'Donut Boy' visits Stroud Area Regional Police

EAST STROUDSBURG — Faster than a speeding soccer ball!More powerful than a sugar rush!Able to spin really fast in a swivel chair and not get dizzy!Look! Up in the sky! It's a bird! It's a plane!No, it's Donut Boy!Alter ego of 9-year-old Tyler Carach of Century, Fla., who can use his powers to brighten any day and melt hearts with just a smile. And who, with loving mother Sheena Carach and other family and friends, is traveling the east coast on [...]

Source Business - poconorecord.com http://ift.tt/2v1MQHs

Landlord charged with perjury

EAST STROUDSBURG — A landlord is charged with lying under oath that his Washington Street tenant owes him money for repairs and that a portion of the tenant's security deposit is a realtor fee he doesn't have to return to them.Kusum Garg, 78, of Whippany, N.J., was charged Thursday with the felony offense of perjury and the misdemeanor offenses of records-tampering, theft by deception, false swearing and evidence-tampering/fabrication. Garg was released on bail and is [...]

Source Business - poconorecord.com http://ift.tt/2tovnXQ

This Survey Says Most Don’t Have Side Gigs — but the Ones Who Do Make Bank

Side hustles seem to be all the rage right now — and for good reason.

A new study commissioned by Bankrate.com found an average person makes an extra $9,948 a year with their side gig.

Record scratch.

Whoa. That’s not just pennies.

But here’s the kicker: In the same survey of more than 4,600 people, only 19% said they actually do something on the side to snag some extra income. Millennials lead the way among age groups, but even for people between the age of 18 and 26, 72% said they only work a single job.

Think only city slickers take advantage of the gig economy? Think again. The survey showed 22% of rural folks do work on the side — that’s compared to 20% of those living in urban areas.

And 11% of survey respondents older than 71 said they have a side hustle. Talk about the golden years.

We here at The Penny Hoarder consider ourselves side hustle experts — after all, we’re all about putting more money in your pockets. So here’s how you can jump on the side gig bandwagon (or at least get that bandwagon fired up and chugging along.)

A Few of Our Favorite Side Hustles

Make Money and New Friends

Have a spare room? Might as well use Airbnb to make some money by renting it out.

If you’re a good host with a desirable space, you could add hundreds — even thousands — of dollars to your savings account with Airbnb.

Get Your Uber On

As an Uber contractor, you’re responsible for setting your schedule and motivating yourself to work — no one is keeping tabs on you.

Your earnings will be calculated with a base fare plus time and distance traveled after your pickup. Uber also charges a service fee (20-35% depending on your city).

Here’s a link to apply with Uber.

Flex Your Brain and Make Bank

Download the Perk Pop Quiz app and pick from one of the many trivia categories — The 90s & The 2000s, Music & Movie Quotes and Famous Slogans are just a few.

The more correct answers you rack up, the more points you get. You can redeem those points for gift cards to Amazon, Starbucks, Nike, GameStop, Target and other stores.

You’re not going to get rich doing this, but it’s a fun way to make an extra $15 to $20 a month for the shows you already enjoy watching.

It’s that simple. Regardless of your age or location, you can — and should — start a side hustle.

Alex Mahadevan is a data journalist at The Penny Hoarder. He doesn’t have a side gig… yet.

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.

source The Penny Hoarder http://ift.tt/2uizNEa

9 Weird Things You Didn’t Know You Could Borrow From the Library

Did you know you can check out more than books and DVDs from your local library?

Literacy isn’t the only thing on a public library’s agenda. Libraries aim to improve access to information and provide education for everyone in their community.

Book learnin’ on how to become a carpenter or play the guitar can only take you so far. To truly master these crafts, you need tools and instruments. That’s where public libraries can help. They offer patrons of all income levels more opportunities to learn and get involved in their communities.

Check out a few unusual things you may be able to borrow from your public library.

1. Passes to Museums and Zoos

Many public libraries circulate free passes to local museums, zoos, state parks and other activities. These often cover the whole family, and some require a child under 18 to be part of your group.

Libraries that offer museum passes often have a limited number available and lend them on a first come, first served basis. It might be tough to snag one, especially during school vacations and over the summer.

If you’re itching to visit a museum for cheap, you can also take advantage of free and discounted museum days.

2. American Girl Dolls

Can’t fathom spending more than $100 on a doll? See if you can borrow one from your public library.

Though this isn’t a common item, the few public library programs across the United States that lend dolls to young patrons are extremely popular and limit the rentals to one week. Some even include a journal, so you can see where else the doll has been.

The Arlington Public Library in Virginia has an American Girl Lending Program. You can also borrow a doll from East Village branch library in New York and the Allegheny County Library Association in Pennsylvania.

Some of the dolls arrived at their temporary library homes via private donations, and the American Girl company donated others.

3. Telescopes

Budding engineers or scientists who don’t want to drop hundreds of dollars on instruments and tools can sometimes borrow them from a local public library.

Many libraries lend science tools such as microscopes, binoculars, meters, globes and even human and animal skeletons.

“Sometimes you need tools in order to do cool science projects,” Celeste Choate, the Ann Arbor, Michigan, associate director for services, collections and access told USA Today when the library began to circulate science tools. “Not everybody can afford a pH meter.”

4. Musical Instruments

Libraries lend all sorts of instruments to patrons, from banjos to guitars to electric keyboards and more.

The Ann Arbor Library circulates the most comprehensive and unusual collection of musical instruments, which includes an LSDJ Game Boy (a modified Game Boy that makes music), Otamatones (a Japanese instrument that’s nearly impossible to explain) and Boomwhackers (percussionists will love ‘em).

Some libraries, like the Seattle Public Library, have music practice rooms you can reserve. Make all the noise you want as you learn to play!

5. Hammers, Drills and Rakes

Tackle a few DIY projects or finish those nagging home improvement tasks without dropping your entire paycheck on tools.

Many libraries have a few basic tools on hand. Others, like the Oakland Public Library, have more than 3,500 tools, books and how-to videos and DVDs available to borrow.

Tool lending libraries also extend beyond public libraries.

Dedicated tool libraries in New Orleans, Louisiana; Portland, Maine; and Phoenix, Arizona, lend or rent tools. Use this map of tool lending libraries to find one near you.

6. Board Games and Puzzles

Fine tune your mad Scrabble or Monopoly skills at your public library.

Several libraries keep board games collections for patrons to play. Some allow you to check them out, but others require you play within library walls to minimize lost pieces.

Several libraries also circulate video games.

7. Cake Pans

Bake a Darth Vader, Elmo or T-rex cake for a special occasion without buying the pan. A lot of libraries have extensive cake pan collections. This one is more common than you’d think!

Here’s just a handful of libraries that lend cake pans:

• Keokuk, Iowa

• North Haven Memorial Library, Connecticut

• Coventry, Rhode Island

• Somerset, Massachusetts

• Andover Public Library, Kansas

• Albuquerque/Bernalillo Library, New Mexico

If you’ve got a theme party coming up, it’s worth a call to your local public library to see if it has a collection you can borrow from.

