It’s Not Just Standing Around CVS: What it Takes to Become a Pharmacist

Deciding on a career can be one of the most important — and most challenging — decisions you’ll ever make. While some people are born knowing what they want to do, others go through high school, college or even decades in the workforce before they ultimately decide what will most satisfy them professionally.

Maybe you’re grappling with this choice and have considered becoming a pharmacist. If so, as with any career, take the time to research the career path and make sure it’s a good fit.

Here we have some in-depth information on how to become a pharmacist and what the job entails.

Step 1: Decide If Pharmacy Is the Right Career Path

Before determining how to become a pharmacist, let’s take a minute to make sure a career in pharmacy is right for you.

Simply put, pharmacists are responsible for getting people the correct medications in the correct dosages, as prescribed by a doctor. They are also typically available for consultation on how to administer drugs and possible side effects, according to WebMD.

While we mostly interact with pharmacists in grocery or drug stores, they can also work in private pharmacies, hospitals and long-term care facilities, such as nursing homes.

Do I Have the Skills to Be a Pharmacist?

Education is the key to success in pharmacy (more on that later), but before you dive headfirst into a degree program, consider if you have the innate skills that are necessary to be a successful pharmacist.

Attention to Detail

Attention to detail is easily the most crucial skill needed, as you will spend long days looking over prescriptions to make sure they will not react dangerously with other prescribed medications. You will also need to be able to count the correct amount of pills at the right dosage in a fast and efficient manner.

Math

While pharmacists tend to be science lovers at heart, often excelling in biology and chemistry, they also need to use math everyday. It’s not just a matter of counting out 30 pills, either. Pharmacists need to be able to calculate fractions, percentages and units of measurement quickly, reports WorkItDaily.com.

Computer Literacy

The fact that you’re reading this on a computer, tablet or other smart device is probably a good sign. That’s because pharmacists are increasingly relying on computer technologies for tasks like researching drugs and receiving prescriptions, according to LearnHowToBecome.org.

People Skills

It’s not all just about your ability to solve problems on your own. After correctly dispensing pills, it’s likely that you’ll have to speak to patients about their medications. They might have crazy questions about mixing medications with certain activities, foods or beverages; they might seek health advice; they might even ask you where the restroom is. Whatever it is, you’ll need to be able to communicate with people positively when you’re on the frontline.

How Much Do Pharmacists Make?

Pharmacist salaries will vary by state, by tenure and by type of work, but the median salary for pharmacists in the United States is $110,727 as of August 2017, according to PayScale.com. Total pay can vary from around $80,000 to $140,000, based on survey data.

How Much Do Pharmacists Work?

80% of pharmacists work full-time, but that does not mean they necessarily work the typical 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday-through-Friday job. People often need medicine outside those hours, which means pharmacists can work evenings, weekends and holidays. Pharmacists in hospitals and care facilities, where pharmacies are open 24/7, can even work night shifts.

If you are considering a career in pharmacy, note that you may not have the typical schedule of a businessperson. You may work longer shifts for fewer consecutive days, and you may have to sacrifice your weekends or put yourself on an alternate sleeping schedule  to accommodate your work schedule.

Step 2: Complete the Necessary Education

If the job role, skills, salary and schedule of a pharmacist sound like something you’re interested in, it’s time to get serious about your pharmacy education. There are two typical educational paths you can take to become a pharmacist: a regular Doctor of Pharmacy and a Bachelor’s/Doctor of Pharmacy hybrid.

How Many Years of School Do I Need to Become a Pharmacist?

Depending on which path you choose, studying to become a pharmacist will likely take six to eight years of schooling, according to TheBalance.com. The school itself must be accredited by the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education.

Pharmacy Degree Programs

Doctor of Pharmacy: This is a four-year program that does not involve general education at the college level. It does, however, assume that you have already completed a two-year or four-year degree. After graduating with an associate’s or bachelor’s degree, you might decide to pursue pharmacy and can apply for this program; Peterson’s does note, however, that most pharmacy school applicants hold a bachelor’s degree.

Here’s what will be required of you:

• Coursework in general pharmacy

• Nearly 2,000 hours of clinical experience as part of the degree

• GPA requirements may depend on your school of choice

Bachelor’s and Doctor of Pharmacy Hybrid: The former program assumes students have completed general study and then decided to pursue pharmacy after obtaining a separate degree. The hybrid program is for students entering college for the first time who already know they want to become a pharmacist. You will spend either two or four years working on a pre-program degree before working on your Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) degree.

According to Study.com, undergraduate students typically major in Chemistry (General, Organic, Analytical, Medicinal or Bio) or Microbiology. Some students may major in Biology, and select schools may even offer a Pre-Pharm major.

This program is good for students who know they want to be pharmacists from the start and allows them to combine a bachelor’s degree with PharmD degree into one program at the same school.

Typical Coursework for Pharmacy Students

According to LearnHowToBecome.com, you can expect to take the following courses during your pharmacy studies: Bioorganic Principles of Medicinal Chemistry, Biopharmaceutics, Pharmacy Practice Skills, the U.S. Healthcare System and Pharmaceutical Calculations.

TheBalance.com adds Functional Human Anatomy and Histology, Organic Chemistry and Immunizations to the list, to name a few.

How Do I Get Into a PharmD Program?

Acceptance to a pharmacy program, like admission to college, is not guaranteed. If you are a high school student applying for a hybrid bachelor’s and doctor program, you’ll need to focus on your GPA and your SAT/ACT scores now. Once accepted, you’ll have to maintain your GPA during your undergraduate studies to be guaranteed your spot in the PharmD program, according to TheBalance.com.

Regardless of the educational path you select, most programs will also require you to pass the Pharmacy College Admission Test. This test includes five sections — writing, biological processes, chemical processes, critical reading and quantitative reasoning. The writing prompt is timed (30 minutes), as are the 192 multiple choice questions for the four other sections (175 minutes). Most schools require that you score within at least the 40th or 50th percentiles.

Beyond standardized testing, schools may require letters of recommendation and successful interviews for admittance.

Step 3: Pass All Licensing Requirements and Complete Training

Finishing your degree is not the final step before applying for a pharmacy job and getting hired. Before you can work in a pharmacy, you’ll have to become licensed. As if getting through school wasn’t complicated enough, the licensing process has three important exams you’ll need to pass:

1. The North American Pharmacist Licensing Exam (NAPLEX).

2. The Multi-State Pharmacy Jurisprudence Exam.

3. The written and practical exam of your state.

Taking the NAPLEX

The first step is completion of the NAPLEX. You can find detailed registration information here, but below are some quick notes on the NAPLEX:

• 185 questions about general pharmacy knowledge

• Costs $505 to take

• Must schedule on your own

• Only allowed five attempts total, with 45 days between attempts

Taking the Multi-State Pharmacy Jurisprudence Exam

You’ll also need to pass the Multi-State Pharmacy Jurisprudence Exam, for which you can register here. Some quick notes on this exam:

• Questions about federal/state laws

• Costs $250 to take

• Must schedule on your own

• Only allowed five attempts total, with 45 days between attempts

Taking State Tests

You’ll also need to take and pass any written or practical tests that your state requires.

Step 4: Keep Up With Continued Education

Every state requires continuing education for pharmacists, but the requirements for that education vary by state. Research the requirements for your state and stay on top of all education to maintain your license.

