ALTOONA — Sheetz has announced a goal of committing to the sale of only cage-free eggs by 2025. The shift is a proactive approach to issues of food safety and animal welfare, the company said in a press release."Our customers drive everything we do and we understand they expect high standards for the products we sell," said Sheetz AVP of Brand Strategy Ryan Sheetz in the release. "That is why we have been working with our egg suppliers and the leaders of our [...]
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الثلاثاء، 6 ديسمبر 2016
I-80 west lane to close Thursday
Drivers on Interstate 80 through Delaware Water Gap may experience delays Thursday. Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission on Tuesday said security camera upgrades would restrict westbound traffic to a single lane. The right lane of I-80 west will close at 9 a.m. Thursday. The lane is scheduled to reopen by 2 p.m., pending any unforeseen weather, emergency and traffic considerations.
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How to Take Out Student Loans Without a Cosigner
You want to take out a student loan, but without using a cosigner. While that’s not ideal, it’s certainly understandable.
Sure, getting your parents or a guardian to cosign your student loans would make it far easier to access financial aid, and if the cosigner has good credit, you’d likely benefit from a lower interest rate than you could get on your own.
But there are plenty of situations when you may need a student loan without a cosigner attached. Maybe your relationship isn’t strong enough to ask for that sort of help, or you simply don’t have anyone to ask. Whatever your reasons, if you want to take out student loans without a cosigner, try the following:
First, apply for every scholarship and grant you can find. That’s because, obviously, it’s free money, and you want to first see how much free money you can get before you start putting yourself in debt.
Kendra Feigert, director of financial aid at Lebanon Valley College in Annville, Pa., suggests that high school students check with their guidance office for local scholarships, but also devote some time to national scholarship searches. She says there are a lot of websites that allow you to search for grants and scholarships, including Fastweb.com, CollegeBoard.com and ScholarshipExperts.com.
Second, apply for federal student loans. Loans offered by the federal government don’t require a cosigner, whereas private student loans usually do — assuming you’re a high school student without a full-time job and little or no credit history to speak of.
That’s another perk of applying for federal student loans – you don’t need to have a credit history (except with PLUS loans). You’ll also typically get lower interest rates than on private student loans, and you’ll find that federal loans offer more flexibility when it comes time to pay them back, with options such as income-driven repayment plans.
You might even be able to get your federal student loans forgiven. This is rare, but if you’re a teacher in a low-income school, for instance, or you devote a decade to working in public service, you may be eligible to have your loan balance forgiven.
Anyway, you’re probably sensing an emerging theme here: Federal student loans are easier to qualify for without a cosigner, and financially easier to pay back than private loans.
Get acquainted with the FAFSA. If you’ve been looking into financial aid for, say, at least five minutes, you’ve already heard of the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid). But in case you’re only in Minute Two of your research, here’s the lowdown: The FAFSA is an online form that you fill out, which will determine how much financial aid you’re eligible to receive from the federal government. Everyone who wants a federal student loan fills out the FAFSA.
And not to worry. The U.S. Department of Education’s office of Federal Student Aid offers more than $150 billion every year in loans, as well as grants and work-study funds. Most students are eligible to get something.
And the relatively good news is that you probably won’t walk away from FAFSA with too much debt, says Christopher Hanlon, director of financial aid at Albright College in Reading, Pa.
“There’s a misconception that large student debt is linked to federal financial aid programs,” he says. “In fact, the federal government goes to great lengths to be sure that debt is not overwhelming for student borrowers. Students eligible for the very maximum in undergraduate Federal Direct Stafford Student Loan will complete their undergraduate years with a student debt of $37,000. The great majority of students complete their undergraduate years with a total federal debt of $27,000.”
So why do so many people get stuck paying student loans until their retirement years? Well, plenty of students take out federal loans in addition to numerous private loans. And obviously your ability to pay off your student loans efficiently and relatively quickly often depends on what your career post-college is – and how quickly it takes you to find a career that’s well paying. Most new graduates don’t leave college making six figures (or deep into the five figures), and it’s always more lucrative to, say, own the restaurant than flipping burgers for the guy who owns the restaurant.
If you have to, you can apply for a private student loan. But it won’t be easy without a cosigner – which is the whole point of this piece – especially if you’re a high school junior or senior. Still, if this is a road you need to take – getting a private student loan without a cosigner – then you’ll want to start establishing your credit history.
The best way to do that is with a credit card. Some student credit cards are specifically geared toward young people trying to build their credit profile. But the Credit Card Act of 2009 made it hard to get a credit card without steady income. Some people have griped about that rule; as a (barely) survivor of a lot of credit card debt, I personally think this is a smart idea and makes a lot of sense. But, it does make it harder to apply for a credit card on your own if you’re, say, a high school or college student, or a stay-at-home spouse with access to household income.
So you may have to ask a parent or guardian to cosign a credit card for you while you build up a credit history, in order to eventually land a private student loan without a cosigner. I don’t like the irony there, either.
Anyway, if you do get a credit card with a parent or guardian as your cosigner (or if they add you to their card as an authorized user), from there, you’ll want to occasionally check your credit report and credit score to track your progress.
You can get a free copy of your credit report once a year from AnnualCreditReport.com. There are three main credit bureaus — Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax – so if you ask for your annual report from each of them at four-month intervals, you can get a version of your credit report three times a year.
You might also want to visit CreditKarma.com, any time, and get free credit scores from TransUnion and Equifax. These are calculated using the VantageScore model instead of the more commonly used FICO model, and there are minor differences between the two, but if you want to get a decent sense of what your credit score is, it’s a perfectly good way to get started.
But, again, hopefully you can find enough money for college without getting a private student loan. As noted, it can be more challenging to work with a private lender if you’re struggling to pay off a loan — you won’t find any alternative repayment plans or loan forgiveness. And generally, private student loans are more expensive than federal loans.
So if you want to get a student loan without a cosigner, go the federal student loan route. And take heart: As you do all of this extensive research into student loans and financial aid, it’s probably very good practice for all of the research you’ll do when you finally get to college.
Related Articles:
- Ranking the Best and Worst Schools for Student Loan Debt
- What I Wish I Knew Before Taking Out Student Loans
- Two-Sided Coin: Is College Worth the Price?
