Military Spouse Looking for a Job? Walmart Announces Preferred Hiring

Military spouses: Walmart would like to thank you for your service with a job.

The retail giant has announced it will give hiring preference to military spouses, who face the added burden of frequent relocation due to military transfers and deployments.

While the rest of the nation enjoyed an unemployment rate well under 5% in 2017, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce estimates military spouses and spouses of recent veterans faced a 16% unemployment rate for the same year.

Walmart previously offered military spouses and veterans the ability to transfer from one of its Walmart or Sam’s Club locations to another, but the company will now give hiring preference to any military spouse with a current Uniformed Services Identification Card.

This initiative comes five years after the company launched its Veterans Welcome Home program, which pledged to hire 250,000 military veterans by 2020.

Find available positions at walmartspouseswithamission.com.

Tiffany Wendeln Connors is a staff writer with 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.

The Penny Hoarder Promise: We provide accurate, reliable information. Here’s why you can trust us and how we make money.

source The Penny Hoarder https://ift.tt/2Td2fRl

15 Free Google Tools That Will Enhance Your Marketing Strategy

When it comes to anything done on the Internet, Google is king.

It’s the most popular search engine in the world, with a global market share of 89%.

Each day, 3.5 billion searches are performed on Google. That’s more than 1.2 trillion searches annually.

With so many people using Google to search for information online, it’s more important than ever for businesses to understand the Google algorithm. That knowledge will help them use SEO tactics to drive ecommerce sales.

But Google is much more than just a search engine. The Google Play Store is the official app store for all Android devices. It’s developed, owned, and operated by Google.

Understanding the app store and how it works will help you improve the ranking of your business mobile app.

While you may know how important Google is for searches, you might not be aware of everything else it has to offer.

Google has tons of free tools available for people to take advantage of. As a business owner, you can use these resources to improve your marketing efforts.

I’ve narrowed down the top 15 free Google tools your business can use for marketing. Here they are.

1. Google Drive

Some of you might already be familiar with Google Drive. Maybe you’re using it in your personal life.

But you can use Google Drive to help you with your business as well.

It’s a great way to safely store all your marketing content in the cloud.

You can stay organized and know you can access all your documents and pictures from anywhere. This is much more effective than storing important files directly on your device or an external hard drive.

Unlike hardware that can be lost or destroyed, Google Drive is immune to accidental damages, fires, floods, and theft.

One of my favorite parts about Google Drive is the ability to access my content from anywhere, as long as there is Internet.

You can download the mobile app to manage your files on the go as well.

In addition to using Google Drive for storage, I use Google Docs and Google Sheets to work on content directly.

In fact, I’m writing this blog post in Google Docs. That way, my progress gets saved and stored automatically.

I’m sure at one point or another, you’ve lost work you were doing in Microsoft Word or Excel. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not knocking that software. I’m just saying I’ve never had an issue when working or saving content in Google Drive.

I use it to store photos as well.

If I come across an interesting or informative photo I plan to use on one of my websites, YouTube channel, or blog posts, I save it to the respective file in my drive.

If you are sharing content and collaborating with your team, you can share files with specific users. Set parameters giving them the ability to view, share, or edit the content.

The first 15GB of Google Drive storage are free.

You can upgrade to 100GB for just $1.99 per month. I can’t imagine you’ll need much more than that.

2. Google Alerts

Just as the name implies, Google Alerts will notify you about anything you create an alert for.

For example, let’s say you want to know anytime someone mentions your business online. Set up an alert, and you’ll be emailed as soon as something gets published.

Then, you can act if you see negative information posted about your brand on the web.

This is a great way for you to monitor and improve your online reputation.

But you can set up alerts for anything you want. It could be your name or the names of your top competitors.

Without these alerts, you’d have to manually search for this type of content on a daily basis, which is unreasonable and an inefficient use of your valuable time.

Google alerts even offers suggestions based on what’s trending, covering a variety of topics such as:

• technology
• health
• business
• entertainment
• finance

You can monitor certain categories based on your industry.

3. YouTube

Back in 2006, Google bought YouTube for $1.65 billion.

There are more than 1.5 billion YouTube users across the world. It’s the most popular social media site in the world for teenagers.

In fact, 96% of teens in the US are active on YouTube, which is important if your business is targeting Generation Z.

But no matter what type of business you have, what industry you’re in, or whom you’re targeting, you need to be active on YouTube. Here’s a look at my YouTube channel:

There are seemingly endless opportunities for your video content on YouTube.

For starters, your content can be found organically by users searching directly from this platform.

But once you upload a video to YouTube, you can repurpose it across the rest of your distribution channels.

