All Articles – Page 8 – Sprout Wealth

How Much Money Can You Make Driving For Uber or Lyft?

Extra Income

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Dec 4, 2014

How Much Money Can You Make Driving For Uber or Lyft?

This is a post from my good blogger friend Harry. He makes money driving people around and share with you his tricks!

Whenever people find out that I’m a rideshare driver for Uber and Lyft, undoubtedly the first question they ask me is, “So how much money can you make driving?” I think that’s kind of an odd question though since you aren’t normally supposed to ask people how much they make. But I believe the reason why a lot of people want to know, is because they may be interested in driving themselves. So before I reveal the answer to that question on everyone’s mind, I want to tell you about some of the other benefits of being a driver.

The Flexibility Is Unmatched

While it is true that I signed up to drive for Lyft and then Uber to make more money, I quickly discovered that there are some amazing benefits of being a driver. For me, the biggest bonus was the flexibility. I work full time and I spend a lot of time online blogging so whenever I need a break and some human interaction for a change, I flip on my Uber app and wait for a request. It’s as easy as that.

With Uber and Lyft, you don’t need to set hours that you’re going to work and you can figuratively turn the app on and off whenever you want. There have been times where I didn’t drive for a full month and there have also been times where I drove all weekend. There aren’t many decent jobs that allow you to set your own hours and see a correlation between how hard you work and how much money you make.

If I need a little extra cash, I can work a few extra hours and if I want to take a 2 hour lunch break, I can! Obviously, you don’t get paid during that time you’re not working but that’s how it should be right?

So What Do You Need?

Becoming a driver is actually pretty easy and the only real requirements are a newer-ish car and a smartphone (although it helps to have a good attitude too!). With Lyft, you need a car 2000 or newer and Uber requires a 2004 or newer car. You can download the driver app right onto your phone and apply to drive in less than 15 minutes.

You’ll have to pass a background check and get a vehicle inspection but if you wanted to, you could be out on the road in less than a week if things go smoothly. Just in time to make some extra cash for the holidays (Uber is predicting a huge demand increase over the holidays and has bumped up its new driver bonuses).

How Much Can You Make?

Now the question you probably care about the most is how much can you make? The numbers can vary wildly but when I drive, I shoot for $20-$30/hr after gas and commission. Uber and Lyft both take 20% of the fare as commission and you have to pay for your own gas and vehicle expenses.

$20-$30/hr is probably on the high end of the spectrum but since I’m a part-time driver, I can really cherry-pick the best hours and work when it’s busiest. The key to making a lot of money as a driver is getting lots of nice long rides and not spending much time without a passenger. So the bigger the city you’re in, the better, since you’ll get that many more requests.

Becoming a rideshare driver probably isn’t going to make you rich, but it can definitely provide for some nice side income. Uber is actually offering a $100 sign-up bonus after 20 rides and Lyft is offering a $50 bonus after 20 rides so if you do decide to try it out, you’ll get a nice little something extra on top of all the money you make from your fares.

In my opinion, there really isn’t much risk to at least trying it out. If you hate it, you’re under no obligation to continue and you really haven’t invested much. Most drivers though are like me and see it as a great way to earn a little side income and have some fun along the way.

Harry is a full time aerospace engineer and online entrepreneur. His latest project is a blog and podcast for rideshare drivers at TheRideshareGuy.com Feel free to reach out to him if you have any questions about becoming a driver.

Why Your New Year’s Resolutions Fail — And How to Actually Succeed This Year

General

Grayson Bell

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Dec 3, 2014

4

Why Your New Year’s Resolutions Fail — And How to Actually Succeed This Year

If you’re like many people, you’re going to wake up on January 1 ready to tackle the resolutions you made the night before. And if you’re like many people, you probably resolved to make major life changes: This will be the year that you finally quit smoking, lose weight, get out of debt, write that novel that you’ve been dreaming of for years.

Sound familiar? Yet despite all of your commitment on day one, you probably won’t end 2015 celebrating your success. It sounds depressing, but you aren’t alone. Statistically speaking, more than 90 percent of New Year’s resolutions fail, no matter how well intentioned they may be. So why is that? Why is it that, given the opportunity for a fresh start, we simply can’t stop spending or finally pay down those credit cards? Why can’t we start building our nest eggs for the future, hit the gym, or put down the cigarettes?

The answer is actually quite simple.

What’s The Plan?

