Taxpayer money is making its way back to the Poconos, in the form of a $600,000 grant being awarded to East Stroudsburg University from the federal Economic Development Administration.The grant is to be allocated towards the university’s Business Accelerator Program, a series of services intended to develop and sustain business and capital in the Northeast Pennsylvania region.According to the ESU website, the program serves as a "temporary home that provides resources [...]
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الجمعة، 23 سبتمبر 2016
Bushkill student inducted to SUNY honors program
NEW PALTZ, N.Y. — Molly Minor, of Bushkill, was inducted into the SUNY New Paltz honors program for fall 2016.The honors program seeks to develop and intensify skills from a conceptual point of view in a diverse multidisciplinary analytical environment that nurtures independent thinking, creativity, respect and social responsibility. The program promotes deep engagement with ideas through an innovative pedagogy and creative interdisciplinary curriculum.New Paltz's [...]
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Source Business - poconorecord.com http://ift.tt/2cJAF8A
Why Don’t More Retailers Accept American Express? Merchant Fees.
If you carry an American Express credit card, you probably already know the drill. Once you’re done shopping and ready to make a purchase, you approach the checkout counter at some random store. But instead of swiping your favorite AmEx card, you catch a peek of the one sign you didn’t want to see – “American Express not accepted.”
This is an unfortunate scenario, but it’s one that plays out time and time again. Due to high American Express merchant fees, many retailers cannot – or will not – accept American Express as payment. Keep reading to learn more about the way American Express operates, and how you can avoid a letdown at the register.
What’s the Deal with American Express Merchant Fees?
First things first. Before we talk about alternative payment options, let’s talk about why many retailers don’t take AmEx in the first place. As with anything else, all you have to do is follow the money to understand this phenomenon.
Where most other card issuers charge retailers a 2% to 3% transaction fee on each bill in exchange for accepting credit card as payment, American Express merchant fees are more like 3.5%. While that might not sound like a huge difference, it adds up. A store who survives on razor-thin markups can’t afford to lose an extra percent of profit margin, while a large retailer who does hundreds of thousands of dollars in sales every day or every week stands to lose a tremendous amount of money if they’re routinely paying AmEx merchant fees.
With that in mind, many retailers have chosen not to accept American Express altogether. They assume that most consumers have another form of payment they can use anyway — and, most of the time, they’re right.
At this point, you’re probably wondering how and why American Express charges a higher transaction fee. It all boils down to their business model, how they earn profits, and the type of customer they serve.
Where some credit card issuers earn most of their profits when consumers pay interest on their balances, American Express pegs its earnings on the annual fees their clients pay, along with swipe fees paid by retailers. In addition, American Express offers a wide range of charge cards that don’t even allow consumers to carry a balance from month to month. With charge cards, swipe fees and annual fees are the only feasible way for card issuers to turn a profit.
Should You Get an American Express Credit Card?
While not all retailers and merchants accept American Express, there’s a reason they remain so popular among consumers. While you might have to use an alternative form of payment every once in a while, you can still benefit heavily from having the right American Express card in your wallet.
With the Blue Cash Preferred® Card from American Express, for example, you can earn 6% back on your first $6,000 in grocery store purchases every year. This card does charge an annual fee, but you can make up for that in a hurry with such a high rate of return on your grocery spending. Plus, this card comes with a signup bonus to boot.
And if you don’t want to pay an annual fee, you can always sign up for the Blue Cash Everyday® Card from American Express instead. You’ll escape the annual fee with this one, but you’ll still get 3% back on your first $6,000 in grocery spending every year, along with 2% back at gas stations and 1% back on everything else.
In addition to these cards, American Express offers an array of top-notch travel credit cards and rewards cards for business and personal use. If you’re interested in learning which cards offer the best benefits, check out our new guide on the best American Express cards currently on the market.
- Related: Best American Express Credit Cards
Final Thoughts
If you’re thinking of getting an American Express card, don’t let a few retailers that don’t accept the card stand in your way of their lucrative rewards. While a handful of merchants don’t want to pay the extra fees, the majority of businesses are more than happy to accept American Express if it means gaining your business.
To protect yourself from an awkward situation at the checkout, however, you should carry at least one other form of payment with you at all times. It can be another credit card from a different issuer, a debit card from your bank, or even cold, hard cash. As long as you have at least one way to pay that doesn’t involve an American Express card, just in case, you’ll be fine.
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Have you ever had trouble using American Express before? Do you carry an American Express card? Please share your story below.
The post Why Don’t More Retailers Accept American Express? Merchant Fees. appeared first on The Simple Dollar.
