Podcast Archives | Page 19 of 41

March 8, 2018March 7, 2018

EPISODE 39 ~ MAKE MORE: Opinions: Get Paid Extra Cash Simply By Sounding Off

Many thanks to entrepreneur.com where I first spotted these “make more” ideas. Let me take these in order from least to most involved.

#1: Give your feedback on new websites and apps. You know, let them know if you spot misspellings or if their navigation system is confusing. Some of these jobs only take 5 minutes but pay $10. Some websites that offer this opportunity: UserTesting.com, UsabilityHub.com, and validately.com. As always, I will link you to these resources so you don’t have to remember them. You just have to remember EasyMoneyShow.com/39, which is the Show Notes page for Episode 39.

#2: Take online surveys. You register and they contact you when you fit the demographics a survey is looking for. Tons of companies do this. Here are a few: SurveyJunkie.com, OpinionOutpost, and SurveySpot. Again, you can find all of these later at EasyMoneySHow.com/39.

#3: Sign up for focus groups. This is the classic scenario where you and a group of other consumers sit around and express your opinions about some product or service, while the nervous clients watch through a one-way mirror hoping you really, really like them. These gigs used to be very local, but now there are websites to sign up. Try FocusGroup.com, Global Strategy Group or SIS International.

#4: Give video opinions. I touched on this in Episode 29 and did an in-depth interview about it on Episode 37 and I’ll mention it just one more time right now. Promise! Companies like DScout hire people to give short video insights into their consumer habits and opinions. These digital scouts can make hundreds or even thousands of dollars a year. Check it out at dscout.com.

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March 8, 2018March 9, 2018

EPISODE 39 ~ SAVE MORE: Hotels: Save On Travel By Booking Your Room, Then Re-Booking the SAME Room for Less

Save more money with The Easy Money Show

Here’s a way to save money on hotel rooms by taking advantage of the fact that room rates are always changing. Just book a room and then a new website called Pruvo tracks price drops for you and helps you re-book the room when the price has gone down. My guest is Doron Nadevi, Chief Marketing Officer for Pruvo. Doron, welcome to Easy Money.

Doron, tell us how Pruvo works. It’s a little unusual in that you book yourself a hotel room first and THEN Pruvo goes Into ACtion. Explain.

1. Book a room

2. Forward your email confirmation to Pruvo

3. Pruvo searches for price drops for the exact same room at the exact same time.

4. Pruvo alerts you to re-book the room at a lower rate.

So you re-book the room at the new, lower rate and then cancel your old reservation. Does this mean your original reservation must be the refundable type in order for Pruvo to work for you?

Yes, Pruvo´s only requirement to “do our magic” is that your reservation be a free cancellation reservation.

Does Pruvo work no matter how you booked your room originally? Through a search engine, an online travel agency or through the hotel’s own website?

Correct. Our system can process ANY hotel reservation ANYWHERE in the world in ANY language, as long as it is a free cancellation reservation.

Pruvo’s entire business model is based on the fact that hotel rooms often go down in price. How common is that? Do you have a statistic for us?

There is a 40% chance of a price reduction after a hotel reservation has been made.

What is the average price drop you snag for your customers?

The Average price drop is 12%, and it can reach up to 67% off the total reservation amount

And what are your greatest hits? The biggest dollar savings you’ve found for people so far?

$950 in a hotel in Koh Samui in Thailand!

How do the savings Pruvo finds compare to what you could get using AAA or AARP or member discounts at hotels?

• Pruvo can process any reservation, even if they were made with special membership discounts like AAA or AARP.

• Many times the prices with these memberships are fixed discount rates. , plus, since we have many price drops of 30-50%, rarely to membership discounts reach that amount.

• So, AAA/AARP members who book their hotel with their rates should use Pruvo as an “insurance policy” to assure that they are getting the best deal available. If not, Pruvo will make sure to notify them so they can get the better deal.

