How Fracking Has Reduced Greenhouse Gases
Source CBN.com - CBN News http://ift.tt/1VOJCiX
الاثنين، 11 أبريل 2016
Are You a “JetBlue Virgin” in NYC or CA? You Could Win a Free Flight!
If you haven’t flown JetBlue before, you’re missing out.
The innovative airline has earned a devoted fan base for its roomy seats, top-notch customer service and free in-flight snacks and entertainment.
And now you could win a chance to try the airline for free — because it’s giving away 500 flights to JetBlue virgins in New York and California.
Here are the details…
Enter to Win a Free Flight on JetBlue
“You may not know us, but we know you’ll love us,” says the airline.
“In fact, we’re so confident it’ll be love at first flight that we’re giving away 500 roundtrip flights to those who have never flown us before!”
That’s right: 500 lucky winners will get a free round-trip flight between New York and San Francisco, Long Beach, Los Angeles or Las Vegas.
The contest is only open to “legal residents of New York and California who are 18 years of age or older and have never traveled on a JetBlue Airways flight at the time of entry.”
If that’s you, entry is easy; just fill out this brief online form before 11:59 p.m. EST on Wednesday, April 13.
Good luck, and happy travels!
Your Turn: Have you flown JetBlue before?
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 Are You a “JetBlue Virgin” in NYC or CA? You Could Win a Free Flight! appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.
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4 Ways to Boost the Conversion Rates of Your Link Building
Link building is still as important as ever to business owners even though it’s a bit different today than it was in the recent past.
You used to be able to build any type of link and get an SEO benefit from them.
But now, with all the changes over the years, only the very best links have any real benefit to them.
These links are given a lot of weight by Google, and they also usually send traffic directly to your site.
The problem is that these links are much harder to get than the junk links that used to pass as “good link building.”
Because of that, conversion rates are much lower.
You might try to get 100 links and only end up getting a few of these high quality links.
At first, this seems like a bad thing, but I believe it is good for marketers (well, the smart ones anyway…).
Marketers who just want to spam junk links usually try this type of link building but give up when they see that they only get a few links from the same effort that used to bring them dozens.
Additionally, because it’s more difficult, the best marketers who optimize their promotional strategies are able to double or triple their conversion rates compared to average marketers.
In this post, I want to show you a few ways in which you can start optimizing your link building for better conversion rates.
I’m confident that you’ll walk away with at least one tactic that will significantly increase the number of links you get from your link building campaigns.
The 2 main parts of a link building campaign
Before we can dive into the different ways you can boost your conversion rates, it’s important that you understand the different aspects of a campaign.
While every campaign is different, it generally has two main parts: your content and your promotion.
Improving either of these can lead to higher conversion rates even though most of the ways in this article focus on the promotional side.
Part #1 – Your content: Any type of content can be used in a link building campaign. Blog posts, tools, image galleries—you name it…
Basically, if it has some value and you want to get links to it, you can use it.
The reason why most conversion rate optimization tactics don’t focus on the content side of things is because the answer is usually to just “make it better.”
The more impressive your content is, the easier it is to convince people to link to it.
Part #2 – Promotion (email outreach): The other part of link building is your offsite work.
There are two types of links.
The links that anyone can build (think blog comments and web 2.0 sites). These links are okay at best.
The really great links are the ones you get from contacting people.
And while you can contact people through many channels, most of the tactics I’m going to touch upon involve email outreach, which is by far the most common.
With that out of the way, let’s get started.
Way #1 – Save the link for later
Can you write a good outreach email?
Let’s say you just wrote an absolutely epic blog post and you’re trying to get links to it by emailing other bloggers in your niche.
Can you:
- Be polite?
- Not come on too strong?
- At least try to make it seem like you don’t just want a link?
These are three important parts of a good outreach email.
A few years ago, this was enough. If you politely and with good grammar asked for a link, you could get upwards of 10-20 links per 100 emails you sent out.
But now? It’s much lower. If you got 10 today with the same type of email, you’d be thrilled.
What happened?
Well, marketers started sharing the templates they used for their email outreach campaigns. Here’s an example from Backlinko:
The intent of sharing those emails is good because it helps marketers learn what good emails look like.
The problem is that too many marketers are lazy, and those lazy ones hurt the rest of us.
All of those marketers started copying, almost word for word, those different templates.
The end result is that bloggers and journalists today receive several (popular ones get hundreds) of similar emails a day asking for a link.
Most of these go straight into the recycle bin.
The signs of a bad outreach email: The bloggers or staff manning those busy inboxes look for a few telltale signs of templated fluff that make it obvious that it’s just a link request.
For example, they will look to see if there is any personalization.
If the first line of the email is:
I love reading your blog
That seems really fishy. Compare that to something like:
I loved your blog post on Facebook advertising. I finally got my first profitable campaign thanks to it!
It’s obvious that the email was written for that specific blogger.
The other main sign of a bad link request email is…a link:
If someone includes a link in an email to you (or a blogger), they usually want something from you.
People don’t like feeling used, rightfully, and will often delete any emails with a link in them if they have any suspicion at all.
The solution? Be different: If most marketers are sending their emails with links like that, do the opposite: don’t include any links in your first email.
The one reason you might be hesitant is that now you need to get a response first before you can even ask for a link.
Trust me, though, if you have something worth linking to, you’re going to get a reply.
Additionally, if someone won’t even reply to an email, do you think they’re going to go through the trouble of giving you a link? Rarely.
If you test this, you’ll find that your reply and overall link rate goes up significantly.
How do you actually do this?
It’s simple. If your normal outreach emails include a line like:
I just published a great guide on washing cats, here’s the link: (link)
Replace it with something like:
I know that you’re always writing about cats, and I did a little research on washing cats properly (I actually found a lesser-known technique that’s amazing).
Would you mind if I sent you a link to it and got your thoughts on it?
One big thing is that this forces you to frame it in terms of the benefits to the person you’re emailing.
And since your emails aren’t automatically being thrown in the trash, you’ll get a lot of responses that say “sure, send it over.”
That doesn’t guarantee a link, but if your content is great, you’ll get a very good conversion rate.
