This provider offers the best talk, video and gaming experiences. foto500 / Shutterstock.com
Fifth-generation mobile technology, called 5G, is a relatively new channel for telecommunications that reached the public in 2019. It’s an improvement on 3G, 4G and 4G LTE networks, promising a more reliable connection as well as faster download and upload speeds. Some major phone providers provide better 5G services than others. Network analytics group Opensignal recently released their…
Learn how to find your home on a flood map, and what it could mean for you. michelmond / Shutterstock.com
Floods are both more dangerous — and common — than you may think. But how do you know if you’re at risk? A flood map provides important information for current and future homeowners alike. Don’t worry, it’s not as complicated as you may think, and we’re here to make it easy for you to understand how floods might affect you.
Ready to take control of your financial future? Take a look at five affordable small businesses you can start right now. [[{“value”:”
Image source: Getty Images
Starting a business can be the first step toward becoming your own boss, paying off debt, or finding more cash to put in your investment account.
But figuring out what type of business to start can be overwhelming. For starters, there are so many different options. Plus, a lot of business ideas sound good but also require a large investment in start-up costs.
Luckily, not all business ideas require sinking thousands of dollars in equipment or years of training. Here are five business ideas you can start this summer to set yourself up for financial success by fall.
There is a good chance your past jobs or schooling prepared you for a freelance business. For example, in college, I wrote dozens of papers about Mesoamerican art and culture. While I don’t write about those topics now, it did prepare me to write for a living. So, think back to the work you did in school or at past jobs and consider how that experience can be turned into a new business venture.
If you were the go-to photographer in your job as a baker, you might have the skills to turn photography into a business. If you were responsible for handling the social posts at your restaurant job, you likely have the skills to become a social media manager. Even experience at the college level, like organizing clubs, can be leveraged into a freelance business.
According to Statista, 64 million people in the U.S. are freelancers — maybe it’s time to join them.
For millions of Americans, summer is travel season. If you don’t have any big trips planned, you could start a business taking care of your neighbors’ pets or houses while they’re gone. This job has almost no start-up costs, especially if you start with people who live close to you.
Use a platform like Facebook or Nextdoor to connect with your neighbors and offer dog walking, cat sitting, and house sitting services. You’ll have the flexibility to set your own schedule and rates. If you have experience taking care of less common animals like lizards, birds, or exotic fish, you can likely charge a premium rate.
Writing and publishing e-books is a low-cost way to earn income over time. Rather than offering a one-time service (like pet sitting), an e-book can be sold again and again. Whether you write a non-fiction book about filing business taxes or a murder mystery, you only have to write, edit, and format the book once. Once it’s written, upload your book to a site like Kindle, Nook, or Google Play Books, where users can purchase and read your books.
You do need to be realistic about how much you’ll earn. Most Kindle books sell for less than $10, so one book is unlikely to earn you thousands of dollars a month. However, if you can write several books in a popular niche (romance and science fiction tend to do well), you can earn a decent amount.
Online tutoring allows you to turn your skills into income. Thanks in part to the COVID-19 pandemic, several sites, like Outschool and Brainfuse, now allow you to host classes on any number of topics. You could teach kids how to play Minecraft or the guitar, help high schoolers with algebra, or even offer budgeting advice.
Summer is a perfect time to dive into online tutoring, as many parents are looking for summer camp options. While you obviously can’t create a sleepaway camp online, you can offer drawing lessons, share gaming tips, or lead kids through a fun craft.
Class costs vary between $10 and $25 per lesson, and some classes can have 15 or more students. My own children have taken karate, ballet, and reading classes online, so there’s really no limit to what you can offer!
This business idea is a bit broader, but there are plenty of opportunities. Taking care of a home is a lot of work, and many people prefer to hire out tasks like leaf raking, cutting the lawn, gutter cleaning, or power washing. Some people even hire someone to clean their yard of pet waste. Spend some time on Facebook or Nextdoor to find out what services your neighbors are looking for and start offering those services.
Just remember to vary your services by season. Summer is an excellent time to offer power washing, pool maintenance, and gutter cleaning, while in the winter, snow removal or holiday light installation and removal might be better options.
Starting a new business is an exciting opportunity, but be strategic. Think about your current skills and pay attention to the demand in your city. Offer services that are in demand in your neighborhood and match your skill set.
This credit card is not just good – it’s so exceptional that our experts use it personally. It features a 0% intro APR for 15 months, a cash back rate of up to 5%, and all somehow for no annual fee!
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We’re firm believers in the Golden Rule, which is why editorial opinions are ours alone and have not been previously reviewed, approved, or endorsed by included advertisers.
The Ascent does not cover all offers on the market. Editorial content from The Ascent is separate from The Motley Fool editorial content and is created by a different analyst team.Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fool’s board of directors. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
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Uber Eats delivery drivers can set their own hours and get paid weekly. Find out how much you can make on average driving for this popular delivery service. [[{“value”:”
Image source: Getty Images
If you’re looking for a side hustle and own a car, bike, scooter, or pair of walking shoes, you may have considered delivering food for Uber Eats. As one of the main drivers behind the gig economy, Uber offers flexible work with weekly payouts and transparent compensation.