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Dishing up convenience
A Gerrity's supermarket on the West End is a step closer to reality.Chestnuthill Township supervisors approved a conditional use application for the supermarket in a planned large-scale shopping center in Mount Effort.The Mount Effort Development Company plans to build a Gerrity's first and then proceed with rest of the shopping center project on the mostly vacant lot.“We are getting calls all the time from residents about the distances they have to [...]
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Source Business - poconorecord.com http://ift.tt/2d6fAXP
Macy’s is Hiring Tons of Seasonal Workers Next Week. Here’s How to Apply
It’s the most wonderful time of the year!
Sometimes. Other times, I can be a bit of a grinch amidst the chaos of the holidays. But there are those moments — those ones where I stop and realize that it is a great time of the year.
One of those moments? This sounds ridiculous, but it’s those darn Macy’s commercials. You know, those star-studded, heart-warming minute-long jigs. That, and “Home Alone.”
Anyhow, the retail mogul known for its holiday spirit is hiring for the season.
Macy’s is Hiring Tons of Seasonal Employees
Mark your calendar. Macy’s just announced a huge, national hiring event. Macy’s is hosting hiring fairs on Sept. 30, 2-8 p.m. at various locations (see if your area is in the running).
It’s looking to fill a variety of seasonal team positions, from retail sales to stock to beauty advisors. Regular and flexible work is available.
It’s important to note that, as a team member, you might be asked to stay before and after closing, work early mornings and late evenings — even weekends and holidays.
However, to pocket some extra money during this paycheck-guzzling time, this seems pretty worth it.
So What’s It Take Take to Work at Macy’s?
In general, you don’t need any previous retail experience, though it’s preferred. But you’ll be trained beforehand, so no worries.
You need to know how to read, write and have some basic math knowledge (nothing too fancy — mostly addition, subtraction, multiplication and division). However, this is not elementary school, so you can use a calculator. (Thank goodness.)
There might also be some physical demands. Nothing intense — no Insanity workouts — but you should be able to lift at least 30 pounds and keep moving about during a shift.
For specific positions…well, you can learn more about those on Macy’s site. But here’s a rundown of a few notable ones.
If you’re a people person, you might be well-suited for a sales position. You’ll connect with customers by asking questions, offering advice and saying “Oh, that looks so good on you!” You’ll also need to keep things tidy and presentable (think: fitting rooms).
If you don’t like people as much, you might opt for a stocking position. You know when there’s those big sales? You’ll work to change prices. You’ll also organize and maintain merchandise and replenish items on the floor as needed. You’re the one who pulls merch for online orders, too.
Maybe you enjoy makeup more than clothes. You could work as a beauty advisor — the one who explains and demonstrates products and might even apply some lotions or makeup to people’s facial areas — be careful with that, please.
To get info on all the positions, you can check out Macy’s career page. And don’t forget to stop by your local store on Sept. 30 for the big hiring-palooza.
Best of luck!
If you’re interested in other seasonal jobs — or jobs in general — check out our Facebook Jobs page.
Your Turn: Are you thinking about attending the job fair?
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 Macy’s is Hiring Tons of Seasonal Workers Next Week. Here’s How to Apply appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.
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Are You a Woman Studying STEM in College? Pornhub Wants to Give You $25K
“Are you a woman pursuing an education in STEM? Are you awesome?”
If you answered “yes” to both of those questions — and if you didn’t answer “yes” to at least one of them, we should talk — an unusual source wants to help you pay for college.
For the second year, Pornhub Cares, the pornography site’s charitable arm, will award a $25,000 scholarship to a woman studying a STEM field at a postsecondary institution.
How to Apply for the Women in Tech Scholarship
By Nov. 30, eligible students should submit a 1,000- to 1,500-word essay that answers the question, “How are you working toward making the world a better place?”
There’s an optional extra-credit step: Submit a two- to five-minute video that “elaborates on the good work that you do and anything else you might want to say.”
Applicants should be “standout” students who contribute to their communities, the site explains, and notes that “originality always scores bonus points.”
You must be at least 18 when you apply, and you need to include your resume and transcript (3.0 GPA or higher) with your essay. The scholarship is open to college and grad students worldwide.
Why is a Porn Site Offering a College Scholarship?
Pornhub explains that its website wouldn’t run without a strong team of developers and other tech-savvy employees.
“Women are vastly underrepresented in tech, with the latest diversity reports estimating that women are filling as little as just 20-30% of positions in the field,” the scholarship page notes.
Last year’s winner, MaryAnn Uribe, was chosen for her “compelling personal essay that described her grit and can-do attitude in the face of adversity,” reports the Washington Post.
“We were looking for someone who spread happiness and effected positive change,” Pornhub’s vice president, Corey Price, told the paper. “She’s been through a lot. … When negative things happened, she really stood up for herself.”