One final note is that you don’t even have to mention your content in the first email as long as you open a dialogue. Building a long-term relationship should be your goal here, not just getting one link.
Way #2 – Make it shorter
I told you about the marketers who basically copy templates.
Now I want to talk about the marketers who despise that and do everything they can to go the extra mile. You might be one of them.
I love this type of marketer, but they make a few common mistakes.
One is that they make their emails way too long.
If you’re emailing someone who gets hundreds of emails a day, they do not have time to spend 10 minutes reading a 2,000-word email. After all that work, your email will end up in the trash.
If you’re trying to cram in personal stories in order to “make a connection,” stop.
Instead, include only the most important point. If it’s really interesting, you’ll get a reply with an invitation to expand on it.
A good email should be under 200 words long. You’re looking for 4-6 sentences in most cases.
Way #3 – Stop asking for too much work
If someone comes up to you on the street and asks you to take a picture of them, most of the time you’ll probably agree to.
But if they asked you to do a full photoshoot for them for an hour, of course you’d never say yes.
The point here is that the more you ask for, the less likely you are to get it.
At some point in your conversation, you’ll have to ask for a link. But there are many different ways to do that.
Unfortunately, many link requests go like this:
Here’s the link to my content: (link).
I’d really appreciate it if you linked to it from anywhere on your site.
Do you see why this is really bad?
It’s asking for a lot of work.
First, the blogger needs to look at your content. There’s no way around that.
Next, they need to look up their old posts and find one that’s relevant to your topic.
Then, they need to find an appropriate space for your link in that post.
Unless you’re a really good friend, why would anyone say yes to this? That’s one reason why your conversion rate stinks.
Make it easy: You can instantly make your conversion rate go up by making it easier to link to you.
Here are a few ways you can do that:
- Provide a specific page on the blogger’s website, where a link to your content fits really well. Write any text that is needed so that their content still makes sense.
- If you’re promoting an infographic, offer to send them an embed code.
- Give them future post ideas that they can use (make them great) that would naturally include a link to your content.
- Offer to edit and improve an old post they wrote if they’ll allow you to include a link. Send them the finished HTML code so that they can just copy and paste it into the post.
These are just a few ways. If you think of any other ways to make their lives easier, do it.
Way #4 – Targeting is crucial for conversion rates
There’s one easy way to ensure that your conversion rate is 0%…
Send emails to the wrong people.
If you wrote about cat washing but tried to get links from home improvement bloggers, you’d, of course, get no links. But that’s obvious.
Most marketers make subtle mistakes with their targeting.
For example, common advice is to find bloggers to contact using tools such as BuzzSumo.
It’s not bad advice, but you need to keep your targeting in mind.
Let’s say you wrote a guide on social media marketing.
If you just type in “marketing,” you’ll get SEO bloggers, paid advertising bloggers, sales bloggers, and many more that aren’t social media marketing bloggers.
If you sent emails to 500 of these, you’d definitely get some responses and links.
However, most of them will simply delete your email because it’s clear that you don’t even know what they write about.
There are some exceptions where you might want to ask for a link from a blogger from a non-directly related niche, but you’ll need to be very clear explaining your reasoning to them.
If you want high conversion rates, you need a highly targeted list of people who can actually link to you.
Filter out the irrelevant contacts in your list—it’ll save you time and won’t make an impact on the number of links you get.
Conclusion
Unless you already have a site with tons of traffic, you’ll need to conduct ongoing link building campaigns.
Quite obviously, the better your conversion rate, the more traffic you’ll get as a result and the less time you’ll need to spend on your campaigns.
That’s why I shared these four ways of boosting your link building conversion rates.
If you implement all of them, it’s possible to achieve a conversion rate that is double or triple what the average marketer gets. That’s a huge difference in the short and long term.
I’d love to hear whether you’ve put any of these tactics into action and how they’ve worked for you. If you’ve had any problems, leave me a comment about those too, and I’ll try to point you in the right direction.
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How to Get a Personal Loan Approved
In some cases, a personal loan is desirable.
You may want to start a home business, or you may want to borrow for a vacation, or you might have some other use for the money. Whatever the reason is, getting a personal loan can give you the money you need. A personal loan — usually unsecured — can provide you with a little extra cash to help you meet your goals.
Actually securing that personal loan can be a bit difficult, though. Many people find the process scary, and they don’t know where to begin.
Here’s a few ways on how to get your personal loan approved.
And if that doesn’t work, we have some other options, too.
Personal Loan Basics
Before you start you loan process, let’s make sure you understand how personal loans work. First of all, there are two main types of personal loans, secured and unsecured. A secured loan will usually give you lower interest rates, but you have to put something up as collateral for the loan, which means that if you don’t pay back the loan, they take your collateral. Unsecured loans, as you can guess, don’t require any collateral, but will have higher interest rates.
The other basic thing to know about personal loans is what you will need to get one. The information you’ll need will vary depending on which technique you use to get the loan. Just about every loan is going to require basic information like address, birthday, and Social Security Number. You will also need your employment information like your work history and pay stubs to verify your income. You will need to provide other sources of income like alimony.
Depending on the loan type and loan amount, the lender may ask for other information and documents like a copy of your W-2 and tax information, as well as proof of address, bank statements, and your mortgage or renting statements.
Services that Help You Compare Loans
There are several places you can get rates for personal loans. The easiest one I have seen to use is PersonalLoans.com. Their form is quick and easy to fill out and you can be comparing loan rates in no time. You only have to input what type of loan you want, the amount, your zip count, and any other basic loan information, and you can see dozens of loan options near you.
PersonalLonas has excellent reviews for users that have used the site to find the best loan option. PersonalLoans.com has been around since 1999 and works with many different lenders to help you get the best rates.
This allows you to cut through the salesmanship that you might get through a local bank and go directly through the lender. PersonalLoans.com can show you the best rates for just about any kind of personal loan you could want, they even give you the phone number of the business, making it very easy to get your loan.
Qualifying for a Personal Loan Through Your Bank or Credit Union
It’s becoming increasing difficult to qualify for a personal loan through your bank or credit union, especially if you want a larger amount.
