Questions About Store Credit Cards, Laundry Soap, Personal Loans, Speed Reading 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. Just opened store credit card
2. Cooking site
3. Fiction writing
4. Tips or philosophy?
5. Piecing together car accident
6. Homemade laundry soap and HE
7. Finance with low capital
8. Banking system and government trust
9. Vanguard funds in another 401(k)
10. Personal loans from Upstart
11. Struggling with VA
12. Speed reading

Over the weekend, I did a fresh “brain dump.” It felt great.

For those unfamiliar, a “brain dump” is when you sit down with several sheets of paper and a pen and write down every single undone thing that’s on your mind, whether it’s urgent or not urgent, whether it’s important or not important, whether it’s something you want to do today or something you want to do in a year. You just dump all of those things out of your mind onto paper.

After that, you go around your house and look for other things left undone that you might have forgotten about. Often, the things in your life serve as great triggers. Write it all down.

The goal is to have every possible thing you might want to do in the future written down on paper and out of your head.

Once that’s done, you organize it in some useful way so that you can easily find upcoming tasks. I use task management software for this (currently Remember the Milk).

Why do this? For one, it clears out your brain so you can focus better as undone tasks don’t distract you. If anything new pops into your head, you just write it down and keep on trucking on your task at hand and you don’t have to worry about it at all. For another, it makes for a very effective to-do list.

For me, doing a fresh “brain dump” every few months helps make sure that things aren’t slipping through the cracks of my life. It also helps a ton with keeping my mind focused, especially in the week or two right after the “brain dump.” I highly recommend it!

Q1: Just opened store credit card

I just opened a credit card at a store I never shop at. I regretted it immediately. I didn’t use it to make my purchase today. I just don’t think it’s smart to have it, but I also don’t know if it’s smart to close it. Please help!
– Nina

If you already have another credit card that you’ve had for longer than this store card and you have no intent of ever using the store card, it’s fine to cancel it. You might see a small short-term negative drop in your credit score, but it’s likely not big enough or going to last long enough to have any kind of negative impact on your life.

In other words, I really wouldn’t sweat it at all. I don’t think you made a big mistake by doing this.

If you’re unsure, ask yourself this: are you ever going to use this card? If the answer is no, then just cancel it. It’s better than having yet another window to identity theft sitting out there.

Q2: Cooking site

You mentioned starting a cooking-centric site. Did you ever do this? I find that I always enjoy the recipes that I find on your site. I also agree that cooking at home is one of the top money savers that a household can do.
– Maxwell

For a long time, I considered starting a cooking blog, but as you noted, cooking is one of the biggest money savers that a household can take on, so I channeled some of the ideas I had for a cooking blog into The Simple Dollar for a while.

The biggest output from this effort was a weekly series I did for most of 2011 called “Dinner with my Family,” which you can check out here. It mostly consisted of meals that our family actually prepared and consumed. I chose meals that were interesting and inexpensive.

What I found was that I wasn’t as interested in some of the aspects that would make a successful food blog, in particular the photography of it. I didn’t really want to make “perfect” platings or other things – I found it far more interesting to show our real kitchen at work. Unfortunately, a lot of people didn’t like that as well, as they preferred the perfectly-lit perfectly-arranged photos one might find in a food magazine or on a devoted food blog.

So, my passion for food blogging is mostly constrained to the occasional food post on The Simple Dollar. I think that my interest in writing about food is better channeled in that way.

Maxwell had another question in the same email.

Q3: Fiction writing

You mention some fiction stories that you are working on. Did you ever publish any of these? I’d like to read them if you have.
– Maxwell

I am very, very picky about my fiction. Most fiction that I write ends up never being shown to another living soul. I have sent exactly three pieces of fiction out for publication and none of them have ever been published.

My problem with fiction is that most of what I write doesn’t feel very meaningful to me. It’s just characters doing things and I find myself not really caring about them. When I do write something in which I care about the characters and find something meaningful in it, I’ll read it again later and find that it’s too heavy handed in terms of the philosophy and ideas behind it.

Honestly, I think that most of the problems I see could be ironed out with adequate time, but finding adequate time for it is a real challenge.

Another problem is that the one piece of fiction I’m most proud of is a thinly-veiled look at several people I know that isn’t very flattering in a lot of ways. I would be hesitant to publish that material because of the potential blowback from doing so.

Maxwell had a third question, too.

Q4: Tips or philosophy?

In comparing your old articles to some of your newer pieces I’ve noticed a shift from the basic “Here is a good money saving tip” to an almost philosophical nature of how to approach things that also tangentially relate to saving money. I find that I enjoy these articles a lot more. A lot of the basics: buy generic, cook at home, spend less than you earn, etc has been covered ad nauseam so I enjoy these articles on mind set and thought process. I know in one recent article you mentioned how you are auditing online classes and self teaching yourself. I would be really interested in a course outline or readings list and more discussion on how you are doing this.
– Maxwell

When I first started my financial turnaround, I really dove into the specific money-saving tactics. I found those ideas really useful when I was getting started.

After a while, though, it became clear to me that the part that really kept the ball rolling was mindset and psychology. If you don’t have your head in the right place, all of the money-saving tactics in the world won’t help you. What matters most is having the right mental perspective and attitude about money and about your career, because without those you’ll never succeed financially.

These days, I try to balance both kinds of articles. If I write something fairly philosophical, I try really hard to pin it down to actionable things that people can do in their lives to improve their financial or professional situation. And sometimes I do write tip posts because, honestly, they can be useful, even if the tips are familiar.

All I can really do is write about the financial and professional topics that I find useful and valuable in my own life. If I wrote about things that I wasn’t practicing or thinking about in my own life, it would quickly lose the passion and the personal aspects that I think sets my writing apart from the crowd.

Q5: Piecing together car accident

I had a 1996 Hyundai Accent mint condition. It was totalled. I had loyalist insurance, it was my daughter-in-law’s fault, it was towed. The person who hit her (there was no damage), they were concerned about my daughter-in-law who was expecting at the time. Just who got paid? I saw nothing from no one only thing I signed was my title over to the place where it was towed. Help to understand.
– Kevin

From what you described, it’s likely that the person who hit your daughter did not make any sort of insurance claim in the accident. After all, their vehicle wasn’t damaged and they were not at fault.

If you did not make an insurance claim, then it’s likely that the insurance didn’t pay out anything. I’m not sure why exactly you signed over the title of the car to the place where the car was towed unless their bill was in excess of what you could afford to pay out of pocket.

My impression here is that the insurance company was never informed of the accident at all and thus had no reason to contact you. Typically, after an accident, you should contact your insurance company; if no one contacted them, then they have no reason to be doing anything.

However, if that’s the case, I’m puzzled by why you signed over the vehicle to the car repair place. I can only guess, but was the car already in very poor shape to begin with and it was less expensive to repair the car than to just get rid of it? I’m honestly not sure.

Q6: Homemade laundry soap and HE

Can the homemade laundry detergent be used in “HE” machines?
– Nancy

The recipe I use, which is one cup of borax, one cup of washing soda, and one cup of soap flakes (either out of a bag of soap flakes or grated yourself), does not create very many soap suds in a load (I use one spoonful per load), so I can’t imagine that it would cause a problem in an HE washing machine.

I do not own a HE washing machine, however, so I went looking for people who did use such a recipe in a HE machine. This article uses virtually the same recipe that I use and it indicates that such a recipe should be fine in an HE machine.

I’d give it a try. The worst thing that could happen is that you have a load that foams up excessively, giving you some soap suds to clean up. However, I really don’t think that will happen in an HE machine.

Q7: Finance with low capital

How can I start a insurance and finance company with low capital? Please tell me the process.
– John

If you’re looking to actually start an insurance company in which your company actually provides the insurance, you’re going to need a lot of capital unless you’re essentially running a scam. If you don’t have enough capital to handle a lot of claims, you’re going to be in a very bad situation. I would not start any sort of insurance company without having a lot of capital.

Now, if you’re talking about starting a small business to offer financial planning advice or to sell insurance, that’s a much different situation. This article offers some great advice on starting an insurance sales business, for starters.

If you’re looking to lend money to people, you can do that on your own through sites like Prosper with whatever level of capital you have. Prosper provides the business structure for you, in other words; you merely provide the capital for the loan.

Q8: Banking system and government trust

I would totally agree with what you are saying except, What about the Computer agenda you know the NWO is calling for all money’s to be accessible through Microchipped Credit Cards and microchipped humans. If the Government takes this approach and you do Not want to cooperate with this banking system then you would wish you had gold and silver because they would have the power and control to turn off your accessibility to your own accounts ? Then what will you do?
– Mark

First of all, I was hesitant about whether to include this email in the mailbag because of the mention of “NWO.” For those unfamiliar, “NWO” refers to the rise of or existence of a singular totalitarian world government. My belief is that NWO theories fall prey to the furtive fallacy, which means that followers of the theory use hindsight of historical events to apply a strong sinister perspective to them.

