Monroe County has its first female police chief as of midnight, Thursday.Stroud Area Regional Police Captain Jennifer Lyon, 15 year veteran of SARP, was promoted to police chief after former Chief John Ward resigned Tuesday, SARP Commission chair Roger DeLarco said.“While the Commission understands the historic significance to the public in regards to gender, the Commission wants the public to understand that gender played no role in the decision to promote Captain Lyon, [...]
Source Business - poconorecord.com http://ift.tt/2fcjlfq
الأربعاء، 20 سبتمبر 2017
Legend breaks ground for La Tolteca, Taco Bell, Chick-fil-A
BARTONSVILLE — Developers celebrated Wednesday at the site of a new La Tolteca restaurant on Route 611 in Stroud Township. The 6,000-square-foot Mexican eatery marks DEPG Development’s final phase of the Bartonsville Square shopping center.“It’s a big day for us,” said Jim DePetris, CEO of real estate brokerage Legend Properties. “Doing business in the Poconos has been very good for DEPG.”Legend has officially leased all spaces [...]
Source Business - poconorecord.com http://ift.tt/2jLs39y
Source Business - poconorecord.com http://ift.tt/2jLs39y
Walmart Opens Online Grocery Ordering to SNAP Recipients in These Areas
They say time is money, and that rings especially true for anyone who has struggled to make ends meet.
Walmart has announced it will allow recipients of government benefits save some time when they shop for household essentials. People who receive food stamps will be able to use their EBT cards to pay for groceries online and pick them up.
The program will start in the Houston and Boise areas this fall, “and we’ll be bringing it to more and more markets through the holiday season and beyond,” a blog post from ecommerce vice president Mike Turner explained.
The store’s online grocery pickup option, which launched in fall 2015, allows customers to select grocery items and pay for them online with a credit or debit card, then pick up their order at the store and time of their choice. Walmart promised prices equal to the ones customer would find in stores.
Recipients of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits will pay for their orders when they pick them up. “An associate will bring a payment terminal to the car,” Walmart spokesperson Molly Blakeman explained, and the customer will drive off with their groceries and a physical receipt.
Walmart Isn’t Just Being Nice. It’s Part of a Pilot Program
About 40,000 people receive SNAP benefits, commonly known as food stamps, each month. This form of government assistance isn’t tied to employment, but more than 75% of recipients worked within the year they received benefits, according to the USDA.
A grocery-pickup program like this may be valuable to those juggling a job (or two or three), and trying to get chores and errands done on top of that work schedule.
In January 2017, the United States Department of Agriculture launched an online purchasing pilot to allow grocery stores to accept SNAP benefits online. In February, Walmart joined the initial roster of stores accepting SNAP benefits online, which included Amazon, FreshDirect, Safeway, ShopRite and others.
Amazon sweetened its deal in June when it announced it would offer discounted Prime subscriptions to EBT cardholders, although government benefits cannot be used to pay for memberships, service fees, or delivery charges.
Blakeman noted that Walmart is excited to be a part of the USDA pilot program, which is expected to launch in 2018. “We wanted to make sure to open up the convenience of online grocery as soon as we could,” she said, saying Walmart plans to roll it out to a larger number of stores “relatively quickly.”
One in five customers at Walmart pays with food stamps.
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.
source The Penny Hoarder http://ift.tt/2jKh2VX
This Study Says We’re Way Too Optimistic About Racial Income Equality
It’s not a secret that black families are, on average, likely to have less income and accumulate less wealth than white families in America.
That is explained by historic social and economic discrimination that black Americans have faced while attempting to access high-paying jobs, adequate housing and even proper education. Most people are willing to acknowledge that.
What most people don’t realize, however, is how wide the economic disparity really is, according to a recent Yale University study reported in the New York Times.
Racial Income Equality: The Gap Between Perception and Reality
Researchers asked participants how much they believed the average black family made for every $100 the average white family made. The questions addressed overall income, income of college graduates, income of high school graduates and accumulated wealth.
In every category, participants overestimated equality.
Concerning high school and college graduates, participants thought black families were only slightly behind white families, as they guessed black families brought in $90 for every $100 white families brought in.
In reality, black high school grads make just under $80 for every $100 while people with the same level of education make. For college grads, it’s just over $80 for every $100 a white person with the same level of education makes.
For overall income, which is not based on education level, study participants guessed black families brought in more than $80 for every $100 dollars white families earned. In reality, black families make $57.30 for every $100 white families earn.
The widest disparity between perception and reality was accumulated wealth. Participants thought familial wealth for black families was nearly on par with white families. In reality, though, for every $100 of wealth a white family accumulates, black families only accumulate $5.04.
What’s Behind These Inaccurate Perceptions?
Researchers used data from the census population survey to compare with participants’ answers.
“It seems that we’ve convinced ourselves – and by ‘we’ I mean Americans writ large – that racial discrimination is a thing of the past,” Jennifer Richeson, one of the study’s authors, told the New York Times. “We’ve literally overcome it, so to speak, despite blatant evidence to the contrary.”
Researchers explain that the disparity likely comes from our general and persistent optimism about social and economic progress, even in the face of readily accessible facts.
And while black Americans did overestimate equality, the group whose guesses where the farthest off mark were wealthy white people.
“Despite this information being out there, we don’t really take it in,” study author Michael Kraus told the New York Times. This happens “in a way that suggests that maybe we’re motivated to forget it, or motivated to distort it in our own minds.”
The study’s authors say that a willingness to accept the facts rather than our own assumptions would likely lead to more widespread support of initiatives like affirmative action, school desegregation and enforcement of the Voting Rights Act.
That would be the path to genuine equality.
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.
source The Penny Hoarder http://ift.tt/2xo42Kk
No, Amazon Doesn’t Think You’re Pregnant — It Just Had a Registry Glitch
If you shop on Amazon a lot, you can assume the website knows a lot about you.
Your last 12 addresses. Your taste in books and movies. Its algorithms can probably guess your favorite color.
Isn’t it fun that a shopping website knows you so well?
Maybe it was… until yesterday, when a glitch in the matrix appeared.
People received emails saying a gift was in the mail. A pudgy baby crawled across the top of the message, which stated, “Hello Amazon Customer, Someone great recently purchased a gift from your baby registry!”
Confusion ensued. Recipients wondered if they had started a baby registry by accident. Some people clicked the link to see what would happen, only to find it was broken. Customers who are actually expecting were disappointed to find that someone had not actually purchased a gift from their registry. Some people thought it was a phishing attack.
Jimmy Marks of Richmond, Virginia, and his wife are expecting, so when he read the initial gift email on his phone, he wasn’t too surprised.
“We are registered on Amazon and we’ve been receiving presents from people with no notes or with no indication of where the gift came from, so I thought the message was something my wife signed up for so that each time we receive a gift, we can see who sent it and add them to our list for thank-you notes,” he explained.
When the link in the email went to an error page, Marks shrugged and went about his day.
“Amazon’s gift registry setup is not ideal, for what it’s worth,” he told us via Twitter. Those frequent senderless packages make it harder to send timely thank-you notes — etiquette is still important, people.
Later the same day, Amazon sent apology emails to the affected customers. “Earlier today, we accidentally sent you an email from Amazon Baby Registry,” it read. “We apologize for any confusion this may have caused.”
An Amazon spokesperson verified the glitch with this emailed statement: “We have notified affected customers. A technical glitch caused us to inadvertently send a gift alert e-mail earlier today. We apologize for any confusion this may have caused.”