If you are a good customer and have good credit, you can usually get what is called a signature loan for $3,000 to $5,000. These loans are also called “character loans” or “good character loans”, because these loans don’t have any collateral. For these loans, the lender will usually look for a decent credit history and make sure you have an income. Because these loans aren’t backed by anything, they will typically have higher interest rates than other loans. Check with your bank or credit union to find out whether they offer these loans, and what the application process is.
If you want a bigger loan, though, you will need to jump through some hoops. You will need to fill out a loan application, and you might even need to designate collateral. (Collateral is something of value that can be taken from you and sold to pay off the loan if you can’t pay it back.)
You will need to have a relatively high credit score (above 700 if you want to even be considered for an unsecured personal loan), and you likely not be approved for as much as you would like. (Not sure how your credit looks? Use services from Credit Sesame, Credit Karma and Transunion to figure that out first.)
However, the interest rate on a personal loan at a bank that values you as a customer is usually quite low compared to the alternatives.
Other Options for Personal Loans
If you have poor credit or don’t think you can receive an affordable loan from a bank or credit union, don’t worry. There are other options for personal loans, beyond your bank or credit union. Some of your other options include:
Credit Cards:
Many of us don’t think of credit cards as loans, but, in reality, your credit card constitutes a personal loan. If you have good credit, and you are hoping for a larger limit, you can apply for a new credit card. You can boost your available credit, and then draw on that for your personal use. However, credit cards usually have relatively high interest rates, and if you carry a balance, you could wind up paying quite a bit. Try to get a new card with an introductory period, and you will have an interest-free personal loan.
Here are some of the best credit cards you can get with a 0% introductory rate for either purchases or balance transfers:
Chase Freedom®
- 0% APR on purchases and balance transfers for 15 months
- Earn 1x points on all purchases, plus 5x points on the first $1,500 spent in categories that rotate every quarter
- Earn a $150 signup bonus when you use your card for just $500 in purchases during the first 90 days
- No annual fee
- Read here to learn more
Citi Diamond Preferred® Card
- 0% APR on purchases and balance transfers for the first 21 months
- No annual fee
- Access to Citi® Private Pass® travel program
- Worldwide Travel Accident Insurance
- Travel & Emergency Assistance
- Read here to learn more
Peer to Peer (P2P) Lending:
One of the increasingly popular options right now is P2P lending. Whether you are financing a business, paying for college, or trying to buy a motorcycle, P2P lending can help. You will have to apply for the loan, and your credit will be checked.
Additionally, if you want to draw funding sources, you will need a plan, showing how you will use the money. P2P lending offers competitive interest rates, and a good story can help you get the funding you need.
Interested in learning more? Check out Lending Club and Prosper. Both are leaders in the P2P lending space with solid processes for loan origination, repayment, and tracking.
I did a big comparison of the two sites in my Prosper vs. Lending Club Experiment. Now I was investing in other people’s loans, but you can get a real feel of how peer to peer lending works and if it is a good option for you.
Family and Friends:
If you have family members or friends who can help you out with the personal loan you need, you can often get the best loan terms.
However, you want to make sure that you are positive that you can repay the loan; you don’t want to risk your relationship. Have a contract so that you are accountable, and so that your friend or relative knows that you are serious. Be sure to include the loan term and the interest rate in the contract.
While I wouldn’t recommend using friends or family for a loan, sometimes it’s the best (or only) option.
Editor’s note: Personally, I’m totally against borrowing from family or friends. In my own family, money led to a huge falling out between family members. It shouldn’t have, but it did.
What you need to know before Getting a Personal Loan
We are going to be honest, getting a personal loan isn’t easy. There are a lot of things you need to consider before you apply for a personal loan.
The first, and most obvious, is decide how much you actually need from the loan. This might seem like a ridiculous tip to include, but it’s important enough to reiterate. Before you apply for your loan, sit down and calculate how much money you will need from the loan.
You should also spend some time researching to see which loan avenue works best for you. If you were paying attention to this article, there are several different ways to get a personal loan, but not every way works best for you. Fully understand the type of loan you are getting, the loan period, the payment methods, payment amounts, and any other important information.
Final Thoughts on Personal Loans
If you are looking for a personal loan, there are a number of options. From payday lenders (which you should avoid as much as you can) to credit cards to friends and family to random strangers via P2P lending, chances are that you can find a personal loan. But, depending on your situation, you might have to pay a lot for it.
Whichever path to a personal loan you select, make sure you track your finances well using a budgeting tool like Mint or Manilla. Both of these apps sync up with your financial accounts and are easy to use. They can show you all of your accounts and bills all in one place, making sure you don’t forget any debts. You don’t want to have to take a personal loan out during a pinch and end up paying thousands in interest and late fees from mismanaging your money.
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National Debt Could Hit 300 Percent, an Unsustainable Level
National Debt Could Hit 300 Percent, an Unsustainable Level
Source CBN.com - CBN News http://ift.tt/1N48SAl
Source CBN.com - CBN News http://ift.tt/1N48SAl
Savings updates: deals begin to disappear after tax year ends
Savers looking to use their cash Isa allowance for this tax year face disappearing top deals as banks and building societies either close their accounts or cut the rate.
Source Moneywise http://ift.tt/1S0UdCL
Questions About Store Credit Cards, Laundry Soap, Personal Loans, Speed Reading and More!
What’s inside? Here are the questions answered in today’s reader mailbag, boiled down to summaries of five or fewer words. Click on the number to jump straight down to the question.
1. Just opened store credit card
2. Cooking site
3. Fiction writing
4. Tips or philosophy?
5. Piecing together car accident
6. Homemade laundry soap and HE
7. Finance with low capital
8. Banking system and government trust
9. Vanguard funds in another 401(k)
10. Personal loans from Upstart
11. Struggling with VA
12. Speed reading
Over the weekend, I did a fresh “brain dump.” It felt great.
For those unfamiliar, a “brain dump” is when you sit down with several sheets of paper and a pen and write down every single undone thing that’s on your mind, whether it’s urgent or not urgent, whether it’s important or not important, whether it’s something you want to do today or something you want to do in a year. You just dump all of those things out of your mind onto paper.
