invest

Best Money Tips: 5 Ways to Invest $1,000

Amy Lu — Wed, 06 Sep 2017 08:30:06 +0000

Welcome to Wise Bread's Best Money Tips Roundup! Today we found articles on ways to invest $1,000, tips to help you take stock photos like a pro, and how to get through a quarter-life crisis.

Here's How Spending 3% On You Will Advance Your Career

Ashley Eneriz — Thu, 14 Apr 2016 09:30:24 +0000

Never underestimate the value of investing in yourself. Many professionals seem to miss out on the importance of it. People are more likely to treat themselves to a new outfit or a nice dinner out, but when it comes to increasing their knowledge and business skills, somehow there isn't room in the budget.

Some of the most successful individuals in the business world believe in the power of investing in yourself. Brian Tracy, bestselling author of over 70 books, said, "Here is a rule that will guarantee your success, and possibly make you rich: Invest 3% of your income back into yourself."

Similarly, Warren Buffett, one of the richest and most respected businessmen in the world, said, "Investing in yourself is the best thing you can do. Anything that improves your own talents; nobody can tax it or take it away from you." (See also: 6 Pearls of Career Wisdom From Brian Tracy)

Does It Actually Work?

The idea of investing in yourself is not just motivational, business fluff. It truly can be the tool that helps you to make more and advance in your career. If you are constantly growing your skills in your field, you are constantly becoming more valuable in your field, and becoming an important asset for your company. Your employer will want to pay their top employees more, and if they don't, another company surely will.

Asking for promotions or getting hired in a better paying position is easier to do with more experience and knowledge you gain. A common misconception is that your college degree is all you need to succeed. If you earn your degree and secure a good position, then you cannot just rely on experience alone to move you up the ranks. In fact, you might get passed up by younger professionals who have more up-to-date training.

On a personal note, my husband has been pursuing a degree over the past few years and has earned several IT certifications. Similarly, his salary has increased over $20,000 in those three years. I truly believe my husband's increased salary is directly related to investing his time and money to learn as much as he can. Not only has he become more knowledgeable, but he has also become more confident in his craft.

How Much Should You Invest?

There is no set rule of how much you should invest, but Brian Tracy's idea of 3% of your income is a good principle. Of course, you can always invest more. Some companies even offer reimbursement for tuition and certifications, making it easier to invest the 3%.

How much is 3% to the average professional? If you earn $55,000, you should aim to invest $1,650 back into yourself each year, or $137.50 each month. That may seem like a daunting number if you are on a tight budget, but if you are able to earn $58,000 the following year, you will have almost doubled your investment.

Knowing What to Invest In

You should invest in building the knowledge and skill set that will get you to your next promotion or pay raise. Don't make the mistake of investing in the next big, profitable thing. For example, when real estate was a hot market before the crash in 2007-2008, it seemed like everyone was a real estate agent on the side. When the real estate market crashed, many professionals were safe because they had their full-time jobs, that was completely unrelated, but they had spent all of their time learning to be real estate agents, rather than growing in their full-time field.

If you are not sure what certificates, training, or education you should invest in, think about the position in your company that you would like to have. The next step is to ask coworkers in that position what special training and certificates they have. If possible, ask your boss what is needed to move up to the next position in your company. If those two suggestions do not work, look at job listings for positions you would like to have. What are the qualifications needed and desired?

Ideas for Investing in Yourself

Here are just a few self-investment ideas, and how to grow your knowledge and experience:

College degree;
Certifications;
Seminars and workshops;
Books;
One-on-one consulting with top experts in your field;
Classes and courses in related business areas, such as social media marketing, communication, productivity, and accounting.

Investing in yourself doesn't just stop with learning new skills, though. Improving your physical and mental health will directly affect your workplace performance. Investing in areas that inspire your creativity, such as learning a new language or taking a graphic design course, could also put you ahead at work. (See also: 11 Ways a Second Language Can Boost Your Career)

If you want to grow in your career, then you have to grow as a person. Make yourself a valuable employee at your company by developing expert skills that set you apart from the rest of your coworkers.

How do you invest in yourself each year? Have you seen a difference in your income?

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This article is from Ashley Eneriz of Wise Bread, an award-winning personal finance and credit card comparison website. Read more great articles from Wise Bread:

Best Money Tips: Steps to Make Sure You Buy the Right House

Ashley Jacobs — Wed, 27 Aug 2014 19:00:04 +0000

Welcome to Wise Bread's Best Money Tips Roundup! Today we found some amazing articles on making sure you are buying the right house, maximizing your dollar at Subway, and creating work/life balance when your kids return to school.

How a Teenager Started A Multi-Million Dollar Online Business with a Parrot. UPDATED

Paul Michael — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 04:52:54 +0000

Sit down and grab a cup of your favorite beverage. I’m about to tell you the remarkable story of a young man who has built a successful online business; one that makes in excess of $400,000 per year. And most amazing of all is not that this young entrepreneur’s site is all about parrots. It’s that he doesn’t even own a parrot.