Embed videos on your website. Share them in your blog content. Email them to your subscriber lists.

You can even post these videos on your social media profiles. YouTube makes it easy for you to do this directly from the platform.

For those of you who don’t have a YouTube profile, I highly suggest making this a priority for your business and video content strategy.

4. Google Analytics

Google Analytics is the ultimate tool for understanding your website traffic.

You can learn more about your website visitors. Google Analytics will show you the demographics of anyone who navigates to your site.

This will give you a much better understanding of your target audience and whether your marketing efforts are appealing to the right group of people.

Find out the locations of these users and what language they speak.

Discover what technology they’re using. Google Analytics will show you the operating systems and web browsers they use. This tool will even tell you what percentage of your traffic is coming from mobile devices.

You’ll also learn the source of your traffic.

You’ll be able to see whether people came from a website, social media network, or search engine. You’ll also see the keywords they searched for.

Google Analytics will give you a clear understanding of your top content and help you determine whether your traffic is converting.

If you’re not taking advantage of Google Analytics, your marketing efforts aren’t being fully optimized.

5. Google Webmaster Tools

Google Webmaster Tools will help you figure out how healthy your website is for search engine discovery.

By now, I’m assuming you know the importance of SEO and that optimizing your site accordingly will have a major impact on how you get ranked in search results.

There is always some sort of mystery behind the way Google ranks certain factors and rewards sites based on its algorithm.

But there’s no need to be left in the dark anymore. What’s a better way to find out whether your site is optimized for Google searches than with a Google tool?

With Google Webmaster Tools, you can set alerts for anything that prevents your website from being discovered in searches.

Analyze your search traffic to discover how people are finding you right now. This tool will help you fix what’s wrong with your site if you access the top issues list.

You’ll have access to testing tools and support documentation.

Google Webmaster Tools has guides and online courses that show you exactly what needs to be done to make an SEO-friendly website.

6. Google Translate

Have you ever received an email from a customer in a foreign language? You don’t need to hire a language expert or pay for expensive software to decipher what it says.

Google Translate makes it easy for you to understand them.

This works well for any blog comments, social media messages, or even customer reviews you see in another language.

Simply copy and paste the text into this tool to get it translated to English.

You don’t even have to know what language they’re speaking to get an accurate translation. Google will automatically detect the language and take care of that for you.

This tool makes it easy for you to reply to your customers as well.

Just type what you want to say in English, and copy the translation for your reply.

Google Translate isn’t just limited to short blocks of text. It can translate long documents or a website address.

Depending on your business and target market, you may not encounter foreign messages very often. But it’s nice to have this available whenever the situation arises.

7. Google Keyword Planner

Google Keyword Planner is part of Google Ads, but it’s worth mentioning on its own.

This tool will help you find keywords and phrases related to your business.

Discover relevant keywords and get suggestions for bid estimates based on how competitive certain keywords are.

Figure out how often specific keywords get searched for, and set a budget based on any keywords you’re bidding on.

Google Keyword Planner will help you with long-tail keywords as well.

These types of keywords won’t have as high of a search volume, but they’re much less competitive. Plus, these leads will be more qualified and therefore more likely to convert.

8. Google My Business

You can set up a free Google listing through Google My Business.

When a customer searches for businesses on Google or Google Maps, your free listing will show up as a result.

When they click on your business, you want all the information to be as accurate as possible. All of this can be controlled with this tool.

The listing will have your phone number, website, address, and store hours.

Failure to claim your listing might result in having inaccurate information displayed about your business online. You obviously want to avoid this.

You can even promote your latest offers through this business listing as well.

Customers will be able to review your business on your Google listing. You can engage with those reviews by responding to the comments.

Thank each customer for leaving a review, and appropriately respond to anyone who may have had a negative experience.

You’ll also have access to information about how people found your business listing online: from a direct search or organic searches.

9. Google Calendar

Google Calendar is another great tool to keep you organized.

Times have changed. The days of relying on a giant calendar on your desk are over.

As business owners and marketers, we’re constantly on the go. With so many things to keep track of, it’s easy to overlook something important.

Google Calendar makes it easy for you to add events and manage your daily schedule.

Share your calendar with other Google accounts to make sure your team is on the same page with important marketing deadlines.

Set reminders and alerts to ensure you don’t forget about anything on your schedule.

10. Google Insights

For your marketing efforts to be successful, your website needs to operate and perform at a high level.

Google Insights will help you make sure that’s happening properly.

This tool analyzes the content of your web pages. You’ll get information about the page loading speed.

Other tools can also help you determine your page loading speed and whether it’s optimal or needs work.

