These 3 Numbers in Google Analytics Will Help You Make Better Content

Google Analytics (GA) is a digital marketer’s best friend. I use it all the time to check metrics, spot trends, and see what type of content my audience appreciates the most.

Of course, there are other tools you could use to analyze your metrics, but they’re not as valuable as GA for two reasons.

First, Google Analytics is free. The price can’t be beat.

Second, Google Analytics is a tool designed by the company that also gave us the most popular search engine in the world. That means it can (and does) provide you with information about the browsing and search history of the people who visit your site.

Beyond that, Google Analytics offers a wealth of information you can use to improve your reach. GA makes it easy to check conversion rates, view your visitors’ demographics, discover the way people follow the links within your site, and analyze your e-commerce funnel.

Basically, Google Analytics is awesome.

Obviously, I use several tools to track my data and analyze it. But I strongly recommend Google Analytics.

If you’re a digital marketer, you need to know a thing or two about Google Analytics.

That’s why I wrote this article.

I want to give you three simple, straightforward, and actionable tips that will allow you to create better content.

Here’s the thing about analytics: all those numbers and metrics serve a purpose. They tell a story. They give you instructions.

They tell you how to become a better marketer.

The purpose of analytics is to show you what’s going on with your marketing and what needs to change.

Marketing isn’t a guessing game. You shouldn’t have to wonder: Is this working? You should know. And you should know because of data.

So, do you want to know what’s working and what’s not working with your content marketing?

The three numbers I’m about to show you do just that. They give you an accurate read of user behavior and tell you what you should do next.

1. Average time on page

It’s this simple: if you’ve got great content, people will read it.

And reading takes time.

Speed readers can buzz through an article like this in about two minutes.

That’s insanely fast.

For most—mere mortals—this article will take 10-15 minutes to read.

If you want to find out how fast you read, take a test at myReadSpeed.com.

Google Analytics gives you some insight into how your audience is reading. No, it’s not going to test their reading speed.

However, it is going to give you information regarding their time and behavior on the page.

This information comes from Average Time on Page in GA. It provides an insight into your audience’s interest level, reading speed, and overall engagement with a page.

As the name implies, it tells you how long the average user hangs around on a specific page.

If you’re producing content that’s 2,000 words in length and you find that people are leaving after just 30 seconds, then either you’ve got an audience consisting entirely of people who’ve participated in the Evelyn Woods Reading Dynamics course or they’re just not taking the time to read all your content.

Spoiler alert: it’s probably the latter.

It’s time to look at the Average Time on Page metric.

You can find it on the Behavior Overview report of GA.

• Click on Behavior in the left-hand sidebar.
• Select Overview from the menu that appears below.

You’ll see the metric among the stats that appear below the graph:

Unfortunately, though, that number gives you an across-the-board average of all your pages. You need a report that shows you how much time your visitors are spending on individual pages.

You can create a custom report to show you that information.

There’s an easier option, though. Just import Avinash Kaushik’s Content Efficiency Analysis Report.

It will show how much time your visitors are spending on each page.

You can use this report to determine which type of content is “sticky”—that is, which blog posts tend to keep people hanging around the longest.

Once you know that, you can produce more of that type of content.

Here is the big idea behind the Average Time on Page metric.

Knowing how long users spend on a given page tells you how interested they are in the page.

Remember, it’s just an average. A reader who spends 20 minutes on the page will be balanced out by the reader who spends only two seconds on the page.

Taken as an average, however, time on page shows you how interesting and engaging your content is.

If your average time on page is really low, it may suggest that your content isn’t all that great.

Find the pages or articles that have the longest average time on page, determine what’s different about those pages, and use these principles when you create more content.

2. Referrals

One of the best ways to tell whether your content is resonating with people is to see whether other webmasters are linking to it from their sites.

That’s why you need to pay attention to the Referrals metric.

To view referrals:

• Click on Acquisition on the left-hand sidebar of Google Analytics.
• Select All Traffic.
• Click Channels.

In the table that appears on the main screen, you’ll see that the first column is labeled “Default Channel Grouping.” It lists the various channels that include Social, Direct, Organic Search, and Referral.

It’s that Referral metric that’s important here. Click on that link to view your referrals.

The table that appears shows you exactly where your inbound traffic is coming from. That’s great information to have, but it’s still not a complete story.

Why? Because it’s an aggregate number. In other words, it shows you how much all of your traffic comes from specific sites and doesn’t show which specific pages they’re linking to.

Fortunately, you can fix that by adding a new column to the table.

As I said, I love Google Analytics.

At the top of the table, you’ll see a dropdown menu labeled “Secondary Dimension.” Click on that:

On the menu that appears, click on “Behavior.” Then, select “Destination Page” from the list of options that appear:

Boom. Now you have a referral report that not only shows which sites are linking to your site but also which specific pages they’re linking to.

Even better: the default sorting is by the number of sessions in descending order. So you can immediately see which type of content gets the most backlinks.

What do you do with that information?

Easy: create more content like the articles that have the most referrals. If your content is good, people link to it. It’s that simple.

Ultra-linkable content is good content. The more links you’re earning, the better you’re doing.

3. Interests

Marketing is all about reaching people.

This is especially true with content marketing.

If you want to connect effectively with your visitors, you have to communicate with them on their level. That’s why it’s a great idea to find out what their interests are.

Fortunately, Google Analytics has a report for that.

• Click on “Audience” on the left-hand sidebar of GA.
• Select “Interests” from the dropdown menu that appears below.
• Click on “Overview.”

Now, you’re looking at a few bar graphs that show you the interests of your audience. The graph below is from a tech website.

The first graph shows the “Affinity Category.” That tells you about the general hobbies and interests of people who’ve been visiting your site. Here’s how Google defines Affinity Categories:

Affinity Categories identifies users in terms of lifestyle; for example, Technophiles, Sports Fans, and Cooking Enthusiasts. These categories are defined to be similar to TV audiences.

The “In-Market Segment” graph shows you what your visitors are interested in purchasing. Here’s a definition of an in-market audience from Search Engine Watch:

An In-Market Audience is composed of folks who are actively searching and comparing your product/service. Individuals in this audience have indicated that they are actively in-market for a specific category such as “Autos & Vehicles” or “Real Estate” or “Travel” or any of the other audiences currently available from Google.

