Farnoosh Torabi's Blog, page 33
July 9, 2013
Discount Club Match Up: Sam’s v Costco
July 8, 2013
Negotiating Salary: Men vs. Women
Our country’s regrettable wage gap between men and women is accompanied by a gap in how we negotiate our salaries. The reality is, women are less likely to negotiate.
Experts say the best time to negotiate your salary is once you’ve received a job offer — but before you’ve accepted it. When it comes to that practice, 36% of men say they’ve tried this, compared to just 26% of women, according to a survey by Salary.com.
So why don’t we negotiate more? Well, most find it to be an unpleasant experience and feel uncomfortable asking for more money, especially in our still unstable economic climate. But there’s a gender gap even in terms of discomfort with the process. Men are apprehensive about negotiating their salary to the tune of 39%. That number jumps to 55% in women. Now it’s important to note that many things contribute to the gender wage gap. For example, analysis has shown that occupations that women tend to dominate usually are lower paying. But when all factors are considered, men still earn about 9% more than women.
Whether you’re male or female, it’s necessary to negotiate your salary if it doesn’t match the value you bring to your job. As the saying goes, you don’t get what you deserve; you get what you negotiate. I’ve written previously on tips for earning more. Here are a few more:
Time Your Negotiation
As mentioned previously, the best time to negotiate is after you’ve received a job offer but before you’ve accepted. This is your blank slate moment. It’s when your employer has made clear that they want you aboard so the ball is in your court when it comes to determining what it’ll take for you to accept the offer. Now, if you’ve been at your job for a while, experts say the occasion of your employee evaluation is a great point to request a raise. Your employer will naturally be reflecting on your performance and added value to the company.
Do Your Homework
It makes sense that, before you throw a number out there, you have some idea of what’s common in your industry. Find out what people in your position make and how much you stand to earn over the course of your career. Glassdoor and PayScale are just two sites that offer free salary reports for a number of positions. Armed with this information – whether you’re male or female, but especially if you’re female – you can recognize when you’re being lowballed and correct it by requesting more.
Don’t Be Nervous
Finally, it may be nerve-wracking to negotiate your salary but it’s necessary – and employers expect you to. Remember that everything is negotiable and consider your role in the process is to give your employer as much information as possible to arrive at compensation that reflects your value.
Photo Courtesy, Victor1558.
July 4, 2013
5 Ways to Avoid Gym Membership Hell
As a New Yorker (where do-it-yourself exercise is not easy), I’ve long ago accepted that for me, a gym membership is one of those necessary evils I simply need in my life to stay fit and healthy. In fact, I’ve been in and out of various health clubs since I was 18 years old, and most have been great. But it was my very first gym experience that turned me into the extra-wary and diligent contract-signer I am today.
Years ago, I was involved in a small claims case against a club that fraudulently reinstated auto-payments just a few months after I’d canceled (which, being young and careless, went unnoticed for many months). The long and ugly battle never really made up for the $800 dollars I eventually won back. But I’m far from the only victim: the Internet is filled with gym-membership horror stories – misunderstandings over contracts, pushy sales pitches, and underhanded business practices.
So before you go off and feel the burn at your new gym or health club, here are 5 tips to avoid getting burned:
Yes. You CAN Change Your Mind
Most states offer protection for consumers who suffer from gym membership remorse, and it’s called a “cooling off” period. It’s usually a 3-5 day window where you can change your mind after you’ve signed up. Gyms don’t exactly advertise this option, so if you do get cold feet and decide to back out, exercise your right. Check with your state’s office of consumer protection or attorney general to find out what’s offered in your area (but if you go to them first, most gyms will honor this rule since it’s the law).
Consider a No-Contract Club
Like cell phone plans, no-contract plans at gyms and health clubs are gaining in popularity, as customers demand more freedom of choice. Those without a contract will have a sign-up fee, instead, or perhaps pay a slightly higher monthly premium. Either way, if you run the risk of being a fair-weather fitness friend, get the easy opt-out option to avoid heavy penalties — or at least take advantage of the free 1-2 week trial before you make a commitment.
See About a La Carte
Consider what sorts of services you really use at the gym. Could you be better served by an a la carte plan? At my local mom-n-pop gym in Long Island, NY there are options for full monthly access, or you can pay for individual classes or trainers, no membership required. And since I really only use the gym for those specific purposes, I figured out I could save money by skipping the monthly fee and paying only for the services I use.
Ask All the ‘What If’s'…
At the time of sign-up, find out under what circumstances you’re allowed to pause or cancel a membership with no penalty. What if you get injured, travel for an extended period of time, or move away? What happens if the facility is sold to a new owner? Ask now because you never know what could happen.
