Meal Kits Are Basically a Terrible Deal for Anyone Who’s a Vegetarian

Meal kits don’t necessarily save you money in the long run, but they do save you time, which could be just as valuable.

But what if you’re a vegetarian? You may think you’d end up saving some money compared to your carnivorous friends, but that might not be the case.

According to a Time MONEY study, if you want to get the best value ordering meal kits, you might want to think twice about that vegetarian meal.

Vegetarian Meal Kits Don’t Save You Money

MONEY tested six of the most popular meal kits to determine which one provided the best value. The meal kits were from Blue Apron, Green Chef, Martha & Marley Spoon, Plated and Sun Basket.

All six meal kits allow customers to pick between meat and vegetarian meals. Taking a closer look, though, MONEY found the meal kit companies didn’t adjust their prices to compensate for the lack of meat in the vegetarian kits.

The article cites a study by the Journal of Hunger & Environmental Nutrition that found that vegetarians typically save a minimum of $750 on food compared to people who eat meat.

When it comes to meal kits, though, there are no savings. MONEY reports consumers pay about the same amount ($10 to $15 per person) for a meal kit regardless of whether it includes meat.

So, if you’ve been trying to hack the system by ordering vegetarian kits and adding your own discounted meat at home, you’re not helping yourself any. And if you’re a vegetarian, you might want to think again before ordering meal kits.

Kelly Smith is a junior writer and engagement specialist at The Penny Hoarder. Catch her on Twitter at @keywordkelly.

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

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Using Venmo to Receive Freelance Payments? You’re Risking Everything

If you’re using the same Venmo account to repay your friend who covered the tab after a night of drinking and to request payments for your side gig clients, you might want to stop. Immediately.

According to a report from Consumerist.com, skirting the rules laid out in the terms and conditions of peer-to-peer apps could mean losing out on cash with no protection if you’re ever a victim of a scam.

The Verge laid out a perfect example of how this can happen through a story about a group of California photographers who were scammed out of $25,000 in camera equipment.

A scammer, who went by the name Andy Mai, used Venmo to pay for cameras the photographers were selling online. Likely using stolen credit cards, the scammer transferred thousands of dollars into the victims’ Venmo accounts. Once the victims saw the money, they thought it was OK to hand over the equipment.

Within 24 hours, the cameras were gone, the Venmo accounts of the scammer and the sellers were suspended, and Venmo stopped the stolen money, some of which had already been transferred to the sellers’ bank accounts.

And the sellers had little recourse.

“Venmo is designed for payments between friends and people who trust each other,” a representative told The Verge. “We strongly caution Venmo users to avoid payments with people they don’t know, especially if it involves the sale for goods and services (like event tickets and Craigslist items).”

“These payments are potentially high risk, and can result in losing your money without getting what you paid for.”

Got a Side Gig? Here’s What This Means for You

Here’s the deal: If you’ve got a side hustle or you’re a full-time freelancer, the idea of giving up a percentage of your hard-earned cash just to use a merchant app like PayPal or Venmo’s business tool can seem unfair.

You worked hard for this money. The 2.9% plus 30 cents PayPal wants from you can feel like too much.

But according to Consumerist, it’s simply the cost of peace of mind. When you use a peer-to-peer payment app instead of a merchant app — even if it’s just to sell your old camera after upgrading to a new one — you’re taking a risk that could cost you big.

Here’s the bottom line: A good Penny Hoarder saves where they can, but it’s not really saving if you’re risking your cash with every transaction.

Desiree Stennett (@desi_stennett) 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.

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Here’s What Happened When One Woman Faked Engagement Just to Get Discounts

Two of my best friends are engaged. I’ve seen them get fawned over in public by pretty much everyone: servers, cashiers, retail workers.

“Oh my gosh!! What a gorgeous ring!!”

“So who’s the lucky fella?”

“Here’s 10% off — congratulations!”

I usually sit there feeling awkward when this happens. I’m not engaged. I’m also stumbling financially (thanks, student loans), so seeing them pay less for the same things I’m buying just because they have rings on their fingers baffles me.

One lady had an idea, though: She pretended to be engaged to reap the benefits that come with it.

How One Woman Faked an Engagement to Get Discounts

Lisa Ryan’s article “I Faked Being Engaged for the Discounts” is quite the conversation starter.

Ryan chronicled her experiences buying a fake $15 engagement ring and pretending to be engaged so she could get discounts on group exercise classes. According to Ryan, boutique fitness establishments offer bridal discount packages to help brides-to-be get in shape for their big day.

To make it as believable as possible, Ryan even went as far as making a fake wedding page on The Knot. She was committed.

Her fake engagement got her $100 off a membership to barre fitness classes.

While a fake engagement could seem like a harmless, fun way to cash in on some discounted goods, some people might not find it so amusing.

Branndon Coelho, lead developer at The Penny Hoarder, compared it to pretending to be a student or teacher or saying you’re in the military just to get a discount. In his eyes, doing that would would be looked down upon — so Ryan’s stunt should be, too.

“I don’t really care what others do,” Coelho wrote. “But I’d prefer they were honest.”

Gretchen Lidow, Pinterest specialist, felt a bit differently. She agreed that it probably isn’t ethical, but she found it amusing, nonetheless.

“I actually think the whole extravagance surrounding weddings is appalling,” Lidow wrote.

Is Our Obsessions With Weddings Out of Control?

While it’s interesting that Ryan easily secured the $100 discount (all she did was call and say she was getting married), her experiences wearing her fake engagement ring bring forth deeper issues.

The obsession with weddings in our society, in general, is a hot topic, and those who are married or engaged are often treated differently.

Ryan describes interactions with complete strangers as suddenly full of kindness and genuine interest. Her recollection of a conversation with another woman at a fitness club about her “engagement” says it best.

Ryan writes: “At first, it felt like an interrogation — When are you getting married? Where are you getting married? How’s planning going? — until I realized that, no, she was actually just being nice, a phenomenon I’m not used to in New York. As it turns out, once you’ve got a ring on your finger, people are simply nicer to you in general.”

I’ve written before about the financial disparities single people face. However, while we aren’t showered with free gifts or handed tax breaks, we still save a bit because we aren’t forking over $35,329 on average for a wedding or a lump sum for a ring.

However, Ryan’s casual willingness to fake her relationship status shows that the obsession with marriage is now falling outside of the soon-to-be bubble.

