Shortly after I pressed the “pause” button on my teaching career and began staying home with our littlest one, I began to look for ways to earn money. When I started this journey, I was naturally drawn to work-at-home jobs within the field of education. A few minutes into my search, and I was amazed […]
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Parents, you want the best for your kids. You don’t want them stumbling through life, struggling financially and figuring everything out on their own, do you?
No!
That means talking to kids about money at a young age and teaching them how to properly manage it.
The Penny Hoarder recently conducted a survey of over 1,500 people on the topic of financial literacy and found one-third did not learn basic personal finance concepts growing up. You don’t want your kids to reach adulthood oblivious to how to earn and save money.
Among Americans who did discuss money growing up, only 17% have no savings and 18% earn less than $50,000. But among those who did not gain early financial literacy, 40% have no savings and 31% earn less than $50,000.
Children start developing financial habits at an early age, so don’t wait until high school to talk about money with your kids. If they’re already teens, that’s OK. There’s still plenty of opportunity to teach them how to earn money, spend smartly and save for the important stuff.
Earning, spending and saving are the three main components of budgeting. Here’s how to get your children to grasp those concepts.
It doesn’t just magically come out of an ATM either. It’s important that kids understand how to earn a buck.
Allowance can be a touchy subject for parents. Some don’t believe in rewarding kids for work they ought to do as members of the household. Others just don’t have the funds to give money for chores.
An allowance, however, can help children make the connection that money is given in exchange for work.
It doesn’t have to be a lot. You can start off rewarding your little ones with $1 a week for setting the table or sweeping the floor. Or you could choose to only pay your kids for chores that go above and beyond everyday household work, like mowing the lawn or washing the car.
Another way your kids can learn that working pays off is by giving them money for earning certain grades in school.
From lemonade stands to babysitting, there are plenty of ways kids can earn their own money. Lean into their interests and use them as a way to inspire your kids to become entrepreneurs.
Caroline and Isabel Bercaw loved using bath bombs and were just 10 and 11 years old when they decided to make and sell their own at a local art fair. Less than three years later, they were approached by Target to sell their bath bombs in its stores, and Da Bomb Bath Fizzers grew into a multi-million dollar company.
Your children don’t have to turn their entrepreneurial pursuits into million-dollar businesses. Maybe they just rake leaves for neighbors or tutor other students to earn some spending money.
Once they’re old enough to legally work in your state, your teen can find part-time or seasonal work as a way to earn an income. Retail, food service and theme parks are employers that often hire teenage workers.
Talking about salaries and income disparities can be an awkward conversation. But raising kids pretty much guarantees you’ll have to tackle an awkward conversation or two.
You’ll probably want to wait until your children are older, but talk to them about expected salary ranges, job growth and the various roles a person can hold when you discuss career ambitions. It’ll help establish an idea of the kind of lifestyle they’ll be able to afford in the future.
Of course, money isn’t everything, so don’t crush their dreams by saying they’ll starve if they pursue a career in the arts.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Occupational Outlook Handbook is a great resource for your teen to research average salaries and different jobs in their field of choice.
A huge part of budgeting is learning how to smartly spend. That means teaching your kids not to grab everything they like in the store.
Recognizing the difference between needs and wants is something even adults struggle with. Nevertheless, you should try to serve as a positive example and include kids in conversations about household spending.
When you’re grocery shopping, point out how buying chicken, rice and green beans is more important than getting treats like ice cream or chips. During back-to-school season, share how getting notebooks and pencils is a priority over locker decor. You might also explain why saving up for a new car for the family means you have to forgo a summer trip this year.
Another approach is to have your kids contribute a portion of their allowance for household essentials. One mom’s Facebook post went viral last year after she charged her 5-year-old for needs like rent and electricity to introduce the concept of having to pay bills.
Having a little money to spend might give your kids tunnel vision about buying something they want. Instead suggest ways your children can get more bang for their buck.
Point out prices in the toy aisle. Ask your child whether he’d rather get that $15 toy he noticed first or choose two similar items costing $7 each. Go over sales catalogues, and introduce the concept of couponing.
Before they spend all their savings on something frivolous, ask your kids to reflect on what they had to do to earn the money. Challenge them to wait a week before buying something on impulse.
Kids will make a stronger connection to exchanging money for goods and services if they’re the ones actually making the exchange.
If they want to go out for ice cream, help them count out bills and coins from their piggy bank and let them hand the money over to the cashier.
As your little ones grow, get them a wallet or purse to hold their money. Place them in charge of buying lunch at school rather than adding money to their account online.
There are even ways to include your kids in the cashless economy. Companies like FamZoo, GreenLight and BusyKid offer kid-friendly debit cards.
Some parents choose to add their teens as an authorized user of their credit cards, which establishes a credit history for them and has the potential to strengthen their credit scores.
The CARD Act of 2009 restricts consumers under 21 from applying for credit cards on their own without stable income.
If you go this route, make sure to teach your teen about the consequences of charging what you can’t afford on credit. Use parental controls for online accounts where you have credit card information stored, such as Amazon, and regularly check your credit card purchases.
Spending is not limited to buying things for yourself. It’s good practice to put money aside for giving, whether that’s donating to charity, tithing at church or buying gifts for others.
Giving teaches children to think beyond themselves and to develop a philanthropic spirit. Many money experts recommend teaching children to budget by splitting their money into three jars — one for spending, one for giving and one for saving, which we’ll discuss next.
Kids don’t want to wait for what they want. They want it now. Right now.
Help them learn to fight the instant gratification urge and save their money.
Saving money isn’t the most exciting thing in the world, but you can liven it up for your kids (and yourself too).
Take a visual approach to tracking savings. Have your kid draw something that represents what she’s saving for — like a music note for concert tickets. Each time she saves money, have her shade in a portion of the image.
Turn saving money into a challenge by having your kids drop money into a jar and reward them when they fill it up. Or tap into sibling rivalry by having them compete with their brother or sister for bragging rights on who can save the most the quickest.
You can also create a game out of finding coupons or deals. Reward your kids with a portion of the savings they discovered.
Piggy banks are great savings tools for young kids, but a savings account introduces them to the banking industry.
Whether you choose to open an account at a brick-and-mortar bank, credit union or online bank, make sure to review the monthly statements with your kid. Discuss how their money can grow with interest by keeping it in the account.
