Make $100 Tomorrow With These Quick Jobs

The following is a post by MPFJ staff writer, Toi Williams, who is a professional personal finance blogger of Fine Tuned Finances. She has backgrounds in personal finance, sales, and real estate.

Having an extra $100 can be a lifesaver in a wide variety of situations. Having that money can prevent a utility from being turned off, put groceries into an empty refrigerator, or help you avoid late charges on a bill that is due. Fortunately, there are many ways available to earn an extra $100 quickly when necessary. Here are some quick jobs you can use to make $100 within a day.

Sell Your Services

Nearly anyone can make a quick $100 over the course of a day by selling their services to their friends and neighbors. There are a wide variety of tasks that you can do that others would be interested in paying you for. These jobs require no special skills, only a willingness to work and a determination to make some money. Here are some easy services that you can offer to your circles to make some quick cash.

Handyman Services – If you are handy with tools, you should consider offering handyman services around your neighborhood to earn some quick cash. Simple tasks like painting, unclogging drains, and putting together pre-fabricated furniture can result in the money you need with just a few hours of work. Maintenance tasks and automotive care can earn you even more. Agree to a price with the customer before the job begins to ensure there are no unpleasant surprises for either party at the end of the job.

Lawn Care Services – There are few people that would claim that they enjoy caring for their lawn on a regular basis and many are willing to pay someone to do these outdoor chores for them. You should initially target homes in your neighborhood with unkempt lawns and untrimmed bushes, as these people may be more willing to pay you to make their yards look presentable.

Photography Services – If you have a decent camera, you can sell photography services for special events, like weddings, vacations, and graduations. Many people are willing to pay amateur photographers to avoid paying the high prices of professionals. Several companies have made it easy to get into the photography industry by providing filters and special effects that can be used to enhance the photos you take. Physical copies of the photos can be printed with a home printer on photo paper or at a local drugstore using the available photography kiosk.

Cleaning Services – Many people are looking for others that can help them clean their home or office properly. You can even make money cleaning and detailing cars. Because this is an easy job to do that requires little overhead, there is a lot of competition for these jobs. Browse listings on Craigslist or your local newspaper’s website to find clients, or consider posting your own listing offering your services. There is a good chance that you will be able to find a job and get paid for it the same day.

Babysitting – No matter how much a parent loves their child, they enjoy spending time away from them every once in a while. If you offer babysitting services to your friends and neighbors with children, you are sure to find some takers. Just make sure you have activities to do while you are babysitting, as a houseful of bored kids can turn into a nightmare really quickly. You can also offer petsitting or housesitting services for a small fee.

Make Money Online

Since you are paying for your internet connection, why not use the service to make some extra cash. Numerous companies have popped up over the past decade allowing people to get paid to do tasks outside of the normal employment environment. Some of these tasks do not pay very much, but they can be completed quickly or in unison, allowing you to accept more tasks to make more money. Here are some great ways to make extra money online.

Sell Your Photographs – There are quite a few companies online that allow you to sell photographs that you have taken. For example, both Shutterstock and FOAP allow you to post and sell your photos online for a fee. Interested parties browse the site and you get paid for each of your photographs selected. You will make more money if your photographs are of interesting subjects or have widespread commercial appeal.

Perform Tasks for Others – TaskRabbit, Gigwalk, Zaarly, and Postmates are platforms where customers list random tasks that they need to be performed and the amount that they are willing to pay for these services. You chose the tasks that you want to perform and get paid after the tasks are confirmed as completed. Amazon.com’s Mechanical Turk pays a few dollars per assignment for simple tasks like writing product reviews, entering information and editing documents.

Utilize Your Writing Skills – If you are good at writing without grammatical errors, you can earn good money writing things for companies and small businesses. You can join a writing team on a site like Textbroker or Demand Media or find your own clients through job board listings on sites like Freelancer.com or Indeed. The rates for these types of task vary by assignment, so focus on topics and tasks that you excel in to make the most money as fast as you can.

Sell Unwanted Stuff

Most of us have things lying around the house that we either do not use or has outlived its usefulness to us. Instead of trashing these items, sell them for some extra cash. There are a wide variety of ways available to sell unwanted stuff. Here are some of the most common.

Garage and Yard Sales – Garage and yard sales are a great way to sell a lot of your unwanted stuff over the course of a day. With a small investment in some price stickers and poster board to advertise your sale, you can make $100 or more from neighbors interested in what you have to sell. These methods allow you to choose the pricing of your offerings and allow you to negotiate with those who may be interested, but find your price too high for their tastes.

Websites – People have flocked to websites like Amazon, eBay, and Craigslist to sell items that they do not want anymore. On these websites, sellers can list their items individually or in lots and name their price. Listings on these websites include everything from household goods to sports equipment to clothing.

Resale Stores – In recent years, dozens of resale stores have emerged to buy people’s unwanted stuff and resell it to consumers that are willing to buy gently used items. Many of these stores specialize in a single product category. For example, Once Upon A Child specializes in children’s clothing, while Play It Again Sports focuses on sporting equipment and New Uses handles household goods. Be aware that these places pay set prices for particular items, so you will have little control over what your items are worth.

How about you all? Have you tried any of these methods of making money? Are there any other ways to make $100 fast that I might have missed?

Share your experiences by commenting below!

***Photo courtesy https://www.flickr.com/photos/76657755@N04/7658159678

5 Little Habits That Are Ruining Your Budget

The following is a guest post by Richard Adams. Richard is a UK personal finance blogger and obsessive money-saver. His blog can be found at http://www.FrugalityMagazine.com. Enjoy!

Budgeting. It’s a critical skill for those of us trying to build a strong financial future. But for all the talk about budgets, controlling your spending can be a lot harder than you might first think.

I speak from personal experience.

