After growing quickly, Simple was acquired by BBVA in 2014. In 2020, BBVA’s U.S. operations were then acquired by PNC Bank. It appears that is shutting Simple down in “order to focus on its core banking platform,” according to reports.

If you are a Simple customer looking for an alternative banking solution that includes robust budgeting capabilities, then Qube Money might just be the perfect solution for you. While existing Simple accounts will be fully transferred to BBVA accounts, most Simple customers opened their account because they didn’t want to use a traditional megabank and will be looking for an alternative.

It’s also important to realize that Simple differed from standard online banks because they offered budgeting and planning tools that helped their customers reach financial milestones.

For this reason, many Simple customers are now looking to Qube Money.

What is Qube Money? 

Qube Money is a mobile banking app that marries best-in-class budgeting capabilities with cash management. Qube Money can be thought of as the marriage of mobile banking with cash envelopes. If you are looking for a free online banking solution and do not need or want any budgeting features, Qube is not your best option.

However, if you have had trouble creating a budget, sticking to a budget, or simply want to start living within your means, then Qube’s features are incredibly powerful.

I think of Qube Money as a great solution for someone that doesn’t know where or how they are spending their money. 

Here is what a current Qube customer had to say about the service: “Qube is so easy to use and makes planning and executing my budget simple and concise. Mostly I love the peace of mind I’ve had since using Qube. The anxiety and stress I used to feel about spending money is gone!”

How does Qube Money Work?

At its heart, Qube Money is a budgeting tool that leverages banking services to help you plan your spending.

The power of Qube’s budgeting tools lies in the Qubes that you create. Qubes are the digital envelopes that you allocate your money into each month.

Instead of using real physical envelopes to distribute the cash, you divide up your checking account into individual “qubes.” Think of Qubes as sub-accounts of the primary checking account.

Are you wondering what envelope budgeting is? Let’s talk about that and return to how Qube works.

Cash Envelope Budgeting Systems

Cash envelope budgeting is, in many ways, the most rudimentary way to budget. You can think of it as the way your great grandparents might have budgeted many years ago.

For those who struggle with sticking to their budget, a physical envelope system is a more rigid budgeting method. This makes it extremely useful for those who need the most help.

This is how it works. When using a physical envelope budgeting system, one goes to the bank in person and withdraws the cash needed to cover their budgeted expenses for the month. The money is then physically divided into each budgeting category and placed into corresponding envelopes. Categories may include things like groceries, gas, entertainment, etc. 

Once the cash runs out from an envelope, one has to wait until the following month to refill the category before spending any more money. If you are very disciplined, you won’t borrow money from one envelope if you overspend on another.

Cash essentially limits your ability to overspend. No cash = no spending.

While this is undoubtedly a surefire way to prevent lifestyle creep and overspending, there is typically one complaint that many have shared: managing the cash and having to carry it around can be quite a hassle. It’s also cumbersome to track where you spend money unless you keep very detailed records and save receipts.

It can also be risky. What if you lose an envelope or it gets stolen?

Qube Money is the answer to those who want to stick with a strict envelope budgeting system but want to leave the cash behind.

Qube Takes Budgeting To The Next Level

Before making a purchase using the Qube Money check card, you select which envelope you want the transaction to pull from and proceed through the transaction. The data then updates, and you see your new remaining balance.

Much like a physical envelope, if you don’t have enough money within a qube, you can’t spend the money. There are no overdrafts, so the transaction will be declined if there are not enough funds in the allocated qube to cover the total. 

To illustrate how this works, imagine you are standing in line at the grocery store. You have a cart full of food, and you have $350 allocated for your groceries for the month. While the cashier rings up the person in front of you, you pull out your phone and select your grocery qube. You “move” the 350 dollars over to the card, and you’re ready to go.

Once your groceries are rung up, the total is $150. The transaction clears, and the remaining $150 is returned to your grocery qube for next time.

Your qube will only be open for a limited amount of time so that you don’t go on and make another impulse purchase without having to reopen a spending qube. 

No transaction logging is needed, as that transaction automatically comes from your grocery qube. It’s similar to logging transactions, except you’re logging them before the transaction rather than after. 

This is an excellent feature because your budget will always be up to date. If you’re like me, you may sometimes forget to track an expense or update them weekly. Qube Money eliminates this aspect of digital budgeting, which isn’t often discussed.

Adding The Right Amount Of Friction To Hold You Accountable

Simply put, spending money is easy. Far too easy. It’s not hard to imagine how one could effortlessly spend their entire paycheck and then wonder where the money went at the end of the month. Actually, you probably don’t need to imagine it at all, because that’s how most people do it.

An unplanned expense or unexpected decrease in income is enough to shatter any sense of security. For many reasons, it’s harder to be successful with money today than ever before.

One of the critical ways that Qube helps you stick to your spending plan is that you have to physically open the app and select from which qube (or digital envelope) you want to spend.

Your Qube Card literally won’t work unless you open a spending qube.

That visual reminder and act of seeing your financial plan staring you in the face before you spend is incredibly potent.

Decades ago, people would carry their checkbooks with them, and they would balance them. A checkbook had a ledger in the front that you would use to make sure you wouldn’t write a check that would bounce. So you always knew your bank balance.

Now with credit cards and digital payments, you essentially just swipe or click a button, and the entire process is over before you even have time to think about whether you should be making the purchase.

The qubes are your accountability partner to make sure you stick to your plan. Now you just sit back and watch your savings grow as you only spend what you planned.

Qube As A Standalone Banking Solution

In its current format, Qube works best if you already have an existing bank account that you can link. If you need the ability to send transfers to other people with Zelle, you will be disappointed. 

While management at Qube has stated that they intend to build out more robust banking functions, it’s currently best used as a world-class budgeting tool. The best part is that a basic plan is free.

How Much Does Qube Money Cost?

Qube Money has announced four plans. Your needs will dictate which plan is right for you. The “Basic” plan is free ($0) per month. This plan is an individual plan with 10 qubes.

The “Premium” plan includes the free plan services plus additional features such as unlimited qubes and the ability to get more than one card if you share finances with a significant other/partner/spouse/etc. The premium plan is $8 per month. 

A Family plan is $15 per month, and in addition to the Premium plan features, it allows you to add up to 10 kids accounts. There is an upcoming ‘chore tracking feature,’ which could be a motivator for task-oriented families. It’s clear that the app was designed with families in mind.

For $25 a month, a Platinum account gives you access to all of the features of the cheaper plans in addition to rewards, benefits through corporate partners, access to additional training, and a sleek metal card.

Qube Money Pricing

Qube Takes Family Spending And Coordination To The Next Level

It’s easy to see at first glance that Qube was created with families in mind. Qube’s family plan allows you to have different cards for your entire family. Everyone can log into their app and see their specific spending Qubes.

If you have little ones that do chores in exchange for an allowance, they can have their own personal spending Qube. The ability to set parent permissions means that you are always in control while still teaching your kids about responsible spending habits.

Qube vs. Simple Bank – How They Stack Up

If you are deciding if Qube is a good replacement for Simple, it comes down to one thing: budgeting.

Do you need help tracking your spending? Want to curb an impulse spending problem? Do you want to accelerate your ability to reach your financial goals and set money aside for upcoming expenses like vacations or home repairs?

If you want to have complete control over your spending, look no further. Qube is easily the most complete budgeting and spending solution that I’ve seen on the market. 

On the other hand, if you just want an online bank to hold your money, other digital alternatives like Ally and Varo will be better suited.

If you are ready to learn more about Qube and start to get your financial life back under control, you can visit Qube’s site to learn more!

The post Simple Bank Closing: See Why Qube Money Is A Worthy Substitute appeared first on Finance Plan Today.

So we read everything we could about money for YEARS. The truth is we would’ve done anything for a beginner’s guide to personal finance like this.

That is why we want to share everything we’ve learned with you so that you can improve your financial life and stop living paycheck to paycheck.

Our ultimate goal is to help you save enough money so that your kids won’t have to support you when you get old.

In this personal finance guide for beginners, we’ll show you the way.

We always thought that personal finance was complicated and too confusing to understand unless you were an accountant. After one of us studied finance at Harvard Business School and the other went to medical school at the Mayo Clinic, we realized it doesn’t need to be complicated.

Personal finance boils down to a few simple steps that are easy to follow.

You may spend a lot more time on some steps than other steps. If it takes you 6 months or a year to make it to the next stop of the Beginner’s Guide to Personal Finance, that’s okay! The most important thing is to stick with it.

Go ahead and bookmark this Beginner’s Guide to Personal Finance, because you’re going to keep coming back to it throughout your journey.

The 8 Simple Steps to Personal Finance

The steps below form the core of the Beginner’s Guide to Personal Finance. While these steps seem straightforward, they are extremely powerful. If you learn them and follow them, you will both improve your relationship with money and be able to improve the quality of your life. We know we have! We will summarize the 8 steps below and then dive into more detail for each one.

1. Learn To Live Within Your Means

Research shows that the hardest part about reaching any goal is getting started. Saving money is no different. Most of us talk about wanting to save and what we would do with the money. But then we kick the can down the road and put off getting started until we “make more money”.

Most of the people who talk about personal finance tell us that they don’t know where to start. They have a job but are living paycheck to paycheck. We’ve been there too. For years. But you have to start somewhere. Saving just $10 a week will help you save over $500 in your first year.

Reading the Beginner’s Guide to Personal Finance is a good start! However, the first real step is to create a budget. A budget is a plan for how much money you will spend over a given period of time. We recommend starting by breaking it down by month. If you make $2,000 a month, then your budget must account for how every single one of those dollars will be spent or saved. 

Read: Personal Capital vs Mint

The easiest and best way to save is going to be by spending less money every month.

Set a realistic goal and slowly prove to yourself that you can save. In order to cut your living expenses we recommend focusing on housing first. Living with roommates, or even better, at home with your parents for a few years is a GREAT move.

We realized that we were spending too much money eating out every week so we began to cook more meals at home. Other items that you might be paying too much money for are monthly cell phone bills, cable bills, and car payments.

If you think you are already spending the bare minimum, you probably aren’t. If you still can’t find anything to cut, then you need to find a way to make extra money (ie. drive Uber/Lyft on nights and weekends).



It is important to put your credit cards away and not use them until you get your finances in order. You’ll be paying a lot more money in interest by carrying a credit card balance.

Don’t move onto step 2 of the Beginner’s Guide to Personal Finance until you have saved up and put away $1,000 extra dollars. If your savings drop below $1,000 you need to return to step 1.