8. Pedometers

Community health organizations or health-care companies often donate pedometers to libraries to encourage participation in their health and wellness initiatives. See if your library is one of them.

While you’re at it, check your library’s audiobook database, so you can listen while you log your steps.

Many public libraries partner with a company called Overdrive to offer audiobooks you can download to your iPhone, Android or another MP3 device. They magically disappear when the rental period ends.

9. Wi-Fi Hotspots

Cutting out internet can help you save significantly on monthly expenses.

But if you work from home or are on the job hunt, it’s not easy to go without. While most libraries have public computers, you’re limited to using them during the hours the library’s open.

That’s why some libraries have come up with a way to lend internet access to patrons.

The New York Public Library allows patrons without home internet to check out Wi-Fi hotspots for six months. (Keep in mind this program is intended for patrons who can’t afford internet, not those who don’t feel like paying for it.)

Other libraries — including those in Chicago and Seattle — lend Wi-Fi hotspots for three-week periods.

Tips for Checking Out

If you don’t have a library card, you won’t have access to any of these items. So get one!

Also keep in mind many of these bizarre collections are popular — the library wouldn’t offer them if there weren’t a demand. So check with your library to see if you can place a hold or get your name on a waiting list.

Even when you do reserve materials, be prepared to wait awhile. That waiting list could be months long.

Some libraries don’t allow holds on popular items. So the best way to snag that sought-after museum pass is to be the first in line when the library opens.

Lastly, nothing from the library is truly free if you don’t return it on time. The fines for these overdue items may be much heftier than those for returning a book or DVD a day late. Double-check the rental period — which is often different from that for books — and be sure to return everything on time.

Betsy Mikel is a Chicago-based freelance copywriter. She loves biking all over every city she visits to find its best taqueria.

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.

source The Penny Hoarder http://ift.tt/2sZ2eTC

6 Times Paying With a Debit Card Could Put You at Risk

While it might seem like using credit cards could hurt your finances because of the potential to rack up a huge amount of debt, you might be surprised that using debit cards can also be risky — but for different reasons.

The Differences Between Debit vs. Credit Cards

Although debit and credit cards may look the same, they’re completely different financial tools. I’m sure you’re familiar with how they work:

• A credit card allows you to make purchases using borrowed money that you have to pay back with interest over time.

• A debit card allows you to make purchases using your own money that’s linked to a bank checking or savings account.

But what you may not know is that credit and debit cards offer very different levels of legal and financial protection.

Debit cards give you fewer rights than a credit card, so it’s important to understand your potential liability.

What’s the Risk of Using a Credit Card?

First, let’s cover what happens if someone steals your credit card. Fortunately, you get some really nice protection thanks to a federal law called the Fair Credit Billing Act (FCBA).

This law is one of the reasons I prefer using credit instead of debit. The FCBA says if a thief takes your card or even just steals the card number and takes off on a shopping spree, you’re responsible for no more than $50.

It doesn’t matter if a cyber criminal hacks your credit card number online and then uses it to kick back in a five-star hotel in Maui for a week — you won’t have to pay more than $50. Plus, many credit card issuers offer fraud protection that completely eliminates your liability.

The protection gets even better if you become aware that your credit card is lost or stolen and report it before unauthorized charges are made. In that case, you’re not even responsible for $50 — you’re completely off the hook!

The FCBA protects you from unauthorized charges on revolving accounts, including credit cards, charge cards, retail store cards, gas cards and lines of credit. The law also protects you against other issues like being charged for unaccepted goods, undelivered goods or other formal disputes you make.

These are terrific protections that should make you feel confident about using a credit card in stores or online.

What’s the Risk of Using an ATM or Debit Card?

Now, let’s review what happens if someone steals your ATM or debit card. These cards are regulated by a federal law called the Electronic Fund Transfer Act.

Many people mistakenly believe that because their bank is FDIC-insured, their money is protected from theft. This is dead wrong.

The FDIC reimburses you up to a certain amount if your bank goes out of business, but not if a criminal accesses your bank accounts and steals your money.

Your liability for fraudulent charges on a debit card depends on how quickly you report it lost or stolen. Unlike with a credit card, your liability with a debit card is not capped at $50 — it’s unlimited.

Here’s How It Works

If you report a missing debit card before a thief uses it, you’re not responsible for any unauthorized transactions, just like with a credit card.

If you report your debit card as lost or stolen within two business days, you’re responsible for up to $50 only.

If you report unauthorized charges from a lost or stolen debit card within 60 days after you receive a bank statement, you’re on the hook for up to $500.

If just your debit card number is stolen while you still have the card in your possession, you have a little more protection. In that case, you’re not liable for fraudulent activity if you report it within 60 days of your statement date.

However, if it takes you more than 60 days to report fraudulent charges, you have unlimited liability. That means a thief could completely drain your bank account and get away with stealing your entire balance, plus you’ll probably have bank overdraft fees.

I use my bank’s iPhone app to check my bank accounts at least once a day. I would catch any unauthorized use immediately, report it within two business days and only get stuck with a $50 liability.

But if you’re not in the habit of reviewing your bank accounts on a daily basis, please think twice about using a debit card. Or consider switching to a better bank that offers tools to make it easy to stay on top of your transactions.

Now, let’s talk about when you should avoid using a debit card.

6 Risky Situations When You Should Never Use a Debit Card

Now that you understand the potential risks associated with debit and credit cards, here are six risky situations when I recommend you never use a debit card:

1. Shopping Online

Whenever someone tells me they don’t need a credit card because they simply use their debit card to shop online or make travel reservations, I cringe!

One of the most important rules for using debit cards is to never use them online. It doesn’t matter whether you’re buying shoes, getting concert tickets, paying your power bill or booking a cruise vacation.

Buying anything online using a debit card makes you vulnerable to a cyber criminal who could steal your card number and drain your bank account linked to the card — unless you watch your transactions like a hawk and would catch fraud immediately.

2. Making a Large Purchase

When you make a big purchase, like furniture, electronics or appliances, you get much less protection if you pay with a debit card instead of using a credit card.

For instance, let’s say your furniture is delivered and you find damage that occurred during shipment.

If the furniture company won’t reimburse you or exchange the merchandise, you can dispute the charge with your credit card company. The card company will reverse your payment to the merchant and inform them that they’ve opened a dispute on your behalf.

But if you paid with a debit card, the money is taken from your account right away. The only way to settle a dispute might be to begin an expensive lawsuit.

Additionally, many credit cards also offer extended warranties. So, if your new television has a 60-day warranty, but the display goes bad after 90 days, your credit card might protect you.

Of course, you should only use a credit card if you can pay off the balance in full or if you’re intentional about financing a planned purchase using a low-rate credit card, so you pay no interest or as little as possible.

