S.S. Kresge legacy timeline

S.S. Kresge legacy timeline

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Kresge Foundation fulfills namesake's philanthropy

From its start with a donation of $1.3 million from Sebastian S. Kresge, the Kresge Foundation’s assets have snowballed into $3.5 billion, currently ranking it as the nation’s 18th largest foundation by asset size, according to the Foundation Center.Last year it issued awards totaling $242.5 million among 408 recipients. A major expansion to its Troy, Mich., headquarters to better accommodate the foundation’s 80-member staff and position it for the future, was [...]

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The face behind Adam's Jewelry name

“Oh, so you’re Adam.”That was heard at the table where Adam Salama sat and then by others after he got up to receive his family’s business’s award for Best Interior Design at the 10th annual Bizzy Awards on Thursday night at Pocono Palace in Marshalls Creek.Great Wolf Lodge received Best Overall Business award.Adam’s Jewelers could’ve swept interior and exterior awards as it also was nominated for Best Curbside [...]

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(No heading)

Chestnuthill TownshipRelocative Assets LLC to Christian R. Saldibar and Nichole McClure, Lot 78, Phase I, Whispering Woods, $235,000Hamilton TownshipVollie J. Jr. and Diane R. Wright to John J. and Terry L. Cronin, Lot 3, "Subdivision of Elmer J. Possinger," $200,000Stroudsburg BoroughRaymond J. Grochowski Jr. to Greg Tyler Little, 3 tracts, North Seventh Street, $229,000Tobyhanna [...]

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Robinhood Review: Free Is the New $7 Stock Trade

Did you ever think you could trade stocks for free? Before the dawn of the Internet, it might have cost $50 or $100 to trade a stock through a human broker over the phone. As the Internet took off, we saw the evolution of “$7 online trades” and instant quotes.

Now a technology company, Robinhood, is not only reducing stock transaction costs, but eliminating them altogether.

Catering to the tech-savvy millennial crowd, Robinhood broadens access to the U.S. financial markets for everybody by offering an investment platform that runs on smartphones and innovative applications. With their mobile app, investors can buy and sell individual stocks straight from their smartphones with only three clicks. Meanwhile, the company is targeting bargain hunters and convenience-hungry consumers by offering free trading and no minimum balance requirements.

Sounds like a great deal for investors — but can a brokerage company really survive using this model? Let’s take a look at how it all works.

Robinhood at a Glance

Robinhood is a technology-driven brokerage firm that is poised to become a disruptive force in the online investing world. By cutting their overhead and charging no commissions on trades through their smartphone app, Robinhood hopes to “democratize access to the financial markets.” So far, they have secured over $66 million in venture capital, allowing the company to focus on creating a flawless user experience rather than trying to drum up short-term profits.

Types of Accounts Supported

• Cash accounts
• Margin accounts (in testing phase)
• IRA accounts (coming soon)
• Custodial accounts (coming soon)
• Joint accounts (coming soon)

Features

• No commissions
• No minimum balance requirement
• Available on Apple iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch
• Available on Android devices
• Supports market orders, limit orders, stop limit orders, and stop loss orders

Fees

At the moment, use of the Robinhood app is completely free. While it may be hard to believe, they aren’t currently charging customers anything to make a trade.

That’s right; Robinhood doesn’t charge any fees for opening an account or funding it with a linked checking or savings account. And if you choose to receive electronic statements and trade confirmations, you can avoid fees altogether. If you prefer paper statements, on the other hand, you can pay just $5 and $2 per month for statements and confirmations, respectively. Robinhood charges $10 for broker-assisted trades made over the phone, but that service is optional.

How Robinhood Makes Money

With revenue from fees limited, how does Robinhood expect to make money? Most likely, it will be two ways: margin and float.

According to Robinhood’s founders, the company will be making margin accounts available to the public in late 2015. In simple terms, margin accounts allow investors to borrow money from the brokerage firm. Once investors invest the money they borrow, they are charged an interest rate for the loan, just like they would at any bank.

Once Robinhood makes their margin accounts available, the interest rate could be between 3.5% and 5%, according to Barron’s. Keep in mind, however, that this interest rate applies only to margin accounts and won’t affect cash accounts.

Robinhood also makes money through the uninvested cash balances of their customers, or the “float.” Unlike many brokerages that pay investors interest on these balances, Robinhood invests this money into federal Treasury securities at the “risk-free” rate, earning a small return on investors’ money when it’s not in use.

Since the firm is clearly targeting investors with small starting balances, most investors will not have enough cash on hand to earn much interest anyway — but add it all up, and Robinhood can make a bit of money on those uninvested balances.

Registration/Regulation

Like all brokerage firms in the United States, Robinhood is a registered broker-dealer with FINRA & SIPC. APEX Clearing Corp. handles the trade confirmation, settlement, and securities delivery for Robinhood. They are also registered members of FINRA & SIPC.

Robinhood Details

What is Robinhood?

Robinhood is a U.S.-based stock brokerage firm that allows investors to buy and sell U.S. stocks and ETFs listed on U.S. markets with their smartphones. The company has been built with efficiency in mind, eliminating high overhead costs like storefronts, manual account management, and expensive advertising. Because of this, Robinhood is able to keep costs low with no commission fees on all trades.

Robinhood is not a financial advisor. Instead, they are merely a brokerage firm. All trades and transactions are user-directed through the Robinhood app.

Robinhood’s Main Features

Trade for Free

Yes, it is true. With Robinhood, you will never pay a commission fee for making trades. Ever. By default, this makes Robinhood the cheapest brokerage in the online marketplace for individual investors by far. Do note, however, that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and FINRA charge a $0.002-per-share fee on all trades. Those fees are passed through Robinhood to the regulatory agencies, but Robinhood does not gain any financial benefit.

No Minimum Balance Requirements

In addition to commission-free trades, Robinhood woos bargain hunters and frugal investors with no minimum balance requirements. Because of this, investors can open a cash account for free without any obligation to keep their cash balance above a certain threshold.

While this is a great feature for those starting out with small balances, this is also beneficial for new investors who want to dabble in day trading.

The Robinhood App

Investors wanting to trade through Robinhood will need to download the Robinhood mobile app. The app is easy to use and is available on both Apple- and Android-supported devices.

With just three clicks, investors can buy or sell securities directly from the app. Customers can also sign up to receive important notifications regarding their account balance or current trade details. Thanks to Robinhood’s app, you can buy, sell, or trade stocks from anywhere — as long as you have an Internet or cell connection.

Real-Time Market Data

While other brokerages may delay quotes, Robinhood is able to supply their customers with market data in real time. Like almost everything else with this app, access to real-time data is free. The company also claims to have built a “low-latency trading system” that executes trades quickly so you don’t miss out on rapidly changing market conditions.

Other Features

While Robinhood is only servicing cash accounts at the moment, they have plans to offer more features and investing options in the very near future.

By the end of 2015, Robinhood hopes to have its margin accounts open to the public. (They are currently in the beta testing stage.) Meanwhile, the company has also announced its intention to add custodial, joint, and IRA account support in the future.

