Plans to resurface about 10 miles of Interstate 80 in Monroe County have been postponed one week, the state Department of Transportation announced in a Monday morning statement. The work that was slated to start Monday between Exit 293 (Interstate 380) and Exit 284 (state Route 115) will now begin Aug. 27 instead.The project includes the milling, patching and paving of I-80 west through Tobyhanna and Tunkhannock townships. That section of highway experiences an average daily traffic [...]
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الاثنين، 20 أغسطس 2018
How You Can Earn Up to $4,250 in Scholarships Toward Cosmetology School
Either way, it takes some skills and schooling to get there.
To help students achieve their blush-colored dreams, Beauty Changes Lives — in conjunction with beauty-inspired sponsors — has four beauty-related scholarships available right now.
What to Know About Beauty Changes Lives Scholarships
You can apply for only one of the scholarships listed, so choose wisely.
All applicants must fill out a general application, complete with a headshot and proof of enrollment or current licensure.
After filling out the general application, applicants are required to fill out a second application for the specific scholarship they choose.
The deadline to apply for all of them is Sept. 15, 2018.
CND Master Nail Scholarship: $1,000
This scholarship is for licensed nail professionals pursuing advanced or continuing education in the nail industry.
A total of 15 recipients will receive $1,000 toward tuition, open stock product and/or travel for advanced nail education.
Applicants can submit an inspiration board, essay or three-minute video answering the question: “Why is beauty your passion, and how will your career in beauty fulfill your purpose?”
Examples and submission details are available on the CND Master Nail scholarship page.
European Wax Center “Unapologetic You” Scholarship: $4,250
This “Unapologetic You” scholarship is available to students currently in an accredited esthetics or cosmetology licensure program in the continental United States or Hawaii.
Students need to have 50% of their required courses completed to apply.
Applicants must submit a video answering as least one of the following questions:
- How do you describe your own style of unapologetic confidence?
- Please describe how you used your unapologetic confidence to accomplish a goal in your life or career.
- As you advance in your studies and career, how will you help champion confidence in others?
Videos must be a minimum of one minute long and have a YouTube link included with the submission.
MUD Make-up Scholarship: $2,500
The Make-up Designory (MUD) funds five $2,500 scholarships twice a year.
Any student in an accredited cosmetology and/or esthetics school that uses MUD makeup in their program can apply to this scholarship.
Once the general application is filled out, the second application phase includes submitting a video or storyboard with accompanying essay that answers the question:
“Why is beauty your passion, and how will your career in beauty fulfill your purpose?”
Additional questions and requirements can be found on the MUD Make-up scholarship page.
Ratner Companies Passion and Purpose Cosmetology Scholarship: $3,125
Are you currently enrolled in an accredited beauty school or cosmetology program with less than 50% of the program complete?
If so, then this scholarship might be the one for you.
Ratner Companies, owner of five salon brands with nearly 1,000 salons, is sponsoring this passion- and purpose-themed scholarship.
Applicants have to submit a three-minute YouTube video that answers the question: “Why is beauty your passion, and how will your career in beauty fulfill your purpose?”
Stephanie Bolling is a staff writer at The Penny Hoarder. She believes that everyone is beautiful even on their ugliest days.
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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NYU’s Free Tuition Puts Med School Within Reach for More Students
The school in New York, N.Y., has announced that, effective immediately, it will waive tuition — currently $55,018 — for all students regardless of need. The dean, Dr. Robert Grossman, said in a statement that he hopes other academic medical centers will follow suit.
The intent is to increase diversity and give students the financial freedom to pursue careers in primary care, pediatrics and obstetrics and gynecology — specialties that aren’t among the highest-paying, the university said.
“We believe that with our tuition-free initiative, we have taken a necessary, rational step that addresses a critical need to train the most talented physicians, unencumbered by crushing debt,” Grossman, who also is CEO of NYU Langone Health, said in a news release.
The largesse was made possible through donations, including $100 million from Kenneth Langone, according to the Wall Street Journal. He’s a billionaire businessman and philanthropist for whom NYU Langone Health is named. More than $400 million of the $650 million needed has already been raised, according to the newspaper.
Students will still have to pay for living expenses, estimated at $29,000 per year, the Wall Street Journal reports.
According to the American Association of Medical Colleges, three-quarters of medical students graduate with debt. The average amount is more than $190,000, but 48 percent leave school with a debt greater than $200,000, the association found.
