The number of people aged 25 to 34 who live with their parents has risen by 37% over 10 years, according to new research by Aviva.
The insurer found that 1.23 million people in this age group still live at home, up from 903,000 in 2007.
This weekend is the annual celebration of the heroes who nurtured and empowered you throughout your childhood.
Are you prepared?
It’s time to come together to thank these inspiring characters who ushered you into adolescence and eventual adulthood.
No, not your mom — Mother’s Day isn’t until next weekend, Sunday May 14.
I’m talking about comic book heroes.
This Saturday, May 6, comic book shops around the U.S. and beyond will give out more than 6 million free comic books to celebrate the 16th annual Free Comic Book Day.
Special FCBD editions of 50 comic books will be free on Saturday.
Check with your local comic book store, or locate one here, to find events in your area. Free titles will be available to anyone who asks on a first-come, first-served basis.
Events run the gamut from celebrity appearances and book signings to family fun and games — costumes welcome!
Some of this year’s most anticipated free titles include:
Many stores will give away swag, movie posters and other freebies, too. You might want to get there early!
Free Comic Book Day is more than just a second Christmas for comic book fans.
It exists to support local comic book shops, as well as help new readers find awesome comics and graphic novels.
If you like “The Simpsons,” “Doctor Who,” “SpongeBob” or other non-superhero stories, you’ll be delighted to find there’s a little something for everyone.
The celebration is a fun way to introduce your kids to the comic book community — or discover it yourself.
You might just find a new hobby the whole family can enjoy together.
Your Turn: What will you pick up this Free Comic Book Day?
Dana Sitar (@danasitar) is a senior writer at The Penny Hoarder. She’s written for Huffington Post, Entrepreneur.com, Writer’s Digest and more, attempting humor wherever it’s allowed (and sometimes where it’s not).
This was originally published on The Penny Hoarder, one of the largest personal finance websites. We help millions of readers worldwide earn and save money by sharing unique job opportunities, personal stories, freebies and more. In 2016, Inc. 500 ranked The Penny Hoarder as the No. 1 fastest-growing private media company in the U.S.When we shop for groceries, we want the meat and produce to be fresh. We appreciate good customer service. And we like a bargain.
When it comes to customer satisfaction at the supermarket, you’ll see various surveys that rank different grocery stores at the top. Sometimes you’re king of the hill, and sometimes you’re not.
A new survey puts Kroger at the top. Kroger! That’s a different result than some other surveys we’ve seen.
Morning Consult, a public opinion data company, got the opinion of nearly 200,000 consumers on 500 of America’s biggest brands.
When it came to grocery stores, 53% had a favorable view toward Kroger. Whole Foods was second with 48%, and Safeway followed at 40%. Regional chains Albertsons and Publix were each at 33%.
If you’re going to check out any these supermarkets to see if you like them as much as other customers do, you should check out our tips on saving. Here are our money-saving secrets for shopping at Kroger, Whole Foods and Publix.
No matter where you’re grabbing your grub, don’t miss our 11 smart changes that’ll save you big bucks at any supermarket.
So according to this new survey, Kroger is king. Yay, Kroger! But like we mentioned, different surveys have shown us different results.
For instance, the American Customer Satisfaction Index conducts an in-depth survey of customer satisfaction at grocery stores every year. Most recently, the highest-ranking chains in ACSI’s survey were Trader Joe’s, Publix, Aldi, H-E-B, Wegmans and Whole Foods, in that order.
Kroger was in the middle of the pack.
Ranked lowest: Walmart.
Walmart was also at the bottom of Consumer Reports’ grocery store ranking. Consumer Reports surveyed its readers, asking them to rank supermarket chains based on factors like freshness, selection, cleanliness, customer service and prices.
In fact, Walmart is routinely ranked the worst for customer satisfaction among grocery stores, even though more Americans buy their groceries at Walmart than anywhere else.
Time magazine spells out the reason why Walmart has become Americans’ most popular destination for groceries: “For a large portion of shoppers, price simply trumps all when it comes to groceries.”
If you’re shopping for food at Walmart, you’re probably doing it to save money. Here’s how to save even more money there.
Your Turn: Where is your favorite place to shop for groceries?
Mike Brassfield (mike@thepennyhoarder.com) is a senior writer at The Penny Hoarder. Full disclosure: He personally shops at Aldi, Publix, Winn-Dixie or Walmart, depending on his family’s needs and what’s on sale.
This was originally published on The Penny Hoarder, one of the largest personal finance websites. We help millions of readers worldwide earn and save money by sharing unique job opportunities, personal stories, freebies and more. In 2016, Inc. 500 ranked The Penny Hoarder as the No. 1 fastest-growing private media company in the U.S.Are you worried about the cost of college?
Seeing that college is likely to be the first major financial investment in an individual’s life, there may be good cause behind the concern.
The stress of wondering how you’ll afford tuition, room and board, books and other fees — for four years or more — can be crushing, especially when you’re just starting out into adulthood.
It turns out, though, some people are more concerned than others.
A recent study by the University of Southern California-Los Angeles’ Higher Education Research Institute found female college students are more stressed about the price of college than male students.
