Stock markets around the world got another jolt Thursday after China halted trading following another big plunge.
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الخميس، 7 يناير 2016
China Stock Plunge Spooks Global Markets Again
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Carrabba’s is Giving Away One Million Free Meals Next Week. Here’s How to Score Yours
Is there anything better than Italian food? Pizza, pasta, Chianti, gelato? I certainly don’t think so.
And I just found out about a way you can get some yummy Italian grub… for FREE.
Here’s how to get your pasta on…
How to Get a Free Dish at Carrabba’s Italian Grill
To promote its new menu, Carrabba’s Italian Grill is giving away one million dishes.
For your free dish, all you have to do is enter its giveaway, which runs from 8 p.m. EST on Monday, Jan. 11 to 11:59 p.m. EST on Thursday, Jan. 14.
Carrabba’s will email the first one million registrants a voucher for a free small plate, appetizer or entree.
To sweeten the deal, Carrabba’s is also offering a 20% discount off your entire check when you dine at the restaurant between Jan. 12 and March 6. Click here to sign up for its email newsletter and get your coupon.
As with all free food promotions, remember to tip on the amount of your bill before the discount is applied — that way, your server will be properly compensated.
Though the free food giveaway hasn’t opened yet, you can register to receive an email when it does. (That’s what I did, so I don’t forget and miss the deadline!)
To get on the list, click here and enter your email address.
‘Cuz the only thing better than Italian food? Free Italian food.
Your Turn: Are you going to enter this giveaway?
Susan Shain, senior writer for The Penny Hoarder, is always seeking adventure on a budget. Visit her blog at susanshain.com, or say hi on Twitter @susan_shain.
The post Carrabba’s is Giving Away One Million Free Meals Next Week. Here’s How to Score Yours appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.
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Want a High-Paying Career and No Student Loan Debt? Try This Alternative to College
Excited to kickstart your career, but dreading the thought of student loans? Believe it or not, there is another way to learn.
Apprenticeships.
It might sound like something out of the Middle Ages, but an apprenticeship is still a legitimate route to a well-paying career. In fact, the Obama administration recently allocated $100 million in grant money to expand apprenticeship programs in the United States.
And the best part? Not only do apprenticeships require zero student loans — they actually pay you to complete your training.
Personal finance blog Get Rich Slowly (GRS) shared a ton of awesome information about apprenticeships in a recent post. Here’s what we learned…
How to Get an Apprenticeship
There are two main types of apprenticeships, according to GRS: trade and academic.
In a trade apprenticeship, you learn the skills necessary to become an auto mechanic, carpenter, construction worker, electrician, plumber, etc.
Once you’re certified, these skilled trades pay well. The median annual wage for a plumber, for example, is $49,140, GRS reports. And, even better, Registered Apprentices earn an average of $15 per hour, or $31,200 per year for full-time work.
In an academic apprenticeship, you blend training with a degree program. Many of these types of apprenticeships are available in “high-skilled, high-growth industries like healthcare, biotechnology, information technology and advanced manufacturing,” according to GRS.
If you’re interested in pursuing an apprenticeship, GRS offers several tips:
- Get in touch with the organization or union for the trade you’re interested in learning.
- Search the Department of Labor’s apprenticeship database.
- If you’re already in school, ask your career office about apprenticeship opportunities.
Want to learn more about apprenticeships? Head over to Get Rich Slowly.
Your Turn: Have you considered an apprenticeship?
Susan Shain, senior writer for The Penny Hoarder, is always seeking adventure on a budget. Visit her blog at susanshain.com, or say hi on Twitter @susan_shain.
The post Want a High-Paying Career and No Student Loan Debt? Try This Alternative to College appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.
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If You Want to Win Millions in the Lottery, Stop Playing Your Lucky Numbers
The Powerball has reached epic proportions. Since no one won last night, the jackpot has rolled over to an estimated $675 million — the largest in lottery history.
If you want your shot at the prize, you’ll need to purchase a ticket between now and 10:59 pm E.S.T. on Saturday, Jan. 9, when the next set of winning numbers will be drawn.
Though we generally advise against playing the lottery (invest your money instead!), we have a tip for those of you who are going to buy a ticket…
When the cashier asks if you have specific numbers you’d like to choose, you might be tempted say what you always say: Your birthday. Or your anniversary. Or your “lucky” numbers.
Every number has the same chance of winning — so you might as well pick numbers that mean something to you, right?
As it turns out, no. You should put all sentimentality aside and just let the computer pick.
Why Your Anniversary Won’t Help You Get Rich
Though the numbers don’t affect your probability of winning, they do affect your probability of having to divide your winnings, explains Jo Craven McGinty in The Wall Street Journal.
“Any combination of numbers is equally likely to win, but people tend to choose some numbers and combinations more frequently than others, increasing the likelihood that different people will end up with the same picks,” writes McGinty.
And the more people with the same picks, the more people with whom you have to share your winnings — and the less cash you’ll actually take home.
Though the data is based on a study of the Dutch Lotto, McGinty also shares two examples to illustrate her point:
In 2011, four numbers featured on the TV show “Lost” were picked in the Mega Millions lottery; since these were popular numbers, more than 40,000 winners came forward. Each of them won $150.
Compare that to the Michigan woman who let the computer pick random numbers for her: She was recently the sole winner of a $310.5 million Powerball lottery.
“If the aim is to vie for the maximum payout, the best strategy is to let the lottery’s computer generate a random combination of numbers that is less likely to be duplicated by lots of other players,” writes McGinty.
As special as it may be to use your anniversary and kids’ birthdays every time you play the lottery, wouldn’t it be even more special if you came home with an extra $300 million?