The median cost of one year at a public medical school is $36,937, placing the career out of reach for many Americans. At a private school, it’s even more: $59,605, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges.
This spring, Columbia University’s Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons said it would become the first medical school in the country to replace loans with scholarships for all students who qualify for student aid. The 20 percent of students with the greatest need will get a free ride starting this school year, the college said.
The scholarship fund will be supported by an endowment that was established by Dr. P. Roy Vagelos and Diana Vagelos, for whom the 250-year-old medical school was renamed last December. The couple has committed more than $300 million to Columbia, $150 million of which was directed toward the scholarship fund endowment.
A decade ago, the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve began paying full tuition for all students, limited to 32 per class. The program is geared toward training what the college calls physician investigators, who teach and do research.
Susan Jacobson is an editor 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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Auto Bits: Tire confidential: Tips on picking the right one for you
Tip of the WeekTo most people, a tire is a tire is a tire. To the naked eye, that’s absolutely correct: They are black and round. However, upon further inspection, tires are one of the most technologically advanced parts of a car, influencing the braking, steering, comfort, handling, safety and fuel efficiency. They are also the only parts actually touching the road.Whether it’s the daily commute, family road trip, cruise to the beach, off-road adventure or grocery run, [...]
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Source Business - poconorecord.com https://ift.tt/2Bu0kmG
How to Drive More Traffic to Your Website with These 11 Types of Blog Posts
Those of you who know me know how much I promote blogging.
I’ve been doing it for years, and I use blogging as a tool for lead generation. But having a blog has many other benefits as well.
Driving more traffic to your website is arguably one of the most important reasons for running a blog.
Think of it like this. How often would you say the same person comes back to your website?
Depending on the nature of your site and your brand, it may not be too often. This is especially true if you have an ecommerce site.
People don’t want to buy things from you on a daily basis. Sure, you may have had some success by implementing customer loyalty strategies, but even the most loyal customers probably won’t visit your site every day.
Blogging gives people a reason to come back to view your site on a regular basis.
If you can establish a steady audience of readers, they will continue to visit your site to read your blog. Once they’re on the site, they will be more likely to convert into buyers.
Research shows that the publishing frequency of your blog posts has a direct impact on customer acquisition:
But if you want to publish posts frequently, you’ll need to mix up your content.
Blogging about the same thing over and over again is boring. That’s why you need to learn how to write different posts to keep your readers interested and engaged.
Here are the top 11 types of posts that will drive traffic to your website.
Use this guide as a reference so you can always come up with fresh ideas for your blog.
1. Informative guides
Stick to the basics. Informative posts or “how to” guides are some of the most popular types of posts on the Internet.
You have to understand how people search for content online. If you’re trying to drive traffic to your website organically, your blog posts need to be SEO-friendly.
When someone wants to learn how to do something, they will literally type “how to” into the search engine to find information about it.
If your post appears as a top result, you’ll get more traffic to your site. But to get ranked toward the top of the list, your guides must be helpful.
Getting more people to read your posts and spend time on the page will improve your search ranking.
Here’s a great example of these types of posts on the HubSpot website:
As you can see, three of the top six featured posts on the homepage of its marketing blog explain how to do something.
If you’re writing these types of posts, you need to make sure your explanation is clear.
Describe each step in a separate subsection with its own subheading. Take screenshots, and use boxes, arrows, and other annotations so readers can see what you’re talking about.
2. Video blogs
If writing comes naturally to you, it will help you tremendously when it comes to blogging.
But some people have trouble translating their thoughts into words on the page. If you think you’re a better speaker than writer, you may want to consider running a video blog.
As a marketer, you need to recognize how video content drives results:
Video content will increase your organic search traffic by 157% and also increase the time people spend on your site.
People probably won’t read your posts word for word. They’ll just skim through them.
But videos keep people engaged. Your video blogs have seemingly endless opportunities.
The content of each video is completely up to you. You may even consider turning an informative “how to” post, which I previously discussed, into a video tutorial.
Video blogs don’t need to stand on their own. You can mix in video posts with your conventional written blog posts.
Here’s an example of how I do this on the Neil Patel blog:
As you can see, the post on the left is a video blog. But the blog published on the right is a regular post.
3. Guest posts
Guest blogging has tons of benefits. If websites give you the opportunity to blog for them, don’t turn them down.
Bloggers have the wrong mentality when it comes to guests posts. I see this problem all the time.
