Protection …or Overkill? Five Insurance Policies You May Not Need

Before you purchase an insurance policy, ask yourself if the coverage you’re seeking is something you truly need.

The purpose of insurance is to protect you or your loved ones against unforeseen misfortunes. Insurance agents seldom argue against the need for insurance protection, but there are some policies that just don’t make sense for a lot of consumers.

The need for some types of coverage is obvious. People with dependents who rely on their income recognize the need for life insurance. The prohibitive cost of medicine makes health insurance a must. However, there are other policies whose benefits are questionable.

What follows are several types of insurance that you may be better off without.

Mortgage Protection Life Insurance

Mortgage protection life insurance is designed to pay off your home loan if you die while there’s still a balance owed on your mortgage. Because the liability of a borrower decreases over time, the policy’s face value also decreases, even though your premiums may remain the same. Because policies vary, you should review the terms of your insurance contract carefully.

If you sell your house, the mortgage protection policy terminates, notes Lingke Wang, co-founder of Ethos Life Insurance. Consumers should be aware that if they die, the insurer likely will send their benefit to their mortgage lender. The insured’s family won’t see the money, though they will be freed from the burden of making further mortgage payments.

Wang recommends buying term life insurance coverage instead of mortgage protection life insurance. Under a term policy, your named beneficiaries can choose how to use the insurance money, if you die.

Comprehensive and Collision Auto Insurance

Many motorists buy optional collision and comprehensive policies for added protection of their vehicles, and auto lenders will often require borrowers to carry such insurance on a newer car. But such coverage often doesn’t pencil out for the drivers of older cars.

Collision protection will pay to repair or replace your vehicle, no matter who is at fault in an accident. Comprehensive coverage pays for damages not caused by collisions, up to your policy limits. Such losses may include fire, theft, vandalism, damage from weather-related events, glass damage, and damage caused by striking an animal with the vehicle.

But Tony Steuer, a financial preparedness advocate who specializes in insurance, warns that buying collision and comprehensive coverage for a car that’s more than 10 years old may not be cost effective. You need to weigh the cost of your extra premiums against what you’re likely to receive from your insurer if you file a damage claim. Insurance companies won’t pay more than the market value of your vehicle.

If repair costs approach the value of an older vehicle, it likely will be declared to be a total loss. In that case, you’ll receive a check for your car’s market value. “Sometimes repairs can cost more than the value of a car,” says Steuer.

• Read more: Best Car Insurance Companies

Life Insurance for Children

While insurance companies do insure the lives of children, some critics say such policies are a waste of money for most consumers.

Steuer says the main purpose of life insurance is to lost replace income and support dependents after the insured person dies. Because children typically have no income, it makes much more sense to insure the lives of the parents to make sure that children are cared for, he adds.

When insurance is sold to cover the lives of children, it’s often in the form of a permanent or “whole life” policy. More expensive than fixed-term policies, permanent life insurance gradually builds up cash value. According to Life Happens, a nonprofit organization that educates people about insurance issues, policies for children generally are owned by a parent or grandparent until the child is grown, at which time the child can assume ownership.

A common reason for buying permanent life insurance for a child is that it will protect the child’s future insurability, since it can be maintained in adulthood, even if the child develops a serious illness, Steuer notes. He holds that it’s not possible to predict which children will develop diseases that could make it difficult to purchase life insurance as adults.

• Read more: Four Reasons I Would Never Buy Whole Life Insurance

Rental Car Insurance

Many people who purchase rental car insurance already are covered by their personal auto insurance policies. Joel Ohman, a certified financial planner and the founder of CarInsuranceComparison.com, says buying rental car insurance is rarely a good choice and may result in having duplicate coverage.

The Insurance Information Institute says before you make a purchase you should contact your insurer to determine the rental car coverage you already have. Typically, whatever coverage you have on your personal car will apply to rental vehicles, if you’re using them for recreation purposes.

Be aware that credit card companies also may provide some rental car insurance coverage, although it’s likely to be limited. Contact your credit card company to determine the level of protection that’s available.

Because most people have some form of rental car coverage already, whether through a credit card, their auto policy, or some form of club membership, Ohman says, “It is usually a good idea for most people to decline the coverage from the rental car agency.”

Accidental Death and Dismemberment Insurance

Buying accidental death and dismemberment (AD&D) coverage may seem like a good idea, but the odds of your collecting on such a policy are slim, says Steuer. You’re insuring yourself against circumstances that are unlikely to happen, which is why AD&D policies are relatively inexpensive.

AD&D is designed to pay out sums for death and various forms of dismemberment. Coverage may include the loss of body parts or functions, such as speech, hearing or eyesight. However, there are exclusions for AD&D claims that should be reviewed carefully before making a purchase. For example, an AD&D insurance policy may not pay a benefit if the insured dies during surgery or as the result of a drug overdose. The policies typically exclude death or dismemberment claims that are the result of warfare.

AD&D often is sold as a supplemental policy for life and disability insurance. It should not be used as a substitute for life and disability policies, which offer broader coverage, says Steuer.

More by Emmet Pierce:

• Five Things Your Life Insurance Agent Won’t Tell You
• What Is Umbrella Insurance – and Do You Need It?
• How to Graduate from a Big-Name College for a Fraction of the Cost

The post Protection …or Overkill? Five Insurance Policies You May Not Need appeared first on The Simple Dollar.

Source The Simple Dollar http://bit.ly/2RFNzs1

Flexible and Work-At-Home Jobs for People with a Green Thumb

I was curious if there were work-at-home jobs for people with a green thumb. If you like gardening, plants, outside yard work, flowers, and more, wouldn’t it be great if you could work-at-home doing what you love? Or why not make your love of gardening and horticulture into a home-based business? So, I did a little […]

The post Flexible and Work-At-Home Jobs for People with a Green Thumb appeared first on The Work at Home Woman.

Source The Work at Home Woman http://bit.ly/2TvH6ld

Trading in Options: A Guide for Beginning Investors

Investing has a way of teaching a great life lesson: Our changing world can be unpredictable.

Even “safe” investments — companies or assets with long histories of solid earnings — can change quickly in the volatile global market.

As financial advisors we encourage clients to prepare for these waves by diversifying portfolios. But there’s another tool savvy investors use to navigate choppy waters. I’m talking, of course, about options.

How to Trade in Options

1. What Is an Option?
2. Types of Options
3. Options Vocabulary
4. Why Trade in Options?
5. Where to Trade in Options?
6. How to Get Started

What Is an Option?

When you hold an option, you hold the right to buy or sell a security at a certain price by a certain date. Typically a single option includes 100 shares of the security in question.

The option does not obligate you to buy or sell the security. You can let the option expire without exercising your right to buy or sell.

And that’s why an option can be so powerful: If economic conditions change — or even if your personal situation changes — and you no longer wish to buy or sell the security, you’re off the hook.

This difference between buying and selling defines the two types of options, so let’s go there next.

The Two Types of Options

At their simplest, you can divide options into two categories: call options and put options:

• Call Option: A call option means you have the right to buy 100 shares of the security at a specified price by a certain date.
• Put Option: A put option gives you the right to sell 100 shares of the security at a specified price by a certain date.

This seems simple enough, right? Yet in my experience, options remain one of the more nuanced and complicated concepts for beginning investors to master.

Why is that? I think options can be tough to master precisely because they are so simple. You can do a lot with these two choices.

You can leverage, protect, or add value to your portfolio. It’s all about how, when, and why you buy and exercise options.

And therein lies the fun lies for experienced investors. We’ll get to that soon enough.

First, though, let’s get a little more familiar with the vocabulary of options. Options have their own glossary of terms like “strike price,” “intrinsic value,” and “assignment.”

I won’t give you a quiz, but knowing these terms will help you understand how to unlock the power of options to make your investing more flexible and controlled. (This knowledge could also help impress your broker!)

