Save Money for College with Upromise Shopping

Upromise (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Upromise is rewards program you sign up for that allows you to save money for college or pay off student loan debt. It's not a 529 College savings plan.

Upromise has its own website where you can earn rewards by making purchases through its portal. They have a list of over 600 online retailers who are partnering with Upromise shopping deals to save you money and add to your college savings. The cash back rewards range from 1% to 25% depending on the purchase and the store. Large stores like eBay, Target, Walmart, and JC Penny all have joined with Upromise. Also the Home Depot, The Apple Store, Dell, Verizon Wireless, and Macy’s are all on board with UPromise.

You an also register your credit and debit cards to earn cash rewards. Some restaurants that participate can earn you rewards of up to 8%. If you use your registered debit or credit card at Upromise program restaurants your earning a high percentage reward. Imagine over the years by just dining out 8% of the total is going into your account.

You can also use your Upromise at your grocery store, supermarket, and drug store. You can even just register your grocery or drug loyalty cards with Upromise and even use cash on purchases.

The best yet, you can register your friends to your account and earn rewards on their purchases.

How can I redeem my my earned rewards?

• Deposit your cash back into a 529 education investment account for you or a family member.
• Transfer your cash back to your student loan to help pay off your debt.
• Move your rewards to a Sallie Mae high-yield savings account.
• Request your rewards to be sent to you in the form of a check.

Upromise offers you a way to save money for college and get some pretty good discounts on everyday purchases you already make.

Would You Choose to Not Grow Your Business?

 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It's the reverse of all we were ever taught. Start a business, with a lot of hard work build it up, expand and then one day stop the growth. Surprisingly some businesses make the choice to stop growth and maintain a certain size.

The Small Business Administration reports that there are 22.9 million small businesses in the United States. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) states that 90 percent of all net job creation from 1996-2007 came from small businesses. There is of little question that if the US is to recover from this recession and if unemployment is to be driven down, small business will lead the way.

Any business school you can attend will teach you that the cornerstone of our capitalist system is to build a companies value and have an ever increasing shareholder value.

Why would anyone ever put the brakes on a viable growing company. Surprisingly there are 3 good reasons to do this.

1. To maintain lifestyle and avoid risk. I know a building contractor who has reach a level of $3 million dollars per year income. My friend takes out of this income enough money to live a very nice lifestyle for himself and family. At the level his company is operating at he has plenty of time for a personal life. He spends his time going on vacation and tending to hobbies he loves.

He is a well respected local business man who could easily double his companies income. He has decide not to go that route. He is comfortable and any expansion would put to a halt the lifestyle he now enjoys. He has a business he can handle and doesn't want to take on anymore responsibility.

2. To avoid regulation. Another building services company in the area has chosen to cut back on expansion plans because of complex and expensive regulation that will kick in when the number of employees reaches 50. After gaining a thorough understanding of the complexity of complying with the "FMLA" (the Family Medical Leave Act), the President of the company made a conscious decision to stop the growth of his company. Job creation came to a screeching halt. The president wasn’t opposed to extending the benefits of FMLA to his employees. Rather, he made an informed decision to avoid the considerable cost associated with the complexity of maintaining records and making judgments about what qualified for FMLA.

It was determined that his company could not absorb the costs of this regulation. Naturally, larger company's with thousands of employees and millions of dollars of revenue could integrate these costs into their spreadsheets.

I know many companies that do not want any employees because of complicated and expensive regulations. Companies like this chose to outsource and hire sub-contractors for all necessary personal needed.

3. Keeping a one man band effect on the company. There was a company that was in manufacturing and it had 35 employees. The owner of the company kept the entire business in his head. He daily told everyone what to do. There was no office staff. The host of employees did the manufacturing, ordering , billing, and customer installation. The owner would not hire any help to staff an office. All office duties were put on the manufacturing employees.

The company lacked a complete organizational section. Not having any office employees and having everyone doing everything was chaos. This owner by his own lack of business knowledge kept his company from growing.

Whether it’s satisfaction with the status quo, a desire to avoid the burden of regulation or not understanding how to delegate, many small business owners have implicitly or explicitly made a decision not to grow their businesses.

It’s completely reasonable for business owners to make an explicit decision not to grow because they are satisfied with the current size of their enterprise. That’s their choice.

Inside Travel Tips From a Reservation Agent

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Over at Reddit.com they are having a Q & A with a airline travel booking agent. Lots of questions are being asked and the answers are interesting and informative. Lots of questions like working for an airline, the flight benefits, using miles, earning miles, avoiding stupid airline fees, low fares, partner airlines, Skyteam vs Oneworld vs Star Alliance and a slew of other things.

Here are a few of the best ones:

Can you help me figure out the best way to get a seat with legroom?
Go with Economy Comfort or Exit Row. That may cost you a bit though. Also take a look on Seatguru.com to determine with seats have the most leg room. Unethically, you could call the reservations agents and say you have a medical disability that requires a bulkhead seat (you don't have to state exactly what it is and Delta agents are forbidden to ask).

