Stop and Smell the Roses for Free on May 11 for National Public Gardens Day

New gardeners are used to learning by trowel and error, but they could glean a lot of wisdom from a visit to any of our national public gardens.

Sorry if my gardening jokes are too corny for you.

Anyways, you can visit participating gardens for free on May 11 for National Public Gardens Day!

The American Public Gardens Association started the event in 2009. Typically held the Friday before Mother’s Day, the event promotes the importance of botanical gardens, arboreta, zoos, historical gardens, and public gardens locally and globally.

Public gardens across the country will host events and activities for visitors, students and families to explore and support their local public gardens.

Find a participating garden near you, and enjoy frolicking in the flowers.

Jen Smith is a junior writer at The Penny Hoarder who gives money saving and debt payoff tips on Instagram at @savingwithspunk.

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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In Less Than a Minute, You Could Enter This $10K Scholarship Sweepstakes

Sometimes, earning scholarships for college is a numbers game.

I mean, sure, you can write essays on “that time you demonstrated excellent leadership” ’til Nelson Mandela himself rises from the grave to shake your hand, but let’s be real — every once in a while, it’s nice to simply type in your name and email, check a box and hit “submit.”

And while the odds of a sweepstakes competition aren’t necessarily in your favor (let’s be real), your odds at least increase from zero when you take the 30 seconds required to enter.

And if you do happen to win, wouldn’t you say that 30 seconds of your life was worth a $10,000 scholarship prize?

Uh, yeah.

Plus, if you don’t happen to win this one, you’ve at least set yourself up for success in other ways. By opting in to the emails from Discover Student Loans, you’ll receive tips and resources for getting into and paying for college. So who’s the real winner here?

(And if you’re looking for more scholarship opportunities that can help you pay for school, be sure to like our college page on Facebook. We post awesome new scholarship opportunities there whenever we find them.)

Enter to Win $10,000 in the Discover Student Loans Scholarship Award Sweepstakes

Here’s how you can enter to win a $10,000 scholarship from the Discover Student Loans Scholarship Award Sweepstakes.

Amount awarded: Each winner will receive $10,000.

Number of scholarships awarded: 11 per year (Two during entry periods 1, 2 and 4 and three during entry period 3).

To qualify for this scholarship, you must:

• Be a resident of the United States, the District of Columbia or the U.S. territories.
• Be at least 16 years old.
• Be a high school senior or college student who is or will be enrolled at least half-time in a bachelor’s, associate’s or graduate program at an eligible school.
• OR be a parent or legal guardian of a student who meets the above requirements.

To apply, applicants must:

• Fill out and submit the entry form located here.

Scholarship deadline: There are three more entry periods open this year. The first entry period has closed. Remaining entry periods are:

• April 1, 2018 – June 30, 2018
• July 1, 2018 – September 30, 2018
• October 1, 2018 – January 31, 2019

Winners are announced approximately one week after each entry period closes.

You can enter only once per entry period via the above form.

There are four ways to earn bonus entries, though, and you can earn each of these bonus entries once per entry period. Here’s how:

1. After you enter, click the “Copy Link” button to receive a unique link to the sweepstakes. Then, copy and paste the link and email it to your friends. When they register for the sweepstakes through the unique link you sent them, you will earn one bonus entry in the applicable entry period.
2. After you enter the sweepstakes, you will see an option to share the sweepstakes on Twitter. Click the link to share the ready-made tweet containing a unique URL to the sweepstakes. If someone registers through that URL, you will earn one bonus entry in the applicable entry period.
3. After you enter the sweepstakes, you will see an option to share the sweepstakes on your Facebook wall. The post will contain a unique link to the sweepstakes. If someone registers through the unique link you’ve provided, you will earn one bonus entry in the applicable entry period.
4. After you enter the sweepstakes, you will see an option to participate in a survey. By taking the survey, you will earn one bonus entry into the applicable entry period.

You can read the rest of the official rules, guidelines and particulars here.

If you’re looking for even more scholarships to apply for, be sure to check out our list of 100 scholarships that will help you pay for college.

Grace Schweizer 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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Win $5,000 and Free Donuts for a Year as Entenmann’s Chief Donut Officer

I’ve noticed a trend.

First, we gave you news about a resort in the Bahamas looking for a Chief Flamingo Officer. Then, Moe’s Southwest Grill announced its search for a Chief Taco Officer. Now, the sweetest position of all has opened up.

In honor of National Donut Day on June 1, Entenmann’s Bakery is holding a contest for the honorary title of Chief Donut Officer.

The best part about this contest? The winner doesn’t actually have to do any work. But rest assured, the prizes are very real, and very, very sweet.

The one lucky, donut-loving winner will score $5,000, a bunch of Entenmann’s branded swag and a year’s supply of donuts. That’s a lot of dough.

Did your eyes just glaze over and your mind drift to daydreams about a year’s worth of free donuts? I don’t blame you. Keep reading if you want the chance to make this dream a reality.

How To Become Entenmann’s Chief Donut Officer

Interested applicants must be at least 18 years old, U.S. residents and total donut aficionados.

Sound like you? Then read these instructions very carefully:

• Fill out this official entry form
• Write some clever donut-related stuff (answer four questions, 500 characters max each)
• Cross your fingers and hope to win

That’s it! Sounds way too easy, but that’s all you have to do. Promise. The entry form is pretty straightforward: It asks for your name, phone number and email address.

Then you have the donut-themed questions, like your favorite place to eat Entenmann’s Donuts; how you would spread the donut love as the honorary CDO; and what new flavor ideas you have for the bakery.

Yes, someone is actually giving you the floor to wax poetic about your love of fried dough.

Responses will be judged on passion, creativity and originality. Five finalists will be announced around July 9, according to the official rules.

Then, each of the five finalists will have to put together a video about why they deserve the coveted Chief Donut Officer position. The public votes for the winner, who will be announced by August 7.

And here’s some icing on top of an already awesome deal: Even though there will only be one CDO, the other four finalists will still walk away happy — they’ll get $1,000 and a year’s supply of donuts each.

You donut want to let this sweet opportunity pass you by, so hurry up and apply by the June 30 deadline!

Kaitlyn Blount is a junior staff writer at The Penny Hoarder. Just thinking about a year’s supply of free donuts makes her feel like signing up for a gym membership.

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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Our Secret Weapon for Getting the Best Price Every Time We Shop Online

Editor’s note: This post was originally published in 2016 and updated by The Penny Hoarder staff in 2018.

I’m a notorious email saver.

I rarely delete anything — especially not receipts.

Turns out that was a smart policy. In the past few months, I’ve earned $22 in refunds. And all I did was shop online like I normally do.

Paribus Review: How to Get Money Back for Online Purchases

My new secret weapons is called Paribus — a free tool that gets you money back for your online purchases.

Intrigued? Wondering how saving your emails could earn you money?

Then keep reading.

How Paribus Works

Let’s run through a hypothetical. Say you purchase a toaster online from Walmart for $20. The next week, Walmart drops the price to $15.

Like many retailers, Walmart offers a price guarantee within an item’s return window, so you’re entitled to a refund for the difference.

The only problem? None of us have time to check whether prices have dropped on our purchases.

That’s why Paribus is handy.

It scans your email archives for receipts. If it discovers you’ve purchased something from one of its more than 25 monitored retailers, it tracks the item’s price.

