10 Progressive Workplace Trends We Hope Continue to Grow This Year

As millennials grow up and become a force to be reckoned with in the workplace, companies are rolling out policies to meet our unique sensibilities.

More attuned to our options than our parents, we want flexibility and autonomy in our work. We want some freedom to be creative and to know our ideas are heard. Most of all, we want to enjoy work and care about what we do.

At The Penny Hoarder, we’ve covered some exciting changes in company benefits and culture that aim to attract and retain the changing workforce.

Here are 10 workplace trends we hope we continue to see grow in 2017.

1. Paid Parental Leave

Over the last couple of years, we’ve seen some major companies announce expansions to their parental leave policies.

Federal law only requires companies to offer 12 weeks’ unpaid leave, but four states and Washington, D.C. mandate paid parental leave for private sector workers, and many companies have their own expanded policies.

Microsoft offers 12 weeks paid, Adobe offers 26 weeks to new moms and 16 weeks to primary caregivers and other parents, and Netflix offers one full year of as much paid time off as new parents need.

In 2016, Etsy announced new moms and dads get 26 weeks’ (six months) fully-paid leave for birth or adoption.

But tech startups always seem to be workplace trendsetters. The tipping point comes when major traditional companies start to adopt similar policies.

We saw that this year when both Amex and IKEA announced new paid parental leave policies.

IKEA offers up to four months’ paid leave for both salaried and hourly workers. American Express offers 20 paid weeks to both full- and part-time employees, plus reimbursement for adoption and fertility treatments.

Companies including IBM and Johnson & Johnson also offer competitive parental leave policies.

With these giant companies offering the benefit to thousands of employees around the world, we expect to see many others following suit.

(By the way, The Penny Hoarder offers eight weeks’ paid maternity leave, four weeks’ paid paternity leave, unlimited sick days, work-from-home days and flex time, so our employees can find the right work-life balance!)

2. Child Care Assistance

We saw a lot of talk in 2016 about the rising cost of child care. Millennials in the workforce are paying way more than our parents did.

Some parents simply choose to have one parent stay home, because the cost of going to work isn’t worth the pay!

Savvy companies are starting to understand this burden and offer on-site child care or child care subsidies to employees with children. This is becoming an important tool for recruiting top talent and supporting working parents.

3. Unlimited Paid Time Off — in Some Cases

A flexible schedule and working from home are great, but what about taking vacation whenever you want?

With more than half of Americans not using all of our available paid vacation days, you might be surprised to see a growing number of companies offering unlimited vacation time.

Unlimited paid vacation days mean employees can take time off when they need it without budgeting within a limit. That’s attractive for potential applicants.

It’s attractive for employers, too. Offering unlimited vacation days actually saves companies money, Time reports. Worried about not getting all their work done or looking lazy, employees actually tend to take fewer days off when there’s no limit.

When the onus is on us to determine a “proper” amount of time off, we get scared and fall back on the American standby of overworking.

Getting unlimited vacation days actually puts additional responsibility on the employee to decide how much is appropriate. Instead, companies can likely do better by employees by offering generous vacation policies — with limits.

What we do like to see unlimited are paid sick days.

Plenty of companies, as well as a few states and cities are making progress by starting to offer paid sick days, a workplace benefit many Americans don’t have.

But setting a limit is tough. It creates a target for generally-well employees to invent excuses to take off, and it creates stressful restriction for those who are hit with unexpected health issues or sick kids.

Unlimited sick days means employees can take care of themselves and keep their germs away from others. And employees who aren’t sick have little incentive to fake it.

4. Remote Work

Virtual companies are entirely online, backed by a team of employees that work remotely. Once a futuristic feature of tech startups, this trend is leaking across industries now.

You can do everything from customer service to engineering from the comfort of your home.

Companies like employing a virtual workforce because it saves money on office space, equipment and provisions. Employees like it, because they get to work from home, often on their own schedule.

While you lose those watercooler conversations and serendipitous brainstorming sessions with co-workers, apps like Slack, Google Drive and even email can help keep co-workers connected virtually.

Working remotely as an employee may limit you to companies in certain states. But working as a contractor or freelancer often gives you the opportunity to work from anywhere in the world.

5. Human Resources Transformation

This “is going to be the year human resources transforms itself into ‘people science,’” Glassdoor chief economist Andrew Chamberlain told Fast Company.

As other sectors are transformed by technology, HR has lagged behind. But “the rise of big data” could bring it into the present, Chamberlain says.

“Using data science in HR to make even small improvements in recruiting, hiring, and engagement has the potential for huge benefits to organizations.”

Instead of guessing at the best methods for training, assessing and recruiting employees, HR departments can turn to a lot of inexpensive tools that answer these big questions with data.

6. Increasing Human Creativity Through Automation

“Workers increasingly need to build skills that are complementary to technology — learning to run the machine, not doing the same work the machine automates,” Chamberlain explains.

As routine jobs are becoming automated, we’ll need to learn new skills and focus more on the creative aspects of work.

With current technology, robots don’t have your judgment or soft skills, so plenty of jobs still need a human touch.

7. Free, Healthy Food

The Penny Hoarder is among a growing number of companies who offer a benefit millennials can’t get enough of: free food.

But it’s more than just free — it’s healthy food. We employ an “office superhero” who prepares fresh mini meals and snacks, so we don’t have to buy lunch or munch on salty, sugary treats.

“We are serving fuel, instead of just food,” Erin O’Neill, our people and culture manager told Fast Company. “Almost everything gets eaten and there is very little waste.”

With a growing focus on healthy eating hitting everything from school lunches to fast food menus, employees are less satisfied with donuts and pizza in the break room. Providing fresh, wholesome foods helps us save money and work better (no sugar crashes!).

8. Rising Minimum Wages

On Jan. 1, 2017, the minimum wage went up in 19 states. Some, admittedly, will only see a cost-of-living raise of a few cents. But others, like New York and California, have plans in place to hit $15 over the coming years.

Here again, private companies are working faster than the law. In 2016, Target raised its company-wide minimum wage to $10, and Costco raised its entry-level wage to between $13 and $13.50.

Even Walmart employees have an average hourly full-time rate of $13.38 — well above the abysmal federal minimum wage set to $7.25 in 2009.

The minimum wage was a major talking point throughout the 2016 election, and workers aren’t forgetting about it. Even if legislators don’t keep up, we expect to see more companies jumping on this trend to recruit and retain employees.

9. Tuition Assistance

School is expensive for millennials, but luckily some companies are starting to take notice and take action. Several companies have added tuition reimbursement or assistance to their employee benefits rosters.

With many of us entering the workforce saddled with student loan debt, any help paying it back is attractive!

Huge companies like Fidelity Investments and PwC offer this benefit, according to the Chicago Tribune. Staples announced a tuition assistance program for sales associates in November, a tool to help it recruit up to 1,000 new employees ahead of the holiday season.

10. Ditching the Dress Code

I often forget how lucky I am to simply wear what I want to The Penny Hoarder office every day. It’s a privilege many employees have to reserve for a designated “casual Friday,” when they can wear — gasp! — jeans to the office.

You may sense from my millennial disdain (and my yoga pants) that I think traditional dress codes are bit… stringent.

Until recently, even Starbucks restricted its employees dress, hair and accessories. Baristas!

But that attitude is falling by the wayside. Starbucks welcomed personal expression with a new dress code in June 2016.

Startup employees famously eschew any indication of “formal,” “business” or “office” in their attire in favor of the fully “casual” style set by leaders like Jobs and Zuckerberg.

These fashion-poor trailblazers realize we all work fine in comfortable clothes. More importantly, they trust their employees to stick with inoffensive clothing and to dress to impress when a client meeting is on the schedule.

Your Turn: What workplace trends do you want to see continue in 2017? Which would you do away with?

With research from Jacquelyn Pica, an editorial intern at The Penny Hoarder.