The Language of Options

Any kind of special trade language has a way of making outsiders feel, well, outside. So to keep that from happening, let’s get up to speed with some key options terms.

Strike Price

Remember when we said an option gives you the right to buy or sell securities at a stated price before a specific date? The “strike price” is the price stated in the option.

Some traders use the term “exercise price” instead.

Exercising

If you own an option and take advantage of it — to buy the shares (with a call option) or to sell them (with a put option) — you have exercised the option.

Exercising your option requires the issuing party to either buy (with a put option) or sell (with a call option) the shares.  

Expiration Date

You guessed it. The expiration date refers to the date after which your option is no longer valid.

After the expiration date, your option no longer has any value. An expiration date can be months or even years into the future.

At, In, or Out of the Money

The strike price of your option remains the same until the option expires or you exercise it. However, the price of the security continues to fluctuate on the open market.

The following terms refer to the relationship between your strike price and the current market price:

• At the money: When the strike price and the current market price are the same, your option is at the money (ATM).
• In the money: When your strike price gives you an advantage over the market, you’re in the money (ITM). For a call option, this happens when the strike price is below the market; for a put option, it’s when the strike price is above the market price.
• Out of the money: The opposite of in the money, of course. When you’re out of the money (OTM) the current market price is either above the strike price for your call option, or the current market price is below the strike price for a put option.

Kinds of Value

An option can have different values at different times depending on the expiration date and current market conditions:

• Intrinsic Value: If an option is in the money, the option’s intrinsic value refers to the difference between the strike price and the market price. An out-of-the-money option has no intrinsic value.
• Time Value: An option is less valuable if it is about to expire. If the option has a longer life, it has a bigger time value. Since an out-of-the-money option has no intrinsic value, it has only time value.
• Premium: The price paid for the option itself. The premium is comprised of intrinsic value + time value. The amount of the premium is also the most money you could lose if you buy the option.

Writers and Assignments

This has nothing to do with English class. Instead, it refers to the way options originate, and it has implications when you exercise an option.

• Writer: The initial seller of a new option is the “writer” of the option. Before they can be traded, options must be written into existence.  
• Assignment: By writing the option, the seller makes an assignment. The assignee is obligated to sell (call) or buy (put) the shares if the owner exercises the option.

Long vs. Short

When you own an option, you are “long” in the security; the option gives you a right to buy or sell.

You can also be “short” if you have the assignment; that is, if you are the party obligated to buy or sell shares if the owner exercises the option.

Equity vs. Index Options

An option can give you the right to buy or sell 100 shares of a specific stock or exchange-traded fund (ETF) or 100 shares from a specific index:

• Equity Option: With an equity option, also known as a stock option, you’ll have the right to buy or sell shares of a specific stock or ETF.
• Index Option: An entire stock index such as the S&P 500 underlies an index option. These can be a little harder to comprehend since they do not represent one specific stock.

Stock Options Quote

A stock options quote shows you all the pertinent information in one place, usually along one line of text:

• the stock abbreviation (AAPL, AMZN, GOOGL, etc.)
• the strike price
• the expiration date
• call vs. put
• the premium price

Volatility and Deviation

Options are hypothetical in nature. When you start thinking about volatility, you’re hypothesizing about the hypothetical to a certain degree. If this is too much too soon, just skim on down to the next header.

Brokers measure two kinds of volatility:

• Historical Volatility: This measures the actual changes in a particular stock over a specific period of time.
• Implied Volatility: This indicator anticipates future volatility of a security based on measurable variables. An option whose underlying shares have a higher implied volatility tends to have a higher premium.

Along those same lines, brokers and investors will also discuss standard deviation. This also refers to the potential movement of a stock and can impact an option’s premium.

Why Trade In Options?

Experienced investors like options because they limit losses without necessarily limiting the potential for gain.

An example may be helpful here: Let’s say you are thinking about buying $10,000 worth of stock in Hypothetical Industries (HIDY) because you think the stock could be worth $12,000 in three months.

Rather than spending the $10,000 to buy the stock, you could buy a call option for $200, for example, and still control the $10,000 worth of stock. If the stock performs well, like you thought it would, you could exercise the option or trade on its intrinsic value.

If not, rather than losing your significant investment, you’d lose only the $200 premium you paid for the option.

This may be the simplest example for how to use options, and it’s also a common approach we call speculation. You’re using your hunch or, hopefully, your market research to anticipate changes in the market then buying an option to take advantage if you’re right.

Investors use options to speculate because it can create leverage, especially if you buy an out-of-the-money option and it goes in-the-money. Options have even more elaborate and elegant applications:

For Hedging

Options originally evolved to address this need. In this case, options work like an insurance policy. Hopefully you’ll never have to file a claim on your homeowners insurance, but you’re still wise to pay the premiums just in case.

Likewise, investors who use put options for hedging may never exercise their options unless their securities perform more bearishly than they’d expected. If that happens, though, they have the option to sell at a price that limits losses. 

As Spreads

Here’s where it gets really complicated. Savvy investors often create spreads when they buy multiple options at two or more strike prices.

A well-designed spread can profit no matter how the market performs.

In Combination

Similarly, investors can combine put and call options on the same security to control an asset. Some investors call this a “synthetic” position since you’re synthesizing ownership of a stock without actually buying it.

More Advanced Options Strategies

With some knowledge and experience, you can create your own win-win scenarios using options. Combining short (selling an option) and long (buying an option) positions can even limit the premium you pay to buy the options to begin with. Your short position can help defray the cost of your long position.

Someone new to options should seek the guidance of a professional financial advisor. 

Where to Trade Options

While you have a wide variety of options, pun intended, when it comes to trading, we have a few favorite platforms for online options trading.

Ally Invest: Ally Invest is one of the best online brokerages, with no minimum account balance and low trading fees.                                             

Check out Ally Invest today>>

E*Trade: If you’re a pro looking for an affordable active trading option, E*Trade is a solid choice.

Try investing with E*Trade here>>

TD Ameritrade: TD Ameritrade offers affordable trading and expert advice for new and seasoned investors.

Get started with TD Ameritrade today>>

While these brokerages are excellent places to start investing in options, you should read on for a little bit more insight into what traditional brokerages entail.

How to Get Started

You’ll need to open an account with a brokerage, either in person or online, before you can start trading in options. Take your time when looking for a brokerage house to make sure it fits your style and your budget.

Brokers usually charge per trade or charge by a percentage. Find out exactly what services you’re getting in return for your fees.

For example, if you want to use a sleek app to make trades, you may be willing to pay a higher commission to a broker who offers quality mobile services. Also, if you expect your broker to guide you more actively, you should be willing to pay a little more.

Some brokers allow only one position at a time on an option. This will be fine if you’d like to simply invest in some put or call options. But once you’ve gained some experience and you’re ready to start using spreads or combinations, you’d need a different broker.

Bottom Line

Many brokerage houses require clients to go through a screening process to assess their knowledge before allowing them into more complex options schemes.

Options can be among the safest and smartest investments you’ll ever make, but they can also cost you if your strategies don’t match the reality of your financial situation or if you’re not quite sure what’s going on.

To unlock the power of options, be patient and keep learning. Get your feet wet before diving into the deep end. Before long you’ll be doing the backstroke while waving at the lifeguard.

The post Trading in Options: A Guide for Beginning Investors appeared first on Good Financial Cents®.

Source Good Financial Cents® http://bit.ly/2TuE54v

Best WordPress Gallery Plugin – (Review Updated For Winter of 2019)

If you search for “gallery” on the WordPress plugins page, you’ll see nearly 3,000 results to choose from.

To say that number is overwhelming is an understatement.

Who has time to go through all of those plugins to determine which one is the best? Fortunately, you don’t have to. I’ve narrowed down the list to the 7 best WordPress gallery plugins for 2019.