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How to Make Almost $20/Hour Hanging With People’s Pets During the Holidays
Fact: People are willing to pay you more to take care of their pets than kids.
That’s great news for pet sitters — or people who aren’t so fond of babies. Typically, pets are happy to see you, they’re furry and available for all the cuddles, and they don’t talk back.
And this holiday season, demand is ramping up. According to Care, 20% of its pet care job listings specifically mention a holiday need, and “it’s clear that families are willing to pay top dollar for pet care.”
Pet sitters (or aspiring pet sitters): That’s great news for your holiday spending budget.
How Much Will Pet Parents Pay For a Holiday Pet Sitter (You)?
Here’s how much pet owners paid for holiday pet sitters in 2015, categorized by creature:
- Dogs: $17.45/hour
- Cats: $17.34/hour
- Fish: $17.09/hour
- Birds: $16.54/hour
I have to point out the elephant fish in the room… Someone’s willing to pay $17 an hour for a fish? I suspect a fish doesn’t require an hour of care. I also suspect caring for fish might be tied into other tasks? Or maybe it’s just a big fish tank? I’ve heard the saltwater ones are high maintenance.
Anyways, even though Care gathered this data last year, it suspects those trends will continue.
It’s worth noting these petsitting jobs are short-lived. Care found that during the holidays these gigs ran an average of four days. In December, the average stint increased to six days.
The Top 10 Cities For Holiday Pet Sitting — Based on Pay
If the possibility of earning more than $17 an hour doesn’t get you stoked, these numbers might. Care also found the top paying cities for holiday pet sitting. (Again, this is based on its listings from last year.)
- Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura, California, $19.78/hour
- Albany-Schenectady-Troy, New York, $19.63/hour
- Hartford-West Hartford-East Hartford, Connecticut, $19.60/hour
- Greenville-Anderson-Mauldin, South Carolina, $19.52/hour
- Naples-Immokalee-Marco Island, Florida, $19.50/hour
- Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk, Connecticut, $19.46/hour
- San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward, CA, $19.22/hour
- Salisbury, Maryland/Delaware, $19.22/hour
- Greensboro-High Point, North Carolina, $19.21/hour
- San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, California, $19.18/hour
Live in one of these 10 areas? This just might be the perfect time to make some new furry friends (because we all know that’s easier than making human friends).
How To Start Making Money as a Pet Sitter
Of course, this information comes from Care, which is a great place to advertise your services.
There are also easy-to-use apps such as DogVacay (it’s for cats, too), Rover and Wag!
If you’re feeling extra ambitious, this could be a great time to start your own pet-sitting business, too.
Your Turn: What’s your favorite pet?
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.
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Whether you’ve got a special skill, reselling savvy, or want to earn back on the purchases you’ve already made, we’ve figured out some great options for making an extra $100 this week…
1. Sell Your Unlimited Data Plan
Grandfathered into an amazing unlimited data plan for your phone or tablet?
You can sell that.
If you’re not making use of all those GBs, put it up on eBay — unlimited data plans are selling for between $300 and $2,000 each.
It’s a little more complicated than it sounds — after all, these plans weren’t meant to be resold. But if you’re down with a little loophole dance, this could net you big.
2. Get Price Adjustments With Paribus
My new secret weapon is called Paribus — a tool to get you money back for your online purchases.
It’s free to sign up, and once you do, Paribus will scan your email archives for any receipts.
If it discovers you’ve purchased something from Amazon, Target or one of the other 16 retailers listed on their website, it will track the item’s price and issue you a refund any time there’s a price drop!
For its role in the refund, Paribus charges a 25% commission, billed to your credit card at the end of each month.
Of course, Paribus works best if you shop online a lot. But especially on Amazon, where prices can change any minute, it’s worth having Paribus on your side. You could earn $100 back in a few months.
3. Sell Your Food Packaging
Instead of tossing your food packages in the trash or the recycling bin, why not sell them on Ebay?
Not every piece of trash is created equally, but the “Reward Points/Incentive Program” category is a popular place to sell food packages that can be redeemed in different loyalty programs.
For example, General Mill’s Boxtops for Education sell for around 10 cents each on Ebay and Coca-Cola caps sell for around 25 cents. Even Campbell’s soup labels can be sold for extra money.
Read more about how to sell food packaging here.
4. Get Cash Back From MyPoints
Have you heard of MyPoints? They are a cash-back site that lets you earn rewards by shopping online and printing coupons. We use them all the time at our house, because it’s instant way to save on everything you buy (for example, they give you up to 5% cash-back on every purchase you make at Amazon).
But, enough about that, here’s how to get a free $10 Amazon gift card:
- Sign up for MyPoints here using your email or Facebook account (it’s free).
- Use the Mypoints portal the next time you need to shop online (it’s connected to thousands of stores including Walmart, Amazon, and Target).
- As long as you spend $10 at any of those stores, Mypoints will reward you with 1,750 bonus bonus which you can redeem for a free $10 Amazon gift card.
5. Join an Ipsos Panel
Most of you know surveys aren’t our favorite way to make extra money, but we make an exception when we’re just vegging out on the couch.
We figure as long as we’re just watching TV, there’s no reason we can’t click a few buttons at the same time.
Ipsos Panel is one of the best legitimate paid survey companies out there — the company’s even rated A+ with the Better Business Bureau. You might recognize the name Ipsos from the news because they conduct a lot of the presidential election polling.
Top-end surveys can pay up to $95, but those are rare and can take a while to complete.
Most surveys pay a buck or two and only take 10-15 minutes, making it pretty easy to earn $100 or more per month.
6. Sell Board Game Pieces
Ever seen a board game in the thrift store but noticed with great sadness that it was missing half the pieces?
You might want to put the game in your shopping cart anyway. One Penny Hoarder made $250 in six months selling spare board game pieces online. You can even sell “mystery bags” of pieces for $12 a pop!
It may take some time for your listings to sell, but if you follow Laura’s guide, you can probably make $100 in about three months.
7. Test Websites
Like most of us, you’ve probably commented on how some websites are confusing and others excellent.
Rather than complaining to your spouse or friend, how would you like to make those comments to the owners of the sites and get paid for playing critic?
In fact, you can make $30 per hour as a website tester.
The company is called User Testing. Here’s what the process looks like: you’ll download some software and then when tasks are available, look over a website while your mouse movements, clicks, keystrokes and spoken comments are all recorded as a video.
