الخميس، 15 ديسمبر 2016
5 Free Ways to Support Your Favorite Cause While Buying Holiday Gifts
Christmas is the season of giving, right? Peace on earth, goodwill toward men, and all that?
Let’s be honest, though. It can be tough to think about giving to charity when you’re already maxed out buying presents for loved ones.
Here’s a thought: What if you could do both?
Now you can. Thanks to a growing number of “shopfunding” websites and apps, you can donate to your favorite cause while shopping online — without spending an extra penny. They’ll contribute a percentage of your purchases to a charity of your choosing.
Here are some of our favorites:
1. Goodshop
Support your chosen cause by using Goodshop to shop at any of 3,000 partners, including retail giants like Amazon, Pottery Barn, Old Navy, Walmart and Staples. You can also find discounts and coupons here.
On the site, search for each business to see which purchases count and how much of the price the site will donate. Click through to that retailer’s site to buy. Or use the site’s search engine, goodsearch, to start shopping.
You can choose from more than 100,000 charities, including the Red Cross, SPCA, World Wildlife Fund or the American Cancer Society. If a charity isn’t there, you can add it. People often add their local animal shelters or their kids’ schools.
2. AmazonSmile
If you shop on Amazon, you may as well do it via AmazonSmile. Every time you make an eligible purchase, the AmazonSmile Foundation donates 0.5% of the price to your chosen cause.
Did we mention you pay nothing extra? One more time: You pay nothing extra.
Choose from nearly a million charities. Tens of millions of products are eligible for the program. Check for the “Eligible for AmazonSmile donation” tag on each product’s page.
3. iGive
Similar to Goodshop, iGive partners with 1,700 retailers like J.C. Penney, Best Buy and Walgreens. Charities get an average of 3% of the take from your qualifying purchases. Check each store’s iGive listing for details.
Aside from its website, iGive also has a smartphone app. There are 35,000 charities to pick from, or you can list your own.
4. Shop2Care
A slightly smaller site, Shop2Care works with nearly 600 retailers like Macy’s, Kmart and Office Depot. It kicks back an average of 5% of your purchase price to charity.
Instead of sticking with a single nonprofit, you choose two out of six categories to donate to: Animals, Arts, Education, Health/Human Services, Hunger or Veterans.
5. GiveBuy
The new kid on the block, this growing site partners with 700 retailers like Kohl’s and Sears.
Download GiveBuy’s browser extension, which works with Chrome, Firefox or Safari. Whenever you shop online at a participating retailer, the site will divert up to 10% of your purchase price to one of 100 supported charities.
Add your favorite charity here if you don’t see it listed.
To sum up: Buy your holiday gifts through these tools, and you’ll give to charity without spending extra money.
This, people, is what you call a win-win. You win, the good guys win, your favorite cause wins, needy children and puppy dogs win, everybody wins!
Peace on earth, y’all. Goodwill toward men.
Your Turn: What cause would you most like to earn money for while shopping?
Mike Brassfield (mike@thepennyhoarder.com), a senior writer at The Penny Hoarder, has never met a cup of eggnog he didn’t like.
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This Weekend, You Could Get a Free $100 to Spend at J.C. Penney. Here’s How
Christmas shopping is probably my least favorite thing in the world… which is why even though Christmas is next week, I haven’t started yet.
And it’s not just the decisions. After I figure out exactly what to give as gifts, the costs start to add up! My wallet dislikes it almost as much as I do.
If you’re like me and will be heading to the mall this weekend for some last-minute shopping, you’re in luck — J.C. Penney is having a killer coupon giveaway, and you could save up to $100 just by showing up!
Here are the deets:
How to Get Your J.C. Penney Coupon
To score one of J.C. Penney’s limited coupons, you’ll have to set the timer on your coffee maker for a little earlier than usual.
Stores will open early this Friday, Dec. 16, at 8 a.m. and Saturday, Dec. 17, at 7 a.m. to give away the special coupons.
Coupons are good for $10 off a $10 or more purchase, $20 off a $20+ purchase or $100 off a $100+ purchase. That means you could potentially get $100 worth of gifts for free.
Each store will give out 100 coupons each day, so expect people to start lining up well before the store opens to get their hands on them. Of those 100 coupons, two are worth $100, three are worth $20, and the rest are worth $10.
I know, I know. Who wants to wake up early on the weekend?
If it involves saving money, I sure do! I’ll just rest my head afterward on the stack of cash I’ll save.
… but I might bring some extra coffee to help me with the wait.
Your Turn: Will you be heading to J.C. Penney this weekend for its coupon giveaway? Let us know in the comments below!
