Here’s How Much One Family Saved By Ditching Their Second Car

Of all the crazy things I’ve read about people doing to save money, there was one thing I always admired but never thought my husband and I could pull off. (Apart from making our own laundry detergent, which — let’s be honest — is never gonna happen.)

That thing? Becoming a one-car household.

It just seemed like such a hassle. How would we get stuff done? Wouldn’t we feel restricted? What if we both needed the car at once?

Then my husband lost his job and learned he wouldn’t be able to work again; he has a lifelong condition and is applying for disability.

Suddenly, we had to drastically slash our budget, and whether it would be a hassle or not, we realized that meant getting rid of one of our cars.

How have we fared? Better than you might think…

What We’ve Saved By Only Having One Car

Moneywise, going down to one car has reaped us all sorts of savings.

When we sold my car, we used the money to pay off the remainder of my husband’s car, which still had a couple years of payments left. (Car payments: $310/month)

Having one less car to cover also cut down our insurance payments. (Insurance: $45/month)

Since my husband is no longer commuting to work, and I work from home as a freelance writer, the only major driving we do anymore is running errands — which we often combine into one quick trip insteading of doing them piecemeal on our drives home from work. (Gas: $100/month)

We no longer have to fill out the annual paperwork for a second car (Registration/Inspections: $75/year), and we haven’t been faced with any major (or minor) repairs since we cut back our driving habits — partly because the low mileage means parts last much longer, and partly because the car is on the road less and therefore has a lower likelihood of getting into an accident, especially during our snowy Buffalo winters. (Repairs/Maintenance: $300 to $500/year)

Add in miscellaneous savings like one less E-ZPass to refill ($25/refill), and that brings our estimated combined yearly savings to between $5,560 and $6,060.

Not too shabby, huh?

How to Become a One-Car Household

Toying with the idea of becoming a one-car household yourself? Here are some tips to make it doable:

1. Change your working arrangements.

If one of you can work from home, it radically reduces your need for a second car. If you’re not one for self-employment, you could look for a traditional job that gives you the option to telecommute.

If you can’t work from home, consider alternating work schedules with your partner or finding a job that’s closer to home so you can get to it by foot, bike or bus.

2. Coordinate and plan ahead.

When you’re sharing one vehicle, you need to make sure your whole family is on the same page with their personal schedules, especially if you have kids involved in lots of extracurricular activities.

Set up a family calendar in a central location and make sure everyone keeps it updated. Or, to really keep everyone in sync, create a shared Google Calendar everyone can access from their smartphones.

Emphasize the importance of giving as much advance scheduling notice as possible. If someone has a conflict (your daughter needs to get to soccer practice while your son has a dentist appointment), one of you will have to reschedule or find alternate arrangements to get there and back.

It’s a good idea to schedule a time each week (like Sunday evening) when everyone can sit down together and go over the coming week’s schedule.

3. Carpool.

Join other parents in a neighborhood carpool where people take turns driving everyone’s kids to school and back. Offer to give a nearby coworker gas money if she’ll swing by and pick you up on her commute. Ask your friend if you can tag along when he goes grocery shopping, and offer to buy him a thank-you lunch.

4. Use public transportation (and your own two legs).

Most cities and towns have some sort of public transportation. If you live in a bigger, more walkable city like New York or Boston, you may find you can even become a zero-car household.

On the rare occasion you really do need your own set of wheels, you can always rent a shared car for the day through a service like Zipcar or Relay Rides.

And don’t forget your own private mode of transportation: your legs (and a bike, if you have one).

If you’re a suburbanite, you may be all too used to hopping in your car to grab something from the corner store just a few blocks away. Getting there under your own power helps out both your budget and your health.

Sharing a car isn’t always super-convenient, but it’s not impossible. You just may find you can make it work for you — and that the savings are more than worth it.

Your Turn: Is yours a one-car household? How do you make it work?

Kelly Gurnett is a freelance blogger, writer and editor who runs the blog Cordelia Calls It Quits, where she documents her attempts to rid her life of the things that don’t matter and focus more on the things that do. Follow her on Twitter @CordeliaCallsIt.

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How I Saved 44% on My Grocery Bill Without Using a Single App or Coupon

I feel lucky to have grown up in a household where exotic meals were the norm. Since my mom is Japanese, her cooking often featured flavors from a variety of Asian cuisines.

Now that I’m on my own, I try to be adventurous with my meals, too.

But the thing is: The ingredients can quickly add up.

So I started thinking about how my mom had done it. And I realized she never bought Asian products at our town’s grocery store. Instead, she made a monthly run to the Asian grocery store in a nearby city.

[Insert lightbulb moment! ]

Would shopping at the Asian grocery store help me save money on specialty ingredients, and maybe even produce, too?

I decided to see for myself…

Is the Asian Grocery Store the Cheapest Grocery Store?  

To test my theory, I used a simple standby meal: stir fry.

I made a shopping list and headed out to compare prices.

Here’s what I found:

Um, WHAT?

How have I not been shopping at the Asian grocery store for ALL of my produce?

Everyday veggies like mushrooms and red peppers were 50% cheaper than at my regular grocery store — and specialty produce items like bean sprouts and ginger yielded an even greater discount.

Of course, the Asian grocery store probably won’t carry your favorite brand of cereal or pasture-raised eggs — but for produce or Asian ingredients, it seems like a no-brainer.

Cooking stir fry AND saving money?

What a way to make both my Japanese mom and my Jewish dad proud.

