The woman who spies on Islamic State

ONE woman has taken it upon herself to uncover terror hidden in the deepest corners of the web, publishing it for the world to see.

Source NEWS.com.au | Business http://ift.tt/1T9nSLY

Ugly court row over funeral ‘horror story’

THEY just wanted to lay their loved one to rest, but this Victorian family was forced to fight a vicious court battle for their funeral to go ahead.

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

You won’t recognise Myer and DJs in 10 years

THINGS are looking grim for our marquee department stores Myer and David Jones. Here’s why they will need a dramatic change to survive.

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Arnott’s has been lying to you

DEAR Australia: Arnott’s has been lying to you about Shapes. The snack giant has been forced to pay a hefty penalty over a dodgy claim.

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

Journo regrets Syrian refugee tweet

A CNN reporter has been suspended over a controversial tweet about Syrian refugees which sparked a reader backlash.

Source NEWS.com.au | Business http://ift.tt/1kP1Q5N

21 Financial Mistakes That Endanger Gen Xers’ Future

Gen-Xers are making many of the same financial mistakes that the Baby Boomers before them made.

But the Baby Boomers have a couple of built-in advantages that give them more breathing room. For one, they are the chief beneficiaries of the windfall inheritance of the World War II generation.

For another, they got in line for the best available jobs years before the Gen-Xers even entered the labor force.

Since Gen-Xers lack the financial insulation of their predecessors, they’ll have to do a better job of avoiding making the financial mistakes that can sabotage a financial future.

Here’s a list of 21 of those mistakes – you can win by default just by avoiding a few of them.

1. Buying Too Much House

This is one of the less forgiving mistakes. If you buy more house than you can comfortably afford you not only lock yourself into a virtually permanent high monthly payment, but you also create a chain of expenses that will also be at the extreme range of affordability.

For example, a more expensive house means that real estate taxes, insurance, utilities, homeowners association fees and repair and maintenance will also be more expensive. In addition, a more expensive house can set in motion a pattern of a higher cost lifestyle as you are drawn into competition to meet the cost of living in a higher priced neighborhood and community.

Buying a house that’s well below what you can afford by contrast will give you the extra room in your budget to improve your finances.

2. Carrying Credit Card Balances

In a perfect world you would be paying off your entire credit card balance each month, and avoiding using credit as an extension of your paycheck. But once you get used to carrying a balance, it’s very difficult to break the pattern. Then you’re incurring interest costs every month, and likely spending more than you would if you were limited by the cash in your wallet or the size of your bank balance.

Worse still, once you carry a balance on one credit card, it’s all too easy to do it on a second…and a third – and so on.

3. Eating Out Too Often

Another financial vice borne of habit. Until a couple of decades ago, eating out at restaurants was mostly for special occasions; today nearly any excuse is good enough to eat out. The statistics confirm that more meals are being consumed outside the household today than ever before – nearly 50% according to the USDA (Table 10).

As convenient and enjoyable as eating out is, from a financial standpoint it’s a slow bleed. Money is going out in relatively small chunks, but it’s going out constantly.

4. Getting Your Financial Advice From the Popular Media

Jim Cramer and Suze Orman may be quite entertaining, but they’re not your personal financial advisor. They don’t know you, they don’t know your financial situation, your risk tolerance, or your financial goals. The advice they dole out is general advice, and may not be suitable or even relevant to your circumstances.

If you have an amount of financial resources large enough that you need financial advice then you’ll need to hire one to work directly with you. Failing that, you should at least get involved with a peer group where you can bounce ideas and scenarios.

5. Not Paying Off the Mortgage Early

It’s easy to get used to a house payment, not the least of which because mortgages typically last for decades. But that’s the point – you should have a goal to knock one or two of those decades off your loan term.

Once you do you will free up your budget to help fund mega goals, like retirement and your kid’s college education. Trying to deal with those goals while you still have a mortgage payment is a serious handicap.

6. Succumbing to Lifestyle Inflation

It’s too easy to spend a pay increase or bonus. That’s lifestyle inflation – using your increased income to expand your standard of living. And it’s virtually the default setting, especially among Gen-Xers.

