Top 25 Monroe County employers

 The Monroe County Economic Development Corporation has a list on its website of the major employers in the county. Of them, 11 are all or partly funded by taxpayers.The top two on the list — Tobyhanna Army Depot and Sanofi Pasteur— run on multimillion dollar federal government contracts. Pocono Medical Center is funded in part by Medicare and Medicaid. The local and state government and of course all schools are taxpayer funded.The [...]

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Couple acquires Stroudsburg home care franchise

Just two years ago BrightStar Care, a national home care franchise with more than 260 independently owned and operated locations across the country including in Stroudsburg, was named by Forbes Magazine the No. 1 franchise system in the category of brands with entry costs of up to $150,000.It is probably safe to assume that the new owners of the Stroudsburg-located BrightStar Care facility are hoping for some of that success. John and Diana Hohmann announced Friday that [...]

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Bernie Sanders Appeal: Why Socialism Gets Young People Going

Presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders is the first openly socialist candidate to gain widespread popular support.

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This High School Just Redefined the Term “Home School”

This morning I rolled out of bed, slipped into my yoga pants (the really stretchy ones), and sat down at my computer… to start my day’s work.

I’m enjoying a remote work day, one of the many perks of working for The Penny Hoarder.

I’ll be honest: It’s pretty awesome. The flexibility allows me to travel, spend more time with my family, and just get out of the office when I need to.

Maybe your dream gig involves working from home.

But would you want your kids to do it, too?

Goodbye, Snow Days — Hello, Virtual Days

Some schools are making student work-from-home days a reality.

On select “virtual days,” school halls remain empty — and hundreds of students log in to classrooms from the comfort of home.

School officials claim this new policy has several benefits.

It cuts down on transportation and operation costs for the school, creates a productive option during emergencies and snowstorms and exposes kids to what the working world is like in the 21st century.

“Almost every college has some type of online or virtual course, and a lot of companies now tell employees they can work remotely, so we are exposing students to that,” Troy Lederman told Education Week. He’s the principal of a Park Ridge, New Jersey, high school that just held its first virtual day.

While this would have been a dream come true for my nerdy, chubby, high school self, Lederman’s logic makes me go, hmm.

It’s true online college courses are a thing, although there’s some controversy about whether or not they provide the same level of education as traditional classroom work.

And although the marketplace is becoming increasingly mobile, many of us only wish we could work at home.

How much will things change in the two to eight years that separate today’s high schoolers from the full-time workforce?

How Would Student Work-From-Home Days Affect Your Family?

Although it might be nice to have something to divert your kids’ attention during snow days, the issue is complicated because the workers are, well, students.

They’re still living in their parents’ houses and use their parents’ computers and WiFi.

What if your family only has one computer?

Or shoddy (or non-existent) Internet?

What if you don’t want to leave your 13-year-old child unsupervised at home, and can’t take off work or afford a babysitter?

Also — and this is a dirty little secret, so promise you won’t tell anyone I told you — sometimes, focusing on work when you’re at home is difficult… even for adults.

We’ll have to wait and see how it turns out.

So far, only a handful of secondary schools have implemented virtual days.

But it might not be long until your own child comes downstairs in her pajamas, laptop in hand, and says, “I’m ready for school!”

Your Turn: What do you think of student work-from-home days? Would you want your children to be able to work from home?

Jamie Cattanach (@jamiecattanach) is a junior writer at The Penny Hoarder. She also writes other stuff, like wine reviews and poems.

The post This High School Just Redefined the Term “Home School” appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.

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Here’s Proof the “MSRP” Prices at Kohl’s and Macy’s are Total BS

How many times have you been tempted to buy something because it seemed like such a great deal?

You see a sign emblazoned with “70% off!” or a sale for half the “original” price.

Just like that, you’re convinced.

It happens to everyone, especially those of us with the penny-hoarding bone; we want to believe we’re getting a bargain.

But what if those prices aren’t what they seem? What if retailers create them just to elicit those elated emotions — and seal the sale?

Would you be shocked? Angry? Confused?

Feeling all of the above, some fellow shoppers have actually brought lawsuits against popular retailers like T.J. Maxx, JC Penney, Nordstrom Rack, Kohl’s, Macy’s and Burlington Coat Factory.

These consumers say “they were duped into buying goods they wouldn’t have otherwise purchased based on phony discounts,” writes Buzzfeed’s Sapna Maheshwari.

Curious about the allegations, Maheshwari decided to delve further into the complicated world of retail pricing strategies.

Her findings were interesting — as well as a bit surprising — and I wanted to pass on the knowledge to you…

How Retailers Come Up With Their Ridiculous Prices

Thanks to the retailers’ legal defenses, we now have some idea where they get the prices listed as “original” or “regular.”

The only problem?

We’re even more confused.

As Maheshwari writes, the results merely “illustrate how convoluted the notion of a ‘regular price’ has become.”

Here are some examples from popular retailers:

Nordstrom Rack: The “compare at” price means the item was “previously offered for sale at that price either by another retailer (in-store or online), in a Nordstrom store or on a Nordstrom website,” or it has “the same manufacturer and has the same quality as the item that was offered for sale at its ‘compare at’ price.”

Kohl’s: The “regular” or “original” prices refers to “the former or ‘future’ price on any given item,” on that item or a “comparable” one, at Kohl’s… or another retailer.

Ummm, what?!

Macy’s: “‘Regular’ and ‘Original’ prices are offering prices that may not have resulted in actual sales, and some ‘Original’ prices may not have been in effect during the past 90 days.”

Nuts, right?

So what’s a smart Penny Hoarder to do?

Not a whole lot.

Read up on common tricks retailers use, create a budget before heading to the mall, and if you want to learn about a specific retailer’s pricing policies, head to its website.

But in all honesty, I don’t think it has to be that complicated…

As Maheshwari sagely advises: “Pay $40 if you believe a sweater is actually worth $40.”

Your Turn: Do you make purchases based on the “original” price? Do retailers’ practices upset you?

