Questions About Impatience, Razor Blades, Student Loans, Light Bulbs and More!

What’s inside? Here are the questions answered in today’s reader mailbag, boiled down to summaries of five or fewer words. Click on the number to jump straight down to the question.
1. Disposable razor sharpener
2. Work-at-home jobs while pursuing degree
3. Student loan payoff strategy
4. CFL or LED bulbs
5. Spooked by stock market
6. Handling impatience
7. Strategies for breakfast burrito batches
8. Uses for old cell phone
9. Trying to avoid divorce
10. Cheap sturdy shelving
11. Electric toothbrush?
12. Daily/weekly reviews on paper

Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about the idea of “deep work.” It’s something that’s been on my mind as I’ve noticed how my own work effectiveness varies greatly from situation to situation.

Sometimes, I can work really effectively and write lots and lots of content in just a few hours. At other times, I’m really not effective at all and barely get anything worthwhile written in an entire morning.

What’s the difference?

For me, I think there are really two key things at work. One is energy level. If I didn’t sleep well the night before, my ability to focus on anything is just awful. I’ve learned that getting a good night of sleep is absolutely vital if I want to do anything productive.

The other, though, is distractions. The more distractions there are, the worse my writing is. The biggest distraction of them all? The internet. Websites constantly distract me if I allow them to do so. Games can distract me, too, if I allow them to do so.

If I manage to get rid of those common distractions, I tend to be incredibly productive at work. I can often slip into a focused state where time passes by almost without notice and I get a great deal of work done – and it’s usually really good work, too.

The challenge for me is the same one I’ve worked on for years. How can I build a “recipe” for slipping into that “zone” of “deep work”? I have some of the ingredients, such as blocking distracting websites and turning off my phone, but it’s not a readymade formula yet. I’m hoping to figure out what that recipe is.

Q1: Disposable razor sharpener

What disposable razor sharpener do you recommend?
– Jim

I prefer the RazorPit sharpener, myself. It’s basically a chunk of strange-feeling rubber or plastic that you run your razor blade across a few times after you use it. Doing so will hone the blades so that you can get more use out of your disposable razor or cartridge.

It does not make disposable razors or cartridges last forever, but it definitely multiplies the uses you’ll get out of each one. This tool essentially just hones the blades – eventually, they will become nicked and dulled and you will have to replace them, just not nearly as quickly as you did without honing them.

This is a great “stocking stuffer” type of gift for anyone who shaves with a disposable razor of any kind. It just simply extends the life of the blades and cartridges, which can add up to a lot of savings for very little effort.

Q2: Work-at-home jobs while pursuing degree

I have a very good friend that currently lives in Saudi Arabia. He is looking for work at home jobs that he can continue to take when he comes to the USA to study for his masters degree in computer networks. My question is is this possible? How can you make this happen?
– Charlie

It’s possible, but I’d suggest that it’s not the best route for a person studying for a graduate degree.

A much better approach would be to focus instead on your coursework and on writing some papers and creating a great thesis. If you need income, look for on-campus ways to make money through teaching or other things.

If you really want to earn extra money in your spare time via the internet, you’re either going to be involved in building something long term, which means you’re not going to earn much for a long time but the earnings will eventually ramp up, or you can do things that will earn a little more than that immediately but won’t really ramp up. If you’re interested in the former, do something like start your own Youtube channel or your own blog. If you’re interested in the latter, check out a site like Fiverr or Mechanical Turk.

The sites that talk about earning thousands a month from home are scams. You can get there, but you’d better be bringing a lot of additional skill or experience to the table and the opportunity has to be right.

Q3: Student loan payoff strategy

My husband and I have student loans. We moved recently and he is going to school for his PhD in Biochemistry. Right now, he is scheduled for 3-5 years left in his program, and after that, he’s hoping for a post-doc program, where he will be paid roughly around 60k a year. In his PhD program, he receives about 23k a year pre-tax income. I work and bring home 28k pre-tax income. We have built up our emergency fund to a stable 3 months of expenses and I contribute about 4% of my income to a 401k. We manage to save about 10-15% of our income each month. We have no children, except our furry dog child, whose expenses are negligible in comparison to a real child.

After this, we still have a little bit of discretionary income after taxes. Since my student loans are not in deferment, I have been paying the minimum, plus an additional $100 each month towards my principle, just so that we can pay it down quicker. Right now, my loans are at about ~$24k at an average 5% federal loan interest rate. I will continue to repay these over the next 8 years. My husband’s student loans are in deferment and while it’s not an overwhelming amount of loans (~$30k), I’m wondering if the “additional” I’m paying towards my loans each month should go to his loans? While I don’t know the exact percentage on his interest, they were all federal loans between fall 2010 and fall 2013, so it’s safe to assume an average of 5%.

What would you advise?
– Michelle

If I were you, I’d compare the interest rate on the loans and throw your extra efforts at whatever loans have the highest interest rate. Since you’re married and the marriage is presumably stable, these loans are effectively weights around both of your necks regardless of the name on the actual loan.

I would make minimum payments on ALL of the loans that have lower interest rates and put as much of an extra payment as I possibly could toward that one loan with the highest interest rate. Get rid of it as fast as you can, then move on to the next one on the list, the one that NOW has the highest interest rate.

Getting rid of those loans gives you flexibility month to month. You’re lowering your monthly required bills so you now have a greater capacity for things like career switches and so on. The fastest path to this definition is to simply start hammering hard at your highest interest loan.

Q4: CFL or LED bulbs

I just read your article on CFL vs. LED bulbs. I am replacing outdoor (up) flood lights, I don’t know whether I should CFL or LED bulbs. Which do you recommend?
– Mickey

LED bulbs have improved so much in light quality over the last few years that I unequivocally recommend them over both CFLs and incandescent and halogen bulbs for home lighting.

The sole drawback of LED bulbs at this point is the upfront price. Once you get past that, they’re amazing. They have an incredibly long lifespan, they provide very nice lighting (which wasn’t true for them at first, but the technology has drastically improved), and they use very little energy.

We’ve basically converted all of the lights in our home to LEDs over the last year or two. Our energy bill is about as low as we can make it and we’ve yet to have to replace any LED bulb in our home – and we don’t anticipate doing so any time soon.

Q5: Spooked by stock market

I have been meaning to open an account with betterment for months with a $5K initial investment (already have a Roth IRA through vanguard and contribute to an employer sponsored pension), but the current market has spooked me. Is there any reason I shouldn’t go ahead and do it now?
– Denise

Assuming that you’re saving for a retirement that’s more than ten years off, you shouldn’t worry about the current ups and downs of the stock market, for two reasons.

For one, it’s basically impossible to predict when the stock market is at a “bottom” or at a “peak.” No one can reliably do this. Trying to “time” the market – which is what people are doing when they’re “spooked” and don’t want to invest in the market at the moment but intend to do it later when the market is “better” – is a losing proposition. Yes, there’s some chance that the market will go down more from where it’s at right now, but at the same time, there’s a chance you’ve already missed the bottom and you would have been better off investing two weeks ago. You just don’t know. Because of that, the best thing you can do is to invest as soon as possible. The sooner you invest, the more dividends you’re going to collect because you’ll already own the stock and the more likely you are to catch all of the rebound. Yes, there will probably be some “perfect” date in the future where you might have had a better balance if you waited, but there’s virtually no way to identify that perfect day.

For another, given that you’re investing for the very long term, the up and down volatility of the next few months won’t matter very much in terms of your balance when you’re actually ready to use it.

The best thing you can do, if the short term volatility bothers you, is to just not look at the balance very often. Just trust that it’s working for you because, frankly, it is.

Q6: Handling impatience

I’m on a path much like yours. About a year ago, I paid off all of my debt and now I’m saving about 40% of my income in various accounts. I believe I can retire in about 12 years at age 45.

The problem is that I’m really impatient for this to happen. I feel like there’s nothing I can actively do to make this process go faster and I almost get frustrated thinking about it. I’m afraid this will eventually turn into me doing something impulsive and undoing my work. Suggestions?
– Leon

I know exactly what you mean. I’m impatient, too.

It’s not so much that I think I need to have the rewards of my efforts today, at least not for me. It’s more that I think often about the virtues of what complete financial independence will be like and I really look forward to it, especially in the more stressful moments today.

