How to Effectively Use Social Proof to Increase Conversions

Many factors can influence a customer’s decision making.

How can you get them to buy products from your company instead of your competition?

You have to find a way to influence their opinions.

You can achieve this by leveraging social proof.

The goal is to create a positive perception of your company. It’s power in numbers.

Let’s say a prospective customer is searching for a product online.

They know what they want, but they’re not sure which ecommerce store to buy it from.

What are some things they may be looking for?

Company A has over 500 reviews. Company B has only 7 reviews.

Which one do you think has a better public perception?

Look at the factors in this graphic as a reference point.

Obviously, the company with more reviews will seem more attractive to the new customers.

That company feels more reliable.

Over 500 people took the time to write a review, so they must be legitimate, right?

Honestly, the quality of the product is irrelevant here.

Company B could potentially have a far superior product, but if nobody knows about it, it’s useless.

Don’t get me wrong: quality is obviously important.

If you’re selling a product that’s faulty or has lots of problems, social proof can backfire.

You may get hundreds of reviews, but if they’re all negative, it could put you out of business.

Regardless of your company type, industry, or current reputation, I’ll show you how to improve your conversions by using social proof.

Use celebrity endorsements

Don’t let the term “celebrity” throw you off.

Unless you have lots of connections, it’s probably not realistic for you to land a superstar like Jay-Z, Shaquille O’Neil, or Tom Cruise to endorse your product.

If you want someone like Selena Gomez to recommend your company on her social profiles, it will cost you $550,000 per post.

That’s outrageous.

Instead, look for regular people with large followings, especially on social media platforms like Instagram.

Here’s an example of how Bose used Russell Wilson to create social proof:

Over 250,000 people viewed this video.

If Russell Wilson says it works, then it must, right?

That’s the power of social proof.

Keep in mind that the Federal Trade Commission requires social influencers to clearly disclose their relationships with brands they promote.

That’s why Russell used the #Ad hashtag in this post.

I know what you’re thinking.

Maybe Russell Wilson isn’t an A-list celebrity, but he’s still an NFL quarterback.

You can also find local celebrities or regular people with lots of social media friends.

Browse through your followers. Do you see anyone with 10k, 20k, or maybe even 50k followers?

Reach out to them directly to see if they’d be interested in becoming a brand ambassador for your business.

You may even have better success with these people as opposed to celebrities with millions of followers.

Why?

It’s easier for someone with 20k followers to stay more engaged with their fans.

Get out there, and try to find people to endorse your brand and products.

It doesn’t have to be Justin Timberlake—anyone with a large social following can help you generate social proof.

Proudly display your best numbers

Let your numbers do the talking for you.

How many people bought your product or downloaded your ebook?

Tell your customers.

Post this information on your website in real time.

Here’s an example from Nosto:

What screams social proof louder than 22 billion?

Here are some other options you may consider using:

• How much money have people saved by using your business?
• How many social media followers do you have?
• How many customers have you served?

But if you don’t have impressive numbers, omit them.

For example, let’s say you have only 450 Instagram followers.

That’s nothing to brag about.

First of all, if that’s the case, you need to learn how to build a larger Instagram following.

But don’t include that number on your website.

Instead, show off your strengths.

If you have 30,000 followers on Twitter, that’s something you’ll want to showcase.

Here’s another example from Kissmetrics:

The homepage shows how many companies use their behavioral analytics and engagement platform.

It creates social proof.

If it said, “10 companies use our service,” nobody would be impressed.

But 900 is nothing to sneeze at. It’s impressive.

Take a look at your best numbers to see which ones are worth displaying on your website.

Display visual proof of your product in action

Photos are powerful social proof.

Images can help reinforce the idea that your product works.

Remember the example of Bose we looked at earlier?

Russell Wilson had the speakers under water. And it was effective. Why?

Because it’s one thing to tell people that something is waterproof, and it’s another to show them.

That’s why you should include before and after photos on your website.

Proactiv has been doing this for years:

This page on their website encourages users to upload their own before-and-after photos.

They want to hear from their customers because it will show any skeptics that the product works.

It’s a great idea.

Plus, storytelling is an effective way to engage and persuade someone.

Think about your brand, products, or services for a minute.

What kinds of images would generate social proof?

Let’s say you’re a carpet cleaning company. You could show dirty rug vs. clean rug.

Before and after photos work well for anyone involved in the health, wellness, and fitness industry.

Here’s another example from a fitness company:

Do you look like the guy on the left?

Well, we can make you look like the guy on the right. And we promise to do it in 90 days or your money back.

It’s an impressive marketing strategy.

Visual evidence of your product working will improve conversions.

Give your customers incentives for writing reviews

Let’s take our last point one step further.

Sure, you can always post photos on your website.

But they’ll mean a lot more to prospective customers if they see reviews from other users.

That’s why people research companies on websites like:

• Yelp
• Angie’s List
• Trip Advisor
• Google Local

Your company should have a profile on as many of these platforms as possible.

This will increase your chances of getting more reviews.

It’s all about customer preferences.

Some people may trust only Yelp reviews, while others will check your ratings on Google.

If you have one but not the other, you’re alienating potential new clients.

Encourage people to upload photos when they leave a review.

Earlier we discussed how visual evidence could impact a buyer’s decision making.

Based on the graphic above, we know user photos are far more important when it comes to generating social proof.

Customers may feel a professional photo on a company website could be glamorizing the product.

To some extent, they’re right.

Obviously, you’re not going to willingly share images that portray your business in a negative light.

But customers feel they can trust other customers.

Here’s a helpful tip for convincing customers to leave reviews.

Be direct, and ask for a review.

There’s nothing wrong with this approach.

If you have a brick and mortar location, make sure your staff understands the importance of customer reviews.

Before a customer leaves, train your staff to say, “Don’t forget to write a review on Yelp.”

If a customer bought something from your ecommerce store, send a follow up email with a direct link to your profile on a review website.

Look how Zappos accomplishes this with their email campaign:

The message is short and direct. All they’re asking for is a review, nothing else.

What’s the incentive they offer?

“Help others.”

Make sure you give your customers a good reason to leave a review.

Providing valuable insight to other consumers may work for people, but other customers may need some extra motivation.

Here’s an example from The Body Shop:

Let’s be clear.

You’re not offering an incentive for customers to leave a positive review.

Obviously, that’s what you’d prefer, but you can’t control that.

Notice how The Body Shop just says, “Tell us what you think.”

It doesn’t specify good or bad.

Either way, as a customer, you will get 10% off your next purchase if you write a review.

This incentive can be the extra motivation customers need to generate social proof for your business.

Create surveys and share the results

Sometimes people won’t take the time to leave a full review.

It’s understandable.

You have to realize people are busy, and an incentive may not persuade all your customers.

Here’s where you can use a survey to your advantage.

Rather than typing customized reviews, a customer can simply click on some predetermined survey responses.

It’s quicker, takes less effort, but can be just as effective.

Here’s an example from Nordstrom:

It’s easy to build a survey online.

Check out these sites:

• Survey Monkey
• Survey Planet
• Google Forms

Share the survey results on your website to create social proof.

Look how 4Change Energy does this:

If you’re not having much luck generating customer reviews, see if your customers will respond better to surveys.