Dare to be different.

Saving a pay increase or bonus is much harder, but that’s exactly what you need to do. Reaching financial independence is largely about growing your investments (and shrinking your debts) while keeping your cost of living constant.

7. An Addiction to Convenience

From a financial standpoint, convenience is about paying others to clean your house, cut your lawn, bathe your pets and even to cook your meals (restaurants). While it can be an advantage to free up your time so you can earn more money, that isn’t nearly the case in most instances.

Convenience is an addiction – you’ll choose it even when it’s not entirely necessary. And much like eating out too much, it’s another slow bleed.

8. Being Addicted to Auto Loans

If you get too comfortable with a car payment – and many Gen-Xers do – you’ll have one for the rest of your life. It also opens the door to replacing your car with a new one every four or five years. That might feel good, but it’s an expensive way to drive.

Plan on keeping your car for ten years – most cars built today will last at least that long. Then you’ll have a payment for the first five years, but get the benefit of being payment-free for the next five years. The money that you won’t spend on the car payment will work better in your emergency fund or retirement account anyway.

Speaking of which…

9. Not Having an Emergency Fund

A lot of Gen-Xers forgo having an emergency fund, thinking they can rely on credit cards, bonus checks, or the occasional early withdrawal from a retirement plan instead.

Having a dedicated emergency fund – enough to cover at least 30 days of living expenses – will not only eliminate the need to make the (bad) choices above, but it will also help to even out the ups and downs in your budget. When financial independence is the goal, creating consistency will be a big step in the right direction.

10. Not Moderating Their Kids College Ambitions

A lot of Gen-Xers are now in their 40s, the age when people typically have college bound kids. The same sky’s-the-limit approach you may have taken to college in the 1980s and 1990s is no longer relevant. A college education today can cost as much as buying a typical suburban home.

Families are dealing with that cost dilemma with debt – taken on either by the parents themselves, or by student loans that will financially cripple their kids.

Despite the conventional wisdom on college, you DO have choices when it comes to educating your children. Advise them to attend community college, to commute to school, and to attend an in-state public institution. All will help to keep the cost of their education more affordable.

11. Delaying the Start of Retirement Savings

It can be tempting to put off saving for retirement when you have other priorities. Buying a car, getting married, having children or buying a house can all seem like legitimate reasons not to save for retirement, but hesitating can be one of the most serious financial blunders you can make.

We could get into the very real implications of the time value of money, but even more basic is that one delay justifies the next, and before you know it you’ve lost a decade or more to accumulate a credible retirement portfolio. That will either make funding your retirement more difficult later, or it can result in an impaired retirement.

If you haven’t begun saving for retirement yet, today’s the best day to start.

12. Not Saving Enough for Retirement

Many Gen-Xers take an almost casual attitude toward retirement saving. After all, it’s a few decades away. Some will even concern themselves primarily with the tax deductible aspect of retirement savings, rather than on the actual outcome. Either type of thinking could result in a seriously under-funded retirement plan by the time retirement comes around – and by then it’s too late to fix it.

A good retirement calculator will help you determine if the amount you’re saving for retirement will be sufficient. And if it isn’t, you can and should remedy the situation as soon as you can.

13. Breaking the Bank to Go on Vacations

The annual summer vacation has become a perceived necessity in the 21st Century. It’s also often prohibitively expensive. A single vacation to Europe, the Caribbean or even Disney World, can cost many thousands of dollars – every year.

What else could you do with that kind of money? Payoff a credit card? Build an emergency fund? Increase retirement contributions? It’s amazing how much money you can free up by taking a major vacation every other year, or even every third year, instead of each and every year.

You’ll appreciate the self-denial in just a few years as your financial situation improves.

14. Spending Too Much Time at the Mall

The mall can be a great place to spend idle time. And to part with not so idle cash. If you buy most of your clothing and gifts at the mall you’re almost certainly spending more money than you need to. There are plenty of options that cost a lot less. Walmart and the other big boxes come quickly to mind. But there’s also Amazon.com and even thrift stores.

