MAKE MONEY ONLINE POSTS: 12/06/19

الجمعة، 6 ديسمبر 2019

5 Ways to Avoid Student Loan Debt, Regardless of Your College or Major

It shouldn’t come as a great surprise that one way to avoid college debt is by choosing an institution that fits your budget and a major that promises a job that pays well.

But now you can run the numbers and realize that, for example, your bachelor’s degree in music from the University of New Haven offers a median first-year salary of $21,700 compared to the typical $27,000 in debt that accompanies the diploma. Ouch.

Those cheery numbers come courtesy of the U.S. Department of Education’s updated College Scorecard, which allows students to compare colleges by costs, admissions and results. And now the site lets you customize a search by potential debt compared to earnings based on their field of study and institution.

But even if you’re comparing colleges and their debt-to-income ratios, there are plenty of ways to earn your tassel with less debt hassle regardless of your major. Read on for a little higher education in how to avoid college debt.

5 Ways to Avoid College Debt

Check out these five strategies for avoiding student loan debt before you get your diploma, no matter where you go to college or what your major may be.

1. Apply for Financial Aid

If you think financial aid ends with loans, think again. Although the FAFSA and CSS Profiles are essential when applying for student loans, they can also help you qualify for grants and scholarships — aka free money you don’t have to repay — as well as work-study opportunities.

Each college has its own deadline for its financial aid applications, so make sure you ask about the due date for every school you’re considering.

2. Know When to Say No to Money

Simply put, student loans are designed to cover the cost of college. The College Scorecard defines those costs as tuition, living costs, books and fees — minus the average grants and scholarships you could receive.

But what is “living costs” — is it just your dorm room and basic meal plans? Or does it include a stress-relieving night out and a car to get you across campus? It’s highly likely that you’ll be approved for loans that cover much more than books and a dorm room, but that doesn’t mean you should take everything that’s offered. By making a budget for college before you accept unnecessary loans, you’ll end up with less debt when you graduate.

3. Get a Job

Every little bit helps. Repeat this phrase to yourself when you deposit that minimum wage paycheck from your barista job. But you can also get creative with a student job — if you have the brains, you can make money as a tutor, or if you love the outdoors, dive into a lifeguard gig at the local pool.

Pro Tip

Your minimum wage job alone probably won’t get you out of college debt free. The federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour, while the average cost of a public, four-year degree is $80,661.44.

And regardless of whether your major is destined to make you rich, you can get a leg up on the competition — and increase your post-graduate earning potential — by applying for an internship within your field of study.

If you’d rather just hang out in your dorm, check out work-from-home job opportunities you can do in your pajamas.

4. Budget for the Hidden Costs

The Scorecard provides the official numbers from your chosen institution, but there are plenty of other hidden college costs. Even if you’re choosing a major that has high earning potential — like aviation or engineering — you should investigate whether there are additional costs due to expensive equipment or materials on top of your tuition and regular fees.

And if you choose a university in a large city, you could be paying more for living expenses — but you could offset some costs by using public transportation that might not be available to your country cousins.

5. Start Paying Before Your Grace Period Ends

If you do take out federal student loans, you can save a bundle on interest by paying down the interest (and the loans, if you can) while you’re still in college.

By paying off your interest before your grace period ends, you’ll avoid an event known as interest capitalization. That’s the moment when your interest balance gets lumped into your principal balance and you start getting charged interest on the total amount.

Although the College Scorecard can give you a starting point for figuring out your debt load compared to your potential earnings, you still have the power to avoid debt and graduate a winner.

Tiffany Wendeln Connors is a staff writer/editor at The Penny Hoarder. Read her bio and other work here, then catch her on Twitter @TiffanyWendeln.

This was originally published on The Penny Hoarder, which helps millions of readers worldwide earn and save money by sharing unique job opportunities, personal stories, freebies and more. The Inc. 5000 ranked The Penny Hoarder as the fastest-growing private media company in the U.S. in 2017.

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Dear Penny: I Want to Retire. My Wife Says Not Yet. How Do I Convince Her?

Dear R.,

Everyone you know has way too much going on in their own lives to sit around pondering the circumstances around your retirement.

In the very unlikely event that they gave it so much as a passing thought, they’d probably conclude that you were successful and got a head start on the good life a little early as a result.

So if your wife really has said she doesn’t want you to retire because she’s worried what others will think, I offer her my words of comfort.

But wait! Did your wife actually say that?

You say you think she fears what other people will think. This sounds like your hypothesis. Have you tried having an actual conversation about what she’s actually thinking?