Make sure to point out any account maintenance fees or limitations on withdrawals — and the consequences that come with surpassing those limitations.
College is one of the most expensive costs you’ll face as a parent. (Though day care expenses can rival that.) The upside? You have about 18 years to save up.
Involving your children in discussions about saving for college helps them become aware of the magnitude of investing in a degree. It may also open up conversations about alternatives to the ultra-expensive private universities on your kid’s top school-choice list.
Some parents have their kids contribute to the cost of college. If your teen has a part-time job, he can save a percentage of his earnings in a college fund.
Get other family members in on the goal of saving for college by asking them to contribute to your kid’s 529 college savings plan in lieu of gifts for holidays or birthdays.
When you’re teaching kids how to budget, injecting fun along the way is a must.
Younger kids may enjoy dropping coins into a piggy bank or reading a book like “Curious George Saves His Pennies.” Several kids’ museums across the country have exhibits geared toward shopping or banking.
Older kids might pick up a financial lesson from board games like The Game of Life or Monopoly. This list of money-themed presents for kids make for good gift ideas all year round.
The Federal Trade Commission has various videos and online games, including this one geared to kids about how to be a smart consumer at the mall. Jackson Charitable Foundation has a series of kid-friendly music videos about money that cover concepts like earning and spending.
Getting your children involved in a finance-focused organization like Junior Achievement is another way to make learning about money interesting.
The National Endowment for Financial Education’s High School Financial Planning Program has resources for parents to talk to their teens about money.
For more advice on teaching your kids about budgeting and personal finance, check out these books:
Nicole Dow is a senior writer at The Penny Hoarder. She’s a parent who plans to teach her daughter all the things she didn’t learn about money growing up.
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.
Obtaining a mortgage can be one of the most stressful and exhausting parts of the homebuying process.
Since the subprime housing crisis and the market crash that kicked off in 2007, mortgage applications and reviews have been more detailed and rigorous than ever, requiring seemingly endless paperwork and extensive income verification.
There are also many variables to consider when shopping for a mortgage that can impact the success of the entire process and ultimately how much you spend — not only to obtain the mortgage, but on your home over the long run.
To help first-time homebuyers navigate all of these hurdles successfully, we asked mortgage industry experts to share their top tips for obtaining a mortgage.
First things first: Given all the documentation requirements associated with the mortgage process, do yourself a favor by getting your financial paperwork in order at the outset, says Chase home lending advisor Michele Hammond.
Key items to pull together include recent pay stubs, tax returns, W-2s from your employer, and bank statements from all savings and checking accounts, as well as from any investment or retirement accounts.
You’ll also need to provide a Form 4506-T, which is an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) document used by lenders to retrieve past tax transcripts that are on file with the IRS, said Hammond.
Self-employed applicants will need to provide two years of tax returns and their most recent profit and loss statement showing revenues, costs, and expenses during a fiscal year.
In addition to merely gathering paperwork, it’s a good idea at this stage to get yourself in top financial shape so that lenders view your application more favorably, adds Hammond.
Improving your financial profile involves a variety of elements. For starters, avoid carrying excessive debt.
“Your debt-to-income ratio is an important factor that lenders consider when looking at your fitness for a loan,” Hammond explained. “Reducing debt can make your finances look more attractive.”
To assist with minimizing debt, eliminate any unnecessary monthly expenses beyond housing, Hammond continued. Use the freed-up money to pay down debt or increase your down payment for the home, both of which could put you in better shape when it’s time to apply for a loan.
Reviewing your credit score and history is another key effort. If your credit score needs improvement, try making multiple or frequent payments on a credit card during the course of a month, suggests Hammond.
“If you pay on time and consistently, your score should reflect that,” she said.
One additional suggestion from Hammond on this front: If possible, avoid changing jobs while applying for a mortgage.
“Lenders look for job stability when they evaluate your ability to repay a loan,” Hammond explained. “If you must switch jobs while applying for a mortgage, be sure your new base salary qualifies you for the same loan amount. And keep in mind that only your base earnings count toward your income until you can produce at least, two years bonus history.”
Reviewing multiple lenders, or mortgage shopping, is a critical step — and it’s one that many first-time home buyers often neglect, instead taking the first lender recommendation they receive or mortgage quote obtained.
“You never want to settle on the first lender you talk with,” said Andy Harris, president of CRMS, Vantage Mortgage Group and Association of Independent Mortgage Experts. “Buyers don’t realize how different the terms are that vary from company to company – even if the loan type is a commodity, pricing is not.”
When talking with different lenders and mortgage brokers, it’s important to get quotes on the same day for an accurate comparison, Harris added.
While daily market rate changes will impact all lenders uniformly, the actual rates they offer borrowers will vary based on other factors as well.
“This is relating to their own overhead costs or other items that impact their overall pricing that they offer,” Harris continued. “So, for example, if you’re comparing two companies on the same conventional 30-year fixed loan on the same day, one might quote a fee of $2,000 at a specific rate. While at that same rate, another is offering a credit of $2,000. That would be a $4,000 direct difference in cost for the same conventional 30-year fixed loan.”
When shopping around, be sure to include a local, truly independent mortgage broker in your search, someone who’s experienced and accountable, added Harris, as such an individual can shop wholesale lenders on your behalf and work directly for you.
Matt Hackett, an operations manager of Equity Now, a direct mortgage lender, suggests applying with a minimum of three lenders, which will give buyers a true sense of the market.
“Compare them to see where you can get the best deal,” said Hackett.
First-time home buyers often get caught up in the more appealing parts of the process — shopping for their dream home — and neglect to get preapproved for a home loan. But doing so early on can prevent disappointment later.
“It’s more than heartbreaking when you find the perfect home, then find out it’s outside your budget. Getting fully preapproved supports your successful experience,” said Nicole Rueth of Fairway Independent Mortgage Corporation.
“Work with a lender who will help you differentiate between your maximum qualification, determined by your income and your debts, and optimal budget. A common regret for first-time homebuyers is that they maxed out their qualification and now have a mortgage payment that limits other opportunities.”
It’s also important to keep in mind that there are various levels of pre-screening for a mortgage, noted Ryan Richardson, a licensed mortgage loan officer for Pennsylvania-based Movement Mortgage. Simply getting prequalified is the most basic step, but it’s only designed to give you a loose idea of what you can afford.