Over the years I’ve tried to create one budget after another. I’ll be honest; my initial attempts for a dismal failure. But over time I found my budget getting more and more effective. So while it’s taken some time to reach “budget nirvana”, my own experience suggests it is possible.

The key is identifying those areas that keep on causing problems. Once you know the potential pitfalls you’re all the better prepared to deal with them. As a result you can create a budget that really works, and helps you to control exactly where your money goes.

But if you’re just getting started with a budget, what are those habits that derailed my plans time and again? In other words, what should you look out for if you want your budget to work?

Lack of Visibility

They say that you can’t manage what you can’t measure. Creating a budget is all well and good, but it’s not an end in itself. Instead, in order to control your spending you need constant feedback; both on how you’re doing and on what corrections are necessary.

When I first started budgeting I would create a monthly budget and then run with it. Then just a few weeks later I’d discover that the money had run out (again). The reason was that I wasn’t consistently tracking my progress. As soon as I started to track my money on a daily basis I found it easier to spot any problems, and to modify my spending to achieve my goals.

There are a number of ways to track your budget. Some people subscribe to the “envelope system”, using all cash that has been carefully divided up into categories. Others simply decide on a cash budget for the week, pop it in their wallet and try to make it last. Possibly the greatest threat comes in the form of credit cards and debit cards, because you’re not being faced with actual cash every time you spend.

Under such circumstances try to use one of the many budgeting apps available to track your spending, or install your bank’s app on your phone so you can monitor your balance over time.

The exact system you use isn’t critical, and the best solution will depend on your individual personality. What is critical, especially in the early days of budgeting, is to track your spending on a daily basis.

Someone should be able to stop you randomly in the street, and you’d be able to tell them your bank balance within a couple of dollars. Only when you get to know your money this intimately can you be certain of managing your budget properly.

“Tiny” Spending

We tend to pay a lot of attention to large purchases. That new cell phone or flat screen TV probably gets a lot of research and thought before you finally hand over your cash.

But smaller purchases tend to be treated entirely differently. Whether it’s a takeout sandwich, a newspaper or a packet of cigarettes, these “tiny” purchases are often made without a second thought. After all, how much of a difference is a couple of dollars really going to make in the grand scheme of things?

The honest answer is: quite a lot. The reason is that because many of us are happy to spend small amounts of money without too much consideration, we tend to do it regularly. That daily newspaper and coffee can quickly start to add up.

The key message here is that all spending matters, irrespective of how insignificant the sum really is. Pay attention to where your money is going, and make conscious decisions about how you’re going to spend (or save!) every last dollar.

Lack of Control

It’s no secret that budgeting your money can take a fair amount of self-discipline, at least in the early days. All too often I speak to people who start off with the best will in the world, only to give in to temptation a short while later.

Fortunately there are all sorts of ways to do this. One of my favorite examples is to think of money not in terms of dollars, but in terms of hours worked. Figure out your hourly income (after tax) and look at prices in terms of “4 hours of work”. Applying this principle I’ve found that spending my money looks rather less appealing.

Unexpected Expenses

One of the most frustrating aspects of carefully planning your spending is when an unexpected bill drops through the door, or your car suddenly needs some emergency work. In the space of a few minutes your whole budget gets blown out of the water.

The funny thing is that unexpected expenses don’t necessarily need to be so much of an issue.

There are two solutions I have used which make such expenses almost a non-issue.

The first of these is the creation of an “emergency fund”. This is a pool of money separate to your budget which sits in an instantly-accessible account exactly for situations like this. If a financial emergency arises you can simply draw money from this fund without needing to touch your budget. Then next month you can simply modify your budget to start rebuilding that fund.

The second solution is that most other unexpected bills can be planned for, if you base your budget on a long-enough period of time. For example I pay my car insurance once a year, and it would be all too easy to be surprised the next time it comes around. Instead I have planned out all these payments in advance, and put aside a small amount of money in my budget to cover them. When that insurance finally becomes due I’ve already put aside all the money over the preceding months.

In other words to avoid unexpected expenses derailing your budget take time to start an emergency fund, and to consider what big purchases you make only occasionally and plan for them well in advance.

Unnecessary Waste

The last factor which can ruin your attempts at budgeting is simply “waste”. One of the most common examples is the amount of food that people throw out each week because it is past it’s best. As a result they’re literally throwing money in the bin, then having to replace that food with yet more. If you budget $100 for groceries then throw $25 worth in the bin you better believe your budget is going to struggle.

So take the time to learn how to control the waste that comes out of your kitchen. In doing so you can be sure to use as much as possible. For example, consider freezing items like bread and milk to keep them fresh, only defrosting them when you really need them. Additionally, consider buying frozen vegetables rather than their fresh equivalent. They’re just as nutritious but won’t go off while your back is turned.

As you can see there are all sorts of ways that your budget can fail – but in almost every situation there are solutions. If you’re going to invest the time to actually create a budget, then these simple principles can make it all the more effective. Produce a budget that truly works and you’re well on your way to better times.

How about you all? What habits do/did you have that did a number on your budget? How did you fix the problem?

Share your experiences by commenting below!

***Photo courtesy https://www.flickr.com/photos/68751915@N05/6869762317/

How to Get Top Dollar When You Sell Your House

The following post is by MPFJ staff writer, Laurie Blank.  Laurie is a wife, mother to 4 and homesteader who blogs about personal finance, self-sufficiency and life in general over at The Frugal Farmer. Part witty, part introspective and part silly, her goal in blogging is to help others find their way to financial freedom and to a simpler, more peaceful life.

Spring has arrived, which means the real estate market is hot right now. This CNBC video shows that existing home sales in the U.S. for March of 2016 surged much higher than expected.

Where we live, houses are popping up for sale like crazy. My family and I often talk about this surge in home sales in our area (in the Midwest) and why so many people are selling right now.

Are they feeling secure in America’s economic situation and upgrading?

Are they sensing economic doom and downsizing in order to pay off debt?