Your Turn: Do you always play the same lotto numbers? Now that you’ve read this, will you change your ways?
Susan Shain, senior writer for The Penny Hoarder, is always seeking adventure on a budget. Visit her blog at susanshain.com, or say hi on Twitter @susan_shain.
The post If You Want to Win Millions in the Lottery, Stop Playing Your Lucky Numbers appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.
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A Pillow Inside a Hoodie: The $200K Idea You Wish You’d Thought of First
Ever have one of those “how did I not think of this first” moments?
Get ready for another one: This guy made $200,000 by inventing something you’ve always wanted, even if you didn’t know you did.
Plus, it all started with something you already have in your closet.
Hypnos: The Sweater That Lets You Sleep Anywhere
Josh Woodle is the mind behind Hypnos, a sweatshirt with an inflatable pillow hidden in its hood.
Designed for the travelers among us who are just a tad too fashion-conscious (or chilly!) to go for the traditional flight pillow, Hypnos makes sleep accessible anywhere.
It’s a pretty great idea, right? Apparently, lots of people agree: Although Woodle set his Kickstarter goal to $30,000, he’s already earned more than $200K from over 2,300 backers. He may well break the $300,000 mark — ten times his original goal — before the campaign ends next week.
Simple Concept, Big Money
Having spent a lot of time knocking at the gates of the land of nod on airplanes, we here at The Penny Hoarder HQ were all struck by the same thought when we saw the headline: How has this not been invented already?
Better yet, why didn’t we come up with it first, so we could have a slice of that sweet $200,000 pie?
Lesson learned: If you think just a little bit outside of the box and engineer a quality product that fills a nigh-universal need, there’s a good chance cash will come your way.
Don’t be afraid to follow your ideas — even the ones your friends call “crazy”!
Go for a Nap?
If you want to back the project, you have four more days to get your own sleep hoodie — although the first two levels have already sold out, so you’ll need to spend at least $69.
Then, take advantage of your new sleep-anywhere abilities… to dream up your own moneymaking idea.
Your Turn: What crazy invention might help you earn in 2016?
Jamie Cattanach (@jamiecattanach) is a junior writer at The Penny Hoarder. She also writes other stuff, like wine reviews and poems.
The post A Pillow Inside a Hoodie: The $200K Idea You Wish You’d Thought of First appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.
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Money and Being an Introvert
A few days ago, I was leafing through my journal for 2015 and thinking about some of the best things that I did during the year.
It was easy to identify some of the great moments. I fondly remember our family camping trip to Wisconsin. I will never forget how ecstatic I was to watch my daughter finally recovering from her illnesses and surgery in the fall, a process that took months. I remember a road trip that I got to take with one of my closest friends near the end of November.
However, when I really started thinking about the best memories of the year, I started remembering some other things, too.
I remembered a day that my family spent at a state park with some friends, where we had lunch and went exploring with another family. People laughed and got their feet wet and one person even fell in a stream and got soaked.
I remembered a gorgeous summer day at a community festival where we ran into some friends we hadn’t seen in a very long time and wound up camped out under a tree catching up on things as our children played together.
I remembered a few of the best community board game nights that I attended, where I had the chance to have fun, think, and laugh for hours in the company of friends old and new.
I remembered countless moments at home with my family, mostly doing simple things. I remembered playing board games with them and marveling at my daughter’s constantly powerful intuition about whether to take a risk or not. I remembered practicing with my oldest son so that he could be a better soccer goalie, kicking balls into the net over and over again as he tried to stop them until there were actually patterns worn into the grass.
Those things all brought me lasting joy and happiness. They were all things that I remembered almost a year later.
What was interesting, though, is what I didn’t remember. I didn’t have a single memory of burning time while twiddling on my smartphone. I didn’t have a single memory of playing electronic games of any kind. I had one single memory of a television show I watched and I could recall only one movie that I saw with any fondness. (In fact, the only other solitary hobby or entertainment that I had memories of at all was of my feelings after reading a few books and after completing some online courses, which kind of amounted to similar things.)
Those things just filled up time. They didn’t bring me any lasting joy or happiness.
All of these things led me to an interesting conclusion from the last year: when I engaged in things with other people, I was more likely to do something that was memorable and likely to bring me joy than if I just did something alone.
This is an interesting revelation for me because I’m a pretty strong introvert. Given a choice between a social situation or a solitary situation, my natural intuition is to choose the solitary one. I’m much more comfortable spending my free time playing a computer game by myself or reading a book.
Yet, with the exception of a few memories of learning new things, almost all of my great memories from the year revolve around spending time with other people. They involve social situations.
The Money Connection
This might seem like an interesting revelation to some of you, but it doesn’t seem on the surface to have much of a connection to money at all. How does this help a person’s finances?
First of all, let’s step back and look at the good memories from the year.
The first one was a camping trip to Wisconsin. A car camping trip is a pretty inexpensive family vacation, yet I recalled it fondly. Why? It was time spent with my family doing fun things together.
The second one was my daughter’s recovery from her health crisis in the fall of this year. Probably my best single memory of the year was when she went trick-or-treating on Halloween, because that was the first “normal” kid thing she’d been healthy enough to do in two months. Again, it was a low-cost event, as she had a very simple costume on and just wandered through the neighborhood.
The third one was a road trip with a friend, where we split the cost of gas along the way. Having him a long simultaneously made it memorable and also made it much less expensive.
The fourth one was a day at a state park where we ate a picnic lunch and enjoyed the free resources there.
