Balancing Financial Success and Meaningful Life Experiences

Megan writes in with a great question:

It seems to me that working toward financial success by spending significantly less than you earn is directly opposed toward having a life full of meaningful experiences. For most Americans spending 30-40% less than you earn puts you in a hand-to-mouth existence, cutting off opportunities for things like travel. How do you square those two things?

This is a really important topic, one that I briefly addressed a long time ago but one that I think deserves a much more thorough discussion.

The first thing that we need to look at is what exactly constitutes a meaningful life experience? I don’t think there is a universal answer to that question. However, I will share my own definition: a meaningful life experience is a life experience that changes or strongly reaffirms your perspective on the world and your place in it.

Because that definition is so focused on the self, it’s fairly hard to definitively say that one particular experience is “meaningful” and another is not, because what is “meaningful” is entirely connected to the person having that experience. What is meaningful for me is not necessarily meaningful for you, and vice versa. It is important to keep this in mind, because later in this article, when I’m discussing specific meaningful life experiences, I can really only rely on (a) what’s meaningful for me and (b) what’s said to be meaningful by lots of other people. That does not necessarily guarantee that such experiences will be meaningful for you, or vice versa.

The Price Spectrum of Meaningful Activities

Let’s say you sit down and make a list of the most meaningful and memorable experiences of the last month, the last year, and of your whole life. Just make a list of them. Which experiences in your life have been truly profound and meaningful for you?

I could make a pretty nice list. Off the top of my head, mine would include the following several items:

+ You might think I’d write about my wedding, but it was actually part of my honeymoon with my wife that felt incredibly memorable to me. We were on a train and she was sitting next to me with her back resting on me reading a book while I was looking out the window at the English countryside and I had this realization that we were now a married couple.

+ About three days after we brought our son home from the hospital, he fell asleep on my chest on our couch and I fell asleep there, too. He slept for almost six hours straight, which was the longest period of time he’d slept thus far. When he started to stir, it woke me up, and I looked at him with my sleepy eyes. His mouth was moving as though he was hungry, but he wasn’t upset yet. Rather, he seemed to really look at me for the first time. That was the moment that parenthood really clicked into place for me.

+ We were on a family hike on a long trail at Yellowstone that led into some backcountry terrain that was littered with small hot springs. It was a really cold day, but because we were in this tight little area with so much spring activity, it was almost warm there. It was so far back on the trails that it seemed like no one else was around, so we all sat down and took off our backpacks and our coats and watched the springs and mud holes bubble around us. My children had been arguing some earlier in the day but they suddenly seemed to really appreciate each other as they sat next to each other in a huddle and just looked around, and my wife grabbed my hand, and everything just felt good.

+ The first time I had a really meaningful meditation session, a few years ago. I often lose track of time when meditating and so I set a timer if I’ve got any other commitments, but this day I just sat down without a timer. About twenty five minutes in, probably my longest meditation session I’d ever done to that point, I had a really profound experience. It felt like I simultaneously noticed everything in the room at the same time, as though I felt connected to everything. This was a hugely profound and memorable experience for me.

+ I was standing in the Art Institute of Chicago looking at the Vincent van Gogh painting The Bedroom / Bedroom at Arles. It’s one of my favorite paintings and I just stood there enjoying it deeply, kind of lost in my own thought. After a bit, my daughter came up beside me and quietly said, “That painting looks real and not real at the same time.” I said, “I know,” and we stood there staring at it for a while longer.

I could go on and on naming these kinds of things, but you get the idea.

The thing is, I can put each of these experiences on a spectrum in terms of cost.

The meditation moment was absolutely free. The moment with my son was essentially free. The hike in Yellowstone was relatively inexpensive, as was the stop at the Art Institute of Chicago (we have family and friends in Chicago and visit them somewhat regularly). The only truly expensive moment on that list was the moment during the train ride in England.

The lesson is this: a lot of the truly impactful experiences in my life didn’t really cost that much. Yes, some did, but many others came without a stiff price tag attached.

If I were to focus solely on inexpensive life experiences, I would really only cut out one of those five experiences. The other ones could be recreated fairly closely for a small amount of money; two of them would have a small cost and the other two would basically be free.

To further test this idea, I made a list of fifty meaningful experiences in my life. I won’t bore you with that full list, but I entered them all in a spreadsheet and then estimated the cost to me personally to recreate each one of them as close as I possibly could (some of them are impossible, so I just did my best). 41 out of 50 of those experiences could be recreated for less than $200. 27 out of 50 of those experiences could be recreated for less than $10.

What’s the lesson here? You don’t have to spend a lot of money to have a lot of meaningful life experiences. When I made a list of fifty meaningful life experiences from my own life, more than half of them were essentially free, and another 14 weren’t quite free but could be recreated for less than $200. If I cut out all of the expensive meaningful life experiences I’ve had, I’d lose less than 20% of them.

Living an inexpensive lifestyle does not mean cutting out meaningful life experiences, at least not for me. My life has been chock full of meaningful experiences and a frugal lifestyle doesn’t choke them off in the least.

Trimming the Expensive Life Experiences

The next thing I ask myself, however, is what was the truly meaningful element of each experience. With the Yellowstone hike, it was the moment with my family where we had all been exercising together and spending time together. With the moment holding my son, it was simply father-son bonding. At the Art Institute, it was father-daughter bonding mixed with art appreciation. Even with the train ride, it was a moment of bonding with my wife.

It turns out that most of the expensive experiences that really impacted me could have happened in a different context. For example, I likely would have had some sort of epiphany about my wife regardless of whether we were on a train in England or not; we could have had a honeymoon almost anywhere that we hadn’t been before and I would have had a similar moment.

This isn’t to say that travel or high-priced experiences aren’t worthwhile; they are. They’re just not a guarantee of a meaningful life experience, and quite often the meaningful life experiences you have through those events can be found elsewhere.

Thus, I don’t think you have to have an endless string of expensive events in your life in order to have a lot of meaningful experiences. Rather, I’ve found that most of the meaningful experiences in my life are actually payoffs in a way; they often come as the result of some sort of sustained effort.

Let me dig into what I mean by that.

The Garden of Life: Frequent Sources of My Own Meaningful Life Experiences

Looking back across my list of fifty meaningful life experiences, I’ve noticed that there were a number of consistent threads throughout those experiences. I view those elements as being “spiritual gardens” of a sort, as they are life elements that can be cultivated over time and provide consistent meaningful experiences where that cultivation really pays off.

In other words, I’ve found that the vast majority of meaningful experiences in my life were capstones on top of a large investment of time and energy and emotion rather than an investment of money. I like the garden analogy because the blooms of a beautiful garden only occur when you’ve spent a lot of time out there with them and they mean more if you’ve had your hands in the soil and pulled out the weeds and added the fertilizer yourself.

If you cultivate some “gardens” in your life, they’ll consistently provide you with happiness and with a steady drip of meaningful experiences.

Here are the nine “gardens” I really noticed in my life as strong sources of meaningful experiences. There are many possible “gardens” that people might cultivate in their lives; these are just sources of meaningful experiences from my own life. I often find that deeply meaningful experiences come when these gardens overlap in my life. It is strongly worth noting that cultivating these “gardens” is much more of an investment of time, energy, and emotion rather than money.

Strong relationships with other people The strong relationships I have with my parents, my wife, my children, and a few key friends have been a constant source of meaningful experiences in my life. Most of the deeply meaningful experiences in my life have involved at least one person with whom I’ve cultivated a strong relationship with. Sometimes the key experiences come from the process of relationship building; at other times, they come from sharing an experience with that person.

Reading and learning For me, meaningful experiences often come from reading and learning new ideas. Understanding something new (or in a new way) or being absorbed into a story by a skillful writer is often the source of deeply meaningful experiences for me.

Introspection has consistently provided me with deep, meaningful life experiences. I noted earlier that one of my first powerful meditation experiences was a truly meaningful experience in my life; I’ve also found them in journaling and in other introspective activities where I gain some greater understanding of myself.

