The 70-year-old restaurant was originally cited for a September 2014 fundraising event.
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الجمعة، 29 يناير 2016
Personal Capital Review – Managing All Your Investments in One Place
One thing that I have craved for investors is a tool that allows you to sync all your investment accounts in one place, but one that also gives you more investment related analysis. I took out an account to do a full Personal Capital review of the financial aggregator, which means you can link all of your financial accounts – your investment portfolio, your checking and savings accounts, credit cards and other loan accounts – all into the same platform. That means that the site will provide you with a place where you can view your entire financial life in one place.
Mint does a fantastic job of giving you numbers, but falls short on giving you a greater insight into your overall investment portfolio.
For my clients, I subscribe to Blueleaf – which is fantastic. The only downside is that you have to be my client (or another advisor that uses it) to get access to it. I realize that everyone will not be my client so the hunt continued for another option. I then discovered Personal Capital.
Bam!
I was so excited to learn more about it that I immediately signed up. I synced all my investment accounts to give Personal Capital a try. In the meantime, I had Kevin write a review about them so you can better understand how this awesome (and often free) program works.
Financial advisors that focus primarily on wealth management can be costly to keep around. Sometimes they charge you as a percentage of assets managed and other times it is a flat hourly rate that can run as high several hundred dollars per hour – that in addition to trading commissions and administrative fees. What’s more, these wealth advisors aren’t really there to teach you how to put together a budget, they strictly manage your money.
You’re handing them a large chunk of your retirement and investment assets, and they manage it to get you top results. Sadly, these advisors — as excellent as they can be — are unreachable unless you have millions of dollars to invest.
But for the rest of us there is now a great option to consider: Personal Capital. This amazing service is like combining financial advisor extraordinaire Jeff Rose and budget management tool Mint.com into one handy website and smartphone app.
What is Personal Capital?
Personal Capital is an online tool that will help you:
- Monitor all of your financial accounts in real-time whether checking account, certificate of deposit, or retirement account
- Get objective investment advice designed to make you, not the advisor, money
- Provide investment options that are tailored to your goals
All while letting you manage this from a browser or on a slick smartphone app. I know what you’re thinking. “Okay, great, but why should I trust these new guys?” I’ve got to be honest with you. There were two words I saw on Personal Capital’s website that made my heart skip a beat.
Those two words. Are you ready?
Fiduciary Obligation
Here’s a straight copy from their website on what they offer:
Objective Advice The sorry truth is that bankers and brokers are motivated to help themselves, not you. They are salespeople paid to push products, earning commissions and kickbacks when they do. In stark contrast, Personal Capital is an investment advisor. We accept a fiduciary obligation to act in your best interest, and our advice must be aimed at making money for you, not for us.
This is absolutely key with any financial advisor you talk to whether in person or a company online. Fiduciary duty means the party has a legal obligation to put your interests above their own. Whereas normal brokers get paid commissions by getting you to churn your investments over and over (which costs you thousands of dollars in lost percentages here and there) Personal Capital is putting a requirement on themselves to put your interests above theirs.
This is huge.
And exactly what you should look for in an advisor of any kind. Major points for Personal Capital from me on this one.
How Personal Capital Works
Personal Capital offers a free version and a premium version that features direct investment management. Whichever version you use, your account is actually held by Pershing Advisor Solutions, who acts as trustee for your account.
The Free Version. With the free version you get full use of the Personal Capital dashboard as well as a free consultation from a financial advisor. That advisor will give you a personalized analysis of your investments, as well as recommendations as to what you can do with your portfolio.
In fact, you will have access to a financial advisor at any time, whether you use the free version for the premium version. Your financial advisor can be contacted by phone, email, or by online chat.
The free version includes many of the features and benefits that are available on the platform, including the 401(k) analyzer and access via the mobile app. For the most part however the free version will mostly enable you to aggregate all of your financial accounts, including your investments, on a platform.
The Premium Version. Also known as Personal Capital’s Wealth Management program, this is the version in which Personal Capital actively manages your investment portfolio. Similar to many managed investment platforms, they first determine your risk tolerance, personal preferences, and investment goals. Based on that evaluation, they create a portfolio that will fit within those parameters.
Investment Strategy. Personal Capital uses Modern Portfolio Theory (MPT), to manage your portfolio. MPT focuses less on individual security selection, and more on diversification across broad asset classes. Those asset classes include:
- US stocks (which can include individual stocks)
- US bonds
- International stocks
- International bonds
- Alternative investments (including ETFs and commodities)
- Cash
Though Personal Capital makes use of funds in constructing your portfolio, they may also include up to 100 individual securities in order to avoid being too heavily concentrated in a small number of companies.
Another factor that I found in my Personal Capital review that make them almost unique is that they use an integrated investment approach to managing your investments. That means that they consider all of your investment holdings, including those not managed by Personal Capital, in managing your portfolio. For example, though they do not manage your 401(k) plan, your allocations within the plan will be considered in managing your investments that are actually managed by Personal Capital.
Did I Mention It Is Free – at Least Sometimes?
All but one of the services from Personal Capital is absolutely free. Here’s what you get for zero dollars:
- Real-time financial dashboard
- Mobile device apps
- Objective investment advice
- Investment check-ups
The only thing that will cost you a fee is their personalized portfolio management. The fee structure looks like this:
- 0.89% of the first $1 million
- 0.79% of the first $3 million
- 0.69% of the next $2 million
- 0.59% of the next $5 million
- 0.49% on balances over $10 million
These fees are quite reasonable when compared with fees of 1% to 2% that are customarily charged by active investment management services. The fees apply only to the assets you have under management at Personal Capital, and not to other investments that may be aggregated on the site, such as your 401(k) plan.
In addition, there are no additional fees. Personal Capital does not charge fees for trading or commissions, administrative fees, or other types of investment fees. The fee that applies to your portfolio level is the actual fee you will pay.
Review of Personal Capital Tools and Benefits
There is a long list of tools and benefits in using Personal Capital. Some of the more interesting ones include:
The Investment Checkup. This tool analyzes your investment portfolio, and gives a risk assessment of of it, to make sure that your level of risk is consistent with your goals. This will help you to create an asset allocation that will get you where you need to go with your investments.
401(k) Fund Allocation. This tool can be used to analyze your employer-sponsored 401(k) plan, even though it is not under the direct management of Personal Capital. It can be used to help you with your asset allocation, at least based on the investment options that your plan includes. This is an excellent tool since most 401(k) plans don’t, any kind of investment management advice.