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).

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Macrobudgeting and Microbudgeting

Most people, when they think of a personal budget, think of what I would describe as a “microbudget.” It’s the traditional kind, where you divide your spending up into a whole bunch of different categories – $500 for food, $700 for rent, $125 for electricity, and so on. You then make it your goal to achieve that target in each category by being frugal. You make sure the lights are turned off and keep the heat running low in order to reach your monthly electricity spending target. You eat more meals at home in order to make sure you hit your monthly food spending target. And so on and so forth.

Another approach is what I call “macrobudgeting.” Macrobudgeting basically splits your spending into just a couple of groups – “needs” and “wants,” generally. Your energy bill, your grocery bill, your phone bill, your Roth IRA contributions all qualify as “needs.” The money left over can be spent on “wants” – things like hobbies, entertainment, eating out, and so on.

In general, people who struggle with their finances use a “macrobudgeting” model. They don’t have a strong sense of where their money goes and thus they’re left wondering why they have nothing left over at the end of the month. Often, they don’t include genuine long-term needs in their “needs” portion of their budgeting, meaning that they don’t contribute to things like retirement right off the bat and treat it as a need, and they intermingle their wants with their needs.

Almost always, the suggestion for people who start their financial turnaround is to jump to a “microbudgeting” model. That’s why you see it pop up again and again in personal finance books. People are encouraged to break down their spending into narrow categories, see where that money is going, set targets for each category, and work to achieve that number. Microbudgets tend to be what people think of when they think of budgets.

Microbudgets are a great tool, don’t get me wrong, but there are some flaws with them.

For one, it takes time to do this. In order to build a decent microbudget, you have to spend some time looking carefully at your spending, dividing it into smart categories, and coming up with realistic targets. Then you have to do it again at the end of the month, and the next month, and the next month. That adds up to quite a lot of time invested.

For another, it can be pretty inflexible. An unexpected expense in a particular category can really wreck a microbudget and leave you feeling like a failure at the end of the month. There are life events you simply cannot control, and microbudgets rarely “flex” enough to handle those unexpected events.

Macrobudgeting is obviously easier and a lot more flexible. So why would anyone ever microbudget?

It’s simple. The purpose of microbudgeting is to teach practical frugality. The entire purpose of a microbudget is to force you to look deeply at how you’re spending money, identify ways in which you could spend less, and then actually put those methods into practice. You can then figure out which frugal tactics really work in your life and which ones do not.

When you budget, say, $500 for food for the month when you normally spend, say, $800, that means you’re going to have to make some smart choices about the food that you buy. You’ll have to prepare more meals at home from scratch. You’ll have to look more carefully at the items you put in your shopping cart. You might try using a grocery list in order to trim your grocery spending. Maybe you switch from using an expensive grocer, like Whole Foods, to a discount grocer like Fareway for many of your foods (I’m a Fareway fan – substitute your favorite discount grocer, like ALDI, into that sentence if you prefer).

You’ll find over a few months of microbudgeting that some of those tactics really work for you and some of them are a struggle. Maybe you find that shopping at Fareway instead of Target and Whole Foods is a great switch for you and a grocery list is great, but it’s hard to cook lots of meals at home so you still rely on prepackaged meals. Or maybe you find that using a grocery list and making slow cooker meals both click with you, but you’re very particular about your vegetables and want a huge selection of them, so you keep shopping at Whole Foods. Or maybe everything clicks. No matter which story is true for you, your food spending goes down and, ideally, comes in under budget.

During the times when you’re actively microbudgeting, you’re picking up many different frugal strategies and integrating them permanently into your life. For example, once you’ve switched to a routine of using a grocery list every week for grocery shopping and you do it over and over and over again, it starts to become the new normal. When you buy LED bulbs instead of incandescents, it becomes the new normal. When you make most of your meals at home, it becomes the new normal. When you shop around for cell phone deals between contracts, it becomes the new normal. When you automatically contribute to your Roth IRA through automated deductions, it becomes the new normal.

The point is that microbudgeting makes a lot of frugal strategies into the new “normal” for you. It forces you to keep trying a new thing until it either becomes frustrating enough that you reject it or it seamlessly integrates into your life.

That’s why, after several months of microbudgeting, many people can step back to macrobudgeting for a while. Since microbudgeting has taught you a lot of tactics that reduce your spending and repeated microbudgeting integrates those tactics so firmly into your life that they become the new normal, microbudgeting no longer remains as useful as it once was, so the drawbacks of it start to really push to the forefront. If you’re spending hours each month on a budget after doing it for several months and you’re finding that the benefits are getting smaller and smaller, it’s probably time to take a break from it.

At that point, you can just keep rolling forward with the frugal strategies you’ve learned while macrobudgeting instead. It’s a lower time investment and it keeps saving you money as long as you stick with the frugal strategies you’ve already integrated into your life.

Once you’ve reached that point, the only time when it makes sense to switch back to microbudgeting is during times of change when the routines of your life are shifting. For example, if you start noticing that you’re not having as much money left over at the end of the month as you once did, it’s time to consider a switch back to microbudgeting for a while. If you find yourself going through a significant change in life, such as a job loss, a switch to a new employer, a move to a new city, a separation, or something similar, it’s usually a good idea to jump back to microbudgeting for a few months.

The way I like to think of microbudgets is that they’re training wheels for financially responsible living. When you’re first learning how to ride a bicycle, training wheels are invaluable when it comes to teaching you how to balance yourself, but there comes a time when the training wheels aren’t needed any more. You remove them and you’re biking without those wheels holding you back at all.

However, let’s say that your bicycle broke and now you’re riding a pennyfarthing bicycle or a unicycle. Your ride has completely changed, though parts of it might seem familiar. Throwing the training wheels back on for at least a little while can be a good idea until you’re used to the differences.

The same thing is true with life changes. Your routines have changed, so it can be a good idea to switch back to microbudgeting for a while so that you can figure out the best frugal routines in your life after the changes. You can always take off the microbudgeting “training wheels” later on.

At the end of the day, the key thing to remember is that any budget is intended to help you make better decisions about where and how to spend your money. That’s the entire purpose of a budget: it allows you to see where your money is going and think about where you’d like it to go in the future. Microbudgeting just means that you’re putting a tighter grip on things for a while as you learn better frugal routines.

What do I do? I mostly macrobudget at this point, although I switch back to microbudgeting twice a year or so for a few months. I usually use You Need a Budget to figure out what’s going on with my finances, figure out which areas I’m struggling with (usually hobby spending, to be honest), and figure out ways to correct them.

My advice to you: If you’re struggling to figure out where your money is going, try microbudgeting for a few months and see what you discover. If you find that your normal routines are causing you to spend a lot less than you earn, switch to macrobudgeting and use the saved time wisely in your life. You can always switch between the two, as needed.

Good luck!

Related Articles:

• Does Budgeting Seem Too Complex for You? Five Simple Strategies to Try Instead
• The Secrets Behind Successful Budgeting
• Five Reasons Your Budget Isn’t Working

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Don’t Get Scammed on Craigslist. These 7 Steps Will Help You Stay Safe

It’s easy to feel anxious coming face-to-face with a stranger you met on the internet — especially when you’re expected to give them cash.

So how do you buy something on Craigslist without getting scammed, or worse, robbed?  

Craigslist states that by dealing locally and meeting in person, you’ll “avoid 99% of scam attempts” — but how do you stay safe when meeting a total stranger?

These seven tips will help you avoid sketchy Craigslist deals and stay safe.  

1. Always Meet in a Public Place   

This one might seem a bit obvious, but make sure to choose a public place with other people around.

Coffee shops or fast food joints work well, and you can find one on practically every corner.

Anywhere that’s busy and well-lit works; I once met up with a guy in a Winghouse parking lot to purchase a guitar.  

