LVH-Pocono joins Cancer Alliance

EAST STROUDSBURG — Doctors and administrators at Lehigh Valley Hospital-Pocono are hopeful that, thanks to a new partnership with Memorial Sloan Kettering (MSK) Cancer Alliance, their patients will get the best care possible in their own community.The hospital announced on June 7, that MSK Cancer Alliance care would be extended to the Dale and Frances Hughes Cancer Center at LVH-P.“Bringing all that the MSK Cancer Alliance has to offer to the Hughes Cancer [...]

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Making Plans? Try Writing Them Down First

Whether it's a financial goal of pulling yourself out of debt, or committing to read the Bible from start to finish, experts agree a good plan is the key to success.

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How a Rebellious Streak Can Help You Excel in the Workplace

What do people like Harry Houdini, Napoleon Bonaparte, the movie director Ava DuVernay, and the famous pilot Chesley Sullenberger have in common?

No, the answer is not “really cool names.” As Harvard Business School professor Francesca Gino shows in her new book, “Rebel Talent: Why It Pays to Break the Rules at Work and in Life,” those people achieved success in large part because of their willingness to break the mold. As Gino puts it, they are “deviants, but in a positive and constructive way.” She admiringly calls such people rebels, and she has spent a large part of her career as a social scientist showing how we can positively transform our working lives if we learn from their examples.

While Gino naturally devotes a lot of attention to the high-level strategies of CEOs, at its core, the book is about how to be a better employee.

I took away five main lessons from “Rebel Talent” that can help the average worker become more effective, and happier, in the workplace.

Be Authentic

Most of us are motivated to present the most idealized version of ourselves to others at all times. We want our employers to think of us as being good at everything and willing to take on any task. Or, if we’re job hunting, we want potential employers to know that we were always highly successful in our previous roles. This sort of thinking makes a lot of intuitive sense.

“Rebel Talent” encourages you to challenge those notions. Gino shows that we’re better off when we’re true to ourselves, even if that means admitting to mistakes and failures.

One fascinating way she illustrates this point is by writing about a study she designed involving an “elevator pitch” contest. In this Shark Tank-style competition, business school students were competing in front of judges to see who had the best startup idea.

After making their pitches, Gino had the entrepreneurs fill out a survey that aimed to find out how authentic they were. It asked things like “to what extent do you feel you were being genuine during the pitch?”

Those who felt they were being their true selves while making their pitch were three times as likely to make it to the final round. Similarly, those who admitted in their pitches to having made mistakes in the past also had a much higher likelihood of advancing in the competition. The judges valued honesty and authenticity, even though such behavior can make us feel vulnerable.

In my experience, this makes a ton of sense. When people try to sell me something at my job, I can tell almost immediately whether they actually care about what they’re selling or not. And I’m much more likely to do business with those who are genuine about it.

Remember That Everyone Struggles

We live in a culture that emphasizes how great our most prominent business leaders are. People like Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, and Elon Musk are often described with words like “genius” and “prodigy.” According to Gino, it can be easy to forget that they all made tons of mistakes along the way. When we understand that people who have more experience than us are fallible, it can have tremendous benefits.

Gino points to a study that found firefighters got a boost to their performance after reading case studies about experienced firefighters who committed errors on the job.

Similarly, Gino analyzed hospital data over a 10-year period, and found that heart surgeons who were committed to learning from the mistakes of other doctors had significantly better patient outcomes.

I find that it’s easy to notice all of my own shortcomings, but a lot harder to recognize that highly successful people I admire make just as many mistakes. Gino emphasizes that we need to make ourselves aware of all the ways that others have failed so that we’ll have the courage and tenacity to push through tough times when they arise. Doing so goes against the grain, but it pays off.

Play to Your Strengths

We’re often told that we should focus on improving our weaknesses at our jobs. For instance, if you’re great at doing research but weak at giving presentations to a team, you might be advised to work on your public speaking abilities.

Gino flips this thinking on its head. In her research, she writes, “One predictor of job performance stood out above all others: playing to strengths.”

Rather than working on our weaknesses, we should focus on using our strengths as much as possible. Doing so makes us happier, for one thing. Gino notes that “people who use their strengths daily are six times more likely to get satisfaction out of their job and report less stress and anxiety.”

Furthermore, research has shown that when managers focus on nurturing an employee’s strengths as opposed to working on their weaknesses, their performance improves by 63%.

Amazingly, playing to your strengths helps us even if all we do is think about what we’re good at. In one study, a select group of new employees at a large IT company were instructed to spend 30 minutes thinking about their strengths on their first day. In a follow-up seven months later, those people reported being more committed to their jobs, and were performing at higher levels, than those who didn’t spend the initial 30 minutes focusing on their best abilities.

This was the single most tangible takeaway from the book, from my perspective. I’ve always thought that I should be working as hard as I can to improve in my weaker areas. While that’s not a bad thing, it’s also not optimal. There are people at my company who are good at things I’m bad at, so why not let them handle that stuff? From now on, I’m going to do a better job of being even better in the areas where I already excel.

Be Curious

Gino has found in her research that “curious people often end up being star performers in their organizations.” She lays out a few different reasons as to why this is the case.

For one thing, curious people are more likely to learn new information by reaching out to their colleagues. Not every employee gets the best training, so those who are willing to ask questions and seek help tend to rise through the ranks.

Curious employees are also more likely to be happy at work, even when they’re doing seemingly mundane jobs. A study of workers in a call center showed that those who were curious saw the job less as an assembly line and more as a puzzle to be solved. This change of mindset, so subtle yet so powerful, was a fantastic predictor of who would become the highest performers. It’s a switch we can all make with a little effort.

When Gino surveyed over 3,000 employees from different industries about the power of curiosity, the results were striking. Nine out of 10 respondents (92%) “credited curious people with bringing new ideas into teams and viewed curiosity as a catalyst to job satisfaction innovation, and high performance.”

Even though some of us might be less curious by nature, “Rebel Talent” shows that fostering what curiosity you do have can have a huge payoff.

But: Use Common Sense

My only gripe with “Rebel Talent” is that instead of offering nudges or baby steps, the overall theme is that you should jump into rebelliousness head first. I can almost hear professor Gino in my head as I walk around my office: “Take chances! Tell your boss what’s really on your mind! Come on, Drew, be a rebel!”

While she has proven it can be very effective to adopt a rebel mindset, I think Gino glosses over the downsides to rebelliousness. Every workplace has its own unique dynamics, and not every employee is in a position to challenge the existing way of doing things. When Gino says things like “breaking rules enriches every aspect of our lives,” I feel the need to throw in some caveats.

For many of us, it would be bad form to start asking a bunch of pointed questions during our next conference call, or to challenge our boss repeatedly during our next one-on-one meeting. Asking too many questions can make you come across as needy, a show-off, or an annoyance. I’ve seen it happen.

It’s great to have a rebel spirit, but make sure your timing is right.

Summing Up

If you’ve been waiting for a sign that you should be more assertive and confident in the workplace, this is the book for you. Gino does a great job of showing how people who are willing to blaze their own trail tend to be happier and more productive employees. If you’re authentic, curious, willing to learn from your mishaps, and focused on what you’re good at, your career should be far more rewarding.

