'Agritainment' saves the family farm in Pa.

Twenty-five years ago, developers offered Fred Seipt millions of dollars for his struggling Freddy Hill Farms in Lansdale.He said no.Instead of taking the money and watching his three-generation farm become yet another Montgomery County subdivision, Seipt gambled on building two lavish miniature golf courses, a driving range, a pro shop, and baseball batting cages.He bet the farm, and he won.Celebrating its 25th anniversary this month, Freddy's Family Fun Center [...]

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Spa Castle negotiating state, township hurdles

Spa Castle hasn’t given up on plans to develop a water park and spa resort near the Tannersville cranberry bog, despite two rejections by Pocono Township commissioners last year of a request to connect to the township’s central sewer system.C. Castle, LLC met recently with the township’s new consulting engineer, Jon Tresslar of Boucher & James, to make sure Tresslar has all the planning documents needed to consider the proposal. C. Castle seeks to build the [...]

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10 Hidden Costs That Can Derail Your Budget Travel Plans

Your bags are packed, your airline boarding passes are ready to go, and your kids are bouncing off the walls with excitement. Even better, you’re proud of yourself and your shrewd vacation planning this go-round. Thanks to your carefully crafted vacation budget, this trip has already been saved for and paid off. What could go wrong?

Ask anyone who travels often enough, and they’ll tell you a whole lot can go wrong –  even if try to plan for everything. Vacation budgets are especially fickle and hard to stick to for several reasons, but mostly because you can’t plan for the unknown. If you’re traveling somewhere new, for example, you may not know about that toll road up ahead, or the fact that the free state park you’re visiting charges $25 for parking.

Or maybe you really did plan for everything — but the especially hot weather means more cold drinks and snacks for the kiddos. Or you plan to cook cheap dinners in your condo, but pure vacation exhaustion sends you running for the closest restaurant each night for your evening meal.

Trust me, it happens to the best of us.

10 Hidden Costs that Can Derail Your Travel Budget

Still, it’s possible to plan for some of the unknown and hidden costs you’ll face if you know what’s out there and have a better idea of what to expect. And if you’re savvy enough, you might even be able to work around or avoid some hidden expenses altogether.

Here’s a strategy we suggest wholeheartedly: Hope for the best, but plan for the worst.

And as you craft the budget for your upcoming vacation, try to think beyond the best-case scenario. What could go wrong? And which parts of your trip have the potential to cost more than you planned? Here are some of the hidden costs you should watch out for:

Airline Taxes and Fees

Flying this year? Make sure to check your ticket for the cost of airline taxes and fees. When you travel domestically, you’re generally only required to pay $5.60 per leg in fees mandated by the federal government. But for international flights, the fees, taxes, and fuel surcharges can easily add hundreds of dollars to the cost of each ticket.

When you pay for airfare, you won’t necessarily notice since taxes and fees are built into the cost of your ticket. But when you score “free” flights with airline miles, that only covers the cost of the ticket — you’ll have to pay for any taxes and fees levied on your particular flight separately.

If you don’t watch out, airline taxes and fees can knock your travel budget completely off track. And while there’s no way to avoid paying them besides changing your travel plan altogether — flying through Iceland instead of London, for example, can save you hundreds of dollars in departure taxes — you do have the option of shopping around for cheaper flights. When you’re using airline miles, on the other hand, it’s smart to search for award fares ahead of time to see what your taxes and fees might look like.

The best way to plan for these fees is to be aware of them in the first place.

• Related: No, You Don’t Have to Fly to Earn Airline Miles

Checked Baggage Fees

If you don’t know your airline’s policy on checked luggage, you could be in for a rude awakening when you pony up to the counter to check in for your flight. Different airlines have different fees for checked baggage. While a few airlines, such as Southwest, still let you check one bag for free on domestic flights, others charge $25 or more for every bag you check.

For a family of four, the cost of checking one bag each can easily surge over $100 each way. If you don’t plan for this added expense, it can send your vacation budget into a tailspin before you even get off the ground.

Research your airline’s policy ahead of time, so you can pack lighter, stick to carry-on baggage only, or at least plan for the expense.

• Related: The Best Airline Credit Cards

Hotel Resort Fees

If you stay at hotels and resorts often, you’re probably already aware of “resort fees.” If not, you might be shocked when you learn what a resort fee is – and what it isn’t.

By and large, resort fees are unavoidable add-on fees charged by hotels and resorts. Most of the time, they include negligible benefits like access to an on-site gym or pool, plus Wi-Fi access that should probably be free anyway.

The kicker is, hotels aren’t usually required to include these fees in the nightly rates they advertise. Often times, you won’t find out about the resort fee until you scan the fine print. And in the worst-case scenario, you won’t find out about it until you’re required to fork over an extra $20 to $70 per night when you check into or out of your hotel.

• Related: Best Hotel Rewards Programs

Foreign Transaction Fees

Credit cards are by far the most convenient form of payment when you’re traveling at home or overseas. First, most credit cards offer zero liability on fraudulent purchases, making credit a smart alternative to use your bank-assigned debit card. And since credit cards will automatically exchange currency when you make purchases abroad, they can save you from the hassle and expensive commission fees of trading in your American dollars for foreign money.

Before you travel abroad with credit, however, you should make sure you pick up a credit card that doesn’t charge foreign transaction fees. If you don’t, you’ll likely be on the hook for additional fees that add up to 3% or more to the cost of every purchase you make.

• Related: Best Credit Cards with No Foreign Transaction Fees

Snacks and Convenience Food

Even when you plan for everything, kids can dream up some pretty crazy ways to spend your money. They’re hot and can’t find a water fountain – so obviously, you need to spring for a lemonade. Or they’re tired of sitting in the airport and the McDonald’s in the terminal is calling their name.

You can bring snacks with you through airport security and directly onto the plane, but not drinks. With some forethought and planning, some basic snacks in your carry-on can help you avoid a situation where you’re required to buy overpriced airport food.

And if you’re driving, you have no excuse not to plan ahead when it comes to snacks. Pack a small cooler with plenty of snacks and drinks for everyone and you’ll avoid overpaying for gas station snacks and convenience foods.

• Related: Road Trip Tips: Keys to a Cheap Summer Adventure

Stroller Rentals

The thought of renting a stroller at a place like Disney World sounds entirely preposterous until you actually arrive at Disney World. Once you land within the park’s shiny gates and find yourself in the thick of the crowds, having your kid being tucked away where they can’t disappear makes a lot more sense. If it’s stiflingly hot or your kids are small, you may even want to save them some footsteps as well.

If you don’t plan ahead for a stroller at your favorite theme park, brace yourself. At Disney World in Orlando, Fla., for example, renting a double stroller will add a staggering $31 per day to the cost of your trip. It can cost considerably less at smaller and less expensive resorts, but you can avoid these added costs altogether by bringing a stroller from home if you have one. And if you don’t have one, borrow one!

Entry Fees and Parking

You can often hit up state parks and historical sites for free, but even some seemingly free attractions cost money. You might be required to make a donation to get into a museum or historical church, or pay a tax on your way out. Other times, attractions you want to visit are free to enter, but it costs an arm and a leg to park your car for the day.

The only way to prepare for entry fees and parking costs is to do as much research online as you can ahead of time. You might encounter a surprise fee regardless, but you’ll be best prepared to handle it if you plan for the worst and scour the internet for information on fees before you go.

• Related: Profound Life Experiences… on a Budget?

Sunscreen

A cheap beach vacation is possible if you plan ahead. Drive your car to the closest beach you can find, rent a nearby vacation condo off VRBO or Airbnb, and cook your own meals to keep costs at a minimum.

But don’t forget to plan for sunscreen. At up to $12 per container, you can easily spend $12 per day just to keep your family safe from the sun’s harmful rays. When I take my family to the beach or the water park, for instance, we can easily go through one can of sunscreen or more per day.

If you don’t plan ahead, these costs can easily take you by surprise. And if you end up having to buy sunscreen when you arrive on vacation, you may go broke trying to stock up. At resorts in some destinations in Mexico, for example, sunscreen sold on-site regularly goes for more than $30 per bottle. If you’re checking a bag for your trip, you can avoid getting gouged by buying extra sunscreen at home and bringing it with you.