How to Become a Pharmacist in Canada

If you are hoping to practice as a pharmacist in Canada, you’ll have to meet Canadian requirements instead of those here in the U.S. This process is just as complicated as it is in the States and deserves some detailed preparation, but here is a very brief overview of the process to become a Canadian pharmacist:

1. Get a bachelor’s or doctor of pharmacy.The catch? It has to be from one of 10 universities.

2. Pass your exams. You’ll do your board examinations through the Pharmacy Examining Board of Canada (PEBC).  

3. Complete an apprenticeship or internship

4. Become fluent–if not already–in English or French. But mastering both will take you further.

Alternatives to a Typical Pharmacy Career Path

If you have a passion for pharmacy but can’t see yourself working in a CVS everyday, there are so many alternatives to consider, such as hospital pharmacy or private pharmacies.

RXeConsult.com offers a number of other career options for pharmacists, including being a pharmacist for NASA (pretty stellar, right?), medical education, veterinary pharmacy and pharmacoeconomics, which is a fancy way of saying you’d be working on the economic side of drugs.

Becoming a pharmacist is hard work, no matter how you look at it. But if you have a passion for keeping people healthy and saving lives through proper medication dispensing and administration, then the hard work will ultimately pay off.

Timothy Moore is a full-time editor and part-time freelancer who is very grateful for all the medications he’s received from his pharmacists. As someone with seasonal allergies, poor eyesight and a sickly dog, he would be lost without their dedication.

This was originally published on The Penny Hoarder, one of the largest personal finance websites. We help millions of readers worldwide earn and save money by sharing unique job opportunities, personal stories, freebies and more. In 2016, Inc. 500 ranked The Penny Hoarder as the No. 1 fastest-growing private media company in the U.S.

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Outrageous Investing Fees You Should Never, Ever Pay

Worried about paying too much in investing fees? It might be time to take stock of your investments and their ongoing costs, then search for a better deal.

Expense ratios for mutual funds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) fell to a record low in 2016, according to Morningstar, with the average investor paying just 0.57%. But this isn’t the result of mutual funds and other investments lowering their ongoing management fees; on the contrary, these lower costs are the result of investors shopping around and choosing investments (and investment firms) with lower fees.

In other words, people are consistently ditching investments with sky-high fees and flocking to index funds and firms like Vanguard and Fidelity — and for good reason. Cost – or more accurately, the absence of it – is the single biggest predictor of investment returns.

Seven Outrageous Investing Fees You Should Never Pay

While any move toward lower-cost investments is good news for consumers, there are still plenty of hidden and outrageous investing fees to watch out for. Some of the worst fees are disguised, downplayed, or otherwise hidden to the point where you barely know what you’re paying or why.

And while it could seem like investing fees are just part of the game (and they are, to some extent – even the lowest cost investments carry a small fee), paying egregious fees can make a huge difference in your lifetime investing returns – as in, paying just one percentage point more than you should can drain your portfolio by thousands of dollars per year.

To avoid overpaying and to keep more of your hard-earned savings, it’s crucial to know which fees to watch out for. We spoke to a bunch of financial advisors to hear some of the worst investing fees (and combinations of fees) they see – and why you should avoid them like the plague. Here’s what they said:

Double-Dipped Investing Fees

Minnesota financial advisor Jamie Pomeroy, who blogs at Financial Gusto, says one investing fee that really grinds his gears isn’t a fee in itself, but a combination of fees.

“Double dipping” is when your advisor puts high-cost mutual funds inside an account, and then charges another “advisory” fee for the account on top of those funds, says Pomeroy.

And good example would be C-share mutual funds inside of a fee-based account. “Your C-shares mutual funds have the highest ongoing fees and should not be inside a fee-based account, which also has an ongoing fee,” says Pomeroy.

And that’s why you have to watch out for this kind of scenario. If you don’t, you could wind up paying a ridiculous amount in fees for no reason at all. Using the example above, your C-share mutual funds may have an ongoing cost of around 1.5%, and your financial advisor may be charging another 1% on top of that.

“Paying 2.5% in all-in costs is outrageous, especially since this scenario is rarely disclosed.”

Front-End Sales Loads

As Roger Wohlner of the Chicago Financial Planner notes, front-end sales loads are one of the worst fees out there. In case you’re wondering, front-end sales loads are an upfront payment to a financial advisor that comes into play when you buy specific investments. Unfortunately, these fees aren’t for your benefit as they go straight into the pockets of investing professionals while reducing the amount of your initial investment.

Here’s how this works: Let’s say your financial advisor suggests you invest $10,000 into a mutual fund like American Funds EuroPacific Growth A. With this fund, you’re required to pay a front-end sales load of 5.75% – or $575 for every $10,000 you invest.

In this case, you’d write a check for $10,000, but only $9,425 would go into your account.

“Over time, this will reduce the investor’s return versus another version of the same fund with a similar expense ratio that doesn’t charge a sales load,” says Wohlner.

High Expense Ratios

While you might be inclined to believe that most expense ratios (the ongoing operating costs of an investment) are competitive and fair, that’s not always the case. Believe it or not, there are plenty of investment options with expense ratios that are double, triple, or even quadruple the average.

As financial planner and author Brian Hanks notes, the average mutual fund expense ratio he sees his clients pay is typically between 0.63% and 0.74%. “Paying more than that for your fund is like seeing two gas stations and filling up at the one charging double the other,” says Hanks.

Before you invest in a mutual fund, make sure you understand the expense ratio and how it compares to the benchmark. If it seems unusually high, it probably is.

• Related: Everything You Need to Know About Expense Ratios

Annuity Surrender Charges

“Beware of surrender charges if you’re purchasing an annuity,” says Kansas City financial planner Clint Haynes. This additional fee is a surcharge you’re expected to pay if you want to sell and exit an annuity after it’s been purchased.

As Haynes notes, a lot of financial advisors who sell annuities tend to skim over this one – and for good reason. Surrender charges can be up to 15% for a period of 10 to 15 years.

“This means if you want to get out of this annuity without having to pay a surrender charge that you’re going to have to wait 10 to 15 years!” says Haynes. “That’s not a whole lot of flexibility or liquidity.”

If you’re being pitched an annuity or even some life insurance policies, be sure to understand the surrender charges along with the surrender period.

• Related: Clearing the Smog Surrounding Annuities

Bundled Investing and Management Fees

Financial advisor Eric C. Jansen of AspenCross Wealth Management says one of the worst fee set-ups he sees is the bundling of money management and financial planning fees together. It’s not unusual to see firms charge 2% or more to manage your money and offer financial advice, he says.

Although bundling these fees together can certainly make sense for some investors, the cost has to justify the level of services provided. After all, why should you pay management fees and financial planning fees if you can get away with paying one or the other?

Either way, fees in the 2% range should make any investor pause and re-evaluate the impact these higher fees will have on the long-term growth potential of their money, says Jansen.

“My advice is to keep your financial planning fees separate. That way, you know what you’re paying for and only pay for the financial advice you actually need, and when you need it,” explains the advisor.

• Related: The Ultimate Guide to Choosing a Financial Advisor

High Trading Fees

If you’re an active investor who buys or sells securities regularly, you already know about trading fees. These fees are charged any time you buy or sell a security, although the amount you’ll pay can vary drastically.

According to financial planner Alex Whitehouse of Whitehouse Wealth Management, some of the highest trading fees out there can reach $30 per transaction. Obviously, paying this amount per trade can take a toll on the value of your investments and your portfolio over time.

And if you use a financial advisor who wants to trade on your behalf without prior approval, be afraid. If you aren’t sure how many trades you’re making and leave all the decisions in the hands of someone else, you could easily wind up forking over outrageous sums of money for trades that should be fairly inexpensive to make.

