By Kimi Clark One of the most popular ways to work-at-home today is to create your own products, but choosing the best places to sell your handmade goods can be a bit of a challenge. After all, there are so many options, how does one choose? There's nothing quite as satisfying as creating something yourself. […]
The post The Best Places to Sell Your Handmade Goods appeared first on The Work at Home Woman.
With the school year quickly coming to an end, what are you going to do with the kids?
How will you prevent summer learning loss? And how are you going to do it without spending a fortune?
A recent headline from Scary Mommy stopped me in my tracks. “Thinking Of Sending Your Kids To An Academic Summer Camp? Buy A Lottery Ticket First,” it read.
Now, as much as the kids would probably love to spend the next two-and-a-half months lounging around in their PJs, eating junk food and letting their brains turn to mush, luckily there are great, affordable options out there to keep them entertained while being educated. Parenting win.
Remember “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood”? That show ran on PBS for decades and taught preschoolers how to interact with their neighbors, respect others’ differences, share their feelings in a healthy way and embrace make-believe.
Though new episodes stopped airing in 2001 and title character Fred Rogers died in 2003, video streaming site Twitch will be streaming all 886 episodes of the show for free through June 3.
According to Twitch, “many episodes… have only aired once or are unavailable elsewhere online.”
So if you’re getting sick of SpongeBob, Peppa Pig or Caillou, direct your preschooler here — and hopefully they’ll pick up something educational along the way.
For all podcast-loving parents, now you can share your addiction with your offspring. NPR has launched its first kid-centric podcast series.
Called “Wow in the World,” the podcast uses a dose of comedy to get children ages 5 to 12 excited about science, technology, discovery and inventions, NPR reports.
The series will explore the topics of space, dinosaurs, animals, technology and human origins. The first 24-minute episode titled “The Search for Planet 9 and Our Sushi-Powered Brains” debuted May 15.
For some real back-to-the-basics summer edutainment, there are books. Now don’t give me that look — books can be fun. Especially when there’s a challenge tied along to it.
And don’t forget, parents, books are oh-so-affordable. Just check out your local library — which actually has more cool things than you’d think.
The following programs will encourage your kid to keep reading through the summer with some neat freebies.
This bookstore chain invites kids from first through sixth grade to read any eight books over the summer and write journal entries about their favorite part of each story.
Participants must bring their completed journals (you can print out the journal your kid will need to fill out here) into any Barnes and Noble store until Sept. 5 to receive a free book from a selected list.
This bookstore chain has curated a special selection of books for kids and teens for its summer reading program.
Kids who read four books from the list and fill out Book-A-Million’s reading challenge journal can bring their completed journal into stores to receive a free Maze Runner water bottle.
This bookstore chain challenges kids 14 and under to log in 300 minutes or more of reading during the months of June and July.
Parents have to sign off on this reading log, which kids can bring to any Half Price Books store before Aug. 31 to redeem “Bookworm Bucks,” or free $5 gift cards, The Balance explains.
Scholastic wants children of all ages to read this summer. Through Sept. 8, children can log the minutes they read online and access various virtual prizes.
The publishing company also has recommended reading lists for all ages, plus you can enter a summer reading challenge sweepstakes to win prizes from Klutz.
Sync is an audiobook program that will give teens two free audiobooks a week this summer.
Teens can save their eye-strain on video games and still meet reading requirements for the summer by simply listening. Titles vary each week based on a theme. The program will continue through Aug. 16.
For other affordable ways to keep your child busy this summer, check out $1 movies at Regal Theaters or these outdoor options.
And while you’re planning out your summer weeks, bookmark this handy list of 100 free summer fun ideas for the entire family.
Nicole Dow is a staff writer at The Penny Hoarder. As a child, she loved trips to the library during the summer. She’d check out a dozen books each time.
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.
OK, I’m sufficiently grossed out.
In theory, meal delivery services are great. They’re cost-effective and convenient, and they taste great.
But do you really know what you’re sacrificing for that convenience?
Well, it could be your health. *gasp*
A recent study from Rutgers University revealed the worst about home delivery meal kits — and the findings make sense.
The findings aren’t for anyone with a weak stomach (this is your warning, BTW).
Earlier this month at the Food Safety Summit, a Rutgers professor presented research on 169 home meal kits and over 1,000 consumer interviews.
Of the 169 home meal kits, nearly 47% of the meats, seafood and poultry arrived at over 40 degrees Fahrenheit, meaning they were unsafe to consume.
Hot food hot, cold food cold. If you’ve ever worked in the restaurant industry, you know temperature control is a vital part of food safety.
According to Delish, “many of the animal products delivered were laden with pathogens.”
Gross. So gross.
Why is this happening?
The research revealed that part of the issue is the length of time between refrigeration and delivery. Products are often left outside for eight hours or more, which increases the chances of the food becoming hazardous.
Eating food that’s been stored at unsafe temperatures can result in foodborne illness from germs like listeria, E. coli and salmonella.
Ain’t nobody got time for that.
When you pay for convenience, you’re paying for someone else to do the heavy work for you. Sometimes that heavy work is labor you just don’t have time for — which, in this case, is grocery shopping.
But when you make a decision based on convenience, you should be aware of the costs associated with it.
You may save time by getting meals delivered straight to you, but you’re also opening a black hole of health hazards.
This isn’t to say meal kits are bad. But a little extra consideration on your end, like having someone at home for the delivery so they can properly store the food, should be part of the process.
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.
Online shopping is pretty much the best.
You get to avoid all those #FirstWorldProblems you hate to deal with at the physical store.
Putting on pants.
Interacting with other humans.
Driving.
That guy at the exit who asks to see your receipt, and you’re like, “What, you don’t think I can afford this TV just because I spend my Wednesday at a Walmart in sweatpants?!”
Plus, it’s usually cheaper to shop online.
But there is that one big drawback that makes procrastinators like me chew my nails to a nub as I wait by the mailbox every day.
