How to Maximize Rewards During Southwest Flash Sale

Southwest flyers and spontaneous travelers have a reason to celebrate — at least until Thursday. As part of a limited-time fare sale, Southwest Airlines is offering astonishingly low rates on many domestic and international flights.

Flyers can depart from over 100 cities, including locations in the U.S., the Caribbean and Mexico. All tickets are one-way, and must be booked by Oct. 12 (Thursday). Here’s a list of available flight dates (Friday and Sunday flight dates are excluded):

Domestic travel:

• Oct. 31 – Dec. 19, 2017
• Jan. 3 – Feb. 14, 2018

Travel to/from San Juan, Puerto Rico:

• Oct. 31 – Dec. 7, 2017
• Jan. 16 – March 1, 2018

International travel:

• Oct. 31 – Dec. 13, 2017
• Jan. 10 – March 2, 2018

The lowest prices tend to go for Southwest’s shortest domestic routes (such as Des Moines to St. Louis), but prices are down all across the board. One-way domestic flights are priced as low as $49, (or 2,330 points for Southwest Rapid Rewards members), and international flights are priced as low as $59 (2,1610 points).

Using Rapid Rewards®

New holders who have already earned and received their signup bonus points (spend $1,000 on purchases within the first three months of card ownership to earn 40,000 points) can really cash in on this deal. With fares running as low as 2,330 points, that’s enough to cover airfare to your destination and back!

If you’re still brand-new to the card and you haven’t earned your points yet, don’t worry: Southwest holds flash sales every year.

Cardholders also earn 2X points per dollar spent on Southwest® airfare and purchases made through Rapid Rewards® purchases, as well as 1X points per dollar with all other purchases. So if you’ve been planning a spontaneous vacation, Southwest’s flash sale is the perfect opportunity to earn points.

Using Chase and Discover

New holders can earn a hefty signup bonus of their own — 50,000 points after spending $4,000 on purchases within the first three months of card ownership. That’s in the addition to the 2X points per dollar earned by travelling and dining worldwide.

Southwest is a Chase Ultimate Rewards® partner, and points transfer instantly at a 1:1 rate, making it easy to use your Chase card to book low rates.

cardholders earn a solid 1.5X miles per dollar spent on all transactions. And at the end of their first year, members earn a mile-for-mile match, doubling the worth of their rewards. With incredibly low Southwest rates until Thursday, your Discover card might be able to help you fly for free.

Southwest is the biggest budget-friendly carrier in the world, and the flash sale takes their pricing even lower. For more information on the , as well as the and the card, check out our list of the best airline credit cards for 2017.

The post How to Maximize Rewards During Southwest Flash Sale appeared first on The Simple Dollar.

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How to Grow Your Email List as an Ecommerce Brand (A Beginner’s Guide)

It’s important you recognize the significance of your email marketing strategy.

It’s an essential method of communication with your ecommerce customers.

Email will probably be your most profitable channel if you nurture it right.

Don’t believe me? Activewear brand Rone is able to generate $80,000 in sales during product launch purely from its email list.

But before you can start sending out emails, you need to build your list.

Not sure where to start?

Don’t worry—I’ve got you covered.

I have a ton of experience building email lists for my companies: Crazy Egg, Kissmetrics, Hello Bar, and my blog.

While none of these businesses have an ecommerce store, you can still use many of the strategies I used in your list building.

I even have some other methods specifically designed for gaining exposure and increasing conversions on your ecommerce platform.

Here’s what you need to know before you start building lists.

Signup forms on the website

You’ve got to give your customers plenty of options to sign up for your email list.

Having a signup form on your website is a pretty standard option.

While it may not be the most effective way to build your email list, it’s a necessity and has to be somewhere on your site.

But where do you put it?

The most optimal location to place your signup form, which will show up on each page, is in the footer:

While the number of companies using the footer form to solicit signups is slightly down in 2017 compared to 2016, the footer is still by far the most common placement for an opt-in location.

By the time your customers reach the footer, they have already had a chance to browse through your site and get a feel for your brand and product.

Now, they can make a more informed decision if they want to be on your email list.

This is different from having your opt-in form in the header because your visitors may feel spammed or forced to sign up too soon.

Chances are, joining your email list is not the first thing on someone’s mind when they visit your website.

The customer has other priorities and intentions.

So ease them into it, and put your opt-in form at the bottom of your page.

Here’s an example from the Adidas store:

If you want to sign up for their email list, you can enter your email address at the bottom of their page.

Notice that Adidas also gives you an incentive to sign up.

Get news and 15% off.

It’s a great way to get more people on board.

We’ll discuss incentives in greater detail shortly.

If you have an ecommerce store and you’re just getting your feet wet with your list building strategy, adding an opt-in option to your footer is a logical place to start.

Use standard popups and incentive-based popups

Based on the graph we looked at earlier, popup ads are the second most popular method of gathering email addresses on websites.

I think they are more effective, so I’m surprised more ecommerce sites aren’t using this strategy.

Don’t believe me?

Well, the numbers don’t lie.

Brian Dean at Backlinko added a popup to his website, which looked like this:

The results were undeniable.

The popup had a conversion rate of 3.42%.

Before implementing the popup, Brian was getting 35 people subscribing to his newsletter each day.

After he implemented the popup strategy, this number jumped to 75 subscribers per day.

He’s not the only one who had success with popups.

According to a case study by OptiMonk, companies like BitNinja got 65% more leads and saw a 114% improvement in their subscriber rates.

This was all done with a simple popup.

Companies may be hesitant to use popups because they have a bad reputation.

The word popup can sound like spam—something intrusive and unwanted by the users.

While this may hold true for harmful, malicious, or unwanted advertisement popups, that’s not the case with our list-building strategy.

The consumer is already on your website.

Your popup isn’t opening a new window or spamming them with irrelevant content.

In fact, the information may be extremely useful for the visitors, especially if your popup adds an incentive.

“Sign up for emails” isn’t the most effective way to build your list.

Why should the consumer provide you with their email address?

You need to give them a reason.

Look back at some of the examples we saw earlier.

• Adidas – “Get news and 15% off.”
• Backlinko – “Get exclusive strategies for more traffic.”

What’s your incentive?

Forever21 offers customers 10% off with this popup strategy:

Don’t think of popups in a negative way.

You should be using this strategy to build the email list for your ecommerce website.

Just make sure you give your customers a good incentive to subscribe.

Collect email addresses from customers making a purchase

People are hesitant to give out their information.

It’s understandable.

There’s a good chance your customers have had some negative experiences with other companies after giving out their email addresses.

A few bad apples ruined it for the rest of us.

They got a hold of their customers’ email information and abused the trust.

Spam.

Sending out way too many promotions.

Your customers do not want many emails.

It’s the biggest issue reported by consumers.

After some bad experiences, people may not be so willing to hand over their email addresses to every brand that asks for it.

You may need to get creative.

Ask for your customers’ email addresses while they are finalizing the order.

But give them a reason.

You’re not adding them to your email list just yet, but you’ll need to send them an order confirmation.