“This is a buyer verbally telling a loan officer what their income, assets, and liabilities are and oftentimes no documentation is collected to verify any of it,” explained Richardson, who says this limited review doesn’t do anyone any service.
“It sends someone shopping for a home based on good guesses,” said Richardson.
Getting preapproved, on the other hand, takes the review a step further, typically requiring the home buyer to submit pay stubs, W-2s, and bank statements. A letter of preapproval from a lender also shows sellers that you’re a serious buyer with financing in place.
“The loan officer has more solid information to determine what you can afford,” Richardson explained. “I would recommend this as a bare minimum before shopping, this avoids heartbreak further down the line when you have a more solid idea of what you can and can’t do.”
As part of the mortgage shopping process, you’ll likely be getting interest rate quotes. However, keep in mind that an interest rate is not guaranteed until it’s locked in. And typically, you can only lock in or guarantee an interest rate once you’ve a signed agreement of sale that includes an agreed upon settlement date, explained Richardson.
A mortgage rate lock, however, is an agreement between a borrower and a lender that allows the borrower to lock in an interest rate for a mortgage over a specified period of time. In other words, the rate will stay consistent, even if the market changes. Lock periods range from 15 days to 45 or even 60 days, and lenders may charge a lock fee.
“Rule of thumb is the longer the mortgage company locks, or guarantees your rate, the more expensive it is going to be,” said Richardson. “For instance, a 60-day lock is going to be more expensive than a 30-day lock, because the mortgage company is guaranteeing something for a longer period of time.”
There is a downside to locks to keep in mind. If the market changes and rates decrease after you’ve locked in, you generally won’t be able to take advantage of the lower rates.
A home is one of the biggest purchases most people will ever make, so it’s important understand what you’re getting into.
Having a basic grasp of mortgages and all of their variables will save you money and heartache, said Jennifer Beeston, of Guaranteed Rate Mortgage.
“Read and watch videos online about the mortgage process and options. Know the difference between a fixed rate and an adjustable-rate mortgage, and what points are. All this info is online and it is free,” she said.
And one last step – research your individual loan officer.
“The actual person doing your loan is critical. Just because a company has a good name or does a lot of loans does not mean the person doing your loan is good,” said Beeston. “Look for third-party reviews of the person who is your loan officer.”
Read more:
Mia Taylor is an award-winning journalist with more than two decades of experience. She has worked for some of the nation’s best-known news organizations, including the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and the San Diego Union-Tribune.
The post Tips for Getting a Mortgage appeared first on The Simple Dollar.
I’ve mentioned often on The Simple Dollar how journaling is a daily practice for me and has been off and on (but mostly on) since middle school in various forms. At times, it’s taken the form of simply cataloguing my day; at other times, I’ve written in response to various prompts; today, it’s completely different (and I’ll write about that in a bit). In any case, writing in my journal – simply put, getting thoughts out of my head down on paper – is something that is a daily part of my life.
Why have I kept up with it for so long? How has it helped me in any way that’s made it worth the time investment? And what does that practice look like? That’s what I want to share today.
Let’s start with the why.
I keep up with a daily journaling practice for a lot of reasons.
First of all, it feels like a mental relief to do it because it quiets the monologue in my head. Along with meditation, it’s one of the two most effective routine things I’ve found in my life for getting the constantly chattering voice in my head to quiet down a little. That voice is constantly going over things I need to do, things I’m thinking about or worried about, my upcoming plans, some problem I’m interested in, and all kinds of other stray thoughts. That constant stream of thought is distracting. I find that dumping some of that stream of thought down on paper quiets that distracting voice pretty well, at least for a while. I’ve found that one big burst of writing in my journal at the start of the day coupled with having a pocket notebook on me at all times to jot down other stray thoughts throughout the day keeps that voice a lot quieter and a lot less distracting.
Second, I use it to work through challenging problems in my life that I’m not quite sure how to solve. When I observe something I don’t like in my life, my mind often worries on that problem without ever really coming to a good conclusion on it. I’ll think about that problem over and over, but at best my idle thoughts will come up with really half-baked solutions. When I sit down and journal and dump that problem out on paper, I find that I almost always work toward an actual good solution to the problem (or problems) in my head. By writing out the problem as I see it, I usually get some better insight into what’s really going on, and then as I write down that insight, more pop up, and eventually I lead myself to the real source of the problem and perhaps a start down the path to a good solution.
This applies very well to personal finance. For example, it was writing in my journal that really helped me piece together that something was wrong with my financial life and gradually led me to the decision to make some major changes. It has helped me figure out what things in my life were frivolous expenses and which ones were not. It has helped me to identify situations where I was spending money nonsensically as an emotional response to some other situation in my life.
Third, it’s helped me to understand complex ideas by taking a bunch of swirling bits and pieces I’ve learned recently and didn’t fully understand and combine them into something meaningful and comprehensible and useful. Many of my journal entries have originated from my thinking about something I read recently or experienced recently that I didn’t quite understand, and by simply spelling it all out piece by piece, the idea came together for me. I used to do this a lot when I was in college, but I still do it quite frequently when I’m reading something or when I’ve had a difficult interaction with someone.
For example, it was this practice that really helped me to understand investing and how index funds work and helped me decide that I should put as much of our investment money as possible into index funds. The ideas made sense on their own, but it was assembling the ideas and relating them to our own situation, which I did over a bunch of journaling sessions, that locked our retirement planning into place.
I did the same thing when we were shopping for a home. Many of my entries during the months in which we were house shopping were oriented around figuring out how the house buying process worked, how mortgages worked, and so on. This actually leads well into my next point.
Journaling has helped me come to a firm conclusion when there were a lot of options on the table. Often, decision making comes down to being able to filter through a lot of options, figure out which elements matter the most, and choose from those options based on that. Journaling has helped me with every piece of that process for many different major decisions in my life.
As I noted earlier, journaling was essential in our home buying process. I wrote down extensive thoughts on each home we visited, the relative merits and drawbacks of each, and what each would look like financially. My journaling process helped Sarah and I choose a home that we could afford that met our needs, a home we still live in.
It’s helped me decide between investment options. It’s helped me make career choices when I had several options on the table at a few points in my life. Simply writing through each of the options, figuring out what was good and bad about each one, and then coming to a clear decision not only helped me make a great decision at each of those crossroads, it also helped clear my head of constant worrying and constant thoughts on the subject.