You mean well, but sometimes you forget that wedding, baby shower or birthday is coming up until it’s three days away. So you order the perfect gift online and fork over a week’s salary for expedited shipping.
But here you are, ready to leave for the party (dressed spectacularly, we might add) — and the package hasn’t arrived.
So you swing by the only store en route, pick up a backup gift, stuff it into a decorated bag and sign the card at a stoplight.
But what about the cost? Is there an Amazon shipping refund? Or one from Walmart? Anywhere?
You could call the retailer and negotiate a refund. But that involves a whole new set of #FirstWorldProblems, like waiting on hold and talking on the phone.
With a new delivery monitoring system from Paribus, you could get a refund with no extra work.
We’ve talked about Paribus before. It’s the tool that scans your online shopping receipts and monitors major retailers for price drops. If the price goes down on something you bought, Paribus gets the retailer to pay you the difference.
Its new delivery monitoring service has a similar mission: Save you time and effort getting refunds you deserve. Here’s how it works:
Here’s the link to download the app and sign up.
Paribus works with dozens of retailers — including Amazon, Walmart, Best Buy and more — so your refund will depend on the store’s shipping policy.
With Amazon, for example, a late delivery means you’re eligible for “a refund of any shipping fees associated with the order in question. Prime members (who get free two-day shipping) may also be eligible for an extension of their membership.”
Paribus has negotiated everything from full or partial cost-of-shipping refunds and store credit to one-month extensions of memberships in rush-shipping programs like Amazon Prime.
While the app makes money from its price-match service (It keeps 25% of your refund.), you can use the delivery monitoring service totally free. That means all that shipping cost goes back in your pocket.
Disclosure: Here’s a toast to the affiliate links in this post. May we all be just a little richer today.
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.
Phone bills suck.
Mine is exponentially more than I’d like it to be — and sometimes I don’t even feel like I’m getting what I’m paying for.
Maybe your monthly phone bill is monstrous, too. After a few months, it can really add up. Maybe it makes it so you have to stick to a strict grocery budget or keeps you from heading to Disney World. (Who doesn’t love Disney World?)
What if I told you that your phone bill doesn’t have to hold you back anymore because you could have six months of cell service for free?
It’s true. Thanks to this awesome deal, we can slash our cell phone bills together.
Have you ever heard of Republic Wireless? I hadn’t until I came across this deal. The more I read about it, though, the more I’m intrigued.
The cell phone provider is offering up to six months of cell service for free, and it can save you big. I’ll be straight up, though: It requires a startup cost of $35 or less.
But after the math is said and done, you’ll still save in the long run. I’ll prove it with numbers later.
To snag this deal, you must own a qualifying phone. Phones included in this deal include Moto G, Nexus, Pixel and Samsung Galaxy — sorry, no iPhones. For a full list of qualifying phones, click here.
After you confirm your phone is eligible, download the Republic app to verify it. Your phone must run Android 6.0 Marshmallow or higher for the app to work.
The next step is to purchase a $5 SIM card kit, which fits in all compatible Android phones. The Republic Wireless website says it will ship the card to you two to three days after your purchase.
And now, the bulk of the startup cost: activating your plan. After you install your SIM card, you’ll head to the app and activate your monthly plan. Plans start as low as $15 per month for unlimited talk, text and Wi-Fi data, and they go as high as $60 per month for unlimited talk, text and Wi-Fi data, and 6 GB of cellular data.
There are some stipulations, though. The free six months only includes the $30 per month plan, which gives you unlimited talk, text and Wi-Fi data, and 2 GB of cellular data. If you choose a more expensive plan for your six-month free term, you’ll have to pay the difference between the $30 plan and the one you select. And you have to pay monthly taxes and telecom fees, but they’ll likely be just a few bucks.
So, in simpler terms, go for the $30 per month plan so you don’t pay extra.
After paying for the first month’s service, you’ll get the next six months free.
This offer isn’t good forever, though — you have to purchase a SIM card between May 16-22, and activate it by June 6. So, get on it!
Maybe you’re ticked off now. This isn’t a deal, you buffoons! I’m still paying money! This isn’t FREE!
You’re right — it isn’t free at first. But after that initial cost, it’s totally worth it.
I’ll use my personal situation as an example.
I pay $55 a month for my cell phone bill, which is an unlimited plan.
I barely talk on the phone, and I’m always connected to Wi-Fi, so I would say my data usage is low.
If I chose Republic’s $30 per month plan, I would pay $30 for unlimited talk, text and Wi-Fi data, and 2GB of cell data.
Total startup costs? $35 before taxes.
Under my current $55 plan, I will spend $330 over six months.
With Republic’s plan, I would only pay $35 over six months.
Total savings if I got in on this deal?
$295 minus a few bucks here and there for taxes and telecom fees.
To me, it still sounds like a good deal.
Of course, the savings do not include any money you might owe on your phone if it’s financed or early termination fees, so your mileage may vary.
What do you think? Is this deal good enough for you to make the switch?
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.
Some graduation commencement speeches are inspiring, some are touching and some are simply hilarious.
Leave it to Bill Gates to be a little bit of each.
Gates took to Twitter earlier this week to share his thoughts on what he wish he’d known when he was younger and what grads today can do to have the best chance at success.
4/ E.g. Intelligence takes many different forms. It is not one-dimensional. And not as important as I used to think.
— Bill Gates (@BillGates) May 15, 2017
Gates goes on to say:
6/ You know more than I did when I was your age. You can start fighting inequity, whether down the street or around the world, sooner.
— Bill Gates (@BillGates) May 15, 2017
In a nice hat tip to his wife, Melinda, Gates recommends new college grads “surround yourself with people who challenge you, teach you, and push you to be your best self. As @MelindaGates does for me.”
Gates also had some career advice for newly-minted grads.
2/ AI, energy, and biosciences are promising fields where you can make a huge impact. It’s what I would do if starting out today.
