By Sarah Landrum More than 50 percent of businesses in the U.S. are based out of the owner’s home. If you own or are starting a home-based business, you’re in good company. But do you have insurance for the business? Roughly 60 percent of home-based businesses lack sufficient business insurance. Many people who work out […]
The post Are You at Risk?! When to Insure Your Home-Based Business appeared first on The Work at Home Woman.
So apparently there’s a solar eclipse coming soon. Who knew?
Oh yeah, everybody.
If you don’t have your solar eclipse viewing glasses yet, you still have a little time to get a pair. Or if you prefer, make a pinhole projector from stuff you have around the house.
People are seriously excited about this cosmic event for good reason. It’s bringing out all sorts of cool, fun and goofy sales! Here are four solar eclipse specials and deals that will have you celebrating in style.
Uncle Sam loves to cash in on momentous events with commemorative stamps, but he may have outdone himself this time. The special Total Eclipse of the Sun Forever Stamps sell for the normal 49 cents apiece and may be the coolest U.S. postage stamp ever.
Using thermochromic ink, these stamps react to your body heat. Hold your thumb on the black spot on the stamp, and it reveals an image of the moon. Once the stamp cools, the black spot covers the moon again. How cool is that? You can have a functioning eclipse on every letter you send!
By the way, thanks to Uncle Sam for giving the stamp that name. I’ll have Bonnie Tyler in my head for the rest of the day.
If there is something going on, you know Krispy Kreme will throw its hat in the ring. The solar eclipse is no exception.
Introducing the Krispy Kreme Eclipse Donut.
“For the first time, Krispy Kreme’s Original Glazed® Doughnuts will be eclipsed by a mouth watering chocolate glaze to coincide with the solar eclipse Monday, Aug. 21 at participating US/CAN shops. Guests also can get an early taste of this limited-time doughnut
during evening Hot Light™ hours Saturday and Sunday, Aug. 19-20. ”
So yeah, it’s basically a chocolate-covered donut, but it’s probably pretty delicious. Why not?
Why have pancakes when you can have “mooncakes” as a celebratory breakfast in honor of the eclipse? On Aug. 21, Denny’s is offering all-you-can-eat mooncakes for just $4. What’s a mooncake? It’s a buttermilk pancake shaped like the moon.
Is this an awesome deal? No, not really. You can get $4 all-you-can-eat pancakes any day at Denny’s, but why not have a little fun with it on the special day? No coupons or codes needed. Just show up and ask for a stack of mooncakes.
I saved the best for last. Schlafly Beer in St. Louis is ready to get into the eclipse party mode with a fun-filled field trip.
For $45, guests will get:
That’s a pretty sweet deal. Hop on a bus, drink some brews and go to a prime spot for viewing the eclipse with a busload of your soon-to-be closest friends.
Regardless of where you’ll be when the eclipse happens, you’ll have no shortage of companies hoping to cash in on this major event. Find the best deals, and have fun with it.
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.
Landing a great work-from-home job can be life-changing.
Whether you’re looking to stay home with your kids during the days, bring in a little extra income on the side or put an end to the three-hour, round-trip commute, working from the comfort of your own home can make all the difference in your quality of life.
And when that work-from-home job comes with good pay, great benefits or an extra-flexible schedule? That’s just the icing on the cake.
These customer service jobs (plus one awesome captioning opportunity!) have a little bit of everything to suit a variety of needs: part-time, full-time, night shift, day shift, awesome benefits and solid pay — these jobs have it all (so that you can, too).
If you’ve been looking for an awesome work-from-home opportunity, you’re going to want to read on.
Also, be sure to follow our Jobs page on Facebook. We post awesome work-from-home opportunities there all the time!
You can check out these six awesome work-from-home job opportunities below!
Genesis Digital provides web-based e-commerce solutions for businesses of all sizes.
The company is currently looking for a customer success agent to be the first point of contact for its customer base.
You’ll resolve customer issues and inquiries via email, live chat and the occasional phone call. You may also assist in various other customer success projects, such as video training with clients, content creation for a “knowledgebase” and the development of better strategies for the customer success team to implement.
You should have experience dealing with technical issues, from troubleshooting to resolution, and should have experience navigating the web and mobile apps.
You should have excellent written and verbal communication skills and should be able to communicate with customers in an empathetic and professional manner.
Benefits include medical benefits, paid holiday and vacation time, a flexible work environment and business training. There is no pay listed for this position, but we’ve reached out to the company and will update this post when we hear back.
When you apply, you’ll need to submit a 300-word statement about why you’re right for the job. You can check out more details about how to apply on the original job listing here.
Starry, Inc. is a broadband internet provider currently serving the Boston, Massachusetts, area.
The company is currently looking for a full-time, overnight customer support representative to work from home.
You’ll respond to customer emails, phone calls and live chats to help customers navigate internet and product setup, features and settings. You’ll identify and resolve network and device issues, escalate technical issues to the proper team members and record and track customer concerns and feedback.
You should have at least one year of customer service, help desk or technical troubleshooting experience, excellent written and verbal communication skills and strong organizational and analytical abilities. Bonus points if you’re familiar with Zendesk and have a passion for technology.
Pay and benefits for this position are not listed, but we’ve reached out to the company and will update this pot when we hear back.
This is an overnight support role, so you should be available to work between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m. EST. You must be based in either New York or Massachusetts.
To apply for this job, go here.
Intelenet is a global business process outsourcing platform.
The company is currently looking for a part-time customer service benefits administrator to provide support to candidates, retirees, employees and HR contacts regarding benefits.
You’ll field incoming calls and emails, identify and resolve problems, improve service delivery and educate callers about various benefit plans.
You should have strong verbal and written communication skills, the ability to learn information quickly, the ability to remain cool in high-pressure situations and strong problem solving skills.
