Live Real, Now

The no-pants guide to spending, saving, and thriving in the real world.

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Don’t Screw Future-You

Finance, Life

A conversation between me and my temporally displaced self.
Future Me: Excuse me, Jason?
Me: Yes?
FMe: <Slap!>
Me: May I ask what that was for?
FMe: Of course.
Me: What was that for, jerk?
FMe: That was payback for all of the hell you have put me through.
Me: What?!?  I’ve never even met you, before.
FMe: Of course you have.  I am future-you, and I’m sick of getting screwed by past-me, that is, you.
Me: Huh?
FMe: Listen close.  You’re not  the sharpest brick in the box and I don’t want to explain this twice.
Me: ???
FMe: A long time ago, when you first met our wife, you were dumb.
Me: I don’t appreciate….
FMe: Shut up.  I was dumb then, too.  Remember?  You…err…we bought a new truck, built an addition on our…err…your…err…whomever’s house, got married in the same year.  On top of many other expensive decisions.  Do your recall?
Me: Yes, I do.  So what?
FMe: If that wasn’t enough, you and your smoking-hot bride are still shopping like you’re rich. You drive a new car.  Your kids wear new clothes.  You’ve got a house full of new furniture.  How did you pay for all of that?
Me: Naturally, I charged it.  Zero payments, zero interest for a year!  Pretty smart, huh?
FMe: What happens in a year?
Me: I don’t know.  I’ve got a full year to figure that out.
FMe: <Slap!>  I’ll tell you what happens!  Future-you, that’s me, gets screwed!   Your raise didn’t come through.  You had a baby. The truck broke down.  Your wife took maternity leave.  A roommate moved out.  You took a loss in the stock market.  You didn’t plan!  You had no savings to cover any of those problems because you were too busy servicing debt to pay for your current life.
Me: How was I to know?
FMe: <Slap!>  Life happens!  You never know what is coming next.  You need to plan and save for what might happen.  Otherwise, you’ll just accumulate more debt to be serviced by yours-truly.  That is not acceptable.
Me:  So?  What are you going to do about it?
FMe: <Slap!>
Me: Really?  Again?
FMe: <Slap!>  I’m struggling to pay your debt. Your son starts college next year, but you’ve left me completely unable to help.  Your daughter wants to get married in a couple of years, but the Father-of-the-Bride can’t afford a tux.  My wife, your beatiful bride, wants a vacation that I can’t afford.   You’ve screwed me, dude.
Me: I’m sorry.  What can I do to fix it?
FMe: Buy me dinner, first.
Me: Huh?!?!?
FMe: Stop the excess spending. Spend less than you make, for a change.  No credit.
Me: None?
FMe: None.  Nada.  Zip.  Zilch.  Only spend what you can afford. Budget.  Pay off those nasty bills.  Don’t leave me hanging.
Me: So, what you’re saying is that, if I don’t have the money, I shouldn’t buy it?
FMe: Exactly.  That’s the path to wealth, freedom, and financial independence.  Live in the real world.
Me: Gee, thanks, Future-Me!  Now I know.
FMe: And knowing is half the battle.

What would your future-you have to say to you?

 

Make Extra Money, Part 6.5: Why I Do It The Way I Do It

Business, Finance

This is a follow-up to part 6 of the niche site walkthrough, Setting Up a Niche Site.  If you haven’t read that post, this one won’t mean much.  Go ahead.  Read it.  I’ll wait.

Several people have asked me to explain why I use the plugins and settings I use.   In this installment of the Make Extra Money series, I’m going to explain every choice I recommended last time.

WordPress

WordPress is a site development dream.  With the right themes and plugins, you can literally make a WordPress site look, feel, and behave in any way you wish.   Even without digging too deep into plugins and premium themes like Headway, you can put together a niche site blog in very little time and know that it’s happening on a robust platform that is actively being improved.

Configuring WordPress

Updates

Keeping your site updated is the single most important thing you can do to avoid getting hacked.   Since I haven’t yet figured out how to make hacking a terminal disease, I do the best I can to avoid letting them cause problems.   Keeping your site updated is the condom of WordPress.

WWW

This is entirely a personal preference, but, after 20 years of reinforcing habits, most people type “www” by default.  WordPress will automatically forward visitors correctly, so this isn’t actually a necessity.

The “Misc” Category

I don’t spend much time worrying about categories when I post, and sometimes I experiment with using external software to post from pools of articles, so I set up a default category.   “Misc” is much nicer to see than “Uncategorized”, even if they mean the same thing.