— Bill Gates (@BillGates) May 15, 2017
Gates didn’t limit his advice to just Twitter. He also wrote a 700-word missive that takes a deeper look at why he recommends those three specific fields.
“If I were starting out today and looking for the same kind of opportunity to make a big impact in the world, I would consider three fields,” he says.
“One is artificial intelligence. We have only begun to tap into all the ways it will make people’s lives more productive and creative.
“The second is energy, because making it clean, affordable and reliable will be essential for fighting poverty and climate change.
“The third is biosciences, which are ripe with opportunities to help people live longer, healthier lives.”
It’s hard to argue with that.
If you’re ready to take Gates’ advice but aren’t sure where to begin, start with the resources at your local library.
No matter how lofty your employment aspirations, finding a job takes time. If you end up working in retail or become a barista, remember this: you’ll be learning the soft skills you need to be a success in whatever field you choose.
Twenty-somethings aren’t the only ones earning a degree to begin a new line of work. In fact, it’s never too late to start a career at any age.
Lisa McGreevy is a staff writer at The Penny Hoarder. She wishes Bill Gates had been handing out career advice when she was in college.
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.
I recently shared my tips for growing your freelance career enough to quit your day job. In that post, I discussed how I gradually “stepped down” from my full-time job by working one day less a week, then going part-time, until I had enough freelance income to quit altogether.
We received some questions from Penny Hoarder readers who wanted to know more about how exactly to negotiate reducing your work hours — and understandably so. Of all the conversations you have with an employer, the “I want to work less so I can do my own thing” conversation is one of most petrifying.
So here are nine actionable tips, from my own experience and the advice of employment experts and fellow freelancers, to help you in this nerve-wracking situation.
Before you walk into your boss’s office, you must have a solid idea of what you want to ask for. “I want to work less” won’t cut it.
Sit down with your monthly budget and your anticipated side gig income and ask yourself exactly what you’ll need from your employer.
While your employer is likely to offer a counter to whatever you ask, you need to know how much you’re able to budge and which items you consider deal breakers. Otherwise, you’re negotiating blind.
The easiest way to kill your chances is to catch your boss on a bad day.
As the keeper of my immediate boss’s calendar, I knew which days he’d likely be stressed out due to big deadlines or a heavy meeting schedule. I also knew which days he tended to be in the best mood, like Friday afternoons right before he left for a weekend trip.
If you don’t have that sort of insider knowledge, try buddying up to another colleague who might, like your boss’s assistant.
“Wait until you’ve reached your recent targets,” recommends Kuba Koziej, CEO and co-founder of Uptowork. You want to make sure you approach your boss from a position of strength:
When you’re ready to talk, emphasize the need for the change to balance your life. Focus on the fact that a better work-life balance would make you happier and more productive. You think that a change in the schedule will help. Back that up with a couple of examples of goals you’ve achieved or targets you’ve met.
This sort of argument is stronger when you’re just coming off an achievement. If you’ve recently missed a goal or two, it’s better to wait until you’ve upped your performance so you have more negotiating power.
As CFO of New Eagle, Mickey Swortzel has been approached by employees asking to decrease their hours to pursue a personal project. She advises:
The key to making this a win-win for both parties is for the employee to think through the financial and workload issues from the company’s perspective.
Some of the questions that are helpful to start the conversation include: How can the work get accomplished? What is the timeline for this adjusted schedule? How is this going to work under your current employment contract?
Put yourself in your employer’s place and brainstorm what fears and concerns your proposal might inspire.
As Evan Harris, co-founder and Director of HR for SD Equity Partners, puts it, your employer “will want to make sure you are not trying to take advantage of the company. Cover your bases and try to discuss any issues that the employer may have with the transition before they bring it up to you.”
Yes, you want a new arrangement because it will be better for you — but you need to frame it in a way that shows what’s in it for your employer.
Studies have shown employees who work from home are more productive. So are employees who are more satisfied with their jobs. Be sure to emphasize how the new schedule you’re seeking will actually help you do better work.
“Keep in mind that you’ll only achieve your goal if you can convince your employer that you will meet targets,” Koziej says. As he explains, you want to be able to say to your employer, “‘Here’s what it looks like when I’m productive. Now, imagine I’m even happier with the schedule.’”
When I negotiated my step-down, I presented my boss with an estimate of how much time I spent doing billable, paralegal-level tasks only I could do, and how much I spent on basic administrative work.
I proposed he could hire a part-time assistant to do these less critical tasks for a much lower hourly rate than he paid me — and he loved the idea.
The work would still get done and the company would save money. Putting my plan into these dollars-and-cents terms made it much more palatable to him.
The more specifics you can offer, the better.
Presenting a detailed plan shows you’ve really taken the time to think about your proposal and decreases your boss’s ability to generate tons of “what if?” concerns.
“Having a plan ready shows that you are committed to the company and presents the employer with a few choices,” says Harris. “Often, the employer will want to make their own solution, but by presenting an option or two, it steers the conversation into the direction you want it to go.”
Dr. Heather Rothbauer-Wanish, a professional resume writer and owner of Feather Communications, agrees:
When asking for time away to focus on a side hustle, it’s extremely important to let the company know that this will NOT affect your current work with them. For example, stating that you would be willing to work an alternate schedule to maintain the same hours will be vital.
When asking for an alternate schedule, adding a direct compliment to the company and/or manager will be a nice way to break into the conversation.
Here is an example:
“I love my position here with ABC Company. As you know, I am also working on {insert side business here} and would love to allot time to that opportunity, too. Is it possible to come in two hours late two days per week? In exchange, I would be willing to make those hours up in the afternoon or on a weekend.”
“As a rule, in any negotiation, there needs to be give and take,” says Trevor Lamson of Connected Recruiting Ltd.
“What are you willing to do or give up to make this happen? Think about how this affects your employer and have ideas to adapt, work from home on that day or split schedules. Be creative; having solutions always increases success in negotiations.”