• Related: 25 Ways to Save On Summer Travel

International Data and Roaming Fees

Plan on bringing your phone on an international trip? That’s perfectly fine, but it could cost you big-time. Depending on where you go and which carrier you use, you may be required to pay international data and roaming fees. And for some destinations, you might need to buy a SIM card for your phone to work at all.

For our family’s trip to Italy last year, we opted to purchase a $200 SIM card so we could use the internet freely and without restraint. This was enormously helpful as we desperately needed the “map” function on my phone — but also convenient since we could upload photos and I could keep up with work email while we traveled.

If you’re dreaming up an international trip, it can pay to plan ahead and look for the best deal on data and phone service before you go. At the very least, make sure you know your phone provider’s charges for international data and roaming so you won’t return home to the rude surprise of an expensive phone bill.

City Taxes

While most taxes are included in your room fee at American hotels and resorts, some cities abroad charge special or extra taxes on tourism. Most of the time, you won’t be asked to pay these taxes until you check into your hotel or check out and settle the bill.

These taxes are wide and inconsistent, existing in some popular European cities and not at all in others. In Rome, for example, extra city taxes are imposed on each paid night’s stay, and the charges increase based on the quality of hotel you book. Nightly fees at a one- or two-star hotel are just €3, for example, but you’ll pay €7 per night to stay in a five-star hotel.

In Barcelona, on the other hand, extra hotel taxes range from €0.45 to €2.50 per person, per night. Generally speaking, you won’t be required to pay these taxes until you check out of your hotel – that’s when they get you.

While you can’t avoid extra city taxes, you can plan for them. Make sure you research any cities you plan to visit ahead of time, taking special care to note how much these fees will add to the cost of your trip. Once you’re aware of the fees, you can make your peace with them and add them to your travel budget with everything else.

To Avoid a Vacation Budget Fail, Plan Ahead

Creating a travel or vacation budget takes some time and requires some research, but it’s absolutely worth it. By planning ahead for the many costs you’ll encounter, you can make sure your vacation remains affordable and free of any expensive surprises.

Just remember, travel comes with its share of hidden costs. While you should do your best to plan ahead, you should also give yourself a bit of a buffer in the event of unexpected expenses.

What kind of travel expenses have caused your travel budget to fail in the past? What would you add to this list? 

Related Articles:

• The Southwest Airlines Companion Pass: A Gold Mine of Free Travel
• Eight Things to Pack for a Frugal Vacation
• Why I’ll Never Feel Bad About My Vacation Spending

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These Women Earn $500+ a Month Cleaning Up After Crazy House Parties

One morning, after a night of drinking, Rebecca Foley woke up hungover, dreading the household cleaning that awaited her.

Foley complained to her roommate Catherine Ashurst that she wished she could just pay someone to come do the cleaning for her.

That kernel of an idea, born from a hangover, eventually inspired Foley, who goes by Bex, and Ashurst, who goes by Cat, to launch Morning-After Maids.

They’ve been up and running for just two months, but already their idea has caught fire.

Since launching Morning-After Maids with a Facebook page and a website, the two women, who are based in Auckland, New Zealand, have been fielding requests for their services all over the world. They’re booked every weekend and already thinking about franchising the business.

Hangover Cures: A Clean House and Breakfast

If you’re having a party and you know you’re not going to want to deal with the mess afterward, you can request that Foley and Ashurst stop by the next morning to clean up.

They’ll also make fast-food runs for you, make you coffee, bring you energy drinks or cook you breakfast.

The standard cleaning rate is NZ$30, or about US$21, which Foley and Ashurst split. They also charge a NZ$20 to $80 booking fee (US$14 to $58), depending on the number of people you expect at your party. If you call for an emergency cleaning, they charge a fee of NZ$50 (US$36).

They charge NZ$10 to $40 (US$7 to $28) for mileage, depending on where you live in Auckland, and NZ$45 to haul your garbage away.

They’ll fix you traditional breakfast fare for NZ$20 to $25 (US$14 to $18) per person, or make a McDonald’s run for the price of food plus NZ$10 (US$7) for mileage.

With an average of three jobs per weekend — on their base rate alone — Ashurst and Foley can bring in between NZ$720 and $1,440 a month combined (US$510 to $1,022).

And this is their side gig!

“We wanted it to be affordable for everyone, so the university students can use us, obviously the rich and famous can use us,” Ashurst said.

“We didn’t want to be targeting just one market. We want everyone to think ‘Hey, we can use these girls for any occasion.’”

So far, they’ve done three jobs each weekend, ranging from two to four hours each. Their toughest cleaning session was a large house that was covered in mud after a party with 120 people.

“When we were trying to clean, we were just moving mud. It actually wasn’t cleaning,” Ashurst said, laughing. “It took us so long. There was dirt everywhere, alcohol everywhere. It was just revolting. But we got there in the end.”

More Than a Cleaning Service

Ashurst says Morning-After Maids is more than just a traditional cleaning service. If you want, they’ll even bring their dogs Patrick and Larry to liven up your morning.

“So many people are like, ‘Oh, why wouldn’t you just use a cleaner?’” Ashurst said.

“Do you really want some middle-aged woman coming in and cleaning up your house after a party? With us, it’s actually more of an occasion. We’re there to brighten the morning. We’ll bring Red Bulls, we’ll bring Powerade, we’ll go get you breakfast. We make the morning a bit happier.”

Ashurst says that difference made the business immediately successful — they’re promising to make your life easier, your day better and your headache go away.

The business is also built on a premise most people can relate to — the feeling of dread when you wake up hungover and look around at your messy house.

Ashurst, 33, and Foley, 25, are young and they’ve done their fair share of partying. Their non-judgmental attitudes go a long way, Ashurst said.

“People know that we’re not going to be judgy,” she said. “That’s not why we’re here.”

They hope to keep that culture intact as the business expands. Ashurst and Foley are in the process of hiring some additional staffers, because right now their business is limited to the work the two of them can do on Saturdays and Sundays.

Where Will They Take This Side Hustle?

Morning-After Maids is still a side gig for Foley and Ashurst.

Ashurst works full time as a fire safety consultant and runs the public relations aspect of their burgeoning side business. Foley works as a financial accountant, so she crunches the numbers.

For now, their expenses are almost non-existent. They pay for their cleaning supplies, which they get wholesale from a company that heard their story and offered to sponsor them, and they’ve paid for advice on things like trademarks and branding from a handful of professionals.

“We both still work 40-hour weeks (at our jobs),” Ashurst said after finishing a cleaning job on a recent Sunday afternoon.

“And for the management side of the business, we just do our meetings during our lunch breaks and then we’re doing any kind of administrative work that we need to do in the evenings and then doing the cleans on the weekend.

“There is no balance,” she joked.

Ashurst said she doesn’t know what they were expecting when they launched the business, but they definitely didn’t plan for it to take off the way it did.

What started as a side gig will likely turn into a full-time job for the two women.

“This is actually going to be life-changing so we’re just running with it,” she said. “We think it’s rare that startups get this kind of exposure. So we’re just utilizing it as best we can. I wasn’t anticipating giving up my day job, but now that’s in the cards. We’re just taking it day by day.”

They’re expanding slowly and cautiously, especially in the realm of franchising. Though people have been asking for franchising opportunities already, Ashurst said it will be a while.

They hope to first expand in Auckland, then throughout New Zealand. Eventually they plan to branch out to the United States, Australia and the United Kingdom.

For now, though, Foley and Ashurst see themselves spending their weekends cleaning, doing food runs and making people’s hangovers a little more tolerable.

“Everyone drinks, no one’s going to ever stop drinking,” Ashurst said. “We’re very much a drinking nation and a social nation. All we’re doing is cleaning up after that. It was needed. It’s never going to go away.”

Your Turn: What do you think of their side gig?

Sarah Kuta is an education reporter in Boulder, Colorado, with a penchant for weekend thrifting, furniture refurbishment and good deals. Find her on Twitter: @sarahkuta.

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Deeds, Sunday, July 31, 2016

Barrett TownshipHarriet B. Humpton Est. (By Trust), David B. Humpton and The Pennsylvania Trust Company, co-executors of the Estate of Harriet B. Humpton to William Patrick II and Patricia Hayden Lawrence, Unit 777, Revised Site Plan, Phase 1, Section 3, Buck Hill Falls, $200,000Ralph A. Jr. and Paula J. Caggiano to GH Properties Limited Liability Company, Lot 27, Oaklyn Park, $400,000 Coolbaugh TownshipPocono [...]

