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الأربعاء، 1 يونيو 2016

Yes, You Need One: The Ultimate Guide to Starting an Emergency Fund

Remember your first paycheck?

After spending all those hours foaming milk for lattes or ringing up disaffected customers’ overpriced T-shirts, it probably felt incredible to see those little black numbers. They represented your work paying off in real, live money.

And if you were anything like me, you couldn’t wait to cash that check… and blow your hard-earned green on something dumb.

Yes, You Need an Emergency Fund

Unlike most of our 16-year-old, first-job selves, adults are usually saddled with responsibilities like rent, groceries, cable bills and other fun expenses that make frittering away an entire paycheck pretty much impossible.

But the money you have left over after all the bills are paid? Yeah, you can still spend it all on new shoes and video games if you choose.

However, prudent Penny Hoarders know the importance of preparing for a rainy day. And it means setting aside some cash to keep on hand — just in case.

Which involves having money and not spending it.

I know, it’s hard. It’s really hard.

But it’s really important, too. Without an emergency fund, you have no backup plan if you run into an unexpected car repair bill, lose your job or worse.

And should you find yourself in such an unfortunate circumstance, chances are you’d whip out the plastic — and end up paying interest.

Talk about going from bad to worse.

So we’re here to make this process as painless as possible. Without further ado, here’s our ultimate guide to starting your very own emergency fund.

Where’s the Money?

First things first, figure out where your money is.

If you don’t have a budget, you don’t have total control of your money.

To save for an emergency fund — or anything else — you need to know how much money you have at your disposal to save.

We’ve got tons of resources if you’re a budgeting newbie — check out this post on how to make an effective budget in seven simple steps, or this one on how to set financial goals (hint: Building an emergency fund is a great one!).

How Big Should Your Emergency Fund Be?

Another great reason it’s so important to make a budget: You’ll learn your monthly cost of living, which is how you’ll determine exactly how much you need to sock away.

Many experts suggest building an emergency fund of six months’ worth of living expenses including all the essentials: rent, groceries, gas and bills. That way, you’ll be covered if disaster strikes, and you won’t have to worry about figuring out how to get your next meal.

To keep your total emergency savings goal as low as possible, you can leave out any regular, but discretionary, extras, like your monthly bar tab or Netflix bill. You’re already looking at a pretty formidable challenge, and you probably won’t be too worried about binging House of Cards in a real emergency.

Psst — why aren’t you getting Neflix for free already, anyway?

But considering the average American has trouble saving up even $400, your total monthly cost of living times six might still seem like a completely insurmountable number — even with all the fun stuff snipped off.

For example, in my case, six months’ of expenses comes out to about $10,000 — and I live fairly cheaply.

But don’t make a big number into an excuse to just not even try in the first place: Any cushion, even if it’s just $1,000, is better than no cushion at all.

Make an initial goal based on your own expenses — maybe one month of living expenses or another achievable (but substantial) amount.

You can also play with this calculator, which helps you determine how much to save and factors in how difficult it would be for you to find another job in your field.

Where to Keep Your Emergency Fund

Now that you know how substantial a chunk of change you’re talking about, it’s time to figure out where and how you’ll store it.

This is tricky, because you need your emergency fund to be immediately available in case you need it.

That’s what makes it so hard to save up: When you know the cash is right there for the taking, it’s easy for it to burn a hole in your pocket.

I can’t imagine having $10,000 just floating in my savings account. It’d be darn near impossible not to spend it all on airplane tickets.

Even if you’re resistant to temptation, it’s regrettable you’re unable to put that substantial chunk of change into a long-term account. If you could, that money would multiply with the magic of compound interest… but unfortunately, most high-return accounts require you to make your money inaccessible for a set period of time.

Open a savings account you won’t regularly check, and use that to store your emergency fund.

Maybe you could even take advantage of an account bonus at a different bank than you usually use. That way, your emergency fund will still earn interest — but it won’t be in your face every time you check your regular checking account.

Although most regular saving accounts have a very small rate of return, they’re still a better option than stashing your whole emergency fund under the mattress. Some interest is better than none!

Besides, eventually you’ll have enough saved up that having that amount in cash will become unwieldy. Right?

Save Dat Money

Here comes the tricky part.

Just having a nebulous goal to build an emergency fund probably won’t work. It’s too easy to “forget” about, especially when you’re eyeing a sweet new pair of boots or considering a Sunday brunch at that chic new bistro.

Once you have an emergency fund goal in mind, figure out how much of each paycheck you’ll need to set aside to reach it in three months, six months, a year.

Then direct that amount to your emergency account — either by direct-depositing it directly from your paycheck, or via automatic transfer from your checking account after each payday.

Even small contributions can really add up: If you can set aside just $25 per week, you’ll have $600 in six months.

That said, you probably want to be more aggressive about this particular goal. Disasters always happen when you least expect them. By cutting back now, you’ll allow yourself more freedom and peace of mind in the future.

You’ll probably have to make some budget cuts. After all, there’s a reason you don’t have an emergency fund yet.

Easy places to start? Cable, clothes and alcohol.

Commit to your plan and track your progress to keep yourself accountable. Make a spreadsheet or use a digital app like Mint to watch your emergency fund grow. Seeing the number get bigger will make it totally worth skipping your daily Dunkin Donuts run.

Trick Yourself Into Saving

If you know the disciplined strategy won’t work for you — or just to supplement your awesome savings skills — do what you can to find easy, painless ways to sock away money you won’t miss.

For example, TPH writer Susan Shain was able to finally start an emergency fund by using Digit, an automated savings app that rounds up your spare change and deposits it into a savings account. She discovered those pennies really do add up… and you don’t even miss them!

However, you won’t earn any interest at all on money you save with Digit — those returns are actually how the app makers get paid — so consider whether you’d rather have interest or convenience.

Another great trick to try? Sock away extra cash into a wine bottle. Since you have to break the bottle to get it out, it’s pretty hard to decide to spend it on a new jacket.

This method worked really well for me recently: Since I don’t carry cash, I stuffed every bill I came across down the throat of an empty bottle of grenache. At the end of six months, I had almost $500!

I used that cash to fund, almost in its entirety, a four-day vacation… but it would have been a great bolster for my emergency fund.

Hey, no one’s perfect.

Finally, and Most Importantly: DON’T TOUCH IT

Now that your emergency fund is in place, don’t make yourself go through the whole hullabaloo again by blowing it.