Your Turn: Have you ever shopped at the Asian grocery store?

Susan Shain, senior writer for The Penny Hoarder, is always seeking adventure on a budget. Visit her blog at susanshain.com, or say hi on Twitter @susan_shain.

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More than a third of Moneywise readers successfully use price promises

Helen Knapman

price-promise.jpg

More than three in 10 (35%) Moneywise.co.uk users have successfully used price promises to claim the difference back if they can find an item cheaper elsewhere, according to our latest poll result.

More than three in 10 (35%) Moneywise.co.uk users have successfully used price promises to claim the difference back if they can find an item cheaper elsewhere, according to our latest poll result. 

In contrast, just one in 10 (11%) has had no success when trying to use a price promise.

read more

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Will Paying Collections Raise Your Credit Score?

So you’re ready to start rebuilding your damaged credit? That’s a smart decision. One of the first places that many consumers like to begin when setting out to rebuild their bad credit is by paying off or settling their collection accounts.

Unfortunately, eliminating your collection account balances may not have the huge impact on your credit score you’d expect. While paying or settling your outstanding collections certainly can be a good idea, it’s important to set realistic expectations as it pertains to your credit scores.

The Impact of Outstanding Collection Accounts

Collection accounts can certainly damage your credit scores — this is not breaking news. The reason collection accounts can be detrimental to your credit scores is the fact that credit scoring models like FICO and VantageScore heavily weigh the presence or lack of derogatory credit report entries in the all-important payment history category of your credit reports.

The impact of a single collection account is going to vary from person to person and from credit report to credit report. However, if a single collection account is added to an otherwise clean credit report, the negative score impact is likely to be severe. The best way to avoid the potential impact of a collection is to avoid the collection altogether.

The Impact of Paid Collection Accounts

While paying collection accounts is certainly a wise move — it protects you from further escalation on the part of your debt collectors, such as lawsuits — doing so likely won’t have the positive impact on your credit scores you might have hoped.

Zero balance collection accounts are still allowed to remain on your credit reports for seven years from the date of default on the original account. Unless you’ve negotiated a pay-for-delete settlement arrangement with your debt collector (a settlement that’s very difficult to achieve), your collection accounts will continue to remain on your credit reports even after you’ve taken care of your outstanding balances.

Since paying collection accounts doesn’t remove them from your reports, doing so will not erase the fact that the negative event occurred in the first place. You may have resolved the situation after the fact, but at some point you still failed to pay a lender according to the terms of your agreement — and that’s what credit scoring models will look at. Statistics clearly show that consumers with collection accounts are more likely to have problems paying their bills on time in the future, which is why FICO and VantageScore consider them in the first place.

Future Changes

It is worth noting that newer versions of the most commonly used credit scoring models will ignore paid or settled collections entirely when calculating your credit scores. And however the balance was eliminated — whether it was you paying it in full or settling the debt — the newer scoring models still ignore them. Specifically, FICO 9 and VantageScore 3.0, the newest versions of credit scores available from FICO and VantageScore, were designed to actually exclude paid collections from their scoring calculations all together.

However, since most lenders still currently use much older versions of the FICO scoring model, it will likely be many years before paying collections will have a positive impact on your credit scores.

Finally, despite the fact that newer scoring models will ignore the zero-dollar collections, if they’re still present on your credit reports then lenders can certainly build policies around the consideration of the negative entry, even if scoring models do not.

So again, the best way to avoid all of this mess is to avoid the collection in the first place.

Related Articles: 

• Expose a Fake Debt Collector by Asking These Three Questions
• You Can Improve This Part of Your Credit Score Almost Immediately
• Revolving Debt vs. Installment Loans: Why the Type of Account Matters to Your Credit Score

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This One Important Number Says Everything About Your Financial Health

Do you know your net worth?

Actually, first — do you know what net worth is?

What is Net Worth?

At its heart, net worth is really simple: It’s the total value of all of your assets, minus the total value of all of your liabilities.

So if you add up the value of everything you own, including all your investments and all the money in your bank account…

… and then subtract all the debt you owe, including everything from your student loans and mortgage to taxes…

…the number on the bottom line is your net worth.

It’s also the number you’re talking about when you sit around speculating about how much your favorite TV star is “worth.”

It’s a pretty simple calculation — but ultimately, it’s a theoretical number.

No matter what your net worth is, it most likely isn’t equal to the amount of cash you could access today — or even in a couple of weeks.

Unless, of course, you’ve sold all your possessions and live out of a backpack and only have $200 in cash to your name… or you’ve decided to give up money completely.

To actually obtain your net worth in cash, you’d have to sell everything you have and settle all your debts, which is a process that sounds so time- and labor-intensive you should be glad it usually only happens after you die.

All that to say nothing of the unfortunate fact that, for a lot of us (read: anyone with any as-yet-unpayable debt, so just about every person who’s ever gone to college in the U.S.), net worth might actually be a negative number.

At the time of this writing, I fall into that craptastic statistic myself, owing to a particularly un-smart money move I made before I got my TPH gig. Oops.

But maybe we’re getting a couple of steps ahead of ourselves.

Cool, I Understand Net Worth… But Who Cares?

Why does knowing your net worth matter?

Well, from a pragmatic standpoint, it’s a metric lenders use to decide if they’ll loan you any money. If you ever want a small business loan, for instance, you’ll probably need some net worth — no matter how stellar your credit.