Meanwhile, Pornhub Cares is involved in a variety of initiatives unrelated to its main business: a partnership with PETA to encourage spaying and neutering pets; donating proceeds to whale-conservation efforts, and sponsoring a limited-edition clothing line to fund programs to end domestic violence.
The brand recently sponsored fashion brand Hood by Air’s spring/summer 2017 runway show at New York Fashion Week. The line’s shows are usually conversation-worthy, but this season’s show got some extra giggles — and some raised eyebrows — from attendees and online commentators.
Your Turn: Will you apply for this scholarship?
Lisa Rowan is a writer and producer for The Penny Hoarder.
The post Are You a Woman Studying STEM in College? Pornhub Wants to Give You $25K appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.
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Three months since Brexit vote - how has the market fared?
It’s been three months since Britain voted to leave the EU, and even though the actual leaving process is still to begin, the stock markets have responded.
We take a look at what investments have performed well, which have sunk, and which just look too unpleasant to be around.
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No More Excuses: You Can Now Register to Vote on Your Phone (in 5 Minutes!)
OK, so I have a confession to make: This post isn’t exactly about money. At least not like many of our other helpful, tips-filled posts.
But it is about something really, super, wicked important: registering to vote. So my amazing editor is letting me write it.
(Help a sister out and share this post, will ya? Show her you think this topic is important, too?)
The election is only a few months away. And though voting is always part of your civic duty, I’d venture to say it’s even more critical this year.
And a startup called HelloVote is making it easier than ever to register: All you need is a cell phone.
Translation: You have ZERO excuses not to do it…
How to Register to Vote with HelloVote
This new platform is the easiest way EVER to register to vote. Here’s what you have to do:
- Enter your phone number on this page, or text HELLO to 384-387.
- The chatbot will ask you a series of questions.
- In some states, you’re all done — HelloVote submits your registration for you.
In other states, the company sends you a pre-filled form by email.
Don’t have a printer? It’ll send you a pre-filled form by mail, along with a stamped envelope — so all you have to do is sign and mail it.
You also have the option to do everything via Facebook Messenger, rather than text message.
And you don’t have to be nervous about giving out your details: HelloVote promises your information is securely encrypted.
The platform was created by two nonprofit digital rights advocacy groups, so in its words: “We take your privacy seriously and we would never do anything shady with your information.”
Registering to vote doesn’t get easier than this.
Since I’m already registered, I asked our staff writer Dana Sitar to try it out. She said the “questions are in a friendly tone and super easy to answer.”
When she didn’t know which address she’d registered with previously, she opted to skip the question — and proceeded without a hitch.
At the end, she chose the print-it-yourself option.
“It emailed my form, filled out and ready to sign with the address pre-filled AND postage paid,” she explained. “It included super-easy instructions and big bold text where I might have to add information to the form.”
The TL;DR, according to Sitar? “It’s quite awesome.”
Because you’ll complete the process in a few minutes (without even getting in your car), you’ll save precious time — time you could use to work, start a side hustle or read up on the importance of saving for retirement.
Not to mention, voting is one of the best ways to affect economic policies that could have a HUGE impact on your finances in the long run.
Don’t you want to have a voice? I thought so.
Please, register to vote. Like, now.
Your Turn: Are you registered yet? What do you think of HelloVote?
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.
The post No More Excuses: You Can Now Register to Vote on Your Phone (in 5 Minutes!) appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.
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How Any Small Business Can Compete with the Big Boys Using SEO and Social Media
I get it.
I understand how brutal it can be—trying to market your small business in a world of billion-dollar businesses and multi-million dollar marketing budgets.
You have a limited budget, limited time, limited knowledge, and a limited arsenal of tactics that you can afford to implement.
But the big brands? They can do anything they want, hire as many people as they want, and unleash any tactic they want.
Today’s small businesses are forced to compete in an increasingly saturated marketplace.
The competition is fierce, and it has become incredibly difficult to rise above the noise.
Combine this with the massive disparity between a small business’s marketing budget and a much larger enterprise’s seemingly infinite resources, and it’s obvious that the cards are stacked against small businesses.
In fact, finding new customers is one of the top concerns of small business owners, and 66% claim this is the biggest issue they face.
How can small businesses tip the scales in their favor and go head to head with mega juggernauts?
It all boils down to two specific marketing strategies: SEO and social media.
When done correctly, these strategies can help any small business compete with the big boys.
I’ve been able to help small businesses do exactly that—upset the sumo-wrestler-size businesses in their niche.
It’s part of the glory of digital marketing. Anyone can compete. Anyone can succeed.
Even the little guy.
You just have to know how.