Why You Need a Gallery Plugin

Without a gallery plugin, you’ll be forced to use the basic image gallery that’s built into the core feature set of WordPress. Does this work? Yes. But it’s extremely limiting, and you’ll never be able to take your web design to the next level with this gallery.

To add visual elements to your website that will stun your visitors and provide them with a user-friendly viewing experience, you need to install a gallery plugin.

Depending on your needs, you can find free gallery plugins, as well as paid gallery plugins. I’ve done my best to identify the best ones for different purposes, so there’s something for everyone on my list of the top seven gallery plugins that I recommend for WordPress sites.

How to Choose a WordPress Gallery Plugin

Before we dive in and look at the list, there are certain things that you should keep in mind during your search for a gallery plugin.

• Speed — Adding lots of images to your website can impact your website loading time. You want a lightweight plugin that won’t slow your site down, even as you upload more photos.
• Features — Are you just looking for grids, or do you want slideshow options? Do you want to upload only photos, or do you need video and audio galleries as well? Will you need ecommerce integration? These are just a few of the feature sets you should think about when you choose a plugin.
• Usability — Sure, having a plugin that’s packed with features is great, but not at the cost of its ease of use. Some plugins are designed for developers and people who are a bit more tech-savvy, while others have drag-and-drop features that are really easy to use, regardless of your technical abilities.
• Price — The majority of gallery plugins have a freemium version. In most cases, though, you’ll probably have to upgrade to a pro version to access the top features. You’ll want to check the feature sets for each pricing level.

The 7 Top Gallery Plugins for WordPress

Now that you know how to pick the best WordPress gallery plugin for you, we’ll take a look at some of my favorites.

1. NextGEN Gallery

With more than 900,000 active installations, NextGEN Gallery is one of the most popular WordPress gallery plugins on the market.

It’s so popular because it offers a lot of gallery options. Unlike other plugins, there isn’t one typical or standard NextGEN gallery.

You’ll first choose between the two main styles: slideshow or thumbnail. From there, you’ll decide if you want a compact or extended album style. Then, you’ll have nearly limitless choices for size, transitions, effects, timing, and things of that nature.

As you can see from this example thumbnail gallery, this plugin is perfect for photographers and artists to showcase their latest work. You can add watermarks and hotlink protection as well, which is a great feature. The lightbox galleries have deep linking options too.

But NextGEN Gallery offers much more than that. They also have ecommerce functionality, so you can sell images on your website.

You can install this plugin for free, but to get advanced features like watermarks, you’ll need to pay for the premium version.

2. Modula Image Gallery

Modula Image Gallery is one of the lightest and most responsive image gallery plugins available on WordPress. I like it because you can create galleries that are unique and fully customizable.

In addition to images, Modula lets you share video galleries as well.

This plugin has a custom grid feature — you can manually change the size of each image within the gallery. Just navigate to the custom grid option and control dimensions like height, width, and aspect ratio by simply dragging the corners of an image.

Modula Image Gallery is great for beginners, as well as more advanced WordPress users. That’s because you can apply CSS to separate galleries.

The free plugin will be suitable for most WordPress users, but if you’re looking for things like hover effects, lightbox styles, and unlimited photos, you’ll need to upgrade to one of their plans, which start at $29.

Modula Image Gallery is just for grids. To create slideshows, you’ll need to get a different plugin.

3. FooGallery

FooGallery is another highly responsive plugin. These retina-ready galleries will enhance the user experience as they navigate and explore the pictures on your website.

It’s available for free but has a pro version with additional features and benefits. But unlike other gallery plugins, the free version still comes with plenty of variety in the templates. You’ll have plenty of template options to choose from with this plugin.

Here’s how the dashboard looks in WordPress.

As you can see, it’s very easy to add photos and change the settings of the responsive gallery.

You can customize things like:

• Hover effects
• Paging
• Captions
• Filtering
• Loading icons
• Border sizes
• Themes
• Shadows
• Loading effects

FooGallery also has custom CSS for developers. Another cool feature of this plugin is the infinite scroll, which is a nice option for those of you who don’t want to have photos on multiple pages within a gallery. You can also manage video galleries on your WordPress site with the FooGallery plugin. And it has tools for generating boilerplate extensions.

4. Envira Gallery

The interface of Envira Gallery is extremely user-friendly. You’ll be able to add photos with its drag and drop functionality. Similar to Modula, you can adjust the sizes of your visual elements as well.

You’ll start with one of its pre-built templates, then customize it to your liking. In addition to photos, Envira Gallery has options for video galleries.

I also like this plugin is because it’s easy to stay organized. After you add photos to an album, you can select cover photos and choose custom tags for sorting.

All of your galleries will be mobile-responsive, so site visitors won’t have any problems accessing, viewing, or navigating through content if they are browsing from a tablet or smartphone.

Envira Gallery has social media integration and is compatible with WooCommerce, making it easy to share your images on other platforms and get your social media users to purchase content from your ecommerce store.

If you’re a photographer, you can add password protection and watermarks to galleries as well. Slideshows and lightbox mode can be viewed on a full screen so that visitors can look at images in your gallery with a closer view. These features make Envira Gallery a popular choice for artists and photographers.

5. Flagallery Photo Portfolio

Flagallery Photo Portfolio has a feature that we haven’t seen so far on this list. In addition to photo and video galleries, this plugin lets you create music and audio playlists as well.

Another benefit of this plugin is the batch upload feature. It’s great for sites that want to upload a ton of content at once, while still staying organized.

It’s easy to manage all your visual content with one centralized dashboard via WordPress. From here, it’s a simple process to create collections that are fully customizable.

The plugin is optimized for SEO and compatible with all major Internet browsers.

6. Gmedia Photo Gallery

Just like Flagallery, the Gmedia Photo Gallery plugin lets you play music on your website, as well as displays photo and video albums. Gmedia Photo Gallery lets you enable comments on your albums, so website visitors can tell you what they think about your content and you can assign categories and add tags to your galleries to help you stay organized. It even includes editing features. While all of these features may not be important to you, I know some websites are definitely looking for an all-in-one plugin like this.

The drag and drop functionality is extremely user-friendly and the results are mobile responsive.

My favorite part though is the Gmedia iOS mobile app. With the app you can upload files to WordPress without having to transfer it to another device. If you’re using your smartphone to take business photos, which you probably are, this feature will save you a step in the process. You can take a photo from your phone and directly upload it. Super simple.

7. Photo Gallery by 10Web – Responsive Image Gallery

Photo Gallery by 10Web is a top choice to consider because it offers so many different options for showcasing images.

• Slideshow
• Thumbnails
• Image browser
• Masonry
• Mosaic

With slideshows, you have the option to add a filmstrip above the images, so users can jump ahead instead of being forced to view one photo at a time in order. You can completely customize the dimensions of each slideshow as well.

Whenever you click an image in the thumbnail view, a lightbox will be opened. Alternatively, you can redirect each image to a specific URL, but I like the lightbox version better.

Masonry view lets you display thumbnails with different dimensions, depending on the ratio of those images. This is ideal if you have lots of photos of varying dimensions.

But the mosaic view option is probably my favorite.

The mosaic view uses the concept of masonry view, but the thumbnails are resized, so the entire content area is filled. I love the effect that this creates on the screen, and I think it’s a great way for your website to stand out from the crowd.

It’s worth noting that you’ll need to pay for the premium version to access all of these view options.

Photo Gallery by 10Web offers social sharing, watermark protection, and ecommerce integration as well. Overall, it’s definitely a top choice to consider.

Conclusion

If you want to take your visual content strategy to the next level, I highly recommend installing a gallery plugin. Don’t limit yourself with the basic image gallery that comes standard with WordPress.

There are thousands of plugins available, but instead of going through each of those one by one, use this list as a reference and framework to help you narrow down your choices:

• What features do you want?
• Do you need the gallery to handle just photos, or do you use other types of media? Videos? Audio files?
• How much are you willing to pay?
• How important is mobile uploading to you?

