Consumer satisfaction’s latest index marked by minute increase Spurred by significant reductions in inflation and loan delinquencies, the 2015 fourth quarter PFSi (Personal Financial Satisfaction Index) released recently by the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA) shows that Americans personal financial satisfaction has increased substantially from a year ago. The index registered 15.9 in the fourth [...]
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الجمعة، 15 يناير 2016
This Dad’s Response to His Son’s Request for Money is Priceless
My friends with kids tell me they sometimes feel like human ATMs.
“Can I have this?” “I want a bigger allowance.” “I really, really need this new pair of jeans.”
If you’re a parent, you know what I’m talking about. Which is why this dad’s letter has gone viral.
Closing the Bank of DAD After His Kid’s Allowance Request
When one man’s 6-year-old son asked “for an advance on his allowance for a toy,” he wrote a letter in response, and then posted it on Imgur.
It’s taken the Internet by storm… probably because he wrote exactly what every parent is thinking.
The letterhead reads: “DAD Savings and Loan, because apparently I look like I’m made of money.”
Then he goes on to deny his son’s request, explaining, “After reviewing your account, we have find [sic] you have insufficient funds, and a history of not doing your chores.”
Here’s the full letter for your reading pleasure:
We loved this response because it teaches money lessons with a sense of humor.
Looking for other clever ways to teach your kids about money? We’ve got a slew:
Your Turn: What did you think of this dad’s letter?
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 This Dad’s Response to His Son’s Request for Money is Priceless appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.
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Oil at $30 a Barrel: Don't Thank Obama
The big fall-off-your-chair moment during President Obama's State of the Union address came when he proclaimed: "We've cut our imports of foreign oil by nearly 60 percent, and cut carbon pollution more than any other country on Earth. Gas under two bucks a gallon ain't bad, either."
Source CBN.com - Finance http://ift.tt/1JPejRY
Want Free LEGO for Your Kids? Sign Up Now for This Event at the LEGO Store
Do you live near a LEGO store? Have a kid between the ages of 6 and 14? Like free stuff?
Yes, yes, and yes? Well, you’re in for a cool deal — literally.
Free LEGO Model
Your family can score up to four limited edition snowmobile LEGO models on Feb. 2 or 3 (one per kid).
There’s no catch. Just wrangle the family and head to the LEGO store to participate in the mini model build.
Yeah, you read that right: You get free stuff for doing a fun family activity.
Want to Get In On the Fun?
Just register here and then head to your local LEGO store on Feb. 2 or 3.
But hurry! LEGO limits the quantity to about 120 per store, and registration fills up quickly.
Don’t worry if you miss out, though — LEGO hosts the event every month. I wonder what the March model will be… maybe a four-leaf clover?
Your Turn: Will you build and bring home a free LEGO model?
Jamie Cattanach (@jamiecattanach) is a junior writer at The Penny Hoarder who still plays with LEGO bricks whenever she can. She also writes other stuff, like wine reviews and poems.
The post Want Free LEGO for Your Kids? Sign Up Now for This Event at the LEGO Store appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.
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Ofgem slams energy firms for overcharging
Ofgem’s chief executive, Dermot Nolan, has told the BBC that domestic energy prices should be cheaper “for the vast majority of people.” This is despite 3.8 million households switching their energy supplier last year in what is thought to be an extremely competitive market.
Source Moneywise http://ift.tt/1RKYy1F
2016's retirees expect to get £17,000 a year
People retiring in 2016 expect to retire on £17,700, 4.1% more than those who retired in 2015, according to a new survey from Prudential.
Source Moneywise http://ift.tt/1WeNtok
6 Ways to Make Your Posts More Actionable
Do you ever feel that your content just isn’t reaching your audience as well as you’d like it to?
…and that even though you’ve created something of value, it doesn’t seem like anyone’s actually taking your advice and implementing it?
I’ll let you in on a secret…
Almost every content marketer has felt this way at one point or another.
It’s difficult to create content that resonates with your readers, but it’s even more difficult to create content that inspires action.
And not for the reason you think.
Yes, people are lazy. Not all, but I’d say it’s fair to call most readers in a typical audience lazy.
But still, some of those lazy people should take action, right? And most of the rest of your audience should take action too, right?
So, why aren’t they? The most likely reason is that your content isn’t actionable enough.
Content marketers talk about storytelling, copywriting formulas, and other tactics to make better content. And all of that is important.
But actionability is a concept that’s rarely talked about, and it’s enormously underrated. Actionable content is almost always great content, and it’s one of the main things you should be striving to create.
Why actionable content is difficult—but crucial—to make: The reason why it’s hard to make your content actionable comes from your inability to fully empathize with your readers.
You might write something that seems obvious to you, but it won’t be to someone with less experience in your niche.
As soon as you do that once, a reader can’t fully follow the rest of your content.
And there are a few really big consequences of this:
- Your reader can’t take action because they don’t know what to do. Figuring it out might be possible, but it’s quite difficult to figure out some things without some guidance.
- Your reader loses interest. If it’s not clear how to apply some of your advice in your content, then there’s really no point for the reader to pay close attention.
To put it simply, content that isn’t actionable is not good for the reader.
But it also sucks for you too. You put in a lot of effort to create your content, and you want readers to get the full value of what you made.
It’s disappointing when your work has no real impact.
That’s why I’m going to show the six ways you can make your posts more actionable.
If you implement most of these on a regular basis, you’ll see some great things.
