Sponsored by Intuit By Holly Reisem Hanna It doesn't matter if you're an Etsy seller, blogger, home-based business owner, freelancer, or independent contractor — you need to track your income and expenses. If you fail to do so, you can end up with some major headaches and financial penalties down the road. In fact, when […]
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When I made the decision to pursue a location independent lifestyle back in 2014, I was really just in it for the freedoms it would afford me — freedom from a job that left me unfulfilled, the freedom to travel the world at my own pace and the freedom to live each and every day with intention.
What I didn’t suspect was that this new lifestyle would actually save me loads of money, too.
Now that I’m a travel blogger and freelance writer working from wherever I please, I’m very much enjoying this unexpected perk.
Below are just a few of the many ways location independence has reduced my living expenses and allowed me to live a truly rich life.
Because I don’t work in a traditional office setting, I never have a commute to contend with, regardless of whether I’m at home or in a faraway city. This drastically reduces my transportation costs when compared to someone with a 9 to 5 job.
When I’m in the US, I work from home rather than a cafe or a co-working space. When I’m abroad, I work from wherever I happen to be staying — typically long-term apartment rentals — or, in rare cases, I hoof it to a nearby coffee shop.
People are often surprised to learn that I don’t even own a car. In fact, I haven’t since 2009. That’s eight years of no car insurance, eight years of no gas or maintenance costs, eight years of no paid parking, and eight years of reducing my carbon footprint by choosing to travel by foot or public transportation instead.
In my home state of Washington, for instance, the average cost of a year’s worth of car insurance is estimated at $1,500 and in 2017, the average American is predicted spend more than $1,500 on gas. Without even getting into potential maintenance and repair costs, that’s already a minimum of $3,000 I’d be looking at spending annually to own a car.
Perhaps most importantly, however, not having a commute saves me an enormous amount of time each week that I’m able to put toward the things that really matter to me. This includes spending time with loved ones, expanding my mind with books, or experiencing the world through travel.
Working from home means I have no dress code — I can wear whatever I want every single day. On rare occasions when I have important Skype meetings, all I have to do is throw on a nice top and I’m good to go (pants optional).
On the even more rare occasions when I need to meet with someone in person, a dress code is usually the farthest thing from our minds. In a creative industry like blogging, we tend not to take ourselves too seriously. As long as I’m dressed modestly in a way that aligns with my brand, I’m golden.
Now that business attire is a thing of the past, I’d estimate I save at least $300 annually by shopping minimally and prioritizing versatile pieces that can be worn in a variety of settings.
In my first few years of location independence, it was not uncommon for me to move to a new city every few months or even weeks. Decent gyms were hard to come by and were not generally cost effective during short stays.
Nevertheless, I needed a fitness solution. Eventually, I realized just how little I really needed in terms of equipment and space to have an effective workout. Once I had procured a few basic pieces of gear that would travel with me wherever I went (including training shoes and a jump rope), gyms and their costly membership fees quickly became distant memories.
Gym memberships aren’t necessarily more affordable in low-cost countries, either. When I spent a month living on the remote island of Koh Tao in the Gulf of Thailand, the nearest gym charged 200 baht per visit (roughly $5.75 at the time). Had I sprung for the more affordable monthly membership, I still would have forked over a tidy sum of 2,500 baht — nearly $72.
Waving goodbye to these high fees saves a fitness devotee like myself nearly $1,000 per year.
These days, I’d rather rely on body weight exercises, yoga, and jumping rope to keep me in tip-top shape no matter where I’m living or traveling. Not only are these activities free, but they require minimal space and little-to-no equipment. If I ever get bored, there’s certainly no shortage of free workouts to try on YouTube.
Eating meals at home isn’t just economical — it’s convenient and far healthier than eating out. On the road, this is sometimes easier said than done — my accommodation isn’t always properly equipped for cooking and local restaurant options are always seriously tempting.
Since my slow pace of travel allows me to stay longer in each destination, though, I usually have enough time to try a few places without totally destroying my budget.