She even goes as far as trying on wedding dresses and starts wearing the ring more often, even in places where she couldn’t get discounts. At one point, she describes watching the ring glisten when the subway car broke down.

At first glance, this article is a humorous account of a single woman ridiculing society’s obsession with marriage. Taking a deeper look, though, shines a light on the pressure single people face in day-to-day life — both financially and socially.

Socially, our worth is still partially measured by whether we’re married. Millie Kerr explains it best in her article “Single People Should Get to Have Weddings, Too.”

Ryan’s example of being treated more kindly by random strangers attests to this — what would they have said to her if she didn’t have a ring? Would they have even reached out to make a genuine connection with her? Also, would she have gotten free drinks at the bar if she wasn’t wearing her fake engagement ring?

So, if you were quick to decide that Ryan was wrong for lying about her relationship status, you might want to reconsider: Is it really her lying that’s wrong, or is our obsession with weddings and marriage the real culprit here?

Kelly Smith is a junior writer and engagement specialist at The Penny Hoarder. Catch her on Twitter at @keywordkelly.

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

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This Is the Class-Action Suit Nickelback Fans Everywhere Have Been Waiting for

If you and your friends were shakin’ it to Britney Spears in concert in 1999, those tickets may pay off again. Can you say “Hit Me Baby One More Time”?

Ticketmaster has just released free ticket vouchers for Live Nation concert events, as well as special discounts, to customers who bought tickets from its website between Oct. 21, 1999, and Feb. 27, 2013.

Sound familiar? Ticketmaster announced a similar voucher-based settlement last year, but this is a new one with vouchers that are good through June 2020. Otherwise, it has the same lackluster benefits.

Because Ticketmaster charged exorbitant fees and had other shady practices that made you pay far too much for your tickets, you may get these benefits:

• A discount code worth $2.25 off future ticket purchases.
• A discount code worth $5 off your shipping if you have UPS deliver your tickets. (Hello. It’s 2017. No one does this anymore.)
• A voucher good for two tickets at select Live Nation-sponsored concerts.

OK, at least you get two tickets out of it. Well, sort of. The vouchers work for very few shows in each market, and each show has only a limited number tickets you can get with a voucher.

What does that mean? It means you won’t have many shows to choose from, and you’d better be quick about it because free tickets will run out fast.

So what kind of shows are out there? If you want to see a show in Phoenix, you can choose between Matchbox Twenty on Aug. 2, Foreigner on Aug. 9, and Nickelback on Sept. 9.

Other venues look better with four shows in Dallas, and nine in Detroit. But if you’re looking for a show in Minneapolis, Chicago or Los Angeles, you’re out of luck.

The show list does get continually updated, so it pays to keep checking until you find a show that you like.

To find your vouchers, log in to your Ticketmaster account, head to “My Account,” and look for “My Vouchers.” If you qualified, you should find your freebies there.

The settlement may seem weak compared to the money Ticketmaster pilfered through those transaction fees, but at least it’s something. Keep your eye out for an artist you like, and rock out in concert for free!

Tyler Omoth is a senior writer at The Penny Hoarder who loves soaking up the sun and finding creative ways to help others. Catch him on Twitter at @Tyomoth.

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.

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We Need to Talk About How Families Afforded $24K for College Last Year

My grandmother graduated from college 50 years ago and remembers paying $400 per semester in tuition.

Fast forward.

The average amount spent on college this past school year was $23,757, according to a recent Sallie Mae report.

That’s 38% higher than it was just 10 years ago.

How are families and students paying for this? Sallie Mae, a largely known student loan company, took a look by conducting phone interviews with 800 undergraduate students and 800 parents of undergraduate students.

Here’s How Families are Paying for College

We were wondering where that nearly $24,000 was coming from, too.

Here’s the breakdown of how American families paid for it:

• Students relied on scholarships and grants the most, raking in an average $8,390 to foot the bill.

• Another chunk of funding comes from the parents’ income and savings: $5,527.

• Shortly behind that was student borrowing at $4,551 per school year. Think: The $1.4 trillion dollars we currently owe in student debt.

• Rounding out the last bit was $2,569 from student income and savings, $1,819 from parent borrowing and $901 from relatives and friends.

All of that adds up to $23,757.

Have a College-Bound Kid? Here are Some Resources

If you’re wondering how you’re going to afford that hefty bill when your kid heads off to college, we don’t think you’re the only one.

We’ve got a couple of resources:

• Many students relied on scholarships and grants. Go ahead and send this list of 100 scholarships over to your student. Have them comb through and apply to anything and everything. Seriously.

  And apply for FAFSA. The student aid form’s completion rate actually continues to rise each year. Last year 85% of families filed. This year, it was 86%. If you don’t know where to start, here’s a guide that walks you through the process. If you qualify, this could be free money.

• Some parents start saving early. According to the Sallie Mae report, 13% of families use 529 plans. These are the prepaid plans you strike up when your kid is an infant, ideally. The amount amount of money families spent from 529 plans was $10,031 last year. That’s about half of tuition.Don’t worry. We explain 529 plans, too, and how to find the best fit for your kid.

• On student borrowing… Well, that’s been a popular topic lately, especially since we’re about $1.4 trillion in student debt. Let’s spend a little more time on this one.

Are You a Former Student Already in Debt? Consider This

Students are having to borrow more and more money.

In fact, students borrowed $1,375 more this past year than they did in 2015-16, according to Sallie Mae.

If you’re on the other side of those college gates and have your own stack of student debt, you’re probably cringing a little.

One fairly easy way to cut down that bill is to refinance or consolidate that debt, which will help with those crazy interest rates.

Here’s an example: John DePrato had $65,000 in student debt. He was paying $850 a month until he decided to refinance through a student loan refinancing site called Credible. It works like a online marketplace in that DePrato was able to shop around for the best rate.

He found it.

He cut his monthly payments down from $850 to $400.

More people out there have done the same, too. In fact, the average Credible user has $60,000 of loans and an interest rate of 7%. Once they refinance, they have an average savings of $18,668 over the life of their loans.

If you want to explore all your options to pay off your student loans, here are seven other strategies to consider.

Carson Kohler (@CarsonKohler) is a junior writer at The Penny Hoarder. As a former out-of-stater, she wished she only had to pay $400 in tuition…

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This DirecTV Code Will Let You Watch ‘Game of Thrones’ for Free for a Month

Have you felt left out when your friends, family and co-workers dish about the latest episodes of “Game of Thrones”? Now you can get in on the action — for free.