Because Craigslist deals are becoming so common, your local police station might even be able to help: SafeTrade lists police stations nationwide where you can safely meet up for your online deal.

Whatever you do, don’t give a stranger your address and invite them to your house — and don’t go to their home either.

2. Make Sure the Product Works

If you’re buying electronics or something that could be broken, don’t buy it without testing it.

By meeting up at a coffee shop, you can easily plug in the device to make sure everything works.

Because remember: Once you give the seller the cash and leave, there aren’t any refunds.  

3. Bring a Friend

Don’t meet this stranger alone; try to bring a friend or family member with you.

If no one’s available, make sure to let them know where — and who — you’re meeting.

Having another person with you reduces your chances of being robbed, and also provides a safety net.

4. Use Cash — But Not Too Much

If the seller insists on some type of money transfer or online payment, don’t do it.

Only purchase items from sellers who will meet in person and accept a cash payment. You won’t be protected if you send money for an item and never get anything in return.

That being said, don’t carry large amounts of cash, as it makes you more susceptible to being robbed. If you’re purchasing a big-ticket item — like a car — tell the seller that if you like what you see, you’ll go withdraw cash from the ATM and bring it back.

Another idea is to meet at your bank.

This “takes care of the cash problem,” explains Gizmodo. “You don’t have to carry a huge wad of bills in or out of the branch. Neither does your counterpart.”

Not to mention, continues Gizmodo, “the bank setting also alleviates secondary concerns, like being intimidated into accepting worse-than-promised gear, or a lower-than-discussed price.”

5. Get a Detailed Receipt

Purchasing an expensive product? Ask the seller for a detailed receipt. If something goes wrong with the product, this will be your only proof of purchase.

If you’re purchasing a used car, have a mechanic inspect it before you buy it. Also make sure the seller provides paperwork that proves they’re the owner of the car — or you might have trouble registering it in your name.

6. Don’t Give Out Personal Info

Since you’ll be meeting the seller in person, there’s no reason to give out any of your personal information.

You don’t even have to use your real email address: You can communicate through the Craigslist proxy email, which forwards to your personal email.

You can agree on a time and place via email, or if you feel comfortable after asking questions and confirming everything seems to be legit, you can give the seller your phone number. It’s even recommended to use a phone number that isn’t linked to your home address just in case.

Cell phones are usually linked to your home address, but you can easily download an app that provides a temporary and untraceable phone number. Burner provides a free 7-day trial — this way, the app’s services won’t cost anything if you’re just making a quick Craigslist transaction.

7. Trust Your Instincts

Lastly, go with your gut. It’s a red flag if the seller doesn’t want to meet you in certain places or won’t give you further details on the product.

And if something seems too good to be true, it probably is.

Your Turn: What kind of awesome deals have you scored on Craigslist? Have you ever purchased an item that ended up not being what was advertised?

Jacquelyn Pica, an editorial intern at The Penny Hoarder, always brings her dad for protection when handling Craigslist deals.

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Deal of the week: Get 20% off 400,000 easyJet flghts

Adam Williams

easyJet.jpg

Holidaymakers looking to beat the winter blues by booking a trip abroad should consider checking out easyJet’s new flight sale.

Holidaymakers looking to beat the winter blues by booking a trip abroad should consider checking out easyJet’s new flight sale.

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Moneywise's First 50 Funds dominate December's 10 most-bought funds

Marina Gerner and Gary Adams

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Fundsmith Equity, one of Moneywise's First 50 Funds, took the top position in the list of most-bought funds on Moneywise's sister website Interactive Investor for the ninth consecutive month.

Fundsmith Equity, one of Moneywise's First 50 Funds, took the top position in the list of most-bought funds on  Moneywise's sister website read more

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Check if you're due a Winter Fuel Payment

Adam Williams

radiator.jpg

With cold winter weather hitting much of the UK, a charity is urging people to check their eligibility for the Winter Fuel Payment scheme now.

With cold winter weather hitting much of the UK, a charity is urging people to check their eligibility for the Winter Fuel Payment scheme now.

Long periods of cold weather mean households often use more energy to heat their homes, which can cause heating bills to spike.

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Got a Knack for Writing Dating Profiles? Here’s How to Profit Off It

In 2005, marketing professional Jodi Manfredi was recently divorced and juggling her career and raising her son. She also wanted to jump back into the dating pool, so she joined the growing number of online daters by creating a profile.

While her profile was a success and attracted many men, she had no idea she’d eventually run a business dedicated to writing strangers’ dating site profiles.

So how exactly did Manfredi go from writing her own profile to becoming a dating profile writer? Read on to find out.

The First Spark

After Manfredi’s success with her own online dating profile, several of her friends requested she craft their profiles as well.

But it wasn’t until 2011, after Manfredi’s friend asked her to write a profile for her sister, that it first occurred to Manfredi that she could get paid to write online dating profiles.

Manfredi didn’t know her friend’s sister, so she got acquainted with her through a phone conversation.

“The next morning, I delivered a profile to her,” explained Manfredi. “She called me and said: ‘This is awesome — you nailed it. This is exactly what I’m looking for and exactly who I am. Why aren’t you doing this for a living?’”

Making Passion Pay: How This Dating Profile Writer Started a Business

Manfredi took the praise to heart. She began researching the ins and outs of the dating profile business and looking at startup costs. It was clear to her this was something worth trying, so in 2012, Manfredi founded Dynamic Dating Profiles.

Initial costs were minimal — Manfredi only outsourced the work involved in building her website and did the rest herself. She marketed her services through Facebook posts and blogging, and she worked on the business as much as time allowed.

But, while she was still in the midst of building Dynamic Dating Profiles, the unexpected happened: Manfredi received an offer for a full-time marketing position she couldn’t refuse.

So, Manfredi kept busy writing profiles and building her business during evenings and weekends. Six months after she started Dynamic Dating Profiles, the business took off.

Eventually, Manfredi decided she wanted a life and hired other profile writers to help her shoulder the workload. Now, she spends two to three hours per week on the business and occasionally writes profiles, while spending most of her time on her full-time job.

The business charges $119 for a full profile, which includes a profile of 300 words or more and a review of up to five photos. For $49, the company will review and give feedback on an existing profile.

Manfredi’s writers earn $35 to $52 per hour, depending on their skills and experience. Each full profile typically takes a writer two hours to complete. That includes the get-to-know-you phone call every client receives.

“I believe that you need to talk to someone — you need to hear their tone and make it conversational,” said Manfredi.

Then, the writer compiles the information they’ve gleaned from the phone call and writes an engaging, humorous profile — one that’s designed to catch the reader’s attention quickly.

Next, the writer edits or rewrites the profile once more, if necessary.

Could You Write Online Dating Profiles?

Manfredi says an online dating profile writer must have basic writing skills, including a grasp on grammar, spelling and syntax.

But being a good writer isn’t the only essential for a profile writer. Manfredi also considers a gregarious personality a must to get an open conversation rolling. A sense of humor is also paramount.

“In my mind, (dating profile writers) need to have razor-sharp wit. Because (making the reader laugh is the) most attractive thing about a profile,” said Manfredi.

While she’s currently backlogged with writers, Manfredi says you can get her attention by submitting a “very well-written profile that makes (her) laugh out loud.”

Most of her revenue goes to the writers she employs, but to Manfredi, the satisfaction of the work is worth more than the money she makes.

“It’s rewarding when (clients) get back to me, and they tell me that they met somebody or that they’re getting a lot more activity since they changed their profile,” said Manfredi.

If you think you’d love helping online daters create the perfect profile, here’s how you can get started:

• Hang out your freelance shingle like Manfredi did. Freelancers on the web list prices anywhere from $100 to $400 to review or rewrite profiles and/or critique their photos.

