Ford Everest SUV fire is a ‘one-off’

THE Everest that suddenly burst into flames on a test drive does not warrant a recall of 1000 Everest SUVs or 100,000 Ranger utes, Ford state.

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Jailed Playboy model speaks out

A SEXY Vietnamese DJ who has been locked in jail after trying to run away with her child says she’s been unfairly painted as a “porn star”.

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Dick Smith sale actually pretty lame

DICK Smith’s much-hyped discounts during its “mammoth clearance” were largely on outdated and private label products, according to analysts.

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Woolies busted fuelling baby formula shortage

WOOLWORTHS is under fire for allowing shoppers to bulk-buy baby formula and fuel the shortage. But what one brand is doing could be much worse.

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Late start for Pocono ski season

"Our powerful snowmaking system can turn the mountain white in a matter of a few cold nights.” - Jim Tust, Shawnee Mountain

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12 of the Biggest Data Hacks of 2015

Be it government, private companies or Wall Street giants, few firms were safe from cybercrime in 2015.

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Tight on Cash? 9 Creative Ways to Stretch Your Holiday Budget

You’ve done everything you can to set aside money for the holidays, and you’re doing your best to stretch every dollar.

But December has somehow come faster than you expected, and you still can’t seem to make the numbers add up.

Are you going to have to cut your travels short? Drop a few items from your shopping list? Sacrifice some of your favorite dishes from the holiday meal?

This time of year yields so many memories and, for some, rare moments with loved ones. You don’t want to give those up because of a tight budget!

Here are our tips for squeezing the most out of your remaining holiday budget — and you can start today.

1. Make Your Shopping List… Better

Knowing what you need to buy and sticking to the plan is the first step to saving money on any shopping trip.

But you can save even more by making your holiday shopping list work extra hard for you.

Our holiday shopping budget worksheet helps you keep track of not only what you need to buy, but also where you’ll buy it and how you’ll pay to get the best price. Use it to hold your coupon codes, maximize cash back, save “buy” links and do the budgeting math for you.

2. Use Credit — But Do It Strategically

When scraping together savings for the holidays is simply out of reach, you’re probably tempted to pull out your credit card.

While we wouldn’t normally advise charging purchases you can’t pay off right away, we understand that expenses can pile up during the holidays. We found one way you might be able to do it without creating — or adding to — a mountain of credit card debt.

The shopping club Reveli offers an interest-free way to buy your holiday gifts. Here’s how it works:

• Decide what on your list you’ll need to charge, and where you want to buy it. For example, let’s say you want to buy a computer from Best Buy that costs about $1,000.

• At Reveli, you’ll choose a Best Buy gift card for $1,000.

• Rather than charging your credit card directly, Reveli will put a hold on your card for the amount of your gift card — $1,000.

• When you sign up, you’ll make your first monthly payment, which varies depending on the amount you borrow. For a $1,000 purchase, your monthly payment will be $125.

• With each monthly payment to Reveli, the hold on your card decreases — so it’ll reduce to $825, then $700, etc. Instead of charging $1,000 all at once to Best Buy, you’re only charging $125 each month to Reveli.

• As long as you pay off the $125 on your credit card bill each month, you won’t rack up interest on the charge. (Pay less, and you’ll accrue interest as usual.)

Reveli charges a monthly membership fee, so you’ll pay $4.99 to sign up for the first month, then $9.99 per month after that.

Because the fee is the same no matter how much you charge, it looks like the more you borrow, the more this service helps you save.

If your credit card has an average interest rate of about 17%, you’ll need to charge at least $600 to save money using Reveli. Consider your card’s actual interest rate and your holiday shopping list to see how much you could save.

3. Make Smart Travel Plans

With the high level of demand, travel can be one of your biggest expenses during the holidays. While you’ll save the most by planning ahead, we know sometimes you just need time to pull the money together.

If you’re still working on travel plans for the holidays, here are a few ideas to help you save money:

• Purchase flights at 1 a.m. on Wednesday to catch un-purchased discounted fares from Monday and Tuesday.

• Fly on the holiday itself. If your family is willing to be flexible, you can save big by flying while others are celebrating.

• Avoid ATM fees by packing cash and knowing where to find no-fee ATMs on a road trip.

• Pack your own snacks before heading out on the road or to the airport.

4. Take a Wacky Side Gig

There’s still time to take on a side gig or two to bank a little cash before the holidays hit.

You may not want to take on a full- or part-time seasonal job, but you can still earn some extra money on the side before Christmas. Pick up a few hours of work through TaskRabbit, GigSalad, Craigslist or Amazon’s Mechanical Turk.

These short-term gigs won’t monopolize your time during this busy season, but they’ll help you make a little extra cash for holiday shopping, meal-planning and travel.

5. Get the Best Prices by Knowing When to Shop

Before you shop, decide what’s worth buying now. Black Friday sales have passed, but the best prices for many products are still to come.

Early December is a great time to buy toys, so if you missed out on those Black Friday sales, you could actually be better off.

Winter apparel tends to go on sale as December wanes, as well. If you can wear last year’s clothes for a month or two, you could save a lot by stocking up halfway through the season.

For fitness equipment or linens, you’ll want to wait until January. For TVs, wait until March. And have patience for jewelry — that will be most affordable over the summer.

If the people on your holiday shopping list want items that will be priced better after Christmas, consider purchasing gift cards — and throwing in the bonus gift of smart purchasing advice!

6. Buy and Sell Gift Cards

Speaking of buying gift cards… you can save and make money by doing it strategically this year.

Buy and sell gift cards through a gift card exchange site to make the most of your money.

When you buy gift cards through these sites, you get them at less than face value. That means automatic savings on whatever you buy with them — whether you’re gifting the card directly, or using it to buy other gifts.

If you have unused gift cards sitting around now, you could turn them into cash by selling them to other shoppers.

Or, you can make back some of the money you’ll spend over the holidays by selling any gift cards you receive for Christmas and know you’ll never use.

7. Create Your Deal-Stacking Plan

Don’t settle for the price you see listed! You can always squeeze a little more from even a great price.

We recommend you read through our full deal-stacking guide — but for time’s sake, here are the highlights:

• Search for coupons before you buy. You can use these to save more on top of existing sales.

• When you shop online, do it through a cash-back site to earn rewards for every dollar you spend.

• Find free shipping when you shop online. Be clever with your Amazon purchases, and plan your shopping around other sites that offer free shipping.

• Pay with a cash-back credit card to increase the percentage you’ll save.

8. Buy Cheap Gifts (That Don’t Look Cheap)

Find cool, personalized gifts for the people on your list without overspending.

Support someone’s interests or help them kick off a new hobby with a gift like a novelty wine stopper or tea infuser, bonsai tree seeds or baking mixes.

We found 50 cool gifts like this for under $10! Find gifts that aren’t only novelties, but also utilities — the kinds of things someone will adore but wouldn’t buy for herself.

You can also get creative to keep the cost of your gifts down. Re-gift tactfully and make good use of quality freebies, and you could get through the holidays with your budget intact.

9. …Or Make Your Own Gifts

I’m in love with the idea of making sweater mittens for my family!

I’m also adding these hand-decorated plates to the to-do list for my nieces and nephews this holiday season:

• Pick up a set of cheap dishware (I’m getting mine at the thrift store.)