So, how exactly do I do this? What does my journaling practice look like?
I’ve used a number of practices over the years, but the one I’ve used for the last few years, with a few tweaks, has been a small variation on the “three morning pages” journaling practice first popularized by Julia Cameron.
In Cameron’s original practice, she simply suggested that a person sit down with a blank journal and start writing, filling up three pages in a journal with their writing before stopping for the day. Write about whatever’s on your mind – if it’s on your mind, just write it down, no matter how inane or pointless it seems. It gets that thought out of your head and makes space for whatever’s next. Some days, everything is inane, and that’s fine. Other days, you’re working through some very difficult things, and that’s fine, too. The goal is to empty that junk out of your head so you can get clean start to your day.
I tried doing this exact thing for a while, but I ran into a number of small problems with it. The biggest one was that my handwriting is small and the pages in my journal are big. I tend to journal by writing in block capital letters – it just feels the most comfortable to me – and the writing is pretty small. Most of my journals are either full size pages or close to it. Thus, it can take a long time to simply fill up a page with words, even if I’m writing as fast as I can.
So, I modified the practice to what I call “45 morning minutes.” I just set a timer for 45 minutes, sit down with my journal, open to the next blank page (or partial page), and start writing. When the timer goes off, I keep going until there’s a clear break in thought and then I write a big double line across the page indicating the end of the day, and I’m done. Journaling with a strict time limit keeps it within a reasonable time frame for me and makes it easy to schedule.
Obviously, I do this in the morning, usually before anyone else is awake. I find that doing this early in the day is really effective at quieting down that internal monologue that distracts me with chatter and ideas throughout the day. I’d rather have it quiet in the mornings and afternoons so that I can get focused work done. So, that’s another big part of the equation for me: journaling in the morning quiets my internal monologue so that I can focus better during the work day.
After I finish, I usually read back through my entry over the course of a few minutes, mostly to extract things that I need to get done in the near future. Are there any actionable items that I thought about or generated during that journaling? If so, I move them to my to-do list manager or to my calendar so I can find them later on in the day when I’m actually doing stuff. Again, another key point: journaling often generates specific actions I need to work on or things I need to take care of, so I transfer those out to a to-do list.
After that, I just close my journal and go about my day.
There are a few obvious questions that come about from that description, so let me address them right now.
I read old entries, but nothing older than a few months. After four or five months, the old entries start to read like they were written by another person living another life. It’s familiar in the way that a distant memory is familiar, but it doesn’t feel like me any more. When journal entries reach that point, then there isn’t really any value to them any more, at least not for me. The method of journaling I use is not really a record of what I did each day, so once the entries aren’t fresh, I don’t find any personal value in them. I’ve changed enough as a person that the situations and solutions I wrote about in old journals no longer apply specifically to new situations. I haven’t actively read journal entries more than a few months old in a long time, and every time I happen to see one, I really don’t care to read it.
There are a few reasons for this, but most of it boils down to the fact that my journals reflect my active thinking at that moment, but when that moment fades away, there’s not much value there. It’s not a record of my life, but an outpouring of my current thought.
There are some specific reasons, too.
I am often deeply critical of myself, something that doesn’t need to be re-read and dwelled upon. I sometimes tear myself to shreds when I’m writing a journal entry. I’m extremely critical of my flaws and mistakes, and while that can be good in the moment when I’m assessing a situation or setting out a goal, it doesn’t do me any good to read it later or for someone else to read it.
I am sometimes honestly critical of my children in a way that I wouldn’t want them to read; I do this not to be cruel, but to figure out how to be a good parent to them. It does not make me a good parent to pretend that my children are perfect and flawless. Rather, one of the best things I can do as a parent is to honestly assess their good features and their flaws and take those into account when I figure out how to communicate well with them and guide them toward good decision making practices, life ambitions, and things of that nature. For example, I might write down that one of my children is extremely conscientious of others but is sometimes excessively boastful, or I might write that another child is richly thoughtful but very quick to frustration and anger. (Obviously, these aren’t actual observations and are quite sanitized to boot, just examples so you understand what I mean.) Those aren’t thoughts that I want them to read, or anyone else to read.
The same is true for my wife and my role as a husband and, occasionally, some of my friends and my role as their friend. I do similar evaluations of my wife at times. In what ways is she amazing? In what ways can I complement her with my strengths? In what ways does she complement my own weaknesses? How can I help out in areas where she’s not as strong? I’m sure she’s glad that I think about such things and consider how to be a better husband, but I don’t think even she would want to actually read such thoughts. The same thing is true if I assess a friend, particularly if they’re asking me for some life advice. I want to give the best advice I can to them, and that sometimes means being critical, and sometimes those words find their way into my journals.
Thus, I don’t save old journals, at least not anything older than my most recent one. I keep my current journal and my previous one in a secure place where they can’t easily be found. My current journal is easy for me to grab in the mornings, but it’s not in a place where it would likely be found. When my current journal is full, I destroy the previous journal after I read through it again.
For a while, I was keeping digital copies of my old journals, but I found that I was never looking at them, didn’t really want to ever look at them, and didn’t want anyone else to find them, so I stopped doing this. The downside to others finding those thoughts was worth more than the upside of any potential limited use I might have for them in the future.
The policy of destroying the journals and keeping the current one secure lets me be more unguarded with my journaling. Given that I know my journals won’t be around for posterity, I feel more comfortable just letting my thoughts fly on the page. I don’t worry about who might read them or how they might appear for posterity. At worst, the most recent journal or two might be found, and that doesn’t worry me too much. I usually start off each journal with a note saying that this is a collection of my unguarded thoughts as I worked through personal decisions and I would appreciate that the journal would be destroyed upon discovery if I were to pass.
I vastly prefer handwritten journaling, but I may switch to using a stylus and writing on a table in the future as those technologies improve; writing by hand provides a clarity of thought that typing doesn’t quite provide for me. For me, typing is conducive to rapidly recording ideas, but the process doesn’t allow me any space to think about them. If I want to explore my thoughts, consider things, and actually remember them, I write things out by hand. This is true for journaling, but it’s also true for taking notes at meetings, taking notes when I’m reading, taking notes during a lecture, and so on. I write all of those notes by hand and, if there’s potential value that I might get out of them later, I convert them to digital format.
