By Holly Reisem Hanna Getting paid to surf the web sounds like a dream, right? Well, surprisingly, there are a quite a few companies that will pay you for doing this sort of work online! These work-at-home opportunities range from beginner (payouts in gift cards and sweepstake entries) to intermediate and full-time gigs. Some jobs […]
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Hey, hey.
From the title of this post you probably thought you were getting another Jeff Rose classic.
But, nope, sorry to disappoint. It's the wife.
Hi y'all. I'm Mandy.
Yes, I highjacked the husband's blog today in honor of Father's Day.
He's taken over my blog on more than one occasion, but I must say, I was a little intimidated to take over the infamous Good Financial Cents.
Which is why I thought it was only appropriate for me to at least offer you some financial advice in the process. Ha!
If you came looking for financial tips, BOOM.
I got you covered.
But I also wanted the opportunity to tell you more about the man behind the money posts. Because this man? Is way more than just a finance guru.
He's more than just a provider for our family or a disciplinarian to our children.He's an amazing husband and father.
He's a lover of Jesus with a heart of gold.
He would give the shirt off his back for any of you who needed it and he always strives to learn more, help more, pray more and love more deeply.
If you're still looking for the money lessons part… be patient. I'll get to that.
First I wanted to share this sweet video that our boys made for him. They absolutely adore their dad and I think that shines through when you watch them talk about him.
Without further ado, here are our three wild boys talking about “all things daddy”…
We love you Jeff Rose and are so thankful you make fatherhood such a priority on your ever-so-long list of hats you wear. You are one of a kind!
Now, to the less important news of the day. 😉
I'm feeling like I have an unfair advantage here with Jeff as my partner in life because he is so smart about money. In today's society it feels like kids are being taught less and less about the importance of money.
But in our household, he preaches money lessons every chance he can get.
He tends to break down learning about money into four categories: Work, spend, save and give.
This one is all about WORK.
It's vital to teach your kids that money is nothing like peaches. It doesn't grow on trees. Wouldn't that be nice?
Enlist your kids to help around the house. Whether it be emptying the dishwasher, making their bed, brushing their teeth, cleaning up their toys, taking out the trash… teach them that if they complete the duties they are assigned, they will earn a commission.
Not an allowance. A commission.
Stop giving your kids money for just being and teach them that if they want money to buy things? They must earn it. Here are some great tips on ways to earn money fast for some extra spending money with your family, or extra to invest, the choice is yours!
This lesson is on how to SPEND.
Here's your chance to teach them about priorities. Have you ever given your kid $10 only to realize that they immediately spent it without even thinking? This happens over and over and over again with kids (and adults) and it's why so many people can never “get ahead”, as they say.
You can't get ahead when you don't understand spending.
The ice cream truck visits our house every Saturday afternoon about 3:00 pm. Our kids can hear that thing from miles away. I cringe because I know we are about to pay five times the price for ice cream that I technically already have in my freezer.
So, Jeff started teaching them that if they want ice cream from the ice cream truck, they will need to spend their own money. Yes, money that they earned.
But he also uses this as a chance to teach them that when they blow their money on overpriced ice cream, there will be no chance to save for that new bike or Xbox game that they've been wanting.
Let's move on to SAVE.
It might seem boring to kids, but spend lots of time teaching them the importance of saving. If your child heads off to college with little knowledge of what it means to save? They will be in a world of hurt and worse yet, a world of debt that will ruin them.
Have them put their commission in a piggy bank. Better yet, make sure it's a clear piggy bank so they can see their money growing.
My favorite lesson of all, how to GIVE.
Jeff does this one well when he teaches them about tithing.
He doesn't just give them a few $1 bills in the church parking lot before we head into service, he makes them use their own money to tithe.
Trust me, the impact of making them give their own money is so valuable.
These are just a few things that my husband does to teach our children about money.
The best thing you can do is be open to talking to your children about money and talk about it often. Be there to answer any questions they have and help guide them along the way.
Money 101 isn't offered as a college course so we MUST, as parents, be dedicated to teaching our children the importance of working, spending, saving and giving.
Use every moment you can as a teachable money lesson and your kids will grow up to be money experts!
The post 4 Money Lessons Dads Can Teach Their Kids appeared first on Good Financial Cents.
Living in New York City, I’m often disappointed in the quality of produce offered at the supermarkets. It’s not uncommon for carrots to wilt within a day, or for spinach to quickly turn into green mush even when it’s kept in the refrigerator’s “crisper” drawer. (Is anyone else certain that this has literally no effect on any produce put into it?)
For the prices we pay, it’s a pretty demoralizing vegetable situation.
That being the case, I often dream of having a small vegetable garden. Surely my food would stay fresher for longer, if I harvested my own.
Unfortunately, that goal is a long way off. I don’t have a yard, or even a balcony. Turns out, it’s hard to find space to garden when you live in a 70-square-mile borough that has more residents than San Francisco, Seattle, and Portland combined. But, I know there are many green-thumbed city dwellers who have access to small yards and community garden plots, or who even make do with windowsills. Can these folks get quality produce — along with a good bang for their buck – if they grow their own food?