All of a sudden, you’ll get comments from readers telling you how your advice helped them improve their lives in a big way. And it’s going to be one of the most rewarding parts of creating content for you.
Pay close attention, and then actually apply the tactics I’m about to show you. I made them really actionable so that you can implement them right away.
1. Use this one phrase as often as possible…
If there’s one instant change that you can implement to make your content more actionable, it’s this:
Whenever you finish giving a piece of advice, follow it up with a sentence that starts with “For example,…”
If you’ve read my posts in the past, you know that I use this phrase all the time:
At first, this will take a conscious effort to do. Eventually, it will become your second nature.
The reason why it’s so powerful is because it makes it next to impossible to miss anything that requires further explanation.
For example (see what I did here?), pretend you are writing a post on building a website.
One major topic that you would include is picking a CMS.
Here’s what a snippet of your content might look like:
To make managing your website and its contents easier, you can use a simple content management system (CMS).
Next, you will need to pick a theme…
It might be obvious to you how to choose a CMS, but to someone new to the topic, it isn’t.
Let’s try that again, using our new phrase:
To make managing your website and its contents easier, you can use a simple content management system (CMS).
For example, you could choose from:
- WordPress
- Joomla
- Drupal
Next, you will need to pick a theme…
I think it’d be good to go into more detail on each of the platforms, but this is already much more actionable for a reader.
Instead of having to read up on what a CMS is and what the different options are, the reader now has three good options to start with.
This quick example also illustrates that what comes after the “for example” phrase also matters. But don’t worry, I’m about to show you a few different ways you can make sure it’s as useful as possible.
2. Visuals are usually better than text
Earlier, I mentioned two main reasons why your readers don’t take action.
Some are just lazy, so you can’t really worry about them.
But the other ones just don’t have all the knowledge and guidance they need to take action. And that’s something you can fix.
To do that, we have to look at different ways readers might be missing information.
The first is they simply don’t understand what you wrote. Some things are very difficult to explain clearly in text.
Often, though, they are easy to explain with pictures.
The best example of this can be found in articles about building or baking something—anything to do with a procedure.
A simple picture can illustrate exactly what you’re talking about, like this picture in a pie recipe:
If you just explained the step in writing, maybe half of your readers would know for certain what they’re trying to do here.
But with the picture (and text), I’m sure just about everyone would understand what they need to do.
Add up that difference for the 10+ steps in the recipe, and you can see how having pictures to accompany each step makes the content as a whole much more actionable.
There’s no more guessing or uncertainty about whether the procedure would work because a reader can follow along your example.
The takeaway:
Any time you describe how to use a tool or item of any kind, include a picture demonstrating the procedure.
This is another way to make your content instantly more actionable, and it doesn’t take any special kind of genius, just an extra bit of effort.
You can create the pictures yourself or try to find some online (always give credit).
3. How is just as important as What
Any advice you give in your posts revolves around what to do.
You tell your reader what they should do to achieve certain results.
For example, I’m showing you different tactics that you can use to make your posts more actionable.
But as we talked about earlier, not all readers will be able to implement your advice just based on the “what.”
If they don’t have the prior experience and knowledge, your advice isn’t going to be all that useful.
The solution is to always provide detailed procedures of “how” to do things or to illustrate concepts.
The image tactic from the previous section may fall into this category, but there are other ways to clearly demonstrate procedures. You can use:
- screenshots
- gifs
- videos
- drawings
They all have their best uses, depending on a particular situation.
Screenshots are great for showing readers how to do a particular step on their computer.
I use screenshots all the time. Here’s an example of one I included in a past article where I was showing you how to create goals in Google Analytics:
In another post I wrote, I explained how to create great explainer videos because my readers might not have much experience with video marketing.
An example of a great video would help them know what to expect and what a great video looks like. I embedded it right into the content:
Videos are better when you’re trying to illustrate more than just a few things; otherwise, images are easier.
The great news is that it’s really easy to embed videos.
You can find high quality video tutorials or examples of concepts for just about everything on YouTube.
Once you found a suitable video, scroll underneath it, click the “Share” button, and then click the “Embed” tab:
This will give you a simple iframe HTML code that you can copy and paste into your content.
Finally, there are animated gifs (small clips of video without sound).
Gifs are great for a few different purposes. First of all, they’re entertaining and can make your content a lot more fun to read.
But since we’re focusing on actionability, know that gifs can be used in place of videos. At times, you might want to show a small part of a video as an example without having to embed the whole thing.
I’m going to show you in a second how you can clip a part of a video and make it into an animated gif.
Actually, I’m going to show you a few tools right now that will make creating any of these much easier.
Tool #1 – Techsmith Snagit (for screenshots and video): As I mentioned, in almost every article I write, I include annotated screenshots for the reasons we went over above.
This tool is a simple browser plugin that makes creating screenshots really easy.
To use it, click the icon on your browser (once you’ve installed the tool), which will trigger a black sidebar to pop up on the right.
From here, you have four different options. In most cases, you’ll pick “region,” which allows you to take a screenshot of a certain part of the screen only:
If you pick the “region” option, you simply drag a box around a part of your current browser screen that you want to capture. You can drag the corners to resize the box if you mess up on your first try:
When it looks good, click the camera icon below the box.
That will capture your selection and open a new tab with it. Here, you can add arrows, boxes, circles, and text.
The only downside is that you have a limited number of colors to choose from, but that’s not usually a big deal.
Once you’re done annotating the image, you click the blue button in the bottom right to download the picture or get a link to it.
