Did you know that your grocery receipts can be the key to extra cash? You just need to download a rebate app.
Here's how it works. After you've done your food shopping, either from the usual stores or even online, take that receipt and upload it through a rebate app. The app locates various rebates for you -- no coupon clipping is necessary. You'll accrue cash based on what you've already purchased, and your eligible rebates will then get tallied in your account. They can be redeemed once you've accumulated a set amount (for example, $20).
The Free Checkout 51 app lists 20 new offers every Thursday morning on premium products like tomatoes, strawberries, and apples -- items whose coupons are hard to come by. Cash out once you have $20 in your account and you'll get a check in about three weeks. The Snap App works pretty much the same way. Refer your friends and get even more cash right into your account.
With these apps, grocery shopping doesn't just get more affordable, it puts money back in your bank account while losing the hassle of coupons. Quick and easy with cash back? That's an app that's hard to beat.
NEW YORK -- U.S. stocks edged lower Wednesday as minutes from the most recent Federal Reserve meeting gave investors few new clues as to when U.S. interest rates may rise.
The S&P 500 snapped a two-day streak of record closing highs.
Minutes of the U.S. central bank's Oct. 28-29 meeting, where policymakers decided to finally end their bond-buying stimulus, indicated a debate among policymakers over the outlook for inflation and the economy.
"The market doesn't really know how to react to this, whether it's a hawkish or dovish statement, but the reality is I think it's a truthful statement that we are in a very interesting spot with both headwinds and tailwinds facing this economy," said Burt White, managing director and chief investment officer at LPL Financial in Boston.
Following the release of the minutes, U.S. short-term interest-rate futures traders were still betting on a first Fed rate hike by September next year.
Tech names were among the biggest drags on the market, with the Nasdaq underperforming both the Dow and S&P 500. Shares of Microsoft (MSFT) fell 1.1 percent to $48.22 and shares of Qualcomm (QCOM) eased 2.1 percent to $70.47. Qualcomm on Wednesday gave a more conservative five-year outlook than in the past.
Among the S&P 500's biggest positives, Target (TGT) rose 7.4 percent to $72.50 and Lowe's (LOW) rose 6.4 percent to $62.26, both after results.
The Dow Jones industrial average (^DJI) fell 2.09 points, or 0.01 percent, to 17,685.73, the Standard & Poor's 500 index (^GPSC) lost 3.08 points, or 0.15 percent, to 2,048.72 and the Nasdaq composite (^IXIC) dropped 26.73 points, or 0.57 percent, to 4,675.71.
Earlier Wednesday, Goldman Sachs (GS) analysts said the Fed, once it begins to tighten monetary policy, would raise short-term interest rates faster and to higher levels than current market expectations.
Oplink Communications (OPLK) shares jumped 13.8 percent to $24.18. It is being purchased by Koch Optics, a subsidiary of privately held Koch Industries, for about $445 million.
Among other big movers, shares of JetBlue Airways (JBLU) rose 4.1 percent to $13.25 after it said it will charge certain customers for their first checked bag.
Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by 1,899 to 1,176, for a 1.61-to-1 ratio on the downside; on the Nasdaq, 1,937 issues fell and 765 advanced for a 2.53-to-1 ratio favoring decliners.
About 5.8 billion shares changed hands on U.S. exchanges, compared with the 6.4 billion average for the month to date, according to data from BATS Global Markets.
The benchmark S&P 500 index posted 30 new 52-week highs and three new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 42 new highs and 74 new lows.
-With additional reporting by Rodrigo Campo.
What to Watch Thursday:
The Labor Department releases its Consumer Price Index for October and weekly jobless claims, both at 8:30 a.m. Eastern time.
At 10 a.m.: The Conference Board releases leading indicators for October; the National Association of Realtors releases existing home sales for October; and Freddie Mac reports weekly mortgage rates.
Gap Inc. (GPS) reports quarterly financial results after U.S. markets close.
Courtesy: Austin Netzley Austin Netzley's new book tells how he has "retired" at age 28.By Gerri Detweiler
As a kid, Austin Netzley remembered being enthralled with the concept of money and promising himself that one day he'd be wealthy. And now, at 28, by most people's measure, he is. He's been an athlete, student, engineer and entrepreneur. And now, with his book "Make Money, Live Weathy," he's also an author and speaker. And at this point in his life, he considers himself "retired."
Not bad for someone who, in 2008, had a brand-new bachelor's degree, $72,000 in student loans, and used Honda with a $9,000 auto loan. He had attended a good but expensive college in Ohio where he had played football. His degree was in mechanical engineering, so he had a leg up on finding a job that paid well, which certainly helps when you're trying to dig out of a financial hole.
He went to work for an oil company in Houston, bringing in six figures the first year but carefully tracking his spending. As an engineer, Netzley tends to think in terms of numbers. He knew housing and transportation take up about half of a typical household budget, so he worked to keep those low. You will save much more by finding inexpensive housing than by clipping coupons, he notes. His used Honda and low housing costs -- he bought a foreclosure with a friend -- kept those costs far below that. He lived frugally but not abstemiously, meeting friends for drinks rather than dinner but also continuing to travel and to attend sports events and concerts. He kept his expenses as low as $32,000 a year, which made it easier to repay the debt.
Building Wealth, Destroying Debt
But debt payoff wasn't his sole goal. He was also looking to create wealth, and he understood time was on his side, meaning the sooner he could invest, the more time the money would have to grow. He signed up immediately for a 401(k) at work, first putting away 12 percent of his salary, then 16 percent. He didn't exactly attack his debt methodically. Sometimes he would pay the minimums, preferring to invest. But then he "just got tired of having the debt" and focused on getting it paid off. So, two years and 10 months after he graduated from college, he paid off the $81,000.
And now he is a retiree, if you can really call it that. Netzley says there are four ways to retire:
to have enough money in savings to stop working;
to have financial freedom by having more passive income than you spend;
to be able to do what you love when you want to do it;
a combination of the above.
Crucial to his way of thinking is that you see money as a tool rather than a goal. Because a rich life isn't a direct result of money. People who have a high net worth tend to measure wealth in terms of experiences, relationships, family and health, he says. So for Netzley, being retired means money has bought him the freedom to do what he wants. And now, his next couple of priorities are to "retire my parents" and to donate $1 million to charity.
He believes any of us can repay massive debt, and in his book he profiles people who have. But he looks toward making more than you spend rather than spending less than you make. They sound like pretty much the same thing, but Netzley said he has never operated out of fear of being poor but rather in pursuit of wealth. And you get ahead by shedding debt -- which he describes as "a burden holding you back" -- and investing.
He said the very first step in getting rid of debts is to make a commitment to doing it and get serious about attacking it. Because he has a bent toward numbers, that came easily to him. His advice to the rest of us: Get clear on debts -- get a credit report (you can get a free credit report from each of the three major credit reporting agencies annually; you can also get your credit scores for free every month from Credit.com) -- and define who every debt is is with, the interest rate and the balance. He chose to pay his off by paying off the highest-interest debt first, explaining that "I'm an engineer and I like to listen to the numbers."
But he said that method isn't for everyone. Find the one that works for you and make a commitment to getting rid of debt. (Asked about so-called good debt, like a mortgage or student loan, he said there's not a lot of debt he considers good. If you think you can earn double the rate you're paying on a mortgage by investing the money instead of paying the house off quickly, you have his blessing.) But the way to financial freedom, he says, is making more than you spend and investing the difference wisely.