But just how much you can make as an Uber Eats driver will depend highly on your ability to profit from promotions, surge times, and tips. With that in mind, let’s take a look at how much you can expect to earn from this popular delivery service.
The average hourly pay rate among Uber Eats delivery drivers nationwide is about $18, according to ZipRecruiter. At $18 an hour, you would gross about $720 weekly and about $3,120 monthly, assuming you worked 40 hours per week.
This is only the average among delivery drivers. Depending on your market — both the demand for Uber Eats orders and the supply of other deliverers — your effective hourly rate could be much higher or lower than that.
ZipRecruiter reports seeing hourly wages as high as $25.24 and as low as $8.17. Reddit users, for their part, seem to agree that you’re more likely to make between $10 and $15 an hour on a normal day.
As far as how Uber calculates your pay, time and distance are key factors, according to its website. The farther the distance from the merchant to the drop-off point, as well as the time it takes to complete the trip, will influence the total payout. Likewise, accepting multiple pickups and dropoffs within the same trip can increase your fare, and the availability of other drivers and demand in your area impacts this too.
Location will also play a huge role in how much you can net as an Uber Eats driver. If you live where Uber Eats usage is heavy, you might stand to gain more as a delivery driver. Drivers in places with high demand are also more likely to see driving promotions from Uber.
According to ZipRecruiter, the top three cities with the highest annual Uber Eats salaries were Berkeley, California ($50,004), Bailey’s Crossroads, Virginia ($47,548), and Daly City, California ($47,323).
For some people, yes, driving for Uber Eats is worth the extra money. You can set your own hours and work around your schedule, thus giving you a way to turn your free time into capital.
Your payouts are also super quick. Uber will transfer your payment to your checking account weekly, or let you cash out immediately with the Uber Pro debit card. Weekly payouts can motivate you to hit your savings goals, as you can see progress every week.
If you’re treating Uber Eats as a full-time job, however, it might not be sustainable long term. Even if you were to earn $50,000 a year, you would still be making less than the median salary in the U.S. ($74,580 in 2022). And to get to that maximum salary, you would likely need to work more than 40 hours a week, possibly even more than five days a week.
At a certain point, the flexibility begins to turn inside out, as you become constrained by your own schedule, thereby exploiting your own labor.
You should also consider other factors, like taxes. When you’re self-employed, you pay your own taxes, which will reduce your effective hourly earnings. Likewise, as a self-employed person, you’d miss out on cheaper health insurance, 401(k) matching, and other benefits that come with employment at a company. You’ll also need to worry about more wear and tear on your vehicle.
Depending on your area, however, delivering for Uber Eats could help you add more income to your budget, especially if you can take advantage of promotions and peak times. Setting realistic expectations for your hourly wage can help you decide if it’s worth your time, as you might find more long-term value through other paths, like education, that lead to a more sustainable career.
This credit card is not just good – it’s so exceptional that our experts use it personally. It features a 0% intro APR for 15 months, a cash back rate of up to 5%, and all somehow for no annual fee!
Click here to read our full review for free and apply in just 2 minutes.
We’re firm believers in the Golden Rule, which is why editorial opinions are ours alone and have not been previously reviewed, approved, or endorsed by included advertisers.
The Ascent does not cover all offers on the market. Editorial content from The Ascent is separate from The Motley Fool editorial content and is created by a different analyst team.Citigroup is an advertising partner of The Ascent, a Motley Fool company. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Uber Technologies. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
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After keeping fees steady for years, Costco is raising the cost of its memberships. Read on to find out what you’ll have to pay. [[{“value”:”
Image source: Getty Images
One of the things that makes Costco so unique as a retailer — aside from its super low prices — is that you have to pay for a membership to access the store. And while you can technically shop at Costco.com without a membership, online orders placed by non-members are assessed a surcharge. Plus, certain items on the site are members-only deals — hence the incentive to pay up for full Costco access.
Since June of 2017, Costco’s membership fees have held steady at $60 per year for a basic membership and $120 a year for an Executive membership. But Costco just announced that come Sept. 1, the cost of its memberships will increase. So you may want to lock in a membership at the lower price point while you can.
Beginning Sept. 1, the cost of a basic membership at Costco will rise by $5, bringing your annual cost to $65. The Executive membership, meanwhile, is increasing by $10 for a total of $130.
But the Executive membership is also getting a boost. Currently, the maximum amount of cash back you can snag with one of these memberships is $1,000 per year. Once the fee increase takes effect, Executive members will be eligible for up to $1,250 cash back per year.
Granted, as it is, it’s hard to snag the maximum reward on the Executive membership, because doing so would require you to spend $50,000 in a single year to get $1,000 at a rate of 2% back. To score $1,250 back, you’d need to spend a whopping $62,500 in a single year. Even if you shop at Costco on a weekly basis and spend $200 per trip, that’s still only about $10,000 in annual spending — enough to justify the Executive membership upgrade, but not nearly enough to snag its full cash back benefit.
At a time when life has gotten so expensive, nobody wants to see their costs go up. And that extends to Costco memberships.
