PLAINS TWP. — With more than two decades in the casino industry, most recently as vice president of finance at Hollywood Casino in Baton Rouge, La., Bradford Cobb has joined the executive team at Mohegan Sun Pocono in Plains Township as its new chief financial officer.As CFO, Cobb will oversee the financial accounting, regulatory compliance, labor and productivity departments, plus budgets, analysis and much more.“We’re thrilled to have Brad join our team [...]
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الثلاثاء، 21 نوفمبر 2017
Financial Issues Top Priority for Many American Families
American families are more concerned with economic issues than cultural ones, according to a new study reported in the 2017 American Family Survey.
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The Lazy Person’s Guide to Making and Saving Money for Doing Almost Nothing
Here’s a thing about me: I’m lazy.
Really, really lazy.
I know what you’re thinking: Wow, what a surprise.
But that’s not all! You see, I’m exceptionally lazy. Supremely lazy. I’m a laziness expert, a scholar, a connoisseur of laziness. Look up “lazy” in the dictionary, and there’s a little picture of me napping.
If it were up to me, I’d be lying on a beach in Bali, sipping on strong cocktails with little umbrellas in them, reading trashy paperbacks while servants hand-feed me shrimp and strawberries.
Alas, that is not my life.
Like so many of you, I have a job, spouse, kids, mortgage, car payment, bills, debt. I’m working my little tushy off, here. All of this financial pressure and work ethic really interfere with my laziness.
But because I’m lazy, I’ve learned how to put my finances on autopilot. I seek out apps and tools that help me make and save money with as little effort on my part as possible.
With a few clicks of a mouse or a few swipes on your phone, you’re done forever. You’re all set. Time to kick back and relax.
Check out these super lazy ways to make money:
1. Don’t Bother Tracking Prices
Have Earny do that for you. With this app, you can get money back on purchases you make online.
Earny scans your inbox for receipts and tracks the items to find price drops. It takes advantage of retailer and credit-card company price-protection policies to negotiate money back on your behalf.
The app works with a bunch of online retailers, including Amazon, Gap, Jet, Kohl’s, Nordstrom, Old Navy, Overstock, Target, Walmart and Zappos.
You get unexpected refunds, and all you have to do is not delete your email receipts. Other than that, you do nothing.
2. Don’t Worry About Cutting Your Monthly Bills
Trim will do that for you. It’s a Facebook Messenger bot that will negotiate your cable or internet bills down. It works with Comcast, Time Warner, Charter and other major providers.
You sign up with Facebook, then upload a PDF of your most recent bill, and Trim’s AI-powered system gets to work. If at first it doesn’t succeed, it’ll keep negotiating until it can save you some money. (If it saves you any money, it keeps 25% of the savings tab.)
3. Don’t Lift a Finger to Get Cash Back
That’s what Dosh is for. It’s a new cash-back app that pays you for making purchases at more than 100,000 hotels, online stores and restaurants — including Starwood Properties, Marriott, Cost Plus World Market, Nike, Target, Chuck E. Cheese’s and more.
Here’s all you have to do:
- Download the app and sign up.
- Connect a debit or credit card. You collect an immediate $5 bonus for doing this.
- Live your life and watch the cash-back roll in.
4. Don’t Bother Keeping Track of Your Credit Score
Let Credit Sesame handle that. You have other things to do.
This free service shows your credit score and explains it to you. It shows your balances on any unpaid bills, credit cards or loans. It offers personalized tips on reducing your debt and raising your credit score.
5. Don’t Worry About Saving Money
Acorns makes it easy for you to save without ever thinking about it.
Once you connect it to a debit or credit card, this “micro-investing” app rounds your purchases up to the nearest dollar and funnels your digital change into a savings or investment account.
Because the money comes out in increments of less than $1, you’re less likely to feel an impact in your bank account. (With just a tiny little bit more work, you can also set it up so it doesn’t round up every single purchase.)
Oh, and you get a $10 sign-up bonus.
6. Get Paid for Walking Into Stores
Actually going shopping? Download the Shopkick app first.
Once you sign up, the app pays you “kicks” for walking into certain stores (including Amazon, Walmart, T.J. Maxx, Starbucks, Sephora, Best Buy and more). These can be redeemed for gift cards to those stores.
It pays you even more “kicks” for scanning items in stores and purchasing them with a connected credit or debit card, as well as for scanning receipts and mobile shopping.
7. Let This Bot Optimize Your 401(k)
Retirement accounts are complicated. That’s where Blooom will help you out. It’s an investment advisory firm that optimizes and monitors your 401(k).
Enter your information into its system: your name, age and when you hope to retire. Connect your 401(k) account.
Within a few minutes, you get a free 401(k) “health report,” which tells you what’s going well and what needs improvement. Are you paying too many fees? Is your mix of stocks and bonds not properly allocated for your age?
If you want Blooom to take over, you can opt in for a $10-per-month service. Within a few hours, Blooom will reconfigure your 401(k) without you doing a thing. Better yet, it keeps an eye on it from then on.
8. Never Go to the Pharmacy Again
I hate going to the pharmacy to pick up prescriptions. Too often it’s a hassle. It’s work, and you know I’m opposed to work.
Hey, I’m not alone here. Nearly half of Americans are taking prescription pills. But we consumers are forced to manage the hassles of multiple prescriptions all by ourselves. Because of the difficulties, as many as 20% of us aren’t consistently filling our ’scripts.
Have Phil do the heavy lifting for you. This online prescription delivery service takes on the hassles of coordinating with pharmacies, doctors and insurance providers — even filling out paperwork. You pay nothing more than your usual copays, and delivery is free.
You can get up to $30 off your first order, too.
9. Relax with Digital, Virtual Scratch-Off Tickets
Man, that was a lot of work! I’m exhausted. Time to embrace my laziness again.
Hello laziness, my old friend.
Now that you’ve digested all that information, reward yourself with some scratch-off tickets. You don’t even have to leave the house. Check out this free app called Lucktastic. Each day, it releases a new assortment of digital scratch-off tickets.
Instant wins range from $1 to $10K. You can also earn tokens, enter contests and play games.
The app is free to download — and play. If you sign up, you get $1 free right away.
Time to kick back and chill out. You’ve earned it.
Mike Brassfield (mike@thepennyhoarder.com) is a senior writer at The Penny Hoarder. He works a lot, but he wishes he could be super lazy, instead.
This was originally published on The Penny Hoarder, which helps millions of readers worldwide earn and save money by sharing unique job opportunities, personal stories, freebies and more. The Inc. 5000 ranked The Penny Hoarder as the fastest-growing private media company in the U.S. in 2017.
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Keep It Green: 6 Ways to Make Black Friday Environmentally Friendly
I’m a huge proponent of frugality and green living. So why do I think Black Friday is one of the best days of the entire year?
Simple: I get to save a lot of money on products that are usually out of my price range — products that are environmentally friendly and can help me save money in the long run.
Here’s how I turn Black Friday green, using its deals to support my frugal and eco-friendly lifestyle.
1. I Invest in Energy Star-Rated Appliances
Black Friday offers the opportunity to purchase appliances at low prices, so I take advantage of the chance to upgrade some of my appliances to newer, more energy-friendly versions.
