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Christmas movies are more than entertainment — they can offer financial lessons, too. The Grinch reminds us that expensive things aren’t everything, while Ebenezer Scrooge proves spending and sharing money is often a good thing. And if you learn anything from Home Alone, it’s the importance of security and insurance.

Ahh, the holidays.

There’s nothing better when it’s snowing outside than having a cozy night in, re-watching countless reruns of your favorite holiday movies. 🎥🎄

You love them all — the classics, the rom-coms, the are-they-even-Christmas-movies. (And yes, they are). There’s something undeniably nostalgic and magical about seeing these holiday stories brought to life — even for the hundredth time.

Yes, there are lots of jingle bells, mistletoe kisses, and sparkly snowfalls. But along with the holiday clichés, these Christmas movies might even offer some practical financial lessons. 🤑

Not sure what we’re talking about? Grab your bowl of popcorn and your coziest blanket — and let’s dive into 10 of our favorite holiday movies and the financial lessons you can learn from each. 🍿

1. How the Grinch Stole Christmas

Let’s start with a classic: a story about the grouchy green monster who lives on Mt. Crumpit. Annoyed by the holiday cheer, the Grinch attempts to “steal” Christmas from the residents of Whoville. You know the rest — after sneaking into all the Who’s houses to take every Christmas gift in sight, the Grinch expects the town to mourn the loss of their beloved holiday.

Instead, he hears them singing and celebrating the next morning — even without their presents. The Grinch learns that it isn’t expensive gifts that matter at Christmas. Instead, it’s the people and community you celebrate with.

💸 Financial lesson: You don’t have to give or receive expensive gifts to celebrate the holidays.

Read more: Holiday budget tips: 7 ways to reduce seasonal spending

2. A Christmas Carol

Old Ebenezer Scrooge has come to life many times through countless film adaptations of Charles Dickens’ story — because it truly never gets old.

Scrooge is a grumpy, greedy, and selfish old man with a reputation for his tight-fisted ways. He refuses holiday invitations and unwillingly gives his employee, Bob Cratchit, a single day off for the Christmas holiday.

It’s not until being visited by three ghosts on Christmas Eve that he understands the tragic reality of the life he’s been living — and the dark future that awaits if he doesn’t change his ways.

With a new perspective, greedy Scrooge finally loosens the purse strings. He wakes up Christmas morning and immediately sends an expensive Christmas turkey to the Cratchit family, later offering the hardworking Mr. Cratchit a raise. He also celebrates the holiday with his long-neglected nephew, who’s grateful to have his uncle around at last.

💸 Financial lesson: Saving is important, but so is spending money on experiences, things, and gifts that bring value to your life and others’.

Read more: When it’s okay to spend money

3. It’s a Wonderful Life

It’s a Wonderful Life depicts the selfless life of George Bailey — from the time he was a kid until he takes over the family Building and Loan business. Soon after their wedding, George and his wife Mary witness a run on the bank. The couple loans out their honeymoon money to keep their customers afloat.

Over the years, George continues to give himself to his community, sacrificing his goals and dreams to serve his neighbors and friends. But when a misplaced check leads George to fear his arrest and his business’s downfall, he loses all hope and contemplates ending his life.

With the help of the angel Clarence, George soon realizes he’s got a family and community who love him. Meanwhile, Mary makes up the lost money through generous donations from friends and neighbors. Try to make it through the final scene without crying, I dare you. 😢

💸 Financial lesson: If you’re struggling financially, there are resources and people who can help.

4. National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation

What’s the holiday season without the Griswold family’s hijinks?

Determined to have a wonderful Christmas, Clark Griswold takes the holiday spirit seriously, harvesting an enormous Christmas tree and decking out his house in a blinding display of lights. But as you might expect, things don’t go as planned — especially when the inlaws show up.

With the financial pressure of giving his family an incredible Christmas — plus the added burden of hosting his relatives — Clark desperately awaits the arrival of his Christmas bonus check. To Clark’s dismay, the bonus doesn’t arrive. Until, that is — in a state of fury — Clark confronts his boss about it. In the end, it’s a happy, if unconventional, Christmas.