Theme Selection

I like SimpleX because it is uncluttered and easy to navigate.  It’s hardly the most powerful theme out there, but it doesn’t pretend to be.  If I want more, I use Headway.

Plugins

Plugin Central

Plugin Central is just a plugin installer that lets you install and activate many plugins at once.  Even knowing exactly what plugins you want, this easily saves half an hour of setup time.

All in One SEO Pack

SEO is important.  In fact, it’s what I base my niche site traffic on.   All in One SEO makes it easy to manage the SEO titles that search engines see and the meta descriptions that search engine’s display to visitors when they see your site after a search.   Some themes do this themselves, but I still use this plugin.

Meta keywords are all but useless, but not entirely.   Google and Bing don’t care, but some networking and sharing sites do.

I “noindex” the tag archives because I don’t want the search engines finding each page twice.  Identical pages with different addresses will register as two pages with Google.  How does it know which one I consider most important?  It doesn’t, so I don’t give it the option of indexing my tag archives.

Contact Form 7

This is just a free and easy contact form.  I haven’t found anything better for the price.

WordPress Database Backup

Backups are important.  Always back up your data.  Do you want to spend 3 weeks building a site, just to have your server crash, killing everything?  5 minutes now will save hours or days of headache later.

SEO SearchTerms Tagging 2

When someone comes to your site from a search engine, this plugin takes the term they searched for and appends it in a list at the end of the post the visitor found.  This reinforces your site as a good result for that search term.  It also provides a handy list of the most popular search terms people use to find your site.

Conditional CAPTCHA for WordPress

I hate spam.  If Akismet finds a spam comment being posted, this plugin will give the user a change to enter a CAPTCHA code to post the comment. Even if I turn off comments on a site, I keep this installed in case I ever change my mind.   Real comments are good for SEO, so I occasionally test allowing the comments.  I won’t waste the time moderating comments on a niche site, so this is a good compromise.

Date Exclusion SEO

If someone comes to a site and sees the last post was two years ago, they’ll leave. I don’t want a post to look like it’s outdated, so I suppress the dates.

Pretty Link Lite

This plugin lets me mask a link and set it to nofollow.  Nofollow tells the search engines to discount the value of the link, which removes a spam-site indicator from their algorithms.   Masking the link turns a messy affiliate link into a link that looks internal, making it easier for a visitor to click and allowing you to see how often a link is clicked.

Google XML Sitemaps

Making it easy for Google to find your entire site is a good thing.  This plugin helps with that.

WP Policies

This plugin provides a long list of site policies, formatted for a WordPress page.  The most important one is the disclaimer announcing the fact that your are making money on your site.

WP Super Cache

Super Cache creates a pre-generated copy of your page so the site doesn’t have to hit the database to rebuild it dynamically every time someone visits.  It’s all about speed, which affects your search rank.

JetPack

I like using the WordPress.com stats instead of Google Analytics for most of my niche site.  I don’t see a need to announce to Google that these 12 sites are owned by me, so I don’t.   WordPress.com included their stats plugin in JetPack, then discontinued the standalone plugin, so I use JetPack.

Backup

If I subscribe to my own feed, I get every post in Google Reader.  That means I don’t need to make a daily backup of any of my sites.   For the amount of changes I make to my niche sites, weekly might still be overkill, but that’s what I do.   I get the backups by email so I have a copy somewhere other than the host.  I don’t believe in letting anyone control my money but me.

Settings

Discussion

Most comments to niche sites are spam comments, so I hide them without actually turning them off.   Sometimes I test letting the comments through, because some niches might have great people that want to post good comments.  I haven’t had a lot of luck with that, on my niche sites.

Permalinks

The default permalink structure is absolutely not recommended for search engine purposes.  It’s also harder for someone to mention.   I don’t put dates in the link for the same reason I hide dates in the posts: I don’t want anything to look outdated.

Menus

I keep the navigation menu simple.  It has three purposes:

  1. Link to the page that’s designed to make money.
  2. Link to the pages that show Google and readers it is an active site.
  3. Link to the disclaimer that keeps my butt away from federal fines.

Anything else is wasted space.

Widgets

On my niche sites, I use widgets to help with navigation and to point people to the pages that will make the most money.     I haven’t addressed how I do the second part yet, because I haven’t created those pages yet.