To keep my grocery spending under control, I follow a few basic rules:
1. Purchase only local ingredients
2. Cook as simply as possible
During short stays, I buy necessities like oil and salt and only “splurge” on additional seasonings for stays of one month or longer.
While traveling through Europe, I quickly learned that bodegas selling fresh produce and staples like bread and pasta were never far away — frequent trips to the market helped me avoid wasting food I couldn’t eat before my next move.
With these frugal habits, my eating expenses are significantly lower than when I lived a stationary life: back then it was not uncommon for me to eat out three to four times per week. Now that I eat at restaurants half as often, I easily save an extra $50 per month ($600 per year).
And since eating at home means meals happen quickly and efficiently, I can be back on task in no time. Ultimately, eating the majority of my meals at home allows me to be more productive so I can spend less time working and more time living (but the savings are pretty sweet, too).
It was the travel obsession of my early 20s that eventually gave rise to my location independent lifestyle, and it was during those worldly wanderings that I learned just how little I needed to be happy.
While possessions might have made me feel good temporarily, my experiences are what molded me into the person I was meant to be. Possessions could be lost, they could be stolen or they could break. Possessions were fleeting, and my attachment to them only caused me suffering. The experiences, on the other hand, became a part of me.
When I returned home to Washington in 2013 after my first two years of living and traveling abroad, I was able to part easily with everything I no longer needed. I held yard sales to make some quick cash, and everything that didn’t sell was donated.
My remaining items fit neatly into just a few suitcases, and while I accumulate new stuff just like everybody else, I also downsize regularly. Anything that no longer serves a purpose or sparks joy in me has to go.
Owning more could have meant shelling out money for a self-storage unit ($45 per month just for a small one), but instead, what I own travels with me. Had I never overcome my attachment to material things, I’d be paying for it dearly — to the tune of at least $540 per year.
These days, possessions feel more like a burden than a blessing, and I make a conscious effort to purchase things out of necessity rather than extravagance. That way, I have what I need — no more, no less — and instead of wasting my mental faculties worrying about my belongings (or paying to store them), I can focus on the things that matter.
And when the day comes that I decide to pick up and move again — because I can and I will — it will be a downright walk in the park.
Leah Davis is the founder of the travel and lifestyle blog The Sweetest Way and author of Take Your Life Back: Finding Freedom Through Location Independence. She has traveled in over 30 countries and is currently living a location independent lifestyle in Washington state.
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.
“The year 1776, celebrated as the birth year of the nation and for the signing of the Declaration of Independence, was for those who carried the fight for independence forward a year of all-too-few victories, of sustained suffering, disease, hunger, desertion, cowardice, disillusionment, defeat, terrible discouragement, and fear, as they would never forget, but also of phenomenal courage and bedrock devotion to country, and that, too they would never forget.”
― David McCullough, 1776
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
I find the words of the Declaration of Independence to be incredibly inspiring. You have a group of people who are dissatisfied with their lot in life, who recognize that they have the ability to build a life for themselves that’s closer to their ideals, and they’re stepping forward and taking action based on that ability.
They knew it meant big changes. They knew it meant a rough road ahead for them. They knew that many people they once considered allies and friends were going to laugh in their faces and possibly even work against them.
Still, they persisted on. They dreamed of something more for themselves and their countrymen.
On this day in 1776, our founding fathers declared it to be their independence day.
When will it be your independence day?
When you make the choice to turn your financial life around, you are a revolutionary of sorts. You’re making the active choice to step away from the financial train wreck that many Americans find themselves heading toward, even though those changes aren’t easy and definitely aren’t supported by the culture of the day. That’s an act that takes a great deal of courage, especially when you persist with it.
The lessons of the American revolution shine through brightly on the path to financial independence.
The path to financial independence requires you to want a new direction so badly that you’re willing to make fundamental changes to your life.
In the revolutionary years, the colonists were willing to give up all of the safety and protection given to them by the British Empire in order to be able to establish their own path in the world. They were willing to give up quite a lot of safety in order to achieve the liberty they wanted.