• Decorate with colored Sharpie markers. You don’t have to let the kids have all the fun! Add some of your own designs.

• Bake the dishware at 250 degrees for 20 minutes.

• Delight Grandma and Grandpa, aunts and uncles with the personalized, one-of-a-kind table service or decor.

You can also make your own holiday cards or gift bags without much crafty know-how. It’ll add a delightful personal touch to every gift and save you from spending a ton of money on what turns into trash the day after Christmas.

Your Turn: What’s your favorite strategy for stretching your budget over the holidays?

Sponsorship Disclosure: A huge thanks to Reveli for working with us to bring you this content. It’s rare that we have the opportunity to share something so awesome and get paid for it!

The post Tight on Cash? 9 Creative Ways to Stretch Your Holiday Budget appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.

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End of the road for Clive Palmer?

CLIVE Palmer’s nickel refinery could go belly-up today after he lost a court bid to force his former Chinese business partner to hand over $66 million.

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We Found a Bank With Heart: Pay What You Want and Support Your Favorite Charity

I recently made a huge move — from Wisconsin to Florida — but it’s not my first. Before that, I had stints in Seattle, Salt Lake City and San Francisco.

Plus there was a period where I didn’t have any residence at all. I bounced from city to city for about eight months via hotel rooms, couches and lots of goodwill.

To say this lifestyle makes banking a challenge would be an understatement.

I need an easy way to access my cash and an account I can manage from anywhere — but beyond that, my banking needs are pretty simple.

Plenty of institutions offer online banking or brick and mortar branches around the country, but many also come with fees or requirements I don’t want to be bothered with.

I don’t need much from my bank. I’m not applying for loans, traveling internationally or even writing checks, so I don’t want to pay extra for services I won’t use.

That’s why I was happy to discover Aspiration.

Aspiration’s Summit Checking Account is an online-only bank account with no fees, no minimum balance and no minimum monthly deposit. It checks all my boxes.

But what makes this account a no-brainer is this: With a Summit Account, I’ll have access to free ATMs anywhere in the world.

I’m sold.

Why I Like This Checking Account

On top of the benefits of the Summit Account, I’m actually impressed with Aspiration as a company. This isn’t a traditional bank; it’s a California startup with a jovial personality that’s sorely lacking in the financial space.

The Summit Account is less than a year old and has been named a “Best Checking Account in America” by Money magazine.

The modern interface of the website makes banking intuitive (can you imagine?!). And the company is not only good at what it does; it’s also fun and socially responsible.

My favorite part of the sign-up process was the little extras that popped up as I navigated the website. I entered my March birth date, and instead of a plain confirmation, I was surprised by the message, “You’re a Pisces! Do you like the ocean?”

I do, in fact, love the ocean! I appreciated the personal touch, something you don’t find from many banks.

Plus, the company’s commitment to “do well and do good” means it donates 10% of its revenue to charity.

Where does that revenue come from if the services are free? All of Aspiration’s services work on a “pay what is fair” model. You choose your price and pay as a “tip.”

When you create an account, you’ll be prompted to choose your tip — a recurring payment up to $6 per month — and you can choose as little as $0.

How to Open a Summit Checking Account

If this sounds good to you, too, you can get started with Aspiration here.

Aspiration wants to make sure that everyone receives a personalized onboarding experience. You’ll start by entering your email to secure your spot and wait for an invitation to set up your account. Because of the volume of signups, the invitation will come within seven to 14 days.

Once you receive your invitation, the whole sign-up process takes about 20 minutes.

You’ll need your Social Security Number (you must be a U.S. citizen to open this account), a state-issued I.D. or passport, and your online login information for an existing bank account.

To open the account, you’ll need to make a one-time deposit of at least $10.

At the end of the sign-up process, you’ll e-sign and receive a PDF of the account agreement. I loved that I didn’t have to print or scan anything — I haven’t owned a printer in years.

You’ll answer some questions to verify your identity online, and if that works, you’ll be set. Based on my answers, the system was unable to verify my identity, so I had to complete an additional step.

I received an email the following day asking for primary and secondary I.D. I took a picture of my driver’s license and obtained a PDF of a check stub. I resubmitted the application, and my account was approved and open within three days.

Tips for Using an Online Checking Account

The Summit Account might not replace your existing bank account, but it can augment your financial benefits. Here are the cool ways I’ve found to use it:

Free ATMs

My favorite perk of the Summit Account is the free ATMs! Users who travel, especially abroad, can transfer money into the account, so it’s available when you need it at no extra charge.

Saving for Special Events

This seems like a great account to save for holiday shopping — but I prefer to use it as a travel fund.

I like to deposit payments from my freelance side gigs into my Summit Account. It’s helped me save for my flights home for the holidays, and now I’m planning a trip to Washington, D.C. for New Year’s Eve and meeting friends in Las Vegas later in January!

The Summit Account offers 1% APY on a full balance of $2,500 or more, or 0.25% on a balance below $2,500. Compare that to an average savings account with an interest rate of about 0.06%.

With no fees and no minimum, this is an attractive option for saving small amounts.

Emergency Fund

In addition to saving for special events, this account can be a good place to keep an emergency fund. You can make payments as needed with an Aspiration debit card, via Apple Pay or through Venmo.

Giving to Charity

Best of all, you can give to your favorite causes directly from your Summit Account. Just enter an amount you want to give, and select one or more causes — poverty, water, education, etc.

This should make it easy to start contributing to causes that fight poverty. It’s something I’ve been trying to get around to since college…

Plus, when you refer a friend who opens a Summit Account, Aspiration will donate $25 to your favorite charity and to your friend’s, too. That’s all on top of the 10% the company already donates!

Investing Through Aspiration

In addition to the free, high-yield checking account, Aspiration offers two investment funds for middle-class investors. They are:

• Flagship Fund: This mutual fund has a goal of long-term growth with limited volatility.

• Redwood Fund: This fund invests in companies with sustainable, environmental and socially responsible practices.

These funds require only a $500 minimum investment, which opens up financial services that were traditionally only available to elite investors.

Should You Switch to Aspiration?

Using this account for day-to-day purchases can be tricky. Because the company is so young, I’ve experienced some delays in processing transactions.

Instead, the Summit Account is a solid complement to my existing bank account, and one that helps me give back to a charity I care about.

I get the benefits of setting aside money into a high-yield account without paying a fee or worrying about keeping a minimum balance. And I get access to my cash anywhere I go without wasting money on ATM fees.

Your Turn: What features would you look for in an online checking account?

Sponsorship Disclosure: A huge thanks to Aspiration for working with us to bring you this content. It’s rare that we have the opportunity to share something so awesome and get paid for it!

Dana Sitar (@danasitar) is a staff writer at The Penny Hoarder. She’s written for Huffington Post, Entrepreneur.com, Writer’s Digest and more.

The post We Found a Bank With Heart: Pay What You Want and Support Your Favorite Charity appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.

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Monroe Salvation Army $5 challenge to help solve budget shortfall

"Due to cuts in funding, we will see a shortfall this year of over $100,000 in our general operating budget.”

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You Know You Need an Ugly Christmas Sweater. Get It for 60% Off on Amazon — Today Only!