I feel like taking notes with an Apple Pencil on an iPad is 90% of the way to where I want a stylus to be, but it’s not all the way there yet. When it’s perfect, writing thoughts down on a tablet using a stylus will be the best way to journal and take notes because it offers the advantages of both writing by hand and digital notes, but for now, it’s not quite there yet, and given a choice between the two, the thoughtfulness and retention of writing by hand outweighs typing out journal entries for me.
I use Leuchtturm 1917 journals and either Uniball Signo 207, Pilot G2, or Pilot Juice pens. The journal isn’t a requirement – I’ve used all kinds of different things over the years – but I really like the size and the binding and paper quality of that specific journal. One of those usually lasts about two and a half months for my journaling purposes. As for the pens, I really only have three requirements for a pen: it needs to write when I want it without a lot of futzing around, it needs to have a thin line and not bleed all over the page or make a mess, and it needs to not leak in my pocket. The pens listed up there pass those tests with flying colors. I can get weeks and weeks out of writing with just one of them and it costs less than a dollar, which is good enough for me. I’d rather spend $0.75 on a pen that will write for weeks without fail and not make a mess or leak than a $0.25 pen or a freebie that will need a bunch of waving around or tinkering when I want it to write, leave a ton of messy ink on the page, and inevitably leave a big blotch of ink on the paper or in my pocket.
Spending some time each day journaling – simply writing my thoughts down on paper – not only helps me piece through the problems in my life and ideas in my head, it also helps clear my mind and make it easier to focus on the tasks of the day because it quiets the voice in my head that would otherwise keep running through those problems and ideas. It has helped me not only figure out a bunch of financial and professional problems, it’s also helped keep my mind focused when actually doing work to earn an income.
I find that my “45 morning minutes” practice works extremely well for me, but there are many practices out there that range from simply listing the events of the day, writing what you’re grateful for, brainstorming, and many other things. I highly recommend trying several practices until you find one that works well for you and then stick with it for a while. You might just find that it becomes an essential part of your life toolbox.
Good luck!
The post How Journaling Practices Have Helped My Financial Situation appeared first on The Simple Dollar.
Parents aren’t perfect. Shocking, I know.
So even though you may have been planning out your college career, your family’s financial situation may not have kept up with your dreams of campus life.
On average, 34% of college costs were paid from parents’ income and savings, according to a national study by Sallie Mae. But families who have a limited income and haven’t been saving may not be able to help cover a higher education price tag.
Including tuition and applicable fees, the cost per credit hour at a four-year institution is $301.23, according to a Penny Hoarder analysis of National Center for Education statistics. If an average bachelor’s degree requires 120 credit hours, the total price comes to $36,148 — not including room and board.
Whether it’s by necessity or by choice, your parents could end up saying you’re on your own if you want to go to college. But that doesn’t mean you should resign yourself to a mountain of student loan debt or to skipping college altogether.
But you do need a plan of attack, which is where we come in.
You may not want to hear this right now, but paying for your own college education can actually be good for you (just like brussels sprouts or liver). Taking on the responsibility can teach you budgeting techniques and saving strategies that you might not have learned if your parents were picking up the tab.
You can start saving on college by choosing a less-expensive school — here’s our list of the best college bargains by state.
Once you’ve narrowed your choices, check out these eight ways to pay for college without money from your parents — or student loans.
Already have a college in mind? Then the first place to start looking for scholarship money is the school’s financial aid office. If you’re still in high school, ask your guidance counselor for their help reaching out to the college.
It’s important to know what money is available, so ask the financial aid officials about deadlines for applications, opportunities for need- vs. merit-based funding and options for renewable scholarships and grants.
Some schools won’t consider you for any of their scholarships until you’ve submitted a Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA).
Transferring from another college? Whether you started at another four-year institution or you’re continuing your education after completing your associate’s degree at a community college (a great way to save money, BTW), transfer scholarships offer a niche option. Here are 25 transfer scholarships we’ve found.
Federal Pell Grants are need-based awards that are awarded on an annual basis (meaning you need to reapply every year). Use the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) to apply — here’s a step-by-step guide for filling out FAFSA.
The maximum Federal Pell Grant award is $6,195 for the 2019–20 award year (July 1, 2019, to June 30, 2020). The amount you get will depend on the four following factors, according to the Federal Student Aid office:
Filling out FAFSA requires your tax information, and unless you’re no longer a dependent, that means you’ll need your parents’ most recent tax returns. Providing this information doesn’t leave them on the hook for your college bill, but it could affect your financial aid package.
To avoid debt, don’t take more money than you need. Accept free money (scholarships and grants) and earned money (work-study) in your financial aid package first, then student loans only as needed.
If your parents won’t provide these details, there are a few options that you can explore. One option is to claim yourself as an independent, but that’s typically only allowed if you are over 24 years old, are married, have kids, are a veteran or can claim special circumstances.
States use your FAFSA to determine your eligibility for state financial aid, so you get a two-for-one with that application (actually, it’s more like a three-for-one, since your school will probably use it, too). But some states require additional documentation, and their deadlines are not always the same as the federal ones.
Note that most state grants are only applicable for in-state schools, but there are some state grants and scholarships you can use for out-of-state tuition.
Check out your state’s FAFSA requirements for rules and deadlines.
Federal aid doesn’t stop with scholarships and grants. If you’re able to work on campus part time while attending classes, you can apply for federal work-study (FWS), which is essentially federal aid you receive for working.
IRS Publication 970 outlines 10 tax benefits that students can claim to reduce the income tax they owe. Read more about it on irs.gov.
Work-study jobs typically allow you to earn extra money without having to leave campus — that’s helpful if you’re without a car or if making the hike from campus to a job would be cost prohibitive.
But don’t expect a work-study program to cover all your costs. Under the FWS program, students typically work no more than 20 hours a week during a semester. And you won’t be allowed to exceed the allotted hours from your financial aid award, so don’t bank on overtime to cover extra costs.
Learn more about on-campus job opportunities here.
After you’ve talked to your college’s financial aid office and filled out your FAFSA, it’s time to get a little creative in your scholarship search.
Start with your intended career. Corporations and professional associations often offer grants and scholarships for students pursuing degrees in related fields. As a bonus, researching and contacting these organizations early in your college career will help you make connections that can come in handy when you’re applying for jobs when you graduate.
