10 Classic (and Unique) Retirement Gift Ideas

Celebrate your colleague’s retirement with one of these thoughtful gifts.

Source U.S. News - Money http://ift.tt/1GmNvqB

Savings update: top cash Isa rates trail taxable accounts

Sylvia Morris

Piggy bank smashed_0.jpg

Headline rates on cash Isas continue to lag behind those paid on taxable accounts. On tax-free cash Isas, the top easy access account comes from Post Office Online Cash Isa at 1.51 per cent, including a 0.86 percentage point bonus for the first 12 months.

Headline rates on cash Isas continue to lag behind those paid on taxable accounts. On tax-free cash Isas, the top easy access account comes from Post Office Online Cash Isa at 1.51 per cent, including a 0.86 percentage point bonus for the first 12 months.

Savings update: top cash isa rates trail taxable accounts

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Headline rates on cash Isas continue to lag behind those paid on taxable accounts. On tax-free cash Isas, the top easy access account comes from Post Office Online Cash Isa at 1.51 per cent, including a 0.86 percentage point bonus for the first 12 months. Virgin Money Defined Access Isa is a slightly better rate at 1.56 per cent, but it limits you to making three withdrawals a year - although there is no bonus on this account. Best deal with no bonus and no withdrawal facilities comes from Nationwide's Instant Isa Saver Issue 3 at 1.4 per cent. But on taxable easy-access accounts the top deal stands at a higher 1.65 per cent before tax (1.32 per cent after tax) from RCI Bank Freedom Account and ICICI Bank HiSave SuperSaver, with no bonus or withdrawal restrictions. The same pattern is evident for fixed-rate accounts. TOP FIXED-RATE ACCOUNTS On fixed-rate cash Isas Virgin Money pays a top 1.81 per cent for one year, followed by AA Savings' Isa deal at 1.75 per cent, where the deposit taker is Bank of Ireland. Virgin Money pays 2.06 per cent for two years. But on taxable fixed-rate bonds you can earn at 2.07 per cent before tax (1.66 per cent after tax) for one year with Charter Savings Bank. French-owned RCI Bank and FirstSave both pay 2.06 per cent (1.65 per cent), while Harrod's Banks now offers 2.03 per cent (1.62 per cent). For two years, top deals include RCI and Hampshire Trust banks at 2.35 per cent (1.88 per cent).

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8 Unusual and Unglamorous Investment Opportunities

What's ugly to some investors can provide a handsome return to others.

Source U.S. News - Money http://ift.tt/1ODRRfQ

How to Commemorate a Colleague’s Retirement

These retirement gift ideas will help you celebrate the occasion.

Source U.S. News - Money http://ift.tt/1RRN8pa

How to Save Money When Purchasing a New Phone

Waiting until prices drop is one solid strategy. 

Source U.S. News - Money http://ift.tt/1RRN8Wd

Cars We Remember: Remembering the military Jeep and those wonderful Willys Jeepsters

Q: Hi, Greg. I am a lover of all Jeeps and Willys vehicles. When I moved to this town in 1969, I drove a 1948 Jeepster with a Chevy engine. I recently bought a 1949 with a 350 Chevy small block, and I had the engine rebuilt and then added new paint and convertible top with side windows. It is looking good. My friend has one he wants to sell. It is all original except for three sets of horns. Thanks for reading my letter, and how some Jeep and Jeepster history? Gregory [...]

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6 Psychological Principles That Influence Reader Loyalty

Frustrating, isn’t it?

You can do everything right and still end up without any readers or customers.

Even with great content and a great product, there’s one other thing you need to consider:

People aren’t always logical.

It seems simple:

Good content + targeted audience = raving fans and growing business

That would be true for robots, but not people.

Why?

Because people have cognitive biases, which is essentially a fancy term for reasons that lead to irrational decisions.

These biases can prevent readers from reading content, sharing it, signing up for email lists, or even buying products.

The good news is that the most important biases are very reliable. They affect a large portion of the population (even you and me).

Once you learn about them, you’ll start recognizing when your decisions are swayed by things other than facts.

You can then incorporate them into how you design your business, and you’ll grow much faster.

In this post, I’ll tell you in detail about six cognitive biases that you can leverage in your business to get more readers, subscribers, and customers. 

1. Look like an angel with the halo effect

Rich people are smarter than the average person, right?

Maybe a tiny bit, but no, they really aren’t.

And yet most people, when asked that question, will tell you that rich people are smarter than the average person.

But studies have shown that intelligence has no correlation with success or wealth.

This is a bias that almost everyone develops naturally, and it’s called the “halo effect”:

The halo effect states that our opinions on any one trait of a person or brand naturally extend to their other traits (even non-related ones).

In simpler terms, this means that if someone is particularly good looking, you’re likely to assume that they are intelligent, caring, and successful and that they possess other positive traits.

On the other hand, if you see someone who is ugly, you’re likely to assume that they are dumb, rude, and unsuccessful.

The halo effect has been studied in great depth.

In one study, subjects judged 27 different personality traits, such as kindness, trustworthiness, etc., of people in pictures.

Then, they were asked to estimate how successful these people were, including how happy they were and what quality of job they had.

Guess what happened? The subjects way overestimated the success and happiness of the attractive people.

In another study, subjects evaluated essays after having seen the photo of each supposed author.

The attractive authors had an average rating of 6.7, while the unattractive authors received an average of 5.9. This was on the same essay.

On another essay, the attractive authors scored 5.2, while the unattractive authors scored 2.7.

Pretty people get the benefit of the doubt.

How you can use the halo effect to grow your business: The biggest takeaway from the halo effect is that you need to highlight your best features and hide any undesirable features.

And when I say “your features,” I’m talking about your brand.

That may or may not include you as a person. When it comes to Quick Sprout, my name is a big part of my brand. It’s why I include the professionally taken picture in the sidebar. I may not be a model, but I’m not completely ugly (right? ).

