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الثلاثاء، 12 يوليو 2016
Mini golf scores hole-in-one in Snydersville
A new kind of golf course opened in Hamilton Township this week — with nine holes that’s wheelchair accessible.The Snydersville Mini-Golf made its debut on Saturday. Located next to the venerable Snydersville Diner, it’s part of the Snydersville Golf Range complex.The 18-hole Snydersville Mini-Golf course has a nautical theme, featuring ponds, tall reed grasses and roped piers.“One of the reasons we came up with the nautical theme is [...]
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Sharing Your Netflix Password Might Be Illegal — But You Shouldn’t Worry
We’ve all done it.
I mean, it just makes sense to share a Netflix login.
The service even allows multiple profiles, so you don’t have to wade through erroneous recommendations based off your best friend’s subpar preferences.
Turns out you can truly love someone, but not see eye to eye on Jennifer Aniston chick flicks.
But after a July 5th District Court ruling, it turns out you and your best friend (and her ex-boyfriend… and his cousin…) might just be committing a felony.
Can You Go to Jail for Sharing Your Netflix Account?
In a case involving a late employee named David Nosal who accessed his ex-company’s computer systems using a current employee’s credentials, the court found that password-sharing could constitute a punishable crime.
Accessing a protected computer “without authorization” of the system’s owner could be in violation of the U.S. Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA). Uh-oh.
But you probably don’t have to change your identity (or, you know, just springe for your own darn account) quite yet.
There’s a big difference between trying to access an ex-employer’s information and sharing passwords with willing friends and family members.
Circuit Judge Stephen Reinhardt dissented with the Court’s opinion, writing that “in his view, the CFAA does not make the millions of people who engage in this ubiquitous, useful, and generally harmless conduct into unwitting federal criminals.”
Even Netflix CEO Reed Hastings is in on the “secret” — and doesn’t mind too much.
“We love people sharing Netflix whether they’re two people on a couch or 10 people on a couch,” Hastings told TechCrunch.
(I guess he doesn’t condone the bed-based variety of Netflix sharing. So not chill, Hastings.)
Want to Get Netflix for Free?
Even if they sent out squads to gather up all us guilty parties tomorrow, the whole thing’s moot for a Penny Hoarder — because you can get your very own Netflix login for free.
Whether or not you share the wealth? Well, that’s up to you.
Don’t worry. We won’t tell.
Your Turn: Do you share a Netflix login with friends and family?
Jamie Cattanach is a staff writer at The Penny Hoarder. Her writing has also been featured at Word Riot, DMQ Review, Hinchas de Poesia and elsewhere. Find @JamieCattanach on Twitter to wave hello.
The post Sharing Your Netflix Password Might Be Illegal — But You Shouldn’t Worry appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.
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7 Truly Ridiculous Prime Day Deals You’ll Probably Be Able to Live Without
If you’ve been within 10 feet of the internet in the past four days, you’ve surely heard the news.
It’s Prime Day — Amazon’s blatant attempt to recruit more Prime members and beat the mid-year slump disguised as a mega-sale “bigger than black Friday.”
To be sure, there are a tons of great deals to nab. And since they roll out intermittently over the course of the day, you can also use it as an excuse to shop online all day long at work. Win-win, am I right?
But some of the stuff you stand to “save” money on is just…
Well, we’ll let you be the judge.
The Best Prime Day Deals are the Most Ridiculous
Since you’ve probably already seen a billion “Favorite Prime Day Deals” lists, we scoured the site to find the most ridiculous items being offered up at a discount.
Here are the seven most hilarious Prime Day “deals” we could find.
1. Segway miniPRO — $699
Want to go places without moving your legs? Willing to pay a lot of money for it?
Lucky you: This Segway miniPRO is 46% off, bringing the price down from $1,299 to just under $700. Such a deal, no?
It even has a padded knee bar to keep you as comfy as possible and ensure “precision steering.”
It’s totally worth dropping almost a month’s worth of rent on this thing, right?
2. Fast & Furious 7-Movie Collection — $21.99
Remember when the world decided Vin Diesel was one of the sexiest men alive?
Yeah, I didn’t get that.
But if you did, you’re in luck: You can get about 15 hours of buff, bald-guy action at a steep discount — 73% off the DVDs or 65% off if you want to go Blu-Ray.
I mean, come on, you need to see this in hi-def.