After that, you go around your house and look for other things left undone that you might have forgotten about. Often, the things in your life serve as great triggers. Write it all down.
The goal is to have every possible thing you might want to do in the future written down on paper and out of your head.
Once that’s done, you organize it in some useful way so that you can easily find upcoming tasks. I use task management software for this (currently Remember the Milk).
Why do this? For one, it clears out your brain so you can focus better as undone tasks don’t distract you. If anything new pops into your head, you just write it down and keep on trucking on your task at hand and you don’t have to worry about it at all. For another, it makes for a very effective to-do list.
For me, doing a fresh “brain dump” every few months helps make sure that things aren’t slipping through the cracks of my life. It also helps a ton with keeping my mind focused, especially in the week or two right after the “brain dump.” I highly recommend it!
Q1: Just opened store credit card
I just opened a credit card at a store I never shop at. I regretted it immediately. I didn’t use it to make my purchase today. I just don’t think it’s smart to have it, but I also don’t know if it’s smart to close it. Please help!
– Nina
If you already have another credit card that you’ve had for longer than this store card and you have no intent of ever using the store card, it’s fine to cancel it. You might see a small short-term negative drop in your credit score, but it’s likely not big enough or going to last long enough to have any kind of negative impact on your life.
In other words, I really wouldn’t sweat it at all. I don’t think you made a big mistake by doing this.
If you’re unsure, ask yourself this: are you ever going to use this card? If the answer is no, then just cancel it. It’s better than having yet another window to identity theft sitting out there.
Q2: Cooking site
You mentioned starting a cooking-centric site. Did you ever do this? I find that I always enjoy the recipes that I find on your site. I also agree that cooking at home is one of the top money savers that a household can do.
– Maxwell
For a long time, I considered starting a cooking blog, but as you noted, cooking is one of the biggest money savers that a household can take on, so I channeled some of the ideas I had for a cooking blog into The Simple Dollar for a while.
The biggest output from this effort was a weekly series I did for most of 2011 called “Dinner with my Family,” which you can check out here. It mostly consisted of meals that our family actually prepared and consumed. I chose meals that were interesting and inexpensive.
What I found was that I wasn’t as interested in some of the aspects that would make a successful food blog, in particular the photography of it. I didn’t really want to make “perfect” platings or other things – I found it far more interesting to show our real kitchen at work. Unfortunately, a lot of people didn’t like that as well, as they preferred the perfectly-lit perfectly-arranged photos one might find in a food magazine or on a devoted food blog.
So, my passion for food blogging is mostly constrained to the occasional food post on The Simple Dollar. I think that my interest in writing about food is better channeled in that way.
Maxwell had another question in the same email.
Q3: Fiction writing
You mention some fiction stories that you are working on. Did you ever publish any of these? I’d like to read them if you have.
– Maxwell
I am very, very picky about my fiction. Most fiction that I write ends up never being shown to another living soul. I have sent exactly three pieces of fiction out for publication and none of them have ever been published.
My problem with fiction is that most of what I write doesn’t feel very meaningful to me. It’s just characters doing things and I find myself not really caring about them. When I do write something in which I care about the characters and find something meaningful in it, I’ll read it again later and find that it’s too heavy handed in terms of the philosophy and ideas behind it.
Honestly, I think that most of the problems I see could be ironed out with adequate time, but finding adequate time for it is a real challenge.
Another problem is that the one piece of fiction I’m most proud of is a thinly-veiled look at several people I know that isn’t very flattering in a lot of ways. I would be hesitant to publish that material because of the potential blowback from doing so.
Maxwell had a third question, too.
Q4: Tips or philosophy?
In comparing your old articles to some of your newer pieces I’ve noticed a shift from the basic “Here is a good money saving tip” to an almost philosophical nature of how to approach things that also tangentially relate to saving money. I find that I enjoy these articles a lot more. A lot of the basics: buy generic, cook at home, spend less than you earn, etc has been covered ad nauseam so I enjoy these articles on mind set and thought process. I know in one recent article you mentioned how you are auditing online classes and self teaching yourself. I would be really interested in a course outline or readings list and more discussion on how you are doing this.
– Maxwell
When I first started my financial turnaround, I really dove into the specific money-saving tactics. I found those ideas really useful when I was getting started.
After a while, though, it became clear to me that the part that really kept the ball rolling was mindset and psychology. If you don’t have your head in the right place, all of the money-saving tactics in the world won’t help you. What matters most is having the right mental perspective and attitude about money and about your career, because without those you’ll never succeed financially.
These days, I try to balance both kinds of articles. If I write something fairly philosophical, I try really hard to pin it down to actionable things that people can do in their lives to improve their financial or professional situation. And sometimes I do write tip posts because, honestly, they can be useful, even if the tips are familiar.
All I can really do is write about the financial and professional topics that I find useful and valuable in my own life. If I wrote about things that I wasn’t practicing or thinking about in my own life, it would quickly lose the passion and the personal aspects that I think sets my writing apart from the crowd.
Q5: Piecing together car accident
I had a 1996 Hyundai Accent mint condition. It was totalled. I had loyalist insurance, it was my daughter-in-law’s fault, it was towed. The person who hit her (there was no damage), they were concerned about my daughter-in-law who was expecting at the time. Just who got paid? I saw nothing from no one only thing I signed was my title over to the place where it was towed. Help to understand.
– Kevin
From what you described, it’s likely that the person who hit your daughter did not make any sort of insurance claim in the accident. After all, their vehicle wasn’t damaged and they were not at fault.
If you did not make an insurance claim, then it’s likely that the insurance didn’t pay out anything. I’m not sure why exactly you signed over the title of the car to the place where the car was towed unless their bill was in excess of what you could afford to pay out of pocket.
My impression here is that the insurance company was never informed of the accident at all and thus had no reason to contact you. Typically, after an accident, you should contact your insurance company; if no one contacted them, then they have no reason to be doing anything.
However, if that’s the case, I’m puzzled by why you signed over the vehicle to the car repair place. I can only guess, but was the car already in very poor shape to begin with and it was less expensive to repair the car than to just get rid of it? I’m honestly not sure.