Exploring nature I tend to have meaningful experiences when I’m outdoors and in a natural environment. A lot of my most meaningful experiences occurred in forests and national parks and state parks, hiking in the backcountry or walking along an interesting trail.

Exploring art A surprising number of my meaningful life experiences have come from visiting art museums and art installations. I would not have expected this, actually, but when I made my list of “fifty memorable things,” art popped up surprisingly often.

Trying new things I’ve found that simply trying new things often becomes a source of a memorable experience, particularly when I’m doing it with someone I have a strong relationship with or when that experience draws on skills that I already have.

Visiting new places, though they don’t have to be far flung Memorable experiences often occur in my life when I’m in a new place where I don’t have an inherent familiarity with the location and there’s something new around every bend. Having said that, this does not inherently require extensive travel; I’ve had meaningful experiences in small towns in Iowa that I’ve never visited before. It’s simply the newness of the place to me.

Intense personal challenge (flow state) Whenever I take on an intense personal challenge, something that really draws on my physical and mental abilities and forces me to perform to the maximum of my abilities and thus draws my focus so strongly that I lose track of time and place (this is often called “flow”). I find that, while those sessions themselves aren’t memorable, that feeling afterwards, where I feel calm and content and really happy with what I’ve done, is often very memorable, particularly when I’ve done something quite big over a lot of “flow” sessions. I’ve felt it after intense workouts, after really productive writing sessions, and so on.

Charitable work This is something of a “meta” mix of focused effort, new experiences, and spending time with people I care about, but I find that charitable work popped up regularly on my list of meaningful life experiences. I think it’s just something I’ve done a lot because it’s a great mix of elements that are otherwise meaningful to me.

Meaningful Life Experiences and Money

In the end, for me personally, I don’t need to spend a lot of money to have a ton of meaningful and profound life experiences. I can find them in my own home or in my own neighborhood with regularity, or with short distance travel from my home.

While there are meaningful experiences to be found in things like travel and expensive experiences near your home, they don’t need to be a frequently repeated source of meaningful experiences in your life. Rather, meaningful experiences can be found and cultivated by investing time and love and energy into things, not just money.

In the end, I agree wholeheartedly with the idea that meaningful experiences are often the result of an investment, but that investment does not have to be an investment of money. If you’re willing to invest other resources in your life into “gardens” that will eventually grow into sources of meaningful experiences, then you can have a deeply fulfilling life full of meaningful experiences without frequently spending money trying to seek out those experiences.

Use your money instead to build and secure those “gardens” that produce meaningful life experiences. Eliminate debt. Build an emergency fund. Start building toward financial independence. Those things will lower the stress of your life and likely make it much easier to enjoy meaningful life experiences while also building toward the big dreams that you have in a sustainable way.

Good luck!

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Cryptocurrency and Taxes: A Starter Guide

As the 10th anniversary of Bitcoin passes by, murky waters continue to cloud the crypto seascape. Skeptics, supporters and talking heads alike have tabled the same questions that arose when cryptocurrency cannonballed into the public discourse in 2009: How exactly does it work? How can we ensure its security? Which cryptocurrency might emerge as the dominant medium of exchange?

Chief among them: Just how exactly can we account for them at tax time?

Hardly every (or any) crypto concern has met its solution. But in certain cases, the benefits of time, research, trial and error have given curious investors a few guardrails to grip. And on the issue of taxes and cryptocurrency, we’ve done our best to reveal everything you need to know in this guide. 

Why It Matters to Crypto Investors

In the eyes of the U.S. Government, Bitcoin is not, in the case of the average investor, money. Only money is money. Perhaps no one has said it better than the IRS themselves:

“Virtual currency is a digital representation of value that functions as a medium of exchange, a unit of account, and/or a store of value. In some environments, it operates like “real” currency — i.e., the coin and paper money of the United States or of any other country that is designated as legal tender, circulates, and is customarily used and accepted as a medium of exchange in the country of issuance — but it does not have legal tender status in any jurisdiction.”

So why does that matter for you, the potentially average investor? This notion alone — that cryptocurrency should be treated as something other than legal tender (and in the case of the United States, treated as property) — leads to an unsurprising endpoint: Tax dodging.

Intentional or not, people who incur even nominal losses or gains on the crypto markets may submit to the temptation of avoiding taxes altogether to avoid already-involuted tax laws seeping into their newest investment vehicle.

But the stakes are grave. Recent reports have seen crypto investors face prison time and as much as $250,000 penalties for mistakes or (“mistakes”) on their tax filings.

Long and short? When you invest in cryptocurrency, it’s important to get your taxes right the first time around.

Where to Start

Whether it’s Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, Ripple, Monero, Zcash (…we could keep going…) or any other type of cryptocurrency, you should always start in the same place.

Someone or something knows taxes better than you do.

It’s 2019. So you better believe the best tax software available has already built modules for crypto investors. Hunt around for the one that fits your crypto habits best — it shouldn’t take long.

Better still, programs like BitcoinTaxes and CryptoTrader can help you all along the way, accounting for all your tax obligations with as little as a spreadsheet documenting your trades. Pair them with your trusted tax software and life gets much, much easier.

How Your Cryptocurrency is Actually Taxed

While it’s nice to have the 1s and 0s on your side at tax time, nothing can supplant a real working knowledge of how crypto taxation works. The most important thing to know is that reporting is up to you. Freelancers, investors and those with retirement accounts are likely accustomed to banks, companies and financial custodians mailing the appropriate forms at the appropriate time. Not so much with crypto.

Most crypto exchanges will issue a reminder or an official statement if you’ve exceeded a certain amount in gains on the year — somewhere in the neighborhood of $20,000. Set an alarm or notch it on your calendar, because barring gains like that, you won’t get another reminder.

A couple more baseline items:

Anytime you sell cryptocurrency, you’ll be taxed.

That means it’s taxable income if you converted crypto assets into non-crypto assets, such as cash, goods and services.

Anytime you used cryptocurrency to buy something, you’ll be taxed.

Some cryptocurrencies have had to outgrow their reputation as the underworld’s medium of exchange, and to do so, federal agencies have gotten serious about accounting for every transaction that takes place, digital or not. Does it fly against crypto’s creed to become a truly anonymous ledger? It’s up for debate. But we’re light years away from a world of loosely governed, unregulated exchanged — until then, we all play by the same rules.

Some other factors you’ll have to consider

• Take stock of the type of cryptocurrency you own. While almost every cryptocurrency is taxed in the same fashion, there is a scenario where variety matters: Selling one cryptocurrency for another results in a taxable event. Be sure to consult an accountant before you attempt to offset your losses via washsale or any other technique.
• Keep tabs on the fair market value of the virtual currency measured in U.S. dollars, as of the date it was received. For U.S. tax purposes, transactions using virtual currency must be reported in U.S. dollars.
• Know how you got it. Remember earlier when we mentioned that cryptocurrency is treated like property under U.S. tax law? That means their purchase and sale gets the same treatment as any other capital loss or gain. So, in turn, know how you used it, too.
• Know how long you’ve owned it. Tax rates depend on how long you’ve held on to a property — in this case, your crypto. If you hold onto your cryptocurrency for under a year, you’ll be taxed at short-term rates. If you’ve held it over a year, you’ll be taxed at long-term rates. Long-term rates are typically more favorable than short-term rates, so that might be something to bear in mind as you evaluate your trading strategy. The IRS has a comprehensive resource for navigating the relevant responsibilities to Uncle Sam.

What About Mining?

Most cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin being the most visible, allow users to “mine” that currency and in essence bring new monetary units into existence. Mining is a computing-intensive task that wards away most casual speculators and investors, but for those with the time, interest and horsepower to do it, it can be a valuable endeavor.

In the case of Bitcoin, the IRS assess mining income as business income like any other. As long as you’ve produced the equivalent of $400 USD or more in a calendar year, you’ll need to report it. If you own all of your own mining hardware, software and equipment, then a Schedule C is in order. Schedule C accounts for an ordinary income tax, plus a 15.3% self-employment taxes.

