The NE PA Community FCU Foundation awarded $1,000 scholarships from its Education Foundation to each of three area students. The Foundation is a 501 (C)(3) organization whose purpose is to promote and support post-secondary goals of students from Monroe or Pike counties through financial assistance.The three recipients are: Geoffrey Zhang of East Stroudsburg-North; Reesha Patel of Pocono Mountain East; and Matthew Flint of East Stroudsburg-South.The Foundation would like to [...]
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الأربعاء، 27 يوليو 2016
Rain barrels sold at silent auction
What do rain barrels, school students and small businesses have in common? A community that relies on the clean drinking water of the Delaware River. Nearly 200 students from 10 schools and organizations in Pike and Wayne counties and in Sullivan County, New York, have designed and painted extraordinary thematic scenes on 22 rain barrels, which have been on display in all three counties for the past month.Fifteen of the barrels, created by Pike and Wayne county students, were sold to [...]
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Wanted: 700 Zombies to Scare the Daylights Out of Theme Park Visitors
You might be able to relate to the humans fleeing the zombies on The Walking Dead.
But have you ever thought about being one of the zombies?
Now’s your chance to find out what it’s like to be a flesh-eating, undead creature — and get paid for it.
Busch Gardens Tampa Bay is looking for 700 zombies to staff its popular Howl-O-Scream attraction, just in time for Halloween.
This could be your time to shine. Or grunt and ooze fake blood.
How to Land One of These Busch Gardens Jobs
People flock to the award-winning Howl-O-Scream event for scares and thrills and maybe some pants-wetting.
It was the thing to do when I was in high school, and it scared the shoes off me. Really, that happened one time. I had to tearfully retrieve my abandoned flip flop from a chainsaw zombie clown.
But it was a darn scary clown, and that’s where you come into the scene.
Each night, Busch Gardens’ makeup artists will transform you into a scary, undead creature. You’ll be placed in a dark haunted house to scream at, follow or taunt the visitors who wander through.
You don’t have to have any prior zombie — or acting — experience to snag this seasonal gig.
You must be 18 and be available to work from 5 p.m. to 3 a.m. on event nights — Thursday to Sunday from Sept. 23 to Oct. 30, 2016.
Costumes are provided, though you need the staples: a pair of black pants and black shoes.
There are some physical requirements — a lot of standing, walking or strenuous activity at times. No matter outpost you’re assigned to, you should be able to perform your character for up to two hours at a time.
Ready to Become a Zombie?
Complete the online application. It only takes about 15-30 minutes.
Then show up to one of the open auditions held July 29, July 30 and August 5. Arrive in comfy clothes, and hold off on zombie clothes and makeup; you’ll be asked to wash it off.
Step behind “The Gauntlet,” a wall flanked with secret windows that slam open and shut. Your job is to jump in and be that creepy, lingering zombie with perfect timing.
You’ll also participate in some improvisational games. Ben DeWitt, the Howl-O-Scream Entertainment Project Manager, told Bay News 9 it’s not uncommon for would-be zombies to be asked to act like something totally silly, like an octopus that drank too much Red Bull.
If you can pass the fear and fun tests, you’re hired. You’ll go through a series of trainings to become your best possible zombie-self. You also get a backstory, which will inform you how to act, walk and what noises you make.
The starting hourly pay is $9.75. Not too bad for a zombie, right?
Your Turn: Do you have the guts to work in a haunted house?
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. If she can’t, she might become a zombie.
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7 In-Demand Jobs That Pay Over $57K — No Bachelor’s Degree Required
If you feel like it’s harder to afford things than it was before, it’s not your imagination.
“In 2014 the median income before taxes had declined by 13% since 2004 — even as expenditures had increased by almost 14%,” according to a new report from Indeed.
Those numbers are crazy. Put another way: “The economic crisis is over, but the wage crisis persists.”
So what are you supposed to do? If you have the ability to go back to school, it might be time to try a new career.
More specifically, consider a switch to one of the seven “opportunity jobs” identified in Indeed’s report. Not only do these growing careers already pay well — their salaries are rising.
Here’s what you need to know.
7 Hot, High-Paying Jobs That Don’t Require a Bachelor’s Degree
Indeed defined “opportunity jobs” as meeting two requirements:
- Jobs with salary growth greater than 25.3% from 2004 to 2014 (adjusting for inflation)
- Jobs with average salaries of more than $57,700.
The resulting jobs inherently share a few other factors: “long-term viability,” meaning they have a lower risk for automation; “transferability of skills,” allowing you to change careers if needed; and “talent mismatch,” so there are fewer job seekers than open positions.
That’s the good news.
The bad news? “Only 170 occupations out of a total of 800 met the criteria… [amounting] to a mere 16% of 2014 total employment,” Indeed reports.
And 92% of these opportunity jobs are in just five categories: health care practitioners and technical, management, computer and mathematical, business and financial operations, as well as architecture and engineering.
Making it even more difficult, 75% of opportunity job postings require at least a four-year college degree, according to Indeed.
