TessMore Finance Blog

Some of the links in this post are from our sponsors. We provide you with accurate, reliable information. Learn more about how we make money and select our advertising partners . As easy as it is to make money filling out surveys online, it’s just about as easy to stumble onto a scam that’ll waste your time, at the very least — if not take your money. But we’ve found a company that actually pays what they promise, and there are no hoops to jump through. It’s called Branded Surveys , and it will pay you up to $5 per survey, just for answering honestly. How to Get Paid for Sharing Your Opinion If there’s one thing you can appreciate about Branded Surveys, it’s that they’re forthright. They’ll tell ya, you probably shouldn’t quit your day job to fill out surveys for a living. But if you want to give yourself a raise of sorts, their most engaged users make up to a few hundred dollars every month. What they ask for in return for their honesty is yours. After creating a fr

We’ve already told you about cheap Halloween decorations for your house. But what if you’re more of a trunk-or-treat, turn-the-car-into-a-Halloween-ghoul type of person? Well, we’ve got you covered there too. Whether it’s fake limbs hanging from your trunk, or a full-on trunk or treat car theme that won’t spook your bank account, we’ve scoured the Internet to find some of the best cheap Halloween car decorations out there. 16 Budget-Friendly Halloween Car Decorations Get ready to rule the trunk-or-treat. We’ve also got ways to have a decked out car while driving around town. Halloween Decorations for Moving Cars Remember, don’t go so nuts with your Halloween decor that you interfere with your ability to drive. 1. Hanging Bloody Arm Hang this $8 bloody arm from the back of your trunk or a side window to creep out passers-by on the road. Go buy a bloody arm 2. Hanging Witch Legs Same idea but a little less gory. Apparently this $9 witch was chasing after your car, got a little

A segment of student loan borrowers recently received some good news thanks to a major overhaul to the Public Service Student Loan Forgiveness program. The Department of Education announced this month that up to 550,000 borrowers will see “accelerated forgiveness” of their loans, and that would mean immediate loan forgiveness for tens of thousands. But if the past is any indication with this long-struggling government program, borrowers might want to take a wait-and-see approach. The program, also known as the PSLF, was created in 2007 by former president George W. Bush to help public service workers – healthcare, education, social services and so on – get out of student loan debt quicker as long as they followed some strict, and often confusing, guidelines. In the past, the program had four requirements to qualify: A full-time job in the public sector. A specific type of federal loan. A specific type of repayment plan. 120 on-time, non consecutive payments. In theory, if yo

Definition: Average Total Assets can be defined as the average amount of assets that are recorded on the Balance Sheet of the company, at the end of two given financial years. This can either include both, the current year, as well as the preceding year. Alternatively, it can also constitute two different time periods across which a company wishes to calculate the Average Total Assets. Average Total Assets are an indication of the total wealth that is possessed by the company, and how it changes across two different timelines. Average Total Assets is used in conjunction with other metrics, like Total Sales, to calculate how these projections change with the course of time. Average Total Assets directly indicate the financial standing of the company. It is preferred to be used in place of Total Assets because it helps companies to determine a more reasonable and accurate analysis regarding the actual financial standing of the company. Explanation of Average Total Assets The basic

Whether you put in full- or part-time hours, it’s difficult to be a parent who works outside the home. Add the stress of finding — and paying for — reliable child care to accommodate your work schedule, and it can be absolutely soul-sucking. The Penny Hoarder recently surveyed 2,000 parents about the cost of child care , and about two-thirds of respondents said they’d consider switching jobs to work for a company that provides child care assistance as an employee benefit. Stringent daycare regulations and expensive overhead costs make free on-site child care a no-go for most companies, but there are some businesses that realize the key to happy employees is helping them find work-life balance through the magic of child care benefits. 17 Companies With Child Care Benefits Here are 17 companies that get it right when it comes to helping companies with child care — and one bonus because… well, you’ll see. 1. Clif Bar & Company Clif Base Camp is an aptly-named, on-site child ca