Your first step is to make a list of your brand’s best features. Not just the good ones—the best ones.

It could be many things:

• your looks (if you’re tied to your brand)
• accomplishments (relevant to your niche is best, but even irrelevant are okay)
• something about your product (a great rating or large customer base)
• spectacular content (are you known for a specific tool or guide?)

Whatever it is, you want to highlight it throughout your website and even in your marketing efforts elsewhere.

Examples of the halo effect in action: Let me show you a few real life examples of the halo effect used successfully.

The first example is about leveraging an impressive accomplishment.

Noah Kagan was the 30th employee at Facebook when Facebook was just 1 year old.

Currently, he writes at OkDork about a variety of entrepreneurial topics. He often mentions that he was the 30th employee at Facebook because he knows it’ll show him in a good light (even if he did get fired).

The default perception of anyone who reads about that is that this guy accomplished something great. He must be smart, successful and possess many other positive qualities (he actually is a really knowledgeable guy).

On top of mentioning it on his blog, he also mentions it in various presentations he gives and when being interviewed for other articles:

If you’ve done something that most of your readers will find impressive (which is why relevance might be important), mention it often.

After they read it, they’ll assume that you know what you’re talking about and will be more likely to become a subscriber.

Second is Danny Iny, who might be the best example of how to use the halo effect.

Danny owns Firepole Marketing and used the halo effect to grow his blog’s audience.

At first, he started targeting a very specific audience by writing about only one niche. After he cemented himself as an “expert” to his readers, he started writing about another related topic.

Because his readers already saw him as an expert in the area of marketing he wrote about initially, they automatically viewed him as an expert in the other topics he started to write about (social media, product creation, etc.).

This is a great strategy for anyone beginning with content marketing.

I did almost the same thing with Quick Sprout.

Early on, I mainly wrote about branding. You can still see those posts I wrote back in 2007.

Once I wrote several posts on branding, I started to branch out into other topics.

I continued to do that over time, and now I write about almost every marketing topic there is. But it all started with me being seen as an expert in that one niche.

Finally, how about a non-marketing example?

A great example of the halo effect is how Apple marketed the iPod.

About 10 years ago, Apple wasn’t the giant it is today (it was still pretty big but on a different scale altogether).

What it did have is a killer product in the iPod. Everyone loved it.

Apple leveraged this early success by putting nearly its entire marketing budget behind the iPod.

They took control of that niche in the tech industry.

From there, all the people that loved the iPod started giving other Apple products a chance. Since they made such a great MP3 player, they must make great computers, phones, tablets, etc.

And now, they could create almost any tech product and sell it as a leader from the start.

When you use the halo effect properly, you leverage your past successes to expand your business.

2. The IKEA effect

The IKEA effect states that all good things come from Sweden. Just kidding, of course.

What it really states is that people put a high value on pre-assembled products.

The reason that happens is because we like to create things—to be productive. There’s nothing that makes you feel more productive than building something that you can use.

It’s called the IKEA effect because most products sold by IKEA need some assembly.

Despite the name, this principle has been studied fairly extensively by some top psychologists.

There is one important caveat of the effect though:

A Harvard analysis led by Dan Ariely determined that the increased valuation of the product only occurred when the subject actually finished building the product.

This makes sense when you think about it. If you can’t figure out how to build something, you’ll be disappointed and frustrated.

But if you do end up building a decent product, you’ll feel pretty good about yourself and, as a result, will rate the product highly.

The study also pointed out another interesting aspect of the IKEA effect. Even people who don’t like the do it yourself (DIY) projects still overvalued their creations. That shows that it’s our innate desire to build things, which is why this principle applies to just about everyone.

How can you “IKEAize” your website?

If you sell physical products, it’s pretty simple to apply this principle. Start selling your products with just enough assembly work left to make someone feel that they’ve accomplished something.

It needs to take a bit of time and effort, or it won’t feel to your customer like they created anything.

But the IKEA effect can also be applied to digital products and content.

Let me walk you through four different options that you may be able to use.

Option #1 – Create worksheets as lead magnets (easy ones): People don’t want to build furniture from scratch—that’s hard.

But hammering in a few nails and attaching a few pieces? That’s doable in an hour or two for most people with a reasonable amount of effort.

One type of lead magnet that you should consider offering web site visitors is a worksheet that breaks down a somewhat difficult problem that they care about.

For example, if you write about online business, you could offer a worksheet that helps someone narrow down their niche.

Or if you write about habit formation, you could offer a worksheet that walks readers through a goal-setting process.

The key is that it has to be relatively easy.

People expect to spend a few hours putting together furniture, but they only expect to spend 10-15 minutes on most lead magnets.

Break it down into simple pieces, and make sure it looks nice so that your reader actually feels like they created something of value. (Of course, they did create something of value, but they will feel that it is even more valuable because they did it).

Here’s an example of a worksheet that is, coincidentally, about generating lead magnet ideas:

It’s only two pages long and creates a good looking plan that a reader would be proud of.

Option #2 – Create tools that do most of the work for your readers: Some tasks can’t be broken down into a few questions because they are too complicated.

If you can take some of the work out of a process with a tool, the difficult process becomes more realistic for the average reader.

Say I’m writing about how to run a split test.

I could go into the equations behind basic statistics (variance, standard deviation, etc.); however, very few readers would be comfortable learning and applying that.

Instead, I would just recommend using a tool such as Is Valid.

Users just need to enter in their sample size and conversion rate of their control and test groups, and the tool creates a pretty report:

If I wanted to take the IKEA effect to the next level, I could have the readers download the results and paste them into a Google Docs worksheet, along with other information about their split test (e.g., hypothesis, traffic source, etc.).

Option #3 – Create courses where customers build things: Online courses are getting very popular now.

They are a great way to teach readers premium content while getting paid for it.

But besides helping you monetize your website, courses give you the opportunity to have your students build things.