The fifth one also involved a family picnic lunch while out and about at that community festival. The biggest expense I can recall from that day was my wife buying a woven rug from a vendor.
The sixth one involved a free community game night where I mostly played other people’s games. Quite often, the people at those games collectively order food, making it cheap for everyone involved.
The last set of memories all occurred at home and none of them really involved buying anything or paying for any experiences. They just involved spending time together.
The things I didn’t remember? A lot of them involved expenses. I didn’t remember any of the meals we had eaten out for the entire year. I didn’t remember any of the computer games I’d bought and played with. I didn’t remember hardly any of the television programs (from a cable subscription) or movies (from theater trips or DVD/Bluray rentals or purchases) that I watched.
This whole realization has brought me to a few interesting conclusions about how I spend my money and how that connects to my social choices.
Thought #1 – When I Do Things with Others, Those Things Tend To Be Relatively Cheap
When I look at the social activities that I actually remember from the past year, most of them are actually relatively inexpensive things. Those memories tend to revolve much more around the people and the actual experience than the specific thing that we’re doing and when I look a little closer, I realize that the thing we’re doing is pretty inexpensive, too.
I think there are two key reasons for this.
First, in a group setting, we can share resources. Carpooling is a great example of this. So are pot luck dinners. So are community board game nights. If you’re in a group environment where everyone contributes a little, the cost per person drops significantly.
In a group setting, we can provide the entertainment for each other. Conversation is a big part of this, but there are all kinds of free group activities that provide entertainment for all – games, sports, crafting, and so on. Conversation isn’t something you can pull off alone and many low-cost games and sports and other activities don’t work solo, either.
Part of this, of course, has to do with the social activities I choose to do, something I’ll address a bit further on in the article, but there’s no denying that many, many social activities are free, low cost, or have some financial benefit from doing them as a group.
There’s another benefit to social experiences as well – collective thought and shared experiences can save money, too. I’m constantly getting tips and ideas from my friends about better ways to do things, ways to spend less money, and so forth. If you pay attention, other people are a constant source of good ideas for how to do things better yourself.
Another benefit is that you’re establishing relationships with other people in the community that can be very useful later on. We have close friends nearby that are also parents, so there have been times when we have watched each others’ children for free. I’ve had friends come over to help us move.
Thought #2 – When I Do Things Alone, Those Things Tend To Be Relatively Expensive
On the other hand, the activities that I do by myself generally have some kind of significant cost to them. After all, solo activities require something in addition to yourself to pull off and that something else has some kind of cost, whether it’s money or time or energy.
I boil this down to two key elements.
First, in a solo setting, I either have to entertain myself or find/buy sources of entertainment. Sure, I can entertain myself with nothing else for a while, but I’ll probably at least need a little equipment for that. Eventually, I’ll likely end up buying sources of entertainment, whether it’s a cable subscription or buying a movie or a video game or something else. That’s a real expense, one that doesn’t have to exist if you have someone else to entertain you. Conversation is free, after all.
In a solo setting, I have to procure my own resources. If I go on a trip by myself, I have to pay for the gas entirely by myself. If I go with others, we can split the costs. If I have interest in playing five games and I’m doing it solo (say it’s computer games), I have to buy them all. If I have interest in playing five games and I’m in a community game group, I might have to buy one of them. There’s no need to even talk about things like food – cooperating is just a huge money saver there. Sharing resources saves a ton of money.
Thought #3 – Being an Introvert Pushes Me Toward Doing Things Alone, But Those Things Aren’t Often Memorable
I enjoy doing solitaire activities, but part of that is for the sake of those things being solitaire. Sometimes, I find social situations to be a bit stressful and tiring because, like many introverted people, I often don’t know what I should be saying and I burn a lot of mental energy trying to figure out what I should be saying or doing. (Extroverts seem to come by this completely naturally.) That energy cost and stress is often a big reason why I end up choosing solo activities when I could be doing something social.
The thing is, many of the things I choose to do when I’m by myself simply aren’t memorable. I find reading challenging books and learning things to be fairly memorable. I also find the outcomes of some of the solitaire things that I do to be memorable, meaning that I enjoy things like homebrewing and organizing game components, but it’s the experience of sharing that beer or going to homebrewers meetings or playing those games with friends that ends up being fun. Aside from that, almost everything else I do solo amounts to burning time.
It’s that sense of “burning time” that I find to be problematic. I view “burning time” as doing something that I mildly enjoy but that I will forget about not long after I do it and I’ll never think about it again. To me, “burning time” is about the worst possible way to spend my time. It’s forgettable, it’s only mildly entertaining, and it doesn’t build into anything better.
Other Costs of Being Social
I found these thoughts to be really interesting, so I spent some time talking them over with Sarah and with a couple of my other closest friends. One of my friends made a very good point, which I’ll share here.
“A lot of people who do things with friends go out with them and that’s never cheap. Going out for a day of shopping or going to dinner or a movie or a club costs a lot of money. Other people also encourage you to spend more by talking about stuff they want and encouraging your own wants.”
That’s absolutely true, but many of those things are things I could choose to do if I were going solo, too. I could go to a club by myself, but if I drove there solo, it’s still more expensive than a carload of us going there together. Dinner and a movie might be the same price, but rather than buying a drink for myself at the movie I’d probably split one with my wife if we went together, and that makes it cheaper. I could go shopping by myself for a day if I wanted to and the transportation costs would be entirely on me rather than being split up.
The real issue that’s being discussed here is whether or not social pressures encourage us to choose more expensive activities than we might do on our own.