According to Coindesk, you may stand to benefit if your mining operation has already incorporated as a business and your net income exceeds $60,000. Business tax rules could be a little more generous, eliminating (or at least reducing) that additional 15.3%.

What About Cryptocurrency as Income?

There’s an added element for employers who pay out in cryptocurrency — each and every transaction must be converted to its USD equivalent at the time of transaction, then reported to the IRS on a standard W-2. Employees (and the self-employed) must do the same, reporting their W-2 wages in dollars at their worth on the day they were received.

Can You Pay Taxes in Crypto?

Yes, you can. For the investors and evangelists so devoted that American dollars are a thing of their past, there are states which allow crypto payments for crypto taxation. Ohio staked its claim as the first to accept cryptocurrency as tax payment.

Efforts to incorporate cryptocurrency payments in other states haven’t been quite as successful, but it never hurts to check with your state’s department of taxation.

Keeping Track of Your Transactions

All of that adds up to one thing: keep a log of your transactions. However you want to do it. By hand, by spreadsheet or by software, a log of your transactions is an indispensable tool during tax season. Whether you’re an employer, employee or investor, the last thing you want to do is going rooting through your past transactions, sifting through dates, times, gains and losses when you could have had them at your fingertips all along. Think simple — it doesn’t have to be a complicated template. Something like this:

Of course, that’s a crude interpretation of what the tax services might recommend. Take this as another reminder to set yourself up with the proper accounting software before you start buying, selling or mining. That’s another place you won’t want to play catch-up.

On Charity

Many charities accept crypto payments. After all, why shouldn’t they? It’s another avenue for getting resources to the people who need it most.

As Forbes points out, charitable contributions of any form are treated kindly by the IRS. They come without capital gains tax, and allow donors to deduct the fair market value from the donated sum. Moreover, most charities are tax exempt. So should they choose to turn around and sell your donation on behalf of their cause, they won’t be taxed for it.

The Bottom Line

Cryptocurrency taxation is complicated, but far from impossible. In most cases, it serves an investor well to mentally frame it as property. In Bulletin 2014-21, the IRS states it as plainly as can be:

“For federal tax purposes, virtual currency is treated as property. General tax principles applicable to property transactions apply to transactions using virtual currency.”

Beyond that, it’s on you to have the right people and programs in your corner. Do yourself a favor and find an accountant who has experience in the territory, and don’t hesitate to spend a few extra dollars on software that’ll help you organize your transactions on the fly.

If trading cryptocurrency is worth the risks, then surely a little safeguarding at tax time is worth the reward.

 

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Inheriting a tidy sum? Spend it wisely

Has a relative or friend left you money in their will? If you’re not sure what to do with it, read our step-by-step guide to how to make the most of that extra cash

Perhaps you are thinking of using your inheritance windfall to pay off your mortgage or would rather invest it or use the opportunity to help others. Your approach will depend on how much you receive and your circumstances, but before you get carried away, here are the main points to consider.

Don’t rush into a decision

The average inheritance is £11,000, peaking at £33,000 for people approaching retirement, according to the Office for National Statistics, while more than half of us expect one, according to research by the Co-op. However, as welcome as a cash lump sum might be, inheriting money is bittersweet as it often comes from the loss of a loved one. Grief can cloud your judgement and you will no doubt want to do justice to the person who has left you the money and worked hard to earn it, so never rush into financial decisions.

“Just like you should never go shopping hungry, don’t walk into a travel agent after receiving an inheritance,”warns Charlie Parker at wealth management firm Sanlam UK. “It may be tempting to change your immediate financial circumstances but before doing so, ask yourself: ‘How can this money be deployed over my lifetime’, remembering this may never happen to you again.”

“Don’t make a sudden decision - you may never get another windfall”

Savings of up to £85,000 are protected in most UK bank and building society accounts if something goes wrong, under the Financial Services Compensation Scheme. However, in the case of an inheritance, a balance of up to £1 million is protected for six months. This means that you don’t have to move your money straight away over fears it could be vulnerable in the unlikely event that your bank of building society goes bust.

Seek advice

When receiving unexpected money, it’s a good idea to seek advice to ensure you make the best financial decisions.

“Expect to pay from around £500 for advice but this depends on what services your adviser performs for you,” says Karen Barrett at Unbiased. “Your first meeting is usually free, so you can find out exactly what your adviser can offer you and decide whether to proceed. Find a local adviser on Unbiased.co.uk.”

Ditch debt

Start by repaying any money you owe – for example, on credit cards or personal loans.

Jamie Smith-Thompson, managing director of financial planner Portafina, says: “A loan or credit card balance with a high interest rate can feel like a burden, which is all the more reason why it should always be the first to go. Once cleared, it saves you paying back more than you owe in interest and increases your disposable income.”

When prioritising which debts to pay, start with the smallest value first and those incurring the most interest.

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Boost your savings

Your next priority should be an emergency fund of three to six months’ expenditure, so you can handle unexpected costs. Then a mix of savings products will work best – some easy-access and some fixed-rate savings between one and five years.

“Don’t assume you have to stick it all in Cash Isa accounts,” says Andrew Hagger, founder of personal finance website MoneyComms.co.uk.

“Everyone now has a personal savings allowance (PSA), which means as a basic-rate tax payer you can earn up to £1,000 in interest a year without paying any tax on it – £500 for higher-rate taxpayers. Unfortunately, banks and building societies offer lower rates on Cash Isas than on standard savings accounts, another reason not to go totally down the Isa route.

“To give you an idea of amount of interest you could earn and stay within PSA limits, if you had £45,000 in an account paying 2.2% you would earn £990 interest in a year,” he adds.

Minimise your mortgage

An inheritance can be life-changing for those wanting to get on the property ladder or pay off a chunk of their mortgage.

But be aware of your lender’s overpayment limits or you could incur an early redemption charge (ERC), says Ray Boulger, mortgage expert at John Charcol.

Brits reveal their inheritance goals

• Save it
• Invest it
• Don’t know
• Pass it to children or grandchildren, pay off the mortgage or go on holiday
• Home improvements

Source: Co-op Legal Services, October 2018

“Most mortgages allow overpayments of up to 10% a year without incurring an early repayment charge. Therefore, if you happen to receive the windfall at the right time of the year you might be able to repay 20% within a short space of time by using two of the annual ERC free allowances. However, timing varies between lenders, so check first,” he says.

If the windfall is large enough to exceed the ERC-free limit Mr Boulger says it may still be worth overpaying the mortgage, depending on how much the ERC is. “In most cases it will be between 1% and 5%. Once the ERC period has finished (usually when the fixed or discounted rate does) there are normally no limits on overpayment.”

If you have an offset mortgage, you can usually pay as much into your linked offset savings or current account as you like without ERCs, saving on future interest payments.

If you pay off your mortgage, consider cancelling some of your life insurance – assuming you don’t have dependents. If there are people who are financially dependent on you, use freed-up cash to buy life insurance, plus protection in case accident or illness means you are unable to work.

Invest your money

You can invest any money you won’t need for the next five to 10 years in the stock market. Risk is involved but investing over a longer time period gives you time to ride out fluctuations and take advantage of long-term growth. As a result, investments have far more growth potential than money in a savings account.

Invest in a number of funds to spread risk. “Consider a low-cost index tracker, such as Legal & General UK Index, which aims to follow the performance of the UK stock market,” says Sarah Coles, personal finance analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown. “Or opt for actively managed funds, where the fund manager uses their expertise to try to outperform the market. In the UK, we like AXA Framlington UK or Rathbones Income. And if you want to take advantage of growth wherever it is in the world, we like Lindsell Train Global Equity.”

Invest to enjoy far more growth potential than cash in a savings account

The first £20,000 of any investments each year should be in an Isa, which means any gains are free of tax, and any dividends are tax free, too.

Moneywise First 50 Funds can be a good place to start (see Moneywise.co.uk/first-50-funds).

Help out loved ones

Receiving an inheritance offers the chance to help other family members. For example, Mr Smith-Thompson says you can use the Lifetime Isa to help children or grandchildren buy their first home.