What Robinhood Lacks

No Physical Location

Branch locations can be a huge cost to any brokerage firm, which is part of the reason Robinhood has taken these out of the equation. This is obviously a huge benefit, since low overhead is part of the reason Robinhood can offer no-commission trades. On the other hand, it also means that beginning or struggling investors won’t be able to walk into a branch to get advice on their investment strategy. With Robinhood, you’re on your own, which is definitely something to keep in mind.

Basic, No-Frills Website

Another way Robinhood is able to keep costs down is through their platform. Currently, the firm does not offer a full-service website. Because of this, all transactions must be completed through the app itself, and Robinhood is unable to provide detailed charts, graphs, or analysis. Essentially, this means Robinhood investors must do their research elsewhere before making trades through the app.

No News Feeds

The Robinhood app also steers clear of the latest Wall Street news, which presents a huge downside for many investors. While this may not be a deal-breaker — and in fact, ignoring the financial media hysteria can be beneficial to long-term investors — it shows you are truly on your own when it comes to researching stock market trends and figuring out which moves to make.

Who Would Benefit From Using Robinhood?

• Day traders and other high-volume traders. Investors who enjoy making multiple trades a day can save a lot of money by taking advantage of Robinhood’s commission-free trading structure. Over the course of a few weeks, this could add up to hundreds (if not thousands) of dollars in commission savings for investors who make a lot of transactions.
• Millennials and other tech-savvy investors. Robinhood is clearly targeting young investors. The app is geared toward demographic groups who not only know how to use the technology, but also those who are comfortable making large purchases and transactions online or with their phones. If you want to buy and sell securities directly from your mobile device, Robinhood may be your best option.
• Investors with low cash balances or those looking to dabble in individual stocks. For investors who may not have a lot of cash on hand, Robinhood is a great place to get started. Customers will enjoy no minimum balance requirements, which is another enticing option for the 18-29 crowd. The no-minimum-balance requirement is also attractive for investors who just want to dip their toe into investing in individual stocks.

Who Is Robinhood Not Good For?

• Investors who want to fund their retirement accounts. At the moment, Robinhood does not support individual retirement accounts of any kind. While they plan to offer this service in the future, the company currently only supports cash accounts and the soon-to-be-released margin accounts.
• People who want investing advice. Robinhood is a brokerage firm, but not a financial advisor. If you are looking for financial planning advice, you should look elsewhere. There are plenty of online financial advisors available, and we have reviewed quite a few of them already, such as Personal Capital, Wealthfront, and Betterment.
• Hands-off investors. The beauty of Robinhood is the fact that it doesn’t charge individuals for their trades. While it is a great resource for do-it-yourself day traders, investors who need some help might be better off using a firm that offers assistance and advice to its investors. Furthermore, Robinhood requires you to make all trades yourself. So, if you like to keep your hands free from the mechanics of trading, Robinhood may not be for you.

Getting Started With Robinhood

Registering your account with Robinhood is easy. Just head to Robinhood.com and click the green “Sign up” button in the top right corner of the page. Then:

• Create your profile.
• Enter your contact info.
• Use your Social Security number to verify your identity.
• Add funds to your new account.

With only a handful of steps to complete, the entire registration process should take less than 10 minutes.

Wrapping Up With Robinhood

Will Robinhood be able to survive and thrive with their current pricing model? Only time will tell. With that being said, it might make sense to try the service if you’re young, tech-savvy, and planned to invest anyway.

Personally, I look forward to exploring how it compares to other day trading sites on my own, and finding out how it’s no-fee structure might affect the industry overall. Once again, we’ll have to wait and see.

Related Articles: 

• Building a Nest Egg Out of Acorns
• Three Apps for America’s Money Management Woes

Had you heard of Robinhood? What do you think about no-fee investing? Is it sustainable?

The post Robinhood Review: Free Is the New $7 Stock Trade appeared first on The Simple Dollar.

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Sales in utes are going gangbusters

BLAME divorced dads, men who never grow up and defacto couples but the workman’s ute is now the second most popular vehicle on our roads.

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What To Do With $1,000 Now? Figuring Out If Personal Finance Advice Makes Sense

If you caught yesterday’s post, you know that my daughter recently had surgery and I’ve been spending time at the hospital with her. Today, while sitting in a waiting room, I found an issue of Money magazine that had an article entitled “What to Do with $1,000 Now!” (October 2015, p. 52 and 53).

I have mixed feelings when it comes to Money. Some of their advice is spot-on, but at the same time the magazine devotes a large amount of time to investments that aren’t very good for the average investor (like individual stock picks) along with some advice that just encourages wasteful spending. This article was a perfect example of both – some of the ideas were great, while others were… strange, to say the least.

Since I didn’t actually steal the magazine from the waiting room, I had to look up an approximate online equivalent of the article from Money’s website, entitled
30 Smart Things to Do With $1,000 Now.

As with the print article, some of the ideas are good ones…

For about $1,000 you can have a will, durable power of attorney, and health care directive written up. Find an estate planner at naepc.org.

and

If you’re 50 or older, you can put in $1,000 more in an IRA (above the $5,500 normal limit) each year. Do so from 50 to 65, and you’ll have $27,000 more in retirement assuming you get a 6% annual return, per T. Rowe Price.

Some are bad ones…

With only 10 C-notes, your mutual fund choices are limited by minimum investment requirements. Besides simply letting you in the door, these actively managed funds have relatively low fees and beat more than half their peers over three, five, and 10 years:
Oakmark Select large blend; 1.01% expenses
Schwab Dividend Equity large value, 0.89% expenses
Nicholas large growth, 0.73% expenses

and

Would getting behind the wheel of your dream vehicle make you feel a teensy bit better about reporting to a 30-year-old boss? Then sow your oats—for 24 hours. Both Hertz and Enterprise offer luxury rentals; you can find local outfits by searching for “exotic car rental” and your city. Gotham Dream Cars’ Boston-area location rents an Aston Martin Vantage Roadster for $895 a day.

And some are just strange…

For a safer and cheaper alternative to going under the knife, try an injectable dermal filler. Dr. Michael Edwards, president of the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, recommends Juvéderm Voluma XC, which consists of natural hyalu­ronic acid that helps smooth out deep lines and adds volume to cheeks and the jaw area. It lasts up to two years and costs near $1,000 per injection.