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Sanofi begins flu vaccine shipments

Swiftwater-based vaccine maker Sanofi Pasteur began shipping the first of what will be about 65 million doses of influenza vaccine for this year’s flu season.The company plans to increase its supplies this year to respond to shifting pediatric public health needs, the company said. The shipments will continue throughout the remainder of the year.Seasonal influenza activity typically occurs between October and May, and peaks between December and February. However, [...]

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State e-cigarette shop owners react to new taxes and regulations

There’s real concern in the E-cigarette product industry that a new Pennsylvania tax will cause vape shops locally and around the state to go up in smoke.“My business will absolutely be closing by mid-September,” said Chris Hughes, who heads the Pennsylvania Chapter of the Smoke-Free Alternatives Trade Association, an organization whose mission is to provide what they said is an alternative to combustible tobacco products for adult smokers.Hughes also owns [...]

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Shawnee-On-Delaware artist Joy Taney on reality show Wednesday

A well-known local artist will become nationally known when her episode of “Skin Wars Fresh Paint” airs on Wednesday night. Joy Taney of Shawnee-on-Delaware is featured in the season finale episode airing from 9 to 10 p.m.The show, a body painting competition featuring artists who have never body painted before, is a spin-off of the Game Show Network’s popular series, “Skin Wars.” When approached to be a part of the series, Taney was surprised and [...]

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Pocono Medical Center scores high in gov't survey

Pocono Medical Center and several hospitals operated by emerging local competitor St. Luke’s University Health Network rank among the top 20 percent of hospitals nationwide in a federal government survey released this week.Some hospitals operated by Lehigh Valley Health Network — which is seeking regulatory approval for a takeover of PMC’s Pocono Health System — didn’t fare so well in the annual Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services [...]

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Pocono medical center scoresn high in gov't survey

Pocono Medical Center and several hospitals operated by emerging local competitor St. Luke’s University Health Network rank among the top 20 percent of hospitals nationwide in a federal government survey released this week.Some hospitals operated by Lehigh Valley Health Network — which is seeking regulatory approval for a takeover of PMC’s Pocono Health System — didn’t fare so well in the annual Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services [...]

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Why Expenses Really Matter When It Comes to Your Investments

So, how exactly does an investment house make money?

Let’s use Vanguard as an example. You can go there, sign up for an investment account with them, and buy shares of one of their funds and they don’t charge you a fee for doing so. Your fund rises almost exactly with the stock market. A few years later, you sell those shares – again, with no fee for doing so – and pocket some profits.

Where does Vanguard make money in that picture?

They make money by charging expenses directly to the investment. Throughout the year, they withdraw a little bit of the value of the investment you’re holding and keep it for themselves.

Let’s say, for instance, that you own shares in a fund that has $10 billion in total assets. During the year, they might withdraw, say, $8 million from that fund to pay the employees, keep the servers running, and so on. All that you actually see is a very slight gradual downtick in the value of the investment. In fact, the expenses are usually charged so slowly that you barely notice the change…

But it’s a real change, and it can be very expensive.

Those withdrawals done by the investment house have to be disclosed to the investor and they’re almost always listed as an “expense ratio.” It’s the percentage of the annual assets that the company pulls out in a year in order to pay for all of those costs. In that example above, where the fund has a value of $10 billion and they take out $8 million a year for expenses, the fund would have an expense ratio of 0.08% – a pretty good ratio, I might add.

Expense ratios are one of the very first things that I look at when considering an investment, and in the remainder of this article, I’m going to show you why it’s so important.

A Baseline Investment Example

Let’s start off looking at a very basic investment example. Let’s say that a company offered an investment with a 7% annual return and 0% expenses. I’ll tell you this – if that fund existed in the real world, my money would be there in a heartbeat. It’s also a pretty good analogy for the long term stock market, as a 7% annual return over the long run is what most models predict for the future.

I decide to contribute $5,000 a year to that investment over the next 40 years. I start this year with $5,000 at the start of the year and repeat that for the next 39 years. What will I wind up with?

At the end of the tenth year, my balance will be $73,918.00.
At the end of the twentieth year, my balance will be $219,325.88.
At the end of the thirtieth year, my balance will be $505,365.21.
At the end of the fortieth year, my balance will be $1,068,047.85. Pretty sweet; I’m a millionaire.

Unfortunately, expense ratios are going to change this picture, and not in a good way.

Investment Example With 0.1% Expense Ratio

Let’s take the above example and slightly tweak it. Let’s add a 0.1% expense ratio to that fund. We’ll assume, for ease of calculation’s sake, that the expenses are withdrawn at the end of the year.

In this example, at the end of the tenth year, my balance would be $73,471.93. Compare that to the balance I would have with no expense ratio, $73,918.00. After ten years, a 0.1% expense ratio will have cost me $446.07.

At the end of the twentieth year, my balance in this example would be $216,563.51. Compare that to the balance I would have with no expense ratio, $219,325.88. After twenty years, a 0.1% expense ratio will have cost me $2,762.37.

At the end of the thirtieth year, my balance in this example would be $495,244.13. Compare that to the balance I would have with no expense ratio, $505,365.21. After thirty years, a 0.1% expense ratio will have cost me $10,121.08.

At the end of the fortieth year, my balance in this example would be $1,037,993.60. Compare that to the balance I would have with no expense ratio, $1,068,047.85. After forty years, a 0.1% expense ratio will have cost me $30,054.25. Ouch.

As you can see, even a tiny 0.1% expense ratio has rather large financial implications over the long haul. It shaves about 3% off of the overall total over a forty year stretch, which is enough to actually affect quality of living in retirement, at least a little.

Many Vanguard funds have an expense ratio in this ballpark, which is one of the big advantages of their investing strategy. By just following extremely simple strategies (buy everything, follow the average), Vanguard keeps the expenses low.

Investment Example With 0.5% Expense Ratio

If we bump things up to about 0.5%, we’re getting into the realm of some of the better mutual fund offerings from all sorts of different companies. These aren’t bad investments at all in the grander scheme of things. Let’s take a look.

Let’s use the original example – 7% annual return, 40 years, investments at the start of the year – and add a 0.5% expense ratio to that fund. We’ll assume, for ease of calculation’s sake, that the expenses are withdrawn at the end of the year.

In this example, at the end of the tenth year, my balance would be $71,715.88. Compare that to the balance I would have with no expense ratio, $73,918.00. After ten years, a 0.5% expense ratio will have cost me $2,202.12.

At the end of the twentieth year, my balance in this example would be $205,894.67. Compare that to the balance I would have with no expense ratio, $219,325.88. After twenty years, a 0.5% expense ratio will have cost me $13,431.21.

At the end of the thirtieth year, my balance in this example would be $456,940.20. Compare that to the balance I would have with no expense ratio, $505,365.21. After thirty years, a 0.5% expense ratio will have cost me $48,425.01.

At the end of the fortieth year, my balance in this example would be $926,640.74. Compare that to the balance I would have with no expense ratio, $1,068,047.85. After forty years, a 0.5% expense ratio will have cost me $141,407.11. Wow.

At a 0.5% expense ratio, retirement savings are taking a major hit, big enough to change one’s long term plans significantly. About 14% of the balance has dissipated due to that expense ratio, which is going to seriously alter your plans.

But it’s going to get more painful yet.

Investment Example With 1.0% Expense Ratio

At a 1.0% expense ratio, you’re looking at investments that are perhaps a bit more pricy. Usually, these are heavily promoted “prestige” funds from investment houses.

Let’s continue to stick with the original example – 7% annual return, 40 years, investments at the start of the year – and add a 1% expense ratio to that fund this time. We’ll again assume, for ease of calculation’s sake, that the expenses are withdrawn at the end of the year.

In this example, at the end of the tenth year, my balance would be $69,583.01. Compare that to the balance I would have with no expense ratio, $73,918.00. After ten years, a 1% expense ratio will have cost me $4,334.99.

At the end of the twentieth year, my balance in this example would be $193,375.10. Compare that to the balance I would have with no expense ratio, $219,325.88. After twenty years, a 1% expense ratio will have cost me $25,950.78.