If Paribus notices the price went down on the toaster you bought, it alerts you and contacts Walmart (or one of the other monitored retailers) on your behalf or tells you how to easily claim a refund yourself.

To uphold its price guarantee, Walmart refunds the $5 difference to your original method of payment — so you’d earn money without wasting your time watching the price.

Participating Paribus Stores

Before signing up, you’ll want to see whether Paribus is worth your time. If you shop from one of the retailers it monitors for price drops, chances are, it will be.

Here’s a list of stores it monitors for price drops:

Bed Bath & Beyond	Anthropologie	Athleta	Banana Republic	Staples
Bloomingdale’s	Bonobos	Costco	Crate & Barrel	Gap
Home Depot	J.Crew	Kohl’s	L.L. Bean	Loft
Macy’s	Neiman Marcus	Newegg	Nordstrom	Office Depot
Old Navy	REI	Saks Fifth Avenue	Sears	Zappos
Target	Walmart	Wayfair

To read more about each retailer’s price-protection policy, check out the policy guides. 

How to Sign up for Paribus

Signing up for Paribus is free — and super simple.

Head over to its website, and enter your email address.

Note: Paribus is only compatible with Gmail, Yahoo and Microsoft accounts. If you use a different provider, you have an option to set up an an auto-forwarding filter, which will forward your digital receipts to a Gmail, Yahoo or Microsoft account. When you enroll, you’ll give Paribus permission to search your email for receipts send refund claims on your behalf.

Once you sign up, the items you’ve most recently purchased at monitored stores will show up on your dashboard. You’ll be able to see whether the price dropped and whether Paribus filed a refund for you.

If you want to see what others have earned from Paribus, click “Deals.”

Here are a few deals folks had recently scored as of the most recent writing:

Is This Too Good to Be True? Is Paribus Safe?

The idea that Paribus is tapping into your emails makes some people feel iffy.

But the company has earned a B+ through the Better Business Bureau, which notes the score might have been affected by the length of time the business has been in operation (since 2014). Since 2016, Paribus has been owned by Capital One, which has an A+.

Now, Let’s Address Some Paribus Complaints

Some folks have posted online about Paribus not finding them any refunds. Sometimes, that’s just the case. It all depends on where and how often you shop and a store’s policy. Remember, Paribus is made to work on your behalf, so it’s actually the stores that are (or are not) issuing refunds — not Paribus.

If you have any technical issues, you can always reach out to its support team. Additionally, if at any time you want to cancel your account and remove all information, head over to “Settings” and click “Delete Paribus Account.”

So Will I Continue to Use Paribus?

Because I do most of my shopping online — where prices fluctuate all the time, even within the same day — I’ve been super happy with Paribus so far.

Honestly, the fact it’s automated is my favorite thing about it.

For me, giving Paribus access to my emails is worth it — and one of the easiest ways I’ve found to save money when I’m shopping online.

Susan Shain is a freelance writer and digital nomad. She covers travel, food and personal finance (basically, how to save money so you can travel more and eat more). Visit her blog at susanshain.com, or say hi on Twitter @susan_shain.

Carson Kohler, a staff writer at The Penny Hoarder, contributed updates to this article.

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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The Standard Review

Let’s talk about all the awful things that could happen to you! Actually, maybe that’s not the best idea, but you never know when something tragic could strike.

This is what makes insurance plans so important.

The problem is, shopping for insurance is overwhelming and stressful.

There are a dozen different kinds of insurance and over 6,000 carriers on the market. If you want to get the best protection, you need to do some prep work.

You need to pick a company who has quality products, affordable rates, great customer service and is financially stable. How are you supposed to find one?

This is where we come in.

At Good Financial Cents, we’ve done the work for you. We’ve taken the time to review some of the most popular (and some of the not-so-popular) insurance carriers out there.

This article is going to outline The Standard. You might not have heard of them, but they could be the perfect solution to all your insurance needs.

History of The Standard

If you want to look at the beginnings of The Standard, you have to go all the way back to 1906.

The Standard was established by Leo Samuel.

He created the company to help provide life insurance to loggers who weren’t able to get life insurance policies through other companies because of the danger of their job.

Not only were most companies afraid of giving life insurance to loggers, but all of them were on the east coast. Samuel opened up the Oregon Life Insurance Company to protect the people of the Northwest.

He changed the way we look at life insurance. There were a lot of loggers who lost their jobs because of serious injuries. They weren’t making money, which means they couldn’t pay the insurance premiums.

Samuel recognized the problems with this process.

To serve his customers, he was the first to create the waiver of premium coverage. If one of his customers was ever permanently disabled, they could keep their plans without having to pay the premiums.

They’ve continued to grow through the years.

Today, they have over 6 million customers in every state. They are still headquartered in Oregon, but they have 40 offices all across the United States.

Ratings, Grades, and Finances

When you’re looking for the perfect company, you need a company who is financially sound. You need to know they are going to still be there when it’s time to cash in a plan.

The best way to do this is by looking the ratings form the experts. There are a lot of companies who specialize in reviewing companies and projecting their futures by looking at dozens of different factors.

The three big reviews are: A.M. Best, Standard & Poor’s, and the BBB.

The Standard has excellent ratings from all of these companies.

From A.M. Best, The Standard has maintained an A rating or higher since 1928. They are only one of only 17 companies who has held this high of a rating for 75 years.

From the BBB, The Standard has an A+ rating. This is the highest possible grade they give.

Additionally, from Standard & Poor’s they have another A+ rating.

The financial future of an insurance company is one of the most important factors to consider. With The Standard, you don’t have to worry about their longevity.

Products Sold Through The Standard

The Standard has a huge list of insurance products they sell. Regardless of what kind of coverage you’re looking for, you can find it at The Standard.

To start, we are going to look at there is their life insurance. Don’t worry, you don’t have to be a logger or lumberjack to buy one of their plans.

Group Life

They don’t have a traditional individual life insurance plan. Instead, they market their policies to companies which want to offer their employees life insurance.

These plans are an excellent way for a group of employees to get affordable coverage.

Disability Insurance

Most workers don’t fully understand the importance of disability insurance.

Even if they do understand the coverage, they don’t buy a plan, which could be a terrible mistake.

If you’re at work, and you take a tumble down the stairs, then Worker’s Compensation is going to help replace your income.

What happens if you are injured outside of work?

You’re doing housework on the weekend, and you take a fall. You’re too injured to go to work for months.

You won’t have a paycheck coming in, how are you going to pay your monthly bills?

This is the exact reason you should invest in a disability insurance policy. These plans can protect your income, and The Standard understands the importance of that.

They offer several kinds of disability insurance:

• Group Short Term Disability
• Group Long Term Disability
• Individual Disability

To start, we are going to briefly look at the group plans. More than likely, you aren’t buying disability coverage for a group of people, but you should still be aware of the options.

Just like with group life insurance, The Standard offer plans for businesses who want to give coverage to their employees. They sell both group short term and long term.

If you’re injured or ill for a couple of weeks, short-term disability will kick in and replace a portion of your income. These plans are designed to be effective for a couple of weeks.

What if you’re too injured or too ill and you’re out of work for even longer?

This is why you should also have a long-term disability insurance policy.

With both of their group plans, the underwriting is extremely simple. All of the employees will be able to get approved for the protection.