💸 Financial lesson: Don’t spend beyond your means, even with the stress and pressure of the holidays.

5. The Holiday

The Holiday is a good old rom-com with a holiday twist. Two women on opposite sides of the world are equally unhappy with their love lives as the holidays approach. Trying to escape their respective lives for Christmas, the women meet on a house-swapping website and decide to trade homes for the holidays.

You can guess the rest: In her new surroundings, each woman meets the perfect guy and lives happily ever after-ish — all thanks to a holiday abroad.

💸 Financial lesson: House swapping is a fantastic way to make vacations more affordable.

Read more: Travel hacking 101: A beginner’s guide to travel hacking like a pro

6. Elf

Likely one of the funniest Christmas movies of all time, Elf tells the story of Buddy, a misfit human — raised by elves — as he searches for his biological father in New York City. Hilarity ensues as soon as Buddy reaches the Big Apple, but the financial lessons start in the North Pole.

Surrounded by handy, hard working elves, Buddy grows up doing exactly what’s expected from him: making toys. But it quickly becomes obvious — to Buddy and the elves — that he’s no natural toymaker.

Eventually, Buddy realizes making toys isn’t the right job for him, and he needs to set off in search of something different. First lesson: your initial career may not be the best fit.

Toward the end of the movie, Buddy’s biological dad has to make a tough choice between work and family. He chooses family (it’s a Christmas movie, after all 🧑‍🎄), and this choice eventually leads him to starting his own business.

💸 Financial lesson: You don’t need to keep a job that makes you unhappy — and you can always strike off on your own.

Read more: How to start your own business — a complete step-by-step guide

7. Die Hard

The only action movie on this classic Christmas list, Die Hard isn’t your typical holiday flick.

On Christmas Eve, New York City Detective John McClane heads to a holiday party at his estranged wife’s Los Angeles office. Instead of holiday festivities and reconciliation, the evening turns into a hostage situation. A group of German radicals seizes the building, and a battle between McClane and the terrorists breaks out.

Where’s the holiday cheer, you ask? Well — *spoiler alert* — the good guys win. It’s Christmas Eve, remember?

And what about the financial lesson? Turns out the bad guys were after bearer bonds — a fixed-income security in the form of a physical certificate. Without registration, bearer bonds belong to whoever has them in their possession. This makes them vulnerable to theft, ideal for money laundering, and the perfect subject of this thrilling holiday film.

💸 Financial lesson: Secure your valuables, and keep your money somewhere safe.

8. Four Christmases

Along with the fun decorations, seasonal treats, and general festivity of the holiday season, this time of year can bring plenty of chores, too. For some, spending your holiday vacation making appearances at numerous parents’ and inlaws’ homes is more of an obligation than a choice.

Some people, like Brad and Kate in Four Christmases, opt to spend Christmas their way by traveling to a faraway, sunny destination. And if you’ve seen this movie and met their families, you know it’s an understandable — even necessary — thing to do.

But Kate and Brad make one big mistake that costs them their trip and instead forces them to spend Christmas day visiting family at four different (and very dysfunctional) households.

Their mistake? Not buying travel insurance.

Yep — after a canceled flight shuts down Kate and Brad’s plans, they spend the holiday making four unpleasant visits instead of relaxing on the beach. Yikes.

💸 Financial lesson: Travel insurance is often worth the cost.

Read more: Is travel insurance worth it?

9. The Preacher’s Wife

The Preacher’s Wife follows the story of Henry, a struggling pastor, trying to make it through the Christmas season. Not only are members of Henry’s congregation coming to him with their own monetary and personal struggles, but the church itself is on rocky financial footing.

With the stress of keeping his congregation afloat, Henry’s marriage starts to disintegrate. It’s not until the arrival of the mysterious angel Dudley that Henry has a change in heart. He starts to understand he can’t do everything — but one thing he must do is be there for his family.