Before we delve into what could be giving your wife pause, let me acknowledge the obvious: This is a really good problem to have. I get so many letters from people who are in their 50s and 60s with virtually nothing saved for retirement. Often, the problem is compounded by crushing debt.

You, however, have a seven-figure nest egg, three homes and no debt. You have a comfortable retirement ahead of you — your only dilemma is when that comfortable retirement begins.

But there’s a bigger issue at play here.

Retirement marks a huge lifestyle change. Planning for retirement ideally involves a lot more than planning for life beyond a paycheck.

But often the focus of retirement planning is solely financial because most people are woefully lacking in savings. Just getting to retirement in this lifetime is the goal.

Money is just part of the picture. Retirement gives you a plethora of free time. You’re more likely to become isolated. There’s no way your spouse won’t be affected — and that’s something I worry you may have lost sight of.

Here’s what you say: You’ve worked hard. You want to retire. You’re financially prepared. There’s no “we.” No reference to the life the two of you have built together. Your wife only enters your narrative as a force who stands in the way of what you want.

Talk with your wife about what you envision for your retirement. Ask her what she thinks your life will look like. Maybe the two of you have starkly different visions that are at the root of this conflict.

Perhaps you envision a retirement filled with part-time work you love, volunteering, hobbies and quality time with family. But maybe she has flashes of you puttering around the house 24/7 as the hum of televised golf drones forever in the background.

Instead of focusing the discussion on what you hate about work, try talking about what you love about life. How would retiring now let you get more of that? And in what ways does your wife worry your retiring now would change your lives for the worse?

And if she does say she’s worried about what other people will think? Press her on it. Ask her: Who are these people, and what will they think?

It’s easy to mask your own thoughts under the guise of what “other people” are going to think, so figuring this part out could yield valuable insight.

The most important thing you can do here is listen openly and hear your wife out. Ask questions if you don’t understand her perspective. You can only address her worries if you know what they are.

If you can’t agree for now, there’s always a compromise: You could transition gradually out of the workforce by taking on less stressful work with fewer hours.

Just make sure you aren’t looking at retirement through rose-colored glasses. Retirement doesn’t magically give you health and happiness. What it gives you is a lot more time — time that will be a lot more blissful with your wife on your side.

Robin Hartill is a senior editor at The Penny Hoarder and the voice behind Dear Penny. Send your questions about retirement to AskPenny@thepennyhoarder.com.

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US Gains a Robust 266,000 Jobs; Unemployment Falls to 3.5%

Hiring in the United States jumped last month to its highest level since January as U.S. employers shrugged off trade conflicts and a global slowdown and added 266,000 jobs.

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The Mail Crunch: Effectively Handle Damaged or Stolen Packages

Online shopping is a fantastic convenient tool, particularly around the holidays. It opens up an enormous array of options for gift-giving (as well as shopping for ourselves), but it’s not all perfect.

One of the big risks of ordering from online retailers is that there is a chance, however small, that the item will arrive damaged, that the item will be snatched from your front step after delivery, or that it won’t be delivered at all. I’ve had packages fall into all three of those groups in the past, and I’ve learned some lessons the hard way.

Here are some of the best practices you can follow with regards to handling damaged, lost, or stolen packages effectively, particularly during the holiday season.

Be proactive and give plenty of shipping time.

This is my number one rule when it comes to buying gifts online, particularly during the super-busy holiday season. I generally don’t order packages online unless there’s enough time for the package to get here twice and with an extra day or two of shipping on both journeys. If it’s got two day shipping, I won’t order it less than a week in advance of the event; if it’s slower than that, I give it two weeks.

Why? This gives the package a little extra time to arrive and be evaluated for damage or to not arrive at all while still giving me plenty of time to fix the problem and have a replacement delivery make it before the event.

If you don’t have that lead time, you run a real risk of having packages

Yes, this does mean that it’s hard to order perishable gifts through the mail. A simple way to handle this is to simply avoid ordering perishable gifts through the mail for holiday gift-giving.

If you’re going to buy holiday gifts online, do it now — like, right now — rather than later, so you have time to do the other things on this list if something goes wrong.

If you won’t be home at the delivery time but have a friend who will be, have the item shipped to that friend.

I’m lucky in that I work from home so I’m here to receive packages during the day, but many people aren’t so lucky. If you are going to have a package delivered while you’re out of the house, it might be a smart idea to simply check with friends and see if any of them will be home when the package would be delivered.

Do you have a friend who works from home or a stay-at-home parent that lives near you? Simply ask your friend if you can have a package or two delivered at their house, then stop by and pick it up as soon as you can.

This is a simple added layer of protection against theft at your doorstep.

Know the lost package, damaged item and return policies of the business you’re buying from.