Retirement Planner. You can often find retirement planners or retirement calculators on various sites throughout the Internet. But what better place than to have it available where you also have all of your investment accounts listed? Personal Capital’s Retirement Planner allows you to run numbers on your retirement to make sure that you will be prepared when the time comes. It allows you to incorporate major changes in your life into your retirement planning, such as the birth of a child or saving for college.
Net Worth Calculator. Since Personal Capital aggregates all of your financial accounts on the same platform, they can also provide you with ongoing monitoring of your net worth. This will enable you to get the most comprehensive view of your financial situation, since it not only takes into account your assets, but also your debts. Net worth is the best single indicator of your overall financial strength, and this will give you an opportunity to track it.
Cash Flow Analyzer. Though our focus in this article has been primarily on the investment side of Personal Capital, it’s important to recognize that it also includes a budgeting capability. The Cash Flow Analyzer tracks your income and expenses from all sources, letting you know where you’re spending money (or spending too much of it), which will help you to make adjustments that will improve your overall budget.
Mobile App. Personal Capital’s mobile app is a free feature that can be downloaded on Apple iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch and Android. The mobile version has everything that is available on the desktop platform. It will enable you to track your investment portfolio, as well as your banking and credit card activity while you’re on the go.
Tax Optimization. Personal Capital uses tax optimization in the management of your portfolio. This feature is available to premium Wealth Management clients, and not if you are using the free version.
They use several tactics as part of tax optimization. For example, they include income producing investments in tax-deferred accounts, while growth oriented investments – that have the benefit of lower capital gains taxes – are held in taxable accounts.
In addition, they don’t use mutual funds, but instead use exchange traded funds with a mix of individual stocks, since stocks can be easily bought and sold for tax loss harvesting. And speaking of tax loss harvesting, they use this strategy to sell losing stocks, which offsets the gains on the sale of winning stocks. This strategy minimizes the negative impact on your investment portfolio from income taxes.
Site Security. Personal Capital uses bank level, military grade encryption on the platform. They also perform ongoing third-party security audits to test their systems. They also use device authentication so that each device you link your account must first be authenticated in order to be used
Crash Test Your Portfolio
Investing expenses and taxes are the two things you can absolutely count on within the investing world. You can’t rely on gains every year, but you can guarantee you will be taxed and you will pay expenses. That makes reducing those expenses as one of two ways you can control your investing destiny.
Thankfully, Personal Capital realizes this and offers you a really great tool to analyze the cost of your investments. Where this gets interesting is you can do an analysis on your employer’s 401 (k) plan (as discussed above) to discover whether your plan is amazing, just okay, or terrible as it comes to costs. You might be the person to go to HR to reveal just how expensive your plan is, lay out a new plan that would cut costs for everyone, and end up getting a promotion just for running a cost analysis.
Even if you don’t get promoted to head investment advisor for your employer, at the very least you’ll save your own retirement from exorbitant fees. And that’s a huge win we can all settle for.
Want to try out the 401 k analyzer? Click the crash test dummy above.
Is Personal Capital for Me?
The idea of wealth management means you need to have wealth to manage. If you’re struggling to get out of debt, that’s okay, but Personal Capital probably isn’t the best fit for you. In that case Mint might be a better option and you can see a full comparison in how to better meet your needs in my complete personal capital vs mint review.
However, if you are building up your retirement assets and want to be able to maximize your nest egg without gambling on penny stocks then you should definitely sign up for the service. You can use all of the features aside from the personalized portfolio management for absolutely free. There is no reason to not take a look at what they are offering.
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Orange County Choppers headquarters in NY to be sold at auction
The headquarters for Orange County Choppers will be sold at auction, starting March 7, 2016, according to a listing in Auction.com.The starting bid will be $900,000 for the 61,000-square-foot building, according to the listing and the auction will run through March 9.The building was built in 2008 exclusively for the custom motorcycle operation based in Newburgh, New York. Orange County Choppers eventually surrendered the property to its financier, GE [...]
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Source Business - poconorecord.com http://ift.tt/1nTNUc9
The New Barbies are Out! Here’s How to Snag One for Less Than $5
I know you’re rushing to your computer to put in your order for the all new Barbie.
Oh, didn’t you hear? Barbie’s got a new body. Three of them, actually.
Now available on Mattel.com, Barbie dolls will be available not only in the Original — exhaustively debated — form, but also in “Curvy,” “Tall” and “Petite.”
Barbie has remained a staple toy among kids since her debut in 1959, due in part to her affordable price tag.
The new Barbie dolls are available from Mattel for $9.99 — but we’re going to show you how to get yours for just $4.39
Save Money on Barbie Through Deal-Stacking
The dolls are brand-new, so don’t expect to see them on sale, discounted on Amazon or featured on coupons anytime soon.
But that doesn’t mean you have to settle for buying them at face value!
At The Penny Hoarder, we know you can always make a good deal just a little better.
One of the best ways to do it is deal-stacking — bringing down an existing price with as many discounts, sales, coupons and other deals as you can during the transaction.
Here’s how to bring down the price of your new Barbie doll.
1. Shop Mattel.com Through a Cash-Back Website
Tall, Petite and Curvy Barbie are still only available on Mattel’s website, so you’ll have to place your order online.
The best way to save on any online shopping is to shop through a cash-back website, also known as a shopping portal.
You’ll visit a store through a cash-back website’s link, shop as you would normally and receive a percentage in rewards points you can redeem for cash or gift cards.
We always start at Cashbackholic, which shows you the websites offering the best cash-back deals for the site you want to shop. Offers vary regularly, so always compare before you shop.
In this case, Mr. Rebates is offering 5% cash-back when you shop Mattel.com through their site. Plus, if you’re creating a new account, you’ll also receive a $5 bonus.
That’s $5.50 in rewards!
2. Get Free Shipping at Mattel.com
We hate when shipping costs come in and totally ruin all our great savings.
You’ve got a few options for free shipping on the new Barbie doll, but none are perfect.
We found this Groupon deal for free shipping from Mattel.com. But you have to shop Mattel through the link at Groupon, which means you can’t use this deal and get the cash back above.
Estimated standard shipping is $7.49, so if you want one, two or three dolls, you’re better off shopping through the Groupon link.