Ultimately, Christmas arrives with a happy ending for both Henry’s congregation and his family.

💸 Financial lesson: Financial stability is important, but don’t let money distract you from other important values.

10. Home Alone

In the original Home Alone, 8-year old Kevin McCallister has to defend his (very large and beautiful) home from burglars after his family accidentally leaves town without him.

Parental mistakes aside, Kevin not only survives — he thrives, booby-trapping his home for the ultimate bad guy takedown. It’s the stuff of (8-year-old) dreams. By the time the police arrive, Kevin has thoroughly destroyed much of his home with tar, glue, feathers, fire, and so much more.

We can learn a lot from Home Alone — aside from not leaving 8-year-olds behind when traveling. But how about taking better measures to secure your gigantic house? Not to mention the importance of buying the right insurance.

💸 Financial lesson: Secure — and insure — your home and valuables.

Summary

That’s a wrap on 10 financial lessons from your favorite Christmas movies. From It’s a Wonderful Life to Home Alone, these stories can teach us valuable lessons about money, such as the importance of investing wisely, saving for a rainy day, and securing our valuables.

We can also learn from the mistakes of others, like not buying travel insurance or taking the right measures to protect our homes. So this holiday season, take a few minutes to give your finances a tune-up with these timeless lessons. Happy holidays!

Source: moneyunder30.com

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I am not a money genius. I’ve touched many proverbial “hot stoves,” and the Best Interest is part of my scar tissue. Today, let’s dive into seven of my money mistakes and the lessons I’ve learned from them.

Not an Arrested Development fan? Huge mistake.

Money Mistake #1: Not “Renting My Fun”

I once heard radio host Colin Cowherd say, “Buy ‘normal life,’ but rent your fun.”

It makes sense to buy healthy groceries. It makes sense to buy comfortable shoes. It makes sense to buy a reliable car. You need those things every day of your life.

Life is a constant.

But fun might be seasonal or weekend-only. Does it make sense to buy a snowmobile that you’ll only use eight weekends a year? Maybe. It might fall high on your bimodal passion graph.

Does it make sense to buy a boat? I have coworkers who sail every weekend during the summer. They plan sailing vacations on Lake Ontario. They love sailing. A full purchase makes sense for them.

But for the rest of us, renting a boat or snowmobile makes better financial sense. It’s too easy to overspend on a shiny object you’ll underuse

I’ve discovered a second category of “fun objects”: those that are fun only due to confounding factors.

Is a hot tub fun? Or is a hot tub fun when you’re hot tubbing with other people? That’s the lesson I learned…and the money mistake I made because of it. It’s a story I’ve written about before here on the Best Interest.

I bought a hot tub. It’s great, especially on cold winter nights. But my rationale for buying the hot tub was, “Hot tubs are great!

We checked the record, and that rationale was determined to be false.

Hot tubs aren’t great. Hanging out with other people in a hot tub is great. Oops.

I could scratch my hot tub itch with a few trips per year. The rest of the time, I should just try to hang out with my friends more often. Thankfully, I didn’t use credit to buy the hot tub. I didn’t borrow money for it.

But it was an impulsive purchase. It didn’t mesh with my financial goals. The hot tub is nice, but buying my fun (rather than renting it) was a money mistake.

Money Mistake #2: Decrease Spending vs. Increase Income?

In this world of credit card debt and budgets and dwindling emergency funds, it makes sense to spend less. That’s the easiest way to save money. We can enact it today. Just spend less!

But is it the most consequential improvement? I say no.

Over the long term, you’ll be much better off making efforts to increase your income. Why? Let’s do some quick math.

Sadie makes $50,000 per year. Of that, she saves $10K. The other $40K goes towards bills—that’s $3300 per month.

Real life Sadie. She’s not a human.

If Sadie needed $500 extra this month, she could cut her $3300 monthly budget down to $2800. Scrimp and save.

If Sadie needed an extra $1000 this month, she might be able to cut that $2800 monthly budget down to $2300. Do you see where this is headed?