“The government will give a 25% bonus on contributions to this and you can save up to £4,000 a year. Or consider a Help to Buy Isa, which includes a bonus of up to £3,000 towards the deposit for a new home. You can also set up a pension for a child. “This offers tax relief on contributions and any growth on the lump sum is not taxed either,” he explains.

Older people who inherit and don’t necessarily need the money may want to pass on the gift. If you act within two years of the deceased’s death, you can draw up a deed of variation to redirect the gift to your chosen beneficiary. This avoids the money becoming part of your estate and subject to inheritance tax (IHT).

What is more, you can make gifts of up to £3,000 in total each year that will fall outside your estate for IHT purposes. You can also give gifts of any size and, so long as you live for at least seven years after making the gift, it will fall outside your estate for tax purposes.

Get professional advice for any money you wish to pass on and protect beneficiaries by making or updating your will.

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Pep up your pension

Kate Smith, head of pensions at investment firm Aegon, shares her top tips for boosting your retirement income:

If you don’t have any pension savings, putting some of your windfall into a pension will set you up for a good start in building savings for later life. This is because you get tax relief on your pension at the highest rate of income tax you pay, ie at 20%, 40% or 45%. You are allowed to pay up to £40,000 a year based on your earnings into a pension up to your 75th birthday and still get tax relief.

If you’re employed, you can pay some of your inheritance into your workplace pension and get tax relief on the amount you pay in. Your employer might even match some or all of your contributions.

If you’re self-employed, you will need to find your own pension plan. A financial adviser can help you with this or you can start a Self Invested Personal Pension (Sipp) on an investing platform (see our feature on page 73 for how to pick the lowest-cost Sipp platform for you).

If you don’t work, you can pay into a pension, but you’re limited to £3,600 a year, including tax relief. For a basic-rate taxpayer this means you can pay in £2,880 and get a government top-up of £720. You could drip-feed your inheritance into a pension over a number of years.

Take advantage of carry forward rules. If you have already filled up your annual allowance for this tax year, you can carry forward any unused annual allowance from the previous three tax years. This rule gives you the flexibility to pay in large occasional contributions into your pension such as inheritance payments, and still get tax relief. It is possible to pay in more, but you won’t benefit from tax relief.

If you’re retired, check your pension plan to see if you can add lump sums to your pot to boost your retirement income. The rules are more restrictive if you have started to take a ‘flexi-access’ income, in which case you will have a much lower pension annual allowance of only £4,000 a year. Check whether these rules apply before you pay large inheritance payments into your pension. One tip is to spread pension contributions over a number of years up to age 75.

Sarah Jagger is a freelance journalist, writing for magazines such as Yours, Essentials and Good Housekeeping

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Top tips for a stress-free building project

From finding a builder to writing a contract and knowing what to do if things go wrong, we lay the foundations for a hassle-free renovation

Carrying out home improvements can be one of the priciest things you will do, after buying your home. It can be wonderful when everything goes well, but can cost a lot of money, time and stress if it doesn’t.

Here are our top checklists to make sure building work goes to plan – and to explain your rights when it doesn’t.

10 tips to finding a good builder

1. Get at least three firm written quotes, not just rough estimates. Ignore any that are very different to the other quotes.

   
   

2. Ask friends and family for recommendations. Charity Age UK may be able to provide a list of recommended builders in your area.

   
   

3. If your local council has signed up for it, you can search by postcode for a trader through the Trading Standards Buy With Confidence scheme (Buywithconfidence.gov.uk). Contractors are vetted and are criminal-record checked if they go into people’s homes.

   
   

4. You can also use the government-endorsed TrustMark scheme to find a trader in your area (Trustmark.org.uk/find-a-tradesman). The scheme inspects contractors on site to check the quality of their work.

   
   

5. Another option is the Trading Standards Institute Consumer Codes Approval Scheme (Tradingstandards.uk/commercial-services/approval-and-accreditation/the-consumer-codes-approval-scheme). Traders will have agreed to provide good standards of service, including clear information before a contract is signed and a clear complaints procedure.

   
   

6. You can search for a trader who belongs to a building trade association – try the Federation of Master Builders’ find-a-builder tool (Fmb.org.uk). Alternatively, consumer group the HomeOwners Alliance offers a search tool to find local tradespeople (Hoa.org.uk/services/find-your-tradesman).

   
   

7. Which? operates its Trusted Traders scheme (Trustedtraders.which.co.uk). Members have to sign up to the Which? comprehensive code of conduct and to using a dispute resolution scheme.

   
   

8. Be wary of any builder who can start straight away. The Federation of Master Builders (FMB) says: “Builders’ workloads have been rising steadily over the past two years, particularly with home renovations. As more than 40% of builders need at least four months’ notice from consumers, it’s important to note that if a builder is free to start work tomorrow, alarm bells should ring.”

   
   

9. Check to see if the builder has public liability or employer’s insurance. Consider a building warranty that either they or you can take out to help give you further peace of mind.

   
   

10. If the tradesperson hasn’t been personally recommended to you, ask them for contact details of their former customers who are willing to show you their completed building projects and vouch for their work. Don’t just rely on online reviews – particularly the ones on the builder’s own website.

Get at least three firm quotes in writing – not just rough estimates

building-1.jpg

Signing a contract

All professional builders should willingly agree to a contract that includes an agreed staged payment plan. In addition, continuous communication throughout the project is the best way to avoid problems arising.

Brian Berry, chief executive of the FMB, advises always using a written contract and agreeing payment terms.

“Payment terms vary from project to project and it’s ultimately down to what the builder and their client agree between themselves,” he says.

However, the FMB generally recommends that the maximum deposit paid to a builder should be 10% of the contract price.

Although it may be time-consuming to prepare a contract, it is invaluable to be able to refer to it while the job is being carried out. It also forms part of your evidence should problems arise – along with photographs you should take as the job progresses.

For peace of mind, you can buy contracts that are pre-prepared with what you need to cover. The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) has produced its RIBA Domestic Building Contract, designed for homeowners and builders. You can fill it out online for £35 or buy a paper version for £25 (excluding VAT). For more details, visit Architecture.com/ribacontracts.

“Payment terms vary, so it’s up to the builder and client to agree terms”

Your rights when things go wrong

Under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 you are entitled to goods of satisfactory quality that last a reasonable length of time, and services carried out with reasonable skill and care.

If something goes wrong, you should be able to get it fixed, or some of your money returned.

You should first try to work out the issue with the trader who arranged the work, even if some or all of it was subcontracted.

Keep evidence of what went wrong, including paperwork, emails, photos and notes, including dates and times.

If you’re not happy with the job done, you are entitled to ask them to fix it. They should remedy the problem in a reasonable amount of time. If they can’t or won’t finish the job as agreed, you can ask for a refund in line with how bad the problem is.

If you agree to a refund, it will only be on the part of the work that is not up to scratch. You wouldn’t get a full refund on a Rolls-Royce because the iPod dock didn’t work: similarly, you won’t get a full refund when only part of the kitchen is messed up.

Your rights are the same even if you don’t have a written contract. When you told the builder to go ahead, you technically formed a contract at that moment. However, it is much easier to solve disputes if you do have a written contract in place.

If you can’t come to a resolution with the trader and they are a member of a trade association or of one of the schemes mentioned above, contact the association or scheme to see if there is an alternative dispute resolution scheme that could resolve the problem without having to take legal action.

Citizens Advice may also be able to help, or you can phone Trading Standards to make a complaint (03454 04 05 06). It may investigate, educate the trader about the law or take legal action to stop them trading.

Finally, going to the small claims court is an option. However, it can take considerable time, money and stress so it is worth trying all other avenues first to find an amicable resolution.

building-3.jpg

A contract should include the following:

• Total price inclusive/exclusive of VAT
• Timescales
• Start and end dates, to include delays and disruptions
• Payment stages
• Specifications of materials and who is buying them
• Insurance and responsibilities for loss/damage
• Liabilities
• How unexpected work will be dealt with
• Health and safety
• Termination/cancellation rights
• Subcontracting
• Dispute resolution

HELEN DEWDNEY is a freelance journalist writing for the Financial Times and Which?, and is the author of How to Complain.

