Real life

As the Fight for $15 minimum wage continues to rage, Target seems to be the hero. It was just a few short years ago when they stated they would raise their pay. By 2020, Target said all of their employees would be getting at least $15 per hour. Labor advocates cheered this victory as they continued to put on the pressure to get other companies to do the same.

As Target moves towards increasing wages, many employees aren’t happy. They say the move to start paying more isn’t benefiting like it should. To counter the loss of profit, hours are being cut. This is an expected move. Those who haven’t supported the Fight for $15 predicted that companies would be forced to cut hours to pay employees more money. That’s exactly what’s happening.

Now, Target workers are saying they’re getting paid more, but can’t afford healthcare or to pay their bills. They’ve noticed the number of hours they’re getting fall. Everyone, including department managers, have noticed hours being cut from their schedule. Also, getting paid more even puts you in a higher tax bracket.

“I got that dollar raise but I’m getting $200 less in my paycheck,” said one employee. She started the company working 40 hours per week, but has been cut to around 20 hours now that her pay is going up. “I have no idea how I’m going to pay rent or buy food.” This impacts many other aspects of their daily lives.

Target and Health Insurance

One of the more major concerns of employees is whether they can get health insurance. If hours are being cut, that puts many of them below the threshold. Target has a policy that doesn’t allow anyone who works less than 30 hours per week to qualify for health insurance. So, not only are hours being cut to afford the increased minimum wage, it’s forcing many to lose their benefits.

The company insurance has employees applying for coverage every spring. Several employees said Target started to give them good hours until about February last year. That was the time period in which their hours needed to qualify for insurance. Target instead deliberately cut their hours so they wouldn’t be able to get insurance.

“Target worked me hard from mid-July of 2018 to February 2019, right before my medical coverage was about to kick in,” said Caren Morales, a former Target employee in Diamond Bar, California. She says she was getting around 40 hours per week at that point. Right around the time she got a letter to sign up, it went downhill from there.

“They cut my hours right then, and so I begged for hours and always went above and beyond.” It wasn’t long before her hours barely scraped 15 per week. “I called in on May 1 and said, ‘I can’t come in today or ever again because I can’t afford my daughter’s daycare. You guys cut me really bad,'” Morales said.

Let’s face it, when we untether ourselves from our parents, we tend to go crazy. We have freedom! Most of the time, that freedom comes with being unprepared for the real world. We have access to credit cards and loans of all types. That’s the problem many young people face. They were never adequately prepared for this new financial life.

A lot of parents expect schools to teach about financial health, but even they don’t do a good job. The reality is, how well you do in your 20s can set you up for the rest of your life. Yet, if you make a lot of mistakes, you can end up paying on massive debts for decades to come. This can be one of the largest barriers you have towards gaining financial freedom.

Let’s take a look at several financial mistakes a lot of people make in their 20s they often regret:

Financial Mistake #1: Living on their Student Debt

When you’re a late-teen or in your 20s, taking out student loans is easy. Many people sign on the dotted line without questioning whether it’ll become a problem later. And it will be a problem later. You see all the presidential candidates trying to wipe out student loan debt as it reaches $1.56 trillion. They also want to make college free. That’s because this kind of debt causes massive problems.

Many people decide to live off their student loans while going to college. It’s better than getting a job and only borrowing what they need. But student loan debt is causing people to put off making major life decisions. That’s because this debt sticks with them for a decade or longer after they graduate. Imagine spending the next 10-20 years of your life, paying on mostly interest. That’s what happens and many now wonder if going to college was worth it in the end.

Financial Mistake #2: Not Taking Care of Your Credit Score

It can be easy to get into a place where you borrow money, but fail to pay it back. Many young people fail to see how important it is to pay their bills on time, every month. They get caught up in the temptation of wanting to buy something or by having credit cards. But by neglecting your credit score, you set yourself up for failure later in life.

Potential employers can look at your credit score. So will future landlords. If you need a new vehicle or want to move into an apartment…credit score. Need emergency cash or want lower monthly insurance rates? Yes, you guessed it, credit score. The difference between having a good and a bad credit score can be hundreds per month. Don’t take it for granted!

Financial Mistake #3: Not Saving Money

Younger people tend to not be as careful as those who are older. That’s because older people have a lifetime of experiences they’ve learned from. Younger people don’t worry about saving. Retirement is barely in the back of their mind. If an emergency happens, then most young people still have their parents to lean on.

This is a major mistake. When you’re young, you should be saving money. As you get into your thirties, you’ll start to learn that the economy has cycles. Times might be good right now, but they haven’t always been. A recession will come. Your parents won’t always have the money they do now. When someone bad happens, you’ll have to rely on yourself to get by. This is especially true when you start to have a family. Start saving when you’re young!