The other 25%? They might just be your golden ticket.
Indeed compiled a list of 10 opportunity jobs that don’t require four-year degrees — but it didn’t account for the employment projections for each career. So, a few jobs (ie: postmaster) technically met Indeed’s requirements, but weren’t in growing industries.
I left those out, and, using data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, included each career’s projected growth rate between now and 2024. (To give you some perspective, the average growth rate for all occupations is 7%.)
Here are the top seven opportunity jobs that are growing and don’t require a four-year degree, ranked by the number of job postings on Indeed.
1. Registered Nurses
Hero Images / Getty Images
Median Pay: $67,490 per year
Job Growth: 16%
Education: Either a two- to three-year associate degree or diploma program or a four-year Bachelor of Science in Nursing.
To learn more about this career, click here.
2. Administrative Services Managers
Sol Stock / Getty Images
Median Pay: $86,110 per year
Job Growth: 8%
Education: Though a bachelor’s degree is often required, you can break into this career with just a high school diploma.
A “Facilities Management Professional” certification might help, which you can earn with an $1,850 self-study course from the International Facility Management Association.
To learn more about this career, click here.
3. Police and Sheriff’s Patrol Officers
Hill Street Studios / Getty Images
Median Pay: $58,320 per year
Job Growth: 4%
Education: High school diploma, plus successful completion of respective agency training academies
To learn more about this career, click here.
4. Respiratory Therapists
Hero Images / Getty Images
Median Pay: $57,790 per year
Job Growth: 12%
Education: At least an associate degree, plus state license
To learn more about this career, click here.
5. Stationary Engineers and Boiler Operators
Minerva Studio / Getty Images
Median Pay: $58,530 per year
Job Growth: 1%
Education: High school diploma, plus on-the-job training
To learn more about this career, click here.
6. Electrical Power-Line Installers and Repairers
Pom 109 / Getty Images
Median Pay: $61,430
Job Growth: 6%
Education: High school diploma, plus on-the-job training
To learn more about this career, click here.
7. Construction and Building Inspectors
Simazoran / Getty Images
Median Pay: $57,340
Job Growth: 8%
Education: High school diploma, plus licensing varying by state
To learn more about this career, click here.
Yes, all of these jobs have a median salary of more than $57,000 per year. And yes, their wages have increased more than 25% over the past 10 years.
They’re also growing — some much faster than average (cough, nurses and respiratory therapists, cough).
In other words? These are probably pretty good careers to get into.
But, if none of them sound like a fit, here are a few other posts that might help inspire you:
Your Turn: Which of these careers appeals to you most?
Susan Shain, senior writer for The Penny Hoarder, is always seeking adventure on a budget. Visit her blog at susanshain.com, or say hi on Twitter @susan_shain.
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Do You Live in One of These States? You Could Shop Tax-Free This Weekend!
I’m the kind of nerd who was always really, really excited for back-to-school shopping.
Fresh pens with inks of many different colors! Brand-new notebooks with zero torn-out or scribbled-on pages!
A NEW TRAPPER-KEEPER. Possibly of the Lisa Frank variety.
But my parents, alas, were less thrilled than I.
After all, the recurring annual cost of school supplies can really add up… especially if your overly eager nerdlet petitions you for (another) set of every-color-of-the-rainbow gel pens.
And that’s just stuff you could say “no” to if you’re immune to big-eyed kids. Pens and notebooks can be reused, but clothing that fits is a little less negotiable. And since kids are really good at changing sizes, clothing them can become a giant money-sink.
But luckily, if you live in one of these 16 states, you’ll catch a little break on your back-to-school needs.
Does Your State Hold a Tax Free Weekend for the Back to School Season?
Each of the following states holds a tax-free weekend in late July or August to incentivize shoppers during the slow summer season, and to ease the back-to-school burden parents face each year.
But before you wrangle the kids for an exciting trip down an aisle lined with brightly-colored plastic, be sure to check the fine print.
The dates, and eligible items, vary by state — and some states impose price caps, over which items will incur sales tax regardless of eligibility.
Here’s a handy list of who’s holding a tax-free weekend in 2016, and what you can expect.
Alabama
When: August 5-7
What: Clothing, computers, books and school supplies
Restrictions: Clothing must cost less than $100 per item; computers and software must be a one-time purchase of $750 or less; school supplies are subject to a $50 price cap and books must cost $30 or less each.
Arkansas
When: August 6-7
What: Clothing and school supplies
Restrictions: Clothing items must be priced at less than $100 apiece, and “clothing accessories or equipment” less than $50.
Connecticut
When: August 21-27
What: Clothing and footwear
Restrictions: Price must be less than $300 per item, excludes “athletic or protective clothing or footwear, jewelry, handbags, luggage, umbrellas, wallets, watches, and similar items.”
Florida
When: August 5-7
What: School supplies, clothing and computers
Restrictions: Garments and accessories up to $60 each are eligible; shoes limited to $60 per pair and school supplies limited to $15 per item.