But what separates Google Insights from the other tools is the report it generates.

Google will suggest how you can make your web pages load faster.

This is crucial from a marketing perspective. You just got someone to click on a link or navigate to your site as a result of one of your campaigns. Don’t lose them because your page loads too slowly.

11. Google Content Experiments

Google Content Experiments is part of Google Analytics.

As the name implies, it allows you to run experiments on different types of content.

This is a great tool for your marketing campaigns. You can run different variations of the same ad or promotion and get a report to see which one has the highest performance.

Then you can use the top ad for future campaigns and make adjustments to the ones that didn’t perform as well.

You start each experiment by selecting a goal. This helps the tool adjust the metrics accordingly based on what you want to accomplish.

The tool gives you the option to test up to ten variations of a specific landing page, so you’ll be certain that your final experiment results are as accurate as possible.

12. Google Trends

As a marketer, you need to keep your finger on the pulse. You’ve got to stay informed about what’s happening in the world around you.

Watch local and global news. Stay up to date on pop culture.

If you know what’s happening, you can come up with appropriate marketing strategies based on these trends.

But it can be difficult to do this when you’re busy at work every day. Google Trends will make this process much easier for you.

See the hottest searched topics locally, regionally, nationally, and internationally.

Search for a specific topic, such as your industry, to see how popular it is over a certain time period.

If you know what people are searching for, it will be easier for your brand to stay relevant. You can use pop culture trends or global news to create a targeted ad or promotion on social media that will gain lots of attention.

13. Google AdSense

Google AdSense is free to use. In fact, you’ll get paid to participate.

Unlike the other advertising tools on this list, Google AdSense lets you run ads from other businesses on your own website.

Google makes sure that the ads meet a certain quality standard and that they’re relevant to your audience.

If you don’t like an ad displayed on your site, it’s no problem. Simply block any ads you don’t want to appear, and customize the type and location on your site that works best for your needs.

To get the most money for your ad space, Google AdSense will ensure that only the highest bids go live on your site so you can make as much money as possible.

It’s a nice way to make some extra cash while you focus on your other marketing strategies.

14. Google Blogger

You can use Google Blogger to build your personal or business blog.

If you’ve been reading my content for a while now, you know how much emphasis I put on the benefits of blogging.

Those of you who are not taking advantage of this effective marketing tactic need to start right away.

Google Blogger gives you a free domain to host your blog. While the majority of you will want your blog to be directly on your website, this is an option for newer businesses or for those trying to establish a personal brand that’s separate from your existing company.

You can use this new domain to promote your company website.

It’s easy to integrate your new blog with Google AdSense, which I just talked about.

Like I said, for the most part, you’ll want to have a blog on your company website. But Google Blogger shouldn’t be dismissed. It’s worth a spot on this list.

15. Google Voice

Google Voice gives you the option to stay in touch with your customers from any screen.

You can send and receive calls or texts from your phone, desktop, or tablet.

Unlike a cell phone number or landline for your business, Google Voice is free.

Google Voice also allows you to select a virtual number from nearly any area code, which is great if you’re targeting clients from a specific location.

Your leads will be more likely to trust a local number than just some random out of area caller.

The virtual number can be connected to any mobile device or landline. It’s easy to handle incoming calls from different locations. Anyone with access can answer the phone.

If you have team members in different areas, they all have the option to respond to an incoming call.

Ultimately, Google Voice is great for enhancing your customer service and communication. If you’re not satisfied with your current phone situation, it’s worth looking into this tool.

Conclusion

Google is more than just the global search engine king.

It has a wide range of free tools available to business owners who want to make improvements to their marketing efforts.

Not all of these tools are for everyone. Some of you may not need all 15 of these.

But regardless of your situation, I recommend referring to this list and checking out tools that fit your needs.

There is no risk in trying them out. After all, they’re free to use.

Which free Google tools is your company using to improve its marketing efforts?

Source Quick Sprout https://ift.tt/2DmV2c8

Kids Can Make Free Holiday Crafts at The Home Depot Nov. 24 and Dec. 1

Pinterest crafts seem like a lovely idea until you’re scrubbing permanent marker off the dining room table, vacuuming glitter out the carpet and totaling up how much you spent on art supplies.

You can’t just say no to those adorable craft projects your children love working on, but you can eliminate the cost and the mess by signing the kids up for free craft workshops at The Home Depot.

The home improvement chain is getting into the holiday spirit with two upcoming Christmas-themed craft workshops for children. On Nov. 24, participants will create a gingerbread-shaped picture frame ornament. On Dec. 1, children can create and decorate a model sleigh pulled by a reindeer.