Switching to an Energy Star appliance can help you save hundreds of dollars a year, according to EnergySage, depending on the age of your current appliances and how many of them you plan to replace.
Plus, if you add the Black Friday savings and the fact that you’re much less likely to need repairs for newer housewares, you can save even more in the long run.
2. I Buy Faux Fur and Faux Leather on Discount
Living frugally doesn’t mean I don’t like to look good.
On the contrary. I am quite fashion savvy and I love creating fun and polished outfits.
I love quality clothes, and I don’t like buying cheap items that won’t last for long, won’t look as good and have serious environmental and other impacts.
The good news is many clothing stores have great sales for Black Friday and Cyber Monday, and it’s worth seeing whether that item you’ve been lusting after is marked down, so you can get a quality product and stick to your budget.
One of my favorite eco-friendly investments is high-quality faux fur and faux-leather products. These clothes look just as great as natural fur or leather ones, but they are much friendlier to our fauna — and on Black Friday, I’m much more likely to find a price I like.
3. I Bring My Own Reusable Bags
Plan on shopping for things you’ll carry away with you? Don’t leave home without your own shopping bags.
It may feel a bit odd to bring a bunch of them with you, but it can help you make a huge difference. Every year, we throw away enough plastic to circle the planet four times.
Instead of contributing to plastic debris in the oceans and toxic emissions generated when manufacturing plastics, bring and reuse your own bags.
4. I Walk or Bike to the Store
Why drain energy resources when you don’t need to?
Walking or biking to the store when the weather is right is a great way to see how cheap, healthy and environmentally friendly leaving the car at home can be. As long as I don’t have to carry large objects, I will be more than comfortable.
If you don’t have a bicycle, why not look for a Black Friday deal on a new one? A fairly good bike doesn’t cost a lot of money, but it can help you save a lot, both in terms of finances and environmental impact. Here’s a cool calculator for the financial part.
5. I Keep an Eye on Eco-Friendly Products
Many green technologies and products cost a lot upfront, even though they can help you save money in the long run.
On Black Friday, you can often find these products on sale, so I usually keep an eye on them.
For example, I have always wanted to buy a solar battery recharger and I’m hoping this Black Friday might be my chance!
6. I Don’t Buy Everything That’s on Sale
The best way to save money on Black Friday and to be green is to avoid buying absolutely everything you see on sale.
As tempting as it seems, you probably don’t actually need all those items, and you might wind up tossing them before their expected lifetimes are actually up.
This would be a waste of both environmental and financial resources — so take a moment to consider whether you really need that item or you’re just excited about the deal.
Savanna Oconner is a frugal-living computer systems analyst from Memphis. She enjoys hiking or any kind of outdoor physical activity. In her spare time, she loves to write and cook.
This was originally published on The Penny Hoarder, which helps millions of readers worldwide earn and save money by sharing unique job opportunities, personal stories, freebies and more. The Inc. 5000 ranked The Penny Hoarder as the fastest-growing private media company in the U.S. in 2017.
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Tuesday After Thanksgiving Is the Day to Score Mind-Boggling Airfare Deals
You know about Black Friday. You either love going out and competing with other shoppers for the best deals like it’s the retail Hunger Games or hole up in your house like me, waiting for the chaos to subside.
Then on Monday, you rev up your fingers to snag those awesome deals that don’t require putting on pants and leaving the house. Yeah, Cyber Monday is a good thing.
Are you ready for more? It seems there’s a new player in town, and it won’t be ignored.
Travel Deal Tuesday is here, and it wants you to go places.
Travel Deal Tuesday Features Mega Airfare Sales
According to the folks at travel app Hopper, the Tuesday after Thanksgiving is one of the best days of the year to book your flights for upcoming travel. Hopper thinks the sales are so plentiful it’s dubbed the day, Travel Deal Tuesday. Catchy, huh?
The company says it tracked airfare discounts over previous years and discovered they spike on the Tuesday following Thanksgiving. By how much?
“Last year, we observed more than double the normal fare sale activity on Travel Deal Tuesday. In 2015, we saw fare sale activity spike by 6X the normal volume,” the company’s website says.
According to Hopper’s study, travel sales drop considerably after the holidays, prompting airlines to feature deals to boost ticket sales. Why Tuesday? Why not? Some believe that Tuesday afternoon, any Tuesday, afternoon is the best time to buy airfare. Others say that’s not the case.
In any case, it makes sense. Black Friday and Cyber Monday already have everyone’s debit and credit cards all warmed up, so why not ride the wave and get people buying airfare, too?
How to Get the Best Airfare Deals
If you are thinking of traveling in the upcoming months, Travel Deal Tuesday looks like a good bet to snag some good airfare deals. But keep in mind some other tips that can help you out, as well.
- Flexibility is a good thing. If you have a little wiggle room for travel dates on either side of your trip, you might be able to save significant money. However, if it extends your trip, consider other expenses like hotels and rental cars.
- Don’t forget about your bags. When you compare flights from competing airlines, keep all of those little extras in mind. Will you have to pay extra for a carry-on? Does the airline charge you to pick your seat? Some of the bargain a la carte airlines aren’t such a great bargain when you add it all up.
- Set up airfare alerts. The Hopper app allows you to set up a Flex Watch that tells you when the best deals are happening, but it’s just one of many options you have for airfare alerts.
If travel plans are in your future, give Travel Deal Tuesday a try. We’d love to hear if you were able to score awesome deals to your destinations. Once you’ve had your turkey on Thursday, hidden like a frightened cub on Friday and bought all your Christmas gifts on Monday, you’ll be all warmed up to nail down your airfare on Travel Deal Tuesday.
Now, can we make Whittling Wednesday a thing? We could all use the relaxation time.
Tyler Omoth is a senior writer at The Penny Hoarder who loves soaking up the sun and finding creative ways to help others. He can’t actually whittle. Not at all. Catch him on Twitter at @Tyomoth.
This was originally published on The Penny Hoarder, which helps millions of readers worldwide earn and save money by sharing unique job opportunities, personal stories, freebies and more. The Inc. 5000 ranked The Penny Hoarder as the fastest-growing private media company in the U.S. in 2017.
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This Chart Makes Black Friday Buying Decisions Easy… and Fun
You’ve survived the cold wait in line, where you’ve hopefully been brave enough to bond with a new friend over your shared dedication to getting the best Black Friday deals.
You literally bust your way through the door in pursuit of savings — immediately leaving your unsuspecting new friend behind in the dust, because… deals.
In front of you lies a cornucopia of things, the happiness of your children and approval of your coworkers displayed in pristine boxes on rows upon rows of metal shelves.
Dangling above each piece of holiday shopping splendor is the siren call of American retail: the SALE sign.
You have to have it, right? What a deal!
You couldn’t possibly find prices like this again. And you spent all that time chatting up what’s-her-face outside in the cold — you deserve a treat.
Stop — Don’t Buy That Yet!
Before you do something you know you’ll regret, take a moment to really consider it.
Breathe deeply, double-check your list — and get out of the aisle before what’s-her-face clips you with her shopping cart in her sprint to Housewares.
Now ask yourself these questions.