I promise you, you’ll thank me later.

Congratulations! You just took a gigantic step toward getting financially fit.

Having an emergency fund can save your behind if you lose your job or get too sick to work — and it can also free you up to change your career, start your freelance business or pick up and move.

Nothing’s better than finding financial freedom and getting out of the paycheck-to-paycheck rut… not even cable.

Your Turn: Have you started your emergency fund? What strategies worked for you?

Jamie Cattanach (@jamiecattanach) is a staff writer at The Penny Hoarder. Her creative writing has been featured in DMQ Review, Sweet: A Literary Confection and elsewhere.

The post Yes, You Need One: The Ultimate Guide to Starting an Emergency Fund appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.

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CT Capital fined £2.3m for shoddy PPI complaints handling

Helen Knapman

PPI-claim-form.jpg

CT Capital Ltd has today been fined £2,360,900 by the regulator for “serious failings” in relation to its payment protection insurance (PPI) complaints handling processes.

Source Moneywise http://ift.tt/24iLP7F

Suck Your Readers In: 4 Types of Openings for “Sticky” Content

The headline is the most important part of your content.

That’s a fact.

What’s the second most important part?

That would be your introduction.

Think of it this way: Your headline compels people to click on your post, but your intro draws them in to actually read the post.

And if you’re sick of not getting a high level of engagement on your posts, this is likely one of the main causes.

Here’s the simplest way to illustrate the effect of introductions on your content’s performance:

Bad headline – Low traffic
Good headline, bad intro – High traffic, high bounce rate, low time on page
Good headline, good intro – High traffic, low bounce rate, high time on page

Always aim for that third scenario.

The sad fact is that most bloggers put very little effort into their introductions. They either quickly say what they’re writing about, or they end up going on about things that don’t entice the reader to read on.

It doesn’t matter whether or not you fall into that category. What matters is that just about all bloggers could benefit from improving their introductions.

To help you do that, I’m going to show you 4 of the best types of openings that you can use in your content. You can always use at least one of these for any post you create.

1. Embrace the fear of failure

A great introduction needs to connect with the reader emotionally.

As any copywriter knows, emotions drive action. In this case, the action we want is for the reader to continue down the page.

Fear is one of the strongest motivating emotions, and people are willing to go to great lengths to prevent that fear from coming true.

Let’s look at a few examples, and then I’ll show you how to come up with your own.

Example #1 – Use a common fear: Here’s one of my own introductions:

The first 4 paragraphs focus on a common scenario: putting in a lot of work on a project (like a product or piece of content) and then finally releasing it.

If you’re an entrepreneur, you know how terrifying this can be. Entrepreneurs have sleepless nights worrying about failing.

What if they hear “crickets” when they release their project? What if no one cares?

Anyone in, or nearing, this sort of situation is going to read the rest of the introduction at the very least.

Quickly look at that final line in the screenshot: “there is a solution…”

You use fear to grab your readers’ attention, but then you need to transition that into a solution that they will achieve by taking action.

Example #2 – Does your reader feel like a failure? This one is going to sound kind of mean, but it’s effective.

If your reader already feels like a failure, all you need to do is describe their biggest problem, evoking their fear of failure.

Here’s an example from a Smart Blogger post:

Here, Carol Tice starts by calling out bloggers with low traffic and loyal subscribers.

If you’re a reader of that post in that situation, it hurts to read it.

You start thinking about your low number of readers and get a sinking feeling that you will never get many more.

But you feel that only until Tice offers a solution, which is the whole point of her post.

How to write your own fear-inspired introduction: This type of opening is not only effective but also fairly simple to write.

Create it in three steps:

State the fear of failure (or cause of fear) – Do this in a straightforward manner. In my example, the fear was not knowing what would happen when a product was launched.
Illustrate the fear – If you can describe the fear and make the reader picture it, do it. Sometimes it’s simple. The image of “crickets” is all I needed to do to make readers picture no customers, signups, or attention after the release of their product.
Transition to a solution – The whole point of hooking in a reader with fear is to give them the incentive to read your content. Your content needs to offer a solution to their fear. Write about how your content will help them.

That’s all there is to it. You can start with a few notes for each part and then combine them together.

2. No one wants to be left behind

There are many ways to incorporate fear into your openings.

Fear of failure is a big one, but there’s another big fear you should be aware of: the fear of missing out.

It’s why many people buy lottery tickets, especially as a group. They don’t want to be the one who misses out if the group miraculously wins.

When it comes to most content, the fear of missing out can be applied in a few ways:

Fear of being left behind – In niches like SEO, if you don’t keep up with the latest information, you can become obsolete.
Fear of missing out on fun – No one wants to miss out on a fun event or product.
Fear of missing out on an opportunity – If something is only available or useful for a limited time (like content on certain topics), people will be more interested than they would be if it was always useful.

Here’s an example (note the two parts boxed in red):

Just like in type #1, we use a similar 3-step process.

The first step is prompting the fear, which the first box begins to do. It mentions that some types of content are better than others.

In this case, marketers don’t want to miss out on the best tactics because it means they won’t get great results.

In the following two paragraphs, I amplify that fear. I explain that the content that most marketers produce isn’t as great as they think it is and that they might be closer to an average marketer.

The second box alludes to the solution—certain types of content that are guaranteed to outperform what average marketers are making. I go on to expand on my solution before starting the post.

Again, it’s the same 3-step process:

State the fear (or cause of fear)
Illustrate the fear
Transition to your solution

3. Use AIDA to captivate visitors

You may have heard of AIDA before.

It’s one of the most famous copywriting formulas there is because it just plain works. It’s incredibly versatile, and we can apply it to our openings as well.

First, what does AIDA stand for?

Attention
Interest
Desire
Action

Typically, you’ll address each point in that order.

To start off, you need to grab the attention of your readers. How do you do that? Typically with a bold or surprising claim.

For example, in a post on Backlinko, Brian Dean said that he analyzed over 1 million search results. That’s a lot and pretty intriguing to most SEOs reading the post.

If you can use numbers—great, but they’re not required. The only goal here is to catch the attention of your reader. It may be a sentence or two that seem unrelated at first to your topic.

Check out this intro from one of Jon Morrow’s best posts:

The post is about being a better blogger, but you wouldn’t know it from that opening.