About a year ago, I wrote an article entitled 25 Smart Ways to Handle a $1,000 Windfall. In it, I outlined a lot of smart ways to actually use $1,000. Here’s a quick recap:

Idea #1 – Eliminate (or Greatly Reduce) a Debt
Idea #2 – Launch Your Emergency Fund
Idea #3 – Kick Up Your 401(k) Contributions
Idea #4 – Open Up a Roth IRA
Idea #5 – Kickstart College Savings
Idea #6 – Launch (or Add to) Your Personal Investments
Idea #7 – Invest in a High-Efficiency Water Heater
Idea #8 – Replace Old Windows
Idea #9 – Attend a Professional Conference or Convention
Idea #10 – Get a Professional Certification
Idea #11 – Replace Worn Out Items with Long-Lasting Ones
Idea #12 – Replace All Lightbulbs with LEDs
Idea #13 – Make a Will and/or Durable Power of Attorney
Idea #14 – Buy a Good Bicycle and Use It
Idea #15 – Improve Your Home
Idea #16 – Launch a Small Business
Idea #17 – Get a Home Energy Audit and Follow the Recommendations
Idea #18 – Get a Term Life Insurance Policy
Idea #19 – Donate
Idea #20 – Pay for Next Christmas
Idea #21 – Pay for (Part of) Your Next Vacation
Idea #22 – Insulate Your Attic
Idea #23 – Take a Class or Two
Idea #24 – Start Saving for a Big Future Goal
Idea #25 – Maintain Your Home and Automobile

I’m not going to say my ideas are better than Money’s… actually, wait, I am going to say it. Any of those 25 ideas is a better use of your $1,000 than “injectable dermal filler.” (I mean, seriously? Injectable dermal filler? What kind of life situation do you have to be in where that’s even in the top ten list of smart choices for spending $1,000?)

My point is this: some ways of spending money are smarter than other ones. Obviously, building an emergency fund if you don’t have one is a better choice for using $1,000 than “injectable dermal filler.”

The thing is that it gets tricky to evaluate which financial solution is the best one when they seem kind of similar. For example, if you have $1,000, is it better to put it in your own Roth IRA or a 529 for your child? What about putting it in your 401(k) at work? Those are the kinds of questions that it becomes very easy to get bogged down in.

On top of that, you have financial media sometimes giving you really strange suggestions about what to do with your money. Injectable dermal filler? Nope. Random individual stocks? Not really a good idea, either.

How, then, do you separate the good financial advice from the bad? For me, I apply a set of eight rules to any financial advice that I read or hear or see. Good financial advice has to be strong on at least one of these points and not violate any of the others; if it doesn’t meet that threshold, I don’t trust the advice.

1. Good financial advice results in a strong likelihood of a positive return

In other words, if you use your money and time in this manner, it is rather likely that you will wind up with more money than if you didn’t take this advice.

This is the category in which frugal advice is pretty strong. Simple things, like buying a generic product instead of a name brand product or learning to make your own meals, are pretty much guaranteed to cause you to spend less money, thus causing you to have more money in your wallet after following that advice than you would if you didn’t follow it. There may be other reasons for not following a specific frugal tactic, of course, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a good suggestion.

This is also where things like highly risky investments completely fail unless they’re supplemented with something else. Someone telling you to invest all of your money into Bitcoin or precious metals is guiding you down a path where there is a really strong chance you’re going to lose money. Investing in those things can still be good advice as long as they consist of a small part of your overall investments, meaning that if you do lose out on those kinds of investments, it doesn’t sink your whole ship and it’s buoyed by safer investments.

Note that this doesn’t guarantee a positive return, but that over most time periods, you’re going to end up with more money than you had before. Investing in stock index funds is pretty good advice, although they do carry some risk of having a down year. However, the historical record shows a clear positive growth rate for almost every stock index fund.

2. Good financial advice doesn’t ignore well-known options that are probably better in most situations

This is what I think about when I think about insurance advice. Quite often, I’ll find glowing reports about the wonders of universal or whole life insurance. Certainly, if you look at such packages through a particular lens, they look like a real bargain.

However, if you sit that same investment down next to, say, a similar term life policy with the money you saved going into a stock-based index fund returning 7% a year on average, it quickly doesn’t look like that good of a deal. Even very optimistic projections from such an insurance policy usually don’t stand up against a term life insurance policy and a good investment option with the remaining money.

On the surface, a whole life insurance policy might be good financial advice, but if you dig in much at all, it quickly becomes mediocre advice because there are better options out there.

For financial advice to be good, there must be a significant reason why that particular piece of advice is better than other options for the same situation. If you don’t have that reason – or the advice is intentionally excluding a pretty obvious alternative option – then the advice is questionable at best and advertising at worst.

3. Good financial advice looks at long-lasting things, not temporary things

Most of the time, buying things in general is pretty awful financial advice, except for when you have a very clear use case for that item that can’t really be fulfilled by anything else. Spending some money on forks if you don’t have any is probably a good idea, but buying a $300 handbag when you have several already? Probably not such a good idea.

If the advice does center around buying things, the question shouldn’t be how it will affect your life today. The question should be whether it will have a positive effect on your life a year from now or five years from now. If you can’t make that case at all – or if that case is a real stretch – then it’s bad advice.

Naturally, there are specific pieces of advice that are good for people in very specific situations and bad for others. If you are in a career like acting or modeling where physical beauty writes the checks for you (at least in part), then cosmetic surgery might be a good temporary choice as it will extend your career and more than pay for itself. For the rest of us? It’s pretty bad advice.

4. Good financial advice spreads out your risk rather than concentrating it

In general, the more you actually know about something, the more sense it can make to concentrate your money in that area. If you have a ton of specialized knowledge, for example, you might be able to make a killing buying and selling specific items. However, if you don’t have a ton of specific knowledge and you’re just relying on tips from others, you’re just concentrating your money in one place without the knowledge to back it up and you’re begging to go broke.

This is where things like specific stock picks fail. Whenever a magazine article gives a one-paragraph reason for why you should invest all of your cash in the stocks of Allied Amalgamated Sprockets, that’s not nearly enough knowledge to actually know whether to invest in that company. Sure, it might be a starting point for doing a lot of research into Allied Amalgamated Sprockets, but on its own, that information could be junk. You don’t know enough about Allied Amalgamated Sprockets to know the difference.

That’s why the best advice for investing in things like stocks is to diversify as much as possible. Rather than investing in one or five companies, you should invest in hundreds or thousands at once. That’s exactly what an index fund does – it just buys a little bit of a lot of different companies, so when you invest in a stock-based index fund, you’re already diversified (at least within stocks).

If you’re talking about a very small amount of money, this isn’t that big of a deal. If the amount of money you’re looking at is trivial to you and it wouldn’t be a problem if you lost it, then feel free to take a big leap into this kind of advice. However, don’t concentrate your money into one specific investment unless you know exactly what you’re doing.

5. Good financial advice improves your life and/or the life of those you care about over the long term rather than the short term

A big vacation might improve your life for a week, but then you return to the same challenges and struggles that you already have. Often, you return to a life where your financial situation is worse, adding to your life’s stress level and making your choices more difficult than before.

On the other hand, if you instead take that money and use it to build an emergency fund or pay off debt, you make your life better for the foreseeable future. You lower your stress level and open up your choices a bit for the future.

That’s why it’s almost always better to take a windfall and invest most of it into improving your financial situation. Sure, you could use a little bit to do something fun and improve your life in the very short term, but if you use most of it for long-term improvements, your life will simply become better. There is nothing better that you can do with your money than genuinely minimizing and eliminating long-term worries and stresses.

6. Good financial advice doesn’t earn more money for the advice-giver than other advice he or she might give

This goes out to all of the unscrupulous salespeople out there.

Quite often, a sales pitch for a financial product extols the virtues for a particular financial option. You’ll hear about how great this particular mutual fund is or how amazing this life insurance package is.

However, what they don’t tell you is that these options almost always have alternatives available that provide the exact same thing – or something better – with lower fees and costs.

