الخميس، 2 مارس 2017
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The Ultimate Guide to Starting a Blog, Attracting Readers and Making Money
Blogging is a great way to make some big bucks.
And blogging success stories really aren’t that rare these days.
Some people turn blogging into a hearty side gig or even a full-blown career — like this mom, who makes $6,000 a month.
Then there’s this student, who paid off $15,000 in student loan debt with his blogging income — before he even graduated!
Even more impressive, this food blogger reaps a comfortable $150,000 a year.
Heck, The Penny Hoarder is a prime example. When I started this site back in 2010, I was using a free platform and updated the content about once a week.
Now? The Penny Hoarder brought in more than $20 million in revenue last year and sees more than 19 million visitors each month (including you)!
So are you interested in learning the ropes? Let me share with you what I’ve learned about starting a blog and transforming it into a healthy business — and how you can follow a similar path.
The Logistics: Domains, Hosting, Platform and Theme
If you want to start a blog, you’ll have to decide where it will live, how it will look like and what to call it.
Before you write a post or start tweeting about your new site, you’ll need to choose your blog’s domain, sign up with a host, pick a platform and decide on a theme.
It might sound a bit overwhelming, but I promise it’s not too bad.
Here are some simple definitions to get you started:
What’s a Website Domain?
Your domain is your address on the internet. It’s the name you give to people when you tell them where to find your website, like ThePennyHoarder.com.
Yours can be anything you want, ideally close to your blog’s name or your own name. (You don’t want to buy awesomeshoes.com if you’re planning to blog about food.)
Given how cheap it is to get most domains, you could even buy a few iterations. So if your name is Janice M. Schmidt and you want to start a running blog called Janice Runs Fast, try to buy both janicerunsfast.com and janicemschmidt.com.
To buy your domain name for only 99 cents, use the promo code CJPENNY at GoDaddy. I told you it was cheap!
What Does Website Hosting Mean?
If your domain is the physical address for your online plot of land, your host is the foundation and bare bones of the house you’re building.
Your hosting company keeps your site on its servers so people can access it over the internet. Without hosting, people will just see an error page when they try to visit janicerunsfast.com.
I like Bluehost for website hosting, and if you use this link, you can get set up with a site for just $2.95/month. (It’s usually $7.99/month.)
Which Platform Should You Choose for Your Blog?
You probably don’t want to live in an unfinished house with bare walls, concrete floors and no lights, right?
If you want to furnish your house with paint, carpeting, flooring and appliances, you need a blogging platform.
Once you set it up, you’ll use the back end of your platform to update your blog. When it comes to blogging platforms, you have three main options:
WordPress.org
Almost every major blog in the world uses WordPress.
It’s the most popular and robust DIY platform out there. You have to set up your own domain and hosting, but if you’re looking to get serious with your blog, WordPress is the way to go.
You have basically unlimited design options, and you can install any number of plugins to manage everything from social sharing to analytics.
There are a few downsides, though: It’s a community-built platform so some plugins can be buggy, you have to be moderately technical to figure out any problems you encounter, and there’s a bit of a learning curve.
That said, the level of difficulty is really up to you.
If you want a simple design with a professional-sounding URL, you can do that on WordPress.org. If you want a New-York-Times-level blog to support thousands of readers every day with high-quality photos and hundreds of comments, you can do that, too.
Want a simpler option to start with? Read on for a few other options that don’t require as much tech-savvy.
WordPress.com
This is the simpler version of WordPress.
It’s the best way to get your blog off the ground as quickly, easily and cheaply as possible — using WordPress.com means you don’t actually have to worry about buying a domain or hosting — they’ll take care of it for you.
The downside is your domain will look a little different: You’ll have janicerunsfast.wordpress.com rather than janicerunsfast.com. (You can upgrade through WordPress.com to eliminate “wordpress” in your domain, but it will cost you a few dollars.)
You’ll also see a few ads on your site, you won’t have access to quite as many themes and plugins, and storage is limited (so it’s not a great choice if you want to share tons of high-res photos).
But the big perk is the basic account is free and easy to use.
Because it doesn’t cost you anything, WordPress.com is a good option if you want to start a blog as a school project, to stay in touch with friends and family, or simply to see if you like this whole blogging thing at all before investing in something more substantial.
Squarespace
If you’re keen to blog seriously but you’re not tech-savvy, you might like this happy medium between WordPress.com and WordPress.org. If you want a gorgeous but easy to customize website, Squarespace is your guy.
Unlike either WordPress option, everything in Squarespace is controlled and managed by the platform.
You’ll have 24/7 access to a professional support team and unlimited storage. The downside is you won’t have the huge range of plugin, widget and design options as with WordPress, since many of those are community-designed and maintained.
The other major difference is Squarespace isn’t free. It has a number of different packages, but you should expect to spend just under $100 per year for their cheapest plan, which is probably all you need if you’re just getting started.
What About a Theme for Your Blog?
A theme is a template that enhances the appearance and functionality of a blog without you having to touch any code.
To go back to our house metaphor, using a theme is like hiring an interior designer to pull everything together and make all the rooms flow, without actually having to paint the walls or carry the furniture yourself.
Most of the blogs that look appealing and professional use a theme to pull that off.
No matter which platform you choose, your blog will come with access to at least a few free themes. Squarespace is well-known for having lots of gorgeous themes, so if you value design but aren’t a designer yourself, that’s another point for the platform.
If you prefer, you can also purchase more premium themes from other providers.
If you go with WordPress.org, you have unlimited options, though a few are known for being better than others.
If you’re a little more technically inclined or up for getting your hands dirty, you could try these more advanced themes: Genesis, Thesis and X Theme are considered the top WordPress themes out there, and you can get any of them for less than $100.
Logistics of Starting a Blog: A Quick Recap
We’ve covered a lot so far. Here’s what you need to do to set up your blog:
- Purchase your domain
- Get a hosting account
- Choose a platform
- Install a theme, if you want one
Content: It’s Time to Start Writing on Your Blog
So you’ve got your blog all set up. It’s online, looking great and ready for action. Now what?
You might feel ready to hit the ground blogging, but first take a minute to set up these two basic pages.
Your Blog’s About Page
This is where you talk about you.
Why are you blogging? What do you know about your subject? Why should readers listen to you?
Besides your homepage, your about page will likely be the most visited page on your site, so it’s worth putting time and effort into creating one you’re proud of.
Janice the runner might want to post a photo of her running, along with a couple of paragraphs about how she discovered her love for the sport, her running goals and maybe a bit about her life when she’s not hitting the road.