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 Here’s Proof the “MSRP” Prices at Kohl’s and Macy’s are Total BS appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.

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How Much Do You Make — in Galleons? This Muggle Figured It Out

If you’re a Harry Potter fan, you’ve undoubtedly wished you could ride the real Hogwarts Express, swig a cold bottle of butterbeer or, of course, find the perfect wand to cast spells.

But did you ever think about how much those items might really cost?

In actual dollars?

One devoted Harry Potter fan didn’t just think about it — they calculated a wizard-to-Muggle-money conversion rate.

And the results are fascinating.

How Much is That Wizard in the Window?

“Most products in the Wizarding World can’t translate, but a few products in the books are also Muggle products,” explains Reddit user aubieismyhomie, “so I tried to use these to approximate the value of them compared to US currency.”

They used candy, a ride on the Knight Bus, hot chocolate, a water bottle and toothbrush, S.P.E.W Membership and three butterbeers to get the conversion rate.

They determined the following: One galleon equals approximately $25; one sickle, $1.50; and one knut, five cents.

This means a butterbeer from the Hog’s Head (yes, please…) would cost about $3.

Aubieismyhomie didn’t stop there, though; the HP superfan also listed several takeaways.

Here are my favorites:

• Harry only paid $175 for his wand — a bargain!

• The Weasleys were dirt poor: They only had $50-$75 in their bank account when they emptied it.

• Harry was loaded, and generous: He spent $750 on Christmas presents for himself, Ron and Hermione, and gave Fred and George $25,000 of his Triwizard Tournament winnings to start their joke shop.

• Unicorn hair is worth $250 a strand.

To put that in perspective, Bill Gates is worth about 3.168 billion galleons, Donald Trump’s worth about 160 million galleons… and Kanye West is still 2.12 million galleons in debt.

Merlin’s beard!

Now if only someone could make it all come to life…

Your Turn: Do you love HP? Do any of these prices surprise you?

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 How Much Do You Make — in Galleons? This Muggle Figured It Out appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.

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How to Improve Your Revenue Using Video Ads

As a marketer, you always want to be ahead of the curve.

The most effective tactics are always the ones that the majority of marketers either haven’t adopted yet or haven’t been successful with yet.

One of the current tactics that fall into that category is the use of video in advertising.

Very few marketers have tried to create video ads, but that will change in the coming years.

The consumption of video in general is growing at a rapid pace. Over half (55 percent) of people watch at least one video a day. Some watch several dozen.

In order to make revenue from the videos they host, video sites (e.g., YouTube, Dailymotion, etc.) have a few options.

They can overlay some text ads. It doesn’t generate much revenue for them, so they don’t do this if they have a better option.

That better option is to play a paid video advertisement before playing the video a user clicked to watch.

Guess how much better these are.

One analysis found that users are 27 times more likely to click on a video ad than a regular ad.

Do I need to say more?

Although video sites are starting to get a wider inventory of video ads to play, they’re not even close to being saturated.

There are still plenty of text ads being shown because the sites have no other option.

On top of that, the video ads that they do have are often shown for unrelated videos (a bad thing) because they’re the best they have right now.

This is your opportunity to learn how to create effective video ads and reap the rewards while you still can.

I’ve created a full guide to creating YouTube video ads in the past.

But today, I want to take it further. If you understand the basics of video ads, it’s time to create video ads that perform even better than you thought they could.

We’re going to look at 6 different ways that you can make video ads that convert better than you ever thought possible. 

A quick look at where video ads are most effective: Before we dive in, you need to understand where video ads are used best.

The biggest key component of an effective video ad network is the size of its audience. Some of the tips in this post require a large potential audience so that you can narrow your targeting down and still have an audience left.

There are two main video advertising networks that fulfill this condition: YouTube and Facebook.

I’ll be writing the rest of this post mostly with Facebook and YouTube video advertising in mind although most of the information will apply to other networks as well.

Don’t be afraid to try out video advertising on other networks, but I recommend starting on one of these two.

They are big enough to have just about every audience you can imagine, including yours.

Let’s look at the 6 tips now.

1. Take full advantage of custom audience options

Like I mentioned before, many video ads are being shown to users who are not actively interested in the advertised product.

While some of those advertisements are purely for brand recognition, the mismatch between the ad and the viewer interest highlights a bigger issue.

Say you were running an advertisement for a new car. In which situation do you think the ad would perform better?

Shown before a video about home decorating.

OR

Shown before a video clip from Top Gear (a show about cars).

It’s pretty clear that the second option is better.

You’ll have a targeted audience of car buyers, who are expecting to watch a video about cars. That’s doubly good!

When someone is planning to watch a video about home decorating and on comes a video about a new car, they’re not happy—understandably—and skip it as soon as possible.

The first major thing that you can do to lower your ad prices and improve your click-through rate is to improve your targeting.

Not only should you use targeting to make sure your ads are being shown to your actual target audience, but you should segment your audience further so that different parts of your audience see different ads.

Let’s look at some common effective examples of segmenting audiences.

Possible group #1 – Potential customers who are aware of brand or product: Your highest conversion rates when selling a product will always be from people who have heard of your brand or product.

Many in this audience just need a little nudge to get them to make a purchase.

You can target these people if you’re active on the platforms you’re advertising on.

For example, you can target people who have already “liked” your Facebook page:

If someone’s done that, they probably have a good idea of what your products are and why someone might want them.

To advertise effectively to this segment, you need to create video ads that show your product doing something great for them.

If you were selling a personal finance tool, you would show in your ad how someone saved hundreds of dollars using the tool.

That will give your viewers the nudge they need to make a purchase.

Possible group #2 – No brand recognition, but interest in your type of product: This group refers to people who don’t know you, your brand, or your products.

However, they have an interest in your industry.

If I was selling a link building tool, I could target people with an interest in SEO.

Facebook and YouTube both have this type of targeting, and most other video advertising platforms do as well.