For example, a life insurance salesman is likely going to compare the policy they want you to buy to a generic term policy. Yeah, this term policy might be a little cheaper, but look at how much this whole life policy earns for you! What they don’t show you is what you could be doing with the money you save on that term policy.

Many financial advisors do the same thing when it comes to showing off investment options. They’ll show you the options that they sell and maybe one or two more carefully selected “loser” options that look awful in comparison. How does their investments compare to, say, an index fund like the Vanguard Total Stock Market Index?

I am always wary when I’m being pitched an investment by someone who stands to earn money from that investment. Where is that profit coming from? It’s coming out of the returns I could make.

7. Good financial advice is agreed upon by more than just one guy on a random website or television show or magazine article or radio show

I see and hear almost constant claims about how this investment product or that investment solution is amazing and will utterly transform your financial life. Those radio and television ads proclaiming some kind of magical solution to whatever your financial problem is, whether it’s debt or investments or anything else, are just unbelievable to me.

Here’s the truth: if a particular piece of financial advice is truly good advice, it won’t take long for it to enter the public arena. Most truly good ideas are like a genie in a bottle – they will eventually slip out and become ideas that everyone can try and test and evaluate, and the good ones (like spending less than you earn and diversifying your investments) stick around.

So what exactly are you being sold when you buy one of these financial information products? Usually, you’re being sold information that’s already publicly available – it’s just packaged in a different way. Occasionally, you instead get an idea that flat-out doesn’t work or has some kind of crazy requirement (like a bunch of money already in the bank) that most people can’t meet.

If you really want some good financial advice and strategies, the best place to go is your local library. Remember, the vast majority of people out there have never picked up a personal finance book. By doing that, you’re already ahead of the game.

8. Good advice doesn’t encourage you to buy things unless they strongly fulfill the previous rules

Rare is the financial advice that encourages you to spend your money on something that isn’t clearly a financial investment or an investment in your long-term future (like education). If a piece of financial advice is encouraging you to buy a specific material item, be very wary.

That’s not to say that such advice isn’t sometimes good. The advice to buy a late model used car from a reliable manufacturer is good. The advice to replace any well-worn items in your house with a quality reliable version of that item is good, too.

What isn’t good is spending a lot of money on a type of item you’ve never used because you’ve heard it will make your life easier or change your life in some other way. What isn’t good is spending a lot of money on something that won’t clearly have a regular use in your life. Those types of purchases rarely pay off.

Final Thoughts

A lot of the financial advice out there is good stuff. Spend less than you earn. Save for retirement in a tax-advantaged retirement account (like a 401(k) or Roth IRA). Buy a reliable late model used car if you need a car. Try generic products and see if they fit your needs. Those types of things are tried and true and it’s easy to see the benefits.

The problem is that good advice is often mixed in with strange and questionable advice. You’ll hear three pieces of good advice from someone, then they’ll toss in something that doesn’t make any sense. You’ll listen to a largely good financial radio show and then the commercial will want you to buy some financial advice package for just four easy payments of $49.95.

Be smart when you’re thinking about using your money. Be smart about where the advice is coming from and who it is coming from. When in doubt, do more homework and make sure that the idea makes sense from a lot of different perspectives and angles. When you have some money in your pocket, use it for something that will provide lasting positive impact on your life.

Here’s a final hint: injectable dermal filler is probably not the answer you’re looking for.

The post What To Do With $1,000 Now? Figuring Out If Personal Finance Advice Makes Sense appeared first on The Simple Dollar.

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Like to Paint? Make Up to $4,000 per Wedding as a Live-Event Artist

Are you a talented painter who’s tired of selling prints on Etsy for $30 each? Well, you don’t have to be a starving artist any longer.

If you love weddings or other exclusive events, and don’t mind painting in front of hundreds of people, try your hand at being a live-event artist.

What Is a Live-Event Artist?

Exactly what it sounds like: You’ll paint at events, capturing special moments and scenes live.

The trend started in the wedding industry: Couples would hire an artist to come to their weddings and paint the scene in front of them as it happened. Live-event artists typically paint the couple, the gorgeous venue surrounding them and some of the guests, too.

Most of these paintings are not exact portraits of the bride and groom but, rather, an interpretation of the event as the artist sees it. These paintings are mostly abstract, and capture the movement and excitement of the scene.

Live-event artists also work other events, like galas and birthdays.

How Do You Become a Live-Event Artist?

If you’re interested in becoming one, here are some steps you can take:

Step 1: Hone Your Artistic Skills

Painting in front of an audience is much, much different than painting in a studio or your own home. You’ll need to interact with guests while you work, and you’ll also have to be able to concentrate and complete a painting in a short amount of time.

To prepare for this type of gig, try painting a landscape in your backyard or local park within a certain time frame.

You can also offer to paint a friend’s event for free to practice mingling with guests and see how your paintings evolve over the course of the occasion.

Step 2: Market, Market, Market

This is a relatively new job. It’s your job to educate the market on why they should hire one — and choose you.

You’ll need to create an incredible website, showcase your portfolio — remember all those events you worked for free? — and create social media accounts for your business. You should also attend wedding trade shows and network heavily with other members of the service community.

I would also recommend producing a video like this artist. That way, prospective clients will be able to see what it’s like to have you at their event.

How Much Do Live-Event Artists Get Paid?

Having a live-event artist at a wedding is a luxury for the couple, so you can usually charge a premium price.

Live-event artists typically get $2,000-$4,000 for an event. Some even get paid to go to various locations and get reimbursed for travel.

If you’re just starting out, see what other live event artists are charging in your city.

Pricing also varies depending on the type of materials you use and the size of the canvas. So, factor in your own costs to ensure you make a profit.

The live-event artist market is growing, and more brides are exploring this option as a unique way for their weddings to stand out. If you love to paint and don’t mind performing in front of an audience, this could be a fun and lucrative job for you!

Your Turn: Are you an artist? If so, would you be interested in live-painting at an event?

Catherine Alford is an award-winning personal finance writer, motivational speaker and mother to boy/girl twins. She shares her adventures at www.BudgetBlonde.com.

The post Like to Paint? Make Up to $4,000 per Wedding as a Live-Event Artist appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.

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The biggest corporate cover-ups

THE pollution cheating scandal that has rocked the world’s biggest car marker, Volkswagen, is just the latest in a long line of corporate frauds, cons and cover-ups.

Source NEWS.com.au | Business http://ift.tt/1Jv8PVu

What’s behind these silly discounts?

WOOLWORTHS was a laughing stock this week, with its cheap, cheap 1 cent discount. But there’s actually a reason behind it. Here’s how not to get ripped off.

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How to Protect Your Family’s Financial Future: Life Insurance!

Today I’d like to share how you can protect your family’s financial future as part of a sponsored post for USAA’s life insurance campaign.

I’m heartbroken every time I hear of someone who suddenly lost a loved one – especially when it was a spouse, child, or parent. My wife and boys are my world, and I don’t know what I’d do without them.

But I don’t only ask myself what I’d do without them, I ask myself what they’d do without me.  That’s why life insurance is so important. I want to protect my family and their future.