Leveling the playing field
The beautiful thing about these two mediums—SEO and social media—is that they are impartial. They show no favoritism.
Google doesn’t care what business is offering which product. It’s just looking to provide users with the best and most relevant results.
The same goes for social media.
It doesn’t matter if it’s a brand new startup bootstrapping its marketing or a well established company that’s been around for years.
You can still achieve significant exposure as long as you understand the process and how to reach your demographic effectively.
While it is true that there will be inherent difficulty outranking a behemoth like Amazon or Walmart on search engines and you’re unlikely to gain the same size of a social media following as a corporate titan, the right know-how definitely makes it possible for small businesses to gain traction.
It’s a matter of implementing the right techniques and having an understanding of the processes that are working at the moment.
Small businesses benefit the most from social media
A 2011 Social Media Marketing Industry Report came up with some interesting findings in terms of who benefited the most from social media.
According to their findings, 90% of respondents agreed social media was important to their businesses.
The interesting thing is that 67% of self-employed individuals and 66% of small business owners were more likely to strongly agree with this statement.
In terms of the specific advantages, 88% of respondents said the top benefit was increased exposure for their businesses.
Second, at 72%, was increased traffic/subscribers.
With roughly two-thirds of all small business owners claiming social media was important to their businesses, it’s clear that a well run campaign can have a significant impact.
You also have to take into account the possibility for going viral and seeing massive growth in an extremely short period of time.
If you really understand your audience and know how to connect with them on social media, you can not only gain exposure but also earn your audience’s loyalty and bring repeat business.
So in theory, a no-name startup can experience wide scale exposure overnight and get a flood of traffic along with off the chart sales.
Killing it at SEO
There’s no denying that search engines have forever changed the way we find information and the way businesses approach marketing.
To put some perspective on things, “Google processes over 40,000 search queries every second on average, which translates to over 3.5 billion searches per day and 1.2 trillion searches per year worldwide.”
Wow! That’s a lot.
But let’s be honest. Small businesses stand little to no chance of outranking colossal companies for broad search terms.
But when small businesses use smart tactics like long-tail keyword phrases, they have a realistic chance to outrank the big boys.
Here’s a very simple example.
I entered the keywords “razor blade” on Google—a very broad search term.
As you might expect, the top results were dominated by Amazon:
Then I entered a more specific and much narrower search term, “best double edged razor blades.”
Here are the results:
As you can see, much smaller companies are getting the top results, and Amazon is the very last entry on the first page.
Of course, the more specific, long-tail, keywords won’t get as many searches as the broad ones. But they can still generate a lot of quality organic traffic.
This allows small SEO-savvy businesses to consistently bring in a stream of leads that are ready to buy.
My hyper-simplistic example by no means demonstrates the full potential of SEO for small businesses. It simply proves that small businesses can in fact compete with their much larger counterparts.
Ideal for small marketing budgets
What’s the primary advantage large companies have over small ones? Money.
Of course, they have a plethora of other advantages like more brand equity, a formal marketing department, an HR department, etc.
But when you break it all down, big businesses can easily have hundreds of thousands, or even millions, of dollars to funnel into their marketing campaigns each year.
On the other hand, small startups may be on a shoestring budget, and $50,000 annually may seem like a lot.
Fortunately, legitimate SEO and social media campaigns can be run without a lot of financial backing.
This is especially true when you do everything in-house.
Rather than hiring a high priced marketing agency, small businesses can cut back on their costs significantly by having staff members run their campaigns.
Instead of a financial investment, a time investment can bring about legitimate results.
The point I’m trying to make here is that SEO and social media are both cost-effective marketing channels and can be very affordable if you’re willing to put in the time.
In fact, “those who spend at least six hours per week are almost twice as likely to see leads generated as those who spend five or fewer hours.”
While small companies probably won’t have the budget for expensive mediums like TV commercials or paying big-named influencers like Taylor Swift to promote their products, they can almost always afford SEO and social media.
And when they really know what they’re doing and stay up-to-date on cutting-edge techniques, there’s absolutely no reason why they can’t compete with the big boys.
How can I thrive on SEO and social media?
I’ll be totally upfront with you.
Seldom can you just launch an SEO or social media campaign and get instant results.
And quite frankly, it’s not as easy as it looks.
On paper, it might seem like you simply perform some rudimentary keyword research or post a cool article on your Facebook and Twitter accounts.
Then presto, an influx of traffic floods your site, and your product flies off the shelf.
But that’s just not how it works.
To truly reap the benefits of these marketing strategies, you need to develop an in-depth understanding of the process, go through trial and error, and have plenty of patience.
You also need to stay in the know of what’s going on and continually make adjustments as new trends unfold.