Q6: Homemade laundry soap and HE
Can the homemade laundry detergent be used in “HE” machines?
– Nancy
The recipe I use, which is one cup of borax, one cup of washing soda, and one cup of soap flakes (either out of a bag of soap flakes or grated yourself), does not create very many soap suds in a load (I use one spoonful per load), so I can’t imagine that it would cause a problem in an HE washing machine.
I do not own a HE washing machine, however, so I went looking for people who did use such a recipe in a HE machine. This article uses virtually the same recipe that I use and it indicates that such a recipe should be fine in an HE machine.
I’d give it a try. The worst thing that could happen is that you have a load that foams up excessively, giving you some soap suds to clean up. However, I really don’t think that will happen in an HE machine.
Q7: Finance with low capital
How can I start a insurance and finance company with low capital? Please tell me the process.
– John
If you’re looking to actually start an insurance company in which your company actually provides the insurance, you’re going to need a lot of capital unless you’re essentially running a scam. If you don’t have enough capital to handle a lot of claims, you’re going to be in a very bad situation. I would not start any sort of insurance company without having a lot of capital.
Now, if you’re talking about starting a small business to offer financial planning advice or to sell insurance, that’s a much different situation. This article offers some great advice on starting an insurance sales business, for starters.
If you’re looking to lend money to people, you can do that on your own through sites like Prosper with whatever level of capital you have. Prosper provides the business structure for you, in other words; you merely provide the capital for the loan.
Q8: Banking system and government trust
I would totally agree with what you are saying except, What about the Computer agenda you know the NWO is calling for all money’s to be accessible through Microchipped Credit Cards and microchipped humans. If the Government takes this approach and you do Not want to cooperate with this banking system then you would wish you had gold and silver because they would have the power and control to turn off your accessibility to your own accounts ? Then what will you do?
– Mark
First of all, I was hesitant about whether to include this email in the mailbag because of the mention of “NWO.” For those unfamiliar, “NWO” refers to the rise of or existence of a singular totalitarian world government. My belief is that NWO theories fall prey to the furtive fallacy, which means that followers of the theory use hindsight of historical events to apply a strong sinister perspective to them.
Although I’m not really in agreement with some of the more conspiratorial leanings of what is being said here, you are expressing a real concern when it comes to biometric access to your funds. If you’re not dealing in physical currency or some other goods that can be traded, you open yourself up to the possibility of a government or corporate entity closing off your access to funds, whether for legitimate reasons or otherwise. There are even innocuous reasons why you wouldn’t be able to access your funds, such as internet outage.
However, I think the best response to this isn’t to have bars of gold under your bed. I think the best response to this is self-sufficiency, because self-sufficiency is useful whether or not such events occur and you don’t have your funds tied up in a volatile and risky asset.
If this is a real concern for you, I encourage you to make investments in making your home/homestead as self-sufficient as possible. Install solar panels. Learn how to produce your own food. Grow a nice garden and save your seeds. Stock up on essentials that you might need down the road. Those things are good strategies for financial independence as well as a good response to concerns about biometric identification.
Q9: Vanguard funds in another 401(k)
My boss is rolling our 401k to Merril Lynch. I have to meet with a rep with them next week. Can I go thru them to get into Vanguard index funds?
– Jim
Typically, a 401(k) offering from an investment firm offers only a certain handful of investment options selected by the firm. My guess would be that a Merrill Lynch 401(k) would not include Vanguard funds in their 401(k) offering, though I could be wrong.
Having said that, the 401(k) may offer a self-directed brokerage option, which means that you could use Merrill as a brokerage to buy ETFs of Vanguard funds. This would essentially let you buy into those funds, but it will likely cost you an additional fee (paid for within your 401(k) money).
This is one of the reasons why, if your employer isn’t offering matching funds on your 401(k), it makes more sense to start an IRA of your own, whether it’s a traditional IRA or a Roth IRA. That way, you can choose which investment firm you want to deal with and you usually have a much wider array of investments to choose from.
So, my advice to you is to check with your employer and see whether or not they’re offering you a match on your contributions. If they are, just choose the best of what your 401(k) makes available. If not, then start up your own IRA directly with Vanguard.
Q10: Personal loans from Upstart
You may have seen the stop on NBC Nightly News regarding the company Upstart that specializes in giving people with a college degree and a good career track a personal loan.
I looked into this because I have around $7,000 in credit card debt and student loans. I did a preliminary application and was preapproved for a $7,000 at an interest rate that was 10 point lower than my current credit card interest rate.
My questions is: do you think it’d worthwhile to take out a loan with a company like this? This loan will lower my month payment by about $40 a month but will also allow me to pay the debt off faster due to the lower interest rate because all of my monthly payment won’t be going towards interest. The other issue is my husband and I are considering buying a house in the next 6-12 months so should I be worried about the affect the loan will have on our ability to secure a mortgage?
– David
Since I don’t know the exact formula for calculating FICO scores, I can’t be sure how this type of personal consolidation loan would affect your credit score. Having said that, my guess is that this type of loan will have minimal impact on your credit score. If you keep your bills paid up and don’t have an excessive amount of debt, I don’t think this will hurt you in the least. If anything, it will probably help you if you go to a lender who does manual underwriting (meaning they actually review your credit report manually rather than just trusting a credit score).
Aside from the credit score issue, a personal loan – whether offered by this company or by a local credit union or another source – that consolidates your debts and reduces the interest rate significantly is almost always a good move for the reasons you name. You can pay down the debt faster and spend less money on interest.
I think this is definitely going to be a good move for you. Before you do it, though, I’d suggest visiting a local credit union or two and see if they can offer you an even better rate on a personal loan.
Q11: Struggling with VA
My husband served 4 yrs airforce good discharge yet VA won’t pay for meds and IRS took refund for the debt. He is on SSI because VA refused to acknowlege case. Ammunition specialist & loaded nuclear bombs hearing loss none in one ear screeching sounds in other & this is documented. It gets worse every year driving him insane. What can I do?
