By Lilach Bullock As a blogger for years, I’ve experimented with multiple types of blog promotion. To this day, though, one of the most effective promotional platforms for me, continues to be social media. In this blog post, I’m going to share my top five tips to use social media to promote your blog. 1. […]
The post 5 Ways to Use Social Media to Promote Your Blog appeared first on The Work at Home Woman.
History lovers, the perfect job for you just popped up.
Not only does it offer a heavy dose of nostalgia for ‘90s kids — the entire role has nostalgia written all over it.
American Girl is hiring a researcher. Yep, the set of pricy-but-coveted dolls designed to teach kids and preteens about history needs someone to…do the history.
The role will ensure historical accuracy and authenticity across American Girl’s brands, including books about each character in the BeForever series, toys, movies, games, and even retail displays and customer service. (You don’t want your customer service reps giving out incorrect historical facts, you know.)
You’ll be the go-to person for ensuring American Girl’s stories and products authentically reflect history.
Sound like fun? Here’s how to apply.
The job requires a bachelor’s degree in history or a related field, three or more years of research experience, stellar communication skills, and an independent work ethic.
If you have experience “writing historical nonfiction for the public and young audience,” that’s a big bonus.
Apply for the position through the careers site for Mattel, which owns American Girl. The position is located at American Girl headquarters in Middleton, Wisconsin.
American Girl offers medical, dental and vision coverage, fully-vested retirement matching contributions after three years of service, and an educational assistance program.
Plus — wait for this perk — American Girl HQ closes on at 1 p.m. on Fridays — all year.
No word on salary, but we’re checking with Mattel and will update this post if we get any juicy details.
Your Turn: Will you apply to be an American Girl dolls researcher?
Lisa Rowan is a writer and producer at The Penny Hoarder. She has the retired Felicity doll, which she’s saving for a rainy day.
The post American Girl is Hiring a Historian to Help Come Up with the Next Samantha appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.
Hey ladies (and gentlemen): Do you mind if I ask you something a little, well, personal?
Do you know if your sex toy has been spying on you?
First it was microwaves; now it’s your vibrator. Nothing is sacred anymore, folks.
Look, we can’t believe we’re writing about this either — but let’s all get the giggles out of our systems because there’s nothing funny about a sex toy company stalking your usage habits.
Practicing self-care or getting intimate with your partner shouldn’t be at the expense of your privacy — because these types of things are really, really personal. Duh. Now, one company is paying big for violating it.
Standard Innovation, the Canadian company that makes the popular, high-end vibrators known as We-Vibe, has agreed to a $3.75 million class-action settlement. The agreement stems from a lawsuit claiming the company collected data about how customers used its products.
We-Vibe’s products include Bluetooth-enabled devices users can control via a smartphone when connected to the We-Connect app — because it’s 2017, and your partner across the country could help you have some frisky fun via the internet. Technology, man.
The semi-good news is strangers weren’t hacking your $130 vibrator (because holy hell, that’s creepy), but the crappy news is the company linked usage information — what settings owners used, for how long and how often — to customer accounts.
That’s creepy, too. WTF, We-Vibe?
According to the settlement, the vibrator maker will shell out up to $199 to anyone who purchased a vibrator capable of connecting to the We-Connect app before Sept. 26, 2016. Those who actually did connect their vibrator and use it via the app before that date will receive up to $500.
The courts also ordered the company to halt all data collection and destroy any past data it accumulated.
Of those affected, 300,000 people or more have bought Bluetooth-enabled We-Vibes; court documents state that about 100,000 of those customers used the app.
NPR reports: “The actual amount paid out will depend on how many people file claims; the company estimates people who bought the app will get around $40, and people who used the app around $500.”
Information about how victims can collect money their share of the settlement has not been released yet.
Your Turn: Were you affected by this class-action settlement?
Kelly Smith is a junior writer and engagement specialist at The Penny Hoarder. Catch her on Twitter at @keywordkelly.
The post Your Vibrator Could Be Spying on You, and Its Maker Could Owe You $500 appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.
Is there anything better than a day when people get rip-roaring drunk and stumble around town faking awful Irish accents while pinching innocent passers-by because of the color of their clothing?
Honestly, I can think of a few better ways to spend an evening — although that might make me a bit of a buzzkill.
However, I’ll take any excuse to celebrate. And now one restaurant chain is giving us good reason: On March 17, McAlister’s Deli will give away free cups of green tea to customers wearing green.
It’s really as simple as throwing on the first green thing you find in your closet, showing up at a participating McAlister’s Deli location and dining in.
Just make sure to call your nearest McAlister’s Deli location to confirm that it’s indeed joining in on the St. Patrick’s Day fun.
And if you’re looking for something to go with your green tea, you can try the limited-edition Reuben Spud. While this one isn’t free, it’s a dish that’s sort of Irish adjacent: a baked potato topped with corned beef, sauerkraut, Thousand Island dressing and Swiss cheese. Happy St. Patrick’s Day?
Longtime fans of the deli know that last year, McAlister’s announced it would add green tea and mango-flavored green tea to its famed ice tea lineup as part of its commitment to supporting “a healthier planet, stronger forests and an improved quality of life for farming communities.”
McAlister’s sources the tea through sustainable practices as it works to promote “a greener McAlister’s and a greener earth.”
Now that’s some truly green tea.
Your Turn: Will you pick up your free green tea on St. Patrick’s Day?
Grace Schweizer is a junior writer at The Penny Hoarder.
