How Taking out a Loan Could Actually Help You Get out of Debt This Year

If you popped the cork to ring in 2019 but still have some nagging debt hanging around, chances are you made a mental note of it in your New Year’s resolutions. This is the Year of the Pig on the Chinese zodiac calendar, and that stands for “luck, overall good fortune, wealth, honesty, general prosperity.” Sounds good, right?

Now is the time to make a plan to wipe out your debt before the next trip around the sun. If you are carrying balances on several credit cards, you are likely paying interest up to or even over 20%. Ouch.

Other types of debt, like medical bills, payday loans or anything else may also come with high interest and annoying collection calls.

When you try to pay down multiple bills that are charging interest, your payments can get spread too thin and you may not really be making much progress.

It’s time to consolidate and conquer.

A good resource is Fiona, a search engine for financial services, which can help match you with the right personal loan to meet your needs.

Fiona searches the top online lenders to match you with a personalized loan offer in less than 60 seconds. Its platform can help you borrow up to $100,000 (no collateral needed) with fixed rates starting at 4.99% and terms from 24 to 84 months.

Yes, the terms are 24 to 84 months, but with only one payment and a much lower interest rate, you might be able to make better payments and much faster progress towards paying that debt down.

Get free of bad debt and ready to make the Year of the Pig your best year yet. By the time the ball drops to welcome in 2020, you’ll really be bringing home the bacon.

Tyler Omoth is a senior writer at The Penny Hoarder who loves soaking up the sun and finding creative ways to help others. He likes bad puns and won’t apologize for it. He also likes bacon. Catch him on Twitter at @Tyomoth.

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/2R6lX3K

This Company Will Help You Finance up to $100K for Your Next DIY Project

DIY projects are a fabulous way to save money. After all, why pay outlandish prices to hire a carpenter or handyman if you can just do it yourself?

Still, even DIY projects cost a little money. You’ll need tools and paint and supplies. Also, you’ll need extra supplies for when you inevitably make a mistake. (Whoops! It’s OK; that’s all part of the process.)

Even if you’re not paying through the nose for professional help, DIY projects typically involve purchasing things like paint, paintbrushes, wood, laminate flooring, sealant, ceramic tile or whatever.

A trip to Lowe’s or Home Depot or Ikea can quickly run into the hundreds or thousands of dollars.

What’s a good way to come up with that money?

Go to Vegas and gamble up a storm? No.

Sell lots and lots of plasma? No.

Try taking out a personal loan. These days, it’s quicker and easier than ever.

A good resource is Fiona, a search engine for financial services, which can help match you with the right personal loan to meet your needs.

Fiona searches the top online lenders to match you with a personalized loan offer in less than 60 seconds. Its platform can help you borrow up to $100,000 (no collateral needed) with fixed rates starting at 4.99% and terms from 24 to 84 months.

Mike Brassfield (mike@thepennyhoarder.com) is a senior writer at The Penny Hoarder. He likes to do home projects himself, but he’s not necessarily opposed to hiring a contractor either.

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/2CbAeCf

How to Start Paying Down Debt in as Little as 3 Minutes

Debt is haunting.

What’s even scarier is how easy it is to fall into the cycle of owing money that you spent, but don’t actually have.

You promise you’ll pay yourself back on payday, but we all know that’s a slippery slope.

However you ended up in this place, you’re here. But you’re not alone.

Last year, American credit card debt hit a record high — more than a trillion dollars, according to CNBC.

That’s a lot of zeros, debt, overspending, and on my end… shopping trips.

So, the looming question: How do you get out of this hole?

Paying Down Credit Card Debt Is Actually Possible

It’s so possible, in fact, that you can take the first step in as little as three minutes.

No, seriously.

Instead of spending hours scouring the internet for answers, check out Fiona, a search engine for financial services that can help match you with the right personal loan to meet your needs.

Fiona searches the top online lenders to match you with a personalized debt-consolidation loan offer in less than 60 seconds. Its platform can help you borrow up to $100,000 (no collateral needed) with fixed rates starting at 4.99% and terms from 24 to 84 months.

Consolidating debt saves you from being stuck with multiple high-interest credit card payments that make it difficult for you to permanently cut ties with your debt.

With the lower interest rate you typically get from personal loans, you can pay off all your balances, then just focus on making one, easy payment to the lender.

To start, you’ll need a minimum credit score of 580, and their interest rates range from 4.99% to 35.99%.

Whatever you decide, know that checking rates on Fiona won’t hurt your credit score, so you’ve got nothing to lose… except maybe interest.

Farrah Daniel is an editorial assistant at The Penny Hoarder. After having dealt with it once, she is terrified of debt and won’t use more than 10% of her credit card.

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/2Rdo2Ll

A Good Credit Score Could Save $158,400 on Your House. How to Improve Yours

You may not think your credit score is that big of a deal.

But when it comes to the largest purchase you’ll ever make — your home — your credit score is a really, really big deal.

Why is that?

• You’ll need a mortgage to afford that home, so you’ll be borrowing a large amount of money for a long period of time — probably 15 or 30 years.

• Your credit score largely determines what interest rate you’ll pay on your mortgage.

• Over 30 years of making monthly mortgage payments, all of that interest you’re paying really adds up.