I mostly handle this by really looking at the virtues of my life right now while automating everything for the future. I don’t really have to think about the steps I have to take to save for the future – it’s all handled automatically.

Instead, I try really hard to focus on the good things that exist right now. My children are young – they won’t be young forever. My physical health will inevitably decline, so I want to do things now like walking on trails and so forth that might not be available to me later on. I have a job that I enjoy 95% of the time. Those things will not all be true in ten or fifteen years, so I should enjoy them while they last.

Q7: Strategies for breakfast burrito batches

Got any good strategies/tips for big batches of breakfast burritos? You’ve mentioned making them in the past. I have made two batches, one of which turned out really good and the other was bland.
– Adam

One thing I’ve learned over the years is that almost any food that you freeze will taste bland unless you add more salt than you think is necessary. Go above and beyond your instinct when salting stuff and don’t be afraid to salt it more if it tastes bland after reheating.

Another trick I like to use is to use plenty of hot sauce in the burritos. If you don’t like heat, then use mild hot sauce. The flavor that hot sauce brings to the table is invaluable.

Another great tip is to make everything as dry as you can (except the hot sauce). Extra moisture is going to come from everywhere and can potentially make for very soggy burritos. Make your eggs dry, your meat (if you’re using it) dry, cook your potatoes to a crisp… you get the idea.

I also encourage you to make sure that whatever you freeze is wrapped really well and sealed off. I like to use resealable containers when I freeze things so that I can reuse them later and they do a really good job of keeping the food safe from the freezer environment.

Q8: Uses for old cell phone?

Are there any uses for old cell phones? I have a Galaxy S4 that’s just sitting here doing nothing. Ideas?
– Tom

One great idea that works for any cell phone is to simply charge it up and leave it in your glove box in the event of an emergency. Any cell phone is capable of calling for emergency help, regardless of whether it’s under contract.

If it’s a smartphone, like your S4, there are a lot of things you can do with it. You can turn it into a really simple home security system, for example. You can stick it in your kitchen and use it as a media player for when you’re preparing food – just leave it docked and maybe stick a small speaker on it so you can listen to Pandora or podcasts while you’re making meals. You can make it into a small digital photo frame for your desk. There are lots of good uses if you play around with it.

One use I’ve really liked for old smartphones is as a dedicated MP3 player for the car. One of my friends just leaves an old phone in her car hooked up to the car stereo. She listens to MP3s on it and also has it set to download podcasts when she’s at home and the phone is on her home wi-fi network.

Q9: Trying to avoid divorce

My husband and I have been discussing getting a divorce. We were married at age 22 (now we’re both 35) and we have no children which is part of the problem. My husband has always wanted children but it turned out that due to medical reasons having our own children is impossible. We have talked about adoption but I do not want to raise someone else’s child. My husband is really frustrated by this and wants to be with someone with whom he can have a child and now we barely talk. I don’t know what to do. I don’t want him to leave because he is a good man.
– Linda

First of all, I’m not sure I understand what you mean about “raising someone else’s child.” You can adopt newborn children and, as adoptive parents, the child is legally yours in an ironclad way. You won’t have a child ripped out of your arms. You won’t be raising someone else’s child. It will be your child, period. If there isn’t a deeper issue involved here, I strongly encourage you to consider adopting an infant.

I’m going to assume you’ve already investigated other techniques for having children as well, though I’m not sure what is available to you with your medical concerns.

In the end, I get the sincere feeling that the problem here is that you were both on the same page with having children, but after your medical situation, you changed your mind on the issue and your husband did not. If that’s truly the case, it may be one of those unresolvable situations.

I strongly, strongly encourage you to seek marital counseling. This is the type of situation where marital counseling can make a tremendous difference in terms of resolving your differences and your feelings and figuring out exactly how you can move forward from here.

This is not an issue that revolves around lack of trust. It seems that you both trust each other, but the problem is that you’re just in very different places in terms of the child issue. You need to work through this together if you love each other, regardless of what the eventual outcome is. Even if you end up needing to go in separate directions because of this, that does not change the fact that you love and care for each other, and you owe it to each other to figure this out together.

Q10: Cheap sturdy shelving

I want to install shelves in a spare bedroom for a “home library” but man is shelving expensive or what! How can you get shelves for cheap? Need shelves that can hold lots of books.
– Carl

It really depends on how cheap you want to go. If you don’t mind a mishmash of shelving, you can watch your community’s freecycle and grab any and all bookshelves that pop up. It won’t look consistent, but it will work.

The original shelving that I used in our first apartment was acquired by similar techniques. I knew of some shelves that were getting tossed from a building near my workplace, so I just snagged them and put them in my home.

The thing is, if you actually want shelving that’s strong enough to hold lots of books for a long period of time and you want it all to look consistent and look good, you’re going to likely have to pay for that. There are a lot of ways to make it a little cheaper – building it yourself from wood pieces, for one, instead of using kits or buying finished pieces – but it will never be truly cheap.

Q11: Electric toothbrush?

Do you think an electric toothbrush is a good idea? Is it worth the money?
– Daniel

I’ve used an electric toothbrush in the past and had great results with it. Specifically, I’ve used an older Sonicare model that worked for several years but eventually failed, and today I use a different one (which I’ll discuss below). I am firmly convinced that an electric toothbrush does a very, very good job of getting my teeth and mouth clean, better than a manual toothbrush.

Having said that, I am not sure that the cost of a high-end electric toothbrush is really worth it. I’ve been using an $8 Spinbrush for a while now and, honestly, it’s basically indistinguishable from the results I got with my old Sonicare.

Now, the real question is whether a manual toothbrush does a “bad” job. I don’t think that it does at all. I think manual toothbrushes get a person’s teeth more than adequately clean. I think that electric toothbrushes might get your teeth even a bit more clean than that and do a great job of creating a “clean feeling” in your mouth than manual toothbrushes don’t pull off. However, manual toothbrushes do the job in terms of controlling odor and getting your teeth more than adequately clean to prevent damage.

Manual toothbrushes have the added bonus of essentially being free if you get free ones from your dentist at regular checkups. Electric toothbrushes, even the relatively cheap Spinbrush I like, do have additional costs.

For me, the relatively cheap Spinbrush I use is a splurge because I like the clean feeling in my mouth. I consider buying a higher-end brush to be rather unnecessary and even this cheaper brush really isn’t necessary. It’s just a small splurge.

Q12: Daily/weekly reviews on paper

I’ve loved your articles on productivity and how you organize your days and weeks. I have a question about how you do daily and weekly reviews. Do you write these down on paper? Or do you do them electronically? How do you review things?
– Tom

I usually do a “double” daily review, which is usually on a piece of scratch paper. At the end of the day, I look for things that went well during that day – pointing out two or three things – and things that didn’t go so well, too, that I can work on down the road. This forces me to reflect on my day a little bit. I usually put together a to-do list for tomorrow on paper of things that are in the front of my mind, then I transfer those when I’m done to my actual to-do list manager, Remember the Milk. This takes about fifteen or twenty minutes, but I find it really worthwhile.

The next morning, I’ll review that piece of paper and, at the same time, try to identify what my big focus for today will be. What will I do today to make today great? Often, it’s something like “avoid distractions” or “eat really well” or something like that. This usually takes about five minutes.

For my weekly review, I basically do all of this same stuff, but I back it out to the scale of a week. I usually do this one electronically, though. I’ll go through my completed and uncompleted tasks and figure out what I did well during the week and what I didn’t do so well. I’ll usually come up with a big handful of tasks I want to accomplish in the coming week and add those, and I’ll also think about the “big picture” of what I want to do in the coming week and what my bigger life goals are and whether the things I’m doing connect to those goals. This usually takes me a major part of an hour and I find it incredibly worthwhile.

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 Impatience, Razor Blades, Student Loans, Light Bulbs and More! appeared first on The Simple Dollar.

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How Doodling Helped This Artist Start a Business That Made $15K Last Year

Does your nightly wind-down routine include getting lost in (or outside) the lines of an adult coloring book?

Do you find yourself doodling every time your hands are free?

Maybe you’re a student whose heart is screaming for art school, but whose head (and wallet) are a bit more hesitant.

Either way, you’ve got to meet Christine Fleming.

She’s an artist and designer who creates beautiful adult coloring books — and she made $14,000 last year teaching others to draw their own digital patterns.