“Canceling” Payment Doesn’t Mean “Stopping” Payment
Even if you cancel your membership or have a verbal agreement with the gym that they’ll stop charging you, there could have been some fine print in the contract stating you have to cancel auto-pay directly through your bank or, only by submitting the request by written letter to the gym, itself. My small claims case mentioned above involved just that. Unfortunately, the responsibility to watch your account closely falls squarely on your shoulders, alone. I was lucky, but you may not be; a court may not rule in your favor if you wait too long to correct inaccuracies or if you didn’t comply with the contract.
Photo Courtesy of: Pixabay/p-44530
July 3, 2013
Hidden Auto Insurance Discounts
With gas prices up to about $4 per gallon nationally, auto insurance is s great place to start saving on the cost of transportation. Many aren’t aware, however, of the diverse array of discounts offered by most of the top auto insurers.
The average insurance policy ranges anywhere from $46 to $99 per month, depending in large part on the state where you’re insured. But insurers also set their rates on a case-by-case basis, evaluating the risk posed by each driver. Consumers with profiles that suggest they’re likely to be more careful than the average driver are often issued discounts.
Researchers at Bankrate.com performed an analysis of the largest insurers, taking days to scour their policies and websites to find discounts that usually go unnoticed. “They all have pages on their websites with information on their discounts, but you have to dig deep to find the fine details,” says Bankrate.com insurance analyst Doug Whiteman. His team found that discounts are very prevalent. “All the top 10 companies will offer a discount if you bundle your insurance policies together and they offer a “good student discount” for students with above average grades, he says for example.
According to Whiteman, discounts from 3%-20% are given based on occupation, affiliation with affinity groups and the features of the insured car. “It’s very common to get a discount if your car has an alaram, air bags or daytime running lights,” he says. “Some of the big car insurers offer occupational discounts for firefighters, dentists, police officers – these are generally occupation that carry some responsibility and suggest less risk.” Of course, there’s also benefits to being a safe driverwith no accidents in recent years. And the companies are coming up with creative discounts all the time to attract business away from their competitors. One of the top 10 companies, Whiteman says, offers a discount for retired individuals. Another has discounted rates for new parents discount, who are likely to be more cautious with their precious cargo.
“The car insurance companies are coming out with new discounts all the time but they’re not under any obligation to tell you that they’re available,” Whiteman says. “ It’s very common that consumers don’t get all the discounts for which they’re eligible.”
July is an important month to review your policy, contact your insurance rep and search your insurer’s site for discounts for which you could be eligible. With most consumers purchasing their auto insurance at the beginning of the year in January, July marks the opportunity for a six-month renewal, Whiteman says.
Photo Courtesy, Sonny Side Up!.
July 2, 2013
7 Things to Never Buy New
It pays to buy secondhand, and we’re a country that knows it! We spend about $13 billion a year on used goods and likely save billions more in the process. So, to keep more cash in your pocket, here are seven items never to buy new. Read more here
What are other items you should never buy new? Connect with me on Twitter @Farnoosh and use the hashtag #finfit.
July 1, 2013
Student Interest Rates Double – For Now
More than seven million students will see their the interest rates on one of their student loans double Monday morning.
Previously originated subsidized Stafford loans will not be affected, but the rate on new subsidized Stafford loans will jump from 3.4% to 6.8%. This comes because Congress failed to come to an agreement on where to move the rate before the midnight July 1 deadline. Senior Vice President and Publisher of the Edvisors Network Mark Kantrowitz says, however, the doubling of interest rates may sounds dramatic but the actual impact on students will be more muted.
First, the change wouldn’t effect most students. In fact, less than a third of undergrads receive federal subsidized Stafford loans each year. According to Kantrowitz, the average subsidized Stafford loan amounts to just about $3,357 and the average subsidized Stafford loan debt by graduation comes to about $9,008. Kantrowitz crunched the numbers on exactly how much the new interest rate will effect loan payments on the average debt and found that, at the most, consumers will pay around $7 more a month. He’s optimistic, though, that legislators will come to a compromise on a new interest rate soon.
“The House and Senate are unlikely to reach an agreement, in part due to other legislative priorities (e.g., immigration reform) and in part because there is still significant disagreement on both sides about how to spend the savings to the federal government (expand the pay-as-you-earn repayment plan or deficit reduction) and whether there should be caps on the interest rates. It is possible that they will reach an agreement after July 1 and make it retroactive to July 1,” says Kantrowitz.
Legislators are likely to do one of two things: The first option is to delay the decision by passing another temporary extension to the 3.4% interest rate, or a lower rate, Kantrowitz says. There are currently proposals for a 1, 2 or 4-year extension. The other likely course of action is that they craft legislation that will help moderate the rate over the long term by pegging it to the 10-year Treasury rate.