It wasn’t easy. It was far easier for them to simply remain a part of the British Empire, to continue to pay the outrageous taxes that King George demanded, to enjoy the benefits of being a part of the British Empire. The desire to be free simply was too great for them, and they signed that declaration on that fateful day.
What do you want? What are you willing to give up for it? What are you willing to change about your life for it?
Just like freedom, financial independence isn’t a right, nor is it a gift given to you by others. It’s something that you have to work for, or else you find yourself right back under someone else’s control. Do you want to be steered by the whims of your employment for the rest of your life? Or do you want to be captain of your ship, steering it where you want to go?
The path to financial independence means giving up some of the easiest grooves in the road ahead.
It was undoubtedly more convenient for the colonists to set sail and do business under the flag of the British Empire. It enabled access to ports and kept pirates at bay. It enabled favorable trade with a lot of people. It enabled a free flow of many types of luxury goods. Throwing off those conveniences definitely meant a convenient and pleasurable life, in the short term.
But at what cost?
There’s no doubt that spending money gives us conveniences. The ability to just go to a nice restaurant for every meal spares us having to worry about the effort needed to prepare food. The ability to just buy whatever book we want at any time using Amazon spares us from having to actually go to the library or actually return books. The ability to hire someone to do our laundry or clean our house spares us from the drudgery of those chores.
Yet, when we do that, we are trading financial freedom for convenience. We cede more control over our future to our employers and to our customers. We give them more and more power over our lives in exchange for the ability to not have to cook up a pan of scrambled eggs or do a load of laundry for ourselves.
The path to financial independence isn’t an easy one, but it’s a free one. It’s one where, as you travel down that path, you find yourself less and less under the control of a cruel boss or an unforgiving job market. You control those things now, rather than them controlling you.
Sure, you give up things like some restaurant meals or perhaps your cable bill or maybe you go on a less luxurious trip for a few summers, but from that you gain freedom and lose stress.
The path to financial independence means going against some of the things that society seems to expect of you.
If you paid your taxes and swore loyalty to the crown, you were accepted as a citizen of the British Empire. That’s what was expected of you in the colonies in those days, and to do otherwise meant that you quickly aroused suspicion. Even as the war began, the cities and the countryside were filled with loyalists. Before the revolution? You have to be careful because, as a revolutionary, you were going against the grain of society.
Much like the spirit of 1776, charting your own path to financial freedom means bucking a lot of the prevailing trends of the moment. Modern society is set up to encourage you to spend, spend, spend. Turn on almost any television program and you see people showing off expensive products and doing expensive things and they’re all beautiful and you’re supposed to want to be like them. The commercials are even more geared toward that. Flip through most magazines and it’s the same – lots of articles about spending money on stuff and experiences. The same is true for many websites, too. The core idea of modern America seems to be to spend, spend, spend so you, too, can be beautiful and happy.
Financial independence takes either a great deal of luck or a conscious rejection of that core idea (or both). You don’t need stuff to be happy. You don’t need to be some specific definition of beautiful, either. You just need to be you, committed to some real core values that aren’t centered around an endless array of stuff.
Go against the grain.
The path to financial independence means finding new ways to do things.
Back in those days, the soon-to-be United States acquired most of its goods from other parts of the British Empire, which made it easy to acquire all kinds of things (while stripping America of its wealth through taxation, but that’s a whole different story).
The path to independence for the colonies involved losing those advantages. They could no longer rely on a steady stream of tea or coffee or fruits or anything else they couldn’t grow directly at home. They had to find new ways of doing things – new trading partners, new industries at home, and so forth.
The path to financial independence for you is much the same. If you keep doing things the way you’ve always been doing things, you’re going to get the same results you’ve always been getting. If you want financial independence, you’re going to have to do some things differently.
For most people, that big change is a reduction in spending. Financial independence requires spending substantially less than you earn and saving the difference, and the real impact of that on day-to-day life is less spending on unnecessary things. This means finding new hobbies, rethinking old ones, letting go of some less-important luxury goods, shopping around for things like insurance, and so on. For many people, those are new ways of doing things, different than the patterns they’ve adopted in their adult life.