At some point, Sadie can’t cut any more fat from her budget. She’s limited by her survival needs. Frugality and cost-cutting have lower limits. They are bounded.

But increasing your income, technically speaking, is unbounded. The upper limit does not exist.

In reality, we’re not all going to be billionaires. We will eventually hit an income ceiling.

But Sadie can make a plan to increase her salary. She can look for promotions within her company. She might be able to switch jobs and leverage a raise that way. Making more money is possible for many people in many professions.

For my first few years of personal finance stove-touching, I focused on reducing expenses. And it worked! But I eventually hit a lower limit.

Then I looked for ways to increase my income. The results were fast and fantastic. I found a new job, negotiated my salary higher than offered, and secured the easiest 30% raise of my life.

Cutting spending is fine. Start there, it’s ok. But it’s a money mistake to neglect ways to increase your income.

Money Mistake #3: Listening to Mr. Market

I read a lot of information about personal finance and investing. I’ve done so for years. And there has always been someone calling for a crash, a burst bubble, or a bear market.

See—here’s an example from 2015. Meanwhile, how has the stock market actually performed since 2015?

Up 100% since September 2015…did someone say “impending crash?”

We’re risk-averse, over-developed monkeys. Fear is normal. But we should try to delineate between irrational reactions to fear and rational reactions to facts.

Ben Graham’s famous Mr. Market parable personifies this irrational fear. If you’re not familiar with Mr. Market, follow that link and read up.

When I was new to investing, I listened to Mr. Market. And that was a money mistake! I let my investing choices be controlled by irrational fears.

As a result, I didn’t max out my investing accounts (which I’ve changed now). I estimate that I under-invested by about $20,000 in 2014 and 2015. It’s an opportunity that I’ll never get back.

Fast forward to today, that $20,000 mistake is worth about $40,000. Keep going to 2040, and that mistake is likely to surpass $100,000 in value.

There’s no use crying over spilled milk. It doesn’t keep me up at night. I’ve learned my lesson, and I won’t make that mistake again. And I hope you learn from my money mistake too.

P.S.—if you’re worried about an impending market crash, I 100% empathize. I get it. I recommend you read this and let me know if that helps.


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Money Mistake #4: Caring About the Joneses 

We’ve all heard it before. “Keeping up with the Joneses.” Buying nice things simply because your peers—the Joneses—have those nice things.

But as I pointed out on the Rochester Business Connections podcast:

“The Joneses might be broke.”

-Jesse

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It’s easy to forget that fact. The Joneses might be stretching—and stressing—their budget to a near-breaking point. Are you sure you want to keep up with that?

I worked at a software company after university. They hired tons of 22-year olds like me. And I immediately noticed that many of my peers had nice stuff.

They drove $50,000 cars. They wined-and-dined most nights. They planned cross-country trips on a whim—what’s a round-trip flight, $1000? Chump change.

I know that pang of envy. I wanted those things too! How were my peers—ostensibly on a similar salary as me—living these lavish lives? There are two obvious answers:

  1. They had different budgets and different priorities.
  2. They had alternate sources of income.

#1 makes will always be true. Everywhere you look in life, people will spend differently than you. My coworkers made conscious choices to spend on nice items. I put my money to different uses. That’s neither good nor bad. It’s just different. Each person spends differently.

And #2 is something I have zero control over. Some people are born on third base. Others are born in the ditch. It’s not fair. It’s just luck. I enjoy writing about the role of luck in society.

(But I certainly shouldn’t feel bad that some people are luckier than me. I’m very lucky in my own life.)

Once I’d convinced myself of these truths, my money mistake became obvious. Let the Joneses do their own thing. They’re on their own path. I have my path.

Money Mistake #5: Hunting Mice, Not Gazelles

Why don’t lions hunt mice? What chance does Mickey have against the lion king? Lions could hunt mice in spades!

But the energy gained from that small mouse isn’t worth the lion’s effort. The lion is better off hunting gazelles.

