How to Calculate Your True Net Worth

Financially-minded people sometimes throw around a figure called “net worth.”

Perhaps you’ve heard of celebrities (like Jay-Z 0r the Kardashians), politicians (like Donald Trump or Mitt Romney), or business owners (like Bill Gates or Mark Zuckerberg) talk about their net worth.

So what is net worth anyway?

Great question. In this article, I’m going to explain exactly what net worth is and how to calculate your net worth (and, why you’d want to do so in the first place).

But first, a quick disclaimer about net worth . . . .

You, my friend, are not valuable because of your net worth. You are intrinsically valuable.

You are a human being who can contribute much to this world, and that’s just one reason you’re much more valuable than your net worth. So if you find that your net worth is a negative number (yep, it happens), don’t be discouraged.

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Money has nothing to do with your worth as a human being.
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Alright, are you ready to learn about net worth? Let’s do this.

What is Net Worth?

Net worth is a figure that is calculated by subtracting the sum of your liabilities from the sum of your assets. In other words, it’s would be left over if you were to pay off all of your debts with what you own outright.

Here’s what the formula looks like: Assets (What You Own) – Liabilities (What You Owe) = Net Worth.

Now, you might be asking which assets and which liabilities to include in this calculation. That’s simple: everything. This includes everything from your mortgage (a liability) to the pen in your desk drawer (an asset). Many times, people and institutions don’t put a value on the smaller items individually, but they simply provide a rough estimate of their assets of lesser value.

Examples of Net Worth Calculations

Perhaps one of the best ways to understand net worth is to look at a few fictitious examples. Here are a few for your consideration.

The Smith Family

The Smith family is pretty poor, and doesn’t have much in the bank. In fact, they only have $1,250 in their checking account. They have $1,000 in a 401(k), a mortgage on which they owe $160,000, and a decent house that’s worth $140,000 (it fell in value over time). They also have two cars. Thankfully, one is paid off (it’s worth $3,400) but the other they still owe $10,100 – its value is $12,200. Finally, they have a few assets (furniture, trinkets, and the like) that are valued at around $5,000.

Let’s go ahead and calculate their net worth using the figures above, shall we? One of the best ways to do this is to make a list of their assets and their liabilities.

Assets

The Smith family has the following assets:

• $1,250 – Checking Account
• $1,000 – 401(k)
• $140,000 – House
• $3,400 – Car 1
• $12,200 – Car 2
• $5,000 – Furnishings and Trinkets

The above assets total $162,850. Wow! That’s looks amazing, right? Not so fast . . . .

Liabilities

The Smith family has the following liabilities:

• $160,000 – Mortgage
• $10,100 – Car 2

The above liabilities total $170,100. Not so good.

Net Worth

Remember our formula for net worth? Assets – Liabilities = Net Worth. Let’s run that calculation . . . .

$162,850 (Assets) – $170,100 (Liabilities) = -$7,250 (Net Worth).

This means that the net worth of the Smith family is a negative number: -$7,250. Now, that’s not actually a horrible net worth. Things could be worse! But there’s certainly a lot of room for improvement.

The Jones Family

Let’s take a look at one more example.

The Jones family is doing pretty well. They have a checking account worth $6,500 and an emergency fund valued at $35,100. Interestingly, they rent a small apartment, so housing doesn’t come into the equation for them. Now, they do have one small student loan on which they owe $2,000. They also have quite a few furnishings and trinkets valued at $15,300. Additionally, they have two Roth IRAs, one valued at $10,400 and the other valued at $3,650. Both of their cars are paid off with one valued at $10,500 and the other valued at $16,700.

Let’s calculate their net worth.

Assets

The Jones family has the following assets:

• $6,500 – Checking Account
• $35,100 – Emergency Fund
• $15,300 – Furnishings and Trinkets
• $10,400 – Roth IRA 1
• $3,650 – Roth IRA 2
• $10,500 – Car 1
• $16,700 – Car 2

The above assets total $98,150. Whoa. Wait a minute. Their assets total less than the total of the Smith family’s assets! But remember, assets don’t tell the whole story . . . .

Liabilities

The Jones family has the following liabilities:

• $2,000 – Student Loan

Wow. Their liabilities total – you guessed it – only $2,000.

Net Worth

Let’s use the formula again and take a look at their net worth.

$98,150 (Assets) – $2,000 (Liabilities) = $96,150 (Net Worth).

This means that the Jones family has a positive net worth. Fantastic!

Comparing the Families Net Worth

By comparing these two examples, we learn that looks can deceive. If, for example, someone were to compare the homes of both families, they might assume that the Smiths are wealthier than the Jones family. After all, the Smiths live in a house and the Jones family lives in an apartment. But the truth of the matter is that the Jones family has a higher net worth than the Smith family.

Still, if someone were to compare their vehicles, they might conclude that the Jones family is better off. While this is true, comparing the vehicles of both families does not necessarily indicate the net worth of each family. For that, everything must be taken into account.

Why Calculate Net Worth?

As you can see from the examples of the families above, somebody’s net worth is something that is hidden from the view of the public unless, of course, that someone chooses to reveal their net worth. Even still, what’s the point in revealing one’s net worth to others? There really isn’t a good reason, unless you’re trying to prove something.

However, there is one good reason to calculate your net worth. Have you guessed it?

It’s worthwhile calculating your net worth because you can compare your current net worth to your previous net worth. Okay, so maybe you can’t go back in time and calculate your net worth (although you might be able to find a paper trail). Big deal. Start now!

By tracking your net worth over time, you can get a feel for your financial progress (or lack thereof). It might encourage you to get another job, pay off some debt, or put a budget together so you can save some more money!

Net worth is a powerful figure because it takes into account both your assets and your liabilities.

In other words, it forces you to not only consider one factor in the equation, but rather the whole equation. Instead of looking only to your assets (which may look and feel appealing) or only to your liabilities (which may seem overwhelmingly burdensome), calculating your net worth lets you take a look at the balance between these two figures – a balance that can be tracked over time as a reliable measure of financial health.

How to Calculate Your Net Worth Over Time

Alright. You know it’s a good idea to calculate your net worth. How should you get started?

If you have spreadsheet software on your computer, you can make a really simple spreadsheet to keep track of your net worth over time. Create two columns: one column for your assets and one column for your liabilities. List out your figures respectively in each column, and if you’re fancy, program it to total the columns and subtract the liabilities total from the assets total. This will give you your net worth.

But you can do more than this – and perhaps you should. Recalculate your net worth every single month. Over time, you’ll be able to see your net worth go up or down in value. This is a fantastic visual aid in understanding how you’re doing with your finances.

Once you’ve calculated your net worth and have a few months of data, don’t just stare at the numbers – do something! If your net worth is increasing, ask yourself why and keep doing those things. If your net worth is decreasing, ask yourself why and change something!

