TRENTON — Gov. Christie has long benefited from his relationship with Senate President Stephen Sweeney: It was crucial to enacting much of his first-term agenda, including an overhaul of the state pension system and teacher tenure, which boosted the governor's national profile.Now Christie, a Republican, is trying to exploit Sweeney's political vulnerabilities to extract health-benefit concessions from public-sector unions by threatening to end an income-tax agreement with [...]
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الأربعاء، 7 سبتمبر 2016
Regional and local radio stations enjoy boost in listenership
Regional radio stations under the Entercom Communications banner performed well in the spring Nielsen ratings with the leading WKRZ-FM pop hits station extending listenership while news and talk WILK-AM gained on a year-over-year basis.However, the spring Nielsen "book," as the trade refers to the survey covering April, May, and June, wasn't all good news for the Pittston-based regional office. The No. 2 station overall, country FGGY-FM Froggy 101, showed a small decline, year- [...]
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League of Women Voters elects new president
The League of Women Voters recently held a mid-term election of a new president. Due to the untimely passing of its much admired former president, William Hill, the members elected Barbara Keiser to complete his term. Keiser is a long time LWV member, and is the retired director of the Eastern Monroe Public Library.The LWV meets on the fourth Wednesday of each month, at 5 p.m., at the Eastern Monroe Public Library, Route 611, Stroudsburg. Interested members of the public are [...]
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4 Startups Hiring for Work-From-Home Jobs Now (No Insane Tech Skills Required!)
Entering the startup industry is the dream, right?
Many have awesome benefits (including free Kindles — what?!), solid pay and flexible hours. Plus, there are work-from-home positions galore, with lots of room to grow.
Sometimes the job listings are too good to be true — until you get to the qualifications — which might include garbled technological jargon and unfamiliar acronyms.
However, we found four work-from-home job openings at startups — and they don’t require too much technical brains.
4 Open Work-From-Home Startup Jobs
It’s your time to get in on the hip startup world — and work from home. These four companies have open positions you might be qualified for.
1. Customer Success Specialist at ShopStorm
Heard of Shopify? It has to do with shopping — the platform helps businesses (think: the small ones) navigate the waters of marketing, payments and shipping.
Cue ShopStorm, which offers apps on the Shopify app store.
“ShopStorm is dedicated to becoming a valued partner for your eCommerce store,” its website states. “Our goal is to build apps that provide a great user experience, then support the heck out of them…”
That’s where the company’s customer success specialists come in — and it’s looking for one.
You’ll help customers solve problems and answer any questions. But that’s not all. The listing says “you’ll get your hands dirty with a little bit of everything,” including installing and modifying code, helping with feature releases on apps and monitoring social media channels.
Oh, and emojis and GIFs are encouraged forms of communication. (Startups, am I right?)
But don’t panic if you don’t feel quite qualified. ShopStorm hosts a 60-day bootcamp before you start as a full-time salaried employee.
Although the “competitive” salary isn’t mentioned in the job post (we reached out to ShopStorm, so we’ll let you know if we hear back), the benefits are awesome.
As a member of this flexible, work-from-home team, you’ll receive 15 days of paid time off a year — plus holidays and a few special company ones. You’ll receive medical, dental and vision insurance and a company-matched retirement plan.
Because you’ll be working from home, you’ll get an allowance to trick out your home office or rent a co-working space.
Also included? A software allowance, personal development allowance and a Kindle — to help you keep learning, of course.
Apply for the job today so you can start the 60-day bootcamp ASAP.
2. Social Media and PR at SubtleTV
This site shares trending videos.
Really, that’s all I can tell you, but I wanted to include the gig because it’s a part-time, work-from-home position and pays $400 a month, according to the Indeed ad.
It looks like SubtleTV is working to expand its social media presence and needs your help. You’ll set your own hours and help SubtleTV launch its new app.
To apply, visit Indeed — be sure to send along any social media profiles you’ve managed in the past.
We’ll let you know if we find out more details.
3. Social Media Content Writer at Boutnow, Inc.
So you might want to hurry up and apply for this position before our staff members decide to.
Boutnow is a mobile app startup — launching soon — specializing in viral memes. You know, those pictures with funny captions that get shared all over Facebook.
As a content writer, your job is to write funny and compelling content for memes, which means you need some knowledge of what’s going in the pop culture world.
You should have some experience in comedy (improv is applauded) and describe yourself as creative, ambitious, organized and passionate about social media (think: Snapchat, Instagram and Facebook).
You’ll start in a part-time position on a flexible schedule and earn $10 an hour. You can work from home or college. To apply, you’ll of course need to create a meme, so familiarize yourself with memegenerator.net.
4. Web Quality Assurance at SketchDeck
Two years ago, two guys started this company and just needed a designer. They decided agencies were too slow and freelancers were too unreliable (no offense, freelancers) and ended up with SketchDeck.