But remember that targeting is just one part of the equation. You also have to choose what to show your audience.

Since they don’t know you or your products, your first goal with these types of ads shouldn’t be to get the viewers to buy your products right away.

Instead, create a short, interesting video that teaches them something about your niche.

Going back to my SEO example…I wouldn’t even mention a link building tool, but I could create a video that showed that someone was able to rank #1 using a technique I created in the past.

Then, I would link to a detailed case study from the video.

Guess what would be in that case study?

That’s right, a mention of my product—the link building tool. The case study would also give the readers an opportunity to sign up for an email list.

Alternatively, you could link to a landing page from the video, asking viewers to opt in to an email list to receive the full report. Either option could work well.

The point is to establish contact, expose your potential customers to your product and brand, and get them on an email list. Then, you would continue sending them free content, and eventually you can target them like I showed you above in group #1.

Possible group #3 – Target by location: You should only target your video ad to countries and locations that you actually sell to. It sounds like common sense, but many businesses neglect to do it.

On top of that, you can also improve your results by creating videos for specific audiences.

For example, let’s say you sell a lawn care tool.

You wouldn’t want to show the same video ad to Australians, who have warm weather year round, and to Canadians, who have drastically different seasons.

To the Australians, you’d want to emphasize such features as durability and year-round suitability.

To the Canadians, you’d want to emphasize such features as easy storage during the colder months.

Take a second to think about your product and the different locations of your customers (cities, states, provinces, countries, etc.).

Do people in those different locations vary in how much they care about the features you offer?

If so, create specific video ads for each location. You might be able to reuse ads for different locations with a bit of clever editing.

Possible group #4 – Sell to multiple countries? Cover your languages: This type of grouping relates to the last point.

Did you know that you can target users based on language?

If you sell to people in countries that use two or more languages, you should be creating video ads in multiple languages and targeting by language.

If you’re only targeting the main language, you might be missing out on a solid chunk of your potential market.

Recognize the unique properties of your products: The last two groups I showed you won’t apply to every product out there.

But they illustrate an important concept.

Targeting depends on analyzing your potential audience and determining how different parts of that audience think.

Then, you’ll need to find a way to target specific portions of your target audience and create ads specifically for them.

I’ve shown you four possible groups, but there are dozens for all major ad networks. Don’t be afraid to go beyond these four.

2. All good video ads take on an interesting angle: Start with the concept

Some businesses are finally starting to “get it.”

For video ads to be successful, they need to be interesting.

When they’re done right, video ads can actually be shared and go viral. There are many cases that prove this.

While you may not have the budget of any of those companies, that doesn’t mean you can’t reach a large audience with an interesting advertisement.

How do you make an interesting video ad? The first thing you need to do is forget the word “advertisement.”

Yes, you’re paying to display it, but beyond that, your advertisement is just a video.

For some reason, many marketers think an ad needs to shove a product in someone’s face, which just isn’t true.

The vast majority of people on YouTube and Facebook are watching videos for entertainment, so if your video isn’t entertaining, they are going to ignore it or skip it as soon as possible.

And getting pitched a product is not entertaining, so don’t do it.

Instead, create or find an interesting story to tell.

Let me walk you through an example.

Fanpage.it is an Italian news site of sorts, so they focus mainly on current issues.

They were able to create a video, advertise it, and then have it go viral with over 2.3 million views:

They started with a concept. In this case, they thought about a way to make a video about attitudes towards violence against women interesting.

It might seem a little sad that it’s not enough for the subject matter to be important, that it has to be interesting, but the reason I’ve repeated it a few times is because it’s crucial to your success.

There are many ways to make something interesting:

• tell a story
• make it funny
• make it surprising
• make it unusual

In this case, they combined most of these elements.

They introduced a girl to several boys and asked them about her. At the end, they asked them to slap the girl. The boys, of course, innocently said that they would never do that.

I was glued to my screen for the entire 3 minutes, and it took me from smiling to thinking about the issue at hand.

The biggest concern marketers have is whether this approach is effective or not. How does an engaging story translate into page views and revenue?

If you’re able to tell a story, with your product being at the center of it, people will want it and seek it out.

Although Fanpage.it wasn’t constantly saying, “We have the best content on social issues out there; visit us now!”—viewers still made that connection.

They understand that if they want clever, entertaining, and thought-provoking content, they should click through to the site.

Telling an interesting story is not easy. That’s why the people who are great at it are paid well.

However, it’s a skill like any other that can be developed. I’ve written extensively about it in the past:

• How to Leverage Storytelling to Increase Your Conversions
• How to Engage and Persuade People Through Storytelling
• Tell Your Brand’s Story

3. Know when you need professional help

The thing that scares most marketers away from video advertising is that they can’t do it themselves.

Although you could try to make one with your iPhone (or whatever you use), chances are the video would suck.

And that’s just a basic video. When you consider animation, editing, and voiceovers, it’s just too much for a marketer to learn how to do.

That’s what scares marketers.

We love to do everything, including marketing, sales, product development, and just about anything else that needs to be done.

But creating a high quality video isn’t something that you can learn in a few days or even months.

And if you want to be successful with video advertising, quality has to come first.

People expect almost television-like quality for any video they watch:

This means that your video must have:

• no blurriness
• good lighting
• no background noises or echoes
• no stuttering or unclear speech

You need to recognize when you are out of your depth and bring in professionals to supplement your marketing expertise.

Putting together a high quality video: A video ad might only be 15 seconds long, but it can often take hours to make.

It will depend on the kind of video you are creating, of course, but a ton of work goes into creating even short videos.

The first step is to decide what type of video you’d like to create.

There are two main types of video ads.

The most common is a standard video with actors in it.

However, animated videos are really popular, particularly if you’re creating a tutorial or an educational video:

Your next step is to hire a professional to help you. This will include:

• freelance animators
• video creators (videographers)
• video editors

As a marketer, you can probably handle the script writing yourself, but that’s another area you could potentially get some help with.