The “Other” graph gives you broad categories of your visitors’ interests. Google explains it this way:

Other Categories provides the most specific, focused view of your users. For example, while Affinity Categories includes the category Foodies, Other Categories includes the category Recipes/Cuisines/East Asian.

How does any of that help you produce better content? It gives you the ability to tailor-fit your blog posts to your readers’ interests while simultaneously boosting your brand.

For example, let’s say you run a men’s fashion e-commerce site. This week, you’re at a loss about what type of article you should write for your blog.

So, you fire up Google Analytics and view the interests of your visitors.

And then you have an “Aha!” moment.

You see on the “In-Market Segment” graph that 10% of your visitors are interested in “Employment.” They’re looking for a job.

You close GA, log in to your WordPress CMS, and type up an article titled “Here’s How to Dress for Success at Your Next Job Interview.”

Boom. The article gets shared more than most others on your site; it gets backlinks from various “life hacker” sites; and you even receive an honorable mention in GQ.

That wouldn’t have happened had you not checked the interests of your visitors.

You can dive deeper into each of these interest categories. For example, click “In-Market Segments” in the sidebar menu underneath “Interests.”

This will display a breakdown of the traffic trends associated with the in-market segment.

You can see how each category of visitor is interacting with the site—their sessions, bounce rate, session duration, and goal completion (if you have Goals activated).

What’s next?

The impact of your content marketing efforts shouldn’t be a mystery.

Check Google Analytics regularly to see which types of articles your visitors appreciate the most. Then, produce that type of content on a regular basis.

You can replicate this model for any and every number in Google Analytics.

Simply ask yourself these questions:

• What does this number/metric say about my audience?
• How should my content change as a result?

Bounce rate, session duration, percentage of new sessions, number of returning visitors, service providers, operating system, screen resolution, browser, language settings, mobile traffic, acquisition date, user retention, pages per session—all of this information has to do with your users, your readers, your audience.

All you have to do is understand what the numbers mean and then make relevant changes to your website.

Conclusion

Now, hold on a second.

I just told you to “make relevant changes to your website,” but I need to offer a final disclaimer. That’s what this conclusion is for.

It’s tempting to go crazy and start changing your website left and right. “Ooh! A number! Change the strategy! Revamp the content! Switch up the headline!”

Let me caution you against doing that. Why? Because if you start changing everything, you’ll defeat the entire purpose of analytics, which is to understand exactly what’s working and what’s not.

To truly understand what’s effective, what’s not so effective, and how to make the right kind of changes, you need to do one more thing.

Split testing.

This article isn’t the place to explain split testing—I’ve explained some of those principles elsewhere.

Instead, this is the place to encourage you not to change things willy-nilly but to make strategic changes in a split-testing environment.

The advantage of A/B-testing individual changes is this: Your analytics—all those numbers I talked about up there—will become far more reliable, effective, and actionable.

Google Analytics paired with accurate split testing is a surefire way to make better content.

The better you get at reading and acting upon your analytics, the better content you’ll create.

What are some of your go-to numbers in Google Analytics for improving your content marketing strategy?

Source Quick Sprout http://ift.tt/29KkdYj

Tires and more found in Delaware River clean-up

The National Park Service Tuesday hosted the On and Under the Delaware River Clean-up for 2016. The annual event, sponsored by the Milford-based Kittatinny Canoes, involves volunteers and NPS employees paddling sections of the river in canoes while picking up trash from the shorelines, islands and the river bottom along the way. Breakfast, dinner, canoes, gear and transportation were provided by Kittatinny Canoes. The Pa. Environmental Council provided trash removal and recycling services. [...]

Source Business - poconorecord.com http://ift.tt/29Tze8E

Nordstrom is Hiring a Work-From-Home Rep — and Yes, You’d Get a Discount!

You know when you’re on an online shopping spree and get carried away?

Maybe you put in the wrong mailing address, ordered double or simply ordered too much. Then you get on the phone and talk to a *hopefully* nice human who helps you sort everything out again.

Well, you could be that nice human. Nordstrom Rack and HauteLook are looking for a full-time member care representative.

The catch? Well, there is none — except that you get to work from home!

What You’ll Do as a Customer Care Representative

The sites, which are part of the same company, offer designer fashions at more affordable prices. Like any ecommerce site, they need representatives to interact with customers.

From the comfort of your home and while wearing in a pair of silky pajamas — if that’s your thing — you’ll handle a high volume of customer calls.

You’ll be expected to answer questions about online accounts, order statuses, return statuses, product information, policies and site navigation. You’ll log all calls and communicate with various levels of leadership.

Thinking About Applying?

You’ll need a number of qualifications, so hold tight. You might be qualified if you…

• have effective written and verbal communication skills.

• possess a basic level of mathematical skills.

• can work under pressure with a sense of urgency while multi-tasking.

• have “thick skin” and can manage customer complaints.

• know all about Microsoft Office, various internet browsers and cookies.

• are able to type 35 words per minute. 

You must be able to attend a 10-day training in the Los Angeles office, for which you’ll be reimbursed. Then, you’ll head off to your quiet remote space and work 40-hour weeks.

If this sounds like a job you want, apply online on Nordstrom’s careers page. Follow the instructions to create an account and submit your application.

The Benefits Package

Not only will you be able to work from home, the benefits package isn’t too shabby either.

You’ll get your typical medical, vision and dental coverage and an employer-matched 401(k) plan. They’ll also cover any commuting costs.

The best part, in my opinion? You’ll get discounts across all Nordstrom brands — which you can use for a new pair of work pajamas.

Your Turn: Will you apply for this job?

Carson Kohler (@CarsonKohler) is a junior writer at The Penny Hoarder. After recently completing graduate school, she focuses on saving money — and surviving the move back in with her parents.

The post Nordstrom is Hiring a Work-From-Home Rep — and Yes, You’d Get a Discount! appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.

source The Penny Hoarder http://ift.tt/29WuJvj

Longest ever interest-free balance transfer card launches: but is it worth it?

Tom Wilson

virgin-money-logo-red_tcm23-26068.jpg

Virgin Money has today launched the longest ever balance-transfer credit card at 41-months 0% interest.

Virgin Money has today launched the longest ever balance-transfer credit card at 41-months 0% interest.