The number one reason that New Year’s resolutions fail repeatedly is that the person setting the goal does not have a plan for achieving it. You wouldn’t set out on a cross-country road trip without at least a vague idea of where you planned to go or how you wanted to get there, yet making a resolution for a major lifestyle change without a plan is essentially the same thing.

Consider this scenario: You want to pay down your debt and start putting more money toward retirement. You plan to start on January 1 — but that date comes, and you have no idea what to do. Therefore, you pay a little more than the minimum on your credit card bill, and get the paperwork for increasing your 401(k) contributions. However, in February, you realize that your car insurance is due, so you have to make the minimum payment again, and vow to catch up in March. In addition, you still haven’t upped your contributions to the retirement plan. And so on and so on — until the end of the year comes, and you are still in the same place.

Your plan to pay down your debt and increase retirement savings would have been more successful if you had sat down and planned a smaller set of action steps that you could easily achieve throughout the year. For example, creating a monthly budget, identifying places where you can reduce spending, and actually making the contribution increase are all small steps toward the larger goal. You could also think about some more significant steps you can take; for example, could you increase your earnings by going back to school and earning a degree? By developing a road map to your goal, you know what needs to be done and increase the likelihood you will do it.

SMART Goals and Support Systems

Developing a plan isn’t the only step toward more successful resolutions. You also need to set SMART goals. When your desired result is vague — like “lose weight” — you are likely to get discouraged. You need to set goals that meet the SMART criteria; that is, they should be specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and timely. Saying “I want to save money” is great, but saying “I want to have $5,000 in the bank by June” is better. When you are clear about what you hope to accomplish and by when, you have a better chance of achieving what you set out to do.

Another important task is to identify the barriers that can keep you from meeting your goal. Two of the most common barriers are a lack of time and lack of motivation. However, there is no reason to let such barriers hold you back. Think about what’s keep you from achieving your goals in the past, and find creative ways to overcome them. For example, if nights out with friends seem to bust your budget every month, look for new, inexpensive ways to socialize that allow you to put more cash toward your goals.

Finally, build a support system. Accountability is a huge factor in successfully meeting goals. If there aren’t any consequences to failure, what incentive is there to try hard? Talk about your goals with friends and family, and ask for their support. When your friends know you’re trying to save cash for a down payment, they will be less likely to suggest a shopping trip.

So when you are making your resolutions as you ring in the New Year, think about what you really hope to accomplish and how you want to get there — and maybe this year will be the year that you join the ranks of those who successfully followed through on their New Year’s goals.

TradeMONSTER Review: Trade Free For 60 Days!

John

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Dec 2, 2014

1

TradeMONSTER Review: Trade Free For 60 Days!

TradeMONSTER is an online brokerage that has risen quickly in popularity since their inception in 2008. Since we like to talk about ways to make money and invest in the stock market here at Sprout Wealth we thought a TradeMONSTER review would be helpful for those looking to get started investing or for those looking to switch brokerages.

First, we’ll give a brief background on TradeMONSTER. TradeMONSTER was started during the middle of the market decline in 2008 by Peter Najarian. Najarian has held numerous high profile positions within the financial world, focusing specifically on options trading. TradeMONSTER recently made news by cutting their commission price from an already competitive $7.50 per trade to $4.95 per trade.

I will give the disclaimer that neither Grayson nor I have accounts with TradeMONSTER. However, I dealt with them extensively during my career in the online brokerage industry and have worked with their platform quite a bit and have been impressed by both their service and their platform. With that out of the way, let’s get on with the TradeMONSTER review.

How TradeMONSTER Is Different

Even though TradeMONSTER is a newer player in the online brokerage scene, they have managed to carve out a relatively good niche for themselves. While they have some features that are common to most other brokerages they do have some pretty unique features such as:

TradeMONSTER offers killer pricing. As mentioned previously, the commission at TradeMONSTER is $4.95 per trade. That is only slightly higher than the lowest bigger brokerage out there – Optionshouse which is at $4.75. If you trade options, TradeMONSTER charges a max of $.50 which is very competitive as well.
TradeMONSTER offers Futures trading. Futures can be incredibly risky, especially if you’re not versed in how they work. Their commission comes in at $1.50 per trade which is half the price you’ll find at Etrade.
TradeMONSTER is one of the few online brokers that offers paper trading accounts. This allows you to invest and try different things out without fear of losing your shirt in a virtual environment. If you open an account with TradeMONSTER you immediately get access to a virtual account with $100,000.
TradeMONSTER offers stellar online support. Like Motif Investing, they have made social media a serious part of their strategy to help investors. TradeMONSTER also has numerous blogs and real-time online support to help you when you have the need. This, unfortunately, is not the standard within the industry.
TradeMONSTER heavily targets those interested in options trading. There are a few other brokerages out there, like Optionshouse and TradeStation which do the same thing. However, TradeMONSTER is regularly recognized as having the best option trading platform in the industry. Add that to the price and they’re hard to beat.