Some scholarship deadlines are as early as a year before college starts, so start applying during the summer between your junior and senior years.
Also check out nationwide databases like Career One Stop, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Labor, and The Penny Hoarder, which has its own compilations of awesome scholarships — and weird scholarships.
On-campus work isn’t the only way to make extra cash — and off-campus jobs don’t require you to qualify for federal work-study.
Among the other benefits of an off-campus job is the potential to earn more money than at a FWS job since you can work more hours and keep the job year-round.
Additionally, you can potentially turn a part-time gig into a job upon graduation. Here are six tips to help you move from part-time to full-time employee.
And if you don’t want to leave campus but still want to earn part-time or full-time money, check out our handy work-from-home portal for legit ways to make money from your dorm.
Internships provide on-the-job experience, which can help bolster your resume as your college career draws to a close.
Not only does a paid internship offer the same potential experience as an unpaid version, it could actually improve your chances of finding a post-graduation job.
Among the 2019 graduates who had an internship, 66.4% of paid interns received a job offer, while just 43.7% of unpaid interns were offered a job, according to the survey conducted by the National Association of Colleges and Employers.
You can start your internship search at your own college, whether it’s contacting the career services department, attending on-campus career fairs, reaching out to your alumni network or asking professors within your own department for recommendations. Need more help? Check out this guide to landing an internship.
Served in the military? Instead of asking your parents paying for college, let Uncle Sam. Active duty, National Guard or Reserve Component service members are eligible for Military Tuition Assistance, which can pay up to 100% of tuition expenses.
Thirteen states offer free college tuition to qualifying veterans. Find out your state’s tuition waiver policy at militarybenefits.info.
If your tuition exceeds your active-duty tuition assistance program award, you can potentially use your GI Bill benefits to cover the remaining costs (known as Tuition Assistance Top-Up). Additional tuition assistance benefits are available through StudentAid.gov/military.
And check out these additional military benefits that can help you cover costs as you progress toward your degree.
It may not be as easy covering college costs without mom and dad helping to foot the bill, but the reward will be a degree you can say you earned on your own.
Tiffany Wendeln Connors is a staff writer at The Penny Hoarder. Data Journalist Alex Mahadevan contributed to this article.
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.
When you’re trying to decide between a Roth IRA vs. 401(k), the personal finance gods often have an easy answer for you: Do both, they decree.
Well, that’s easy if you’re swimming in so much cash that you can go on a retirement savings binge — yet don’t earn enough to disqualify you from contributing to a Roth IRA.
In 2019, someone under age 50 would need to contribute $25,000 to reach the limits for both retirement accounts. Mere chump change, right?
We get it: Most of us don’t have the resources to max out both a Roth IRA and a 401(k).
So when you decide how to allocate your retirement dollars, you have to make tough choices.
A Roth IRA is a type of individual retirement account. That means you, Dear Reader, as an individual, open the account — whether it’s a Roth IRA or a traditional IRA — and decide how to allocate your investments.
What makes a Roth IRA unique compared with traditional IRAs and most 401(k)s is that you fund it with money you’ve already paid taxes on. That means that when you withdraw it, typically once you’ve reached age 59 ½ and have had the account for at least five years, the money is yours tax-free.
Another sweet feature of Roth IRAs: While you generally have to wait to access your earnings, your contributions are yours to take at any time. While we’d never recommend taking money out of a retirement account unless absolutely necessary — and no, a dream wedding or vacation doesn’t count — your Roth IRA contributions can be a source you tap in an emergency.
A 401(k) is a retirement account that’s sponsored by an employer. You can’t open a 401(k) on your own.
Unlike a Roth IRA, a traditional 401(k) is tax-deferred. That means you invest part of your paycheck before you’ve paid taxes on it and then pay taxes when you withdraw money in retirement.
A growing number of companies are now offering a Roth 401(k) option, which shares most of the same rules as a traditional 401(k) but is funded like a Roth IRA, with money that’s already been taxed.
What makes a 401(k) — either kind — especially attractive is that many employers will match your contributions — in whole or in part — up to a certain percentage of your earnings.
Whatever the amount, it’s basically free money to pad your retirement savings.
At this point, the Roth IRA vs. 401(k) question is probably sounding complicated, because they both have some pretty sweet features. Now let’s see how they compare across six categories.
While anyone can open a regular old investment account, not everyone can open a Roth IRA or 401(k). Here are the requirements.
You don’t need a traditional job to contribute to any type of IRA, but you do need taxable income. A salary, wages, tips, bonuses, and freelance and self-employment income all count. If you’re married but don’t work, your spouse can also set up a spousal Roth IRA for you.
While you can fund a traditional IRA no matter how much you earn, a Roth IRA has income limits. (We’ll get to the contribution limits next.)
For single people, or if you’re head of household or married filing separately:
If you’re married filing jointly:
To contribute to a 401(k), you have to work for an employer that offers a 401(k). However, your employer can exclude you from participating in its 401(k) for certain reasons, such as if you’re under 21 or have worked for the company for less than a year.
Unlike a Roth IRA, a 401(k) has no income limits.
Both a Roth IRA and a 401(k) have limits on how much you can contribute — but the limits are much higher for a 401(k).
The maximum contribution for 2019 is $6,000 if you’re under age 50, or $7,000 if you’re 50 or older. The limits are the same for traditional IRAs. Note that if you have both a Roth and traditional IRA, your total contributions to both accounts can’t be higher than $6,000, or $7,000 if you’re over 50.
You can contribute up to $19,000 to your 401(k) if you’re under 50, or $25,000 if you’re 50 or older.
Your employer can contribute up to $37,000 or 100% of your salary, whichever is less. But hold up, money bags: The most common employer match is 50% of your contributions up to 6% of your salary.
Your employer may also make you wait to access the money it’s putting in your account, which is known as vesting. The money you contribute will always be yours, but if you leave your job before the vesting period is up, you may not be able to take the money your employer matched with you.
Taxes are a major factor when you’re considering a Roth IRA vs. 401(k). Here are some key differences in how the accounts are taxed.
If you were hoping to beef up your tax refund, a Roth IRA will leave you disappointed. But remember: Once you withdraw that money at age 59 ½, as long as you’ve had the account for at least five years, it’s all yours tax-free.