“You should always know how much each buy and sell trade costs, and how often trades occur in your account,” says Whitehouse.

• Related: Best Free Stock Trading Brokers of 2017

Exit Fees

Some companies charge exit fees when you transfer your investment account to another financial institution. In other words, your current financial advisory firm may try to charge you a fee for taking your business elsewhere.

Unfortunately, this could be more common than you think, as most major brokerage firms you know by name are notorious for trying to slide these fees in.

On the plus side, it’s possible to get around them, says San Diego-based financial advisor Taylor Schulte. “Eight or nine times out of 10, they’ll reverse that charge if you simply ask them to do so.”

If you see an exit fee show up on your statement, Schulte says, the first thing you should do is contact the custodian and request a refund. While they can absolutely say ‘no,’ it never hurts to ask.

“If you don’t ask for a refund, you’ll never get it,” he says.

The Bottom Line

If you want your investments to reach their potential, it’s crucial to watch out for ridiculous investing fees that eat away at your returns without adding real value. If you don’t, you’re bound to overpay for services you could pay less for elsewhere.

And if you don’t think the trouble is worth it, keep in mind that even small fees can add up, especially if you give them enough time. As the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) notes, even 0.25% in added fees can cut the return on a $100,000 portfolio by $10,000 over 20 years. Paying 0.75% too much on the same portfolio can cost you $30,000 in returns over 20 years.

The difference is too big to ignore, which is why you should strive to become an informed consumer. Before you invest your money, make sure you know what fees you’re paying and why. Ask questions, read your statements thoroughly, and question your financial advisor about any fees that seem dubious.

While this kind of research takes time and effort, ignoring your investing fees could easily set you back tens of thousands of dollars by the time you’re ready to retire.

Holly Johnson is an award-winning personal finance writer and the author of Zero Down Your Debt. Johnson shares her obsession with frugality, budgeting, and travel at ClubThrifty.com.

Related Articles:

• Eight Money Mistakes the Middle Class Keeps Making
• What a Good Financial Planner Does (and Doesn’t Do)
• Four Ways to Start Investing Without Much Money
• 10 Things You Need to Do Before You Start Investing

What is the craziest investing fee you’ve ever seen? How do you ensure you’re not overpaying for professional financial advice?

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Level-up Your Work-at-Home Career with Two FREE Months of Classes From Skillshare

Sponsored by Skillshare By Holly Reisem Hanna From a very young age, it was drilled into my head that I would go to college. While I knew that college was the next step on my journey after high school, I had no clue what I wanted to do with my life, or what I wanted […]

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This Couple is Raising Three Daughters, Two Dogs — and 2,000 Chickens

What Is Living the #Vanlife Really Like?

I used to think anyone who lived in in their vehicle was facing a crisis. In some ways, I even thought of them as failures. A famous ‘Saturday Night Live’ sketch, featuring Chris Farley as a sad-sack motivational speaker who lived in “a van down by the river,” solidified the notion that living in a vehicle should be your last resort.

That stigma still exists, but it’s starting to erode. A growing number of people are reclaiming the idea that living in a van can be a way to live simply, travel freely, and never have to worry about a rent check or a mortgage payment. These social media savvy minimalists are wiping away the stink associated with living like a vagabond and replacing it with a shiny new hashtag: #vanlife.

Search for the #vanlife hashtag on Instagram or Twitter, and you’ll be presented with an array of breathtaking nature photos and inspirational captions about how empowering it is to step off the hamster wheel and into the van.

While the pictures are great, there’s only so much they can tell you. I wanted to know more about what the lifestyle actually entails: the costs, the challenges, and whether the lifestyle is sustainable long term.

So, what’s it really like?

The Day-to-Day Reality of Vanlife

To better understand vanlife, I solicited the help of someone living it to the fullest: Travis, creator of the blog and Instagram account “My Wild Dreams,” which has amassed almost 15,000 followers.

He’s been living out of his 2000 Dodge Ram since the summer of 2016, when he retired from his corporate job (his ability to live frugally and retire early at 35 could be the subject of its own post).

I caught up with Travis while he was on a swing of the Mountain West, going on hikes and taking stunning pictures, such as this one from the Dixie National Forest in Utah:

Travis told me how he saw vanlife as a way to explore the country in the most efficient way possible.

“Living in a van allows me to travel, see remote parts of the country, and spend a lot of time doing outdoor hobbies,” he said. “It’s so much better than camping out of a tent, or staying in a hotel, because the van allows me to have all of my house with me wherever I go.”

While Travis loves his new lifestyle, he was honest about the challenges he faces. He told me about how staying in a city can be frustrating, due to to constantly needing to find parking and the fact that there are more privacy concerns. He also singled out the obvious — it can be tough to live in such tight quarters!

“Ergonomics can be a challenge in the van – particularly from having the low ceiling,” Travis noted. “But it’s not that bad, and while it wouldn’t be that hard to add a high top to my van, I haven’t been annoyed enough by the low ceiling to do so.”

Further information about the day-to-day of van living can be found by checking out other van dwellers with popular Instagram accounts, such as Katch Silva from the account SheepFeet. She created the hashtag #sheepfeetfaq to talk about how she works on the road, how often she showers, and even the bathroom situation. (Who knew porta-potties could be so small?!)

Through it all, Katch maintains a lighthearted and upbeat tone. She uses the FAQ posts to emphasize that the things people usually think are going to be terrible about living in a van are really not that bad.

Travis told me much the same. Most of the things he expected to be difficult, such as figuring out how to keep himself clean and how to prepare healthy food, ended up being very easy.

Costs

Like with any other mode of living, the expenses of vanlife can vary wildly. If you were to buy a fancy van and only buy food from Whole Foods, the costs would be much higher than if you went full-on minimalist like Travis.

He keeps his costs low by doing his own van maintenance, always finding free parking, and traveling slowly so as to not burn up too much gas. He openly talks about his expenses on his blog, and I think they’re illustrative of realistic spending if you’re cost-conscious.

Travis spent an average of $895 per month in the first quarter of 2017, and he says that’s higher than he’d like. (As someone who spends more than that on rent alone, it seems to me like he’s being a bit hard on himself.)

As far the task of finding an affordable van and building it out so it’s livable day in and day out, there are tons of resources available online. The Vanual is good example of a website devoted to helping people learn the ins and outs of creating custom vans built for life on the road.

Goals

Throughout my research, I found that that the goals of those living the vanlife are varied and unique. That being said, their motivations for van dwelling tend to cluster around the same central themes: a desire for minimalism, ease of travel, lowered expenses, a connection with the natural world, and a desire to buck tradition.

They also have a strong tendency to use their accounts to inspire others. While Travis doesn’t explicitly see himself as a role model, he does get satisfaction out of showing that not everyone has to obey the standard life trajectory most people follow. Travis told me that he tries “to show how well one can live without needing to earn and spend a lot of money.”

If the goal is to inspire and motivate, Travis and the rest of the #vanlife movement are doing a great job. The pictures are worth a thousand words.

Long-Term Viability

Sure, it might be fun to run around in a van for a couple of years when you’re young, but what about living in a van as a long-term housing solution? I would have scoffed at that notion in the past, but now I see it’s not far-fetched, and there are many people who are happy to live in their vans for decades. It’s all about adjusting your notions of what shelter is, and determining what’s important to you in life.

