Pocono Mountain Harley-Davidson plans for move to Tannersville

Pocono Township will become the new home of the Pocono Mountain Harley-Davidson dealership in Snydersville, if its owners have their way.The Pocono Township Zoning Hearing Board voted to approve plans last week for a 31,800-square-foot, two-story building on Route 715 in Tannersville. The triangular, 2.5 acre property across the road from the entrance/exit to Interstate 80 is owned by Linda and Jim Schlier, who also own the Harley dealership. The Pocono Township property is [...]

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7 Things You Can Do With Unwanted Gift Cards

There’s an excellent chance that there are one or more gift cards among the gifts that you received for Christmas this year.

Certain very popular gift cards are probably welcome additions, since you know that you will use them.

But others, such as gift cards offered by specialty stores, might not ever be used by you or anyone in your family.

So what can you do with unwanted gift cards?

At this time of the year, that’s an important question. It has been estimated that there are $43 billion worth of unused gift cards that have been issued since 2008 alone.

Compounding that problem is the fact that some issuers charge annual inactivity fees, some terminate their gift card programs, and some issuers even go out of business. If any of those happen, the value of the gift card will be reduced or eliminated completely.

So that it doesn’t happen to you, here are seven things you can do with unwanted and unused gift cards.

1. Return the Gift Card to the Issuing Retailer

This is usually the preferred way to deal with unwanted gift cards. But the complication is that not all issuers make it easy to do.

Here are some of the possible outcomes of returning gift cards to the issuing retailer:

• The retailer may exchange the card for cash, but at a discounted rate. For example, the issuer may refund 90% or less of the face value of the card.
• The issuer they refuse to accept a return of the gift card unless you have the purchase receipt. This can be awkward anytime you are returning a gift, including a gift card.
• The issuer may provide an in-store credit, which will do you very little good if you don’t shop at their outlets in the first place.

Emma Johnson of WealthySingleMommy.com recommends that before you attempt to return a gift card to the issuer, that you first go back to the person who gave you the gift, and request the receipt. It will open up more options for you.

Failing that, she recommends that you investigate the issuers gift card return policy first.

“Check the return policy of the issuer before attempting a return,” Emma advises. “You can usually do this by going to the issuer’s website.”

2. Regift the Card

If you’re not satisfied with the refund policy offered by a particular gift card issuer, probably the easiest way to recover at least some of the value of the card is by regifting it to someone else.

Let’s say that someone gives you a gift card to T.J. Maxx, a store where you never shop. Regift the card to someone else, who may actually shop there.

Of course, this is not the same as recovering anything close to the value of the gift. But it will enable you to meet a gift obligation to someone else, without having to actually pay for the gift. You’ll be recovering money by not having to spend it on a future gift.

3. Donate the Gift Card to Charity

Even if you have no use for a certain gift card, a charity may be able to put it to good use. Instead of giving cash to a favorite charity, donate your unwanted gift cards. If you are going to give cash gifts anyway, the gift cards will represent a recovery of the value of the cards.

You can also get a more direct benefit in the form of a tax write-off. A gift card will be tax-deductible for the face amount of the card. If you have a combined federal and state marginal income tax rate of 35%, you’ll get a direct tax benefit of $35 on the donation of a $100 gift card.

4. Use the Gift Card to Purchase Items that You Can Sell

Just because you have no interest in the merchandise of a particular gift card issuer doesn’t mean that other people don’t. If there is no other way to redeem the gift card, consider buying one of the more popular items that the issuer sells. And once you have it, sell it on eBay, Amazon.com, or even Craigslist.

You won’t get anything close to the full value of the item you’re purchasing, but it will at least give you a chance to recover some of the value of the card.

5. Sell Your Unused Gift Cards for Cash

There are websites available that will enable you to sell your gift cards for something very close to its face value. One such site is Gift Card Granny. The site advertises that it will get you the highest price for your gift cards when you sell through the site. They also promise that they “only work with the most reputable resellers to provide top-notch service and prompt payment.”

Once on the site, you simply need to enter the merchant or store on your gift card to see which exchange site will offer you the most money. Just exactly how much you can sell a gift card for through the site will depend on the merchant (which determines the popularity of the card). For example, gift cards to a popular retailer like Target will fetch as much as $90 for a $100 card. But a $100 gift card to a much more highly specialized retailer, like Bass Pro Shops will get no more than $78.