Afterward, there might be a few questions to answer. But the whole process often takes 15 minutes or less. Cool, right?
How about earning $100 for three hours of website-testing time? Sounds pretty comfortable.
8. Drive With Uber
If you find solace on the road and enjoy finding the best route across town, this is a great way to make money doing it!
As an Uber contractor, you’re responsible for setting your schedule and motivating yourself to work — no one’s keeping tabs on you. You earn 80% of everything you earn as a driver — Uber keeps 20%.
If you want to give it a try, there are a few things to keep in mind.
You must be at least 21 years old, have three years of driving experience, an in-state driver’s license, clean driving record and be able to pass a criminal background check.
Finally, your car must be a four-door, seat at least four passengers (excluding the driver), be registered in-state and covered by in-state insurance.
Here’s a link to apply with Uber. One of our writers in a major city recently rode with an Uber driver who said on weekends, he can typically make $200-$250 in an eight-hour shift. Making $100 for a half-day’s work sounds pretty great, right?
9. Watch and Earn With RewardTV
It’s definitely possible to get paid to watch TV.
RewardTV pays you to answer trivia questions about last night’s TV shows! Do you know who they killed off on Game of Thrones last week? Tell them about it and they’ll pay you.
Know which contestant got kicked off “The Voice” this week? They’ll pay you.
You’re not going to get rich doing this, but it’s a fun way to make an extra $15-$20/month. And it could add up to $100 in about six months if you’re keeping up with all your favorite shows.
10. Braid Horse Manes
Ever wonder how much it costs to maintain a horse’s locks? More than you might think!
Contributor Kat Tretina started braiding the manes and tails of show horses after she learned the task could earn her $100 per horse.
The job requires dexterity and a bit of horse appreciation, but if you live in horse country, it could pay off.
11. Use Swagbucks Search
Use Swagbucks as your default search engine (powered by Yahoo!), and earn SBs — which can be cashed in for Paypal or gift cards.
Plus, you’ll get $5 just for signing up!
One SB is equal to about one cent, so every 100 SBs is about $1. By using Swagbucks Search, you’ll earn about 25-50 cents per day.
And keep an eye out for bonuses to earn you extra SBs and their Rewards page, which sometimes lets you get larger gift cards for fewer SBs.
If you work from home and spend a lot of time online, your 50 cents per day could turn into $100 in about six months.
12. Resell Thrift Store Clothes
Always finding the best brands at thrift stores?
Always feeling disheartened when the awesome bargain isn’t your size? Take it home anyway, and flip it on eBay.
One contributor took a $5 pair of thrift store jeans and sold them online for $50. Can you imagine making $100 just for reselling two pairs of designer jeans?
13. Test Drive a Car
Car dealerships often offer incentives to customers to come in and take a look at their cars.
They’ll give you cash or a gift card just to take a new car for a spin.
For example, Kia dealerships were recently giving $25 to anyone who came in and test drove a new car. How easy is that?
I’ve often seen these incentives go up to $100, which is pretty great considering this takes less than an hour of your time. A great way to find promotions is to check your local newspaper’s classified section.
Pay attention to advertisements on TV as well for national advertising campaigns by major automobile companies.
14. Sell Craft Supplies
Not thrilled about trying to recoup the money you spent on crafty projects by selling them?
Maybe you can earn more — without the time investment — by selling supplies. Contributor Janet Berry-Johnson bought cross-stitch patterns at thrift stores and resold them on Etsy, earning $600 in her online shop’s first five months.
To pick up supplies on the cheap, check thrift stores, Craigslist, Facebook yard sale groups or even craft stores when they’re having major clearance sales.
15. Deliver Groceries
While you’re at the store, earn extra money picking up someone else’s groceries.
Connect with clients through TaskRabbit or Instacart. Pick up and deliver groceries to people in your area who don’t have the time or interest for grocery shopping.
Use these apps to work whenever you want to make some extra money. You might as well pick up a job anytime you’re headed to the store yourself.
Instacart is an app designed solely for grocery pickup and delivery in San Francisco, New York, Chicago, Boston, Washington, Philadelphia and Los Angeles.
After brief training, you can log on to Instacart when you want to work and accept job assignments. Shoppers can earn up to $25 an hour during peak hours, plus occasional tips.
Make $100 in four trips to the store? It’s almost too easy.
Meanwhile, TaskRabbit is a general gig site available in 18 U.S. cities and London. You can pick up tasks from housecleaning to bartending at a private party — or shopping and delivery.
16. Share Stories About Your Kids on Scary Mommy
If you’ve got kids, you’ve got automatic story generators.
From pregnancy fashion choices to dealing with finding your tween daughter’s dating profile, there’s lots to say about parenthood. And on Scary Mommy, it’s “real talk” only — no sanitized, TV-commercial family frolicking in a white-picket-fenced yard.
As long as you have a way with words, you can generate some cash off those face-palm parenting snafus.
Here are eight parenting magazines and blogs that pay contributors, averaging about $100 per submission.
17. Sell Baked Goods
One enterprising woman told us how she makes $500 to $600 each month selling baked goods at farmers’ markets and to her neighbors.
Setting up a baking business is different in every state, but the startup costs are low — you probably already have the supplies and just need to stock up on ingredients.
Just testing the waters? Go into it with a bake-sale mentality and sell small items to friends, family and neighbors. Charge a few bucks for a slice of your best dessert and earning $100 could be a piece of cake.
18. Feed a Cat
Want to make $20 a day just for checking up on Fluffy or Fido?
Sign up for a site like DogVacay and pick up pet-sitting gigs when you’re itching for a few extra bucks. The more care required, the more you tend to get paid.
Walking dogs pays more than feeding cats. Staying overnight with a pet pays more than either of the first two options, and so on.
But hey, when the weather’s nice, those dog walks can be great exercise.
19. Get Paid to Earn Straight A’s
Got big goals for your grades this semester?
Earn cash for studying by signing up for Ultrinsic. Choose an incentive by course, or set a goal for the whole semester to find out what you can get paid for making the grade.
Your Turn: How did you make your last extra $100?
Disclosure: A toast to savings! Thanks for allowing us to place affiliate links in this post.