If you’re trying to explain a multi-step procedure, a video might be better than several pictures. In that case, choose the video option from the original black sidebar. It will capture your screen as a video until you stop it.
Tool #2 – Evernote Web Clipper/Skitch (for screenshots): Snagit is typically the simplest option when it comes to annotated screenshots. However, sometimes it’s not enough.
Sometimes, you will want a more attractive screenshot, or you want to take a screenshot of something not in your browser (like your desktop or a folder).
That’s where this second option, made by Evernote, is better.
The web clipper is again a browser plugin. When you click its icon, you’ll get a pop-up, just like with Snagit:
These are the same options, just with different names.
Mostly, you’ll be using the “screenshot” option, which allows you to select a part of the screen.
One drawback is that once you select a part of the screen, you can’t adjust it. If you mess it up, you’ll have to do it again.
After you get what you like, it’ll open in a new tab where you can annotate it.
This tool has two main advantages over Snagit:
- More options – In addition to having all the basic options, you can add labels, draw, and even blur parts of the picture.
- More attractive - In my opinion, the arrows and other annotations look better.
Then, you can save the picture to your Evernote account and use it whenever you need it.
Sometimes, you’ll want to add annotations to pictures that aren’t in your browser. In that case, you’ll want to use Skitch, which is simply the offline equivalent for the web clipper that you install on your computer.
It has all the same options plus a few extra (like more colors):
Tool #3 – Giphy Gif Maker (to make animated gifs): Very few marketers use gifs, and even fewer know how to make them.
This tool makes it easy to create gifs, and it allows you to make them straight from YouTube videos.
Let me quickly walk you through the steps.
First, you input the URL of the YouTube video (or URL from Vimeo or Vine):
For this example, let’s use that video I showed you earlier in the article, the Dollar Shave Club ad.
Once you put in the URL, it will automatically load a preview of the video with a few key options:
- start time - the timestamp in the video where you want the gif to start
- duration - how long you want the gif to go for (from the start time)
- caption - any text you want to display on the gif
When it looks good, scroll down and click the “advanced” tab. From there, click the download button to save a copy of the gif.
Finally, just upload it into your content like you would with a normal image, and voilà:
You can also use Giphy as a gif search engine. Instead of making your own gif, you might one already made by someone else. Just search a few keywords.
If there is a gif, you’ll likely find it.
4. Make the right things actionable
This is where things get a bit tricky…
There is a such thing as having too much actionability.
If you, by default, explain how to do every single thing you mention, your content is going to be filled with some very useful stuff and some very useless things.
While too actionable is better than not actionable enough, you want to find the sweet spot.
Let me give you a few examples of where it would be a bad idea to expand.
First, consider my example of baking a pie that I gave you earlier that illustrated how effective images can be.
Imagine if I had included a full tutorial on baking a pie. Would that add any value to my post?
No, of course not.
You don’t need to know how to bake a pie in order to understand how images can improve actionability.
That’s an extreme example so that you get what I’m talking about in general.
Now, let’s look at a more subtle example.
I often write about tools, e.g., tools that help you work as a team to create content. In these, I’ll provide tutorials on the most important functions of the tools in my list.
For example, here’s a tutorial of how to use the sharing function in Google docs:
But Google docs has tons of features. There are probably hundreds—if you really dug in.
Should I give a tutorial for each and every one?
What about how to make tables, or format a page, or create custom bullets?
The simple answer is no, I don’t need to include tutorials for those.
That’s because only a minority of my readers would find those useful.
Even if I mention in my post that a table can be useful, that doesn’t mean I need to provide a tutorial on tables to make the post more actionable.
You want to focus on making the essential concepts you are explaining actionable, not the secondary ones.
You will have to make some judgement calls.
When you’re not sure if you should expand on a concept, ask yourself: “Do my readers need to know how to do this in order to put my advice into action?”
In the case of the Google Docs tool article, readers would have to know how to share articles with their co-workers, but they wouldn’t necessarily need to know how to create tables.
That’s the difference.
5. Calls to action can be powerful motivators
We’ve already looked at some reasons why people don’t take action when they read your content even if it has a valuable message.
One of them was not knowing what to do. But once they know that, it becomes a question of when to do it.
As you might know from firsthand experience, if we don’t do something right away, it’s very easy to forget about it and never do it.
That’s why so many readers simply bookmark articles and tell themselves that they’ll come back later and take action. Most never do.
This means that your goal is to get them to take action right then and there, while they’re reading your post (or immediately after).
To do this, you have to call out your audience. You need to explicitly tell your readers to take action and do something at a specific time.
There are two general ways to do this.
The first is to include these call-outs as instructions throughout your content.
In posts about step-by-step strategies, this works very well.
For example, here’s an excerpt from a post I published about creating a content marketing plan.
In that sentence that I put in a box, I explicitly tell the reader to take action. They’re supposed to apply the advice I just gave them about naming their audience and then take action by writing it down.
What you’ll find is that if you make that first step easy to do, you can get a lot of readers to start taking action. Then, they build the momentum, and it’ll be increasingly easier to get them to continue taking action as you move them through the steps.
Later in that article, I again urge the reader to write down a list of their readers’ problems:
Before that point, I’ve given them all the advice they need to take that action easily.
I’m not going to go through them all, but throughout that post, I’ve broken down overall big actions into small, manageable steps at the right times.
The second approach is to put a call to action at the end of the post, in a conclusion.