The research institute surveyed 137,456 college freshmen at 184 U.S. colleges and universities. Just over 34% of men responded as feeling “either somewhat or very worried” about paying for college, compared to 65.7% of women. Nearly 16% of women voiced “major” worry compared to 10.1% of men.
The divide over concern is not just limited to gender. The study found only 9.2% of white students had “major” concerns about college costs while 22% of black students and 24.7% of Latino students did.
Nearly a quarter of first-generation students — 24.4% — had “major” stress over financing college compared to 10.6% of students whose parents attended college.
The cost to obtain a higher education degree has some students re-evaluating which school they’ll attend.
According to the survey, 15% of college freshmen in 2016 felt they could not afford their first-choice college. Over 11% of students surveyed said not being offered aid by their most coveted school was an important factor in deciding which school to enroll in.
College may not run cheap, but there’s assistance out there to help make the costs more manageable.
Students should always fill out the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) prior to the start of each academic year to see if they are eligible for government aid.
Scholarships and grants are great ways to cut down, or totally cover, the price of college. Your university may offer scholarship packages based on academics or athletics.
You can also get private scholarships for completing essays, being involved in certain extracurricular activities or simply being a resident of a particular community.
You may want to consider getting a job to tackle the price of tuition. Over half (50.4%) of the incoming students surveyed by UCLA’s Higher Education Research Institute said they think there’s a “very good chance” that they will get a job to help pay for college. Here are 13 online jobs for college students that pay more than minimum wage.
And if you happen to live in New York, Tennessee, Minnesota or Oregon, you may be able to get a degree for free!
Your Turn: Are you worried about the cost of college?
Nicole Dow is a staff writer at The Penny Hoarder.
This was originally published on The Penny Hoarder, one of the largest personal finance websites. We help millions of readers worldwide earn and save money by sharing unique job opportunities, personal stories, freebies and more. In 2016, Inc. 500 ranked The Penny Hoarder as the No. 1 fastest-growing private media company in the U.S.There are Harry Potter fans, and then there are Harry Potter superfans. (If you’re the latter, stick around — we might have a job opportunity for you.)
The distinction between the two?
Well, a fan has probably read all the books, has definitely seen all the movies, and, like, really wants to take a trip to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter someday.
But a superfan? A superfan has worn the covers off the books, dressed up for every midnight movie premiere and identifies strongly with the girl I watched fall to her knees sobbing on opening day of Diagon Alley back when I worked at Universal Studios.
(Also, a superfan still holds a grudge against Queen J.K. herself for killing off their fave, and was there for Matthew Lewis before that iconic #glowup.)
If you do consider yourself a Harry Potter superfan, then it’s time to dust off your wand and have your robe dry-cleaned (is there a spell for doing laundry? Asking for a friend), because it’s time for a transatlantic broom flight.
That’s right: the British Library is looking for a Harry Potter Creative Producer to create a travelling exhibition about The Boy Who Lived.
OK, so being a super-fan isn’t the only thing you’ll have to have going for you.
The ideal candidate for this project will have proven experience in exhibition project management, including nationwide exhibitions, and will also need prior experience building relationships with libraries and the cultural sector.
In this role, you’ll work with curators and library partners to create a unique Harry Potter panel exhibition that will travel between 21 different Living Knowledge Network partners throughout the United Kingdom.
The application process closes on May 7, and interviews will be held on May 19. There’s also the small (OK, not so small) requirement that you must currently have the right to work in the UK in order to apply.
But if you get the job, you’ll be contracted to work until February 28, 2018 in a part-time role requiring about 28.8 hours of work each week. The salary is £25,600 per annum.
If this sounds like it’s right up your (Diagon) alley, you can apply here. Then you can sit back, relax and wait for an owl to bring you your acceptance letter — er, job offer.
The exhibition is touted as “one of the most anticipated cultural events of 2017-18.” (Aside from the Quidditch World Cup, of course.)
It will open in London in October of 2017 and will showcase an “extraordinary range” of wizarding books, objects and manuscripts to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the publication of the first book in the series, “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.”
Which sounds like a superfan Potterhead’s delight, if you ask me.
So what are you waiting for? Pack your cauldron in your trunk, kiss your wretched aunt goodbye and head to London — your dreams are exactly one broom flight, one floo trip and a Knight-Bus ride away.
You Turn: Does this sound like your dream job? Or are you vying for a position as the Potions Master at your local wizarding institution?
Grace Schweizer is a junior writer at The Penny Hoarder. Her dream job is as a Trolley Witch on the Hogwarts Express.
This was originally published on The Penny Hoarder, one of the largest personal finance websites. We help millions of readers worldwide earn and save money by sharing unique job opportunities, personal stories, freebies and more. In 2016, Inc. 500 ranked The Penny Hoarder as the No. 1 fastest-growing private media company in the U.S.It’s 5 p.m. After doing nothing a ton of work for eight mind-numbing hours, you think to yourself, “A massage would be just what I need right now.”
And it is. Plus, you truly deserve one, you rockstar. But massages are expensive, so you head to Bed Bath & Beyond and purchase a handheld massager for $50 (I see you there, big baller).
You get home and close your eyes. You feel your body start to relax as the vibrating contraption inches closer and closer to your bare skin, bringing your mind, body and spirit closer to paradise…
But — oh no!