Starving Artist? I Don’t Think So

Fleming is a professional graphic designer and self-taught illustrator.

She’s the mind behind Might Could Studios, the headquarters for her plethora of creative focuses, which range from creating logos and animations to selling custom-painted Russian nesting dolls.

Long story short: She’s a super-cool lady making a living following her dreams and creating art.

While sipping coffee before starting her work one morning, Fleming doodled a geometric design. She liked what she created, so she posted it to Instagram — where other people seemed to like it, too.

Soon, she’d doodled nine more geometric designs, and was wondering what to do with them. That’s when she remembered how much she’d been hearing lately about adult coloring books.

“I realized that the line quality of the designs would actually lend themselves well to being colored,” Fleming said, “so I jumped on it!”

It turned out pretty well for her. Three coloring books later, she’s earned about $1,000 off their sales. She sells the books both on Etsy and at craft shows she attends.

Gainful Employment — In More Ways Than One

But Fleming’s doodles didn’t just allow her to participate in — and earn money from — the coloring book craze.

They also helped her hone her artistic skills and realize an even higher earning potential than she expected. She’s also able to share her talents with eager learners through a course she created on Skillshare, a peer-to-peer digital learning platform.

The unique requirements of adult coloring book pages necessitated the use of both sides of Fleming’s artistic expertise.

As an illustrator and designer, she found she had the perfect combination of talents to create the clean, regular and fun patterns that lend themselves so well to meditative coloring.

Starting with her skills as an illustrator — what she calls her “art brain” — Fleming can “stay plan-free and experimental while sketching out the overall design” of the pages.

“Then, I move to the computer to digitize the artwork, and my design brain kicks in, adjusting all the lines and shapes so they are perfectly symmetrical and aligned,” Fleming says.

By using an online time-tracking app to time her work on each project and keep track of how long they take to finish, Fleming tightens her time management and efficiency skills.

“I know exactly how much time was spent creating that first coloring book: 185 hours. SO WHACK!” she said.

“But I’ve made three coloring books since then, and have gotten more efficient with each one. My second and third coloring books took 48 hours, and my most recent, which I just finished last week, took 30 hours.

“The Skillshare classes happened the same way: My first class took me 114 hours, while my seventh and most recent class took 46 hours. So I try to learn with each round how I can be more efficient with the next!”

What’s more, she found another way to monetize this newfound use of her skill set.

“By that time, I was already teaching classes on Skillshare, so I decided to teach a class on how I made the designs to tie in with the book as well.”

Last year, Fleming earned $14,000 off her seven Skillshare courses. Plus, she’s sharing an awesome skill with eager learners, without much cost to them. Skillshare memberships start at just $6 per month.

She’s even sharing the wealth by offering you guys a special deal! Get 15% off her new coloring book on Etsy with the promo code PENNY.

Be sure to check out her Skillshare course if you’ve got the artist bug yourself — or even if you just want to try your hand! You can craft your own coloring book pages, even if you “can’t” draw and have no experience with digital art software.

How to Make a Living as an Artist

Fleming’s story is another great reminder for those of us warily looking at a career in the arts that success is possible — but like most worthwhile things in life, it might not be easy.

And it’s important for passion to come first.

“I didn’t start drawing these geometric designs with coloring books in mind at all,” Fleming says.

I think my best and most successful projects are the ones that grow organically from personal experimentations, not from sitting down in the beginning and thinking, ‘How can I make money today?’

Fleming’s success as an artist is, arguably, directly related to the passion compelling her to make art, regardless of fiscal compensation. Happily-made art is good art, and good art usually ends up being the kind that sells well.

But no matter how much you love what you do, don’t go in imagining you’ll kill it in the first few weeks.

“If you want to be an artist or a freelancer — be in it for the long run!” Fleming notes. “It may look like people have overnight success, but that’s hardly true for anyone.”

And once your business starts being successful, Fleming advises you try to spread your focus around so you have a variety of options, in case something falls through.

“Diversify your clients, your projects, and how you spend your time,” she says. “It’s good to have specialities, but it’s also good to have opportunities to fall back on when something doesn’t work out.”

By keeping her fingers in many pots, Fleming has developed “a sufficient income that keeps growing,” earned from enterprises that function “as a kind of web, so that even if something falls through, the whole business still stays afloat and I can still buy groceries!”

After all, who wants to draw or color without snacks?

Your Turn: What kind of adult coloring book would your doodles create?

Jamie Cattanach is a staff writer at The Penny Hoarder. She also writes other stuff, like wine reviews and poems — you can read along at http://ift.tt/1RiB7sH.

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Psoriasis Psucks. But This Company Will Pay You $100 if You’ve Got It!

Living with psoriasis … psucks.

If you suffer from the uncomfortable autoimmune disease that shows itself in rash-like patches of skin, you no doubt split your time trying to get rid of it and trying to hide it.

Unfortunately, there’s no cure for psoriasis — but you’re not alone. As many as 7.5 million Americans have the disease — about 2.5% of us.

Even Kim Kardashian and her mother have been diagnosed.

via GIPHY

But, we found a way for you to get a little payback for your suffering — and help others with the disease.

How to Make Up to $100 for Having Psoriasis

M3 Global Research is recruiting psoriasis patients to participate in paid online surveys.

This isn’t a clinical study. You don’t even have to leave your couch.

Register here to get started. Surveys take about 20-30 minutes to complete — and pay $10-$100.

The company is also recruiting for surveys on several conditions, including diabetes, cancer and cardiovascular diseases.

After you register and complete your profile, you’ll receive survey invitations tailored to your information. You won’t be spammed with irrelevant surveys.

So, select that you have psoriasis and you’ll receive market research surveys relevant to living with and treating the condition.

It’s one small reason to be grateful you’re in the elite 2.5% of people afflicted with psoriasis… right?

Your Turn: Do you have psoriasis or know someone who does?

Disclosure: This post includes affiliate links. Adding these links helps us keep the lights on in The Penny Hoarder HQ, which makes it a lot easier to play shuffleboard after a long day of deal-seeking!

Dana Sitar (@danasitar) is a staff writer at The Penny Hoarder. She’s written for Huffington Post, Entrepreneur.com, Writer’s Digest and more, attempting humor wherever it’s allowed (and sometimes where it’s not).

The post Psoriasis Psucks. But This Company Will Pay You $100 if You’ve Got It! appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.

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The Best Work-at-Home Boards to Follow on Pinterest

By Holly Reisem Hanna You may think Pinterest is all about crafts, recipes, and fashion. But guess what? Pinterest is also an awesome platform for finding jobs, furthering your career, and starting a business! So where do you find these gems? Here are 20 of my favorite pinners who offer great content on how to […]

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Kalahari will double hotel size, water park

After exceeding expectations through the first year of business, Kalahari Resorts in Pocono Manor is doubling down on its size and entertainment.The resort and convention center will debut 522 new hotel rooms and another 100,000 square feet of indoor water park space next March, making it the second largest hotel and the largest indoor water park in the state, General Manager Don Pleau said.The resort now has 457 hotel rooms, and the addition will bring it to nearly 1,000 [...]

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7 Smart Ways to Invest $1,000

You’d like to learn how to invest $1,000.

Is this possible?

After all, don’t many financial advisers have investing minimums?

What if you’re new to investing? Where do you start?

Yes, there are places you can invest $1,000. And, some of them are pretty nifty, as well.

But, it’s not enough to know some places to invest – you should learn some best investing practices.

I’ll teach you those along the way, too.

So grab your stash of cash, and let’s look at some of the best ways to invest 1000 dollars!

1. Pick investments yourself using an online trading platform.

If you’re the do-it-yourself type, and you have some investing knowhow, you might want to consider picking investments yourself using an online trading platform such as Scottrade.

In my Scottrade review, I found Scottrade to be both user-friendly and to have exceptional tools for portfolio growth.

There are many more discount brokers out there, so you might want to spend a little time researching them and seeing which discount broker is right for you.

Tip: If you’re going to be picking investments yourself using your $1,000, you might want to pick out some exchange-traded funds (ETFs). ETFs are known for their lows costs and diversification benefits.

2. Lend to those in need and earn some interest.

If you want to invest into the lives of others and earn some interest, there’s a new craze that’s both exciting and reasonable: peer-to-peer lending.