One great example is edX, which offers post-secondary level courses from many top tier universities and colleges.

There are many great courses about computer science, mainly programming.

The courses have lectures, of course, but the assignments at the end of each section help the course-taker write an actual code to create something.

For example, here’s a basic hangman game that’s an early assignment in an introduction to computer science class:

For someone new to programming, that’s a huge accomplishment and a source of pride.

In a course format, you can break down the main parts of the functions behind the project so that it’s not intimidating. You can even supply some of the answers if the problems are particularly difficult.

And although programming is a perfect subject for this, you can have students create something in just about any course.

In a course on social media marketing, guide students to create a social media plan. In a course on nutrition, have them create a meal plan based on your lessons.

Option #4 – Get early signups to take action: Getting your readers and customers to place a high value on work you help them create is important for many reasons. One of the reasons is they will come back for more.

One of the biggest issues that app startups face is onboarding new customers (getting them used to the product and using it on a regular basis).

What many smart startups have begun doing is having new users immediately create something through a guided tutorial.

It could be as simple as creating a profile—although actually using the tool is even better.

Canva is a great tool for creating beautiful custom images.

When you sign up for it, you will be walked through the process of creating your first design as part of the onboarding process.

The key point is that the image looks great because the product itself is very good.

After a user understands the basic functions of the tool and has created something valuable to them, they are much more likely to come back and use the tool again.

3. People get overwhelmed easily

Rationally, the more choices you have as a consumer, the better off you are.

But, as you know, people do not always act rationally.

The third principle that we’re looking at is called the “paradox of choice.”

It’s a very simple principle, which shows that after a certain point, having more choices causes less action.

People become overwhelmed by the decision and are scared of making a mistake. It’s much easier to find the best option out of 3 than out of 10.

Many experiments have shown that conversion rate actually goes down when there are too many choices.

And “too many” can be as few as 3 or 4, depending on the context.

The paradox of choice could be affecting important metrics in your business in a few ways.

Example #1 – Too much in the sidebar: A classic mistake by website owners is to stuff as much information in the sidebar as possible in the attempts of improving their website page-views.

For example, look at this long list of categories in the sidebar of a food blog:

If I were looking for new recipes, I’d feel overwhelmed looking at this list. Picking from a list of 20+ options is difficult.

So, what’s the alternative?

The simple alternative is to reduce that list to 3-5 most popular categories.

That way, instead of trying to pick from similar things like “Italian,” “noodles,” and “pasta,” I could pick from things like “desserts,” “dips,” and “main courses.”

It would be a much easier decision.

Example #2 – What do you really want your reader to do? In an effort to grow their businesses as fast as possible, most website owners do the opposite.

They read that they should include social sharing buttons on every post as well as a ton of internal links.

They’re not necessarily wrong, but they go about it the wrong way.

Take a look at the following mess that immediately followed a blog post:

When a reader finishes reading a post, they have a lot of different options to pick from:

• should I share the post?
• if so, on which social network?
• do any of these other posts look interesting?
• should I just go to the next/previous posts?
• should I comment (that’s below)

You need to decide what your primary goals are for each piece of content you create.

Want the reader to keep reading on your site? Include lots of internal links in the content and 2-4 links after the post to popular posts.

Want the reader to share your content? Include 2-4 share buttons before and after the content (or floating buttons in the sidebar).

Want email subscribers? Have an opt-in form at the bottom of the post (and nothing more).

Less is more.

Example #3 – Even when buyers know what they want, they still don’t act: When you have qualified leads, you need to be even more aware of how this paradox may influence their decisions.

Whether you’re trying to get visitors to sign up for something or buy something, don’t give them too many choices.

For example, Unbounce found that when they changed the number of upcoming demo sessions visitors could sign up for from 4 to 3, conversion went up by 16.93%.

Your simple action plan for cutting down reader choices: Whenever you’re trying to get a visitor to do something, think about it from their perspective.

If the decision seems like it might be difficult and cause some anxiety, make it easier by removing choices.

The most common places of overcrowding on websites (and their blogs) are:

• the sidebar
• pricing pages
• right after a post
• social sharing buttons

You’ll notice that I only have two social sharing buttons on my posts now. I used to have many more, and then I switched to three. Currently, I’m testing the two-button setup.

How do you know how many choices you should offer?

Simple: test it. You should always test any changes you make to see if they significantly affect the metrics you’re worried about.

4. Your reader is always right, even when they’re wrong

You’ve heard that the customer is always right.

Along the same lines, your reader is always right, or at least they think they are always right because of confirmation bias.

Confirmation bias explains that people are likely to look for information that goes along with their beliefs and opinions.

If I were a huge supporter of reusable grocery bags, for example, I would tend to spot any headlines about reusable grocery bags.

When I came across an article that supported my viewpoint that bags are good, I’d think to myself that it’s a well-written article and that I’m right (of course!).

Here’s where things get interesting:

If I came across an article that showed that reusable bags are actually bad, I would dismiss, or at least pay much less attention to it than I would to that other article. Why? Because it presents information that goes against my opinion.

In fact, instead of changing their beliefs when they come across a good argument against their beliefs, most people will actually feel stronger in their original viewpoint.

This is the reason why you can’t win an argument sometimes, even when the correct (logical) answer is so clear to you.

Despite all the evidence you might be able to provide, most people will refuse to be wrong and will double down on their positions.

There are two main ways in which confirmation bias can affect your marketing.

Key Point #1 – Form your message around your readers: Imagine if tomorrow I published a post saying “content marketing and SEO are stupid.”

This is obviously against my opinion, but more importantly, it’s against the viewpoint that you and all the other Quick Sprout readers hold.

Similarly, you have to think about opinions your readers hold.

For example, readers of a recipe blog might be against animal cruelty. If the blogger made a post encouraging hunting for meat, it would probably go against what most readers believed.

