A state licensing board has taken disciplinary action against Stroud Township salon Chop Shop Kutz for several violations.The Department of State Bureau of Professional and Occupational Board of Cosmetology ordered in March that Chop Shop, located in the Stroud Mall, pay a $1,250 civil penalty and to stop employing unlicensed employees. The board found that Chop Shop's owner failed to be present or to have a designated licensee resent during inspection, and failed to keep the [...]
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الخميس، 14 أبريل 2016
Stroud Mall salon fined $1,250 by state for unlicensed employees
A state licensing board has taken disciplinary action against Stroud Township salon Chop Shop Kutz for several violations.The Department of State Bureau of Professional and Occupational Board of Cosmetology ordered in March that Chop Shop, located in the Stroud Mall, pay a $1,250 civil penalty and to stop employing unlicensed employees. The board found that Chop Shop's owner failed to be present or to have a designated licensee resent during inspection, and failed to keep the [...]
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Local Verizon workers strike
Verizon workers picketed in Stroudsburg Thursday and explained they are in a contract dispute.Picketers said Verizon plans to close the building in Stroudsburg and outsource their jobs to the Philipines. Employees who work at the Stroudsburg building would be put on location which means they would be posted across the country for four months at a time.An online Pocono Record poll asking participants if they do business with Verizon showed slightly more than half the [...]
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3 Things To Do This Weekend
SATURDAYIf you love comic books and have a knack for writing and drawing, head to Comic Thon. East Stroudsburg University's Student Art Association holds the event, during which amateur and professional cartoonists of any age have 12 hours to write, draw and letter a 12-page comic story. You do not have to meet this goal nor stay for the entire session. David Mazure, comic book artist and associate professor of art and design, will instruct and assist novices and [...]
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Earn Free Flights and More with America’s Most Family-Friendly Airline – Southwest Rapid Rewards Card Review
Thanks to its generous rewards program, Southwest Airlines is making it easier than ever for families to earn free flights to destinations in the U.S. and the Caribbean. Not only does Southwest make earning free flights easy, but it offers free checked bags, family boarding, and additional perks that make it ideal for family travel.
In just the last year alone, my family has used the Southwest Rapid Rewards program to fly to Mexico, Jamaica, Denver, Raleigh, Orlando, and Las Vegas. Because of its unique redemption policies – and how easy it is to rack up airline miles – we focus most of our spending on cards that allow us to rack up these miles quickly.
If you want to take your family on a trip anywhere in the country but want to avoid the crushing cost of airfare, you’ll want to read this. In the meantime, you should also check out our guide on the other airline credit cards on the market:
Credit Cards that Let You Earn Miles on Southwest Airlines
While you can earn Southwest points by signing up through their program and spending money on Southwest and through their affiliates, the easiest way to rack up points quickly is with a credit card that lets you earn this valuable point currency. Here are the two cards you should consider signing up for today:
Southwest Airlines® Rapid Rewards® Premier card – With this card, you’ll earn 25,000 Southwest Rapid Rewards points after you spend just $1,000 within 90 days. That’s enough miles for at least one round-trip flight within the continental United States, and maybe two if you’re judicious in how you use your miles. Plus, you’ll earn 2x points per dollar spent at Southwest Airlines and 1x points on all other purchases. As an added bonus, you’ll get 6,000 points on your account anniversary and no foreign transaction fees. The $99 annual fee is not waived. Read here to learn more about the Southwest Airlines® Rapid Rewards® Premier card.
Important tip: My recommendation on the Southwest card is to hold off until the 50,000 point offer rolls back around. In the meantime, consider getting the Chase Sapphire Preferred® card instead.
Chase Sapphire Preferred® card – With the Chase Sapphire Preferred® card, you’ll earn 50,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points after you spend just $4,000 on your card within the first 90 days. The cool thing is, these points transfer to Southwest Airlines at a 1:1 ratio. And with 50,000 points in your account, you should have enough for at least two round-trip flights within the continental United States or to the Caribbean. The $95 annual fee on this card is waived as well, meaning you can try out the card’s benefits for a full 12 months without a commitment. Read here to learn more about the Chase Sapphire Preferred® card.
Why Southwest is the Best Airline for Families
While lots of airlines try to cater to families, Southwest Airlines does it better than anyone else. In addition to their rewards program, they have thought of almost everything a family who travels together might need during their journey. Here are a few of the reasons Southwest is ideal for families:
Reason #1: The Southwest credit card lets you earn free flights.
With both the Chase Sapphire Preferred® card and the Southwest Airlines® Rapid Rewards® Premier card, you can earn free flights for your family. All you have to do is sign up, use your card for regular spending, and meet the minimum spending requirement to earn the signup bonus. Once you meet those requirements, your miles will be deposited into your account within 30 days (but usually sooner).
Reason #2: Your bags fly free.
Unlike other airlines that charge $25 or more per checked bag, Southwest Airlines lets your first two checked bags fly free. For my family of four, that is a huge savings! On our recent trip to Jamaica on Southwest, we checked five separate bags. If we had flown with another airline, that would have cost us at least $125.
Reason #3: You can get unlimited award flights with no worry over blackout dates or capacity controls.
Southwest Airlines is adamant about the fact that they don’t limit award seats on single flights, and this is crucial if you have a family in tow. Each time I fly my family using Southwest Rapid Rewards, I can rest assured there will be at least four award seats waiting for me – as long as the flight isn’t sold out! If you have ever dealt with award availability on another airline before, you know what a huge deal this is.
Reason #4: SUPER CHEAP Flights
Because Southwest awards are fare-based, you can score some super cheap flights any time Southwest has a sale. For our upcoming trip to Raleigh, for example, my husband and I paid just 3,500 miles per leg to get there and back. And for our family trip to Orlando this summer, our flights cost just 5,500 miles each way, per person!
Reason #5: Family boarding lets you sit with your kids.
Since Southwest doesn’t offer assigned seating, it can be tricky to sit with your family if you don’t check in for your flight exactly 24 hours ahead of time. But if you have kids under the age of six, you qualify for family boarding after the “A group” boards the plane.
Reason #6: Redeem your points for gift cards as a last resort.