Peer-to-peer lending is the practice of lending to borrowers through an online service whose goal it is to bring borrowers and lenders together.

Lending Club is one such peer-to-peer lending service I tried out, and I found it to be very easy to use and reliable (see my Lending Club review).

As an investor with Lending Club, you can invest automatically using investment criteria. Alternatively, you can manually invest by browsing available loans and picking the ones you like. It’s up to you!

Tip: Like any investment, make sure you choose notes that reflect your tolerance for risk. Some notes are riskier to invest in than others, and thankfully, you can see this information at Lending Club’s website.

3. Have a popular robo-advisor manage your money.

If you’re not very skilled at investing on your own and you’re hesitant to loan money out to particular people online, you might consider hiring a robo-advisor.

Robo-advisors are investment companies who create automated software designed to manage portfolios based on certain criteria. For example, when signing up for such a service, you might take a questionnaire to determine your risk tolerance level or investment goals.

Robo-advisors make investment management available to the masses, since they typically have very low (or nonexistent) account minimums.

Additionally, many robo-advisors have slick user interfaces to help you get relevant information about your investment performance, holdings, and more in a snap.

I interviewed Jon Stein, CEO of Betterment, a popular robo-advisor which grew from nothing to a $500-million-dollar investment company in just under four years. Jon believes the markets represent the success of the global economy. Overall, he expects they will improve over an extended period of time. This view is reflected in Betterment’s software. It’s set-it-and-almost-forget-it investing!

Tip: If you’re ready to get a comprehensive, in-depth financial plan in place, you’d probably do better to sit down with a financial planner. If you have your strategy largely in place, try out a robo-advisor. It’s worth a look!

4. Invest in your kids’ college education.

Every parent wants their kids to be successful in life. One path to success is college.

But, there’s a problem. Can you guess what it is? College is expensive and it’s getting increasingly so.

If you want your kids to go to college, and you aren’t rolling in the dough right now, you should probably think about saving for their college education.

A 529 college savings plan is a great choice, as it has tax advantages that encourage individuals to save for college. These plans are sponsored by the states, so be sure to check out your state’s 529 college savings plan and see if it makes sense for you.

$1,000 is a great start in one of these plans, and depositing the money in such a plan will help you get the technical details of the account worked out so you can continue to contribute. For example, you might be held back by the fear of the unknown. Making a decision to start saving for college today will make it much easier psychologically to invest tomorrow.

Tip: If you’re going to contribute to your children’s college education, it’s wise to start as early as possible. The time horizon for college is usually short: a maximum of 18 years. If you’re starting when your children are older, you have even less time. I can’t stress enough . . . start as soon as possible. You need all the time in the markets you can get.

5. Pay down your debt.

You might find this investment strategy surprising. But think about it for a moment . . . .

Having debt is like the opposite of having an investment. The only difference is that holding onto debt is often more costly than investments are profitable.

For example, you might expect to achieve a 7% or 8% return in the stock market. With credit cards, you might pay in the double digits. Yikes.

That’s what makes paying down debt such a great investment idea. What you’re really investing into is not having to pay lots and lots of interest.

This is also why some financial gurus recommend paying down non-mortgage debt before investing for retirement. It’s that important.

And, $1,000 might make a big dent in your debt. But if it doesn’t wipe it out, you should truly focus on paying off your debt as soon as possible.

Tip: Organize your debts. You may choose to organize them from lowest balance to highest balance, or from highest interest rate to lowest interest rate. The former makes sense from a behavioral standpoint and will give you some quick wins while the later will save you the most money.  If you still have good credit then you can take out a 0% balance transfer credit card and reduce your interest for 12-18 months while you pay it down.

6. Start a Roth IRA

The Roth IRA, my friends, is one of my most favorite investment vehicles.

Why? Because the Roth IRA allows you to get a tax break on the money you withdraw from the plan during retirement instead of getting a tax break when you put the money in (that means you get some tax-free money). That’s a good thing for many, many people. The other reason is you have a lot of control over your money with a Roth IRA when compared to your employer-sponsored retirement account.

Those are two great reasons to start a Roth IRA. But let’s not forget the main reason you should start one: it’s important to save for retirement!

You won’t be getting a paycheck from your employer in retirement. No income. None. That’s obvious, but let it soak in for a moment. You’re going to have to rely on other income sources (like your fantastic Roth IRA) in order to survive.

Tip: Check out some of the best places to open a Roth IRA and start one today! You’ll be glad you did.

7. Diversify your money

One of the worst mistakes financial advisors see is when clients don’t diversify their money. Don’t be like those clients. Be awesome and diversify your money.

And yes, you should diversify your $1,000. With ETFs, it doesn’t cost much to diversify your money and make sure you don’t ride the single-stock roller coaster.

You might be thinking, “But Jeff, it’s only $1,000. Can’t I buy some [insert favorite company here] shares?”

Well, you could, but you sure wouldn’t be setting yourself up for making smart investment decisions in the future. Be smart with your money even if it’s being smart with just a little bit of money. Practice now for the future.

Tip: As you build your portfolio over time, make sure to rebalance it as certain investments within the portfolio will rise and fall in value. Never be overweighted or underweighted in an area. Learn all you can about proper diversification and stick to those best practices.

Concluding Thoughts

Thank you for taking the time to read this article. You know what it means that you read this article? It means you care about doing the right thing with your money.

$1,000 might not be much to invest, but starting on the right foot now will lead to numerous rewards in the future.

Just imagine how that one little act of investing $1,000 will grow into years and years of interest and sound financial choices.

And, don’t forget the power of compound interest. Exponential growth of money is awesome, and you should take advantage of it as soon as possible.

While there are so many ways to invest your $1,000, just make sure you do so. Do some research before you invest, but don’t drive yourself crazy considering all of the options. Make a reasonable, but timely choice. The last thing you’d want to do is neglect investing at all because of information overwhelm.

Invest today for a better tomorrow.

This post originally appeared in Forbes.

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Seven Costly Surprises That Ambushed Our Remodeling Budget

When my husband and I decided to remodel the first floor of our home earlier this year, we wanted to plan for everything. The fact that we were paying in cash meant we had to draw a hard line for our budget if we wanted to avoid going into debt. Plus, we wanted to mentally prepare ourselves for any expenses that would come our way – both the anticipated and the unforeseen.

And, to tell you the truth, both of us absolutely hate surprises – especially the financial kind. To a certain extent, we wanted to budget for the worst-case scenario. In our eyes, it would be much better to prepare for the worst and be pleasantly surprised by coming in under our budget. At least, that sounded like a good idea at the time.

Here’s the skinny on our project: Since our home was built in the ’80s, it came with a choppy, poorly-built floor plan. Not only did we have two smaller living areas sitting directly next to one another, but we also had an enormous foyer that served no purpose at all.

Our goal with the remodel was to break down all of the walls and create a somewhat open floor plan downstairs, while adding in metal support beams so our house didn’t fall down. In addition to those larger projects, I wanted the contractors to knock out a built-in desk in my kitchen and build a bigger pantry instead.

The Perils of Budgeting for a Home Remodel

Part of our budgeting process was rather simple. When it came to the contractors we used, they offered a firm price that wouldn’t surge unless some unforeseen issue cropped up. In the end, their initial quote asked for $5,115 to demo our walls, put in metal support beams, and add new drywall. Since there were very few material costs for our project, that bill was mostly for labor.

The second component of our project included replacing our entire first floor with hardwood. After some negotiation at Lowe’s – and after I received a discount because the initial flooring I ordered had been discontinued – I wound up paying around $6,900 for 1,000 sq. ft. of wood floors, including installation. Since we planned to keep these floors forever, this is one area where I splurged. Not only did we get something nice and solid that might last forever, but we also paid for professional installation instead of doing it ourselves.

The rest of our budget was comprised of cosmetic touches and furniture; I set aside $5,000 for decorations, paint, a large sectional couch, a new formal dining table, a television stand and occasional tables, and new area rugs for our living space.

This probably sounds like an exceptional splurge on my end, and it certainly was. But, it was also very exciting. I am 36 years old and this is truly my first real “adult” furniture – as in, we didn’t buy it from a clearance sale or out of someone’s garage.