What’s Needed to Open A TradeMONSTER Account?

We’re big fans of brokerages that make it easy for you to start investing and TradeMONSTER does that. With that in mind, there is no minimum opening balance required by TradeMONSTER. This is great if you’re looking to start investing with under $1,000. The point is if you want to start with $500, you can most certainly do that.

Fees

As I’ve written before, I hate investment fees. TradeMONSTER holds the same philosophy as there are no account maintenance fees, annual fees or anything like that. Beyond the $4.95 stock commission, and the option price if you trade options, there are no hidden fees to deal with.

Investment Options

Largely due to their age, there is not a whole lot beyond the typical stocks and mutual funds you would find at a larger brokerage like Scottrade. Besides stocks (including ETFs of course) and options, TradeMONSTER also offers the following other investment options:

Mutual funds
Bonds
Futures

The one thing I will point out about TradeMONSTER is their platform is on the more difficult side to master. A lot of this goes back to their target niche of active/options traders. There is nothing wrong with that, as it is regularly considered one of the top platforms out there by Barron’s. TradeMONSTER does offer live training and resources to learn how to use the platform so that does help. Don’t allow the advanced level to hold you back, but please be aware of it going into your decision.

TradeMONSTER Review – My Take

I think for the right individual TradeMONSTER would be a great option to consider for your investing needs. This is especially the case if you would consider yourself an active trader or if you like options trading. If that is not your cup of tea, I still think it could be a good fit, given their incredibly competitive commission structure. If you’re a buy and hold investor who only invests in index funds then TradeMONSTER may not be the best option out there for you. But, if you like to invest in some individual stocks or do some options trading then TradeMONSTER is definitely worth considering.

I will also mention that TradeMONSTER regularly has promotions like the ability to trade free for 60 days or getting up to $250 in transfer fees credited back, so make sure to take advantage of what fits you best if you do choose to open an account with TradeMONSTER. Sign up now and trade free for 60 days with TradeMONSTER.

Where do you manage your investment accounts? What are you paying for commissions? Do you like to manage investments on your own or pay someone to do it for you?

Are You Too Frugal? Why That Might Backfire

General

Grayson Bell

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Nov 27, 2014

3

Are You Too Frugal? Why That Might Backfire

Everywhere you look, there are people promising you new ways to save money. If there is one headline guaranteed to selling magazines, or getting people to click a link online, it’s the promise to reveal some new secret to saving cash.

And in fact, there is nothing wrong with being frugal. Just because you have money to spend doesn’t mean you should, and spending money on every silly thing that comes your way is never going to keep you out of debt and on the road to financial freedom. However, the problem is you can actually be too frugal or frugal in the wrong ways.

“Too frugal?” you might be saying. “There is no such thing.” But it’s true. Sometimes, in your efforts to save money, you actually end up spending more money in the end, or at the very least, not using the money you do have to its fullest potential. Instead of enjoying a healthy bank balance, you end up frustrated, tired, and confused as to why your efforts aren’t bringing in results.

Signs You Are Too Frugal

One of the issues with people who are too cautious with their money is that they rarely realize that they are. Sure, they might laugh off their friends’ jokes about them being cheap, or endure the eye rolls when they suggest eating at a restaurant with a daily special, or pull out a coupon when the bill comes to the table, but they rarely realize that they might be taking it too far.

Some of the most common signs of overdoing the frugality include:

Hoarding or buying things you don’t need because they are on sale

A few years ago, the notion of “extreme couponing” was popular, with television shows, blogs, and more devoted to people who manage to buy hundreds of dollars’ worth of items for pennies. While using coupons and sales is certainly a good practice, some people take it too far, and now have pantries full of condiments and other items that they will never use. Couponing is only valuable when you save money on items you actually use or need.