But even if you’re not planning on taking out any kind of loan, net worth is a powerful personal finance tool.

Basically, it boils down your financial health into a number. And tracking that number carries the answer to a powerful question: Are you gaining wealth?

Or are you losing it? Even if you’re not in actual debt, failing to invest and earn comes at an opportunity cost.

Furthermore, tracking your net worth can help you achieve your personal finance goals. It makes your money matters — which are so frequently abstract and digitized and not in your hands — tangible and distinct.

And it also makes paying down debt that much sweeter.

“Even though I don’t like having to pay a monthly mortgage payment,” says financial writer Danny Kofke, “every time I do so I am increasing my net worth.”

It’s kind of like gamifying your finances.

If you stick a fast number on your goal, it makes it that much easier to think about it in terms of a score — which can be even more motivating than dollar signs.

Ready to Calculate Your Net Worth?

So. Want to know your number?

If itemizing all your possessions and other assets seems labor-intensive to you, never fear — the ‘net is awash with calculators that make it quick and painless.

If you already use Mint religiously to track your budget and spending habits, you can find an accurate figure for your net worth there, too.

And even if you go the pen-and-paper route, it’s not as bad as it seems. You don’t actually figure everything you own into your assets, because many items lose their resale value pretty quickly — or didn’t have much to begin with.

“Clothing” and “household goods” might figure into your assets, writes certified financial planner and enrolled agent Mathew Dahlberg. However, if you “were forced to sell these items to raise cash, the secondhand value (would be) significantly less” than what you might think — and maybe even negligible.

In short, your sweatpants probably don’t figure into your net worth, unless you own these.

Once you calculate that fateful figure, you can assess how much financial work you’ve got to do to get it where you want it to be.

And as it happens, we’ve got some posts to help you get started.

First things first: It’s time to sit down and set some tangible financial goals. One of them might be achieving a specific net worth!

If you find yourself in the red, you’ve gotta fix that first — and fast. Here are 11 creative strategies for paying down credit card (or any other) debt as quickly as possible.

Finally, find some new ways to earn a little extra cash. You can only make so many cuts — but with these flexible, smart ways to make some money on the side, you’ve got lots of ways to bolster your income.

Giving your financial status a good, hard look is the first step, so congratulations — you’ll be in the black before you know it.

Your Turn: What are you going to do to increase your net worth?

Jamie Cattanach is a staff writer at The Penny Hoarder. Her writing has also been featured at Word Riot, DMQ Review, Hinchas de Poesia and elsewhere. Find @JamieCattanach on Twitter to wave hello.

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How and When to Choose the Best Legal Service for Your Business

By Jan Pinnington My neighbor is a very successful restauranteur who owns 14+ restaurants throughout the state of South Carolina. His restaurants run 12 to 16 hours a day, seven days a week. Recently he shared a little secret with me that seemed to emerge from his mouth as more of a humorous fact rather […]

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Best American Express Credit Cards

If you like rewards, you’re going to love American Express. Depending on which American Express card you choose, you can earn cash toward your statement, Delta SkyMiles®, Hilton HHonorsTM points, Starpoints® to use on the Starwood hotel network, a certificate toward the purchase or lease of a Mercedes-Benz, American Express Membership Rewards® Points, or Plenti® points.

So which card should you choose? If you read that list of rewards and immediately thought “I stay at Starwood hotels all the time!” or “I want Plenti® points!” then your decision will be obvious. For the rest of us, I examined American Express’ 12 credit cards and their reward options, and came up with five top picks:

The Simple Dollar’s Top Picks

• Blue Cash Everyday® Card from American Express and Blue Cash Preferred® Card from American Express
  Best for cash back
• Amex EveryDay® Credit Card and Amex EveryDay® Preferred Credit Card
  Best for points
• Platinum Delta SkyMiles® Credit Card
  Best travel perks — but only on Delta

Although all of American Express’ cards offer rewards, I focused on the ones that either offered rewards that would appeal to the largest group of people (not everybody’s going to be interested in the Mercedes-Benz Card from American Express, for example) or that offered high-value rewards, such as a free companion flight every year.

Best for Cash Back

Apply Now on American Express’ secure website

Blue Cash Everyday® Card from American Express Highlights

If you’re hoping to earn cash back on your purchases, you want one of American Express’ Blue Cash credit cards. First up: the Blue Cash Everyday® Card from American Express. You’ll earn $100 back after you spend $1,000 in purchases within the first 3 months. Other perks include earning 3% at US supermarkets on up to $6,000 per year in purchases — beyond that, you’ll still earn 1%.

In addition to these cash back rewards, the Blue Cash Everyday® Card from American Express also boasts no annual fee and a 0% intro APR on purchases and balance transfers for 12 months.

If you make a lot of purchases at supermarkets, gas stations, and department stores, the Blue Cash Preferred® Card from American Express might be worth the $95 fee. Let’s say your grocery budget is $700 per month; 6% of that gets you $42 cash back a month, so you’d earn back the cost of your annual fee in just over two months. Everything else is just gravy — but you should do the math on your own purchase history to determine if the Blue Cash Preferred® Card from American Express is right for you.

Apply Now on American Express’ secure website

Blue Cash Preferred® Card from American Express Highlights

Be aware that all of the cash you earn from both Blue Cash cards comes in the form of statement credits, which means you can only use it to pay down your statement — that $42 from the example above you’d use on your next credit card bill. (Occasionally, though, American Express may give you other ways for you to redeem your cash back rewards, such as merchandise or gift cards.)