Some of these plugins have more features than others; it all depends on what you’re looking for. No matter which option you choose, any plugin on this list will improve your site from the perspective of your visitors.

Source Quick Sprout http://bit.ly/2RFUkdz

Questions About Fuel Efficiency, Savings Bonds, Materialism, and More!

What’s inside? Here are the questions answered in today’s reader mailbag, boiled down to summaries of five or fewer words. Click on the number to jump straight down to the question.
1. Trading up for fuel efficiency
2. Average age of credit accounts
3. Switching to one vehicle
4. Found this great stock!
5. Canadian pharmacies
6. The “rental” lifestyle
7. Investing in treasury notes
8. Toaster oven purchase
9. Series EE savings bonds?
10. Spotify worth it?
11. Library book sale excess
12. Books on curbing materialism

I regularly spend a lot of time thinking about ideas that are really useful in shaping my life as a whole, with personal finance as a significant part of that life. The challenge for me is relating those ideas in a context so that their value to my financial life is clear.

I basically see life as a series of interconnected areas. Physical health. Mental health. Focus and concentration. Spirituality. Intellectual ideas. Marriage. Parenting. Key social relationships. Community relationships. Hobbies. Finances. All of those things are interconnected. All of those areas have at least one strong connection between each of those other areas. Your finances do not live in a bubble. I could literally write an article on the connection between any two of those things. In fact, I might actually write an article about each of those areas and how they connect to finances.

Because of that perspective, when I find an idea that’s really useful in one area, it turns out that the idea is often useful in many other areas as well because it tugs on those connections.

For The Simple Dollar, I’m interested in all of those things, but I’m particularly interested in exploring that area’s connection to finances and how that improvement lifts up one’s financial state. That goes alongside topics that are focused largely on financial benefits, like frugality topics.

The truth is that if I didn’t see those connections to finances and I didn’t realize how much the other areas of my life support good healthy financial habits, financial independence would be a far more difficult journey. While the actual mechanical steps for improving one’s finances are easy, maintaining them requires strong connections and support from the other areas in life, which is something I’ve really come to appreciate in recent years. It’s all connected.

On with the questions.

Q1: Trading up for fuel efficiency

I am trying to make a decision about trading in my vehicle for a more gas efficient one. My daily driver is a Jeep Wrangler and while I enjoy driving it, it isn’t so great on gas mileage. I currently relocated to California where gas prices are higher than my previous home in Texas. With my commute to work alone (approx. 40 miles) I spend about $100 a week on gas. My Jeep is paid off, but I’m wondering if it makes sense to trade it in for something that does a little better on the gas mileage front. Crunching the numbers, it makes sense to think about trading it in but I really enjoy having the vehicle. Any suggestions on making a decision about getting rid of something you “love” for the greater good of saving money?
– Rick

Based on my guesstimation as to the age of your Jeep Wrangler, it looks like it gets about 15 miles per gallon on average. That lines up well with your $100 a week in gas costs given your commute and the assumption that you use it for a few other things.

If you swapped it for a Toyota Prius, for example, your fuel costs go down to about $30 a week, as a Prius approaches 50 miles per gallon. Over the course of a month, that’s about $280 in savings. It’s probably going to be cheaper in terms of insurance, too.

The thing I’d ask myself when comparing the Jeep and the fuel efficient car is what exactly you get out of the Jeep that you won’t get out of the fuel efficient car, and is that difference worth $300 a month to you? That is the lens through which I would evaluate that purchase. What I usually find in situations like this is that the lower cost item often has much of what I like in the higher cost item and breaking it down to paying a lot of money for relatively minor features seems silly.

It’s also worth noting that you actually have more options here than just “keep the Jeep” or “sell it and get a very fuel efficient car like a Prius.” You also have the option of “moving closer to where you work” which saves a lot on fuel regardless of what vehicle you have and cuts down the time invested in your commute. You might also look for work closer to where you live if moving isn’t an option for some reason. There are lots of things to consider here.

Q2: Average age of credit accounts

Instead of opening a new account which would lower the average age of my credit accounts, should I increase my credit limit on a secured card? Currently it is at $800. I could deposit another $200-$300 to raise my limit.
– Stephen

It’s not the average age of your credit accounts that really matters in terms of your credit score. It’s the age of your oldest active account that matters.

There is a minor negative impact on your credit score from opening a new line of credit, but it’s minor and short lived. Often, that impact is counterbalanced by having a better debt-to-credit ratio (meaning the sum total of your credit card balances divided by the sum total of your credit limits). If you open a new card with no balance, your total credit limit goes up but your debt stays the same, this improving your credit score (this only works to a certain extent, but will definitely work if you’ve only got one card and are opening a second one).

In your shoes, I would definitely open an unsecured card if you’ve been handling the secured card well for a while. I wouldn’t close the secured card for a while, though. Leave them both open, then close the secured one (and get your deposit back) in a few years.

Q3: Switching to one vehicle

While evaluating my year-end financial moves, I wondered if I could switch down to one vehicle to cut expenses. A Google search led me to an article you wrote on eliminating one car. I’d like to give you some information and get your thoughts on it. I live alone and travel regionally for work. I bought my second vehicle in late 2017 to tow a trailer with my son’s racing kart. I can probably drop the full coverage insurance on the vehicles to save some money.

I have a 2010 Honda Civic with 248,702 miles on it. I get about 32 mpg and drove 34,529 miles last year. I had $1933.36 in necessary repairs last year. The 2018 annual insurance was $467, the 2019 cost is projected to be $594.

I also have a 2006 Honda Ridgeline with 147,422 miles on it. I get about 20 mpg when I am not using it to tow and drove 4,851 miles last year. It may be higher but I only used it when needed. I had $572.07 in necessary repairs last year. The 2018 annual insurance was $148, the 2019 cost is projected to be $301.
– Kevin

If you think it’s possible with your lifestyle to cut down to one vehicle, you probably can do so. It’s usually professional constraints or other life constraints that keep people from being able to pull it off, so if you don’t see such an issue in your life, you can probably do this.

The big issue I see is that the Civic is going to be far better for commuting, but the Civic can’t tow. Do you have any other option for towing that cart? Do you have a solution in place for what the Ridgeline does for you if you drop it?

If you do (or if you come to the conclusion that you don’t need the towing ability), then I’d drop that Ridgeline like a hot potato and keep the Civic. As many miles as you’re driving, the fuel efficiency of the Civic is going to save you a ton of money on gas versus driving the Ridgeline that much.

I think that if you drop the Civic and keep the 2006 Ridgeline and put almost 40,000 miles a year on it, the gas costs are going to be stupendous. My back of the envelope math says you’re better off keeping both cars as they are right now rather than switching to an all-Ridgeline solution.

Q4: Found this great stock!

Here’s a brain teaser for Trent: My boyfriend bought shares of MORL about two years ago and put it on automatic DRIP. Now he gets about $600 a month on average gross. I studied this stock and I just don’t really understand it, but it seems like it’s just about like printing money!! But if it is so great why isn’t everybody in it? So don’t publish this on your Q&A thing, because I want to keep this quiet. Not looking for a pump and dump scenario, just wondered your thoughts on it.
– Anna

MORL is the stock ticker name for UBS ETRACS Monthly Pay 2xLeveraged Mortgage REIT ETN. Basically, it’s a bundle of mortgages put together by UBS using borrowed money. Imagine that someone borrows $100,000 to buy an investment. They owe interest on that loan, but they’re fine as long as the investment offers a better return on that loan.

Now, imagine you used that investment as collateral for an even bigger loan, which you then used to buy control of mortgages, so that people paying their mortgage bills are actually now writing the checks to you. You can often buy mortgages at below face value – a $200,000 mortgage might be on sale for $150,000 or whatever if someone needs money fast, so if that mortgage ends up getting paid off, you make $200,000 plus the interest over the course of a few years.