DirecTV Now, which usually offers weeklong trial periods for its packages, has a new promotion that stretches that free period to an entire month. At first blush, it seems like a deal that only applies to Roku users, but it’s actually for everyone.

Yeah, we definitely signed up. It’s free TV after all, and you know we love free stuff.

How to Snag This Free DirecTV Now Promotion

Don’t break out your Valyrian steel just yet. To take advantage of this deal, first you have to sign up for DirecTV Now service (again, ignore the Roku stuff). After you enter your email information, it’ll ask you to choose the package — pick the best one, because you can always just nix it next month. Also make sure to add all those premium channels, including HBO, Cinemax and Showtime, because they’re free for the month too.

Finally, enter your credit card information and the promo code ROKU1MONTH, and watch the total drop to $0. And don’t worry: We promise it’s easy to cancel online.

Now you can throw your own epic “Game of Thrones” party on a budget — minus that pesky cable bill.

Alex Mahadevan is a data journalist at The Penny Hoarder. He was way more excited to see Mastadon’s drummer than he was to see Ed Sheeran in “Game of Thrones.”

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.

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Here’s How to Perfectly Optimize Your Infographic for SEO

Infographics are amazing!

Besides being one of the best ways to explain a complicated topic with ease, they make information come alive.

Research found,

people following directions with text and illustrations do 323 percent better than people following directions without illustrations.

Maybe that’s why “infographics are ‘liked’ and shared on social media 3x more than any other type of content.”

And the concept of relaying information through visuals is nothing new.

If you think about it, cave paintings and hieroglyphics dating back to 30,000 BC accomplished the same thing.

They were far less sophisticated but demonstrate just how hard-wired we are when it comes to visual information.

So it’s easy to see why infographics have become so ingrained in content marketing.

They get results!

Unbounce even went so far as to say “infographics are the most powerful tool in your content marketing arsenal.”

And like with any piece of content you create, you’ll want it to be SEO friendly.

But here’s the thing.

Doing SEO for an infographic demands a slightly different approach than the one you would use for a conventional blog post.

In this post, I explain the most vital components of infographic SEO to ensure yours gets proper visibility in the SERPs.

The biggest hurdle

Let me start by saying infographics are technically just images.

They are typically saved in image formats such as JPEG, PNG, GIF, etc.

Of course, they’re much more robust and contain far more information than a regular image, but that’s how Google views them.

This is important to know because Google can’t “read” images like it can text-based content such as a blog post.

Fortunately, there are several other elements that you can optimize.

Start with keyword research

You won’t be able to take advantage of keywords in the actual body of an infographic, but there are a few areas where you can insert keywords.

That’s why you’ll still want to do some keyword research to identify a primary keyword phrase as well as a couple of secondary phrases to target.

Let’s say I was planning on creating an infographic about productivity hacks.

A quick search on the Google Keyword Planner shows me that “productivity hacks” is low competition, which is good.

The only issue is that it’s a short-tail keyword with only two words.

But I could still probably make it work, especially if I added “infographic” to the end of “productivity hacks.”

In terms of secondary keywords, there are a few possibilities.

The bottom line here is to perform keyword research like you would for any other type of content.

The only difference is how you go about inserting those keywords.

File name

Selecting the right file name is vital.

This is one of the main factors that Google will analyze to determine what your infographic content is about.

You need to get it right.

I shouldn’t even have to say this, but you’ll obviously want to stay away from anything generic like Image001.png.

This tells Google absolutely nothing and is going to be a strike against your infographic SEO.

A better choice would be something like productivity-hacks-infographic.png.

It’s short and sweet and lets Google know exactly what your content is about.

Just make sure you’re not doing any keyword stuffing, using the same phrase multiple times or anything else that’s spammy.

But you already know that.

Alt text

Equally important is your alt text.

This is the text alternative of an image that lets someone know what an image contains in the event that it doesn’t load properly.

Screen readers for the blind and visually impaired will read out this text and thus make your image accessible.

More importantly, this gives you another opportunity to explain to Google what’s in your infographic.

Just follow best practices for your alt text and describe as succinctly as possible what your infographic is about.

In this case, I might want to use “Infographic explaining 15 productivity hacks.”

URL

Your URL is important for obvious reasons.

As I mentioned in a post from NeilPatel.com that referenced Google’s top 200 ranking factors from Backlinko, when it comes to the significance of URLs, here is what we know:

• URL length is listed as #46
• URL path is listed as #47
• Keyword in the URL is #51
• URL string is #52

I’m not going to cover the nuts and bolts of URL optimization here.

You can find that in the post I just mentioned.

But I will tell you that you want to aim for a short URL that contains three to five words and a max of 60 characters.

This advice comes directly from an interview with Matt Cutts, so you know it’s gold.

When it comes to keywords, be sure to include one or two of them in your URL.

Research from John Lincoln and Brian Dean found that this is the sweet spot and considered as part of URL keyword best practices (at least for the time being).

H1 tag

Although you can’t capitalize on the H1 tags (or H2s, H3s, etc.) in the body of your infographic, you can still place one above your infographic so Google can “read” it.

Here’s an example:

See how the same keyword phrase that’s in the actual infographic is used as an H1 tag at the top?

This is a simple yet effective way to give your infographic a bit more SEO juice.

While H1s may not be as big of a ranking factor today as they were a few years ago, they certainly don’t hurt.

And they can be especially helpful for infographics where you have a limited amount of text to work with.

Meta description

Ah, the good ol’ meta description.

Here are a few best practices to adhere to when creating one for your infographic.

• It should be between 135 and 160 characters in length.
• It should include your keyword phrase (once).
• It should accurately describe the content within your infographic.
• It should have a CTA at the end to encourage search engine users to click on your content.

Getting it just right should make your infographic go further with Google and help you rake in more organic traffic.

For more on creating a killer meta description, I recommend reading this post from Yoast.

Supporting text

I really like hacks, shortcuts, loopholes, etc.

Call them what you will, little tricks like these are what help you gain the edge on the competition.

And there’s one specific hack I would like to point out in regards to infographic SEO.

It’s simple. Add some supporting text at the beginning.

Here’s a great example of what I’m talking about:

Notice that it’s nothing fancy.

It’s just a few paragraphs that expound upon the infographic and offer a quick preview of what it’s about.

This is helpful for two reasons.

First, it provides a brief description for human visitors, which should hopefully pique their interest and make them want to check out the infographic.