I can’t answer that question, but as someone who has a history of working in real estate and has sold two homes in the past, I can tell you that there are certain things a homeowner can do in order to get top dollar when they sell their home.

Read on for this list of suggestions on how to make sure that you get as much profit as you can when selling your home.

Do Your Research

Research is vital to a profitable home sale. What are similar houses selling for in your area? Are people eager to move into your area? If so, why? What does your neighborhood have to offer?

Use the Internet and the wisdom of a trusted realtor in order to get a clear picture of how much houses are selling for in your area. A good realtor will find comparable sales for homes like yours that have sold within the last six months so that you can get an idea of what “top dollar” means.

Check out the listings for houses in your neighborhood or area that are currently on the market. Look for houses with similar square footage and a similar number of bedrooms and bathrooms.

Look at the interior and exterior photos for the current listings. How do the houses compare to yours? Are they better? Worse? More upgrades? Less upgrades?

Doing your own research on how much houses are selling for in your area will help you to prepare your house to sell quickly and to get top dollar when it sells.

Neatness Counts

When we sell our houses, we always try to make them look like model homes. Not so much in features and decor, but more from a neatness standpoint. When potential buyers walk into a neat and clean home, they’re much more open to considering buying. Here are my tips for making your home feel warm, welcoming and attractive:

• Clean out and/or organize closets, drawers, appliances and cupboards in every room
• Remove personal effects such as family pictures and personalized items
• Declutter each and every room, packing away or putting in drawers items that don’t add to the feel of the house
• Deep clean each room. Vacuum well, wash baseboards and give the kitchen and baths a good scrubbing
• Be sure that beds are made and that counters, desks and tabletops are clear of non-décor items
• Add small touches such as matching bath towels, small artificial flower arrangements and other items that bring extra shine to your home.

Make Your Home Move-In Ready

Make sure needed repairs are done. Wash your windows. Have carpets cleaned and give your walls a fresh coat of neutral-colored paint if needed.

Be sure the yard is clean, mowed and trimmed and has great curb appeal. Set out a small welcome mat and maybe a pot or two of flowers at the door.

Be sure that your home is in such great shape that the new owners will have to do little or nothing when they move in. Many prospective buyers will walk away from a home if there’s a lot of work to do to before they can move in.

Put Special Focus on Your Home’s Best Features

What is it that you love best about your home and yard? Chances are that interested buyers will love those same things.

Do you have a great family room? If so, focus on giving that room special attention when you sell. Do you love the fire pit in your yard? Add some ready-to-be-burned logs to the fire pit and put a few chairs around it.

By putting a special focus on your home’s best features, you help potential buyers to adore the same things about your home that you love.

Following the tips above will help ensure that you can sell your house for every penny that it’s worth. Don’t miss out on valuable profit by not making your house shine before you put it on the market.

How about you all? Have you sold or bought a home in the past? What is it that attracts you to a home when you walk in the door?

Share your experiences by commenting below!

***Photo courtesy https://www.flickr.com/photos/39136843@N05/3709571684

How to Handle Irregular Expenses in Your Monthly Budget

The following post is by MPFJ staff writer, Melissa Batai.  Melissa is a freelance writer who covers topics ranging from personal finance to business to organics to food.  She blogs at Mom’s Plans where she shares her family’s journey to healthier living and paying down debt.

Every month, my husband and I were coming up short financially.  Each month I carefully laid out a budget, and I followed it as well as I could.  I say as well as I could because each and every month, I went over budget.  One month it was because I had to pay our annual Costco membership fee.  Another month it was because I had to buy stamps, new checks, and pay for our license renewal.

See, I was good at budgeting for monthly, regular expenses.  I was even fairly good at budgeting for expenses that came every three months like our garbage bill or every six months like our car insurance.  But there were a lot of expenses that came only once a year or erratically that I didn’t account for.

When you’re living on a tight budget, those unaccounted for expenses can ruin your budget and send you into credit card debt or make you raid your emergency fund.

However, there are two ways you can handle these expenses and keep your budget and your finances on track.

How to Calculate Your Irregular Expenses

The first step toward making your budget work is to consider ALL of the irregular expenses you paid in the last year.  I’m not going to lie—this is going to take some time, and it won’t necessarily be a good time, but once it’s done, you won’t have to do it again.

Simply get out your credit card bills for the last 12 months as well as your checkbook.  Keep track of anything you paid for that wasn’t part of your regular budget.

Just to get you started, here are some expenses you’ll want to look for:

• Yard and garden supplies/maintenance
• Pest/termite control
• Home repairs/maintenance (remember, experts recommend you put aside 2 to 4% of your home’s value per year for this)
• Maintenance agreements
• Water softener
• Emission inspection
• License renewal/registration
• Car repairs
• Medical bills
• Prescriptions
• Dental bills
• Optical exams and glasses
• Vitamins/supplements/protein powders
• Umbrella insurance
• Donations (such as when the neighborhood kids needs to raise money for his school)
• Professional dues/licenses
• Warehouse club membership fees
• Printer ink/paper
• Online filtering
• Magazines
• Dry cleaning
• Parties
• Recital fees/outfits for kids’ activities
• Yearbooks/class rings/letter jackets
• College application fees
• SAT/ACT testing
• Pet food/toys/grooming
• Vet expenses
• Animal licenses
• Tax preparation fees

The Slush Fund

The first method is the slush fund, and like its name implies, it’s simply one big pot of money for unplanned or irregular expenses.

Who Should Use the Slush Fund Method

The slush fund is perfect for those who feel bogged down by keeping track of every single expenditure all month long.  These people don’t want to have to keep track of every penny like an accountant.  They just want to make sure that when the time comes to pay irregular or unplanned expenses, the money is there.