Best for Points

Apply Now on American Express’ secure website

Amex EveryDay® Credit Card Highlights

If you’re looking to rack up American Express Membership Rewards® Points, get your hands on the Amex EveryDay® Credit Card.

This card is designed to help you earn Membership Rewards® Points, which can be used to help pay off eligible charges. Membership Rewards® Points can also be used to make purchases via American Express Travel, buy gift cards, and more (you can check out American Express’ Membership Rewards® site for the full details).

If you can afford the $95 annual fee, you’ll get significantly more benefits with the Amex EveryDay® Preferred Credit Card — and since you can use Membership Rewards® Points for everything from charitable donations to Uber rides, it might be worth the annual fee if you’re committed to getting as many Membership Rewards® Points as possible.

Apply Now on American Express’ secure website

Amex EveryDay® Preferred Credit Card Highlights

Here’s just one example from the vast Membership Rewards® Points catalog: You can get a $25 Home Depot gift card for 2,500 points. So, if you had the Amex EveryDay® Preferred Credit Card, you could earn that $25 gift card by spending $834 on groceries and earning 3 points per dollar. If you had the Amex EveryDay® Credit Card, you’d have to spend $1,250 on groceries to get your 2,500 points and your $25 gift card.

Here’s the real question: Is it better to get an American Express card that gives you rewards in cash, or in points?

I’m always in favor of cash, simply because I know what the value of cash is. I also like the idea of earning simple statement credits, instead of navigating the overwhelming amount of options that you can purchase through the Membership Rewards® catalog. It’s also worth noting that the Blue Cash cards let you earn extra cash back at department stores, and the Amex EveryDay® cards don’t — so I’m slightly partial to Blue Cash.

Best Travel Perks

Apply Now on American Express’ secure website

Platinum Delta SkyMiles® Credit Card Highlights

American Express offers three different Delta credit cards, and the Platinum Delta SkyMiles® Credit Card hits the sweet spot between the perks you’ll receive and the annual fee you’ll pay for the privilege.

The Platinum Delta SkyMiles® Credit Card has a variable APR of 15.49% – 19.49% (no 0% intro rate, sorry) and it’ll cost you a $195 annual fee, but you get the impressive list of benefits mentioned above.

If you’re not into that $195 annual fee, you can apply for the Gold Delta SkyMiles® Credit Card from American Express instead, but you’ll lose the 20% savings on in-flight purchases and the domestic round-trip companion ticket. (You know that ticket is going to be worth more than $195.) The base mile earnings are the same — 2 miles per dollar on Delta purchases, 1 mile per dollar on all other purchases — but you’ll earn smaller mile bonuses and won’t get the Annual Miles Boost™.

If you want to max out your Delta SkyMiles® experience, there’s always the Delta Reserve Credit Card from American Express, but be careful — this one comes with a $450 annual fee and the perks are only slightly better than the perks you’ll get with Platinum Delta SkyMiles®. Your mile bonuses are higher with the Delta Reserve Credit Card, and you’ll get free access to the Delta Sky Club® lounge, but that might not be worth the extra cost.

This isn’t the only travel card American Express offers. If you’re a Hilton HHonorsTM member, you’ll definitely want to check out the Hilton HHonors™ Card from American Express and the Hilton HHonors™ Surpass® Card from American Express, and it also has the Starwood Preferred Guest Credit Card® from American Express if you want to earn Starpoints® toward hotels in the Starwood network. However, I chose to highlight its Delta cards because I like cards where you can see the tangible value of what you’re getting — like a free flight, free checked bags, and 20% off in-flight purchases — instead of cards that put you into a sometimes confusing points system.

Heads-up: American Express also offers three “charge cards” in addition to its 12 credit cards.

With a charge card, you can charge as much as you want to your account — as long as you pay it off in full every month. The Platinum Card® from American Express, the Premier Rewards Gold Card from American Express, and the American Express® Green Card each come with their own rewards and perks, so check them out if you’re interested in learning more about the charge card experience.

The Bottom Line

All of American Express’ credit cards have lengthy and sometimes complicated rewards systems, so read through everything carefully before deciding which card is best for you. Remember that American Express wants you to earn rewards, so they’ve set it up to make sure you get something from nearly every purchase — it’s up to you to decide what that something should be.

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10 Content Writing Tips That Will Help You Find Interesting Topics in Minutes

You’ve probably faced this before.

I know I have.

You’ve run out of ideas.

Maybe you’ve been blogging along for, I don’t know, maybe three or four years. Maybe it’s only three or four months.

And now you’re done. Why? Because you’ve written everything there is to write about the subject.

You’ve exhausted all possible avenues, topics, approaches, angles, possibilities, and techniques. It’s over. Your blogging career has to die because you don’t have anything else to say.

It’s no use trying to fake it and continue to post recycled fluff just to keep your audience placated, because they will wise up fast.

If you’re out of ideas, you’re out. You can’t just—boom!—make yourself write new stuff on demand.

What do you do?

It’s time to step back and strategize.

I’ve been blogging for a long time. Ten years is a long time, right?

And I still haven’t stopped. I’m not just blogging here, on Quick Sprout. I’m also posting a lot of articles on NeilPatel.com, maintaining columns on Huffpo, Forbes, and Inc., and sharing guest articles with other marketing sites.

Yes, I deal with the same topics, but I have to provide fresh and unique content all the time.

