Twice a week I would go out for a run in the evening around the neighborhood and just about every single house will have flashes of light coming through their windows. This light isn’t from some sort of mad science experiment going on, but from the television in the living room zapping our brains with everything from movies, news, talk shows, commercials, and mindless reality shows.
The Nielsen Company estimates there are now 118.4 million TV homes and the average American home now has 2.93 TV sets. The average American now watches more than five hours of television a day and the average viewer spends about 15 minutes of every hour watching commercials. Assuming the US life expectancy of 78 years, we spend about 16 years of our lives watching television.
A side hustle is a way for you to make some extra cash while keeping your day job, whether that is an actual job or being a full time student. A side hustle can come in many forms. It could be an actual part-time job like driving for Uber. It could be a hobby or something you are passionate about that makes no money at all but increases your marketable skills. Then there is my personal favorite, coming up with a business that you can run in your free time after work and on the weekends.
With the arrival of spring and nicer weather, many of you may be starting to think of going somewhere for spring break or summer vacation. Depending on how many people are in your group, it may be cheaper to drive than fly.
A couple weeks ago I was helping a friend empty out his storage unit that he had rented to store his office fixtures after closing down his office space. His unit was among hundreds of other similar units in a five story climate controlled building with security cameras, personal key codes for off-hour access, and extra large elevators for customers to move in their things.
If you are like many other people, you are probably doing your taxes right now or getting ready to do them. If you have already filed your taxes and are getting a tax refund, congratulations!
A Bankrate study last year found that 67% of millennials did not own a credit card. This isn’t that surprising since many were old enough to see how the over-usage of debt and the financial crisis affected those around them.
I estimate I’ve been shaving for over 2 decades now. When I started growing facial hair in high school, my father handed me a Gillette Sensor Excel razor which was a free sample that arrived one day in the mail. If you think about it, that is a pretty ingenious marketing strategy if assuming I shaved every other day, replacing the cartridge once a month at $2 each, I would have spent $480 just on the razor cartridges alone over the years. A Gillette insider once reported that a cartridge containing almost a half dozen blades with a fancy lubricating strip that retails for $4 each costs less than 10 cents to manufacture. That comes out to a markup of 4,750 percent.
It was just over a year ago when if you wanted a SSL certificate for your blog or website, you had to pay for it with your hard-earned dollars. I still remember paying each year for a PositiveSSL certificate from Comodo along with all the hassles of installing the new certificates on my server come renewal time.
One of the best ways to save money is buying things when a store or company offers a rebate on an item. Years ago, the rebates would come in the form of a paper check that you take to the bank and deposit. Lately, more and more rebate vendors are sending rebates as a prepaid debit card.