• Related: Some Thoughts on Home Décor and Furnishing

And at the end of the day, our budget was set firm at around $17,000. To save money and keep our budget in check, we chose to complete certain aspects of the job ourselves – namely, some of the demo, the removal of two layers of old flooring, and all of the interior painting, including an entire floor of ceilings.

After talking to some friends and our contractor, however, we did mentally prepare ourselves to spend an extra 20% to 25% on any unforeseen issues that might crop up. While we certainly didn’t want to go over, hearing the experiences of others convinced us it was a real possibility.

Seven Surprise Expenses to Budget For During a Home Remodel

And I’m so glad we listened. Once our project was underway, we uncovered all kinds of problems that needed to be fixed before we could proceed.

As one of my neighbors shared, “You never know what you’ll find once you start tearing up walls and floors.” And boy, was he right. Here are a few surprise expenses that sent our total budget surging:

Additional Paint and Supplies

According to a cost analysis from HomeAdvisor.com, hiring an interior painter can cost anywhere from $400 to $4,000 depending on the area you want painted, the type of materials you use, and the details of the job. So, if you can paint your interior yourself, you can save a boatload of money right away.

Still, it can be difficult to estimate how much you’ll spend on paint and supplies when you’re not a professional. In our case, we drastically underestimated how much ceiling paint we would need because it went on so thick (we guessed two gallons and it ended up taking six), and we spent more than we planned buying different types of paint for our kitchen and living area, despite the fact that we were painting everything the same two colors.

While we did save at least $3,000 by painting our entire first floor interior on our own, we spent approximately $250 more than we planned on paint, rollers, and paint brushes.

Floor Vents and Light Switch Covers

Here’s an area that I didn’t even think about during our initial budgeting phase. When you rip out walls and floors, it’s inevitable that you’ll have to replace some of the finishing touches – light switch covers, heating and air vents, and floor vents.

In our case, we had to replace almost all of them – some because they were dingy and others because they got ruined during some phase of our remodeling project. The floor vents we purchased seemed especially expensive to me; in order to find ones that would match our interior, we paid more than $15 for each vent. In total, the vents, light switch covers, and wall vents I failed to plan for cost us an extra $200.

Water Damage

Interior and structural water damage is no joke, and it’s something you might not see until you start ripping out walls and floors. When it comes to the way water damage impacted our plans, however, we got extremely lucky.

After we began ripping out the floors in the front of our home on an exceptionally rainy day, we noticed that some water had managed to find its way in beneath our windows. Once our contractor investigated it, he let us know that some of the wood on the front of our house had become saturated, requiring a complete re-do of the siding on the front of our home. Fortunately, the rest of our home is brick, so this problem was fairly isolated.

While I wasn’t thrilled about the extra expense, I was relieved that we noticed it. Can you imagine putting in new wooden floors and instantly discovering that your siding had sprung a leak?

Our contractor had to remove the old wood on the front bay window of our home, waterproof the area, and replace the siding with a material that had a similar look. To save money we did the cleanup and repainted the area ourselves. Still, this set us back an extra $600.

You never know what surprises you’ll find when you open up a wall. Photo: David B. Gleason

Poorly-Executed Fixes and Renovations

While remodeling your home can mean improving it in the long run, that doesn’t mean you won’t find your share of shoddy renovations completed by former owners along the way. Whether it’s bad wiring, “quick-fix” solutions, or ugly drywall jobs, it seems like there is always some old work that needs to be fixed when you begin a new job.

During our home remodel, we had several surprises pop up. For one, we discovered that some of the wiring in our living room had been dangerously installed behind the crown molding. Second, we found that the casing on our back door had been glued together at some point and had since fallen apart. Lastly, more rotting wood was hidden behind a layer of caulk below the broken door that led to our deck.

In the end, all of that shoddy work needed to be fixed, and we paid around $400 for a new pre-hung door and several hundred more dollars to fix the electrical wiring and woodwork.

Additional Cleaning Supplies

Nobody tells you just how dirty a home remodeling project can be, but it’s absolutely true. During the course of our remodeling project, I got up early every day to wipe off the layer of dust that settled on every surface in our home.

Our contractor and his helpers did a great job cleaning up each day, but there was only so much they could do to keep the dust and dirt at bay. As a result, I spent a lot more than usual on paper towels, laundry from all of the extra dust rags I used, and, of course, furnace filters! Although we didn’t plan to change our furnace filter every few days at first, we quickly found that was the best way to keep the dust under control and to keep our furnace from getting too dirty. Sadly, those furnace filters cost $7 or $8 each!

• Related: 10 Cheap Household Staples that Double as Cleaning Supplies

Custom Blinds or Curtains

Ahhhhh, the cost of curtains and blinds. As someone who shies away from covering my windows too much, this is an issue I have only confronted once. The last time I shopped for window coverings was when I searched for valances to cover the four windows in my kitchen. At the time, I was shocked to find that some curtains I liked were nearly $100 apiece. Fortunately, I was able to find valances I kinda liked for around $20 at JC Penney. Whew.

This time around, I wasn’t so lucky. In an effort to match the existing blinds in my living area, I was forced to buy custom blinds. And since my windows are huge and oddly-sized, the blinds I ended up with weren’t cheap.

I saved money by using a Lowe’s 10%-off coupon and by buying faux wood instead of the real thing, but they still set me back $200.

Add-On Services

Even when you think the worst is behind you, something else pops up to siphon away even more of your budget. This happened to us near the end of our project. Once our new floor installation was underway, we found that our interior doors needed to be cut to make way for the new transition pieces to fit – that was an extra $150.

Lastly, we discovered that our air vents were downright gross – filled with dust, dirt, trash and, now, pieces of flooring and concrete from our home remodeling project. Our contractor suggested we have them cleaned to improve the air quality in our home, and I was immediately on board.

Fortunately, I received a coupon in the mail that allowed me to have all of my air ducts – and two returns – cleaned for just $50. I wasn’t thrilled about it, but the air ducts do look and appear a whole lot cleaner. With my children breathing in the air that comes from those ducts, the $50 was well worth the peace of mind.

The Bottom Line

While you can (and should) do your best to create a budget for any home remodeling project, there are some things you just can’t plan for. I suppose that’s why nearly every professional contractor and home websites like House Logic and Houzz recommend taking your initial budget and adding 20%.

You may not be able to plan for everything, but by adding that 20% contingency, you’ll be in a better position to fix any problems that arise without blowing your budget out of the park.

I’m so glad we listened to that advice and mentally prepared ourselves for extra expenses. And, on top of that, I’m glad we keep a stocked emergency fund that can cover us in our time of need.

And now that our project is behind us, I’m thrilled with the results and relieved that we discovered and fixed the problems we found during our project — and that we avoided any serious water damage by waterproofing and replacing the siding on the front of our home.

All things considered, the ordeal was worth it. But I have to say, I hope I never have to spend that much money on anything ever again.

Have you ever remodeled your home and gone over budget? What expensive discoveries have you made when remodeling or upgrading your home?

Related Articles:

• What Common Home Repairs Cost (and How to Budget for Them)
• The Basic Toolbox Everyone Needs to Handle Simple DIY Tasks at Home
• Why Dump When You Can Donate? Salvage These Items During Remodeling

The post Seven Costly Surprises That Ambushed Our Remodeling Budget appeared first on The Simple Dollar.

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How This Mom Helped Her Son Win $100,000 of College Scholarships

When her son Josh started looking at colleges in 2008, Monica Matthews and her family faced a tough reality check.

“It was like, oh my gosh, we had no idea how much colleges cost, and we hadn’t saved for a college education,” she says.

A stay-at-home mom to two other young boys, Matthews didn’t want to go back to work. Looking for a way to fund Josh’s education, she found another solution: scholarships.

And it proved to be a pretty good idea.

Matthews eventually helped Josh win over $100,000, and now shares her strategies on her website How to Win College Scholarships.

Since I know many of you are worried about the cost of your children’s college education, I decided to pick her brain.  

Here’s what I learned about winning college scholarships…

How She Helped Her Son Win $100K of Scholarships

After Josh applied for his first scholarship — and didn’t get it — Matthews decided to find out as much about winning as she could.

“I thought: I’m either going to have to go back to work, or I’m going to have to help him win scholarship money,” she says.

“I dedicated myself to figuring out what scholarship judges look for in their winners.”