At the end of the thirtieth year, my balance in this example would be $413,608.23. Compare that to the balance I would have with no expense ratio, $505,365.21. After thirty years, a 1% expense ratio will have cost me $91,756.98.

At the end of the fortieth year, my balance in this example would be $805,415.39. Compare that to the balance I would have with no expense ratio, $1,068,047.85. After forty years, a 1% expense ratio will have cost me $262,632.46.

In that situation, you’re probably not retiring when you originally planned to retire – it’s simply not going to work out. The expenses have drained literally a quarter of your retirement savings at this point, which means that your annual withdrawal is going to drop by a quarter, too (unless you want to risk running out of money). You’re either going to be working for quite a few more years or you’re going to have a part time job in retirement or you’re going to have to accept a lower standard of living. That’s the reality of it.

But it gets worse yet!

Investment Example With 1.5% Expense Ratio

When you start getting above a 1% expense ratio, you’re usually in the domain of investments that are being heavily promoted by investment advisors that are getting a cut out of those expenses. I personally wouldn’t touch these with a ten foot pole, but they’re out there. Let’s see how painful they are.

Let’s continue to stick with the original example – 7% annual return, 40 years, investments at the start of the year – and add a 1% expense ratio to that fund this time. We’ll again assume, for ease of calculation’s sake, that the expenses are withdrawn at the end of the year.

In this example, at the end of the tenth year, my balance would be $67,517.26. Compare that to the balance I would have with no expense ratio, $73,918.00. After ten years, a 1.5% expense ratio will have cost me $6,400.74.

At the end of the twentieth year, my balance in this example would be $181,703.79. Compare that to the balance I would have with no expense ratio, $219,325.88. After twenty years, a 1.5% expense ratio will have cost me $37,622.09.

At the end of the thirtieth year, my balance in this example would be $374,818.33. Compare that to the balance I would have with no expense ratio, $505,365.21. After thirty years, a 1.5% expense ratio will have cost me $130,546.88.

At the end of the fortieth year, my balance in this example would be $701,417.47. Compare that to the balance I would have with no expense ratio, $1,068,047.85. After forty years, a 1.5% expense ratio will have cost me $366,630.38.

There you have it. At the forty year mark in a 1.5% expense ratio investment, a full third of your money is gone to expenses. Poof. You may not even be able to retire at all at that point.

The Impact of Returns Versus Expense Ratios

As you might be able to guess, there’s a bit of tension between annual returns and expense ratios. A fund that has a higher annual return than another fund can get away with a somewhat higher expense ratio and still be beneficial for you as a customer. The trick, of course, is to find that fund that actually has a long-term history of a higher annual return.

Let’s look at the numbers to see how that works.

An 8% Baseline Investment?

For this example, let’s tweak the baseline investment from earlier. We’re still investing $5,000 a year, but now it has an 8% annual return, over 40 years, with a 0% expense ratio.

In that case, at the forty year mark, your investment would be worth $1,398,905.20. Remember, in the initial example, the annual return was 7% and we wound up with $1,068,047.85. So, just by bumping the return up from 7% to 8%, we increased our total return by $330,857.35.

If we toss in a 0.1% expense ratio, our forty year total goes down to $1,358,375.12, a loss of $40,530.08 compared to no expense ratio.

If we use a 0.5% expense ratio, our forty year total goes down to $1,208,392.96, a loss of $190,512.24 compared to no expense ratio.

Now, here’s where it gets interesting. If we use a 1% expense ratio (with the expenses removed at the end of the year), our forty year total drops to $1,045,489.98, a loss of $353,415.22 compared to no expense ratio. Why is this one interesting? This is the point where the return is actually lower than a 7% investment with 0% expense ratio, which would give us $1,068,047.85. Part of that comes from exactly when the expenses are withdrawn throughout the year and when the returns come in throughout the year, of course.

If you have a 1.5% expense ratio, your year-end balance is $906,114.04, which is again somewhat comparable to a 7% annual return with 0.5% expenses, which would give you $926,640.74.

The Impact of Expense Ratios

To summarize all of this, what you’ll notice is that the annual return of a mutual fund or index fund minus the expense ratio gives you a good idea of what your annual return will be for that investment. It’s not a perfect result because it varies depending on when the expenses are withdrawn and so on, but it will get you fairly close to the right number.

However, when in doubt, go for the fund that has the lower expense ratio. So, if you’re looking at two investments, when one has a 7% annual return and a 0.5% ratio and the other has an 8% return and a 1.5% ratio, you’re better off with the lower return and drastically lower expenses.

That’s because, year in and year out, the annual returns are going to jump up and down, but the expense ratio is going to stay the same. Thus, in a bad year, the expense ratio becomes increasingly more important and a high expense ratio is really going to pinch you badly, choking off the returns. You gain some of that back in the good years, but in a volatile investment, it’s generally not quite enough.

How Can You Find Out Expense Ratios

When you’re choosing between investments of a similar type, two pieces of information you’re going to want to know are the average annual return and the expense ratio. Both of those numbers should be easily available in the summary of an investment; if they’re not, tools like Yahoo Finance or Morningstar will help you quickly find that data.

As I mentioned above, the simplest way to use that information is to take the average annual return and then subtract the expense ratio from that, then use that number to compare different funds. If they’re pretty close, go with the one that has the lower expense ratio; if they’re still really close, go with the one that has the longer history.

Final Thoughts

Expense ratios are extremely important when you’re investing. As you’ve seen, a bad expense ratio can gobble up a lot of your money over the long haul. While you’re almost always going to have to settle for at least a small expense ratio, there’s a world of difference between a 0.1% expense ratio and a 1.5% expense ratio. Over the course of many years saving for retirement, the difference is hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Another important thing to remember: expense ratios and annual returns aren’t the only thing you should be considering while investing. You should also be considering risk, which you can figure out by looking at the annual returns each year for the last several years. Do those jump up and down a lot? Such investments are fine for the very long term – more than ten years out – but as you get closer to your goal, you’re going to want investments that don’t jump up and down each year, even if that means a lower average annual return. That’s because you don’t want to hit your deadline at the end of a very bad year because that will really hinder you going forward.

Expense ratios are mostly useful for comparing very similar investments, ones with similar rates of return and similar volatility. When I’m looking at investments like that, expense ratios are almost always the tiebreaker. I virtually always go for the investment with the lower expense ratio.

So far, using this strategy seems to have worked well for my family. We have most of our long term savings and investments with Vanguard in investments with very low expense ratios that strive to simply match the market by owning a little bit of everything. That strategy has worked like a champ, and low expense ratios are a big part of the reason why.

Good luck!

The post Why Expenses Really Matter When It Comes to Your Investments appeared first on The Simple Dollar.

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This Woman’s Smart Money Move is Saving Her $15K on Her Student Loans

“There’s nothing terribly unique about my story,” Caitlin Harren assured me when I asked about her experience paying back student loans.

She’s one of millions of former college students contributing to our country’s more than $1 trillion in student loan debt.

She’s probably right: She’s not alone.

But what is unique about Harren is her apparent financial literacy.

I don’t think she realizes how ahead of the curve she is in understanding the debt she took on and how it affects her financial future.

Funding Graduate School

Professionally, Harren is Amazon’s senior product manager in sustainability operations in Seattle. She’s helping the online retail giant reduce waste and increase efficiency in its packaging and shipping practices.

After five years working in the nonprofit sector, Harren wanted to move her environmental sustainability work into a more corporate environment. To do so, she went on to grad school.

An upstate New York native, Harren says she was fortunate enough to graduate from Smith College debt-free 10 years ago. Her parents funded her Bachelor of Arts in Environmental Science, and she took her skills to nonprofits after college, including The Sierra Club.

By the time she was ready to go back to school, her resources were relatively depleted. Five years working for nonprofits and living in the San Francisco Bay Area hadn’t been a boon to her savings.

This time, she applied for federal student loans and headed to the Erb Institute for Global Sustainable Enterprise at the University of Michigan.

Three years later, Harren returned to the West Coast armed with a dual M.S./MBA… and about $60,000 in debt.

This is where her “basic” understanding of personal finance kicks in — and where we can learn from her.

Many of us with student loan debt of that magnitude are simply drowning in it. We make minimum payments, defer payments, accrue interest, struggle each month and ultimately make little progress.

