EAST STROUDSBURG — A dozen state House Democrats met with community members Tuesday in Dansbury Depot. The public forum on property tax burdens was hosted by State Rep. Maureen Madden (D-115), who plans to introduce a relief proposal later this year.“We believe that there's no tax that should put us out of our homes,” Madden said. “I knock on doors of teachers who have been retired for 20 years, that paid their homes off, and they truly have paid $12,000 a [...]
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الأربعاء، 10 يناير 2018
This Is How Scammers Are Using Our Atrocious Spelling Skills Against Us
Fingers are stupid. Let’s just admit that right now.
We’ve all done it — jumped online and started typing in our web browsers, only to flub the spelling of the website we want. Instead of Netflix.com we got Neltfix.com. We meant to type Walmart.com but ended up with Walmrat.com.
It’s easy to do.
Most of the time, you’ll end up at an error page or maybe even get rerouted to the correct page. But NBC Nightly News is now reporting that you may end up getting scammed.
Typosquatting Is a Thing, and It Could Rip You Off
Typosquatting — sometimes known as URL hijacking — is when a person creates a website using a URL that is very similar to a known, copyrighted brand name. The scammer uses a common typo, such as Costoco.com instead of Costco.com, to lure consumers to a fake website.
We’ve told you in the past about domain squatting, but it’s not quite the same. Domain squatting is when someone creates a website using a common typo in the URL, and they use that domain to get pay-per-view or pay-per-click advertising. It’s not exactly cool, but it’s not illegal, either.
Typosquatters take it a step further. They will set up their webpage to look just like the website you thought you typed in. On NBC Nightly News, one consumer told his tale of getting to the fake Costco site and thinking he was on the correct site. Then, a pop-up told him he could get a product for free if he just paid for shipping and handling. It seemed like a great deal, right?
Nope. Pretty soon, he saw bogus charges of $98 coming out of his bank account over and over.
Typosquatters set up their fake sites just to rip you off or infect your computer with malware. Not cool.
Many companies will spend the money to buy up all the various ways to spell — or misspell — their website domains to avoid such confusion. Sometimes, though, the bad guys beat them to the punch.
One new study found that 80% of one-letter variants for Google, Facebook and Apple are active typosquatting sites. The more lucrative the website, the more likely it is that typosquatters are out there trying to take advantage of your clumsy fingers.
How to Protect Yourself From Your Own Bad Spelling
The first thing to know is that the little padlock symbol on your URL bar is easily faked, so it’s no guarantee.
So how do you avoid getting scammed? Simply check and double-check your spelling before you put in your credit card or Social Security numbers, or other personal information. Be extra suspicious of any pop-up offers you’re not specifically looking for, especially if they seem too good to be true.
Even those ads at the top of your web search can be fakes to lure you to a scam site. There is some real effort here on the part of scammers. Just be careful before you click, and protect your computer with appropriate virus protection software and firewalls.
Can you imagine if these people used their brainpower for good? Imagine the possibilities…
Tyler Omoth is a senior writer at The Penny Hoarder who loves soaking up the sun and finding creative ways to help others. Catch him on Twitter at @Tyomoth.
This was originally published on The Penny Hoarder, 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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How to Promote Your Event Online Like a Pro
Hosting an event is a great way for businesses to gain exposure.
This holds true whether it’s a holiday or a special occasion for your customers, the community, or your industry.
You may want to promote an event even if you’re not hosting it.
For example, maybe your company will have a booth set up at a trade show or job fair.
Maybe you’re a keynote speaker at a conference or dinner event.
Your business might be a top sponsor of a charity golf tournament.
The list goes on and on.
Regardless of what kind of event you’re hosting, attending, or sponsoring, you’ll need to get people to show up if you want it to be successful.
Event planning isn’t easy.
Sometimes events take months to prepare for and require professional help.
After spending so much time, money, and preparation, it would be disheartening to see low attendance.
If you’ve been through this before, you know what I’m talking about.
While you may need some help running the event, you can get people in the doors all by yourself.
The days of hanging up flyers around town are over.
I’ll show you how to build hype and get thousands of people to attend your event by using online tactics.
Set up a website for your event
Rather than just having a small button on your current website promoting the event, you should build a completely new website.
Take a look at how Crawford Contractor Connection does this with their annual conference and business expo:
For starters, just look at the menu options.