Do You Need Life Insurance?

One critical way to protect one’s family is to protect their financial future. There are a number of ways to do this. One excellent way is to purchase a lot of (cheap) life insurance.

Life insurance provides a sum of money to beneficiaries upon the death of the insured. It’s an amazing product, and I purchased quite a bit of it. I think you should too.

Here’s why . . . .

The Story of Two Widows

Back when I started the Life Insurance Movement, I shared a story about two widows. Both of them had lost their life partners early in life. Heartbreaking.

One of the widows, unfortunately, didn’t have life insurance and needed it. So not only did she have to deal with the pain of losing her life partner, she had to deal with figuring out how she was going to pay her bills.

Now imagine for a moment that you’re in her shoes. You lose your loved one, your brain is messed up because you lost someone so close to you, and now you have to make rational decisions about the finances. Not only that, you now have to work harder than you did before to ensure you bring in the same amount of income your spouse did to cover your expenses. That’s an absolute nightmare, friends.

Life insurance can’t raise the dead, but it can make it easier to get through the difficult times and grieve the loss of your loved one. It’s difficult to find time to grieve when you have to think about money or else the lights will click off.

How Do You Already Protect Your Family?

Still not convinced you need life insurance? Think about all the things you already do to protect your family . . . .

When you bought your last car, were you thinking about the safety of the vehicle? Of course you were! You might have even looked up the safety ratings for the vehicle you had in mind.

If you’ve ever had a baby, you did some things to protect your child, right? Perhaps you installed electrical outlet covers throughout the house, put up some baby gates, or made sure you correctly installed the car seat. You probably did all of these things and more!

How about washing your hands after you use the bathroom, do you do that? Of course you do!

Here’s my point: You do all kinds of things already to protect your family. Imagine a burglar breaking into your house and stealing all your stuff. The result of that horrible situation is pretty much the same result as leaving your family to have to sell all their valuables because they don’t have enough money to eat.

Don’t let that happen!

Shopping for Life Insurance

Okay, let’s say you’re convinced that you need life insurance. How do you get an appropriate amount of insurance while landing a great deal?

Term Life Insurance

You’ll get the most bang for your buck by going with term life insurance. Term life insurance provides coverage using fixed payments for a certain term. This is typically a much better deal than universal or whole life insurance.

This is a fantastic option for the military community. You can also visit my life insurance page to compare quotes from several companies to get great deals.

How Much Life Insurance Do You Need?

I could give you a rule of thumb for how much life insurance you need, but you’d be better off taking the time to answer these questions as a starting point:

• Do you have student loan debt? How much?
• Do you have consumer debt? How much?
• If you have children, what kind of education savings do they need to attend college?
• Do you have a mortgage? How much do you owe?
• What other financial obligations will your family have in the future?
• How much money will you need in investments to replace your income should you pass away?

As you start answering these questions, you can start to get a feel for how much life insurance you might need. The last question is especially important if you’re currently making enough money to fund your expenses now and in the future.

Imagine the relief your family will feel when, in the event of your death, they realize that you protected them by having enough life insurance to pay off all their debt and fund their future. Talk about leaving a powerful gift and legacy!

Bonus Tips for Protecting Your Family’s Financial Future

Life insurance is a great way to protect your family’s financial future, but it isn’t the only way. Here are some bonus tips that can help you round out your financial protection.

Build an Emergency Fund

This is actually one of the first things you should do on your path to financial security. An emergency fund will help you pay for all those unexpected expenses that pop up.

I recommend you have at least eight months worth of expenses in your emergency fund. I know, I know, that might seem a little bit on the heavy side, but with so many families being in a financial mess, I think it’s sound advice.

Secure Some Disability Insurance

You know what can drain your bank account faster than you can blink? A disability. Disabilities can linger for months or years. And boy, are they expensive.

According to the Council for Disability Awareness, just over one in four of today’s 20-year-olds will become disabled before they reach retirement. Yikes.

Get some disability insurance today.

Lower Your Expenses – Duh!

If you’re spending like you’re Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson, stop that! Well, unless you have a legal money tree firmly planted in your backyard, of course.

Check out some ways to save money on food, transportation, housing, and more by reading 70 Super Easy and Practical Ways to Save Money.

Protect Your Family Now

Protecting your family isn’t something you should put off. We never know when our last breath will be, so why not get some life insurance now?

Having been a member of the National Guard, it’s ingrained in me to protect others – especially my family. That’s why life insurance is so important to have. Protect your loved ones today.

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How to Find a Lost Pension Plan

Try these strategies to locate forgotten retirement benefits you are eligible for.

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Clearing the Smog Surrounding Annuities

Photo: BriYYZ

I’m convinced that annuities are the most misunderstood financial and insurance product in the financial services universe today.

I think there are several reasons for that, which I will get into in a minute. In this article I will try to provide an “Annuities 101” course covering what they are, what they aren’t, and a brief overview of the basic types of annuities.

How Many Thousands?

But first, why do annuities so often get misunderstood and branded with a negative image? I don’t doubt there are many subpar annuities being sold around the country.

But let’s be clear: There are only about 3,700 publicly traded companies on the major stock exchanges today, yet there are thousands and thousands more mutual funds and ETFs offering different plays on the market and different baskets of stocks or bonds. Forbes recently pegged the number at 16,700. But the majority of these thousands of mutual funds and ETFs are garbage.

So why don’t you also hear investors and financial advisors disparaging mutual funds and ETFs at the same level as annuities? The reason is that virtually every investor is involved with and every advisor peddles in mutual funds or ETFs, but the financial universe of individuals who are also involved in annuities is much smaller.

For example, if an advisor only has one tool (i.e., funds) to apply to every investing situation, do you think he or she is going to speak favorably of annuities if a client inquires about them?

And unfortunately, many advisors who are also licensed agents of annuities don’t understand them very well, but still sell them to their clients. This leads to bad communication, misunderstandings about what the annuity is or isn’t supposed to do, and a bad reputation for both the agent and the annuity.

The Regulatory Scheme Is Messy

In addition, annuities are regulated in a messy manner. For starters, they are separated into fixed annuities and variable annuities. Fixed annuities are classified as insurance products, and state insurance departments regulate them. Variable annuities can lose value and are treated as securities (similar to stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and ETFs). Both the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and state insurance departments regulate variable annuities.

Having multiple regulatory bodies at both the state and federal levels involved at the same time never simplifies an outcome or a product.

Many Different Types of Annuities Lead to Confusion

And finally, there are many types of annuities and variations on them, having completely different characteristics, which I will describe below. So if all you tell me is that you have an annuity, or you’re selling an annuity, that means absolutely nothing to me.

For example, some annuities are guaranteed not to lose principal value. Others have the risk of going to zero. That’s a big difference.

Putting aside their complexities and misconceptions, annuities can play an important role in financial planning. For one, they can provide a guaranteed stream of income during your retirement all the way to your death.

I have met several investors who thought they were stock market experts who were going to trade their own way through retirement, only to lose a huge chunk of their portfolio. Having an annuity as a portion of your retirement plan can help protect you from yourself. (There are also several studies that show investors routinely underperform the very investments they hold because of ill-timed purchases and sales in and out of the market.)