Although I’m not really in agreement with some of the more conspiratorial leanings of what is being said here, you are expressing a real concern when it comes to biometric access to your funds. If you’re not dealing in physical currency or some other goods that can be traded, you open yourself up to the possibility of a government or corporate entity closing off your access to funds, whether for legitimate reasons or otherwise. There are even innocuous reasons why you wouldn’t be able to access your funds, such as internet outage.

However, I think the best response to this isn’t to have bars of gold under your bed. I think the best response to this is self-sufficiency, because self-sufficiency is useful whether or not such events occur and you don’t have your funds tied up in a volatile and risky asset.

If this is a real concern for you, I encourage you to make investments in making your home/homestead as self-sufficient as possible. Install solar panels. Learn how to produce your own food. Grow a nice garden and save your seeds. Stock up on essentials that you might need down the road. Those things are good strategies for financial independence as well as a good response to concerns about biometric identification.

Q9: Vanguard funds in another 401(k)

My boss is rolling our 401k to Merril Lynch. I have to meet with a rep with them next week. Can I go thru them to get into Vanguard index funds?
– Jim

Typically, a 401(k) offering from an investment firm offers only a certain handful of investment options selected by the firm. My guess would be that a Merrill Lynch 401(k) would not include Vanguard funds in their 401(k) offering, though I could be wrong.

Having said that, the 401(k) may offer a self-directed brokerage option, which means that you could use Merrill as a brokerage to buy ETFs of Vanguard funds. This would essentially let you buy into those funds, but it will likely cost you an additional fee (paid for within your 401(k) money).

This is one of the reasons why, if your employer isn’t offering matching funds on your 401(k), it makes more sense to start an IRA of your own, whether it’s a traditional IRA or a Roth IRA. That way, you can choose which investment firm you want to deal with and you usually have a much wider array of investments to choose from.

So, my advice to you is to check with your employer and see whether or not they’re offering you a match on your contributions. If they are, just choose the best of what your 401(k) makes available. If not, then start up your own IRA directly with Vanguard.

Q10: Personal loans from Upstart

You may have seen the stop on NBC Nightly News regarding the company Upstart that specializes in giving people with a college degree and a good career track a personal loan.

I looked into this because I have around $7,000 in credit card debt and student loans. I did a preliminary application and was preapproved for a $7,000 at an interest rate that was 10 point lower than my current credit card interest rate.

My questions is: do you think it’d worthwhile to take out a loan with a company like this? This loan will lower my month payment by about $40 a month but will also allow me to pay the debt off faster due to the lower interest rate because all of my monthly payment won’t be going towards interest. The other issue is my husband and I are considering buying a house in the next 6-12 months so should I be worried about the affect the loan will have on our ability to secure a mortgage?
– David

Since I don’t know the exact formula for calculating FICO scores, I can’t be sure how this type of personal consolidation loan would affect your credit score. Having said that, my guess is that this type of loan will have minimal impact on your credit score. If you keep your bills paid up and don’t have an excessive amount of debt, I don’t think this will hurt you in the least. If anything, it will probably help you if you go to a lender who does manual underwriting (meaning they actually review your credit report manually rather than just trusting a credit score).

Aside from the credit score issue, a personal loan – whether offered by this company or by a local credit union or another source – that consolidates your debts and reduces the interest rate significantly is almost always a good move for the reasons you name. You can pay down the debt faster and spend less money on interest.

I think this is definitely going to be a good move for you. Before you do it, though, I’d suggest visiting a local credit union or two and see if they can offer you an even better rate on a personal loan.

Q11: Struggling with VA

My husband served 4 yrs airforce good discharge yet VA won’t pay for meds and IRS took refund for the debt. He is on SSI because VA refused to acknowlege case. Ammunition specialist & loaded nuclear bombs hearing loss none in one ear screeching sounds in other & this is documented. It gets worse every year driving him insane. What can I do?
– Denise

It sounds like your husband suffers from tinnitus, something I’m definitely familiar with. I’ve had it since I was a teenager. I have good days and bad days with it. I’m also deaf in one ear, so I know pretty clearly what your husband is going through. It can be hard at times to have a roaring sound in your ear and it’s even worse when you can’t hear well to begin with.

I don’t know exactly what you’ve done in terms of contacting the VA for assistance. For requesting assistance related to hearing loss, you need to write to them stating that you are seeking service connection for hearing loss and include medical records demonstrating the problem. You need to make your claim as easy to approve as possible. I recommend submitting a Fully Developed Claim, which should be easy if you have documentation of his problems.

Again, I don’t know exactly what you’ve already done. If you’ve already done this, you should look into filing an appeal. Here’s information from the VA on the appeals process.

Q12: Speed reading

Have you ever looked into speed reading? Do you consider it a useful thing? Seems that reading fast would be really beneficial.
– Carson

I’ve dug into speedreading before and I’ve found that it offers one real benefit. If you learn how to do it properly, it disconnects your ability to read to yourself from subvocalization.

When many people read to themselves, they hear a voice in their head that’s essentially reading the words they see out loud in their mind. So, when they’re reading, they move along at the same pace that they would if they were reading aloud.

That’s perfectly fine, but it’s not particularly fast. Learning how to turn that off and process words without that vocalization makes it easier to read faster and still absorb the meaning of the text.

However, there’s still a limit on how fast you can read without losing comprehension. People who see big jumps in reading speed are usually getting them because they broke that “voice in their head” habit and then quickly found their natural reading speed with good comprehension.

I learned how to read without that “voice in my head” when I was a teenager, so I didn’t find speedreading training to be that useful. However, for people breaking that “voice in your head” habit, it’s very useful.

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 Store Credit Cards, Laundry Soap, Personal Loans, Speed Reading and More! appeared first on The Simple Dollar.

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23 Money-Saving Secrets Every Whole Foods Shopper Needs to Know

Whole Foods gives you the option to feed your family healthy food, produced in a way you can feel good about and sold by a company you trust.

The grocery chain offers local, organic produce and way more gluten-free, dairy-free and other allergen-free options than many conventional stores.

But the prices on that kind of grocery shopping can make you want to walk down the street to the discount chain and forget all about the contents of your food.

Do you wonder how anyone can afford to buy groceries at Whole Foods without taking out a second mortgage?

It’s because they know the secrets.

How to Save Money at Whole Foods

There are tons of little ways to save money at Whole Foods. You just have to know where to find them — and how to take advantage of them.

We’ve pulled together the best tips from Whole Foods insiders and our personal experience to help you save money on the healthy food you really want.

1. Subscribe to the Newsletter

Tons of stores offer deals and freebies when you share your email address.

Enter your email and location to receive weekly Whole Foods recipes, coupons and tips in your inbox.

2. Find Whole Foods Coupons Online

Before you head to your local Whole Foods, check the website for coupons. They’re easy to find!

Just go to http://ift.tt/1SbmmfI, and select your location to find current sales and printable coupons.

3. Grab the Store Flyer

On your way into the store, pick up a copy of The Whole Deal, the store’s weekly sales flyer. It’s full of advertised deals and coupons from manufacturers and Whole Foods’ own 365 brand.

You can also print the flyer yourself each week — download it here.

4. Find Manufacturer Coupons

In addition to the store coupons, look for manufacturer coupons for items on your list.

These are awesome — and you can usually stack them with in-store sales and Whole Foods coupons.

Here are 100 places to find free coupons for everything on your list. If you’re shopping online to pick up in-store (see #21), here’s where to find coupon codes online.

Looking for savings on healthier choices? Try these secret places to find coupons for fresh fruits and veggies.

5. Download the Whole Foods App

Download the Whole Foods app for iOS or Android to get free coupons (like this one) and recipes.

You can also keep your shopping list in the app, and even order groceries for delivery by Instacart.

Be sure to scan your app’s barcode at the register to automatically add any applicable coupons.

6. Follow Your Local Store on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram

Businesses share some of their best deals on social media before anyone else hears about them.

Stay up to date with Whole Foods’ deals by following your local store.

Choose your store here to find links to its Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts.

7. Check out the Whole Foods Sales Days

Saving money at Whole Foods might simply be a matter of knowing when to shop.

New weekly sales start on Wednesdays, so you’re bound to find the most available deals then.

Whole Foods also runs weekly Friday One-Day Sales on select items. These are usually advertised a few weeks in advance, and you can call your local store to find out what’s coming up.