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Furbies, Tamagotchis and More: The Cost of All the Hottest Toys Since 1983
This year, it’s all about the Hatchimals — last year, it was Star Wars droids.
But let’s take a blast to the past: Do you remember what the hot Christmas toys were when you were growing up?
All I’m going to say is get ready for some nostalgia — and some sticker shock.
I (OK, fine, my intern) went to the depths of the interwebz to find the prices of the most popular toys from 1983 until today — and then added them all up. (Please note prices are approximate and in that year’s dollars.)
You might be surprised to see the grand total… we certainly were!
1983: Cabbage Patch Kids — $30, though most people paid $60-$100. Can we take a second to talk about how weird these were?
1984: Transformers — $9.95-$20.99, depending on which model you purchased. These toys are now worth up to $600!
1985-86: Teddy Ruxpin — $69.99, plus an additional $20 for an accompanying cassette tape and book. So, most sources say the final cost was about $100.
1987: Koosh Ball — Currently selling for $4.99 each (we couldn’t find information on the original retail price). I’m willing to bet you still have a few of these lurking in your junk drawer.
1988: Nintendo Entertainment System — $89.99 with no game, $99.99 bundled with Super Mario Bros and $149.99 for the Action pack that came bundled with two games and an extra controller.
1989: Game Boy — Say hello to one of the best-selling game systems of all time. It originally cost $89.99 and games were $30 each, so you would’ve spent around $120 total.
1990: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles action figures — $19.99 each. There were four different turtles (duh!), and accessories cost $3.99. Pizza not included.
1990: Super Nintendo — $199, with games retailing around $50. Total price? $250 with one game. P.S. We know this looks like a typo, but the infographic listed 1990 twice — and skipped 1991.
1992: Barney doll — $24.99. Awkward hugs included.
1993: Talkboy — After being seen in the all-time classic “Home Alone 2: Lost in New York,” demand soared for this audio cassette player, which sold for $29.99.
1994: Mighty Morphin Power Rangers toys — These action figures retailed for the low price of $4.99, causing them to fly off the shelves in good ol’ ‘94.
1995: Beanie Babies — $5. Anybody else have WAY too many of these?
1996: Tickle Me Elmo — $27.99. This bizarre toy sold out almost instantly, causing fights between consumers — and scalpers to sell them for hundreds of dollars.
1997: Tamagotchi — $17.99. This was one of the only cool toys I had (and it was definitely the knock-off version).
1998: Furby — These creepy little robots retailed for $35, but were in such high demand that resale prices rose to $300.
1999: Pokemon — Whether it was trading cards, video games or plush dolls, anything Pokemon was all the rage. Trading cards ranged from $10-$20 per pack, and Pokemon GameBoy games were around $30.
2000: Razor Scooter — $99-$149, depending on the model.
2001: Bratz Dolls — $9.99-$22.99, depending on the brat.
2002: Beyblades — We couldn’t find a direct source for their original prices, but they’re currently selling anywhere from $5.99-$30 on eBay. (Also, WTF?)
2004: Robosapien — This two-foot tall programmable robot toy sold for $99.
2005: Xbox 360 — Microsoft rushed this console to the shelves in 2005 in an effort to beat out the Playstation 3. It retailed for $399, with games costing $60, so purchasing a brand new system would’ve cost around $460.
2006: Playstation 3 — Not as affordable as the Xbox 360, the PS3 cost $499 for the base model and $599 (!) for the console with more memory. You would’ve had to tack on an additional $60 for a game, for the ridiculous total of $560-$660.
2007: Nintendo DS — More video games, ugh. This was the second-most sold console in history behind the Game Boy; it retailed for $149. Games cost around $40, for a total of $190.
2008: Nintendo Wii — This groundbreaking system sold for $249.99, with games ranging from $30-$50. Extra controllers were $40 each. For a console, game and extra controller, you were looking at $340.
2009: Zhu Zhu Pets — These robotic British hamster toys retailed for only $9, according to the infographic, but somehow became so popular that their price shot up to $60. For a hamster.
2010: iPad — Started at $499 and went up to $699. More than 300,000 units sold the day it was released.
2011: LeapPad Explorer — This froggy tablet for kids sold for $100.
2012: Wii U — The console retailed for $349.99, with games priced at $60. Total price? $410.
2013: Big Hugs Elmo — Just what the world needed: an Elmo that could “hug you back” for a mere $59.99.
2014: Elsa Doll — A few years ago, you probably let it go and bought a “Frozen” doll for $19.99.
2015: BB-8 Star Wars toy — This miniature remote-controlled droid retailed for $149; the initial supply sold out in a day.
2016: Hatchimals — I’m. So. Confused. This hatching toy’s retail price is only $60, but prices have at least doubled everywhere they’re sold. For example, they’re currently $189-$289 at Walmart.
2016: NES Classic Mini — This nostalgia-inducing gaming console retails for $59.99, and you’ll probably want to purchase a second controller for $9.99. That is, if you can find one — the limited initial stock sold out in minutes.
So, if you were able to find all the items at their original retail prices — which, as noted above, was often difficult — your total cost would’ve been…
$3,969.
Although it’s unlikely you purchased all of these toys, the number’s still significant.
Yes, there’s immense value in making your kids happy, but it’s important to remember that “hot” toys usually end up cold and lonely in a closet within a few weeks.
Buy them some used toys like this mom, put that money into a 529 or retirement plan — and it could grow into something significant by the time they’re old enough to care.
Want to see details about all the toys (and relive your glory days)? Check out the fun infographic below.
Your Turn: Which of these toys was your favorite?
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. Editorial intern Jacquelyn Pica scoured the web for all these prices and fun facts — and even found some insanely overpriced Beanie Babies along the way.
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Before You Click That Link from “Amazon,” Make Sure It’s Not a Scam
Online scammers are targeting Amazon shoppers in Australia and the United Kingdom — and getting tricked during the busy holiday shopping (and shipping) season could mean major consequences for your financial safety.
Shoppers are getting emails from “Amazon” claiming their orders can’t be shipped.
“There was a problem processing your order. You will not be able to access your account or place orders with us until we confirm your information. Click here to confirm your account,” the email reads.
The message is riddled with spacing and capitalization blunders, but if you click to confirm your account, the “Amazon” page you land on looks almost exactly like a real Amazon page.
