Overall it was a slow week for stocks. The current bull market had its eighth anniversary, but six-week winning streaks for the S&P 500 and Nasdaq ended, and the Russell 2000 index of small-company stocks took its biggest loss in three months.
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الجمعة، 10 مارس 2017
Give Me a Snake! Python Hunting Gig Pays $8.10/Hour Plus Bonuses
Calling all herpetologists, snake whisperers and anyone interested in working outdoors in the stifling Florida heat for a few weeks.
The South Florida Water Management District’s governing board recently approved a plan to hire 25 people to hunt Burmese pythons on district-owned lands in Miami-Dade County.
Before you jump on this opportunity, let me break this down for you.
You’ll be traipsing through the swampy Florida Everglades tracking giant, slithering snakes — hoping you find them before they find you!
OK, the job is not quite that melodramatic, but that’s the gist of it.
You see, Burmese pythons are a huge problem in South Florida.
People get them as wee, cute little baby snakes, but when they get too large to keep around the house, owners dump them in the wild to live on their own.
I’ll spare you the details — and especially the pictures — of what happens when Burmese pythons are allowed to and fro unchecked all over the Everglades. Let’s just say these pythons have healthy appetites. Burmese pythons eat everything from bunnies and foxes to alligators and adult deer, and pretty much anything else that crosses their path.
Oh, and they grow. A lot.
In 2016, biologists in one county near the Everglades captured nearly 2,000 pounds of pythons in three months. One of the snakes was 16 feet long and weighed 140 pounds, according to the Miami Herald.
Amazingly, South Florida tourism is still alive and well.
Personally, I think snakes are rather cool, but I get why they need to be culled with impunity.
Before you go all circle of life on me about eradicating this type of snake from the area, consider this.
Burmese pythons are not native to the area, and they’re eating up all the animals that are actually supposed to be there, if only to act as dinner for whatever’s higher up the food chain.
As long as these snakes continue to be a slithering nuisance, they’re going to keep upsetting the natural order of things, and the entire ecosystem of the Everglades will suffer.
“Floridians should have no sympathies for this notorious strangler,” the district’s governing board chairman, Dan O’Keefe, told WFLA.
Oooh, harsh.
Look, I like snakes as much as the next person (seriously!), but even I understand these unwanted guests have got to go.
Enough With the Biology Lesson, Tell Me About the Job
To be hired as a python hunter, you must:
- Be 18 or older.
- Possess a valid driver’s license and email address.
- Own a mobile device that can run GPS software.
- Have no felony record or convictions for wildlife-related offenses within the last five years.
- Agree to a criminal background check.
If hired, you’ll work up to eight hours a day from April 1-June 1 tracking pythons on SFWMD-owned land across Miami-Dade County.
Think Python Hunting is Easy? Think Again.
In case you assume this job will be a piece of snake-shaped cake, keep in mind that pythons are notoriously hard to find.
Back in 2013, a whole cavalry of 1,600 hunters only found 68 during an entire month of searching.
Snakes are stealthy jerks.
What You’ll Earn as a Python Hunter
Starting pay is minimum wage, which is $8.10 per hour in Florida. That’s what you’ll get paid just for searching for the little buggers.
If you bag a python, you’ll also receive:
- An additional $50 for pythons that measure up to 4 feet.
- An extra $25 for each foot in length beyond 4 feet.
- Another $100 for each python that’s guarding a nest of eggs.
Ready to apply? Register here, and SFWMD will get in touch with more detailsssssssssssssss.
Your Turn: Do you love snakes, or do you think they should be nuked from orbit?
Lisa McGreevy is a staff writer at The Penny Hoarder and a former snake owner. People stopped coming over to her house for a while, but she’s sure there was no connection.
The post Give Me a Snake! Python Hunting Gig Pays $8.10/Hour Plus Bonuses appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.
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We May Not Be Math Nerds, But We Know Great Pi Day Deals When We See Them
Remember math class? Everyone knows what pi is, right?
It’s the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter, expressed as the number 3.14. The long version is 3.14159265358979323846264 et cetera to infinity.
What could be simpler than that?
Well, a good bargain would be simpler. Luckily, a slew of national chains are offering deals and discounts for National Pi Day, held annually on March 14 (3/14).
Like we always say, there’s nothing like a mathematical constant with a trillion digits to bring out those sweet, sweet deals! You don’t even need to be a math nerd to take part in these.
Pi Day Deals — Pizza Category
Unsurprisingly, pizza joints are really into Pi Day, which falls on Tuesday this year.
Blaze Pizza: Pay $3.14 for any pizza at any of its 180 locations nationwide.
Hungry Howie’s: Use the promo code 314DAY online to get a medium one-topping pizza for $3.14 with the purchase of Howie Bread.
Pieology: This rapidly expanding, California-based chain will serve up $3.14 custom pizzas. You need to sign up at Pielogy’s Pi Day site first.
Stevi B’s Pizza Buffet: The unlimited pizza buffet is $3.14 at its 30 locations. The buffet normally costs $7.99.
Villa Italian Kitchen: Full-size cheese pizzas are $3.14 with this coupon.
Whole Foods: Get $3.14 off any large take-and-bake pizza.
Your Pie: Get $3.14 pizzas and $3.14 pints of craft beer at nearly 40 locations in 14 states.
Pi Day Deals — Non-Pizza Category
Pizza places aren’t the only ones getting in on that Pi Day action.
Bojangles: Get three sweet potato pies for $3.14.
Boston Market: Get a free rotisserie chicken pot pie with the purchase of any meal and drink. You’ll need to print out this coupon or show it on your phone.
Half.com: Get 95% off the paperback version of “The Life of Pi.”
Marie Callender’s: It has a dessert that’s only available on March 14. It’s some kind of pie-infused ice cream creation called a “Pi”ce Cream Sundae. Marie Callender’s describes it as a chocolate chip cookie dough pie with English breakfast tea-rolled ice cream.
ThinkGeek: Okay, we lied. You have to be a math nerd for this one. Get a free Pi Day T-shirt when you order $31.41 worth of stuff and use coupon code PIOUS. The T-shirt reads “Irrational!” with the Greek symbol for pie in place of the “t.”