Just remember that you exist in the real world, not inside of a social science study, so common sense should always rule the day.

Related Articles:

• What’s It Really Like to Have the ‘Best Job in America’?
• 10 New (to Me) Books on Finance, Frugality, and Life That Are Worth Reading
• Handling Impostor Syndrome in Your Finances and Career

The post How a Rebellious Streak Can Help You Excel in the Workplace appeared first on The Simple Dollar.

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Is Working from Home Right for You? These Do’s and Don’ts Are Here to Help

I work a traditional 8-to-5 office job, and it is taxing in many ways. I have to get up early, make myself presentable and start my commute early enough to reach the office on time. What starts as an eight- or nine-hour workday easily morphs into 10 or 11 hours once I take preparation and commute times into account.

The average commute for an American worker is up to 26.4 minutes according to 2015 U.S. Census data — and that time increases if you live in a metro area. It’s no wonder more employees are asking to work remotely, either on a full-time basis or as needed. Working from home, or WFH, offers numerous benefits to employees — but, as it turns out, offering WFH options also benefits the employer.

Employer Benefits

Global Workplace Analytics evaluated thousands of studies focused on companies who offered work-from-home flexibility. While they found too many to list in this article, the main benefits included an increase in productivity among employees, fewer people calling in sick (and therefore less lost time) and a reduction in burnt-out employees.

Steve Pritchard, HR manager at Cuuver, brings up some additional benefits for employers. “Giving employees the opportunity to work from home if they wish is great for helping to retain staff, especially those who have quite a long commute to work,” he explains. “You can list it on your job advertisements as one of your company benefits, which will help to attract a high caliber of applicants.”

Another perk for employers concerns sick-day usage. “If a member of staff doesn’t feel up to coming into the office but they can get work done from home, this means you aren’t a man down – this makes for a massive perk for both the business and the employee,” says Pritchard.

As far as managing remote employees, Pritchard thinks it’s doable. “Naturally, it can be harder to manage remote workers, so the best way to do this is to implement a progression tool,” he says. “Whether it’s a Google Calendar or specialist software like Zoho or Trello, remote workers can feed into the system what work they are doing, how long it is going to take them and when it will be completed by. Phone calls also help everyone to stay connected when working from home.”

Employee Benefits

The benefits of working from home for employees are probably pretty obvious. You save time (and money) on your commute, you don’t have to adhere to a dress code (though some clothes are preferable) and you can hang out with your dog (or cat, no judgement here).

But there are hidden benefits to working from home that you might not have considered.

As The Muse points out, working from home doesn’t mean you’re stuck in your office all the time. It’s actually a great and flexible way to still get work done when you’re traveling. You can also take your laptop outside and get some work done when the weather is nice, instead of being stuck inside a stuffy office.

I spoke with Dahna Heineman, senior security program manager at DXC Technologies, to learn more about the benefits of working from home for employees. Heineman has been working from home full time for five years and loves the benefits it provides her.

Heineman has no commute and spends less than ever on things like makeup, hair products and dry cleaning. She’s also found that working from home has allowed her to become more attuned to changes in tone of voice.

Heineman also appreciates the ability to work uninterrupted from home. “No one randomly pops up at your desk to interrupt your train of thought while you are working on a security product workflow for multiple services and regions,” she says. “No office noise around or people chatting in the background make it easier to concentrate.”

Drawbacks

Of course, just because working from home can be beneficial for workers and their employers doesn’t mean everyone can (or should) do it. While Heineman generally likes working from home, she acknowledges that there is also a downside.

No commute might sound heavenly to many workers, but it could actually be detrimental. “You have zero time from when you stop working to decompress,” explains Heineman. Rather, you go straight from work life to family life without stopping to take a break.

And while working from home gives you the peace to concentrate on the task at hand, it can also be lonely. “No one ever pops up to give you a break, a laugh or interact with you,” says Heineman. If you’re a social person this can be extremely demoralizing.

Working from home could also mean you take fewer breaks throughout the day. For lunch, Heineman says, “You tend to grab your food, eat it alone and not take a full hour as your break.” Additionally, you could end up “schedul[ing] back to back calls and never even stand[ing] up for six hours.”

This can lead to issues with your health — both mental and physical.

Do’s and Don’ts

If you’re lucky enough to have an employer that supports working from home, you need to be aware of some do’s and don’ts to make sure you don’t take advantage of the policy and potentially ruin it for your co-workers.

Do get ready for work in the morning.

Diane Gottsman writes in an article for HuffPost that getting dressed, brushing your hair and washing your face can help you get in the right mindset for the workday. It might be tempting to work in your pajamas, but putting on pants and a shirt will tell your brain that it’s time to work rather than lounge.

Do make sure you are available during regular business hours.

“Your availability to colleagues should be no different when working remotely than it would be if you were in the office,” Barry Chignell writes in an article for CIPHR.

Don’t skip your lunch break.

“You have the luxury of being more flexible with your day,” writes Gottsman, “but sticking to a routine, which includes planning for healthy meals, will enable you to work more resourcefully than wandering around the house for a cup of noodle soup or a few handfuls of chips.” You’ll enjoy the mental break and will return to work ready to conquer your busy afternoon.

Do create a home office.

“Preferably, you need natural light and a door, so that you can separate your work from your home life when the workday is done,” writes Bill Murphy Jr. in an article for Inc. It might be tempting to work from your couch, but having a designated office space in your home will help you focus on the task at hand.

Don’t get distracted.

Sure, it’s easy enough to do a few chores throughout the day when you’re working from home, but make sure you’re still putting in your hours. “Whether you work in a brick-and-mortar building, local coffee shop or your personal domain, it’s up to you to control your personal disturbances,” explains Gottsman.

That means turning off the TV, staying off social media and scheduling breaks if necessary to take care of things around the house.

Working from home isn’t for everyone, but if you have the right mindset it can be a very rewarding experience. Whether your employer allows the occasional remote day or lets you telecommute full time, make sure you stay productive and switched on when working away from the office.

Catherine Hiles works from home very occasionally in her day job, and as a freelance writer. She prefers the social aspect of an office environment, but appreciates flexibility when she needs to focus on important tasks.

This was originally published on The Penny Hoarder, which helps millions of readers worldwide earn and save money by sharing unique job opportunities, personal stories, freebies and more. The Inc. 5000 ranked The Penny Hoarder as the fastest-growing private media company in the U.S. in 2017.

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Ten Inexpensive (and Quick) Ways to Liven Up Cooking at Home

One of the biggest money savers that Sarah and I have ever incorporated into our lives is to make cooking at home normal. By “cooking at home,” I don’t just mean throwing a prepackaged meal in the oven, either. I mean pulling ingredients out of the pantry and fridge and putting together a meal, usually out of fresh ingredients and other basic items.

Of course, at the same time, we’re incredibly busy. Our monthly calendar often looks like an explosion of overlapping tasks and events. Our evenings can sometimes feel like a well oiled machine as everyone hops from one task to another, finding small windows in which to enjoy a family dinner together.

When you try to combine a desire to have a home-cooked family meal each night with a very busy schedule, what ends up happening is that Sarah and I fall back on some very familiar meals and recipes to keep up this pattern, things we can fix without skipping a beat. Homemade pasta. Grilled burritos. A really simple stir fry or curry. Grilled burgers and vegetables. A simple soup or casserole. Those kinds of things become the backbone of our diet because we can fix them so automatically.

Over time, however, it can become a little stale and boring. It can feel like we’re eating the same ten or so meals in an endless cycle, and that kind of meal boredom can often turn into a nudge in the direction of just eating out or getting takeout, which turns into an expensive proposition.

To head off that expense, we have a number of tools that we use to keep our meals fresh and simple. Here are ten things that we do to keep our home cooking varied and flavorful without breaking the bank and without spending a ton of money.

Visit an international/ethnic grocery store

We shop at the same discount grocer virtually every time we buy groceries. This is a good thing, on one level – we know that the prices are good and they have all of the staples we need for a lot of the meals we make. However, there’s not a lot of variety at that discount grocer – it sells a pretty basic selection of many foods and doesn’t offer much in the way of exotic.

Sarah and I solve this problem by shopping occasionally at an ethnic grocer that’s about twenty minutes from home. We’ll go there once a month or once every other month and buy a bunch of spices and other items that are substantially outside what we would normally cook. We’ll buy containers of spices, jars of sauces, and other unusual items under the assumption that we’ll find fast recipes for them. Often, we’re using our phones to look up what these things are and how to use them in a quickly prepared meal.

After we visit this shop, our normal pasta sauces take on different flavors that are distinct to other parts of the Mediterranean. Our curries taste quite different. Our simple burrito recipe takes on more of an El Salvadoran flavor due to the seasoning choices. We’ve wound up making things like atakilt wat in the slow cooker because we found a seasoning packet for it and then just made it in the slow cooker ourselves without that kit, discovering something we would have never otherwise tried. A trip to an ethnic grocer ended up with us making shawarma sandwiches with pita bread, lettuce, tomato, and seasoned batches of chicken and mushrooms.

We often leave with bags of spices and other things, along with a bunch of new ideas drawn through our filter of “must be quick.” Many of these are just variations on things we’ve made before, but we almost always leave with some idea for something completely new from a cuisine we’re unfamiliar with.

Just go to an international/ethnic grocery store and wander through the aisles. Look at the items for sale there. If you don’t have any idea what they are, look them up and give them a try. You might be surprised to find something completely new to you or a new variation on something you love.

Make some stock

There’s almost no savory dish that uses water as an ingredient that isn’t made better by using stock instead of the water. Soups, stews, casseroles – all of it. The catch, of course, is that simply buying stock is a pretty expensive proposition, one that we often skip just because we don’t want to spend $8 on the liquid in a meal.

So, we make our own. We keep it in pint Ziploc bags in the freezer, each containing a premeasured pint of stock, and we just pull one or two out whenever we need some for a soup or a stew or a casserole to really amp up that flavor.

Making stock is simple. Just save all of your raw vegetable scraps and your cooked but unseasoned (salt and pepper seasoning is fine) vegetables in a bag in the freezer. When you have a gallon or so of scraps, you’re ready. You can also make stock whenever you have a few beef bones or a chicken carcass, though I’d supplement it with a smaller amount of leftover vegetables.

Just put the bones (if you’re making a meat-based stock) and/or the vegetables in a slow cooker and add enough water so that it’s covering the contents of the pot by about three inches. I’d also suggest adding some salt and some whole peppercorns. Then, just turn on the slow cooker to the “low” setting and let it run for a long time – 12 to 24 hours. When you’re done, strain the contents of the slow cooker and save the liquid. As noted above, I recommend freezing it by the pint in pint-sized Ziploc freezer bags.

I actually prefer the vegetable stock rather than the beef or chicken stock because the vegetable stock works in almost any kind of dish, whereas there are situations where you just don’t want to have beef or chicken flavor.

Anyway, when a recipe calls for two cups of a liquid, just replace that with a pint of your stock if the flavor seems remotely appropriate. You’ve just added a gigantic flavor boost to that recipe for very little effort.

Make a large batch of quick finger foods you like

I love pickled things. Pickled cucumbers, pickled peppers, pickled hard-boiled eggs – I’ll eat any of them. They’re easy to make, too – you basically just put the item in question in a mix of 1 cup of water, 1 cup of vinegar, and 1 cup of kosher salt, with maybe a few peppercorns tossed in, too. Close the container loosely, then let it sit in the fridge for several days and you have pickled items.

You may like different finger foods and quick snacks. Sliced fruit is one that many people enjoy, including my kids – just slice up pretty much any fruit, put it in a container with a little bit of lemon juice evenly spread around, and put it in the fridge. Keep your favorite vegetable sliced up in a container in the fridge. Sometimes, I’ll even make huge batches of particular finger foods, like little wontons, and just keep a big container in the fridge for a while.

The thing is, if you have some of those bite-sized items on hand and you like them, put one or two on your dinner plate. It doesn’t have to perfectly accompany the meal – it just adds something that you’re guaranteed to like to your meal, which will raise your feelings about the meal.

I’ll often snag a pickled egg or a couple pickled cucumber or onion slices to put on my plate for many meals. I love their taste and simply having them on my plate makes the rest of the meal more enjoyable.

Clean out the fridge

One of my favorite methods for livening up home cooking is to simply clean out the refrigerator. This takes a bit of time, of course, and is probably a good weekend task, but it almost always results in some food creativity, for several reasons.

One, I almost always find an item or two that’s still good that I want to cook with quite soon. I’ll find a piece of cheese or a ginger root or something that just slipped my mind and when I see it I’ll want to use it.

Two, having a fridge that’s cleaned out gives you space that, for me, is a motivation to try something new. I’ll want to make some pickled eggs or start marinating some vegetables or something like that.

Three, I’ll have several ingredients out that are needed for a particular meal, so I’ll just leave them out and immediately start making that meal, saving me the effort of loading the fridge back up just to unload it again.

Plus, the fridge is clean and there’s no longer anything mysterious in an opaque container or a bag sitting in the back any more.

Clean out the pantry, too

I get the same kind of inspiration from cleaning out and organizing the pantry. Going through dry and nonperishable items often offers the same benefits as going through the fridge.

In the pantry, however, I often find a lot of things that make me want to try a new meal or make an older one again. In fact, I usually make a meal plan while I’m cleaning out the pantry, with meals that utilize the things I find in there.

The big thing for me is spices. I’ll almost always find bags or small containers of spices that were purchased for a particular meal and then put aside, but when I find it again, I immediately want to use it for a new meal so that I get value out of it before it gets old.

Go through your pantry and make a meal plan based on what you find in there. Not only will it make for some inexpensive meals for the week, you’ll likely find the ingredients for meals you intended to make (and can thus make now) or ingredients that you partially used for a meal last month and forgot about the remnants, opening the door to a meal right now.

Use a slow cooker

There are many food ideas we have that we really like to make that just aren’t feasible on a weeknight. Soups and stews that require hours to simmer, casseroles that have to bake for long periods, and so on – those things are normally off the table on a weeknight.

Unless you use a slow cooker, that is.

A slow cooker enables you to start a meal just before you leave for work and come home to a meal that’s basically ready to eat when you get home. It’s basically a small cooking crock inside of a heating element (like a toaster), often with a timer and a heat adjustment dial on it. That’s it.

It is a great way to make a soup or a stew or a casserole or to slowly cook a roast – basically anything that would cook at a relatively low temperature for a long time in your oven or on your stovetop will probably work in some way in a slow cooker. If you have a particular item you want to make and you think it might work in a slow cooker, just Google it and see how to modify it to make it work in a slow cooker.

Most of the time, you just put ingredients in the slow cooker, set the timer and temperature appropriately, and then just leave for the day. You’ll come home to a mostly- or entirely finished meal.

Cook things that have a strong aroma that’s pleasing to you

One of my favorite things to do is to take very ordinary pasta sauce and, while the pasta is boiling, sauté some diced onions and green peppers to go in the pasta sauce.

Why go to that extra effort? Well, for one, it means I can buy a cheaper pasta sauce and still have something amazing, but the real reason is the aroma.

When I’m sautéing onions and peppers and garlic, the whole house smells amazing – it’s just mouth-watering. It convinces you that what’s going to be on the table is going to be delicious.

I use every chance I have to cook things that have a strong aroma, like aromatic vegetables, curries, and other things. In the fall, I love to cook apples and pears in the slow cooker with a bunch of cinnamon (to make cider) and the whole house just smells unbelievably good.

It’s pretty easy to do this. Just fire up the skillet and cook some pre-diced onions and green peppers (you can buy them flash-frozen in your grocer’s freezer section at a great price) when there’s an opportunity, or cook anything else that puts off a great aroma.

Make deglazing your pan a routine action.

Another trick I love to use when I’m cooking onions or green peppers or garlic or mushrooms or meat in a skillet is that I deglaze the pan when I’m finished. I simply add a little bit of liquid to the hot skillet after I remove whatever I’m cooking and let that liquid run around and sizzle, then I add a little more, then a little more until it’s not immediately boiling off. I then pour that liquid right into the dish – and it tastes amazing.

It’s such a simple trick! I do it with all kinds of dishes that involve ingredients cooked in a skillet. It’s a great way to boost the flavor of anything you make.

My mother’s favorite trick? She’ll make a simple gravy while something is cooking in the skillet, then deglaze the skillet right at the end and add it to the gravy, which is then poured over mashed potatoes or the meat itself for an incredible and easy flavor.

Another advantage? It makes the pan easier to clean later on because most of the stuff that would otherwise be dried onto the pan is gone. It actually saves time to do this.

Learn what different herbs and spices actually do to foods instead of just following a recipe

One thing I’ve done over the years is simply learn what the flavor of each and every spice is on its own so that I have a good sense as to what to add to things.

I start off with something really basic, like a scrambled egg or some plain tomato sauce, and I’ll add a single herb or spice to it and see what that tastes like. The next time, I’ll add something different. And then the next time, add something different.

At first, this doesn’t result in amazing flavors, but what starts happening after a while is that you start recognizing the taste of particular herbs and spices. You begin to understand what they each do, and then you can start combining them to bring out all kinds of flavors.

Once you really know what different herbs and spices and seasonings actually do, it becomes a whole lot easier to make almost any dish amazing without having to follow a recipe. You just have to start from scratch and really figure out what they all taste like on their own. This might result in some dull meals, but it pays off big time.

Add a splash of something acidic, like lemon, vinegar, or tomato juice, to bland things

If you taste something and it’s just bland for reasons you can’t figure out, try adding something acidic to it. My usual go-tos for this are lemon juice, lime juice, vinegar, or tomato juice, depending on what I’m trying to improve.

With many soups, I’ll just add some tomato juice to it. With fish, I’ll splash a lot of lime juice or lemon juice on it and cook it just a bit more. With salads, I usually turn to vinegar of some kind to amp up the flavor.

An acidic addition to a dish almost always adds a new level of zing on the tongue that sharpens and brings out all of the other flavors along with it. It’s like a secret magic trick for bland foods.

Final Thoughts

These strategies all work in concert to ensure that there’s more variety in our meals prepared at home than one might initially think.

In our home, we do rely on “framework meals” – basic recipes that Sarah and I can make almost blindfolded – but by incorporating lots of these tricks, we add tons of variety and flavor to these framework meals by changing up the seasoning, changing up the ingredients, and adding little side elements to the basic meals.

Something as simple as a basic noodle soup becomes something intensely flavorful with the zing of some added vinegar and some deglaze from the vegetables. Even things like scrambled eggs transform into something interesting and delicious with salt added early and tarragon added while it’s cooking, with some sautéed onions and peppers added.

You just need to know some basic recipes and have a little repertoire of tricks to amp them up.

Good luck!

The post Ten Inexpensive (and Quick) Ways to Liven Up Cooking at Home appeared first on The Simple Dollar.

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Should You be Worried About Social Security and Medicare?

An unexpected weakening in the finances of Social Security and Medicare has raised concern about the bedrock programs for the middle class. The problems may only keep getting worse in a time of political tension and deep partisan divisions.

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Save On Pet Guinea Pig Supplies With DIY Know-How and Smart Shopping

Upvote This: Ranker Is Filling a Remote Copy Editor Position — Apply Today

Hey copy editors, here’s a gig you might want to upvote.

Ranker, the entertainment website, is looking to fill a remote copy editor position. The website publishes list articles that readers can upvote and downvote items as they see fit.

As a copy editor, you’ll be in charge of making sure images receive proper attribution and the articles are factually and grammatically correct before they get published on the website. Your duties will include verifying facts and sources, giving images proper attribution, spot-checking for plagiarism and using Ranker’s voice and style guide to ensure articles meet set standards.

Hours for this remote contract position sync with the copy desk at Ranker’s Los Angeles Headquarters, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. PST.

Not interested in being a copy editor? Don’t forget to check out our Jobs page on Facebook. We post new opportunities there all the time.

Copy Editor at Ranker

Pay: Not specified

Responsibilities include:

• Proofreading and copy-editing material to ensure content is grammatically correct, fact-checked, free of plagiarism and maintains the website’s voice and style
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• Reporting to and working with the home office in Los Angeles (hours fall between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. PST)

Applicants for this position must:

• Have at least two years experience in a copy-editing position for a high-profile entertainment, celebrity, movie or television publication (online outlets preferred)
• Have a minimum of two years experience in digital media
• Have a bachelor’s degree in English, journalism, communications, film or related major  
• Have experience using a voice and style guide to make sure copy is clean, fact-checked, bias-free and legally low-risk
• Have experience doing large-scale cleanup projects to bring older content up to current editorial standards (preferred)
• Be comfortable working in a fast-paced environment for a data-driven publisher
• Have experience using various content management systems
• Have experience working with search engine optimization (preferred)
• Be a problem-solver and great communicator
• Have a love of pop culture

Apply here for the copy editor position at Ranker.

Matt Reinstetle is a staff writer at The Penny Hoarder.

This was originally published on The Penny Hoarder, which helps millions of readers worldwide earn and save money by sharing unique job opportunities, personal stories, freebies and more. The Inc. 5000 ranked The Penny Hoarder as the fastest-growing private media company in the U.S. in 2017.

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She Makes $45/Hour as a Massage Therapist — and All Her Clients Are Dogs

9 Ways to Get Free or Cheap Therapy When You Don’t Have Health Insurance

When you have poor or no health insurance, you might prioritize other issues over mental health care. This could mean ignoring undiagnosed issues or skipping treatment you know you need.

Even if you don’t suffer from mental health issues, you might neglect your need for support through a major life event when you see the cost of therapy.

As with any physical ailment, not seeking mental health care could be detrimental to your health in the long term.

Instead of forgoing care or winding up in debt over medical bills, try these options to find affordable or free counseling and other mental health care services.

1. Get Affordable Health Care

If you don’t have employer-sponsored insurance coverage and can’t afford private insurance on your own, you could be subject to a fee under the Affordable Healthcare Act.

For assistance, apply at Healthcare.gov. You could receive help covering the cost of insurance, or you may qualify for free health insurance through your state’s Medicaid program.

If you don’t want state-sponsored health care, you can also try a health care ministry like Medi-Share to cut costs. You’ll have to be an active member of a Christian community to join, and the program is best for those in generally good physical health.

When insurance fails you, here are some more options to get the care you need.

2. Find a Training Clinic

Like other areas of health and medicine, practitioners need to practice working with the public before they become clinical or counseling psychologists.

That’s good news for any of us who want to save money on therapy.

Training clinics are usually located near or as part of universities. You’ll attend sessions with a graduate student supervised by a licensed psychologist. These clinics typically charge on a sliding scale (which could be as low as $0, if that’s where your scale slides…)

To find one near you, you can browse the Association of Psychology Training Clinics for member clinics. Or just search “[your city] psychology training clinic.”

3. Visit a Community Mental Health Center

“Community mental health centers provide free or low-cost therapy options and services covered by Medicaid insurance,” says Julie Hanks, LCSW, at Psych Central.

Find a center through the Department of Human Services at your state’s government website.

You can also find services through private non-profit organizations. YMCA offers low-cost/sliding scale behavior health and family services for kids and adults.

4. Attend a Support Group

While you miss out on the personalized care and complete anonymity of private sessions, support groups can be the perfect solution for free or low-cost therapy.

Organizations like the Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance (DBSA), the Anxiety and Depression Association of America (ADAA), Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) and Narcotics Anonymous (NA) host free community support groups in person or online.

If you want to work with a particular therapist but can’t afford private sessions — because you lost insurance coverage, for example — ask if they offer group sessions. These should come at a lower rate you could potentially afford out of pocket.

5. Negotiate and Ask for Discounts

You might not realize it, but your medical bills are totally negotiable. By a lot.

Don’t be afraid to lowball here — this isn’t a business deal, so you don’t have to worry about making a bad impression.

When you receive a bill for services, contact the provider to simply let them know you can’t afford it. They may be willing to cut the cost by more than half if you can pay a chunk upfront.

If you don’t have the cash handy, ask for a payment plan. Get on it before the bill goes to collections, and ask for a monthly payment you can handle to avoid a hit to your credit for late payments.

6. See a Doctor Online

You may be skeptical, but telehealth (or telemedicine) is legitimate and could save you a ton of money on health care.

Through an app like Teladoc, you can meet with a healthcare professional (for physical or mental health issues) for a fraction of the cost of a trip to the clinic.

Telemedicine doctors can diagnose, recommend treatment and even prescribe medication if necessary.

You can even get your therapy via text message — any time you want — through Talkspace! Get unlimited text therapy for $128 per month.

Or go the group therapy route with NAMI AIR, a free app that connects you with a community of people living with mental health conditions and their caregivers.

7. Lean on Your Spiritual Community and Leaders

If you’re involved with an organized religious group, you could find the help you need within that community.

Does your organization host free support groups or retreats where you can connect with others in your situation? Maybe your minister or other leaders in the community offer free individual or couples counseling.

If you’re worried about opening up about your struggles within a small community, remember: Everyone coming to group therapy is looking for help, just like you are.

8. Use Services at Your School or College

College or university students (and faculty) likely have access to health care services through their schools. Your tuition and fees subsidize them, so you might as well take advantage!

Children enrolled in a K-12 school may have access to sessions with a school counselor as well. Lean on these options when your family can’t afford private mental health services.

9. Consult the Internet

Going online to self-diagnose your ailments can be troublesome.

But if you already know what you’re dealing with, consulting a relevant association’s website could help when you have questions and lack access to a doctor.

For example, if you suffer from anxiety, you can find reliable resources at these websites:

• Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies
• Anxiety and Depression Association of America
• International OCD Foundation

Some people also find online forums like Reddit or Facebook groups useful for connecting with other people who understand your situation.

Just be careful to take advice from random individuals with a grain of salt, and never rely on them for a diagnosis.

If you prefer to speak with someone directly, you can call the NAMI Helpline to get answers about symptoms, treatments and resources. The Helpline itself doesn’t offer counseling, but it can help you connect with programs in your area.

Calling a complete stranger to talk about your difficulties can be intimidating but it’s a little easier when you know what to expect.

Dana Sitar (@danasitar) is a staff writer at The Penny Hoarder. She’s written for Huffington Post, Entrepreneur.com, Writer’s Digest and more.

This was originally published on The Penny Hoarder, which helps millions of readers worldwide earn and save money by sharing unique job opportunities, personal stories, freebies and more. The Inc. 5000 ranked The Penny Hoarder as the fastest-growing private media company in the U.S. in 2017.

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The Gap Between Your Goals and Your Actions

For me, the biggest challenge of any major life change, whether it’s financial in nature or health-oriented or something else, is handling the gap between your goals and your actions.

Let’s say you’ve decided that you’re now going to turn your finances around. You’ve sat down with a good personal finance book or two, read through them, dived deep into the archives of The Simple Dollar (and perhaps some other personal finance sites), and you deeply understand the value of turning your finances around. You’re deeply committed to this goal. Let’s do this!

Yet, just a few days later, you take actions in your daily life that head in the exact opposite direction of that goal. You go out with friends and spend a bunch of money. You stop for a sugary coffee drink or for takeout or buy another Kindle book.

And then, a few hours later, you’re wondering why on earth you just did something so blatantly in opposition to your big goal.

Why did I buy that? Why did I spend that money? Why did I eat that?

You might feel stupid. You might feel like a failure. You might even just give up on your goals.

Don’t.

The reason there’s a gap between your goals and your actions is because the principles and goals that guide your actions in the short term aren’t lined up with your long term principles and goals.

I’ll give you an example.

In the long term, my goal is to build financial independence by spending significantly less than I earn and doing something smart with the rest. That’s a great goal with a good principle to guide me there.

The problem is that, in the short term, that principle stands along a big mix of other principles and desires and goals. Yes, I want to spend less than I earn and be frugal with my money, but I also want this new board game to play with my family and friends because I enjoy playing those games, having fun, and cementing a bond with my family and friends, and I see that game as a route to those goals. “Hey, buying this game checks off these three boxes, but not buying it only checks one box… I’ll buy it!” is basically the thought process of my subconscious mind.