• Apply to become a profile writer at an established company. For example, at e-Cyrano, writers earn 60% of the profile fee (at the time of this writing). According to the site, profile fees range from $78 to $120, and most writers have one to two clients per week.

e-Cyrano’s application process for writers includes creating a 200-word dating profile for a friend accompanied by a 200-word essay on what your friend is seeking in a mate.

Your Turn: Do you think you could write an awesome online dating profile?

Carimé Lane is a Vancouver-based freelance writer who writes about health, fitness and the restaurant business and loves discovering new ways to make a living through the written word. She attributes her ability to stretch a penny to her Dutch heritage.

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How to Save Money on Your Next Laptop

Even though I’m happy with my six-year-old computer, I can’t help but take interest when new laptops come onto the market. It’s like how you don’t stop noticing other people you’re attracted to just because you’re in a relationship. (Note to my fiancee: I only have eyes for you!)

Because the variety of laptops is staggering, it can be hard to figure out what computer you actually need, the best place to buy a laptop, and how to get the best deal.

Whether you simply need a slim, cheap laptop to work online, or a powerful machine that can handle your company’s finicky security requirements, here’s how you can get the performance you need from a laptop without breaking the bank.

Bare Bones Models Offer More Than You Might Expect

Even for those looking to spend the bare minimum on a laptop, there are a number of good options. For instance, Google’s sleek, light, Chromebook line comes highly regarded.

The cheapest Chromebook starts at $179, and still comes packed with 2 GB of RAM, an Intel Dual Core processor, and a solid state hard drive. Various models are produced by Hewlett-Packard, Samsung, Acer, ASUS, and other manufacturers, but no Chromebook gets less than a four-star rating on Amazon.com, which is impressive for such an affordable machine.

Chromebook hard drives are quite small, however — about what you’d find on a basic smartphone — so these computers are better suited for people who don’t mind storing most of their data in the cloud, or as a backup computer that won’t be tasked with storing an entire video catalog or iTunes library.

That said, they’re pretty useful for people who do most of their work online – especially for the price. “I’ve used a Chromebook for 99% of my work the past two years,” says The Simple Dollar editor Jon Gorey. “It’s lightweight, it’s fast — it starts up in literally five seconds — and the Chrome OS gets updated automatically so I’ve never had any virus issues or anything… knock on wood. If you’re comfortable with Google Docs and work mostly online, it’s a bargain; I think mine was like $229, I’ve long since got my money’s worth. But we do have a desktop Mac as kind of an anchor computer for the house when we need it.”

Other computers in this price range to keep an eye on, according to PCMag.com, are the Lenovo Ideapad, the ASUS Vivobook, and the Dell Inspiron 11 3000 series.

The Oft-Forgotten Mid-Range Options

When I start searching for computers, I tend to focus on the extremes. I get excited thinking about owning something spartan and cheap, because I wouldn’t be very upset if it got damaged. Alternatively, I like to fawn over the best of the best, thinking that if I spend a bundle it’ll last me forever.

But there are plenty of great computers that won’t deplete your bank account and also offer more raw power, storage, and memory than the budget lines.

For our purposes, we’ll consider mid-range to be anything from $600 to $800. Sean Hollister, senior editor at CNET, recommends looking long and hard at the Dell Inspiron 7000, the Samsung Galaxy TabPro S, and the Lenovo ThinkPad 13.

Another way to snag something in this range is to be savvy about looking for computers that are normally very expensive but have come down in price. For instance, Hollister notes you can get a ThinkPad with even better specs in this price range if you find it on sale or refurbished. “You can find them in this price range when you look at the right time,” he says.

Buy Refurbished to Save Big

As Hollister notes, buying refurbished is one of the best ways to get a high-end laptop at a mid-range price point.

This is different than simply hopping on Craigslist or eBay and buying used. In those situations, you have no guarantee that the seller is being honest with their listing. While there are deals to be had on these sites, make sure you do your due diligence.

When you buy a refurbished computer straight from the manufacturer, however, you’re getting a pre-owned machine that has been repaired and restored to almost-new condition by the company’s own technicians. They typically come with warranties, so you’re protected against buying a faulty product.

So not only are refurbished machines guaranteed to work, they’re also much more affordable than a brand-new version.

For example, if you’re an Apple fanatic, but you’re also trying to be frugal, Apple’s refurbished outlet is going to be your best place to buy a laptop. Every computer on Apple’s refurbished site is at least 15% off — and any fanboy knows Apple rarely, if ever, discounts its products.

Dell and Lenovo also have well-regarded sites where you can find great deals on refurbished machines.

How (and When) to Find Cheap Laptops for Sale

There are certain times of year that are always going to be good for saving money on tech purchases, such as Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and the back-to-school months (July to September.) If you have patience, you can find heavy discounts on most laptop models around these times. The best places to search are reputable sellers who are inclined to have sales, such as Best Buy, NewEgg, and Tiger Direct.

Also, you might benefit from setting up price alerts. This means that you install a web application on your browser that lets you know when a computer you have your eye on drops below a certain price. Some popular ones include Amazon Price Watch and CamelCamelCamel.

• Related: The Best Price Trackers to Beat Black Friday

Another thing to keep in mind is that after a new model of computer is released, the previous year’s model will inevitably drop in price. This is especially useful if you’re looking at higher end laptops, where the new releases sometimes only improve on specs you don’t care that much about, such as weight or screen resolution. (Now that we have retina displays, how much better can screens really get? Do I need to get Lasik eye surgery to fully enjoy the newest crop of laptops?)

A Final Tip: Don’t Be Seduced by Processor Speeds

You might want the latest and greatest laptop because it promises to turbocharge your computing experience via a state-of-the-art processor. For instance, everyone wants their machines to have an i7 Intel chip these days. Of course, ever-improving processing speeds are also part of the reason new computers can be so expensive.

But, it turns out that processing speed might not be that important after all. Notable online tech experts, such as the writer who simply goes by “Daley” at Techmeshugana.com, are shedding light on this fact. “Most 10-year-old processors are still more than capable of performing the same tasks as today’s top processors for the average user,” Daley says.

It turns out that the improved processing speeds have helped things like battery life and power consumption, but for the average user, top of the line speeds won’t make that much of a difference in performance. According to Daley, “Unless you’re editing large media files, insist on watching 1080p or higher resolution videos, or game heavily… pretty much any dual core (or greater) processor running at 1.8GHz (or faster) should be plenty for most people’s needs.”

Keep those specs in mind as you hunt for deals, because you don’t want to overpay for something that won’t end up mattering to your overall computing experience.

Summing Up

Sometimes after I watch a particularly compelling truck commercial, I’ll be convinced that I’ve been depriving myself because my car doesn’t have enough torque. Then I remember I don’t really know what torque is, and I’m pretty sure I won’t be hauling three tons of construction material up a rocky cliff anytime soon.

The same thinking should apply when you’re looking for laptops. Keep in mind that even the cheapest options are very powerful these days, and should be more than enough for the average consumer.

Finally, if you make sure that you always investigate refurbished options and keep an eye on seasonal price fluctuations, you’ll set yourself up to find the perfect laptop for your budget.

Related Articles:

• Why You Should Worship Your Old Computer
• How I Use Evernote, My Most Essential Free Online Tool
• Price-Drop Protection: This App Shakes Down Retailers to Refund You When Prices Drop

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Club Lloyds savers braced for interest rate change, while TSB rate cut also takes force

Adam Williams

lloyds-bank.jpg

Savers with a Club Lloyds current account will see their monthly interest slashed when new rates come into effect this weekend.

Savers with a Club Lloyds current account will see their monthly interest slashed when new rates come into effect this weekend.

read more

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Ask GFC 025: Does Roth IRA Conversion Make Sense When I’m Already Retired?

I’ve talked a lot over the years about Roth IRA conversions, but do they make sense when you are already retired? And if so, what’s the best strategy to bring about the conversion?