Posts

Right now, http://www.masterweddingplanning.net/ has exactly one post, and it’s a duplicated post from eZineArticles.   It has served its purpose.  This site is fully indexed by Google.

When I get the rest of the content written, I’ll delete that post.

There you have it, the reasons behind every choice I make during site creation.  Did I miss anything?  Do you have any other questions?

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How to Cut Costs on Legal Fees

Finance

Bern Lady Justice
Image via Wikipedia

Occasionally, life goes truly pear-shaped and you’re forced to enter the legal system.

Even if you’re not embroiled in a tawdry, tabloid-fodder divorce, there are still legal issues that everyone needs to address, without exception.

The problem?  Or rather, one of many, if you’re having legal problems?

Lawyers are expensive.

Before I go any further:

  1. If you are having criminal court issues, get a lawyer.  Get the best possible lawyer.  Really.   The cost does not compare to a lifetime in jail, or even 10 years.    If you’re facing jail, get the best dang attorney you can find.
  2. I am not only not an attorney, but I’ve never even played one on TV.  I have driven past a law school a couple of times, but never stopped in.   I do know several attorney, carry the business cards of a couple and have a couple on my speed dial, just in case.  If any of them thought I was giving legal advice, I’d be in trouble.  To reiterate: I am not an attorney.  This is not legal advice.  
  3. Don’t do a prenuptual agreement at home.  A prenup will almost always be found unenforceable if both parties don’t have an attorney.

Where was I?   Ah, yes.  Lawyers are expensive, but there are ways to mitigate that.

There a couple of things you can handle yourself.

Small claims court, also known as conciliation court.   Typical cases in conciliation court include cases involving sums under $7500(varies by state) that involve  unpaid debts or wages, claims by tenants to get a security deposit, claims by landlords for property damage, or claims about possession or ownership of property.  Fees and procedures vary by state, but generally cost less than $100 to file.   The procedures for your state can be found by googling “small claims court” and the name of your state.

Small worker’s compensation cases can be handled yourself, if they don’t involve a demotion or termination related to the injury.

Apartment and car leases are usually simple and straightforward.  Read them carefully, but you probably won’t need a lawyer.

You can probably  handle your own estate planning and will writing with some decent software.   I love Quicken Willmaker.  It walked me through a detailed will that takes care of my kids, and gave me advice on financing their futures in the horrible event that I am tragically killed before my wonderousness can fully permeate the world.   It also contains forms for promissory notes, bills of sale, health care directives and more.  If you have extensive property, I’d still seek an attorney’s advice, but I’d bring the Willmaker will with me to save some time and money.

Purchase agreements.    A few years ago, I sold a truck to a friend and accepted payments.    I made a promissory note and payment schedule.   When he quit paying or calling me, that paperwork was enough to get the state to accept the repossession when I took the truck back.

A simple no-fault divorce is actually pretty painless, on the scale of divorce pain.    Again, the procedures vary heavily by state.

Other resources for finding legal information free or cheap include www.legalzoom.com and www.nolo.com.

Have you had to do any of your own legal work?  How did it work out?

Credit Cards: How to Pick a Winner

Finance

Image via Wikipedia

We live in a decidedly credit-centric culture.   Whip out cash to pay for $200 in groceries and watch the funny looks from the other customers and the disgust from the clerk.    It’s almost like they are upset they have to know how to count to run a cash register.

If someone doesn’t have a credit card, everyone wonders what’s wrong, and assumes they have terrible credit.  That’s a lousy assumption to make, but it happens.   For most of the last two years, I shunned credit cards as much as possible, preferring cash for my daily spending.   Spending two years changing my spending habits has made me comfortable enough to use my cards again, both for the convenience and the rewards.

Having a decent card brings some advantages.

Credit cards legally provide fraud protection to consumers.  Under U.S. federal law, you are not responsible for more than $50 of fraudulent charges.  many card issuers have extended this to $0 liability, meaning you don’t pay a cent if your card is stolen.  Trying getting that protection with a wallet full of cash.

The fraud protection makes it easier to shop online, which more people are doing every day.   At this point, there is no product you can buy in person that you can’t get online, often cheaper.   How would you order something without a credit card?  Even the prepaid cards you can buy and fill at a store will often fail during an online transaction because there is no actual person or account associated with the card.  The “name as it appears on the card” is a protective feature for the credit card processors and they dislike accepting cards without it.