“Through technology, they have taken the best of an agency at a speed and convenience never seen before,” the website explains.
Now, the team’s growing. It’s hiring a number of positions, but we found an awesome work-from-home opportunity as a web quality assurance person. (OK, so I added the “person” part.)
As this person, you’ll make $40,000-$60,000 a year — from your couch (or home office).
Your responsibilities? Review all project requests and design work to decide if the team can manage it. If so, great! If not, fix the problem. You’ll work with the art director and interact directly with clients.
There’s a whole list of requirements, but here are some notable ones:
- Be interested in creative design projects
- Have strong written and verbal communication skills
- Work under deadlines while multi-tasking
- Have some web development knowledge (responsive design, website testing methods and more)
However, SketchDeck is flexible with these requirements: “If you are hungry to learn, we’d be happy to hear from you,” the listing says.
So why not apply? You’ve got nothing to lose!
Find more open jobs by liking our new TPH Jobs page on Facebook.
Your Turn: Have you ever worked for a startup before? What was it like?
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 4 Startups Hiring for Work-From-Home Jobs Now (No Insane Tech Skills Required!) appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.
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How to Make Yourself Write an Entire Blog Article Every Single Day
Blogging is an essential part of my business, and I can tell you firsthand how difficult it can be.
Believe me. I’ve been doing it for more than 10 years.
Everyone recommends a blog to gain traffic, but maintaining consistent blogging is difficult.
Here’s what happens.
You get all jazzed up about starting a blog. You rush out the gates with reckless abandon, writing on familiar to you topics with energy and verve.
A few weeks go by, and nice things happen to your website traffic and conversions.
And then you start to realize that writing is hard work.
Wow. It’s freaking hard work.
And so you skip a day.
And a week.
And then you struggle to come up with topics, so you skip a few more days.
You kind of “forget” about blogging and feel guilty about it.
Your blog goes dormant, and you curse yourself every day for it.
Sound familiar? It happens to a lot of people. For all the craze over content marketing, there sure are a lot of people who fell off the wagon a long time ago.
I get that. I understand. It’s tough work. It’s grueling at times. It’s thankless. It’s challenging.
And to write an article every single day, day in and day out, year after year? Sounds impossible.
It’s not. And I’m going to tell you how and why.
Here’s what you need to know about what it takes to write a blog post every day.
1. Read more than you write
Yep. I mean that.
I know that reading takes time (and writing does too), but I have a good reason telling you to do this.
The key to writing is reading. The more you read, the more prepared you are to write. Just to write this post, I read over a dozen articles about blogging to make sure I cover every angle and gather supporting data.
For example, most blog articles are shared without even being read, especially on social media. Even when we do read them, we mostly do a quick scan.
Here’s a graph of how time spent reading an article correlates to its social activity.
Sometimes a headline and a snippet are enough to satisfy a reader, which is why these elements are so important for SEO purposes.
The content itself can make a difference in whether or not an article is read, especially with branded content. Brands that blog with a purpose have consistently higher ROIs and perform better in every KPI.
To be sure you’re creating valuable content instead of just parroting what everyone else is saying, it’s important to continue reading.
I’m an expert in content marketing and SEO, but I still read Search Engine Journal, SEOMoz, and other industry publications because even I can’t keep up with everything on my own.
Blogging is a community, and contributing as part of it means you’ll need to read other blogs.
2. Look for inspiration from other bloggers
Since you’re already reading, take inspiration from what other bloggers are doing. Crowdsourcing ideas is a great way to brainstorm. Starbucks, for example, recently found success with its My Starbucks Ideas program.
There are tons of blogs on every topic, and here’s a list of 50 top blogs for every topic imaginable.
See what the greats are writing about. Follow a successful blogger like Chris Brogan to find trends in his writing style. You can even research his site on SEMRush to learn what keywords and landing pages are successful.
By looking externally for ideas, you’ll broaden your blogging horizons, and brainstorming blog topics for yourself will become much easier.
3. Get out and experience life
Like any other business, your blogs will only be successful if they satisfy a need.
The only way to know what people need is to be a person yourself and go out to experience life like everyone else.
For most businesses, content marketing is a relatively new, experimental concept. In a recent survey, only 8% of B2B companies stated they had a sophisticated content marketing program.
Until you find your sweet spot, you’ll need to experiment a bit to see what your niche truly is. Tackling the same topic from different perspectives makes content creation much easier and more streamlined.
4. Aim for two a day
About one blog post every other day is the bare minimum to attract a decent, sustainable traffic flow to your blog.
One blog post per day is a great start, but ideally, you’d want to publish multiple posts per day.
If you can write two blog posts a day, you can quickly build a one-month editorial calendar and schedule enough posts in advance to take a few days off while still publishing that pre-written content on your blog.
