How This Woman Cut Her Mortgage Payment in Half and Saved $525/Month

In 2005, Melinda Smieja was spiraling into credit card debt. With a 13-year-old daughter undergoing treatment for a brain tumor, an 8-year-old daughter at home and her only income from disability, she relied on plastic to cover everyday costs.

“I used [a credit card] for dinners; I used it for food,” she says. “For a place to stay. It got to the point where all of my credit cards were maxed out.”

By the time she thought to check, her credit score had plummeted to 480, and she had somewhere between $20,000 and $40,000 in debt on 11 credit cards.

Though she was living much of the time in Seattle to be near her daughter in treatment, Smieja still paid $1,200 a month — including 6.5% interest — toward a mortgage on her Seabeck, Washington, home.

“I knew that if I could get it [the interest rate] down, then that would help me out,” she says.

When she was denied twice for refinancing because of poor credit, it really struck her how much of a hole she was in.

How She Cut Her Mortgage Payment in Half

Smieja finally realized, “I knew that I could only go for so long the way that I was going. I was going to crash and burn.”

Nearing 40 in 2010, she knew it was time to grow up and get a handle on her finances. But she had no idea how to do it.

“I was struggling. It was stressful,” she says. “I would cry every night, because I didn’t know how I was gonna pay these bills.”

Then an email campaign led her to Credit Sesame, a company offering an easier way to monitor your credit history and see how to improve your credit.

Most consumers like Smieja won’t put in the work to request a free credit report from the major bureaus, she pointed out, even though we’re entitled to them every 12 months. It seems like a hassle, so most of us steer clear.

Smieja signed up with Credit Sesame to receive her free “credit report card,” which revealed her credit score, along with everything that went into it. She could see exactly what was hurting her score — and keeping her interest rates high — and how to fix it.

Slowly but surely, she used her credit report card and suggestions from Credit Sesame to pay down her credit card debt. In 2015, her credit score hit 680 — up 200 points and, for the first time, crossing the line of what lenders consider “good credit.”

She applied again to refinance her mortgage, this time with a company Credit Sesame recommended and was finally approved, more than a decade after her first attempt. With the interest rate reduced to 4.1%, her monthly payment dropped to $675.

With so much of her monthly budget freed up, she was able to pay off credit cards faster and apply for new ones with better interest rates. That way she could keep her credit limit up but her balance low — maintaining a healthy credit utilization, great for your credit score.

And, she told us, “It’s so much easier. Oh, my God the stress. It was so nice to have that stress gone.”

Dana Sitar is a writer and editor at The Penny Hoarder. Say hi and tell her a good joke on Twitter @danasitar.

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 http://bit.ly/2ERPveb

Would You Let This Company Pay Off Your Student Loans?

Student loans are quietly crushing so many of us.

Americans collectively have an enormous $1.5 trillion in student debt, according to the Federal Reserve. Borrowers with education debt typically owe $20,000 to $25,000, and 20% of them have started missing payments.

Translation: A whole bunch of us — tens of thousands of us — are falling behind on our student loans.

Let This Company Help You Pay Off Your Loans Faster

If you’re in this boat, you might have options you haven’t explored.

When it comes to paying off loans, one of the smartest steps you can take is to save money by paying a lower interest rate.

Try getting a lower interest rate on your federal and private student loans by refinancing with a company like Credible. Other companies offer similar services, but we like that the average Credible user saves about two interest points on their current federal loans.

Credible is an independent student loan refinancing marketplace. Unlike a bank, which will give you just one offer — or none — the site shows you a range of personalized offers from a variety of lenders.

Refinancing will generally mean replacing your laundry list of loans with one (or a few) loans that bring all of your student debt under one umbrella.

This could simplify your life with one monthly payment, instead of several. It may also lower your monthly payment, improve your interest rate and/or give you more time to pay.

It might seem like a small difference, but a lower interest rate can mean a lot of savings over time. It’s helping grad Ashley Williams save more than $18,000 in interest over the life of her loan!