Screenshots obtained by AARP show an “Amazon” page with the familiar top navigation bar, gold field headers and the typical Amazon beige button for you to save your data.
But the information it asks for is totally bogus. Amazon would never ask you to click a link in an email message and type in your full name, address, and the numbers, expiration dates and security codes on all the credit cards you use to shop at Amazon.
Do you know how to tell if an email from Amazon is real or fake? Read on before this scam tries to wiggle its way toward U.S. shoppers.
How to Make Sure You Don’t Get Scammed
This scam is a phishing attack, one that fools you into giving away your information for malicious use.
If you receive an email that makes you suspicious, Amazon recommends taking these steps:
- Check who the email is from. If the sender doesn’t use an “@amazon.com” email address, it’s fake!
- Visit the “Your Orders” page of your Amazon account to determine if any of your recent orders have fulfillment, billing or shipping issues.
- Visit “Your Account” to check your payment options. Amazon says if you aren’t prompted to update your billing info on your account’s “Manage Payment Options” page, the email you got isn’t from Amazon.
- Report the suspicious email to stop-spoofing@amazon.com. Amazon doesn’t respond to these emails, but it investigates potential issues.
Your Turn: Have you received a suspicious email claiming to be from Amazon? What did you do about it?
Lisa Rowan is a writer and producer at The Penny Hoarder.
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Happy Holidays! Wawa’s Giving Out Freebies Every Day Until Dec. 12
You know, I really thought I couldn’t like Wawa any better.
It’s got killer cream cheese pretzels, the best gas station coffee ever and a full-service counter serving hot drinks and food.
Bonus: It’s pretty darn affordable.
Since I’m already there all the time, I save even more by using its rewards app. It’s fast and easy to use — and I can pay with my phone and collect a freebie every time I spend $50.
And apparently, the rewards program just gets better around the holidays. Like, a lot better.
Happy Holidays, Wawa Rewards Members!
Wawa’s running a special 12 Days of Rewards promotion for its rewards members.
And these freebies are no joke. Offerings so far have included a free bakery donut, a free fountain drink of any size and even a free standard-sized package of Reese’s Cups.
And although the deal’s well underway (it started on Dec. 1), we wanted to make sure you don’t miss any more sweet freebies before it ends on Dec. 12.
Participating is super easy: Just sign up for Wawa’s rewards app and head to the store.
Per a Wawa rep’s confirmation over the phone, you don’t have to buy anything to nab the free goods. However, in order to activate your Wawa rewards app, you will have to pre-load a gift card to spend on your store purchases later.
But if you’re anything like me, setting aside $15 specifically for coffee might actually help you save money… because you can see exactly how fast your java habit adds up.
Happy holidays!
Your Turn: 100% Colombian or house blend?
Jamie Cattanach is a staff writer at The Penny Hoarder. Her writing has also been featured at The Write Life, Word Riot, Nashville Review and elsewhere. Find @JamieCattanach on Twitter to wave hello.
The post Happy Holidays! Wawa’s Giving Out Freebies Every Day Until Dec. 12 appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.
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The Financial Decision of a Lifetime: Should I Have Children?
As I write this, I’m sitting in the overstuffed chair in our living room waiting for my three children to get off the bus, as they will at some point in the next hour or so (their bus driver seems to stop along the route and shout at the kids to be quiet sometimes, so their exact drop-off time varies). When they get home, I have a snack waiting for them (an apple and a small glass of milk), and then we’ll spend the next hour doing sustained silent reading and homework, after which I’ll start preparing a dinner for the five of us so that it’s at least partially prepared when Sarah arrives home.
This is our completely normal after-school routine, repeated about 150 times a year (with another 30 school days or so filled with an abnormal routine of some kind). Let’s start unpacking just that one little routine.
First of all, it means that I’m stopping work at around 3:30 each day. If I didn’t have children arriving home, I would definitely work later than that and probably get more things done. I’m making a conscious career choice related to my children which is costing me in terms of salary.
Second, they eat an after-school snack each day. Three apples and three cups of milk is a pretty typical snack, so let’s say that costs $1.50 all told.
Third, I prepare a much larger dinner than I would for just Sarah and myself. The cost of a typical meal in our household right now is doubled. Let’s say an average meal at home would cost $5 without kids; now it costs $10.
Now, repeat all of that 180 days a year for several years and you can see the costs wrapped up in just that little after-school routine. We’re not talking about the costs of keeping the children clothed, the cost of their medical care, the cost of some of their toys and books. We’re not talking about the cost of their other meals, the cost of their extracurricular activities, the cost of a larger house to provide them with adequate places to sleep.
Those costs add up surprisingly fast.
CNN Money estimates that the average cost of raising a child in America is $245,000, a number I would have thought was ludicrous before I had children but a cost that I now completely believe. (It’s worth noting that a second and a third child in close succession are less expensive comparatively because of economies of scale, so we’re not quite spending $750,000 by having three kids.) There are many, many things you can do to reduce that number, but no matter how much you try, there’s only so much reduction you can do. Children require food and clothing and shelter and attention and enrichment and those things cost money, no matter how carefully you slice it.
Kids are expensive. Really expensive.
Clearly, if you’re looking at nothing but your financial bottom line, children are a huge expense that will drain your dollars. And, at the same time, considering that having children is a choice, not a requirement, choosing to not have children is the one that will put you in better financial shape twenty years down the road. Those claims are largely beyond dispute.
Then why on earth did we choose to have children? It’s worth noting that we chose to have our second and third children after starting our financial turnaround and yet we chose this financially challenging path. Why did we do this?
Let’s walk through that thought process a little bit so that perhaps you can decide for yourself if children are right for you (and if you’ve already made that decision, perhaps you can share this article with others who are in the process of making that decision).
The Reason for Work
Why work? Why exactly do you (most likely) get out of bed several days a week and face a job of some kind? Sure, you need at least a little bit of income to keep a roof over your shoulders and minimum food on the table, but the majority of working Americans earn significantly more than that and hope to earn a lot more than that, so they work.
But why? Why do that? Why earn more than the bare minimum you need to survive?
Almost always, people do it because they have personal dreams and goals that they want to achieve in their lives and they need money – often, quite a bit of money – to be able to achieve those dreams.
Two of my closest friends are on vacation in southeast Asia right now because their dream is to travel the world. They make good money, so once a year or so they plan a trip to another part of the world and go there.
