Habitat for Humanity rejects nearly condemnable house in Tobyhanna

An ice storm tore the deck from Mary Touchette’s Tobyhanna home a couple of years ago. The ice buildup on the roof caused the bedroom ceiling to collapse. The house was a mess.Then her bathroom pipe corroded, leaked and became unusable, along with the bedroom.Someone at her church told her about the work done by Monroe County Habitat for Humanity. The group organizes volunteers to repair homes for those in need. So in May, Touchette submitted an application to the [...]

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Scotrun lease space available for 'positive asset' after day care closes

The Scotrun location of Hildebrandt Learning Centers, an accessible, affordable, quality day care center, is scheduled to close Sept. 30, after more than 10 years of serving families in Pocono Township and surrounding areas.As sad as this is to both the families and Hildebrandt staff, it's a perfect opportunity for another tenant to occupy the soon-to-be-vacant space and be as positive an asset to the community as Hildebrandt has been, said attorney Jennifer Wise, whose family has [...]

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Habitat for Humanity rejects Tobyhanna house of horrors

An ice storm tore the deck from Mary Touchette’s Tobyhanna home a couple of years ago. The ice buildup on the roof caused the bedroom ceiling to collapse. The house was a mess.Then her bathroom pipe corroded, leaked and became unusable, along with the bedroom.Someone at her church told her about the work done by Monroe County Habitat for Humanity. The group organizes volunteers to repair homes for those in need. So in May, Touchette submitted an application to the [...]

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How Former Teachers Now Earn $45,000 a Month With Their Online Business

As someone who stumbled into starting an online business and has generated over $1 million in revenue from blogging, I love hearing stories of other successful online entrepreneurs.

It’s rare that you come across a couple who makes more than $45,000 per month and reached that point within a few years of starting their business.

Well, Shane and Jocelyn Sams are that couple. And many months, they make much more.

It was as recent as 2012 that Shane heard about ordinary people radically changing their lives through online businesses. Soon, he and his wife would be on their way to making the big bucks.

I was even more pleasantly surprised this couple lives one state over from we had a chance to meet in person.

If there was any doubt, this couple is the real thing.

They are down to earth with an amazing family and it’s been a blast watching your success grow.

Let’s get straight to the interview with my friends, Shane and Jocelyn Sams who can be found at FlippedLifestyle.com.

How much money were you making per month before your current business endeavors?

Shane: Before we started our online business, we were teachers. Jocelyn was an elementary school librarian. I was a social studies teacher. We just had normal jobs that didn’t pay a lot. They were good jobs for southeast Kentucky. I would say we probably, combined, brought home after taxes around $2,500 each. We had insurance and things like that through the school, so we didn’t have that expense necessarily. We probably brought home about $5,000 per month. That was a good, normal middle-class income here for southeast Kentucky. We had everything we needed, but sometimes the check would run out a little bit before payday. Sometimes it didn’t. It was a good life, we were thankful, and we were really blessed coasting along with that income.

How much money are you making now per month with your current business endeavors?

Shane: Our online business has been an absolute windfall for us. It’s been incredible watching it grow. We make money now that I never even dreamed possible. That money does float at different times of the year. It’s somewhere usually between about $45,000 and $100,000 per month every single month. That’s what it has been for the last couple of years. It’s a lot higher during back-to-school times of the year because we are heavily into the education market. We sell lesson plans, and things like that, to different kinds of teachers.

I’ve sold sports play-books in the past. That stuff really kicks in July-October, so those months are huge months. We’ve also got great sales throughout the year online, mostly through our recurring revenue membership sites. We sell memberships where people pay anywhere from $50 to $100 per month to have access to all of our content. That’s a very consistent baseline throughout the year. We do have big spikes during the back-to-school times. It’s just absolutely mind-blowing because we pretty much make as much or more now – every single month – than we did when we taught for an entire year of teaching.

 How old are you and Jocelyn?

Shane: I am 38 years old and Jocelyn is 36 years old. We have been doing this now for four years. We started in 2012, and it’s now 2016. I was 34-ish when we started, and Jocelyn was 32-ish.

What are you doing for a living right now?

Shane: Jocelyn and I have our hands in a number of different pots, stirring, so to speak. Primarily, we focus on education. We sell lesson plans, through digital downloads, to history teachers, social studies teachers, and elementary librarians.

I do still have some sports products for sale, like play-books for football coaches and things like that. We also have an online business coaching website called FlippedLifestyle.com where we help hundreds of people in our membership community start and run their own business. We’re kind of like a consulting business, where we coach people and tell them how to get started online – how to help them take their business to the next level.

For our advanced users, we have some high-end masterminds where we bring people in and we help them figure out exactly what they need to do next to scale their business. Those are the two main things we do.

We have our education business. That’s very passive. All of the content is already created. All of the marketing systems are automated. That brings in thousands upon thousands of dollars every single month, where people pay monthly to access those lesson plans throughout the school year. Flipped Lifestyle is a huge part of our business now. That’s definitely catching up to – and growing rapidly toward – the education business. We do that. We have hundreds of members. We focus mostly on our podcast as our free content: The Flipped Lifestyle Podcast.

What kind of lifestyle do your current business endeavors enable you to live?

Shane: Our lifestyle, now, is so different than what it used to be. We basically had that 9-5 lifestyle. We didn’t travel a lot. We couldn’t afford it. We couldn’t go buy the things we just wanted. Didn’t do a lot on the weekends; stayed at the house, things like that.