Ironically, he says the way to financial wealth isn't so much focusing on every dollar but identifying your priorities. What you are doing is moving toward your ideal life -- figuring out what you were put on Earth to accomplish and moving toward it, not hitting a certain target. Your most valuable currency is time, and in many cases, money can buy you time. Because life is a journey, not a destination. And a lack of funds can make the journey more stressful. But so can loneliness, little fun or poor health. Richness, he says, lies in finding a balance.
Choosing the right time to begin claiming your Social Security will maximize the amount of money you will receive to supplement your retirement funds. The right strategy can lead to $100,000 or more in additional retirement income, said Wei-Yin Hu, director of financial research for Financial Engines, a Sunnyvale, California, registered investment adviser.
Deciding when to begin claiming Social Security benefits is one of the most important retirement planning decisions you can make, but it's not easy.
Determining the right strategy can be tricky and confusing especially if you are married, since there are over 8,000 ways a married couple can file for Social Security benefits. A recent study by Financial Engines found that most Americans overestimate their ability to make good Social Security claiming decisions and underestimate the complexity of deciding when to claim Social Security benefits.
"Deciding when to begin claiming Social Security benefits is one of the most important retirement planning decisions you can make, but it's not easy," he said.
Although many people begin claiming as soon as they reach age 62 or once they stop working, but most people will generally receive higher payments if they delay claiming, said Hu.
"Deferring the start date of your Social Security benefits can significantly increase the amount of payments. It's the best deal for households seeking more annual income in retirement," he said.
Although many Americans typically expect to retire at age 66, the brutal truth is that most retirees don't stay on the job nearly that long. A recent Gallup Poll found the average age among retirees is closer to 62.
"This benefit is reduced by 5/9 of 1 percent per month up to the first 36 months and then 5/12 of 1 percent thereafter," said Stein Olavsrud, a certified financial planner with FBB Capital Partners in Bethesda, Maryland. "In addition, there are numerous variables that spouses can utilize in obtaining their Social Security benefit and they lean on their planner to walk them through the process so they understand the variables before claiming a greatly reduced lifetime benefit."
Spouses with a smaller difference in their ages have more options to choose from compared with couples with a larger age difference, said Fidelity in a blog post. The decision is important and has the potential to result in a significant amount of money in your pocket during retirement.
"When you start claiming Social Security benefits may or may not coincide with your last day of work," Fidelity said. "If you aren't working and still want to delay benefits, you need to consider how to cover your living expenses until your Social Security benefit kicks in. You may not be able to delay claiming if you need the income for everyday expenses."
If retiring at age 62 wasn't part of your plan and you are able to delay receiving your benefits, consider starting a small business or working part-time to pay for your expenses, said Melody Juge, managing director of Life Income Management in Flat Rock, North Carolina.
"An unexpected early retirement usually means the loss of a job," she said. "This can be a financially devastating situation if retirement funds are used too early since the growth of money happens over time. Most people are short in their retirement accumulations and the last ten years between 55 and 65 or 60 to 70 are more focused on putting money away that will need to last them 20 to 40 years."
By being creative, retirees won't be forced to dip into their retirement savings or take their Social Security benefits, Juge said.
"Having a disruption of consistent income at this time can also be psychologically devastating," she said. "Think in terms of a combination of a few things that will generate income and keep you busy, occupied and enjoying life while you look for full-time employment. You may surprise yourself and love your new income earning experiences."
Investors who stick to "goal-based investing" should be able to build up a decent nest egg for retirement and avoid tapping into their Social Security benefits before they are ready, said Bill Stone, chief investment strategist for PNC Wealth Management in Baltimore, Maryland.
"There is little doubt in the annals of behavioral finance that greed and envy, when it comes to financial decision making, can lead to poor outcomes," he said. "One must be mindful that there can be long periods when performance-based investing can look significantly more attractive. Despite the fact that individual assets are often volatile, we believe assets can be combined to effectively manage risk, enhancing the predictability of asset returns."
Despite the current market outcome, investors need to stay in the game so they can yield a good return for their retirement, said Zack Shepard, vice president of Matson Money, a Cincinnati, Ohio, investment management firm with $5.7 billion in assets.
"The three major rules of investing always apply be it a market high, market low or everything in between," he said. "Own equities, diversify globally and rebalance regularly. Don't chase performance, and don't panic when the market is down. Even if we are at a high, feel the fear and invest anyways."
Sorry guys, you lose this one. One of the most widely-cited studies on the subject is "Boys Will Be Boys" by Brad Barber and Terrance Odean. It concludes that women outperform men in their investment accounts significantly and the difference is most pronounced -- more than 2 percentage points -- when comparing single men and women.
Why? Because women simply behave better. They trade less, have lower portfolio turnover and don't invest in individual stocks as much as men do. (Portfolio turnover, in particular, directly correlates with portfolio returns. In other words, the more you churn -- the less you earn.)
Men and women differ not only when it comes to investment behavior, but in the investments they tend to pick.
SigFig, an investment adviser in San Francisco, recently looked into which securities are especially favored by male or female investors. Or, to put it in an a terrible but immediately comprehensible way, what are the "pinkest" and "bluest" securities -- stocks, mutual funds and ETFs -- among its users? (SigFig users are investors who sync their brokerage accounts with the company's portfolio tracker.)
The Pink and the Blue
First, a quick explanation of the methodology behind determining which securities are "blue" and which ones are "pink."
Roughly 80 percent of all SigFig users are men. So on average, each security is owned 80 percent by men and 20 percent by women. Any security whose ownership is more than 20 percent female goes on the "female-favored" list. At the end of October, 18 securities passed this test.
These "pink" securities show a mild bias toward health care investments: Vanguard Health Care Fund (VGHCX), Pfizer (PFE), AbbVie (ABBV) and Fidelity Select BiotechnologyPortfolio (FBIOX). Overall, the female-favored securities break down as follows:
Index funds and ETFs: 7
Active mutual funds: 6
Individual stocks: 5
The most male-dominated securities, on the other hand, include a lot of big-name individual stocks: Alibaba (BABA), Twitter (TWTR), Tesla (TSLA), Coca Cola (KO), Microsoft (MSFT), Ford (F). The breakdown goes like this:
Index funds and ETFs: 7
Active mutual funds: 0
Individual stocks: 11
Performance Issues
The data alone doesn't fully explain performance trends between male and female investors, but offers one logical reason why men underperform women.
The chart above shows the average unrealized return (gain or loss) for each security in the data set. Perhaps not surprisingly, individual stocks and certain ETFs -- particularly those on the "blue" list -- tend to land at both ends of the spectrum. Either investors holding these securities are currently enjoying unrealized gains as high as 40 percent, or nursing unrealized losses, as low as -10 percent.
What's Going On?
We should be careful about drawing too many conclusions from this data. It's based on a particular point in time, and the favorite holdings may already have shifted. And few of these securities show a large male or female bias. Everything we're calling a "trend" could be a statistical artifact.
But let's ask the question anyway: why do men tend to favor individual stocks?
It could be because they believe they can pick and trade them profitably, but it might also be because men (particularly men who use an online investing tool) are more likely to work at startups, tech firms, and other companies that pay them in stock. Twitter, for example, employs 70 percent men, Microsoft 71 percent.