3. iRobot Roomba 614 Vacuum Cleaning Robot — $249.99
I thought I hated vacuuming.
But apparently, my game is weak, since some folks would pay $250 to not have to clean their floors. And that’s after Amazon Prime Day’s 34% discount — this thing is usually $379.99!
Although an automated, mobile DJ would definitely make my next house party a hit…
4. Microfiber Premium Scratch-Free Wash Mitt — ??
Unless you own a car wash, I can’t see going through enough of these mitts to make the regular price of $8.79 untenable.
But if you’re a Prime member, hold onto your hat: At 8:30 p.m., you’ll get to purchase these mitts at a MUCH more reasonable price.
You’re welcome.
5. Rust Remover, But Like, a Lot of It — $674.99
I… just… yeah.
6. Outdoor “Bora Bora” Gray Wicker Sectional Set with Taupe Cushions — $2,634.13
Is there even enough dry land on Bora Bora for such a thing?
7. Compact Thermal Imaging Camera — $1,195
Listen. I don’t know what you use this for — and I’m not sure I want to.
But if you need one, you’ll save $300 on this one for Prime Day. It boasts “2% accuracy,” which doesn’t sound very good to me, but I’m certain I don’t know.
Your Turn: What ridiculous “deals” have you found this year on Prime Day?
Disclosure: The links in this post are affiliate links, so if you do decide you need a Roomba, The Penny Hoarder will get a little cut. So… thanks?! Happy Prime Day!
Jamie Cattanach is a staff writer at The Penny Hoarder who kind of wants to blow $700 on a Segway. Her writing has also been featured at Word Riot, DMQ Review, Hinchas de Poesia and elsewhere.
The post 7 Truly Ridiculous Prime Day Deals You’ll Probably Be Able to Live Without appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.
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Some Thoughts on Vacation Souvenirs – And Eight Smart Alternatives to Overpriced Tourist Items
A few days ago, we were rearranging our children’s rooms. We came to the decision that our children were old enough that our daughter needed a room of her own that wasn’t shared with her brothers, so we rearranged things to have the boys sharing one room and our daughter alone in another bedroom.
During that process, both rooms received a thorough cleaning and rearrangement, and as often happens when you do such a thing, objects that had fallen behind dressers and under beds were discovered. Old toys. A few pictures. A few scraps of trash.
What was most interesting, however, was a picture book that my daughter had bought as a souvenir at Disney World. She had completely forgotten about the book and didn’t even recognize it or remember it in any way.
As she looked through it, she talked a lot about our vacation that summer, but it wasn’t based on the pictures in the book. Instead, the memories were coming from her own head. She didn’t really remember anything that was depicted in the book, but she remembered eating ice cream in the France area at EPCOT and talking to one of the princess characters walking around the park.
After flipping through the book, she put it on her bookshelf with dozens of other books, where it has sat untouched ever since. I’m pretty sure that it’s a book that could go to a used bookstore and she’d never remember owning it.
Vacations and Souvenirs
Since Sarah and I have been married, we’ve taken a number of memorable vacations together, some just with each other and others with our children.
We’ve visited northwest Washington state – twice. We’ve visited the Black Hills and Devil’s Tower. We’ve visited the Grand Canyon. We went with the kids to Disney World (with some time in the Smoky Mountains beforehand). We went to Texas. We went to Boston and spent a few days driving around rural New England. We’ve been to the United Kingdom. This summer, we’re going to Canada. (I also visited Mexico several times by myself.)
On many of those trips, I purchased souvenirs of various kinds to remind me of the vacation, little things that caught my eye along the way. I remember buying this little doll at the base of an Aztec temple in Tenochtitlan. I remember buying my oldest son a souvenir plastic snake model from a national park. I remember buying a glass mug from a brewery tour in Boston. I can name many, many others, too.
My family members have done the same thing – the story of the picture book that I mentioned at the beginning is a perfect example. I remember my oldest son, when he was quite young, insisting upon getting a snow globe when we were on one of our summer vacations, for example.
As I sit here, though, I couldn’t even tell you where those souvenirs are. I think the glass mug is in the cupboard, but I’m not sure as I don’t recall seeing it for a while. I don’t know where the snake or the doll are, nor can I tell you the location of any of the other dozens of souvenirs I can pull up out of my memories.
I bought the items in the hope that they would help me remember the vacation, but instead the items themselves wound up forgotten. Why? Because the items were forgettable. They honestly had very little to do with the things that I remember – or that I want to remember – from all of those trips.