Travis, for his part, doesn’t seem likely to take the vanlife quite to the extent of some others. He recognizes that he can’t get back into his hobby of gardening when he’s moving around so frequently, and he also might like to own a small property and build a house in the near future. He’s not ruling out 10+ years traveling in the van, but it seems like he has other pursuits that are going to require being more rooted in one location.

Not to mention the fact that maintaining a romantic relationship while living in the van has been a challenge. Travis will meet interesting people, but when moving so much, it’s understandably hard to settle into a true relationship. Not that he’s complaining about it. “The pull of better weather and beautiful places is very strong, and I’m very comfortable on my own,” he notes.

Vanlife Over Apartment Living?

I was curious about whether the average Joe could be part of the #vanlife movement. Should I ditch my studio apartment for a van, even when I have to stay in one city for work? Not so fast, warns Travis.

“For those who will continue to live in one city, it usually makes more sense to live in a cheap apartment or house,” he said. “For most folks, living in a van and staying inside a city all the time will probably get annoying after a while. If you don’t have the benefit of traveling around, or of saving a lot of money because of it, the drawbacks of living in the van in the city will get old.”

But, that’s not to say it’s impossible. San Francisco is becoming a popular place to live in vans and save quite a bit of money, for instance. If you can earn a high salary in a traditionally high cost of living area, but keep your costs way down by living in a van, you could turbocharge your savings. One only has to look at the example of the Google employee who lives in his truck in order to maximize his savings.

Summing Up

Doing a deep dive into all things #vanlife left me feeling silly for thinking that only the crazy or the desperate live in vans. For those trying to travel, live simply, and save money, there’s no denying that vanlife can be a fun, exciting, and worthwhile challenge.

Related Articles:

• How One Man Lives in His Truck to Turbocharge His Savings
• The ‘One-Bag Challenge’: What I Learned From Living Out of a Duffel Bag for a Month
• The Daniel Norris Code for Success

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Saylorsburg winery a customer favorite

Blue Ridge Estate Vineyard and Winery in Saylorsburg was listed in June among the top 25 wineries in the nation by Travel and Leisure magazine.The list was compiled from consumer reviews on the product rating website Yelp. Consumers gave Blue Ridge five stars out of five. In the magazine rating, Blue Ridge came in 13th and the highest ranking vineyard on the east coast. The top 10 wineries were all in California.     

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Final winners announced

The final winners of the Keystone Auto Sales IndyCar sweepstakes have been chosen. Week three winner was Jeff Poloway of East Stroudsburg, followed by week four's winner Alison Keen of Blakeslee. Both Keen and Poloway were awarded a pair of tickets each for this weekend's IndyCar race at Pocono Raceway in Long Pond. The sweepstakes' grand prize winner is Dale and Leo Stock from Henryville. They won four premium seat IndyCar race tickets.The contest is sponsored by Keystone [...]

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10 New (to Me) Finance, Frugality, and Life Books Worth Reading

If you spend much time at the Ames Public Library, you’ve probably seen me there at some point. I can often be found on the second floor, either at a table or in a study room, surrounded by a pile of personal finance magazines and books and other assorted materials, usually with my laptop open or with a notebook and pen open before me.

Why? To come up with the content for this site and to constantly expose myself to new ideas, I read. A lot. I spend at least a day a week at the library going through their personal finance and investing section and also nabbing books from the business section and the psychology section. I grab the latest issues of many different magazines when they come out as well.

While I don’t do thorough reviews of personal finance books as I once did – honestly, because most personal finance books are pretty similar to one another and I mostly read them to reinforce key concepts and look for new angles – I do sometimes stumble across books that really make me see the challenges of personal finance, careers, psychology, or other related matters in a whole different way.

Here are 10 of these books. All of them are (relatively) new to me and (I believe) all have been published in the last few years. I’ve mentioned a few of them in passing in other articles. Every single one of them deserves your time and attention if you find the topic relevant.

Let’s dig in to what’s new on the bookshelf!

Good and Cheap: Eat Well on $4/Day by Leanne Brown

This is a cookbook that is solely focused on using low-cost staples to prepare meals for your family. The goal of the cookbook is to enable families to prepare a full day’s worth of meals at a cost of $4 per day per person, which is a very reasonable target.

Brown does this by focusing on staple foods such as rice and beans and pasta, supplementing them with fresh vegetables that are often inexpensive (such as zucchini) and some inexpensive meats used in reasonable amounts.

Many of these recipes are designed to be flexible, meaning that they are really easy to modify based on what you have on hand or what’s on sale. Many recipes include an “additions” section, which consists of ways to modify recipes by adding other ingredients to the mix.

This is easily my favorite frugal cookbook. Anyone who is truly interested in cutting their food spending by cooking at home is well-served by putting this book on their shelf right next to a really good instructional cookbook like How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman.

Good and Cheap is actually available completely for free in PDF form on Leanne’s website, but you can get a very nice book version for $8 on Amazon, which is likely cheaper than printing it yourself if you want a paper version.

The More of Less: Finding the Life You Want Under Everything You Own by Joshua Becker

The entire premise of this book can be boiled down to a single sentence: Orient your life toward worthy goals that are meaningful to you and get rid of everything else in your life – including possessions – that aren’t related to those goals. What’s meaningful to you? Center your life around it and drop the rest.

What ends up coming out of that core idea is a mix of minimalism and frugality and living a meaningful life, something that I think a lot of people are seeking these days. I know I sometimes feel like I’m drowning in possessions, pieces of projects that I was once passionate about or would like to tackle someday, and I often find myself buying into more and more “someday” projects.

These feelings and responses are natural outgrowths of being a curious and passionate person in the modern world. The challenge is to figure out how to channel those healthy tendencies in a healthy and meaningful direction rather than in a cluttered and expensive direction.

The Art of Money: A Life-Changing Guide to Financial Happiness by Bari Tessler

I have a close friend who is a brilliant and creative person. She generates fresh ideas like a fire hose generates water, cares deeply about the people in her life, and always seems to be there when you need her. She’s an amazing writer with this perfect comedic self-deprecating touch. She’s also terrifically bad at math and prefers never to think about money unless it’s hanging around her neck.

This book was written for her. Again, this is the money book for my friend.

Here’s the thing: Many personal finance books are written for particular audiences. There are ones written for Christians. There are ones written for philosophical types. There are ones written for number-crunchers. There are ones written for environmentalists. There are ones written for conservatives. There are ones written for liberals. There are ones written for college students. There are ones written for the elderly. You get the idea.

Those books really don’t differ in their core advice. Where they differ is in their presentation of that advice. Here, the advice targets what I would call “artistic” people, as it intentionally de-emphasizes the math and focuses instead on the meaning of personal finance choices, treating frugality as much as a form of expression as a tool for saving money. It’s an interesting perspective, indeed, one that I think would click with a lot of people (my friend being one of them, of course).

The Wisdom of Frugality: Why Less Is More – More or Less by Emrys Westacott

This book is really a philosophical look at frugality, written by a philosophy professor. The book tackles one seemingly simple question: why do people perceive frugality as a virtue, and why do people equate it with good living and happiness? That’s a thread that has appeared in writings for thousands of years and almost always taken as a given, but why? Even more interesting, why do people rarely follow that advice? Why is simple living and frugality often perceived as being outside the norm?

Westacott digs into those questions with rigor and insight, coming up with a lot of interesting conclusions. He digs into the difference between happiness and contentment, asks whether or not extravagance is really a path to lasting joy, and what the impact of frugality is on the broader world as compared to contentment.