We can—and should—apply a similar thought process in our lives. It applies to time management. It makes sense at work. And yes, it makes sense in personal finance.

Don’t hunt the field mice in your money life. It’s a common money mistake. My favorite example is this classic:

“I’ll drive across town to fill up my gas tank…gas is 20 cents cheaper at that gas station!”

This is quintessential mouse-hunting. Driving 5 miles (which has a cost) over 10 minutes (what’s your time worth?) in order to save, let’s say, 20 cents/gallon * 15 gallons = three dollars!

You are spending—both in time and money—more than you’re saving.

I’m not saying, “Don’t go after free money.” I would certainly pick up three dollars if it was lying on the sidewalk. That’s because sidewalk money costs me two seconds of time and one solid bend of my back.

But this gas savings had a real cost. That cost completely negates the benefit. The $3 gas savings is not free! To ignore that fact is a money mistake.

It’s the same reason lions don’t hunt mice. Some “easy prey” simply aren’t worth the effort.

Money Mistake #6: Servant or Master? 

Various philosophers are attributed with saying:

Money is a great servant but a bad master.

This is certainly a lesson I’ve learned the hard way, and continue to learn—both through normal life and through my blog & podcast projects.

Money is nothing but a tool. Nothing more, nothing less. Tools help us build. But you probably know some people who classify as ‘tools’—and you don’t want them to be your master!

Jokes aside, there’s a slippery slope towards letting money control you. I’m pretty transparent here on the Best Interest. I’m in a healthy money situation and have been for a few years. But I still stress periodically. Without fail, that stress is due to my letting money become more master than a tool.

Perhaps my favorite articles to write are the ones that involve the psychology of money. Stuff like the fulfillment curve and the aforementioned “bimodal spending.”

There’s a pattern in my articles. That same pattern is borne out when other financial writers discuss the psychology of money. Namely, we all ask: how do we optimize money as a tool and minimize its role as a master.

Money Mistake #7: No Budget, No Clue 

For many years, I operated without a budget. It’s true.

Yes, now I’m a budgeting fiend. But there was a time when I had zero clue where my money was going. And that, no surprise, was a massive money mistake.

I’d check my bank accounts occasionally. I knew—roughly—what I spent on groceries and gasoline. But I couldn’t tell you for sure. And I certainly couldn’t have found any good ways to improve my finances.

It’s funny. Because of my lack of knowledge, I can’t even tell you the opportunities that I missed! That’s scary in-and-of-itself. As I wrote in the “Budget Basics” article, all of the experts I spoke with budgeted. They all monitor their spending in some way.

Readers, you don’t have to be a zealot like me. As I outlined in my 2019 review and 2020 review, I budget like a maniac.

But you can’t just “do nothing” when it comes to budgeting.

No More Money Mistakes?

No, no. I’m sure I’ve made tons of other money mistakes. But we’ll stick with those seven today. Quick recap, they were:

  1. Not “Renting My Fun”
  2. Decrease Spending vs. Increase Income
  3. Listening to Mr. Market
  4. Caring About the Joneses
  5. Hunting Mice Instead of Gazelles
  6. Letting Money Be My Master (Instead of Servant)
  7. No Budget = No Clue

Feel free to chime in with some of your money mistakes below. It’s ok. We’ve all messed up before 🙂

Thank you for reading! If you enjoyed this article, join 6000+ subscribers who read my 2-minute weekly email, where I send you links to the smartest financial content I find online every week.

-Jesse

Want to learn more about The Best Interest’s back story? Read here.

If you prefer to listen, check out The Best Interest Podcast.

Source: bestinterest.blog

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Do you want to learn how to sell educational printables?

Lisa Fink was a teacher for 15 years but left the classroom to work on her educational printables business.

After just two years, she hit a six figure income. She now earns over $400,000 per year with her business, and she has sold over $1,000,000 in printables altogether.

You can start creating educational printables to sell and make money all from your home – and never have to ship a thing.