3.  Dining Out

Using a debit card in a restaurant is especially dangerous because they’re one of the few places where the card leaves your sight. The server takes it away to process and you have no idea what could have happened.

Of course, someone could also steal your credit card number. But as I mentioned, because your potential liability is so much less with a credit card, paying with cash or a credit card is a smarter way to handle a restaurant bill.

4. Buying Gas

When you swipe a debit or credit card at the pump, some gas stations place an immediate hold on your account to make sure you don’t buy more gas than you can afford.

The hold amount varies by station, but could be $100 or more, even if you only plan to buy $10 worth of gas. While this practice is almost unnoticeable on a credit card, it can be a real problem with a debit card.

Some banks may process a debit transaction at the pump for the exact amount within seconds and clear the hold immediately.

But others may keep the hold for days, freezing a certain amount of money, which could cause you to bounce other payments or have new charges denied until the hold expires.

5. Making an Upfront Deposit

When you need to pay an upfront deposit for goods or services, never use a debit card. Some examples include booking travel reservations, making a deposit to order cabinets or flooring, securing freelance services or renting equipment.

As I previously mentioned, once a debit card charge is processed and money is withdrawn from your account, it’s gone.

On the other hand, putting a deposit on a credit card gives you the ability to dispute the charge and get your money back if something goes wrong.

6. Setting Up Automatic Bill Payments

While I love the idea of setting up recurring payments to make sure expenses like loan payments, gym memberships and utilities never fall through the cracks, it can become a bookkeeping nightmare if you don’t keep a cash cushion in your account.

To protect yourself from bank overdraft fees, consider setting up automatic payments on a credit card instead.

Should You Use a Debit or Credit Card?

Because dealing with fraudulent charges on a credit card is easier and less costly than with a debit card, be cautious about the six situations I covered — or paying with debit at any establishment that seems questionable.

If you have enough discipline to pay off credit card balances in full each month, they should be your primary payment method.

Not only do they give you more security and purchase protections, but they also help you build credit, give you a precise record of your expenses and allow you to earn rewards.

All of these benefits are free, as long as you pay your credit card bill in full every month. The trick to using a credit card successfully is to pretend it’s a debit card, so you never charge more than you can pay off right away.

But if you’re not ready to use a credit card for all your purchases, simply being informed about their pros and cons compared to debit cards will help you make smarter financial decisions.

This post originally appeared at Quick and Dirty Tips, a network of podcasts and digital content offering short, actionable advice from friendly and informed authorities. Laura Adams, host of the free Money Girl podcast, is a personal finance expert and award-winning author.

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.

source The Penny Hoarder http://ift.tt/2tbe29w

16 Sneaky Ways to Get Paid While You Get in Shape

Years ago, I spent a summer working at a general store in rural Alaska. I didn’t just earn cash every day for my efforts — I also got a good workout.

Whether I was scooping rock-hard ice cream for a never-ending line of customers, scrubbing down showers or running around stocking shelves, I was always moving.

You don’t have to move to the middle of nowhere to get a workout during your work day, though. This roundup of ways to get paid to exercise offers everything from jobs involving heavy lifting to apps you can use to get paid for going to the gym.

To make the most of your efforts, combine strategies when possible. For example, wear your Fitbit while you’re leading walking tours or doing other exercise as a part of your job.

Ready to get paid to exercise? Here are 16 options:

1. Bet on Yourself With Pact

Pact‘s tagline says, “Commit to you. Earn cash for healthy living, paid by members who don’t.”

Use the app to keep track of your fitness goals — with rewards if you meet them and penalties if you don’t.

If you reach your goals, you’ll receive a small payout (generally, 30 cents to $5 per week, which you can retrieve via PayPal when you’ve accumulated $10 or more). If you don’t, you’re fined a similar charge, which goes toward paying other members.

Freelance copywriter Betsy Mikel tried using Pact for a year.

“What I liked most about the app is that it motivated me not to lose money,” she said. “I didn’t want to get charged $5 for skipping the gym.” Over the year she used the app, she made about $100 from her healthy habits.

You can download Pact on iPhone or Android. To ensure honesty, you’ll have to verify your workouts with methods like GPS and photos.

2. Lead Fitness Boot Camps

Believe it or not, some people pay good money to be screamed at before dawn. If you’re a fitness fanatic, consider going into business as a fitness boot camp instructor, and get paid to help people get in shape.

To make sure you break a sweat, do the workouts with your clients.

3. Work in a Warehouse

Lifting boxes, walking long aisles and moving heavy items are all part of a warehouse worker’s typical day. See if you can use a fitness app like Pact while you work to increase your payday.

4. Babysit

Running after toddlers all day, pushing kids on swings and playing pick-up soccer with all-star nine-year-olds is a great way to get a workout while getting paid.

Consider whether you’d prefer to chase after older kids or carry around younger ones when working as a babysitter or nanny.

5. Guide Walking Tours

Share your town with visitors, meet new people and get paid to exercise — what’s not to like? If that appeals to you, consider becoming a walking tour guide and sharing your town’s history, nature and heritage.

You can go into business yourself (after obtaining any necessary permits from your town, plus insurance), or sign up with one of several tour companies. In addition to the payments from your guests or tour company, you’ll likely also receive tips for your efforts.

Sign up with Pact to cash in even more for your exercise.

6. Teach Yoga

How’s your downward dog?

If you’re a yoga fanatic, consider becoming a yoga teacher.

Pros need to demonstrate every pose and offer guidance and variations to help students develop their practice. Many instructors can also attend other instructors’ classes for free, which is a great added bonus.

7. Fight Forest Fires

If you don’t mind long days, hard work and a bit of danger, consider going into the field of forest firefighting. These pros can make up to $40,000 during a six-month season while they’re busy keeping the rest of us safe.

Be prepared for hard, physical labor and very little sleep (usually just crashing on the forest floor for a few hours here and there) when you’re working.

8. Teach Ski Lessons

Do you dream of hitting the slopes full time, at least during the winter?

Becoming a ski instructor is a great way to save on skiing or snowboarding. You’ll spend your days on snow and snag a free pass to spend your free time on the slopes, as well — making this a great way to earn and save money.

9. Work as a Ranch Hand

Ever dreamed of working on a ranch? Becoming a ranch hand or wrangler is a summer job to remember.

This job comes with plenty of exercise. Whether mucking stalls, stringing fences or helping guests hop on and off their horses, working on a ranch involves plenty of good old-fashioned exercise.

10. Offer Landscaping Services

Spend your springs and summers outside gardening, your autumns outdoors raking leaves and cleaning up, and your winters shoveling snow to get paid to exercise — as a landscaper.

From tossing mulch to planting trees, this job will keep you moving, twisting, bending and working out. Consider working for a company or branching out on your own (with proper permits and insurance).

11. Become a Bike Messenger

Pedal your way to fitness and a paycheck by riding around delivering packages and important letters as a bike messenger. While some businesses prefer to use messengers in cars, many use bike messengers, especially in big cities where parking is a challenge.