Suppose you earn $50,000 and contribute $5,000 to a traditional 401(k). Your taxable income for the year is now $45,000. Because you get the tax break upfront with most 401(k)s, you’ll pay taxes when you withdraw your money.
Because you fund a Roth 401(k) with after-tax dollars, it won’t change your taxable income, but you can withdraw your money tax-free when you retire.
If you expect to pay taxes in a higher bracket once you reach age 59 ½ or if you think tax rates in general will increase, maxing out your Roth IRA is smart because you lock in a lower tax rate.
A Roth IRA will give you more flexibility to choose your own investments, but a 401(k) gets points for convenience.
You can open a Roth IRA through a brokerage firm or a robo-advising service. You could set it up in person if you opt for a brokerage with a brick-and-mortar location or by applying online.
You can invest your Roth IRA money however you want — in mutual funds, individual stocks, bonds and annuities.
If you prefer to choose your own investments, you’ll want to open a brokerage account. Consult with a financial adviser if you aren’t sure what investments to choose. If you prefer a set-it-and-forget-it approach, you’ll probably prefer a robo-adviser, which uses super-smart software, instead of humans, to manage your investments.
You can set up automatic transfers from your bank to make investing more convenient.
If your employer offers a 401(k), you may have to sign up for it or you may be automatically enrolled. Most companies let you enroll when you’re hired, though some smaller companies will make you wait as much as a year.
Once you’ve signed up, you’ll have to decide how much to invest and what you want to invest in. Your investment options will be limited compared with your options for a Roth IRA, but you can usually choose from several categories of mutual funds.
You can change the amount you’re contributing and your investment allocations at any time.
Find lower-cost mutual fund options by checking the fee disclosure statement, which your 401(k) plan is required to send you every year.
Your retirement accounts aren’t supposed to be a source of quick cash, so the rules around withdrawing money can get complicated.
In general, the IRS lets you withdraw from both plans without penalty if you experience certain hardships, such as if you become permanently and totally disabled, or if you have out-of-pocket medical expenses that are more than 10% of your gross adjusted income.
As we said earlier, one of the biggest benefits of a Roth IRA is that you can withdraw your contributions at any time. That can make a Roth IRA a good safety net in case of an emergency.
That said, you’ll typically have to wait until you’re age 59 ½ and you’ve had your account for five years to withdraw your earnings. Otherwise, you’d typically owe ordinary income taxes on your earnings and pay a 10% penalty.
You may be able to withdraw up to $10,000 from your Roth IRA for a down payment or other expenses related to a home purchase if your account is at least 5 years old.
You can withdraw your Roth IRA earnings early and use them for educational expenses for you, your spouse or your child, but you’ll still owe income tax.
If you leave your job for any reason between ages 55 and 59 ½, you can withdraw money from that employer’s 401(k) — but not 401(k)s from past jobs — without penalty. But remember: Unless it’s a Roth 401(k), you’ll always pay taxes on 401(k) withdrawals.
After age 59 ½, you can start making 401(k) withdrawals without paying penalties, though most employers won’t allow you to make withdrawals while you’re currently working there.
Early 401(k) withdrawals usually come with a 10% penalty, along with income taxes.
A required minimum distribution is IRS lingo for when you’re required to withdraw money.
We know it sounds weird that you’re required to withdraw your own money. But remember: Traditional IRAs and 401(k)s are funded with pre-tax money. The government wants to make sure it gets its cut.
Here are the basics for Roth IRAs and 401(k)s.
While 401(k)s and traditional IRAs have mandatory withdrawals called required minimum distributions (RMDs), you’ll never have to take money out of your own Roth IRA. After you die, however, your beneficiaries will probably have to take RMDs on the account.
The IRS typically requires that you take distributions starting at age 70 ½, although if you’re still working, you may not have to. The exact amount depends on your account balance and life expectancy.
Now that you know the basics of Roth IRAs, it’s quiz time. Kidding. But let’s review the basic pros and cons of a Roth IRA.
Now, let’s summarize the good and the bad for 401(k)s.
If your employer offers a 401(k) and offers a match of any kind, your No. 1 priority should be to contribute enough to max out your employer match. Otherwise, you’re missing out on free money.
Once you’ve contributed that amount, putting any excess retirement funds into a Roth IRA could be a better bet because you’ll get the certainty of knowing how much you’re paying in taxes. There’s a good chance you’ll need the tax break even more when you’re on a retiree’s fixed income than you do now.
If you have even more to contribute after maxing out your Roth IRA, you can put it in your employer’s 401(k) to contribute beyond the matched amount.
If you don’t have access to a 401(k) or your employer doesn’t match funds, maxing out your Roth IRA should be your top goal. If you can invest more than the max, you can put your excess funds in your unmatched 401(k) or a regular investment account.
Regardless of whether you prioritize a Roth IRA or 401(k), these are the most important rules for saving for retirement: Start early. Don’t stop. And watch that money grow.
Robin Hartill is a senior editor 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.
I recently read this great little article by Molly Conway entitled The Trap of Turning Hobbies Into Hustles. In it, she makes the astute point that when you attempt to start earning money from something that’s a hobby, it ceases to be a hobby any more – rather, it starts to seem like work:
I have a friend who is living her dream. She makes and sells leather pocket belts, holsters and ruffle tops for the steampunk/Renaissance Faire/Burning Man crowd. Her designs are worn and enjoyed by thousands of people; she’s created more jobs for Bay Area artists; she’s her own boss — and she hasn’t taken a real day off in roughly eight years. Because that’s what it takes to do what she loves. I admire […] her, but every time I’m tempted to listen to someone who says I should open a restaurant just because I throw a good dinner party, I think of her, and remember that admiration is not the same as envy.
That’s not to say there isn’t joy to be found in turning something you love into your life’s work — it’s just to say that it’s okay to love a hobby the same way you’d love a pet; for its ability to enrich your life without any expectation that it will help you pay the rent.
This hit home for me.
One of the cornerstone elements of our financial turnaround was that I was able to find a side gig that I was eventually able to turn into full time work – and you’re reading it. The Simple Dollar started out as a pet project I did in the evenings in our tiny apartment as I wrote through some of the ideas I was discovering and working through in order to turn our financial life around. It became reasonably popular and, while it never earned enough to make us wealthy, it did earn enough that switching to writing it full time was a real option because it also reduced our child care burden (since I was at home and had a super flexible schedule).