Don’t feel bad when something similar happens to you with whatever long term goals you have. It’s a natural response.

The catch is that you have to treat it as a sign that there’s a lot more to work on regarding making progress on your goal. It’s not a sign of failure of yourself or of your goals. It’s a sign that you haven’t quite put all of the pieces for success into place yet.

There are four things in my life that I’ve found that offer real help with shrinking the gap between my big long term goals and my daily actions.

First, I try to keep my long term goals present in my mind as much as possible. I actually wrote about the power of long term thinking and how to encourage it very recently, and everything I said in that article rings true here.

You have to have your long term goals as front and center in your mind as you possibly can. The most effective method I’ve found for this is to just build up some daily, weekly, and monthly routines that force me to think about the longer term future and what I want out of it. I regularly write out detailed pictures of what I want my future to look like at different times – a year, five years, ten years, and so on. I consciously plant lots of seeds for the future. I spend time when I’m driving thinking about very specific long term goals, like “how can I improve my core strength over the next year” or “how can I maximize my children’s college savings by the time they go off to school.”

The more you do this, the more you nudge yourself to take the long term into account with all of your decisions. Your long term goals start to loom larger in your mind and thus you naturally consider it when making choices.

Second, I try to seek out routines that match my short term desires and my long term goals. I will go to great lengths to find things that match what I want in the short term (usually immediate enjoyment or time saving) with what I want in the long term and then add them to my routine.

I’m constantly trying out new foods because I want to find a wide roster of healthy foods I like so that I can eat a healthy diet without just repeating the same four or five things over and over again. I’m constantly trying out new low cost or free activities or hobbies because I want to find a wide repertoire of enjoyable things to do that don’t cost anything. I’m constantly trying out new fitness ideas because I want to find exercise that I enjoy doing in the moment that also improves my long term health.

Just try new things that match your long term goals and might click with your short term desires. If you find something that clicks, add it to your repertoire; if it doesn’t click, discard it and move on to something else.

Eventually, you’ll find that you have tons of options that fulfill your short term desires and your long term goals, thus drastically shrinking or even eliminating the gap between your goals and your actions.

Third, I try to find friends who have similar long term goals as myself and accentuate those friendships. My closest friends in the world – the people I enjoy spending time with – are all committed to pretty frugal lifestyles in an effort to eventually become financially independent. Most of them are really into keeping their spending low. Thus, it feels comfortable to do low cost or free things with them, and they often suggest low cost or free activities to do together.

This is true for almost every long term goal you have. If you want to eat a healthier diet, accentuate your relationships with people in your life who are healthy eaters. If you want to get more fit, accentuate your relationships with people in your life who are fit. If you want to quit smoking, accentuate your relationship with people in your life who don’t smoke.

If you don’t have friends or family members who meet these criteria, seek them out by going to community events or getting involved in civic groups or meet ups that would attract such people. See what your town really has to offer, then use those opportunities to build relationships.

Finally, I do at least one detailed “after action review” each day. An after action review simply means that I take something I did recently – a choice I made or some action I took – and I tear it apart in detail, deciding for myself with more detailed thought whether it was really the right choice to make considering my long term goals and other factors that I might not have considered in that moment.

For me, an after action review is simple. I think about a recent event that I’m not sure I handled well, and I start asking myself questions about it. What was the situation? Who was there? What exactly happened? How was I feeling? How were the other players involved actually feeling? What did I want? What did they want? How should I have ideally handled it? What can I do to make sure the next time this happens, my reaction is closer to the ideal?

For example, I was at the store and I bought a box of a particular kind of tea because I’d read a few articles about it and heard a podcast episode on it. I’ll break that down – should I really have bought that tea at all? Why did I buy it? Could I have bought it elsewhere? Did I really think it through at the store?

It takes me a little while to think through those thoughts. Sometimes, I’ll write it out in a journal. At other times, I’ll just think it through in my head while driving somewhere.

Often, I do after action reviews on little things that might seem like they don’t really deserve a second thought. However, what they reveal is my principles and instincts in action, and it’s a good way to check my principles and instincts and make sure they’re really working for me in the way I want them to work, in the service of my long term goals.

The thing to remember is this: the closer your everyday actions are to being in alignment with your long term goals, the easier it becomes to just march straight to those goals. That sounds easy, but it isn’t – we’re often driven by short term impulses that aren’t in alignment with our goals, and there’s sometimes a really big gap there. The challenge is to figure out how to massage that gap by considering our goals and our short term impulses and nudge them closer together so that our short term actions and impulses are much closer to our long term goals. This makes it far easier to march toward whatever big goals we have for ourselves.

Good luck!

The post The Gap Between Your Goals and Your Actions appeared first on The Simple Dollar.

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The Ultimate B2B Marketing Guide

Your B2B marketing strategy will differ from your typical B2C approach.

Sure, you may notice some overlap between the two, but for the most part, you’ll need a new plan if you want to target other businesses.

Some of you may have companies focusing on other businesses as your primary group of customers. And some of you may be considered both B2B and B2C companies.

If that’s the case, one overlap you may see between the two strategies would be social media marketing. But the difference would be in the way you use it.

Here’s an example. You could be using Snapchat to promote your business as the B2C company. But that won’t be effective as your B2B strategy. But we’ll dive into greater detail on the social media subject later.

For our purposes, it doesn’t matter what type of company you have.

Whether B2B sales make up the totality of your revenue or only a fraction of it, you’ll be able to benefit from this guide.

I’ll explain everything you need to know about how to properly manage and approach your B2B marketing strategy.

Define your buyers

When it comes to B2B marketing, this step will differ from your typical approach to identifying your target market.

That’s because this scenario will be much more specific. You’ve got a unique product or service. Right away, you’ll need to recognize which companies can benefit from whatever you’re selling.

For example, let’s say you manufacture cleaning chemicals for commercial dry cleaners.

You may assume that any dry cleaning business in the country or your region will fall into your target market. While this may be true, that doesn’t necessarily help you define your buyer.

Take a look at this graphic that highlights some of the key differences between your B2B and B2C target audience:

With this information in mind, let’s continue with our dry cleaning example. Whom are you selling to? Is it the owner of the company? The production manager? Is it the person who answers the phone when you call the facility?

Recognizing who has the buying power isn’t the same as identifying your target market.

As we can see in the graphic above, you’ll be focusing your B2B efforts on a much smaller group of people. That’s why it’s helpful to develop a customer persona to boost your conversion rates. You need to realize that the customer persona will vary depending on which business you’re dealing with.

This is one of the first things you should do before going forward with your marketing strategy.

If your buyers aren’t clearly defined from the beginning, the rest of your campaigns won’t make a ton of sense.

Focus on long-term relationships

If you’re selling directly to consumer, it’s obviously important to put effort on customer retention as well. But these types of relationships are way more important for B2B companies.

Think of it like this. Let’s say you sell something simple, like desk chairs.

If a direct consumer buys a chair from you and never buys again, it won’t make or break your company. But let’s say a hotel chain decides to buy chairs for every single room in one of its new buildings.