How the Slush Fund Works

After you’ve calculated all of your irregular or unplanned expenses for last year, divide that number by 12.  For instance, let’s say your irregular/unplanned expenses for last year came up to $14,500.  You’d divide that number by 12 to give you approximately $1,208 a month that you would need to set aside in your slush fund.  Then, you just dip into the slush fund when one of the expenses comes up.

Does your child need $80 for a college application fee?  It’s right there waiting in your slush fund.  Do you need to pay $95 for your annual vehicle registration?  Just dip into your slush fund.

If you are disciplined with your money, you may want to leave this money sitting in your checking account.   However, if you’re someone who will spend the money if it’s there, you may want to open up a separate account and have the money automatically deposited straight from your paycheck to your slush fund account.  Then, as you pay the expenses the slush fund is to cover, simply transfer the money to your checking account.

The Separate Accounts Method

There is another, more detailed method that you can use besides the slush fund that I call the separate accounts method.  Using this method, you create a separate category for each irregular/unplanned expense or group of expenses

Who Should Use the Separate Accounts Method

This method works best for those who would like a more detailed record of their expenses and spending.  It also works well for people who are on a very tight budget and have to curb their irregular/unplanned expenses as much as possible.  It’s also very good for those who like the envelope system as recommended by Dave Ramsey.

How the Separate Accounts Method Works

Rather than lumping all of the irregular/unplanned expenses in one category as you do with the Slush Fund Method, you instead separate them out and put a certain amount in each account.  For instance, let’s say this year you know you’ll likely need to pay $800 total for your daughter’s SAT and ACT testing as well as college applications.  You’ll divide $800 by 12, and then each month, you’ll put aside approximately $66 for this expense.  You’ll write this in as a regular line item on your budget.

Similarly, if you pay $300 a year for pest control, you’ll put $25 a month in your budget and ear mark it for pest control.

When one of these expenses comes up, you simply pay out of the money you’ve accumulated in that category.

Drawbacks to Each Method

There are drawbacks to each method.  With the slush fund method, you may overspend in one area because you see a large chunk of money sitting in the slush fund.  For instance, if you budgeted just $400 a year for clothes, but you see $3,800 sitting in the slush fund, it’s easy to rationalize that the money is there to buy more clothes.

That can’t be done as easily with the Separate Accounts Method because you can see that you only have $165 in the clothing account after putting the required $33 away per month for clothes for five months.

On the other hand, the Separate Accounts Method also has its drawbacks.  Let’s go back to the daughter who is applying to colleges.  She may spend $100 in March to take the SAT and ACT, and then she may need $700 in October when she’s filling out college applications.  Because you’ve budgeted $800 total, if you’re starting your budget in January, by October, when she’ll need all of the money, you’ll only have $660 saved, so you’ll be short in this category.  You’ll then have to take the remainder of the money you need out of your regular budget or out of another category, neither of which is a necessarily good option.

The Slush Fund Method doesn’t have the same problem because you can use whatever money is in the account for any one of the expenses that you’ve accounted for whenever you need it as long as you don’t spend more than is currently in the account.

Irregular and unplanned expenses have the potential to wreak havoc with your budget.  However, if you use one of these two methods, you can gain the upper hand and have better control over your finances.

How about you all? Do you use either of these methods to handle unplanned or irregular expenses?  Which do you prefer?

Share your experiences by commenting below!

***Photo courtesy https://pixabay.com/en/office-tax-business-finance-620822/

Will a Home Office Deduction Really Trigger an IRS Audit?

The following is a post by MPFJ staff writer, Kevin Mercadante, who is a freelance professional personal finance blogger for hire, and the owner of his own personal finance blog, OutOfYourRut.com. He has backgrounds in both accounting and the mortgage industry.

There is a common perception that taking a home office deduction is a red flag that will trigger an IRS audit. But is it even true? Possibly, if it doesn’t comply with IRS regulations, and it seems excessive for your business or income. But if it’s handled properly, the risk of an audit from taking the deduction is actually quite low.

IRS Home Office Deduction Rules

The IRS rules required for a home office deduction include:

Regular and exclusive use. You must use part of your home exclusively for conducting business. It needs to be a dedicated space – preferably a room, that you run your business out of. It can’t be a family room that doubles as an office.

Principal place of your business. Your home office must be your principal place of business, though you may qualify if you also conduct business outside of your home office, but use the home office substantially and regularly for business purposes. This includes meeting with clients on a regular basis at your home office, even though you also conduct business at another location. You can also deduct a structure, such as a garage, if it is used to store business materials there, or used as a studio. But again, it must be used substantially and exclusively for business, and not shared with some non-business purpose.

There are also special rules for employees who use a home office:

• Your business use must be for the convenience of your employer, and
• You must not rent any part of your home to your employer and use the rented portion to perform services as an employee for that employer.

As long as you are deducting your home office within the scope of these IRS rules, you should be OK to take the deduction.

So why do so many sources say that the home office deduction is an IRS red flag for audits?

Taking an Excessive Deduction

Any tax deductions that you claim that look excessive will automatically generate IRS concern. The IRS has all kinds of metrics to determine whether or not an expense is reasonable based on the taxpayer’s income and business type.

For example, if your business earns $12,000 in gross revenue, but you expense $7,000 as a home-office deduction, that will be a flag. This will be particularly true if the home office deduction is the largest in a list of expenses that ultimately results in your business showing a loss.

An outsized deduction can be an indication that a business may not be legitimate, an excessive allocation of the home for the business, or even an attempt by the taxpayer to gain a tax break for the cost of maintaining a home that cannot be deducted on Schedule A as a legitimate personal deduction.

As an example, let’s say that you live in a 3,000 square foot house, but you claim 1,200 square feet as a home office. This would be an indication that 40% of your house (and housing expenses) is used substantially and exclusively for business. As that is unlikely arrangement, it could trigger an audit.

The key with all business expense deductions is that they must be reasonable and necessary. Any deductions that look excessive or superfluous can trigger an audit.