They’ve got nine different menu tabs for the website visitors to choose from, all for this one event.
It’s much more effective than having one section or one page of their current website dedicated to this.
How else would you be able to fit all the information into such a small space?
An event like this will have people flying in from all over the country.
If you’re hosting something similar, you need to be as accommodating as possible toward the attendees.
Get in touch with local hotels to get rooms blocked off and offer discounted group rates.
Anyone attending would be able to find this information directly on the event website.
You can also use your website as a platform to get people registered.
Now you can collect money in advance and have a more official head count for the day of the event.
That way, you’ll have a more accurate estimate of the number of attendees you’ll have than you would if you were guessing how many would show up.
Blast your email subscribers with invitations
It’s best to start with the people you know.
You’ll have an easier time getting them to attend an event than those unfamiliar with your brand.
Check out this email from Marketo as an example:
This virtual event was attended by over 10,000 people.
That’s right, in today’s day and age people can attend your events without having to leave their homes.
But let’s focus on the email.
It has lots of good information you can replicate in yours:
- Always make sure the date and time are clear
- Have clear CTA buttons
- Include your contact information
- Give the subscribers a reason to attend
- Add a video to your email (emails with video get 96.38% higher CTRs)
If you have any celebrities or special guests coming to speak, don’t keep it a secret.
Nobody wants to hear from a “surprise guest speaker.”
That could mean anything.
Be upfront and clear about all the information.
Since you’ll email subscribers who may be your current customers, you can provide them with more incentives to attend.
“Register now and receive a $20 gift card and a free t-shirt.”
Something like that should do the trick.
Just make sure they need to actually attend the event to claim their prizes.
If they get the reward instantly, they may not have any reason to show up.
Use podcasts to get the word out
Podcasts are a great online resource to reach a large audience.
If you or your company has a podcast, you know what I’m talking about.
But even if you don’t, you can try to partner with other podcasts related to your brand and industry to build hype for your event.
People spend more time listening to podcasts than any other audio source.
That’s why it’s one of my favorite ways to promote anything online, but it’s especially helpful for an event.
Depending on your relationship with the person who runs the podcast, it’ll probably cost you some money.
But if you were to advertise with traditional marketing methods, such as print, television, or radio ads, you’d pay regardless.
So it’s worth it.
But try your best to keep these costs as low as possible.
Consider offering the person running the podcast free promotion for their brand during your event in exchange for airtime on their show to endorse it.
That keeps everyone happy and could expose your event to potentially hundreds of thousands of listeners.
Come up with a unique hashtag for your event
When it comes to social media promotion, take full advantage of hashtags.
The right hashtag can increase the chances of your posts and event going viral.
Whether you’re using Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, or all of these platforms to promote your event, make sure you include a hashtag in each post.
Here’s an example of a hashtag from the Eurobike event in Germany:
Hashtags are great because you can use them in three different phases to promote your event.
- Before the event starts
- During the event
- After it’s over
Use hashtags in every post leading up to the event.
This will help you get an initial surge of people to attend.
Include it on all your invitations and in emails as well.
Once the event starts, the hashtag doesn’t have to die.
Attendees, speakers, performers, or anyone associated with your event can use this hashtag to share their experience in real time.
If your event lasts several days, these hashtags could encourage people who weren’t planning on attending to come to your event.
People can share all their photos and videos using the event hashtag as well.
Staying active on social media while using the hashtag during your event can help generate conversations about it.
Ask people what their favorite part was so far.
You can run a contest of the best picture from the event.
After the event is over, you can still keep the hashtag alive.
Attendees can continue to post photos, and you can stay engaged with these people through the hashtag.
You can even link this event to your next one.
Create an event on Facebook
Facebook is one of the best platforms to promote an event online because it has over 1 billion active monthly users.
If you’ve never set up an event on Facebook, don’t worry—it’s easy.
I’ll show you exactly what to do so you get it right the first time.
Step #1: Navigate to “Events” under the “Explore” menu
On the left side of your Facebook home page, you’ll see a menu that says “Explore.”
“Events” is the first option below that tab.
Once you click it, you’ll be able to see any events you’re attending, those your friends are interested in, and nearby events.
Step #2: Click “Create Event”
From here, you can click “Create Event” in one of two different locations on the page.
Click the button on the bottom left of the screen or at the top middle of the page to continue.