Due to confirmation bias, we discount sources that have information we don’t agree with. Therefore, those readers will quickly decide that the blog isn’t very good and will not return.

Key Point #2 – Focus on attracting the right readers: When you’re starting out, much of your time is spent finding your target audience and then attracting them.

This includes strategies like guest-posting and being active in forums.

This is where it’s really important to know your audience.

For example, the inbound.org community are huge supporters of inbound marketing to grow a business.

Say I created a product for online business owners.

If I wanted to attract them to my site, should I write and submit a post about using paid advertising to grow a business on inbound.org?

No, I shouldn’t. Instead, I should write a post that revolves around an aspect of inbound marketing.

Secondly, consider how you should approach your guest-posting.

Let’s say you own a site about gardening.

So, you seek out blogs talking about related topics like home renovating, growing your own food, and so on. The idea is to funnel the readers from those sites to your own.

One place your target audience might hang out at are vegan recipe blogs.

Pop quiz: what kind of topics should you avoid in this situation? If you guessed posts about animal products, you’re right.

Instead, appeal to what the audience believes in the most. In this case, try to tie-in gardening to vegan eating (e.g., “X Vegan Superfoods You Can Grow at Home”).

5. Get your readers to jump on a bandwagon for you

Ever heard of a bandwagon sports fan?

They never follow a particular team very closely, but when the team starts winning or has the chance of winning a big tournament, all of a sudden they become the team’s biggest fans.

The reason for this is that people like to simplify their decisions by trusting the crowd. It’s called the “bandwagon effect.”

At first, it makes sense. If a ton of people think something is good, it probably is.

But what ends up happening in many cases is that the first group of people decides whether a product is good or not, and the rest just follow that decision.

So, just because 100,000 people bought a product doesn’t mean it’s great.

You can take advantage of the bandwagon effect in four easy ways.

Way #1 – Highlight the size of your readership: If you want to convince people that your content is popular, show that you have a lot of traffic or subscribers.

For example, Content Marketing Institute has a massive email list of over 140,000 people.

Instead of offering a free bonus or highlighting a benefit of joining the list, they simply focus on highlighting the size of their list:

If 140,000 people subscribed to the blog, it must be good, right?

Way #2 – Encourage comments: You may look at my posts, see hundreds of comments, and wonder how I get so many.

The truth is the hardest ones to get are the first few dozen.

Once people see those, they are more eager to contribute their opinions as well.

First, reach out to your close contacts and ask them to comment on new posts.

Then, you will need to get your readers to start using promotional strategies. If you have those initial 5-10 comments and also encourage new comments, you’d be surprised to see how quickly people will jump on the bandwagon.

Way #3 – Get early help on social media: On any social media or aggregator site (like inbound.org or Reddit), your content is essentially voted on by the community.

It is first exposed to a small group of followers.

If they like it, it will get shown to more.

If a post gets a lot of shares or votes right away, that signals to future voters that the post is good. The new voters are much more likely to rate it positively or share it.

When you share a new post on any type of social media site, coordinate with at least five people to make sure they vote for it or share it as soon as possible.

Get the wagon going so that future voters can jump on it.

Way #4 – Focus on reviews: If you sell a product on any major e-commerce site, you need good reviews.

Reviews are one of the biggest factors that determine if a browser buys or not.

A great example of this is the Kindle marketplace.

All new books start out with zero reviews. Most authors offer their books free in order to get as many people to read them as possible.

On top of that, they encourage their close friends to leave the first few reviews.

Even just a few 5-star reviews can start the bandwagon effect.

If people read glowing reviews, they are much more likely to buy the book, which can lead to more reviews.

This is the epitome of “fake it until you make it.”

6. Take away the risk, and readers will do anything for you

The final bias is called the Peltzman effect, otherwise known as risk compensation.

If someone is driving without a seatbelt and you tell them to put it on, how will that change their driving?

It turns out that most people will start driving faster and more dangerously.

Crazy, right?

The Peltzman effect basically states that the safer someone feels, the more likely they will take risks that they ordinarily wouldn’t.

Private testing showed that using certain automobile safety devices could reduce accidents by a large percentage. However, this study showed that when these devices were used, drivers drove more recklessly, and accident occurrence didn’t change at all.

When it comes to your online business, that means one thing:

If you’re asking a subscriber or customer to do something they might see as risky, make it as safe as possible to improve conversion rates.

Here are a few specific tactics you can use:

Tactic #1 – Guarantee success: When facing a major purchase, customers want to know that if the product doesn’t live up to their expectations, they can get their money back.

As long as you actually have a good product, you don’t need to worry about giving many refunds.

One of the best guarantees I’ve seen was offered by Danny Iny in his now defunct course, the Audience Business Masterclass.

He stated that if you don’t make at least $3,000 per month using his system after a year, he’d refund the cost of the course and pay you an additional $1,000.

All of a sudden, buying the course seems a lot less risky.

Tactic #2 – Flaunt your early wins to get better outreach results: Most outreach campaigns consist of sending cold emails—trying to connect with people you don’t know.

The biggest challenge is to not come off as a typical salesperson, regardless of what you’re looking for.

To improve your reply rate, you can drop a few recognizable names to give your message credibility.

Let’s say you’re creating an expert roundup.

You reach out to your first few experts, and a couple agree to participate.

Instead of sending your original template, you can now mention that you already have a few experts willing to contribute.

Once you’ve added your social proof, you’ve helped your potential contributors feel less like they might be risking wasting their time replying to you and ending up in a low quality roundup roundup. Now, they feel safer and more willing to participate.

Conclusion

The way people think isn’t always logical, which is why psychology is one of the most important things a marketer can study.

Understanding how your target audience thinks will affect your marketing strategy and tactics.

The six psychological principles I’ve shown you in this post are some of the most important concepts you will learn.

Take the time to understand them, and think about how they apply to your business.