Still another site where you can sell your unwanted gift cards is Cardpool.com. There you can sell hundreds of popular (and not so popular) gift cards, and providing you with the option to either redeem the proceeds by mail, or online.

The site advertises that the most popular gift cards can fetch as much as $92 (on a $100 gift card), which is seriously close to the full face value, and they offer free shipping too.

6. Use Gift Card Exchange Websites

Yet another advantage of using Cardpool.com is that they also do gift card exchanges. In fact there are several websites that now work exchanges, including CardCash, CardHub, Raise, and Junkcard.

On these sites, you can exchange or sell one gift card – that you won’t use – for one that you will. Since the discount fees associated with each card are different, you may end up paying a small fee in the exchange, or you can even earn a small amount if the gift card that you are offering comes with a smaller discount.

7. Sell or Exchange them with People You Know

One of the better aspects of unwanted gift cards is that probably everyone has at least a couple of them laying around. Send out emails to everyone in your social circle inviting them to do an exchange of your unwanted gift cards for any unwanted cards that they have.

It may be that others will have a similar inventory of the same unwanted cards, but you’ll never know until you ask. It only takes one person to make a match, and you can each recover the full amount of your unwanted gift cards, even if that involves the additional exchange of a small amount of cash.

Whatever you decide to do with your unwanted gift cards, the worst strategy of all is to simply put them away in the hope that you may one day use them. More likely, you’ll forget you have them, turning them into a complete waste of money. The best time to deal unwanted gift cards is always as soon as you receive them. The holidays are over, so take care of it now!

If you need some quick cash and have an unused gift card you need to sell, give CardPool.com a try.

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5 Top Personal Finance Books You Can Get for Less Than $1 on Amazon

One of the great things about Amazon is their a reseller program, which means the most popular books often are sold (used) for very cheap.

For this article, I picked out five of the best personal finance books you can get for less than a buck.

I wouldn’t say these are necessarily the five best financial books written, but they are all very popular and have proved themselves to be worth something – well over the price of a buck!

Just a quick disclaimer, at the time of this writing you could buy any of these books used on Amazon for under a buck. Yes, in order to get them that cheap you will be buying used books and their prices do fluctuate, so one day you could get it for 75 cents and the next day it might be 83 cents.

But either way, I can assure you it will be worth the money. And, as always, using the library to get books is a great idea as well!

1. Poor Richard’s Almanac

Poor Richard’s Almanac is the famous Benjamin Franklin classic. Because it was written hundreds of years ago, I assumed that most of the proverbs contained in it would no longer be relevant. I don’t think I could have been more wrong.

The beauty of this book is Ben Franklin distilled financial wit and wisdom into timeless proverbs that will continue to have value centuries from now.

While techniques and methods change, principles remain the same. This book focuses on the principles, which is why it has stood the test of time.

Learn more about Poor Richard’s Almanac.

2. Rich Dad, Poor Dad

This was one of the first financial books I read and it set me off on the journey to getting control of my money.

The book has been very controversial in the personal finance community because Kiyosaki, the author, more or less disagrees with all of the traditional views of “wise money management.” He has a very do-or-die mindset when it comes to finances.

Personally, I disagree with some key things that Kiyosaki preaches, but at the same time there are some lessons in this book that I think he hits the nail right on the head.

I mentioned in a recent book review that this one was one of the most impactful books I’ve ever read. Part of that was because it was the first book of its kind that I read, and part of it was the message contained in it.

Because I’m a kid from a working-class family, this book was helpful to me in breaking out of the “I will always be poor” mindset.

Find out more about Rich Dad, Poor Dad.

3. The Automatic Millionaire

This book was written by David Bach and is incredibly simple to understand. He did an excellent job of distilling the basics of investing for retirement into their simplest form.

The book occasionally gets criticized for being overly simplistic, but it was perfect for me when I was starting out, so I still have an affection for it.

The purpose of the book is to help the readers overcome the biggest challenge of reaching financial freedom – our lack of discipline. David lays out a good argument and gives simple step-by-step instructions on how to retire with a million dollars in the bank.