Whole Foods: Get $3.14 off any large pie from the bakery.
Just like pi, the bargains and deals are never-ending here at The Penny Hoarder.
Never-ending? Pi? Get it?
Sorry, we couldn’t resist.
Your Turn: Are you going to take advantage of any Pi Day deals?
Mike Brassfield (mike@thepennyhoarder.com) is a senior writer at The Penny Hoarder. His only constant is food.
The post We May Not Be Math Nerds, But We Know Great Pi Day Deals When We See Them appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.
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The Hardest Part About This Offer is Choosing Which Free Sandwich You Want
We’re friends, right?
Great. I feel the same way.
Because we’re such good friends, I feel it is my duty to tell you how to score some free food today.
I’m here to let you know that for a limited time, Potbelly Sandwich Shop is giving away free sandwiches.
See? Now we’re besties for life.
BFSSFF (Best Free Sandwich-Sharing Friends Forever)
As if we hadn’t already cemented this lifelong friendship, I’ve got more great news to make sure I’m the one you’re Snapchatting at 2 a.m. when your dog does that cute thing again: It’s really, really easy to get your free sandwich. Trust me, my good pal — I just tried it.
All you have to do is download the Potbelly Perks app from the App Store or Google Play and plug in some info, and you’re golden.
You’ll find your free sandwich voucher under the Perks tab in the app.
Honestly, the hardest part of this deal is deciding which sandwich to get. Will it be the Mediterranean? The meatball? The pizza sandwich?!
Ugh. Sorry. I didn’t mean to complicate your life with decisions.
It’s just, well… friends don’t let friends miss out on free food. (So pass it on!)
Your Turn: Let me know which sandwich you decide on!
Grace Schweizer is a junior writer at The Penny Hoarder. One time, her best friend forgot to tell her about a free milkshake deal and they didn’t speak for three weeks.
The post The Hardest Part About This Offer is Choosing Which Free Sandwich You Want appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.
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Lose an Hour, Make Some Money: 6 Ways to Bank on Daylight Saving Time
Don’t get me wrong: I enjoy this whole springing forward daylight saving time thing.
An extra hour of sunshine means I can stay at work a little longer without having to nervously walk to my car in the dark.
Or I can go on those runs I should go on more often, without stumbling through my dark neighborhood streets.
But it also means I lose an hour this weekend. And time is money, right?
So this is a very valuable hour I’m losing.
If you’re feeling as frantic as I am, I found a few passive ways to make an extra buck or two — even without that extra hour. (We didn’t need you anyways. :wave: )
6 Ways to Make Money This Weekend — Even With a Lost Hour
Just because you’re losing an hour this weekend doesn’t mean you have to lose money.
There are tons of set-it-and-forget-it ways to make money, and none of them require an extra hour of your time.
Rather, once you download these apps, money will continually trickle in.
Here are six ways to get you started on your journey of passiveness — no extra hour required after downloading.
1. Celebrate Sunday Funday with a drink.
Day drinking is a grand ole pastime, and with extra daylight this Sunday, you might be tempted to pop open a cold one.
If so, download BevRAGE.
The rebate app grants you cash back on drink deals. You can search by your location, find the best deal, then take a photo of your receipt to redeem your rebate.
You can find
The money gets deposited in your PayPal account within 48 hours — giving you some cash to fund your next Sunday Funday.
For more details on the app, we wrote about it here. If you just want to start drinking? That’s fine, too. You can download BevRAGE here.
2. Share your receipts with Paribus.
Do you shop online?
I love to — way too much. But I hate the guilt trip I feel when I get a receipt emailed to me. *Delete.*
But actually, your receipts could be making you some extra money with a free app called Paribus.
After you sign up online, you don’t need to do anything else. Go about your normal online shopping business.
Paribus automatically scans your inbox for receipts. If it detects a purchase from Amazon, Target or one of its other 16 retail partners, it tracks the item’s price and issues a refund as soon as the price drops.
One Penny Hoarder banked $22 in just a few months without batting an eye! Paribus could be worth a quick download this weekend!
3. Finally invest some money.
Investing means you’re making your money work for you — even without an extra hour of your time.
And you might think of scenes from Wall Street, but it’s a lot less stressful than that.
There are tons of apps out there, including Stash. All you need is $5 to get started.
One Penny Hoarder, Jamie Cattanach, admits she didn’t know a single thing about investing — except that she should be doing it. So she tried the app out and found the whole thing actually sort of, kind of fun.
She invests $5 a week, which is automatically withdrawn from her bank account.
If you want to give it a try, you’ll get an extra $5 just for signing up.
4. Share some of your data…
…but not too much.
A number of companies will actually pay you for downloading apps on your smartphone — and you’ll get paid for every month you keep them installed.
The apps collect data and help companies better understand web and mobile usage — such as what times of day people browse, how long they stay on websites and use apps, and what types of sites and apps are popular (or not).
– SavvyConnect – You can earn $5 per device (phone, tablet, computer) for each month SavvyConnect is installed. You can make up to $180 per year to help rank the most popular sites and apps. Make sure you keep it installed at least one month to get your first $5 per device.
– Smart Panel – This app will pay you up to $110 just for downloading it and keeping it on your smartphone for a year. All the info the app collects remains anonymous. (Note: This panel is currently only open to iOS users.)
– Nielsen Mobile Panel – If you have a smartphone, this Nielsen panel will pay you $50/year to keep this app on your cell phone and browse the web like you normally do. After you’ve installed it for one week, you get to play an instant rewards game for a prize (everyone wins something, from gift cards to TVs). The longer you stay an active panelist, the more rewards and prizes you can earn and win. (Note: This panel is currently only open to males)
5. Shop on Amazon.
Are you an avid Amazon shopper? Me, too.
ShopTracker, operated by The Harris Poll, tracks your Amazon purchase history.
Don’t worry; it won’t share it with your friends or family. It only wants it to track consumer behavior. Otherwise, it’s kept private.