In fact, over the course of your home loan, you could end up spending thousands of dollars more than you need to. By making this one move, you could end up saving yourself up to $158,400.

What’s a Good Credit Score?

Your credit score ranges from 300 to 850. It’s like a grade that tells banks and credit card companies how well you manage money and repay debt.

The better your score, the better deal you’ll get on a mortgage, car loan or credit card. Generally speaking, a score of 750 to 850 is considered “excellent,” 700-749 is considered “good,” 650-699 is “fair” and 300-649 is considered “poor.”

Credit Sesame can help you quickly see what your credit score is and how you can improve it — for free. And it could save you up to $158,400 on your mortgage.

Save $12,000 — or nearly $160,000

So, how much can a good credit score save you during the life of a 30-year loan?

We looked at answers from four different online publishers: CNBC, The Motley Fool, Forbes and Entrepreneur. They each wrote about different scenarios. According to their calculations, a homeowner with great credit can save anywhere from $12,000 to nearly $160,000 on a 30-year mortgage, depending on the cost of the house and the exact interest rate.

Here’s what they found:

CNBC: “Suppose you’re looking to buy a home that’s worth $300,000 with a 20% down payment and you get a 30-year, fixed-rate loan of $240,000… An ‘excellent’ credit score of 780 would have earned you a 3.87 percent rate in October {2017}… Before taxes, insurance or homeowners’ association fees, that would mean you’d pay about $1,129 a month. If your score was 100 points lower, at 680, your rate would have been about 4.12 percent, making your monthly payments around $1,163… an extra $34 a month, $408 a year and a whopping $12,240 over the life of your loan.”

The Motley Fool: “Using the current 30-year mortgage rate of 4.14% for persons with excellent credit, this means a likely mortgage rate of 4.39% for those with average credit. A 25-basis-point increase may not sound like much, but over the course of 30 years, assuming the loan wasn’t repaid early, the excellent credit individual or family will pay nearly $16,000 less in interest than someone with good credit on a $300,000 loan.”

Forbes: “According to myFICO, a credit score of 760 will qualify a homebuyer for an interest rate of 3.473% (rates change daily). A credit score of 620, however, qualifies for the higher rate of 5.062%. If we assume a 30-year mortgage of $250,000… total interest paid increases from $152,785 to $236,555, a difference of $83,770 over the life of the loan.”

Entrepreneur: “You work with a mortgage broker to pre-qualify for a $500,000, 30-year fixed home loan. Your credit score is 620, so you get a mortgage loan approved at a 5% interest rate. Your total principal and interest payments equal $966,600. Now let’s say your credit score is 760, so you get a mortgage loan approved at a 3.5 % interest rate.Your total principal and interest payments will equal $808,200. Just by having the better credit score, you could potentially save $158,400 in interest over the course of 30 years!”

How to Boost Your Score

Before you buy a home, you need to find out what your credit score is — and how to raise it.

Here’s a quick and easy way to do that: Credit Sesame.

It’s a free credit-monitoring service where you can see your credit score. It’ll give you a “credit report card” that breaks down exactly what’s on your credit report in layman’s terms, how it affects your score and how to address it.

It has helped people like James Cooper, a motivational speaker who used it to raise his credit score by 277 points, from 524 all the way up to 801. His favorite thing about Credit Sesame is its personalization. It suggested concrete steps, based on his situation, to better manage his credit score.

It’s definitely worth doing before you buy a house.

Mike Brassfield (mike@thepennyhoarder.com) is a senior writer at The Penny Hoarder. He has a 30-year mortgage, oh yes he does.

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/2TtDL5z

One Simple Way to Pay Down Debt Faster When You’re Married

When you decide to tie the knot, you bring a lot into your marriage. You bring more than just your love; you also bring your dreams, your income and your assets.

Unfortunately, many people also bring a significant amount debt into their loving union.

For better and for worse, right?

It’s OK. Take a deep breath, hold each other’s hands and repeat after me. We will pay down this debt — together!

As a Penny Hoarder reader, you probably know that we have a great solution for you. It’s true. We do.

Here’s one simple way to pay down debt faster when you’re married:

Let Fiona Find a Loan to Help You Out

Once you walked down the aisle, you joined your debt together. Whether it’s medical bills, a car loan or even bad credit card debt, it’s time to tackle it together. One of the best ways to pay down debt as a married couple is to consolidate it all into one low-interest loan.

A good resource is Fiona, a search engine for financial services that can help match you with the right personal loan to meet your needs.

Fiona searches the top online lenders to match you with a personalized loan offer in less than 60 seconds. Its platform can help you borrow up to $100,000 (no collateral needed) with fixed rates starting at 4.99% and terms from 24 to 84 months.

As a married couple, you may have an even better chance to get a great loan if one of you has an excellent credit score.

Chances are you’re paying a lot more interest on your old debt. By consolidating your debt through Fiona, you’ll eliminate having multiple payments to worry about. With just one payment and low interest, you can make more progress each month and have your debt paid down much more quickly and start working on that “for richer” part of your vows.

Now that’s wedded bliss, right?

Tyler Omoth is a senior writer at The Penny Hoarder who loves soaking up the sun and finding creative ways to help others. Catch him on Twitter at @Tyomoth.

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/2RdlQ6z

This is How to Save Money, Meet Your Goals and Kill It in 2019 for Less

Whatever your New Year’s resolutions are, you’re a Penny Hoarder.