But nonetheless, you definitely can thrive as long as you “get it” and persevere.
The good thing is, there is an abundance of free resources online that will teach you everything you need to know.
Sites like Moz, HubSpot, Quick Sprout, Social Media Examiner, and Search Engine Journal are just a few that can guide your efforts.
So, let’s briefly examine some specific ways you can position your small business to compete with large competitors.
Effective SEO strategies
For starters, it pays to be niche-centric with your approach.
Ideally, your business will cater to a fairly narrow target audience.
Rather than trying to be everything to everyone, you’re usually better off focusing on a smaller demographic and being the company that’s best capable of meeting their unique needs.
This mainly revolves around using long-tail keywords rather than trying to rank for broad terms.
Let’s go back to my example about “razor blades” and “best double edged razor blades.”
While the former keyword phrase would be extremely difficult to rank for, the latter is a realistic possibility.
In fact, small businesses were able to rank for it and bring in a reasonable amount of traffic and leads.
It’s also important that you pursue link-building opportunities.
According to Moz, domain-level link features, such as quality of links, trust, domain-level PageRank, etc., were the number one influencing factor on Google algorithm in 2015.
You can accelerate your SEO campaign exponentially by reaching out to and building relationships with influencers and top publications. If you’re able to get links from reputable sites, this can be the catalyst for a spike in your search rankings.
Some other strategies include:
- Creating valuable content that’s based around user intent (e.g., answering common questions and addressing customer pain points)
- Performing on-site optimization (e.g., incorporating keywords into your URL, headers, meta description, etc.)
- Optimizing your site for mobile
Potent social media strategies
I love social media because it gives small businesses the opportunity to convey their identities and build highly personalized relationships with their audiences.
You can showcase your swagger and let consumers know why your company is worth doing business with.
It may sound a little cheesy, but I think the most important part of finding success on social media is to be yourself.
I, for example, am building my strategy with the specific goal of reaching MY customers and not worrying about the masses.
This coincides with Seth Godin’s concept of building a tribe (a community) around your brand.
Like the old saying goes, “Try to please everyone, and you’ll end up pleasing no one.”
Dollar Shave Club is a great example of a brand that embraces being itself.
Their off-kilter, slightly smart-ass marketing messages are unforgettable and definitely appeal to a certain segment of the population.
Saying things like, “Our blades are f**king great” is ballsy. But it’s hard to deny that this attitude has been a key contributor to their success.
Another integral element of a well run social media campaign is to be constantly engaging your audience.
Whether it’s retweeting epic content relevant to your niche, responding to comments on your Facebook page, inviting others to connect on LinkedIn, or asking questions to ignite digital discussions, it’s important that you’re interacting.
In other words, be on the offense.
The great thing about social is that it can actually be used as an outlet for handling certain aspects of customer service.
People love giving their feedback via social channels, which gives you an opportunity to strengthen relationships and quickly fix escalating situations when the feedback happens to be negative.
It’s also essential that you’re using the right networks.
Each social network has its own demographic and appeals to a different segment of the population. You want to make sure you’re spending your time on the networks your core audience is using.
For example, if your target audience is primarily female, Pinterest would be one of your best bets because 81% of Pinterest users are female.
Some other strategies include the following:
- Use a consistent tone and style to strengthen your brand identity
- Be authentic
- Provide genuinely useful and valuable content
- Use plenty of images (people respond favorably to visuals)
- Maintain a consistent presence (e.g., don’t go MIA for months on end)
- Curate content as well as create your own
- Use analytics to measure your results and make the necessary adjustments
- Consider using tools like HootSuite and Buffer to automate some aspects of your marketing (e.g., scheduling posts ahead of time)
Conclusion
In my opinion, the current day and age is the most exciting ever for small business owners.
While in the past, smaller enterprises almost always had to play second fiddle to huge companies and “pick up the marketing scraps,” these days, it’s totally possible for them to compete and even thrive.
Even if you just recently launched a startup and have to watch every penny, you can still get ahead and create massive exposure for your brand.
By getting on board with SEO and social media and understanding the nuts and bolts of these mediums, you can gain traction in your industry and drive quality leads to your site.
Can you think of any other marketing strategies that level the playing field between small and large businesses?
Source Quick Sprout http://ift.tt/2cyWYjO
Half a billion Yahoo accounts stolen by hackers – Sky & BT email customers also at risk
Yahoo has confirmed the accounts of 500 million people were stolen in 2014, in what the company has dubbed a “state sponsored attack” – meaning it believes another country’s government is behind the hack.