A lot of people worry they’ll get stuck with airline miles they can’t use, and I don’t really blame them. Fortunately, Southwest Rapid Rewards points can be turned in for gift cards if your travel plans fall through. Someone I know lost their job but still had 50,000 Southwest miles from a recent promotion. Because she decided not to fly anywhere, she redeemed her 50,000 Rapid Rewards points for $500 in gift cards and spent them on Christmas presents last year. While that isn’t the ideal redemption, earning $500 in gift cards isn’t half bad, either.
How to Get the Most Out of the Southwest Rapid Rewards Program
Since joining the Southwest Rapid Rewards program is easy and free, it’s a no-brainer. However, there are several ways to maximize your experience – and the number of free flights you earn. Consider these tips:
- Pair several rewards cards for the signup bonuses and earning potential. If you want to rack up a bunch of points quickly, signup bonuses are the way to go. And if you want to earn even more miles, consider getting both cards.
- Shop through each card’s shopping portal to earn extra points. Both cards that earn Southwest Rapid Rewards points have shopping portals that can let you earn points even faster. By clicking through these portals to do your online shopping, you can usually earn another 3-5 points for every dollar you spend.
- Use your card for all of your regular bills, then pay it off each month. It’s easy to rack up points quickly if you use your card for all of your regular spending. Just remember to pay it off every month and never, ever pay interest on your purchases.
- Try earning the Southwest Companion Pass. The Southwest Companion pass is a benefit that allows your “companion” to travel for free for the year you earn it and the following year. To earn it, you’ll need to earn 110,000 Southwest Rapid Rewards points during a single calendar year. It’s important to note, however, that points transferred to Southwest from your Chase account do not count towards the Companion Pass.
The Bottom Line
With free checked bags, plenty of ways to earn free flights, and unlimited award availability, Southwest Airlines is the ideal airline for families. And with hubs all over the United States and the Caribbean, you can count on using your miles to take your family somewhere exciting.
For my family, that means a mix of everything – from warm weather trips in Florida and the Caribbean to vacations in the mountains, concert trips, and adult getaways as well. With so many ways to use our points, I always say “why not?”
Have you ever used Southwest Rapid Rewards points before? What is your favorite redemption so far?
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The Average Tax Refund is Way Higher Than You Think
Tax Day sucks hard — hard enough that some of us would happily scrub Chipotle toilets for three years to avoid going through it ever again.
But for many taxpayers, the confusing and time-consuming preparation of tax documents has a very real payoff: a tax refund.
And according to this new WalletHub study, it’s likely much bigger than any of us at The Penny Hoarder would have imagined.
Who Knew the Average Tax Refund Was This High?
How big of a refund are you expecting this year? Are you expecting one at all?
If you’re self-employed or a freelancer, you might end up owing the government money instead — a lot of money, if you’re not careful.
But Tax Day is a much kinder mistress to most of us, apparently.
According to the survey, 70% of filers can expect a refund — and that refund amounts to $2,945, on average.
I don’t know about you, but I’ve never gotten a $3,000 refund. Dang.
You could use that $3,000 in a lot of great ways.
I, for one, would deposit it directly into my emergency fund — it would pay my rent for almost six months.
If you’ve racked up any revolving credit card debt, a windfall like this one should go toward paying it off without even a second thought.
And it sure would be nice to have an extra $3,000 to throw at your student loans or to seed your freelancing startup costs, am I right?
Some of our other favorite weird statistics from the study:
- The average filer will spend 16 hours wrestling with her 1040. Ugh.
- Since we’re so well prepared, each of us only has a 0.8% chance of being audited by the IRS this year.
- The tax code is 4 million words long — that’s double the length of all five “Game of Thrones” books combined.
- To make matters even more complicated, that code has undergone 4,107 changes… since 2014.
Good thing your chance of being audited is so low, since it’s basically impossible to know all the laws.
Ready for Your Tax Refund?
Getting any kind of refund is nice — although the trade-off on that windfall is the knowledge that you’ve basically given the government an interest-free loan.
Still, we’ve got some resources to help you maximize your chances of a refund.
Here are nine deductions for parents you might not know about — and the answers to lots of difficult questions surrounding write-offs and credits for freelancers.
And if you’re still knee-deep in the process of filing (goodbye, weekend!), this might be a little late — but next year, here’s where to turn for free tax help.
Your Turn: Are you getting a tax refund? Is it more or less than the national average?
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.
Jamie Cattanach is a staff writer at The Penny Hoarder. She also writes poetry, which has been featured in “DMQ Review,” “Sweet: A Literary Confection” and elsewhere. Follow along at http://ift.tt/1RiB7sH.
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18 Tax Day Freebies and Deals: Free Beer, Burgers, Massages and More
So, let’s talk about how much we’re all totally looking forward to Tax Day!
Anybody? No? Well…
Even though we got a bit of a reprieve this year — Tax Day falls on the 18th instead of the 15th — lots of us are still dreading the due date.
After all, paperwork is annoying, deductions can be confusing, and you may end up owing a huge bill you didn’t expect.
In fact, Tax Day creates so much angst, many of us would rather scrub Chipotle toilets for three years than do our taxes ever again.
But before you grab your trustiest set of rubber gloves, wait a second! There’s a silver lining after all: free stuff and awesome deals.
Tax Day Freebies and Deals
To help make up for how terrible Tax Day is, lots of businesses are offering free stuff and special deals.
Here are 18 of the best from around the web to turn your Tax Day frown upside down.
Free Food
Tax forms are way more annoying to fill out on an empty stomach.
Here’s where to get free food on April 18.
1. Great American Cookies is offering customers a free chocolate chip cookie to help them combat Tax-Day-related stress.
“Whether or not you’re receiving a refund this year, Great American Cookies is here to add some more dough to your life,” punned vice president David Kaiser.
Just drop by your local store and ask — at least you’ll be a cookie richer!
2. Hard Rock Cafe will hook you up with a free “Legendary” burger if you get on stage and sing a song.
Hey, after getting through all that paperwork, you can do anything, right?
3. Kona Ice has redubbed Tax Day “National Chill Out Day.”
Its motto? “No taxation without relaxation!” Swing by your favorite location for a free shaved ice.
4. Bananas Smoothies & Frozen Yogurt knows how crazy Tax Day gets for CPAs.
So if you swing by and flash your license, you’ll get a free smoothie on the 17th and 18th before the Tax Day deadline!
5. Boston Market’s got a delicious Tax Day special — get a half chicken individual meal complete with two sides, cornbread, a regular beverage and a cookie for just $10.40.
