Homeowners almost certainly have homeowners insurance. It’s just part of the deal that comes with purchasing a home. However, have you ever thought about renters insurance to cover the space you’re renting or leasing? While it’s not always mandatory to have, it’s a smart and inexpensive investment to budget for and purchase.
So, how much is renters insurance and why do you need it? We’re going to answer all of your questions and hopefully convince you to get your own renters insurance policy.
What is renters insurance and why do I need it?
Like any insurance policy, renters insurance is a way to financially safeguard yourself and your property from damage, loss or theft.
When homeowners buy homeowners insurance, they are protecting the home itself and the contents inside. While renters don’t own the building that they live in, they do have personal property inside of the apartment that has monetary value. Renters insurance is an insurance type specifically for those who rent or lease that will cover their assets.
Landlords or apartment owners will have insurance policies in place that protect and cover their buildings and physical property. But, it won’t cover the tenant’s personal belongings if something happens. That’s why renters insurance is something you’ll want to have. Here are a few scenarios where renters insurance would come in handy:
Theft: If you experience a robbery or burglary, renters insurance would cover the cost of the stolen items
Vandalism: If someone vandalizes your apartment, renters insurance would cover the damage and repairs
Fire: If there is a house fire that damages the apartment, renters insurance covers the cost of loss
Plumbing issues: If you have major plumbing issues that damage the apartment, you’d be covered
Injuries that happen in your apartment: If someone else is hurt within your apartment, renters insurance covers their medical fees
These are some, not all, of the situations that renters insurance would cover. Keep in mind that renters insurance will cover a good variety of personal possessions, but it may not cover every single item in your place. It’s a good idea to know what is and isn’t covered and to protect yourself from the worst-case scenario as things happen to everyone, including renters.
How much is renters insurance?
Okay, so we’ve convinced you that renters insurance is a good idea, but you’re wondering how much renters insurance is per month? After all, if it’s a monthly expense you’ll need to budget for it. Good news — renters insurance cost is relatively inexpensive.
While there isn’t a flat rate for all renters insurance policies, generally, it costs $15 to $30 per month or up to $360 annually. When you think about the cost of everything you own— clothes, computers, TVs and tech — $30 a month isn’t too hefty a price to protect your possessions.
Depending on the insurance company, you can either pay monthly, bi-annually or annually. Sometimes, you’ll even get a discount if you pay for the full year in full, making the month-to-month cost even cheaper.
Factors that influence the cost of renters insurance
Renters insurance costs will vary by person, place and policy. If you’re considering purchasing a renters insurance policy, you can do some comparison shopping to make sure you’re getting the best bargain.
As you’re searching for a policy that fits your needs, here are a few things to keep in mind that’ll influence your cost:
Coverage types
The two most common types of renters insurance are personal property insurance and liability insurance. If you purchase a plan with both coverage types, you’ll pay more per month.
Personal property insurance
This type of plan covers your personal property and everything inside the apartment.
Liability insurance
This type of plan covers you if an injury happens to someone in your apartment and they file a claim against you.
Location
The cost of renters insurance varies by neighborhood, city and state. Generally, if the housing market itself is more expensive in a certain area, the cost of an insurance policy will probably be higher, too.
Pets
While dogs are man’s best friend, they aren’t when it comes to getting a renters insurance policy. Unfortunately, having a pet may increase the cost of your renters insurance policy because pets can cause additional damage to the apartment.
Previous claims
If you’ve had renters insurance in the past and filed several claims, your premium will likely be higher compared to people who have never filed claims.
Credit history
Credit is king and a higher credit score will equal lower monthly payments.
Coverage limits
With a renters insurance policy, you can choose how much coverage or protection you want. For example, let’s say you took inventory of your items and assessed that they added up to $10,000 worth of goods. You’d want to get a renters insurance policy with a coverage limit that was at least $10,000 to cover your losses. As your coverage limit increases, so will the cost of your monthly payment.
How do I find renters insurance?
Almost all insurance agencies will offer renters insurance policies. If you have car insurance or another type of insurance plan, you could bundle and save by adding an additional renters insurance policy.
You can get quotes from each of them to see where you’ll get the best deal. Here are a few insurance companies to consider when looking for a policy that fits your needs:
Secure your apartment with an insurance plan
You want to feel safe and secure in your apartment and know that you’re financially protected should something happen to your home.
Renters insurance is one way to secure your possessions and safeguard yourself from an emergency. At a relatively low cost, you can save yourself thousands of dollars and lots of stress in the worst-case scenario.
The information contained in this article is for educational purposes only and does not, and is not intended to, constitute legal or financial advice. Readers are encouraged to seek professional legal or financial advice as they may deem it necessary.
Sage Singleton is a freelance writer with a passion for literature and words. She enjoys writing articles that will inspire, educate and influence readers. She loves that words have the power to create change and make a positive impact in the world. Some of her work has been featured on LendingTree, Venture Beat, Architectural Digest, Porch.com and Homes.com. In her free time, she loves traveling, reading and learning French.
Looking to start your own business? You’re not alone. Some 76% of Gen Z and millennials dream of being their own boss, according to a 2022 Microsoft report.
While launching your own business allows you plenty of professional freedom, it can also be expensive. As you’re creating your business plan, one question you’ll likely face early on is, how much does it cost to start a business?
The average small business owner spends around $40,000 in their first full year. But that amount can vary based on a number of factors, including the size, type and location of your business.
Let’s take a closer look at the startup costs of different types of businesses and common ways to cover the expenses.
Typical Small Business Startup Costs
The old adage is true: You have to spend money to make money. And unfortunately, some of the biggest business costs can come during the startup phase, when you are defining your business goals, finding a location, purchasing domain names, and generally investing in the infrastructure.
In order to make sure your business is on firm financial footing, it’s important to estimate your small business startup costs in advance. Here are some common ones to keep in mind:
Payroll
Many small businesses start out as a company of one. But if you’re planning on having employees, salary will likely be one of the biggest costs you’ll have. After all, offering an attractive pay and benefits package can help you recruit and retain top talent.
In addition to wages, you might also want to budget for other types of payroll costs, such as overtime, vacation pay, bonuses, commissions, and benefits.
Office Space
No matter what your business is, you’ll need somewhere to work. Are you leasing a storefront, or will you buy a membership to a co-working space or startup incubator? If you’re planning to work from home, consider whether your new business will increase your internet or utility bills.
And don’t forget about the supplies you’ll need to do the work. Depending on your business, this could include things like computers, phones, chairs and desks, paper supplies, or filing cabinets. 💡 Quick Tip: Some lenders can release funds as quickly as the same day your loan is approved. SoFi personal loans offer same-day funding for qualified borrowers.
Inventory
If you’re starting a business that sells products, you’ll need to have some inventory ready to go. Calculating stock as part of your start-up costs ensures that you can buy your product in advance, so that you’re ready to serve customers from day one.
Licenses, Permits, and Insurance
Some businesses, especially storefronts and restaurants, require more legal leg work than others.
For example, if you’re starting a native-plants landscaping business, will you need a permit? If you’re starting a new bar, will you need a liquor license? Licenses and permits vary by city and state, but most come with an application fee.
Likewise, your new business may require one or more insurance policies to protect you in case of future litigation, so be sure to factor in the cost of monthly premiums.
And don’t forget about the costs associated with registering your business. Whether you plan to set up shop as a sole proprietorship, corporation, limited liability corporation or other business entity, you’ll need to pay a nominal fee. The amount will depend on the state where you operate.
And if you plan on enlisting the help of a lawyer, accountant or tax professional to get your business up and running, add those potential costs to your budget as well.
Advertising
Getting the word out about your new business is one of the most important things you can do to ensure that business starts off strong. Whether you want to advertise on social media or take out a billboard, your startup costs should reflect money you plan to put toward taking out ads for your business.
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Differences in Startup Costs Based on Industry
The actual cost of starting a small business can vary by business and industry. Here’s what you might be looking at if you want to start a few common types of small businesses.
Online Business Startup Costs
Like brick and mortar stores, the cost of doing business online varies depending on the type of business you have. But in general, you’ll need to budget for things like:
• Web hosting service and domain name
• Web design and optimization
• E-commerce software
• Payment processing
• Content creation and social media
If you’re selling products, you will need to invest in inventory and shipping. If you’re providing services, you may need to hire employees. All of these costs can be significant.
However, one benefit of starting your small business online is that you may be able to keep other costs low. For example, if you can conduct business from home, you may not need to rent office space, which can be a major savings. If you’re able to do the work without purchasing inventory or hiring employees, the startup costs can be even lower.
Average startup cost: $500 to $20,000 or more (depending on your business)
Storefront Startup Costs
If your business idea requires a physical space, your startup costs might range from $1,000 for a small kiosk inside a mall or park to more than $69,000 for something like a home goods store.
Although $69,000 might seem like a daunting number, remember that many smaller, independently owned stores began with a much smaller budget.
Average retail startup cost: $39,210
Restaurant Startup Costs
If you’re betting on bringing in bank by selling your grandma’s famous bánh mì, you could be looking at startup costs of anywhere from $40,000 for a used food truck or cart to up to $3.7 million to buy a franchise restaurant. Typically, small restaurant costs, including coffee shops, fall somewhere in the $80,000 to $3000,000 range.
Average startup cost: $375,000
How to Finance Your Startup Business
Many who want to start a business are overwhelmed by the initial costs, but there are several ways to fund your passion project.
Friends and Family
Perhaps one of the most common ways to raise money for your small business is to ask friends and family to invest in you.
Friends and family loans can be ideal for financing a new small business because you can negotiate low-interest rates, flexible pay-back schedules, and avoid bank fees. Of course, borrowing money from friends and family can quickly become complicated by family drama, so make sure to agree on conditions before taking out a family loan.
Outside Investors
When we hear about startup companies, we frequently hear about so-called “angel investors” sweeping in to fully fund new businesses. But there are other practical ways to fund your small business with outside investors.
Some small businesses use crowdfunding platforms to find investors who each contribute a small amount, and others use startup funding networks to find investors looking to fund their specific type of business. Outside investors want to know that your business is likely to succeed, so you’ll need a solid business plan to land outside funders.
Personal Savings and Investments
Most people end up covering some of their small business start-up costs out of their own pocket. Self-funding your new business venture can be the most convenient option. After all, if you’re your own funder, you don’t have to worry about family drama or picky investors. And putting your own money on the line can be an extra motivation to make sure that your business is set up to succeed.
Of course, it can seem overwhelming to save up enough money to fund your small business. Luckily, there are simple strategies to effectively manage your money.
Business Loans
If you’re looking to purchase equipment, inventory, or pay for other business expenses, a business loan might make sense for you.
There are various types of small business loans available, each with different rates and repayment terms. Note that in some cases, lenders may be reluctant to give loans to a brand-new business. You might need to put up some type of collateral to qualify for funding.
Personal Loans
A personal loan can be used for just about any purpose, which can make it attractive for entrepreneurs who want to turn their passion project into a reality. These loans are usually unsecured, which means they’re not backed by collateral, like a home, car, or bank account balance.
Personal loan amounts vary. However, some lenders offer personal loans for as much as $100,000. Most personal loans have shorter repayment terms, though the length of a loan can vary from a few months to several years.
While there’s a great deal of latitude with how you use the funds, you might need to get your lender’s approval first if you intend on using the money directly for your business. 💡 Quick Tip: Before choosing a personal loan, ask about the lender’s fees: origination, prepayment, late fees, etc. One question can save you many dollars.
The Takeaway
Going into business for yourself can be personally and professionally fulfilling. But it can also be expensive, especially if you’re starting from scratch. Estimating your startup costs early on can help ensure you’re on solid financial ground from the get-go. Labor, office space, and equipment are among the biggest expenses facing many entrepreneurs, but there are smaller fees and charges you’ll likely need to consider.
Fortunately, small business owners have no shortage of options when it comes to covering startup costs. Dipping into personal savings, or asking friends and family to invest are popular choices. Taking out a business loan or personal loan is another way to help finance a new business. The money can be used for a variety of purposes, and that flexibility can be especially useful when you’re just starting out.
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When cityapproval of a proposed $350 million skyscraper in downtown Los Angeles was on the line, project manager Hamid Behdad knew he had to give in to the last-minute demand of a planning commissioner to quadruple the number of electric vehicle charging stations in the condominium tower.
“When you are in the heat of the hearing in the last leg of the proposal, you aren’t going to say no,” Behdad said, even though he thought the requirement was overkill.
Today, with the Perla on Broadway complete and angling for buyers, Behdad said he is “extremely glad that commissioner forced us” to install chargers on 20% of the building’s parking stalls.
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“If we didn’t have these 90 chargers, we would be in real trouble selling units,” he said.
Landlords of apartments, hotels, office buildings and other commercial properties are rushing to avoid similar trouble. And owners of convenience stores, fast food chains, movie theaters and big box retailers are hoping to cash in on EV chargers to lure customers with time to kill as they fill up.
Charging centers are just the first step of commercial landlords scrambling to adjust to a historic burst of change in the world of transportation, with once fantastical notions like autonomous cars and air taxis nearing fruition.
Some companies are building charging centers that are a giant step beyond electrified gas stations. Elon Musk’s Tesla, for instance, is building a whimsical drive-in movie and diner complex in Hollywood where Tesla owners can entertain themselves while loading their batteries.
Fancy L.A. shopping centers such as the Grove and Westfield Century City have chargers, as do the more workaday Walgreens, Walmarts, Subways and 7-Elevens.
The arrival of Tesla’s Model 3 and other more affordable electric vehicles are helping EVs seize market share from gas-powered vehicles, putting more pressure on the historically slow-changing real estate business to get with the times.
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The immediate issue is installing enough chargers to meet growing demand and seize business opportunities. But other advances in transportation technology stand to rewrite centuries-old rules about how buildings are designed and built.
When cars no longer spew toxic fumes and can park and drive themselves, hotel and office lobbies might be designed for cars to drop off people inside and go off and do their own thing. In the not-too-distant future when visitors arrive by electric air taxis, buildings might need a second entrance lobby on the roof for the drones to land. Los Angeles officials are planning for such flying vehicles to be operational by the 2028 Olympics and are looking at how to regulate them.