Kelly Smith is a junior writer and engagement specialist and a senior at The University of Tampa. She’ll never say no to free money.
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Here’s How to Get 3 Months of Highlights Magazine for Free
Do you remember reading Highlights magazine as a kid? Every time I’m in a doctor’s office waiting room, I find myself tempted to grab the nearest copy to see if I can win the Hidden Pictures puzzle.
I’m well aware that I’m not the magazine’s target audience anymore. But reading Highlights is an experience I’d like to share with my young nephews — and not just so I can beat them at finding all the hidden pictures, I swear.
Is there someone in your family that would love reading Highlights?
The magazine and kids’ drink company Good2Grow have teamed up to offer families three free months of Highlights magazine.
How to Sign Up for Highlights Magazine — For Free!
Visit this website and use code g2gdrink to sign up.
One of our staffers tried it, and it took about 30 seconds. He didn’t even need to enter his credit card information!
If your favorite kid is a bit young for Highlights, which is designed for readers 6 and up, three other magazines are available: Hello, for children 0-2 years old, High Five, for kids 2-6 years old, and High Five Bilingue, in English and Spanish.
There’s no expiration date on this offer, but now might be the perfect time to order. It’s winter, so the days are short, the nights are long, and depending where you live, it might be ridiculously cold. Why not use this freebie to keep Junior entertained on long winter evenings?
Or, hey — it could be a fun gift for the little ones in your life!
Your Turn: Which magazine will your family sign up for?
Lisa Rowan is a writer and producer at The Penny Hoarder. Today, she discovered you can play the Hidden Pictures puzzle online.
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Bank of England’s Base Rate puzzles mortgagees
Just over one in four (27%) of mortgage borrowers understand how cuts to the Bank of England’s (BoE) Base Rate could impact their mortgage repayments, new research has revealed.
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Council tax bills can rise by up to 5% in England next year
Some councils in England have been given the green light to raise taxes by up to 5% in each of the next two financial years.
The government has today announced that local authorities with responsibility for the social care of vulnerable people can raise council tax bills by up to 3% in both the next tax year, and the year after that.
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14 Gifts Under $25 That Even the Pickiest Hipster Will Love
Christmas is coming. Do you know where your hipsters are?
If not, let me give you some hints: Check the most expensive coffee shop within a 50-mile radius.
No dice? How about the bar that mixes its own bitters and processes transactions on an old-school cash register — the kind that actually goes “cha-ching”?
Actually, never mind finding them. While they’re out having fun, it’s your perfect moment to get their holiday gifts squared away.
And just in case you’re at a loss, we found some affordable hipster gifts to get you started.
14 Gifts Under $25 That Hipsters Totally Won’t Turn Up Their Noses At
You’re probably thinking this list will be unoriginal: all free-range, fair-trade, gluten-free vegan chocolate muffins. But you’re wrong.
Here are 14 hipster Christmas gifts that are totally one of a kind.
1. Suspenders: $9.99
Because everyone knows dressing like a septuagenarian is the easiest way to showcase your youthful style and individualistic thinking.
Bonus: Fun colors!
2. Maple Bacon Anything: $8+
In case you missed it, bacon is seriously having a (long) moment. (Not that it’s not worthy of that attention, I’ll admit. I mean, it’s bacon.)
Add a dash of maple for a sweet and salty juxtaposition, and you’ve got the perfect hipster stocking stuffer.
And don’t worry, there’s no shortage of options: You can find maple bacon coffee ($7.99), maple bacon aioli ($11.99), maple bacon marshmallows ($15, and the bonus addition of bourbon) and even the famed maple bacon donuts (technically cheating at $27, but still).
Guys, there’s even bacon-flavored toothpaste for less than 10 bucks. (No maple in that, though — sugar is bad for your teeth, after all.)
3. This Candle, Which Smells Like All Their Favorite Things: $19.95
Speaking of bacon, check out this bacon-scented candle — which adds coffee and craft beer to the melange.
If hipster heaven had a smell…
4. Polaroid Snap Film: $10+
Let their parents buy the camera itself, which costs at least $100. But $10 film? Doable — and essential.
I mean, it’s not like we all have incredibly tiny, high-tech digital cameras in our pockets at all times or anything.
5. Vinyl Collection Puzzle: $24
Hey, for what it’s worth — this puzzle’s a whole lot cheaper than actually collecting a nascent stack of records.
6. Clothing with Bicycles on It: $25 or less
It’s basically the new “Put a bird on it.”
And fortunately, the internet offers up a variety of affordable bicycle-print options. Check out this silky short-sleeve top — and this dress, which features both a bicycle and a mermaid, and is on sale for $25.