The massager starts shooting flames and burns the living sh** out of you.
Listen, friend, this isn’t a made-up nightmare. This is reality.
HoMedics has recalled about 400,000 handheld massagers due to short-circuiting that can result in burns. And yes, shooting flames.
Scary.
You just wanted to chill and finally decided to indulge in a little bit of that treat yo’self business. You were looking forward to some serenity in the comfort of solitude.
But your handheld massager had other plans. And you’re angry. Hurt. Upset. Feeling betrayed.
HoMedics is sorry.
On May 2, the company recalled about 400,000 handheld massagers. The recall came after a February 2017 complaint from a customer who claimed the device caught fire where the power cord enters the device handle.
According to the official report from the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), there have been 140 reports of “exposed wires, sparks, smoking and some shooting flames coming from the massagers.”
Unfortunately, the CPSC says that 15 people have reported burns to their fingers and other parts of their bodies.
Bed Bath & Beyond, Macy’s, Rite-Aid, Walmart, HSN and other stores nationwide sold the affected devices, which retailed for $30 to $50, from August 2013 through February 2017.
The recall includes three models: HHP-375H model Handheld Dual Node Percussion Massager with Heat, HHP-250 model Handheld Hot and Cold Massager, and the PA-MH-THP model Handheld Compact Percussion Massager with Heat.
If you purchased one of these products, the CPSC urges you to stop using it immediately and contact HoMedics at 1-888-803-0509 for instructions on removing the cord. HoMedics will try to smooth everything out with a credit toward a replacement product.
Stay safe out there. A hand massager that shoots flames sounds scary AF.
Your Turn: Were you burned by a handheld massager from HoMedics?
Kelly Smith is a junior writer and engagement specialist at The Penny Hoarder. Catch her on Twitter at @keywordkelly.
This was originally published on The Penny Hoarder, one of the largest personal finance websites. We help millions of readers worldwide earn and save money by sharing unique job opportunities, personal stories, freebies and more. In 2016, Inc. 500 ranked The Penny Hoarder as the No. 1 fastest-growing private media company in the U.S.If you want to be the envy of all your wine-loving friends, check out this amazing seasonal job.
Union Wine Company is hiring someone to drive its mobile wine bar around the country to show off its line of products — including their super-cool wine in a can.
If you get this gig, you’ll steer a tricked-out 1972 Citroën to music fests, outdoor events, store openings and wherever else the company wants to get the word out about the array of wine it sells.
It’s kind of like a Wienermobile for adults.
Once you get to a location, you’ll promote the wines and create a “memorable experience” for the customers you meet.
If this sounds like your dream job, consider this first.
Union Wine says you’ll be on the road anywhere from one to four months at a time.
You’ll work five to six days a week for around 30-40 hours a week, and your workdays will be long and sometimes stressful (though a nice glass of wine once you’re off the clock can take the edge off).
Since this job is seasonal, you’ll only work — and get paid — four to six months out of the year. The rest of the time, you’re on your own.
The job posting lists the pay as “commensurate with experience” but a spokesperson for Union Wine told Thrillist the pay range is $15 to $18 per hour.
The benefits aren’t too shabby either, especially for a seasonal position. You’ll get paid time off, health insurance and access to a 401(k).
To be considered for the role of “Canbassador” (yep, that’s the job title), you need to meet a few minimum requirements:
It kind of goes without saying that you need to be outgoing and personable to land this job. You should also:
Ready to apply? You’d better get moving because the deadline is May 7, 2017.
To be considered for the Canbassador position, email a cover letter and resume to jobs@unionwinecompany.com.
Good luck and happy trails!
Your turn: Would you spend four months away from home to drive a van full of wine around the country?
Lisa McGreevy is a staff writer at The Penny Hoarder. The answer to the question above is yes. Yes, she would.
This was originally published on The Penny Hoarder, one of the largest personal finance websites. We help millions of readers worldwide earn and save money by sharing unique job opportunities, personal stories, freebies and more. In 2016, Inc. 500 ranked The Penny Hoarder as the No. 1 fastest-growing private media company in the U.S.Facebook is hiring 3,000 workers over the next year — but this is no ordinary job.
The company is adding an army of new content reviewers to its Community Operations Team as part of an effort to combat an uptick in gruesome live and pre-recorded videos users are posting on its site.
Videos of murders, suicides and other awful things are popping up with alarming frequency on the popular social platform, and Facebook’s content moderators are apparently having trouble keeping up with the flagged reports.
Last month, a video of a murder remained on the site for nearly two hours before it was taken down.
In response, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced plans to hire more moderators to “review the millions of reports we get every week and improve the process for doing it quickly.”
“If we’re going to build a safe community, we need to respond quickly. We’re working to make these videos easier to report so we can take the right action sooner — whether that’s responding quickly when someone needs help or taking a post down,” he said.
Facebook’s Community Operations Team has been around a while, but there are virtually no concrete details about these new reviewer positions.
It’s also not clear whether these will be in-house positions or through third-party contractors.
One thing is certain — this job isn’t for the faint of heart.
It will expose you to all manner of abusive, violent and gory content.