Second (and more importantly), it supplies Google with additional text to crawl and decipher meaning from.

This helps your infographic get found and increases the likelihood that it’s indexed under the right keywords.

So it’s a win-win situation.

There’s no reason to go overboard and write 1,000 words of supporting text, but 100 words or so can be a great help.

An added plus is that you can throw in a couple of internal links to relevant pages on your website.

Don’t force it, but try to work in some internal links as well.

Load time

Back in 2010, Google announced that page speed was a ranking factor.

Content that loads quickly will get preference.

Not only that, a faster load time tends to translate into a lower bounce rate, more time spent on your site and so on.

The point I’m trying to make here is that you should be conscious of how long it takes your infographic to load.

Keep in mind that infographics are fairly bulky images, so this can definitely be a concern.

Generally speaking, PNGs, GIFs, JPEGs, BMPs and TIFFs load the fastest, so keep this in mind when choosing a file format.

You can also test the loading speed of your infographic with this free tool.

Just type in the URL.

Then click “Analyze.”

Google will analyze it and grade it.

If there are any issues, Google will provide you with specific advice for speeding it up.

Conclusion

Doing SEO for an infographic isn’t dramatically different from doing SEO for any other type of content.

It incorporates many of the same techniques and strategies.

The main thing you have to work around is the fact that an infographic is an image and therefore Google can’t “read” it like it can regular text-based content.

Fortunately, there are several ways to get around this and ensure your infographic is perfectly optimized for search engines as well as humans.

By covering all the bases, you’ll position it to climb the rankings and achieve maximum visibility in the SERPs.

Do you have any other recommendations for doing SEO for an infographic?

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Ask GFC 032: How Does 401(k) Vesting Work?

Why You Shouldn’t Use a Roth IRA as an Emergency Fund

Nadine writes in:

Does it make sense to use a Roth IRA as an emergency fund? It seems like I could contribute money to it, have it build tax free for a while, then I take out the contributions in an emergency and just keep those earnings for retirement. Why not do this?

Well, as you can see from the title of this article, I don’t actually think this is a very good idea. While Nadine’s point is accurate – you can, in fact, withdraw your contributions from a Roth IRA without penalty and just allow the earnings to build – that’s a really bad idea outside of an absolute emergency.

Here’s why.

Reason #1: You Lose Most of Your Retirement Gains

Let’s say you contribute $5,000 at age 25 and decide that you’re going to leave it in there until age 65. You put it into a hypothetical investment that earns 7% per year.

You check that account at age 65 and what’s in there? $74,872. Sweet!

Now, let’s look at an alternate scenario. You put $5,000 in there at age 25, just as before, but then you withdraw your $5,000 contribution at age 30 because of an emergency. What happens then?

Well, you peek in there at age 65 and… you have $21,489. Wow.

Because you took out that original $5,000 at age 30, you lost $48,382 in investment growth in that account. You tossed away what amounts to most of a year of living expenses (depending on inflation).

Here’s the core principle to remember here: If you withdraw your contributions early from your Roth IRA, you give up a lot of tax-free growth.

“But can’t I contribute more later to put the money back?” Unfortunately, no.

Reason #2: You Lose Your Contribution Window, Too

As of right now, each year, a person is allowed to contribute $5,500 to a Roth IRA (or $6,500 if they’re over age 50), provided their income makes them eligible (most Americans are). Once you reach that limit for a given year, you can’t contribute any more.

Furthermore, once a year passes by, you lose that contribution window. You can no longer make contributions for 2013 or 2014 or 2015. The calendar keeps marching forward, and as it does, you lose out on opportunities to contribute to your Roth IRA.

Those contribution windows are valuable. You only have so many windows to contribute during your working career. Between the ages of 25 and 65, you basically have 40 such windows (and that assumes that you’re within income limits on all of them).

So, let’s say you withdraw $10,000 in contributions from your Roth IRA. That’s the equivalent of just throwing away two of those contribution windows. You can never, ever get them back. They’re gone forever. You’ve effectively permanently reduced the amount you can ever contribute to your Roth IRA by $10,000.

Let’s put that in perspective. From ages 25 to 50, you have a total of $137,500 in contribution windows, and from 50 to 65, you can contribute a total of $97,500, giving you a total of $235,000 in contribution windows. You can only ever contribute that much to your Roth between 25 and 65, period.

Whenever you choose not to contribute up to the cap in a given year, you lose some of that total window. Didn’t contribute for the first five years? You can only ever contribute $207,500 total, because those first five years are lost. Only contributed $1,000 a year for the first decade? You threw away $45,000 of contribution windows that you’ll never get back.

The same thing is true when you withdraw your contributions. You’re effectively losing a contribution window you can never get back. If you contributed $5,000 when you’re 25 and then take that money back out when you’re 30, you’re not going to “gain back” the opportunity to contribute more. You’ve not only taken $5,000 out of that account, but you’ve lost some of the total that you’ll ever be able to contribute to the account. You can’t just put the $5,000 back without eating your current contribution window. The old one is gone forever.

What if you want to “make up” that $5,000 withdrawal later? You can, but by doing so, you’re effectively gobbling up a later contribution window. If you withdraw $5,000 in 2017 and then decide to put it back in 2020, you’re eating up $5,000 of your 2020 contribution window, leaving you with only $500 in fresh contributions that year.

Here’s the core principle: Your contribution windows are a limited resource, and withdrawing your contributions wastes those contribution windows. This might not be a big deal if you’re not using your Roth IRA to its full extent… but if you’re not using every drop of that Roth IRA contribution window, you may be making a mistake anyway (that gets into retirement planning issues that are outside the scope of this article).

There’s a final reason why simply taking money out of a Roth IRA to solve a problem might be a bad idea…

Reason #3: You’re Taking an ‘Easy Way Out’ of Your Financial Situation

When a financial emergency occurs, it’s often easiest to simply look for available pools of money and use those to solve the problem and then move on with life. The problem, of course, is that this really doesn’t solve the problem at all. The short-term problem – whatever the crisis of the moment is – is solved, but you’re left with a big, ongoing, long-term problem – a lifestyle that’s stretching your means – along with a new problem – a reduction in your retirement savings.

In short, if you’re tapping your Roth IRA in an emergency, you’re introducing a new long-term problem without really solving the one that already exists. Sure, you’re getting rid of the short-term issue, but you’re facing a lifestyle that’s pushing your means to sustain it while also facing a retirement for which you’ve just tapped some of your savings.