No matter the resolution, you’d probably like to spend less money accomplishing it, right?

To help, we’ve rounded up some tips and tricks for saving money on the most common New Year’s resolutions.

Whether you want to eat healthier or travel more, we put together a list of 23 ways to do it more cheaply.

Quit Smoking

We don’t need to tell you how much money you’ll save by quitting smoking — you already know.

Instead, here’s how to save money while quitting smoking.

1. Get Free or Discounted Smoking Cessation Aids

If you want to try the patch or gum, look online for coupons before making your purchase.

Many state-supported health campaigns also provide free smoking cessation aids, as well as other resources and support.

Find a full list of coupons and state campaigns here.

2. Join a Free Support Group

If you want to quit cold turkey, it might be smart to join a free support group.

Try in-person groups like Nicotine Anonymous, or apps and virtual forums like quitSTART and The EX Plan.

3. Enroll in a Class With a Money-Back Guarantee

Have you heard of Allen Carr’s Easyway to Stop Smoking seminar?

Friends of mine have had success with this class. It guarantees you’ll quit smoking — or you get a full refund.

You do have to pay $450 upfront, but you’ll quickly make the money back if and when you stop buying cigarettes. If you sign up at least one month ahead of time, you can often get a $50 early bird discount.

Lose Weight

Losing weight helps you feel better — both physically and mentally. It could also lead to reduced medical costs down the road.

Here’s how to save money while losing weight:

4. Find Free Ways to Exercise

You don’t need to hit the gym to get your sweat on. (Though we do have a guide to help you find the best gym membership.)

Even if you live somewhere cold, you can exercise with high-quality home workout YouTube channels, or these cheap ways to exercise.

5. Do a Discounted Downward Dog

Yoga is my favorite way to exercise. Not only is it a fantastic workout, it also helps me clear my mind.

The only problem? It can be expensive. If you want to find yoga on the cheap, here are 10 creative ways to enjoy free or low-cost classes, and where to find the best free online yoga classes.

Or, if you really love yoga, become a yoga teacher.

6. Try Classpass or Groupon

There are always discounts for local gyms and fitness studios on Groupon.

Or, if you live in a major metropolitan area, try Classpass. It lets you work out at several different studios each month.

7. Get Paid to Exercise

Few motivators are better than money.

Here are 17 creative ways to get paid to work out — plus these 10 ways to get paid to lose weight.

Travel More

Want to travel more this year, but afraid it’s going to cost too much?

8. Save on Flights, Lodging and More

Rather than list all the ways you can save money on travel, check out these budget travel tips.

Eat Healthier

Eating healthier comes with myriad benefits.

Not only will you feel and look better, but you’ll also save money by eating out less frequently.

9. Hack Grocery Coupons and Apps

People often complain coupons are only for processed food.

But The Penny Hoarder founder and resident couponing expert Kyle Taylor knows lots of secrets for finding discounts on healthy food.

Or, read about how these couponing moms still manage to eat healthy:

• This Mother Rarely Pays for Groceries. Here’s Her Couponing Strategy
• How Couponing Derailed This Mom’s Eating Habits — and What She Did About It

10. Get Paid to Watch Cooking Shows

A commonly cited reason for eating out all the time?

“I don’t know how to cook.”

It’ll no longer be a valid excuse after you get paid to watch cooking shows. (Yes, really!)

11. Find Organics on the Cheap

Eating local and organic doesn’t have to mean spending a ton of money.

From sponsoring a farm animal to joining a CSA, this post should give you some smart ideas:

12. Subscribe to Budget Food Blogs

With all the cooking blogs out there, you have no reason not to try cheap and healthy recipes this year.

Some of my favorites are $5 Dinners and Budget Bytes.

You’ll also learn some fun cooking techniques here at The Penny Hoarder, like how to save money with freezer meals.

13. Get Cookbooks From the Library

Though recipes are abound on the internet, sometimes you just want to leaf through a cookbook…

But you don’t want to invest in one without trying it first.

My solution? Check them out of the library — a free way to learn lots of new recipes!

Get Organized

Want to finally get on top of everything this year? Getting organized can undoubtedly save you money.

Here’s how to do so without spending a closetful of cash:

14. Buy Discounted Organizers

One of the easiest ways to clear clutter is to buy physical organizers: folders, plastic tubs and the like.

They don’t have to be expensive, though. You can often find used ones at garage sales and thrift stores.

Or, purchase clearance items at retailers like Bed Bath & Beyond and Overstock. Both offer coupons when you sign up for their email lists.

15. Grab a Tax Break

Getting rid of all your extra stuff?

Can’t wait for tax time? Check out this year-long guide to sell your stuff online.

Spend More Time With Family

Spending time with loved ones doesn’t have to be costly. There are plenty of ways to get in some QT — without spending a dime.

Even better, we’ve got a whole list of ways you can earn money while spending time with family!

16. Participate in Free Activities

Whether you have kids or not, these free activities are sure to please:

10 Fun Summer Activities for Kids That Won’t Break Your Budget

17. Exercise Together

Why not kill two birds with one stone? If you want to get in shape and spend more time with your family, try working out together.

Whether it’s a walk, hike or round of pickup soccer, getting in shape with your family is free and fun.