We’ll explore that question with help from Erik Groszyk, a professional urban farmer in New York who works at the farming startup Square Roots.
Let’s dig in.
Erik suggests a would-be urban gardener start out in a way that might seem counterintuitive at first: by doing nothing. Well, nothing in terms of planting.
When you have a smaller space to work with, location is key, so you’re going to want to take the time to pick the perfect spot to place your plants. Erik recommends at least a week spent simply observing different conditions. Rushing into something and then having to backtrack ensures you’ll waste money.
The most important thing is to “note the position of the sun and what areas get the most light,” Erik says. “If you can understand the conditions of your garden, and choose crops that thrive in those conditions, you’re setting yourself up for success.” He suggests putting your plants in an area that gets a minimum of five to six hours of direct sunlight per day, and he recommends the average city dweller start with a five-foot by five-foot plot or raised garden bed.
This almost goes without saying, but a backyard city garden is not the place to experiment with growing heirloom artichokes. It’s best to stick with simple staples that are known to be cost-effective and low maintenance.
The National Garden Bureau maintains a list of crops that have been rated based on overall efficiency. The Bureau determines this by looking at total yield per square foot, average value per pound, and length of time in the garden. The top five items on the list are tomatoes, onions, lettuce, turnips, and squash.
I ran that list by Erik, and he mostly agreed, but also thought a few more “super productive” plants could easily be at the top of the list — including strawberries, kale, herbs, and eggplant.
These might be good crops to start with. Of course, what grows well will vary by region, and you should monitor the local prices of various items to make sure you’re growing plants that will save you money over going to the store. (It’s also important to grow vegetables that you and your family actually want to eat and feel comfortable cooking with.)
Erik noted that in order to maximize your returns, you’ll want to plant crops that can be harvested quickly. “Time to maturity is key,” he said. “The shorter this window, the more times you can plant that type of plant in a limited season.”
For example, if you’re a potato addict like myself, you might be interested in growing your own potatoes. But, those spuds take a long time to mature and can be labor intensive for a rookie.
If you really want to grow a root vegetable, turnips would be a better bet. Erik explained why they rank so high on the efficiency list: “A turnip will mature in 30 to 50 days, depending on the variety. They’re also cold-tolerant, so you can start them early and grow them late into the season. You might be able to get six or more successions of that crop in a single year!”
Salad greens are another space where you can accrue considerable savings. Consider that pre-washed grocery store lettuce can easily run you $5 for a 10-ounce bag where I live. That’s enough for a couple of salads; I tend to eat a salad per day. It gets expensive.
Lettuce (No. 3 on the NGA efficiency list) is easy to grow, even in low-light conditions. A few dollars worth of seeds should provide you with a steady supply of salad greens for five to six months out of the year, depending on where you live.
On the fruit front, raspberries are a good, low-maintenance option to try out. They go for a ridiculous $5 per pint on average, so if you eat a lot of them, it adds up fast. Erik had great success with his recent harvest, planting two-inch tall raspberry plants that turned into six-foot, fruit-bearing behemoths by the end of the year. Even better, horticulturist Sue Sanders points out that raspberries can be grown in containers on a sunny deck or patio, as long as the container is at least 24 inches in diameter.
For fruit lovers living in cramped Brooklyn hobbit holes like myself, raspberries are an especially intriguing option.
There are certain pairs of plants that traditionally grow very well together in confined spaces. They have a symbiotic relationship, which means the plants help each other out, and thus require less inputs from the farmer. This means less time spent monitoring your garden, which is key for a busy urbanite.
Erik points out tomato and basil as being the classic example of such a symbiotic system. “Tomatoes get tall and provide shade to the basil, which doesn’t always do well in direct sun. And the strong scent of basil will disguise tomato plants from pests,” he says. “When working in a tight space, it’s important to utilize these types of beneficial relationships.”
Building on that, keep in mind that crops like turnips, beets, and carrots have greens attached to them. Even though people like myself tend to discard those slightly unsavory looking greens when I buy carrots at the store, there’s no reason they can’t be eaten. Using every part of the crop will improve your haul and further drive down your produce bill. Plus, they can liven up your meals. Erik feels that carrot greens in particular “make an awesome salad.”
You might not have enough square footage for a traditional garden, but that shouldn’t hinder you from growing food. “Windowsills can be good spots to grow if you get adequate light,” Erik says. “Leafy greens and herbs tend to need much less light than fruiting veggies like tomatoes and cucumbers.”
Plus, herbs are big-time money savers. Thyme, rosemary, and basil are relatively easy to grow and cost a pretty penny in the store. At my local co-op food store, very small bags of each of those go for $2 to $4 a pop. I cook with those herbs on a very regular basis, and can easily spend $20 to $30 dollars a month on herbs alone. Reducing that cost to essentially zero would save me hundreds of dollars over the course of the year.