You don’t have to go cold turkey on the mall, but the less time you spend at the mall the more money you’ll save.

15. Putting Too Much Confidence in the Stock Market

A five year bull market can cause anyone to get complacent about the stock market. But it’s often when confidence is at its highest that you’ll be most vulnerable to a sudden set back. This can manifest itself by buying heavily in a mature market, when it might be more prudent to begin selling some positions.

Warren Buffett – one of the most successful investors of all time – has said, “Be fearful when others are greedy and greedy when others are fearful”.  Simplified, this means that you should buy when others are selling, and sell when others are buying. Not easy, but absolutely required if Buffett-like investment returns interest you.

It’s not possible to time the market, but it is possible to observe behavior and attitudes and to adjust your investing tactics accordingly.

16. Having Their Kids in Too Many Activities

Many parents today over-book their kids in extra-curricular activities. While that may be well-intentioned, it can also be a financial black hole. It’s not just the cost of the activities themselves – no small expense by themselves – but it also results in a life on the go, and that means more money being spent.

If you have two children, and you have each involved in two or three extracurricular activities at a time, all the time, you’ll likely be eating out more often (no time to cook) and have higher car expenses (gas and wear-and-tear). And if your kids are too heavily involved, their schoolwork could suffer, and that will add a tutor or two to the mix.

That’s a not-so-slow financial bleed, and one that you can easily control.

17. Spoiling Their Children

We all want to give our children the best, but there’s a fine line between that and spoiling them. Not only is spoiling children an expensive habit – one that only gets progressively more so as they get older and the “toys” cost ever more money – but it also breeds dependent kids. In itself this can be a disservice to your children, but one that can also lead to extended adolescence, an even more expensive extravagance.

It’s OK to say “no” every now and again. It makes for better finances and that can leave you with more money to help them when they are adults and the stakes are even higher.

18. Spending Too Much Money Keeping Up Appearances

You’ve heard the term, “you’ve got to fake it until you can make it.” Sometimes that’s a necessary strategy, but it’s more likely that you’ll get carried away with it. It can become a habit to spend money trying to keep up with others in your community or social circle, and that’s when it gets expensive.

The problem with keeping up appearances is that it’s a perceived need driven by external factors. Even if you do it, and you become quite good at it, it might not ever make you happy, or fill any useful need.

Conformity is a cruel master – and an expensive one. Do what’s right for you, and don’t worry what others think about you. You’ll reach your financial goals faster if you can let go of that burden.

19. “Investing” in Nothing But the Best

It can be easy to convince yourself that you’re somehow investing when you buy the best toys, but usually it’s just a waste of money. If you do this with all or even most of your purchases you’ll be dooming yourself to paying too much for everything you buy.

It’s OK and even necessary to “break the bank” on certain purchases – a top of the line laptop for work comes to mind. But if you feel you need the best clothes, the best wide screen TV, the best sound system and the best car, you’re mostly participating in one of the worst kinds of addictions.

As a rule, money “looks” better sitting in a CD or a mutual fund than it does filling a room in your house, or sitting in your driveway.

20. Spending Too Much Time Being Entertained

Entertainment is a certified stealth expense. Money is spent casually having a good time and you hardly know that it’s happening. That seems harmless, and if done in moderation it actually is. But if you need to be entertained on a 24/7 basis, it’s just another form of addiction.

300 channels of cable TV, a 65 inch flat screen TV, and a high-priced club membership can put gold-plating on your entertainment. It’s important to realize that entertainment is mostly just a way to deal with boredom, and there are a lot of ways you can do that without spending a lot of money.

Spend more time with family and friends, getting your body healthy, researching business ideas, helping a neighbor in need or volunteering for your favorite charity. With all that going on, you’ll come to see high priced entertainment as the extravagance it usually is.

21. Not Starting Their Own Business

One of the fundamental lessons Gen-Xers have been taught throughout their lives has been risk avoidance – there are even computer models that can allegedly reduce or eliminate risk completely. Time will tell if that’s actually true or if we’re being sold a bill of goods.