Does Pruvo’s software just scan for posted prices on all the online travel agencies? Or do you go beyond that?

• We monitor prices 24/7 on more than 25 online travel agencies, which would be hard for an individual to do.

• Pruvo´s algorithm also searches hidden deals and membership discounts

• And we check for other things like obscure promo codes that consumers often miss.

When people re-book their rooms, they do so through your “Rebooking Wizard.” What is the advantage of using that?

Great question.

• When we alert someone of a better price and they are directed to the rebooking wizard in our site, they will see there the provider of the better deal, the payment terms (pay now vs pay at the hotel), special conditions (promotional code, coupon codes), final price and a strict reminder that FIRST they need to rebook the cheaper option and only AFTER they cancel the original one.

• When clicking on the offer provided by the OTA, they will be taken to the OTA page with their relevant hotel reservation (Hotel and dates), so all that is left to do is choose the exact same room and pay.

How much does it cost to use Pruvo?

Pruvo is 100% FREE.

How does Pruvo make money?

Pruvo makes money by receiving a commission from some of the main suppliers of the hotels where reservations are usually made, such as Hotels.com or Expedia.

How long has Pruvo been around and how much money have you saved your customers so far?

Pruvo launched in May 2016 and as of the 31^st of January 2018, we have saved our customers $650,000 on their hotel reservations.

Doron Nadivi, Chief Marketing Officer for Pruvo thank you so much for joining me on Easy Money. And, thanks also for providing a guest blog post about hotel savings hacks and a You Tube video explaining Pruvo further.

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March 8, 2018March 7, 2018

EPISODE 39 ~ FIND YOURS: Stocks: Find Your Unclaimed Stocks Before The Government Sells Them at a Loss

Find unclaimed money with The Easy Money Show

Let’s talk about our find yours topic for today: the importance of finding any unclaimed stocks or bonds before the government sells them off.

Here’s why this is crucial: one, many of us don’t keep close track of the investments we buy because we’ve been told to hold them for the long haul, so we just sort of let them stew and hope they go up. This is incredibly common. It’s also common for investments to go missing when they were given to you or your children by a relative. Problem is, if you don’t at least keep in annual touch with the bank or brokerage firm where those investments are held, they could get reported as unclaimed property.

If your stocks, bonds or mutual funds get reported to the government as unclaimed property, the clock starts ticking. Every state I know of is either required by law, or has a procedure for selling off seized investments, usually within just one year of receiving them. Frankly, they want that illiquid asset turned into cash, because they USE the money until you claim it. Problem is, the state’s unclaimed property administrators are not investment analysts and they often sell investments at a disadvantage to you. They make no effort whatsoever to check and see if it’s an opportune time to sell, and often end up liquidating your stock when the price is low. If you later make a claim, they’ll give you the amount they got for it, but that amount may be way less than it could have been if the money stayed invested.

This is not theoretical: I did an in-depth investigation at ABC News of states doing exactly this. A British man went to retire and discovered that the 4-million dollars in US stock he had been counting on had been seized by the state of California and sold for just $200 thousand dollars years earlier! Another family had owned railroad land rights for generations, but the state sold those off, depriving the heirs of millions of dollars worth of value.

What to do? First, keep your investments from becoming unclaimed property in the first place. Be sure to make contact once or twice a year. Email your banker or broker. If you’re sent a proxy to vote because of a stock you own, do it, to show you are active. Ask for an annual review. They’re supposed to offer one anyway.

Now, if you’ve already lost track of stocks, bonds, mutual funds or other investments, get started searching for them right away. As always, the first two places to look are MissingMoney.com and unclaimed.org because most lost investments get turned over to the state where you live and those 2 websites cover all 50 states. To search for investments held in a 401k account, you can try the Employee Benefits Security Administration, part of the department of labor.