Source Moneywise http://ift.tt/2dgh9pD
Five Strategies for Finding Other Frugal and Financial Independence Minded People
One of the biggest concerns that people have when they’re financially rebooting their life is how they’re going to find people to fill their social circle. Many, many people have social circles that engage in activities that are expensive – a constant cycle of going out for dinners, drinking at bars, going clothes shopping together, and so on – and while you might be fine with stepping back from those activities, it’s often much more challenging to step back from the connections with people.
If all of your friends are spenders, what do you do when you choose to step back from all of that spending?
It’s a question I faced myself during the early stages of our financial turnaround. My main social circle prior to that consisted of a group of young professionals in my field at the time. They went out for drinks most nights after work. They often went out for meals together. They went golfing on the weekends. Sometimes, they’d shop together. They’d constantly try to one-up each other with purchases, particularly regarding clothing, electronics, cars, and luxury experiences like eating at a new restaurant.
Frankly, it was incredibly expensive to hang out with those people. Virtually every activity I did with them involved shelling out money left and right.
It was readily apparent that if I wanted a financially stable life where I could build toward my big dream of financial independence, I had to make some big changes to how I spent my time after work and on the weekends. However, doing so meant that I would have to walk away from this social circle I had built.
I did it anyway.
Today, I easily have a larger social circle than I had then, but there was a rough period of transition where I had to figure out how frugal and financially responsible people found friends. Here are the strategies that really worked for us.
Invite people in your social group to do more financially responsible things. As we started to withdraw from the more expensive social lifestyle, we didn’t just cut ourselves off from our friends. Instead, we made a concerted effort to invite those friends to do other things that weren’t perhaps as financially strenuous.
We hosted dinner parties (more on this in a bit). We invited people to go to free community concerts with us. We invited people to play disc golf with us. We invited people to picnic and hike with us.
What happened is that some people just weren’t interested at all and they somewhat faded out of our life (this was the largest group, but not overwhelmingly so). Another set of people went along with it simply because they liked our friendship. A third group loved it and were glad to have an excuse to get off of the spending train and still have people to hang out with.
To this day, I still have good friends who were part of that initial group of overspenders that I hung out with back then. They weren’t driven away by our lifestyle changes; instead, they were fine with the change or, in some cases, very glad to see it.
You might find that changing your activities doesn’t mean losing your friends after all.
Look at Meetup.com (and the community calendar) for things that might interest you. While it’s easy to come up with a handful of cheap ideas off the top of your head, almost everyone eventually starts to run short on ideas of fun things to do on the cheap. That’s where Meetup.com and other “community calendar” services really come in handy.
Just look on Meetup and see what kinds of events are in your area. Combine that with a search through the community calendars of your town/city and all adjacent towns/cities to see what’s going on there. Add on top of that the calendars from the libraries and parks and rec departments in your town/city and nearby towns/cities as well as the calendars from nearby universities.
When you go through that huge pile of events, you’re probably going to find a bunch that you’re not interested in. Even if you discard 95% of the events as not interesting to you, you’re still going to have a pile of options to explore almost every night of the week.
Dig through them. Explore each of them. See if they’re for you. There’s a good chance that somewhere in that flood of options is something that will really click with you, full of people who are likely to become your future friends.
Be outgoing when you attend public events. This is hard for some people. I know – I’m introverted myself and I can bottle up tight when I’m in a group of people I don’t know very well.
Over the years, though, I’ve learned two things about situations like this. One, many of the people in the room feel the same way as you. They’re introverts. They don’t feel comfortable talking either. If a room full of introverts gets together, no one talks and you get the impression that everyone’s unfriendly when that’s not actually the case.
Two, if you keep to yourself, the only way you’ll ever talk to people is if an extroverted person happens to notice you and chooses to focus on you for a while or a courageous introvert does the same. If neither of those happens, you’re going to sit in the corner and probably not have any fun.
So talk to someone. Don’t worry about making a fool of yourself – if it turns out that you do and you don’t click with anyone, you don’t ever have to come back. Start some conversations.
I find that the easiest way to start a conversation is to ask that person about themselves or about their perspective on what’s happening with that group. There are few better ways to get a conversation started than to just ask someone else to talk about themselves or their own thoughts. Listen. Ask questions. Don’t just jump in with your own thoughts, at least not right away. You’ll find that things go quite well if you do things that way.
If you find this really hard, I strongly recommend reading How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie. It’s a very effective book if you treat it as a “how-to” for social occasions for introverted people. Yes, some of the examples are a little dated – this book was written decades ago – but the principles still work like an absolute charm.
Look for people in your life that you might have otherwise overlooked. Whenever we enter into a new environment, we often build relationships with certain people and overlook others due to pure happenstance. Someone happens to talk to us and a conversation begins while you just happened to miss someone else in the breakroom.