And if you were planning to sneak away for an hour of your Disney World summer vacation to take advantage of the sale, you might need to change your plans: “Sales tax will still apply to purchases made in theme parks, entertainment complexes, hotels, and airports,” according to Tax Free Weekend.
Sorry, tourists. Thanks for stimulating our economy!
Georgia
When: July 30-31
What: School supplies, clothing and computers
Restrictions: School supplies must cost $20 or less; clothing must cost $100 or less per article and computers and accessories must cost $1,000 or less.
Iowa
When: August 5-6
What: Clothing
Restrictions: Each item’s price must be less than $100.
Maryland
When: August 14-20
What: Clothing and footwear
Restrictions: “Qualifying apparel and footwear $100 or less, per item, are exempt from the state sales tax. Accessory items are not included.”
Mississippi
When: July 29-30
What: Clothing and footwear
Restrictions: All items must have a sales price of less than $100.
Missouri
When: August 5-7
What: Clothing, computers and school supplies
Restrictions: Clothing and footwear must have a taxable value of $100 or less, and accessories like handbags are not included.
School supplies are “not to exceed $50 per purchase.” Personal computers and peripheral devices are eligible so long as they’re listed at less than $3,500, and software worth up to $350 qualifies, too.
Missouri has some additional restrictions and blocked-out zones. “Not all local cities are participating,” reads Tax Free Weekend, “including Brentwood, Clayton, Des Peres, Frontenac, Kirkwood, Ladue, Maplewood, Richmond Heights, University City, and Webster Groves.”
The site also specifies you can’t put something on layaway and buy it later tax-free. That said, you don’t have to be a Missouri resident to take part in the sale!
New Mexico
When: August 5-7
What: Clothing, computers, computer equipment and school supplies
Restrictions: The sale covers “all clothing and shoes under $100,” as well as school supplies under $15, computers under $1,000 and computer equipment under $500.
Ohio
When: August 5-7
What: Clothing and school supplies
Restrictions: Ohio’s tax holiday covers clothing priced at $75 or less per piece and school supplies or instructional materials priced at $20 or less each.
Oklahoma
When: August 5-7
What: Clothing
Restrictions: Clothing and shoes must be priced under $100.
South Carolina
When: August 5-7
What: Clothing, school supplies and computers
Restrictions: No price caps are listed for South Carolina’s tax break, which covers “clothing, shoes, school supplies, bookbags, computers, printers, bedspreads and linens.” Some non-exempt items include cosmetics, jewelry, furniture and eyewear.
Tennessee
When: July 29-31
What: Clothing, school supplies and computers
Restrictions: Tennessee’s tax holiday’s restrictions are specific and listed here.
The short story? Eligible clothing items must be priced at $100 or less, school supplies must be under $100 and computers under $1,500. Separately-sold computer parts, like monitors, are still subject to taxation when not purchased with a CPU.
Texas
When: August 5-7
What: Clothing, backpacks and school supplies
Restrictions: The tax holiday covers most clothing and shoes priced under $100, and backpacks priced under $100 that are “sold for use by elementary and secondary students.” Wheeled backpacks qualify so long as they can still be worn on the back in the traditional manner.
School supplies priced less than $100 are also eligible, though there are restrictions against using a business account to pay for the items.
Layaway items are eligible “if the customer places the qualifying merchandise on layaway during the holiday or makes the final payment during the holiday.”
Virginia
When: August 5-7
What: Clothing and school supplies
Restrictions: Clothing and footwear must be priced at $100 or less, and school supplies must be priced at $20 or less.
Virginia also provides a tax break for emergency preparedness items like generators ($1,000 or less), gas-powered chainsaws ($350 or less) and chainsaw accessories ($60 or less).
If your state’s on the list, you can find the full details pertaining to your tax break here.
A Note About Massachusetts
While the state has held tax holidays almost every year since 2004, unfortunately it has decided to cancel the break this year owing to a predicted $600 million shortage in revenues.
Wicked letdown, huh?
Looking for More Ways to Save on Back-to-School Shopping?
You’ve come to the right place.
Maybe skip shopping for school clothes altogether — we’ve got 10 ways to get ‘em for free (or close to it).
And school supplies don’t have to cost very much at all. In fact, this mom got her two kids set up for just $19.05, which is less than the per-item price cap on a lot of states’ tax holidays!
You can also hunt for deals and coupons, use a cash-back credit card and make good use of your local library.
You’ll be all set for the first day of school before you know it! Now, about getting everyone out of bed and ready on time…
Your Turn: Does your state have a tax-free weekend for back-to-school shopping?
Jamie Cattanach is a staff writer at The Penny Hoarder who still totally geeks out over brand-new pens. Her writing has also been featured at The Write Life, Word Riot, Nashville Review and elsewhere. Find @JamieCattanach on Twitter to wave hello.
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How Can I Buy Stocks Online?
That you can buy stocks online is no surprise — what can’t you buy online anymore? However, knowing you can buy stocks online is different from actually knowing how to do it.