Step #3: Set it up as a public event
Make sure your event is public.
Private events are intended for small parties or gatherings among friends, but not for businesses.
To ensure it gets exposed to as many people as possible, it’s essential you click on this setting.
Otherwise, only people whom you personally invite will have access to this page.
Step #4: Add an event photo
Upload a photo for your event.
It can be your company logo, but I recommend including more information.
Create a customized image with your logo, the name of the event, the date, time, and any other relevant information.
This is a great spot to include the event hashtag as well, which we discussed earlier.
Step #5: Add the basic information about the event
Your event photo may or may not include this info, but you’ll need to make it all official here for the Facebook event.
Come up with a name.
Tell people where the event will be held.
Set specific start and end times for your event.
It could last a couple of hours or a week.
Whatever you decide, this is the place where you set it up.
Step #6: Add a description, and click “Create”
Here’s the part where you get to tell people more about your event.
What special guests are attending?
Are you serving food?
Is it family friendly?
Tell your prospective guests where they can park and how they can buy tickets.
Add lots of details here.
Don’t be vague.
Include a link to your special event website, which I talked about earlier.
Click on the “Create” button when you’re done.
That’s it. Your event is created.
Now it’s time for you to invite people to join.
Start by adding everyone who follows your brand on Facebook.
Encourage these people to invite their friends as well.
You can promote your Facebook event on other platforms too, such as Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn.
Use your hashtag to drive users towards the Facebook page.
Even people who don’t follow your page on Facebook will be able to see your event.
The Facebook algorithm will make it appear on their newsfeeds if any of their friends are interested in attending.
Reach out to your Instagram followers
Instagram is another inexpensive and effective way to promote any event online.
It’s easy to post pictures here.
Plus, you’ve already got a social following there, so take advantage of it.
This works whether you’re a global company or a local business.
Check out this Instagram event promotion from Hope Gallery:
The image is very effective.
It has all the information needed to get the attention of their followers.
The post includes the date and time of the event along with the contact information and location.
They also listed the guest artists as well as businesses providing food and drinks as additional incentives.
You can also see they added an event hashtag to the post—an effective promotional method.
The picture could be used on other platforms as well.
If you’re planning to make a customized image for Instagram, it could double as your Facebook event photo.
Conclusion
Hosting, running, and attending an event may be complicated and costly.
However, promoting it online doesn’t have to be.
As you can see from the tactics I discussed, you can expose your event to a large audience without putting in too much effort, time, or money.
You just have to be smart and direct to get the best results.
Start by creating a website designed specifically for your event.
You can use it to provide attendees with information, get people to register, and collect payments ahead of time.
Take advantage of your current marketing distribution channels, especially your email subscriber list.
Everyone on your email list is already familiar with your brand, which increases the chances of them being interested in attending your event.
Use your podcast or other peoples’ podcasts to build hype for your event.
Come up with a clever hashtag to get exposure on social media platforms.
Create an event on Facebook, and use Instagram to promote it as well.
The more people you can get to show up, the more successful your event will be.
It all starts with how well you promote it.
If you follow these online promotional tips, you won’t have a problem getting thousands of people to attend your event.
What other types of successful strategies have you used in the past to promote your events?
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Don’t Get Scammed: 4 Questions to Help You Land a Legit Work-From-Home Job
Your pajamas. Your puppy child. Your couch.
Work-from-home jobs are desirable for all these reasons. And more.
We hear from a lot of you who share your circumstances — your hard times, your children’s needs, your need for a magical money-making side gig. That’s why we love showcasing awesome work-from-home jobs and encouraging you to find the one that best suits your life.
However, if you stumble upon a job that might seem too good to be true, pump the brakes for a second — it could be a scam.
We want to arm you with the best tips to avoid these work-from-home job scams, so we reached out to Katherine Hutt, the national spokesperson for the Better Business Bureau.
How Frequent Are Work-From-Home Job Scams?
The Better Business Bureau has a nifty BBB Scam Tracker, where thousands of people report scams concerning everything from credit cards to debt collections and employment.
Since its launch in late 2015, more than 5,000 employment scams have been reported in the U.S. and Canada.
These aren’t exclusively work-from-home job scams, but those kind of jobs are especially susceptible, Hutt says.
Why?