Maybe once things are completely out of control, we finally seek a better solution.

Harren knew she needed to address her student loan debt head-on from the start, and she found a smart solution.

When she graduated in 2013, federal interest rates were hovering around 6.8%, she recalls.

“I think that’s completely inappropriate,” she said. “I would have taken any lower rate.”

Finding a Fun Way to Refinance

Through other grads on Facebook, Harren heard about a then-new refinancing marketplace — SoFi.

The community aspect of the startup appealed to Harren — as did the opportunity to drastically reduce her student loan bill with a lower interest rate.

SoFi offers student loan refinancing and other financial services aimed at young professionals. It’s committed to a different approach from what you’d get with a bank.

When Harren found the company, she was attracted to its alumni-funded model, where students and recent grads would receive school-specific student loan funds from alumni and institutional investors.

Harren liked that she’d be sharing funds with people who also shared her experience.

Since SoFi’s financial offerings have expanded, it’s no longer alumni-funded, but has turned its focus to lending to — and supporting — financially responsible individuals.

Now it uses forward-looking factors like education, career experience and free cash flow to determine your loan eligibility, rather than relying on your FICO score.

And SoFi goes beyond loans in its commitment to empowering members to accomplish career and life goals.

The company also offers Career Strategy services, providing career planning and job search assistance to help members grow professionally and earn more money.

SoFi even offers fun, educational opportunities and local events that connect the SoFi community, like happy hours, community dinners and — I’m not kidding — skydiving.

How Much Money Can You Save with SoFi?

So it sounds fun, but how much money does SoFi actually save grads?

Remember Harren’s 6.8% interest on those federal loans? Refinancing with SoFi cut it down to 2.5%.

That’s a variable interest rate, which means it can rise over time. But it will likely be a while before Harren’s interest hits its original astronomical rate, so she can enjoy years of savings.

With the remaining $48,700 in loans she refinanced with SoFi, Harren estimates she’ll save between $11,000 to $15,000 over the 10-year life of her loans.

How to Pay Down Student Loan Debt Faster

In addition to refinancing early, Harren is making some other smart moves to pay down her student loan debt inside of 10 years.

Instead of the minimum $430 payment each month, she’s paying about $650 to stay ahead.

She said she could have been more aggressive and even paid off all of her debt by now, but she’s opted to put some of her extra money into high-yield savings each month instead — something she wouldn’t have been able to do easily under her original repayment plan.

She also took advantage of an opportunity to pay down a big chunk of her loans when she had it.

When Amazon hired her three years ago, she got a relocation stipend, which she was able to put toward her debt before refinancing. She moved to Seattle with just two suitcases and bought her flight with travel rewards — quite the Penny Hoarder!

With the money she can save each month, Harren wisely keeps a stock of “short– to mid-term savings.”

The bulk of that savings went to the down payment on a house last spring, and now she’s working back up to an emergency fund of six (or more) months’ expenses.

Is Refinancing With SoFi Right for You?

Harren was smart to look into refinancing early after graduation to secure a dramatically-reduced interest rate.

Even if you’ve been out of school and working on paying down your student loan debt for a few years, refinancing could still help you save money.

In addition to a lower interest rate, refinancing could mean a lower monthly payment and, like Harren’s, thousands of dollars saved over the life of your loans.

If you’re struggling to keep up with monthly payments, or you’re buried in interest and feel like you’re making no progress, refinancing with SoFi could offer some relief.

What would you do with an extra $15,000 in the next 10 years?

Your Turn: Have you considered refinancing to pay down student loan debt?

Sponsorship Disclosure: A huge thanks to SoFi 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!

Licensed by the Department of Business Oversight under the California Finance Lender Law License No. 6054612. SoFi loans are originated by SoFi Lending Corp., NMLS # 1121636. (http://ift.tt/1dl1tJY).

Dana Sitar (@danasitar) is a staff writer at The Penny Hoarder. She’s written for Huffington Post, Entrepreneur.com, Writer’s Digest and more, attempting humor wherever it’s allowed (and sometimes where it’s not).

The post This Woman’s Smart Money Move is Saving Her $15K on Her Student Loans appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.

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7 Best Online Survey and Research Sites to Make Money Fast

While there are many ways to get ahead in life, few are as beneficial as earning more money.

By increasing your income over time, you can boost your cash savings rate, save more money for retirement, and even afford a splurge once in a while.

And if having more money makes you feel more secure, you’ll probably sleep better at night, too.

Related:

• 100 Ways to Make $100 Fast

Of course, it’s not always easy to increase your income. Your employer might hate giving raises, for example, or maybe overtime at work has become scarce. If that’s the case, you might need to pick up a part-time job, start a side hustle from home, or look for unorthodox ways to earn money in your spare time.

7 Best Online Survey and Research Sites to Make Money Fast

If you’re short on time, one of the best ways to rack up some free and easy money is with online survey sites. While the payouts can vary, these sites let you earn money just for answering questions, browsing the internet, and more.

Plus, unlike a part-time job with strict hours and the standard commute, you can complete surveys during your actual free time – at night when the kids are in bed, early mornings before work, or while you’re watching TV.

Ready to get started?

Here are a few of the top online survey sites that will pay you to answer questions in your spare time:

• American Consumer Opinion
• Harris Poll Online
• Inbox Dollars
• Pinecone Research
• Pro Opinion
• Swagbucks
• Wonder

American Consumer Opinion

While it might be hard to believe at first, American Consumer Opinion will pay you real, actual money to share your opinions and complete online surveys. Once you join their online opinion panel, you’ll be asked to offer opinions on new products you have tried, test out new advertising campaigns, and tell companies what you think of their marketing techniques and slogans.

Payouts from American Consumer Opinion vary, but your payout will come in the form of “points” you can redeem for cash. You can also get your cash through PayPal if you want, and redemptions start at 1,000 points or $10.

Get started with American Consumer Opinion by clicking this link!

Harris Poll Online

Like American Consumer Opinion, Harris Poll Online offers cash incentives to people who are willing to log in regularly and complete online surveys and questionnaires. Once you join, you’ll begin earning rewards for each survey you take. Once you earn enough reward “points”, you can turn them in for purchases made on websites like Amazon, iTunes, Home Depot and Walmart. Conversely, you can also turn in your points for movies, books, and home goods ordered straight from the Harris Poll website. Plus, you’ll be entered into a $10,000 sweepstakes each time you complete a survey.

While exact payouts per survey aren’t advertised and can vary quite a bit anyway, Harris Poll Online is free to join and the rewards can be lucrative if you use the website often enough.

Click here to learn more about joining Harris Poll Online and how you can earn cash in your spare time.

Inbox Dollars

With Inbox Dollars, you’ll earn cash for an array of activities. In addition to earning rewards for completing surveys and questionnaires, you can also get paid to surf the internet, play games, print grocery coupons, and shop online. Best of all, signing up is absolutely free!

If you use the site regularly, you can usually earn up to $20 or $30 per month for your various activities. Plus, you’ll get a $5.00 credit just for signing up!

Pinecone Research

Pinecone Research works a lot like other paid survey sites. Once you sign up, you’ll earn points for each survey you complete. As an added bonus, the responses you give during surveys will help you learn about new products before they hit the market and influence their respective marketing campaigns. And once you start racking up the points, you can redeem them for cash or prizes.

While you have plenty of options when it comes to redeeming your points, Pinecone research is also one of the few online survey sites that will actually send you a check in the mail instead of making you redeem for gift cards or merchandise.

If you’re interesting in figuring out how much you can earn, sign up for Pinecone Research here.

Pro Opinion

With Pro Opinion, you’ll get paid to answer questions in your field of expertise. In addition, you’ll provide valuable research that is used to create expert responses and articles on the Pro Opinion website.

After you sign up, you’ll receive surveys on various topics and products via email. Once you complete these surveys and build up a stash of “points,” you can redeem them for cash via PayPal, purchases made through Amazon.com, or gift cards to various retailers. As an alternate suggestion, you can even redeem your rewards as a donation to the Red Cross.

To get started, you’ll need to offer quite a few personal details including your gender, home address, birth date, employment status, education level, and household income. After that, however, you’ll be matched with surveys that line up with your individual strengths and existing wealth of knowledge.

Interested in learning more? Sign up with Pro Opinion here.