“Refinancing knocked off at least five years in payments,” she says. Plus, Credible got her a 5% interest rate through Citizens Bank — much lower than the 6% to 9.5% that she was previously paying on her loans.

Mike Brassfield (mike@thepennyhoarder.com) is a senior writer at The Penny Hoarder. He’s done with student loans, thank God.

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 http://bit.ly/2EU8Vjg

How Some People Make Up to $1,500/Week Driving With Lyft

Are you looking for a flexible way to make extra money? Something you can do even though you have other responsibilities, like a full-time job or raising kids?

Try driving with Lyft. Being a driver works like this: You sign up with Lyft and work when you want to. You keep a portion of ride fees and 100% of passenger tips. Lyft says drivers can earn up to $35 an hour.

Your car has to be 2007 or newer, have four doors, pass a safety inspection, and have up-to-date registration and insurance coverage.

To qualify as a driver, you have to be at least 21 years old, have a driver’s license and at least one year of driving experience.

Wondering how much you could earn? We talked with one busy couple in California, Sam and Susen Meteer, who would divide the night and day between them. Together, they could pull in up to $1,500 a week.

How This Couple Earns up to $1,500/Week on the Side

Lyft’s main attraction is its flexibility. You can work days, nights or weekends — it’s up to you!

At any hour on the clock, one or the other of the Meteers was probably driving. It’s how they’d make ends meet. This married couple had five children — four living at home in Sacramento, California when we last spoke to them in September 2017.

Sam was an elementary school teacher by day who’d get behind the wheel on nights and weekends.

Susen was a full-time mom to their kids. On weekday mornings, Susen would drop her kids at school and keep on driving.

“If one of us is driving, the other one is usually home with the kids,” Susen said. “It’s a little more sane that way.”

Lyft’s flexible hours allowed the Meteers to raise their children while also earning enough to support them. The couple could drive whenever, within reason. Sam would earn anywhere from $300 to $1,000 a week, and Susen another $500 a week.

“The money ebbs and flows,” he said. “Sometimes you’re busy, and sometimes there’s not a lot of action. It’s the law of averages. There are nights when I’ve exceeded my take-home pay from teaching.”

Together, they’d pull in $800 to $1,500 a week.

“It keeps milk on the table,” said Sam.

Interested in trying it out for yourself? Apply to drive with Lyft here.

Mike Brassfield (mike@thepennyhoarder.com) is a senior writer at The Penny Hoarder. He has kids and a minivan and spends too much time driving people around for free.

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 http://bit.ly/2RhYoVa

Get a $150 Bonus and 1.5% Cash Back When You Swipe This Card

If you’re not using a rewards credit card for everyday purchases, you’re missing out on free money.

You just have to be sure you don’t get too carried away with those purchases — and that the card is paid off at the end of each billing period.

Here’s an option we like: It’s the Chase Freedom Unlimited card. Its claim to fame? You’ll earn an unlimited 1.5% cash back on all your purchases. Plus, if you spend $500 in your first three months of opening the card (hi, groceries), you’ll pocket a $150 bonus.

There’s no annual fee, and the cash-back rewards don’t expire. We checked Credible’s annual rewards calculator, and it estimates $417 in annual rewards based on our spending habits.* (You can enter your unique spending habits and see what you’d earn, too.)

Get signed up — and get 0% intro APR for 15 months — here.

*Annual Rewards amounts will change based on the amounts you enter. The monthly spending category names and definitions may vary among issuers, and categories may not align one-to-one.

The information for the Chase Freedom Unlimited card has been collected independently by The Penny Hoarder. Opinions expressed here are the author’s alone, not those of the credit card issuer, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the credit card issuer. The Penny Hoarder is a partner of Credible.

Farrah Daniel is an Editorial Assistant 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.

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 http://bit.ly/2ERuL79

Spend 1 Minute Doing This to Save 5 Cents/Gallon on Gas for Life

We’ve all experienced the sick burn of finding cheaper gas after already pumping and paying for it elsewhere. Refund, please? (If only).

If you’re a savvy saver, you probably already use GasBuddy to help you find the cheapest gas station in town. It’s an easy — and free — way to avoid overpaying.