Another of my closest friends currently owns a tract of land in southern Iowa that he essentially uses for outdoor play. He’s cultivating it into a little patch of forest, exactly the way he’s always wanted since he was a child.
Many other people I know simply want a day to day life with some small perks scattered throughout.
One of the first things that Sarah and I really discovered about each other was that one of our absolute biggest shared dreams was to have multiple children and raise them into adulthood, giving them opportunities and life experiences that neither one of us had. We would have the opportunity to enjoy childhood from the “parent” side of the coin as well and then we would perhaps have the opportunity to become grandparents when we grew older.
This whole process was something that we were drawn to do. It was something that we both internally felt from a rather young age, that parenthood was something we deeply wanted in our lives and that we were quite willing to sacrifice a great deal of time and some of the money we were going to make in our lives to make it happen.
In short, part of our motivation for every single day of work that either one of us have put in over the years is our respective desire to have children and be good parents. That’s why we work, among other goals.
The Goal Needs To Come From Within
Here’s the thing, though: many people are pressured by relatives to have children. They hear constant questions from their parents about whether a grandchild is coming or from other family members who are keen to see you go through that adventure of parenting.
I’m going to give you one very straightforward piece of advice here: if parenting is not something you want in your heart, don’t have children. No matter how many hints or how much pressure the people in your life are putting on you, don’t have children.
You should absolutely follow the dreams that you have for yourself, not the dreams others have for you.
Quite often, the pressure to have children comes from external sources – parents, pop culture, television shows, and so on. You’ll often see parenthood presented as the norm and the idea that a person might not want that in their life is seen as abnormal. You might feel various responses to that – guilt is often one. Many people try to talk themselves into wanting to be a parent.
Don’t do that. You don’t deserve it. You don’t deserve to be foisted into a twenty-plus year commitment to complete care of another person just because your mother or popular culture seems to imply that you should. Your hypothetical child especially doesn’t deserve a parent that isn’t fully committed.
If the desire to become a parent comes from within, you’ll know that it comes from within. You won’t feel as though you have to “talk yourself into” parenthood. Instead, it’ll feel like an inevitability, as though it’s something you’ve always wanted to do and you’re simply waiting until the right time or the right biological conditions.
The truth is that most of the benefits of parenting are internal ones. They’re almost impossible to describe in terms of dollars and cents and in terms of free hours on your calendar. You can’t point to tangible things that explain why parenting is worthwhile. It’s something that’s internal, and it’s okay whether you have that internal feeling or not.
Real Talk About the Costs
Sarah and I have three children under our roof. The oldest is a pre-teen; the youngest is a first grader. We went through a seven year stretch where at least one member of our household was in diapers or training pants at all times.
Here are some hard truths about parenting.
Your day to day life will radically change, particularly in terms of time use. If you’re not a wealthy person and won’t be hiring someone to do all of the work of raising children, your time use is going to radically change. Children need time, lots of it. I’m not even talking about “quality time” where you’re doing something enjoyable together or actively involved in “parenting.”
I’m talking about things like preparing more meals at home (because eating out with kids isn’t happening) and doing more laundry because there are many more clothes and sheets and other items to be washed. I’m talking about more housekeeping than you can ever imagine. I’m talking about trips to the doctor to make sure your child’s ailment is handled or that they remain healthy. I’m talking about not being able to go out whenever you feel like it because you have a young one at home that can’t take care of himself or herself.
You’ll find yourself making choices you never expected. You might be a workout fanatic and then discover that there just isn’t room for that any more in your life. You might be a neat freak and then find yourself not vacuuming for weeks. Things change. Priorities change.
Your days will be very different. For some, that’s not a bad thing. On the whole, I enjoy my daily life now more than I have during most of my life. For others, those who enjoy their free time as it is right now, it can be miserable.
Your social circle will change. When your time use changes that much and the things that are on your mind change that much, it stands to reason that there will be some real changes to your social circle. You’re going to find that some of the people you are friends with are not interested in being friends with a parent. That’s just the truth of the matter.
What I found is that the friends who stuck around through this shift in my life are now tighter with me than ever. They stuck around, so I know how true they are as friends, and I would do anything for them.
There were some people that I thought would continue to be a part of my life, but they fell off the radar. It hurt greatly when this happened, but looking back, I understand that I inherently changed as a person when I became a parent and those changes took away some of the key elements that our friendship was built on.
This will happen… and it’s okay. You’ll find that you have less time for a social life and that the people that continue to be your friends will fill it up nicely. Just don’t be surprised when a friendship or two gradually fades away.
Your career will take some odd turns. Regardless of your parental role, your career is going to face some unusual challenges because of this radical shift in time use. Even if nothing seems to change in terms of your day-to-day career, the long-term choices you make for your career will change.
Taking a big career risk suddenly seems like a questionable idea because you have a dependent that needs steady food on the table and stability in his or her life. Moving across the country can seem like a really bad move if you’re yanking your socially awkward third grader away from the only friend she’s ever had. Staying late to meet a big client suddenly seems like a questionable decision if you’re supposed to be at your son’s first concert.
You might decide to become a stay-at-home parent. You might force your career to take a 90 degree turn so that you can have the flexibility you need to be there when the kids go to school and when they get off the bus (this is exactly what I did).
The result of all of those shifts is that you probably close the door on a few opportunities in your career and you find yourself needing to double down much harder in the areas that you can still control. Parenting made me much more interested in things like focusing and time management in terms of my professional life because I realized that my career was now taking up a smaller portion of my life but I still needed to get the same value from it, so I needed to become more efficient at it (and more efficient in all areas of my life).
Your hobbies and interests will shift. Here’s the truth: your total leisure time is going to shrink and some of that leisure time is going to be spent with your children. Again, unless you’re hiring a full time child care person, that’s the reality of things.
Because of those shifts, your hobbies are going to shift, too. You’re going to be cutting back or dropping some of the things that you spend your free time on and altering some of the other things.
My honest suggestion is to choose one or perhaps two hobbies, intentionally schedule time for those things, and let the rest of them go. I have basically three hobbies at this point – playing tabletop games (I have penciled off two regularly-scheduled game nights), hiking (I usually go on one daytime hike a week, which usually doubles as a brainstorming session), and reading, which flexes around everything. I basically gave up watching television and movies, only doing those things if it’s a pure family event. Most of my reading time is during a sustained silent reading block with the kids. In other words, my hobby time is largely bolted into my calendar.