The more content on your site, the lower your bounce rates will be, as people will be able to navigate your archives instead of just reading one post and leaving.
5. Make everything else routine
Like I said, there’s a lot more involved in blogging than just writing posts.
Here are a few common problems faced by B2B marketers when generating leads, which blogging is a component of.
Understanding, analyzing, and running all these operational components is vital to maintaining any successful business, and it has to be routine in a blogger’s life.
When you’re routinely pitching stories, creating outlines, and researching, the actual act of writing for your blog becomes much easier.
And as I explain exhaustively in my blogging guides, quantifying the success of a blogging initiative requires quantifiable metrics and KPIs that allow you to set and measure goals.
It’s much easier to write when everything is running like clockwork and you are not running around like a chicken with your head cut off, trying to put out fires.
6. Create an editorial calendar
Most major publications, like Rolling Stone or People, use editorial calendars to determine what content to publish.
An editorial calendar is great for your blogging efforts too.
Like a director’s storyboard, an editorial calendar gives you an outline to work with and the ability to know at a glance where you’re at and what’s publishing soon.
Here’s an example of a basic editorial calendar:
With an editorial calendar in place, instead of being in a constant race to come up with new ideas, you’ll be working ahead, making your blog run much more smoothly and giving you time to correct any issues or changes that may come up along the way.
7. Solicit pitches
You don’t have to do all the blogging yourself. Sometimes it’s nice to offer a different perspective, whether from internal team members or external bloggers.
Many bloggers are happy to guest-post on someone else’s site in exchange for a backlink to their site. By collecting posts from a variety of other bloggers, you’ll greatly amplify the reach of your blog through the power of their networks.
Every post published on your blog is extra content, even if it’s not written by you.
If you prefer to keep your name on every post, there’s always the option of hiring a ghostwriter, who can be found through a simple Google search or Craigslist ad.
8. Respond to client/reader questions
A simple way to produce more content is to write long-form answers to reader questions in a Dear Abby advice columnist format.
Quora, Yahoo Answers, Ask Jeeves, and Siri all became popular because of the ability of users to ask and receive answers.
Recent research from Twitter shows customers prefer companies that actually respond quickly to their concerns on the microblogging site.
If you think of your readers as customers (which you should if blogging is part of your business), you should be catering to their needs, personalizing their experience, and responding to complaints and questions.
If you’ve established yourself as an expert on a certain subject matter, which will be clear from your previous content, people will see you as a trusted resource and ask questions in the comment section.
You can answer in the comments or, if a longer response is required, create a whole new blog post to respond, backlinking to the original question as a resource.
9. Make it a habit
People are creatures of habit, and we appreciate when things are kept consistent. When you make blogging a habit, keeping it up won’t be a problem.
How do you build a habit?
It’s pretty simple, actually.
- Start with a reminder of the task you need to do. An editorial calendar works great for this.
- Follow a routine to complete that task.
- Give yourself a reward.
- Rinse and repeat.
Why does this habit-building process matter?
It matters because blogging matters.
The biggest revenue-generating tactic in blogging is marketing and advertising, which is seeing steady spending from last year to this year:
If you can provide a steady stream of content, you’ll earn a sustainable income through blogging, but it has to be a habit.
The idea of Ernest Hemingway spending his days drinking and being a playboy while putting out awesome writing is nothing more than a fantasy and a caricature of the great writer.
Hemingway was good. He made it look easy.
But writing a post a day isn’t about lolling around and waiting for your muse to strike.
Working writers are working writers because they work. They force themselves to work. And then that force develops into a habit, which makes them writing machines.
Once blogging becomes a habit, you’ll often find yourself writing four or five posts a day instead of just one. You get faster over time, and things get easier as you go along.
Conclusion
The fear of not being able to come up with topics to blog about is a mental wall that exists only in your head.
Thousands of people earn a steady first or second income through blogging despite the fact that coming up with relevant things to say about relevant topics on a consistent basis is a challenge.
More content equals more opportunity for backlinks, high SEO rankings, and more sustained organic traffic.
By involving external resources, continuously researching, and employing solid business practices, you can turn your blog into a daily content mill that generates revenue.
What tactics do you use to overcome writer’s block and continue creating every day?
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Thought You Were Attending ITT Tech This Fall? Here are Your Options
ITT Education Services, Inc. announced yesterday the immediate closure of ITT Technical Institute, a for-profit vocational school with more than 100 campuses across the U.S. That leaves 40,000 students without a plan to complete their education.
The closure was rumored after the Department of Education took over financial oversight of the school last week, preventing new students from enrolling in classes using federal financial aid.
“One possible outcome of oversight actions is that a school may choose to close rather than take corrective actions, which can cause disruption and disappointment for current students,” Secretary of Education John B. King, Jr. explained in a blog post yesterday.