What’s the solution, then? First of all, if you’re in an emergency where tapping your Roth seems like a good solution, use other resources instead. Leave that Roth alone and try to find a different way to solve that challenge. Your Roth should be your last resort.

When the immediate crisis passes, step back and take a deeper look at your life. If you’re making financial choices that led to you considering tapping out your Roth, you may want to consider different choices.

Are you spending less than you earn? If you’re not doing this, you are going to constantly run into financial trouble in your life. There are simply times in the course of life where you are going to have more financial demands than you expect and it’s during those moments that you need to draw on your resources. If you aren’t preparing for this constantly during the easy times, the hard times are going to be very hard, indeed. As is often noted, winter is coming.

Do you have an actual emergency fund, one that’s large enough to handle most major emergencies? Do you have a pool of cash on hand that could help you bear the brunt of a sudden job loss? What about the transmission failing in your car? What about both? What about a sudden death in the family that necessitates emergency travel? What about identity theft that causes your accounts to be stolen and your credit cards to be closed? These things can and do happen. Are you prepared for them?

Are you earning up to your potential? In other words, are you doing everything you can to succeed in your career so that you can easily move on to higher paying jobs and pull in more income? This is perhaps the most important aspect of all if you’re struggling to spend less than you earn and are only covering the bare necessities. The only way out of that conundrum is to improve your earnings and that requires a serious focus on your career.

The key thing to remember is this: a situation where you’re even considering pulling contributions out of your Roth IRA is an indication that you’re living a life that’s full of financial missteps. You’re likely spending as much as you earn (or nearly as much). You likely don’t have an emergency fund, either. Part of this might be fueled by a job that doesn’t pay well, which is another thing that you can be working on. Correct those missteps. That desire to tap your Roth IRA is a warning shot.

Some Final Thoughts

First of all, if you’re ever in a position to even consider tapping your Roth IRA in an emergency, you need to step back and take a bigger look at your finances. Your Roth IRA is for retirement; if you use it in an emergency, you’re damaging your retirement savings plans. Instead, you should have other emergency protections in your life – namely, a cash emergency fund.

If you’re in this situation, start by considering all other options first. Have you investigated other methods of paying down debt? Do you have some unused belongings you could sell to pay for the emergency? Can you borrow something for a while, such as borrowing a ride or a car for a few days until you figure things out? Is there an alternate strategy you can use for a while, like using the bus instead of your car?

Your Roth IRA should be your emergency fund of absolute last resort. You don’t just lose the contributions from your retirement savings, you also lose the many years of earnings that those savings will generate and you lose some of your window of opportunity to contribute to your Roth IRA. It’s not worth it.

Related Articles:

• When and How to Use a Roth IRA as an Emergency Fund
• How to Choose a Strong Investment Option in Your Workplace Retirement Plan
• Four Ways to Use a Roth IRA That Have Nothing to Do With Retirement
• Rules of the Roth IRA: Income Limits, Contributions, and More

The post Why You Shouldn’t Use a Roth IRA as an Emergency Fund appeared first on The Simple Dollar.

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Stop Wasting Your Money on Bottled Water. Try These 5 Alternatives Instead

Americans are clearly dedicated to hydration. We drink water like it’s our job.

In fact, Americans drink an average of 39 gallons of bottled water per person each year.

That’s a lot of plastic water bottles.

As you’re probably expecting me to point out, it’s also a pretty significant impact to our environment.

But that’s a topic for another day.

Since this month is Plastic-Free July, I’d like to talk about the impact to our wallets.

Bottled Water: Why Not Just Pour Money Down the Drain?

As a Florida resident, I’m the last person who would ever argue against the importance of staying hydrated.

I know that grabbing the occasional bottle of water at a convenience store is a small price to pay to avoid passing out during a spirited game of outdoor volleyball in 93 degree weather.

It’s regularly buying bottled water that really adds up.

A 12-ounce bottle of still water can run you anywhere from 99 cents at a grocery store to $2.00 or more at a gas station or convenience store

And that’s just for plain water. Fancy water with added nutrients, flavoring and bubbles costs even more.

How Much Do Alternatives to Bottled Water Cost?

The obvious solution to disposable water bottles is to get your hands on a refillable water bottle or two and fill them up yourself.

When it comes to reusable bottles, you’ve got a few options.

Pricy but durable. Penny Hoarder staff photographer Heather Comparetto has a distressed wood water bottle that retails for about $25, but she says it’s well worth the money.

“Yes, they are expensive,” says Comparetto, “but they are so functional that I use mine every day. I can’t tell you the last time I purchased a plastic water bottle or even used a regular cup.”

Mid-range price with extra features. Several water bottles on the market are fairly affordable at around $10, but those aren’t rock-bottom prices. On the other hand, they do come equipped with neat extras like a storage compartment, fruit infuser, or (inexplicably) a wireless speaker.

Refillable water bottles at this price point are perfect for someone who has some extra dollars to spend on features that aren’t strictly necessary but make chugging water all day a little less boring.

Basic but cheap. You’ll find plenty of reuseable water bottles for less than $3 if you’re willing to forgo all the bells and whistles.

But, really, what more does a water bottle need than a spout and cap, right?

The best of both worlds. Depending on your level of comfort drinking from previously-owned beverage containers, you might be able to find a high-end water bottle or one with extra frills at a thrift store for dirt cheap — like a buck.  

I’ve also seen piles of brand new refillable bottles at my local thrift store emblazoned with company logos. Someone else’s swag giveaway is your treasure.

Free(ish). Reusing an empty bottle from disposable-bottled water you already bought is a good way to recycle and do a little something to help save the environment. Just make sure you wash it thoroughly with hot soapy water.

When You Hate, Hate, Hate Your Tap Water

Some people rely on water bottles to quench their thirst when they’re at work or on the go. But others buy bottled water to drink at home because they can’t or won’t drink tap water.

Like me, for instance.

Unlike many other areas of the nation, the tap water in my city is perfectly safe to drink but I don’t like the taste. It might be because the water comes into my house through the original copper piping laid down when the house was built 50-odd years ago.

Or maybe I’m just a water snob.

Either way, I don’t want the water that comes out of my faucet.

But I also don’t want to buy a zillion disposable plastic water bottles that will end up in a landfill somewhere.

Instead, I researched some other in-home options that improve tap water or bypass it altogether. Here’s what I learned.