Keep an eye out for sales, and plan your shopping list accordingly!

8. Bring Your Own Bags

Like many grocery stores, Whole Foods offers a discount when you use your own bag and save the plastic or paper.

Bring lots of them! Depending on your store, you’ll receive a 5- to 10-cent discount per bag, so come prepared.

9. Bring Your Own Containers

When you buy in bulk, you’ll pay for the weight of the plastic container that holds your goods.

It’s intentionally pretty light, but you could always shave off just a little more.

Bring your own jar or plastic container, have it weighed before you fill it and you’ll only pay for the weight of the contents.

10. Compare Prices

Whole Foods’ 365 Everyday Value brand is intended to be the chain’s affordable option.

Keep an eye out for it, but compare with other brands to make sure you get the best deal.

11. Look for Unadvertised Sales

Not every sale item is mentioned in the flyer, so keep your eyes peeled!

Scan the shelves for yellow and red tags, which indicate a Whole Foods clearance item. You can save a lot on staples by stocking up when you find a good sale.

12. Try Before You Buy

The chain actually has a generous sample policy, a former Whole Foods employee says.

To cut down on waste, you can “try before you buy,” to keep from buying something you won’t like.

Don’t be shy asking to sample items like cheese, meat or chocolate. Employees can open the package for you and share the rest as samples with other customers.

13. Get a Whole Foods Punch Card

The Whole Foods punch card offers vary by store, so ask around at your location.

Some stores have punch cards for sandwiches, burritos, salads, sushi and coffee.

You may also find a punch card for $10 off after you spend $100 on 365 supplements.

Also keep an eye out for the Whole Foods Market Rewards program in your area. The pilot program is only in some Philadelphia area stores now.

14. Use Rebate Apps

While coupons often help you save money on carbo-loaded brands and packaged foods, rebate apps can help you save on your staples.

Every time you shop, take a picture of your receipt with an app like Ibotta or Checkout 51 to find deals on non-name-brand items like bread, fruit or milk.

If you can, check the app before you shop, and plan your purchases around available rebates.

15. Buy in Bulk

Did you know you can buy most packaged items at Whole Foods by the case for 10% off?

The same goes for wine: Get a six-pack to save 10-20%.

Some locations also offer discounts on bulk meat purchases when you buy more than three pounds. Stock up, and freeze it!

If you’re looking for particular spices for a single recipe, buy what you need from the bulk section, instead of buying a whole jar and storing it.

16. Buy Produce at the Salad Bar

If you’re buying small amounts of produce, check the salad bar before the produce section.

You might be able to find what you need cheaper there, and you won’t have to worry about buying more than you’ll use.

17. Choose Your Own Cheese

You don’t have to settle for the pre-weighed and wrapped cheeses in the case.

For cheeses wrapped and labeled by Whole Foods, ask an employee to split and rewrap the wedge — you’ll save money and only take home what you need.

18. Buy Frozen Meats and Fish

Unless you live near a body of water, the fish at any local grocery store has almost certainly been frozen in transit.

Even when it’s thawed and sold in-store as “fresh,” you’re still buying frozen fish — and paying more for it. Plan ahead, and buy your meat and fish frozen to save money.

19. Return Glass Milk Containers

Do you cringe when you see the price of organic, non-homogenized, grass-fed or whatever kinds of milk come in the glass jug?

You might be missing out on huge savings if you’re just recycling the jug. The price has a built-in deposit for the jug — as much as $3!

Keep your jugs, and return them on your next trip to the store for a deposit refund. Consider it $3 off your next jug of milk.

20. Take Advantage of Whole Foods Kids’ Club

It seems to be a well-kept secret that many grocery stores offer a free treat for kids.

When you shop with the kiddos at Whole Foods, stop by customer service for a Kids’ Club Coupon for a complimentary organic apple, fruit leather or package of natural animal crackers.

21. Shop Whole Foods Online

Even when you’re buying groceries, we recommend shopping online, because it allows you to use a cash-back site and earn rewards for your purchase.

Use Cashbackholic to determine which cash-back site’s offering the best deal. Then shop Whole Foods online through the portal, and pick up your order in the store for free shipping.

22. Buy Discounted Gift Cards

To cut your costs every time you shop, buy Whole Foods gift cards online.

You can get them for less than face value through gift card exchange sites like Raise.

Buy a gift card before your weekly shopping trip, and you could save around 2% on all your groceries!

23. Get Coffee for $1

At some Whole Foods locations, you can get your coffee for $1 if you bring your own mug. I also have it on good authority that a cold-pressed mocha with almond milk will blow your mind.

Your Turn: How do you save money on groceries at Whole Foods?

Disclosure: This post includes affiliate links. We’re letting you know because it’s what Honest Abe would do. After all, he is on our favorite coin.

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 23 Money-Saving Secrets Every Whole Foods Shopper Needs to Know appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.

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I Unexpectedly Owed $9,742 in Taxes. Here’s How to Avoid My Mistakes

I’ve been a freelance writer for five years, and every year I’m convinced I’ve finally nailed it.

I mail my estimated tax payments to the IRS, but not before Googling “Where do I send my estimated taxes?” every single time.

I keep track of important receipts and use an online bookkeeping system to categorize my expenses. I also automatically shift money into a savings account each month.

Heck, I even have an emergency fund to get me through three months of rent should anything go wrong.

Then something went wrong.

Suddenly, I had a huge tax bill sitting in my lap.

I thought I did everything right. And now I’m paying Uncle Sam and his local cronies almost $10,000.

What This Freelancer Did Wrong (Because Admitting It is the First Step)

Accountants come in all shapes and sizes, and mine is pretty hands-off. I fill out a bunch of worksheets at the end of the year, she does the math, and then ships me a sheaf of papers to review and sign.

Each year, my accountant examines my tax return and calculates how much I should submit for the upcoming year in quarterly estimated taxes. At the end of the year, I usually owe a few hundred dollars — nothing to shake a tailfeather at.

But this year, I did really well. I hustled my freelancer behind more than I ever had, and picked up a few long-term gigs with rates higher than I’d been brave enough to charge in the past.

Except while my bank account was flush, I hadn’t communicated my great fortune to my accountant.

I assumed that by sending in my triflin’ estimated payments each quarter, I’d be 100% covered when annual filing came around.

Even worse, unlike in previous years where I had W-2 gigs scattered in — and chose to have the maximum tax withheld — this year I was all 1099, all the way.

I got into deep financial doo-doo, and I’ve been assured I’m not the only freelancer to experience this misfortune.

“I have a lot of new clients who come to me in March and say, ‘Here’s my income, I’m probably in the X tax bracket, so I’ve set aside this chunk of money,’” says Aaron Peters, a CPA in Northern Virginia who specializes in freelancers and small businesses.

Many freelancers “aren’t familiar with the self-employment tax, which in a lot of cases adds an additional tax burden depending on income level.”

So if you’re in, for instance, a tax bracket somewhere between 10% and 25%, you still have to pay another 15.3% of your income in self-employment tax.

Hi. My name is Lisa, and I forgot about the self-employment tax.

It’s OK if a Tax Bill Makes You Cry

Here’s how the math breaks down, and how I got through tax season without bursting into tears.

I had paid $2,800 over the course of the year through estimated tax payments. I didn’t pay any quarterly tax to my local government, because, until now, I hadn’t made enough to hit the threshold to require those payments.

When my accountant prepared my tax return, I owed:

• $5,005 to the IRS (trust me, I was offended by that extra $5)

• $2,187 to the District of Columbia

Then it was time for 2016’s quarterly payments.

As all self-employed folk know, April 15 is doubly difficult because it’s when annual returns from last year and first-quarter estimated payments for this year are due.

For the first quarter of 2016, I owed:

• $2,000 to the IRS

• $550 to the District of Columbia

All told, I needed to write checks to various government entities for $9,742.

I also owed my accountant $600 for preparing two Schedule Cs, one for freelancing and one for my now-shuttered clothing store. That brought my grand total to $10,342.

Ouch.

What I Did to Fix It

It was time to change my game plan. Big time.

During a recent visit to Penny Hoarder HQ, I had proposed a debt-repayment challenge for myself. Could I pay off all my credit card debt in six months? The staff was encouraging, of course. And I was encouraged by my financial situation.

Good thing I held off on that ambitious plan. I needed almost every penny I had earmarked for my credit-card project for my tax bill.

Where I got the money to pay Uncle Sam:

• $4,000 came from a savings account where I had stashed a windfall (thank you, family).

• $2,000 came from a savings account where I auto-deposit $25 a week — so, 1.5 years’ worth of auto-savings).