“For most of the world, that news will be covered as a business story or a political one, but I know that for you it is deeply personal. You are probably wondering what this means for your future; how it is going to affect your finances and your ability to continue your education.”
What to Do if You Were an ITT Student
The Department of Education says both it and ITT Technical Institutes will contact students about their options. In short, you can choose to either:
1. Have Your Loans Discharged
Current or recently enrolled students can apply to have their federal loans for their ITT program discharged, which wipes away debt and allows you to restart your education somewhere else.
You’re not eligible for loan discharge if you withdrew from all classes on or before 120 days before the date the school closed, or if you completed all your coursework for your program before the school closed, according to a webinar by the Department of Education.
The webinar, which will run at noon and 2 p.m. EDT today, answers common questions about what the closure means for students. If you miss it, you’ll be able to watch a recording on the Department of Education’s website.
2. Complete Your Studies at Another School
If you want to complete your program elsewhere, you may be able to transfer your credits, but will probably be ineligible for any loan-discharge options.
The Los Angeles Times reports that the Department of Education has encouraged community colleges to be flexible in accommodating incoming students from ITT locations.
“Restarting or continuing your education at a high-quality, reputable institution may feel like a setback today, but odds are it will pay off in the long run,” King wrote.
No announcement has been made regarding the status of federal loans in repayment by ITT Tech alumni who completed their programs before the closure.
Your Turn: Did you attend ITT Technical Institute? Will you transfer your credits or apply for loan discharge?
Lisa Rowan is a writer and producer at The Penny Hoarder.
The post Thought You Were Attending ITT Tech This Fall? Here are Your Options appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.
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Now Hiring: Hyatt Looking for Work-From-Home Associates in 23 States
Looking for a flexible, full-time work-from-home job? The global hotel chain Hyatt is hiring remote guest service associates in 23 states.
Guest service associates assist customers throughout the reservation process. This position will be full time with a set schedule, but you can choose your schedule for a range of options to fit your lifestyle.
Hyatt will provide you some of the equipment you’ll use on the job. You’ll just need to have high-speed internet access and two identical monitors.
No degree or experience is required, but you should be computer savvy. Previous over-the-phone customer service experience is a plus.
Choose Your Own Work-From-Home Schedule
The job starts on Sept. 29 with a six-week training, 11 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. After the six-week training, you’ll have your choice of a full-time schedule.
Choose from several shift options, including daytime, evening or overnight; four-day weeks; and split shifts. You’ll have some weekdays off and, depending on the schedule you choose, up to one weekend day off.
This makes the job a great opportunity to earn money around another job, a side hustle or a family.
Pay starts at $11 an hour, with performance-based increases throughout the year.
This position is open to applicants in these states: Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and Wisconsin.
If you’re interested in this opportunity, fill out the application online here.
Your Turn: Have you come across any exciting work-from-home jobs lately?
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 Now Hiring: Hyatt Looking for Work-From-Home Associates in 23 States appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.
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Frugality and Long-Term Financial Success
Like many people who suddenly realize how bad their financial situation is, we dove hard into frugality during the first few months of our financial turnaround.
It makes sense, really. Frugality is the best personal finance tactic there is for seeing immediate results. If you choose not to spend – or you choose to spend less – you see the results from that choice immediately in your wallet. There’s simply more cash sitting there.
Sure, there are many, many approaches to personal finance that offer great results. Getting a part time job is one. Going back to school to get a better degree is another one. Starting a microbusiness is another one. Investing is, of course, another one. However, all of those tactics take time to work – you’re not going to get really fast results with any of those moves. Frugality is fast, and that’s why people so often turn to it when their finances are struggling.
What about the long term, though?
Many people view frugality as a less effective strategy over the long term. Their argument is simple. There’s only so much money you can save with frugality – once you’ve optimized many avenues of your life, you start to reach a point where there’s not much more you can squeeze out. Not only that, once you reach that point, further frugal changes tend to really cut into the joy of life. At the same time, other strategies, such as improving your income and investing sensibly, really start to take off like a rocket ship over longer periods (a few years and beyond).
I don’t quite see it that way.
In my eyes, investing and increasing income is like a financial rocket ship that will take you anywhere you want to go. When you improve your income or when you have investments that are building in value, your net worth can feel like a powerful rocket, pushing off of the launching pad with incredible force and pushing up and up and up, faster and faster and faster.
However, every rocket ship needs rocket fuel, and that’s what frugality is. Frugality is the fuel that the rocket needs to ignite and launch. Frugality is the fuel that keeps burning and sends that rocket going higher and higher and higher.
Without fuel, the rocket can’t fly. Without the rocket, the fuel doesn’t go anywhere. You need them both for success.
What does that mean in terms of practical use, though?