Bring On the Math

For each option, I looked at:

• The equipment cost of each system

• The daily cost to drink 64 ounces of water per day using each system. I used my own water bill as a baseline, which works out to 10 cents per day, per 64 ounces of water.

Just for funsies, I also figured out how many 99-cent bottles of water you’d have to drink to break even on your investment using each system.

Bottled water is sold in a wide variety of sizes, packaging and price points. To arrive at a happy medium somewhere between volume-discounted multi-bottle flats of water and expensive premium single-serving sizes, I used a 12-ounce bottle of water at 99 cents for my calculations, which works out to $5.28 per day.

Pitcher Water Filters

Pitcher water filters are super easy to use. Just fill the pitcher by pouring tap water through the filter built into its lid, and then stash the pitcher in the fridge.

Cost of equipment: $17 for the pitcher system, $7 for a replacement filter that lasts about two months.

Cost per day: 21 cents

How many 99-cent bottles of water to break even? 25

Faucet Water Filters

Faucet water filters attach to your kitchen sink faucet to automatically filter water flowing through the tap.

Cost of equipment: $28 (and up) for the filter system, $26 for a replacement filter that lasts about three months.

Cost per day: 38 cents

How many 99-cent bottles of water to break even? 55

Countertop Water Filters

Countertop water filters sit next to your sink and filter water from the tap to dispense directly from the appliance.

Cost of equipment. $60 for the filter system, $25 for a three-pack of replacement filters that last about three months each

Cost per day: 37 cents

How many 99-cent bottles of water to break even? 85

Refillable Jugs (5 Gallon)

Many grocery, big box and home improvement stores sell refillable plastic five-gallon jugs of water. Just tote the empties back to the store, refill them at the water kiosk and take them back home.

Cost of equipment: $13 per bottle and $7 to refill (local Publix), $6 for a hand press pump

Cost per day: 70 cents

How many 99-cent bottles of water to break even? 26

Water Delivery Service

Alternatively, you can have refillable five-gallon jugs delivered right to your door. The delivery company even drops off replacements when your bottles run dry.

Cost of equipment: $10 per bottle and $7 per month for water dispenser rental (from my monthly Crystal Springs water delivery bill)  

Cost per day: $1.23

How many 99-cent bottles of water to break even? 17

It’s worth noting reverse osmosis water systems and whole house filters are two other ways to always have tasty water available at home. However, they also come with hefty installation bills unless you’re a skilled DIYer.

What Works for Me

After considering all our choices, my husband and I decided to buy our own water in five-gallon jugs.

It may not be the most cost-effective choice per month (not by a long shot) but on the flipside, there was no upfront investment and we recouped our costs in a single day.

My water is tasty, so I happily drink an ocean of it every day. And, yes, I always dispense my water into a reusable bottle.

Lisa McGreevy is a staff writer at The Penny Hoarder. She rarely drinks anything but water so this topic is serious business for her.

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.

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Your Side Hustle Matchmaker: Find Out Which Gig is Right for You

So you’ve decided to supplement your paycheck with a side hustle. Congratulations! Now it’s time to determine the best one for you, which may not be as obvious as you think.

We’re here to help. A couple decades ago, locking down a 9-to-5, climbing the corporate ladder and hoping to be called “boss” one day may have seemed fairly standard. But with shifting job markets, the advent of social media and online marketing, and a booming sharing economy (think: WeWork), people are increasingly thinking outside the cubicle and warming up to the idea of becoming their own bosses. Currently, 33% of Americans are part of the gig economy.

Of course, freelancing doesn’t need to mean quitting your day job today — or ever. There are plenty of low-risk, low-time-commitment freelance opportunities you can engage in to pad your paycheck or test a new professional track.

Matching Your Skills to the Side Gig Economy

First, think about the skills you’ve developed throughout your career and might even use on a daily basis at your full-time job. Are any of them, like problem solving or personnel management, transferable to other industries? You can even pick up freelance work in the same field as your full-time job, given you’re not competing with your employer or violating a noncompete agreement.

On the other hand, you may be looking to pick up a new skill or take a break from your day-to-day duties after hours. A side hustle can be the perfect way to transition into a new line of work or simply blow off steam while making extra cash.

Browsing online marketplaces, like UpWork and Fiverr, is a great way to find out what kind of services other people are offering to supplement their income. Once you’re properly inspired, let’s figure out which moneymaker is the best fit for your interests and abilities.

You are Gifted With the Written Word

Whether you’re a writer by trade or your diary reads like Shakespeare, there are plenty of freelance writing opportunities that can help pay the bills.

If you’re itching to see your byline in print, try pitching to a website or publication that pays its contributors. If you already have some clips to your name and can track down the email address of an editor at your favorite magazine, go ahead and send them an idea. (I used to be an editor at a women’s glossy, and yes, they really do accept blind pitches!)

But just about every company needs to call upon a wordsmith at some point, and many companies will farm out their website copy, marketing work and blog content to freelancers via online marketplaces.

You Know Your Way Around Web Design

Tons of people have personal websites these days, but not all of them know how to build them. Even free content management systems like Squarespace and WordPress can be difficult and time-consuming for amateurs to navigate (guilty!).

Whether you know Javascript, HTML or just drag-and-drop editing, you can offer your services as a web designer through a marketplace like Freelancer or 99designs.

You’re the Go-To Problem Solver

Whether you’re a professional educator or can crack any brain teaser, use your skills to help kids get into college. There’s a huge market for SAT and ACT tutors. List your services on a site like Craigslist, get the word out locally or sign up to become a part-time tutor with a nationwide company like Kaplan.

If you have a special area of expertise — biology, history or even chess — tutor in that subject area. Become an English language tutor for those brushing up on their skills through an English as a Second Language program (you’ll often need certification for that one). Check out Tutor.com for listings.

People Take Your Opinion Seriously

Get paid for your opinion by becoming a mystery shopper. As a mystery shopper, you may be assigned to shop anywhere from Pizza Hut to IKEA. Some mystery shopping companies even assign shoppers to test spa services. After finishing your shop, you’ll rate the company’s service, timeliness, quality and more.

Make sure to research mystery companies before signing up, as many are legitimate, but there are scams out there. According to one frequent mystery shopper, the average pay is $8 to $25 per assignment, plus reimbursement of expenses, but some assignments can bring in up to $60.

Another way to share your opinion is through online surveys, which can pay up to $95 but are usually closer to $1 to $2 each and take about 10 to 15 minutes to complete. One benefit of surveys is that you can complete them quickly from the comfort of your own home. MyPoints and Ipsos Panel are some of our favorite — and legitimate! — survey companies.  