We received an Ask GFC question that refers to both topics:

“I have 300K in a former employer 401K. I am 69 years old. Preparing for the RMD (Required Minimum Distributions) in 2 years, I am thinking of moving some 401K to a Roth before then. Can I
do the following:

— Move $50k from the 401K after the 4th Q distribution (so I get that income), but before year end? Assume distribution is 12/23, get distribution, then move 401K 12/28 for tax hit this year.

— Move $50k from 401K sometime next year for tax hit next year.I may move more depending on how the tax hit plays out, will analyze that.”

For the most part, doing a Roth conversion is usually a good idea, no matter which side of the retirement line you’re on. And spacing the conversion out over several years is usually the best strategy. But let’s discuss the specifics, since doing the conversion in retirement might add a wrinkle or two to the process.

The Benefit of Doing a Roth Conversion in Retirement

Since withdrawals taken from Roth IRAs are tax-free, this is the most obvious benefit for doing a conversion. By converting 401(k) funds to a Roth IRA, the writer is exchanging a taxable income source for a tax-free source. The tax implications however aren’t always a pure play, particularly in retirement, but we’ll get more specific with taxes in the next section.

The next biggest advantage of a Roth conversion – in fact, maybe the biggest in retirement – is that Roth IRAs don’t require required minimum distributions (RMD’s).

Why is that such a big deal?

RMDs are the method that the IRS uses to force funds out of tax-sheltered retirement plans, and into taxable income. After years of accumulating tax-deductible and tax-deferred contributions and earnings, RMD’s represent tax payback time.

RMD’s are required once you reach the age of 70 1/2. At that point, each plan must begin distributing funds based on your remaining life expectancy at the age of each distribution. In theory, this will mean that from age 70 1/2 to, say 90, your retirement plan will be roughly depleted, or very close to it.

That becomes an obvious problem if you live past 90, which is no longer uncommon. But you will arrive at that age with greatly reduced retirement assets.

Since Roth IRAs don’t require RMD’s, they are almost certainly your best hope of not outliving your money.

In the same way, Roth IRAs are an excellent way to preserve at least some of your retirement assets to pass on to your heirs upon your death. While traditional IRAs and other retirement plans generate a tax liability for your heirs (because of RMD’s), Roth IRAs don’t generate taxable income.

So there are clearly compelling reasons for converting a 401(k), or any other tax-sheltered retirement plans, over to a Roth IRA.

The Possible Tax Consequences of this Roth Conversion

In order to get the tax-free income that a Roth IRA provides, you first have to pay regular income tax on the amount of money that you convert from other retirement plans. Once again distributions from any retirement plan – other than a Roth IRA – are subject to income tax.

By converting $50,000 of his 401(k) plan to a Roth IRA, the writer is adding $50,000 to his taxable income. If as a result of adding that amount to his other taxable income puts him in the 25% tax bracket, then he will have to pay $12,500 on the conversion. Any state income taxes will add to that liability.

This is where you have to evaluate your current tax situation, compared to what you expect it to be in a few years. The writer is 69 years old and doesn’t indicate if he is retired or if he’s still working. That creates an extra consideration.

If he is in anything greater than the 15% tax bracket, but expects to be in a lower tax bracket after turning 70 1/2, he might not want to do the conversion right now. That is especially true if he does have employment income.

However if he does not expect a significant decline in his tax bracket going forward, it will make sense to do the Roth conversion now.

I don’t know if any apply to the writer, but there are at least three other tax factors that need to be considered when doing a Roth conversion:

1) The 3.8% Medicare surtax. Under the provisions of Obamacare, there is a 3.8% Medicare surtax on investment income earned by couples filing jointly with a modified adjusted gross income (MAGI) of more than $250,000 (or $200,000 for single filers). You’ll want to be careful that the amount of the Roth conversion won’t trigger that tax.

2) If you have company stock in your 401(k) plan. The writer wants to convert his 401(k). That raises the possibility that the plan contains company stock. There are special rules that apply to net unrealized appreciation (NUA) of appreciated company stock in a company plan. Since the writer is over age 59 1/2, those rules would allow him to take a lump sum distribution from the 401(k), and pay the income tax only on the actual cost of the stock. He can sell the stock at a later date, paying only the long-term capital gains rate. This may cost him less in taxes than doing the Roth conversion.

3) Pay the tax liability out of non-tax sheltered savings. If the writer wants to be able to convert the entire $50,000 to a Roth IRA, he will need to pay the income tax liability out of taxable savings. For example, if he is in the 25% tax bracket, he will have to pay $12,500 in taxes. If he pays this out of the conversion amount, only $37,500 will make it to the Roth. By paying the tax bill out of taxable savings, he can convert the entire balance.

Addressing the Writer’s Specific Questions

Now that we’ve covered the basics of doing a Roth conversion after retirement, let’s get to addressing the writer’s specific questions.

The writer asks if he can do the following:

Move $50k from the 401K after the 4th Q distribution (so I get that income), but before year end? Assume distribution is 12/23, get distribution, then move 401K 12/28 for tax hit this year.

Move $50k from 401K sometime next year for tax hit next year.I may move more depending on how the tax hit plays out, will analyze that.”

The answer to both questions is virtually the same. He can certainly do this, and it makes a lot of sense to spread the conversion out over several years. There’s $300,000 sitting in his 401(k), and the tax consequences of moving that all at once can be overwhelming. It’s better to do the conversion on the installment plan when that kind of money is involved.

If he were to attempt to move the entire 401(k) balance of $300,000 in one year, it could push his combined federal and state income tax liability to somewhere between 40% and 50%. Paying upwards of $150,000 in taxes, for the privilege of having tax-free income in the future, is too steep price to pay even for that benefit.

By making annual conversions of $50,000, the transfer should be subject to much lower tax rates, enabling him to move more of money into the Roth.

This is what I meant when I said earlier that the tax implications of a Roth conversion aren’t always a pure play. Much depends on your income tax bracket, and on the amount of funds that you are converting to a Roth.

In all likelihood however, the writer will be able to set the conversion up in a way that keeps his tax liability to a minimum, and accomplishes the goal that he hopes it will.

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Here’s Your Month-by-Month Guide to the Best Time to Buy Almost Everything

Imagination at work

There are a lot of great places in the area to see art created by local artists. With many different art galleries in the Pocono region, finding some local culture isn’t too difficult, or too far away. The Madelon Powers Art Gallery in East Stroudsburg University’s Fine and Performing Arts Center is gearing up for a new show beginning next month. The gallery, designed by David Ross in 1978, is 1,000 square feet of art-filled space. [...]

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Worried About Losing Obamacare? Here’s What You Can Do Right Now

Making good on many campaign promises, the new crop of Congressional Republicans kicked off 2017 yesterday with their first step toward a plan to “repeal and replace Obamacare.”

GOP legislators resurfaced a bill with some ideas to replace the Affordable Care Act, which introduced health insurance exchanges and subsidies, among other efforts to expand insurance coverage in the U.S.

“Make no mistake about it,” vice president-elect Mike Pence told reporters yesterday after a meeting with Republican lawmakers. “We’re going to keep our promise to the American people — we’re going to repeal Obamacare and replace it with solutions that lower the cost of health insurance without growing the size of government.”

While supporters are happy to see such swift action from representatives on the promises that got them elected, many Americans are worried.

What Exactly is Happening With Obamacare?

With only vague mentions of “a plan” from House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI), we’re uncertain what to expect.

The bill making headlines now is “unlikely to become the main vehicle in the House to repeal Obamacare,” according to CNN. No one seems to know exactly how “repeal and replace” will look.

It leaves us in limbo, with many people wondering: Are we about to lose our health insurance?

Unfortunately, all public answers to that question are, for now, only speculation.

What to Do if You Rely on Obamacare for Health Insurance

If you’re one of about 20 million people who’ve gained health insurance since 2010 directly because of the Affordable Care Act, don’t panic.