You should possess a bachelor’s degree and at least one year of relevant work experience or a high school diploma (or GED equivalent) and two years of relevant work experience. Previous experience in a call center or dealing with benefits and HR is a plus.
Pay is $14 to $15 per hour depending on experience. Comprehensive benefits including company-paid life insurance and disability insurance kick in after 60 days, and paid time off kicks in after 90 days.
To apply for this job, go here.
Oak Grove Technologies provides learning and training solutions for law enforcement and government agencies, the Armed Forces and health care organizations.
The company is currently looking for a real-time captioner to create live closed captions for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, the Veterans Health Administration and the Employee Education System.
You’ll provide real-time closed captioning for web-based broadcasting and virtual conferences while maintaining an accuracy rate of at least 98%. You’ll research and confirm spellings, terminology and names and will consult with clients, users, engineers and administrators to identify and implement closed captioning needs across a variety of streaming platforms.
You should note that captioning a live broadcast means you will work under intense pressure for long periods of time and will often face high work volume and the inability to plan your workflow.
Because of this, you may not have a set schedule, but the listing notes that real-time captioning is needed almost daily on weekdays (except for federal holidays), and you can expect to work on up to five programs per day. Occasional weekend and evening work may be required.
You should be familiar with technical standards in streaming media, including web conferencing systems and closed captioning delivery services. You should have prior editing or proofreading experience and a knowledge of internet security standards and different file formats as they relate to closed captioning services. You should have a typing speed of 225 WPM.
There is no pay listed for this position, but the benefits include 75% company-paid medical and dental, 100% paid vision, life and disability and a 401(k) plan with a company match.
To apply for this job, go here.
PhishMe offers anti-phishing solutions for companies so that employees can help fight security breaches as they happen.
The company is currently looking for a customer support engineer to interact with PhishMe customers, answer questions and resolve queries regarding PhishMe Simulator products, and engage the internal development staff as needed.
You’ll answer customer calls and emails in a timely manner, resolve incidents and issues singularly and through collaboration with the various PhishMe teams, and develop and implement internal processes and documentation practices including FAQs and “canned responses.”
You should have at least two years of experience in a customer-facing support role, a basic understanding of phishing and the threats it presents, basic technical troubleshooting abilities and a basic knowledge of HTML. You should also have excellent written and verbal communication skills and strong multitasking skills.
You should be available to work from 12 p.m. to 9 p.m. PST and should be located on the west coast of the U.S.
Pay is not listed for this position, but benefits include a 401(k) plan with company match and health, dental, vision, disability and life insurance.
To apply for this job, go here.
Romanoff Renovations provides in-home installation for Home Depot and offers various installation and renovation services.
The company is currently looking for a part-time customer support representative to field incoming customer calls.
You’ll coordinate installation scheduling, inform customers of changes made to their orders or installation schedules, and handle questions, issues and queries from customers as they arise.
You should have excellent verbal and written communication skills, strong computer skills and the ability to handle customer complaints and questions in a professional manner.
You must be at least 18 years old, located on the west coast of the U.S. and have a dedicated home office space. Prior customer service experience is preferred, as is weekend availability. Previous retail experience at Home Depot is a big plus!
Pay is listed between $13 and $15 per hour and benefits include medical, vision and dental insurance, a 401(k) with company match, paid holidays, personal time off and the ability to earn PTO by doing community service.
To apply for this job, go here.
Grace Schweizer is a junior writer at The Penny Hoarder.
This was originally published on The Penny Hoarder, one of the largest personal finance websites. We help millions of readers worldwide earn and save money by sharing unique job opportunities, personal stories, freebies and more. In 2016, Inc. 500 ranked The Penny Hoarder as the No. 1 fastest-growing private media company in the U.S.
If you want to dictate everything about your job including where you work, when you work and how much you make, we’d typically tell you good luck and send you on your way.
However, we found a work-from-home position that fills that large bill.
NexRep, an agency that sources work-from-home agents for tons of big-name companies, is looking for approximately 45 outbound sales representatives.
These representatives can set their own hours and will get paid, on average, $15 an hour.
Before we dive in with more details, know that you can live in any state except Arkansas, California, Indiana, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island or Washington. (By the way, here’s why work-from-home jobs have state restrictions.)
NexRep is contracting outbound sales agents for Tristar Products, a brand you might recognize from infomercials. It sells products like the Copper Chef pans.
As an outbound sales agent, you’ll connect with customers who have called about purchasing an advertised product, but in the end, decided not to. You’ll work to reconnect with potential customers through the phone and offer them a better deal.
NexRep says you’ll be the perfect fit for this position if you consider yourself competitive, enjoy taking risks and love playing with the latest gadget.
Here’s a list of skills and qualifications it’s looking for:
You’ll also need a hard-wired internet connection; no wifi.
In order to take on these one of these work-from-home sales jobs, you’ll need to work at least 15 hours a week. However, you can set your own hours between 9 a.m. and 11 p.m. EST.
As mentioned, pay is largely based on commission, which averages about $10 an hour. Plus, you’ll receive a $5/hour base pay, which is calculated by call time and wait time.
NexRep says its agents currently earn an average of $15 an hour and as much as $25 an hour.
It’s all in your hands.
If you’re interested in applying to this work-from-home job, go ahead and do so through NexRep’s secure system.
You’ll answer some questions, then wait to hear back from the company if you qualify. It’s looking for 45 agents, so the sooner you apply, the better.
If you want to peruse the full listing, that’s over here.
Good luck!
If you want more work-from-home job leads, head over to our Facebook jobs page.
Carson Kohler (@CarsonKohler) is a junior writer at The Penny Hoarder.
This was originally published on The Penny Hoarder, one of the largest personal finance websites. We help millions of readers worldwide earn and save money by sharing unique job opportunities, personal stories, freebies and more. In 2016, Inc. 500 ranked The Penny Hoarder as the No. 1 fastest-growing private media company in the U.S.