But once you pull up to the pump, here’s something else you can do: Swipe your Pay with GasBuddy card to automatically save 10 cents per gallon on your first purchase (and 5 cents per gallon after that).

The free discount card is tied directly to your checking account. It works at 95% of gas stations throughout the country, so you don’t have to drive around town just to find “your” station. Plus, you don’t have to wait for a rebate — it’s immediate savings.

Simply and securely sign up through GasBuddy. Connect your bank account, enter your address, and GasBuddy will put a card in the mail.

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 http://bit.ly/2SpM4zd

How to Increase Average Order Values With Product Bundling

Every business needs to strive for growth.

This isn’t a secret. However, many business owners hear growth and they jump to customer acquisition strategies, new product launches, and ways to increase their conversion rates.

All of these tactics are great for your company growth. But, they’re not the only way to boost revenue and grow your business.

You can also grow when you make more money with your existing products, services, and conversion rates simply by increasing your average order value.

Are you currently tracking this metric? It’s easy to calculate with this formula.

How to calculate your Average Order Value (AOV)

In order to increase your AOV, you need to encourage your customers to spend more in each transaction. Sounds great in theory. We’ll walk you through how to actually accomplish it.

There are tons of ways to get your current customers to spend more each time they shop. One of the best methods for increasing AOV is with product bundling. This marketing tactic employs a combination of upsells, cross-sells, and discounts. It also helps you generate more profit by focusing on your pricing strategy.

Basically, the psychology behind product bundling entices people to spend more with every transaction simply by buying more things at once. As a result, your average order value will rise.

Whether you sell products or services, your company can benefit from a product bundling strategy. But it’s not as simple as lumping any two or three random items together. In fact, that can do more harm than good.

If you’ve never done this before it can be a bit of a challenge to determine which products should be bundled together and how to showcase those options to your customers. So use this guide as a blueprint for increasing your average order value. Here’s what you need to know.

Don’t pair inexpensive items with premium products or services

This is the most common mistake we see when businesses attempt a product bundling strategy for the first time. It makes sense: they’re trying to maximize their profits and someone is buying something cheap, why not try to get them to buy something that’s expensive too.

Product bundling doesn’t mean you should just throw any two or three items together and assume your customers will pay more for them.

Put yourself into the mind of the consumer for a minute here.

For example, let’s say you’re shopping for a new car and your price range is roughly $20,000. If the dealer throws in a free t-shirt and a baseball cap with the purchase of a vehicle, is it going to entice you to buy the car?

Or, on the flip side, let’s say you’re shopping for a t-shirt and a baseball cap with your favorite car company logo on them. Together the two cost about $40. But then, at checkout it’s suggested you buy a car, too. This brings your total to $20,040. Do you do it?

Two items that don’t belong together are not a product bundle. This is especially true if one item is significantly cheaper than the other. But so many brands think two items = a bundle, and it ends up hurting them.

Instead of encouraging your customer to buy more things, a grouping like this actually confuses their initial purchase. Let’s take a closer look.

There’s a study from the Journal of Consumer Research on consumer perception and product bundling called The Presenter’s Paradox.

Here’s what happened. They gave people two options of how to bundle products for prospective customers. The first option was an iPod Touch bundled with a cover. The second option was an iPod Touch bundled with a cover and a free song download. Nearly everyone (92%) chose the second option, which included the free download. However, the study concluded that consumers were willing to pay more money for the first bundle, without the song download.

Why? The benefit and cost of that download aren’t enough to enhance the perceived value of the bundle.

In fact, the cheaper item — One song? What am I going to do with one song? — lowers the perceived value of the total package. That’s not what we want to do. Rather than diminish the perceived value of a bundle, we want to increase it. You can charge more for your products by enhancing the perceived value.

A cheap add-on paired with a premium product makes the whole bundle feel less appealing to the consumer.