Related: I’m not sure that’s how tails work.
7. Moscow Mule Mugs: $10 or More Each
Even if they have no idea how to make the namesake cocktail they slurp at their favorite speakeasy, hipsters will feel much more comfortable getting shwasty out of these copper mugs.
Even better? This miniature set, which lends even grimace-inducing shots of well vodka a sense of refinement and elevation.
8. A Subscription to Dollar Beard Club: $3+ Per Month
Help him keep his glorious beard shiny, healthy and undeniably hipster-tastic with a subscription to the Dollar Beard Club.
Monthly kits can include beard oil, balm and a variety of other optional add-ons, and start as low as a buck a month (plus shipping). But it’s Christmas, so don’t be stingy. You can’t correctly corral a beard without a sandalwood mustache comb, you know.
9. A Case of La Croix: $4.99+
They’re pretty cheap on Amazon, so you may as well get a couple — mure pepino, anyone? (That’s blackberry cucumber… but don’t worry, your hipster will already know that.)
Or, if you’re feeling especially generous, you could spring for the fancy variety pack ($20.80). The debate about the best flavor is quite heated, so you’ll be helping your favorite hipster get informed.
10. Books — But Only if They’re Pretentious: $25 or less
Even if you know for a fact he’s reading “The Hunger Games” at home, a hipster can never have too many showy tomes to “read” on the train — and populate his Instagram feed with.
Safe bets include “Gravity’s Rainbow,” “Infinite Jest” or anything by William Faulkner.
11. Ironic T-shirts: $25 or less
Of course Asher never drinks anything but his hometown’s microbrew — but you know he’d rock a PBR T-shirt anyway.
And even though she’ll never own up to her secret love for Drake, Maisie will be 100% on board with the clever shuffle of his lyrics on this sweatshirt. (A sweatshirt! You get it, right? It’s just too much. I can’t even.)
13. Mason Jars: $1 or less at a Thrift Store
This gift is a lifesaver — literally.
If a hipster doesn’t have access to a mason jar, she’ll simply wither away from dehydration. Other drinking vessels baffle them.
… Except for copper mugs.
14. Extra-Expensive Temporary Tattoos: $20
Everyone knows commitment isn’t really millennials’ thing.
So why not give the gift of looking edgy without the associated pain, expense or, yes, serious decision-making required for a real tattoo?
These temporary tattoos are “only” $20, and wear away after just two weeks. And don’t worry, they’ve got all the bases covered — from the chicly nerdy serotonin molecule to the rebellious barcode.
Come on. It’s not like they were really going to get an original design anyway.
Your Turn: What will you gift the least-annoying hipster in your life?
Jamie Cattanach is a staff writer at The Penny Hoarder who will admit that she’s kind of a hipster — and yeah, she would totally wear that Drake sweatshirt. Find @JamieCattanach on Twitter to wave hello.
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10 Wines Under $15 You Won’t Be Embarrassed to Bring to the Christmas Party
Those who know me well know wine is one of my favorite things, no matter the time of year. I even have a few special wines on my list for Santa.
Wine is also a great option — or obligation — to bring to a party if the host has dinner covered. But if you’ve been invited to a more formal holiday party and need to impress, the supermarket aisles may seem stacked against you.
Luckily, we’ve compiled some insider info and choices to help you pick a bottle like a pro — without breaking the bank.
Wine Buying Tips
Here are a few general tips in case none of the best wine options below show up on your local shop’s shelves.
Pay Attention to Packaging
This goes without saying — skip big bottles and boxed wines. Although good wines can come in those packages, the odds aren’t in your favor.
That said, the screw cap isn’t the end of the world.
In fact, many wine experts agree the screw cap is a superior wine closure. Especially for young, dinner-party-friendly wines not meant to age — screw caps keep wines fresher more reliably than corks.
So if you pick up a bottle with a screw cap, you won’t look cheap or ignorant — and if someone thinks so, just tell them NPR covered the issue.
Visit the New World
When you buy a bottle of true Bordeaux, you’re paying for the name and history as much as, if not more so, the cost of production.
New World wines generally refer to those from countries other than Europe, though it’s a little more complicated, and lack the prestige price tag.
Plus, their winemakers started later in the game and usually use more up-to-date, technologically advanced processes to create great wines for lower production costs.
So instead of more expensive French Bordeaux, try a Bordeaux-style wine out of South Africa or Argentina.
My favorite place to try this trick is Total Wine. If you walk up to one of their associates and ask for a New World Bordeaux or Burgundy under $15, they’ll set you up.