Before you apply, know that social media content moderation jobs have a high incidence of burnout, PTSD and long-term psychological trauma.
In fact, the positions are so challenging that two members of Microsoft’s Online Safety Team who worked in content moderation are suing the company for damages. They say the job has caused them permanent psychological trauma, including social anxiety, insomnia, depression, dissociation and hallucinations.
So why on earth would anyone want to do this job?
Ellen S., Vice President of Global Developer Support and Operations at Facebook, says, “The people that make up Community Operations care about our community and take pride in being Facebook’s first line of support.”
Jobs like this often appeal to people who want to make a difference in the world.
If you’ve got a passion for making online communities safer, a thick skin and a psychiatrist on speed dial, keep your eyes open for new positions at Facebook’s Online Operations career page.
While you’re waiting for jobs to open up, learn more about what Facebook’s hiring managers look for in a candidate.
Your Turn: Could you handle being a Facebook content reviewer?
Lisa McGreevy is a staff writer at The Penny Hoarder. She’s grateful for the content moderators who make online communities a little safer for us all.
This was originally published on The Penny Hoarder, one of the largest personal finance websites. We help millions of readers worldwide earn and save money by sharing unique job opportunities, personal stories, freebies and more. In 2016, Inc. 500 ranked The Penny Hoarder as the No. 1 fastest-growing private media company in the U.S.A few days ago, I was in the midst of a back-and-forth email conversation about organizing a to-do list. I was making an argument on behalf of the importance of knowing the relative priority of your tasks when getting things done. I’m just going to share the key part of the email – it’s long, but I think you’ll find it worthwhile – and then discuss the ideas within it in a money context:
Let’s say, this evening, you have four things on your to-do list:
+ Make a healthy supper for your family
+ Help your daughter with her math homework
+ Sign up for the 401(k) at work
+ Revise a proposal for a new work project
If you’re looking at things in the short term – what’s most important in terms of today and nothing else – you’d probably rank them like this:
1. Make a healthy supper for your family
2. Help your daughter with her math homework
3. Revise a proposal for a new work project
4. Sign up for the 401(k) at work
On the other hand, if having the best life a year from now is most important to you, you’re probably going to rank them like this:
1. Revise a proposal for a new work project
2. Help your daughter with her math homework
3. Make a healthy supper for your family
4. Sign up for the 401(k) at work
If you’re focused on what’s most important five to 10 years from now, it’s probably something like this:
1. Help your daughter with her math homework
2. Revise a proposal for a new work project
3. Sign up for the 401(k) at work
4. Make a healthy supper for your family
On the other hand, if your time scale is more along the lines of 30 years down the road, your list might look like this:
1. Sign up for the 401(k) at work
2. Make a healthy supper for your family
3. Help your daughter with her math homework
4. Revise a proposal for a new work project
The ordering of that list changes drastically just by changing the time scale by which you order the importance of the items. What if you organized that list if you put your family as your highest priority? It’s probably something like this:
1. Help your daughter with her math homework
2. Make a healthy supper for your family
3. Sign up for the 401(k) at work
4. Revise a proposal for a new work project
You’d probably order it differently if you prioritize your career success. You’d probably order it differently if you prioritize early retirement and financial success.
Successful time management – at least in terms of figuring out which among a series of things needs to receive your focus right now and which ones can be put off – has a ton to do with what you prioritize. If you prioritize today, your list is going to look way different than if you prioritize your long-term future. If you prioritize your hobbies, your list is going to look vastly different than if you prioritize your personal health. Figuring out which of those things you really do prioritize is going to influence your to-do list a lot.
This same exact phenomenon – your life priorities shaping how you use the resources available to you – pops up regarding every resource you have in life: your time, your money, your focus, your energy, your skills, and so on. We’re all faced with nearly unlimited options for using those resources and it’s often difficult to use them in a way that truly reflects our priorities.
A few quick observations:
Using our time, money, energy, etc. in ways that aren’t in alignment with our life priorities ends up carrying some strong negative baggage after a while. People often recognize when they’ve made a mistake – or a series of mistakes – in terms of prioritizing the things in their life. Even when we don’t consciously recognize those mistakes, they often build up into a sense that there’s something truly amiss in our lives. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that this very thing is a source of a great deal of unhappiness in modern life.
The most common mistake people seem to make is overemphasizing the short term and neglecting the long term. People do this all the time. It’s why people don’t save for retirement. It’s why people don’t sacrifice a bit of time each week to get into better physical shape. It’s why people eat a lot of unhealthy foods. In each case, the short-term priority is winning out over the long-term one, which means comfort and mild happiness today but a lot of unhappiness down the road.
The other common mistake people seem to make is to take steadier things for granted. If something seems steady and reliable in your life, you tend to take it for granted. If your marriage seems stable, you take it for granted. If your kids seem well-adjusted, you take it for granted. If your job seems stable, you take it for granted. This often subtly pushes you toward prioritizing different things and not prioritizing the maintenance that needs to be done to maintain that stability. That’s how marriages often crumble, jobs become less reliable, and parent-child relationships begin to stall.
Let’s focus on the financial implications of these ideas. You have a certain amount of money that you bring in and certain demands on that money. How do you decide which demands to prioritize and thus use your money on?