Here’s a great example from SAXX:

The email address is required to check out.

Why?

SAXX will send you a confirmation of your order.

They also don’t force you to create an account.

Forcing the customer to make a profile in order to check out is one of the top reasons ecommerce sites experience shopping cart abandonment.

So it’s an added bonus that this checkout form specifies that.

All right, let’s get back to building your email list.

You have an excuse to send them some emails now.

Specifically, you can email your customer four times before they officially sign up for your email list or newsletter.

Here’s what you send:

1. Order confirmation message.
2. Email stating that the order has shipped.
3. Confirmation when the package gets delivered.
4. “How did we do?” follow-up message.

Each of these emails is a chance for you to get these people on to your subscriber list.

Make sure you have an option in each message that allows the customer to join.

You already have all their information, so it should be a simple process taking only one or two clicks on the part of the consumer to sign up.

But keep in mind, the majority of people don’t want to disclose personal data.

That’s why most of the top Internet retailers are only asking for email addresses and names.

Requiring too much personal information to join a subscription list could be the reason why a customer decides not to subscribe.

If your customers are hesitant, just ask for their email addresses while they check out and finalize their purchases.

Then you can send a drip campaign with subsequent messages about the status of their orders.

This is a prime opportunity to get more subscribers.

However, if the customer still doesn’t sign up, don’t keep harassing them.

You’ll have another opportunity to send the same drip campaign when they make another purchase in the future.

Develop a segmentation strategy

Once you add someone to your email list, make sure to segment the user into a specific category.

Not every message you send will be applicable to everyone on your subscriber list.

This is why a proper email segmentation strategy is absolutely essential.

These are some of the top benefits of segmenting your email lists:

• increased open rates
• improved unsubscribe rates
• higher customer retention
• fewer spam complaints

Email segmentation will ensure your content is relevant to each subscriber.

Let’s look at an easy example.

If you have customers all over the world, sending a promotion for the 4th of July is not relevant to everyone.

Independence Day in America is only relevant to your customers in the United States.

Geographic location is an obvious way to create segments, but it’s not the only way.

The graph above shows you some other data you can take into consideration when developing your lists.

It’s a great reference to make sure your content is relevant to all subscribers in each segment.

So before you start building your email lists, think about some general segments you’ll want to use.

Keep in mind, as you continue to add subscribers, you may slightly change or tweak your segmentation strategy.

It’s not a perfect process, and you’ll still get some customers who’ll unsubscribe or feel like they’re getting irrelevant emails.

That’s inevitable.

But the key is making sure you minimize these instances.

It’s a difficult strategy to master, but it needs to be a top priority.

Improving segmentation and increasing subscriber engagement are the top two initiatives for email marketers.

Engagement and segmentation go hand in hand.

Proper segmentation will ultimately increase engagement.

It’s important you recognize all of this before you start building your list.

Don’t just start mass emailing everyone until you can figure out what messages are relevant to each subscriber.

Create interactivity with your email marketing campaigns

Once you have customers on your email subscriber list, you’ll want to make sure you keep them there.

Don’t give them a reason to unsubscribe.

You spent all this time and effort acquiring their email addresses, now you need to keep them engaged.

How can you accomplish this?

Follow the trends.

Use interactive emails to stay relevant.

This is the top email marketing trend of 2017.

Here are some of the best ways you can increase interactivity in your emails:

• use real-time marketing
• incorporate reviews, polls, and surveys
• run scratch card advertisements
• add menus to the message
• incorporate videos within the email
• use live shopping carts
• add GIFs

These strategies will keep your ecommerce site relevant.

You don’t want to send dull emails to your subscribers.

Use interactivity to retain users who signed up for your messages.

Conclusion

It’s awesome you’ve recognized the importance of building an email list for your ecommerce site.

But before you jump in, think about some of the things we discussed.

If you don’t know where to get started, add a signup form to your page.

The most common place to include this is in the footer of your website.

While it’s a necessary feature, it’s not the most effective.

You also need to add popups to your website.

Just make sure these popups give the consumer an incentive to join your email list.

If your website visitors don’t take the bait signing up through your popups or footer, it’s not over yet.

Get their email addresses when they check out.

Develop an automation strategy, like a drip campaign, to send them messages about the status of their orders.

You’ve got several chances to add subscribers during the following emails:

• order confirmed
• order shipped
• order delivered
• order follow-up

If this strategy doesn’t work, it’s okay.

Try again the next time this customer makes a purchase.

You need to develop a segmentation strategy before you start sending out emails to your subscribers.

Not every message is relevant to every subscriber.

Segmenting your lists will help you increase opens and conversions.

It will also improve your unsubscribe rate.

Interactive emails will help prevent customers from unsubscribing.

Creating interactivity will keep the subscribers engaged.

Follow these tips before you start building an email list for your website.

What popup incentive will you offer to your site visitors to encourage them to sign up to your email list?

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50% of People Get Financial Advice From This Seriously Unreliable Source

Where do you turn when you have questions about money?

All hands point to The Penny Hoarder. Aw, thank you. But we know this relationship isn’t exclusive (and we’re cool with it).

When you’re thinking about taking out a loan, who do you talk to about your options? When you’re ready to up the ante on your retirement savings, where do you trust your money most?

The most recent release of the Federal Reserve’s Consumer Credit Report sheds some light on how most Americans find answers to these questions.

We’re a little concerned.

The study has been surveying U.S. families three times a year for decades, so it helps us see how our approach to financial advice has changed over the years, as well.

Where Do We Get Borrowing Advice?

To gather information about borrowing in 1998, the vast majority of people relied on some kind of human contact:

• 36% were “calling around.” (For the youngest among us, that’s like an analog Google search.)

• 44% asked friends, relatives and other people they knew. (Like Yelp, but with IRL conversations.)

• 32% relied on bankers, brokers and other people who sell financial services.

• 18% relied on lawyers, accountants and other financial advisers.

Just 11% relied on the internet. Even that sounds like a lot to me, considering you could probably talk to every bank in town in the time it took a computer to dial in to the internet in 1998.

In 2016, more than half — 52% — refer to the internet to inform their borrowing choices.

It’s not clear from the report, but I suspect a lot of that jump includes the accessibility of sites like Credible and Even Financial, which make comparing loan options quick and easy.

These financial sites connect you with a variety of potential loan offers for student loans, debt refinancing and mortgages. In one place, you can see how much you could borrow, your interest rate and your repayment period from each lender.

That beats picking up the phone half a dozen times to reach a representative at banks around town. Ugh, can you imagine all the busy signals?!

It seems the World Wide Web is just one tool in a growing arsenal, though. A lot of numbers were up for 2016, so it seems we’re just diversifying:

• 50% now look to friends and family.

• 41% rely on bankers.

• 30% rely on financial advisers.

And, though the number’s seen a fairly steady drop over the years, 22% of people are still calling around to learn about borrowing options. You guys, what even is a phone call?

It’s no surprise the internet has eclipsed newspapers and similar information sources. The number of people consulting print media has dropped 62% since 1998.