“What happens when you blur boundaries between automobiles and architecture?” said Dylan Jones, a strategic planner specializing in mobility for architecture firm Gensler. “Do you need a garage in the building? Can you sell your car’s energy” to your landlord?
Such technological shifts could require dramatically different building designs, but few developers are looking that far ahead, he said. It’s the nature of the business that typically operates in five-year cycles of building and selling.
“The real estate industry is funny because developers don’t want to speculate about the far future,” Jones said. Developers “want to be able to just peek around the corner and see what’s coming” and be set up to succeed with technology that will exist when the building opens.
Los Angeles developer Walter N. Marks III sees a lure in new technology for a luxury apartment tower he is planning on Wilshire Boulevard with a mechanized parking system that will whisk cars out of sight and charge them if desired.
Tenants will drive their cars onto a movable metal pallet that will quickly park them underground andpower up electric vehicles if the resident plugs it in.
Marks is already operating a mechanized parking system at Helms Bakery District, a historic collection of shops and restaurants his family owns in Culver City. It doesn’t charge cars, but in the future he wouldn’t install a system that didn’t, he said.
All new automobiles and light trucks sold in California will be required to be zero-emission by 2035. The electric age is here. But the autonomous one is less certain. Marks is skeptical of predictions that consumers will give up their private automobiles in the near future and rely on fleets of robot taxis to ferry them about.
“I do believe that the car culture in Los Angeles is unique and very powerful,” he said. “People take their cars extremely seriously, and I think we need to recognize that and honor it.”
Jones thinks attitudes about driving your own car may change quickly when autonomous vehicles are reliably safe and data show that people are more likely to be killed by human-driven vehicles than autonomous ones.
“Drivers will become the smokers of the future; they’ll be socially shunned,” he said. “People will look at them and say , ‘Oh, you drove to work today? My kids are on the street. What are you doing?’”
That era is yet to come. At this point, the push is on among housing developers to provide charging stations to the growing number of tenants demanding them.
Socially conscious housing developer Cityview is rushing to add them to its existing apartments, including a building with only eight units, Chief Executive Sean Burton said.
Cityview usually adds as many stations as existing buildings’ electrical systems can handle, he said. Properties that weren’t constructed with charging in mind are often limited in how much power they can supply to chargers.
“In general I think building owners are adopting more slowly than they should,” Burton said. “We try to be more leading edge on sustainability issues.”
An apartment management company that manages 76,000 units for various owners is racing to meet rising demand in part by retrofitting garage electrical outlets to handle 210 volts for Level 2 charging, said Jackie Impellitier, vice president of operations for ZRS Management. That is the common commercial system for charging that takes about three to eight hours. The price of charging is added to tenants’ electrical bills.
“The thing we are all acknowledging is having charging stations is no longer an amenity, it’s a necessity” to attract and keep tenants, she said. “We are going to start losing renters if we don’t have easy and convenient access” to charging.
Most apartment developers and owners “weren’t even paying attention to EV drivers” as a category of tenants five years ago, Impellitier said, when Tesla stood practically alone as the provider of electric vehicles. “Now, every carmaker has an electric model.”
Charging stations are commonly installed and operated by third-party vendors. The big expense for landlords is getting sufficient electricity to garages and parking lots to support Level 2 charging. (The lower Level 1, plugging into a common 120-volt electrical outlet, can take more than a day if you’re charging from empty).
Level 3 chargers that can charge a car sufficiently in as little as 20 minutes run on at least 400 volts. They are expensive to set up and require electrical infrastructure not typically found in residential buildings
Automotive data provider S&P Global Mobility estimated in January that there are about 126,500 Level 2 and 13,487 Level 3 commercial charging stations in the United States today, plus another 16,822 Tesla Superchargers and Tesla destination chargers. The number of chargers grew more in 2022 than in the preceding three years combined, S&P said.
Among them are chargers at fast-food and other convenience businesses that hope customers buy things while their cars charge. Earlier this year 7-Eleven Inc. said it intends to build one of the largest fast-charging networks of any retailer in North America and already has chargers in four states, including California. Drivers pay through a phone app.
“7-Eleven will have the ability to grow its network to match consumer demand and make EV charging available to neighborhoods that have, until now, lacked access,” the company said in a statement.
Sandwich maker Subway is rolling out a variation on the theme — charging “parks” with multiple charging stations that also happen to have restaurants. These Subway Oasis charging parks will have picnic tables, Wi-Fi, restrooms, green space and playgrounds, the company said. They’ll be rolled out across the country at new or newly remodeled locations
Drug store chain Walgreens claims to be “the nation’s largest retail host” of chargers with more than 430 locations offering them. Other household-name retailers installing chargers include Ikea, Kohl’s, Walmart, Starbucks, Whole Foods, Taco Bell and theater chain Cinemark.
Additional concepts for charging stations with retail services intended to attract customers with time to kill are emerging.
Tesla, the giant of the EV industry with a growing network of fast chargers, is rolling out what it calls a supercharger diner and drive-in theater in Hollywood that promises an “American Graffiti” style pit stop for Tesla drivers perhaps running 24 hours a day.
Tesla is constructing the charging and entertainment complex on Santa Monica Boulevard — historic Route 66 — near a trendy stretch of Sycamore Avenue that has celebrity-favored restaurants, upscale shops and art galleries.
The car maker paid $16.7 million last year for a corner lot at Orange Drive where a shuttered Shakey’s Pizza Parlor was demolished to make way for the two-story project that could become an iconic venture for Tesla. The plan calls for a restaurant and two movie screens showing features that last half an hour, roughly the time it takes to charge a vehicle.
The complex is to have 29 fast superchargers and five Level 2 chargers available around the clock, while the theaters, visible from both cars and rooftop seating, would operate from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. A screen of bamboo would shield Tesla’s movies from the street.
On the I-15 freeway between L.A. and Las Vegas, the developers of a charging station set to open in January expect to charge around 10,000 vehicles per month. The 24-hour outpost will have 40 fast charging station around a yet-to-be-announced nationally known coffee seller, said Lester Ciudad Real, co-founder of StackCharge, which is developing the project near a freeway exit in Baker.
The opportunity to charge while parked at the office has also emerged as a must for tenants. A recent survey by real estate brokerage JLL found that tenant-demanded clauses calling for charging were among the least likely to be included in existing office space leases signed in years past but would be the top priority in future negotiations.
But office building owners are stuck trying to strike the right balance. They must keep up with growing demands without overspending on chargers that aren’t needed yet, said Rex Hamre, national director of sustainability for JLL. It’s usually easy to add up to 10 stations, but trying to make even 20% of the spaces charge-ready in a 600-car parking facility could incur steep costs for electrical infrastructure.
“We are still at the cutting edge of this transition,” Hamre said. “Innovative companies are taking advantage of it as an opportunity.”
EV refueling could lead to changes in how cities look in ways that have yet to be fully imagined, architect Jones said. Gas stations in prime urban locations could give way to hybrid buildings with coffee bars, co-working offices and meeting rooms, built around indoor charging points.
“Word Perfect made typing easier, and then computers became more ingrained and it did things a typewriter could never do,” Jones said. “We’re in the early stages where the first EV charging infrastructure we’re seeing is a replication of what we understand is a refueling station. But in the future they’re going to look and feel much different.”
Some folks might think of Milwaukee as the quieter, cheaper city to live in that’s “close enough” to Chicago, but this city is so much more than a bedroom community. It’s also not just a brewery city for the rest of us.
Milwaukee has its quirks but she’s one of the nicest waterfront cities on Lake Michigan with loads of Milwaukee secrets and unique hot spots.
There are tons of Milwaukee facts you should know about this city if you want to think of yourself as a true local. Check ’em out.
Milwaukee facts you really ought to know if you want to call yourself a local
1. The first Milwaukee fact is all about winter sports, specifically ice skating. The “Slice of Ice” skating rink in Red Arrow Park downtown is larger than Times Square! The rink allows up to 100 skaters comfortably around the ice at one time.
2. Milwaukee goes by many nicknames. Some of the most well-known include The Mil, Miltown and Brew City. You might also hear mention of Mildoggy, Cream City, Ma-waukee or Milburb, too.
3. Brew City is home to the world’s only Harley Davison museum. Why? Well, a teenager who worked at the town’s bicycle factory (Meiselbach) got the itch for something “better” and built himself an engine, which he attached to a standard bicycle frame. That kid was William S. Harley and he joined forces with childhood friend, Arthur Davidson to create the Harley-Davidson Motor Company. Milwaukee is where the motorcycle was born.
4. The Milwaukee Public Museum is home to the planet’s largest known dino skull – a T-rex skull, accompanied by a full-size replica of the beast’s body.
5. The same museum happens to have been around since 1892, though in a bit more modest form. The museum is home to over 4 million artifacts and specimens, too, making it a pretty impressive history museum for a smaller city like Milwaukee.
6. Cheeseheads might tell you Wisconsin and Milwaukee are all about the dairy and the football, but the town’s nickname of Cream City actually has nothing to do with the dairy industry. The nickname actually refers to the local clay. The area is rich in limestone and magnesium, resulting in beautiful bricks.
7. Milwaukee is known as the frozen custard capital of the world. The city has the largest gathering of frozen custard shops, selling that egg-yolk-based, rich, creamy version of “ice cream” so many of us love loading up with toppings and mix-ins. If you haven’t had custard concrete yet, you’re seriously missing out.
8. Milwaukee didn’t just give us the motorcycle, this magnificent city gave the world the QWERTY typewriter, the precursor to our contemporary computers and keyboards. The inventor, Christopher Latham Sholes, moved to Milwaukee to begin writing for a local paper and decided he needed a typewriting machine to keep up with the workload. So, now we have the typewriter.
9. Milwaukee’s art museum moves more than hearts and souls. It literally moves. Well, part of it does, anyway. The museum is one of the few in the world that has an intentionally moveable part. The wings of the “Calatrava” open in the morning to welcome visitors, then close up at night. It’s worth popping by for a watch, even if you don’t go inside.
10. Another creation birthed in Milwaukee is Carmex lip balm. In the 1930s, the creator, Wilfred Woelbing, whipped up his first batch on his home stove to relieve cold sore pain. Realizing he’d found a good thing, he started selling the product out of the trunk of his car. Eventually, he opened a facility for manufacturing it, and the lip balm is still being created right here in one of the Milwaukee suburbs.
11. What goes well with brewskies? A bowling alley, of course. And Milwaukee happens to have the oldest certified bowling alley in the U.S., located inside the Holler House on Lincoln Avenue. There are only two lanes, though, players score by hand and pinsetters still tend the lanes. You’ll have a pretty long wait to play, but if you’re into booze, you can sidle up to the bar and have a fabulous gab with the bartender. While there, you can check out another bizarre claim to fame: a collection of bras that hangs from the ceiling, started about 50 years ago by the beloved Marcy Skawronski, the late owner of the establishment.
12. How about this Milwaukee fact: There’s a lake under the city. The city, as some folks think, isn’t built on swampland, but over Lake Emily, located under the old Northwestern Mutual home office.
13. Cream City is the unfortunate location of the attempted assassination of former President Teddy Roosevelt, in 1916. Thankfully, his glasses cases and the manuscripts in his chest pocket saved his life. And, undaunted, the former president went on with his speech, despite having a bullet in him.
14. Milwaukee wasn’t always spelled the current way. It was “Milwaukie” in early records. The name itself comes from an Algonquin word, “millioke” which means “good,” “beautiful” and “pleasant land.”
15. The Bronze Fonz, a bronze statue of the character Arthur Fonzarelli from “Happy Days,” stands along the Milwaukee RiverWalk. The city’s proud of its most popular fictional character.
16. Another unofficial Milwaukee nickname is City of Festivals. The town knows how to party! With cultural events along the lake at the Henry Maier Festival Park and the incredible Summerfest, which has earned itself the “World’s Largest Music Festival.” As many as 900,000 folks show up to the amazing event every year. Yeah, approaching a million people at a single party!
17. Another invention to come out of Milwaukee is the answering machine. Joseph Zimmerman and George Danner created the first successful answering machine right in Milwaukee – and some of you reading this probably don’t even know what one of those is.
18. The Polar Plunge has been popular in Milwaukee on New Year’s Day since 1916. Folks strip down and jump into the freezing water of Lake Michigan. Some folks dress up in crazy costumes to up the insane factor for a little extra fun.
19. The city was pretty bummed when their baseball team The Braves moved south to Atlanta in 1966. But in 1969, the Seattle Pilots hit the bankruptcy wall and moved to Brew City to become the Milwaukee Brewers.
20. Located on the campus of Marquette University, there’s a tiny chapel named the St. Joan of Arc Chapel — and it’s older than America’s first official establishment by 300 years! The French village of Chasse built the tiny religious building and sent the ruins of the chapel to America after World War I where it was rebuilt in New York. The owners then gifted the chapel to Marquette University. The building was painstakingly transferred to the campus and installed. It’s the only medieval structure in the Western hemisphere that’s actively used for holding mass services.
21. Random Milwaukee fact: The city is home to the world’s largest collection of antique microphones. You can find them at an electronics store on East National Street — all 1,000+ of them! There are some pretty cool ones here, including one used during an expedition to Antarctica. There’s also an original telephone from Alexander Graham Bell, from 1876.
22. The Oriental Theatre of Milwaukee is a huge fan of the Rocky Horror Picture Show. In fact, the theatre has run the film every single month since January of 1978!
23. The American Family Field, where the Brewers play, has a retractable roof. It’s pretty cool to watch if you get the chance.
24. The walking path along the river downtown has a unique claim to fame: Its skywalk is the only one in the world that exists over boat traffic.
25. By the 1850s, Milwaukee was heavily inhabited by German immigrants and already boasted more than two dozen breweries. Some of them are still in business today, like Pabst, Miller and Schlitz.