As you may have heard, Amazon is offering 12 days of deals to help you celebrate the winter holidays on a budget. From giftable toys to electronics, we love Amazon’s offerings — they’re a great way to get all your shopping done from the comfort of home.

But today’s daily holiday deal is especially awesome.

60% or More Off Ugly Christmas Sweaters on Amazon

That’s right: if you’ve been waiting to get your hands on the perfect sweater for that quirky office party, wait no longer!

Although you’ll miss the fun of rummaging through the rack at Goodwill, you can find a sweater with just the right amount of ugly — for a great price.

Sweaters start at just $9.99, and styles range from cute-enough-to-wear-anyway (no judging!) to… yeah, pretty ugly.

You can get the whole family set up, and you’ll score free shipping on orders over $35. This deal is only good today, though, so go get your ugly on!

Your Turn: Will you pick up an ugly Christmas sweater from Amazon today?

Disclosure: We appreciate you letting us include affiliate links in this post. It helps keep the beer fridge stocked in the Penny Hoarder break room.
Jamie Cattanach is a junior writer at The Penny Hoarder and a native Floridian. She’s passionate about learning, literature, chocolate and finding ways to live the good life as cost-effectively as possible. You can wave hi to @jamiecattanach on Twitter.

The post You Know You Need an Ugly Christmas Sweater. Get It for 60% Off on Amazon — Today Only! appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.

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Cars We Remember: The Saga of Young Joe

With gas prices at a four-year low and more drivers on the road this holiday season than ever, it’s time for our yearly column on the dangers of drinking and driving. DUI arrests continue to be a major problem nationwide, and the following story is a too often repeated problem that plagues our nation’s highways. This is the saga of young Joe, a fun loving 21-year-old who is full of life, has lots of friends and is a good person. He also has a beautiful [...]

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Silvio Calabi: Electronic car door locks—friend or foe?

Another reader, also from Florida, writes: “I have a question about automobile egress. If I’m driving with the doors locked and I lose all power as the result of a crash, would I be able to get out? Am I locked in? If so, what should I carry in the car in order to get out, assuming I am physically able to do something about it?”If there’s anything (besides price) that makes us nervous about new cars, it’s probably electronic controls. [...]

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Traveling for the Holidays? Use This Trick to Download Free Movies and TV Shows First

Holiday travel coming up? Need a way to keep the kids occupied… for FREE?

You might be excited to learn about Amazon Prime’s downloadable videos. Though the feature was quietly released in September, we just learned about it and wanted to share the news with you.

How to Download Free Movies from Amazon Prime

If you’re a member of Amazon Prime — a service that gets you free two-day shipping on all items — you probably already know you can stream movies and TV shows from the Amazon Instant Video library of more than 40,000 titles.

The difference is, now you can download some of those same programs onto your Fire, iOS or Android device before packing your kids into the car or onto the plane.

All of Amazon’s original series are available, as well as many other popular movies and shows.

In the “kids” category, for example, you can download shows like Wishenproof, Tumble Leaf and Bubble Guppies, or movies like Maya the Bee, Hook and The Last Unicorn (a personal favorite!).

Grown-ups can download shows like Boardwalk Empire, Veronica Mars and The Good Wife, and movies like The Reader, The Wolf of Wall Street and Amelie.

Unfortunately, there’s no quick way to see which shows are available for download. Within the Amazon Video app, you have to click through the titles and look for downward-facing arrows. You can download a maximum of 25 titles at a time, and you usually have to watch each title within 15-30 days.

Amazon Prime costs $99 for a year’s membership, but remember they also offer a free 30-day trial.

Now might be a smart time to sign up, since membership will get you free two-day shipping on all your holiday shopping — and now, free movies!

Your Turn: Have you used the downloadable video Prime feature before? What did you think?

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 Traveling for the Holidays? Use This Trick to Download Free Movies and TV Shows First appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.

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10 Tips to Make Content Marketing Work for Small Budgets

It’s so easy. Just create amazing content consistently, and you’ll be rolling in traffic.

I’m just kidding.

Even if you know what you’re doing, content marketing takes a lot of work.

But it can pay off in a big way.

For example, Kraft’s ROI from content marketing is 4 times better than any other form of advertising.

Look around online, and you’ll quickly discover that they are not alone.

You don’t even have to go further than here.

I’ve used content marketing to grow KISSmetrics, Crazy Egg, and now Quick Sprout to well over 7-figure (annually) businesses.

I typically get around 100 comments on posts and over 1,000 social shares within days on just Twitter and Facebook alone:

Now, it’s taken me years to get here because content marketing takes patience and consistency.

But another thing it takes is a budget.

If you’re doing content marketing effectively, you’re creating some really valuable next-level content.

And if you’re creating content like that, it isn’t cheap.

Sure, you can do some of it yourself, but your time has value as well. Don’t forget that.

But like with all things, it’s possible to do content marketing both more effectively and cheaper than most businesses manage to do.

It still won’t be “cheap,” but it will be much more affordable for startups and small businesses than what they might be currently spending.

In the rest of this post, I’m going to share with you 10 tips that will help you bring down your content marketing spending significantly without sacrificing results. 

1. Focus on the most cost-efficient types of content

There are tons of different types of content you can produce.

Often, there are 4-5 or even more types of content that your target audience enjoys.

This means that you can use any combination of those types to grow your audience.

But here’s the thing…

Not all types of content give the same return.

They all cost different amounts and will generate different average numbers when it comes to traffic, subscribers, shares, etc.

Here’s a simple 3-step process you can use to find out which types of content are most cost-efficient in your niche.

Step #1 – Evaluate the cost of different types of content: The first thing you need to do is establish a baseline cost for every type of content you might be interested in producing:

• blog posts
• videos
• infographics
• slideshows
• animations
• tools
• e-books
• podcasts
• stock photo collections
• etc.

Obviously, the cost can vary based on the exact thing you’re looking for, but try to get a fairly accurate range.

There are 3 ways you can do this:

1. Get a quote from a freelancer who specializes in that type of content.
2. Determine how much time it would take to make it yourself, then multiply that by your hourly rate.
3. Use estimates from other public sources.

Technically, you could get a quote from an agency, but those are usually much more expensive than a freelancer. Since we’re trying to conserve your budget here, start with freelancers.

For the 3rd option, you can find rough estimates for most types of content online.

For example, I’ve previously written that you can get infographics made for $250 to $595 each.

When it comes to content, most good writers charge $0.10-0.20 per word (although you could negotiate a flat fee, e.g., $200 for a 2,000 word article).

And videos typically cost between $1,000 and $6,500 per finished minute of video.

One caveat: You might want to think about dividing each type of content into more specific types of content.

For example, you might be able to write a list post much faster than another type of post like a case study.

Step #2 – Research the performance of your competition’s content: If you already have a lot of content creation experience, this is an easy step for you. Just make a spreadsheet where you record the performance of each type of content.

When I say performance, I’m talking about metrics that you care about. For most, it will be a combination of:

• traffic
• social shares
• comments
• email subscribers
• backlinks

If you don’t have extensive experience, you’ll have to get this performance data from other sources—your competition.

Start by going to the biggest platform for each type of content and finding a few of the biggest channels/brands for that platform. For example:

• blog posts: blogs
• videos: YouTube
• slide shows: Slideshare
• infographics: Visual.ly

So, let’s say you were interested in making SEO videos.