Previous generations usually understood that taking some forms of risk are just a part of life. But Gen-Xers have been conditioned to avoid it like the plague. Self-employment is an excellent example of this; it’s been trending downward for at least the past 20 years as Gen-Xers began entering the workforce and opting for the perceived safety of employment with corporations or government.

But sometimes not taking risks is the biggest risk of all.

Career obsolescence is a fact of our time, as jobs and entire career classifications are disappearing for good. Self-employment can be the best solution to this dilemma, and if you’re over 40 it may be the only solution.

Not everyone is cut out to have their own business, but if you have a good idea you should give it a try. It probably won’t hurt to start it as a side hustle and see where it goes.

No one will be able to avoid all 21 of these mistakes. But if you can get control over just a few of them, you’ll find yourself reaching financial independence a lot quicker than you ever imagined.

This post originally appeared on DailyFinance.com

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Uber ‘to be legalised in NSW’

ANOTHER major win for ride-sharing service, with major announcement set for today, according to a report.

Source NEWS.com.au | Business http://ift.tt/1Oarcq0

We Asked Small Business Owners How to Get Their Best Cyber Monday Deals. Here’s What They Said…

If Black Friday belongs to the big-box retailers, then Cyber Monday was made for small, independent businesses — on the web, of course.

Cyber Monday deals abound in businesses of all sizes. But smaller retailers, including some that sell primarily online, often reserve this day for their biggest sales of the year.

It’s up to you, dear shopper, to know how to get them.

If you often find yourself cruising Etsy shops for hours at a time, or can’t stop scrolling through the offerings on your favorite specialty designer’s website, now’s the time to study up on how to get the best deals on Cyber Monday.

Resist Impulse Buying

The first rule of Cyber Monday: Don’t spend all your cash before the big day.

Autumn months are prime time for craft shows, festivals and holiday markets, all designed to get you in the shopping mood.

But while special events and markets are great for scoping out wares and testing them out up close, you can guarantee everything’s going to be full price.

If you don’t need that knit hat or tote bag right away, take a business card for the shop instead. It’ll undoubtedly have their social media info and an address for their online shop or Etsy storefront. Finding the shops you like is the first step to extra holiday shopping success.

The next few tips ensure you’ll get the best deal once you’re a fan.

Sign Up for Email Newsletters

Nobody wants more emails to sort through, but I promise they’re worth it for the Cyber Monday deals alone.

If a shop offers advance notice of a sale, it’s going to share it with its email list first. And sometimes, a shop will maximize its sales by running a discount from Black Friday all the way through Cyber Monday, for a long weekend of deals.  

“I usually run my Cyber Monday sale from Black Friday to the Tuesday afterward, just to catch any stragglers,” Noelle Burke, owner of apparel and home decor shop Xenotees, said.

Follow Shops on Social Media

The most current way to get info about sales is through your favorite social media platforms. Most online shops are on Twitter and Facebook, and many have joined Instagram to display their work, along with discount details.

Some shops offer sales spontaneously, meaning you won’t get notice of a sale until it’s already in full swing. These are called flash sales.

“We don’t give much notice for sales; instead, I announce it the day of and try to post reminders at least once a day,” said Becky Waddell of natural beauty retailer Be Clean.

Since we aren’t big enough to have people anticipate a big annual event, we just like to establish the norm that we have promotions, you just have to watch out for them and keep an eye on what’s going on.

Be Clean’s Instagram feed is often both the first place you can find out about new products, as well as discounts and promotions.

If You Don’t See a Sale, Ask

Websites typically advertise their sales on their homepages, but great deals aren’t always evident — especially when a storefront is on Etsy, where there’s limited space to advertise such specials.

Illustrator Katie Vaz primarily sells her greeting cards and prints on Etsy. “Honestly, [promotions] typically don’t lead to more sales than normal,” she said of big holiday specials.