Where Do We Get Investing Advice?

People seem less concerned with investment overall, but the resources they use to learn about it have still changed in the digital age.

We’ve apparently always trusted our friends more than bankers or financial advisers:

• In 2016, 44% looked to family and friends, versus 39% bankers and 37% advisers.

• In 1998, 39% relied on family and friends, versus 32% bankers and 18% advisers.

Gathering investment information from the internet has skyrocketed — from 8% in 1998 to 41% in 2016. Newspapers and other media dropped by half in that period.

Again, this is probably related in part to the rise of companies offering digital investment services — a.k.a. robo-advisers.

With apps like Betterment, Acorns, Stash and Clink, you can invest with way less than the folks in 1998 had to fork over — we’re talking as little as $1 or $5 at a time.

You can also set most of these apps to automatically withdraw the money from your bank account periodically or even toss in a few cents at a time when you make purchases with a debit or credit card. That certainly cuts down your calls to a broker!

While the internet has replaced print media as a source of investing information, I’m surprised to see many of us still rely on good old-fashioned conversation for advice, as well:

• 13% are still calling around.

• 44% look to family or friends.

• 39% consult bankers.

• 37% consult financial advisers.

Where We Get Financial Advice: the Good and the Bad

While some people might worry about our reliance on “the internet” for financial advice, I know it helps connect us to plenty of good information sources and tools.

What worries me more about this report is how many people rely on friends and family for financial information. In most cases over the years, this was the most common source.

Not sure about you, but my friends and family are not bankers, accountants or financial advisers. They’re not brokers. Most aren’t even good at math.

If you’re asking unqualified people for financial advice, they could just be passing on myths — or straight-up lying.

But I saw a couple of small wins for financial literacy in this report.

We may have become privy to the fact that bankers and other people who sell financial services don’t always have our best interest in mind, compared with certified financial advisers, who are required to. In 1998, 27% more people consulted bankers for investment advice than consulted financial advisers. Now the two are almost even: 39% bankers and 37% advisers.

While some information sources have fallen by the wayside in favor of the newer-better-faster, this report shows one positive trend: We seem to seek more information about our finances.

Regardless of what kind of technology (or lack thereof) we use to obtain it, it looks like we’ve become more interested in gathering information from several sources so we can make informed choices about money.

We’ll call that a win.

P.S. If you want to jump on the internet train yourself, we’ve got special deals for some of those robo-investing apps I mentioned:

• Sign up for Acorns here, and you’ll earn a bonus $10 when you make your first investment.

• Sign up for Stash here, and you’ll earn an extra $5 when you invest your first $5.

• Download the Clink app here and you’ll get a $5 sign-up bonus. Be sure to use the promo code: PH2016

Dana Sitar (dana@thepennyhoarder.com) is a senior writer/newsletter editor at The Penny Hoarder. Say hi and tell her a good joke on Twitter @danasitar.

This was originally published on The Penny Hoarder, one of the largest personal finance websites. We help millions of readers worldwide earn and save money by sharing unique job opportunities, personal stories, freebies and more. In 2016, Inc. 500 ranked The Penny Hoarder as the No. 1 fastest-growing private media company in the U.S.

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This is What the “Sharing Economy” Is — and How to Make Money In It

Oh, the number of times my mom recited “sharing is caring!” to my little brother and me when we were kids…

I wasn’t a particularly selfish child, but I didn’t see any reason to share my Nickelodeon Gak or Floam, especially when it was so vulnerable to picking up dirt or drying out. And especially when I’d saved money in my little kitty coin purse to purchase it.

Now, if my little brother had been willing to pay to play with it? Well, that would have been a different story.

This is, on a smaller (less serious) scale, what today’s sharing economy is. The practice has been around for thousands of years — the term itself has only recently emerged.

What is the Sharing Economy?

Investopedia defines the sharing economy as “an economic model in which individuals are able to borrow or rent assets owned by someone else.”

It says the sharing economy is especially useful when the price of “an asset” (a product or service) is high — and is perhaps not used on a daily basis.

You might also hear the terms peer-to-peer rental market or collaboration economy.

But what about the gig economy? Many times, these terms are used interchangeably. However, the focus of the gig economy is less on the borrowing and renting of assets and more on the individual — the freelancer or the independent contractor.

But there’s a lot of overlap because the freelancer or independent contractor could be sharing their services in the gig economy. Think about the freelance writer. She might find a “gig” on Craigslist, but she’s still technically sharing her ability with someone else.

Let me give you another example of the sharing economy (one a little more realistic than that ’90s throwback):

You live in a big city and utilize public transportation. This is fine — great, actually — because you don’t have car payments, insurance, all that fun stuff. However, you’re planning a day trip soon, and you can’t exactly hail a taxi to drive you three hours away… So, you need a car.

Rather than racking up crazy fees at a traditional rental dealer, you could opt for a sharing economy platform that lists local available cars. Then you can rent it.

This benefits both you and the car’s owner, because they can make a little bit of cash.

How to Make Money in the Sharing Economy

On the notion of making cash….

The sharing economy is not only helpful when you need that one random thing — a car, pressure washer, house in a faraway destination — but it’s also helpful when you need some extra money. You can just rent out your assets.

There are tons of platforms out there these days that make this process easy.

These are a few of our favorites:

1. Airbnb

Perhaps this is one of the most obvious sharing economy platforms.

Someone’s visiting your town and needs a room, so you list your extra one.

We’ve chatted with folks who have made hundreds — even thousands — of dollars a month by listing their house or extra room through Airbnb. There was even a guy who made nearly $1,400 a month with a backyard tent.

Here are a few tips to make the most money:

• Make your space available during high-demand times in your area. Think: concerts, conventions and local sporting events.

• Be a good host, and make sure your place is stocked with the toiletries you’d expect at a hotel — toilet paper, soap and towels.

• Be personable. A lot of travelers turn to Airbnb for the personal touch they won’t find at commercial properties.

If you’re interested to know how much your room could be worth, check out the platform’s calculator.

(Hosting laws vary from city to city. Please understand the rules and regulations applicable to your city and listing.)

2. Lyft

Got a car? Well, someone out there needs a ride.

That’s where ride-sharing services like Lyft come into play.

You can make some solid money doing this. Take, for example, this power couple who drive for Lyft. While raising five children, the duo swaps off driving shifts. They’ve brought in as much as $1,500 a week.

You can calculate how much you could bring in each week with this calculator — then apply.

3. UberEats

Yup, even delivering food is considered a part of the sharing economy. It’s easier than ever to get in on the action — and set your own schedule.

Try signing up with UberEats. (And score — you don’t have to deal with real people in your car!)

Really, you’ll create your own hours, drive around your city, soak up the foodie fragrances and catch up on your favorite podcasts.

(And probably roll down the windows and air out your car every now and then.)

4. Fiverr

This might be a less obvious sharing economy platform.

Fiverr allows freelancers to offer their services — anything from yard work to design projects to writing. For each task completed, you get $5.