You head to YouTube and search for a few major SEO terms such as:

• SEO
• SEO link building
• On page SEO

Make a list of the top creators:

We want to figure out their average result per video.

Click on the name, and then click on their Videos tab:

This will give you a list of videos they’ve uploaded.

Start by counting the number of videos the creator has made (you’ll need to click “load more” at the bottom).

In this case, Josh has made 123 videos at this point.

Next, add up the number of views that they’ve gotten.

Finally, divide the total number of views by the number of videos to get an average.

Josh gets approximately 1,000 views per video he uploads.

You want to repeat this for as many creators in your niche as possible. The more you consider, the more accurate your numbers will be.

Once you’re done, get a combined average by adding together the averages and dividing by the number of video creators.

Step #3 – Evaluate the performance of each type and choose the best: At this point, you have the cost of each type of content as well as the typical results for each.

Now, you want to divide the result metrics by the cost.

Here’s what a simple version might look like:

You’re looking to get a rough estimate of the cost per metric. Focus on the metrics you care about the most.

What you’ll probably find is that one or two types of content are much more cost effective than the rest.

Those are the types of content you should focus on producing in the future.

2. Focus on quality over quantity

One major source of wasted money is failure to maximize the results from each piece of content.

Marketers see successful bloggers posting 3-5 times a week and assume that they should too.

However, if you don’t have the budget to publish 3-5 great pieces of content, it’s pointless.

You’ll end up publishing 3-5 okay posts instead.

Growth from content marketing comes from quality, not quantity.

Each post should be as valuable as possible.

You’re better off publishing one absolutely amazing piece of content per month than publishing 30 mediocre posts.

If you can publish more than one great post—fantastic! But always start with quality.

A great example of this is Brian Dean at Backlinko.

As of now, he has about 30 articles in total on the site (seriously), and he’s been going for years now. On average, that works out to about one post a month.

He’s also built a 6-figure business from it.

How? Because every single post is amazing. Quality will always win.

But be smart, remember the 80/20 rule: When you’re dealing with a small budget, it’s always about getting the most bang for your buck.

In this case, it’s possible to take “high quality” too far.

What the 80/20 rule says is that 80% of your results will come from 20% of your efforts.

In this case, it means that 80% of the value of your content will come from 20% of the effort you put into creating it.

The main takeaway from this principle is that each extra bit of effort has diminishing results.

By the time you’ve put in a solid amount of effort (say 80-90%) of what you’re capable of, you’ve pretty much maxed out the level of quality that you can get from a piece of content.

Resist the urge to go overboard by doing things like:

• creating custom images that don’t add much value to the post
• messing around with the layout even though it’s already easy to read
• changing sentences over and over again so that they’re “perfect”

If you do those things, you’re spending time with no real return, which means you’re wasting part of your budget.

Aim for very high quality, but know when a piece of content is about as good as it’s going to get.

3. The absolute cheapest way to create great content consistently

Another way to lower your content creation costs is to get creative.

Instead of creating content from scratch, you can repurpose existing content.

If you’re not familiar with the term, repurposing means turning your existing content into a different form of content.

For example, you might turn a blog post into a video, slideshow, or podcast.

The main benefit is that all the research is already done. You can also often take images you created for the first piece of content and use them in the new pieces.

This can cut your content creation time reliably in half for each piece of repurposed content.

And it can also expose your content to a different audience, which is always a good thing.

Repurposing in action: Let’s go over a few quick examples of repurposing content.

Paul Gordon Brown creates content about reaching students with social media.

For example, he created this popular slideshow on the topic:

However, he also uses a lot of this information in his blog posts, and he’s even hosting talks on the subject:

I highly doubt he’s creating a new presentation from scratch every time.

For bloggers, there’s a common type of repurposing: turning a blog post into an infographic.

Brian Dean originally wrote a post about on-page SEO and then, he created an infographic and embedded it within the same page:

You could also do what I usually do and just post the infographic as its own post.

Brian chose to combine the two so that he could promote that post to an even bigger audience.

And here’s one final example of content repurposing.

The Crazy Egg blog publishes a new blog post every weekday. Some of these posts we turn into short podcast episodes:

We have a great podcaster, who essentially reads the post and records it.

Which types of content convert well into other types of content? Any type of content can be repurposed as any other type of content, but it’s easier to do with certain types than others.

The easiest types to repurpose, in most situations, are:

• blog posts into: infographics, podcasts, e-books
• infographics into: slideshows, videos
• videos into: animations (gifs), blog posts

For the most part, visual content translates well into other visual content, while written content translates well into other written (or spoken) content.

4. Spend time improving your efficiency

This tip is for you if you do a lot of content marketing work yourself.

If you are creating, planning, and/or promoting your own content, you can significantly reduce the amount of time you spend just by learning a few simple ways to work more efficiently.

I’ve seen marketers double the speed at which they do a particular task just by focusing on it for a short period. Here are a few in-depth posts I’ve written in the past:

• Don’t Waste Your Time: 6 Ways to Be More Efficient on Social Media
• 10 Efficient Ways to Save Time So You Can Follow Your Dreams
• How to Double Your Writing Speed Without Lowering Its Quality

And while the specific things you need to do to increase your efficiency depend on your current work habits, there are some general techniques that are almost always useful.

Technique #1 – Batching: Batching is a simple technique that involves doing as much of one task as you can at once.

For example, instead of trying to come up with a post idea every time you’re creating a new post, you could come up with 100 all at once.

This improves efficiency in a couple of ways:

• no transition time – it always takes a few minutes to get going on the next task. Instead of spending this transition time every time you come with an idea, you only spend it one time, at the start of your batch session.
• momentum - once you start doing something, it becomes easier to continue doing it, resulting in faster and better work.

Here are ways you could apply batching immediately:

• coming up with content ideas in batches
• outlining your posts in batches
• writing posts in batches (maybe during the first week of the month) and then scheduling them
• editing content in batches
• collecting names of people to reach out to (for promotion)
• sending out link or share request emails

And there are many more.

Technique #2 – Outsourcing (when it’s smart): There are two main reasons for outsourcing a part of your content marketing process.

It’s best done when you either don’t have the skill or the time.

In particular, the first reason is most important.

Why?

Because if you don’t have the skill, say to design an infographic well, it costs you because you will have a lower quality piece of content.

What most don’t realize is that it’s often more expensive to create it yourself as well.

You might value your time at $50/hour, but a freelancer will charge you $100/hour (hypothetically). So you think that you will save money by doing it yourself.

However, in the vast majority of cases, the freelancer has so much more experience than you that they can do the job in less than half the time it would take you.

This means that outsourcing would actually cost less than doing it yourself, plus you get a better product.

If you recognize that you’re not very good at a particular part of content marketing and don’t have the passion to become an expert, outsource it.

You can’t do everything yourself, so get help in the areas where it makes the most sense for the quality and budget.

5. Forget the parts of content marketing that aren’t necessary

Believe me, I understand when marketers, especially new ones, get overwhelmed by content marketing.

The content creation process alone takes a lot of time, expertise, and resources, but then you need to promote it as well.

Here’s the thing though:

You don’t need to be everywhere at once.

Remember the 80/20 rule? It applies here too.