This was one of the books that made me realize this stuff really isn’t as difficult as some people make it seem.

Find out more about The Automatic Millionaire.

4. One Up on Wall Street

Just as David Bach simplified retirement investing in The Automatic Millionaire, Peter Lynch simplified stock picking in One Up on Wall Street.

Peter has become one of my investing heroes, alongside Warren Buffett. Both have had fantastic results with their funds.

In One Up on Wall Street, Peter lays out a convincing case as to why we everyday people have a better chance of beating the market than the “big boys” up on Wall Street. He talks about how some of his successful stock picks came from his wife’s suggestions after a trip to the grocery store.

I loved the book because it added a much needed element of common sense to the stock-picking process.

While he does lightly touch on some slightly more complex topics, the book is very readable, enjoyable, and worthwhile for the beginning stock investor.

5. The Millionaire Next Door

The bummer about reading a bunch of books on the same topic is that they start to run together in your brain! This book is a case of that for me.

The thing I remember most (I think) is that the authors analyzed the habits of a bunch of millionaires to see what the common threads were between them. If I recall correctly, this book pointed out that most millionaires actually do not live in “rock star” extravagance, but actually watch their finances very closely.

The overriding point of the book is that the primary factor in building wealth is to spend less than you earn!

Find out more about The Millionaire Next Door.

Your Turn: What are your favorite books about personal finance?

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.

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For-Profit Colleges Aren’t Worth the Price

As someone who keeps a close eye on trends within higher education and writes about them often, I was saddened but not surprised to hear that Dade Medical College of Florida had closed its doors. The school’s for-profit model was constantly embattled in controversy, and the local media had been gnawing at them for months with accusations of fraud, deception, and more.

Sadly, the school’s closure thrust thousands of students out in the cold when it comes to their educational aspirations, but not out of the woods when it comes to the thousands of dollars they borrowed to get to this point. And boy, were those students paying a lot.

Although the school has shuttered its doors, the National Center for Education still lists accurate tuition data. At its popular Miami campus, students shelled out an average of $47,813 per year for a wide range of associate’s and bachelor’s degrees rooted in the health care sector. While financial aid likely lessened the cost for the vast majority of students, this means students were on the hook to pay, borrow, or find financial aid to cover tens of thousands of dollars in tuition and fees each year.

And for what? Nursing degrees, physical therapy assisting degrees, and other health-care related fields that cost just a fraction if earned elsewhere. Worse, many of the degrees they offered were nearly useless, or at least only partially worth earning, given the limited value of a degree from an unaccredited school.

Yes, you read that right. As the Miami Herald notes, Dade Medical College lacked the appropriate accreditation for its graduates to perform certain job duties or become certified in their respective fields. That also means credits from the school can’t be transferred in many cases, “because Dade Medical College lacked the academic accreditation needed for most universities and colleges to accept the credits.” Current students were left saddled with unrecognized credits and very real student loan debt.

Some former students of fraudulent for-profit schools — notably Corinthian Colleges, Inc., which filed for bankruptcy in May — have been deemed eligible for debt relief by the U.S. Department of Education. But it remains to be seen whether students of Dade Medical College or other failed for-profit schools will receive similar treatment.

The whole situation is a sad mess for students, school officials, and the local community. What’s even sadder is it didn’t have to be this way. For every for-profit school in Florida – and in the nation – there are a handful of cheaper, public options practically begging for your dollars. But, will you listen?

Here’s How Much You Can Save by Avoiding For-Profit Schools

Especially in Florida, a public education is cheap to come by. At Valencia College in Orlando, for example, students can earn many of the same health care degrees – including an Associate of Science in Nursing – for tuition and fees that averaged just $2,474 per year for in-state students.

The story is similar at Eastern Florida State College, where students study a wide range of technical fields, including nursing, physical therapy assisting, computer technology, and even business administration, for an average in-state tuition of just $2,496 a year.

The College of Central Florida is yet another community college with insanely affordable tuition for those seeking a better life. In-state students pay just $2,570 per year to earn degrees in everything from nursing to public administration to supply chain management.

