusing on one will often increase the results of the other.

I’ve gone through five main areas that either affect or are affected by your SEO and content marketing.

If you understand all five concepts, you should be prepared to handle both sides in your future marketing.

Some of those concepts are more difficult to understand than others.

So, if you have any questions, leave them in the comments below.

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Why Shorting Stocks May Be a Huge Mistake

Borrowing stock and selling it in hopes that the price will drop is a risky proposition.

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October's 10 most-bought funds

Rebecca Jones

October 10.jpg

The popularity of tracker funds appeared to fade in October as active funds once again made up the majority our sister website Interactive Investor's top 10 most-bought funds.

Six of the top 10 in October were actively managed funds. This follows a record-breaking month in September, when five of the top 10 most-bought funds were index trackers, or passive funds.

CF Woodford Equity Income, run by celebrity fund manager Neil Woodford, maintained its place as Interactive Investor's most-bought fund for the 16th consecutive month.

October's 10 most-bought funds

Feed Copy: 

The popularity of tracker funds appeared to fade in October as active funds once again made up the majority our sister website Interactive Investor's top 10 most-bought funds. Six of the top 10 in October were actively managed funds. This follows a record-breaking month in September, when five of the top 10 most-bought funds were index trackers, or passive funds. CF Woodford Equity Income, run by celebrity fund manager Neil Woodford, maintained its place as Interactive Investor's most-bought fund for the 16th consecutive month. The UK equity income fund has been the most popular fund on Interactive Investor since its launch in June 2014, helping its assets under management to swell from £1.6 billion at launch to over £7.6 billion today and making it the largest fund in its sector. UK AND GLOBAL STARS Old favourite Fundsmith Equity climbed six places to retake its place as second most-bought fund in October - having maintained a podium position for most of the year - while Axa Framlington Biotech climbed one place to third. After a troubled summer in global markets, all three funds have rebounded impressively. Axa Framlington Biotech has achieved the most impressive turnaround, gaining nearly 10 per cent in the month to 31 October compared to a loss of 15 per cent in September. Neptune UK Mid Cap re-entered the top 10 after a one-month absence as the fifth most-bought fund. Managed by the highly rated Mark Martin, Neptune UK Mid Cap is the best-performing fund in the UK all companies sector over five years with a return of 143 per cent. Over one and three years the fund has maintained first-quartile returns; however, in the shorter term it has struggled, shedding 0.7 per cent in October compared to an average gain of more than 4 per cent from the sector. Artemis Global Equity Income climbed three places to take the sixth place last month. The fund is a top performer over one, three and five years, but has struggled over the past six months due in part to a comparatively high weighting to Asia and emerging markets. Making its debut in the top 10 at eighth place is Lindsell Train Global Equity. Managed by star manager Nick Train alongside Michael Lindsell, the fund is the best performer in the global sector over one year, with a return of 25.4 per cent compared to an average of just 6 per cent from its peers. MFM Slater Growth also made its first appearance in the table for the first time since December 2014, taking 10th place. Run by boutique asset manager Slater Investments, MFM Slater Growth has put in a consistent top-quartile performance since its launch 2005, ranking as the second best-performing fund over 10 years with a return of 334 per cent.

read more

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The Employee's Guide to 'Stay' Interviews

Three steps to getting the most out of this meeting with your boss.

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Silvio Calabi: The Q3 quattro is Audi’s latest hero

The Germans’ unsung contribution to the car business is that they got us to say things like, “Oh, only 40 grand?” Or 50, 60, 75 or whatever. And by desensitizing us to sticker shock, they’ve raised the ceiling for everyone else’s cars, too. (Have you priced a Porsche lately? But hey, it’s a Porsche!) Forty grand is how much Audi wants for our sample Q3 2.0T quattro wagonlet, and yes, I must say that one gets a great deal of baby crossover SUV [...]

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6 Reasons to Remain in Your Current Home in Retirement

Moving is expensive, and it can be difficult to make friends in a new place.

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5 Surprising Sources of Debt

Watch out! These five scenarios could trick you into racking up debt.