Taking an Inconsistent Deduction

The home office deduction should be relatively consistent from one year to the next. That’s because the expenses that comprise the deduction – home mortgage/rent, real estate taxes, insurance, homeowner’s association dues, and utilities – are fairly stable expenses. Your home office deduction should represent a fixed percentage of those expenses, based on the ratio of home office space to gross household space.

Since they form the basis of your deduction, that deduction should not change substantially from year to year. But if you show a deduction of $5,000 one year, then $10,000 the next, you could be inviting an IRS audit.

The IRS may suspect that you are padding the deduction in order to offset a higher income from one year to the next. Make sure that if you take the deduction, that you keep the consistency factor in mind each year that you use it.

An Audit Might be Triggered by Something Other than Your Home Office

It’s likely that any time a person who takes the home office deduction gets audited that it’s assumed that the home office is the reason. In reality however, a tax return can be audited for just about any reason. First, a person who is self-employed already has a higher risk, due to the ability of deducting expenses from income.

But an audit could be triggered by virtually any other expense on your return, or simply by the fact that you are taking too many expenses in general. One example is contract labor. The IRS is on the lookout for businesses classifying people as contractors who are actually employees. If you have a large line item for contract labor, this could be the reason for the audit.

The point is, a home-office deduction is hardly an automatic audit. As long as the deduction complies with IRS regulations, and is reasonable, consistent and based on actual home expenses, you should be safe taking the deduction.

How about you all? Have you avoided taking a home-office deduction for fear of being audited?

Share your experiences by commenting below!

***Photo courtesy https://www.flickr.com/photos/dierken/448629059/sizes/q/

Hidden Costs of Owning a Pet

The following post is by MPFJ staff writer, Chonce. You can read more articles by Chonce over at her personal blog, My Debt Epiphany. Enjoy! 

A pet can be a great companion and a wonderful addition to your family. While it may not cost $250,000 to own a pet over the years while some sources claim that’s how much it costs to take care of a child to the age of 18, there are some notable expenses that need to be considered before you decide to get a pet.

According to the ASPCA, the first year of pet ownership if you have a dog or cat exceeds $1,000 and that doesn’t even cover unexpected expenses. Regular expenses you can expect to pay for a cat or dog include shots and veterinary expenses, food, grooming supplies, a bed, toys, liter and a litter box (for a cat), spaying or neutering and so on.

For hidden costs associated with pet ownership, here are a few things you’ll have to consider and how to budget for them.

Extra Medical and Preventative Care

Everyone wants a healthy pet, but there may be some underlying issues beyond your control. Taking your pet to regular vet appointments can help rule out or highlight any medical issues that require extra care.

You may need to pay for additional vaccinations or preventative care for issues like fleas or parasites along with any pre-existing conditions your pet may have. Not to mention, any accidents could range from $1,000 to $5,000 depending on if your animal needs surgery or not.

Babysitting and Training

If you travel quite a bit or spend a few nights away from home each month, be sure to budget for a pet sitter. Most animals shouldn’t be left alone in the house for long periods of time because they could run out of food and dogs especially need to be checked on and walked frequently.

Even if you have a day where you work long hours away from your home, you may need to find a dog walker who can help care for your dog.

If you’d like your animal to be trained, pet trainers and group classes range from $50 to $125 per hour in most cases.

Housing Fees

Homeowners have an advantage when choosing a pet because they can choose from a wider variety and don’t have to worry about paying a fee in order to keep their pet at home. Renters on the other hand, are often required by their landlord to pay a deposit or non-refundable fee for their pet and in some cases ‘pet rent’ which causes an increase in their monthly rent rate. Landlords do this to protect their property from any damage your animal may cause whether it’s to the carpet, the window screens, etc.

Replacing Items in your Home

If you have a smaller or low maintenance pet like a hamster or fish, you may not have to worry about this unexpected expense much, but if you pet is mobile, they can get into mischief. Scratched up furniture and chewed up shoes are common for dog and cat owners who will need to replace those items sooner or later.

Will Pet Insurance Help?

Pet insurance is another expense if you decide to utilize it, but it can help protect your pet in the event of a medical emergency along with your wallet. On average, the cost of pet insurance is around $384 per year with deductibles ranging from $100 to $500.

If your pet is diagnosed with a serious condition or needs quick medical attention, pet insurance can really come in handy. In most cases, pet insurance is a reasonable option as long as you find a carrier that meets your needs and requirements. If you have an older animal, you can probably expect to pay more but keep in mind there are special plans and insurance companies that cater to owners with older animals so that is who you should gravitate toward.

Some companies will have age requirements and other guidelines to follow like requiring your pet to be spayed or neutered before enrolling in a policy.

Pet insurance may not be as beneficial if your animal has a pre-existing condition because most policies will not cover those. For example, if your cat was diagnosed with diabetes before you enrolled in an insurance policy, they may or may not cover those expenses. With pet insurance, it’s best to weigh your options and get started early so you have reliable protection long-term.

Starting a Pet Emergency Fund

Another alternative to pet insurance or something you can do in conjunction with your insurance policy is opening a pet emergency fund and contributing to it regularly. Some expenses just can’t be predicted, but you can prepare for them by setting aside at least $1,000 to $2,000 in a high-yield savings account to cover unexpected expenses for your pet.

Start by setting aside $50-100 per month if you can and work that expense into your regular budget so it becomes a habit. An emergency fund always offers peace-of-mind and the same goes for the safety and wellbeing of your pet.

How about you all? Are you a pet owner? What unexpected expenses have you been faced with?

Share your experiences by commenting below!

***Photo courtesy https://pixabay.com/en/chihuahua-dog-puppy-cute-pet-624924/

Why a Debt Consolidation With Lending Club Can Make Sense

The following is a post by MPFJ staff writer, Kevin Mercadante, who is a freelance professional personal finance blogger for hire, and the owner of his own personal finance blog, OutOfYourRut.com. He has backgrounds in both accounting and the mortgage industry.