When it comes to saving for retirement, it seems like no one’s prepared. Pretty much every report says retirement funds are falling short.
A recent Reddit thread, however, shines a different light on how people view retirement and are successfully preparing for it.
On Aug. 10, Reddit user VintageBurtMacklin started a thread titled “Why Save So Much For Retirement?”
The user explained how he maxes out his 401(k) contributions but worries doing so will result in him neglecting his other financial goals.
“It just feels like overkill to me to prioritize funding retirement in the midst of other savings goals like paying off house early, starting college savings, saving for new cars, or saving for major home repairs,” VintageBurtMacklin wrote. “I can’t imagine the benefit of maxing out my retirement accounts to the full 401k and IRA maximums. Sure, it nets me the absolute highest return objectively, but what will I actually do with that money once I’m there? Is it not to the detriment of life in the meantime?”
VintageBurtMacklin didn’t see the long-term value in maxing out his contributions, but other Reddit users were quick to give him a rundown.
“You logic is fine if you have other saving needs like a house or education. Just remember your calculations are figured for perfection. No illness, job loss, divorce, stock market dropping over 30 percent and not breaking even for over 10 years (which it has done numerous times),” wrote Reddit user Amcal.
Others generously offered their own personal experiences to back the suggestion that he continue to contribute as much to his retirement account as possible.
“When my father was your age, he made $150k per year. Today, he is unemployed and broke,” wrote palsh7. “Fortunes change. Don’t assume anything. If you’re still feeling good at 55, by all means, cut back, but right now you want to invest.”
Much of the buzz around retirement these days is about people not saving enough. According to MarketWatch, women ages 65 and older work more now than they did 20 years ago, mainly because they can’t afford to retire. On top of that, the same article says millennials also struggle to put money away for when they’ll retire.
This Reddit thread, however, sets a different tone for the retirement discussion. While we may not be perfect when it comes to saving, it’s refreshing to see we’re sharing lessons we’ve learned from our mistakes, hoping that others don’t make the same ones.
The other reason we love this thread so much? It shows people are taking strides toward becoming money-conscious.
And we love that this guy is maxing out his contributions. Hopefully, he sticks with it!
Oh, by the way — did you know Reddit is a great resource for financial information? If not, check out 31 of the best subreddits for Penny Hoarders.
Get reading!
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.
Back-to-school shopping ranks right up there with Christmas as a major budget buster for families. This year, parents with children in grades K-12 are expected to spend an average of $501 on everything from clothing and paper to pencils and crayons, according to Deloitte’s Back-to-School Survey.
But all that shopping doesn’t need to break the bank.
Here are some strategic ways for budget-conscious parents to keep back-to-school spending from spiraling out of control.
I actually begin my back-to-school prep when the kids bring home all of their stuff at the end of the year.
I go through the folders, pencils, markers and more and figure out what’s still good. I then put all of it in a big plastic bin and wait for the school supply lists to arrive.
Once I have the lists, the plastic bin is the first place I “shop.”
This year, the bin held enough pencils, pens and markers from last year to outfit both my kids for the new school year. Both their pencil boxes survived, along with their scissors and rulers.
Once we were done with the bin, I checked to see what else I may have already had around the house. For example, my son needed a binder and I had a few left from various committees I’ve served on through the years. I recycled the papers inside (which I probably should have done years ago) and he soon had a binder for language arts.
Between shopping around the house and using leftover supplies, I was able to knock off nearly half the list.
The same goes for clothes and shoes — anything that still fits is one less item we need to buy.
Remember the binders I mentioned above? If you don’t have any at home, check out the nearest rummage sale or thrift store.
Neither is a sure thing, but if the store has a binder or two — or other supplies on your list — there’s likely a steep discount. If you don’t mind gently-used clothing, these are also great places to look for kids’ clothes — especially since they often outgrow them so quickly.
Each of these types of stores offer items you’ll need — and since the stores aren’t everyone’s first thought for school supplies, you might be able to find better deals.
To save cash on facial tissues and cleaning supplies, stop by your local dollar store. If you have several children and need to buy more boxes of facial tissues — this year I needed to buy six for my two children — a trip to Sam’s Club or Costco may be a better choice.
Do a little math to figure out where you can find the best deal per box or roll.
For pencils, pens and paper, try an office supply store like OfficeMax — the prices are often just as good, if not better, than the big discount chains. Even better, sign up for the store’s rewards program and you’ll earn points to use toward future purchases.
Don’t be afraid to look online to maximize your savings.
Target recently ran a promotion on online orders that you picked up at the store. I went online and picked out my kids’ gym shoes, then picked them up in the store — saving $10.
If you do go the online route, check out Ebates.com first. Select the store you’re looking for and you can earn rebates on the amount you spend. A bonus: Ebates often has additional coupons and codes for free shipping right on the retailer’s page so you can also take advantage of even more savings.
While picking out folders at Target, I found plain ones for 48 cents — the one with the cute cats was $1.50. My daughter asked for the one with the cats and I said she could get it — if she used her own money. She declined.
Generic school supplies can save you lots of cash. If your children complain about having plain notebooks and folders, suggest they decorate them with their own drawings, stickers or other options.
The same goes for all the paper and cleaning supplies on your school-supply list: Going generic is perfectly acceptable. Who cares if the tissue box is plain blue or has the characters from “Frozen” on it?
Retailers and companies each have coupons for different items on the school supply list, and often you can combine them for extra savings.
For example, I received a flyer from Target that included coupons for pens, markers and more. I cut those out and combined them with an in-store mobile coupon offering $5 off when you spend $25 or more on school supplies. This saved me $15 on $50 of supplies on that shopping trip.
One smart friend divided her kids’ school supplies into four separate carts of just over $25, then used the mobile coupon four times — instead of just saving $5, she saved $20. Also if shopping at Target, be sure to check out the Cartwheel app — its offers often mirror printed coupons, and you can use both at once. Don’t be afraid to double up.