NOW You’re Ready to Buy
Congratulations, Black Friday Warrior. You’ve survived the test of will. Go forth, and find more great deals.
Rejoice when you return home with your spoils — and with the newfound strength to survive the remaining challenges you’re sure to encounter this holiday season.
Dana Sitar (dana@thepennyhoarder.com) is a senior writer/newsletter editor at The Penny Hoarder. Say hi and tell her a good joke on Twitter @danasitar.
This was originally published on The Penny Hoarder, which helps millions of readers worldwide earn and save money by sharing unique job opportunities, personal stories, freebies and more. The Inc. 5000 ranked The Penny Hoarder as the fastest-growing private media company in the U.S. in 2017.
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Don’t Get Scammed on Black Friday: How to Identify Deals vs. Duds
If you wake up at 3 a.m. to line up in front of Walmart or combat your turkey coma to spend an hour propped up in bed clicking around Target’s website, it’s for a good reason.
Even if your spouse looks at you strangely from the other side of the mattress, you know you’re getting the best deal possible on something you need and would buy anyway. (Because that’s the only reason you’re spending money on Black Friday, right?)
These deals aren’t going to repeat themselves, and they’re too good to miss… Or are they?
Not Every Black Friday Deal is a Bargain
Turns out, maybe not.
While some Black Friday deals are unbeatable, some are just OK. You might already be able to get an item for the sale price, or cheaper, on Amazon.
Some vendors even have the items listed at the same discounted price in stores right now. But in the Black Friday ads, they list the MSRP (manufacturer’s suggested retail price) in bright red to inflate savings percentages. More like MSRPointless.
In fact, many “deals” are actually complete rip-offs: Did you know some companies create custom items just for Black Friday sales? And I don’t mean exclusive limited editions.
Some retailers flood their sales floors with “derivative products” that look like the real deal. Think TVs with screens with fewer pixels or computers with slower processors.
“Black Friday is about cheap stuff at cheap prices,” DealNews.com’s CEO, Daniel de Grandpre, told BankRate in 2015. Manufacturers can make these slightly less-awesome items more cheaply and sell them at a jaw-dropping discount. They get consumers in the door, but burden them with subpar stuff.
Even the good deals aren’t necessarily “one-time-only.” If you think you’re seeing the same Black Friday deals year after year, you probably are. Retailers rerun the same (or even better!) deals each year — which means waiting an extra year might save you a few extra bucks, due to inflation and a potentially lower sale price.
How to Spot the Best Black Friday Deals
So how do you know if it’s a deal or a dud?
Know the Likely Suspects
It turns out there are some noticeable trends regarding which deals are bogus. (Notice the same things popping up from year to year.)
Doorbuster TVs, tablets and laptops are more likely to be derivatives with fewer HDMI ports or lackluster specs, and tools for dad are offered at a better discount in June.
Seasonal items, like winter clothing and decorations, or easy and popular gifts, like chocolate, flowers or vacation packages, also won’t be as steeply discounted. Vendors know you need those items right now and are willing to pay for them.
Beware of Repeat Deals
Need a new cookware set? I bet Rachel Ray’s 15-piece set is going to be available at Walmart this year for $89. Just an educated guess.
Before you pull out your credit card, check last year’s ads, Amazon or current in-store prices for the item you’re eyeing — is that Black Friday deal really so special?
Creating pressure to purchase right now is a standard psychological trick in the sales industry. How many “limited-time offers” are still on infomercials three years later? Ever been subject to a landlord’s claim that the potential next tenant is coming with cash in hand, so you’d better sign now?
Keep informed and shop around. That knowledge could mean cash in your pocket.
Check the Model Number
Want to make sure that new laptop is really the one you want? Check the model number.
Manufacturers may create new derivative products for Black Friday, but they have to use a unique model number to differentiate the product. Those numbers can’t lie.
Check Reviews
If you’re like me, you exhaustively — or annoyingly — check reviews every time you purchase anything, even a lamp or a dress. I even check reviews before I go out for ice cream.
You should probably not try to be like me.
But when it comes to Black Friday, reviews are your friend.
Before you blindly buy the laptop or TV at the biggest discount — you know, the one proudly displayed on the first page of the flyer — check its reviews online. Even a great sale price is too much to pay for a bad product.
Plus, if there are no reviews or the product doesn’t exist yet, that’s a good hint (though no guarantee) the item might be a derivative.
Avoid Rebates… or Make Sure You Actually Use Them
That bold-print sale price might have a fine-print catch: It might include a mail-in rebate. Or, maybe the discount isn’t that great, but the purchase of a specific item comes with coupons or gift cards for future use.
Of course, we Penny Hoarders love rebates, cash-back programs, free gift cards and other easy ways to save a few bucks.
But vendors love them for a different reason: Research has shown statistically, you’re unlikely to follow through with mailing in a rebate. They get the marketing benefit of a shocking sale price with none of the profit cut.
So make sure you’re taking retailers up on those well-advertised offers! If you know you’ll probably forget, skip these deals in favor of regular, discounted prices.
Be vigilant this season, and make sure your Black Friday haul is worth your while. Anything less is a waste of time and money.
Jamie Cattanach is a writer whose work has been featured at The Write Life, Word Riot, Nashville Review and elsewhere. Find @JamieCattanach on Twitter to wave hello.
This was originally published on The Penny Hoarder, which helps millions of readers worldwide earn and save money by sharing unique job opportunities, personal stories, freebies and more. The Inc. 5000 ranked The Penny Hoarder as the fastest-growing private media company in the U.S. in 2017.
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Don’t Go Shopping: 12 Better Ways to Spend Your Time on Black Friday
What are you planning to do on Black Friday? Will you wake up at 4 a.m. to fight your way through crowds? Stand in line for hours only to discover that this year’s hottest toys are sold out?
That doesn’t exactly sound like fun. And no, leaving Thanksgiving dinner to visit the mall on Thursday night isn’t the answer, either.
Instead of battling the crowds as suggested by this tongue-in-cheek post, put your time to better use. Erin Burt shared 10 great ideas for Black Friday on Kiplinger, which inspired me to add to her list.
Here are 12 more smart strategies to make the most of your time on Black Friday — and most will leave you with extra money in your pocket.
1. Sign Up for Free Money
Yes, you read that right. Take advantage of bank account promotions to earn free money from several banks. While chasing sign-up bonuses isn’t always worth your time, these ones could earn you a pretty penny:
Chase
Go to this Chase Total Checking page and enter your email to get a coupon. Take this coupon to a Chase branch and use it to open a Total Checking account. Set up direct deposit, and you’ll get a $200 bonus!
You’ll need to use the coupon by Jan. 18, 2018, and set up direct deposit within 60 days of opening your account.
TD Bank
You’ve got two options here:
1. Open a new Premier Checking Account by visiting this page and entering your city and state (this account isn’t available in every state). Click the “open account” button and follow the instructions. (You have to open the account online through this page to get the bonus.)
Set up direct deposits of $2,500 or more within 60 days of opening the account, and you’ll get a $300 bonus. If you keep at least $2,500 in the account, TD Bank will waive the $25 monthly fee.