You are the Creative Type

We’re all aware of the meditative — and budget gift-giving — benefits of crafting. But you can get even more mileage out of your creations by selling them through marketplaces like Etsy, Artfire and Handmade by Amazon.

Creating goods is only half of the recipe for selling successfully online — you’ll need to also consider the effort needed for promotion, organization and working with customers. We talked to one Etsy shop owner who put a focus on service to grow sales to 70,000 a month.

Dollars Make Sense to You

There’s a profit to be made by helping startups and small businesses craft ironclad business plans. More than 400 people are looking to hire financial experts via UpWork right now.

At UpWork you can browse available gigs like financial planning, executive summaries and marketing strategies, or create a profile and advertise your own services.

You’re a Social Butterfly

Contact your local theater or concert venue to apply to be an usher. You’ll greet people at weekend and evening shows and walk them to their seats. Some ushers even get to watch the events they work. Want your own audience? Casino dealer or product demonstrator are great side gigs that will keep you talking.

Do you host the best dinner parties? Try freelance event planning. Do you ace every interview? Help others prep for theirs. You can meet new people every hour by becoming a driver with Lyft or Uber if you have access to a car that meets their requirements.

You Always Have a Plan

Is your calendar the image of color-coded perfection? Help someone else organize theirs by becoming a virtual assistant. Depending on the employer, you’ll complete assistant duties like scheduling, answering phones, taking dictations and more while getting paid an hourly salary. Check virtual assistant job boards like this one for listings or visit your favorite freelance marketplace.

You’re the First One on the Dance Floor

If you’ve been killing it at the front of your Zumba class, get paid for showing off your moves as a hired dancer at bar mitzvahs, weddings and Sweet 16s. DJs often staff party dancers to fill the floor, so search for gigs through local party DJs or on job forums like this one.

You don’t need any formal training to perform as a party motivator — just a lot of energy, unfettered exuberance and maybe even a mastery of the Electric Slide.

You’re Always Behind the Camera

What can you do with the hundreds of photos on your hard drive? Sell your gorgeous snapshots online through stock photography sites. On Shutterbug, you can earn up to $120 per image download. Or check out this list of other great stock photo sites that pay you for your snapshots.

If You Love Hanging With the Kiddos

If you are responsible and dependable, yet still love to fingerpaint, a part-time nanny gig may be just right for you. One of the best ways to land a babysitting gig is word-of-mouth through friends, family and social media. That way, you’ll have a built-in reference.

Parents also turn to apps like UrbanSitter, which helps vet nannies with background checks and references. Some of these babysitting gigs pay up to $18 an hour, and your reviews on the site could lead to more potential gigs.

You Love Fresh Air and Exercise

Take the old-fashioned side gig route and work on someone’s lawn, whether mowing, leaf removal or snow plowing, through the app Plowz and Mowz.

Or, if you want some canine company outside, sign up to become a dog walker with Rover.com.

Still haven’t found your dream job No. 2? Keep in mind that, just like choosing a profession, identifying your ideal side gig can require some soul-searching. But that’s a perk of the process: Meditating on your passions, skills and curiosities can help you figure out what might be missing in your primary career or spark a genius app idea.

The stakes are fairly low because you’re holding on to your regular paycheck while testing the waters. And once you feel like you’ve mastered your new trade, it could lead to a full-time profession you might never have imagined possible.

Romy Oltuski is a New York-based lifestyle writer who contributes to Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, and The Cut, among others. Browse her work or say hi at romyoltuski.com.

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.

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Five ways to home stage on a shoestring

Hiring a company to stage and decorate your property to lure in potential buyers could mean you get a lot more when you sell, and in a cooling property market, it could clinch a sale. Moneywise looks at the dos and don’ts of home staging – and whether it pays off.

If you don’t have the cash to do major works on your property, don’t despair. Some tricks of the trade can help you stage your home on a shoestring. Here are five to get you started.

1. Clean up thoroughly

Figures from Go Compare Mortgages show that 65% of prospective buyers would avoid homes that have been poorly maintained.

Freshen up your home by giving it a good clean – top to bottom and inside and out – and remember to air the rooms. Cleaning the windows will help increase natural light in rooms. Banish nasty smells by having the carpets and upholstery professionally cleaned. If you have a cat, make sure the litter box is clean before a potential buyer views your home.

An easy way to make your home appear more spacious is to declutter. It won’t be easy, and you may need to hire extra storage space, but having a clear out can pay dividends.

• 10 things that will affect the value of your home

2. Ensure every room has a purpose

Having one clear purpose for every room is crucial to successfully staging a house for sale. A good approach is to think about what potential buyers might be looking for. Multi-purpose rooms may work against you, as they give the impression that the property is smaller than it is. Whether you buy inexpensive furnishings, hire them or borrow some from friends, tweaking furnishings to give a room a clear single purpose will have a big payoff.

3. Don’t bank on a second chance to impress

Experts agree that the average buyer decides about a house within about eight seconds of arriving. If they hate your house from the outside, there’s a good chance they won’t even bother looking inside. ‑

So make sure you maximise kerb appeal. Look at the paintwork around your windows, for instance. Is it chipped or peeling? Pay close attention to the pathway: power wash it thoroughly and replace any loose paving stones. If possible, find an alternative hiding place for your wheelie bins. ‑

“If you have room, place flowerpots by the front door and fill them with seasonal plants or flowers,” says Ms Joerin. “Remember to keep them looking good by regularly watering and dead-heading them –a dying plant looks worse than no plant at all.”

Replace any missing roof tiles – one of the most off-putting things for a potential buyer is thinking they will have to spend thousands of pounds replacing a roof.

• A dozen tips on downsizing

4. Consider your closets

Storage space can be a make-or-break issue for buyers, so show yours off to its full advantage by reducing the contents. Experts suggest aiming for 20-30% open space in each built-in wardrobe or cupboard to give the impression of spaciousness.

5. Depersonalise

Many of us love to have family photos on the walls of our home, but you want a potential home buyer to picture themselves living there, and seeing pictures of your kids could interfere with that vision.

If you have walls of family pictures, print off neutral images of landscapes or flowers from a photo-sharing site such as Flicker.com and pop them over the existing photos in the frames.

For more on professional home stagin read our feature Is professional home staging worth the cost?

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Is professional home staging worth the cost?