The other half of the equation is whether or not social experiences encourage us to have more expensive tastes. In that case, I think it has a lot to do with who you hang out with. I have friends that certainly have expensive tastes and if I hang out with them a lot, I become more tempted to spend money. On the other hand, most of my friends have very modest tastes and when I spend time around them, living inexpensively feels much more normal. It’s true – you are the average of the five people you spend the most time with, as Jim Rohn once said.
The Take-Home
So, what are the take home messages in all of this?
First, in my experience, doing things with others is less expensive than doing things alone. The biggest reason for this is leverage – a larger group can often reduce shared costs – and when you add into that the ability for people to entertain others through conversation and other means, it becomes clear that social situations can save significant money. Furthermore, social activities come with the ability to build relationships, which can contribute value to your life.
Second, in my experience, doing things with others has a higher likelihood of being a memorable and worthwhile experience. This is due to the fact that not only are you doing something interesting that you likely enjoy, but you’re sharing it with other people who can also be a part of that memory. There are more elements present to create something that actually sticks with you.
Third, even knowing this, my natural inclination is to choose the solo activity. I’m not alone in this – it’s called being an introvert.
So, how does an introvert move more in the direction of more social activities to enjoy the benefits (financial and otherwise) that they provide? Over the last few years, I’ve really been striving to do this and here’s what I’ve learned.
First, keep your home in neat enough shape so that you don’t mind people stopping by or inviting them over at a moment’s notice. This allows you to use your home as a social meeting point, which means that you’re going to spend a lot less money when doing something social. Even if you decide to go out, having a neat enough home for guests at least leaves that option open.
Thus, for me, housecleaning becomes a bit of a frugal endeavor. If I know the living room and dining room and kitchen are clean, I don’t hesitate to invite people over. If things are a mess… I hesitate, which means that I’m simultaneously less likely to do something social and also more likely, if I do something, to do it outside of the home. Both are potentially more expensive, for the reasons described above.
Second, when you’re bored and considering a solitary activity, either choose one that’s genuinely fulfilling, do something social, or get some rest. For example, in my own solitaire free time, I’m choosing more and more to either read a book or do some preparatory stuff for something that might be social later on, like learning a board game or making homebrewed beer. I find those things fulfilling, either personally or because they lead to a fulfilling social activity. On the other hand, I could choose to find a social activity of some kind by calling or texting a friend and seeing if I can arrange something or doing something with my own family. Admittedly, this is hard for me, as I’m an introvert and prefer to be alone by default.
If those things sound too “tiring,” then the best option is to simply go to bed. I’ve learned over the years that time spent in a half-awake state doing something like watching television does a complete disservice to the following day. You’re depriving yourself of sleep that will make tomorrow easier to handle and not doing anything of any lasting value along the way. Plus, you’re burning energy – the television is on, the lights are on, and those things gobble the juice.
Third, choose to interact socially with people who share at least some of your own values. That doesn’t mean it’s a good option to surround yourself solely with like-minded people – in fact, I consider that a bad thing. What I mean by that is that it’s a good idea to seek out friends who aren’t as interested in filling their social time with expensive activities. If hanging out with a person means regularly paying an entry fee at an event or going to an expensive restaurant or playing golf, then that friendship is financially expensive for you and probably reinforces ideas about spending money that you don’t need. Along those same lines, friends who mostly want to talk about buying things and having more possessions, then those people are going to reinforce an expensive lifestyle for you, while the reverse is also true – frugal friends encourage your frugality.
The key thing to remember is that being social comes with a lot of subtle benefits that can help you financially. If you’re an introvert, actively working to come out of that shell a little more and interacting with people who share frugal values with you will do nothing but help.
Good luck!
The post Money and Being an Introvert appeared first on The Simple Dollar.
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Who Knew You Could Make Money Doing THAT? 52 Super Weird Ideas to Inspire You
I’ve written about hundreds of interesting and strange ways to make money.
Previous TPH posts have covered starting a headstone cleaning business, working as a restaurant cliff diver, and strange jewelry you can sell (like bird poop earrings!).
Our posts also include lists of the strangest things ever sold and bizarre businesses (with more here and here).
As we start a new year and consider how to bring in extra cash, it’s time once more to look at weird ways to make money.
Some of the following ideas might be worth trying if you’re looking for another source of income. Others, well, let’s just say they make for interesting reading.
So for entertainment or entrepreneurial inspiration, here are some weird ways to make money you might want to consider…
1. Sell Jellyfish
Jellyfish may not be the cuddliest pets, but there is a market for them, and they’re not cheap.
In fact, the least-expensive kit on JellyFishArt.com costs $330. For that, a customer gets one jellyfish, a small tank, and enough food to last for three months.
What other aquatic life could you sell? If you’re thinking of being the first to sell pet oysters, you’re too late.
2. Communicate With Dead Pets
As a medium, you help clients connect with people who have passed away.
But psychic Lisa Miller says, “Animals, both living and deceased, are eager to connect also!” An hour-long phone consultation costs $125, but Miller offers clients a $25 discount if they submit a testimonial to BestPsychicDirectory.com.
If you’re already considering our first money-maker and you’re psychic, you could offer afterlife communication with deceased jellyfish for owners who buy from you.
3. Win Cash as a Professional Eater
If you’ve seen eating contests on TV, you may have wondered if you could make a living with this “sport.”
Maybe. Just look at the list of upcoming events on MajorLeagueEating.com, and check out the list of competitive eaters on Wikipedia. Several have won more than $100,000 in prize money.
Boil 50 eggs or hotdogs and start practicing (on second thought, that sounds too dangerous).
4. Become a Professional Weight Loser
After you end your competitive eating career, you can win big money betting on your weight loss with Healthy Wage.