I use promo codes, and even if I have more orders that weekend because of holiday shoppers, only a small percentage actually use the code.

Burke agreed, noting even during increased sales periods, customers have used her coupon codes sparingly. “I think it’s because it is sort of the official launch of the holiday shopping season, and people get excited to make purchases,” she said.

So before you cash out on that cart filled with goodies, double-check you’re not missing coupon codes or free shipping offers.

Don’t see a coupon code? There’s no harm in asking for one to make sure you aren’t missing a deal.

Burke, for example, noted her Black Friday/Cyber Monday sale is the only time she ever marks down all her popular pillowcases. She stays close to her computer on Cyber Monday so she can answer shopper questions through her site’s live-chat feature.

Not sure how to ask for a discount? Just use the common sense and manners you would in a retail store.

Terrible way to ask: “Can I have a promo code?”

Excellent way to ask: “I love your handmade hair barrettes and have been following you on Etsy for a few months. I wanted to check to see if you’re offering any discount codes for Cyber Monday. Would love to stock up for the holidays!”

The worst a seller can tell you is no, they’re not offering a sale. Either way, they’ll probably be grateful you’ve been checking out their items.

Your Turn: What are your tips for scoring a deal on Cyber Monday? Share them in the comments!

Lisa Rowan is a writer, editor and podcaster living in Baltimore.

The post We Asked Small Business Owners How to Get Their Best Cyber Monday Deals. Here’s What They Said… appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.

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Hey Verizon Customers! Here’s a Ridiculously Easy Way to Get 2 Free Gigs of Data

If you’re planning to use your Verizon phone more than usual over the next few months — hey, it’s the holiday season! — we’ve got some good news for you…

You can get two FREE gigs of data as part of Verizon’s Thanksgetting promotion.

All you have to do to is visit the Thanksgetting page, log in to your Verizon account and follow the instructions that follow.

That’s it. You’ll receive two free gigs of data: one for this billing cycle, and one for the next.

The promotion ends on Tuesday, Nov. 24 — so act quickly if you want to take advantage of it.

Whether you’re scoring deals on Cyber Monday, following our live Black Friday blog, or looking up directions to your office holiday party, we bet those extra gigs will come in handy during the holidays!

Your Turn: Are you heading over to Thanksgetting to grab your free data?

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.

This post originally appeared on our special Black Friday site.

The post Hey Verizon Customers! Here’s a Ridiculously Easy Way to Get 2 Free Gigs of Data appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.

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Four Ways to Start Investing Without Much Money

Photo: Mat

Everyone’s heard that investing can be a great way to grow your money over the long-term. But if you’re new to investing, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed by all the information and all the decisions you have to make. You may not feel like you’re actually qualified to be an “investor.”

And that feeling can get even stronger if you don’t have a lot of money to invest. You might feel like investing is for rich people, or at least for people richer than you, and you’ll just have to wait until you get there.

I’m here to tell you that that’s not true.

No matter how much money you have and how much you know about investing, you can get started right now with an investment plan that helps you reach your biggest long-term goals.

It’s pretty simple too. Here’s how to do it.

Step 1: Recognize What’s Important

If you listen to the news, you might think that investing is all about following the markets, knowing what’s happening in China, and finding the next hot tech company.

And while that stuff all makes for interesting news, it has almost nothing to do with your personal investment plan. When you start out, there are only two things that really matter:

1. Your Goals

You don’t need to worry about beating the market. You don’t need to invest in Apple so that you can be “in on the action.”

The only reason you’re investing is that you have some personal goals you’d like to achieve and you think that investing can help you reach them.

Those personal goals are the only goals that matter. And the clearer you get about what those goals are, the easier it will be to ignore all the distractions and create an investment plan that actually helps you reach them.

2. Your Savings Rate

When people talk about investing, they love to talk about returns. Specifically, they like to talk about different ways that you can try to improve your returns, presumably with the hope of reaching those personal goals sooner.

But here’s the truth: For the first decade of your investment life, your returns barely matter at all.

What really matters is your savings rate. The more you save, the easier it will be to reach your investment goals.