2. Open a new Convenience Checking account and get a $150 bonus. Scroll down to the “online offer only” box, click the “open account” button and follow the instructions. (If you don’t see an online offer box, the account’s not available in your state.)
Set up direct deposits to add $500 or more to the account within 60 days, and you’ll get a $150 bonus. If you keep a daily balance of $100 in the account, TD Bank will waive the $15 monthly fee.
2. Sell Your Stuff
Instead of going out and waiting in line to buy new stuff, why not make some money off the stuff you already have.
Start shuffling through your old movies or CDs because Decluttr will pay you for them.
Decluttr buys your old CDs, DVDs, Blu-rays and video games, plus hardware like cell phones, tablets, game consoles and iPods.
One user, Gil Flores, sold about 100 DVDs and 75 CDs and made $275 — an average of $1.57 each.
Just download the app, and start scanning the barcodes on your media to get immediate quotes. It’s completely free to use: There are no listing or seller fees.
Payment is pretty fast — it’ll take a day or two — but shipping is free.
Right now, when you send in your trades, Decluttr grants you a $5 bonus when you enter BLACK5 at checkout.
3. Find a Seasonal Job
While many people think it’s too late, there’s still time to pick up a seasonal job for the holidays. Some businesses will have finished their hiring already, but you might luck out — especially if you hustle early this week.
Try Snagajob, which specializes in hourly work, as well as good old-fashioned walk-ins — though you probably don’t want to try those on Black Friday itself.
4. Get Your Kids a Job
No, not at the mall. Signing your kids up to be toy testers is a fun way to help Santa save a little cash on presents.
Companies like Fisher-Price and Step 2 need feedback on new toys, such as whether they’re engaging and how they hold up to the wear and tear of playing, and the best people to share their feedback are kids and their parents.
Curious? Learn more about how to land toy-testing jobs in this post.
5. Strengthen Your Online Presence
Your social media accounts are great for sharing your professional accomplishments, your comments on polarizing issues or your photo of that amazing steak you grilled last night.
But did you know your posts can also earn you free stuff — and put cash in your pocket?
Spend a few hours beefing up your Facebook profile, Twitter stream, LinkedIn network and other channels, and you could create new opportunities for yourself.
To learn more about Facebook and Twitter contests and earning opportunities, check out this post. And all of your sharing and tweeting helps build “influence,” which Klout measures and rewards with free Perks.
Bonus? Your new, improved social media presence could also help you and your kids land those coveted toy-testing jobs.
6. Plan a New Small Business
Whether you’re ready to hit the ground running or you’re researching your options for the new year, start planning a way to earn money on the side. Figure out a way your skills and experience could help people, and then capitalize on it.
Good with words? Try making money as a writer. Work in tech? Do a little freelance web development.
Love dogs? Think about leading dog adventures or planning pet parties. Handy with tools? Consider building catios (yes, they’re a thing) or repair and resell used appliances.
Need a few more ideas? Try some of these low-cost business options. Here’s what you’ll need to know to set up your business.
7. Get Creative
Let your inner artist run wild while everyone else is still in their turkey coma. Create something cool, like jewelry, walking sticks or other crafts, that you can give to friends and family for the holidays.
My biggest hit last year was a wine-tasting kit: I simply sewed four bottle-shaped fabric covers and painted a number on each, to make it more fun to blind taste-test different bottles.
Want to earn some cash with your crafts? Consider setting up shop on Etsy or another online marketplace.
8. Write an Ebook
Have you been talking about writing a book forever? Put your money where your mouth is and write it already.
Not sure what to write about? Steve Scott, who has published more than 60 Kindle ebooks, recommends picking a niche market and then offering value by solving a problem for readers.
Once you’re ready to share your work with the world, here’s how to self-publish it online.
9. Go for a Walk or Hit the Gym
While you might not feel like being active after stuffing yourself with turkey (and stuffing), perhaps a little financial incentive would motivate you to get off the couch. What if you could earn money for your workout — or even a walk around the block?
That’s right, these sites and apps will pay you to exercise:
- Pact (formerly Gympact): Set a goal for your workouts, including hitting the gym, visiting a yoga studio or walking outside, and earn cash by sticking to your pact.
- Diet Bet: Bet on yourself losing a certain amount of weight in a given time period, and earn up to $100 if you’re successful.
- Healthy Wage: Similar to Diet Bet, but competing with a team could earn you payouts up to $10,000.
10. Sell Your Blood Plasma
It takes about two hours and yes, it involves a needle, but selling your plasma could earn you about $25 for your first visit. The process is simple, and you’re free to read or watch TV while a machine draws your blood and separates the plasma.
Interested? Search “plasma center + [your city]” for options, and ask your friends for referrals — many centers offer referral sign-up bonuses.
If you prefer just to donate blood — which the American Red Cross says is especially necessary between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day — look for a blood drive near you on its website or download its Blood App.
11. Plan to Give to Charity
If you’re going to make any charitable donations, you’ll want to make them before the end of the year so you can deduct them on your 2016 taxes.
Make sure to read the the IRS guidelines first — you’re only allowed to deduct donations to qualified organizations, not individuals or political campaigns, and donations of property or goods are treated differently than cash.
12. Shop Online, Strategically
If you really need to get started on your holiday shopping, do it from the comfort of your own home and use these tricks to save extra cash and earn rewards.
For example, signing up for Ebates earns you cash back on purchases you’re going to make anyway — like 8% on TOMS shoes, 8% on Backcountry.com and 8% at Saks Fifth Avenue.
And when you buy your gifts, always use your rewards credit card to earn cash back or travel points. Your holiday gifts might as well give you something in return!
BONUS: Spend Time With Family and Friends
OK, so this option won’t earn you any extra money.
But whether you’re traveling for Thanksgiving or enjoying a day off at home, take a little time to relax this week. After all, what’s the use in earning cash and rewards if you never enjoy them?
*Chase Fine print:
Checking offer is not available to existing Chase checking customers, those with fiduciary accounts, or those whose accounts have been closed within 90 days or closed with a negative balance. To receive the $150 checking bonus: 1) Open a new Chase Total Checking account, which is subject to approval; 2) Deposit $25 or more at account opening; AND 3) Have your direct deposit made to this account within 60 days of account opening. Your direct deposit needs to be an electronic deposit of your paycheck, pension or government benefits (such as Social Security) from your employer or the government. After you have completed all the above requirements, we’ll deposit the bonus in your new account within 10 business days. You can only receive one new checking account-related bonus per calendar year. Bonus is considered interest and will be reported on IRS Form 1099-INT.
**Account Closing: If your checking account is closed within six months after opening, we will deduct the bonus amount at closing.
Editorial Disclosure
This content is not provided by the bank advertiser. Opinions expressed here are author’s alone, not those of the bank advertiser. This site may be compensated through the bank advertiser Affiliate Program.
Heather van der Hoop is senior editor of The Penny Hoarder. When she’s not reading, you can usually find her playing along with Jeopardy! or climbing rocks, mountains and trees.
This was originally published on The Penny Hoarder, which helps millions of readers worldwide earn and save money by sharing unique job opportunities, personal stories, freebies and more. The Inc. 5000 ranked The Penny Hoarder as the fastest-growing private media company in the U.S. in 2017.