Obsessing over pinching pennies

Do you spend hours poring over sales flyers, trying to find bargains? Does your grocery shopping take all day because you have to travel to six different stores to save $10? Are you constantly on hold with one company or another, trying to get a better rate? If you are devoting a great portion of your life to saving money, to the point where it’s keeping you from other activities, you could have a problem.

You constantly come up short

You decided to save a few hundred dollars and buy an off-brand TV — and now you need a new one, a year later. You cut your monthly insurance payments by raising your deductible, and just had to wipe out your nest egg to cover an unexpected bill. You skipped your annual dental exam because you didn’t have any issues — and now you need several fillings. There are plenty of areas where you can save money, but that doesn’t mean you should. When making any financial decision, you need to look at the long-term impact of your choice, not just the immediate impact on your pocketbook. Sure, raising your car insurance deductible to $1,500 will save you a few dollars on your premium, but it could leave you in a bind when you have an accident and need $1,200 in repairs. There are simply some areas where you should never skimp, including big-ticket purchases (like appliances, electronics, and vehicles), insurance coverage, and maintenance (on yourself, your home, and your car).

You miss opportunities

You see an investment that has the potential for major returns, but you hesitate — and miss your window. A friend invites you on a vacation, and you spend so long looking at cheaper transportation and hotel options that the price goes up, so you stay home. These are just some of the ways that being too conservative with your money can harm you in the long and short term. It’s okay to spend money, and in some cases, it takes money to make money.

All of this isn’t to advocate spending willy-nilly, especially if you are deep in debt or have little to no savings. However, when you are trying to save money, focus on saving the right way, and putting your money to work for you, by investing, working side gigs, or becoming an entrepreneur. Washing and re-using plastic sandwich bags or forgoing cable TV might save you a little bit of cash, but true prosperity comes from knowing how to manage your money the right way.

Is It Ever Ok to Lie When Blogging?

General

John

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Nov 25, 2014

11

If you’re a personal finance blogger or follow the blogging world you’ve likely heard of an incident that has taken place over the past few weeks. Long story short, it appears the blogger in question was flat out lying in many of his claims of reaching considerable wealth at such a young age.

I had dealt a fair bit with the individual in question, all entirely over email and most recently where he asked to contribute a post to my main site – Frugal Rules. I’m thankful the truth came out prior to running anything from him. Honestly speaking, it’s sad to see how the entire situation has unfolded in that many of his claims were lies. We’ve seen this very same issue in our business so know it’s unfortunately something you’re going to deal with from time to time. With that in mind I think it brings up an excellent question with regards to blogging.

That question is if it’s ever ok to lie when blogging. Without trying to sound holier than thou, or anything like that, I believe it’s a rather simple question to answer – no!

What We Owe Our Readers

One of the things I love most about blogging is helping others. I love it when I get an email from a reader and they have problems or questions they’re coming to me with. They’re reaching out to me to get help or assistance, which I find humbling and often they ask me for help. If you’ve been a blogger for any amount of time you’ve probably experienced the same thing.

Each time I get an email l’m reminded of the fact there are many others out there who’re going through many of the same things we have. They’re paying off debt, they want help getting started investing, they need help knowing where to look for side hustles and so much more. The crazy thing is those who actually reach out are a small minority of those who are actually reading our thoughts and struggles.

With that in mind, as well as many other reasons, I believe we owe our readers (and ourselves really) genuineness.

We owe them the truth.

We owe them transparency.

Why do we owe our readers these things? I believe it’s quite simple. We owe them that because if we’re aiming to provide any level of help or want to build any level of success for our blogging endeavors we need our readers to trust us. When bloggers lie, it makes building that trust harder for all of us. With a veil of anonymity in place, the internet can provide a breath of fresh air readers can pick up on which only helps them and us in the long run.

There Are No Shortcuts To Success

If you’ve followed Grayson and I here on Sprout Wealth much at all then you know we like to talk about different ways to make money. Some of those ways are a little more simple and some a little more advanced, though all are given to help you as a reader see there are many ways you can earn more. We also realize that we’re not experts in everything and thus enjoy learning about ways to grow our wealth along with you.

My point in all of that is that we may think there are some shortcuts to success. It’s human nature, on one level, I think to try and find those. Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on how you look at it, I’ve not really found many shortcuts to success.

Instead, success, more often than not takes hard work.

It takes creativity.

It takes perseverance.

It takes time.