This leads right into another point: “empty” time will basically disappear. You’ll find that you’re either doing something meaningful with every hour of your life or you’re feeling some sort of guilt that you’re not doing something meaningful. It’s just a truism in the life of almost every parent that I know.
I don’t have a “free afternoon” or a “free evening” unless I basically plan for them and wall them off in advance, and they usually come with something I’m planning on doing during those hours. Time to just sit around and do things as they come to me doesn’t exist. The time I used to spend doing things like that is now taken up by the added responsibilities of parenting. I no longer understand the concept of “bored.” There isn’t time for being “bored.”
“Getting ahead” financially becomes much harder. You have to become as regimented with your money as you are with your time if you want to financially succeed while being a parent. Children are money vacuums, which means you have to be much more careful with all of your spending choices in order to have money left over to save for your own future, let alone their future. Techniques like knowing how to maximize the value of shopping for groceries become vital, for example.
“Are You Trying to Talk People Out of Becoming Parents?”
This was a question that a friend of mine asked me when I made an offhand reference to this article as I was working through it in my mind. Most of my argument here seemed to be against parenting.
The truth is that I can name many, many reasons why I am extremely glad to be a parent, but those reasons are almost entirely internal. They revolve around how fulfilled I feel in my life as a whole and how I am often buoyed by things like seeing intellectual and moral growth in my children. When I look at external measures, like time use and money use, those things appear to be costs rather than benefits, most of the time. Parenthood is the most fulfilling thing I’ve ever done in my life, but it’s almost impossible to describe in an external way.
In other words, my friend is right when it comes to making a case against parenthood. My belief is that unless you are deeply committed without doubt in your own heart to having a child and being a parent, you shouldn’t do it. It’s not that people who are uncertain might not become good parents – many of them would become great parents. It’s that a person should never jump into a twenty year long commitment of time and a six figure commitment of money unless they’re certain of it in their heart.
If you’re certain of it, have children! You’ll find it to be so rewarding for you that the time and financial costs end up being absolutely worth it.
If you’re on the fence, though, spend some time thinking about what you truly want out of life. What are your life goals? What seems like the best life you could possibly have ten years from now? Does it include children? What about the best life for you twenty years from now? Does that include children? Don’t force something you think should be in the picture into this vision of the future. Think about what you want.
If that picture includes children, then having is probably a solid choice for you. If not, then you shouldn’t take on that expense.
Good luck, in wherever your path may take you.
The post The Financial Decision of a Lifetime: Should I Have Children? appeared first on The Simple Dollar.
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Winter sports lovers failing to check their insurance: ensure you're protected
A third of snow lovers fail to check whether they are covered for winter sports before they hit the slopes, according to research from ABTA – the association of UK travel agents – in partnership with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO).
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Homeowners can sign up for fraud alert service to protect their property
Homeowners anxious to beat fraudsters getting hold of their property can sign up for the Land Registry’s free property alert service.
Fraudsters can try to “steal” a property by stealing the homeowner’s identity and selling or mortgaging the property without their knowledge and then making off with the money.
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November's 10 most-bought funds dominated by Moneywise First 50 picks
The top position in the most-bought funds on Moneywise’s parent company Interactive Investor has been taken by Moneywise First 50 Fund Fundsmith Equity for the eighth consecutive mont
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I Launched My Mom Blog in January… and It Made $6K in October. Here’s How
For more than two years, I worked for Fortune 100 companies like Walt Disney World and General Electric. Deep down, however, I knew the corporate world wasn’t my style.
I come from a family of entrepreneurs: My dad started his software company when he was 25, my mother started her own restaurant in her 30s and my brother moved to New York to start his business.
Despite studying industrial engineering and climbing the corporate ladder, I knew I would break free at some point. The conference calls, the meetings, the emails, the networking events — it all came to a halt when I gave birth to my first daughter.
My husband and I agreed I would put my engineering degree and $75,000-per-year salary on the backburner to become a stay-at-home mom. Once my daughter started school, I planned to return to work. In the meantime, my husband could support us with his engineering salary and the money we saved up.
Fast-forward 11 months, and I became pregnant again — and as our family expanded, so did our expenses. I desperately looked for a way to make money while continuing to stay home with my little ones, because I didn’t want to have to go back to work while they were still so young.
What Home-Based Business Has Low Startup Costs?
During my daughters’ naps and after they went to bed, I mostly scrolled through Facebook and Pinterest on my computer. Instead, I wanted to use that time productively — and make money.
I thought about trying a direct-sales position with Norwex or Usborne Books, but I didn’t like the idea of having so much inventory in my home. Also, the initial costs of starting a direct-sales business can range from $125 (Usborne Books) to $2,570 (Cabi clothes). I’m sure there are some cheaper direct-sales business, but these are the ones I knew about.
Instead, I chose to become a lifestyle blogger because all I needed was a computer, time and a hosting package. I already had all the tools, so I could jump in immediately.
My hosting package, which included a free domain name (these can cost up to $15), only cost me $47 per year, bringing my initial overhead to less than $4 per month. Now that my blog has grown, I pay for other services, but this package was all I needed to start blogging.
We Cut Our Budget While I Started My Blog
To make it possible for me to continue to stay home with two children, we had to save money.
We cut down on eating out, I bought only the essentials, we started shopping at Aldi (which I love!) and we began using Personal Capital to monitor our expenses. It’s an amazing free app with beautiful charts and graphs — any engineer’s dream!
But the biggest, most immediate benefit from starting a blog was that I no longer spent time browsing Amazon or shopping at Target.
Before I started blogging, I easily spent $100 to $200 a month at Target or Hobby Lobby on random items for craft projects I never started or clothes I didn’t really need. Once I started, I no longer needed to shop for unnecessary items to fulfill a craving or feel satisfied. My new hobby was actually helping me save money!
How I Went From $0 to $6,000 per Month
I was a teaching assistant for a programming class in college, but I had no idea how I could repurpose those skills in motherhood. Blogging was a natural fit for my technical skills, and now I make money teaching others how to set up and run a blog and how to manage their time wisely.