Your potential prize money depends on how much you bet and your personal data. Healthy Wage explains, “We give bigger prizes to people who statistically have a harder time losing weight.” At the moment, the maximum prize is $10,000.
5. Paint Dumpsters
There are two kinds of dumpster painters. Industrial painters like Noll’s Dumpster Painting in Pennsylvania and Container Painting Repair in Maryland show up on business data sites like Buzzfile.com and Manta.com.
But maybe you prefer to join the ranks of “true” artists, who are sometimes paid to paint murals on dumpsters.
6. Review “Sensitive Content” for Google
Somebody has to check out questionable YouTube videos. One man, profiled on BuzzFeed, had to watch “sensitive content,” videos which included pornography, suicide and bestiality. He worked alone — and eventually needed therapy.
After a year as a contractor for Google, he had to either be let go or hired full-time. They let him go and suggested he get further therapy. On second thought, maybe you’ll want to pass on this one.
7. Become a Lice Removal Technician
As a lice removal technician, you can make $30 per hour plus travel expenses, according to a Craigslist posting by LiceDoctors.
You’ll be an independent contractor, but Lice Doctors will train you in how to use their “all-natural 100-percent-effective” methods. You’ll need to make house calls, and you’ll spend up to five hours on each one.
8. Get Paid for Your Sperm
A recent posting for a sperm donor on Simply Hired had these very specific requirements:
- GPA of at least 3.4
- Considered very attractive and athletic
- 5’10 or greater
- Have blood type: A+, A-, O+ or O-
- Attend a 4 year college or hold Bachelor’s degree (or greater)
- At least 50% Italian (Southern Italian/Sicilian a plus)
- Have had only female sexual partners
- Be able to substantiate the above
- Interest in football, mathematics and history added plus
If you met the requirements, you could have received $6,000 and a promise that, “there would be complete confidentiality involved and you would be legally absolved of any on-going responsibilities.”
9. Get Paid to Wear T-Shirts
Jason Zook (formerly Jason Sadler, Jason Headsetsdotcom, and Jason SurfrApp) made money wearing promotional T-shirts for clients. On his website, IWearYourShirt.com, he says he worked with over 1,600 companies and organizations.
He has since moved on to other marketing projects, so maybe there’s room for someone to start another T-shirt-wearing service.
10. Trade Your Way to Riches
Montreal resident Kyle MacDonald turned a paperclip into a house through a series of trades.
The basic idea was to keep trading up for something of more value. MacDonald traded his red paperclip for a fish-shaped pen, which he traded for a fancy doorknob, which he traded for a camping stove, and so on, until, less than a year later, he had traded up to a house.
Do you have a paperclip?
11. Give Away a Book
After buying a beautiful house for $17,500, I wrote an ebook on how to buy cheap homes. Sales were almost non-existent, so I put the chapters on a website and gave the book away by email, with a link to a new chapter each week. The website made over $100 monthly from Google AdSense for years.
That’s just one way you can make money giving away books.
12. Sell Your Friendship
I previously reported on how to rent your friendship, and RentAFriend.com still claims you can make up to $50 per hour on their platform, plus get free meals, concert tickets and more.
And don’t worry; RentAFriend.com says it’s “solely a platonic friendship website only.”
13. Sell Pet Rocks
Of course, you might be infringing on a trademark if you try to sell your own, so invent the next best-selling gimmicky gift. For example, a “pet hat” might be more cuddly and functional.
14. Sell Effigies
In Ecuador, people celebrate New Year’s Eve by burning effigies. Street vendors sell thousands of effigies of politicians and cartoon characters; my wife and I bought a Bart Simpson to burn when we were there.
The burning of effigies has more negative connotations in the U.S., which is why there might be a market for political effigies any time of the year.
15. Sell Weird Toilet Paper
The weirdest toilet papers include rolls printed with games, camouflage designs and bright colors.
Maybe there’s room in this market for more products, like toilet paper printed with household tips and other reading material.
16. Be a Muppet Social Media Manager
As previously reported on The Penny Hoarder, someone gets paid to tweet for Miss Piggy and post on Facebook for Kermit the Frog.
Which other fictional characters might need you as a social media manager?
17. Manage Facebook Pages for the Dead
Now that Facebook allows users to designate a “legacy contact” to manage their pages after they die, there might be a market for providing this service.
There’s no sign of these businesses popping up yet, but if you’re already a social media manager, you could add this service to your offerings.
18. Rent Your Shed
I once built a shed for $200 and rented it out as a bedroom for $200 per month. It’s not that unusual; I lived in it for a while so I could collect more rent from the rooms inside the house, and The Tiny Life has discussed living in a shed as a housing alternative.
Of course, you can also rent out your shed as storage space.
19. Be a Human Guinea Pig
The Penny Hoarder has reported on how to make money as a test subject more than once. Most of the time the pay is low, but at one time you could get paid $5,000 per month to stay in bed. Let’s hope that opportunity comes up again.
20. Run a Dog-Kissing Booth
An article on the Huffington Post on this strange way to make money includes a collection of photos of dogs in kissing booths.
Selling dog kisses is typically done to raise money for animal rescue groups, but who knows? Maybe your dog’s slobbery kisses could make you some serious cash.
21. Be a Train Pusher
If you have the job of “oshiya,” or “train pusher” in Tokyo, you use brute force to push people into the subway and train cars, to squeeze in as many as possible. But watching oshiya in action is a bit disturbing to those of us who don’t like crowds.
22. Sell Your Hair
Yes, you really can sell your hair, and sometimes for big money. HairWork.com claims one woman sold her hair on their site for $4,000!