This is a relationship you can’t afford to lose. That’s why you need to do whatever you can to go the extra mile for your B2B customers.

A B2C customer can just go online and order something from your website. But your B2B clients may require more in-person support:

Let’s continue with the chairs and hotel example. You’ve got a huge opportunity here to continue selling to this client in the future.

Maybe they’re going to build more hotels. Eventually, they’ll even need the chairs replaced in their existing buildings as well.

You can’t just look at the initial sale and be done with it. Always look toward the future, and try to build a long-term relationship.

Adding the personal touch of being present for a delivery of goods can go a long way when it comes to repeat business. I understand this isn’t always practical for every customer or every transaction, but do what you can if it means securing a long-term B2B client.

Prioritize satisfaction

With B2B marketing, you need to make sure the customer is always satisfied. This concept relates back to our previous point about long-term relationships.

For the most part, satisfied customers will keep coming back.

There are certain things you can do to satisfy your B2B customers. Here’s what I mean.

Let’s say you sell file cabinets for offices. You wouldn’t send a free cabinet directly to the consumer, ask them to use it for a while, and then place an order if they want to buy more.

That just doesn’t make any sense from a B2C marketing strategy. How many file cabinets could one person possibly need in their personal home or office?

They would likely take the free one, and that would be the end of it.

But for a B2B company, sending free products to focus on customer satisfaction is a much more reasonable strategy.

To enhance satisfaction, you need to focus on the customer journey process after the point of purchase:

One or two free file cabinets is nothing if that satisfied customer buys thousands of units for their commercial office space. Take their feedback into consideration as well.

If they intend to make more purchases in the long run, you can customize your production specifically for that customer.

But we’ll talk more about this subject in greater detail shortly.

Personalization matters

As I just said, under some circumstances, you might need to customize your products or services based on what the customer wants and needs.

Obviously, you’ll need to have some restrictions here. For example, if you manufacture cars and the client wants boats, you probably won’t be able to help them.

But if you manufacture 11-inch plastic bags, you should be able to manufacture a 20-inch plastic bag with the client’s logo on it to fit their needs. See the difference?

Again, this relates back to satisfaction and long-term relationship building.

Sure, you won’t be able to print that logo on any of your other products for the rest of your clients, but you’re hoping that this type of personalization will result in repeat business from that customer.

Furthermore, you should be personalizing your content to target your B2B customers. Currently, 68% of B2B marketers say they are testing personalized content and offers:

If you’ve properly defined your buyers, which I previously discussed, you can take that personalization strategy to the next level. Here’s what I mean.

Let’s say your company makes coffee mugs and you’re selling a huge order to a business that gives them away as marketing material. All they want is their logo printed on the mugs.

While you are negotiating, you learn the company representative is an avid fisherman.

This may sound like just some small talk, but you could give him a personalized mug with his name and some kind of fisherman design on it as a gift.

While the gesture may seem corny, this added personal touch can go a long way when it comes to building a relationship with this company. When they are ready to order more goods, that representative will think twice before switching to one of your competitors.

Sell your story

Mastering the art of storytelling is crucial for both B2C and B2B businesses.

Having a great story and showcasing it on your website or as part of your value proposition can help you generate leads. But with B2B marketing, you need to position your story to help drive sales.

Tell your clients why you got into business. What’s your background? What’s your experience like?

If you’ve got years of experience in the industry you’re selling to, your clients may be more likely to buy something from you because your products will probably be made accordingly.

Not sure how to get your story out there? This is a great opportunity for you to start blogging:

As you can see from this data, B2B brands who blog generate more leads than those who don’t.

Here’s an example that shows the importance of your story. Imagine you run a company that sells something like gym weights and other fitness equipment.

Recall our discussion about defining the buyer. In this case, you’d be dealing with gym owners and branch managers. It’s safe to say these people have lots of experience with this type of equipment.

But if your background is in accounting and you’ve never worked out a day in your life, it’ll be tough for you to relate to these clients.

However, if you’ve worked in gyms for years and have a personal training certification, your story will help you drive these sales.

You can talk about the way your experience helped you make modifications to equipment to make it safer, more ergonomic, etc..

Pay close attention to your pricing strategy

With marketing, most people don’t tend to think about the price of what they’re selling. But that’s a key component to your promotional strategy.

There are so many factors for you to take into consideration here.

First of all, you need to know what your competitors are selling the same or similar products and services for. Second, you need to know how your price will impact the image of your company.

If the price is too low, will your potential customers think the product is cheap and not made from high quality materials?

When you set your price, make sure you have it at a point that’s enough for you to turn a profit. Factor in all your costs such as materials, equipment, labor, rent, shipping, etc.

You also need to leave some room for negotiation. These things don’t matter as much when you’re selling directly to consumer, but they make a huge difference for B2B clients:

Take a look at how pricing influences repeat purchases for B2B customers:

Three of the top seven responses, including the top result, are related to price.

Here’s an example to show you just how big of an impact pricing can make on a purchase. Let’s say you manufacture clothing.

You sell directly to consumer as well as to other businesses. The price of a plain t-shirt on your website is $15. If it were $14 or $16 instead, it probably wouldn’t have had a huge impact on how many people would buy it. If they’re willing to pay $15, they’re probably willing to pay $16.

But now think about your B2C clients.

Your price for that same shirt might be $7 if they buy it in quantities of 1,000 units. If a commercial customer wants to buy 5,000 shirts, the difference between $7 and $7.50 is $2,500 on that order.

Think about how those numbers scale if that same customer wants to repeat that order twice per quarter for the entire year.

That’s an extra $20,000 they’d be spending. If you think regular consumers are price-sensitive, know that B2B customers pay even more attention to price.

If they weren’t so picky, they wouldn’t be able to stay in business.

Recognize how your buyers consume content

You won’t be advertising the same way to your B2B customers as you would to your B2C ones.

As I briefly stated earlier, social media is still a viable strategy for B2B marketing.

But you won’t be using platforms such as Snapchat. Instead, you’ll probably prioritize marketing channels such as Facebook, YouTube, and LinkedIn.

Here’s a comparison between B2C and B2B social media usage by platform:

Use promotional videos, photos, and other visual content to market to your B2B clients.

Just make sure you keep things professional at all times. Stay on brand. Build an email list.

When you form a new relationship with your customers, ask them whether it’s okay to use calling or texting as a method of communication with them.

B2C companies may have thousands of unique customers per year. But if your B2B brand has only a dozen or so customers, you can try to manage them through this type of personalized communication as opposed to traditional marketing tactics.

Putting out commercials on national television for everyone in the country to see may not be effective if you’re dealing with only 10 or 20 clients per year.

That’s a waste of your resources.

Always network with the intention of growing

Don’t settle.

Your B2B marketing strategy needs to make your company grow. Try to generate more leads and new customers. Get your existing customers to spend more money.

Networking is a great way to find new customers, especially in the B2B sector.

Take a look at this data of the top B2B marketing activities:

As you can see, attending events ranked high on this list.

Go to local, regional, and national events. Join industry networks to meet new people.

These networks host annual meetings and conferences that can be extremely beneficial to your company.