PLEASE NOTE: Several commenters have revealed a deeper truth to this story. Much to my annoyance, I trusted two sites that have always steered me in the right direction. I should have done further research, but I was so willing to believe the story that I was also duped. However, I think the inspiration of the story is just as relevant and worthy, despite the deceptive nature of the site. Please check out http://www.nancyrichards.org/ for more information on this series of scams. I am writing to the other two blogs now, hopefully they will do the same to inform their readers.

There are so many people out there right now touting the benefits of online businesses, and success stories can be found wherever you look. They are the modern-day get-rich-quick schemes, but to most they are a dead end. They’re not willing to put in the time, money or dedication to make it work. Out of every 100 online start-ups, one will become a moderate success.

And then there are sites like parrotsecrets.com. At the time of writing this article, the modest little site has made over $2 million for its founder, and it’s still going strong. This, ladies and gentlemen, is no small feat for any business. But when you consider the start-up costs were about $5000, the founder was 18 years old, still lives in India, and that the site takes minimal maintenance, it’s even more astonishing.

If you go to parrotsecrets you won’t see anything fancy. It’s not a big, bold flash site. It employs the simplest direct response methodology, using one long, scrolling page to hammer home the selling points, again and again, about the incredible eBook all about parrots.

The site’s founder (listed as Nathalie Roberts but in fact a young man...the Betty Crocker of India) did some digging around when he was 18 years old and realized that there was no reliable online information source for parrots. And as Cringley.com reports, he got straight to work:

The owner set out to find a niche in the information economy that could be filled with eBooks as sold here. The first step in the development of Parrotsecrets, then, was to identify the frustration of Parrot owners.

In time it became clear to the entrepreneur that parrots were an untapped market.

Having identified a topic, the founder of Parrotsecrets needed an eBook. The easiest way to do this was to post the requirement on one or more of the many freelancing web sites. Writers bid on the job and the original eBook (note there are now four eBooks in the offer) went for around $2500, deliverable in 30 days.

The Parrotsecrets founder ordered from Amazon.com every book on parrots (deliverable to the winning freelancer) then waited a month for the eBook to appear.

That month was used to buy the domain, design the web site, prepare a Google AdWords campaign, and be ready to be up and running as soon as the eBook was finished.

Simple, right? He saw a gap in the market, did his homework, got together some cash to have an EXPERT (which he clearly wasn’t) write a great book and then set about promoting it.

At $79.95, the eBook isn’t cheap. But as Cringley points out, it’s a small price to pay for parrot owners, who will easily fork over hundreds of dollars for vets bills or speech classes.

And for those of you interested in doing the math, here’s what parrotsecrets is pulling in annually:

The site sells 15-20 eBook sets per day seven days per week. Using the low end of that range is 5,475 copies per year for gross sales of $437,726.25 from a web site that costs less than $10 per month.

Could you live off $400,000 per year? I know I could. And remember, this is a guy who lives in India, where the cost of living is substantially lower than here in Uncle Sam. He’s a relative millionaire and he’s still in his early twenties. Makes you feel somewhat inadequate when you consider all the advantages we have in this country and yet most of us still can’t do what the parrotsecrets owner has done.

There are several lessons to be learned from this amazing story.

First, it’s that you don’t need to be an expert on something to build an online business around it. Contrary to what we’ve all been told, you have sufficient resources these days to have content built by someone else, usually for a fraction of the price that you can get in return (to date, that $2500 eBook has generated millions of dollars).

Second, if you find a niche in the market, you can exploit it and become very successful. If you’re sat there right now thinking “man, I wish there were some decent online information about owning pot-bellied pigs” or something like that, then you may already have your idea.

Third, and most important, is that it’s up to you t make it happen. A great idea is no good if it lives in your head. Get off your butt and do the work. Put in the hours, do your homework, read up on the topic, build a solid foundation. No, you don’t need to be an expert, but you do need to know enough to make the site a success.

Finally, look at the parrotsecrets business model and learn from it. It’s a simple web page and the product is an eBook. There are no manufacturing costs, no products to store and no shipping costs. The whole process is automated and when someone orders an eBook, it is sent in an email (or available as a download) after payment has been received. Quick, clean and simple.

Folks, in this uncertain economic time, there is one thing you can depend on; there are always people out there willing to spend money if there’s a need for the product. Identify the need, build a business around it and keep your start-up costs and maintenance fees low. If you do it correctly, in a few years you could be as successful as a certain young man in India who is right now living in the lap of luxury. And it’s all down to a bird he’s never owned.