The longest balance transfer deal prior to today was 0% for 40-months, which is still available from, Halifax, MBNA, Sainsbury’s Bank and Tesco Bank.

read more

Source Moneywise http://ift.tt/29RtpM3

Never Pay for a Gym Membership Again: How to Build a Home Gym for $100

If you’re a fitness buff, you probably know it can be an expensive hobby.

Plain old gym memberships are just the start. You might also hemorrhage cash on stupid-expensive workout clothes or fancy dietary supplements.

And if you get sucked into the boutique fitness vortex (been there!), heaven help you. Some of those classes cost more than $20… for a single hour.

Even if it would be a stretch to call fitness your “hobby,” per se, you shouldn’t have to weaken your wallet to stay physically strong.

TPH editor and fitness blogger Caitlin Constantine is no stranger to workout-related expenses. As a triathlete, a huge chunk of her disposable cash goes toward racing fees and nutrition.

But she knows staying in shape can lengthen and improve lives in every way from preventing injury to counterbalancing mental health issues, so she’s passionate about deconstructing the myth that fitness has to be complicated and expensive.

“It’s our birthright as human beings to be able to use our bodies and make the most of them,” she says.

So she was thrilled to share the details on the home gym she built to help her cross-train cheaply and conveniently — all for less than $100.

A Fitness Transformation

About eight years ago, Constantine started working out when she met the marathon runner who would later become her husband. She wanted to get healthier and build the mental strength that comes with a physically strong body.

It was all about the journey, and it was a long one.

She hadn’t been athletic growing up. In fact, when she started getting into fitness in her late 20s, she was a smoker who was winded after running just one block.

“It was super hard,” she says. “It took like three years before I started to finally feel like, I can do this without dying.”

But soon enough, running captured her heart — and catapulted her into a health-driven lifestyle.

Robert-Daly1/Getty Images

Because she knew it was the only way to become a better runner, she was finally able to quit smoking.

“It was… a very visceral immediate thing: ‘be good at running,’” says Constantine, “as opposed to the far-off risk of developing lung cancer or whatever.”

Today, she’s training for her first Ironman. She’s also competed (and placed!) in a ton of other races, including a 50-mile ultramarathon in the Florida Keys.

I think it’s safe to say she’s got a new addiction.

But those race fees add up, to say nothing of all the time and energy she spends on her extensive training. Why add in extra hours slogging back and forth to a gym?

How to Build a Home Gym for Less Than a Benjamin

To ditch the expense of her fitness membership, Constantine built a home gym for under $100.

If that still seems pricy to you, keep in mind: You might spend that for just five Pure Barre classes or a few months of a gym membership. That doesn’t count activation fees or the gas you’ll spend getting there and back.

Once you stock your home gym, it’s yours to keep — no membership renewal necessary.

Here’s what’s in Constantine’s workout room, and how she uses it.

Resistance Bands

herreid / Getty Images

Cost: $10+

Exercises: Clamshells, leg lifts, almost any bodyweight exercise

You can amp up nearly every classic exercise you can think of by adding extra resistance.

The cheapest way to do that? Resistance bands.

Constantine found hers at a sports store for $12, but you can find them online starting as low as $10. They usually come in a set of three different tensile strengths, so you can customize your workout.

Constantine notes they’re a great addition to any runner’s fitness regime.

“As a runner, I’m constantly trying to strengthen my hips,” she says. Doing resistance-assisted clamshells and leg lifts helps her accomplish that goal, and also helps with her running-related knee issues.

Balance Ball

BraunS1 / Getty Images

Cost: $10-$30

Exercises: Jackknife, plank (not actually just for men, despite the video!), bridge, back extension

Ah, the stability ball. Turns out it’s good for more than just replacing your office chair and making your colleagues feel lazy!

“I like the exercise ball because it’s good for doing a lot of core work,” says Constantine.

And as awesome as the stability ball is for core work, you’ll find you can use it for everything from glutes to arms. Tons of full-body workouts require nothing but a properly sized stability ball.

Plus, they’re dirt cheap — starting at $10 and going up to about $30, depending on the size and brand.

Dumbbells

billnoll / Getty Images

Cost: About $20 apiece, depending on weight

Exercises: Bicep curls, shoulder press, overhead triceps extension, all sorts of rows, flyes, deadlifts, the works!

Full disclosure: This is the most expensive item on the list. Dumbbells can go for $30 or more each — and yes, that means a single dumbbell, not a set of two.

That said, dumbbells are awesome. They’re one of the most versatile and long-lived pieces of equipment you can add to your home gym.

Constantine sprung for two pairs — a 10- and 20-pound set, which she uses for everything from chest press lying on her stability ball to deadlifts.

Hers cost about $20 each, but the lighter ones are slightly cheaper if you’re not on Constantine’s super-strong level quite yet.

If you’re just starting out and aren’t sure where you stand — or squat, as the case may be — you might consider snapping up a set of several dumbbells, or an adjustable version. That way, you’ll have a few options to choose from, and you can scale in either direction if things prove to be to heavy (or too light!).

You can also find them (and anything else on the list!) pre-owned on Craigslist to cut your costs even further.

This even goes for bigger pieces of equipment if you have a special interest in weight training.

Constantine says you can find many online from hopefuls who purchased, and then never used, their weight racks. (“They ended up becoming an expensive clothes hanger” instead, she says.)

Odds and Ends

Although you can craft an effective workout with any or all of the equipment listed above, Constantine has a few more odds and ends either already or soon-to-be installed in her home gym.

Since she practices yoga (psst — here are some great free yoga videos on YouTube!) to round out her intense training, she’s got a yoga mat. You can get one as cheap as $26 or get fancy — Manduka mats are pretty expensive, but they do offer a lifetime warranty!

PeopleImages / Getty Images

And her next purchase? A doorway chin-up bar, as long as she can find a good place in her home to install it. They cost between $20 and $40, and work way more body parts than just your arms: core, back, shoulders, you name it.

Staying Fit Might Be Hard, But It Doesn’t Have to Be Complicated

Since Constantine’s a capital-A Athlete, she supplements her in-home fitness pursuits with a strenuous training program involving long runs, swims and bike rides.

(“How long is long?” I asked. “Well, the long run I did on Saturday was like 12 miles,” she responded. So, yeah.)

But you don’t have to be in a competitive sport to be fit and healthy — or to reap the life-changing benefits of a commitment to fitness.