If there’s one thing large companies are terrible at, it’s apologizing with any modicum of sincerity, am I right?
Amazon Doesn’t Care About You. Really.
Speculation in our modern town square, aka Twitter, might indicate that Amazon was trying to drop a few hints, mother-in-law style
Some people surmised that because they’d bought baby-related items in the past, they landed on the glitch list. Others called Amazon insensitive for sending a baby-centric email to those who have suffered miscarriages or struggle with infertility.
But I’m here to tell you this: Amazon prides itself on being a technology company just as much as it is an e-commerce store. And technology isn’t perfect. Amazon still has a hard time figuring out which box is the right size for shipping my order.
You’re not a person to Amazon. You’re a customer number with a purchase history who probably hollers at Alexa too much. I know this. You know this.
But Amazon, like so many other technology-focused companies, offers convenience. And so we let our guards down.
Every time we sign up for a loyalty program, we know the coupons we’ll get are tailored to our past purchases. Every time we shop through a rebate site or app, we know our consumer data is sold to some mathematical equation in the sky.
One academic study found an “overwhelming majority” of students would give up three of their friends’ email addresses in exchange for free pizza.
When offered the chance to set up encryption to protect those friends’ email addresses, students started the process, but gave up before completing it. Laziness is a factor, Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research senior fellow Susan Athey noted.
But consumers have also resigned themselves to an online existence where their choices about privacy don’t really matter.
“Generally, people don’t seem to be willing to take expensive actions or even very small actions to preserve their privacy,” Athey said in a release about the paper she cowrote on the topic. “Even though, if you ask them, they express frustration, unhappiness or dislike of losing their privacy, they tend not to make choices that correspond to those preferences.”
We let our guards down a long time ago. When a mistake like this happens, you sort of have to chalk it up to the reality of our online existence.
Lisa Rowan is a writer and producer at The Penny Hoarder who often ponders the possibility of a quieter life in an isolated cabin in the woods.
This was originally published on The Penny Hoarder, one of the largest personal finance websites. We help millions of readers worldwide earn and save money by sharing unique job opportunities, personal stories, freebies and more. In 2016, Inc. 500 ranked The Penny Hoarder as the No. 1 fastest-growing private media company in the U.S.
source The Penny Hoarder http://ift.tt/2hk6Ejh
Micro-Investing – The Perfect Intro Investment Strategy for Millennials
One of the biggest obstacles keeping people from investing – especially Millennials – is just getting started.
More specifically, it’s the inability to save money to invest that keeps them from getting started.
But there’s a trend developing called micro-investing that can help you to overcome that hurdle.
Micro-investing not only handles investing for you – with very small amounts of money – but it also enables you to save money just by doing the things you normally do with your money. They do that by allocating a very small part of each of your spending events into savings and investments.
If you haven’t signed up for one of these apps yet, you need to start checking them out. With most you can get started just by adding an app to your smartphone. And it really is that simple!
Micro-Investing Apps – The Real Deal
Below are five micro-investing apps, though actually only three of them invest money. But all will enable you to at least accumulate the cash you need to invest, which for most new investors is exactly what they need.
Acorns – Invest Spare Change
That motto is exactly what Acorns does for you, and it might very well be the gold standard in micro-investing. That’s because it gives you the ability to accumulate savings and begin investing while you’re spending money.
It works through a process called Round Ups. You link a checking account to the Acorns app, and it then rounds up every purchase to an even dollar amount. After that, the difference between the actual purchase amount, and the even dollar amount of the payment, is transferred to your Acorns investment account once it reaches at least $5.
There is no minimum in order to open up and Acorns account, but investing begins once you reach the $5 level. The money will be invested in your choice of funds that invest in stocks, bonds and real estate. Since each payment from the designated spending account moves at least some money into your account, you can literally save more money the more you spend. That also makes it a totally passive way to not only invest your money, but also to save it up.
Acorns charges a management fee of $1 per month on account balances below $5,000, and 0.25% or higher balances. And if you’re a college student, you can use the app for free. The app is available for iPhone and Android devices, and can be downloaded at Amazon, Google Play and iTunes.
Stash
Stash allows you to invest with as little as $5! It actually operates very similar to the way robo advisors do, in when you open your account, you complete a questionnaire which determines your investment goals and risk tolerance. Stash then makes investment recommendations for you, choosing among thousands of exchange traded funds (ETFs) and individual stocks.
But unlike robo advisors, it’s up to you to decide to actually follow those investment suggestions. You can fund your Stash account by linking a bank account, and then transferring money directly.
The app is available for Apple iOS and Google Android. The fee structure for the app is similar to Acorns, in you pay $1 per month on account balances below $5,000, and 0.25% on higher balances.
Qapital – Save Small, Live Large
Qapital is free app. It doesn’t serve as an investment app, but it does work as a savings app that will enable you to accumulate the money to invest – which is a major hurdle for many who are new to investing.
Qapital works much like Acorns with its Round Up feature. You can link credit cards and even your PayPal account to the app, and then choose a small amount of money that will be moved into a bank account anytime you make a purchase. You could add anywhere from $1 to $5 for each purchase. That will enable you to save money through your normal purchasing activity, without actually having to directly allocate money for savings.
They also have features that make saving money fun, referred to as Triggers. One is Guilty Pleasures. That’s when you save money by buying something you’re trying not to buy. For example, you can set a trigger in which $10 is saved each time you eat at McDonald’s. Then there’s the IFTTT trigger, which helps you to save money each time you accomplish certain desirable outcomes, like turning on a automation light switch in your home.
There’s no minimum deposit required to start using the app, and there are no account fees required. The app works with Apple iOS and Google Android. The savings deposits don’t come from your credit cards or your PayPal account, but from your checking account. That means you will have to have sufficient cash in that account at all times in order to cover the deposits that will be transferred.
Digit – Save Money, Without Thinking About It
Digit works similar to Qapital by enabling you to save small amounts of money based on certain activity. The app studies your income and spending histories, and then looks for daily savings opportunities. When they find savings, they transfer them to a Digit savings account. The transfers happen every two or three days.
They do this by analyzing your checking account balance, expected income, expected bills, as well as your recent spending patterns. The purpose is to determine available funds for savings within the budget that passes through your checking account. Also, the app guarantees it will never transfer more money than you will have available in your checking account.
Just as is the case with Qapital, Digit is designed to be a savings accumulation app, and not an investment account. However it does pay a small amount of interest on your savings. There’s no minimum account balance required for Digit and it’s available for Apple iOS, Android and SMS.
The downside, however, is the app does have an account fee of $2.99 per month.
Motif – Create Your Own Investment Portfolios
Motif allows you to create your own little investment portfolios – called motifs, based around any investment theme you choose.
For example, you can create a motif that’s centered on clean energy, beachfront hotels, or investments in Costa Rica – it’s strictly up to you. You can also choose to invest in motifs that have been created by other people, and there are hundreds of them available.
A motif is a miniature investment portfolio that includes a mix of up to 30 stocks and ETF’s. You can create a motif for just $9.95. As the motif creator, you also manage the portfolio and adjust it when necessary. There is no minimum account balance required, and no annual account maintenance fee charged. This is one of the most interesting and enjoyable ways to invest anywhere.
Moving Up to Robo-Advisors with Zero or Very Low Investment Minimums
An alternative to micro-investing is to invest through a full-blown robo advisor. These are automated investment platforms that handle every aspect of the investment process for you. Your only job is to fund the account. And since all of them enable you to get started with very little or no money, you may also want to consider using one to get your investment start.