If you sign up, you can bank an extra $36 a year, which is pretty good for something you’re already doing…
The 3-minute download is simple and we walk you through the process right here. If you want to check ShopTracker out, click here.
6. Open a Wells Fargo card.
Wells Fargo has messed up a little bit in the past, so now it wants to make it up to customers with a deal.
Until March 24, you can sign up for a checking account and get a $250 bonus. All you need to do is make 10 debit card purchases or payments within 60 days of opening the account.
I say “all you need to do” because many cards require minimum payments of $500 or something crazy. This is pretty simple. If you buy groceries every week, that’s eight purchases, right there.
Senior writer Mike Brassfield wrote more about the deal (and the recent scandals) here.
Don’t let losing an hour get you down. Just know when you wake up an extra hour earlier, you made some money doing it.
Your Turn: Are you looking forward to “springing forward?”
Advertiser Disclosure: This post includes affiliate links. We’re letting you know because it’s what Honest Abe would do. After all, he is on our favorite coin.
Carson Kohler (@CarsonKohler) is a junior writer at The Penny Hoarder.
The post Lose an Hour, Make Some Money: 6 Ways to Bank on Daylight Saving Time appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.
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How to Run Your First Facebook PPC Campaign (if You Have no Experience)
Facebook’s reach is insane.
What started out in Mark Zuckerberg’s Harvard dorm room has gone on to revolutionize the world.
This means one thing for online marketers: boundless opportunities.
Of course marketers have been using Facebook organically for years, but recently Facebook PPC has become the go-to marketing trend.
It’s interesting because I remember not all that long ago that pretty much the only PPC platform on marketers’ radars was Google AdWords.
It was AdWords or nothing.
But with Facebook having 1.86 billion monthly active users as of Q4 of 2016, it’s easy to see why Facebook PPC has exploded.
Just look at Facebook’s growth from 2008 to 2016:
But I know from experience that getting started with a new PPC platform can be a little harrowing.
You want to make sure you’re not wasting your marketing budget, and you want to get legitimate results from the money you’re putting in.
This article is intended for those of you who are just getting your feet wet with Facebook PPC and have no experience.
I’m going to walk you through the initial steps so you can set up your first ad and feel confident that it will perform well.
Choose an advertising objective
One way that Facebook PPC differs from platforms like AdWords is that advertisers can have several different types of objectives.
While on AdWords your goal is to drive qualified traffic to your landing page, on Facebook, you can have multiple objectives.
Here are just a few examples:
- Building brand awareness
- Generating leads
- Getting people to install your app
- Getting store visits
It’s important you have a crystal clear idea of what you want to accomplish as it will dictate the specific approach you take.
I recommend doing some brainstorming beforehand so you know exactly what your advertising objective is.
Here’s the first thing you’ll see when starting your campaign:
Let’s say your objective is to increase engagement by getting more page likes.
You would click on “Engagement,” and this would pop up at the bottom:
Facebook will give you a generic campaign name. In this case, it’s “Engagement.”
But you can replace it with whatever campaign name you choose.
I’ll just use “Neil’s Engagement Campaign.”
Once you’ve entered your campaign name, click on “Create Ad Account.”
From here, you’ll need to choose your country, currency, and time zone.
Now click “Continue.”
Selecting your audience
Here’s where it gets a little trickier.
The first thing you need to do is select your audience.
It’s crucial that you zone in on your target audience and be as specific as possible.
Otherwise, you may end up wasting money if irrelevant or unqualified people find your ad.
Here’s what you’ll see:
This is pretty self-explanatory, but you need to be meticulous about filling out this info, especially if you’re a brick-and-mortar business with a limited demographic in a particular region.
Carefully consider who it is you’re trying to reach.
Just below this, there is “Detailed Targeting” and “Connections.”
I really like the “Detailed Targeting” feature because I can be hyper-specific about who sees my ads.
Click on “Browse,” and you’ll be able to narrow your audience based on demographics, interests, behaviors, and more.
In my case, I’m going to click on “Interests” > “Business and Industry” > “Marketing.”
That’s because I’m targeting people who want to improve their websites and grow their traffic.
Of course, you’ll want to target your specific audience.
I suggest taking your time with this and browsing through everything so that you select a highly specified segment of Facebook users.
Just below “Detailed Targeting,” you’ll see “Connections.”
Here you can add a connection type based on:
- Facebook Pages
– People who like your page
– Friends of people who like your page
– Exclude people who like your page - Apps
– People who used your desktop app
– Friends of people who used your desktop app
– Exclude people who used your desktop app - Events
– People who responded to your event
– Exclude people who already responded to your event
Add any specific connections for even more segmentation. Save this audience.
Placements
You have two options in terms of how your ads are displayed.
There’s “Automatic Placements” and “Edit Placements.”
I recommend sticking with “Automatic Placements” if you’re just starting out until you get the hang of things.
If you’re unhappy with your CTR (click-through rate), you can always go back and “Edit Placements” later on.
Budget and schedule
You have two options for your budget.
There’s “Daily Budget” and “Lifetime Budget.”
HubSpot explains the difference between the two:
- Daily budget. If you want your ad set to run continuously throughout the day, this is the option you’ll want to go for. Using a daily budget means that Facebook will pace your spending per day. Keep in mind that the minimum daily budget for an ad set is $1.00 USD and must be at least 2x your CPC.
- Lifetime budget. If you’re looking to run your ad for a specified length of time, select lifetime budget. This means that Facebook will pace your spend over the time period you set for the ad to run.
I suggest keeping your budget fairly low initially.
If you’ve ever used any sort of PPC platform, you’re probably aware of the inherent learning curve that’s involved.
The last thing you want to do is drop a huge amount of money without first getting your bearings and learning the subtle nuances of a platform.
As for the schedule, you can either allow your ads to run continuously or select a specified start and end date.
If you want your ads to run only on certain days or at certain times, you’ll want to choose the latter option.
Simply change the date and time to your specified settings.
Creating your ad
Now that we’ve gotten all the preliminary steps out of the way, it’s time to get down to the nitty-gritty: creating your ad.
You have two options.
One is to use an existing post. The other is to create a new ad.