Are you up to the challenge? George Washington was. Thomas Jefferson was. They walked the path to independence. Will you?
The path to financial independence may require letting go of old friendships.
During those days, the colonists were split among those who were loyal to the British crown and those who wished for independence. Neighbors often couldn’t trust neighbors. Neighborhoods and communities were split. Sometimes, even the people that were most trusted turned out to have unexpected allegiances, such as Benedict Arnold.
As the colonists fought for independence, many old relationships fell by the wayside. In an effort to fight for something new, they had to let go of some old things, too.
You may find the same phenomenon on your own path to financial independence. You may find yourself surrounded by people who aren’t supportive of your goals, who claim that it is impossible. You may find that old friends who once spent a lot of time with you now avoid you because you’re not spending great deals of money on the latest things. Those changes can hurt.
Remember this, however: if a friend ceases to be your friend because you’re working to improve yourself, how good of a friend is that person? If a person was only in your life because of the things you spent your money on, were they friends with you or your money?
Some friendships may fall, but thankfully many will remain true.
The path to financial independence likely requires building new friendships, too.
It wasn’t too many years before the signing of the Declaration of Independence – just thirteen years, in fact – that the colonies were at war with France (via the French colony of New France) in the French-Indian War. For American independence to succeed, the colonists had to find new friends in unexpected places and the French were chief among them.
Not too long before, the French were the sworn enemies of the colonists. Scarcely fifteen years later, people like Lafayette and Rochambeau were essential pieces of America’s fight for independence.
Just as with those colonists, your path to financial independence may find you forging new friendships as well. You’ll find that, as you engage in new activities and learn new ways of doing things, you meet new people who appreciate you with fresh eyes, and you may even run into old acquaintances who now see you differently.
Welcome those new friendships. Let them become a part of your life. You’ll find that these new friendships are powerful ones, as they’re founded on the basis of the values of freedom and independence upon which you now base your financial aims.
The path to financial independence means having courage and not being afraid of change.
There are many moments during America’s Revolutionary War that show incredible courage, but I want to mention one in particular, Joseph Plumb Martin. Martin was a light infantryman during the Revolutionary War who later published a narrative of his experiences, which can widely be found under the title A Narrative of a Revolutionary Soldier.
His book isn’t one of heroics. Instead, it’s about ordinary life as a Revolutionary War soldier. He doesn’t talk about the people we think of as Revolutionary heroes. Instead, he elevates the role of the regular soldier, putting the spotlight on the huge individual sacrifices and pains and challenges that so many anonymous people accepted in those years. It’s about courage and guts in the face of change and in the face of challenging events.
It is hard to muster courage when the road is hard. It’s easy to want to quit and to take a simpler path, but the simpler path rarely leads to anything more than regret at a chance missed.
Don’t let your life be a chance missed. Put on your courage and march down a different path. When challenge faces you, push through it. Make the most of it. Push for something bigger. You don’t have to be anyone special to do this, just a person with some fire in their belly. Just like Joseph Plumb Martin.
The path to financial independence means charting your own path, often beyond the familiar patterns.
Out of the ashes of the Revolutionary War, the citizenry of the United States, without any form of active government in place, came together to unite under a collective governance, writing their own Constitution. Such a thing had never been accomplished before – constitutions before then, when they existed, had always been created by those already in power rather than by elected or nominated representatives of the citizenry.
They forged a new path, different than all those before them, and the document they created endures today.
Today, we live in a nation where three quarters of the people don’t have any sort of emergency fund and a strong majority have no retirement savings beyond what Social Security can provide for them. The mere thought of having enough money to retire early or to live financially independent of the need to work sounds preposterous to most citizens.
And, yet, it’s a path that some among us still try to accomplish. It is a rarely-trodden path. It’s likely far different than the path of many around you. Yet the way forward is clear, if you take the time to look around you, evaluate your options, learn good strategy, and take that first step.
The path to financial independence is a long one that requires patience and will include many difficult battles.