If you’re having trouble connecting the principles to your business, leave a comment below with more details and your specific problems.

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Oprah Winfrey’s next big move

BILLIONAIRE Oprah Winfrey is capitalising on her well-publicised battle with the bulge, with a huge investment that’s already seen shares soar.

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Mapping Out an Emerging Market Investment Strategy

Despite significant economic progress, many emerging markets seem to be running out of fuel.


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Rinehimer reaps awards in brightening local market

Rinehimer Construction of Pocono Pines, which has had to appeal to an affluent, discerning market for upscale homebuilding projects in its immediate region, received the hallmark Award of Excellence for a Builder Member at the Pocono Builders Association annual awards dinner at Stroudsmoor in Stroudsburg on Thursday.The company, serving primarily the Lake Naomi and Timber Trails communities, received the Residential Construction between $400,000-$500,000 for the Campbell Home in Lake [...]

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5 Reasons Compound Interest Isn't What It's Cracked Up to Be

Fees, inflation, taxes, market performance and spending habits will affect your compounding interest.

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Questions About Pocket Notebooks, Beans, Audiobooks, Birthday Parties and More!

What’s inside? Here are the questions answered in today’s reader mailbag, boiled down to five word summaries. Click on the number to jump straight down to the question.
1. Audiobooks for success
2. Sarah’s clothes routines
3. Do slow cookers save money?
4. Changing wants
5. Super cheap hobby
6. Spoiling entertainment for cheaper bills
7. Dividends pride
8. Paying off mortgage or investing
9. Beans in the slow cooker?
10. Expensive pocket notebooks?
11. Business and self-employment help
12. Reasonable “sweet sixteen” for daughter

Recently, one of my friends told me that she had started a new initiative in her life. Her plan was to fit as many “random acts of kindness” as possible into each of her day, both for people she knew and people she didn’t know at all.

Her natural tendency is a bit like mine and a bit like many people. She often chooses to stay quiet and mind her own business and sometimes even look away from someone else’s struggles.

But then she thought about the way in which unexpected acts from her friends and from people she didn’t know has really helped her life, and so she’s decided to push through that sense of reservedness and make an honest effort to fill her life with random acts of kindness for others.

Most of those random acts don’t cost anything at all. Some only cost a moment or two of your time. Yet most of them have a profound positive impact on people’s lives.

Today, take on that challenge. Spend some of your time today doing something kind for the people you meet today. Let the person with just an item or two in front of you in the grocery line. Return someone’s cart for them at the store. Send someone you don’t know real well a text telling them that they’re awesome at something and that you appreciate it.

The vast majority of the time, they’ll feel good and so will you. Give it a try.

Q1: Audiobooks for success

My job requires a decent amount of driving. What audiobooks do you recommend me listen to for building my net worth and useful skill sets?
– Darren

There are a lot of good audiobooks out there. If you go to your library and look at the personal finance section of audiobooks, most of them will be worthwhile choices. Audiobook versions of the books I’ve often lauded on The Simple Dollar, like Your Money or Your Life or Early Retirement Extreme or Raising Financially Fit Kids, are all great choices.

I think that many books that focus on productivity and personal organization are also surprisingly useful and tied strongly into building net worth. Books like Getting Things Done and The Power of Habit and Never Eat Alone are great for improving personal productivity and rethinking your daily actions and routines, which can help a ton with building net worth as well as building marketable professional skills.

I often listen to podcasts when I’m driving. I listen to a big rotating cast of them, but several are definitely related to personal productivity and personal finance – Planet Money, Getting Things Done, and The Productivity Show come immediately to mind. Almost any smartphone or portable music player makes podcasts easy to listen to.

Q2: Sarah’s clothes routines

A question for the mailbag: How does Sarah buy clothes? What kind of things does she look for in an article of clothing and does she mostly buy from thrift stores as well?
– Nadine

Sarah does many of the same things I do for casual clothing. She prefers to buy well-made but simple things that will last and last and last. On the weekends, we’re both often wearing t-shirts and denim.

However, she has professional wardrobe needs while I do not. Her workplace has a “strongly encouraged” dress code that she sticks to, which means that she does need to own some professional clothing. She uses the same procedures to buy that, starting with thrift shops, but she rarely finds things there that meet her code.

Her philosophy with her work clothes is to buy stuff that matches in different arrangements and stuff that’s really well made. She wears a ton of earth tones – browns, dark greens, and the like – and they all tend to match each other. That way, if there’s a problem with just one item, it’s not a big deal.

Q3: Do slow cookers save money?

It seems to me that slow cookers really aren’t that much of a money saver. I read that slow cookers usually have heating elements that are on the order of 250 watts, which means that if you turn one on and leave it for 10 hours, you’re gobbling down 2,500 watt-hours of energy. That’s going to hit your energy bill! Why not just cook it yourself when you get home?
– Megan

That’s not too different than what an oven gobbles down. Ovens typically eat up 2,400 watts, so if your oven coil is on for an hour, that’s 2,400 watt-hours. When you pre-heat your oven and then cook something for, say, an hour, your coil is on all the time during preheating and something around 25% of the time during cooking, so during that hour, you’re using 1,200 watt-hours just using the oven. If something cooks longer, it’s higher than that.

Microwaves vary a lot, but many of them are 1200 watts. If you’re cooking a full dinner just using the microwave, you’re definitely using a lot of time in the microwave. Even if we’re eating leftovers, the microwave will run for at least ten minutes at our house.

On top of that, you’re probably using a burner to help prepare dinner. These vary widely depending on your oven type, but they definitely gobble down more energy.

I’d say that you’re probably using a little less energy using your oven, stovetop, and microwave when preparing dinner, but it’s not a ton less. On top of that, 2,500 watt-hours isn’t that bad. 2,500 watt-hours is the same as 2.5 kWh, and energy companies usually charge somewhere around $0.12 per kWh, so the cost is $0.30. Of course, if you’re comparing that to preparing food using other appliances, you’re probably eating $0.20 or so in energy there, so the slow cooker is costing you roughly another dime. For me, the massive convenience is worth that dime.