They would much rather focus on producing new content for their own sites as opposed to someone else’s.
But they don’t realize how writing for another site can benefit them. Allow me to explain.
The people who currently read your blog are already familiar with your voice and content. That’s what keeps them coming back.
However, other people might also enjoy your content, but they don’t know you yet. Getting featured on another website through a guest post will expose you and your brand to a new audience.
If you can impress these readers, they may be more likely to visit your site in the future.
Plus, you can build backlinks through your guest posts that drive more traffic to your website and ultimately improve your SEO as well. This will help you get more organic search traffic moving forward.
4. Long blogs
If you’re writing short posts just to save time and put out as much content as possible, it’s probably not working to your advantage.
Your blog posts should be long.
There are a few reasons for this. First of all, the length of your content is linked to search engine optimization.
Longer posts will give you the opportunity to add more links, images, and keywords to your posts. Google will reward you for this.
Furthermore, a higher percentage of bloggers who publish longer posts reported stronger results from these efforts:
If you are not taking the word length into consideration when you’re writing, you need to reevaluate your strategy.
I’d recommend publishing content that is 1,500 words at a minimum. But you can even shoot for 2,000 or 2,500+ words for certain posts.
Again, people won’t read your posts word for word. So don’t have really long paragraphs in these posts.
Use short sentences, headers, and visual elements to break up your content. This is especially important for longer blog posts.
5. Lists
Lists are another common type of blog post.
I use lists all the time. In fact, what you’re reading right now is one of my lists.
One of the reasons why list posts are so popular is that your readers know what to expect. They can scroll through each point on the list without having to read through the entire thing.
Readers like it when content is straightforward and organized.
Vary the formula for writing titles of list posts. Here are some examples to show you what I’m talking about:
- 21 Ways to Prepare Chicken
- the Top 6 Types of Bicycle Tires
- How to Travel on a Budget with These 13 Tips
The list goes on and on, pun intended. But you get the point.
Changing the position of the number within the title of your list ensures your content doesn’t appear stale. If someone looks through your blog and sees that each title starts with a number, they may not be interested in reading it.
Switch up the numbers as well. While top ten lists may be popular, they can get boring too.
Google the topic before you start writing. Try to come up with a list longer than other lists in the search query. This will give you an advantage over your competitors.
6. Product reviews
Reviewing products and services is another great way to drive traffic to your blog.
As we’ve said before, you need to understand how people search for content on the Internet. If they are interested in a product, they’ll want to read reviews about it.
Here’s an example of a recent blog post from TechRadar that reviews multiple products in the same post:
There are a few different ways to decide what products to review.
For starters, you could review items your company sells. The only issue with this strategy is that people will know your opinion is biased. You won’t post an unfavorable review about something you’re selling.
But if your blog covers a specific industry, you can review new releases. Make sure the reviews are relevant.
Refer back to the example above. The article is reviewing the most recent iPhone products. It wouldn’t make sense to review models released five years ago.
If you decide to review products on a regular basis, establish a flow to such posts so your readers know what to expect.
Start with a product overview, and explain what the product does. Then, you can discuss specifications and other details. List the price and where it can be purchased.
The review should have some form of a pros and cons list. Reviews should ultimately express your stance on the item. For example, you can explain which people would benefit most from the product.
7. Infographics
As I’ve said before, you need to incorporate visual content into your blog posts.
But you can take this strategy to the next level by publishing blog posts that are almost exclusively infographics.
Creating custom infographics can help you build more backlinks as well. Here’s why.
Other websites are always looking for content that will help improve their blog posts. If you can come up with relevant, accurate, and visually appealing infographics, these sites will use them in their blogs.
As a result, you’ll get credit for the image source.
People who see your infographics on other sites may be inclined to click the link to visit your website. Furthermore, these links will also improve your SEO ranking, which I’ve previously discussed.
8. Stories
Learning how to tell a story is an art. Once you master this skill, the quality of your blog posts will improve.
A great story will keep your readers on the edge of their seats.
You need to understand the impact storytelling has on our brains:
When readers have an emotional response to your story, dopamine gets released from their brains.
Use this information to your advantage. The best stories are written to elicit some type of emotion, whatever that may be.
The choice is up to you. Maybe you want your readers to feel sad or angry while they’re reading your posts. And some of you may prefer to evoke joy, surprise, or love.
If you can make your readers feel emotions, they’ll be more likely to continue reading the blog.
As a result, they’ll come back to read more in the future.