Get it? 1040? Don’t worry, you’ll stop seeing those numbers in your dreams soon enough.
6. Noodles & Company will give you $4 off your order of $10 or more if you order online or via their app and use the promo code TAXDAY at checkout — now through April 18.
And if you decide you need to get out of the house on Tax Day and head to your local Noodles & Company restaurant, your kid will get a free meal when you buy an entree. That’s $5 in savings — a great addition to the other deductions for parents you get to take advantage of!
7. Bruegger’s Bagels will hand you a Big Bagel Bundle (any 13 bagels and two tubs of cream cheese) for just $10.40, now through April 18.
Carb-load your way through the marathon of paperwork.
8. Schlotzsky’s will treat guests to a free small Original sandwich with the purchase of a drink and bag of chips on April 18.
And its “original” is anything but ordinary: It’s got ham, two kinds of salami, and three kinds of cheese.
Three kinds of cheese, guys.
9. Sonny’s has a cheeky deal for Tax Day: The IRS (that’s Irresistible Ribs Special), a rib dinner plate, will be half-price on April 18.
10. World of Beer will offer patrons a free pint — or $5 off their check, depending on your location — to celebrate getting the headache over with.
11. Tony Roma’s will offer members of its email club a free dessert coupon on April 18. It’s totally free to sign up!
12. Arby’s wants to relieve your Tax Day sadness with a ton of great deals, like two gyros for $6 through April 20.
Free Treats
Tax Day got you stressed out enough to need a vacation or massage? No worries, we’ve got your back.
13. Kimpton’s Palomar Hotel — as well as its Monaco — in Philadelphia is offering a “Relax After You Tax” promo for a stay in their Presidential Suite, including a couple’s massage, sparkling wine and more for $1,040 when you use the code “TAXDAY.”
14. The Bahamas’ Grand Lucayan is offering tax season savings of 50% off three nights or more, plus a $100 resort credit. Book by April 20, and travel between Sept. 2 and Nov. 15.
15. The Hand and Stone Spa is offering a “Relax the Tax” 50-minute intro massage for $39.95 — and with about 150 locations across the U.S. and Canada, it’s likely you’ve got one nearby.
16. HydroMassage wants to gently melt your troubles away with a free 10-minute massage between April 18 and 22. Yes, please!
Tax Day Cleanup
Get those sensitive documents shredded — but don’t pay a dime!
17. Office Depot and OfficeMax are ready to shred your confidential documents when you’re all done with the Tax Day madness.
Just bring in this coupon to get up to five pounds of paper shredded for free (expires April 23).
18. Staples is running the same kind of deal. (Really) heavy tax year? Shred additional pounds for less than a buck a piece.
Your Turn: Done filing? Which Tax Day deals will you treat yourself to this year?
Jamie Cattanach (@jamiecattanach) is a staff writer at The Penny Hoarder. She also writes other stuff, like wine reviews and poems.
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Is an Expensive College Worth the Cost? Here’s One Way to Decide
The price of college continues to rise. Along with it, student loan debt is crippling a generation, with the average person leaving school about $30,000 in the hole.
It has to make you ask, is it worth it?
For decades, we’ve been raised to consider post-secondary education as inevitable as K-12. We assume a college degree is valuable enough to pay for itself in the end — but that may not be the case across the board.
Which degrees are worth it? In many cases, that depends on where they come from.
Growing up in a blue-collar town where the majority of our parents never went to college, most of the kids at my high school assumed a state university was our best option after graduation.
The biggest reason? It seemed affordable.
But college is an investment. You have to consider what it will yield, not only what it will cost upfront.
How Do You Measure a College’s Return on Investment?
Simply put, return on investment (ROI) on anything is what you get out of it compared to what you put in.
The overall value of going to college is difficult to calculate, since many of the variables are intangible.
You invest time and energy, and yield experiences, knowledge, relationships and a better understanding of yourself, other people and the world.
We can measure the money, though. What does it cost to go to college, and how much can you make after you leave?
In its 2016 College ROI Report, PayScale measures ROI by calculating how much the median graduate earns in the 20 years after graduation, then subtracting the 24-year median pay of a high school grad (since they’d have an extra four years to work) and the cost of four years of tuition.
Which Colleges Offer the Best ROI?
The report considers a host of financial factors — including tuition and on-campus cost of living, financial aid, graduation rate and household income — to determine the colleges and universities with the best payoff.
Here are the top three:
1. California Institute of Technology (CalTech)
- ROI = $973,000
- Cost for four years of tuition = $230,000
2. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
- ROI = $972,000
- Cost for four years of tuition = $232,000
3. (Tie) Harvey Mudd College AND SUNY – Maritime College
- ROI = $945,000
- Cost of four years of Harvey Mudd tuition = $249,000; Cost of four years of SUNY tuition = $89,000
(Taking financial aid into account flips the top two so MIT winds up on top, and Harvey Mudd holds third place all by itself.)
These numbers paint a picture that can help you make a smarter decision when choosing a school. What seems affordable now could end up looking less-than-ideal in hindsight.
For example, my alma mater, University of Wisconsin – Madison, ranks 171st for ROI (in-state, without considering financial aid). It seemed like a smart choice because of the low cost going in. But in the long run, I might be missing out.
If I’d attended Princeton University, which ranks 9th for ROI without financial aid, I would have paid more than twice as much. But, after accounting for the costs, I’d net almost double the money over the 20 years after graduation, so it’s still a better deal.
How to Pay for an Expensive College
Unsurprisingly, about half of the top 10 are prestigious private schools.
One look at the cost to attend these schools might have you running the other way.
Thankfully, the most prestigious schools are probably more affordable than you think.
Many of the people from my hometown might balk at the prospect of attending Princeton because of its price tag.
But they probably don’t know that more than 60% of Princeton students receive need-based grants to cover their tuition, room and board, fees, books, transportation and more.
Similar aid options exist for many of the big-name schools near the top of PayScale’s list, like Stanford, Harvard, Carnegie Mellon, Harvey Mudd, MIT and more.
If programs like these don’t meet your financial needs, here are more ways to get the money you need so you don’t have to settle for a school that might not give you the ROI you’re looking for:
- Maximize your financial aid eligibility with these eight tips.
- Use these 10 tricks to pay for college if you don’t have enough saved.