Other Group Plans

The Standard sells a lot of insurance policies.

If you’re looking for group coverage, The Standard is an excellent place to start your search.

Here are some of the other plans they sell:

• Group Accident
• Group Accidental Death and Dismemberment
• Group Dental
• Group Vision
• Group Hospital Indemnity

Individual Disability Insurance

One of the shining parts of The Standard is their disability insurance coverage.

They are one of the best companies for getting disability insurance coverage.

They give you three different options:

• Income Protection
• Business Protection
• Guaranteed Standard Issue

Each of these is slightly different coverage and you’ll need to understand the differences between them.

Income Protection

Let’s get started with their premium policy, the Income Protection plan. This plan provides a lot of coverage you won’t find with other companies out there.

Inside of this policy, there are several variations:

• Platinum Advantage
• Protector Platinum
• Protector Essential

Each of these offer different protection, we are going to detail some of the key points of each of them.

Platinum Advantage

As you can probably guess from the name, the Platinum Advantage policy is the premium option from The Standard. If you want the most possible disability insurance from The Standard, this is the choice for you.

Here are the basics of the plan. You can get benefit periods of anywhere form 2 years to 10 years (or until age 67). They have elimination periods of 30 days to 730 days depending on where you live, and it’s available to just about any occupation.

With this policy, you get some incredible protection.

First, you’ll get the Family Care Benefit, which you will not find at any other company out there. According to the numbers from the Pew Research Center, 23% of adults are responsible for the care of an aging adult.

Because of this, there are about 1 in 5 caregivers who financial struggles because of the care to aging adults.

This benefit will allow you to get a monthly benefit from the plan if you lose more than 20% of your income if you have to take care of a parent or aging adult.

There are two other riders The Standard adds at no cost to the policyholder, a benefit increase rider and an automatic increase benefit rider.

Benefit increase rider lets you get more coverage every three years without having to go through the underwriting process again.

The automatic increase rider allows your coverage to up with the standard of living cost. This rider increases the monthly benefit 4% every year for the first 6 years.

Protector Platinum

The next option is the Protector Platinum disability insurance policy. This policy has a whole host of benefits. You’ll get the Family Care benefit, and a ton of other benefits.

With this policy, if you have become partially disabled, you’re going to receive full benefits from the plan for 6 months. Also, you’re also going to get:

• Total disability
• Own occupation definition
• Rehabilitation benefit
• Recovery benefit
• Survivor benefit
• Waiver of premium benefit
• And much more

The Protector Platinum policy offers just about every additional benefit and rider you can think of. They have a few optional riders you can add on to your plan if you want extra coverage.

If you want additional protection, you’re going to have higher premiums, but it can give you some additional peace of mind. These include:

• Future purchase option
• Non-cancelable rider
• Indexed cost of living
• Catastrophic disability

Protector Essential

If you want a more affordable option, the Protector Essential plan gives you disability protection at a lower cost. You’re going to get less coverage than with their other options, but you’re going to be able to enjoy some lower rates.

You’ll still get some of the core benefits, like waiver of premium, total disability, rehab benefit, and much more.

Just like with the other policies, you’ll still have the option to buy additional riders.

The Protector Essential is an excellent choice for anyone who wants to save money but still get disability coverage.

Business Protection

Now, let’s talk about the business disability options The Standard sells. You have two options, the Business Overhead Protection and the Business Equity Protection.

With the Business Overhead Protection, there are a couple of expenses you can protect as a business owner.

If something were to happen to you, and you’re the one keeping the shop open, then your business could be forced to shut down. This is where this business disability insurance policy comes in.

This can help cover the costs of wages, utilities, mortgage or lease payments, and more.

The Business Equity Protection is a Buy/Sell policy.

This policy is designed to help business partners buy the other partner’s share of the business if anything were to leave one of them disabled.

This plan will ensure the policyholder gets compensation from the buy-out while the business continues to stay operational.

Guaranteed Standard Issue

The last kind of disability insurance they offer is a guaranteed issue policy.

Just like other kinds of guaranteed issue plans, there are no medical coverage, and you can get protection as long as you’re under the age of 99.

The Standard offers two of their plans as Guaranteed Issue, the Platinum Advantage, and the Protector Platinum. With the guaranteed standard issue plans, you’re not going to get as much protection as with the traditional policy.

You’ll still get the Family Care benefit, the own occupation rider, and the residual disability rider, but the rest of the riders are optional that you will have to pay for.

Other Financial Products sold by The Standard

Aside from the group insurance and the disability insurance, The Standard also wants to help you plan for your future.

To do this, they sell two types of annuities: an immediate annuity and a deferred annuity.

You can probably figure out from the names, but an immediate annuity is built for those are looking to invest a large amount of money, but not have it tied up for decades.

The deferred annuity lets people invest the money and let it grow tax-deferred. You can then withdraw the money in a lump sum or in payments.

Pros and Cons of The Standard

Each insurance carrier has advantages and disadvantages. Regardless of the insurance plan you’re looking for, you need to find a company where the pros outweigh the cons.

With The Standard, one of the pros is also a con.

If you’re a business owner, they have a dozen different options for group coverage. You can buy just about every possible plan for your employees, all in one place.

On the flip side of that, if you’re looking for individual coverage, The Standard doesn’t have a ton of options.

You’re going to be limited to a handful of choices.

How to Get the Best Insurance Coverage

We know shopping for insurance isn’t fun.

There are endless options you have to compare, and all of the situations require something bad to happen to you.

Instead of wasting your time calling agents or researching companies, we’ve done the work for you.

We’ve taken the time to do in-depth reviews of some of the best companies out there.

Be sure to check out all of our reviews and use them to make the best choice for your insurance needs.

The post The Standard Review appeared first on Good Financial Cents.

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Life First, Money Second

What do I really want out of life? What kind of life do I really want to have, starting today and moving forward?

Over the course of my adult life, I’ve basically been on a constant journey to refine my answer to those questions. I went gradually from having no impression of what I wanted out of life at all, to some broad brushstrokes, to gradually filling in more and more detail until I really understand what it is I want from life.

What I’ve come to realize is that the less clear I was about what I wanted out of life, the harder it was to live in accordance with any sort of financial principles in mind. If you don’t have anything you’re working for, it’s easy to just spend that money as it comes in on whatever will bring you the most momentary happiness.

But I’m getting ahead of myself here. First, let’s take a walk down memory lane to look at how my life perspective has changed and how that influenced my finances.

The Early Years – No Life Vision, Rampant Spending

During my early adult years, I had no real concept of the future whatsoever. I understood at least that I would eventually get old, so I was smart enough to start contributing to my retirement plan at work as soon as I got my first “real” job, but aside from that? The future was a blank slate.

I might get married, and I did eventually. I might have kids. I might own a house. But in terms of the kind of day to day life I really wanted? I didn’t really have any idea. I mostly mimicked what I thought other people my age did.

I did have a sense that I wanted to build a career of some kind on the career path I was initially on, but I didn’t really have any sense as to what that really meant beyond “work hard at my current job and look for the next step up.”

In short, I had no real vision whatsoever of what the future would look like beyond the broadest of brushstrokes and no sense of the kind of day to day life I wanted to lead.