That might sound strange, but let’s say you have $5,000 in your investment account. If you get a 10% return, you’ll end up $500 more in your account. Not bad.

But what if you found a way to save another $5,000? That would have a much bigger impact, right? In fact, that contribution would be the equivalent of a 100% return on investment.

Once you’ve saved a lot of money, those returns will start having a bigger impact. But until then, you can stop worrying so much about returns and instead realize that the simple act of saving will get you further than anything else.

Step 2: Start with Your Company 401(k)

Once you know what you’re investing for and you’re ready to start saving, the easiest place to start is your company retirement plan. In most cases that’s probably a 401(k), but it may also be a 403(b) or 457(b).

There are two big reasons why your company plan is such a great place to start:

1. There are no minimums. You can start contributing as little as a few dollars per paycheck in many cases.
2. If your employer offers a matching contribution, your savings end up going twice as far as they would anywhere else.

All you have to do is talk to your HR department about having a small percentage automatically contributed from each paycheck and you’ll be on your way!

Step 3: Open an IRA

If you don’t have an employer retirement plan, or if your employer doesn’t offer a matching contribution, you could look into opening an IRA.

An IRA is a retirement account that works much like a 401(k), with the main difference being that you open it on your own instead of getting it through work.

And there are plenty of good, low-cost investment companies out there who will let you get started with either no minimum initial investment or relatively low minimums. Two of my personal favorites are Vanguard and Betterment.

Step 4: Use Low-Cost Target-Date Funds

Once you’ve started contributing, the next step is to choose your investments. Now remember, at this point your return matters much less than your savings rate, so you don’t need to stress about this decision too much.

Still, if you can make a good decision here it will help you out, so you might as well put a little thought into it.

Lucky for you, this can be pretty simple. The easiest way to do this well is to find something called a target-date fund. This is simply a single fund that invests in multiple other funds, meaning you can contribute to one thing and still have your money spread out across multiple types of investments.

The key here is to look for a target-date fund that’s low cost. After all, cost is one of the most important factors when it comes to investing, and the lower the better.

You can check out the fund’s expense ratio to figure out its cost. Anything from 0.05%-0.50% is relatively good.

Step 5: A Savings Account Is Perfectly Fine!

Although they can absolutely help, you don’t have to get all fancy with retirement accounts and mutual funds when you first start investing. A regular old savings account is a perfectly fine way to get started.

Remember, your savings rate is far and away the most important part of your investment plan at the start, so you shouldn’t worry too much about the low interest rate a savings account offers.

Plus, contributing to a savings account is an investment in your financial security. You never know when you’ll need some extra cash, and with a savings account you’ll have it available.

And you can always start with a savings account and move it to something like an IRA later on. You’re never stuck in one place.

Bottom line: There are no barriers between you and investing. All it takes is a few simple steps and you’ll be off and running.

Matt Becker is a fee-only financial planner and the founder of Mom and Dad Money, where he helps new parents take control of their money so they can take care of their families. His free book, The New Family Financial Road Map, guides parents through the all most important financial decisions that come with starting a family.

Related Articles: 

• Not Investing Yet? Here’s How to Get Started
• Retirement Showdown: Roth IRA vs. Traditional IRA
• The Best Retirement Account You’ve Never Heard Of

 

The post Four Ways to Start Investing Without Much Money appeared first on The Simple Dollar.

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How I’ll Make $35,000 This Year as a Freelance Writer, While Going to College Full Time

My first paycheck was $190.71. That was five years ago.

In September 2015, I brought in $4,733.08. Last month, I made $3,518.87.

But guess what? I’m not working a full-time desk job. In fact, I’m a full-time college student.

I’m not here to brag. I don’t even like sharing my income publicly.

But I do like to inspire. By sharing my journey, I hope to convince you that making a full-time wage on your own terms while pursuing a bachelor’s degree is possible.

I’m a freelance writer, and this is my story.

How I Became a Freelance Writer

I never planned on becoming a freelancer. But at 17 years old with just a mere $400 to my name — thanks Grandma! — I needed to start saving money for college.

