Truckers sue Pennsylvania over years of 'excessive' toll increases

The Pennsylvania Turnpike placed an “unduly burden on interstate commerce” by imposing several years of steep toll hikes and diverting billions of dollars in toll revenue toward PennDOT projects — many of which did not benefit the Turnpike, a group of owner-operator truckers argued in a lawsuit filed this week.The lawsuit filed Thursday in federal court in Harrisburg accuses the Turnpike — which has increased toll rates by more than 200 percent since 2006 [...]

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How To Get Precise Pricing For Life Insurance: Life Insurance Quotes, Rate Classes, and Approvals

The exact cost of your life insurance depends on many variables. Learn how to get more accurate pricing for life insurance.

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Grants in hand, Route 940 exit off I-380 project expected to cost $5.5M

POCONO PINES — With the announcement of a LSA grant worth nearly $1 million, Tobyhanna Township has secured more than half of the funding necessary for their Route 940 improvement project.The project, which will overhaul the area near where Interstate 380 and Route 940 meet, is estimated to cost $5.5 million and Tobyhanna officials hope to pay for it without taxpayer dollars.“It takes the burden off the shoulders of the taxpayers and property owners. And this is [...]

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The Most Motivating Financial Chart I’ve Ever Seen

While perusing the financial blogosphere on a lazy Sunday, I came across a unique chart called “The Early Retirement Grid.”

The grid’s main purpose is to show long it will take you to retire given various changes in your income and spending levels. It assumes that you start at a net worth of zero, that your investments earn a 5% return, and that you’ll withdraw 4% of your money each year in retirement to pay for your yearly expenses. Take a look:

This deceptively simple image contains a lot of wisdom. It illustrates the dramatic power of spending less and saving more, the danger of lifestyle inflation, the importance of taxes, and almost anything else you can think of related to personal finance.

Mind the Gap

The grid shows that there’s one metric that trumps all others: your savings rate. If you can keep a big gap between your saving and your spending, you can gain financial flexibility much earlier.

What’s so cool is that you don’t need a huge salary to chop years of your retirement age. For example, imagine three different people: Kim, Sam, and Jessie. Kim takes home $80,000 per year after taxes; Sam, $60,000; and Jessie, $40,000.

Let’s say they’re all diligent savers and they put away exactly half of their after-tax income, for a 50% savings rate. Who will attain financial independence first?

Amazingly, it’s a tie. The grid shows that each of them would only need to work 16.6 years to fund their retirement at their current spending levels.

Jessie earns $40,000 less than Kim, yet their retirement timelines are the exact same. One reason is that, the more of your income you save, the less you’re accustomed to living on — which means you’ll need less money in retirement to maintain your existing lifestyle. Meanwhile, someone taking home $100,000 a year after taxes would have to keep working almost 66 years if they spent most of that money each year. This clearly shows that keeping a high savings rate is the biggest lever you can pull in terms of maximizing your financial success.

It also demonstrates the power of resisting lifestyle inflation. If Sam takes home $60,000 and spends $40,000 of it, he’s on pace to work a fairly typical 40-year career. But if he’s able to increase his take-home pay by $10,000, whether through a promotion at work or a side hustle, and he keeps his spending at the same $40,000 a year, he can shave more than 11 years off his work career.

Another interesting aspect of the grid is that it doesn’t crunch numbers for those who spend below $20,000 per year. Think about how many years you could knock off your working life if you only spent $15,000 per year? Or $10,000?

You might think it’s impossible to live on that much, but there are plenty of examples of people making do with even less. Jacob Lund Fisker, author of the popular blog and book “Early Retirement Extreme,” famously lives on $7,000 per year. He’s not a hermit who subsists on ramen noodles, but a thriving, happy and active entrepreneur living in a major metropolis.

Achieving a high savings rate is all about your attitude, your goals, and your creativity. No high-paying job required. I find that highly motivating.