Without any sort of sense of what I actually wanted out of life, spending on whatever interested me at the moment became the default setting. I wasn’t really working toward anything, so the call of momentary desires was quite loud. If you don’t have any kind of long term goal or life ambition or sense of the kind of day to day life you’d really like to have, spending on today seems mighty compelling.

Unfortunately, that kind of attitude leads right into debt. If you don’t have any sense of the future or of the life you want, it’s incredibly easy to fall into the notion that your “future self” will take care of it because that “future self” is a complete blank slate. As far as I could tell at that point, that “future self” would be making very good money but, at the same time, that “future self” really didn’t have a life because I had no vision or ambition for the future.

What happened? I spent and I spent and I spent some more, and I dug myself into a giant financial hole. In terms of my day to day life, I had no vision of the life I wanted for myself, so there was really not much else to do other than to spend that money.

The Financial Turnaround – Broad Brushstrokes for Life, Tight Control on Spending

What happened? Two big things. I got married. Then, I had a child.

Both of those things were part of my big but not well considered plan for the future. I did want to get married at some point, and I did want to have children. I just didn’t think about those things too much until they happened.

Even having a child wasn’t an immediate trigger for change. Sure, like almost every parent, I was almost overwhelmed by the responsibility of it, but I didn’t really think about the long term future of it at first. Instead, I was focused on the routine of changing diapers and rocking the baby and holding the baby and so on.

As time went on, though, I began to realize that if I kept on my current path, my child wasn’t going to have the best childhood. We lived in a tiny apartment with a bunch of credit card debt and student loan debt and car loans hanging over our heads. The idea of actually having a home where our child could go play in the yard was far off in the vague future. The idea of paying for all of their upcoming expenses? No idea how I was going to do it.

This all came to a head one night when I was realizing how precarious our financial situation was. We had received some bills in the mail that we couldn’t afford to pay – not even the minimum payment. That night, my infant son couldn’t sleep and so I spent a few hours rocking him and thinking about his future and my own.

The next day, I woke up groggy after getting very little sleep, but I had the first real detail of the life I wanted for my future in my head. I wanted my child to have a childhood without worry, or at least as close to that as I could approach within what I could control.

That became my focus and, after some really fruitful conversations with Sarah, it became her focus, too. We wanted to build a great childhood for our son and get him off on the right foot in life.

What did that entail? What was our game plan? First and foremost, it involved getting rid of all of this consumer debt. Then, it involved finding a family home in an area with families at least somewhat nearby. It involved saving for his college education so that we could pay for at least some of it right out of pocket.

Those were tangible things that we could do that were directly tied to what we wanted out of life. For the first time, we had part of the big picture for our shared life in place, and for the first time, we could tie that big picture to what we were doing in our day to day lives.

That was transformative and fairly intoxicating. I dove deep into personal finance books and started trying every tactic I could find. We basically eliminated our non-essential spending in very short order.

Very quickly, those debts started to melt away, and we learned quite quickly that debt had been putting a lot of “background stress” into our life. We didn’t actively realize it, but being in debt had made both of us anxious and stressed out about almost everything. As the debt receded, so did a lot of that stress.

Reflection and Growth – Filling in Life’s Picture, Careful Spending Choice

Eventually, we paid off all of that consumer debt. This took about fifteen months or so. I started writing about this change on The Simple Dollar when we were part of the way through paying off that consumer debt. We then bought a house and took on that mortgage, which we paid off in about four and a half years. Along the way, we had two more children.

As all of this went on, I started spending a lot of time reflecting on what I really wanted out of life. If I drew a picture of my ideal life in a few years, what would it look like?

What I came to realize is that most of the elements of that picture that excited me and really mattered to me weren’t really financial in nature. They didn’t involve buying things. They didn’t involve shelling out cash for big experiences.

I wanted low stress. I wanted my basic needs taken care of – basic clothing, a roof over my head, and so on. I wanted my children to feel secure and happy and to be on a path to becoming strong and independent people. I wanted free time to explore my interests and hobbies. I wanted a strong marriage with my wife. I wanted strong relationships with each of my children – warm parent-child relationships, not friendships. I wanted a handful of close friends with whom I had great relationships. I wanted to feel good and healthy when I got out of bed each morning. I want work that’s fulfilling. I want those things to be secure and stable as possible, protected from the vagaries of employment.

And I still want all of those things.

For me, those are really the elements of the life that I want to live. If I have those, then life is honestly pretty good.

Having an amazing house would be fine, sure, but it’s extremely secondary to those other things. The same with having an amazing car or going on amazing trips. Everything else I could think of that a person might want out of life was secondary to those things above.

So I made them secondary. Very secondary.

When my mind wanders onto an expensive purchase, or even onto too many inexpensive purchases, I ask myself whether or not those things trump the main things I want out of life. If I can’t make a strong case, then I put off that purchase.

Money exists to secure the life you want to live. So, what kind of life do you want to live?

I don’t have the answer to that question, but I do have a few elements I’ve picked up over the years that might help guide you to your answers.

The Rule of Everyday Life

First and foremost, I found that if I aim for the best possible day to day life several months down the road, things tend to click into place pretty well. What would be the best average day I could have in six months to a year?

Well, for me, it would be a low stress day. I’d wake up feeling great. I’d spend some quality time with my family. I’d spend some time on my hobbies and some time on work that was meaningful and interesting to me. I’d go do something active, like getting some exercise or at least going on a long walk. I’d get a few things done that had been on my mind lately. I’m closer to other big goals than I am right now – things like my children’s full independence. To me, that’s a pretty good day.

Then, I tweak it a bit. In order to have that kind of day on a regular basis in six months, what do I need to be doing right now?

I need to have financial security so that the stress level stays low and that I maintain the daily freedom to do most of those things. I need to be healthy, so I should eat well and get some real exercise today. I need to work on my relationship with my wife and my kids and make sure that’s healthy.

In other words, the best way you can spend a day right now is to fill it with things so that your ordinary days are as good as possible six months to a year from now.

For most people I’ve talked to, securing those good days in the future involves good personal finance practices on at least some level. That ideal “ordinary day” often takes financial health for granted, but the only way you get that financial health is by practicing good financial habits today and moving forward.

The exact elements of this are going to vary from person to person. What you want out of an ordinary day in the future might be different than what I want. However, I’m willing to bet that there’s a good chance that whatever it is you want, it’s going to be more likely and more secure and lower in stress if you have your financial house in order.

The Rule of Big Splurges

Many of us have visions for the future that involve at least some big splurges. Maybe you envision buying a house or going on a big trip. My vision for the future for my family involves going on at least one international trip when my children are older – and, ideally, two or three.

If you have that big splurge in your future, answer this simple question: what am I doing today to secure that big splurge so that when I do dive in, it doesn’t disrupt my life and put me in stressful financial handcuffs?

Let’s say that in the years 2021 to 2024, our family was going to go on three different international vacations together. (This is purely hypothetical – my guess is that this actually doesn’t happen.)

What am I doing today to secure those vacations so that when we do them, it doesn’t disrupt my normal day to day life (described earlier) and put us in financial handcuffs and, even worse, add some stress to those trips when I want them to be low in stress and purely enjoyable?

The answer’s easy: I save for it. We’re already putting money away in a savings account solely for that purpose. We’re ideally shooting for one trip to Asia and another to my wife’s ancestral family home, and we’re considering one more. However, we want to be able to just pay for those trips out of pocket without disrupting anything else in our life and without putting us in any sort of financial handcuffs, and the only way to do that is by saving a little now, each month, until it arrives.