Thanks to The Denver Egotist for bringing this to my attention! (Ahem, I'll be having words with you guys now),

This article is from Paul Michael of Wise Bread, an award-winning personal finance and credit card comparison website. Read more great articles from Wise Bread:

Invest some of this cheap energy

Philip Brewer — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 18:14:41 +0000

I've tried to avoid predicting energy prices, except to say that they'll be volatile. I'm not a bit surprised to see oil and gasoline prices dropping by half in the past few months. I do think, though, that the long-term trend is up. If I'm right, you should seize this opportunity to invest some of this cheap energy for the long term.

The thing is, energy is hard to save. The most efficient system for storing electricity involves pumping water uphill so that it can run back down through a generator--not practical for your average homeowner. Storing gasoline in quantities beyond what fits in your car's tank is similarly tough--the stuff is toxic and explosive, plus it'll evaporate on you. Natural gas is even worse. (There is the bank of gasoline, but those sorts of schemes are all too prone to go bust in times of economic stress or spiking energy prices--i.e. just when you need them most.)

The solution is to use the energy to produce something of enduring value. Something that you do or make now with cheap energy won't have to be made or done later with expensive energy. If the thing you do or make actually produces or saves energy (putting up a windmill, say, or adding insulation to your house), so much the better.

If you own land, for example, this is a great chance to make the sort of change that's easy with cheap energy--digging ponds or ditches, building up berms, etc. A change to the contour of the land could be made now and last for generations. A solar power system could last for the rest of your life. A more-efficient furnace could last 20 years.

You're doing this in a small way anytime you buy something that will last. As you make such purchases, give some thought to what things have already become cheaper because of dropping energy prices, and remember which things shot up the most when energy prices were spiking. Those are good guides of where to focus.

If the economy were doing better, I'd point out that this is also a chance to just spend some energy. A winter road trip is going to be a lot cheaper than a summer one would have been. Airfares haven't come down much yet, but cheap fuel and a collapsing economy will likely mean a shot at low-cost flights. (It also means a shot at bankrupt airlines, so make sure your plans allow for that possibility.) As things are now, though, I can't really recommend just spending energy. Invest it.

Energy is likely to stay cheap for about as long as the economy is in recession. Energy that you can invest now, while it's cheap, is energy that you won't have to buy later, when it may be a lot more expensive.

This article is from Philip Brewer of Wise Bread, an award-winning personal finance and credit card comparison website. Read more great articles from Wise Bread:

When to Splurge: Resume Writer

Andrea Karim — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 19:05:52 +0000

There are times when spending is the same as investing. And when it comes to putting your best face forward in a job search, you should invest in yourself.

Invest... in a resume writer.

I tend to overuse the term 'invest' because it indicates putting money into something that will offer returns of some kind, usually financial. I've had some people say, "You don't 'invest' in dog clippers, Andrea. You buy them." But dog clippers do offer me a return of sorts, because although they cost a good deal of money, they pay for themselves within one to two months, vis a vis savings on dog grooming costs. They could also be used to earn money, should I start clipping the neighbors' Pomeranian (not likely) every few weeks.

So when I say 'invest' in a resume writer, I mean just that. You are spending money on something that might seem unnecessary,; however, not only will a brilliant, professional resume land you a good job, but the higher pay that you fetch should affect your income level for the rest of your life.

I should know - I've used a resume writer.

Sure, sure. I'm a tech writer by trade, so technically, I should be able to write. But resumes are a different beast altogether. I can whip up a user's manual like no one else, when it comes to talking about what I've achieved over the course of my career, I don't always express myself in a way that is impressive to hiring managers. Very few managers will ever come out and tell you this, of course.

In fact, I might still be sending out my old resume and getting nowhere if it wasn't for the fact that I had an interview at a local company, one that does vendor work for Microsoft. I had updated my resume in a hurry, and the result was that there was a typo in one paragraph. It wasn't a big one, and in fact, it was something really simple. But it got noticed by a manager who had no tolerance for typos (which I understand, I really do) and the result was an insanely hostile interview in which everything I said was rudely challenged by someone who clearly wanted to pick a fight with me. Over a typo.

It was such a mortifying experience (and I didn't have the guts to stand up and say "Screw you! I don't need this job, Typo Nazi!"), that I went immediately home and started looking for resume help. And I found Jill Walser, a local HR guru who helps people tweak their resumes and prepare for interviews in her spare time from her business, I Got The Job.

It turns out that, in addition to the typo, my resume was kind of a mess. Which is really weird, since I wrote it using all those "hot-to" books and online guides, and I was pretty confident that it was one bad-ass resume. Turns out that it was just ass-bad.

Jill was able to parse the important information out of my cluttered, 4-page resume, and massage it into a concise, 2-page resume that highlighted my strengths and accomplishments. She interviewed me and asked for more details that I thought anyone needed on a resume.