Mattel offers free shipping on any orders $35 or more, so if you buy at least four dolls, you’re better off shopping through the cash-back site. You won’t pay for shipping, and you’ll receive $7 in cash-back rewards.
Not a bad way to get a head start on birthdays and holiday shopping for the year!
We also found a coupon code for free shipping from Mattel you can try: BDAYBASH
Some people have reported success using the code, but it didn’t work when I applied it today. To save $7.49, it’s worth trying!
3. Pay With a Cash-Back Credit Card
Pay for your order with a rewards credit card, and you’ll earn even more cash back on your purchase.
For example, use the Barclaycard Rewards MasterCard® to earn 1% cash rewards.
That’s another $0.10 cash back (per doll).
Save $5.60 on the New Barbie
All told, here’s what you’ll pay if you use these deal-stacking tips to buy the new Barbie now:
Original Price: $9.99
Cash-back site: $5.50 cash back
Rewards credit card: $0.10 cash back
Plus FREE Shipping
What you’ll pay today: $9.99
The Penny Hoarder Price (after cash back): $4.39
Your Turn: What do you think of the new Barbie body types? Did you play with an Original Barbie growing up?
Dana Sitar (@danasitar) is a staff writer at The Penny Hoarder. She’s written for Huffington Post, Entrepreneur.com, Writer’s Digest and more.
The post The New Barbies are Out! Here’s How to Snag One for Less Than $5 appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.
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House prices rise by 6.4% – but dip in £1m-plus sales
Property prices continued to grow steadily in England and Wales in December 2015, according to the Land Registry’s latest House Price Index.
The cost of the average home in England and Wales rose by 1.2% from November, with an annual increase of 6.4%.
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I Struggled to Find Enough Cash to Start a Business… Until I Tried This Traditional Saving Strategy
Saving has always been a challenge for me. While I continuously applied the pay-yourself-first principle to my finances, I struggled to stick to my budget.
So when I wanted to start a cake-decorating business, I needed another way to pay my startup costs. I preferred not to take out a loan because of interest charges.
When my co-worker suggested we start a sou-sou, I was ecstatic and thankful for her excellent suggestion.
What’s a Sou-Sou?
A sou-sou is a simple savings plan.
It’s a West African tradition also popular in the Caribbean. It requires a group of people to contribute a fixed amount of money either weekly, bi-weekly or monthly to a group account, with one member responsible for collecting the cash.
The group holds a random draw to determine the order in which each person will receive their lump sum payment. However, once each person receives their cash, they still have to contribute until everyone gets their payment.
A sou-sou could run for six months, or even up to a year — it all depends on how many people are in on it. Sou-sous continue until everyone receives their payout at least once.
How I Used a Sou-Sou to Start a Business
Curious about this somewhat unorthodox way to fund a new business? Here’s how I started a sou-sou to help me make enough money to get my cake-decorating business off the ground.
Determine How Much Cash You Need to Start Your Business
I created an inventory of supplies I’d need to start my business, then calculated the total cost of buying them. This helped me make sure I’d be able to get started once I received my payout.
Next, I looked for vendors and shopped around to find the best prices — then asked about a discount for buying in bulk. It never hurts to ask! This helped me save 20% of the original cost when I eventually bought everything.
Find Cash in Your Budget and Earn Extra Money
I needed to free up some money to go towards my sou-sou, so I decided to eliminate one bill from my monthly budget.
I compared my cable and internet bills to see which was costing me more, and canceled my $50 per month cable service — a whopping savings that helped me start my business.
To earn extra cash, I also sold cakes at community events at a reduced price. Consider how you could earn a few extra dollars a month to go towards your business. For example, babysit for friends, or bartend on the weekends.
Form a Group
Everyone in my department had previously been involved in a successful sou-sou, and since we were all working toward financial goals, it was easy for the team to get on board.
A total of 10 colleagues joined the sou-sou, but you can start one with any number of people. Ask co-workers, relatives and fellow church or gym members if they want in.
Choose a Cash Collector
We nominated my supervisor as cash collector, and placed our money in a locked box in her office. Two people had to be present when money was deposited or paid out.
Since we each received monthly salaries, we decided on a deadline for everyone to pay up.
My supervisor was also in the sou-sou. If the person collecting the cash isn’t in on it, they’re sometimes paid a percentage by each member. If my supervisor wasn’t a member, she would’ve received 5% of our earnings for managing the sou-sou.
Decide on a Reasonable Contribution
We considered our final objectives and unanimously decided on a realistic amount each person would pay.
There were 10 members and we decided to each contribute $100 per month — meaning we’d each get a $1,000 payout.
A few members were unable to contribute the full amount, so they joined with another member to each contribute $50 per month. When their payout time came, each person received $500 — a 50% payout.
I decided to double my contributions and pay $200 a month, meaning I’d get two $1,000 payouts to help me fund my business.
Propose Accountability
We suggested each person in the group be accountable to another member to make sure they spent their money toward their goals.
For example, I chose an accountability partner who would make sure I invested my $1,000 in my business and didn’t spend it on something else.
If I didn’t, I’d have to pay my partner 20% of my payout — an huge amount we chose to help motivate me to stick to my goal.
How My Sou-Sou Worked Out
Our sou-sou began in January and I received my payout in May. Since I doubled my contribution, I received another payout in November, which I also put toward my business.
Not only was I able to start my business, I consistently saved money! The group initiative was a huge part of my motivation, and everyone agreed having the support of other members of the sou-sou was crucial to our success.
My choice to use a sou-sou rather than taking out a loan paid off. I didn’t owe the bank any money, and I saved $200 I would have paid in interest charges.
With the assistance of friends or family, saving money to start a business is possible. $100 or $200 may not seem like much, but after a few months or years, it could be enough to get your business off the ground or help expand it without a loan.
Your Turn: Have you tried a sou-sou? Let us know in the comments!
Kerry Mc Donald is a freelance writer. She has written for sites such as Career Addict and Hivesource. A mother of two active boys, ages 2 and 7, Kerry believes it’s important to be creative with your finances and is always in search of inventive ways to save and invest money. You can follow her on Twitter or visit her website: kerryfreelancewriter.com.
The post I Struggled to Find Enough Cash to Start a Business… Until I Tried This Traditional Saving Strategy appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.
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Get More From Landing Pages: 6 Ways to Use Them More Effectively
It’s the aim of most marketing and sales efforts:
Conversion.
All your work is designed to get visitors, leads, and even customers to take the next step.