The Takeaway
Women are more likely to hold active mutual funds and health care investments; men are more likely to hold ETFs and individual stocks -- especially tech stocks. But the differences aren't huge. And, as usual, we only know what we see among investors who use SigFig to track their portfolios. They may not be representative of investors as a whole.
Africa Studio/Shutterstock
A recent class-action lawsuit accuses some of the biggest names in the deodorant business of selling deodorants as "unscented" when they really had a fragrance.
"Unscented" deodorants are marketed to consumers who have sensitivity to smells and often also note they are hypoallergenic. The companies, the lawsuit alleges, should have known that the products they were selling had distinctive odors and were hardly "unscented" while consumers based their purchasing decisions on misleading labels.
Among the brands named in the lawsuit as containing fragrance: Arm & Hammer, Secret, Dry Idea, Ban, Mitchum. The companies named as defendants include Church & Dwight (CHD), Procter & Gamble (PG), Dial, Henkel (HENKY) and Revlon (REV).
Ingredients That Smell
The lawsuit filed by Philadelphia lawyer Mark L. Rhoades accuses the companies of sealing the products so well that no consumer could tell at the store the deodorants are scented. The labeling, however, states that there is no scent even though the ingredients include chemicals with fragrances, according to the lawsuit.
As an example, the lawsuit noted that Secret Outlast includes "fragrance" on its ingredients list. Arm & Hammer Essentials contains "citrus aurantium dulcis (orange) peel oil", "anthemis nobilis (chamomile) flower oil", "coriandrum sativum (coriander) fruit oil" and "pelargonium graveolens geranium) flower oil." That all adds up to an unmistakable citrus odor, the lawsuit alleged.
Because each purchase is relatively inexpensive, the lawsuit maintains that individual consumers, for the most part, don't bother going back to a store to seek a refund after realizing their "unscented" deodorants have a scent. So, the lawsuit is being brought on behalf of anyone who has purchased one of these deodorants that claims to be unscented while having a distinct odor.
The lawsuit -- Melissa Fogarty v. Church & Dwight et al., case number 3:14-cv-07086 -- was filed in New Jersey, where Church & Dwight, which makes Arm & Hammer products, is located. The manufacturers are accused of violating the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act and consumer protection laws in the other states.
Does your unscented deodorant have a distinct smell?
www.vip.com
The daily-deals craze didn't last long in this country. Groupon (GRPN) went public at $20 in 2011 with a headful of steam and hype, but the buzz died quickly. The leading publisher of flash sales now trades for a little more than a third of its initial public offering price.
Market sentiment turning on the former dot-com darling also doomed LivingSocial and the smaller rivals that were hoping to grow public in light of the initial excitement of Groupon's IPO.
However, there is a company in this niche that's doing just fine. There's a publicly traded player in the flash-sales game that's seen its shares nearly triple over the past year. Revenue more than doubled in its latest quarter, with earnings growing even faster. The rub is that it's not doing business in this country.
The VIP in Daily Deals
Vipshop (VIPS) isn't a household name here, but that's not the case in China, where it's a fast-growing provider of limited-time sales on discounted apparel. Vipshop checked in with fresh quarterly results on Tuesday night, and it was another blowout report.
Revenue soared 130 percent to $882.6 million since last year's third quarter, fueled by its customer count more than doubling. Closing in on $1 billion in quarterly revenue with 9.5 million active customers may seem like a lot, but keep in mind that we're talking about the world's most populous nation, with more than 1.3 billion people living in China.
Profitability grew even faster. Margins widened to the point where adjusted net income skyrocketed 207 percent to $46.3 million. Vipshop's sales and adjusted earnings exceeded analyst expectations.
Vipshop opened lower on Wednesday's report, largely on a sequential downtick in orders. This is the first time that it has clocked in with a quarter-over-quarter decline, but seasonality does factor into sequential swings. Looking ahead, Vipshop sees an 84 percent to 87 percent year-over-year spike in revenue for the current quarter. It will be the first time that Vipshop tops $1 billion in quarterly sales.
Checking In on Groupon
Groupon isn't exactly chopped liver. It saw its revenue post a 27 percent year-over-year gain to $757.1 million. International expansion helped pad the industry bellwether's performance, but Groupon still came through with a 16 percent gain in North America sales over the past year.
Investors have turned on Groupon because of its spotty profitability and slowing growth rate, but it's not as if the model itself is broken. Folks still crave deals, and Groupon has made the most of its growing Rolodex to approach its growing base of deal-providing merchants to offer them related business services.
However, anyone pulling up a stock chart of the investments knows that the disparity is real. Vipshop went public in early 2012, just a couple of months after Groupon's Wall Street debut. Unlike Groupon, which had a lot of buzz out of the gate, the market wasn't initially interested in Vipshop. It priced its IPO at $6.50, closing at $5.50 on its first day of trading.
However, Vipshop's penchant for heady top-line growth and strong earnings beats -- it has consistently exceeded analyst profit targets -- has made it one of the market's biggest winners. It recently went through a 10-for-1 stock split, adjusting its IPO price to $0.65. Lucky investors who got in on the IPO or even bought it for less the day after have seen their investment soar more than 30-fold.
The gains are unlikely to be as sweet in the future. Vipshop may still not be a household name for stateside shoppers, but growth investors willing to put up with the risks of buying into Chinese equities are already familiar with Vipshop. It's the company that beat Groupon at its own game.
Motley Fool contributor Rick Munarriz has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. To read about our favorite high-yielding dividend stocks for any investor, check outour free report.
NEW YORK -- You're probably used to shelling out big bucks during the holiday season, but did you know that you can actually earn money while you shop? From taking on mystery shopping assignments to using websites and apps that offer cash back for purchases, there are several ways to keep your bank account afloat in the coming weeks without skimping on great gifts for your nearest and dearest. Here are a few ideas to consider as you set out on your holiday shopping sprees.
Shop on Cash-Back Websites
If you're planning to buy some of your holiday gifts online this year, we suggest shopping on sites that offer you cash back for your purchases. One of the best is Ebates.com, which partners with thousands of retailers such as Best Buy (BBY), Amazon.com (AMZN), Kohl's (KSS) and Macy's (M). Ebates earns a commission from these retailers when you make a purchase, then shares part of that commission with you. There's no sign-up fee, and you'll receive a check in the mail each quarter for the money you've earned. Not bad, huh?
Other sites that offer cash back for purchases include Upromise, which allows you to earn money for college through your online purchases; FreeShipping.com, which allows you to earn 10 percent cash back at more than 1,000 retailers (membership costs $12.97 a month) and offers free shipping and return shipping; and BeFrugal.com, which offers up to 30 percent cash back at more than 4,000 online stores.
Become a Mystery Shopper
Another great way to earn cash while hitting the malls this holiday season is through mystery shopping. Businesses hire mystery shoppers to visit their stores anonymously and report back on product quality and the overall customer experience. If you're instructed to make a particular purchase in a store or restaurant, you'll typically get reimbursed and you'll often get to keep the product.
"You can earn money while you're out doing your holiday shopping by evaluating a makeup artist by getting a free makeover, test-driving a new vehicle, or trying out restaurant fare with a friend," says consumer-savings expert Andrea Woroch.