A former teacher, Matthews created a system that allowed her and Josh to work together on his applications. The first year, she devoted four to five hours each week to scholarships.

“All of a sudden, he started winning,” she says. “It just kept coming and coming, and we had enough [money] for the first year.”

Before he even set foot in his college dorm, Josh had applied for about 35 scholarships — and won 13.

While studying aerospace engineering at the University of Michigan (go blue!), Josh continued applying for scholarships on his own.

In the four years between his senior year of high school and senior year of college, he won more than $100,000 — enough to cover his entire education.

“It’s been unbelievable,” Matthews says of their scholarship success.

“I was able to stay home and help my other sons,” she says. “I never had to go back to work. I never really had to worry about what we were going to do if we didn’t have the money for school.”

How to Get a Scholarship

Pretty incredible, right?

Since her process clearly works, Matthews created a business helping others emulate her scholarship success.

Below, she shares eight tips from her How to Win College Scholarships parent guide.

Keep reading to see how you could help your child win college scholarships — and hopefully graduate debt-free.

1. Start Scholarship Prep Early

It’s never too early to get ready for scholarship applications.

This “scholarship prep” involves helping kids gain experience with leadership and volunteering — both subjects they could discuss in an essay.

Not only that, those supervisors will “be the best ones to write your letters of recommendation because you’ll have volunteered there for years,” Matthews says. “Establish those relationships.”

Matthews’ youngest son, for example, is 14 years old and wants to major in engineering. So he joined a local robotics team — but Matthews didn’t stop there.

“There was a position open called ‘safety captain’ on our team,” she explains. “I jumped on it… That’s leadership already as a freshman in high school.”

2. Always Be on the Hunt

Thanks to the Internet, you have a wealth of scholarship resources at your fingertips.

Here are a few Matthews recommends:

Fastweb

This scholarship search engine should probably be your first stop.

Just be thorough when setting up your profile: Matthews says it’ll help you “weed out scholarships you aren’t eligible for.”

She also recommends setting up a separate email address, so your personal account doesn’t get spammed.

Scholarship Books

Scholarship guides provide a ton of information — the most well-known being The Ultimate Scholarship Book.

“I would take those books everywhere with me,” Matthews says.

“If I was waiting for my kids to get out of practice or whatever… I would page through them. You can buy them, but I checked them out from my local library.”

Scholly

Yes, there’s even an app to help you find scholarships.

Scholly is a “simple, accurate and comprehensive scholarship matching solution that was created by students for students,” according to its site.

It’ll cost you $2.99 — a worthwhile investment considering the value of the scholarships you’ll find.

Your Future Alma Mater

If you already know which college or university your child is going to attend, be sure to look into its affiliated scholarships.

“The college itself is really a great way to help win scholarships,” Matthews explains. “They have endowment funds and money to give out for their own students.”

3. Focus on Your Strengths

You don’t need to be a perfect student to win scholarships.

If your child doesn’t have great grades, Matthews recommends applying for scholarships for leadership or volunteering.

“Look for scholarships that are based on skills — like photography, or making a video — rather than grades,” she says.

“Some scholarships — or actually a lot of them — don’t even ask for your GPA, or the minimum is a lot less than you’d think,” she says.

“There are some scholarships that don’t want the 4.0 kids. They want regular kids who have done something great for their community.”

She recommends a book called “The ‘C’ Students Guide to Scholarships,” since it focuses on highlighting leadership skills and other abilities.

4. Forge a Partnership With Your Child

One thing Matthews stresses? The scholarship process needs to be equally shared by both you and your child.

“Students are so busy,” she says. “That’s why this partnership thing works; you’re taking a lot of the pressure and time commitment off the students.”

Let them know, “I just spent all this time finding this scholarship — this is what you need to do,” she says.

That way your child knows you’re on their team, and doesn’t feel forced to write an essay without any guidance.

5. Complete the Applications in Small Chunks

Nobody wants to sit down knowing they’re about to spend hours on an essay.

So Matthews suggests completing the application in chunks.

“If you just ask for 15 minutes, most kids are gonna say, ‘OK, I can do 15 minutes,’” she explains.

And, after those initial 10-15 minutes, your student may want to keep going and finish, according to Matthews.

6. Use Money as Motivation

With Josh, Matthews says it was helpful to focus on the numbers.

“I kept his eye on the prize,” she explains. “I kept saying, ‘You know what, this college costs this much money. You can’t go there unless you win these scholarships.’”

She also used an hourly rate as additional motivation.

You can tell your child, for example, “If you win this scholarship for $1,000 and you worked on it for four hours, that’s like making $250 an hour,” she says. “Money speaks to kids.”

7. Make Your Essay Shine

Matthews offers several tips for the essay, which she calls the “heart of the scholarship application” and a “way for judges to get to know students on a deeper level.”

Start With a Hook

As with any piece of writing, a captivating introduction is essential.

“Get them to want to read to the very end,” she says. “Don’t start your essay with, ‘I need this scholarship money because…’ So many kids do that.”

“You need to start with something shocking like ‘My alarm rang at 5 a.m. I threw off the covers and I stomped into the bathroom to get ready to go to work.’”

Tell the Truth

Make it detailed, but don’t embellish, says Matthews.

Talk about your personal experiences and “show how you overcame an obstacle.”

Highlight the Organization

Show you’ve done your research by including the organization in the essay.

“Read the mission statement of that organization,” she says, “and align yourself to what they’re looking for. There’s nothing wrong with that as long as you believe in it.”

Read Through Winning Essays

A lot of websites share the essays of former scholarship winners.

“Read through the essays,” she says. “I’m not saying to copy — but get an idea of the kind of student they’re picking.”

8. Polish Your Online Presence

Though most scholarship applications are online these days, there are still ways to make your application stand out.

“Never leave any extra boxes,” she says. “Develop some Pinterest boards or a free website; Wix is great… You can have a link to your scholarship resume on there.”

Since online applications often have strict word count limits (which you should never go over), having a website allows you to provide more information.

“You can put in your link on the very bottom; it only takes up 20 characters and judges can click on it and find out a ton more about you,” Matthews explains.

If the application happens to require printing and mailing, make sure everything’s in the correct order and not folded up.

“Spend a dollar and put it in a nice envelope,” she says.

It Sounds Like a Lot of Work… But Is it Worth it?

There’s no doubt about it: Successfully applying for scholarships is a lot of work.

But Matthews firmly believes it’s worth it.

“You put in the work now, and then while you’re in college, you’re not working,” she explains.

That’s in stark contrast to Matthews’ college experience, when she worked “all the time.” Her biggest motivation was (and is) the fact she doesn’t want her kids to have to do the same.

If you don’t think you have time to pursue scholarships, she recommends starting slowly.

“You’re watching TV and a commercial comes on,” she says. “Grab that scholarship book or your cell phone, and start looking through and jotting down notes.”

“When you’re surfing on the internet, spend 15 minutes a day looking for scholarships,” she urges. “You can make the time if you really try… It’s all about priorities.”

Your Turn: Will you help your child with their scholarship applications?

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

The post How This Mom Helped Her Son Win $100,000 of College Scholarships appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.

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Castle Inn in Delaware Water Gap undergoes epic renovations

Built in the era of the Titanic and Henry Ford’s Model T, the Castle Inn, tucked away just off Route 611 in the borough of the Delaware Water Gap, is more than just an early 20th century throwback. It’s a unique, spacious venue for wedding receptions and other larger scale functions, particularly for those seeking vintage flair. "The castle has a life of its own, a karma that draws people in," co-owner Theresa Veltri said, noting that everything seemed [...]

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Deeds Done

Chestnuthill TownshipWilliam M. and Pamela L. Keer to Monroe Retail LLC, Parcel Route 115, Lot 2, containing 4.3530 acres, $260,000Coolbaugh TownshipVernon Fisher (By Atty) Thelma Fisher, Bryan W. Byler (Atty) to Pavlo and Viktoriya Semenyuk, Land, Pocono Summit Lakes, $230,000Paradise TownshipCordial Cottages LLC (A/K/A) Cordial Cottages Inc. LLC, to Jies Cordial Cottages Inc., Property Tax Map No. [...]