• $4,342 came from my checking account. I know, it was just all sitting around in there.

Yes, it was nice to have several thousand dollars in my checking account at all times. I felt secure. I felt like I could do anything.

And now I’m totally stocked up on tomato soup and grilled cheese supplies for the rest of my summer. If I’m going to be living lean until I build my savings back up, I’m at least going to do it with cheese.

The good news: I didn’t touch my emergency savings at all.

So if something really does go horribly wrong — I lose a client, I wind up in the ER, I crash a rental car — I have cash I can get to ASAP. I don’t have to wring my hands and count down the days until each client payment comes through.

What to Do if it Happens to You

If you’re faced with a large or unexpected tax bill, your absolute first step is still to file your taxes.

You might be tempted to hide from the IRS, but that’s your worst move.

If you don’t file, “the IRS files on your behalf with the worst possible scenario,” David Emmerman, a New York City-area accountant, says. “They’ll send you a bill and start levying your bank accounts.”

Here are the most common options you can choose from to get back into the black:

Pay It All

“Of all the creditors you can have, the IRS is the worst,” Peters warns. “It’s the most powerful.”

While it doesn’t happen often, the IRS can seize your assets and garnish your wages until you’re paid up, says Peters.

It can also throw down compounding interest and penalties on those unpaid amounts. Penalties for failing to file your taxes are typically in the 20% range.

If you have any cash saved, now is the time to use it.

That rainy day fund. Your travel fund. Your dream house savings.

Empty them out. Your dream vacation will wait for you to get there. The IRS will not.

My bank account feels a little light now that I’ve paid my bills, but I can still sleep (relatively) easily knowing I’m not in any extra debt because of my tax bill.

Set up a Payment Plan

If you don’t have cash sitting around, it’s time to call the IRS and make a plan.

If you owe less than $10,000 to the IRS, you can set up a payment plan without having to reveal too much financial information, explains Emmerman.

If you owe less than $50,000, you can still get a payment plan, but you’ll have to reveal more about your income and expenses.

The IRS typically wants you to pay off your balance within 60 months, says Emmerman. But remember, “just because you’re on a payment plan doesn’t mean you’re exempt from interest and penalties accruing.”

Interest rates are usually around 5%, and you’ll still be expected to file and pay your taxes in the years to follow — even if you still owe a balance on your payment plan.

One key to surviving a payment plan is to make sure you agree to a realistic monthly payment.

“You don’t ever want to get to a point where you miss a payment,” Peters says, which could cause interest and penalties retroactive to your plan’s start date.

You want to strive to pay the bill in a timely fashion, sure, but you “don’t want to get three months down the road and be in a world of hurt,” he warns.

Pay by Credit Card

If you’d rather owe your credit card company than Uncle Sam, you can put your tax bill on a credit card.

This option asks you to choose a payment processor through the IRS, which offer varying fees in the 1.5-3% range to process your payment. Then, you’re subject to the interest rate you agreed to with your credit card provider.

“The credit card does provide a nice option and a little bit of liquidity with the IRS,” Peters says. “If that’s the only option, it may not be that bad. But then the liability is still there.”

Pay Late

This last option should only be considered under the close advisement of your accountant.

“If you can pay shortly after the due date, it may make sense to skip setting up a payment plan and paying late instead,” Peters says.

A small penalty, say, if you’re waiting on a big check from a client that’s due a week after taxes are due, may be less of a burden than the fees associated with setting up a payment plan.

“It definitely depends on the individual,” he says.

The One Thing You Must Do So This Never Happens Again

“I never want to do this again,” I muttered as I slapped stamps on all the check-laden envelopes I mailed out in late March. “Never.”

I asked my roommates to say goodbye to my money as I walked to the mailbox. Then I asked the pros how to avoid tax surprises altogether.

“If a freelancer can go out and be proactive about how they manage their business, you know what problems you have ahead of time. You’re not going to be surprised by things,” Emmerman says.

He recommends setting aside and saving a full 30% of your freelance income to be prepared for tax season.

Then, make a date with your accountant when it’s not tax season.

“Use your tax return to plan for next year, but also check in in the late summer or early fall to look at your earnings and tax liability.”

That way, if you’re having an amazing freelancing year (or a really slow one), you’ll be ready to handle it when it’s time for the paperwork.

Your Turn: Have you ever been slammed with a huge, unexpected tax bill? How did you cope?

This post does not constitute tax advice. For specific advice, please see a tax professional.

Lisa Rowan is a writer, editor and podcaster based in Washington, D.C. She is grateful for all accountants, everywhere.

The post I Unexpectedly Owed $9,742 in Taxes. Here’s How to Avoid My Mistakes appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.

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How to Make Money and Empower Women With Handbags

By Holly Reisem Hanna This past week I had the pleasure of checking out the ClaudiaG home business opportunity. The ClaudiaG Collection consists of leather handbags, chic jewelry and accessories – so if you love fashion you’ll want to check this out. In fact, I took the Luminous Tote on my Cancun trip and I […]

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Business booming for Gilbert custom van maker

A thriving niche business in the West End that makes wheelchair and stretcher accessible paratransport vans in a 13,000 square foot Gilbert facility is ready to expand.TCI Mobility takes stripped down cargo vans and customizes them for corporate purchasers — like transportation companies, airport shuttles, prison vans and assisted living transports.The business is the brainchild of Steve Hoffman and Scott Weinstein, mobility dealers who began the operation [...]

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Seven Spring Spending Traps (and How to Avoid Them)

Spring is here, and you know what that means. It’s time to enjoy the beautiful weather — and hold on to your wallet. Because as the Earth renews itself and new life springs forward, we tend to seek out some form of renewal in our own lives, too — whether it’s new curtains or a new car. Other times, all it takes is a sale on sandals or warm-weather gear to incite a spring spending spree that wreaks havoc on our finances.

Spring money mishaps are all too common, says Leanne Jacobs, holistic wealth expert and author of “Beautiful Money” – and for myriad reasons.

“For some of us who live through long and cold winters, the first signs of spring can lead to spending more than we earn,” says Jacobs. “When spring hits, we can momentarily lose our money management mind and our focus on good spending habits.”

Just as the holiday season offers ample and easy ways to spend more money than you should, spring has spending traps, too. If you want to avoid dropping extra “green” this spring season, here are some common pitfalls to avoid:

Spring Spending Trap No. 1: New Outdoor Furniture and Decor… Just Because

Have you ever walked into your favorite home store at the end of winter and noticed all the beautiful outdoor furniture, grills, and décor on display? After a cold and ugly winter, it can be extremely tempting to upgrade your outdoor cooking station, buy some new patio loungers, and upgrade your ugly old shade umbrella. And that’s especially true if you’ve already seen your neighbors doing it!

To avoid this trap, only visit Lowe’s or Home Depot if you have to, says financial counselor Lacey Langford — and only with a list in hand! Having a list of things you actually need is a smart way to prevent unplanned purchases any time of the year, but that’s especially true in springtime. When you want to deviate from that list, ask yourself : “Do I really need this?”

And if you already have outdoor furniture and décor from last year, try sprucing it up before you consider buying new. “Think about if you can touch up the old furniture by cleaning it or painting it to bring it back to life,” says Langford. With outdoor furniture, a can of metallic spray paint or even just a good scrubbing can work wonders.

No matter what, you should always try to renew and refresh the stuff you have before splurging on something new. Not only will you avoid spending that extra money, but you’ll create less waste as well.

Fight the urge to splurge on fun and whimsical outdoor furniture after a long winter. Photo: The Home Depot

Spring Spending Trap No. 2: A New Spring Wardrobe

With warmer weather approaching, all of your favorite stores are in the midst of rolling out new tanks and tees in all of the hottest colors. Jean Chatzky, financial editor of NBC’s Today Show and host of the “Her Money” podcast premiering April 11, says the spring weather can be like a siren song for shoppers looking to spruce up their wardrobes.

To avoid going overboard – or buying things you don’t need – Chatzky recommends going through last spring’s wardrobe to take stock of the clothing you already own.

“Rotating your closet — putting the warm weather clothes out of sight in cold weather and vice versa — really helps here,” she says. “When you change your closet, you see many things you forgot you had. They look new. And that can help quell the urge to shop.”

Spring Spending Trap No. 3: Organization Overload

Kim Anderson of Thrifty Little Mom says even spring cleaning can be costly in her neck of the woods. When most people prepare for a good spring clean, she says, they head out and buy tons of cute baskets, bins, and containers to organize all their stuff. (The Container Store, anyone?)

Anderson says this is the exact opposite of what we should be doing. Instead of buying more stuff to organize all the crap we have, we should first go through all of our stuff and decide what to keep, donate, or purge.