Steer Clear of Blends
Before you get all up in arms about your tried-and-true red blend, hear me out.
Lots of blends are tasty wines — and yes, most high-end foreign wines are blends.
But you stand a lower chance of scoring a real bargain when you buy a red or white blend without varietal (that is, type of grape) labeling.
These anonymous blends tend to be made of whatever varietal wines are left over after the winemaker produces her labeled cabernets, merlots and syrahs.
While this kind of leftover wine stew can be yummy, it usually comes at a hefty markup since it’s so cheap to make — and isn’t very snob-friendly.
Tips for Buying Wine at Local Stores
If you live near a Trader Joe’s, you’re in luck: A lot of their bargain “exclusive” wines are actually an incredible value, and the tasting notes they put up in stores are well done.
I once purchased a really nice bottle of New Zealand sauvignon blanc there. It really exhibited the signature stylistic notes of grass and minerality — for just $7.99.
At ABC Liquors, look for wines with a rating from Wine Spectator or Wine Enthusiast — surprising wines sometimes go deeply on sale!
I got a bottle of 2010 Château Haut Pommarede Graves Rouge — a pretty decent imported Bordeaux — for just $12.99. It originally was almost $20.
Publix, my favorite chain in the south, uses a set of picture graphics to confer characteristics like body and sweetness. You can always ask the store specialist, though your mileage may vary. Some of these folks are just regular grocery store employees who don’t actually know very much about wine. They might still direct you to something yummy, though!
10 Best Wines Under $15 to Bring to Holiday Parties
Any of these wines would be a great choice. Feel free to use this as a rough guideline when you head to the store — not every bottle will be available at your local vendor.
Prices may vary based on your location — but you can get them online if shipping alcohol is legal in your state.
You’ll notice that cabernet and chardonnay do not appear on this list. They’re so popular it’s really easy to find an iffy one — and hard to pick out real bargains.
If one of these varietals is your go-to, more power to you. But, if you branch out a little, you might be surprised what you find — and love!
1. Mionetto Brut Prosecco Veneto — $10.99
Bubbles are a classic apéritif whose dinner party presence is well-warranted. But just looking at cheap champagne gives me a headache — and it’s hard to find a nice bottle for less than $40.
If you have yet to try Italy’s sparkling wine, Prosecco, consider it this year.
It’s got all the bubbly goodness of, well, bubbly. But it undergoes a shorter (cheaper!) fermentation method for a fruitier profile with less of the bready, biscuity flavor of French champagne.
It’s affordable — and much better than that $8 magnum you’re eyeing. Your head will thank me tomorrow.
2. Duboeuf Beaujolais-Villages Nouveau 2015 — $11.95
Beaujolais is a light and fruity red wine with very little tannin — it drinks well, even for those who “don’t like reds.”
It’s had moments as a trendy wine for critics to hate on, but it pairs especially well with traditional holiday foods, like turkey with cranberry sauce. Plus, it’s an affordable French import — c’est bon!
The “Villages” version of Duboeuf’s newest release is a step up from the regular $8 bottle you can find in drug stores. The additional word corresponds to a rarer wine from a smaller set of vineyards, and will make you look that much savvier.
Note: Because Beaujolais is the first wine released of any given vintage — and because it lacks the structure tannin gives bigger reds — it’s meant to be drunk immediately.
Make sure you give the date a glance. You want this year’s bottle, if possible.
3. Hahn Pinot Noir — $14
Because it’s a moody grape prone to low yields, good, affordable pinot is so hard to find — but it pays off so well.
Well-made pinot noir is a light but complex red and goes well with a variety of foods. Hahn makes one of the nicest sub-$20 bottles I’ve ever enjoyed.
Honorable mention: Mayhall Tibbs, 2013 — $10.99 at Trader Joe’s. A little less subtle than Hahn, but if you want cherry-tasting wine, this guy is the bomb. The cherry bomb.
4. Warre’s Heritage Ruby Port — $11.99
Although it’s not for sipping all night (unless you want to feel really rotten tomorrow morning), a sweet wine like port, sweet riesling or even sweet bubbles like Italy’s Asti wine can be really good — even at affordable prices.
The powerful flavor of the extra residual sugar means you won’t miss the fine complexity of the higher end versions, more obvious in dry wines.
Plus, some fortified wines last quite a while after uncorking. They’re dosed with extra alcohol and meant to be consumed in moderate, dessert amounts. Even if you don’t pop the bottle after dinner, it makes a great holiday gift!
5. Aveleda Vinho Verde 2014 — $8.99
That’s right — green wine!