If you want to promote a post you’ve already published on Facebook, you’ll want to use an existing post.
Otherwise, if you want to create an ad from scratch, click on “Create New Ad.”
Here’s the first thing you’ll see if you go this route.
Just choose whichever option makes the most sense.
The next thing you’ll see is the “Images” section.
If you already have a particular image you want to use, you can either pull it from your library or upload it from your computer.
Otherwise, you can use Facebook’s “Free Stock Images.”
I love this feature because it gives you instant access to a good sized library of high-quality, professional looking images.
You’ll then connect your Facebook Page and enter whatever text you want to use.
Here’s how Buffer structured its advertisement:
And here’s a little slice of advice about your copy.
Keep it short, sweet, and clear. The key is to entice Facebook users to visit your page so they can discover more.
At that point, you can convince them to make a purchase.
Notice how short and concise Buffer’s copy is.
Placement
Finally, you need to decide where you want your ad to be shown.
At the moment, you can choose between the following:
Although the desktop news feed may be your first instinct, it’s a good idea to do some testing to see which options gets the biggest results.
Placing your order
Once you’re happy with your ad, click on “Place Order” in the green box on the bottom right-hand side of the screen.
Facebook will review it before it goes live. Once it does go live, you’ll receive a confirmation email from Facebook.
Continued reading
That’s the gist of running your first Facebook PPC campaign.
The initial setup process is fairly straightforward.
But, of course, there are a lot of different variables that will ultimately determine how well your campaign performs.
When it’s all said and done, you want your ads to convert and get you the most bang for your buck.
More specifically, you want to minimize your cost-per-click (CPC) and see a solid CTR.
This is a huge subject to tackle, and I don’t have time to properly address it in this post.
But what I recommend is checking out a couple of previous posts that I wrote on neilpatel.com:
Beginner’s Guide to Running Facebook Ads That Convert
Facebook Advertising Made Simple: A Step-by-Step Guide
These two posts pick apart the process of advertising on Facebook and will fill you in on the most important details you need for your campaign to be successful.
Conclusion
If you’ve played around with the idea of using Facebook PPC but haven’t quite gotten around to it, now is a great time to take the plunge.
Although I foresee it becoming fairly saturated in upcoming years, there’s still plenty of room for your brand right now.
And with an average CPC of only $0.64 (it’s $2.32 for AdWords), you stand a good chance of seeing a favorable ROI.
Once you get a feel for this platform, you can make the necessary tweaks to improve the performance of your campaign.
Do you think Facebook PPC could ever rival Google AdWords?
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Here’s Why We’re Buzzing About Cheerios’ Plan to Give Away 10 Million Seeds
If you hadn’t already noticed, Buzz the Bee is missing from his usual place on Cheerios boxes. His absence aims to bring awareness to the fact that bees are dying at an alarming rate — and we’re not doing enough to stop it.
To combat the serious decline in the bee population, Cheerios is partnering with Vesey’s, a purveyor of seeds, to give away free wildflower seeds to anyone who wants to create a bee-friendly habitat in their own backyard.
And aside from helping out your Mother Earth for free, planting wildflowers can also be a really neat springtime activity for kids!
They’ll get to sow the seeds, pull some weeds (it builds character, right?) and watch their hard work pay off all while learning how to give back to the planet they call home.
How Do I Get My Free Seeds?
Simply fill out this form on the Cheerios website, and Vesey’s will ship your seeds to you within four to six weeks — just in time for the last of the frost.
It’s as simple as that!
Once you receive your seeds, you can find tips for planting and tending your new bee sanctuary on Vesey’s website. The process sounds pretty easy: Just find a good, sun-drenched patch of soil, plant your seeds, and make sure to keep the ground moist and the weeds away from the growing plants.
What Else Can I Do to Save the Bees?
While you wait for your seeds to arrive, check out some other ways you can help sustain the bee population. We all share the same earth, and it’s up to us to keep it healthy.
Cheerios’ goal is to hand out 100 million seeds this spring, so challenge your friends to do their part, too!
Your Turn: Do you plan to plant a wildflower garden this spring?
Grace Schweizer is a junior writer at The Penny Hoarder. She signed up for her seeds and is so excited to grow some beautiful blooms!
The post Here’s Why We’re Buzzing About Cheerios’ Plan to Give Away 10 Million Seeds appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.
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This BBC Interview is Every Work-From-Home Parent’s Worst Nightmare
Sure, we love the idea of working from home, but sometimes distractions pop up…
Like tiny humans.
Robert Kelly, a professor at Pusan National University, recently became a victim of a live work-from-home mishap in front of the world (or whoever was watching his recent BBC World News interview).
Oh, the Perils of Working From Home… Demonstrated on BBC News
BBC World News secured Kelly for a virtual interview to speak about the impeachment of South Korean President Park Geun-hye.
Clad in his sharp suit and tie (you never know what work-from-homers wear underneath the desk…), he talks seriously about the South Korea impeachment. His office looks pretty professional, with a big world map in the background (so professor-like).
Then enters… the kid.
Sporting a vibrant yellow shirt, a toddler dances into the frame. The camera cuts back to the BBC reporter on the other side of the screen… Perhaps the kid will saunter out?
Nope. Right up to the desk. Hi.
Kelly tries to shake it off, but… in strolls a baby in a walker.
Not too far behind? The child-tamer, who ducks down and wrangles the kids out of the room.
To her credit, she tries to be graceful about the whole thing, but it doesn’t work. You can hear the kids crying from behind the now-shut door.
Kudos to Kelly, though, who apologizes, shuts his eyes, regroups and continues to talk about the South Korea situation.
But not before you see the child-tamer crawl in one last time to shut the door.
The BBC newsroom broke out in fits of laughter, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
Watch it unfold here. (Let’s be honest. I’ve watched this like 10 times now.)
This guest managed to keep his composure when his children interrupted his live @BBCWorld TV interview http://pic.twitter.com/3x5tgsVR8R
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) March 10, 2017
A huge shoutout goes out to Kelly. We commend you for powering through that interview.
Suffer from Work-From-Home Distractions, Too? Use These Resources
For all its benefits, working from home has its downsides, too — like distractions.