However, he grabs your attention by doing something out of the ordinary: telling you (in great detail) that he’s going to tell you something you’re not going to like.

Even though I know what’s coming (since I’ve read it before), I still have that feeling of needing to know what comes next.

Then, we move on to interest.

Interest is similar to attention, and you certainly need to maintain attention, but this is where you tie your attention-grabbing introduction to the subject of the post.

In Brian’s article about SEO ranking factors, he included two parts to accomplish this:

Which factors correlate with first page search engine rankings?

And…

With the help of Eric Van Buskirk and our data partners, we uncovered some interesting findings.

Brian knows that his readers want to know which ranking factors are most important. However, he doesn’t give away all the answers quite yet, saying instead they uncovered some “interesting findings.”

Next, it’s time to move on to desire.

This is where you make it really clear why your reader should care about your content, if they didn’t already know that.

Here’s an example from one of my posts:

Here, I make it clear that if a reader follows my advice in the post, they could double their writing speed.

Remember that your reader is already interested at this point. To induce desire, all you need to do is make the benefits of your content clear.

Now, what about action—the last part of the formula?

You can interpret and use it in two ways.

First, you could get a reader to take an action right at the end of your introduction. Maybe you want them to get a pen and paper or open a spreadsheet. Or maybe you want them to answer a question and come back to it at the end.

If this applies, go for it.

The action in this formula typically refers to the end of the content, though. So, in your conclusion, you should make it clear how a reader is supposed to apply what you just taught them.

4. Show me the money (benefit first)

Some readers just absolutely hate stories of any kind.

They want you to get to the point and do it fast.

If your audience has a lot of readers like that, consider starting off with the benefit of your content. But not just any benefit—the biggest one.

This is how you will attract attention, and if the benefit you promise is big enough, they will invest their time to read through your content.

For example, you could start an article about SEO basics by saying:

If you learn the basics of SEO, you could be making $3,000+ per month within 6 months.

Assuming you’ve got your audience right, they’ll be glad to dig a bit deeper to find out if your claim is true.

After that opening claim, you then want to expand on and back up your claim. To continue the example:

I know this because I’ve taught multiple students to do so. I myself am an SEO who makes over $XXX,000 per month.

Now you have some credibility behind your solution.

Finally, you should close off your introduction by explaining how the reader will get to the solution.

In this case, something like this would work:

I’m going to show you the X SEO basics you need to know and then a step-by-step process to follow to start generating revenue.

At that point, most readers will be hooked.

To recap, the 3-step process for this type of opening is:

Start with your strongest benefit.
Show why your claim is credible (since the claim needs to be impressive/slightly unbelievable).
Explain how you’ll help the reader achieve the benefit.

Keep in mind that it doesn’t necessarily have to look exactly like that as long as all the elements are covered.

Here’s an example of this type of opening from one of my posts:

The sentence in the first box only implies the benefit (ranking as well as Quick Sprout). I’m counting on the reader to be familiar with my site.

Shortly after, I say that I’ll show the reader what they need to do if they want to rank like Quick Sprout. This is actually the 2nd and 3rd step all in one.

The claim is credible because I state that I’ll personally show them the solution. Of course, I’m credible in this situation since I’m the one who built the site up.

At the same time, I’ve explained that I’m going to show them what they need to do. I explain a bit more right after that part.

Don’t get hung up having a clear distinction between all parts of the opening—just make sure they are all covered in the right order.

Conclusion

Don’t put tons of hours into writing an amazing post and then just slap on a weak introduction.

If you do that, too many of your readers will never make it down to the content that has the value.

Use these 4 types of openings to craft introductions that basically force readers to give your content a chance.

From there, I hope your content delivers.

Now, I have a question for you. Have you seen any great introductions lately? If so, do you mind sharing them in a comment below?

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Help or Hard Work?

One interesting challenge of being a personal finance writer with a popular website like The Simple Dollar is that I get a lot of feedback from readers, both by email and on social media, particularly from my personal Facebook page.

Ninety-five percent of the feedback I get is positive – people thanking me for a particular article I’ve written or how reading a lot of my articles brought about some positive change in my life, and I’m very humbled by that.

But today I want to talk a little about the other 5%. In particular, I want to talk about one common thread that comes through much of the criticism, the idea that I didn’t really earn debt freedom or my progress toward financial independence, that I was greatly helped or that it was given to me.

First of all, I absolutely was helped along that path, in more ways than I can count. For example:

I had parents that did everything in their power to help me as a child and have been supportive of every choice that I’ve made since then.

I have a college degree in computer science and a second one in the life sciences, giving me a lot of career opportunities.

I have a very supportive and wonderful wife.

I have had a number of wonderful mentors in my career, particularly three people who I can’t possibly thank enough for shaping my thoughts and perspectives on the world.

I have had reasonable health along the way (though this is something I’m going to come back to in a bit).

But given all of that, here’s what I didn’t have.

I was born with deafness in my left ear, blindness in my right eye, and with a highly dysfunctional thyroid gland that caused me to have to start on a daily medication at the tender age of three days old that somewhat replaces it — a medication that I’m still taking.

During my childhood, I had somewhere between 12 and 20 full anesthetic surgeries to repair various ailments. I came perilously close to dying during one of those surgeries. According to my count, I spent somewhere between six months and a year of my childhood in a hospital. These surgeries were often scheduled around the vagaries of my father’s employment status (and thus availability of health insurance). I still have incredibly poor balance and can actually fall over sometimes when doing completely normal activities.

I didn’t have wealthy parents. I grew up quite poor, in fact. There were many periods in my childhood where both of my parents were unemployed. I grew up in a tiny house that usually had more people living there than it could really support. There were spots on the floor where you shouldn’t step unless you wanted to fall through. There were parts of walls that were simply crumbling. I didn’t participate in several things I wanted to do as a child – very ordinary things – simply because there wasn’t enough money for it.

I went to school in a small rural school district, so small it didn’t have a football team or a drama club or most of the things you might expect a thriving school district to have. There were no nearby colleges other than a community college, and my parents didn’t have funds for any of that.

My parents did not pay for a dime of my college education other than buying my textbooks for a couple of semesters. They haven’t given me any money since my first or second year in college.

In fact, during much of my college career, I felt like an outcast in many ways. Even though I was going to a public state university, virtually everyone around me was from a significantly wealthier family than mine. Most of the kids received money and clothing constantly from their parents. I didn’t.

So, how exactly did I play this hand that was dealt to me?

When I was in the hospital or recuperating from procedures, I read all the time. I practically wore out my library card checking out books from the nearest public library of any size. I read books on countless topics. I would literally sit down and read encyclopedias from beginning to end just to grow my base of knowledge. I used to borrow math books from my teacher and do the work at home on my own. I’d ask my english teacher for advanced book suggestions and check them out from the library.

Because of this, I earned a lot of merit-based scholarships to college – not need-based, but merit-based. This paid for a healthy portion of my college education (but not nearly all of it – I still needed student loans to finish it out).

During every semester in college after the first, I worked at least 20 hours a week at various jobs while also studying full time for a STEM degree, which means the classes weren’t easy. To start, I asked my academic advisor if he could help me find some on-campus work related to my area of study and he did that in spades, helping me find a wide variety of jobs on campus. I worked like crazy at these jobs. I pulled all-nighters finishing projects for those jobs along the way and eventually I earned a “student employee of the year” award for the whole university for my efforts.

I got a very tenuous job after graduating, one that paid fairly well but lasted only for a year. During that year, my job was to work with a team of three to develop a pilot project. One of the team members essentially refused to work and just collected a paycheck; the other person’s skill set didn’t enable him to write any computer code. Over the course of five months, I singlehandedly wrote the code for the entire finished product and offered a fully-functional product at the end of our six-month project review, something we didn’t even need to deliver for another six months. This project is still in use today; even after countless revisions by others, big portions of my original code from many, many years ago are still in place.

That job turned into a full-time job after that. The new full-time job not only required more than 40 hours a week of work, but also required extensive work-related trips. However, even with all that work, I constantly filled my spare time with side gigs. I started a computer consulting business. I started an automated online poker business (I wrote a simple ‘bot program to automatically play online poker during the game’s heyday, using a very simple algorithm that made quite a bit of money). I started several blogs, including The Simple Dollar (which now forms the backbone of my full-time work). All of this was in my spare time.

For a few years, I made many dumb financial moves, but starting in 2006, I began to fix that. Within a year, I had the remainder of my student loans paid off, my car loan paid off, and all of my credit cards paid off, achieving complete debt freedom.

My wife and I (and our kids) currently live off of somewhere between 50% and 60% of our annual income. We do that largely by being smart about our spending. We don’t drive BMWs or Lexuses. In fact, I currently drive a 13-year-old Honda SUV that I bought off of Craigslist. We live in a very modest home that’s fully paid for – we have no debt whatsoever, but that’s in part because of our choice of a modest home and modest cars. Most days, I’m dressed in plain t-shirts and blue jeans, meaning my wardrobe is dirt cheap – but it’s comfortable. My biggest “foolish” expense is occasional board game purchases and occasional Kindle books.

We are on the road to financial independence because of all of this. My wife and I hope to both retire sometime shortly after our youngest child leaves the nest. According to our projections, we’ll have enough money to live off of the income from our investments at that point, investments built up by the fact that we live off of a little over half of our income.

You can talk about “luck” and “help” all you want, but behind pretty much every financial independence story out there – mine included – is a lot of hard work and a lot of hard choices along the way. We took any and all “luck” and “help” that we had and forged it into something far more than we had before.

In the end, the hard work and the hard choices were my choices.

I could have chosen to spend the free time in my life watching television instead of studying and reading books and learning. I chose the road less travelled.

I could have went to tons of parties in high school and college instead of studying and working at my on-campus jobs. I chose the road less traveled.

I could have done the minimum in my professional life and just collected a paycheck instead of busting my rear end to build something lasting. I chose the road less traveled.

I could have burnt a lot more of my spare time in my twenties goofing off with friends, playing golf, and so on instead of launching countless side businesses until something took off. I chose the road less traveled.

I could have had all of the same “luck” and “help” along the way, but if I had chosen the easier path in all of those junctures, I would not be on the road to financial independence today. I might have a “better” life in some regards – who’s to say – but the choices I made and the work I did paved this road.

Because of all of that, I can look forward to some great years ahead of me. I’m still in my thirties and the end of my working years feels completely within reach to me.

The road to financial independence is undoubtedly aided by the help of others and a little luck, but if you don’t do something useful with that luck and that help, you’ll never be able to move down that road. A person who lives a life of idleness can have all of the “help” and “luck” in the world and still never have the life that they want.

It’s the effort – the sustained effort over a long period – that makes the difference.

In the end, it’s your choices that make the difference.

Related Articles:

The post Help or Hard Work? appeared first on The Simple Dollar.

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7 Cheap Renovations That Helped This Writer Boost Her House’s Value by 30%

My first house was a gem straight out of the 1980s. Laminate butcher block countertops, orange-ish kitchen cabinets, emerald green fireplace tiles… you get the idea.

But being the thrifty (read: cash-strapped) 20-something-year-old that I am, I wasn’t about to spend a fortune to upgrade my home.

A year-and-a-half after purchasing the home — and renovating it in strategic ways that I believe saved me thousands of dollars — I got a new appraisal.

The value of my house had increased 30%.

Though some of that can be attributed to inflation and a super hot housing market in the Denver metro area, a good chunk of it was because of the changes I’d made. You can learn how to do your home repairs for free or cheap, too.

Here are my seven picks for do-it-yourself renovations that are both cheap and effective.

1. Use “Oops” Paint

Never underestimate the power of a little paint.

Walk into a home and see bright pink paint everywhere? Don’t freak out. You can fix that with a little elbow grease and some vigilance at your local home improvement store.

Every time I walk into Home Depot, Lowes or Ace Hardware, I scour the paint department for “oops” paint, or paint that’s been returned to the store because the original buyer didn’t end up liking the color.

This paint is deeply discounted — often at least 50% off — and it might be just the color you’re looking for. You can frequently find it in large quantities, too, which helps if you’re trying to paint a large room or several rooms the same color.

Painting requires a fairly sizeable time commitment, but it’s not difficult and it saves you hundreds of dollars you’d be spending to hire professionals. If you’re in this for the long haul, you won’t mind painting a room or two at a time.

2. Take Advantage of Contractors’ Castaways

Contractors buy items in bulk. They build dozens of houses at a time and often overestimate how much material they’ll need.

Their cast-offs can be your treasures.

Places like ReStore, run by Habitat for Humanity volunteers, are full of valuable items like sinks, cabinets, doors, light fixtures, wood flooring and more.

If you aren’t looking for a specific type of tile, for example, there’s typically an ample supply of neutral bathroom and kitchen tiles at my local ReStore at a fraction of the price I’d pay at the store.

Again, you’ve got to be vigilant and visit the store frequently to find what you want, but that time and effort is totally worth it — and kinda fun, to be honest — when you’re renovating on a budget.

My go-to item at ReStore? Doors.

Its selection of doors, both interior and exterior, is massive and you can get them for cheap — sometimes as low as $10. If you buy an older home, chances are the doors don’t match or they date the home.

A brand new batch of crisp, white doors can make the place look and feel totally different with minimal effort and cost.

3. Update Little Details

Some of a home’s most overlooked details are fixtures — light fixtures, ceiling fans, door knobs, hinges and drawer pulls.

With a can of metallic or black spray paint, which will cost you between $3 and $7, you can transform these types of items.

These are all subtle cues to a buyer that your home is modern and fresh, not outdated and needing hours of work.

Instead of buying new ceiling fan kits, I spray-painted the existing fan blades and metal components and hung them back up — good as new.

I also spray painted all the door handles and door hinges — they were bright gold before — which helped modernize the house instantly. Same with my fireplace frame, which was mostly black but had bright gold accents.

This trick works on the exterior of the home as well. I freshened up the dated light fixtures that hung on either side of the garage with a bit of black spray paint in one afternoon.

If you can’t afford to paint or replace your cabinets, consider investing in new handles and knobs instead.

In my two-story home, the prominent stair railings and banisters were the same orange-ish color as the kitchen cabinets.

It took a while, but rather than buy new, I sanded, restained and sealed the original oak railings and banisters with a darker color. Now, my stairs are a focal point, not an eyesore.

4. Scrape Your Ceilings

Remember when people thought “popcorn” ceilings were cool? Yeah, me neither.

This is an easy — though admittedly labor-intensive — update that will give your home more “wow factor” when a potential buyer walks through the door. It’s one less negative thing on their list.

To start, I advise taking it one room at a time.

Remove all furniture, then completely cover — and I mean completely — every surface in the room that you don’t want to be coated in fine white dust at the end of the day. I recommend using plastic sheeting and tape.

With a squirt bottle or a clean landscape sprayer, lightly mist a square section of the ceiling. After a few minutes, use a putty knife to gently scrape the “popcorn” off the ceiling. Repeat until the entire ceiling is smooth and flat.

Sand using a slightly damp sponge before applying a fresh coat of paint.

5. Replace the Builder’s Mirrors

No matter which home you walk into, the mirrors in the bathrooms are likely original to the house. They’re probably big, boxy, unframed beasts.

A quick way to make your bathrooms look and feel more polished is to replace the builder’s mirrors.

Measure the space above the sink first, then head out to find an inexpensive, framed mirror to hang.

Your replacement mirrors don’t have to be brand-new — I’ve found some amazing mirrors at thrift shops and garage sales that added tons of character to the bathroom. With a little luck, you can probably find some mirrors for free, too.

Here’s where your trusty can of spray paint can come into play again — if the mirror has a unique and interesting frame, but it’s the wrong color, don’t let that discourage you.

6. Make Raised Garden Beds Out of Recycled Materials

Don’t have the money to pay for landscaping? I’ve got you covered.

Scour the sale wood pile at the home improvement store, visit ReStore or nab a wood pallet someone else threw away. Then build a raised garden bed or two.

Raised garden beds keep out rabbits, moles and other hungry backyard pests, plus you can control the soil. They make gardening easier because you can walk around all four sides to pick weeds and pluck ripe vegetables.

They’ll also get a buyer thinking about the home’s potential — “What would I want to plant here next summer?”

Instead of focusing on your home’s patchy grass or complete lack of landscaping, they’ll be impressed by the clean lines and practicality of your garden boxes.

7. Change Your Countertops

Though I splurged and updated my kitchen countertops to granite, I wasn’t ready to spend that kind of money on my home’s four bathroom sinks.

So, for $17, I bought a box of cement patch and skimcoat like this kind here. For less than $20, I made concrete countertops that look modern and sleek.

Start by taping off or removing your bathroom sink. Then, tape off any areas where the countertop connects to the wall.

Scuff and sand your existing countertop, and then wipe it clean. Mix a small amount of the cement powder with water and use a putty knife to apply it to the countertop in a thin, smooth layer.

Once that first layer dries, lightly sand away any bumps or divots. Add additional layers until the countertop is entirely covered and smooth. Seal your new cement countertop with heavy-duty concrete sealer.

You can also replace the entire countertop in your kitchen or bathroom with concrete by making a mold and pouring the concrete in.

Your Turn: What are some ways you’ve upgraded your home on the cheap?

Sarah Kuta is an education reporter in Boulder, Colorado, with a penchant for weekend thrifting, furniture refurbishment and good deals. Find her on Twitter: @sarahkuta.

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4 Money Questions I Wish I’d Asked My Husband Before We Got Married

My husband and I have been together for 10 years, and married for nearly five. We were young when we met, and long-term financial stability wasn’t something on our minds.

But it should have been.

Now, with a child, mortgage, credit card and student loan debt amounting to around $200,000, I wish I’d had the foresight to sit down with him and hash out the hard questions — as well as come up with some financial goals.

And we’re not alone. In fact, financial issues are the number-three reason couples decide to divorce.

Luckily, we’re now on the same page. But we could have saved a ton of time, energy and money if we’d just discussed these four questions before we started dating seriously or got married.

1. Do We Want Kids? If So, When and How Many?

We’d briefly discussed kids when we started dating, but didn’t have a serious conversation about it.

My answer: A hard no.

His answer: Yes, but after 30.

And that was the end of the conversation. We didn’t discuss the financial burden of children, our career goals or anything else.

Four months later, we found out I was pregnant… while on birth control (no, I didn’t skip a pill, nor was I on antibiotics).

If we’d had an in-depth discussion about the possibility of children, we might’ve been able to better prepare for such a surprise.

At the time, we had no savings.

Luckily, I had a job that offered full benefits and short-term disability, which paid 40% of my salary for six weeks. My husband worked two jobs: a full-time plumbing job by day and a part-time retail job on nights and weekends.

We’d done a great job of keeping expenses low, though.