“It preys on people when they’re at a vulnerable point in their life,” Hutt said. She mentioned those who are fresh out of work, in debt, in need of a second job to pay bills or are caring for a family.
Plus, it’s easier for scammers to extract vital information when pretending to be employers. That’s because a legitimate employer needs your bank account’s routing number, your Social Security number — all of those private numbers.
“There’s other scams where that wouldn’t come up naturally,” Hutt said.
What Can Work-From-Home Job Scammers Do With Your Information?
Because these scammers can more naturally extract your most personal identifying information, the consequences can be terrifying. (Totally not trying to scare you here, but…)
Hutt says work-from-home job scams can fall into two major “buckets”: stealing your money and/or stealing your identity.
Regarding stealing your money, perhaps your “employer” sends you a check for any expenses. (Think mystery shopping: Go out and buy these things and I’ll pay you.) You go to deposit the check, and it’s a fake.
Or maybe the “employer” wants to make a direct deposit. Don’t share that information.
The second bucket includes identity theft. This might occur when you set up automatic, direct deposits for paychecks.
This can also occur when you think you’re filling out routine employment paperwork, which asks for your name, address, Social Security number — everything.
Falling into either scam bucket will leave you with a hijacked identity or a sad bank account.
4 Questions That’ll Help You Detect a Work-From-Home Job Scam
OK, so you obviously want to avoid these nightmarish scenarios. Hutt talked me through how you can avoid falling into these traps.
Ask yourself these questions:
1. Are you being asked to accept or send money right away?
Like Hutt said, don’t accept or send money — unless you’re positive it’s legitimate.
“Even for a uniform,” she said. Say a company needs you to send over $30 for said uniform. That’s not common protocol. Usually, companies just take those expenses out of your first paycheck.
Same goes for background checks, so-called starter kits and other expenses. And never, ever submit your information to the company itself for a background check.
2. Is the job listing generic or too good to be true?
If the listing uses generic language or is super short or vague, this requires some digging on your end.
Common scams can be found in those classic entry-level, work-from-home customer service gigs — no training required.
“If it’s too easy, it’s more likely to be a scam,” Hutt said. “Scammers will go a certain distance, but, at the end of the day, they just want you on the hook.”
That goes for those too-good-to-be-true opportunities, too. Sure, shopping to make money sounds great, but is it legitimate?
3. Did you check the job listing URL?
“Scammers will pretend to be legitimate companies,” Hutt said. “They might steal the brand.”
Don’t trust the job listing just because the little Target bullseye and logo are on the site, for example. Hutt says even the Better Business Bureau has had its brand stolen in the past — same logo, same colors.
Examine the website. Check the URL. It is target.com? If it’s target.jobs.com, that’s a red flag.
It’s best if you go to the actual company’s main website, and look for the link to its employment or careers page.”That way, you can be sure you are applying for a job that really exists rather than a work-from-home scam that mimics a real company,” Hutt said.
You can also stick any URL or email address into Google. Put quotation marks on either side, and search. Articles warning against scams might pop up.
“Google everything,” Hutt said. Also use that scam tracker I mentioned above to search the company’s name.
4. Consider Who You’ve Talked To
Even if you get ahold of the “employer” on the phone, don’t be so sure — especially if it’s only for a five-minute interview.
Hutt said face-to-face interactions are best. Of course, that’s not always the case with work-from-home jobs, so be wary.
Hutt said the more skeptical you are, the easier it will be to detect a scam.
Be Careful How You Find Work-From-Home Jobs
Sure, Craigslist is a great way to find jobs. In fact, several of our founding employees here at The Penny Hoarder found their jobs through a Craigslist ad.
However, because Craigslist doesn’t monitor postings, you must be extra careful. One key is to see if you spot the same listing in multiple cities, Hutt says. It doesn’t mean the job isn’t legitimate, but it means you need to put your detective hat on.
Try instead searching on these 14 legitimate job-search platforms. Typically, these sites screen and even hand-pick the featured listings.
Take, for example, ZipRecruiter. Its first barrier is that it costs employers a monthly fee to post a job listing, weeding out some scammers. It also has a flag tool available to job-seeking users. If a listing looks fishy, flag it. ZipRecruiter’s Trust and Safety Team will hop in a review it.
What to Do If You Find a Work-From-Home Job Scam
Report it.