In addition to in-person networking at events, you can also network through digital platforms. As we just discussed, social media sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn need to be part of your B2B marketing strategy.

Conclusion

You need to take a different approach with your B2B marketing campaigns from the approach you’d take with your B2C campaigns.

Start by figuring out who has the buying power in the businesses you’re targeting.

Focus your efforts on customer satisfaction. Go the extra mile to please your customers, and use personalization to befriend them.

All of this will help you build long-term relationships so you can increase the chances of getting repeat purchases from the same clients.

Leverage your brand story to generate leads. Pay close attention to your pricing strategy.

Identify the best marketing channels to promote your content to prospective buyers.

And don’t forget: growing your B2B company requires your constant attention.

If you follow these tips, you’ll be able to create a profitable B2B marketing strategy.

How is your B2B brand generating new leads through promoting customer satisfaction?

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A Real Knockout: UFC and 7 Other Companies Could Owe You

CryptoKitties: The Future Is Meow

Why would anyone pay more than $100,000 for a cat that only exists in pixels? And what can these virtual kitties teach us about blockchain technology?

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CryptoKitties: The Future Is Meow

Why would anyone pay more than $100,000 for a cat that only exists in pixels? And what can these virtual kitties teach us about blockchain technology?

Source Business & Money | HowStuffWorks https://ift.tt/2HvGjd7

This App Helps This Makeup Artist Overcome Challenges to Pursue Her Passion

I Have a Stalker. Will a Landlord Rent to Me Without a Background Check?

Dear Penny,

The house we have been renting for the past eight years is being sold. We must be out on July 1.

My awkward money problem is I have a stalker. Therefore, I MUST stay private.

I can’t have credit or background searches done, because that’s how he’s found me in the past. We are offering two to three months’ rent upfront, a glowing letter from our current landlord, and a letter from my attorney about the stalker and restraining order. But no one is willing to help us out.

Do you have any suggestions? I can’t allow any searches. It’s too risky. It truly is a matter of my life.

-C

I can only imagine the stress you’re feeling right now. Moving is the worst when everything is normal; when you’re afraid for your safety, the stress must certainly compound.

Tenant rights vary widely from state to state, but one thing’s for sure: A landlord or property management company will want to check an applicant’s background in some way. Anyone can come to an open house with a smile and halfway decent handwriting and appear trustworthy; it’s not until landlords run the checks of their choosing that they can be confident prospective tenants will pay the rent on time.

Asking a potential landlord not to do a background or credit check is a major red flag. Even though you’re not at fault in this situation, a history with a stalker is something that will turn off many landlords from even considering you. Landlords want a drama-free property almost as much as you do.

Our lives are more public and easily accessible now than ever before — more than any of us probably wishes. When someone has enough information about you to check up on your affairs beyond what’s easy to Google, there aren’t too many places left to hide.

From your letter, it sounds like your stalker has access to databases that aren’t available to the public. If your stalker can see who recently ran your credit, he might be able to trace you to your new location.

If you can’t leave your geographic area, it might be time to call in reinforcements beyond your restraining order and attorney’s note.

Thirty-six states have address confidentiality programs to protect victims of stalking and domestic violence. The programs provide substitute addresses that can be used for government documents and with public agencies. Programs like these aren’t likely to be helpful if the stalker already knows your address, but they may slow down his search if he doesn’t.

If you think your stalker is finding information about you with your Social Security number, you can ask the Social Security Administration for a new number. You have to provide evidence for why you’re requesting a new number, but the application process is free.

The Stalking Resource Center at the National Center for Victims of Crime has resources you may want to review. The National Network to End Domestic Violence has a relocation tip sheet for people dealing with stalking.

In a movie script, I’d tell you to change your name, cut your hair and get the heck out of town. But this is real life. Work with law enforcement and local victim advocate programs, and ask for help from friends, family, your employer and anyone else who can keep an extra eye out on your well-being.

Have an awkward money dilemma? Send it to dearpenny@thepennyhoarder.com.

Disclaimer: Chosen questions and featured answers will appear in The Penny Hoarder’s “Dear Penny” column. I won’t be able to answer every single letter (I can only type so fast!). We reserve the right to edit and publish your questions. Don’t worry — your identity will remain anonymous. I don’t have a psychology, accounting, finance or legal degree, so my advice is for informational purposes only. I do, however, promise to give you honest advice based on my own insights and real-life experiences.

This was originally published on The Penny Hoarder, which helps millions of readers worldwide earn and save money by sharing unique job opportunities, personal stories, freebies and more. The Inc. 5000 ranked The Penny Hoarder as the fastest-growing private media company in the U.S. in 2017.

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The Job Market Is Hot. Here’s What It Means, and How You Can Stand Out

Well, it finally happened.

In April, the number of open jobs in the U.S. surpassed the number of folks looking for work for the first time since the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics started tracking the numbers in 2007. There were 6,698,000 available jobs but only 5,932,000 job seekers — a difference of more than 766,000.

While this does show the strength of the U.S. economy and a tightening labor market, it doesn’t mean you can just walk out in your front yard and proclaim, “One job, please!”

I mean, you could, but it would look pretty funny.

“There's nothing magical about reaching one job opening per unemployed worker,” said Jed Kolko, chief economist at Indeed. “It doesn't literally mean that everyone who wants a job can get one.”

Since these are national figures, it could theoretically mean that there are plenty of jobs two towns over, but none in yours. And different jobs require different skills, so the unemployed just might not have the abilities that employers with openings are looking for.

“Also, some people have given up looking for work and therefore aren't counted as unemployed, even though they might be interested in working,” Kolko explained.

But, don’t despair — we’re always posting open positions on The Penny Hoarder Jobs Page on Facebook. And there are plenty of ways to stand out in the crowded job market.

Here Are Some Tips to Help You Stand Out in a Hot Labor Market

The ratio of job listings to job seekers may be deceivingly positive. But still, there is a record number of job openings in the U.S. and the unemployment rate continues to fall to post-recession lows.

“Payroll growth has been strong and steady, and well ahead of the level needed to keep up with population growth,” Kolko said.

So, how do you get your hands on one of these open jobs? Invest in yourself.

For one, you’ll need to dust off that resume or stop procrastinating and write one already. And while you’re at it, go ahead and write a cover letter to slap on top of it — these are more important than you think.

Next, don’t neglect your LinkedIn page, which can be a crucial networking tool in the search for your dream job. Here are some expert tips for sprucing up your LinkedIn that only take 30 minutes.

If you’re looking for a work-from-home job, you might want to start stocking up on supplies to create a home office.

And finally, when you do land an interview, make sure to prepare for 20 common interview questions you might face.

So don’t be discouraged when you see all the press about the latest job openings figures, even if you’re having a particularly tough time finding a gig. By just taking a few hours to spruce up your professional profile, you can stand out in any job market.

Alex Mahadevan is a data journalist at The Penny Hoarder.

This was originally published on The Penny Hoarder, which helps millions of readers worldwide earn and save money by sharing unique job opportunities, personal stories, freebies and more. The Inc. 5000 ranked The Penny Hoarder as the fastest-growing private media company in the U.S. in 2017.

source The Penny Hoarder https://ift.tt/2xY3jSO