The post Here’s How to Get Free Green Tea From McAlister’s Deli on St. Paddy’s Day appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.
Looking for a job you can do right from your kitchen table or couch?
We found five companies that are hiring work-from-home employees — and two of them are companies we’ve mentioned before.
Get ‘em while they’re hot!
Here’s a great job for people with a knack for wireless and internet technology at Support.com.
In this full-time inbound customer support job, you’ll troubleshoot issues, resolve service-related problems and provide all-around, top notch customer service.
You’ll also process credit cards, ask callers to complete customer surveys and document customer interactions.
Benefits include paid training at $9 per hour, medical, dental and vision coverage, paid time off and a 401(k) plan.
After training, pay jumps to $10.25 per hour.
Apply here to be a Support.com remote services technician.
Swipe right on this job as a community moderator for OKCupid, one of the largest dating sites on the internet.
You’ll work from home full time on a flexible schedule to provide customer support over email, remove fake accounts and ban harassers.
You’ll also review and moderate content to make sure profiles, messages and pictures are within site guidelines.
OKCupid community moderators will occasionally handle sensitive topics that sometimes come up for customers, so the ideal candidate will also have “strong empathy and tact.”
Apply here to become an OKCupid community moderator.
ActBlue’s team of self-described “political nerds” is hiring a full-time customer relations associate to work from home during standard East Coast business hours.
You’ll be on the support team’s front lines, answering phones, returning calls, responding to emails, transcribing voicemails and monitoring the contribution queue.
The position is full time, including occasional weekend coverage. It requires a commitment through January 2019.
Benefits include fully paid health, dental and vision insurance, an employee-sponsored 401(k) plan and a “competitive” hourly pay rate.
Apply here to be an ActBlue customer relations associate.
If none of these jobs get your attention, two more nationwide companies we’ve previously written about have re-opened their application floodgates.
Your turn: Will you apply for one of these work-from-home customer service jobs?
Lisa McGreevy is a staff writer at The Penny Hoarder. She’d love to hear about your favorite work-from-home job, so swing by Twitter and look her up @lisah.
The post These 5 Work-From-Home Jobs are Hiring Right This Second (Apply Now!) appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.
As the college Class of 2017 prepares for May graduation with senior photos, celebratory beers and poor class attendance, they’re also preparing to become real-life adults.
Perhaps they have their first full-time job with benefits lined up, or maybe they’re still sketching out that five-year plan…
Either way, many of these students and soon-to-be graduates will likely face mounds of student debt.
This is nothing new. You’ve heard all the numbers before.
However, the U.S. Department of Education just released some new data about student loan defaults. (Hint: A lot of Americans are defaulting, which might not be the best choice.)
Certainly, the numbers outlined below are a little startling, but keep reading because there are other options you can take before deciding to default.
More than 42 million Americans owed a combined $1.3 trillion in federal student loans at the end of 2016, according to a Consumer Federation of America press release.
Note: This dollar amount doesn’t even include private loans, credit cards or home equity loans.
To put that into perspective, the average borrower owed more than $30,000 in student loan debt — a 17% increase since the end of 2013.
A chunk of the data released focused on student loan defaults.
When you default on a federal loan, it means you haven’t made any payments in 270 days. Failure to pay means your entire balance becomes immediately due, according to The Penny Hoarder’s extensive student loan guide.
If you don’t pay it, then off to collections it goes. In addition, your debt increases because of late fees, interest and any extra fees stemming from collections.
In the long term, defaulting could make you ineligible for additional federal student aid and hurt your credit score. The government can also withhold your federal and state tax refund, or even ask your employer to garnish your wages to pay it off.
Consequences for defaulting are dangerous, but 1.1 million Federal Direct Loan borrowers still defaulted in 2016.
“3,000 preventable student loan defaults each day in America is 3,000 too many,” says Consumer Federation of America senior fellow Rohit Chopra.
But if you can’t make a payment, do you really have any other option than to fall in line with these statistics?
Yes, you do have options.
In fact, you have two major options: consolidating or refinancing your loans.
“Refinancing or consolidating your loans will generally mean replacing your laundry list of loans with one (or a few) loans that include all of your student debt,” writes Penny Hoarder Dana Sitar.
If you have more than one student loan payment, you might consider consolidating. This will lump all those payments into one balance. In the end, you’ll have one payment a month with one interest rate. Consolidating just makes your loans easier to manage and keep up with.
Refinancing means you’re taking out a totally new loan. Some perks of refinancing include a new (lower) interest rate and new terms.
We’ve written about several people who’ve had great success — and savings — when they refinanced their student loans.
Each of these student loan-burdened individuals used Credible, an independent student loan refinancing marketplace.
“It’s like a Kayak or a Zillow for student loans,” says Michael Fishel, a Houston attorney who graduated from law school in 2012 with $135,000 in loans. “It’s brilliant.”
Not positive refinancing is the best option for you? We created a nifty flowchart that can help decide.
Your Turn: Has refinancing your student loans helped you save money?
Carson Kohler (@CarsonKohler) is a junior writer at The Penny Hoarder.
The post 3,000 Students Default on Loans Every. Single. Day (and What to Do Instead) appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.
By Chris Brantner
Whether you’re a casual or die-hard fan, the NCAA men’s college basketball tournament is one of the biggest events in all of sports — in fact, it takes in more advertising revenue than even the Super Bowl. They call it March Madness for a reason, since it brings some of the most exciting and dramatic games you’ll likely see all year long.