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Best Light Bulbs for Your Buck: Here’s Why We Chose LEDs

Stella & Dot – A Home-Based Business for Style Enthusiasts

Sponsored by Stella & Dot I first heard of  Stella & Dot back in 2007. A friend of a friend had just started selling it and wanted to let me know so I could include it in my research for the website I was going to launch. One look and I immediately fell in love with […]

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Did You Know You Can Appeal Your Financial Aid Package?

So many of life’s purchases, both large and small, involve negotiations. Everything from the amount we pay for a car, to the final price tag on a home, to what we pay for a gym membership involves some level of haggling or back and forth.

Yet when it comes to college tuition — one of the largest debts many people ever take on — very few applicants consider appealing a financial aid award to obtain more money from their school of choice to cover the cost of attendance.

Perhaps it remains a little-known fact that financial aid packages can be appealed. Or perhaps incoming students are uncertain how the process works and opt not to bother. Whatever the case, the fact is you may be leaving thousands of dollars on the table if your financial aid package is less than adequate and you don’t appeal.

“I worked with a family that received an additional $20,000 a year in aid because they appealed,” said former university administrator Sabrina Manville, co-founder of Edmit, a company that helps families make smarter decisions with regard to college finances, including assisting with appeals.

“That large of an amount is unusual,” continued Manville. “The school made a mistake in the calculations in that case. But the average customer I worked with last year got an additional $5,600.”

The key point here, says Manville, is that if your heart is set on a particular school but the financial aid the school is offering makes it difficult to attend, initiating an appeal could help make the school more affordable.

The Factors That Determine Your Financial Aid Award

When a college or university develops your financial aid package, they do so based on a few different pieces of information about you — including your expected financial contributions, your merit, your achievements, and your competitiveness.

“The school is looking at what will make attending affordable for you and what’s going to incentivize you to come,” said Manville. “And they’re thinking about what other offers you might have on the table.”

When weighing all of the information just outlined, often a college will get the financial aid award wrong, resulting in a price of attendance that’s simply not within your reach financially, or that’s not compelling enough based on other offers you have on table, explained Manville.

In such a case, an appeal could very well be your best course of action.

“An appeal is your chance to go back to the school and ask if there’s any additional money available to make it more attractive for you to go there,” said Manville.

• Related: How to Compare Financial Aid Offers

How to Appeal Your Financial Aid Package

It’s important to understand that the financial aid appeal process varies from school to school. Some may have a very strict or formal process by which they’ll review a financial aid appeal, one that may require completing specific forms. In other cases, it may be a more informal procedure, which could simply entail having a conversation with a financial aid officer or writing a financial aid appeal letter.

The first step is to find out what the school’s approach to an appeal is. You can begin by checking its website (Google the school’s name and “financial aid appeal,” suggests Manville). You could also email the school’s financial aid office to find out what the guidelines are. Yet another option is to try calling the school to find out what the process may entail.

“All schools, even the large ones, should have people you can talk to if you have a question about your financial aid,” said Manville. “Usually it’s the financial aid office.”

What Should Your Appeal Include?

When it comes to making the case for more financial aid, your appeal should first and foremost outline any changes in your financial situation that may have occurred since you initially completed your FAFSA application, said Manville.

Perhaps a parent lost a job and is unable to help you pay for college as expected, or you’ve had a significant health expense arise that’s interfering with your ability to pay. All of that information needs to play prominently in your appeal.

“You could also compare the school’s financial aid award to the other options you have on the table, making clear how the offer from the current school makes it hard for you to choose them,” Manville noted. “Ultimately, it’s about getting in touch with the school and making your case. Talk about why you really want to go the school, but why the current award is making it hard.”

Here’s the kicker that so many students fail to realize: Most schools are open to these conversations because it’s their job to enroll students. What’s more, they care about enrolling students who truly want to be there.

To that end, Manville also recommends that students talk about why they really want to go to the school in question when making an appeal. This will underscore that your application was simply not a shot in dark and that attending will be very meaningful. The school will love that.

“You don’t have to restate the entire application essay, but a little reminder about why you’re excited about the school is great,” said Manville.

One last tip: If there’s any updated academic information that might help your case, it’s also important to include that.

Don’t Pay Full Price

While there’s growing awareness that it’s possible to appeal a financial aid package, Manville says most people still don’t realize it’s possible.

But do yourself a favor and approach a college’s price tag with the same savvy consumer attitude you would bring to any other big-ticket purchase.

“You apply to college not knowing what the price will be,” says Manville, “But the price that comes back is not the end of the conversation if it’s a school you really want to go to. Colleges are doing more and more discounting and fewer and fewer people are paying the price listed on website.”

While the increasing trend of colleges discounting their sticker price may be worth a post of its own, for now the key takeaway is that appealing your financial aid package is definitely worth your time. Because any reduction in your final bill means less debt to contend with upon graduation.

“I always tell families that if there’s a gap between what you can afford and what you’ve been awarded in financial aid, an appeal is definitely worth a try,” concluded Manville. “You’ve already been accepted to the school, so they’re not going to rescind that acceptance.”

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:

• Five Money Conversations to Have With Your Kids Before They Go to College
• Public Service Loan Forgiveness: How to Qualify (and Why So Few People Do)
• Income-Share Agreements: A Fairer Way to Pay for College, or a New Debt Trap?

The post Did You Know You Can Appeal Your Financial Aid Package? appeared first on The Simple Dollar.

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How to Pay Off Credit Card Debt When You Have No Idea Where to Start

Questions About HELOCs, Vegetables, Old Papers, Scams, 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. Is HELOC the best option?
2. UTMA and UGMA
3. Second job or career advancement?
4. Buying scissors
5. Fresh vegetables and grocery shopping
6. Financially responsible television?
7. Disposing of old financial papers
8. Realities of job applications
9. “Financial independence” scam?
10. Physical tracking of Triggers questions
11. Thoughts on secular Buddhism
12. Financial advisor

One of the strangest things about exercise, at least to me, occurs when you work a muscle that hasn’t really been worked in a while. You’ll finish and you’ll feel fine for the rest of the day, but then tomorrow you’re really sore in a bizarre place in your body and, often, you’re even more sore the following day.

I spent most of this weekend walking around with my arms in an awkward position because it hurt to swing them as I normally do when I walk. It was uncomfortable, but it was a reminder that I had worked hard and improved myself.

I think this is true of any meaningful improvement in your life. Yes, it will probably hurt a little. Yes, it might leave you feeling a little sore in some way or another.

The question is what you take away from that soreness. Is it a sign that you’re on a good path? Or is it something to be avoided?

On with the questions.

Q1: Is HELOC the best option?

I live in one of the most expensive areas in the country, in Northern California. My husband and I have an almost-4 year old, and now our second baby due in August. Moving out of the area is not an option for a number of reasons, most importantly that we want our kids raised near family, all of which live in this immediate area. We both have full-time jobs that pay decently well, and are trying hard to eliminate any non-essential expenses. However, just the cost of the mortgage on our small condo, childcare for two kids, and health insurance will be more than we’re earning. So, we need a way to pay the bills until both kids are in public school, at which time we’ll again be earning more than we’re spending. Our home has accrued a decent amount of equity since we purchased it two years ago, so our mortgage consultant recommended a Home Equity Line of Credit. What are your thoughts, though? Would any other type of loan be a better option for us?
– Julia

Without a fuller picture of your financial state, I can’t guarantee you don’t have other options. However, a HELOC is probably the best option available to you with a reasonable interest rate attached to it.

I’m sure you’re aware of the core problem with this situation: you are riding a financial and professional tightrope. If anything happens to either of your jobs, you are almost immediately falling into a seriously perilous financial state.

My suggestion, along with the HELOC, is to leverage your family as much as possible right now to help with this. Accept every possible family invitation you get to share a meal or for free/cheap babysitting. Ride-share with them as often as possible. More than probably any point in your life, you need to be very careful with your spending. Any situation in which you’re spending more than you earn is one that is fraught with risk.