Eighty percent of your success will come from 20% of your effort. So, find the parts that add little value to your marketing and cut them.

Where to start: The most and least efficient activities will depend on your niche and business.

But let’s look at an example.

When your primary goal is to drive traffic to your content to eventually make sales, what should you focus on?

In most cases, email marketing will give you the best return on investment (ROI – your time and spending) by far:

And yet, some marketers spend just as much of their time getting followers on social media, handing out business cards at conferences, and posting on forums, etc. as they do on getting more subscribers.

When you have a tight budget, the activities with smaller ROI don’t matter.

So, unless you’re in a niche that social media is crucial for (fitness, food, home decor, clothing, etc.), it’s likely something you can forget about.

All you need are the one or two channels that give you the best results.

6. Get extremely specific

This might be disheartening at first:

It’s very difficult to compete with bigger budgets.

Want to outrank a Quick Sprout post on Google for a term I’ve targeted? You’ll have to create something amazing and promote the heck out of it.

And that costs money.

The good news is that you don’t need to go head to head with larger budgets.

Consider SEO. You can target longer tail keywords at first and throw your entire budget at them.

These keywords typically have less competition and are much easier to rank highly for:

When you do this, you’re not going to get amazing traffic right away, and that’s what scares off most businesses.

But you’ll get more traffic by ranking #1 for searches that get a few hundred queries per month than you will ranking #10 for a search that gets a few thousand queries a month.

Guess what happens over time?

Your traffic continues to grow, and so does your subscriber list. Growth in content marketing happens exponentially, so those small initial results grow into big things a few years down the road.

Additionally, as you start to get results from your work, you can slowly add that extra revenue to your content marketing budget, accelerating growth further.

You can take this approach to your content marketing as a whole, not just SEO.

Instead of creating content for marketers (like I do), create content for a more specific audience, e.g., social media marketers or small business marketers, etc.

The more specific you get, the less competition you have—just make sure there’s enough demand. If you’re writing on somewhat obscure topics, even mediocre content would get some attention.

Once you capture that group, you can start creating content for related groups and expand.

7. Share valuable personal data

Something that a decent number of content marketers have picked up on recently is the effectiveness of transparency.

In short, transparency consists of revealing behind the scenes data and information (personal).

One amazing example of this is the Groove HQ blog. They write about marketing topics, but they support their points with personal data and experiments:

They pretty much reveal anything that adds value to a post.

For example, they shared how they determined which social networks to focus on:

There are two reasons why transparency can be great:

• It makes your content better – Using personal data means that you have something unique to offer (no one else could provide it). Having something new to say is a key part of creating value in your content.
• It can be cheaper to create – What’s easier: getting some data from your own Google Analytics or trying to get an expert to respond to you and to contribute to your content? You can save a lot of time using personal data, which means you can use your budget for other things.

8. It’s possible to get free content from amazing creators

If you’re hiring writers to create content for you, it probably costs you at least a few hundred dollars per post.

But there’s a way to get great content free.

And that’s by accepting guest posts.

Remember though, just because you accept guest posts doesn’t mean you have to approve every pitch.

You’ll end up rejecting 90% of them, but those 10% of good ones will be from quality writers who are willing to contribute in exchange for exposure (to promote their own site).

There are two ways to find these good guest-posters:

1. Create a guest-post page on your website - they will find it when they research potential targets
2. Manually reach out to good guest-posters – if you see a good guest post on a competitor’s site, you could email that creator and ask them to contribute to your site.

Right now, I want to focus on the first option because it’s much less work in the long run.

A good guest-post guidelines page has three essential elements.

Part #1 – Incentives for the guest writers: When a content creator finds your guest-post page, their first question is: “Is it worth contributing to this site?”

The bigger your site is, the more you can offer.

Regardless, make this one of your first sections, and frame the benefits in terms that guest posters will find appealing. They are looking for traffic, links, fame, etc.

Here’s a screen shot of Boost Blog Traffic’s guest post guidelines, which are some of the best I’ve ever seen.

Part #2 – What you are looking for: Once the creator is interested in your site, the attention shifts back to you.

You need to make it really clear that you’re only looking for exceptional content.

If you publish content in a certain way (a typical length, style, etc.), this is the time to establish your expectations.

Part #3 – How should they pitch to you? Finally, you need to let them know what you’re looking for in a pitch.

If you don’t, you’ll get tons of emails with unnecessary information, which will waste your time (and your time is money).

Outline the basics of what you’d like to see in a pitch.

You can add more to your guest-post page, but make sure you have at least these three parts.

Writers will start finding you and sending you pitches a few weeks after you publish it (or sooner if you have a popular site).

9. Updating can be as good as starting from scratch

Something that content creators in evolving niches always face is content becoming outdated.

For example, you might write about tax guidelines for 2015.

Well, come 2016 (after tax day), that post has lost 90% of its value.

The same goes for many other industries. SEO posts from 5 years ago are just about worthless now.

But instead of creating a new post from scratch, you can often use old content—for much cheaper.

Here are your two options.

Option #1 – Update time-sensitive content: Things typically change incrementally over time.

So, instead of creating a whole new piece of content, you can just update your original content to reflect that small change in your industry.

This is something Brian Dean does with a lot of his content at Backlinko. For example, he has updated his complete list of Google ranking factors many times now:

It was originally published at least a year ago, and the list has grown to more than 200.

Because Brian keeps the list updated, it remains the #1 resource on this topic.

Option #2 – Republish old evergreen content: While you can update old content to keep its value high, you can also simply republish old posts.

When you’re first starting out, you have a small audience. Once you grow your audience, the majority of it wouldn’t see a lot of your old good content. By republishing your old content, you’ll expose it to your new, bigger audience.

Although I wouldn’t do it very often, you can republish old evergreen content so that it shows up at the top of your blog.

Then, you essentially get a new post for nothing.

10. Learn to be extremely selective with your promotion

This final tip is again about trimming the fat.

You need to ensure that you’re getting a worthwhile return from all the promotional work you’re doing.

If you have limited time, focus on the most likely sources of traffic for your new content.

Start with your email list: Always begin new content promotion by emailing your email subscribers.

These are the people who already like your content and appreciate it enough to sign up for your list.

They are by far the most likely people to share your content with new audiences.

I email my subscribers after I publish a new post, using a simple template:

It works really well and takes next to no time to do.

Then, reach out to past sharers: Not all of your fans like to get email updates. Some would prefer just following you on social media.

But when you announce on social media that you’ve published a new piece of content, they might miss it.

Instead, you should look at who shared your content on social media in the past and then send them a personal message about your new content.

There are two ways to do this. Start with your own social posts, and click on the number of shares you got (on any network):

This will show you who shared your content.

Send them a direct message letting them know about the post, saying that you think they will enjoy it.

Secondly, you can also search for a topic (or even a past article title) using a tool such as Topsy.

For example, since this article is about content marketing, I could search for “content marketing” in the tool.

This brings up a list of the most popular articles on Twitter in the selected time range:

Clicking the “more” link beside the speech bubble will bring up all the people who shared that piece of content:

If you have really limited time, start with the “influential only” users, who have the highest number of followers. One share from them is worth more than from the average user.

Conclusion

Content marketing is all about quality, which typically isn’t cheap.

However, there are ways to make content marketing work even for small budgets.