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Castle Inn broadens its business plan: fashion shoot, hosting receptions

Built in the era of the Titanic and Henry Ford’s Model T, the Castle Inn, tucked away just off Route 611 in the borough of the Delaware Water Gap, is more than just an early 20th century throwback. It’s a unique, spacious venue for wedding receptions and other larger scale functions, particularly for those seeking vintage flair. "The castle has a life of its own, a karma that draws people in," co-owner Theresa Veltri said, noting that everything seemed [...]

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Tough odds, long hours spent in attracting businesses

Chuck Leonard, executive of the Pocono Mountains Economic Development Corporation, visited with the Mount Pocono Rotary Club recently to update the economic outlook.Some of the data was encouraging – spatterings of new jobs that lowered Monroe County unemployment to 5.6 percent from 6.4 percent a year ago, Monadnock Non-Wovens LLC finishing an expansion of its Mount Pocono facility, ongoing plans to revitalize the roadwork along Route 611 off the Interstate 80 exits at [...]

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Building a Good Personal Finance Mindset in Your Children

I currently have three children, all of whom are elementary school age.

My oldest is in fourth grade. He loves doing things outdoors and is probably the most athletic of our three children. He also loves to play games – both electronic games and board games – and enjoys reading fantasy novels. Of the three, he’s the most interested in giving to others, as he’s donated significant portions of his pocket money to charity.

Our middle child is now a third grader, and she’s passionate about art. She is constantly covering every table in our home with some kind of art project, whether it’s an elaborate drawing, an origami project, a bead bracelet, or something else. She’s probably the most natural “saver” out of the three children, as she’s quite willing to wait for months before buying anything with her pocket money.

Our youngest child is a kindergartener. He’s probably the most social of our three children and really enjoys just doing things with others. He often tries to draw our family into larger group activities and outings. He’s also the most headstrong of the three children and the one most likely to just pick himself up and try again if he fails at something the first time.

With children this different, what exactly can we do to teach them personal finance lessons that will really resonate with all of them? It’s not easy, to be honest.

Over the last few years, Sarah and I have come to the realization and agreement that, rather than bogging down our children in a bunch of specific personal finance details, we’re going to focus on just a few very key principles and hammer them home.

Here are the five key principles we’re teaching our kids, how we’re making it work, and some of the little tactics we’ve found useful with our various children.

Principle #1 – Spending Less Than You Earn Is Your Ticket to Personal Freedom

The idea here is simple: If you consistently spend less than you earn, you won’t have debt, you’ll have plenty of money to invest for the future, and before too long you’ll have an abundance of opportunities in your life, whether that means early retirement or switching careers or something else entirely.

For our children, the idea of “retiring early” seems pretty far out there. Even the idea of a career is something that’s really beyond their level of worry right now. Instead, Sarah and I try to look for ways in which our children can appreciate the value of having more options later on if they make a smart choice right now.

Here are some of the tactics we use to reinforce this principle.

We require that they save at least a portion of every dollar they get. This seems a little heavy-handed, but the purpose of this is to normalize the idea of savings. Saving a little bit for the future is just something you do whenever you get income, because the future is never clear. By doing this, you are naturally enforcing the “spend less” part of the equation.

We discuss the purpose of and goals for their saving. Naturally, children aren’t the most forward-thinking individuals out there, so we talk quite a bit about the reasons for not spending everything you have. For starters, you might be saving up for something specific, a big thing that you can’t afford with what you have on hand right now. Similarly, not spending money on meaningless things right now means you’ll have cash on hand later on if something truly special comes along – like, for instance, a 75%-off sale on art supplies for my art-loving daughter.

Whenever Sarah or I make an obviously frugal choice, we describe the reasons behind it to our children. How do these things translate into adult life, though? Since we encourage our children to spend less in their daily lives, we like to point out to them when we do the same thing. Whenever Sarah or I make an obvious frugal choice, we make sure to point it out to the children.

For example, I once took my two older children on a grocery trip where I basically pointed out every single decision I made that reduced the cost of our bill and kept track of each savings on a piece of paper. At the end of the trip, the total savings was nearly $60, something that my kids remember and that I bring up on occasion.

Principle #2 – Spending Your Money on Forgettable Things Is Something You’ll Regret

With the first principle, we covered why it makes sense to not spend all of the money you get, but what about simply making smart choices when you have a few dollars in your pocket? The reality is that some things that we spend money on have more meaning and value than other things and sometimes it makes sense to skip out on less meaningful purchases so that we have the resources for better things down the road.

Here are three strategies we use to help our children see this principle in their lives.

After they spend some money, we’ll ask them a few days later if they can even remember what they spent it on. Let’s say, for example, that my youngest son has $3 in his pocket and wants to buy some candy at the store. I encourage him to wait for something else, but he’s insistent that he really wants this candy, so I relent.

The truth is that a big lecture about being smart with your money right then isn’t going to really help at all, especially given my son’s stubborn streak. Instead, I use a different strategy.

A few days later, I remind him that he spent his extra money on something. Half of the time, he doesn’t remember what it is, and the other half of the time he usually regrets what he spent it on. He’d rather have the money and the opportunity now than the candy in the past. Repeating that little exercise when it happens reinforces in his mind that it’s a good idea sometimes to wait, even if you want something in the moment.

We then look at how that spending cut down on the money they have for other things. Let’s say my son spends $2 on candy, leaving with only a dollar to spend on other things. A few days later, we’re at the store and they’re selling a toy that he wants for $3. Rather than saying nothing, I take this as a learning opportunity. I point out that toy for $3 and tell him that if he had waited instead of spending that money a few days ago, he could have this toy now. I let him think on his own about the relative values of things and the value of waiting around for better opportunities instead of spending his money at the first window of opportunity.

We don’t “make up for it,” allowing them to learn from the regret. Sometimes, children get upset when they realize that they’ve made a spending mistake like this. It can be really tempting to give them a few dollars to “make up” for that mistake so that they can have the thing that they want, but I actually consider this kind of regret to be a valuable lesson. Instead, I encourage them to calm down and if they’re having a hard time getting their emotions under control, I’ll exit the store quickly with them. Regret can be an incredibly powerful tool for self-teaching.

Principle #3 – Most of the Best Things in Life Are Free (or Close To It)

One thing that Sarah and I often worry about is that our children will begin to equate money as being a necessity for having fun and enjoying good things in life. It’s not true at all – there are many, many wonderful things out there in life that don’t require money.

As always, a big part of making this type of thing clear to our children is by doing, not by telling. Here are three methods for making that happen.

We do lots of free things together as a family. It’s simple – we do lots of things that don’t require spending. We go to state parks and hike on the trails. We play games. We go to the library and check out books to read and movies to watch. We go to community festivals and free concerts. We go geocaching and hunt for mushrooms in the woods in the spring. Most of the things we do for fun cost virtually nothing.

When we do something that requires money, we reflect on that fact and whether the experience was “worth it” compared to the free things. We don’t usually do this in the aftermath, but instead we hold onto it until the next time we’re thinking about doing something together as a family. We’ll point out different options, but we’ll also mention that one option is free while another option will cost $80 for the family. Often, when our children hear that, the advantages of the free thing become really clear. The expensive thing might have been a lot of fun, but it usually wasn’t “worth it.”

We intentionally speak more positively of free and low-cost things. Often, our enthusiasm and outlook for various things and various activities does a lot to shape the enthusiasm of those around us. If you’re excited about something, that excitement rubs off. If you’re positive about something, that positivity rubs off. If you’re negative, that negativity rubs off, too. Keeping that in mind, we make a conscious effort to be very positive about activities that are free, not just as a money-saving tool in the moment, but also in terms of creating a positive perspective on those kinds of activities in the hearts and minds of our children.

Principle #4 – Focused Work Is the Most Effective Way to Earn the Most Money for Your Time

I’m a huge believer in the value of focused, deep work. When you shut down distractions and work very intensely on a task, whether it’s an ordinary household task or learning or challenging work tasks, focusing on that task gets it done faster and better than working in a distracted or unfocused way. The stronger your ability to focus on the task at hand, the greater your ability to earn a good income, period. You’ll also have more quality free time in your life as well.

Here are three strategies I use to imbue this concept into my children’s lives.