If you still don’t know where to start, just email us and we can walk you through it. Make sure to check out our post dedicated to saving and budgeting to learn more!

2. Contribute Enough To Earn The Full Employer Match

Whether it took you 1 month or 2 years to get here, you should be very proud of yourself! Step 1 is the hardest! The next step is to max out any employer sponsored matching program, like a 401(k) with a match. This is one of the few things in the Beginner’s Guide to Personal Finance that you should commit to memory!

Some companies offer an incredible perk to their employees in the form of employer sponsored retirement plans WITH matching contributions. What this means is that the company you work for will put money directly into your retirement account to match or partially match the amount you put in (up to a certain amount).

This is free money that you can ONLY get by also putting money into the retirement account.

Not maxing out this matching contribution doesn’t make sense. It is exactly the same as walking past a $10 bill on the ground and not stopping to pick it up. Don’t be a dummy. Pick up the money.



If your employer offers a sponsored retirement program like a 401(k) without a matching component, or if they don’t offer a retirement savings program at all, then you should skip this step. If they do offer it, fund only the dollar amount to get the full company match. Work with your company to calculate exactly how much you should contribute every month to max out their matching contribution.

Again, before a single penny goes anywhere else, you need to ask your company’s Human Resources (HR) department if your employer has a program like this. Do NOT assume that your company doesn’t have it or that you don’t qualify because you only work part-time.

To learn more about 401(k)s make sure to check out our awesome comprehensive guide to 401(k)s!

3. Pay Down Your High Interest Debt

Next, you need to pay down your high interest debt! Like credit card debt and payday loans this is your enemy. We think of high interest debt as anything with an interest rate higher than 8%.

It is critical to pay down your high interest debt because the balances will continue to grow as more interest is added. Most credit cards have interest rates from 15% to 25% per year! This means that the balance can grow dramatically even if you don’t spend another dollar! This debt will continue to grow until it is paid off, so you should put every single extra dollar you have on hand after maxing the 401(k) match into paying down high interest debt.

It is important to realize that your student loans will likely fall into the high interest category if they are not subsidized. Don’t include mortgages here since they are often large and can prevent you from saving for retirement for several years. Check with your loan providers or credit card companies to figure out your interest rates if you aren’t sure.

One last thing to remember is that you should continue to make the minimum payments on your moderate interest debt so that you don’t hurt your credit score. For many of you, it might take several years to climb out of the deep high interest debt hole, and that’s okay. Remember that financial freedom is a long-term journey. 

4. Beef Up Your Emergency Savings

You did it! You just dug yourself out of high interest debt hell. And saved yourself tons of money in interest. Now comes the more fun part – building wealth!

Now that your credit cards and high interest debt is paid off, the next thing you need to save for is an emergency. This emergency fund will be set aside to protect you in case of a medical emergency, loss of a job, or another catastrophe. The goal of this emergency fund is to help you get back on your feet as quickly as possible.

For example, if your car gets a flat tire, it will be hard to drive to work. The fund also limits the financial damage that can occur if your bills cannot get paid on time. 

We recommend that you save enough money to cover 3 months of your basic living expenses.

This money can be saved in cash in a safe place at home, but we recommend keeping it in a free online no-fee checking or savings account so that it can’t get stolen, lost, or destroyed. We recommend that you read our detailed post about emergency funds to learn more!

5. Open a Roth IRA.

Now that you have 3 months of savings for an emergency, you can breathe sigh of relief!

You’re also over half way done with the Beginner’s Guide to Personal Finance!

Now it’s time to start to save in a Roth IRA! An IRA (Individual Investment Arrangement) is a retirement account that has tax benefits. You can think of it as a bank account except that you decide what you want the money invested in. Why not just save more money into a savings account or open a normal brokerage investment account?

The answer is that these accounts can save you a lot money on taxes when you retire.

You’ll want to save 20% of your annual income here until you reach the annual contribution maximum of $5,500. You’ll want to save more if you are older than 30 years old or haven’t saved regularly for retirement. 

You can start investing on your own using apps like M1 Finance, Robinhood, Webull, and Acorns.

If you’d rather have a financial advisor help you, you can find a local one using Smart Asset or work with Facet Wealth, a company that helps you via video calls.

In general, many people start with a Roth IRA. The main difference between a Roth and a Traditional IRA is the timing of tax breaks. In reality, the most important thing is just to pick one and start putting money in it. Because of the tax advantages, the government has limits if you earn over a certain amount. You should look into them, but for most people they won’t be an issue.

To learn the ins and outs of IRAs, make sure you read our comprehensive guide to IRAs. You won’t want to miss it. And your future or current kids won’t want you to either.

But don’t forget that saving money in a Roth IRA isn’t enough. You also need to invest that money!! 

6. Pay Down Your Moderate Interest Rate Debt

You’re a personal finance star compared to your neighbors, but you aren’t done yet! You still have moderate interest debt hanging over your head. We consider moderate interest debt to be anything between 4% and 8%.  

You’ve already paid down your high interest debt so you should be very familiar with the drill.  This moderate interest debt can include personal loans, subsidized student loans, and other moderate interest loans. Don’t include mortgages here since they can prevent you from saving for retirement for several years. If you are averse to having any debt at all, this is the place where you’d prioritize paying off all of your debt (even low interest debt). Once everything else is paid off, move to the next step of the Beginner’s Guide to Personal Finance!

7. Top Out Your Retirement Savings

Congrats! Your high interest and moderate interest debt is paid off! Now you can make an even bigger monthly contribution to your retirement savings to help catapult you to financial freedom. We recommend a savings goal of 20% of your gross income for your retirement. Or more if you started late or are behind on retirement savings! 

This 20% includes any annual contributions you made to your 401(k) or Roth IRA in earlier steps!

The first step here is to max your contributions to your employer sponsored retirement fund (beyond their match). We recommend using your employer plan since your employer will usually help cover the administrative fees. If your employer doesn’t have a retirement saving plan, you’ll need to use a normal taxable account.

You’re almost done reading the Beginner’s Guide to Personal Finance! The most fun part comes next!

8. Save For Your Wildest Dreams

If you made it this far, you should be extremely proud of yourself! Few of your peers will be able to feel the freedom that you can already begin to taste. You set an ambitious goal of getting your financial life on track, and made a plan and stuck to it!

Now you can begin to think about other dreams like saving for your kids’ college tuition. Or paying down your mortgage early. If you haven’t been able to take a vacation, you can begin to set money aside for that as well!

The post Personal Finance 101: The Beginner’s Guide to Personal Finance appeared first on Finance Plan Today.

If you’ve watched movies about Wall Street you probably imagine investing to be something like this: A wild flurry of activity and excitement as millions of dollars exchange hands every second.

No wonder so many people think that investing is fast-paced, exhilarating, and complex. But that’s not what investing is actually like. The investors at large investment firms read research reports and crunch numbers all day while listening to music on headphones. The offices are quiet and you can hear the buzz of the AC units.

It’s a world away from running around waving papers at the NYSE.

While you may want to put all of your money into a few individual stocks and make aggressive investments — high risk, high reward — this is the exact opposite of how you should approach investing your money. The #1 move you can make, especially in the long run is to invest in low-fee index funds.

Relative to having a complex portfolio, it can seem too simple to only need 1-3 index funds or ETFs, but we’d rather be rich than fancy.

And you can do it all from your phone with apps like Robinhood, Webull, and Acorns!

Index Funds Protect You Via Diversification And Extremely Low Fees

Investing should be boring in the sense that it should be simple and on autopilot. All you have to do is pick a couple of index funds, invest money into them regularly, and hold them for as many decades as you can. Voila!

You’ll have the most success with a long-term buy and hold strategy, and index funds are the perfect recipe. Index funds, like Vanguard’s VTSAX, are diversified so you get exposure to many different companies and industries. It also comes with an expense ratio of 0.04% which means that you’d only pay $3.33 per month if you had $100,000 invested. This is an astonishingly low level of fees, which means you’ll have more of your money working for you, instead of going into someone else’s pocket.

Being A Smart Investor Is Easier Than You Realize…

In our well known post about why you shouldn’t pick individual stocks, we highlighted the fact that the majority of investors will not beat the market average. This includes professionals who get paid a lot of money to analyze and pick stocks FULL TIME. The average professional doesn’t even beat the market consistently, so don’t gamble and learn it the hard way.

Our natural tendencies are either to be afraid of investing and sit on the sidelines, or to go all-in and make big bets on companies we think will crush it. If you spend hours working to make enough money to save and invest, it’s easy to see why you’d want to make sure you get as much money out of your investments as possible. But by swinging for the fences, you’re more likely to strike out.

Whether you are not investing enough (or at all) or cherry picking individual stocks, both will lead you to make less money than you would have by following a simple buy and hold strategy using index funds over a long time horizon.

Even The Pros Prefer Index Funds

Having studied finance at both Harvard and Wharton, we know many many people who have gone on to work as investors at the largest investment firms in the world.

The one thing all of these very talented and opinionated people agree on — use index funds. While their jobs are to pick individual stocks, the vast majority of their personal wealth is invested in index funds.

But you don’t have to take our word for it. Even Warren Buffett, the fabled investment guru, recommends index funds as the best investment. In 2007, he put his money where his mouth is and bet a hedge fund manager one million dollars that an S&P 500 index fund (an index fund comprised of stock from 500 of the largest companies) would outperform a group of hedge funds over a period of 10 years. The index fund rose an average of over 7% per year, while the hedge funds only averaged 2.2% per year. The index fund easily destroyed the portfolios of the “pros.”

And remember, investment firms hire the best and brightest minds in the world to work around the clock to scrutinize, analyze and select what they believe will be the best investments. This group of geniuses still couldn’t beat the index fund.

… But It Takes Discipline And Courage To Tune Out The Noise

Every time you read the news online or turn on the TV, it seems like you hear headlines about companies whose share price has skyrocketed. Even at the water cooler at work, you might hear a colleague talk about a new stock they bought last week that is just killing it for them.

It’s easy to think, “Wow, that stock rose 15% in a single day! I missed out by not buying that stock earlier.”

But you also don’t hear about the majority of stocks who are underperforming or just staying flat. And your work friend is probably embarrassed to admit that he also lost thousands of dollars on a bad bet.

As a society, we love to celebrate the big winners and ignore the losers. This leads to a bias in our minds that pushes us to want to chase the winners. We also suffer from recency bias, and we tend to make decisions with a short-term focus, even without realizing it.