Freelance-writer Anne Violette of Houston says that she takes on a few mystery shopping assignments during the holiday season to make some extra cash. "Although it doesn't pay big bucks -- some shops pay between $25 and $60 -- I've gotten a lot of discounts on things I have needed, such as sunglasses at Sunglass Hut (LUX), free coffees at Dunkin' Donuts (DNKN), free oil changes for my car and other cool things," she says. "While out shopping at the mall, you can pick up a couple of easy assignments and it only takes about 15 minutes to do the mystery shop and then another half hour worth of your time at home to fill out the review."
Just be aware that there are many mystery shopping scams out there. The Federal Trade Commission suggests checking online comments and reviews about a company before working for it and avoiding companies that ask you to pay them money or require you to wire money as part of a mystery assignment.
Woroch recommends visiting the Mystery Shopping Providers Association to search for legitimate opportunities.
Use a Cash-Back Credit Card
For an easy way to earn extra dough while holiday shopping, consider making purchases with a credit card that offers cash back. Just keep in mind that interest rates for cash-back credit cards tend to be higher than standard cards, so they're best used if you intend to pay off your balances in full each month. Also be sure to check if the card has an annual fee; if it does, you'll have to decide whether the rewards make the fee worth it.
Matthew Goldman, CEO and founder of Wallaby, a company that offers a variety of products to help you maximize credit card rewards, suggests checking out the Chase Freedom card, which offers 5 percent cash back on up to $1,500 at Amazon.com, Zappos.com and select department stores through Dec. 31 and unlimited 1 percent cash back on all other purchases. The card offers no annual fee and a zero percent introductory annual percentage rate, or APR, for the first 15 months, then a variable 13.99 percent to 22.99 percent after that. Goldman also recommends the Discover It card, which carries no annual fee and offers 5 percent cash back for online shopping and department stores purchases up to $1,500 through December. You can also earn 1 percent cash back on all other purchases and receive a free FICO credit score on your monthly statement. The APR is zero percent for the first 14 months, then 10.99 percent to 22.99 percent after that.
Join a Rewards Program
Many stores offer attractive rewards programs that allow you to rack up points for every purchase you make, then earn store credit for accumulating a certain number of points. For instance, the Kohl's Yes2You Rewards program allows you to earn 1 point for every dollar spent, then gives you a $5 reward for every 100 points you accumulate. The Dick's ScoreCard program allows you to score 1 point for every dollar you spend at Dick's (DKS), then gives you a $10 reward for every 300 points you earn.
Download Apps That Help You Earn Cash
One great cash-back app available on iOS and Android devices is Shopkick, which allows you to earn free gift cards just for shopping. Once you download the app, you'll get points for walking into stores such as Target (TGT), Macy's and Best Buy, and you'll rack up even more points when you scan items and make purchases. You can then redeem your points for gift cards. The one caveat? Don't let the app sway you into buying more than you can afford.
"You might start justifying unnecessary purchases by thinking about all the rewards you're earning," says Kendal Perez, marketing manager for Kinoli Inc., the company that owns such money-saving websites as FreeShipping.org and GiftCardGranny.com. "Use the app wisely to help earn rewards on items you already planned to purchase or try on."
Of course, the season of giving also means helping out those in need. The Charity Miles app, available on iOS and Android devices, allows you to earn money for charity from corporate sponsors simply by walking, running or biking. Here's how it works: just turn on the app, select a charity and press start. As you walk through the mall or bike or run to your favorite shopping destination, the app will track your distance and the money earned. Bikers earn up to 10 cents a mile, while walkers and runners earn up to 25 cents a mile. Participating charities include Habitat for Humanity, Feeding America, Autism Speaks and The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research.
teamster.org
High tech companies aren't typically a hotbed of labor organizing. The most visible targets of unions recently have been fast food chains, low-wage workers for federal contractors, and Walmart (WMT), which seems to have its own special status among Joe Hill aficionados.
But unions have come to Facebook (FB), at least indirectly. Not among programmers or administrative staff. The contract shuttle bus drivers that bring employees to and from the company's campus have voted to join the Teamsters, according to the union. The 43 to 28 result means that the drivers will look to Local 853 to help improve pay and working conditions, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Technically, the 87 drivers aren't employees of Facebook but of Loop Transportation, a company that contracts bus services to high tech companies. The union said that the drivers make around $40,000 a year, which is less than a third of what a San Francisco Bay area software engineer makes.
Not that bus drivers should be paid as though they had engineering degrees, but the broad pay gap is the key. San Francisco and the surrounding areas are among the most expensive places to live in the country. An influx of high tech money has helped drive up demand for real estate and, with it, rents and housing prices as well as costs of other basics. The city voted in a $15 an hour minimum wage earlier this month, as reported in Forbes.com, in an attempt to help long-time residents fend off at least some of the effects of gentrification.
At the same time, nearly 400,000 area tech workers making six-figure salaries "depend on a shadow workforce with services provided by an army of lower-paid drivers, cafeteria workers and janitors," according to the San Jose Mercury News.
Loop President Jeff Leonoudakis had argued that a union was unnecessary because of the company's benefits. "We're pretty proud of the wages-and-benefits package and working-schedule conditions we've structured," he told the Mercury News.
But it was the conditions above and beyond salaries that pushed many employees to vote for union representation. Drivers had to work split shifts, ferrying Facebook employees to and from the company's headquarters in Menlo Park. But because they could not afford to live in the area, drivers would sleep in their cars in the middle of the day. One worker told the Mercury News that he was paid $18 an hour. Drivers for other companies can make as much as $30 an hour.
According to the New York Times, 55-year-old Loop employee Cliff Doi started his morning shift at 6:10, finished that part at 11:10, and then started again at 5:15 in the afternoon, working until 9:45 at night. Doi and other drivers that don't want to sleep in their cars or hang out at Facebook's cafeteria can go to a "lounge" that Loop set up in a trailer. Jimmy Maerina, 54, another Facebook driver, said the split shifts have made his life miserable. He said he leaves home at 5 each morning and returns at 9 at night.
"You spend 16 hours a day - no time for family, no time for the kids," Mr. Maerina said. "When I leave home in the morning, my kids are sleeping, and when I get home at 9, they're done with their homework."
The Teamsters say the problem is as much with Facebook and other tech companies as it is with the bus operators. Because the businesses demand the lowest bid contract, argues the union, they drive down the amount the operators can make and, therefore, what the drivers can ultimately get.
Lighthunter/Shutterstock
No one looks forward to tax season. Even the people who make money from preparing returns grit their teeth because they know the stretch from January to April 15 will be long and hard. But it could be worse, right?
Actually, it's about to be, and that comes straight from the officials at the top. Internal Revenue Service Commissioner John Koskinen said that 2015 "will be one of the most complicated filing seasons we've ever had," as the Journal of Accountancy reported.
It's not that you will own more money, although you might very well. The main driver of the pain will be factors making filing far more complicated than usual. With provisions of the Affordable Care Act that become active, a Congress that likely doesn't, uncertainty about dozens of tax provisions that are phasing out, other mind-bending aspects coming into force and an IRS that says it doesn't have the resources to do what it's obligated to, this is going to be one interesting ride.
Feeling Ill Over ACA Paperwork
Two provisions of the ACA -- tax credits for health insurance premiums and individual mandates -- will provide two sources of pain. People who haven't made enough to afford health care may have been eligible for tax credits to offset their increased expenses. The insurance exchanges frequently calculated the likely subsidy and reduced the premiums by the appropriate amount.