“All the triathlon stuff that I do, that’s way extra,” Constantine says. She considers it her hobby.

“If I was just trying to be healthy, I would just do some planks, do some push-ups, maybe walk for an hour around my neighborhood each night.”

“I feel like there’s this tendency to make fitness seem more complicated than it actually needs to be,” she says — partially because fitness is a huge and profitable industry.

But you don’t have to pay a coach or buy a gym membership to be healthy.

No matter what, just do something that’s not sitting for at least an hour every day. It doesn’t have to be intense or unpleasant — in fact, it should be fun!

“There’s no one specific way to get fit,” Constantine says. “Mostly the body just wants to move.”

So pick an activity — any activity — you enjoy and get moving. Yes, dancing around in your underwear or playfully chasing your toddler around the backyard both count.

Ideally, you’ll get your heart rate up, do some weight-bearing exercises to keep your muscles strong, and stretch enough to maintain your flexibility. But it doesn’t have to be complex.

Constantine’s favorite full-body workout? The humble push-up.

BraunS / Getty Images

“The push-up is the most amazing workout,” she says. “You do a push-up, you do it with good form, your entire body is going to be feeling it.”

It’s not about losing weight or fitting into your favorite clothes; those are just the icing on the cake. (Yes, you can, and should, still eat cake.)

It’s about how good it feels to live your life in a strong, capable, not-sick body.

“Your body is the only thing that you really get that you’re guaranteed to have for your entire life,” says Constantine. “Everything else can be taken away from you.”

So you should do what you can to take care of it — especially if it doesn’t have to cost very much.

Your Turn: How do you stay fit on the cheap? What are your favorite at-home exercises?

Disclosure: You wouldn’t believe how much coffee The Penny Hoarder team goes through. This post contains affiliate links so we can keep the grinds stocked!

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 Never Pay for a Gym Membership Again: How to Build a Home Gym for $100 appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.

source The Penny Hoarder http://ift.tt/2adGYVn

House prices up in May, says Land Registry

Hannah Nemeth

house-prices.jpg

House prices went up by 8.1% annually in May, taking the average UK property value to £211,230, according to the latest research.

House prices went up by 8.1% annually in May, taking the average UK property value to £211,230, according to the latest research.

Prices went up by 1.1% over the month in the UK as a whole, which means house buyers paid £2,400 more in May than they would have done in April.

read more

Source Moneywise http://ift.tt/2a688Lt

Big Changes versus Little Changes: Which Has More Impact on Your Finances and Your Life?

Most people who share personal finance advice tend to agree on a lot of the core principles. Spend less than you earn. Save for the future. Shop around. Learn before you invest. Those things are just good ideas, and if everyone did them, there would be a lot less personal finance struggle in the world.

Even with all of the agreement on the big principles, though, you’re bound to find a lot of disagreement when you start digging down into the specifics. Different people have different ideas when it comes to financial risk, when it comes to goal setting, when it comes to who you should get advice from, and so on.

One consistent area of dispute is the “little versus big” dichotomy. Is it better to make a handful of little changes in your life or is it better to make just one or two big changes? It’s something that you’ll find endless disagreement on if you read lots of personal finance books and articles and blogs.

The argument for big changes is clear: If a big change can make a tremendous financial difference in your life, it requires only a few changes to completely transform your life. For example, moving to a new place or altering your daily modes of transportation can produce a significant financial change all by itself.

On the other hand, the argument for little changes is that little changes are far easier to implement, the opportunities for them are all over the place, and that the savings are surprisingly big due to repetition. For example, a little change like replacing a light bulb with a more energy efficient one might seem small, but you can repeat it across all of the light bulbs in your home and you also gain benefit from it every single time you flip on the lights in your home after that.

So, which is better? Should you worry most about the big stuff? Or should you look for financial rescue in the little things first?

Let’s take a look at some specific examples of big changes and little changes that people might take on during their financial journey.

Five Big Changes

These five big changes are examples of single changes that can save hundreds or even thousands of dollars per year. They generally only require one life change of some kind to net those savings.

Getting a Roommate

Let’s say you live in a one-bedroom apartment. The cost of rent and utilities is bearing down on you, so in an effort to cut costs, you’re considering moving to a two-bedroom apartment and adding a roommate to split the costs.

According to Apartment Guide, the cost of a two-bedroom apartment varies from 12% to 34% more than a one-bedroom, depending on your specific locale. So, let’s say the price is 25% higher for all of the things that might be included – electricity, rent, parking, water, sewer, garbage, and so on.

If you’re looking at a 25% increase, that means that the cost of the larger apartment would be 125% of your current cost. If you have a roommate to split that, that means you’d only be paying 62.5% of your current monthly cost for rent and the other included bills. Not bad, huh?

What does that look like in dollars and cents? Let’s say you live in an area where a typical one-bedroom apartment rents for $1,000. That would mean, on average, that a two-bedroom apartment would go for $1,250, and that when you split the cost with someone else, your half would be $625, saving you $375 per month. That adds up to north of $4,000 a year – pretty sweet.

What’s the drawback? Well, the obvious drawback is having a roommate, which comes with some lifestyle changes, and you’ll usually have to move to a new location, which means a number of life changes such as a change in commute.

Eliminating a Car

The choice to switch from owning a car to relying on mass transit and occasional use of services like Uber or rental cars to get around and to travel is a shift that many who live in cities consider.

No matter how you slice it, a car is expensive. Once you get past the payments themselves, you still have the registration costs, the insurance, the parking costs, fuel, maintenance, the cost of traffic tickets… it seems endless at times. The AAA estimates that the average annual cost to own and operate an automobile is $8,698. Ouch.

What if you ditch that car entirely, though? Most cities have a mass transit system that offers monthly passes that range widely depending how far you are from the city center, though most monthly passes come in around the $80 to $100 mark. If you’re able to take care of all of your travel needs via the mass transit system, you’re dropping your annual cost from $8,700 to about $1,000, which is a huge savings.

Naturally, there will be situations where additional transportation services are needed, such as car rentals and Uber or taxi use, which will add to that somewhat. But in most cases the cost is still a huge savings – thousands of dollars annually – in favor of dropping the car.

• Related: Commuting by Car, Uber, Train, Bike, or on Foot: Which Saves the Most Time and Money?