- Apply for scholarships! Here are 100 awesome scholarships, plus 100 of the weirdest scholarships we could find.
- Attend one of these nine colleges for free.
Your Turn: What factors are you considering when choosing a college?
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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How Establishing a More Joyful Daily Routine Can Save You Money and Make Life Better
The happier I feel about my everyday life, the less inclined I am to spend money on anything beyond the necessities. I stay well within budgetary constraints and save like a madman.
On the flip side of that, the more frustrated and sad I feel about my everyday life, the more inclined I am to spend money on unnecessary things. I stray outside of my budgetary limits, make spending mistakes left and right, and my savings rate drops precipitously.
I think this is a pretty normal human experience, something I’ve seen come up again and again in conversations with friends and family and within popular culture as well.
The truth is that quite often we spend money in an attempt to “fix” our mood. There are a lot of names for this – I prefer the simple “retail therapy.” We feel bad about ourselves, so we buy something to perk ourselves up. Even little perks fall in line here, things like a treat from the coffee shop or a small digital purchase (like a new song on your phone).
Those things usually do the trick in the short term. They feel good. They bring a quick smile to your face. But that positive boost doesn’t last. It fades, and often it fades surprisingly quickly. Another problem is that if you keep hitting that “retail therapy” button over and over again, it slowly becomes less and less effective at lifting your mood and you need bigger and bigger things to provide the same mood lift.
Obviously, this is disastrous from a personal finance perspective, yet it’s something that many people fall into. I fall into it myself and I consider myself to be very well organized financially and in very good financial shape. Given the conversations I’ve had with friends and with nearly countless readers and with the endless popular culture references to “retail therapy,” I’m not alone in this.
Over the years, I’ve come to find that of all of the tools I use to improve my financial state, one of the most powerful tools is simply being aware of my mood and doing little things to naturally life it throughout the day.
After all, if I feel better about myself, I engage in less “retail therapy.” I don’t have negative feelings that require therapy or, if I do, those feelings are less strong and less prevalent than they would otherwise be. Thus, there’s no need for “retail therapy.”
Similarly, if I feel better about myself, advertisements become less effective, too. Advertisements tend to thrive on negative feelings that people have about themselves, as they pitch products that pledge to fix elements of a negative self-image. If you are happier and have a more positive self-image that results from a general feeling of happiness, advertising doesn’t work as well.
So, how do I achieve this natural sense of feeling better about myself? For me, it’s all about the normal routine. It’s not big splashy things that tend to raise my positive mood. It’s a culmination of a lot of smaller things.
To put it in simple terms, the most effective tool I have for raising and maintaining a positive mood in my life is to have routines that gently raise my mood each and every day. The purpose isn’t to suddenly have one incredibly joyful day, but instead to simply raise my baseline sense of positivity just a little bit.
My Daily “Positive Mood” Habits
So, what kinds of things do I do every day to bring about a more positive mood and mindset?
For me, it’s not about following a checklist every single day. Instead, it’s just about a big collection of behaviors that I try to incorporate into my life every day until they become natural and normal. I don’t do all of these things every day. On the other hand, I do some of these things multiple times a day. My goal is to reach a point where these things feel absolutely normal and I do all of them without a second thought.
Some of these are really simple. Some might seem really silly. What I’ve learned, though, is that they all work for me. They all help elevate my mood, even if I do them every day.
Some of these may work for you. Some of them may not. As always, pick and choose the ones that make sense and try to build those into your own set of “positive mood” habits.
Here goes.
When I wake up, I reach over and touch my wife. Almost every morning, I wake up an hour or so before she does. Usually, I’ll just put my arm around her for a minute or so and move close to her. Being close to her almost always makes me feel good. The warmth of her skin, her peaceful breathing… it’s just a wonderful little thing to do to start the day.
When brushing my teeth, I smile big and goofy at myself. The bigger and goofier the grin, the more ridiculous it looks and, weirdly, the better I feel. I just make a bunch of faces at myself while I’m brushing my teeth and for a few seconds afterwards and I just feel more happy about myself. I think, on some level, it’s about coming to terms with the way I look in the mirror. It’s okay to look a little goofy, so have fun with it.
When I’m in the shower, I sing uptempo songs loudly. I sing while I’m washing myself, often quite loudly, and often with upbeat songs on my lips. I can’t sing particularly well, but I honestly don’t care. Singing an uptempo song makes me feel better about the state of my life, and the shower is a great time to do it.
I try to make everyone smile in the morning before I leave. I have three children who leave for school and a wife that leaves for work in the morning, leaving me at home to get to my own work. Before everyone leaves, however, I make a conscious effort to get everyone to smile or, ideally, laugh before they leave. I try to send everyone out the door in a positive mood, and when they leave in a good mood, my day starts in a good mood, too.
I get a little bit of exercise each day. I’m not an exercise zealot, but I do try to get at least a little bit of exercise each day. Often, it’s a multi-mile walk around our neighborhood. Some days, it might be something like 100 jumping jacks or something else I can do in the living room. The goal is to simply get my body moving around. With exercise, I find that I get the most positive feelings out of it if I push myself up to a point where I’m just shy of feeling miserable. Ideally, I get somewhat out of breath and a bit sweaty and I sustain that for a little while. If I do that, I usually end up feeling really, really good afterwards.
I get some outdoor time each day, too. The big reason for that is that your body naturally produces vitamin D when you’re in direct sunlight for a little while. The goal isn’t to be outside all day and get sunburnt. Rather, the purpose is to be outside for a little while, get some vitamin D in your system, and appreciate the environment and the fresh air. On a day without a ton of objectives, I’ll go to a nearby park and do some work there. If a day is busy, I’ll just go take a walk.
I spend at least one hour doing something purely for my own enjoyment. To me, this is a key part of a good day. Without the ability to spend at least a part of my day doing something that I personally enjoy, the day ends up feeling pretty empty. I can easily spiral into a negative mood where I feel like I’m doing nothing more than working and taking care of others and basic self-care and sleeping. I need to feel that I have the freedom to do something enjoyable, so I block that time out. It almost always lifts my mood to do something like read the rules to a board game or curl up with a great book somewhere.