The path to independence for the colonists was not an easy one. The war was nearly lost more than once. Many hard winters were faced. Many challenges were overcome. It took thirteen years from the signing of that Declaration for our nation to form, with many of those years in outright warfare and others spent trying to form a nation out of a bunch of fiercely independent colonies with wildly divergent ideas.
Those individuals, however, were driven by a desire to have a life different than the one they once had, a life that enabled them to pursue their dreams without a burden upon their shoulders. They were willing to fight and sacrifice for that opportunity.
Your path will not be a short one. It will take many years to achieve your big financial goals. There will be moments when it is incredibly hard. You will face challenges, and it will be up to the quality and determination of your character to overcome them, to achieve your dreams.
Are you up to that challenge?
Take the path set before you.
Today, you may find yourself celebrating the independence won by the generation of 1776. As you enjoy your cookout and your fireworks show, may it remind you of the ideals they cherished, the challenges they faced, and the great victory that they won.
And as you drift off to a pleasant sleep afterwards, ask yourself whether you’re ready to take up their standard and make today your independence day.
Good luck.
The post Your Financial Independence Day appeared first on The Simple Dollar.
New cars come with a certain prestige.
That new car smell, shiny exterior and the knowledge that no one has eaten their lunch in it is enough for some to justify the cost. While buying a used car might be cheaper in the long run, sometimes the peace of mind that comes with a new car wins out.
So when you’re weighing whether leasing a car vs. buying is the best deal, here are some things to consider.
When you buy a car, you’re paying for the entire value of the car. Not including down payment, interest and fees, if you buy a $36,000 car and finance the entire amount over 36 months you’ll have a $1,000 monthly payment.
In a lease, you pay back only the depreciation of the vehicle. A $36,000 car will lose half its value in three years so without a down payment, interest and fees, you’ll pay $18,000 over 36 months equaling a $500 monthly payment.
At the end of the 36-month lease, you can opt to buy the car for the remaining balance or turn the car in and walk away. But 36 months after buying a car, you could own the car outright, have years of payments left or be upside down in it, depending on your loan terms.
With a car lease, you can drive the latest model off the lot with little to no down payment. And you don’t have to worry one iota about the 10-20% it just dropped in value!
Monthly lease payments are usually lower than buying a car and besides routine maintenance costs, all maintenance is covered by the dealership. In a typical three-year lease, you’ll also be able to take full advantage of the manufacturer’s bumper-to-bumper warranty.
At the end of the lease, you drop it off and walk away — or drive away. If you decide to buy the car at the end of your lease, any principal you paid will go toward your purchase of the car.
One word: fees.
Acquisition fees range between $250 and $1,000, disposition and early termination fees range between $200 and $450, and wear and tear fees —which are at the discretion of the dealer — that run you between $100 and $200. Mileage is usually capped at 12,000 to 15,000 per year. If you go over that, you’ll pay a fee of about 15 cents to 30 cents per mile.
Then there are the increased expenses. Interest rates, called rent charges, are higher for leased vehicles, as are insurance premiums. And you might also be required to put down a security deposit.
Whew.
The biggest con is that when your lease is up, you’ll have no car and no equity to put into a new one.
The major pro to buying a new car is that it’s cheaper overall than leasing. The six-year cost of buying a new car is an average $5,059 less than to lease a car for two cycles of three years.
When you buy a new car, you can drive it as long as you want, and at the end of the loan term, you’ll have no more payments. That means you’ll pay less for insurance and have more money for other financial goals.
And while leased cars are usually base models, a car you own is fully customizable to your needs. When you decide you’re done with that car, you’ll get any equity in the sale to put toward your next purchase.
Besides that roughly $2,500 your car will lose in value as soon as you drive your car off the lot, you could end up owing more than it’s worth if you take out a longer loan. If you need to sell while you’re upside down, you’ll either have to pay the difference out of pocket or roll the negative equity into your next car.
You’ll be responsible for all maintenance, and the manufacturer’s warranty will usually expire after three to four years or 50,000 miles. And while there’s no fee for excessive wear and tear, it will affect the resale value.
Another factor to note is that while interest rates appear low in ads, in reality, you usually pay more than the advertised rate because of your credit and the length of the loan.