Like other huge, spread-out sporting events — think the Olympics and World Cup — the games sometimes overlap and will be broadcast across multiple TV networks. This used to mean you needed to pay for an overpriced cable subscription if you wanted to keep up with your brackets and watch all the March Madness games, but now you have plenty of options to watch the tourney without cable.
However, since the games are spread out on several channels — CBS, TBS, TNT, and truTV — it can still be a little confusing. (You can see the full tournament broadcast schedule here and plan which games you most want to watch.) To help you get ready for the Big Dance, let’s take a look at all the tools and services that can help you watch.
A basic TV antenna is one of the best and cheapest ways to watch any of the March Madness games broadcast on CBS. A full 24 games — including all the Final Four games and championship match-up — are on CBS, that’s a pretty big win for those looking to watch on the cheap.
TV antennas aren’t what they used to be — gone are the days of fighting static or wrapping foil around rabbit ears. The new antennas are high-tech devices that offer a wide range of bonuses and benefits like varying reception ranges and aesthetic designs that won’t be an eyesore in your living room. Plus, they can pull in free, high-definition signals from the major networks in your area, like CBS, ABC, NBC, and FOX. These channels even come in with a perfectly clear, HD picture. You can check here to find an antenna that will pick up CBS in your location.
In response to the growing desire to stream live TV and sports, CBS launched its own standalone streaming service, CBS All Access. This lets you live stream everything that the CBS network is broadcasting in your area (currently in 150 markets, listed here). Obviously, this means the service will let you watch every single March Madness game broadcast by CBS during the tournament.
Yes, you can receive CBS broadcasts for free with a simple TV antenna, as mentioned above. But if you live too far from the broadcast tower, or want to watch on a mobile device or browse on-demand archives, the service only costs $5.99 per month to start (you can even stream without commercials for $9.99 per month). You’ll get tons of live TV, and access to a huge on-demand library as well. You can try the service free for seven days — meaning you could use it to stream the most important games of the tournament for free.
The NCAA’s March Madness Live app lets anyone watch all of the tournament games broadcast by CBS for free. The only hang up is that you can either watch on the app with your phone or tablet, or on the March Madness live website on your computer. Unlike CBS All Access, you can’t stream it to your TV. (Editor’s note: In the past, I’ve been able to mirror the NCAA stream from my laptop’s Chrome browser to my TV using a Google Chromecast. –JG)
All of the games broadcast on TNT, TBS, and truTV are also available on the app, but you’ll need a valid cable login to watch them. So the only way to do that for free would be to borrow a login from a friend or family member.
Sony’s streaming service, PlayStation Vue, can function as a full cable alternative. Depending on your location, it could be the only service you’d need to watch the entire NCAA tournament without cable. That’s because TBS, TNT, and truTV are all available to Vue subscribers nationwide, and CBS is available in 80 markets (listed here) throughout the U.S.
If you’re trying to simplify while not spending too much money, PlayStation Vue might be your top choice. The service only costs $29.99 per month in most markets — and you can also test it out free for a week. You can watch on phones, tablets, computers, or your TV through connected streaming devices. However, it’s worth mentioning that there are mobile restrictions that could prevent you from watching away from your home network.
Here’s another streaming service that’ll get you plenty of March Madness games live without breaking the bank. Sling TV is a little cheaper than PlayStation Vue, with simple packages that start at $20 per month (Sling Orange) or $25 per month (Sling Blue).
Sling Blue gets you TBS, TNT, and truTV, so you could stream all the games not on CBS during the tournament. The more stripped down Sling Orange doesn’t have truTV, but you can add it for $5 extra. Plus, Sling offers a week-long free trial, so there’s no reason you couldn’t watch some games for free.
Coupled with a TV antenna, the March Madness Live app, or CBS All Access, that would give you the entire tournament’s worth of action online for the same price or less than Playstation Vue.
AT&T entered the streaming service market at the end of 2016 with DirecTV NOW. This is the most expensive of the streaming options with a starting price of $35 per month. But, in total in gets you more than 60 channels to stream, which is more than any other service.
This is another great way to watch games on TNT, as well as truTV and TBS, with all three being featured in the starting package. Since there’s a weeklong free trial here as well, you could always line up free trials on all the services above to watch nearly the entire tournament free. Since this is the newest live streaming option for cord cutters, you might want to read up a bit in this DirecTV NOW overview.
Compared to some other sports and live events, watching March Madness without cable is actually fairly easy – the real question isn’t whether you can watch the whole tournament, but how you plan to do it.
Check the broadcast schedule at NCAA.com and consider which games you really want to see: Are you most interested in the free-for-all frenzy of the wild opening rounds? Your alma mater’s match-ups? The intensity of the Final Four? This will give you a sense of which services you might need — and which ones you don’t.
Since most of the online streaming services offer a free one-week trial, you could stagger a couple seven-day trials to watch the first few rounds and the Sweet Sixteen, and then watch the Final Four and championship game over the air on CBS. As long as you’re not overpaying for internet service, you won’t be spending an arm and a leg, regardless of what setup you choose.
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Chris Brantner is founder of CutCableToday, where he helps people cut the cord and find the programming they want. Follow him on Twitter (@CutCableToday) for more cord-cutting tips.
The post How to Watch March Madness Without Paying for Cable appeared first on The Simple Dollar.
Atom Bank is to cut the rate of interest on its four market-leading savings accounts, with savers urged to open accounts before the rates drop.
The bank, which requires people to open and manage accounts using a smartphone app, will reduce each of its savings rates at midnight tonight.
That means savers have until 11.59pm tonight to take advantage of its current rates.