18. Cut the Cord

What’s better than a family movie night?

Instead of paying for a costly cable subscription, subscribe to Netflix. You’ll have thousands of movies at your fingertips.

19. Buy Board Games

Board games rock because once you collect a few, they’ll provide entertainment for years to come.

Walmart and Target often have sales on board games. But be sure to visit Ebates first — you can get 1-5% cash back on all your purchases.

Plus, if you get really good, you could even earn money playing in Monopoly tournaments!

Learn Something New

Smart Penny Hoarders know learning something new can often lead to extra money in your pocket.

Here’s how to boost your brainpower on a budget:

20. Check Your Community College

I’m amazed by how many courses my local community college offers.

You might think they only have academic courses, but they often have offerings as wide-ranging as belly dancing and cake decorating.

And if you’re a resident, they’re often really affordable.

21. Take a Free Online Course

Thanks to the internet, you can learn anything from nutrition to computer programming — and many courses are available for free.

OpenCulture and Coursera are two of my go-to sites for finding free classes.

22. Barter Your Skills

Just because we live in a cash economy doesn’t mean you can’t barter.

If you know someone with a skill you’d like to learn, think about what you could offer them in return. Do you know how to speak Spanish? Can you brew beer?

Find a skill to trade and learn something new — without spending a dime.

The beginning of the year is a great time to improve your life and your finances. With these tips, those two goals don’t have to be mutually exclusive!

Susan Shain, senior writer for The Penny Hoarder, is always seeking adventure on a budget. Visit her blog at susanshain.com, or say hi on Twitter @susan_shain.

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/2QpttBN

This Company Could Help You Finally Start a Business This Year

You’ve heard the adage: It costs money to make money. Getting funds to cover startup costs is probably the biggest deterrent for most folks who want to start a business.

Where should you turn? Should you ask family? Start a crowdfunding campaign? Find investors first? Or should you take out a loan?

Maybe a combination of all of the above? Doing all that alone can be daunting.

After 12 years of being a stay-at-home mom, Cheryl Cavalli launched her own business.

She knew she needed the flexibility to stay at home with her kids, so she merged her passion for travel with her business goals and decided to start a home-based travel company.

But businesses don’t happen overnight. After deciding on her business plan, Cheryl and her husband, Virge, had to clear one of the first hurdles of entrepreneurship: getting the funds.

How to Get Money to Start a Business

The Cavallis needed about $20,000 to get the ball rolling. But they were dreading the hassle of finding the best loan. They didn’t want to spend days scouring the internet or making phone calls (gasp!) to bank after bank to get a good rate.

“We weren’t looking forward to jumping through all those hoops,” Virge recalls.

That’s when they found Fiona, a search engine for financial services, which can help match you with the right personal loan to meet your needs.

Fiona searches the top online lenders to match you with a personalized loan offer in less than 60 seconds. Its platform can help you borrow up to $100,000 (no collateral needed) with fixed rates starting at 4.99% and terms from 24 to 84 months.

“All of the major loan providers were presented in a very simple table [by Fiona] — what their rates were, what the terms were,” he said. The couple got a $20,000, three-year loan with a 5.9% interest rate from SoFi, an online personal finance company.

Cheryl used the funds to cover overhead costs — marketing, designing the website and buying time to develop a clientele.

Three years later, Cheryl’s business, Pipe Dream Vacations, is thriving thanks to the low-interest loan she found.

If you want your business plans to thrive, too, break your plan down into actionable steps. Don’t just say you’re going to “launch a business this year.” Instead, start with smaller tasks like “estimate the overhead costs” and “apply for a loan.” Take baby steps.

That way, when next year rolls around, you won’t be staring at the same to-do list.

Adam Hardy is an editorial assistant on the Make Money team at The Penny Hoarder. Read his full bio here, or follow him on Twitter @hardyjournalism for other easy ways to make money.

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/2Vp5ZjX

Is It Possible to Quickly Pay off $20K in Debt When on Just $60K/Year?

No one wants to spend ages paying interest on debt if they don’t have to. But a lot of people feel so intimidated by debt that they sit with it for years or decades even when they don’t need to.

The good news: If you’re ready to pay off debt quickly, you can.

How to Quickly Pay off $20,000 in Debt

You could pay off $20,000 of debt on an income of around $60,000 in about a year.

The median household income for Americans is just over $61K, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. According to Experian data, 77 out of 129 cities across the United States, 60%, have costs-of-living less than $45,000 per year. More than a third, 35%, have costs-of-living less than $40,000 per year — leaving around $20,000 to put toward debt.

But paying off debt of any size, on any income, takes work. So anything you can do to make it easier is worth every effort. Thankfully, it’s easier than you think.

1. Lower Your Interest Rates

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

A good resource is Fiona, a search engine for financial services, which can help match you with the right personal loan to meet your needs.

Fiona searches the top online lenders to match you with a personalized loan offer in less than 60 seconds. Its platform can help you borrow up to $100,000 (no collateral needed) with fixed rates starting at 4.99% and terms from 24 to 84 months.

2. Make a Budget

When you’re focused on paying off debt, we recommend using a zero-based budget. This allows you to prioritize your necessities and debt above wants no matter the size or fluctuation of your income.