Figure out what big things you have coming up and start saving for them now. That way, when they do come around, they don’t disrupt the other elements of your life. They don’t put you in financial handcuffs. They don’t add stress to the equation.

The Rule of Freedom

Underneath all of this is the core idea that maximizing personal freedom and choice is the best goal for a joyful life for most people, and the most powerful way to support that freedom is to have a firm financial foundation under you.

I’ll give you a concrete example: careers. It was only through having a good financial foundation under our feet that I could consider changing to a full time writing career from my previous full time career in a research environment. Financial security enabled a career option that would have never existed before.

Furthermore, our financial security makes it possible for us to survive a sudden unplanned career shift. Let’s say, for example, that The Simple Dollar suddenly went offline and my other writing opportunities disappeared and I had to find a new career path to follow. I could do this on my own terms, without real worry, because of our financial foundation. I would have the time to shore up my experience in my earlier career path and go back to that work, or try out a new endeavor or two. It’s not a complete panic situation if I were to lose my job.

This doesn’t mean that I am “free” to spend money hand over fist every day. I certainly could do that. However, I recognize that all it would provide for me is a short burst of immediate pleasure that would rapidly fade, but it would bring financial challenges and stress with it and those would last and last and last. Sure, I can go splurge like crazy. I can go buy whatever my heart desires. Yet, if I did that, that initial burst of pleasure would fade fast and I’d be left with a strictly worse version of my everyday life with less personal freedom and fewer options. That splurge better be quite worth it, which is why I’m slow and careful with my splurges.

Splurges simply aren’t worth undermining the day to day life I want, at least not for me. They fade too fast and leave too little behind.

Final Thoughts

One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned over the last ten or fifteen years of my life is that establishing a daily life that I’m really happy with, one that fulfills me while also building toward the big things I really want in life, is paramount. The thing is, that daily life really isn’t very expensive at all.

Money’s role in that everyday life is in washing away stress, opening opportunities, keeping those opportunities open, and protecting against disruption. If you’re using money just to add more and more unimportant little pleasures to that daily routine, you’re still left with the stress and the lack of opportunity. I’ve been there – it’s not a tradeoff I’m happy with.

Financial security and consistent good financial choices provides a foundation for the life you want to live, but it is that life that comes first. However, the things that make life great can’t be bought. Money can only help extend your options.

Life first. Money second.

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Get Paid $19/Hr to Work From Home as a Social Media Monitor for Sutherland

So you live on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and whatnot. But are you a truly skilled in operating social media platforms?

If you understand the ebbs and flows of moderating social media pages and are looking for a full-time job using those skills, then Sutherland wants you.

Sutherland, a business processing outsourcing company, is looking for a work-from-home social media moderator and will pay $19 per hour. This gig is available for people living in the greater San Diego area or the greater Rochester, New York, area.

As a work-from-home social media moderator, you’ll be the first line of defense in social customer support, identifying concerns before they become major issues.

This gig is 100% remote and has a regular work schedule, but you may be asked at any time to jump back online for off-hour assistance. Your normal schedule will be:

Sunday: 5 a.m. to 2 p.m. PST

Monday: 5 a.m. to 2 p.m. PST

Tuesday and Wednesday: Off

Thursday: 1 p.m. to 10 p.m. PST

Friday: 1 p.m. to 10 p.m. PST

Saturday: 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. PST

If this work-from-home gig isn’t what you’re looking for, then don’t worry. Check out our Jobs page on Facebook. We post new opportunities there all the time.

Work-at-Home Social Media Moderator at Sutherland

Pay: $19 per hour

Responsibilities include:

• Moderate the social media pages of Sutherland clients, including Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube, Google+, Yelp and anywhere else clients have or want to develop a social presence
• Identify potential social media influencers for partnerships
• Report any potential issues, risks and concerns that develop on social platforms
• Help internal stakeholders improve the flow of content and information
• Help the community manager with content and prize fulfillment
• Request updates to social media documentation
• Assist with customer support inquiries

Applicants for this position must:

• Have a quiet, distraction-free home office in the greater San Diego area or the greater Rochester, New York, area
• Have a high school diploma or GED
• Have basic PC keyboard skills and experience using Microsoft Office programs like Outlook, Word and Excel
• Have one to two years experience in a related field, including online moderation, social media or customer support
• Have some knowledge of social media analysis tools such as Oracle SM and Radian6
• Have a strong internet connection with (no wireless and/or satellite internet service providers)
• Have a hard-wired internet connection capable of supporting high-speed response rates
• Have a computer that meets required specifications
• Use one of the following operating systems: Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1 or Windows 10

Apply here for the work-at-home social media moderator position at Sutherland.

Matt Reinstetle is a staff 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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Petersen International Underwriters Review

Did you know there are more than 6,000 insurance companies in the United States?

If you're shopping for an insurance policy, you have a lot of options. Do you know which one is the best?

There are a lot of different aspects you'll need to weigh when shopping around for insurance.

You probably have a friend or cousin who is an insurance agent. They've probably tried to sell you coverage in the past, but just because you're related doesn't mean they are the best choice.

If you want the best insurance coverage, regardless of the type of plan you're looking for, you need to do a lot of groundwork. You need to determine which company has the best coverage, affordable prices, and a solid history.

This article is going to look at Petersen International Underwriters.

You probably haven't heard of them, but you should include them in your insurance search. They aren't a household name, but they could be an excellent choice for you.

History of Petersen International Underwriters

Before we show you where PIU is today, we want to show you where they began. PIU was established by W. Harold Petersen, who grew up in Iowa. While Harold was growing up, he saw his family struggle financially because of his father’s spinal condition.

Although Harold went to the University of California for journalism, he found himself working part-time at the Mutual of Omaha. This is where he was introduced to the idea of disability insurance.

In 1979, he decided to create his own agency, Petersen International Underwriting.

He wanted to make the disability insurance coverage easier. While working with Mutual of Omaha, he saw clients have to buy multiple policies to protect their income.

To combat this, he created a High Limit Disability Insurance policy.

After a couple years of good business, PIU became a coverholder at Lloyd's in 1983. PIU delivers their own quotes, and issues policies for Lloyd's of London. PIU still builds their plans, and their quality of service is the same.

PIU is not the oldest company out there. They've only been in business for almost 40 years, but they've experienced a lot of growth in those 40 years.

Ratings and Finances

When you're shopping around for an insurance company, one important thing to look at is their grades from third-party companies. In regards to insurance, the most prominent ratings are from Standard & Poor's, A.M. Best, and the BBB.

The ratings for PIU are a little different than most other insurance companies.

They are a coverholder of a company called Lloyd's. Lloyd's is an underwriting company who specializes and works with over 50 insurance companies and has over 4,000 coverholders.

The financial strength ratings come from Llyod's. For Lloyd's, they have an A+ rating from S&P, an AA- from Fitch, and an A from A.M. Best. All of these show excellent financial security and projected future.

Products from PIU

PIU has a handful of different insurance products they offer. They sell:

• Disability Insurance
• Life Insurance
• Health Insurance
• Contingent Insurance

PIU has very interesting insurance products you may not find with other companies. In fact, they have some of the most specific and unique plans on the market.