Buying stocks the traditional way can be hard enough. That’s why so many people use brokers to buy their stocks for them, and why even more people simply invest in mutual funds. If you’re looking to buy individual stocks online, however, you have plenty of options.
Brokerage Accounts
We recently explained in detail how to set up a brokerage account, but to recap: A brokerage account is a bit like a savings account — you can move money in and out freely — except you use the money to buy stocks or other investments, and those investments aren’t FDIC insured. Some of the most popular online stock brokers — which allow you to trade stocks at a discount compared to traditional brokerage houses — include Scottrade, E*Trade, and Charles Schwab.
- Related: E*Trade vs. Scottrade
With an online broker, you can buy and sell nearly any kind of investment, including stocks of individual companies, bonds, mutual funds, and exchange-traded funds (ETFs). Since you’ll typically pay a commission on each transaction — both when you buy and when you sell an investment — trading too often can eat into your returns.
Also note that you should only start trading stocks in a brokerage account if you have your tax-advantaged retirement savings plans maxed out, your credit levels under control, and six months to a year of living expenses stashed in your savings account as an emergency fund. Once all those ducks are in a row, then it’s time to think about investing — not before.
Index Investing in Your IRA or 401(k)
One of the problems with investing in individual stocks, however, is that it’s incredibly difficult to know which stocks will perform better than others. Unless you’re Warren Buffet or a similar Wall Street wizard (and, in fact, even they get it wrong much of the time), chances are good that you might as well just throw a dart at the financial section of the newspaper and buy whatever the dart lands on.
That might sound discouraging — and in a certain sense, it’s meant to be: Stock picking is best left to the experts, who have the resources to buy in bulk and the time to thoroughly research each company’s financial health.
Investing in mutual funds — collections of stocks chosen by a professional money manager and owned by a large group of investors — whether through your online broker or your retirement account, is one way to leave it to the pros. But even mutual funds present problems. Some funds charge high fees that eat into your returns, and, truthfully, most fund managers are no better equipped to beat the market than anyone else.
This is part of what led to the rise of index funds and exchange-traded funds. With these investments, as with mutual funds, you’re able to invest in the entire stock market or large segments of it (for example, all U.S. technology stocks), rather than just investing in individual companies piecemeal (and paying a commission each time you trade one).
However, because the holdings in these funds are determined by a set index and not hand-picked by an expensive fund manager, they tend to have far lower costs – and that can have a huge impact on your returns over time.
That’s a great bet, because over the long run, the stock market tends to go up — even if you’re not sure which stocks in particular will rise. Investing in index funds will almost certainly allow your money to grow over time through the miracle of compound interest, provided that you leave the money alone.
‘Robo-Investing’
However, even if you’re able to dodge the damage high fees can wreak on your investments, there’s yet another layer of difficulty here, because buying and selling stocks or funds can result in significant taxes if not done properly.
The pot of gold at the end of this bad-news rainbow is that there’s now a modern alternative to financial planners. Robo-advisors, or online financial advisors, basically let a sophisticated computer algorithm manage your money efficiently and effortlessly.
When you use a robo-advisor such as Betterment or Wealthfront, you tell them what you want to invest in, what your risk tolerance is, and what your long-term goals are, and they do most of the rest of the work for you — automatically investing in low-cost index funds, rebalancing your account, and taking advantage of tax-loss harvesting.
This approach can save you a ton of money in fees — and low fees are the single best predictor of future investing returns. But it can also yield better overall results than even the best (and most expensive) financial advisors, thanks to the automation of buying and selling for tax purposes.
A robo-advisor can likewise help you choose and maintain a smart asset allocation. Most financial advisors say it’s best to come up with an investment plan based on your long-term goals and risk tolerance, and then stick with it. That might mean investing 50% of your money in U.S. stocks, 25% in international stocks, and 25% in bonds.
But as one group of investments rises and another falls, your asset allocation — how much of your money is devoted to each area of the market — can get out of whack. Robo-advisors automatically rebalance your portfolio periodically to cash in on gains, reap tax benefits from any losses, and get your investment plan back on track.
- Related: Betterment vs. Wealthfront
Put simply: Buying stocks online is easy, and yet it’s incredibly complicated to do it well. It’s almost always the best idea to let a professional handle it. With the current level of technology, you don’t need to even pick a professional — you can pick a program that a professional designed. That’s going to help you to grow a significant retirement nest egg, provided that you can leave the money sitting in your account long enough.
Related Articles:
- Best Online Stock Trading Brokers for 2016
- Why You Can’t Time the Market: Thoughts on Investing in Stocks
- Investing in International Stocks: Does Your Portfolio Need a Passport?
- 12 Things You Need to Know Before Investing in Stocks
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Human Capital versus Financial Capital: What They Mean and How You Can Take Advantage of the Difference
Human capital. Financial capital. They’re terms that sound like “business speak,” but when you boil them down, they’re just describing things that most people intuitively understand.