Now, we have a surplus of money at all times. We have months and months of living expenses and months and months of business expenses saved. We can just do the things that we want to do. We usually travel. About every month, we take off somewhere for a week. That might be just drive down to the mountains in east Tennessee, or it might be jumping on an airplane and running down to Disney World for a week – or a weekend even. A couple weeks ago, we just went out and paid cash, bought a $3,500 swing set for our kids, and stuck it out in the backyard – didn’t bat an eye. I know something like that we would’ve had to have either borrowed the money for, gotten that on a credit card, or would have tried to find something much less expensive when we were teachers.

It just allows us more peace of mind without having to worry about money as much and the stress of living paycheck to paycheck. It just frees up so much capacity in your brain to start thinking of other possibilities, other things. It’s really spiraling and building on itself like an avalanche now in our online business because we have all these things that we get to do.

We have a full-time housekeeper, works for us 40 hours a week. She’s our personal assistant as well. We don’t have to clean the house. We don’t have to do anything like that. She goes grocery shopping for us. She goes and washes our cars, gases them up. She makes all of our appointments. Having a full-time employee to be able to do all those things for us is just mind-blowing. I used to mow my own grass. That’s how this whole online business thing started. I was listening to a podcast, riding my lawnmower. Now I pay somebody to take care of my lawn, do all the landscaping, and mow our grass. It’s just crazy.

We have employees that handle a lot of the things in our business which gives us that freedom to spend more time with our kids. I can remember when we used to come home dead tired. I would get home from football practice at 7 or 8:00. Jocelyn would get in real late, 5 or 6. We had to be at work at like 6 AM, 7 AM. Just get up super early. We never saw our kids because they were always in daycare. If we did see them, they were sleeping because we were getting home so late.

Now, we get to spend tons of time with our kids. I took my little boy to the gym with me earlier. We just took our time; went for a walk outside and went in. I was teaching him how to lift weights. We get up every morning and get to chill and eat breakfast with our kids. I always notice when we go to school in the morning, Jocelyn and I always take the kids together. Very few cars have the mom and the dad in the car with the kids. I’m always the only dad at most of the school functions when we go volunteer, because we get to volunteer. A lot of dads are working and can’t do that. A lot of moms are working and can’t do that.

We just have so much freedom, not only just because of the money but because of the way that we work. Having an online business makes you completely location independent. Sometimes, if we want to run up to a doctor appointment in Lexington – a bigger city to the north of – we can just jump in the car, bring the computer, check our e-mail on the way, and handle a few things. We just have so much flexibility and total control over our time, and over our life. We did not have that. We were teachers. We literally couldn’t go to the bathroom until the bell rang, just like the kids.

It’s just amazing the entire 180 degrees that our lives have taken. Everything has just completely flipped upside down. That’s why we call our brand “Flipped Lifestyle.” We are literally living the opposite of everyone else, in the way we live and what we do. It would just not be possible in any other job besides online business – built on passive income, built with memberships and recurring revenue in mind that allow us to do that.

Our online business lets us live a life that some people don’t even believe is real – that most people can’t even really imagine being possible because we’re all trained to work 9-5 and trade time for dollars.

We’re very thankful and blessed. It’s just an awesome thing, an awesome world we live in that a lifestyle like this is even possible.

I always tell people I didn’t get on an airplane for the first time until I was 18 or 19 years old. My little boy and my little girl have probably flown over a dozen times each, just in their few years the last four years. I didn’t get to go to Disneyland until I was older. I only got to go once in my entire childhood.

My kids have already been multiple times. It’s just amazing the opportunities that are opening up to even them because of this. Isaac and Anna are getting ready to start their own YouTube channel because they wanted their own online business like mommy and daddy had. Just their mindset of what their lifestyle and their life is going to be is totally different now because of our online business.

How did you discover these business ideas?

Shane: Through a series of events that happened with us and our kids. We really got fed up with this 9-5 lifestyle and working for dictator bosses that thought they controlled your whole life. You had to do their beck and call just to keep your job. I started searching for some kind of business that Jocelyn and I could run together. We had no idea, really, that people were even doing this online business thing. We knew you could make a living online, but we didn’t exactly know how all that worked.

I started listening to business podcasts and stumbled across a podcast called The Smart Passive Income Podcast by Pat Flynn. Pat was talking about, in this episode, how he had made like $9,000 – or so many thousand dollars – selling an e-book. It was a study-guide for his architecture test. Man, when I heard that it just floored me. It just absolutely floored me that you could make a living online and make that much money just by e-mailing people a PDF file full of information.

Jocelyn and I, through a series of events, realized that this was real. This was possible. Jocelyn was very skeptical at first. She totally was like, “What are you talking about? This has to be a scam. There’s got to be something to this. We’ve got jobs; let’s just keep going.”

She basically finally got sick of it and said, “If you can prove it works, I’ll get in.” I went out and created some websites, made a little money online. The first money we ever made online was $0.11 off of a Google Ad click, but that $0.11 really made it real that we could create information and send it out into the world and people could send us money back.

Jocelyn got onboard, and we started brainstorming ideas. This guy that we discovered knew about this test. He had taken it; he had passed it. He took that information, put it in a form that someone could consume, and he gave it to them. So we started thinking, “What do we know? What can we give people that they need?” I was a football coach. I realized, “Hey man. I can make play-books. I can make drills. I can make all the resources that football coaches need, at the high school and youth level, for their football team.”

Jocelyn was a librarian. She realized that there were not a lot of library lesson plans out there. She could create, in her spare time, a system where people would have lesson plans for every day of the year. We then mimicked that with another site – USHistoryTeachers.com – that we have. We just kept growing and growing all of this content and started putting that out there.