Get testimonials from experts in your industry

Customer opinions are valid, but does the customer always know what they’re talking about?

An expert is another matter.

If you have customers with high credibility, see if they are willing to give your business a testimonial.

Figure out which experts in your industry may be relevant to include.

For example, if you’re a mattress company, getting a positive testimonial from a chiropractor makes sense.

Other experts to consider for various industries could be:

• Lawyers
• Doctors
• Teachers
• Physical therapists
• Mechanics

Here’s an example from Kissmetrics:

Follow this template.

Try to include the expert’s:

• full name
• company
• title
• photograph

How did your company help them? Be specific.

In the example above, the testimonial says “30% lift in conversions.”

All of these factors help contribute to social proof.

You’re allowed to brag

Growing up, your parents may have told you not to brag.

I’m here to tell you it’s okay to do that.

Let everyone know about your success and what you’re good at.

I’m not saying you should brag about how much money you made last month, but boast about anything that establishes your credibility.

Were you featured in a respected publication?

Did a popular website use your business as a reference or resource?

Check out this example from Roma Moulding:

Forbes Media is a “global media, branding and technology company, with a focus on news and information about business, investing, technology, entrepreneurship, leadership and affluent lifestyles.”

They are recognized across the world.

Getting featured on their website is a big deal.

Don’t be afraid to share information like this with your customers.

If a company such as Forbes says you’re legitimate, then you must be, right?

That’s the power of social proof.

Come up with a customer referral program

We’ve already established that customers trust other customers.

Customer referrals can generate social proof.

If someone had a bad experience with a brand, they won’t recommend that company to their friends and family.

If you get a referral from someone you trust, it implies they had a good experience.

They want you to get the same positive interaction.

Look at the impact referrals can have on your business:

You increase the chances of getting a conversion through customer-to-customer recommendations.

Let’s take this a step further.

Yes, your customers may love your business.

But will they go out of their way to spread the word?

Maybe.

Like with reviews, sometimes people need some extra motivation.

Offer an incentive, like Airbnb does:

It doesn’t need to be over the top.

Just give them some encouragement to share your brand with their friends.

Trust me, it works.

Use Facebook

We’ve discussed the importance of generating social proof through Instagram and review websites such as Yelp or Google Local.

But that’s not enough.

Encourage customers to review your brand on Facebook.

Facebook has such a wide reach, you can’t afford to leave it out of your social proof strategy.

Think of it like this.

How many followers do you have on Facebook?

How many friends do your followers have?

You’re indirectly connected with all those people even if they don’t follow you.

If your customers comment and write reviews on your Facebook page, it will show up on the news feed of all their friends.

It’s great exposure for your brand.

Here’s something else to consider: Facebook is the top platform for positive reviews.

Comments on your Facebook page are more likely to paint your company in a positive light than on other review websites.

How can you encourage people to write reviews on your Facebook page?

Engage with your customers. Like their posts. Respond to their comments. Make sure your profile is active.

All of these factors can help generate social proof on Facebook.

Conclusion

Customers trust other customers.

One of the best ways to improve your conversions is by leveraging social proof.

This strategy won’t cost you anything.

Sure, it might involve some promotional giveaways, but for the most part, it’s free.

Display your best numbers. Show your customers how many people visited your website or downloaded your app. It gives your company more credibility.

You can also brag about certain achievements, like being featured in a popular magazine.

Encourage customers to review your products. It’s even better if they upload their own photos. People trust user photos more than professional ones.

Images are a powerful way to prove your product works. Incorporate some visual demonstrations and some before and after shots whenever possible.

Get an endorsement from a celebrity or expert. It doesn’t have to be Brad Pitt, but find someone with a large social following and send them some free products.

If you follow this advice, you’ll create social proof for your product or service and improve your conversions.

What incentive will you offer your customers to review your brand on Facebook?

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A Deeper Look at My ‘Wishlist Strategy’ for Curbing Spending

In the past, I’ve mentioned the strategy of using a wishlist to curb my spontaneous spending impulses. It turns out that the simple act of adding something I want to a wishlist is an incredibly effective way to cut through momentary desires, keeping me from spending money on something I might want in the moment but that I’ll end up forgetting and/or regretting over the long term.

It’s a really simple strategy that takes advantage of a psychological tic that I have and, from what I’ve seen, many other people have as well.

Here’s how it works.

On my phone, I have the Evernote app for jotting down notes. For this to work, you really need some sort of note-taking app available to you most of the time, and I use Evernote. You might prefer to use some other app for taking notes, or even using a pocket notebook. Although I use a pocket notebook for a lot of things, I find Evernote works far better for this particular task, the reason for which I’ll explain in a bit.

Whenever I find myself wanting something bad enough that I’m considering buying it, instead of actually going to the checkout or clicking through the shopping cart on the website, I simply add the item to a “Wishlist” note in Evernote. I simply keep a note going named Wishlist. When I want an item, I go into that note and, at the bottom of the note, I add a quick description of the item in just a few words along with a link to that item from some website.

Here’s the interesting part – the addition of that new item to the wishlist feels like I have “taken action” on that item and it causes the immediate desire to at least somewhat go away. Virtually every time, the simple act of putting that item on my wishlist takes the edge off of that desire to make an impulsive purchase, at least enough so that it’s easy to move on and not actually make that purchase right now. That keeps my money in my pocket where it belongs and ensures that I don’t spend it on something I might not truly want all that much.

But what if I’ve stumbled across something really cool that I do actually end up wanting? Here’s the neat trick. Once a month, I review the wishlist. I usually do this around the first of each month (which is actually why I’m writing this today, as I’m writing this right after having reviewed my wishlist).

I start by going to the bottom of the list and adding the name of the month and the year, followed by a dashed line. All new items after that point are added below that line. Then, I scroll back up, find the line from two months ago (so, if I’m doing this on November 1, I look for the September line), and delete that line. This leaves just an October line and a November line.

At that point, I go through everything above the top line, one at a time, and ask myself if I really want that item. Do I really want this game I added to my list? Do I really need that cool notebook? Does it really make sense to buy this thing or that thing?

What I almost always find is that my desire for that item has faded significantly since I added it. Most of the time, my desire has completely disappeared. If I find that I don’t really want that item much any more, I simply delete it from the list. It’s gone, and I never spent the money on it. This is the end result of 90% of the stuff I add to the wishlist.

What about that remaining 10%? I usually give each of those remaining items some additional thought. Is this something I really, truly want? Or is it just an appealing thought? Maybe this item is touching on a desire that can be addressed in some other way.

Often, the items that make it to this point end up eventually turning into purchases, but these are planned purchases. I’ve turned off the “urgency” for these purchases, so I’m okay investing the time and effort necessary to research those purchases and find how to meet those desires in a cost-effective and reasonable way.

So, let me show you in a very practical way how this works.

This morning, I went through my wishlist, as I do at the start of each month. The task is one that I have scheduled as a recurring task at the start of each month, so this is a natural time to do it.

I started by adding a line at the bottom that said “November” with a bunch of dashes after it. That way, in the future, when I add more items, they’ll just go below that line.

Then, I scrolled back up and found the line that said “September” and deleted that line.