The UK’s Supreme Court has overturned a decision to award a six-figure sum to a daughter who was left out of her estranged mother's will, after an appeal by three charities.
“You are the average of your five closest friends.” – Jim Rohn
I often use that quote on this site because it really hits home with a lot of truth. Look at the five people who you value the most in this world and most want to spend time with. Take an average of the various metrics of their life: the things they value, how they spend their time, their interests, their financial state, their level of physical fitness. That average is probably pretty close to a description of yourself.
Why? People naturally enjoy spending time with people who have similar interests and similar values to ourselves, and it’s those similar interests and similar values that form the basis of many of our conversations. It’s very easy to find ways to hang out and spend meaningful time with someone who shares a lot of interests with you; it’s much harder to do so if you don’t have any common interests. Life is all about the path of least resistance, and there’s simply less resistance to hang out with a person you share a hobby with and with whom you share some similar life perspectives.
Obviously, along with that comes some learning about how each other lives their lives and, in some obvious and subtle ways, we borrow and adopt things from the lives of each other in order to improve our own lives. If we see something that’s working well for a friend, it’s likely to increase our own interest and we have increased odds of trying that hobby or borrowing that routine and incorporating it into our own lives.
This brings us to one of our close friends, perhaps the one among our friends who is the biggest free spender. She likes to subscribe to those monthly subscription boxes, where a company bundles and sends you things in the mail centered along a certain theme. Depending on the box, the stuff inside can be absolute junk or it can be quality stuff (though you didn’t have a direct hand in selecting it).
This friend, who I’ll call Jennifer, naturally likes to talk about the highlights out of the subscription boxes that she receives. We don’t usually hear about the subscription boxes themselves – and we’re already too careful with our money to dive into those – but we do usually hear about the best product or two from each one and how she’s using it and which ones she’s going to continue to use in the future.
I don’t mind this conversation per se, but what I have noticed is that it has caused our friend to introduce us to a bunch of quality niche products that we would have never heard of or considered. Cleaning supplies, soaps, art supplies, and various other things have come onto our radar because of our friend and those kits.
Because of that, now I’ll find myself at the store looking through the cleaning supplies and I’ll notice a particular brand I would have never given a second thought to before. It’s something that Jennifer mentioned and thus, because of her mention and enthusiasm, that item merits a deeper look. The only catch? It costs a lot more than the usual store brand that I would buy.
Usually, I have enough financial backbone to skip it and still buy the store brand, but I’ll be the first to admit that because of Jennifer’s enthusiasm, we’ve wound up trying out some different cleaning supplies and soaps and other little things in the past few months.
That’s the “imitation game” at work.
The “imitation game” is my term for the subtle tendency for friends to somewhat adapt and change their lives to match what they see in their closest friendships. This is different than a “jealousy” or “keeping up with the Joneses” thing. This is a person’s tendency to follow the advice and positive life patterns of someone they value and trust, almost without thinking about it.
I’ll give you a clear example. One of my closest friends also works from home. He and I have shared a lot of tips for what has made working at home successful for each of us, and we’ve adopted quite a few of each other’s tips. When we first became good friends several years ago, our daily patterns were very different. Now, they’re actually pretty similar because we’ve effectively started imitating each other.
You swap recipes with friends and you find that your diets become more similar. You tell friends about different products you’ve used successfully and they start using some of them. You tell your friends about your favorite restaurant and they want to try it, too.
You imitate each other, not out of a desire of mimicry or keeping up with the Joneses, but out of respect for the opinions of your friends and the fact that if something works well for someone who is similar to you in a lot of ways, it’s likely to work for you.
Social marketing is the best marketing, they say.
So, how do you “win” at the imitation game? Knowing that this phenomenon exists, how do you use it to your advantage in terms of personal finance? Here are some strategies I’ve figured out over the years.
Build up friendships with frugal people. Make a conscious effort to invest some time and energy into building friendships with people who choose to live below their means and save money for the future. Look for people who don’t dress expensively and aren’t parading a constant array of new possessions. Look for people who pass the time and entertain themselves in low-cost ways. Look for people who are talking about things that frugal people do, like eating at home and going on low-cost vacations and engaging in low-cost hobbies.
How do you find these people? Get involved in your local community and intentionally choose activities that don’t require shelling out money. Avoid the country club and instead look at civic organizations. Avoid nightclubs and instead participate in volunteer organizations. Check out the free offerings from the parks and recreation department that are social. Look around your workplace; a great place to start is in the break room where people eat their lunches, because frugal people will often bring foods from home to eat.
What you’re doing with those two strategies is that you’re setting up the imitation game to be predisposed toward frugal behavior. You’re finding people with frugal attributes who are going to be partners in the game and elevating them in your life. Because of that, the ideas you bounce around and share with your innermost circle are gradually going to have more of a frugal bent.
Remember that quote at the top of this article, the one that says that you’re the average of your five closest friends? If you build friendships with frugal people and then reassess your five closest friendships in a year or two, it’s likely that the average of them will be more frugal. You’ll play the imitation game with those friends and gradually become more frugal yourself.
Now, feed the imitation game. Share financially wise things that you do with your friends. What are the best things you do in your life that save money, in terms of really getting maximum financial benefit for your efforts? What are the best “bang for your buck” products that you use to fulfill a genuine need in your life? Share those strategies. When a friend comes asking for a recommendation, suggest an item that’s truly “buy it for life” or, for a consumable item, suggest a reliable store brand. Thus, via the imitation game, you nudge your friends in a financially wise direction as well.