26. And speaking of Pabst, in the Brewery District, located around the original site of the Pabst Brewery, is a vibrant community now with loads of Milwaukee apartments for rent here along with loads of nightlife.
27. In the early 1900s, Milwaukee ditched the idea of the two most popular political parties in the country and went with a third option: the Socialist Party. They voted in a Social mayor, Emil Seidel, then again twice more with other social mayors.
28. And speaking of mayors, Milwaukee has only had four mayors since 1960, including interim Mayer Marvin Pratt who only served for three months!
29. You’d think with all the breweries and beer in Beer City, Prohibition wouldn’t have been a thing. Well, you’d be wrong. The 1920s Prohibition laws nearly sank the city. The breweries, however, managed to find a way around this by serving up beer to their Catholic patrons eating fried fish on Fridays, as a means of “washing down” the fish fry. For those breweries wanting to abide by the laws, they served up soda, non-alcoholic beer, candy and even started snow plowing for survival.
30. The area surrounding Milwaukee was originally home to several Native American Nations, including the Menominee, Fox, Ho-Chunk (Winnebago), Sauk and Potawatomi.
31. The first Europeans to come through the area were French Catholic Jesuit missionaries who aimed to minister to the Native Americans and the fur traders of the region.
32. The Basilica of St. Josaphat is in the Lincoln Village neighborhood in Milwaukee, and it’s modeled after St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. The building boasts one of the largest copper domes in the world.
33. During the second half of the 19th century, Milwaukee became a hub of industry. Flour milling, iron founding and leather tanning were all major industries in the area, bringing prosperity to the city. For a time, Milwaukee was heavily involved in manufacturing automobiles, as well — including the Kissel Kar, the Ogden and the Nash — but that industry has become obsolete in the city now.
34. One of Milwaukee’s most interesting houses from the old days used to belong to Frederick Pabst, founder of Pabst Blue Ribbon. The Victorian-style mansion is on West Wisconsin Avenue and has 14 fireplaces, 10 bathrooms and a study filled with secret compartments.
All right, folks. We gave you the Milwaukee facts, but what have we missed? Leave your comments below!
Whether you’re a beer-drinking cheesehead or a transplant looking for some nightlife, weird museums and historical hotspots, these Milwaukee facts will get you headed in the right direction to sounding like a local in no time. Find your own place to live to enjoy the city now!
Thinking about becoming a transcriptionist? In this Transcribe Anywhere Review, I’ll go over whether this course is worth it or not. Transcription is a popular work from home job, and there’s a high demand for transcriptionists. Plus, you can make a good income with a home-based business. On average, a general transcriptionist makes about $45,000…
Thinking about becoming a transcriptionist? In this Transcribe Anywhere Review, I’ll go over whether this course is worth it or not.
Transcription is a popular work from home job, and there’s a high demand for transcriptionists.
Plus, you can make a good income with a home-based business. On average, a general transcriptionist makes about $45,000 per year, while legal transcriptionists can earn around $60,000 annually.
You might have heard of Transcribe Anywhere, a popular course for transcription training. It is self-paced training for both general and legal transcription, along with resources to improve your skills and find transcription jobs.
But, is it a worthwhile investment, and is it a worthwhile course to take?
In this Transcribe Anywhere review, I will go in-depth into the details of the course, talk about what’s included, and help you figure out if you should take this course. I’ll also answer some frequently asked questions and talk about six job alternatives related to transcription.
By the end of this article, you’ll have a clearer understanding of whether Transcribe Anywhere is the right choice for your career goals.
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In this free training, you will learn what transcription is, why it’s a highly in-demand skill, who hires transcriptionists, how to become a transcriptionist, and more.
Recommended reading:
Key Takeaways About Transcribe Anywhere
A transcriptionist turns audio and video files into text documents. They listen to what’s being said and type it up into a text format.
Transcribe Anywhere has in-depth training in general and legal transcription, plus comes with lifetime access.
The courses take around 2 to 6 months to finish – they are self-paced, so you can go as slow or fast as you want.
The courses will help you to improve your transcription skills, find jobs, and start a business.
Transcribe Anywhere Review
What is transcription?
Transcription is the process of converting spoken language into written text. As a transcriptionist, your job is to listen to audio or video recordings and accurately type the spoken words into text format. This freelance job requires good listening skills to accurately transcribe what is being said.
To be successful as a transcriptionist, you will need to be good at spelling, grammar, punctuation, and maintaining focus over time.
There are many types of transcription jobs available, like general, medical, or legal transcription. As a freelance transcriptionist, you can handle different types of projects and serve various clients.
For transcription, you’ll need a computer with word processing software (like Microsoft Word), quality headphones, a foot pedal for playback, and a comfortable chair for long hours at your desk.
You might be curious, can’t a computer automatically transcribe? Well, computers often make many mistakes when transcribing, so having a human do it is more accurate and dependable.
What is Transcribe Anywhere?
Transcribe Anywhere is an online transcription course created by Janet Shaughnessy. This course helps people learn how to transcribe and work from home. They have two main courses: a general transcription course and a legal transcription course. Both courses are very thorough and easy to follow, making them great for beginners.
You’ll get access to many learning resources, such as audio and video files, practice dictations, and quizzes. This makes sure that you understand what it takes to become a successful transcriptionist.
Transcribe Anywhere has a free training workshop so you can learn the basics and decide if transcription is the right career for you.
What’s in Transcribe Anywhere?
Below, I will be talking about what is in Transcribe Anywhere.
Transcribe Anywhere courses
Transcribe Anywhere has two main courses: General Transcription: Theory & Practice and Legal Transcription: Theory & Practice.
These courses have many modules which teach a wide range of topics related to transcription and include videos, tutorials, and practical lessons.
In a section below, I will be talking more about the lessons in each course.
How much does Transcribe Anywhere cost?
If you’re considering investing in the Transcribe Anywhere courses, you’re probably wondering about the price.
Here’s a breakdown:
General Transcription course – $497
Legal Transcription course – $597
General & Legal Transcription Bundle (Both Courses) – $797
Both Courses + Website & Support + Live Access to the Transcribe Anywhere Team – $2,997 (This is more expensive because it includes both courses, transcription equipment (software, headset, and foot pedal), plus a done-for-you professionally designed website).
There are also payment plans where you can split the cost into 4 payments.
Transcribe Anywhere also can be sampled through a free training: FREE Workshop: Is a Career in Transcription Right for You?
Community and support
Transcribe Anywhere comes with a helpful support group where students can engage in discussions and seek advice. You can connect with others who share your interests, providing valuable insights from individuals at different points in their transcription journey. This community serves as a valuable source of motivation, guidance, and career tips.
This community used to be in a Facebook group, but it was recently moved to a new forum dedicated to Transcribe Anywhere.
How to sign up for Transcribe Anywhere
To purchase Transcribe Anywhere, visit their website and choose the course that best suits what you’re looking for. Whether you’re thinking about General Transcription or Legal Transcription, both courses have a thorough curriculum that will help you find transcription jobs.
Here are the links for the two courses:
So, what is the difference between legal transcription and general transcription?
General transcription involves converting audio and video content into written form, and it is used across various industries like academia, marketing, interviews, and films. On the other hand, legal transcription requires the same skills as general transcription, but it also demands expertise in legal terminology and documentation.
Below is more information about each course:
General Transcription course
The General Transcription course is a training course in transcription to give students a versatile skill set for many different industries. The curriculum covers everything from basic transcription knowledge to perfecting skills for accurate transcriptions.
What’s included in this course?
Learn everything you need to know about transcription
How-to’s of transcription and software video tutorials
Video tutorials, worksheets, printable PDF cheat sheets
Tips, tricks, and step-by-step how-to from a 30+ year transcription veteran instructor
How to build and market your transcription business
Final exam and certificate
Inclusion in the Official Graduate Directory (upon passing the final exam)
Lifetime access to the entire course and student community
Here is what is in each module:
Module 1 – Laying the Foundation
The first module of the general transcription course teaches you the basics of becoming a transcriptionist. The lessons included are:
The Right Equipment You Need For the Job
Tools of the Trade
Standard vs. Strict Verbatim
Types of GT Jobs
Formatting a Transcript
Cyber Security
Module 2 – Essential Skills for Excellent Transcription
This module teaches you the correct usage of punctuation, spelling, and more so that you can provide high-quality and accurate transcriptions. The lessons included are:
Parts of Speech
Sentences, Fragments, and Run-ons
Phrases
Clauses
Punctuation Makes Perfect
Punctuation Practice
Spelling: The Lost Art
Transcribing Numbers
Miscellaneous Transcription Conventions
Module 3 – Time-saving Tools for Efficient Transcription
This module teaches you different ways to work faster so that you can make more money. The lessons included are:
Using Text Expanders and Shortcut Keys
Shortcut Keys for the Top 102 Most Frequently Used English Phrases
Spell Check, Search & Replace, Modern Usage Notes
Commonly Used Transcriptionist’s Notes
Using Transcription Templates (includes downloadable templates)
How to Download Practice Transcription Files (video tutorial)
Time Coding
Midterm Exam
Module 4 – Introduction to Practice Dictations
Module 4 is all about practicing your transcription skills. There are several practice lessons along with an answer key so that you can check your work.
Level 1 Practice Dictations: Clear audio in simple, short videos
Level 2 Practice Dictations: Audio-only Files; Non-American English accents
Level 3 Practice Dictations: Transcribing “Strict Verbatim” Style
Level 4 Practice Dictations: Transcribing Multiple Speakers
Level 5 Practice Dictations: Semi-Poor Audio Quality & Research Skills
Level 6 Practice Dictations: Working with Time Codes
Level 7 Practice Dictations: Transcribing Poor Audio with Foreign Accents
Module 5 – Final Exam and Certification of Completion
This is the module where you take the final exam, and it is graded by a human on the Transcribe Anywhere team. You are given feedback as well so that you know what you can improve on. If you pass the exam (you can take it as many times as needed), you are given a Certificate of Completion.
Module 6 – Building Your Business
This module teaches you how to build your transcription business and goes over topics such as:
Income Guidelines and Setting Your Rates
How to Handle Finances and Taxes When Working as a Freelance Transcriptionist
Developing a Business Plan
Marketing and Advertising
Customer Service Essentials
Connecting with Clients
Where to Find Contract Work
Top Business Directories for Local Marketing
How to Find Clients on YouTube
Opportunities for Expanding Your Services
Please click here to learn more about General Transcription: Theory and Practice.
Legal Transcription course
The Legal Transcription course, on the other hand, is tailored for those wanting a specialization. This course dives deep into legal transcription, giving an in-depth understanding of legal terminologies, formats, procedures, etc. Like the General course, this one too is comprehensive; however, it is focused primarily on the legal sector.
Legal transcriptionists are in demand by a range of professionals and organizations, including attorneys, court reporters, academics, insurance companies, and research institutions, among others.
What’s included in this course?
14 full-length training modules
Legal transcription style guide plus downloadable templates of legal forms and documents
Learn the latest advancements in the world of legal transcription
Video tutorials, worksheets, printable PDF cheat sheets
Tips, tricks, and step-by-step how-to from a 30+ year transcription veteran instructor
Marketing how-to/tutorials
Final exam and certificate
Inclusion in the Official Graduate Directory (upon passing the final exam)
Lifetime access to the entire course and student community
BONUS – Transcriptionist Pro Website Theme
Here is what is in each module:
Module 1 – Introduction to Legal Transcription– This module goes over what legal transcription is and goes over the basics.
Module 2 – Tools of the Trade – In this module, software and other tools are discussed. You will learn what equipment you need and where to get it.
Module 3 – Lawyers Litigate; Transcriptionists Punctuate– This module goes over parts of speech, sentences, phrases, punctuation, legal terminology, spelling, and so much more.
Module 4 – Microsoft Word for Legal Transcriptionists – This module teaches students how to notate transcripts, how to use shortcuts to increase typing speed, and more.
Module 5 – Basic Legal Correspondence & Practice Dictation– This module teaches students how to transcribe common documents from lawyers and other legal professionals, such as memos, client consultations, examinations, property deeds, and more.
Module 6 – The Legal Process and Court Procedure– This module helps students better understand the legal process, such as descriptions of types of law, steps in a civil or criminal case, and the anatomy of a court transcript.
Module 7 – Forms and Templates – This module helps students better understand different legal documents that are used in judicial proceedings.
Module 8 – Practice Transcription of Court Proceedings – In this module, students can practice transcribing court proceedings.
Module 9 – Depositions – This module helps students better understand the deposition process. There are also practice audio files that students can work on.
Module 10 – Law Enforcement – Students can practice law enforcement transcripts in this module.
Module 11 – Conferences and Legal Association Meetings – This module is all about how to transcribe legal meetings and conferences.
Module 12 – Time Coding for Legal Transcriptionists – This module teaches students how to transcribe documents that include time stamps.
Module 13 – Resources and Final Exam – This module links to helpful tools and resources such as writing and style guides, legal resources, dictionaries, and more. The final exam is also located in this module.
Please click here to learn more about Legal Transcription: Theory and Practice.
Is Transcribe Anywhere legitimate?
Transcribe Anywhere success stories
Transcribe Anywhere has helped many students start their transcription careers. Many students of Transcribe Anywhere have built successful transcription businesses after completing the course.
Here are some Transcribe Anywhere testimonials:
“I purchased this general transcription training course recently to help me get started in a new career and I couldn’t be happier with my decision. This is an extremely comprehensive course. There’s NOTHING out there like this (believe me, I looked) and it has ALL you need to get started! I highly recommend this course!” – Laura P.
“I took kind of a backward journey to Janet’s course! I started work doing legal transcription several months ago. I took the Transcribe Anywhere course “Legal Transcription: Theory and Practice” as a way to increase my skill set. The course was great! I discovered what I didn’t know, which not only helps me with my current work but also with obtaining my CET certification, which I want to do in the next few months. If anyone is wondering about legal transcription work in general, I can tell you I love it. The work is so interesting to me, and the ability to work from home is wonderful. I have a fairly active family, and I love being able to switch my hours around and work early, late, or weekends if I need to.” – Krista K.