• Related: Financial Independence on a Smaller Income

Follow the Yellow-Green Road

When I see things like the early retirement grid, my instinct is to get really excited about saving money. I’ll turn to my wife and say something like: “If we move in with your parents, take night-shift jobs, and scavenge all our food from dumpsters, we can retire in three years!”

My wife reminds me that she’s on board to be frugal, but she’s not willing to sacrifice our short-term happiness in the pursuit of a ridiculously high savings rate.

Of course, I have to agree with her. It’s important to find a lifestyle with balance. What’s great about the early retirement grid is that it provides visual proof that a frugal, but not extreme, lifestyle can still have a big impact on how long you have to work.

The sweet spot of the grid is found in the line of light yellow and green squares that cut through the middle. Each of those squares is in the 16 to 28 years range. They represent how many years you would need to work if you saved between 30% and 50% of your after-tax income. For many people, saving that much is a tough but realistic goal.

Considering the average person works for over 40 years, getting that number down to 28 is no small feat! That represents 12 extra years of your life where you get to do what you want, when you want, on your own terms.

Even if you love your job and you’re one of those “I’d work for free” types, it’s still powerful to gain flexibility. You never know when a recession will hit, when the office culture will change, or when you’ll want to work less to take care of a child or ailing family member. Financial independence is about the freedom that comes with having options, so you’re better able to roll with the punches.

It takes effort to gain that flexibility, but not extreme or demoralizing effort. You don’t have to break your back trying to get your savings rate up near 80% in order to have success. Remember, the perfect is the enemy of the good.

• Related: Achieving Financial Success Without Extreme Frugality or a Huge Income

Summing Up

One thing to keep in mind is that financial independence, in this context, means that your investments can cover your yearly expenses. It doesn’t take into account contingencies, such as medical issues or paying for a child’s education. Every person’s situation will be different, so plan accordingly.

That being said, the essential thrust of the grid remains the same: If you can find ways to save a bigger portion of your income, to grow the gap between what you earn and what you spend, you’ll be setting yourself up for financial success. You can cut chunks of years off your working career with relatively small spending reductions, which is amazing to behold.

If you’re trying to check out of the rat race before traditional retirement age, and need a little reminder to keep you motivated, print out the grid and put it on your desk for inspiration. (Well, maybe keep it in a drawer, so you’re not advertising how much you want to call it quits.)

Related Articles: 

• 31 Days to Financial Independence
• How to Retire Quickly
• Six Fresh Ways to Think About Retirement Savings
• It’s Not ‘Early Retirement,’ It’s ‘Walk-Away Money’

The post The Most Motivating Financial Chart I’ve Ever Seen appeared first on The Simple Dollar.

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Personal Finance Doesn’t Have to Suck. Here’s How to Make It (Kind of) Fun

Ketchup and ice cream.

Swimsuits and snowstorms.

Personal finance and fun.

You’re right: None of these traditionally go together. We’re not going to top off a perfectly good scoop of ice cream with ketchup. Nor will we try to bare a snowstorm in a swimsuit. But we are going to make personal finance SO. MUCH. FUN.

Seriously, though. Managing your finances is a serious chore. It’s not exactly something we’re jumping for joy to sit down and do. In fact, many of us opt to procrastinate. But if you add a little fun into the mix, it isn’t so bad… right?

Use these tools to add a little spice to your personal finance life:

1. Start Gambling

Just kidding. That’s not very Penny Hoarder-esque. Or healthy. But you’ve got to admit: There’s something oh-so satisfying about those gas station scratch-off tickets, even if they do ruin your nails.

Instead of spending money on a piece of paper that doesn’t guarantee you money, download a free app called Lucktastic.

Each day, it releases a new assortment of digital scratch-off tickets. Lucktastic says instant wins range from $1 to $10,000. You can also earn tokens, enter contests and play games.

No, it won’t make you rich (unless you hit the jackpot), but it’s a fun way to try to earn money in your free time.