In total, Florida is home to 63 public, two-year community colleges, most with tuition and fees that may students could afford without student aid. The state boasts another 39 public colleges that offer four-year degrees, including Florida State University, where tuition and fees averaged out to just $6,507 for in-state students this year.

Why Do Students Choose For-Profit Schools?

At this point, you’re probably wondering why anyone would knowingly choose a for-profit school when so many other affordable options are available.

The key to understanding this phenomenon – and the underlying tragedy – is taking a closer look at the type of student these schools aim to enroll. Much of the time, for-profit schools are filled with desperate people who have been searching for their one chance to get ahead – single mothers, recent immigrants, and others who may lack upward mobility.

Mother Jones hit the nail on the head in a 2014 piece on for-profit colleges titled Subprime Students: How For-Profit Universities Make a Killing By Exploiting College Dreams. “Imagine corporations that intentionally target low-income single mothers as ideal customers,” it reads. “Imagine that these same companies claim to sell tickets to the American dream—gainful employment, the chance for a middle class life. Imagine that the fine print on these tickets, once purchased, reveals them to be little more than debt contracts, profitable to the corporation’s investors, but disastrous for its customers.”

Loose enrollment requirements and the predatory nature of for-profit schools are the biggest reasons students continue to flock to for-profit schools despite their lingering bad reputations. Sadly, this is the abhorrent business model of most for-profit colleges. Since many have such dismal records they cannot use them as a recruiting tool, they prey on the weak and vulnerable with the biggest dreams to find their ideal student.

Dade Medical College did the same, even going as far as enrolling immigrants who don’t yet know the language – in other words, anything for the almighty dollar. Ernesto Perez, Sr., father of Dade Medical’s disgraced majority owner, spins it as a positive, however.

“Perez Sr. defended his son and the college,” writes the Miami Herald. “He said the college enrolls everyone — even recent immigrants who may be learning English. He said those student demographics, and the fact that many students work and have families, contributed to the school’s low passage rates on license exams.”

In his eyes, it seems the school was doing all of their students a favor. Sadly, this “favor” came at a huge financial cost to those who could afford it the least. Are we supposed to say thanks?

Do Your Research and Save Your Money

Although Dade Medical College brought Florida into the spotlight, these cost disparities and for-profit schools exist all over the country. A recent International Business Times article highlighted how ITT Technical Institute is in hot water over similar practices, and Le Cordon Bleu, a for-profit chain of culinary schools is shutting its doors due to new government standards it simply cannot meet. In every state across the nation, someone is sitting and waiting to siphon your money and rob you of your dreams.

The story is the same in my home state of Indiana. At MedTech College near my home, average tuition and fees run a cool $44,100 for programs that include an Associate of Applied Science in Practical Nursing, a Clinical Laboratory Assistant Diploma, or an Associate of Applied Science in Medical Assisting. Nearby, however, I could earn all of the same degrees at Ivy Tech Community College for in-state tuition and fees of just $4,055.

At the end of the day, it’s up to us to sniff out these predatory schools. Just like we need to know how much we’re paying for our groceries and mortgage, we need to understand how much a school will cost before we sign on the dotted line. And if you’re a parent of a child who will attend college one day, it is your duty to help them avoid an educational tragedy like the one students from Dade Medical College face today.

Fortunately, the government offers a few easy-to-use websites that are helpful in this front, including the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), which boasts colorful data on everything from average tuition to graduation rates for all schools registered in the U.S.

If you want to know how much you’ll pay, you only need to look. For-profit schools are only part of the problem; as an unwitting public, we are an accomplice.

Would you ever attend a for-profit school? How do you plan to steer your children toward more affordable options when it comes to higher education?

Related Articles:

• Top 10 States for College Affordability
• Why I Sometimes Regret Choosing Harvard over Community College
• 20 Colleges Well Worth the Money
• Most Affordable Online Colleges for 2016

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Don’t Spend Your Whole Paycheck on Healthy Food. Here’s How to Eat Well on a Budget

If you’re a vegetarian, like my wife and I, you know buying plant-based food can get expensive.

But even if you’re not a vegetarian, healthy food in general can cost a lot. Especially if you want to eat more organic items or at least lower your processed food intake.