First of all, frugality provides the money that you need to start investing. The vast majority of Americans live paycheck to paycheck and thus don’t have the money in their day-to-day lives to contribute to their investments or to their 401(k) or to their Roth IRA. Frugality can help with that. If you can use frugal strategies to cut, say, $100 a month in your spending, then you suddenly have $100 a month to invest. That’s $1,200 a year to invest. If that investment earns a 7% annual return, you’re going to have tens of thousands of dollars invested within a decade. Frugality provided the initial money to invest, and the power of investing and compound interest caused that money to
Second, frugality helps you to survive on a lower income, such as when you’re getting a degree or transitioning to a new career. Again, without using frugal strategies, it’s very difficult for the average American living paycheck to paycheck to be able to pull off these things. Frugal choices make it possible.
So, undoubtedly, frugality plays a big role in financial turnarounds.
But what about when the financial turnaround is in high gear? Maybe you have a lot in your retirement account, or maybe you’ve just landed a great-paying job after some lean years. Isn’t frugality a strategy that you drop at that point now that you have the resources to live large?
If you think that it is, you’re making another financial mistake.
First of all, most of the best frugal strategies are the ones that have no real negative impact on your day to day life. Your life is not made worse by choosing store brand hand soap. Your life is not made worse by choosing store brand diced tomatoes. Your life is not made worse by driving a fuel efficient car until it reaches the point of needing a stiff repair bill. Your life is not made worse by negotiating with your cable provider for a cheaper bill that lets you keep the few channels you actually watch. Your life is not made worse by canceling a bill for something you don’t use much at all. Your life is not made worse by checking a book you haven’t read before out from the library rather than buying that book.
I can go on and on and on with examples of how making smart little frugal substitutions in your life can have basically no negative impact on your life while keeping money in your pocket. The question is why would you ever abandon those changes? Why would you ever start buying more expensive hand soap when the soap you have now gets your hands clean? Why would you replace a reliable car that shows no signs of needing repairs or replacement? Why would you keep paying a gym bill when you haven’t been there in six months? Those choices are awful choices no matter your income level. You can throw money away on stupid purchases whether you’re making $20,000 or $100,000 a year.
Second, frugality continues to provide fuel for the “rocket ship” of financial success in your life even after it blasts off. Even after your income jumps up, even after your investments start compounding on themselves and growing rapidly, finding a way to save $20 a month and then using that $20 a month to make that investment grow even faster remains a good thing.
Channeling frugal savings into investments means that you’ll get to your destination even faster. It means that you can retire earlier or buy that dream house sooner. That never changes, no matter how much financial success you have.
This brings me back around to one of my key principles of personal finance: it doesn’t matter whether you’re making $10,000 or $100,000 or $1 million a year, spending money on something that provides no life value to you or that you don’t really care about is still a waste of money.
Frugality is about going through those areas of your life that you don’t care about and minimizing your spending in those areas. It’s also about finding better deals for the same thing in the areas of your life that you do care about.
No matter whether you’re making $10,000 or $100,000 or $1 million a year, finding some effortless way to save $10 a month that doesn’t impact your life in a negative fashion is worthwhile. That’s $10 a month that you can invest for retirement. That’s $10 a month that you can put aside for an emergency fund. That’s $10 a month you can use to pay off a debt a little faster.
This brings me to the one sensible argument against some flavors of frugality: the time value of money. Many critics of frugality as a personal finance tool argue that it doesn’t provide enough return on your money for the time you invest, so anyone talking about frugality should be ignored.
Here’s the thing, though: what is your time worth? How much is an hour of spare time worth to you? Is it worth $20? Would you pay $20 for an hour of uninterrupted spare time? What about $40? Different people are going to give different answers here.
So, now that you know the value you put on your time, the question then becomes whether or not a frugal tactic can save you that much money or more if you spend an hour doing it.
There’s also the fact that many frugal tactics repay you in saved time later on. An example: our family makes a lot of meals in advance – if we’re making lasagna, for instance, we usually make four pans at once and freeze three of them. We do this so we can buy ingredients in bulk and really take advantage of sales on things like lasagna noodles. This eats up perhaps 20% or 30% more time during that initial lasagna-making process, but then we have three frozen pans of lasagna in the freezer and we end up saving time whenever we use one of those for supper. It ends up saving us time and saving us money.
The same exact thing is true with making a meal plan and a grocery list – it saves us money by making our grocery store visit a lot more focused, but it takes time to assemble that plan and that list. However, when I’m in the store, I’m actually there for a lot less time than I would be without a list, and that ends up returning that time to me. It usually ends up being a wash in terms of time, but I end up spending a lot less at the grocery store.
The truth is that unless I am making so much money that it’s effective for me to employ a personal chef and/or a personal shopper, it would be really dumb to abandon these frugal strategies. There are many, many, many more strategies like this – ones that save money and cost very little time (or even save time).