Video editors and animators are very easy to find online. Just browse for them (or post a job ad) on any of the following freelance job boards:

• Upwork
• Freelancer
• Videopixie

However, if you’re looking to include actors in the video, you’ll have to find local videographers.

Unfortunately, you can’t effectively narrow down the location of videographers on those freelance sites.

Instead, I recommend going to LinkedIn.

Search for “videographer” or “freelance videographer” in the search bar, and narrow down the results using the “people” filter in the sidebar.

Finally, choose “Add” under the location filter, and type in your city:

Not only will you find local professionals, but you will also find people who have worked with some of your existing connections. That’ll allow you to ask your connections about their experiences with the professionals you are considering to hire.

After you’ve found someone to work with, you need to develop a video outline and script. Again, you can probably handle this if you have some experience with storytelling.

Once you’ve gone over these details with your freelancer(s), they will create the video for you. Make it clear that you’re happy to get involved when necessary and answer any questions.

The last thing you want is to be unhappy with the final video because it’s a pain (and expensive) to reshoot.

For the most part, trust your freelancers. If you’ve hired experienced professionals, they will know how to bring your vision to life.

Ideally, you want to establish a relationship with freelancers so that they can continue to create videos for you in the future. It will save you the time of having to find someone new every time you need a video created.

4. Shorter is usually better

You need to be careful, especially if you embrace the tips I’ve shown you so far.

It’s common to get excited about producing a video, aiming for the best, and end up with a video that’s 3, 5, or even 10 minutes long.

Keep in mind that when users see your ads, they see them before the content they actually want to see.

Even if your video is fairly entertaining, most will pick the “skip” option that comes up shortly after your video starts—especially if they see that there’s another 3 minutes to go.

As a general rule, keep your video ads under 1 minute long. Under 30 seconds is better.

This forces you to focus on the most important parts of your message.

According to one analysis, only 36 percent of video ads are longer than 30 seconds.

Further, 13 percent are shorter than 15 seconds, which means that 51 percent of ads are between 15 and 30 seconds long. Aim for that range whenever possible.

The good news is that if you are able to keep your ad within that range, people will usually watch your full video.

The same research found that 79 percent of video ads are watched to their middle points, and 72 percent are watched to the very end. This means that if you can intrigue your viewers in the first half of your ad, almost all of them will stick with you to the end.

5. Videos may be different, but you can (and should) split test them

To edit a landing page, you need to click only a few buttons.

To edit an image, you need to do a bit more.

Video is far more complicated to edit than images or landing pages.

That’s why most marketers produce a video ad, put it out there, and hope for the best.

But you know me—I like to measure and improve everything. And I hope that you have a similar attitude.

When it comes to ads of any kind, including video ads, you must split test.

What’s split testing? A quick answer: If you’ve never done split testing, it’s a simple but powerful concept.

Most things are not optimized when you first create them.

What you can do is create two versions of something and then send visitors to both versions.

By measuring the results, you can see which version performs better.

Typically, you’ll use A/B split testing, which helps you learn about which elements work and don’t work.

With A/B testing, both versions are exactly the same, except for one change.

That way, you know that any difference in the results is caused by that one change. Then, you keep the better performing version and do a new test with a different element.

I’ve written a complete guide to split testing if you’d like a detailed guide; otherwise, let’s move on to how you would do split testing for your video ads.

Step #1 – Identify major elements: The reason why most marketers don’t split test video ads is because they know that editing a video is a pain.

But most split testing doesn’t even need to involve editing the video.

Start by looking at how your video ad will show up:

Then, make a list of the most important elements.

From the above, the most visible elements are:

• the description
• the video
• the brand name

You can’t change the brand name, and you probably don’t want to edit the video (although that’s an option), but you can change the description.

Let half of the audience view one version of the description, and let the other half view the other version.

Alternatively, you can also split test different targeting options.

For example, you could show the exact same ad to two different groups of people. You could divide them based on interests, behaviors, or demographic options.

This will tell you which audiences are best to target, and that information will help you create more effective video ads in the future.

Step #2 – Create different versions of the ad based on those elements:  Once you know which element you will be changing (e.g., description or targeting options), all you need to do is create the two different ads and buy a similar number of views for each.

Here’s a guide to split testing on Facebook, and another for split testing in Google Adwords (for YouTube).

Step #3 – Decide which metrics are most important, and compare: Finally, the most important thing you need to do is decide what your goals for the video ad are.

Usually, it’s going to be cost per click-through. Sometimes, you’ll have to use your click-through rate percentage instead.

Once you have a valid sample size, you can compare the results and determine the winner.

A neat little tool to help you figure out the significance of your test is Isvalid.org.

Enter the number of samples for both the original and experiment videos as well as the conversions (clicks or whatever metric you’re using):

The tool will calculate the conversion rate of each test. More importantly, it will give you a significance rate (how often your conclusion will be correct) and a measure of how much better the winning test is:

Aim for a significance of at least 95%.

Remember that split testing typically gives you small improvements. However, those small improvements add up over time, so keep iterating and making changes until you’ve optimized your video ad.

6. Studies have shown that music impacts emotion—use it wisely

The final tip I have for you is to use music in your videos, but use it intelligently.

To begin with, always remember that videos are mainly focused on visual content. That should remain the main focus of your video ads.

However, music in the background can make your message more powerful.

The effect of music on mood: One study recruited subjects to determine what effect music has on our moods.

They found that both happy and sad music affects our perception. When subjects heard the happy music and then were shown a person with a neutral expression, they were more likely to say that the person was happy.

Conversely, the other subjects who heard sad music thought that the exact same person was sad.

Basically, we match our perception with the tone of music we hear.

The takeaway is simple:

If you want your viewers to feel a certain way during parts of your video, use music that corresponds to that feeling (e.g., sad music for a sad feeling).

You can use this to nudge viewers to feel happy, then sad, to make your video more impactful.

Music improves focus: You want your viewers to be glued to the screen while your ad is playing.