Those things don’t necessarily guarantee you success but they will get you a lot farther then lying ever will as so much of success comes down to being genuine and building relationships.

With that being said, I think it not only behooves us as bloggers to be real in our writing as lying is certainly not the way to go. While it may seem as no problem or an easy way to promote ourselves, the last thing you want to do is build your foundation on a house of cards.

If you’re a blogger, what are some other things you believe we owe our readers? What areas are you tempted to cut corners on in order to reach success?

Photo courtesy of: Artotem

Make Money With These Services This Holiday Season

Extra Income

Grayson Bell

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Nov 20, 2014

3

Make Money With These Services This Holiday Season

As you know, we here at Sprout Wealth are all about making money! We love that cheddar hitting our tables, but we work hard for it. It doesn’t just drop in our laps. Since it’s the holiday season and we are in the thick of it, I thought I would share some easy ways to make money with a few, select services. Remember, service-based money making ideas are the easiest to start and run. Most of them just require you and your skillset. You might not even have to buy anything to do it. John already wrote some awesome ways to make money before Christmas, so I wanted to add on with just a few services.

Personal Shopping

I wrote in depth about being a personal shopper before, but doing it during the holiday season is a must. This can be the easiest thing to do, especially if you love shopping! Just start working around and finding clients to help. Even start with your family. You can get your shopping done at the same time and make money at the same time.

Babysitting

I’m not sure why I didn’t think of this one earlier, but the holidays are a great time to do some babysitting. With everyone hustling around to get things done before the holidays strike, they need some assistance. You can get the one to help out. Babysitting can be fairly easy depending on the clientele. I even used to do this when I was younger. I made good money as well. You can jump in when people want to go to a holiday party or get some Christmas shopping done. There are many opportunities to make money this way.

Yard Work

I could have used this the other weekend. We have leaves falling all over our yard and it won’t stop until all trees are bare. This is a great way to earn some extra money. If you have rake or a lawn mower, you can take care of the leaves in people’s yards. Most people don’t have the time during the holidays to get this taken care of, but they want their yards looking good when they have family and friends over for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Go door to door and get some business!

House Cleaning

Do you like to clean and have the necessary tools to do it? Then get on the ball and start cleaning people’s houses. This is a busy season for house cleaning businesses. They are going around getting everyone’s house clean for the holidays. People like me don’t like to clean their house, so I would gladly pay someone to do it. This can be an easy business to start and you can earn quite a bit depending on the quality of work you do.

Petsitting

Just like babysitting, you can also watch pets. Some people can’t bring their animals with them when they travel, so they either have to board their pets or have someone take care of them. That someone could be you. This is a great money making opportunity. It doesn’t take much work, but you can charge a premium for the convenience. People love their pets, so if you take care of them, they will pay you and maybe you can get some repeat business.

These money making ideas are easy to do and don’t take a lot of time. Anything helps in the holiday season. Remember, the people you want to find are looking for convenience. They want to be able to focus on other aspects of their lives and the holidays. People pay a premium for convenience, so go out there and get it done!

What other services can you think of doing this holiday season to make a little more money?

When Should You Get Out of the Stock Market?

Investing

John

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Nov 18, 2014

8

When Should You Get Out of the Stock Market?

If you’ve been following the financial news much the past few months you’ve seen the talk about the levels the stock market has been reaching lately. The belief is that the stock market has been doing so well that we’re bound to see some sort of pullback. In fact, we even saw what some thought to be a pullback in early October.

While this may be true, in theory, as the market ebbs and flows over time, an observer may hear the news and think the sky is falling and now is the time to get out of the stock market. While this may be understandable on an emotional level, it’s generally going to get you nowhere in terms of building your wealth.

Keep Your Eyes on the Goal

When it comes to investing, you need to keep your eyes on the end game. When you’re growing a new business or starting a side hustle you need goals to go after. This, of course, means you need to determine what your overall goal is. 🙂

Far too many times in my former day job I saw individuals act rashly at the first sign of trouble in the stock market. When I’d ask them why they were wanting to get out of the stock market the answer invariably came back the same – I don’t want to lose money. I get that feeling. I hate losing money too! However, that is a given in investing. You’re going to lose money – plain and simple.

You need to be able to come to grips with that reality all the while knowing that it’s the nature of the beast. But, I’d challenge you to take it a step farther and not even look at the day to day movements of your investments. Instead, take the long term view and realize it’s going to take time to reach your investing goals. This time will vary based off what your specific goal is, but the point is that it takes time. Embrace that and you’ll be much better off for it.