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Take some risk to find an income stream
With savings rates in the doldrums, income seekers need to invest in the stock market for a chance of decent returns.
The days when you can earn a decent income from cash are long gone, with even the most generous accounts struggling to keep up with the rising cost of living. Rachel Springall, spokesperson for Moneyfacts, says: “Savers who manage to grab the top rates will be disappointed to know the spending power of their money is still being eroded by inflation.”
As a result Darius McDermott, managing director of Chelsea Financial Services, says income seekers are being forced to look elsewhere for returns. “Falling rates have pushed savers further up the risk scale in their search for income,” he says. “You can’t really find an income stream without taking on some risk.”
With yields on developed country government bonds also down in the doldrums, he adds that the next logical step is corporate bonds and dividend producing equities and funds.
Yet even if you are prepared to take some risk with your money and invest in the stock market, it’s important to keep your expectations in check.
Patrick Connolly, a certified financial planner with Chase deVere, says it’s no longer realistic to expect an annual income of 5% from a diversified portfolio of equities, property, fixed interest and cash. If you want higher returns, you’ll have to take on additional risk.
“It’s still possible to achieve a higher level of income, but by focusing on less secure fixed-interest assets like high-yield bonds and emerging market debt, as well as equity income funds that take more risk,” he says.
Fixed-interest investments
The main income-producing areas to consider are fixed interest (including government and corporate bonds),commercial property, and equity income investments – which investing the UK and globally. All these areas can be accessed using investment funds that specialise in the sector.
“The best approach is to use a range of different investment funds to spread risks,” adds Mr Connolly.
Fixed-interest investments have historically paid a steady level of income. But repeated rate cuts and policies such as quantitative easing have pushed up the price of these assets, so the income they can generate has also reduced.
This means investors need to choose carefully and go for a flexible fund where the manager has the freedom to invest in areas offering the best returns. “Fixed interest funds vary in the freedom given to the manager, assets they invest in, where they invest geographically, and the number of holdings,” explains Mr Connolly. He recommends the Henderson Strategic Bond, Jupiter Strategic Bond* and Rathbone Ethical Bond funds.
Commercial property funds
Commercial property, meanwhile, can provide long-term growth prospects, with consistent and attractive levels of income. As its performance doesn’t tend to mirror the stock market, it provides an element of protection when equity based investments fall.
However, it’s important to understand how property funds invest. Some ‘bricks and mortar’ funds buy properties directly, while property shares funds simply invest in the shares of property-related companies. This means that the latter are just as exposed to the vagaries of the stock market as any other equity-based investment.
“Some bricks and mortar funds provide a higher yield and potentially better growth, but they are usually taking more risk to achieve this, perhaps by investing in secondary rather than prime quality properties,” adds Mr Connolly.
Among bricks and mortar funds, Mr Connolly likes the M&G Property fund, but at Moneywise we recommend using investment trusts for exposure to this area: F&C Commercial Property* and Picton Property Income* are members of the Moneywise First 50 Funds.
Equity income funds
Equity income funds invest in quality companies with a historical track record of paying a good dividend to their shareholders.
For equity income funds, Mr McDermott highlights Rathbone Income. “This is a solid core income fund run by an experienced and longstanding manager,” he says. “It has one of the best track records in the sector for raising dividends in 23 of the past 24 years.”
He also likes Artemis Global Income*. “This is one of the top-performing funds in what is becoming an ever more important sector,” he said. “The manager’s approach of avoiding mega-caps has served the fund well and is a distinguishing feature.”
There is also BlackRock Continental European Income.
“The fund managers look to identify undervalued stocks that offer reliable, sustainable dividends; potential dividend growth; and protection against infl ation, with lower than average risk,” adds Mr McDermott.
He also suggests that investment trusts, which are subject to different rules, can be helpful for income investors. “They have revenue reserves, which means they can save some dividends each year to put into this reserve they can dip into if times get tough. This means dividend payments tend to be smoother and more reliable.”
“We like City of London* as it’s a well-established income and growth trust, run by a very experienced manager, with a conservative approach to stock selection,” he says.
“It has grown its dividend each year for more than 50 years.”
There are plenty of potential income options for investors, but Justin Modray, founder of Candid Financial Advice, advises anyone going down this route to plan to invest for at least five years.
“Investors need to be prepared to look beyond savings, but that means taking some risk,” he says. “Higher income usually means higher risk. You don’t get something for nothing, so they need to thoroughly understand such investments before parting with their cash.”
ONE TO WATCH: MI Chelverton UK Equity Income*
This fund, which is a member of the Moneywise First 50 Funds, invests mostly in medium-sized and smaller companies listed on the London Stock Exchange. It aims to provide a progressive income stream and achieve long-term capital growth.
The managers, David Horner (above left) and David Taylor (above right), invest in UK companies that aim to provide a high initial dividend, progressive dividend payments, and long-term capital appreciation. Just under 30% of the fund is in companies with market capitalisations of more than £1 billion, with 31% in those of £500 million to £1 billion. A further 18% is in stocks worth between £250 million and £500 million, while a relatively modest 7% is invested in those of below £100 million.
The fund’s largest holdings include Games Workshop Group, which accounts for 2% of the portfolio, with another 2% in McColl’s Retail Group. Other positions include Ashmore, the financial services company; Jupiter Fund Management; Go-Ahead Group, the travel company; and Marston’s, the leisure firm.
In their latest update, the managers warned that uncertainty seen recently was likely to persist during the Brexit negotiations. “We inevitably have a relatively high exposure to domestic earners and have added to Saga, BCA and RM Group in the last month,” they wrote.
ABOUT THE FUND
Fund: MI Chelverton UK Equity Income
Fund Manager: Co-managed by David Taylor and David Horner
Launch date: 4 December 2006
Size of fund: £536.4 million (as at 29 September 2017)
Ongoing charge: 0.88%
Contact details: 0345 305 4217, Chelvertonam.com
*A member of the Moneywise First 50 Funds
Rob Griffin writes for The Independent, Sunday Telegraph and Daily Express.
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5 Things You Thought You Knew About Black Friday… That Are Totally Wrong
Did you know the name Black Friday has nothing to do with retailer profits? Or that the day may not actually be the busiest shopping day of the year?
Since I was a kid, Black Friday shopping has just been a regular part of the holiday season. I never questioned its origins or its domination of retail shopping deals.
Apparently, I should have.
As I dug into the history of Black Friday I busted those and a few other common myths about the shopping pseudo-holiday.
Read on — and let us know which of these caught you by surprise!
Here are some common Black Friday myths you should stop believing.
1. The “Black” in “Black Friday” Comes From an Accounting Term
I’ve heard this one for years: “Black Friday” comes from the phrase “in the black,” used in accounting to refer to the black ink indicating retailers are finally turning a profit.
False.
It’s true that many retailers turn their only profits in the fourth quarter — some even run at a loss the rest of the year. But this isn’t what coined the popular name for the day after Thanksgiving.
In fact, the term originated as a negative one, and we believe it started in Philadelphia.
Various sources offer different dates of origin, but it looks like “Black Friday” was popular in Philly by the 1970s. It was the day shoppers overwhelmed the city and caused all kinds of headaches for local police.