“Once you have purged your house, consider selling the items you can sell and donating the rest,” says Anderson. By that point, you’ll probably have some extra baskets and storage containers that you can use to organize the remaining stuff you actually want to keep.

The bottom line: Don’t spend time or money organizing stuff you don’t really want in the first place.

• Related: Do We Have Our Possessions Backwards? Some Thoughts on the Stuff We Own

Spring Spending Trap No. 4: Going Overboard with Spring Gift-Giving

For some people, spring can be an exercise in gift-giving, says Mike Catania, CEO of discount code site Promotion Code. With Mother’s Day, Easter, and high school and college graduations all falling within a span of two months, it’s easy to go overboard if you’re not keeping track.

That’s why it pays to put some thought into your gifts before spring hits – and that’s true for all of your planned spring gifts. “Delivered flowers, while gorgeous, can put a significant dent in your budget,” says Catania. “Retailers know that you want the best flowers for your mother and they’re going to make you pay for it. A dozen roses for your mother and mother-in-law can easily set you back $100.” Graduation gifts can be costly as well depending on the type of gift – and how many – you buy.

The best way to avoid overspending on spring gifts is to plan ahead. Start shopping early and plan to purchase modest but thoughtful gifts that will last a lifetime or fulfill some purpose. With retailers marking up last-minute gifts with vigor, it always pays to plan ahead.

• Related: 10 Smart Graduation Gifts for College-Bound Seniors

Spring Spending Trap No. 5: Wasting Your Tax Refund

Of all the spring spending traps out there, treating your tax refund as “free money” is the worst, says Howard Dvorkin of Debt.com.

“It’s not free – it’s yours,” says Dvorkin. “If someone robbed you at gunpoint of $500, then handed it back to you the next day, would you consider that “free money?”

If you’re in debt, Dvorkin begs you to see your tax refund as a ticket to freedom instead of a windfall. “You should spend a tax return on reducing debt, which actually is like free money – because you save on those high interest payments,” he says.

If you do feel the urge to splurge, Chatzky recommends wasting no more than 10% of your tax refund. That way, you can treat yourself while putting the remainder of your refund towards savings or debt.

“Then, change your withholding and your automatic contribution to your retirement plan simultaneously so the amount in your paycheck stays the same going forward but the amount you’re kicking in for your future is supercharged,” says Chatzky. Instead of loaning that money to Uncle Sam, you’ll be investing it in your own future — and you won’t even feel the difference in your paycheck.

• Related: Loan Money to Family? Sure, If It’s Uncle Sam

Spring Spending Trap No. 6: Gym Memberships You Don’t Use

After spending the winter under thick sweaters, long-sleeve shirts, and leggings, you might find you’re still lugging around that winter muffin top. And with swimsuit season just around the corner, many people see spring as their last chance to get their butt in gear and get to the gym.

But that can be a costly mistake, says Jean Chatzky. “As soon as the thermometer tops 50 degrees on a regular basis, you can comfortably put your gym membership on hold and get outside,” she says. “Whether you’re running, walking, or biking or whatever, it generally costs much less.”

If you don’t have a gym membership already, try exercising outside before you make that investment. And if you’re able to pause your current gym membership temporarily or even cancel it, there are huge savings to be had while the weather is warm and inviting.

• Related: Five Ways to Get Your Workout Without a Gym Membership

Spring Spending Trap No. 7: Buying a New Car

As the warm weather hits, car dealerships are in a fury – and for good reason. Painfully aware of the fact that you’re dying for a sweet new ride (and maybe even a convertible), they’re already scheming up ways to pull you in.

Drive down any town’s main commercial strip and you’ll see red carpets rolled out at the local dealerships. They’ve got balloons on the cars, giant banners promoting their latest deals, even bounce houses for the kids. Some dealerships are even rolling out 0% APR promotions — and, of course, the absolute worst idea in auto financing: 84-month car loans.

While these deals on wheels can be tempting, remember that dealerships will do almost anything to part you with your money. If you already have a car that reliably gets you where you’re going, just look the other way.

The best thing you can do is just avoid dealerships altogether. They can’t lure you in if you never give them the opportunity.

• Related: Five Things You Could Afford if You Don’t Buy That New Car

Final Thoughts

Spring is all about new beginnings. It’s a time of renewal, and the perfect chance to ditch bad habits and create new ones. If you want to stay on track this spring, it’s wise to get on a budget and stay on a budget. Don’t let the warm weather lure you into spending more than you planned, and don’t try to keep up with the Joneses and their new cars, lawn furniture, or wardrobe.

The temptation will always be there, but you’re the one in control. Use the warm weather to rejuvenate your dedication to financial wellness, and you’ll thank yourself later.

What spring spending traps are you trying to avoid this year?

The post Seven Spring Spending Traps (and How to Avoid Them) appeared first on The Simple Dollar.

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How I Saved $1,774 in 10 Months Without Even Trying

Saving money is really freaking hard.

Even though I’m naturally frugal, I’ve never been great at putting aside money for anything other than travel.

As of a year ago, I didn’t have an emergency fund, and was barely saving for retirement.

I knew that wasn’t smart, so I finally set up automatic contributions to my Roth IRA.

But I still didn’t have an emergency fund.

To remedy that, I needed savings to A) be automatic, otherwise I’d never do it, and B) live in a separate account, otherwise I’d probably blow it (in the best way possible) on traveling.

I procrastinated and procrastinated…

Until I heard about a new tool that reviews how much money you have in your checking account, and automatically sets aside an amount you can afford every few days.

I signed up 10 months ago, and haven’t looked back. Here’s how it works.

The Mindless Way I Saved Nearly $2K

So how did I finally start my emergency fund?

Digit.

This magical tool analyzes your income and spending to automatically figure out “when and how much is safe to save based on your lifestyle.”

Unlike automatic transfers from your bank account, Digit doesn’t take out the same amount every week or month.

Instead, it monitors your account and spending patterns, and “moves a few dollars from your checking account to your Digit account, if you can afford it” every few days.

The amounts generally vary between $5 and $50, according to Digit, but I’ve seen them go as high as $61 and as low as 70 cents.

Once the money is transferred to your FDIC-insured Digit savings account, it stays there until you need it.

When that day comes, send Digit a text or submit a request via the website or app, and it will send the money back to your checking account the next business day. You can transfer money as frequently as you like, with no minimums and no fees.

Access Digit on its web platform, or via its iPhone or Android apps. You can use it in conjunction with more than 2,500 banks and credit unions nationwide, but isn’t yet available internationally.

My Digit Review: What I’ve Saved

I joined Digit in May 2015. So far, I’ve saved $1,774.88.

If I stopped being lazy and referred five friends to the tool, I could earn an additional $25, which would push me over the two grand mark.

It might be obvious, but worth noting: The more you have in your checking account, the more you’ll save.

After I increased my income by accepting a full-time writing job here at The Penny Hoarder, my checking account balance was consistently higher. Digit calculated it could remove more money — and my savings quickly ballooned.

That’s the beauty of Digit’s system; it constantly adjusts to your cashflow. If it’s low, your savings will increase more slowly — but every little bit adds up!

Is Digit Right for You?

What works for me won’t work for everyone.

So, is Digit right for you?

If you want precise control of your money at all times, no.

Because I use Digit, my checking account’s balance is constantly changing, which is OK with me. But if you want more control, this might not be the tool for you.

That being said, Digit makes it easy to stay on top of things: You can get your savings or checking balances with a simple text, and receive alerts whenever money is transferred.

I opted out of the frequent notifications because I thought they were annoying, but they might provide peace of mind for some.

If your checking account balance is frequently near zero, no.

Digit will cover the fees if it overdrafts your account (up to two times per customer), but it’s probably not a good fit if your checking account is always on the verge of empty.

Besides the fact overdrafting is a pain in the neck, Digit won’t be able to save you much if your balance is really low.

If you’re nervous about giving a website access to your bank account, no.

For Digit to work, you need to connect your checking account.

I trust Digit because it uses “state-of-the-art security measures,” and my info is “anonymized, encrypted and securely stored.” Also, funds are FDIC-insured up to $250,000.

If you want to earn interest, no.

This is probably Digit’s biggest drawback.

Since it doesn’t charge any fees, Digit earns money by investing your money and keeping the interest for itself.  

For me, the interest I’d earn in a savings account is already so minimal, I’m happy to let Digit keep the change. It’s worth it to not have to consciously save money (because it’s pretty much impossible for me).

Plus, Digit gives you quarterly Savings Bonuses, which are “based on your average Digit balance over the last three months.” You’ll get 5 cents for every $100 you’ve saved.