Here are a few resources to get you back on the right track:
- Consider securing a co-working space. This might become your slice of heaven. Sure, there’s a monthly fee, but some companies will help pay for it. Plus: There are private rooms you can use… for video interviews.
- If you don’t want to drop a monthly fee, we found some free productivity tools to help you maintain focus while working from home.
- Finally, for some personal inspiration, read how this mom of twin toddlers manages her work-from-home business.
Your Turn: Do you have any tips to help avoid distractions while working from home? Please share!
Carson Kohler (@CarsonKohler) is a junior writer at The Penny Hoarder. Her cats once broke out in a fight while she was being interviewed for a job through Skype. It was totally embarrassing.
The post This BBC Interview is Every Work-From-Home Parent’s Worst Nightmare appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.
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Your Kiddos Can Hit the Local Roller-Skating Rink for Free — Here’s How
If your kids are getting cabin fever after a long winter indoors, this program might help them work off some of that extra energy.
Sure, this activity will keep them indoors, but it’ll have them going in circles, not you.
Kids Skate Free provides children with two free weekly roller-skating passes to use at their local rink. Offered by the Roller Skating Association International Program and sponsored by Pepsi, this ongoing freebie hopes to connect 1 million children to this sport.
The program’s website says roller-skating is easy to learn and a good way to improve balance, flexibility, strength and endurance while getting aerobic exercise.
The website does not remind you how awkward it was trying to ask someone to accompany you during those couples skates in your high school years. But I’m here to remind you of such cringe-worthy experiences. You’re welcome.
How to Take Your Kids Roller-Skating for Free
To get free roller-skating passes for your family, visit Kids Skate Free and enter your ZIP code to find participating rinks nearby.
You can view age restrictions and additional fees for each location. The age cap varies by rink, and skate rental may cost extra. Most participating rinks have at least four or five open times to choose from each week.
Once you pick the rink you’d like to visit, you can register up to four children on your account.
You’ll pay a $4 administrative setup fee per child that grants you weekly passes to your local rink. Print your passes, and show them at the door for free admission.
Kids Can Bring Friends, but Plan Ahead!
If your kids want to bring a friend, you can easily add another child to your account as long as there’s space on your list of four. But you have to plan ahead for this bonus, because you must add participants before your weekly passes are prepared each Sunday.
Don’t want to pay for skate rentals? Check a secondhand sporting goods shop or your local thrift store. A Facebook garage sale group could be a source for cheap wheels, too.
Your Turn: Will you sign your kids up for free roller-skating passes?
Lisa Rowan is a writer and producer at The Penny Hoarder. She could never figure out how to skate backward.
The post Your Kiddos Can Hit the Local Roller-Skating Rink for Free — Here’s How appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.
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This Little-Known Agency Has Returned $11.8 Billion to Wronged Consumers
What if there was a government office that worked for your financial benefit, but nobody knew what it did?
Tucked among the many drab office buildings in Washington, D.C., thousands of people probably walk by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau without knowing anything about it.
You might write off the CFPB as just another alphabet soup agency where the letters don’t mean much. Yet you know that the FBI fights crime, the IRS collects taxes, and the FDA checks out new prescription drugs before they land at the pharmacy.
But the CFPB? Creditcards.com put out a poll, and 81% of respondents said they didn’t know enough about the CFPB to have an opinion on it.
The groups least likely to know anything about the CFPB were adults with a high school education or less, people with less than $50,000 in annual income and young adults ages 18-26.
Only 12% of people polled knew enough about the CFPB to have an opinion and said they approved of the bureau’s work, while 4% said they disapproved.
But What Does the CFPB Do All Day?
As Creditcards.com notes, while the CFPB works for the American people’s wallets, it’s not exactly going door to door to promote itself. When it cracks down on banks or other financial entities, the CFPB often requires them to refund money to consumers directly; it doesn’t mail out envelopes of cash emblazoned with CFPB’s logo.
So has the CFPB impacted you? Probably, even if you’ve never heard of it.
The CFPB sued student loan servicer Navient for nudging stressed borrowers into forbearance, instead of toward income-based repayment plans. Forbearance is cheaper for servicers to administer, but borrowers pay much more interest in the long run.
The CFPB fined TransUnion and Equifax after the credit reporting bureaus misrepresented credit scores, signed up unknowing customers for paid subscriptions and violated the Fair Credit Reporting Act. The agencies had to pay a combined $17.6 million to affected consumers.
When more than 800 people complained that they couldn’t access funds on their RushCard debit cards, the CFPB investigated and ordered $10 million in restitution.
And when details surfaced that Wells Fargo opened millions of unauthorized accounts in its customers’ names, the CFPB imposed a $185 million fine — $100 million of which went into the bureau’s Civil Penalty Fund, which sometimes grants payments to consumers affected by CFPB investigations.
Since 2011, the CFPB has collected more than half a million consumer complaints about financial misdeeds in its Consumer Complaint Database. It’s received so many complaints about banks that LendEdu was able to rank banks by customer dissatisfaction.
Why the CFPB’s Existence Isn’t Entirely Secure
The CFPB was created in 2011 as a soothing balm on the still-smarting burn of the 2008 economic crisis. But critics say the bureau has too much heavy-handed power.
In fact, Brett Kavanaugh, a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, once called the CFPB’s director “the single most powerful official in the United States government” aside from the president. Last October, federal judges deemed the CFPB’s single-director structure unconstitutional, although the bureau has appealed the decision.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order last month forcing financial agencies to cut back on regulations, although it’s unclear how the order includes the CFPB. The Federal Reserve funds the bureau under the purview of the executive branch, so it’s not exactly an agency in the traditional sense.
But for every critic shaking their fist at financial regulation, there’s a customer who has achieved victory against a monolith financial services company. The bureau reports returning $11.8 billion to affected customers since its establishment.
Your Turn: Has the CFPB ever helped you seek justice against a bank of financial company? Do you think it’s too powerful?
Lisa Rowan is a writer and producer at The Penny Hoarder.