Aviva Legatt attempted to negotiate a step-down from her administrative job at the University of Pennsylvania to launch a side business and finish her doctoral dissertation. She went in with a clear request but was flexible enough to pivot when it didn’t work:
I wrote out a list of tasks, what I could do from home, and how much money seemed appropriate with the proportion of tasks versus my full-time salary. When I learned that this kind of arrangement wouldn’t work for my department, I took on another role at the university as a high-performance team facilitator [for another department].
When asking for a reduced schedule, bear in mind many employers will balk at the thought of extending full-time benefits once you go part-time — although they are required to offer health insurance if you work at least 30 hours per week and the company has 50 or more employees.
If you’re worried about the added cost to your bottom line, consider tweaking your offer to include a lower salary or hourly rate in exchange for retaining some of your benefits, which might also include paid vacation or a 401(k) match.
You can also consider alternative health insurance options available to you, such as joining a partner’s plan. Legatt was still a Ph.D. student at the University of Pennsylvania when she asked to work less, so she was able to switch to a student insurance plan when she was no longer able to use the staff one.
One of the best ways to ease the blow of requesting to reduce your work hours is to offer your employer a way out.
My boss asked that we have regular check-ins to touch base and make sure the new arrangement continued to work for both of us, and I was happy to agree. It reassured him and also gave me a chance to do a test run of my business’s viability.
At first, we met every couple of weeks to discuss my project load and upcoming deadlines. After a couple of check-ins, it was clear I was getting my work done and there were no complaints from the rest of the team, so we met less often.
I made sure to go into each meeting armed with a list of what I’d been working on, as well as an outline for how I’d tackle upcoming tasks, to put my boss’s mind at ease. I suspected he was also polling my colleagues to make sure my new schedule didn’t put any extra work on their shoulders, so between meetings I made sure to work my tail off to get everything done, and done well.
If your boss decides to nix your new schedule after a trial period, you’ve still bought yourself some additional time on the payroll while you decide what to do next.
How much should you reveal about why you’re asking for a different arrangement? Our sources’ opinions varied.
Lamson, the recruiter, believes that “if this is truly your desire, just be upfront. This is a difficult discussion in itself; accept the fact that asking this may lead to the employer becoming concerned. Be prepared for the repercussions.”
But Adam Hatch, a career advisor at Resume Genius, prefers a more cautious approach. He knows firsthand what it’s like to ask a boss to cut your hours so you can focus on a side business. Here’s what he recommends:
[Don’t] even mention your side business. If your boss asks why you want less time, deflect. You don’t have to explain yourself, so be general. Say you have a lot on your plate, or you need to spend more time with family, or even that you have some projects you’ve been meaning to tackle.
But you don’t need to go into too much detail. Be careful, though; you want to avoid coming across tight-lipped because it will seem like you’re hiding something… you have no responsibility to inform your employer what you are up to during your off hours.”
It all depends on your personal work situation and risk tolerance. If you have a good relationship with your boss, your company has shown flexibility to employees in the past or you have a high risk tolerance, the simplest thing to do is lay all your cards on the table.
My boss knew I’d been working on my writing in my off-hours, so I saw no point in being coy about it. I was ready to accept his reaction, whatever it was, even if that meant finding a different job elsewhere.
In short: Trust your gut.
Ron Stefanski stepped down from his day job to focus on building websites like Jobs for Teens HQ. His story is a great example of many of these tips in action:
The first thing I did was tell my boss exactly what was going on. I explained to him that I had a side-business that was going well and I wanted to work on that full-time.
Then I told him that the last thing I wanted to do was “leave the company in a bad position because they had been so good to me as an employee,” and I explained that I would be available for them as a consultant if they’d like. The key here was that I was ready for them to say “no,” but was hopeful they would say “yes” as I needed the money.
The arrangement didn’t include any paid vacation or health insurance benefits. My thought was that in order to make this happen, I’d have to become a paid consultant for them because otherwise they’d still have to provide me with benefits, which is a big ask since I was no longer a full-time employee.
After my boss discussed the situation with the executive team, they agreed that this arrangement would work and we could have a trial period of one month. I went with an hourly consulting cost that was 20% greater than what I was making as a full-time employee because that’s a good estimate of how much an employer pays over a salary for all benefits.
We limited the engagement to six months (with the option to sign another six months if needed) so that I could have an end date that would allow me to work fully on my own projects. In the beginning, I had a lot of work from them, but then they transitioned further away from me as time went on and overall, I would say the arrangement was a win-win for both of us.
So, the biggest question of all: What if your boss flat-out denies you?
Well, at least you tried, and you’re no worse off than you were when you were working full time and wondering “if only.” Now it’s time to find another way to make your dream happen.
That might mean applying for a part-time job at another company. It might mean switching to a work-from-home job so you have more control over your hours. It might mean “slashing” together a handful of side gigs like dog sitting or selling stuff on Etsy.
There’s more than one way to make time for your freelance business, and as anyone who wants to be an entrepreneur will quickly find out, hustle is only one part of being successful — the rest is learning to never take “no” for an answer.
Your Turn: Have you ever negotiated a new working arrangement with your company? How did you do it? Share your tips 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.
On the fateful (to a select group of college students) night of May 6, Nicki Minaj proved once again that she is the queen we suspected her to be.
While holding a contest on Twitter that would end with one lucky fan being flown to Las Vegas to join her at the Billboard Music Awards, Minaj suddenly switched gears and started paying peoples’ college tuition and loans.
And now, after making payments on at least eight students’ balances and documenting it on her Instagram (and promising to go on another payment spree later this year), Minaj has announced plans to launch an official charity for student loans and tuition payments soon.
In the same Instagram post, she noted fans will be able to officially sign up and promised to keep them in the loop on the program’s progress.
Other than that, Minaj provided no real details on when — or how — the financial aid will roll out.
But as soon as we hear some more details, we’ll let you know.