The value of a souvenir is that it helps you remember the great things about your trip, but most of the souvenirs that you buy don’t serve that purpose. Your memory of a great vacation doesn’t come from the gift shop, after all.
The truth is that most of the things that we think of as souvenirs are expensive, often low quality, and often not memorable on their own. They seem to capture some element of that trip, but they usually end up missing the target and wind up completely forgotten. In other words, they’re mostly a waste of money.
Still, it’s undeniable that certain things can help stir memories and feelings within us. The right kind of memorabilia from a trip can help bring that trip back to life in your mind and in your heart.
But you don’t need to spend money for the right kind of memorabilia.
Eight Smart Souvenir Alternatives
Here are eight smart alternatives to vacation souvenirs. All of these are very inexpensive – many of them are free. All of them have a much better chance of helping you remember the joys of your vacation as well as they’re directly tied to the experiences that you had, rather than just being a physical object unrelated to what you did there.
Found Items (Shells, Rocks, Etc.)
If you’re going to a place where you have permission to collect items like seashells, rocks, or other found items, those types of things make for wonderful vacation memorabilia.
Right now, in front of our house, we have a few bright red rocks that we found in the Arbuckle Mountains in Oklahoma. Whenever I see them, I remember our stop in Oklahoma to explore that area.
I have three clean seashells that I found along the beach in northwest Washington state that, whenever I see them, reminds me of the day we all spent on the shoreline there.
It’s those kinds of physical objects – directly taken from the places and experiences that I had – that really bring back memories for me. These kinds of items can be used for home decoration to really personalize a home. And you can’t argue with the cost of a found item like this, either.
The only thing worth noting is to be sure you have permission before collecting and taking these kinds of “found items.” Without that type of permission, you can get yourself in trouble for theft and for other crimes.
Photos
Photos are a vacation souvenir staple, and for good reason: they often provide a direct visual reminder of a moment or a location that you saw and experienced with your very own eyes. Looking through photos of a past vacation is a great way to relive the experience in your mind and today, with digital photography of a pretty high level of quality available on everyone’s cell phone, it’s very accessible, too.
I’ve found that, time and time again, the pictures that I enjoy the most aren’t the posed ones. They’re the ones taken in the moment when I just pull out my phone and take a photo very quickly. I’ve got pictures of my children actively enjoying something they’ve discovered or of my wife watching something with her beautiful little half-smile on her face. I’ve got beautiful photos of landscapes, sometimes with loved ones in front of me also looking off into the distance. The more “posed” pictures, I find, are kind of forgettable, and they usually end up taking a lot more time and being a distraction from the moment.
I usually take lots of pictures, too. I’ll take a bunch in a row of my kids doing something, for example, and then throw away all but one of them. I’ll go snap-snap-snap-snap, put my phone back away to enjoy the moment, and go through them later that night as I’m relaxed at the hotel or the campsite.
Printing the photos is up to personal preference; I prefer just to use them as a screen saver for the family computer, running through an endless loop of digital images. Again, doing this is basically free and it turns the screensaver of our family computer into a digital picture frame full of endless vacation memories.
Videos
If you have a smartphone for your picture-taking needs, it’s very likely that you’ll be able to capture videos as well. Almost everything I said above about pictures holds true for videos – they capture moments incredibly well, are very easy to capture (with a smartphone), and essentially have no additional cost. I also find that they’re far better when they capture things “in the moment.”
Currently, we have a big folder of vacation videos on our home computer network that we watch every once in a while. I can queue all of them up so that they all play automatically on our family television and we’ll sometimes just have a “vacation video” family movie night where we watch a long stream of short videos of things we did on various trips.
That little folder of digital videos – a folder which cost virtually no money and a surprisingly small amount of time to create – is worth its weight in gold to me. I love watching those little clips of travel moments.
A Travel Journal
This is probably my favorite form of vacation souvenir. In fact, a travel journal has become a normal routine for my vacations and it’s one that I will probably do on every significant trip for the rest of my life.
At the end of a long day during a vacation, just before I go to bed, I pull out my travel journal and write down the highlights of the day. I’ll mention the things we saw, the places we ate, and I’ll also list five things that I’ll want to remember about this day in the future.
It takes maybe ten minutes and I find that it’s a very comforting way to unwind at the end of a day. When I fill up a few pages in a travel journal writing about that day, I know that I’ll always be able to remember the best of it just by flipping through the notebook.