We started focusing on the things that we already knew – that we knew other people wanted to know, but maybe we were ahead of the game. We were experts enough. They were behind us in their knowledge. They needed us to teach that to them, or provide that for them. Maybe they didn’t have enough time to create it themselves.

That’s how we came up with our ideas. As we looked at what other people were doing, we realized that basically, people were selling their expertise or they were making things easier for people, like saving them time creating lesson plans. We put those together and we started selling them. We started promoting them and marketing them online. We built communities with hundreds of different teachers, football coaches, and everything else.

Flipped Lifestyle came about because we actually helped a friend of Jocelyn’s – her name was Lindsey – make some money online. She was asking us, “What are you doing?” Especially after we quit our jobs, everybody was like, “How did you do that? What’s going on?” We said, “We think we can help you,” so we showed her how to do it. She made like $1,000 online with our help. One day, her husband came up to me at church and said, “Man, I just wanted to say thank you for helping us do that.” They were also teachers, actually. He said, “That amount of money is huge for us.” She had chosen to stay home with her kids. He was working, the sole provider. That really changed their life.

I can remember, we got in the car that day and drove home. I looked over at Jocelyn and I said, “You know, the knowledge that we have to make online businesses work, to make them successful – we’ve done this! If we taught this to other families, we could change their life. We could change their future. We could change their family tree. We could literally flip people’s lives upside down.

That’s what Flipped Lifestyle is to us. It is one of our main focuses now. We really want this to grow so we can help as many people as possible find the freedom that we have online. We have a goal to help over a thousand families quit their jobs because of online businesses, so that they can have that flipped lifestyle. They can drop their kids off at school. They can have the money to buy the swing set. They can have the money to go on vacation. That’s what we focus on, and that’s where Flipped Lifestyle actually came from.

What are some of the obstacles you had to overcome to achieve your desired business goals? How did you do so?

Jocelyn: There are two things you have to worry about in any business: time and money. Those were the two biggest obstacles. How were we going to find the time to work on our online business? We were both working 12 hours per day.

We both had two small children – toddlers basically. How were we going to find the time to be able to work on this? And money? Our budget was spread thin. We didn’t have enough money to invest hundreds and thousands of dollars into starting some business, and try this out. We had to do it on a shoestring budget. Those were our two biggest things that we had to overcome.

Shane: Let’s look at the first one: time. Jocelyn was instrumental in getting our time under control. Jocelyn basically said, “We have 168 hours just like everyone else, and it’s up to us to use them correctly to make this work.” Jocelyn sat down, and on a piece of paper, drew 168 squares and said, “These are our 168 hours. Where is our time going? We’ve got to figure that out first.”

The first thing we did was we put all the non-negotiables on there, like: sleep, going to work, eating, picking up the kids – all of the things we had to do. We realized that once all those blocks of time were blocked out and we couldn’t access them, we had 10-20 hours per week that we had free. We said, “What are we doing with all this time?” We’re watching TV. We’re just kicking back and relaxing after a hard day’s work or engaging in some other form of entertainment like going to the movies, going out to eat, or something like that.

We realized that if we would re-prioritize and make the online business the priority instead of all those other things, that we could invest that time now to free up all those other blocks of non-negotiable time later. Jocelyn and I made a meticulous plan of what we were going to do with those extra hours.

We overcame that obstacle by making the online business the number one priority after our life, after the non-negotiables. We carved out about three hours per day. We worked 6-7 days per week. After the kids went to bed, Jocelyn would go for a couple hours and I would work for an hour or two. Then we would go to bed about 11 or 12. We didn’t do anything else during that time. We didn’t play games. We didn’t search on Facebook. We didn’t do anything. We worked on the online business.

We overcame the time obstacle by (1) getting organized and getting control of our calendar, (2) realizing all these other successful people have the same amount of time on this earth as we do (and it’s up to us to make what’s important a priority), and (3) we put the online business on the calendar first, after the non-negotiables. We made sure that we worked hard on the online business when we were doing that. That’s how we overcame time.

How did we overcome the obstacle of money? As we were doing this time exercise we realized, “What about money? We’re going to have to buy hosting. We’re going to have to have a website. We’re going to have to pay for ads, maybe.” There are a lot of things you have to buy to start any business including an online business.

We looked at our budget first and said, “What, first, can we get rid of?” We realized that cable TV was a huge waste of time for us. Our kids were really little. Isaac could watch TV at that time; he was like three I think – but we could movies over and over. We could go to the library and check out movies for free. We had tons of options for video content that we could get him. We had YouTube, things like that. We realize that if we would cancel cable, not only would it give us all this time back, it would free up $100 a month. We started our online business with a budget of $100 a month. We canceled cable. We went after it that way.

We needed more money. There were other things we had to buy and invest. The second thing we did was we sold everything that we weren’t using. I can remember that I had these autographed books by an author who had passed away. His name was Robert Jordan. They were worth like $100-$200 a piece on eBay. I said to myself, “Are those books really more important than my family’s future? Why am I hanging onto these things? I’ll go buy those books back once we make our online business work.”

We sold a bunch of stuff. I sold all those books; that gave us like $1,000 that we just kept in an account and said, “That’s the business budget when we need to buy software, when we need to buy training to help us ramp past the learning curve.”

Finally, how did we overcome the money thing? We said, “You know what? This house that we’re living in costs too much,” so we sold our house and we downsized into a house that was about 600 square feet less, and the mortgage was half. Once we freed up all that money in the second year, now we had hundreds of dollars at our disposal that we could actually really invest into training, hiring virtual assistants, and ramping up and scaling our online business. That’s what let us quit our jobs so fast.