This is a great way to multiply your money, but it’s really risky. If enough people stop paying their mortgages, you are in bad, bad shape because you can’t afford to pay the interest on the loans you have. The whole thing falls apart.

That’s what MORL is.

MORL is an extremely risky investment that only works well while the housing market is stable and interest rates are low. It’s double-leveraged and uncollateralized housing debt, which basically means that if people were to suddenly have difficulty paying their mortgages (like what happened in 2007 and 2008) MORL is going to tank hard. Double-leveraged essentially means it rises twice as high when things are going well and falls twice as hard when things are not going well.

I would not hold that investment for anything I was relying on for the future. If you’re playing around with investments with money you can afford to lose, sure, but that’s basically to gambling.

Q5: Canadian pharmacies

I’m curious about your opinion on Canadian (or other foreign) pharmacies. My husband used them back in the day while caring for his mother. I tried one or two and wound up (computer) virus laden. Are there any good sites for Canadian pharmacies? Is it better to go straight to Canada for better prices?
– Doug

So, here’s the deal. Bringing prescription drugs into the United States from Canada is illegal under the Prescription Drug Marketing Act of 1987. However, because of the vagaries of having to deal with every special case of people living along the US-Canadian border, the DEA and the border patrol do not really enforce the law provided you’re getting 90 days or less of a prescription filled and it’s not a narcotic. Basically, they just look the other way because it’s easier than dealing with the specifics of a case and the bad press that would come from taking away an 87 year old’s arthritis prescription or a diabetic person’s insulin.

To exploit this “loophole” – actually, just an unenforced law – a lot of online pharmacies have popped up supposedly dealing in Canadian pharmaceuticals, but a lot of them are pretty dodgy. They’re already doing something illegal but unenforced and it’s a market that reputable companies will largely stay out of because the whole thing relies on the US government not enforcing its laws. You may be able to luck out and find a reputable seller online, but there are a lot of sharks in the water because it’s actually illegal.

I’d avoid it unless you’re actually going to Canada and buying the prescription drugs in person there, buying a small amount, and then coming home. Even then, you’re breaking the law, but it’s a law that’s not been enforced for a while.

Q6: The “rental” lifestyle

We are at retirement age and are thinking about buying a 5th wheel as our home for a number of years, as we are late to the savings game. It seems that used vehicles are the same price as new, and all of them expensive. What do you think about this alternative lifestyle choice that doesn’t include real property?
– Amber

It seems reasonable. I have met many people who have retired to a camper or a trailer. Many of those wind up parking semi-permanently at a campground and serve as campground hosts, so it doesn’t seem like that unusual of a choice to me. (This shouldn’t be surprising – our family goes camping somewhere probably half a dozen times a year.)

I think the key is to be sure you’ve priced everything out and be open to part-time work, both as a way to make ends meet and as a way to fill your time. I also know a lot of retirees who find themselves without much to do to fill their hours once they’re retired.

If it seems appealing and the math works out, go for it. That’s my advice.

Q7: Investing in treasury notes

Question for you: I recently recovered some unclaimed property that I had lost to the state 12 years ago that they sold 8 years ago. I lost dividends for 12 years and lost the value the stock rose after it was liquidated. I wish to make up for my mistakes, so I was thinking of investing the money in T bills as I could use more stable investments. Do you have any opinions on T bills?
– Amy

My feelings on US treasuries are that they’re about as stable as can be in terms of an investment but the returns they offer are really low these days, so low that they’re often matched by savings accounts. They’re rock-solid and they do offer a tiny return that’s as guaranteed as can be in this world, but the return is so small that I would not bank on them as a long term investment.

You don’t want to lock your money up for many years in treasuries that are returning less than 3% unless you truly need something rock solid. At this point, I’d probably just put the money in a savings account or a money market account instead and buy them when interest rates rebound.

The question of what kind of stability you need in your overall investments is something I can’t judge without seeing your full portfolio.

Q8: Toaster oven purchase

I’m hoping you’ll evaluate a recent purchase using your ‘buy it for life’ philosophy. This detailed evaluation is overkill for a single, cheap purchase, but it would be valuable to have a good strategy for similar future purchases.

I needed a new 4-slice toaster oven and decided to buy one at Walmart during a weekly shopping trip. Given the low price, I couldn’t justify spending the time or gas on a trip to another store. I also didn’t think I’d find many quality online reviews of sub-$30 toaster ovens.

The options that satisfied the size and features criteria were a $20 Mainstays brand model or a $25 Black & Decker brand model. I was skeptical that the Black & Decker model would last 25% longer, or be 25% more effective. Second, a toaster oven is relatively simple – I doubted there was any game changing technology that B&D incorporated into this model that the cheaper version lacked. My cynical mind also suspected the B&D model was only branded as such after being manufactured in a random factory. I bought the cheaper model. What would you have done differently?
– Kevin

I would have bought the cheaper model, but I would have probably waited a week and scoped out the local Goodwill first and bought whatever I could find there, as you can usually find toaster ovens there.

Aside from the Goodwill caveat, I basically agree with your way of thinking. I might have done some homework on toaster ovens beforehand by looking at Consumer Reports or other guides, but honestly, they’re simple devices to perform a simple task and aren’t overly expensive, so you’re probably fine in this case.

While I have no evidence for it, you’re probably right on the “relabeled” Black and Decker. Many items like this are functionally identical inside and have just a slightly different case on the outside. There really isn’t a whole lot of variance in toaster oven internal parts.

Q9: Series EE savings bonds?

I have been buying series EE savings bonds for my grandson for years. My son says that they’re not a good investment right now and that a better gift for his future is to contribute to a 529. Thoughts?
– Amber

I agree with your son. Series EE get very low returns right now; they’re best in environments with high inflation and high interest rates, neither of which is true at the moment. With a 529, the money can be invested more aggressively for much better long term returns if the account manager so chooses.

My only qualm here is the “gift horse in the mouth” issue. I hope that this discussion was a tactful one. It’s hard to say from the description. I consider complaining about a gift to be a pretty rude move.

If you have a relative giving savings bonds and would rather they contribute that money to a 529 for your child’s future, thank them for the bond, wait for a while, and then have a conversation with them about how you’re saving for your child’s college education. Mention that anyone can contribute to the fund, but let the gift-giver decide what to do with their gift. It’s their choice, not yours.

Q10: Spotify worth it?

I used to listen to the radio constantly. There used to be a radio station near here that played great music of a wide variety, from rock to bluegrass. The station was sold and now plays modern bland country music. I have tried listening to other stations but haven’t found anything I like. Considering trying Spotify or XM but wary of adding a monthly fee. Are they worth it?
– Ashley

We have a Spotify account that we use as a family. It is often being streamed through speakers in our family room or in our daughter’s bedroom.

My feeling is that such an account is worth it if you listen to a lot of music and want it to just stream and mix up song selections on its own without ads. If you don’t listen very often, I wouldn’t subscribe.

My suggestion would be to try Spotify with a 30 day trial offer – here’s the link. Set a reminder on your phone 27 days from now that reminds you to cancel it if you’re not using it. Then, install the app and try using it as you would a radio. My best experience has been with an inexpensive Bluetooth speaker.

Q11: Library book sale excess

Our local library has a book sale every year where you can go in on the last day and fill up a box for $2 which I have done for years. I finally realized that I had filled up half of our spare bedroom with books I’ll never read from those sales. I would end up grabbing 4-5 that I’d actually read and 40 that I won’t. What do I do with all of these books? I don’t want to throw them away.
– Anna

My first suggestion would be to have a super cheap yard sale. If your town has a community wide yard sale, announce that you’re selling books, put them all out there for a quarter each on the first day, then knock it down to a dime each the second day, then a nickel each the third day. People will clean them up if you advertise it a little.

Another suggestion is to start dropping them in little free libraries around town. Just take some with you and whenever you see a little free library, stick one or two of those books in there. It’ll put that book in the hands of someone who will read it.

