Podcast Archives | Page 17 of 41

April 5, 2018April 5, 2018

EPISODE 43 ~ Guest Blog: Facebook Marketplace: What is it and How Can I Get The Most Out of It?

Facebook Marketplace is an easy, convenient way to buy and sell in your area. You can look through listings or search for items near you to find great things to buy. You can find Facebook Marketplace here. (www.facebook.com/marketplace/learn-more)

Why should I use Marketplace?

You can list items and find great deals directly within Facebook. You don’t have to download another app or set up a new account. Reach thousands of people in your local community and find unique items for sale.

Guest Bio:

Deb Liu is VP of Marketplace where she runs Facebook’s commerce efforts, overseeing product management and engineering. Named one of the most powerful female engineers of 2017 by Business Insider, Deb is a 15-year veteran in the tech industry. She is also a seed investor and adviser to several start-ups, and she was recently appointed to Intuit’s Board of Directors. Actively involved with promoting diversity and women in tech, she co-created the Women in Product nonprofit in 2016 and serves on the board of Expanding Your Horizons Network, a non-profit that focuses on inspiring girls to pursue STEM careers.

Links: LinkedIn

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March 29, 2018March 29, 2018

EPISODE 42 ~ TOP TIP: Warranty: Don’t Be Fooled By Service Contracts Disguised As Extended Warranties

If somebody tries to sell you an “extended warranty,” keep in mind it’s not really a warranty and that it may NOT be extended either. These deals are really service contracts, often offered by outside companies. Here’s the big question: Does this service contract duplicate the protections offered by the regular warranty? The word “extended” implies that it extends the period of the manufacturer’s warranty, but often these contracts kick in right away so they are in effect at the same time as the manufacturer’s warranty. So be skeptical and keep in mind that less than twenty percent of consumers who buy service contracts ever use them.

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March 29, 2018March 29, 2018

EPISODE 42 ~ MAKE MORE: Sell Gift Cards: Profit By Selling The Gift Cards Collecting Dust In Your Drawers

If you receive a gift card from a store that isn’t your thing, you don’t have to stick it in a drawer and forget about it. You can make money off of it! And if you want to SAVE money, you can buy other people’s unwanted gift cards for as much as 30 percent off and die them as gifts or shop with them. My guest is George Bousis, founder and CEO of Raise, one of the best online gift card marketplaces. Welcome, George!

First tell us about the huge amount of wealth trapped in unwanted, unused gift cards.

Nearly $1 billion worth of gift cards go unused each year. Just as consumers wouldn’t leave a check uncashed, they don’t have to leave a gift card in the drawer unused. Consumers can use Raise to sell their unwanted gift cards and receive cash in return, to spend it on what they really want. Now more than ever, people need to get the most out of their money. Raise helps put the purchase power back into the hands of the consumer, and that’s what giving yourself a raise is all about.

Tell us how Raise works from a money-making, gift card-selling perspective first, George.

On the Raise marketplace, you can sell gift cards for cash at the price you choose. Listing your gift card is FREE! We accept gift cards and merchandise credit from any brand or restaurant, and you get paid when the gift card sells. Simply choose the selling price, and your gift card will be featured on our marketplace in front of thousands of savvy shoppers.

Do you accept ANY gift card, or only certain ones?

We accept gift cards and store credits from most brands, retailers and restaurants. Raise currently accepts gift cards from more than 3,000 different brands! Since each brand has unique redemption rules and restrictions, we may need to place your listing in review.

Which kinds of gift cards sell best?

General interest gift cards that allow people to buy multiple kinds of merchandise tend to sell the best. Niche gift cards to stores that only sell very specific things fetch less.

When somebody buys your gift card, do you have to mail the physical card to them?

Please keep in mind that if the gift card you’re selling will be listed as physical, you will need to download and print the shipping label provided by Raise. Physical cards are shipped to the buyer via USPS and can only be redeemed in store.

When I sell a gift card on Raise, how do I get my money?

Once your gift card has sold, you will receive an email when your funds are available for withdrawal. We currently have three payout options: Direct Deposit, check and PayPal.

I ask this of every company I interview. How does Raise make money when I sell a gift card?

It’s free to list your gift cards. However, once the cards sell we take a 12% commission from the selling price. If you sell in bulk this commission might be lower. Then, if you’re selling a physical card we charge the greater of $1.00 or 1% of the value of the card for shipping.