Getting them more involved with your brand and products is necessary to drive sales.
There are obviously many ways of doing this. Blog posts, emails, e-books, and more.
But there’s one option that is almost always better at converting traffic to the next step:
Landing pages.
A landing page has a single goal, which you define. It might be to sign up to an email list, buy a product, or create an account for your site.
Everything on the page is focused on achieving that goal, which is why they are more effective than other types of content.
But the term landing page is still pretty broad.
There are actually many different types of landing pages—each is ideal for a different situation in a different business.
If you understand what each type of landing page consists of, why it’s effective in specific situations, and how to make them, you’ll be able to use the right landing page for the right job.
And that’s exactly what I’m going to show you.
By the end of this post, you’ll know what the 6 highest converting landing pages are, when to use them, and how to make them.
1. Product not quite ready? Use a “Coming soon” landing page
One big mistake that you can make is to not promote a product ahead of time.
Just because a product isn’t fully developed doesn’t mean that people wouldn’t want to hear about it and get notified when it’s ready.
If your product presents a unique solution, your target audience is going to do whatever they can to get their hands on it, whether it’s now or in the near future.
Now, if you promote a product before it’s ready, you can’t send people to a sales page that doesn’t exist.
Instead, you should send them to a “coming soon” landing page.
These are becoming increasingly popular as companies recognize how effective they can be.
Essentially, you want to create a simple landing page that makes it clear that the product is coming soon and that allows the visitor to opt in to get updates on the product.
This way, the marketing team isn’t just twiddling their thumbs while the product guys are at work.
Additionally, this type of landing page gives you really good validation.
If you’re getting terrible conversion rates from targeted traffic, then no one is interested in the product. You can save yourself a lot of time and money by either scrapping the product or taking it in a different direction.
The other benefit is a bit more obvious: you have a list of qualified leads.
When you do launch your product, it won’t be to an empty room. You can get your first wave of orders almost immediately, which will give you the feedback you need to refine the product.
Keys to an effective “coming soon” page: This type of landing page isn’t terribly difficult to create, but you still need to make sure you include all the most important elements.
I’m about to go over all the elements with you. They should all be included when possible, although not in any specific order.
First is the product itself. Visitors need to know what the page is about. In the example above, the product is mentioned “briefly” in the second largest line. It doesn’t need to be huge, but visitors should understand that you’re developing an actual product.
Next, make it clear that the product isn’t ready. This should be one of the largest parts of the page.
On top of that, you need to specify when the product will be ready.
If you’re not sure, you can be a bit vague and say something like “coming Winter 2016.” However, it’s better to get specific when possible. If you can, add a countdown to the page:
Finally, it’s absolutely crucial that you clearly sum up what your product has to offer.
In one or two sentences, describe what your product is and how it can help your target audience. This should be one of the main focal points on the page.
For example, on the coming soon page you see below, it’s clear that “shopidex” is a community specifically created for small business owners looking for growth.
Visitors know whether they are in that target market and can easily decide whether they’re interested in that type of product.
You can expand past those few sentences if you like, but you don’t have to unless you have a rather complex product.
Finally, you need an opt-in, and you should also make it clear what your visitors are opting in for, e.g., “enter your email to be notified when the product is ready.”
Tools to help you make a “coming soon” page easily: While “coming soon” pages are simple enough that they could be built from scratch, you really don’t need to.
There are many tools that have these types of templates. You simply click on the “coming soon” template, then click on each piece of text, and edit it however you like.
One option is Kickoff Labs, which has 20 different themes for “coming soon” pages. It isn’t free, however:
Perhaps the most popular landing page creator is Unbounce, and they have a decent selection of attractive “coming soon” page templates:
Again, it’s not a free tool, but it’s easily worth the money if you regularly create landing pages.
Another solid option is Lander, which has a good collection of “coming soon” templates.
The tool you use doesn’t really matter as long as you understand the principles we went over in this section.
2. How to incorporate video into an effective landing page
If you have a unique and potentially complex product, it can be hard to convey everything within a short page.
One great option is to include a video on the landing page and make it the primary element. You can still have text explaining the product and its benefits, but that’s included afterwards.
Here’s an example of this type of landing page on Crazy Egg:
The video is the sole focus of the page. You could have text beside it as well, and even a button, but the video should stand out so that visitors understand that they should watch it.
Components of an effective explainer video: Videos can be a great tool on landing pages because very few people will scroll down a long page of text. However, a large percentage of them will watch a 1-2 minute video.
It also makes it difficult for them to skip past an important point by accident as you usually have their full attention as they watch.
But putting up just any video obviously isn’t enough.
A bad video will result in a bad conversion rate, just as a great video will result in a great conversion rate.
There are two main aspects of an effective video that you need to try to achieve.
The first is quality.
Videos have come a long way in recent years, and viewers expect professionally made videos.
This means:
- no blurriness
- good lighting
- no background noises or echoes
- no stuttering or unclear speech
on top of other things.
Unless you happen to have the knowledge and experience to produce a video like that, you’re going to need professional help (more on that in a minute).
The second main aspect is a compelling story.
People associate videos with entertainment. You have 1 or 2 minutes to tell a short, compelling story about why your product is important and why it’s awesome.
It doesn’t need to be complex, but you want to introduce your product, highlight the most important features, and show all the ways the viewer could benefit from them.
If you feel like you struggle with this aspect of videos, read these articles I’ve written in the past:
- How to Leverage Storytelling to Increase Your Conversions
- How to Engage and Persuade People Through Storytelling
- Tell Your Brand’s Story
4 steps to create an explainer video: If you’re still with me, you probably have a good idea in mind for using a video on a landing page.
All that remains is to know exactly what to do to actually make one.
Step 1 is to decide on a budget. Quality videos often cost more than $1,000 per minute of video.
Remember that quality always comes first, so if you have a limited budget, make your video shorter instead of cutting corners on the creation.
Step 2 then, of course, is to hire a freelance explainer video creator. You can find these on any major freelance site (like Upwork or Freelancer) just by searching for keywords such as “explainer video” or “product video”:
Again, you typically get what you pay for. Don’t cheap out unless you have no other options.
Alternatively, you can use a specialized marketplace for video creators like Video Brewery.
Step 3 is to work with your freelancer to develop a video outline and script. You could do this yourself to save a bit of money if needed.
Step 4 is to simply wait for your freelancer to create the video, give them feedback for edits, and then publish the video.