This creates something of a circular effect, of course. If you nudge your friends in a frugal direction, it’s likely they will nudge you back. They’ll offer good “bang for the buck” recommendations when you ask. They’ll be more likely to plan lower-cost social events with you, such as potluck dinner parties, because they know you won’t somehow turn up your nose at the concept. They’ll be likely to share their best frugal tips with you. Such initiatives feed off of each other in a very positive way.
You can feed the imitation game with your less financially-minded friends, too – you just need to approach it a little differently. Don’t get obsessed with finding the least expensive option for everything; instead, look for inexpensive routes to achieve what it is that you want to do. If someone asks for a suggestion, point toward good “bang for the buck” solutions – not the cheapest solution, but the one that will provide a ton of value for the expense. A good approach there is to sell the quality of the item up front and then finish with an “it’s only $20!” type of finisher.
What ends up happening is that your most frugal friends tend to share and imitate your strongest frugality strategies, while your less financially focused friends tend to share lots of good “bang for the buck” and “buy it for life” items – things that are couched in more values than just spending the minimum amount right now.
With a circle of friends like that, you’ll find yourself gradually balancing out to a more frugal you, one that mixes and matches smart money moves in a way that really works for your goals while still having a strong social circle where you’re not the “cheapskate.” In my eyes, that’s the big goal of trying to be a social person and a frugal person at the same time.
Good luck!
The post The Imitation Game appeared first on The Simple Dollar.
In 1996, Jeremy Jacobson graduated from the Milwaukee School of Engineering with a great education, a stellar job lined up… and $35,000 in student loans.
That total would be worth more than $50,000 today, and it put Jacobson in what he estimates to be the top 10% bracket for student loan debt at the time.
That’s one top 10 list you don’t want to make.
But Jacobson was able to pay his debt all the way down in just five years. What’s more, today he’s an early retiree who travels the world with his wife and son.
Want to know how he pulled off the transition from serious debt to seriously enviable? Read on.
Like so many of us, Jacobson says he didn’t have a firm grasp on the financial ramifications of choosing a college.
After all, most people make this decision when they’re just 18 years old.
Jacobson’s situation was worsened by the fact he was the first in his family to go to college.
“I had no idea what I was doing,” he explains.
So when a helpful and encouraging representative from the Milwaukee School of Engineering visited his high school, he naturally gravitated towards the institution — despite it being a small, private school with a high price tag.
Admittedly, the quality of Jacobson’s small-school education made the sky-high cost worthwhile in the long run.
“[Milwaukee had] small class sizes, which was great,” he says. He even felt he had a “leg up” on others in his industry coming out of different schools.
“Really, you learn a ton… but then you get stuck with the bill,” he says.
Although he didn’t know much about applying to schools, Jacobson had an advantage over a lot of us — myself included — who fall into a dangerous complacency with debt in our early 20s.
He knew he needed to prioritize debt, in part because of his studies.
“In a lot of ways, engineering is just math for people who like to build (stuff),” Jacobson says.
He took classes covering topics like loan and mortgage amortization, and his instructor harped on how paying the minimum requirement led to losing huge amounts of money to interest — sometimes double or triple the original debt.
Jacobson also had experience with poverty in his childhood, and had no desire to let debt return him to that lifestyle.
“Everyone I knew who had debt was in a world of hurt because of it,” Jacobson says. After watching his friends get kicked out of their apartments or have their cars repossessed, he knew he had to make repaying his student loans a priority.
“Debt was a terrible and a dangerous thing,” he explains. “I was like, OK, I have to get rid of this as fast as I can.”
When Jacobson puts his mind to getting something done, he doesn’t mess around.
“I graduated on a Friday, moved myself over the weekend, and then started working on Monday,” he explains.
This was after a finals week so gruelling he found himself falling asleep on his 3 a.m. drive home — the first time he’d slept in 72 hours.
He landed a job as an electrical engineer for Motorola, which had scoped him out after a successful senior design project: waterproof walkie-talkies for SCUBA divers.
His starting salary was $39,500 — nothing to sneeze at, especially in 1996.
But Jacobson didn’t spend his hard-earned income on celebratory champagne — or on much of anything other than his student loans.
“I started paying the loans off even before they were due,” Jacobson says, to take advantage of the set period of interest deferral students enjoy after graduating.
His spendthrift lifestyle was actually aided by the workplace itself. Jacobson and his colleagues were consistently working long hours enough that Motorola started to buy their meals.
Overtime itself kept his at-home costs down, too.
“We were there 7 a.m to 10 p.m. every day,” he explains. “When you’re doing that, you don’t really have any opportunity to spend money.”
And although he was salaried, Motorola implemented a kind of capped overtime pay, so he was making approximately 15% more than he’d expected.
Jacobson took advantage of the situation by putting every spare penny he made toward his debt, even cashing in his vacation hours — for five years.
Sounds rough, right?
Well, no one said paying off debt was easy. Luckily, Jacobson wasn’t as miserable as you might imagine.
“I thought this was the best deal in the world,” he says. “At the time, Motorola was the world leader in cell phones. …This is what I had gone to college for, was to work on this kind of stuff.”
He was passionate about his position and the work he was doing for the company, and his pricy education meant his salary kept climbing.
“Combine that with a 21-year-old body and caffeine….”
But even with Jacobson’s insane work ethic (and apparent access to all the Red Bull), the high total coupled with over 7% interest rates meant student loans were a constant drain on his finances.