Cutting the Cord

The average American cable bill is $99 per month. It’s a bill that many people would be happy to do without, and for many customers, dropping the cable bill is something that’s quite doable.

If you drop your cable bill in favor of using over-the-air television signals (which are free) and a single streaming service (like Netflix, which is $9 a month or $108 a year), you’re going to be saving more than $1,000 a year by making that switch.

Of course, making that switch usually requires fairly speedy home internet, but if you already have that in place, there’s no additional cost beyond the Netflix membership in the above scenario.

Even if you decide that you want multiple streaming services – say, HBO Now and Hulu Plus in addition to Netflix – you’re still paying around $30 a month rather than $100 a month, which adds up to an annual savings of around $800.

• Related: How to Cut the Cable (or Satellite) Cord and Save a Lot of Money Each Month

Dropping Gym Membership

The average gym membership costs somewhere between $40 and $60 per month, depending on the source. Let’s say it’s $50 per month on average, just for ease of calculations. Cutting out your $50 a month gym membership results in $600 in annual savings.

Now, cutting out your gym membership doesn’t mean eliminating exercise from your life. You’ll have to come up with your own exercise routines at home. There may be equipment costs, depending on what you decide to do.

A best-case scenario, for example, involves someone who does running, short exercise routines, and exercise videos that can be checked out from the library, which maintains that zero cost. That’s a $600 annual savings.

On the other hand, a person may be into weightlifting and buying the appropriate weights and equipment might cost well above $1,000 (along with the space needed to do this at home), but after that initial cost, there’s still a $600 annual savings.

(Regardless of which avenue you choose, it’s worth noting that regular exercise has a great positive impact on long-term health costs.)

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

Downsizing a Home

One change that can save an incredible amount of money annually is downsizing your home if you’re a homeowner. Rather than living in a home that has excess space, a person might consider moving to a smaller home.

Doing so comes with a ton of financial advantages. The smaller home comes with lower utilities, (usually) lower property taxes, lower maintenance costs, (usually) lower insurance costs, (usually) lower association fees, and so on and so forth.

The exact dollar amount of the savings varies widely here, but it’s largely a given that a significant downsizing will save you thousands of dollars a year while freeing up some of that home equity you built in your larger home.

Of course, there are costs associated with moving and with closing the purchase of a new home and the sale of your current home, and there may be costs involved with your new location (such as costs associated with change in commute). Still, downsizing one’s home can easily generate thousands in annual savings with a single move.

• Related: The Challenge of Moving to a Smaller Home

Five Small Changes

As you can see, single big moves can generate large savings all at once, but what about little moves? How can a little change possibly stack up?

Buying LED Bulbs for Your Home

If you’re in the situation that many American families find themselves in, you’re in the process of slowly migrating away from incandescent bulbs to other forms of lighting in your home. LED bulbs are probably the most cost-effective over the long term, as they sport a very long lifespan and a much reduced energy use; however, they have a much higher up-front cost.

Holly Johnson wrote a great article on incandescent bulbs versus CFLs versus LEDs last year for The Simple Dollar, and she concluded that over a 23-year lifespan, using LED bulbs in a single socket in your home would cost $38, while an incandescent bulb would cost $201. That’s a savings of $163, but it’s spread out over 23 years, meaning that your average annual savings is $7.09.

$7.09 doesn’t seem like much, but it’s a starting point. You can multiply that amount times the number of light sockets in your home. In our home, for instance, I can quickly count 35 sockets and I’m sure I’m missing some, which brings the annual savings to $248.15.

In other words, replacing one LED bulb is a pretty small impact change, but replacing all of them throughout your home adds up to a pretty big change.

Cutting One Restaurant Meal Per Week

The national average for a meal eaten at a restaurant is $32.60, according to the most recent data I could find, whereas a meal eaten at home costs around $4. In other words, simply eating one more meal at home instead of eating out in a given week is going to save you $28.60 per week.

Now, it’s worth noting that many people would not move the average meal from a restaurant to their home. Instead, they’re much more likely to replace one of their less expensive meals, such as a fast food meal. My rough estimate of the savings from such a shift would be around $8 per meal.

Still, even if you go with the savings of $8 per week, over the course of a year, that change adds up to $416. That’s a pretty significant savings over the long haul.

The biggest disadvantage here is obviously the effort of prepping a meal at home, but even that can be mitigated by intentionally choosing a very simple easy-to-prep meal for your “replacement” meal, like a simple pasta meal that can go from idea to table in 15 minutes (much less than the typical wait at a restaurant).

• Related: 26 Favorite Dirt-Cheap (and Easy-to-Make) Meals

Buying Five Store-Brand Items Per Week Instead of Name Brands

Most of the items I purchase at the store are store-branded items, sold at a significantly lower price than the equivalent name brand. I rarely deal with coupons or any other “tricks” for saving money; I just go for the store brand instead of the name brand.

That simple choice saves me about $1 per purchase, on average. So, if I simply choose to buy five store-brand items – hand soap, garbage bags, laundry soap, canned beans, etc. – instead of name-brand versions of the same item in a shopping trip, then I’ll save $5, right?

What happens over time is that you eventually realize that most of the store-brand items are perfectly fine and that change to the store-brand version becomes permanent, which means that your grocery bill permanently drops by a few dollars thereafter.

However, we’re going to assume that you’re just buying five store-brand items a week instead of the name-brand items. If you do that each week, that adds up to a savings of $260 per year, just from buying store-brand salad dressing or other such items.

• Related: 30 Store-Brand and Generic Items I Use… and Five I Don’t

Giving Up Soda

The average American consumes 44 gallons of soda per year. That’s a lot of soda. Simply replacing that with water would not only have some great health outcomes, it’d directly save a lot of money as well.

You can often find a 12-pack of 12-ounce cans of soda for $2.50 – that’s 144 ounces. There are 128 fluid ounces per gallon, so for $2.50, you can buy 1.125 gallons of soda. You’d have to buy 39 12-packs of soda to reach the average annual consumption of soda, so the total cost of soda for the average person for a year is $97.78 – let’s round that to $100.

So, yes, the average American spends $100 a year on soda (without even factoring in that some soda purchases – at restaurants and vending machines – will likely be more expensive). If you reduce that immediately to zero by drinking tap water instead of soda, that’s $100 in annual savings directly from making the switch to water instead of soda (assuming you’re an average drinker).