TPH contributor Crystal Koenig reports she made a more modest $80 selling her hair on eBay.
23. Make a Million-Dollar Website
Alex Tew created the Million Dollar Homepage in 2005 and sold space on it for $1 per pixel. News coverage brought advertisers and others who wanted their piece of fame.
In five months, he made over $1 million, having spent less than $100 on the website. The site is still there, but to replicate its success you’ll probably have to come up with something new.
Maybe you can start the first invisible link site, where users click randomly on a blank-looking screen to see where they go (OK, I’ll stick to writing).
24. Play Video Games for Prizes
Kurtis Ling, also known as Aui_2000, makes a living by playing video games competitively. He was rated the 13th highest-paid gamer worldwide, but his recent $6.6 million prize in the International Dota 2 Championships may have bumped him up the list.
A look at a list of games that award prize money shows that there are still millions to be made. Plus, professional gamers often enjoy perks like free accommodation and gaming systems.
25. Collect Dog Poop
Yeah, nobody really wants the work, but numerous businesses come to people’s homes to clean up dog poop in the yard.
If you aren’t sure you’re ready for a business, Doody Calls is looking for workers at the moment. Hiring help as soon as possible would be my primary goal if I owned one of these businesses.
26. Be a Professional Sleeper
CBS News and others reported a couple years ago that Hotel Finn in Helsinki was hiring a professional sleeper to test and review their rooms.
There haven’t been many reports of hiring for this position since then, but perhaps you could approach hotels and offer your services.
27. Spiritually Cleanse Houses
Spiritual house cleansing seems to be catching on, given the many examples of the service I found online.
If you want to make money doing this, it might help to have the name “Lisa.” The first four examples of spiritual house cleansers I found were Lisa Schell, Lisa Norton, Lisa Marie Rosati and Lisa Williams.
28. Test Condoms
Steve Abbott is a full-time condom tester, but his is a laboratory-based position.
A few years ago, Durex recruited 5,000 condom testers to “try Durex condoms, have sex and then give us feedback about their experiences.” But all those testers got were free condoms and a chance to win £500 cash.
Anyhow, professional condom tester David Wynter says “sometimes it feels like too much work and too little play.”
29. Repurpose Things
Project Repat, a company started by Ross Lohr and Nathan Rothstein, brought in over $1 million in 2013, according to Inc. The company sells products made from “upcycled” T-shirts, like quilts.
Hmm… What could you upcycle or repurpose to make money?
30. Provide Laughter Therapy
Enda Junkins founded LaughterTherapy.com, where she offers services as the “Laughing Psychotherapist.” She sells DVDs, videos and books, gives speeches, does workshops and provides therapy.
She has a master’s degree in social work and is a licensed clinical social worker. If you’re simply an un-degreed comedian, you might sell similar services, but talk to a lawyer about where the regulatory line is.
31. Take Selfies to Sell Clothes
On Stylinity, you can download an app, upload photos of yourself and tag the clothes you’re wearing. When users like what they see and buy the clothes, you get a commission of up to 20% in the form of points you can redeem for cash and various products.
At least, that’s how CNBC explains it. It’s difficult to find any information on payment on Stylinity’s website.
32. Be a Professional Whistler
If you can you whistle well, you might make money with your skill. For example, Whistling Tom performs at events and has had his whistling featured in television commercials.
To prepare for your new career, you can watch a professional whistler workout on YouTube and listen to professional whistler Robert Stemmons on NPR.
33. Clean IMAX Screens
Working on a large-format movie screen is not your typical cleaning assignment. In fact, not many cleaning companies can handle an IMAX dome.
That’s why Michael Quaranto and Andrew Brown started 1570 Cleaning Services. As Quaranto explains, cleaning an eight-story screen involves special patented equipment and can take up to eight hours. You also have to travel quite a bit if you do this work.
34. Try Virtual Gold Farming
Some people earn their own gold in World of Warcraft, while others just buy it. Buyers are supplied by virtual gold farmers in China, according to the Guardian.
Hundreds of thousands of workers may be playing various games to earn virtual gold and other items that are sold by their employers to gamers in other countries.
Interested? A documentary on Chinese gold farmers suggests that although some workers enjoy playing, the pay is low and the hours long.
35. Sing Strange Songs
Matt Farley has produced 14,000 songs, according to Business Insider, singing about anything from news headlines to songs about going to the bathroom. He fills Spotify and iTunes with songs containing popular keywords, and makes money when people listen.
He recorded his song “________, Will You Go to the Prom with Me?” 500 times, with a different name each time. It wasn’t fun, he said, but he made $23,000 last year from his songs. Start singing!
36. Be a Hangover Helper
Hangover Helpers cleans houses (mostly for college students) and provides Gatorade and breakfast burritos the morning after parties. They say, “Your house will look cleaner than it has all semester.”
They charge $20 per roommate, which seems too cheap for putting up with hungover people in a party disaster zone. Maybe there’s a market for a similar, but more expensive service.
37. Be an Ice Sculptor
You’ve seen those fancy ice sculptures at events, and maybe you’ve wondered if you could make them too.
But how much can you sell them for?
Most ice sculptors don’t publish prices online, because each job is different. But the price list for Sculpted Ice Works starts at $425 to $475 for a single block sculpture and goes up from there.
38. Test Ice Cream
Professional ice-cream-tasting jobs are not an urban myth. In fact, Dreyer’s official ice-cream taster, John Harrison, samples 60 packages of ice cream daily.
He grew up in a family that worked in the ice cream industry, though; it’s not clear how an outsider would go about getting hired for one of these jobs.