It also helps to keep cash envelopes for discretionary expenses. Once you make your budget, identify the categories that are easy for you to overspend on. Only carry enough cash to get your through the week for that category.

3. Cut Your Spending

Cancel that gym membership you rarely use, and go for a run — gasp — outside. Cut your expensive cell phone plan and go with a discount carrier. And practice meatless Mondays to cut your grocery bill.

Every time you lower your spending, it snowballs and gives you more room in your budget to pay off your debt faster.

Jen Smith is a staff writer at The Penny Hoarder. She and her husband paid off $78,000 of debt in less than two years on two less-than-average salaries. She gives money saving and debt payoff tips on Instagram at @modernfrugality.

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/2QoDwqO

Is a Perfect Credit Score Possible? It Can Be With Help From This Free Tool

Let’s face it, nobody’s perfect.

If you’re like most of us, you’ll never bowl a perfect game. You’ll never score a perfect 10 on the uneven bars.

Ah, but you can achieve a perfect credit score. You can! It’s doable.

Here’s how you do it.

What Is a Perfect Credit Score?

Let’s start with this: What are we trying to achieve, exactly?

Your credit score is based on a number of factors such as your payment history, percentage of credit limit used, length of credit history, diversity of credit, new credit and other factors. Banks and credit card companies use it to decide whether they’re willing to lend you money and what interest rates they’ll charge you.

Your score ranges from 300 to 850. The better your score, the better deal you’ll get on a mortgage, car loan or credit card.

So, if the magic number is 850, how do you get there?

You need intel. You need insight. You need insider information. To get that, get your credit score and a “credit report card” for free from Credit Sesame. It breaks down exactly what’s on your credit report in layman’s terms, how it affects your score and how to address it.

Seriously, It Can Be Done

Mike Scanlin had a good credit score but figured he’d try to get a perfect one — just for the challenge: “I wanted to get to 850 just to see if it could be done, since I didn’t know anyone who had done it.”

It took him two years of financial maneuvering to do it, but he believes anyone can repeat his feat.

Of course, Scanlin is also a 50-year-old Los Angeles venture capitalist who runs a website about investing, so he knows things that many of us don’t.

Tools like Credit Sesame are for the rest of us — people like James Cooper, a motivational speaker, who used it to raise his credit score by 277 points, from 524 all the way up to 801.

Cooper’s favorite thing about Credit Sesame is its personalization. It suggested concrete steps, based on his situation, to better manage his credit score.

“They showed me the ins and outs,” he said. “How to dot the I’s and cross the T’s.”

What It Takes to Get a Perfect Credit Score

Credit Sesame spells out the steps you’ll need to take to boost your credit — all the way to perfection:

• Pay your bills on time, every time.
• Optimize your credit utilization by signing up for the right credit cards.
• Mix up your credit use with credit cards, loans, etc.
• Get started with credit early if you can.
• Be choosy when applying for new credit — Credit Sesame will let you know your chances of being accepted!

“There’s no secret to perfect credit. All it really takes is discipline and sound financial habits,” Credit Sesame advises.

“The biggest benefit to having perfect credit is that you’ll qualify for the best possible terms. If you want to finance a car, for example, perfect credit makes it much easier to qualify for a 0% APR deal.”

Mike Brassfield (mike@thepennyhoarder.com) is a senior writer at The Penny Hoarder. He has never, ever had a perfect credit score.

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/2F9MYvZ

How to Generate Ecommerce Sales with Product Buying Guides

The Internet makes it possible for you to sell products to virtually anyone in the world.

Let that sink in for a moment.

You have a huge opportunity, yet, your competition is fiercer than ever. Every other business has the same opportunities as you.

As a marketer, you need to create an advantage over your competitors. To do this effectively, you need to fully understand how consumers shop. What process do they take to go from identifying a need for something to making a purchase? In most cases, it starts with a general search.

74% of people turn to a search engine during the consideration and purchasing phases of the buying process, and lucky for unknown brands, 71% of shoppers use search engines to discover new products.

That’s why product buying guides are so great. When a customer searches a product online, a buying guide can serve as a way to convince them to make a purchase. More specifically, the guide can convince them to buy from your brand. But there is a science behind this strategy.

This guide will show you how to leverage product buying guides to drive sales. Whether you have product buying guides that need improvement, or you’ve never used this tactic and want to try it out, you’ll benefit from the tips covered below.

Define your target audience

Before you create and publish a product buying guide, you need to determine who will be reading it. Not every guide should be intended to please everyone. It depends on who is going to be buying what you’re selling. It sounds obvious, but you’d be surprised how many businesses get this wrong.

The target market for a specific product category isn’t necessarily the same as your target audience for your entire brand. With your buying guides, it’s OK to be more specific.

For example, if you’re selling a hiking backpack, you’ll want to write your guide for people who are in the market for that item, even though you also sell other items, like a piece of carry-on luggage aimed at business travelers. People who are in the market for this product will get lost and be uninterested if the copy doesn’t speak to them specifically.

One of the best ways to define your target audience is by creating a customer persona. Here’s an example:

Once you create this persona, it’ll be much easier to develop a product buying guide based on the wants and needs of the consumer. You’ll have an image in your mind of who they are and what needs they have.

Your buying guide won’t necessarily appeal to as many people, but that’s OK. You’ll end up having much higher conversion rates for the audience that you’re targeting in the first place.