Beyond that, many frugal choices are just substitutions for things you do normally where you simply won’t notice the difference between the “cheaper” and the more expensive option. This goes back to my hand soap example – I literally cannot distinguish between store brand hand soap and name brand hand soap, but they certainly have a difference in prices. There are many, many such products where there’s no difference whatsoever that I can tell, so I just buy the store brand. Again, there are many things like this, such as “shopping” for books and movies at the library instead of buying them or paying Redbox or Amazon Instant Video.
All of these different frugal options have no real negative impact on your day to day life, but they certainly have a positive impact on the money in your checking account. It doesn’t matter what you earn each year – you’d be making a mistake just leaving that money on the table.
That’s why, ten years after the start of my financial turnaround, I’m still very frugal. I buy lots of store brand stuff. I visit the library every two weeks and usually leave with a bag full of books and movies. I make a meal plan and grocery list before each grocery store visit. I shop around for better rates on my car insurance at least once a year. These things don’t take much time – some of them actually save time – and they don’t have a negative impact on my life but they do save money. Why would I not do them? Why would I not enjoy ten years’ worth of the money these tactics have saved me?
Frugality can be the fuel you need for your financial turnaround, but it can also continue to be part of the fuel that blasts your financial rocket into the stratosphere. Don’t overlook it.
The post Frugality and Long-Term Financial Success appeared first on The Simple Dollar.
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This Woman Sold Her Pastries on Her Doorstep. Now They’re Sold at Starbucks
Meghan Ritchie claims she’s held nearly every odd job in New York City — a daunting accomplishment, for sure.
At 18, she moved to the city to attend college to study theater. To support herself, she did everything from assisting a Broadway actor to knocking on doors asking and for donations to clean up toxic waste sites.
And she waited tables — a lot of tables.
When she took on another side gig in 2007 — selling doughnuts on her front stoop — she never expected it would turn into the national, Starbucks-recognized business she owns today.
A Pastry Chef’s Humble Beginnings
Now 35, Ritchie has always enjoyed baking, so back in 2007, she decided to capitalize on her doughnuts and start a business.
She baked them in her apartment kitchen with her roommate. Then, once a week, they’d set up shop on the front stoop. They didn’t even use a table, instead displaying the trays of treats on the stairs.
“We were definitely a profitable small business,” she says. “But we never really counted our money.”
About two years in, Ritchie decided she no longer wanted to make doughnuts, which went stale quickly. After a baking hiatus, she returned to the stoop in the fall of 2011 with scones and hand-pies (moon-shaped pies baked with whole fruit).
These evolved into Megpies, she says — fancy, homemade Pop Tarts filled with preserves and topped off with icing — inspired by her grandma.
“That’s where this all really started,” Ritchie says, referring to her beloved front stoop.
How a Side Gig Becomes a Small Business
In early 2012, Ritchie became an assistant at a jam shop. The gig involved slicing, dicing and zesting fruit.
Her boss had seen Megpies listed on Ritchie’s extensive resume and asked her to sell her scones and tarts alongside the jams on her first day, which she did at a local market.
Ritchie also started selling her products to local cafés — the ones she passed on her five-mile bike commute to the jam shop each morning.
She popped into these shops, gave the owners a rundown of her infant business and left a plate of treats after a “just think about it” proposal.
It worked.
From her apartment kitchen, Ritchie began churning out about 100-150 scones and 300 tarts a week. She used the jam shop kitchen to prep the dough for the tarts, then toted it all back home at night to bake.
“I would pile everything on the back of the bike — like 90 pounds of frozen dough,” she says. She’d wake, bake, then make bicycle deliveries as she headed back to work at the jam shop.
The Growing Pains of a Small Business
As her business grew, Ritchie’s boyfriend, Paul Jones, helped her in the apartment kitchen, “as a good boyfriend would,” Ritchie says. The kitchen soon became too small.
Around July 2012, the couple found a restaurant with a large kitchen used solely for event catering. It was rarely used, so Ritchie bartered: She’d dedicate 10 hours a week to help the pastry chef in exchange for use of the space.
Even though she was able to drop her jam shop gig, Ritchie found herself working ridiculous hours: Wake up at 1:45 a.m. and head to the restaurant to work on Megpies and the restaurant’s desserts — then return home around 8 p.m. to sleep and repeat.
During this time, she produced thousands of tarts a week, so Jones stepped in to make the morning bicycle deliveries. He also began selling the products to more people and businesses.
“He’s wonderful with people in a way I am not,” Ritchie says.
Once again, the tarts took over the space, so they hunted for something even bigger. Through connections, Ritchie and Jones found a kitchen full of equipment that was no longer being used by the tenants. As long as Ritchie and Jones paid utilities, they could use the space.