Q2: UTMA and UGMA

My wife and I had our first son a couple weeks ago, and are trying to figure out the best savings options for him. He has started to receive some gift checks written out to his name, so we need to set up some type of bank account for him. Can you help explain the difference between at UTMA and an UGMA? He has separate 529 plans already being set-up by his grandparents, but we wanted him to have some experience with a regular bank and interstate’s that we’ll be able to teach him with once he gets old enough.
– Charlie

They’re very similar. There are two big differences between the two that really matter and which one you choose depends on which factors you care the most about.

With a UGMA, you’re restricted to paper assets – cash, stocks, bonds, insurance policies, and so on. A UTMA can hold other kinds of assets in addition – the one that most people care about is real estate.

A UTMA allows the account custodian to control the assets up to age 25 (depending on specific state rules), while UGMA accounts mature at age 18.

If you anticipate your child ever having to apply for financial aid for college, I probably wouldn’t use a UGMA or a UTMA. The FAFSA assumes that 20% of the balance of the UGMA/UTMA will be used for college education each year, whereas it only assumes that about 6% of a 529 balance will be used in that way. In other words, they’ll be able to receive more financial aid if their college savings is in a 529 rather than a UGMA/UTMA.

If you think that paying for college is fully in hand without paying for student loans, a UGMA/UTMA can be a very flexible tool that enables you to gift money to a child while still keeping a hand on the wheel until they’re reasonably mature.

Q3: Second job or career advancement?

I currently have M-F job in a research lab. On the weekends I work for my uncle’s construction company that I have worked for since I was 17. He has encouraged me to use the weekends in other ways but I always felt like I needed the money. Lately I have been wondering if I would be better off long term spending the weekends building skills, going to conferences, and building professional relationships. Short term I definitely lose income but long term? I can’t decide.
– Jameson

Your uncle sounds like a good guy, and he’s probably correct that you can be using the weekends in better ways.

If you’re in a situation where you’re financially stable and able to keep paying off any debts and saving for the future with just your M-F job and you’re pretty confident you want to be in that career for the long haul, I’d lean toward spending weekends building skills and going to conferences and building relationships and such. Take it seriously, though; don’t fall into a rut of using that time for idle things. (There’s nothing wrong with thoughtful leisure, though.)

If you’re not sure what you want to do, then I’d keep the construction job and give some serious thought to your future while getting rid of debt just a little faster.

In either case, I’d loop your uncle into the decision and use him as a mentor. Not only does he seem like a sharp guy, you may want to keep that door open for the future in case things go awry and you need to go back to construction work.

Q4: Buying scissors

Whenever I buy a pair of scissors they always seem like they get so dull they can’t even cut through paper after like 20 uses. Where can I get a decent pair of scissors that aren’t junk in three months?
– Bonnie

Rather than just buying new scissors all the time, just sharpen the ones you have. It’s not a hard process.

Get some coarse sandpaper at the store and then cut through a sheet several times with the sand side down. Then, take a piece of aluminum foil, fold it in half four times so it’s 16 layers thick, then cut through it several times with the scissors. Then, take a piece of steel wool and cut through it several times with the scissors. Your scissors will be sharp after doing that, probably sharper than when you bought them.

You just need to do that every several months or whenever you notice the scissors getting dull. Even super cheap scissors will be quite good if you do this.

Q5: Fresh vegetables and grocery shopping

How do you balance trying to not go shopping as much with buying fresh vegetables and fruits? On the one hand frugal advice is to minimize your trips to the grocery store but on the other hand healthy fruits and vegetables can go bad so quickly.
– Macey

I can’t speak for everyone, but here’s what we do.

First, if something requires genuinely fresh ingredients, we make those meals within a few days of our grocery store visit. They become a priority.

Second, we treat flash frozen vegetables and fruits as being the equivalent of fresh for most purposes. We buy quite a lot of frozen vegetables and fruit.

Third, we often do a lot of meal prep, meaning that our fresh vegetables and sometimes fruits make it quickly into meals that are popped in the freezer. I’ll buy a ton of fresh spinach, for example, but a lot of it will go into four pans of frozen lasagna.

Fourth, a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables don’t go bad all that quickly. Most root vegetables last and last. Many fruits last for a long time, too.

Finally, we store some of the most perishable stuff in the fridge, following directions on how to best store them to maximize life. If we can stretch something that should only last a few days into lasting for a week, that’s a big win.

Those steps enable us to buy a ton of fruits and vegetables without them going bad. If we notice something starting to become overripe, to the point where we don’t want to use it but it’s not quite inedible, we’ll throw it in the freezer and use it for making stock or for making fruit bread in the near future.

Q6: Financially responsible television?

It seems like everything on television outside of a few hokey reality shows is centered around people living way beyond their means or else rich people. Everyone is just spending tons of money and living in fabulous houses and buying tons of stuff. I never really noticed this until you pointed it out. It’s such a strong subtle nudge to do the same. What can a person watch that isn’t about spending money?
– Mary

I completely agree. Depicting expensive lifestyles on television seems to be the norm everywhere, and knowing the the median American household income is around $60,000, the truth is that most Americans can’t live like that.

It either becomes something to try to emulate, which is a road to financial ruin, or something to try to ignore, which is hard, or else you’re watching shows that revel in values that run in opposition to your own.

To tell the truth, I don’t watch much television at all any more. What I do watch is generally fantasy or sci-fi or documentaries. I mostly read or play tabletop games instead of turning on the television.

Q7: Disposing of old financial papers

I’m following standard advice and keeping old papers for seven years, but what do you do with them after that? The advice seems to be to shred them but the idea of shredding a box of papers seems like a lot of work with a home shredder where you have to unfold everything and it only takes a few sheets at a time.
– Maxwell

One thing you can do is see if there’s a community paper shredding day or one sponsored by your bank. They’ll bring in a HUGE industrial shredder that can shred your whole box of documents in a few seconds – you literally toss things in there by the fistful and they get utterly decimated by the blades.

Another option is to burn them. Just go camping, use those documents for kindling, and then toss them in there while you’re getting a few logs burning.

One of my friends likes to rip them up by hand, then put them in a big tub of water so that they turn into this giant paper pulp chunk, then he dries that out, then he takes that big paper pulp brick on his camping trips and breaks off pieces for kindling.

Q8: Realities of job applications

I am a hiring officer for a Fortune 500 company. There are some popular misconceptions floating around about getting a job at a large corporation. I hope you will be able to share this with your readers.

You’ll often see media reports that open jobs get hundreds and hundreds of applications for a single job. That is true but it is not the whole story. What actually happens is that if we list a job opening, we will get 500 or so applications, but 480 of them are garbage and irrelevant. Probably 400 of those applications don’t meet any of the requirements for the job. Another 60 or so only meet one or two of the requirements. Another 20 might be viable for the job but they’ve presented themselves so poorly that we can easily disqualify them. This covers things like resumes with several misspellings or cover letters that use offensive language. That leaves 20 people that are legitimate candidates.

Do not be intimidated out of applying for a job that you’re completely or even mostly qualified for. Just put in enough effort to submit an accurate resume without spelling or grammar errors and a respectful cover letter that actually addresses this specific position. That’s probably enough for you to make it through the cut of 480 applicants to the final 20. It doesn’t mean you’ll make the next cut, but you’ll be in that discussion.
– Mark

This is really good advice and it’s something I’ve told many people applying for jobs.

Make sure your resume is well edited and matches the job you’re applying for and also make sure your cover letter actually addresses the position in question. That’s usually enough to make the first big cut because the vast majority of applications don’t even make that threshold.

Remember, many job applications are just tossed out there like email spam, just sent to anything even vaguely close. Many other people don’t have any idea how to present themselves as someone you might ever want to hire. If you can beat those thresholds, you’ll probably find some success.

Yes, some jobs are filled internally and some others are filled thanks to personal recommendations, but there are many that are filled via open job searches. Don’t give up.

Q9: “Financial independence” scam?