And hey, after years without one, even the most devoted employee could use a vacation.
That’s when he realized he’d had the key to a quicker repayment all along. In fact, he regularly threw it away with the rest of his junk mail.
Although Jacobson wasn’t a regular credit card user, his credit was good enough for him to receive offers for credit card cash advance checks with a 0% promotional interest rate. He’d already been regularly paying down his car lease.
By using the checks toward his student loans, Jacobson realized he’d effectively neutralize the interest on the portion he could safely pay off in time. He could take care of $10,000 of the debt this way, saving him more than $700 in interest.
He just had to ensure he’d paid off the balance by the time the promotional 0% interest rate was up. Otherwise, it would skyrocket even higher than the original 7% rate on his loan.
Because he was paying his student loan directly alongside the amount he’d put onto the credit advance, Jacobson was able to get out of student debt at an exponentially quicker rate.
Once he realized how valuable this tactic was, he used it for his car and mortgage payments, too.
“I just went through my loans in the order of the interest rate, and so the highest one first,” he explains. “I started paying that off, and then transferring it.”
After five years, Jacobson had paid off those student loans. Within a decade, he was 100% debt-free and financially independent — as was Winnie, the woman he married along the way.
But the family’s far from finished with the lucrative game Jacobson had discovered in hacking credit card offers to get ahead.
“We’re about to go to Europe for four months, and about $10,000 of that trip will just be free hotels and free flights from credit cards,” he says.
Prioritizing debt repayment and finding out-of-the-box ways to speed up the process is a huge part of how Jacobson was able to retire to travel the world with his wife and son.
They catalog their journeys — and their smart financial moves — on their blog, Go Curry Cracker.
And when I say smart, I’m not kidding. Here’s a post on how they’ll avoid ever paying taxes again.
Obviously, I asked him for his best financial advice for others looking to rid themselves of debt nd gain financial independence. His answer was way simpler than I expected.
“The main thing is just to make sure you don’t get sucked into lifestyle inflation,” he explains.
Don’t pay attention to the bloated lifestyles and spend, spend, spend advice of the people around you — they probably aren’t money experts, after all.
Figure out your own financial goals, and make a plan to achieve them.
“Just because you have more money than you had in college doesn’t mean you have to spend it all on stuff and experiences today,” Jacobson explains.
So it’s exactly what you expected: Buy less stuff.
And even though experiences last longer and are shown to make us happier than stuff, keep your budget in mind.
“It’s not just a choice between those two,” Jacobson says.
The third factor in the decision tree? Your freedom.
Jacobson recommends a lifestyle with “a little bit of stuff, a little bit of experience and a whole lot of freedom. Then you’ll have all the opportunities that money can provide later just by letting compound interest work for you rather than against you.”
Who knows? Follow his advice, and maybe you’ll be traveling the world with your family as a 30-something retiree.
Your Turn: Have you repaid your student loans? How did you do it?
Jamie Cattanach (@jamiecattanach) is a freelance writer whose work has been featured at Ms. Magazine, BUST, Roads & Kingdoms, The Write Life, Nashville Review, Word Riot and elsewhere. She lives in St. Augustine, Florida.
The post How This Guy Paid Off $35K in Student Loans in 5 Years… Then Retired at 38 appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.
Chancellor Philip Hammond has softened his attack on the self-employed, cancelling plans to increase national insurance contributions (NICs).
The UK government, which had to purchase £20.3 billion worth of shares in Lloyds Banking Group in 2008 as the financial crises began to bite, has announced today that it has sold £19.5 billion worth of these.
The move means the government now owns less than 3% of the banking group, which includes Bank of Scotland, Halifax, and Lloyds Bank.
Almost a quarter of first-time buyers have to wait up to 10 years to build up a deposit for their home, according to new research.
A poll of 1,000 first-time buyers by Which? Mortgage Advisers reveals that more than two thirds (69%) of first-time buyers took more than two years to save up for a deposit, with 23% having to put money away for between five and 10 years.
With the average 2016 college graduate owing around $37,000, student debt is an unavoidable topic.
When you hear constantly about how stressful it is to pay off student loans and the scary reality of defaulting, it can be hard to see anything positive about borrowing money to pay for college.
But with all the information out there, it’s also hard to figure out what’s actually true and what may be a muddled interpretation — because seriously, student loans can be confusing.
To get to the bottom of what’s fact and what’s fiction when it comes to students loans, we spoke to a few experts.
Here, they debunk five common myths.
Some students are willing to do anything — including shell out big bucks — to attend their dream school.
But students don’t always have to reach for student loans if they can’t afford the costs, according to Vinay Bhaskara, co-founder of CollegeVine, a national provider of student mentoring and college admissions guidance.
“Many students resort to loans (private or government) when they don’t get a lucrative enough financial aid award,” said Bhaskara. “However, students can avoid this fate by planning ahead and applying to safety schools that offer generous merit aid and to merit scholarships at the schools that they really want to attend.”
And how do you snag that merit-based money? Crafting an excellent essay and resume, and positioning your involvement in activities well can improve your chances, Bhaskara said.
It’s worth a try!
When you think about student loans, horror stories about students drowning in tens of thousands of dollars in debt may come to mind.
But according to Credible founder and CEO Stephen Dash, these often aren’t the students who have the hardest time paying their loans back.
“The borrowers who tend to get in the most trouble are those with small loan balances of less than $5,000, who either didn’t get a degree or didn’t get skills that boost their earning power in the eyes of employers,” Dash said.