But if the ad has no sound, no matter how good your video is, most viewers will get bored and zone out.

A study looked at how listening to different sounds affects focus.

The researchers found that listening to either classical music, white noise, or silence improved visual attention. The greatest effect, however, was produced by classical music, followed by white noise. Silence produced the least effect.

The takeaway:

Play some sort of music in the background throughout most of your ads to help your viewers pay attention to your video. If classical music suits the tone of your video, it’s probably the optimal choice.

Music should accent, not distract: Finally, there’s one more study about music and focus that you need to know about.

The researchers tested how music affected the rate of driving mistakes in teenagers.

The bottom line was that when the drivers got to pick their own music, they drove more aggressively and made more mistakes. It makes sense as they were more focused on the music than their environment.

On the other hand, when they listened to “safe” music that was picked by the researchers, they drove better.

The takeaway:

Use music in your ads, but make sure it’s not so loud or catchy that your viewers focus more on the music than your video’s images.

Conclusion

Video advertising is one of the most exciting advertising opportunities that is still maturing.

If you take action right now, you will learn how to profit from video ads before the rest of marketers catch on.

I’ve shown you 6 key principles and tips of effective video ads that you can use to reach profitability quickly.

Once you have a profitable campaign, scale it up and enjoy the results.

I understand that creating video ads isn’t easy. So, if you have any questions, leave me a comment below, and I’ll try to clear things up.

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Who Knew You Could Rent an RV for $1 a Day?!

It’s rare to find a deal that seems too good to be true — and is, in fact, true. Your gut’s usually right to question outlandish promises and tempting headlines.

But this time, it’s true: You can rent an RV or car for $1 a day.

I know — we almost couldn’t believe it either.

When Thrifty Nomads published this comprehensive guide to RV relocation deals, they admitted the promise “sounds like clickbait spam worthy of ending up in junk mail. … But let me assure you … we’ve truly rented RVs for $1 a day and less to cities all around the world.”

“And less”?!

All right, let’s get the details.

What are RV Relocation Deals?

Rental companies have to move vehicles around to meet demand in certain cities.

If a glut of vehicles has made their way to New York — but not back to Indiana, Colorado or Washington — those other locations have to somehow be restocked.

Instead of taking on the full expense of sending an employee to drive a vehicle across the country, companies rent their vehicles to you.

And in exchange for sticking to their schedule and destination, you get a steep discount.

You can find relocation deals for RVs, as well as cars, trucks and campervans.

When, Where and How to Find These Cheap Rentals

These deals are most common in the U.S., Australia and New Zealand. Rarely, they’re also available in Canada and Europe.

The most common routes in the U.S. are along the west coast. But I searched for upcoming deals in the U.S. on iMoova and found most routes in January and February run from New York to Los Angeles, Las Vegas or San Francisco.

The best deals are usually posted a few weeks out, so you have to be flexible with your vacation plans.

To find deals, search iMoova or Jucy for the U.S. See the full list of resources at Thrifty Nomads for other countries.

How Much Will it Really Cost?

The rental price is straightforward.

You really will find plenty of routes for $1 a day. I also saw some shorter routes for $10 a day, and those posted months in advance may be priced closer to $25 a day — so it’s worth waiting to book until closer to when you want to travel.

Of course, a road trip involves costs beyond vehicle rental.

Generally, you’ll pay for gas, but may be partially reimbursed or receive other incentives like a free tank of fuel or free kitchen kit for the vehicle.

Unless you’re very lucky, completely flexible or a brilliant planner, you’ll probably also have to pay your way home — a return flight, bus, train or regular-price car rental.

Keep an eye out for cheap flights.

You’ll also have to cover food costs — but you can be thrifty about it, especially with a kitchen in the RV!

If you don’t have a shower or toilet in the vehicle, you might pay to use travel center showers or spend a night at a hotel or campground.

To save money, Thrifty Nomads recommends tons of options for finding free public restrooms, showers and campsites. (Like an app called Sit or Squat — love it!)

Check the details before you rent to know what additional fees may apply to your rental:

• Some companies charge extra for kitchen supplies or linens. Plan ahead and bring your own if they’re not included.

• Some companies allow for unlimited mileage, as long as you meet their timeline. But some restrict mileage to only what’s needed to get to the destination and will charge fees per extra mile. Do your research, and plan accordingly.

• Check on insurance coverage ahead of time. Some companies include it; some don’t. You may have to purchase insurance, but it may be included in your own insurance coverage — or your credit card may offer rental car insurance.

• You’ll probably have to make a deposit using a credit or debit card. If you don’t think you can cover it, try this travel hack to avoid an outrageous deposit.

All told, you and a partner could potentially take a cross-country road trip for:

• $6 vehicle rental ($1 a day for 6 days from New York to L.A.)

• $0 in fuel (after reimbursement)

• $100 for food (at $20 a day for two people, but this could vary a lot)

• $0 for lodging

• $400 return flights ($200 each for two people, but this also will vary)

That’s a seriously thrifty vacation!

For the full details and more tips to take advantage of RV relocation deals, read the full article at Thrifty Nomads.

Your Turn: Have you ever rented a vehicle through a relocation deal? How much did it cost?

Dana Sitar (@danasitar) is a staff writer at The Penny Hoarder. She’s written for Huffington Post, Entrepreneur.com, Writer’s Digest and more. After discovering this guide, she is almost certainly in an RV in the middle of New Mexico as you read this.

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The Financial Trap of Buying Your Way Out of Life’s Little Challenges

A few weeks ago, someone close to me was driving home from work when suddenly one of their tires blew out. At that point, this person had some options. They could try to change the tire themselves and drive on their spare tire for a while. They could call a friend. Or they could call a roadside repair service. (It was a reasonably cold day, but not so cold that one couldn’t stand outside for a while, so the weather wasn’t an issue.)