I was at a store in town minding my own business when this guy in a suit comes up to me and starts chatting. I knew him vaguely as I had seen him a time or two before. He eventually starts talking about “financial independence” and at first I thought he was talking about financial responsibility but then he really wanted to meet me for coffee to talk about it and gave me a business card. Is there a “financial independence” scam out there? What was going on?
– Tim

This seems way off to me and I wouldn’t follow up with it.

There’s a very high likelihood that this individual is involved with a network marketing or a multi-level marketing business – think Amway or something like that. Part of the “pitch” to many people centers around the idea of being financially independent because you “run your own business,” when you’re mostly just trying to sell unwanted stuff to family members.

I would in general be wary of a person I barely knew coming up to me, striking up a conversation about something like my finances, and then trying to get me to go get coffee with them. I’d simply decline the offer and walk away. If I ever did end up accepting an invite and then someone started mentioning anything like that, I’d politely get out of there as fast as possible.

Q10: Physical tracking of Triggers questions

As per your recommendation from late last year I read the book Triggers in January and am excited to dig into these questions. I spent some time thinking about some personal behaviors I wanted to develop and curb and came up with a list of 12 questions to ask myself each day.

How do you physically do these twelve questions and record the answers? Could you walk me step by step through exactly what you do?
– Marie

I use a grid-paper notebook (this one, to be specific, though any grid paper notebook would do just fine) and a black pen. I devote a two page layout per month to this.

On the left page, I write out the questions I want to answer as a numbered list. So, it might look something like this:

1. Did I do my best today to be an involved parent with my oldest son?
2. Did I do my best today to be an involved parent with my youngest son?
3. Did I do my best today to be an involved parent with my daughter?
4. Did I do my best today to build a lasting and loving marriage?
5. Did I do my best today to create and write meaningful material for my readers?
[…]

My current list of questions for this month numbers 22. It varies month to month. At the end of each month, I give some careful thought to what I want to work on in the next month, and that might mean deleting some questions and adding others.

At the start of each day, I review the questions for that month and think about each one for a bit. I try to visualize what I can do today to make that habit happen.

On the other page, I simply have a big grid. Each row is simply numbered with the number of the question – 1, 2, 3, 4, and so on. Each column is a date – 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and so on.

At the end of each day, I score each question from 0 to 10 based on how I felt about my effort for the day, not the results. So, if I sat down with my daughter and had a really good conversation with her and then later on also did something fun with her, I’d probably score that an 8 or a 9. Some people find it hard to give an exact number here, but I just trust my gut on it. I find it hard to give myself a 10 – I do occasionally, but not very often. (The individual numbers are fairly arbitrary – just find a system that is meaningful that works for you.)

I record that number in the square where the row for that question and the column for that date intersect.

Then, at the bottom of each column, I average the day’s scores. For me, a day where I have an average of a 7 or above is a pretty good day (and I usually know it – it has felt like a good day). Anything below a 5 average is usually a bad day unless something really unusual and disruptive has happened (and I usually know that, too).

At the end of a month, I will average all of the scores for that month. Questions with an average score of an 8 or above are usually removed as I view that as something I’ve firmly adopted and am doing well. Questions with an average score of 4 or below are often removed, too, as it’s obviously not something I’m committed to – sometimes it comes back as a refactored question. The other questions usually stick around unless I decide I need a priority change.

The whole point of this is to keep new habits and behaviors in the front of my mind all the time and to really keep an eye on my efforts to improve those behaviors. It really seems to work when I take it seriously. However, it’s worth noting that you won’t see giant transformative life effects from changing a few behaviors. It takes time for those to build up in your life. It’s like a quarter of a degree difference in an airplane flight – it only seems like a big change after a lot of time.

Q11: Thoughts on secular Buddhism

I can’t believe you would share information about Buddhism. I thought you were a Christian. Disappointed.
– Amy

I don’t see them being in much conflict at all. I find far more conflict with Christianity in many of the articles I write on strict financial issues than I do in secular Buddhism.

Buddhism has absolutely no reference to a singular, personified deity like the Abrahamic God. None. As far as I can tell, Buddhism basically puts the idea of a deity into an area of “beyond human understanding” and really doesn’t worry about things in that category. I would describe Buddhism as non-theist.

My understanding is that Buddhism is basically a set of tools to make your own character and values stronger, which is literally how the Dalai Lama describes it. The tools that Buddhism provides can strengthen one’s Christian beliefs, or whatever beliefs they might have. To me, it’s little different than reading about any school of philosophy and using what it can teach in one’s life.

If you want to dig into this more, I suggest this article.

Q12: Financial advisor

Do you use a financial advisor? Why or why not?
– Jerry

I do not use a financial advisor.

Sarah and I met with one once, partially because I wanted to actually interact with one and also partially because we hoped that a financial advisor could address or at least reaffirm our answers to a few financial questions we had. I felt like the advisor was not explaining anything to me that I didn’t already understand from reading a few good books on investing and he was also trying really hard to sell me on products that did not seem like good investment options to me. This was a fee-based advisor; he wasn’t even getting a commission from this sale. We just ended up trusting our own research and did things on our own.

I would far rather spend several hours reading up on a financial topic and understanding it myself than paying a financial advisor to explain it and recommend options that I may or may not even want. I’m going to end up making a lot of money from that invested time.

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 HELOCs, Vegetables, Old Papers, Scams, and More! appeared first on The Simple Dollar.

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

How can your website visitors contact you?

It’s a simple question, yet I see so many sites with complex solutions.

Take a moment to put yourself into the shoes of a user navigating your website. For one reason or another, they have decided they want to reach you. This person shouldn’t be forced to find your phone number, dial, wait on hold, and potentially get a voicemail depending on your business hours. That’s just too many steps and not very efficient.

Here’s another scenario. The visitor has to look up your email address, navigate to their email platform, then copy and paste your email address before typing a message.

I’ll give you one more example, just for good measure. In order to contact you, the website visitor has to search you on social media, and then send a direct message or leave a comment on your page.

Should you have options for people to contact you via phone, email, and social media? Absolutely.

But you can simplify this process by allowing people to contact you directly from your website. The solution: contact forms.

A simple contact form can help you increase conversions and improve your customer experience. Each additional step a visitor has to take to perform an action reduces the chances that they’ll complete that action.

By setting up a contact form on your website, people can reach you without having to take extra steps or navigating to third-party platforms. There’s a high likelihood that they won’t finish a multi-step process. They might get distracted, or give up — it’s not worth all that work to them.

Adding a form plugin to your WordPress site will make it much easier for visitors to get in contact with you. You can also use these plugins for other forms.

So what’s the best form plugin for WordPress? I’ve identified the top options worth consideration.

1. Ninja Forms

When it comes to simplicity, the Ninja Forms plugin is definitely toward the top of the rankings. Unlike other plugins on the market, Ninja Forms integrates nicely into your WordPress dashboard and makes it easy for you to create a form in minutes.

Ninja Forms is great for beginners but has enough add-on options for advanced WordPress users as well. That’s why more than one million sites are actively using this plugin.

You can sync the forms up with your email marketing software. So all of the responses can be managed through services that you’re already using. Ninja Forms supports the majority of the most popular email tools:

• Constant Contact
• MailChimp
• Aweber
• Campaign Monitor
• iContact
• GetResponse

Ninja Forms even has features that allow you to collect payments through Stripe, PayPal Express, and Elavon.

Another reason why this is one of the best form plugins for WordPress is the ability to collect, export, and analyze any data submitted in the forms. Ninja Forms integrates with CRM software such as Salesforce, Zoho, and Batchbook. You can also send data to productivity and team tools like Trello, Slack, and Zapier.

The basic version of Ninja Forms is free, but add-ons can be purchased separately. They also have plans starting at $99 per year.

2. WPForms

WPForms is arguably one of the most beginner-friendly form plugins available for WordPress. That’s because it offers a drag and drop form builder that’s as straightforward as it gets.

The simplicity behind the drag and drop builder makes it easy for anyone, regardless of their technical background, to create a form in just a few minutes. WPForms also has plenty of pre-built templates to get you started in the right direction.