Hutt said this is exactly why the Better Business Bureau developed its BBB Scam Tracker.
“People came with complaints, and there wasn’t really anything we could do for them,” she said. “So this provides an outlet for people who want to tell us about the scam.”
It tracks the scam type, the business name used and the date reported, as well as the victim’s postal code, the total dollars lost (but you can report a scam even if you haven’t lost money) and the scam description.
A recent reported scam occurred with “Tnt-Hr” and cost the victim $1,750.
Here’s the reporter’s description:
“These people pray on home makers they claim you will receive pay at the end of the month for receiving packages that they could receive themselves ultimately you will get in trouble and they get away with the goods. They send you a check that messes up your bank account”
So what if you’re like this victim?
Hutt said if you’ve lost money, start by filing a police report.
And if you’ve had your identity stolen — or suspect it — the Federal Trade Commission runs IdentityTheft.gov. Here, you report your theft and get a free recovery plan that’ll outline your next steps.
Your best bet, though? Stash this in your back pocket and look at each job listing with a critical eye.
Carson Kohler (@CarsonKohler) is a junior writer at The Penny Hoarder.
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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Ten Excellent Online Courses I Highly Recommend (And They’re All Free!)
Ever since the start of the recent boom in free online college classes several years back, I have almost constantly been enrolled in or following at least one course, and often two or three at once.
Free online college classes are exactly what they sound like. A college simply records the lectures of a particular class and puts most of the materials for the class online for anyone to use for free. The catch, of course, is that they don’t actually advance you toward a degree; instead, they’re typically used for personal enrichment. Many courses offer the ability to pay a small fee in order to earn a certificate demonstrating that you successfully completed the course, which is nice and perhaps useful for a resume in a specific area, but most courses are available completely for free without a certificate.
My reasons for digging into these were straightforward. Sometimes, I dug into a class because it enabled me to gain a broad overview of a subject that I didn’t understand well, such as music theory. At other times, I dug into a class because it enabled me to start digging deeper into a few specific areas of personal interest, such as machine learning.
Along the way, I took some very good courses with instructors who did a great job of explaining topics and an abundance of materials online to read and follow. I also took some really awful courses with poorly recorded meandering lectures and no materials to help.
What follows are my ten favorite free online courses I’ve taken over the years. If you’re interested in the specific topics, I highly encourage you to give these free online classes a chance.
Introduction to Computer Science
Harvard University
Many people assume that computer science means learning how to program, but that’s not actually what it is. Perhaps the best description of computer science is figuring out ways of processing information and how to make those ways scale up. In essence, that’s what a computer does – it processes information.
Thus, the actual study of computer science often catches people by surprise. Rather than learning how to write code, computer science treats code as a pretty secondary thing. Instead, it’s all about processes and how to do them as efficiently as possible. If you have 100 files to alphabetize, how do you alphabetize them the fastest? Solving that problem on its own is the backbone of computer science; translating it to code is something of a secondary step.
This course lays out the basics of computer science in a very approachable way. I took this myself as a “refresher” as I studied computer science in college twenty years ago and I found it to be clear and interesting and engaging, more than I did back in the day. Perhaps I grew up, or maybe this is just a good class; either way, I found it really worthwhile.
Introduction to Political Philosophy
Yale University
Political philosophy is essentially the study of how groups of people come to govern themselves, determine right from wrong within the group, and develop appropriate benefits and consequences. This course goes through the long history of the development of political philosophy, from early experiments in democracy in ancient Greece and Plato’s writing on the subject all the way up to the modern day.
What I enjoyed most about this course is that the instructor was pretty non-judgmental about the topics. He mostly wanted to lay out some of the major ideas in political philosophy and chose to do it in a chronological order so that the student can see how one idea led to another. I didn’t notice a strong bias in his teaching and there were definitely ideas that would support all kinds of modern political persuasions.
If you’re interested in the “why” of how governments work and how people cooperate in large groups, you’ll find this to be well worth your time. A point of advice: do the readings along with the lectures here. Most of the readings are in the public domain and can easily be found online, though.
The Science of Everyday Thinking
University of Queensland
This is a rather practical psychology class that delves into how we all think in terms of everyday activities and choices. Why do we react like we do? Why do we make the decisions that we do? What basis is there for the seemingly rational and seemingly irrational decisions that I make? And, to a small extent, how can I make better ones?