12. Work as a Farm Hand

Whether you’re corralling livestock, plowing and seeding the fields or throwing hay, working on a farm is definitely a way to get a workout.

While many farming chores are now mechanized, every farm still needs lots of labor to keep it running. You could also volunteer a few hours a week in exchange for fresh produce, which will cut down on your grocery bills.

13. Coach or Referee Sports

Become a coach and spend your workday practicing layups with players, running warm ups, doing calisthenics and offering encouraging words. Coaches can work out right alongside their players, then jump into strategy mode and help the team craft the best path to success.

Or, if you’d prefer to officiate, grab your whistle and become a referee. Whether you choose soccer, baseball, basketball or another sport, there are plenty of youth and adult leagues looking for coaches and refs.

14. Become a Personal Trainer

Work one-on-one with clients to help them carve the chiseled physique they’re after.

Working as a personal trainer involves being able to demonstrate exercises, and sometimes you can do them alongside your client. Another perk of personal training is many of these gigs come with gym memberships, which helps you save money.

15. Lead Hiking or Climbing Expeditions

Climbing guides get even more exercise than their clients, sometimes covering extra ground by going ahead to set up camp or ropes, and often carrying extra gear.

If summiting peaks is your thing, consider becoming a certified guide and helping people accomplish their bucket-list mountain-climbing goals as you accomplish your fitness goals.

16. Guide Rafting Trips

Navigate rafts and keep your clients safe in raging whitewater as a rafting guide. This job is a great workout, as it takes some strength and finesse to navigate the wily ways of rivers and manage risks out on the water.

Kristen Pope is a freelance writer and editor in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

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.

source The Penny Hoarder http://ift.tt/2v02pPZ

Make $1 Million Fast: 8 Real-Life Strategies That Worked

If you invest $400 a month and make 7% annually, you’ll have nearly $1 million in 40 years.

Let’s say you’re 30 years old and you give up movies, Starbucks and dinners out for four decades to save that $400 each month. At 70, you’ll have a million bucks and be ready to retire, right?

But wait! One million dollars today has the spending power of about $240,900 in 1977 dollars. If we experience similar inflation in the next 40 years, your future million will also be worth just $240,900 in today’s dollars.

So you’ll be a millionaire, but it won’t be quite like you imagined.

What if you don’t want to wait 40 years to make your first $1 million? What if you don’t want to wait even 10 years?

Here’s how to make a million dollars quickly — with a little luck.

1. How to Make a Million Dollars Selling Something

Maybe you didn’t want to hear this, but it could be time to learn how to sell. One of the surest ways to wealth is to see what people need or want and provide it. But you still have to convince them it’s your something they need. That’s what sales is all about.

That’s how Dani Johnson went from being homeless to a millionaire in less than two years.

At first she rejected the idea of selling a weight loss program, as if it were beneath her. Then she realized she was homeless, drinking and using drugs — so why not sell something?

She didn’t even have a phone, but with a $15 voicemail service and a handmade flyer put up in a post office, she started getting orders for the program. When she ordered her inventory from the manufacturer, she had to borrow the address of a liquor store because she had no place to accept delivery.

From that start, she built her business and later sold it, becoming a multi-millionaire in the process.

Other examples of people who made $1 million fast by selling something include:

Fraser Doherty

He was 14 years old when he started making and selling “SuperJam,” and within a few years he had annual sales in the millions.

Cameron Johnson

He sold greeting cards at age 9, then moved on to selling Beanie Babies, software and advertising. By age 15, he was making more than $300,000 per month.

Alicia Shaffer

Within three years of opening her shop on Etsy, Shaffer was making close to $1 million annually selling handmade clothing and accessories.

2. Invest in Real Estate, and Retire Early

When Julie Broad and her husband decided to buy their first income property, they had only $16,000 in savings. Seven years later, they were millionaires, and she retired — at age 31.

Broad says one of the things she likes about real estate is the potential leverage.

“If you have $16,000 to invest (which is what I started with seven years ago), you can buy $16,000 worth of stocks and bonds,” she wrote at MyWifeQuitHerJob.com.

“But, if you buy real estate, you can buy a property worth $160,000 (which is exactly what I did). If your stocks go up in value by 5%, you’ve made $800. But if your property goes up by 5% you’ve made $8,000!”

You make money with income property from rents, appreciation and equity gains from the tenant’s rent paying down your mortgage. You also get to exercise creativity and control with real estate investments.

Broad points out if your stocks drop in value, your options are limited to buying more or selling more, but with real estate, “there are plenty of creative techniques to try.”

For example, rent out the garage separate from the house, add vending machines or laundry facilities, change the usage of the property and sell it.

“There are dozens of ways to turn a simple house into a money-making machine with creativity,” says Broad.

Many real estate investors have similar stories to tell.

For example, in his book “2 Years to a Million in Real Estate,” Matthew Martinez relates how he made his fortune in rental properties after quitting his 9-to-5 job.

3. Gamble… Without Too Much Risk

Mortgaging the house and betting $29,000 on number 17 on the roulette table probably isn’t a good plan. But not all gambles have to be that crazy.

Consider poker.

The Mirror profiled seven people who made more than $1 million playing poker in 2014. Poker comes with risk but also requires skill, and you can parlay your profits into bigger ones without risking much to start.

Another option is gambling on the popularity of new currencies.

Using $1,000 he got as a gift, Erik Finman made $100,000 on Bitcoin at age 15. At age 18, he now owns 403 bitcoins — worth more than $1 million.

And yes, buying a lottery ticket is a terrible bet. But it is one of the fastest ways to make millions — and buying a ticket or two each year probably won’t break you.

Just don’t add yourself to the long list of lottery winners who lost everything.

4. How to Make Millions With YouTube Videos

The internet may be the most obvious platform for making $1 million quickly. Of all the possibilities, creating videos for YouTube is perhaps one of the most fun.

Here are just a few profitable types of videos you could create:

Comedy Videos

You may not have heard of him, but comedian Ray William Johnson made $1 million per year with his funny videos.

Toy Reviews

You read it right: The three EvanTube channels make an estimated $1 million annually for their 9-year-old founder and his family.

Cat Videos

Grumpy Cat may not have made $100 million, but her owner Tabatha Bundesen admits, “I was able to quit my job as a waitress within days of her first appearance on social media, and the phone simply hasn’t stopped ringing since.”

5. Sell Millions of Self-Publish Kindle Ebooks

You can set up an account for free and start selling Kindle books on Amazon’s ebook platform this week.

You’ve probably heard about authors who have hit it big on Kindle. John Locke, for example, sold a million Kindle ebooks in five months, and Mark Dawson earned $450,000 in 2014 from his self-published ebooks.

But you don’t even have to write your own book to make $1 million on Kindle.

You can publish other people’s books. Bob Mayer and Jen Talty say they “built a seven-figure indie publishing house in just two years.”

6. Teach People (Outside of the Classroom)

Do you like to teach people? You won’t make a million doing it in a classroom. But perhaps you can go online.