Immediately after Jill reworked my resume, I got the first job that I applied to.

I've heard people suggest that hiring a resume writer is dishonest, and I take exception to that. A resume writer can help you better express yourself in a way that makes sense to hiring managers. A resume writer does not invent experience for you; they merely guide you on how best to express what you've accomplished over the course of your career.

I asked Jill to give me the lowdown on her job, and why people SHOULD put money into something like a professional resume.

------

Why should someone hire a resume writer?

People who obtain a professionally written resume are (hopefully!) ensured of several things. Primarily, they are ensured that there are no glaring NO!s on the resume like misspellings, misused words, lack of focus, lack of discernible achievements, etc. Additionally, a reader other than oneself is an absolute requirement when it comes to knowing if ones resume is understandable by others. People get into patterns of expressing themselves that make perfect sense to them and to their niche industry, but no sense at all to others.

You'd hire a professional resume writer for the same reason that you'd hire an attorney to write up your will. Yes, you could probably write it yourself, but you might forget something important and you only get one chance to get it right. Either way, you're dead.

How hard can it possibly be to write a resume?

Writing ones own resume can be excruciatingly painful. Like pulling your own teeth. Hours and hours of wandering through websites, reading books, looking at other people's resumes, getting 10 different and conflicting ideas about what must be included, struggling. Doing a "pretty good" job might be OK if one is an engineer, or software developer. As long as they get the basic facts down and don't look like they have third-grade writing skills, their resumes are probably OK. If, however, one is a marketing, sales or administrative professional or *gasp* someone who writes for a living, having a less-than-perfect resume can be the kiss of death.

I have a copywriter opening at work this week. You can bet that the first thing I'll look at is resume quality, even before the quality of their experience. Resumes have to do so much. They are a marketing piece, a business document, a way to convey your personality, and your only opportunity to brand yourself as perfect for the job before the hiring manager meets you. How hard could that be? Exactly.

Isn't having someone else write your resume kind of... dishonest?

Resume writing has become one of the last professional tasks that people feel should still be clandestine. I'm pro-professional. Why should I fix my own car, put 18 million of those little foil things in my hair, give myself a massage, etc.? Sure, I could do all those things myself, but why on earth would I want to? A professional spends hours and hours training and experimenting on other, unsuspecting victims, before she has her craft perfected enough to start charging for it.

On the other hand, I have no problem with people pretending that they wrote their own resume. Its sort of like me telling my mom that I spent hours cleaning before she came by for a visit. Its *kind of* true.

What kind of mistakes do people usually make on their resumes?

What kind of mistakes DON'T they make? Trite objectives, self-aggrandisement, segments that "break" in the wrong places. My personal favorites are those who spell "detail oriented" incorrectly and those who claim to be Mangers. Once a month, I do a search on Craigslist's resume section for Mangers and randomly pick a resume to rewrite and email to the person for free. Reactions are amazingly mixed! Of note, I have yet to meet an actual professional Manger. I keep hoping.

What kind of results do YOU typically get with your reworked resumes?

My customer's resumes get results! They are called in for interviews and offered jobs. They are more confident in their application documents and it shows! The coolest part of this gig is that every single week I get at least one, "I got the job!" email. It's very thrilling to me. The act of going over the resume, answering my homework questions, talking about networking and their career vision makes them better at interviewing, so they get more job offers.

How important is a cover letter?

Its crucial. Its the best way of showing a little glimpse of your personality and demonstrating that you have done your research and really want to work for THAT company. Its a way of showing that you have gone the extra mile to spell their name right. I cannot tell you how disinterested I am in hiring people who cannot even cut and paste my name correctly. There are NO Ms. Waslers that work for my company people! Plus, in the bulleted world of resumes, it's a nice way of showing that you (well, I) can put a few sentences together.

What's the most that someone should pay to have their resume professionally written?

A million dollars. That would definitely be too much. Pricing is all over the place with resume writers. It's hard to know what to charge. Resume writer's qualifications and backgrounds are quite varied as well. I've met resume writers who were actually out-of-work novelists, trying to make some extra money. I may be the only corporate recruiter with a resume business out there. I haven't yet met another.

There's one woman out there who writes "How-to" resume books for a living. From what I've seen, she's not so hot at actually writing resumes. And personality fit is crucial. If you don't feel your resume writer "gets" you, its going to be a frustrating experience. So it's hard to compare value. I will say that every time I've raised my prices, it's had absolutely no impact on customer traffic. My rates currently range between $95 - $245, depending on employment level. I've done resumes for people with horror stories about paying $400 for a resume that looks terrible. I feel their pain. $400 for a resume that looks fabulous and gets results is not too much. $95 for a resume that sucks and lands in the trash is too much.

This article is from Andrea Karim of Wise Bread, an award-winning personal finance and credit card comparison website. Read more great articles from Wise Bread: