The States Show Trump Tax Cut Will Work

The authors of a new book say they are confident that Donald Trump's economic policies would be positive for workers, the economy and the stock market.  They have seen these policies work in the states. 

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The Miracle Money Cure: Six Common Financial Problems a Budget Can Fix

Only a third of Americans bother to create a written or computerized budget each month, according to a 2013 Gallup poll on budgeting, the most recent available.

Considering the state of personal finance in the U.S., this actually explains a lot. A recent study showed that fewer than half of Americans have more than $1,000 in savings, and the average indebted household now has more than $16,000 in credit card debt. A recent study from CareerBuilder even revealed that 78% of American families live paycheck-to-paycheck – including one in 10 workers who make more than $100,000 a year.

In a world where budgets are scarcely used, this is the outcome. While a lot of financial hardship may be due to circumstances beyond someone’s control (e.g., job loss, poor health, or stagnating wages), budgeting offers a way for the rest of us to take control of our finances and maximize the money we earn. Yet, for some reason, few people choose to get on board with a budget – no matter how much it night benefit them.

Six Money Woes a Budget Can Cure

Those who budget already know that planning your spending and saving is the best way to solve common financial problems that plague people today – things like a lack of emergency savings or a paycheck-to-paycheck existence.

If you’re not budgeting already, you might even be surprised to find out just how many problems a budget can cure. Here are some of the biggest issues you can solve if you’re willing to do the work and set up a budget of your own:

#1: You have no idea where your money is going.

Ever feel like the balance in your checking account just seems to evaporate? One of the biggest benefits of budgeting is just figuring out where your money is going each month. For a lot of people, it’s difficult to decipher where their cash disappears to until they start budgeting and tracking their spending.

While there are several different kinds of budgets, pretty much all of them require you to keep track of your spending in all important categories, including food, dining out, miscellaneous, entertainment, and regular bills. You also need to track your savings, and many budgets involve “paying yourself first” so your savings goals are always met.

Without a budget, you’re more likely to spend your paychecks as they come in with no rhyme or reason at all. If the money’s in the bank for what you want when you want it, you might be more inclined to splurge on something wasteful without having any idea what other bills, responsibilities, or more important wants will be affected later that month.

With a budget, on the other hand, you have to be real with yourself. A quick analysis of your past spending will make it perfectly clear where you’re money’s been disappearing to all these months or years. When you write down a financial plan every month, there’s nowhere to hide – and if you spend money you don’t have, you’ll know it ahead of time.

The bottom line: It’s hard to know where your money is going when you don’t pay attention to it, but a budget can make your financial situation crystal clear. Not only can it help you plan out your spending, but it can help you stay on track as the month progresses.

#2: You’re chronically overspending.

In the same vein, budgeting has a way of helping you discover your problem areas or “money leaks” – areas of your life where you constantly overspend. It’s easy to buy a new sweater or book every few days and not realize the kind of cumulative damage you’re doing. But, when you start budgeting and tracking your spending, you may quickly realize that those seemingly sporadic purchases have been adding up to hundreds of dollars per month.

Budgeting is also a great way to tackle the areas where most people have trouble – food and entertainment spending. You might think your grocery bills are under control or that you’re not spending much on dinners out, but a budget and a few weeks of tracking your spending will set the record straight. You might also believe your entertainment spending is pretty low, only to find you’re dropping a lot more than you think on movies, sporting events, and fun nights out.

If you’re pretty sure that your overspending, but don’t know where or how to stop, a budget can tell you for sure.

• Related: When You Overspend: Five Steps to Recover from a Spending Spree

#3: You’re not saving any money.

If you’re not saving much if any money and don’t have an emergency fund, you’re like the average American. But that’s not a great thing to be when it comes to money, and like most Americans, you’d probably benefit from a budget.

One of the biggest perks of budgeting (and especially zero-sum budgeting) is that it forces you to save money as you reduce financial waste. Zero-sum budgeting even asks you to list your savings on your written budget and pay it like a regular bill.

As your budget teaches you how to spend less, you may also find you have more money to save every month. With more money to save – and less waste overall– you should reach your savings goals even faster.

• Related: 10 Ways to Trick Yourself Into Saving Money

#4: You struggle to afford the things you really want.

Budgeting is a process, and part of that process involves some fairly painful steps. For example, you’ll need to determine the difference between the wants you’re splurging on and the needs you actually can’t live without. And you may also find out that you have to cut some of those wants out of your budget. To save money — for retirement, college, vacations, or any other goal — you have to spend less than you earn.

This part in particular can be painful. It’s not easy to admit you need to quit dining out so much or to take the kids out of a few sports or extracurricular activities. But if you can’t truly afford it, you’re only hurting yourself the longer it goes on.

The thing is, it’s hard to make a good decision on what to cut when you don’t know “where you’re at” in the first place. Without a budget and a few weeks spent tracking your spending, it’s impossible to know what your spending problems actually are, let alone how to fix them.

And while a budget may include some painful steps, remember that it’s a tool to help you. The whole point of a budget isn’t to ruin your life – it’s to improve it, to help you prioritize your spending with a focus on what really matters to you. A budget can help you locate and stop wasteful purchases that don’t add to your life, so you can afford your big goals, like that family trip or kitchen remodel you’ve been dreaming about.

#5: You have trouble keeping track of bills.

One unexpected side effect of budgeting is the amount of organization it can bring into your life. Before you start budgeting, you might pay your bills as they arrive, or in clusters a few times per month. But, if you don’t really keep track that closely, you may not realize a bill is missing or how much you really spend on it. (And making consistent, on-time payments is the No. 1 factor in your credit score.)

A budget makes it easy to stay organized because you’re always keeping track of which bills are due, which are coming, and which ones you’ve already paid. With a zero-sum budget specifically, you’ll actually “check off” each bill as its paid so that you can know which bills are still owed and when at any given time.

• Related: Why We Pay Our Credit Card Bills More Than Once a Month

#6: You often face cash flow problems.

Cash flow problems can cause financial catastrophe whether you’re living below your means or not. If all of your bills are due at once – or if you’re not great at managing your available cash throughout the month – a budget can help you craft a better plan.

Generally speaking, budgeting will help you build a savings buffer in addition to your emergency fund. You can use your savings buffer to cover a surge of bills at the beginning of the month, then replenish your buffer near the end of the month when you have more cash on hand.

Meanwhile, the planning aspect of budgeting can also help you manage cash flow better. When you know which bills are due and when, and your expenses are less than your income, it’s a lot easier to stay on track and never run out of cash when you need it.

• Related: Personal Cash Flow and You

The Bottom Line

If you’re like the majority of Americans and aren’t using a budget, it might be time to give it another try. A budget doesn’t have to be restrictive if you don’t want it to be, but it will help give you a sense of purpose if you’ve “winged” your finances in the past.

But, don’t take my word for it. Ask one of the 1/3 of Americans you know who uses a budget what they think – and why they bother to spend the time. Chances are, they’ll tell you that budgeting helps them be intentional with their spending while helping them avoid debt and pushing them to save more for the future.

At the end of the day, that’s what most of us want anyway – more money in the bank for bills and fun and a break from the stress of debt.

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:

• The Magic Math of Paying Yourself First
• Eight Money Mistakes the Middle Class Keeps Making
• The Upside-Down Reason So Many Americans Are Broke
• Here’s How Much the Average American Pays in Interest Each Year

Do you use a budget? If so, why? How has budgeting made your life better?

The post The Miracle Money Cure: Six Common Financial Problems a Budget Can Fix appeared first on The Simple Dollar.

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How I Was Paid to Eat, Drink and Live With a Family in Australia

Fresh out of school with students loans to pay and no job on the horizon, it would be irresponsible of me to just pick up and travel the world, right?

After I left college, it seemed like all my friends were traveling. My Facebook newsfeed was littered with my friends smiling in front of the Coliseum, relaxing on a beach in Bali and riding mopeds through Paris. I found it to be very obnoxious.

I know it wasn’t their fault, but I knew that if I wanted to travel, I had to find a way to do it while still making money. So I became an au pair.

When most people think of au pairs, they think of women coming to the US to take care of kids, but many Americans — both men and women — go abroad to au pair.

How to Get Started as an Au Pair

There are several websites that help au pairs connect with families. I used the very free and very basic website Find Au Pair. I also used the slightly more sophisticated Au Pair World, which gives you an option to pay to connect with families directly. The website allows you to pick the country you want to au pair in; I picked Australia.

Be sure that the country you choose allows au pairs from your country to work legally and find out what the stipulations are, as the families you work with might not know the laws for your specific country. I made a profile online and waited for families to contact me.

I felt pretty safe meeting a family online as long as I Skyped with them first to prove they were real people, to see if I connected with the kids and to subtly see if they had a cute dog.

Pretty soon, I matched with a few families, arranged some interviews and found a family I liked.

Living Abroad as an Au Pair

Most families won’t pay for your plane ticket, so I had to save up for that. I arrived in Melbourne with almost no money. But as the Australians say: no worries!

I knew as soon as I got there, I would get a salary and have a place to live. As an au pair, your housing is free and host families normally provide all three meals (and in the case of my family, a lot of wine).

Be sure to ask where you’ll live ahead of time and make sure you’re comfortable with the arrangement. I had my own floor with a bedroom, living room and bathroom. Some au pairs I knew had their own private pool houses, and others lived in an extra bedroom.

Some families may even provide you a car. Mine did, although I usually took public transport because it’s really good in Australia and because I was terrified of accidentally driving on the wrong side of the road (unlike Americans, Australians drive on the left side of the road).

In addition to food and housing, the family will pay you a salary. Rates vary depending on the country, how much they need you to work and the number of kids. I purposely chose a family that had kids in school all day, so I worked in the mornings before school and took care of the kids after school. During the day and on weekends I had free time to explore Melbourne.

I also often babysat for the family at night or offered to babysit for other families of au pairs I met to make some extra money.

Since I wasn’t paying for housing, food, or transportation, I was actually able to save money while I was in Australia. I had enough to pay to go out for food and drinks and to keep my student loans at bay.

I was also able to save enough that I could go on a few trips around the country, as well. I traveled to Brisbane, Sydney, Darwin, and Alice Springs; I took a road trip down the southern coast; and I took multiple day trips to wine country and the beach.

As with all jobs, there are challenges to being an au pair. Living in close quarters with a family can be tough, especially because you live at work and sometimes it’s hard to tell a 9-year-old that while you’d love to watch the Disney Channel with them all Saturday, it’s actually your day off and you need a little me-time.

Be sure to ask the family lots of questions about where you’ll stay, what their expectations are for your work schedule and even a little bit about their personal beliefs to make sure you’re going to jive.

If you find a perfect match, you can create a strong bond and a home away from home for life. And it doesn’t hurt that now you get to be the one posting jealousy-inducing Instagrams.

Lucy Huber is a freelance writer with an MFA in creative nonfiction and three cats. She lives in Beaufort, South Carolina.

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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Personal Finance Success and Directionlessness in Life

A few days ago, I received a handwritten letter from an old acquaintance, someone I hadn’t seen in a healthy handful of years. The letter was full of reminiscence, but then it moved onto a request for some advice on some issues that he didn’t know how to handle.

The advice request started out in the domain of personal finance, but as he wrote more and more details, it became clear that the real problem in the whole picture wasn’t just financial.

The key issue was a sense of directionlessness.

The person who wrote the letter was fairly insightful regarding that sense of directionlessness, too. He was aware that he wasn’t being particularly challenged at work and that was provoking a fairly strong sense of frustration. His main financial issue was really rooted in that same sense of directionlessness, as it boiled down to a choice between a smarter short term decision and a smarter long term decision, a fact he already recognized.

The whole letter brought to the forefront a major truth about personal finance: it is really hard to make good personal finance decisions without some sense of direction in life. If you don’t have any idea where you are headed, making the right financial choices becomes essentially impossible.

For many people, this kind of directionlessness in life ends up manifesting itself as financial inaction. There’s no sense of where you’re going, so a lot of financial articles seem to make little sense and it becomes easier to just do nothing and assume that when things become clear in the future, then you’ll make good financial choices. In fact, that was part of what was going on in this letter – the person in question was making some good financial choices in terms of actually putting money into a 401(k), but in terms of other choices, like figuring out whether to rent or to buy, he was stuck, paralyzed by a lack of direction.

So, if we accept the basic idea that directionlessness makes it much harder to make optimal personal finance choices, how does one break through? How does one move from a sense of personal and professional wandering to a state where there’s at least enough forward direction to make some smart choices?

Here are some of my thoughts on the subject, from years of working through these kinds of challenges in my own life.

Picture of the Future

My default strategy when it comes to solidifying some idea of the future is what I call the “picture of the future” strategy. I’ve tried lots of different techniques to come up with at least some idea of where I’m headed and nothing has worked nearly as well for me.

This strategy is simple. Just pick a particular point in the future – five years from now, ten years from now, whatever – and think about what you would like your life to be like at that point if things went reasonably well for you. Don’t visualize yourself becoming a world-breaking success and don’t imagine pure failure, either; instead, imagine modest success. Also, try to imagine a life you’re happy with – don’t imagine a life that just carries forward things you dread about today.

What does that look like? What is your job like? Your career? What are your main relationships like? Where are you living? How do you spend your free time? What about that life would make you jump out of bed in the morning with a smile on your face?

Give it some real thought. Don’t jump on board the first set of cool ideas that you have. Think about whether you really want those things. Think about the elements of your life that you want to maintain, and which ones you would really like to improve and what that improvement would look like five or ten or twenty years from now.

I actually do this exercise pretty regularly, at least once every few months. I visualize things at different points, too.

Now, one thing you’ll realize when you’re doing this is that any picture you paint in your mind is not set in stone. It’s not certain at all, especially when you dig into details.

So, why dig into the details, then?

The real purpose of this exercise is to establish the kind of things you want from your future, the kind of things that you’re going to be willing to work for. That doesn’t mean you’ll wind up with those things, but there’s a good chance that, if you set those things as your goal, you’re going to wind up with something similar to those things.

I’ll use myself as an example. Around the time of the birth of my first child, I envisioned myself with some sort of job where I worked from home so I could be there when they got off the bus. This was important to me. My mother was always there when I got off the bus and, looking back, it was a great thing to have that friendly smile and greeting and a snack waiting for me when I came in the door, almost every single day. I wanted that for my own kids.

At the time, I thought I would probably be consulting or something in the field I was in at the time, but I knew that whatever I did, I’d be looking for some sort of path forward that offered that kind of flexibility.

Flash forward to now. I never expected I would wind up being a writer of personal finance and personal growth material, but I did expect that when my kids got off the bus, they’d run home and a parent would be there for them with a snack and a friendly ear that was ready to hear all about their day at school.

It was holding onto that desire for truly flexible hours, however, that led me to where I am today. I am sure I could be making more money doing other things if I so chose, but a big part of what I wanted to do with my life during the years where I was a parent of young children is to be there at home when they got off the bus, and that principle, which I recognized by doing these kinds of pictures of the future, helped guide me here.

Another example: for years, I visualized eventually being a homeowner. I visualized lots of houses, none of which were particularly like the one we live in now. The only certainty I had was that I wanted to live in an area with a lot of stable families nearby for my children to grow up with. Simply knowing that I wanted to become a homeowner had an enormous impact on my finances over the three years leading up to our home purchase.

The purpose of this picture isn’t to map out exactly what your future will be like, because it probably won’t be exactly like that. The purpose is to fill in lots of details so that, through those details, you begin to really understand the broad strokes of your future that are really important to you.

If you’re visualizing a life where you greet your kids where they come home off the bus, you’re probably wanting a future with employment with flexible hours.

If you’re visualizing a life where you have a nice large home, you’re probably wanting to eventually become a homeowner, probably in a place with a relatively low cost of living so you can afford that home.

If you’re visualizing yourself spending your time on particular projects, you’re probably either going to want to steer your career in that direction or else start building a side gig that takes you there or else commit fully to the idea of your job being mostly a support for that greater interest.

The weather that you visualize probably shapes where you’ll live, too. I often visualize chilly fall weather when I think about the future, where there are leaves falling and a strong chill in the air and maybe even some snow, but not blistering cold. Thus, the upper Midwest or New England make sense for me.

The whole purpose of these kinds of pictures is to fill in many of the broad strokes of where you want to go in life so that you have a framework to use when making professional and financial and personal decisions going forward.

If You Don’t Like How Things Are Right Now, Start Doing Something Different

Quite often, directionlessness comes from a life with which you’re very happy with some aspects but generally indifferent to many others and unhappy with still others, and there’s an underlying gentle fear that making big changes will cause you to lose the elements you’re happy with.

Maybe you have a stable job that pays well, which you’re happy with, but you yearn for new challenges and those new directions are stifled. You don’t want to lose the stability that you value, but the happiness of that stability is counterbalanced (or more) by the yearning for new challenges.

Maybe you have a family that you adore, but you utterly loathe your overall career path, but you have this underlying fear that making a radical change to that path will undermine your family’s happiness. Or, maybe you’re single and you love your social and cultural life, but your career makes you feel empty.

Maybe the reverse is true – you have a job that you really love, but you have this underlying sense that it’s everything to you and you don’t have any room for anything else in your life. You don’t want to sacrifice this job that you deeply enjoy just to find more enjoyment in your other areas of life.

Our tendency as humans is to simply hold things in place out of fear of losing what we love about our lives, so we wind up tolerating the things we don’t like about our lives. In other words, we resist change, and when resisting change means a life with some aspects we don’t enjoy, that can really end up feeling like directionlessness. “I don’t fully like where I’m at, but I don’t want to lose what I have, so I’ll just stay put.”

The problem is that in accepting that kind of directionlessness, you abandon the search for better things in those areas that you’re lacking. That, of course, means that those things will never get better.

The best solution here is to never stop looking for ways to improve the areas of your life that you’re not happy with. Ever.

If you’re unhappy with your financial life, start looking at how you’re spending money. How much of your money is spent on unimportant things that really have no lasting impact on your life? Cut all (or at least most) of that out of your life.

If you’re unhappy with your job, start looking for ways to improve that situation without rocking the boat. Use your downtime to build something new, or if you’re in an overstuffed job, focus on tasks that are really resume-worthy and keep that resume polished up. If you’re in a job that seems to absorb all of your time even though it’s pretty flexible, consider some new approaches within that job, like forming new sub-groups of people to work with or building new relationships with people you don’t know as well.

If you’re unhappy with your social life, start checking out meetups, just to see what’s out there. Go to a few, even if you’re nervous about the prospect. Make an agreement with yourself to stay for a certain period of time, and to have a meaningful conversation with at least three people.

Obviously, these kinds of changes are good things, but how do these changes help with an overall sense of directionlessness?

First of all, if your life is in a good place, a direction forward comes almost automatically. If you like how things are, you’re going to want to make choices that preserve and enhance your current life and set the stage for things that are clearly coming down the road. Dealing with the aspects of your life that you’re unhappy with directly can really help.

Second, making attempts at solving what seems like the biggest problem in your life can sometimes expose the real problem, which isn’t immediately obvious. Digging into a career dissatisfaction issue might uncover that the real problem is the lack of meaningful social connections, for example; you’re digging for more meaningful work relationships that just aren’t there in order to make up for having fewer meaningful relationships outside of work, which is what you really need to work on.

Finally, trying new approaches to one’s life problems often uncovers new sources of happiness and joy that you didn’t expect. Going to a meetup might expose you to a new hobby that you deeply enjoy, or helps you find a new circle of friends. Pursuing further education through your workplace might light a fire in your life that wasn’t there before because you’re engaged in the new topics so deeply.

When You’re In Doubt, Choose Flexibility

Even if you apply the above strategies, you still might find yourself less than sure about what to do going forward. I know that I oscillate back and forth between having a really clear direction for the future and being less certain about things, even though I’m pretty happy with how things are and I know generally where I want to go from here all the time.

If you find yourself uncertain as to what the future might hold for you, my honest suggestion is to choose the path forward that offers the most flexibility.

What does that mean?

For your living quarters, lean toward renting over owning. Renting usually has a lower monthly cost and it is much easier to extract yourself from a rental situation than a house with a mortgage on it. Homeownership is a great way to build equity, but it only really begins to click after you’re in the house for a few years, the growth in the value of the house has compounded a little, and you’re past the worst part of your mortgage (when payments are almost entirely going to interest). If you’re not sure where you’re going to be living in the next few years, rent, don’t own.

For your savings, lean toward options that are low risk and fairly liquid. In general, when you raise the risk level of investments, you increase the chance of losing money in the short term so that you have a better average annual rate of return in the long run. For example, compare a savings account to investing in the stock market. A savings account is going to return a boring 1% per year, but it’s not going to lose money no matter what. Stocks might average a 7% annual rate of return, but some individual years might see losses – even big losses. 2008, for example, saw a huge loss in stocks.

As for liquidity, lean towards things where you can extract the money quickly and use it for other things. Again, savings accounts are pretty strong here, as are stocks; things like real estate are a bit harder to quickly liquidate while maintaining your gains.

This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t save for retirement. Take advantage of a Roth IRA, and especially take advantage of any matching money you might get at work into a 401(k), 403(b), or TSP available there. You will virtually never regret putting away money for retirement. All of us are going to grow older.

For your job, keep your resume and skill set polished at all times. Keep a copy of it on LinkedIn with fresh updates so that people can find you if they have opportunities. Focus on things at work that will directly bolster your skill set and enable you to actually add meaningful things to that resume. Look to add education to your resume as well (though that’s something you should always be doing). In short, put yourself in a position where doors might open easily for you elsewhere, even if you don’t intend to jump right away.

In your social life, focus on connections that may provide a professional springboard or directly lead to new opportunities in life. It’s great to have old friends, but those old friends generally don’t open new doors in life, which is what you need to have if you’re feeling directionless. Don’t toss aside old friends, but put in the effort to build new friendships, ones that might potentially open new doors for you.

If you’re actively taking steps in your life to find a direction, the advice here will work well until you find what you’re looking for, at which point things begin to change. You may start making some longer-term commitments, like buying a home or investing for the long term. You may get more involved in local communities that are focused on improving things locally, like a local church or city or county governance or a civic organization. You may end up shaping your career going forward to meet the specific needs of your current employer.

Final Thoughts

Even at this stage in my life, there are definitely moments where I feel directionless, where I don’t know for sure where my life is headed. In those moments, I take a lot of the steps above: I visualize where I want to go, I look for ways to seed my life with the opportunity for change, and I plan for the prospect of short term change as well.

It’s when those things take root and I begin to feel more direction that I begin to make specific plans to push myself in those directions.

That transition is rarely easy, and it is rarely quick, but it’s well worth working towards.

Good luck.

The post Personal Finance Success and Directionlessness in Life appeared first on The Simple Dollar.

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Earn Cash Back with the Top Holiday Toys of 2017

If you’re the type who likes to plan ahead, chances are you’re already trying to strategize how to get the best Holiday gifts at the lowest prices. And Walmart’s trying to appeal to early shoppers: The retail giant has recently released its list of the most popular toys for the 2017 Holidays.

Sales are great, but if you’re looking to take your savings even further, a cash back credit card might be the most powerful tool in your wallet. We’ve calculated the total amount of Walmart’s list — which includes Hatchimals, Fingerlings Interactive Baby Monkeys, and the littleBits Star Wars Droid Inventor Kit — to be $597.67. We’ve measured that amount against our list of the best cash back credit cards of 2017, to show just how much you could save.

Note: For toys with multiple prices, we’ve selected the average amount. Cash back is rounded to the nearest cent. Pricing does not include shipping and handling costs.

Credit Card	Cashback Rate	Total Return
Discover it® – Cashback Match™	5% for rotating categories, 1% on everything else	$5.98
Blue Cash Preferred® Card from American Express	6% at U.S. Supermarkets (up to $6,000 per year in purchases, then 1%), 3% at U.S. gas stations and select U.S. department stores, 1% on everything else	$5.98
Bank of America® Cash Rewards Credit Card	3% on gas, 2% on grocery stores, and 1% everywhere else	$5.98 + Bonus
Capital One® Quicksilver® Cash Rewards Credit Card	1.5% on all purchases	$8.97 + Bonus
Chase Freedom®	5% for rotating categories, 1% on everything else	$29.89 + Bonus
Barclaycard CashForward™ World Mastercard®	1.5% on all purchases	$8.97
Chase Freedom Unlimited®	1.5% on all purchases	$8.97 + Bonus
Capital One® QuicksilverOne® Cash Rewards Credit Card	1.5% on all purchases	$8.97

The Bank of America® Cash Rewards Credit Card, Capital One® Quicksilver® Cash Rewards Credit Card, Chase Freedom® card, and the Chase Freedom Unlimited® each offer a $150 signup bonus when cardholders spend $500 or more within a specified amount of time. 

Breaking it down, card by card

Earn 6% at U.S. Supermarkets, 3% at U.S. gas stations and select U.S. department stores, 1% on everything else

• While cardholders earn 6% cash back at U.S. supermarkets, American Express considers Walmart a “superstore” instead of a grocery store, so cardholders only earn 1%. But if you spend $1,000 in purchases within your first three months of card ownership, you’ll earn $200 back. That’s an impressive savings. And rewards dollars can be redeemed as statement credits, good for any purchase.

Earn 5% for rotating categories, 1% on everything else

• The card offers 1% cashback on all purchases, as well as 5% cashback on purchases made within select categories that rotate quarterly. Through December, that includes 5% cash back for purchases made through Amazon.com and Target. (Discover members should be sure to activate their 5% bonus through their account.) It’s possible that cardholders could find more value at either Amazon or Target as opposed to Walmart. And don’t forget about the dollar-for-dollar cashback match at the end of your first year of card membership!

• cardholders earn 5% cash back in rotating categories each quarter (so long as they activate via their Chase profile). From October to December, that includes 5% cashback at all Walmart stores and other department stores. Otherwise, cardholders earn unlimited 1% cashback on all other purchases.

Earn 3% on gas, 2% on grocery stores, and 1% everywhere else

• If you’re a Bank of America® customer, and you participate in Preferred Rewards, the holds the most value for you. In addition to the 1% cash back you’ll earn on Walmart purchases, you’ll be able to earn anywhere between a 25-75% customer points bonus! That’s in addition to the $150 online cash rewards bonus earned after spending $500 in the first 90 days of card membership.

Earn 1.5% on all purchases

• The offers one of the simplest, highest reward rates of any cash back card. Cardholders earn 1.5% cashback on all purchases, period. Combined with no annual fee, this is one of the most no-frills, flat-rate credit cards available on the market today.

• The is a useful cash back card for stacking rewards. Cardholders earn 1.5% cashback on all purchases throughout the year. Every time you redeem rewards, you’ll earn a 5% cash reward bonus toward your next redemption. That’s a solid, consistent bonus that lasts past the holidays.

• The card combines a 1.5% cash back flat rate with a $0 annual fee and a 15-month 0% intro APR period. Customers can earn rewards without accruing interest or fees, making this card a perfect choice for anyone looking to open a new card during the holidays. And you can redeem rewards at any time.

• The offers a straightforward, flat-rate 1.5% cash back for cardholders. It’s designed for those with average-to-fair credit and can help build up your credit score over time. (As a bonus, cardholders get 50% off of a Spotify subscription.)

Lastly, consider how you’ll use your card post-holiday. Cash back credit cards offer differing rewards rates based on spending habits: Some are optimal for spending in specific categories, while others are optimal for everyday expenses. For more info on the cards in this list, and to see which card is right for you, check out our list of the best cash back credit cards of 2017.

 

The post Earn Cash Back with the Top Holiday Toys of 2017 appeared first on The Simple Dollar.

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Plan Your Next Trip to Key West’s Paradise With These Budget-Friendly Tips

11 Simple Ways to Boost Your Monthly Income, No Matter Your Age

Most of us want to figure out how to make more money, right? We all envision what we could do with a little extra cash, whether it’s a one-time windfall or a boost to the monthly paycheck.

While a study conducted by the Federal Reserve in 2015 showed men were less likely to earn big raises after age 45 — “If You Aren’t Rich by 45, Give Up” is how Slate put it — we think you can work to increase your income at any age.

Take your financial future into your own hands, hustle like your hair’s on fire and start making extra money a little bit at a time.

Whether you’re 16 or 60, here’s how you can make more money each month…

1. Negotiate Your Salary

Perhaps one of the quickest ways to increase your income is to ask for a raise — today!

Whether you work part time or full time, in an office or in retail, you can try to negotiate your wages.

Before you ask for more money, make a plan.

You should have a valid reason for a raise — e.g. you recently completed a major project that made your company a lot of money, you’ve been putting in a lot of extra hours or you’ve been receiving rave reviews from customers.

It’s also ideal if it’s been a while since your last raise. You don’t want to be asking every other month.

Show the value you provide to the company, like how many sales you bring in or feedback from customers you’ve helped. Present your case in a compelling way.

If your boss says no, remember to be professional, thank them for their time, and ask how you might be able to secure a raise in the future. You never know — maybe they’ll recommend asking again after tax time or in the next quarter.

2. Pick Up a Side Gig

A side gig can be any sort of small business you do alongside your regular work or school, whether it’s a recurring role with a client or one-off projects with multiple customers.

From picking up a newspaper route or mowing lawns to tutoring students on the weekend, side gigs are a great way to make a little extra cash.

Even though it might feel less official than your full-time job, be professional. Treat it like a real job — because it is one.

You could make business cards and even a website to add to your credibility. Follow up with clients and demonstrate great customer service, and your side gig could be a money-making venture for you for quite a long time.

3. Flip Furniture

Before I had kids, I made a habit of picking up old, used furniture at garage sales and thrift stores. Sometimes I’d find amazing deals, like solid wood desks for $20.

I’d spend a few hours refinishing and painting them and resell them for a nice profit.

People love custom furniture, and they’d rather not spend the time to refinish it themselves. This is a great way to make extra money, and it’s fun to hunt down deals.

In addition to garage sales and thrift stores, make sure to check your back alley for hidden treasures neighbors put out to the curb and the Craiglist’s free section for more potential projects.

4. Buy a Popular Blog

Starting a blog and building a following to become popular is no easy feat. In fact, it can take months or even years to start making money as a blogger!

One way to make money faster is by buying a site that’s up for sale — you can find them through Flippa.

Purchasing an online business can cost a few thousand dollars upfront, but if you buy a quality site, you can earn your investment back quickly. On one of the already-established websites I bought, I earned my money back in three months.

If you’re ready to go bigger, you could learn from Chris Guthrie, who earns a six-figure income buying blogs with established audiences.

Guthrie bought a crafting website for $4,000 (a relatively low amount in website sales) and was able to earn his money back in seven months. He went on to earn around $670 a month in profit with minimal overhead and time.

If you have the experience or are willing to learn, buying websites could be a great investment opportunity. If you’re not experienced, I recommend finding a trusted source to walk you through the process and a blog manager to help teach you the ropes.

5. Start a Freelance Business

If you have an in-demand skill like writing, graphic design, computer programming or personal training, you’ve got a great opportunity to start a freelance business.

If you have a full-time job in the same field as your new freelance business, check your contract to make sure you’re not violating any non-compete agreements or any other rules.

You’ll probably want a website that showcases your work, a professional pitch letter you’ll edit depending on the job, and a lot of professionalism and motivation to keep going when business fluctuates.

6. Become a Business Coach

If you’ve been in a particular field for a few years, you could provide valuable insight and guidance to less experienced people or those who want to break into your field.

For example, entrepreneur Carrie Smith offers coaching services to help people make the shift from employee to freelancer, and I offer a more niche coaching service to help freelancers and companies make more money through blogging.

When offering this type of coaching service, you can either charge an hourly rate to meet with someone over coffee or online, or charge a monthly retainer to be available for questions any time.

7. Walk People’s Dogs

With young twins in the house and tons of snow outside, I have a hard time finding motivation to take my dog on the nice, long walk she absolutely needs — so I pay a dog walker to take her out every week.

If you love dogs, becoming a dog walker is a great way to make extra cash. This is an especially great option if you have a flexible work schedule and can take dogs out during the 9-to-5 workday.

8. Become a Night Nanny

Love babies? If you have experience caring for and feeding newborns, you could make a lot of money helping sleep-deprived parents as a night nanny — sometimes as much as $100 to $200 a night.

This type of support is especially helpful to parents of multiples, so start by contacting a local multiples group in your area and advertising your services at its meeting or in its newsletter.

Once you’ve helped a family or two, ask for a reference to anyone else they know who could use your help.

9. Drive With Uber or Lyft

OK, so this one does depend on your age, technically. You’ll need to have a driver’s license and be at least 21 years old to drive with Lyft or Uber.

Both companies use a very detailed application process, so your car has to be a certain age and your license has to be up to date. If you qualify, you could fit shifts around other commitments and make excellent money, especially on busy weekend nights.

One Uber partner even turned his car into a salesroom for his jewelry business and earned $250,000 a year!

10. Sell Home-Cooked Meals and Treats

If you’re a college student or live near a college campus, you could make money selling home-cooked meals and baked goods to college students who might enjoy a piping-hot plate of lasagna or a freshly baked cupcake.

Not convinced? In 2013 University of Chicago student Aneesa Sonawalla started making gourmet cupcakes in her dorm room and delivering them to fellow students for $20 per dozen.

Students could order their treats through her blog and view examples of some of her “stress baking” options.

If you want to follow Sonawalla’s lead, be sure to check with college officials to get permission to advertise and sell your goods.

11. Become a Minimalist

Between email ads, billboards, TV shows and general office chatter, our world is filled with triggers to buy, buy and buy some more.

It can be hard not to keep up with the Joneses, but becoming a minimalist helps you enjoy extra money money in two ways:

• Once you identify the unnecessary items in your home, you can sell them. Whether you post them in a Facebook garage sale group or list them on Craigslist, you can earn money from something you don’t need anymore. If you don’t want to sell it, you can always donate it to a local charity for a tax deduction.

• When you stop spending money on meaningless items, you’ll experience an automatic boost to your bottom line. Consider all the money you would have spent on a new jacket or another unnecessary kitchen gadget, and think of what else you could do with it.

How Will You Make More Money?

The evidence is pretty clear: You definitely aren’t limited by age or experience when it comes to ways to make more money.

You just have to have a sense of entrepreneurship, a great work ethic and a strong will to make it happen.

Catherine Alford is an award-winning personal finance writer and fully self-employed work-at-home mom. She writes about how to balance life and a budget all across the web including her own site, catherinealford.com.

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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This is Why Purging Your Medicine Cabinet is Good for You (And Your Wallet)

Mark your calendar, everybody.

Oct. 21 is National Check Your Meds Day, according to Consumer Reports.

Hey, stop rolling your eyes at yet another completely random holiday. This one is definitely more important than Hug Your Cat Day. And that’s coming from someone who really, really loves hugging her cat.

Why You Need to Check Your Medicines

Take a second to count how many prescriptions you pick up each month.

According to a Consumer Reports survey of nearly 2,000 adults, the average American takes four prescription medications. That doesn’t include over-the-counter drugs, vitamins or supplements.

“Much of that medication use is lifesaving or at least life-improving,” Consumer Reports writes. “But a lot is not.”

In fact, the report points out, nearly 1.3 million people went to the emergency room due to adverse drug effects in 2014, according to estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration.

Of those folks who are taking prescription medications, more than half have never asked their healthcare provider if they should stop taking any. Of those who did ask, nearly three-quarters said their provider helped them cut down their number of prescriptions.

Now for the money part: IMS Institute of Healthcare Informatics found Americans spend an estimated $200 billion per year on the “unnecessary and improper use” of prescriptions.

That’s a tough pill to swallow. It’s time to take a good hard look into your medicine cabinet and learn what to do with your old prescriptions.

3 Easy Ways to Clean Up Your Medicine Cabinet

I get it: It’s hard enough to remember to call in a prescription you need ahead of time, and you’re leaving those franic, “Hi, I’m sorry, but can I get this ASAP?!” messages for your pharmacist.

But cleaning up your list of medications is a lot easier than you might think.

Step 1: Talk With Your Pharmacist About a Review

Hey, that’s what Oct. 21 is for.

Apparently, this isn’t one of those random social media holidays, because pharmacists across the country are ready to help you out, including those at Albertsons, Costco, CVS, Sam’s Club, Target, Walmart — you name it. Just be sure to call and make sure they’re participating.

Many pharmacists are also willing to do this on any ole day, so if you’re busy this Saturday or have a social life or something, no worries. You can also ask your doctor on your next yearly.

Then, gather all your pill bottles, vitamins, supplements — whatever it is you take — and ask for a review. Pharmacists can help you find less expensive, safer drugs or even natural alternatives.

Consumer Reports outlines seven questions to ask.

Step 2: What to Do With Your Old Prescriptions

Do not follow your natural instinct to flush your drugs. That’s mostly in movies. When the cops are in hot pursuit. (Though some drugs, only a small number, are flushable.)

Instead, mark one more date on your calendar: Oct. 28. That’s National Prescription Drug Take Back Day.

Find a collection site near you, and drop off any expired or unnecessary drugs. If you miss this day, there’s another in April.

Or, if you just want to purge on your own, you can follow these instructions from the Food and Drug Administration

(It suggests mixing medicines with a substance like dirt or kitty litter. You just might feel like Walter White during this step.)

Step 3: Start Fresh — and Consider Door Delivery

Now that you know which prescriptions you actually need, Consumer Reports suggests filling them all at one pharmacy. That’s because the electronic filing system will be able to flag any potential problems or odd side effects when new drugs inevitably enter the mix.

You can certainly opt to go to your brick-and-mortar store, but you could also make it super easy on yourself and try out an electronic filing system, like Phil.

You’ll pay the same copay, but instead of leaving that awkward “Hi, I need it, like, yesterday” voicemail for your pharmacist, you can opt for auto-fill on your own schedule. Then your prescriptions will be delivered directly to your doorstep.

For free.

Plus, if you’re a Phil newbie, you’ll get $20 off your first prescription.

So whaddya say? This is actually one helpful made-up holiday, in my opinion.

Carson Kohler (@CarsonKohler) is a junior writer at The Penny Hoarder. In the words of Young Joc, she’ll meet you at the pharmacy counter. ’Cause it’s goin’ down.

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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Study: 59% of People Haven’t Checked If the Equifax Breach Affected Them

Not too long ago, folks were up in arms about the Equifax data breach.

And for a good reason. Something like 145 million Social Security numbers were exposed. That’s panic-inducing.

A recent Credit Sesame survey revealed consumers are in fact concerned, but still aren’t taking action against the massive breach — deemed the worst in U.S. history.

Were You Part of the Equifax Data Breach?

Chances are, you still might not know.

In fact, I didn’t know until a couple of days ago. (Yeah. Boo, hiss at this Penny Hoarder.)

Credit Sesame found that 59% of consumers with excellent credit scores — and 73% with poor credit scores — hadn’t taken the basic step to see if their data could have been affected.

After getting shamed by my editor for not checking, I finally decided to see if my information had indeed been exposed.

Plus, c’mon. The Penny Hoarder had already outlined what I needed to do. It was too easy.

• Step 1: Enter your last name and the last six digits of your Social Security number here.
• Step 2: That’s all.

A screen pops up to let you know whether you could have been impacted.

This is what mine said:

Womp. Womp.

It then encourages you to sign up for its TrustedID Premier program, but I didn’t. I’d rather consider alternatives.

What People Are (or Aren’t) Doing About The Equifax Data Breach

Even if your Social Security number is already floating out there in cyberspace, it doesn’t mean you’re helpless.

There are a few preventive measures worth taking. And they’re easy, says the writer who puts everything off because it’ll “take too much time.”

Let’s Talk About the Credit Freeze

Following the breach, financial gurus encouraged consumers to freeze their credit reports.

But what’s a credit freeze? According to Credit Sesame’s survey, many consumers aren’t quite sure.

Of the 5,500 polled, 18% of those with excellent credit said they didn’t know what a credit freeze was. Neither did 21% of those with poor credit. And even if respondents did know, 29% of those with excellent credit — and 44% with poor credit — didn’t know a credit freeze was even an option.

And overall, 86% of respondents hadn’t put a freeze on their credit.

So here we go.

A credit freeze, as Credit Sesame defines it, is “a process which locks down your credit file and prevents identity thieves and cyber criminals from opening credit in your name.”

Basically, no one can do anything with that information except you.

When you do need access to your credit — for example, when you open a new bank account, sign up for a credit card or apply for a mortgage — you’ll unfreeze, or thaw it, a process that only takes a few hours.

Back in July, I chatted with Steve Weisman, a Bentley University professor and author of fraud and identity theft blog Scamicide. Even before this Equifax mess, he encouraged consumers to keep their credit frozen — unless it was needed.

He described credit freezes as “preventive medicine.”

“This is the single best thing someone can do to protect themselves from being a victim of identity theft,” he said. “Even if your Social Security number was in the hands of an identity thief, you’d still be protected.”

So, yes, after this breach, even if some cybercriminals gets their grimy fingers on your credit score, a credit freeze can still protect you.

And let me add a note on fees.

Credit Sesame also reported that 18% of folks were reluctant to place a freeze on their credit because of the fees involved. That’s true; there are fees if you’re placing a credit freeze on your account as a preventive measure. However, Weisman says it’s typically nothing more than $20.

If you want to learn more about credit freezes — and how easy it is to apply it to your credit — we’ve got more information.

Another (or Additional) Option: Sign Up For Free Alerts

Perhaps one of the reasons I was so reluctant to check the status of the Equifax breach — and other folks who responded in the survey — is because I receive alerts if anything fishy is going on with my report.

With Credit Sesame, I gain free access to my credit score and credit report. I’ve also signed up for alerts, so each month, the service shoots me an email letting me know what’s going on. (This can be adjusted to daily alerts as well.)

If anything weird happens, it notifies me. I also get $50,000 in identity theft insurance.

Again, for free.

So I know if something happens as a result of the breach, my world won’t necessarily come crashing down.

Carson Kohler (@CarsonKohler) is a junior writer at The Penny Hoarder. Another reason she didn’t check her status in the Equifax breach is because she was “frozen” with fear. Bad joke?

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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How This Mom of 4 Earns $35/Hour Doing Flexible, Heart-Based Work

Editor’s note: This post was originally published in March 2016.

Witnessing a birth is one of the most magical experiences you’ll ever have. Or so I’ve been told. If you’ve done it, you’d probably agree with me.

Now imagine witnessing 100 of them.

If you were Sarah Cowherd, it wouldn’t be hard; she’s coming up on number 100 soon.

It’s all thanks to her unique career — it allows her to earn a living wage, have the flexibility to raise her four children and, most importantly, pursue her passion for helping new families.

Do you dream of earning a sustainable income doing work that matters to you?

Then you won’t want to miss this…  

A Doula is Born

Cowherd is a birth and postpartum doula in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Through services that include creating birth plans, assisting during labor and even cooking meals, she supports women and their families before, during and after childbirth.

She became interested in the field while working at a coffee shop in high school, where one of her regular customers was a doula.

Cowherd thought that woman was “the coolest person on earth” and “wanted to do what she did.”

So in college, she took her first certification course with DONA International, one of the oldest doula programs in the world.

She started working soon after (Her first official doula baby turns 11 this year!), but it wasn’t always easy.

“I felt a little bit awkward…  because I had no birth experience [myself],” Cowherd says.

“But I was fortunate to have a few really wonderful couples invite me to their births, so I could learn and grow and see everything firsthand.”

She also volunteered at a crisis pregnancy center, where she worked with teen moms.

“That’s how I was able to go to many, many births in those years as a college student,” she explains. “That just gave me wonderful exposure and was great volunteer work.”

After Cowherd got married and had a child of her own, she started taking on private clients and getting involved in “more professional doula work.”

What’s Life Like as a Doula?

Doulas base their workload and schedule on pregnant clients’ due dates.

Cowherd is at “max capacity” when she has four births per month.

“On the books, it looks like I would have one birth a week, but sometimes it’s three births in one week and one hanging at the other end,” she says. “Every month is different and unique, which I love.”

Though four clients per month is her goal in working full time, she doesn’t always reach it.

“Sometimes I have slow months, and I have to hustle to meet with clients or to really put myself out there,” she says.

Cowherd charges $1,175 for her birth-only package and $25 to $45 per hour for postpartum care.

According to a 2015 survey of 5,000 doulas, typical birth fees range from $681 to $927.

Doulas’ popularity has grown, and so have their rates — a change Cowherd has encouraged and embraced.

“It’s a really cool thing to see this profession catching on,” she says. “Women are realizing they can be really passionate and excited about this work, but that it doesn’t just have to be a hobby. It can be a career, and you can make a living wage.”

Besides the potential to earn a decent salary, another doula benefit is flexibility — which, Cowherd says, makes it a “really amazing field for mothers.”

As Cowherd’s family dynamics changed, so did her schedule. She and her husband now have four kids under the age of 10.

Before having her third child, she worked full time. After that, she “really needed to slow down,” and worked part time for several years.

Now she’s working full time again, but still has flexibility over when she works — except, of course, the exact hours her clients’ babies are born.

“I’m able to arrange my schedule,” she explains. “My kids have spring break in March, so I don’t have nearly as much on the books… It’s kind of beautiful I can do that.”

How to Become a Doula

First things first: You don’t need to have a college degree, or a child, to become a doula.

“There are a lot of really successful, really amazing doulas who have never given birth,” Cowherd says. “Doulas are natural caregivers; they’re natural nurturers. They have a maternal nature whether they’re mothers or not.”

This career’s also a good fit for “business-oriented people, go-getters and extroverts,” she says.

Wondering how to become a doula yourself? Here are three steps you need to take:

1. Get Professionally Trained

Though certification isn’t required, it’s recommended. You can take training either in person or online.

When choosing a program, Cowherd says you should look for one “that offers a lot of support and mentoring.”

She recommends Doula Trainings International, because it’s a “modern organization,” teaching business skills, along with an “incredible mentoring program.”

2. Network With Other Doulas

As with any career, networking is essential.

“Ask [other doulas] out for coffee,” Cowherd suggests. “Pick their brain[s] and hear their stor[ies]. Every doula is so different with their family, work commitments and child care arrangements. It’s so interesting to hear from others how they’ve made this work sustainable.”

Not only can they provide guidance as you get started, they might also become your support network once you’re established.

“I work with a collective of other professional doulas,” Cowherd says. “We carry the same client loads, and we work with each other for backup…  If I’m really sick or have to be out of town, there’s always coverage.”

Forming relationships with other doulas is a “huge piece of this work,” she says.

She even knows of doulas with on-call partnerships.

One of them works days, while the other works nights. It allows them each to schedule around other work and family commitments.

3. Get Help

If you have children or pets, it’s important to enlist help from your family, friends or external sources.

Births occur at all hours — without notice — and you’ll often have to run out the door at the last minute.

Once she started working full time again, Cowherd hired a college student as a live-in nanny. For 25 hours of child care a week, she pays $125 plus room, board and gas money.

Not only has the nanny become a “part of the family,” she also allows Cowherd to “be on call and handle all the crazy, unpredictable hours of doing this work.”

Once her current nanny finishes college, Cowherd is considering hiring an international au pair.

Is Becoming a Doula Right for You?

If those crazy hours sound like too much for you, Cowherd recommends focusing on postpartum doula work.

“Postpartum is wonderful for moms, or anyone who needs more of a rigid structure,” she explains.

“Some postpartum doulas specialize in overnight care, helping families get a full night of sleep or establishing routines for the newborn; some just do daytime,” Cowherd says. “You can create a schedule that works for you.”

Whether you choose to work in birth, postpartum or both, Cowherd says it’s an excellent time to become a doula. (The Bureau of Labor Statistics doesn’t include doulas in its data, but does show job growth in related industries, including nursing.)

“There’s such a demand,” Cowherd says. “People leave their families of origin and go start their life… They really seek out the support of doulas, so they have that sense of community, somebody who can walk them through new parenthood.”

Cowherd is happy to provide that service.

“Doulas get to play so many roles in the beginnings of a new family,” she says. “I feel honored to be part of every birth… It’s the coolest job ever.”

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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Push Your 401(k) to New Heights With Updated Contribution Limit in 2018

You’ve probably heard that feeding your 401(k) through paycheck deductions is a good thing, right?

It is.

In most cases, your employer even matches a percentage of what you put in, so why in the world would you pass up free money?

If you’re all about saving for retirement and putting away as much as you can, we’ve got some good news. Starting in 2018, you can contribute $500 more than you were allowed to in 2017.

A New Max on 401(k) Contributions

In 2018, the U.S. government will raise the personal 401(k) contribution max from $18,000 to $18,500 annually. That’s an extra $500 before taxes that you can tuck away and have working for you and your future.

This maximum does not include employer contributions, so your freebie dough is off the hook. Plus, if you’re over the age of 50 and a little behind on your retirement savings, you can do a one-time “catch up payment” of up to $6,000. That would allow your total to reach $24,500 for 2018.

Sweet, right?

Okay, we’ll be real. Not many of us are putting away that much money. If you get paid every two weeks like most of us, you’re looking at nearly $712 taken out of each paycheck to reach that lofty $18,500 by year’s end.

Another way to look at it is that if you make $92,500 annually, you can now stash a full 20% of your paycheck. What would that add up to?

If you were to start with no money and saved this much each year for 35 years, you’d have $647,500 before interest. Factor in a modest 6% return on investment, and that number jumps to over $2.2 million. That’s a nice little chunk of change for your golden years.

The trick is to not dip into your 401(k) savings before you retire.

It’s nice to have goals and having a boatload of cash by the time you retire is a good one. But let’s face it, most of us don’t earn $92,000 a year and don’t put 20% of our salaries in our 401(k) accounts.

For now, contribute as much as you can to your 401(k) without putting your financial health at risk. A good starting point is to see how much your employer matches and try to at least hit that number.

Need to get started? Here’s a simple 401(k) guide to get you jump started.

Get started now, or if you already have, revisit your 401(k) and do your best to maximize it. Who knows? Perhaps you’ll reach that $18,500 annual contribution ceiling eventually. #lifegoals

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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Now Hiring: Someone Who Likes Geography and Maps — and Working From Home

If you’re anything like the average internet user, you’re already logging in 10 hours or more online each week.

Put your screen time to good use and earn money with Lionbridge, a company that provides business services to organizations all over the world.

Lionbridge Is Looking for Part-Time Map Analysts

We’ve written about various Lionbridge opportunities in the past (“like” The Penny Hoarder Jobs page on Facebook to stay in the loop!), but this time the company is hiring contractors who’ll work as online map quality analysts.

This role involves completing tasks related to online maps and routing. You’ll also be investigating the geographical accuracy of queries and ranking or rating related information.

The job description is a bit vague, and the company you’ll be contracted to work for wasn’t named, but the online evaluation applicants must complete to get this gig may give you a better idea of what this work entails.

It’s important to note: This job is a temporary one and only requires up to 20 hours a week on a flexible schedule.

I reached out to Lionbridge for information regarding pay and will update this post once I get additional information.

Here’s How to Land This Job

According to the job description, online map quality evaluators will need to have:

• Good research skills

• Understanding of local and national geography

• Knowledge of how to use online maps, including route planning and identifying points of interest

• High-speed broadband internet access

Job applicants also need to be fluent in English and have lived in the United States for at least the past two years.

See here for more information about the job. If this sounds like the right gig for you, apply here.

Nicole Dow 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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Home Businesses You Can Start For Less Than $59

By Holly Reisem Hanna If you’re anything like me, your first experience with the direct sales industry is probably with Avon or Tupperware (both of which are still going strong today). In fact, our Avon Lady would make the rounds once a month, going door-to-door saying, “Avon calling.” My mom would let her in, and […]

The post Home Businesses You Can Start For Less Than $59 appeared first on The Work at Home Woman.

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How to Build Hype for the Holiday Season as an Ecommerce Brand

This is a great marketing opportunity for your ecommerce business.

You have a small operating window to effectively execute your plan.

These are some of the most common days to mark on your calendar during the holiday season:

• Thanksgiving
• Black Friday
• Cyber Monday
• Christmas Eve
• Christmas Day
• New Year’s Eve
• New Year’s Day

These all happen within a month or so of each other.

Sure, there are other holidays spread throughout the year.

You can still run promotions for holidays like April Fool’s Day, Mother’s Day, 4th of July, and Labor Day.

But the holidays at the end of the year can be extremely profitable for you if you’re building enough hype for your ecommerce site.

Ecommerce is on the rise, and it goes up 12% during the holiday season.

Online shopping is convenient for consumers.

They don’t have to sit in traffic or wait in lines.

Shoppers can buy from their homes, offices, or mobile devices whenever they have free time.

Sure, not everyone loves shopping on ecommerce platforms.

In fact, 49% of shoppers say not being able to touch, try, or feel a product is their biggest problem with shopping online.

Regardless, ecommerce is still trending upward.

This is especially true for the holidays.

The average adult in the United States plans to spend $419 on their holiday gift purchases.

Take advantage of this.

Building up hype for your ecommerce site can get you a piece of that number.

I’ll show you how to get exposure for your website during the holiday season.

This will increase your traffic, conversions, sales, and revenue.

Start planning early

Don’t wait until the last minute to execute your holiday promotional strategies.

Waiting until December to start marketing for Christmas is way too late.

Let’s take a look at some numbers.

Consumers are shopping less during the pre-holiday dates.

Look at the trends over the last three years.

Just because your customers are waiting to buy does not mean you should be waiting to promote.

Look, I’m not saying to launch your campaign in July or August, but you can certainly start planning ahead.

If you wait, you could potentially lose the edge to your competitors.

Start preparing for factors outside of your marketing strategy as well.

Make sure you have enough inventory.

You’ll also need enough staff on the schedule who are familiar with your procedures to fill and process incoming orders.

Touch base with your web hosting service.

Find out if your website has enough speed and bandwidth to accommodate a potential surge in visitors.

Slow loading times or a site crash could be detrimental to your company, so get all of this sorted out ahead of time.

Planning ahead for unforeseen circumstances will save you time, money, and headaches in the long run.

Offer shipping benefits

Give the customer a reason to buy from you over the competition.

Shipping could be the deciding factor resulting in the sale.