This Harvard Business Review article discusses a set of similar studies that had the same results. The study showed that consumers were more likely to pay $2,299 for a home gym than they were to pay that very same amount for the same gym was bundled with a workout DVD. Again, that’s because a DVD doesn’t enhance the perceived value. It actually has the opposite effect and lowers that value.

So if you’re currently using a strategy like this, it could be hurting your average order value as opposed to helping you out. You can fix this quickly and easily.

This guide will also you examples of the right types of products and services to bundle.

Emphasize savings

Offering a discount is a great way to make your product bundles more appealing. It’s a very simple strategy.

If a customer buys two or more items together, their total purchase will be cheaper than if they bought each one individually. However, you need to make it obvious that they are saving money. So tell them exactly how much money they can save by buying the bundle.

Here’s a great example of this from Lowe’s.

The product bundle here is a washing machine and a dryer. If customers buy the pair together, they can save $340. The customer might think, That’s getting close to the price as of either the washer or dryer alone! However, people won’t know how good of a deal they’re getting if you don’t tell them.

You shouldn’t be making your customers do the math manually or hunt through your prices. Make it obvious and plaster the savings on your website, just like the example above. In this instance, by bundling the savings together, it’s much more entcicing. The customer isn’t simply saving $170 on each, which doesn’t seem like that much. They’re saving $340, which has a lot more wow factor.

As a result, they will be more likely to buy these together to get the savings.

Bundle items commonly purchased together

Remember the hypothetical scenario earlier: the car bundled with a t-shirt and hat? Those items are not commonly purchased at the same time, and that’s another reason why that bundling strategy won’t work.

You need to figure out what items people will also need when they buy something specific. Refer back to our last example from Lowe’s. If a customer is in the market for a washing machine, there’s a good chance they also need a dryer. Bundling those two items together is a winning strategy. This makes much more sense than bundling a dryer with a dishwasher. Sure, they are both home appliances, but they are completely unrelated to each other.

If your company sells shampoo, you can bundle it with conditioner. If you’re selling a mattress, you can bundle it with a box spring and frame. These are all products that go hand in hand.

Check out this example from AT&T.

It’s extremely common for people to purchase TV, Internet, and phone services from the same provider. The price bundling strategy here is a well-oiled machine. Just look at the three options above to see what I’m referring to.

It’s $60 per month for just TV. But when you bundle TV and internet together, it’s only $15 more.

This type of product bundle increases the perceived value: Customers are getting something that would normally cost $110, if purchased separately, for $75. That’s a great deal.

This is much better than offering a TV package with free remote batteries, or something cheap that doesn’t add value or entice people to buy. By doing this, AT&T can increase their order value by 25%. Think about that for a second here.

If your company does $1 million in sales annually, you can make an extra $250,000 per year just by increasing the AOV from $60 to $75.

AT&T takes this one step further by adding another bundle option, which includes home phone services. By getting customers to buy this bundle instead of TV alone, the order value is 58% higher.

Use anchor pricing

Anchor pricing is another way to show value in your product bundles.

The idea behind this methodology is that you have different prices on your website that establish a perceived value in the mind of your customers.

It’s an age-old strategy.

How do you sell a $500 watch? Put it next to watch that costs $1,300. The $1,300 item will serve as the anchor, which makes the $500 product seem like a much better deal.

Let’s take a closer look at AT&T’s third option — adding a home phone for an additional $19.99 a month. How many people do you imagine want a phone line? This option may be less about increasing the order value and giving another point of comparison to make the middle option more interesting. Because the $75 package isn’t the most expensive package, the price point seems more reasonable.

The $60 TV package also serves as an anchor. It sets the value of TV alone, so all of the product bundles after it seem like a great deal based on the customer perception of the one product.

You can use this same strategy with your product bundles by adding more expensive bundles, or selling the solo products at a higher price than when they’re bundled. It doesn’t matter if your customers don’t purchase the higher priced packages. They can serve as anchors to make the rest of the options more appealing.

Recommend products to your customers

Show your customers products that will enhance the item that they’ve already added to their cart. Depending on the circumstances, the customer may not even realize that you sell those additional products or remember that they need to buy them until you do this.