Basic Structure of an Annuity

In any discussion about annuities, you must first understand the type of annuity that’s being discussed, so let’s go over their basic structure.

There are two phases to an annuity: the accumulation phase and the annuitization phase. The accumulation phase is the period of time when the annuity grows in value. The annuitization phase is the period of time when the annuity pays out its benefits to you (i.e., pays you the money).

Not all annuities have both phases, however. For example, an annuity can have just an accumulation phase, or just an annuitization phase — I will explain with illustrations in a minute.

Suppose I paid $100,000 for an annuity. Suppose further it is contractually guaranteed to grow at a 3% rate for 10 years to approximately $134,000, at which time it begins paying me $8,000 per year for the rest of my life. The 10-year growth period from $100,000 to $134,000 is the accumulation phase. The phase where the annuity pays me $8,000 per year for the remainder of my life is the annuitization phase.

Because the annuitization, or payment phase, occurs at a later time after I purchased the annuity, this annuity is considered a “deferred” annuity. In this particular illustration, the annuity is also considered a “fixed” annuity, since the growth amount is contractually guaranteed to be 3%. Furthermore, since I created this annuity with a single up-front payment (as opposed to funding it with multiple periodic payments) it would also be considered a single premium annuity. Therefore, in the annuity industry this annuity would be referred to as a single premium fixed deferred annuity.

As I mentioned, an annuity does not always have an accumulation phase. For example, suppose I change my example above to instead pay $100,000 for the annuity to have it immediately begin paying me benefits of $5,000 per year for the remainder of my life. In this example, there is no accumulation phase. It is still considered a fixed annuity because of the guaranteed benefits of $5,000 per year. This annuity would therefore be referred to as a single premium fixed immediate annuity.

Fixed vs. Variable Annuities

Probably the most important distinction to understand about any annuity is whether it is a fixed or variable annuity. In a fixed annuity, the insurance company guarantees the annuity will have a certain minimum level of accumulation or payout. A variable annuity does not.

A variable annuity is subject to market losses just as an investment in the stock or bond market is subject to losses. In fact, the reason a variable annuity is subject to losses is precisely because your money inside the variable annuity is invested in an underlying investment account consisting of stock and/or bond funds. That is why the SEC gets involved in regulating variable annuities and they are not strictly an insurance product.

Riders

Another layer of complexity is that annuities can come with many different types of riders. A rider is an addendum or supplement that can be added onto the annuity. The rider may add a completely new or different characteristic to the annuity. As we previously discussed, annuities are regulated as insurance contracts (except for variable annuities), so that’s why the term “rider” is used for addendums or supplements.

So, for example, a variable annuity could have an income rider attached to it that will guarantee you a certain level of lifetime income even if the cash value of your variable annuity goes to zero due to market losses.

Equity-Indexed Annuities

And finally, I would be doing a disservice to you if I did not explain one of the fastest-growing categories of annuities, the equity-indexed annuity.

These are a type of fixed deferred annuity. During the accumulation phase, the equity-indexed annuity is tied to one or more stock market indices, such as the S&P 500, a European index, and/or an Asian market index. If the market index goes down, your account does not go down with it. (Protection against losses is why it is considered a fixed annuity rather than a variable one.) If the market goes up, you get credited with a portion of the market gains.

So, for example, suppose I put my $100,000 into an equity-indexed annuity tied to the S&P 500 in which I receive a 50% participation rate. During the first period of time, the index drops 20% in a bear market. The value of my annuity would stay at $100,000 (less any annual fees or expenses charged by the particular insurance company). During the second period of time, the index goes up 10%. I would get credited with half of that gain, or 5%, and my annuity value would increase to $105,000 (less any fees or expenses).

Many equity-indexed annuities have required minimum accumulation periods, six to 12 years for example, at which time you can withdraw the accumulated value and do something else with it, or annuitize it into a lifetime stream of payments. This is an example where you may just have an accumulation phase and no annuitization phase.

Of course, there are many more details to all of these annuities, but that is beyond the scope of this article. The main goal here is to acquaint you with a basic overview of the lay of the land.

What Are Some Benefits of Annuities?

Fixed annuities offer protection against downside risk. This can be especially useful to someone who is in retirement or nearing retirement to protect a portion of their portfolio from a potential crash in the stock market.

Annuitizing an annuity into a guaranteed stream of payments for the remainder of life also gives many people peace of mind to know they will at least have certain income sources guaranteed to their death.

Annuities can be used to diversify sources of retirement income streams beyond Social Security payments, interest payments, and dividends, the latter of which can fluctuate greatly from year to year if companies hit rough times and cut back their dividends.

Annuities also grow on a tax-deferred basis, which can be helpful if someone has a significant amount of taxable money that they would like to grow on a tax-deferred basis and may not have the ability to contribute any more to an IRA account.

What Are Some Limitations and Drawbacks?

Annuities typically have limited liquidity, especially during the accumulation phase. You should have other sources of immediately available funds in your portfolio to handle unexpected expenses during the accumulation phase.

If the stock market enters a strong period of growth, then a fixed annuity may have significant opportunity cost compared to what your money could have made in other places. You must remember that in a fixed annuity you are giving up some upside in order to have certainty and protection on the downside. However, this is hard for many investors to remember or be OK with if the market hits a period of huge growth. That is also why an annuity should not be more than a portion of an overall portfolio plan.

And, probably the biggest source of misunderstanding and ill will toward annuities for many folks is that annuities are long-term commitments, often six to 12 years, before you can do something else with your money without penalties or surrender charges.

Many people have difficulty staying married for six to 12 years to someone they once loved, let alone staying committed to a financial strategy for six to 12 years — especially in a media environment where our attention span is usually measured in weeks. If you change your mind after just a couple of years and want to put that money somewhere else, then you could face fees of 15%, for example, deducted from the balance of your annuity value.

Even if someone is informed about these penalties and surrender charges at the time of purchasing the annuity, they’re not likely to remember them a couple of years down the road when they desperately want to use the money for something else. (If you don’t believe me, try to recall all the details of just a couple of conversations you had last week.)

There is actually a good reason for at least some of the surrender fees and penalties. Take, for example, an equity-indexed annuity. As I described above, an equity-indexed annuity protects the owner from market losses but allows the owner to participate in a portion of market gains. The insurance company typically implements this strategy by purchasing bonds with the premium money paid and using the interest from the bonds to purchase call options in the futures market.

To implement this strategy for your annuity, the insurance company is required to take multiyear positions in both the bond and options markets. If I call up the insurance company a year later and tell them I immediately want my money back, they aren’t exactly sitting on the cash in a money market account, and the value of those bonds and options could have changed significantly. On top of that, there are also administrative and trading expenses just in unwinding those market positions.

The Bottom Line

Annuities can serve a useful purpose in a financial plan. Unfortunately, their purposes are often misunderstood because of poor communication and education between the agents selling them and the people who could benefit from them.