It sounds kind of low at first, but we chatted with three women who have made more than $100,000 on Fiverr, just by sharing their services.

Here’s a beginner’s guide to get started.

5. DogVacay

This is like Airbnb — but for good dogs (and cats).

The sharing economy platform helps pet owners find sitters, trainers, walkers and even overnight boarders.

The apps Wag! and Rover offer similar gigs, too.

Make Money off Almost Anything in the Sharing Economy

There are tons of other sharing platforms out there for everything from cars and parking spots to lawn tools and bicycles.

My mom, like always, was right: Sharing is caring — especially for your wallet!

Carson Kohler (@CarsonKohler) is a junior writer at The Penny Hoarder.

This was originally published on The Penny Hoarder, one of the largest personal finance websites. We help millions of readers worldwide earn and save money by sharing unique job opportunities, personal stories, freebies and more. In 2016, Inc. 500 ranked The Penny Hoarder as the No. 1 fastest-growing private media company in the U.S.

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Some Thoughts on Raising Children to Make Good Financial Choices

When I first started The Simple Dollar, I had one child, who was a toddler at the time. Since then, we’ve had two more children, and our oldest is now a preteen.

Along the way, I’ve been very into the idea that I need to teach my children good personal finance practices. I want my children to not make the personal finance mistakes that I did along the way.

So, I started mechanically.

We’ve given our kids a very small allowance each week to figure out how to manage themselves – just a couple of dollars per kid. For a long time, we used a “jar” system to teach them the basics of budgeting, where they put some of that allowance in various jars that are intended for various purposes. Some of it is “spend whenever you want” money, while another jar is “saving for a goal” money, and another jar is “help others” money. (Specifically, we’ve used a Money Savvy Pig for this.)

We’ve given our kids a “job board” where they can do extra tasks beyond their normal expected household chores for some extra money that they can do with what they wish. These tasks are things that go beyond the day-to-day things around the house, but are simple enough that they can be handled on their own. This teaches them about the value of working for money.

We’ve also given them seed money for a few entrepreneurial projects. We have “invested” in their lemonade stands and their snow shoveling.

We’ve talked about paying bills and I’ve actually shown them the bills we get. We’ve talked about taxes. We’ve even talked about things like insurance.

The thing is, our children really do understand these things. On the surface, such topics really aren’t hard to understand – even my seven year old can explain what taxes are, why people pay them, and what insurance is. They understand how people budget and how to save money for the future. Mechanically, it’s all pretty easy. They get it.

That’s why, more and more, I’ve come to the conclusion that the most powerful personal finance lessons you can teach your child aren’t centered around the “how,” but the “why.”

Why should you save money for the future? It’s not just the practice of how to do it – you just put some of your money off to the side. The question is why do you do it, and why would you choose to do that instead of buying that fun thing that you want.

You do it because you want to have money in case something unexpected comes along. If you’ve saved up some money, then when a true opportunity comes along, you have the money you need.

You do it because if you don’t, a bad break can cause unfortunate things to happen. When we had problems with our SUV last year, I pointed out to our kids that it would be quite expensive to repair it. However, because we had put money aside just in case, it wasn’t a big problem. It wasn’t scary or anything to worry about. We can handle this, because we put money aside earlier.

It’s not about the how, it’s about the why.

My daughter really, really understands this lesson. She’s ten years old. She has more than a year’s worth of her allowance that she’s put aside, not for a specific goal, but in case of opportunities. Seriously. Not too long ago, she saw a box set of books by her favorite author (Raina Telgemeyer) on a huge discount and she was able to buy it immediately. She recognized that this was an opportunity – if she had spent her money frivolously, she wouldn’t be able to take advantage of it.

My oldest son doesn’t save quite that intensely, but he did have enough money put aside so that recently, when he broke an item, he had the money available to immediately replace it without having to beg or borrow. He was able to just take care of it. He recognized that this was a bad break, and he was prepared for it.

It’s not about the how, it’s about the why.

More and more and more, my financial (and life) lessons for them are bridging more into the philosophical realm. I almost always lead with the “why” of doing things rather than the “how” – often, unless it’s a particularly tricky thing, the “how” is just a simple part on the end.

We talk about the “why.”

We talk about why you should do a good job when someone wants your help. When they do an exceptional job at a task at home, they’re recognized for it and sometimes even receive a special reward, but they don’t get that for ordinary performance. This translates into behavior outside the home – they are learning that if they put in the effort to do a good job at anything, it is rewarded. The real trick? They’re starting to recognize that the reward comes in forms that you don’t always see – quiet respect from others, trust from others, a better community to be a part of. We talk about those things – when they do a great job or a good deed, the reward is always there, but they don’t always see it.

Similarly, a poorly performed task or a misdeed always has a cost, but you often don’t see it, either – a loss of respect in the eyes of others, a loss of trust, a worse community to be a part of.

We talk about why it makes sense to put in extra effort when things are going smoothly, because you will be incredibly glad to have that extra gas in the tank when things aren’t going smoothly. Put aside money in an emergency fund. If possible, put aside some of your work output for a moment when you need a break. Build up goodwill with your coworkers, so they will help you when needed. Be generous with your time and energy when you can, and many of those people will be generous with you when you need it.

We talk about why a person should keep their bills paid. It’s not enough merely to know that you owe money by a certain date and how to pay it, but why. What happens if you don’t pay those bills? Again, it comes down to trust, and trust is often expressed in our society through a credit report – it’s a way to verify trust, like asking a mutual acquaintance if someone is okay.

Why. Why. Why.

Every time I make a financial choice these days, I think about it in terms of why. Why am I doing this? If I can’t come up with a sensible reason that I could explain to my children as a good principle for life, why, then, am I doing it?

Thus, if I keep repeating that simple question in response to all of my choices, my own choices gradually become better. They start to be even more consistently in line with my core principles and values, and my children see it when I act consistently with the values and principles that I share with them.

Why. Why. Why. It keeps coming back to why.

In the end, here’s my recommendation for teaching personal finance lessons to your kids. Start with the how – things like how you spend money, how you save it, and so on. The actual mechanics of doing those things are an important basic life skill.

The thing is, those life skills are pretty simple. The question really is how do you make those life skills stick? How do you help a child transition from knowing how a credit card works to understanding why one should use it sensibly and not frivolously?

It’s because you start talking about the why.

Why is debt a poor idea? Why do people go into debt sometimes regardless of that? Why is it worth the extra effort to do something well? Why is it worth the time to build strong relationships with people? Why is it worthwhile to keep your bills paid?

As your child grows older, the value of personal finance lessons doesn’t come from the “how” – that’s usually easy. It comes from the “why.” You can only really teach the “why” through thoughtful conversation over time and, perhaps more importantly, through your own actions that are in line with the conclusions you come to in your conversations about “why.”

It’s about the key principles, and when your children understand those principles, when they understand “why” you do things, when they see you live by those principles, the “how” becomes very minor and secondary.

Talk to your children about the “whys” of money. More importantly, live by those things yourself. They’ll watch. They’ll learn. It’ll bubble up in more ways than you’ll ever directly see.