If you want to save money without thinking about it, YES.

I couldn’t be happier with my Digit experience so far.

I mean, how could I not be? I have nearly two grand in my account. My emergency fund still isn’t where I want it to be, but it’s eons better than nothing.

I’m going to let it keep growing, and I’ll eventually transfer it into an interest-bearing account.

For the moment, though, I like having it separate and out of sight — it means I won’t spend it on a plane ticket.

Want to give it a try? Click here to learn more about Digit.

Your Turn: Have you tried any automatic savings tools?

Disclosure: You wouldn’t believe how much coffee The Penny Hoarder team goes through. This post contains affiliate links so we can keep the grinds stocked!

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 I Saved $1,774 in 10 Months Without Even Trying appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.

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Leave a good first impression when selling a home

Getting ready to sell your home? Don’t forget to assess your house’s curb appeal with a critical eye."First impressions are vital," said Paulette Smith, president of the Pocono Mountains Association of Realtors. "Potential buyers notice everything about the outside of the house first – even when they’re looking online. If the outside is in really bad shape, some buyers may refuse to take a step inside."While many home searches begin online, 63 [...]

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Retirement keys: risk tolerance, investment goals

Editor's Note: The Pocono Record Business section welcomes new columnist Ralph Grauso, who will write regularly for the Sunday pages. So you have been saving for retirement and think everything is going along just fine – then 2016 arrives with a historically volatile start.Days like Jan. 15 when the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) dropped nearly 400 points due to lower crude oil prices and concerns [...]

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After a year, Riverside Rehab well received at new location

Robert Garner, clinic director for Riverside Rehabilitation that celebrated its one-year anniversary at its new location at the Pocono Medical Center’s West End Healthcare Center on 120 Burrus Blvd., Suite 130, remembers his first day at Riverside.He started about three and a half years ago, the day Hurricane Sandy pummeled the region in late October and Garner was taking the helm at the old facility that opened in 1986, 200 yards down Route 209 across from West End Travel. He [...]

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Deeds Done, Sunday, April 10, 2016

Coolbaugh TownshipWells Fargo Bank N A (S/B/M), Wachovia Bank N A, to Stacy r. and Harvey W. Mitgang, Lot 84, Map Section 5, Timber Trails, 123 Golfers Way, Pocono Pines, $450,000Eldred TownshipShirley A. Borger to Jody R. and Rebecca J. Borger, Parcel, Tax Map 6/10/1/15, $400,000Hamilton TownshipHassan S. Osman (By Agent) Quafae Kernis (By Agent), Cartus Financial Corp (Agent) to Cartus Financial [...]

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Deep Work and Deep Learning for Your Career and Your Life

Recently, I had the opportunity to read the wonderful book Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World by Cal Newport. This book actually served as something of a capstone for a lot of thinking and reading I’ve been doing lately about my own professional and personal directions.

The Problem

The problem that really started this journey was my sense that my focus on the task at hand and my ability to learn new things was growing a bit dull.

Whether it’s my relative age or the ease of finding things to distract me or something else entirely, I noticed that I wasn’t finding it as easy to focus on my work as I once did.

It’s so incredibly easy to find things that distract me, whether it’s an interesting article, a debate on social media, a household task that needs to be completed, or an item related to one of my hobbies. Those things grab my attention and pull it away from writing.

The end result? I’d often find myself not finished with a week’s worth of writing at the end of a given week. My writing sessions would extend into evenings and into weekends, and unsurprisingly they became even less focused.

At the same time, I found that my own commitment as a lifelong learner was slipping. I still spent time learning things each day, but I had a strong sense that what I was learning was becoming more and more and more “shallow.”

For me, the tipping point of that sense of “shallowness” came during the run-up to the 2016 Iowa caucuses. I found that my understanding of political issues wasn’t as deep as it once was, and my usual response to that would be to study up. I’d “go deep” on those issues, figure out where I really stood on those issues, and have those results lead me to a candidate to support.

This time around? It wasn’t really working. I found it much more difficult to dig into those issues. I found it easy to get distracted. Even when I did engage myself in something, I found that I wouldn’t really go very deep at all.

For the first time in my life, I felt like my understanding of the world was shrinking rather than growing.

Here’s the thing: that kind of feeling is not good for earning money in the modern economy. Many, many jobs – even many entry-level jobs – thrive on being able to focus on tasks and complete them well as well as being able to learn new things quickly and efficiently.

If there is one skill that I would consider valuable for my own financial future and for your financial future, it’s the ability to focus, both on producing good work and on learning new things.

The Goal

So, there I was, realizing that my ability to focus on work and on learning was slowly slipping. Not only did those gradual changes leave me feeling deeply dissatisfied on a personal level, they also represented a negative impact on my income going forward and my professional trajectory.

For example, if my current writing gigs were now filling up all of the time I had available for writing because of my reduced focus, I no longer had extra time to try new things or take on new opportunities. In short, my lack of focus was strangling my opportunities to build new income.

Similarly, my lack of focus was cutting into my ability to learn and to draw useful and interesting conclusions about the things I learned, which also cut into the bedrock of my opportunity to make money. Without a strong and regular routine of learning new things, it quickly becomes impossible to find new angles and approaches to my current work or to find new things to dig into for future work. I’m not even talking about the negative impact to my personal desire to understand the world and be a lifelong learner.

My goal, then, was to rebuild my ability to focus and to learn in a deep way. Not only is that vital for my current earnings, it’s also essential for future projects and directions I might take on, plus it’s a key part of what I value in my personal life.

But how do I even go about doing that? Over the last several months, I’ve built up a three-pronged plan for doing just that, a plan that’s been working really well.

Step One – Minimize Distractions

The first step along this path of being able to work and learn in a more focused way is to simply minimize and, ideally, eliminate distractions. Anything that keeps me from working on the task at hand is a distraction, and when I get distracted from a task, I lose my full train of thought regarding that task (even if it doesn’t feel like it) and the quality of the work goes down (agan, even if it doesn’t feel like it). Often, I don’t even realize that the work quality has dropped until I read the final result or notice how much longer it’s taken me to complete something compared to how long I expected it to take.

Here are three tactics I’m using to minimize distractions pretty effectively when I’m trying to work or trying to learn.

Turn Off Electronic Devices

I’ve found that it’s not enough to turn electronic devices to “silent” or to simply close a browser window. Those “obstacles” are really, really easy to overcome. You can just hit a button to start up your cell phone again, or you can click your mouse once to restore that distracting browser window.

The key to really focusing is to turn off those devices entirely. You need to make the obstacles in the way of distraction as big as you can. Turn off the phone entirely and put it in another room. Turn off your computer entirely. Turn off the television entirely. Leave yourself as few distractions as possible from your work.

Go Analog, Not Digital

As a writer primarily for online publications (as most writers are these days), how exactly do I do that? This is a hard question for almost anyone who works in a connected environment. How can I do the kind of focused work that I need to do without these devices?

For me, the key is to use analog tools for as much of the process as I possibly can. I’ll sit down with a pile of personal finance books, a couple of pens, and a notebook, and I’ll start reading. I’ll jot down potentially interesting seeds for topics, and if I start seeing some connections with other things I’ve written down from other books or if I can relate those ideas to my life experiences, I’ll start fleshing out those ideas.

All of that is done with pen and paper. I’ve started doing 99% of the heavy lifting for the things that I write on a piece of paper first. I’ll organize my thoughts, make something of an outline, and sometimes even “pre-write” the article down to the level of individual sentences before I turn on the computer to actually draft the article, at which point it usually comes together really quickly.

This can actually be done with a lot of jobs. I used to write a lot of computer code and, when I think back on that experience, many of my best ideas weren’t created in front of a computer. They were created at a whiteboard with a marker in my hand, with no electronic devices in sight.

Obviously, this is also a great technique for studying and deep learning. I essentially do the same thing when I’m trying to learn about a particular topic. I’ll get out a notebook, surround myself with books, jot down ideas I consider important or that I want to retain, and also write down the connections I see and the questions that I have. I try to do as much as possible without any electronic devices at all, only turning to devices when I’m trying to answer questions.

Recognize that the “Urgent But Not Important” Things Really Can Wait

One of the scary parts of doing this is the idea that you’re going to miss some kind of highly urgent email or text message. What if your boss needs to contact you? What if a friend wants to let you know about something amazing that’s happening?

This used to bother me a lot. Having my computer off and my cell phone off meant that I was unconnected. What if something happens?

Here’s the reality: it doesn’t matter if something happens.