As any good philosophical work does, the book steps carefully through the thought process that leads to a reasonable conclusion, but you’re supposed to question it and think about it. This isn’t a book of answers. This is a book intended to feed thinking. It’s a book that’s supposed to make you ponder the connection between frugality and good living – does it really exist? Why?

If that appeals to you, this is a must-read book. This book bridges the gap between the practical realities of frugality and the larger world of philosophy and manages to do it in a very readable and clear way. If you like turning ideas over in your head, this is well worth your time.

The Debt Escape Plan: How to Free Yourself From Credit Card Balances, Boost Your Credit Score, and Live Debt-Free by Beverly Herzog

Most of the time, when personal finance books attempt to adopt a sense of humor, it comes off as really corny and unrealistic. I often walk away not laughing, but thinking the person is rather… odd. The humor just falls flat.

This is perhaps the only book I’ve ever read on personal finance that employed humor on any level that actually works. It manages to successfully weave a light humorous tone together with solid personal finance advice in a way that doesn’t really undermine either one, something that really is a trick.

The book doesn’t really strike any new ground in personal finance thinking. Instead, it’s on this list for successfully bringing a fresh direction in writing about the usual strong base of personal finance advice. It blends humor and personal finance writing incredibly well, and that makes it a very good “overview of personal finance” book for someone who likes humor in what they read.

You Only Live Once: The Roadmap to Financial Wellness and a Purposeful Life by Jason Vitug

This is a very goal-focused personal finance book. Most personal finance books talk about goal setting but then end up essentially guiding people down a financial path toward goals that the writer already has in mind (often, those are either goals that are loved by the writer or goals that match the “average American family”).

Jason Vitug goes against that process here. His entire focus is on setting personal goals. The entire book is oriented around thinking about where you want your life to be in the future and then orienting the tools of personal finance to serve those goals. Everything is explicitly oriented toward the personal goals that the reader sets for himself or herself.

I really dug the goal-oriented approach of this book and how it treated personal finance as a set of tools to achieve goals rather than this standalone process that you must follow to achieve “success.” Many personal finance books fall short of treating personal finance as a tool for achieving goals and instead end up making personal finance feel like a goal to its own ends.

If you’re a goal-setting kind of person and mostly want to consider personal finance as a series of tools for achieving your own life goals that aren’t strictly finance-oriented, this is going to be a very good read for you.

The Recovering Spender: How to Live a Happy, Fulfilled, Debt-Free Life by Lauren Greutman

As I said earlier, most personal finance books are written for a specific audience. The person loaded with debt. The young person. The philosophically minded person. And so on.

The specific audience here is an interesting one. I would call the audience here the “recovering materialistic person.” This is a person who, at some point in the past, was heavily focused on material things but at some point became at least partially disenchanted with it. That person might still find some attraction in some material things, but their desires are pulling them down a different path at the same time, one that’s oriented toward building a strong financial foundation.

That change can be triggered by many things: personal growth, having a child, getting married, starting a tough career. Whatever that change is, Greutman speaks to that person in transition, a person changing from a materially-focused person to a person focused on other life areas, and she does it with a truly kind and gentle and non-judgmental touch.

It’s not easy to undergo that kind of sea change, and the author is really aware of that. Usually, such a drastic change in underlying life philosophy has ripples throughout all areas of life, and the book does deal with those changes while still focusing on debt repayment as a central theme. I think it’s perfect for someone who’s struggling to radically change their spending behavior and trying to deal with all of the ripples that such changes bring.

• Related: Addicted to Spending? Here’s How to Become a ‘Recovering Spender’

The Happiness Equation: Want Nothing + Do Anything = Have Everything by Neil Pasricha

This is another book where the core premise is really straightforward: Contentment and freedom are the foundations of a life that produces consistent happiness. This is a theme I’ve reflected in my own posts as of late – you can’t really achieve lasting happiness, but you can achieve lasting contentment, which is a fertile ground for happiness.

Pasricha does a great job of delving into the nuts and bolts of this idea, transforming it into a series of seven actionable “secrets” to push us toward a contented life:

1. Walk at least 30 minutes, three times a week
2. Write in a journal at least 20 minutes a day, usually about a positive experience
3. Do five random acts of kindness each week
4. Completely unplug to recharge as often as possible
5. Find the “flow state” as often as possible (“flow state” being when you’re so engaged that you lose track of time and place)
6. Meditate each day (he suggests for two minutes at a bare minimum)
7. Identify five things you’re thankful for each day

That’s a pretty solid life checklist, but what does it have to do with finances? The reality is that most reckless spending is driven by an underlying sense of discontentment, which means that it’s not easy to find a life that’s in full bloom with natural sources of happiness. We crave that feeling of happiness and we often find bursts of it through spending. That’s a mistake. Finding contentment is a better way through this.

The Obstacle Is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph by Ryan Holiday

Holiday has written a trilogy of books in recent years on applying stoicism to modern life. I found The Obstacle Is the Way to be the most powerful of the three.

The core idea of this book is that life presents us with a series of obstacles, and many of them seem incredibly unfair. I am deaf in one ear, for example, which makes it extremely challenging to carry on conversations in noisy rooms or to place where someone is at when they call out to me.

When faced with a challenge like this, you can either break down at the unfairness of the challenge and complain about the unfair advantages that everyone else has, or you can simply let go of the things you cannot control, take hold of the things you can control, and find a way around it.

In that, an obstacle actually brings out the best in us. It enables us to see the strengths that we have and helps us to understand what parts of our lives we truly control, which prepares us for further challenges in life.

This mode of thinking prepares people quite well for life’s challenges – and, yes, personal finance is one of those challenges. The things you learn about yourself as you tackle an overwhelming debt load are things that you can apply in many other areas of your life. The key is to learn how to separate what you can control from what you can’t, and that’s what this book focuses on. It’s a great interpretation of ancient Stoic philosophy applied to the modern world.

Made from Scratch: Discovering the Pleasures of a Handmade Life by Jenna Woginrich

This book is probably the furthest from typical personal finance of any of the ones listed here, but it really hones in well on a particular thread of frugality that’s worth discussing – the idea of making stuff from scratch.

Quite often, stuff you make yourself from scratch – things like pasta, for example, or bread or sauerkraut – are of incredibly high quality compared to what you can get in the store, plus they’re usually really low financial cost. However, they come with an additional cost – they take time – and a bit of additional risk – they can go bad if you make a mistake.

That’s why, in my view, the idea of making stuff from scratch is something of a bridge between frugal practice and hobby. I can make some of the best pasta I’ve ever had from a bit of flour and a few eggs, but it takes time and practice to be able to do it efficiently, and to devote that time and practice when it’s not that much more expensive to buy a box of Barilla at the store means that if you respect the time value of money, this is mostly a hobby that happens to save you a few bucks and produces some pretty tasty results.

Having said that, making stuff from scratch is a wonderful type of hobby for a frugal person to have. It’s a way for a frugal person to actually spend a little less while doing something that they enjoy and ending up with some very high quality results.

It’s that wonderful balancing act that Woginrich talks about in this book. It really focuses in on the many pleasures of making stuff from scratch – the time and craftsmanship that goes into making things rather than just buying them. There’s great joy there, but it has to be an expression from within. Making stuff from scratch purely for frugality’s sake usually isn’t worth it.

Some Final Thoughts

For me, the best books related to personal finance and frugality these days are the ones that take on new angles on the classic principles or else focus intensely on one particular aspect of personal finance. Books that just write about the same old ideas without any fresh perspectives don’t hold an interest.