As my kids have grown older, shopping for school supplies and clothing isn’t as fun as it used to be (who really wants to pick out a protractor?) — and more expensive. With some of the tips I’ve outlined above, I hope you’ll find a few ways to save and cut down on the back-to-school shopping bill.
Your Turn: How do you stick to your back-to-school shopping budget?
Disclosure: Here’s a toast to the affiliate links in this post. May we all be just a little richer today.
MaryBeth Matzek is a mother of two and a Wisconsin-based freelance writer. When not spending time with her family or writing, she’s out trying to find the best possible deal.
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.
A new study by the behemoth research firm RAND Corporation says that you’re probably overworked and stressed out.
Tell us something we don’t know, RAND.
Still, the American Working Conditions Survey, an analysis of more than 2,000 U.S. workers, does provide a new, comprehensive look at the dire conditions of current work culture in this country. (As depressing as it is.)
Specifically, two-thirds of those surveyed said they work in high-paced environments with tight deadlines, and 27% of workers said they don’t have enough time to finish their assignments at the office.
Nearly one-fourth of Americans are working more than 48 hours a week, according to the study, and half said they have to work in their free time.
Even as companies expect workers to finish projects on their own time, more than 35% of employees surveyed said they have no flexibility in setting their actual work schedule. Way to not return the favor, boss.
A little more than 19% of people said they work in a hostile office environment. That includes sexual harassment or bullying, verbal abuse and humiliation. Two percent of workers said they’d actually experienced physical abuse in the last month at work.
And on and on and on the study goes, down a rabbit hole of soul-sucking statistics about the American workplace.
“I was surprised how taxing the workplace appears to be, both for less-educated and for more-educated workers,” said adjunct RAND economist Nicole Maestas, the lead author of the study, in a news release. “Work is taxing at the office and it’s taxing when it spills out of the workplace into people’s family lives.”
I mean, Americans reportedly take an average of four days off work each year just to catch up on sleep.
Not a good look, employers.
But you don’t have to get caught up in the pressure, anxiety and drama at the office.
When long newspaper production days used to work me into anxiety attacks, I had a particularly well-balanced colleague who used to tell me: “Remember, when it comes down to it, nothing really matters anyway. So just, like, don’t care.”
Philosopher and business consultant Andrew Taggart agrees… sort of. The key is not apathy, but letting go of the pressure that how happy you are is tied to how successful you are on the job.
“By caring about work a little less, we can afford ourselves experiences of what is truly meaningful, and let us rest for a while in the unfolding present,” Taggart says.
But what if you want something you can do right now to tackle those stressors?
Mindfulness is a proven strategy for escaping work stressors. Here at The Penny Hoarder, we have 20 minutes a day set aside for just that.
In only five steps, you could be on the way to a clearer and less stressed mind.
But If you’re like me, and have trouble silencing the hordes of screaming voices of anxiety in your head, there are other ways to tackle work stress besides training your mind (though it has really helped me).
Exercise is a great way to release endorphins and take your brain out of the equation. If I don’t get an hour at the gym before work, my anxiety is through the roof for the whole day.
And you can find your iron dojo for pretty cheap.
Put down the beer, and opt for a bath or nap instead. That “me” time is important.
And please for the sake of all that is holy, take a dang vacation. And unplug while you’re at it.
Alex Mahadevan is a data journalist at The Penny Hoarder. Mindfulness training has helped untangle his high-strung ball of anxiety… a bit.
This was originally published on The Penny Hoarder, one of the largest personal finance websites. We help millions of readers worldwide earn and save money by sharing unique job opportunities, personal stories, freebies and more. In 2016, Inc. 500 ranked The Penny Hoarder as the No. 1 fastest-growing private media company in the U.S.
I have had a long-standing love affair with investment funds (I dare not tell my wife).
They were the personal finance instruments I was most interested in when I decided to make a career out of money journalism in the early 1980s.
It was my affection for them that helped me get a job on monthly adviser magazine Money Management – and they propelled me on to the money pages of the Sunday Telegraph three years later. I have not looked back since.
I still write about investment funds but not as much as I used to (other issues such as poor customer service and scams keep me busy). But it doesn’t stop me loving them. Although investment funds come in all shapes and forms, such as unit trusts and open-ended investment companies (Oeics), it is the investment trust vehicle which I think rules supreme. It has been around nearly 150 years – far longer than unit trusts and Oeics – and, bar the occasional hiccup, continues to serve the best interests of investors.
It is no coincidence that my individual savings account (Isa) and self-invested personal pension (Sipp) are dominated by holdings in investment trusts that steadily deliver the investment results I and many investors seek – namely long-term growth in both our capital and income. They are investments I am comfortable to hold through thick and thin. Political crises, stock market sell-offs and economic downturns rarely keep me awake at night.
What I love most about investment trusts is that they are under-stated, are rarely marketed by the asset managers who run them, and represent great value for money. At a time when increasing focus is on the high charges that many fund managers levy, this low-cost investment trust vehicle appears more attractive than ever.
There is nothing magical about investment trusts.
They are companies in their own right, listed on the stock market and with boards made of the great and good to hold the investment managers to account. Like other investment funds, they are invested across a broad range of companies. Indeed, they are somewhat boring. But that is their huge appeal. They are investments you can trust, which will rarely let you down in a crisis..
Take City of London*, Edinburgh and Scottish Mortgage*, my big investment trust holdings. Their names are all a little deceptive.
City of London, managed by giant investment firm Janus Henderson, invests primarily in companies listed on the UK stock market. It invests to generate a mix of capital return and income growth.
The £1.5 billion fund has an unbroken record of annual dividend growth going back 50 years, a remarkable record only matched by three other funds (all investment trusts) – Bankers, Alliance, and Caledonia Investments. No wonder the Association of Investment Companies (AIC), the investment trust industry’s trade body, has dubbed it one of 20 ‘dividend heroes’ (trusts with records of dividend growth in excess of 20 years). Its ongoing charge is a fraction above 0.4% – half that levied by most unit trusts and Oeics.