The vast, vast majority of urgent things that you’re contacted about really aren’t that urgent and really aren’t that important, either. They can wait. If you’re really concerned about it, just send your boss a message before you start saying that you’re going to go offline for a bit to focus on working on this project.

Turn off your phone, turn off your computer, and get to work. That’s been my mantra as of late, and it’s actually worked quite well. Sure, when I return to my phone and my computer, I usually have a pile of messages waiting for me, but then I can deal with all of them as a batch – and, honestly, there’s rarely an urgent one in the bunch.

Step Two – Have “Deep” Sessions, Both for Work and for Learning

So, you’ve turned off distractions for a while. Now what?

Now it’s time to dig in deep to the topic at hand. The goal of a “deep” session, whether I’m working on a project or learning something, is to get so lost in the topic that I genuinely lose track of time and of my environment. Often, I set an alarm of some kind to end the session because without that alarm I could stay in that mode for quite a while.

The truth is that I do my best working and studying when I’m in that “zone,” where I’m just using my mental and (sometimes) physical faculties to the best of my ability. I’ve let go of distractions and the only thing on my mind is the job at hand. If I’m setting aside time for “deep” work or study, then I have that perfect window for getting sucked in.

Here are three tactics I use for making “deep” sessions really useful in my life.

Set aside devoted time on a very regular schedule for deep work and/or study

Lately, I’ve been using the first two hours of the day after my children leave as a “deep” session for work, and then a one to two hour period right after lunch for “deep” learning on a subject of interest, usually something I can turn into something of use professionally in some way or another but not always.

I’m trying my absolute best to maintain this schedule through all distractions. If I have appointments, I’m scheduling them for the late morning or in the middle of the afternoon. My goal is to make those periods as untouchable as I possibly can and, for the most part, I’ve been successful at it.

During the morning sessions, I pull out a big pile of personal finance books from the library and other documents of interest and do a reading/note-taking session akin to what I described earlier in this article. Some of the stuff I read is pretty dry, so I try to look for ways to humanize it or to try it in my own life.

During the early afternoon sessions, I do the same thing, but usually with a few books on the topic I’m studying at the moment and without the focus on trying to come up with article topics and facts and structures. I’m just trying to understand ideas and put them together on paper and in my head.

I’ve discovered that I have to set a timer during these sessions or else they will go on and on and on. Every once in a while, that’s okay, but I often couldn’t afford to have those sessions go on forever. So, I set an alarm using an old-school AM/FM clock radio to alert me to when I needed to stop my work sessions. I sat the alarm clock in a place where I couldn’t stare at the time, but that I could definitely hear the alarm noise.

For me, these sessions are working really well. A two hour session of “deep work” in the morning and a one hour session of “deep learning” in the afternoon, completely without distraction, is doing a great job of setting the stage for writing articles incredibly quickly and efficiently. I now create a first draft of an article almost as fast as I can type it because all of the “heavy lifting” of the post is finished for me on a couple pages in my notebook. I’m also finding value in the discovery of new ideas and it feels like I’m putting together ideas more efficiently more than before.

Experiment with different lengths of devoted time and find what works for you

Different people are going to have different constraints on the periods that they can devote to “deep work” and “deep learning.” Often, these constraints are put in place by professional demands – they can’t stay away from email or texts for more than a couple of hours or their boss loses it. A person might also find that their personal focus doesn’t last all the way through the period they’ve set aside for deep work or deep learning.

The solution here is to experiment with different periods for deep work and see what works for you. Try shorter sessions. Try longer ones. Try different times of the day or even different days of the week (I tried devoting all of Fridays to deep work, but it didn’t really click with me).

Just experiment. You’ll know you’ve found the right period of time when you can pretty easily fall into a “zone” where you lose track of time and either an alarm or a natural break in focus causes you to end that focus at a particular time.

Ritualize the session

For me, making a bit of a “ritual” out of the session really helps shift my mind into doing deep, focused work or study.

For starters, I usually do this at a different location – our kitchen table. I’ll get out all of the materials I need – a few pens, a notebook, several books – and get them all out for easy access. I’ll make myself a big mug of tea (I usually make red tea with a bit of honey in it) and put that at arm’s length but not too close to my work area, and I’ll usually eat something small with protein in it just before I start, like a couple handfuls of nuts.

Going through that process signals to my brain that I’m getting ready to do some focused work and it somehow becomes much easier to switch into a deeply focused state where I lose track of time.

Step Three – Set Higher Production Goals

If I’m setting aside time for this kind of “deep work,” that time has to come from somewhere, right? It’s coming out of a traditional work day for me, where my main goal is to keep up with the terms of my various writing contracts.

In order for me to be able to cut those blocks of time out of my day, they have to be giving me something of value in return. What I’ve found is that those sessions of deep work and learning cause me to be far more efficient when I’m actually doing the writing at my computer.

In fact, I’ve found that my actual output has increased significantly from where I was at before I started this. To take advantage of that, I’ve actually changed my goals for how much work I produce in a given week.

Push yourself to go past your current production level, or to establish something new

Prior to adopting this new “deep work” system, my writing goal for The Simple Dollar in a given week was to write all of the articles you read plus one “emergency” article that I could submit in the case of an emergency. Prior to vacations and so on, I would have to write a lot on weekends and then also tap my “emergency” articles in order to be able to have time with my family without the regular work routine.

After adopting this system, I’m currently using a goal of making two “emergency” articles each week and, most weeks, I’m exceeding that. I’m tempted to bump that goal up to three per week, which essentially means that I could write for two weeks then take a full week off from writing for The Simple Dollar if I wanted to burn all of my emergency articles. This might end up being a window to experiment with new endeavors in the future.

I launched this by establishing that new goal of two emergency posts per week (beyond my normal writing) during the very first week of my “deep work” routine. I called upon myself to do more than I was doing before and to use this “deep work” practice to make it happen – and it worked.

When you try out a new routine based around “deep” sessions, try establishing new work goals that are a bit more productive than before.

Learning something new makes you more capable at any job and any task

What about the “learning” part, though? How does that really help with my professional life, especially if that learning isn’t directly related to writing or to the topics I happen to be writing about?

Here’s the thing: the act of “deep” learning encourages a lot of positive things in your brain. It provides exercise for that “learning” muscle, meaning you’ll pick up ideas at other times faster. It also exercises your brain’s capacity for putting ideas together in useful and interesting ways, which again comes up over and over in other aspects of life.

Both of those things actually improve my efficiency at everything I do professionally and even many of the personal tasks I take on during the day. I feel more efficient at solving problems and coming up with solutions for the things that life hands to me.

Final Thoughts

If you’re finding yourself running in place in your professional life, I encourage you to give a daily session of “deep work” a shot. Disconnect from your distractions for an hour or two and try to solve your problems without the browser window or the cell phone to interrupt your focus. Instead, work on your tasks using just analog tools and the power of your mind.

Give it several sessions over several days and see how this change in routine works for you. It might just be the breakthrough you need to become more effective at work and help guide your career to the next big step.

The post Deep Work and Deep Learning for Your Career and Your Life appeared first on The Simple Dollar.

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Pfizer Calls Off Tax-Dodging Merger with Allergan

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Do Liberals Hate America?

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These Restaurants Just Banned Tipping. Would You Work at One of Them?

Sometimes, I really miss waiting tables: the camaraderie, the fast pace, the bundles of cash. And other times, I couldn’t be happier to be done — mostly when I witness horrifically rude customers.

But that’s the biz: a series of highs and lows, which are, for the front of the house, fueled by tips.

Whereas tipping is virtually non-existent in most countries, here in the U.S. it’s expected by everyone from taxi drivers to hairdressers.

And for servers and bartenders, tips aren’t merely a nice gesture; they’re your budget’s bread and butter.

For a select number of restaurants, though, that could change — they’re moving to a no-tipping policy.

How does that work? And would it be good or bad for the servers and bartenders who work there?

I decided to investigate…

What’s Behind the No-Tipping Movement?

In the majority of the world, restaurant staff earn an hourly wage that’s on par with their country’s other service workers. Some customers may leave the change, or more for extraordinary service, but tipping is rarely expected.  

But in the vast majority of American states, servers and bartenders earn a sub-minimum wage, with the remainder of their income made up of tips.

Most of us are familiar with the benefits of this practice: For customers, it’s the incentivization of good service, and for servers, the potential for huge cash rewards.

And restaurants, which usually operate on thin margins, are able to keep menu prices low, receive generous payroll tax deductions and entice staff to work on nights and weekends.

What about the downsides?

For diners and restaurant owners, there aren’t many.

For some employees, though, it’s a different story.

Servers who live in less-populated areas may not earn minimum wage even with tips — and though employers are supposed to make up for this in their paychecks, many don’t bother.