If you’ve never created a video, this might seem overwhelming. Just break it down into small steps, and you’ll see that it’s fairly easy.
3. Selling a complex product? Highlight its features
If you have a complex product, creating a video is one way to convey all its features.
However, there are drawbacks of videos. For one, they are much harder to edit than text and images.
Second, not everyone likes video. Those people would rather read, so it almost always makes sense to have text on the page anyway.
Finally, Google can’t index videos well, so if you want your landing page to rank for any terms in the search engine, you’d better have a decent amount of text.
If you have a product with complex features, you’re not just solving one problem—you are solving many with your product.
There’s no way to concisely explain all those benefits in a few sentences.
If you try to, you might end up confusing visitors who are looking for one specific solution that your product provides, but not the others.
So, what’s the solution?
It’s to create sections on your landing page, one for each main feature.
The order is important. You want to order them from most commonly sought after to least sought after.
Here’s what I’m talking about: Aweber landing page has clear sections (with differently colored backgrounds) for different purposes.
The top section focuses on the 3 main components of Aweber’s software (they jump out in blue bolded text):
The next section has a testimonial.
The page continues on, and you go through a few more sections that highlight different features and benefits of the product.
For example, further down is a section that highlights how easy it is to integrate the product with other popular applications:
You don’t necessarily have to have differently colored backgrounds, but there should be clear divides for each section.
Explain each feature in plain language: One important aspect of creating a section for all the features of your product that is often ignored is the language you use.
It’s not enough to simply list the feature; you need to describe it in simple terms—those that your customers would use themselves.
Despite having a huge customer base and complex products, Hubspot still does a fantastic job of this.
Look at this example from one of their landing pages for their Sidekick tool:
In particular, notice how clear each section is.
From the text color and size to the images and center dots, it’s clear where each section begins and ends.
Then, look at the language they use.
For example:
Sidekick shows you relevant details about your contacts…email opens, links to social profiles, and more.
Many companies would have written something like this instead:
Sidekick shows you insights into your customers’ web presence. Improve your demographic information collection and message targeting easily.
I would bet quite a bit of money that you’ve read something like that on a landing page before.
It leaves you scratching your head, saying “huh?”
While making your product sound complicated might seem like a good way to justify its cost, using vague, high-level language actually has the opposite effect.
Use simple and concise language, similar to your audience’s.
4. Stop selling to cold traffic, and use a lead generating landing page instead
Remember that landing pages can be used in almost every step of your sales funnel.
They are optimized for conversions…of any kind.
But in order for them to work effectively, your landing page visitors need to be in the right place in the buying process.
Even the best landing page is going to struggle to sell a product if the visitor has never heard of it or your brand.
However, that very same landing page could have an amazing conversion rate when the visitors already know and like your brand. It could be even better if they’re really struggling with the problem your product solves.
Those people who’ve never heard of you, your product, or your website are called “cold traffic.”
The others, with whom you’ve touched base before are considered “warm traffic” and are much more likely to convert.
Is this really a landing page problem?
While at first it might seem like a traffic problem, it is a problem that can be solved with landing pages.
Instead of sending cold traffic directly to one of your landing pages that sells a product, you send them to an earlier in your sales funnel landing page.
Forget about asking them to do something big like pull out their wallets to buy something. Let’s get them on an email list first.
Once you get them to subscribe, you can start sending them emails and building a relationship. And eventually, you send them to that product landing page.
Starting your sales funnel with a landing page: A large percentage of highly successful businesses use this strategy. I urge you to consider it.
For example, Unbounce is arguably the biggest provider of landing page creation tools there is. They’ve done extensive testing to ensure that their landing pages have the lowest bounce rate possible (and highest conversion rate).
That applies to their templates for sale as well as to their own landing pages. Here’s an example of one:
Notice how they focus you on the page to get you to give them your email address in exchange for their email course.
They make it difficult to even find the pricing page on this landing page because they don’t want their cold traffic to do anything else but to join an email list.
Unlike on a blog, where the value you provide through free content might be enough to get someone to sign up for an email list, cold traffic to a landing page needs an incentive.
As you might know, the incentive is called a lead magnet.
The more enticing the lead magnet is, the higher your opt-in rate will be.
If you have a great offer and send the right type of traffic to a landing page with a lead magnet, it’s possible to achieve conversion rates of over 50%.
The 3 keys to an effective lead magnet: Creating an appealing lead magnet isn’t easy, but it’s not difficult either.
It requires understanding of the three key factors that affect your conversion rate.
The first factor is relevance.
There are two components of relevance. The obvious one is that your offer has to be relevant to your traffic’s interests.
So, if your target audience consists of dog lovers, your lead magnet should be something like a book about dogs, not cats.
But your lead magnet should also be relevant to your audience’s problems.
If many of your visitors are struggling to find good ways to play with their dogs, you might offer an e-book like “5 Ways to Play With Your Dog More Efficiently.”
Compare that to an e-book along the lines of “25 Awesome Dog Names.” While it’s about dogs, which is relevant, it’s not relevant to any of that audience’s problems.
The second factor is related to relevance, and it’s value.
It’s very simple:
The more someone values your lead magnet, the more likely they are to opt in to your email list.
A 10% off coupon is more appealing than a 5% off coupon.
An e-book with 10 ways to play more efficiently with your dog is more valuable than one with only 5 ways.
Additionally, if your lead magnet solves a pressing problem of a visitor, they will put a lot more value on it, which is why relevance is also important.
Finally, the third factor is feasibility.
Remember that we can’t directly ask cold traffic to buy something because it’s asking too much too soon.
For the same reason, you don’t want to overwhelm those visitors with a huge lead magnet.
Imagine you offered this email course: “A 52-Week Course to Dog Training Master”.
While that would have more value than a 10-week course, it also doesn’t seem feasible to most visitors—it’s too much.
So, while you want to provide as much value as you can, there’s a certain point where the extra value becomes too much work for your visitors.
Find the balance between too much and too little value.
If you understand those three factors, you’re ready for my step-by-step guide to creating amazing lead magnets.
5. Focus on the problem you solve before introducing the product
I know you love your product, but sometimes, your customers don’t.
So far, we’ve looked at landing pages that focused on communicating the features and benefits of products.
Sometimes, however, they aren’t the most important thing.
For simple problems, customers already know exactly what they’re trying to find.
If you sell a product to such customers, you need to take a different approach.