Everyone always says, “How did you quit your job in a year?” Because we made the time sacrifices and the money sacrifices. We overcame those two obstacles that everybody else – a lot of other people – make excuses about. We said, “No. We’re going to do what it takes to overcome those obstacles and make them happen.” Those are just some of the things that we did to overcome the obstacles of time and money.

What are the top five tips you’d give someone who wants to find success like you have?

Jocelyn: If it’s important to you, then you’ll make it happen. You’ll find a way. If it’s not really important to you, you’ll find an excuse and do something else.

Shane: The first tip would be stop making excuses. Everybody wants to win; everybody has dreams, but the people that get to live the life that they want to live – the people that are successful, especially in online business – are the people that make this a priority. If you make it a priority and it becomes more important than the fun stuff you’re doing on the weekends, more important than that extra TV show at night, or The Walking Dead on Sunday, whatever – then you will find a way to make it happen, and it will happen eventually.

A lot of the people that fail – almost every one that we see – it’s just because they make excuses: ”Oh, I had this,” or “Oh, I can’t do that.” The people that look at us and say, “I will do whatever it takes to be successful. This is my number one priority,” and actually prove that by bearing fruit, those are the ones that make it. So, if it’s important to you, you’ll find a way. If it’s not important, you’ll find an excuse.

Number two . . . . The next thing that we tell everybody when they join our Flip Your Life community, is to focus on what you know. Don’t necessarily chase your passions. It’s very popular online, and all the gurus say, “Do what you love. Follow your dreams.” What if I love to take naps in a hammock? You’re not going to make a living doing that. Everyone has an expertise. Everyone has something they’re expert enough in, and they can teach people who are not quite at their level. I taught football coaches how to run a particular defense. Jocelyn taught librarians how to organize and teach in their classroom.

We’ve seen people that do everything under the sun, from raising Venus flytraps to painting gourds and selling that as art. We’ve seen everything under the sun. These people focused on what they were really, really good at and that might’ve lead to their passions. The person who really knew how – maybe he worked at a Venus flytrap store or something. I don’t know what he did, but he knew all about Venus flytraps. His passion might be something else. It might be mountain climbing. Once he has a successful income through what he knows, then he can go and do something that he loves.

Same thing with us. Football was not necessarily my number one passion in life, but I really knew a lot about it. Jocelyn doesn’t get up every morning clapping her hands, going, “Whoo libraries!” She loves the library; she thinks they’re important, but she was an expert in that. She has a master’s degree in Library Media Specialist. Basically, focus on what you’re really good at first. It might be something related to your job. It might be something that you really know how to do from a hobby standpoint, but don’t necessarily go straight to your passions. That’s often a recipe for disaster because people want to do what’s fun, and not what makes them money.

Jocelyn: Tip number three. This is a big one: calendar everything. You cannot succeed in your own business unless you know where every hour of your time is going. Calendaring all of the events of the week is more important than even your budget for your finances because if you don’t have enough time – it’s the only thing we can’t get more of and it’s the only thing we can’t get back. So, you have to calendar everything.

Shane: Jocelyn and I share a calendar. All of our team can see our calendar, everybody that works for us. Everyone knows what’s going on with each other’s time at all times. If our time is not under control, then nothing else will happen.

The biggest problem we hear when people try to start their own business is, “Oh, I ran out of time today,” or “I ran out of time yesterday,” or “I won’t have time to do this until next week.” Really, it’s they won’t make time, they won’t schedule the time, or they won’t give up something on their calendar. You have to calendar everything and stick to the calendar.

Number four: You should always pursue your online business out of inspiration, not desperation. People that we see routinely fail are very desperate. They want the miracle. They’ll write an e-mail to us that says, “Hey, do you think if I started this online business that I could replace my $4,000 income job in three months, and be able to quit?” No, you can’t. That’s a miracle. It takes time. It takes a lot of effort. It takes a lot of investment.

You’ve got to spend money and time to get a return on it later. Don’t expect miracles. Be ready to roll up your sleeves and stick with it until it works and that could be a year from now. That could be 18 months. It could be two years before you actually get to the point where you can start thinking about going out on your own, but you have to start if you’re going to be able to get it done – and you can’t expect miracles. You’ve got to be ready to do what it takes and make it happen instead of waiting for it to happen.

Number five. Our biggest tip is: Stop talking about it, and just do something. You have to take action. Jocelyn and I take action every single day, every minute we’re working, to make sure we’re always taking the next step and moving forward. If Jocelyn and I get to an impasse and we can’t decide on something – like, we don’t know what’s the right call – we’ll flip a coin and do one of them because then we at least learn if it’s wrong and we can go back and do the other one.

You have to stop thinking about it. You have to stop talking about it. You have to stop reading about it. You have to stop listening to podcasts about it. Sooner or later, you’ve got to move the mouse, click the button, buy the domain, and open the website. You’ve got to take action if you want to make your business successful. You have to keep moving forward.

Jeff: What are some personal qualities that have allowed you to achieve your success?

Shane: The biggest quality that Jocelyn would say that she has that would make us successful is that she is really, really good at systems and follow-through. You have to follow through; you can’t start things and not finish them. Jocelyn is amazing at creating systems – like plans on how to do repeat processes, getting automations set up, or hiring people and getting them working independently. Jocelyn is great at systems. That’s really helped us to be able to scale and grow our business, and also to step back and not work so many hours on our business. Jocelyn and I only work between 10 and 20 hours a week, most weeks, on our online business. That’s possible because Jocelyn is really good at creating those systems, automating things, and also getting our team to complete their tasks as well.