Betterment
Betterment is probably the best-known of all robo advisors, not the least of which because it’s the largest independent platform. But you can open up an account with Betterment with no money at all, and fund the account with payroll savings. You can even use the account to begin saving for retirement with an IRA.
As is typically the case with robo-advisors, you complete a questionnaire that determines your risk tolerance. The portfolio is then created for you, and comprised of slices of several ETF’s. This enables you to effectively invest in literally thousands of different investment securities, with very little money. Betterment then handles all of the investment details for you, including periodic reinvesting and tax-loss harvesting.
Betterment’s account management fee is 0.25% on account balances of up to $100,000. That means a $1,000 account can be managed for only $2.50 per year. It’s available on Apple iOS and Android.
Wealthsimple – Investing on Auto Pilot
Wealthsimple works very similar to Betterment, in that once your risk tolerance is determined, a portfolio of ETF’s is created for you and fully managed by the platform. But Wealthsimple puts a spin on their investment options. You can choose to invest in a socially responsible portfolio that reflects your own values.
There’s no minimum deposit required to get started, and you can begin building your account with automatic deposits. The first $5,000 in your account is managed for free. After that, the annual fee is 0.50%. The app is available for Apple iOS and Google Android.
WiseBanyan – The world’s first free financial advisor
WiseBanyan is a robo advisor that allows you to open up an account with his little as $1, but you are required to have at least $10 in order to begin investing. From there, you can build your account through regular automatic deposits. Your account is invested in a mix of ETF’s, which includes periodic rebalancing, dividend reinvesting and even tax-loss harvesting. The app is available for Apple iOS and Google Android.
WiseBanyan also offers IRA accounts in addition to regular taxable accounts. One interesting strategy is their Milestones feature. It enables you to set goals including Rainy Day, Retirement and Build Wealth categories, which enables you to segregate your portfolio for very specific purposes.
Investment Brokerages with No- or Very Low-Account Minimums
It may be a surprise to a lot of new investors there are actually full-service discount investment brokers that will welcome your business, even if you have no money to start out with. You can open a self-directed investment account with one of these brokers, and fund it with automatic deposits, until you have enough in the account to begin investing in either stocks or funds.
Ally Invest
Ally Invest operated as TradeKing up until last year, when it was acquired by Ally Bank. That can be a big advantage in itself, since Ally Bank is one of the best-known online banks, and one that provides some of the highest interest rates available on savings. Ally Invest specializes in self-directed investing and options trading. The trading app is available for Apple iOS and Google Android.
As a full service discount brokerage, Ally Invest enables you to invest in virtually any type of investment available, and you can set up an IRA account as well as a regular taxable investment account. You can open a self-directed account with no money at all, and have funds automatically deposited into the account. There is no annual fee to maintain the account, and trades can be executed for $4.95 per transaction. That’s one of the lowest trading fees in the industry.
OptionsHouse
OptionsHouse is one of the best known full-service discount brokerage firms available. Like Ally Invest, the platform enables you to trade just about any type of investment security that exists. One of the best features about this broker is it offers an excellent suite of educational resources for new investors to learn with.
You can open up an account with OptionsHouse with no money at all, although they do recommend you have at least $1,000 in your account before you begin investing. There is no annual account management fee, and you can execute trades for $4.95 per transaction. Available accounts include IRAs and regular taxable brokerage accounts.
Firstrade
Firstrade is another full-service discount investment broker that enables you to open up an account with no money whatsoever. You can open up both retirement accounts or regular taxable investment accounts, and the platform allows you virtually unlimited investment selection.
Firstrade's mobile app is available for both Android and iPhone. There is no annual management fee to maintain your account, and you can execute trades for as little as $6.95 per transaction.
Investing in Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Lending
Finally, no discussion of micro-investing would be complete without at least mentioning investing in P2P lending. These are websites that bring both lenders (investors) and borrowers together on the same website to create loans. Because there is no banker involved, the investor gets a (much) higher rate of return on their money than they can with bank investments, and borrowers often pay lower rates. It’s your chance to get the kinds of fixed income investment returns that big investors get.
Lending Club
Lending Club is one of those investment platforms you might want to invest on once you have accumulated at least $1,000 – which you can do using one or more of the micro investing apps listed above. But once you have the money to start an account, you can invest in individual loan “notes” for as little as $25 each. This means your $1,000 account can be diversified across as many as 40 individual loan notes.
Lending Club isn’t a general investing platform, and your investments are limited to the loans that are provided on the website. But that’s one of the best reasons to use this platform. Since the investments are in fixed rate loans, they can be a good diversification to a stock portfolio. In addition, rates of return you will earn on Lending Club investments will be much higher than what you can get at a bank. It’s possible to earn double digits interest rate returns on your investments, although you will be taking on higher risk loans to reach that level.
There are no annual account fees to maintain a Lending Club account, but the platform does charge a fee of 1% on each loan. But you’ll hardly notice it, since it’s deducted from your interest payments.
Prosper
Prosper works virtually identical to Lending Club. It’s the longest established P2P lending platform. It enables you to invest in the platform for IRA accounts as well as regular taxable accounts. You can also purchase loan notes for as little as $25. Prosper also has no annual fee, and also charges a 1% fee per loan, deducted from the interest rate return.
If you haven’t been able to begin investing, maybe because you haven’t been able to save money to do it, check out any of these investment apps and platforms to get started. When you can make the saving and investment process automatic, you’ll be able to build wealth without even trying.
That’s passive investing at its best!
The post Micro-Investing – The Perfect Intro Investment Strategy for Millennials appeared first on Good Financial Cents.
Source Good Financial Cents http://ift.tt/2xRxhqu
Hitting the Snooze Button Feels Good — But Here’s Why You Shouldn’t Do It
What’s not to love about sleeping? It’s free, refreshing and doesn’t require any special skills to master.
In fact, a good snooze can make you feel like you won the lottery.
No wonder so many people sleep like it’s their job.
Alas, all good slumber must come to an end, and waking up can be a real drag.
According to a new survey by the “lifetime insomniacs” at Sleep Junkie, how and what time you wake up may have a direct impact on your relationship satisfaction, happiness and even your income.
Take a look at these results to see how your morning wake-up habits line up with those of others.
Penny for Your Thoughts
Sleep Junkie asked people what they think about when they first wake up. It’s no surprise that money and work topped the list.
People also think about food, health and hygiene, as well as errands they need to run.
Friends and family made the list too — but barely.
Researchers say, “women were three times more likely than men to wake up thinking about their loved ones — 9 percent of women compared to only 3 percent of men.”
Back Away From the Snooze Button
According to the survey, people with partners who repeatedly hit the snooze button report lower overall relationship satisfaction. Indeed, people with the highest relationship satisfaction say their partner never snoozes their alarm.
Sleep is a precious commodity, so it’s understandable that jolting your bed partner awake every nine minutes with a nagging alarm might make your loved one a bit testy with you.
Here’s a related data point for you: Researchers discovered that people who wake up thinking about work and money are less likely to hit the snooze button.
Researchers don’t explain the correlation, but it may have something to do with the way financial stress affects sleep in general.
Get Up Earlier. Seriously.
The survey also took a look at how the time we wake up impacts our lives. Unfortunately, the news isn’t great for people who don’t like getting up with the roosters.
“Both job satisfaction and salary were higher with earlier wake-up times,” researchers say. “The peak salary ($46,000) was associated with a 5 a.m. wake-up time. However, the peak for job satisfaction was at 6 a.m. with an average salary of about $41,000.”