Here are some of the ways I come up with interesting topics in order to keep readers engaged, informed, and coming back for more. 

1. Don’t just read. Analyze all angles of the news

Staying up-to-date with the latest events in your industry is not always a matter of a quick Google search.

Google News only indexes a limited number of websites for its web searches and even fewer for its News aggregator.

Start with the most basic search, and compare your SERPs and headlines to other news sources.

It helps tremendously to research the demographics of your favorite news websites and determine some of the most recognized brand names in the industry as well as well-known commentators associated with that industry.

Take note of the movers and shakers of your business, and follow their movements.

Follow them on social media to see not only what they are posting but also what they’re reading and what they’re sharing and retweeting.

You’ll see what’s on their minds, and knowing the thought process of influencers in your industry, you’ll be able to anticipate tomorrow’s news.

2. Stay tuned into the voice of the people through social media comments

Don’t stop looking for ideas after reading the most respectable and popular publications. Why? Because some of the best conversation starters are trending on social media.

They may not come from a reliable news source, but do these topics generate interest? Absolutely!

More Americans actually get their news from Facebook and Twitter than they do from network programming.

Some of the most absurd “guilty pleasure” posts trending on Facebook (you know, ridiculous headlines like “Child Sues Mother for Deleting All Her iPad Apps” or whatever) are great places to collect ideas.

Have you seen this meme that says, “I just came here to read the comments?”

Well, sometimes I do visit websites just to read the comments!

Why? I gauge what people are thinking about trends, the questions they ask, and what’s inspiring them to comment.

People really speak their minds, holding nothing back! I’ve been shocked by the things I’ve read.

Ask questions about the stories and articles you read.

• Why did this inspire controversy?
• What made people comment?
• What was the biggest issue people commented about?
• Who else might this event or trend affect besides the person interviewed for the story?
• What might be the long-term result of these new trends?
• What does this show us about how people’s attitudes have changed on a given subject over a period of time (several years, for example)?

Maybe the story you encountered on Facebook will spark an idea for a post on “How many parents admit to using iPads to keep their children quiet?”

It’s a related discussion to the original story you read, and yet if you’re an app developer or iPad seller, it’s also more relevant to your audience.

Ideas come from unexpected places. The more you constantly feed your mind, the more ideas will come to you. Write them down as soon as inspiration strikes.

Keeping up with social media news—and just as importantly, the comments of users and how the news makes them feel—is a great place to spark your creativity.

3. Visit some Q&A sites, and borrow their questions

Most questions on Q&A sites are public domain. Your answers can prove to be invaluable.

Industry leaders are always ready to answer a customer’s question, and frankly, it’s just the polite thing to do.

Now, guess where these people go to get a professional opinion on a question they have?

They certainly don’t go directly to your office or your website, do they? They may not even run a keyword search.

No, they just ask whoever is nearby.

The current generation is used to asking questions and getting answers in 30 seconds.

If their friends don’t know the answer, they’ll ask random groups of people. And guess what? Eventually someone answers.

That’s why you have sites such as LinkedIn, Yahoo Answers, and Quora, which discuss thousands of industry-specific questions you can browse.

Searching these sites is a double advantage for you. You can answer the questions on the site (getting some attention from the mainstream) and then write a new blog post or article by turning that brief Q&A into an entire 500-1000-word discussion.

Expand on the answers already given, and provide more insight on the issue.

Judging from the growing databases of these Q&A sites, you’ll never run out of questions to answer—very often, even with niche topics.

4. Create your own database of customer concerns and questions

Chances are you’ve sold at least a few products, if not hundreds, by now. That means you have plenty of cases to study for your own marketing purposes.

What did your customers say in the reviews? What questions did they ask? Reviews matter, so pay attention.

You can generate ideas from their statements, survey information, emails, or testimonials.

I jump on the reviews customers leave to see tomorrow’s trends.

I immediately read all posted reviews to see whether the customer is satisfied or not and whether they left any suggestions for improvement. I use their enthusiasm, positive or negative, to fire up discussion on the web content.

If you have never taken the time to learn your customer’s personality and demographic, start now. Send a survey form along with every product delivery, and give them an incentive for taking the time to fill it out.

This will give you insight into your customer’s mind, and it’s the most direct and effective way to keep producing the content they want to read.

5. Research what your competitors have already done

There’s no shame in learning from someone as equally ambitious and dedicated as you are. Make a list of your closest competitors—for industry as well as for local or long-tail keywords—and take notes on what they are writing about and why.

Now, you don’t want to blatantly copy their entire article. Rather, analyze their topics, and determine ways to expand upon the story.

For example, for a broad topic such as food safety, ask yourself if there is a way to narrow it down to something more specific, like recent changes in the FDA’s Food Safety Modernization Act.

If the topic is too niche and you can’t think of a way to adapt it to an original article of your own, broaden the topic to your area of expertise.

There’s no sense, however, in rewriting something that’s already successful and niche-specific.

Coming up with fresh ideas is one-half researching other people’s great ideas and one-half brainstorming ways to make your rendition better.

6. Research the history of your profession and all related professions—offline!

It may surprise you to know there is far more information in book form than there is all across the seemingly infinite Internet.

The Internet makes research easier, but the information found there is not as comprehensive as we might think.

Libraries and bookstores are an underrated source of information, particularly in exploring forgotten or lesser-known histories and studies.

The quality of paperback or hardcover books is generally much higher and more in-depth than that of Internet e-books or articles, which are really scratching the surface of what we know.