Good luck.

The post Some Thoughts on Raising Children to Make Good Financial Choices appeared first on The Simple Dollar.

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This Study Says These are the Top 5 Best and Worst States at Saving Money

How have your savings been looking lately?

Sometimes, looking at the state of, well, your state, is a good way to hold a mirror up to your own finances.

WalletHub recently ranked the most and least financially savvy states for 2017. (Spoiler: Massachusetts took an overall gold.) The study took a deep dive into how states ranked, based on debt, spending, financial literacy, credit and saving.

That last one is what we’re focusing on today — saving.

Which States Rank Highest (and Lowest) in Saving Money?

Nope, looking at your state’s ranking isn’t a direct indicator of how you’re doing. But, c’mon and break out that state pride. (Whoo, Sunshine State, am I right?)

In the saving category, WalletHub ranked states based on factors including annual consumer-savings-account average, the number of adults with emergency funds, college savings accounts set up for their kids and/or budgets. It also looked at the number of “unbanked households,” meaning those with zero bank accounts. Each category held the same weight.

OK, so these were the top five states, in terms of saving:

1. New Hampshire

2. California

3. New York

4. Colorado

5. New Jersey

These were the lowest-ranking states, in terms of saving:

47. Oklahoma

48. New Mexico

49. West Virginia

50. Louisiana

51. Mississippi

If you live in one of these states — or feel like you’re the oddball in your perfect-scoring state — don’t worry. We’ve got one easy tip to help.

How to Start Saving Money — One Penny at a Time

A big part of saving money is actually stashing some away — especially for that emergency fund. But we understand that’s easier said than done, especially when you’re living paycheck to paycheck.

One of the easiest ways to get over that initial hump is to set up an automated savings account, one that’ll automatically pull money into it — without you even batting an eye.

You don’t need to feel like you have to deposit a large chunk of change each week or month. Even the smallest amount will do just fine.

Automating your savings is easier than you think. Chances are, your bank allows you to schedule payments out. But if you’re feeling a little lost, look into getting started with these tools.

1. Open an Aspiration Summit Checking Account

Many of us here at The Penny Hoarder HQ have some money stashed away in Aspiration’s Summit Checking Account.

Why? Well, it’s different from most regular checking accounts in that it earns you up to 1% interest. (Context: That’s 100 times more than my other checking account, which earned me zero.)

Plus, you can automate it.

For example, senior writer Dana Sitar has wired her account up so that a portion of her paycheck gets funneled into it. She never sees it, which makes missing that money a little less painful — and mindless.

2. Use a Set-It-and-Forget-It Investing App

You’re thinking: Investing isn’t the same as saving. Nope, but investing can be a good way to grow your money over a longer period of time.

And it’s easier to tuck that money away with micro-investing apps like Acorns and Stash, which let you do it automatically.

With Acorns, you can set the app to simply round up your debit- or credit-card purchases to the nearest dollar. The pocket change is then squirreled away into your Acorns account. If you have a balance less than $5,000, you’ll pay a $1 monthly fee, plus 0.5% of your balance.

With Stash, you can set an automatic deposit weekly or monthly — or however often you want. You can start with just $5. Plus you get a $5 bonus when you sign up. The monthly fee for accounts less than $5,000 is $1. (Your first month is free, though.)

Moral of the story? Saving is only as difficult as you make it, so automate it. And, yes, you need to get some state pride. C’mon, folks.

Carson Kohler (@CarsonKohler) is a junior writer at The Penny Hoarder. She loves easy investing options almost as much as she loves Florida.

This was originally published on The Penny Hoarder, one of the largest personal finance websites. We help millions of readers worldwide earn and save money by sharing unique job opportunities, personal stories, freebies and more. In 2016, Inc. 500 ranked The Penny Hoarder as the No. 1 fastest-growing private media company in the U.S.

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Looking for a New Car? Here Are the Top 5 Cheapest Cars to Insure

Separating Needs, Wants, and What You Really Want

While a bad economy or an especially low-paying job can make saving money infinitely harder, the formula for saving has always been the same. To save money, you need to spend less than you earn.

Obviously, this task becomes a lot easier when you earn more than average – or if you live in a low-cost area. If you have a six-figure income and live in Arkansas, for example, you should absolutely be socking some money away. On the flip side, someone living on the same salary in an expensive city like New York City, Boston, or San Francisco might not have much if anything left over after covering basic expenses like housing, food, and childcare.

But, no matter your income or where you live, you have to find a way to spend less than you earn if you hope to save money to retire, have some fun, and avoid debt. You can get a side hustle or a part-time job if you want, but if you don’t spend less than you bring home, you’re always going to struggle.

That’s why it’s important to determine the difference between your “wants” and “needs” — and to understand why that differentiation matters. Without a grasp on why these terms matter, it’s significantly harder to get on the right side of your financial ledger.

Wants vs. Needs

What is a “want?” And what is a “need?” While everyone’s wants and needs can vary, there’s a big difference between these two terms when it comes to how you spend your money.

Generally speaking, a “need” is something you absolutely cannot live without. You need a roof over your head, for example. You need food and health insurance and transportation to get to work.

You need electricity in your house, you need food to eat, and you need a telephone. In this day and age, you probably even need internet access for your job or so your kids can do homework.

A “want,” on the other hand, is something you’d like, but could probably live without if push comes to shove. You want to go out to dinner tonight so you don’t have to cook. You want a shiny new iPhone X, even if your existing phone works just fine.

You want concert tickets and an annual beach vacation, but you wouldn’t die if you couldn’t have these things.

A want is something you very well may be able to afford, but don’t actually need to get by.

When Needs Are Actually Wants

But, what happens when something you consider a need is actually a want? This happens all the time, and it really throws people off. Worse, it tricks people into justifying purchases they wouldn’t make it they really thought it through.

For example, you need to eat, it’s true. But, do you need to dine out at your favorite pub tonight? If you have food to eat at home, the answer is no. But if you’re in the mood to justify the purchase, you could tell yourself you need to eat and do it anyway.

You also need a cellphone because it’s 2017 and hardly anyone has just a landline anymore. But, you don’t need to upgrade to the new $1,000 iPhone, and you may not even need a smartphone. Heck, you may not even need a data plan — but since you know you need a phone, you can convince yourself you need the best possible phone with the priciest talk, data, and text package money can buy.

New cars are another area where it’s easy to confuse what you want with what you need. You may need a car to get to work. You probably don’t need a brand-new car financed for 72 months with a $500 monthly payment. But, since you know you need to get to work, you can talk yourself into buying what you want on the premise that your shiny new ride is a need.

Well, guess what. It’s not.

In all these instances, you absolutely need the item in question — food, phone, transportation — but you’re choosing to spend more than you have to. In these cases, it’s important to be honest with yourself about what you need, what you want, and the difference between the two.

• Related: Two-Sided Coin: Should You Always Buy a New Car?