Q4: Changing wants

I have been reading through the archives of your writings and I have really enjoyed them. Thank you for posting and sharing them.

The biggest change I noticed in my own life over the years is that the things I wanted changed a lot. Early on I wanted the sweet car and the big house and I put us in a bad financial pickle to get them but by the time the car was paid off I realized I wanted different things. I wanted good friends and respect in the community and not much stress.

That’s the stuff that matters at least for me but everyone is different. I think that good financial success is a lot easier if the things you want aren’t about spending money though, but I don’t think you can just change what you want. It has to come from you changing and growing as a person.
– Steven

The same thing has happened for me. I look back at the stuff I wanted when I was younger and I just kind of shake my head at it. I just had different values at that point in my life.

Right now, the things I want the most are more free time, strong relationships, and lots of friends. I want things to think about and work that I enjoy. I don’t really care much about buying stuff or spending money or going to the coolest restaurant or even eating out at all. I’m perfectly happy doing about anything as long as it’s physically or mentally or socially engaging, and there is a wide variety of things that check those boxes.

My political views and beliefs have changed. My relationships have changed. The ways I want to spend my time have changed. It makes perfect sense that the ways I want to spend my money have also changed.

Q5: Super cheap hobby

Just wanted to drop you a line and talk about how inexpensive tabletop role playing games can be as a hobby. I have been the DM (guy who runs the game) for about 14 years for a group of players. We meet once a week for about five hours on Wednesday and meet probably 50 times a year. So, if we do the math there, that’s 3,500 hours (250 hours a year times 14 years).

My expenses have included probably a ream of printer paper and printing that many pages out of a cheap desktop printer (let’s say $20), a small bag of cheap dice ($10), and two hardback books (one for $30 and one for $20). So, total cost for those 3,500 hours of entertainment has been $80. I’m not including stuff like snacks in there because the other guys bring the snacks. I have a few other items, like some wet erase markers and a huge erasable blank map and some miniatures, but people in my game group gifted those to me. For the gamers, their cost has been a copy of the rulebook ($30) and maybe a little bit of paper and pens ($5 maybe) and they’ve also given me really nice gifts over the years (maybe $20 a year).

3,500 hours doesn’t even cover the time, because I’m the game runner which means that I come up with adventures and stuff in between the games.

This hobby as been incredibly inexpensive for me. It’s enabled me to make some lifelong friends and meet a lot of interesting people. I have a regular “thing” on Wednesdays, too. Highly recommended.
– Stan

I completely agree. Tabletop role playing games can provide almost infinite hours of entertainment and the actual equipment you need involve just a book, some dice, some paper, and some imagination.

The trick I’ve found is finding that group. Once you’ve found the group, it’s spectacular. But finding people who are interested and who are willing and able to meet regularly to play can be a real challenge.

If this sounds like fun to you, I suggest looking at the bulletin boards at local stores that sell role playing books, the local library, and Meetup.com.

Q6: Spoiling entertainment for cheaper bills

Rather than paying for cable and spending hours watching shows so that I can keep up with the talk in the break room, I just visit a few television websites the next morning and read the summaries of the new episodes. I do the same thing with sporting events. That way I don’t have to have cable and I can spend my evenings doing other things I enjoy without feeling like an outcast in the break room at work.
– Olivia

Honestly, I did the same thing back in the day when I worked in an office environment. My tastes in entertainment diverged a lot from what many of the other people liked, so I would do the exact same thing.

The big one for me was football. I’ve never been a big football fan, so on Mondays and Tuesdays I’d just catch the highlights by reading ESPN.com or some other sports site on my way to work.

I don’t think there’s anything at all wrong with doing things this way. It’s a good way to maintain social inclusion at work without actually watching stuff you don’t want to watch in your spare time.

Q7: The joy of dividends

In 2009, my husband and I finished paying off our student loans, leaving us debt free. We decided to start saving for a house down payment, putting away $600 each month which was how much we were paying on our student loans. We have gradually ratcheted that up to $1,000 a month.

We decided to invest that money into Vanguard Total Stock Market Index because we were okay with some risk on this money and also knew that this was a long term goal. We didn’t plan to buy a house until we were in our late thirties and had a child and we’re still not there yet.

We now have about $120,000 in there, which is amazing. That’s more than enough for a 20% down payment on the house we would buy!

But the best part is that every three months, they pay us a dividend. The last dividend we received was about $600.

They paid us $600 just for being smart with our money. Since we’re rolling the money back into the fund, that’s like an extra month’s worth of stock purchases that they’re just giving us and it happens every three months.

It feels great!
– Tara

I agree completely! Dividends and interest payment and any income from passive investments are all just wonderful to receive. There’s nothing better than getting money without any active effort whatsoever when you know that money is coming in due to hard work you did in the past.

Like you, Sarah and I are just reinvesting our dividends as we go along. That means that we don’t receive a dividend check, but it does mean that our investments take a nice little bump when dividends are paid.

Our dream, of course, is for those dividends to eventually replace our income. I can’t wait for that day to come.

Q8: Paying off mortgage or investing

Why would I pay off my mortgage early when I could invest in the stock market? The stock market gets a better average annual rate of return (about 7%) than my mortgage interest rate and my interest is tax deductible. Stocks are more liquid as I can sell them quickly through my brokerage. Why pay off a house early?
– Dan

First of all, early payments on your home mortgage essentially offer a guaranteed rate of return. If your mortgage has a 5.5% interest rate, you’re getting that 5.5% return at the end of your mortgage, period. There are no market swings with that. With the stock market, next year could see a 40% drop and if you need the money then, you’re in a pickle.