As retailers raked in profits, Black Friday spelled doomsday for store employees, city officials and others who worked extra hard to guide the nation through the frenzy.
By the 1990s, the term started catching on around the country, and our best explanation for the accounting story is media spin. The dark connotation of the term was not in the best interest of retailers.
2. Black Friday Is the Busiest Shopping Day of the Year
It has to be the busiest shopping day, right? Why else would the news cover shopping malls and microwave sales?
This might just be hype. Black Friday has ranked among the busiest shopping days for decades, but didn’t move into the top spot until online shopping became popular over the past decade.
Between 1993 and 2002, the Saturday before Christmas held the number-one spot for retail sales. Black Friday ranked between fourth and eighth busiest those years.
Black Friday pulled into the lead for the first time in 2003 and has held that position since 2005. But with the majority of people shopping from home, we have to attribute some success to online shopping, not the mall’s doorbusters.
3. Black Friday Deals Inspire Violence in Shoppers
We’ve all seen the headlines and heard horror stories. There’s even an online ticker that used to count Black Friday deaths and injuries.
But is Black Friday really turning us all into deal-crazed maniacs willing to kick off the holiday season with manslaughter for a discount on the latest American Girl doll?
Probably not.
A closer look at stories of “Black Friday” violence shows most of these aren’t related to shopping at all.
This 2013 robbery didn’t even occur at a retail store.
This 2008 incident at Toys R Us was considered gang-related.
Few news reports cite a shopping-related conflict as the cause for violence or injury, but Black Friday still makes it in the headline.
Even if all “Black Friday violence” could be linked to shopping, it wouldn’t be unique to the holiday.
Walmart is one of the biggest Black Friday offenders, and is linked to rising crime rates around the country, regardless of the time of year
“Black Friday death” makes a killer headline (pun intended). But make sure you know the details before believing the hype.
4.Thanksgiving Dictates Black Friday’s Date
Each year, Black Friday falls on the day after Thanksgiving. So the date of the shopping day is dependent on the floating date of Turkey Day.
Nope — that doesn’t seem to be the case.
You may have heard that Thanksgiving Day has shifted over the years — from the last Thursday of November to the fourth Thursday.
The country was even once split over the issue: In 1939-40, 16 states celebrated Thanksgiving on the last Thursday in November, while President Franklin D. Roosevelt and the rest of the country celebrated on the second-to-last Thursday.
Why?
It was all about money.
The last Thursday of November in 1939 was also the last day of the month. Because tradition and protocol kept consumers from holiday shopping until after Thanksgiving, this created a shorter holiday shopping season.
Less shopping meant reduced retail profits, a threat to the economy still recovering from the Great Depression.
Thankfully, Congress stepped in to clear up the confusion caused by Roosevelt’s proclamation. November’s fourth Thursday was officially declared Thanksgiving in 1941, which accounts for years when there are five Thursdays in the month.
The resolution preserves tradition without compromising our ability to finish our shopping before December 25.
It’s a bit of a chicken-or-egg question, but it looks like Black Friday’s popularity had a significant influence on Thanksgiving’s official date.
5. Black Friday Offers the Best Retail Shopping Deals
If you keep an eye on Black Friday ads, you’ll probably feel some déjà vu. Many retailers recycle the same deals each year — some practically print the same flyer!
But even these deals aren’t always the year’s best. You can always wait for an even better deal. Discounts can get significantly steeper as Christmas draws near, according to a 2014 report from ShopAdvisor.
The report also found that 42% of products were priced lower in the four weeks before Black Friday than on the actual day. Average discounts on the days leading up to Christmas also outweighed Black Friday deals — some were three times higher.
Can You Believe It?
Black Friday may not be everything we always believed it was. But even with these myths busted, a holiday about finding a good deal is still a win for a Penny Hoarder!
Dana Sitar (dana@thepennyhoarder.com) is a senior writer/newsletter editor at The Penny Hoarder. Say hi and tell her a good joke on Twitter @danasitar.
This was originally published on The Penny Hoarder, which helps millions of readers worldwide earn and save money by sharing unique job opportunities, personal stories, freebies and more. The Inc. 5000 ranked The Penny Hoarder as the fastest-growing private media company in the U.S. in 2017.
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These Grocery Stores Will Give You a Free Thanksgiving Turkey
Now that November’s in full swing, one thing is on everyone’s mind.
It starts with a “T” and ends with a “Y” — or maybe a “Why… did I let myself eat so freaking much?” as you slump over on the couch.
But while the turkey might be the time-honored centerpiece of most Thanksgiving Day meals (though not all!), it sure ain’t cheap.
The price for whole turkeys is likely dropping this year, but the cost of feeding a family for the holiday is still nothing to scoff at.
Unless your bird’s pretty small (and you’re willing to forgo leftovers), you’ll still likely pay $20 or more.
And that’s just one element of your Thanksgiving dinner.
How to Get a Free Turkey This Year
To help offset this major holiday cost — and to bring more hungry holiday shoppers into their stores — many grocery chains run specials that allow you to get a free turkey (or other holiday centerpiece) through their rewards programs.
It’s not worth it to buy $100 of random items just to score a bird you could get for $20. But if you’re going to spend that money anyway, why not get the turkey on the house?
One word of warning: All of these offers vary by store, so you’ll want to call ahead and make sure your favorite location is participating.
And sorry, Giant shoppers! Your beloved market no longer offers free turkeys to bonus card members.
Here’s where to go instead to get a free turkey this year.
ShopRite
Earn points on purchases through Nov. 23 — Thanksgiving Day — with your (free!) Price Plus club card.
Once you spend a certain amount, you can present your Price Plus club card to the cashier to receive a free Turkey, Ham, Turkey Breast, Kosher Chicken, Lasagna or Tofurky.
You can pick up your free item any day up to and including Thanksgiving Day. (Note that the turkey is frozen, so you’ll want to pick it up well ahead of time if you plan to make it for the big meal!)
If you want to go fresh — or didn’t quite plan it out well enough — you’ll get your ShopRite Fresh Grade A Turkey for $0.50 per pound up to 21 pounds with qualifying purchases or $1.99 per pound if you haven’t hit the qualifying purchase threshold.
You can also choose a Butterball Fresh Grade A Turkey for $1.00 per pound up to 21 pounds with qualifying purchases or $2.49 per pound without.
Albertsons
Albertsons Rewards shoppers can enjoy a free any size Signature Farms Turkey when you spend $150 in a single purchase between through Nov 22.
The $150 excludes alcohol, tobacco, gift cards and guest services.
Weis Market
If you’re part of Weis’s free Preferred Shopper’s Club, your rewards points could get you a Thanksgiving turkey for free.
It’s pretty simple: You accrue 10 points for every $50.00 you spend, and it takes 50 — that’s a $250 spend — points to get a free Weis Quality frozen turkey up to 20 pounds.
That might seem like a lot — and it is! — but it includes purchases starting on Oct. 10. If you spend $50 per week on groceries and have been shopping at Weis each week since then, you’re more than covered.
It’s important to note that you must spend $50 in one calendar day to get your 10 points. If you spend $45 on Monday and then $10 on Tuesday, you won’t get any rewards points despite having spent more than the required $50.