If you’re going to use a credit card, you need to make a good choice on which credit card to get.  There are a few things to check before you apply for a card.

Annual fee. Generally, I am opposed to getting any card with an annual fee, but sometimes, it’s worth it.    If, for example, a card provides travel discounts and roadside assistance with its $65 annual fee, you can cancel AAA and save $75 per year.     A good rewards plan can balance out the fee, too.   I’m using a travel rewards card that has a 2% rewards plan.  That’s 2% on every dollar spent, plus discounts on some travel purchases.    In a few months, I’ve accumulated $500 of travel rewards for the $65 fee that was waived for the first year.  The math works.  A card that charges an annual fee without providing services worth several times that fee isn’t worth getting.

Interest rate. This should be a non-issue.   You should be paying off you card completely every month.  In a perfect world.   In the real world, sometimes things come up.   In my case, I was surprised with a medical bill for my son that was 4 times larger than my emergency fund.   It went on the card.  So far, I’ve only had to pay one month’s interest, and I don’t see the balance surviving another month, but it’s nice that I’m not paying a 20% interest rate.  Unfortunately, as a response the CARD Act, the days of fixed rate 9.9% cards seems to be over.

Grace period. This is the amount of time you have when the credit card company isn’t charging you interest.  Most cards offer a 20-25 day grace period, but still bill monthly.  That means that you’ll be paying interest, even if you pay your bill on time.  To be safe, you’ll need to either find a card that has a 30 day grace period, or pay your balance off every 15-20 days.  Some of the horrible cards don’t offer a grace period of any length.  Avoid those.

Activation fees. Avoid these.  Always.  There’s no card that charges an activation fee that’s worth getting.  An activation fee is an early warning sign that you’ll be paying a $200 annual fee and 30% interest in addition to the $150 activation fee.

Other fees. What else does the card charge for?  International transactions?  ATM fees?  Know what you’ll be paying.

Service. Some cards provide some stellar services, include concierge service, roadside assistance, and free travel services.   Some of that can more than balance out the fees they charge.   My card adds a year to the warranty of any electronics I buy with it, which is great.

Credit cards aren’t always evil, if you use them responsibly.   Just be sure you know what you’re paying and what you’re getting.

What’s in your wallet?

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Why I chose a prepaid credit card

Finance

 This is a guest post.

You can’t get credit without a credit card, and you can’t get a credit card without good credit. This is a dilemma that many people find themselves facing, whether they are trying to re-establish their credit or build credit for the first time. In fact, this is the dilemma that I found myself in. My solution was to get a prepaid card, and here’s why.

The Real Deal with Prepaid

Prepaid credit cards have earned a mixed reputation over the years. While it’s true that they usually have more fees than a regular credit card, they also offer a financial solution for people who don’t have good credit. And you should also keep in mind that they don’t charge interest because the cash that you are using is yours to begin with. The important thing to remember about prepaid cards is that they are a means to an end; once you rebuild your credit, you’ll find it much easier to apply for a card with better rates and fewer fees.

In addition, prepaid cards offer several advantages. The most important one for me was the convenience of having a card that I could use to make purchases. Prepaid cards look and work exactly like regular credit cards (you don’t have to enter a personal identification number to use them), so the only one who knows it is prepaid is me. And while I use cash for everyday purchases, there’s no avoiding the need for a card when you have to shop online or pay for gasoline at the pump, for example. Most digital merchants only accept payments from cards linked to large financial brands like Mastercard and Visa, and my card gives me a way to buy what I need from whoever has it in stock. In addition, my prepaid card offers me a way to keep track of all of my purchases electronically, which is helpful since I am trying to keep a closer eye on my budget.

Prepaid cards also offer security. Cash can easily be lost or stolen, but if you lose a prepaid card, you can easily get a replacement. More importantly, your balance is protected by a replacement guarantee from your bank, which comes in handy if you ever have to dispute fraudulent charges.

Perhaps the most convenient factor of a prepaid card, though, is how easy it is to get one. You don’t have to have a bank account in your name to receive a prepaid card. However, if you do have an account, you can easily link it to your prepaid card.

Changing my spending habits and getting out of debt hasn’t been easy for me, but one way for me to show creditors that I am getting better at managing finances is to build my credit with my prepaid card. It’s also a way for me to eventually be able to make big purchases that are necessary, such as a car, and hopefully one day, a home. Prepaid isn’t for everyone, but if you find yourself considering this option, it’s worth a second look.