It’s a good bet that plenty of people have used Craigslist before. Maybe they were looking for places to rent, stuff to buy, or even looking for love. Craigslist does it all. You can really use Craigslist to start a side-gig and make a bit of extra money. The problem is, you have to know where to look.

Like any website that connects people and allows anyone to make a post, Craigslist has its fair share of scams and perverts looking to take advantage of desperate people. You’ll most likely come across an unsavory character, but that doesn’t mean you can’t find some really good ways of making money yourself using the site.

Let’s look at five ways you can safely make money using Craigslist:

1) Craigslist One-Off Quick Jobs

Life is unpredictable. Sometimes businesses and companies could use a little help. Maybe their busiest night of the year is coming and they’re offering $14/hour to come in for a day to help prepare. That’s a quick $100 you can make (depending on the number of available hours needed). If you have that day off and nothing to do, why not throw your hat into the ring? There are plenty of smaller jobs that need done, like house cleaning, pet or house sitting, and so much more. If someone needs to get something done, but doesn’t have the time, they might put up an offer.

2) Manual Labor

This sort of goes along with one-off quick jobs, but there are a lot of seasonal jobs out there that need to get done. Maybe an older person can’t get out to rake their lawn. Someone needs help to mow the lawn while they’re out on vacation. These are quick jobs, but sometimes people are just too busy. You can step in and make a few extra bucks in the process.

3) Remember that If It Sounds Too Good to Be True, It Probably is

Many of the scams go out of their way to make it sound too good to be true. No one is going to pay you $100 to take a survey. They might ask you to upload your driver’s license or other forms of identification, which is a clear sign of an attempt at identity theft. Be careful and watch everything you do. Other scams famously include data entry or jobs that seem really easy that don’t need a lot of work, but with the promise of a high hourly wage.

4) Focus Groups

Focus groups can be a great way to make a few extra bucks. Definitely be careful to make sure the company offering to pay for your insight at a focus group is a legitimate company. You’d have to call the company directly to see if the focus group is a real opportunity to a scam. Always double check.

Another way to keep yourself safe from scams is to Google every company and opportunity. There are plenty of websites out there that warn of scams. And always remember: if it’s too good to be true, it is. Don’t waste your time.

We are in the midst of one of the greatest job markets in many decades. Unemployment is at its lowest point since 1969 and it continues to fall. This is great news for anyone who wants a job! If that sounds like you, then you’re in luck. It may be easier to get a job when there’s an abundance of work, but it’s not always an easy process. It will still require you to go out there and do your part.

The process of actually getting hired can be long and brutal. There’s filling out applications, preparing a resume, following up, and more. If you get an interview, you may be required to go to several of them. There are tests and so much more. It can be especially difficult if you already have a busy job. Right now, it’s the perfect time to upgrade. The problem is, time is short and you’d have to take sick days to make it to the interview.

Here are several ways to make the process easier:

1) Know the Right Questions to Ask

During almost every interview, the person getting to know you will ask, “Do you have anything to ask me?” At this point, you can say nothing, or you can wow them. Use this time to the best of your ability to make yourself look good. Prepare great questions you might want to ask before going in. Ask detailed questions about the job, the staff, and be as insightful as possible. Prove to the interviewer that you are genuinely interested in the job!

2) Set Job Boundaries

The worst thing you can do is alert your current job you’re looking too soon. They may simply let you go before you have a new job secured. It is also a no-no to be looking for jobs and taking phone calls while at work. So, set some boundaries. Job hunting can be time consuming and difficult, so set aside a specific time when you’re going to accomplish it all.

3) Starting Your New Job

Once you get it, the first place you should go is your boss. This is true even if you didn’t get along with them. They should know that you’re moving on. You certainly don’t want to burn your bridges and cause problems. It’s customary to give two weeks’ notice, but you certainly don’t have to if you’re needed to start right away. The problem is, what happens if the new job doesn’t work out? If you leave in a good way at the old employer, you might be able to return in the future if needed.

For many people, the commute back and forth to work is the worst part of life. They often sit in traffic while thousands of others try to do the same. If there’s construction…forget about it! According to a new survey, these commute times are no joke and they keep getting longer! It’s estimated that in a single year, the average person spends 225 hours behind the wheel during their commute.

How long is 225 hours? Just imagine spending nine full days driving. Well, actually, the average person does just that. This report has been released by the U.S. Census Bureau and it’s an eyeopener. A lot of the increasing drive time has to do with more people out on the roadway. Hey, we all wanted a better economy, and this is part of that.

According to the report, 4.3 million workers spend around 90 minutes during each transit. That number is up 10 million from 3.3 million just a decade ago. It proves more people are working. Now we each spend about 20 minutes longer getting to and from work. That adds up to 17 more hours than the year before.