On my about page, I talk about how I’ve been trying to make extra money for as long as I can remember. I also include a few photos and list recent mentions in the media, like when NBC Miami asked me about my favorite savings apps. This lets people know a little bit about me and my experience, plus establish a few credentials.
Your Blog’s Contact Page
If you want to blog anonymously or don’t want people to contact you, you can leave this out, but otherwise you’ll want to include some information about how people can contact you — especially if you’re hoping to make money blogging.
After all, if readers love what you have to offer, or a literary agent wants to offer you a book deal, or a hiring manager thinks you’d be perfect for his open job, you want it to be easy for those people to get in touch, right?
You might want to install a contact form (WordPress.org has plugins for this) or just write out your email address on your contact page. If you’re worried about spam, you can write something like “janice AT janicerunsfast DOT com.”
If you want to get fancy or you have a team of people working for you, list different email addresses for different reasons, like advertising requests, media inquiries or clients who want to hire you.
But it’s perfectly fine to just funnel everything into one place if that’s easiest for you.
What to Blog About
It’s finally time to start blogging!
What you’ll blog about depends on your goals. Do you want to share your adventures with your friends back home while you travel around the world for a year? Are you hoping to spread the word about your freelance business? Do you want to share your expertise on a particular topic? Or are you hoping to turn your blog into a business?
While you’re more than welcome to write about your every whim and opinion, blogs that focus on a particular niche often perform better in terms of traffic and money-making potential. So think about your passions, your business, your experience or your goals.
What expertise or advice can you share with the world?
Generally, you want to blog about something where you can bring a fresh perspective.
For example, while a ton of people blog about money, I like to think The Penny Hoarder stands out by focusing on weird ways to earn, save and invest your money.
So while the world might not need another daily fashion blog, you can set your fashion blog apart by focusing on capsule wardrobes, refashioning clothes you have in your closet or limiting yourself to clothes you buy on consignment.
This is where I also want to highlight the most important thing about blogging: No matter what anyone tells you, you can do whatever you want.
Never underestimate your own personal, unique perspective; the most successful blogs have their own personalities and quirks, just like the people behind them.
Sure, there are a million and one food bloggers out there, but there isn’t one with your voice, with your experience, who shares your all-consuming obsession with making the world’s best guacamole.
Experiment, get creative and have fun with your blog! Put yourself out there, start writing and see what happens.
Content Strategy and Inspiration
Before you publish anything, decide if your blog is going to serve as a diary, sharing your experiences and adventures, or focus more on how-tos and information.
If your blog is going to lean more toward diary-style, for example, a photographic journal of your travels, your content will depend on your daily life.
Get out there and start exploring, then write a post about what you did and how others can learn from it. Lather, rinse, repeat.
If you prefer to focus on the how-tos of travel photography, you’ll need to get more specific.
That’s easier said than done, but here are some easy tricks to get your ideas flowing. Write down whatever comes to mind as a potential post, and then go through your list anytime you need inspiration.
- Ask friends, especially those with little knowledge about your topic. If you’re starting a travel photography blog, ask your friends, “What’s one question you’ve always had about photography? What do you wish you knew?”
- Skim Cosmo. Bear with me on this one — it’s worth it! Magazines like Cosmopolitan are filled with fantastic headline ideas, and sometimes it’s easier to start with a headline and write the post from there. If you see an article called “12 Makeup Brushes You Need and Exactly How to Use Them,” you might write about “12 Camera Accessories You Need and Exactly How to Use Them.” The more specific you get in your headline, the easier it will be to write the post later.
- Look for trends. Read your favorite travel and photography blogs, skim through Twitter and Instagram hashtags and check the news. What’s hot right now? What’s trending? Is anything in the news relevant for your readers, like a new product release or a new movie with a photographer as the main character? If Instagram just dropped a bunch of new filters or you want to share your obsession with your awesome new zoom lens, your blog is the perfect place to wax lyrical.
- Google it. When you search for “photography tips,” you get a whole a world of content. From “taking stellar photos with your Android phone” to “how to photograph fireworks,” you find tons of inspiration. Plus, you’ll see what’s already popular and you can riff on those topics in your own voice. Keyword Tool can also help. Type in “photography” and you’ll get a giant list of the top Google searches related to your topic, like photography classes, contests and apps.
How Often to Post on Your Blog
The more often you post, the quicker you’ll build up a following.
Give yourself a schedule by picking one day each week to publish, and stick to it. Over time, you might want to start posting more often, especially if you’re looking to build a business out of your blog.
A quick tip: When it comes to SEO (more on that later), longer posts (think 1,000 to 2,000 words) perform better and rank higher in search engines.
Plus, readers tend to like content that outlines everything they need to know in one post (like this one!), rather than having to jump around from link to link.
That said, don’t feel like every post needs to be an essay. Online readers generally scan content, so as long as you’re formatting your posts so they’re easy to read, write as much or as little as you like.
It’s nice to have some short posts for variety, too!
Appearance Matters: Make Your Blog Posts Look Great
While you could just write amazing posts with no visuals or structure, your blog will look a lot nicer with a little formatting and some graphics and pictures — and that helps readers stick around longer.
Here are some tips for making your blog posts aesthetically pleasing.
Add Photos
In general, big chunks of text don’t do particularly well — they look intimidating and no one wants to read them.
If you’d seen a massive wall of words when you started this post, would you have made it this far?
Break up your text with imagery, like graphs, screenshots or photos of your subject.
You have tons of options, from downloading free or low-cost stock photos, finding Creative Commons-licensed photos on Flickr or using your own shots. If you want to get fancy, use a tool like Canva or FotoJet to create your own images by adding text to a photo or combining images.
Need another reason to add photos? Readers love to put a face to the name, or an image to the recipe or colors to the outfit — and when you add something visual, they’re a lot more likely to share your post with their friends or followers, which goes a long way toward helping your blog gain traction.
Format for Easier Reading
If you’re going to write 1,000 words, that’s great, but you need to break it up so it’s easy to read.
Use subheadings, bolded sentences, pull-quotes and photos, and break up long paragraphs into shorter ones for easier reading on a tablet or smartphone.
Take this post for example — we’ve divided it by topic, using heading, subheadings and screenshots to break up the text. Since most readers will skim your posts, you want to make it easy for them to get the main points and decide to stick around for a closer read.
Promoting Your Blog
Don’t worry about this part until you’ve been blogging for a while — creating great content is the most important part of running a blog.
But eventually, you’re going to want more readers, so here are the best ways to promote your blog and increase traffic to your website.
Track Analytics
Before you start promoting your blog, install Google Analytics. It’s free, and will help you see how your posts perform, right from the very beginning.
Google Analytics helps you track how many visitors read your posts, how long they spend on your site, where they come from and which posts are most popular.