Hopefully, our elected officials will hint at what they’re next move is in the coming days. In the meantime, Kantrowitz has some practical tips for students and their families that could be faced with this new rate in the fall. He says as an alternative to taking out the loan, consider a tuition installment plan that which spread out the costs over 9 to 12 monthly installments for a small up-front fee and no interest. You can also try to replace the funding with a scholarships by searching searching the Edvisors Scholarship Search.
Photo Courtesy, CollegeDegrees360.
June 28, 2013
Are You Overearning?
Is there ever really such a thing as earning too much money? New research in the area of psychology suggests that when it comes to that paycheck, less is sometimes more.
Very recently, researchers from the University of Chicago, University of Miami and Shanghai Jiao Tong University set out to study ”overearning.” They defined the phenomenon as “forgoing leisure to work and earn beyond needs” and their inquiry was one rooted in real-life problems. It’s not uncommon that many people, in a society that values productivity and wealth, push themselves as hard as they can to earn as much as possible. It’s the American way. But are we better off for it? The findings of the research, which were published in the June issue of Psychological Science, say no.
“In this research, we introduced a minimalistic paradigm that allows researchers to study overearning in a controlled laboratory setting,” the report reads. “Using this paradigm, we found that individuals do overearn, even at the cost of happiness, and that overearning is a result of mindless accumulation—a tendency to work and earn until feeling tired rather than until having enough.”
The researchers conducted a series of experiments where participants were asked to do minor tasks for reward (candy in some instances and jokes in others.) In the first experiment, participants listened to pleasant music for a short while but they had the option to interrupt the music with 200 milliseconds of unpleasant noise by pressing a button. For every 20 times they pressed the button, they would receive a piece of candy.
A second group had the exact same task, except they had to press the button six times more for the same reward. All could eat as much candy as they earned but any uneaten candy had to be left behind. Naturally, those that had to work more earned less and researchers found that they ate most of of their earnings. What’s perhaps interesting is that those who had to work less, earned far more candy than they could consume - sitting through more noise for rewards they couldn’t take with them.
The second experiment in the study looked at earning behavior based on planning. The experiment was set up similarly, except participants were asked to first predict how much of a reward they would want at the beginning of the experiment. What researchers found was that participants who could predict how much they wanted to earn stopped doing the work (listening to the noise) as soon as they reached their goal. Those who did not make a prediction, however, overearned. And here’s the kicker: In the end, all participants rated how happy they were during the study and those who made predictions were happier than those who did not. The researchers summarized their findings writing, “Overearners forgo the pleasure of leisure and endure the pain of extra work.”
So what can be learned here? It’s safe to say that overearning is the kind of problem many dream of but it doesn’t come without its pitfalls. According to the researchers overearners, aside from proving less happy, may also lower the wellbeing of people around them. Another big con to overeanring: it requires more resources (energy, time, etc.) The resources could be conserved or put to better use in other areas besides work.
Ultimately, it’s up to each individual to determine how much is too much and if the study is correct, the answer to that question should start with careful planning and analysis of the costs and benefits that come along with your hard work.
Photo Courtesy, 401(K) 2012.
June 26, 2013
Stigmas for Stay-at-Home Dads?
No matter what your gender, being a stay-at-home parent has its benefits and, of course, sacrifices. But does it carry a stigma?
For full-time moms, we know that common misconceptions and undervalued domestic work can lead to certain kinds of discrimination from society.
“People assume I’m not educated when they find out I’m a stay-at-home mom, like I didn’t go to college,” says one mom from upstate New York, who also happens to hold a PhD. People also think she’s lazy, she says, and that she just sits around all day while her husband, a scientist, earns all their money. As she says this, she’s simultaneously entertaining her energetic 5-year old son with one arm, while feeding her infant son with the other. Watching their family is a bit like watching a chaotic, 3-ring circus– and it occurs to me that this Mom probably hasn’t had a chance to be “lazy” even once in the last half-decade.
But do stay-at-home dads suffer the same kind of treatment? I suspect not. For them, it turns out there are other kinds of challenges — and even stereotypes — that aren’t so fun, either:
Your Actions Get Scrutinized
“It would be easier to be part of this community if everyone could forget that I’m a guy,” says part-time writer and blogger, Christopher Michel, who’s also a full-time stay-at-home dad for his 18-month old daughter. In Parenting Magazine he describes how he cringes every time someone of his sex does something questionable, like when a fellow dad urinated in public while his kid played on the playground, or like when the male music teacher jokingly hit on the Moms in the play group they all attend.