Depending on the nature of your story, it can also generate traffic based on curiosity alone. For example, if I saw a blog post that said something like “How I Caught a Shark With a Pair of Jeans,” I would be very inclined to click on it to find out what happened.
9. Controversial posts
Controversy can spark some interest. This interest will lead to website traffic.
That said, you need to tread carefully with this approach.
Depending on what stance you take on a particular topic, you could potentially destroy your brand’s image. You don’t want this strategy to backfire.
It’s best to avoid topics such as race, religion, and politics. Don’t say anything that would offend someone.
When writing a controversial blog post, try not to pick a side. Instead, bring up the issue and try to generate a discussion in the comments section.
Truthfully, I wouldn’t recommend this strategy to all websites. But for some of you, this type of blog post may fit well with your brand image and target audience.
10. Breaking news
Use your blog to discuss breaking news topics.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying you should try to compete with actual news outlets. But you can still write about recent events.
When it comes to breaking news, timing is everything. Being the first one to break a story isn’t always the best.
Sometimes you’re better off waiting to publish your content until all the facts are straight. You don’t want to get a reputation for posting unreliable information.
Here’s an example of a news story published on the TechCrunch blog:
Make sure your news story is relevant to your business.
For example, let’s say you run a fashion blog. A breaking news story about a technological advancement isn’t related to your brand, so don’t write about it.
11. Data-driven guides
Whenever you’re writing an informative guide, back it up with statistics.
Use data only from authority sources, and give them credit for the information.
Adding data to your guides shows your readers your content is legitimate.
You didn’t just pull ideas out of thin air. You took the time to conduct research and then formed opinions based on your findings.
I use this strategy all the time. Before I take a stance or give advice, I find numbers to back up my claims.
If you are interested in doing original research, consider highlighting your case studies in a blog post.
This will help you get traffic from organic searches as well as through backlinks whenever another site uses your study as a source of information.
Conclusion
Your website needs a blog. But having a blog alone won’t necessarily drive traffic to your website.
Producing the same type of content for each post is boring and won’t deliver the results you’re looking for.
That’s why you need to learn how to write different types of blog posts.
Some of your posts may not even need to be text-heavy. You can use video blogs and infographics to enhance your content.
Anyone with a blog can benefit from using this guide as a reference. Adding these 11 types of posts to your website will increase your overall site traffic.
What types of posts are you using to drive traffic to your website?
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Questions About Fast Food, Difficult Workplaces, Smoking, Refurbished Items, and More!
What’s inside? Here are the questions answered in today’s reader mailbag, boiled down to summaries of five or fewer words. Click on the number to jump straight down to the question.
1. Difficult workplace
2. Capital One 360 overseas
3. Handling fast food cravings
4. Car total cost of ownership
5. Bicycle for groceries?
6. Overpaid for consulting work
7. Wife’s smoking habit breaking us
8. Outdated books
9. Parents constantly ask for help
10. Why Vanguard?
11. Refurbished items
12. Youtube videos for financial advice
Our family went camping this past weekend as a bit of “last gasp of summer before school starts” celebration. It was a great trip with a lot of outdoor fun (including some excellent time in a fossil gorge) and a higher than average number of insect bites.
School starts this week. Everyone has that mix of worn out and rested that one feels after an active weekend outdoors. Let’s dig into the mailbag.
Q1: Difficult workplace
I’m in a situation where it’s very clicky-gossipy and my friends say it’s sexist against me. I don’t want to leave my job, I keep thinking I can turn it around. My family needs me to have the exceptional benefits, the hours are soft and the locations are beautiful.
I try the cookies, etc methods and get rejected with diets, etc. It’s almost hostile. I get left out of lots of “guy” meetings and projects to the point it may be hurting my career. My boss is a part of this and does not beleive my concerns. My direct questions are evaded with his head hanging so low as he looks at the ground I’m baffled.
I don’t know where to go for ideas to turn this around. Other women in IT have been telling me to leave, I really wanted to stay for another 6 years. I have been starting to put tiny feelers in other non-IT departments I deal with so I don’t have to leave…
– Diane
Diane sent in this question in response to my article from last week, Building Workplace Relationships in a Difficult Environment.
In regards to Diane’s situation, I’d point to one specific quote in the article: “”Yes, some negative gossipers manage to build circles of similarly negative people around them. Those groups are almost always disastrous in the workplace, and if you find such a cabal, it’s probably a good idea to move on to a new job as discreetly and quietly as you can.”