This is useful for posts that aren’t necessarily step-by-step or for those cases when you need to understand all of the material before you can apply any of it effectively.
In most of my conclusions, I give next steps a reader can take:
In the post I am using as an example, I specifically tell the reader to make their own list of points to include in their content and then to use it.
It’s not complicated, but it basically singles out the reader and makes it clear that the time to take action is now.
One final thing to keep in mind is that you don’t want to ask too much of your reader.
If you tell them to create a website from scratch, that’s a lot of work, and most readers won’t have time for that.
If the takeaway advice from your content is a big ask, then give them a way to make it easier.
Either tell them to start with one small piece of it, or give them a tool that helps them do it faster.
For example, in that same post, I offered a printable sheet of my 11-point content framework:
I knew it would be easier for the readers to create their plans based on my summary rather than start from scratch using the full article as their knowledge base.
6. Engaged audiences are more likely to take action
This final way of making your posts more actionable addresses the elephant in the room:
Readers are lazy.
According to the 1% rule, only about 1% of forum users actually post regularly; most of them will only read, passively lurking around:
The same is true for most blogs. Most readers will skim posts but never take action.
I told you it’s difficult to get lazy people to do anything, and it’s true, but there is something you can do to encourage even lazy people to take action.
The solution is to get them to engage with the content.
That means to get them to the point when they are actively reading it, thinking about what you wrote, and taking some sort of action throughout the content.
Creating engaging content is actually pretty hard. Surveys have shown that up to 58% of marketers struggle to produce engaging content:
But don’t worry, I have a few easy solutions for you.
The first is a big one, and it’s using interactive content wherever possible. Interactive content describes any content with which the user can interact (shocking, I know). This might mean clicking, typing something in, etc.
The reason why interactive content leads to engagement can be seen in a recent study on university students.
They looked at different teaching methods and found that the teachers who used interactive teaching methods had an engagement rate that was double the norm and had an attendance rate 20% higher than normal.
So, on top of getting your readers focused on your content while creating some momentum so that they apply your advice, you’re also going to attract more readers in the first place.
Pretty cool, right?
The main way you can do this is to embed social media. This breaks up the content with something different and allows the reader to take action and engage with it, leading to all those other benefits.
Embedding social media in posts: In most cases, you’ll stick to embedding tweets and Facebook posts.
While Twitter has some native embed options, I suggest using a plugin such as TweetDis, which allows you to insert attractive tweets in seconds.
If you buy TweetDis, once you install it, you’ll see an icon in all of your post editors:
In order to use it, highlight the text you want to be tweetable, and then click the icon.
The resulting pop-up has a few simple options.
The first menu, “Add,” lets you pick the type of tweet you want. A “box” tweet looks like one that you’d see on Twitter itself, while a “hint” simply adds a highlighted link to your content that readers can tweet.
The hint is shown below:
Getting the reader to switch from a passive consumption mode to an active mode (of sharing in this case) is a great way to boost engagement.
I haven’t come across any great options to embed Facebook posts, so you’ll have to do that the hard way.
If you make a post that you want to embed (or find someone else’s), you can click the drop-down arrow in the corner and choose the “Embed Post” option:
That will give you an HTML code that you can paste into your content. Then, it will show up just like a Facebook post in your content:
Your readers will be able to like, comment on, and share it right from that embedded post.
There are many other ways you can use interactive content effectively, which is why I recommend reading my full guide on the topic.
Ask questions frequently in your content: The other way to engage readers in your content is to simply ask questions.
Don’t let them just read your statements; ask them questions that make them stop and think a little bit.
I do this all the time in my posts:
Overall, it makes the content feel much more like a conversation rather than a one-sided lecture.
Finally, there are two important things to keep in mind when you ask your questions:
- Don’t ask stupid questions – Readers will feel that the questions are out of place.
- Always answer your own questions – Even if most of your readers might know the answer, not all will. Answering the question yourself ensures that everyone stays on the same page.
Conclusion
If you want your content to have a big impact on your readers’ lives, you need those readers to take action.
Not only is it good for them but it’s also good for your content marketing results. Readers who experience good results from your advice will become loyal fans and, often, customers.
I’ve shown you six different ways to make your posts more actionable.
Start with one or two tactics, and once you are comfortable with them, come back and apply the rest.
I’d love it if you shared the results you’ve had from implementing any of these methods. Leave your thoughts in a comment below.
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Wal-Mart to shutter 269 stores, 154 of them in the US
NEW YORK (AP) — Wal-Mart is closing 269 stores, more than half of them in the U.S. and another big chunk in its challenging Brazilian market.The stores being shuttered account for a fraction of the company's 11,000 stores worldwide and less than 1 percent of its global revenue.More than 95 percent of the stores set to be closed in the U.S. are within 10 miles of another Wal-Mart. The Bentonville, Arkansas, company said it is working to ensure that workers are placed in [...]
Source Business - poconorecord.com http://ift.tt/1NbxJeE
Source Business - poconorecord.com http://ift.tt/1NbxJeE
Never Pay Full Price for a Car Again, Even If You Hate Haggling: 5 Tricks From a Former Sales Manager
During my six years as a car sales manager, my job was to “bump” haggling buyers — to convince them to pay more for a car.
Believe it or not, there’s an art to bumping. People hate buying cars, but they prefer to haggle because they think they’ll get the best deal.
I understand the rationale.
The Internet helps buyers be savvier, but you likely only buy a new car every six to eight years, so you’re probably at a disadvantage compared to the sales manager, who haggles every day.