Finally, if you WERE in touch with your bank or brokerage, and you have proof, but your investments were seized as unclaimed property anyway, you may have great grounds for a lawsuit. Something to keep in mind.

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March 9, 2018

EPISODE 39 ~ GUEST POST: Travel: Secret Tips That Will Help You Score The Lowest Hotel & Travel Rates

In today’s modern era there are few things that don’t have a set sticker price. Hotel rooms are one of the things where it is still a bargainer’s market. Hotels have an entire elaborate system where they can target the high prices from some individuals and bring in the low prices to fill the rest of the room. An empty room is only wasted money right? Well in this blog posts we are going to go over some of the industry secrets to secure a hotel room for the best price.

EPISODE 38 ~ EASY MONEY

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March 1, 2018March 1, 2018

EPISODE 38 ~ TOP TIP: AAA: Invest In AAA To Avoid Pricey Tow Truck Services

Instead of complaining about how my car broke down last week, here is a Top Tip that might help you if yours does. If your car dies on you and you need to get it towed, you may be able to join AAA and get a year’s worth of towing and other services, for less than the cost of hiring a tow truck just for the one trip. This didn’t help my husband and me because our alternator blew during rush hour, right in the middle of a busy 2-lane road where it was blocking traffic. So we were in a hurry. BUT! If you are able to pull your car over to the side and have a little more time than we did, consider this: The tow truck we called cost us $100. But joining AAA for a year costs just $57. If you sign up online, you will receive your membership number and temporary card as soon as you’ve paid. You can then use them immediately to book a AAA tow truck for no additional cost.

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March 1, 2018March 1, 2018

EPISODE 38 ~ MAKE MORE: Remote Jobs: Stay Flexible And Work For A Top Company By Telecommuting To Work

Today, I want to reveal the top companies for remote jobs in 2018, which could well be the top companies for remote jobs well into the future.

This list comes courtesy of FlexJobs.com, which compiled it by analyzing its own jobs database of more than 49-thousand posted positions. FlexJobs looked for what it calls “remote-friendly” listings, which means the opening must offer some level of telecommuting. So, some of these jobs are 100 percent work from home, others are mostly home-based and some give working from home as an option.

Interestingly, FlexJobs says about a quarter of the companies on the list also made the list the previous four years. This shows working from home is shifting from a budding trend to an accepted practice. In fact, FlexJobs says working from home now tops using public transit as the preferred commuting option in most large metro areas.

One more thing, before I rattle off the list of employers: FlexJobs looked at the TYPES of positions most likely to be offered on a work-at-home basis. There were some surprising ones that you wouldn’t normally think of as home-based: namely teacher, nurse and program manager! More expected work-at-home positions were: writer, developer, analyst and sales rep.

OK, with no further ado, here are FLexJobs’ top five remote employers:

•VIPKID, an English language learning services company.

•Appen, a technology services company.

•Conduent, an IT company.

•Rev, a startup that itself works to give professionals more opportuneities to work from home.

And

•LiveOps, which offers remote customer service agents.

There are more well-known companies on the list, like Amazon, Dell, Intuit, United Health, Hilton and Williams-Sonoma. Check out the entire list of companies with remote jobs.

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March 1, 2018March 1, 2018

EPISODE 38 ~ SAVE MORE: Credit Cards: Negotiate To Decrease The Interest Rate On Your Credit Cards And Save Thousands

Let’s talk about negotiating a lower interest rate on your credit card as a way of saving hundreds or thousands of dollars.

This strategy applies to people who carry a credit card balance. Negotiating a lower interest rate, which will also help you pay off your debt more quickly and cheaply. All you do is call up your credit card company and politely ask them to lower your interest rate. Naturally, you will also mention that other card companies have offered you a lower rate, so if this company doesn’t help you, you will take your business elsewhere.