There’s been growing interest in borrowing through peer-to-peer (P2P) lending platforms in recent years. Lending Club, as the largest P2P lender, gets most of the attention. The amount of coverage the platform gets may not be an exaggeration, either. A debt consolidation with Lending Club can make sense – and a lot of sense at that.

It’s not always about getting a better interest rate. Lending Club claims that it’s borrowers reduce their interest rates by an average of 35% when consolidating debt or paying off high interest credit cards. But it’s not absolutely certain that this is true in all cases. After all, loan rate APRs on the platform range from 5.99% to 35.27%, so not everyone is necessarily getting a better rate on every loan.

Is it worth doing a debt consolidation with Lending Club, even if you aren’t getting a significantly lower interest rate?

Very often, the answer is yes, and here are the reasons why.

High Loan Amounts

If you have a large amount of debt to consolidate, Lending Club may be a better loan source since they make loans that are larger than what are typically available from other sources. Lending Club’s current maximum loan amount for personal loans is $40,000.

Unless you have a house that you can pledge as collateral for a home equity line of credit (HELOC), it is unlikely that you will be able to get a bank loan for nearly that much money.

And while credit card companies will periodically provide you with an opportunity to consolidate debt through a credit line – often with a 0% introductory rate – those credit lines rarely exceed $10,000.

If you have substantially more than $10,000 in credit card debt, neither a bank HELOC nor a credit card company credit line are likely to provide an opportunity to consolidate all of your debt.

But $40,000 borrowed through Lending Club will almost certainly enable you to consolidate several high interest rate credit cards, and maybe even a high interest rate car loan.

Loans Are Unsecured

Not only is $40,000 a very generous amount of money to borrow, but with Lending Club it’s also a completely unsecured line of credit. That means you don’t have to pledge important assets, like a house, a vehicle, business assets or a bank account in order to get the loan.

Try doing that with a bank loan that’s half that size!

Converting Revolving Debt to an Installment Loan

All loans taken through Lending Club are installment loans, for terms ranging from 24 months to 60 months. Both your interest rate and your monthly payment are fixed for the life of the loan, and the balance will be paid in full at the end of the term. At that point, you’ll be completely debt-free!

If you have a lot of revolving debt, converting it into an installment loan is the best way to make it finally go away. After all, revolving debt is set up that way precisely to keep you in debt forever. It’s the very definition of the word “revolving” – you keep circling around, always coming back to the same place. The entire arrangement is an intentional Catch-22.

But an installment loan can get you out of that debt trap.

You Can Apply Anonymously

It can be uncomfortable to sit through a face-to-face loan application with a bank. Not only does the banker know your name (and your face), but also the intimate details of your financial situation.

But if you apply for a loan through Lending Club, the entire process is done online – from the comfort of your home – and no one who invests in your loan ever actually knows who you are.

That will be a much more satisfactory situation for people who are deep in debt, and see themselves as somehow “impaired” as a result. It’s an embarrassment-free application process.

Near-Immediate Credit Score Improvement

Your credit utilization ratio represents 30% of your credit score calculation, and ranks second only to payment history (35%) as a factor in computing your score. Your credit utilization ratio can actually improve quickly after doing a debt consolidation loan.

Your credit utilization ratio is the amount of credit you have outstanding, divided by the total amount of credit you have available. For example, if you have $10,000 in outstanding debt, and credit lines totaling $20,000, your credit utilization ratio is 50% ($10,000 divided by $20,000).

Generally speaking, a ratio of 30% or less is considered to be a positive factor. As you exceed this level, the negative effect on your credit score increases. At 80% or more, the ratio indicates increased potential for loan default, and has a very negative effect. This is a situation where you can have a fair credit score even if you have an excellent payment history.

When you do a debt consolidation, you are moving debt from several credit lines onto a single loan. The amount of debt that you owe is the same, but the amount of your credit lines has increased by the amount of the debt consolidation loan.

If you have available credit $30,000, and you owe $20,000, your credit utilization ratio is 67%. That’s probably having a negative effect on your credit score.

But if you secure a debt consolidation loan through Lending Club for $20,000 to consolidate your credit card debt, your total available credit expands the $50,000. Your credit utilization ratio then drops from 67% to 40% ($20,000 divided by $50,000).

In addition, if the $20,000 original debt was spread across five different credit lines, you will now have just a single credit line with a balance due. That means that you will have substantially reduced the number of credit lines with outstanding balances. That’s another positive factor in your FICO score calculation.

All of this will have a positive effect on your credit score. Though there will be a negative affect as a result of having a brand-new loan (no payment history) it will soon be offset by the lower credit utilization ratio and by the smaller number of credit lines with outstanding balances.

In this way, the debt consolidation loan improves your credit score, in addition to making your debt more manageable.

If you are carrying an uncomfortable level of debt, check out Lending Club and see if a debt consolidation loan can help your situation.

How about you all? Have you tried any debt consolidation loans with Lending Club or elsewhere? What has been your experience?

Share your experiences by commenting below!

****Photo courtesy https://www.flickr.com/photos/lendingmemo/9526218147/sizes/q/

Why You Should Live on Less Before you Start Earning More

The following post is by MPFJ staff writer, Chonce. You can read more articles by Chonce over at her personal blog, My Debt Epiphany. Enjoy! 

Should you spend less or earn more? This is a common question with a tough answer. While the answer heavily depends on who you are and what your financial situation and preferences are like, I’ve always been in favor of spending less and adopting a frugal lifestyle before you start to earn more. It’s one of the best ways to improve your finances quickly and truly get what you want out of life.

To fully understand the concept of spending less over earning more, you have to understand the benefits of earning more and how they are only sustainable after you’ve committed to living on less.

So why live on less when you can just work on earning more money right away?