Finally, Ritchie kept normal hours, and she had more space. She even hired an assistant. The team could now produce about 3,000 tarts a week. (They voted to ditch the scones.)
Cue more growing pains. Caught between taking out a loan for a larger space (think: NYC rent) and co-manufacturing, Ritchie opted for the latter.
So, for the first time since the business started, Ritchie paired up with a third-party professional baker whose team produced and packaged Megpies. This took a little bit of the baking burden away from Ritchie.
Getting Into Business With Starbucks
Soon, Megpies found itself teetering on a big break.
A woman Jones knew from elementary school worked at QVC. She connected the couple to her associate, who helped them scale the business to meet the anticipated demand from TV shoppers.
Unfortunately, the process just didn’t work out for Megpies. However, the associate was also connected with Starbucks and mentioned a possible partnership.
Then six months passed.
“Finally he called, and said ‘OK, we’re a go,’” Ritchie remembers. Megpies fit the description of a small, locally-born business, which Starbucks was pushing to pair with. Thus, the partnership was born.
“We were excited that a company like Starbucks would be interested in us, but, as a small business, you’re always wary,” Ritchie explains. “How much control do you have to give up? Are they just out to make as much money as possible? You just don’t know.”
Ritchie says she’s been pleasantly surprised. The folks at Starbucks have been willing to help Megpies grow at a much faster pace than Ritchie ever anticipated. The company provides resources and answers any questions that pop up.
Megpies still operates independently of the big coffee mogul. Starbucks is just giving them the platform to sell — and a whole lot more shelf space than any local shop.
Megpies also began operating in an additional co-manufacturing space to comply with federal food-safety protocols.
“Again, we found somebody who knew somebody,” Ritchie says of the family-owned bakery.
The big, national launch was July 12. That’s when brown sugar and strawberry Megpies suddenly appeared on nearly 7,500 company-owned Starbucks coffee shop shelves.
Now, with more than 7,500 accounts, Ritchie projects Megpies will make 10 times the money it made last year when they only had about 70 accounts.
Ritchie’s Business Advice
Ritchie describes the quick expansion as “learning on the go.”
“It’s been an interesting learning curve,” she says.
Although Ritchie isn’t baking anymore, she’s still just as involved in Megpies as she ever was. She handles all of the production logistics — from the baker and transportation to the storage and retailer.
Jones handles sales operations. “We’ve figured out our own talents and where we are flawed and are able to pick up each other’s slack.”
Ritchie’s biggest pieces of advice: Don’t worry about getting everything perfect — and don’t sink a lot of money into anything just yet.
“Start something for as cheap or as free as you can,” she explains. “Don’t even make it a legal business at first. Test out your market. If you’re making food, see if you can sell it at a bake sale to see what people like.”
And Ritchie, who was at first hesitant to enter those small coffee shops, now encourages people to not shy away from opportunities thrown at you.
“Be willing and open,” she explains. “If you’d asked me what this company would be in 2011, I would have a totally different answer for you than I do now. We’ve just been really willing to take the ride.”
And take advice. “If you don’t know how to do something, ask,” she says.
Your Turn: Have you turned a side gig or passion into a career?
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 This Woman Sold Her Pastries on Her Doorstep. Now They’re Sold at Starbucks appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.
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House prices 'soften' in August, says Halifax
House prices dropped by 0.2% between July and August, putting the average property in the UK at £213,930 – down by nearly £3,000 since June’s EU referendum, the latest data from Halifax reveals.
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Seven in ten households could save hundreds by switching energy tariff
Nearly seven in ten households (66%) are on expensive standard variable energy tariffs and could save by switching, according to the latest figures from the energy regulator.
Ofgem says people can save over £300 by ditching expensive standard variable tariffs for the cheapest deal, often a fixed-term tariff.
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Debt problems hit record high
The number of people seeking help with debt problems has hit a record high already in 2016, according to new research from StepChange.
Figures released by the debt charity today, show that over 300,000 people sought advice from it between January and June, the highest half-year number the charity has ever seen.
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Looking to switch current account? Get £200 with HSBC
HSBC has revived its £200 sign-up offer for people who switch to its Advance or Premier current accounts, though you’ll need substantial savings or a £21,000 annual income (post tax) to qualify.
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Why Retirement Is Out and Financial Independence Is In
“How late it is to begin to live just when we must cease to live. What foolish forgetfulness of mortality to postpone wholesome plans to the fiftieth and sixtieth year, and to intend to begin life at a point to which few have attained!”
-Seneca
In November of 2013 I lost my job.
I was my family’s sole income earner at the time. My wife and I had a one-year-old son and our second was due in a month.
A nightmare scenario, right? Time to update the resume, apply for jobs like crazy, and hope I can find a steady paycheck before we default on the mortgage, right?
Wrong.
Instead of all that, I decided to start my own business. And we decided to move cross-country. And my wife decided to start her own business. And we had our second kid.