For starters, human capital is simply the skill, knowledge, and experience possessed by an individual (or population) viewed in terms of their value or cost to an organization or community. You have certain skills, character attributes, knowledge, and experience, and those are worth a certain amount to your employers and, for that matter, to your friends.
You can think of human capital in personal terms as the amount of money you’ve yet to earn over the course of the rest of your life. The younger you are, the higher your human capital is as you have more years in the workforce. The more skills you have, the higher your human capital. The more useful knowledge you have, the higher your human capital. You get the idea.
Note here that I’m not talking about human value, but human capital. Those are two very separate concepts. Human capital refers more to what others will pay you for the aspects of your life – your working years, your skills – that you can sell to them. Human value is completely different, as people have intrinsic worth regardless of what they’re able to sell.
On the other hand, financial capital is the sum of all of your assets minus your debts – your net worth, in other words. Add up the value of everything you own and all of your account balances and subtract all of your debts from that – that’s your total financial capital.
You’ll notice a few things about financial capital, too. In general, it’s lower when you’re younger. It tends to grow at a faster rate if you’re responsible with your money. Things that benefit your human capital tend to also benefit your financial capital over the very long run.
However, these two things also work against each other. They have an inverse relationship of sorts. Human capital slowly declines as you age and you become less reliable, as companies are less likely to invest in you and pay you well if you’re not going to be serving them and using your skills for them for very long. On the other hand, financial capital generally increases with age to a peak (usually right around retirement), then it begins to decline (as your human capital is very low and you’re not earning any additional income).
If you look at things from that perspective, you can see that the financial journey of a person’s life centers around the need to build up financial capital while human capital is strong so that the financial capital is there for you while human capital is weak. To put it in very simple terms, you work when you’re young and put aside money so that you don’t have to work when you’re old.
Every day that you work, in other words, you’re exchanging a little bit of your human capital – your time, your skills, and so on – for a little bit of financial capital – your paycheck. Naturally, you need to use that financial capital for life’s necessities, but at the same time, you also need to retain some of it for periods later in life when your human capital is tapped out.
The obvious, easy solution here is to just say, “SAVE FOR RETIREMENT!” That’s absolutely true – the whole purpose of saving for retirement is so that you can live off of your financial capital when your human capital is largely tapped out. Every single working adult should either be contributing to a 401(k) (or similar) plan or a Roth IRA or have a great reason for doing so – and “I need that money to pay my credit card bills” is not a great reason.
Still, that’s just the start of the implications of the balance between human capital and financial capital. Here are a few things you should be thinking about regarding that balance in your own life.
Don’t rely on your “future self” to bail you out of spending mistakes. As your life moves forward, your human capital is going to decline strictly due to age. Unless you have a huge increase in other dimensions of human capital – experience, skills, or other things – your human capital will be lower in a few years than it is now.
Thus, if you’re making financial mistakes now, like overspending and putting balances on credit cards, you’re actually relying on your future self – at a point in time where your human capital is lower than it is right now – to bail you out of this mess.
That’s a huge mistake. Your goal, right now, should be the opposite. You should be trying to make things easier for that future version of yourself by reducing the demands on human capital, not increasing them.
Invest when you’re young, even if you can’t invest much. This is something of a continuing thought from the above principle. The truth of the matter is that the earlier in life that you invest, the more time you have for your financial capital to grow up to a peak.
Why is that good? Well, let’s say it grows by 7% each year. The more years you give it to grow before you start drawing money away from it, the bigger it’s going to be. In fact, you can get away with contributing less each year to it if you start contributing earlier. If you’re saving for retirement at age 65, for example, and you save the same amount each year, the money you save from age 25 to 35 will end up building into more value than all of the savings from age 36 to 65. That’s the power of the long term.
If you’re not saving for retirement, start right now unless you have an incredibly good reason not to do so.
Ramp up your lifestyle very slowly, if at all. One thing many people do when they start enjoying the fruits of their human capital is that they ramp up their standard of living. They buy a fancy car and a beautiful house and all kinds of wonderful things to fill it with. They eat at nice restaurants, wear nice clothes, and have nice gadgets.
There’s a big problem with doing that, though. The money you’re spending on that stuff is being taken away from the vital task of building financial capital. Remember, your human capital is limited and every single day you drain away a little bit more of it. If you’re not putting aside financial capital, you’re going to be in a very bad place when it runs out.
So, instead of inflating your lifestyle every time your wages go up, hold back. Don’t immediately buy a new home and a new car to “fit” your new salary. Stick with what you have, raise your contributions to your financial capital, and make more subtle choices with what’s left over. Having a 20% smaller house, for example, can make all of the difference in the world here, since you’re not paying for the mortgage interest, the higher insurance, the higher property taxes, and so on.
Building skills, getting certifications, and so on is all about building your human capital, so the earlier you do it, the bigger the long term impact. Today is the day to start working toward building the skills and earning the degrees and certifications you might need to take the next step in your career path, whatever it might be. The sooner you do it, the bigger the boost you give to your lifelong human capital. The longer you wait, the smaller the boost.