It’s not an easy question and it really drives to the personal nature of personal finance. Not everyone is going to have the same priorities in life. In fact, priorities among people are going to be quite different, and that’s completely fine.
However, I will say this: financial problems and personal unhappiness are almost always the result of simply not prioritizing your money use very well. Almost always, financial troubles and a sense of being unhappy about your money and your financial state boils down to your spending simply not matching your real priorities.
Think about it. Almost always, when you’re frustrated about not having enough money for something in your life, if you look a bit closer, you’ve probably already spent some money recently on something that’s relatively less important. You don’t have enough to pay the gas bill, but if you think back to the last few weeks, you bought a few beverages at the gas station and went out to a pretty lame movie and you paid your Netflix bill, too.
Another challenge is that people almost always overvalue their short-term wants over their long-term needs. HBO has 42 million subscribers in the United States, for example, but 76% of Americans have no emergency fund of note and no retirement savings. That means that there’s a pretty large number of Americans out there without any emergency fund of note or any significant retirement savings who spend a chunk of money each month to maintain their premium cable package with HBO included. If that’s not a shining beacon of putting short-term priorities over long-term ones, I don’t know what is.
Those two factors combine into a pretty tough picture. People constantly overvalue the short term as compared to the long term, and then they don’t even rank short term priorities very well. They’ll spend money on short-term things and sacrifice any investment in vital long term things, but then their short term choices are so misprioritized that they wind up in some pretty difficult spots.
This brings me to my central point: Most personal finance problems are resolved if people step back and spend some time thinking seriously about the real priorities in their life and then take action on them. Here are some things to think about when considering how you prioritize spending.
I’m going to be blunt: if you’re not doing anything right now to ensure the life that you supposedly want in the future, then you’re accepting that you’re not going to have that life in the future. Great things in life only happen if you work for them and sometimes go through some discomfort for them, and if you’re not doing those things, you’re not going to have the great things you want.
Here, I’m looking entirely at the big life goals that people always envision for themselves. Those visions are always different, but they almost always include an optimistic future of some kind. Maybe you’re imagining a better job. Maybe you’re imagining a happy retirement. Maybe you’re imagining running your own business.
Whatever that vision is, if you’re not working for it right now, it’s very unlikely to happen.
If you’re not saving for retirement right now, a beautiful retirement is very unlikely to happen.
If you’re not paying down your debts right now, a debt-free life is very unlikely to happen.
If you’re not saving for your child’s college education right now, helping them significantly for college without going into debt is very unlikely to happen.
Your success in those things is judged by your action, not by your wishful thinking. If you want to retire with some money in the bank, you’ve got to take action. If you want to have a down payment for a house, you’ve got to take action. Thinking about that future doesn’t really mean anything at all.
What if you don’t take action? If you’re not taking action, then that future you’re dreaming of is exceedingly unlikely to happen. Instead, a much less optimistic future is likely to occur, one where you’re in the same boat you’re in right now, except you’re older and have less time to do anything about it.
You have to give your future a very high priority if you want to have a great future, because your future self probably won’t be very helpful. That means taking financial action now to have the things that you want.
How much do you value having a roof over your head? How much do you value having running electricity? How much do you value having those things if you suddenly lost your job?
Compare that, honestly, to how much you value your most frivolous expenses. Is it more important to you to guarantee electricity and your ability to pay the rent for a few months if you lost your job? Or is it more important to have a year’s worth of premium cable channels or Netflix? Is it more important to you to have gas in your car or a bottle of Gatorade from the gas station cooler? Is it more important to you to own a Lexus instead of a Toyota or to not have a complete panic attack if your washing machine breaks down?
I find that a bit of negative visualization helps a lot here. Simply remove a key element from your life and see how much worse it becomes. What happens to your life if you remove, say, the transmission from your car? What happens to your life if you don’t have soda in the fridge? What happens to your life if you don’t have the income from your job?
The worse a picture is, the more important it is for you to protect and preserve that thing you removed.
This is all leading to another key point…
A big part of how we make our spending choices comes from what we focus on. What do we think about? What draws our attention? Are we drawn to appreciating the things that we have? Or are we drawn to wanting things that we do not have?
If you intentionally focus yourself on the abundance of things that you have, then you’ll find that your spending choices will slowly move toward preserving the things that you have. Building up an emergency fund begins to make a lot more sense. Saving a lot for retirement begins to make a lot more sense. Those types of smart financial moves are oriented toward protecting what you have; spending more and more money on more and more stuff and more and more “special experiences” is all about wanting more and more.
Again, as I mentioned above, I find that negative visualization really helps with this kind of prioritization. If you start imagining what your life is like without things like your loved ones or your favorite daily experiences or without your ability to see or without access to the internet or without the ability to feel warm sun on your skin, you start to see that your life is pretty empty without those things. The purpose isn’t to dwell on a sad picture, but to remind yourself that you have this awesome thing that you enjoy very much. You already have a great life, and seeking more and more won’t really improve it.
What about drive? Yes, undoubtedly, some people are driven by external desires. They work with an intense focus on having a particular thing and they’ll work hard to get that thing. However, the truth is that it rarely brings lasting happiness. Achieving an external goal feels good, but it doesn’t take very long for your happiness level to go right back to where it was.