If you’re in that second camp, or your net worth simply looks grim, here are a few articles you need to read:

• How to Make a Budget That Actually Works!
• 70 Super Easy and Practical Ways to Save Money
• 9 Strategies to Build Wealth Fast (That Your Financial Advisor Won’t Tell You)

Thanks for learning about net worth. If you haven’t calculated your net worth yet, get to it! What you find just might be the fuel you need to make positive changes in your life.

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Got Student Loans? This Rapper Perfectly Sums Up How It Feels to Repay Them

“Is it $40,000? $50,000? $60,000? Maybe it’s more. Is it $80,000? $90,000? $100,000? How much do you owe?”

That’s the unfortunately relatable mantra repeated at the end of New Orleans rapper Dee-1’s new single, “Sallie Mae Back.”

The artist recently signed a record deal and used a good chunk of the money not for flashy rims or jewels — but to finish paying off his student loans.

Dee-1 Raps About Paying Off His Student Loan Debt

To celebrate, Dee-1 — real name David Augustine Jr. — composed a triumphant rap about exactly how awesome it felt to spend his money saying goodbye to Sallie Mae’s monthly bills (and daily phone calls from multiple numbers) once and for all.

Then, he set it to a video that trades the miserable financial aid office line for a happier scene: a classic college toga party, red solo cups and all.

See for yourself:

But the video isn’t purely celebratory.

“The goal was to make an anthem that would allow people to feel the excitement that I felt, but hopefully it would also begin a bigger conversation about the student loan debt crisis,” the rapper told MarketWatch.

The song is both a warning and a sympathetic nod to the plight of new grads.

Dee-1 mentions working two jobs and still not making enough to pay back the loans after graduation. He laments the subsequent default hurting his credit score (“Check my Equifax!”).

“Student loan debt is out of control,” Augustine said, “and I do think that college should ultimately be made more affordable.”

To that point, the song’s ending refrain is telling: The question is not whether you owe student loans, but rather how much.

Student debt is such a universal experience for millennials, it’s been translated into a cultural anthem.

Ready to Pay Sallie Mae Back Yourself?

You might not have a sizeable chunk of change from a record deal, but you can pay back your student loans… even if they seem totally insurmountable.

First, work out a plan to pay back your loans. Figuring out ways to earn more to put toward monthly bills is a great tactic. Loan-repayment tools can also get you on the fast track to debt-free living.

If you’ve got a way with words, try blogging, like this kid. He was able to pay off his loans before he even graduated.

And if worse comes to worst?

Well, if you skip one of those payments, you might be able to buy a plane ticket instead.

Just kidding. Mostly.

Your Turn: How much do you owe?

Jamie Cattanach (@jamiecattanach) is a junior writer at The Penny Hoarder. She also writes other stuff, like wine reviews and poems.

The post Got Student Loans? This Rapper Perfectly Sums Up How It Feels to Repay Them appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.

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Questions About Coffee, Mobile Homes, Pillows, Roth IRAs 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. Junk cars or financing?
2. Online freelance writing
3. Coffee bargain?
4. Value of a mobile home
5. Attitude shift with huge debt
6. Paying off credit card balances
7. Car buying conundrum
8. Roth IRA question
9. Caring about pennies
10. Researching pillows
11. Shipping large packages internationally
12. Why aren’t people frugal?

One of the biggest frustrations I have in my life is that I have a much longer list of things that I want to spend my time on than I have hours in the day.

I came to this realization over the weekend as I went through the process of transferring my to-do list to a new list manager while also doing something of a life review. As I looked at the enormous list of things that I want to be doing but simply do not have time to do, I’m almost overwhelmed.

Thus, the challenge for me is whittling down that list and finding ways to have more time for all of these projects by doing things like involving my family with them and so on.

It’s harder than it sounds. Whenever I “cut” some project from my to-do list and accept that I realistically won’t be able to pull it off, it feels like a punch in the stomach. I’m letting go of something I really want to do, and that hurts.

One of my mentors in life once told me that there are three stages in life. When you are young, you have an abundance of time and energy but no money. In your middle years, you have an abundance of energy and money but no time. In your later years, you have an abundance of money and time but no energy.

I definitely feel like I’m in that “middle years” segment. I am constantly doing something – I’m almost never idle – but the list of things I want to be doing is much larger than I have the time to achieve.

Q1: Junk cars or financing?

My 21 year old daughter is 6 months pregnant and does not have a car what is her best option on finding a good reliable car for her and her baby to travel to doctors drug stores grocery stores and beyond. She does not even have her driver’s license yet or a learners permit but her husband has a license and she has bought him three cars already that were used cars and ended up being junk. The cars ended up being jumped because they were not good reliable cars and she paid $500 for each car used car. What should she do? Should she finance a car or buy another $500 car that will be junk in less than 6 months?
– Margaret

An unreliable car is essentially worthless, in my opinion. If you do not have a high level of confidence that your car will start when you go out into the driveway or parking lot or garage with your key in your hand, then you might as well not have a car and plan your life that way. That way you’ll be saving on registration, insurance, maintenance, fuel, parking, and so on.

If she is in a situation where she needs a car for transportation to and from work, then she needs to take out a loan in order to get a car that makes that commute secure. If she lives in a larger city, she may want to consider a public transportation pass instead.

I would encourage her, if she goes the car route, to get a late model car that’s known for reliability. Hondas and Toyotas get consistently good long-term reliability numbers from Consumer Reports, which I trust for such things.

Yes, that will put her in a bit more debt and that’s never a fun place to be, but having a reliable car means that there will be a lot fewer repair bills for quite a while and it also means that she won’t be late for things because of unexpected car troubles, which seems to be a consistent problem.

Q2: Online freelance writing

I wish to try out at [a specific online writing site] and with social media jobs (writing ) but I am worried for the truthfulness, trustworthiness and how genuine these websites are! I’ve had an experience of such a job offer but I think they were spammers. Just wishing to know how true, trusted and genuine these job offers are. I wish to give it a try for sure if it just all will be well.
– Nadine

I chose not to link to Nadine’s chosen online writing site because it is a known site for scams.

The truth is that most online sites that offer you opportunities to work from home with zero experience are largely scams. If you aren’t clear on exactly what you will be doing – and I mean exactly – and what you will receive for it, don’t sign up.

The truth is that there are no services like that that will earn you a livable wage from home. There are a few where you can earn a bit of pocket money, like Fiverr and Mechanical Turk, but the reality is that you won’t be paid a lot for your efforts unless the person paying you has thoroughly vetted you. Any service where you can just sign up and start doing stuff to earn money isn’t going to be paying you a whole lot.

The only real route to earning money from home is building up your own content that you maintain control over and can sell or give away with ad support or building a service that people will pay for. Those things are both hard and require a ton of time and effort to turn into a profitable venture.

Q3: Coffee bargain?