I try to slip into “the zone” at least once a day while working. Being in “the zone” simply means that you’re so engaged with the matter that you’re working on that you genuinely lose track of time and the environment. You’re engaging your skills, your body, and your mind in such a deep way that the ordinary matters around you just slip into the background. For me, this is a tremendously good feeling. Whenever I slip into that kind of “zone,” I feel really good when that period ends and I snap out of it. I’ve usually accomplished a ton of good work in a relatively short period of time. I just feel great.
I engage positive people that I like at least a few times every day. As a writer that works from home, my professional life can be pretty solitary. I find that I can feel isolated if I don’t maintain some positive relationships, so I spend some time each day working on those positive relationships. Every day, I have a few conversations with people in my life with whom I have a positive relationship. I ask how they’re doing, give some positive feedback, share a joke or some useful information, and walk away feeling much happier about life.
I try hard to be productive and knock lots of things off my to-do list. Near the end of the day, few things feel better than having a to-do list that’s filled with a bunch of checkmarks. It makes me feel like I’m actually doing something useful with my time and energy, whether that’s improving myself, doing good work, taking care of my family, or something else. A productive day lifts my mood like few other things do.
I remind myself to smile more, particularly at other people when I see them. I don’t naturally smile when I’m out and about. In fact, people sometimes assume I must be in a bad mood because my natural resting face looks a bit downcast. The result is that when I’m walking through the grocery store or walking down the sidewalk, people don’t generally smile back at me or greet me unless we already know each other. By simply smiling at others and occasionally saying hello, that changes. People smile. People say hello in return. It’s a simple little thing, but it can make something as simple as going to the grocery store or strolling through my neighborhood a bit more positive.
I try to have a meaningful focused conversation with my wife and with each child every day. I can’t control the mood of the people in my life, but what I can do is understand what they’re going through and provide an ear for them if they need it. Whenever I have a meaningful conversation with one of my family members, mostly by listening to them and showing that I’m paying attention to them, I lift their mood. Since we live together and interact so much, by bringing up their mood a little, I make lots of little interactions with everyone more positive. It becomes a happier place to live, with tighter and more joyful relationships.
I go to bed early so I can wake up more naturally without need for an alarm most days. Few things start a day poorly quite like a blaring alarm clock. I don’t like it when artificial devices raise me from my slumber. I resent it, and when I get out of bed I already have a bit of a negative chip on my shoulder. A much better approach for me is to simply go to bed earlier so that I naturally rise at around the time I want to rise in the morning. Sure, I use an alarm as an emergency backup, but most days I just rise on my own naturally… and it feels pretty good. I feel well rested and not disturbed from my sleep and ready to take on the day.
I reflect on the good things in my life as I go to sleep, usually encouraging pleasant dreams. At the end of a long day, I usually find myself in bed with my mind not quite ready to slow down. When I’m in that state, I usually run through the positive highlights of my day, which usually puts me into a good mindset as I drift off to sleep. I feel as though this actually helps me to rest better at night, which leads into the start of a good day the following morning.
It’s very important to note that perfection isn’t the key here. I’m not seeking to do all of these things every single day. To do so would make this stressful, and that’s not the point.
Instead, these are just simple habits that I try to make a regular part of my life without stressing out if they don’t always work out. My goal is to make all of these things so routine that I just do them without thinking about them. Some of them are already in that category; others require more work.
There’s another piece to the puzzle, too.
Choosing to Be Joyful
Over and over again in life, one can find reasons to be upset and negative and frustrated. You might be upset with personal matters in your life. You might feel negative about the political state of our country. You might be incredibly frustrated with the circumstances of your career at the moment.
All of those things are normal responses, but those normal responses often contribute to an overall sense of feeling positive about life or feeling negative about life.
Remember, you choose how you react to things. It’s not forced upon you to be enraged about the latest political misadventure. It’s not forced upon you to be upset because of the interactions between your friends. It’s not forced upon you to be despondent because your work situation is currently difficult. You choose how to react.
Instead of being upset about current events, look instead at the positive things that are happening. Cut back on your intake of news and opinions and instead look around your local community for the positive things that people do for each other all the time without it appearing on the news. Instead of being upset and enraged about some supposed ever-present threat, look around your home and your family and see all of the good deeds and kind words that they share. Instead of vilifying people who don’t agree with you on every issue, look instead at the inner worries and concerns that are behind them and how those concerns are often actually very sensible and relatable.
Instead of feeling negative about the problems in your social circle and with the relationships in your life, choose to dial down on the relationships that bring drama to you and invest more time and effort into positive and low-drama relationships. Seek out new social circles and new social situations that are bound to bring less negative drama into your life. Look for the positives in the people around you instead of dwelling on their negative traits. When you think of people, focus on the good things they bring to the table, not the bad.
Instead of being lost in a miasma of negativity brought about by your workplace, instead focus on the good things about your job. Maybe your job is genuinely low in responsibility and stress. Perhaps you’re paid well for what you do. Maybe you have a strong relationship with at least some of your coworkers. Perhaps you’re lucky enough to be able to deal with interesting challenges at work. It’s important to remember that no job is purely positive, but it’s not purely negative either.
The key thing to remember here is that even though you often can’t control a lot of the things that happen around you and the other people in your life, you absolutely can control your thoughts and your responses to those things. If you feel a negative response coming on, be aware of that negative response and actively choose to quell it by looking at positive aspects instead. If you feel a positive response, encourage it and let it flower. You’ll be surprised how much of an impact this kind of practice can have on your daily mindset.
Final Thoughts
The thing to always remember is that the goal of all of this is to put myself in a more positive mindset so that I’m less prone to making life and spending mistakes based on negative feelings or emotions. My goal is to distance myself from things like “retail therapy” and reduce the impact of advertisements. These just happen to be the techniques I use in that journey.
What about you? What little steps can you take in your life to gently lift your mood a little every day? Can you make those things such a consistent part of your life that they become routine?
Just as importantly, can you actively choose to quell your more negative thoughts and encourage your more positive thoughts? Can you look at the bright side in the situations that present themselves to you in your life?
Doing those things makes you feel better about the world and about yourself, and the more positive you feel about yourself and about the world, the less likely you are to find yourself engaging in “retail therapy.” Not only will you feel better about your life as a whole, you’ll also find your financial state improving as well.
Good luck!
The post How Establishing a More Joyful Daily Routine Can Save You Money and Make Life Better appeared first on The Simple Dollar.