Few people know what’s actually going to happen as Republicans move forward with their plan, so don’t let guesses get you down.

If you don’t like sitting on your hands waiting to learn your fate, here are two pragmatic steps you can take now to prepare yourself (a bit) from whatever “repeal and replace” might mean.

1. Enroll (or renew) in the health insurance marketplace before Jan. 31.

If you don’t have health insurance through an employer, Medicare, Medicaid or another source, enroll through the health insurance marketplace before Jan. 31.

You can enroll:

• Online at healthcare.gov

• By Phone: 1-800-318-2596 (TTY: 1-855-889-4325)

• In person, with help from groups in your community.

• By mail, with this paper application (Follow these instructions.).

If you had coverage in 2016 through the health care marketplace and didn’t make any changes, you were probably automatically enrolled in the same plan for 2017 — so you should be covered.

You can check your enrollment status through your account at Healthcare.gov or by calling the number above.

Even if you were automatically enrolled, you may want to check your plan to make sure you have the best coverage available. You can update it through the marketplace before Jan. 31.

Sign up to make sure you have the best coverage you can get now, so you know you’re covered as long as possible. This will save you from scrambling for coverage or care after the full plan is unveiled.

2. Make an appointment with your doctor.

We don’t know that you’ll be stuck with a gap in health care coverage between “repeal” and “replace.” But if a gap would have serious ramifications on your health, plan ahead.

“People should sign up and continue to be covered as long as the Republicans let them,” Tim Jost, a health care law expert at Washington and Lee University told MONEY. “People should think about if there’s anything I can get now, that might not last past repeal.”

That could mean getting in your annual physical now, scheduling a procedure you’ve been putting off, filling prescriptions or switching to a birth control method that will outlast the incoming administration.

Resources to Reduce Your Health Care Costs

In the meantime, resourceful Penny Hoarders can always search for alternative ways to afford health care.

Visit a doctor online! Use telehealth to meet with a Board-certified medical professional online at a fraction of the cost of a clinical visit.

For your mental health, here are nine ways to get free or cheap therapy when you don’t have health insurance.

If you’re engaged in a Christian church and are relatively healthy, consider joining Medi-Share or another health-care sharing ministry.

For medication, check out these six ways to save money filling your prescriptions.

And, with or without health insurance, follow these 10 tips to save money on your medical bills.

Your Turn: Will your family be affected if Congress decides to repeal Obamacare?

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).

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2 Major Credit Bureaus Owe Consumers $17.6 Million. Do You Qualify?

The Big Three.

Not the automobile manufacturers. Not the World War II leading trio (for you history buffs). Not a band. Not a football division (try 10 and 12 on that one).

In our Penny Hoarding world, the big three are Experian, TransUnion and Equifax — the three largest credit reporting agencies.

Two of these credit reporting agencies have screwed up — to the tune of more than $17.6 million.

And if you were affected, you might be able to get your hands on some of that money.

TransUnion and Equifax Facing Major Fines

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has fined TransUnion for two violations, and Equifax for three uh-ohs.

Here’s the breakdown.

1. Misrepresenting credit scores

FICO scores are the best known and most widely used among lenders, reports our contributor Sarah Kuta. It’s not a credit reporting agency, but FICO uses information from those all three to calculate a score.

Consumers who bought scores from TransUnion received VantageScores, according to the CFPB. Equifax provided consumers with its own Equifax Credit Score.

Neither of these numbers are typically used in credit decisions.

2. Signing up unknowing consumers for paid subscription programs

Each agency advertised its services for free — or for $1. (By the way, there are plenty of opportunities to get free credit scores.)

“In reality, consumers who signed up received a free trial of seven or 30 days, after which they were automatically enrolled in a subscription program,” the agency said in its news release

Unless folks canceled during the trial, they began getting charged $16 or more — per month. No part of this process was “clearly and conspicuously disclosed,” the CFPB said.

3. Exposing consumers to advertisements

This was Equifax’s bad.

The mogul also violated the Fair Credit Reporting Act, which requires agencies to provide a free report once a year and to do so on the Annual Credit Report website, according to the CFPB.

Up until January 2014, those who opted for their free report through Equifax were forced to view advertisements before receiving a score, which totally violates the law.

Did the TransUnion and Equifax Mistakes Affect You?

TransUnion’s violations have been going on since at least July 2011 and have affected approximately 700,000 consumers. Equifax violated laws between July 2011 and March 2014; the CFPB did not report the number of people affected.

Now, the agencies must pay more than $17.6 million to affected customers — $13.9 million from TransUnion and $3.8 million from Equifax.

If you’re one of these affected customers, you should get a notification letter in the mail. The companies have 60 days to make a plan, then consumers should expect to get word on the specifics.

On top of that big ole payout, the companies will pay $5.5 million total in penalties — plus make major changes to their operations.

Your Turn: Were you affected by these credit reporting agencies?

Carson Kohler (@CarsonKohler) is a junior writer at The Penny Hoarder. After recently completing graduate school, she focuses on saving money — and surviving the move back in with her parents.

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31 Days to Financial Independence (Day 21): Starting a Side Business

“31 Days to Financial Independence” is an ongoing series that appears every Thursday on The Simple Dollar. You might want to start this series from the beginning!

Last time, we examined strategies you might want to use if you’re looking to move on to a better job. Today, we’re going to to take a different approach to income generation and look at some strategies for starting a side gig.

So, what’s a “side gig”? A side gig simply refers to anything you do outside of your main job in order to earn some additional money that’s self-funded (meaning you don’t have to take out debt for it and already have the gear you need or can buy it out of pocket) and won’t require employees, at least not at first. Usually, it’s in reference to a microbusiness, where you’re making something and/or selling something. This can take a lot of forms, from starting a Youtube channel to engaging in freelancing parallel to your career, from repairing smartphones to building wooden Adirondack deck chairs, from making jewelry to sell on Etsy to mowing lawns.

The key to a successful side gig is to find something that you enjoy doing that you can turn into profitability or else find something that other people hate doing that you don’t mind doing so that they’ll pay you for it. For example, in the first category, you might make a Youtube channel about your hobby, or in the second category, you might mow lawns. It also needs to be something that isn’t so time-consuming that you can’t do it in your spare time.

In my own experience, building a side gig was a fundamental part of achieving financial and professional success. The Simple Dollar started as a side gig for me, one that grew into a full time job over a series of years, and it helped both with our financial turnaround but also with our life flexibility.

Let’s get to it!

Exercise #21 – Building a Side Gig

Most of the strategies in this article seek to tease out some of those ideas from your own life and then how to turn that idea into something that actually makes money along with a few basic tips on keeping your money straight.

Identify your personal skills and passions. People pay money for skills. They also pay money for passion. That’s what people like to spend their money on. People want things that are done with skill. People enjoy things that are produced with passion and care. People put up their money for things that they want and enjoy.

Thus, if you want to make money, one great way to start is with things you’re passionate about and things with which you have skill.

To start, make a list of all of the skills you have: things you can do well that elude others, either through natural talent or through training. Maybe you’re good at photography or line drawing. Maybe you’re really good at poker. Perhaps you can play the piano, or you’re a wizard at Adobe Illustrator. Perhaps you’re good at making videos, or maybe you can write reasonably good prose in large volumes quickly (that’s something I can do!). Maybe you’re a borderline golf pro. Figure out the things you’re notably good at.

Then, figure out things that you’re really passionate about. What do you love doing or learning about? Perhaps you’re passionate about science fiction books. Maybe you’re really into binge-watching shows on Netflix. Maybe your passion is board games. Think of things that you truly love, that you’re opinionated about, that you think about all the time.

Those two lists are things that you can draw upon to form a side gig. The best ones, I’ve found, come when you combine a skill that you have – say, video making – with a passion that you have – say, science fiction. That means you’re in a place to create something with skill that you’re passionate about, and you’ll almost always find fans who will buy into what you’re doing when you combine the two.