Any tips on how to get any freebies/upgrades/benefits?
Yes, after your flight you should call or email (preferably the later) and let them know about every single thing you didn't enjoy about your flight (food, movie selection, rude flight attendant, tray table didn't work, wifi didn't work etc). The airlines have a specific department to deal with complaints and they'll give you tens of thousands of miles, free business lounge passes, travel vouchers, drink tickets etc.

Is there any way I can get an upgrade or something?
A doctor on my flight to Japan got upgraded mid-flight for helping out. that's not an official policy but I've seen nice flight attendants do it.

What are some of the best airlines to fly within the United States?
You mean best as in service quality? I haven't flown any other airlines within the US in years because Delta flies just about everywhere and it's free for me. However, I've heard great things about Alaska Airlines, Jetblue, and Virgin.

What is the fastest way to rack up miles? Credit Cards? Special promos or secret deals?
Credit Cards are the best. Some people run their businesses off their credit cards and rack up millions of miles pretty easily. Suntrust Bank also has a checking account with a Skymiles debit card. that account is nice because the electronic bill pay also earns miles. So you can pay your rent/mortgage via bill pay and get miles for it. And if the person or org you're paying doesn't accept electronic payments it mails them a check.

This is only a small sample of the questions being asked. Also the discussion and war stories the commentors are posting are very interesting. If you have a travel related question go over to Reddit.com and ask it. Also search on Reddit for other subjects your interested in. You will find liked minded people having an intelligent discussion.

Retirement Options Are Changing for the 50 plus Employee

 Mexican businessman Carlos Slim (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Billionaire Carlos Slim said that boosting the retirement age to 70 would help to prop up the world’s struggling economies, according to a Mexican press report, cited by Forbes. He says the current retirement age was selected because at that time people worked more physical jobs.

Slim suggested the cure for our economic ills would be raising the retirement age in all countries to 70 thus taking the pressure off budget shortfalls. But for half of all Americans the idea is moot because they do not have the resources for retirement even with Social Security helping.

The normal job tradition of retirement at 65 is obsolete. So you must make sure you are a valuable asset to your employer so you can keep on working. One way to increase your value is continued education. You should consider going back to school but if you cannot attend day classes then an online line degree is your other option. There are online mba degrees that can provide you with the necessary education.

In the 1930's the age of eligibility for Social Security was 65 while the life expectancy was just under 60. Social Security was essentially old age insurance if you outlived your useful working years. Today the life expectancy is close to 73 and the eligibility age is 67.

In my own situation I also do not have enough saved for a retirement at 65 years old. The perfect storm of a divorce, 3 in college, and a 25% cut in business income have blessed me with working well into my seventies. Luckily, I'm fine with this future but what's OK for me is a real damper for others who were counting on retiring at 65 or earlier.

How will a company react to having mostly older employees? Just because an employee is older, does business have the right to judge your overall capacity to perform your job? In today's economy, business should integrate up to date policies concerning older workers. If a good employee has served a company well, their knowledge and experience must be utilized for training or supervising new blood that’s joining the team.

Society is used to having the old replaced with the new. Not because it's better but because there is a perception of improvement. But, new blood in a company can be good for the vitality and growth potential needs. Separately, they each can contribute something good, but together they offer a sum greater than the parts.

Being a valuable employee is hard work. Ask yourself, would you hire you? If the answer is no, maybe it's time to evaluate things. Here's a list of tips to consider:

1. Further your education. Just because you over 50, why do you think you think you shouldn't have continuing education? Your younger team members have more recent educational opportunities. These are the people you’re competing with for your job security. You may be knowledgeable but many employers look at youth and energy as positive attributes. Make sure you are staying up to date education wise. It couldn't hurt to take some online courses and maybe add a degree to your resume. When you are continually trying to better yourself you stay sharper and it shows the team leader you are trying to make yourself a more valuable asset to the organization.

2. Enhance your critical skills. Having a handle on your time management skills make you an asset to an organization. Being an organized team member by planning your days and weeks by priorities will give you peace of mind and allow you to have your goal on a clear track. Continued education with a masters degree organizational leadership could support this goal. A life in order will benefit you and your work production. Having good organization skills will be noticed by the organization.

3. Network outside of your company. Networking with people in other companies in your industry will keep you connected and it will benefit you and your company. Do not just network at your level; seek others above and below your level. Join clubs and organizations. Volunteer wherever you can make an impact. You will be enhancing yourself and showing the public that your company cares and wants to give back to the community.

4. Cultivate your work ethic. It may be a shocking thing to do but showing up on time for work and staying a full day is a radical thing to do in a company. Caring about your job and maybe coming in to work early and staying later will get you noticed by your boss. Start this habit and at least do it once a week. You will get noticed and if the day ever comes when your boss has to fire someone, the person giving a 150% to the company will not be at the top of the list.

5. Learn a new language. If your company deals with companies that are global, a foreign language will make you more valuable. Learn a language of a country your company deals with. When the day comes a translator is need you will be ready. When a promotion comes where a foreign language is needed you will be the top choice for it.

Its common sense that a company is going to only keep employees that are producing and an asset to increasing the bottom line. If you are contributing to that, then you are a valuable commodity to the company and you will have your job for a long time.