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Watchdog Group Lets the 'Pig Out' on US Excessive Spending
Watchdog Group Lets the 'Pig Out' on US Excessive Spending
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Some States are Paying People to Use Solar Panels. Is Yours?
As a Penny Hoarder, you’re probably privy to the fact that the measures environmentalists encourage to conserve energy can also save a lot of money.
It’s simple: Non-renewable energy costs money. Use less, and you’ll pay less.
So it’s no surprise to see the range of people jumping on board the solar panel bandwagon.
My flower child in-laws use one to power the electricity in their conversion van for road trips along the West Coast.
And folks all over my conservative Midwestern hometown have solar panels adorning their roofs to power their homes.
Regardless of motivation, the sun is a great renewable source of energy — as long as you can afford the panels, right?
How to Save Money on Solar Panels
We know the cost to install solar panels is a scary number.
Household solar photovoltaic (PV) systems cost an average of $23,000.
Sure, they’ll save you twice as much in electricity costs during their lifetime. But where does the initial investment come from?
We’re excited to learn you can actually get them at a much more affordable price — or even for no money down at all.
To start, you might be eligible for huge tax credits or solar rebates. These vary depending on where you live, so use a tool like the one over at the National Solar Program to find the rebates available in your area.
You could qualify for a solar loan or lease to finance installation and avoid the upfront cost.
States around the U.S. have a variety of programs to support solar energy — rebate amounts vary by location.
Enter your address on this website to find out how much you can save by installing solar panels and how much you can earn in rebates.
Your Turn: Have you installed solar panels at your home?
Disclosure: You wouldn’t believe how much coffee The Penny Hoarder team goes through. This post contains affiliate links so we can keep the grinds stocked!
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).
The post Some States are Paying People to Use Solar Panels. Is Yours? appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.
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Two-Sided Coin: Is Debt the Devil?
This is the third in a series of posts called the “Two-Sided Coin,” where TSD’s Jon Gorey and Holly Johnson take opposing viewpoints on personal finance topics.
Holly: Debt Is a Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing
On one hand, debt has allowed many of us to achieve the American dreams of home ownership and higher education. And for millions of would-be entrepreneurs, going into debt was really the only way to bring their dream of starting a business to fruition.
On the other hand sits debt’s dark side – one where revolving balances and high interest rates stand between us and our dreams.
The real problem Americans have with debt isn’t the debt itself – it’s how we use it. While borrowing money to finance a home for your family or a college education can be a smart move that pays off, and even an “investment” in some ways, borrowing money to finance a brand new smartphone, a vacation, or a new pair of shoes — which is exactly what you’re doing if you’re carrying a credit card balance — will only hurt you in the long run.
As someone who once had tens of thousands of dollars in consumer debt, I can speak to both sides of the equation – the before and the after. My husband and I carried a home loan, car loans, student loans, and some credit card debt in our early 20s, only to realize we had grown tired of the monthly payments and what they meant for our lives.
Because we were paying up to $1,000 in loan payments every month, we had trouble saving money and getting ahead. We paid thousands of dollars in interest every year, only to continue the same behaviors (trading in our cars every few years, making minimum payments) that kept us “stuck.”
Once we decided to have children, however, we knew we had to change. By creating a zero-sum budget and sticking to it, we paid off our car loans, student loans, and consumer debts in a fury. Once those debts were behind us, I had all kinds of realizations about our previous situation, and what got us there. Here’s what I learned:
- You can finance anything. Part of our problem with debt is that it’s far too easy to get into. As Americans, we have been programmed to finance everything from our cars to our cell phones, and even our clothing purchases and groceries. With easy credit available at every turn, getting into debt is a piece of cake. And once you start digging, it can be hard to turn your situation around.
- Debt can make you feel “trapped.” The wrong kind of debt – consumer debt – has a way of taking over your life. Instead of saving money to reach your goals and get ahead, you get into the habit of spending all your extra money on debt repayment. And because you don’t have a lot leftover, it’s that much easier to get into more debt when an emergency pops up. If I have learned one thing, it’s that debt is a vicious cycle. And once you have the disease called “debt,” it’s hard to shake it off.
- Debt holds you back from your real dreams. When you’re struggling with debt, your dreams seem like exactly that – a dream. When all the money you work hard to earn is siphoned away somewhere else, it can feel like your long-term goals will never come true.
Once we became debt-free, all of the negative feelings we had about money and our hard work melted away. Not only did we start saving a much larger percentage of our income, but we learned the true value of the money we worked so hard to earn.
And in hindsight, I now realize that learning the value of our income was one of the best things that has ever happened to us. Where we once worked 40+ hours per week just to give it all away, becoming debt-free made us keenly aware of what each of those dollars meant.
As a result, we became a lot more thoughtful and judicious with our spending. While we still have a small mortgage on our primary home and rental properties, I can say with certainty that I’ll never borrow money again.
Even when interest rates are cheap, debt is an expense I can no longer bear. The financial cost is only one side of the equation; the price of freedom is the other. Where I once surrendered that freedom willingly, I now know better.
In the end, we would all be a lot better off if we saw debt as a tool we could use to get ahead instead of a means to buy things we cannot afford. You can learn this lesson the easy way, or the hard way, as I did – but you’ll learn it nonetheless.
As Americans, we have forged a strange relationship with debt – one built out of both necessity and desperation. Using debt to get ahead is sometimes necessary, but the decision should never be taken lightly. Ask anyone who is deep in debt how they got there, and they’ll tell you just how easy it was. One dollar borrowed leads to another and another, until the interest starts to take on a life of its own.
The best way to avoid this heartache is to refuse to take on debt whenever humanly possible. Learn to live on less, treat the money you earn with the respect it deserves, and don’t let debt become your new master.
–Holly Johnson
Jon: Debt Is a Powerful Tool
Nobody likes debt; I’m not going to argue otherwise. Is it better to buy something in cash, with money you’ve already saved up? Of course it is! Who wants to owe money to someone, for months or years on end? I don’t even like owing favors, much less money.
What I will argue is that debt is not the evil boogeyman some personal finance experts make it out to be. It can be a powerful tool to help you build your life. But just like any other powerful tool — a circular saw, for example — it can hurt you pretty badly if you’re not careful with it.