Tim Van Pelt is a financial planner and registered investment advisor representative of Steele Capital Management Inc. The views expressed in this article are solely his and do not necessarily reflect the views of Steele Capital or its management. You can reach him at tjvanpelt@gmail.com or (608) 577-9877. This material has been prepared for informational purposes only, and is not intended to provide, and should not be relied on for, investing, tax, legal, or accounting advice. You should consult your own investment, tax, legal, and accounting advisors before engaging in any transaction.

The post Clearing the Smog Surrounding Annuities appeared first on The Simple Dollar.

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Which Major Cell Phone Company Offers the Best Deal on the New iPhone?

Apple recently announced that devotees like me are now able to get a new iPhone every year — without being tied to a mobile carrier.

Their iPhone Upgrade Program allows you to purchase an iPhone with monthly installments. The phones are unlocked, so you can use them with any carrier.

The timing couldn’t be better for me: I’m currently with Verizon, and my two-year contract is up this fall. I’m ready for a new iPhone.

The program competes with the new program Verizon launched this summer. Sprint, AT&T and T-Mobile each launched competing plans in reaction to the announcement.

With all these new options, what is the best way to buy a new iPhone 6S?

A number of sites have put together hasty comparisons with glancing overviews of the new offers. But what none of these explains is… which is the best plan for me?

So I did the research myself. And hopefully, my analysis will help you decide whether any of these options is right for you.

What I Need in a Cell Phone Plan

It’s easy to get caught up in the excitement of these competing deals, but there’s a lot more to consider than what’s on the sales page. Few people use the basic, out-of-the-box plan advertised, because everyone’s cell phone needs are different.

When you get to the store and actually start to build a plan to fit your life, you may suddenly find you’re not getting the deal you expected.

For example, my partner and I share a cell phone plan, so I have to consider the cost of two new phones and a family plan that meets our mobile phone and data needs. I want to be prepared before heading to the store, because sales reps are awfully convincing when you’re not well-informed.

To choose the phone and service plan that works best for us, we’re considering these questions:

• How many lines will be on our plan? We need two, and we’d like a family plan.

• What kind of phone do we want? Between music, apps and photos, we’re looking for more storage than the standard 16GB iPhone. We each want the new iPhone 6S with 64GB storage.

• Will we purchase hardware insurance? Yes, for both phones.

• Will we need software/tech support? No. (But for the purposes of comparison with Apple’s offer, I’ll include this in my research.)

• How many minutes/texts do we use per month? About 900 texts and 200 minutes together.

• How much data do we use per month? Between 8 and 12GB.

• What special needs do we have (mobile hotspot, family safeguards, international use, etc.)? We travel frequently in the U.S. and often end up with unreliable Internet access. Having LTE access and a mobile hotspot are musts for us to work on the road, as is at least 10GB of data.

Which Cell Phone Provider Is Best for Us?

First, let’s look at what the iPhone Upgrade Program offers:

• Lease an iPhone for 24 months
• No down payment
• Turn in your phone after 12 months for an upgrade
• AppleCare+ (a $129 insurance package that offers software support, two years of hardware repairs and two incidents of accidental damage coverage)

To get my new 64GB iPhone 6S with this program, I’ll pay $36.58 per month — that’s $73.16 per month for the two of us — just for the phones. We’ll have to purchase a service plan on top of that.

Would it be cheaper to buy the phone through a carrier? Let’s look at some options.

T-Mobile

In response to Apple’s announcement, T-Mobile launched JUMP! on Demand. This limited-time deal offers the iPhone 6S for $20 per month for 18 months, with an upgrade up to three times per year.

(That sounds exciting until you realize new iPhones simply don’t come out that often. This could, however, come in handy if you want to jump ship to Android after giving Apple a shot.)

The monthly payments are the same, regardless of the iPhone’s capacity, but for the 64GB, I’d pay $99 upfront (a 16GB phone has no upfront payment).

To match the AppleCare+ support Apple’s offering, I’d also purchase hardware insurance and software support. Premium Handset Protection is $8 per month, and Lookout Mobile Security Premium insurance is $4 per month, so that’s an extra $12 per month per device.

• $40 for two iPhone 6S 64GB
• $16 for two Premium Handset Protection
• $8 for two Mobile Security Premium

= $64 per month, plus $198 upfront, to buy our phones through T-Mobile

To get the service we need from T-Mobile, we’ll sign up for the Simple Choice Plan, with two lines. T-Mobile is unique in letting you build your family plan based on the amount of data each line will use, so you can get just what you need.

For 5GB of 4G LTE data each, the first line will cost us $70. The second will cost $50, but after 1GB, data speeds are reduced.

Unlimited Talk & Text and WiFi tethering are included, and there’s no additional line access fee. There’s also no activation fee, regardless of the source of the phone.

All told, service from T-Mobile will cost $120 per month. Add that to the payments for our phones and insurance, and buying phones and service through T-Mobile will cost us $184 per month, plus $198 upfront.

If we purchase our iPhones through Apple and sign up for T-Mobile service, we’ll pay $193.16 per month, and nothing upfront.

Sprint

Sprint’s offer, iPhone Forever, is available through December 31. Through this program, you trade in your old smartphone and get a new iPhone 6S for $15 per month for 22 months. (Without the trade-in, the monthly price is $22.)

You can upgrade whenever a new iPhone comes out, regardless of how long you’ve been paying for the plan. Plus, it sounds like you can trade in any smartphone — so my shall-remain-nameless colleague who’s still rocking a 3GS is in luck.

To get a 64GB iPhone 6S, trading in my 5C, I’ll pay $19.77 per month, with no upfront payment. (That’s with “good credit.” When I selected “building credit” on Sprint’s Pre-order tool, it told me I’d pay $225 down and only $9.32 monthly.) Through Sprint, I can also purchase AppleCare+ for $129.

• $39.54 for two 64GB iPhone 6S
• $129 upfront for AppleCare+

= $39.54 per month, plus $129 upfront, to buy our phones through Sprint

Now let’s add service.

For 10GB shared data, unlimited talk and text and mobile hotspot on Sprint’s Family Share Pack plan, we’ll pay $100 per month. That’s with $0 in line access fees, plus a $36 activation fee per line.

Add service costs to the payments for our phones, and we’ll pay $139.54 per month getting both from Sprint.

If we purchase our iPhones through Apple and sign up for Sprint service, we’ll pay $173.16 per month.

It’s No $200 iPhone, But $330 Isn’t Bad

Note that both Sprint and T-Mobile’s installment plans offer the iPhone at a reduced price.

Through T-Mobile, you can pay $24 per month for 18 months, then pay $164 if you want to keep the phone. That brings the price of the iPhone 6S to $524, $125 less than Apple’s retail price.

Through Sprint’s limited-time-offer, the iPhone 6S will only run you $330, plus the trade-in of your current iPhone.

AT&T

To stay in the game, AT&T rolled out AT&T Next this month, an installment plan that allows you to pay full retail price for a phone over a period of 20, 24 or 30 months, with early upgrade options.

AT&T Next 24 would let me purchase a 64GB iPhone 6S for $25 per month over 30 months, with an option to upgrade after 24 months. Mobile insurance would cost $6.99 per month per device.