“My husband was recently transferred to another state for work and I cannot join him until my son graduates from high school. This created a financial burden for us as we were going to have a house payment and a rent payment in another state. I needed to generate some income for us quickly but I didn’t want to work outside the home. I began the legal transcription course in April. There were definitely times when I thought I wouldn’t be able to complete the course because it is not easy. However, I knew I needed to do this for my family and I persevered, passing my final exam at the end of July. I began searching for work soon after, and within two weeks was hired on doing government work. Staying the course and completing what I started has allowed me to generate an additional $1600 per month for my family. If you are looking for a reputable course, this is it! Without this course, I would never have been able to work from home and generate this kind of income.” – Tracy R.
You can read more Transcribe Anywhere testimonials here.
Transcribe Anywhere review BBB
Transcribe Anywhere has a positive reputation on BBB with an A+ rating.
Pros and Cons of Transcribe Anywhere
A Transcribe Anywhere review wouldn’t be complete without talking about the pros and cons of Transcribe Anywhere.
Pros:
Well-rounded course material – The courses teach you everything you need to know about starting a transcription business, all from the very beginning.
Focused on building a career – The courses at Transcribe Anywhere are not just about learning transcription. They also help students set up a successful transcription business.
Flexibility – The self-paced nature of the courses at Transcribe Anywhere lets you learn at your own pace. This can be a benefit for those balancing work, family, or other commitments while pursuing the course.
Cons:
Cost – The courses at Transcribe Anywhere are several hundred dollars, which may be a barrier for some people to begin them.
Time commitment – Since Transcribe Anywhere courses teach you everything that you need to know, they do take a decent amount of time to finish at 2 to 6 months.
As you can see, the advantages of Transcribe Anywhere outweigh any potential downsides. The helpful course lessons make it worth the time and cost for many people.
Frequently Asked Questions About Transcribe Anywhere
Below are answers to common questions about Transcribe Anywhere and their courses.
Is Transcribe Anywhere worth it?
Should you take a course to learn transcription if you’re just starting out?
Enrolling in a transcription course can be a good idea for many. This course teaches skills like fast and accurate typing, and how to use transcription software. They can also help you find jobs and kickstart your career.
However, if you’re a quick learner with strong grammar and typing skills, you might find beginner transcription work without needing a course. There are also free resources online, like tutorials and practice tests, to help you get started.
Yet, for specialized and higher-paying transcription jobs, like legal or medical transcription, a course is often necessary.
As long as you’re willing to put in the hard work to master the skill, the courses seem to be worth it.
Who is Transcribe Anywhere for?
Transcribe Anywhere is designed for people looking for a career in transcription or anyone looking to improve their transcription skills. Whether you’re a beginner or an experienced transcriptionist looking to improve your skills, Transcribe Anywhere has helpful training.
How long does Transcribe Anywhere take?
Both the general and legal transcription courses take around 2 to 4 months to finish. The two courses are self-paced, which means you can take as much (or as little!) time as you need to complete them.
Who is Janet Shaughnessy?
Janet Shaughnessy is the founder of Transcribe Anywhere and an experienced transcriptionist. She also runs her own transcription business called Zoom Transcription Services. She created Transcribe Anywhere to teach others the skills needed to become successful transcriptionists and find clients.
How much can a beginner transcriptionist make?
Beginner transcribers’ earnings depend on factors like the company you work for and how fast you can type. Typically, transcriptionists make between $15 to $30 per hour. It’s worth knowing that transcription jobs often pay based on the duration of the audio you’re transcribing. This means that if you have excellent listening and typing skills, you’re likely to complete assignments more quickly, allowing you to make more money. While transcription work won’t make you wealthy, it offers a legitimate way to earn money from home with the flexibility to structure your workweeks.
This is an online typing job that depends a lot on how fast you can type – the faster you can type, the more money you can most likely make.
Recommended: 20+ Best Jobs That Pay $20 An Hour Or More
Is there a free trial or sample course available for Transcribe Anywhere?
Transcribe Anywhere has free training: FREE Workshop: Is a Career in Transcription Right for You?
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In this free training, you will learn what transcription is, why it’s a highly in-demand skill, who hires transcriptionists, how to become a transcriptionist, and more.
Is Transcribe Anywhere accredited?
General and legal transcription programs do not have national accreditation. But, Transcribe Anywhere is recognized as an approved school by the American Association of Electronic Reporters and Transcribers (AAERT).
How does Transcribe Anywhere compare to other transcription courses?
Transcribe Anywhere has received a lot of positive reviews for its very helpful courses and is often said to be the best transcription course out there.
Jobs similar to transcription
In this section, we’ll look at some jobs similar to transcription.
Blogger
Bloggers write content on different topics, such as finance, travel, lifestyle, food, and more. There is a lot of typing involved as a blogger, which is what makes it a little similar to transcribing.
I have been blogging for over 10 years, and it’s my favorite way to work from home. Highly recommend it!
If you are interested in becoming a blogger, I recommend signing up for the How To Start A Blog FREE Course. In this free course, I show you how to create a blog, from the technical side to earning your first income and attracting readers.
Recommended reading: How To Monetize A Blog: How I Grew A $5 Million Blog
Proofreader
If you’re skilled at spotting grammar and punctuation mistakes, proofreading could be an ideal job for you. As a proofreader, your role is to review written material, making sure that it’s free from any grammatical, spelling, or punctuation errors.
If you are interested in finding online proofreading jobs, I recommend signing up for this free 76-minute workshop all about how to start a freelance proofreading business. You can sign up for free here.
Recommended reading: 20 Best Online Proofreading Jobs For Beginners (Earn $40,000+ A Year)
Virtual assistant
A virtual assistant (VA) provides administrative, technical, or creative support to clients from a remote location (such as their home office). VAs may handle emails, schedule appointments, or manage social media accounts.
If you are interested in finding part-time virtual assistant jobs or even full-time ones, I recommend signing up for the free workshop 5 Steps To Become a Virtual Assistant. Here, you will learn how to become a virtual assistant, even if you have no experience.
Recommended reading: Best Ways To Find Virtual Assistant Jobs
Translator
If you are fluent in two or more languages, working as a translator might be a great fit for you. As a translator, you’ll be converting written text from one language to another while preserving the meaning and context.
Freelance writer
Freelance writers write articles, blog posts, ebooks, or even social media content for clients.
Recommended reading: 14 Places To Find Freelance Writing Jobs – (Start With No Experience!)
Bookkeeping
Bookkeepers are responsible for helping businesses take care of their finances, such as by tracking receipts and spending.
If you are interested in finding online bookkeeping jobs, I recommend signing up for this free workshop all about finding a virtual bookkeeping job. Here, you will learn how to start a freelance bookkeeping business. You can sign up for free here.
Recommended reading: Online Bookkeeping Jobs: Learn How To Get Started Today
Transcribe Anywhere Review – Summary
I hope you enjoyed this Transcribe Anywhere review.
If you want to become a transcriptionist, then the two courses sold by Transcribe Anywhere are a great place to start your new career.
Transcribe Anywhere’s courses help you turn your transcription skills into a career. They teach not only transcription but also how to find good-paying clients and run your business successfully.
These courses benefit anyone seeking a flexible remote job. Whether you’re a mom wanting to work while your kids are at school, a retiree wanting to boost your income, or a digital nomad looking for a reliable source of income on the move, Transcribe Anywhere can help you reach your goal.
A great free resource is FREE Workshop: Is a Career in Transcription Right for You? You’ll learn what transcription is and why it’s a highly in-demand skill, who hires transcriptionists, what it takes to become one, and more.
Do you want to become a transcriptionist? Do you have other questions for this Transcribe Anywhere Review?
High-frequency trading (HFT) firms use ultrafast computer algorithms to conduct big trades of stocks, options, and futures in fractions of a second. HFT firms also rely on sophisticated data networks to get price information and detect trends in markets.
A key characteristic of HFT trading — in addition to high speed, high-volume transactions — is the ultra-short time time horizon.
How high-frequency trading impacts markets is a controversial topic. Proponents of HFT say that these firms add liquidity to markets, helping bring down trading costs for everyone. HFT critics argue such firms are an example of how bigger, better-funded players have an advantage over smaller retail investors, and that HFT technology can be used for illegal purposes like front-running and spoofing.
What is High Frequency Trading?
Ultrafast speeds are paramount for high-frequency trading firms. Executing these automated trades at nanoseconds faster can mean the difference between profits and losses for HFT firms.
There are broadly two types of HFT strategies. The first is looking for trading opportunities that depend on market conditions. For instance, HFT firms may try to arbitrage price differences between exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and futures that track the same underlying index.
Futures contracts based on the S&P 500 Index may experience a price change nanoseconds faster than an ETF that tracks the same index. An HFT firm may capitalize on this price difference by using the futures price data to anticipate a price move in the ETF.
Another type of HFT is market making. Not all market makers are HFT firms, but market making is one of the businesses some HFT firms engage in.
A big market-making business for HFT firms is payment for order flow (PFOF). This is when retail brokerage firms send their client orders to HFT firms to execute. The HFT firms then make a payment to the retail brokerage firm. 💡 Quick Tip: Are self-directed brokerage accounts cost efficient? They can be, because they offer the convenience of being able to buy stocks online without using a traditional full-service broker (and the typical broker fees).
How HFT Works and Makes Money
High-frequency trading enables traders to profit from miniscule price fluctuations, and permits institutions to gain significant returns on bid-ask spreads. HFT algorithms can scan exchanges and multiple markets simultaneously, allowing traders to arbitrage slight price differences for the same asset.
Bid-Ask Spreads 101
High-frequency trading firms often profit from bid-ask spreads — the difference between the price at which a security is bought and the price at which it’s sold.
For instance, an HFT may provide a price quote for a stock that looks like this: $5-$5.01, 500×600. That means the HFT firm is willing to buy 500 shares at $5 each — the bid — while offering to sell 600 shares at $5.01 — the ask. The 1 cent difference is how the market maker makes a profit. While this seems small, with millions of trades, the profits can be sizable.
How wide bid-ask spreads are is also a marker of market liquidity. Bigger chunkier spreads are a sign of less liquid assets, while smaller, tighter spreads can indicate higher liquidity.
Recommended: What Is Quantitative Trading?
Payment For Order Flow 101
When it comes to payment for order flow, high-frequency traders can make money by seeing millions of retail trades that are bundled together.
This can be valuable data that gives HFT firms a sense of which way the market is headed in the short-term. HFT firms can trade on that information, taking the other side of the order and make money.
Background on High-Frequency Trading
High-frequency trading became popular when different stock exchanges started offering incentives to firms to add liquidity to the market. Liquidity is the ease with which trades can be done without affecting market prices.
Like momentum trading, the HFT industry grew rapidly as technology in the financial space began to take off in the mid-2000s.
Adding liquidity means being willing to take the other sides of trades and not needing to get trades filled immediately. In other words, you’re willing to sit and wait. Meanwhile, taking liquidity is when you’re seeking to get trades done as soon as possible.
During 2009, about 60% of the market was said to be HFT. Since then, that percentage has declined to about 50% as some HFT firms have struggled to make money due to ever-increasing technology costs and a lack of volatility in some markets. These days the HFT industry is dominated by a handful of trading firms.
Pros and Cons of High-Frequency Trading
HFT comes with certain pros and cons.
Pros of HFT
High-frequency trading is automated and efficient, thanks to its use of complex algorithms to identify and leverage opportunities.
HFT may create some liquidity in the markets.
Cons of HFT
Because high-frequency trades are conducted by institutional investors, like investment banks and hedge funds, these firms and their clientele tend to benefit more than retail investors.
Because high-frequency trades are made in seconds, HFT may only add a kind of “ghost liquidity” to the market.
Some HFT firms may also engage in illegal practices such as front-running or spoofing trades. Spoofing is where traders place market orders and then cancel them before the order is ever fulfilled, simply to create price movements.
The Debate Over High Frequency Trading
High-frequency trading is a controversial topic, and HFT firms have been involved in lawsuits alleging that they create an unfair advantage and potentially create volatility.
Criticism of HFT
One complaint about HFT is that it’s giving institutional investors an advantage because they can afford to develop rapid-speed computer algorithms and purchase extensive data networks.
Critics argue that HFT can add volatility to the market, since algorithms can make quick decisions without the judgment of humans to weigh on different situations that come up in markets.
For instance, after the so-called “Flash Crash” on May 6, 2010, when the S&P 500 dropped dramatically in a matter of minutes, critics argued that HFT firms exacerbated the selloff.
HFT critics also argue that such traders only provide a very temporary kind of liquidity that benefits their own trades, but not retail investors. A December 2020 paper published by the European Central Bank also argued that too much competition in the HFT industry can cause firms to engage in more speculative trading, which can harm market liquidity. 💡 Quick Tip: Before opening any investment account, consider what level of risk you are comfortable with. If you’re not sure, start with more conservative investments, and then adjust your portfolio as you learn more.
Defense of HFT
Defenders of high-frequency trading argue that it has improved liquidity and decreased the cost of trading for small, retail investors. In other words, it made markets more efficient.
This can be particularly important in markets like options trading, where there are thousands of different types of contracts that brokerages may have trouble finding buyers and sellers for. HFT can be helpful liquidity providers in such markets.
When it comes to payment for order flow, defenders of HFT also argue that retail investors have enjoyed price improvement, when they get better prices than they would on a public stock exchange.
The Takeaway
It’s tough to be an investor in many markets today without being affected by high-frequency trading. HFT firms are proprietary trading firms that rely on ultrafast computers and data networks to execute large orders, primarily in the stocks, options, and futures markets.
HFT proponents argue that their participation helps markets be more efficient. Critics argue that they have a big advantage over smaller investors, given how much they pay for information and data networks.
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FAQ
Is high-frequency trading profitable?
High-frequency trading aims to profit from micro changes in price movements through the use of highly sophisticated, ultrafast technology. That said, HFT investors are subject to losses as well as gains.
Is high-frequency trading illegal?