So whether you work to make money or just because you love what you do, the optimal time to get up and get moving is between 5 a.m. and 6 a.m. Researchers say income and job satisfaction steadily decreased the later people woke up.
Our mental health doesn’t fare much better when we sleep late, either.
“With regards to our respondents who described their mental states as ‘completely healthy,’ the average wake-up time was 6:49 a.m.,” researchers report.
“From there, the self-described ‘mostly mentally healthy’ group woke up at 7:15 a.m. The later the wake-up time, the less healthy our participants felt, with 8:57 a.m. and later contributing to feeling completely unhealthy.”
Sorry, sleepyheads.
In fairness, the wake-up window in this survey was from 5 a.m. to 10 a.m. so maybe the results are different for people who get up at 4 a.m. or sleep until noon. (I have no idea, I’m just trying to give those of you who love to sleep in a little hope here).
A Field Report From an Early Riser
I leapt at the chance to write this because I have a long and checkered sleep history. As it turns out, my experience is pretty similar to these results. I, too, wake up thinking about money or work more than I do about food, errands or my husband (sorry, honey!).
And that bit about the snooze button affecting relationships? My husband once repeatedly snoozed his alarm for two hours. He woke up to find me sitting up in bed like this:
I can also attest that getting up at o’dark-thirty positively impacts my mental health and career because I feel like I have more time to get stuff done without rushing around.
If you want to try waking up earlier for a while to see how it affects your life, the internet is filled with advice on how to get used to it.
But remember, a good night’s sleep is more important than what time your alarm goes off, and sleep deprivation is legitimately bad news.
Lisa McGreevy is a staff writer at The Penny Hoarder. She gets up at 4 a.m. because if she doesn’t her cats will eat her face.
This was originally published on The Penny Hoarder, one of the largest personal finance websites. We help millions of readers worldwide earn and save money by sharing unique job opportunities, personal stories, freebies and more. In 2016, Inc. 500 ranked The Penny Hoarder as the No. 1 fastest-growing private media company in the U.S.
source The Penny Hoarder http://ift.tt/2yqrWU0
800K Private Student Loans Will Be Audited Due to Shocking Allegations
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will audit about 800,000 private student loan accounts to determine if the trust responsible for the loans followed the law when collecting payments.
The CFPB got involved after it was revealed in July that records for at least $5 billion in student loans owned by National Collegiate Student Loan Trusts were missing important documents necessary to prove that the borrowers owed the money.
In some cases, faulty records said borrowers owed money for an education they never got at schools they never attended.
National Collegiate is a series of 15 trusts that manages about $12 billion in private student loan debt, including the $5 billion that’s called into question.
National Collegiate does not have employees but instead subcontracts debt collection to its servicers.
Still, according to a federal court complaint filed by the CFPB, the loan servicers acting on behalf of the trusts sued borrowers who were in default. Of those lawsuits, the majority of the victories in court came only if borrowers didn’t show up to defend themselves.
The CFPB questioned the validity of at least 2,000 lawsuits saying National Collegiate lacked the paperwork to prove ownership of the loans.
It also accused servicers of filing documents that “falsely claimed personal knowledge of the account records and the consumer’s debt” and of notarizing more than 25,000 documents without witnessing the signatures.
According to the CFPB, this is a violation of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and the Consumer Financial Protection Act.
National Collegiate and Servicer to Pay Restitution, Fines
The CFPB recommends that National Collegiate repay court costs, and garnished wages and Social Security checks of borrowers who lost court cases.
The CFPB wants the trusts to pay at least $19.1 million in penalties. Here’s where it wants the money to go:
1. Students Who Made Payments After Lawsuits
At least $3.5 million of the recommended payout will go to the 2,000 borrowers who made payments after they were sued despite the lack of appropriate paperwork proving the borrower owed money.
The CFPB will hire a private contractor to conduct an audit to determine if more of the 800,000 National Collegiate-held accounts should be added to this group — or if any of the $5 billion in questionable loans should be dismissed.
2. Civil Penalties and Fines
The remaining $15.6 million will be split evenly between fines paid to the U.S. Treasury and the CFPB’s civil penalty fund.
In addition, the CFPB recommends that Transworld Systems, a National Collegiate student loan servicer, also pay a $2.5 million fine to the civil penalty fund.
CFPB Calls for Changes to Practices to Protect Borrowers
In addition to the fines and restitution, the CFPB demands that National Collegiate and its servicers change its practices.
The CFPB has demanded that National Collegiate honor statutes of limitation that make it illegal to pursue payments for old loans. The CFPB found at least 486 cases in which lawsuits were filed after the statute of limitations had expired.
National Collegiate would also have to stop collection attempts on debt that lacks documentation proving the borrower owes the money and filing improperly notarized documents.
The proposed changes and fines must be approved by a judge before National Collegiate is required to pay fees or dismiss debt. The accounts in question are all private loans, not federal student loans.
Desiree 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.
source The Penny Hoarder http://ift.tt/2wyxw9C
Are You a Wedding Hashtag Pro? Make $20 an Hour With This Freelance Gig
I can’t imagine a more joyous and fulfilling time in my life than when I got to marry my soulmate Justine earlier this year.
The weather was perfect in sunny St. Augustine, and we enjoyed the company of friends and family we hadn’t seen for years — some for a decade.
But there was one problem that continues to nag me to this day: hashtag shame.
Yes, we actually had a hard time remembering what our official wedding hashtag was, but one thing is certain: It was pretty boring. And I couldn’t help but feel wedding guests were judging us for our lack of creativity.
We’re both writers after all.
Honestly, I can’t pinpoint when the wedding hashtag went from a simple way to aggregate pictures on Instagram to a status symbol. But fortunately there’s a solution for couples who are more focused on enjoying the happiest day of their lives than on coming up with witty wordplay to impress a gaggle of giddy bridesmaids: The Wedding Hashers.
Even better for all you freelancers out there: Writers who have the time to brainstorm Frankenstein-esque name mashups for brides and grooms can make $20 an hour doing it.
And you get to work from home.
(If this job isn’t for you, be sure to check out our jobs page on Facebook for more interesting job opportunities.)
How to Make $20 an Hour Creating Wedding Hashtags
The Wedding Hashers was established in the summer of 2016. Its founder, 23-year-old Jeffrey Mara, personally recruits writers for this lucrative side hustle. But that’s been difficult, he said in an email.
So, he’s putting out a call for freelancers to work a few hours a week creating wedding hashtags with pay set at $20 an hour.
Visit the featured writers page on his website and scroll down to the bottom of the page to send Mara a message with your information and a link to your LinkedIn page. Then he’ll provide you with a few example couples to test your hashtag aptitude. (Hashtitude?)
But what exactly does the job entail?
Here’s What it Takes to Become a Wedding Hashtag Pro
Krista Stucchio, a 25-year-old social media manager, has been writing for The Wedding Hashers since last month. She says a love of writing and social media knowhow are key for these positions.
Here’s how it works: Four or five times a week, Mara sends Stucchio a list of couples — ranging from six to 16 — and information they’ve provided. Then she spends an hour coming up with three hashtags per couple.
“Sometimes I get carried away and go over (the time limit),” she says. “It’s really fun.”
Do you think you have what it takes to become a wedding hashtag ace?
I asked Mara to come up with something that would’ve absolved me of my post-wedding hashtag shame. In about five minutes, he came up with the following:
#MatchMadeInMahadevan. #MahaThanJustineBargainedFor. #HolyMahamony.
Think you can do better? Then you should definitely jump on this side hustle opportunity.