Over time, this information will help you hone in on your blog’s goals, get specific about your niche, write more posts your readers want to see, develop relationships with sites that link to you, and eventually sell advertising.
How to Find Readers for Your Blog
When you first get started, the easiest way to find readers is to share your posts with friends on social media.
You don’t even need to create a separate Facebook page or Twitter account. Just share your posts with family and friends wherever you hang out, whether that’s LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram or elsewhere.
There’s no need to use fancy hashtags or worry about the perfect time of day to reach people. Just share your posts, and then get back to blogging.
Once your blog has started gaining momentum, here are a few more great ways to build your readership:
Make It Easy to Share Your Posts
When a reader wants to share one of your posts with his friends on social media, you want it to be super easy.
If you don’t have a few clear social media share buttons front and center, you’ve just lost the chance to connect with a ton of potential new readers.
The good news is, adding these buttons is pretty easy. WordPress offers a wide range of plugins to make it simple. A few of my favorites are Monarch ($89), Shareaholic (free) and Simple Share Buttons (free).
Start Learning SEO
It can take years to learn how to wrangle Google search algorithms to your benefit (and once you master the techniques, they change the rules on you), but learn a few basic tricks to help new readers find you.
Before you publish a post, do these four things:
- Check your content for keywords (for example, if you’re writing about a photography class, make sure to say “photography class” and not “course for photography”)
- Write an excerpt and meta description (you’ll find options for these within your WordPress post)
- Name your images and add ALT text (just describe what’s in them or what your post is about)
- Link to other relevant parts of your blog, whether it’s other posts or pages
Focus on Great Headlines
While writing great content goes a long way, no one will click to read those posts unless you have awesome headlines. If your headlines are spectacular, your posts are not only more likely to get read, they’ll also get clicks and shares, which helps boost your ranking in Google.
Experts have written entire books about how to write a good headline, so I’ll keep this brief. Here are two rules of thumb to get you started:
- Pique the reader’s interest: Create a “curiosity gap” so your reader wants to click through and read the full post. Instead of writing a post called “My Day at the Zoo,” write “How My Visit to the Zoo Changed My Life.”
- Think about what you’d ask Google: Most people wouldn’t search for “how I got into running.” They want to know how they can get into running. Make your headlines less about you and more about how others will benefit. For example, “Just Do It: 7 Brilliant Ways to Trick Yourself into Running” or “Never Wear Pants Again: 103 Ways to Make Money at Home.”
Interact With Other Bloggers
You have your favorite blogs, right? The ones you read religiously every time a new post pops up in your feed reader or inbox?
It’s a safe bet that many of those bloggers are in your niche, or at least a similar one.
Instead of lurking on the sidelines, participate!
Comment on those bloggers’ posts, interact with them on Twitter, connect on LinkedIn. You’ll not only create fun relationships, but you’ll increase the chances they’ll share and comment on your content.
And speaking of connecting with other bloggers…
Write Guest Posts
Many large blogs (and some smaller ones) accept guest posts. All bloggers want great, interesting content to share with their readers.
If you can share a new take on a situation or subject, why not offer your thoughts?
Writing for other blogs helps you tap into whole new communities of potential readers, and if you’ve already been chatting with a blogger or interacting with a community in the comments, you might be in luck.
When it comes to pitching other bloggers, do your homework. Be familiar with the blog’s content — don’t pitch something she’s already written about a hundred times, an idea that’s hopelessly generic or a topic that’s totally outside her niche.
Many bloggers who actively solicit guest posts will have submission guidelines, so be sure you’ve read those — and then follow them. Otherwise, your message is likely to get deleted.
If a blogger doesn’t have guidelines, explain how your post will link to other content on her site and share a unique perspective with her readers.
Build an Email List
Hands down, the number one thing you can do to build your blog (and eventually start making money from it) is to build an email list.
Your list helps you accomplish two things:
- It lets readers know every time you post, so you get more repeat visitors.
- It allows you to reach out to people with a special offers, events and sales.
Most people use one of these two options for their email lists.
Mailchimp
Mailchimp is the cheap and cheerful option.
It’s free for the first 2,000 users, so it’s a good choice if you’re just getting started, and it’s incredibly easy to learn.
You can play with different formats, schedule your emails to go out anytime you want and even test different subject lines to see which ones your subscribers like best.
AWeber
If you’re hoping to grow your list to more than 2,000 fairly quickly, AWeber is a good choice.
You’ll get your first month free, and then you’ll pay $19 a month for up to 500 subscribers, with additional charges as your list grows. AWeber is a bigger investment, but offers all sorts of creative options like autoresponders, lots of testing methods and beautiful templates.
The good news is, even if you start out using MailChimp’s free service, you can eventually upgrade to have more subscribers on your list or transfer those subscribers over to AWeber.
Either way, I can’t emphasize enough the importance of building your email list.
Even if you do nothing else with your email list other than set it up and start collecting subscribers, starting it early will be the best thing you can do for your blog.
As I write this post, I’ve got more than 350,000 email subscribers — but if I’d started collecting emails when I first launched The Penny Hoarder, I bet I’d have thousands more.
How to Make Money Blogging
While it can be fun to start a blog just to keep your family updated or show off photos of your cute kids, you might also want to actually make some money.
How much you can earn from a blog depends on a number of factors, but a big one is the level of effort you’re willing to put in.
Even if you sell your own products on your site, like ebooks, you probably won’t make much if you only blog once a month and don’t consider other ways to make money.
But if you blog daily and feature a combination of advertisements, affiliate offers and your own products, you might be able to make a full-time living from your blog. Let’s break down how most bloggers — including me — make money online.
Advertising
The most common way for bloggers to make money is through advertising.
Google AdSense is the easy option, but there are a variety of ad networks to choose from, including ones targeted towards specific niches like food bloggers, mommy bloggers or athletes.
Whatever you choose, recognize that this piece is never going to be a huge source of income.
Readers don’t love being hit with ads over and over again, so start by including just one or two in your sidebar. Be sure to monitor the ads that show up on your blog — you don’t want scammy “make $35,000 in 20 minutes from home!” ads to distract readers from your great content.
Once your blog has grown a bit more, you might consider selling ads directly rather than using a network. It can be a lot of work, but it can also help you make a lot more money.
Affiliate Programs
Affiliate programs are the next step up for bloggers looking to make money.
In a nutshell, you promote a product you love, and if anyone buys it through your link, you get a percentage of the sale. The most common affiliate program is probably Amazon Associates, which offers a small commission for any item someone buys on the site after clicking on your link (4 to 10%, depending on the item).
But the sky’s the limit here, and many programs offer much higher commissions, often 30-50%.