A few years ago, I tried this with a bunch of young Good Morning America employees and it was a grand success. We showed off their results live on the show. Here’s what a few five minute phone calls accomplished:

Cardholder	Before	After
Cardholder 1	14.99%	8.99%
Cardholder 2	17.49%	10%
Cardholder 3	23.65%	16.25%

Why do banks go for this? Simple. It’s easier for them to keep a current customer than to get a new one so the bank will probably work with you, too.

Those simple phone calls can make a big difference in how much and how long it takes to pay off your credit cards. Let’s say you have $15,000 in credit card debt (I see it all the time) and you want to pay it off in two years. How much would negotiating for a lower rate help you? Let’s use the numbers from Cardholder 2 since it’s a real interest rate reduction I’ve seen with my own eyes. Here’s the math:

Interest rate	Amount due
17.49%	$2,885
10%	$1,613
BIG SAVINGS=	$1,272

Wow! By simply negotiating a lower interest rate, you would be able to save $1,272 over two years. Interest is one of the biggest things we spend on, so any time you can reduce the interest rate you pay, you are doing yourself a big, fat favor.

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March 1, 2018March 1, 2018

EPISODE 38 ~ FIND YOURS: Unclaimed Money: Help Your Elder Friends Discover Their Missing Money With Lifespan

It’s a good idea to search for unclaimed money for older friends and relatives. After all, they’ve lived longer, so they’ve had more chances for their money to go missing. My guest has been searching for unclaimed money for seniors for years and wait ’til you hear how much he’s found. Gabriel Geiger is Director of Financial Services for Lifespan of Greater Rochester New York. (lifespanrochester.org)

First explain what Lifespan does for its clients.

We offer different programs to help older adults. We help people when they are 60 or older. Our programs help them with budgeting and bill paying. We have clients that cross the spectrum from indigents to middle class to affluent.

How did you first get the idea to search for unclaimed money for your clients?

Many of our clients, who are indigent, they need every penny they can find to live and pay for food. We have people who lose track of assets over time and our goal is to leverage the assets that clients have that maybe they don’t know they have.

Where do you look for unclaimed money for these folks?

We’ve been doing this for over 15 years. We utilize the NY abandoned property website and look at specialty ones for teachers.

I’m not familiar with special unclaimed property sources for teachers. Tell me more!

Actually, there are many websites for a variety of sources of abandoned property!

www.nystrs.org

NY State Teachers Retirement System, checks other states as appropriate

www.Excellusbcbs.com/forgottenfunds

any health insurance company

www.osc.state.ny.us

abandoned property in NY State, check with each state

www.pbgc.gov

Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp, missing participants pensions, 401k’s

www.unclaimedretirementbenefits.com

National Registry of Unclaimed Retirement Benefits

You have another unclaimed money strategy I find fascinating. Explain what you look for in regard to people’s bank accounts and FDIC insurance.

I, myself and many of my colleagues here are former bankers and we know that it used to be FDIC insurance was fairly low. The chart below demonstrates how it has increase gradually over time due to inflation, etc.

FDIC gradually increased deposit insurance from

1934 $ 2,500

1950 $ 10,000

1966 $ 15,000

1969 $ 20,000

1974 $ 40,000

1980 $100,000

2010 $250,000

So, to protect assets, consumers would open accounts at a variety of banks to maintain funds within insurance levels. Over time, people move, get busy with life and sometimes forget about some of their accounts at different financial institutions.

In addition to unclaimed property, you’ve been able to find benefits for people. What kinds of benefits?

It is very simple. You just need to know to do it. As people age they don’t know what they don’t know, so we are here to help them figure that out. Besides helping them find abandoned property – we help them find benefits too.

We utilize www.benefitscheckup.org which is sponsored by the NCOA – National Council on Aging. This is an excellent tool which will identify benefits (medications, health care, income assistance, food & nutrition, housing & utilities, tax relief and much more) that people may be eligible to receive and more importantly how to access it.

The unclaimed money you’ve found for older people… what kind of difference has it made in their lives?