In New York state, it’s a little different: You get a point for every dollar you spend, and you’ll need 300 points for your free bird.
Once you qualify, you can also choose a whole boneless ham up to six pounds, a smoked ham “portion” up to 10 pounds, “party-size” lasagna, or 80 cents off per pound of a variety of other fresh and frozen holiday centerpiece meats.
And in case you’re hosting dinner on a different day, you can redeem Weis’s holiday rewards anytime through Nov. 23.
Fareway
Stop by your local Fareway before Nov. 22, and spend $50 or more at the meat counter to receive a 14-pound Fareway Broth Basted Turkey for free.
The offer is limited to one per order and is not valid with any other offer.
Jamie Cattanach is a staff writer at The Penny Hoarder. Her writing has also been featured at The Write Life, Word Riot, Nashville Review and elsewhere. Find @JamieCattanach on Twitter to wave hello.
This was originally published on The Penny Hoarder, which helps millions of readers worldwide earn and save money by sharing unique job opportunities, personal stories, freebies and more. The Inc. 5000 ranked The Penny Hoarder as the fastest-growing private media company in the U.S. in 2017.
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Frugality, Productivity, and the Local Maximum
Bear with me a little bit as I go down a (hopefully interesting) side path.
A few days ago, I read an interesting article by Cory Doctorow entitled How to Do Everything: Lifehacking Considered Harmful, on the issue of how most productivity strategies such as having an organized to-do list helps you find the most productive way of doing the urgent things in your life but doesn’t really help you step back and take a bigger look at things.
Doctorow uses his own life as a colorful example. Once he reached a point where his time was essentially filled, if he wanted to add something new, he could essentially only replace things. If something new came in, something else had to go away. So, in order for that to be a net positive, the new thing had to serve more purpose in his life than his old thing.
Eventually, he reached a point where everything he did with his time served double or triple duty. If something wasn’t providing fulfillment in multiple spheres of his life, it wasn’t an effective use of his time.
That sounds great at first glance, but here’s the problem: It commits you to remaining the exact person you are with little room for genuine growth or new challenges. The areas of your life that you happen to focus on now become so burdened with commitments that those areas become stronger while other areas simply atrophy and wither away.
There is simply no breathing room to step back and look at new things. There is simply no room to relax and reboot. Over a longer period of time, you eventually wind up with a huge set of commitments that you may not be fully happy with, and then you’ll find yourself miserable.
Essentially what Doctorow is describing is a local maximum, something hinted it in a great comment to the article by Arne Brix.
Here’s a simple way to think of a local maximum. Think of the greatest day in the last three years of your life. What was the absolute best day you had in that timeframe? That day is the “local maximum” of the last three years. It is not the best day of your whole life, most likely, but only the best day of the last three years.
The thing is, Doctorow is also describing a local maximum, just in a bit of a different way. He’s identifying the most effective way for him to get the most out of the areas of his life that he cares about right now (or at least over the last couple of years). That isn’t necessarily the areas of his life that he cares about the most over the course of his life.
Right now, for example, an area of my life that is of the utmost importance is my role of being a parent. It’s arguably at the very top of the heap these days. When I try to maximize the productivity of my life and choose what things I take on, my role as parent looms very large over those choices. I commit to things that enhance my role as a parent, like being a youth soccer coach or leading a youth group or planning a birthday party or choosing a career that provides the time flexibility I need to support my children’s growth as best as I can.
Those choices, however, just push me toward a local maximum. While the choices push me toward the things I care the most about as the parent of three school-aged children, they don’t necessarily push me toward the things that I’ll care about as much over the full scope of my life.
Frugality and the Local Maximum
So, let’s bring this idea of the “local maximum” back to personal finance.
As we’ve discussed before, frugality is the most useful personal finance tool in the moment. It really does help you find your “local maximum” in terms of spending, because it’s all about considering how to get the maximum value out of every dollar in hand.
Frugality is concerned primarily with your current paycheck and, to a smaller extent, your next several paychecks. The choice to buy store brands reduces your current expenses and gives your current paycheck more breathing room, for example. The choice to buy in bulk reduces your overall expenses over the next several paychecks. Shopping around for a better cell phone plan reduces your expenses for the next year or two.
All of those things are great frugality strategies, but they essentially only solve the “local maximum” problem. They help you to find the most efficient way to spend the money you have now, but on its own, frugality does not help you find your “lifetime maximum.”
The thing is, quite often, people just need to find that local maximum for a while when it comes to their finances. They’re in a tight spot and they need to know how to get through the next few months, and frugality is really the most efficient method for getting there. Knowing how to shop effectively, knowing how to control your own impulses, knowing how to find free and low cost local resources – all of those tools are really effective at getting people through the next few months. They’re all about maximizing your dollars right now, and that’s what many people care about.
Stepping Out to the Global Maximum
What we’ve established is that productivity strategies like a smart to-do list and frugality strategies like buying store brands both focus intensely on that local maximum. On their own, they don’t really help you find a global maximum.
(To be clear, a “global maximum” in this context is finding the best solution over the course of your whole life or at least a very large portion of it.)
So, how do you find a global maximum?
First of all, you take advantage of the benefits of finding your “local maximum.”
With regards to productivity, you use things like a to-do list and an effective calendar and smart scheduling and paying attention to your focus and energy levels in order to give yourself some amount of free time. The purpose isn’t to squeeze in some extra activity, but to give you an afternoon or a day each week where you have time to unwind and relax and step back and think about things in a broader context.
With regards to frugality, you use things like buying store brands and buying in bulk and making your own meals and shopping around for a better cell phone deal in order to have some money left over at the end of the month, which you then use to build an emergency fund and eliminate debts.
What do both of these things have in common? Rather than just using the benefits of frugality and of productivity to commit to even more things and buy even more stuff, you use those benefits to escape your local maximum and start to find your global maximum.
If you stick with productivity strategies, you start to give yourself a lot of free time to think about your life in a bigger way and to try out new things and explore new interests. You have a window to start tapping into new areas without sacrificing where you’re at now, and that enables you to start moving your life in a new direction as older commitments wind down.
If you stick with frugality strategies, you start to build up a healthy emergency fund and you start to pay off debts. That means that, over time, you have smaller and smaller debt payments and life emergencies don’t push you to the financial edge any more. Eventually, you have a nice emergency fund and your high interest debts are gone and you can start looking at building big things for your future, like saving for a house or switching careers or launching a small business or investing for retirement.
Of course, you can also use productivity and frugality to find an even better local maximum.
You can use productivity to find enough breathing room to take on another commitment right now or add another routine that amplifies something you care about right now. Productivity might find you the margin you need to, say, agree to serve on a committee or to commit to a family dinner at the dinner table five nights a week.
You can use frugality to find enough breathing room to keep surviving week to week financially. Switching to buying store brands and other little tricks can help you simply get to your next paycheck when the going is tough. Frugality can also help you add another bill to the stack. If you can find a way to save $10 a month, you can subscribe to Netflix!
In other words, frugality and productivity are tools; they can either help you find a local maximum or a global maximum. They can either help you pile more on your plate or help you find a different plate entirely.