Only the calculations were initially made on the previous year's taxes. Now comes the time to settle up and figure out whether people received the right number of credits -- or too few or too many. That means at least an extra form to calculate what the impact should be, and whether people with too little money already may have to send some of it to the IRS because their circumstances improved between 2013 and 2014.
Also on the ACA front is the type of coverage you have. If you do have full coverage, you check a box off on the 1040. If not, there is another form with a "complicated penalty calculation" depending on multiple factors, according to what Mark Luscombe, principal analyst for the tax and accounting group of tax information publisher Wolters Kluwer, told DailyFinance.
Uncertain Tax Regulations
Expiring provisions in the tax code will mean perspiring consumers and professionals. "It's one of the things is something we seem to face every couple of years," Luscombe said. "All these regularly expiring provisions have tended to be extended only a couple of years at a time." This year there are about 60.
Some include the individual deduction for state sales tax, the above-the-line deduction for college tuition and fees, teachers' out-of-pocket expense deduction and the ability of people over 70½ years to distribute from an individual retirement account directly to a charity so you don't increase adjusted gross income and see a hit to Social Security income.
Not only could you end up having to pay more, but the longer a bitterly divided Congress delays on making decisions, the more pressure they invariably put on taxpayers and preparers. "The IRS forms are still in draft stage because they've reserved these lines, not knowing whether to include them or not," Luscombe said. Until it's done and the regulations are set, there are no forms to fill, software can't correctly run, and preparers won't be sure how to handle some situations.
Even the IRS's own software won't be ready to process returns and issue refunds. According to Luscombe, in 2013, problems with IRS software held up the start of the filing season by a couple of weeks and delayed refunds.
Overtaxed Tax Officials
Starting behind isn't good for any organizations, including the IRS. Throw in inadequate resources, and it's worse. Koskinen noted that the IRS has expanded responsibilities with a budget that's declined by 7 percent since 2010 and a 13,000-person drop in headcount. That means fewer people to get systems ready, fewer people to process returns, fewer people to perform audits and fewer people for everything else.
This year, the IRS was able to answer taxpayer calls only 71 percent of the time. Koskinen thinks that in 2015, the number will probably drop to 53 percent.
As he almost said, things will get ugly. Leave yourself plenty of time to prepare and try to keep a sense of humor. Or maybe have a bottle of aspirin handy.
shutterstock
The difference between the richest and poorest people in British society is eight teeth for those over than 65 years old, a new study concludes.
The study, published Nov. 18 in the Journal of Dental Research, looked at the socioeconomic position and oral health for 6,000 people. British researchers found that the dental health of the poorest 20 percent of society was substantially worse than the richest by all measures studied, including having more tooth decay, gum disease, tooth gaps and less teeth overall.
The study included more than 6,000 people aged 21 and over, from all income groups and regions of the United Kingdom, except Scotland.
"It's probably not a big surprise that poorer people have worse dental health than the richest, but the surprise is just how big the differences can be and how it affects people," said lead author Jimmy Steele, head of the dental school at Newcastle University. "Eight teeth less on average is a huge amount and will have had a big impact for these people."
Molars and Moolah
Steele says although the younger generation has better oral health than their parents ever did, "the differences between rich and poor are very considerable, and young people are particularly aware when they do not have a healthy mouth."
John Wildman, professor of health economics at Newcastle University Business School and the study's principal investigator, said that inequalities in oral health "have not received the attention that they deserve."
"Oral health contributes hugely to everyday well being," Wildman said, "and addressing these inequalities may result in considerable improvements in quality of life for large numbers of individuals."
cspc.gov
Nearly 5 million Graco strollers are being recalled in North America after at least a half-dozen reports of children's fingers getting cut off in the hinges, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission said on Thursday.
At least 11 incidents have been reported involving finger injuries in the popular strollers including the six fingertip amputations and four partial amputations.
A nearly identical recall was conducted by Graco in 2010, which followed a similar recall a few months earlier by competitor Maclaren. The number of strollers involved in this recall, however, is far larger.
This recall, which involves 4.7 million strollers in the U.S. and 202,000 in Canada, includes 11 models of Graco stroller: Aspen, Breeze, Capri, Cirrus, Glider, Kite, LiteRider, Sierra, Solara, Sterling, and TravelMate Model Strollers and Travel Systems.
The China-made strollers were sold at major retailers including Target (TGT), Toys R Us, Walmart (WMT) and Amazon.com (AMZN), from August 2000 utnil this month for about $40 to $70 for the stroller and $140 to $170 for the travel system. A full list of models is available here.
If you have one of the strollers you should contact Graco to receive a free repair kit, which includes hinge covers. The kit will be available starting next month.
In the interim,"caregivers should exercise extreme care when unfolding the stroller to be certain that the hinges are firmly locked before placing a child in the stroller," the CPSC said. "Caregivers are advised to immediately remove the child from a stroller that begins to fold to keep their fingers from the side hinge area."
You can contact Graco Children's Products at 800-345-4109 weekdays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Eastern time, or visit the company's recall site.
Seth Wenig/APBy SCOTT MAYEROWITZ and MICHAEL LIEDTKE
NEW YORK -- The good news for Thanksgiving travelers: the price of gas is at five-year lows. The bad news: a lot more people will be on the road.
During the long holiday weekend, 46.3 million Americans are expected to go 50 miles or more from home, the highest number since 2007, according to travel agency and car lobbying group AAA. That would be a 4.2 percent increase over last year.
While promising for the travel industry, the figure is still 8.5 percent short of the 50.6 million high point reached in 2007, just before the recession.
Like on every other holiday, the overwhelming majority of travelers -- almost 90 percent -- will be driving.
Julio Cortez/AP
The numbers on the gas station signs will be much kinder this year. AAA says the average retail price for gasoline is $2.85 a gallon, 43 cents cheaper than Thanksgiving Day last year. With the average car getting 18.5 miles a gallon, that means a family driving 300 miles will save $6.97 in fuel this holiday.
Those flying won't be so lucky.
Average airfares are $307.52, up 1.1 from last year, according to the Airlines Reporting Corp., which processes ticket transactions for airlines and travel agencies. That figure doesn't include an average of $51 in additional taxes and fees that passengers pay.
There will be 12.3 million roundtrip passengers, globally, on U.S. airlines during the holiday travel period, up 1.5 percent from last year, according to the industry's lobbying group, Airlines for America. (AAA's forecast shows fewer numbers of fliers because it looks at a five-day period while the airline group looks at the 12 days surrounding Thanksgiving.)
Those travelers staying at hotels will also spend more than last year. The average room rate so far this year is $115.85, up 4.6 percent from the same prior last year, according to travel research firm STR.
When to Travel
If you're among the Thanksgiving travelers driving to your destination, Wednesday's getaway traffic produces the gnarliest snarls from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. in most areas, according to analysis of the roads in 21 major U.S. cities by Google (GOOG). The Internet company drew its conclusions by following the locations of smartphones that used its Android operating system and popular mapping service during the week of Thanksgiving in 2012 and last year.
For those driving on Thanksgiving day, the most congestion crops up from noon to 2 p.m., according to Google.
The worst time to drive back home typically is the Saturday after Thanksgiving when Google concluded the average traffic is about 40 percent higher than on the Sunday after the holiday. Pittsburgh was the city among the 21 studied by Google where the traffic was slightly heavier on the Sunday after Thanksgiving than on the Saturday.
Last year's biggest Thanksgiving-week traffic spikes occurred in Philadelphia, Austin, Texas, Washington D.C., and Dallas, according to Google. Denver, Boston, Providence, Rhode Island and Seattle registered the smallest changes in traffic.
Even if you aren't leaving of town, expect long lines when stocking up on food and drink on the day before Thanksgiving. Google says the most searched categories on its mapping service during the past two years have been "ham shop," ''pie shop" and "liquor store."
Once Thanksgiving dinner is done, people turn their attention to the next big holiday. The Friday after Thanksgiving ranks among the busiest shopping days of the year as gift-givers seek out bargains. And one of the top terms entered into Google's maps that day is "Christmas tree farm."
David Duprey/AP
Shopping for Thanksgiving dinner shouldn't involve sticker shock this year. The annual American Farm Bureau Federation's survey of costs to serve a traditional Thanksgiving dinner for 10 people remained stable compared to last year.
The average cost, based on a survey by 179 volunteers in 35 states, found the average price of the feast this year is $49.41 -- less than $5 a person. Last year, the average for the entire meal was just 37 cents less.
Shoppers who participated in the survey didn't use coupons or take advantage of any special deals that were being offered, such as getting free turkeys for certain amount of other spending. That suggests that savvy shoppers can do even better, although those who upgrade their meal choices and are less price conscious can certainly run up the bill.
Turkey production has been somewhat lower this year ... but consumers should find an adequate supply of birds at their local grocery store.
Thanksgiving dinner costs have been stable since 2011. Prices have risen more than 38 percent in the past decade, though, and 100 percent over the past 25 years. This is the 29th year the survey has been conducted.
One of the reasons for the stability is the costliest item at the meal, a 16-pound turkey, has remained about the same price as last year -- within a penny a pound.
"Turkey production has been somewhat lower this year and wholesale prices are a little higher, but consumers should find an adequate supply of birds at their local grocery store," said the Farm Bureau Federation's Deputy Chief Economist John Anderson.
In addition, the Farm Bureau noted that turkeys are sometimes used as "loss leaders." That means the prices on that item will be pushed very low in order to get shoppers into the store to make other purchases.
Here's what the Farm Bureau included in its survey: turkey, bread stuffing, sweet potatoes, rolls with butter, peas, cranberries, a relish tray of carrots and celery, pumpkin pie with whipped cream, along with coffee and milk. The shopping list accounted for feeding 10 people and leaving enough for leftovers.
The biggest prices jumps the survey found were: sweet potatoes, dairy products and pumpkin pie mix. Items that drooped in price: a 14-ounce package of cubed bread stuffing, fresh cranberries, pie shells, brown-and-serve rolls.
Financial advisers and planners know the issue all too well, as do retirement experts: There is a pressing need for Americans to contribute to a 401(k), individual retirement account or some sort of structured, tax-deferred account to take them through their post-employment years.
Yet recent government statistics reveal quite the shocker: Just 53 percent of the civilian workforce participates in or contributes to a retirement plan, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. In the private industry subset, it's even lower: 48 percent. Among the two major civilian categories surveyed by the bureau, only one -- state and local government workers -- shows healthy participation rates at 81 percent.
Low-income and part-time workers are at particular risk, because in many cases, they don't have access to a retirement plan through their employer, says David Stone, CEO of Aria Retirement Solutions in San Francisco.
Nonessentials Apparently Come First
"Many Americans have moved out of the traditional corporate employment world and work for small businesses," Stone says. "They may juggle more than one job, and it can be quite a struggle to make ends meet, let alone set aside money every month to put into a retirement plan. Also, many younger Americans are working in more entrepreneurial positions, with reduced or no benefits."
While roughly half of the workforce sits on the sidelines when it comes to funding accounts, some experts say the statistics reflect a portion of the population that squanders potential savings on nonessentials.
"Ironically, poorer Americans are the greatest purchasers of lottery tickets," says Ric Edelman, founder and CEO of Edelman Financial Services. Citing figures from the Institute for American Values, a nonprofit that calls itself a nonpartisan think tank, he points out that households earning less than $13,000 per year spend 3 percent of their income on lottery tickets.
"That's $100 per month thrown away," Edelman says. "If they invested that money at 7.2 percent per year for 40 years, they'd amass more than $277,000."
New Value System
"Sadly, I'm not surprised at all by the findings," says Chris Alberta, founder and president of Alberta Enterprises, a wealth management firm in Brighton, Michigan. "The value system has changed so dramatically over the past few decades that most Americans who could systematically invest in retirement are now faced with a binary decision: Do I spend every dime living the American dream now? Or do I live more modestly to spend my golden years comfortably?"
Depending on a worker's status, retirement plan participation varies sharply. The BLS figures, part of its National Compensation Survey for the first quarter of 2014, show that union employees across the board have between 83 and 89 percent participation. Nonunion employee participation dips to between 48 and 74 percent. For full-time employees, it's up to three times greater than those in part-time posts.
But the ultimate sacrifices for those who don't contribute can be huge, although most workers remain unaware of this, says Ben Pahl, a financial advisor with the Tranel Financial Group in Libertyville, Illinois.
Financial Literacy Needed, Too
"Financial literacy in our society is very low," Pahl notes. "There's very little effort made to educate our society, especially our young people, on how to manage money. Even a typical 30-year-old can't explain the difference between a Roth IRA and a traditional IRA." For those who don't know, with a Roth IRA, you pay taxes as money goes in. A traditional IRA account defers taxes until money comes out.
To illustrate how much money people stand to lose by starting an IRA late in life, Pahl cites the example of a 25-year-old who socks away $4,000 a year for 10 years versus a 35-year-old who contributes $4,000 annually through age 60. Both get a 10 percent annual return rate, but thanks to compound interest, the former will accrue more than $883,000 by age 60, while the latter will accumulate roughly $480,000.
If people don't know those numbers or the necessity of saving for retirement, financial advisors should shoulder part of the blame, says Nicole Mayer, a partner at RPG Life Transition Specialists in greater Chicago.
"This is where the financial services model is broken," Mayer says. "We're not out there educating the American people as a whole on retirement. For so long, people had pensions and Social Security, and while Social Security is still here, pensions are long gone. We're responsible for funding our own retirements, roughly 80 percent of it."
Save. Save Some More. Save Even More
She encourages everyone to save, regardless of how low their income is. "Even if you just put $5 away per month, something is better than nothing. Never stop contributing to your retirement plan, because if better times come, you can always contribute more."
For many workers who feel they can't afford to save for retirement, or they're too late to the party, Mayer has a simple message: Start now.
She tells the story of two clients who burned through a six-figure nest egg because the husband and wife both lost their jobs during the Great Recession.
"They both just turned 50," Mayer says. As they finally found employment, "They made some tough choices, and some really rough cuts. Their picture does not look so grand. But it is what it is, and they're making the cuts now so that they will have something later. If they continue to save and save aggressively, they're going to be OK."
www.youtube.com
The latest Papa John's (PZZA) television commercial features pizzeria founder John Schnatter and Denver Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning talking up the Fritos Chili Pizza. The chain's latest specialty pie substitutes chili sauce for marinara. It is topped with beef, tomatoes, onions and -- more important -- a handful of PepsiCo's (PEP) Fritos corn chips.
"I can't believe it took me 30 years to put Fritos on a pizza," says Schnatter.
Three decades may be a long time, but the only real surprise here is that Yum! Brands' (YUM) Pizza Hut didn't beat Papa John's to the punch.