If nothing else, you can always donate used books to Goodwill or the Salvation Army. They’ll almost always accept used book donations.

Q12: Books on curbing materialism

Something I’m struggling with is my relationship with stuff. I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately. I think I feel like to some extent that my worth as a person is tied up in the stuff that I have, like I can’t really enjoy books without a large personal book collection or I can’t really be a good home chef without a lot of kitchen gear. The thought of getting rid of stuff really hurts because I feel like I’m agreeing to be worse at something or less at something. I think this is a feeling you’re familiar with. Do you have any advice or any books on how to curb this way of thinking? I need to stop accumulating stuff and start downsizing.
– Jim

The easy answer would be the ever-popular Marie Kondo book, but I think you’re asking a somewhat different question than what she’s answering. I have three suggestions for where I think you’re at, ranging from the more practical to the more philosophical.

The first is The More of Less by Joshua Becker, which is definitely the most practical of the three books I’m suggesting here. Becker’s key argument is that owning too much stuff keeps you from the experiences you want to have because you’re constrained by space and clutter. Thus, take the approach that even a small fraction of your stuff represents more than a lifetime’s worth of experiences and pass on the remainder to those who will value it. It only takes a small fraction of the stuff you have to represent your life.

The second is Goodbye, Things by Fumio Sasaki, which is in the middle in that it’s a mix of philosophical and practical. This book, to me, focused on the connection between your sense of well being and the environment you inhabit and how that interconnection flows both ways. While it dives into practical steps, it focuses on how those steps reveal and promote a symbiosis between your own well being and your immediate environment.

The final book is very philosophical – Erich Fromm’s To Have or To Be? Fromm steps back from the practical but rather dives in a very thoughtful way into why we accumulate things. His argument is that we do so because we view them as a shortcut to a particular type of experience we yearn for, but that the item often serves as a substitute for that experience, an empty calorie that leaves us unfulfilled. This book ends up being an argument for experience rather than possession and I found it to be the most convincing but least directly practical of the three. Read this one to feed your thinking and inspiration; read the others for more connections to practical steps.

Got any questions? The best way to ask is to follow me on Facebook and ask questions directly there. I’ll attempt to answer them in a future mailbag (which, by way of full disclosure, may also get re-posted on other websites that pick up my blog). However, I do receive many, many questions per week, so I may not necessarily be able to answer yours.

The post Questions About Fuel Efficiency, Savings Bonds, Materialism, and More! appeared first on The Simple Dollar.

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Got Unused Baby Gear? Rent It Out With These Services to Make Extra Cash

How to Get a Loan for up to $100,000 in Home Renovations

Does your home need some work?

Maybe the kitchen is stuck in the ’70s. That dusty old carpet in the bedroom has gotta go. And, well, new tile in the shower would be nice…

Home renovations aren’t just for the sake of vanity. You can increase the value of your home if you’re looking to sell soon.

Adding a wood deck to your yard, for example, will cost you, on average, about $10,000. Your resale value will tick up $9,000, according to “Remodeling” magazine’s annual “Cost vs. Value Report” for 2018, so you’ll earn most of that cost back.

A new garage door? That job will cost you nearly $3,500 — but you’ll earn almost all of that back in resale value, too.

Afford Home Renovations — Without Going into Credit Card Debt

Unfortunately, you can’t walk into the backyard and pluck cash off the money tree. (Oh, yikes, that back deck is looking rough, too…)

Fortunately, there are ways to fund some light renovations to your home — even if you don’t have cash on hand.

One option is to take out a personal loan. If you qualify, you’ll typically receive your funds within a few days. Plus, the interest rates on personal loans are much lower than those attached to credit cards (which is another option, though one we definitely won’t recommend in this scenario).

Not sure where to find said loan? Pursue your options on the online marketplace Credible. Enter your information, and the site will spit out your personal loan options. It lets you quickly compare rates without visiting a bunch of sites and getting flooded with emails and phone calls.

Rates start at 3.99%. Remember: You’ll get better offers if you have a good credit score (think: around 640 or higher).

You can check out your personal loan options by entering a loan amount here (up to $100,000) and comparing rates in less than two minutes.

Now, start channeling your inner Chip and Joanna Gaines.

Carson Kohler (carson@thepennyhoarder.com) is a staff writer at The Penny Hoarder.

This was originally published on The Penny Hoarder, which helps millions of readers worldwide earn and save money by sharing unique job opportunities, personal stories, freebies and more. The Inc. 5000 ranked The Penny Hoarder as the fastest-growing private media company in the U.S. in 2017.

The Penny Hoarder Promise: We provide accurate, reliable information. Here’s why you can trust us and how we make money.

source The Penny Hoarder http://bit.ly/2HSLvxb

Closed Captioning Jobs that Allow You to Work-at-Home

The other night, my hubby and I snuggled down to have some quiet time in front of the TV when it occurred to us that the closed captioning feature was activated on one of the channels. As we fiddled with the remote, I began to wonder: How do all the shows and movies get these […]

The post Closed Captioning Jobs that Allow You to Work-at-Home appeared first on The Work at Home Woman.

Source The Work at Home Woman http://bit.ly/2S5GTIE

Wayne Bank supports NCC Foundation

Lewis J Critelli, president and chief executive officer of Wayne Bank, Honesdale, announced that Wayne Bank will support the Northampton Community College Foundation with a $10,000 contribution to provide scholarships through the Dual Enrollment Program for the Monroe County campus.The gift was made possible as a result of the Educational Improvement Tax Credit Program offered by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, acting through the Department of Community and Economic Development. [...]

Source Business - poconorecord.com http://bit.ly/2t4q0iB

Business briefs

Weichert welcomes new team membersWilliam H. Lindaberry and Kevin Melnick have joined Weichert, Realtors — Acclaim, 2920 Route 611, Tannersville. Each Weichert franchised office is an independently owned and operated affiliate of Weichert Real Estate Affiliates Inc. Contact Charles Marzzacco at 570-629-6100 or charlie@acclaimrealty.com.Sweeney named top agent for 2018Weichert, Realtors — Ruffino Real [...]

Source Business - poconorecord.com http://bit.ly/2I1vVj5

Is the Golden Age of Credit Card Rewards Travel About to Change?

By now you’ve probably heard of The Points Guy, an individual who turned maximizing credit card rewards into a fabulous jet setting lifestyle, ultimately spawning a lucrative cottage industry aimed at helping others do the same.

With the assistance of sites like The Points Guy, RewardExpert, UpgradedPoints, and others, the stories of globetrotters enjoying lavish trips around the world entirely on rewards points have become the stuff of legend.

In such an era, it was perhaps only a matter of time before credit card issuers began revising the way such programs work — and it appears that reckoning may soon be here.

A recent report from The Wall Street Journal revealed that JP Morgan Chase, Citigroup, and American Express are all considering cutbacks to their rewards programs.

The cost of such programs for card issuers has increased an average of 15% year-over-year. At Chase alone, credit-card holders had accrued $5.8 billion in rewards they had not yet redeemed as of the third-quarter of 2018, a figure that represents a 53% increase from the end of 2016.

A growing number of consumers have turned gaming the rewards system into an art form, opening multiple cards to snag large sign-up bonuses, strategically using credit cards to maximize rewards, and then closing some of the cards shortly after redeeming rewards.

All of which makes it hardly surprising that credit card companies are now contemplating ways to alter rewards programs, including scaling back upfront offers and identifying ways to boost long-term card usage.

Industry watchers say the golden age of globetrotting with the help of rewards points is hardly ending, but the industry does appear to be undergoing something of a recalibration.

“These programs are very profitable in some respects, but they’ve been hit pretty hard by people taking advantage of rewards and taking them to a level they were never intended to go to, and that cuts into profits for credit cards,” said Beverly Harzog, a consumer finance analyst and credit card expert for U.S. News & World Report.