39. Provide Strange Subscriptions
I covered sock subscriptions on my post about weird businesses, but there are many more strange subscription possibilities.
For example, the Dive Bar Shirt Club sends members a limited-edition T-shirt “from the best of America’s most interesting and unusual dive bars” each month. The subscription costs $22 monthly.
Think of some other odd thing people will subscribe to (apples, underwear?) and you might have a business!
40. Provide Services to Pot Smokers
Now that marijuana is legal in Colorado and Washington, there are opportunities to make money offering new services.
For example, Forbes magazine recently reported on the rise of pot-friendly hotels and marijuana tourism companies.
A simpler way to tap into the market is to provide information online, which is what ColoradoPotGuide.com does.
41. Be a Restaurant Cliff Diver
Casa Bonita is a real restaurant, not just an invention of South Park, and yes, there are people diving off cliffs inside.
If you’re willing to scramble up and jump off artificial cliffs into a small pond, you too can be a restaurant cliff diver.
42. Sell Your Future
Mike Merrill “divided himself into 100,000 shares and set an initial public offering price of $1 a share,” reports Wired. He sold close to 4,000 shares and kept the rest as non-voting stock. Investors decide his future and make a percentage of whatever profits he makes apart from his day job.
But Merrill’s girlfriend was furious when investors got to decide whether he got a vasectomy, since children might negatively impact future money-making projects, so there are some negatives to selling your life.
43. Provide Doggie Daycare
TPH has reported on the business of pet siting, and most of the work involves visiting animals in their homes.
But there is also a demand for drop-off pet daycare. Even PetSmart has doggie day camp, so owners can leave their pets somewhere safe while at work.
For about $100 you can get certified in dog daycare and start offering your own service.
44. Be a T-Rex Puppeteer
If you’ve ever seen the Tyrannosaurus Rex or Triceratops come to life at the Natural History Museum in Los Angeles, you may have wondered how those giant “puppets” work.
The museum employs more than a dozen puppeteers who operate the animals, sometimes from inside. Now you know what to do with that master’s degree in puppetry.
45. Pretend to Be a Patient
Fake patients, more formally known as “standardized patients,” are used to train new doctors. It’s essentially an acting job, as explained in NPR’s profile of Gabrielle Nuki. The 16-year-old is paid $15 to $20 per hour to play different roles while medical students examine her.
If you can act and don’t mind being poked and prodded by aspiring doctors, you can look for this work at a number of medical schools.
46. Be a Snake Milker
Venom “milked” from snakes is sold to labs where it’s used to make antivenin, and to develop new drugs for treating various heart problems.
Snake milker Ken Darnell works with about 200 deadly snakes and hopes to keep milking snakes the rest of his life.
But before you go apply for the job, keep in mind how dangerous it is. Jim Harrison, a snake milker at the Kentucky Reptile Zoo, has been put on life support four times from snake bites.
47. Paint the Mackinac Bridge
Are you comfortable working hundreds of feet in the air? If so, you might qualify to be a painter on the Mackinac Bridge in Michigan.
This is probably steady work, considering it’s taking 20 years to paint the bridge. But it’s also dangerous; at leas one painter has fallen to his death.
48. Make Your Pet a Supermodel
If your dog or cat is as cute as you think, it may be time to cash in. Winning competitions is one way to make money with Kitty or Fido, but making your pet a YouTube or Instagram star may be an easier route.
Some pet owners have made as much as $100,000 doing this, and their pets sometimes get advertising deals with major brands.
49. Cuddle With Strangers
You can make $60 per hour as a professional cuddler. Portland-based cuddler Samantha Hess limits her workday to five clients, making $300 per day when her schedule is full.
Holding hands, snuggling in bed, and cuddling on the couch are allowed, but no hanky-panky — Hess taps clients two times to indicate they are doing something that makes her uncomfortable.
50. Sell Deer Pee
Sam Collora is a pee farmer. He has a herd of more than 100 deer (and a few elk), from which he collects urine. He sells the urine for $15.50 for a two-ounce bottle. It’s bought by hunters to attract deer.
Not sure you have room for a herd of deer? You could sell other animals’ urine. For example, Predator Pee sells everything from bear to coyote urine. If your dog is part wolf, you might be ready to go.
51. Sell Your Coffee Mugs
The Penny Hoarder recently covered selling your coffee mugs on eBay, and you might be surprised by how much they go for.
A coffee mug from Disney World can sell for $50 or more, and some collectors pay more than $250 for specific mugs. Check those cupboards!
52. Get Paid to Cry
Professional mourning “is a mostly historical occupation,” according to Wikipedia.
But Rent a Mourner, in the UK, currently supplies “professional, discreet people to attend funerals and wakes,” and my wife tells me it is still a common practice in her native Ecuador. So maybe it’s time to start crying all the way to the bank.
Your Turn: What’s the weirdest way you’ve made money?
Steve Gillman is the author of “101 Weird Ways to Make Money” and creator of EveryWayToMakeMoney.com. He’s been a repo-man, walking stick carver, search engine evaluator, house flipper, tram driver, process server, mock juror, and roulette croupier, but of more than 100 ways he has made money, writing is his favorite (so far).
The post Who Knew You Could Make Money Doing THAT? 52 Super Weird Ideas to Inspire You appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.
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House prices continue to rise, says Halifax
House prices rose by 9.5% in the three months to December compared to the same period the previous year.
The average UK house price was £208,286 in December 2015 compared to £189,428 in December 2014.
According to Halifax’s latest House Price Index, average prices rose on a year to year basis by 8%-10% in nearly every three month period in 2015.