Choose a format

After you determine your audience, you need to figure out the style and format of your writing guide. You’ve got several different options to choose from here. You can develop a guide that’s mostly text, or have a guide with lots of pictures. It’s even possible to incorporate some video content into your buying guides. Maybe you want to use a combination of these styles. There are lots of ways to approach this.

You also need to decide the format of your buying guide content:

• compare multiple products
• general information about what to look for
• beginner’s purchasing guide
• introduce a new niche or type of product

Here’s an example of a desk buying guide from Wayfair:

Rather than writing a guide on specific products, they created a list of the features that consumers should look for when buying a desk. The guide is mostly text but has pictures to illustrate the points they are trying to make. It’s a very simple and easy-to-follow format that uses visual elements well. Each feature is numbered, followed by a bulleted list with additional details. The images, numbers, and bullets break up the content, so it’s easy for website visitors to scan and consume it. No intimidating walls of text here!

Include a CTA

The whole purpose of your product buying guide is to inform consumers about their options, help them decide that they want to buy something, and then ultimately convert. Let’s not lose sight of that final stage when you’re writing these.

Obviously, you want them your customer to buy from you. But if you don’t give the reader a CTA or a way to buy, that might not happen. Here’s the thing. Yes, they are reading the guide on your website. But if they have to go back to your homepage and then search for the products that they’re looking for, it’s too many extra steps. It’d be easier for them to open a new window with a search engine, or go to Amazon, Walmart, or another retail giant to buy. We don’t want that to happen.

The consumer is on your website now. This is your chance to close the sale.

Check out this simple but effective CTA button from REI.

This example is from their car racks buying guide. It’s an extensive guide with plenty of options to choose from. They have sections for trunk racks, hitch racks, spare tire racks, roof racks, and cargo boxes. Each option follows the same format as the Wayfair guide.

Each section has a brief overview of the product. That’s followed by a description of how much this type of rack can transport. All of this is followed by a bulleted list of pros and cons. This is something worth stealing for any guide you write. You don’t want to seem biased, since customers will see right through that. If you’re giving too much of a sales pitch, people won’t want to buy. It’s difficult, but you want to try and appear as neutral as possible.

The cons list isn’t necessarily saying bad things about their specific products. Instead, it talks about some limitations of products in this particular category. For example, one of the cons of the spare tire bike rack is that there is a two-bike limit. If someone doesn’t need to transport more than two bikes, that’s not a problem. They don’t need to buy a rack that can hold three or four bikes. Listing the cons like this helps increase your authority and removes some of your bias in the eyes of the consumers. As a result, you can establish trust with the reader.

Last, but certainly not least, is a CTA that provides a link to buy. If someone is reading this guide and realizes that one of these options is what they’re looking for based on the information they found, all they need to do is click on the CTA. Even the CTA isn’t too pushy. But it needs to be there so the site visitor can ultimately convert and make a purchase with as little friction as possible.

The CTA directs the visitor to the product options. From here, they can make a purchase.

Compare products in different price ranges

In a perfect world, customers would always buy your most expensive products with the highest margins. But the world we live in is far from perfect. Not every person has an unlimited budget for this one purchase. Even if they did have an unlimited budget, many consumers want the best bang for their buck. In fact, the ability to compare prices ranks high on the list of why consumers prefer to shop online in the first place.

So, help your customers out make it easy for them to compare prices right on your site. A product guide is a simple way to do this. For example, let’s say you’re selling couches. You can might have products segmented by price in categories like:

• couches under $250
• couches $250–$750
• couches over $1,000

Include prices or price range categories in your buying guides and you’ll make this easier on the reader. This allows you to create anchor prices, which is a way for you to generate more profit by focusing on your pricing strategy. Psychologically, the customer will create a value in their head about what products are worth based on the anchor prices. Your less expensive and mid-range products will look more appealing when you put them next to premium-priced products. Consider marketing one of the options in your guide as a Best Budget pick or Best Value to hit that point home.

Apply SEO principles

Product-buying guides have a shot to rank with long-tail search terms.

This makes sense: most consumers use search engines to find new products, a buying guide will help them learn and discover. To take advantage of this discoverability, conduct keyword research on each category to determine what people are actually searching for.

Again, you’re not trying to appeal to the masses with your buying guides. General search terms are going to have more competition and be more expensive if you’re running PPC campaigns.

If you make your SEO strategy too broad and general, there may be more people searching for that term, but your click-through rates will be much lower. For example, let’s say you’re selling something basic that everyone uses, like socks. A product buying guide about how to choose a pair of socks is way too general. Make it more specific for your target audience and certain niches with long-tail keywords:

• best ankle socks for workouts
• women’s waterproof running socks
• best high socks for hiking
• dress socks for sweaty feet

Do you see the difference? All of these potential search terms address more particular needs. People searching for these keywords have a specific want. So if they land on your buying guide from their search, they’ll have a much higher probability of clicking through and converting.

Include reviews

When a consumer navigates to a product buying guide, they are conducting research. The number one reason why customers research products online is to read product reviews.

You can also showcase a customer review or testimonial to increase brand credibility. From that review, link the reader directly to the rest of your reviews for each product. You could even consider adding a superlative to your buying guide like Customer Favorite or Popular Choice.