The Broader Picture

Changes and revisions to rewards programs are not a new or unusual occurrence. They often follow on the heels of people using rewards in ever more inventive ways, said Harzog.

Additionally, rewards have been robust for many years because issuers were competing to attract the top customers — that elite group of consumers known to be big spenders. Now, however, that particular market of consumers has been somewhat tapped out, said Harzog. There are other dynamics at play as well.

“With credit loosening up a bit, we’re going to see people who don’t spend as much obtaining credit cards and card issuers are trying to make adjustments to accommodate this new demographic as well,” Harzog explained.

Jim Angleton, president for Aegis FinServ Corp, a wholesale provider of reward and loyalty cards plus programs for the credit card industry, says the topic is very timely as many of the 1,200 entities his company serves have been actively revisiting rewards offerings.

“Some are actually increasing the benefits, while a large number are lowering the bar for a less-is-best theory of adding revenues to their companies,” said Angleton. He added that MasterCard, Visa International, Discover, Diners, and J Card are all revising rewards programs, and while some of those changes may benefit the consumer, many will reduce current perks.

Smaller Sign-Up Bonuses, Less Valuable Points and More

In the evolving credit card rewards landscape, reduced sign-up offers may become more typical, and will be just one of many tweaks and changes being made.

“Credit card companies might start doing different kinds of targeted reward categories too, such as lifestyle categories aimed at niche markets like entertainment, shopping, or dining,” said Harzog. “But I don’t think sign up bonuses will be as high as they have been over the past five years or so.”

In addition, Angleton says his company’s rewards partners are tweaking the point values consumers earn for their spending. For instance, past programs have utilized a formula under which consumers received up to three rewards points for every $100 spent.

“Recently, we have noticed that the vast majority of airlines and private jet charters have reduced the reward amount down to 1.5-times the amount spent per $100,” said Angleton.

Yet another change taking place involves revised program structures designed to encourage long-term card use, rather than ditching them once rewards have been used.

“Today we see more cards using a tiered reward system that requires additional spending after the initial 90 days,” said Dan Wilke of CreditLiftoff.com.

Credit card issuers are also cracking down on those who apply for multiple cards simply to secure a valuable signup bonus. Chase’s United Mileage Plus Explorer Card is one such example. Like most Chase cards, the language of the card’s requirements explicitly state that the 40,000-mile signup bonus is only available to those “who have not received a new cardmember bonus for this card in the past 24 months.”

• Related: You Can Earn These Credit Card Signup Bonuses More Than Once

What Can Consumers Do?

With all of the changes taking place, it will be incumbent upon consumers to read contracts carefully and to do research when considering a new credit card.

“It’s buyer beware. Read the fine print. And when someone sends you disclosures, read them and see where the changes have occurred on your program,” said Cyndie Martini, president and CEO of Member Access Processing, the largest aggregator of card services for credit unions in the United States. “You will see an onslaught of disclosures coming.”

Martini also suggests actively shopping around for a card if you have a particular rewards goal in mind.

Angleton concurs, noting that airline travelers will see many changes to their credit card rewards programs and cautions that the rewards-oriented customer should begin reviewing the new terms and conditions being mailed.

“By law, all rewards members must be given up to three months’ notice that the programs are changing. They must outline clearly what the previous (as signed for) programs were and what the new services-programs are,” said Angleton. “This means that you will have up to 90 days to review your changes and either stay as agreed or opt out.”

One last tip: If you’re a frequent traveler, look into shifting to a hotel credit card, suggests Nathan Grant, credit industry analyst for Credit Card Insider. Hotel cards continue to offer some of the most lucrative rewards available when it comes to free night stays, he said.

• Related: Best Hotel Credit Cards

The Bottom Line

Daniel Gillaspia, creator of the travel rewards blog UponArriving, says the era of rewards travel is hardly coming to a close.

In fact, some credit cards have recently issued the most generous rewards bonuses Gillaspia has ever seen.

“The Captial One Venture card had a 75,000-point offer. The Arrival Plus from Barclaycard still currently has a 70,000 point offer,” said Gillaspia. “If these type of offers had come out a couple years ago, people would have been crazy about them.”

Like other experts, Gillaspia suggests that what’s now taking place is an evolution among credit card issuers designed to attract more profitable customers.

Overall, he says, there’s every indication that banks still feel obligated to offer compelling upfront value with their cards and to create products that include attractive bonus categories to reward consumer spending. As long as those two factors hold true, most consumers won’t have much to worry about.

“For those who loved to take advantage of those true gray areas and take things to the extreme with credit card rewards, things have definitely gotten more difficult for them, and will probably continue to get more difficult in the future,” said Gillaspia. “But if you’re talking about the average consumer, or even those who use these cards a little bit heavier than the average person, those people still have plenty of opportunities.”

• Related: Best Rewards Credit Cards

Mia Taylor is an award-winning journalist with more than two decades of experience. She has worked for some of the nation’s best-known news organizations, including the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and the San Diego Union-Tribune. 

More by Mia Taylor:

• Four Economic Trends That Will Impact Your Wallet in 2019
• Public Service Loan Forgiveness: How to Qualify (and Why So Few People Do)
• Parent PLUS Loan Equals Another, Older Generation Mired in Student Debt

The post Is the Golden Age of Credit Card Rewards Travel About to Change? appeared first on The Simple Dollar.

Source The Simple Dollar http://bit.ly/2Gkzka8

Inspiration from The Avett Brothers, Stacey Abrams, John Wooden, and More

Once a month (or so), I share a dozen things that have inspired me to greater personal, professional, and financial success in my life. I hope they bring similar success to your life.

1. Dale Carnegie on conquering fear

“If you want to conquer fear, don’t sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy.” – Dale Carnegie

I’m an introvert. While I don’t exactly have social anxiety, my natural tendency in a group of people I don’t know well is to clam up and not say too much.

What exactly is it that I’m afraid of, though? Am I afraid that they’ll think negative thoughts about me? Am I afraid that they’ll judge me? Perhaps. But if I think about virtually every social situation I’ve ever been in, I rarely have a negative thought about anyone there unless they’re being intentionally rude or standoffish… and the truth is that me sitting quietly in the corner might very well look standoffish.

The truth is that the only bad outcome from a social event that’s even possible, provided I don’t say something monumentally rude, is simply sitting in the corner not saying anything at all. I am far better off participating in the conversation, some conversation, any conversation.

So I stand up, swallow my fear, and stop thinking about it so much. I just go over to someone else that seems to be alone and introduce myself, or I wander through and find a conversation about something that I’m at least mildly interested in. It’s time to go out and get busy.

2. Overcast

I listen to a ton of podcasts. In fact, whenever I’m not trying to focus on a specific task (work, family time, etc.), I usually have one playing from my phone, usually to a Bluetooth speaker somewhere nearby.

Overcast is hands down my favorite podcast app, for two reasons. One, it has a feature called Smart Speed that trims out some of the silence in podcasts, trimming off a fraction of a second of silence whenever a silent period comes up. It does this so intuitively that you don’t even notice, but it can shave a surprising amount of time off of a podcast listen.

The other reason is Voice Boost, which basically means that it normalizes the voice volume across podcasts so that all podcasts play at roughly the same volume. You don’t have situations where you jump from one podcast to the next and the next podcast has their voice level at half the volume of the first – it just automatically adjusts for you.

Combine that with easy podcast discovery and subscription and the ability to listen at a slightly faster speed (I usually listen at 50% faster than normal speed), it just fits what I want. It enables me to listen to an hour’s worth of normal speed podcasts in about 35 minutes or so (with the extra speed and the silence chopped out), moves from podcast to podcast seamlessly without me having to touch the volume, and helps me find new podcasts really easily while managing the ones I’m subscribed to. That’s really all I want in a podcast app.