What’s the better $ value – buying beans and grinding them at home to make coffee OR buy pre-ground coffee?
– Luke

Whole bean coffee is definitely more expensive than ground coffee per ounce. However, having said that, if you buy coffee that’s already ground from the store, it’s already lost a lot of the aromatics and other characteristics that make for great coffee. Also, it’s much easier to hide defective coffee beans in ground coffee, whereas in whole bean coffee bad beans would not pass visual inspection.

I’m not much of a coffee drinker, but my wife is an avid coffee drinker. I talked to her about this and she basically said that there are really two purposes for which she drinks coffee. She drinks it often first thing in the morning as a “wake-up” call, and she drinks it at other times in the day for the flavor and aroma. For her, pretty much any kind of caffeinated coffee works in the morning, but she prefers freshly-ground whole bean coffee when she’s drinking for flavor.

If you’re looking purely at cost and are comparing ground coffee to whole bean coffee, ground coffee will be a cheaper purchase per cup of coffee that you brew at home.

Q4: Value of a mobile home

Can you tell me anything about the monetary value of purchasing a mobile home in a trailer park versus renting an apartment? I’m needing to move and am having a hard time understanding why, for the same amount of money, I shouldn’t purchase a double wide as opposed to renting a 3 bedroom apartment. Is there a financial disadvantage? Why wouldn’t more people do this? Is it the perceived stigma of living ‘in a trailer’ that is bugging me?
– Claire

The biggest reason is that mobile homes themselves decrease in value over time. They depreciate, much like cars do, because they’re not built to be permanent dwellings. If those trailers are not also tied to land, they’re going to decrease in value over time and you’re going to lose money both on the loan to buy it and on the value of the mobile home and on the rental fees for the lot. Each of those things individually might not be all that much, but they add up to a pretty significant loss each month that’s usually as much as or more than apartment rent.

I think that there is a stigma of living in a trailer park for some people and that helps many people not even consider mobile homes, which contributes to the much weaker market for used mobile homes.

I think that many people perceive them as being a value because the month-to-month cost can be pretty low. However, while you’re living in a trailer, particularly one in a trailer park where you don’t own the land, the trailer is devaluing while you live there, which means you’re losing money that you don’t immediately see.

Q5: Attitude shift with huge debt

I’d love to hear your opinion on the Manulife One account. A couple years ago, my spouse and I moved our mortgage to M1. The idea is to combine everything and pay your debt down quick. We had a necessary home reno that was unplanned for (definitely not financially planned for) that cost 30k – a lot for us. After this we moved everything to an M1 account, and really thought we were being responsible. But I find our spending habits have actually changed from this move. We are less careful of purchases because our balance is so far from zero. In about 3 years we have gotten almost nowhere on paying down our mortgage (they take out interest fees, but that ‘s about it.). We have good intentions but it seems if the danger isn’t close to us (aka nothing in the bank), we’re not responsible enough. Should we get out and move to a conventional mortgage? I have a feeling it’s more of an attitude shift, but what can I do to fix this?? I’d love to make this work, as mathematically it makes so much sense!
– Patricia

I think you’ve discovered exactly why banks offer accounts like Manulife One. The bank is going to make a ton of money on those accounts from people who aren’t vigilant with their spending.

First, let’s back up. The account that Patricia is referring to is in the vein of what is often called a “money merge account.” Basically, the bank takes over all of your debts and gives you what amounts to a credit account. Think of this “credit account” as kind of like a fairly low interest credit card with all of your debts rolled into it, except that your house is a collateral against this account (so if you end up no longer putting money in there, they can repossess your house). Then, you sign up to have your paychecks automatically transferred to this account. When your checks arrive, it’s like a giant payment against your debt. However, whenever you need to spend money, it actually adds back to your debt level.

It sounds great, but it ends up being kind of like a bottomless credit card that you never receive a bill for. It takes personal discipline to make this kind of account work. If you don’t have discipline, you can easily buy into a sense that you can just spend whatever you want because you never really see a bill for it.

I’m not a fan of these kinds of accounts for that reason. They’re great for people with a great deal of personal discipline when it comes to spending, but if you have that, you probably don’t need an account like this to begin with.

There’s nothing you can magically do to give yourself a greater level of personal discipline. You can talk to another bank about refinancing and get back into a more typical situation with a traditional mortgage, which might force you into better habits. Still, the key is inside of you – you have to have the strength to cut back on your personal spending.

Q6: Paying off credit card balances

My question is about paying off credit card balances. My husband and I have lived on mostly one income. He’s been a stay at home parent for our two kids since our first was born six years ago. He finished school and then we relocated to a new state for a great opportunity in my career. We’ve lived frugally but have amassed some credit debt. We are going to be coming into some money from a settlement; about 50,000. Our first priority is paying the balances. I want to make sure we go about this right. I just read your column about closing a credit card account. Seems like there are often unknown consequences or things to be aware of.
– Irene

Paying off credit cards is a wonderful thing to do with a windfall like this.

The only pitfalls I would worry about are taxes and making sure you’re paying off cards in the right order. First, make absolutely sure that any taxes you might owe for this settlement are covered. If you’re not sure, talk to a tax advisor about it and make sure that you’re not suddenly hit with a tax bill next year.

Second, you should take the remaning money and just plow through your credit card debts, starting with the one with the highest interest rate. You’re probably better off cutting down your cards to just a couple, because for most families, the best situation for credit cards in terms of your credit history is to have a relatively small number of cards without a huge outstanding balance on them. Figure out which cards you use the most (whether due to rewards or other factors) and stick with those. Get rid of the rest.

The only bad consequences from closing credit cards is that it can sometimes have a short term negative impact on your credit score. That impact will be gone pretty shortly, so as long as you’re not taking out any major loans in the next several months, I wouldn’t sweat it a bit.

Q7: Car buying conundrum

I’m looking to buy a car and I’m wondering how much you would suggest I spend on it.

Some backstory: I’m a 26 year old single woman working as a teacher, so while I don’t have a high salary, my job is very steady. I don’t have any student loans or other debt and I just finished my master’s degree, so I’ll be getting a raise in August.

I have about $2700 in my retirement account and $25,000 in savings. A car salesman friend tried to convince me to lease, but I’d rather buy a newer used car outright. How much would you suggest I spend on a car?

I am in a serious relationship with someone who owns a house and I suspect we’ll get married in the next few years, so home ownership isn’t a concern (I currently rent).
– Lily

I agree completely that you should buy a late model used car in your current situation. I would echo much of what I said in my answer to question #1 – choose a car from a reliable manufacturer like Honda or Toyota. Stick to the relative low end of the different models that they offer – for example, if you’re looking at a Toyota, don’t start looking at high end Lexuses.

It’s really hard for me to target you toward a specific dollar amount without knowing your needs more specifically. My opinion is that if you’re buying a late model used car from a reliable manufacturer but not choosing one of their high end models, you should be well within what you should be spending.