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Ultra-low UK interest rates hit eight-year anniversary
A look through the Moneywise archives reveals that 5 March has never been a particularly eventful day – that is until 2009 – when the Bank of England cut interest rates from 1% to 0.5% following the financial crisis that started in 2008.
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Want to Sell Your Clothes on Poshmark? 5 Expert Tips You Should Read First
The people who sell clothes on Poshmark make it seem so easy.
I’ve read articles of women recapping how they lounge around their house on the weekends, sipping coffee and snapping photos of clothes or shoes to sell.
I envied them; perched so high on their chic Poshmark pedestals.
They had people begging them to post more clothes, more beautiful handbags. People were practically throwing money at them left and right like their lives depended on it (OK, maybe I’m exaggerating. But that’s what it seemed like in my mind).
So I decided to try it. It couldn’t be that hard, right?
My Attempt at Poshmark
I downloaded the Poshmark app with my eyes on the prize: extra cash.
I had numerous gameday dresses from college gathering dust in the back of my closet, and I wanted to try and make a few bucks off of them.
So, I snapped a few photos of them hanging on my bedroom door, set reasonable prices and waited.
People started following me. I followed them back.
A few even liked and commented on my listings; I thanked them. I looked forward to the extra money I was about to have.
But three weeks went by and no one purchased anything.
Disappointed, I deleted the app and donated the dresses to a local shelter.
I couldn’t stop wondering why I didn’t sell anything, though. What was I possibly doing wrong?
As it turns out, pretty much everything.
How to Sell on Poshmark Like a Pro
I did my research. Almost every article online told me it would be a time-consuming process — but I didn’t know how detailed the process would be.
After some asking around, I found a Poshmark pro to explain the ropes to me: fashion blogger Alison Gary.
After she and her husband decided they wanted to rent out their house and travel the country in a RV, she realized there was no way her entire closet would be able to come with her.
After trying other outlets that she found “difficult and impersonal,” she finally decided to give Poshmark a try.
Within a week, she’d sold her first item. In about three months, her sales exceeded $1,000.
How’d she do it?
Well, she admits her pre-established following from her fashion blog, Wardrobe Oxygen, definitely helped. However, after research, trial and error, she has a few insider tips that can apply to anyone.
Here are her best ones:
1. Use All Four Photo Options
The photos of the dresses hanging on my bedroom door could’ve been part of the reason I wasn’t selling anything. Quality photos are crucial to making sales, Gary explains.
“Have your first picture be the one that is the best lit,” she says. “It could even be the one you found on the website from when you Googled the item, like the product photo.”
It makes sense.
As I browsed through my feed in the app, I was more attracted to listings that had bright, clear photos — and less interested in the ones that looked like they were snapped on a cell phone.
Some sellers even go as far as styling items on mannequins.
Poshmark has a no return policy with one exception: Customers can only return items if they aren’t delivered as they were described by the seller.
To combat this, Gary recommends downloading a photo collage app and making a few collages showing minute details of the product you’re selling. In doing so, you let buyers see exactly what they’re purchasing, flaws and all.
Including more photos can eliminate any potential situations where someone may claim that a seller ripped them off.
Full transparency means protection!
2. Capitalize on Titles and Descriptions
After looking at top Poshmark sellers, Gary started to notice they all had one thing in common: They had descriptive titles and used every single character they possibly could, with the most captivating parts in the front.
“I would use the emoji that says ‘new’ instead of writing the word out to save an extra two characters,” Gary says. “I would use every single character possible knowing it gets cut off a little bit, with the beginning being the hottest part of it.”
By the “hot” part, she means including brand names and then including adjectives after. Many Poshmark users browse by brand name, so including this keyword up front can help your item come up during searches.
It’s also good to include measurements, the material it’s made out of, when it first came out and other key info in descriptions.
“Give buyers more information than they even need,” Gary explains. “The less questions you have to answer, the better.”
By eliminating any room for buyer hesitation, you might have a better chance at making a sale.
3. Give Tips on How to Wear and Style Items
Giving buyers guidance on how to wear and style items can go a long way — especially since Poshmark has a no-return policy.
Gary recommends giving style tips in descriptions to convey to users just how versatile items are.
She will say things like, “this looks really great with a pair of pumps for work or add some ankle booties and a denim jacket and wear it on the weekend.”
By giving buyers ideas of outfits encourages the idea that the piece you’re selling is versatile — and a good value, since they can wear it more than once.
4. Don’t Be Afraid To Say No
Users on Poshmark commonly practice negotiating. Sellers can post items with “firm” prices, meaning they aren’t open to negotiation, but buyers still comment with their bids.
Being open to bids can be useful; a seller has the opportunity to get rid of an item that hasn’t been selling, and a buyer might haggle the price down a few dollars.
However, if someone completely lowballs you, don’t be afraid to reject their bid.
“My biggest challenge [with Poshmark] is that there are people out there who will make offers that are ridiculously low,” said Gary. “If it’s a waste of your time, say no.”
In addition to negotiating, people may ask for customized bundles of products you’re selling. If you’re not already offering it, Gary recommends you say no!
Your store is on your terms, not the buyer’s. You can save a lot of time and headaches by being selective.
5. Add An “Extra Touch”
Going the extra mile for customers is a great way to turn them from one-time buyers into recurring ones (which means people you can rely on to spend money in your store!).
To do this, Gary puts an extra touch on packages that she ships to customers; she wraps items in tissue paper and curls ribbon to secure them.
These small touches aren’t expensive, either; she recommends buying the tissue paper and ribbon off of discount websites like Amazon — for $12 she has enough tissue paper and ribbon to last her three months!
She even went as far as to get business cards printed that thanked customers for shopping with her, which she’d include in packages.
“[By doing these things] it comes looking really nice and clean, and polished,” she said. “That really helps you get return customers.”
Don’t forget that customers rate Poshmark sellers. Seller scores can’t be changed, and you can’t delete comments customers leave about you!
A little extra touch at the end could really make the difference in you getting rated a three or a five. And, Gary states that you want your score to be high so that “people trust that what they’re going to get [from you] is good.”