I think the biggest attribute that I bring to our business is a fearless and relentless attitude toward it. I don’t get stuck; I just keep moving forward. I keep the business moving forward. When one of our employees gets stuck on something, I sweep in and tell them what to do next and take action on it. I’m also really good at networking. That’s really helped us grow Flipped Lifestyle, expand our network, meet new people, get in the new markets, get on other people’s podcasts, get on different magazine articles, things like that. I provide a lot of that leadership, of just moving the business forward. Jocelyn kind of gets in the back end and she makes sure all the gears stay oiled and greased, and keep turning.

I think one of the biggest reasons we’ve been so successful is because we work so well together. We have opposite personalities, and we get out of each other’s way. We delegate to each other, and we don’t try to step on each other’s toes. Whatever someone’s responsible for in our business, it’s their job to handle it and we allow that freedom within our business. We don’t try to run everything.

By far, the reason we’ve scaled into such a tremendous income is because we’ve hired people and delegated tasks out. Anyone who won’t let go of tasks in their online business – or they falsely think, “I’m the only one that can do this.” – they’re wrong because everyone is replaceable. Actually Jocelyn and I, every week, try to replace ourselves as much as possible in our business. If we leave for Disneyland for a week, we should come back and everything should be just working perfectly because we have removed ourselves and we do trust our people. Hiring people is another big thing that we’ve done, and being able to let go of tasks and delegate has really helped our business be successful.

Jeff: What’s your number one productivity technique?

Jocelyn: The biggest thing that we do for productivity, is we calendar everything. Everything goes on the calendar, and we live and die by the calendar. We will even plan – we’ll block off three hours, play with the kids. Our calendar is completely full every hour. It’s just like a zero-point budget, like Dave Ramsey would say, “Budget every dollar before you spend it.” We budget every second before we spend that time, so that we know we’re taking care of our priorities. There are a lot of tricks, like Scrum and all these Post-it notes, and all these different things that people do to stay organized. Those are all fine and good, but here’s the bottom line: we all have 168 hours. If you want to be productive, spend those hours before you actually get to them. Plan everything on the calendar and stick to it, and you’ll be more productive.

Shane: Jocelyn’s big on the calendar. My biggest productivity tip? Mine is to try to focus on one thing at a time. Multitasking is a lie. I try to finish – get one thing, break it down into small parts, and do those parts as fast as I can before I lose interest. Just try to focus on one thing at a time until it’s done and then move on to the next thing. We meet people all the time, who come into Flipped Lifestyle’s membership community, and they have 10 websites and three businesses, and all this stuff. We’re like, “No, you start with one and you expand out from there.” That’s the best way to build it that we’ve found, so focus on one thing.

Jeff: What would you have done differently in growing your business, had you known what you know now?

Shane: The biggest thing that we would definitely go back and say that we should’ve done was hired people faster. We should’ve been less scared to invest our money. People are always scared to spend money, like, “I can’t afford that. I can’t afford that. I might lose this $100.” Guess what, if you’re going to start a business, you better be ready to lose some money because you’re probably going to eventually on something. We were always scared, “What if we hire people and we can’t teach them or we don’t know what to do?” So we didn’t hire people. We tried to do everything ourselves, and it was a big mistake; it held us back. Our business didn’t grow as fast as we wanted it to when we quit our jobs and it was because we were scared to open our hand and let go of a little money to hire people. I would say hire people as fast as you can afford it, and you can afford it a lot faster than you think.

This post originally appeared in Forbes. 

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Elks Lodge announces scholarship recipients

East Stroudsburg Elks Lodge honored two Elks National Foundation "Most Valuable Student" scholarship winners.Courtney Krechel, left, from Notre Dame High School was presented with $1,200. Krechel plans to attend Fairfield University to study nursing.Alexa Vaghenas from Stroudsburg received $4,000 — $1,000 for the next four years. Vaghenas will attend Yale to study global affairs.Lodge Scholarship Chair Randy Polinski made the presentation.

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10 Purchases You’ll Probably Regret

Sometimes it’s the thrill of a sale that lures us into buying something we don’t really need and can’t afford. Other times, it’s the urging of others to “keep up,” be like them, or fit in with the group.

Then there are those crazy, inexplicable moments where we wake up to realize we spent good money on a hulking pile of crap, an overpriced membership, or an unplanned splurge.

Whether it’s a shirt you never wear or a car you absolutely hate driving, we’ve all made purchases we aren’t particularly proud of.

10 Purchases People Almost Always Regret

Still, some “regret purchases” tend to leave us full of self-loathing far longer than others – simply because we should have known better or because they were so dang expensive to begin with.

Want to avoid a purchase you might live to regret? Several money bloggers and financial advisors weighed in to share the most common financial blunders they’ve heard to date.

Boats

If you gather enough boat owners in one place, you’re bound to hear horror stories of pricey repairs, depreciating values, and plain ol’ hassle. The truth is, boats are mostly giant money pits for the vast majority of people who own them. Worse, they are money pits that depreciate in value at lightning speed.

“There is an old joke that say the best two days of a boat owner’s life are the day he buys his boat – and the day he sells it,” says Ryan Guina of CashMoneyLife.com. “Boats tend to be very expensive to own and maintain, and many are purchased on a whim.”