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How I Made $350 in My First Month as an Amateur Graphic Designer

I failed in my first attempt at blogging.

But while building a blog directory on that site, I noticed many of the blogs I wanted to feature didn’t have logos or badges to represent themselves.

To make my site look a bit nicer, I started creating basic logos for each one, and then one day it clicked: Why not offer blog design services?

Many bloggers use free platforms like Blogger and WordPress. While they may not have a lot of money to spend, they still want their blogs to look nice. I’d focus on these bloggers as I tested my new business idea.

One month and five paid clients later, I had made about $350 as an amateur designer. Now, after four months, I’ve more than doubled that income.

Here’s how I started making money with a freelance blog design business.

1. I Made a Plan and Found Free Tools

Google is a remarkable teacher.

From my own marketing studies and self-exploration, I knew I needed to build an incredible brand, construct a portfolio, grow an on online presence and determine what to charge for my services.

Since I was familiar with PicMonkey and Canva, I used them for my design work.

I discovered a treasure trove of digital art on Etsy, downloadable elements from various designers around the web and some pretty sweet (and free!) fonts at 1001 Fonts.

I also carefully followed the terms of use for each designer and element by keeping detailed records of where I got my materials as well as their licensing limitations and restrictions.

2. I Worked for Free

To attract paid clients, I needed a portfolio and practice. To develop my skills, I offered to do some design work for free.

I know working for free is a huge debate among creatives. Here’s my perspective: I had no work samples and little skill, and I was ecstatic when someone trusted me to rebrand their blog.

Without having a website or samples, I never even considered asking my first clients for payment.

This turned out to be beneficial, since these clients helped me grow as a designer, and many of them referred me to new, paying clients.

Webiny offers some great tips for newbie designers and even explains the pros of doing some pro bono work.

3. I Pitched Potential Clients

I trolled Facebook for small business and blog pages, and scanned the blogosphere to find accounts that would benefit from a makeover.

I found a few mom and lifestyle blogs with awesome content that needed some help in the design area. Then, I reached out on Facebook with this message:

Hi there,

Hope you are well

I came across your blog and I really love (enter something about blog here). I am an aspiring blog designer working on building a portfolio and was wondering if you would be interested in some complimentary design work that would include a blog logo, banner and matching background.

I would love to give you a unique look that would attract readers and really make your blog shine!

Please get in touch if you are interested. I look forward to working together

Enjoy your afternoon!

Vanessa

I did the same work I would have done on a paid project, and worked with the clients until they were satisfied and happy with their new brand image.

4. I Focused on Facebook

When my portfolio started to come together, I decided it was time to enter social media.

I created an official Facebook business page, and designed my cover and profile photos to represent my new brand.

I searched for bloggers, designer pages and anything related to better blogging so I could share their articles on my page to increase engagement.

In between sharing beneficial articles, I posted photos of completed design packages, so potential clients could peek at my work samples.

5. I Opened Up Shop

After I successfully established my brand, completed several projects and acquired a few glowing references, I knew it was time to set up a storefront.

I found an awesome $1 per month deal for managed hosting, a free domain and a custom email through GoDaddy.

While I worked on creating my site, I turned to Etsy, which charges just 20 cents per listing and a small percentage of every sale. In my shop, I offer pre-made blog design sets as well as custom logo and banner designs, complete makeover packages and custom orders.

6. I Networked and Promoted My You-Know-What Off

I joined a ton of Facebook groups dedicated to helping “Etsians” promote their businesses and blogger networks. This awesome exposure has increased my Facebook and Etsy engagement rates, and helped me find clients.

I got some great perks by bartering, offering free or discounted services in exchange for promotion.

If people couldn’t afford to pay but had great content, I offered to do their design project in exchange for an ad on their blogs and a review post once the design was complete. I now have some amazing testimonials, shout-outs on social media, banner placement on a few blogs and a few free sponsored posts and giveaways lined up.

In my experience, people are so tickled to get a facelift for their brand without spending a fortune, they will shout your name to the moon and back. I love bloggers!

Just the Beginning

Since opening my Etsy shop at the end of June, I have more than doubled my income from graphic design.