Beyond that, though, there will be health benefits from making this switch. Eliminating soda usually results in lower weight, lower obesity rates, and lower risk of illnesses like diabetes, all of which will save you additional money.

• Related: How a Commitment to Drinking Just Water Saves More Money Than You Think

Staying at Home One More Night Per Week

According to Eventbrite, the average event goer spends $81 on a night out on the town and goes out twice a week. That seems a little high to me, but I’ll go with their numbers since I don’t exactly go out on the town too often these days (having three kids will do that to you).

So, let’s assume you cut out one night on the town – $81 – and replace it with a night at home, perhaps doing something with friends, and give that a cost of $10 (maybe you buy a bottle of wine or have a meal together or something). That means you save $71 per week. Multiply that by 52 and you get $3,692 per year.

Even if you were to subscribe to a lower price for a night out – say, $40, which seems more reasonable to me – you’d still save $30 per week by spending one night “in” rather than “out.” $30 times 52 weeks is $1,560 in savings per year.

That’s a lot of savings. It also doesn’t mean a night at home alone, since I’m assuming that you’re still spending $10 on entertaining guests in some fashion. Maybe you’ll spend some nights at home reading a book or binge-watching a show on Netflix, but other nights might involve a dinner party or something else that’s social.

• Related: Cheap and Social: 15 Inexpensive but Fun Things to Do With Friends

Looking at the Patterns

So, what patterns can we see here?

First of all, big things represent more dramatic life changes. You’re going to have to make major changes to your life rhythms to net some of those big savings. You’ll have to move. You’ll have to ditch a car. You’ll have to get a roommate. You’ll have to ditch cable television (remember, the average American watches about five hours of television a day, so that’s a pretty big shift in time use).

Of course, over time, you’ll adopt new rhythms as you settle into your changed life, but the change is steep and the impact will be pretty strong. Of course, once you do switch, there will be very strong resistance to switching back – you’ve found a new path, after all.

On the other hand, little changes are much easier to implement. They involve things like buying something different at the grocery store or eating a meal at home. They’re very subtle in terms of life changes.

Of course, at the same time, it’s easy to relapse on the more subtle changes (for better or worse).

Big changes often result in huge savings from one change. That one decision will save you a ton of money – usually thousands per year.

On the other hand, little changes represent small savings, but that change is repeated over and over again. Saving $1 doesn’t seem like a big deal, but if you do it every day as part of a minor change in your life patterns, that’s $365 a year.

The little changes, repeated over and over again, tend to add up to a similar large financial benefit as a big change.

What can you conclude from all of this? Both big changes and little changes are useful in terms of improving your financial life! You want to look at a mix of big and little changes as you consider what changes to make in your life to reach a healthy financial state.

How do you decide what to change? Change the things that seem the least painful first! So many people associate financial change with misery, and that’s because they look at a list of 100 financial changes and focus on the five that seem the most painful. That’s the wrong approach. Instead, look at a list of 100 financial changes and focus on the five that seem the least painful.

Perhaps moving doesn’t seem like a big deal, but giving up your car does. Don’t associate saving money with giving up your car – associate it with the move that isn’t a big deal.

Perhaps giving up soda doesn’t seem like a big deal, but giving up a night out on the town each week sounds like a complete downer. Then give up the soda and keep the night out on the town.

The point is simple: both big and small changes can really help your financial life, and there are changes of both sizes that seem easy and seem hard. Take on the easy ones first, regardless of size. You’ll find that financial change really isn’t as hard as you think, regardless of whether you choose big changes like moving or little changes like buying store-brand pasta.

Good luck!

– Both are worthwhile! Don’t exclude either!

Related Articles:

• 12 Things That Changed My Life (and Cost Less Than $50)
• How to Save Money: 100 Great Tips to Get You Started
• Simple Preparation, Big Savings: 14 Ways to Spend a Bit of Time and Money Now to Save More Money and Time Later

The post Big Changes versus Little Changes: Which Has More Impact on Your Finances and Your Life? appeared first on The Simple Dollar.

Source The Simple Dollar The Simple Dollar http://ift.tt/29Sgu9t

Savings update: more pain for savers with interest rate cut on the horizon

Savers were seemingly given a stay of execution last week when the Bank of England left base rate unchanged at 0.5% rather than cutting it to 0.25% as widely expected. But the drop could easily come next month which could lead to even lower savings rates.

Savers were seemingly given a stay of execution last week when the Bank of England left base rate unchanged at 0.5% rather than cutting it to 0.25% as widely expected. But the drop could easily come next month which could lead to even lower savings rates.

Currently, the top easy-access rate is 1.45% before tax (1.16% after) from French-owned RCI Bank's Freedom account.

read more

Source Moneywise http://ift.tt/2aqvdXO

7 Weird Discounts You Can Get With a Costco Membership

Are you really getting the most out of your Costco membership?

You may think you are if you’re saving money on groceries by buying everything you need in bulk — even your wine. You might even be saving money on health care by getting periodic screenings at the warehouse club.

But you might still be missing out.

Here are seven more little-known items your Costco membership can help you get for less — sometimes without even entering the store.

1. Your Casket

image from costco.com

The company doesn’t keep most of these items in stock at your local club, but Costco does have a funeral department.

On its website, the warehouse club sells caskets, urns and memorial keepsakes. And of course, you’ll get a discount.

For example, Costco sells this Lady of Guadalupe casket for $1,299.99 with free shipping. The same one would cost you $1,457 from Overstock.com and $1,584 from Walmart.

Some state restrictions apply, so double-check the details before including Costco in your funeral plans.

2. Your Gym Membership

monkeybusinessimages/Getty

In addition to groceries, gas and household goods, Costco can also help you save money on your gym membership!

The company offers a variety of spa and gym membership discounts with partner companies.

If you’re a new Costco member, you can purchase a two-year membership to 24-Hour Fitness for $399.99. That’s a gigantic discount — it costs $960.71 if you sign up through 24-Hour Fitness and pay monthly!

3. Your Fiance’s Engagement Ring

IPGGutenbergUKLtd/Getty

You might not be excited to tell people where the ring came from, but a diamond is a diamond, according to the experts.

“Good Morning America” put a Costco “Tiffany” engagement ring to the test against the real thing from Tiffany & Co., and the results were surprising.