Now, there were a few items above that line that were still there from previous months. They were items that I decided that I still wanted, but I hadn’t actually bothered in the last month to buy them.

To me, that’s a clear indication that I should just delete those things. If they sat there for a month after review and I still didn’t feel like taking action, they should probably just go. That’s not always true, however – sometimes items stick around for an extra month or two because I didn’t have enough money in my budget to afford that particular item.

So, very quickly, I deleted all but one of those items that was above the “September line.” The one item that remained was one that I suspected I could find for just a dollar or two if I kept searching, so I left it there. I poked around online for that item for a few minutes, but still haven’t found it for a price that low yet (it’s an item that was overproduced and I expect it to eventually hit the bargain bin).

Anyway, this leaves me with the 11 items I added during September that I haven’t looked at since I added them.

I walk through each of these fairly quickly, asking myself whether I still want this item. Is this something I still am interested in spending my hard-earned money on? Is this something I actually want? Might I just want something similar to this?

Believe it or not, most of these items end up leaving me with a sense that, no, I don’t want that item any more. There were such items as a sous vide cooking tool, three different books, a pocket chess set, and some fountain pen ink in that group.

I deleted all of them.

This left me with four items that I was actually still interested in – two books, one board game, and one “gadget,” for lack of a better term. The books all ranged in price from about $8 to about $16. The board game appears to be commonly on sale for about $40. The “gadget” runs about $110.

Those are all items that I’m interested in, and that interest has sustained over more than a month. In other words, those are items that I am actually considering buying.

What happens now?

First of all, I work out my hobby spending budget for the month. All of those items would come out of my personal hobby spending. Can I afford them this month? I figured out that, given other things I planned to use that money for, I could afford either one book and the game, or both books. The others would have to wait.

The next step was to start bargain hunting for those items. I started digging around for the lowest price I could find on those books and on that board game. The books are a bit harder to bargain hunt for, especially since one is already in paperback – the hardcover book (the more expensive one) could be one that I could wait on until the paperback comes out.

The board game, however, can net some serious savings if I do some shopping around for it – and I manage to find it at about 60% off of MSRP surprisingly quickly. So, I allot about $20 of my hobby budget and pick up that game.

For the other unpurchased items, I added the books to my Amazon wishlist (which a few people use for gift-giving purposes in my family) and deleted them, leaving me with just two items to look at next month (the gadget and the “overstocked” item). I have a sense that the gadget will end up just being deleted next month.

So, what happened here?

I had 11 items that I really really wanted and almost bought impulsively in September. But, rather than giving into that temptation, I just added those items to my wishlist instead.

When I finally reviewed that wishlist on November 1, I simply deleted seven of those things because I realized I didn’t really want them any more. That eliminated the vast majority of what I might have spent impulsively. It would have been wasteful spending, because I would have just bought things I wanted on the spur of the moment, things not connected to any lasting desire.

I ended up putting two of them on a gift giving wish list, eliminating them as well. Again, that’s money I didn’t spend, and it also gives some of my relatives who insist on giving gifts from Amazon wishlists something that I’ll actually like as an idea.

I found one item at a 60% discount. If I had bought it on the spur of the moment, it would have cost me $40. Because I was patient, I gave myself time to shop around (and time for it to wind up on sale), so it only cost me $16.

I was able to realize that the one remaining item doesn’t quite fit into my budget and that it could wait a bit longer. That’s okay, because I understand why I’m passing up on it.

So, to put it all in a nutshell, I went from spending hundreds on impulsive desires to spending only $16 on one of the few items I actually wanted beyond a momentary impulse. It’s all because of the “wishlist” strategy.

I strongly encourage you to consider using a wishlist yourself. It’s a very, very effective way to handle impulsive spending desires. It turns postponement into an “action” that feels like you’ve actually done something toward the purchase, which often pops that balloon of desire quite effectively.

Good luck!

Related Articles: 

• Control Yourself: 11 Ways to Stop a Splurge Purchase
• 11 Strategies to Minimize Shopping or Avoid it Altogether
• 60 Simple Rules of Personal Finance
• Eight Little Things to Always Remember While You’re Shopping

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How to Earn Quick Cash for the Holidays

By Holly Reisem Hanna Every year my sister makes these beautiful hand-knit scarves, I pick out the yarn that I like (last year it was camel-colored cashmere), and she makes me a scarf for my Christmas present. I have also bought these fabulous scarves for other family members and friends who always LOVE them! My […]

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Let Us Put It Bluntly: The Legal Marijuana Industry Is Growing Like Crazy

What I Miss Most About Overspending (and What I Don’t)

It almost seems like, overnight, I transformed from a fun 20-something to a middle-aged mom pushing 40 years old. I’m not sure I’m any more mature than I was, but I sure do have a lot more responsibility.

As my kids have grown, I’ve come to the realize they’re not just my babies; they’re actual people. Everything I do now – and don’t do – could very well shape the lives they get to live. The behavior I model every day is potentially behavior they’ll mirror when they become adults themselves.

So, I try to do the responsible thing at all times – or, at least when my kids are watching. Sure, I drink a bunch of beer and get into shenanigans with my husband and our friends from time to time, but I make a lot of responsible decisions that prove I’m a full-fledged adult.

We pay all of our bills on time, for example, and we avoid debt like the plague. We save a large percentage of our income and even stash away money for college. I pay for my kids to take gymnastics and piano lessons, and we help them with their homework and read to them every night. From a distance, I look like I have my life together. And, for the most part, I do.

Five Things I Miss from My Days of Spending Too Much

Still, I think all of us have that little voice inside that wishes we didn’t have to try so hard. As privileged as I am, I still wake up some days wishing I would just win the lottery already.

I’m at the point in my life where I don’t want to cook, clean, do dishes, or put away laundry at all. I still do it all every day (with my husband helping), but I don’t want to.

And sometimes, I still wish I didn’t have to care so much about money. Most of our financial goals (such as retirement and our kids going to college) are so far off it’s hard to get overly excited about achieving them.

Part of me also misses my carefree 20s – a time in my life where I mostly spent whatever I wanted with the idea that I’d worry about it later. It wasn’t very smart, but it was fun.

But, what do I miss most? Here are five major lifestyle factors I occasionally wish I could enjoy again:

#1: The Joys of Dining Out

While we still dine out when we travel, we almost never go out to eat when we’re at home. We gave up that habit a long time ago when we first started tracking our spending and using a zero-sum budget.

I still remember when, a decade ago, we found out we were spending nearly $1,000 on food some months – mostly due to our penchant for dining out for convenience. By cutting out our restaurant dining, we were immediately able to save hundreds of dollars per month and divert those funds toward debt repayment and other financial goals.

I don’t miss wasting that much money, but boy, I do miss not having to cook dinner all the time. I miss heading out to a restaurant and not worrying over whether I have the right ingredients for our evening meal, or dealing with dishes once we’re done eating. I also miss everyone getting to order whatever they want without having a 20-minute conversation to figure out a dinner I can cook that everyone will eat.