Both workshops will be from 9 a.m. to noon at participating locations throughout the country. These activities are generally appropriate for kids ages 5 to 12. Children must be accompanied by an adult during the crafting sessions.

To register for one of the activities (or both!), go to the workshops page on The Home Depot website, select your local store and click the “register” button for the workshop you’d like to attend. You’ll be prompted to enter your child’s name and an email address to secure a spot.

You may also notice the retailer is hosting other DIY workshops that are geared toward adults. However, the adult workshops require participants to purchase their own materials, while the kids’ workshops are free.

In addition to your kids taking home their completed holiday crafts, they’ll get a Home Depot workshop apron, a commemorative pin and a certificate of achievement. You should feel a sense of achievement too, knowing you didn’t have to spend a dime.

Nicole Dow is a senior writer at The Penny Hoarder. One day, she’ll attempt to make some of the hundreds of crafts and recipes she has saved on Pinterest.

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.

The Penny Hoarder Promise: We provide accurate, reliable information. Here’s why you can trust us and how we make money.

source The Penny Hoarder https://ift.tt/2qOA4ep

Think You Can’t Afford to Invest? These 5 Steps Will Get You on Track

Challenge Yourself! Twelve Simple Frugal Challenges You Can Do This Week

I’m a big fan of using the thirty day challenge to try out a particular daily routine or behavioral change in my life. It’s a big part of how I view life as being something of an experiment, one in which you’re constantly adjusting and trying new things. The goal is to introduce incremental improvements to your daily life until it hums like a well-tuned engine as it pushes you forward toward your goals and dreams.

However, there are some adjustments and changes to your daily life that work really well as one-off challenges. Do them once or maybe twice and it becomes really obvious how useful those are, and those changes often just become the new norm for you immediately.

Here’s a list of twelve one-off challenges you can do yourself, just to see what the results are like. Give them a shot and see how they work out for you. If they don’t work for you… well, you didn’t lose much and you’ve learned something. If they do work out for you, you’ve found a new path for doing things in your life that’s more financially efficient than before.

Buy the store brand version of one or more (or all) items you normally buy the name brand version of. The next time you’re at the store, consciously buy some store brand versions (or discounted versions) of items you normally buy in name brand form. Take them home and use them instead of the name brand to see how they work for you. If you can’t tell a difference or if they work better than the name brand, just start buying the store brand from here on out. For me, I usually find that I can’t tell the difference.

Eat the cheapest dinner you possibly can. What is the least expensive dinner you can make that you’d actually like? Would you cook up some beans and rice, starting with dry beans and dry rice? Would you cook up a box of spaghetti and serve it with a bit of olive oil and garlic (enough for several meals at once)? Maybe you just scramble together three eggs, add a bit of salt and pepper, and serve it with a slice of toast? Try eating a super-cheap dinner tonight, as cheap as you can get. Maybe you can turn this into a weekly tradition.

Make a batch of homemade laundry soap. It will cost you a few bucks to do this, but you’ll have enough supplies to wash laundry for the next year. Just buy a box of borax, a box of washing soda, and a bag of soap flakes at the store (these are all available on Amazon if your store doesn’t have them). Grab a resealable plastic container, a measuring cup, and a measuring teaspoon. Add an equal amount of each of the three ingredients to the container using the measuring cup – aiming for a cup of each is good, or a little more depending on the container size. Shake it around thoroughly until it’s mixed (I shake it for about a minute). Then, drop the spoon in there and leave it by the washing machine. Whenever you’re washing a load of clothes, just use a single teaspoon of the mix – open the container, scoop out a teaspoon, and add it. Using just a cup of each powder will give you 48 loads – and you’ll have many, many cups of each if you buy a container of each at the store. My math has this recipe costing about $0.04 a load. This recipe seems to work like a champ. Just try it, and if it doesn’t work out for you and you go back to Tide after using this recipe for a while, it’s not a big loss.

Lower your thermostat by one degree. You could also do a very similar thing by raising it by one degree in the summer compared to what you normally set it at. Once you’ve made this one degree adjustment, live life as normal and see if you even notice it at all. For us, we found that gradually bumping the temperature by a single degree here and there over a period of weeks and months resulted in us really only noticing a major change after having adjusted things by several degrees. When the seasons change, we start that process anew, slowly bumping it downward throughout the winter and slowly bumping it upward throughout the summer until we hit the threshold of comfort for us. This minimizes energy bills. You can start this by just bumping things by a single degree.