• $50 for two 64GB iPhone 6S
• $13.98 for mobile insurance on two phones

= $63.98 per month to buy our phones through AT&T

With AT&T’s No Annual Service Contract plan option (a service plan for phones purchased through AT&T Next, full upfront payment or a third party), we’ll get Unlimited Talk & Text and 15GB data (with rollover) for $100. They also charge a $15 access fee for each line.

• $100 15GB family plan
• $30 for two lines

= $130 per month for AT&T service

• $63.98 per month for our phones and insurance

= $193.98 per month to buy our phones and service through AT&T

If we purchase our phones through Apple and sign up for AT&T service, we’ll pay $203.16 per month.

Verizon

I’m sort of biased going in, because I’m already with Verizon. I like their network and customer service, and I’m less impressed by what I’ve seen and heard from other carriers.

But the $201.60 I pay each month? Not as great. If these other plans can compete, I’m open to change.

First, I could simply renew my current MORE Everything Plan and pay the subsidized price for a new iPhone. While contract plans are no longer available to new customers, Verizon wants to make sure existing customers know they can stick with their current plans if they want.

Switching to the new plan, simply called The Verizon Plan, will be cheaper. But does Verizon’s monthly installment plan make more sense than buying my iPhone from Apple?

My 64GB iPhone 6S from Verizon will run $31.24 per month over 24 months. Comprehensive insurance is $11 per month, per device.

• $62.48 for two 64GB iPhone 6S
• $22 for insurance for two phones

= $84.48 per month to buy for our phones from Verizon

On its new plans, Verizon has actually boosted the value for service. I currently pay $80 per month for 10GB of data; on the new Verizon Plan, I’d pay the same amount for 12GB.

Plus, we’ll pay a line access fee of $20 per phone.

• $80 for 12GB Verizon Plan
• $40 access fee for two lines

= $120 per month for Verizon service

• $84.48 per month for our phones and insurance

= $204.48 per month to buy our phones and service through Verizon

In the end, Verizon is the only carrier Apple actually beats when it comes to the price of buying our phones.

If we buy our iPhones through Apple and sign up for Verizon service, we’ll pay $193.16.

On top of that, Verizon’s monthly installment plan offers no option for an early upgrade like its competitors do. Even without a service contract, I would likely wait two years for my next iPhone.

Where to Get the iPhone 6S

So, what will I do?

The numbers definitely show Sprint to be our best option. Using their limited-time iPhone Forever offer, we can both upgrade to the iPhone 6S 64G with no upfront payment and save more than $60 on our monthly cell phone bill.

Armed with this information, I think we’re ready to make the switch!

Your Turn: Are you planning to buy a new iPhone or other smartphone this year? Will you take advantage of one of these new installment plans?

Dana Sitar is a Staff Writer at The Penny Hoarder. She also writes about writing, work, life and love for blogs and books, and sometimes things people care about, like Huffington Post and that one time she had an article published in The Onion. Follow along on Twitter: @danasitar.

The post Which Major Cell Phone Company Offers the Best Deal on the New iPhone? appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.

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Your Credit Card Is Changing: What You Need to Know

Oct. 1 is a big day in the credit card world. Find out what’s happening and whether you’ll be affected.

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10 Tips for Selling Products Online

Making a well-designed website is part of building a successful online business. Learn 10 tips for selling products online at HowStuffWorks.

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10 Tips for Selling Products Online

Making a well-designed website is part of building a successful online business. Learn 10 tips for selling products online at HowStuffWorks.

Source Business & Money - HowStuffWorks http://ift.tt/1KHjuhI

Today Only: Get Amazon Prime for Just $67

If you’ve been eyeing an Amazon Prime subscription, grab it now!

Today only, you can buy Amazon Prime for $67, a 33% savings off its usual $99 price tag.

Amazon’s original series, Transparent, won five awards at the Emmys last Sunday. To celebrate, they’re offering this amazing deal — but not for long! To get the discount, you have to buy your Amazon Prime membership before 11:59pm PT today.

Why Buy Amazon Prime?

You don’t just get fast, free shipping — although that awesome perk can pay for itself quickly, especially with Black Friday and Cyber Monday coming up.

You also get instant streaming access to over a million songs and thousands of TV shows and movies, as well as unlimited cloud photo storage and free Kindle ebooks.

Once you buy your subscription, use these tips to save even more on your purchases.

I, for one, can’t wait to jump on this deal. My student subscription will end soon, and this one only costs $18 more!

Your Turn: Will you buy an Amazon Prime membership today?

Jamie Cattanach (@jamiecattanach) is junior writer at The Penny Hoarder and a native Floridian. She’s passionate about learning, literature, chocolate and finding ways to live the good life as cost-effectively as possible.

The post Today Only: Get Amazon Prime for Just $67 appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.

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How to Make an Extra $300 a Year Searching the Internet

Google may have become synonymous with “search,” but it’s not the only name in this game.

If you’re feeling reluctant to look elsewhere, alternative search engines have a pretty convincing argument for branching out: They’ll pay you to search.

I’m all about making money for something I’m already doing for free. Earn up to $300 per year in gift cards to your favorite retailers — or even cold, hard cash — by making the switch to one of these three search tools.

Swagbucks

Earn: 25-50 SBs (about $0.25-$0.50) per day

Use Swagbucks as your default search engine (powered by Yahoo!), and earn SBs you can cash in for gift cards from top retailers. Amazon is the most popular option, but my personal favorite is PayPal, since you can use it anywhere.

One SB is equal to about $0.01 USD, so every 100 SBs is about $1. Also keep an eye out for bonuses that earn you extra SBs and their Rewards page, which sometimes lets you get larger gift cards for fewer SBs.

Once you’re signed up, you can also earn Swag Bucks for online shopping, watching videos and using coupons.

Bing Rewards

Earn: up to 25 credits (about $0.25) per day

Maximize your SB rewards by signing up for Bing Rewards. Bing requires you have a Live or Hotmail account, and you’ll use the Bing search engine.

With Bing Rewards, you’ll start out at Member status and work your way up to Silver and Gold. Earning SIlver status is pretty easy: Complete a couple of intro tasks and earn 200 search credits. For achieving Silver status, you’ll earn 50 bonus credits.

At Gold status, you get a 10% discount when you cash in credits for rewards. That means you’ll get a larger gift card for fewer credits. To achieve Gold status, you have to redeem credits for rewards, complete 150 qualifying searches per month and earn 750 lifetime credits.

SendEarnings

Earn: up to $0.15 per day

SendEarnings is different from the other two options because they pay out in cash. Instead of earnings points you redeem for gift cards, you get real money.

Like Swagbucks, SendEarnings offers cash rewards for a variety of tasks, including online searches through their proprietary search engine.

Earn $0.01 for each of your first five qualified searches and $0.01 for every two after that. You can earn up to $0.15 per day through the SendEarnings search engine.

You’re already searching online — why not start getting paid for it? It might not make you a millionaire, but hey, it’s free money!

Your Turn: Have you used any of these services to earn rewards for searching? Will you make the switch from your current search engine?

Disclosure: Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. We would have shared them with you anyway, but a true “penny hoarder” would be a fool not to take the company’s money.

The post How to Make an Extra $300 a Year Searching the Internet appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.

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