If you like a product or service, like your hosting provider, your theme, an ebook or an online course, why not earn a little money back by sharing your thoughts with your readers?
A few minutes of research will help you find if a particular product has an affiliate program already set up.
If you have a favorite brand of furniture or clothing or beauty products or running shoes — and your blog is big enough — reach out to the company directly and ask if they can set you up with a program. Most brands these days are used to working with bloggers and are eager to help.
You’ll want to be honest with your readers and explain that your opinions are your own, even though you’re using an affiliate link.
You also need to clearly highlight or declare any affiliate links to meet FTC standards.
Products and Services
The most hardcore, but lucrative, step in the make-money-as-a-blogger world, is creating your own ebook, course or other product — and it will likely yield the best financial results, especially if you don’t have a massive audience yet.
It’s also the most time consuming way to make money, at least at the beginning. The cool thing about making your own product is that once you create it, you can sell it over and over.
If you’re a food blogger, you might want to compile a cookbook of your best recipes. Or if you run a fashion blog and recently purchased an entire wardrobe at your local thrift store for under $100, you could create a video course to help other people do the same.
This is where your email list comes in handy, since you can email them about your product while you’re putting it together and when it’s ready to sell.
You could also offer regular readers or email subscribers a discount to help drum up early sales and reviews. You could even consider trying your own affiliate program and offering your products to other bloggers to promote in exchange for a commission.
Win-win!
Not ready to put together a product? No problem.
Why not experiment by selling your services as a freelancer or consultant in your area of expertise? A food blogger could create meal plans for busy families, a photographer could take headshots and portraits, and pretty much any blogger can offer to write paid blog posts.
Ready to Start Your Blog?
All of that sounds pretty easy, right?
Just kidding.
Creating a blog with great posts and a ton of readers that actually makes money takes time.
Start with the basics, relax and have fun with it! Over time, if you put in the effort and follow this advice, you’ll build up your readership and even start making money from your blog if you chose to go that route.
Your Turn: What questions can I answer about how to start a blog?
Disclosure: Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. We would have shared them with you anyway, but a true “Penny Hoarder” would be a fool not to take the company’s money.
The post The Ultimate Guide to Starting a Blog, Attracting Readers and Making Money appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.
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The IRS is About to Pocket $1 Billion in Unclaimed Tax Refunds From 2013
Didn’t file your taxes in 2013? Time is running out to do so — and potentially claim what’s yours from a $1 billion refund pot.
April 18, 2017, also known as the deadline to file your 2016 taxes for everyone else (thank you, Emancipation Day, for the extension), is also your deadline for filing 2013 returns if you want to receive your refund.
You might be surprised to learn this catch-up offer is an annual event. Three years is always the cap for filing old returns to get your refund, so if you didn’t file in, say, 2011, you’re out of luck.
“Remember, there’s no penalty for filing a late return if you’re due a refund,” IRS Commissioner John Koskinen said in a statement on March 1.
If you do owe on old returns, the maximum combined penalty for failing to file and failing to pay is typically 5% of what you owe per late month. Your total tab, however, can’t exceed 25% of what you owe.
How to File Your 2013 Taxes, You Slacker
The IRS says it takes about six weeks to process an “accurately completed” past-due return. You can find the appropriate 2013 forms on the handy IRS Forms and Publication site.
Can’t find your W-2s from 2013? The IRS has transcripts of your employer-reported earnings, which you can download online.
If the IRS owes you a refund from 2013, Uncle Sam may hold it until you file your 2014 and 2015 taxes. The IRS may hold any amount you owe on your federal or state taxes from those years.
OK, Maybe There Are More Slackers Than I Thought
The IRS estimates more than 1 million people may be due 2013 tax refunds. The number of incomplete 2013 tax returns vary widely by state, with an estimated 104,700 in Texas, about 54,700 in New York, and a wee 2,900 in North Dakota.
The median potential refund of $763 is based on taxes withheld but does not include tax credits that may have reduced what you owed.
Not sure if you need to file taxes this year? You probably do, but you can check this post anyway for details.
Imagine how productive you’d feel if you got caught up on several years’ taxes in one weekend? Take the challenge, beloved slackers.
And even if it’s too late for you to get a refund for old returns you didn’t file, you still need to do it. The IRS will find you eventually.
Your Turn: Have you, uh, neglected to file your tax return for previous years? Will you dig up your 2013 information so you can file before the deadline?
Lisa Rowan is a writer and producer at The Penny Hoarder.
The post The IRS is About to Pocket $1 Billion in Unclaimed Tax Refunds From 2013 appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.
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Meet, greet Ice-T and Coco at Mount Airy
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Stroudsburg commits to bank, switches to another
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Here’s Why You Shouldn’t Let Consumer Spending Surveys Stress You Out
The most recent batch of consumer spending surveys tells me my circle of friends are either the smartest money managers on earth or we’re one thin dime away from the poorhouse.
Some surveys say we’re ahead of the curve because many of us have existing, if meager, emergency funds.
Others suggest we’re on shaky financial ground because we’re not saving enough.
I don’t even know what to think anymore.
Consumer Surveys: Don’t Believe the Hype
Spending habit surveys conducted by qualified researchers actually provide a lot of useful data.
They help us understand how different variables affect our spending behavior and can spark ideas on where we can improve our money management strategies.
But they can also set the bar impossibly high.
I ran across a survey this week that said millennials would rather save their money than buy frivolous things they don’t absolutely need.
A few millennials around the Penny Hoarder office got a good chuckle out of that notion.
Junior Writer and all-around marvelous millennial Carson Kohler said, “Believe me, if I had an extra $50 I would buy a pair of new jeans. I know I should invest it, but sometimes immediate gratification gets the best of me.”
And you know what? That’s OK!
Surveys are only as real as the people who answer the questions.
This type of data collection is frequently conducted by self-reporting, which means participants provide responses based on what they believe to be true about themselves.
The problem is, people tend to cast themselves in the best light possible, which could skew survey results away from reality. Self-reported data is not particularly reliable.
Change the Angle
CareerBuilder released a survey this week that revealed “nearly 1 in 4 high school students pick their career based on something they saw on TV or in a movie.”
At first glance, it’s easy to dismiss that objective data point about soon-to-be workers as silly or shallow — but is it really?
No!
Who cares how you find your calling? What matters is finding a career you love. It doesn’t matter if you learn about it from TV, a mentoring aunt or even a fortune cookie.
There are lots of ways to interpret data. If survey results get you down or make you feel like your money skills are subpar, I have some advice you should take right now.
You Do You
The bottom line is everyone has their own money management style that works for them.
Consumer surveys are interesting, but don’t be ashamed if your habits don’t match up with this majority of savers or that majority of spenders.