Edinburgh, managed by Invesco Perpetual, is also focused on the UK stock market and has a competitive ongoing charge (0.58%). Like City of London, it has comfortably outperformed the FTSE All Share Index over the past five and 10 years. Proof that low-cost active management can provide investors with better long-term returns than fashionable alternatives such as exchange traded funds, which track a specific stock market index.
The £5.6 billion Scottish Mortgage, managed by Edinburgh-based Baillie Gifford, is invested worldwide. It has a 34-year record of successive annual dividend increases, a low ongoing charge of 0.45% and a performance record that knocks spots off both rival global funds and the FTSE All Share Index.
Of course investment trusts, like all investments, are risky assets that can be undermined by stock market falls. But if you are looking to invest through an Isa or a Sipp, I urge you to consider them.
The less sexy the trust, the better. Boring will make you money. Go UK, go global and sleep easily ever after.
Maybe you will enjoy the same passionate love affair I am in the middle of. If you want details of all 20 ‘dividend heroes’, visit the AIC website (Theaic.co.uk). Alternatively, see "Latest dividend heroes revealed: including four Moneywise First 50 Funds".
* Member of the Moneywise First 50 Funds for beginners.
Gig workers, solopreneurs and freelancers, here’s one more thing you might be doing wrong.
Sigh.
The IRS has discovered that the number of taxpayers penalized for underpaying their estimated taxes has risen nearly 40% in just five years.
Tax filers either made mistakes calculating their estimated taxes or didn’t pay them at all. In 2015, 10 million tax filers were penalized for one of these reasons.
“Taxpayers with a mixture of wage and nonwage income must either pay tax quarterly or raise their withholding to cover the non-wage income. If total payments don’t meet certain thresholds, then the taxpayer owes a penalty on the underpayment based on interest rates charged by the IRS,” Laura Saunders of The Wall Street Journal explained. “Currently the rate is 4%.”
What’s to blame for this rash of tax penalties? Probably the gig economy, where more people receive nonwage payments that do not have taxes withheld.
It’s a typical first-year freelancer mistake: You allocate every dollar of your earnings toward everything but taxes. Then when you see what you owe once Tax Day rolls around, you sob uncontrollably into TurboTax.
It may be a rite of passage, but it’s one that can come back to haunt you over the course of your self-employed career.
According to a survey by Caroline Bruckner, managing director at the Kogod Tax Policy Center at American University, 69% of self-employed workers received no tax information from the platform they used to get work.
Because quarterly tax payments are estimates, it can be difficult to know if you’re paying the right amount. The month-to-month income volatility of the gig economy can contribute to this issue.
The IRS also reported that between 2010 and 2015, taxes due at the time of filing (aka the tax payments you’re most likely to cry about) grew 60%.
If you’re just embarking on your estimated taxes journey, read up on how to calculate your payments. Network with other self-employed people to get an idea of what tax time will be like, and learn others’ strategies for planning estimated tax payments.
If you messed up and owe more than you expected (been there, cried over that), don’t try to hide from the IRS.
Finally, remember that taxes are an all-year-round consideration when you’re self-employed. Get comfortable managing your cash, and save as much as you can to help weather any unexpected bills.
Lisa Rowan is a writer and producer 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.
Jill writes in with a really great question:
How exactly do you use journaling to solve your financial problems? Don’t get how writing in a daily diary can help other than maybe documenting when things happened.
As always with questions like these, my answer started off as a shorter response in the reader mailbag, but the answer kept growing and growing and growing until it was clear that it deserved a post of its own.
So, let’s start right at the beginning.
When I talk about writing in a journal, what I specifically mean is that I’m taking out a notebook and, in my own handwriting, puzzling through something that troubles me in my life.
I take a situation that I’m unhappy with and try to figure out why I’m unhappy with it. I take a life problem that I can’t solve and I try to piece through how to solve it. I take a decision I’m facing and try to figure out what the best option is. I take an idea that I don’t understand and work through it, or I take something that I’m not quite seeing the consequences of and piece through the consequences of it. Sometimes, I’ll just step back and evaluate my life as a whole, or some aspect of my life. Sometimes, I’ll try to piece through the goals I currently have and whether they make sense any more and what my pan for that goal should be.
Basically, when I write in a journal, the purpose is to deeply and seriously reflect on something in my life and figure out what the best path forward is.
It’s worth noting that I do this kind of thinking constantly, during many moments of downtime. I’m usually reflecting on some aspect of my life or visualizing some aspect to come whenever I’m driving somewhere down a rural two lane road or taking a break from working or weeding the garden or doing anything that doesn’t require full focus. I’m addressing something like that in my mind whenever I have a gap to just think. I’m turning over an idea or a life situation or something.
So why use a journal, then?
I pull out my journal when the problem is particularly difficult, or when making the right decision is particularly important. It becomes a focusing point for something that I really want to deal with and understand.
The reason I choose a paper journal and a pen is because it helps me think and concentrate and focus, which helps me figure out problems. This isn’t an unusual thing – there’s a lot of research out there indicating that you learn and think better when writing ideas out by hand. Haptic nerves are activated by handwriting that aren’t activated at a keyboard, and the speed of handwriting is slow and thoughtful. It adds up to a situation where I’m often able to dig far deeper into a problem in my life or a new idea that I’m ever able to do while driving around – or even when typing at a keyboard.
(You’d be surprised how often the germ of a post for The Simple Dollar arises when I’m sitting there with my journal, puzzling over some aspect of my life. I’ll jot that core idea down elsewhere on an “idea list” to research and cultivate further, but many of my posts spring into their nascent form while journaling.)