Consider quantity alone. According to a very conservative Google Books estimate, about 130,000,000 books are still in existence throughout the world, though the number could be higher than that.

In contrast, Amazon—a place many people consider the definitive source of books—has less than a million e-books and lists 1.8 million print titles for sale (according to a Quora discussion).

Libraries offer access not only to books but also to newspapers, journals, encyclopedias, and archival documents that are simply not online because there’s no interest in them. In these records, though, there is enough research to power up a blog for years on end.

If you really want to establish yourself as an expert in your field and produce thoroughly original content, take your search offline and bring back a gem of knowledge.

7. Interview an expert

Content writers sometimes ignore the option to interview an expert because quoting press statements are easier to use.

If, however, you are in need of a series of interesting blogs or articles, reaching out to a professional in your industry (or related industry) for an in-depth discussion can generate enough information to write a number of individual posts.

Many experts will give interviews free, provided you have a popular blog or are reporting on a niche subject with little available information.

Many experts are eager to give online interviews either to correct what they think is inaccurate information on their subject or to build their reputation and make their name Internet-famous on a given subject.

I remember interviewing a number of leaders in my earlier days, and the issue of payment never came up. Sometimes these experts really love to share their knowledge and have someone listen.

Since they know you’ll publicize the interview, it’s a win-win for them, especially if you keep the interview brief, using phone or video chat.

Profnet, a subsidiary of PRNewsWire, is a site that matches writers with experts (or usually their representatives) in a number of fields.

Some will do brief interviews online or on the phone for free. Some experts might charge a fee, and if it’s a niche in which you can produce a lot of content and get some highly targeted traffic, it may be worth the exchange.

8. Hire young blood

Fresh perspectives are the best way to think outside the box. If you run out of ideas, brainstorm with more members of the team. Owners will oftentimes hire new blood to help in brainstorming sessions.

Even as an individual web content writer, you can tap into young creativity by simply starting conversations with acquaintances in the office or in your circle of friends online.

Many of my websites, such as Crazy Egg, have content from multiple contributors. That’s one reason why the content stays fresh.

Featuring writers from multiple backgrounds and demographics helps bring diverse, and sometimes even opposite, views on the same events we cover.

Another thing that can spark your imagination is hearing personal experiences of your colleagues or friends. People probably tell you stories about their lives all the time, e.g., an exciting commute to work, a weekend adventure, etc.

Do you actually listen and say to yourself, “You know, this would make a great blog topic!”?

You can tell their stories, with permission, or adapt their stories to start a discussion with your readers.

9. Learn to read the work of your enemies

It’s amusing how reluctant we are to listen to our enemies or, in some cases, the “quacks” of a field who we believe are spreading anti-advice.

This is why some people completely block news sites they deem biased or ignore social media users that irk them.

But I think some of the most interesting revelations about any industry come from disagreement. When someone disagrees with you, it’s an opportunity for you to sharpen your debating skills. You brush up on your knowledge of history and science so you can make an accurate rebuttal.

This is actually standard protocol in college when you write a dissertation. By learning the opposing side’s viewpoint, taking into account their objections and their research, you strengthen your own argument.

It doesn’t really matter if you believe the viewpoint or not. Whether spoken or written, it’s a part of your industry. Maybe that means you must correct the misconceptions with your web content.

Be open-minded to new evidence. Test new and outside the box ideas, even if they seem ludicrous.

This is just a part of the brainstorming experience. By spending some time investigating wrong ideas about your industry, you can find the right idea. You will also have greater passion for your industry.

I make it a point to read both sides of an argument before concluding what each side got right and wrong. It doesn’t hurt to play “devil’s advocate” in your industry blog either.

Sometimes, I can come up with a topic after reading someone else’s story that I feel is utterly false and misleading. And guess what? It stirs a great conversation, which gives me ideas for three more posts.

As you can see from this Pew Center graphic, many brand name news outlets are associated with biased viewpoints:

Bias isn’t a bad thing, and it doesn’t necessarily mean you should avoid a biased outlet.

Objectivity is not your concern. Rather, you can generate fresh ideas for new topics by reading opposing points of view on the same subject.

10. Stay on top of industry news

Social media is not the universal channel for industry news.

While social media is important to review so you can learn the voice of the consumer, blog writing it really its own entity.

If you don’t move beyond social media, you’ll frequently pass over some really good stuff because of poor hashtags, too much competition, and bad scheduling.

On the other hand, using a blog news app will help you stay up-to-date with relevant industry blogs as soon as they are updated.

You can subscribe to the RSS feed for fast updates, or you can use a website such as Bottlenose, which is a data discovery program that gives you real-time insights about the trends in your industry.

This goes beyond just bookmarking and actually allows you to get analytical insights about drivers of brands, consumer trends, emerging risks, and what the competition is doing.

Alltop provides a free service and, a bit more to the point, shares the top business blogs and the most trending news stories.

You can also create your own virtual magazine rack of top websites, magazines, and blogs. Better yet, you can even share your rack as a URL for easy interaction.

Conclusion

Lastly, remember that your brain is constantly working.

Even during sleep, it can subconsciously give rise to new ideas.

If you’re feeling drained and out of fuel, take a break and sleep on it.

Let your mind dwell on the idea over time, and make subconscious connections while you attend to something else. Before you know it, inspiration will strike you.

As long as you keep taking in information, you’ll always be capable of generating great content.