All in the Family
Papa John's is a friend of PepsiCo, the food giant behind the namesake soda and Frito-Lay empire of salty snacks. Papa John's is one of the few national pizzerias to stock Pepsi products, choosing to offer Pepsi, Sierra Mist and Mountain Dew instead of the more popular Coca-Cola (KO) line of carbonated beverages.
The same can be said about Pizza Hut. It's been choosing Pepsi over Coke for ages. However, Pizza Hut's affiliation with PepsiCo runs deeper than the association between PepsiCo and Papa John's. In fact, Pizza Hut and Fritos parent Frito-Lay are siblings. PepsiCo owned Pizza Hut, KFC and Taco Bell before spinning off the three quick-service chains in 1997. Pizza Hut reportedly has a lifetime contract to serve Pepsi's beverage products. It would have only made sense to roll out a Fritos-topped pizza through Pizza Hut.
It's not as if Yum! Brands is a stranger to the magnetism of PepsiCo's Frito-Lay. It leaned on another Frito-Lay staple -- Doritos -- to introduce the Doritos Locos Tacos at Taco Bell two years ago. The offering has been a colossal and crunchy hit. Yum! Brands announced earlier this year that it has sold more than 825 million of the tacos served on Doritos-flavored shells, making it the most successful launch in the fast-food chain's history.
Thinking Outside of the Pizza Box
The runaway success of Doritos Locos Tacos should have inspired PepsiCo and Yum! Brands to work more closely together. The two corporate siblings could've put out Cheetos-breaded chicken tenders at KFC or a Tostitos-topped Mexican pizza at Pizza Hut.
It hasn't happened -- yet. Then again, it's not as if Doritos Locos Tacos was an in-house concoction at either company. The origins of the treat go to 2009, when a fan of Taco Bell and Doritos wrote Yum! Brands to suggest that a new taco be introduced, served in a Nacho Cheese Doritos shell. His idea was shot down, but Todd Mills didn't stop there. He launched a Facebook group inspiring the movement that went on to attract thousands of followers. Three years later, Taco Bell invited Mills to its test kitchen to be one of the first to try the new treat.
If the Fritos Chili Pizza is a hit, we can argue that Pizza Hut missed the boat. Instead of trying to appeal to foodies with new gourmet pies, it should've gone the other way, channeling the "Frito pie" fare that's popular at some regional amusement parks and carnivals.
Whether it's a hit or not, someone should go ahead and launch a Facebook group movement in support of Cheetos-breaded chicken at KFC. There may be something there.
Motley Fool contributor Rick Munarriz has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Coca-Cola and PepsiCo. The Motley Fool owns shares of Papa John's International and PepsiCo and has the following options: long January 2016 $37 calls on Coca-Cola and short January 2016 $37 puts on Coca-Cola. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. To read about our favorite high-yielding dividend stocks for any investor, check outour free report.
Thanksgiving is a time to see family, give thanks ... and spend a lot of money on food. Here are a few ways to shop smart and host an entire dinner for 10 people for less than $100.
Let's start with mashed potatoes. A 15.3-ounce box of Hungry Jack Instant Mashed Potatoes costs $2.99 and makes 20 servings -- that's about 15 cents per serving. Meanwhile, a 10-pound bag of russet potatoes costs $4.99 and makes 40 servings at only 12.5 cents per serving. So not only is the real deal over 23 percent cheaper, it'll be tastier and healthier, too.
Some of you might cringe at the thought of buying canned cranberry sauce, but your wallet will thank you for it. A 1.5-cup can of store-bought, canned cranberry sauce costs $1.89, or only $1.26 per cup, whereas 3.5 cups of homemade cranberry sauce cost $10.25, or $2.93 per cup. That's a savings of nearly 57 percent.
Next up is gravy. Turkey gravy by the jar or packet ranges between $1 to $2.50. That may seem like a good deal, but if you're already cooking your own bird, you won't have to pay anything at all. Once your turkey is out of the oven, drain the liquid, add back a bit of the fat from the turkey pan, stir in some flour, then add water or, preferably, stock. It's that easy. Delicious homemade, gravy for free.
And lastly, when it comes to pumpkin pie, do you save more by baking your own or buying at the store? Two homemade pumpkin pies will cost you anywhere from $9.67 to $13.09, plus your time and energy in the kitchen. Two store-bought pies will cost you between $7 and $14, but if you buy closer to the holidays, you'll be able to find even better sales, some for as low as $3.99 each. So unless you absolutely love baking, buying pies at the store is the way to go.
This Thanksgiving, don't be afraid to fill up your table. Even when factoring in the cost of a standard turkey, you should come in well under $100 -- and that's something to be thankful for.
The National Retail Federation says you'll probably be $804 poorer after the 2014 holiday season wraps up. That's how much the industry group says consumers plan to spend this year. While the lion's share of that money goes to family, you also expect to spend $80 on friends and $26 on co-workers. Even Fido gets in on the action, with you pet lovers planning to spend $30 on your nonhuman companions. That's how much you plan to spend. What about the amount you actually spend?
Behavioral economist Hersh Shefrin says even though many of the holiday shoppers who take the time to write a budget, 36 percent of them,will overspend. And for the least accurate budgeters out there, Shefrin found they spent 30 percent more than planned. That means someone with a $804 holiday budget may end up spending $1,045 and end up with a week or two of ramen noodle dinners to make up the difference.
Step 1: Create a Budget
I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that many people probably don't even have a written budget for their holiday spending. Instead, they may have a hazy idea of what they can afford.
Let's be clear: A hazy idea is not a budget. Sit down (with your significant other if you share the bills) and write down your holiday budget. To do this, you need to include all these:
Brainstorm every gift you need to buy. A common mistake is leaving out all of the little gifts that can add up. I'm talking about the white elephant gift for the family party, the office Secret Santa exchange, and all the service workers you tip extra.
Write down all your holiday food expenses. Your normal grocery budget isn't likely to absorb things like the fixin's for a family feast or ingredients for dozens of cookies.
Assign a dollar amount to every line item. Every person and event needs a specific budgeted amount.
Add it all up and balance that against what you can afford. Once you get the total for everything, you may find you have to pare down spending for some people or eliminate others altogether.
Step 2: Get Creative
If you don't want to eliminate people from your gift list, it's time to get creative. What can you do that your family and friends could use or would like? In this case, we're talking about things that may cost more time than money.
Crafty folks have all sorts of options, from knitting scarves to creating photo scrapbooks. Even if you're not particularly crafty, you can find online instructions for inexpensive handmade gifts like these:
Baking mixes
Bath salts
Decorated bookmarks
Painted picture frames
Rice bag warmers
Coasters
Of course, don't overlook the gift of service or memories either. Your great uncle may not need another knickknack, but he might need someone to rake the lawn. Meanwhile, the best gift you may be able to give your grandma is to spend the afternoon with her. Every family is different, so review your list and try to identify which individuals could benefit from these types of gifts.
For gifts of time or service, create a decorative homemade gift certificate or coupon to place in a card.
Step 3: Inventory What You Have
Some are appalled at the idea of regifting, as if we're suppose to cherish for all eternity every knickknack we've received, but there's really no good reason to keep things you don't use or like.