• Related: 15 Strategies for Saving Money at a Restaurant

#2: Having a Newer Car

Sometimes I miss having a nicer car, or at least I wish I had one to drive. I’m mostly reminded of this fact when we go on vacation and rent a car to drive around. The last few times we’ve rented, we’ve had a really nice Mitsubishi SUV, a Mercedes Benz that we got through an accidental upgrade on Expedia, and a giant Ford truck.

It’s not that I care what it looks like when we drive, but I really like the newer amenities some cars have. For example, I love having a USB port to charge my phone (something our 2009 Prius doesn’t have), and I truly enjoy having more space and a much larger trunk. The new car smell – and the fact that rental cars are usually pretty clean and nice – doesn’t hurt, either.

But while I miss being able to trade in our cars whenever we wanted, I don’t miss having to pay for the privilege. Keep in mind that the average new car payment is over $500 right now, and most new cars are financed for almost six years.

While I miss having a nicer car, hearing those stats brings me back to reality rather quickly. New cars are nice, but they are not even close to worth it in a financial sense.

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

#3: Constant Home Upgrades

My husband and I live in our forever home. It’s more than 30 years old and worth around $240,000. We paid approximately $187,500 for it four years ago and have done some nice upgrades since then. But now, we’re pretty much tapped out in terms of upgrading our home. We could spend more for nicer bathrooms or new windows, but it wouldn’t necessarily improve our property value.

If money didn’t matter, I would pave our driveway and add on a covered porch in the back. I would upgrade both of our upstairs bathrooms and add in new floors and granite countertops. I would maybe even remodel my kitchen and get new cabinets, potentially spending tens of thousands of dollars.

But alas, I no longer spend on home upgrades because I’m fairly certain our home’s value is close to as high as it could go. And really, I’m too cheap to spend the thousands of dollars it would take to get everything up to snuff anyway.

• Related: Eight Cheap Ways to Refresh Your Kitchen Without a Full Remodel

#4: Buying Nice Clothes

When I worked in a professional job, I enjoyed dressing up every day. I bought gorgeous suits, adorable blouses and dress slacks, and accessories that tied each outfit together.

Now that I’m much more frugal – and I work at home – it’s hard to see why I would bother. I mostly wear pajamas and workout clothes, and I hardly leave the house other than to go to the grocery store.

But sometimes, I miss having nice clothes. I miss feeling good about what I’m wearing and having the newest styles and colors all the time.

I don’t miss wasting all that money, but I do miss how new clothes made me feel.

• Related: The Deceptively Tiny Wardrobe

#5: Going Out and Having Fun

My husband and I do quite a bit of travel these days – with and without our kids. But, when we’re home, we are home – as in, we rarely go out and do anything.

This is a pretty big departure from our old lives, when we were in our mid- and late-20s. Back in those days, we used to go out all the time.

I used to love going to our local casino (before we had kids) and playing poker, and we used to go out to bars with our friends nearly every weekend. We went to movies and out to fancy dinners with other couples. We went out to concerts and shows, and for pub crawls and nearly any other grown-up get-together you can think of.

These days, my husband literally will not go out and buy a beer at a bar. When we drink, which isn’t really that often, he would rather buy beer at the store and drink it at home. And now that we’re older, we’d rather avoid dealing with the traffic, hassle, and discomfort of being in bars and at shows. We’re boring now, so we mostly get together with friends and play cards or watch a movie.

Do I miss our old, more active lifestyle? Absolutely. Then again, I also know that a lot of the money we spent “going out” was an absolute waste. It was fun while it lasted, but all good things must come to an end.

And now, the hundreds of dollars we don’t spend going out every month gets diverted to things like our retirement accounts, college savings, or our travel fund.

I May Miss Those Things, But Not Enough to Sacrifice the Future

Getting older and becoming more frugal has definitely made me focus on what is important in life. And now that I’m approaching 40, I’m firm in my belief that a lot of the things we spent money on in our 20s were a total waste.

But, I still miss the days when I didn’t have to try so hard or think so seriously about the future. I miss the days where I could spend whatever I wanted while knowing I had decades to save money and get my financial life on track.

Now, some of those decades have actually passed – and the time to get serious about money is here. New cars and fancy clothes are nice, but they’re not going to help any of us achieve our goals.

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:

• 10 Money Mistakes Most 20-Somethings Make
• Five Things I Was Willing to Give Up to Save Money
• The Miracle Money Cure: Six Common Financial Problems a Budget Can Fix
• Why I’ll Never Feel Bad About My Vacation Spending

Do you miss a time in your life when you weren’t so frugal? What do you miss spending money on?

The post What I Miss Most About Overspending (and What I Don’t) appeared first on The Simple Dollar.

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Better Safe Than Sorry: These Cars are the Most Affordable Top Safety Picks

Picton Property Income (PCTN)

Picton Property Income is a member of Moneywise’s First 50 Funds for beginners. To find out more about investment trusts and how they work read the our guide: Investment trusts – the ins and outs.

Picton Property Income (PCTN)

AIC sector: Property Direct – UK
Objective: To provide shareholders with an attractive level of income together with the potential for capital growth, by principally investing in commercial property sectors.
Ongoing charge: 2.47%
Yield: 4.1%

Picton Property Income’s portfolio consists of 58 assets invested across the main commercial property sectors: Office, Industrial, Retail, Retail Warehouse and Leisure. The portfolio is predominantly invested in the office and industrial sectors and is biased towards London and the South East.

Under chief executive Michael Morris, the team has generated Picton’s outperformance by actively managing its assets, thereby enabling it to raise rents, cut costs and reduce voids.

Picton Property Income invests in assets where it believes there are opportunities to enhance either income or value, and this is primarily achieved by providing space that meets occupiers’ requirements.

The portfolio has around 350 occupiers providing a diversified income stream from a wide range of businesses. The majority of this income is paid out to investors in the form of quarterly dividends.

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Profile: Henderson Smaller Companies (HSL)

Henderson Smaller Companies is a member of Moneywise’s First 50 Funds for beginners. To find out more about investment trusts and how they work read the our guide: Investment trusts – the ins and outs.

Henderson Smaller Companies (HSL)

AIC sector: UK smaller companies
Objective: To maximise shareholder’s total returns by investing in smaller companies that are quoted in the UK.
Ongoing charge: 1.01%
Yield: 2.2%

Managed by Neil Hermon since 2002, Henderson Smaller Companies has since regularly outperformed its benchmark, the Numis Smaller Companies index.

The trust is relatively large for a smaller companies fund. This has seen Mr Hermon invest more in medium-sized companies than true ‘small companies’ – medium-sized companies typically account for around two thirds of the portfolio, while small companies (including Aim-listed stocks) make up the remainder.

Mr Hermon’s main focus is on looking for growth stocks at the right price. He finds his investments mainly by conducting hundreds of meetings with companies each year, where he assesses company managers and their strategy. He looks for ‘the four Ms’: model (a strong business model); management (managers with a good track record); money (strong balance sheets and cash flow); and momentum (good earnings momentum).

He takes a long-term investment approach, holding stocks for over five years on average, so he looks for companies that can grow over that period. Unusual for a smaller companies fund, the trust offers a reasonable income.

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Profile: City of London Investment Trust (CTY)

City of London Investment Trust is a member of Moneywise’s First 50 Funds for beginners. To find out more about investment trusts and how they work read the our guide: Investment trusts – the ins and outs.