Are there any people in your workplace that you perhaps don’t know well but seem to have always gotten along with? What about any people in other civic or religious organizations you might participate in?
Quite often, there’s a treasure trove of interesting people and potential friendships on the periphery of your life that you just never took the time to build anything with. Take a second look at those people. Invite them to do something with you. See if anything clicks once you’re giving them some focus.
Master the low-cost dinner party. One of the most successful things that I’ve ever done is figure out how to host a good low-cost dinner party for several friends, and it’s something that Sarah and I do many times a year.
Our strategy is to keep it really simple. We make something very straightforward that’s going to be widely liked – such as homemade pizza – and if we want to impress, we impress by making something from scratch – like a completely-from-scratch pizza crust. We’ll often make soups that include lots of vegetables from our garden and homemade rolls, as another example. Once, we had a simple pasta meal where I made the pasta from scratch. Very straightforward stuff, very inexpensive stuff, and food everyone’s going to like.
We also ask that our guests bring something to share, like a bottle of wine (or two) or a simple “finger food” dessert like cookies.
Since our main meals are pretty inexpensive, even when we make a lot of it, it means that our dinner parties usually end up costing us $20 or less. Even better, friends will often reciprocate and invite you to a dinner party, which means a nearly free meal (we usually bring something along with us when we go to a dinner party).
Final Thoughts
Being financially responsible or frugal doesn’t mean that you have to sit at home all night never interacting with anyone. If you put forth just a little effort – and use a few smart ideas – you can have a thriving social life without constantly shelling out money.
Good luck!
The post Five Strategies for Finding Other Frugal and Financial Independence Minded People appeared first on The Simple Dollar.
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4% workplace pension contribution 'shocking'
While pension membership has hit a record high, the average contribution rate in defined contribution (DC) schemes remains very low, new data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) reveals.
The average combined contribution of the employee and employer was only 4% in 2015. This figure is broadly comparable with 2014.
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Here’s How to Visit Your Favorite Museum for Free
If you live in Washington, D.C., home to the Smithsonian Institution, you get spoiled. Its 18 area museums are always free to attend — which only makes it harder for DC residents like myself to come to grips with paying for museum admission in other cities.
Yes, I get it, museums need to charge admission to stay open — but sometimes that $25 entrance fee just hurts.
But each year, museums across the country join in the spirit of the Smithsonian Institution by opening their doors to visitors for free.
On Saturday, September 24, celebrate the 12th annual Museum Day with free admission for two to any participating museum!
How to Visit Museums For Free
Samantha Dunscombe – The Penny Hoarder
To participate, download a Museum Day Live! ticket. Search participating museums, enter your email address and name, and your ticket — good for you and a friend — will generate. It’ll say the name of the museum on it, and you’ll only be able to download tickets for one museum per email address.
Print the page, grab a buddy, and go! (If you can show your ticket on your phone, the ticket download will specify that). One caveat: Museum Day Live! tickets don’t cover parking or any extras, like IMAX movies.
Participating museums have the right to turn away customers if the facility is too crowded. Expect a ton of people and put on your patience hat when you get in line; more than 200,000 people participated in 2015.
Your Turn: Which museum will you visit on Museum Day?
Lisa Rowan is a writer and producer at The Penny Hoarder. She always dreamed of working at the Smithsonian, though…
The post Here’s How to Visit Your Favorite Museum for Free appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.
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Nearly half of England will be Help to Buy 'no go zones' in 2017
First-time buyers hoping to use their Help to Buy Isa may find they’re unable to do so, as nearly half (46%) of England will cost more than the eligible thresholds by 2017.
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Is This a Tax Credit or a Deduction? We Explain the Difference for You
There is some information about money that is so complicated, you don’t even want to begin the conversation.
And then there’s that information that’s so simple, you assume you’re supposed to know it by now.
But you don’t.
You go through life thinking everyone around you understands these basic principles of personal finance that somehow elude you. And you’re afraid to ask questions, for fear of looking stupid.
You’re not stupid.
Money is complicated as hell. And our education about it is just plain bad.
Part of my job is to ask the questions you’re afraid to ask. And, while I’m at it, I might as well try to answer them, too, right?
Today’s Lesson: Tax Deduction vs. Tax Credit
I’ll start with a basic issue I’ve noticed for years: Many people — intelligent, hard-working, otherwise-savvy adults — do not know the difference between a tax credit and a tax deduction.
If you’re one of them, you don’t have to admit it. Just keep reading.
This information could be worth thousands of dollars to you next April.
What is a Tax Deduction?
“Tax deductions are removed from taxable income (adjusted gross income) and thus lower the overall tax-expense liability,” says Investopedia.
More simply…
A tax DEDUCTION reduces the amount of income you owe taxes on.