If you don’t have a skill that matches up well with a passion, you can always focus on learning a skill. Video making is a great skill to learn, for example. Starting a side gig can be a wonderful incentive for learning a skill.

Identify things you don’t mind doing that other people hate doing. If you’re struggling with the previous list, switch your focus to considering things that you don’t mind doing that other people seem to loathe doing. House cleaning. Lawn mowing and other yard work. Laundry. Moving stuff. Walking dogs. Those are all tasks that people don’t enjoy doing and will often pay others to do.

Think about things that others complain about all the time that you really don’t mind doing and you’re probably pretty close to the source of a side gig for yourself. People will always pay to offload a task that they don’t enjoy.

From those lists, identify two or three ideas that might work for you. At this point, you should have a bunch of skills, passions, and tasks you don’t mind tackling written down. Now is the time to start filtering all of those ideas.

The first step here is to start mining those skills, passions, and tasks for potential side gig ideas. Just look at those things and ask yourself what you could do with them to make money, especially when you can combine a skill and a passion.

For example, if you wrote down that you’re skilled at Adobe Illustrator and that you’re passionate about board games, perhaps you could find someone with an interesting prototype for a game and turn it into something beautiful that you could publish together. If you’re passionate about chess and interested in learning videography, perhaps you could start a Youtube channel where you teach basic chess or else analyze matches in a way that a layperson could understand. If you’re passionate about board games and skilled at writing quickly, maybe you could start a blog about board game reviews. Add those things to your list.

You might have freelancing opportunities related to each of your skills as well. You might have the opportunity to directly sell your creative works or offer consulting.

Maybe you don’t mind doing laundry and others hate it; you could start a “laundry service at your door” business. If you like mowing, maybe you could start a lawn care business. Almost everything that other people dislike doing that you don’t mind is a great basis or a business.

Hopefully, you’ll come up with a list of several ideas for businesses during this process. If you did, spend some time whittling that list down to the two or three that intrigue you the most. You should strive to end with your three best ideas for a side gig.

Develop a real business plan for each idea. Take each of those three ideas and flesh them out into a business plan. This seems like a painful formal process to many, but there’s a very good reason for making a business plan: it helps you see the potential problems in your idea before you start running with it, which means you can think of ways to get around those problems so that you’re more likely to have success right off the bat.

I highly suggest following the recommendations for writing a business plan from the Small Business Administration. You can skip over the parts about funding – a side gig should be self-funded, as noted above – but take the other parts seriously. Unless you’re doing this just for kicks, you’re going to want to have a side gig that will succeed and walking through the steps of writing a business plan for each of your ideas will pretty quickly help you figure out the problems and benefits for each of your ideas.

I did this with The Simple Dollar (back then, I used a business plan book from the library rather than these great SBA resources that exist today) and with many other small businesses I’ve dabbled in. The process of writing such a plan has almost always helped me see obstacles and helped me figure out how to deal with them before they become disasters that I’ve invested many hours in. I’ve walked away from many ideas after writing a business plan, and for good reason – they would have turned into black holes of time and money, slurping away all of those resources and giving me little in return.

Once you’ve written up a business plan using these ideas, pass them around to some trusted family members or friends or mentors. Send each one to a few people and get their feedback. Send them to people you trust and whose advice you trust and take their comments seriously. They might be really negative on an idea that you think is great, but rather than just brushing it off as “jealousy” or something, stop and listen to what they’re saying. Often, the good people in your life are critical of something you’re doing for a reason – they may be seeing something you’re not seeing due to your own blind spots.

Often, this can turn into a feedback cycle, where people give you comments, you improve the business plan, and then you send it to people for a second reading or to new people for a fresh reading. The goal is to develop a plan as well as you can so that you have a strong plan going forward when you start.

Choose the one that makes the most sense. Once you’ve written up a few plans, passed them around to people for comments, and made some changes to each one, read each one of them again and make a decision on which one to follow up on.

Most of the time, you’ll already know in your gut which one you should choose, but if you’re still uncertain, my general suggestion is to choose the one that you think you could sustain over the longest period of time. If you’re thinking that a particular idea sounds profitable but that you can see it becoming misery in a few months or a year, skip that one. You don’t want to invest the time and effort into building something up only to find yourself hating it down the road.

Wall off blocks of time to devote to your business. Once you’ve got a business plan in place, wall off some blocks of time during your typical week to devote solely to this business. This is your time to work on your side gig – make it as uninterruptible as your main job.

Unless the tasks for this side gig require long blocks of time – meaning that the weekend is the best time for it – it’s usually better to devote a block of time most days to the business. Plan for it every day unless there is a mitigating reason not to, like a particular meeting you have on Tuesdays or something like that. Put this in your calendar. Make it a real thing.

Blocking off a segment of time each day for your side gig means that you’ll move forward on the things that need to be done and you’ll begin to take it more seriously. It will become a routine for you, and when it becomes a routine, you’re going to find that you’re much more likely to do the hard work it takes to make it succeed.

What if you don’t have anything to do at the moment? Spend that time promoting the business so that you’ll have more to do later on. Get engaged on social media or in your community in an effort to promote what you’re doing. Alternately, spend that time sharpening the skills you have that the business is based on by taking classes or working on interesting personal projects that use those skills. Don’t waste that blocked off time; do something that adds value or potential value to your side gig.

Launch sooner rather than later. If there’s one thing I’ve learned about side gigs, it’s that “the perfect is the enemy of the good,” to borrow that old maxim. It’s completely true, too – if you spend your time preparing to launch something and you keep tweaking it and editing your business plan and making promotional stuff and talking about it and thinking about it but never actually doing it because it doesn’t seem “perfect” yet, you’ll never do it.

Just do it. Let go. You have something good there, so launch it. Dig in. Get started.

Yes, there will be problems. There would be problems if you waited until things were “perfect” to launch it, too. Nothing will turn out exactly like you dream it to be.

You know what? That’s okay. The purpose of a side gig is to spend some of your spare time doing something that makes money and if you’re not launching, you have zero chance of making money. You can only succeed if you throw it out there.

Don’t sit around fretting and worrying and planning and trying to perfect things. It will never be perfect. Instead, just dive in and get started.

Start off as a sole proprietor, but keep all money separate from the very start. Much small business advice suggests starting off with a legal business structure, but I think that’s really only a good idea if you’re investing a lot of money in equipment solely for the business itself and not directly for personal use. Given that this is a side gig, one that may or may not take off, and one that you’re starting by using things you have on your own or with very little investment – as suggested at the start – I’d suggest just sticking with a sole proprietorship at first.

So, what’s a sole proprietorship? It means that any income you earn from this business is considered personal income. It’s by far the easiest way to handle a side gig in terms of taxes, but it doesn’t offer you any real personal protection, either. If the business starts to grow or if you’re starting to acquire significant things in the name of the business, you may eventually want to structure it legally like a business.

Because of that, I strongly suggest keeping all money separate from the very start. Keep a separate checking account solely for the business and get in the habit of paying for all expenses for the business out of that account, putting all income for the business into that account, and if there’s money in there, paying yourself by taking the money out of the business account and moving it to your personal checking account.

Eventually, if you move to a more robust business structure, having this already in place will make everything much easier. This will also make things easier when it comes time for taxes, even now, because you’ll have all expenses related to this side gig separate from all of your personal stuff.

When might you transition to a different structure? That gets into a completely different ball of worms…

If things start to click, dig deep into entrepreneurship reading. This article isn’t a be-all-end-all of entrepreneurship, obviously. It’s a “getting started” guide that can push you to the point where you’re launching a little side gig that can make you a few dollars.