To really drive home how journaling helps me with improving my finances (and financial-related aspects of my life), I’m going to give four concrete examples of how I’ve used my journal to process financial problems in the last several months.
Our SUV, which we bought off of Craigslist almost a decade ago, has been a very reliable vehicle, but it’s simply getting old. There are lots of little issues going on with it, from worn out struts to a weird transmission issue. There are about five major repairs that are coming up around the bend, and several minor things that should be done to it (like replacing headlight covers and fixing a small spot of rust).
Is it time to replace it yet? Or can we get a few more years out of it?
I sat down and worked through this puzzle in my journal. I got some estimates of what all of the repairs would cost to get the vehicle back into tip-top shape (about $4,000, all told) as well as just the more critical ones (about $1,500, all told). I looked at the prices for the type of vehicle we would replace it with – a late model used SUV or van, as we have a family of five to transport.
I also looked deeply at our usage of the vehicle, particularly during the academic year. During the summer, we’re effectively a one-vehicle household; it’s during the school year that we really need two vehicles. What are those scenarios where we really need two vehicles? Is it possible to survive with just one vehicle?
I wrote down all of these things, and as I was doing it, I gave each point some thought. I eventually came to the conclusion that it makes the most sense to hold onto the vehicle for a while, doing the critical repairs for now, and then evaluating our next step with it as we approach our next long “road trip” summer vacation, penciled in for two summers from now.
It was through taking the time to slowly work through those questions in one coherent block that led me to the best conclusion for the situation.
I had a vague idea for a side business that had been floating around in my head for months, but I hadn’t actually done anything to build it into something more than just a thought bubble.
I sat down with my journal and just fleshed out, step by step, what I intended to do with the side business. While I didn’t quite use the same formality, I actually walked through the basic structure of a business plan for a side gig that I described in that earlier article.
This largely took the form of notes. I was brainstorming the ideas down on paper so that I could see them all together. Often, during the process of brainstorming, I would clarify some earlier thought or come up with the next logical step in the plan.
This ended up filling several pages in my journal. At the end, I concluded that the idea was really good, but I do not have the time to devote to it to make it really work.
So, was all of this worth the time? Absolutely! It helped me work through a big idea I had in my head, one that had kept bouncing into my thoughts and leaving me wondering if this was something I could pull off. If I ever decide that I do have time for this idea, I basically have the structure of a business plan already down on paper. It also gave me a few ideas for other things I’m doing in my life, including The Simple Dollar.
In the spring, there’s a month-long period where there are several gift-giving occasions within our family. From late April to early June, our family ends up giving gifts to several people.
What I’ve found is that it’s much easier for me if I step back before that “season” starts and figure out the gifts I’m going to give all at once.
So, one journal entry, written about a month before this “season” began, consists of nothing more than a list of all of the gifts I have to give during this “season” and then some pure brainstorming for ideas.
The goal here isn’t just to come up with a bunch of gifts I can easily get off of Amazon. I can do that a few days beforehand with ease. The goal is to come up with truly thoughtful gifts, some of them homemade. Giving myself a lot of lead time makes it possible to think through gift ideas and come up with plans to make cool things.
I was able to plan ahead for a wonderful birthday for my wife. I was able to plan ahead for a homemade Mother’s Day surprise from my kids to my wife, as well as from our families as a whole to my mother and my wife’s mother.
This journal entry gave me time to stop and think about these things, working through several ideas and whether they made sense and whether I could pull them off.
A few months ago, I went through a period where I badly overshot my hobby budget two months in a row. I gave into some spending temptations and didn’t properly account for some of the spending that I did.
This needed to stop. I sat down with my journal to come up with a game plan for fixing it.
The first thing I did was list out all of my hobby spending over those two months. I just made a giant list of the expenses and totaled them up.
I then went through them, asking myself why I spent that money. I tried to write down a sentence or two for each one that explained why I spent the cash.
After that, I went through the things that I wrote and looked at the patterns. The biggest pattern that I couldn’t help but notice is that I would wind up spending hobby money after reading hobby-related websites and then I didn’t properly account for it (often because I used PayPal).
So, what could I do to solve that problem? I sat there and just brainstormed solutions and wound up coming up with a few that really made sense to me. The best idea was to de-link PayPal from other accounts and only use it if it has a balance in there. If I need to use it for another purpose, I have to manually fund it. This cuts me off from one frequent financial mistake. Another solution is to simply check out of visiting hobby sites that tempt me to buy and instead spend that time doing something hobby related.
Note, of course, that these are just four examples of how I use my journal. Now, let’s jump into my actual practice. What do I use? How do I do it?
When I journal, I like to write on a page with plenty of space. I typically use composition-sized notebooks, not pocket notebooks, but not full-sized notebooks that people use for school, either.
The inexpensive composition books one can buy at stores work just fine for this (I prefer college ruled), but I really like the Baron Fig Vanguard and the Leuchtturm 1917 medium notebook, both with a dot grid pattern on the pages. I prefer dot grid when I mix writing and drawing things and making columns and rows, which is exactly what I do when I write in my journal. Those notebooks are expensive – I often receive them as gifts and use them up before moving on to inexpensive composition books.
To summarize, when I buy journals for myself, I usually buy these (which you can buy very cheaply right now during back to school season) though I often receive nicer ones as gifts from family members who observe my frequent journaling and note-taking.
What do I use to write with? I typically use these pens or these pens, whichever is cheaper. I buy them by the dozen box and then replenish whenever I find them on sale. These pens write with a very narrow line, are very reliable, and seemingly never leak. They’re also inexpensive enough that I don’t feel too bad if I misplace one.
In other words, I typically write in a composition book that I got for $0.25 to $0.50 (during a back to school sale) and a pen that cost about $0.50 to $0.75 (depending on the sale). I generally can fill two or three composition books before a pen runs out of ink, though I’ll use the pens for other things, too.
This isn’t an expensive activity. I probably use $0.05 in materials every time I journal.