Ride public transport to and from work. Rather than hopping in your car and driving to work, take public transport. Buy a ticket, ride the bus or the subway or the train, and then do the same again on your way home. Unless you’re very close to work, it’s probably going to be cheaper than the total cost of driving to and from work, and it gives you a chance to just sit there and read a book rather than having to focus on driving through busy traffic. A one time challenge is a great way to “test the waters” and see how it goes.

Go to a meetup, an event at the library, or something you find on the community calendar. Check out Meetup, your library’s website, and your community website, and just see what’s happening locally. Pick out one thing that looks like it might be interesting and go, with the intent of enjoying it and meeting people.

Use the appropriate amount of toothpaste. I like these little things, the strategies that are really minor and serve as only a slight incremental improvement that will save maybe a few bucks a year. Find enough of them, though, and it adds up to a surprising amount of money. This toothpaste thing is a great example. Toothpaste ads always show a giant stripe of toothpaste on the toothbrush, but the American Dental Association usually recommends using an amount that’s roughly the size of a pea – a small fraction of what toothpaste ads show. Try doing what the ADA recommends. You’ll find that your mouth gets clean with a lot less paste, and over time, that will add up to a lot of savings.

Write a meal plan for the next seven days, and make a grocery list from that plan. Just simply list what you intend to have for meals for the next seven days, focusing on simple stuff you make at home, and then make a grocery list based on that meal plan, taking into account what you already have in the cupboards. Use that list when you go to the grocery store. Just try this once, and you’ll find that you not only have a tight list of things to get at the store (meaning you’re not wandering and grabbing things at random), but you’ve also got something to focus on that helps keep you from getting distracted.

Pack a lunch for work. Rather than just going out for lunch or hitting a food truck or ordering some delivery, just pack a lunch for work the next day. Do it in the evening and stick it in the fridge so you can just grab it in the morning and it doesn’t add time to the day. Eat it when you’re ready for a lunch break. It’s way cheaper than almost any other lunch option you could have at work and probably tastier and healthier, too.

Clean out your closet. Tackle that catch-all closet in your house where you put stuff that you don’t want to deal with and then it just accumulates (mine is the closet in my home office). Just go through everything in there, figure out what’s actually worth keeping and what isn’t, and then sell the stuff you don’t want to keep on Craigslist or Amazon Marketplace or Facebook Marketplace. Turn that unwanted stuff into cash that you can use for something worthwhile. You might just find that this one-off task inspires you to tackle all of the other “catch-all” places in your home.

Negotiate a bill. Take one of your bills – your cell phone bill, your cable bill, your internet bill, whatever – and call the service provider. Go through each of the charges on your bill and ask to have any unwanted charges removed. See if there’s a lower cost package that meets your needs. Ask for a rate reduction. Ask for a “new customer” package. The worst they can do is say “no,” and you’ll find yourself where you started.

Visit the library. Just stop by your local library and see what they have there. Look for an interesting book you’ve always wanted to read. Look at their movie collection and their audiobook collection. Take a look at their bulletin board and their schedule of events. All of this stuff is free. Take home that interesting book. Snag a few movies. Make plans to check out some event going on there next week. It’s free entertainment. Even if you don’t find anything, you’ll at least know what they have on offer.

Simply choose a few of these challenges and try them out this week. If they don’t work out, there’s no major loss – you got to try something new and it didn’t cost much. If it does work out, you’ve discovered a new and better way of doing things. There’s almost no downside to giving yourself a challenge like this!

Good luck!

The post Challenge Yourself! Twelve Simple Frugal Challenges You Can Do This Week appeared first on The Simple Dollar.

Source The Simple Dollar https://ift.tt/2qJQG74

How to Get Free Money: Grab $2,236+ Fast from These Companies

Be a Hit This Holiday Season With This $25 Meat and Cheese Board

Fund Briefing: how to invest in US smaller companies

Investors who put their faith in the IA North American Smaller Companies sector have every reason to be cracking open the champagne.

The IA North American Smaller Companies sector has been the best performer over the past year, with the average fund returning an impressive 24.60%, according to Morningstar Direct.

This puts it comfortably ahead of the other 31 sectors, only five of which made it into double figures, while seven were mired in negative territory.

Ben Willis, head of portfolio management at Chase de Vere, attributes much of its success to the strength of the US economy.

“Stock market returns have been buoyed by strong corporate earnings numbers, positive sentiment, and expectations about the prospects of US companies,” he explains.

• How to invest in housing without the hassle of buying property

He believes a strong dollar, President Trump’s tax cuts, investors returning to their home market, and global investors chasing growth would be supportive for US smaller firms.

However, he warns smaller companies in the UK could suffer if the dollar weakens or investors conclude the US stock market is too expensive and look for opportunities elsewhere.