Hiring a company to stage and decorate your property to lure in potential buyers could mean you get a lot more when you sell, and in a cooling property market, it could clinch a sale. Moneywise looks at the dos and don’ts of home staging – and whether it pays off.

Companies spend millions of pounds every year creating the right image for their products through packaging, logos, typefaces, the way products are displayed and the wording used to describe them. Whole teams are dedicated to creating the right look and feel. In the US homeowners have known for years that applying this philosophy to their homes gets them sold – and fast. Professional home staging – the art of making a home appealing to the highest number of potential buyers using art, paint, accessories, lights, greenery, furniture and carpet – is very popular there.

But a quick look on online property portal Rightmove reveals that this is not the case here in the UK, despite figures from the website showing that a staged home will sell for 8% more than a non-staged one. On an average UK property worth £220,094, that’s an extra £17,607.

Most home buyers look online before they even consider visiting their local estate agent. So with buyers scrolling through pictures of thousands of homes, the way your home is presented and photographed really can make all the difference.

• 10 things that will affect the value of your home

But UK property owners appear to feel home staging makes little sense. Why splash the cash on sprucing up the place if you are about to move out?

“Although there is a considerable shortage of homes in most price ranges, the market has cooled, so properties need to stand out to sell,” says north London estate agent and former Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors residential chairman Jeremy Leaf.

“It is so important that your home is properly staged, both inside and out, before taking photographs or having viewings.”

The theory is simple: potential buyers aren’t just looking for a house: they are looking for a home. A staged home helps a potential buyer imagine your home as their own and increases their willingness to pay for it.

Staging can add significant value to many properties, especially those being sold to first-time buyers, says Mark Homer, founding partner of Progressive Property, a property investment education company.

“These buyers don’t always have the inclination to carry out work on a property, and they often want to see a property furnished and staged to get a vision of how the property will look with their possessions in it,” he says. “Many don’t have the money to perform work that is unlikely to be funded by a mortgage.”

• A dozen tips on downsizing

It’s not just live-in homeowners who are staging homes. Private landlords are also staging their properties to achieve the very best returns.

Jonathan Daines, chief executive at Lettingaproperty. com, says: “It’s really a no-brainer for landlords, because by staging a house, they can often command the rental income they want and get their property let quickly, so avoiding long voids – periods when the property is empty between tenancies – which cost the landlord.”

How do you stage your home?

“The first thing to remember is that the way you sell your home is very different from the way you live in your home,” says Lucy Joerin, managing director at property consultancy Stowhill Estates.

“When you decide to sell your home, it’s important that you change your mind-set and start thinking about the property as a financial asset – a commodity you’re going to sell to help you realise your dream of living in a new home.”

The good news is that it’s possible to stage your home on a budget, whether you go down the do-it-yourself route or seek professional help.

How much does it usually cost to hire a home staging company?

Typically, interior designers or home staging firms offer a free initial meeting to discuss your options. If you have a consultation and can put the suggestions into action yourself, costs will be modest: around £50- £200. You should expect to pay anything between £20 and £75 an hour if you want the work done on your behalf. Note that some firms charge a fee based on a proportion of the increased price the home fetches, so it is crucial to do your maths.

• London agents disagree over the importance of ‘location, location, location’

The cost of improvements, repairs and accessories, will obviously vary, but experts suggest that 1-2% of the property’s value is a good benchmark figure.

Companies such as Whynothomes.com and Doctorphoto. co.uk will virtually stage your home. For as little as £36 a picture, they will digitally insert designer furniture and flowers into photographs of your home. This works especially well for unoccupied properties. The theory is that the enhanced photographs give the viewer a deeper connection with the house and a vision of how the property could look in future.

What are the best ways to catch buyers’ eyes?

Much can be done to catch the eyes of potential buyers by making your home stand out from the crowd.

If you’re looking to sell your home, it can be worth investing in giving it a facelift to avoid having to drop your asking price.

A new kitchen, bathroom, flooring and wall coverings will usually deliver the biggest “bang for your buck” increase in its sale price relative to the cost of the building work entailed, according to Progressive Property.

However, Mr Homer points out that it’s crucial to keep the cost of these improvements down.“People are unlikely to pay extra for highend bathroom suites rather than good B&Q equivalents,” he says.

“A Howdens kitchen is often perfectly fine, and your house could sell for the price it would fetch with a John Lewis kitchen if the installation is well executed. The style and scheme of a home is much more important than installing high-end fixtures and fittings.”

‘Our property had to appeal to buyers with kids’

homestaging-3-web.jpg

 

For Jonathan and Catherine Smith, who are in their 40s and live in London, hiring a professional home stager was “an eye opening experience”.

“Our town house has three bedrooms and two reception rooms, and the interior designer pointed out that the property would suit a family,” says Jonathan.

“But as it is just the two of us living in it, the way we had the rooms set up didn’t give that impression at all. To get the best price for the property, we knew we had to appeal to buyers with kids.”

• Property pundits play down 40% house price crash warning

Jonathan explains that the first thing they did was clear out the formal dining room to create a family room.

“We sold some of the furniture, placed other items in storage and hired some furniture from the staging consultant to fill gaps that were created,” he says.

Their property, in Limehouse in east London, was listed in January for £1,295,000. The couple are thrilled with the impact of home staging. “We spent around £1,500 on the service, but we believe it was worth it. In the first week we had eight viewings, and we received an offer of the full asking price within a fortnight.”

“The advice from the interior designer really opened our eyes to how important it is to market your home when you sell,” he says.

“Having someone with an unbiased opinion walk through your home will give you a new perspective and get the foot traffic through the front door.”

‘I staged my home myself’

homestagin-4-web.jpg

 

When Nicki Treffers (pictured above), from Writtle in Essex, bought a property just 18 months ago for £143,000, her goal was to get a good return on her investment. After forking out £7,000 on the property for home staging, Nicki is hoping to sell it for £200,000 – a profit of £50,000.

Nicki believes everything should be aesthetically pleasing, and she knows that this can pay dividends in the property market

“I’ve been involved with show home design in my marketing career, and I’m keen to use my skills and make the apartment look the best it can to get the best price,” says Nicki. “I’ve spent £5,000 on a new kitchen and a further £2,000 on accessories to get the price I am aiming for.”

Nicki opted to stage her home herself rather than shell out for a professional service. She says: “I gained a lot of inspiration from sites such as Pinterest, which offers fresh designs and easy-to-copy ideas.

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• 10 things that will affect the value of your home
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