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March 29, 2018March 29, 2018

EPISODE 42 ~ SAVE MORE: Gift Card Exchange: Learn How To Buy Other People’s Unwanted Gift Cards For 30% Discounts

Save more money with The Easy Money Show

I love it when one guest can help me with two topics. George recently taught us how to make money selling gift cards and now he’ll stick with me, because now we’re going to talk about how Raise can help people SAVE money!

First off, How does Raise assure the gift cards people buy are legitimate?

Raise has multiple protocols in place to detect and prevent potential fraudulent behavior on our platform by analyzing all cards, sellers and buyers on the marketplace. We’ve also developed leading technology to compare customers’ behavioral attributes against merchants’ data to prevent many forms of gift card abuse. Buyers and sellers who engage in fraudulent behavior are removed from the platform. Unlike other gift card marketplaces, Raise offers a 1-year money-back guarantee on all gift cards with every purchase, so you can rest easy when making a purchase on our platform.

What is the biggest benefit of BUYING gift cards on Raise?

By buying discounted gift cards on Raise, consumers can save money on everyday items from 3,800 national brands. All of these savings add up fast, so you can make your money worth more in every facet of your life.

What kinds of discounts are we talking about?

Our gift cards go for as much as 30 percent off, which means you save 30 percent when you shop with that gift card. Users can combine our deals with sale prices and store coupons to save even more.

Do I have to wait for a gift card to arrive in the mail or can I use the gift card number and cash in immediately?

Users can redeem their gift cards immediately by opening the Raise mobile app and either typing in a code online or showing the barcode on their phone at checkout in-store — no need to worry about forgetting gift cards at home in a drawer.

In addition to providing a marketplace for people to buy and sell gift cards to each other, you also partner directly with some retailers, right?

Raise also partners directly with 400 retailers, including Dell, Barnes & Noble, Subway, Overstock.com and many more, who provide cards directly to buyers through Raise.

How much have Raise gift card buyers saved so far?

Raise members have saved $140 million to date.

George Bousis, founder and CEO of Raise, thank you so much for joining me on Easy Money. And George also provided a guest blog post and a video that show you the big bucks people are making and saving using Raise. Those are available now at EasyMoneyShow.com/42.

George, before I let you go, the other topic we talk about on Easy Money is how to find your unclaimed money. So I often search for my guests, just to show how common unclaimed money is. And guess what? I found some unclaimed money accounts for you!

The state of Illinois is holding money for a George Bousis, from DePaul University. I checked and you did go to DePaul, right?

Congrats, DePaul University turned over at least a hundred dollars for you. Could be $101 or could be much more because Illinois only posts online whether your unclaimed money is more or less than $100. Any idea what that could be from?

But wait, there’s more! There is also unclaimed money waiting for you from AT&T. This one is less than $100. To claim your money, just go to the free website MissingMoney.com.

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March 29, 2018March 29, 2018

EPISODE 42~ FIND YOURS: Missing Money: Beware of Unclaimed Money Scams That Try To Take Your Money Instead of Giving It To You

Find unclaimed money with The Easy Money Show

Let’s talk about our actual “find yours” topic for today: unclaimed money scams. Fraudsters who try to get in on the unclaimed money goodness. The National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators or ‘NAUPA” is warning that scammers have been taking the group’s name in vain and trying to take YOUR money.

NAUPA is made up of government folks from every state department that works to return people’s unclaimed money. So, needless to say, they were not happy about this. The association posted a fake letter on its website to warn and educated people about the scam and I will link you to that page from EasyMoneyShow.com/42 so you can see for yourself.

The letter claims to alert people to an unclaimed sweepstakes listing in their name. I have never heard of sweepstakes winnings being turned over as unclaimed money. Clearly a scam.

So what are the bad guys after? In the sweepstakes letter they claim you have won $750,000, but that you owe taxes of $112,500. That’s their hook, their way of extracting money from victims. They are hoping you will pay them the hundred-grand-plus before you notice they haven’t paid you ANYTHING.