I launched my blog and business site in the middle of October and have already started earning money from affiliate advertising.

I have upgraded to Adobe Illustrator and my skills have increased, so I feel better about charging more for my services, which is awesome. Hard work certainly pays off!

Your Turn: Have you tried starting a business from scratch and building your skills as you go?

Disclosure: Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. We would have shared them with you anyway, but a true “penny hoarder” would be a fool not to take the company’s money.

Vanessa Mullen is a freelance writer, marketer, and newbie designer who adores her silly baby girl, loves chocolate, and finding new ways to make money online. You can find her building beautiful brands and blogs and inspiring creatives to live a life they love at http://ift.tt/1LLWb9c.

The post How I Made $350 in My First Month as an Amateur Graphic Designer appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.

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Questions About Frozen Slow Cooker Meals, Gym Memberships, Churning, Annuities 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. Getting a back-up car
2. Why you should keep stuff?
3. Frozen slow cooker meal tips
4. Prioritizing credit card debts?
5. Maximizing schedule with long weekends
6. Why worry about retirement?
7. Strategies for cheaper gym membership?
8. Saving old pocket notebooks
9. Thoughts on credit card churning
10. Creative financial milestones
11. Annuity question
12. Good “useful” Christmas gifts

In our family, the passing of Halloween and the start of November means that we’re beginning to think about Christmas.

That may be a pained response for some of you, but we have a number of things that we need to start on now if we hope to get them done before the holiday arrives.

We send Christmas cards to a fairly long list of people, for one, and each one involves something handwritten on them.

Some of our Christmas gifts are homemade and if we don’t get started making them, they won’t get made.

A shopping list made now gives us more weeks to watch for sales related to those items. (In truth, quite a few items are already purchased, but now we’re entering the home stretch.)

Travel plans need to be made sooner rather than later in order to hit the best bargains.

All of that stuff starts now, not later. It’s hard to believe that another year is wrapping up already.

Q1: Getting a back-up car

I am considering getting a ’93 Cadillac just to have as a back-up car just in case my wife or I ever needed to put our current vehicles in the shop for repairs (which we just had to do). My truck also has about 155,000 miles on it, and my wife’s car has about 120,000 on it. I would pay nothing to get the cadillac (other than clerk fees to transfer title and to get new plates) because the car was owned by my grandparents who are now deceased. I feel the car would only help us because it only has about 85,000 miles on it, thus we can drive it more and preserve our current vehicles in the process. The cost to insure it would also be low since it’s an old car. Also, the car is in good running condition. My wife states we probably should not get it because “The car is old,” and she’s worried about having to pay more money for maintenance on it. Can you please offer your thoughts on this matter, thanks.
– Dean

I can see both of your points of view, so if I were you guys, I’d take the car to an expert first.

If you have a trusted mechanic, I would have that mechanic look over the car thoroughly. Most mechanics will check for the most glaring potential problems in a car fairly inexpensively and quickly.

If the car passes muster with a mechanic, then I would keep the car and use it as a backup. I wouldn’t let any of your cars sit around for too long, though, as I’d drive all of them regularly to make sure no problems pop up.

If the car is going to require a lot of repairs that exceed the value of the car, it’s probably not worth your money or time to hang onto the car.

Remember, just because it runs great now doesn’t mean there aren’t problems right around the corner, and if you’re buying it to add some reliable redundancy to your life, make sure that the care can actually provide the kind of redundancy you want before jumping on board.

Q2: Why you should keep stuff?

I thought this was a pretty good counterargument to “minimalism” and getting rid of your stuff:

http://ift.tt/1WcWKM6

Curious to hear your thoughts on it.
– Jim

That article provides a great argument for being a lifetime learner and learning about things that you might not otherwise consider learning about. However, I’m pretty sure that this article is mostly referring to acquiring knowledge rather than physical possessions.

The article appears in the Chronicle for Higher Education and repeatedly refers to academics and classrooms throughout it, which makes it clear that the article is talking about tackling topics in the classroom.

While I suppose you could certainly apply the ideas from this article to your personal possessions and your philosophy toward owning things, I think the big point of the article is that the process of learning new things has value for a person beyond the simple knowledge acquired.

Q3: Frozen slow cooker meal tips

We have been making frozen slow cooker meals for many years. A few tips:

- If you use freezer Ziplocs double or triple bag the meals. Thawing seems to often poke little holes in the bags which can cause a mess. We have moved to using thicker walled containers.

- Put the whole bag or container in a bowl in the fridge at least 24 hours before you’re going to start slow cooking it.

- Never ever ever cook a frozen slow cooker meal on high. Always do it on low. Just put it in before you leave for the day and eat it when you get home. They always turn out burnt or mushy if you do it for a few hours on high to “make up for lost time.” Wait until the next day if you forgot to start it early in the day.

- You really don’t need to add water to most of these meals. There’s almost always more moisture than you think there is.
– Carolyne

These are really good tips.

We learned about the double-bagging thing the hard way when a lot of single-bagged meals had little holes in them. Our solution was to just have them thaw in a bowl in our refrigerator. That way, any juice that leaked out would just go into the bowl and could be dumped into the slow cooker at the start of cooking.

I agree strongly with the tip about cooking on low. I do that with almost every slow cooker meal. I firmly believe that slow cookers are designed for cooking on “low” and things often turn out badly if you do them on “high.” The food on the outside almost always gets really crunchy or sometimes tastes/feels burnt if you cook on high, and the food in the middle is sometimes undercooked, too. It’s not a good mix.

The water thing depends a lot on the meals, though. If you intentionally add appropriate amounts of water before freezing, that’s true, but we often label our slow cooker frozen meals with a note saying to add two cups of water or something like that, depending on the recipe.

Freezing meals in advance for the slow cooker has been an incredibly useful strategy for us.

Q4: Prioritizing credit card debts?

Right now, I have two student loans, a car loan, and a credit card. All of the advice I have read on your site and others says that I should be prioritizing paying off the credit card. Why?
– Danny

The reason is simple – interest rates. Almost every single time, if you look at a car loan, a student loan, and a credit card, the credit card will have the highest interest rate. It’s true so often that people often simply suggest paying off credit cards first without studying the full situation.

In general, my experience has been that payday loans have the highest rates, followed by credit cards, then by student loans, then by mortgages, then by car loans (though some car loans are higher if people have poor credit). That’s a really rough sketch, though, and it depends a lot on the individual person doing the borrowing, what that person’s credit looks like, and who they borrowed from.

The best practice for paying off your debts as quickly as possible is always to tackle the one with the highest interest rate. For many, many people, that’s their credit card, or the credit card with the highest interest rate. If you’re going to make extra payments, you’re going to get more value from those extra payments by making extra payments on that highest interest credit card first.

Q5: Maximizing schedule with long weekends

Right now, I work a schedule with 3 12 hour shifts, then three days off, then three days on… you get the idea. This leaves me with a three day weekend every three days, but those days aren’t consistent. How can I use those days to make more money or maximize my value? Going to school seems impossible because of the constantly shifting weekends so I am looking for other ideas.
– Jerry

With that kind of schedule, it’s going to be fairly difficult to hold down another job or to take an offline class, because those require you to be at a certain place at a certain time.

Instead, I would look at filling that time either by trying to start your own little side business or by taking an online class, preferably through an accredited school if you’re hoping to build toward a degree.

There are lots of potential side businesses that work with this schedule. Things like lawn care businesses would work well, as would things where you produce content online (Youtube channels, websites, and so on).

Another strategy is to talk to your supervisor about what skills you could be adding to make yourself more valuable at work (and potentially in similar workplaces). Then, find ways to build those skills on your days off. Since I don’t know exactly what kind of work you do, I can’t offer specific examples, but almost every job utilizes some skills that can be built elsewhere, and a stronger skill set means more job options within that field.

Q6: Why worry about retirement?