We only had one car payment, and rented a tiny one-bedroom house with low rent. We didn’t make any financial changes until I went back to work when our son was six months old, which helped us stay afloat — but it wasn’t easy.

2. How Much Debt Do We Have?

HomeStudio/Shutterstock.com

This question probably seems intrusive, but when you’re considering combining your finances in the future, it’s important.

We’d opened a joint account for bills and expenses about a year into our relationship. For a long time, we handled our own debt.

About two years into our marriage, everything changed.

I knew my husband had student loan debt even though he hadn’t finished college, but I never asked how much. He knew I had credit card debt, but he didn’t ask how much.

One night, I decided it was time to sit down together and put our financial cards on the table. I calculated all of my credit card debt. He brought his student loan statements.

My credit card debt was about $8,000 and his student loan debt was well into five digits. Together, between credit cards and his student loans, we were looking at about $25,000 in debt. Not knowing this ahead of time definitely set our financial plans back.

I ended up opening a new credit card with 0% interest on balance transfers to pay off my debt faster, and we’re paying three times the minimum payments on the student debt.

Thankfully, we’ve paid off all but $5,000 of this debt.

3. Where Do We Want to Live?

My life goals involved travel and living in multiple places.

But with our surprise pregnancy, we weren’t able to move around like we’d originally wanted to. Rather than moving to a region with more opportunities or a lower cost of living, or trying out a few cities to see where we felt at home, we chose to stay close to family in the Tampa Bay area.

But as we watched rental prices skyrocket beyond the cost of owning, we realized renting wouldn’t be a good long-term choice, and we decided to purchase a home.

Here’s what renting vs. buying looked like in the Tampa Bay area when we purchased our home in 2012:

Renting

Application fee of anywhere from $25-$50

Rent for a standard, three-bedroom, two-bathroom house was more than $1,200 per month.

For a single-family home (our preference) most landlords require a security deposit, plus first and last month’s rent. Security deposits were usually the same amount as a month’s rent, so we’d be paying about $3,600 — just to move in.

Buying

Record low interest rates of 3.75%

We qualified for a first time buyer’s program, which only required a 3.5% down payment.

The average price for a standard three-bedroom, two-bathroom house was between $120,000 and $200,000.

We found a pretty spectacular 1,500-square-foot, three-bedroom, one-and-a-half-bath home for $117,000.

We had to put down around $5,500 and the seller covered our closing costs. Even with mortgage insurance, our payment is $945 a month — much less than the $1,200 landlords were (and still are) asking to rent the same style of house.

We may not have originally intended to buy a house in the Tampa Bay area, but it’s worked out well for us so far.

4. Do We Want to Go Back to School?

I steadily trudged through my bachelor’s degree during the majority of our relationship. Our unexpected child made the process a bit slower, but I graduated in 2014 with a creative writing degree.

Thankfully, I was able to find a full-time job as an editor for a national magazine without having to leave the area, but I’d always talked about going back for a master’s degree at some point.

My husband had a good job in the trade industry that didn’t require a college degree, and he had no desire to return to school… or so he thought.

About a year ago, he decided the trade wasn’t his lifetime goal, and he instead wanted to finish his degree and start a nonprofit. He’s studying full time in an accelerated night program so he can still work full time and finish college in 2017.

The private college is a little more expensive than a state college would be, but he’ll finish faster and the small class size offers him a great education.

We still haven’t finished paying off his previous student loan debt, and now he’s tacking on a bit more. Luckily, we discussed his return to school before he actually decided to enroll, and we’re making sure we don’t take out too much loan money.

Unfortunately, returning for my master’s degree is on hold until we save enough to pay for it outright — or until we pay off our current debt.

Managing Money as a Couple

When you’re feeling out a relationship, these questions don’t seem like a big deal. Sometimes, it can feel scary to bring them up for fear of running someone off.

But knowing what I know now, I wish we’d started talking about these big decisions sooner. We’d probably be better off than we are now.

Luckily for us, we’re both willing to throw in a little extra work on the side to get where we want to be, and we’re supportive of one another.

My husband uses his plumbing skills for side work, and I’ve maintained a freelance writing income that equals close to my full-time income.

All of our full-time income goes toward bills, home expenses and savings. With our extra income, we operate under the 50-30-20 rule.

50% of our extra income goes to paying off debt

30% of our extra income goes into savings

20% of our extra income goes toward extracurriculars, vacations and wants

Oh, and we have another child on the way, which means now we’re onto saving for maternity leave — something we definitely didn’t discuss the first time.

Your turn: Have you had a sit-down with your significant other about finances? What did you talk about, and how did it go?

Nicole Slaughter-Graham (@nicoleg_86) is an editor at duPont REGISTRY Media and a freelance writer. She’s a true book-nerd and blogs about books and writing at manyhatsblog.com.

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TSB launches 1% credit card cashback: how does it compare?

Helen Knapman

New and existing TSB customers can earn 1% cashback on the first £500 of credit card spending each month from today.

This means you can effectively earn an extra £5 per month – so up to £60 per year.

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11 Cheesy Money Sayings That Are Absolutely True

Most people have at least one family member who seems to know it all. They’ve got a snazzy saying for everything, an endless stream of cheesy advice, and a few catchphrases they roll out when the time is right.

Perhaps they learned their old adages from a wise family member in their own lives, or maybe they read their oft-repeated advice in a good book and really took it to heart. Either way, it can be both funny and annoying, and often at the same time.

After a while, you may just stop listening. But tuning out can be a costly mistake.

While it’s easy to brush off campy advice that’s been around a while on the premise that it’s outdated or inaccurate, you might want to think again about some pearls of folk wisdom. A lot of times there’s a reason advice gets repeated over and over again — because it has some element of truth to it.

That’s especially true when it comes to advice and clichés about money, since many of the financial principles that existed centuries ago still apply today – just in a different way. So if you’re aching for money advice that is old but absolutely true, here are some tried-and-true money clichés to apply to your real-life finances.

“If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.”

Whether it’s an email from a Nigerian prince or consistent 15% investment returns, these are words by which to judge almost any offer. Taylor Schulte of Define Financial says his father shared this gem with him at a young age, and it has always stuck with him. And now that he has his own financial practice, he advises his clients to apply it to their own investing strategies.