Another useful strategy for better prioritization of life is to consciously overinflate long-term planning. In other words, when you’re thinking about what to do with your money, you should intentionally give more weight to things that won’t pay off for a while.
Why is that? Our minds constantly inflate the value of short-term things. It’s what we do.
I like to use the analogy of comparing the tip of my thumb to the size of the moon. If I hold out my fist at arm’s length and stick my thumb up in the air, the tip of my thumb is about the size of the moon. Obviously, it’s a perspective issue – my thumb isn’t the size of the moon – but that’s not what my eyes see at first glance. At a quick glance, those things look to be the same size.
The same exact thing happens when comparing short-term things and long-term things in our own life. Short-term things are like our thumb, while long-term things are like the moon. The short-term things seem bigger than they really are in comparison to the long-term things (or, if you want to take the other perspective, long-term things seem much smaller than they are). Often, we think of long-term things as being important only in an abstract way – we don’t really think of retirement as a “real” point in our lives, though we know that it will eventually happen. Things beyond a certain point don’t feel “real” to us because our minds are wired for the short term.
That doesn’t mean that long-term things aren’t real. Unless we are very unfortunate, we will live to an old age and, in that old age, we are exceedingly likely to not have the physical capacity that we have right now. Thus, it makes a great deal of sense to use that physical capacity we have right now to protect that older version of ourselves, and that means saving for retirement.
As noted above, however, most people don’t do this. Why? They fall into the perspective trap. Small things today seem as important or more important than gigantic things several years down the road. If people were easily able to step out of the perspective of today, they would realize the enormous nature of retirement compared to, say, the desire to buy an extra bag of cookies at the store.
The solution I’ve found that works best for me – and works really well for others that I know – is to spend time reflecting on these things until you can get a better perspective. That doesn’t happen easily, so the best shortcut is to simply inflate the importance of long-term things. It’s not a perfect solution, but it definitely works.
When you’re comparing the desire to buy a bag of cookies at the store versus starting to save for retirement, just think about your life from the perspective of yourself at retirement age. Your choice as to whether to start retirement savings probably determines whether you’re living in a nice house or living in a tiny apartment. It probably determines whether you have the freedom to visit family or have to stay at home. It probably determines whether you have good meals or have to live on a steady diet of nothing but lentils.
Then, bring that life into today. Your choice really is between that bag of cookies or a nice house. The only reason it doesn’t look that way is because of the time issue.
To me, buying a bag of cookies today only really makes sense if it’s merely taking away a completely superficial treat later on. If I’m not saving very adequately for retirement and if I don’t have a strong emergency fund, I probably shouldn’t be buying unnecessary stuff, because that bag of cookies will be paid for dearly in thirty years.
This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t ever splurge today. It just means that if you’re not preparing for the future at all, you’re splurging so much today that you’re making tomorrow miserable. The most effective way to stay mindful of that is to visualize that tough future and compare it to the most frivolous of your splurges today.
The recipe for good life perspectives is simple. Think about your future. What do you want from it? Make it as real as you can today. Recognize that your little choices today match up with much bigger impacts down the road. Then, make choices that give you a good life now and a good life later on.
Most of this happens within your mind. After all, you are the one who, in the end, has to decide between retirement savings and today’s perks.
What will you choose?
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The post Personal Finance and Life Priorities appeared first on The Simple Dollar.
Nurses, you definitely deserve appreciation.
After all, who else regularly works 12-hour shifts in which duties include not being overtly grossed out by a variety of bodily fluids?
That’s why we’re pleased to share some great deals with you in honor of National Nurses Week. No number of freebies or deals could adequately show how grateful we are for your care!
National Nurses Week runs May 6-12. It’s a little odd to start it on a Saturday, but nurses do work odd shifts!
When you’re finally off call, check out the deals below. You deserve them!
Show your health care ID badge at your local Cinnabon to get a free Cinnabon Classic Roll, MiniBon or a four-count of BonBites any time between May 6 and May 12.
If you go to EVOS with a friend between May 8 and May 12, you’ll get a free meal or salad when they purchase theirs.
Sick of the cafeteria food?
Flash your valid work ID at PDQ on Tuesday, May 9 and get half off your bill. Teachers also get 50% off.
The American Nurses Association hosts a free webinar each year for National Nurses Week. The ANA will host this year’s webinar, which focuses on preventing compassion fatigue, moral distress and burnout at 1 p.m. EDT Wednesday, May 10. To get in on this webinar, you must register by 7 p.m. EDT May 9.
Registering for this webinar also enters you to win one of 36 prizes, including a spa package, Blue Apron gift card and fitness kits.
Your Turn: Are you a nurse? Which of these deals will you take advantage of this week?
Jamie Cattanach (@jamiecattanach) is a writer whose creative writing has been featured in DMQ Review, Sweet: A Literary Confection and elsewhere. Editorial intern Jacquelyn Pica updated this post.
This was originally published on The Penny Hoarder, one of the largest personal finance websites. We help millions of readers worldwide earn and save money by sharing unique job opportunities, personal stories, freebies and more. In 2016, Inc. 500 ranked The Penny Hoarder as the No. 1 fastest-growing private media company in the U.S.Going overdrawn continues to be a costly mistake with consumers paying a combined £300 million in unarranged overdraft fees in the past year.