City of London Investment Trust (CTY)

AIC sector: UK Equity Income
Objective: To provide long-term growth in income and capital by mainly investing in UK listed equities.
Ongoing charge: 0.43%
Yield: 4%

City of London has a formidable reputation as an income-producing investment trust, with 50 years of consecutive annual dividend increases under its belt.

It is one of the largest UK equity income trusts and has one of the lowest annual ongoing charges. Job Curtis has run the trust since 1991. He manages it conservatively, focusing on high-yielding, cash-generative businesses. It may not be exciting, but it is not designed to be; it is firmly positioned as a steady, dependable option in a turbulent world.

Mr Curtis looks for companies that are undervalued on a medium-term basis that he can invest in over the long term. He likes to run his winners and the portfolio turnover is low. It is well-diversified with more than 100 holdings.

Around two thirds of the portfolio is invested in big ‘blue-chip’ companies listed on the London Stock Exchange, but they tend to be businesses operating globally that are selling their goods and services overseas and investing in economies likely to grow faster than the UK.

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The 5 Biggest Reasons to Hate the IRS Tax Code

Trump's critics on the left seems to think the tax code is just fine the way it is. So as a primer for why Americans deserve genuine tax relief and reform, here are five reminders of how badly our tax system is broken.

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No Dental Insurance? Free Dentistry Days Can Help You Get the Care You Need

Is the pain of paying for dental services keeping you from ignoring that pain in your tooth?

You’re not alone — but, luckily, there’s help.

Several dental clinics across the United States have committed to hosting free dental days throughout the year, providing services such as cleanings, fillings and extractions free of charge.

Free Dentistry Day runs this nationwide initiative to help patients get the dental care they need. Its website states financial strains can make dental care unaffordable, especially for more than 130 million Americans, who are without dental insurance.

“Participating offices are able to help those who would otherwise not receive dental care at all,” Kathy Scent, a practice administrator in the Chicago metro area, said in a video about the initiative on the site.

“Some have gone years without dental care — either because they don’t understand the value of oral health or, more often than not, they simply don’t have the financial resources,” she said.

Since 2010, Free Dentistry Day says over 2,500 patients have been given more than $1 million worth of free care.

The initiative’s website gives a list of local dental offices providing free services. Nearly two dozen practices are signed up for the month of November, including offices in Indiana, Missouri, Virginia, Oklahoma, Florida, Illinois, South Carolina, Arkansas, Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas and Arizona.

With Veterans Day on the horizon, half the upcoming free dental days are specifically for those who’ve served in the military. A veteran’s ID, a license with a veteran’s stamp or discharge papers are required to get those free dental services.

Details about who is eligible, what services are offered and when patients can take advantage of this generosity are included on Free Dentistry Day’s site under each upcoming location’s date.

The initiative’s Facebook page also provides information on upcoming free dentistry days.

Many practices offer the free services on a first-come, first-served basis, but some require appointments to be made in advance. So sign up — or line up — early.

And if no practices near you are offering free dental days, be sure to check out these posts on getting treated at a student dental clinic, signing up for a dental savings plan and multiple options for affordable dental care for your entire family.

There are a bunch of ways to save when it comes to your oral health. Now you’ll have to come up with another excuse for avoiding the dentist!

Nicole Dow is a staff writer at The Penny Hoarder. She’s overdue for a dentist appointment.

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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Personal Finance Success and the Road to Happiness

When I first started really turning my financial life around, I was of the genuine belief that doing so was going to bring about incredible positive change in my life. I envisioned this glowing future where all of the things I was worried about in life had melted away.

We were going to live in a beautiful house. I was going to have a low-stress job. My marriage was going to be great. My children were going to be great. Everything was just going to be great in this future where I no longer had financial worry hanging over my head.

One of the realities I figured out over the ensuing five years or so is that even though I was making incredible strides when it came to improving my financial state, it really wasn’t making me happier.

Don’t get me wrong – I felt far better about our financial state, and we were undoubtedly in a more stable financial situation with a lot less financial stress hanging over our lives.

But was I happier? Was everything just like that beautiful picture that I envisioned?

Sadly, no, it wasn’t.

Things were better, unquestionably. I didn’t have that financial worry hanging over my head. I had a really flexible job that provided me with wonderful opportunities. I had a great marriage and three wonderful young children at home.

Yet, I still wasn’t really happy. I still didn’t have that “Instagram life” that I wanted so badly.

I had all of the pieces that I thought I could ever want, but I wasn’t happy.

So, I made another series of changes. I sold The Simple Dollar, for one. I dove into some other passions for a while. I tried seeking out new social circles.

The end result of those changes? No change.

I still never had this happiness that I thought personal finance success would bring me. I never found the endless joy that I thought all of this would bring into my life.

What was missing?

If my underlying goal in seeking personal finance success was to achieve personal happiness, was all of that a failure? Was the elimination of debt and everything else just a waste of my time?

Over the last year or two, this has really been at the forefront of my thinking about finances. What have I really gained from paying off all of our debts and saving at a high rate? Am I really better off as a person because of it? Am I a happier person because of it?

Lately, I’ve finally figured out a few things that come close to answering those questions, something that I’ve been hinting at in a lot of posts recently.

First and foremost, personal finance success alone is not a key to personal happiness, but it is a very useful tool for nurturing it. Do I feel happier because I made a ton of personal finance improvements in my life? Not in any direct way. However, have the things that I gained from personal finance improvements put my life in a better place? Absolutely.

Let me spell out what I mean, as clearly as possible.

Finding Sustained Happiness… or Not

I don’t think that sustained happiness – a true day-in-and-day-out sense of existential joy – is something that many of us ever truly find in our lives. My heart simply does not flip over and over again all day long, bathed in a pool of constant joy, and I don’t believe a life situation exists where that can ever be the case.

For a long time, I tried to chase that sense of sustained joy. I believed that a lot of different things would help me find it – my personal finance changes being a big part of it, and things like having a “perfect” marriage or a “perfect” parenthood also were parts of it – but the truth is that sustained joy will never arrive.

It seems like a pretty big disappointment, doesn’t it? After most of an adult life seeking some elevated form of lasting happiness, I’ve come to the conclusion that it just doesn’t exist.

It’s important here to note what I’m actually saying, though.

I’m not saying that my personal finance journey was fruitless. Not in the least.

I’m not saying that life is devoid of joy. Not in the least.

I’m simply saying that I was too busy rushing through a journey with a mirage at the end and, because of that, I missed the real answer along the way.

The real answer is simple: the best life you can build is a fertile field upon which joy can bloom regularly, but it takes work to cultivate that field.

Let me repeat that: the best life you can build is a fertile field upon which joy can bloom regularly, but it takes work to cultivate that field.

Make Your Garden Grow

I’ve come to really think of life as being a lot more like a garden, much like our humble vegetable garden out behind our house. The most joyful moments in the garden are when you stroll out there and find some fresh produce, which turns out to be a delicious result of quite a bit of work.