“Whether you’re questioning a new investment opportunity or considering making a large purchase, get in the habit of asking yourself if it sounds too good to be true,” says Schulte. “You might even ask others around you what they think if you have been known to fall into this trap before.”

If you dig around a little and find that something seems “off,” think long and hard before you pull the trigger. If it sounds outrageously beneficial and “too good to be true,” it very well might be a scam.

“Money doesn’t grow on trees.”

Oh, isn’t this the truth. While our parents echoed this sentiment throughout our lives, many of us only truly grew to understand it once we had children of our own.

“I hated hearing this growing up and always rolled my eyes,” says Rosemarie Groner of Busy Budgeter. “Then I grew up and had to handle my own finances and realized how limited my income really was.”

If money grew on trees, we would all be rich. Unfortunately, it doesn’t, and we all have to earn our money the hard way.

“You have to spend money to make money.”

Here’s something all small business owners already know: When you’re starting a business or building a side gig from scratch, there are times when you have to invest some money up front.

Money Coach Amanda Abella heard this a lot growing up, but didn’t really know what it meant until she began building a business of her own. But now that she’s a business owner, she’s come to terms with the idea of “investing in herself.”

However, it’s not enough to just spend money – you have to do it wisely. “I’m learning how to make smart investments over time instead of just spending all my money at once in an attempt to make more of it,” says Abella.

“The best things in life are free.”

No matter where your family falls on the income spectrum, you probably went through a “materialistic” phase. Maybe you only wore designer clothing, insisted on carrying only name-brand purses, or craved only exotic and expensive cuisine.

At a certain point though, you might have realized that the things that matter most don’t cost anything at all. A day spent laughing at the park with your children, a hug when you’re having a bad day, or a compliment from someone you love can turn you inside out with happiness without costing anyone a single cent.

That’s exactly how it happened for Jessica Garbarino of Every Single Dollar. “I got so caught up in in my 20s spending and keeping up with what everyone else had that I wasn’t taking the time to figure out if it all really made me happy,” she says. “After going through the painful process of paying off my debt, I now find that a lot of the most satisfying experiences don’t cost a thing.”

While you can buy things that bring temporary joy, real happiness has to come from within. It can take some time to learn this one, but it becomes more true as you age. It’s true that money can make life easier, but it can’t make you happy on its own.

Related: Finding Happiness for Free

“A penny saved is a penny earned.”

This is one saying my mother repeated all throughout my life. Every dollar you’re able to save is a dollar you won’t have to earn later, she would say. But, what did that mean?

I didn’t have a clue until I grew old enough to start investing and saving for retirement myself. Only then did I understand what it meant to sacrifice now to have a little more stashed away in the future. And as I watched my nest egg grow, I suddenly “got it.”

Joseph Hogue of My Work from Home Money says he thought this idiom was confusing gibberish until he got out on his own and started earning. Now that he’s an adult, he sees the value in being mindful of his spending so he can boost his savings rate while he’s still fairly young.

“The money you save is just as important as the money spent and can mean more money earned down the road,” he says. And when you’re less wasteful in your younger years, it’s much easier to become wealthy down the line. So, save your pennies, he says. They really do add up.

Related: Higher Earnings or Lower Spending?

“You can’t take it with you.”

People often mutter “you can’t take it with you” as a reason not to save. You can’t take your money with you, so why not spend it while you can?

Still, this money cliché is absolutely true – and can even be used to help you appreciate what you have today. After a year of losing family and friends, Todd Tresidder of Financial Mentor says this common money saying really hit home.

“The legacy you leave behind has little to do with the wealth you amass, and everything to do with what your life stood for and how you made others feel and what memories you created while you were here,” says Tresidder.

When it comes to this thing called life, there are no guarantees. Even if we’re saving steadily for the future, we should still live for today. One day, we might find that today is all we have left.

Related: Two-Sided Coin: Save for the Future or Live for Today?

“Early to bed and early to rise makes a person healthy, wealthy, and wise.”

CFP David Waldrop loves this Benjamin Franklin quote because he has found it to be true in his own life. “I love getting an early start to my day and working while others are still hitting the snooze button,” he says.

Getting up early can help people feel better and find more time to be productive. If you find you don’t have enough time to get things done, getting up a couple of hours early is a simple way to solve that problem – provided you put that time to good use, knocking off some key tasks before your day gets away from you.

Time and time again, this is the strategy people turn to when they’re having trouble finding time to exercise. When you can’t find the time to work out in your current schedule, getting up an hour early is one way to solve that problem in a hurry.

Related: The Secret of the Launchpad

“Mo’ money, mo’ problems.”

Okay, so this isn’t a quote from childhood – it’s the title of a 1997 Notorious B.I.G. song.

Still, “mo’ money, mo’ problems” rings completely true for people who earn more over time but find their lives becoming increasingly complex. The more money you have, the more responsibility you tend to have as well. And sometimes, the extra money you earn can cause as many problems in your life as it solves.

Plus, the exact opposite can be true as well – as in, the less money you have, the fewer problems you might have. Insurance agent Chris Huntley says that’s exactly how he has seen his own life play out, starting with some incredibly simple years he spent living abroad.

“Some of the happiest years of my life were spent when I was penniless and lived in Honduras,” says Huntley. “I had no TV, car, Internet, or cell phone, and had to hand wash my clothes and dump water from a bucket over my head to shower. But life was simple and the time I spent with my Honduran friends and family fed my soul.”

Related: Here’s What Living Cheaply in Another Country Looks Like

“You get what you pay for.”

While buying the cheapest items you can find can be easier on your wallet up front, it can cost you more over the long haul. Eric J. Nisall of DollarVersity says it’s because you generally get a longer life and better monetary value out of higher quality items.

“Taking a long view, the higher initial price tends to come out less than the total cost of a cheaper version over the same time period,” says Nisall.

Let’s say you buy a $17 coffee maker that dies after six months. If you keep buying the same brand and replacing it over and over, you might end up spending significantly more (and generating a lot more garbage) than if you had paid $100 for a high-quality coffee maker that lasted several years.

The same thing applies when you’re buying clothing, shoes, and electronics as well. If you buy something cheap that will quickly fall apart, you may not be saving any money at all. In fact, it can cost you a lot more in the long run.

Related: The ‘Buy It for Life’ Compendium

“You give a poor man a fish and you feed him for a day. You teach him to fish and you give him an occupation that will feed him for a lifetime.”