In this situation, my friend ended up choosing to call a roadside repair service. The service ended up costing about $100 and the total wait time was about an hour or so. Even worse than that, the tow truck pulled into a tire shop that my friend didn’t normally do business with, where they were able to charge quite a bit for the tires.

Now, let’s compare that to what would have happened if the person had simply tried to change the tire to the spare. Even if you assume that it would have taken the person an hour to change the tire, that’s still $100 saved, and I’m willing to bet that almost anyone who spent some time studying their owner’s manual a bit could change to a spare tire in much less than an hour.

Of course, changing a spare tire is inconvenient. You have to get down on the ground, put the jack in place, jack it up, remove all of the nuts from the tire, pull the tire off, put the spare on, put the nuts back on, jack the car back down, and remove the jack. This is, of course, after pulling out all the gear from the compartment in your car.

You’ll have to move around a lot. You’ll probably get your clothes a little dirty, especially if you don’t have a blanket to spread on the ground. And, yes, it’s just plain not fun. Playing Candy Crush Saga on your phone or reading Facebook or reading a book while sitting in your car is, for many people, more fun than changing a tire.

It’s because of those latter factors that many people simply call for roadside assistance in a situation like this. Changing a car tire is inconvenient, and avoiding that inconvenience is something that many people will give a lot of money and even some time to avoid. It’s a lot more pleasant to sit in the car and play with your smartphone while waiting for a tow than to be outside changing a flat tire, after all.

Changing a tire is just one example, though. Over and over again in modern life, we choose to throw money and, often, time at situations to avoid having to do anything challenging ourselves. The toilet’s leaking? Call a plumber. The light fixture doesn’t work? Call a handyman. Don’t feel like making supper? Call for delivery.

Those things seem easier to us because it doesn’t require much effort or any sort of skill to call for food delivery or to call a handyman or to call a plumber or to call a tow truck. We choose to let someone else do the labor.

Yet, it doesn’t really save us much time. We have to wait around for the repairman or the delivery. Often, we have to clean up the mess after the repair is done or the food is delivered. Often, that adds up to more time than if we had done it ourselves. Sure, you can spend some of that time doing something that doesn’t require much focus (because you’re going to be interrupted), but the total amount of time waiting around for the help and cleaning up after the help often exceeds the time spent simply doing it ourselves.

Even worse, we’ve usually spent a lot more money than if we had done it ourselves. The roadside assistance bill in the case above was just over $100. I’ve seen plumbing bills that were enormous, and even bills for simple electrical jobs were surprisingly large.

Yet another problem is that every time we pay someone else to do something simple for us, our skills atrophy even more. We become less able to do these things for ourselves, little step by little step. If you call someone to come and change your tire for you, you extend the time it’s been since the last time you changed a tire and your skill becomes even rustier. This leads to an even greater “need” to call for help because our personal skill at handling such tasks has become even worse over time. In other words, we become “addicted” to just paying others for services that don’t really save us much time at all. It just keeps draining your money over time.

All of this adds up to a pretty painful recipe for people who want to get ahead financially. They pay someone to come in and provide a service for them, yet the service doesn’t really save them any time. The time that appears to be “saved” can’t really be devoted to anything useful or fulfilling because you’re waiting for a service. This service that’s provided is usually quite expensive, so people end up shelling out good money for a service they could have done themselves that didn’t really save them much time, either, if it saved any at all.

The solution to all of this is a pretty simple one. Declare the next thirty days to be a “doing it for myself” challenge.

The rules of such a challenge are simple. Whenever you’re faced with a challenge for which you might call someone for help, make a sincere attempt to do it yourself first. Look for instructions for how to do it on your phone or your computer, then give it a shot. If you need some tools, don’t hesitate to borrow some from a neighbor, though having a basic toolkit around the house is a good place to start.

If you’re hungry, make yourself a meal from what you have on hand instead of ordering delivery or getting takeout or going to a restaurant. If you have a plumbing problem with a toilet, take off the top and dive into fixing it yourself. If you have a flat tire, pull out the jack and the spare and the iron and get to it.

This serves a lot of purposes.

One, if you complete the task yourself, it’s going to be far cheaper than calling someone in. Making a meal at home is almost always cheaper than having someone make it for you. Changing your own tire is going to be far cheaper than calling a tow truck or for roadside assistance. Fixing your own toilet is going to be far cheaper than bringing in a plumber.

Two, if you manage to pull off a task yourself, you become more confident about doing it again in the future. You see for yourself that you can take on these kinds of tasks. It becomes a lot less scary to tackle those kinds of challenges.

Three, you become more skilled at taking on those challenges, meaning that the results will be better and the time and effort invested will be lower in the future. The first time you make scrambled eggs, it seems like an arduous task. The tenth time? It’s pretty easy – you can do it quickly and with little concentration. Why? You’ve built up a skill for making scrambled eggs. The exact same phenomenon holds true for almost any life skill one might take on.

Finally, the more varied your skill set, the more value you have in social and professional situations. Even if you’re not employed as a car repairperson, the person that can jump in and help change a boss’s flat tire is going to seem more useful at work than the person who just stands around helplessly. (I have personally witnessed this very phenomenon, as a “jack of all trades” employee became more and more valuable at work.) Even if you’re not a plumber, the friend that can stop in and fix a leaky toilet is going to become a closer and more valued friend. Those little differences slowly add up over time, making a surprisingly large difference in your social and professional life.

The question, then, is up to you. Are you ready to take on a challenge like this one? Are you ready to put aside costly services that don’t really save much time and cause your skills to rust, all out of a perception of convenience?

Then step up to the plate and start doing more things yourself. Make your own dinner. Fix your own plumbing. Change your own tire. Repair your own light switch. Replace that hinge. Install that weather stripping.

Every single time you step up, you save money. You also make it easier to do those kinds of things again in the future, which makes doing them even more efficient and saves even more money.

Step up to the challenge today. Start taking things into your own hands. Build your skills and push away the fears and apprehensions. Best of all, keep that money in your pocket, right where it belongs.