The data shows that trying to time the market (basing your decision on when to invest on your feelings about whether now is a good or bad time to invest) and picking individual stocks will cause you to make bad decisions.

Yet so many people still do it. It’s because it takes an incredible amount of discipline to make a plan and stick to it. Even when it will result in your making the most money, it still takes discipline and courage to follow your plan!

If You Try To Pick Winning Stocks, The Fees Alone Will Kill You

By some calculations, the cost to own individual stocks can be up to 3% per year. This is from trading commissions, taxes, and fees. Due to friction and transaction costs of buying and owning individual stocks, a low-cost all-market index fund is guaranteed to outpace the returns earned by individual stock investors.

What this means is that you’ll have to outperform the market average by 3% to make buying individual stocks worth it. Chances are you won’t even beat the market, so beating it by 3% would make you a world class investor who should be managing money professionally. And let’s face it, that’s probably not the case if you are reading this. And that’s okay, because you’ll be able to beat the pros by investing using index funds anyway.

So What Should Someone New To Investing Actually Invest In?

We both love the investment philosophy espoused by the late Vanguard Founder Jack Bogle. He invented index funds and has written one of our favorite books on learning to invest.

As an investor, you’ll want to focus on an S&P 500 Index or Total Market Index. These two types of funds have a correlation of 0.99, so it’s not a big deal which one you go with. To see which specific index funds you can invest in, you can check out some of the leading funds here.

To see which funds you should include in your portfolio, you can see all of the important asset allocation information you’ll need here.

Free Your Time To Focus On What Matters Most To You

As if we needed to give you another reason to choose a simple investment plan, you should focus your limited time and energy on what matters most to you. Unless you love to pore over financial documents day in and day out, you probably have better things you can do with your time. Whether you have a hobby you love, or a family you adore, focus on that.

If You’re Dead Set On Picking Stocks, Set Aside 5% Of Your Portfolio

If you can’t bear to live with a simple, proven, passive investment philosophy and you MUST gamble by picking stocks, cryptocurrencies or other speculative investments, don’t risk everything you have. Just don’t do it.

Just use 5% of your money, and don’t put more money into these investments. You might feel like a hotshot if you beat the index funds in the first few years, but remember that you should be focused on a 30 year period, and the data shows indexes are the way to go!

In 30 years you’ll wish you would’ve just left everything in the index funds, but you’re the one who has to stomach your decisions.

A Simple Investing Strategy Will Build A Solid Financial Foundation For Your Family

Just remember that while it may seem boring or too simple to buy and hold indexes for a few decades, you’ll be glad you did that when you can enjoy the money in the future. Those smart investments will help pay for your dream vacation, a retirement free of financial stress, and your kids’ college tuition.

It’s hard to think of anything more exciting than providing financial freedom to yourself and your loved ones.

And lastly, don’t worry if you feel way too overwhelmed to handle all of this on your own. There’s a ton of awesome low-fee financial advisors, like Facet Wealth, who can guide you and handle it all for you.

The post Individual Stocks vs Index Funds appeared first on Finance Plan Today.

If you are one of our thousands of regular readers you know that we try to hammer home the point that you will probably only lose in the long term by picking individual stocks. After all, if professional hedge fund managers can’t do it reliably, there’s no reason to think you can.

Most people never assume they can perform brain surgery better than a neurosurgeon, but as soon as the topic changes to the stock market everyone seems to think they are Warren Buffet.

Just because a lot of people get lucky, doesn’t mean being good is easy. Come on now, people!

If you are still convinced that you need to invest in individual stocks and there’s nothing that we can say to talk you out of it, at least make sure you have the tools necessary to do the stock research.

Let us show you how to pick low-cost index funds.

What Is A Low-Cost Index Fund?

As we’ve mentioned, an index fund is a group of stocks or bonds that you can buy as a bundled.

By purchasing an index fund, you will own a whole group of stocks, bonds or both. This will protect your portfolio from the risk of picking the wrong stocks.

In an index fund, some stocks will go up and some will go down. However, as John Bogle, the late founder of Vanguard, has pointed out in his books, the stock market as a whole has always gone up over the long term.

This means that if your portfolio (the entire group of all of your investments) reflects the broader stock market, your investment will grow over a long period of time even as some individual stocks go down.

Since We Don’t Want To Pick Individual Stocks For Our Investments, How Do We Know Which Low Cost Index Funds To Pick?

Thankfully, there are only a few things that we really need to focus on when selecting our investments.

However, none is really more important than expense ratios, which are the fees you’ll pay.

What Is An Expense Ratio For An Index Fund?

According to investment research firm Morningstar, an expense ratio is ‘the annual fee that all funds charge their shareholders. It expresses the percentage of assets deducted each fiscal year for fund expenses, management fees, administrative fees, operating costs, and all other asset-based costs incurred by the fund.’

The reason that the expense ratio is one of the most important factors is that every penny that you have to pay in fees is a penny that you will lose in returns. It’s as simple as that.

You are giving your money away.

To make matters worse, the fees will essentially compound over time so that you’ll miss out on an increasingly large part of potential investment returns.

The Impact That Fees Have On Index Fund Returns

Assume you have friends who are identical twins and that they each invested $10,000 in index funds today.

Both of their index funds will have the same investment return since they are invested in the same index funds, but they have different expense ratios. Fund 1 is a low-cost index fund and has an expense ratio of 0.04%. Fund 2 is NOT a low-cost index fund and has an expense ratio of 2.5%.

At the end of 15 years, Fund 1 will be worth $20,671, while Fund 2 will only be worth $14,483.

That “measly” difference of 2.46% in expense ratio ate up nearly 60% of the potential investment profit. What a shame indeed!

We LOVE this example because it also highlights the difference in fees when picking individual stocks since the commissions you’ll pay to invest in those stocks or actively managed funds can go up to 3%.

As that example highlights, learning how to pick index funds is easier than it seems. See the example below for those of you who are visual learners like us.

In case that example isn’t clear, you’d have to consistently beat the market by 2.5% every SINGLE year in order to make up for the high fees. It seems kind of ridiculous, right?

Besides Expense Ratios, What Else Matters When Picking Low Cost Index Funds?

Diversification!

If you read our last article on why you shouldn’t pick individual stocks, you’ll remember the importance of buying a low-cost total market index fund or a low-cost S&P 500 index fund.

By picking a low-cost index fund that contains stocks that represent the broader economy and contains stocks from all of the different industries, you ensure that you aren’t overexposed (or have investments that are too concentrated) in a few industries or companies. Not having a diversified set of investments can mean that you are taking much more risk than you realize and you could quickly lose a lot of money.

It’s virtually impossible to predict when stocks will go up or down, so by regularly buying a diversified set of stocks, you negate the risk of making the wrong choices.

Which specific index funds have low fees and represent the broader market?

To begin, we want to queue the drumroll while we remind everyone that we are not investment advisors or broker-dealers. What that means is that you shouldn’t rely solely on our information to make your investment decisions.

With that said, below is a list of the low-cost index funds we considered when we were deciding how to invest our own money. And it’s a good starting point for you. We aren’t advertising these securities, recommending them to you, and we certainly are NOT being paid in any way to list them or mention them to you.

This is just showing you what we felt were great options for our OWN investment portfolios because they represent the broader stock market and they have low expense ratios. As you now know, these are the two factors we feel are the most important when selecting a long-term investment strategy.

Generally, the funds that correspond to your brokerage are the ones that will have the lowest fees for you. So, if you have a Fidelity account, you’ll probably mostly look at their own Fidelity index funds.

For new investors, we love Vanguard’s long and storied history of low fee index funds. While Charles Schwab or other brokerages may raise their fees from time to time, Vanguard wrote the book on low fee index funds and they’ve consistently kept them that way.

An exciting development from 2018 however, was the introduction of FZROX by Fidelity, which was their total stock market index fund with absolutely no fees! That’s right, it has an expense ratio of 0.00%!

Now that you know how to pick index funds, let’s see what some of your options are.

Short List of Index Funds with Low Expense Ratios

Vanguard Stock Low Cost Index Funds

• Target date funds: Min: $1,000; Exp Ratio: 0.15% (includes stock and bond index funds)
• Total Stock Market Index Fund Admiral Shares: Min: $3,000; Exp Ratio: 0.04% (VTSAX)

Vanguard Bond Low Cost Index Funds

• Total Bond Market Index Fund Admiral Shares: Min: $3,000; Exp Ratio: 0.05% (VBTLX)

Fidelity Stock Low Cost Index Funds

• Target date funds: Min: $2,500; Exp Ratio: 0.15% (includes stock and bond index funds)
•  Fidelity ZERO Total Market Index Fund: Min: $0; Exp Ratio: 0.00% (FZROX)
• Total Market Index Fund – Investor Class: Min: $2,500; Exp Ratio: 0.09% (FSTMX)
• Total Market Index Fund – Premium Class: Min: $10,000; Exp Ratio: 0.035% (FSTVX)

Fidelity Bond Low Cost Index Funds

• U.S. Bond Index Fund – Investor Class: Min: $2,500; Exp Ratio: 0.14% (FBIDX)
• U.S. Bond Index Fund – Premium Class: Min: $10,000; Exp Ratio: 0.045% (FSITX)

Charles Schwab Stock Low Cost Index Funds

• Target date funds: Min: $1.00; Exp Ratio: 0.08% (includes stock and bond index funds)
• Total Stock Market Index: Min: $1.00; Exp Ratio: 0.03% (SWTSX)

Charles Schwab Bond Low Cost Index Funds

U.S. Aggregate Bond Index Fund: Min: $1.00; Exp Ratio: 0.04% (SWAGX)

Here is another list of index funds that may be a solid addition to your investment portfolio.

If you are curious about how to think about the split between stocks and bonds or even what a target date fund is, make sure to read our article on asset allocation!

The post How To Pick Low Cost Index Funds appeared first on Finance Plan Today.

There are two basic flavors of IRA accounts. Traditional IRAs and Roth IRAs. You can learn about both in our IRA guide.

Step 1 to Open an IRA: Decide Where To Open Your IRA Account

We LOVE both Vanguard and Fidelity. In fact, Camilo has his Roth IRA at Fidelity while Francisco has his at Vanguard.

We love both companies for several reasons. First, they offer great low-fee index funds (Fidelity recently launched two index funds with ZERO fees!). Both have solid support if you need help with your account, and both are reliable and solid institutions. This means that you can expect documents to arrive on time during tax season. One less thing to worry about. Both offer their own brand of index funds, which means you’ll pay fewer commissions and fees. AWESOME.