High-frequency trading has been the subject of lawsuits alleging that HFT firms have an unfair advantage over retail investors, but HFT is still allowed. That said, HFT firms have been linked to illegal practices such as front-running.
What is an example of high-frequency trading?
High-frequency trading can be used with a variety of strategies. One of the most common is arbitrage, which is a way of buying and selling securities to take advantage of (often) miniscule price differences between exchanges. A very simple example could be buying 100 shares of a stock at $75 per share on the Nasdaq stock exchange, and selling those shares on the NYSE for $75.20.
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According to IBM’s annual Cost of a Data Breach report, the average cost of a data breach to an organization in 2021 was 4.24 million dollars. That’s the highest average figure in its 17-year history. Most of these breaches were the result of compromised user credentials (where an attacker is able to gain unauthorized access to an account) and are often more costly where remote working is involved.
These breaches aren’t just costly for large enterprises, though. Many small organizations fail to recover from a serious data breach (where the average cost is just under $700,000), with 60% of them going out of business within 6 months of an attack.
But of course, we can also fall victim to cyber attacks as individuals, and the cost to us can be significant, too. If you’ve been unlucky enough to have been a victim of a data breach, or (worse), identity theft, you’ll know that you can lose eye-watering and potentially crippling sums: this hacking victim lost over $13k in 2020.
But when we talk about the cost of a cyber attack to an individual, we’re not talking simply about financial losses.
How to Avoid a Cyber Attack
Psychologically, the after-effects of a cyber attack can be damaging. The feeling that you’ve been manipulated by a stranger (and your personal data has been ‘invaded’) can be deeply unsettling. It can lead to a serious loss of confidence, and make you increasingly wary of trusting others. It can cause embarrassment, too, as a victim of a hack can be made to feel as if it’s their fault.
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In the most extreme cases (where a cyber attack has led to a significant loss of funds or even the loss of a job) the effect can be even more harmful, leading to stress, anxiety and even depression. Whatever the financial cost of an attack, the emotional cost is often far more significant in the long run.
Fortunately, there are a number of steps you can take to secure your data and ensure you’re aware of the threats you might face while online.
Check If Your data Is at Risk
Without knowing it, your data might have already been involved in a breach. A breach usually occurs when a hacker gains access to the database of a service or company which contains users’ private information, including (but not limited to) usernames, passwords, email addresses and, in the worst cases, bank account details. If you’ve been involved in a data breach, some of your personal information might have been made public without you realizing, which could put you at risk of identity theft.
But don’t panic. You can check if your email address or phone number has been exposed in a data breach by going to Have I Been Pwned. If any of your accounts may have been compromised, change those passwords immediately, and make sure you’re not reusing the same passwords across multiple accounts.
Use Strong Passwords
Speaking of passwords, nearly a quarter of Americans have admitted to using a password like “password” or “123456”. These should clearly be avoided, as they’re easily guessable and won’t take long for a hacker to crack. The longer and more complex a password is, the stronger it is. You can check the strength of your passwords at Security.org.
Using a “passphrase” (a series of unrelated words with spaces in between) is often more effective than using a simple combination of letters and numbers, as these can be harder to crack. This can help to protect your accounts from threats like brute-force attacks, in which attackers will submit vast numbers of possible passwords in an effort to guess correctly.
Protect Your Website(s)
This action may not apply to you, of course — but if you happen to run a website (for a small business, perhaps, or even just a hobby such as blogging) then your personal information is inextricably linked to it, and it can be a huge point of vulnerability. If someone gains access to it through a CMS exploit or a comparable weakness, they can learn your passwords, uncover private information, or even hold the site hostage in an effort to extort you.
Keeping extortion efforts at bay is largely a matter of investing in technical safeguards. Top managed hosting platforms are particularly good at keeping ahead of potential attackers, and some (e.g. Cloudways with its 2022-launched Cloudflare CDN integration) are investing in native features that make it all but impossible for run-of-the-mill hackers to gain access. Overall, though, the biggest thing you can do is refrain from storing any sensitive information on your website. Anything intended for public viewing inevitably makes a bad storage vault.
Beware of Suspicious Emails
One of the most common ways individuals fall victim to cyber crime is through phishing attacks, a type of ‘social engineering’ where an attacker sends a fraudulent email to an intended victim enticing them to click a suspicious link or hand over personal information. Phishing emails often appear as though they’re from a legitimate organization (like your bank, for example) but there are some classic signs to look out for.
Check the email domain (the bit after the @ symbol) to see if it looks legitimate. If it’s misspelled (or a public domain like gmail.com) it could be a scam. Next, check for poor spelling and grammar in the body of the email, as phishing attempts are often shoddily written. If you have the slightest suspicion that the email may not be legitimate, do not respond or click any links in the email. To ensure you’re aware of the telltale signs, IT Governance has produced a handy guide on the ways to detect a phishing email.
Update Your Software
Cyber threats are constantly evolving, with hackers developing newer, more sophisticated ways to gain access to our devices and our personal data. That’s why it’s so important that our operating systems and software programs are always updated to the latest available versions. These newer versions will fix previously discovered vulnerabilities and offer greater protection against emerging threats.
If you’re still using an outdated operating system, for example, it may contain weaknesses that can quite easily be exposed by an attacker, especially if those weaknesses are public knowledge. Use a tool like Soft4Boost to check for out-of-date and potentially vulnerable software, and update to the latest supported versions where necessary.
Secure Your Devices
It’s also important to protect our physical devices, as a lost or stolen device could present an easy opportunity for an attacker to gain access to your personal data. Ensure a password or PIN is always required to access the device (and don’t use anything easily guessable like 0000 or 1234). Many devices now enable facial recognition or fingerprint access, so enable these functions where possible. When you’re not using your device, make sure it’s locked.
Backing up your data is essential, too, so that it can be recovered in the event of a data breach. Most computers will include a backup facility, while mobile phone data can usually be backed up using cloud storage. Finally, beware of unsecured public Wi-Fi networks (where no password is required for access) as these are often prime targets for an attacker, and disable your Bluetooth function when you’re not using it.
Cyber-attacks are on the rise as hackers and criminals learn about and adapt to methods put in place by government agencies to prevent scams. The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) reported monetary losses totaling more than $1.4 billion in 2017. [1]
While anyone, regardless of age, can be a target of common money scams, many hackers specifically target seniors. Nearly 17% of reported cyber crimes in 2017 came from victims over the age of 60. And with losses of over $342 million, seniors are losing more money to scams than any other age group. [1] Considering the average age of retirement in the U.S. is 60, this trends is a serious threat to the financial security of many Americans as they enter retirement.
With an empty nest and retirement on the horizon, your senior years should be the time to pursue your passions—not get scammed out of your hard-earned savings.
This guide covers the basics of recognizing and preventing common online money scams, plus provides tips to help seniors navigate the online world safely.
Table of Contents:
Why Scammers Target Seniors
Pew Research shows that seniors are adopting technology, such as the Internet and smartphones, more than ever before. [2] If you’re among the technology adopters, you know how great technology is for connecting with your children and grandchildren who live far away and with friends you haven’t seen in years.
Con artists and scammers exploit seniors online believing that they aren’t Internet-savvy, despite many proving otherwise. Here are a few of the reasons seniors are a frequent target of scams online:
You generally have larger savings accounts and valuable assets.
You’re perceived as more trusting and polite.
You may not recognize and report the scam right away.
As you age, cognitive function and physical ability declines.
How to Recognize a Money Scam
As online scammers get increasingly sophisticated, certain types of fraud can be hard to spot even for the most adept Internet user. To keep from falling victim to scammers’ tactics, make yourself aware of common warning signs and stay vigilant. A gut feeling is always a good place to start. For example, if something feels too good to be true, it probably is. Also, if a request from someone you know feels out of character, trust your instincts and do your research before taking action.
An easy way to know if something is a likely con is to use the three U’s for identifying money scams.
Unexpected: If you receive an email from someone you trust making an unexpected or unusual request for money or personal information, contact them personally to confirm.
Urgent: If the tone of the message is threatening or asks you to act immediately, take time to think it over or tell a friend before acting. If you’re still unsure, check the IC3’s Alert Archive to see if there have been other incidents of the same scam.
Unsecure: Make sure the address bar reads “https://” and not “http://” when entering personal or financial information online. If a URL begins with “https://” that tells you the site is secure and protects information that’s transmitted. If you provide sensitive information to an unsecure site, it can easily be stolen.
Top 10 Online Scams That Affect Seniors
Scammers see senior citizens as easy victims, but you can prove them wrong by educating yourself on some of their common schemes. They often use things like healthcare, retirement savings and online dating to lure unsuspecting seniors into giving over their personal information. Here are 10 of the most common online schemes that target seniors.
1. Medicare Scams
If you’re 65 or older, you might rely on Medicare for your health coverage. Scammers know this and whenever Medicare sends out new cards or makes changes to its policies, they capitalize on opportunities to steal personal information. This can be done over the phone or by email. The scammer claims to be a Medicare representative and insists there’s a fee associated with getting you a new card or that your card has been compromised—neither of which is true.
According to Medicare.gov, “Medicare, or someone representing Medicare, will never contact you for your Medicare Number or other personal information unless you’ve given them permission in advance.”
How to protect yourself: Don’t respond to the email and mark it as junk or spam. If you need to speak with Medicare, call them directly at 1-800-MEDICARE (1-800-633-4227).
2. Health Insurance Scams
In order to make a profit, criminals may try to offer you health insurance plans that have little to no real value. In some cases, they may be selling discount cards or limited-benefit plans, but rarely explain how limited the coverage really is.
How to protect yourself: Never purchase insurance on the spot. Do your research on the company and thoroughly read the details of the coverage offered.
2. Counterfeit Medications
This scam is especially dangerous because it can cost you not only your money but your health. Prescription drugs aren’t cheap, and most seniors are dependent on a medication or two to maintain their health. Scammers exploit this by offering fake prescription medications for purchase online at a low cost. The number of counterfeit medication scams under investigation by the FDA is up four times since the 1990s. [3]
How to protect yourself: Always go through licensed medical professionals to get any prescriptions and pick up your medications at a local pharmacy. If you enjoy the convenience of ordering online, many reputable pharmacies allow you to refill your prescription online or have your medications delivered.
3. Phishing
Scammers often capitalize on your trust in people and institutions by posing as them in emails, on calls or in text messages. For example, the Social Security Scam is a form of phishing where scammers pose as government officials who need your social security information. Once they’ve gained your trust, they use that to gather personal, sensitive information like your Social Security number, bank/credit card information and/or passwords.
How to protect yourself: Always check the sender’s email address or phone number before clicking any links in emails or messages that request personal information.
4. Dating and Romance Scams
Online dating can be great for people of all ages—seniors included. But it’s important to practice the same kind of cautions online as you do in real-world dating. Online dating scams are one of the biggest and most costly scams, and scammers can break your heart and bank account if you’re not careful. It’s a red flag if someone builds a rapport with you only to turn around and ask for money. Even if the request seems heartfelt, like wanting to come see you, it could still be a play solely for money.
How to protect yourself: Take things slow, do your research and never send money to someone you don’t know personally. Even if you’ve met them, run the other way if they ask for money after you’ve known them only for a little while.
5. Investment Scams
In these cons, scammers take advantage of your need to build or maintain retirement savings. A lot of seniors are concerned about making their money last, which makes them vulnerable to ads or requests that promise high-profit, no-risk investments.
How to protect yourself: Stop and think, “Is this too good to be true?” Never accept an offer on the spot. If you’re not sure, talk it over with a trusted friend or check the IC3’s Alert Archive along with other online sources, such as the Scams and Frauds page on USA.gov.
6. Homeowner Scams
Seniors are at a point in life where they’re more likely to own their homes. While some may want to stay right where they are, others have grand dreams of moving to a new location—maybe somewhere warmer. In this scenario scammers work to identify the value of your property and then offer you a reassessment—for a fee, of course.
How to protect yourself: If you want to move, only work with a reputable realtor or go the for sale by owner route.
7. Sweepstakes and Lottery Scams
These scams use a surprise factor to trick you into thinking you need to click something to “claim a prize.” It can come as an email, a web pop up or even within a web page you’re reading.
How to protect yourself: If you receive an email that claims you’re a winner, it’s almost guaranteed to be a scam. On the off chance that you actually signed up for a sweepstakes, check your email inbox to see if you have a confirmation of your signup from the same email address. Better, yet, pick up the phone and call the company before you click on a link in an email or on a website.
8. Fake Charities
Seniors may feel more compelled to donate to those in need or contribute to disaster aid, but unfortunately fake charities often try and get donations after a natural disaster.
How to protect yourself: Do your research. Call a number to speak with someone from that charity or search the charity name and a phrase like “scam” or “fraud” in Google. You can also use the organizations listed by the FTC to research reputable charities.
9. Malware Scams
Using antivirus software is a great way to protect yourself from fraud. Unfortunately, scammers often pose as antivirus providers and instead install malware on your computer. These advertisements are often pop ups or web page ads.
How to protect yourself: Make sure anything you download to your computer is from a reputable source and never give anyone you don’t trust remote access to your computer.
10. Threats and Extortion
These types of scams utilize fear to get the desired outcome. Typically the scammer tells you that something terrible is going to happen if you don’t give them money or personal information.
How to protect yourself: Never act impulsively. Consider whether the scenario seems realistic. If you’re unsure or scared, talk to a friend. If the caller acts like a relative, hang up and call them back to ensure it is, in fact, your relative and not a stranger pretending to be your relative.
How to Protect Yourself Online
It’s good to know the basics about scams and the accompanying warning signs, but there are steps you can take to further protect your computer and online identity from fraud including. settings, tools and government resources.
Keep your firewall turned on. A firewall monitors incoming and outgoing network traffic to prevent unauthorized access to and from a private network. It protects your computer from hackers attempting to crash it or gain sensitive information.
Keep your computer’s operating system up-to-date. Make sure your computer software is up-to-date. You can usually subscribe to automatic updates online. If you keep your system updated, your computer will continue running smoothly and you’re sure to have the latest fixes for any security holes.