Alex Mahadevan is a data journalist at The Penny Hoarder.
This was originally published on The Penny Hoarder, one of the largest personal finance websites. We help millions of readers worldwide earn and save money by sharing unique job opportunities, personal stories, freebies and more. In 2016, Inc. 500 ranked The Penny Hoarder as the No. 1 fastest-growing private media company in the U.S.
source The Penny Hoarder http://ift.tt/2wy06rM
This is Why It’s Smarter to Buy Halloween Makeup at Ulta Than a Party Store
I’ll tell you this right now: Halloween is not my holiday of choice.
I usually spend the weeks leading up to Oct. 31 being a grump and refusing to dress up. Then, a few days before, I start feeling left out and just want to go to the party, so I have to piece something together.
It always ends up being expensive.
And I feel like a fool in a scrappy costume while everyone else is dressed as a clever pun with Pinterest-worthy makeup.
Not this year, my friends.
Although Halloween is on a Tuesday, I will be prepared — and I refuse to spend too much money.
A co-worker (who is a lot more makeup-savvy than I am — thanks, Kelsey Buxton) recently let me in on a secret: Buying “real” Halloween makeup at a cosmetic store like Ulta is actually a lot smarter than going to Party City for the “cheap” costume stuff.
No way, I thought. But, lo and behold, it really is a smarter decision. Here’s why.
1. “Real” Makeup Is Cheaper
This is where I was hung up. I know how much the little bit of makeup I wear costs, so the idea of buying legit makeup over the costume stuff didn’t seem like it’d be cheaper.
However, as it turns out, many of the costume basics are a lot cheaper if you get them from somewhere like Ulta.
I compared a few items and their prices:
Fake eyelashes:
- Sultry False Eyelashes: $4.99 at Party City
- Ardell Glamour Multipack (of four sets): $11.99 at Ulta, totaling about $3 per set
Lipstick:
- Gold Glitter Lipstick: $2.99 at Party City
- J.Cat Beauty Pout-Holic Lipstick: $2.50 at Ulta (Online only. The price depends on the color… so many colors.)
Eyeliner:
- Black Shimmer Eye Liner: $3.99 at Party City
- Essence Kajal Eye Pencil: $1.49 at Ulta (also available in white)
Self-adhesive face jewels:
- Adult Sea Siren Mermaid Makeup Kit: $9.99 at Party City
- Lottie London Mermaid Self-Adhesive Jewels: $5.49 at Ulta (online-only)
Setting powder:
- Colorless Setting Powder: $3.99 at Party City
- E.L.F. Prime & Stay Finishing Powder: $2 at Ulta (online-only)
You get the point, right? You can find cheaper Halloween makeup alternatives at Ulta — both in store and online.
Plus, you can apply some hefty savings to your order if you know what you’re doing.
For example, you can get free gift cards to Ulta through Swagbucks (which will also give you $5 just for signing up).
Once you’re in, buy an Ulta gift card and shop Ulta through the platform. You’ll earn two Swagbucks (SBs) per $1 you spend. You can exchange SBs for gift cards.
For context, 2,500 SBs equate to a $25 PayPal gift card, good for all your online shopping pleasures.
Bonus: Here are seven other ways you can save money at Ulta.
2. “Real” Makeup Is Better Quality
One year in middle school, I decided to be a clown for Halloween… Lord knows why.
I hate clowns, and my face was covered in paint, which caused my already acne-prone skin to freak out. I think there’s one photo of the incident floating around somewhere…
When I dressed as a scarecrow a few years back, my face was not happy with the swirls of red paint on my cheeks. Also, the red paint refused to come off — even with makeup remover, so going to class on Monday was an adventure.
One of the perks of using “real” makeup is the quality. The likelihood of your skin having an adverse reaction to the product is probably lower. Plus, the real stuff is usually built to stay on all day, so it’ll be less likely to slime off during your rowdy night.
3. “Real” Makeup Stores Better (and You Can Use It Again)
I held onto that red paint palette I purchased for my scarecrow costume, because it felt like such a waste to use the tiniest bit and toss it.
Moving out a few months later, I stumbled across it. It was totally dried out.
When you purchase legitimate makeup, it’ll store better — and longer. Actually, depending on the product, it’ll probably be fine until next year.
There’s also more of a chance you’ll use eyeliner than black face paint on any other regular day.
4. “Real” Makeup Has More Options
At Party City you’ll probably find limited options for Halloween makeup. You’ll see the white face paint, the palette of clown colors and maybe two colors of lipstick.
The nice thing about opting for makeup from a place like Ulta is you have so many options. You’re also not locked into buying the five-pack of eyeshadows, for example. You can probably find a singular one you actually need (and will use again).
Plus, did you see all those lipstick options? Black? Green? Purple? Neon yellow?!
The best part is you don’t risk running into someone who used the same pre-packaged kit as you. You’ll be unique. And, really, that’s all that matters on Halloween — because it’s awkward to run into someone dressed the same darn way.
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.
source The Penny Hoarder http://ift.tt/2wHo1Af
Equifax Got Hacked Back in March, but You Probably Never Heard About it
Consumers were surprised when Equifax announced a large-scale hack to the public in September, despite having learned of the breach way back on July 29. The hack exposed a security gap that led to the theft of 143 million consumers’ financial information. Investigators later learned the hackers accessed data as far back as mid-May.
Now, new details have emerged that show Equifax was hacked in an unrelated attack back in March.
A spokesperson from Equifax said of the first breach in a statement: “Earlier this year, during the 2016 tax season, Equifax experienced a security incident involving a payroll-related service. The incident was reported to customers, affected individuals and regulators. This incident was also covered in the media. The March event reported by Bloomberg is not related to the criminal hacking that was discovered on July 29.”
The spokesperson said that Mandiant hasn’t found any evidence connecting the two breaches. The earlier breach affected payroll product TALX, an Equifax subsidiary, and was primarily reported on by security writers Brian Krebs and Graham Cluley based on notifications obtained from affected customers.
Bloomberg reported that the initial breach in March 2017 led the credit bureau to hire a security firm to investigate. That initial investigation by security firm Mandiant concluded in May, according to Bloomberg.
The second breach exposed birthdates, Social Security numbers and credit card numbers. It affected around 40% of American consumers and took place between May and July 2017.
Mandiant also investigated the second breach, which Equifax announced Sept. 7.
“Equifax’s internal investigation of this incident is still ongoing and the company continues to work closely with the FBI in its investigation,” an update on Equifax’s security site says of the more recent hack.
Well, Now the Government’s Looking at the Equifax Hack
On Sept. 15, Equifax announced that its chief information officer and chief security officer were retiring.
Bloomberg notes that the stock sale by three Equifax executives in early August may be examined further as new details about the beach’s timeline emerge. The sold shares were worth more than $1.8 million combined. Another similar transaction took place in May, according to Bloomberg. The U.S. Department of Justice is investigating those transactions for insider trading conflicts.
We All Have Trust Issues, Right?
Whether you were impacted by this summer’s Equifax hack or not — we show you how to find out if you were affected — it can feel like each new day brings a new challenge for U.S. financial institutions. Start adding them up, and a culture of distrust can develop. Earlier this year, Equifax was forced to pay $3.8 million for various violations, including serving customers ads while they viewed their free annual credit reports.
The latest security breach and rumors of insider trading don’t help the Equifax brand one bit, especially after consumers have complained about how difficult it is to get breach-related assistance.