High Limit Accident Insurance

To start, let's look at their accident insurance. You can be as safe as you want, but you never know when there is going to be an accident. This plan can protect a single person or a group of people in case of accidental death or dismemberment.

These plans are similar to a traditional life insurance policy, but they only payout if the policyholder passes away because of an accident, not if they were to die from natural causes.

With this policy, you can get coverage anywhere from $100,000 to $100 million. One exciting aspect of the PIU accident insurance plan is it can be customized for situations like war or terrorism zones.

For just about any situation, this accident insurance policy can protect you.

To get the High Limit Accident Insurance, all you have to do is complete their one-page application. You don't have to take a medical exam. It's quick and easy.

Health Insurance

Another unique insurance PIU offers is their health insurance. They don't offer traditional health insurance.

Instead, they sell a short-term insurance policy which protects people who are traveling overseas, traveling to the U.S., or people who need health insurance for less than a year.

Their health insurance plans are:

• USAway Major Medical Plan
• International Major Medical
• Bridge Major Medical Insurance
• Accident Only Major Medical

All of these plans are designed for different groups of people, but they are all easy ways to get health coverage without having to jump through all of the hoops of a traditional health insurance policy.

Their policies have very loose requirements. With most of them, as long as you're younger than 64, you can get insurance protection.

Individual Disability Insurance

Most people don't fully understand disability insurance, which is a serious mistake.

If you were to be injured at work, then Worker's Compensation is going to help replace your income, but if you are seriously injured outside of work, then Worker's Comp won't do anything.

If you were to find yourself too sick or injured to work, then you aren't going to have that paycheck coming in. This is where a disability insurance policy comes in.

If this is something you're interested in, you should know PIU is simply one of many disability insurance companies, but they have perhaps the widest possible selection of products.

Individual High Limit Disability Insurance

Some employers offer their employees short-term disability insurance, which will help replace your paycheck for a couple weeks or months, but what happens if you still can't get back to work?

This is why you should buy a long-term insurance policy.

One interesting aspect of the PIU disability insurance is the fact that its own occupation total disability definition. This means if you're too injured to perform your job, you can get the payout from the policy, even if you are working somewhere else.

Another interesting feature of this policy is if you're deemed totally disabled, you'll get a lump sum benefit payment. They also have a few riders you can add on, like a residual rider.

Guaranteed Issue Group/Multi-Life Insurance

If you can't be approved for a traditional policy because of your health or any pre-existing conditions, then this guaranteed issue policy could be a great option.

As long as you're within their age limits, then you can be approved for one of these plans. There is no easier way to get disability insurance. There is no medical exam or hoops you have to go through. Apply and then you have coverage.

Accelerated Disability Benefit to Age 70

The name of this policy says it all. These plans are not intended to be the main policy.

The purpose of these plans is to add additional coverage from an already existing plan. These plans usually last 5 years and you can get one as long as you're 35 or older.

Executive 400 Disability Insurance

This is a niche kind of disability insurance, which isn't going to meet the needs of most people. These plans have a max coverage limit of $100,000 a month, which most people don’t need nearly this much coverage.

These plans are designed for applicants who run their own business or a person who is a key part of their business.

PIU sells several kinds of disability insurance plans which are customized depending on the occupation:

• Physicians & Surgeons Disability
• Dentists Disability
• Chiropractors Disability
• StarCover
• Entertainment Industry Disability
• Brokers & Traders Disability
• Legal Professionals Disability
• Pilots Loss of License
• Blue & Grey Collar Disability

We aren't going to detail all of these plans, because they are pretty straightforward. You can guess from the name of the plan what they cover.

Graded Benefit Disability

This plan will protect 65% of your income, or you can choose a 50% or 80% option. The more coverage you want, the more you're going to pay every month.

These plans are available from 3 years coverage to 5 years coverage, and just about any occupation is accepted.

Stock Option Disability

This plan is designed for high-up executives of companies which are publicly traded. If you're disabled permanently, this policy will account for bonuses on top of your salary and up to 80% of the payout can be in stock options.

Pension Completion

A pension is one of the best things you can do for your future finances. If you're ever stuck with a disability, your pension is going to take a huge hit.

With this plan, the policyholder will be paid out the balance of the pension contributions they would have made if they wouldn't have been disabled.

Business Disability Insurance

Not only does PIU sell a ton of individual disability insurance policies, but they also have some business disability insurance plans as well. These policies are built for people who either own a business or are key parts of their company.

These policies include:

• Buy-Sell Disability
• Buy-Sell Plus
• Overhead Expense
• Key Person Disability Insurance
• Contract Guarantee
• Severance Agreement Disability Insurance
• Salary Continuation
• Loan Indemnification

Each of these policies has slightly different coverages and protection.

If you're one of the key workers in your organization, you should consider purchasing one of these policies.

Other Products Sold By PIU

Aside from their main policies, there are a few other plans they sell as well. We are not going to detail them (most of them are self-explanatory), but you should be aware of your options.

They have several contingent insurance policies:

• Key personal failure to survive
• Kidnap & Ransom Insurance
• Brand Protection
• Business Loan Failure to Survive

Advantages and Disadvantages of PIU

Now, let's look at some of the pros and cons of PIU. Each company has areas where they shine and other areas where they fall flat.

One of the advantages of PIU is all the options they have available.

They have an insurance plan for some of the most niche sections out there. As you can tell from the dozens of options of disability plans, they have a plan designed for every occupation and person out there.

Most companies have one or two plans and try to fit every applicant in those plans. PIU has plenty of specialized plans for their clients.

Another benefit of buying a plan through PIU is their accelerated underwriting process. Regardless of the policy you buy, the process is going to be quick. With some companies, you could wait months to be approved.

PIU makes it much faster.

The disadvantage of PIU is simple, they aren't best for the average applicant. If you're looking for a simple, run-of-the-mill life insurance or disability insurance policy, you should probably look elsewhere.

This isn't to say PIU is a bad option or a terrible insurance company. If you're a special insurance case, either high income or high-risk, then PIU could be the perfect carrier.

How to get The Best Insurance Coverage

Regardless of the type of insurance, you're looking for, or the amount of coverage you need, the one thing we tell every applicant is this, compare. Each insurance company is different.

Even if two companies seem to have the same plan doesn't mean they are going to charge the same premiums.

By shopping around before you buy, you can save yourself thousands of dollars throughout the course of the insurance policy.

Finding the perfect company can be overwhelming. All of the plans, terms, and coverage limits can be mind-numbing. Instead of having to waste your precious time researching and calling, just keep looking at our articles.

At Good Financial Cents, we pride ourselves in giving consumers the information they need to make the best choices for their insurance needs.

The post Petersen International Underwriters Review appeared first on Good Financial Cents.

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Jeff Prestridge: Why all my spare cash goes on investing

I have a big financial confession to make. I am not a keen cash saver. I am more of a Stocks and Shares Individual Savings Account (Isa) and pension individual – and have been for quite a while.

Cash saving has been a key component of my financial life over the years – helping secure a family home in my early 30s – but the habit has become less important as I have got older. It has also become less appealing.

The trigger for my personal finance sea change was the awful financial crisis of 2008 and the subsequent fall in the Bank of England’s base rate from 5.5% to 0.25%. It turned me off cash saving and any thought of securing a halfdecent income from a building society or bank savings account. Despite last November’s increase in the base rate to 0.5%, I have yet to be tempted back to cash.