It sounds like something akin to this is going on in your workplace, Diane. There is a tight clique of negative people who are not open to building new relationships. When you encounter a workplace like that, it is almost always going to be bad for your career to stick around there for long.
If I were you, I would follow the advice of your friends and start looking around for a new position. This type of situation often isn’t the fault of the new person, but the fault of a culture that was allowed to take root and those who allowed it to happen.
Q2: Capital One 360 overseas
I will be traveling to Greece in about a month. Can I use my Capital 360 account to get euros there. If so, how do I do it (I bank digitally) and what are the fees?
– Alex
As far as I can tell from their online documents, Capital One 360 does not charge a currency conversion fee for international ATM withdrawals. There are three catches, however.
One, if you use your card as a MasterCard, the MasterCard network charges you a small fee, which appears to be somewhere around 1% of the transaction.
Two, you do still have to pay any ATM fees charged by the owner of the ATM. CapitalOne and AllPoint ATMs seem to be free of fees for 360 card holders.
Three, and I think this might be the kicker, I have seen in several places that the exchange rate that Capital One 360 uses on ATM withdrawals isn’t a particularly favorable rate, at least at times.
There is always a cost involved with currency exchange, no matter how you do it. I think if you stick to CapitalOne and AllPoint ATMs, you should be okay.
Q3: Handling fast food cravings
I’ve been trying to cook at home and eat healthier lately and have mostly been successful. I haven’t gone out to a sit down restaurant in more than a month. What has been tougher is fast food. I just crave it. Whenever I’m on my way home from work I just crave going through a drive thru and getting some fast food to eat. I like how it tastes and I like the convenience of eating it before I get home, taking the bag in the house, tossing it in the trash, and I’m done. How do I break that craving?
– Marcel
Honestly, this is one of those situations where discipline is going to make all the difference. You have to simply have the discipline to not wheel into that fast food drive thru after work – there’s no way around that.
There are a few things you can do that will help, though.
First, try to find a commute home from work that doesn’t take you right by your favorite fast food restaurants. Is there a different route home from work you can take that’s of comparable length but doesn’t take you near fast food joints?
Second, start preparing slow cooker meals that you start in the morning and will be done when you get home from work. Knowing that there is a meal sitting there for you ready to eat as soon as you get home, or slightly thereafter, makes things much easier.
Third, bring an “after work snack” with you to work in the morning. It can be something like a sandwich in a cooler or a frozen item that you microwave just before you leave. Pack it alongside your lunch. That way, you have something to eat on your way home and have no reason to stop for fast food.
Q4: Car total cost of ownership
What do you think about buying cars based on total cost of ownership? I have a friend that buys a new car every several years and uses the Kelley Blue Book five year total cost of ownership numbers to decide what to buy. Good idea?
– Darren
I assume that what Darren is referring to is the Kelley Blue Book five year cost to own awards, which estimates the total cost of ownership of various car types and gives an “award” to the lowest total cost in each class.
I think that this approach is a good one if you’re in a cycle of buying new cars and driving them for several years. However, I don’t think that’s the most cost-effective cycle for buying cars. A much more cost-effective cycle is buying a late model used car and driving it until significant mechanical problems start cropping up, then trading it in for another late model used car.
I would assume that you could use these awards as guidance for buying a car in that range, but you’d want to use the award winners from a couple of years ago rather than the current award winners.
I usually stick with cars from brands that have been highly trusted and marked as highly reliable over the last decade in Consumer Reports – Toyota, Hyundai, and Honda lead that pack. Currently, we own two Toyotas (a Prius and a Sienna).
Q5: Bicycle for groceries?
How exactly do you use your bicycle for groceries? You’ve written about biking to a grocery store a couple of miles from your home. Do you use a basket on your bike?
– Edward
Honestly, I use a backpack most of the time, with soft light stuff that might get crushed (like bread) in a bag hanging from my handlebars. I had a used set of pannier bags that either I didn’t have attached correctly to my bike or were flawed and I ended up tearing them to shreds very quickly. I found them on Craigslist really cheaply, so it wasn’t a big loss, but it was still frustrating.
Ideally, I’d like a fresh pair of pannier bags. Pannier bags are bags that hang over the sides of your bike akin to saddlebags, enabling you to store a few grocery bags of food for a ride home from the store. You simply install a rack on your bike – a pretty easy job – and then the bags fasten to this rack and hang in place.