When you’re in your twenties, don’t spend every evening partying and clubbing. Spend some of it training and preparing for what’s next. You won’t miss a few of the forgettable events, but you will enjoy the benefits of a huge increase in your human capital. It will help you throughout the rest of your life.
Your human capital is limited. What can you do to build it up? And, what can you do to build your financial capital for when that human capital runs out? If you don’t have answers to those questions, you’re setting yourself up for enormous financial disasters down the road.
Good luck.
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This Guy Can Flip a Car in 3 Hours — and He’s Sharing His Secrets
My family memories involve selling Beanie Babies at the flea market and going to auto auctions with my stepfather, Tommy.
I still remember the excitement I felt when Tommy invited me to my first car auction. I became intoxicated by the action between the auctioneer and bidders. Tommy’s voice cut through the chatter to shout the winning bid for an ugly but reliable SUV.
Two weeks and one paint job later, I watched him sell it for a $2,500 profit.
I was instantly hooked. That was 12 years ago, and I’ve been flipping cars part time ever since — including my fastest flip to date: three hours.
How I Make Money Flipping Cars
Tommy taught me there were two types of auto auctions: auto dealer-only and public. I loved public auctions because they sold the same types of cars as dealer-only auctions.
Although auction rules vary state to state, the ones in my state allowed anyone over the age of 18 to bid on any car they wanted. Even when competing with dozens of other bidders on each car, I was almost always able to purchase the car below its retail value.
Craigslist became another great place to find deals. There are thousands of new listings posted every day — and it’s totally free to use!
Over the years I learned how to consistently make a few thousand dollars on each car I flipped.
But there was a problem.
About two years ago, I noticed I was spending hours and hours searching for deals. Car-flipping was becoming an obsession that took up almost all of my free time. Sure, I was making money but considering how much time I was investing, was it really worth it?
There had to be a better way.
That thought led me to this question: What’s the shortest amount of time I could possibly spend on the entire finding, buying and selling process?
I didn’t know the answer, but I was determined to find out.
How to Flip Cars
Luckily, I had experience on my side. There are really just three steps to buying and selling a car:
1. Finding and buying a car at a great deal: I typically don’t spend more than $4,000 on any car that I purchase to flip, but I’ve purchased a few cars for less than $400.
2. Repairing any cosmetic or mechanical issues and cleaning the car: For some cars, this is just a simple car wash. For others, a complete engine replacement might be required.
If you make a repair that large, you’ll need to make sure you have plenty of margin to still make money on the flip after you subtract the cost of the repair.
3. Advertising and selling the car: I recommend you advertise and sell your cars where I sell mine: Craigslist. Classified ads are free and you can post them in just a few minutes.
How to Find a Car to Flip
I also learned that the most important step was the first one, which also happened to be the step that often required the most time. I found I spent nearly 75% of the car-flipping process just trying to find a car at a great price.
So I developed a strategy to get deals to come to me instead of going out to search for them myself. The crazy part is it worked.
Here are the top three strategies that worked for me:
Get Instant Alerts
CPRO is a great smartphone app for setting up Craigslist alerts for new listings that meet your criteria. I set mine up to send a push notification anytime an ad description contained “must sell” or “make an offer.”
Sellers who need to move quickly are much more likely to sell their car at a deal, and CPRO helps you get to those deals first.
The free version allows you to set up a limited number of alerts, but I recommend spending a couple bucks to buy the paid version so you can set up as many as you want.
Post Targeted Craigslist Wanted Ads
These aren’t your granny’s wanted ads. Target your ads specifically to people who want a quick sale, which usually translates into a great deal for you.
And the great part is, wanted ads on Craigslist are 100% free. Here’s an ad that I used:
AD TITLE: I want a car today. I have CASH!
AD DESCRIPTION: I’m looking for a reliable vehicle ASAP. I have $2,500 CASH and I can pick it up today. Text or call with what you have to (555)-123-4567
Pay Your Friends
Just about everyone knows someone who is thinking about buying or selling a car. I offered to pay anyone who helped me find a car that I could flip.
If I made $2,000 on a car referred by a friend, I gave them $200 as a finder’s fee. That kept my friends happy and motivated to bring me deals.
How I Made $1,800 With a 3-Hour Flip
A few days after I implemented my new strategy, I received a new notification through CPRO. A charcoal sedan in excellent condition had just been listed on Craigslist by a young couple who urgently wanted to sell before moving out of town. They were asking $3,800 for the car, which was already less than its Kelley Blue Book value.
That’s when I read three of my favorite words in their ad: make an offer.
I quickly called the seller and offered $2,800 pending a test drive. I made sure to mention I could buy the car immediately and I had the cash in my pocket.
After a quick test drive and a 15-minute visual inspection, I bought the car on the spot. The couple mentioned how relieved they were that they found a buyer so quickly and thanked me for making the purchase so easy for them.
On the way home, I stopped at a car wash and gave it a quick rinse for $8. The clear spring weather made the paint sparkle beautifully in the sun.
As soon as I got home, I listed the car on Craigslist, expecting it would sell in the next day or two.