Try to implement at least 2-3 of these tips, and you should be able to bring down the cost of your content marketing to a more reasonable level.

If you have any other ideas about using content marketing with a small budget, I’d love it if you shared them in the comments below.

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Why Retirees are Moving Again

Retirees are looking for better weather and a lower cost of living.

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This Guy Figured Out How to Get 10% Cash Back From His Credit Card. Here’s How to Steal His Strategy

The price of gas where I fill up is $2.23 per gallon. But I just filled my tank at a net cost of $1.98 per gallon.

I get a 3-cent-per-gallon discount from Shell’s Fuel Rewards program, and the other 22 cents per gallon in savings come from my credit card’s cash-back bonus.

That’s right: You can get 10% cash back on gas!

You can get 10% back on everything from groceries to restaurants, too. And when this deal is gone, you’ll still be able to get at least 5% back on many of the things you buy.

By the way, gas stations were not on the list of categories for my credit card. So how did I get 10% cash back? Let me explain…

How to Get 10% Cash Back

There are many 5% cash-back credit cards. They offer 5% cash back on purchases made at retailers in certain bonus categories that change every three months.

For example, the categories might be restaurants and movie theaters for the first quarter of the year, and could change to Amazon and gas stations the second quarter.

Some cards have 2 or 3% categories in addition to their 5% categories. Any purchases that don’t fall into any of those categories typically pay you 1% cash back.

You normally have to activate the category bonuses or you won’t get them. You’ll usually be reminded to do this by email, and then you can easily log into your account and click a button to qualify.

If you forget, you’ll get whatever the regular cash-back rate is — typically 1%.

The Discover It Card

Discover it may be the best 5% cash-back credit card.

Getting your cash is easy: Just go to your account, find “Rewards” and under “Redeem,” select “Cash,” which is directly deposited into your bank account or used as a credit on your statement (there are also shopping and gift card options).

The current offer of 0% interest for 15 months on purchases and balance transfers is nice, too.

But what really makes the Discover card valuable is the “double cash back” they’re offering for the first year for new card holders.

So, you get 5% on bonus category purchases and 1% on other purchases, and then, after a year, Discover doubles all the cash back you earned. That means those 5% category purchases get you 10% cash back.

The limit is $1,500 in purchases each quarter. After that, you get the 1% rate, which is really 2% for your first year, thanks to the double cash back.

This means you can make up to $150 cash back every three months just on your bonus category purchases.

Of course, you may not buy enough stuff in a given category to maximize that 5% cash back. You don’t want to buy things you don’t need just to get points. And when you do need things, they may not fit in the current category.

But there is a solution to both of these problems, one that will get you more cash back without spending more money.

For example, the Discover bonus categories were gas and ground transportation for the first quarter of 2015. I didn’t have the card then, and I never spend $1,500 — the maximum eligible for the 5% bonus — on gas in three months anyhow.

When I got my card in the third quarter, the Discover Cash Back Calendar listed these categories:

• Home improvement stores
• Department stores
• Amazon

But I still got 10% cash back on gas.

How do you get 10% cash back (or the regular 5%) when your purchase doesn’t fall into the right category?

And how do you claim more bonus cash back when you don’t have enough category purchases? One strategy you can use is to…

Buy Gift Cards to Get Category Bonuses

I bought a $50 Shell gas station gift card at Home Depot using my Discover card. I used that to pay for my next two times at the pump.

Because my purchase was made at a home improvement store, I was credited 5% cash back, which will be doubled when I’ve had my card for one year.

I’ll buy more gas cards as I need them, and if I don’t max out my 5% category, I’ll load up on them before the end of the quarter.

But this isn’t just about gas: Home Depot offers gift cards for multiple retailers, covering everything from sporting goods to restaurants. So you have quite a few options for converting your normal purchases into ones that generate bonus category points.

Of course, it’s easy to use this strategy when the 5% categories include places that sell a variety of gift cards. But what about in the second quarter of 2015, when the Discover categories were restaurants and movies?

Fortunately, there are several ways to get your 5% (or 10%) cash back on almost anything you buy.

1. Plan Ahead

If the coming quarter has no good categories for gift card purchases, buy them now. Just be aware of the limits for each quarter.

For example, if you’ve used up $1,000 of the $1,500 maximum spend that qualifies for Discover’s 5% categories, buy $500 worth of gas station gift cards to use in the future.

2. Find a Retailer With the Right Code

Categories are not always clear because stores can be coded a number of ways by card issuers.

For example, the Chase category “grocery stores” does not include Walmart or Target.

On the other hand, there are reports that purchases of items inside some convenience store gas stations fall into the “gas” category, and many of these places carry gift cards.

Visa has an online search tool for retailer codes, but you can also make a small purchase and check your statement later to see if a particular store (one with gift cards) is in a bonus category.

3. Get Several 5% Cash-Back Cards

For the first quarter of 2015, the Discover bonus categories were gas and ground transportation — tough places to find gift cards for other retailers unless you know a gas station convenience store that codes properly.

During this time, the Chase Freedom bonus category calendar listed grocery stores. Most grocery stores carry a variety of gift cards.

In other words, the more 5% cash-back cards you have, the more likely you can maximize your cash back on any purchase.

4. Choose Your Categories

The U.S Bank Cash+ card lets you choose two 5% cash-back categories from 12 different options.

“Department Stores” is the only category where you are likely to find gift cards for other retailers, so choose that to start.

Then you can choose a category you’re likely to use heavily but for which there are few gift cards available, like “Fast Food” or “Cell Phone.”

5. Buy Discounted Gift Cards

To save even more, ignore the special categories and buy discounted gift cards on sites like Raise or CardPool using your cash-back credit card.

For example, I bought CVS gift cards online using my Discover card. I only got 2% cash back in that case, but the cards were selling for 20% off, so I did far better than getting a 5% or 10% category bonus.

The Fine Print

Typically, there is a limit to how much spending qualifies for the bonus category payouts.

The limit is $1,500 per quarter for Discover, so you can theoretically collect $600 cash back each year on bonus categories and another $600 your first year. There’s no limit on regular 1% cash-back purchases.

My American Express business card and my Chase Ink card both pay 5% cash back on office supply store purchases up to $25,000 per year (and yes, these stores have gift cards).

Because of the uncertainty of some categories (is a pharmacy in a grocery store in the “drug store” category?), you may want to do a small test purchase and check your statement before spending a large amount, assuming you’ll get 5% cash back.

Remember: It’s the retailer where you make the purchase that has to fit the category, not the purchase itself.

As Chase explains for their Kohl’s category bonus, “Kohl’s gift cards purchased at any location other than Kohl’s or Kohls.com are not eligible for 5% cash back.”

So, for another example, a movie theater gift card isn’t in the movie category if you buy it at Home Depot; it’s in the home improvement store category.

Finally, make sure you activate your bonus categories each quarter. Otherwise that 5% will revert to just 1% on most cards.

Your Turn: Do you make good use of your 5% cash-back credit cards?

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!

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

The post This Guy Figured Out How to Get 10% Cash Back From His Credit Card. Here’s How to Steal His Strategy appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.