I appreciate all of your retirement and early retirement advice but what if you just have no interest in retiring? I literally want to work until I cannot, at which point I won’t have much time left on this earth, so why save?
– Danny

You save because your employment options might not be as strong when you’re seventy as they are right now. If your current job goes away, others may not want to hire you in your field when you’re older. Sure, it’s ageism. Sure, it’s wrong. But it happens.

You also save because the things you want and value right now might not necessarily be the things you want and value in twenty or thirty or forty years. By choosing not to save right now, all you’re doing is restricting those options.

Another factor is that the money you save right now is literally the least important 10% of your income. It’s the money that you’re going to use for the things that matter least in your life.

Retirement savings aren’t there so you can golf in Florida when you’re 70. Retirement savings are there so you can do whatever you want when you’re 70, regardless of what other people might be doing.

Q7: Strategies for cheaper gym membership?

I am considering signing up for a gym in the next month. Do you have any strategies for saving on a gym membership? I looked through your older posts to find some advice but couldn’t find any.
– Jamie

One big strategy you should consider is simply waiting until the start of the year. Many gyms offer big “New Year’s Resolution” discounts at the start of the year to entice people who make a resolution for change in their life and you can easily take advantage of them.

If there are several gyms in your area, you can simply visit lots of gyms, actively compare their offers, and then ask the gyms you like the best to price match the other gyms. They might not necessarily do it, but some gyms will consider it.

You should also consider what exactly it is that you’re wanting out of a gym membership. Is it access to specific equipment? If that’s it, run the math on just buying that stuff yourself versus a gym membership. If it’s access to coaching, you’re talking about personal trainers, which are likely a different thing than ordinary gym memberships.

Q8: Saving old pocket notebooks

What do you do with your pocket notebooks when you finish them? Do you save them somewhere? Or do you just pitch them? I have filled up several pocket notebooks and have been saving them but I haven’t looked at them since filling them up. I looked at them in the first day or two but after that I put them in a box and never saw them again.
– Gary

I save some of them simply because I think my children and grandchildren may enjoy leafing through them, but most of the notebooks I use just end up getting tossed. It’s silly, I know, but I do enjoy looking at some of my grandparents’ old notebooks sometimes. I’m kind of selective about the ones I save for posterity, as I try to think of the lists and items that the kids will enjoy the most.

I have the exact same experience as you do, by the way. I find that when I get a notebook full, I keep it around for a few days and still refer back to it to make sure that all of the stuff I needed from that notebook is taken care of or moved elsewhere, then I end up tossing that old notebook in the trash or storing it somewhere.

For me, a pocket notebook is just a short-term tool. It’s something that I use to write down a piece of information that I’m going to need to use again very shortly, like a to-do or a grocery list or an article idea or something like that. It’s not really meant for posterity, so why keep it?

Q9: Thoughts on credit card churning

Do you have any thoughts or strategies for credit card churning? I searched through your archives and couldn’t find anything on it.
– Dan

For those unaware, credit card churning refers to the practice of opening credit cards and using them just enough to acquire any and all signup bonuses, leaving the card open long enough to fulfill the terms of the agreement, then closing the card. Often, churning involves doing this with many cards a year. Most people just move their normal spending to the card they’re “churning” until they’ve fulfilled the offer, paying off the balance in full each month.

Doing this can be a little rough on your credit score and it can take some significant time, as you have to keep track of the dates for each offer and how much you need to spend by that time.

I don’t have any particular problem with churning per se, but I don’t think that it earns enough return for it to be worthwhile. Almost all of the “rewards” you earn are locked up in things like “points” or mileage programs that aren’t really that valuable as they represent spending on stuff you don’t need, and if you end up selling those rewards you’re reducing your return anyway.

I tried it for a while in 2007 and 2008 using all of the advice I could find on the subject and I just couldn’t get it to add up to being worthwhile for me. I absolutely did make some positive returns, but the time invested in finding decent offers, applying for those offers, keeping track of which cards I had to put charges on and how much I had to charge, canceling cards, and making sure I didn’t miss any bills wasn’t worth it.

On top of that, the more you churn, the more open you become to identity theft. Corporate databases get hacked all the time and the more corporate databases you’re in, the more likely you are to eventually face an identity theft situation.