I typically do this when I’m alone, often on a lap desk in a quiet room or at the kitchen table. I find it distracting to focus on a life problem when others are around because I’m usually throwing out my own thoughts without any filter and I don’t want them to be shared, plus the noise and action of others provides a distraction.
I do not do this every day. I do it when I have something that’s on my mind that I want to work through and figure out. I might do it three times in one day, then not touch it again for a week.
I usually start by just writing and writing and writing. I try to brain dump everything that’s in my head. When I feel that going dry, I then organize those thoughts a little bit. I read back through them, figure out what’s meaningful, and underline it or mark it somehow. At that point, I usually figure out some way to organize the thoughts – maybe I use a list of pros and a list of cons, or maybe I simply pick out a few of the best ideas and work through them a little more to make sure they work logistically.
Sometimes entries take less than a page. Other times, they’ll take up tons of pages. Sometimes I’ll finish and have a happy solution in fifteen minutes or half an hour. Sometimes, I’ll keep coming back to the same problem again and again and not come to a solution until I’ve been plugging at it for hours. It’s not consistent, nor should it be.
In the end, it comes down to this: I have a problem on my mind. I pick up a pen and a notebook and dump out all of my thoughts related to that problem. I then organize that big brain dump and see if there’s a solution (or a path to a solution) in there. I refine things by rewriting and organizing until a solution emerges.
In truth, all of this is a conduit for focusing and organizing my thinking. Without doing this, my thoughts tend to go all over the place on a subject and rarely come to a conclusion; even when they do, the conclusion is often not the best one. Whenever a decision seems important at all in my life, I turn to journaling to put it all down on paper.
My recommendation to you is a simple one.
Think of the problem in your life that’s bothering you the most. It’s the one that keeps peeping into your thoughts. It could be anything. It might be an untapped opportunity or a financial problem. It might be completely unrelated to finances – maybe you’re struggling to find time for something you care about or there’s a big home improvement project that you don’t even know how to tackle.
Whatever it is, set aside about forty five minutes or so and sit down with a pen and a piece of paper.
Think about the problem and start writing. Write the problem itself down. Write down what worries you about it. Make a list of all of the steps that need to be done. As it comes into your mind, write it down by hand. Let the benefits of writing by hand benefit you.
It doesn’t have to be perfectly organized. It just has to come out of your head onto paper.
Keep going with it until the ideas cease flowing. What you’re going to have is a giant mess of ideas. You’ll have bits of description of the challenge you’re facing. You’ll have a bunch of raw ideas about solutions. You’ll have bits of information that are relevant to the situation. You’ll probably have some bits that are just raw expressions of your feelings. It’s all good.
Now, go back through what you wrote. Mark anything that seems really worthy on your second passthrough – I often underline it or mark it with a big asterisk. You’ll probably find that some of the things you wrote before trigger more thoughts, so write them down below.
Do this a time or two until you have a bunch of worthwhile stuff highlighted. At that point, start organizing the highlighted stuff into something more cohesive. Usually, what you’ve highlighted amounts to the clearest description of the problem and some of the best solutions you’ve conceived of. Collect all of that stuff together.
At that point, you’re probably fairly close to being done. Spend some time working over those solutions that you’ve come up with, figuring out how you’re actually going to pull them off. How are you actually going to do these things? (You may have concluded that the idea just won’t work, and that’s okay, too.)
Take your final conclusions and plan and translate them into action. Add some things to your to-do list. Spend some time right away on the plan you’ve invented.
That’s the power of journaling. I’ve found almost nothing better for solving life’s problems. The act of just writing everything down seemingly performs a magic trick on the mind, unlocking ideas and connections that just don’t come up when you’re thinking about things in a fleeting moment.
If you found the exercise useful, get yourself a few composition notebooks and start using the technique regularly whenever you find yourself struggling with a problem in your life. You’ll be amazed at how the process pulls up solutions for you.
Good luck!
The post Using a Journal To Solve Financial and Personal Problems appeared first on The Simple Dollar.
By Kimi Clark Many women are looking for work-at-home opportunities, and you might be one of them. But you don't want just any old work from home job. You want a niche that is fun, one that makes you feel good, and has products you adore! Well, look no further. We've got a list of […]
The post Best Work-at-Home Businesses for Beauty and Makeup Lovers appeared first on The Work at Home Woman.
Improving your credit generally takes hard work and a whole lot of patience. That being said, there are a few credit improvement strategies that can yield some results in a relatively short period of time. These methods will not turn bad credit into great credit overnight, of course, but they can potentially lead to a noticeable improvement.
Credit scoring models are designed to carefully consider a factor known as your revolving utilization ratio. This is the relationship between your credit card limits and the balances on those same accounts.
Here’s a quick look at how revolving utilization works. If you have three credit cards, each with a $1,000 limit, and those same three cards each have a $500 balance, then your aggregate utilization ratio is 50%: $1,500 ÷ $3,000 = 0.5 x 100 = 50%.
Lower is better! As you use up more of your available credit limits, your credit scores generally decline. Of course, this also means that as you pay down those same credit card balances and free up more available credit, then your scores will likely improve.
In fact, when you lower your revolving utilization ratio, your credit scores may begin to improve as soon as the next time that your card issuer reports your monthly account activity to the credit bureaus.
Another strategy for lowering revolving utilization ratios involves being removed as an authorized user from credit card accounts that have high balances.
If, for example, you’re an authorized user on a spouse’s account, and the card carries a high balance, you might consider asking your spouse to call the card issuer to get you removed from the account, at least temporarily. If the account is then removed from your credit reports, as is generally the case, then the account balance would no longer influence your revolving utilization ratio, nor harm your credit scores.
Authorized user accounts are not always negative. In fact, sometimes being newly added as an authorized user to a loved one’s existing credit card can benefit your credit scores in numerous ways.