You can create forms with conditional logic. This means that certain elements of the form (such as fields, sections or buttons) will be changed based on options a user selects.

For example, a website visitor who is filling out a form about a previous purchase could have different form options than someone who has a question about one of your products that hasn’t been purchased yet.

WPForms also lets website visitors submit files. Let’s say someone has a problem with something they bought from you. You can give them an option to upload a picture to improve the communication about the issue.

This plugin can also integrate with email marketing software as well as productivity tools.

WPForms can be embedded anywhere on your website.

Pricing for WPForms starts at just $39 per year, which is pretty affordable considering all of the benefits you’ll get.

3. Gravity Forms

Gravity Forms offers a clean navigation for building and managing forms on WordPress. You can consider using this plugin if you’re a beginner, but Gravity Forms offers lots of options for advanced WordPress users as well.

Other form plugins require you to add on the conditional logic feature, but that option comes standard with Gravity Forms.

Another feature I like is the ability for visitors to save and continue a form for later. This is great for those of you who plan on adding longer or more complex forms to your website. Sometimes those won’t be completed in one sitting, and you don’t want to force people to re-submit information or abandon the process altogether.

Gravity Forms lets you limit the number of submissions through one particular form. They also give you the ability to schedule forms.

Something else that sets this plugin apart from the competition is its calculations feature. Gravity Forms can automatically perform advanced calculations based on the form fields submitted by a visitor. So if you had a real estate website, you could set this up to calculate an estimated mortgage payment based on things like the purchase price, down payment, interest rate, and mortgage period.

Gravity Forms starts at just $59 per year for a basic license. If you’re a developer or have an agency, you can purchase an elite license for just $259 annually, which is valid for an unlimited number of sites.

4. HappyForms

A reason why HappyForms is considered one of the best form plugins for WordPress is because it’s 100% free.

According to its website, the average cost of a WordPress form plugin is $186 per year. So for those of you who are looking for a free form plugin, this will be a top choice for you to consider.

HappyForms lets you completely customize your forms with different types of form fields.

• Short text
• Long text
• Email
• Website links
• Multiple choice options
• Single choice
• Dropdown menus
• Numeric fields
• Phone numbers

All of these can be added to one form. The drop-down menus and multiple choice options are very user-friendly. It’s easier for someone to make a selection from a list as opposed to manually typing a response. This will also help you stay organized when you’re sorting through data and submissions from these fields.

It’s easy for you to manage all of your messages from one place. HappyForms lets you filter the messages based on your preferences, so you can respond in a logical way. For example, you may prioritize a certain type of request over another, as opposed to responding in the order the forms were submitted in.

HappyForms also has ReCaptcha and Honeypot built-in, so you won’t have to worry about getting spam messages.

Overall, this is one of the best free form plugins for WordPress on the market.

5. Caldera Forms

Caldera Forms also has a free option. If you want to upgrade to a pro version, pricing starts at $15 per month. They also have individual add-ons available for purchase.

With that said, if you’re just looking for a basic form plugin, you can probably get away with the free version.

This plugin is another option that includes a drag and drop builder, which is great for those of you who aren’t too tech-savvy and want to create forms as fast as possible.

Caldera Forms has advanced calculations, drop down menus, and conditional logic. There’s also a built-in spam filtering tool, so you won’t have to waste your time reviewing spam submissions.

I dig the auto-responders, which ensures that your website visitors always get a quick reply.

For those of you who run a blog and accept guest posts, users can submit posts directly through the form fields with Caldera Forms, too.

6. FormCraft

FormCraft is unique because it specializes in designs. We’ve all been to websites that have generic forms that just aren’t very appealing. You don’t want your website visitors to have that feeling when they’re on your site.

This WordPress plugin also has a drag and drop builder, making it easier for anyone to create a from as fast as possible.

FormCraft also has a wide range of templates based on the type of form that you’re trying to build. This is very helpful for those of you who will be embedding multiple forms on your WordPress site. For example, a form to sign up for your email newsletter should be distinguishable from your contact form.

Another top benefit from FormCraft is its popup forms. A user action can trigger a form to appear on the page, as opposed to embedding it somewhere on a landing page that might be overlooked.

You can create multi-page forms with FormCraft as well, although this is one of the many paid add-on features. The basic package starts at $49 per year. Add-ons range from $19 to $29 each.

7. Contact Form 7

Contact Form 7 is another WordPress plugin that’s completely free. They won’t try to upsell you with any premium features or add-ons. With over 5 million active installations, this is one of the most popular free WordPress plugins you’ll find.

What I found interesting about Contact Form 7 is that they have exceptional customer support for a free plugin. You’ll have access to an extensive FAQ page, support forums, and documents explaining how to do things.

Some of the top features of Contact Form 7 include:

• CAPTCHA fields
• Radio buttons
• Drop down menus
• Checkboxes
• Quizzes
• File submission fields

You’ll be able to embed the forms anywhere on your website. It’s a top option for anyone who doesn’t want to buy a form plugin.

8. weForms

I like weForms because it’s extremely sleek and responsive. It has a drag and drop builder, which makes it easy for beginners to create a form. There are also tons of pre-built templates that will save you time compared to creating a form from scratch.

The shortcode allows you to embed forms within your posts, as well as anywhere else on your site. With weForms, you can build forms that have entry and time restrictions and over 33 types of form fields for you to choose.

The versatility of weForms makes it one of the best form plugins for WordPress.

It syncs with some of the most popular email marketing solutions on the market. It provides anti-spam protection, and let you create forms with conditional logic. In addition to contact forms, it’s great for:

• Volunteer application forms
• Event registration forms
• Error reporting forms
• Applications
• Referrals
• Internal company requests
• Patient intake forms

9. Quform

At just $29 per year, Quform is an affordable WordPress form plugin. This plugin is extremely responsive and mobile-friendly.

You’ll have the option to create multi-page forms, with complex layouts, and reCAPTCHA with the drag and drop builder.

The plugin comes with lots of different form themes as well. You can set up conditions that will automatically display elements for specific replies through your website forms. With Quform, users can attach files to their submission.

For those of who you don’t want to spend a ton of money on a plugin, but want to upgrade from a free WordPress form plugin, you’ll definitely want to checkout Quform.

10. Formidable Forms

Last, but certainly not least on our list is Formidable Forms.

This plugin is unique because it lets you create forms that are GDPR compliant. So for those of you who have lots of European visitors navigating to your website, you’ll want to consider Formidable Forms.

You can create simple contact forms as well as complex multi-page forms with this plugin. It comes standard with top features like advanced calculations, file uploads, and conditional logic.

Formidable Forms is also one of my favorite plugins for analyzing data that’s been submitted in your website forms. You can view information in graphs, which is always helpful for identifying trends.

This plugin lets you take the information that you collect through forms and use it to build directories, listings, or any other data-driven application.

The drag-and-drop builder paired with front-end WordPress editing makes Formidable Forms impressive. Pricing ranges from $49 to $399 per year, depending on your needs. But I’d say the majority of you won’t need one of the higher-cost plans.

Conclusion

Traditionally, website forms are used as a contact method. It’s a great way for your website visitors to reach you directly without having to leave or site or go through extra steps.

But as you can see, these forms can be used for so much more. That’s why it’s crucial for you to have a WordPress plugin that can help you create the forms you need.

So what’s the best form plugin for WordPress?

It depends on what you’re looking for. Some websites need to build complex, multi-page forms, with conditional logic and file submissions. Other sites may just need a simple form with a few fields.

How do you want to create your forms? If you want something that’s easy and user-friendly, you’ll want to look for a plugin that has drag and drop builders.

Price is also something that you need to keep in mind when you’re searching for a form plugin. Some are free, while others vary in price range depending on features, plans, and add-ons.

Based on all of this information, I’m sure you can find what you’re looking for on the list that I’ve come up with above. These are the best form plugins for WordPress, and I made sure to include something for everyone.

Source Quick Sprout http://bit.ly/2WOHM7c

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