Spending and saving habits are very personal and no two situations are alike — no matter how surveys may make it seem.
From one Penny Hoarder to another, there’s no shame in your game!
Your turn: Do consumer spending surveys shape your habits or stress you out?
Lisa McGreevy is a staff writer at The Penny Hoarder. She’d also rather drop $50 on jeans than invest it. Are you free to go shopping this weekend, Carson?
The post Here’s Why You Shouldn’t Let Consumer Spending Surveys Stress You Out appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.
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Get a Double Dose of Caffeine This Weekend With This Starbucks BOGO Deal
If you’ve never had a macchiato from Starbucks, then I don’t know what you’re doing with your life.
Look, I usually drink no-frills Cuban coffee — the stronger the espresso, the better.
But that’s why macchiatos are so great. They’re made up of lots of espresso and just a little bit of steamed milk — and they’re just too delicious to say no to.
If you’re ready to shake up your Starbucks order, you’re in luck: Starbucks is having a buy one, get one macchiato deal to introduce two new, world-rocking flavors.
Starbucks BOGO Deal Celebrates 2 New Macchiato Flavors
On Feb. 28, Starbucks introduced two new macchiatos to its menu: the Cinnamon Almondmilk Macchiato and the Coconutmilk Mocha Macchiato.
According to Starbucks’ website, the chain created the new flavors around the temperamental limbo between winter and spring. Both drinks are delicious hot or iced, giving you plenty of options to go with the indecisive weather.
To celebrate their debut (and to get you hooked), the coffee powerhouse is offering buy one, get one free macchiatos during its “Meet for Macchiatos” event that runs from March 2-6.
The deal is good for any sized macchiato during a “BOGO happy hour” from 2-5 p.m., giving you a good excuse to ditch your cubicle for a few minutes with a co-worker. See, everybody wins.
And, it applies to any macchiato, not just the new ones. I recommend the classic caramel macchiato, iced, with soy milk. Just do it. You can tweet me a thanks later.
Your Turn: Will you grab a BOGO Starbucks macchiato?
Kelly Smith is a junior writer and engagement specialist at The Penny Hoarder. Tweet her pics of your beautiful macchiatos at @keywordkelly.
The post Get a Double Dose of Caffeine This Weekend With This Starbucks BOGO Deal appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.
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Seriously, It’s This Simple to Get a Free CharBurger From The Habit Burger
Alright, show of hands: Who likes free food?
Everyone? Yeah, I thought so.
And even if you’re weirdly suspicious of free food, you and I both know you’re not going to turn it down. (Unless it’s free candy in a creepy van — then by all means, give that a hard pass.)
And that’s why I’m here to let you know that you can get a free Charburger with cheese from The Habit Burger Grill for a limited time.
How to Get Your Free Burger
All you have to do to take advantage of this offer is join The CharClub, The Habit Burger Grill’s member benefits program before March 31, 2017.
The best part? Getting your free burger will be the simplest, quickest thing you’ll do all day. Believe me, I timed it — it took me exactly 37 seconds.
Just follow this link to the CharClub sign-up page, enter some basic information, click “Join Now,” and there you have it: a free burger straight to your inbox. (I mean, it’ll show up in coupon form — but you get the gist.)
And with 147 locations in 11 states, chances are good there’s a free lunch waiting for you just a few miles away.
So go forth and eat your CharBurger with cheese — you can thank me later.
Your Turn: Will you pick up your free CharBurger today?
Grace Schweizer is a junior writer at The Penny Hoarder.
The post Seriously, It’s This Simple to Get a Free CharBurger From The Habit Burger appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.
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These 10 Colleges Excel at Turning Poor Teens Into Well-Off Adults
We’ve all seen the classic college rankings.
Heck, I even used these rankings to inform my higher ed decisions.
Of course, there are the “the most bang for your buck” lists and the “most jocks” lists. There’s a list for the colleges that produce graduates who make bank — even one for the best community colleges.
But we recently stumbled across a different ranking.
This one ranks colleges by mobility rates — or how good they are at making poor kids rich.
10 Colleges With High Rates of Income Mobility
Here’s some context: We first read about this research from the Equality of Opportunity Project on Vox.
It’s also been reported elsewhere, too (like the New York Times, which has a fun interactive).
Anyway, Stanford University’s Raj Chetty, Brown University’s John Friedman and Harvard University’s Nathaniel Hendren led this research project to examine the role of colleges in income mobility.
In other words, which colleges accept poor kids and produce financially successful adults?
“Higher education is widely viewed as a pathway to upward income mobility,” the study’s introduction reads. “However, inequality in access to colleges — particularly those that offer the best chances of success — could limit or even reverse colleges’ ability to promote intergenerational mobility.”
These researchers used the rosters at all Title-IV higher ed schools in conjunction with millions of anonymous tax returns and info from the National Student Loan Data System to develop some interesting conclusions.
If you want to dive deeper into the study and how it was conducted, Vox explained it in a fairly understandable way — at least a heck of a lot better than I can. Combing through the original study also proves interesting.
But if you’re impatient like me and just want to know how you can go to college without much money and emerge with the potential to earn big bucks after graduation, here are the schools you should be looking into…
These are the top 10 colleges, ranked by mobility rate (from the bottom 20% to the top 20%):
The mobility rates were determined by multiplying “access” and “success rates” together.
“In other words, the mobility rate is the joint probability of a child being from the bottom quintile and reaching the top quintile,” the study more eloquently states.
Your Turn: What do you think about this list?
Carson Kohler (@CarsonKohler) is a junior writer at The Penny Hoarder.
The post These 10 Colleges Excel at Turning Poor Teens Into Well-Off Adults appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.
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Bank of Scotland to slash current account interest rate
Customers who hold a Bank of Scotland Vantage account will see their top rate of interest cut from June 2017.
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31 Days to Financial Independence (Day 29): Handling Changing Goals
“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 discussed the “long valley” – the period when the “honeymoon” wears off during a personal change yet you’re still far from your goal. That period can be incredibly psychologically trying, so having tools in place to help you deal with that long and often unexciting journey is incredibly important.
Today, we’re going to take a deep look at a major problem that often happens when you’re journeying through the “long valley” – a change in goals. What exactly do you do if you’re well into your financial journey and you suddenly realize that you no longer want to achieve the goal you’ve been approaching for so long? What about all of your progress? How do you reset?
I’ll share a bit of my own story in this regard. In about 2004 or 2005, I honestly believed I’d be working in a research lab for the rest of my life. I genuinely, truly loved the work that I was doing and the people I was working with at the time. I was planning my life accordingly by building lots of good relationships with people in the field. I was considering going to graduate school while working in that lab, too, and actually had a plan in place to finish my master’s degree and even work toward a doctorate.