And, think about it: If you were a customer buying from somewhere, wouldn’t you want your package to look like the seller actually cared that you bought their item? I know I would!
Your Turn: Will you try any of these insider tips for selling on Poshmark?
Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. By checking out this featured content, you help us bring you more ways to save!
Kelly Smith is a junior writer and engagement specialist at The Penny Hoarder. Catch her on Twitter at @keywordkelly.
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6 Smart Ways to Get Through a Breakup Without Trashing Your Finances
Are you recently single?
Join the club. (Just be thankful you didn’t experience it right at the beginning of Dry January.)
Anyway, you might be sitting on the couch crying with all of the lights in your apartment turned off. Or maybe you’re sipping champagne and painting your nails red (you do you, boo).
Either way, if you’re feeling confused, apathetic or just flat out have no idea what’s going to happen next, here’s something to feel relieved about: One thing you do have control over right now is your money.
6 Ways to Get Over a Breakup Without Going Broke
Even if you shared your finances, it’s still possible to take a step back and get them under control — you just need to implement a smart plan.
Here’s how to keep your financial situation together when you feel like the rest of your life is falling apart.
1. Re-evaluate Your Budget
Now that it’s just you, you’ll probably need to re-evaluate your budget as soon as possible.
My ex and I split groceries and bills, so my expenses almost doubled without him.
On the other hand, if the jerk was a freeloader, congratulations — you can now spend your money on something other than a waste of space.
By re-evaluating your budget, you can cut costs you can no longer afford and still manage to stay afloat without your freshly exiled human.
2. Think Twice Before You “Treat Yo’ Self”
We love the idea of treating yourself — but we don’t love how expensive it can get.
If you want to indulge in something like a spa day, Michelle Hung, chartered financial analyst and founder of The Sassy Investor, recommends doing it at home.
She recommends doing facials with some friends, stating face masks “can just cost a few dollars,” and also recommends doing manicures or pedicures at home or at a friend’s house.
Also you don’t need to go out and buy elaborate material goods to feel better — here are a few ways to treat yo’ self for free.
3. Put Down the Credit Card
After a breakup, you might want to go out and spend, spend, spend — because you deserve it, right?
By all means, if you can afford it, do it — but if you have to charge it, don’t you dare!
Financial coach Craig Dacy recommends figuring out what your budget allows you to spend and then going from there.
“If you decide $200 is something that makes sense in your budget, go and withdraw that money and keep it in cash,” Dacy says. “By having this money in cash, it is much more difficult to accidentally overspend because it is separated from your other money. When the cash is gone, you know that you have hit your limit.”
(Tip: If getting cash out of the bank is inconvenient for you, Hung recommends you purchase gift cards instead — when they run out, they run out!)
Credit cards can potentially have limits of thousands of dollars, which can entice you to overspend. Try putting your credit card in your sock drawer until the initial shock of the breakup wears off and you’re back in a position to make steady financial decisions.
4. When You Feel Like Spending, Write
Aside from writing down how you’re feeling about your recent life changes, you could also try writing when you feel like going out and spending money.
Hung tells her clients to write when they feel like spending money, mainly because seeing the costs on paper can clarify that they may be heading into a overspend spiral.
“Writing down and actually seeing the numbers is a really big wake up call,” Hung says. “It’s the same as when you look at your credit card bill, and you see everything add up — you might think, ‘Holy crap, did I really spend that much?’”
Writing down what you want to purchase before you actually do it can really put it into perspective for you. You can ask yourself: Does it fit into your budget? Do you really need these things? Are there cheaper alternatives?
It’s all about awareness.
5. Spend Time with Family and Friends
If you want to be around people during your healing time, make sure it’s with those who are close to you.
Your family and friends are the ones who can help you heal emotionally. In a time where you probably feel horrible, there’s nothing like sitting on the porch with your mom or going for a ride in the car with your best friend.
Talking is important during a healing process, and these are the people who want to listen to you.
Not only will they support you emotionally, these are also the people who might even be willing to buy you a beer or lunch without thinking twice. It’s okay to lean on friends every once in a while for these things — just don’t become a freeloader!
On the other hand, make sure you surround yourself with people who will keep you both emotionally and financially on track.
“Choosing your shopping buddy may not be the best person to lean on during this time,” Dacy explains. “Find someone that understands your financial goals and will help you move on without giving you the ‘you deserve it’ pep talk in the checkout line.”
6. Sell the Stuff That Makes You Think of Your Ex
If you know they’re gone for good, what’s the harm in selling things they gave you or left behind?
You could profit off of last year’s anniversary gift or last week’s spontaneous purchase at the Sunday market.
If you’re ready to make some extra cash off your breakup, check out these ways to sell your ex’s stuff.
(Side note: Just be sure you’re emotionally ready to let go of those items — that’s more important than making money from them!)
Your Turn: Have any secrets for how to get over a breakup? Let us know in the comments!
Kelly Smith is a junior writer and engagement specialist at The Penny Hoarder. Catch her on Twitter at @keywordkelly.
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The Observer Effect and Your Money
Recently, I’ve been trying to carefully track my working time in order to get some sense as to how I spend my time, what times of the day I focus best, and so on. The goal is to make my work as efficient as possible.
What I’ve found, though, is that the simple act of tracking my time is actually causing me to be significantly more efficient in my work. Since I know that I’m tracking my work, I have this subtle tendency to be on my “best behavior” regarding work.
This phenomenon is known in physics as the observer effect, something that’s familiar to anyone who’s taken a high school physics class or even anyone who has checked the pressure in a car tire. Here’s Wikipedia’s summary of the observer effect:
“In physics, the term observer effect refers to changes that the act of observation will make on a phenomenon being observed. This is often the result of instruments that, by necessity, alter the state of what they measure in some manner. A commonplace example is checking the pressure in an automobile tire; this is difficult to do without letting out some of the air, thus changing the pressure.”
This effect is also known as the Hawthorne effect, particularly when applied outside of the field of physics, which I mentioned briefly in a similar context several years ago.
It doesn’t take much of a leap of the imagination to see how the observer effect shows up pretty strongly in personal finance. In fact, we can actually use the observer effect to great benefit.