On your landing page, you should have very clear, simple text as the focal point:
That main text should describe the product the visitor is looking for.
Let’s say that a visitor knows they need an affordable shag carpet.
Instead of focusing immediately on the quality of your carpets such as the perfect softness, size, and all other sorts of things, you state the obvious:
Affordable shag carpets for any home.
Below that, you can add another sentence of your product’s best feature(s). Maybe the carpets are made with a special material that your customers might appreciate, etc.
The key here is that they care about finding the exact product they have in their mind first, before even considering the features.
The 2 most important parts of this type of landing page: If you have a simple product that is suitable for this type of landing page, there are two keys to maximizing your conversion rate.
The first is your main statement, which is typically made as a headline across the middle.
The worst thing you can do is get clever.
State what your product does and offers in one concise sentence so that visitors know that they’re in the right place. Just like we did above.
The second key is having a good call to action.
The call to action is usually placed in some sort of button that you want the visitor to click. It then takes them to a sales page or some other landing page to learn more about your product.
Your button can potentially say a lot of different things:
You can improve the effectiveness of your calls to action by using language that describes an action.
Instead of the common calls to action, like:
- Learn more
- Download
- Buy this
create more specific calls to action for your product. If your product is a dog training manual, you could try:
- I want my dog to listen!
- I’m sick of disobedience
- Download my dog training solution
To make it even more effective, apply urgency by adding a word like “today” or “now.”
Here is my complete guide to making your button calls to action more effective.
6. Let your visitor choose their own adventure
There’s one type of product that you might be selling that we haven’t talked about yet.
If you have a complex product, the other options we’ve looked at so far might not suit it.
Certain products have many different features, all of which could be their own products. Different customers might be interested in a specific feature and not care about the others.
If you use the other options we’ve looked at so far, you’ll be emphasizing certain features near the top of your landing page.
This is good for your potential customers who want that specific feature, but it will cause potential customers interested in other main features to lose interest and not convert well.
The solution is to give them a choice.
Instead of jumping right into a feature, you let your visitors choose what they’re interested in. Then, depending on the button or link they choose, you take them to a certain section of the page (or even to a different landing page).
Hubspot is a great example of this. They have a complex product that serves both marketers and salespeople. Each group is interested in different things.
On a Hubspot landing page, there’s a link to get more information on their marketing platform as well as their sales software:
On top of that, they also offer a lead magnet, just in case any cold traffic finds their page.
When to use a “choose your own adventure” landing page: The main factor that will determine whether you should use this type of landing page is whether your traffic is comprised of different types of people.
Some products appeal to many different audiences, and those audiences need to be approached differently because they care about using your product in different ways.
Ideally, you’d send them to a landing page designed just for them, but that’s not always possible. That is when a “choose your own adventure” page is the next best option.
How to make your own adventure landing page: The great thing about this type of page is that it’s fairly easy to make. All you need are links to different landing pages or to content further down on your landing page.
If you need to implement the second option, it’s pretty simple.
There are two parts. The first is your anchor point, where the page will jump to when you click the link.
Put the anchor point on the heading of the section that you want someone to jump down to.
For example:
Hubspot for marketers
Then, go back up to where you’d like to place the link, but instead of putting an entire address in the link tag, type the “id” name that you specified after a hashtag when you created the anchor point.
Like this:
Learn how Hubspot helps marketers
Put that link in a button or panel near the top of the page, and the segment of visitors interested in those features can go right to them without getting confused.
Conclusion
Landing pages are an important tool that should be in every marketer’s arsenal.
But if you want to take full advantage of landing pages in your work, you need to use the right type for the situation.
I’ve shown you 6 of the highest converting types of landing pages, and you should now understand when to use them and why they work.
If you’re not sure whether a certain type of landing page is right for a situation you have, leave me a comment below describing the situation and your thoughts. I’ll try to steer you in the right direction.
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Lloyds share sale delayed until ‘financial markets settle down’
The government’s planned sale of its final 10% stake in Lloyds Banking Group to the public, originally scheduled in somewhat vague terms for this spring, has been delayed due to market turbulence.
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Spare Time: Higher Earnings or Lower Spending?
Sarah (no, not my wife) wrote in with a really good question:
Let’s say I have a free weekend. Am I better off spending that time earning money or being frugal? I know it probably depends on the options available to me, but which one is more important to look at seriously?
As you mentioned, Sarah, it really has a lot to do with your personal situation. Are you on solid financial footing right now or is debt ready to drag you under? What is your career like? What is your skill set like? How much “low hanging fruit” do you have when it comes to frugality? Is this an unusual weekend, or do you have a lot of free Saturdays?
So, let’s walk through some of these questions.
The State of Your Finances
One simple rule really sums up the connection between the state of your finances and the choice between frugality and income.
The more precarious your financial state, the higher priority you should put on frugality.
The reason for this is very simple. Frugality’s big advantage is its speed. You can spend a weekend doing frugal things and see the financial benefit very, very quickly. Sometimes you even see it immediately; at other times, it’s obvious within just a few days. It’s virtually always obvious within a few weeks.
The problem with earning more money with your time is that the turnaround often isn’t that quick. If you spend a weekend on tasks designed to earn you more money, the vast majority of the things you might do won’t immediately put more money in your pocket. Instead, they put you in a better position to earn money over the long haul. Even if you do some things that earn a little money in a very direct way, you often won’t see the pay for that immediately.
So, if your finances are pretty precarious, you need to choose the avenue that sees more immediate results, and that’s frugality. Spend your weekend finding ways to minimize your spending over the next few weeks by making meals in advance, carefully planning out your meals, making your living space more energy efficient, and so on.
The less desperate your financial state is, the more you’re able to dedicate that spare time to activities that might earn more money. Things like getting a part time job or doing tasks on Fiverr or Mechanical Turk will translate your time into cash in a more direct way, while things like taking a class or building a skill or starting a microbusiness are very long-term approaches that can potentially see big rewards.
Career Status
Another thing to consider is the state of your current career path.
The more options you have to move up in your current career path, the more worthwhile it is to spend your free weekend preparing to earn more money.
Similarly, the more you want to switch career paths, the more worthwhile it is to spend your free weekend finding new paths to earn money.
On the other hand, if you’re pretty happy with your job but it doesn’t have a whole lot of upward potential, your time is probably better spent on frugal preparations.