I started my lifestyle blog in August 2015, and after learning the ins and outs for five months, I launched my teaching blog on Jan. 18, 2016, three weeks before the birth of my second daughter. I still occasionally post to my first blog, but I concentrate most of my efforts on my new site.
By March, my email list had more than 1,000 subscribers. I wanted to make money with my blog, but I didn’t want to have ads on my site. I knew I had to find another way.
The beauty of it is, my readers told me exactly what they wanted. As they asked specific questions and shared their challenges, I came up with the idea to create my first product, an ebook. I spent all of May creating “Blog by Number,” which launched in June 2016. This $17.99 ebook has earned me $4,992 so far.
When I realized many of my readers wanted more than just an ebook with text and images, I put together an in-depth, step-by-step course with instructional videos. I priced it at $47, and it has grossed $3,703 in less than two months!
I document my earnings in income reports each month. Roughly half my income comes from my ebook and course, while the other half comes from affiliate sales, where I promote a company’s products or services and receive a commission if someone buys them.
It took me six months to build a strong following before I made over $1,000 a month consistently. Then, over the summer of 2016, my income exploded.
I made $1,007 in June, $1,700 in July, $4,030 in August, $4,800 in September and more than $6,000 in October. And I did this all with a newborn baby and a toddler!
The money isn’t the only benefit. Before becoming a blogger, I had no idea there were so many active communities for moms on Facebook. I joined a few and immediately made friends. Connecting with other moms and growing a business has definitely helped me become a happier and more fulfilled mom.
I also found other bloggers in my niche and started commenting on their blogs. Eventually, we became friends and now hold weekly mastermind calls to help each other grow.
What the Future Holds for My Blog
Blogging is a great flexible, mommy-friendly way to make money from home. It’s not a get-rich-quick venture, but putting in the time and effort has helped me earn thousands per month. Some mom bloggers even make between $2,000 and $63,000 every month!
I’m excited for what the future holds for my blog and business, which I intend to grow while I raise my little ones. I plan to launch a time management course in 2017 and I’m collaborating with other bloggers on ebooks and courses.
My ultimate goal is to replicate my old corporate salary and earn $75,000 a year from my blog. Before the end of 2017, I expect my blog to consistently bring in more than $10K per month. I’m looking forward to making it happen!
Your Turn: Have you tried blogging as a business? What were your biggest challenges?
Suzi Whitford is a mom, wife, former engineer and blogger. She loves helping moms be less overwhelmed, more productive and run successful blogs while raising a family. Find her at http://ift.tt/2gfWoaL.
The post I Launched My Mom Blog in January… and It Made $6K in October. Here’s How appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.
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Sell Yourself: These 5 Companies Will Let You Pitch Your Dream Job
Have you ever found a company that seems absolutely perfect for you… if only you were qualified for one of its job openings?
Still, you peruse their careers page and see nothing fitting your skills.
But what if you could create your own job? Wouldn’t it be awesome to tell those companies what you have to offer and why you’d be a benefit?
Some actually let you do that!
We found five companies — The Penny Hoarder included! — that invite you to pitch your dream job. Take a look at what they do — what could you offer them?
1. Disqus
Disqus offers blog comment hosting and other add-on tools for websites to help build community, increase engagement and earn revenue.
The Disqus team is headquartered in downtown San Francisco and committed to living by a set of “community guidelines” — “We are curious. We are generous. We are colorful. We speak our minds. And we make an impact.”
The company offers flexible hours, paid time off, paid parental leave, daily catered lunches; medical, dental and vision plans; 401(k); and in-office yoga, meditation and massage!
The company lists openings for several engineering and advertising positions — but maybe you know of a better fit?
If you want to apply outside of its listings, Disqus invites you to submit this application letting it know which departments you’re interested in.
2. Free Range
Free Range is an Oakland, California-based design and innovation firm helping companies grow their brand and audience.
It prides itself on being a company of creatives, inventors, educators, entrepreneurs and thinkers with a mission to make an impact on clients, culture and the world. Team members boast skills in their bios from “dominating at table tennis” to “aura of chill +1.”
Free Range advertises full-time and freelance openings for engineers and designers. If you want to think outside the box, you can pitch your dream job here.
3. Fearless
Fearless is a “software shop” that turns complex data into easy-to-follow presentations.
“We are passionate about being surprisingly different by the work we do, problems we solve, and difference we make,” the company boasts.
Fearless employees enjoy an annual tech budget, plus tons of paid time off (including birthdays), an annual education budget, comprehensive health insurance and an employer-matched 401(k) plan.
Most of its current openings are for web development and engineering positions, but the company says, “In our world, things change quickly – you may be perfect for a future role on our team.”
If you want to pitch your own position, fill out the application here to tell Fearless what’s unique about you.
4. GoWesty
This parts supplier for the classic VW Bus, Vanagon and Eurovan welcomes employees who take these vehicles very seriously.
These vehicles represent a lifestyle to GoWesty, and its employees respect — and live — that lifestyle.
The company encourages community among its team members with weekly lunchtime barbecues, Friday drinks, company campouts and “lots of opportunities for personal and professional growth.”
The company currently lists no job openings, but invites you to pitch your dream job here.
5. The Penny Hoarder
Want to join the fastest-growing private media company in the country? Look no further, Penny Hoarders — you’ve found us!
Our mission is to help put money in our readers’ pockets — and I can attest that we have a lot of fun doing it.
We make personal finance fun by demystifying the big, complicated stuff. And we share creative ways to make and save money with more than 12 million readers a month.
We’re based in St. Petersburg, Florida, and offer competitive pay and benefits, including a 401(k), flex time, work-from-home days, an annual learning budget and unlimited sick time.
(Your co-workers would be pretty darn cool, too… just sayin’)
We have openings for editorial, marketing and web development positions, and we invite you to pitch your dream job or internship if you think you can help in a role we haven’t considered.
Your Turn: If you could pitch your dream job, what would it be?
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 Sell Yourself: These 5 Companies Will Let You Pitch Your Dream Job appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.
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Savings update: Look out for this new, top-paying deal
Leeds Building Society is to launch a top-paying easy access account today (6 December). Its Limited Issue Online Saver pays 1% before tax on a minimum £5,000. It matches the rate paid by RCI Bank, which has headed the best buy tables for months.
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