Leasing allows you to drive a new car every few years for an affordable price without worrying about lost equity or maintenance. So if you’re more interested in new technology and low monthly payments, a lease is the right move for you.
But if you’re a true Penny Hoarder, you’ll probably want to buy vs. leasing a car. Take out a loan of less than five years, and make your payments every month. You’ll end up with no car payments and save on interest in the long run.
And trust me when I say driving a car you’ve paid off feels so good.
Jen Smith is freelance writer and passionate used car purchaser. Visit her blog at SavingwithSpunk.com, or say hi on Twitter @savingwithspunk.
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.
Ah, lazy Sundays. For some, this well-cherished day of the week is exciting for a reason besides relaxation — one that involves scissors and careful planning: weekly coupon inserts.
If you’re a Penny Hoarder, you might be into couponing, even if you’re not extreme. Everyone knows how awesome coupons can be for reducing your grocery bill, but you can only get so many of them. Is it possible to get more?
I’ve seen coupons listed on eBay, and there are websites that actually sell coupons. This got me thinking: Can you really buy and sell coupons?
Short answer: no.
I spoke with Bud Miller, executive director of the Coupon Information Corp. (CIC), a nonprofit association that fights coupon misredemption and fraud. “Consumers should never pay money for coupons. Period,” he said.
Why?
All coupons have a non-transferability clause stating they are “void if transferred, bought, sold, traded, exchanged for cash, other coupons, or certificates,” says The Balance. You don’t have to take The Balance’s word for it — just look at any coupon and read the fine print.
I grabbed a Publix coupon insert last time I went grocery shopping, and the coupon terms stated, “Reproduction or transfer of this coupon constitutes fraud.”
The CIC’s website states, “both coupon buyers and sellers open the door to potential litigation when they buy or sell coupons because they are in violation of the ‘non transferability’ clause.”
Being in violation of this clause means the coupon is void. Redeeming a voided coupon is considered redemption fraud, which is punishable by law.
“There is no universal coupon law,” said Miller. “Fortunately, the justice system’s laws are comprehensive enough that there doesn’t need to be one.”
Although there aren’t any laws specific to coupons, redeeming voided or altered coupons falls under fraud and misrepresentation.
Miller says once a customer redeems a voided coupon, it becomes a civil issue between the manufacturer, the seller of the coupon and the consumer who purchased the coupon.
Although it’s unlikely the issuing company would find out you are using a purchased coupon or pursue legal action against you, you still shouldn’t redeem a coupon that’s supposed to be void.
The rules are in place for good reason — to protect consumers, manufacturers and grocery stores.
When you purchase coupons online, there’s no way to ensure they aren’t stolen or counterfeit.
In 2015, authorities arrested four South Carolina residents and charged them with second-degree burglary and larceny for allegedly stealing garbage bags full of coupons from a local newspaper distribution center to sell them online to unsuspecting super-couponers.
In 2012, a woman from Arizona was arrested for “the largest counterfeit-coupon enterprise in U.S. history,” according to local officials. She spent two years in prison and was ordered to pay $5 million in restitution. Miller worked with law enforcement on this case, in which authorities seized $40 million worth of counterfeit coupons. Phoenix police also seized more than $1.1 million in assets.
Redeeming a stolen or counterfeit coupon also constitutes fraud.
The retailer, ultimately, is the victim because it loses out on the money from the product.
“Theft is theft whether it’s a coupon or a car or anything else of value,” Miller said. “If a person knowingly purchases fake or counterfeit coupons, they can be charged as well.”
Consumers should also be cautious about whom they provide their information to, Miller warns. When you purchase coupons, you’re providing your name, address and financial information. Supplying this info could make you vulnerable to criminal activity, such as identity theft or credit card fraud.
Some coupon-selling sites claim to have found a loophole to these rules by saying they’re charging money for the “service” of clipping and mailing coupons rather than selling coupons themselves. This way, you technically aren’t buying a coupon, and they aren’t selling it, so the coupon should still be valid.
Technically.