In fact, 9 out of 10 consumers list free shipping as their top incentive for shopping online.

Free shipping isn’t the only motivation you should offer.

If possible, offer priority shipping or even overnight shipping options. Don’t exclude those last-minute shoppers.

If it’s the week before the holidays and people still need to buy gifts, they won’t use a company that takes two weeks to deliver an order.

That shouldn’t be your business. Let your competition make that mistake.

Sure, for overnight shipping or expedited packages, it may not be practical to offer free shipping.

Just make sure your customer has the option to choose when their package will arrive at the most affordable rate.

Be upfront about your shipping prices.

Consider that 61% of consumers said that unexpected costs like shipping, taxes, and fees were the reason for not finalizing their checkout process.

You definitely want to minimize shopping cart abandonment.

Offer free shipping whenever possible, and be transparent about extra costs before the customer reaches your checkout page.

Don’t alienate last-minute shoppers with long delivery dates.

Retargeting must be a top priority

Target your existing customers during the holiday season.

Sure, it’s always great to get new business.

But think about your marketing budget.

It can cost you up to 7 times more to obtain a new customer than to retain an existing customer.

The holiday season isn’t the time to experiment with a new customer acquisition strategy.

Focus on the people already familiar with your brand and products.

If you don’t market to your current customers, they may turn to your competitors instead.

Look at the data above.

During the holiday season, consumers are open to shopping on websites they haven’t visited before.

You can look at this in two ways:

1. You have a greater chance getting new customers.
2. Your current customers may shop on other ecommerce sites.

I would strongly recommend focusing on that second point.

We just talked about the cost of acquiring a new customer compared to keeping an existing one.

If you get new customers, that’s great.

But don’t make that your primary strategy for building holiday hype.

I would be much more concerned with losing one of your customers.

Launch your most successful retargeting strategies for your next holiday campaign.

Create a sense of urgency

Give your customers a reason to make the purchase now.

If they are just browsing, entice them to buy immediately instead of later.

Amazon uses this strategy on their platform all year round.

Look at this example.

Do you see how they created urgency here?

Only 1 item left in stock.

The customer may panic.

Even if they were just browsing, now they have a reason to buy it right away.

The customer knows their loved one really wants this item as a gift, so they don’t want to risk it being sold out before the holidays.

Implement this strategy on your ecommerce site.

• Limited quantity remaining
• Only 2 hours left before sale price expires
• Free shipping if you order before midnight

These are some phrases you can use to encourage buying.

You should do this all year, but it’s especially effective during the holidays.

People want to buy the perfect gift for their friends and family members.

Entice them to purchase those gifts from your website.

Make sure your website is optimized for mobile devices

I often speak about the importance of mobile optimization.

The holiday season is no different.

It’s essential for your customers to be able to make purchases on their phones and tablets easily.

Look at the mobile ecommerce trends from last year’s holiday season:

Earlier we established that people wait until the Thanksgiving weekend to do the majority of their holiday shopping.

The above graph shows purchasing statistics over 3 important days for online retailers:

• Thanksgiving Day
• Black Friday
• Cyber Monday

These dates are within five calendar days of each other.

On each of these days, over half of the ecommerce traffic came from mobile devices.

Purchases from mobile users were 40%, 36%, and 35%, respectively.

Those numbers cannot be ignored.

If your platform isn’t mobile optimized, there’s no chance you’ll get a significant number of sales.

Your page has to load fast too.

Mobile users will leave a site 57% of the time if it doesn’t load in 3 seconds.

Earlier we discussed the importance of planning ahead for the holiday season hype.

Mobile optimization and mobile load times should be at the top of your list.

Flash sales

Run a same day promotional event.

Flash sales work great.

This relates back to the concept of urgency.

Here’s a great example from the J. Crew Factory Store.

Take a look at the two points I highlighted here:

• ends tonight
• online only

These are both great ways to create hype.

Sure, this isn’t an advertisement focused on the holidays.

But you can use those terms during seasonal promotional campaigns as well.

Here’s another thing you want to consider when running a flash sale.

Timing is everything.

If you’re going to run a same day sale or a promotion lasting for a few hours, you need to plan it perfectly.

Find out what time of day your customers are shopping.

The data above shows consumer shopping habits from Cyber Monday last year.

For the most part, activity was much lower during the normal working hours of the day.

What does this tell you?

Starting a sale at 10 AM and ending it at noon probably isn’t your best bet.

However, starting your sale in the evening and running it through 8 AM the following day would be much more effective.

When planned and executed properly, flash sales are a great way to build hype during the holiday season.

Focus on your pricing strategy

Consumers are always price sensitive.

The holidays may not be a bad time to focus on your prices.

Compare your pricing to that of the competition.

Where do you fit?

One of the perks of online shopping for consumers is that they can compare prices between different sites in just seconds.

Chances are, they will buy the least expensive product.

Take a look at these researching habits:

Consumers even visit websites before making a purchase in a brick and mortar store.

Understand the psychology behind pricing.

People love feeling like they got a good deal.

Make sure your products offer them value.

What makes your company different?

If your product is the same as those of every other brand on the market, why should the customer pay double for yours?

They won’t.

The holidays are also a great time to offer discounts and deals.

We already talked about how important it is to offer free shipping.

Discount the products as well.

Mark the initial price higher if necessary, and then slash the prices with flash sales and other promotions.

Know your audience

Whom are you targeting with your holiday campaign strategy?

If the answer is anyone and everyone with access to the Internet, it’s a mistake.

Narrow your focus, and choose your target audience.

Does your business have a Facebook page?

If it doesn’t, you need one. But I won’t get into the importance of that right now.

For the time being, I’ll assume you have a presence on Facebook.

It’s a great way to find out the demographics of your target audience.

Go to the “Insights” tab on your Facebook page.

This will show you valuable information about everyone who liked your page.

You’ll learn their:

• Gender
• Age
• Location
• Language

Take this data, and create campaigns for your followers.

Based on this information, you can potentially figure out which holidays your followers celebrate.

Advertise accordingly.

Use multiple distribution channels

How are you planning to advertise during the holidays?

Email?

Facebook?

Your answer should be both, plus every other distribution channel you can find.

Make sure your brand has an active presence on different social media platforms.

Facebook is effective.

But that shouldn’t be your only resource.

Use Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube to connect with your customers.

Billions of consumers are active on various platforms each month.

If you’re running a promotion such as a flash sale, which we talked about earlier, advertise it on all of your active distribution channels.

This is the best way to ensure it reaches the largest number of people.

It may sound obvious, but too many ecommerce stores look over this concept.

They may advertise a promotion on Instagram but not on Twitter.

This doesn’t make any sense.

It will only take an extra minute or two out of your day to get this campaign up on all of your platforms.

Don’t slack during the holiday season.

Use all your resources to promote your products and brand.

Conclusion

The holiday season is a great opportunity for ecommerce stores to generate high profits.

It’s a time when people are looking to spend money over a short period of time.

The days between Thanksgiving and Christmas are the peak time when consumers shop for the holidays.

Run most promotions between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday.

Those few days are a popular time for online shopping.

Plan ahead.

Make sure you’ve got plenty of staff and inventory ready for a potential surge in online orders.

Online shopping is growing in popularity, especially on mobile devices.

Your ecommerce store needs to be optimized for mobile users.

Create a sense of urgency with each campaign.

Run flash sales, and target your existing customers.

It’s cheaper to keep a current customer than to acquire a new one.

When you’re running a flash sale, pay special attention to the timing of your promotion.

Know your audience. Research the demographics of your customers, and market to those people accordingly.

Customers are sensitive to pricing, so make sure you focus on your pricing strategy.

Offer incentives like free shipping.

Don’t forget about last-minute shoppers.

You also need to advertise next day shipping whenever possible.

Promote your brand on all your distribution channels.

Following these techniques is a recipe for success if you want to build hype for your ecommerce site during the holidays.

How will you promote your ecommerce store during the holiday season to increase sales?

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