Of course, I have an emergency cash fund for when tax bills must be paid (all too regularly, it seems) or an unexpected big household bill comes in, but I am not tempted by a Cash Isa or paying into a monthly savings account. I would rather use any spare money to accumulate wealth in a different, albeit slightly riskier, way: through investing in a Stocks and Shares Isa and ensuring I am pushing as much money into my pension as I possibly can.

• Don't squander your pension investment

On occasion, I have also used any surplus money to overpay on my mortgage. Sound common sense, given the interest rate on my home loan is higher than any rate I could secure from a savings account.

Maybe I will reassess my financial strategy when the base rate ratchets up again. Indeed, May could well see another rate rise, to 0.75%, which should result in higher savings rates. And with inflation seemingly on the way down – a result, primarily, of a stronger pound and lower import costs – cash savings could start becoming a little more attractive. Especially given I will be able to shelter a big chunk of any savings income through use of my annual personal savings allowance, which stands at £500 (I am a higher-rate taxpayer – if I were a basic-rate taxpayer, the allowance would be worth £1,000, while additional-rate taxpayers don’t get anything).

For the time being, the main source of income from my savings and investments will come from the investments I hold within my Isa. But rather than taking this income, I will continue to automatically reinvest it so that I can build a bigger investment portfolio for a time in the future when I need to draw an income. Probably when I retire or more likely move out of full-time employment and work on a part-time basis. I can then draw income from my Isa to supplement any work income.

• Jeff Prestridge: My love affair with investment trusts

My Isa investment strategy is simple but based on equity income. I buy shares in income-friendly investment trusts once a month. These trusts are solid and dependable in terms of long-term investment performance and are either invested in the UK stock market or worldwide.

There is nothing sexy about them. Most have been around since time immemorial and have rather weird and wacky names (Alliance, Monks, Scottish Mortgage and Witan). But, reassuringly, they have records of unbroken growth in annual dividends stretching back more than 40 years. The trusts I buy are all drawn from the Dividend Hero list compiled by the Association of Investment Companies, a trade body for investment trusts. Take a look at: Theaic.co.uk.

Although savings income is currently not important in my life, it is a key factor in the financial lives of my three sons, all in their early to mid-20s – and for that matter, many millennials. The two eldest, Mark and Matthew, are desperately attempting to squirrel away enough cash so that they can buy their own homes.

• Turn First 50 Funds into a potent portfolio

I encourage them to shop around for the best savings rates, using rate comparison information from the likes of Moneyfacts and Savings Champion. I implore them to think outside of the box, which in savings circles means being willing to save with some of the lesser-known deposit takers – the new kids on the block (the likes of RCI Bank, Shawbrook Bank and Secure Trust – the latter two protect up to £85,000 under the Financial Services Compensation Scheme, while the former covers up to €100,000 (£86,380) under the French deposit scheme). I also urge them to look at Help to Buy Isas and Lifetime Isas as tax-effective ways to help them get a foot on the housing ladder.

Do they listen? What do you think?

 

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• Investing
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• Don't squander your pension investments
• My love affair with investment trusts
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You’ll Want to Read This Before Becoming an Airbnb Host

T-Mobile Salutes Veterans and Service Members With 50% Off Family Lines

John Legere, president and CEO of T-Mobile, is putting the phrase “thank you for your service” into action.

T-Mobile has a new plan that offers 50% off family lines for our nation’s military, their families and their small businesses.

Specifically, military families get 20% off their first line and half off up to five additional voice lines.

The T-Mobile ONE Military plan is available at T-Mobile stores and on bases nationwide for military members and their families, including active-duty military, Reserve, National Guard, veterans and Gold Star families, plus the small businesses they own.

T-Mobile ONE Military includes everything in the T-Mobile ONE plan and throws in half off a Samsung Galaxy S9, S9+ or S8 Active via bill credits through May 31.

The company estimates a family of four can save $665 compared with AT&T and $764 compared with Verizon per year with the military discounts.

And if what Legere describes as the biggest discount in the company’s history isn’t enough, T-Mobile has also pledged to hire 10,000 veterans and military spouses in the next five years.

Jen Smith is a junior writer at The Penny Hoarder and gives money saving and debt payoff tips on Instagram at @savingwithspunk.

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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Calling All Bookworms: These Publishers Will Pay You to Write Book Reviews

Target Will Finally Pay for These ‘Flushable’ Wipes That Were Anything But

Target shoppers, put on your thinking caps and try to recall if you purchased flushable wipes between 2010 and 2014.

If you did, you may be eligible for gift cards or coupons from this class-action settlement.

Target settled an Ohio lawsuit that claims its Up & Up brand flushable toddler wipes were not actually flushable. Instead, customers had to deal with clogged pipes and septic systems, the lawsuit said.

The suit cited complaints from disappointed customers who reviewed the product online while it was still available. One noted a $195 plumbing bill and a “sludge-covered basement floor.”

Another customer said their septic tank backed up into their basement and wrote, “If you choose to use them anyway, and can manage to get the wipes out of the incredibly frustrating package, don’t flush them!”

The suit states: “An entire market of so-called ‘flushable’ wipes has cropped up over the past few years. These wipes have not only been clogging consumer’s [sic] pipes all over Ohio and the country, but have also created a public health hazard by clogging pumps at municipal waste treatment facilities.”

(Want to know what those huge clogs look like? Google “What is a fatberg?” You’re welcome.)

Target denied the claims. The agreement explains that the settlement only covers the extra price charged for the “flushable” feature of the wipes; the settlement doesn’t cover any damage to plumbing systems.

If you purchased these wipes between April 18, 2010, and Oct. 31, 2014, you can file a claim. The wipes were discontinued in October 2014.

If you file a claim without proof of purchase, you can receive $1.35 per package, up to $27, as a Target gift card. If you somehow have proof of purchase, you can claim as many packages of wipes as you have evidence of buying.

You can also choose to receive your portion of the settlement via coupons for free Up & Up wipes.

Submit your claim by Sept. 7 online or by mail.

Meanwhile, in London, researchers dissected a fatberg — everything left behind after a sewer system breaks down what gets flushed — and made a TV special about it. You can bet there were a few “flushable” wipes discovered.

Lisa Rowan is a senior 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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Is It OK to Share Your Netflix Account? The Legal Lowdown on Log-in Sharing at Nine Popular Services

Like millions of people across the globe, I save money by logging in to Netflix with a username and password shared with me by friends or family. Recent polling of Netflix users showed that 12% of their total viewers are not paying for the service, and it could be costing the company over $500 million per year in revenue.

Ethically, this presents a tricky issue. I used to work in the entertainment industry, and I want all my old friends and coworkers to stay employed. If no one pays for content, people are going to stop making it. At the same time, artists are usually paid based on how many streams and downloads their content receives. Whether I’m logged in legally to Spotify or not, if I listen to The National’s latest album on repeat for five straight hours, the band will get some money they otherwise wouldn’t have received.

Another problem is that the practice of sharing logins is technically illegal. Thankfully, the law is vague, confusing, and very unlikely to be enforced. Each company has a different way of dealing with the issue, with most of them choosing to turn a blind eye to login sharing or, at worst, limiting concurrent streams as a de facto enforcement.