Amazon uses this strategy better than anyone else.

If you’re browsing for razors on their platform, Amazon will show you which products are frequently bought with those razors: shaving cream and blade refills. The customer will realize that they need these items to complement what they were initially shopping for.

Instead of having to go back and browse for these products, Amazon has a button that makes it easy to add all three items to the shopping cart. You can get more conversions by optimizing your checkout process. Click to add and Amazon has increased the order value with product recommendations.

Here’s the kicker: none of the products are even discounted.

You don’t necessarily need to offer sales or drastically slash your prices to have an effective bundling strategy. Just by showcasing and recommending similar items that add value to the consumer, you can increase your AOV.

Offer volume discounts

But, you can also offer discounts. In addition to bundling products with other items, you can bundle the same product or service with itself. Amazon does this with Subscribe & Save. It gives your customers a reason to buy more, order-value wise, than what they were going to buy — and to make that next repeat purchase from you, instead of wherever else they would be in the future.

Just like the 5% subscription discount on Amazon, as the volume increases, the price per item decreases. But your average order value will still rise. Here’s a perfect example from Todo Bien Tours.

This company provides a service: bus tours. The price per ticket for their tours varies by the number of tickets sold at once. If you buy two tickets, they will cost $84.15 each, so the total transaction will be $168.30. But, groups of ten pay $69.30 per ticket. While the price per item is less, the total transaction ends up being $630. That’s more than a 400% increase in order value.

Notice how their pricing structure is set up on the website.The chart displays the percent discount based on the number of tickets purchased as well as the monetary value saved per ticket. This is an example of one of our previous points: emphasizing savings. By combining this strategy with volume discounts, Todo Bien Tours can benefit from higher average order values.

Allow customers to create custom bundles

Studies show that 80% of customers are more likely to buy something if they are offered a personalized experience.

Furthermore, 68% of customers will pay more for this type of experience. That’s why customization can highly benefit your bundling strategy. It’s a great way to increase your average order value. Rather than telling your customers which products you’re bundling, let them decide for themselves.

Look at how Texas Beard Company accomplishes this.

By purchasing the bag, their customers can benefit from discounted prices on other products. The customized bundle makes it more enticing for people to buy. Here’s why. Let’s say that the bundle was preset with a bag, beard balm, mustache scissors, and beard brush, but the customer already owns a pair of mustache scissors. For that person, the bundle isn’t enticing. They don’t need one of the products offered, so it’s not a good value for them.

This goes back to perceived value. Though the mustache scissors have a literal value, the value to that customer is $0, so the entire perceived value of the package is lowered. Customized options make the bundle so much more enticing.

Find a way to implement this strategy for your business as well. It can work regardless of if you’re offering products or services.

Conclusion

One of the easiest ways to grow your company is to increase your average order value.

That’s because you don’t need new products, new customers, or higher conversion rates to accomplish this.

All you need to do is find ways to get your customers to spend more money each time they shop:

• Make sure you’re not bundling something inexpensive and irrelevant with one of your premium products.
• Bundle similar items. You can even recommend products to your customers to create a bundle.
• The savings should be obvious, which enhances the perceived value of what you’re selling.
• Focus on your pricing strategy. Offer volume discounts and use anchor prices.
• You can charge more for your products by letting your customers customize their own bundle.

If you follow these strategies, you’ll be able to increase your AOV.

What types of product bundles is your business offering to increase the average order values on your website?

Source Quick Sprout http://bit.ly/2Q79EPi

Markets Roil, Futures Slump After Dow's Record, One-Day Gain

More wild market swings appeared imminent Thursday, with U.S. stocks heading sharply lower after the largest single-day point gain in history for the Dow.

Source CBNNews.com http://bit.ly/2ES6LRg

Here’s How Much it Cost One Woman to Fund Her Drug Abuse, Then Get Sober

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Five Powerful & Useful Books I Read This Year (And 5 I Plan to Read Next Year)

Over the course of the past year, I read somewhere in the realm of 60 books. I track what books I read and came up with 58, but for some reason I think I missed a couple this year, so we’ll call it an even 60.