In addition to reviews, you can add any statistics or references to back up claims you’re making about products or categories. Doing this will make your brand seem much more trustworthy and legitimate.

Conclusion

Product buying guides give you a unique opportunity to assist consumers during the research stage of the customer conversion funnel.

The first thing you need to do is determine the target audience of each buying guide. Figure out a format and style that works best for you, as well as the reader. Target long-tail keywords, and include CTAs to buy the products.

Showcase products in different price ranges to appeal to a wider range of prospective buyers and leverage your existing customer reviews.

How is your business using product buying guides to drive ecommerce sales?

Source Quick Sprout http://bit.ly/2Fd78Wf

I’m Going Back to School… but I Have $7K of Medical Debt

Dear E.,
There’s no reason to feel embarrassed when you’re figuring out your finances. But I understand your hesitance to talk to your mother about it. Our fear of being judged about how we manage our money is amplified by wanting our parents to be proud of us in our own adulthoods. But we’ll get back to that.

A debt consolidation loan can relieve some of the pressure of organizing several billing statements each month. Make sure you review multiple loan offers — well-known options include Upstart, Even Financial, Credible, LendingClub and Prosper — to make sure you’re getting the best loan terms possible. Getting these quotes will show up as a “soft” inquiry on your credit report, so don’t worry about your score being negatively affected.

Interest rates typically start at 5% for people with good credit, but can go up to nearly 30%. That’s higher than most credit card interest rates. If you make on-time payments on your new loan, the ding to your credit score for taking out the loan should only be temporary.

But be critical as you compare these loan offers to your current credit card balance, especially since you’re in a zero-interest period on one of your cards. Could you make more progress during that interest-free period than you would if you got a loan and took on more interest? It’s worth crunching the numbers to see which plan could get you out of debt faster and for less money.

I recommend a website called Undebt.it to figure this out. You can track your debt-payoff plans over time and calculate different scenarios.

Once you decide how to tackle your debt, you may want to sit down with your mother and talk about your situation and your plans. One in 6 Americans have a past-due medical bill on their credit report, according to an analysis of census and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau data. So you’re far from alone in your battle to be well physically and financially.

You may find that your mother is more understanding than you expect, especially once she sees how proactive you’re being.

The Penny Hoarder works with some of the loan providers listed above, but they did not pay to be included here.

Have a tricky money question? Write to Dear Penny and you might see your question answered in an upcoming column.

Lisa Rowan is a personal finance expert and senior writer at The Penny Hoarder, and the voice behind Dear Penny.

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/2F7gGSs

Thoughts on the $5 Challenge, the 365-Day Challenge, and Other Financial ‘Challenges’

The new year tends to bring forth a lot of people pledging resolutions for the coming year and talking about their successes (and occasionally their failures) over the last year.

One particular flavor of this phenomenon that I find interesting is the “challenge,” something that seems to pop up in various ways with various self-improvement strategies at the turn of the year. I’ll hear from a few people that succeeded at a “challenge” the previous year, and from others asking whether a particular “challenge” they’re considering makes sense.

So, what’s a “challenge”? It’s basically any year-long plan for self improvement that requires you to take some simple action on a very regular basis throughout the year, one that accumulates into a big overall success at the end of the year.

Here are a few of the ones I’ve seen that are financially related:

The Starbucks challenge means you pay for your coffee at Starbucks (or at any coffee shop) with cash and put aside the change you receive until the end of the year, at which point you can do something big with it (pay off debt, etc.).

The $5 challenge means that whenever you receive a $5 bill as change, you put that $5 bill aside until the end of the year. Those accumulated $5 bills can be used for some type of financial move.

The 52-week challenge, which was so popular a couple of years ago that I wrote about it and suggested a better version and Simple Dollar editor Jon Gorey recently wrote about six additional variations, involves saving a dollar a week plus a dollar for every previous week for the entire year. So, on the first week you save $1, on the second week you save $2, on the third week you save $3, and so on until the 52nd week where you save $52 (over the year, you end up saving about $1,400). Again, you use that money for some kind of financial move, perhaps just something as simple as paying off holiday credit card debt.

The weight loss financial challenge is a fun one. Every time you weigh in this year, put aside $5 for every pound you’ve lost since the last time. When you hit your goal (or the end of the year), use that money to celebrate.

These types of challenges are quite brilliant because they incorporate several key elements of what makes a goal successful.

They’re specific. It’s very clear what you’re supposed to do when taking on a challenge. “When X happens, do X” is about as clear as can be.

They’re measurable. Your progress is extremely clear because you measure your success by whether you did it each time and you measure the overall total by the dollars and cents.

They’re actionable. You take a simple action to complete each step.

They’re realistic. For most people, the steps in these challenges are completely realistic. Almost anyone can take these on (or take on some simple variation).

They’re time-bound. These challenges last for a year. You know exactly when it’s done.

On the whole, I endorse such challenges rather strongly. If you find one that clicks with you and motivates you to put money aside for the future, then by all means, dive in!

I just have a few caveats in general.

First, it’s a good idea to use the money at the end of the year for actual financial progress rather than a “celebration.” If you take on one of these challenges and find yourself with a few hundred dollars or a thousand dollars at the end of the year, use it to do something lasting and meaningful. Pay off a credit card debt. Pay down a student loan debt. Put it in your Roth IRA.