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Questions About Self-Directed IRAs, Prosper, Behavioral Finance, Quicken 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. Trade or pay off car?
2. Getting a Prosper loan
3. Advice on cutting the cable
4. Finding a new career
5. “Next level” personal finance writing
6. Credit score and old bills
7. Finding individual health care plan
8. Basics of self directed IRAs
9. The danger of falling prices
10. Quicken upgrade worries
11. What qualifies for 529?
12. Foreign stocks and taxes

What things do I need to do today to ensure the life I want to have five years from now?

I can’t even tell you how much that question drives my life these days. It drives it in terms of finances, in terms of health, in terms of the personal relationships that I have and am building. It drives my entrepreneurial bent. It drives my intellectual growth. It even drives my hobbies.

It starts off by simply asking what I want to change between now and then in my life, at least in terms of the things that I actually have some control over. What is actually different between my life today and my vision of where I want to be in five years?

Then, the next question is simply asking myself what kinds of things I can do today to facilitate that change. If I’m going to move from where I’m at now to where I want to be, what needs to happen today that doesn’t typically happen on a typical day?

Exercise? Study? Work on an open-ended entrepreneurial project? Real time spent building relationships? Those are all key elements.

I try to make several of those things part of my day every day for a month or so, then I re-evaluate by starting all of this over again. What do I want my life to be like in five years? What do I need to do today to make my life more like that?

It’s amazing what you can do if you use that mindset day in and day out.

Q1: Trade or pay off car?

I have a 2007 Chevy car. I got it 2 years ago on a small loan at a very low interest rate. I currently owe $1800 left to pay. I have recently been told to trade it in for a lease and not deal with the future costs of maintenance. I love my car but it seems like it’s getting old and requires a lot more maintenance now. Is it better to trade or keep driving it and payoff the loan in full?
– Angela

The first thing I would do is take the car to a trusted mechanic and get an assessment as to the state of the car. Are there any major repairs coming down the road? Or is the car in pretty good shape? That’s something a mechanic can tell you pretty quickly. (It’s also a good way to “test” a mechanic.)

If it’s in good shape, hold onto it and keep driving it. If there are a bunch of problems coming up, sell it. A good mechanic will advise you well here.

Since you still owe money on the car, you’re going to ideally want to pay it off before getting rid of it or else some of the money you earn on selling that car is going to be immediately eaten by paying off the loan. Trying to sell a car without revealing the loan you still have on it is fraud.

Basically, unless the car is on the verge of total disaster, I’d stick with the car.

Q2: Getting a Prosper loan

I am considering getting a personal loan online and I was referred to Prosper.com. I checked whether I would qualify for the personal loan with them and they actually approved me for what I asked for and with 16.67% APR I guess my credit score is ok. I am hesitant though, it would be my first time and I am not trying to get myself in more trouble than I already am with credit card debt. Any advice on Prosper.com and to me as first time borrower?
– Natasha

That is actually a pretty rough interest rate. It’s comparable to a credit card interest rate, honestly, as many credit cards have a 14.9% or 19.9% APR and this falls in between those numbers. Your credit score is probably not disastrous, but not great.

I would not take this loan unless it is to fulfill a genuine need. For example, if you need a mode of transportation to get to work and one isn’t available to you and you can’t get any other kind of loan, this loan might be okay.

I generally tell people to avoid ANY loan that has a double digit interest rate as such a rate will devour your money and should be avoided. That’s absolutely true with this loan.

Q3: Advice on cutting the cable

I want to dump cable but we enjoy hgtv, food network, usa, syfy. Are or is there a box for me? How about Dragon…. why so expensive and is it worth it. I have amazon prime and like their content and 2 – 3d tvs. We have my desktop pc running to my 3d with a blueray burner and nero 2015 platinum running windows 10. My girlfriend gas a slower lenovo laptop to her tv but she needs a set box.
– Daniel

A Dragon is essentially a PC running XBox Media Center on it that’s already set up for you – you just plug it in and use it. In my opinion, it does not add enough value to the smaller boxes like Roku or Amazon Fire to make it worth the much higher price tag.

The streaming options for the networks you mention specifically are either tied to a cable provider (meaning you need to have an account with a cable provider that gives you that channel already in order to stream the shows) or are on other streaming services on a program-by-program basis or, in some cases, have recent episodes on the network’s website, like this offering from USA Network.

A home streaming setup isn’t going to match the convenience of channel surfing, settling on a channel, and just watching whatever that channel throws up on the screen. Streaming is more about individual programs and watching them on demand, often setting up a queue of them so you can watch for long stretches if you like. It’s more like a channel that you control, except that the content available for you to put on that channel isn’t completely unlimited.

Q4: Finding a new career

I’m a 48 year old male , that has been self employed . I’m looking for guidance for the right fit in a new career . Elevator technician looks interesting.
– Kevin

If you’re considering a new career, I would very strongly encourage you to give the book What Color Is Your Parachute? by Richard Bolles a try. It’s basically written for the situation you find yourself in – you’re leaving one job or career path and searching for another one – and is written in a very approachable way.

One of the worst moves you can make, especially at this point in your life, is to jump to a new career and pay for all the training only to find that you hate it. Even a year or two lost eats up a significant percentage of your years remaining in the work force. You don’t have the time or resources to make a jump that won’t work out (unless you’re in stellar financial shape).

You’re much better off to spend some time right now figuring out a path that will click for you and that you can stay with until you retire and that’s what that book is for. It does a great job helping you figure out a career that will work well for you, not just one that sounds good on paper.

Q5: “Next level” personal finance writing

Are there any good personal finance journals out there? I feel like I have understand and practice what you and other similar blogs/sites advise. I’m just wondering if there is a “next-level” of advice, so to speak.

And when I say journals, I mean like those professional, peer-reviewed journal type publications that other professions have.
– Ronald

Personal finance as a standalone subject isn’t something that’s often written about in academic circles. Generally, the topics of personal finance are spread across a lot of areas like behavioral finance, behavioral economics, psychology, and so on.

The articles that really matter in terms of a person’s individual finances really tend to be spread widely across all of those areas and thus across a lot of different journals and publications. There simply isn’t a one stop shop for academic publication on personal finance.

If you have access to an academic library, you can try browsing through some of the journals that cater to those field. Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics is one good place to start, as is Econometrica.

A better approach is to find specific researchers that you might be interested in, like Daniel Kahneman, and find their CV or publication list (here’s Kahneman’s list) and read through those publications, using them as a starting point to find more.

Q6: Credit score and old bills

I see where I have some small bills left on my credit report, all under $200. I guess the companies just stopped sending me the bills. How do I go about getting them paid, and hopefully getting my credit score up?
– Sandra

The truth is that if you pay these bills, it’s actually going to make your credit score worse in the short term, believe it or not.

The reason for that is that unpaid bills, as bad as they are, tend to “fade” in terms of their impact on your credit score over time. When they reach the seven year mark without having been paid, they disappear from your credit report.

The problem is that if you go back to an old debt and pay it off now, it resurrects that bill on your credit report. Paying it off means that it’s not nearly as bad as it once was, but it’s now a current issue rather than an old one, meaning it actually has a stronger negative impact than a debt that has fallen off your credit report (or one that’s close to doing so).

If the companies are no longer billing you, they’re either sending the bill to a collection agency (and you’re going to start getting bugged about it pretty hard) or they (and/or the collection agencies) have just given up on you.