Master gemologist and appraiser Martin Fuller appraised a $16,600 diamond engagement ring from Tiffany & Co. at $10,500 if it came from a no-name store. He suggested added services and the weight of the brand justified the higher cost from the famous jewelry store.

The Costco diamond with almost the same specs costs $6,600, and Fuller appraised the stone at $8,000.

So you can pay 58% over the stone’s value to enjoy the glamour of the Tiffany brand… or you can accept the stigma that might accompany a Costco diamond and save 18%.

Your call.

4. Your Next Vacation

Steve Mason/Getty

Like many others, your Costco membership comes with perks you might not even know about.

These include exclusive travel discounts and vacation packages that could save you a ton of money.

Book this four-night Disney Dream cruise for $889 per person — 55% less than the $1,606 minimum rate you’d get booking through Disney!

5. A New Car

Steve Debenport/Getty

Yes, Costco will help you save money on your next car. Participating dealers offer exclusive lower prices for Costco members

“And what’s more,” Costco’s site says, “stack your savings by adding any applicable manufacturer rebates and incentives to your already low, prearranged pricing.”

As a member, you’ll also save 15% on parts, service and accessories from participating service centers for vehicles in your household.

6. A Year of Emergency Food Storage

image from costco.com

For a mere $4,000, you and your family could be ready for the end of times.

The Thrive 4-Person 1-Year Food Storage comes with 31,500 total servings with a 25-year shelf life. You’ll get grains, fruits and veggies, dairy, protein — even baking essentials, for your post-apocalyptic birthday celebrations.

Sure, the upfront cost sounds pretty huge… but you can’t argue with feeding your family in an emergency for 13 cents per serving! #frugalprepper

7. Some Weirdly Expensive Stuff

image from costco.com

These might not be frugal choices, but they’re so strange we can’t help but mention them.

Through Costco, you can commission original artwork, like sports paintings from artist Dave Hobrecht. An original could run you as much as $3,500, but you can get a print for about $150.

Or what about this $2,000 bottle of Johnny Walker Blue, spotted by Costco Couple in a Redwood City Costco? You might not first turn to the warehouse store when you’re looking for limited edition liquor, but if you happen upon it…

And if you’ve received a windfall recently, you might also consider Costco’s $550 caviar, $100 lobster tails or $136-per-pound Japanese Wagyu Beef.

Your Turn: What’s the strangest thing you’ve ever bought at Costco?

Dana Sitar (@danasitar) is a staff writer at The Penny Hoarder. She’s written for Huffington Post, Entrepreneur.com, Writer’s Digest and more, attempting humor wherever it’s allowed (and sometimes where it’s not).

The post 7 Weird Discounts You Can Get With a Costco Membership appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.

source The Penny Hoarder http://ift.tt/29S1jgG

This One Factor Affects Your Credit Score More Than Anything Else

It should come as no surprise that the way you pay your bills — particularly, the consistency with which you pay them — has a huge impact on your credit scores. And while there are certainly other factors that influence your credit scores, your payment history is the most influential factor of all.

The bottom line is that if you want to earn and maintain solid FICO and VantageScore credit scores, you’ve got to pay your bills on time, all the time, every time.

If you’re already facing credit problems due to a less-than-stellar payment history, all isn’t lost. You can absolutely start making positive changes to rebuild your credit for the future — and the first step you should take is learning more about how to master the most important factor in your credit scores.

How Much Does Payment History Matter?

No matter who is pulling your credit scores, and no matter which credit scoring model or brand is being used, there is nothing on your credit reports that holds more weight than the presence – or lack – of derogatory information.

If you’re bad at making your payments on time, you risk losing more than a third of the points that make up your FICO and VantageScore credit scores.

Here’s how it works: When a credit scoring model evaluates the payment history on your credit reports, the model is essentially looking for blemishes on your report. If certain negative information is present on your credit reports, you’ll earn fewer points (and therefor a lower credit score) than you would have earned had that negative information not existed.

Which Information Hurts Your Score?

Here are some of the derogatory credit report items — aka credit red flags — that scoring models will look for when calculating your credit scores:

• Late payments: This includes the severity, frequency, and recency of any late payments. In most scoring systems 30- and 60-day delinquencies are considered “minor,” and anything 90 days past due or worse is considered “major.”
• Charge offs: A charge off occurs when you default on an account and it is deemed to be uncollectable.
• Collections: A collection occurs when a defaulted or delinquent account is outsourced to a debt collector.
• Public records: There are three public records that can appear on a credit report; tax liens, bankruptcies, and judgments. They are all considered to be derogatory.

How Much Will A Negative Payment History Hurt You?

As with most credit scoring questions, the answer is “it depends.” In some cases, even one late payment will lead to a considerably lower credit score. Other times, even a major derogatory entry will have no measurable impact on a score.

For example, someone who has perfect credit and a score of 820 could see their score plummet if a new collection hits their credit reports. However, someone who already has 10 collections likely won’t see their score change at all if collection number 11 hits their credit reports.

There is no fixed value to any derogatory entry. Their value is always relative to the presence or absence of other similar derogatory entries on a credit report. So, the answer to the question “how much?” varies from “not at all” to “a whole lot” — and everything in between.

How Long Will A Negative Payment History Hurt Your Credit?

If you’re trying to rebuild your credit, then the good news is that credit mistakes or misfortunes do not simply continue to haunt your credit scores forever. Thanks to the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) there is a time limit that dictates how long most negative information is legally allowed to remain on your credit reports.

For example, collection accounts must be purged from your credit reports seven years after the date of default on the original account. Late payments must be removed seven years from the date of their occurrence. Bankruptcies can remain for up to 10 years.

While these time frames might seem punitive and unfair, credit scoring systems are actually much more consumer friendly. As derogatory items age, they have less and less negative impact on credit scores. In fact, you could actually have very solid credit scores with derogatory information polluting your credit reports, as long as the derogatory information is very old and close to being purged by the credit reporting agencies.

Of course, the easiest way to escape the damage of derogatory credit entries is to avoid them in the first place: Pay your bills on time, every time, time after time.

Related Articles:

• Three Credit Mistakes to Avoid at All Costs
• Debunking Four Common Credit Myths
• Debt Diaries: Real-Life Stories of Debt, Bankruptcy, and Recovery

The post This One Factor Affects Your Credit Score More Than Anything Else appeared first on The Simple Dollar.