Before you buy anything that has an engine and floats on water, make sure to assess the total costs of ownership – not just the price you’ll pay to pull your new boat off the lot. Consider the costs of financing, insuring, and maintaining your new floating ride, along with transportation costs like gas, cleaning fees, and winter storage fees. And remember you’re paying all that for something you might only use a couple of months per year.

If you’re determined to get out on the water, a better idea is to rent a boat several times per year instead, says Guina. You’ll spend a lot less money without all the commitment. And you’ll never have to sell your boat for a fraction of what you paid, either.

Anything ‘As Seen on TV’

We’ve all seen those late night commercials for cleaning supplies, Sham-Wow type cloths, real estate sales courses, and pressure cookers, but are any of those purchases really necessary?

Paul Moyer of SavingFreak.com says absolutely not. In fact, he says, only about 25% of them are worth anything close to the asking price. How does he know? He’s a self-proclaimed “sucker” for infomercials that promise the world and deliver little more than regret.

“The guy on TV selling them is awesome and the products seem like they will change your life, but in reality they are usually just another addition to the junk drawer,” says Moyer.

If you didn’t need it before you got lured into a 30-minute infomercial, you certainly don’t need it now. Moyer’s advice? “Turn the television off,” he says.

DVD Collections

Nearly everywhere you go, you’ll find bins of DVDs and movies you can purchase for $4 or $5 each. But, are these really a good bargain?

Jeff Rose of Good Financial Cents doesn’t think so. “I don’t know a single person who doesn’t have at least a few DVDs at home and, unless you have kids, you do not watch them” says Rose.

Plus, with movie-streaming and rental services like Netflix, iTunes, Amazon Prime Video, RedBox, and GameFly readily available, we no longer need to buy DVDs and store them like long lost artifacts.

Can we just stop with this? Please?!

If you find that bargain bin calling your name, says Rose, step away. “Even though a $4 movie night seem like a good deal, it rarely is,” he says.

Just One More Drink

If a beer or glass of wine with dinner is a good thing, five or six drinks is even better, right?

Actually, nope. Not at all. Those few extra drinks can lead to more than a hangover; they can lead to regret.

Unfortunately, let’s have “just one more drink” is a stance many of us take too often. While you might have more fun with a few more drinks under your belt, going overboard will inevitably lead to regret and wasted funds more often than not.

“When you’re eating out, alcohol is so expensive, but if you’re having a good time and having great conversation, it’s easy to just order another one for you and maybe even for your friends,” says Cat Alford.

If you’re not careful, says Cat, this can add another $50 or $100 to your bill, which can cause a really unpleasant end to your evening meal.

If you plan to drink at dinner, try to limit yourself to one or two. And if you’re still enjoying the conversation and ambiance afterward, take the party with you and drink at home. Your pocketbook will thank you.

Exercise Equipment

Do you hang your laundry on a perfectly good elliptical machine or treadmill? If so, you’re not alone. Year after year, people rush out to buy home exercise equipment so they can get back into shape and get rid of that spare tire. But over time, our enthusiasm for home fitness seems to wane. And if you don’t use your treadmill, it can even serve as a daily reminder of your expensive failure to stick with the program.

At that point, you can either sell it for a less or hang your clothes on it, which is what most people seem to do. Still, there are other alternatives to consider if you’re worried you won’t use that thigh-master calling your name.

“Instead of that impulse treadmill, get a one-month membership to the local gym – at least at first,” says Joseph Hogue of My Work from Home Money. “If you stick with it, then maybe you’re ready for a bigger at-home purchase.”

• Related: 5 Ways to Get Your Workout Without a Gym Membership

That Backyard Hot Tub

A hot tub for the backyard can seem like a great idea if you’ve got achy joints or simply love the idea of soaking with a cold drink in hand — but will you really use it enough to get your money’s worth?

“You may enjoy it the first few times,” says Jim Wang of Wallet Hacks. “But eventually, the cost of maintenance and the fact that you have to deal with chemicals along with the infrequency with which you use it all make a hot tub a near-instant regret.”

“I have a friend who bought one many years ago and the times he’s cursed it greatly outnumber the times he’s been in love with it,” notes Wang.

Vaccuums Sold by Door-to-Door Salesman

Vaccuums are notorious for dying well before their time – or, at the very least, clogging up and becoming almost unusable before they are officially “dead.” You can buy a more expensive model, sure, but even the Dysons of the world may not last more than a few years. So, what are you to do?

Caught at the wrong place at the wrong time, you may be enticed into a “home vacuum demonstration” by a friendly Kirby salesperson intent on selling you their latest model. But if you buy the pitch hook, line, and sinker, you may live to regret it!

Financial planner Peter Huminski of Thorium Wealth says he fell for the spiel twice – twice!

“I know this may sound funny, but I have owned two now, and they are the purchases I’ve regretted most in my life,” Huminski says. Long story short, Huminski paid $1,500 for his first super vacuum that was supposed to last a lifetime. When it didn’t, he got roped into paying several hundred dollars to get a new one shipped out. That one, he says, worked for another year then died.

Now he sticks to cheap vacuums, he says. Even if he has to replace them every few years, it’s a lot cheaper than forking over $1,500. “I will never buy another vacuum over $100 again,” he says.

• Related: Handling Door-to-Door Solicitors

Timeshares

While you might score a deal buying a discounted timeshare from a frustrated owner on the secondary market, these week-long vacation blocks aren’t always a good deal when you consider what you actually get for the full sticker price.

“People get excited by the hype of great vacations all over the world and only for a small amount of money,” says Ricky Lalvani of Richer Soul. But if you dig a little deeper, you might find that the numbers don’t really work out in your favor.