Your best bet, honestly, is to take your time here and shop around. There are going to be lots of dealers near you that are selling late model used Camrys and Corollas and Civics, for example. Look at lots of different models, test drive a few, and see what the comparative prices are like.

Q8: Roth IRA question

I want to make sure that I understand how a Roth IRA works. I am 26 and my wife is 23. Let’s say that I contribute to a Roth IRA and retire when I am 60 and my wife is 57. She continues working while I am retired. I start taking money out of the Roth IRA. How does that work for taxes? Do we just not even count the Roth IRA money toward our taxable income?
– Jeff

Exactly. Your Roth IRA withdrawals won’t count toward your family’s taxable income.

That’s why many people like Roth IRAs, especially people who are currently making a pretty low income anyway. If you’re making a low income right now but still finding ways to contribute to a Roth, it’s likely that you’ll end up in a situation with higher taxes in retirement and tax-free “income” from your Roth will be a big benefit.

This is also true for people who have a lot of tax deductions and tax credits right now – people with children, for example, where their taxable income is artificially low due to those benefits. Thus, they’re paying a pretty low tax rate now and can get money into their Roth quite cheaply, but they’ll probably have a much higher taxable income later, which means that Roth money is going to be a big help.

Q9: Caring about pennies

When you write articles about how you saved ten cents on something, I just do not care. I’m facing almost half a million dollars in debt. Saving ten cents is a waste of my time. Tell me how I can earn a lot more or maybe save a large amount.
– Dennis

The thing to focus on isn’t the one time savings of a dime. It’s the fact that it’s usually repeated over and over and over without additional effort, which adds up to a lot of money.

Let’s say I replace a light bulb in my home with an LED bulb that will save me about 60 watts of energy for every hour it’s on. A kilowatt hour costs about $0.12, so that bulb is really saving me only about 3/4 of a cent for every hour the bulb is on. Who cares, right?

Well, let’s say that bulb is on for twelve hours a day, every day. After a year, that’s $31.54. At that usage rate, your bulb should last about five years, so by the time you switch out the bulb, you’ll have saved about $150 after the cost of replacing the bulb. Multiply that by every light that you use very often at all in your home and you’re talking thousands.

The little frugal tips where you save a dime would be kind of pointless if they were one-shot things. However, they’re usually things where you get that dime again and again and again with no additional effort and those dimes add up and add up and add up.

Many people forget about these kinds of savings because they flow so quietly into their monthly budget. You don’t “see” the fact that your energy bill is now $3 lower every month because of your single light bulb switch, but it is. And it’s lower month after month after month after month. Those kinds of changes slowly make it easier to live, to set goals, to build for the future. If your energy bill is lower, it gets easier to think about bumping up your 401(k) contributions by a percent or two, for example, and that ends up creating major change in your life down the road.

That’s why frugality is so powerful.

Q10: Researching pillows

How do you research and purchase more irregular and personal items like pillows? It’s not like buying a hair dryer, which you can research and find the best one in your budget, and it’s not like buying store-brand coffee, where you can try once and decide it’s not for you.
– Kim

It really depends on what kinds of “irregular and personal” items you’re talking about. Pillow preference is very much a matter of personal taste. You can find comparisons of pillow brands in terms of things like manufacturing quality, but identifying which pillow is right for your head is pretty personal.

Similar things occur with items like running shoes. Different shoes work better for different feet. You can compare shoe brands for overall manufacturing quality, but different shoes still work better for different foot shapes, activity level, and so on.

What I do for things like this is start with a brand with a good reputation and then go to stores and carefully examine the items, whether I buy there or not. Once I find a very specific model that works for me, I stay loyal to that model. If I hear that the model might be discontinued, I’ll even order a few backups and keep them on hand (especially if they’re on clearance or on sale).

Q11: Shipping large packages internationally

Do you know what is the best way to ship a large package, say 47kg, dimensions 142 cm by 32 cm by 44 cm from The Netherlands to Singapore. I have been searching for a economical way but so far the prices I get are many times more expensive than my package itself.
– David

I’m not sure how exactly to advise you in terms of specifics, as I’m not familiar with all of the international shipping options available to you in The Netherlands. However, I can give you some good pointers that will always help with international shipping.

First, shop around. This sounds like you’ve already done so, but you need to go through every package carrier available to you and ask for rates on the packages that you want to send.

Second, pack the thing securely. This might involve a slightly larger package, but secure packaging is going to greatly increase the odds that the package arrives unharmed at the destination. Otherwise, what’s the point of shipping it?

Third, request the slowest and least expensive shipping option from each carrier when comparing prices. Many carriers will offer a lower rate if you don’t mind waiting a bit for your item to ship until they have extra space on a boat.

If you follow through on those tips, you’ll get a good rate for shipping almost anything almost anywhere. It’s still going to be expensive to ship a package halfway across the world, especially a single package of that size, but you won’t have to spend nearly as much.

Q12: Why aren’t people frugal?

Why do you think more people aren’t frugal? People in generations past were much more frugal than today. Look at people in the 1930s – they were careful with their money and economized and that extended into World War II in the 1940s. Today everyone just wants to spend everything and expects to be picked up and taken care of when they’ve spent everything.
– Daniel

In those times, there was a pressing day-to-day need to spend less. In the 1930s, many people didn’t have jobs. You didn’t have to look very far to see people in a soup line. During World War II, the government endlessly promoted frugality and rationing as part of the war effort, tying frugality into patriotic feelings and nationalism.

Neither of those things are remotely true today. If anything, our national identity is tied to spending more and more than to any sense of frugality.

On top of that, popular culture seems to revolve around consumer goods, most of which people don’t really need. We have an amazing abundance of staples and food – the idea of food rationing seems crazy to almost everyone today.

What would it take to bring back frugality as a major virtue? I think it would take an exceptional – if not impossible – shift in national values, one that would be opposed all the way by corporate America. I don’t see it happening unless things change a lot from where we’re at.

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 Coffee, Mobile Homes, Pillows, Roth IRAs and More! appeared first on The Simple Dollar.

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Apple tells employees why it won't help hack shooter's phone

WASHINGTON (AP) — Apple Inc. CEO Tim Cook acknowledged to employees Monday that "it does not feel right" to refuse to help the FBI hack a locked iPhone used by a gunman in the San Bernardino mass shootings. But he said that to do so would threaten data security for millions and "everyone's civil liberties.""We have no tolerance or sympathy for terrorists," Cook wrote in an early morning email addressed to the Apple "Team." ''When they commit unspeakable acts like the [...]

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8 Tools That Will Help You Get Inside Your Readers’ Heads

Do you hate the phrase “getting inside your reader’s head?”

Although you know you are supposed to be able to do it, you don’t have any specific instructions on how to do it.

Of course, it’s important to understand your current readers and those you are trying to attract with your content, but that’s one of the hardest skills you have to develop as a writer.