Although the color sometimes matches, the name uses “green” to mean “new” or “inexperienced.” So, Vinho Verde is a young Portuguese wine not allowed to age, whether red, white or rosé.
It’s very slightly effervescent and can exhibit exciting fruit flavors ranging from lemon to fig. It’s not as aggressively bubbly as your favorite champagne, but still fizzy.
It’s also a wine you don’t see every day, making it extremely not-embarrassing.
6. Vega Sindoa Tempranillo — $7.48
Remember what I said about Old World wines being consistently more expensive and carrying less value per dollar? Spain’s kind of an exception.
Tempranillo is one of my favorite grape varietals, with big, juicy, red fruit flavors like berry and plum, balanced with smoky, spicy flavors like tobacco and vanilla. It’s a great food wine — and you don’t have to pay much for it.
7. Pine Ridge Chenin Blanc/Viognier Blend — $12.99
If you haven’t heard of viognier, get ready to replace all your chardonnay. This grape has the same weighty mouthfeel, but since it’s not usually aged in oak, it retains tropical fruit flavors like peach and pear, even floral notes of violet.
Paired with the neutral chenin blanc in this blend, you wind up with a well-balanced wine, free of the sweet, heavy character viognier can take on by itself.
8. Kim Crawford Sauvignon Blanc — $12.97
Sauvignon blanc is a fantastic food wine because of its high acid level, which cuts through fatty cheeses and meats. Marlborough, New Zealand is one of the premier regions for this varietal, and Kim Crawford’s bottle is likely to be on your local shelves.
Just like Beaujolais, sauvignon blanc is another wine that’s meant to be drunk young — so look for the most recent vintage when you go hunting.
9. Cantina Zaccagnini Montepulciano d’Abruzzo — $14.99
Italian wine means a lot more than $3 chianti in the straw basket, so you’re in for a treat.
This Italian bottle is a big red with notes of blackberry and earth — with lots of tannin and relatively low acid. It’s a wine worth contemplating, and a great value for the price point.
10. The Stump Jump Shiraz — $12.99
If you like cabernet, jump over to shiraz (which is what happens when Aussies try to say “syrah,” apparently).
This is a nice bottle to try, with a low price point. Because shiraz is also a thick-skinned dark grape variety, you’ll notice many of the same blue, black and cooked fruit flavors from your favorite cabernet — but with the exotic twist of pepper or even chocolate.
Need More Wine Help?
Remember: don’t be afraid to ask for help! If you go to any actual wine shop — as opposed to a grocery store — you’ll be in good hands.
And if worst comes to worst… bring some eggnog and a bottle of spiced rum to the party!
Your Turn: Which of these affordable wines will you bring to your upcoming holiday soirée?
Jamie Cattanach is a staff writer at The Penny Hoarder and holds a Level III Certification in Wine and Spirits from WSET. She reviews awesome — and affordable — wines most Wednesdays at http://ift.tt/1RiB7sH.
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31 Days to Financial Independence (Day 18): Improving Your Income at Your Current Job
“31 Days to Financial Independence” is an ongoing series that appears every Thursday on The Simple Dollar. You might want to start this series from the beginning!
Last time, we finished off the “cost-cutting” portion of building your path to financial independence by examining how exactly to incorporate the many frugal tactics shared in this series into your life.
Now it’s time to move onto the other half of the “spend less than you earn” coin: earning more money, and we’re going to start with your job.
Most of us work for an income, and most people in that group have someone who is their primary employer – an ordinary job, in other words. You work, you do what your boss says, you get paid, then you use that income to make ends meet and save for the future.
We’ve spent most of the series thus far really focusing on how to get maximum value out of the income you already have. Those strategies do an effective job of increasing the gap between how much you spend and how much you earn so that you can do effective things with that remaining money, but that’s only part of the story. The other powerful way to increase that gap is to raise your income.
Improving your income is a tricky thing to consider because it doesn’t have the immediate results that frugality has. You can’t do a certain thing and immediately get the positive results from it, as you can with frugality.
However, improving your income has several major advantages, one big one being the fact that there’s really no cap on improving your income. There’s only so much spending you can cut before you really can’t cut any more; there’s really no ceiling on how much you can earn if you make good choices.
As with spending less via frugality, the more you earn, the more money you’re going to have left over for achieving your big financial goals, such as financial independence. So, no matter what your situation is, finding more income is going to be helpful.
I’m going to use myself as an example here. When I first began my financial turnaround, I recognized that no matter how much I scrimped and saved, there was only so much I could cut from my spending. You can only extract so much water from a rock, after all.
As I began to realize how important additional income was going to be in terms of paying off our debts quickly and getting us ready to buy a house as fast as possible (as our second child was on the way and we needed more space), I started to really bear down on my options for additional income. I not only talked to my boss about how I could move up on the pay scale at work (she suggested a lot of performance-oriented methods), I also spent my spare time launching several side businesses, one of which eventually grew into this very website you’re reading right now.
Without that increase in income – which, honestly, was nice but it wasn’t life altering amounts of money – it would have taken much longer to pay down our debts. I threw every dime of that extra income at our debts and then at our savings for our house and, thanks to the acceleration provided by that additional income, we were able to move in before our second daughter was born without being crushed by debt.
Cutting back on your spending is key, but taking steps to improve your income is a big key, too. You’re going to need both sides of the coin on the road to financial independence.
What follows is a list of strategies that focus entirely on increasing your income at work without increasing your work hours. Obviously, working more hours is going to result in more income, but the goal here isn’t to just add to your already overburdened life. Instead, the focus is on improving your true hourly wage – the amount of money you get to keep for every hour invested in work and work-related activities like commuting.
Let’s get started with a central principle you’ll always want to keep in mind.
Never forget that both you and your employer want to get maximum value for your time and money. It’s easy to see the employer-employee relationship from your perspective. You want to get paid, right? We all want money in our pockets. The thing is that many people lose sight of the employer’s part in that equation, and it’s when you lose sight of what your employer is bringing to the table in this exchange, it becomes very difficult to ever see an increase in your salary or in your hourly wage.
Your employer basically wants to get the most value they can out of each hour that they pay an employee. If you’re not doing anything more than a newly-trained person off the street can do, there’s no reason for an employer to pay you more than an entry-level employee. If you want to be paid more, the question to ask yourself always is how can I make my hours here more valuable for the employer so that it makes sense for him to pay me more to keep me, because switching to an entry-level person would be a loss? In other words, what value are you adding to deserve more pay?
Don’t ask for a raise until you have clear evidence of sustained strong performance. This follows right along with the previous strategy. If you don’t have any evidence that you’re doing anything better than someone they could pull in off the street, your employer has no reason to give you a raise of any kind. They’re not going to pay you more just because you’re a special butterfly. That’s not how the world works.
If you’re thinking of charging into your boss’s office to get a raise, make sure that when you do, you have some clear-cut evidence and things you can point at as proof that you’re doing your job well and providing much more value to your employer than someone fresh off the street. If you can’t do that, you’re not giving your boss a reason to say “yes.”
Know what’s realistic. Almost every job comes with a pay range that an employee can expect from that job. No matter how good your performance is, you’re not going to exceed the high end of that bracket very often.
However, knowing where you land in the range of reasonable wages is very important, as it gives you a sense of what you can ask for and shoot for in terms of raises in the future. If you have a lot of room to grow, then many of the strategies below make sense. If you don’t have a lot of room to grow, you may want to be considering a job switch or a career switch or moving to the next rung up on your career ladder.
Have a sit-down with your supervisor about job performance. This is where you start. Just ask for a few minutes of your supervisor’s time and ask about your job performance. Remember, you’re not really looking for things that you’re doing well, but things you can improve on that will set you apart from the crowd.
Go in there with a notebook and take notes when your supervisor is talking. Write down every single action you can possibly take that is mentioned by your supervisor as a way to improve your performance, even if it seems trivial.
Ask about extra steps you can take to maximize your job performance. Is there any training you can take that would make you more effective at your job or make you eligible for better pay? Can you take some evening classes that might contribute to better performance? Maybe there are online tools that your company provides that can help.
Devoting some of your spare time to improving your job performance now can often improve your true hourly wage down the road, making every hour you work more valuable than before. That’s usually a great investment.
Take your performance reviews seriously. Many workplaces have a regular performance review where you sit down with your supervisor and go over your workplace contributions over the past few months or the past year. It’s easy to just blow them off when you’ve been there for a while. Don’t.
Performance reviews often amount to a supervisor going through a checklist of things that basically describe optimum performance for your position. If you can make a case for all of the things on that checklist, you’re going to have a glowing performance review, and if you have a glowing performance review or two under your belt, you have a great case for getting a raise.
Use feedback from your performance reviews as a checklist for future work. Whether it’s a meeting with your supervisor or a performance review, you should be using it as an opportunity to come up with a list of things you can improve on and things you can do to be seen as a great performer in your job. If you’re not coming up with things, ask questions. Ask what you can do better.
In the end, you should walk out of there with a list of things you can do to improve. Take that list seriously. Use it as a checklist over the coming months to become a stronger employee, one that will sit down next time and have an absolutely glowing review which you can then use as leverage to make your case for a pay increase.
Build and maintain positive workplace relationships. Unless you have the personality of a saint, you’re not going to strike up a great relationship with every single person in your workplace. You don’t have to. Just make sure that your relationship with everyone is positive.
One great technique that always works is to make sure you know everyone’s name and a few things about them and then ask them about those ongoing concerns whenever you see them and listen to the answers. If you know that the new guy in accounting is just gaga about his kids, learn their names and ask about them and listen, and then eventually ask about how they’re doing. You’ll naturally be thought of in a positive light if you have lots of conversations where you let other people have the floor, listen to what they say, and remember a little bit.
Avoid negative talk about coworkers like the plague. Every workplace has office talk, and that office talk is often the home of negative gossip. You can listen if you’d like, but avoid spreading any yourself. Resist any and all urges to speak negatively about any coworker unless it is directly to their face in a one-on-one environment.
Negative talk does nothing but inflame negative feelings. Even worse, word of your negative talk often makes its way back to the person you were insulting and damages that relationship. If you talk negative about people behind their back, it’s very likely that others are doing the same to you and it’s going to damage your workplace relationships. A damaged workplace relationship is one that you’re not going to be able to rely on as you try to raise your performance level and it’s one that’s likely to reflect poorly on you to the supervisor that you’re trying to impress.
Don’t waste downtime. When there’s downtime at work – and there’s at least a little downtime at almost every job – it’s tempting to just burn that time goofing around, talking to coworkers, looking at your phone, taking a nap, or almost anything else that you could possibly do on an extended break.
Instead of looking at downtime as a chance to slough off, look at it as an opportunity to take care of some of those things on your list of suggestions from your performance review. What things did your supervisor tell you would lead to great performance? Fill that downtime with those things.
If you have downtime anyway, find workplace problems that need to be solved and solve them. Again, almost every workplace has workarounds to handle ongoing problems that no one has invested the time to actually fix correctly. If you find yourself with a block of downtime, use it to address that problem.
Doing this shows several very powerful things. It shows that you’re observant in the workplace and are able to identify problems. It shows that you’re able and willing to figure out how to solve those problems. It also shows that you have the initiative to carry through that solution to make things better for everyone.
It’s generally a good idea to talk through workplace problems like this with coworkers and even your supervisor just to make sure that it really is a problem and not just something you don’t understand.
Volunteer for challenging tasks. Often, there will be situations where a challenging task comes up and someone needs to take it on. These are often challenging tasks or else tasks that no one else wants to do.
While you shouldn’t volunteer every time, raising your hand and stepping up to the challenge some of the time is a great way to build your reputation at work. It gets a difficult task done, which is something that will please your supervisor, and you can simply tell your coworkers that someone needed to step up to the plate and you didn’t mind taking it on this time, which can help with your relationship there as well.
Document your work. As you work through all of the suggestions from your performance review and also occasionally volunteer for extra challenging tasks, document those efforts. Keep a little pocket notebook with you and take note of the extra efforts you’ve put in to make things better at work.
Don’t document your ordinary work responsibilities. However, you should document significant extra tasks that you take on and anything above and beyond the normal call of duty that you did, particularly anything related to suggested improvements from your performance review.
Before your next review, use this documentation to come up with a report on yourself listing the things you did to address your performance as well as all of the significant extra tasks you’ve taken on, with dates. This is easy if you’ve been noting the extra tasks and extra effort along the way. If you can say “I stayed late to help close 17 times in the past six months,” that really helps make your case, especially when you can back that up with dates.
When you ask for a raise, stay focused on the workplace. Believe it or not, branching off into the multitude of reasons why you need a raise often hurts you, because it takes the conversation away from your job performance and into areas where your employer can “get away” with offering general life advice without having to give you a raise.
Focus on what you actually achieved within the bounds of the workplace, how that exceeds the standards of performance that your boss has laid out for you in the past, and use that alone as the basis for why you deserve a raise. Don’t give your boss an opportunity to reroute conversation away from the question of a raise or why you deserve it.
If your boss can’t give you a wage raise, consider asking for other benefits that can help you in other ways. Maybe you can simply ask for more flexible hours to help you with some of your other life demands, such as being available for your children or having time to take on another job or start a side gig. Perhaps you can ask to work from home a day or two a week, or you can try for something that one of my coworkers used to utilize, a schedule of nine 9 hour days followed by a Friday off, which amounted to him working 9 hours a day with every other Friday off, giving him regular three day weekends.