“The math on a $25,000 week is that it’s immediately worth about 80% less for most people,” says Lalvani, adding that timeshares are notoriously hard to sell. And after that, he says, you’ll still have the “ongoing and ever-increasing costs of maintenance, exchange company membership, exchange fees, and then special assessments,” he says.

“The better deal is to rent the week from someone else who just wants to recover a little bit of their massive loss.”

That’s right; you can easily rent a timeshare or vacation condo without actually owning one. And most of the time, you’ll end up much better off.

An Expensive New Car

Is there anything like that new car smell? The simple elegance of an odometer with only eight miles clocked so far? The feel of clean leather sets unspoiled by your kid’s grubby fingers, dog hair, or stray Doritos crumbs?

Buying a brand new car with all the bells and whistles offers a glimpse of the good life – a chance at a new beginning. But once the newness wears off and your car is an inch deep in Cheerios and opened mail, the only thing left to “savor” is that huge new car payment you signed up for.

We’ve run the numbers before and, like it or not, new cars are still depreciating assets that can suck your finances dry if you let them.

“I always recommend my clients purchase a one- to two-year-old certified vehicle if they are looking to purchase a new car,” says Joseph Carbone, Jr., founder of Focus Planning Group. “You’d be amazed at how much money you can save on a ‘practically’ new car.”

• Related: Two-Sided Coin: Should You Always Buy a Used Car?

Extended or ‘Extra’ Warranties

Whenever you make a big purchase — from used cars to appliances to that biggest buy of all, your home — you’ll likely be offered an extended warranty that will cover breakdowns or replacements of major components within a predetermined window of time.

But extended warranties are rarely a good deal for consumers, and there’s a reason companies try to push them at the point of sale. Their profits come from the purchase of your warranty — and the fact that they’ll do almost anything to avoid paying out if you do in fact need to use it.

An extended warranty on a car, for example, can add thousands of dollars to your total purchase, says financial planner Kenneth Feyers of Retirement Seeds. And if your warranty doesn’t cover the exact repairs you actually need… Welp! You’re out of luck.

The same can be said for home warranties, says Kate Dore of Cashville Skyline. “In most instances, these service contracts don’t cover as much as you would expect.”

At the end of the day, saving the extra cash in an emergency fund is almost always a smarter move.

How to Avoid Making a Purchase You’ll Grow to Regret

If you’re worried about overspending or constantly find your closets filled with stuff you don’t really want, it might be time to reassess your spending habits and ask yourself what is going on. Perhaps you love playing victim to every television ad you see. Or maybe you’re just a sale sucker who can’t say no to a “good deal.”

Whatever your spending weakness is, look for ways to talk yourself out of purchases made on the fly. Instituting a 24-hour wait period before you make a big purchase can be an extremely smart move, as can setting a fun-spending limit that you agree upon with your spouse.

On top of that, simply learning to tell yourself “no” can help a great deal. The excitement of buying stuff can be addictive, but with a lot of purchases, all you’re really left with in the end is the bill.

What purchases have you regretted in your life? What would you add to this list?

Related Articles:

• The Strategic Splurge: Saving for the Stuff You Really Want
• The Biggest Regrets and How to Avoid Them
• Control Yourself: 11 Ways to Stop a Splurge Purchase
• On Splurging and Regret

The post 10 Purchases You’ll Probably Regret appeared first on The Simple Dollar.

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15 Popular Brands With Lifetime Warranties: If It Breaks, They’ll Fix It

We’re always looking for ways to save money, and one surefire way to do that is to buy products that last.

You can also buy products from companies that will replace them if they break — no matter what the reason.

You may spend a bit more up front, but quality items — and ones with awesome lifetime warranties — can end up saving you money in the long run.

From backpacks to knives, here’s a list of 15 brands that offer lifetime warranties on useful products.

Companies With Lifetime Warranties

1. Polar Bottle

Image from Polar Bottle/Facebook

If you buy one of its water bottles and it breaks or is somehow faulty, Polar Bottle will replace it for you.

“Every bottle goes through several levels of quality control before it is shipped out and our products are designed to last for years,” according to the Colorado-based company’s website.

“That being said, we understand that things happen, so we offer a lifetime guarantee on all of our products.”

Polar Bottle also offers a free replacement if you lose or damage your water bottle cap.

2. Cutco

Image from Cutcokitchen.com

Knife-maker Cutco was founded in Olean, New York, in 1949. It offers a “forever guarantee” that extends to knives given as gifts or hand-me-downs.

“Cutco knives have been handed down from mothers to daughters, grandfathers to grandsons and between friends,” according to the company’s website.

“If at any time you are not satisfied with the performance of your Cutco product, we’ll make it right.”

3. Jansport

Image from Jansport/Facebook

Parents sending their kids off to school have long recognized backpack-maker Jansport for its top-notch warranty. This company, founded in 1967, guarantees nearly all of its backpacks, messenger bags, fanny packs and hiking bags.

“If your pack ever breaks down, simply return it to our warranty center,” Jansport says on its website. “We’ll fix it or if we can’t, we’ll replace it or refund it.”

4. Manduka

Image from Manduka/Facebook

This California-based company guarantees many of its yoga mats for life, even if the product wears out from regular use.

A Manduka PRO yoga mat will cost you $108, but the price tag may well be worth it if you practice regularly and your mat wears out.

5. Feetures!

Image from Feetures/Facebook

Feetures! is a family owned sock-maker in North Carolina. This company makes high-performance socks for runners and other athletes, and it’ll offer you a replacement pair or refund at any time.