Good Debt
Most people who want to make a major purchase — like a house, a car, or a college education — simply don’t have a few hundred grand lying around, or $20,000 ready to plunk down at the car dealership. They rely on loans to finance these enormous purchases, and there’s nothing really wrong with that. Some people refer to these types of loans as “good debt,” because you’re borrowing money to strengthen your long-term financial situation.
For example, a student who takes out the average $35,000 in loans to complete a four-year college degree will make about $1 million more in lifetime income than his peers with just a high-school diploma. By and large, that’s some very good debt.
Or take a young family who’s been paying $1,000 a month in rent. They decide to buy a $250,000 house, taking out a $200,000 mortgage at a fixed rate of 4%. That means they’ll pay $955 a month, plus taxes and insurance, for their shelter. In 20 years, their mortgage – the biggest part of that bill — will still be $955 a month, while rents will have climbed to almost $1,500, assuming just 2% inflation. In 10 more years, even if the value of their home didn’t increase at all over the entire 30 years of their mortgage (not even keeping pace with inflation – an unlikely scenario), they would at worst have a virtually free place to live and $250,000 in equity.
That’s some pretty good debt, too.
Good Debt Gone Bad
Okay, so that’s good debt. That’s debt with a purpose. But the trouble with debt and spreading out payments over time is that it can mask the real cost of a big purchase.
Car dealers know this, and that’s why instead of lowering the purchase price during negotiations they’ll try to stretch out the length of your loan — lowering your monthly payments, but not the cost of the car. After all, consider the difference between paying $955 for a monthly mortgage compared with $998. What’s another 43 bucks a month when it comes to something as big as a house? Well, it’s about $16,000 over the life of the mortgage, that’s what. No small difference.
We also tend to spend more with credit than we would in cash. The former is, in a very real sense, pretend money. We’re spending someone else’s cash — namely, our future self’s — so who cares? But we’re far more careful with our hard-earned dollars in hand.
And that’s why debt gets, and often deserves, a bad rap. It’s far too easy to spend more than we ought to when we’re just putting it on our tab — to buy a fancier car than we need, to purchase a bigger house than we can truly afford, or to pick the private university over state school.
Bad Debt
Another reason for the bad rap is that some debt is truly, truly terrible: Payday loans, car title loans, and unsecured personal loans with sky-high interest rates amount to legally authorized loan sharks. Avoid them at all costs.
What about credit cards, and their double-digit interest rates? That’s considered “bad debt” too. Borrowing money to buy drinks at a bar or a new air conditioner is not a life investment.
A credit card can be a convenient and rewarding tool in your wallet if you have your financial act together. But for most Americans, they spell trouble. And I’m one of them.
In my late 20s, my wife-to-be and I had just returned from a freewheeling summer in Galway, Ireland — a too-fun town sometimes dubbed the “graveyard of ambition” by the locals, a moniker I won’t dispute. There, we had rented a cheap room in a dingy student house and lived off our tax refunds, meager savings, and whatever money I made street performing (which was pretty considerable, actually — but then, so was our thirst for Guinness).
By the time we returned to Boston in the fall, we had exhausted all our savings and rung up a pretty good credit card tab to boot. We found work again after a couple of weeks at home, but we were still dirt broke for months. We paid for nearly everything on credit card. And when plastic wasn’t an option — e.g., for a deposit on our apartment, or my share of expenses for a friend’s bachelor party — we used those dastardly checks that credit card companies like to send you in the mail for balance transfers and other purposes.
This is all terrible from a personal finance perspective, and it wasn’t long before we were drowning in credit card debt, of course. But there was a bigger problem: I’d already been drowning in credit card debt for years.
It’s a problem plenty of 20-somethings face: I was working low-level jobs in a low-paying industry and living in an expensive big city. No amount of roommates could balance that equation — and believe me, I tried, sometimes cramming into houses with eight or more people.
So I dipped into my credit cards to bridge the gap — a bit here, a bit there. When out with friends, I was the guy who would pay the bill with a credit card and collect cash from everyone else; that was my ATM.
Then there were the big splurges that would take years to pay off: I loved to travel, and Orbitz loved to take my credit card. Red Sox tickets were expensive, but non-negotiable nonetheless. I was trying to be a real musician, and recording and pressing a thousand CDs required thousands more dollars upfront.
By the time I hit 30, I’d been swimming upstream against credit-card debt for eight years and had racked up more than $20,000 in balances.
The whole time, I was making a calculated gamble: That my future self would one day be able to bail out his irresponsible younger brother. The thing is, I knew he was good for it: I was getting better jobs, and I knew it was only a matter of time before I settled down, stopped going out as much, and reined things in.
And you know what? I finally did bail out my younger self, and I don’t resent him for it one bit. My eventual wife helped me get my spending under control. I started paying down my credit card debt with big chunks here and there and an increasingly aggressive monthly payment schedule.
Was it infuriating and frustrating that even as I started paying $1,000 a month toward my balances, more than $200 of it was simply going toward interest charges each month? Absolutely. Were we spread waaaay too thin and dangerously close to financial disaster? Probably.
So isn’t credit card debt terrible?
Well, I wouldn’t go that far.
I essentially financed my roaring 20s and paid them off in my more responsible 30s. And while the whole thing cost me more than it should have, I don’t regret a thing: My 20s were pretty amazing.
In fact, I still have a soft spot for debt — it feels like an old friend by now. I know it’s absolutely stupid and fiscally irresponsible, but we keep a small balance on our credit card from month to month, even though we could easily pay it off from our savings. It makes me feel young — like at least one part of me is still living it up in my 20s.
–Jon Gorey
So, heads or tails, tell us what you think…
Related Articles:
- Six Surprising Tools to Get Out of Debt
- When Enough Is Enough: How Much Is Too Much Debt?
- How to Live a Rich Modern Life Without Debt
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First-time buyers need £64k salary to afford a home by 2020
First-time buyers will need a salary of £64,000 and a deposit of £46,000 to afford an average first-time buyer home by 2020, according to research by Shelter.
The housing charity warns that this is an increase of nearly a fifth on the £52,000 salary needed for a typical first-time buyer home today.