At first, it’s confusing why companies like Netflix would be okay with losing out on hundreds of millions of dollars in subscription money. But we have to keep in mind that these executives aren’t dumb. Most of them are playing the long game when it comes to getting us to part with our money.

If new people are watching Netflix, they have a chance of becoming new fans and subscribers, who will bring more people into the network down the road. Also, more users equals more people who are exposed to advertising, which is still the engine that keeps much of the entertainment and media industries afloat. If I click on an ad and buy a product while using my friend’s New York Times subscription, that’s still a good thing for the Times and the advertiser.

To try to get to the bottom of what’s allowed and what isn’t, I decided to analyze nine of the most popular media subscription services. I tried to find out everything I could about both their official policy and their unofficial stance on sharing login information. That way, we can all be informed about their current policies.

Netflix

Official policy: Not allowed to share. Their terms of use document states that “the Account Owner’s control is exercised through use of the Account Owner’s password and therefore to maintain exclusive control, the Account Owner should not reveal the password to anyone.”

If you want to have multiple people use one Netflix login, you should buy their premium plan, which allows you to watch from four devices at the same time.

Unofficial policy: Share away! Netflix CEO Reed Hastings is notorious for caring very little about the sharing of login information. As long as you aren’t selling your password, you can probably share without fear of retribution. Some people think the company might start cracking down when the sharing of passwords starts affecting their bottom line, but no one is sure when or if that day will come.

HBO Go / HBO Now

Official policy: You can share login information with three people in your household, but sharing with outsiders is frowned upon. They make this clear on their help page, stating, “Your sign-in credentials shouldn’t be shared with anyone outside your household. For security reasons, the number of simultaneous streams is limited. If there are too many streams happening at once from your account, you’ll get a simultaneous streams message.”

Unofficial policy: Andy Samberg famously gave out a working HBO password while hosting the Emmys, and HBO loved the publicity. They were one of the first major subscription providers to come out and say that they don’t mind when their customers share login information. Their CEO went so far as to say they’re in the business of “making addicts,” so the more viewers they get, the better.

Similar to Netflix, the sense around the internet is that if sharing starts to impact their revenue too much, they might initiate a crackdown.

Hulu

Official policy: Share, but be careful? It’s a little confusing. According to their terms of use, “You are responsible for all use of your account, including use of your account by other members of your household. By allowing others to access your account or to create profiles within your account, you agree to be responsible for ensuring that they comply with these Terms and you agree to be responsible for their activity using the Services.”

It seems like you can share, but if anyone does anything nefarious on your account, it’s on you.

Unofficial policy: Go ahead and share. The internet is filled with stories of people who share Hulu accounts without issue. I’ve used shared Hulu accounts and I know many others who’ve done so as well. Cracking down does not seem to be a priority for the company.

New York Times Digital

Official policy: You can share with one or two people in your household, but not beyond that. They use some harsh language to get their point across in their terms of service, stating, “You are responsible for all usage or activity on your NYTimes.com account, including use of the account by any third party authorized by you to use your login credentials. Any fraudulent, abusive, or otherwise illegal activity may be grounds for termination of your account, at our sole discretion, and we may refer you to appropriate law enforcement agencies.”

Unofficial policy: It seems fine to share. I scoured the web and found no instances of the NYT team punishing anyone, and I know several people who share their passwords without repercussions.

Furthermore, if you open a private browsing window, you can usually read their content freely without having to worry about going over the 10-article-per-month limit.

Washington Post Digital

Official policy: This one is confusing. Their terms of service states, “Each login is for a single user only. You are not allowed to share or disclose your login credentials with any other user or person. We may cancel or suspend your access to the Services if you share your credentials.”

That’s certainly a straightforward no. However, each subscription comes with a bonus subscription, which can be shared with one other person. I’m not sure why they don’t just let people share their main subscription, as it would appear to accomplish the same thing. But hey, I guess that’s why they pay Jeff Bezos the big bucks.

That all being said, the Post allows free access to many students, teachers, members of the military, and government officials.

Unofficial policy: They are not actively pursuing those that share login credentials. The Post’s tech guru Geoffrey Fowler even wrote an article titled, “You don’t have to feel guilty about sharing your TV log-in,” so it would be pretty hypocritical of them to crack down. Also, as with the New York Times, using a private browsing window will usually allow you to read their content.

Wall Street Journal Digital

Official policy: I think the the WSJ takes the cake for most confusing policy. Here it is, from their subscriber agreement: “Only one individual may access a Service at the same time using the same user name or password, unless we agree otherwise.” (Emphasis is mine.)

Wait, what? Unless they agree otherwise? That seems so… casual. I was not able to find any concrete information about how you get their agreement. If you want to share your account, it wouldn’t hurt to write a nice letter to their support staff or to tweet at their social media manager.

Unofficial policy: If you have a shared password, you should be able to use it without issue. That is, unless you share it with 1,051 people, in which case you will get caught.

Amazon Prime

Official policy: You’re not technically allowed to share outside of your household. That being said, the Amazon Household plan allows for sharing with up to 10 people, which is by far the biggest group sharing officially offered among these subscription sites.

Unofficial policy: You can share, but they’ve made it very inconvenient to do so. In the past, you could share your benefits with another person as long as you knew their email address and birthday. Then, they could each use their own Prime account. As of 2015, they changed it so that each person you share with will have access to your buying history and credit card information. That makes it a lot less appealing.

So, if you’re going to share, it better be with someone you really trust!

Apple Music

Official policy: Their terms of service state both that “you may use the Services and Content only for personal, noncommercial purposes” and “you can use Content from up to five different Apple IDs on each device.”

So, no sharing with those outside the Apple ecosystem, but you can share your account with up to five others if you buy a family plan.

Unofficial policy: I wasn’t able to find anything concrete about whether they pursue those who share their logins, so my default assumption is that they don’t. That being said, they make it pretty much useless to share your account with multiple people, because you can only stream from one device per logged in user at any given time.

Spotify

Official policy: Not allowed without a premium plan. Their terms and conditions state that you are forbidden from “providing your password to any other person or using any other person’s username and password.” If you want to legally share with up to five people, however, you can purchase their premium plan.

Unofficial policy: As with Amazon Prime, sharing is possible, but logistically it doesn’t make much sense. As I’ve learned the hard way, Spotify’s technology is very good at booting you if someone else with the shared password starts streaming from their phone. There is no wiggle room.

Summing Up

Sharing subscription passwords is potentially unethical and, in most cases, technically a crime. But it’s highly unlikely you’ll face any repercussions if you do so, and you’re hardly alone: A 2014 poll by Consumer Reports found that 46% of streaming users shared an account with someone outside their household.

It all comes down to what you value and, frankly, how much money you’re willing to spend on subscriptions. While I take advantage of free music streaming sites and the surprising array of digital content on offer at the library, I hope to get to a point where I pay a fair price for all the other stuff I use, too. But in the meantime I’ll just be thankful to have generous friends.

Related Reading:

• We Haven’t Paid for TV in Years: Our Real-Life Experience Cutting Cable
• Why Podcasts Are the Best Entertainment Bargain Out There – and 30 Great Ones to Enjoy
• My Five Favorite Services for Streaming Free Music Online

The post Is It OK to Share Your Netflix Account? The Legal Lowdown on Log-in Sharing at Nine Popular Services appeared first on The Simple Dollar.

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