Most online retailers have very clear information about what you need to do in order to report an item as damaged, lost or stolen. For example, Amazon has a very helpful page outlining its procedures in each of those cases; most online retailers have similar documents that can be found on their website.

Before you buy a holiday gift from a retailer, spend the time to read through their policies so you know what will happen if the item turns up lost, stolen, or damaged. I’m pretty familiar with Amazon’s policies, for example, but if I’m shopping from another retailer, I take the time to check their policy and I usually bookmark it so I can quickly find it later if something goes wrong. I can always delete that bookmark in a few weeks if everything’s fine.

Document, document, document.

Keep note of everything that happened regarding your lost, stolen, or damaged item. Note when you bought it, when it was shipped, each step it took in tracking, when it was delivered, when you noticed it missing (if it was) and what problems you noticed with the item. If the item is damaged, take some pictures of it with your phone immediately upon opening, along with pictures of the packaging.

I strongly suggest writing all of that down and having it ready before you contact a customer service line. The customer service agent will be asking questions and if you have that information ready to go, it will be much easier to provide answers.

Don’t delay in contacting the retailer, but check the procedure first.

As soon as you’re aware of a problem, check the documentation and follow the procedure they have stated for what to do if your item is lost or stolen or damaged. Often, for lost or stolen items, the retailer encourages you to wait a day or two before contacting them because packages often turn up a day late (maybe someone left the item in their delivery truck because they needed to get home or something), so contacting the retailer immediately won’t help.

The sooner you begin following procedure for contacting the company and getting the situation resolved, the better. However, contacting the company when you haven’t followed all of the steps they’ve listed will just mean frustration for both you and the customer service representative you’ll be talking to. They will ask you if you’ve done the things listed and if you haven’t, you’ll both be frustrated. Check the policy first and make sure you’ve done your part before calling.

Be calm, patient, and polite.

When you contact the retailer, be calm, patient and polite. If you’re making contact when you feel angry or annoyed, give yourself some time to calm down before contacting them.

Here’s the truth: the customer service person you’ll talk to is someone who had nothing whatsoever to do with the package problems you’re having. They did not damage your package. They did not steal your package. They did not lose your package. Rather, they’re just trying to help you fix the problem as efficiently as possible, and they’re usually already harried because of other people yelling at them for things they didn’t do.

The best approach is to be calm, patient, and polite. Be as positive as you can with them and thank them for their efforts. Don’t raise your voice. Don’t get angry. Say “please” and “thank you.” Appreciate their efforts, even if they didn’t get you the resolution you ideally wanted. If you want to escalate your request, ask to do so politely. This will get you far better service and help than being angry or demanding, as no one likes it or wants to help someone who is angry or upset with them.

If you’re sure a package has been stolen, file a police report.

Simply call up your local police department and report that a package was stolen from your front step. You may need to do this if an insurance claim is needed or the retailer or shipper won’t fix the problem (the retailer may or may not, depending on the exact situation and their specific policies).

When you do this, make sure that you have everything already documented about the potentially stolen package, as suggested earlier. Have the ship date, shipping carrier, delivery date, contents of the package and the tracking number available if you’re reporting the package as stolen.

This likely won’t help you recover the package, but it may be able to help you recover the value of the stolen item.

It’s not the end of the world.

Remember that if a holiday package is damaged, lost, or stolen, it’s not the end of the world. You might be able to pick up the same item locally if needed or order the item a second time. If that doesn’t work, you can likely find something at least similar locally or online.

Keep in mind that the purpose of a holiday gift is to show someone you care, and you can still achieve that goal even if there’s a problem with a package. It’s a minor setback that’s easy to recover from.

Good luck!

The post The Mail Crunch: Effectively Handle Damaged or Stolen Packages appeared first on The Simple Dollar.

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Deal of the week: Christmas for £99 - tree, turkey, and presents too

Families can have a whole Christmas for less than £100 by purchasing everything they need from a select list of retailers.

Edmund Greaves Fri, 12/06/2019 - 09:43

What is the deal exactly?

By following a carefully constructed list of Christmas products (below), you can have yourself a family Christmas dinner, drinks and even a tree for just £99.

Income streaming app Wagestream have provided Moneywise with a fantastically specific list of items that keeps Christmas costs low.

The most expensive item on the list is a £9.99 turkey from Lidl. The next most expensive is a £6 cake from Tesco and a tinsel tree from Wilko at £5.

Tesco tops the list with 11 best-value items. The Works came in with seven. The list includes gifts for two parents and two kids.

See the full list of items below.