This class delves into a lot of those ordinary decisions in depth, discussing things like how we process information presented to us, how we decide what and who to trust, and how to transition to slower and more reasoned and logical thinking for decisions rather than fast, instinctive choices.
The class is very practical, arguably the most practical one on this list. Much of the class deals with psychological blind spots that many of us have, particularly in terms of what things we choose to trust and how we make bad decisions. Quite a lot of it overlaps with personal finance decision making. It’s presented in an easy to digest manner and will leave you thinking quite a lot about your own behaviors.
Modern and Contemporary American Poetry
University of Pennsylvania
This class is a survey of American poetry over the last hundred to 150 years. The class centers around reading quite a lot of poetry and then delving into it to find deeper meanings and themes.
I took this class on a whim, mostly because I have always really enjoyed reading the poetry of Walt Whitman. His poems seem to have always been able to scratch some sort of itch on my soul and I wanted to understand his poetry better, so this class was recommended by a friend.
What I gained was a much deeper appreciation of poetry, not only in terms of appreciating the poems that others have written, but also appreciating the craft that went into them. I discovered the poetry of several others that I quite enjoyed and dug much deeper into the poetry of many that I was already familiar with. I now adore Dorothy Parker’s poetry, mostly thanks to this class.
Learning How to Learn
University of California San Diego
This class focuses on methods for self-learning and independent learning outside of a classroom setting. How does a person figure out how to tackle a topic, find trusted sources of information, and then integrate that information into one’s own knowledge in a meaningful way? That’s the key question that this class tries to answer.
As a sometimes meandering lifelong learner, this class was extremely useful to me as it helped me to direct some of that passion for learning in a more sensible way. I moved beyond merely reading tons of Wikipedia articles and piles of books – although I still do that, I now use several methods to extract more from those books and articles and really integrate the ideas within into my thinking.
These practices are things that are incredibly useful for students, of course, but they’re very valuable for anyone who has to learn things in the course of their work. Being a lifelong learner is invaluable in almost every career path these days and this class is all about effective techniques for the lifelong learner. I’m incredibly glad I took it.
If there is a “most universally practical” class that I’ve chosen for this list, it would either be this one or The Power of Everyday Thinking, listed earlier.
Machine Learning
Stanford University
Machine learning is a field within computer science that is focused on how computers can learn without being explicitly programmed to do so. Generally, this is done with computer programs that can evaluate large sets of data and find interesting and potentially hidden patterns within those sets without human intervention.
This is a topic area I dabbled in during my professional career and have always had a personal interest in, and over the last few years I’ve had an intellectual desire to get back up to speed on the topic. This course, along with a few books, was incredibly valuable in that regard.
I found the course to be surprisingly approachable, although I wouldn’t make this a “first taste” of computer science. This is a great follow up to the Harvard computer science course mentioned earlier in this article if you’re interested in the idea of machine learning.
Programming for Everybody: Getting Started with Python
University of Michigan
Naturally, with this interest in computer science, I also wanted to get back up to speed on how to actually write computer programs, and I chose to do this by learning Python. Although I wrote a lot of code back in my college years and early professional days, I didn’t use Python as a programming language at all.
This class was a really good introduction to using Python as a language, both for someone like myself with some background in programming in other languages, but also for someone who is completely new to programming. I watched portions of this class with my preteen son and he was able to pick up on most of what was going on and experimented with Python on his own.
You don’t need any software to try out the things described in this course – all of it is freely available and you can likely set it up easily on whatever computer you have access to. This makes it nice and easy to try out things on your own, which is most of the fun!
How to Write an Essay
University of California Berkeley
I took this course as part of an continuing effort to improve my own writing ability, with the goal of improving my ability to lay out a clear set of ideas that are enjoyable to read. After all, that’s essentially what I do for The Simple Dollar almost every day! This type of course is practically “continuing education” for someone like me.
As with most of the other courses here, I found this one to be extremely approachable. I found that many of the ideas presented were things that I felt in an intuitive fashion due to my own independent efforts and practice. At the same time, though, the course offered quite a few ways to improve those intuitive practices I had built up.
If you find that you need to write at any significant length for your work, or even wish to do so for pleasure, this class will offer quite a bit of value to you. I found myself even drawing upon this class when reading essays later on, as I could see many of the tactics and principles from this class being put to work by other writers.