Three-year outcomes for borrowers entering repayment in 2011. Source: Department of Education, via White House report, “Investing in Higher Education: Benefits, Challenges, and the State of Student Debt.”
You may feel stressed about the burden of your student debt — and you may want to attack it immediately by funneling every spare cent into it.
However, David Levy, editor of Edvisors, advises you to attack any debt that carries a higher interest first, then focus on your student loans.
“Debt that carries a higher interest rate than your student loans, like credit card debt or a personal loan, will deplete money from your bank account faster than your student loans will,” Levy said. “It’s best to tackle that debt first. Plus, you still need to save for long- and short-term goals, like building up your emergency fund.”
This approach is known as the avalanche method; while you attack your debt with the highest interest rate first, you keep making the minimum payments or a little more for the rest of your debt. When you knock out the debt with the highest interest rates, you focus on attacking the debt with the next-highest interest rate.
This method works — this woman used the avalanche method and paid off six figures of debt.
Direct subsidized loans and Perkins loans don’t accrue interest while you’re enrolled as at least a half-time student or during the six-month grace period after you graduate.
However, this may make students think they can’t (or shouldn’t) pay off their loans until they graduate. This isn’t true.
“You can start paying off student loans right away, and you should pay what you can as soon as you can,” said Joseph DePaulo, CEO and co-founder of College Ave Student Loans, who also worked for Sallie Mae, one of the largest student loan providers in the country. “Students who put money toward their loans during school save money in the long run.”
College Ave Student Loans’ interactive calculator shows that paying only $25 per month while you’re still in school toward a $10,000 loan with an 8.75% interest rate could save you over $2,000 in interest.
Just because you aren’t getting a monthly bill in your inbox doesn’t mean you can’t start making payments. Go for it! You’ll thank yourself later.
Your monthly student loan payment can blow your budget or leave you with barely enough money to survive. That’s why jumping at the opportunity to lower your monthly payments can be tempting.
Government-offered income-based repayment programs can lower your monthly payments — but these programs extend the life of your loan, meaning you pay more interest in the long run. And while your debt is typically forgiven after 20 or 25 years, you’ll also owe taxes on the amount that’s forgiven.
There is also the strategy of consolidating your student loans, which means you transfer all your loans to one lender and settle for a new interest rate with the goal of lower monthly payments.
Based on your circumstances, either of these choices could be a good idea — but it depends on a lot of factors.
Student Loan Hero CEO Andy Josuweit says lowering monthly payments is simply a short-term fix and believes that consolidating your loans immediately after you graduate isn’t the best idea.
“Consolidation of federal student loans can be a bad idea if you want to pay off your student loans early,” said Josuweit. “By consolidating, the interest rates of all your loans are averaged. You’re no longer able to make extra payments that specifically target the student loans with the highest interest rates first, which would save money on interest charges.”
Don’t automatically jump on this option. Refinancing student loans is a tricky strategy that requires a ton of number crunching and evaluating.
Meanwhile, income-based repayment programs are designed for borrowers who have a high amount of debt compared to their income.
Make sure you have all the facts on how either of these strategies will affect your personal situation. Then, you can decide if paying more in the long run in return for lower monthly payments is worth it to you.
Your Turn: Did any of these myths about student loans surprise you?
Kelly Smith is a junior writer and engagement specialist at The Penny Hoarder and a senior at The University of Tampa. Catch her on Twitter at @keywordkelly.
The post 5 Common Beliefs About Student Loans That Get an ‘F’ From Experts appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.
A record number of identity fraud cases were recorded in 2016, with scammers commonly using the internet to exploit their victim’s details.
Data published by industry body Cifas shows 172,919 incidents of identity fraud were committed in 2016. This is the highest level it has ever recorded.
New viewing figures indicate that 98% of the most popular programmes shown on Sky TV could actually have been watched on free channels.
According to data obtained from the Broadcasters Audience Research Board, which has been analysed by satellite TV service Freesat, of the 1,500 most viewed broadcasts among Sky viewers, just 11 were exclusive to Sky.
When my husband and I got serious about our finances years ago, our food spending was out of control. We were just two people and a baby at the time, yet we were inhaling $1,000 in food each month – and sometimes more.
One fix for our food spending woes was simple: We were dining out at least twice a week, and we knew we had to cut that out. To save money, we opted to set aside one night for a restaurant meal each month. And – voila! – hundreds of dollars poured back into our pockets every month.
Our remaining food spending issues were more complex. If I had to describe my old shopping style in one word, I would say “random.” Why? Because I walked through the store throwing random stuff in the cart with no rhyme or reason.
To save money and reduce waste, we knew we needed to plan our meals before we hit the store. In addition, we pledged to plan our meals around the weekly sales at our favorite grocery score, Kroger.
Around this time, we also started using a zero-sum budget, where each month you set aside a specific amount of money for each budget category ahead of time. For food, we decided $600 per month was enough.
It’s been years since we went down this path, and it’s worked great so far. We do go over our $600 limit sometimes, but we also spend less other months. To level out the uncertainty, I also include a $200 miscellaneous category in our zero-sum budget (our now-rare dinners out also come out of this fund). This helps when we spend $25 too much on food or have a big bill we failed to plan for.
Most weeks, our budget dictates I spend between $125 and $150 at the store. I usually make an extra quick trip at some point as well to pick up a forgotten ingredient, bread, or milk.
While everyone plans their meals differently, I do what is most feasible for me – a busy mom who also works full-time. Basically, I buy ingredients to cook three or four good meals each week, and then make everyone eat leftovers until they’re gone.