My reading mixes fiction and nonfiction and spreads across all kinds of genres and topics, but personal finance and personal growth are always topics near and dear to my heart.

On that note, I thought I’d share with you the five books that really had a strong impact on me in terms of personal finance and self-improvement, along with a quick list of five books on my to-be-read list for next year that I have very high hopes for.

The Wisdom of Frugality by Emrys Westacott

This book looks at personal finance from a philosophical perspective, digging into why people are frugal beyond merely maximizing dollars and cents. It digs into what I consider to be one of the big dilemmas of the modern world, where much of the “sage advice” for living points to frugality yet the average American isn’t particularly frugal at all.

Westacott handles this by digging into the roots of all of that “sage advice,” looking deeper into the ideas that various philosophers concerning different aspects of frugality. While I wouldn’t say that the book has a general conclusion, I couldn’t help but walk away with a sense that frugality, for many people, is something that helps to right something that feels out of balance in modern life.

This book brought me to some strong realizations about why I practice frugality, which go beyond financial reasons. I do it because modern life and consumption often pulls me away from the things that really make me feel whole as a person, and frugality is one of a number of tools that I use to push back against that, to keep the value of experiences and people ahead of things and desires.

I actually covered this book in an eight part series during the summer, so you might want to read the eight entries in that series for more detail:
What Is Simplicity?
Why Simple Living Is Supposed to Improve Us
Why Simple Living Is Thought to Make Us Happier
Why the Philosophy of Frugality Is a Hard Sell
The Pros and Cons of Extravagance
The Philosophy of Frugality in a Modern Economy
The Environmentalist Case for Simple Living
Final Thoughts

Triggers by Marshall Goldsmith

Triggers is a wonderful look at the difficult problem of changing our behavior. As we grow to adulthood and are outside of the watchful guidance of parents, we tend to gravitate toward certain behaviors that may feel “natural” but often don’t help us succeed in life or help us put our best foot forward with others. I can certainly say that there are many aspects of my behavior and character that could use some work, yet my natural instinct is to do things in a worse way than I should.

This book offers not only a lot of insight into why we do this, but it offers a really great recipe for fixing it, backed up by a large amount of psychological study. The core idea behind the book is that if a person wants to change their behavior, the key is to come at that change with intent and focus but not to set up hard goals for themselves in terms of success.

Rather, Goldsmith describes a system of daily review in which a person asks themselves sincerely whether they did their best today to tackle a particular behavioral change and score that change on a scale of 1 to 10 based on how well you feel that you actually acted on that change. Did you do your best today to be frugal, for example? By asking that question every day and scoring yourself on it, you gradually nudge yourself toward better behavior in that specific area.

I’ve been doing this quite a lot this year and I have to say that it works surprisingly well. I’m intending to continue this system and use it even more broadly in the coming year, as I described earlier this month when discussing my upcoming goals.

I wrote a lengthy discussion of Triggers earlier in the year, along with a second article discussing how I’m using the approach described in the book to build up better behaviors in my life.

Tools of Titans and Tribe of Mentors by Tim Ferriss

These two rather thick books deserve to be listed together because they both follow the same format. They’re both effectively made up of summaries of interviews with high achievers in a wide variety of fields, focusing on how exactly they’re able to perform well and how they maintain their sanity, their health, and some semblance of balance in their lives. The focus from beginning to end of both books is on small specific tactics and strategies that the various interviewed people use, what books inspired them, what tools they use, and so on.

These books weren’t life changers for me, but they did provide me with a ton of little strategies and tactics along with a great reading list of books that really match up well with where I am in life and where I want to go. I found myself taking some actionable note on almost every page of both books and my to-be-read list is longer than it’s ever been.

Another nice feature of these books is that they’re extremely “bedside table” readable. They’re broken down into tons of short chapters and you can just put one of the books on your bedside table (maybe along with a notebook and pen, because you’ll probably find something to jot down) and just read a few pages a night without having to sweat losing your place.