Fifteen minutes after I published the listing, an interested buyer was on his way to meet me. After taking a quick look under the hood, he handed me $4,650. I gave him a bill of sale and he drove the car away.
I’d started out by wondering about the shortest amount of time I could possibly spend on the entire car-flip process.
Three hours and $1,800 later, I had my answer.
Your Turn: Have you ever flipped a car? How much money did you make and how long did it take?
Jeremy Fisher has been a car flipper for over a decade and the only thing that excites him more than finding a deal is showing other people how to do the same. That’s why he started the 3HourFlip blog.
The post This Guy Can Flip a Car in 3 Hours — and He’s Sharing His Secrets appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.
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Over 45s relying on property to fund retirement
Almost half of over-45s are counting on property to deliver their income in retirement.
According to Aviva’s latest Real Retirement report, 46% of over-45s say their property will play a key role in funding their retirement income, with 69% owning a home that is worth more than the sum of their pensions, savings and other investments.
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Bottled Water, Filters, Chlorine, and Why I Drink From the Shower
When the water crisis in Flint, Mich., started to gain national attention, I took notice, as did all concerned citizens. I was horrified at the images of the murky, discolored water coming out of their taps. No one should be subjected to drinking water that can make them ill.
While I was confident my own tap water was pristine, I decided to do some investigating anyway. And I didn’t like what I found.
Chlorine
I was living in Madison, Wis., at the time, where there probably won’t be a Flint-level crisis anytime soon. Still, when I looked up their freely available water quality report, some things stood out to me.
I was disturbed by the fact that all the water is treated with chlorine. You know, just that chemical we use to clean pools. The one that’s known to interact with other chemicals in the water and create toxic, cancer-causing compounds.
Please don’t instantly assume I’m some kind of conspiracy theorist nut. I understand that we’ve been using chlorine to disinfect our water supply for over a hundred years. I know that it’s greatly reduced the amount of illnesses contracted from public drinking water.
I’m not an H2O Luddite — I have no desire to return to the days when people thought a witch’s curse was real and you could contract typhoid from a drinking fountain. I just want to explain what I found when analyzing the additives in our water supplies. And chlorine was just the start.
Chloramine
I have high health standards for myself, so I try to avoid drinking chemicals ordinarily reserved for cleaning swimming pools. Furthermore, Madison’s latest water quality report admits that people undergoing chemotherapy or who have otherwise compromised immune systems might want to take special precautions before drinking the tap water. That is because, even in minuscule doses, certain chemicals in our water supplies can have negative effects.
Reading about the potential dangers associated with chlorine naturally led me to articles about chloramine, an ammonia derivative that, like chlorine, is used to treat municipal water supplies.
Fans of chloramine like it because it’s more stable than chlorine and lasts longer in the water supply. Unsurprisingly, not everyone thinks that’s a good thing. Chloramine has known harmful properties, and it can leach lead from pipes as well.
There’s been very little research into the overall safety of chloramine, and the EPA itself admits that it is a “probable human carcinogen.”
I know, I know: There are many things we consume that may increase our risk of cancer, from booze to bacon. I’m not advocating we all live in a bubble. I just want to drink the purest water possible without paying a lot of money for it.
My Water Filter Solution
Taking into consideration my newfound fears of these chemicals, I decided to explore ways I could get healthier water at an inexpensive price.
The cost factor instantly removed bottled water from the equation. Besides the fact that much of it is functionally the same as tap water, bottled water is quite expensive as well. Some estimates put the cost of bottled water at 2,000 times that of drinking water out of the tap.
I didn’t want to join the segment of the American population that spends almost $12 billion per year on bottled water, much of which is essentially coming out of a garden hose at some Coca-Cola factory. I decided I ought to look into a water filter.
Since I don’t own my home, I had to limit myself to solutions that could be applied at the tap. After much research, I decided on a setup that tag teams the chlorine and chloramines in my water supply with Vitamin C filters and a state- of-the-art shower head/filter combo. I found this setup strikes a good balance for me, eliminating a high percentage of the cleaning chemicals in the water at an affordable price point.
I decided to go with a shower filter because, according to the group Citizens Concerned About Chloramine, your greatest exposure to chloramine and chlorine actually comes not from drinking water, but from showering in it.
That means I just fill up my drinking water containers from the shower. Does this lead to quizzical looks when I have guests over? It sure does.
Do I care? Not one bit.
When you’re hanging out at Drew’s place, you’re drinking shower water. Once I give my impassioned case as to why I do this, I’ve never had a guest turn it down.
Cost Breakdown
My filters cost me a total of $99.58. With the replacement filters that came with my purchase, this will last me at least a year.
With the average person spending $1.22 per gallon for bottled water, the savings add up fast once you switch to filters. If my girlfriend and I drink bottled water and consume 16 cups per day between us, it would cost us $445 per year to drink bottled water — and that’s assuming we’re buying it by the gallon, not in 16-oz. bottles.
That’s $345 per year we can save with our filters — not to mention the peace of mind that we’re not drinking and bathing in pool water.