Swagbucks

Swagbucks was one of the first paid survey sites to appear on the internet, but it has grown to offer more options and more fun ways to earn money with each passing year. With Swagbucks, you’ll earn points for shopping online, watching videos, searching the web, and answering surveys.

When it comes to redeeming your points, a wide range of gift cards are some of the best options. If you don’t want gift cards, on the other hand, you can also redeem your points for PayPal cash.

Signing up for Swagbucks is easy and, best of all, it’s free! If you want to see all the different ways to earn money with Swagbucks, click here to get started.

Wonder

Unlike the other paid survey sites on this list, Wonder will actually hire you to conduct independent research on a wide range of topics. In that sense, Wonder offers much more of a “part-time job” than a side hustle you can complete in your spare time.

If you meet their criteria and get hired, you’ll conduct expert research on anything from historical events to government laws and regulations. In turn, that research is used by professionals who pay to use this service.

Earnings vary highly depending on your level of skill and the amount of time you spend finding the crucial details your clients need. Still, this is a great way to earn some money online and from the comfort of your own home.

You can read more about Wonder and where it works here.

How to Get the Most Out of the Best Online Survey Sites

The allure of “free money” can be hard to walk away from, especially if you can earn that money just by clicking around on the internet a few times per day. Still, there are plenty of ways to maximize the amount of money, merchandise, and gift cards you earn over time. Here are some tips that can help:

Sign up for every legitimate online survey site you can find.

While you can earn money from any of these sites fairly easily, the amount of money you can earn from each might be limited. If you have plenty of time on your hands, it can pay to sign up for several online survey sites and participate in each.

The more surveys and online tasks you complete, the more money you’ll earn over time. You may even find that a few sites are your favorites this way, or that one site ends up helping you net more cash than the others. Regardless, you won’t really know how each works until you try them out.

Watch out for scams.

While every online survey site mentioned in this post is absolutely legitimate, there are some “copy cat” websites and even fraudulent websites out there.

If a website is making wild claims about free money or asks for more personal information than you feel comfortable giving, that’s a good indicator that they are up to no good. Make sure to read reviews and follow up with research to make sure a website is legitimate before you begin using them. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

Set aside time to complete surveys each day.

If you feel like you don’t have time to complete surveys, you’re not alone. Most of us live busy lives, and it can be difficult to keep up, let alone take on a new side hustle.

Still, if you watch television each day, then you have plenty of time to complete surveys online. Simply turn on your favorite show and complete survey questions during the commercial breaks. If you like some quiet time at night, that’s also a great time to earn extra money through online search or complete a few online surveys while you relax.

The Bottom Line

The best online survey sites will reward you for everything from searching the internet to watching targeted videos, opening emails, completing surveys, and giving your honest opinions on products and services.

But to get your hands on that free and easy money, you have to sign up first!

Have you ever earned money through an online survey site? Why or why not?

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Want to Get Paid to Be on Pinterest All Day? Work for The Penny Hoarder

Be honest: How much time did you spend on Pinterest last night?

And the night before? And, let’s be honest, all weekend?

If you’ve ever wished you could leverage your addiction into a job or dream of working in a slick, savvy startup environment with a laundry list of perks, listen up.

The Penny Hoarder understands your Pinterest addiction.

And actually, as it turns out, we need you.

The Penny Hoarder is Hiring a Pinterest-Addicted Graphic Designer

Our growing team is seeking a new addition: a talented graphic designer who knows the ins and outs of social media to help us create fun, helpful visual content and bring it to our readers.

Our ideal candidate has two to three years of graphic design experience with at least some focus on social media, and is excited to bring their skills to a dynamic team working in a fast-paced newsroom environment.

Basically, you should be a total design geek whose love of creating beautiful things is matched only by your love of sharing them online — and watching them knock it out of the park, performance-wise.

And another thing? You don’t necessarily need a degree. If you’re self-taught but you provide an impressive and relevant sample, we’d love to consider you.

So if you’ve got the chops, trust me: This is your dream gig.

You’ll get to hang out on Pinterest all day, 100% guilt-free.

Even better? You’ll make a real difference in our site’s performance and reach.

Pinterest is one of our biggest traffic drivers, followed closely by Snapchat and Instagram, which you’ll also work on.

And as far as compensation goes, you won’t be disappointed.

Pay is competitive and experience-based, and the benefits are first-rate. We get three weeks’ paid vacation, a corporate-matched 401(k), and full health care coverage with surprisingly awesome customer service.

You’ll be based in a St. Petersburg, Florida, office so gorgeous and well-stocked with snacks, coffee and beer that most of us can’t wait to come in on Monday. But many of our employees work from home, or somewhere more exciting, one day a week.

And the list goes on.

You’ll be eligible for a company laptop, a quarterly company-wide performance-based bonus (we’ve made the threshold every quarter so far), and a $500 referral bonus if you suggest a successful job candidate.

(Psst — put my name as your referee when you apply!)

You’ll also get a $200 annual learning stipend, so you can get even better at your already-rockstar-status skills.

Furthermore, I can (obviously) vouch for our company culture.

We’re an eclectic and enthusiastic group of smart, motivated people working in a beautiful office whose executives honestly care about our happiness — and go to great lengths to secure it.

Can’t wait to start? Here’s how to apply.

Ready for the Best Social Media Job Ever?

You can submit an application — and check out the full details of the role — by clicking here.

And don’t forget to check out our snazzy careers page to learn even more about why it’s amazing to work at The Penny Hoarder. Plus, you’ll get a sneak peek of our so-swank-I-can’t-believe-I-work-here office.

You’ll be asked to furnish your resume, and to create a Pinterest-optimized graphic to accompany this post.

It won’t be published — we just want to see what you can do. Think big and get creative! “Ask for forgiveness, not permission” is literally in our company handbook, so feel free to be brave.

What are you waiting for? This is one project totally worth clicking out of your permanently open Pinterest tab for.

Besides, those boards will be even more addicting when you’re paid to work on them.

Your Turn: Will you apply for our Pinterest-obsessed graphic designer position?

Jamie Cattanach is a staff writer at The Penny Hoarder, and it’s pretty much the best. Her writing has also been featured at The Write Life, Word Riot and elsewhere. Find @JamieCattanach on Twitter to wave hello.

The post Want to Get Paid to Be on Pinterest All Day? Work for The Penny Hoarder appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.

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78 Marketing Tasks You Should Outsource Immediately

If you’re like me, you stay busy.

Running a business is a tall order in and of itself. When you throw marketing into the mix, things can quickly become overwhelming.

If you haven’t felt this way yet, you’re going to feel it soon: There just aren’t enough hours in the day!

Here is one thing I learned early on in my business: outsourcing will save your life.

I speak from personal experience. There’s no way I could have done what I’ve done without strategically and carefully outsourcing a lot of the day-to-day marketing tasks that took up my time and kept me from focusing on other goals. 

Why I’m a fan of outsourcing

Outsourcing has tons of benefits.

Most businesses rely on outsourcing because they want to “focus on the core.” That’s another way of saying “we want to do what we do best.”

For you, the reasons may be different. You might have 29 things you have to do for a client, but you only have time to do 18 of them. You can outsource the rest.

I’m a major proponent of outsourcing a lot of the day-to-day tasks that are laborious and only hold me back from focusing on more pressing matters.

I’m probably different from other business owners, though. While some people have a top-down or hands-off approach to running their companies, I prefer to be in the thick of it.

You’ll see me personally interacting on Facebook, jumping into blog comments, and working on blog articles.

I like to be involved in these aspects of my business because I feel like they are one of my important business tasks—connecting with and learning from other marketers.

That’s one of the great things about outsourcing. You can be as involved as you want or as hands-off as you want. It’s up to you.

A lot of people I talk with are concerned about the cost of outsourcing. “But doesn’t it cost a lot to outsource these tasks?” they ask.

The answer is yes and no.

Yes, you have to pay for quality work.

But no, it doesn’t cost a lot because of the time you’re saving. If your time is worth, say, $50/hr, doesn’t it make sense to pay someone $35/hr to post to Facebook, create a video, proofread an article, or respond to blog comments?

If you can be doing your $50/hr work while your outsourcer is doing their $35/hr work, it’s a win-win-win. You win. They win. Your client wins.