To enjoy that fresh tomato, one had to turn over the soil. One had to fertilize the soil as well, with compost made over a period of time. One had to start a tomato plant in the house under a grow light, then plant the little plant out in the garden on a warm spring day. You have to weed around it and then, eventually, cover the ground near it with straw and newspaper. You might have to put up a fence around it to keep animals out, and you might have to spray a little bit of soapy water on the leaves to keep certain pests and diseases at bay.

Eventually, though, that work pays off. You find yourself with a bunch of tomato plants, producing a bounty of delicious tomatoes.

Life is like that, in a lot of ways. Most of life is about cultivating a situation so that true joy can spontaneously arise with some frequency from your efforts.

For example, you might cultivate strong personal finances so that you’re not burdened by money stresses and so that, when an opportunity comes around, you can jump on board that opportunity.

You might cultivate a lot of great relationships by giving freely of yourself, so that you always have friends around and so that when you need a helping hand, at least a few hands will be extended your way.

You might cultivate personal health through diet and exercise, so that your body remains strong and you’re able to enjoy a much wider range of activities for a much longer period of your life.

The important thing to note here is that none of these paths lead to a life of sustained happiness and joy on their own. Instead, they lead to a life where there are more opportunities for moments of true joy.

The journey of a lifetime isn’t a direct path to happiness, because life doesn’t provide that. Instead, life’s path, if given proper cultivation, leads to a place where happiness naturally grows and bubbles up frequently.

This is a huge realization that I missed out on for many years. I kept looking for some kind of ideal life, when what I actually had is a life that was slowly producing more and more joy bubbling up naturally from the work I had put in. I was looking for some kind of perfection, and that was causing me to miss out on countless good things.

Here’s another great realization: there is a lot of inner joy that comes from the process of cultivating, if you look for it. If you look around during the actual journey, you’ll find a great deal of joy along the way. It’s not that different than the feeling of peace that many people get when weeding their garden. You don’t need to directly have that sweet fruit in your hand to know that you’re bringing your garden to a better place, and the process itself is kind of meditative and calming.

All of this thinking has led me toward a few big conclusions about the road to happiness and the role that personal finances play on it.

Building the Road to Happiness, One Brick at a Time

As I said earlier, I don’t think there is a state of perfect, unbridled happiness in life. Instead, we find happiness in individual moments which come about as the result of the effort we’ve put in to build a good life, and finding contentment in that process makes life quite good.

How do you do that, though? What’s the recipe for the road to happiness if that’s true?

I don’t know if the “bricks” in the road are the same for everyone, but I can certainly comment on many of the elements in my own life that are a part of building that fertile ground for happiness and help me to find contentment during the journey.

Choose to spend less than you earn and do wise things with the remainder. I want to start off by mentioning personal finance here. It is a key element for many reasons – it provides foundational resources, it melts away stress – but I’m going to come back to it in detail later on in this article, I promise.

Actively choose to be positive about things and actively choose to look at the glass half full. Most things that happen in life have good things about them and bad things about them. Rather than dwelling on the negatives, deal with them only enough to handle the damage caused and to ensure they don’t happen again. Focus instead on the positives – look at the good things brought into your life.

I make a conscious effort to separate wants from needs and intentionally downplay the wants in both thought and practice. Rather than having a life that’s steered by trying to acquire things that I don’t have, I try to focus instead on using the bounty of things that I do have. If I find myself wanting something new, I reflect instead on the access I have to many, many other things to enjoy, and I ask myself whether I really want that thing and why I want it. I also delay wants by adding those desires to a “wish list.” Those tactics tend to melt away most wants, which in the end mostly just create negative feelings.

Try to nudge my work towards things you care about, so that your work is as meaningful as you can make it. My entire decision-making process regarding The Simple Dollar was to nudge it along a path where I could focus on the things I really do care about – writing articles that were full of meaningful content to help people with personal finance and life decisions and perhaps lead them to reflect on their own lives with a positive outcome – and away from things that I do not, like managing ads and keeping servers running. This can be done in almost any career path by intentionally choosing jobs and projects that are interesting and meaningful to you compared to the other options, while trying to avoid both idleness and overwork. Evaluate things through that lens as often as possible.

Try to cultivate lots of relationships, understanding that not all of them will become deep social connections. Having an abundance of relationships in your life means that you’ll have a constant stream of relationships that are in bloom, relationships that offer up social engagements and opportunities and help when you need it. Relish the fact that you can give those things to your friends as well.

Actively work on maintaining those relationships. Building a lot of relationships is fine. Maintaining them is a different story. It is very easy to allow relationships to wither on the vine, not because of any sort of malice, but because more urgent things pop up in your life. Yet, time and time again, I find that it’s the relationships that I put effort into maintaining that end up bearing wonderful fruit in the long run.

Try to look at most situations through the eyes of other people who are involved in it. Rather than focus on how someone may or may not have slighted me, I try to consider the situation through their eyes. Honestly, most of the time, it quickly becomes obvious that they did not even notice any sort of perceived slight. It’s easy to forget that human beings have a spotlight of focus in their lives and, quite often, you’re not in that spotlight. They aren’t slighting you – you just don’t even enter into their conscious thought. Applying that kind of “put yourself in their shoes” thinking as often as possible is very valuable.

I keep a gratitude journal. Each day, I write down five things I’m grateful for that I noticed or that happened to me that day. Some days, I’ll write even more. Why do this? It’s a day-in day-out reminder of how many good things my life already has for me. It really breeds appreciation of the goodness of my daily life.

Make a consistent effort to show gratitude toward others. This can take the form of simply saying thanks for the things that people do for you during the day, but it can also take the form of writing thank you notes for bigger favors and just for being a good influence in your life. It can also extend back to doing those things for people in your past who mentored and helped you.

Choose positive things to say in conversation, almost all of the time. Rather than dwelling on negative thoughts and perspectives about things, look for positive things to say. Jump in when the conversation is a positive one, or avoid saying much (or find an easy way to redirect) if the conversation has a negative tone.

Carve out time for the things that interest me. In my case, I literally block out times for my hobbies and passions and interests. On my daily and weekly schedules, I devote a little time each day to hobbies and a significant chunk of at least one day a week to them.

Try to take care of your body. A healthy body you can rely on is invaluable. Be more thoughtful about what you put into your body, and spend some time and energy exercising as well, in whatever way works best for you.

Try to take care of your mind, too. You can achieve this by getting adequate sleep. Another invaluable technique is to practice focused meditation, which is like doing bicep curls for your mind. Just simply focus on your breath for a couple of minutes – breathe in, breathe out – and bring your mind back to your breath when you notice it wandering. Do this a few times each day. It really is like bicep curls for your mind.

Try to find positives in each of those things, even when it’s hard. Sometimes, it’s hard to find positives when you’re doing something that isn’t really fun or when the outcome isn’t what you hoped for. It’s very easy to get lost in a sea of negative feelings. Don’t let that happen. Look for the positives in your most difficult outcomes. You might be sore, but that’s your body getting stronger. A friend might not be communicative, but you have a lot of other friends and that might just be that one friend’s style. Look for the positives, above all.

The Key Role of Personal Finance

The thing to remember in all of this is that personal finance might not be the absolute key to happiness, but it is a really powerful foundational layer. Having your finances in order is like putting an extremely rich batch of compost into your garden of life.