Imagine, if you will, that you have some piece of software that records every transaction you make and then, once every day or two, you have to go in and mark each transaction as “read,” to show that you reviewed it, akin to how you read your email. You’d not only want the number of transactions to be nice and low, but you’d probably also not want to look at really wasteful transactions. The idea that you’re “observing” your transactions adds another little element to the decision to buy and provides some pushback.
This exact thing happens for anyone who uses a software package like You Need a Budget. I’ve felt that “observer effect” myself when using it.
That effect is even stronger when you’re manually recording your expenses in a pocket notebook. I really don’t like writing down silly expenses in my pocket notebook. In fact, I try my best to completely avoid doing so, and I’m not alone in doing it. The same thing is true for any journal that records your behavior; if you’re keeping track of what you eat, fore example, there’s real resistance to writing down that you just knocked back a pint of Ben & Jerry’s which can guide you instead to just eat a little or eat something else entirely.
This is why careful logging of your actions is a vital part of turning around any negative life habit, but it works particularly well for personal finance. The simple act of having to write down every mis-step keeps you from making as many mis-steps. The data from such a log is still useful as a record of what you’ve done, but the act of creating the log pushes you in the direction of good behavior.
Here are some specific ways to make this “observer effect” work well for you.
The first, of course, is to write down each and every expense in a pocket notebook. If you spend a dime, write it down in the notebook. It doesn’t matter how big or small the expense is, it should be written down in that notebook. If you get a receipt for a bunch of items at once – like a grocery receipt – you can just slip that receipt into the notebook, though writing down each item can be really powerful, too.
I highly recommend writing down not only the item itself, but where it was purchased and what it cost, including tax. That way, as you’re looking back through it, you can not only see what it was that you bought, but where you bought it and how much you paid for it.
If you feel resistance in terms of writing things down in that notebook, use that as a sign that’s telling you that the item you’re about to buy is not a good use of your money. If you dread the thought of writing down an expense and then having to see it again later, that’s almost always because you know on some fundamental level that the expense isn’t a smart one and that you should be doing something else with your money. The resistance is your guide; it’s a way of translating a questionable purchasing decision into another action that really shows you when you’re making a mistake.
Once every day or two, then, review the recent entries in that notebook. For each entry, ask yourself whether this purchase still makes sense. Was it a good choice? Could I have done something better with my money (and time)? Was there a more efficient way to achieve the same ends?
Don’t be afraid to recognize that you didn’t make the best decision in the moment. We all do that. I do it all the time. The value here is that you see that you didn’t make the best decision and that you see a better decision that you could have made, something that you know you can do going forward. The big “win” is that you’re starting to shape a better instinct and life pattern for yourself, one that pops up when that situation or something similar to it occurs again. That’s a good thing.
The value of the “observer effect” doesn’t fall away after just that quick review a day or two later, either. You can take all of your spending logs and use them later down the road to get a broader view of your spending.
So, for example, at the end of the month, you might take all of your spending logs and categorize all of the expenses, sorting everything into neat categories that you can evaluate separately. How much did you spend on tea? How much did you spend on scrapbooking supplies? How much did you spend on meals at restaurants?
That broader observation can actually be pretty powerful, too, in terms of creating an “observer effect” in your daily living. Knowing that this kind of broad review is coming can push you toward thinking about your spending in a full category over a period of time. If you’ve bought tea four times this month, do you really want to buy more and see that total amount spent on tea reach ridiculous heights? If you’ve gone to restaurants several times this month, do you really want to toss another one on the list and see that restaurant total add up to a number you’re really uncomfortable with? This is that same observer effect, just pulled out to a broader scale.
I find the “observer effect” to be really valuable for any habit I’m trying to establish, whether it’s finance related or not. If I’m trying to get in shape, for example, I’ll track my step count or the number of days in which I do a Darebee routine, and I don’t like recording low step count numbers or not marking off days of exercise. Near the end of a month, I push myself to really get that step count up so I have a number I can be proud of and I find myself pushing really hard not to miss a day of exercise. I use it to encourage myself to read by keeping a “reading log” and I feel good when I add books to that log, so having that log – which definitely counts as observing – often becomes a subtle nudge for me to read more to make sure I can keep adding books to that log.
How can you get started? The easiest way is to just start carrying a pocket notebook and a pen or pencil with you in your pocket everywhere you go, then jot down every time you do a particular thing – spending any money at all is a really good one for personal finance. Review it once or twice a day just to make sure you really are writing everything down. Then, once every few days, review that notebook. Go through every entry and make sure it’s something that makes sense and that you’re proud of. Ask yourself if there was a better way to achieve the goal of that entry. Then, once a month or so, tabulate the results, look for patterns, and see if those patterns are telling you anything.
This simple technique takes the observer effect and puts it to work for you. It will encourage you to make better decisions in the moment about your spending or about whatever habit it is that you’re trying to improve. Good luck!
The post The Observer Effect and Your Money appeared first on The Simple Dollar.
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Deal of the week: Grab cheap rail tickets in Virgin Trains' flash sale
Rail users can travel on Virgin Trains’ west coast route for less if you buy tickets in its flash sale this weekend.
What’s the deal exactly?
Virgin Trains is having a sale to celebrate 20 years running the west coast main line. This route runs to and from London Euston to destinations including Birmingham, Glasgow, Liverpool, and Manchester.
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Openreach to separate from BT in deal to improve services for broadband users
Ofcom has announced that Openreach will separate from BT in a deal that aims to improve services for all home phone and broadband users.
Openreach builds and maintains the copper and fibre lines that run from telephone exchanges to homes and businesses across the UK.
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Atom Bank cuts top savings rate - is it still the best deal?
Atom Bank has reduced the rate on its market leading one-year fixed savings bond to 1.8%, so is it still the best place to save?
The bank, which requires people to open and manage accounts using a smartphone app, reduced the rate from its previous 2% level at midnight on Thursday 9 March. This means any new customers from today will receive the lower 1.8% rate.
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UK equity income sector rules to change
The Investment Association (IA) has announced plans to water down the yield requirement for the UK equity income fund sector.
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