This fraudulent letter even MENTIONS scams in an attempt to head off any concerns recipients may have. Here’s a quote: “It is very important to stay alert for sweepstakes scams, however it is also equally important not to let your win pass you by because of things that might seem a little strange but are actually a normal part of the award registration process.” The letter goes on to advise people not to tell anyone about their win. That’s probably an attempt to keep you from reporting this to the authorities. Clever in an evil sort of way!

The letter appears to be on official NAUPA stationery, which is part of the hoax, but a telltale tip off to this ripoff are lots of subtle spelling and grammar errors. For example, one line in the letter mistakenly says “After taxes you are entitled to receive AND amount of $450,000.”

So, what can we learn from this?

You should know that NAUPA never contacts people about unclaimed money. It is just an association that government unclaimed money employees belong to, where they trade information about best practices for administering and returning unclaimed money.
If you receive a letter from ANYONE claiming you have unclaimed money out there somewhere, you should ignore their requests for a cut of the cash and do a search yourself. As always, the 2 FREE sites where you can find 90 percent of unclaimed money are MissingMoney.com and unclaimed.org.
And finally, you should know that when you do claim legitimate unclaimed money, you are NEVER asked to pay taxes of fees to collect that money. Ever.

Stay alert, people!

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March 29, 2018March 29, 2018

Episode 42: Guest Blog: Savings Economy: Learn About The Company Making Your Money Worth More

Hi there!

We’re Raise and we’re on a mission to make your money worth more.

Built on a fundamental belief that prepaid cards are the most valuable currency there is, we are dedicated to establishing a new method of payment where you can always get more for your money.

EPISODE 41 ~ EASY MONEY

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March 22, 2018March 22, 2018

EPISODE 41 ~ TOP TIP: “No Money Down” Can Mean Big Money Lost

No money down, no interest, no payments til next year! This is what’s known as a “No, No, No Deal.” But before you say “yes, yes, yes,” you should know these deals can end up costing you a lot, lot, lot. Here’s the main problem. These offers are strictly structured so that if you don’t pay off the full amount when the introductory period ends, you do owe interest. Worse yet, that interest is retroactive to the date of the original purchase. Worst of all, often the interest rate is sky high –twenty percent or more. Another downfall is that the product price is often inflated to make up for the free financing. An electronics store offered a thirty-five inch television for $999. But consumers who opted for free financing had to pay $1499. Bottom line: These highly hyped deals only save you money IF the product is competitively priced AND IF you pay it off in time.

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March 22, 2018March 22, 2018

EPISODE 41 ~ MAKE MORE: Professional Cuddler: YES, This is A Real Job and a Great Side Hustle!

Some people are making money by becoming professional snugglers.

If you just did a double take, trust me, I did too. When I saw an article on Student Loan Hero about this, I was intrigued but skeptical. So I checked my sources like a good journalist in the era of fake news. Rolling Stone and The New York Post have both written about professional snuggling, but somehow that didn’t reassure me! But then I found articles from respectable outlets like Business Insider and The Wall Street Journal. If these somewhat dull publications are covering snuggling, it must be true!

Seriously. This is a thing. Snuggle Buddies is a nationwide agency that says on its website: “Whether you want to cuddle for friendship, relaxation, or therapeutic reasons…Many people do not get the amount of human touch they want or need on a daily basis, and a professional snuggling service is the solution…Depression, anxiety, and stress have all shown to be improved with therapeutic touch.”

Now, to be clear, that touch is supposed to be 100 percent platonic! No sex, allowed, people! In fact, professional snugglers AND clients must sign an agreement that no sexual activity of any kind will take place. For their safety, the professional snugglers check in with a Snuggle Buddies rep when they arrive at a location and when they’re finished with a session.

One thing I find weird: At least on the Snuggle Buddies site, they are only looking for FEMALE snugglers. I get it, that men may have a harder time finding somebody to snuggle with. I mean, we women can easily get a cuddle any time we want. But then again, can we get a snuggle from a man who won’t try to do more than snuggle? That could be a new market!

But I digress… Let’s talk about the advantages of snuggling as a side hustle:

•Most clients want to snuggle before or after work, so it works well with a traditional schedule.

•If snuggling is good for the clients because human touch releases oxytocin, which lowers blood pressure and stress levels, then you’re getting that same benefit for free.

There are no start up costs. You snuggle at your place or theirs or maybe a park or movie theater.
There’s no heavy duty skill needed. Just a positive attitude, nurturing demeanor and ability to overcome embarrassment.
And the money is decent.