This Chinese proverb is repeated all the time, and mostly by people who hope to help others become self-sufficient. The idea behind it is this: When you give to someone, you satisfy their short-term needs. But when you teach them the skills needed to earn or achieve on their own, you teach them how to help themselves.

Financial planner Hiu-chin Chen relies on the message in this quote when meeting with her clients. “I am not just trying to solve my clients’ money problems, but help them learn to make smart financial decisions in the future,” she says.

“It’s easy to meet expenses – everywhere we go, there they are.”

Paul Moyer of Saving Freak likes this cheesy and sarcastic advice because it’s been absolutely true in his own life. In today’s world, bills often come from every direction – and even from areas of your life you don’t really expect.

Being aware of the financial pitfalls that commonly ail us is probably the best (and only) way to prepare ourselves. When you know what expenses might pop up in your life, you can save for them, budget for them, and plan for them — and establish an emergency fund to cover anything you missed. At the end of the day, that’s our best line of defense against surprise expenses.

The Bottom Line

Cheesy money sayings abound, but they don’t exist just to annoy us. Most of the time, sayings and advice that gets passed down from one generation to the next have quite a bit of truth to them.

Perhaps it’s time we stop rolling our eyes and start listening. Chances are, we could all learn something.

What is your favorite money saying? Do you repeat any money advice to the people in your life?

Related Articles:

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House price growth slows, says Nationwide

Helen Knapman

slow-house-growth.jpg

Annual house price growth slowed in May with prices rising by 4.7% - down from 4.9% the previous month, and down from 5.7% in March.

It takes the average UK house price to £204,368, according to building society Nationwide’s latest House Price Index.

Month-on-month, house prices rose by 0.2% from April to May.

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This Woman Found a Simple Way to Shave $12K Off Her Credit Card Debt

Like most of us in our early 20s, Katherine didn’t always make the best choices when it came to her finances.

After finishing her degree at Chico State, Katherine was in search of a job, a place to live — a life.

So she decided to move to San Francisco, a city she’d loved visiting with her girlfriends while she was in college… and where the cost of living is legendary.

Soon, she was paying $2,325 for rent alone. Before utilities. With a roommate.

Her mounting credit card debt wasn’t surprising… but was certainly dangerous.

When she reached the $12,000 limit on her Southwest card, Katherine knew something had to change. But she didn’t know what to give up, or how to do it.

Getting Your Credit Balances to Zero

Katherine describes San Francisco as a “young professional playground.”

Not only does the Bay Area offer a ton of fun stuff to do (and spend lots of money on) — its famed tech boom means lots of opportunity for young inhabitants.

Soon, Katherine had landed a well-paid position in business development at a digital security startup.

But even with her $60,000 salary plus commissions, she was barely keeping afloat.

Although her monthly credit card payment was high, she never seemed to be able to make a dent in the total balance. It was “like being on a treadmill,” Katherine says.

She was only making the $274 minimum payments (plus getting charged $154/month in interest) — more than she could afford. And although the Southwest card offered travel rewards, it also came with a $99 annual fee to boot.

Determined to make it on her own, she refused to turn to her parents for a handout. But at such sky-high numbers, she didn’t know what to do.

Then her roommate told her a little bit about the startup she works for — SoFi.

The company offers personal loans and other financial services aimed at young professionals, but it’s nothing like a faceless bank.

It offers borrowers a community and hosts fun, educational opportunities — like webinars and happy hours.

It also factors in nontraditional applicant information when determining your loan eligibility, like education, career experience and free cash flow.

Best of all, its competitive interest rates meant Katherine would save literally thousands of dollars on her total credit card bill.

It was a no-brainer.

She took 15 minutes to fill out the online application, was approved in about a week, and saw the money in her account less than 48 hours after her approval.

She immediately transferred the whole $12,000 to the credit company.

Just like that, she was officially out of credit card debt.

How SoFi Saves You Money

Now that her statement read $0 — a sight topped only by births, weddings and especially decadent chocolate desserts — Katherine was out from underneath those impossible monthly payments.

But that isn’t the best part.

Her new 5% interest rate means she’ll save thousands of dollars on the $12,000 she owes: She was previously paying 15.24% interest to the credit card company.

Over the seven years she’ll be paying SoFi, she’ll pay slightly less than $2,000 in interest charges.

If she’d continued making minimum payments on her credit card, the number would’ve been closer to $26,000 ($14,000 in interest alone) — and taken her more than 25 years to pay off.

Plus, SoFi made all the terms of her loan easy to understand and fine-print-free. Her more reasonable $200 payments are deducted automatically on the first of each month, and she loves not having to think about it.

Oh, and they took her skydiving.

No, seriously. Katherine received an email about one of SoFi’s many community events, and it just happened to be an item on her bucket list.

From the trip up to the parachute down and the photos to prove it happened, the entire thing was free for SoFi members.

It’s totally understandable that Katherine asked herself, “Why didn’t I do this sooner?”

Is a SoFi Loan Right for You?

If you’re struggling to make high-interest credit card payments, taking out a personal SoFi loan might be an option for you.

The company also offers mortgages, mortgage refinancing, parent and student loans at some of the lowest rates around.

To qualify, you’ll need a good credit score and decent cash flow — which is good, since more income means you’ll be able to pay off your loan faster. They’ll also take your education and career history into account

And by the way, there’s no penalty if you pay your loan off early.

SoFi wants you to be fiscally responsible and knowledgeable enough to get debt-free. That’s why they sponsor so many events for their members — many of which are free.

Achieving a lower interest rate on the credit card debt you can’t seem to get ahead of is a huge first step toward financial independence.

Plug your own information into this calculator to see exactly how much cash you’ll waste if you keep making those minimum payments.

Paying off your debt with a personal loan can go a long way toward bringing your total expenses after interest down… to say nothing of the palpable relief you’ll feel when you see your statement read $0.

“I’m just so much happier because I don’t have to think about it anymore,” Katherine explains. “It’s been amazing.”

Your Turn: Do you have high-interest credit card debt you’d like to refinance?

Sponsorship Disclosure: A huge thanks to SoFi for working with us to bring you this content. It’s rare that we have the opportunity to share something so awesome and get paid for it!

Jamie Cattanach (@jamiecattanach) is a staff writer at The Penny Hoarder. Her creative writing has been featured in DMQ Review, Sweet: A Literary Confection and elsewhere.

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