When I did use the panniers, I’d just unlatch them from the bike and take them into the store with me. At the checkout, I’d literally just have them put groceries right into the pannier, then take them out and attach them back onto my bike and ride away. They would each hold about the equivalent of a very full grocery bag.
I’ve also seen people carrying groceries on a basket attached to the handlebars, a crate attached to a rack just behind the seat, and people pulling a small cart behind them stuffed full of groceries.
Q6: Overpaid for consulting work
I was hired to redo some internal software for a local business. We agreed on a total amount, half of which is to be paid up front and the other half is to be paid after work is completed. I worked closely with a two person office staff while setting this up and tweaked several things to their desired specifications and they were thrilled.
After the job was completed, I received a direct deposit for an amount equal to the total cost of the project, not the 50% I was due. I stopped by the office to get this straightened out and one of the office staff said that the extra amount was a “bonus” because I had helped them out so much.
I haven’t spent that extra 50%. I am nervous about doing so because I have never been overpaid like this before. How long should I hold onto this money? How do I file taxes?
– Charlie
In your shoes, I would sit on that extra money until I received a 1099 from them early next year for your consulting work. If everything is up front, it should state the total amount you were paid, 150% of the original agreement.
If that’s not what’s stated on the 1099, I’d stop by their office again and get it straightened out.
I am assuming that this is all on the up and up and that the owner of the business agreed to the bonus and this wasn’t a happy office staffer cooking the books here. This story sounds like there’s at least some possibility that one of the office staff loved the work you did and adjusted the paperwork without the full intent of the boss. This is a situation you want nothing to do with.
Basically, until I had a tax document in hand stating that the 50% bonus is actually yours, I wouldn’t spend that money unless I absolutely had to. If you do have such a document, you can point to that as saying that it was sanctioned by the business and that you contacted the office and were informed that the overpayment was a bonus. Be sure to accurately document when you contacted the office about overpayment.
Q7: Wife’s smoking habit breaking us
My wife smokes about a pack of cigarettes per day (before you ask, I don’t smoke but I don’t mind the smell probably because I’m used to it). I’ve wanted her to quit for health reasons but it’s always been a minor factor. Lately though we’ve been trying to get our finances in line and she basically just acts like her cigarettes are not up for discussion. I’ll note that she’s spending $5 a day just to burn cigarettes and she’s like “It’s $5 and it’s not breaking us!” What do I do?
– Calvin
My response in that situation would be to make up a monthly budget, add a line item for her cigarette monthly total ($5 times 30 is $150), and then add a line that says “Calvin – extra fun stuff – $150.” That goes above and beyond any other budgetary items for hobbies and entertainment.
If she complains about it, go straight back to the cigarettes. Offer to drop that $150 a month if she drops her smoking habit.
Either she’ll just agree to that arrangement (because of her addiction) or she’ll actually try to quit. In the first case, just take that $150 and do something financially smart with it – the specifics are up to you – or else literally use it as fun money. In the second case, support her strongly in her efforts to quit.
The moral of the story is that it’s financially unfair for her to burn $150 a month of your shared money. Either she cuts it down or you burn $150 a month, too. If you don’t do it that way, you’re going to build resentment towards her as you see the potential financial progress burning away, and that’s far worse than any financial consequence.
All you can do is lead a horse to water, and this is the most direct way I can think of.
Q8: Outdated books
What does one do with outdated books like old encyclopedias?
– Stephanie
One option is to just stick them up on Craigslist or Freecycle or your community’s Facebook Marketplace and offer them as a freebie to the first person that claims them. Almost anything that’s free on Craigslist gets claimed – I’ve seen things I would classify as trash get claimed by people.
Another option is to contact local social organizations in your community and see if they have a use for them. Churches and retirement homes may have a purpose for old encyclopedias or other books.
A final option is to see if there’s a scrapbooking club in your area – try checking Meetup. They can almost always use things like encyclopedias, as they’re a great source for images.
Q9: Parents constantly ask for help
I am 33/M/single with a good job. I live in Chicago about five hours away from my parents. They worked hard to raise me and I am appreciative of that, but they are constantly and I mean constantly asking me for money. They say or imply all the time that they invested so much in me over the first 25 years of life and now it is time for me to repay some of it. I don’t have any problem helping them a little, but I feel like they’re asking me to pay for HBO while I’m struggling to get my student loans paid off. I am starting to feel resentment and I don’t call them as often any more and now they call me more. Ideas?