“Smaller companies are more volatile than larger ones and tend to fall further and faster when markets go down and investors shun risk,” he explains.

The IA North American Smaller Companies sector is for funds that invest at least 80% of their assets in companies forming the bottom 20% by market capitalisation.

It is relatively small with less than 20 funds, which is one of the reasons it accounts for just £2.7 billion of UK investors’ cash.

In comparison, £58.6 billion has been invested in the IA North America sector, whose funds focus on larger US organisations, and a whopping £183.7 billion in UK All Companies.

As the US has the world’s largest economy and stock market, it should be part of every investor’s portfolio, according to Adrian Lowcock, head of personal investing at Willis Owen.

The main decision is what type of exposure makes sense. He suggests a core US fund that is diversified across small, medium and large companies.

“Smaller companies will come in once an investor has established a diverse portfolio across the main asset classes and is looking to complement their existing exposure,” he says.

Investors with more broad-based equity funds may find they already have some US smaller companies within their overall portfolio and may not need more exposure.

“The risks can be significant but the potential growth is huge”

“Smaller companies are dangerous and the risks can be significant,” he says. “However, the potential for growth is huge and can offset the risks if you invest wisely.”

It is also worth pointing out that smaller companies have done well since the global financial crisis a decade ago, according to Ben Yearsley, director of Shore Financial Planning.

“Small cap goes in and out of fashion, but I think it should form an integral part of long-term portfolios,” he says.

In particular, he notes technology firms – many of which hail from the US and initially operate as smaller companies – have been among the biggest winners in recent years.

“If you go back to 2008, technology was still a largely unused asset class as many investors were still smarting from losses from the tech bubble in 2000,” he points out.

Technology is clearly a significant part of many portfolios. For example, it accounts for 12.7% of assets under management in the JPM US Small and Midcap Companies fund.

• 10 top mobile apps for spending, saving and investing on the go

Its largest holdings include names such as Bottomline Technologies, which helps businesses make and collect payments across borders, currencies and industries.

There is also Acxiom, which provides data, connectivity and services to help with companies’ marketing requirements. All such firms are at the cutting edge of developments.

This is why you need to choose a fund where the manager has demonstrated considerable skill in picking individual stocks that have the potential to be stars of the future.

“Small cap should form an integral part of long-term portfolios”

Darius McDermott, managing director of Chelsea Financial Services, highlights LF Miton US Opportunities fund, which has a sizeable allocation to small and medium-sized companies.

“The managers of this fund focus on companies that have a sustainable competitive advantage versus their peers,” he explains.

Then there is Hermes US SMID Equity, which invests in US small and medium-sized companies that are underneath Wall Street’s radar.

He points out that its manager, Mark Sherlock, looks for quality businesses with minimum debt, in industries with barriers to entry, or products/services that can’t easily be replicated.

“Against a market notoriously difficult to beat, Mark Sherlock has built an enviable track record, outperforming the average US equity fund and the index consistently over the years,” he adds.

Cormac-Weldon.jpg

Fund to watch: Artemis US Smaller Companies fund

Cormac Weldon, the respected head of the US team at Artemis, has managed this fund since its launch four years ago.

The fund, which typically holds 40 to 60 stocks from a universe of more than 2,000, favours companies with market values below US$10 billion.

In his latest fund update, Mr Weldon said he sees opportunities within healthcare and recently bought a holding in STAAR Surgical. “It makes implantable contact lenses to treat refractive disorders such as myopia,” he said. “These lenses are an alternative to corrective laser surgery,” he said.

The fund has also invested in firms benefiting from the legalisation of marijuana, mostly for medical use.

“Canada was an early mover in approving marijuana for both markets, so Canadian companies are at the forefront of the trend,” he added.

Legalisation poses both a threat and opportunity to pharmaceutical and drinks firms. While marijuana may be seen as a rival product, companies in these industries recognise its financial benefits. For example, Constellation Brands, which makes Corona beer, recently increased its investment in Canopy Growth, the cannabis company.

“Marijuana can be an extremely effective treatment for some less common ailments (such as severe epilepsy) but also for broad-based pain relief,” wrote Mr Weldon.

Ben Willis of Chase de Vere says: “Cormac Weldon and his team have an excellent pedigree of investing in US Smaller Companies, establishing a strong track record of investing through the cycle.”