I thought I had to choose between a job or extracurricular activities. I didn’t realize I could have both.

At the time, I lived in a house with five teenagers and we shared one car with our mom. It was tough to coordinate our schedules, so working as a server or retail associate at a place I had to drive to would be difficult. I also lived in the country, so getting a job within walking distance wasn’t an option.

When my sister told me about a company that was hiring writers, I jumped at the chance. I could work around my schedule and didn’t need a car to make money? Sign me up!

Although my first client was a content mill — and content mills don’t typically pay much — I was lucky they didn’t care about previous work experience; they just needed people who could write.

How I Built a Writing Business and Grew My Income

I started freelance writing in November 2010. The next year, I didn’t even break $4,000.

Yet in 2015, I’m on track to break $35,000 while going to school full-time. (To put that in perspective, the average household income in the town where I live is $36,770.)

So how did I do it?

In January 2013, something changed: I stopped looking at my writing as a source of side income and started thinking of it as a business.

I launched a website and raised my writing rates 10 times more than where I’d started. At the end of that year, my income was triple what I made in 2012.

Since most of my previous work had been ghostwritten and I couldn’t disclose who I’d written for, it basically felt like starting from scratch. I began following writing blogs and forums, and I submitted my first bylined guest posts.

I started making a name for myself, and in a short time, people were referring clients to me or finding me through search engines. As a result, my portfolio grew and so did my clientele. I raised my rates again.

In time, I found long-term clients looking for month-to-month work, who wanted to hire me on retainer. It was all about putting myself in the right mindset while making my website look good, contributing guest posts, and networking with other writers and learning from them.

How I Ran a Freelance Writing Business as a Student

Starting out, time-management was key. I kept an extra notebook in my backpack so I could jot down headline ideas between classes. If I had an hour between class, I’d find a quiet spot on campus and work on a guest post. I’d even highlight sections of my textbook and use that passage as a basis for an article.

But slowly, I started putting my business first. My grades didn’t suffer, luckily, but I got to the point where I wanted my schooling to be as flexible as my career.

So I transferred to an online program. Now I complete my schoolwork between my work breaks — not the other way around.

Because of the route I took, I did give up a bit of the college experience. I spent two years on campus and then moved on to better things — marriage, a career, a house — all without giving up my dream of earning a bachelor’s degree. And when I graduate, I’ll have an extra credential to attract more clients and raise my rates.

Today, I work a typical 40-hour week, but I incorporate my schoolwork throughout the day.

And the best part? No one cares I’m only 22 years old and still in school. If anything, it makes me unique, and people remember me because of it.

3 Major Mistakes I Made While Building My Freelance Business

Does running your own freelance writing business sound like something you want to do? It’s definitely possible, but you’ll want to avoid the mistakes I made starting out.

1. I took low-paying work just because it had a dollar sign next to it. I started making $0.01 per word. Now I rarely make less than 12 cents per word. If you realize how much your services are worth immediately, you’ll get to that $4,000 per month mark much faster.

2. I didn’t think of myself as a business owner. It took me years to realize I was, in fact, a sole proprietor and needed a website. Put yourself in the right mindset from the start.

3. I thought I couldn’t make a career out of freelancing. If you’re passionate about it, you can make a full-time living freelancing, so don’t be afraid to choose a major that will help you boost your business. I did, and it’s been a game-changer.

You don’t have to be a freelance writer to see success. You can be a freelance web designer, photographer, bookkeeper, model, tutor or dog walker, or consider one of these unusual freelance careers.

You won’t get rich quick. But if you put your mind to it, you can earn a full-time income before earning your bachelor’s degree.

Your Turn: Are you interested in freelancing full time? What type of freelancing business would you like to start in college?

Alicia Rades is a freelance writer, blogger and editor who specializes in blogging and freelancing topics. Learn more about her at aliciarades.com, where you can download her free blogging guide.

The post How I’ll Make $35,000 This Year as a Freelance Writer, While Going to College Full Time appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.

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