Adopting a Frugal Mindset and Lifestyle Forces you To Work with What you Have

Living on less helps you prioritize your wants over your needs since there is a limited amount of money to go around. When you start living frugally and cutting your expenses, all of the sudden, budgeting becomes more of a necessity as you learn to strategically spend and save your money and make do with what you have.

When you have more money to spend, it’s easy to not take your budget seriously and splurge on items that you don’t truly need.

Back when I was in college and taking care of my son, I’d be happy if I earned $10,000 per year annually. While I definitely wanted to earn more money, I learned how to make ends meet so we could live comfortably and prioritize what our main expenses were, and which ones we didn’t need.

To help get through my low earning years, I gave up a lot of non-necessities and losing out on those expenses never made me any less happier. It actually gave me a relief because I didn’t have much to worry about each month.

Living on Less Motivates you to Learn More about Personal Finance

If you really think about it, why do most people turn to personal finance websites and resources? Often times, it’s because they want to learn more about how to manage the money they have, increase their income, get out of debt, or grow their money.

If your financial situation is perfect and you’re earning plenty of money, what motivation do you have to increase your knowledge about personal finance?

What piqued my interest in learning more about how to manage my money was having student loan debt and a low entry-level salary of $28,000 per year when I obtained my first job out of college. Today, I’m so thankful for my student loan debt because without it, I never would have started reading about personal finance nor started my own blog to document my journey out of debt.

Learning more about personal finance can educate and empower you to improve your habits and manage your money better but it all starts with living on less.

When you Should Work Toward Earning More

I’m definitely not against earning more. I just believe it’s crucial to understand that frugality can be a choice and not just a necessity. If you don’t have a lot of money, it’s obvious that you’re going to be interested in adopting a frugal lifestyle. But once you experience the benefits of frugality, it’s not hard to realize that you can choose to live frugally to optimize your income even when you do start earning more.

Ever since I graduated college a few years ago, my income has consistently doubled each year. While I’m so grateful to have the opportunity to increase my income, I realize that I could very easily be tempted to increase my spending and fall into lifestyle inflation as well.

Lifestyle inflation involves spending more just because you have more to spend. If you get a raise or start side hustling, it’s easy to want to treat yourself with the extra income you bring in and purchase something you feel you’ve always wanted. There is often no value behind this method of increased spending though and the extra purchases you make probably won’t help improve your life in the grand scheme of things.

If you spend everything you earn, you’ll never ever get ahead. This is why it’s best to start improving your finances by lowering your expenses and making ends meet with the income you have first. Then, when you start to earn more money you can use the additional income to go toward major goals like paying off debt, building your retirement fund, or saving up for a down payment on a house.

You’ll know that you’re ready to start earning more when:

• You’ve lowered your living expenses as much as you possibly could
• You’ve embraced frugality and gotten creative with making ends meet
• You’ve educated yourself about personal finance and determined how you will make the most of an income increase
• You know how to manage your money properly to avoid lifestyle inflation
• You want to earn more money to help meet your financial goals and work toward stability, not because you believe more money will make you happy

Once you’ve mastered the art of living well on less, you’ll know that you don’t actually need the extra money to live when you start to earn more and you can use it for other purposes.

How about you all? When it comes to spending less and earning more, do you favor one concept over the other? Do you use both strategies to improve your finances?

Share your experiences by commenting below!

***Photo courtesy https://www.flickr.com/photos/bradipo/4333249778/

Why an IRA is the Best Use of Your Tax Refund

The following is a post by MPFJ staff writer, Kevin Mercadante, who is a freelance professional personal finance blogger for hire, and the owner of his own personal finance blog, OutOfYourRut.com. He has backgrounds in both accounting and the mortgage industry.

The 2015 tax season came to an end on April 18, or at least for those who do not need to file for an extension. Now comes the blessed tax refund process. And with that, comes decision time – will you spend the money on something that you need or want right now, or will you invest the refund to improve your long-term financial picture?

It’s a more important question than most of us think. According to the IRS, the average federal income tax refund for the 2014 tax year was $3,120. While that isn’t the kind of money that could change your life today, it could have a major positive impact if you handle it as part of a long-term strategy.

Investing your tax refund in an IRA could represent just such a strategy. Here are five reasons why an IRA is the best use of your tax refund.

Turning “Found Money” into a Long-term Asset

If you choose to spend your tax refund immediately, you can certainly get a “short-term high”. It could be spent on a much desired vacation, a room full of furniture, or even used as the down payment on a new car.

As exciting as those options would be, every one of them would have zero value after a few years, including a new car (since cars depreciate all the way down to near zero). But if you choose to invest the money, it will become a long-term asset, and part of your financial portfolio for potentially the rest of your life.

While it’s always fun to spend money in the short run, it’s your ability to invest for the long term that ultimately determines your financial future. Investing your tax refund in an IRA will turn a temporary windfall into a permanent asset.

Making a Contribution While You Have the Money to do it

We all have good intentions when it comes to saving and investing money. But sometimes reality gets in the way, and the planned savings strategy never happens. If you always desire to invest for the future, but never seem to have the cash to do it, receiving your tax refund is the best time to make it happen. The money will be available, and all you have to do is transfer it into an IRA account.

One of the big advantages of depositing a tax refund into an IRA is that it represents a way to kickstart your savings and investment plan. With your tax refund safely squirreled away in an IRA account, you may then have the motivation to continue funding it, all the way up to the maximum contribution of $5,500.

Converting a Windfall into a Perpetual Cash Flow

We’ve all heard the term the gift that keeps on giving, and that’s basically what an investment plan does. You are investing cash now, to create more cash later. That is a form of creating a perpetual cash flow.

In the case of making an IRA contribution with your income tax refund, if that amount of the refund is the IRS average of $3,120, and you invest it in your IRA at 8%, the account will provide you with cash flow of $250 over the first 12 months. And because of compounding of interest, future cash flow amounts will be higher in each succeeding year.