“What makes the situation especially awful is that you never had much choice about entering into a relationship with Equifax,” Pat Regainer and Suzanne Woodley wrote in Bloomberg Businessweek.
You choose a bank, a mortgage company and a credit card brand, but you never choose to be listed in the three credit bureaus, they explain. You can either live off the financial grid or be a part of this mess. There is no middle ground.
Add in millennial skepticism — they don’t trust much of anyone in the financial world — and you have a more complicated reputation quandary than anyone may have predicted.
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.
source The Penny Hoarder http://ift.tt/2wxfy7w
How to Kick Your Email List Building out of a Plateau
Every business owner eventually experiences growth stagnation.
It can happen with sales. And it can happen with your email list.
I’ve been there.
You feel stumped.
Your email list isn’t growing.
What can you possibly do to kick yourself out of this rut?
Well, the exciting news is, you’ve got several options.
Some of them are a fresh take on conventional list-building strategies. Others require you to think outside the box.
In this article, I’ll lay out the most effective techniques for you. You’ll walk away with a step-by-step plan to ramp up your email list.
Before we get into these strategies, I’ve got some crucial advice.
It is imperative that you block and tackle.
What does that mean?
When you’re trying to overcome a period of stagnation in business, it’s important that you put all your energy towards getting out of that rut.
Block a 30-60 day window on your schedule, and tackle only list building during that period.
Nothing else.
Building an email list is fundamental to the success of your business.
The relationship you’ll nurture with your subscribers will determine the revenue-generating power of your business.
In fact, the average email marketer sees a 94% return on investment.
The strategies you’ll learn in this article will allow you to put your list building on autopilot. It means the time you take to focus on this one thing will be time well spent.
Let’s jump in.
1. Discover your lead magnet opportunities
It doesn’t matter what list-building strategy you’re using. It doesn’t matter which audience you’re targeting.
All list-building roads lead to your lead magnet.
Nobody will give you their email address without receiving an attractive offer in return.
Like this:
With that said, the first step is to pick out incentives your target audience would want.
Put these steps into action to determine what that is.
Step #1: What does your audience want?
Think about the ultimate result. If you double-down on their biggest pain point, this won’t be difficult to come up with.
Step #2: What is your overarching solution to helping them get what they want?
Think about the big picture.
For example, if you’re a business coach, your ultimate goal may be to get your clients to bring in more sales and greater profits.
Step #3: What are the small steps required to deliver that ultimate solution?
In keeping with the example above, the small steps can be:
- build an email list
- have a content marketing plan
- launch a product
- set up evergreen sales funnels
- hire a virtual assistant
Your best free content lies in these small steps.
It will help you create an offer your audience wants. It will also ensure you give away something that will give them an immediate win.
This is super important for lead magnets.
You want subscribers to consume the content, implement it, and achieve a positive result.
Now that you have an idea of what your audience will benefit from, it’s time to create something concrete.
2. Create your free incentives to attract your ideal audience
I’ll cut to the chase.
Four strategies work exceptionally well.
Strategy #1: Pick out your top performing posts and create content upgrades.
Content upgrades are quickly becoming the gold standard for list building.
Brian Dean boosted his conversions by 785% using content upgrades.
Here is how to do that:
- Go through your analytics.
- Select the blog posts that have gotten the most traffic and engagement.
- Create an incentive specific to that piece of content.
Let’s say you write a post “How to Write Blog Posts That Rank on Google’s First Page.”
You can create an “SEO checklist” as a content upgrade and place it within your blog post.
Here’s an example:
The chances of someone signing up to receive this upgrade? Sky high.
It adds to the value of your post as it gives readers a valuable resource to implement what you just discussed.
Strategy #2: Create a brand-specific lead magnet
This is an incentive that stands on its own.
It’s not tied to any piece of content, and it should have a mass appeal.
I don’t mean that it must be geared towards everyone on the Internet. But people in your target market should be attracted by your brand-specific free offer.
Here are some examples:
- an email course
- a challenge
- a resource library
- an ultimate guide
- a Facebook group or other online community
- a content series, e.g., a video series or a blog post series
- a toolkit
Strategy #3: Create a lead magnet that prepares your customer for a purchase
Most people talk about the first two strategies. But many leave out the most important one.
You must have a lead magnet that is connected to your premium offers.
This applies to a physical product, a service, or an informational product.
This type of a lead magnet is often (not always) smaller and quick to consume. This way, you give subscribers an appetite for your paid product.
For physical products and software, it’s easy to come up with an incentive. You can give away a coupon code, a free trial, etc.
Like Curology does:
Here’s a good rule of thumb for info-products and services:
- your free content can give away the “Why” and the “What”
- your paid content can be geared towards the “How”
Let’s look at an example from Jeff Walker.
He offers a premium program that helps entrepreneurs launch a product.
It’s called Product Launch Formula.
His free incentive is a “Launch workshop,” which is directly tied to his paid product.
And that’s what I mean by preparing your customer for a purchase.
This is a smart way to build a warm list of potential buyers.
Strategy #4: Create a promotional lead magnet
The last technique is to run a promotion.
This is where you use a giveaway to accelerate your list building.
When you implement this well, it works wonders. But I’ll admit: it isn’t my favorite strategy.
Why?
For one, it isn’t evergreen.
This isn’t something you can set and forget.
You run your promotion for a particular period. During that time, you have to market your giveaway aggressively and manage it closely.
After your promotion has run its course, that’s it. It has no use to you anymore.
Here’s my advice:
- run giveaways sparingly;
- make sure you can execute them well because promotions can easily flop;
- give away something that closely aligns with your premium offers.
Which of these four strategies should you focus on?
All of them.
The days of one lead magnet are gone.
Of course, you don’t have to create all of them at once. That takes time.
But aim to have each of these types of incentives in your arsenal.
3. Design your website to convert
You’ve come up with your lead magnet ideas, and you’ve created them.
Now what?
It’s time to ensure your website visitors have every opportunity to grab these free resources.
This is not about designing your site from scratch or spending big bucks on web design.
You simply want to ensure that your web traffic is directed to your incentives.
A few tweaks will do the trick.
Here are my recommendations.
1. Place your brand-specific lead magnet above the fold of your website
Above the fold is the upper half of a website page.
It’s that section that a web visitor sees without having to scroll down.
The premise is simple.
You have a few seconds to grab your visitors’ attention. If your primary goal is to collect leads, the first thing users should see is an opportunity to sign up to your email list.
Here’s an example from Blogging Wizard:
Here’s another example:
2. Create high-converting landing pages for your lead magnets
Every standalone lead magnet needs a landing page. (This rule doesn’t apply to content upgrades.)
If you decide to run list-building ads, you’ll need this asset. If you want to direct your social media traffic to your lead magnet, it will also come in handy.
Let’s talk about the anatomy of a solid landing page. It needs to have:
- a primary headline
- a secondary headline or subheading
- a descriptive statement
- benefits in bullet points
- an image of your lead magnet
- minimal form fields (two fields maximum)
- a call to action
- social proof (if you have it)
- a snippet about you and an image (optional)
I know. Most landing pages don’t include all these elements.
That’s why they don’t work.
I recommend including everything listed above, but if you have to choose, the first seven will do the job.
3. Every time you run a promotion, feature it above the fold
When you decide to run list-building promos, you need to capitalize on that prime real estate.
As I referenced earlier, giveaways require lots of marketing. The more exposure you can get, the more successful you will be.
Just replace whatever is above your fold at the moment with something related to your promotion.
Like in this example:
4. Include opt-in forms in three to seven different places on your site
Apart from landing pages and feature boxes above the fold, you need to have opt-in forms elsewhere on your site.