3. George Carlin on hard work

“Most people work just hard enough not to get fired and get paid just enough money not to quit.” – George Carlin

For me, this is an inspiration to work a little harder, to go beyond what is my usual minimum level. The truth is that it honestly doesn’t take that much to stand out as exceptional because so many people really are doing just enough not to get fired. They do the mechanics of their job without much flair and they do just enough to keep their job and meet minimum quotas.

It doesn’t really take that much more effort to provide a lot of value beyond that, and when you do that, you set yourself up for raises and promotions and a much stronger resume.

Remember, a lot of your competition out there is content to just do the absolute minimum. Some of them struggle to do even that much. You don’t have to be Superman to stand out from the pack.

4. Alex Rosenthal on the joyful, perplexing world of puzzle hunts

From the description:

Welcome to the strange, deviously difficult and incredibly joyful world of puzzle hunts. Follow along as Alex Rosenthal lifts the veil on one of the world’s most complex puzzle hunts, the MIT Mystery Hunt — and reveals how puzzles can be found in the most unexpected places.

The best way to think of a puzzle hunt is that it’s a mix of a scavenger hunt and a really hard book of puzzles. Typically, there’s some entry fee, and then you and a team go out into a community to solve a sequence of puzzles that’s often a mix of real-world elements and information on your smartphone.

I really enjoy puzzle hunts. Not only are they a great way to stretch your mind and make yourself think way outside the box usually in a team environment, but you’re also (typically) enjoying both a story and a competition, as you’re competing against other teams.

This is probably the best explanation I’ve seen of what’s so appealing about puzzle hunts. If they sound appealing to you at all, see if there are any regular puzzle hunts in your community.

5. Dita von Teese on finding your niche

“You can be the ripest, juiciest peach in the world, and there’s still going to be somebody who hates peaches.” – Dita Von Teese

I intentionally chose to write The Simple Dollar in a friendly, earnest tone, something that I find is fairly rare online. It’s something that clicks with a lot of people, but it really doesn’t click with others.

And that’s okay.

The truth is that you can do something amazingly well, but if the other person doesn’t like that thing in general or doesn’t have a need for that thing, they’re still going to pass you by. You can be the best bluegrass musician in the world busking on a corner somewhere, but most people don’t want to hear bluegrass right then and will keep on walking – some might even give you a sour look.

You can never be good enough for everyone. It is literally impossible. Instead, try to be great for a smaller group of people. Be the juiciest peach in the world – sure, some people don’t like peaches, but for those who do… mmmmm.

6. Alexander den Heijer on feeling tired

“You often feel tired, not because you’ve done too much, but because you’ve done too little of what sparks a light in you.” – Alexander Den Heijer

At the end of a day where I didn’t do anything worthwhile, I always feel exhausted. The reason, I think, is that I didn’t really do anything that genuinely sparks a light in me. I just wasted time.

A good day is one in which you do some things that feel genuinely meaningful to you, whether they’re hard things or easy things.

If I spend a day watching television aimlessly or browsing the internet or playing games I’m not genuinely excited about, I can feel just dead at the end of the day. I try very, very hard to avoid that feeling. Each day that passes should have a healthy dose of meaningful things in it, whether it’s time spent with people you care about, engaging in hobbies you genuinely care about, or whatever the case may be.

Make sure that each day contains something that you genuinely care about. Never go to sleep with a tired spirit, just a tired body and a tired mind.

7. Carla Harris on how to find the person who can help you get ahead at work

From the description:

The workplace is often presented as a meritocracy, where you can succeed by putting your head down and working hard. Wall Street veteran Carla Harris learned early in her career that this a myth. The key to actually getting ahead? Get a sponsor: a person who will speak on your behalf in the top-level, closed-door meetings you’re not invited to (yet). Learn how to identify and develop a productive sponsor relationship in this candid, powerful talk.

Carla Harris uses the term “sponsor” here, but I find that what she describes overlaps heavily with what I think of as a “mentor” – someone much further along in their career that can not only help you figure out what to do in your career, but can be your advocate when you’re not around. A “sponsor” just means that the person is higher up the food chain at work than you are. In my experience, a good mentor is usually a good sponsor, too.

I was lucky enough to have three or four mentors/sponsors in my professional career. Each one helped me in uncountable ways, advocated for me when I wasn’t around, and put me in position for the next step in my life. It wasn’t a one way thing – I definitely helped them as well by taking care of things for them, too – but if any of those four people were to call me right now and ask for a favor, I’d move mountains for them. They changed my life, not just in terms of how they directly helped me, but how they advocated for me when I wasn’t around. I appreciate it more than they’ll ever know.

This is a great description of how to find a sponsor at work, but I often find that sponsors and mentors are the same people, so much of this advice works well for finding a mentor, too.

8. John Wooden on failure

“You are not a failure until you start blaming others for your mistakes.” – John Wooden

Everything in life falls into two categories: things you can control and things you cannot. The greatest mistake you can make in life is trying to divest yourself of responsibility for the things you can control by blaming the things you cannot.

Whenever something goes wrong, start evaluating it through the lens of your own actions and your own thoughts. Where did you go wrong? I will virtually guarantee you that when you make a mistake, there is, at the core, a misstep in your own actions and your own thoughts, and likely multiple missteps.

Stop worrying about what other people did or didn’t do. Focus on what you did and didn’t do. Repair that going forward. Apologize for your mistakes. Use this as a lesson so that you don’t repeat that mistake.

Everyone makes mistakes. Failure happens when you blame others for them and don’t look at what you can improve.

9. The Avett Brothers – No Hard Feelings

Sometimes, there’s a song for you in a moment when you need it.

10. Terry Pratchett on the end

“No one is actually dead until the ripples they cause in the world die away.” – Terry Pratchett

Did I genuinely have a profound positive influence on someone else during my time on earth? If so, did that person have a genuine positive influence on others? How far out do those ripples go?

This is something I hold near and dear to my heart. What can I do to have a genuine and profound positive impact on someone else’s life? Something that lasts and matters and makes that person’s life better or their character better?

To me, that’s what life’s meaning really is. It’s to create as many positive ripples in the world as I can. What am I doing today to try to create a positive ripple?

11. Stacey Abrams on three questions you should ask yourself about everything you do

From the description:

How you respond after setbacks is what defines your character. Stacey Abrams was the first black woman in the history of the United States to be nominated by a major party for governor — she lost that hotly contested race, but as she says: the only choice is to move forward. In an electrifying talk, she shares the lessons she learned from her campaign for governor of Georgia, some advice on how to change the world — and a few hints at her next steps. “Be aggressive about your ambition,” Abrams says.

Even if you don’t politically agree with her, Abrams’ story is a compelling one. She was born as the child of Methodist ministers, not very well off (she tells a story of not having a car as a child), and built an impressive career and public life on the back of a lot of hard work.

The three questions? What do you want? Why do you want it? How do you get it?

Those questions pretty much get to the core of anything you want to do. If you can deeply and honestly answer those questions, they’ll guide you to almost anything you want to do.

12. Victor Hugo on educating children

“Don’t educate your children to be rich. Educate them to be happy, so they know the value of things, not the price.” – Victor Hugo

Parenting is a strange job. It really can be as easy or as difficult as you want it to be.

If you want to simply get your kids to adulthood, it’s not too hard. Put food on the table. Put clothes on their back. Put a roof over their head.

If you want to help build strong, independent adults with good character, the task becomes quite hard. You have to be that example of strong, independent adulthood with character, for starters, and you have to pay attention to what your kids are doing and have meaningful conversations and activities with them on a very consistent basis. Even then, you don’t fully shape things – you just provide some additional form to the direction in which they grow.

This somewhat ties into the “ripple” thing mentioned earlier. How can I create positive ripples in my children’s life, lifting them up to be better adults who will then have positive impact on others? That’s the challenge, and it is a real challenge.

The post Inspiration from The Avett Brothers, Stacey Abrams, John Wooden, and More appeared first on The Simple Dollar.

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