In 2006, I was definitely on board with finding new sources of income. Although I liked some aspects of my job, it was pretty clear that there was no upward path for me to follow. So, I devoted a lot of my spare time to building The Simple Dollar.
Today, I actually enjoy my job quite a bit. I like the regularity of the work and the relative freedom I have. I could probably “move up” by writing more, but I’m in a happy place with things for now. Thus, I’m more likely to devote spare time to frugal projects.
Skills to Pay the Bills
Another thing worth considering is whether your skill set gives you a lot of opportunity to earn money elsewhere. This depends a lot on your current job and the skills you have at your disposal.
Are you in a situation where your skill set doesn’t open a lot of doors for you? Or do you have skills that will make it easy to find a new job?
Here’s another way to look at it. Let’s say you were fired tomorrow. Could your current resume and skill set find you a new job that pays reasonably well within a month or two? Or would you be in a serious pickle and likely have to find an entry level job quickly?
The stronger your skill set is, the better options you naturally have in front of you when it comes to earning income. You have better job opportunities and better freelancing opportunities. On the other hand, the weaker your skills are, the more precarious your entire situation is.
To translate that, if a job loss would put you in a situation where you could not easily find comparable work quickly, you need to spend your free time building up a skill set that would make that liability disappear. On the other hand, if you have a skill set that would make finding a new job quite easy, then there is much less pressure to spend your spare time building skills.
A lot of this has to do with what you’re already doing at work. Do you have a job that builds skills that others might find valuable? If the answer is yes, then you have a bit less incentive to spend your spare time building skills. If the answer is no, you need to be building the skills that pay the bills.
Low Hanging Frugal Fruit
Another factor comes in when you examine your previous frugal efforts.
Have you taken care of some of the more obvious frugal tasks that can save a ton of money?
Have you done things like air seal your home, install LED light bulbs everywhere, move your credit card debt to lower interest rate offers, shop around for better insurance and cell phone rates, make a bunch of meals in advance, and so on? These are things that pop up over and over again on lists of things to do to save money because they’re easy one-time tasks that really make a big difference.
On the other hand, if you’ve taken care of a lot of that low-hanging fruit, then frugal projects gradually become less and less productive for the time and energy involved. If you already have a bunch of meals in the freezer, your home is air sealed and insulated well, you have a great cell phone rate, you have LED bulbs everywhere, and you don’t have credit card debt, then finding frugal projects to do might be trickier than it would be for others.
In other words, if you’re really stretching to find a frugal project to take on, then you might want to focus your spare time on earning more money. On the other hand, if there are lots of obvious projects, getting those things taken care of will see a healthy return for your time and energy.
The State of Your Free Time
Want even more to think about? Another really important factor is the nature of this free weekend that you have.
If you normally have a block of free time on weekends, then getting involved in a side business or a degree program or another long term plan to really raise your income is probably a smart move; on the other hand, if the block of time is unusual, frugal tasks are probably a better choice.
The reason for this is consistency. Many avenues for boosting your income require some continuous effort over time. Launching a small business? Continuous effort. Working toward a degree program? Continuous effort. Building new skills? Continuous effort. You can’t make those things happen with one afternoon once in a while.
On the other hand, many frugal tasks are one-off things. You can do them once and the savings lasts for a long time. You don’t have to put continuous effort into things like air-sealing your home or negotiating better credit card rates. You can do them once and enjoy the benefits for a while without having to contribute continuous effort.
So, the more consistent your free time, the more sense it makes to work toward a higher level of income. The less consistent, the more you might want to consider taking on one-off frugal tasks like making extra meals in advance and freezing them.
Final Thoughts
It shouldn’t be surprising to you to hear that I think there is more than enough room for both frugality and income improvement in a person’s life. I’m not the type that thinks frugality is useless, nor do I think that earning more money is a pipe dream. Both are useful because both contribute to the big goal of personal finance – spending less than you earn.
If you’re like most people, some of these questions likely hinted toward frugality, while others nudged you toward earning more money. That’s completely normal, but it doesn’t really help answer which path you should be on.
In my eyes, it comes down really to three questions being key. First, are you in a very precarious financial situation? Second, is your free time pretty inconsistent? Third, do you have a lot of low-hanging frugal tasks that you could easily take care of with some free time? If you answer yes to two out of three of those, then I’d probably put a priority on frugality. If you answered yes to only one of them, then I’d strongly consider devoting your spare time to building up a bigger income.
Whatever route you choose, good luck. Taking a serious approach to improving your financial state is always a good thing, whether it takes the form of cutting your spending or improving your income.
The post Spare Time: Higher Earnings or Lower Spending? appeared first on The Simple Dollar.
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Ever Dreamed of Working for QVC? Here’s What Happened When One Writer Tried it for a Day
All right, time to reveal an embarrassing secret: I sometimes watch QVC.
Something about the lights, salesmanship and energy draws me in.
If you’ve ever found yourself nodding while some lady says you NEED this wrinkle-removing skin cream — when you don’t even have wrinkles — you know what I’m talking about.
Inevitably, one question arises while I’m watching: Who are these people hawking the items? How did they get there?
So I was excited to read Mark Wilson’s recent feature for Fast Company: I Went on Air at QVC and Sold Something to America.
The article didn’t disappoint. If you’re looking for a funny and fascinating read, I’d recommend reading it in full.
For the rest of you, here’s a brief rundown of his unique experience…
What Happened When a Random Guy Went on QVC
If you’re wondering if QVC is even a thing anymore, it is.
“The network now does $8.8 billion in worldwide sales a year,” Wilson reports, and thanks to e-commerce, “has become the fifth largest mobile retailer in the world.”
Guess I’m not the only one lured by the brilliant smiles and promises of life-changing beauty products.
So who’s behind those brilliant smiles?
First off, it’s important to distinguish between “hosts” and “experts.”
QVC employs 27 hosts, who usually come from modeling or acting backgrounds. They don’t go it alone, though; on each segment, a host is paired with an expert.
“It might be the product’s inventor, a paid spokesperson, or even a celebrity like Rachel Ray or the late Joan Rivers,” Wilson writes.
“And every product expert — even the celebrities and supermodels, I’m told — has to go through QVC’s one-day TV bootcamp to be certified to go on-air.”
Somehow, Wilson convinced QVC to let him attend the bootcamp, he writes, with one stipulation: “If I passed, I got to really sell something that night on air.”