It’s going to take years of continuous improvement to become really good at it.

However, there are ways for you to get this information much sooner—namely, formulas and tools.

In this post, I’m going to focus on the latter.

I’ve put together a list of the eight best tools for getting inside your readers’ heads.

They will give you tangible data you can use to produce content that resonates with your readers.

Finally, I’ll show you how to use the key features of these tools. I promise that none of them are difficult to use and that they are worth your time. 

Tool type #1 – Hard demographics data

If you want to know what your readers think, you first need to know who they are.

That’s where demographics come in.

Essentially, any statistic that describes a characteristic of your audience is a demographic. The most common are:

• age
• location
• device preference
• gender
• marital status

The tools in this section will help you figure out who you should be targeting in the first place. They can be used whether you have an existing audience or are just starting off.

1. Demographics Pro for Hootsuite

This tool is one of the most complete I’ve ever come across when it comes to demographics.

The only significant limitation is that it draws its data from Twitter.

However, as long as people in your niche use Twitter (which is likely), it’s really useful.

While you can sign up for Demographics Pro directly, it’s pretty simple to use this Hootsuite app.

When you click the link in the title for this tool and then click the “Install App” button on the page, you’ll be taken to Hootsuite, where you’ll see a pop-up like this (if you’re signed in):

Once you install the app, you’ll see a new tab on your account called “Demographics Pro for Twitter.”

To use the tool, simply enter a Twitter handle (e.g., “@NeilPatel”), and click “get profile.”

That’ll automatically bring up some basic data:

More useful, though, is the “view full profile” option. Click that link, and you’ll see an extremely detailed panel like this:

From this, you can get a ton of demographic information about your (or their) followers and even some psychographics (more on that in section 2):

• gender distribution
• marital status
• parental status
• age
• average income
• location
• types of jobs they have
• types of hobbies they have
• types of brands they like

It’s a gold mine of information.

If you’re already using Twitter, start with your own profile.

Then, get the stats of some of your top competitors. If you don’t know who they are, head to Buzzsumo’s amplification tool, and search for some keywords that describe your niche:

2. Sprout Social

This is a similar type of social audience analyzer. However, it analyzes both Facebook and Twitter, so there’s a potential to get a few different insights.

Once you sign up for an account (free trials available), you can connect your Twitter and Facebook accounts (only your own).

That will populate your account with a bunch of social trends data, but more importantly—demographics.

On top of getting a gender distribution of the audience on each platform, you get a detailed breakdown of their age brackets. That’s another important insight into your audience that will come in handy.

3. Google Display Planner

It might surprise you to find out that the Google Display Planner is another decent source of demographic data even though it isn’t the tool’s primary purpose.

When you open the planner, you have two options for searching:

• keywords, topics, or sites
• a landing page

I recommend doing both, and several times if possible. The larger your sample size, the more accurate your demographics data will be.

You can enter your own site, a competitor’s site, or keywords that you will be targeting with SEO.

Once you’ve picked an option, click the blue button to proceed:

On the next page, you’ll get a whole bunch of suggestions for ad keywords. Ignore them.

The only thing we care about here is the panel in the center of the screen that breaks down the demographics of people who search for the terms you entered (or terms found on the page you entered).

It looks like this:

Again, you get a gender and age breakdown.

Additionally, you can record which devices that audience prefers to use.

Is all this information redundant? It is to a degree, but it’s still useful. By now, you have demographic data from three different tools.

That data may look the same, but there may be differences because it’s collected from different sources.

Having data from multiple sources ensures that it won’t be skewed. You can take an average of all the data you collect or keep it as a range (i.e., average age might be 25-34 and not just one specific number).

4. FollowerWonk

The final tool in this section also uses Twitter to retrieve demographic data. However, it provides one important feature that the others miss.

Once you create an account, go to the “Analyze” tab on the top menu. Enter your Twitter handle, and let the tool scan your followers.

On the next page, look for a graph like the one below that shows at what times your followers are most active.

This information will be useful when you are promoting your content, especially on social media.

Tool type #2 – Understand your readers’ thinking (psychographics)

Once you’ve nailed down who your readers are or will be, it’s time to start figuring out how they think.

Ideally, you want to answer questions such as:

• what are their biggest problems?
• what type of content do they like the most?
• what kind of language do they use?
• what bores them, and what excites them?

The tools in this section will help you answer these questions and eliminate guesswork.

5. Faqfox

This is a simple tool that makes getting useful data from forums easy.

Basically, you enter a keyword and sites to scan, and the tool pulls up relevant thread titles for you. You can search multiple sites at once.

Start by inputting a keyword into the first field. You could manually enter sites, but an easier option is to simply pick one of the preset categories. If you’re not sure which one to choose, pick “generic”:

The tool will load the results after a few seconds of search:

I recommend downloading the results into a spreadsheet and analyzing them there.

Remember those questions you need to answer? These results will help you do that.

You’ll have some irrelevant results, so start by removing those.

Once you have a few hundred relevant threads left, dig in.

Note down:

• common questions (those that come up more than once)
• any phrasing that you wouldn’t normally use yourself
• any other keywords that you haven’t thought of (that you see in the titles)

Then, repeat this whole process at least a few times with different keywords.

6. Crazy Egg

If you know me well, you know I founded Crazy Egg.

I’ll let you judge the tool for yourself, but it can be incredibly useful for understanding the behavior of your readers.

The one catch is that you have to actually have readers before you can use the tool.

Assuming you do, Crazy Egg will give you a variety of heatmaps that will show you exactly how readers interact with your content.

There are two types of maps you’ll want to look at.

First is the scroll map, which tells you how people scroll through your page. You can tell what portions of the page they pay more or less attention to.

It’s natural for the percentage to decline as you scroll down, but you might see that it declines at certain sections in the middle of the content.

This is a clear indication that something on your page didn’t interest your readers.

For example, if I looked at a heatmap for this post and saw that there’s a huge drop off within this section, I could conclude that my readers don’t like reading about heatmap tools (or potentially about psychographics).

Similarly, hot spots lower down the page indicate that you’ve touched upon something that excites them.

Record this information for all your content, and you’ll start seeing patterns in the type of content, the tone, and the format your readers like.

To get even more insight into your readers’ preferences, you can use click heatmaps, which show you what readers clicked on:

You’ll see that certain things attract their attention more than others. Again, look for patterns.

7. Buzzsumo’s Top Content Tool

The heatmaps can give you a lot of insight into what excites and bores your readers.

However, sometimes you need more, or you don’t have enough readers to use heatmaps yet.

That’s where Buzzsumo’s top content tool comes in.

You’ll want to make a list of keywords you’ll be using within your content. Then, search them one by one in the tool:

The tool will return a list of the most popular content in the past year (sorted by total shares).