In the meantime, check out this post to learn everything you need to know about your student loans, from FAFSA to repayment, or this one, where you’ll find a list of 100 college scholarships to apply for this year.
Grace Schweizer is a junior 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.
Admittedly, I never read — or watched — anything “Harry Potter” until six months ago.
Gasp.
You’re right; I’m about 15 years behind the times, but I’m enjoying the books just the same.
But if I had hopped on the bandwagon back in the day, I definitely wouldn’t have picked up on the layered lessons tucked into the words of each chapter — especially when it comes to personal finance.
Wait, what? Harry Potter and personal finance?
At first, the two might sound as contrary as a Basilisk and a Flobberworm. But as I flipped through the pages, my old English-major instincts kicked in: Of course Harry Potter can teach us about money.
I started taking notes. Sure, some of these might be a stretch, but in a world of crunching numbers and tricky acronyms, Harry Potter can make personal finance pretty fun.
So let me share with you the money lessons I’ve learned so far.
Writer’s note: This post contains spoilers that’ll make you very, very sad to read if you haven’t finished the series.
If you remember in the first book, Harry Potter hops on a tiny, goblin-driven cart and is escorted to his vault, where his parents have safely tucked away a hearty amount of wizarding money.
Now, we can’t all take a rollercoaster ride to find our stashes of inherited money, but there’s another bank I like that’s almost as cool.
It’s Aspiration’s Summit Checking Account. It’s just as safe as Gringotts, if not more so. (We know what you tried to do, Quirinus Quirrell.)
I opened an account because it’s all online, there are zero ATM fees (even when you’re exchanging Muggle money), and it offers 1% interest, which is 100% more than my other checking account offered.
There aren’t any other fees, either; the company follows a pay-what-you-want model
So, no, Aspiration isn’t Gringotts, but it is a safe place to stash away any amount of money you might have — from a hefty inheritance to your next rent payment.
The time I’m talking about is when Alastor Moody came in to teach — but actually (spoiler!) it was Barty Crouch, Jr. who used the Polyjuice Potion to steal Moody’s identity.
Fortunately, Muggles don’t have access to the Polyjuice Potion, but there are Nigerian Princes and other big-time scammers out there, so you’ll want to be sure to protect your identity and hard-earned funds.
Major tips include protecting yourself while shopping online, setting secure passwords and using free monitoring devices like True Identity.
By signing up for True Identity, you’ll get free and unlimited identity protection as well as free credit monitoring. That way if anything does go awry — Polyjuice Potion or not — you’ll be alerted and able to take immediate action.
Unfortunately, you probably didn’t have the time-turner. But you probably did have the same ridiculous amount of heavy books.
If you never sold them back after the semester, you can probably let go of them now. After all, if you’re anything like Hermione you just memorized that ish.
We use a service called Bookscouter. You just type in your book’s ISBN, and Bookscouter lists the vendors that’ll give you the most money back.
Hopefully you can pocket more than the $1.23 your campus bookstore offered.
But the Penny Hoarder in me is OK with that because I can really drive prices down on that cheap domestic stuff, which makes enjoying a cold beer at the end of a long week worth it.
In addition to existing store sales and coupons, try using a rebate app like Ibotta. Scroll through the tons of rebates before you go shopping. Right now, Ibotta is offering $5 back on Shock Top, $2 back on gin and $2 back on certain wines (at my local Publix).
If you prefer something more like chocolate frogs, Ibotta has rebates on tons of ice cream choices, too (including Halo, which is basically a low-calorie magical ice cream).
After you select what you’re buying, take a photo of your receipt, scan the items’ barcodes and get cash back.
Signing up is free, and when you claim your first rebate, you’ll pocket a $10 bonus.
Coincidentally (for the point I’m making here), he also doesn’t have a whole lot of money.
Nowadays, he could have taken $5 and started investing on that Muggle phone with an app like Stash. With $5 (which you’ll earn back when you make your first investment), you can start investing for the future (without making any high-risk moves; see No. 6 below).
If you want more information, Penny Hoarder contributor Jamie Cattanach reviewed the app.
Heading up the Division of Magical Games and Sports, he gets a little too invested in the Quidditch World Cup… so invested that he starts gambling…
If you’re going to take a bet, why not bet on yourself? And your health? We’ve written about HealthyWage in the past, an online program that allows you to bet how much weight you can lose.
For example, we chatted with Healthy Wage user Teresa Suarez, who lost 68 pounds in six months. Even more, she banked $2,415.28.
So if you’re down with taking a risk with your money, at least be smart — and healthy — about it.
If you have debts, don’t wait until it ruins your life. The best thing to do is to face it head on. Pour yourself a glass of Butterbeer, and check your credit score.
I use Credit Sesame. It’s free, and so straightforward. It breaks down my score, what’s hindering it and where I owe money.
So just face the goblins head on, and check out your credit score.
Ron learns this the hard way when he grabs a handful of the coins at the Quidditch World Cup and pays Harry Potter back for his Omnioculars.
The coins disappear, and Ron gets embarrassed, though Harry insists it’s OK.
The lesson here: If it’s too good to be true, it’s probably too good to be true. We constantly stumble across scams, so it’s best to educate yourself and protect your assets.
Some common ones include work-from-home jobs scams, mystery shopping scams, phishing scams and phone scams.
Yes, it looks normal on the outside, but it’s full of ornate furniture and even several rooms. If only camping were like that…
Anyway, the lesson here is: See if there’s a big event coming to your town.
Real estate close to big festivals, concerts and sporting events is prime. Then, put your home, spare room, garage apartment or even a tent up on Airbnb.
You can make bank. For example, this guy makes $1,380 a month renting out a backyard tent on Airbnb.
For example, Ron wears his brothers’ hand-me-downs, and Ginny shops at Second-Hand Robes for her first year. Thrifting is a great way to save some money.
You can even make money by selling your old clothing. Before you go to a resale store and get 50 cents for those designer jeans, there are tons of apps out there to help you, including Letgo.