With a bit of determination, flexibility, and foresight, anyone can create a cost-effective garden, even in tight urban quarters. And, according to Erik, it shouldn’t take you all that much time. He thinks that “a well-organized and thoughtfully planned garden can require less than five hours of work a week after the initial setup.”
So, with as little space as a sunny windowsill and five hours a week, you can start to accrue significant savings over store-bought food. Sounds like a good deal to me.
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The post Five Ways to Get the Most Bang for Your Buck from a Small Garden appeared first on The Simple Dollar.
Travel planning is complicated.
Between packing, finding flight or train routes, arranging accommodations, locating someone to watch your pets and water your plants and all the other 10,000 details that go into business and pleasure trips, it’s a wonder anyone goes anywhere at all.
But one question that pops up a lot during trip planning is whether or not to purchase travel insurance.
On the one hand, it’s hard to put a price tag on peace of mind that comes with knowing you’ll get some or all of your money back if your travel plans go awry.
On the other hand, travel insurance does come with an actual price tag — and an expensive one at that.
So is travel insurance a must-have or is it worth the risk to pass up?
Here’s how to tell whether it’s worth it to buy travel insurance for your next trip.
Before we dive into the pros and cons, let’s take a look at the most common options that travelers can buy individually or as part of a comprehensive package.
If you get sick or injured while traveling outside the U.S., your health insurance, including Medicare, may not cover any treatment or medication you receive (be sure to check with your insurer before you leave).
In the event of an emergency, you can contact the local embassy to locate appropriate medical services, but the State Department will not help pay your medical bills.
Emergency medical insurance provides a safety net to help you pay unexpected medical bills that could add up to hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars.
Every traveler worries they’ll be parted from their luggage at some point during their trip and end up wearing convenience-store flip flops and their travel companion’s underpants.
Luggage insurance won’t get your bags back to you any faster, but it will reimburse you for the money you spend buying replacement clothing, toiletries and medication.
It’s difficult to think about something tragic happening while traveling, but unexpected things can occur. Accidental death insurance is similar to a life insurance policy and pays out benefits to your designated beneficiary.
From flight delays that cause a missed connection to resort reservations caused by a hurricane, there are so many things that can cause your trip to be delayed or cancelled. Some policies also cover circumstances that cause you to have to cancel your trip.
Trip cancellation or interruption insurance typically reimburses you the the cost of your travel expenses if your trip is cancelled or the cost of return tickets home if your trip is interrupted.
1. If your itinerary involves a lot of flights and stopovers, each one is a potential fail point.
A nonstop flight to an all-inclusive Carribean resort in the springtime is less of an an insurance risk than a month-long tour of Europe with 12 destinations during the height of blizzard season.
2. If you’re headed someplace where there is civil or political unrest, travel insurance is a good idea. A lot can happen between the time you make your reservation and when you get where you’re going.
The situation could become more volatile, your accommodation reservations might be cancelled or travel to the area could be restricted before you leave. In a worst-case scenario, you may need a non-medical emergency evacuation to take you to safety.
If you’re buying travel insurance under this scenario, be sure to read the fine print to make sure your policy specifically covers war and civil disorder.
3. Sometimes the best reason to buy travel insurance is if you won’t be able to relax on your trip without it. If worrying about something going wrong will overshadow your entire trip and keep you from enjoying yourself, spring for the coverage to ease your mind.
1. You may be able to skip travel insurance entirely if you have a credit card that offers it as a standard benefit to customers.
Call your credit card company to see if travel insurance is available to you. (While you’ve got them on the phone, have them add a travel alert to your account.)
2. All travel insurance policies are not created equal and some may not include the type of coverage you want or need. For instance, a travel insurance policy that only covers lost luggage is probably not worth it if you only travel with carry-on bags.
3. It’s usually not worth it to buy insurance for short, inexpensive domestic trips. One exception is if you’re traveling to a location that could be affected by a hurricane or other predictable event of nature (like an active volcano!) in the timeframe you plan to visit. Just make sure your policy covers natural disasters.
Many tour and cruise companies, travel agents and travel booking websites offer travel insurance to their customers. Though one-stop shopping is efficient, it may not be your best bet.
“We’re a bit uneasy about trip insurance sold by online travel agents, tour operators, and especially cruise lines,” says Frommers. “These policies can be incomplete and poorly explained.”
“Instead of buying a policy through a travel agent or booking site, go to an online broker such as InsureMyTrip.com, which sells coverage from 21 carriers,” recommends Consumer Reports.
If you decide to use your travel agent, “keep in mind that these folks often get a commission, increasing the cost to you, and you may be limited to only the options they have instead of the coverage you need,” says USA Today.
Lisa McGreevy is a staff writer at The Penny Hoarder. She’s tempting fate by admitting she doesn’t buy insurance when she travels, but she’s a risk-taker like that.
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.
