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How much is that gold jewelry worth?
Have some old gold jewelry and need some cash? Here's how to find out what it's worth before you sell it …
Many stores and websites will pay you for your jewelry based (mainly) on its precious metal content. For those that advertise online, they offer you a postage-paid envelope, you mail in your valuables, and a few days later you get a check and ride off into the sunset.
That's how it's supposed to work, anyway. Some people will be, shall we say, a bit disappointed with the size of that check.
Gold jewelry is usually valued as scrap
This stands to reason. Cash for gold places will value your jewelry at scrap content. Regardless of the sentimental value to you, they don't place any value on that. (Nothing against your great aunt Gertrude; I'm sure she was a fine lady and that necklace is indeed beautiful!)
Power of attorney for college students
Power of attorney is the ability to legally sign someone else's name as if they had signed themselves. It can be a powerful tool to have amongst family members in case of emergency or incapacitation.
A couple of months ago, we dropped our daughter off at college in a different state. Along with all of the other changes that this brings about, we saw possible cases that would make things difficult should she get into an accident. She was no longer a minor and as such we no longer had the same kind of access to her medical treatment records.
A power of attorney, in particular a medical power of attorney, and a Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) release would allow us to make some of these decisions and to access this information.
Five inexpensive things that make life easier
Once our needs are met (food, clothing, shelter), then a great use for money is to make life easier.
This article discusses five inexpensive ways I've found that make our lives easier in an outsized way.
Buying back your time or buying down your aggravation
Such things can either buy back your time or buy down aggravation.
Buying back your time lets you repurpose your time to something more pleasurable or fulfilling. Paying someone to mow your lawn or clean your house is an example of this.
Buying down your aggravation lets you enjoy your time more by making regular activities less stressful. Reliable appliances just plain work better, for example.
Bus tubs for collecting cups and dishes upstairs
I like my coffee. A lot.
Is real estate an asset or a liability?
Photo by Tierra Mallorca on Unsplash
The question of whether real estate is an asset or a liability is not a new one. Back in 2009, Harlan Landes, at the time a.k.a. Flexo, took issue with Robert Kiyosaki‘s definitions of asset and liability:
An asset is something that puts money in my pocket.
A liability is something that takes money out of my pocket.
Watch your recurring charges to save money
Businesses LOVE automatic recurring subscriptions. Once you sign up, it's up to you to cancel, and they get paid until you do. If you forget about the subscription, no problem for them, you just keep paying.
Photo by Karolina Grabowska
These subscriptions add up. An unused $7.99 monthly subscription is nearly $100/year down the drain. How many of those might you have, and what could you do with that money?
Just knowing what you have is half the battle. There are some services that will go through your bank and credit card accounts to see what recurring charges you have, and offer to cancel them for you. But there's an often-substantial fee for doing it this way.
Filing Form 1065: My escape plan
Filing my Form 1065 U.S. Return of Partnership Income is getting to be a bit of a drag each year.
Photo by Thom Holmes on Unsplash
If I do this right, I'll have to file one more set of 1065s, in March 2024, and that's it.
Late 1065 filing that isn't actually late 1065 filing
We have two limited liability companies (LLCs) and my wife and I are equal owners of each. “We're in this together” and all that.
We're required to file IRS Form 1065 and two Schedule K-1s for each LLC by March 15th.
For goodness’ sake be happy with what you have
Hearing people complain about how unhappy they are with their high-end stuff makes me really sad.
They possess something pretty fancy that makes people go “Wow!” … and then they point out all of the flaws in it or talk about similar items that are even better than the one they have.
Photo by Count Chris on Unsplash
People aren't down on their stuff in the beginning
I have a Facebook group on currency collecting that has nearly 20,000 members.
How to lose money selling on eBay
Selling things on eBay can be a nice side income. The premise is simple: buy low, sell high.
EBay began as an auction-only site. Potential buyers bid against one another for an item, just like in a live auction.
Five years later, in November 2000, eBay introduced its Buy It Now option. This allowed sellers to set a price for their item, and sell it to the first buyer to accept that price.
Each kind of listing format has its advantages and disadvantages.
There are advantages to the auction listing format:
- Auction listings tend to get more eyeballs on them, especially if the starting bid is very low.
- Auction listings are good if you aren't really sure what an item is worth. The market decides for you.
Some disadvantages to the auction listing format:
How to start a website in 2024
(This was originally published on 13 October 2022.)
I started this website two decades ago. The first time the Internet Archive captured the site was back in April 2004. I registered the domain in 2003.
Back then I was hand-crafting HTML pages in a text editor, and managing all of the links by hand. I had found a website template that gave me the sidebar, and worked from there. I composed the pages on my computer and then transferred them to a webhost via FTP to “publish” them.
Not the most difficult thing in the world to do, but certainly not the easiest.
Then I found WordPress
In mid-2005, after being on blogger.com for only a couple of weeks, I found out about WordPress, and my content creation at the time shot through the roof.
The right way to use referral sites
I recently ran across a new-ish referral site called invitation.codes.
It's a site that aims to be one-stop shopping for referral bonuses. These are the extra sign-on goodies that you sometimes get when signing up as a new user on a site.
Often a website will offer a bonus to its current users for referring new users. This is usually good business practice because the current users will work for free, and only get rewarded when someone signs up. It's cheap marketing labor!
Even better when the site throws in something for the new user to help the current user get the sign-up. Generally money well spent by the business.
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