The top 10 instructors on Udemy pulled in $17 million between them — and that’s just for one year. What could you teach in an online course — even a short pilot version?

Then there is teacher Deanna Jump, who became a millionaire in less than three years by selling lesson plans to other teachers on Teachers Pay Teachers.

7. How to Make a Million Dollars Trading Stocks

It might take 40 years to make your first million in stocks if you go for that slow and steady 7% return. But trading isn’t the same as investing. And volatile penny stocks aren’t your slow and steady investments…

The SEC says, “Investors in penny stocks should be prepared for the possibility that they may lose their whole investment.”

Trader Tim Grittani agrees that trading in and out of these low-cost stocks like he does, often within minutes, is risky. But his $1,500 became a portfolio worth more than $1 million within three years — when he was only 24.

That might get you thinking about trading.

8. Invent a New Way to Make Millions

Not sure you’re ready to commit to making a million with any of the ways above? Then why not invent your own way to make money?

For inspiration, here are some examples of people who did just that:

Alex Tew

Tew created The Million Dollar Homepage (the first of its kind) and sold one million pixels of advertising space for $1 per pixel to fund his college education.

Zhang Yin

Yin started with $3,800, buying cheap cardboard from the U.S. to recycle into boxes in China, and is now worth nearly $2 billion.

Alan Jenkins and Pat Burke

They have shipped more than $1 million in Irish dirt to the United States, for nostalgic transplants to use on their Irish roses or caskets.

Many other weird businesses might inspire you to invent your own way to make a fast $1 million.

Of course, even if you give it a shot, you might also want to do the usual saving and investing.

Forty years from now, you might thank your former self for putting aside $400 per month to provide some extra income in retirement.

Steve Gillman is the author of “101 Weird Ways to Make Money” and creator of EveryWayToMakeMoney.com. He’s been a repo man, walking stick carver, search engine evaluator, house flipper, tram driver, process server, mock juror and roulette croupier; but of more than 100 ways he has made money, writing is his favorite (so far).

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.

source The Penny Hoarder http://ift.tt/2tTMgeQ

Parents, Want a Clever Way to Save Money on Diapers? Don’t Use Them

As I prepared to have kids, I thought a lot about how to save money on diapers.

I clipped coupons, compared prices at different stores and considered using cloth diapers to save money. Then I learned a huge money-saving secret that parents in many countries don’t consider a secret at all.

They don’t use diapers.

Weeks before my son was born, my Chinese mother-in-law brought over a pile of “diapers” — old, cut-up shirts that would each maybe absorb a tablespoon of liquid!

She told me we’d use them for the baby as we worked on teaching him how to communicate his needs, and feeling the discomfort of a wet diaper would speed up the process. By the time he was six months old, she informed me, he’d be able to go without diapers at all.

I wasn’t sure how this would work, so I didn’t bother returning the package of disposable diapers I’d bought — or the Western-style cloth diapers a friend had given me.

Why Go Diaper Free?

While it’s controversial in the U.S., parents in at least 75 countries around the world go diaper free with young babies. The main way parents and caregivers accomplish this is by getting the baby familiar with their body.

In Western countries, this method is called “elimination communication,” “diaper free baby” or “natural infant hygiene.” In countries that regularly use this practice — including China, Vietnam, Korea, Japan and India — no special name exists; it’s just what’s done.

Using this method, babies are taught to go to the bathroom on cue from birth.

We held our bare-bottomed baby over a small basin or the toilet and made a hissing sound.

Over a matter of weeks, he learned to respond to the noise and only go when he heard it. He also became more aware of his body. By seven weeks old, he’d use a specific cry to tell us when he had to use the toilet.

Lo and behold, it actually worked for us!

By the time he was five months old, our son never soiled another diaper — unless we were out and just couldn’t get to a bathroom in time.

While saving money isn’t the sole goal of elimination communication, it’s a welcome side effect.

Disposable diapers are quite rare — not to mention expensive — in developing countries, and the cloth “diapers” my mother-in-law made for my children were just cut-up squares of old T-shirts.

Is It a Growing Trend to Go Diaper Free?

Not a lot of people in the Western world are keen on letting their kids run around without diapers. Mom and diaper-free enthusiast Sarah Quinney, however, says she wishes she had started her daughter Isabelle from birth.

Sarah started Isabelle’s diaper-free journey when she was nine months old. By 18 months, Isabelle was able to regularly communicate to her parents when she needed to use her toilet.

Quinney estimates they’ve saved hundreds of dollars on diapers, though they did put Isabelle in diapers when leaving the house. Additionally, there was less mess and time wasted washing the cloth diapers they’d previously used.

No baby is perfect. On the occasion that Isabelle got too involved in her play and didn’t make it to the toilet in time, a mop and a new change of clothes made for a fairly simple clean up.

How Much Can You Save if You Go Diaper Free?

The average newborn goes through 10 diapers a day. Reduce that number to eight for baby’s second and third years, and you’ve gone through roughly 8,580 diapers by their third birthday!

At about 25 cents a diaper (which is on the cheap end if you’re buying in bulk), that’s a cool $2,145.

Add in all the wipes and diaper rash cream, and you’ve easily spent another $500. And that’s assuming the child is potty-trained at 36 months.

Even trying to go diaper free part time could save you hundreds of dollars a year!

What Supplies Do You Need to Go Diaper Free?

You probably won’t get by without spending some money on diapers. You’ll want to have them on hand for long car trips and other times when an accident would cause extra trouble.

Otherwise, you don’t need any extra supplies to practice elimination communication — just the desire to help your baby learn more about their body and how to communicate with you.

You’ll need toilet paper, but that’s something you already have on hand. When you’re out with a diapered baby, a small package of wet wipes is useful in case your child does use their diaper.

In Asia, babies wear split pants (pants or shorts with an open crotch seam) which allow them to go to the bathroom without undressing. Online stores like EC Wear and The EC Store offer practical and convenient clothing solutions for Western parents who don’t want their baby’s bottom exposed to everyone.

My Family’s Diaper-Free Experience

While I’m now totally on board with this method and recommend giving it a fair try, I wasn’t always so gung-ho.

Seeing my mother-in-law whistle at my son to get him to go in the toilet was quite odd. But when he caught on and stopped using diapers so early, I was sold on the process.

We did this again with his little sister, and had similar results. Plus, only buying 300 diapers has left us with more cash to sock away for their college educations.

Charlotte Edwards is a freelance personal finance and parenting writer whose work has appeared in Hawaii Parent, The Simple Dollar, Money Under 30 and Incomes Abroad. After many years of penny pinching, she and her husband have just bought their first (of a dozen, hopefully!) rental property.

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.

source The Penny Hoarder http://ift.tt/2vl78Ln

This App Aims to Solve Housing Woes Faced by Both Older and Younger Adults

Days before I got the job offer to work for The Penny Hoarder in sunny St. Petersburg, Florida, I was shoveling snow at my grandmother’s home in East Orange, New Jersey, where I was living at the time.