Sometimes, that’s all that will happen. (And, yes, sometimes even that won’t happen.) But sometimes, you’ll find that things really click. People like what you’re doing. You accumulate more popularity, more viewers, more readers, more clients than you ever expected. It starts to eat more of your time. You start making significant money. You wonder what the next steps are. You wonder about things like business structures and legal protection and possibly hiring employees. You wonder whether this could become your full-time thing.

When those things start happening, then you need to turn to some deeper guides on entrepreneurship and building a business. One great place to start is The $100 Startup by Chris Guillebeau, which covers some of the ground in this article but carries it further, describing many of the steps one would take if a side gig grows up. The Lean Startup by Eric Ries is a great book about what steps to take if you have a side gig that seems successful and you want to grow it while avoiding failures that can come from growth. Ready, Fire, Aim by Michael Masterson focuses well on what you need to do to take that core idea and turn it into something that will grow rapidly. The Tax & Legal Playbook by Mark Kohler is a great book for when you start to earn significant income from your side gig and you want to understand some basic tax strategies and whether different business structures are right for you. And those options just scratch the surface.

Those books will help you greatly if you find that you have a successful side gig on your hands, one that might grow faster than you think you can handle. That’s a good problem to have.

Next time, we’ll step back and look at “the gap” you’re creating with all of your efforts.

The post 31 Days to Financial Independence (Day 21): Starting a Side Business appeared first on The Simple Dollar.

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An Unusual Job With Awesome Benefits is Helping This Couple Get Out of Debt

In the winter of 2008, my husband and I were like many other families, struggling to pay our bills.

We took all the advice we could to save money — like cutting the cable, using coupons and buying used when we could — but the simple truth was we simply weren’t making enough money.

We both worked part-time for a local newspaper, he also was a part-time college instructor and I was freelance writing.

It all added up to a lot of hours, and not enough money. We averaged about $1,500 a month working as much as 60 hours a week.

To our surprise, our answer lay in a job that first looked far less than awesome.

Our Weird and Wonderful New Job

We found the ad in our local newspaper. A storage facility located about five miles from where we were in Carbondale, Illinois, was seeking facility managers.

Our interview lasted less than 30 minutes over coffee at the local Denny’s. After answering a few questions about our basic computer and customer-service skills, we were hired as live-on-site managers for a self-storage facility.

Our first job working as self-storage managers had a starting salary of $800 a month in return for keeping the office open 52 hours a week.

Even living in the one of the cheapest parts of the country — rural southern Illinois — how could we not only live, but save money, on such a low salary?

The benefits made this job worth taking — and they turned out to be perfect for letting us live our lifestyle.

The Benefits That Made It All Worth It

Accepting the job meant the owner gave us a 1,200-square-foot, two-bedroom apartment and paid all our utilities — in addition to the small salary.

The apartment was furnished with only major appliances, so we ended up buying some extra furniture for the second bedroom.

The salary was commission-based with a guaranteed minimum of $800. We got the minimum exactly once, our first month there. Our monthly commission rose steadily, but topped out in five years at less than the $1,500 a month we made previously.

Even with the boss paying your rent, electric, phone and Internet bill, how exactly do you pay off your bills and become nearly debt-free in five years?

Other than our student loans, we paid off all our old bills, took our first vacation in years, bought a washer and dryer and paid cash for a new car.

Here’s How We Did It

First, we got serious about saving money.

We ate at home, limiting dinner out to the night we went grocery shopping. We made a menu and shopped to it.

And we put every dime we possibly could into our car fund. We were driving a 1995 Kia Sephia with 150,000 miles when we took the job, and we vowed to keep driving it until we could pay cash for a new car.

Working from home meant we saved on gas and car insurance, and we didn’t have to buy lunches or snacks at the office.

Next, we looked for other opportunities.

One of the first things our boss said to sell us on the job was he didn’t mind if we played video games, cleaned the house or watched TV during office hours — as long as we answered the phone and helped customers who came in.

So if someone came in needing a storage unit, we’d show them their options and try to convince them to rent with us. When they did, we’d have to sign a contract and take their payments.

We also went above and beyond those requirements.

We’d answer the phone and help customers based on their schedules, including after normal business hours and on traditional holidays like Memorial Day and Labor Day. As a result, our commissions grew.

But more than that, if the office was open, we were working — on our side hustles.

My husband’s degrees are in photography and graphic design and mine in journalism. He designed ads for the newspaper and I wrote fiction and nonfiction during office hours.

The first few years as storage managers, our income topped out at $25,000 a year, but by 2012 we had saved enough to buy a car. Using Ford’s employee discount (my grandfather was a retired Ford employee), we paid just under $18,000 for a new car and left $7,000 in the bank.

We joke that we took the job because both of us wanted to be writers, but didn’t want to be starving artists. Working as self-storage managers helped us live our dream!

In 2015, our side jobs netted us an additional $28,000.

Finding Even Better Benefits

After five years on the job, we had more experience, a two-year-old car still under warranty, and enough money in the bank to fund a cross-country move.

When we were ready to leave southern Illinois, we looked for websites dedicated to the type of job we wanted and stumbled across WorkingCouples.com, which specializes in jobs for married teams. Through the site, we found another self-storage management position.

This one came with a company vehicle, cell phone and a three-bedroom home on the storage property. They even pay for our gym membership!

During our second year here, we made three times as much as we had at the old facility. Food, car insurance, health insurance and those dreaded student loans were our only normal monthly expenses.

With the new job, we have quickly rebuilt our just-in-case nest egg and started making extra payments to get rid of the student loans.

Is a Storage Job Right for You?

The work is easy and we’re only busy a few days a month.  

You’ll probably live close to an industrial area, which means no neighbors, but we don’t mind.

And, the first time new friends come to visit, you have to carefully explain that you live at the storage facility. Once most people see how little we work and how nice the house is, their first question is, “Where do we sign up?”

At least one of you needs to be good at customer service. That means answering the phone and talking with potential renters when they visit the office.

You’ll need basic computer skills — and it’s nice if you can do very basic handyman work to replace broken latches.

That’s it. We suggest working in jeans.

Of course, no job is perfect — there are a few pitfalls.

You Live Where You Work

For some people, living where you work can be difficult.

We make it clear we don’t keep cash in the office. It’s attached to our house and we have a good relationship with the local police.

But because of the facility’s security, we probably have better security than most people’s homes. We have security cameras, an alarm system and an electronic gate between us and the world.

We also plan to spend time away from the house several times a week. Even if it’s just taking a walk at the local mall, it helps fight the monotony of working where you live.

You Work Every Saturday

We’re only open a half-day on Saturdays, but we’re still open.

But we get two weeks paid vacation every year, a part-time helper who comes in when we need a mental health break, and major holidays off — Thanksgiving, Christmas and Fourth of July.

You also have to teach customers not to bother you after office hours.

Usually, it means gently reminding them the office is closed even if you’re home. Because you live on the property, it’s not a great environment for children or outdoor animals.

But for those of us who want to create without being starving artists, it’s a great way to make and save money!

Your Turn: Would you work as a storage facility manager to pursue your dream?

Lucinda Gunnin and her husband Thor manage 422 Spacemall Self Storage in Oaks, Pennsylvania. Both are published authors with Twin Trinity Media and love knowing that they can create while not worrying about paying the bills.

The post An Unusual Job With Awesome Benefits is Helping This Couple Get Out of Debt appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.

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Petrol and diesel hit highest prices for 18 months

Helen Knapman

Petrol_pumps.jpg

Petrol and diesel prices rose by about 3p a litre in December taking them to their highest average prices since July 2015, according to the latest RAC Fuel Watch data.

Petrol and diesel prices rose by about 3p a litre in December taking them to their highest average prices since July 2015, according to the latest RAC Fuel Watch data.

Unleaded hit 117.23p a litre on 29 December, while diesel rose to 119.63p having been at 114.24p and 116.56p a litre respectively at the beginning of the month.

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