And it’s not just time you’re saving. You’re also creating efficiency and increasing your quality. So maybe it’s a win-win-win-win-win.

Are there risks to outsourcing?

Sure, there are risks to anything.

I’ll admit that outsourcing has its fair share of risks. You can risk hiring the wrong person. You risk an outsourcer going AWOL. You run the risk of poor work standards. You even risk your brand being tarnished when an outsourced worker gets shoddy with their work.

There’s a flip side to this.

Most entrepreneurs and marketers are concerned they’ll get low quality work if they outsource.

What I’ve discovered is that you can actually improve the quality of work if you outsource.

Let’s say you need to create an explainer video for a new product. You can do it yourself with your iPhone and feeble editing skills.

Or you can outsource it to an explainer video professional.

If you outsource it, the quality will be a million times better than the quality you’d get if you’d tried to do it yourself.

See what I mean?

Besides, you don’t always need perfection when it comes to marketing. Although I tend to be a perfectionist, I’ve realized that done is better than perfect.

But I believe the rewards are greater than the risks. Besides, part of being a good marketer is being a good manager to other marketers.

The great thing is that there is a wide array of virtual assistants and marketing professionals available who will ensure that your campaign runs like a well-oiled machine without you having to hold their hand every step of the way.

Here are some specific tasks you should outsource right away.

Blogging

I always strive to maintain high quality standards on both NeilPatel.com and Quick Sprout. I’ve found I’m consistently able to do so without it devouring my time by outsourcing.

And I’m not alone. In fact, 64% of B2B marketers outsource their writing in some capacity.

Here are some of the ways you can improve your blog quality through outsourcing:

1. Moderating blog comments and filtering spam
2. Responding to the comments your readers leave
3. Performing research for upcoming blog posts
4. Generating new ideas and pitches for blog posts
5. Scheduling blog posts
6. Finding images and videos for blog posts
7. Adding meta descriptions, tags, and images to blog posts
8. Finding statistics to incorporate into posts
9. Proofreading for spelling mistakes, grammatical errors, and awkward phrasing
10. Making adjustments to older blog posts as new data is unveiled
11. Creating internal links to existing posts
12. Keeping an inventory of posts and the keywords used
13. Corresponding with your team of freelance writers
14. Hunting down guest blog opportunities
15. Coming up with pitches for guest posts
16. Reaching out to influencers in your industry

Social Media

In my opinion, social media may be pound-for-pound the easiest area of marketing to outsource.

One of the biggest challenges of social media is curating the content you plan to share. It can take an enormous amount of time simply to find good, relevant articles that your audience will benefit from. Outsourcing this task is an instant way to free up several hours a week!

Think about the importance of visuals in your social media content too. Adding images to individual posts is a massive time drain…unless you outsource it!

A lot of tasks don’t require an immense amount of experience. Most virtual assistants are fully capable of handling them with minimal supervision:

17. Managing and approving friend or follow requests
18. Inviting followers to attend events
19. Sending out personalized birthday greetings to key contacts
20. Sharing your blog content across social networks
21. Finding and editing images to use in posts
22. Curating quality content from relevant sources
23. Scheduling posts across all social platforms
24. Keeping track of brand mentions
25. Uploading new videos to YouTube
26. Creating questionnaires and surveys
27. Engaging with friends and followers
28. Ensuring all profiles are updated on a consistent basis
29. Sending out thank-yous to new followers
30. Commenting, retweeting, and interacting with interesting content
31. Designing and occasionally redesigning profiles

SEO

While you don’t want just anyone handling the more complex aspects of SEO, there are several elements of SEO that virtual assistants are fully capable of looking after. Many freelancers have the skill to perform keyword research, create a 301 map, or generate a thorough sitemap.

If you’re looking for someone to deal with the nuts and bolts of SEO, you’ll want to go with a highly qualified SEO firm who has a track record of success.

This post from Kissmetrics discusses what to look for in an SEO firm and how to tell if they’re helping or hurting you.

These are some of the SEO tasks that can be outsourced:

33. Performing keyword research
34. Creating catchy headlines
35. Setting up a sitemap
36. Building and editing landing pages
37. Performing off-site optimization such as commenting on other blogs
38. Analyzing the SEO campaigns of competitors
39. Tracking the position of your content in search engines
40. Researching cutting edge SEO trends
41. Submitting content to directories
42. Handling social bookmarking
43. Monitoring site speed
44. Performing an occasional SEO audit
45. Keeping up with Google algorithm updates

Content marketing

Did you know that 72% of large organizations and 33% of small companies outsource their content creation?

Content marketing is my jam. I love it. I do it. And I’ve experienced incredible success with it.

As experienced as I am, I feel completely comfortable outsourcing numerous aspects of content marketing.

Let’s face it: content marketing takes serious time. As content marketing grows, you’ll discover there are more and more tasks you need to—but don’t have time to—do.

You’re left with a single choice: outsource or drown.

Here is what you can outsource:

46. Creating offsite content that links back to your website and blog
47. Interviewing sources
48. Finding statistics to add
49. Repurposing content, using a variety of mediums such as infographics, videos, slideshows and webinars
50. Creating and managing your editorial calendar
51. Establishing deadlines for content
52. Building spreadsheets for your editorial calendar
53. Backing up content in the Cloud
54. Finding and editing photos
55. Converting files
56. Working on increasing post engagement
57. Keeping track of your content marketing budget
58. Ensuring all content is mobile-friendly

You can learn more about the process of outsourcing content marketing on one of my previous posts. In it, I discuss some important questions to ask to ensure you get the most bang for your buck.

Analytics

Every good marketer makes decisions based on analytics.

But analytics can be tricky. You have to set up your analytics, configure the analytics, generate reports from your analytics, monitor these analytics, analyze the analytics, determine takeaways from the analytics, and then make strategic marketing decisions in light of these analytics.

Thankfully, there are parts of the analytics maze you can outsource:

59. Monitoring trends with traffic, acquisition, conversions, etc.
60. Spotting long-term patterns
61. Generating daily, weekly, and monthly reports
62. Analyzing engagement
63. Determining how cost-effective your marketing techniques are

Reputation Management

Knowing what the public perception of your business is at all times has never been more important than it is today. In fact, 97% of consumers say they read reviews about local businesses.

Due to the fact that reputation management can be inherently time-consuming, I’ve found outsourcing it to be a smart move:

64. Handling social listening across the web
65. Monitoring reviews on sites such as Yelp and Angie’s List
66. Getting consumer feedback
67. Paying attention to negative press
68. Responding to negative comments
69. Managing trolls

Email marketing

Email marketing matters more today than ever before.

As old-school as it sounds, email marketing is one of the best methods of attracting and retaining high-value leads for your B2B or B2C.

But, as with any area of marketing, things can get tricky here too. Why? Because it takes a lot of time to set up email, integrate it, create updates, format newsletters, and take care of the nitty-gritty of mailing lists and scheduling.

It’s one of the first things you should consider outsourcing:

70. Creating newsletters
71. Proofreading and editing emails
72. Sending out bulk emails
73. Responding to questions

WordPress

WordPress could be considered the universal blogging and publishing platform.

In fact, 26% of all websites on the planet use WordPress. If you run your site on it, you can make your life a lot simpler by outsourcing a few key tasks:

74. Monitoring and managing plugins
75. Installing new plugins
76. Providing WP support
77. Tweaking templates
78. Handling coding

Conclusion

We’re living in a globalized, digitized world with a surplus of professionals who can handle nearly every aspect of your marketing campaigns.

As a result, outsourcing many marketing tasks makes complete sense and has never been easier to do.

I’ve had a lot of success with outsourcing, and I know I’m not alone. Many of my industry colleagues and clients have told me the same thing. If it weren’t for outsourcing, they wouldn’t be in business!

Once you start outsourcing, amazing things will happen to your business.

You suddenly find yourself with more time to focus on high-level strategy. Instantly, you encounter new opportunities for growth and expansion. Your vision becomes clearer. You open up new channels of engagement. Things simply improve.

Outsourcing is a small move that starts the cascade of great benefits.

If you haven’t been taking advantage of outsourcing, I would recommend first identifying which tasks are hurting your efficiency and then hiring others to handle them.

Here’s my challenge: This week, outsource just one marketing task. That’s it!