Principles: Life and Work by Ray Dalio

Ray Dalio is the founder and CEO of Bridgewater Associates, the largest hedge fund in the world. This book summarizes the principles upon which he built that business, along with the principles that guide his life.

This is a pretty hefty 500 page book, but much of it boils down to spelling out the details of a handful of key principles that apply both in life and in work. Dalio presents both life and work as a series of cycles centered around audacious goals, which you usually fail at at first until you start to figure out the principles by which you can succeed at those goals, then you refine those principles and stick to them, and that eventually leads to success and the adoption of a new set of audacious goals, thus repeating the cycle.

One core point of this book is the value of radical honesty (which doesn’t mean being blunt in order to tear someone down, but rather creating situations where people are open to completely honest feedback that isn’t delivered in a way that’s meant to hurt) and radical transparency (meaning nothing is hidden unless there’s an absolutely dire reason to keep it hidden). Much of the book reiterates how to achieve that both in everyday life and in the workplace, and that leads to a lot of secondary principles that are well worth considering.

More than anything, I’ve come to realize that radical honesty with myself is vital. There are time for all of us where we don’t want to believe hard truths about ourselves and we try to cover them up in various ways. I need to be more radically honest with myself in a few aspects of my life and the principles in this book have been helpful in doing that.

Creating Great Choices by Jennifer Riel and Roger Martin

I read this as part of a book club I was participating in this year. I didn’t expect to get much out of it as it seemed more business-y than the typical book that really clicks with me, but I actually enjoyed this one quite a lot and it kept popping up in my thoughts throughout the following months.

The focus of the book is on integrative thinking, which means that you try to find ways to combine the positive elements of some of the options available to you so that they wipe out some of each of their negatives and become an even better solution. This is in opposition to binary thinking, which is where you’re simply trying to decide which of the options is the best one as though the options are set in stone.

A great example of binary versus integrative thinking is the use of a “pro and con” list. When you’re engaged in binary thinking – that is, choosing between options – you might make a pro and con list simply to help you figure out which choice has the most benefits and the least drawbacks. Integrative thinking takes that a step further – you want to find options that you might be able to combine so that the combined “pros” take care of most of the combined “cons” and create an even better solution than any of the individual options. I’ve found myself doing this kind of thinking in my journal quite a bit over the last few months and it’s led me to some pretty good solutions, particularly as we’ve been finishing up some home renovations.

The challenge, of course, is doing this in a group environment where everyone has to be on board with trying to find an integrative solution rather than just binary thinking. For an individual, however, integrative thinking is a great way to piece through all kinds of life problems, and I find myself following the process described in this book more and more. It’s a really thoughtful book for both personal and professional decision making, especially when you’re making decisions solo.

On the List for Next Year

As I look ahead into the next year, I see a large number of books on my “to be read” list and quite a few on reserve at the library. Here are five personal finance and self improvement books that really stick out at me that I intend to read in the coming year.

Playing with FIRE (Financial Independence Retire Early): How Far Would You Go for Financial Freedom? by Scott Rieckens is one of those rare personal finance books that directly tackles the topic of living a lifestyle substantially below one’s means with the goal of finding financial independence and being able to walk away from the career rat race at a young age. This is honestly a topic that isn’t discussed all that often in book form, with only a few landmark titles like Your Money or Your Life and Early Retirement Extreme really tackling the issue. While I don’t know exactly what kind of tack the book will take on financial independence, I’m looking forward to finding out.

Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin focuses on one key idea, that you are responsible for most of what goes on in your life and you’re also responsible for the people on your professional team. Rather than “passing the buck” and trying to blame others for failings, success is only found when you take ownership of situations, even when they’re failures, and you take it as a personal mission to do all that you can to make sure that things don’t fail. This is something I do well in some aspects of my life and not so well in others, so I’m looking for some general guiding principles that I can apply in all areas of my life.

Atomic Habits by James Clear centers around the idea that the best strategy for changing your routines and habits is to focus on the small improvements. You’re not going to go from a complete train wreck to perfection all at once, or if you do for a short while, it’s not sustainable. Rather, a much better approach is to look for very small changes you can make in your life and ingrain them as new habits until they’re normal. This seems like a good companion to Triggers, which I mentioned earlier in this article and found very powerful, indeed.