It takes less than 3 minutes to create an account and post an item — which you price yourself. You’ll market to locals, too, so you don’t have to worry about shipping costs and logistics.
You might even find a Gryffindor robe on there… we did.
If you’re not a jokester, you can still start a business doing what you love, though start-up costs and loans can be a pain if you don’t have a wealthy friend like Harry Potter.
Also, it’s exhausting and time-consuming, especially if you have a family.
But there are ways to strike up online, work-from-home businesses with minimal start-up fees. You can take an online course in a specific trade, like bookkeeping, proofreading or transcribing. Each program offers a free introductory course, so you can see if this is up your (Diagon) alley.
These three people followed through, and they’re seeing great work-from-home success.
He’s the Knight Bus driver — the one that picks Harry Potter up on Privet Drive and sweeps him off to the Leaky Cauldron. We don’t know much about Mr. Prang, but we do admire his honest work.
Really, it’s the Wizarding-version of driving for a ride-sharing service, like Uber or Lyft. So if you want to act like Prang — but without Stan Shunpike the stickler dictating your schedule — then you can sign up to earn extra money!
However, when it comes to DIY, you’ll need to make sure it’s actually more cost-effective — unlike these Pinterest fails.
When Ron asks Fred why he even does that he says, “Time is Galleons, little brother.”
He’s right. Even in the Muggle world, time is money. Except when it comes to passive income…
Just look at Draco Malfoy’s family…
Your Turn: What house do you belong in?
Disclosure: When you pick on one of our affiliate links, it’s like magic, and a few Galleons get deposited into our accounts so we can keep bringing you ways to make and save money. Seriously, it’s not Leprechaun gold.
Carson Kohler (@CarsonKohler) is a junior 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.
Editor’s note: This post originally ran in April 2015.
Students and professionals are weighing the costs and benefits of traditional higher education against more practical — and affordable — online options.
The online education industry is poised to surpass $240 billion by 2021, according to Global Industry Analysts, Inc.
But where will that those billions go? Who will cash in, and how can you get your piece?
A large portion of it goes to the instructors: the people who create educational content around their expertise in subjects that interest them.
In fact, I’ve earned more than $5,000 in the last few months from an online course I launched in November.
The only “qualifications” I have are from my own research and experience; there are no professional certifications required.
Here are a couple of examples of successful courses you can learn from, plus what you’ll need to know to create your own online course.
John Azzi and Eliot Arntz earned more than $1 million in 2014 for their course on iOS 8 app development and its new Swift programming language.
Their success was due to a combination of solid, useful content, excellent customer support, and of course, some opportune marketing efforts on tech-friendly platforms like Reddit and Product Hunt.
The course took the pair about three months and $1,000 to fully complete, an investment that has since paid for itself many times over.
Rob Percival, a former high school math teacher from Cambridge, England, found similar success. With four courses on various programming topics, he’s netted over $1 million in the last nine months.
With income from a web hosting company he owned to support him, he put in three months of full-time work on his first course, creating more than 30 hours of instructional content. The problem was, when he released it, no one was buying.
Rob made the difficult decision to allow students to access the course for free in order to build up some positive testimonials, and then he went on to sell it to his database of web hosting customers.
Not all of them were interested in the how-to-code subject matter, but a large enough percentage were that the course began to attract attention and sales from strangers as well.
While the examples above focus on very technical topics, there are online courses on a wide variety of subjects.
Naturally, courses with well-defined outcomes that may help the student earn more money tend to perform well, but that doesn’t there’s zero market for non-technical subjects.
Start by taking inventory of your own skills and experiences, particularly if you’ve overcome some challenges or struggles in the past. Odds are, others are struggling with those same challenges and could learn from your expertise.
For instance, if there is a specific software program you use in your job, perhaps you could create the definitive guide to that software.
That’s exactly what Brett Kelly did with Evernote Essentials, what Joseph Michael did with Learn Scrivener Fast, and what Matt Donley did with Master Sketchup.
In fact, you might be surprised to learn that good old Microsoft Excel is one of the most sought-after subjects on the online education platform Udemy.
After reading some of these crazy success stories, I wanted to try my hand at creating a course as well.
The first course I built was on hiring and working with virtual assistants in your small business, and it was a complete flop. Even though it took me three or four weeks to fully outline and produce the videos for the course, it’s earned me less than $400 in the 12 months it’s been available.
Still, I was determined to give online teaching another shot. After having some success with a Kindle book launch, I had a lot of peers emailing me and asking for advice on their upcoming book launches.
It was a non-technical topic, but one that was in high demand.
That course, Kindle Launch Plan, earned more than $4,000 in its first three months and continues to earn a modest amount of passive income each month. It took about a month to outline and produce, but has turned into a valuable asset and proved that I could make money with online courses.
After you decide on a topic for your course, the next question is where to host it. How will customers find out about it?
John and Eliot above hosted their iOS programming courses on their own website, meaning they had to configure the video hosting, payment processing and general technical structure.
They’re programmers, though, so it wasn’t an issue.
Rob decided to host his course on Udemy, one of the largest marketplaces for selling online courses with more than 5 million registered students. Udemy makes it very easy for instructors to get started, and they handle all the payment processing and video hosting.
Here’s where it gets tricky: revenue share.
Naturally, Udemy needs to make a profit, but they also rely on excellent instructors like Rob to build courses for their site.
The current royalty structure is set up so if Udemy delivers the student to your course through their own organic discovery or through a promotion they run, they’re going to keep the bulk of the revenue — up to 75% in some cases.
The compromise they’ve come up with is for any customers you as the instructor drive, you get to keep 97% of the revenue, provided they sign-up through your unique tracking link.
When I built my Kindle Launch course, I decided to host it with Udemy because I didn’t want to get bogged down in the technical details of hosting it myself, and I liked that I would keep the lion’s share of the earnings on students I referred.