Visit as many of these pages as you can, and record down the answers to these questions in your spreadsheet:

• What format does the content use? (lots of images? videos? big font? small font?)
• What tone does the content use? (news articles? personal stories? conversational?)
• Why would your reader be so excited about this topic?

You can leave the last one blank for now if you don’t know, but come back to it later.

When you have a good understanding of your readers, you should be able to figure out why these top articles would appeal to them more than the average content.

Finally, search all the answers to all those questions for patterns.

For example, if a large chunk of the most popular posts are mainly image-based, you know that your readers love images.

Tool type #3 – Assemble your data, and make it useful

If you’ve used every tool up until this point, you have a lot of useful data.

Don’t just put it on a spreadsheet and forget about it.

Instead, create reader personas. It will help you and your team when you need to be reminded for whom you are writing.

I created this final section for a single tool because I feel that—although it is a small step you need to take—it’s a very important step.

8. Make My Persona

This tool was created by Hubspot, and it’s brilliant.

It guides you through a simple process that uses all the different demographic and psychographic information you’ve collected with all the other tools.

It also ensures that you don’t forget any key part of creating a reader persona, e.g., putting a real name or face to it:

Once you answer all the questions, the tool will produce a well-organized persona summary:

First, you should share this with everyone who helps you with content.

Next, you should be looking at this before you write any content yourself. Always ask yourself what this person would find valuable and interesting. Print it out, and hang it up if you need to.

Note that you can create multiple personas if that’s what the data supports.

Conclusion

This is not a huge list, but every tool on this list can be useful.

The better you understand your readers, the more you’ll be able to write exactly what they want to see (and value).

I recommend trying at least a few of the tools, but if you really want to get a clear picture of what your readers think and care about, use them all.

If I missed a tool that can help writers understand their audiences, please post it in the comments below, and I’ll give it a look.

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Pensions tax relief changes to fuel intergenerational tension

Rachel Lacey

nofuture.jpg

Widely anticipated changes to pensions tax relief could fuel inter-generational tensions, warns investment platform Hargreaves Lansdown.

Widely anticipated changes to pensions tax relief could fuel inter-generational tensions, warns investment platform Hargreaves Lansdown.

It comes as the Department of Work and Pensions’ inquiry into intergenerational fairness draws to a close.

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How a Memorial Society Helped Ease This Family’s Worst Nightmare

Death isn’t cheap.

The average funeral — with a viewing and burial — cost $7,181 in 2014, according to the National Funeral Directors Association (NFDA). If you want a burial vault, the price leaps to $8,508.

However, there is a way around expensive funeral fees without sacrificing the dignity of your loved one.

You can save hundreds and even thousands of dollars in funeral costs through a memorial society.

How do I know? Unfortunately, through experience.

My Son’s Story

In 1988 at age 12, my son Jason died at home. He had Marfan’s Syndrome, a life-threatening genetic disorder.

With Marfan’s, a person can have the disease in varying degrees. It’s not always fatal at a young age, and someone afflicted with the condition could live a relatively long life with few or no obvious disease symptoms.

When Jason’s pediatrician told us he would soon pass, I started researching final arrangements. During this research, I found a book on estate planning that contained a section on memorial societies.

What’s a Memorial Society?

A memorial society is a nonprofit, non-religious organization that helps consumers obtain reasonably priced end-of-life, funeral arrangements.

It’s typically run by volunteers and provides funeral-planning information.

The Funeral Consumers Alliance (FCA) is the parent organization of national memorial societies, with dozens of chapters throughout the U.S.

When your loved one dies, volunteers provide services approved by each state, like driving the hearse. The memorial society has a contract with a local funeral director for embalming or cremation services required by law.

What Does Membership Typically Cost?

Rates vary from chapter to chapter. You can check out local memorial society rates in your state.

In 1988, we paid a one-time, lifetime fee of $7 when we joined in Washington state. In 2016, lifetime membership in Washington is $35 per person; still an amazing value.

When we moved to Ohio, because of the reciprocity between chapters, we didn’t have to pay again. Each chapter sets up their own dues and sometimes the chapter dues are free under certain conditions.

How Does a Memorial Society Member Get Such Low Rates?

The FCA negotiates contracted rates with local funeral homes that are hundreds and, often, thousands of dollars lower than the funeral parlor’s publicly advertised rate.

As mentioned earlier, volunteers do certain tasks instead of a funeral director, which is how the survivors save so much money. You don’t have to pay for a funeral director to drive a hearse or an ambulance to pick up the body when a volunteer fills in.

Note, the membership fee is different from any funeral home fees you pay. Chapters typically do not have burial or cremation plans — though some do — so you’ll still pay the funeral home directly for those costs. Or, in the case of burial instead of cremation, you pay for the burial plot.

Who Are the Volunteers?

Volunteerism works differently across chapters.

For instance, when I called the People’s Memorial Society in Washington state, a representative explained anyone can volunteer for a memorial society. Volunteers don’t have to be — but usually become — members.

It works differently in Cleveland. The People’s Memorial Society was founded by Quakers and has 250,000 members, explained Bill McCullam, president of its Board.

The Quaker church believes strongly in the society, and in this area, church members volunteer to do tasks, like pick up the body after death, out of love and respect for the end-of-life event.

How Being Memorial Society Members Helped Us With Our Son’s Passing

My husband and I became members while Jason was still alive, so we had time to ask about our son’s end-of-life wishes.

We asked him about his favorite church songs, flowers, the clothes he wanted to wear for burial and other things he wanted for his memorial service.

Jason was mentally and emotionally very mature for his age, and although this was an uncomfortable discussion, he accepted that we were focused on his quality of life. We wanted to honor his last wishes.

Knowing for sure what Jason wanted after he passed relieved a huge emotional burden from our shoulders. It eliminated a lot of inaccurate guessing about what he wanted for his end-of-life activities. This was important to us because we were focused on Jase’s quality of life before, during and after his passing.

When the time came, I called our hospice nurse while my husband stayed with Jason at his bedside. Then, I called the memorial society.

Just one phone call set the process in motion. Memorial society volunteers came to get Jason’s body within an hour.

The volunteers were amazing; they were compassionate, respectful, kind and loving. Even though my husband and I were emotional wrecks, they knew what to do and quietly did it.

Their presence made getting through this tragedy easier for us. It was the best possible scenario in the worst possible situation a parent can experience.

Our Final Costs With the Memorial Society

Back in 1988, we paid a total of $2,200 for Jason’s airfare, embalming, pine box casket and burial plot in Ohio, where my husband’s family lived.

Today, burial in a plain pine box or cremation is about $1,000 through a memorial society. For instance, the Cleveland Memorial Service offers simple cremation for $755 and simple burial for $895. You’ll want to contact your local society for accurate pricing information.

Regardless, it’s quite a bit less than the horror stories you’ve probably read about planning an affordable funeral.

If you’re interested in saving yourself hundreds or even thousands of dollars on your end-of-life costs, check out your local memorial society. It’s a reasonable amount of money in exchange for the benefits.