Use Fiverr, Upwork, or Craigslist. Find someone who’s skilled. Give them a task. See what happens.

Have you outsourced any other areas of your marketing efforts that I didn’t cover?

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How to Minimize or Eliminate Many Repeated Household Buys

Many of the household supplies that we buy at the store are simply replacements for other things, often sold to us in a slightly altered form and advertised as being more “convenient” than “old fashioned” methods. However, the truth of the matter is that they’re mostly just more expensive and the “convenience” that they offer is minimal, if not nonexistent.

If you dig into the reality of many specific household product purchases, there are many smarter ways to get the same effect at a much lower cost. Here are some of my favorite strategies for minimizing or eliminating common household purchases.

Paper towels Sure, paper towels can be really useful for cleaning up a mess in a pinch, but once you use them, they’re gone. You toss them in the trash and before you know it, you’re replacing the roll. Replace a few rolls and before you know it, you’re headed back to the store.

A much better approach is to simply have a “rag drawer” in your kitchen. Grab a rag when you have a mess and you’ll find that it absorbs much better than a paper towel, works really well with soaps and the water from your sink, doesn’t fall apart while cleaning, and when you’re done, you just toss it in with the dirty clothes. Having a drawer full of rags is a perfect substitute for paper towel use and turns that recurring expense into a very rare one.

Paper plates Paper plates are a convenience many people turn to in situations where they’re serving a lot of people or serving outdoors, where more expensive and fragile ceramic or earthenware plates can easily be broken.

Instead of using paper plates, which hit the trash and can never be used again, buy a large bundle of plastic plates for those occasions. Bring them out for picnics and set out a bin for people to throw their dirty plates into, then just run them through the dishwasher. If you’re going on a picnic, you can stow a few plates in your basket for clean eating, too. You’ll never have to buy a stack of paper plates again.

Paper napkins Many people use paper napkins to clean fingers and faces after a meal or to help with minor spills or drink condensation. While a paper napkin can certainly handle such things, putting them out for every meal is a recurring expense.

Avoid that recurring expense by getting a handful of dark cloth napkins and using them for every meal. When you’re done, just toss them in the laundry. Sturdy cloth napkins last for hundreds of uses, completely eliminate the need for paper napkins, and actually look very classy on the dinner table. (One great strategy for keeping them clean is to keep a small laundry basket in the pantry to toss rags and napkins into after using them and then wash a bunch of them at once in a single load.)

Paper or plastic cups Again, these tend to be useful if you’re serving drinks to a lot of people, but again, they tend to end up just thrown away at the end of the event.

The simple approach, again, is to just buy a large quantity of plastic tumblers and keep them in storage for big events. After the tumblers are used, you can just run a bunch right through the dishwasher and drop them straight back into storage.

Window cleaner Many people buy bottles of window cleaner in order to clean all of the glass surfaces in their home. It works well in many cases, but do you know what works similarly well?

Vinegar.

Yep, humble white vinegar. When you run out of your current spray bottle of Windex, hang onto the bottle and then fill it with equal parts vinegar and water and then a drop or two of liquid dish soap, shaking it thoroughly to mix. You’ll find that this mixture does a wonderful job of cleaning windows hand in hand with a clean cloth. Plus, it’s far cheaper to just buy a giant jug of vinegar than to buy much smaller containers of window cleaner.

Laundry soap I’m often stunned at how expensive laundry soap is. Even the cheaper brands can cost as much as a quarter per load; more expensive options can reach half a dollar a load just for the cleaning substances. That’s ridiculously overpriced, considering that most of the things we wash really aren’t all that dirty to begin with. You don’t need heavy duty stuff to get a bit of sweat or a few marks of dirt out of a garment.

I’ve experimented with homemade laundry soap many times in the past and I’ve come to the conclusion that the best solution is a powder made of equal parts borax, washing soda, and soap flakes (which you can either buy as a box or bag of flakes or make yourself by grating a bar of ordinary soap). Just add a teaspoon of that mix to any load of laundry and it’ll come out wonderfully clean.

Laundry softener What about good old laundry softener? You add it to a special tray in your washer just before you wash your clothes (or else add a sheet to your dryer for the same effect) and your clothes theoretically come out wonderfully soft to the touch and wonderful to put on.

The thing is, you can actually soften your clothes quite well by doing the same thing with vinegar. Yep, humble white vinegar, again. Just add a capful of white vinegar to the softener slot on your washing machine and you’ll have very similar results to that expensive fabric softener. As with the window washing fluid above, you can easily just buy a giant container of vinegar for the same price as a small container of fabric softener and get almost the same effect.

Dish soap Dish soap is a wonderful thing. It takes away the grease and food particles that can coat our dishes and even help take off some of the hard burnt-on materials, leaving our dishes and silverware amazingly clean.

Of course, you can easily make your own. Just take four cups of water, bring it to a boil, add 3/4 cup soap flakes, stir it until the soap flakes are dissolved, add 1/4 cup washing soda and 2 teaspoons of glycerin, stir it some more, then add it slowly to an empty dish soap bottle when it’s just barely stopped boiling. Let it sit for 24 hours and you have some great dish soap. If you only have a small bottle, halve this recipe, and you may need to add a little more water depending on the type of soap that you use.

Again, if you buy the ingredients at the store, you’re going to have them in such tremendous bulk for this recipe that you won’t be buying any more for a long while and you won’t need to buy dish soap again, either.

Toilet paper One final strategy, one that might be way “out there” for some people in the United States, is to simply minimize or completely eliminate toilet paper use through the use of a bidet. A bidet is simply a device that provides cleanliness with targeted jets of water rather than with toilet paper and, speaking from experience, it actually works rather well. It’s just unfamiliar, since it’s a device that has never really caught on in the United States, though they are common in the rest of the world.

A bidet eliminates the vast, vast majority of toilet paper use, requiring only the tiniest bit for drying afterwards, as there is no real use for cleaning. Given that it only uses a very small amount of highly targeted water, there’s very little cost in using a bidet. Bidets are actually pretty easy to install on any toilet with a simple attachment that can be installed with a screwdriver and a few minutes of work; in fact, this specific model comes highly recommended for both installation and use.

Final Thoughts

Each of these strategies either entirely eliminates a common household purchase or else replaces it with another item or two that can be stretched to incredible lengths. In either event, your routine costs for household products will drop if you use any of these strategies, and the more of them you use, the lower your regular grocery store bills will become.

Good luck!

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Get FREE Popcorn This Sunday at AMC Theatres. Here’s How

It’s crunchy. It’s buttery. It’s lip-tinglingly salty.

No movie theater or Netflix experience is complete without it.

In fact, pretty much no life experience is complete without it. I’ll even admit to sometimes having it for dinner.

Yep, it’s popcorn. And yep, I’m a fangirl.

This Sunday, July 31, you can get a large bag of it at AMC — completely free.

Free Popcorn for AMC Stubs Members This Sunday

To celebrate the implementation of a new tier system in its Stubs Rewards program, AMC Theatres nationwide will hand out free large bags of popcorn to members.

If you’re not already enrolled, no worries: The “Insider” level of the Stubs program is completely free, and you can join it at the theater on Sunday.

Along with the already-totally-worthwhile instant gratification of free popcorn, enrolling in Stubs will help you save money at AMC in the future, too.

You’ll get free refills on any large popcorn order, reduced ticket prices and a free birthday gift in the form of — you guessed it — a large bag of popcorn.

If you’re a serious movie buff, you can upgrade your membership to the new “Premiere” level, whose $15 annual fee gets you more points per purchase, bigger freebies and rewards, and “premiere service” at the box office.

But even if you’re not big on cinema outings, you can take advantage of Sunday’s deal.

The press release doesn’t specify that a purchase is necessary, so you could conceivably walk in, get your free popcorn and leave, if the new “Star Trek” or “Bourne” movies don’t pique your interest.

Either way, you know where you’ll find me this Sunday — I’ve been itching to see the new “Ghostbusters.”

And since it’s free, no, I’m not sharing. You can get your own.

Your Turn: Will you take advantage of the free popcorn deal at AMC this weekend?

Jamie Cattanach is a staff writer at The Penny Hoarder. Her writing has also been featured at The Write Life, Word Riot and elsewhere. Find @JamieCattanach on Twitter to wave hello.

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