Not only that, that 5.5% return is post-tax return. You don’t have to pay taxes on that benefit. Sure, some of it is offset by being able to deduct mortgage interest, but you need to have a pretty hefty mortgage to beat the standard deduction you already get.

Another thing to consider is diversification. If you have almost all of your net worth in the stock market and the stock market swoons, you could lose 30% or more of your net worth very quickly. Having some of that money in real estate in the form of your home means that your money is more diversified.

There’s also some risk in keeping that mortgage around – things like job loss and other events – but I consider that factor to be pretty minor.

I think there are arguments for both approaches and I don’t think either one is absolutely right. It comes down to which factors are more important to you.

Q9: Beans in the slow cooker?

You’ve mentioned that sometimes you will cook a couple pounds of dry beans all at once in the slow cooker which would make six or seven pounds of cooked beans. What do you do with them? I don’t think you really just eat several pounds of beans.
– Patty

When I do this, I usually cook a big batch on Mondays and then store them in a few containers in the fridge to use throughout the week. For example, I’ll use some in a chili on Monday, use some more scrambled with some eggs for breakfast on Tuesday, and then make a triple batch of enchiladas on Wednesday, eating one batch for supper and freezing the other two.

With things like black beans that work well in a lot of different dishes and with a lot of different preparations, cooking a big batch in advance ends up just being a time saver. Plus, I like the taste of beans that I cooked myself from their dry state rather than the beans in a can.

You can do the same thing with any flexible ingredient. One of my old friends from college used to do it with brown rice. He always had a big container of brown rice in his refrigerator. Pretty much any vegetable or meat that you would use in multiple ways throughout the week could be a good target for cooking ahead.

Q10: Expensive pocket notebooks?

I looked at the Field Notes pocket notebooks you recommended and they’re really expensive. $10 for three of them? Really? You can get the Mead ones way cheaper.
– Dana

I used to use the Mead notebooks, but I found that they fell apart easily in my pocket and the spiral wire would sometimes jab into my leg. They ended up being a big mess.

The Field Notes notebooks are staple-bound on the side, meaning they hold together really well. They’re also available in grid and dot grid, which I prefer for jotting down notes because it compresses my writing a little more and makes it easier for many kinds of sketching if needed.

I don’t actually buy many Field Notes. I usually receive a few packs for Christmas from friends and relatives (who know a lot of little things that I like for gifts, like this and little bottles of fountain pen ink and so on). Those get me through part of the year, at least. I also watch for any and all opportunities to get them on sale and stock up on them.

For me, they’re worth it. They just hold up in my pocket really well and work perfectly for quick notes. They’re not used for some sort of archival thing, at least not for me. I use them to jot down something that’s on my mind so that I can deal with it in twenty minutes when I’m done focusing on the task at hand. Reading through one of my Field Notes looks like a jumbled mess, but it makes sense to me. It’s like an external brain.

Q11: Business and self-employment help

I found this article by you and had some questions.

http://ift.tt/1QM6Guh

During my last year in college, I started posting Youtube videos where I offered commentary on computer games. I’d play a game and record it, then I would add a commentary track and post it to Youtube. Simple enough.

I have been posting 1-2 games a day now for about two years and the channel has gotten popular. I now get about a million views a month and am making more from the Youtube channel than I do at work.

So how do I know when it is time to switch to doing this full time? If I do it full time I could easily do 4-5 videos per day most days which would ramp up my income big time. But I would also lose income from my other job. How did you know when to make the jump?
– Kevin

I made the jump as soon as the numbers added up and showed us that we could live on my income from The Simple Dollar and my wife’s salary combined while still saving a little for the future.

For you, I’d suggest sitting down and running the numbers on your own situation. Could you live off of your current income from your video channel and still have a little left over at the end of the month? If that’s true, is this something you’d want to do full time? If that’s true, then I’d make the leap.

I think this is even easier for you as you’re single and don’t have any dependents. You could personally rebound from this pretty easily if you make the leap and this doesn’t work out.

If I were in your shoes, the number one thing I would worry about is whether or not I would actually want to do this full time. I can’t really answer that question for you.

Q12: Reasonable “sweet sixteen” for daughter

Many of my daughter’s friends have had huge parties for their sixteenth birthdays where they get a car from their parents as a gift and a bunch of the girls dress up. This seems ridiculous to me and I have no interest in doing this. My daughter seems to agree but on the other hand I don’t want her to be a social outcast just because I am cheap. Thoughts?
– Maryann

I’m not big on giant birthday parties for children of any age. I understand the reasoning for buying a car for a child when they turn sixteen, especially when that child is the oldest child and can take on some errand running with that car available, but I don’t understand the reasoning for a big party.

We have always had small parties for our children, but those parties were usually either simple affairs at our own home with a cake and children playing together or else a simple excursion with just a friend or two. I don’t see any reason for that to change.

The thing that worries me most about parties like that is that it begins to build an association in a child’s mind between getting material items and celebrating. When that link becomes firmly established, it can lead to some horrendous buying patterns in their adult life, ones that can be very difficult to break.

Got any questions? The best way to ask is to follow me on Facebook and ask questions directly there. I’ll attempt to answer them in a future mailbag (which, by way of full disclosure, may also get re-posted on other websites that pick up my blog). However, I do receive many, many questions per week, so I may not necessarily be able to answer yours.

The post Questions About Pocket Notebooks, Beans, Audiobooks, Birthday Parties and More! appeared first on The Simple Dollar.

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How to Cope With the Stress of Retirement

This major life transition creates many opportunities and challenges.

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What Investors Should Know About Small-Cap Stocks

Small caps have a history of outperforming large-cap stocks, but they don't get the same attention.

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Everything You Need to Know About Resigning

Ready to quit your job? Make a graceful exit with these eight tips.

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Stop Procrastinating: 4 Money Moves to Make Now

We know your to-do list is probably already way too long, but can we convince you to add four more items?

As U.S. News explains, these four simple to-dos will make a big difference in your finances — and they won’t take too much time to complete!