– Denise
It sounds like your husband suffers from tinnitus, something I’m definitely familiar with. I’ve had it since I was a teenager. I have good days and bad days with it. I’m also deaf in one ear, so I know pretty clearly what your husband is going through. It can be hard at times to have a roaring sound in your ear and it’s even worse when you can’t hear well to begin with.
I don’t know exactly what you’ve done in terms of contacting the VA for assistance. For requesting assistance related to hearing loss, you need to write to them stating that you are seeking service connection for hearing loss and include medical records demonstrating the problem. You need to make your claim as easy to approve as possible. I recommend submitting a Fully Developed Claim, which should be easy if you have documentation of his problems.
Again, I don’t know exactly what you’ve already done. If you’ve already done this, you should look into filing an appeal. Here’s information from the VA on the appeals process.
Q12: Speed reading
Have you ever looked into speed reading? Do you consider it a useful thing? Seems that reading fast would be really beneficial.
– Carson
I’ve dug into speedreading before and I’ve found that it offers one real benefit. If you learn how to do it properly, it disconnects your ability to read to yourself from subvocalization.
When many people read to themselves, they hear a voice in their head that’s essentially reading the words they see out loud in their mind. So, when they’re reading, they move along at the same pace that they would if they were reading aloud.
That’s perfectly fine, but it’s not particularly fast. Learning how to turn that off and process words without that vocalization makes it easier to read faster and still absorb the meaning of the text.
However, there’s still a limit on how fast you can read without losing comprehension. People who see big jumps in reading speed are usually getting them because they broke that “voice in their head” habit and then quickly found their natural reading speed with good comprehension.
I learned how to read without that “voice in my head” when I was a teenager, so I didn’t find speedreading training to be that useful. However, for people breaking that “voice in your head” habit, it’s very useful.
Got any questions? The best way to ask is to follow me on Facebook and ask questions directly there. I’ll attempt to answer them in a future mailbag (which, by way of full disclosure, may also get re-posted on other websites that pick up my blog). However, I do receive many, many questions per week, so I may not necessarily be able to answer yours.
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23 Money-Saving Secrets Every Whole Foods Shopper Needs to Know
Whole Foods gives you the option to feed your family healthy food, produced in a way you can feel good about and sold by a company you trust.
The grocery chain offers local, organic produce and way more gluten-free, dairy-free and other allergen-free options than many conventional stores.
But the prices on that kind of grocery shopping can make you want to walk down the street to the discount chain and forget all about the contents of your food.
Do you wonder how anyone can afford to buy groceries at Whole Foods without taking out a second mortgage?
It’s because they know the secrets.
How to Save Money at Whole Foods
There are tons of little ways to save money at Whole Foods. You just have to know where to find them — and how to take advantage of them.
We’ve pulled together the best tips from Whole Foods insiders and our personal experience to help you save money on the healthy food you really want.
1. Subscribe to the Newsletter
Tons of stores offer deals and freebies when you share your email address.
Enter your email and location to receive weekly Whole Foods recipes, coupons and tips in your inbox.
2. Find Whole Foods Coupons Online
Before you head to your local Whole Foods, check the website for coupons. They’re easy to find!
Just go to http://ift.tt/1SbmmfI, and select your location to find current sales and printable coupons.
3. Grab the Store Flyer
On your way into the store, pick up a copy of The Whole Deal, the store’s weekly sales flyer. It’s full of advertised deals and coupons from manufacturers and Whole Foods’ own 365 brand.
You can also print the flyer yourself each week — download it here.
4. Find Manufacturer Coupons
In addition to the store coupons, look for manufacturer coupons for items on your list.
These are awesome — and you can usually stack them with in-store sales and Whole Foods coupons.
Here are 100 places to find free coupons for everything on your list. If you’re shopping online to pick up in-store (see #21), here’s where to find coupon codes online.
Looking for savings on healthier choices? Try these secret places to find coupons for fresh fruits and veggies.
5. Download the Whole Foods App
Download the Whole Foods app for iOS or Android to get free coupons (like this one) and recipes.
You can also keep your shopping list in the app, and even order groceries for delivery by Instacart.
Be sure to scan your app’s barcode at the register to automatically add any applicable coupons.
6. Follow Your Local Store on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram
Businesses share some of their best deals on social media before anyone else hears about them.
Stay up to date with Whole Foods’ deals by following your local store.
Choose your store here to find links to its Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts.
7. Check out the Whole Foods Sales Days
Saving money at Whole Foods might simply be a matter of knowing when to shop.
New weekly sales start on Wednesdays, so you’re bound to find the most available deals then.
Whole Foods also runs weekly Friday One-Day Sales on select items. These are usually advertised a few weeks in advance, and you can call your local store to find out what’s coming up.
Keep an eye out for sales, and plan your shopping list accordingly!
8. Bring Your Own Bags
Like many grocery stores, Whole Foods offers a discount when you use your own bag and save the plastic or paper.
Bring lots of them! Depending on your store, you’ll receive a 5- to 10-cent discount per bag, so come prepared.
9. Bring Your Own Containers
When you buy in bulk, you’ll pay for the weight of the plastic container that holds your goods.
It’s intentionally pretty light, but you could always shave off just a little more.
Bring your own jar or plastic container, have it weighed before you fill it and you’ll only pay for the weight of the contents.
10. Compare Prices
Whole Foods’ 365 Everyday Value brand is intended to be the chain’s affordable option.
Keep an eye out for it, but compare with other brands to make sure you get the best deal.
11. Look for Unadvertised Sales
Not every sale item is mentioned in the flyer, so keep your eyes peeled!
Scan the shelves for yellow and red tags, which indicate a Whole Foods clearance item. You can save a lot on staples by stocking up when you find a good sale.
12. Try Before You Buy
The chain actually has a generous sample policy, a former Whole Foods employee says.
To cut down on waste, you can “try before you buy,” to keep from buying something you won’t like.
Don’t be shy asking to sample items like cheese, meat or chocolate. Employees can open the package for you and share the rest as samples with other customers.
13. Get a Whole Foods Punch Card
The Whole Foods punch card offers vary by store, so ask around at your location.