Having strong finances dissolves stress, which helps your mind and body. A lot of modern stress revolves around money concerns. How will you pay your bills? How will you afford this or that? If you take a better approach with your money by trimming down the unnecessary and asking yourself what you really want or need and putting money away for the future, that stress melts away. Low stress encourages positive health outcomes (both mental and physical), helps build relationships, makes it easier to rest, and makes it much easier to focus and to see the positives in life.

Having strong finances creates opportunities. It enables you to take on challenging career moves (like, say, walking away from a career in research to be able to write from home so you can spend more time with your family and write things that feel meaningful… not that I know anything about that). It enables you to actually reach out and touch big dreams, like taking your family on a truly amazing vacation. It enables you to take advantage of things that pop up, like buying a $10,000 collection from someone selling them at a fire sale price of $2,000 because they need cash.

Having strong finances creates a positive “snowball effect” of financial health. When your finances are strong, you can do things like buying a car with cash so that you don’t have to pay interest on the loan. You can pay off your credit card in full each month because you’re spending less than you earn, so you’re never accruing interest on there. It becomes easier and easier to save for the future because you’re not losing money to interest, to late fees, and so on.

In other words, being strong in the personal finance department doesn’t create happiness itself, but it is a huge part of a strong foundation upon which happiness can grow. You just can’t expect to be happy simply because you have money in the bank.

The Road Forward

It takes a lot of time to do the things listed in this article. Quite often, you’ll find yourself investing a lot of time and energy into things that don’t seem to be bringing any immediate joy. I have two suggestions there.

First, think about both your progress to date and the positives of where you want to go. In the middle of getting in better shape, for example, consider where you started and how you look and feel now, then think about what things will be like if you stay on this path. Things are better now, and they’ll be even better then.

Second, seek out joy – or at least contentment – on the path itself. Find exercise that you enjoy. Find products that you enjoy. Find low calorie foods that you enjoy. Find joy even in the hard work, because it is a joyful thing to create things you can be proud of. Don’t worry so much about outcomes – think instead about the moment and what you can do that’s good right now that happens to also be good going forward.

Good luck!

The post Personal Finance Success and the Road to Happiness appeared first on The Simple Dollar.

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99 Countries and Counting: How She Gets Paid to Explore the World

Lisa Niver is on deadline for She Knows, a website to which she contributes a regular column Today, the travel blogger is at home in Los Angeles, writing about her most recent trip to Las Vegas.

“I drove super fast cars,” says Niver, her voice cheerfully beaming over the phone “I cooked with a chef.”  Her adventures take her all around the world and have her trying a variety of activities, all in the name of her next assignment.

“I’ve been doing this project, ’50 Things Before I’m 50,’ and I got to swim with the sharks at Mandalay Bay,” she says. “I went to the spa. I also did a project in Palm Desert, where I drove BMWs and had my first golf lesson.”

After meeting deadline, where her day goes depends if she’s globetrotting or managing We Said Go Travel, her travel website that publishes blog posts and video content.

But travel writing is more than just wandering to far-off destinations and posing for dreamy photos — there’s a lot happening behind the scenes.

“I spend part of my day doing social media,” she says. “I go out, I do activities then have to write about it. Then I have to do the videos. If I’m not on the road, I’ll put up one photo a day. There’s a lot of hours of the day you’re not seeing if I’m just sharing that photo. A lot of the day is logistics.”

To date, Niver has visited 99 countries, most recently Monaco, for the all-electric Formula E auto race, and San Marino, a small landlocked country inside of Italy that doesn’t have any train stations or airports.

Niver has always been passionate about travel. But that is still a big change for someone who started out in medical school and became an elementary school science teacher before she jumped ship to work on a cruise line.

She founded We Said Go Travel in 2010.

The site started as her personal blog, with one story a week, but now it is a community website that publishes four to five times a week, featuring almost 3,000 travel stories submitted by people from 75 countries.

“It’s been amazing,” says Niver. “I’ve published 11-year-olds to 80-year-olds. It’s been very successful for having a wide variety of views and opinions.”

There are three annual contests on the site writers can submit to, and there’s a destination section where anyone can pitch to be an ambassador of a country.

Submissions for the writing awards are 500 to 800 words with one photo. It has to be an original story and match the theme. There is a $15 fee to enter and a scholarship available for those who need financial assistance.

“I’ve had 13 travel-writing competitions,” says Niver. “We have had almost 2,000 people that we’ve published in the travel-writing awards. Their stories have been remarkable, but it is a lot of effort for people to decide they want to enter their story. In 2018, we are going to do our first travel video competition.”

Niver is working hard to make a name for herself; she recently attended the See Her Women in Entertainment Emmy Party, a campaign started to fight back against bias against women in the media. She also did an Instagram takeover for Frommer’s Travel Guides and has been published in USA Today, Smithsonian Magazine and The Saturday Evening Post, for which she interviewed a WWII veteran for her trip to the Solomon Islands. She’s verified on Twitter and Facebook and has hit a million views on YouTube.

The days are filled with highs and lows.

Niver shared one of her scariest and most challenging experiences so far.

“I went mountain biking and got to write the story for Pop Sugar at Northstar [California Resort in Lake Tahoe],” she says. “I had gone in the winter to the Tahoe resort, and I said, ‘I will come back if you give me a private [biking] lesson with a teacher that doesn’t mind crying, because I am terrified!’”

She did indeed come back to take a lesson. She thought she was doing well until the head instructor, Shep, came out and said they were going to the top of the mountain. She had only worked on the first skill, so she didn’t think she was quite ready. But she jumped in anyways and started the ride. Soon she noticed the signs were above her skill level.

”I started to cry. I was joking about the crying part — I didn’t want to cry! He looks at me and says, ‘Have you fallen down? Are you hurt?’ I said no. I said, ‘The goal of my project was to do 50 things before I’m 50, not to find 50 things to kill me before I’m 50!”

So on she went. “I get terrified. I was crying, cursing, hyperventilating, but I make it. I don’t know that I’ll ever go back. But I was willing.”

That willingness is one of the reasons Niver feels she has been successful in travel blogging.

For anyone wanting to blog about their own travels, Niver shares some tips for getting started.

“Start today,” she says. “Whatever step it is, do something. Don’t spend money. There are so many ways to get started — you can have a Facebook long post, Instagram long post, find someone to write for, use Tumblr. A lot of people get stymied that they have to have the perfect name and the perfect site, and they’re gonna buy a URL, SEO and hosting. In the beginning, the most important part is having commitment.”

It seems like a no-brainer, but Niver credits it for getting her to where she is now.

“Commit to writing once a month,” she says. “At the end of the year, you’ll have 12; that’s way more than you have now. It doesn’t have to be the best — it has to be published.”

Aaron Drake is a travel writer and former magazine editor who has contributed to Amtrak, The Advocate and Man About World, among others. He pretty much lives to get lost in other countries.

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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Your Credit Information and the End of Privacy as We Know It

The recent Equifax data breach has many people talking about privacy and what you can do to protect your personal information. While it’s true that you should try to safeguard your private data from people with bad intentions, it’s also true that there’s a very good chance your information is going to be exposed at some point.