Sure, such a choice might seem boring, but it takes that money from being something that’s used for a momentary celebration and then forgotten to being something that has a lasting positive effect on your life. An extra thousand dollars toward a car loan or a student loan can make a real difference in your life. Paying off a credit card can make a real difference in your life.

One of the big things I noticed during my financial turnaround is that as my debts went away and my savings started to build, my overall life felt less stressful. I didn’t feel nearly as stressed out on a daily basis as I did when we were really financially struggling. This has only continued over the ensuing years. Our finances are one part of our life that doesn’t worry us very much.

The money you pick up from a financial “challenge” like this is a great start down that road to financial peace. If you succeed at this kind of challenge, use it as a starting point for a lasting life change rather than just a forgotten celebration.

• Read more: Happiness, Low Stress, and a Firm Financial Foundation

Second, right out of the box, challenges like this won’t necessarily click with you; don’t be afraid to modify it. Modifying and tweaking challenges like this to better suit your life is a great way to make the challenge more meaningful and useful to you.

For example, with the 52-week challenge, I highly recommend doing the weeks out of order and simply challenging yourself to put aside as much as possible each week, trying to knock off one of the big numbers if you can and leaving the little ones for later weeks when money might be tighter.

With the “Starbucks challenge,” consider using that approach for whatever small purchase you make frequently. If you buy a sandwich at a food truck near your workplace three times a week, pay with a $10 and use that change as the source of your “challenge.” If you stop by a bookstore once a week and buy a new book, pay with a $20 and put aside the change for that challenge. Tweak it to what you do.

With the $5 challenge, you might make it the $1 challenge (save all single $1 bills you receive in change that you don’t have earmarked for something else, like paying a toll) or the Hamilton Challenge (do it with $10 bills instead).

The key is to find a way to make the challenge relevant to your life, which will make the challenge both more fun and much more likely to succeed.

Third, and finally, don’t use this type of challenge as an excuse to make other financial mistakes. It’s easy to turn the $5 challenge into something like “Oh, if I spend $12 here I’ll probably get a $5 bill back in change which can boost my challenge!” You’re better off not spending it at all unless there’s a purpose. Similarly, you might decide to hit Starbucks just so you can use the change to boost your challenge. Again, don’t go to the coffee shop unless you actually want to go to the coffee shop.

These challenges really only benefit you when they nudge you toward strictly positive behavior – putting aside money instead of spending it on frivolous forgettable things, mostly. If you’re instead using this challenge as a reason to spend money on frivolous forgettable things, you’re basically undoing any benefit of the challenge. If you’re going to Starbucks and dropping a $10 bill in large part so that you can put $3 toward the challenge… why not just put $10 into the challenge money?

With all of that being said, I do encourage you to try one of these challenges if you struggle to put money aside for the future and one of them seems compelling to you. It’s a very effective way to turn the act of putting aside money for the future into an ordinary thing and then, at the end of the year, you get a great look at how powerful such simple steps can really be over time. It can catapult you into more and more aggressive challenges going forward… and the truth is that the road to financial success is basically just that. It’s a bunch of these types of challenges intertwined.

Good luck!

More by Trent Hamm:

• The Power of the 30-Day Challenge: 10 Challenges That Can Improve Your Finances This Month 
• Some Reflections on ‘My Year of No Shopping’
• Challenge Yourself! 12 Simple Frugal Challenges You Can Do This Week
• The Big Cutback: The Value of Longer ‘No-Spending’ Challenges

The post Thoughts on the $5 Challenge, the 365-Day Challenge, and Other Financial ‘Challenges’ appeared first on The Simple Dollar.

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

Download Ibotta and They’ll Give You $10 For a Photo of Your Grocery Receipt

Consider this a choose-your-own-adventure with a guaranteed happy ending.

The Ibotta app wants to give you $10. And there are two ways.

You start by downloading the Ibotta app.

Then, it’s your choice:

Option #1: Find a cash-back offer on Ibotta and head to the store for your purchase. Then snap a photo of your receipt to upload to the app. You’ll receive the $10 welcome bonus in your Ibotta account within 72 hours.

Option #2: Shop online and search for offers. If you’re shopping online, Ibotta will let you know the timeframe in which your money will be deposited into your account.

Keep shopping, and once you hit $20, you can cash out through PayPal or Venmo. You can also opt to receive your rewards as a gift card.

The Penny Hoarder staff writer Carson Kohler used Ibotta for a little over a year and earned $140 in cash back on travel, groceries and online purchases.

Get your cash now by downloading the Ibotta app. Happy shopping!

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/2QodXGm

Download Qoins and Let Them Help You Pay Off Your Debt Faster

You know how sometimes you need a buddy to help you level up in your favorite game?

Consider recruiting Qoins when it comes to your financial game.

Qoins rounds up each purchase you make to the nearest dollar. The app tracks the roundups and makes withdrawals that it automatically puts toward a debt account of your choice each month.

How it works:

1. Sign up, and add your lender (the account you want to pay off).

2. Connect your checking or other bank account.

3. Start saving and automatically paying down your debt.

It’s that easy. And unlike your gamer buddy, you don’t need to offer Qoins half your nachos to enlist its help.

Download Qoins and start paying down that debt today.

 

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/2VBURjQ