My travel journal also tends to take on a bit of a scrapbook feel. I’ll often save napkins or the front page of a menu from an interesting restaurant or a part of a brochure or a receipt or a leaf or a ticket stub or some other found paper item and literally glue or tape those things right into the travel journal.
You can use pretty much any notebook or journal for this purpose. For example, on our vacation this summer I’m using a medium-sized Baron Fig Vanguard, of which I luckily found myself owning a three pack. In past years, I’ve used Field Notes pocket notebooks and composition books and even a little old Mead spiral-bound notebook. Just use whatever you have.
If you’re anything like me, you’ll find these to be the best vacation souvenirs of all, as they take you right back to those places and remind you of great moments that you’d forgotten about, and it costs just a dollar or two and a few moments of your time each day during the trip.
Sketches
My wife is a pretty talented sketch artist, although she is very modest about her skills. Sometimes, she’ll just pull out a piece of paper and a pencil and in just a few minutes create something on that paper that’s just incredibly beautiful. It captures some aspect of the world as she sees it.
Every once in a while, she’ll do this when we’re traveling. Maybe the children will be playing at a park or we’ll be resting under a shade tree and she’ll just produce a notebook and start drawing something.
I would far rather look at her sketches than look at a photo I’ve taken, because her sketches always capture elements that I didn’t notice on my own or wouldn’t see in a picture.
I would gladly hang some of her best sketches on the walls of our home, but her modesty keeps that from happening.
It takes talent to create this kind of souvenir, of course, but if you have that talent or someone in your family does, encourage them to create this marvelous kind of souvenir. All it takes is some blank paper, a pencil, and some talent.
Postcards Mailed to Yourself
One thing I love to do is pay a quarter or fifty cents or a dollar and buy a postcard from an area where we happen to be, write down a quick thought or two on it, and then mail it to myself. The postcard acquires a postmark and then magically arrives in my mailbox when I arrive home, at which point I’ll stick it on a mirror or in some other place around our house.
I have a bunch of these postcards, and one thing I’d love to do at some point is make a collage of a bunch of them, frame it, and hang it up somewhere as a visual reminder of many of my travels.
A postcard is just a wonderful little document. It usually has a great image on one side, but what really counts is what’s on the other side. The writing that you did that usually references a particular moment in time, the stamp that you placed on the card, and the postmark all together along with the natural design of the card creates a little rectangular piece of art.
As I said, I like to stick these in the corners of mirrors or in other places around our house. I’ll put them on the refrigerator or in the corner of a picture frame. They provide these little simple visual reminders of a trip that I deeply enjoyed.
The cost? Perhaps a dollar or two for the postcard and the cost of a stamp, that’s all. It’s a pretty cheap price for such a great souvenir.
Stamps
Here, I’m talking about stamps of a different kind. Wikipedia explains what I’m talking about:
At nearly all of the 412 American National Park units (and many of the National Park Service’s affiliated areas), one or more National Park Passport Stamps (cancellation stamps) can be acquired at no cost at park visitor centers and ranger stations. The stamps are similar in nature to passport stamps stamped in a traveler’s national passport. The stamps serve as a record of each park visit.
One of our favorite types of vacation is our camping vacations to our national parks. We’ve visited a lot of them, and many more national monuments and other places. Along the way, we discovered this passport stamp system, where you can simply stamp a small book with these stamps that indicate the day you visited the park as well as a unique annual design for the region of the country you’re in.
There is an “official” book that you can buy to keep these stamps, but you can also just use your own pocket notebook if you’d like.
I quickly learned that my children like to collect these stamps (and Sarah and I do as well). I often stamp my travel journals (as discussed above) and Sarah actually has her own National Parks Passport booklet that she keeps stamps in.
Over time, these stamps can turn into a great souvenir of your travels if you’re a frequent visitor of the national parks. It ends up looking a lot like a passport book with a lot of stamps in it, which is a similarly great souvenir of one’s travels. It can become a little book loaded with memories.
A Memory Map
This is an idea that a friend of ours named Janet inspired us with. On the wall in her home is a large map of the world where she’s inserted a pin in each city that she’s visited. She has pins all over the place and it serves as a great visual reminder of all of her travels.
At this point, most of our travels are within North America, so a North American map would work really well for this.