Source The Simple Dollar The Simple Dollar http://ift.tt/2a5vktc

13 Companies That Give New Dads at Least 6 Weeks of Paid Parental Leave

Move over, maternity leave.

Employers have long offered unpaid time off for mothers to care for their newborn children, thanks to the Family and Medical Leave Act. Many have begun offering paid maternity leave, as well.

But it’s only recently that some major companies have started offering that same option to working dads, paying both parents for their time away.

Still, only 12% of workers get paid family leave through their employers, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.

Here are 13 companies that offer at least six weeks of paid leave to new dads. (Some of them offer a full year!)

1. Netflix

image from Netflix.com

The media company offers varying amounts of paid parental leave to employees.

Hourly workers in its DVD-by-mail division get up to 12 weeks of paid leave, while hourly workers in the streaming division get up to 16 weeks. Customer service employees get up to 14 weeks.

Salaried workers can take unlimited paid leave for the first year after a child’s birth or adoption.

2. Amazon

image from Amazon.jobs

Though its policy still favors new mothers — they get up to 20 weeks of paid leave — Amazon began offering all workers (here’s looking at you, dads) up to six weeks of paid parental leave.

All full-time salaried employees can take advantage of the paid parental leave.

3. Asana

image from asana.com

This tech company founded by ex-Facebookers Dustin Moskovitz and Justin Rosenstein offers 16 weeks of paid leave for all new parents.

The leave must be taken within the first year following a child’s birth or adoption. The company also offers flexible working hours when you return from that paid time off.

4. Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

image from gates foundation.org

The 1,400 workers at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation get a whopping 52 weeks — one whole year — of paid parental leave. Mothers and fathers of biological or adopted children qualify.

“This will enable parents to participate more fully in their children’s lives, while also allowing them the flexibility and financial certainty to meet the needs of their growing families,” said Steven Rice, the foundation’s chief human resources officer, in a statement.

5. Etsy

image from etsy.com

In April, the peer-to-peer e-commerce website began offering all employees 26 weeks (read: six months) of paid leave when they become parents through birth or adoption.

Employees can take the paid leave anytime during the two years after they become parents, though they must take at least eight weeks continuously during the first six months.

“We designed our new parental leave policy to be flexible, gender-blind and to counteract unconscious bias,” wrote Julia Gorman, director of culture and engagement, in a blog post.

“We want to support and enable parents, regardless of their gender, to play equal roles in building successful companies and nurturing their families.”

6. Pandora

image from Pandora/Facebook

The music streaming company offers all employees up to 12 weeks off, with pay, to care for a new baby. That’s in addition to some other pretty cool perks, like 40 hours of paid time off per year to volunteer.

“At Pandora I don’t have to be apologetic for being a parent,” Mike Olson, vice president and head of music maker strategy and operations, told The Muse.

“Instead, I’m actually validated and embraced for that part of my life.”

7. Twitter

image from twitter.com

The social media company offers all U.S. employees — moms and dads — up to 20 weeks of paid time off to care for a new baby.

Before that, birth mothers could take up to 20 weeks of paid leave, but dads and adoptive parents could only take 10 weeks off.

The new policy went into effect May 1. It will go into effect worldwide before the end of this summer, reaching all 3,800 Twitter employees.

“We’re removing traditional gender and family stereotypes by extending our leave benefits to all parents, no matter the form parenthood takes,” Jeffrey Siminoff, the company’s vice president of inclusion and diversity, told Business Insider in April.

8. Johnson & Johnson

image from careers.jnj.com

The company that produces pain relievers, mouthwash and baby oil offers its 128,000 workers up to eight weeks of paid leave during the first year after a child’s birth or adoption.

The policy applies to all new parents, including dads and adoptive parents.

9. Adobe

image from adobe.com

The software company offers up to 16 weeks of paid time off for new moms and dads to spend time bonding with their children. The policy extends to workers who became parents via childbirth, surrogacy, adoption or the foster system.

“Our employees are our intellectual property and our future,” Donna Morris, Adobe executive vice president for customer and employee experience, wrote in a blog post announcing the policy update in 2015.

“Now we will better support all of them, across a spectrum of age, gender and experience, with a diverse mix of family needs and situations.”

10. Toms Shoes

image from toms.com

After Toms Shoes founder Blake Mycoskie took time off to help his wife care for their new baby, he instituted a company-wide parental leave policy that gives new parents — including dads — up to eight weeks of paid time off.

Employees have a flexible work schedule waiting for them when they get back, too, according to Mycoskie.

“Frankly, it’s nuts that more companies haven’t figured out what a win-win paid family leave is,“ he wrote for Glamour.

11. Change.org

image from change.org

The petition website offers 18 weeks of paid parental leave to all employees who become parents.

“Giving people unpaid leave only solves half the problem,” Jennifer Dulski, the company’s president and chief operating officer, told CNN. “Our goal was to create a generous and equal leave policy that supported all parents.”

12. Apple

image from apple.com

The California-based tech company offers non-birth parents (dads and adoptive parents) six weeks of paid parental leave.

All full-time, U.S. Apple employees are eligible for this leave, which the company began offering in October 2014.

13. Facebook

image from Facebook.com

The social media giant offers 16 weeks of paid parental leave for all of its employees, “no matter their gender or where in the world they live,” according to Lori Goler, vice president of human resources and recruiting at Facebook.

The leave can be taken at any point up to a year after the child’s birth or adoption.

“For too long, paid baby leave has been granted only to a mother who is giving birth. We believe that fathers and mothers alike deserve the same level of support when they are starting and growing a family, regardless of how they define family,” she wrote in a Facebook post that garnered more than 2,300 “likes.”

Does Your Company Offer Paid Parental Leave?

Not everyone is fortunate enough to have access to paid parental leave in the United States, so if you’re planning on having a baby soon and this isn’t a perk your job offers, we’ve got some suggestions to help you get ready to take time off.

You can also read how one blogger used a budget to help her prepare for her maternity leave, which helped her make the transition to mommyhood without major financial stress.

And once your bundle of joy is here, we’ve got 31 ways to help you save money on diapers, clothes and more.

Your Turn: How important is paid parental leave in your job search?

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.

The post 13 Companies That Give New Dads at Least 6 Weeks of Paid Parental Leave appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.

source The Penny Hoarder http://ift.tt/29LnMZO