Music Theory 101
Juilliard
Before taking this class, I knew next to nothing about music aside from what I “liked” and what I “didn’t like.” As a curious person, I find such a lack of depth of knowledge about a subject to be frustrating and I wanted to correct it.
This class certainly solved that problem. Music theory is simply the study of how musicians and composers make music, and it breaks down into a rather large number of interrelated ideas, from music appreciation to understanding musical notation to understanding how music triggers emotions and ideas. All of that and much more is presented in this course.
While it is accessible, I found myself going very slowly through this course because the sheer number of topics that I was unfamiliar with led me to go down a lot of different rabbit holes on my own. The material is presented well, but there is just a lot of material on a lot of areas. Still, by the time I completed the class, I felt that, between the class and my many side journeys, I had a much deeper understanding and appreciation of music than I had before.
American Government
Harvard University
This final course is a great accompaniment to the course on political philosophy mentioned earlier in this article; in fact, I’d actually recommend going through the political philosophy class first, because a major portion of this course ties in very well with political philosophy and how American government is an expression of many aspects of it. In other words, taken in tandem, you get a very nicely integrated “how” and “why” for American government.
I felt that this class spelled out exactly how America’s system of government works in a pretty even-handed fashion, covering both how it functionally works today (and, to an extent, over its history) along with a lot of the major debates on how it should function. This is another class where the recommended readings are very, very useful in terms of understanding the lectures in depth.
If you have a deep interest in how American government works or, perhaps more accurately, why it works the way that it does, this one will deeply scratch that itch.
Good luck in your journey for a deeper understanding of the world!
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How Hiring a Housekeeper Saved My Sanity and My Marriage
I remember the day we hired a housekeeper like it was yesterday. It was a Saturday and I should have been spending time with my kids. Instead, I was busy quietly mumbling and crying while I cleaned toilets, dusted blinds, and completed chores I’ve loathed for years.
I worked full-time then just as I do now, but I didn’t think we could afford to pay for bi-weekly or monthly housekeeping. I was also stubbornly resistant to the idea of paying someone to do work I could do myself. By cleaning my own house, I was saving at least $80 or $100 every two weeks.
But, on this particular day, I totally snapped. I was angry that I was cleaning while my family sat cozily on the sofa downstairs. I was angry at my husband for not helping, even though I knew deep down he was a hard-working man who deserved a day off, too. I was angry that, in addition to that weekend morning, I had already cleaned up a few times that week.
Most of all, I was just angry at my life. I worked too hard to spend my Saturdays scrubbing floors and cleaning counters, or at least I thought I did. And I was tired of doing the bulk of household chores just because no one else would.
Revelation #1: Maybe I Was the Problem
At one point on that particular day, I remember seething at my husband for playing UNO with the kids while I slaved away on our home upstairs. If I was cleaning, then he should be right here with me folding sheets and scraping the toothpaste out of the bathroom sink.
I cried as I put toys away and threw laundry in the washer, mostly because I felt like I was the only one who cared. When did this house become my sole responsibility to take care of? Also, how could my husband relax so peacefully when there was always so much to do?
I mean, it wasn’t like the housework was hiding; a few piles of laundry sat plainly on our bedroom floor, splashes of water and who-knows-what sat dried on our bathroom mirrors, and the dust on our wooden floors was too thick to ignore.
I glared at him as I walked through the living room with yet another pile of colors to wash and eventually fold and put away. Our eyes locked and he gave me a look of utter sadness. He felt sorry for me, but not for the reason you might think.
But his thoughts on the whole thing would become apparent very soon.
A little later, he cornered me in our bedroom closet and told me he was going to hire someone to clean our house. “Just every two weeks,” he said. “I’m not going to spend our weekend cleaning, and neither should you.”
He went on to say that maybe my standards were too high, and that I should give myself a break. Maybe the house wasn’t the problem, he said. Maybe I was the problem. And, you know what? Maybe I needed to start caring less about the house instead of insisting he care more.
His words stung, mostly because I knew they were true. I needed to let a few things go if I wanted to work full-time and maintain my sanity. After all, it’s impossible to do a good job at everything – to be a rock star at work, to be a great mom, and to keep the perfect home. If I had to sacrifice something, the dream of a perfectly clean home should easily be the first thing to go.