To give yourself the best shot at a decent price, use one of these five strategies. Here’s how to buy a car the smart way — without getting bumped.
1. Focus on Loss Leaders
For weekend sales ads, the dealer deeply discounts one or two cars, to the point where they’ll sell at a loss.
The dealer then combines the deep discounts with any available manufacturer rebates — meaning it’ll likely be the best deal you’ll find.
However, the sales is first come, first served. Plan on showing up early Friday morning, and you’ll be in and out of the dealership quickly.
Downside
The car probably won’t be your favorite color or have every option you want.
Plus, you have to be there early Friday morning. This strategy’s not ideal if you’re picky — or can’t skip work.
2. Use Discount Buying Programs
Third parties have pre-negotiated agreements with manufacturers and dealerships, often below the dealer invoice price — or the cost for the car alone.
Participating dealers agree to take a low-pressure approach, and usually only one dealership will contact you. Expect available manufacturer rebates and incentives with the price discount.
Through Costco’s Auto Program, my customers got anywhere from $2,000 to $3,000 off MSRP.
I once had a customer who got $4,000 off — before rebates — making the $50 annual membership fee well worth it. Members also get 15% off accessories at participating service centers.
USAA’s Car Buying Service comes in at a close second, helping armed forces members save an average of $3,400.
Not a member of Costco or USAA? TrueCar and Edmund’s Price Promise offer everyone free buying programs on new vehicles. Sam’s Club and AAA partner with TrueCar for their members.
In my experience, Costco had the best deals and the least hassle, but use at least two programs to get the best possible deal.
Downside
Discounts are for in-stock units only, and special orders are exempt.
3. Try the Shotgun Method
Use the Shotgun Method when you know what car you want, you’re ready to buy and you don’t want a salesperson calling you.
If your car will be a special order, use this method to get your best deal. Do research first, then send this email to all the dealerships in the area:
“I am buying a [year, make, model] in [color] with the [options package, trim level, list of options, etc]. I am contacting all the dealerships in the area for availability and pricing.
Please send window stickers [or information for used vehicles] for cars you have in stock that fit my requirements, and the best out-the-door price for each car to [your email]. Please line item the dealer discounts, manufacturer rebates [if new], taxes and fees separately.
I will email the dealership with the best match and price tomorrow to reserve the car and purchase it, so please respond promptly. Thank you in advance.”
You want at least two responses, but having more is better.
Email the dealers on a Wednesday or Thursday. Dealerships get busy on the weekends, and you’ll have a better chance of catching an upcoming weekend sales price.
Downside
You won’t usually get as big of a discount as you will with a buying program, but this strategy is still pretty effective.
4. Target Aged Inventory
If a used car sits on a dealer’s lot for more than about 45 days, the dealer’s losing money every day it doesn’t sell. For really aged inventory, the dealer will aggressively mark down the price to stop the bleeding.
Take advantage of their motivation to sell.
If the car has a price marked down lower than anything similar anywhere else, it’s probably aged inventory.
If you don’t see anything similar on the lot, casually ask the salesperson how long the car you’re looking at has been there. If the answer is less than 45 days, expect to haggle.
Downside
You can try to haggle, but expect a no. Looking for aged inventory is more effective with used cars, but it could work for a new car.
5. Look at Executive or Demo Cars
Executive cars are top-of-the-line, have at least a thousand miles and are fully loaded. Since they’ve never been registered with the DMV, they’re technically new cars — eligible for any factory rebates.
Ownership of a dealership has its privileges, including driving the sweetest cars in inventory.
Dealerships usually advertise executive cars and show them in their online inventories — though the cars may actually be in the owner’s driveway. It may take a day or so to get the car back to the dealership — and it may look a little lived-in — but it’s safe to assume the owner babied the car.
The dealer will usually handle cosmetic fixes and any pre-sale maintenance at no charge.
New car warranties usually start the day you purchase the car, regardless of the starting miles, Be sure to read the fine print on the warranty before you sign.
Downside
Some states don’t require dealerships to report executive car accidents — so always ask.
Combining Strategies for the Best Deal
Adding a little creativity to these five strategies may unearth even better deals.
For example, compare pricing between loss leaders, your discount buying program and the Shotgun Method.
By combining research with one or more of the strategies, you’re well on your way to saving thousands of dollars on your next car purchase — without any haggling.
Your Turn: Do you know any effective car buying techniques, especially if they don’t involve haggling? Let us know in the comments!
Van Randon strives to help others save money and time as an entrepreneur and freelance writer. He loves to eat exotic foods while reading a good book.
The post Never Pay Full Price for a Car Again, Even If You Hate Haggling: 5 Tricks From a Former Sales Manager appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.
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EE takeover by BT approved: what does it mean for customers?
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has today cleared BT to take over EE.
The £12.5 billion acquisition will bring together the UK’s largest fixed telecoms business and the UK’s largest mobile telecoms business.
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Something to Think About in a Stock Market Downturn
Over the last week or two, as is always the case when the stock market dips a little, people write to me and ask whether or not they should be changing course in terms of their retirement investments.
My answer is, as always, no. The stock market is a volatile beast. Some days – and even some years – it goes down. Other days – and other years – it goes up. Overall, the ups beat the downs, at least over the long term history of basically every stock market in the history of mankind, but you can sometimes have a pretty long string of down days.