Turn on two-factor authentication. Two-factor authentication requires both a password and an additional piece of information to access your account. The second piece of information is typically a message sent to your phone or a code generated by an app or token.
Look out for unsecure networks and websites. If you get a warning message saying “Unsecure Wi-Fi Detected,” don’t visit any banking websites or store any passwords while on that network.Also, most browsers will warn you when you visit an unsecure site. The feature should already be enabled on most computers, but if not, make sure you enable this setting.
Install or update antivirus software. Antivirus software prevents malicious software programs from installing on your computer. Malware programs allow others to see your computer activity. Be wary of any ads on the Internet for these types of software as they are often not real solutions and instead are fraudulent.
Use a password manager. A password manager, like LastPass or Dashlane, lets you have a unique, strong password for every secure website—in other words, not your grandchild’s birth date. You won’t have to remember them all, because the password manager stores and encrypts your passwords for your protection.
Check your credit often. Major changes toyour credit can indicate potential fraud. Consider signing up for a free credit score and checking it every few weeks as a way to watch for changes.
Find Information About Active Scams
What To Do If You’re the Victim of a Scam
The best thing to do if you suspect you’ve been the victim of a scam is to report it. IC3 chief Donna Gregory says, “We want to encourage everyone who suspects they have been victimized by online fraudsters to report it to us.” IC3 receives over 800 complaints a day on average, so don’t let embarrassment keep you from reporting something.1 Reporting a scam helps law enforcement investigate similar scams and take action to bring the scammers to justice.
Steps to Take After Fraud
To report a scam, file a claim online at www.ic3.gov. You’ll be asked to provide complete information about the crime as well as any additional relevant information.
Once you’ve reported the scam to authorities, you also want to take action against any other loss. IC3 recommends that victims take actions, such as contacting banks, credit card companies and/or the credit bureaus to block accounts, freeze accounts, dispute charges or attempt to recover lost funds.
Keep a close watch on your credit reports and consider using credit monitoring tools.
In February 2018, the Justice Department made a coordinated sweep of elder fraud cases that resulted in several initiatives to reduce the number of annual cases. [4] This included building local, state and federal capacity to fight elder abuse, supporting research to improve elder abuse policy and practice, and helping older victims and their families.
Each year the number of Internet crimes increases and scammers become more sophisticated, but spreading knowledge and awareness is one of the best ways to combat the issue. Arming yourself with a basic understanding of the dangers online can help you protect yoursel f from fraud.
Additional Resources
Sources:
1 Federal Trade Commission Latest Internet Crime Report Released
2 Pew Research Center Tech Adoption Climbs Among Older Adults
3 National Council on Aging Top 10 Financial Scams Targeting Seniors
4 United States Department of Justice Justice Department Coordinates Nationwide Elder Fraud Sweep of More Than 250 Defendants
Looking for jobs where you work alone? If you’re an introvert or simply want minimal human interaction, here are 40 ideas.
Looking for the best jobs where you work alone? If you’re an introvert or simply want minimal human interaction, here are 40 ideas.
With there being so many different types of jobs out there nowadays, more and more people are looking for jobs where they can be by themselves, away from the busy office or customers. They find comfort in jobs where they can do tasks on their own, letting them really concentrate and do well in what they do best.
For me, I have worked mostly alone for over a decade now, and I wouldn’t change it for the world. I enjoy the flexibility of working on my own and having less stress.
Jobs that let you work this way are usually appealing to introverted individuals, those who like a calmer setting, or people who just work better with more independence.
Knowing which jobs let you work alone is really important for those who want to find the right mix of being on their own and getting things done well.
Top Jobs Where You Work Alone
There are 40 jobs where you can work alone listed below. If you want to skip the list, here are some jobs that you may want to start learning more about first:
Benefits of Jobs Where You Work Alone
More and more people are looking for jobs where they can work alone, and I get it! I have been working mostly alone for over a decade and I really love it.
After all, a person spends so much of their time working, so you might as well like what you’re doing. If you’re an introvert, or if you like working by yourself, there are jobs where you can do just that.
Some of the positives of working alone include:
Less stress if you’re an introvert – If you’re an introvert, then you may feel stress when working with other people, such as coworkers and customers.
Getting more stuff done in less time – Working alone may mean that you can complete your tasks faster because there are fewer distractions.
Having a more flexible schedule – Some jobs where you work on your own sometimes let you choose when you want to work, as long as you get the work done.
If you’re looking for jobs where you work alone, think about what you’re good at and what you enjoy (and also think about what you don’t like!).
40 Jobs Where You Work Alone
Below are 40 jobs where you can work on your own. The jobs below range from earning a part-time to a full-time income too.
1. Proofreader
Proofreaders check and edit written content for errors and inconsistencies, and this job requires strong attention to detail and excellent grammar skills.
If you’re good at paying close attention to details, then proofreading could be an ideal work-alone job for you.
Authors, website owners, and students often hire proofreaders to improve their work. There’s a high demand for proofreaders, and you can find jobs through many different platforms.
Even the most skilled writers can make mistakes in grammar, punctuation, and spelling. That’s why hiring a proofreader can be very helpful for pretty much anyone and everyone.
If you want to find online proofreading jobs, I recommend joining this free 76-minute workshop focused on proofreading. In this workshop, you’ll learn how to begin your own freelance proofreading business.
Recommended reading: 20 Best Online Proofreading Jobs For Beginners (Earn $40,000+ A Year).
2. Virtual Assistant
One of my first side jobs was as a virtual assistant and it was a fun and flexible way to earn income. While you do have a boss when you are a VA, a lot of the tasks that you do will require you to take charge and complete them by yourself in your own home.
A virtual assistant is someone who helps people with office tasks from a distance. This could be from your home or while you’re traveling. It might include things like replying to emails, setting up appointments, and managing social media accounts.
This job can pay you more than $50,000 each year.
If you want to find part-time or full-time virtual assistant jobs, I recommend joining the free workshop called “5 Steps To Become a Virtual Assistant“.
Recommended reading: Best Ways To Find Virtual Assistant Jobs
3. Bookkeeper
Bookkeepers are people who keep track of all the money-related things for businesses such as writing down sales, keeping a record of expenses, and making financial reports.
This is a job where you can work alone and a typical salary is $40,000+ each year. Plus, you’ll mainly be dealing with numbers and not people.
You can join the free workshop that focuses on finding virtual bookkeeping jobs and how to begin your own freelance bookkeeping business by signing up for free here.
Recommended reading: How To Find Online Bookkeeping Jobs
4. Blogger
Blogging is a great way to make money while working on your own. It’s one of the reasons I really enjoy it, haha! I get to work by myself, for myself, and I can pick the projects I want to work on.
As a blogger, you write content for others to read online. You get to choose what you want to write about as well as how you want to make money blogging because there are so many different options (like affiliate marketing or displaying ads).
You can begin a successful blog about a specific topic like finance, travel, lifestyle, family, and many others.
Blogging is my main source of income, and it has completely transformed my life. I have the freedom to travel whenever I want, set my schedule, and be my boss.
Since I began Making Sense of Cents, I’ve made more than $5,000,000 from my blog. I earned this money by working with companies through sponsored partnerships, affiliate marketing, display ads, and selling online courses.
Learn more at How To Start A Blog FREE Course.
5. Delivery Driver
Delivery drivers pick up and drop off packages. And, they get to work by themself most of the time as they are in the vehicle alone.
A delivery driver may drive a car, truck, or even a bike, depending on the company they work for. They don’t usually have a boss watching them all day nor have to deal with very many customers for long periods.
6. Book Reviewer
Book reviewers read books and share their thoughts in book reviews.
There are websites where you can get paid for sharing your thoughts about books and you may earn money through PayPal or a bank transfer, and sometimes you get to keep the book you reviewed.
They don’t just want positive reviews either, they want to know what you really think! You see, authors and publishers like to send out free copies of their books so that they can get honest opinions. Just like us, they know it’s helpful to read reviews before deciding if a book is worth the time.
Some sites that pay for book reviews include Online Book Club, Kirkus Media, and BookBrowse.
Recommended reading: 7 Best Ways To Get Paid To Read Books
7. Deliver RVs or Cars
You can earn money by traveling across the country and delivering vehicles for people and dealerships. Sometimes you’ll be towing the vehicle, and other times you’ll be driving it.
If you want a job with minimal human interaction, this can be a good one to look into as you are mostly by yourself. You simply pick up the vehicle, drive by yourself, and then drop it off.
For this job, you need to have a clean driving record. Those who do this type of work can earn around $300 to $400 (or much more!) for each vehicle they deliver. It depends on the distance they are traveling and what is being transported.
8. Digital or Graphic Designer
A graphic designer is someone who creates designs for others, such as people and businesses.
As a digital designer, you may be making things like images, printables, planners, t-shirt designs, calendars, business card designs, social media graphics, stickers, logos, and more.
Recommended reading: How To Make Money As A Digital Designer
9. Pet Sitter and Dog Walker
Pet sitters and dog walkers take care of pets while pet owners are away, such as on vacation or in the hospital. Some of the tasks include feeding, taking dogs for walks, and playing with them.
You might have pets come to your home or you can go to their owner’s place (this is something that is agreed upon beforehand). Dog walkers earn around $20 for every hour walking a dog. Looking after someone’s pet overnight can earn a person around $25-$100+ or even more each day.
I have personally paid a person to watch my dogs overnight in their home $100 a day. She was so wonderful too and my dogs loved her.
Now, with this job, you’re not working entirely alone, because you will be with pets. But, they can be great friends and companions!
Rover is a company you can sign up with and list your dog walking and pet sitting services.
10. House Cleaner
House cleaners make sure homes and businesses are nice and clean. They might work alone or with a small group. They can earn between $25 to $50 an hour for cleaning for others.
You can work for a cleaning company, but you’ll likely make more money if you have your own business.
Starting this kind of business isn’t expensive because you likely already have the cleaning supplies you need. You can advertise your services on Facebook, tell your friends and family, or make an account on Care.com.
11. Transcriptionist
An online transcriptionist’s main task is to listen to video or audio files and then type out everything that is being said, a process known as transcribing. The aim is to accurately write down what is heard, without any mistakes in spelling, grammar, or punctuation.
There are many different types of transcriptionists as well – legal, general, and medical transcriptionists.
This job requires strong typing and listening skills, and you can work from home all by yourself.
Online transcriptionists earn around $15 to $30 per hour on average, with new transcribers on the lower end of that.
A helpful free resource to take is FREE Workshop: Is a Career in Transcription Right for You? You’ll learn how to get started as a transcriptionist, how you can find transcription work, and more.
Recommended reading: 18 Best Online Transcription Jobs For Beginners To Make $2,000 Monthly
12. House Flipper
House flippers buy, renovate, and sell properties for a profit. This job involves managing renovation projects, and you can work alone or with a small crew.
House flipping is when someone buys a property at a lower price, fixes it up (like painting, redoing the kitchen, and improving the outside appearance), and then sells it for more money to make a profit. This is done to make a quick return on the investment.
Recommended reading: 10 Best Books on Flipping Houses To Make Money
13. Grocery Shopper
Grocery shoppers buy groceries for people like you and me, offering a helpful service for those who don’t have the time or can’t shop on their own. You’ll work on your own and talk to clients through an app on your phone.
One service you can easily sign up with to become a grocery shopper is Instacart. This is a popular site for people who want to make extra money by shopping for and delivering groceries.
Instacart shoppers make money from a mix of base pay, tips from customers, and sometimes bonuses or rewards (like for finishing orders during busy times).
You can sign up here to get started as a grocery shopper with Instacart.
Recommended reading: Instacart Shopper Review: How much do Instacart Shoppers earn?
14. Affiliate Marketer
Affiliate marketers share products or services with their followers for a commission. You do this by placing a referral link on your website, blog, or social media (like Instagram). When people use that link to buy something, you then get a commission.
For example, if you share a link to a book on Amazon and someone buys it through your link, you make some money. Companies like Amazon want people like you to help them sell things, so they’re happy to work with you as it helps them.
If you get someone to sign up through your special link, the company gives you a commission for telling others about their product. It’s like a little thank-you for your help!
This is one of my favorite jobs where you work alone from home, and what I do full-time!
Click here to get Affiliate Marketing Tips – Free eBook.
15. Flea Market Flipper
Flea market flippers find underpriced items at flea markets, yard sales, and thrift stores, then resell them for a profit. This job requires a good eye for valuable items and the ability to research market value.
Finding items to resell may be one of the best jobs to work alone on this list because we all have things in our house we could probably sell. Plus, there are always things that you can buy for a low price and possibly resell for a profit.
If you are looking for work-alone jobs, this is a great one to look further into.
I recommend signing up for this great webinar, Turn Your Passion For Visiting Thrift Stores, Yard Sales & Flea Markets Into A Profitable Reselling Business In As Little As 14 Days, that will help you learn how to make money by flipping items as well.
16. Sell Printables on Etsy
Creating and selling digital printables on Etsy is a great way to work independently and earn money.
Making printables can also be a pretty hands-off job since you only have to create one digital file for each product, and you can sell it as many times as you like. It’s quite affordable to start because you only need a laptop or computer and an internet connection.
Printables are digital items that customers can download and print at home. They can include things like bridal shower games, grocery shopping checklists, budget planners, invitations, printable quotes for wall art, and patterns.
I recommend signing up for Free Workshop: How To Earn Money Selling Printables. This free training will give you great ideas on what you can sell, how to get started, the costs, and how to make sales.
17. Mechanic
Mechanics diagnose and repair vehicles, working independently or in small shops. Strong problem-solving skills and knowledge of automotive systems are important.
Being a mechanic is a job where you often work on your own. While they might work in a garage with other mechanics, they often have their own tasks to do. They need to be really careful and pay close attention to make sure everything gets fixed just right.
18. Dog Treat Baker
Do you really like dogs? If you do, here’s a way to work mainly alone and make an extra $500 to $1,000 or even more each month.