I still wanted access to their database of 5 million customers, and reasoned it was OK to split revenue with them on any of those sign-ups because they would likely be incremental students anyway.
I think the biggest mistake people make when creating an online course is having a “build it and they will come” mentality.
Whether you host the course yourself or on a platform like Udemy, you’re still going to be responsible for fueling the initial traction and enrollments.
In the million-dollar success stories above, both parties had large email lists of potential customers they could reach out to. That means if you’re thinking of launching a course this year, you need to start thinking now about how you’re going to let people know about it.
One tactic that worked well for me on my course was recruiting a couple of high-profile affiliate partners, people with sizable email lists of their own who I’d developed friendships with and helped in the past.
They created a special exclusive offer for their audiences that turned out to be a win-win-win for all parties.
I’m looking forward to creating more courses in the future because I believe this is probably more of a portfolio business. Will you join in?
Your Turn: What skills could you teach in this rapidly growing online education market?
Disclosure: We have a serious Taco Bell addiction around here. The affiliate links in this post help us order off the dollar menu. Thanks for your support!
Nick Loper is the Chief Side Hustler at SideHustleNation.com, a growing community and resource for aspiring and part-time entrepreneurs. He also hosts the top-rated Side Hustle Show podcast, exploring new business ideas and tactics every Thursday.
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.
Sometimes, the simplest questions are just perfect.
How do people even use credit cards without messing everything up?
A reader we’ll call Jean sent that to me at the start of a question for the reader mailbag. Afterwards, Jean offered up a pretty typical story of credit card use: relying on it for purchases, gently inflating one’s lifestyle, losing track of what’s actually going onto the card, and suddenly facing big bills.
Jean isn’t alone. In America, 38.1% of households carry some kind of credit card debt and the average credit card debt for a family carrying a balance is a whopping $16,048. That’s approximately four months of take-home pay for the average American family, and given the average interest rate of just over 15%, the average American household will be paying approximately $640 a month for the next fourteen years to get rid of that debt.
Many, many articles and books have been written about how to get rid of a mountain of credit card debt. Here’s my own guide to building a debt repayment plan, for starters.
However, not as many articles focus on using credit cards smartly and effectively to get maximum value out of them. Why? It’s much easier to simply advise people to just not use credit cards at all. After all, we can live without them – you can use your debit card for most purchases and living within your means is a lot easier if you’re just using your checking account.
This brings us right back to Jean’s question. How do people even use credit cards without messing everything up?
Many years back, I racked up quite a lot of credit card debt, and in the following years, I’ve paid it all off. I currently make most of my purchases with a credit card and I haven’t carried a balance in many years (aside from a couple mistakes due to automatic bill pay shenanigans that I should have been watching more carefully and corrected as soon as I found them). I use a credit card many times per month and I have not actively carried a balance in several years.
How do I do that? Here are the “secrets” of getting maximum value from credit cards.
First and foremost, if you think to yourself, “I can’t afford this, but I could put it on the card,” then you shouldn’t be buying that item. Credit cards are not “free money you can pay back later,” so don’t treat them like that. This is absolutely the first rule of smart credit card use. They’re not free money. Don’t think of them as free money. They are not a tool to leverage purchases you wouldn’t otherwise be able to afford. Period.
If the purchase you’re considering is an absolute need, then you’ve either made some other spending mistakes to put yourself in that position or you’re walking such a tight financial rope that you need to be considering some significant life changes outside of credit card use, such as cutting some major expenses (like moving somewhere cheaper or eliminating a car) or getting a better job or an additional one. Credit cards should not finance your lifestyle, ever. If you buy things on your card that you can’t pay out of pocket, you will wind up in a financial mess.
The challenge with credit cards is that it can be very easy to disconnect the money in your checking account from the expenses you put onto that card because the impact of that expense doesn’t show up in your checking account immediately. If you buy something with a debit card, your checking account balance goes down immediately. On the other hand, if you buy something with a credit card, you have the item and your checking account balance doesn’t change.
This creates a disconnection problem. It can give a strong sense that the item or experience that you bought with the credit card was somehow “free,” which somewhat disconnects you from the actual expense of things. At the same time, it makes a credit card bill feel very separated from the actual things you bought to incur that bill. Rather than feeling like you’re paying back Amazon for the thing they already shipped to you, it can feel like Amazon gave you that item and you’re actually paying Chase for the privilege of using a card, which can feel frustrating and meaningless. No one relishes writing a check to the bank.
Most successful credit card users figure out some way to bridge that disconnect, and there are a lot of tools for doing this.
Start with separating “needs” and “wants.” Many people stumble at this step by either not bothering at all or by not really thinking about it. The point of this is to really assess the money you spend on needs so you can see how much is actually left for wants and then base your spending going forward on that.
The trick is knowing how to separate the two. For example, most groceries probably fall under “needs,” but eating out falls under a “want.” Housing falls under a “need” unless you can obviously and easily move to somewhere cheaper, in which case part of your housing cost is a “want.” If you commute, a basic car is a “need,” but an expensive car is mostly a “want.” Netflix is a “want.” Cable television is a “want.” Soda is a “want.” Alcohol is a “want.” Unless you work from home and it’s necessary, internet is a “want.”
Why is this distinction so important? Most people really don’t recognize how much money per month they spend on “wants.” They just get used to unnecessary expenses and, in their mind, gradually begin to shift things like eating out into the “needs” category and allow their “wants” to keep inflating. When you never step back and look at how much of your monthly expenses are made up of “wants,” you never really see how rich and full your life really is.
Go through your bank statement and credit card bill for the last month and separate everything into “needs” and “wants.” One good way to do this is to use a pink highlighter for “needs” and a blue one for things that are mixed; leave “wants” blank. Go on, do this, and then come back. I’ll wait.
Got it? Good.
You probably noticed that there are a TON of things on there that are “wants” when you’re honest with yourself and many more are mixed bags. There are likely few expenses on there that are truly “needs.”