While that may not sound like a ton of money, little changes add up over time. If we took that $345 yearly savings and invested it each year, after 30 years we’d have an additional $46,000 in retirement savings, assuming an 8% growth rate.
And as for the flavor? I can confirm that this filter system makes the water taste great. Not ice-cold-Perrier-straight-from-the-bottle great, but it’s more than good enough for me and my girlfriend.
If you want to tailor a water filter setup to your personal needs, the National Science Foundation offers a nifty tool for you to do just that. It allows you to select all the parameters that concern you about water safety and then spits out a variety of filtration options that will do the trick for you.
Summing Up
Maybe one day I’ll have a kitchen sink big enough to handle my water-filter setup, so I can install filters there as well. Or, more likely, the technology will advance and the filters will get smaller. It would be nice if I wasn’t known among my friends as the Shower Water Guy.
But, I’m willing to embrace that label as long as it means we’ve got clean, affordable water. I recommend trying out a water filtration system. You can hedge your bets against the potential dangers of additives in the water supply, and save significant money by never paying for bottled water again.
Related Articles:
- How a Commitment to Drinking Just Water Saves More Money Than You Think
- Can a Cold Shower Boost Your Health and Productivity?
- 13 Ways to Save Money and Protect the Planet at the Same Time
The post Bottled Water, Filters, Chlorine, and Why I Drink From the Shower appeared first on The Simple Dollar.
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Here’s What You Learn When You Work at Ben & Jerry’s for 35 Years
I don’t think I’ve ever met someone who doesn’t like Ben & Jerry’s ice cream.
I’ve even used someone’s favorite Ben & Jerry’s flavor as part of my criteria while deciding whether or not we’d be going on a second date.
Because seriously: Phish Food is objectively better than Cherry Garcia — and if you don’t agree, it just ain’t gonna work between us.
But have you ever dug your spoon into a perfect pint and wondered: How do they make that perfectly spherical “core” of cheesecake, or get those just-so swirls?
Althea Sherwood knows. She’s worked at Ben & Jerry’s for 35 of the almost-40 years it’s been in business.
Dream Job: How to Make a Career in Ice Cream
It’s not surprising Sherwood’s kept her job with the Vermont-based ice cream company for the better part of her career.
Ben & Jerry’s is well-known for its progressive policies, including paying its employees a livable wage that’s nearly double the national minimum, according to its website.
Plus, the company embodies great values — including social initiatives to “make the world a better place.”
And there is this exciting perk: “I’ve known Ben and Jerry for most of my life,” Sherwood says.
Uh, yes, please.
Working on the Ben & Jerry’s Manufacturing Floor
Mike Mozart under Creative Commons
The Atlantic’s Bourree Lam got to pick Sherwood’s brain about working in the ice cream biz. Sherwood’s worked almost every position available, but these days, she’s on the manufacturing floor.
And it turns out, some of the most tempting flavors are just as finicky as you’d imagine.
“There are some flavors that are really labor intense [sic],” Sherwood says. “Like, Cake My Day, was an awful flavor to run.”
That’s because those beautifully-swirled combinations come together via a complex system of feeder pipes. The ingredients have to be just the right temperature or they might turn to mush. And just the right amount of ice cream and filling has to be put through the pipes, or they’ll get clogged.
In some cases, the length and width of the pipes needs to be reconsidered to figure out how to make a given ingredient feed into the pint faster.
“There’s a lot of math to it,” Sherwood explains.
She also has the privilege of being Vermont’s first milk pasteurizer, a title she earned years ago, when Ben & Jerry’s demand outstripped the supply it’d been sourcing from the state university.
To keep up with eager ice cream buyers, the company needed to make its own mix — so it sent Sherwood to school to learn to pasteurize. It was hard work, but she loved every minute of it.
“It was fun. It was exciting,” she told Lam. “It was very busy. You used your mind and your body a lot.”
But as undeniably awesome as working in ice cream your whole life sounds, in the end, it’s just like everything else: It comes down to the people you share it with.
And Sherwood’s colleagues have made the job that much more perfect.
“I have met so many amazing people working here,” she says. “It’s kind of that corny thing where they say, ‘There’s a family here.’ It’s more than that. I don’t even have the words for it.”
And nothing brings a family together better than sharing some delicious ice cream — no matter which flavor you choose.
Your Turn: Would you work in an ice cream factory? What’s your favorite flavor of Ben & Jerry’s?
Jamie Cattanach is a staff writer at The Penny Hoarder. If you are what you eat, she’s probably like 60% Ben & Jerry’s.
The post Here’s What You Learn When You Work at Ben & Jerry’s for 35 Years appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.
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Work at Home with a Career in Medical Transcription
Sponsored by Career Step When Andrea Anaya started out, she was a struggling young mother. At only 22 years old, she was in a bad marriage and transcribing medical reports from home to pay the bills and care for her one-year-old daughter. In her very limited spare time, Andrea began hand writing her original, 2,000-page […]
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