Ignore the Hype

Unless you’re a big dork like me, you need to avoid the financial talking heads. If you don’t know who those are, they’re the “analysts” on CNBC, Fox Business, CNN, etc. who are always busy telling you to buy this or that stock. While they might seem like they have sage wisdom, they’re largely only trying to do one thing – get ratings. I don’t necessarily have an issue with it, as they’re doing their job, but their recommendations need to be taken with a massive grain of salt.

Aside from earning ratings the other major issue with following the talking heads is their focus is way too short – it’s only on the present. We know that slow and steady wins the race when it comes to investing which means that our focus isn’t on today but where our wealth building will be 10, 20 or 30 years from now. Again, they’re doing their job, but with them knowing nothing about your given situation you need to disregard the talking heads and instead focus on your goals.

Turn This Idea on its Head

A key part to growing wealth is finding opportunity. Whether you realize this or not, you need to be on the lookout for said opportunity as it can pop up in places you might not expect. This is also the case when it comes to investing in the stock market. When others are selling out of their positions and trying to get out of the stock market is the time to actually go against the herd and buy in. This can work if you invest in individual stocks or in index funds.

View it as though your favorite store is having a going out of business sale and prices are drastically reduced. To really work this the best way, buy when prices are down as you can snap up a great position at a “cheaper” price and ride it back up, all the while with the commitment to holding it for the long term. While this might require you to be on top of your game, it can pay you back in spades. Just think of those who had the stomach to buy stocks at lows in 2008, only to see them drastically improve. They’re glad they took the opportunity.

The point behind all of this is that if you’re asking when you should get out of the stock market, it reveals that your thinking is off. Short term blips should not deter you from going after your longer term goals. Instead, your focus should be on staying the course and taking opportunity when it presents itself.

How do you let short term fluctuations affect your investing? Are you afraid to take a balanced risk to take advantage of opportunity?

Photo courtesy of: WSilver

Save Money This Holiday Season, Then Invest It

Saving

Grayson Bell

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Nov 13, 2014

7

Save Money This Holiday Season, Then Invest It

We talk a lot here about making money and the many different ways you can make money. Since it’s the holidays and people are going to be shopping their minds away, I figured I would share some ways to save your money and then ways to invest it to make money. It’s a nice little cycle. I have heard some people say that saving money is making money, but it’s not. Hate to be blunt, but you only can make money on your savings if you do something with it.

Since most of us will be out and about this holiday season shopping for our friends and family, why not learn how to save some cash and then turn around and invest those savings to earn more money? What a better way to start off the new year with more money in your investments and feeling good for the savings you procured. Let’s get started.

Shop the Big Deal Days

We all know that Black Friday is a massive shopping day. It’s supposed to have some of the best deals, but what you don’t know is most of those deals are carried across multiple days now. Walmart just announced Black Friday like deals for multiple days straight. You can score deals on Black Friday, but you don’t have to deal with the crowds. Some other good days to get awesome deals are Cyber Monday (the Monday after Thanksgiving), Green Monday (this is the Monday at least 10 days before Christmas), and Free Shipping Day (for 2014, this is December 18th). There are some other days in between, but these tend to be quite large.

Remember, you are trying to save money when you go out shopping for gifts. If you don’t have any gift ideas yet, then make sure you come up with some. I created a nice list of awesome gift ideas for men under $35. If you shop for things you weren’t expecting to buy, then you aren’t saving.

Get the Cash Back Deals

It should be no surprise that I love earning cash back. It’s awesome. The best part is when I’m shopping online and doing it. Just because there are big deals going on, doesn’t mean you can’t get some extra money in your pocket. If you are going to be shopping online this holiday season (I am!), then make sure you are taking advantage of cash back deals. There are many cash back sites to help you save money. You can earn as much as 40% cash back for your purchases. Many of the top online retailers give even more cash back to their customers in the holidays, so take advantage of it. Here is a list of the best cash back sites.

Scour the Web for Holiday Coupons

Online coupons are a huge deal and worth their weight in gold. You can save so much money with coupons and the holiday shopping season is no different. You just need to know where to look. There are thousands of coupon sites, but my favorite is RetailMeNot. They have the largest collection of coupons and you can see instantly if they will work. The best part is they keep active during the holidays to have the best coupons available for some of the top stores.