Now, spend a minute and go through all of those “wants.” Think about how much you actually spend on just adding a bit of momentary pleasure to your life. Meals eaten out. Cable. Internet. A bigger house than you need. A nice car. Alcohol. Snacks. Entertainment items. Excess clothes. Premium household items. On and on and on.
The purpose of this little experiment isn’t to point out that you’re overspending, but that you already have an incredibly rich life, probably one in which you don’t have nearly enough time to follow up on all of the pleasures already available to you. How many series and movies are in your Netflix queue? How many unread books are on your shelves? How many barely-worn items of clothing are jammed into your closet? How many cool projects are stowed away somewhere? How many things have you wanted to do and bought the stuff for, but then realized you just didn’t have the time?
What does this have to do with credit card use? It’s simple. It is very hard to use a credit card effectively if you truly believe you don’t have “enough” in your life already and that you really need or deserve “more” to feel happy. If the idea of simply putting a cap on all of these pleasures in your life seems difficult or hard or deeply unappealing, then it is going to be very hard to use a credit card responsibly.
If that describes your feeling about life, ditch the credit cards for a while. A credit card in the hands of someone with those kinds of feelings about their life is a dangerous tool, indeed. It’s basically a recipe for consumer debt.
If you can see the abundance that your life already has to offer, the next step is to put a firm limit around those wants. Cut back on some of those wants that come in the form of a monthly bill if possible, and then put some caps on your spending on those other things. Eat out a little less frequently and maybe at cheaper places. Stay in for movie night a couple nights a month instead of going out.
The strategy that has truly worked well for me is to put a strong cap on all of my incidental spending each month. If I’m buying something that isn’t necessary and isn’t directly discussed with my wife, it counts toward my monthly “hobby spending” limit. I track this by keeping a running tally in my pocket notebook – if it’s an incidental purchase, I either write it down immediately or stick the receipt in there to write down later. If I slip up and “go over” for the month, then I carry it forward to next month.
Everyone’s budget is different, so I won’t set a specific dollar amount for you. Some people have rent, others have a mortgage, and others own their home. Some people are facing car payments, while others are not. Some people are pushing hard for their savings goals, while others have them a little more on the back burner. Some are paying off student loans, while others are not. Some live in a high cost of living area, while others live in a low cost of living area.
The only rule that applies here is to give yourself enough so that it feels like breathing room and freedom, but not enough that you’re going to continue down a path of financial trouble.
The real goal here isn’t the limit. The real goal is to make you stop and think about your non-essential purchases and ask yourself whether they really add value to your life. Every single time you pull out that credit card, that question should be on your mind. “Does this really add value to my life? Does it add enough value to be a part of that incidental spending limit for the month?”
This is the single most important thing you can do when it comes to credit card use. Be mindful of everything you put on there and set some reasonable limits for yourself so that you don’t inadvertently overspend. If you do that, you’ll avoid the vast majority of credit card problems.
In the end, the best way to get maximum value out of your credit card is to exhibit self control. If you’re purchasing more than you can afford with the aid of a credit card, eventually you’re going to be facing down a mountain of debt with hundreds of dollars of interest accrued per month.
If you’re consistently spending within your means, you’ll soon reach a point where there is always more than enough in your checking account to pay off your credit card in full each month – and that’s exactly what you should do.
Another thing worth considering is choosing the right credit card. In general, it’s not all that useful to have lots of different credit cards, because you’re adding management effort and identity theft risk with every card you add. (There are some strategies that involve using lots of credit cards, but that’s a separate topic entirely and it’s a strategy that can easily backfire if not played carefully.) Instead, it’s a good idea to just have one or perhaps two cards that are carefully chosen to maximize value.
The most effective way to do that is to choose a card or pair of cards that offers you maximum benefit for the retailer(s) you use the most while still offering some benefit elsewhere. In other words, you want a Visa or MasterCard or American Express card that you can use at other locations besides your primary retailer, but the card offers really strong benefits associated with that retailer.
Cards like this are generally not listed among the “best” credit cards because, frankly, they’re hard to evaluate and they’re different for each person. Cards that are mentioned among the “best” cards are the ones that offer the best benefits without association with a particular retailer, but if you do a large portion of your shopping through a single retailer or two, a card associated with that retailer is going to be a tremendous bargain.
Let’s say, for example, that you shop at Target quite frequently, doing your grocery shopping and household shopping there. The Target REDCard Mastercard gives you 5% off all of your purchases there. A Costco credit card gives you 4% off all gas bought at Costco and 2% off of all other purchases there (and 3% off of restaurants and other specific purchases), so if you buy gas at Costco, it’s pretty hard to beat that for a fee-free card, especially if you commute. If you shop on Amazon a lot for household supplies and nonperishable foods and have an Amazon Prime account, the Amazon Visa gives you 5% back on all of your Amazon purchases in the form of Amazon credit.
Those discounts are really hard to beat in terms of a general purpose card. You can beat them with some introductory offers if you jump through lots of hoops, but those introductory offers rarely translate into lasting benefits.
What if you can’t clearly name a preferred retailer? If that’s the case, then one of the best rewards credit cards makes sense.
What about APR? Here’s the thing – if you are using a credit card effectively and getting maximum value from it, the interest rate does not matter because you’ll never be paying it. Interest rates on credit cards only matter if you carry a balance from month to month, and if you’re carrying a balance from month to month, you’re already not getting the maximum value from your credit card.
In summary, the cornerstones of successful credit card use are mastering where your money goes, consciously limiting non-essential spending, using a sensible card, and paying it off in full each month. If any of those cornerstones fail, then you aren’t getting maximum value out of using a credit card. If multiple ones fail, then you’re better off using your checking account and debit card to pay for your expenditures, because your credit card is definitely costing you money.
Good luck!
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The post A Simple Guide to Getting Maximum Value from Your Credit Cards appeared first on The Simple Dollar.