Item	Store	Description	Each	No	Cost
Turkey	Lidl	Braemoor Ready Basted Small British Turkey with Giblets	£9.99	1	£9.99
Roast potatoes	Tesco	Tesco Roast Potatoes 800G	£1.00	0.8kg	£1.00
Gravy	Tesco	Schwartz Classic Roast Turkey Gravy Mix 25G	£0.90	1	£0.90
Mince pies	Tesco	Tesco Mince Pies 6 Pack	£0.87	1	£0.87
Bacon	Tesco	Woodside Farms Cooking Bacon 500G	£0.72	0.5kg	£0.72
Brussels sprouts	Waitrose	essential Waitrose Brussel sprouts 500g	£0.65	0.5kg	£0.65
Carrots	Waitrose	essential Waitrose carrots 0.6kg	£0.42	0.6kg	£0.42
Parsnips	Tesco	Parsnips Loose Class 1 0.15kg	£0.18	0.15kg	£0.18
Chipolatas	Sainsbury's	Sainsbury's Butcher's Choice Pork Chipolata Sausages x12 340g	£1.40	1	£1.40
Christmas pudding	Lidl	Favorina Christmas Pudding	£3.39	1	£3.39
Brandy butter	Tesco	Tesco Brandy Butter 200G	£1.74	1	£1.74
Christmas cake	Tesco	Tesco Fully Iced Fruit Cake 907G	£6.00	1	£6.00
Sherry	Asda	ASDA Fino Sherry	£4.70	1	£4.70
Mulled wine	Tesco	Tesco Mulled Wine 75Cl	£3.50	1	£3.50
Bucks Fizz	Tesco	Tesco Bucks Fizz 75Cl	£2.00	1	£2.00
Bottle of bubbly	Aldi	Castellore Prosecco Frizzante DOC	£4.99	1	£4.99
Christmas crackers	The Works	Kids Mini Christmas Crackers - Pack of 6	£1.00	1	£1.00
Table cloth	Wilko	Wilko Silver Wipeable Christmas Tablecloth	£1.50	1	£1.50
Party poppers	Tesco	20 Party Poppers	£2.00	1	£2.00
Christmas cards	The Works	Festive Friends Christmas Cards - Pack of 20	£2.00	1	£2.00
Wrapping paper	The Works	Christmas Gift Wrap - 10M - Assorted	£2.00	1	£2.00
Dad's pressie	Boots	Ted Baker Mini Gift	£4.50	1	£4.50
Mum's pressie	Boots	Soap & Glory Original Pink Collection Tin (Gifts for Her)	£6.67	1	£6.67
Child No1's pressie	The Works	Retro Wood Satchel Skateboard - Assorted	£4.00	1	£4.00
Child No2's pressie	The Works	Giant Fairy Shaped Foam Jigsaw Puzzle	£7.00	1	£7.00
Wrapping paper	Wilko	Wilko Festive Fiesta Gift Wrap 9 Sheets	£1.00	1	£1.00
Advent calendars	Sainsbury's	Cadbury Dairy Milk Chocolate Advent Calendar 90g	£1.50	2	£3.00
Stocking	Hobby Craft	Red Felt Christmas Stocking	£1.00	2	£2.00
Stocking fillers	The Works	Unicorn Stampers - Pack of 10	£2.00	1	£2.00
Christmas tree	Wilko	Wilko Tree Green Tinsel 3ft	£5.00	1	£5.00
Xmas baubles	Wilko	Wilko Mini 38 Pack Luxe Sparkle Gold Baubles	£3.00	1	£3.00
Xmas tree lights	Aldi	50 Warm White LED Outdoor Lights	£3.99	1	£3.99
Tinsel	Wilko	Wilko Gold Christmas Tinsel 2m	£1.00	1	£1.00
Box of chocolates	Tesco	Quality Street tub 650g	£3.50	1	£3.50
Board game	The Works	Christmas bingo game	£2.00	1	£2.00
		TOTAL			£99.61

Wagestream is a wage management app that lets workers drawdown income early for a £1.75 fee and is touted as a way to avoid payday loan companies. The firm charges no interest and it is not a loan per se.

Why should I care?

Christmas is the most wonderful, but most expensive, time of the year. It is a time for celebration and family, but should not be a time for breaking the bank.

Savvy planning of your Christmas shopping can make an enormous difference to your new year’s wallet.

What’s the catch?

You’ll have to do a lot of moving around to different shops to get all the items. Not every town will have all the shops on the list unfortunately, so you might have to substitute with other products that won’t always be as cheap.

What other options do I have?

You can try building your own savvy list by doing research online and buying the best value. See it as a challenge to be met rather than a drain on your bank balance. Remember, Christmas is about friends, family and coming together – don’t make it about who can buy the most expensive gifts and the biggest turkeys because your wallet won’t thank you.