Back when I was a Division I collegiate athlete, one of my favorite perks was getting free massages. Any time I felt tight, I could head over to the training room and an experienced physical therapist would work out all my knots, free of charge. In fact, we were encouraged to go as much as possible. Those were the days.
Now, I live in Brooklyn, N.Y., and a massage will run me about $100 an hour. I’m not willing to spend that much. But, my body still craves a solid rubdown, and with good reason. There are many health benefits that come along with getting a massage. The Mayo Clinic points out nine disorders that massages have been proven to help alleviate:
Other studies have shown massages can also help with things like range of motion, nausea, and depression.
So, what’s a frugal massage lover to do? We have to to take matters into our own hands. Literally.
We should all take a few minutes a day to grip, push, squeeze, rub, and twist various muscle groups with the amazing tools dangling at the end of our arms.
Your hands are powerful! The average male can exert 48 kilograms of force units in a grip test. I’m not really sure what that means, but I know that’s plenty of force to get a pretty darn good soft tissue massage in.
I’ve found that my neck, thighs, forearms, shoulders, and feet can be capably worked on simply by using my hands and some common sense. Do you sense a knot? Put pressure on it until you feel some discomfort, and slowly rub on the tender area for a minute or two.
But, don’t go crazy with it. This is not a “no pain, no gain” situation. In fact, a commonly cited reason people stop getting massages is that they are too intense. Just as with exercise, you want to push yourself, but within reason.
You might be surprised at the sense of well-being a solid rubdown gives you. If you throw in a lacrosse ball, tennis ball, and a foam roller, you’ve got yourself an almost professional-grade massage.
If you want a basic massage that can take as short or long as you like, you can try the following routine. I’ve found it to be tremendously helpful. It is by no means comprehensive, but it gets the job done if you’re looking for a simple, efficient — and cost-effective — massage.
An easy place to start is with your neck. It’s part of the body that commonly holds tension, as we spend most of our days craning our necks toward computers or other screens. Like many others, I’ve found a surprising amount of relief from simply rubbing the sides and back of my neck. It sounds so easy, but we rarely take the time to actually do it.
I’ve found that this technique from youbeauty.com is also effective:
“Grasp the back of your neck with one hand placing the heel of your hand into the space just behind your ear at the base of your skull and your fingers wrapped around the opposite side of your neck. Squeeze, applying pressure with the heel of your hand only (using fingers just for leverage). Work your way down your neck to where it meets your shoulder. Repeat several times. End with some gentle neck stretches, tilting and rotating your head from side to side.”
After rubbing your neck, the shoulders are the logical next step. And as with digging into your neck, this should be fairly intuitive. I like to grip my left shoulder with my right hand and use my thumb to do the hard work of kneading out the muscle.
But, you should also pay particular attention to the outside areas of the shoulder (the places further from your chest.) which you can apply pressure to via your middle and index fingers. I tend to get sore in those spots.
Now it gets fun. If you want to give your back some love, there is no substitute for a foam roller. You can pick one up at Walmart for less than $15, and it will last you for years, even with daily use.
Lay with your back on the roller and slowly move up and down, letting good old gravity do the work a masseuse would be doing. Feel the pressure build and release as you roll around, making sure to go from your waist all the way up to your shoulder blades.
As good as the foam roller feels on your back, it’s even better equipped to loosen up tight leg muscles. You can easily roll out your hamstrings (back of your legs) and quadriceps (front of your legs), making sure to spend at least a few minutes on each. Be careful, the quadriceps are usually a lot more tender than you’d expect.
It’s also critical to roll out your iliotibial band, or IT band for short. This is one of the tendons that runs from your hip to the outside of your knee, and it is often tight in runners. In fact, there were a few people I used to play college and professional basketball with who had their knee pain greatly alleviated by rolling out their IT band with a foam roller. Just rest the outside of one leg on the roller and slowly move up and down, then do the same to your other leg.
Your gluteus maximus muscles are the biggest in your body, but they’re often neglected during stretching and self-care regimens. Let’s fix that.
Grab a tennis ball if you have one around the house. If you don’t, I suggest getting a lacrosse ball — they’re denser than tennis balls, and for bigger people like myself, they dig deeper into the muscle tissue.
I like to spend a solid couple of minutes sitting with the lacrosse ball under one of my glutes. Sometimes, that pressure alone is enough of a release for a tight muscle. If you want, you can gently roll around to find and relieve different areas of tension.
There are few things as satisfying as a good foot massage. My favorite thing to do is to assume a standing position, with one foot resting on a lacrosse ball or tennis ball. I then press my arch into the ball and slowly move my foot around. It doesn’t get much easier than that.
Another maneuver that feels great requires taking a seat. You then grab your foot and interlock all five of your fingers into all five of your toes. Slowly move your hands up, down, and side to side. The combination of pressure and stretch is heavenly.
Of course, it’s hard to replace a trained massage therapist. I don’t want to denigrate their skills, nor imply that I feel better after a DIY massage than I would after seeing a professional. But, with some practice and a few inexpensive purchases, you can get a pretty darn good massage for a fraction of what it would cost you at a spa.