Right now, we are undoubtedly having a string of down days. Since the start of the year, the S&P 500 – the stock market index that I pay attention to – has dropped from 2038.20 to 1921.84, which is a 5.7% drop in value in about 2 weeks. If you have $500,000 in stocks in your retirement account at the start of this, you just lost $28,500 in value since the start of the year. That’s a pretty crazy roller coaster ride, and some people want to get off that ride.
However, if you’re invested in stocks, it’s never quite as bad as it seems to be.
For one, it’s impossible to predict what’s going to happen tomorrow, let alone over the next year or the next ten years. Even if you sell today because you think the market is going to go down more and you’re right about that, you still missed the peak by about 10%. Let’s assume that you correctly identify the rebound later on, but you miss that by 10%, too. Unless this is a cataclysmic year comparable to about 2008, you’re going to not gain very much by buying and selling if you miss the peak and the valley by 10% of the total value.
For another, if you’re doing this outside of your retirement funds, you’re likely facing a lot of tax implications. Thankfully, most people who have money invested outside of retirement funds are stable enough to not make such drastic short term decisions, but there are some who would do so.
The big reason I want to highlight today, though, is that those index numbers do not include dividends. Those numbers just represent the value you’d get for selling those shares. It does not include the dividends you would get paid for holding those shares.
Let’s slow down and break this down piece by piece.
The S&P 500 itself is simply a number that estimates the health of the overall stock market. It includes the share value of 500 different companies, wrapped up together into one single number for convenience. If you’re a baseball fan, it’s kind of like a league-wide batting average. Some stocks in the S&P 500 do better than the average and some do worse, but this is the overall average of the stock value of those 500 companies.
Let’s say you own an investment that matches the S&P 500, like the Vanguard 500, in your retirement account. The Vanguard 500 is an example of a mutual fund, which means that lots of people buy shares in that mutual fund and the company running the fund uses all of that money to invest. People who own shares in that mutual fund can then buy or sell them to other investors and usually back to the investment firm that originally sold them. The company makes money by taking a tiny portion of the overall value of the mutual fund each year for themselves.
The Vanguard 500 simply matches the same 500 companies in the same proportions that make up the S&P 500. Since there’s no real management work involved, Vanguard can offer that investment pretty cheaply – they take a very small cut of it compared to many other mutual funds. This is called an “index fund” – it’s a mutual fund that runs almost on autopilot based on straightforward rules, and because of that it’s usually very cheap to run and the savings get passed along mostly to the investors.
Over the past two weeks – actually, pretty much forever – the value of the Vanguard 500 has almost perfectly matched the actual S&P 500 index that you hear about on the news. If the S&P 500 goes down 2%, then the value of your Vanguard 500 investment goes down 2%. If the S&P 500 goes up 3%, then the value of your Vanguard 500 investment goes up 3%. That’s because the Vanguard 500 is essentially exactly the same as the S&P 500.
What neither number includes, however, is the dividends.
Most publicly traded companies – this is true for about 400 of the 500 companies in the S&P 500 – issue dividends once every three months. That means for each share of stock in that company, the owner receives a small cash payment – a quarter or so for many companies, but it varies. This is a reward to their investors for believing in the company and owning the stock.
The total value of the Vanguard 500, including all of the shares of it that investors have bought over the years, is invested in those 500 companies in order to match the S&P 500. So, that means overall, the Vanguard 500 actually owns many, many thousands of shares of each of those companies. So, when those companies pay dividends, the cash rolls in by the millions. Vanguard then adds up all of those dividends, divides by the number of Vanguard 500 shares out there, and then issues its own dividend, which means every person who owns a share of the Vanguard 500 gets a dividend each quarter. In a typical year, that quarterly dividend is about 0.5% of the current value of the S&P 500, give or take a little.
(Here’s another way of thinking of it: if you own a share of Vanguard 500, then what you actually own is a tiny sliver of a share in each of the 500 companies that make up the Vanguard 500. Then, when those companies pay dividends, you get a tiny sliver of the dividends paid by each company, but those slivers add up and you end up getting something close to the average dividend paid by each of those 500 companies.)
So, why am I talking about all of this?
When you see the price of a stock market index falling on the news, you’re not seeing the dividends included there. For example, on December 21, a share of the Vanguard 500 was worth $186.30, but on that day, each share received a dividend worth $1.092. That dividend is not included in the share value – it’s an extra cash payment that shareholders receive.
This adds up to a lot of money over time. Take a look at this article by David Blitzer, the chairman of the S&P Dow Jones Index Committee, entitled Inside the S&P 500: Dividends Reinvested. People who left their money in the S&P 500 from January 1988 to July 2013 doubled their money by simply reinvesting their dividends back in by using it to buy more stocks.
Here’s another interesting piece of food for thought: during a stock market downturn, a lot of companies don’t cut their dividends. They pay out just as they had before. Thus, if you’re reinvesting dividends, you can actually buy more shares during a downturn than you could when things were riding high. That way, during the inevitable rebound, you’re actually going to rebound far stronger than you would have if you had pulled all of your money out.
Final Thoughts
In a period where the market is volatile like this, it is very tempting to simply take your money out and put it into something safer – bonds, cash, whatever the case may be.
That’s a bad idea for a lot of reasons. For starters, it’s basically impossible to time the peaks and valleys of the market. No computer can do this. No person can do this. It’s essentially impossible.
When people buy and sell based on market ups and downs, they usually miss the high point when selling and miss the low point when buying, which often means that they didn’t gain very much at all by bailing out – and they certainly missed those dividends while they were out.