What are your techniques for coming up with interesting topics?

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Thinking About Paying Off Your Mortgage Early? Read This First

When my wife and I used to have mortgage loans, we paid them off as quickly as possible. We like being debt-free, and we saved thousands of dollars in interest by investing our money in paying down those loans.

But I’ve never been sure we made the right decision, which brings us to an important question:

If you have something left over after your monthly expenses, or you have occasional windfalls, is paying off your mortgage the best “investment” you can make?

Let’s look at the arguments…

Should You Keep the Debt and Invest?

Pekic/Getty Images

Many financial writers point out that a mortgage loan is cheap debt, so they suggest using it to make more money.

“From a purely quantitative standpoint, the economic benefit to maintaining a mortgage and investing the difference is significant for most homeowners over the past several decades,” Larry Light writes for Forbes.

The idea is simple enough: Average returns in the stock market are higher than current mortgage interest rates.

Consider an example: If you have $5,000 and use it to pay down your mortgage loan that has a 5% interest rate, you get an effective “investment return” of 5%.

The stock market has an average annual return of close to 10% (measuring the S&P 500 over the last 30 years), so it may make sense to keep the debt and invest your money in index mutual funds.

But it really isn’t that simple…

For one thing, if you have a heavy load of high-interest debt, like student or car loans and credit card balances, you may want to “invest” in paying down that debt before considering working on your mortgage loan or stock portfolio.

After all, the average interest rate on credit cards is around 15%, much higher than mortgage rates and average stock market returns.

But even if you have your student and consumer debt under control, you still might want to skip the market for now…

Or Should You Pay Off Your Mortgage Early?

pixdeluxe/Getty Images

Here are some of the reasons you might want to pay off your mortgage loan instead of investing your savings and extra income.

Guaranteed Return

When you pay down your mortgage, your “savings return” on your investment is guaranteed. In other words, if you owe less you will definitely save on interest charges.

Most other investment returns are far from guaranteed.

A 100-year chart of the Dow Jones Industrial Average reveals a number of times when the stock market not only dropped rapidly, but also times when it took five years, 10 years or longer to get back to even (just look at the stretch from 1965 to 1995).

A lot can happen in a decade, and you might have to cash in those investments when they’re down by half.

Peace of Mind

Terry J Alcorn/Getty Images

It’s tough to put a price on greater peace of mind, but it’s certainly worth something. My wife and I were finishing off our last mortgage during the stock market crash of 2008, paying thousands of extra dollars on it every month.

Had we instead invested the money in the market, we may have been looking good all these years later, but I don’t think I would have slept very well while stocks were dropping 30% or more in value.

Having no debt and a free-and-clear house also provides peace of mind. About the time we paid off our last mortgage, the headlines were full of stories of foreclosures — something we never had to worry about.

No Unexpected Investment Mistakes

If I crunched the numbers, I might find we’d actually be further ahead if we’d invested, rather than paying off our past mortgages.

But that assumes smart (or lucky) investing. Paying down a mortgage was simple, while picking the right investments is not. One study found only two out of 2,862 surveyed mutual funds consistently beat the market as a whole.

Less Temptation

Pekic/Getty Images

Most of us know someone who has borrowed from his or her 401(k) for a vacation or other non-necessities.

The more difficult process of borrowing from your home equity means you’re less likely to fold to these various temptations. To some extent, you lock up your savings when you use them to pay down your mortgage loan.

Lower Housing Costs

Once you’ve paid off your mortgage loan, you have permanently lower monthly housing costs. My wife and I like that.

It makes it easier to survive the loss of a job or other income, and much easier to finally start saving money for those retirement investments.

The Verdict?

Malkovstock/Getty Images

So is it better to pay down a mortgage loan or invest your excess income?

If you’re paying 4% on a mortgage loan and the stock market just crashed, it’s very likely you can do better putting your money into the market at the bottom and riding it back up.

On the other hand, the market could keep dropping, you could choose the wrong investments, you could be tempted to spend some of that money, and a time may come when you wish you didn’t have the house payment you could’ve eliminated.

For us, peace of mind tipped the scales in favor of paying off our mortgage loans, but there is no simple answer.

Your Turn: Do you think it’s better to pay off your mortgage faster or to invest your extra income instead?

Steve Gillman is the author of “101 Weird Ways to Make Money” and creator of EveryWayToMakeMoney.com. He’s been a repo-man, walking stick carver, search engine evaluator, house flipper, tram driver, process server, mock juror, and roulette croupier, but of more than 100 ways he has made money, writing is his favorite (so far).

The post Thinking About Paying Off Your Mortgage Early? Read This First appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.

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Ask GFC 007: Are There 401(k) Equivalents for the Self-Employed?

Welcome to another Ask GFC! If you have a question that you want answered you can ask it here.

If your questions get featured on GFC TV or the GFC Podcast, you are the lucky recipient of a copy of my best selling book, Soldier of Finance, and a $50 Amazon gift card.

So what are you waiting for? Ask your question now!

The 401(k) plan is one of the greatest innovations ever developed for working Americans to save and invest money for retirement. But 401(k) plans are primarily for salaried employees – where does that leave self-employed?

This is another great topic inspired by a question from a GFC TV viewer named Shane:

I’m self employed so I don’t have they luxury of having a 401k. I do have a Roth that I contribute the maximum amount to each year, but my question is are there other ways that I can put money away for the future that will give me a decent return?
Shane G.