“We stand behind the quality of our socks and want you to have a great experience with every product we make,” the company says on its website.

6. Eddie Bauer

Image from Eddie Bauer/Facebook

This outdoor gear and clothing maker stands behind its products so much that it offers an unconditional lifetime guarantee.

This warranty was implemented by founder Eddie Bauer in the company’s early days. After 50 years in business, Bauer said it was his greatest contribution to customers.

“Eddie’s philosophy guides us to this day. Every product we sell is designed to be the best and built to last. If anything you buy falls short of those standards, you’re invited to return it at any time,” states the company’s website.

7. Craftsman

Image from Craftsman.com

Talk to someone who uses tools on a regular basis and you’ve probably heard about Craftsman’s warranty.

Many of the company’s tools, including wrenches, hand tools, gardening and pruning tools, are eligible for replacement, free of charge, over the lifetime of the product.

You’ll need to present proof of purchase when asking for a replacement item, according to Craftsman’s website.

8. Osprey

Image from Osprey/Facebook

Osprey’s “All Mighty Guarantee” ensures that if you buy one of the company’s bags or backpacks, it’s guaranteed for life.

The company’s motto: Any reason, any product, any era.

“Osprey will repair any damage or defect for any reason free of charge — whether it was purchased in 1974 or yesterday,” Osprey’s website says.

“If we are unable to perform a functional repair on your pack, we will happily replace it.”

9. Lands’ End

Image from Lands’ End/Facebook

Lands’ End offers a “Guaranteed. Period.” warranty on its products, which include clothing for men, women and kids.

“If you’re not satisfied with any item‚ simply return it to us at any time for an exchange or refund of its purchase price,” Lands’ End promises on its site.

10. Vermont Teddy Bear

Image from Vermont Teddy Bear/Facebook

If you buy a stuffed bear from Vermont Teddy Bear, it’s backed by the company’s lifetime guarantee.

The company has some fun with it too, and encourages you to send your bear to its “Bear Hospital.”

“Every once in awhile, a tragedy will strike — a dog attack, a chance meeting with a lawn mower,” the company says. “We are talkin’ FREE, full coverage health care for your bear’s entire lifetime.”

11. Duluth Trading Company

Image from Duluth Trading Company Blog

Duluth Trading Company, which makes clothing, outerwear, footwear and other items, offers a “No Bull” lifetime warranty on all of its products.

“If you’re not 100% satisfied with any item you purchase from Duluth Trading, return it to us at any time for a refund of its purchase price. Simple, unconditional, no nonsense, NO BULL,” the company says.

12. Davek

Image from Davek/Facebook

Invest in a sturdy Davek umbrella (prices range from $89 to $350) and it’s backed by the company’s unconditional lifetime guarantee.

Owners must register their umbrellas to be eligible for the lifetime warranty.

13. Zippo

Image from Miguel F – Zippo/Facebook

Zippo makes lighters, handwarmers and knives. Their warranty motto: “It works or we fix it free.”

“We don’t make that promise lightly,” Zippo says.

“We know that behind every Zippo product sent for repair is an owner depending on our promise to get it back in working order. Whether a windproof lighter is five years, 25 years or 50 years old, it will serve as a dependable source of flame for years to come. We guarantee it.”

14. Leupold

Image from Leopold Optics/Facebook

Leupold is based in Beaverton, Oregon, and makes binoculars, scopes and rangefinders used by golfers, hunters, security personnel and police.

The company will replace its products — whether you’re the original owner or not — forever.

“You don’t need proof of ownership. Or a warranty card. And there’s no time limit,” the company says.

“We do this because we believe in superior quality and craftsmanship, and we’re confident your Leupold won’t let you down.”

15. Red Oxx

Image from Red Oxx/Facebook

Red Oxx travel bags are covered by the company’s “No Bull” lifetime warranty, which means it will repair or replace its products, no questions asked.

This unconditional lifetime warranty is completely transferrable and applies to any product made by Red Oxx at any time in history. The warranty also extends to bags you buy used.

How to Save When You Buy These Brands

While these companies offer stellar lifetime warranties, the upfront costs can be a bit steep. Here are a few ways to save money on their products.

Sign Up for Email Lists or Take Surveys

Right now, Polar Bottle is offering a 30% discount if you’ve purchased one of its water bottles before and you take a survey.

Zippo will send you exclusive offers and sale information if you sign up for its email list.

Watch for Regular Sales

Eddie Bauer holds a semi-annual sale offering up to 60% off many products.

Look for Free Shipping Offers

You’ll get free shipping on orders over $100 when you buy a lifetime-guaranteed Davek umbrella.

Eddie Bauer also offers free shipping on orders over $99.

Get Credit Card Rewards or Cash Back

Even if a company isn’t offering any deals, you can make money by purchasing its items with a cash-back credit card.

Also, check a site like Cashback Monitor to see whether you can earn cash back on your purchase.

Use Coupon Codes

Tons of browser extensions will do the work for you — they’ll find any and all coupon codes available for whatever store you’re shopping at.

Buy Used

Some of these brands, like Red Oxx and Cutco, don’t care if you’re the original owner of their products — they’ll guarantee them anyway.

Be sure to read the fine print to learn a company’s warranty policy on used items before purchasing.

Your Turn: Do you buy from brands that offer lifetime warranties? Did we miss one of your favorites?

Sarah Kuta is an education reporter in Boulder, Colorado, with a penchant for weekend thrifting, furniture refurbishment and good deals. Find her on Twitter: @sarahkuta.

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