Writing has always been a hobby of mine, and while I was in the “honeymoon period” of my financial turnaround where everything was new and exciting and I was trying all kinds of new (to me) things, it was purely fun to write about those experiences. As time went on, though, I found that what Molly describes above as purely accurate. Suddenly, something that was a hobby to me was making money – which was great – but now it was burdened with deadlines and responsibilities and expectations – which wasn’t good.
Yet, here I am, still writing about personal finance. How did I make that work? How can I still keep writing about personal finance and earning an income at something that was my hobby without being miserable?
I think that what I learned from that transition serves as some powerful advice for anyone looking to turn a hobby into a side gig.
First of all, I had to accept that writing was no longer a hobby, but a profession. Prior to that point, writing was something I purely did for personal fulfillment. I have always loved taking my ideas and putting them down on paper, much like how other people love and are fulfilled by woodworking or crafting or fishing or cooking or whatever. However, it was never something I had to do in order to produce an income for my family. I did it when I had the time and when I had burning ideas inside of me and I did it solely because it fulfilled me.
When you choose to do something for money, particularly when it becomes a source of money that you or your family relies on, that relationship changes. You can no longer do those things when you feel like them. You have to keep at it, regardless of how you might feel at the moment.
Leisure activities are enjoyable because they’re things you want to do and you can do them at whatever level feels right for you. When you have to do those things for a living, that choice of what to do and when to do it goes away. It’s no longer your choice. Even the most successful writers out there, like Stephen King, sign contracts and have obligations for their craft. They can’t simply choose when to write and not do it if they don’t feel like it.
That’s the difference between a hobby and a profession. With a hobby, you want to do it and, if you happen to not want to do it today, that’s okay. With a profession, you have to do it, regardless of whether you want to do it today.
There are days when I wake up and the last thing I want to do is write. I have all kinds of other things I’d love to fill my days with. However, I have an obligation to write, a freelance agreement that I signed that provides income for my family (good) but has stiff consequences if I don’t write (bad).
That change from wanting to do something to having to do something is a serious change and requires a far different approach. It means that it’s no longer your hobby, but your profession, and you have to approach it professionally. You have a set schedule and requirements and it’s no longer the free thing that you used to do.
In the early days, when I did The Simple Dollar for fun, I wrote about whatever I wanted pretty much whenever I wanted. If I didn’t feel like writing, it was fine. Today, I spend several hours a day most weekdays doing some sort of personal finance writing-related activity. There are times when it’s purely fun, but there are a lot of times when I have to do it even though I don’t want to.
So, how do you make that change?
The first thing I figured out was that on the days when I’m feeling in the groove, I need to get as much work done as I possibly can. If there’s a day when the writing comes easy and feels good, I do everything I can to stick with it all day long and all night long, if need be. Once every few weeks, I’ll just tell Sarah that I’m in a groove and I need to ride that groove for as long as it lasts. I often talk about “flow state” on The Simple Dollar, and that’s exactly what I’m talking about here – if I have days where I can get deeply into a flow state and just keep writing and writing and writing, I do it.
What this does is that it gives me breathing room for the days when it’s not working quite so well, when I’m dreading writing or when I can’t get anything to come out. On those days, I can walk away and professionally recharge.
Without that ebb and flow, this whole thing wouldn’t work. If I simply stopped on those good days when I had two or three things completed, I wouldn’t be able to do this. On those days when I really feel motivated and engaged and excited, I have to get as much value out of them as possible.
Why? Nothing makes a hobby-turned-side-gig miserable faster than the days when you’re not engaged at all with your gig but you still have to produce work. You’re going to be miserable and you’re going to not be very productive at all. You are far better off those days simply walking away and recharging or finding other aspects of your work to do. In fact, if you keep doing this, if you keep grinding when the passion is zero, it’s going to become miserable and your quality is going to fall off a cliff and you’re going to lose the whole thing anyway. Trust me – I’ve been there.
if you try to turn a hobby into a hustle, be aware that you’re going to lose a hobby. When you start doing something for money, there starts to be expectations involved with it and you can’t simply pick it up when it feels fun and let it sit when it doesn’t. You have to pick it up every time, and that’s work, not leisure.
There’s nothing whatsoever wrong with that, and work can most definitely bring you joy, but there are times when you have to do it even when you don’t want to. That’s the difference between a hustle and a hobby – a hobby can be put down, while a hustle can’t.
Make absolutely sure that this is something you want to give up as a hobby. If it’s something you genuinely value as a way to escape, as something you can pick up when you want and leave alone when you’re not feeling it, you should think very carefully about whether you want to convert it into a hustle.
Thus, if you do go down this path, you have to find a new hobby. Your old hobby is no longer a hobby. It fills more of your time than you would ever like. That doesn’t mean it no longer brings joy, but what it means is that it no longer serves as a hobby, as something that provides leisure and escape from the routines of your life.
Ten or fifteen years ago, my main hobby was writing. When that went from hobby to side hustle, it no longer fulfilled and refreshed me. It was the thing that sometimes made me need to feel fulfilled and refreshed. I discovered cooking. I discovered hiking. I (re)discovered tabletop gaming. I (re)discovered reading. Those are my hobbies.
Writing, although I still love it, is my work. It is not a hobby. It is not an escape. It is not something I can pick up when I’m excited about it and put down when something else is more compelling at the moment.
I’m lucky in that most days I’m excited about it, but there are most definitely days when I have writing commitments and it’s the last thing in the world I want to do. That’s what makes it work and not leisure.
Finally, turning a hobby into a side hustle generally only works well if you’re utilizing skills and talents you have. If you love to knit, for example, but you’re a mediocre knitter who can turn out good stuff but slowly or bad stuff quickly, it’s probably not a good choice to try to turn knitting into a side hustle. It’s a great hobby, but not a great source of income.
Writing happened to work well for me because I can write reasonably good material (I don’t claim my writing to be great in any way, but I do think I can lay out points and tell a decent story) in large quantity and fairly quickly. That’s a skill, one that I utilize every day.
It’s my belief that turning a hobby into a hustle works best if you have several hobbies, you see a clear path to income with one of them, and you can apply strong skills you already have to that path. That way, you’re not turning your main passion into work and you’re able to do something of value that others will want and appreciate, thus ensuring at least some chance of success.
Good luck!
The post Hobbies and Hustles appeared first on The Simple Dollar.