In the end, there are a lot of reasons to just sit tight when the stock market goes into a volatile period, but very few speak directly to dollars and cents like dividends do.
The only reasons to sell stocks are because your investment goals are coming closer and you need to move to something safer or else you actually need the money for something in your life (and that should be a last resort). Any other reason for selling stocks isn’t a good reason.
Good luck.
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Who Knew It Was So Cheap to Open a Chick-fil-A?
Do you have $10,000?
It’s a lot of money — but not an unimaginable sum to have in the bank, especially if you’ve been saving for a while.
Well, if you’re looking for a new direction, you might give that chicken sandwich you had for lunch a second thought: It only costs $10K to open a Chick-fil-A restaurant, according to Yahoo Finance.
Chick-fil-A Franchising is Crazy Cheap
Yeah, you read that right. Although it costs $2 million to open a Taco Bell, you can be the owner of a brand-new Chick-fil-A for much less than you probably spent on your college degree.
Plus, everything’s included: You don’t need to worry about real estate, construction or equipment costs.
You will, however, have to pay much higher monthly fees to headquarters than industry standard: 15% of sales plus 50% of remaining pretax profit. Compare that to the 8.5-12% McDonald’s owners pay on average, per a 2013 Bloomberg report.
But still — I mean, it’s 10 grand. And you get to own a business.
Prioritizing Prize Partners
Why’s the cost so low?
It’s because the company is passionate about partnering with the best service-minded businesspeople available, regardless of their net worth.
“The barrier to entry is never going to be money,” company spokeswoman Amanda Hannah told Yahoo.
Rather, Chick-fil-A focuses on finding the very best folks for the job — and their application acceptance rates prove it. They only choose about 80 new franchisees a year from a pool of more than 20,000 applicants.
Finalists can expect a rigorous interview process, which may extend to friends and family members as well as business partners.
Successful Business at a Low Cost
Even with heftier monthly fees than you might find elsewhere, it franchisees should feel confident in their investment: Chick-fil-A’s the eighth most successful fast food brand in the country, according to QSR.
I mean, you have to admit. The food is pretty darn good.
Catch the full story at Yahoo Finance. And if you go through with it… can I get some free waffle fries?
Your Turn: Will you apply to own a Chick-fil-A?
Jamie Cattanach (@jamiecattanach) is a junior writer at The Penny Hoarder. She also writes other stuff, like wine reviews and poems.
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This Guy Found a Creative Way to Take His Cash-Back Credit Card to the Next Level
After getting 14 new credit cards in 2015, I made over $2,000 in sign-up bonuses.
I also burned through most of the best offers — and knocked at least 10 points off my credit score. It was time to try something new, at least until my score bounced back and new offers popped up.
Fortunately, I stumbled into a way to make $450 from a credit card without a sign-up bonus.
It happened when I went to our local Sun Trust Bank to open a checking account to earn a $200 bonus. It only took 15 minutes — one of the more efficient and friendly banks I’ve used.
Then the banker suggested I apply for a Sun Trust MasterCard…
It Pays to Listen
When I hear a sales pitch coming, I normally look for the door.
I had plenty of credit cards, I explained, thinking, “Why would I want one that doesn’t even offer a sign-up bonus?”
The nice banker told me the card pays 5% cash back on up to $6,000 of gas station and grocery store purchases the first year.
My ears perked up.
“Is that just on groceries, or anything in a grocery store?” I asked. She assured me I would get 5% cash back on all purchases at grocery stores.
She’d just made over $200 on her card.
Even better, redeeming the cash rewards into my checking account would get me a 10% bonus — putting the total cash back at 5.5%.
The credit card center in my brain lit up. Tell me more.
And there was more. The card charged no interest for the first year.
Sold!
A few minutes later I was approved for an $8,000 limit.
Stack Those Moneymaking Tactics
I’ve always been a fan of stacking savings tactics.
I buy things on sale with discounted gift cards, purchased with a cash-back credit card (a classic triple-stack).
It’s less common to find opportunities to stack moneymaking tactics. But in this case, there were two distinct ways to cash in with the same credit card:
- Maximize the cash-back rewards
- Invest 0% money
Maximizing the Cash-Back Rewards
As soon as I received the card, I went to Winn-Dixie and bought groceries, along with a couple $500 Visa gift cards.
The latter I liquidated by using them to load my Bluebird account. This kind of manufactured spending is a topic for another day. Bottom line: I paid two $5.95 fees and soon had the money back in my bank account.
In just a few days, my cash-back awards total on my account showed over $50. I’ve never seen awards show up so quickly.
I did a test purchase at Walmart. Sure enough, I earned 5% cash back.
As far as I know, all other credit cards code Walmart as a “variety store,” not a “grocery store.” I’m really starting to love this bank.
This was good news. I normally buy groceries at Walmart — their fee for $500 Visa gift cards is only $4.94. I bought a couple, along with my groceries.
I used the credit card for gas to get 5% back, except when I was at Shell stations. I use a double-stack strategy there to knock about 12% off the price at the pump.
Within a month, I had a balance of almost $5,000 on the card, and I paid the minimum when the statement came in (2% of the balance).
I later ran the balance up to about $6,500 — fully maximizing the 5% cash-back and earning 1% on other purchases.
Meanwhile, I was setting up part two of my strategy…
Investing the Credit Card Company’s Money
I normally pay my credit card balances in full every month. I had the money to pay, but instead of paying, this time I invested it.