You don’t need to know how to bake beforehand, because you can learn this skill. You can make special treats like cupcakes, cookies, cakes, and more, all for dogs.
You can sign up for this free training workshop that shows how to start a dog treat bakery.
You can learn more at How I Make $4,000 Per Month Baking Dog Treats (With Zero Baking Experience!).
19. Amazon Seller
Selling items on Amazon is a job where you work alone (mostly) and don’t have to deal with customers face-to-face.
Even if you’re new to selling on Amazon, you can make money by selling household goods, books, electronics, and more.
If you’re interested in learning about starting an Amazon business, you can join this free training that will teach you how to sell products on Amazon and make around $100 to $500+ each day.
20. Stock Photo Photographer
Stock photo photographers work on their own, and this job can be done without talking to anyone for the most part. Almost all of the tasks can be done with just a camera and then uploading photos on a site.
Stock image sites are some of the most popular ways for photographers to sell their pictures. These are sites where customers can buy pictures for websites, TV shows, books, social media accounts, and more. There are stock photos that I have purchased within this blog post that you can take a look at to see an example.
One great thing about stock photo sites is that they can be a great form of passive income. You can take pictures, upload them, and earn money from an older photo for months or even years in the future. There is no need to talk to anyone as everything is online and mostly automated.
Some stock photo websites include Shutterstock, iStock, DepositPhotos, and Dreamstime.
Recommended reading: 18 Ways You Can Get Paid To Take Pictures
21. Social Media Manager
Social media managers post on social media accounts for businesses and their goal is to bring in new customers and help a business grow.
Social media managers may post a picture or a video of a product or the company, join in a viral trend to get more views (such as on TikTok), answer common questions from customers, and more.
This includes social media platforms such as TikTok, Pinterest, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.
Salary can vary, and this job can be done part-time or full-time.
22. Landscaper
A landscaper improves and maintains outdoor areas, such as by taking care of the lawn, planting flowers, or even renovating a whole outdoor area (such as to make it more enjoyable to sit outside and have company).
If you’re interested in jobs where you work alone outside, this is one to consider as you will be outdoors and working on your own a lot. Customers may talk to you occasionally, but you are mostly by yourself.
Landscapers work at houses, apartment complexes, businesses, or somewhere else.
23. Data Entry Clerk
Data entry clerks enter, update, and check information in databases or spreadsheets. They type information such as numbers and names into computers to keep things organized and recorded.
This job can sometimes be done remotely and alone, with minimal supervision or interaction with customers.
Data entry jobs typically pay around $15-$20 an hour.
24. Editor
Editors review and improve written content for clients and they usually work on their own as most of their time is spent editing content.
Their job is to read articles, blog posts, advertising, books, and more to make them better. They fix any mistakes in grammar or spelling and help the words flow smoothly.
Editors typically earn anywhere from $40-$60+ an hour.
25. Freelance Writer
Freelance writers write content for clients, such as blog posts, advertising, and more. Freelance writing jobs where you work by yourself are common as you’ll be given a topic to write about from the client, and when you are done you may be given some feedback (such as paragraphs to improve or add to). But, that is usually as much human interaction as you’ll get if you want.
You can find different writing jobs on platforms like Upwork and Fiverr, or even find clients on your own.
I was a freelance writer for many years before switching to working full-time writing here on Making Sense of Cents. It is a great career path where you can work from home mostly by yourself.
Recommended reading: 14 Places To Find Freelance Writing Jobs – (Start With No Experience!)
26. Translator
Translators convert written content from one language to another, requiring fluency in at least two languages. Freelance and remote opportunities are available.
If you know another language, you might be able to find a work-from-home job where you can earn money by reading books and translating them. Another option is to get paid for proofreading or editing translated books to ensure they read smoothly and accurately.
There are lots of places you can find translation jobs, such as UpWork, Babelcube, Today Translations, Ulatus, Fiverr, and more.
27. Computer Programmer
Computer programmers write and maintain computer software, often working alone on projects.
They use coding to tell computers what to do and create all sorts of things like apps, games, and websites.
28. Canva Template Designer
Creating and selling Canva templates online allows you to work alone.
A Canva template is like a ready-made design that you can use for things like making posters, Pinterest pins, ebooks, or presentations. It’s like having a helpful starting point if you’re not super good at designing things from scratch. Canva templates come with empty spaces where you can put in your own words and pictures and you can also change colors and fonts to make them just how you like. They’re really helpful for people who want their things to look nice without spending a lot of time on it.
Making and selling Canva templates can be a great way to earn extra money as you only need to create them once, and then you can sell them as many times as you like.
Recommended reading: How I Make $2,000+ Monthly Selling Canva Templates
29. Voice Over Actor
A voice-over actor is the person whose voice you hear but don’t see in YouTube videos, radio ads, educational videos, and more.
Voice-over actors many times work right from their own homes!
Voice actors don’t need experience for this job (eventually, it does help, yes). Instead, they need to have a voice that the company is looking for.
Recommended reading: How To Become A Voice Over Actor And Work From Anywhere
30. Truck Driver
Truck drivers are people who move things from one place to another. To do this job, truck drivers need a commercial driver’s license (CDL). This job often involves working by yourself for long hours.
The salary for a truck driver can depend on things like what kind of items they’re moving and the miles they have to drive. Usually, they can make between $45,000 and $75,000 or even more in a year.
31. UPS Driver
UPS drivers deliver packages to people’s homes and businesses. They do this mostly on their own, in their trucks by themselves.
UPS drivers make a good income and they earn about $30-$45 per hour or even more, depending on how many years they have worked at UPS and where they work.
32. Security Guard
Security guards protect property and/or people, and they usually work alone.
A security guard’s salary depends on things like where they work, how long they’ve been doing the job, and what exactly they have to do. Usually, they can make between $25,000 and $35,000 in a year.
33. Self-Storage Facility Owner
Self-storage facilities are where people store their belongings, like boxes of their mementos, vehicles, RVs, and more.
Owning a self-storage business can be a way to make money and run a business with low expenses, plus they typically only have a couple of employees.
Many of the times when I’ve been to a self-storage lot, it’s been just the owner or an employee of theirs working. There are almost no customers either.
Recommended reading: How To Invest In Self-Storage For Beginners
34. Laundromat Owner
Similar to a self-storage business, a laundromat typically does not have very many employees.
Running a laundromat can be a way to make money, with low costs, as most things are automated (the washer and dryer machines do all of the washing).
Recommended reading: Are Laundromats Profitable? How Much Do Laundromats Make?
35. Get Paid To Text
When getting paid to text, you will many times be talking to someone else, but it is all done through text messages.
Some jobs may include:
Text Therapy or Coach
Answering questions, such as if you are a mechanic, doctor, lawyer, veterinarian, home expert, appraiser, computer expert
Customer support
Recommended reading: 28 Ways To Get Paid To Text And Make Money
36. Survey Taker
Taking online surveys and answering questions for focus groups is not a full-time job, but it can be a way to make some extra money.
You share your thoughts and answer straightforward questions, and in return, you can receive cash or rewards such as Amazon gift cards.
The survey companies I recommend signing up for and the best-paying survey sites include:
American Consumer Opinion
Survey Junkie
Swagbucks
InboxDollars
Branded Surveys
Pinecone Research
Prize Rebel
User Interviews – These are the highest paying surveys with the average being around $60.
Recommended reading: 18 Best Paid Survey Sites To Make $100+ Per Month
37. Twitch Streamer
Twitch is a site where you can make money playing video games, talking online in a live stream, and more. A streamer may be able to make money from their own home and all alone. Yes, they do need to be live recording their life, but they are their own boss.
There are many ways to make money on Twitch such as with paid subscriptions, display ads, selling merchandise (like t-shirts and mugs), and more.
Some of the most successful Twitch streamers make hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars each year, but, it’s important to know that most don’t earn much at all.
Recommended reading: How Much Do Twitch Streamers Make?
38. Litter Cleanup Worker
If you own a business, it’s important to keep your place clean and tidy. Nobody likes to see trash lying around, right?
That’s why some business owners are happy to pay for someone to clean up before their business opens for the day. A clean area makes the place look nice and welcoming for customers.
This business can be started all alone and earnings on average are about $30 to $50 for every hour you work. It’s pretty simple too. You’ll just need a broom, a dustpan, and some tools to help you pick up litter easily. It’s almost like taking a stroll while you work! Plus, you can choose when you want to do it, so it can fit nicely into your schedule.
Recommended reading: How I Started A $650,000 Per Year Litter Cleanup Business
39. Google Rater
A Search Engine Evaluator, also known as a Google Rater, is a person who looks at websites and blogs and gives them a score based on how good and helpful they are for Google.
You don’t need to be a tech expert or have a fancy background for this job. Google actually wants regular people, just like you, to rate websites. Plus, you can do this in your own language. Google works in lots of different countries, so you can help out right from where you are.
Recommended reading: How To Become a Search Engine Evaluator
40. Actuary
An actuary is a financial expert who helps businesses figure out and manage their money-related risks, such as for insurance, pensions, and investments.
They use mathematics and statistics to forecast what might happen and help companies make smarter financial decisions.
Actuaries can earn a good salary, and as they get more experience and pass more exams, they can make even more money. Depending on where they work and how experienced they are, actuaries earn average salaries of anywhere between $70,000 to well over $100,000 each year.
Frequently Asked Questions About Jobs Where You Work Alone
Here are answers to common questions about finding jobs where you work alone.
What are jobs with no interaction?What jobs allow me to work by myself?
Yes, there are jobs where you don’t need to talk to people a lot. For example, being a night shift security guard, a transcriptionist, or a stock photo photographer.
How can I work alone from home?
There are jobs where you can work alone at home such as being a blogger, a transcriptionist, or a computer programmer.
What are jobs where you work alone with no degree?
Many jobs don’t require bachelor’s or master’s degrees (a high school diploma will work for many on the list above) and offer the opportunity to work independently. Mowing lawns, painting houses, repairing cars, or walking dogs often don’t require formal education and focus more on skills and experience.
Which part-time jobs are best suited for solitary workers?
Many of the jobs in this blog post can be done part-time, such as any of the freelance jobs, house cleaning, dog walking, and taking surveys. That is one of the joys of many of the jobs above – you can choose your schedule.
What trade jobs can one perform independently?
Trade jobs that you can perform independently include carpentry, welding, or plumbing. These professions usually require specific skills or certifications but may offer opportunities to work alone.
Are there any tech jobs ideal for people who prefer to work alone?
Yes, there are tech jobs that can work well for people who want to work on their own such as web developers, software engineers, or data analysts. These roles usually involve solving problems and working independently, though there might be some instances where collaboration is needed from time to time.
What jobs can be done in isolation with no experience required?
Jobs such as house cleaning, taking surveys, and flea market flipping can be good places to start for entry-level jobs.
How can I find work-alone job opportunities near me?
To find work-alone job opportunities near you, try perusing local job boards, classified ads, or online sites like Indeed or LinkedIn. You can also network with people in your community or join online forums related to your interests to find jobs.
Jobs Where You Work Alone – Summary
I hope you enjoyed this article on jobs where you work alone.
These jobs are like a safe space for people who like being by themselves. It’s a place where you can really concentrate and do your own thing with low social interaction. Jobs where you work alone often appeal to introverts and individuals who require fewer distractions.
Jobs like writing, coding, and freelancing let you work on your own. Not everyone may like working alone, but for those who do, it can be a lot less stressful and overwhelming.
I have been working mostly on my own for years now, and I really love it!
Looking for an app that does it all – automate savings, track spending, investing, and get a free $250 cash advance?
Welcome to my Albert App Review.
Looking for an all-in-one personal finance app that will help you manage your money, save for your future, or even get a free cash advance when you need it?
In that case, you’ve come to the right spot!
In this Albert App Review, I’ll go over everything you need to know about the popular Albert app, and I will discuss its features, benefits, how the app can help you, and more.
You can sign up for the Albert app here.
The Albert app is becoming more and more popular as a money tool that can simplify your life. Instead of needing a bunch of different financial apps, Albert can help you consolidate your phone and need less. The app is a one-stop shop for your monthly financial needs – it automates savings, helps you manage your budget, and has spending, borrowing, and investing tools. With this easy app and the wide range of tools that you can use, Albert has many benefits.
This app reduces the need for multiple apps since it offers a wide range of tools and features.
If you’re looking for a money saving app, Albert can be a great option to start with. There’s a reason why it’s one of the top money apps in the App Store!
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Albert is one of the most popular personal finance apps, and it is designed to make it easier to save and invest all in one place. This app has features for saving, investing, and budgeting.
Quick Summary – Albert App Review
Albert app is a financial management tool that helps you to save, spend, and invest right in the app
The Genius feature allows you to ask any money question and get a real response from a real person
Albert app’s cash advance feature can get you up to $250
The app is free, but some features do require a monthly subscription
Albert App Review
What Is The Albert App?
The Albert app is a personal finance app that will help you manage your money better by making it easier to save and invest all in one place. This app has features for saving, investing, budgeting, and more.
It has many different features, such as budgeting tools, real-time alerts, and a helpful service where you can ask an expert money questions and get real answers catered to your situation. The app strives to make financial management easier and more organized for everyone.
Albert makes it easy to manage your finances, eliminating the need for visits to physical bank branches or formal phone calls with a financial expert. With the ease of using an app, you can easily track your financial well-being, helping you stay organized, reach goals, and find smart ways to save, spend, and invest. Albert stands out by simplifying your personal finances, all while keeping things very easy to use.
Albert also has a feature where you can get a small cash advance of up to $250 with no late fees, interest, or credit check. This advance is repaid from your next paycheck, giving you the option to avoid high-interest personal loan lenders for those in need of quick cash.
There are no hidden fees, and it is free to sign up. They do have a paid subscription plan that you can sign up for which will give you access to different features such as financial advice from experts. I talk about the paid part further below.
Does The Albert App Give You Money?
Albert provides instant cash advances to users who need small amounts of money before their payday. They do not charge late fees, interest, or run a credit check for this feature.
This can be a great way to not pay high rates on payday loans for when you just need a little bit of cash.