If you want to repay these debts, which is the honest thing to do, your best approach is to save up until you have plenty with which to pay off one of those debts, then call up the debt holder and negotiate with them to pay it off in full all at once. Then repeat this process for each of those debts that you have.

Q7: Finding individual health care plan

I am seriously considering joining a Christian based Healthcare sharing program. With the conventional insurance anytime my family has had anything medical happen we have walked away with a $2k or more expense. I now have a 5 month old, had BCBS Ins, and walked away owing $500 to my Doctor’s office visits, and over $3,500 in medical bills. Not to mention b/c I decided not to return to work my daughter’s expenses after birth in the hospital are now ours to handle. Do you know if I change to this type of program her shots will be covered? She has had her first set and now is due for the 2nd set. I believe without ins they are around $800 but with conventional insurance they are covered. Thank you for any assistance/advice
– Thomas

Your best bet is to check out the health care exchange that’s available in your state and find the best plan for your situation. You can find your exchange using Google by simply searching for your state’s name and “health care exchange.” The exact rules and offerings vary from state to state.

I’m not entirely sure what you mean by a Christian-based plan. I assume that you mean you wish to buy it through a company that espouses Christian values or uses some of the income for faith-based purposes. That’s completely your choice, but the end result will be paying more for your coverage while someone else makes the decisions about your charity. If you want to give, a better approach would be to find the cheapest plan you can and then actually make a regular donation to the specific cause you care about, whether it’s your local church or something else.

Your coverage date for your new policy and the exact coverage offered will tell you whether or not the specific treatment on a specific date is insured. Almost every plan offers some kind of coverage for normal immunizations.

Q8: Basics of self directed IRAs

I’d like to have you address the subject of self-directed IRAs; how to arrange for one to invest in say, real estate, or even collectibles.
– Lana

A self-directed IRA is an investment tool managed by a “custodian” (usually a large financial institution unless you want to run some significant fraud risk, as self-directed IRAs are ripe for the possibility of fraud) where the account holder can add a wide range of investments to the IRA. In general, collectibles aren’t allowed in self-directed IRAs except for specific exceptions, like some coins issued by the U.S. Mint. You won’t be putting your Pokemon cards in there, for example.

The problem with a self-directed IRA is that it puts much more of the onus on you to make sure that you understand the risks involved in what you’re doing and the tax implications of what you’re doing. A custodian for this type of account is usually going to still charge you a fee, but they’re not going to give you any additional guidance in those areas. You’re going to have to figure all of that out on your own.

Most of the time, self-directed IRAs are used for situations where people want to invest in something unusual, like silver. However, almost everything you might want to invest in within a self-directed IRA already exists as an ordinary ETF, which almost every traditional or Roth IRA allows you to invest in already.

If I were you, I’d look for an ETF that matches whatever it is you want to invest in. Likely, that ETF exists and you would be able to just invest in that anyway within a normal IRA, in which case a normal IRA makes much more sense.

Q9: The danger of falling prices

Macroeconomic question: Why should we worry about falling prices in the long term? Isn’t good for all of us to pay less for things?
– Carl

When prices start to fall, that’s referred to as deflation. Think of it as the opposite of inflation. Prices are going down, like a deflating balloon.

So why is deflation bad? The first problem is that when prices begin to fall regularly, people begin to expect that prices will keep falling and stop spending money because they expect prices to be even better tomorrow. Why would you spend $50 on something today if it will be $40 in a little while if you just sit on that cash? It basically creates the sense that everything will be on sale before very long so people start holding out for that sale. That creates big economic problems.

The second problem is that it makes debt even more painful. Let’s say you have a $100 debt at 10% annual interest. In a normal time, where 3% inflation is happening, you would owe $110 in a year, but that $110 really only has the buying power of $106.80 because inflation is making the dollar cheaper. Now, let’s say there’s 3% deflation. In that case, your $110 has the buying power of $113.40. What’s happening is that debt becomes even more punishing in terms of the purchasing power of your money and thus people and businesses avoid it, meaning that there is less cash being spent. That’s also going to slow the economy down.

So, people hold onto money because they think there’s a sale and debt is more painful so people don’t borrow money to spend. That adds up to a big economic slowdown.

But there’s a third problem, too. Let’s say you make $10 an hour in this deflationary economy. After a year, your $10 an hour now has the purchasing power of $10.31. Even without a raise, your income is going to be able to buy more stuff. However, it’s also going to cost your employer more (in terms of the actual buying power of the money) and that’s happening in the midst of a big economic downturn. When people are buying less stuff and wages are basically going up at the same time, businesses are going to have to fire lots of people and many will go out of business.

Deflation ends up creating a giant mess that no one wants anything to do with. It sounds awesome on the surface in the sense that your dollars are worth more, but it ends up being a disaster.

Q10: Quicken upgrade worries

I have Quicken 2003 Basic now and would like to move it to Quick Books 2016. How challenging will it be to transfer our records this way?
– Tony

You can, but you actually have to use an intermediate version first. This article explains the process which involves using a free download of Quicken 2004 as a “middle man” of sorts to help the conversion happen. This is how you get to a current version of Quicken.

Now, you’re mentioning Quickbooks here. Before you jump from Quicken to Quickbooks, you need to realize that they’re not the same product. Quicken is a personal finance software package, whereas Quickbooks is for full-fledged accounting, something you may not want to be doing.

Having said that, you can also convert from that intermediate version of Quicken described above into Quickbooks using this process.

Before you do any of this, back up ALL of your data. You should never, ever, ever upgrade any software without a data backup, period.

Q11: What qualifies for 529?

I’m setting up a 529 plan for my two sons. I have a question in regards to the plan. If my son where to get a full ride scholarship could he use his funds for rent, food, books for the school year or is it very specific on what it goes towards?
– Nadine

Expenses that are considered acceptable in 529 plans are spelled out in IRS Publication 970. Some of the things you listed there (such as textbooks) are acceptable expenses, but other things (like rent and food) are not. (Obviously, tuition is an acceptable expense.)

The nice thing is that any gifts, inheritances, or loans that the student receives do not lower the acceptable expenses in any way. So, if your student receives a gift from a grandparent to cover the rest of their tuition after scholarships and the student has 529 money, that student can use the 529 money toward tuition and then use the gift for things like a computer or room and board.

That ends up being how many people use a 529 for college. They’ll use the 529 itself to pay for tuition, then use other gifts they’ve received to pay for the other expenses.

Q12: Foreign stocks and taxes

I invested in some USA penny stocks, about $25,000. I made $12,000 but over time lost almost all of it with bad “luck.” I’ve been basically unemployed for much of the year and I’m wondering whether I will be charged tax on that lost money. I’m not an American citizen, never been to the usa in over 15 years, just a regular Canadian who tried his hand at buying some American penny stocks.
– Frank

You’ll likely have to pay Canadian capital gains taxes, but not US taxes. From what I’ve been able to find, by not being a US national, you won’t have to pay taxes on those amounts for the US, but Canada will view this as a form of Canadian income and tax accordingly.

You should read this IRS publication for basic guidance on the issue from the US perspective, and this document for the Canadian perspective.

As always with tax issues like this, you should consult a tax preparer or, at the very least, trusted tax software to make all of the calculations and figure out exactly what you will owe.

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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