He learned what to do: “One’s nails must be manicured; print shirts weren’t to be worn. Blue, green, pink, and plum solids were the only approved colors.”
And what not to do: “If you go up there with the intent to sell, it’s all going to come crashing down around you.”
Though he had a rough start, he passed the class, and got the opportunity to sell a (somewhat shoddy) combination cell phone charger and wallet on national television.
How’d he do?
Well, I’ll let you be the judge.
Your Turn: Have you ever dreamed of being on QVC?
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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Here Are the Worst Ways to Borrow Money — and What to Do Instead
A scam.
That’s what financial writer Robert Kiyosaki calls the common advice to get out of debt.
Of course, he’s not in favor of bigger credit card balances. He advises borrowing to buy wealth-building assets, like a rental property.
Many financial experts make a distinction between “bad” and “good debt,” the latter referring to investment and business debt.
But the definition may be a bit limited, because there are several good reasons to borrow money. They include…
To Make Money in Various Ways
Borrowing for investment and business purposes are obvious examples.
But good debt can also include educational debt that leads to a degree, boosting lifetime earnings. If getting a car loan is the only way you can make it to work, it also might be a good reason to borrow.
To Save Money in Various Ways
Good debt can also include borrowing for purposes that help you save more money than the debt costs.
The most obvious example is borrowing to buy a house when it’s cheaper than renting. Another example is borrowing to insulate an attic, permanently reducing heating bills.
To Cover Emergency Expenses
This is a tricky area. “Emergencies” can largely be prevented — in theory.
For example, you know you’ll eventually have an expensive car repair. You could save for it, rather than let it become an emergency that requires going into debt.
On the other hand, borrowing for crucial (and unpredictable) medical care is an example of good, and often necessary, debt.
Clearly, there are times when you should go into debt.
But to borrow smart, you also have to consider how you borrow. Here’s a look at some of the best and worst ways to borrow money.
The Worst Ways to Borrow Money
When you carry credit card debt, you pay more for everything in interest charges.
If you can afford loan payments for a car, boat or vacation, you can afford to save for those instead. Why add interest to the cost?
In general, consumer debt is all “bad debt.”
But even when you have a good reason to borrow, some ways to do it are worse than others. The worst may be…
Payday Loans
“On average, payday loans carry a 391% APR (annual %age rate),” or about 100 times higher than mortgage rates, according to the Center for Responsible Lending.
And since the average payday borrower has numerous annual transactions, it’s not likely this is true emergency borrowing.
Even the next option on our list is probably better than a payday loan.
Pawn Shops
Depending on state regulations, annualized interest rates at pawn shops can get as high as 240%, Nolo.com points out.
Rather than borrowing against things you value (and risking their loss), find things you no longer need and sell them to raise the cash you need. Here’s an A-to-Z guide to selling your stuff.
Credit Card Cash Advances
The average credit card cash advance interest rate is 24.24%.
It’s better than pawn shops and payday loans, but there’s more to the story. The cash advance fee is often 5% of the amount borrowed.
A credit card cash advance loan of $2,000 for three months with 5% upfront plus 24% interest has a true annual rate close to 44%.
Credit Cards
Putting what you need on a credit card is better than getting a cash advance.
There’s no extra fee and the average purchase interest rate is 6% lower. Of course, you should still avoid borrowing at 18% interest as much as possible.
Smart Ways to Borrow Money
Good debt improves your life in lasting ways, usually by increasing your income or reducing expenses.
But even for a good purpose, you don’t want to pay too much for the money you borrow.
Fortunately there are many affordable ways to borrow, and one of the following will probably work for your situation.
1. Social Lending Websites
Peer-to-peer lending platforms like Lending Club and Prosper allow you to borrow large amounts (up to $50,000 on Lending Club) from groups of people who each invest a little bit into your loan.
Interest rates start as low as 5.32% and go as high as 35.97% on Prosper. But loan origination fees (up to 5% upfront) increase the real cost.
P2P websites let you borrow money for just about any reason.
For example, you might save money on existing debt by getting a consolidation loan at a lower interest rate — but be sure to calculate all the costs.
Lending Club also offers small business loans of up to $300,000 at rates as low as 5.9%.
2. Cash Advance Alternatives
See my post on five alternatives to costly cash advances for ideas on how to borrow strategically when you need a short-term loan.
3. Home Mortgage Loans
You can get a standard mortgage loan (new or to refinance), a home equity loan or a home equity loan line of credit.
Comparing these options is tricky, but they all have better interest rates than the previous alternatives. The line of credit is the most flexible, allowing you to borrow only what you need when you need it.
This can be a smart way to borrow and buy income-producing assets, thanks to the typically low interest rates on home loans.
“The interest you pay on a mortgage on a home other than your main or second home may be deductible if the proceeds of the loan were used for business, investment, or other deductible purposes,” the IRS reports.
Talk to your accountant to be sure you set things up right when you borrow for business or investment purposes.
4. 401(k) Loans
There are times when it makes sense to borrow from your 401(k) plan, like when you have an emergency or need a car to avoid losing a job.
One big advantage is all the “interest” goes right back to you, instead of a lender.
That’s assuming you pay back everything as planned, of course. Otherwise, you’re just sabotaging your retirement.
5. Student Loans
Borrowing for college is an investment that can pay big returns, and many student loans have real advantages over other forms of borrowing.
They may have low interest rates, and deferred payment options.
And if you run into financial trouble, there are loan forgiveness options you don’t get with other types of debt.
6. Investment Property Loans
Financing rental properties has become more difficult.
But if you can find a bank willing to loan you the money, the key thing to watch for is: Will you make money every month after all costs?
Borrowing for investments that produce positive cash flow is one of the smartest ways to use debt.
7. Bank Business Loans
If you’re borrowing for a business purpose, a bank or other traditional lender can be your best option.
You might get a better rate borrowing against your home or from a friend — but if things get tough, you could lose your home or your friend.
Also, a business lender is likely to notice flaws in your business plan or projections — which might save you from serious trouble.
8. Family and Friend Loans
If you have a good purpose for the money and a solid repayment plan, borrowing from family and friends makes sense.
You’ll avoid loan fees and get a lower interest rate.
Put it all in writing and pay at least the current Applicable Federal Rate, so your lender doesn’t have tax problems. The IRS will tax the lender based on at least that rate.l
Your Turn: Have you borrowed money in any of these ways?
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 Here Are the Worst Ways to Borrow Money — and What to Do Instead appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.
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