Equifax’s data breach alone just put the personal information of some 145.5 million U.S. consumers at risk. According to reports from Identity Theft Resource Center, over 1 billion records have been exposed in data breaches since 2005 – and that’s just the breaches that have been made public.

With such massive numbers of exposed records, not to mention all the information we willingly give away online, it’s safe to assume that your information isn’t private any longer, and perhaps hasn’t been for a very long time.

The question therefore becomes: What should you do to protect yourself in this world where “data privacy” is an endangered species? What you can’t do includes hitting some sort of metaphorical “delete” button and removing all your information from the cyber world. Although, that would make for a great app!

Your Responsibilities

Most of us are understandably angry about the never-ending string of high profile data breaches. After all, in the case of the credit bureaus specifically, you don’t recall giving permission for any company to collect your account management habits or the other types of information that appears on your credit reports. Yet like it or not, the credit bureaus can legally collect, store, and sell your information without your permission if they obey various federal and state laws when they do so.

The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) is the primary federal statute that serves to protect you and your information where credit reporting is concerned. Among the many rights that the FCRA confers upon you is the right to expect to see only accurate information on your credit reports. Unfortunately, that’s not always the way credit reporting works.

Credit reporting errors and fraud exist. When such issues occur, the result is that inaccurate and potentially unfair information could show up on your credit reports, lowering your credit scores and often making it difficult to qualify for the financing and services you desire and deserve.

However, you may not realize that it’s always been your personal responsibility to check your credit reports for accuracy. In an age where the privacy of your information is no longer a certainty — and perhaps even nonexistent — that responsibility is more important than ever.

Routine credit checks might not necessarily prevent fraud or credit reporting errors, but they can make you aware when something goes wrong so that you can take steps to correct the problem.

Protecting Your Credit

Your credit identity is ground zero when your personal information has been stolen. Credit fraud is the easiest way to monetize that information. As such, identity theft is one of the biggest threats you may face when your personal information is stolen.

Identity theft occurs whenever someone steals and uses your personal information to impersonate you or to open fraudulent accounts in your name. Although it’s difficult to fully protect your personal information, you can take steps to protect your credit reports. If a crook manages to steal your info but cannot actually open any fraudulent accounts in your name, then you’ve avoided the problem of cleaning up the aftermath.

Placing a credit freeze on all three of your credit reports is perhaps the best way that you can protect your credit from fraud, especially if you believe your data may have already been compromised. When you freeze your credit reports, they are actually taken out of circulation, preventing new lenders from accessing them. As a result, if someone applies for a fraudulent account in your name, the application will be denied. If the thieves cannot qualify for an account in your name, then they’ll simply move on to the next victim on their list.

Related Articles:

• Why You Need to Check Your Credit Report With All Three Credit Bureaus
• Five Tips for Applying for Credit Cards in a Post-Equifax Breach World
• Listen to What Your Credit Score Is Trying to Tell You

John Ulzheimer is an expert on credit reporting, credit scoring, and identity theft. He has written four books on the topic and has been interviewed and quoted thousands of times over the past 10 years. With time spent at Equifax and FICO, Ulzheimer is the only credit expert who actually comes from the credit industry. He has been an expert witness in over 230 credit related lawsuits and has been qualified to testify in both federal and state courts on the topic of consumer credit.

The post Your Credit Information and the End of Privacy as We Know It appeared first on The Simple Dollar.

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How to Manage Slump Months When Your Income Fluctuates

Slump months happen to the best of us with variable incomes.

My first came recently, eight months into full-time self-employment, and it caught me by surprise. As I tallied up my income spreadsheet, I was shocked to learn I’d barely cover the month’s basic expenses, let alone business costs or incidentals. Sure, I’d brought it on myself by pressing pause on new projects to focus on my book launch, but that didn’t help me any feel better.

Fortunately, I could rely on savings, but not everyone has that luxury. Plus, hearing the advice to “just save more in advance” when you’re already in the throes of a slump month is pretty unhelpful. (Although having a safety net really does lower stress.)

How else to weather the storm? Try these tips from people who’ve been there.

1. Don’t Turn Away Lower-Paying Gigs.

“The highest-paying jobs are usually the least consistent, and the lowest paying are the most consistent,” says Cory Kleinfeldt, a paintless dent repair technician who works on commission in Sacramento. “I had to learn to value the lower-paying, but more consistent work, while [aiming] to make the higher-paying work more consistent.”

For some, this means picking up a side gig you can do on your own schedule, like driving for Uber. Or it could mean reaching out to lower-paying clients you don’t typically work with during busy months, but who are likely to have work available.

2. Renegotiate Your Rates.

Unlike full-time employers, clients don’t give us annual reviews or opportunities to negotiate higher rates — it’s on us to engage those conversations. What better time than a slump month?

Start by reevaluating your existing relationships to determine if you can re-negotiate your fees. You’ll likely have the most luck with long-term clients you’ve worked with for at least a year. Just like you’d prep before asking your boss for a raise, be able to defend the increase and explain what added value you’ll bring.

3. Review Your Contracts

Look for contract stipulations that can stabilize your cash flow. For example, I’ve been asked to pay for my travel costs — like flights and hotel — for speaking events, then wait to be paid back until the event wrapped. After fronting several hundred dollars on several occasions and not getting reimbursed for months, I changed my contracts so clients are obligated to reimburse me within 30 days of booking.

“There’s also no shame is asking for half your payment upfront — or all of it upfront — if that works in your industry,” says Kleinfeldt.

Or consider changing your business model altogether. “If you have a client you could work with on a regular basis, selling them on a monthly contract can give you some regularity when your other income sources are variable,” suggests Liz Theresa, an online marketer and web designer in Norwell, Massachusetts.

4. Slash Unnecessary Lifestyle and Business Expenses

Concentrating on the bare necessities can help carry you through a down month or two. That goes for lifestyle expenses, like avoiding takeout, and business costs. “I usually cut back on ad dollars and invest more time in creating valuable content, especially since ad results can be so variable,” Theresa says.

Zina Kumok, a freelance writer in Denver, scales back on buying educational courses and books and reduces hours she needs from her virtual assistant.

5. Look for Patterns for Future Slump Months

Some contractors can predict future down months, which presents an opportunity to double down during the high season. That’s the case for both Lauren Cafrelli — a personal trainer in New York who can generally count on a January boom and a slow summertime — and Kara Perez, a money writer and founder of Bravely in Austin, Texas, who’s figured out that summer is slow for her, too.

Knowing a slow month — or season — is on the horizon allows you to relieve some pressure by prepaying big expenses or getting ahead on other yearly goals. With some foresight, having a slow season is basically a built-in vacation, Perez says.

While Kleinfeldt doesn’t have seasonal predictability, he uses slow months as motivation to build his book of business. “Every time I have a slow month is because I spent too much time earning money and not enough time seeking more jobs,” he says. “We can all get caught up in performing our skills and not spending enough time marketing, selling or finding new revenue streams for the future.”

Related stories on Grow:

How to Create a Budget That Works

7 Daily ‘Rich Habits’ Anyone Can Adopt

25 Ways to Turn Your Interests Into Income

This article originally appeared on the personal finance site, Grow.

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