So let’s talk about the money. Snuggle Buddies says it typically charges $80 an hour for snuggling services and gives you half of that, so forty bucks. Sam Varnerin of Boston was a structural engineer and started snuggling on the side to pay off student loans. She made so much money through platonic cuddling that she went into it full time on her own. She says she now works just 18 hours a week and makes $3,000 to $4,000 a month!

So, there you have it, my weirdest “make more segment” so far. Please, please, pretty please, if you are inspired to try professional snuggling after hearing this, will you let me know, so I can interview you later? You KNOW, everyone wants to hear from a professional snuggler on Easy Money!

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March 22, 2018March 22, 2018

EPISODE 41 ~ SAVE MORE: IVF: The Natural Fertility Treatment That Costs 75% Less

Our featured segment today is our save more topic: a way to get Fertility treatments for about a quarter of the usual cost. It’s called “natural cycle IVF” and it’s cheaper because it relies more on the body’s own natural rhythms rather than paying to do everything artificially. My guest is Michelle Katz, otherwise known as “Nurse Katz.” Michelle is a trained nurse, a healthcare advocate and the author of several books about saving money on healthcare, most recently, Healthcare Made Easy.

Let’s begin at the beginning: What is Natural Cycle IVF?

Natural cycle IVF does not use medications to stimulate multiple egg development. Instead, it’s timed to work with your own ovulation cycle. Doctors are then able to harvest one naturally matured egg, rather than giving you meds to stimulate your body to produce multiple eggs at once. This greatly reduces the amount of fertility drugs needed in the cycle, which makes natural cycle IVF much less expensive.

I’ve heard it called “drug-free IVF.” Is that accurate?

There are far fewer meds involved in natural Cycle IVF, but there is one injection of human chorionic gonadotropin used to prepare the egg for retrieval.

What are the Pros and cons of natural cycle IVF. Let’s start with the pros.

•It eliminates the need for expensive drugs to stimulate ovulation. Those drugs can also have side effects for some women.

•The egg retrieval process is faster and easier because the doctor is only trying to retrieve one egg.

•There is far less risk of multiple pregnancies. Since just one egg is used.

•There is no down time like there is in traditional IVF, so as long as your cycles are regular, you can try every month

OK, now the cons:

•You’re relying on just one egg, so if that egg is not healthy, you’ve missed your chance for that month.

•You also don’t have extra eggs to store for another time —although some people consider this a benefit because they don’t like the moral dilemma of what to do with unused eggs.

•A lower overall success rate. There are fewer successful births per cycle attempted, because you are not “stacking the deck” the way you do with traditional IVF.

And yet many believers in natural IVF say the success rate is actually similar to that of conventional or “stimulated” IVF. Why is that?

Proponents of natural IVF say 2 to 3 cycles of natural IVF has similar results to a single cycle of traditional IVF. And since the natural IVF process is much cheaper and easier, many women can easily do multiple cycles of it.

Who are the best candidates for natural IVF?

•Under 36 years old

•Regular menstrual cycles

•But even women close to age 50 has gotten pregnant through natural IVF as long as they have regular periods.

In fact, doesn’t natural cycle IVF work better for some couples?

There are plenty of stories out there of women failing to get pregnant from multiple cycles of regular IVF and then succeeding with natural IVF.

Is In vitro fertilization —whether traditional or natural— ever covered by insurance?

More and more insurance companies are covering IVF or parts of IVF. These include:

•Aetna

•Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield

•CareFirst

•and CIGNA’S PPO

Any tips for getting your insurance company to cover your fertility treatments?

You can get your insurance to pay for some of the meds like the Reflex, doxycycline, estradiol, promethium and even some of the initial blood work and tests. Your doctor needs to document certain things to make this happen.. I have a few, but I will see him tomorrow and ask what other insurance carriers are starting to do.

You’ve also helped women tweak their schedules to accommodate natural fertility treatments. Tell me about that.

Retrieval only takes about 20 minutes and transfer takes about 5 minutes so there is no real time off except if your doctor is cross country…and this is possible since there are only 4 experienced doctors doing this in the US. The baseline tests and sonogram only take 5 minutes and that is done usually before working hours. The most time is spent picking up your medications at the pharmacy

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