Miller said the workaround originated on eBay, “and it caught on, making people think it was a magic phrase.” These disclaimers are invalid, he said, and don’t carry any weight.
EBay still allows users to sell and purchase coupons, but it states in its guidelines for selling coupons that “retailers might refuse to accept coupons that have been obtained in a way that violates the terms of the coupon.”
Shows like TLC’s “Extreme Couponing” set a high — and frankly unachievable — bar for the crazy discounts you can get just by using coupons.
For example, say there’s a coupon for $1 off of a $4.99 six-pack of iced tea. But instead of purchasing the six-pack the coupon is intended for, you use a known “glitch” to redeem the $1-off coupon on a 99-cent bottle of iced tea and essentially get the item for free.
Turns out, a few of the show’s contestants allegedly redeemed counterfeit coupons they purchased online. They also used another newer black-hat couponing tactic called bar code glitching, which occurs when consumers exploit errors or weaknesses in coupon bar codes to redeem coupons on items the manufacturer didn’t intend them for.
(Bar code glitching is now better known as “glittering,” an alternative name given since retailers caught on to the glitching groups.)
As you can see, the types of discounts you see on “Extreme Couponing” aren’t based in reality, they’ve been fraudulent at times, and thet should be taken with a grain of salt. I mean, aren’t we past thinking reality TV is actual reality?
Buying and selling coupons violates the manufacturer’s terms and can constitute fraud. Not only does the sale or transfer void the coupon, but you also don’t know if the coupons are even legitimate.
Miller says buying coupons hurts everyone. Manufacturers have to add more security to to catch coupon fraud, and retailers have to spend more time looking over every single coupon.
Because fraudulent coupons cost companies money, they can also result in the loss of jobs on the manufacturer’s end and less generous coupon offers, which affects consumers.
Companies also invest lots of money in market research that involves test distributions coupons to specific areas. If people sell these coupons, the test will fail, causing the company to either pay to redo the test or scrap distribution of the coupons altogether.
This doesn’t mean you can’t find legitimate coupons online: One of our favorite sites is Coupons.com. You could also grab coupons from your local grocery store, directly from the brands or from any of these 99 places to find coupons. And all of these resources are free, as coupons should be.
Stay safe out there Penny Hoarders, and happy couponing!
Jacquelyn Pica is an editorial intern 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.
By Holly Reisem Hanna If you have a little one at home — you know how difficult it can be to get things done. But just because you have a household filled with chatter and unpredictable schedules, doesn't mean that you can't work from home. In fact, short tasks, sometimes called microtasks are the perfect […]
The post 18 Short Task Sites for Making Money from Home appeared first on The Work at Home Woman.
What would you say if I told you I make several hundred dollars each month working at home taking online surveys? Probably that I would have a very successful career in writing spam emails.
However, I’ve averaged at least $500 per month for the past few years from Amazon on their service platform called Mechanical Turk.
With the birth of my first child quickly approaching, I began thinking through all of the expenses we’d soon be incurring. Daycare, diapers, food, clothes – the list went on and on. So I started researching ways to make extra money. My wife and I already had full time jobs, so I was looking for something that I could do on the side that wouldn’t be a huge time commitment.
In my research, I found an article on Yahoo talking about making money doing surveys on Amazon Mechanical Turk. It seemed intriguing, so I decided to do some more research into it.
When I first read that I could make money doing surveys, my skeptical side immediately flashed the warning signal. If it sounds like a spammy, too-good-to-be-true money making idea on the internet, you’re better off not clicking on it. But I figured since it was hosted by Amazon, it was worth looking into.
Amazon Mechanical Turk is a site that allows “requesters” to post work to be completed at a specific price. Requesters include researchers, consumer product groups, universities, small businesses and tech giants.
The tasks they post are called HITs, or “human intelligence tasks.” Each HIT shows you the price the requester will pay for completion along with the allotted time you have to finish it. Once you complete the tasks, you submit the HIT and await payment.