There’s no need to beat around the bush on this topic. Yes, Shane, there are 401(k) equivalents for the self-employed. There are of course traditional and Roth IRA plans that you can participate in, but there are other retirement plans available to the self-employed that look a lot more like a 401(k) plan.

There are three that are worthy of a deep discussion.

SIMPLE IRA

A SIMPLE IRA is a retirement plan that is available for small businesses with fewer than 100 employees. Much like an IRA (and it is an IRA), contributions to the plan are tax-deductible, and investment earnings accumulate on a tax-deferred basis. You can begin making withdrawals at age 59 1/2, but if you take distributions before that age they will be subject to regular income tax, plus a 10% early withdrawal penalty.

In order to qualify to make a contribution, you must earn a minimum of $5,000 in either of the past two years.

For 2016, the maximum contribution is $12,500, or $15,500 if you are 50 or older. You can contribute 100% of your earnings up to those limits. So if you earn $12,500, you can contribute $12,500.

As an employer, you’ll have to make either a 3% matching contribution, or a 2% nonelective contribution. In either case, the employer contribution percentage must be based on the employee’s compensation, which is your compensation if you’re self-employed.

As an example, if your self-employment income is $100,000, you can contribute $12,500 as an employee, but then provide yourself with an employer match of $3,000. That will be a total of $15,500. It’s not as generous as an employer sponsored 401(k) plan, but it’s a lot better than what you can do with an IRA.

One of the biggest advantages of the SIMPLE IRA is that you do not have to file a plan specific tax return with the IRS. That makes management of the plan much easier. You can also maintain the plan through a brokerage of your choice. It can be a self-directed account, enabling you to maintain the maximum number of investment options.

SEP IRA

The long version of this plan is Simplified Employee Pension Plan, and like a SIMPLE plan, it is a type of IRA. It is designed as a retirement plan for self-employed individuals and for small business owners and their employees.

As is the case with an IRA, your contributions are tax-deductible, and your investment earnings accumulate on a tax-deferred basis. You can begin taking distributions from a plan after age 59 1/2, at which time the withdrawals will be subject to regular income tax. If you take distributions before this age, you’ll have to pay regular income tax, plus a 10% early withdrawal penalty.

The maximum that you can contribute to a SEP IRA for 2016 is 25% of compensation, to a maximum of $53,000, or $59,000 if you’re age 50 or older. If you have employees, then each employee must open an individual SEP IRA account.

The plan is easy to setup, and easy to administer and maintain. You can set it up through popular investment brokerage accounts, as a self-directed plan. As the employer, you will be required to complete IRS Form 5305 SEP. However, the form must be maintained for your records, but you are not required to make an annual tax filing with the IRS.

Solo 401(k)

This is probably the best retirement plan option for the self-employed, largely because it virtually is a 401(k) plan. It’s just a 401(k) plan for a single individual, as the name implies. However, a sole proprietor can actually hire his or her spouse, and still be eligible for the plan.

With a solo 401(k) plan, you act as both employer and employee in the arrangement. That also gives you an opportunity to make two distinct contributions to the plan.

As an employee, you can contribute up to $18,000 per year, or $24,000 if you’re age 50 or older. These are the same contribution limits that apply to employees under a traditional 401(k) plan. One of the really nice benefits to a solo 401(k) is that you can literally contribute up to 100% of your income in order to reach those limits. (You can actually do this under employer sponsored 401(k) plans, but most employers put a percentage limit on your contributions.)

But then you can also make a contribution as the employer. This is referred to as an employer nonelective contribution. It’s so named because it is based on a percentage of your net business income, and not a flat dollar amount. You can contribute up to 25% of total net business income to the plan, as the employer.

(In regard to business income, the IRS has a complicated worksheet to make this determination in Chapter 5 of IRS Publication 560, so if you have a solo 401(k) I’d strongly recommend a paid tax preparer, preferably a CPA.)

This is a bit complicated, I know! So let’s walk through an example so that you can see how it works.

You have total net business income of $100,000. As employee, you make your $18,000 contribution to your solo 401(k). As owner, you can make an employer nonelective contribution of $25,000 – that’s $100,000 times 25%. Total contribution to the plan will be $43,000 for the year.

Now we’re getting to the point where you can see the solo 401(k) is a much more generous plan than the employer sponsored variety.

There is an absolute limit on how much you can contribute to a solo 401(k) plan. For 2016, it’s $53,000, or $59,000 if you’re age 50 or older. And since those limits are also the maximum that you can contribute to all retirement plans of any type, it will have to be reduced by any amounts contributed to other retirement plans that you have, whether those contributions have been made by you personally or by an employer.

Which is the Right Self-Employed Retirement Plan for You?

Any of the three plans will enable you to put away a lot more money for retirement than you could with just an IRA account. The easiest plan to administer will be the SIMPLE IRA. But if you are looking for maximum contributions, both the SEP IRA and the Solo 401(k) provide greater amounts, consistent with – or exceeding – what an employee could contribute to an employer sponsored 401(k) plan.

My vote goes to the Solo 401(k). I say that because it offers the ability to achieve the greatest contribution amount for the lowest income. I gave the example of being able to make a $43,000 contribution on a $100,000 income with a Solo 401(k). On the same income, you would be limited to 25%, or $25,000 with a SEP IRA. This clearly favors the Solo 401(k).

Whichever one you choose, you will still come a lot closer to an employer sponsored 401(k), and do a lot better than you would with a regular IRA.

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