The question is, how will you use those tools?
Piling On or Getting Out?
We can talk on and on and on about the specifics of frugality and the specifics of productivity, but the question comes down to how you are using those tools to alter your life.
Productivity can be used to pile more on your plate via adding more commitments, or it can be used to find a different global maximum by freeing up a window for long term thinking and trying new things.
Frugality can be used to pile more on your plate by simply helping you stumble to your next paycheck or afford another service, or it can be used to find a different global maximum by helping you start the process of building an emergency fund and eliminating debt and, eventually, investing.
You have those tools in your hand. What are you going to use them for?
It’s really easy for me to point toward the “getting out” solution. It’s easy for me to suggest that the best route is always to use those resources to move you toward the best possible life in the long term, the “global maximum.”
Use frugality to pay off debt. Use frugality to build an emergency fund. Start a debt snowball with that ground you’re gaining and pay off debt faster and faster. Soon, you have a whole new world of options before you and things like switching careers or having kids no longer seem financially impossible.
Use productivity to give yourself a weekend day to explore new projects and think about the big picture. Dabble in new things until you find something deeply meaningful, then start to dig into it. Gradually change your commitments to constantly allow yourself to incorporate new things, but keep that window of future thinking and exploration open.
Those are clearly the best long term solutions as they almost purely point toward the global maximum – the best possible life you might have in the long run.
However, the hard truth is that using those tools for the long term doesn’t really help you get through the moment. You’re essentially choosing to use a tool that would make life a little better right now and using it in a way that doesn’t make life immediately better, but instead helps out at some nebulous point way down the road.
Using frugality to pay down debts leaves you with a very tight financial life today without that extra perk of Netflix.
Using productivity to give yourself a Sunday full of free time for reflection and trying new things leaves you with an incredibly crazy Monday through Saturday.
In other words, when you chase a global maximum, you actually have to move away from a local maximum, and that’s hard.
In order to really commit to the best long term life, you have to have a less than optimal short term life.
Making the Choice
At some point, you have to make a choice between those two options.
The “default” choice for most people is the local maximum. It’s why you hear stories of people with insanely full schedules. It’s why 78% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck.
The thing is, a lot of those people are using frugal strategies and productivity strategies in many parts of their life. They’re just using those strategies to load as much as possible on their plate right now.
Rather than using frugality to pay off debts, they’re using frugality in one part of their life to pay for an expensive car lease or for a subscription to HBO.
Rather than using productivity to give themselves breathing room, they’re using productivity to be able to commit to more things at work and in their family life.
We’re wired to think this way. We’re wired to prefer the short term by default. The lives of our ancestors were short and brutal – they had to choose the short term to survive. The local maximum was the route to survival.
That isn’t true any more.
It’s only through being aware that we’re going to unconsciously choose the short term, recognizing it in ourselves, and consciously choosing to do things that point us to a better life that we’re able to choose the global maximum.
Choosing the best day or week is easy and automatic. Using tools like productivity and frugality to get there is the easiest strategy, too.
Choosing the best life is hard. Using tools like productivity and frugality when they’re not making today or this week or this month great is very hard.
So, what’s the solution?
Three Strategies for ‘Global Maximum’ Thinking
The big focus in my life over the last year or two has been to give as much of my attention as possible to the global maximums in my life. What things do I really want to have in my life over the long term?
I want to have a long lasting marriage, not just survive the week. I want to have children who are moral and independent adults, not just pressing through the weekend with them. I want to have a healthy body and a healthy mind and great relationships and a healthy interior life, not just crawl out of bed each day crunching through more or less the same thing for the rest of my life.
By default, though, I’m always looking for the best day and the best week, not the best decade or the best life. What can I do to change that?
I’ve really found three big things that really push my life to a global maximum.
One, I automate as much of the routine of my life as I possibly can. I save money automatically. I pay my bills automatically. I invest automatically. Most of my to-do list each day is automatically generated (based on long-term goals – we’ll get to that in a minute). In short, I take a lot of the day-to-day decisions that I could mess up out of my hands.
Doesn’t that make for a boring life? Not really. I still have tons of decisions to make, but rather than choosing between a short term option and a long term option, I’m usually just choosing between two short term options. I’ve already made my short term versus long term choices as much as I possibly can.
Two, I’ve started using my Sundays solely for building the best possible long term life. I use the day for four key things: reflection, trying new things, planning out the week ahead, and pure leisure.
I spend at least an hour or so thinking about my life in the long term. I usually do this in the morning before anyone else is awake. I think about my long term goals and whether or not I really did anything to move forward on them this week, and what I could do better next week.
I spend some time planning the week ahead. I make a meal plan and a grocery list (grocery shopping usually happens later on Sunday or on Monday around here). I make up most of my to-do lists for the whole week. I plan out my writing for the week. Some of this is almost automatic, as a lot of my long term goals just generate things for my to-do list and calendar, like a commitment to walk every day and a commitment to exercise and so on.
I spend some time doing something new. Usually, this is done with a friend or a family member. It could be anything, but it has to be something I haven’t done before but have always thought about. It is a conscious effort to keep pushing the boundaries of my life.
Finally, I spend a lot of Sunday on pure leisure time, even if there are things left undone at home. I’ll forget that basket of dirty laundry and I’ll go play board games or curl up with a book. The point of pure rest is to simply give my mind a chance to unwind a little, and I find that if I give myself a big block of this, everything goes better during the week.
How do I find time for this? Well, the rest of my week is pretty clearly planned out. On Monday through Saturday, I mostly just follow my calendar and to-do list and I don’t really make a whole lot of major decisions on those days. I just get things done, and those things just happen to have a long term orientation.
Three, I consciously choose to enjoy the things I have rather than the things I don’t. If I have a desire to play a board game, I look at the board games I have. If I have a desire to read a book, I look first at my own bookshelf and then at the online catalog of my library. If I’m hungry for a meal or a snack, I see what’s already in the refrigerator or pantry.
If I have fifteen minutes of free time, I don’t wish that I had two hours. Instead, I try to enjoy those fifteen minutes. If I’m exhausted, I don’t wish that I had more energy. I go get some rest (because I recognize I’m going to be useless and very unproductive if I push on).
I find that, again and again, my worst mistakes are made when I don’t appreciate what I have in terms of every aspect of my life – money, relationships, time, energy, physical environment, and so on. I may not have a “local maximum” in every area of my life, but I have a pretty good one, and by taking advantage of the goodness that I have rather than constantly obsessing over what I don’t, I end up giving myself more than enough space to seek out an even better life.
Final Thoughts
When you make decisions about how to use your money or your time, ask yourself this simple question: is this helping me find a local maximum or a global maximum? Is this the short term choice or the long term one?
Just try out that habit today. I’m not telling you which one to choose, but just to think about as many choices as possible in that light and see what they reveal in your life.
What you’ll find is that if you start thinking that way a little, and you start making a few choices differently, and if you start putting aside just a little bit of your money and time and energy toward finding a global maximum instead of a local one, you end up very slowly marching toward a truly better life, one where you’re not just working for the weekend.
Good luck.
The post Frugality, Productivity, and the Local Maximum appeared first on The Simple Dollar.
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