The types of HITs aren’t just limited to surveys, although that is probably the most popular. They also include audio and video transcription, categorization, spreadsheet work, video annotation and YouTube video ratings to name a few. Even the survey topics vary greatly between personality, finance, consumer products, ethics, etc. At any given time, there are hundreds of thousands of tasks available on the site.
I personally prefer to work on surveys. I find them to be the simplest and most straight-forward, which means I can complete them quickly. Remember, there’s a fixed payment for each HIT so the faster you complete each task, the better your pay rate.
That does not mean you should rush through the tasks without reading instructions. It is extremely common for requesters to include “attention check” questions where they will ask you to give a specific response to a question to screen out random clicking.
Failing an attention check gives the requester the right to reject your work and not pay you for the HIT. Random clicking is worthless to them and they will pay you accordingly – meaning nothing.
I’ve found that as long as you’re reading the questions, these attention checks are extremely easy to spot. I’ve completed nearly 100,000 HITs and have never had a HIT rejected for missing an attention check question.
Ahhh, now we get to the important question. Maybe a bit anticlimactic, but the answer is: it depends. It is really all about how much time you put into it.
The HITs have different pay rates because they’re coming from different requesters. Some are notorious for paying well and others, well…not so much. Realistically I’d say you can expect $6-12/hour for the majority of HITs. On average, the pay rate for the HITs that I do are about $10 per hour. One time I caught one that paid $5 for about 2 minutes of work ($150 per hour pay rate!) so it’s all about being on the site at the right time.
As soon as you sign up, there will be a ton of work available to you. However, many of the higher paying requesters require you to complete a specific number of HITs before you can work on their tasks. 100, 500 and 1000 HITs completed are the common tiers that open up even more work.
While those numbers may sound daunting, it really isn’t that difficult to work up to. It works out exponentially where the more HITs you complete, the more that open up, the more than you can complete and so on. It took me about a month to get to 100 HITs when I didn’t really know what I was doing. But then it only took me another month to reach 500.
Like I said, I’ve completed nearly 100,000 HITs in the 3 and a half years I’ve worked with Amazon Mechanical Turk, so basically everything is open to me.. At this point, I typically average at least $500 per month, although in 2016, I averaged more than $1,000 per month. Again, this was all while maintaining a full time job.
What would be a realistic number if you’re just starting out? I’ve gotten a few friends of mine signed up in the past, and they were earning about $100 a week after a few weeks.
The best way to look at Mechanical Turk earnings is from an hourly rate standpoint. When I’ve told some people about it, they’ll scoff at the money I make. “Oh big deal, you just made 50 cents on that survey. Will you be picking me up in your Ferrari later?” Sure, it was 50 cents, but it took me 2 minutes. That’s a pay rate of $15 an hour that I just made from home sitting on my computer.
Even if you don’t have a lot of free time to spend working on the site, every little bit counts. Initially I tried to set goals for myself. If I can make $20 a week, that will cover my gas bill for the month. Then when I started making more, I was determined to reach $20 per day. Even if you go for a very achievable $10 per week, that might be a dinner out each month.
So what makes Amazon Mechanical Turk worth signing up for?
Of course the site isn’t perfect. Here are some of the cons you can expect:
Visit the Amazon Mechanical Turk site to get started. Upon registering, you’ll be asked for your social security number for tax purposes. Within about 48 hours, they’ll verify your information, and then you’re ready to go.
You will begin in a “probationary period” where you need to complete at least one HIT per day for 10 days (these do not have to be consecutive days). During that time, there’s a 100 HIT maximum per day, and you can’t withdraw your money. When that period is over, you no longer have any withdrawal restrictions.
Amazon Mechanical Turk is great for those looking to earn some side income without the hassle of working a part time job. The flexibility it offers conveniently fits into my increasingly busy life. Instead of scrolling through facebook and reading about how my coworkers can’t wait for Friday, I make some extra money in my spare time.
Michael Naab is an analyst, writer and online entrepreneur. His blog TopMoneyHabits.com shares ways to earn, save and invest money. He is also the author of the ebook Side Hustle From Home: How To Make Money Online With Amazon Mechanical Turk. You can follow him on twitter @TopMoneyHabits
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.