As far as shopping around sales goes, that strategy works well for us. If strawberries are on sale, we eat strawberries. If our favorite meat substitutes are on sale, we stock up. If pantry staples are on sale, we generally plan our meals around them. This not injects a bit of variety into our meals, we’re also getting a good deal on almost everything we buy.
Another way I simplify our meals is by cooking food with simple ingredients. Not only does this make my life easier, but meals without a ton of fancy ingredients wind up being cheaper as well.
Last week, I went to the store to buy groceries for our family of four — here’s exactly what we bought. As you browse this list, keep in mind that we have two kids, ages five and seven. Our kids are in school all day, meaning they don’t eat lunch at home. However, my husband and I work out of our home, so we both eat lunch at home, too.
(One other detail to note is that, in addition to this list, I deposit $50 into my children’s lunch accounts every few months. I do include this amount in our monthly budget, but I don’t include it in my grocery budget.)
Here’s what we bought last week, along with the meals we made (prices and totals are rounded):
Total produce: $52
Total: $51
Total: $10
Total: $14
Using those ingredients, here’s what we prepared for breakfast, lunch (for my husband and me), and dinner during the week.
It’s kinda sad, but my family eats the exact same foods for breakfast and lunch each day. My children do get something different at school, but my husband and I are pretty boring with our meal choices.
For lunch, my husband and I had:
I planned and prepared five dinners throughout the week based on our shopping list. Here’s what I made, with a recipe for each:
My vegetable soup is a little different each time, mostly because I throw whatever I have in the pot.
Ingredients:
Directions: Heat up the vegetable broth and tomato juice while you wash and cut vegetables. Simmer it all together for an hour on medium heat, adding spices and more water as needed.
Dinner Recipe No. 2: Vegetable Lasagna
I use a vegetable lasagna recipe similar to this one, except I wind up using whatever vegetables I have on hand. This time, I had eggplant, so I added it.
Ingredients:
Directions: Start by boiling the lasagna noodles until they’re partially cooked (around 10 minutes). In the meantime, you can saute all your vegetables in a large pan with some olive oil. Once your ingredients are prepared, you can layer them however you want. I start with noodles on the bottom and then layer soy crumbles with sauce, vegetables, ricotta cheese, noodles, and so on. I also add salt and pepper within the lasagna and shredded mozzarella cheese between layers and on top. Bake for an hour partially covered at 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
I create mini omelets, set them on buttered toast, and melt cheese on top. It’s not fancy at all, but all four of us will happily eat this meal. I serve whatever fruit we have on the side.
Ingredients:
Directions: Beat the eggs in a bowl, then pour them in sandwich-sized blobs onto a preheated, buttered frying pan over medium-high heat. After you flip each mini omelet, melt a slice of cheese on the top. When done, plop them on buttered toast and serve with fruit.
When cooked, spaghetti squash shreds into long, thin strands that resemble — you guessed it — spaghetti. You can use it just like the pasta to mix things up with a healthier spin.
Ingredients:
Directions: Take a spaghetti squash and cut it in half. Clean out the insides, then lay each piece of the squash face down on a flat pan. Bake at 400 degrees for 50 to 60 minutes.
While the squash is cooking, make your own spaghetti sauce or use any kind from a jar. Depending on what vegetables I have, I always add them to the sauce as well: Mushrooms, squash, and onions all work great.
Once your squash is done cooking, use paper towels or regular towels to suck up all the extra moisture. Then you can shred your spaghetti squash and serve it like you would regular spaghetti. Offer buttered toast on the side, and you’re set.
Dinner Recipe No. 5: Grilled Cheese & Tomato Soup
Grilled cheese and tomato soup is a cheap, easy, and tasty meal pretty much anyone can pull off.
Ingredients:
Directions: Simply grill some bread on your stove top with butter, melting your favorite cheese between two slices. Serve with your favorite brand of tomato soup, or make your own.
The adults in the house try not to snack too much, but the kids snack all the time. Foods we snack on include:
While this trip was typical for a week’s worth of groceries, we almost always go to the store at least one more time each week. Usually it’s for milk and bread, but sometimes it’s for a staple ingredient we ran out of. Either way, the goal is to spend between $125 and $150 per week so we can stay under our $600-per-month food total.
While many families might say spending $150 a week on food is an impossible feat, others probably think I’m spending far too much. Since each family is different, it’s hard to say there’s one perfect food spending budget everyone should adhere to.
I do know that budgeting and meal planning has made a huge difference in our finances, though. Where I once purchased whatever I wanted, I now create a simple meal plan that saves money and reduces waste. And since we’re not dining out very often, we’re eating healthier, too.
Holly Johnson is an award-winning personal finance writer and the author of Zero Down Your Debt. Johnson shares her obsession with frugality, budgeting, and travel at ClubThrifty.com.
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Could you spend $150 per week – or less – at the grocery store? What does your food budget look like?
The post Here’s What Our $150-a-Week Grocery Budget and Meal Plan Looks Like in Real Life appeared first on The Simple Dollar.
More than six-in-ten people aged over 55 do not plan to take any financial advice when they retire, something that could cost them thousands of pounds in later life.
By Dawn Berryman Just because you're running your business on a tight budget doesn't mean you have to forgo needed items and services. Here's how bartering can help you get what you need, giving you greater success in your business. While it’s always nice to get paid for your efforts, payment doesn’t always have to […]
The post How Bartering Can Help You Succeed in Business appeared first on The Work at Home Woman.