Three Steps to Help You Separate Wants From Needs

There’s nothing wrong with spending money on wants. I would even argue that paying for wants is an important part of life. If life were only about working and paying bills, then it wouldn’t be much fun.

The problem arises when people conflate their wants with their needs to the point where their spending stands in the way of their financial goals. When we spend money on wants without determining if they’re really a priority, we often shortchange ourselves in the areas of our lives that really matter – things like saving money for college, emergencies, retirement savings, and vacations.

If you’re struggling to separate wants from needs, here are three steps to help.

Step 1: Decide which wants truly add value to your life.

If you’re spending more than you should and having trouble separating wants from needs, it’s smart to take a step back and look at what you’re actually buying. Do your wants add real value to your life, or are they made out of convenience? Are you making discretionary purchases because they’re important to you, or simply out of habit?

While spending on wants is an important part of life, some wants are more important to us than others – and if you stop to examine your spending, you may find that many of the splurges you’re making aren’t really worth it. By deciding which wants add real value to your life, you can determine which ones to keep and which wants you can live without.

Step 2: Trade away some of your wants for a better deal.

Depending on the “want” in question, you may be able to come up with an alternative action that lets you save your money instead. This is a good strategy to try when you’re spending on something out of habit or out of convenience.

For example:

• If you dine out a few times per week more out of convenience than pleasure, you may find you can cut your spending and still eat conveniently with some simple planning. If you can get in the habit of meal planning or using your crock pot to make easy dinners a few nights per week, for example, you may be able to avoid hasty, unfulfilling dinners out and pocket that money instead.
• If you have an expensive cable package out of habit but never watch all the channels, you may be able to choose a cheaper package and save money without really noticing. Heck, you may even be able to cancel your cable subscription together.
• If you’re signed up for multiple subscriptions for magazines or any of those subscription boxes like FabFitFun but you rarely have time to enjoy what you receive, you might be able to cancel without any real impact to your happiness or fulfillment.

It’s important to have wants in your life, but you should only splurge when you’re truly benefiting. If a want isn’t really making you happy, you’ll get more out of your hard-earned dollars once you cut the fat and reallocate those dollars to make them count.

Step 3: Figure out how to afford what you really want.

Let’s say you have a handful of wants that are really important to you. You love having a new car because you drive an hour to work each way, or you’re a huge tech geek who can’t wait to get your hands on every new phone or game console that comes out. Maybe you’re a foodie who loves dining out so much you’re willing to sacrifice elsewhere to be able to try all your favorite restaurants.

Working those wants into your budget is obviously important, but you need to make sure you can afford it. If you’re not saving money already – or if you’re spending all you earn and going into debt – then you probably need to analyze your spending in its entirety to find other places to cut.

The best way to determine whether you can afford everything you want – in addition to everything you need, of course – is to use a monthly budget and track your spending. While tracking your purchases can prevent you from spending more than you want, a monthly budget can help you prioritize your monthly obligations and your wants without sacrificing your savings goals.

My favorite type of budget is the zero-sum budget because all it takes is a pen and paper to get started. Zero-sum budgeting also makes prioritizing easy since it forces you to “spend” all your money on paper and “give each dollar a job.”

In addition, zero-sum budgeting forces you to pay your savings and investments as if they were regular bills, then learn to live off the rest. In that sense, it may force you to reevaluate your wants and needs since you’ll have less discretionary money over all.

The Bottom Line

If you’re struggling with money and can’t earn more of it right now, your best step is maximizing the money you have. Very often, the best way to do this is to take a close look at your monthly spending to see how much you’re splurging. From there, you can decide if those “wants” are truly worth it, or if you’d be better off taking a different approach.

At the end of the day, the best way to make sure you can afford what you want is to think ahead, be intentional with your spending, and most importantly, be honest with yourself. We all want things in life, but those who get the most of what they want are the ones who plan.

Holly Johnson is an award-winning personal finance writer and the author of Zero Down Your Debt. Johnson shares her obsession with frugality, budgeting, and travel at ClubThrifty.com.

Related:

• The $15 Retirement Plan
• When you Overspend: 5 Steps to Recovering from a Spending Spree
• Meet Your Needs (and Major Wants) in New Ways for a Financial Reboot
• The Magic Math of Paying Yourself First

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This Genius Budgeting System Makes You Spend Every Single Dollar You Earn

How to Find the Right Product to Sell

By Kimi Clark You want to start an online business, but first, you have to find the right product to sell. That is if you want to have a product-based business. Although even with a service-based business, you're still selling a product; only that product is your service! So we're going to break this article […]

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Forget Pumpkin Spice. This Guy Cashes in on an Unexpected Fall Favorite

Remember the guy who turned 2015’s Boston blizzards into a chilly side hustle, Ship Snow, Yo? He returned, this time offering autumnal cheer with way fewer calories than a pumpkin-spice latte.

Kyle Waring launched Ship Foliage in October 2015, offering to ship a trio of genuine New England-sourced maple leaves almost anywhere in the world for $19.99 per pack, plus shipping.

Waring said he received 250 orders in his first week, which amounts to a cool $5,000 in revenue from Ship Foliage’s launch alone.

Foliage as a Service (FaaS): Short Harvest, Long Preservation Process

Although the video makes it look like collecting leaves to sell is as simple as taking a field trip, this business has a short, tough season.

“The foliage season typically lasts until the first frost, which is usually the very beginning of November,” Waring told us in 2015. “Based on some of the discussions with meteorologists and research, this year we’ve experienced a warmer fall. I’m hoping the season lasts until mid-November!”

The preservation process is time consuming, but necessary to prevent leaves from arriving as an envelope full of dried-up leaf crumbs. Waring said it takes seven days.

“I’ll soak each leaf in a glycerin solution mixed with water and a small amount of ammonia for two [to] three days,” Waring explained, before air drying and pressing between book pages for a few days.

Can the Ship Snow, Yo Guy Conquer Four Seasons of Shipping?

While the revival of Ship Snow, Yo depends on Mother Nature’s plans for the Boston area each winter, autumn tends to be reliable. Even a five-week shipping period for leaf lovers worldwide could provide Waring a considerable nest egg.

But what’s he going to do to corner the seasonal shipping market in spring and summer?

“I’m not looking to dominate all four seasons of shipping,” Waring claimed. “Shipping businesses are quite a lot of work, both for my wife and [me].” He planned to take time off after snow-shipping season, but he has considered options for a spring service business for the Boston market.

“I’m not entirely sure if there’s a defensible product for spring and summer that’s unique to New England,” Waring admitted.

Lisa Rowan is a writer and producer at The Penny Hoarder. She has firsthand experience with crumbly leaf envelopes.

This was originally published on The Penny Hoarder, one of the largest personal finance websites. We help millions of readers worldwide earn and save money by sharing unique job opportunities, personal stories, freebies and more. In 2016, Inc. 500 ranked The Penny Hoarder as the No. 1 fastest-growing private media company in the U.S.

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Feel Lonely at Work? Here’s Why That Matters and What You Can Do About It

Home-based workers love to joke about not having to put on pants or deal with a long commute, but there’s a very real downside to spending every day alone.