– Adam
You need to have a heart to heart with them where you directly talk about this issue.
Given my own experiences, I am willing to bet that your parents perceive you as having an enormous income, probably far more than you’re actually earning, and think that you can easily afford to help them live a little better life. “He’s rich and he lives in the city and has this really great job…” is probably how their thinking goes. They see you making $120K a year or whatever and then think of the own bills they faced when they were your age and then perceive you as having a ton of money left over. I know that my parents sometimes think this way (though they don’t ask me for financial assistance).
The thing is, that’s probably not your reality. You’re almost definitely facing housing costs far higher than they think. You’re facing student loans that they’re probably not considering at all.
Another factor might be that your parents are struggling more financially than you think that they are. They might be really struggling to make ends meet and you’re the only “out” they have in that situation.
If you really trust and value your parents, you should spend a weekend with them and lay out all of your finances – both theirs and yours – and talk about things openly. They’re probably struggling more than you think, and you’re probably struggling more than they think. That kind of open conversation can really change the dynamic.
Q10: Why Vanguard?
Why do you always recommend Vanguard for investments? What’s wrong with Fidelity or Charles Schwab?
– Victor
There’s nothing whatsoever wrong with Fidelity or Charles Schwab. I mention Vanguard because (a) I agree with their core philosophy of low cost index funds, (b) I like how the Vanguard Group is set up as a business, (c) I use them myself, and (d) they have always done right by me.
Thus, when I’m actually giving advice from what I know works well for me, it’s going to involve mentions of using Vanguard for investing.
Fidelity and Charles Schwab are both good investment firms to use. Fidelity would probably be my #2 choice and what I’d use if I wasn’t using Vanguard, and Schwab wouldn’t be that far back, either. Much of my Vanguard preference comes from actually using them and being happy with the interactions and the results I’ve have with them.
Q11: Refurbished items
Are refurbished items a good buy or not? I sometimes see them at a lower price than the new version. Better to buy new or not?
– Blaine
I will happily buy refurbished items as long as they come with the same warranty as the new item. If they don’t, then I don’t fully trust those refurbished items. It’s as simple as that.
The issue comes down to the fact that “refurbished” may mean different things to different people. For some, a “refurbished” item means that one thing was obviously wrong and that thing was fixed and it was slapped in a box and sold again. For others, “refurbished” means it was adequately tested to make sure that it works well and the process is supported by a warranty.
I’ll buy the second kind of “refurbished” but not the first. It’s hard to tell which is which, though, so I tend to look at warranties. Is the warranty the same as a new item? If so, I’m fine with refurbished. If not, then I’m very wary.
Q12: Youtube videos for financial advice
I love reading your columns each day but my husband is more of a Youtube watcher. Do you make videos on financial topics? We couldn’t find any. If not, do you know of any channels that have a similar perspective?
– Jana
Although I’ve tried in the past, I currently do not make Youtube videos on personal finance topics. I found it really hard to make compelling video content about personal finance beyond just making cooking videos or basic how-to videos around the house, plus video editing is not really something that shows off my skill set.
The thing is, there really aren’t many good channels to watch out there that cover frugal topics. There are some good DIY channels that cover basic home repair and some good food preparation channels, but the only channels that really delve into personal finance with a perspective anything like mine are mostly just rebroadcasts of a podcast or radio show with either just a static image or someone sitting there talking with occasional charts.
The best channel for video content with a philosophy close to mine, in my opinion, is Beat the Bush. It’s not a perfect overlap, but the general principles are similar and it’s pretty solid video content.
In terms of audio content (i.e., podcast and radio rebroadcasts), check out ChooseFI, Afford Anything, and (sometimes) Dave Ramsey.
Got any questions? The best way to ask is to follow me on Facebook and ask questions directly there. I’ll attempt to answer them in a future mailbag (which, by way of full disclosure, may also get re-posted on other websites that pick up my blog). However, I do receive many, many questions per week, so I may not necessarily be able to answer yours.
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529 Plans vs. Brokerage Accounts for College Savings
Saving for college is a daunting task.
It’s hard enough to find room in your budget for contributions on top of your other financial responsibilities, and when you combine that with the fact that college tuition has been steadily rising over the past 30 years, it might feel like sending your child to college is an impossible goal.
And while you shouldn’t stress too much about saving for college, you can at least try to get the most out of every dollar you do save. And one of the easiest ways to do that is simply making sure that you’re using the right type of investment account.