People tend to talk about being financially savvy in a black and white way. You’re either good with money or you’re not. But as with most things related to your finances, it’s a little more complicated than that. You could be great at earning money and terrible at saving it – or vice versa. You could have an impressive net worth and a terrible credit score. You could be the world’s greatest budgeter and the world’s worst investor. In other words, being “good with money” can mean a lot of things. Let’s take a look at some of the most important factors to consider. Metrics to Track While there’s not a single figure that shows you’re good with money, there are some numbers you can track to see how you’re doing (Mint tracks these for you): Net Worth Your net worth is your total assets minus your liabilities. Assets include the money in your bank accounts, investment accounts, collectible items, home equity and more. Liabilities include what you owe, like your credit card balance, aut

A new Get Rich Slowly subscriber emailed me yesterday to alert me of two problems. First, all of the free resources I share on Google Drive have magically switched from publicly-available to private. Second, the automated email sequence for new readers is broken (which means that folks aren't receiving The Money Boss Manifesto ). Fixing the email sequence will take some work. It wouldn't take much effort to make it functional again, but while I'm in there mucking around, I might as well make a pass to revise it. The info and examples are five years old. (Meanwhile, the current version of The Money Boss Manifesto can be downloaded here.) Fixing the shared documents on Google Drive was easy, though. They should once again be publicly viewable. Please let me know if they're not. The Get Rich Slowly File Vault This seems like a good time to remind readers that the Get Rich Slowly file vault exists. The GRS file vault contains a whole host of free resources that I

Note: This article doesn’t contain any depiction of physical or sexual violence, but does detail financial and emotional abuse in relationships. Lisa Orban was married to her abuser for three years. In 1990, she left after he threatened to kill her and their two young children. She was 20 years old. Her financial situation in the marriage? “Bad, in a nutshell,” she recalled. Her husband was the main breadwinner, and he managed the family’s finances. “Whenever there was a chance that I might make enough money or make more money than him or do anything to upset his financial apple cart, so to speak, he would come in and sabotage it,” she said. She lost multiple jobs because of his meddling. Orban moved with him from her hometown in Illinois to Arizona for college, where she’d won a four-year scholarship to study psychology. Before she could start, he contacted the university and told them she’d decided to drop out. “Imagine my surprise when I go to registration day and find out t

If you’ve decided to take control of your finances, you might be wondering how to start and what are the first things that you’ll want to do. If this sounds like where you are in your life, first of all, congratulations! Deciding to take control of getting your finances is one of the smartest financial decisions you can make. Getting control of your finances is the first step towards achieving the financial life that you’ve always wanted. Decide to start Actually deciding to start is probably the most important step, so if you’re already there you are one step ahead of many others out there. An important next step can be to share your journey with others. You don’t have to tell the entire world all of the details about your financial situation, but there is value in not just keeping this all in your head. Remember that goals that aren’t written down are just wishes. So write your decision down and share it with a trusted friend or family member. After you’ve decided to start getting

Some of the links in this post are from our sponsors. We provide you with accurate, reliable information. Learn more about how we make money and select our advertising partners . On a scale of one to 10, how much do you loathe mansplaining? Personally, it’s an 11, taking the top spot over manspreading and bropropriating but barely squeaking past manterrupting. Just thinking about the unsolicited — or downright wrong — advice us women sometimes have to listen to sends chills down my spine. It’s especially bad when it comes to financial advice. Studies show women are increasingly becoming the major financial decision-makers in their homes. So thanks, but we’ve heard enough “oh, sweetie” and “let the men handle it” for a lifetime. Here are some of the most nonsensical financial mansplanations we’ve heard in person and online — yes, they’re real — and what us financially savvy women know to do instead. 1. ‘Cash is King, So Don’t Pay Your Credit Card in Full.’ Sounds like this guy is