It just doesn’t add up enough for me.

Q10: Creative financial milestones

I’ve been trying to figure out a way to come up with good financial milestones for each step in my financial journey. My end goal is to retire a little early (around age 55) and I am currently 37. I would like to come up with a system that encourages me to work toward some kind of goal every three months. The obvious and easy one is to use net worth measurements but do you have other ideas?
– Jennifer

I’m in the same boat to a certain extent. I tend to work best when there are milestones along the way. Medium-term goals – three to six months – really get me going and keep me motivated, while long term goals don’t really do it for me at all in terms of day-to-day motivation.

So, how do I turn our big financial goal – which is essentially financial independence / early retirement – into medium-term financial milestones? There are a few things I do.

First, as you allude to, I break our net worth project down into chunks. Each one is 1% of our overall goal. So, let’s say our overall goal is $1 million. I would then have “a $10,000 increase in our net worth” as a goal. I count it as having achieved that goal the first time I see our total net worth reaching that point, even if stock market changes might cause me to drop back from that peak.

Second, I often come up with little projects to work on. For example, my goal over the next three months might be to write a novel and get it listed on the Kindle Store, providing another (small) income stream. Or, my goal over that timeframe might be to get rid of the extra foods in our pantry by actually using them, so I’ll sort my pantry and make a shelf or two of “extras” and my goal is to empty those shelves by planning meals around them.

Finally, I have made increasing my own contribution percentage a goal over several months. At this point, our spending is pretty well budgeted, so pledging to increase our savings by, say, 1% is actually an interesting task. Can I do this without impacting my standard of living in a real negative way? That’s a good goal to work for.

These goals give me plenty of things to work toward and I always feel like I have a shorter-term goal or a milestone to work toward along the path to the big goal of early retirement.

Q11: Annuity question

My wife and I decided when we were younger that we would start buying annuities and then keep buying them until the income from the annuities was more than our living expenses and then retire. We started buying annuities at age 40 and have bought them ever since. We are now 55 and 52 and our income from our annuities is about $5K per month which is enough for us to retire on.

The problem is that now we are thinking it wasn’t the best way to invest our money. The annuities offer lump sum values that will allow us to “cash out” and do something else with the money. On the other hand we will almost assuredly lose some real value by doing this. Thoughts?
– Tad

First of all, you should absolutely see a fee-based financial advisor with this question. I do not have nearly enough specific information about your situation to give you a really good answer, nor do I have the analytical tools available to me that a good financial advisor would have. Be sure to get a fee-based advisor when you do this, as a commission-based advisor has financial incentive to just steer you toward a specific product, which isn’t what you want.

There are a lot of factors that come into play here. Taxes definitely come into play. The relative surrender value of your various annuities matters, too. Your personal life choices, such as your feelings on working again in any fashion, also play a factor, as does your risk tolerance.

Ask around your social network for a recommendation regarding a financial advisor, for starters. Remember that you really want a fee-based one. When you visit that advisor for the first time, be sure to ask plenty of questions and recognize that a good advisor will have plenty of questions for you.

Q12: Good “useful” Christmas gifts

I almost always start my Christmas shopping in November so I have plenty of time to watch sales. This year I am trying to buy everyone gifts that are actually useful for them as I don’t want anyone to have junk in their closet that they’ll never use. Do you have any ideas for good functional gifts that many people would like but aren’t way expensive?
– Charlotte

I find that consumable gifts are the best kind of gifts to give to people that you don’t know very well. Items that are going to be permanently in someone’s home, especially if they’re of any significant size, should be very carefully considered.

Gifts I love to give include food, beverages, pocket notebooks, and digital media. Those items either don’t take up any space at all or else they’re consumed and then no longer take up space.

Sarah and I often make homemade food and beverage items to give as gifts. We’ll make a batch of a particularly unusual jam or jelly, or we’ll make a batch of homebrewed beer, package them with a bit of thought and care, and then ship them out.

Sure, maybe those gifts won’t be perfect, but at least in that case they can easily be shared in a party setting. With permanent items, that’s much harder to do.

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.

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