How it works is that the Albert app will send you up to $250 from your next paycheck straight to your bank account. Then, you simply repay them when you get paid. You can pay a small fee to get your money instantly, or you can wait 2-3 days and get the cash advance for free.
Albert Instant is available to all members of the Albert app who qualify, whether they are a paid subscriber or not. Now, not everyone will qualify. To determine your eligibility for a cash advance, they look at things such as if your income is direct deposited into your connected bank account, if your bank account has been open for at least 2 months and has a balance greater than $0, and if you’ve received consistent income in the past 2 months from the same employer.
Albert App Features
The Albert App has many other features, such as:
Banking with Albert
Albert has a user-friendly banking service through its partnership with FDIC-insured Sutton Bank. This includes features like no minimum balance requirement and access to your paycheck up to two days early.
With an Albert account, you can also earn cash back rewards, such as getting a cash back bonus on gas, groceries, and more when you purchase items with your Albert debit card. You can earn an average of $2.00 per gas tank fill-up. You do need to be a Genius subscriber to take advantage of this benefit.
The app also has fee-free ATMs for their paid subscribers at over 55,000 ATMs (when using the Albert Mastercard debit card).
Albert Savings
Albert Savings is the app’s automatic savings tool that is available to Genius subscribers. It saves money from your linked bank account to your Albert Savings account.
This automated savings tool helps you build up your funds without the stress of manual transfers. It analyzes your income and expenses to calculate the amount you can save comfortably. Or, you can manually set your own savings schedule.
The Albert saving feature can help you to save more money and reach your goals.
The money in your Albert Savings account is yours, and you can withdraw it at any time.
Albert Budgeting
The Albert Budgeting feature is super handy and packed with a bunch of useful tools to help you manage your money with ease.
The Albert app has budgeting tools to help you track your income and expenses, find fees that you shouldn’t be paying, and watch your financial progress. The app will send real-time alerts and notifications to help you stay on track with your budget. But, that’s not all.
Other features of Albert Budgeting include:
The Albert app can negotiate your bills so that you can save money. The app will help you lower your bills such as for cable TV, internet, cell phone, and more.
The Albert app also makes it easy to see all of your budgeting info in one quick place, such as tracking your recent bills, seeing how much you’re spending in different categories, and more.
The app will categorize your spending so that you can see where your money is going (this can help you to realize where you may need to cut back)
Also, the app will help you find hidden charges and subscriptions that you may not be using.
These are all very helpful features that can help you save a lot of money in the long run.
Albert Investing
If you’re new to investing or you’re looking for an easier way to invest, the Albert Investing side of the app can make getting started much, much easier.
With Albert Investing, you can start an investment portfolio that matches the amount of investment risk you want to take on and your financial goals. The app even provides investment guidance and lets you start investing without any minimum investment amount needed.
So, that means that you can start investing with Albert Investing with just $1.
You can get started investing in the app by answering some questions (the app wants to learn more about you so that it can make selections based on your personal situation). The app will then choose individual stocks or funds for you to invest in (or, you can choose these yourself if you know what you want to invest in). You can even ask the app to only invest in themes as well, such as companies that are interested in sustainability and the environment. You can then continue to invest automatically or on a recurring schedule. The auto-investing feature can be a great tool if you are looking to save time and invest regularly without really thinking about it.
Albert Genius
This is one of my favorite parts in the app.
The Albert Genius service gives you financial advice from a team of expert financial advisors (this is a team of real human experts that you are able to talk to – not a robot), available through a paid monthly subscription in the app.
You can ask their experts any money question that you have, whether it’s a big or small question, a general question, or something more specific to your personal situation. Your questions can be about anything from credit cards, budgeting, student loans, investing, credit card rewards, life insurance, your personal financial life, and more. These experts will help you answer your questions 7 days a week too. And, there’s no limit to the amount of questions you can ask.
This is a very nice feature to have access to.
Some of the questions you can ask include:
How do I start a budget?
How do I lower my car insurance? Am I paying too much?
How much can I personally afford to spend on a house?
How can I improve my credit score?
How much money should I have in my emergency fund?
Should I use extra cash to pay off debt or invest?
Can you help me to better under travel miles and credit cards?
There are so many different questions that you can ask the team at Albert!
Albert Protect
Albert Protect is a feature for paid subscribers on the app.
The Albert Protect feature monitors your money around the clock. The app will alert you if something suspicious comes up for any of your connected financial accounts or your identity. The app continuously watches for suspicious activity on your credit report, the dark web, data breaches, and unusual charges.
How Does The Albert App Work?
Signing up for Albert is easy!
Simply click here to get started.
Or, you can head to the Google Play or App Store, depending on your device (Android or iOS), and download the app. Once installed, the app will walk you through the setup process. There’s no need to worry about a credit check as Albert doesn’t require one for signing up.
Next, you’ll be asked some questions about yourself such as your name and age. The app is trying to learn more about you. Here’s what Albert says specifically about the questions that they ask: “We do this in order to best serve your needs: a 19-year-old single student has different financial objectives and priorities than a 37-year-old professional with two kids who will be starting college soon.”
Then, you’ll be asked to connect your financial accounts to the app. So, you may connect your bank account that your bills come out of, your credit card accounts, student loans, mortgage, investments accounts, and more. You can connect as many or as little as you want. This information helps the app better serve you so that it can give you recommendations, track your spending, give you alerts, and more.
After you sign up, you’ll have access to the many features mentioned above to help you manage your finances. As you learned above, there are a lot of tools in this app, so I recommend just playing around in the app at first to better familiarize yourself with it and see how it can help you. Maybe sit down for a few minutes at a time until you understand how to use the app in the best way for your financial situation. That’s exactly what I did when I first downloaded the app because it was a little intimidating at first trying to see all of the different things that the app can do. But, it’s so nice that everything can be done right from one app!
To sign up for the app, they do require that you be a U.S. citizen or resident, be at least 18 years old, and have a bank account with a U.S. financial institution. Unfortunately, at this time, the app is not available to those outside the U.S.
How Much Does Albert App Cost?
The Albert app has a lot of different features, so you may be wondering what the cost is or if there are any monthly fees.
The great thing is that many of the tools and features on the Albert app are free.
For example, the Albert App has a fee-free cash advance feature to help you cover unexpected expenses. If you need some extra cash until your next paycheck, you can get up to $250 as a cash advance, with no cost. There are no late fees, overdraft fees, or maintenance fees associated with this service.
You can also start investing with as little as $1 and use the free cash advances feature (as long as you meet eligibility requirements) without the need for a subscription.
Now, the Genius subscription does have a cost.
If you’re looking to unlock all of Albert’s helpful budgeting, saving, and investing tools, you might want to consider their Genius subscription. This subscription starts at just $14.99 per month and gives you access to some helpful benefits like cash bonuses and personalized financial advice. Keep in mind that the true value of the Genius subscription depends on how often you use the app and all its features. So, if you’re a frequent user of the app, it could be a great investment in your financial well-being.
Is Albert App Safe to Use?
Yes, Albert is safe to use.
Let’s start with the basics – the Albert app isn’t a bank, but it teams up with FDIC-insured Sutton Bank to offer you banking services. That means that the money in your Albert Cash account is safe because it’s protected by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (also known as FDIC). That’s a fancy way of saying your funds are insured for up to $250,000.
Your Albert Savings accounts are held at FDIC-insured banks, including Coastal Community Bank, Axos Bank, and Wells Fargo.
When it comes to data security and privacy, Albert takes that seriously too. The app has security measures to protect your sensitive personal and financial information.
As for customer service, if you ever face any issues with the Albert app, you can easily reach out to their support team for assistance. Many Albert app reviews have mentioned their responsive customer service.
Pros and Cons of Albert
Like with any personal finance app, there are pros and cons. I can’t write an Albert app Review and not talk about the pros and cons, so that you can make the best decision for yourself.
Some of the benefits of using Albert include:
The app aggregates all of your accounts – Albert gives you an overview of your financial life by combining all your accounts in one place.
Savings and investments – The app offers customizable savings goals and can create a custom portfolio for your investment needs. It will also keep track of your transactions and help you identify potential savings opportunities as well as avoid late fees.
The Albert app is safe – Your information is kept safe with the same level of security used by major banks, as well as FDIC insurance.
Albert Genius – This feature provides personalized money advice from financial experts (real people, not a robot!) to help you make smarter financial decisions. You can ask any money question and will get personalized advice.
Free cash advance – Get a cash advance on your next paycheck without any late fees using Albert Instant, or access your paycheck up to two days early with direct deposit.
Free ATM withdrawals – This is a feature paid monthly members get to have.
While Albert has many helpful tools and features, there are some potential downsides to using the app such as:
App-only functionality – All features of Albert are limited to the app, which may be inconvenient for some people who prefer to be on their computer instead of their cell phone.
Fees – While many features in Albert are free to use, some, such as the Albert Genius service, require a subscription fee. The fee is quite affordable for the services you receive, though.
No phone calls – If you need to talk to customer support, there is no phone number to call. Instead, it’s all done through the app, text message, or email.
Frequently Asked Questions
Here are answers to commonly asked questions about the Albert app.
Is Albert a trustworthy app?
Yes, Albert is a trustworthy app. Your banking money is FDIC-insured, with coverage up to $250,000, and your investments are SIPC-insured. The app has many financial tools and you can even get personalized advice from experts.
How much can you borrow with Albert?
The maximum for a cash advance is $250.
How do you get $250 from Albert app?
Albert offers a cash advance feature called Albert Instant. After you enable this feature and meet the requirements, you can access funds quickly, sometimes up to $250.
Does Albert give you money right away?
In some cases, Albert can provide instant cash advances or help you get your paycheck up to two days early via direct deposit, depending on your employer and banking situation.
How long does it take to get money from Albert?
Getting your hands on the cash you need from Albert is all about the service you’re using. If you’re in a hurry, instant cash advances could have those funds in your pocket right away. But for paycheck advances and other features, it might take a couple of days before you see the money.
What are the requirements to get a cash advance on Albert?
Requirements for a cash advance with Albert include a history of consistent income, using the Albert app for a certain period, and having a bank account linked.
Does Albert hurt your credit?
Albert does not directly impact your credit score as it is not a lender. However, using the app’s guidance to improve financial management can help you work towards building or maintaining a higher credit score.
Does Albert need your social security number?
Yes, when signing up for the Albert app, it will ask you for your SSN. This is because it is an investment app and they need to verify that it is actually you signing up.
Is Albert or Chime better?
Albert and Chime are different financial apps with different features. Albert focuses on money management, investing, and advice, while Chime is a mobile banking app offering checking and savings account services. Your choice should depend on your financial goals and preferences.
Why is Albert taking money from my account?
If you’re already an Albert user, this may be a troubleshooting question that you have (and perhaps you searched Google and found this blog post). Albert takes money from your account (such as your bank checking account) to fund the services you’ve opted into, such as investments or automatic savings. You can check the app’s settings or contact Albert to learn more,
Is Albert app affiliated with a specific local bank?
Albert is backed by Sutton Bank.
Is the Albert app reliable and secure for banking?
Yes, Albert is a reliable and secure app for managing your finances. It is FDIC and SIPC-insured and has a variety of financial tools and resources to help you improve your financial situation.
How is Albert app customer service?
I did some research and I found great Albert app reviews on their customer service. The Albert app has customer service options within the app and online. They do not have an option to call their customer service and speak on the phone. But, if you’re like me, you probably prefer to get your questions answered via text message or email anyways.
Is Albert app legit?
Yes, the Albert app is a legitimate personal finance app that can help you manage and improve your finances. Millions of people (last I checked, over 10,000,000 people use this app) use the app’s many helpful tools. The app is available for people on Apple or Android devices and it has great reviews.
Who is Albert app best for? Who should not use it?
The Albert app is a helpful all-around financial app that can help many different people. If you’re looking for an all-in-one app to help you save, spend, borrow, and invest, Albert might be a good fit for you. The app is helpful for people who:
Want fee-free cash advances up to $250 (this is a feature that many people like because they don’t have to sign up for high-interest rate loans when they just need something for a short amount of time)
Need an app that gives you an overview of all your accounts in one place
Are interested in automatic savings and easy investing tools
Albert takes the work out of managing your finances and may be helpful for people who are trying to stay on top of their personal budget without having to juggle multiple apps.
However, Albert may not be the best fit for everyone and not everyone needs to have it. So, if you fall into any of the below, then this may not be the app for you
If you’re an experienced investor looking for more advanced trading tools, then this may not be the best investing app for you (the Albert app is basic in this area because I think it caters more to those who are new investors or are looking for something easier to manage)
If you’re someone who doesn’t feel comfortable linking their bank accounts to a third-party app (you will need to link accounts in order to get full use of the app – I understand that some people may not want to do this)
Albert App Review – Summary
I hope you enjoyed my Albert App Review.
I think this is a very helpful app, and I can see why it’s one of the most popular money apps today.
Albert is an app designed to help manage your saving, budgeting, investing, and more, all in one easy app. The app has all of the different money tools that you would want, plus some extras that you may have not realized you needed yet.
Albert is an app that helps you to manage many different parts of your financial life right from your cell phone (it’s not available on computers).
They even have the Genius feature (one of my favorite parts of the app), which is an in-app chat where you can ask one of their experts anything related to money, from credit cards, buying a car, student loans, and more. This is very helpful if you ever have questions about money.
And, if you need cash now, Albert may be able to give you a small advance of up to $250. There are no late fees, interest, or a credit check. If you want to avoid personal loan lenders who have high-interest rates, and only need a small cash advance, then Albert may be a place to start with. How this works is that they send you $250 from your next paycheck. You simply repay them when you receive your next paycheck.
You should keep in mind that investment options don’t include retirement plans and customer service can only be reached via email and text. Though the app’s budgeting tools are more basic compared to budgeting-focused apps, the Albert app still has many, many benefits to help you manage your finances effectively and it’s all from one easy-to-use app.
You can learn more about Albert here.
What’s your favorite personal finance app? Do you use the Albert app?