We’ve previously broken down the 529 plan vs. Roth IRA comparison, and today we’re going to compare the 529 plan to a regular brokerage account.
Both have pros and cons, so let’s get into it!
The Basics of a 529 Plan for College Savings
You can click here for a detailed breakdown of 529 plans, but essentially they work a lot like Roth IRAs, just for education instead of retirement:
- There is no federal income tax deduction for contributions, though some states offer a state income tax deduction.
- Your money grows tax-free while inside the 529 savings account.
- You can withdraw the money tax-free for qualified education expenses, which as of 2018 includes tuition for private K-12 education as well as college expenses.
The main downside is that if you don’t use the money for qualified education expenses, your earnings are both taxed as ordinary income and subject to a 10% penalty upon withdrawal. There are exceptions for scholarships, and you are allowed to change the beneficiary and use the money for another family member, but there’s still some risk involved.
The Basics of a Brokerage Account for College Savings
A brokerage account is simply a regular investment account that comes without any special tax breaks. What it does offer is a lot more flexibility than a 529 plan:
- You can contribute as much as you want (529 plan contribution limits are much higher than most people will ever need, but they’re not quite unlimited).
- You can invest in just about whatever you want.
- Most importantly, you can withdraw as much money as you want at any time and for any reason. You won’t be penalized and your earnings will often be taxed at lower capital gains rates.
Put simply, brokerage accounts offer more flexibility than 529 plans, with the trade-off being a lack of tax breaks if the money is used for education.
How Much Are Those 529 Plan Tax Breaks Worth?
So how much are those tax breaks worth? And how much money might those extra taxes and penalties cost you if you need that 529 money for something other than education?
A lot depends on contribution amounts, timeline, and tax rates, but here’s how it breaks down if you contribute $100 per month from the time your child is born until the time he or she reaches age 18*:
- If the money is used for education, you’ll have $34,534 available in the 529 plan and $31,700 in the brokerage account. That’s a difference of $2,834 in favor of the 529 plan.
- If the money is not used for education, you’ll still have $31,700 available in the brokerage account, but you’ll only have $30,427 available in the 529 plan. That’s a difference of $1,273 in favor of the brokerage account.
In other words, the upside of a 529 plan is an extra $2,834 if you use it for education. The downside is a loss of $1,273 if you don’t.
Again, the exact numbers will depend on a lot of variables. This is fairly simple example, but it helps to illustrate the scale of the difference.
*Here are some of the other assumptions I made to run the numbers:
- You invest 60% of your college savings in stocks and 40% in bonds.
- Stocks return 6% annually. 4% of that is from capital gains that are deferred until withdrawal. 2% is from qualified dividends that are taxed annually at 15%.
- Bonds return 2% annually and are taxed as ordinary income as earned.
- Marginal tax rate is 25%.
How to Choose Between a 529 Plan and a Brokerage Account
Here are a few additional factors to consider as you try to decide whether you’re better off using a 529 plan or a brokerage account for your college savings:
- The biggest factor is what you plan to use the money for. If you’re 100% sure that the money you’re saving will be used for education, a 529 plan is likely to be the better route simply because of the tax breaks. If you’re not sure, you might be better off using a brokerage account or striking a balance between the two.
- In general, the more you can contribute and the earlier you start contributing, the more a 529 plan’s tax breaks will benefit you.
- Those tax breaks are also more valuable if you’re in a higher tax bracket, and especially if you live in a high-tax state that allows you to deduct 529 plan contributions.
- 529 plans are more valuable if your child is likely to attend K-12 private school at some point, since you’ll have more opportunities to use the money tax- and penalty-free.
- If you’re not already on track for retirement, with an emergency fund in place and high-interest debts paid off, then it’s probably best to prioritize those goals before contributing to a 529 plan.
At the end of the day, it’s a decision between upside and flexibility that needs to be made within the context of your personal goals and overall financial situation. Both are great accounts, and in many cases it can be smart to strike a balance between the two.
Matt Becker, CFP® is a fee-only financial planner and the founder of Mom and Dad Money, where he helps new parents take control of their money so they can take care of their families.
More by Matt Becker:
- Three Reasons New Parents Shouldn’t Stress About Saving for College
- 529 Plans: How They Work and When to Use Them
- Roth IRA vs. 529: Which Is Best for College Savings?
The post 529 Plans vs. Brokerage Accounts for College Savings appeared first on The Simple Dollar.
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