Over the next three or four years, everything changed.
For starters, my wife and I had a child, then another child. I suddenly became far more aware of my travel and how much time I was spending away from my children.
The nature of my work changed, too. The level of bureaucracy rose substantially as the amount of maintenance involved with my project went up and the relative level of innovation went down. I enjoyed the innovation part; I didn’t enjoy the maintenance part.
The Simple Dollar also happened. I started it as a complete side gig in 2006 to chronicle my own financial journey and something about it clicked with an audience. That meant it was bringing in some solid revenue, if not enough to replace my normal income, within a couple of years.
When 2008 rolled around, I began to realize that my long-term goals were drastically changing. My goals were now very oriented around my children and around building The Simple Dollar and retiring early, rather than around what was presumably my main career at the time. My financial goals had shifted from having a super house to things like financial independence.
How did I deal with those changes? Well, let’s talk about what I learned from that experience.
Exercise #29 – Handling Changing Goals
People change over time. We have new experiences. The contours of our life change. People come in and people go out. We learn new things. The world changes a little – or sometimes a lot.
In the midst of all of that change, it’s not surprising that our goals sometimes change. The things we viewed as central goals a few years ago might drift away. They may still seem important, but other things have become the central priority.
This happened with me when my children were born. They became a higher priority for me than many things that had existed before in my life. That change wasn’t immediately clear, but it came into focus slowly over their infancy and toddler years. My family began to supercede my career path, in other words.
Those kinds of changes are wonderful, but they can also be very challenging when they clearly represent a change in goals you’ve been working hard to achieve over the past several years. I worked hard to build a strong reputation and foundation for a career. Would it all just go away?
What good is working toward a big goal if it will just change and fade away as I grow?
Here’s how to tackle that conundrum.
Reassess your goals frequently. A month in your life should not pass without spending some time thinking deeply about your goals. Where do you want to be a year from now? Five years from now? Ten years from now?
Much of the first part of this 31-day process was centered around the process of figuring out and defining goals, but that’s not just a single one-time process. It’s a process that needs to be revisited regularly. It’s not something you just “do” once and then walk away from it. It’s something that you think about and come back to and keep in touch with.
Why is this kind of reassessment so important? It allows you to really deeply understand your goals and feel strongly motivated by them, for starters. The more time you spend without thinking deeply about your goals, the less relevant they become and the easier it becomes to start living life without any direction in mind.
Perhaps even more important, however, is how such reassessment helps you be aware of how your life is changing and enables you to start tweaking and even changing your goals so that they remain relevant in your life. Part of the reason that goals become stale without regular reflection is that those older goals are actually just the goals of an older version of yourself, not the version of yourself that you see today. The more time you wait, the greater the difference beween the person who defined those goals and the person you are right now.
So, here’s your action point. At least once a month (and hopefully more frequently), spend some significant time thinking about your goals and whether they still make sense. You don’t have to sit at home in some meditative state to do this. Just do it when you’re commuting or when you’re waiting at the doctor’s office. However, it should be real time and not just a cursory thought. Ask yourself what you want your life to look like in the future at various points, and whether you’re doing things that make sense with regards to that picture.
If you sense your goals are changing, that’s okay. It is quite possible to transition the progress for most goals into something useful for your new goals.
Another key element of this is to understand the key elements and values in your life to which your goals are anchored. In other words, what values have you held true for your entire life? What has remained important to you during that entire process?
For me, two things have really remained as solid values throughout my entire life.
One is strong family ties. I still feel really close to my parents and value time spent with them and the wisdom they impart. Even as a child, I wanted to have a strong close-knit family around me, a feeling that has never wavered and is stronger than ever.
The other is self-learning. I have loved to learn new things, ever since I was tiny. Some of my earliest memories are of reading books or learning things from my parents. I relish self-education and self-improvement and I do not view a day as really complete unless I’m engaging my mind in learning something new or fleshing out a skill. Again, this has held true throughout my life.
If I look at my life through those lenses, almost every goal I have ever held for myself has been anchored firmly by those two values. My career choices, my personal choices, and almost everything else have been oriented around my love for close family ties and my love for self-learning and self-improvement. I can’t see them ever changing (though they might morph a little bit over time).
Knowing that, I know that I am pretty safe when I do things that are oriented toward stronger family ties and that are oriented toward self-learning and self-improvement. Almost any goal that I choose for myself in life will be strongly tied to those factors going forward, so when I choose to strengthen those things, I know I’ll continue to appreciate that choice in the coming years, even if the specifics of my goals change.
So, here’s another action point for you. What are your anchor values? What things have you really held to be true and important for you throughout your life? They should be things that other people expect from you or things that feel like burdens. They should be things that you feel naturally, magnetically drawn to. They should be things that you feel are unquestionably true for you. They should be things that you have always felt as true and have never wavered in that. They should be things that keep popping up again and again in your choices, even if it wasn’t intentional.
Whatever those things are, you know that you have a strong foundation for understanding what all of your life goals have in common, now and in the future, and you know what elements of your life you can always work on and develop regardless of how the specifics happen to change in your life.
As you’re planning for any goal – and taking actions to make that goal successful – keep in mind that the best steps you can take early on in working toward a goal are transferable steps.
What are “transferable steps”? They’re the elements of a plan that can easily be used to provide equal progress toward other goals. Some things you do in life are very transferable, whereas other actions aren’t nearly as transferable.
When you figure out what your goals are, one of the first things you’re going to ask yourself is what you can start doing right now to achieve that goal. There will usually be lots of options before you. It’s smart to prioritize the choice that will apply well to lots of other goals.
Again, I think an example makes a great deal of sense.
Let’s roll the clock back to 2003 or 2004, when I was really focused on the dream of building a career in my particular research field. What things could I be doing to build that career? Obviously, earning a higher degree in that particular area of research would be one powerful step. Making lots of friends within the field is another powerful step.
There are lots of additional steps, too. If I’m looking at graduate school as an middle-term goal for myself, then saving up some money for graduate school is a smart move. Keeping myself educated on changes in my field is a smart move, too, and it offers the additional benefit of sharpening my self-education and lifetime learning skills.
(I could list a lot of potential things I could do, but this handful is enough to illustrate the point.)
At the time, I put a strong priority on building relationships within my field. I joined some professional organizations and scored a really nice committee spot that helped me build some great relationships with some real leaders in my field.
However, that step didn’t provide a whole lot of help with my goals when they started to change. It helped me build some communication and relationship-building skills, but the actual relationships weren’t particularly valuable when our life paths started to move in different directions.