And we survived.
It’s been just about three years since that fateful day and we still haven’t figured it all out. But we’re making enough money to support ourselves, we both love the work we’re doing, and we both have the flexibility we wanted to spend time with our kids on our own terms.
My job loss wasn’t a catastrophe. It was an opportunity to build the life we truly wanted. That’s what’s possible when you stop saving for retirement and start striving for financial independence.
Why Retirement Is Old-Fashioned
Let’s get something out of the way right up front: This isn’t one of those #YOLO rants about spending your money today because you might die tomorrow. I’m not encouraging you to be reckless, and I don’t think you should stop saving money.
But retirement is an old-fashioned goal. It assumes that you graduate college, get a job, work for 40+ years, reach 65, quit your job, and finally do all those things you waited your entire life to do.
And maybe that’s exactly what you want to do. But what if it’s not? What if you want to:
- Be home with your kids
- Live in another country for a year
- Start a business
- Volunteer
- Turn Fridays into “date day” with your spouse
Should you really put those things off, or in some cases abandon them completely, in pursuit of some abstract day decades in the future when you get to quit your job?
Is that really the big life goal you want to pursue?
What Is Financial Independence?
Retirement shouldn’t be your big life goal. Financial independence is a much more ambitious and exciting objective.
I define financial independence like this:
The ability to make decisions based on what makes you happy instead of what makes you money.
It’s the point at which money stops being the limiting factor and starts enabling you to live the life you want.
And the great thing about financial independence is that it’s not all or nothing. You can reach it in varying degrees at all different stages of life.
Let’s take a look at what that means.
The Ultimate Goal
The ultimate goal is full financial independence, which is the point at which you have enough money in savings and investments to support yourself for the rest of your life.
It’s similar to the goal of retirement, except that it has nothing to do with age or employment.
You can get there in your 60s. You can get there in your 30s. Or your 40s. Or your 70s. Age is irrelevant.
You can stop working when you get there. Or you could keep working, if you found it fulfilling. Or you could decide to start a business, or a charity, or volunteer to teach at your child’s school, or get really good at drums. Employment is irrelevant.
Just like retirement, it’s important to save ahead for this goal, because at some point you’ll stop earning an income, either by choice or necessity.
The big difference is the scope of what’s possible. When you think about it this way, you have a lot more freedom to be creative about when you reach full financial independence and what you do when you get there.
Finding Freedom Along the Way
While full financial independence is the ultimate goal, it’s not the only goal worth pursuing.
Along the way you can attain partial financial independence, which is simply when you have the financial resources to make lifestyle decisions that make you happy, even when they’re not financially optimal.
My wife and I fell into this second category three years ago. We didn’t have enough money to support ourselves forever, but we did have enough to support ourselves for over a year, even if we earned nothing.
Our partial financial independence allowed us to take an unconventional path in pursuit of the life we wanted, without sacrificing our family’s financial security.
Your partial financial independence might allow you to switch to a single income, leave a job you don’t like, travel, donate your time to causes you support, or whatever it is you’d love to do if only you didn’t need that next paycheck.
When you can separate your survival from your income, even temporarily, that’s financial independence.
What Would You Do Differently?
More than anything, financial independence is a change in mindset.
You don’t need to grit your teeth through a job you hate just so you can eventually quit decades down the line. Instead, you can get creative and use your money to do the things that excite you, both now and in the future.
So tell me, what would you do differently if you knew you’d be okay, even without a paycheck for the next year? What about your life would you want to change? And how can you start making that possible today?
Matt Becker is a fee-only financial planner and the founder of Mom and Dad Money, where he helps new parents take control of their money so they can take care of their families. His free book, The New Family Financial Road Map, guides parents through the all most important financial decisions that come with starting a family.
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- 31 Days to Financial Independence (Intro and Day 1): The Shallows and the Deep
- It’s Not ‘Early Retirement,’ It’s ‘Walk Away Money’
- Financial Independence on a Smaller Income
- 10 Steps To Turn Financial Disaster Into Financial Independence
The post Why Retirement Is Out and Financial Independence Is In appeared first on The Simple Dollar.
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Hargreaves Lansdown adds tracker funds to Wealth 150 Plus for the first time
The UK’s biggest fund platform has finally added tracker funds to its select ‘buy’ list of funds. This is the first time that passive tracker funds have been included on Hargreaves Lansdown’s influential Wealth 150, since the list was launched in 2003.
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28-Day Case Study: Can You Make Money Entering Giveaways?
By Holly Reisem Hanna Recently, I read two articles on how people are making money entering sweepstakes: How to Make Money Entering Giveaways for a Living Side Hustle Series: How I Make Money Entering Giveaways While both articles gave some useful tips for getting started, neither went into detail about how much money you can […]
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