You can’t save with coupons unless you use them. If you are going to be shopping this holiday season online, then you should take a few extra minutes to find quality coupons. Online retailers want your business and they will send out awesome coupons all the time until the end of the year.

What Should You Do With Your Savings?

OK, you saved some money this holiday season. Congratulations! Saving money is easy when you take a few extra minutes to plan it out. You can score awesome deals during the holidays, but what should you do with your left over money? Most people will typically spend it. I don’t recommend that. Remember, you can’t make money unless you keep your savings. For myself, I plan on putting anything not spend in my holiday budget into my investment account. I have a few, but I will be placing them in either my Motif Investing account or my Scottrade account. Both are good and I can take those savings and earn more money.

Saving money is an excellent opportunity to turn that money into more money. Don’t fall for putting your money in your big bank savings account. You won’t earn much. If you want to keep the money near you, then at least think of using a higher interest account from places like Capital One 360. I have one and it’s easy to setup and use.

No matter how you save money this holiday season, don’t just spend your savings. Take time to either invest it or sock it away for a rainy day into a savings account which earns a little more than nothing. If you can get into this habit, you will be better off starting in the new year!

Why Asking For Help Can Make You Money

John

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Nov 11, 2014

11

I have a confession to make – I HATE asking for help. Ok, I know that really doesn’t make me unique, as I know many people who don’t like asking for help. However, I’m a little extreme; I’ve been known to take it up a notch and refuse to ask for help.

In some cases, it has really backfired on me and forced me to do what I didn’t want to do in the first place, which was ask for help. You may be asking what this has to do with making money and that would be a fair question. Hear me out as I connect the dots for you.

We Have Limited Resources

I think it goes back partially to our American culture. We pride ourselves on our work ethic and work ourselves into the ground. I know I can be prone to that, to the point that my wife jokes at times that my laptop is her husband. We, myself included, think we can do it all. Well, if you’re sitting there thinking you can do it all then I have a secret for you.

Are you ready…you can’t do it all.

I know that flies in the face of what we tell ourselves, but it’s the truth. We only have 24 hours in a day. Our bodies need sleep at some point. We have some skills, even expertise, but we’re not experts in everything. We can teach ourselves different things, but at the end of the day we have limited capacity.

Others Can Help You Make More Money

As many know, my wife and I run our own business. While we love doing what we do and do well at it I have a vision for something more. My vision is to turn our virtual advertising agency into a full blown agency. A recent opportunity with a current client is helping us take that first step to doing just that and we’re terribly excited to see how it brings us to the potential of making that a reality. But, it requires us to ask for help.

We do much of the copywriting, marketing strategy, etc. for many of our clients. However, there are things we can’t do. Yes, we could teach ourselves something like how to do media buying but the simple fact is we have no experience doing it. This brings us to a handful of choices.

We could tell a client we can’t do this for him and risk losing his business altogether. We could try and do it ourselves and fumble our way through it and waste time or lose the client. Or, we could bring in someone who can do media buying to help us do it for the client. Yes that’ll mean we lose out on some of the income from the job. However, if we didn’t do it then we risk losing the client completely.

We chose to go with the option of bringing someone in because while it does take away some of our profit, it also means we’ll be making more money from the client overall. That is the goal after all and if we’re going to make any headway towards reaching my vision of an honest to goodness ad agency then it only stands to reason that we need to bring in others. I know you’re likely not in my same situation, but if you’re reading this then you likely have an area in your life that you’d like to grow in order to make more money but are held back for one reason or another.

Don’t Let Shame Hold You Back From Asking For Help

I think that’s the other thing that happens. We feel ashamed by asking for help. I get it and go through that myself. I ask myself though if I’d rather waste time trying to work on something I have no clue how to do and waste time, money and energy in the process or if I’d rather have someone help me take whatever it is to the next level.

That is part of the reason why I launched my blog coaching services to help bloggers and I’m sure that’s why Grayson offers the technical support services he does. It’s because we enjoy helping others so they can focus on the things they want while we help them get where they want to go. In the end I think it’s seeking that way to maximize what you’re already doing and leveraging the knowledge of others that helps us achieve the success we’re striving for.

Do you struggle with asking others for help? Why do you think we hate to ask for help? What is one area where you want to grow that requires assistance from others to happen?