Step 3 is about more than regifting, though. It's about looking through your house for anything that could be used to reduce your holiday budget. Maybe you went a little wild during the last Yankee Candle sale and have a stockpile of scented wax in the closet. Perhaps you have a gift certificate for a store at which you personally never shop but that sells perfectly good giftable items. Or maybe you can redeem credit card rewards points for gift cards or merchandise.
Depending on your family dynamics or the age of the recipient, you may even be able to gift gently used items. In fact, that may be the preferred way to find an item for white elephant exchanges and the like.
Whether you're regifting or wrapping up something you already have on hand, the key is to be sure you're not trying to shoehorn a random item onto your gift list. If there's no one who would truly appreciate and enjoy the item, set it aside and move on.
Step 4: Start Now
Waiting until the last minute is a surefire way to blow your budget. When you're shopping on Dec. 23, you tend to get a bit desperate and buy the first thing you see. Not only can starting early save you money in the store, it can also give you time to plan and make some homemade gifts. Apps might help you find the best deals.
Step 5: Track Your Money as You Spend It
It's not enough to simply have a budget; you also need to use it. And because holiday spending can add up so quickly, you need to be tracking your money in the moment.
While you could use an old-fashioned pen and paper to record purchases as you shop, a smartphone app may be the best way to ensure you'll always have your budget with you should you end up doing a little impulse buying. Goodbudget is one app that lets you set up 20 envelopes, and for the holidays you could use an envelope per person if your list is that small. Or try one of these holiday-specific spending apps:
Step 6: Cross Names Off Your List and Then Stop Shopping
This final step may be the most difficult for some. I know it is for me.
Once you have found the right gift, purchased it and crossed the person off your list, it's time to stop shopping for them. Stop looking at ads and stop browsing displays with that person in mind. When your entire list is complete, stop shopping altogether.
It can be tempting to keep going to the stores and shopping websites, especially when the TV and newspaper ads continually promise amazing savings. You almost feel as though you're missing out by not jumping on the deals. But unless you went under budget on your previous purchases, any more buying is liable to break your piggy bank.
If you do see something you absolutely must buy for someone already crossed off your list, return the item you already bought before spending more money.
J. Scott Applewhite/APHealth and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Mathews BurwellBy RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR
WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration acknowledged Thursday it has been over-reporting the number of people signed up under the health care law, a discrepancy that congressional Republicans seeking to repeal the program say they uncovered.
It's another credibility problem for the administration after video surfaced recently of former White House adviser Jonathan Gruber suggesting that deception was used to pass President Barack Obama's signature law.
Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia M. Burwell called the latest lapse "unacceptable."
The mistake we made is unacceptable.
"The mistake we made is unacceptable," Burwell said on Twitter. "I will be communicating that clearly throughout the [department.]"
Administration spokesman Aaron Albright said that the overcount involved about 400,000 people.
Those consumers have separate dental coverage in addition to a medical plan, and were double-counted by mistake, said Albright. They had purchased both the medical and dental plans through HealthCare.gov and state insurance markets created under the law.
That means the correct number of people enrolled for medical coverage as of Oct. 15 is about 6.7 million, not the 7.1 million that Burwell has been citing.
The discrepancy was uncovered by Republican investigators for the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, poring over sign-up spreadsheets.
Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., said in a statement that he believes the administration was deliberately trying to disguise the rate at which people have been dropping out of the program, either because they don't meet eligibility requirements or weren't paying their premiums.
"Faced with large numbers of Americans running for an exit from Obamacare, instead of offering the public an accurate accounting, the administration engaged in an effort to obscure and downplay the number of dropouts," said Issa.
Responded administration spokesman Albright: "No. It was a mistake."
Back in May, the administration reported that more than 8 million people had signed up through the new insurance markets, which offer taxpayer-subsidized private plans. That was celebrated as vindication for the health care law after the botched rollout of HealthCare.gov.
The 8 million number was always expected to go down, because it included people who had not yet sealed the deal by paying their first month's premium.
The next update came in September, when Medicare Administrator Marilyn Tavenner told Issa's committee there were 7.3 million people enrolled at that point. Burwell has later revised that number down.
After Tavenner testified, Issa's committee requested the underlying files, and a spokeswoman said investigators dug in, discovering the overcount.
In recent months the administration has drifted away from issuing formal status reports on the health insurance exchanges, instead releasing snippets of information, as Tavenner did before Congress. Compiling the formal reports is a time-consuming exercise, but it also involves repeated edits, which can catch errors.
Thursday's development comes amid a still-simmering controversy over comments by MIT economist Gruber, an adviser during the drafting of the law. Video clips show him saying that "the stupidity of the American voter" helped Democrats pass the health care makeover.
Gruber has since disavowed the most controversial remarks, saying he "spoke inappropriately and I regret having made those comments." But the videos have fired up opponents of the law, who are calling on the new Republican-led Congress to mount an all-out effort for its repeal.
The enrollment overcount was first reported by Bloomberg.
NEW YORK -- The Dow and S&P 500 finished at record highs Thursday as data showed further strength in the U.S. economy and Intel gave an upbeat forecast.
Tech shares gave the market its biggest lift, along with energy. Boosting all three major indexes, Intel shares jumped 4.7 percent to $35.95, hitting their highest level since January 2002, after its 2015 revenue outlook was above Wall Street's expectations and the company raised its dividend.
The S&P technology index rose 0.6 percent, while the energy index gained 1.1 percent.
Further supporting stocks, data showed factory activity in the U.S. mid-Atlantic region grew at its fastest pace in two decades, U.S. home resales jumped to their highest in more than a year in October, and a gauge of future U.S. economic activity gained.
Growth in the economy and earnings should bode well for stocks heading into next year, said Margaret Patel, senior portfolio manager at Wells Capital Management.
"Next year will be a reasonable to maybe a surprisingly good year," she said. "[There is] no reason in the world why we can't see P/Es expand." Patel said stocks could rise by a mid single-digit to high-teens percentage next year.
The Dow Jones industrial average (^DJI) rose 33.27 points, or 0.19 percent, to 17,719, a record close. The Standard & Poor's 500 index (^GPSC) gained 4.03 points, or 0.2 percent, to 2,052.75, its 44th record high this year.
The Nasdaq composite (^IXIC) added 26.16 points, or 0.56 percent, to 4,701.87.
The Philadelphia Fed area "isn't a hub of industrial activity anymore but it's still important and it's strong," said Kim Forrest, senior equity research analyst at Fort Pitt Capital Group.
The upbeat U.S. data offset weakness overseas, including euro zone business growth that was slower than expected this month.
Best Buy (BBY) added 7 percent to $38.02, among the S&P's largest percentage gainers, after better-than-expected profit.
Among the top Nasdaq decliners was Keurig Green Mountain (GMCR), down 7.4 percent at $142.50, a day after it forecast fiscal first-quarter profit below analyst estimates.
After the bell, Gap (GPS) shares fell 4.9 percent to $38.19 following its results. Gap shares ended the regular session up 1.5 percent.
About 5.7 billion shares traded on U.S. exchanges, compared below 6.4 billion average this month, according to BATS Global Markets.
NYSE advancing issues outnumbered decliners 2,013 to 1,025, for a 1.96-to-1 ratio; on the Nasdaq, 1,824 issues rose and 893 fell for a 2.04-to-1 ratio.
-With additional reporting by Rodrigo Campos.
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Ann Inc. (ANN) and Foot Locker (FL) are scheduled to release quarterly financial results before U.S. markets open.
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