You can open an IRA at Vanguard here or with Fidelity here.

We do NOT get paid a commission for recommending or promoting any investment company so just pick the one that works best for YOU and move on. You can’t go wrong with either one. If you have a spouse who already uses one of those institutions (or another one like Charles Schwab) it could make sense to use the same one to keep things simple for you. The most important part is just to get started.

One thing to note is that Vanguard has $3,000 minimums on many of their index funds, so if you go with them and you don’t meet those minimums you’ll have to start with ETFs like VTI, which is Vanguard’s Total Stock Market ETF. Many people find index funds easier to invest in since you don’t need to place market orders (it’s a little more complex to buy ETFs so many people just go with index funds).

With Fidelity, their low-cost index funds like FZROX (Fidelity’s ZERO Total Market Index Fund with no fees or expenses) have no minimums so you can start investing with as little as $100.

Step 2 to Open an IRA: Decide On A Traditional IRA Vs. Roth IRA

Deciding whether to open a Traditional IRA vs. a Roth IRA is like deciding if you want to go to Paris or London for vacation. You can ask a bunch of people and there won’t be a consensus about which one is better. But the one thing that’s for sure, is that spending a week at either destination is a hell of a lot better than going to work for a week.

Contributions to Traditional IRAs are tax-deductible and are made using pre-tax dollars. The deposits you make into a Traditional IRA will lower your tax bill this year. When you are finally ready to sell your investments and withdraw the money during retirement you’ll pay the income taxes on those distributions at that time.

Contributions to Roth IRAs are NOT tax-deductible and are thus made using after-tax dollars. The deposits you make into a Roth IRA won’t lower your tax bill this year. However, when you are finally ready to sell your investments and withdraw the money during retirement you won’t have to pay any taxes at all, since you paid taxes before the money went into the account.

So, which IRA is better?

It depends. We usually recommend Roth IRA’s to younger investors and Traditional IRA’s to older investors who might be in their top-earning years (and thus higher tax brackets). At the end of the day, the most important thing is to choose one and start investing since it’s tough to predict how much you’ll earn in the future, how tax brackets will change, and when you’ll be ready to withdraw.

We repeat, DO NOT LET THIS DECISION HOLD YOU UP from opening an IRA account, as the difference between the two won’t make or break what kind of retirement you will have (although not opening an IRA at all might!).

Step 3: Open Your IRA Account Online

You can open an IRA at Vanguard here or with Fidelity here. Opening the account, making a deposit, and choosing your investments will take very little time on your part. It took us 20 minutes to get set up and running. BUT that doesn’t include the few days it takes for the transfers and everything to process, so expect it to take 7 business days before you’ve finally gotten the confirmation that your money has finally been invested.

The application process to open an IRA will ask you to input some personal information. It’s also worth noting that you’ll need to have earned income in order to contribute to an IRA. If you don’t earn an income but are married AND file taxes jointly, you can make ‘spousal’ IRA contributions. So that’s something awesome for stay-at-home parents.

Another tip helpful for parents is that if your kids earn income (from babysitting, or other jobs), you can open an IRA for them. This would give them a huge head start when they become adults.

Step 4 to Open an IRA: Choose Your Investments

Choosing your investments is often cited as the biggest thing holding people back from starting to invest. But it shouldn’t because it can be SUPER simple and still be extremely effective.

You can go with a simple plan and choose an “all-in-one” fund or customize your investments. We recommend you keep it simple as you begin investing, and then venture out from there.

The easiest way to start investing is to choose an ‘all-in-one’ fund, which is formally called a target-date fund. These funds at Vanguard have a $1,000 minimum and expense ratios of 0.153% on average. You want expense ratios as low as possible since it’s the annual fees they keep. At Fidelity, their target-date funds don’t have minimums but have higher expense ratios. To keep things simple, expense ratios are annual fees you pay to hold a specific investment fund.

To choose a target-date fund you literally just have to choose the year in which you plan to retire. Buy the fund closest to that year. For example Vanguard has the Vanguard Target Retirement 2055 Fund (VFFVX). Fidelity has Fidelity Freedom 2055 Fund (FDEEX). Both are for those who want to target a retirement in the year 2055.

If you want to customize your investments more or pay lower expense ratios, you can set up a simple Two or Three Fund Portfolio. For most investors, this is more than enough and is still simple enough to handle on your own. Get the details you need to build your Three Fund Portfolio here: Three Fund Portfolio

Opening an IRA is easy, so don’t wait any longer. Remember this if you want your money to grow and work for you: The amount of time your money is in the market matters more than the amount of money you put in the market.

The post How To Open An IRA appeared first on Finance Plan Today.

But we think answering her email can help a lot of you out since a lot of you ask the same things or are worried about the same things.

We want to remind you that we aren’t financial advisors. So this article is simply for your entertainment.

The Email From Sarah In Chicago

Hi Finance Twins,

I happened upon your posts on Instagram and wanted to reach out in hopes of getting some help from you.

I REALLY want to get out of debt. No, I NEED to get out of debt. But am struggling to allocate the remaining money I have from my budget towards debt repayment.

The reason I’m struggling with this is that I feel I already do so little socially and still am in debt and just feel a little hopeless and unmotivated to “struggle” for the next 5 years to save. I have a hard time accepting I can’t buy one coffee in the morning on the way to work or go out to eat just once a week. This sounds selfish and absurd, I know, but I want to be honest in order to really get some honest feedback from you. I 100% want to save and get out of debt. And I know I have to change my ways.

About Me

I’m a 29 year old female from Chicago (which is not a cheap city). I recently (1 month ago) moved to a further neighborhood slightly outside of the city with my fiancé to save on rent, as I was previously living alone in Downtown Chicago.

I have a monthly budget and broke down my bills into 2 lists on my phone to indicate which payments come out of my 1st paycheck and which come out of my 2nd pay (I get paid bi-weekly).

The budget lists my rent, renters insurance, groceries, phone, internet, public transportation, laundry, gym, Netflix, Spotify, bank fee, student loans, personal health spending (ex physical therapy, psychologist or skin care products I may run out of) and also includes the amount I’ve paying towards my debt (just slightly above minimum payments). I’ve also just added $100 savings from each pay check in the budget.

On a monthly basis my expenses add up to $2,370.

I have 3 credit cards (2 of which I turned off) 1 is active for ‘emergencies’ because I don’t have any money saved after moving. However, this card is almost maxed out now.

My debts include:

• 3 credit cards and their balances are: $500, $3000, $2800 (active)
• 1 low interest personal loan: $6,600
• 1 high interest line of credit loan: $1,350
• and I have $10,500 remaining in Student loans.

My total debt right now, including student loans, is rounded up to about: $25,000

My annual income is $47,500 before taxes.

I get paid $1400 bi-weekly, after taxes, so I get taxed about $11,100 per year.

In your opinion, what am I doing wrong/what do I need to correct to get out of debt? And with making the changes you advise, how long do you think it’ll take me to be out of debt?

Thank you so kindly for your time and I am looking forward to your response.

Sincerely,

Sarah

Getting Organized

I want to thank Sarah for taking the time to write her email to us and for allowing us to share it with everyone! She worries about having to struggle for the next 5 years, to stay afloat, but she needs to take action so that she doesn’t have to struggle for the next 50.

Our typical response to an email like that would be to reply with links to articles that we think could really help. Things like how to budget, how to manage your money, how to start investing, why your personal savings rate matters, what is lifestyle inflation, why it’s better to be wealthy vs rich, and what is financial freedom. You get the picture.

But today we wanted to treat her email a little different as we know many of you are in a similar situation. So here’s what I would do if I were in her shoes.

List Everything Out

If you have an ambitious goal you need to know exactly what you are up against. I didn’t get into Harvard by applying last minute and crossing my fingers. I worked tirelessly to make my application as strong as possible.

When it comes to money, you need to know exactly what your goals are. I recommend you use our retirement calculator to see how much you should be saving. The number will scare you. Big time. That was half the reason we made it. Fear has a funny way of getting people to move and take action.

Next you’ll want to start to craft your plan.

In her email, Sarah did a good job of laying out her situation.

Let’s recap everything.

Income & Expenses

• After-tax income per month: $3,033 (since she gets paid $1,400 bi-weekly and there are 26 pay periods per year.)
• Monthly Expenses: $2,370 (including minimum debt payments)
• Monthly Net Income: $663

Debts

• Credit Cards: 3 credit cards with balances totalling $6,300.
  • Their individual balances are $500, $3,000 and $2,800.
• 1 low interest personal loan: $6,600
• 1 high interest line of credit loan: $1,350
• Student loans: $10,500 with medium interest rates.

Make A Plan

The first thing that jumped out at me is that Sarah has a pretty good handle on her income and expenses and has a budget already. Yes, her credit card debt isn’t ideal but it’s a good sign that her income is higher than her expenses. She also knew exactly how much debt she has.

That’s something that a lot of people can’t say.

In fact, her monthly personal savings rate of 22% ($663 / $3,033) is actually way better than average! 

Sarah asked two basic questions: What should I do differently and how long will it take for me to pay down my debt.

Let’s start with what she can do differently.

First, she needs an emergency fund to make sure she stays afloat if she loses her job or something like that. Even saving 1 months worth of expenses (rent, food, etc.) will be a good starting point. Then she can begin to worry about making MORE than the minimum payment on her debt.

The Credit Card Debt Needs To Be Prioritized

It’s clear that the most important thing Sarah can do is to stop racking up credit card debt. Digging the hole deeper will only make it harder to get out of it down the road.

But before you pay down debt, you need to decide whether it’s better to pay it off or invest that money. However, it’s essentially a no-brainer when you have high interest debt like credit cards.

When it comes to debt, you can there’s two basic ways to decide how to pay it down. You can use the debt snowball and pay off your debts based on the balance size (making the minimum payment on all debts and then 100% of the remaining funds on the debt with the highest balance). Or you can use the debt avalanche and pay off the loans based on which has the highest interest rate.

For this example I am going to utilize the debt avalanche because she makes it clear that she wants to be debt-free ASAP.

Few things will cripple your personal finances like credit card debt since they have crazy high interest rates (15%+).

Consider A Balance Transfer Card

If I were Sarah I would tackle the credit debt HARD. Since her credit card debt is $6,300 and her monthly net income is only $663, it’s clear that it’ll take the better part of the year to pay that off. During that time, the interest can add up quickly, meaning she’ll end up paying more than the $6,300 she currently owes.