But one important thing to keep in mind is that if you’re getting great value from your Costco membership at the current price point, then chances are, it makes sense to pay $5 or $10 more and retain your access to the store. Even when you account for a higher annual fee, chances are, your savings throughout the year will more than make up for what you spend on your membership.
And remember, the extra $5 or $10 you’re looking at paying comes to about $0.42 per month for a basic membership or $0.83 for an Executive membership. When you break it down that way, it’s kind of hard to get upset about the extra cost.
Remember, too, that Costco uses the revenue it makes from membership fees to offset its operating costs. This allows Costco to not only expand its inventory, but offer up the ultra low prices it’s known for.
So while it’s definitely annoying to see any expense go up, it’s kind of hard to get too up in arms about Costco’s decision. And remember, the store’s fees have remained the same since mid-2017. So the fact that Costco held out for a good seven years before imposing an increase is pretty darn generous in its own right.
If you’re shopping with a debit card, you could be missing out on hundreds or even thousands of dollars each year. These versatile credit cards offer huge rewards everywhere, including Costco, and are rated the best cards of 2024 by our experts because they offer hefty sign-up bonuses and outstanding cash rewards. Plus, you’ll save on credit card interest because all of these recommendations include a competitive 0% interest period.
Click here to read our expert recommendations for free!
We’re firm believers in the Golden Rule, which is why editorial opinions are ours alone and have not been previously reviewed, approved, or endorsed by included advertisers.
The Ascent does not cover all offers on the market. Editorial content from The Ascent is separate from The Motley Fool editorial content and is created by a different analyst team.Maurie Backman has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Costco Wholesale. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
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Raising kids is expensive. Read on to discover how a cash back card could help make it a little cheaper. [[{“value”:”
Image source: Getty Images
As a parent of two, I always look for ways to save money on kid activities and expenses. At the beginning of this summer, I researched pool memberships and was shocked by how much the prices had increased. So, instead of shelling out hundreds of dollars for just two months of swimming, I signed my family up for a YMCA membership. We’ll stay cool this summer and save more than $500.
If you’re also looking for ways to save money right now, here are some suggestions for using cash back credit cards to make your money go further.
Featured offer: save money while you pay off debt with one of these top-rated balance transfer credit cards
So far this summer, I’ve driven my kids up the East Coast to visit my parents and taken them on two trips to the mountains to go camping. There’s also one beach trip next month and the normal shuttling around town for everyday activities.
If you’re driving a similar amount this summer, you can rack up some serious cash back rewards with a gas credit card. Some offer cash back between 2% to 6% at the pump, making those trips to baseball practice, art camp, and the pool a little easier on your wallet.
My kids are growing very fast, which means my grocery bills are growing fast, too. Inflation has made this problem even worse, with food prices up 5.8% last year. If you have a credit card that pays you cash back on groceries, you can ease the pain of grocery bill sticker shock.
I have a cash back card that gives me 2% cash back at grocery stores, and some give you up to 6% back.
I don’t know about you, but my kids seem to grow out of their shoes and clothes every other week. When they’ve found a style they like (a near-miracle these days), they grow right out of them, and we’re back online shopping for something new again.
My credit card earns 5% cash back on anything I buy on Amazon, making the next wardrobe purchase a little less painful. To save even more, check out your credit card’s shopping portal for more deals. Some offer retail discounts of up to 10%.
Last month, I went to a baseball game with my kids and extended family. We made a great memory together and had a blast seeing one of our favorite teams up close. But like everything else, sports and other live events are more expensive than ever.
Thankfully, some credit cards offer special perks and discounts for entertainment. Certain cards offer up to 8% cash back on entertainment purchases, and some even offer special VIP experiences.
I have yet to use a card to get special experiences, but even a standard cash back card could help offset the rising cost of a ballpark hot dog.
I’ve tried to teach my kids the value of money, and one way our family does this is through distributing a weekly allowance. My kids have set chores they need to do each week and slowly accumulate their spending money — which usually gets spent on Minecraft and Lego.
One way to make setting aside a small allowance easier is to use cash back rewards. If you use your credit card’s shopping portal to find deals, your kids may be able to stretch their spending cash even further.
While a cash back card won’t reduce the price of kids’ clothes and weekly grocery hauls, it can take some of the sting out of everyday expenses. Some of them even have welcome offers — one example is $200 cash rewards when you make your first $1,000 in purchases in the first three months with the card.
Just let me know if you come across any cards that can get me a good deal on a pool membership.
This credit card is not just good – it’s so exceptional that our experts use it personally. It features a 0% intro APR for 15 months, a cash back rate of up to 5%, and all somehow for no annual fee!
Click here to read our full review for free and apply in just 2 minutes.
We’re firm believers in the Golden Rule, which is why editorial opinions are ours alone and have not been previously reviewed, approved, or endorsed by included advertisers.
The Ascent does not cover all offers on the market. Editorial content from The Ascent is separate from The Motley Fool editorial content and is created by a different analyst team.John Mackey, former CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool’s board of directors. Chris Neiger has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Amazon. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
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