That’s why these 10 books stand out to me. Some of them take on all of the classic ideas, but do so from a new place – the philosopher, or the artist. Others dig into some specific principle – finding contentment, for example, or making stuff from scratch.

All of them are like strokes on a canvas, gradually filling in a picture of personal finance as part of a healthy and hopeful life, where financial strategies help people live the kind of low-stress and joyful life that most of us dream of.

Good luck, and happy reading.

Related Articles:

• 12 Non-Financial Books That Will Help You Cultivate a Mindset of Financial Independence
• Nine Quotes From ‘Walden’ That Prove It’s the Only Personal Finance Book You Need
• 15 Free Kindle Books to Inspire You to Great Things
• 14 Books That Will Change Your Perspective on Work, Life, and Money

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This is Why Spaghetti Squash is Pretty Much the Best Pasta Substitute Ever

Even on Amazon, Some Deals Are Too Good to Be True — Here’s How to Spot ’Em

Amazon has everything.

Seriously. No matter what you need to buy, your first stop is Amazon. Sometimes, you even find what you want for an amazing price.

It turns out that some of those too-good-to-be-true prices are just that: too good and not true.

Because we can never have a good thing without someone trying to screw it up, a wave of Amazon fake sellers has started to create problems for buyers, legit sellers and Amazon itself, according to BuzzFeed News. Forbes reported earlier this year about what seems to be a growing number of fraudulent sellers on Amazon.

A Scammer’s Gotta Scam

Amazon fake sellers are just what they sound like: people who set up an account and put items up for sale that they don’t actually have. Not only do they put items up for sale, they slap crazy-good prices on them.

Fifty percent off a laptop? Yes!

Then buyers click away and send their payments only to wait for that awesome delivery that never comes.

Luckily for buyers, Amazon’s A-to-Z Guarantee means buyers usually get their money back.

Unfortunately, that means Amazon refunds the buyer, while the fraudulent seller runs off with the money. Amazon loses.

Think Before You Click to Avoid Amazon Fake Sellers

As we get closer to the holiday season and you start looking for those sweet deals on gifts for your friends and family, avoid scammers by paying close attention.

The easiest way to ensure you’re using a legitimate Amazon seller is to look through their reviews. If a seller has a relatively long history of positive reviews, you should be fine. Be wary of any seller with reviews from consumers who claim they never received their items.

If a seller’s information says they “just launched,” it means they are new to Amazon. Now, there are plenty of legit sellers out there who may have just started out, and they could be great. However, if you find a price on an item from a new seller that is dramatically lower than you’d expect, consider it a red flag.

There’s no need to run away from Amazon. Just be a smart consumer, and don’t let scammers ruin your day.

Tyler Omoth is a senior writer at The Penny Hoarder who loves soaking up the sun and finding creative ways to help others. Catch him on Twitter at @Tyomoth.

This was originally published on The Penny Hoarder, one of the largest personal finance websites. We help millions of readers worldwide earn and save money by sharing unique job opportunities, personal stories, freebies and more. In 2016, Inc. 500 ranked The Penny Hoarder as the No. 1 fastest-growing private media company in the U.S.

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Free McDonald’s Fries and Ice Cream Are Just a Download Away With App

McDonald’s might not always be the healthiest choice, but there is no denying it’s a delicious one.

Right now, McDonald’s has a deal trifecta going on through its app. While indulging too often might make your jeans fit a little tighter, at least your wallet won’t feel the squeeze.

Here’s what you can land for free just for flashing your phone at the drive-thru or the register.

Scoop Up Free McDonald’s Ice Cream

First up, if you’re among the lucky few who got free ice cream from an Uber ice-cream truck on Aug. 11, you should have also gotten a collectible silicone cone and a punch card.

I hope you held on to both because they’re your keys to free ice cream every Friday until Sept. 22.

Unfortunately, this is only available to people who got the original Uber deal and live in Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York City, Boston, Miami, Washington, D.C., Seattle, Dallas, Atlanta or Toronto.

But don’t worry. If you live in another part of the country or misplaced your cone, there is another way to get free, ice-cold treats

Just download the McDonald’s app.

Once a week through Sept. 3, you can get a free shake, frappe or sundae at McDonald’s with any purchase. And there is no minimum you have to spend. Grab whatever you’d like, even a $1 coffee, and claim your free treat.

Free Fries Friday

I know this is really what you want to get your hands and taste buds on.

The McDonald’s app is also your key to a free medium order of fries.

As with the shake, frappe or sundae deal, you need to make a purchase to get your free fries, but there’s no minimum to spend. This coupon is available every Friday until Sept. 29, when you use the app.

Dive Into a Free Drink and Fries (but There’s a Catch)

Finally, this deal requires you to spend more money, but it’s worth a mention.

Until Aug. 27, if you download the McDonald’s app, you’ll see a coupon for a free medium order of fries and a free soft drink with the purchase of a Signature Crafted Sandwich. This is a one-time deal only, though, so it may be worth it to splurge just a little this once.

Desiree Stennett (@desi_stennett) is a staff writer at The Penny Hoarder.

This was originally published on The Penny Hoarder, one of the largest personal finance websites. We help millions of readers worldwide earn and save money by sharing unique job opportunities, personal stories, freebies and more. In 2016, Inc. 500 ranked The Penny Hoarder as the No. 1 fastest-growing private media company in the U.S.

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Bigger Isn’t Always Better: 5 Ways Smaller Homes Can Save You Money

No, you don’t need to adjust your glasses.

The average size of new homes in the U.S. is getting smaller, reports the National Association of Home Builders.

New single-family homes in the second quarter of 2017 had an average of 2,616 square feet, according to U.S. Census information. That’s down from 2,628 square feet in the first quarter of this year and 2,652 square feet in the last quarter of 2016.

Two years ago, in the second quarter of 2015, the average new-home size for a single-family dwelling was 2,704 square feet.

NAHB expects this trend of declining home sizes to continue as the market for entry-level homes expands.

5 Reasons Why Smaller Homes Can Save You Big Money

Sure, you may see house hunters on TV scoff at potential homes with less-than-ideal square footage, or you may know homeowners who brag about their oh-so-spacious dwellings. But here are a handful of reasons why choosing small can bring huge benefits.

1. Lower Home Cost

Buying a home is a big-ticket item. It just may be the biggest purchase you make in your life.

If you ever play around with the home-search parameters on sites like Zillow or Realtor.com, you’ll find searching for a smaller-sized home will generally result in options that are lower in price than homes with more square footage. Potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars lower.

2. Lower Utility Bills

The smaller the space, the less energy you’re likely to use heating up or cooling down your home. You’ll also probably have fewer lights to turn on.

All that adds up to a lower power bill.

3. Spend Less on Furniture

It’s pretty obvious that smaller spaces require less furniture. You could end up with multiple living room sets when you have a living room plus a separate family room plus a den. But if your living space is limited to one area, you’ll spend less money on couches and chairs.

You can nix needing two dining sets if your house doesn’t include both formal and informal dining areas.

If you don’t have that extra spare bedroom, you don’t have to worry about covering the costs of a bed frame, a mattress, a box spring, bed linens and blankets, a dresser, a nightstand or whatever else you’d fill that space up with.

4. Spend Less on Other Consumer Goods

Unless you’re a fan of clutter, having a smaller home means you simply don’t have the space for extra kitchen appliances, electronic gadgets and random home decor items.

Tiny closets can help you scale back on your shoe-buying habit. You may even consider adopting a capsule wardrobe.