We can think of using your tax refund to fund an IRA as a way of converting cash into a cash flow. Millionaires learn that strategy early in life, and that’s largely how they become millionaires.

Getting a Jump Start on Early Retirement

It doesn’t matter how young you are, almost everybody thinks about and dreams about early retirement. Putting your income tax refund into an IRA each year could make that dream a reality in your life.

Let’s say that you are 25 years old, and for the next 30 years you commit to moving your annual tax refund – averaging $3,120 per year – into an IRA, instead of spending it now. At an average annual rate of return of 8%, your contributions will grow to $366,230 by the time you’re 55 years old.

Even if you are not making a serious effort to retire early, accumulating that kind of money well before traditional retirement age could create the opportunity to do just that. The accumulation of large amounts of money has a way of turning dreams into reality.

For what it’s worth, if you continue with the same pattern of investing your tax refunds each year until age 65, you will have $837,495 for the effort. That kind of IRA could make retirement a reality in your life, even if you have no other retirement savings available at the time.

Setting Up Another Tax Deduction for Next Year

Earlier we talked about using the cash from your income tax refund to create a cash flow; but you can also use it to create another tax deduction. If you are eligible to make a tax-deductible IRA contribution, then the amount of the tax refund going into your IRA will create a new deduction for the current tax year.

If you are in the 25% tax bracket for federal tax purposes, and say, 7% for your state, depositing a $3,120 tax refund into an IRA can reduce your tax bill by $998 (32% X $3,120). That’s like getting a 32% return on your tax refund just for putting it in the right place. Or using your tax refund from this year to build an even bigger refund next year.

How about you all? Can you think of a better place to put your 2015 income tax refund? What do you have planned for your refund?

Share your experiences by commenting below!

***Photo courtesy https://www.flickr.com/photos/pictures-of-money/16687016624/sizes/q/

Money Tips for High School Grads

The following post is by MPFJ staff writer, Laurie Blank.  Laurie is a wife, mother to 4 and homesteader who blogs about personal finance, self-sufficiency and life in general over at The Frugal Farmer. Part witty, part introspective and part silly, her goal in blogging is to help others find their way to financial freedom and to a simpler, more peaceful life.

Graduating from high school often means taking that first step into adulthood and independence, and it’s the perfect time for graduates to learn how to handle the increase in income that will likely be coming their way.

When I was a teen, personal money management tips simply weren’t taught to the majority of kids. According to this Fox Business article, a full 83% of teens surveyed in today’s world also admit they know very little about money management.

I know that for me and my husband, our lack of education on how to manage money led to oodles of debt. Neither of us were taught anything about managing money, and that lack of knowledge led to many financial mistakes that cost us tens of thousands of dollars (in interest paid) and tremendous stress to boot.

As such, we’ve committed to teaching our kids the money tips we think will best benefit them as they enter the world of adulthood and independence. Here are the 7 money tips we’ll be teaching our kids by the time they graduate from high school.

Create Financial Goals

Many people mismanage their money simply because they haven’t determined what they want from it. When you create financial goals, you give your money a purpose, which helps you to avoid spending it on instant gratification items such as unlimited drive-thru runs and an excess of electronic gadgets.

Think now about what you want out of life from a financial standpoint, and write down a list of specific financial goals for yourself. Avoid blanket statements such as “I want to be rich”, and instead make measurable goals such as “I want to have $1 million in savings by the time I’m 40”. Then make a solid plan to achieve those goals.

By creating financial goals for yourself, you determine ahead of time how you want to make your money work for you.

Live Below Your Means

In simple terms, what this means is that you refuse to spend all of your money each payday. Decide on a portion that you can spend that will allow you to pay the bills and to achieve your financial goals, and leave the rest in the bank.

Automate Your Savings

As soon as you start earning a regular paycheck, set up a system – either through your bank or through your employer if it’s available – where a certain percentage or dollar amount of your paycheck goes directly into a savings account.

By developing the habit of automating your savings, you will easily grow a healthy savings account that can be the source of a home down payment, a plush emergency fund or an early retirement fund.

Start Retirement Investing Early

If you end up getting a job that offers a 401(k) plan, sign up early and start investing for your retirement years right away. If your job doesn’t offer a retirement plan, begin saving for retirement on your own by opening an IRA.

For young people, retirement investing often seems pointless as the retirement years seem so very far away. However, those early years of retirement investing will give you the advantage of compound interest in a big way, ensuring that you are set for a lush lifestyle during retirement should you want it.

Avoid Getting Caught up with the Joneses

The further along you get in your working years, the more you’ll see many of your peers spending money on the “big things” in life such as homes, cars, vacations and expensive clothing.

The thing that your parents and grandparents likely know from experience is that keeping up with the Joneses is like running on a hamster wheel – you work your tail off and never get anywhere.

Be sure that when you’re making purchasing decisions that you make them based on what’s best for you and your financial goals, and not based on gaining the approval of others.

Look for Money Mentors

If there are people in your life that manage money well, ask them if they would be interested in sharing their financial wisdom with you. Having a money mentor will help you to avoid many of life’s financial pitfalls and will allow you the benefit of learning from someone else’s money mistakes instead of having to learn from making your own.

Wait 72 Hours Before Making a Large Purchase

When considering a large purchase (anything over $100 is a good starting point), make a decision to wait 72 hours to see if that item is something that you truly want. Establishing this habit will help ensure you don’t blow big wads of money and then end up suffering with buyer’s remorse.

Earning an income is hard work no matter what type of job you have. By managing the money you’ve worked so hard to make in a smart manner, you’ll put yourself in a financial position down the road where you can have more choices about what you want to do in life.

How about you all? What is your best money tip for high school graduates?

Share your experiences by commenting below!

***Photo courtesy https://pixabay.com/en/girl-graduate-young-female-410175/