The first way that an authorized user account might benefit you is by helping you to lower your aggregate revolving utilization ratio. If you’re added to an account with a high limit and a low balance, then your overall utilization ratio may go down and, as a result, your credit scores will likely go up.
Additionally, if the account to which you’re added is older than any of the other existing accounts on your credit reports, then your “age of credit” will increase as well. Credit scoring models generally consider the age of your oldest account and the average age of the accounts on your credit reports when calculating your scores. Being added to a well managed, older credit card account could potentially help you to see a quick credit score improvement.
Mistakes on credit reports happen, which is why it’s important for you to proactively check your credit reports often for errors. If you discover and successfully dispute derogatory information appearing on your credit reports, then the result could be a deletion of the offending information and a potential credit score improvement in a relatively short period of time.
Negative information on your credit reports unsurprisingly has the potential to damage your credit scores. However, if that negative information is removed, then any such influence would be removed as well. Keep in mind, of course, that if a derogatory item is removed from your credit reports due to inaccuracy, yet your reports remain plagued with other derogatory information, then any positive improvement may be minimal.
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John Ulzheimer is an expert on credit reporting, credit scoring, and identity theft. He has written four books on the topic and has been interviewed and quoted thousands of times over the past 10 years. With time spent at Equifax and FICO, Ulzheimer is the only credit expert who actually comes from the credit industry. He has been an expert witness in over 230 credit related lawsuits and has been qualified to testify in both federal and state courts on the topic of consumer credit.
The post Three Ways to Improve Your Credit in 30 Days appeared first on The Simple Dollar.
With summer comes a lot of fresh looks and opportunities for experimentation, and if you’re like me, your hair is the go-to first stop.
For as long as I can remember, I’ve counted the days until the sun was shining so that my seemingly dull brown locks can get their much needed dose of blonde. My mom was born with a gorgeous blond mane, and I spent my summers on the beaches of New York’s Long Island trying to get my own hair as close to the color of hers as possible.
While I was successful at developing some blond streaks, as I got older I became adept at finding ways to spruce up my brown locks with any hint of color.
Now every time summer (or really any new season) comes around, I can choose my color preference depending on my mood rather than some ideal of mom’s “perfect” blonde. The best part? I don’t have to dish out loads of cash at a hair salon every time I need some color — all the necessary ingredients are in my kitchen (or bathroom) cabinet, meaning they’re super budget-friendly and au-naturale.
The oldest trick in the book has some validity and is the easiest way to get some blond color, stat.
Simply squeeze lemon juice into a bottle and dilute it with 3x as much water. I find that two lemons do the trick (note: buy lemons, not lemon juice concentrate!). I also buy an empty plastic spray can from my local dollar store. The total cost of two lemons and a spray bottle? Less than $1.50!
This spray is the best to bring to the beach, as it’s important to spritz some on your locks right when you get out of the salt water and start laying in the sun again. There’s no cap on how much to spray (just don’t use the whole bottle — it should be enough for you to use for a good dose of beach trips throughout the summer).
For darker hair colors, these streaks are noticeable for about one to two weeks.
If you’re after a pretty nice gold tint, this trick is for you. It’s made my brown hair at least two to three shades lighter. Chamomile tea can be found for just a few bucks online.
For the best results, steep five chamomile tea bags in two cups of hot water. Once it’s ready, let it cool and take a shower, rinsing completely with shampoo and conditioner. Then, pour the cooled chamomile water on your hair (over a bucket outside or in the tub), and then let your hair air-dry out. Voila!
And even better? I’ve found this method lasts longer than lemon juice — just under two weeks!
I must admit this is my favorite natural dye because it’s so pretty and has a handful of powerful benefits for hair you probably don’t even know about.
You know that awesome color you get on your hands when you’re cooking beets? That natural dye is called betalain, which is a powerful antioxidant that fights free radicals and premature aging. It also happens to make your hair have noticeable red streaks with just a few simple, non-fussy steps. Just buy (or order) beet juice, and you’re halfway there.
Next, pour the beet juice over your hair. Do this outside over a grassy area to avoid staining your kitchen or bathroom. Sit outside in the sun for an hour to allow the juice to stain your hair and repeat as often as necessary to achieve the color you want. Note: some people have immediate results.
Results also last about a week, so I recommend dipping into this method once every few days for staying power.
Although it doesn’t have the best odor, this apple-cider vinegar wash method still gets the job done.
Simply mix it with equal parts water in a spray bottle and spray around your hair for an all-over naturally lighter hue or use your hands or a cotton ball to get the streaky highlight effect. Depending on how thick your hair is, you may want to leave it on for 20 to 30 minutes, then rinse it out completely. This method not only gives your hair a nice hue upgrade but also gets rid of any chemical buildup you might have from other methods. Nature’s finest!
You might have to use this method a few times before it shows up in your hair, so feel free to experiment.
Ahhhh, the smell of cinnamon is one of my absolute favorites. It’s also one of my go-to hair highlight methods because it’s fun to make. Add just enough cinnamon powder to ½ cup of your sulfate-free conditioner to make a paste. Put the paste in your hair, and leave it in for three to four hours (or overnight if you put a towel over your pillow). Then rinse completely, and you’ll have ultra-smooth locks with an envious cinnamon glow.
Apply this mixture about once or twice throughout the week to get the best highlight results. One wash will produce about about 10 days worth of new highlights.
There you have it: five tried-and-true ways to naturally highlight your hair without breaking the bank. With summer in full swing, give one of these recipes a go, and, come fall, you’ll be ready to try out an even fresher look. These ‘dyes’ won’t stay long, so experiment away.
Disclosure: Here’s a toast to the affiliate links in this post. May we all be just a little richer today.
Arielle Crane is a lifestyle and travel writer based in Brooklyn, NY. She’s also a freelance content manager and strategist for startups around NYC. Find her on Twitter @ChirpingCrane.
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.