Online lists of cheap healthy food can help you out. For example, a list of inexpensive superfoods in Eating Well Magazine includes lentils at 15 cents per serving and tuna at 48 cents per serving. On SparkPeople, dietitian Becky Hand lists dozens of cheap, healthy foods you can prepare in minutes

But where are the best places to buy these foods? And what strategies can you use to get the lowest prices on healthy foods?

Strategies to Buy Cheap, Healthy Food

Sure, some healthy foods are cheaper than others. But who wants to eat beans and rice all the time?

To buy other healthy foods inexpensively you can shop at the right places — and we’ll get to that — but you can also adopt a few key strategies.

Stock up When Prices Drop

When they do the two-for-one sales on almonds at CVS stores, I buy the limit. You can do the same with any healthy foods that store well.

Buy Frozen Foods

Grocery store frozen food departments have some of the unhealthiest foods you can buy. But there is a small, mostly forgotten section with plain fruits and vegetables.

More than one study has shown they’re often more nutritious than their “fresh” counterparts, in part because they’re flash-frozen right out of the field, rather than transported for days while they deteriorate.

They’re also often cheaper, especially during the off-season.

Be an Opportunistic Eater

If you’re open to eating a wide variety of healthy foods without having a meal plan set in stone, just buy what’s on sale. This week that might be oranges; next week it could be apples.

If, from among the many healthy foods available, you buy mostly what’s on sale, you’ll have a wide variety of food and dramatically cut your overall grocery budget.

Buy in Season

When corn on the cob is in season, the price often drops by 75%. That’s when we buy.

This is another form of opportunistic eating. If you buy things in season, you also get an added advantage: fresher, healthier food.

Places to Buy Cheap, Healthy Food

I saw a loaf of bread for $12 at a health food store the other day. Yikes!

I buy our whole-wheat bread for 99 cents. There are always cheaper places to buy your food if you look. Here are some examples.

Bread Stores

Many towns have a discount bread store, and most of them carry whole wheat and other healthy products. These places carry products that are often (but not always) closer to expiration than in regular grocery stores, so check that date.

We buy several loaves at a time and freeze them. They thaw out fine, with no noticeable difference in taste.

Farmers Markets

The prices at farmers markets are often substantially below the prices in nearby grocery stores. Plus you get fresher, healthier food.

“Fresh” apples in a grocery store are typically a year old, while at a true farmers market they’re picked shortly before being sold.

Trader Joe’s

I buy sunflower seeds (raw and roasted) for $1.99 per pound at Trader Joe’s. That’s cheaper than everyplace else around here, including Walmart.

Trader Joe’s carries many cheap healthy foods, including cheese from grass-fed cows for half of what you would pay elsewhere.

Walmart

You can always get inexpensive fruits and vegetables at Walmart Supercenters or Walmart Neighborhood Markets — even organic.

It may take a bit of searching and label-reading to find all the other healthy foods in Walmart, but count on low prices.

Publix

I’ve found some items priced 100% higher than identical items at Walmart. On the other hand, there are healthy foods that cost just 20% more.

And when Publix has them as part of its weekly buy-one-get-one-free sales, the net savings is 40% versus buying at Walmart.

Aldi

I thought Walmart was cheap until an Aldi store opened near us. This unique chain has more than 1,400 stores in the U.S.

To keep costs down, they don’t take credit cards (debit cards are OK), there are no free bags (bring your own or buy reusable ones), and they charge 25 cents for a cart (which you get back when you return it).

Watch for one-time special offers on healthy foods at Aldi. For example, here are some of my purchases in the last month or so:

• Grass-fed cheese (8 ounces): $2
• Avocados: $0.25
• Mushrooms (8 ounces): $0.25
• Large seedless watermelon: $1.99
• Whole wheat bread: $0.25

Yes, you read that right — and there were other deals too. Aldi usually has at least one produce item priced unusually low every week.

One More Trick for Cheap, Healthy Food

If you like to get outdoors and explore the woods, you can do better than inexpensive; you can find free healthy food by foraging.

My wife and I load up on oranges from trees gone wild near us, and we went blueberry picking five times this year. We’ve eaten and collected as many as a dozen different foods on one hike.

FallingFruit.org has a great search tool for locating wild edibles near you.

Your Turn: Where do you go and what strategies do you use to find cheap healthy food?

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).

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