Working from home can be excruciatingly isolating.

The obvious answer seems be to get a job outside of the house, but that might not solve the problem either.

It turns out people today are terribly lonely, whether they work in their home office or are surrounded by colleagues all day.

In a recent article for the Harvard Business Review, former U.S. Surgeon General Vivek H. Murthy says the issue is so widespread that it’s becoming an “epidemic.”

Feeling Lonely in a Crowd

It’s easy to understand how people who work at home can feel lonely, but how is it that people who work in an environment with others can also feel that way?

“[E]ven working at an office doesn’t guarantee meaningful connections: People sit in an office full of coworkers, even in open-plan workspaces, but everyone is staring at a computer or attending task-oriented meetings where opportunities to connect on a human level are scarce,” Murthy writes.

I can relate to this so much.

The Penny Hoarder HQ is filled with some of the kindest, most entertaining people I’ve ever met. As you can imagine, the writing team is never at a loss for things to chatter about.

Yet there have been times when I’ve headed home at the end of the day and realized I’ve barely spoken to anyone. I’ve often been so engrossed in my research and writing that I might not notice a spirited game of cornhole happening right next to my desk.

On days like that, I feel disconnected from my team and, frankly, it feels lousy.

The Impact of Loneliness on Our Lives

Murthy says the physical impact of loneliness on our lives is equivalent to smoking 15 cigarettes a day. He notes loneliness is also linked to cardiovascular disease, depression and dementia.

“At work, loneliness reduces task performance, limits creativity, and impairs other aspects of executive function such as reasoning and decision making,” he explains.

Shining a Light on the Loneliness Epidemic

Murthy says more than 40% of adults in America report feeling lonely, but he believes research indicates that number is actually higher.  

“I talk about this as an epidemic because it’s far more widespread than people believe, and like many illnesses that are related to our mental and psychological state, it gets swept under the rug and exists in the shadows. That’s why I speak about this with the urgency that I do,” he told the Washington Post.

Breaking the Loneliness Cycle

According to Murthy, people who have strong social connections at work are more likely to be engaged with their jobs and even feel more connected to the company’s mission.

He recommends workers make it a priority to get to know one another and find ways to build high-quality relationships with colleagues.

If you’re an introvert, that advice may make you want to run screaming in the other direction.

For you, the answer may lie in finding a career path that allows you to work independently while still allowing time to get to know the people around you at a level you’re comfortable with.

Whether you work from home or in an office, we’re all susceptible to feeling lonely. Remember you’re not alone and, chances are, some of your colleagues feel the same way.

Invite someone out for coffee or a snack and see where the conversation leads.

Or, if bonding with your co-workers is too unnerving, we’ve got a few other suggestions on how to expand your social circle.

Lisa McGreevy is a staff writer at The Penny Hoarder. She has no idea how to play cornhole but thinks it looks like fun.

This was originally published on The Penny Hoarder, one of the largest personal finance websites. We help millions of readers worldwide earn and save money by sharing unique job opportunities, personal stories, freebies and more. In 2016, Inc. 500 ranked The Penny Hoarder as the No. 1 fastest-growing private media company in the U.S.

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Here’s How Much Student Aid You’re Missing If You Don’t Fill Out the FAFSA

There’s one thing we know for sure: The “F”s in FAFSA don’t stand for fun.

Filling out the dreaded Free Application for Federal Student Aid form is akin to a root canal for perpetually distracted high schoolers — it’s incredibly beneficial in the long run, but oh so painful when it’s happening.

So it’s not surprising that students eligible for this free cash might let it slip their mind. But here’s a number that should startle even the most prolific procrastinator: $2.3 billion.

That’s how much federal aid has gone unclaimed this year, according to an analysis by NerdWallet. More than 648,000 students eligible for Pell Grants, which don’t have to be repaid, failed to complete FAFSA forms they submitted or didn’t turn in anything at all.

They left an average of $3,583 on the table.

SMH. If there’s one thing The Penny Hoarder won’t stand for, it’s unclaimed free cash.

FAFSA Could Be Your Key to Free Cash for College

Not that we need to mention it again, but current and former students are currently holding more than $1.4 trillion in student debt, leading to all sorts of financial fallout in the U.S.

If spending a few hours filling out paperwork could help reduce that number, we’ll do anything we can to encourage you to pick up that pencil.

(Adjusts backwards baseball cap and puts skateboard down. Pulls out chair, flips it around and sits in it backward. )

Even though the Internal Revenue Service made it harder to retrieve your tax records to aid in filling out FAFSA, it’s still a relatively easy thing to do.

In fact, we broke it down to an eight-step process that shouldn’t end with you crying and snapping that pencil in two.

Here’s what you’ll need before you get started:

• Last year’s tax return

• Your parents’ or spouse’s social security numbers

• The amount of income you earned last year

• Your driver’s license number

• The amount of money you received outside of work or bills paid on your behalf in the previous year.

• The names of schools you have applied to or plan on applying to

Then just follow the instructions, and you should be on your way to claiming some of that free college cash.

Alex Mahadevan is a data journalist at The Penny Hoarder.

This was originally published on The Penny Hoarder, one of the largest personal finance websites. We help millions of readers worldwide earn and save money by sharing unique job opportunities, personal stories, freebies and more. In 2016, Inc. 500 ranked The Penny Hoarder as the No. 1 fastest-growing private media company in the U.S.

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Wells Fargo Customers Can Now Access Their Cash With Smartphones at 5K ATMs

Update: Wells Fargo has upgraded its ATMs again. After introducing a cardless system that allows customers to use a special code from their smartphone apps to access ATMs, Wells Fargo has started to make it even easier to use its cardless system.

Now, at 5,000 of the bank’s 13,000 ATMs, account holders who have smartphones equipped with Apple Pay, Samsung Pay or Android Pay can tap their phones to begin a transaction.

Account holders will still need to enter their PIN after tapping their smartphones. Wells Fargo expects to roll out this new technology at all 13,000 of its ATMs by 2019.

ATM skimmers may have to find a new hobby.

With the rise in funds being stolen from innocent consumers due to ATM skimming, major banks around the country are developing innovative ways to protect their customers.

While most of these new technologies are still being piloted, one major banking chain recently announced that all of its ATMs will now be better equipped to protect its customers from having their debit card information stolen.

Wells Fargo ATMs Now Offer Cardless Access

To protect customers against ATM skimming, Wells Fargo recently implemented card-free access to its ATMs.

In March, Wells Fargo mobile customers gained card-free access to all 13,000 Wells Fargo ATMs in the U.S. via an eight-digit code in addition to PINs. Customers receive the unique code via the Wells Fargo mobile banking app, giving them access to their funds and enabling them to make cash withdrawals without a debit card. The machines still accept debit cards.

After last year’s ugly scandal over bank employees creating millions of unauthorized accounts for customers, checking account openings had fallen 43% as of March. The rollout of the new cardless technology is seen as an attempt by the company to amend ties with both its current — and potential — customers.