And, that’s when it hit me. It’s not that my husband didn’t care about dried toothpaste in the sinks or the fact our sheets weren’t washed that week; it was that he wanted to spend his limited free time doing other things. Our kids were in school full-time, and at the time he frequently had to work nights and weekends for his job. When he had a Saturday or Sunday off, he didn’t want to spend those precious hours sweeping floors or vacuuming blinds – he wanted some time off.
Revelation #2: Maybe I needed to listen.
Okay, so maybe I was a little hard on my husband up to that point. Cleaning had never been his strong suit anyway, and I have been a raging clean freak for as long as I can remember. It wasn’t fair to strongarm him into caring about housework that would never be a priority in his eyes.
He’s not messy or dirty – not at all. It’s just that he can accept the fact that the kids leave their toys strewn all over the living room at times – or that the TV has fingerprints on it, or that the kitchen sink is dirty. He’s more relaxed about nearly everything in life, and in a lot of ways, I wish I could be more like him.
Not only that, but I was wrong to be mad at my husband for not helping enough. It’s not like he’s some lackey who never did his part. He isn’t huge on cleaning, but he does the dishes and helps with laundry, and he does more than half the childcare most of the time. He also does all the outdoor work. In 12 years of marriage, I’ve never taken out the trash and I only mow the grass when I feel like doing some forced cardio. He rakes the leaves and shovels and driveway, and he picks up dog waste in the back yard.
He’s also the kind of dad that will get up with his kids and play UNO on a Saturday morning instead of doing something for himself.
With all this in mind, I relented and let him look for someone to clean our home. That night, he put up a message on our neighborhood Facebook page asking if someone had a recommendation for a bi-weekly cleaning service. Even if it cost us $100 every two weeks, it would save me from spending entire weekends cleaning – and him from my wrath.
“Isn’t $200 a small price to pay for household harmony?” he asked.
I went along, but I wasn’t happy about any of it. I didn’t think anyone could clean to my specifications, and I didn’t want to shred $200 or more so wastefully every month. But I agreed because I wanted to stop being so angry all the time. I wanted to spend my weekends like my husband, curled up on the couch or playing board games with the kids without a care in the world.
Revelation #3: Letting go actually feels good.
A few weeks later, the cleaning crew my husband hired showed up at my house to do their work. I worked on my computer in my bedroom while the three-person crew deep-cleaned every room of my house down to the last detail. They cleaned blinds and drapes, made beds, and dusted baseboards better than I ever did. By the time they left, I was actually in awe of the qualify of their work.
When I walked downstairs, I was in shock. There was something strange and exciting about seeing my home so sparkly and clean without having to lift a finger to get there. By the time my husband told me the cleaning service actually cost $120 every two weeks (instead of $100), I was so obsessed with the idea of housekeeping service that I probably wouldn’t have cared if it cost even more.
“This is worth it,” I told myself as I looked around at all the things I wouldn’t have to do that week – the countertops I didn’t have to polish, the floors I wouldn’t need to sweep or mop, and the bathrooms that I might never have to clean again in my life.
As I looked around, I also thought about what the $120 spent actually purchased us. Peace of mind. The household harmony my husband hoped for. But more importantly, it bought us Saturday mornings with our kids – moments in time we will never get back once they’re gone.
When you look at it that way, $120 every two weeks is a small price to pay.
The Bottom Line
These days, I don’t always have the cleaning crew come every two weeks – sometimes it’s every three weeks or every four weeks. Either way, this one splurge has changed our lives. Not only does having a housekeeper save me from many dreaded household chores, but it saves both of us from feeling resentful toward one another.
I no longer spend weekends crying and smoldering at my husband. I no longer wake up wishing I could hang with my kids but feeling like I can’t because there are too many chores to do.
I have peace in my home, and I have days where I wake up with absolutely nothing I have to do. And I have more time with my kids – kids who keep getting bigger with every Saturday that passes us by. If that’s not worth $120 every few weeks, I don’t know what is.
Holly Johnson is an award-winning personal finance writer and the author of Zero Down Your Debt. Johnson shares her obsession with frugality, budgeting, and travel at ClubThrifty.com.
Related Articles:
- Five Things I Was Willing to Give Up to Save Money
- Finding the Line Between Frugality and Deprivation
- 10 Things I Refuse to Do to Save Money
Would you ever pay for household help? Why or why not?
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