1. Lose Those Bank Fees

First, take a look at your bank fees. Are you paying a monthly fee to use your bank account? If you are, it’s time for your bank account to stop costing you money.

There are two ways of doing it: First, you can call your bank and ask them to waive the fee.

If that doesn’t work, it might be time to open a new bank account.

2. Get an EMV Credit Card

Next, it’s time to ask for an EMV credit card. These cards include microchips that, as U.S. News puts it, “encrypt the card information and make in-person transactions more secure.”

Contact your credit card issuers and ask if they can send you EMV cards to replace your old ones.

3. Start Saving for the Holidays

The holidays are coming whether you’re ready or not — so get financially ready by putting aside a little bit of money every week into a dedicated holiday savings account.

If you save $40 or $50 dollars every week, you might not have to put your holiday spending on your new EMV credit card!

4. Evaluate Your Health Insurance

Lastly, it’s time to consider your health insurance plan, and whether your current coverage is the best option for you and your family.

Open enrollment for the Health Insurance Marketplace begins on November 1, 2015, and runs through January 31, 2016. Set aside some time to look at the available plans, compare them to your current coverage and decide if it’s time for a change.

If you get all four of these to-dos done, great! Even if you only have time to complete one or two of them, you’re still taking important steps toward improving your finances.

Want to learn more? Read the full story at U.S. News.

Your Turn: Which of these easy to-do items do you think will have the biggest financial impact on your life?

Nicole Dieker is a freelance writer focusing on personal finance and personal stories. Her work has appeared in The Billfold, The Toast, Yearbook Office, The Write Life and Boing Boing.

The post Stop Procrastinating: 4 Money Moves to Make Now appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.

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5 Frightening Facts About Your 401(k)

High fees and no employer match? Your retirement plan might have a dark side.

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New annuities combine security and flexibility

Rachel Lacey

pension pounds.jpg

Retirees can now combine the security of a guaranteed income with the flexibility offered by income drawdown following the launch of two new plans from retirement specialists Retirement Advantage and Partnership.

Retirees can now combine the security of a guaranteed income with the flexibility offered by income drawdown following the launch of two new plans from retirement specialists Retirement Advantage and Partnership.

New annuities combine security and flexibility

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Retirees can now combine the security of a guaranteed income with the flexibility offered by income drawdown following the launch of two new plans from retirement specialists Retirement Advantage and Partnership. The plans aim to make it easier for middle-income retirees to take advantage of the opportunities ushered in by April’s pension reforms by combining an annuity and an investment account in one plan. The Retirement Account, launched by Retirement Advantage, incorporates income drawdown, a cash account and a guaranteed annuity income and seeks to offer retirees the ultimate in flexibility. Income can be stopped or started at any point or can be adjusted as retirees’ needs change. Cash for ad hoc expenses can also be accessed from the cash account or drawdown pot and because some money remains invested, retirees have the potential to carry on growing their savings. Moreover, by keeping money within the pension wrapper, customers will find it easier to pass on their wealth and will enjoy the tax benefits offered (which includes protection from inheritance tax and income tax if they die before age 75). The policy also includes a range of investment funds selected by independent investment consultants Square Mile and includes active and passive funds with a choice of cautious, balanced and aggressive risk strategies. The cost of investing ranges between 0.41% and 0.7% depending on the funds selected. Chris Evans, group chief executive at Retirement Advantage, said: “We think this product will mark the beginning of the end of the traditional annuity. Due to the way the account is structured, you are able to stop and start income at any point, as well as better control how death benefits are paid.” He added: “Our research continues to show that people want the security of a guaranteed income, the ability to withdraw ad hoc lump sums, the opportunity to grow the value of investments and leave a legacy, all within a product which minimises tax.” The Enhanced Retirement Account from Partnership, also combines an annuity with a cash account and an investment platform. However unlike the Retirement Advantage account it is only available to those retirees with medical problems or lifestyle factors (such as smoking or being overweight) that would make them eligible for an enhanced annuity. It offers access to a range of funds from Vanguard Asset Management with costs ranging from 0.43% to 0.59%. Andrew Megson, managing director of Retirement at Partnership, said: “In the past, people often had to choose between flexibility, tax-efficiency, security and growth. The ERA looks to combine these key features in an easy to manage product which can evolve with the needs of each customer.” Although both plans strive to help retirees manage their retirement finances in a simple and straightforward manner, their complexity means they are only available from independent financial advisers, meaning retirees will also have to factor in the cost of advice. Patrick Connolly, a chartered financial adviser at IFA Chase De Vere, said: “It really is positive to see companies such as Partnership and Retirement Advantage at the forefront of innovation as they aim to offer products with attractive benefits, flexibility and competitive costs.” “We will see more products being launched, which will provide more choice for customers and also potentially see costs reduced further as competition amongst providers heats up.” However he added that it was entirely appropriate that these plans should only be accessed via financial advisers. “With such important decisions to make, in terms of making sure your pension will provide and income for the rest of your life, it has become even more important that people take financial advice.”

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Beautycounter, Money, and Kids – Interview with Krysten Schwartz

How did you get started in direct retail? I was first introduced to Beautycounter by a friend who was posting on Facebook, raving about this new company she joined. I was intrigued. The packaging looked gorgeous and she had nothing but extremely positive things to say about the products themselves. I thought I would go […]

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Silvio Calabi: S60 Cross Country is another variation on a Volvo theme

For 2016, Volvo has jacked up its familiar S60 compact sedan a few inches, in the style of the also-familiar V60 and XC70 Cross Country wagons, and dubbed it the S60 Cross Country. This new variant comes as a stand-alone model in “Platinum” trim, with all-wheel drive and the also also-familiar T5 engine, for $44,440, including destination fee. Our example had more options costing an additional $3,950: a Climate Package (heated seats, wheel, windshield and washer [...]

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