Instead of doing the typical millennial boomerang and moving back home with my parents, I spent time living with both sets of grandparents and a family friend who’s over 80.

I saved on rent and was able to help them out around the house by doing laundry, grocery shopping, cooking and cleaning.

So when I heard about a new housing arrangement app called Nesterly, I could totally relate.

Pairing Roommates from Different Generations

Created by two urban planners who graduated from MIT, Nesterly will pair college students with baby boomers willing to open their homes up to renters, City Lab reported. The millennials can benefit from lower rental rates in exchange for helping the homeowner out with agreed-upon tasks.

“We’re really excited about the opportunity to help the rapidly aging population in the U.S. stay in their homes, and one way is helping them access household help like changing the light bulb or shoveling the snow,” Noelle Marcus, co-founder of Nesterly, told Apartment Therapy. “Simple tasks that students can do, but could really make a big difference for an aging household.”

The app’s website states the service will be piloted in the northeast this summer, with plans to roll out more widely in September.

A Growing Trend in Home Sharing

Pairing older individuals up with younger ones in shared housing isn’t a new phenomenon.

A Cleveland retirement home opened its doors in 2015 to a handful of college students majoring in the arts, Smithsonian Magazine reported. They stayed there rent-free in exchange for giving recitals and concerts, leading art therapy classes and just being there to socialize and help out.

In 2016, CNN reported on senior centers in Finland and the Netherlands inviting young people to live amongst the older residents at low rental rates. In return, the young adults committed time to helping their elderly neighbors.

But not everyone has had positive experiences with senior home sharing. Writer Nicola Slawson explained in a piece for The Guardian that her experience turned sour when she was expected to provide more care than she originally bargained for.

If living with someone outside your generation isn’t your thing, you can always consider renting a home with friends to save on housing costs.

Or if you already have a place of your own, renting out a room in your residence can help you keep more money in your pocket.

Nicole Dow is a staff writer at The Penny Hoarder.

This was originally published on The Penny Hoarder, one of the largest personal finance websites. We help millions of readers worldwide earn and save money by sharing unique job opportunities, personal stories, freebies and more. In 2016, Inc. 500 ranked The Penny Hoarder as the No. 1 fastest-growing private media company in the U.S.

source The Penny Hoarder http://ift.tt/2tTTXBE

No Simple Solution To The Social Security Deficit - Raising the Wage Cap on Payroll Taxes is not the Quick Fix

To cover the Social Security shortfall, should the wage cap on payroll taxes be raised or eliminated entirely? Learn why these policies won't save Social Security.

Source CBNNews.com http://ift.tt/2vleXku

Don't Risk Your Credit Score in Retirement - New Survey Shows Seniors Put Credit Scores at Risk

Over 30% of Baby Boomers are making mistakes that can affect their financial fitness during retirement. Learn why it's important to maintain good credit in retirement.

Source CBNNews.com http://ift.tt/2umJxwT

How to Combine PR with SEO for the Biggest Success

It used to be that PR and SEO were two very different marketing tactics with virtually zero overlap.

With roots going all the way back to the founding of the colonies in the New World in the 16th century, PR is like a grizzled old vet,

while SEO is more of a young whippersnapper with a history that reaches back a mere 25 years at best.

Traditional PR is based on old-school, offline techniques, while SEO has been completely digital from the start.

But in the late twenty-teens, it’s apparent there’s now a high degree of overlap between the two.

Just think about it on the most basic level.

One of the top ranking factors of SEO is links from high-quality, relevant websites.

A sound PR strategy can be the catalyst for gaining these links and thus improving search rankings.

When you think of it like this, it’s clear that PR and SEO are two marketing strategies you should focus on simultaneously.

When you’re able to get them working in tandem, you can accomplish several important things.

You can:

• improve your reputation
• build trust and authority
• increase your brand equity
• expand your reach to a larger percentage of your target market
• improve search rankings
• drive a higher volume of organic traffic to your website
• crank up sales

In this post, I’m going to highlight some strategies that will allow you to effectively combine PR with SEO for maximum success.

I will also mention some specific outlets I’ve had success with.

Let’s get right down to it.

Create an overarching persona

I’m sure you’ve heard me talking about personas before.

You know the vibe.

Personas are a fundamental element of customer segmentation and key for getting the right marketing materials in front of the right leads.

SEO is big on using audience research to unearth information about your customer base and segmenting them accordingly.

PR involves doing media research to determine which outlets are best for reaching your target audience.

For instance, a tech startup might be interested in media outlets such as Wired and TechCrunch.

A vital first step of the process involves combining SEO audience research and PR media research to create an overarching persona.

This will encompass your audience as a whole and will help guide you throughout the rest of the steps.

Develop a list of keywords

I think we can all agree keywords play a significant role in SEO.

Back in the day, simply using the right keyword density could often propel your content to the first page of the SERPs (or even the number one spot).

Although they may not have the same level of impact they did several years ago, recent research from Backlinko explains that keywords are still important.

Among Google’s 200 ranking factors, the following factors involve keywords:

• keyword appears in top level domain
• keyword as first word in domain
• latent semantic indexing keywords in content (LSI)
• LSI keywords in title and description tags
• Quantity of other keywords page ranks for

Here’s a pie chart from Moz that shows the different ways keywords impact SEO:

So, yeah, they’re still a big deal.

Although you may use a wide variety of keywords, depending on the topics you’re covering in your content, I suggest condensing them into a handful of keywords for PR purposes.

You can think of it as a master list.

Why is this important?

To combine PR with SEO effectively, you need to have a finite number of keywords to target.

You’ll use variations of these keywords in a variety of settings:

• in press releases
• during interviews
• in guest posts on industry publications
• in executive bios
• in social media bios
• for brand mentions

As a result, those keywords will become synonymous with your brand.

Reporters will use them when mentioning your company; your demographic will associate them with your brand; and so on.

When it’s all said and done, when people enter these keywords in their searches, your brand should appear in the SERPs.

The bottom line is you want to choose your keywords carefully and make sure they fully describe your brand.

Align your message

Just like you’ll want to achieve consistency with your keywords, you’ll want consistency with your overall brand message.

You want to make sure whoever is representing your company understands your brand’s core message and relays it to the outlet they’re using.

Whether it’s an executive having an interview with a news outlet or your content team writing a guest post for an industry publication, there needs to be a sense of cohesion.

I recommend creating a formal document that outlines your target keywords and brand message you’re looking to get out there.

Providing this to your team should minimize any confusion and ensure everyone is on the same page.

Identify optimal channels

Let me recap what I’ve discussed so far.

You’ve created an overarching persona, established a list of keywords to target and developed a unified message for your PR and SEO teams to use.

At this point, you’ll want to research potential channels (online and offline) you can use for your combined PR/SEO campaign.

Ideally, you’ll target a variety of different channels so you can achieve a nice balance and reach the largest possible portion of your demographic.