So, what would make this into a souvenir? Whenever you visit a city, just look for a paper document that has the name of the city printed on it. When you get home, cut out the name of the city from whatever document you found – a brochure, a restaurant menu, whatever – and attach it to the pin before you stick it in the map.
For example, you might mark the Orlando area with a brochure for Disney World, or you might mark New York with a scrap from the menu of an amazing food truck that you enjoyed while you were there. You can find something like this in every town.
Over time, the map would grow more and more colorful and varied, and each pin could identify not only the location you visited, but provide a physical little reminder of something you did there.
All that you need for this is some wall space, some pins, and the ability to remember to grab some brochures and menus while you travel. It makes for a great little decoration for your home that’s full of little snippets of memories.
Final Thoughts
The central theme in all of these ideas is this: you don’t need to buy expensive things to trigger the most beautiful of memories. Often, it’s the simple little free things that trigger those memories, things you can easily acquire on your trip without much effort at all.
For me, the best “cheap” souvenir of all is my little collection of travel journals. Each one of them is loaded with memories from the trips I’ve taken over the years. I love looking at them and remembering the places I’ve been, the people I was with, and the experiences I had while I was there. Those travel journals, filled with my immediate writing while the memory was still fresh and lots of little scraps of brochures and ticket stubs and menus and other things, are just wonderful little portals in time back to events I hope I never forget.
Whatever you choose to do for your next trip, remember that the money best spent on a trip is on the experience itself, not on buying forgettable things to try to capture that experience. Instead, capture little snippets of that experience directly with pictures or videos or little scraps or found items.
You’ll find that those things bring your vacation memories to life far better than whatever you find at the gift shop, and you’ll spend a lot less money, too.
The post Some Thoughts on Vacation Souvenirs – And Eight Smart Alternatives to Overpriced Tourist Items appeared first on The Simple Dollar.
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How a Night at the Museum Helped This Guy Start a Million-Dollar Business
On a Saturday night in December 2012, Nick Gray went on a date to New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Well, let me rephrase that. He was taken on a date to the Met. It was his date’s choice.
To Gray, who’d majored in business and had never taken a single art history class, one of the most celebrated art museums in the world was “the kind of place you go when your parents are in town.” He thought museums were boring.
But then, as his date pointed out some of her favorite pieces, something amazing happened.
“I don’t know if it was the the very romantic mood lighting that night,” Gray says, “or… the snow falling down in Central Park.”
“Maybe it was just having a very attractive woman talk to me… but something magic happened and that night, I fell in love… with the museum.”
Four years later, Gray’s love affair has persisted — and blossomed into a business that brought in $1.2 million last year.
Here’s how it happened.
The Anti-Museum Tour
Image from Museumhack.com
After Gray’s fateful night at the museum, he decided to go back again. And again.
He quickly became obsessed with the place and with the plethora of stories he’d only just realized were locked within.
“A great piece of art can communicate through time,” Gray says — and he was starved for all the tales he’d been missing.
He started spending every minute he could spare in its halls, finding more and more fascinating artifacts.
Soon, he was bringing his friends along for the ride, doing makeshift tours of his favorite parts of the giant museum.
“These were not very sophisticated tours. They were basically ‘10 cool things I found and three things I want to steal,’” Gray says.
The tours were fun, fast-paced and not at all like what many adults had come to expect from a “boring” art museum. They were also totally free.
Needless to say, word spread. Gray’s friends told their friends, who told even more people about their newfound love of the Met and the tour that made it happen.
Then, lifestyle blog Daily Candy ran a story about Gray’s tours, which he called “Hack the Met.”
The next day, a thousand people emailed Gray requesting a coveted place on one of his tours.
“This was becoming a very full-time hobby.”
From Entertainment to Entrepreneurship
Image from Museumhack.com
Gray realized he needed backup if he was going to keep up with demand, so he found someone to help and paid him on a per-tour basis.
And suddenly, he’d created a business: Museum Hack.
As more and more eager tourgoers lined up, Gray continued to find and hire people who were enthusiastic about the museum and its contents.
Gray knew genuine excitement was the contagious key to helping others appreciate the museum, so each guide wrote their own route based around the artifacts they were most excited about.
Soon, the company was developing different types of tours, from the original “Un-Highlights” tour to a swankier, VIP evening walk-through, complete with a glass of wine.
In April of 2013, Nick was able to quit his job and start working on Museum Hack full time.
In the first quarter of 2014, after less than a year of operation, Gray brought on a sales team to help book his newly established company team-building tours.