To avoid that from happening, I would find a new credit card with an awesome balance transfer introductory offer. You can often transfer a balance and get a 0% interest rate for a year, so that would give her 12 months to pay the cards off completely. According to this, “most providers allow you to transfer two to five balances to one card. As long as your total transfer balance doesn’t exceed the balance transfer limit — usually between 70% and 100% of your credit limit — you shouldn’t have an issue making multiple balance transfers on the same card.”

It’s important to remember that she needs to continue to make the minimum payments on all of her debts so that they stay in good standing and don’t get sent to collections so that her credit doesn’t get ruined.

The High Interest Personal Loans Needs To Be Paid Next

Next, Sarah needs to repay the $1,350 high interest personal loan. She doesn’t specify the interest rate, but if it’s higher than any of the credit cards then it needs to potentially be prioritized even more.

I think you are starting to see the pattern here. Paying off the highest interest rate loans first means less interest paid, which means being debt free sooner.

With The Medium And Low Interest Rate Debts Remaining, She Has More Choices

Now that the high interest loan and credit cards are paid off Sarah needs to decide if she should continue to plow everything she has into the debt or if she should start to save a little bit.

If it were me, I’d want a slightly larger cash cushion for an emergency and would try to get 2 months worth of living expenses saved. I would then split the extra left over every month between the debt and investing. I would first leverage a Roth IRA when it comes to investing. This assumes she is contributing to her work-place 401K (if her job offers one). 

It would delay the amount of time until she becomes debt free, but it would get her in the habit of investing for the future, and it gives her money a chance to start working for her. Even if she’s only investing $100 per month and using the remaining $500+ to pay down the student loans she would still pay them off more quickly.

Paying Off Debt Takes Time

When it’s all said and done, it will likely take Sarah around 3-4 years to be completely debt free unless she’s able to increase her income or decrease her expenses. Her first priority to increase her income should be to do an amazing job at work so that she gets a promotion or raise.

Eventually she can get a higher paying job at competing firm and will be able to negotiate a pay raise.

She doesn’t mention how many hours she’s working, but if she’s able to create a side-hustle or a second stream of income, that could be a way for her to do it much faster.

It could be something as simple as driving for Uber on the weekends for a few hours, or turning a hobby into a side business.

The fact that she just moved in with her fiancé may also signal that she will be able to potentially lower her expenses if they can combine forces and cut out duplicate expenses (no need for 2 Netflix Subscriptions, sharing other bills, etc.).

It’s clear that there’s no shortcut to getting out of debt, but the fact that she’s reading this site bodes well for her future. It’s a better use of her time than online shopping, that’s for sure.

The post I Want To Get Out Of Debt But I’m Struggling And Feel Stuck appeared first on Finance Plan Today.

Real estate investing is a hot topic – there are tons of shows on TV showing how “easy” it is to flip houses for a quick profit. I put the easy part in quotes because those who actually flip houses know how much work goes into each project.

Bloggers plug and review companies like Fundrise, Realty Mogul, and PeerStreet. A relatively new, but highly competitive fund in this space is DiversyFund. The team at DiversyFund asked the team at The Money Mix to take a look at their fund. We’re glad we did.

What follows is a review of our findings and what we think makes DiversyFund unique in the marketplace. At the end of the post, we think you’ll agree that if you’re considering investing passively in real estate, you should give DiversyFund a look.

With that brief introduction, let’s dive in and take a closer look.

Publicly Traded REITs

The most common and readily available way to invest in real estate is via real estate investment trusts or REITs (pronounced Reets). REITs purchase a variety of different types of real estate (residential, commercial, multi-family, etc.) Many REITs offer a diversity of these types of real estate in their funds. Most REITs are publicly traded securities offered on stock exchanges via ETFs or mutual funds. The firms offering these REITs must register them with the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC). They are subject to SEC rules and regulations regarding the formation, purchase, and sale of the securities.

The firms that offer them are investment firms. Registration for investment companies offering products is different than those of private investment funds. I’ll explain that shortly.

Private Equity

In the past, private equity real estate funds have only been available to the wealthy. Individuals must be accredited investors to get into the typical fund. Accredited investors are those with at least $200,000 in income ($300,000 joint) or a $1,000,00 net worthy (exclusive of residence). That cuts off the vast majority of the investing public. Only the 1% get into the game. That’s been the biggest complaint and downside of private equity funds.

The other knock on these funds is the high fees. In the beginning, they had what’s called the two and twenty fee structure. That meant investors paid a management fee of 2%. If the fund made profits, management took 20% of the profit. Most people feel those fees are expensive. Competition and public pressure have brought down these fees. They are still among the highest in the industry.

Private equity funds are pooled investment funds, not investment companies. As such, they don’t have to register as investment companies with the SEC. They get what’s called an exempt status under the SEC Private Advisor Rule. In many ways, this is an advantage to the fund and its investors. Complying with the investment company rules is costly and time-consuming. Reporting requirements, in particular, are eased under the Private Advisor Rule.

Some cringe at what they view as the lack of accountability for private advisors. While the larger investors have been pouring billions of dollars into these funds since the started.

Crowdfunded Real Estate Funds

In recent years, crowdfunding has made its way to real estate investing. Crowdfunded REITs are most often offered in private funds; meaning they are not publicly traded. These newer funds register with the SEC as exempt funds, usually under the SEC’s Regulation Crowdfunding. Crowdfunding in real estate, like with individual or small business crowdfunding allows smaller investors into an investment space that hasn’t been available to them in the past.

Both FundRise and DiversyFund are crowdfunded real estate funds. Crowdfunding provides a way for investors with smaller amounts of money to invest in things commonly only available to the wealthy. It’s been a disruptive force in the investment and small business communities. It offers a method of fundraising that can bypass big banks with high rates and fees. In the end, the winners are we consumers. In crowdfunded real estate, non-accredited investors can play in the same playground as the big boys.

With that background, let me tell you about DiversyFund.

DiversyFund Fee Structure

What makes DiversyFund unique is its platform structure. Platform means the arrangement under which the fund raises money, purchases the assets, distributed profits, etc. Many private equity funds hire outside firms to do everything from researching and buying properties to raising money from investors. Every outside entity used for these things has a cost to it. The more outside resources a firm uses, the higher the costs.

DiversyFund is a vertically integrated platform. They do everything in-house. Their team looks for the properties, analyzes them for value, cash-flow, and growth. They buy properties that need upgrades. They handle upgrades as well. Once purchased, they manage the properties themselves. Investors don’t pay brokerage or middle-man fees.

Their website says they are the only real estate fund with no platform fees. I haven’t personally found another one making that claim. Though management and platform fees have dropped, most REITs still have fees. Fees add up and can reduce investor returns. Keeping them low is one of the keys to success.

DiversyFund has that covered.

Fundrise Fee Structure

Fundrise lists its platform fees (Fundrise eDirect) at 1% as follows:

Investment advisor fee – 0.15%
Asset management fee – 0.85%

Additional acquisition fees range from 0% – 2%.

Even at 3%, the Fundrise fees are far below what the traditional private equity fund fees opened to accredited investors charge. Though fees have been reduced from the two and twenty, fees of 1% of assets and 15% of profits are common. Many of these firms can get very creative with their fees.

Crowdfunded platforms like Fundrise and DiversyFund and others are far more transparent with their fees. As you can see, they are much lower than most accreditor investment funds on the market.

Fund Investments

Like with publicly-traded REITs, private equity funds can invest in many different types of real estate. Some funds concentrate on commercial properties like small strip shopping centers. Others may focus on residential real estate from single-family homes to multi-unit family housing (apartments). Others invest in downtown commercial office space.

Before investing in anything, investors should always know what you’re getting. That’s especially important in real estate. Property location, the type of property, the lease structures, and many other things help determine the return investors receive.

Below I’ll outline the investments Fundrise and DiversyFund make.

DiversyFund Investments

At DiversyFund, they keep things simple. The team believes (and historical returns confirm) that the safest and best performing commercial real estate investments are value-add multi-family units. According to Wikipedia, multi-family units are “multiple separate housing units for residential inhabitants are contained within one building or several buildings within one complex. Units can be next to each other (side-by-side units), or stacked on top of each other (top and bottom units).”

Let’s break this down and see why this matters to investors.

Apartments, townhouses, and the like are more affordable housing than single-family homes in most areas. When the team at DiversyFund researches properties, they look for two important things.

First, the area has to be in an economically growing market. Second, the properties they purchase must be cash-flowing. In other words, they have to be already making money for the owners.

The third part of the decision is where the value-add strategy comes into play. They buy properties that need some improvement. I don’t mean foreclosures or rebuilds. Maybe the units need to be modernized. Perhaps they need some exterior cosmetic enhancements. These improvements allow the fund to increase rents, which increases cash flow, and increases the potential for higher growth in the value of the properties.

The goal of the fund is simple – sell the properties at a highly appreciated price over what they paid for the property and any improvements made — having this as the only focus allows them to focus on the properties that meet these criteria.

They are not trying to be all things to all people. Investors in their fund should be looking for long term capital appreciation.

Fundrise Investments

The Fundrise platform offers three core plans as follows:

Supplemental Income: The goal of the supplemental income fund, as the name suggests, is to produce income. The fund pays out quarterly dividends and invests in income-producing properties. The primary fund investments are in debt real estate assets (real estate loans).

Balanced: The balanced fund’s goal is to offer a blend of both income and growth. To do that, they invest in both debt and equity real estate assets.

Long Term Growth: Dividends and income are not a goal of the long term growth portfolio. Managers are looking for properties to appreciate during the holding period. They don’t invest in debt assets. They only buy hard assets.

Here is a detailed comparison of the three strategies showing the mix of debt vs. equity and the expected returns of each.

What About Liquidity?

Any investments in stocks and real estate should be for the long-term. You should not invest if you need your money in the next year or two. Unlike publicly-traded REITs, Fundrise and DiversyFund are private funds. Money invested in them is not liquid. In other words, if you want to get money out before properties get sold or the fund closes, there are restrictions.

DiversyFund Liquidity

Because of the long-term nature of their investments, DiversyFund does not offer liquidity to investors before they sell their properties. High-income and high net-worth investors build wealth by owning and selling properties at a profit. That’s the DiversyFund strategy.

An investor who wants an income from their investments should not invest in DiversyFund. That is not the goal. Investors in this fund need to understand the value of long-term growth on your investments.

Some investors may look at this as a disadvantage I do not. The folks at DiversyFund know who they are and what they want from their real estate. They are not trying to be all things to all people. I like that too. They know who they are and stay true to their strategy.