Here’s an illustration to give you some ideas:

This shows the multitude of ways you can go about it.

But for maximum effectiveness, I recommend narrowing it down to a manageable list of just a few channels initially.

You don’t want to spread yourself too thin or risk diluting your brand message by trying to be featured on a million outlets.

Keep in mind you can always expand later, once you’ve got things popping.

With that being said, there are five specific outlets I suggest focusing on right off the bat.

I’ve had tremendous success with all of these, and I know you can benefit from them as well.

Leading publications

If you can land some real estate in a major publication in your industry, the world instantly becomes your oyster.

Like I mentioned before, getting featured in Wired would be huge for a tech startup’s PR.

And the link could take its SEO to the next level.

Not to mention the surge in referral traffic it could generate.

I suggest identifying a handful of leading publications and pitching them your ideas.

Social media influencers

Did you know that “71% of consumers are more likely to make a purchase based on a social media reference?”

Getting key influencers to endorse your brand can send your brand equity soaring through the roof.

Check out this post I wrote to learn the fundamentals of getting promoted by social media influencers.

Major bloggers

It’s amazing the influence today’s top bloggers have and how much money is generated from their blogs.

For instance, Brian Clark’s CopyBlogger earns around $1 million each month!

I’ve always been a sucker for guest-posting and recommend reaching out to major bloggers as an initial first step in your PR/SEO conquest.

Besides the valuable links and instant exposure you’ll get, this can have an impact on your branded search volume as well.

People will naturally be curious about your brand, and many will search for you.

Interviews

Interviews are a huge reason why I’ve gotten to where I’m today.

For instance, this interview on Groove HQ was a tremendous help.

It’s well worth the time to seek out interview opportunities.

If you’re not sure how to go about this, check out HARO.

Speaking events

Believe it or not, I’ve spoken at hundreds of conferences.

I’ve spoken at Tech Cocktail Celebrate, Conversion Conference and Affiliate World Bangkok Asia, just to name a few.

And you know what?

It’s had a profound impact on my brand.

While not every conference will be worth your time, the PR boost can be dramatic.

Check out this resource from Famous in Your Field for information on finding speaking opportunities.

Conclusion

It’s interesting how PR and SEO have evolved over the years.

Though they were once disparate marketing tactics, they now overlap in a big way.

When you get right down to it, PR often impacts SEO.

As your link profile grows and expands, your rankings climb and improve.

But this doesn’t just happen on its own.

In order to combine PR with SEO, you need to have a solid strategy and know which direction you want to take.

You need to know which underlying persona you’re looking to reach, which keywords you need to target and which outlets enable you to gain the publicity you’re looking for.

But once you break it down, the formula is fairly straightforward.

This infographic from Moz sums up the process of integrating PR and SEO quite nicely:

With proper planning and execution, you can rev up your PR while stepping up your SEO.

Which areas of PR do you think have the biggest impact on SEO?

Source Quick Sprout http://ift.tt/2uhvrgi

What Would You Do to Improve Yesterday?

Over the last several years, I’ve come to believe that if you do four things daily, you’ll see steady improvement in your life: meditate/pray, get some exercise, get plenty of sleep, and write a reflective journal entry. I’ve made it my goal to do those four things every single day.

Today, I want to focus in on the value of that reflective journal entry. It’s useful for one simple reason: It provides an opportunity for you to step back and look at your life outside of the heat of the moment. When you do that – when you re-evaluate your day-to-day life outside of those moments when you’re actually doing those day-to-day things – you can often see little mistakes that you’re making, and those mistakes are often easy to fix and improve. By doing so, you directly make your life better. This applies to virtually every avenue of life: financial, professional, social, spiritual, and so on.

For me, journaling has become a morning routine. I use a paper journal and a pen and I try to find a quiet spot somewhere, usually on the deck behind our house. I enjoy the morning sunshine and I reflect on two different things. First, I make a list of five or so things I’m grateful for right then. My children. The sound of the birds. A sleepy kiss from my wife that morning. Good health. Whatever it is in my life that I feel content and joyful about at that moment gets listed.

The other part, though, is the one I want to talk about. I think about at least one thing that I could have done better yesterday and I write about it. I write down what I did wrong, why I think it was wrong, and what I could have done better.

So, to start, what did I do wrong? I simply try to think about something that I did yesterday that doesn’t live up to my goals for myself or what I expect out of myself. Maybe I spent money foolishly. A few days ago, I bought an expensive board game and blew my monthly hobby budget to smithereens, for example, which was clearly a mistake. A while back, I chided myself for making a mistake on a tax return.

I’ve made mistakes in how I relate to people. I’ve made mistakes in keeping up with personal goals. I’ve made mistakes in parenting and in marriage.

The goal is to come up with something that I didn’t do as well as I could have yesterday and simply write about it.

Then, I ask myself why I think that it was a mistake. Clearly, I had some reason for choosing the path that I chose. Why was it a mistake? Why were my reasons in the moment so flawed?

For example, let’s take that recent board game purchase. I spent a lot to buy a fairly expensive game at cost, but it was a title that has been out of print for a while and I was almost shocked to see it on a store shelf. I chose to buy it because I perceived that I would likely not have a chance to do so again.

The question, though, is whether or not it still made sense, even given that. Should I have bought it, even knowing I blew my hobby budget to smithereens? Should I have bought it knowing that I have other board games right now that I’m excited to play, and that I have other hobby items that I’m thinking about purchasing soon? I felt that the purchase was a misstep, looking back, but why? Why was it a misstep?

Another recent mistake that I wrote about came from an awkward social situation. Sometimes, in group settings, I simply don’t know what to say, so I step back and just listen and don’t say anything at all. Usually that’s fine, but later on I realize that I probably should have said something and been more involved. This happened recently when I was in a group of people discussing funding for a local charity. I had a suggestion that I thought was really useful, but my introverted nature made me stay quiet. Looking back, I shouldn’t have stayed quiet, because I could have actually been a helpful part of that conversation and could have strengthened some community relationships.

After that, I ask myself how I could have done it better. I usually visualize myself actually not making that mistake and making the better choice. I visualize the better outcome from it. I’ll tease that around in my head a little bit and then write about it. The goal is to think about a better way of doing things rather than just chiding myself for a mistake. I also look for ways to fix that mistake, or to avoid repeating it going forward.

With the game purchase, I probably shouldn’t have purchased it at all, or, if I did, I should have sold other games to pay for it or flipped it immediately for a profit. Honestly, I have other games to play. So, what I ended up doing first is visualizing myself not buying the game. Then, I resolved to actually sell off a couple of other games to even things out.

With the conversation, I visualized myself actually participating in that conversation with a positive outcome, so that I would feel more prepared to speak out in similar situations going forward. I also took steps to contact a couple of people in the conversation to share what I knew as a follow-up. I also started listening to the audiobook of How to Win Friends and Influence People again, as I see some tendency in myself to revert back to being publicly introverted lately.