By the end of that year, Museum Hack pulled in $500,000. Instead of pocketing the profit, Gray reinvested every cent he could spare.
Sure enough, at the end of 2015, Gray’s records showed his company’s revenue had more than doubled — and Museum Hack had expanded nationwide.
Today, you can choose from about a dozen different tours in a variety of museums across New York City, as well as in San Francisco and Washington, D.C. Museum Hack will even host your bachelorette party, set up a scavenger hunt or help you propose to your sweetheart.
Not bad for an accidental business, huh?
Why Museum Hack Worked
Image from Museumhack.com
Discovering a new passion is already awesome, never mind stumbling on a way to leverage it into a million-dollar enterprise.
But Gray found a way to provide a service people didn’t even know they wanted. And because his project was based on genuine enthusiasm, it worked.
“Today’s audiences have to be entertained before they can be educated,” says Gray.
“We’re selling museum adventures, not museum tours.”
To that end, every single one of Museum Hack’s tours relies on fun, creative ways to engage with art that you wouldn’t have thought of on your own.
“We do yoga in the contemporary gallery,” says Gray. “We do squats in the stairwell” to ward off “gallery fatigue.”
He even admits that some of the tours’ infectious excitement is based on “gossip.”
“I love to tell people the juicy backstories behind the art,” he says. “Storytelling matters more than art history.”
By revitalizing the way people engage with museums, Museum Hack humanizes what can feel like a cavernous maze of sterile objects. As it turns out, that’s a service people are willing to pay for.
Gray’s story proves your hobby can become your business, and doing what you love actually does pay off.
“It’s not the fluffy ‘Do what you love and they will come,’” says Gray.
But when you’re excited about something, that feeling is palpable and infectious. And when others get a taste of it, they’re gonna want more.
As Gray puts it, “it’s way easier to build a business when your customers want to pay you.”
I don’t know about you, but I’m the kind of nerd who already thought museums were cool… and I can’t wait to go on a Museum Hack tour.
Your Turn: What’s your favorite museum?
Jamie Cattanach is a staff writer at The Penny Hoarder. Her writing has also been featured at Word Riot, DMQ Review, Hinchas de Poesia and elsewhere. Find @JamieCattanach on Twitter to wave hello.
The post How a Night at the Museum Helped This Guy Start a Million-Dollar Business appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.
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Savings update: deals slashed ahead of interest rate decision
Banks are busy cutting rates on their fixed-rate deals ahead of Thursday's (14 July) meeting when the Bank of England will announce whether it will cut base rate from 0.5% to 0.25%.
Saga, Sainsbury's and Close Brothers have all either cut rates for new savers or withdrawn from the market buy closing its fixed-rate deals without replacing it with a new version.
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Three Credit Mistakes to Avoid at All Costs
Working to earn and maintain great credit scores is a lot like trying to reach and maintain a healthy weight. It’s easy for some people and next to impossible for others, like me.
Both goals require hard work, consistent effort, and no cheating. And when you land that FICO or VantageScore of 750, it doesn’t mean it’s time to sit back and relax. Instead, the need to pay close attention to your credit is perhaps even more important — because it’s a whole lot easier to torpedo an already good score than it is to lower a poor one.
The long and short of it is: No matter what your credit score is, don’t make these harmful credit mistakes:
Mistake No. 1: Ignoring Your Credit Reports
You shouldn’t assume that your credit is okay just because you had great credit scores the last time you applied for a loan. Mistakes appear on credit reports all the time. In fact, the Federal Trade Commission released a study in 2013 that found an estimated 21% of us have errors on our credit reports.
One out of five might sound low, I guess — but if you are one of the 21%, then 100% of your credit reports have errors, so keep that in mind. Further, the study found that many of those errors could ultimately lead to the consumer paying more for loans and insurance premiums.
Avoiding the mistake: Instead of assuming your credit is still in good shape, it’s a good idea to develop the habit of checking and reviewing your credit reports often (perhaps monthly, but at least every few months). You can easily access all three of your credit reports for free every 12 months at AnnualCreditReport.com. There are also many websites where you can check your credit reports and scores online, often for free. Plus, a number of credit card issuers give cardholders free access to their scores on a monthly basis.
If mistakes occur, you should contact the credit bureaus immediately. Keep in mind that they don’t know if something is an “error.” Only you know what’s supposed to be on your credit reports and what’s not. They don’t have any obligation to correct errors unless you ask them to do so.