Long Traffic Commutes Bad for the Health

We already spend enough time at work and away from our families. Having a longer commute doesn’t do well in getting us to a better state of mind. It also makes them less physically active. And when you’ve just had a crazy day and a long commute, you’re more likely to not eat well. In fact, fast food is on the rise. More people are stopping to grab a quick meal on the way to and from work.

Being less active, combined with added stress and unhealthy eating isn’t a good thing. It’s not just our diets that are suffering. It’s also our wallets. A study from Texas A&M found that we’re also paying an additional $166 billion per year. Sitting in that much more traffic has a cost in wasted/lost time and increase costs.  

Delivery trucks are an iconic site in the U.S. We always see the small white Grumman LLV trucks on the roads, but that’s about to change. It appears as if new trucks with a slightly different and updated appearance are coming. The next truck will be called the NGDV, or Next Generation Delivery Vehicle. This design and function became the winning bid for new USPS trucks in 2018.

The previous truck was designed to have a 24-year long lifespan and have been made since 1987. The problem with these trucks is they’ve had a lack of amenities and newer technologies. With no air conditions, anti-lock brakes, and other things current vehicles have, driving these monsters has been tough on postal workers. Especially in the heat of summer.

The NGDV won the $6.3 billion contract in which 180,000 new delivery trucks will be built in the next 5-7 years. The main thing the USPS was looking for was value. That ultimately means they want the best truck they could get for as little money as it could cost. Hopefully that doesn’t mean certain features are excluded.

This particular truck will have a few good things about it, like an option to go all-wheel drive if needed in the winter and driving on the right-hand side once again. The type of powertrain wasn’t specified as of yet, but the cargo capacity is 1,500 pounds.

USPS Splitting the Bill

In order to get the new USPS trucks out faster, the agency is looking to potentially splitting the large contract between different manufacturers. Of course, this news hasn’t yet been confirmed. These types of deals are often made private, but there have been multiple prototypes spotted so far this year. This is what’s taking so long. USPS is testing the different types of trucks to see which performs the best for their price.

Other manufacturers were in the running as well. One in particular, AM General, tried to get electric trucks on the roads, but they dropped out. It was obvious the USPS wouldn’t go for the more expensive electric variety, even though it would go a long way in helping to reduce carbon emissions. Hundreds of thousands of mail trucks making their routes daily across the country.

While this is interesting news, we most likely won’t see the rollout of any new trucks for the next several years. The contract isn’t set to start until next year at the earliest. But, if the USPS can get several factories quickly building them, we might get them sooner rather than later.

If you’re looking for financial aid help, we have some good news! October 1 is the very first day you can apply for FAFSA benefits. FAFSA stands for Free Application for Federal Student Aid. Many students across the country with low enough income can apply for the FAFSA and receive federal funds to help pay for college. Applying today means that you have this money ready to go by 2020.

This includes any high school senior who is looking for FAFSA money for next school year to start college. This is one of those applications that you should apply for as soon as possible. Many people put it off and it hurts them in the end. This is literally free money that you can apply towards tuition, books, or housing. Many students refrain from applying because they feel that the process takes too long. That’s why filing immediately gets it out of the way and you’ll be set for next year.

“This year, there are 13 states that use the FAFSA that award their grants on a first-come, first-served basis or until the money runs out,” says Mark Kantrowitz, an expert on student financial aid and the publisher of SavingforCollege.com. “The early bird gets the grant.”

When Is the FAFSA Deadline?

The deadline for enrolling isn’t until June 30, 2021. So, you may be wondering why we’re saying it’s important to get it done early. But for many colleges, FAFSA money is first-come, first-serve. There’s only a certain amount of funds that are given out each year. If you’re one of students who apply right away, your odds of receiving this money are much better than someone who waits until the deadline.

Also, your state might have a different deadline. That’s why putting in your application right away is the best course of action. Now let’s take a look at a few pitfalls families run into when applying for FAFSA.

1) They Don’t Apply at All

This is a difficult one. FAFSA is free money! Almost every family in the country qualifies. Yet, many people decided to just take out student loans. Student loans you have to pay back over many years and they also accumulate interest. You don’t have to pay back the FAFSA money you get, so it can really help you in the long run.

“That’s painful to hear because almost every family qualifies for financial aid,” Boucher says. “It’s not all need-based. There are a lot of scholarships and merit-based scholarships a school might grant you, but you have to fill out a FAFSA for a school to qualify for them.” So, even if you don’t think you would qualify, there are other scholarships and monies out there.

2) They Wait too Long

To file for FAFSA, it requires the student to list the college they will be attending. The problem with this is, many students don’t know what college they’ll be attending yet. This can be a decision that takes time, especially if they haven’t even applied yet. The delay can cause problems with losing aid.