Photo courtesy of: Cory Doctorow

Make Money Being a Holiday Personal Shopper

Extra Income

Grayson Bell

-

Nov 6, 2014

3

Make Money Being a Holiday Personal Shopper

In a post about ways to make money before Christmas, John mentioned personal shopping as a way to earn money before Christmas. So, as a way to expand on this, I wanted to show you how to start and market your personal shopping business before the holidays get into high gear. Before I move on, anyone can be a personal shopper and you can do it all year long. The key about the holidays is it could be a great way to earn a lot of money. The holiday season is the busiest shopping time of the year. The perfect time to create and market a personal shopping business.

How to Get Started as a Personal Shopper

So, what do personal shoppers do? The process is actually fairly simple. If you are good at shopping, and especially good at saving money, then this gig could be for you. Technically a personal shopper is just someone who shops for someone else. You get a list of products you need to purchase and you go do it. Now, that is a fairly simplistic view of being a personal shopper. This type of money making idea is really for those who are organized. This is especially the case if you have multiple clients. Since we here at Sprout Wealth are all about earning extra money, you will need multiple clients to make this work.

Step 1: Come Up with Your Value Proposition

We have described what a value proposition is and why you should have one. If you haven’t read the post yet, then do that and come back. I’ll wait….

OK, now back to it. You need to know how you will run your personal shopping service. What will you do which will differentiate you from the crowd? Remember, personal shopping has been around for some time, so you aren’t the first person to do it. If you want to earn money and get clients, you need to come up with a sweet value proposition. One way to do this is add other services on top of just shopping. If they are in need of holiday gifts, then provide a holiday gift idea strategy session. You can come up with great gift ideas for your clients and charge them extra for it.

Once you have your value proposition, you can move on.

Step 2: Marketing Your Services

How are you going to make money without any clients? The key to a successful personal shopping service is to get good paying clients and a lot of them. The more clients you can service, the better your little money making venture will be. Since you will be relying on local advertising, this makes marketing a little easier.

Your first marketing step would be to put an ad on Craigslist. It’s free and easy to put up a post about your personal shopping services. It won’t take much time and you can let it ride for 30 days. To keep your post on top of the services page, make sure to update it everyday to keep it in the top of search results.

Remember that making money also requires you spend money. This isn’t always the case, but it is a majority of the time. Marketing requires some cash, but local advertising doesn’t require that much.

Another way to market your personal shopping gig is in local newspapers. Remember, during the holidays there are tons of ads for sales. Why not put your service right there with them and remind people, they don’t have to go shopping. You will do it for them! These newspaper ads will cost more during the holidays, but it could be worth it.

Take advantage of your family. Tell them about your business idea and share it with your friends. The power of word of mouth marketing is great. Your friends and family will be your biggest supporters and they can help you spread the word. They might even hire you!

The last marketing step you could take is advertise on Google. Google Adwords allows you to put up digital ads when people search for keywords, like personal shopping. You can target people just in your area with holiday shopping keywords and get people to call you and pay for service. If you have some money to spend, this could be a good way.

Step 3: Providing Awesome Service

Once you get clients for your personal shopping service, you need to actually deliver. As I stated in the last section, word of mouth advertising is huge. This is one of the ways I get clients for my blog management service. I provide the best customer service I can, so people will refer my services to their friends. You need to do the same.

Once you get your clients, you actually have to do the shopping. It will take time to come up with a method to keep up with all your shopping requests. This will morph over time and you will get into a groove. Remember, this is not just about shopping for other people. It’s about making their lives easier and saving them money. They will give you a list to shop for, but don’t stop there. Take time to find coupons in order to save. Take advantage of cash back offers to save your clients more money. If you come back to them with all of their stuff, plus some left over money, you might get that extra cash.

Step 4: Rinse and Repeat

Providing personal shopping to other people is a great way to earn money for the holidays. Not only can you shop for others, but you can get your shopping done at the same time. Two birds with one stone. You may find over time that people request your services for other shopping trips. Maybe they need you to buy their groceries or pick up their prescriptions. Remember to offer these little services as a way to expand your business. If you do well, being a personal shopper could turn into a business and could become large.

I know a few people who have done this before and have made great money before. They even turned them into large businesses with other people doing the shopping and them focusing on marketing. You never know where these little ideas can go, but try it out. If you like shopping and don’t mind dealing with customers, try creating a personal shopping business and run with it!

Image via ** RCB **