Why three to seven?
Well, two is not enough to get the job done.
In marketing, there’s this rule that says prospects need to hear your message seven times before it sticks.
Only then will they take action.
I’ve analyzed several of the top sites in various niches. They all have many opt-in forms in that range.
I don’t know what your results will be. You can test it.
In any event, one thing is for sure: the more opportunities you have for web visitors to opt in to your email list, the faster it will grow.
And that’s what you want.
Here are some ideas where you can place these additional opt-ins:
- within your blog posts
- in your sidebar
- in popups
- on your About page
- in your main navigation
- in your footer
4. Keep creating high-value content on a consistent basis
At this point, you’ll start seeing an improvement.
Why am I so sure?
If you create lead magnets your audience wants and optimize your site for conversions, you’re achieving two things.
First, you have a foundation to scale your list building efforts.
Second, you are capitalizing on the traffic you’re already receiving.
That combination alone will make a difference. But let’s see how you can ramp it up.
Content is crucial at this stage.
There are three types of content I recommend.
1. High-value blog posts with content upgrades
In the second step, we talked about the importance of blog posts with content upgrades.
However, you were working with existing content.
You have to keep publishing valuable posts on a weekly basis. If you can create a content upgrade for each article, definitely do that.
What’s the ideal publishing frequency?
That depends on your niche and your audience.
I’ll tell you one thing.
You don’t need to post daily. Consistency is what matters.
One post a week is enough to see results with your list building.
2. Webinars
You may have noticed webinars are in vogue these days.
And with good reason.
It’s a fresh way to deliver value to your audience.
It’s especially powerful for list building because it’s gated content. People have to sign up to your email list to attend.
Here’s the thing though.
Webinars are a strategy into itself. It takes preparation, the right tools, and robust marketing to make it a success.
But it’s worth it.
Webinars typically run about 60 minutes. It means you’ll need lots of content to work with.
The great news?
This content is typically evergreen and can be repurposed into blog posts or social media posts.
3. Social media content
There’s no better source of free traffic than your social media profiles.
I recommend focusing on one main platform where your audience hangs out.
Post consistently. Build an engaged community. And direct that social traffic to your main site.
Conclusion
There’s no dancing around this fact: email list building is central to the success of an online business.
Make it a priority.
Periods of slow growth are commonplace and shouldn’t be a problem. What matters is what you do to get yourself out of the lull.
When it comes to increasing the number of your subscribers, you aren’t short on options.
Follow the strategies I’ve laid out in this article.
If you implement them, you’ll start seeing an increase in your email list sign-ups almost immediately.
Which list-building strategies have worked the best for you?
Source Quick Sprout http://ift.tt/2fbACFu
Eliminate the Debt, Not the Debt Ceiling
We are now in a familiar debate in Washington about whether taxpayers should give Congress an unlimited budget with the national credit card.
Source CBNNews.com http://ift.tt/2wyaZKk
Source CBNNews.com http://ift.tt/2wyaZKk
The Soup Stockpile: An Easy Route to Having Tons of Convenient Freezer Soups
The past few weeks have been incredibly busy for our family. Not only has Sarah returned to teaching from her summer break, our children have also returned to school and several fall activities have begun. On top of that, a particularly nasty virus of some kind flashed through our family, bringing a consistent set of symptoms and knocking each family member (except me, somehow) out of commission for a few days. The lazy days of summer are long gone.
Because of that rapid change in daily routine, it has become more and more difficult to consistently get a family meal to the table for dinner each night. We often fall back to relying on very simple staples that Sarah and I can prepare almost on automatic – things like spaghetti with marinara sauce and steamed vegetables or slow cooker lasagna.
Perhaps the most efficient solution to this problem of all, however, are frozen soups.
In our deep freezer, we have a bunch of soup containers, each containing about a quart of soup. By simply reheating two of those containers, we provide a nice bowl of soup to each family member, which can be complemented with a sandwich or a breadstick or some other similarly simple accompaniment, something that we can prepare during the few minutes while the soup is reheating.
This is a fantastic solution on a lot of levels.
First, homemade soup is pretty inexpensive. You can prepare homemade soup at a very low price, as most of the ingredients are things like beans, rice, and raw vegetables. Even in soups that use meat as an ingredient, you’re actually using a relatively small amount. The ingredients just don’t add up to a big expense.
Second, most homemade soups reheat extremely well. The main problem with most reheated food is that it gives off moisture and that some of the solid elements break down a little bit. Neither of those issues are really a problem for most soups. Furthermore, frozen meals that are later thawed and heated often meld their flavors together, which usually helps soups. There’s a reason people often prefer chili reheated, after all.
Third, reheating a soup is about as simple as you can get for family meal preparation. Seriously. If you remembered to pull a container out of the freezer that morning, you literally put the ingredients of that container into a small pot or saucepan, put it over medium heat, and let it warm up, stirring it every once in a while. Meanwhile, you can set the table and take care of other tasks. Even if you forgot to thaw it during the day, you can quickly thaw it in a microwave. There’s almost no effort in bringing a container of soup to the dinner table.
Fourth, the original preparation (and storage) of the soup is pretty easy, too. It’s not very hard to make a big batch of homemade soup, from which you can not only feed your family dinner but also package up a container or two of soup for the freezer in the future.
So, how do you pull all of this off? It’s actually pretty easy.
Make Soup in a Slow Cooker (or Otherwise)
The first step, obviously, is to make some soup. You can use pretty much any recipe that you like, as almost any soup is freeze-able. The key is to make sure that you make plenty of the soup. Make a double batch, if possible.
But how do you make a big pot of soup and cook it if you’re busy? It’s easy. Just put all of the heavier ingredients in a slow cooker in the morning – things like potatoes and carrots and meat – and season it appropriately and add the liquid. Turn it on low and leave it cooking all day. Then, when you get home, immediately add softer ingredients – you can leave them out so that it’s easy to do when you get home. Add things like pasta or tofu or kale at this point. Then, turn it on high and then just serve it half an hour or an hour later – you don’t have to do anything else.
That basic structure works well for almost every soup known to man. We use it for everything from chili and stews to curry soups and bean soups. As long as you just put all of the dense ingredient and the liquids in the slow cooker in the morning, leave it on low all day, then add the softer stuff as soon as you get home, it’s ready to serve an hour later or so. It’s easy.
Save Your Leftovers in Freezer-Safe Containers
When you’re done with eating soup from the slow cooker for dinner, you should have a lot of leftovers. Hopefully, you filled that slow cooker high, so there’s plenty remaining!
All you do at this point is fill up a freezer container or two with the remaining soup. Personally, we use these reusable containers that can go from the freezer to the microwave to the dishwasher without any problems. We bought them as a bulk purchase (24 of them) a while back and they work like a champ.
So, grab one (or two) of those containers and fill it up with soup, leaving about an inch or so of air at the top of the container. Put a lid on it and stick it in the fridge.
The next morning or evening, when the soup is nice and cold, burp the container by just opening it enough to let air in or out, then put a piece of masking tape on the container. Write what kind of soup it is and what day you made it on the label, then pop it in the freezer. You’re done. That’s it.
When You Need an Easy Meal…
Whenever you need an easy meal in the evening, something that can be prepped in just a few minutes, just grab one (or two) of those soup containers from the freezer the night before or even two nights before and put it in the refrigerator. (If you forget, don’t sweat it.) Having the soup thawed when you get home makes it even easier to get it to the table.