How to Protect Yourself From ATM Skimming

Skimming is a booming business for thieves all around the world; from 2014 to 2015, the number of ATMs compromised by skimming practices increased 546%, according to the FICO Card Alert Service.

How it works: Hidden electronics gather information from PIN keypads or your debit card. While skimming can occur anywhere you swipe your card, 94% of security breaches stem from ATMs.

To protect yourself against compromised ATMs, here are a few warning signs:

• Odd appearance, such as mismatched colors or graphics on the screen not being correctly aligned.

• Loose card readers, as they can be a sign that thieves placed a fake box over the original card slot in an attempt to record account and PINs.

• A lack of flashing lights on card readers means that a skim device may have been placed on top of the original card reader slot.

For more information on how to protect yourself from ATM skimming, check out our article here.

Kelly Smith is a junior writer and engagement specialist at The Penny Hoarder. Catch her on Twitter at @keywordkelly.

This was originally published on The Penny Hoarder, one of the largest personal finance websites. We help millions of readers worldwide earn and save money by sharing unique job opportunities, personal stories, freebies and more. In 2016, Inc. 500 ranked The Penny Hoarder as the No. 1 fastest-growing private media company in the U.S.

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Wanted: One Prince Fan with Mad Archiving Skills to Work at Paisley Park

Imagine walking in the footsteps of a musical legend, working in the same space where the late, multi-Grammy-winning Prince created albums and films.

For one lucky job applicant, that could be a reality.

Prince’s Paisley Park estate in Chanhassen, Minnesota — which opened to the public as a museum last year following the artist’s April 2016 death — is looking for an archives catalog associate, according to a job posting on Indeed.

This sounds like a dream job for a Prince fan. The archives catalog associate would be responsible for cataloging the museum’s collection — filing and maintaining a computerized system — as well as helping to clean and monitor exhibits, conducting research and assisting with artifact requisitions and loans.

Prince’s estate is looking for someone with at least one year’s experience working with archives or cataloguing. Though the subject matter you’ll be dealing with may be intriguing, the job post warns the catalogue associate will need to “deal with repetitious intense work and procedures” and “cope with [an] extremely heavy workload.”

The ideal job candidate also must:

• Have good grammar, punctuation and spelling skills

• Know how to use a Mac and have good typing skills

• Have excellent communication and interpersonal skills

• Be able to process sensitive information and maintain confidentiality

• Be able to drive a car

Obviously, some knowledge of Prince would be useful for this gig, but the estate is also looking for someone with a background in historical studies and research who knows how to work with Quark Express and Adobe Photoshop.

This job listing is for a full-time position with hours that could include nights, weekends and holidays. The salary amount was not included in the listing, but I’ve reached out to Paisley Park for more information and will update this post whenever that information becomes available.

The jobs section on Paisley Park’s website states that interested job candidates need to fill out this application and email it to jobs@officialpaisleypark.com or fax it to (901) 344-3232. You can also apply via Indeed, by clicking here.

If a full-time archivist job doesn’t seem like the gig for you, but you’re interested in working at Paisley Park, there are several other openings currently available, including ones for full- and part-time maintenance workers, a full-time security manager, a part-time ticket associate and a part-time tour operations associate. See the museum’s jobs page for more information.

And as always, for more cool and unique job opportunities, like The Penny Hoarder Jobs page on Facebook to stay in the loop.

Nicole Dow is a staff writer at The Penny Hoarder.

This was originally published on The Penny Hoarder, one of the largest personal finance websites. We help millions of readers worldwide earn and save money by sharing unique job opportunities, personal stories, freebies and more. In 2016, Inc. 500 ranked The Penny Hoarder as the No. 1 fastest-growing private media company in the U.S.

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This Company Will Pay You to Use the Internet (and You’ll Work From Home!)

Marketing services company Lionbridge is filling two part-time work-from-home positions right now, and we’ve got details.

Lionbridge provides the online tool you need to do the jobs, but you’ll need to provide your own computer and smartphone.

And if these jobs at Lionbridge don’t grab you, check out our Jobs page on Facebook. We post new jobs there all the time.

US Ads Evaluator

Ads Evaluators analyze online advertisements found in search engine results to make sure they’re relevant to the search terms being used.

Job Requirements:

• High school diploma or GED

• Resident of the U.S. for the last three consecutive years

• Active daily user of Gmail and social media, including Twitter and Facebook

• A secure broadband internet connection

• A laptop or desktop computer

• An Android smartphone 1 or higher

• Experience using web browsers

• Familiarity with current and historical business, media, sports, news, social media and cultural affairs in the U.S.

Apply for the US Ads Evaluator job.

Rater

Raters analyze webpages, images and other search engine content to make sure the results are relevant to the search terms being used.

Job Requirements:

• High school diploma or GED

• Resident of the U.S. for the last five consecutive years

• A secure broadband internet connection

• A laptop or desktop computer

• An Android smartphone 1 or higher or iPhone 4S or higher

Preferred Skills:

• Active daily user of Gmail and social media, including Twitter and Facebook

• Familiarity with current and historical business, media, sports, news, social media and cultural affairs in the U.S.

• Experience using web browsers

Apply for the Rater job.

Lisa McGreevy is a staff writer at The Penny Hoarder. She loves telling readers about new job opportunities so look her up on Twitter @lisah if you’ve got a tip to share.

This was originally published on The Penny Hoarder, one of the largest personal finance websites. We help millions of readers worldwide earn and save money by sharing unique job opportunities, personal stories, freebies and more. In 2016, Inc. 500 ranked The Penny Hoarder as the No. 1 fastest-growing private media company in the U.S.

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Here’s How to Get $10 Worth of Free Stuff at CVS Without Leaving Your Car

Update: CVS has just relaunched this $10 off curbside pickup deal. We’ve updated all the details about this awesome deal.

When you don’t have two days to wait for Amazon but can’t bear to put on real shoes to go to the store, what do you do?

Bribe your children or best friend?

This offer to try CVS Express is probably easier — and will save you more money than asking your teenager to bring back change.

The CVS Coupon Code That Gets You $10 Worth of Stuff

This coupon code is good for new CVS Express customers who want to order items from the web or CVS app, then pick them up through the store’s new curbside service.

Visit CVS Express and enter your ZIP code to see if curbside pickup is available in your area. Choose a local store and select your items online.

When you checkout, use promo code CVSCURBAFFIL10 to get $10 off your first curbside pickup purchase of at least $10.

We spotted this deal at Slickdeals. Use it by Oct. 14, 2017, to get your savings!

Lisa Rowan is a writer and producer at The Penny Hoarder. She gets CVS receipts so long she could turn them into garments.

This was originally published on The Penny Hoarder, one of the largest personal finance websites. We help millions of readers worldwide earn and save money by sharing unique job opportunities, personal stories, freebies and more. In 2016, Inc. 500 ranked The Penny Hoarder as the No. 1 fastest-growing private media company in the U.S.

source The Penny Hoarder http://ift.tt/2fZb0vR

How I Earn 7 Multiple Streams of Income