Some stores have punch cards for sandwiches, burritos, salads, sushi and coffee.
You may also find a punch card for $10 off after you spend $100 on 365 supplements.
Also keep an eye out for the Whole Foods Market Rewards program in your area. The pilot program is only in some Philadelphia area stores now.
14. Use Rebate Apps
While coupons often help you save money on carbo-loaded brands and packaged foods, rebate apps can help you save on your staples.
Every time you shop, take a picture of your receipt with an app like Ibotta or Checkout 51 to find deals on non-name-brand items like bread, fruit or milk.
If you can, check the app before you shop, and plan your purchases around available rebates.
15. Buy in Bulk
Did you know you can buy most packaged items at Whole Foods by the case for 10% off?
The same goes for wine: Get a six-pack to save 10-20%.
Some locations also offer discounts on bulk meat purchases when you buy more than three pounds. Stock up, and freeze it!
If you’re looking for particular spices for a single recipe, buy what you need from the bulk section, instead of buying a whole jar and storing it.
16. Buy Produce at the Salad Bar
If you’re buying small amounts of produce, check the salad bar before the produce section.
You might be able to find what you need cheaper there, and you won’t have to worry about buying more than you’ll use.
17. Choose Your Own Cheese
You don’t have to settle for the pre-weighed and wrapped cheeses in the case.
For cheeses wrapped and labeled by Whole Foods, ask an employee to split and rewrap the wedge — you’ll save money and only take home what you need.
18. Buy Frozen Meats and Fish
Unless you live near a body of water, the fish at any local grocery store has almost certainly been frozen in transit.
Even when it’s thawed and sold in-store as “fresh,” you’re still buying frozen fish — and paying more for it. Plan ahead, and buy your meat and fish frozen to save money.
19. Return Glass Milk Containers
Do you cringe when you see the price of organic, non-homogenized, grass-fed or whatever kinds of milk come in the glass jug?
You might be missing out on huge savings if you’re just recycling the jug. The price has a built-in deposit for the jug — as much as $3!
Keep your jugs, and return them on your next trip to the store for a deposit refund. Consider it $3 off your next jug of milk.
20. Take Advantage of Whole Foods Kids’ Club
It seems to be a well-kept secret that many grocery stores offer a free treat for kids.
When you shop with the kiddos at Whole Foods, stop by customer service for a Kids’ Club Coupon for a complimentary organic apple, fruit leather or package of natural animal crackers.
21. Shop Whole Foods Online
Even when you’re buying groceries, we recommend shopping online, because it allows you to use a cash-back site and earn rewards for your purchase.
Use Cashbackholic to determine which cash-back site’s offering the best deal. Then shop Whole Foods online through the portal, and pick up your order in the store for free shipping.
22. Buy Discounted Gift Cards
To cut your costs every time you shop, buy Whole Foods gift cards online.
You can get them for less than face value through gift card exchange sites like Raise.
Buy a gift card before your weekly shopping trip, and you could save around 2% on all your groceries!
23. Get Coffee for $1
At some Whole Foods locations, you can get your coffee for $1 if you bring your own mug. I also have it on good authority that a cold-pressed mocha with almond milk will blow your mind.
Your Turn: How do you save money on groceries at Whole Foods?
Disclosure: This post includes affiliate links. We’re letting you know because it’s what Honest Abe would do. After all, he is on our favorite coin.
Dana Sitar (@danasitar) is a staff writer at The Penny Hoarder. She’s written for Huffington Post, Entrepreneur.com, Writer’s Digest and more, attempting humor wherever it’s allowed (and sometimes where it’s not).
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I Unexpectedly Owed $9,742 in Taxes. Here’s How to Avoid My Mistakes
I’ve been a freelance writer for five years, and every year I’m convinced I’ve finally nailed it.
I mail my estimated tax payments to the IRS, but not before Googling “Where do I send my estimated taxes?” every single time.
I keep track of important receipts and use an online bookkeeping system to categorize my expenses. I also automatically shift money into a savings account each month.
Heck, I even have an emergency fund to get me through three months of rent should anything go wrong.
Then something went wrong.
Suddenly, I had a huge tax bill sitting in my lap.
I thought I did everything right. And now I’m paying Uncle Sam and his local cronies almost $10,000.
What This Freelancer Did Wrong (Because Admitting It is the First Step)
Accountants come in all shapes and sizes, and mine is pretty hands-off. I fill out a bunch of worksheets at the end of the year, she does the math, and then ships me a sheaf of papers to review and sign.
Each year, my accountant examines my tax return and calculates how much I should submit for the upcoming year in quarterly estimated taxes. At the end of the year, I usually owe a few hundred dollars — nothing to shake a tailfeather at.
But this year, I did really well. I hustled my freelancer behind more than I ever had, and picked up a few long-term gigs with rates higher than I’d been brave enough to charge in the past.
Except while my bank account was flush, I hadn’t communicated my great fortune to my accountant.
I assumed that by sending in my triflin’ estimated payments each quarter, I’d be 100% covered when annual filing came around.
Even worse, unlike in previous years where I had W-2 gigs scattered in — and chose to have the maximum tax withheld — this year I was all 1099, all the way.
I got into deep financial doo-doo, and I’ve been assured I’m not the only freelancer to experience this misfortune.
“I have a lot of new clients who come to me in March and say, ‘Here’s my income, I’m probably in the X tax bracket, so I’ve set aside this chunk of money,’” says Aaron Peters, a CPA in Northern Virginia who specializes in freelancers and small businesses.
Many freelancers “aren’t familiar with the self-employment tax, which in a lot of cases adds an additional tax burden depending on income level.”
So if you’re in, for instance, a tax bracket somewhere between 10% and 25%, you still have to pay another 15.3% of your income in self-employment tax.
Hi. My name is Lisa, and I forgot about the self-employment tax.
It’s OK if a Tax Bill Makes You Cry
Here’s how the math breaks down, and how I got through tax season without bursting into tears.
I had paid $2,800 over the course of the year through estimated tax payments. I didn’t pay any quarterly tax to my local government, because, until now, I hadn’t made enough to hit the threshold to require those payments.