“Tipped workers are thus nearly twice as likely to live in poverty as are non-tipped workers,” according to a report from the Economic Policy Institute.

“Yet poverty rates are significantly lower for tipped workers in states where they receive the full regular minimum wage.”

Even servers who usually earn decent wages have to deal with a varied income that makes it tough to budget, and can leave them in dire financial straits during a recession or series of stingy customers.

When tipping is removed from the equation, so are inconsistent wages and the pressure to please dozens of different people each day.  

That’s not to mention employees in the back-of-house, who, due to federal regulations, aren’t allowed to share tips with servers and bartenders.

“The gap between what the kitchen and dining room workers make has grown by leaps and bounds,” Danny Meyer, CEO of Union Square Hospitality Group, told the New York Times.

In the past 30 years, he said, “kitchen income has gone up no more than 25%. Meanwhile, dining room pay has gone up 200%.”

Who’s Removing Tipping From Restaurants?

Meyer is phasing out tipping at his restaurants and introducing a policy he calls “Hospitality Included.”

He plans to raise his servers’ hourly wage to $9 per hour. To ensure they make as much money as they did before, he’ll also offer them a share of the restaurant’s revenue.

After Meyer’s announcement, Joe’s Crab Shack eliminated tips at 18 locations in the Midwest.

“If you make $14 an hour at Joe’s, you are making $14 whether you are [working] Monday lunch or Friday night, and now our servers can borrow against those earning[s] as real income,” explained CEO Ray Blanchette.

Though those are the two biggest restaurant groups to eliminate tipping, several other restaurants across the country have already done so.

“As a cooperative business, we do not want to favor one person’s role over another, but pay a fair wage to everyone no matter if they are waiting, tending bar, cooking or doing dishes,” explains Casa Nueva, one such restaurant in Athens, Ohio.

Would You Work at a No-Tipping Restaurant?

Though it’ll be interesting to watch how this plays out with Meyer’s and Blanchette’s companies, there are reasons more restaurants aren’t jumping on board.

For one, it’s way costlier for them — and for another, it doesn’t interest most servers.

Lahni Dangidang, who works at Denny’s on the Las Vegas Strip, said she’d leave her restaurant if it instituted a no-tipping policy.

If I were still in the biz, I probably would, too.

“I’d rather work on minimum wage and get tips,” she explains.

“Because then during our busy season, I’m not taking a pay cut. During summer, I make well over $14 per hour [the hourly rate offered by Joe’s Crab Shack].”

“I really enjoy having money in my pocket as soon as I leave work,” says Brooke Spencer, who works at Applebee’s in Saginaw, MI. “I’ve become very accustomed to having money on hand at all times.”

So though she’d enjoy “knowing you’d make the same amount every day” and not worrying about “someone not tipping you,” she doesn’t think restaurants should make the switch.

Tyler Hammett, a bartender in Saint Petersburg, Florida, agrees.

“I wouldn’t work at a no-tipping restaurant because the money wouldn’t be worth the stress of dealing with demanding customers on a daily basis,” he says.

Not only that, but he believes a no-tipping model would lead to poor service.

“I’m definitely not going to rush to grab your extra ranch if I’m not making any extra money,” he explains.

And that, right there, might be the reason our tipping culture will never fully disappear.

Not only are Americans used to tipping, we’re used to a certain level of service that accompanies it.

A level of service — I know from experience abroad — usually isn’t matched when tips aren’t a factor.

Our tipping culture isn’t perfect, but it’s certainly American.

Just like extra ranch.

Your Turn: What do you think of this movement? Would you work at a no-tipping restaurant?

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.

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Times-Tribune parent company buys majority share in Flying Fish Brewing

SCRANTON (AP) — A Pennsylvania-based media company has purchased a majority interest in [...]

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Got a Pen Pal? Your Letter-Writing Habit is About to Get Cheaper

When’s the last time you put a letter in the mail?

I mean a real, live, paper one. In an envelope.

If you’re like most of us here in the instant-gratification digital age, it might be hard to remember when. After all, why go through all the trouble of snail mail when you can contact anyone instantly online?

But this weekend, you may find you have more motivation to get out your stationery to write to a more literal pen pal.

The price of stamps will drop this Sunday, April 10, for the first time in almost 100 years.

The Price of Stamps is Going Down

The price cuts won’t be exactly steep, but it’s not like stamps are very expensive to start with.

Postage stamps will drop from 49 cents to 47 cents — two whole pennies to add to your hoarded stash.

Postcard stamps will sell for 34 cents — a single penny’s drop in price.

And finally, international stamps will now be priced at $1.15, instead of the $1.20 long-distance writers pay now.

Stay in Touch — Buy Cheap Stamps

Even though we don’t need to use physical mail anymore, it can be a thoughtful way to reach out to the people you love. And now, it’s even cheaper, so you have no excuse not to drop a line.

“I’m probably the only one of my friends who still knows the price of stamps, because I mail postcards to my four-year-old niece every time I travel,” says TPH staff writer Dana Sitar.

“I thought Forever stamps were a good deal — but this is even more exciting!”

So figure out if you know anyone’s address and see if you can remember how handwriting works. It’s time to get physical!

Psst: If you’re still not satisfied with these cheaper postage prices, check out how we get our stamps even cheaper.

Your Turn: When’s the last time you sent a piece of physical mail?

Jamie Cattanach is a staff writer at The Penny Hoarder. She also writes creative nonfiction and poetry, some of which has been featured in DMQ Review, Sweet: A Literary Confection and elsewhere.

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Worried About Higher Netflix Prices? Chill! Here’s How to Get It for Free

You’ve probably heard by now that your precious Netflix account might cost more starting next month.

That’s because many subscribers were grandfathered into their sign-up rates — rates lower than those Netflix advertises now — and that grandfather clause is about to come to an end.

As of May 2016, Netflix Standard plans will cost $9.99, instead of the $7.99 or $8.99 you might be used to paying.

And even though a dollar or two more a month might not seem like much, we Penny Hoarders know that every cent counts.

That’s $12-$24 a year that could go toward your morning coffee, your wireless bill… heck, it could buy a bottle (or two!) of really awesome wine.

Luckily, we have a way to get around the price hike. In fact, if you follow our advice, your binge seshes will be 100% free of charge.

How to Get Netflix for Free

Douglas Clinton figured out a way to get Netflix for free using a cash-back rewards card available through Bank of America.

Since I had a Bank of America account already, I decided to give this method a try months ago. It works!

Plus, the card he uses is a great one, anyway: It rewards you for getting in the habit of paying down your balance every month.

Be sure to check out the original article for full details, but here’s the basic outline of Clinton’s strategy:

1. Open an account with Bank of America and sign up for the BankAmericard Better Balance Rewards Card

2. Make sure to set up direct deposit or keep a balance of at least $1,500 in your account to avoid the $12 monthly maintenance fee

3. Update your Netflix payment information to charge your Better Balance Rewards Card

4. Pay the card off in full each month to reap a $25 reward at the end of each quarter

5. Set up the reward to deposit directly into your Bank of America checking account to get an extra $5 reward

That’s $30 in free cash back every three months — all for developing the good behavior of paying your credit card balance all the way down.

And even though Clinton’s math is based off a monthly Netflix price of $8.67, that $30 still covers your entire Netflix bill: $9.99 x 3 = $29.97.

You just won’t have the extra $4 in your pocket that he was able to enjoy.

So when it comes to the Netflix price hike? Chill out. You’re still getting it for free.

Your Turn: Do you get free Netflix?

Jamie Cattanach (@jamiecattanach) is a staff writer at The Penny Hoarder. She’s three-quarters of the way through her second time watching Mad Men, and she’s watched all the seasons of Orange is the New Black a number of times she refuses to admit.

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Au Bon Pain is Giving Out FREE Iced Coffee on This Day…

It’s almost time for summer!

That means beaches and white pants and adding ice to our daily caffeine fixes.

To kick it off, Au Bon Pain, the national cafe and bakery chain, is giving away free iced coffee and tea on Tuesday, April 12!

Here’s how to grab yours…

How to Get Your Free Iced Coffee or Tea

It doesn’t get easier than this.

Just stop by your nearest Au Bon Pain on April 12, between 2-5 p.m., and you’ll have your choice of a free medium iced coffee or tea.

To sweeten the offer, join the Au Bon Pain eClub.

You’ll get a free travel mug — which gets you discounts on coffee all-year round — plus exclusive offers and a FREE lunch on your birthday.

I don’t know about you, but summer can’t come fast enough.

P.S. Click here for a list of 99 more birthday freebies!

Your Turn: Will you take advantage of this cool deal?

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.

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