So, you come home, you have a container of thawed soup in the fridge. Just pull out a saucepan or a small pot, pour the soup in there, and heat it on your stovetop over medium heat, stirring it whenever you happen to walk by. When it’s bubbling, it’s ready. That’s it – homemade supper is on the table.
What if it’s frozen? That’s easy, too – just thaw it on the low setting in the microwave until it’s mostly liquid (you’ll want to stop the microwave and stir it regularly when doing this), then put it in a saucepan or a small pot on the stovetop over medium heat. Stir it whenever you walk by, then when it’s bubbling, serve it. That’s it – homemade supper is on the table.
If you used the recommended containers above, cleanup is easy, too – you just put the saucepan or pot along with the soup containers in the dishwasher and then they’re ready to be used again.
Some Soup Ideas
Honestly, almost every soup or stew or chili variant you can think of works well with this strategy. I’ve tried it with slow cooker chili, creamy potato chowder, minestrone, white bean stew, and others; my wife’s made chicken curry soup and beef stew this way, too.
You don’t just have to use slow cooker recipes, either. Most soup recipes work fine in the slow cooker provided that you just save the softer ingredients for the last hour or so.
You can, of course, also prepare a big pot of soup without the slow cooker if you’d like, on a lazy afternoon, and just save the leftovers, too.
Other Things to Serve
We have soup with a lot of meals this time of the year because it’s so convenient and so inexpensive. Having things on hand to serve with it, though, can require a bit of creativity and preparedness.
Our default pairing is to have soup, salad, and sandwiches. While the soup is heating, we make a few sandwiches and prepare a salad for everyone to share. The salad and sandwich are served on a plate alongside the soup bowl.
Sometimes, I’ll make breadsticks to go along with it, baking them in the oven or even cooking them in advance and storing them. You can find premade breadsticks at the store, but it’s not hard making them – you just need a simple bread dough recipe and then, when the bread is done, you form the bread into breadstick shapes and bake them on a baking sheet. They turn out wonderfully.
A final trick we use is to turn it into a bit of a “soup bar,” where we put out a lot of things one might want to add to their soup – things like diced green onions, crackers, cheese, bits of diced ham, and so on. This lets everyone “personalize” their soup a little and also bulk it up so it feels more like a hearty meal.
Final Thoughts
I’ll be perfectly honest – without soups in the freezer, we would likely fall back on prepackaged meals some nights, which are quite a bit more expensive, or else we’d order delivery or takeout, which is a lot more expensive.
This simple soup routine saves us a lot of money during the busy times, because it means that we’re having a very cheap dinner – soup – instead of a far more expensive dinner. It works because it almost completely eliminates prep time in the evenings, making it very manageable even on the busiest nights.
If you find yourself with crazy evenings on a regular basis, consider this “soup stockpile” strategy. It’ll save you a ton on food spending while still giving you a delicious home cooked meal when you want it.
Good luck!
The post The Soup Stockpile: An Easy Route to Having Tons of Convenient Freezer Soups appeared first on The Simple Dollar.
Source The Simple Dollar http://ift.tt/2w6kUT5
Moneywise Get Financial Education Working Campaign
The Moneywise Get Financial Education Working Campaign is a call for Moneywise readers to take action, and to spread the word about resources and best practice. Together we can make the next generation better equipped to deal with the everyday challenges of managing money.
Help kids to learn the value of money
It was a great step forward when personal finance was put on the National Curriculum in September 2014. On that date, it became a statutory requirement for maintained schools in England to teach financial education in mathematics and Citizenship, making it part of the curriculum across the UK.
Financial experts divulge their biggest money mistakes
We quiz financial experts to reveal the biggest mistakes they’ve made with their personal finances over the years – and the lessons they’ve learnt.
What 10 financial experts are teaching their kids about money
Frustrated by your children’s lack of interest in managing their money? Then pick up a few tips from top financial professionals on how they encourage their offspring to start saving.
TV presenter Kate Garraway: “What I would tell my 20-year-old self about money”
As part of a feature called, Women: what I would tell my younger self about money, in which Moneywise readers share their tips, we asked TV presenter Kate Garraway, who hosted our Moneywise Customer Service Awards 2017, what she would like to tell her younger self. Here's what she said.
Women: what I would tell my younger self about money
Moneywise readers – along with TV presenter Kate Garraway – give their top money advice for women in their 20s. Tips include why a man should not be a financial plan and why it’s essential to start saving and investing.
Sitting in on personal finance lessons
There’s nothing like a quiz to get a class of 12- and 13-year-old girls excited about banks and how they make their money. And that’s how MyBnk teacher Toby Cohen starts the financial education charity’s Money Twist lesson on ‘Your Future’ at La Retraite Roman Catholic Girls’ School in south London.
Five fun apps teach kids about money
It’s an issue we feel passionately about at Moneywise – which is why we have launched our Get Financial Education Working campaign.
Best books to help your kids learn about money
Groucho Marx once said: “I don’t care about the money, so long as I get it.” His quip about finance may chime with many of us. After all, if you are reading this, the chances are you already have a healthy interest in all things fiscal. But what about your kids?
Fun ways to teach your kids about money - shared by Moneywise readers
Here’s a selection of Moneywise readers' words of wisdom, from saving into jam jars to earning extra for household chores.
Free Tag
Related stories
Source Moneywise http://ift.tt/2faOtfu
Moneywise guide for students 2017/18
Heading to university for the first-time or reading up about it on behalf of your children or grandchildren? Here’s Moneywise’s roundup of the latest student news stories, as well as top tips and information on everything from student loans to how to save, make, or invest money in 2017/18.
Student finances 2017/18: what you need to know
Moneywise explains the cheapest and safest ways for students to borrow and budget, plus we explore whether it is better to pay university fees up front or to take out a student loan.
Student loan interest to rocket to 6.1%
The headline interest rate charged on post-2012 student loans in England and Wales will increase to up to 6.1% in September.
Student bank accounts: Where to find the best deals
Banks are fighting for new customers, so if you’re just starting university or college don’t delay in signing up for one of their top offers.
A guide to investing in student accommodation
Another cohort of students is about to head off to university – and with them comes an opportunity to invest in student properties.
Students’ credit ratings exposed to housemates’ poor financial choices
Students heading to university are being warned not to set up joint financial products with their housemates as this could negatively affect their access to credit in the future.
Savvy students could earn thousands renting unused parking spaces
Students in need of an income while studying could earn up to £15 per day just by renting their parking space or driveway.
Free four-year railcard for students
Students can get a free four-year 16-25 Railcard when they open Santander’s 123 Student Current Account.
Students should check their insurance before starting university
About one in five students will be the victim of theft during their first six weeks at university, according to The Complete University Guide.
Student entrepreneurs: How to start a business alongside studying
Students have a myriad of things to balance, such as managing their grades and a social life simultaneously. But this doesn’t have to hamper you from launching your own business start-up.
Student working over the summer? How to reclaim overpaid tax
Students, like all others, have to pay tax on their earnings if they exceed £11,500 a year as of 6 April 2017.
Eight ways for teenagers to make money
“During my week of work experience at Moneywise, I was asked to investigate the various ways teenagers in 2017 could make some extra money” writes Mattie Doubleday.
How I’m saving or investing with my Lifetime Isa at ages 18 to 21
The Lifetime Isa (Lisa) launched in April 2016 and is designed to help people buy their first home or save for retirement.
Free Tag
Related stories
Source Moneywise http://ift.tt/2xmuTGT
الاشتراك في:
الرسائل (Atom)