I had previously discovered FDIC-insured savings accounts that pay 5% interest, and had one already. It was time for another.
I signed up for a Brinks Prepaid MasterCard and set up one direct deposit of $500 in order to get upgraded. It qualified me for a connected 5% savings account.
It took a couple weeks to set it up, and I have to have activity once every three months to avoid fees, but the $5,000 I moved into the account is making a 5% annual percentage yield (APY).
I’ll make minimum payments on the Sun Trust MasterCard until just before interest charges start. Then I’ll pay it off using the Brinks account money or other funds.
In other words, I’ll use the credit card company’s money to make 5% interest for about 10 months. I’ll collect about $210 in interest.
Using 0%, or low-interest money, from credit card companies to invest at higher rates is sometimes called “stoozing” or “credit card arbitrage.”
By the time I maxed out the 5% cash-back rewards and got the 10% bonus for redeeming them to my checking account, I had collected $340.
But in the process, I paid about $60 in fees for those Visa gift cards, so I really made only $280.
Between the $280 I’ve already netted from cash rewards and the $210 in interest, I’ll have made $490 by this summer on one credit card.
Every little bit helps.
Should You Try This?
If you aren’t well-organized, you could get into trouble with this strategy.
For example, if you forget the deadline and have a $5,000 balance when the credit card starts charging interest, you might owe $100 in interest before you know what happened.
And then there’s this important warning: A high balance on a card can lower your credit score, because it negatively affects your credit utilization ratio.
The score should bounce back shortly after you pay off the balance. But, if you plan to borrow for a home or car soon, use this strategy after you get the loan.
Also, the offer I used is from a regional bank. It may not service your area, and the terms may have changed by the time you read this.
But if you’re ready, the basic strategy is the same with other credit cards and savings accounts.
In fact, as I write this, you can do a triple-stack with the Chase Freedom card. Here’s an example of what you might do:
1. Get the Bonus
Spend $500 on the card within three months and you’ll get a $150 bonus.
2. Maximize Those 5% Purchases
The 5% categories change quarterly and are limited to $1,500 in purchases per quarter.
Look for categories for places to buy debit gift cards or gift cards for stores you normally shop.
You should be able to make $375 in cash back in the first 15 months. If you can make enough ordinary purchases to avoid fees for buying debit gift cards, the money is pure profit.
3. Invest the Money
The card charges no interest for 15 months.
Max out those 5% Chase Freedom categories to earn cash back and build your balance. Pay just the minimum each month.
Eventually, you can have a balance of $5,000 or more, and have the money ready for the payoff just before the 15 months are up.
Get a Mango card, and set up direct deposit of your paycheck to qualify for a linked 6% savings account. Mango has a $3 monthly fee, and if you don’t continue with a monthly direct deposit of at least $500, your interest rate drops to 2%.
Put your credit card payoff money in the savings account.
If your average balance is $4,000 for the first 15 months (or less — the maximum that earns 6% is $5,000), you’ll collect $300 in interest and pay $45 in fees — a net profit of $255.
Your total between the bonus, the cash back and the interest: $780.
The Mango savings account is FDIC-insured, but it takes some work to set up and maintain.
To keep it simple, you could open an account at MySavingsDirect.com, currently paying 1.10% without any catches.
Of course, your interest will go down to $55 for 15 months, but you’ll still make a respectable $580.
Your Turn: How do you make money with your credit cards?
Disclosure: We don’t hesitate to pick pennies off the sidewalk when we spot them. But the affiliate links in this post help our earnings grow even quicker. Plus, it’s a lot cleaner than sidewalk 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).
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Have baby-boomers had it too good, for too long?
An inquiry into ‘intergenerational fairness’ has been launched by the Work and Pensions Committee to establish whether the generation of people in or approaching retirement is getting a better deal than younger generations.
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This Extreme Couponer Got $100K Worth of Stuff for Next to Nothing… and Then Gave It All Away. Here’s Why
What’s the only thing better than couponing? Couponing for a cause.
And that’s exactly what 20-year-old college student Hannah Steinberg has made her mission.
The Boston Globe recently profiled this remarkable young woman and the way she’s using her love of couponing to help those in need.
How She Makes Her Coupons Count
In high school, Steinberg became obsessed with the show “Extreme Couponing,” on which people use tons of coupons and insider knowledge to amass household goods and groceries for next to nothing.
While watching one day, the Globe reports, she was struck by a thought: “What if she could coupon with a conscience?”
“I decided to start extreme couponing and donate all items to… a shelter that offers temporary housing for families that have fallen on hard times,” she writes on her website.
She eventually started a non-profit organization, Our Coupons Care, through which she solicits donations to purchase the items.
“By mixing that money with her coupon magic,” explains the Globe, “Steinberg said she can make ‘every dollar count for four to five dollars.’”
To date, she’s “donated more than $100,000 worth of household items, canned goods, and electronics to homeless shelters and hospitals by using the couponing tricks she observed on the show,” the Globe reports.
Pretty inspiring, right? Who knew couponing could get even cooler?
For the full scoop on Steinberg and Our Coupons Care, head over to the Globe.
Your Turn: Have you ever thought about couponing for a cause?
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.
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How These Women Are Making Good Money by Capturing Family Legacies
By Cathi Nelson As the years pass, one of the most distinct needs people have is to create a lasting legacy. Once their children are grown and grandchildren born, people begin to think less about tangible material things and more about the values and stories they want to leave behind. Life experiences and family traditions […]
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