Value of £100 invested in the fund over five years

Year	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018*
Fund percentage movement in year (%)	-	10.75	11.6	29.55	27.08
Value of £100 ** (£)	-	110.75	154.01	171.88	218.41

* To 27 September 2018 **The £100 was invested on January 1 2015.
Source: Morningstar

Manager	Cormac Weldon
Launch date	27 October 2014
Total fund size	£497.7 million
Minimum initial investment	Depends on the platform
Maximum initial charge	Depends on the platform
Annual management charge	0.75%
Performance fee	N/A
Contact details for retail investors	Artemisfunds.com

Rob Griffin writes for the Independent, Sunday Telegraph and Daily Express

Section

• Investing
• First-time investor

Free Tag

• investing

Twitter

Source Moneywise https://ift.tt/2RQZ7co

Hassle-free ways to invest in housing

Are you a landlord selling up because of swingeing taxes? Or would you like to dabble in residential property but don’t have much savings? From property funds to peer-to-peer loans, we look at the options

Property investors are feeling the pinch as the regulatory and government changes to buy to let start to take hold. As well as a 3% surcharge on stamp duty for second homes, landlords can no longer offset all of their mortgage interest against their profits before calculating how much tax they owe. The reduction in relief is being phased in, so by April 2020 none of the interest will be tax-deductible.

It is also getting harder for landlords to get into the market in the first place, following the Prudential Regulation Authority introducing stricter affordability tests for borrowers.

In the wake of these changes, the number of buy-to-let mortgage approvals for house purchases dropped by 13% in 2016 and by 27% in 2017, according to data from Shawbrook Bank.

But that doesn’t mean that a landlord’s love affair with property has to end: there are several ways to invest in residential property without huge tax bills or the stress of dealing with tenants’ late-night call-outs.

Peer-to-peer loans

One of the easiest ways to invest in homes is through peer-to-peer (P2P) lending: investors lend money to borrowers, with the cash secured against residential and commercial properties or new-build developments.

There are 11 P2P secured property lending platforms, including big names such as Landbay and Proplend – though most focus on bridging and development loans – according to research by 4thWay.

The P2P comparison site says you can invest as little as £25 with Funding Secure, which lends money against land values to develop property, while six platforms offer minimum loans of £500 or less. This means that lenders can diversify, spreading the risk across several providers.

P2P property loans are also an option for wealthier investors who want the platform to do the work for them. For instance, Lendy Wealth365 offers returns of up to 10% from an account with 365 days’ withdrawal notice, while its Wealth60 offers returns of up to 6% with 60 days’ notice. Both accounts ask for a minimum deposit of £10,000.

If you worry about the risk if the UK property market were to suffer a downturn, picking properties that offer low loan to values (LTVs) will mean your loan will be more secure. Alternatively, you can focus on properties that are more valuable than the loans themselves, making it easier to recover bad debt.

• 50 ways to boost your savings income: peer-to-peer lending

Neil Faulkner, managing director of 4thWay, explains: “Lenders in property P2P loans should spread their money across lots of loans and P2P lending platforms and to lower risks further, weight their lending towards loans to residential or commercial landlords.”

However, bear in mind that borrowers may pick P2P because they have been refused finance from banks and building societies.

“Loans do sometimes go wrong and, while you usually expect a good recovery, it can take a long time for any recoveries to be made in property loans,” Mr Faulkner adds.

Max Lehrain, chief operating officer at P2P platform Relendex, has the following advice for would-be investors.

“Join a P2P platform, but don’t put any money in. Watch what happens and get comfortable with how it works. Then maybe start with a small amount of money – you can invest from £500 on our platform – and see how it goes,” he says.

“It takes a long time to recover when property loans go wrong”

Property crowdfunding

Crowdfunding differs from P2P in that you can get a stake in a property and a return on the rental income and capital growth, rather than investing in a loan secured against a property. You can invest on websites such as CrowdLords, Property Moose, Property Partner, The House Crowd and UOWN. Crowdfunding offers a great way for novice investors to dip their toe in the property sector – for instance, you can invest from as little as £1 with UOWN.

As with P2P, these investments are not protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme.

Innovative Finance Isas

It’s worth checking which P2P or crowdfunding platforms offer loans within Innovative Finance Isas (IF Isas). This type of Isa allows savers in this sector to benefit from tax-free interest and tax-free capital gains on their annual Isa allowance of up to £20,000 a year.

IF Isas are available from platforms including CapitalRise, DowningCrowd, HNW Lending, Kufflink, Landbay, Landlordinvest, Property Crowd and Relendex. For more information, visit Innovativefinanceisa.org.uk.

Tracey.jpg

“All I need to worry about is the income generated”

Tracey Dawson (pictured above), managing director of a small electronics manufacturing firm in Leeds, has been investing via crowdfunding platform UOWN. She finds running her own company means she doesn’t have time to be a hands-on property investor.