“My gender tends to do the pervy stuff. Men—men who hang around playgrounds—must be watched in case they’re pedophiles, public urinators, or creeps. I feel like I need to make extra clear I don’t fit in that group,” he says. And so while the Moms don’t necessarily grab up their children and run from him every time he makes a playground appearance, Christopher does feel the need to prove to his new neighbors that he’s a normal parent, just like them. It’s seems to be a built-in double standard: because even as stay-at-home dads get complimented for the same exact work all parents do, (with common reactions like, ”Aww, how cute!” and ”You’re such a Saint”), it’s not hard to imagine how these same Moms are watching you closely out of the corner of their eye just the same.
You Don’t Have as Much Peer Support
The number of fathers who are full-time caregivers in the U.S. has nearly doubled in the last 10 years, but considering stay-at-home dads are still well within the minority, they simply have fewer peers and role models to relate to. If the ‘Mommy’ Blogosphere is any indication, women fall back on a larger network of friends and fellow Moms whom they can look to for support and advice. But it’s likely a very different story for men. ”I do know a couple of other stay-at-home dads, but we don’t really talk about these issues,” says Jesse Greenspan, a stay-at-home Dad in Brooklyn, NY. He thinks it has to do with the fact that he and his fellow stay-at-home male friends think of this as a short-term commitment, like a tour abroad or a work assignment that will only last a relatively short time. ”In my case, I’ll probably try to get back to work more or less full time when [our daughter] goes to pre-school,” he says. And when that happens, he may face yet another type of discrimination:
Back-To-Work Flack
For men who leave the work force for months or even years at a time to take care of children, a gap on their resume could make it extra difficult to get hired again. Explaining what they were “up to” for a few years — when what they were “up to” was exclusively running a household and raising children — is a burden women deal with less, considering family leave is far more common for females. Michael Zorek, a stay-at-home dad for 11 years, told the Huffington Post that he’s been having trouble finding part-time work again now that his kids are older, and it’s not just due to the recent recession. “I would advise anyone making the choice to stay home now, to not stay home completely, to keep their hand in,” he says. The implication being that the working world moves on without you — and conservative employers may not be as sympathetic when it’s a man on the other end of the interview table.
Photo courtesy of: Pixabay/CaucasionChildDadDaughter
June 25, 2013
5 Ways Greed is Good
It may sound selfish to say, but putting your financial needs and interests first is sometimes the best way to build and protect your family’s wealth. Here are five ways “greed” is good. Read more here.
June 24, 2013
3 Secrets to Getting Hired on LinkedIn
Looking for a job can be tough work in it of itself, even tougher now that the road to employment often begins online. And in a digital world of professional networking, there’s no site as popular as LinkedIn. In fact, back in February, technology company Bullhorn surveyed nearly two thousand staffing professionals on their use of social media when hunting for talent. No surprise – almost all of the respondents said they used some form of social media, but a staggering 97.3% specified using LinkedIn as a recruiting tool.
Despite the site’s popularity, many job seekers haven’t invested enough time to understand its best uses and really establish an online presence they can be proud of there – including myself. So, in hopes of putting my best foot forward on the platform, I did some research into LinkedIn’s features.
Joshua Waldman is author of “Job Searching with Social Media For Dummies” and the owner of tricked out LinkedIn profile. In researching ways to improve my own profile, I came across Waldman’s work and one of his free webinars on the topic. Here’s what I learned.
Turn Heads With a Headline
“Sometimes it’s those seemingly very simple things that when they’re missing can really impact you,” says Waldman about the need to spruce up one’s LinkedIn. “Particularly online those things can have small small changes in the real world…you may not even know what missed opportunities you’ve had.” One of the most overlooked yet important areas of a well-built profile is the headline, says Waldman. Instead of letting LinkedIn use your most recent professional title as your default headline, he suggest identifying the job you want in yours. Aside from outlining your career goals, it will also attract recruiters looking for just that.
Get Search Engine Optimized
That brings me to the next tip: optimizing your profile with words and phrases that will help recruiters find you. LinkedIn, like Google, has extensive search features that depend mostly on keywords on pages throughout the site. That means if someone (a recruiter or prospective employer) isn’t connected to you, they’re most likely to find your page based on the keywords you add to it. As a journalist who often seeks out credible experts, I can attest to the importance of an online profile that clearly articulates exactly who you are. For example, if you want your next position to be a senior marketing executive with – say – Coca-Cola, it would be beneficial to include keywords like “brand,” “marketing,” “senior” and “Atlanta” (where Coke is headquartered.) And the good news is that you don’t even have to necessarily work them into your profile. LinkedIn lets you add keywords in special sections for skills, expertise and interest.
Show Off Your Work
LinkedIn’s newest and, perhaps, best feature is its “portfolios.” The site has adjusted for our project-based workforce to allow users to upload samples of their work. Are you a marketer who is especially proud of an ad you designed? Now you can include a sample document, image or link under a description of the project. This is especially important when it comes to showing a potential hirer exactly what you’re able to do beyond a few buzz words.
Photo Courtesy, LinkedIn.