Creating educational printables can be a great way to make extra money because you just need to create them once, and you can sell them an unlimited amount of times.

Today, I have a fun interview to share with you. I interviewed Lisa, on how to sell educational printables.

Are you wondering questions such as:

  • What is an educational printable?
  • Why do teachers and parents buy printables?
  • How much money can a person earn by selling educational printables?
  • Do you have to be a teacher in order to sell educational printables?
  • Can someone with no tech skills make a printable?

Today’s interview will help you get started and perhaps even introduce you to a new way to make extra income.

Related content:

How to sell educational printables

1. Please give us a little background on yourself and how you got started. How much have you earned from your educational printables business?

Selling printable educational escape rooms on ThinkTankTeacher.com sort of came by accident. My husband and I bought a new house in August of 2017 but just one month later, he lost his job of 21 years in the corporate world due to downsizing. 

As the sole provider, I began to worry about what the future was going to look like. How could we afford to pay our bills solely on a teacher’s income? We ALL know teachers are undervalued and underpaid, so this was a relevant struggle.

It was during this turbulent time that I decided to create ThinkTankTeacher.com as well as open a storefront on an educational platform called Teachers Pay Teachers. I needed to bring in extra income to pay the bills and this side-hustle thing was just what we needed. Although I was putting in 20-30 hours of work per week ON TOP of my full-time teaching job, but the future was getting brighter. We had hope.

My goal was to simply make a few hundred dollars a month, which at the time, I thought was quite unrealistic. Everything changed when it was just three months in, and I was already pulling in four figure months. At just six months, I was consistently earning five figures per month.

The point of my story is that it seemed as if life sent me some gray clouds, but they came with a silver lining. I was able to get my educational printables in classrooms all over the world. I fell in love with creating products and I never looked back. My life has been drastically transformed in the best way possible.

To date, I have earned well over $1,000,000 with printables. (It honestly still blows my mind to say that!)

2. What is an educational printable?

An educational printable is a quick, no prep activity that teachers can download instantly to complement their lesson plans.

Far too often textbooks lack creativity, do not foster student-centered learning, and quite frankly are downright boring.

The mission of Think Tank Teacher is to provide no-prep, engagement-boosting classroom activities to re-fuel the energy in a classroom with creativity and collaboration.

3. Who buys your educational printables?

My printables have been downloaded over 250,000 times by teachers, homeschool parents, and party planners looking to add a twist of fun to their kid’s party.

Often times teachers are seeking a last-minute activity that goes beyond the textbook, enhances the learning experience, and adds an element of puzzle decoding.

4. Why do teachers buy printables?

Teachers are always seeking something to help them differentiate in the classroom or supplement boring textbooks.

A teacher’s planning time is precious (and hard to come by) so a quick print and go lesson can make an enormous difference in their curriculum. Teachers spend far too much time outside of school hours prepping and planning, taking time away from things they love to do or people they love to spend time with.

Access to a pre-made, ready to use printable allows teachers to stop working at the bell and spend more time with their family. 

Here’s an example of an educational printable.

5. What are some examples of what you sell?

From printable escape rooms, color by number, and scavenger hunts to digital secret message activities and virtual tours, I have something that meets the needs of all learning styles.

By far, my best-seller is the United States Constitution printable escape room.

Each resource I create incorporates a twist of fun to engage even the most reluctant learners. The key to a successful lesson is to pass the teaching reins off to the students and let them develop their own questions to think critically about the topic at hand.

6. What do you like about selling educational printables?

It warms my heart to know that my resources are kid tested and teacher approved, by hundreds of thousands of teachers, making an impact one classroom at a time.

The best part? The income is passive.

Once I upload a resource, the internet does the rest of the work. One single lesson can sell over and over again. There are no boxes to pack or ship, no inventory to track, and incredibly low overhead spending.

I have also added a membership model to my website making lesson plans easily accessible and less expensive for teachers.

 

7. How much money can a person earn by selling educational printables?

I have had a remarkable journey selling over $1,000,000 in printables.