“I’ve invested in commercial properties before and obviously I’ve invested into pensions, but this was the first attempt at investing other areas,” she says.

“It’s much simpler than buy to let. I don’t have to worry about tenants. I don’t have to worry about maintenance.

It’s all done for me. All I need to worry about is the income that’s generated.”

Property funds

Another way to get a foot in the door of the housing market is to invest in property funds. You can invest small amounts of money and spread your risk across several properties – but if you want to stick to residential homes, your choice of funds is limited.

Claiming to be the first and only open-ended investment company (OEIC) in the UK investing directly in residential property, the Home Investor Fund was rebranded this summer after running for more than five years as Hearthstone UK residential property fund. It also invests in residential property through Isas, Sipps or bonds.

Cedric Bucher, Hearthstone’s chief executive, says: “Our mission is to change how the UK invests in residential property. We’re trying to give investors access to UK residential property for as little as £100 and, as a landlord, provide good-quality homes for tenants.

“With the tax changes that are trickling in between now and 2020, particularly for those who have buy-to-let properties with borrowing, being a landlord is becoming less and less attractive. Take someone who has a rental income of £1,000 a month and mortgage repayments of £600 a month and a marginal rate of tax of 40%. Their post-rental income will go from £2,900 to £1,400 a year – so down by more than half.

“Some of these investors will reconsider whether that is a good investment. It will be less profitable, plus there is all the hassle of running the property,” he adds.

• Equity release: how to extract cash from your home

Another option is to invest in a Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT), where investors pool their money to invest in property.

Annabel Brodie-Smith, communications director of the Association of Investment Companies, says: “REITs benefit from being closed-ended, which means fund managers do not have to sell the investments during tough times, and this is particularly suitable for investing in less liquid asset classes such as property.”

Gev Lynott, chief executive of Mansfield Building Society, agrees: “If you are planning to go into property, I would be thinking good-quality university towns feel like the place to be,” says. “If you had a REIT that was doing this and was going to cherry-pick Manchester, Leeds or Glasgow to invest in, I think it could do pretty well.”

The Investment Association’s UK Direct Property sector includes The PRS REIT, which acquires brand-new homes for the private rented sector. Launched in May 2017, it focuses for the most part on family homes for rent in key towns and cities in England excluding London. Over the year to 30 September 2018, the company’s share price total return was 4.72% – £1,000 invested would now be worth £1,047.20.

Meanwhile, online platform Bricklane.com offers investments in residential buy to let in London, Leeds, Manchester and Birmingham. Its portfolio can be accessed through Isas and Sipps, and it also has REIT status. Its Regional Capitals fund has returned 15.54% since its launch in September 2016, while its London fund has returned 10.10% since it launched in July 2017.

“A lot of my peers are scornful about taking in a lodger”

Simon Heawood, chief executive of Bricklane.com, says: “We are finding that ex- and existing landlords are using the platform as an alternative to buy to let, often with a combination of Isas and pensions (Sipps) or Isas and standard accounts. They are investing, on average, around £50,000. Meanwhile, first-home savers are investing in Isas, typically saving around £3,000.”

However, property funds and P2P/crowdfunding are not without risk – if the housing market were to crash, it would affect the underlying capital of properties in investors’ portfolios. There are also fees to consider – for example, The PRS REIT’s annual management charge is 1.44%.

Take in lodgers

“If you are relatively wealthy, you probably have a decent-sized property and that in itself is an investment in the UK property market,” adds Mr Lynott.

So if you are property rich but cash poor, then you could treat your home as an investment vehicle and take in a lodger. Under the government’s Rent a Room Scheme, you can earn up to a £7,500 a year tax-free from letting out furnished accommodation in your home (see box above).

For more information on how it works, please visit Gov.uk/rent-room-in-your-home.

HAZEL.jpg

“The financial freedom has enriched my life”

Hazel Durbridge (pictured above), 59, from Luton, lives with three lodgers, renting out each room for £400 a month. She has been renting out rooms for more than 10 years and finds lodgers through flatshare site SpareRooms.co.uk.

Her advice for a stress-free lodger-landlord relationship is not to get emotionally involved.

“They are not your mates, so don’t confide in them. Keep a professional distance, but that doesn’t mean I don’t listen to them when they are upset,” she says.

“Younger lodgers can start treating it like home and you like their mum. But they move on quicker, so there is less chance to get irritated. I try to keep a varied age and gender dynamic.

“A lot of my peers look down their noses at taking in a lodger, but the financial freedom has enriched my life.”

 

Section

• Investing
• First-time investor

Free Tag

• investing
• property

Twitter

Source Moneywise https://ift.tt/2OL7hB4