Mistake No. 2: Making Late Payments
The most important factor in your credit scores is the presence or absence of negative information. As a result, one of the fastest ways to turn 750 into 600 is to miss payments, even if the missed payments are simply an oversight. For example, if your student loans come out of deferment and you missed the first three payments because you forgot they were due, your credit scores could take a serious hit.
Avoiding the mistake: Life gets busy, so it is important to make and stick to a schedule each month to ensure your bills are always paid in a timely fashion. Setting up automated payments for bills such as credit cards and student loans can help to serve as a safety net in the event you ever forget to make a payment by the due date.
Additionally, pay close attention to your mail, email, and voice mail in case a creditor ever tries to contact you regarding a past due balance you may have overlooked. You should also consider making this “paying your bills” part of your financial life a priority that gets your undivided attention every month.
Mistake No. 3: Charging Too Much On Your Credit Card Accounts
Many consumers don’t realize that charging an amount that is too high relative to your card’s credit limit can actually lower your credit scores — by a lot — even if every single payment on the account is made on time.
There’s a metric in all scoring systems (FICO and VantageScore) called the “revolving utilization” percentage. That percentage is simply the balance on your credit cards relative to the credit limit, as reported to the credit bureaus. The higher the percentage, the lower your credit scores — it’s that simple.
The people with the highest credit scores are going to have utilization rates lower than 10%. That means if you have a card with a $10,000 credit limit, you’ll want to stay at or below $1,000, even if you make the minimum payment on time.
And no, paying your balance in full each month isn’t good enough. The credit reporting system is not real time, so the actual balance on your cards right now isn’t what’s actually on your credit reports — it’s whatever your balance was on last month’s statement. If your balance was $2,543 on your last statement, that’s what’s on your credit reports right now — along with a 25.4% utilization rate, assuming the same $10,000 credit limit — even if you paid the bill in full and on time.
Avoiding the mistake: There’s actually a pretty decent credit score hack to deal with this one, but you’re going to have to forgo your card’s 21-day grace period. There are two relevant dates associates with your credit card accounts: the due date and the statement closing date. If you pay off your balance (or pay down your balance) by the statement closing date, then your statement balance will be zero dollars, your utilization percentage will also be zero, and your scores will skyrocket.
If you were going to pay off the balance in full anyway, then why wait for the grace period? Try it one month, and see what happens to your scores.
Related Articles:
- Debunking Four Common Credit Myths
- What Is a Good Credit Score?
- 10 Money Mistakes Most 20‑Somethings Make
The post Three Credit Mistakes to Avoid at All Costs appeared first on The Simple Dollar.
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12 Internships to Apply for Right Now — And, Yes, They’re Paid
Three months ago I was a recent graduate armed with a master’s degree and no job.
As I scoured Indeed, LinkedIn and other job sites, I found that most job listings demanded two or three years of experience.
But how am I supposed to get experience if I can’t even get a job?
The answer is simple: Internships.
Although they might not be “real jobs,” internships boost your resume and give you experience. Plus, after I changed my major three times, an internship was a great way to confirm I’d finally chosen the correct field.
However, it can be tough to dig through all of the unpaid internships to find ones that might actually help you pay your rent.
Lucky for you, we’ve compiled a list of open paid internships across the country to get you started in your search.
12 Paid Internships You Can Apply for Now
OK, the pep talk is over. It’s time to start applying — whether you’re a student, recent graduate or mid-career worker interested in changing fields.
Sales and Marketing
1. Communication Specialist Intern at Detroit Business Consulting (Troy, Michigan)
This listing boasts “rapid advancement within the company.” You’ll get full training and hands-on experience in sales, marketing, management and advertising.
If you’re interested in this internship, you should apply by July 16.
2. Myldea Sports Intern at Turner (Atlanta)
Calling all undergrad and grad students majoring in digital media, marketing, public relations, sales or advertising: You’ll get your hands on a variety of tasks here — and get paid minimum wage. Hey, it’s something, right?
Also peruse all of Turner’s internship listings across the country. Brands include CNN, Cartoon Network, TBS and truTV.
This is a competitive internship (#sports), so apply as soon as you possibly can.
3. Sales & Marketing Intern at Cummins (Indianapolis)
Become an intern for one of the largest distributors of Cummins engines, parts and services in the world.