Fundrise Liquidity

Fundrise investments state that their investment time frame for offerings is five years. They offer no guarantee that they will liquidate in the five years. Investors receive quarterly dividends. Invested capital and capital gains come with the sale of properties.

Investors can take dividends and capital gains in cash or reinvest them.

Investment Risks

Like any investment, crowdfunded real estate has risks. No fund offers guarantees investors will get the results of the past or the expected returns going forward. Nor is there a guarantee investors won’t lose money. There are economic risks in real estate investing. In a slowing economy and bad job market, tenants may not be able to pay their rents. The value of the properties may not appreciate as expected.

Every investor should take into consideration the risks of this or any other investment they make. A general investment principle is this – the higher the expected return of the investment, the higher its expected risk. In other words, risk and return are related.

Accredited investors tend to have higher amounts of money invested in real estate. Why? They can afford to take more risks.

Smaller investors should carefully consider how much they put into real estate, whether publicly-traded REITs or private equity funds like Fundrise and DiversyFund.

Final Thoughts

There are many ways to invest in real estate. I hope you have a better understanding of how to do that after this discussion. Private equity investing has been the domain of the wealthy for far too long. Crowdfunded real estate funds open the door to investment previously unavailable to smaller investors.

If you’ve always wanted to get into real estate but felt it was out of your league, Fundrise, Peerstreet, DiversyFund and other crowdfunded real estate funds open the door of opportunity for you to do just that.

Diversification is important when investing, whether in stocks, bonds, or real estate. Keep that in mind when considering real estate funds. They may be an excellent addition to your current investment strategy. With $500 minimum investments for these two funds, you can start small and see how it goes for you. Both funds offer ways to add additional money.

My recommendation is to stick with the real estate growth strategy offered by DiversyFund. You’ll be getting a diversified portfolio of well managed, multi-family properties expected to sell at a price higher than the money invested in the properties and improvements on them.

The team has vast experience in this space. The team doesn’t take profits until investors. They manage every aspect of the process from start to finish. There are no platform fees. There are no gimmicks. It’s just good, sound real estate investing.

If you’re thinking about adding money to this asset class, you should take a look at DiversyFund.

The post Looking To Invest In Real Estate? Here’s What You Need To Know About Crowdfunding Platforms Like Fundrise and DiversyFund appeared first on Finance Plan Today.

A lot of you simply want to work from home. And instead of saying “we aren’t sure”, we figured we’d bring in the experts.

Here’s an awesome list of the top work from home jobs which originally appeared on The Money Mix.

At The Money Mix, we are sticklers for the numbers, and our primary goal is to discover the truth wherever it lies – and, this new study about the best work from home jobs is a huge step in that direction.

The Money Mix team personally invested numerous hours researching, interviewing workers, and testing all different kinds of work from home jobs to compile this list.

Our goal? We were determined to find the best and most accessible remote jobs that fit all kinds of individuals, lifestyles, and living situations that didn’t require special privileges, connections, or experience levels to get.

This guide will help you find the best work from home job, whether you are looking for constant interaction with others, a fixed schedule, an on-demand arrangement, or simply to take your career in a new direction.

We are thrilled to announce that our top pick was Symposium.

Symposium scored well across the majority of our criteria, including the upfront investment, training or certification requirements, flexibility, and earning potential. These are all key factors when considering a remote working opportunity.

Read this full guide in its entirety to see the complete list of the best work from home jobs for 2019!

Why Work From Home

If you are reading this guide, there is a good chance you are looking for a work from home job or are looking to transition away from a traditional desk job. Whether you are looking for a more laid-back work environment, more control over your time, or increase your earning potential, it’s easy to see why working from home can be an attractive option.

In the past, work from home jobs were seen as perks offered only by IT companies or startups competing for the world’s best talent. The fact is that many of the top companies in the world are now constantly seeking to hire remote employees for several reasons.

Working From Home Makes You Happier (& More Efficient!)

According to a Stanford University study, which was published by the National Bureau of Economic Research, employees who work from home report higher job satisfaction, are more engaged in their work and are also more efficient workers.

It’s hard to argue with more job satisfaction and higher efficiency!

The reality is that many people simply need to work from home for health, family or other reasons. Years ago, you had to accept lower quality or lower paying job in order to work from home, but the tide is turning, and there are tons of awesome opportunities if you know where to look for them.

Who Should Work From Home

If you’ve ever fantasized about quitting your 9-to-5 job to work from home, there are a few things you need to know to set yourself up for success.

Today, most companies have extremely structured work environments to get the most out of their employees. After all, not every worker is a go-getter, and some require a bit of an oversight.

This means that to make sure you have what it takes to succeed in working from home, you need to be self-motivated, organized, and have excellent communication skills. If you aren’t able to do those things, you might be better off keeping that 9-to-5!

But if you’re ready to spread your wings and fly free, keep reading to see our top work from home jobs!

The Pros and Cons Of Work From Home Jobs

When considering remote job options, it’s wise to keep the positives as well as the negatives in mind. Yes, there are negatives to working from home. It’s not always a good match.

The Benefits Of Work From Home Jobs

By and large, the flexibility offered by work from home jobs is what makes them so appealing for so many people. Being able to work whenever you are able to and not needing to stick to a fixed schedule is the biggest asset of working from home.

If you are looking to work from home to avoid the commute but still want a more traditional career, there are many full-time opportunities available as well. It’s true that working from home is no longer only for those who can’t work at least 40 hours per week.

In fact, we found that many of the workers we interviewed liked working from home because they could flex their hours up and earn more money when they needed it.

And, working from home lets the worker design his or her own work environment from the ground up. Using a work environment that’s free from distractions, remote workers can maximize their own living space to get the most out of where they spend their time.

The Downsides Of Working From Home

When it comes to working from home, you’ll likely be spending the vast majority of your time on the computer or on the telephone depending on your role. This means that you’ll be spending less time interacting with other people in an office (unless you work from a co-working space).

In fact, the #1 downside that we heard from employees who previously worked from home and went back to working in an office was that they felt isolated working from home.

If you are someone who has limited social interaction outside of work and knows this is a critical aspect of their job satisfaction, you’ll need to specifically look for jobs that require virtual interaction (our #2 job might be the perfect fit).

And, the remote position requires a good amount of discipline and time management. If you aren’t a self-motivated person who can buckle down without a boss in the office, you may struggle.

And now, without further ado, here’s our Top 10 work from home positions for 2019.

Top Work From Home Jobs

1. Symposium
2. VIPKid
3. Amazon
4. Aetna
5. Airbnb
6. TranscribeMe
7. Rover
8. Belay
9. Magic Ears
10. Virtual Assistant (various companies)

1. Symposium

Symposium is one of the fastest growing opportunities in the industry.

If you haven’t heard of Symposium before, that’s going to change. The company built a platform which gives users the ability to host or attend live pay-per-view broadcasts.

Symposium scored nearly perfect marks across the board. What sets Symposium apart from the competition? Symposium was the only company we found that didn’t require or “strongly recommend” the need for a computer. As long as you have an iPhone running iOS or Android, you’ll be able to get started on their platform.

How does Symposium work? Symposium allows you to host ‘one-to-many’ live broadcasts on a pay-per-view model. This means that you can potentially have thousands of people tuning in and paying to see your live session, which means the sky’s the limit when it comes to your earning potential on the platform.

And, it’s up to you what you talk about. Design each presentation around your own level of expertise. Hold broadcasts in the middle of the night if that’s when your audience is watching. In other words, the flexibility is nearly unmatched.

The platform is catered to working professionals seeking coaching, advice, tutorials, or any other type of session you can imagine. Not sure what you have to teach others? Most people have a hobby, skill, or experience which is unique and highly valuable. Think outside of the box.

For example, if you know the holidays are approaching and you’re an expert at making a Thanksgiving meal with all the fixings, you can easily schedule a session to cover how to prepare those meals from scratch.

Symposium is the perfect platform for those who demand flexibility in their schedules, are self-motivated and have solid communication skills.

2. VIPKid

VIPKid is a leading online education company headquartered in China and San Francisco. The company has been valued at over 3 billion dollars and has quickly established itself as a leader in the field. The company matches American and Canadian teachers with Chinese children for virtual English language lessons.

All courses are conducted entirely in English, so absolutely no knowledge of Chinese is required. The company does have educational requirements for tutors, so you must have a bachelor’s degree (in any field of study) to join the platform.

If you want to take full advantage of the platform, you should plan to work in the early morning hours due to the time difference with China. Class payouts usually start at a base rate of $8, and each class is 25 minutes. You receive a $1 bonus for completing the class, and another $1 bonuses is added once you’ve taught 45 classes in a month (less than two classes a day), which means you’re making a total of $20 per hour.

Some teachers we spoke with began earning between $7.50 – $8.50 on the platform per class, but rates tend to increase as you build your reputation as a steller teacher.

Finally, VIPKid was the one job where the word “fun” was used the most often to describe their work, which we thought was pretty awesome.

3. Amazon

Everyone is familiar with the global retail giant, but few are familiar with the fact that they are leaders in the virtual working space.

In fact, Amazon always has numerous job postings for virtual working locations on their virtual job board. These opportunities are perfect for individuals looking for a more standard work arrangement from the comfort of their home, since most of the jobs are full-time.

Jobs start at minimum wage, but go up from there, with one current employee telling us they started at an annual salary of $62,000. Not bad considering they spend most days in their pajamas in their home office.

4. Aetna

You probably know Aetna as the large managed health care company, with millions of members participating in their health insurance plans. Like Amazon, they’ve established themselves as a leader in the work from home space.

Founded in the 1800s, this is a stable employer for anyone who needs a strong benefits plan, as well as a more structured work environment. Unsurprisingly for an insurance giant, many of their jobs are for data entry, data analysis, reporting, and reviewing information. This means they often require a degree or prior related experience.

The benefit of working for a company with a strong work-from-home network is that they have the support, training, and other programs to help you succeed in your remote position.

5. Airbnb

At this point, the chances are that you have either stayed at or know someone who has stayed at an Airbnb. The company started as a more affordable alternative to hotels for those on the go and is now hosting more bookings on a daily basis than Hilton hotels globally.

This means that as a host, you’ll spend less time trying to convince people to book a room in your home, and more time deciding what to do with the money that rolls in.

We spoke to several individuals who are hosts on Airbnb, and they ranged from new users hosting a single room in their home, up to power hosts with multiple properties being rented simultaneously.