The Practicing Stoic by Ward Farnsworth is a guide to practical living in the Stoic tradition, which centers around understanding what a person can control and what they can’t and reacting accordingly. This is similar in vein to the truly wonderful book How to Be a Stoic by Massimo Pigliucci, which really introduced me to how powerful stoicism can be in modern life. I was looking for a book that could serve as both a readable guide to stoicism as well as a reference of sorts when I was finished with it, something I could easily return to in bites in the future, and that’s exactly what this appears to be.

Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World by Cal Newport is a book about finding a focused life where you’re not inherently distracted by your cellphone or the other technologies around you. Think of situations at work where you click over to a website, or social situations where you instinctively pull out your phone and pull yourself out of the conversation. Digital tools should exist solely to help us live out our values, not infringe on those values. This book is about making that happen in a digitally distracted era.

These are just among the books at the top of my to-read list for the coming year. In a typical year, I read somewhere around 60 books, with roughly half nonfiction and roughly half of those touching on personal finance or self-improvement in some respect, which inform my own personal behaviors and the writing you read here on the site. I’m excited to read the above books, perhaps review a few of them on the site, and incorporate ideas from all of them throughout the coming year.

The post Five Powerful & Useful Books I Read This Year (And 5 I Plan to Read Next Year) appeared first on The Simple Dollar.

Source The Simple Dollar http://bit.ly/2Q1WMdv

Are Londoners fleeing the capital? Property money outflows reach 10-year peak

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Londoners have spent more on property outside London in 2018 than any of the last 10 years.

According to residential estate agent Hamptons International, Londoners spent £30 billion on property outside of the capital in 2018.

The estate agent has found that the amount spent by Londoners outside of the city has increased year-on-year since 2014.

• Will property prices crash in 2019? Experts share their predictions

Between 2009 and 2012 spending remained stable between £10-£11 billion. But this number jumped in 2013 and has increased steadily to its now 10-year high.

Total value of homes bought by Londoners outside the capital (£ billions)

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The number of homes bought reflects a similar picture. In 2018 74,350 Londoners bought homes outside of the capital, a 3.8% increase on 2017. The average price paid for property was £398,910.

More than three quarters (77%) moving out of the city stayed in the south of England.

• UK house prices expected to flatline in 2019 as stretched affordability and Brexit uncertainty continue to dampen the market

The most popular town for leavers was Sevenoaks in Kent, followed by Bath and North East Somerset.

Broxbourne in Hertfordshire was also popular, which encompasses towns such as Cheshunt, Hoddesdon, and Waltham Cross – ideal locations for commuting into central London.

The most popular destination for London leavers in 2018

Region	Local Authority	Percentage of homes bought by Londoners in 2018
South East	Sevenoaks	52%
South West	Bath and North East Somerset	52%
East of England	Broxbourne	72%
East Midlands	Daventry	17%
West Midlands	Stoke-on-Trent	7%
North East	Middlesbrough	16%
North West	Liverpool	10%
Yorkshire & Humber	Doncaster	13%
Source: Hamptons International

Aneisha Beveridge, head of research at Hamptons, says: “Historically most people moving out of London have done so because of changing priorities, such as starting a family or generally wanting a slower pace of life. 

“But increasingly as affordability in the capital is stretched, more households are looking beyond the confines of London to buy their first home.  For many this means moving further afield to areas such as the Midlands and North where they can get more for their money.

• UK home buyers and sellers sit tight as Brexit uncertainty pushes housing market to weakest level in six years

However, Ms Beveridge believes 2018 will be the high tide of Londoners fleeing the capital, thanks to lower house prices inside the M25.

She says: “Despite a rise in the number of London leavers this year, 2018 is likely to be a peak.  A slower housing market in 2019 will likely mean that we see fewer Londoners buying homes outside of the capital than in 2018.”

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Source Moneywise http://bit.ly/2Q7cC6q