Having little bedroom space could give you an easy excuse as to why you can’t buy every toy your child whines about on shopping trips. “There’s just no room for that, honey.”

5. Spend Less Time Cleaning and Maintaining

You ever heard of the saying, “Time is money?” Well, you’ll certainly spend less time cleaning and maintaining a 1,000-square-foot home than a 2,500-square-foot one.

You’ll save a little money on cleaning supplies too, but the real savings here are your time and energy. Tell me, would you rather spend your Saturday cleaning three full bathrooms (ensuite master bath included) and a powder room or or just one-and-a-half bathrooms?

Sure having a smaller space has its tradeoffs. It may not be ideal for frequent entertaining. And if you have a large family, you could end up feeling cramped.

But if hoarding pennies is your focus, a smaller living space could be the perfect option for you.

Plus, a small house can fit just as much love as a big one.

Nicole Dow is a staff writer at The Penny Hoarder. She finds tiny homes fascinating.

This was originally published on The Penny Hoarder, one of the largest personal finance websites. We help millions of readers worldwide earn and save money by sharing unique job opportunities, personal stories, freebies and more. In 2016, Inc. 500 ranked The Penny Hoarder as the No. 1 fastest-growing private media company in the U.S.

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Trump Just Signed a Bill That Gives a Big Boost to Student Veterans

Military veterans just got a big educational boost with the flick of a pen from President Donald Trump.

On Wednesday, Trump signed the Harry W. Colmery Veterans Educational Assistance Act, which expands the reach of the 1944 GI Bill.

The move stretches access to free college tuition across a wider swath of veterans and their families and extends the time they have to take advantage of it.

The bill passed unanimously in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives.

“This legislation will enable veterans to use the education benefits they’ve earned through the GI Bill when and how it suits them best, setting them up for future success in whatever career they pursue,” said U.S. Representative Phil Roe in a statement.

Here’s What the “Forever GI Bill” Means for Military Veterans

The new bill, referred to as the Forever GI Bill, gets rid of the 15-year time limit veterans have to use their benefits after a 90-day stretch of active duty.

That aspect of the legislation goes into effect right away and applies to anyone who left the service after the start of 2013 and the families of service members, according to an article in the Military Times.

The new law also grants veterans who are studying certain science, technology, engineering or math majors enough money for an extra year of school, on a first-come first-serve basis.

The bill helps out student veterans hit by sudden college closures, such as the Corinthian Colleges bankruptcy in 2015 (though students will also be getting a payday from that incident thanks to a class-action settlement).

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs will restore benefits to veterans affected by school shutdowns.

“We’ve been getting calls for several years now, beginning with the collapse of Corinthian (Colleges), from student veterans whose lives were put on hold,” Will Hubbard, the Student Veterans of America vice president of government affairs, said in an interview with the Military Times. “Every day we wasted until it passed was another day that they had to wait.”

How to Claim Your GI Bill Benefits

To check on your eligibility for GI Bill benefits, visit the Department of Veterans Affairs website.

You can apply for educational benefits online or in person at your local Veterans Affairs office. You can even check this nifty map to see how quickly your closest office is processing claims for benefits.

Be sure to check out that Military Times article for a detailed rundown of the Forever GI Bill, and enjoy hundreds of other benefits of your service.

Alex Mahadevan is a data journalist at The Penny Hoarder.

This was originally published on The Penny Hoarder, one of the largest personal finance websites. We help millions of readers worldwide earn and save money by sharing unique job opportunities, personal stories, freebies and more. In 2016, Inc. 500 ranked The Penny Hoarder as the No. 1 fastest-growing private media company in the U.S.

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41K Former Corinthian Students Are About to Get $183M in Loan Forgiveness

Former students of now-defunct for-profit Corinthian Colleges across the country will receive a $183 million settlement from Aequitas Capital Management, the private company that administered loans for Corinthian students.

The settlement will benefit 41,000 students who were taken aback when Corinthian filed for bankruptcy in 2015 and closed its doors.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau filed the complaint, and 13 state attorneys general took the lead on settlements for students in their states.

Under the settlement, borrowers who attended Corinthian campuses when they closed or who defaulted on their loans will have their Aequitas student loans fully discharged, along with any accrued interest, a statement by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman noted.

All other loans created by Corinthian and Aequitas will be reduced by 55%.

According to the statement, the average borrower will get $6,000 to $7,000 in loan relief from the settlement.

The final settlement is contingent on approval from the U.S. District Court in Oregon. Once that takes place, borrowers will be notified of the next steps within 90 days.

How Corinthian Ruined the 90/10 Rule

For-profit colleges must operate under the 90/10 rule, which allows no more than 90% of their revenue to come from Title IV federal student aid.

The CFPB’s complaint alleged that Corinthian and Aequitas worked together to create the Genesis loan program to make it look like it was meeting the 90/10 requirement, although both were allegedly aware that “most Corinthian student borrowers would default on these loans,” the CFPB explained in a release. “Under the scheme, the defaults would not affect Aequitas because Corinthian was committed to buying back all delinquent loans.”  

Corinthian had been investigated for encouraging students to commit financial aid fraud, sued for deceptive marketing and fined for misrepresenting graduate employment rates before selling off half its campuses in 2014.

Overcome by a reported $143 million in debt, Corinthian Colleges, which also operated Everest Institute, WyoTech and Herald Colleges, declared bankruptcy and folded in 2015.

For-profit colleges are notorious for the amount of debt they can impose on unknowing students. As of 2014, 31% of all student loans and almost half of student loan defaults come from the small slice of students who attend these for-profit schools.

Several schools have owed major returns or loan forgiveness to students in the past few years, including DeVry for misleading prospective students, Ashford University for false advertising, and the shuttered ITT Technical Institute.

Lisa Rowan is a writer and producer at The Penny Hoarder

This was originally published on The Penny Hoarder, one of the largest personal finance websites. We help millions of readers worldwide earn and save money by sharing unique job opportunities, personal stories, freebies and more. In 2016, Inc. 500 ranked The Penny Hoarder as the No. 1 fastest-growing private media company in the U.S.

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American Express is Hiring People to Work From Home for $15+ per Hour

Looking for part-time work?

That you can do remotely?

With a well-known, reputable company?

Check, check and check: American Express is hiring part-time and full-time virtual customer care professionals.

Pay starts at $15.73 per hour.

Here’s how to apply.

Get a Work-From-Home Job With American Express

In this position, you’ll work from home on a “flexible, nontraditional schedule,” responding to “incoming calls in a fast-paced environment.”

Your duties will include answering questions, solving problems creatively and providing “extraordinary” customer service.

To be eligible, you must live in any state except Alaska, California or Hawaii, and have a distraction-free home office and experience “successfully interacting with customers.” If you live within 35 miles of one of its centers (Phoenix, Arizona; Salt Lake City, Utah; or Sunrise, Florida) then you’ll want to review it’s on-site positions.

You’ll start out earning $15.73 per hour, with the opportunity to earn “monthly performance-based incentives.”

Not only is training paid (and from home), the company will also cover the connection cost and monthly fees for “dedicated telephone and Internet service from an American Express approved provider in your area.”

Woohoo!

Plus, after 90 days of employment, you’ll be eligible for benefits like health insurance, retirement plans and tuition assistance!

Sounds like a pretty good gig, right? Click here to learn more and apply.