We set artificial time limits to encourage focused work for a non-monetary reward. For example, let’s say my oldest son’s room is messy. I’ll tell him that if he can have his room clean enough to present to guests in ten minutes, we’ll go over to the soccer field and kick the ball around until supper, but if he takes longer than that, we won’t have time to go. The goal of this is to encourage focus. He can easily get his room ship-shape in ten minutes if he focuses, but it’s often easy to get distracted and unfocused. Practicing focused work is invaluable, and that’s the purpose of these kinds of artificial timelines and non-monetary rewards.

In the absence of that reward, we point out the value of being focused on the task. What about times when there’s not a reward – in other words, most of the time? In those situations, I encourage focused work, but when the children fail to focus, I point out how their lack of focus is causing them to lose time where they could have both uninterrupted fun time and a parent that is proud of them. Dawdling just makes everything take longer, irritates others, and reduces the time you have for actual fun things. I use this as a key part of motivation when they need it for their chores. If they do it with focus, they’ll get it done quickly and they’ll get it done correctly, giving them plenty of time for the other things they might want to do.

We offer them opportunities to earn small amounts of money from extra tasks beyond their normal household responsibilities. This is essentially a tool to get them to practice focused work. We have a “job board” at our house where the children can earn extra cash for tasks that go above and beyond the norm. If they do it at a lazy and unfocused pace, they won’t make much – maybe $0.50 per hour of their time. If they focus, however, they can actually do pretty well at those tasks. I point this out to them whenever they decide to take on a task.

Principle #5 – Make Your Unspent Money Work for You

The natural end result of the above principles is that children will have at least some money that they put aside for the future, which is a good thing. The next step, then, is how to demonstrate the idea that money saved for the future actually works for you in a significant fashion. For example, if they put $25 in a typical savings account for a year, they’ll earn a quarter – that’s good, but it might not be that impressive to a child.

Here are three strategies we use to drive home the value of saving for the future and the power of compound interest.

While we don’t share specific balances, we often talk about our investments in front of our children. Our children are aware that Sarah and I have put away at least some of our income for retirement. We also make it clear to them that the money we put aside for the future actually grows while it sits there. The money we save earns more money, and that money earns money as well, and so on. We don’t talk about this phenomenon in terms of dollars and cents and account balances, but we do mention things about how our retirement has gone up by thousands of dollars on its own over the last year because of the money we chose to save when we were younger.

We relate the money we invest with to the things we choose not to buy. When we talk about investments, we make sure to strongly mention where that money came from. It came from not buying less important things. It came from not buying a soda at the gas station and not buying a cool new video game. It came from making supper at home instead of going to some restaurant. It came from spending a day wandering around at a state park on the trails instead of going to a movie in a theater. It came from choosing lower cost options that were still fun and realizing that those lower cost options have the big added benefit of making our lives better in the long run.

We encourage our own children to save their money, sometimes even with additional help. When our children have money that they’ve saved on their own, we have them put it into savings. Now, as I mentioned above, that doesn’t return very much money to them, so instead we offer them some “parent-sponsored interest.” Basically, we pay them an additional 1% in interest each month. If they leave $25 in their savings account for a month, we’ll put a quarter into their account for that month. This is based on the lowest balance for the month. That way, they can see interest working in their favor at a time scale that’s more applicable to children.

Final Thoughts

If there’s one overall point to take away from all of this, it’s that our personal finance lessons aren’t delivered as “lectures,” but are integrated into our everyday life. It takes the form of actively doing things with our kids, or in the form of dinner table conversations that they either overhear or participate in.

We try not to fall into the trap of simply telling them what to do, but making it a normal part of household conversation and making it a part of things they would do normally, like normal household chores and the like.

The more that sensible personal finance is seen as a normal part of adult life at home and the better it’s integrated into the way they live their lives as they progress from childhood through their teen years into adulthood, the more likely it is that it will be a normal part of their lives.

For us, that means children with a better shot at being successful in the world. That means children who are less likely to have to rely on their parents to get by financially. That’s our true goal in the end.

You’ll notice that none of these strategies really center around “lecturing” our kids about money. That’s because we’ve learned that they’re not really receptive to that at all. They’re much more likely to learn something by doing something themselves to see how it works, or learning through a conversation, than learning through being told a bunch of things.

Similarly, children are pretty effective detectors of hypocrisy. These tactics don’t work unless you’re actually living them in your own life and can show them to your children. Telling your kids to do one thing and then immediately doing something else is a sure way to not only sow mistrust, but also to tell your children that the things you’re saying aren’t actually things to put into practice.

In other words, if you want your children to act in a way that leads to financial success, you need to do it, too, and you need to do it in ways that are clear to them. You teach them how to be adults by example, in other words.

It’s a real challenge, but it’s also a rewarding challenge. Good luck.

The post Building a Good Personal Finance Mindset in Your Children appeared first on The Simple Dollar.

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Digitial Tithe: A New Way To Give A Tenth

The church collection plate could look a little different in the future.

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CashCrate Isn’t a Scam. You Won’t Believe How Much I Made in 1 Hour…

I’m always looking for new ways to make an extra buck.

So when we needed someone to try out CashCrate — we vet everything we write about around here — I volunteered as guinea pig.

The site promises you can earn money taking surveys, completing offers and shopping online.

But does it really work? Or is it a scam?

In diary form, here’s my completely candid CashCrate review…

A CashCrate Review: My Hour on the Site

4 p.m.: Register for the site and earn $1. Answer a bunch of questions about my age, income, marital status, etc.

4:10 p.m.: Earn another 50 cents for completing my profile! I’ve now earned $1.50 in 10 minutes. This is going well.

4:11 p.m.: Jump right into the surveys. Fill out my personal information on four different surveys, only to be told I’m not eligible for any of them.

4:23 p.m.: Start to get depressed from typing the age “29” and the marital status “single” over and over again. Head to our beer fridge for a pick-me-up.

4:30 p.m.: Get denied from three more surveys. Have I really spent half an hour of my life on this?

4:31 p.m.: Decide to watch the three-minute tutorial video. My mom always told me (to little avail) to read the instructions first. Maybe I’m doing something wrong.

4:34 p.m.: Learn the “offers” are where the money’s at. Pursue an offer worth $1, plus the chance to win a $100 Amazon gift card. See my progress bar going up and up. I’m almost there!

4:47 p.m.: I’ve been at “90% complete” for a while now, but to receive my $1 — or potential $100 gift card — I have to sign up for one of several dozen paid services. I should’ve known it was too good to be true.

4:48 p.m.: I’m drained. Time for a snack.

4:51 p.m.: Give it one last shot, and watch a three-minute video. Open a new tab so I can read celebrity gossip while it plays in the background.

4:54 p.m.: The video is over! And I’ve successfully earned… two cents. TWO CENTS.

4:55 p.m.: I’ve now earned a grand total of $1.52. It’s looking like a long road until I earn the $20 required to be paid out.

5 p.m.: Decide to call it a day. I’ve said goodbye to one hour — and perhaps my identity, since I handed over my personal information to about a dozen shady-looking websites.

Is CashCrate a Scam?

Though my experience was less than enthralling, there are a few important things to note:

• Young women are some of the biggest participants in survey sites, so the allotment for people like me gets filled up pretty quickly. You might have better luck if you’re from a different demographic.

• This is the first time I’ve ever used a survey site. If you’re more familiar with the process (and which offers pay well), you’ll probably do much better than I did.

• The offers tab is the place to go if you want to earn money quickly. Some require you to give your credit card number and sign up for free trial subscriptions; just remember to cancel before the due date.

So, is CashCrate a scam?

No. It’s been around since 2006 and has two million users. It’s free to use and — with diligence, or by referring your friends — you can actually earn money with it.

For proof, check out its Payment Wall, where users share their actual checks!

That being said, is CashCrate worth your time?

I, for one, won’t be using it again.

But if you’re bored watching TV, and want to click around something, feel free to give it a shot.

Or better yet, try one of these 32 awesome ways to make money at home.

Your Turn: Have you used CashCrate before? What did you think?

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

The post CashCrate Isn’t a Scam. You Won’t Believe How Much I Made in 1 Hour… appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.

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Business Briefcase: Seven Re/Max Realtors receive award

All earned more than $100K in commissions in past year Several Realtors, with RE/MAX Crossroads under Broker/Owner Yarrow Wilkins, have earned the RE/MAX 100% Club Award, which honors successful agents who have earned more than $100,000 in commissions in the past year In 2015, 22 percent of active RE/MAX agents earned this prestigious award. "It's [...]

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