2. Watch Your Spare Change Add up

Remember when you were growing up, you’d go on hunts around the house for loose change to feed your piggy bank? Dig through the couch cushions, check mom’s car, sneak into dad’s office…

You’d feed that little piggy until it was full, then roll the coins — or, if you were a ’90s baby, you’d hit up the Coinstar kiosk at the grocery store. Watching the change add up was such a thrill.

Good news: You can still experience that excitement today — no loose change or coin roll wrappers required.

Download the Acorns app instead. It’s a savings and investing app that rounds up your credit and debit card purchases to the nearest dollar and invests the remaining change.

Buy a $2.40 cup of coffee? Add 60 cents to your Acorns account. A $31.32 charge at the grocery store? Drop another 68 cents in. It’s kind of fun to see just how fast your digital change can add up.

Then, Acorns does the rest of the work for you, investing it into your chosen portfolio.

Sign up for the Acorns app, and, after your first investment, you’ll get a $5 bonus.

3. Negotiate Your Internet Bill (Without Saying a Word)

If you’re like me — 100% passive, allergic to conflict — negotiating is no fun, especially when it comes to big purchases or monthly bills.

But when I was slapped with a huge internet bill, I was peeved. So I turned to Trim, an online personal assistant that actually negotiated the bill on my behalf.

The process was simple: I signed up (for free) and uploaded a PDF of my most recent internet bill, which I grabbed from my online statement. Then Trim let me know it was getting to work. Several days later, it let me know it’d gotten me $10 back.

Since then, it continues to check in on the status of my bill.

Although I’m a passive person, there’s no better feeling than reclaiming some cash — and sending a little bit of a “hah” to my internet provider.

4. Stack Cash Rewards Each Time You Shop

Spending money — especially on necessities — is never truly fun. So why not turn it into a game and see how much cash back you can stack? Without clipping a single coupon.

We’re talking about Ibotta, a cash-back app that’s partnered with more than 50 retailers to reward you for, well, shopping.

You can even turn it into a bit of a cash-back game by inviting friends and creating a team. You’ll see who’s made how much — and where you rank.

For example, I’ve earned more than $120 in cash back through the app. When I tap “My Earnings” and scroll down, I can see I’m ranked seventh among my connected friends. The top placeholder has earned more than $350 in rewards. (Holy cash cow, Kath!)

If you want to join in on the competition, sign up for Ibotta. When you upload your first receipt, you’ll nab a $10 bonus. As soon as you collect $20, you can cash out.

5. Make Saving Fun Again

Saving? Fun?

No, no, no. Saving money isn’t fun — nor is it easy.

The best way to save is to do it without noticing. What?

Digit is an app that automates saving for you. Simply link it to your checking account, and its algorithms will determine small (and safe!) amounts of money to withdraw into a separate, FDIC-insured savings account.

These amounts are based on your spending habits and your income, which means you’ll never spin into overdraft. If Digit sees you can’t afford to tuck money away one day, no worries. Maybe tomorrow will be better.

Using this set-it-and-forget-it strategy, one Penny Hoarder saved $4,300 without noticing; read his Digit review.

If you need that money sooner than expected, you’ll always have access to it within one business day.

Digit is free to use for the first 100 days, then it’s $2.99 per month afterward.

6. Earn Gift Cards for Healthy (Financial) Habits

This app kind of rules them all: MoneyLion is an all-in-one app for managing your personal finances.

Basically, it offers the financial services you’d typically get from three or four different banks or providers, and they’re all bundled into one place.

MoneyLion connects with all of your bank, credit card, student loan and other financial accounts. Based on your income and spending patterns, it offers personalized advice to help you save money, reduce your debt and improve your credit.

One of our favorite things about this app is the rewards feature.

Targeted at the financial middle class, MoneyLion offers rewards to help you develop healthy financial habits. The rewards program gives you points for taking actions like:

• Connecting a bank account.
• Signing up for credit monitoring.
• Paying your bills on time.
• Keeping your credit utilization low.