With some running knowledge of machinery, you’ll set your part-time schedule (starting in August) and perform market research, study sales and help with internal communications.
Pay is competitive. You’ll want to apply as soon as possible for this internship.
4. YouTube Marketing Intern at Eshays (Remote)
If you love fashion and you’re tech-savvy, this could be the perfect part-time internship for you. This online-only urban apparel company is looking to enhance its YouTube channel with your help.
Complete a project? Get paid — from the comforts of home.
Eshays is accepting applications for its internship all year round.
Media and Writing
5. Editorial Intern at Esquire Magazine (New York City)
With three internship cycles throughout the year, Esquire’s program will give you real magazine experience working 40 hours a week with hourly pay. There’s also a digital position; however, that one is unpaid.
The magazine has three internship cycles lasting about four months each, which means three opportunities to apply each year.
For other paid journalism gigs, refer to Poynter’s list.
6. Emerging Platforms Intern at Mashable (New York City)
If you’re into social media and eager to learn more, this might be the perfect fit. Help manage Mashable’s Facebook and Tumblr account and experiment with Snapchat Discover and Instagram.
Listed job perks include snacks, high-fives, famous animals and friendships.
Apply as soon as possible; the internship was posted July 8, and we think it’ll go like hotcakes.
7. Social Media Intern at Bear Creek Farm (Stanfordville, New York)
This sustainable flower farm startup needs your help to expand and manage its social media platforms.
You’ll be compensated $50 a week plus travel reimbursements when you visit the farm, which is two hours by train from NYC. There’s potential to take on a part-time permanent position after the internship ends.
Also check out the farming internship opportunity that’s available.
Apply for this internship by July 14.
Engineering and Technology
8. Engineering Intern at LiveRamp (San Francisco)
Interested in full-stack web development and back-end engineering? Apply to this full-time, 10- to 14-week internship. You’ll be matched with a mentor and receive the same orientation training as full-time engineers.
Oh, and there’s food — sometimes from food trucks!
This internship is open to applicants year-round.
9. IT Undergraduate Intern at LZ Technology (Houston)
Hiring multiple intern positions, this woman-owned small business will pay you $15-$20 per hour to work 40 hours a week alongside the aerospace engineers, project managers and staff members who support NASA.
Apply year-round or, to be considered for the fall semester, as soon as possible.
Arts
10. Art Intern at Schoold (San Francisco)
This mobile app, which aims to help high school students find an ideal college and career, is hiring an art intern who brings a general knowledge of composition and photo-editing skills to the job.
Apply year-round for this part-time internship.
11. Graphic Design Intern at Four Mine (New York City)
Four Mine specializes in selling engagement rings and wedding bands.
Your job? Work with the co-founders on design projects that will help build their brand through newsletters and social media — and build up your own portfolio in the process.
Apply for this internship by July 25.
12. Production Intern at Jumpcut Studios (Los Angeles)
At this production and engineering company, you’ll assist with all parts of filmmaking. That includes taking part in the casting process, researching shoot locations and assisting with the editing and marketing departments.
Compensation is glorious: a $2,000 stipend per month and catered lunches and dinners daily.
You’ll want to apply as soon as you crank out a cover letter.
Oh, and did we mention? The Penny Hoarder offers a variety of paid internships, too!
Where to Find Paid Internships
For other paid internship opportunities, you can search several sites, including Internships.com, Looksharp and The Muse.
Other sites known for job listings, like Glassdoor, Indeed and LinkedIn, also share internship opportunities.
Other handy tips: See if your school has a career office. Some academic departments even have email lists where students and alumni send out job and internship opportunities.
And always establish relationships with your classmates and professors and keep your ears open. My first internship came when I overheard a classmate’s conversation — and I made a move.
Your Turn: What’s your favorite place to find paid internships? Help us add to our list in the comments!
Carson Kohler (@CarsonKohler) is a junior writer at The Penny Hoarder. After recently completing grad school, she focuses her time and energy on saving money — and surviving the move back in with her parents.
The post 12 Internships to Apply for Right Now — And, Yes, They’re Paid appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.
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Make Money with Affiliate Marketing without Maintaining a Blog or Website
By Ashlee Anderson There are a lot of ways to make money online. You can start a blog, open an Etsy shop, take part in Amazon FBA, or even offer information products like eBooks or courses for sale. Plus, you can sell services as a freelancer or use popular sites to earn extra money each month […]
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