There is a lot of money to be made on the Airbnb platform, but you should realize that in order to make enough money to live off of, you’ll likely need to be renting several rooms or properties. For example, renting a single room for $50 a night will net you $1,500 per month (before Airbnb takes their cut), which is a nice extra check to get, but you’d be kidding yourself if you think that’s enough to live off of.

However, for those that are more entrepreneurially minded, there is ample opportunity to make serious cash on this platform.

6. TranscribeMe

If you came here to see a more ‘traditional’ work from home job on this list, you’ll be happy to see TranscribeMe on this list. The company offers speech-to-text transcription services and translation services around the world. You work as much or as little as you want, and you do it on your schedule. What’s not to love about that?

If you love to write, want a job that requires little training, and love to learn about many different topics, then this might be the perfect match.

Their pay starts at 33 cents per audio minute, which comes out to $20 per hour!

7. Rover

In the world of stay-at-home jobs, you can find nearly anything you can dream up. And yes, that includes playing with puppies and getting paid for it.

Rover is a dog sitting or overnight dog boarding platform, which matches dog owners who need a dog sitter for an upcoming trip, party, meeting, vacation, etc., with dog lovers looking take great care of pets. The company also offers dog walking services.

Become a sitter on Rover doesn’t have a lot of formal requirements, but the company does everything they can to ensure that they find qualified dog sitters.

We met with a dog sitter who has relied on Rover for over two years for a full-time income, and she makes roughly $3,000 per month taking care of three dogs at a time. Those who do this part time can earn approximately $1,000 per month, which isn’t bad for an activity

It goes without saying, but this is only a good opportunity for those of you who are true animal lovers and would take incredible care of these awesome pets.

8. Belay

Belay is a virtual personal assistant company which matches people looking for extra help so that they can be more productive, with awesome people working from home.

The services they offer include virtual assistants, virtual bookkeepers, and website specialists. They do require that all applicants go through an assessment process to make sure that you are a good fit for the company. Once approved, they will match you with a client who is a good fit for your skill-sets, abilities, and interests.

According to one insider who we spoke with on the condition of anonymity, you can expect to earn roughly $16 per hour as a virtual assistant. Virtual bookkeepers with solid accounting experience can expect to receive more on the platform.

One person also mentioned the fact that there’s no shortage of work on the platform, but that finding the right client is key for long-term success.

9. Magic Ears

Magic Ears is an English learning platform for student ages 4-12. The company provides a 1-on-4 teacher to student ratio, which creates a fun learning environment.

Due to the larger class size, they are able to pay between $22-$26 per hour, which is solid. The company, which is based in Beijing, requires that all instructors be from the US or Canada and be native English speakers. Unlike VIPKid, the company does require a six-month commitment, which we assume is there in order to justify the training they provide teachers.

A high-speed internet connection is also desired, so that the connection with students is of high quality.

This is an awesome option for educators or individuals who seek to interact with others throughout the day.

10. Fiverr

Unlike, the others on this list, Fiverr is a platform in which you can find work from home opportunities and gigs. It made the list because it was often cited as a reliable place to find great opportunities managing social media accounts and profiles.

To become a social media manager, you should be able to regularly create new social media content for your client, as well as manage their social media presence. One work-from-home social media manager that we spoke with focused exclusively on Pinterest, and earned $2,500 per month, working only 20 hours per week since she had several clients who needed similar work.

Fiverr gigs typically start at just a few dollars for basic projects, but the beauty of the platform is that it’s super easy to join and start earning money. If you have a great talking voice, you can even focus exclusively on voice-overs!

You’ll have to do several gigs in order to make enough money to replace a full-time income, but it’s possible if you establish yourself and build a strong Fiverr reputation!

Summary

If you are ready to start working from home, we know these ten jobs are the best of the best. While our list only includes the top 10 work from home jobs, there many more that we evaluated. This means that you should also do your own research when deciding where to apply for a job.

If you aren’t convinced by the idea of working from home, that is okay because we created the ultimate guide to making a resume (some work from home jobs still require a resume!) so that you can get noticed for your dream job.

This article originally appeared on The Money Mix.

The post The Best Work From Home Jobs For 2019 appeared first on Finance Plan Today.

Does this mean you should all go and start a blog tomorrow? Absolutely not.

But it does mean you can be inspired to earn some extra cash to help accelerate your financial goals!

Here’s the story of how a man turned his side hustle into $1,500 per month with only 10 hours of work. Pretty sweet!

I was able to turn blogging from a hobby to a nice source of extra cash!

Blogging may not be the sexiest side hustle of all time, but it does have its allure.

There you are, in your socks, writing something for all the world to see. And, you can use the power and weight of online advertising networks and affiliate relationships to monetize your site for a stream of consistent passive income. The holy grail? When you’ve written dozens of posts that are ranking on Google and driving thousands of dollars of passive income back to you.

Although I am not there yet, over the past year I have successfully grown my blog, Real Finance Guy, from less than 1,000 to over 20,000 pageviews a month. I’ve also been able to simultaneously grow the income the site generates from $0 per month in January of 2018, to close to $2000 a month in December of 2018.

These aren’t amazing headline figures; I won’t be retiring on my blog any time soon. What’s amazing about what I have accomplished is that I have done it with less than 10 hours per month of actual work. The math whizzes amongst you have already done the calculations: that’s around $200 an hour. As someone who has had some really crappy side hustles in the past, I am pretty happy with that figure.

What’s more, because the majority of my traffic (90%) is from Google, even if I quit tomorrow the majority of that traffic and income would continue to flow in for some time to come.

Want to Start a blog and make money? All you need is persistence and good tactics

Want to learn how to do it yourself? This post is going to delve into the specific techniques I used to build my blog income from nothing to $2000 per month in a year with less than 10 hours per month of work. Everything I’ve done is replicable. There’s nothing particularly special about me, beyond a passion and knowledge for everything with a dollar sign.

However, to build consistent organic traffic from Google, you need to consistently use the best tactics and persistently apply your skills for at least a year. Maybe two.

When I was starting the blog in 2017, I wrote and I wrote, but nothing happened. There was no traffic from Google, there was no traffic from RSS, there were no email subscribers. Finally, in July of 2017, I decided to call it quits. Although it felt good to write about the financial topics that interested me, I will be honest in that I needed the external validation of traffic to feel really good about blogging. As you can see below, that never came. So I stopped.

Ironically, after I chickened out and threw in the proverbial towel, things started to turn around. Although I wasn’t even looking at it, the blog had started to attract some traffic to a post I had written about how much it costs to remodel a condo.

One day in October I looked and I realized… it was actually a pretty decent amount of traffic, and it was continuing to grow. In fact, I was #1 for that search on Google! My original plan was working, it was just taking longer to work than I had the patience for.

I am telling you all of this before I describe the methods you can use to replicate my success because it WILL NOT MATTER if you do not keep it up. You need to be persistent.

Got it? Ready to learn how to build a $200 an hour blog? Let’s get started.

Note: I am already assuming you have a domain and a hosting provider, but if not I use Squarespace and I cannot recommend it enough. And no, I don’t have a paid relationship with them or any of the other tools I will recommend in this post.

Step 1: Start with great content

It probably won’t surprise you, but it turns out that you need amazing content for people to actually read your blog. This is especially true if you intend to build your blog largely from organic traffic (aka traffic from Google). One of the most important ranking indicators for Google is the time that people spend on your content, and their propensity to return to Google after reading it. The goal is to create something so good and so engaging that no one ever has to go back to the search results page.

So how do you make sure your content is sticky? You have to write about something that you know about AND that you’re interested in. Both of them are equally essential to great content.

Here’s what I mean: If you are writing a cooking blog but you can’t cook, it really doesn’t matter how passionate you are about food because you can’t offer anything of value to the audience. On the same token, if you are a line cook who knows everything about cooking but you absolutely hate it, then your posts will be salty as hell and unpleasant to read.

So, before you even begin, you need to find a range of topics that you are really passionate about that you also have unique and interesting insights into.

Step 2: Use keyword research to find your target

Let’s say you’re taking a trip to Vegas and all of your friends want to go to a shooting range. You walk in, sign some release forms, and they hand out guns to your whole group (presumably with some instructions on how to use them). Then, they send you into the shooting gallery and turn off all the lights. What do you do?

1. Start wildly shooting as many bullets as you can in every direction
2. Ask them to turn the lights on so you can see the target

Hopefully, you said B. Blogging is exactly the same way: you need to know what keywords to target -the things that people are actually searching for- before you start writing your post. So many bloggers sit down to the blank page and start wildly producing posts that will have little to no impact because no one is looking for them.

I know because when that’s exactly what I did when I began my own blog. Luckily, by accident, my condo remodel post found some success. After that, I realized that I could be way more successful if I were able to identify keywords that people were actually searching for… hopefully topics with relatively little competition.

How do you do that research? Simple.

Sign up for a free Moz.com trial, which will get you ten free searches per month in their Keyword Explorer. That tool will enable you to type in any keyword or phrase and see how many people are searching for it, as well as how difficult it will be to rank for that term (aka the competitiveness of the keyword). You can also see similar terms along with the number of searches per month for those terms and similarity to the original term. Keep in mind that the data isn’t perfect, but it is directionally accurate and it can help you to be significantly more targeted with your posts.

For instance, I recently had an idea to write a post about how to avoid PMI. When I typed that into the Keyword Explorer, the phrase itself had a ton of traffic but it was highly competitive. There was no way I was going to get my content to rank above Forbes and Wells Fargo. When I searched in related queries (again, using Moz) I saw that “how to avoid PMI without 20% down” had a decent amount of traffic, but way less competition. The same was true for “heloc or refinance” vs “heloc or refinance”.

Even the smallest variations can have a big impact.

The other thing that is important to keep in mind is that people generally search for relevant topics in the form of a question. That is why you will see a lot of my posts take the form of a question, things like “Am I rich”, “when is the best time to buy bonds”, and “where to start remodeling a house.”

Once you have your key term or phrase, make sure that your title, URL, H1 tag, and at least 2-3 paragraphs use the term. But, you don’t want to overdo it either. It should read naturally.

Step 3: Write and enhance your post with images and multimedia

Once you have the term that you want to go after, go nuts! You can write a great post in as little as 500 words, or as many as 3000. I generally try to shoot for something that you can read in 5-15 minutes, around 1000-2000 words.

It isn’t just words that matter, though. Remember that you are looking to catch people’s attention and keep it for AS LONG AS POSSIBLE. That means you should be inserting images (that you have the right to distribute), videos, and interactive visualizations as much as possible.

