Sharing insights since 2007 on carefully saving money, investing, frugal living, coupons, promo codes because the little things matter in achieving financial freedom!
This is my 10th year as a freelancer. I love what I do, and am fortunate to be able to set my own hours and work from anywhere. My situation is a little unprecedented in that I didn’t move from a “real” job into self-employment. Instead, I went straight from grad school into freelancing.
However, I can see where things might have been different if I had started out in a more traditional career and then transitioned into working for myself. In fact, there are times when I wonder if things might have been smoother if freelancing had started as a side gig rather than the “job” I had to make work so my family could eat.
If you wondering if you’re ready to quit your job and work for yourself, here are 3 questions to consider before you make your move.
The two boxes looked identical, except for the price. Both contained a sound system we were considering purchasing, but the price sticker on one said, “Open Box,” and had a price of $90 less than the other.
My gut told me the right choice was to save the money and buy the Open Box item. My wife, on the other hand, wasn’t so sure. She wanted more information before we decided. So I found an employee, and asked some questions.
Before buying an Open Box item, make sure you understand any risk associated with it, even if you are able to save a bit of money.
Too often, we complacently think that difficult times can’t affect us. We are sure that terrible things won’t happen to us and that they only happen to others. And, for many of us, that ends up being true. However, the case is likely to be different when it comes to the possibility of experiencing a financial shock.
According to recent information from the Pew Charitable Trusts, 60% of American households experienced a financial shock last year — many of whom were not prepared.
Every week, your friends and colleagues ask you to go out for a few drinks or dinner but you always make an excuse. Your parents are in town, or you’re too sick, or you have to dog sit. The reason you give these excuses is because you just don’t have the money in your budget. If this sounds like you, you’re not alone.
For young professionals especially, budgets are tight, and sometimes it can be really difficult to find money to spend on socializing. But at the same time, you want to hang out with friends and have fun every once-in-awhile.
While socializing can definitely get expensive, you can still very much do it on a budget. Here are 5 tips that any young professional can do to have fun with friends without spending too much.
This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of E*TRADE for IZEA. All opinions are 100% mine.
Saying yes was easy when I was given the opportunity to write a piece related to E*TRADE because I moved my small business’ Individual 401(k) to the firm not that long ago.
The reason why I moved the accounts over were three folds. First, they were offering a cash incentive to transfer my assets over, which was essentially free money. Second, there was a quirk with my original small business 401(k) where we were charged higher fees for the same investment, so moving to another firm automatically meant paying less investment fees. Third, E*TRADE allowed me to move all my previous pre-tax IRA money into a 401(k), simplifying management and allowing for a backdoor Roth maneuver without paying taxes prematurely.
My son worked hard to save his money so he could buy his own entry-level gaming computer. Over the last year-and-a-half he’s upgraded some components, leaving him with a small stash of used computer parts.
To raise some extra cash, he’s interested in selling those extra parts, since they’re not doing him any good just collecting dust on his closet shelf. He asked me to help him put the items on Craigslist, but he’s not sure how much he should ask for his used electronic components.
We came up with a reasonable asking price for his items by following these five steps.
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