How do you benefit from a tax deduction?
“A (tax) deduction is a reduction of the amount that gets taxed,” explains tax attorney Eric Green.
A deduction can help in one or both of these ways:
- You’ll pay less with a lower taxable income, because you pay taxes as a percentage of that income. For example, 15% of $35,000 ($5,250) is less than 15% of $32,000 ($4,800). In that case, $3,000 in tax deductions would save you $450 on your tax bill.
- You could pay a smaller percentage, because a lower income may fall into a lower tax bracket. In the U.S., your income determines your tax rate. Tax brackets are the cutoff income levels for those rates.
For example, for 2016, if you’re single with income between $9,275 and $37,650, your tax rate is 15%. From $36,650 to $91,150, your rate is 25%, according to the Tax Foundation. (Yes, we know there’s an overlap. We recommend checking with IRS if your income sits on that cusp.)
So, if your income is $38,000, you’ll owe 25% ($9,500). If your income is $35,000, you’ll owe 15% ($5,250).
In that example, $3,000 in tax deductions would save you $4,250.
What is a Tax Credit?
“A tax credit is an amount of money that a taxpayer is able to subtract from the amount of tax that they owe to the government,” says Investopedia.
More simply…
A tax CREDIT reduces the amount of taxes you owe.
How do you benefit from a tax credit?
“A (tax) credit is a dollar-for-dollar reduction of the tax owed,” says Green.
Tax credits are actually much simpler to figure out than tax deductions. Once you do the math, they’re money in your pocket.
Add together all your tax credits, and subtract that total from what you owe in taxes.
For example, if your taxable income — after deductions (see above) — is $35,000, you would initially owe $5,250.
If your college expenses make you eligible for the American Opportunity Tax Credit, you may receive a credit up to $2,500. So you would owe only $2,750.
When Will You Use This Information?
These basic facts should, you might expect, come in handy when you’re filing your income tax return next year.
Want to put them to use throughout the year? They actually come up more often than you might realize:
- When your friends criticize a big company for donating to charity as a “tax write-off,” they’re talking about tax deductions.
- When your neighbor gets solar panels you didn’t think he could afford, he’s probably going to get the money back as a tax credit next April.
- When you meet a colleague for Happy Hour, and he offers to pay for your drinks because he can “claim it on his taxes,” he’s expecting a tax deduction. (He’s also wrong, but you can choose whether you like him enough to clarify.)
Where to Learn More
Remember: We are not tax experts by any stretch of the imagination.
The particulars of what makes you eligible for specific tax credits and deductions are unsurprisingly more complicated. But we’ll stop at the basics for today.
If you want to learn more, check out these resources:
- Our list of the eight most overlooked tax deductions and credits
- Nine tax breaks for parents that could save you thousands of dollars
- Five important questions to ask before doing your taxes yourself
- Find out how your state’s tax burden compares with others’
- Before you fill out a W-4, use the IRS Withholding Calculator to estimate how much you’ll owe at the end of the year.
And don’t forget to share this post with your friends! Some of them are probably afraid to ask this question, too.
Your Turn: Be honest… did you know the difference between a tax credit and deduction before today?
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 Is This a Tax Credit or a Deduction? We Explain the Difference for You appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.
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Consumer group Which? makes super-complaint on bank transfer fraud
Consumer group Which? has made the first super-complaint to financial regulators, calling on them to ensure banks better protect customers who are tricked into transferring money to a fraudster.
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Terry Smith doubles stake in Fundsmith Equity
Terry Smith has more than doubled his personal investment in Fundsmith Equity. It is understood Smith has invested an additional £115 million into the fund, which lifts his overall stake in Fundsmith's funds to approximately £200 million.
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Retirees resisting the urge to splurge
Despite new rules offering over-55s open access to their pensions, most retirees are resisting the urge to splurge.
According to research from Prudential, fewer than one in 10 overspent, or expects to overspend, in their first year of retirement.
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Retirees resisting the urge to splurge
Despite new rules offering over-55s open access to their pensions, most retirees are resisting the urge to splurge.
According to research from Prudential, fewer than one in 10 overspent, or expects to overspend, in their first year of retirement.
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Deal of the week: Get the best pan-European savings rates with Raisin
If you’re fed up with low rates on your savings, you might be able to boost your returns by casting your net further afield. Savings website Raisin allows you to do just that, providing a platform for savers to open accounts in other European countries.
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Cabi Stylist and Clothing Review
By Holly Reisem Hanna When I attended the cabi Scoop back in 2010, I had no idea that I’d become such a brand advocate. Every little detail from the clothing, branding, and the actual show, to the exuberance of the stylists and the generosity of the company — I was blown away. I seriously left […]
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