The post The Financial Trap of Buying Your Way Out of Life’s Little Challenges appeared first on The Simple Dollar.

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How Craigslist Helped This Couple Save $750 on Groceries

When my husband and I were faced with yet another round of holiday expenses, we started cutting back wherever we could — especially with food.

Our monthly food budget was about $250 for the two of us, and we knew it would cover all the gifts and tinsel if we were careful.

Luckily, we had a nice stockpile of dry and canned goods to start using in early November.

But by the second week and third night of rice n’ cheese SpaghettiOs, I started dreaming about spinach salads covered in freshly sliced strawberries. We needed to find a way to get some greens back into our diet of Campbell’s mystery casseroles — without running to the store.

I thought Craigslist might be a good answer — and the solution soon filled our fridge with more fruit and veggies than we could eat.

Here’s how we did it…

Bartering for Food on Craigslist

We all have $5-$20 items laying around our homes we’d love to sell if we could just find the right buyer.

Maybe you’ve tried posting these items on Craigslist or eBay, without success. They fall into the not-worth-much category, but they’re too expensive to just give away when you’re tight on cash.

Using the free Craigslist app (also available on Android), I listed a beautiful blue coat for $10. It only had one small hole above the pocket, but not a single person was interested after two weeks on the site.

Not one to be discouraged, I reversed strategies.

I reposted the coat in the Free category, but with one very important addition to the post: “Although this is free, if you had some food items to trade for it, like veggies, grains or vegetarian canned goods, that would be much appreciated.”

I expected to get more of a response just because it was listed as “free,” but I was overwhelmed by the generosity and number of emails from strangers offering what they could.

In just two days, I was flooded with strangers offers to bring me everything from bags of frozen broccoli to pounds of shiny purple plums.

After considering all the offers, I wrote back to an awesome woman who worked at a local fruit stand. She’d offered to bring me a mix of whatever she had left over.

And, oh man, did she hook us up.

Between the fresh bunches of kale, bags of heirloom carrots and organic pomegranates, she probably gave us about $18 worth of produce, almost double what I’d originally asked for in cash.

I tried this strategy again with a brand-new pair of $20 sweater boots.

Within a day, I heard from a fantastic guy who actually offered to take us grocery shopping for whatever we needed. We were too busy with work, so I asked him to bring us some fresh tomatoes and surprise us with whatever else he wanted.

We were surprised indeed. In total, here’s what he brought for us:

4 boxes of veggie pasta: $6

2-pound bag of apples: $4

11 cans of various mixed veggies: $12

1 box of oatmeal packages: $2.50

8-pack of applesauce cups: $3.50

1 jar of fancy mushroom wine simmer sauce: $4.50

2 pounds of vine tomatoes: $5

2-pound bag of colorful heirloom lentils: $6

2 ripe avocados: $2

2-pound bag of mini cucumbers: $4

2 limes: $1

AND one beautiful bouquet of flowers that tremendously brightened my day: $6

Total value of groceries scored: $56.50

Each time, we’ve DOUBLED or TRIPLED the cash asking price in goods we needed.

I estimate we’ve received about $180 worth of fresh produce and other kitchen staples during the past few months. Added to our monthly grocery budget we haven’t been using, we’ve saved about $750 and had a very merry holiday indeed.

We’ve done so well with this strategy, it’s been three months since we’ve stepped foot into a grocery store for anything other than laundry detergent. And I doubt we’ll stop until we can see the floor of our junk closet.

There’ve been times we’ve done so well, I’ve actually had to slow the pace at which we post items.

Should You Give It a Try?

I’ve discovered three real advantages to this strategy, besides saving money:

1. You Can Filter Out the Flaky People

You know, the ones who are more likely to waste your time by not responding to your reply or no-shows.

How? You can tell immediately if they read your post fully if they offer to bring goodies. If they don’t mention that part, they probably just skimmed it quickly — and might not follow through.

2. You Create a Pay-What-You-Can Model

By asking people to bring what they can, people tend to be extra generous — especially when it’s a necessity like food.

3. You Get Rid of Clutter

Getting rid of clutter is brain candy to me. I don’t know about you, but having a clean house beats a Swedish massage any day in my book.    

Granted, this strategy does have limitations.

I live in Seattle. There’s a fairly dense population and practically everyone has a car, so it’s not a big deal for me to ask people to come by to trade.

You also can’t be picky like you would in a grocery store, nor can you control the quantity you receive, but I see these as advantages that help me learn new cooking skills.

You might be wondering why I use the “Free,” instead of the “Barter” section — which is closer in definition to what I’m doing. Simple: I’ve found not enough people use the “Barter” section to make it worth my while.

Some Tips for Using Craigslist Safely

If you’re put off by the idea of meeting strangers, let alone accepting food from them, I get it.

Over the years, Craigslist has been my go-to tool for furniture removal and garage sales, so I was already comfortable when I started this experiment.

Here are a few tips Craigslisters use to stay safe:

• Use an email with a fake name when posting and responding to ads.

• If you’re going to meet someone, bring a friend along.

• If you just aren’t comfortable with them coming to your home, or vice versa, pick a neutral, public place to meet.

• Don’t post your phone number as a method of response in your ad. This isn’t for safety, it’s just really annoying to get phone calls from random strangers all day.

• Remember, this is no more dangerous than a food drive or going out trick-or-treating. Just use common sense and you’ll be fine.

This bartering strategyis one of the greatest discoveries I’ve made on Craigslist. And with spring cleaning right around the corner, you could join me in covering those counter tops with a rainbow of fruits and veggies.

Tonight’s dinner is heirloom lentil soup with a mixture of canned cubed tomatoes, oven-roasted shallots, and some rich avocado sliced on top of each bowl.

It sure beats SpaghettiOs with a side of sodium. Go find some junk today and fill that fridge!

Your Turn: Will you try this strategy to save money on food?

Laura Hamilton is a Youtube vlogger for RollingDiaries and fellow Penny Hoarder who’s always looking for ways to live beyond her means. She currently resides in Seattle with her husband and her imaginary dog, Nickels.