In my experience, it was more peaceful to have everything arranged ahead of time, so we didn’t have to worry about making decisions in the moment.

Your Turn: Would you join a memorial society?

Susan Fox, a talented freelance writer, specializes mainly in holistic health and self-help topics. See her website at http://ift.tt/21999Ze. Contact her to write for your business.

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Why You Should Stop Spending Money to Impress People

When you’re a teenager with little life experience, it’s easy to build your entire life around what other people think. It can feel normal to let your friend’s ideas of what’s cool dictate the clothes you wear, how you carry yourself, and even the music you like.

While this pressure is sometimes internal, teenagers are known for shaming each other into conforming to social norms. And as we all know, young adults can be absolutely brutal in how they treat each other – not only those who are different, but even those who try really hard to fit in.

Sadly, adulthood isn’t always a whole lot better in this respect. Not only will you experience pressure to look your best, but you’ll be forced to either keep up with – or ignore – the Joneses all throughout adulthood.

That’s right, even adulthood has its cliquey share of cool kids, rich kids, outsiders, and rebels. And sometimes, the way someone else spends their money can make you feel like you should be doing the same thing, too. After all, most people still want to fit in; it doesn’t matter whether they’re 15 or 50.

Six Reasons You Should Stop Spending to Impress People

But, should you give in to peer pressure and waste your hard-earned dollars? If you truly want to get ahead financially — and build a successful, impressive life — the answer should be a resounding “no.”

The opportunities to spend money as an adult are nearly limitless, but they will drain your bank account if you give in every time. And at the end of the day, keeping up with your friends as an adult is just as pointless as it was in high school.

Here are six reasons you should stop spending money to impress your neighbors, friends, and colleagues and put yourself first instead:

No. 1: Your Future Self Will Not Be Impressed

Spending your money on material possessions might make you feel better in the short term, but it won’t help you reach your future financial goals at all. And if you’re not saving enough for retirement, your “future you” — who, we’ll argue, is far more important than your neighbor three doors down — will not be impressed. Unless you stash away plenty of money now, you could be stuck living in poverty in old age – or simply never be able to retire at all.

According to the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, almost half (45%) of American adults ages 65 and older had incomes lower than twice the poverty threshold in 2013. Meanwhile, a new analysis from the Government Accountability Office showed that 29% of older adults had no retirement savings in 2013, and that even those who had savings weren’t saving enough.

If you don’t want to struggle in old age, you need to buck that trend and start putting your retirement savings first. You may need to give up some things today, but your future self will be so glad you did.

• Related: What to Do When Your Retirement ‘Number’ Seems Impossibly Big

No. 2: At Least Some of Your Friends Are Faking It, Too

As of 2015, the average credit card debt for indebted American households was $15,609. That’s a startling statistic, but also a very telling one. From coast to coast, far too many people charge whatever they want and worry about how to pay later.

Easy credit makes it far too simple to obscure reality. In other words, just because someone appears to have everything doesn’t mean they can actually afford it.

Before you let the pressure to “keep up” get to you, look around and ask yourself if your peers’ financial lives are even real. Chances are, at least some of them have built a lifestyle on easy credit and monthly payments that will eventually come back to bite them. That’s not something you want to emulate, is it?

No. 3: Actually Having Money Is More Rewarding

Buying new stuff might make you feel good for a short burst of time, but that feeling has a way of fading quickly. Having money in the bank for emergencies and retirement, on the other hand, offers a kind of security you can’t get anywhere else. Better yet, the feeling that comes with having savings is not fleeting at all, but rather long-lasting.

New cars, shoes, purses, and toys you buy to impress your friends depreciate rapidly as well, which means you’re likely throwing money down the drain when you buy all this stuff as well.

Your savings and investments, on the other hand, will grow over time – giving you the type of financial security that will help you sleep at night.

• Related: 15 Things More Important than Money

Real friends and faithful family members don’t care whether you have the latest gadget or a new car. And who else even matters? Photo: Cléo Morgause

No. 4: You’ll Never Make Everyone Happy Anyway

When you buy big houses, cars, and “stuff” to impress your friends, it’s really just an illusion. The fact is, friends that need impressing are fickle people anyway. No matter how much you spend or what you buy, you’ll never make everyone happy.

• Related: Stop Trying to Impress Other People

That’s why spending money to impress others is the ultimate waste; when you shop to make other people happy, you’re not only failing by default, but also depriving yourself of what you really want.

As my mother would say, the only way to win this game is “not to play.”

No. 5: You Have Nothing to Prove

Adulthood is a journey, not a race. Those who collect the most material possessions don’t earn a prize – no ribbon, no trophy, nothing. So, why does it feel like we need to compete?

I’ll tell you why: Because every commercial on television, online, and the radio is aimed at parting us with our money. Every ad campaign on Earth was created to convince us that what we have is not enough, and that we need this item or that service — and that we’re depriving ourselves and our families if we don’t buy it.

Don’t believe the hype. You have nothing to prove, and you’ll be a lot better off if you ignore the commercials, your friends, and the hype, and do what is best for you.

No. 6: Real Friends Don’t Care What You Have

The final reason you shouldn’t spend to impress other people is that real friends don’t care if you have a fancy home, a shiny new car in the garage, the latest smartphone, or every other grown-up toy known to man. Real friends – the type of friends you want to have – care a lot more about your character and your personality, and how much fun you have together.

Real friends love you whether you’re rich, poor, successful, or struggling. They won’t mind if you waste your money on designer clothes and shoes, but they don’t expect it either.

If you’re spending just to impress people, you might be neglecting the people who never cared about that stuff anyway – your real friends. So look around and ask yourself who has been there for you through thick and thin. Chances are, it’s the people who couldn’t care less how you spend your money.

The Bottom Line

Personal finance icon Dave Ramsey once said, “We buy things we don’t need with money we don’t have to impress people we don’t like.”

Sadly, he’s absolutely right.

What’s worse is that we often do it at the expense of being able to afford what we really want in life – whether that’s savings for retirement, the ability to travel the world, or a simple emergency fund to deal with life’s uncertainties.

If you’re struggling to get ahead and can’t figure out why, take a close look at your spending to see how much of it is based on what you really want - and how much of it was for someone else. If you find you’re spending to impress others, it might be time to confront the one person who can turn your situation around – yourself.

What are some reasons you quit spending money to impress other people?

Related Articles:

• The Illusion of ‘Winners’ and ‘Losers’ When Buying Stuff
• Do We Have Our Possessions Backwards? Some Thoughts on the Stuff We Own
• The Deceptively Tiny Wardrobe
• The Power of Not Caring What Anyone Thinks

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Stamp prices to rise by 1p

Helen Knapman

Loadsastamps.jpg

The price of a first class stamp will increase by 1p from 63p to 64p from 29 March, Royal Mail has announced.