First-time buyers need £64k salary to afford a home by 2020
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First-time buyers will need a salary of £64,000 and a deposit of £46,000 to afford an average first-time buyer home by 2020, according to research by Shelter. The housing charity warns that this is an increase of nearly a fifth on the £52,000 salary needed for a typical first-time buyer home today. But this compares to an average UK wage of just £27,500 in 2015, according to the latest Office for National Statistics data. The rising cost of houses – the latest data from Halifax shows prices rose by 10% in the year to March to £214,811 – means that many are struggling to get onto the housing market. And it’s not just those in their twenties and thirties who are struggling, Moneywise reports how many people in their forties are still renting due to unaffordable house prices. See our guide on Mortgage help for first-time buyers and my column on why first-time buyers should clean up their credit scores. ‘Generation Rent to wave goodbye to their dreams of a home’ As a result of the housing shortage, Shelter is calling on the government to commit to building homes that people on ordinary incomes can actually afford. Campbell Robb, the charity’s chief executive, says: “When house prices are increasing six times faster than the average wage, it’s no wonder people on ordinary incomes are being locked out of a home of their own. “With the situation only set to get worse, Generation Rent will be forced to resign themselves to a life in expensive, unstable private renting, and wave goodbye to their dreams of a home to put down roots in. “It doesn’t have to be like this. The Government has the power to turn our housing crisis around, but only if it stops with schemes such as Starter Homes, which only help higher earners, and starts investing in homes that people on ordinary incomes can actually afford to live in.”
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Looking for Adventure, This Couple Moved Abroad… and It’s Saving Them $32K
When you imagine moving somewhere more affordable, you probably don’t think of Europe.
But that’s what my husband and I did in May 2015. We sold most of our stuff, ended our lease and left California for Germany.
People in Düsseldorf always ask why we would leave San Francisco for this small industrial city by the Rhine.
This is how we respond.
Why My Husband and I Moved to Germany
In San Francisco, our rent was $3,000 a month.
No, we didn’t live in a mansion in the center of town. We lived in a suburb 45 minutes outside the city in a 700-square-foot above-garage apartment on someone else’s property.
We needed two cars to get to work, and my commute cost roughly $45 per day in tolls, gas and parking. Add on the dog walker we had to hire since we were gone so many hours, and the cost of going to work climbed to $60.
The closest grocery store was Whole Foods, and we all know how that goes. A small shop for two people was at least $100.
Want dinner out with friends? That’s another $100.
Granted, we definitely weren’t poor, nor were we making a conscious effort to cut back and save more money. Our decision to move to Germany was primarily based on a desire for adventure, not because it would be easier on our pocketbooks.
But now that we’re here, it turns out this decision is better for our bank accounts than we could have imagined.
How Living Abroad Helps Us Save Money
Even though my husband and I make around half of what we did in California, our rent is a third of the price for double the space.
A nice dinner out with wine and dessert is $40 per person.
Want to head to Amsterdam for the weekend? It’s a $33 train ticket, one way. That’s cheaper than the gas, tolls, parking and dog walker combo I had to pay for when I commuted 20 miles across the Golden Gate Bridge into San Francisco.
Living in Germany definitely isn’t all sunshine and rainbows, of course. We don’t speak the language, the culture still confuses us a year down the line, and we miss the nature and sunshine of the Bay Area.
Plus, we want to start a family and buy a house sooner rather than later.
So we looked at our finances and did some quick math. With all this extra money in our budgets, we could save $12,000 (enough to move home, put a deposit on a rental, ship our things and take a month off work to settle in) just by putting $200 each into a joint savings account.
By the time my husband’s three-year German work contract is up, we’ll have enough money to get us resettled back home.
But wait, so you moved to Germany just so you could save the money to move home?
Don’t worry, we’ve got that covered too.
Outside of a joint savings account, my husband and I don’t share money. That means we have our own individual savings goals.
By the end of our three years in Germany, we’ll likely have an additional $10,000 each.
My husband wants to buy a car and I want to take maternity leave (something you have to plan for years in advance when you run your own business).
That’s $32,000 in savings in three years, all while living abroad in Europe.
Here are the tools we’re using to save money and organize all these moving pieces.
You Need A Budget
I track every dollar in and every dollar out using this amazing tool.
Not only does YNAB help me figure out that, no, I can’t buy my dog an extra toy if I want to drink coffee this month, it helps me allocate and grow a “buffer” on my bank account — a must when you primarily do project work and don’t know what your income will look like each month.
YNAB also helps you manage savings goals, debt payments and “fun” money.
Capital One 360
When my husband and I got married, we each had accounts at different banks. Because we had no plans to combine our money, we needed a simple way to manage savings toward our joint goals.
Capital One 360 is all online, and we set up automatic transfers from our individual accounts every month. We use this as our joint savings account.
Charles Schwab
Because my business is based in the States, I get paid in dollars. Problem is, I spend money in Euros.
The Charles Schwab High Yield Investor Checking account gives me free withdrawals and doesn’t have any international fees. I found out about this amazing debit card from this couple and it’s been a lifesaver.
Venmo
When you don’t share a bank account, splitting expenses becomes a little more complicated — especially when you’re mixing currencies.
I Venmo my husband our rent money every month and use xe.com to figure out the current exhcange rate. He keeps that money in his U.S. account, since he travels back to San Francisco for work a few times per year, and pays our landlord from his German account.
Transferwise
Occasionally, I still need to transfer Euros to my German bank account to pay for things like my cell phone bill. Transferwise is an incredibly intuitive tool and it’s crazy cheap to send money abroad. Plus, it only takes a few days to arrive!
Moving Abroad Turned Out to Be a Brilliant Financial Decision for Us
Could we have saved the same amount of money by staying in the States and tightening our belts?
Probably.
But we would have had to cut way back on our general lifestyle choices, and we definitely wouldn’t be able to hop on a train and go to Amsterdam for the weekend.
So, by living here, we can have our strudel and eat it, too.
Your Turn: Would you move abroad to save on your living expenses?
Marian Schembari is a writer and blogger based in Düsseldorf, Germany by way of San Francisco. She writes about travel and creativity, and spends way too much time on the Internet.
The post Looking for Adventure, This Couple Moved Abroad… and It’s Saving Them $32K appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.
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Blogging Goals to Set This Year
By Angie Nelson Whether you’ve just launched a new blog and want to get off to a great start or you’re an established blogger looking to bring your platform to the next level, setting actionable goals will help you achieve your dreams. As you take inspiration from the following blogging goals and tweak them for […]
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FTSE 100 riding high with biggest gains in 2016 so far
January saw the FTSE 100 pummelled by worse-than-expected data from China and continued trouble in the oil sector.
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