Interactive visualizations? That is absolutely right. I had a secret to my success, something that I do that no one else really does, it would be the numerous Tableau Public visualizations I have created for my blog posts. The interactive and immersive nature of the visualizations and calculators I use to make my posts so much more interesting to read than something with just images or video.

Don’t believe me? Still don’t care about interactive visualizations? Get this:

My posts WITH a Tableau Public visualization are 75% more likely to rank in the first 10 positions on Google for their target keyword than the posts that don’t.

And, if I removed all of the posts on my site with an interactive visualization my traffic would drop by 90%.

If you haven’t already, download Tableau Public and start learning how to make your own today. And yes, it’s free, and no, I don’t get paid by them either.

Step 4: Monetize!

Hopefully, after you have created your posts and worked for a couple of months you will start to see some traffic coming in through Google Analytics. Then, it’s time to monetize with advertising and affiliates.

By far the easiest and simplest way to monetize your site is with Google Adsense. You apply on the Adsense website, and then you can take a simple snippet of code and place it onto your site.

Then, Adsense will fill the inventory on your site with ads. You’ll get a small amount of money for each visitor (like, a tiny sub-cent amount of money), as well as money for each person that clicks on an ad on your site.

The easiest way to get started with Adsense is with auto ads: you only need to place the code once on your page and it will automatically optimize with the best placement. However, auto ads didn’t work well for me so I manually embed the Adsense code on my page.

You aren’t going to get a lot of revenue from Adsense, but once you have 5-10,000 visitors a month it is more than worth setting up because it’ll be worth $20-$50 a month to you. What’s more, Adsense is totally “set it and forget it” income. If you have a blog with at least 1000 pageviews per month, go get started with Adsense today. It’s free money you’re giving away, even if it’s not much.

The REAL money in blogging comes from affiliates, however.

Since I am a finance blogger, I have a lot of posts about money management and investing, so I have a relationship with Personal Capital. I also write about real estate, so I am also working with Lending Tree. Both of those programs can be accessed through Flexoffers, along with thousands of other affiliate programs. I am not a huge fan of Flexoffers, but it is easy to get started.

If you are unfamiliar with affiliate marketing, the easiest way to think of it is as a referral fee: I place ads on my site for Personal Capital and Lending Tree, and if people end up clicking through those ads and signing up for Personal Capital or getting a loan with Lending Tree, then I get paid. In the case of Personal Capital, it’s $100 per referral that tracks over $100k through their tool, and with Lending Tree, it’s a small commission on the total loan value, which for me averages out to be around $30 per loan, although it can vary wildly.

The only downside to affiliate links is that they need to be maintained and optimized.

Sometimes, product dies out or affiliates end their program, meaning you will have to remove or change the posts where you have promoted those products. You’ll also have to spend some time tweaking the offers and promotions you use: there are usually dozens of potential landing pages and images you can choose to promote the affiliates on your site, and some will be more effective than others.

Many bloggers also monetize with self-published books, paid posts, or even direct advertising relationships (someone pays a fixed fee to put a display ad on the blog). Beyond Adsense, there are other advertising networks like Mediavine. I’ll probably pursue all of these monetization methods in the course of the next year, but for now it’s just Adsense and affiliate revenue.

No matter what you are using to monetize your site, you need to always keep in mind that it is a numbers game. You need more eyeballs on your content to generate more clicks to get more conversions. Simple as that.

Is all of this worth it? For $200 an hour… you bet!

After reading to yourself, you might be thinking “that sounds like a ton of work for a side hustle.” But it’s easy. You can spend as much or as little time on your blog as you want to. There are no rules! I know people who do it as their full-time job, but I only spend 8-10 hours per month working on the blog and creating a post per week. I am only continuing to work on the blog because I want to see it grow, if I quit today I would still get income from the posts that are organically ranking on Google, perhaps for years to come.

How much income?

Well, in the past six months I’ve averaged around 25,000 pageviews per month, and I will generally see revenue of about $700 from Personal Capital, $600 from Lending Tree, and $200 from Adsense. That’s $1500 per month for less than 10 hours of work. My hope is to double all of those numbers this year.

Even though it is frustrating at times, blogging is by far the best side hustle because it gives you the leverage of passive income. All online jobs have the advantage of enabling you to work from home and make your own hours. But only blogging lets you leverage your past efforts even YEARS after you have put them in. For instance, my post about how much it costs to remodel a condo is still generating a ton of traffic. It’s still generating Adsense income and affiliate revenue every month, and I wrote it years ago. Yes, I’ve probably spent 30 minutes tweaking it for additional profit this year, but generally, I don’t have to do anything to keep on seeing that money.

With other jobs and side hustles, you only make money once. But, if I stopped writing today, I would be making money off of the blog for years and years to come. And if I continue to invest in the blog, the sky is the limit.

So even though I am stalled out right now, I know that blogging is worth my time investment. And even if I stay right where I am (which I won’t), I know that I am still making $200 an hour for my time.

Not bad.

The post See How A Man Turned His Side Hustle Into $1,500 Of Monthly Passive Income appeared first on Finance Plan Today.

This influx of cash is always nice to have, especially when everything else you get seems to be a bill or junk mail. We know it’s tempting to use your tax refund to treat yourself to a new TV, but there are better things you could be using your tax refund on.

If there’s even a small part of you that wants to make the most of your hard-earned money, you’ve found the right place!

1. Start building Or Top Off Your Emergency Fund

When it comes to personal finance or managing your money, the single most important thing you can do is have an emergency fund. If you’ve read our popular post on emergency funds you know that an emergency fund is money that is set aside in case of an unforeseen circumstance like a medical emergency, loss of a job, or if the transmission on your car goes out.

You may be thinking that your tax refund isn’t enough to cover 3 months of living expenses anyway, so why not just buy a new video game. However, it’s important to remember that you have to start somewhere and the more you save now, the less you’ll have to save later.

By having an emergency fund, your tax refund could go from being a nice bonus to a life saver!

If you are one flat tire away from losing your job, then having spare cash could mean all the difference.

If you aren’t sure where you should keep your emergency fund, consider opening a high-interest savings account. It’s a savings account with an interest rate roughly 100x higher than a typical bank account, which is pretty awesome. If you’re going to keep your money in a bank, you might as well earn some money.

2. Open Or Fund A Roth IRA

If you aren’t sure what an IRA is, it is a retirement account that you fund yourself. The beautiful thing about these accounts is that you’ll pay less taxes on the money that you invest! This means that over the years you can save thousands of extra dollars for your retirement if you compare it to a normal investment account.

Why should you save for retirement if there’s social security? The problem is that the average social security check that retirees receive is simply not enough to live off of comfortably. Today’s reality is that you need to supplement your retirement savings yourself unless you want to work for the rest of your life. We sure don’t!

Many people don’t realize that they can use their tax refund to fund an IRA, but you can because a tax refund is considered earned income! If you contribute before Tax Day you can even make a contribution for the previous calendar year! Once tax day passes you can only make a contribution for the current tax year, so this is HUGE!

Our post on IRA’s is a great place to start if you are ready to go down this route! Deciding what to do with tax refund can be a no brainer when you consider a few of these will help you for years to come!

There are two types of IRAs, Traditional and Roth. The difference is simply the timing of tax payments. For young people, Roth is the way to go because you have more flexibility (you can withdraw your contributions penalty free for any reason).

3. Use Your Tax Refund To Pay Off Credit Card Debt Or Student Loans 

It’s no surprise that credit card debt is one of the biggest obstacles to healthy personal finance that’s out there. With interest rates as high as 25%, carrying a balance can cripple your bank account and eat your entire paycheck for years.

For this reason, taking a large bite out of your credit card debt by using your tax return is one of the best things you can do for yourself.

There’s also the added benefit that your credit score will improve if you pay down your balance since you will lower your utilization, the 2nd largest factor in determining your credits core.

If you’ve always been able to pay your credit card off in full and don’t have credit card debt, there’s still a good chance you have student loans. The interest on these loans adds up quickly because the loan balances can get so large. Since these loans often take several years to pay down, using a tax refund to pay them down faster can do miracles for your personal finance confidence.

If you’ve never felt what it feels like to be debt free, you are in for the thrill of your life.

4. Fund a 529 Account For Your Kids’ Future Educational Expenses

Saving for your kids’ college can seem less important. After all, they won’t be going to college for a few years and there are more pressing needs at home. Those fees for the sports teams certainly aren’t going to pay for themselves! But a 529 account should definitely be considered carefully when deciding what to do with tax refund!

The fact that your kids won’t be going to college for a few years is the exact reason why starting early is important. The amount of time your money is invested will help you quickly grow the investment.

These plans also have amazing tax advantages so even if you can only put a couple hundred bucks a year in them, you could have many times what you put in by the time you’re ready to use it!

If you paid your own way through college and expect your child to do the same, you’ll just want to take into account that times are very different now. Over the past 30 years the cost of attending college has increased 8x faster than wages have. That means that college students are graduating with more debt than ever and lower starting salaries.

Any penny you can help them with would be a tremendous advantage as they transition into adulthood and start to pay off their student loans.

5.  Start To Save For An Amazing Vacation

If you already have an emergency fund and have been diligently saving for retirement, you may be feeling tired and ready for a break. In fact, research has shown that the only way to actually buy sustained happiness is by spending money on experiences like trips and excursions.

This is one reason why we think it’s better to be wealthy instead of rich! Sitting on a beautiful tropical island sounds nice right about now!

Research has shown that money can’t buy happiness, at least not always, but you’ll never meet anyone who regrets taking a little bit of time off. 

If traveling or taking time off isn’t your cup of tea, research has shown that you can improve your happiness by getting rid of some of the things that make you unhappy. If thinking about mowing the lawn ruins your entire week, then use your tax refund to hire someone to do it for you in a few weeks.

The bottom line is that you need to optimize for sustained long term happiness!

For many of us, the ultimate goal is to have financial freedom. This means that our goal is to not worry about money all of the time.

We all want to work because we WANT to, not because we HAVE to. All of these things have the same outcome, which is to maximize happiness.

So if you still have your tax refund or are waiting for it to arrive, be thoughtful with how you spend it. Every penny counts and there’s no better time to get the ball rolling than at the beginning of the year! If you stick to our list, there’s a good chance it’s the best thing you can do with your tax refund! Deciding what to do with tax refund isn’t easy, but just remember that some choices are better than others!

Let us know what you plan to do with yours!

Finally, if you don’t know how tax brackets work, we found an amazing article that explains them!

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