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5 Questions to Ask Before Doing Your Taxes Yourself (Plus How to Get Free Help!)

I’ll be first to admit it: I’m cheap.

Since the age of 16, I’ve done my own taxes.

I’ve considered getting help — especially since I have a freelance business and often live in multiple states in the same year — but never pull the trigger.

This year, though, the thought of doing my own taxes is pretty overwhelming. They’re going to be ultra-complicated, and I just don’t want to do them.

I started wondering: Is there a certain threshold (be it income or other factors) when professional tax help is definitely worth it?

It’s somewhat subjective, based on how much you value your time, but I figured there must be some concrete questions to help determine if professional tax prep is right for you.

During my research, I discovered something even more important: In many cases, you can get professional tax help for free.

What?! Had I known, I would’ve done it years ago.

Keep reading to learn about when you should seek professional tax help, as well as how to get it for FREE…

Should You Seek Professional Tax Help?

If you have a simple W2, you’re probably fine using one of these eight free tax filing services.

“For somebody with a 1040-EZ, I’ll happily do it for them,” explains Micah Fraim, a CPA in Roanoke, Virginia.

“But in those cases, they’re mostly buying convenience and comfort. There is very little I can actually adjust.”

If your taxes are a bit more complex, here are five questions to ask when deciding whether or not to get help.

1. Do I Have Kids?

If you’re a parent, you should be aware of several available deductions and credits.

“The tax advantages of having children include: qualifying for the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), the child and additional child tax credits, dependent care expense credit and education credits, just to name a few,” explains Bonnie Lee, an enrolled agent with the IRS.  

“Navigating through the forms and qualifications can be daunting. That’s why it’s best to have a tax professional guide you through the process. You will likely save more in taxes than you pay in fees.”

2. Do I Understand the Earned Income Tax Credit?

The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) is a “benefit for working people with low to moderate income” that “reduces the amount of tax you owe and may give you a refund,” according to the IRS.

“About 20% of the people who are eligible don’t claim the credit,” says Martha O’Gorman, chief marketing officer for Liberty Tax Service.

“Some people think they must have children to claim the credit, but that isn’t the case,” O’Gorman says. “A good tax professional can help the taxpayer figure out if he or she eligible.”

3. Did I Go Through a Major Life Change?

If you got married or divorced, bought a house, received an inheritance or retired, it’s probably wise to see a tax professional.

“A lot of people do their own taxes because of the consistency of their tax situations,” says Eric J. Nisall, founder of AccountLancer.

“When a big life event comes along, it introduces a new set of variables which they may have no frame of reference to deal with. In those cases, it’s especially beneficial to seek out professional help.”

Nisall actually encourages you to think about how life changes will affect your taxes before they occur.

“Tax preparation software and websites are after-the-fact solutions, and many chain employees are only trained to input information,” he explains.

“It’s important to sit down with a qualified tax professional to work out the best way of dealing with such events tax-wise.”

4. Did I Spend a Bunch on Education, Medical Bills or Charitable Donations?

If you spent money in any of the above categories, a tax professional could help you find deductions to lower your tax bill.

For example…

“Even if a student received a Pell grant that covered all of the expenses of attending college, he may qualify for education credits, and possibly get up to $2,500 off his tax bill, or up to $1,000 if he didn’t owe any taxes,” explains enrolled IRS agent Dana Bell.

Who knew?!

5. Did I Receive Any Self-Employment Income?

If you own your own business, or received any 1099s from contract work (think: driving with Uber), professional tax help might be a smart move.

“So many more parts of the tax code affect [business owners], and with that comes a tremendous amount of risk and opportunity,” Fraim explains.

“I have been able to reduce the tax bill enough to at the least cover my fee (and in most cases, well in excess of my fee) in the vast majority of these returns,” he adds.

One other bonus benefit of getting professional help? Your tax preparer can review your prior returns.

“Most tax returns can be amended up to three years after their due date,” explains Bell. “If they see you missed a deduction or credit, you can file an amended return to get the extra money back, plus a little interest.”

How to Get Professional Tax Help for Free

So you’re ready to get professional help with your taxes? That makes two of us.

But what if you can’t afford it?

One piece of advice I heard over and over was to avoid the tax preparation chains that’re all over TV this time of year.

If you can’t afford to hire an experienced tax preparer, you’re better off going with one of the free programs listed below.

“[These] programs will usually provide better quality than quick tax shops,” Bell explains. “The volunteers often have several years of experience, and have a one-week review each year. Many quick tax shops may have workers with only a week’s training total.”

Personally, I was surprised to discover you can get high-quality tax help for free. Was I the only one who didn’t know this?

Here’s a brief rundown of the free services:

VITA

The Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program is offered by the IRS, and available to people who earn less than $54,000 a year, have a disability, can only speak limited English or are elderly.

All volunteers are trained by the IRS, and many have professional tax backgrounds. Call 800-906-9887, or click here to find the VITA center nearest you.

TaxAide

Though TaxAide is run by the American Association for Retired Persons (AARP), its free services are available to anyone.

If you’re 50 or older, or can’t otherwise afford tax preparation services, its site says it was “made especially for you.”

TaxAide has more than 5,000 locations across the country and all its volunteers are certified by the IRS.

What do you think? Are you going to use a tax professional this year?

I’m convinced it’s time for me to get help. (Tax help, that is.) I’ll report back later with whether or not it was worth it!

Your Turn: Do you plan to get help with your taxes this year?

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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Millennials risk ‘credit chaos’

Tom Wilson

Two in five millennials – those born between the early 1980s and the early 2000s – are jeopardising their chance of getting a mortgage by missing minor payments on utility bills and other forms of credit, according to a new report.

Two in five millennials – those born between the early 1980s and the early 2000s – are jeopardising their chance of getting a mortgage by missing minor payments on utility bills and other forms of credit, according to a new report.

Back to the register

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