Because we find money for them, someone was able to continue living in the community. We are helping people in our programs. They are able to buy a tv set or buy furniture or take their kids on a trip, funeral arrangements and much more.

Any specific stories of happy seniors you were able to help that you can share?

You’ve also made some of your own family members very happy through your unclaimed money expertise, I am right?

I search unclaimed property sites for myself all the time and I always check for my family members too. Recently found some for my niece from a former employer. She was able to recover those funds. She said ‘thanks a lot Uncle Gabe.” It was around $600.

OK, here’s the question my Easy Money listeners have been waiting for me to ask: How much unclaimed money do you estimate you’ve recovered for your clients in all?

We have been able to collect a lot of money for our clients over time. I would estimate about a million plus. We are talking about 100s of clients over the last 15 years.

What have some of the individual windfalls been like?

We have found from a couple of dollars to 10,000, 20,000, 30,000 or more for people.

When you share the good news, do your clients believe you? I myself have had many friends and family think I was pulling their leg.

Of course they believe me. You have heard of Honest Abe. I am Honest Gabe so they believe me! But really, when they see the check that our staff has collected for their respective clients, the clients are quite appreciative and many times can get something special with the proceeds – like a tv or furniture.

What is your advice to my Easy Money listeners who may have searched and not found any unclaimed money?

Don’t search once and be done. We search quarterly for our clients. This is part of our assignment. Search the abandoned property, at least on a quarterly basis. We may find money now or not find any but maybe in 3 months there will be money that is reported.

You also suggest searching old addresses or states where you used to live, right?

People move and lots of unclaimed money comes about from that.

And what about searching the names of deceased loves ones. Is that worthwhile?

People move or die and we have clients whose family members have passed and we locate money that way too.

And, finally, what would you say to encourage people to search for their older relatives who are still living, just like you do?

Often times, this is just found money that can demonstrate to relatives their genuine concern and even a bigger difference for whom the money is found because then they can get something special or just increase disposable income.

Gabe Geiger of Lifespan of Greater Rochester, thank you so much for being my guest on Easy Money.

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March 1, 2018March 1, 2018

EPISODE 38 ~ GUEST BLOG: Three Reasons to Look for Unclaimed Funds for your Older Relatives

By Gabriel Geiger

Three Reasons to Look for Unclaimed Funds for your Older Relatives

1. Who doesn’t like to find money! Finding unclaimed funds is like finding a $20 in the pocket of last winter’s coat. Let your fingers do the walking by doing your research on the internet.

2. Sometimes companies lose track of their customers through moves or death. Yet, the money is still owed. Contact insurance and utility companies.

3. Bank accounts and retirement accounts can be forgotten. Check with the “Abandoned Property” list of the state of residence.

Have you been solicited by a for-profit business that is happy to do this research and file a claim for a fee? Remember you can do it for free! The claims process is simple, but sometimes you or your relatives might benefit from a nudge or a coach. Lifespan can be that coach and help you organize your finances.

Bonus Tip:

Did you have a relative who lost money to a scammer and paid using Western Union between January 1, 2004 and January 19, 2017? If so, they can now file a claim to get that money back. Go to:

www.ftc.gov/enforcement/cases-proceedings/refunds/western-union-settlement-faqs

LINKS:

www.lifespan-roch.org or www.lifespan-roch.org/financial/

Guest Name: Gabriel Geiger

Bio: Gabriel is the Director of Financial Services at Lifespan of Greater Rochester, Inc. where he handles bill pay services, health insurance, Senior Medicare Patrol, and long term care insurance and planning. He received his Bachelor’s Degree at State University of New York as well as attended Management School at New work State Bankers Association. Gabriel is a Certified Aging Services Professional (CASP) with a Certificate of Gerontology from St. John Fisher College. He spent 18 years in banking and has spent an equal amount of time assisting clients and caregivers with their finances at Lifespan.

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