Instead, what I should have done is put a high priority on the things that would have transferred well. I should have focused on getting myself financially ready for a few years in graduate school, because the financial preparation and money that I saved would have been very useful regardless of what I chose to do. I should have focused on keeping on top of changes in my field, as that would have sharply honed my lifetime learning skills, which have been useful in almost every transition in my life.
In short, actually spending less than you earn and improving your financial state is a killer preparation step regardless of your specific goal. You are almost never going to fail your future by getting rid of debt and putting aside money. There is almost no goal you could have going forward that doesn’t shoot off like a rocket due to having that in hand.
In general, the more specific you get with your savings strategy, the less useful it becomes to shifting goals. If you’re saving for education or retirement, for example, and lock your money into education or retirement accounts, you’ll face a financial penalty if your goals change. That’s not to say you can’t do this, but generally such specific accounts offer tax benefits for using the money in that account toward that specific goal and tax penalties for using that same money toward other goals. So, in general, it’s a good idea to focus on things like debt repayment during the early steps of progressing toward a goal because debt freedom helps with almost every goal under the sun. If you’re ready to save, give some priority to more flexible savings options. Yes, you might miss out on some tax advantages, but you’ll avoid some big tax disadvantages. Don’t lock into advantaged accounts until you’re strongly confident of your direction.
Similarly, steps that build transferable skills are always strong preparation steps regardless of where your goals may lead you. Transferable skills include things like knowing how to teach yourself a new topic, time management skills, information management skills, personal organization, self-motivation, writing skills, public speaking skills, relationship building, conversational skills, and so on. You’ll use those skills in almost everything you do in life.
What about relationships? Relationships can be valuable, but the most valuable relationships you can build are with people who have stature in multiple communities that you’re connected to. For example, if you know someone who has a strong presence in your workplace and also participates in a civic group that you’re in, that’s a person to build a relationship with. If you know someone who is active in your house of worship and also active in another group that you’re in, get to know that person well. If you see someone popping up in the community a lot under different contexts, reach out and start building a relationship. Those relationships will continue to have value even as your goals transition.
You can find these people by getting more involved in diverse groups. Don’t put all of your social eggs into one basket. If all of your relationships are related to your current career path, you’re in a bad situation if your goals shift away from that career path. If all of your relationships are connected to your house of worship, you’re in a pickle if your beliefs begin to change. Take the time to join a variety of groups. Be involved in groups connected to your profession, as well as groups in your physical community. Join a civic group and check out groups on Meetup related to your personal interests.
So, here’s another action point. Look at your goal through the lens of transferable steps, and take action on those steps first. What things can you do that move you toward your goal but will still be helpful if your goal changes over time? Make those things your first steps.
Pay off your debts. Optimize your bills. Save in ordinary accounts that can be used for any purpose without penalty. Build up transferable skills. Build relationships with people that have stature in lots of communities. Get involved in lots of groups so that you can build relationships with people that you have multiple things in common with. Those steps will help you no matter what your specific goals happen to be.
If you take those steps in accord with goals that are well-anchored in your life, you’re going to find that you’re ready for anything that happens. As your goals change – and they will – you will start to have this strong sense that you’re already halfway there with regards to that goal, because you are halfway there.
I like to think of these steps as building a strong foundation. You can build all kinds of different houses on a really well built foundation, and if you ever decide you want a different house, you can continue to rely on that foundation. It means that half the work is already done and half of the cost is already invested in that new house.
On the other hand, if you take actions that are all about the house and not about the foundation, when you decide you want something new, you have to start from scratch all over again.
Start with the foundation. You’ll make real progress toward your goals, but just as important, you’ll make real progress toward any goal you might have going forward.
Next time, we’ll take a look at getting your partner and your family on board with financial change.
Related Articles:
- Seven Skills That Will Help Anyone Achieve Their Financial Goals
- What’s Next? Finding Goals and Ambition When You’ve Conquered Challenges
- How Our Financial Goals Have Changed After 10 Years of Marriage
The post 31 Days to Financial Independence (Day 29): Handling Changing Goals appeared first on The Simple Dollar.
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Target Stock Nosedives Since Announcing Transgender Policy
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Wall Street Gave Trump's Speech a Big Thumbs Up
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FTSE 100 index breaks all-time record after Donald Trump's speech to Congress
The FTSE 100 index of the UK’s biggest companies listed on the London Stock Exchange closed yesterday a record high of 7,383 – after rising 1.6% in one day.
The previous record was broken on 13 January this year, when the index closed at 7,338. The index is still continuing with this momentum during morning trading today. At the time of writing it had reached 7,385.6.
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PPI claims deadline confirmed for August 2019
Consumers who were mis-sold payment protection insurance (PPI) must submit any complaints by 29 August 2019.
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February's 10 most-bought funds: seven are from Moneywise First 50 Funds
Out of last month’s ten most-bought funds on our sister website Interactive Investor, seven of them are part of the Moneywise First 50 Funds list – and the top one, for the 11th consecutive month, is read more
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Standard vs. Itemized Deduction: Which is Best for Your Bottom Line?
Tax deductions are one area where the IRS gives you the option to take a shorter route when completing your tax return. You can opt for a standard deduction instead of itemizing each one on your return.
But is it even worth it to itemize your deductions when can you just apply the standard deduction and call it a day?
Let’s take a look at the pros and cons of both options.
Itemized Deductions
As the term implies, itemized deductions are expenses taxpayers can list on their tax returns to lower their taxable incomes. The IRS considers things like mortgage interest, charitable donations, state income taxes and even some medical expenses eligible deductions.
Believe it or not, some gambling losses even qualify as a deduction. That’s not an excuse to go out and blow your savings on a rollicking game of Texas Hold ’em, though.
Itemized deductions allow you to claim and deduct more expenses than simply taking a standard deduction. If your itemizations add up to be significantly higher than the standard deduction, you may not have to pay any taxes at all.
The downside to itemizing is that it takes more time and paperwork than just grabbing the standard deduction. The good news is that most popular tax preparation software programs will run the numbers for you once you enter the data — no pencil, paper and calculator needed.
If you’re not sure what qualifies as an itemized deduction, the IRS has an interactive list for you to consult.
Standard Deductions
The standard deduction is a specific figure set by the IRS that taxpayers may use instead of itemizing each deduction. Your filing status determines the exact deduction amount.
The standard deductions for the 2016 tax year are:
- Single: $6,300.
- Married Filing Jointly: $12,600.
- Married Filing Separately: $6,300.
- Head of Household: $9,300.
- Surviving Spouse: $12,600.
This interactive quiz at the IRS website helps you figure out the amount of your standard deduction.
For the most effortless approach to tax preparation, you’ll want to go with a standard deduction. You don’t need to understand anything about tax law or make lists of qualified deductions. Just plug in the number that applies to you and move on.
On the other hand, you may want to skip the standard deduction in favor of itemization if it means you’ll lose out on the ability to factor things like mortgage interest or other eligible deductions into your tax return.
Whichever option you choose, make sure you aren’t leaving money on the table by doing a quick comparison of numbers before deciding.
Your Turn: Are you itemizing your deductions this year or simply taking the standard amount?
Lisa McGreevy is a staff writer at The Penny Hoarder. She likes bringing you this information, but she is not a tax preparer, and this is not legal tax advice.
The post Standard vs. Itemized Deduction: Which is Best for Your Bottom Line? appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.
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The Art of the Email Auto-Reply (and 10 Ways to Have Fun With It)
Americans tend to behave like they’re being naughty when they take vacation, as if five workdays off in the middle of summer were stolen cookies, and they’re toddlers with their hand in the proverbial jar. But in fact, vacation is far from frivolous. Research shows that taking time off improves mental and physical health, productivity, even our attitude toward work – and subsequent shot at getting promoted.
And to really take a vacation, you need to unplug completely. That means no Skyping in to the weekly meeting, no taking phone calls from the boss, no answering emails by the pool.
To do that effectively, you need several things. Most important is a boss who’s got your back. Next: time management skills, and the will to power through all the prep work that taking vacation entails. Last but not least, you need a killer auto-reply message.
Wait, what? It sounds trivial, but it’s true. The right auto-reply can mean the difference between spending your vacation acting like a switchboard between clients and the folks covering you, and getting some actual time off.
A good auto-reply message includes the following things:
- The dates when you’ll be out of the office.
- The name and contact info of anyone who’s covering you.
- A clear set of expectations. If you’re not checking email – and again, you shouldn’t be – specify under what circumstances the emailer should contact the employee covering for you. Also, let them know that you plan to reply, and when to expect that email when you return.
Of course, not everyone sticks with these rules. Some people like to use their auto-reply messages to have a little fun — it’s vacation, after all. Would we recommend you do the same? Not necessarily, unless you’re good at conveying the information above in a funny and charming way.
But for entertainment’s sake, here are 10 fun, clever, or outright insane email auto-replies culled from social media that are worth a look — if only to remind yourself why an informative auto-reply is important:
* * * * *
“I’m away until [date], and will be attempting to stay off email. You’ll know how successful I’ve been if you hear back from me before then.” (Confession: This one is mine. I give you full permission to use it if it’s helpful.)
* * * * *
“I will be on holiday from [date] to [date]. Each person may send me one email while I am gone. I will randomly delete multiple emails from you until only one is left. You have already sent me one email.” (via Quora)
* * * * *
“The Rapture is real.” (via Facebook)
* * * * *
“If you’re reading this, the train wasn’t able to push the Delorean up to 88 mph, and I’m stuck in 1885. I won’t be able to respond to emails until exactly 8:30am on Wednesday, October 12 in the year 2011. If there’s an emergency, or you need to contact [name] for an urgent matter, please telephone the office at [phone number].” (via Reddit)
* * * * *
I just got one recently that said: “I do not check emails. If your email is urgent, contact coworker ABC at abc@company.com.” I email coworker, get message: “I do not check emails. If your email is urgent, contact coworker XYZ at xyz@company.com.” It was an infinite loop!! (via Facebook)
* * * * *
“Thank you for your email. I am going cray-cray and tearing s**t UP in m******g VEGAS. I will be back on April 8th. See you b****s then.” (via Facebook. Editor’s note: Do not use this email auto-reply if you like your job or being employed generally.)
* * * * *
“I stayed at a motel last night because of the weather, and my cat ran under the bed, which is bolted to the floor. I can’t ask the chambermaids to help me catch the cat, because I’m not supposed to have a cat in here. As soon as the cat comes out, I’ll be back in to work.” (via Quora)
* * * * *
“If you have problem with A, email person X. If you have a problem with B, email person Y. If you have a medical problem, dial 911. If you have a problem and no one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire… the A-Team.” (via Facebook)
* * * * *
“I am out of the office from mm/dd to mm/dd and will not be checking email. It’s likely your note will be swallowed in a sea of inbox banality, never to be seen again. If you require a response, please re-send your email after mm/dd. (via Quora)
* * * * *
And finally, Troy McClure of the Simpsons is always the right answer:
Hi, I’m Troy McClure! You may remember me from such classic Out of Office Messages as “I’m At Outside Lands Watching Metallica” or “Visiting My Family in Florida.” I’m here today to talk to you about Paul Sokol, and the email you just sent him.
(Enter Billy, 8 years old, doe-eyed)
Billy: Mr. McClure? Why is Paul not answering any emails right now?
Troy: The answer is simple Billy: Paul is in San Diego this weekend providing support for an event and nowhere near his work email.
Billy: When is he going to be coming back?
Troy: He will be back on Monday morning.
Billy: Is he going to reply to the email they just sent?
Troy: If it warrants a response, Billy. If it warrants a response…
(Exit Billy)
That’s all for now. Watch for me in the upcoming Out of Office Message “At a Wedding,” coming this winter!
(via New Relic and Paul Sokol, Campaign Builder “Mad Scientist” at Infusionsoft)
* * * * *
What’s the funniest, best, worst, wackiest, or most memorable out-of-office message you’ve ever received? Let us know in the comments.
Related Articles:
- The Secret of Inverse Vacation Planning
- Why I’ll Never Feel Bad About My Vacation Spending
- Stop Suffering From Vacation Deprivation
The post The Art of the Email Auto-Reply (and 10 Ways to Have Fun With It) appeared first on The Simple Dollar.
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First 50 Funds: Henderson Smaller Companies on big discount
Henderson Smaller Companies trust, a member of our First 50 Funds for beginners, is trading at a -14% discount, meaning it could be a bargain buy for a long-term investor. The 14% discount effectively means that investors are buying £100 of assets in the trust for just £86, plus any trading fees incurred when buying.
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Energy complaints fall to lowest level in three years
Energy complaints fell by 32% in 2016 compared to the previous year, taking complaints to their lowest level in three years.
According to energy regulator Ofgem and complaints arbitrator the Energy Ombudsman, 3.5 million complaints were made in 2016 – down from 5.1 million in 2015 and 6.7 million in 2014.
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10 Tips for Finding & Working with a Graphic Designer
By Holly Reisem Hanna When I got the idea for my blog, I had no clue how to set up a website. I knew “the look” I wanted, so I hired a graphic designer to create a one-of-a-kind design for me. It took me months to find a designer who was in my budget and yet, […]
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