Is it easy? No!

You have to put in blood, sweat and tears, but like anything else, the effort pays off in the long run. Since my educational business was so successful, I decided to get my brother Ben involved in a new venture last year. By this time, I felt like I had a good grasp on what I was doing in the educational online space.

Together, we opened Think Tank Escape Rooms on Etsy and have already made over $60,000 dollars. We took a different route and decided to focus our Esty shop on printable party games to entertain the kids and transform the house into an unforgettable code-breaking adventure! There is a high demand right now for printables, educational or not.

Despite my success story, my goals are high because there are other teacher authors making three times more than me. It IS possible! Reading success stories of fellow teacher authors was all the motivation I needed to dive in headfirst. Their accomplishments fueled my desire to become an entrepreneur.

8. Is there enough room for teachers to get started selling educational printables? Or, is the market saturated? 

Absolutely, there is enough room for everyone!

Anyone who goes into the experience thinking the market is oversaturated has the wrong mindset. You have to adjust your mindset and find creative ways to make your idea unique, and to make it stand out amongst the thousands of others. 

9. Do you have to be a teacher in order to start doing this?

You do not have to be a teacher to sell printables!

Though my college degree and teaching experience played a vital role in my success, this is a journey that homeschool moms or even corporate individuals can take advantage of.

You just need one idea to get you started.

10. How does a teacher come up with new ideas for printables?

This is probably the toughest part. The key is to find something you are passionate about and jump in. You want your resource to stand out.

You want apathetic learners to actively take part in the learning experience.

My mind is always running rampant with innovative ideas, improvements, and business proposals for both my website and Etsy shop.

I keep a notebook on my nightstand and jot down quick ideas. Some of them come to fruition and some of them do not. 

11. Can someone with no tech skills make a printable?

There is some tech involved, but no difficult programs to learn.

Most creators use PowerPoint or Canva to create their printables. Of course, you have to know or learn how to upload the product, make catchy covers and enticing thumbnails but it is all refined to a skill over time.

When my brother jumped on board, he had never used PowerPoint or Canva and year later he’s a pro! 

12. What is Teachers Pay Teachers? How does it work?

Teachers Pay Teachers is an online educational marketplace with millions of pre-made lessons.

Teachers seeking an activity can quickly jump on the website, search the topic they are covering in class, purchase and download an activity to use the very same day.

It is a lifesaver to many teachers, covering all subject areas in grades K-12.

13. Can you list the steps needed to get started selling educational printables?

First, you would need to either start your own website, open an Etsy shop, or open a Teachers Pay Teachers seller account.

Next, create an engaging printable.

After you create the activity, the fun’s not over! You have to create a preview of the product to give people a sense of what’s included, a cover page that screams “click on me” as well as thumbnails that give an overview of the activity.

When all of that is complete, you’ll need a title and product description, rich in keywords for SEO purposes.

Then voila, press publish, and your activity is live and ready for purchase.

It may sound overwhelming, but once the process is completed your products sell in perpetuity. Then, the process gets easier and quicker the next time around.

14. What other tips do you have to share?

In a world of millions of digital downloads, the motto “if you build it, they will come” simply does not apply. There is so much to do to get eyes on your product.

My top organic traffic driver is email marketing. In fact, email marketing has the highest return on investment of any online marketing platform. The goal is to turn store browsers into loyal customers, and I have created a course just for TPT sellers to do exactly that.

Within my first few months, I grew my email list by the thousands, and the next year I quit my teaching job to run my businesses full time from home.

By year two of selling my printables, I was already making multi six-figures.

What is the number one thing that allowed me this amazing opportunity? My email list. Hands down, if you do email marketing correctly, you will turn your list into raving fans, maximize the exposure of your products, and see outstanding results at the push of the ‘send’ button.

Quick note from Making Sense of Cents: There is a resource coming out soon on how to create printable escape rooms to sell online. You can sign up for the waitlist here.

Are you interested in learning how to sell educational printables?

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Source: makingsenseofcents.com