That three-pronged approach – this is a problem, this is why it’s a problem, this is what I can do to fix that problem – is a great way to evaluate the day that’s gone past and slowly, step by step, craft myself into being a better person.

Some days, I’ll come up with two or three mistakes and, if I can, I’ll write about each of them. I’ve had entries that have run on for pages, provided that I have 45 minutes or an hour to write them all out. Often, though, I keep the entry short and stick with just one mistake paired with four or five things I’m grateful for.

Remember, the philosophy under this is that my choices are the one factor shaping my life’s destiny that I can control, so it’s worth my time to shape myself to aim toward the best possible outcome. That takes time, because there are so many dimensions of life upon which we can improve. Our good financial choices. Our knowledge. Our social skills. Our ability to organize information. It goes on and on and on and on.

It’s also invaluable to remind myself that I truly do have a good life and that I don’t need to buy things to make it better. For me, reflecting on gratitude reminds me that the true frontier of achieving financial independence and a better life really is in improving myself. I have a good life as it is, and the surest way I have for undermining that is in bad personal choices. Buying more things, for example, generally won’t improve my life very much, but it can undermine the financial stability upon which this good life rests. What more do I really need? My gratitude reflections remind me of that, and it supports that reflection on what I can improve about yesterday.

I strongly encourage you to give a trial run to a daily routine of asking yourself what you can improve about yesterday. Commit to doing it for a few weeks and see if you notice any life improvements. Along the way, consider pairing that evaluation of yesterday with some thoughts about the things you’re grateful for each day.

You might just find that, together, those things put you in a much better mindset to tackle the challenges of your life, from financial and professional challenges to things like parenting and personal relationships. These types of simple reflections have been a key part of improving my own personal finance choices over the last several years, as well as many other dimensions of my life.

Good luck!

Related Articles:

• Breaking the Cycle of Repeated Financial Mistakes
• Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff. Sweat the Big Stuff – and the Frequent Stuff
• How to Avoid Beating Yourself Up Over Little Mistakes

The post What Would You Do to Improve Yesterday? appeared first on The Simple Dollar.

Source The Simple Dollar http://ift.tt/2uhvhWf

Jack and Jill Swersie to showcase ‘Shadow,’ ‘Hat’ art in Delaware Water Gap

Local artists Jack and Jill Swersie will observe their 22nd wedding anniversary on Friday in memorable fashion: the opening reception for their first joint exhibit, scheduled to run through July 30 at the Antoine Dutot Museum & Gallery, Delaware Water Gap.The collaboration serves as an introduction to photo-artist Jack's work, with a special emphasis on his “Shadow Series,” and highlights oil painter Jill's “Hat Series,” a project she's worked on for [...]

Source Business - poconorecord.com http://ift.tt/2uhrMzo

Proposed increase would increase revenue by $107.9 million.

The Pennsylvania-American Water Company is seeking it’s first rate increase since 2013, a move that could impact its 15,000 customers in Monroe and Pike County.The Pennsylvania Utility Commission is currently investigating the proposal and announced on July 11 they will be holding public hearings so residents and customers can voice their concerns over the proposed increase, which the water company says would increase annual revenue by 16 percent or nearly $108 million. [...]

Source Business - poconorecord.com http://ift.tt/2sYbE1N

Only 1% of Americans Use This Simple Tool to Protect Their Identities

Hide your PINs; hide your SSNs.

We know, we know. Identity theft is a big issue.

Last year, billions of identities were exposed and millions had their identities stolen.

Don’t throw your hands up in imminent defeat. You can start protecting yourself by keeping tabs on your credit score.

But there’s one preventive tool out there that’ll protect you from the start — one that you’re probably not utilizing.

That’s what I’m going to talk about today.

It’s called a credit freeze.

Credit Freeze, Defined

According to a recent Credit Sesame analysis of nearly 4 million consumers, less than 1% of adults have credit freezes on their reports.

Why? Credit Sesame hypothesized, “most people don’t know how fast and simple it is to protect their credit with credit freezes.”

And perhaps many aren’t even familiar with the tool.

So let’s start.

Credit Sesame defines a credit freeze most eloquently: “a process which locks down your credit file and prevents identity thieves and cyber criminals from opening credit in your name.”

In short, the tool freezes your credit file, so no one can gain access to that information — except you.

In order to access your credit later — which you’ll need to do to open a bank account, sign up for a credit card or take out a mortgage, for example — you’ll have to unfreeze, or thaw, it.

And no, it won’t negatively affect your score.

When You Should Freeze Your Credit, According to an Expert

Many people freeze their credit after their identities have been stolen.

That’s an OK start.

However, you’re basically in a race against the criminal. Who can get to the credit report first?

Steven Weisman, a Bentley University professor and author of fraud and identity theft blog Scamicide, suggests freezing your credit now — and always.

He thinks of the tool as a “preventative medicine.”

“This is the single best thing someone can do to protect themselves from being a victim of identity theft,” he says. “Even if your Social Security number was in the hands of an identity thief, you’d still be protected.”

A credit freeze is different than any sort of fraud alert, which a credit bureau might suggest using after your identity has already been compromised.

When you set up a fraud alert, “no one is supposed to give credit in your name without checking with you first to make sure that it is you and not an identity thief,” Weisman explains.

However, consumers often ignore these alerts — and even companies will ignore them when checking your credit report and issuing a credit card, for example.

Weisman likens these alerts to getting hit by a truck — then having a passerby say, “Hey, you got hit by a truck.”

At that point, it’s kind of too late.

On the other hand, a credit freeze allows that passerby to say, “Hey! You’re about to get hit! I gotcha!”

You’re protected.

Here’s How to Freeze Your Credit — and Unfreeze It

Depending on which state you live in, freezing your credit after becoming an identity theft victim is free.

If you just want to freeze your credit as a preventive measure, you’re probably going to have to pay a small fee — but typically nothing over $20.

You’ll have to contact each of the three credit bureaus to make this happen.

Here’s where you can find more information for each bureau:

• Equifax’s credit freeze policies

• Experian’s credit freeze policies

• TransUnion’s credit freeze policies

You can activate a credit freeze online (or by phone or mail) by providing your information. The credit bureau will then give you a special PIN, which you’ll need when you unfreeze — or thaw — your credit.

You’ll have to do that when you need access to your credit report for any number of reasons. That process typically takes a few hours, Weisman says, though the bureaus warn it could take up to three days.

“This will cause delays — but only of a few hours,” he says. “It stops from impulse buying, I guess. But do you impulse buy a mortgage? Not really.”

It’ll also require a small fee, but it’s nothing crazy.

In Weisman’s opinion, credit freezes are “a tremendous tool. The charge is minimal compared to the benefit.”

Carson Kohler (@CarsonKohler) is a junior writer at The Penny Hoarder. She hates winter, but she wouldn’t mind freezing her credit.

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.

source The Penny Hoarder http://ift.tt/2uZ2HGN