The price of a first class stamp will increase by 1p from 63p to 64p from 29 March, Royal Mail has announced.

Second class stamps will rise by 1p from 54p to 55p, while the price of a large letter (under 101g) will increase by 1p for both first class and second class stamps, taking prices to 96p and 75p respectively. 

Penny rise for stamp prices

Feed Copy: 

The price of a first class stamp will increase by 1p from 63p to 64p from 29 March, Royal Mail has announced. Second class stamps will rise by 1p from 54p to 55p, while the price of a large letter (under 101g) will increase by 1p for both first class and second class stamps, taking prices to 96p and 75p respectively. Royal Mail says it has “carefully considered the impact” on customers and its own business, but says the changes are “necessary to help ensure the sustainability of the Universal Postal Service”. Stock up on stamps now If you use stamps for personal or business use on a regular basis, consider stocking up now at cheaper prices to save. Royal Mail says that as long as the stamp says ‘1st’ or ‘2nd’ on it rather than an actual price, you can continue to use it after the price rise. If you’ve got stamps from years ago with actual prices on them, to use them now you need to ensure you make up the value to current prices using other stamps.

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Love Adult Coloring Books, But Hate the Price? Get Them for FREE

We’ve all enjoyed those serene rainy afternoons coloring cartoon characters in Disney-themed coloring books with the kids, right?

Right?

Maybe you don’t want to admit how much you love coloring.

It is kind of childish.

Thankfully, some creative marketing geniuses have emerged to give us “adult coloring books,” so we no longer have to hide.

A therapeutic hobby akin to the art of Zentangle, the adult coloring book craze has taken off — an unexpected blessing in the lives of reluctant grown-ups.

The patterns are complicated. Princesses and talking animals are conspicuously absent from the pages. And it says “Adult” right on the cover!

This is obviously a grown-up affair.

Why We Love Adult Coloring Books

I’ll admit, I resisted the adult coloring book craze for some time.

I’m a grumpy cynic who hates anything considered a “craze.”

But as they tend to do, my sisters convinced me of the merits of the popular pastime by showing up at Christmas armed with a few fresh books and Crayola markers.

In a world where almost no one can get through her day without facing the glare of a screen and the stress, worry and demand of everything it displays, we’re looking for any break we can get.

Yes, you can always go for another run, join a yoga class, clean something around the house or take up baking.

But sometimes you just want to chill out. Adult coloring books let you do that.

The patterns may look more challenging than their childish counterparts, but really, they’re just a bunch of small spaces to color however you please.

They’re repetitive and often symmetrical.

The colors you choose have little impact on the quality of the final image.

They just feel good to color.

Once I finally tried it, I begrudgingly became a fan.

How to Find Affordable Adult Coloring Books

But did I mention these coloring books — unlike their cheap childish counterparts — run about $10 apiece?

I knew there was a reason I didn’t like the word “craze.” It tends to come with a hefty price tag.

Well, luckily I’m a Penny Hoarder — I don’t settle for high prices.

I’ve found some great free alternatives to expensive adult coloring books. And they still come with all the Zen you need.

Check these out:

1. Coloring Pages for Adults

Coloring Pages for Adults is just that: Hundreds of free adult coloring pages to download and print.

2. Easy Peasy and Fun

This site is dedicated to making life “easy-peasy and fun.”

It offers crafts and activities for kids — but also has thrown in some original free coloring pages for adults.

For more than just this sampling, the author also has full PDF ebooks available to purchase.

3. Crayola

In addition to the coloring pages and activities for kids we expect from the brand, Crayola’s website also offers free printable coloring pages for adults.

4. Coloring Life

Another site that solely offers free adult coloring book pages, Coloring Life offers some fun, unique categories like the 2016 U.S. Presidential election.

Adult Coloring Book Apps

If you don’t have a printer and don’t want to make a run to the library or FedEx to prepare for a peaceful afternoon, here are some options you can grab right on your computer, smartphone or tablet.

Of course, using these apps means more screen time. But while “coloring” with an app doesn’t offer the 100%-unplugged feeling of the paper version, it was still better for me than scrolling through Twitter or busying my brain with a game.

Adult coloring book apps are plentiful, so you can have your pick.

Here are a few I’ve tried:

5. HelloKids

As the name suggests, the HelloKids website offers coloring pages, games and activities for children in addition to coloring pages for adults.

You’ll have to watch an ad before accessing your design.

But what’s cool is you can choose to print images to color on paper, or color on-screen with a built-in app.

6. Color Therapy

The Color Therapy app for iPhone and iPad is all the rage with teens this year (unlike the phrase “all the rage.”)

While it works fine on an iPhone, my 30-year-old eyes don’t love concentrating on the small screen.

I’d recommend the iPad version for an experience more akin to a real coloring page.

Color Therapy comes with a variety of free patterns, with new ones added every week.

The app is supported by in-app purchases — allowing you buy additional patterns and color palettes — plus occasional ads.

7. Colorfly

Though it’s similar to Color Therapy, I prefer Colorfly for iOS for its cleaner interface.

Without any in-app purchases, you see fewer ads, and even the ads to support the free version are unobtrusive.

If you want a totally ad-free experience, you can pay $1.99 per week for the premium version.

8. Coloring for Grown-Ups

The app version of the 2012 adult activity book Coloring for Grown-Ups is perfect if you’re just too cynical to embrace the calming, swirling patterns of traditional adult coloring books (I understand.)

This app allows you to maintain your integrity by thinking about the “mind-numbing realities of modern adult life” while you unwind.

It’s like going to a bar. But with crayons.

It’s not free; it’ll cost you 99 cents to download for iOS, but worth checking out if you’re not quite ready to jump on the Zen bandwagon with us.

Your Turn: Are you into adult coloring books? Do you buy them or use one of these methods to save money?

Dana Sitar (@danasitar) is a staff writer at The Penny Hoarder. She also writes about writing, life, comedy and love for blogs and books and sometimes things people care about, like Huffington Post and that one time she had an article published in the Onion.

The post Love Adult Coloring Books, But Hate the Price? Get Them for FREE appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.

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Telephone banking to go password free for HSBC customers

Tom Wilson

Some 15 million HSBC and First Direct customers will soon be able to ditch passwords for telephone banking, and instead login to accounts using their voice.

Some 15 million HSBC and First Direct customers will soon be able to ditch passwords for telephone banking, and instead login to accounts using their voice.

The new biometric security technology will allow customers to access telephone banking services, by checking 100 different elements of the caller’s voice; measuring their speech speed and pronunciation.

Back to the register

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Fostering a Love For Travel

Cruise Planners is one of the best travel franchise opportunities with a proven sales system that’s been successful for more than 20 years. In fact, Jennifer Klingsmith has been caring for special-needs children while raising her own biological children and running a home-based travel business. “We’ve been married for 28 years, have three biological children and two adoptive […]

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