“All you have to have on the FAFSA is one college listed,” Kantrowitz says. “It should be an in-state public college because some of the states will only consider you for a state grant if an in-state public college is listed on the FAFSA.”

You may not think an early retirement isn’t for you. This is especially true if you got a late start to saving up for those golden years. Not having enough money can make retiring earlier a bit of an obstacle. Sure, it sounds nice, but being fully prepared is a hassle. The truth is, taking the dive earlier does have many more benefits than you might think

Let’s look at 5 reasons why you should consider retiring early:

1) Waiting for Retirement Can Cause More Risk

The reality that’s tough to handle about retirement is you don’t know how long you’ll life. Will you stay active and healthy? As people get up in age, they start to slow down. They have no choice but to retire earlier than they wanted. And the economy isn’t so straightforward. Employers might start looking to cut their workforce and the older folks and new hires usually go first. This is why you should be more aggressive about your retirement strategy and retire sooner rather than later.

2) Your Job Sucks

It’s not uncommon for people to hate their job. Maybe you even enjoyed it, but the same thing, day-after-day, can be tiring and frustrating. You’ve been working longer than most people, so you have more of a right to just be plum exhausted. People who hate their job often find that it impacts their physical health. They’re more likely to be overweight, suffering sleep problems, have more stress and depression. If you’re miserable and your job is making you that way, it’s time to get some rest and retire.

3) Retirement Doesn’t Mean You Can’t Be Productive

Retirement isn’t about vacations and lounging around the couch all day. You can still be very active in your retirement. Instead of working full time, cut back a little bit. Work part-time hours. You’ll have more free time and won’t have nearly as much stress. You can even take up hobbies you’ve been meaning to get into for a long time.

4) You Won’t Necessarily Run Out of Money

Having enough retirement funds to live on is the main reason why people work longer than they have to. They are afraid they won’t make it, especially as our lifespans keep growing. There are ways to invest money, like in fixed annuities, that have a great payout. It’s worth doing research on other options you might have.

5) Delaying Social Security May Be a Bad Idea

Social security is running out in the next however many years. They keep changing the story, but people are living longer and it’s draining the program. They say that if you delay collecting, you’ll have more saved and the checks will be larger. Collecting too early and your checks are smaller, making life more difficult. But that’s not always the case.

As the Social Security Administration has explained, “If you live to the average life expectancy for someone your age, you will receive about the same amount in lifetime benefits no matter whether you choose to start receiving benefits at age 62, full retirement age, age 70 or any age in between.” Yes, your checks will be smaller, but overall, you’ll get more of them to last the rest of your life. Again, it can be difficult to get past having smaller checks, but there are many other benefits that can outweigh this one potential con.

Back in July, everyone knew about the $700 million settlement that allowed you to claim damages if you suffered any loss as a result of a data breach. As we know in today’s world, these types of data breaches seem all too common. Yahoo was another company that had its own data breach in which millions of accounts were stolen as well as sensitive data.

Currently, Yahoo may be a negotiation for its own $117.5 million settlement for the several times they’ve had a data breach in the past two years. If you’ve had a Yahoo account between the years of 2012 and 2016, you may be eligible to sign up to receive your payment. The problem is, as with the Equifax settlement, there’s a fixed amount of money in which everyone will try to claim from. The more people who claim, the less money there’ll be for everyone.

Equifax was offering to pay victims of fraud either $125 or free credit reporting for around four years. Of course, many people are going to choose the cash option as they don’t value credit reporting is much as receiving the money. What started happening is that the average payout became much less than the $125 offered. More people found out about the situation and started putting their claims in.

Even the FTC decided to chime in and tell people that getting the credit reporting was the better option, otherwise the cash option could be depleted. Yahoo’s situation is the same. They’re offering $100 payment or free credit reporting for two years. That $100 is only good as long as too many people don’t sign up for the cash option.

More Yahoo Options

Depending on what was lost during the data breach, including having your Social Security number or other sensitive information stolen from you, you may be eligible to receive more than $100. They’re offering as much is $25,000 for people who suffer losses. When your personal information is stolen due to data breaches, whoever stole the information can then use that against you. They could sign up for credit cards in your name and steal your identity.

When this happens, it’s extremely difficult, frustrating, and time consuming to fight. It takes a lot to prove that you are a victim of fraud. If Yahoo’s data breach caused you to be the victim, then you could be in for significant damages which the settlement will pay out.

“You may additionally provide documentation or proof to receive reimbursement of up to $25,000.00 in out-of-pocket losses, including lost time, that you believe you suffered or are suffering because of the Data Breaches. As to documented lost time, you can receive payment for up to fifteen hours of time at an hourly rate of $25.00 per hour or unpaid time off work at your actual hourly rate, whichever is greater. If your lost time is not documented, you can receive payment for up to five hours at that same rate.”