Where can I find out more?

The supermarkets and shops listed will all have online listings available to check the prices and locations for the best value shopping.

Source Moneywise - 29 years of helping you with your finances https://ift.tt/2Yp86WY

Mad money saving gifts for Christmas

Mad money saving gifts for Christmas Edmund Greaves Fri, 12/06/2019 - 00:36

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Top ways to protect your 2020 holiday for less

Top ways to protect your 2020 holiday for less Sue Hayward Fri, 12/06/2019 - 00:28

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Vanguard launches 'cheapest ever' personal pension – here's how it stacks up

The SIPP comes with an account fee of 0.15%, meaning you will be paying 15p for every £100 invested

Stephen Little Thu, 12/05/2019 - 15:01

Fund manager Vanguard is set to launch what it claims is the lowest-cost self-invested personal pension on the market next year.

The Vanguard Personal Pension comes with an account fee of 0.15%, capped at £375 a year. That means you will be paying 15p for every £100 invested.

You can invest from £100 a month or a lump sum of at least £500.

Investors will have access to 76 of Vanguard’s funds and ETFs available on the Vanguard Personal Investor platform, including Vanguard's Target Retirement Funds and the popular LifeStrategy range.

The account fee cap applies across all personal pension, Isas and general account holdings on the Vanguard Personal Investor platform.

If you want to buy or sell ETFs through the optional Quote and Deal service, you will be charged a fixed fee of £7.50.

Sean Hagerty, head of Europe at Vanguard, says: “The Vanguard Personal Pension is designed to reduce the cost and complexity of saving for retirement. An individual’s savings often represent a lifetime’s effort, yet many investors and retirees continue to be charged far too much on the proceeds of their own hard work.

“Fees can have a sizeable impact on investment returns, and consequently on the quality of life in retirement.

“We want to offer investors the clarity, peace of mind and value for money they deserve, through a service that is simple, effective, transparent and fairly priced.”

What is a SIPP?

A SIPP is just like any other pension except you get to manage and invest your pension where you like.

It gives you access to a wide range of investments, including funds, shares, ETFs and bonds.

They can also be used to consolidate your pensions. Nowadays, most of us work for more than one employer, so they are a good way of putting all your pensions in one place.

The government will also add 20% tax relief to your pension, so if you put in £8,000 you will get an extra £2,000.

Traditional personal pensions offer you the choice of investing in a hundreds of different funds, but they can come with relatively high charges.

While stakeholder pensions have lower charges, they have a more limited choice of funds.

Although SIPPs offer investors greater investment choice than a personal pension, they are typically more expensive to run.

Is it good value for money?

However, Vanguard is charging an annual management fee of 0.15% with no exit or transfers fees. On top of this there are also additional fund charges.

This compares to interactive investor (Moneywise's parent company) charge flat fees between £9.99 or £19.99 a month depending on how active you wish to be with buying and selling investments.

Other providers such as Hargreaves Lansdown’s 0.45% which is capped at £200 a year. It has no fund dealing charges, but you will have to pay £11.95 for buying and selling shares.

Myron Jobson, personal finance campaigner at interactive investor comments: More competition in the investment platform space is good news for investors, and in the case of the forthcoming Vanguard launch, it may be of interest to those who don’t mind their choice being restricted to Vanguard funds – although it’s a big sacrifice to make.

"The ability to cherry-pick from a range of literally thousands of investments is hugely attractive to engaged investors, and our customers are not restricted to funds and ETFs either – many actively engage share dealing and trading investment trusts.

"It is worth noting that the interactive investor SIPP would still be cheaper to hold Vanguard for those with pot sizes of £159,920 or more. This is on the basis of a 0.15% AUM charge capped at £375 per year, compared to our own monthly core charge of £9.99 per month in our Investor price plan, plus £10 per month in addition for the SIPP."

While Moneywise recommends several Vanguard funds as part of its First 50 Funds selection, with the interactive investor, Hargreaves Lansdown or other major platform SIPPs you can invest in thousands of funds and other instruments, far higher than the 76 available with Vanguard.

Jeremy Fawcett, head of platform research group Platforum, says: “Pension investing is a long-term activity and outcomes are significantly improved when fees are pegged back.

“The Vanguard SIPP is one of the lowest cost options in the market, especially for those at the beginning of their investing journey.”

Platforum found that if you invested £40,000 through the Vanguard SIPP would cost £172 a year in total charges.

Investing the same amount in the same fund through a SIPP on a different platform would cost an average of £283, or as much as £396 via the most expensive platform.

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