The most important part, and also the hardest, is to make time for this self-care. During a hectic day, when perhaps it’s most necessary, that can be very difficult. But, even the busiest among us should be able to find 10 to 20 minutes for a massage. It becomes easier to budget time for a self massage once you realize how good they make you feel.
Happy rolling!
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The post Massages Are Crazy Expensive, Until You Learn to Do Your Own appeared first on The Simple Dollar.
By Holly Reisem Hanna One of the challenging things about the online world is that everything is just out there. You create something (whether it’s a blog post, a web design, a photo, Pinterest image, or e-book) and you post it online, and anyone can try and steal it and claim it as their own—and […]
The post What Should You Do When Someone Steals Your Content? appeared first on The Work at Home Woman.
“Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without.”
So goes the frugality adage born in the 1930s or ‘40s, and it’s great wisdom to live by to this day. In a highly disposable world, making the possessions you already own last as long as possible is just plain smart.
But how far are you supposed to go when it comes to “making it do”?
I can play handywoman if something basic breaks around the house, like a doorknob or a window screen. But if my microwave goes wonky and a thorough Google search hasn’t helped me troubleshoot, I’ll be honest with you: I’m gonna replace the microwave.
For most of us, DIY dreams and YouTube videos can only take us so far when it comes to fixing our own stuff. We get discouraged, feel overwhelmed or simply decide it’s not worth the time — and pull out our wallets instead.
Until now.
Welcome to the age of the Repair Café, a new way of putting power back in the hands of consumers, celebrating practical knowhow and doing a little good for the Earth to boot.
Repair Cafés are free events where local craftsmen and specialists help community members fix broken items and learn new skills. They’re typically held about once a month in places like church basements, community centers and libraries.
And they’re not just for electronics repairs. Each Repair Café workshop offers a unique mix of professionals, based on who is available in the area, and their expertise can include bicycles, sewing, jewelry, furniture, toys and more.
You don’t even need to bring something broken — you can simply watch and learn (or help, if you want) while enjoying some free tea or coffee. There’s usually also a reading table where you can leaf through repair books on various subjects.
The inspiration for these events is simple. As the Repair Café website explains,
We throw away vast amounts of stuff. Even things with almost nothing wrong, and which could get a new lease on life after a simple repair.
The trouble is, lots of people have forgotten that they can repair things themselves or they no longer know how.
Knowing how to make repairs is a skill quickly lost. Society doesn’t always show much appreciation for the people who still have this practical knowledge, and against their will they are often left standing on the sidelines. Their experience is never used, or hardly ever.
That is, until now…
Repair Cafés serve several much-needed purposes. They help people save money by learning to fix the things they own rather than simply tossing them. They give craftspeople a chance to share their wisdom and empower average consumers.
Repair Cafés also preserve valuable memories by giving new life to sentimental items, like an heirloom locket or a vintage typewriter. They’re also fantastic for the environment.
Sustainability is a growing trend in everything from fashion to technology to coffee. It’s a mindset and a movement that focuses on standards and policies that reduce waste, conserve natural resources and support ecological balance. Repair Cafés play right into this movement, as the site notes:
People who might otherwise be sidelined are getting involved again. Valuable practical knowledge is getting passed on. Things are being used for longer and don’t have to be thrown away.
This reduces the volume of raw materials and energy needed to make new products. It cuts CO2 emissions, for example, because manufacturing new products and recycling old ones causes CO2 to be released.
Sounds to me like a “win” all around.
Sustainability advocate Martine Postma opened the first Repair Café location in Amsterdam in October 2009. Today, there are more than 1,200 Repair Cafés around the world. Check the map here to find one in your area.
These nonprofit, volunteer-run groups rely on donations to cover operating costs. If you’re interested in starting one yourself, you can get a starter kit here for €49 (around $52). It includes information on setting up and run a Repair Café, connecting with others in your area who are interested in starting one and promoting your event to your community.
Your Turn: Have you ever been to a Repair Café? Would you consider going to one? Share your thoughts in the comments!
Kelly Gurnett is a freelance blogger, writer and editor who runs the blog Cordelia Calls It Quits, where she documents her attempts to rid her life of the things that don’t matter and focus more on the things that do. Follow her on Twitter @CordeliaCallsIt.
This was originally published on The Penny Hoarder, one of the largest personal finance websites. We help millions of readers worldwide earn and save money by sharing unique job opportunities, personal stories, freebies and more. In 2016, Inc. 500 ranked The Penny Hoarder as the No. 1 fastest-growing private media company in the U.S.Nearly one in three under-40s will cut the amount they invest into their pensions or leave workplace pensions in order to concentrate on saving into Lifetime Isas (Lisas), new research from insurer MetLife shows.
Home insurance premiums are set to increase this year, despite the cost of the average quote falling slightly during the first quarter of 2017.
Research conducted by the AA suggests the average cost of a buildings and contents policy fell by 0.1% in the three months to 31 March 2017, and now stands at £156.12 a year.
Pump prices rose by more than a penny a litre in April, but a drop in the price of oil in the second half of the month and a jump in the value of the pound means retailers are now in a position to pass on a cut to motorists imminently.