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13 of the Most In-Demand Jobs for 2016 Don’t Require a College Degree
Is one of your goals to earn more money this year? Or maybe you’re about to finish high school and are wondering which career to pursue?
As our economy has started to pick up its pace, so have several industries — many of which have more job openings than applicants. And according to the law of supply and demand, these are good careers to get into.
If you want to know which careers are going to be hottest in 2016, check out this list of in-demand jobs from CareerBuilder and Economic Modeling Specialists International (EMSI).
“[It’s] comprised of occupations where the number of job ads companies post each month outpace the number of people they actually hire,” they explain.
“The list includes other data points, such as job growth and salary, which together indicate that these well-paying occupations have seen healthy growth and may be in demand in the coming year.”
Want to see our picks from the list? Keep reading…
3 Hot Jobs for 2016 — No Degree Required
In their research, CareerBuilder and EMSI found more than 30 hot jobs — 13 of which don’t require a college degree.
Here are three that impressed us:
Computer User Support Specialists
Only half of this career’s 63,533 open positions are filled each month, which means big opportunities for you.
Plus, you could earn more than $22 per hour, and in certain cases, have the ability to work from home.
Heavy and Tractor-Trailer Truck Drivers
Wow! More than one million truck-driving jobs are posted each month, but only 100,000 of them are filled.
Though you might have to be on the road for long stretches of time, you could earn $19 per hour. And if you love driving, this could be a lucrative job for you.
Medical Secretaries
Now is the perfect time to start a career in the booming health care industry.
As a medical secretary, you could earn $15.50 to start, with lots of room for growth. An average of 23,893 jobs are posted each month.
For the full list of occupations and accompanying data, head over to CareerBuilder.
Your Turn: Do you like the sound of any of these jobs?
Susan Shain, senior writer for The Penny Hoarder, is always seeking adventure on a budget. Visit her blog at susanshain.com, or say hi on Twitter @susan_shain.
The post 13 of the Most In-Demand Jobs for 2016 Don’t Require a College Degree appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.
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5 Tips for Launching a Successful Online Product
By Kelly Robbins I often hear from folks that have enormous dreams of making a million dollars and they’ve read online how easy it is to do this while sitting in their pajama’s all day drinking tea and eating bon bon’s. It sounds great, doesn’t it? The hard truth is this is not how it […]
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Nationwide slashes mortgage rates for first time buyers
Nationwide has cut its rates mortgage for first time buyers, slashing up to 0.4% off its interest rates for people buying with a 5% deposit.
Rates for the 2 year 95 per cent loan to value (LTV) product are down 0.35% to 3.89% with a £999 fee or 4.29% with no fee.
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Payday lender Cash Genie goes into liquidation - compensation available
12,000 customers of failed payday lender Cash Genie are still to claim compensation worth on average of around £175.
Cash Genie went into voluntary liquidation on Tuesday after the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) hit it with £20 million compensation bill in July 2015 for engaging in unfair lending practices.
Payday lender Cash Genie goes into liquidation - compensation available
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12,000 customers of failed payday lender Cash Genie are still to claim compensation worth on average of around £175. Cash Genie went into voluntary liquidation on Tuesday after the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) hit it with £20 million compensation bill in July 2015 for engaging in unfair lending practices. The liquidator RSM Restructuring Advisory said there is enough capital left in the business to redress all affected customers, with £1.5m owed in total. RSM said that average redress to customers, made up of cash payments and loan write-downs, has so far been around £175. Over 92,000 customers in total were owed compensation due to what the FCA highlighted as ‘serious failings’, including: Charging £50 to transfer customers to its sister debt collection firm; rolling over or refinancing loans without customers’ consent; using customers’ bank details, provided to other businesses under the holding group’s umbrella, to take loan payments without consent; and failing to send annual statements to customers who had not repaid their loans after 12 months. Joanna Elson OBE, chief executive of the Money Advice Trust, the charity that runs National Debtline, said: “Few will mourn the liquidation of this rogue payday lender, which the FCA rightly took action against in July after uncovering deeply unfair treatment of customers in financial difficulty. It is crucial that anyone who has taken a loan from Cash Genie claim the compensation they may be due.” What if I’m owed compensation? A phone line and email address has been set up to help those who believe they are due redress. These are: 0333 366 0023 customerredress@cashgenie.co.uk12,000 customers of failed payday lender Cash Genie are still to claim compensation worth on average of around £175. Cash Genie went into voluntary liquidation on Tuesday after the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) hit it with £20 million compensation bill in July 2015 for engaging in unfair lending practices. The liquidator RSM Restructuring Advisory said there is enough capital left in the business to redress all affected customers, with £1.5m owed in total. RSM said that average redress to customers, made up of cash payments and loan write-downs, has so far been around £175. Over 92,000 customers in total were owed compensation due to what the FCA highlighted as ‘serious failings’, including: Charging £50 to transfer customers to its sister debt collection firm; rolling over or refinancing loans without customers’ consent; using customers’ bank details, provided to other businesses under the holding group’s umbrella, to take loan payments without consent; and failing to send annual statements to customers who had not repaid their loans after 12 months. Joanna Elson OBE, chief executive of the Money Advice Trust, the charity that runs National Debtline, said: “Few will mourn the liquidation of this rogue payday lender, which the FCA rightly took action against in July after uncovering deeply unfair treatment of customers in financial difficulty. It is crucial that anyone who has taken a loan from Cash Genie claim the compensation they may be due.” What if I’m owed compensation? A phone line and email address has been set up to help those who believe they are due redress. These are: 0333 366 0023 customerredress@cashgenie.co.uk
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