The points can be redeemed for gift cards to retailers like Amazon, Apple and Walmart. It’s like giving American Express-style rewards to middle-class customers who may not have a points-earning credit card.

7. Conduct a Free 401(k) Analysis

Got a 401(k)? You’re on the right track.

Now, you just need to make sure it’s doing what you need it to. However, tapping into that account and deciphering the information — or lack thereof — can be hard.

There’s a robo-advisor for that. Blooom, an SEC-registered investment advisory firm, will optimize and monitor your 401(k) for you.

It gives you an initial 401(k) checkup for free, and you’ll get to know your account a little more intimately. Find out if you’re paying too many hidden fees, have the appropriate amount invested in stocks versus bonds, that kind of fun stuff.

After that, the tool is $10 a month to use to continue to monitor your retirement account. Let Blooom know your target retirement age, and it can help you get there by investing more and less aggressively.

8. Get a New Start Through Upstart

Ready to tackle your debt to the cold, hard ground? That sounds fun enough, right? Try consolidating it.

It could substantially lower payments you’re already making on your debt and help you save more money each month.

A lot of us are being crushed by credit card interest rates north of 20%. If you’re in that boat, consolidation and refinancing might be worth a look.

A good resource is online lending platform Upstart, which can help you find a loan without relying on only your conventional credit score.

Unlike traditional underwriting models that use only the common FICO scoring model, Upstart’s technology looks at factors like your education and employment history to determine your creditworthiness.

It can help you borrow up to $50,000, potentially with better terms (e.g. lower interest or lower monthly payments) than traditional lenders. If managing many different bills and credit lines is a hassle, you can also use an Upstart loan to streamline all of your loans into one.

Learn more about Upstart and get a free quote (that won’t hurt your credit score) all online.

9. Strike up a Budget

You’re rolling your eyes right now. I feel it. Budgeting isn’t fun, you say. But it kind of is, if you turn it into a personal challenge. And if you have a type-A personality. (Ahem, me.)

I recently started a super simple budget in an Excel spreadsheet. Nope, I have zero knowledge of Excel, but I poked around and worked from a template and within a few hours, I had just what I needed.

With the spreadsheet, I track my spending manually, which holds me more accountable than an automated app. Each month, I try to decrease my spending and increase my savings. Sure, sometimes it’s a total pain and absolutely disappointing, but other times it’s kind of fun to see just how much I can save.

In case you’re not sure where to start with a budget, I loosely followed the 50/20/30 method.

10. Continue to Learn!

The best way to feel more comfortable about your finances is to continue to educate yourself. If sitting in a classroom isn’t your thing, don’t worry. It’s not our thing either.

Some ways of learning about personal finance are actually kind of fun, including (cough, cough) reading The Penny Hoarder.

But seriously. You can find all sorts of information on the internet these days. Take, for example, “Get Your Money Together,” an illustrated “purrsonal finance” workbook. It includes everything from pictures of cats to designing a budget to investing to… more cats.

There are also a ton of personal finance podcasts out there. These are fun and easy to listen to, and you’ll often feel like you’re having a conversation with a good friend — even if you are just hanging out with your cats.

Bonus: Find Buried Treasure… (Sorta)

Did you know state treasuries throughout the U.S. have more than $43 billion in unclaimed funds? Just sitting around!

In 2017, one South Carolina man hit the jackpot. He got a phone call from his state treasurer letting him know he was entitled to $763,000 in unclaimed money. That’s, like, 63 years of rent.

We advise you to be careful of calls like this; chances are, it’s a scam. But you can take matters into your own hands and see if you have any unclaimed money floating around.

Start by checking with the National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators. Click your state on the map, and it’ll redirect you to your state’s search site. You can also check with Missing Money.

All right, friends. It’s time to put the fun back into personal funance… I mean, finance.

Carson Kohler (carson@thepennyhoarder.com) is a staff writer at The Penny Hoarder. She makes managing her finances even more fun by popping open a beer before getting started…

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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