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

This was originally published on The Penny Hoarder, one of the largest personal finance websites. We help millions of readers worldwide earn and save money by sharing unique job opportunities, personal stories, freebies and more. In 2016, Inc. 500 ranked The Penny Hoarder as the No. 1 fastest-growing private media company in the U.S.

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Have You Seen Ads for This Company? The Feds Say It’s a Work-From-Home Scam

A federal court just slapped a temporary restraining order on a company that’s allegedly scamming people looking for work-from-home jobs.

According to court documents, the defendants set up a bunch of businesses under different names, including:

• Work At Home EDU
• Work At Home Program
• Work At Home Ecademy
• Work At Home University
• Work At Home Revenue
• Work At Home Institute

The Federal Trade Commission claims the defendants lured people to their websites with cleverly-placed internet advertisements.

“For example, they placed a link to their Work At Home EDU website near an article about working from home on the website Forbes.com,” says the FTC.

The internet is littered with reports that the websites charged high fees and promised to teach people how to earn buckets of money working from home — but they say the sites failed to deliver results.

In one example, Scamxposer investigated Work At Home EDU and discovered it charged people $97 for information people can easily glean for free just by searching the internet. The company then shared registration data with third-party companies that swamped people with sales calls and emails. Even it’s money-back guarantee seemed questionable.

How To Avoid Work-From-Home Scams

It can be difficult to spot websites designed to scam people looking for work-from-home jobs. These seven scams are particularly common, and this one tricks people into committing a crime.

If you think you’ve been scammed, here are five things you should do right now.  

Lisa McGreevy is a staff writer at The Penny Hoarder. She thinks scammers are jerks.

This was originally published on The Penny Hoarder, one of the largest personal finance websites. We help millions of readers worldwide earn and save money by sharing unique job opportunities, personal stories, freebies and more. In 2016, Inc. 500 ranked The Penny Hoarder as the No. 1 fastest-growing private media company in the U.S.

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The Little-Known Trick to Getting a Discount Every Time You Shop Online

I was on Western Union’s website trying to send $350 to a friend. I knew the “money in minutes” online option would be expensive, but I was still shocked by the $35 charge.

Just before I clicked the button to pay, I saw the little box that said “Promo Code.” That’s when I remembered you can save a lot of money with online coupon codes.

I opened another window, searched for “Western Union discount codes,” and tried the codes from several websites. The first five didn’t work — no surprise there.

Then I found a four-letter, four-digit code from RetailMeNot. I entered that and updated the payment page.

Bingo! The deal was even better than a discount — it eliminated the fee completely! I didn’t really believe I could send the money for free until I completed the transaction, but it was true.

What Kinds of Discounts Can You Get With Online Coupon Codes?

What are you looking for? If you’re shopping online with a major retailer, chances are good there’s a coupon code available.

Just a few I’ve seen…

Renting a car? Some online coupon codes can save you 20% or more.

Buying lawn furniture? Save 10% at several different stores, and if you want, you can pay online and pick up your items locally.

Renewing a domain name? I recently saved 20% by finding discount codes.

Ordering food from a restaurant? I once saw a 25% discount code for online delivery orders from Papa John’s Pizza.

Where to Find Online Coupon Codes

You can find coupons for most of what you buy — and no need to clip and carry them. Just get the codes online.

Here are a few popular websites to check:

• RetailMeNot

• Coupons.com

• Valpak

• Groupon

This Sounds Too Easy. What’s the Catch?

The problem with all of these sites is, often, the codes just don’t work.

My experience is around one coupon code in 10 actually gives you the promised discount.

Sometimes the retailer won’t honor the coupon code for sale items, or certain products are excluded. Often the code is just expired and hasn’t been removed from the coupon website.

This isn’t as much of a problem as you might think, though. The solution is simple: Just keep trying new codes until you find the ones that work.

Some couponing sites show a success rate for their codes, based on user feedback. I often see a 40% or 50% success rate.

Note that these rates are not necessarily accurate or scientific. They’re based on user feedback, so the results could be skewed like any review site. But they’re probably better than nothing, so look for coupon codes with a high success rate.

How to Make the Most of Online Coupon Codes

As much as coupon websites would like your loyalty as a user, don’t bother to go directly to them when you want a discount. They’re not always easy to use, and each has different offers.

Instead, shop first. When you’re ready to check out, open a new browser window to search for online coupon codes.

Search the name of the company and “coupons,” “coupon codes” or “discount codes.” I used the latter when looking for that Western Union code.

In the search results, you’ll often find websites that have a dozen or more codes to try. Try the ones offering the biggest discounts and with the highest success rates.

Yes, you’ll find a lot of codes that don’t work. But you can test a bunch of them quickly, and you might save a few dollars — or even $35 like I did. That’s not bad for a few minutes of effort.

To make your life even easier, you can automate your savings by adding these browser extensions to find discounts for you while you shop.

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).

This was originally published on The Penny Hoarder, one of the largest personal finance websites. We help millions of readers worldwide earn and save money by sharing unique job opportunities, personal stories, freebies and more. In 2016, Inc. 500 ranked The Penny Hoarder as the No. 1 fastest-growing private media company in the U.S.

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What the Latest Dispatches From Our $1.4 Trillion Student Loan Hell Reveal

If you are one of the 44 million people responsible for repaying the $1.4 trillion in student loan debt in the U.S., there’s a good chance it’s harder for you to pay it off than those who came before you.

That’s according to some depressing facts from a new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau report released Wednesday.

According to the CFPB, 30% of borrowers who started repaying loans five years ago have not paid down their loans at all or owe even more. That could be because the amount they pay each month doesn’t even cover the interest on the loans. And that’s if you’re paying at all. More than 60% of people in this category are delinquent on their loans.

Lucky enough to escape that category? Well maybe you’re among the 40% of borrowers who owed more than $20,000 when repayment started. In 2002, this group made up only 20% of overall borrowers.

What’s worse, in 2002 only 5% of borrowers owed more than $50,000. That percentage has now more than tripled to 16%.

This is especially telling because a decade ago, 50% of borrowers could fully repay their loans within five years. That percentage has now slipped to 41%.

Even if you managed to dodge that bullet, you’re still not out of the woods. The CFPB report points out that nearly 50% of borrowers are over 34 years old when they enter repayment. In 2003, this group made up only 25% of the borrower pool.

This all means we are borrowing significantly more money to pay for education, starting the repayment process much later in life and still finding it tougher to pay down the debt than borrowers who came before us.

Employee Benefits Packages Provide Some Relief

Now that you’re probably wallowing in a pit of despair, I’ve got the slightest silver lining to pull you back out: This increasingly burdensome debt landscape has changed many employers’ benefits packages.

According to the CFPB, about 10% of companies with 40,000 or more employees use third-party student loan repayment programs to help stabilize their employees’ financial lives. These benefits also help with employee recruitment and retention. Although the percentages are not as readily available, the report also said small companies have started to offer similar benefits.

These kinds of programs are especially enticing because they can save borrowers thousands of dollars if they stay with a company long term.

Unfortunately, these programs often leave out the most vulnerable borrowers who are already in default, according to the CFPB survey. For them, income-driven repayment is an option that could provide relief, particularly if low income and unaffordable payments led to default.

Desiree Stennett (@desi_stennett) is a staff writer at The Penny Hoarder.

This was originally published on The Penny Hoarder, one of the largest personal finance websites. We help millions of readers worldwide earn and save money by sharing unique job opportunities, personal stories, freebies and more. In 2016, Inc. 500 ranked The Penny Hoarder as the No. 1 fastest-growing private media company in the U.S.

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