When my accountant prepared my tax return, I owed:
- $5,005 to the IRS (trust me, I was offended by that extra $5)
- $2,187 to the District of Columbia
Then it was time for 2016’s quarterly payments.
As all self-employed folk know, April 15 is doubly difficult because it’s when annual returns from last year and first-quarter estimated payments for this year are due.
For the first quarter of 2016, I owed:
- $2,000 to the IRS
- $550 to the District of Columbia
All told, I needed to write checks to various government entities for $9,742.
I also owed my accountant $600 for preparing two Schedule Cs, one for freelancing and one for my now-shuttered clothing store. That brought my grand total to $10,342.
Ouch.
What I Did to Fix It
It was time to change my game plan. Big time.
During a recent visit to Penny Hoarder HQ, I had proposed a debt-repayment challenge for myself. Could I pay off all my credit card debt in six months? The staff was encouraging, of course. And I was encouraged by my financial situation.
Good thing I held off on that ambitious plan. I needed almost every penny I had earmarked for my credit-card project for my tax bill.
Where I got the money to pay Uncle Sam:
- $4,000 came from a savings account where I had stashed a windfall (thank you, family).
- $2,000 came from a savings account where I auto-deposit $25 a week — so, 1.5 years’ worth of auto-savings).
- $4,342 came from my checking account. I know, it was just all sitting around in there.
Yes, it was nice to have several thousand dollars in my checking account at all times. I felt secure. I felt like I could do anything.
And now I’m totally stocked up on tomato soup and grilled cheese supplies for the rest of my summer. If I’m going to be living lean until I build my savings back up, I’m at least going to do it with cheese.
The good news: I didn’t touch my emergency savings at all.
So if something really does go horribly wrong — I lose a client, I wind up in the ER, I crash a rental car — I have cash I can get to ASAP. I don’t have to wring my hands and count down the days until each client payment comes through.
What to Do if it Happens to You
If you’re faced with a large or unexpected tax bill, your absolute first step is still to file your taxes.
You might be tempted to hide from the IRS, but that’s your worst move.
If you don’t file, “the IRS files on your behalf with the worst possible scenario,” David Emmerman, a New York City-area accountant, says. “They’ll send you a bill and start levying your bank accounts.”
Here are the most common options you can choose from to get back into the black:
Pay It All
“Of all the creditors you can have, the IRS is the worst,” Peters warns. “It’s the most powerful.”
While it doesn’t happen often, the IRS can seize your assets and garnish your wages until you’re paid up, says Peters.
It can also throw down compounding interest and penalties on those unpaid amounts. Penalties for failing to file your taxes are typically in the 20% range.
If you have any cash saved, now is the time to use it.
That rainy day fund. Your travel fund. Your dream house savings.
Empty them out. Your dream vacation will wait for you to get there. The IRS will not.
My bank account feels a little light now that I’ve paid my bills, but I can still sleep (relatively) easily knowing I’m not in any extra debt because of my tax bill.
Set up a Payment Plan
If you don’t have cash sitting around, it’s time to call the IRS and make a plan.
If you owe less than $10,000 to the IRS, you can set up a payment plan without having to reveal too much financial information, explains Emmerman.
If you owe less than $50,000, you can still get a payment plan, but you’ll have to reveal more about your income and expenses.
The IRS typically wants you to pay off your balance within 60 months, says Emmerman. But remember, “just because you’re on a payment plan doesn’t mean you’re exempt from interest and penalties accruing.”
Interest rates are usually around 5%, and you’ll still be expected to file and pay your taxes in the years to follow — even if you still owe a balance on your payment plan.
One key to surviving a payment plan is to make sure you agree to a realistic monthly payment.
“You don’t ever want to get to a point where you miss a payment,” Peters says, which could cause interest and penalties retroactive to your plan’s start date.
You want to strive to pay the bill in a timely fashion, sure, but you “don’t want to get three months down the road and be in a world of hurt,” he warns.
Pay by Credit Card
If you’d rather owe your credit card company than Uncle Sam, you can put your tax bill on a credit card.
This option asks you to choose a payment processor through the IRS, which offer varying fees in the 1.5-3% range to process your payment. Then, you’re subject to the interest rate you agreed to with your credit card provider.
“The credit card does provide a nice option and a little bit of liquidity with the IRS,” Peters says. “If that’s the only option, it may not be that bad. But then the liability is still there.”
Pay Late
This last option should only be considered under the close advisement of your accountant.
“If you can pay shortly after the due date, it may make sense to skip setting up a payment plan and paying late instead,” Peters says.
A small penalty, say, if you’re waiting on a big check from a client that’s due a week after taxes are due, may be less of a burden than the fees associated with setting up a payment plan.
“It definitely depends on the individual,” he says.
The One Thing You Must Do So This Never Happens Again
“I never want to do this again,” I muttered as I slapped stamps on all the check-laden envelopes I mailed out in late March. “Never.”
I asked my roommates to say goodbye to my money as I walked to the mailbox. Then I asked the pros how to avoid tax surprises altogether.
“If a freelancer can go out and be proactive about how they manage their business, you know what problems you have ahead of time. You’re not going to be surprised by things,” Emmerman says.
He recommends setting aside and saving a full 30% of your freelance income to be prepared for tax season.
Then, make a date with your accountant when it’s not tax season.
“Use your tax return to plan for next year, but also check in in the late summer or early fall to look at your earnings and tax liability.”
That way, if you’re having an amazing freelancing year (or a really slow one), you’ll be ready to handle it when it’s time for the paperwork.
Your Turn: Have you ever been slammed with a huge, unexpected tax bill? How did you cope?
This post does not constitute tax advice. For specific advice, please see a tax professional.
Lisa Rowan is a writer, editor and podcaster based in Washington, D.C. She is grateful for all accountants, everywhere.
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How to Make Money and Empower Women With Handbags
By Holly Reisem Hanna This past week I had the pleasure of checking out the ClaudiaG home business opportunity. The ClaudiaG Collection consists of leather handbags, chic jewelry and accessories – so if you love fashion you’ll want to check this out. In fact, I took the Luminous Tote on my Cancun trip and I […]
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