While these things won’t help you directly make more money, they will free up time for you to do other things in your life that you might not otherwise be able to do. You might have time to start a side business or work at another job or simply reduce your dependence on expensive child care. These things don’t cost the company money, but they do save you money, so it ends up being a functional raise for you.
Next time, we’ll talk about strategies for getting promoted within your current workplace so that you can earn a higher income.
The post 31 Days to Financial Independence (Day 18): Improving Your Income at Your Current Job appeared first on The Simple Dollar.
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Legal firms must come clean on pricing
Legal service providers must make it easier for consumers to shop around and compare costs, according to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), following a year-long study of the sector.
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Hackers steal data from more than 1bn Yahoo accounts
The data of more than 1 billion Yahoo account holders is believed to have been stolen, the internet company has disclosed.
It says it’s analysed information given to it by law enforcement in November 2016, which appears to be Yahoo user data stolen in August 2013.
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Everyone Knows Fortunes Are Won and Lost at the Company Holiday Party
Want a promotion in 2017? The company holiday party is your time to shine.
Most of us have a love-hate relationship with the annual office gathering. On the one hand: free hors d’oeuvres and booze. On the other hand: free embarrassment, when the free booze leads you to take a header on the dance floor and split your pants in front of the boss.
Mandatory fun is always less, well, fun than the spontaneous kind. But if you play your cards right, your holiday party experience can be embarrassment-free and boost your career at the same time. You might even enjoy yourself.
Here’s how to do it.
1. Don’t drink your face off.
There’s a reason every holiday party guide includes an admonition not to drink too much. What seems like a good idea when you’re a few free drinks into the evening might turn out to be a career-ruiner. This is especially true if you’re imbibing to take the edge off some social anxiety.
Boozing it up might make it easier to endure a conversation with your boorish coworker, but it also might encourage you to start emulating his behavior. When it comes to managing social situations in a professional context, you need to have your wits about you.
2. Make new friends.
People who have friends at work tend to be more productive and produce better work than those who keep their personal life rigidly separate – but the company holiday party isn’t necessarily the time to reinforce those bonds. After all, you can plan a team happy hour anytime, or just grab a bite to eat during the week; the holiday party is a rare chance to hang out with people you don’t know that well or rarely interact with.
Cross-team bonding is important, because no one works in a vacuum. Even if you rarely talk to sales and see IT people only when your computer freezes, your job depends on theirs and vice versa. You’re all engaged in the same goal of making your company a success.
Chatting with people you don’t know gives you a unique opportunity to see some of their perspective. You might discover a whole other point of view on the company’s products and services, or learn something about the organization’s goals that you never knew before. (You might also learn that your company is about to have layoffs, which is equally valuable – if less delightful to hear at the holidays.)
Making new friends in other departments can benefit your career in the long run, as well. You never know when there might be an opportunity in another department or if one of your coworkers will end up managing at a competitor someday. Make connections with other teams, and they might think of you when the time comes to hire.
3. Have a plan.
If you want to use the company holiday party to get ahead, you need to set some goals ahead of time. Start by determining what you want to accomplish. Are you hoping to make a good impression on the new CEO, or connect with people who’ll be working on your biggest project next year, or just talk to three people you’ve only met in passing?
Make a list. Obviously, you want to approach the actual event with a bit more spontaneity – in other words, don’t blurt out, “THIS WAS NICE, BUT I NEED TO MAKE TWO OTHER NEW FRIENDS, SO BYE!” – but knowing roughly what you’re hoping to accomplish will help you get off on the right foot.
It’s also a good idea to think about what you don’t want to happen at the party. For example, if you know your coworker is about to get the boot, and you have the worst poker face in the game, now might be the time to discretely avoid them. The same goes for colleagues who tend to monopolize the conversation and might not let you mingle.
Finally, decide roughly when you’d like to call it a night – and keep it on the early side. Your mother was right: Nothing good happens after midnight. Go home earlyish, and you can enjoy hearing about what your coworkers got up to… without having to endure the hangover and potential fallout that accompanies their misadventures.
Related Articles:
- Three Things NOT to Do at Your Year-End Performance Review
- Four Ways to Impress Your New Boss
- Almost Half of Job Applicants Don’t Follow Basic Instructions, Say HR Pros
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How to Score the Best Tech Deals
By Sarah Landrum Contracts got you wrapped up in red tape? If you don’t get fresh air soon, you may suffocate from tech deal deprivation. Technology is constantly changing, and your wallet can’t keep up. Your technology must be up-to-date to stay connected to friends and family, and many jobs depend on keeping current on […]
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