Your local public library is much more than a great place for books. It can save you big bucks, help you with a career or education transition, and even hosts many activities for kids, teens, and adults. Here are the reasons to check out the library near your apartment.
Save money by borrowing books
Books typically run $12-$25 in a retail setting and also cost a few dollars to download. However, borrowing from the library is free (as long as you turn your book in on time and don’t have to pay late fees). The local library makes it easy to find a book from whatever genre you want, and you’ll discover books you weren’t aware of. Be sure to check out their audio and e-book selection. It’s a great way to save money and read your favorite books.
Hot Tip: Many libraries have what’s called a “Friend’s Room,” where gently used books are for sale. These books have been donated by friend of the library and their sale boosts the library’s operating fund. You can find wonderful hardbound books for only a dollar or two, and magazines can even be free.
Save money by borrowing music and movies
The library has CDs in many musical genres. See if your favorite artists are there. You can borrow the CDs without having to purchase them. The same goes for movies. Borrow movies you like, and watch them without ads. You’ll have a week or two to watch and return your favorite films, including old classics which are hard to find on TV.
Save money on magazines
Did you know that local public libraries often have magazine subscriptions to all sorts of magazines? From fashion to sports and news to science, you can read your favorite magazines without having to pay the subscription rate to have them delivered to your apartment.
Hot tip: Magazines are typically not allowed to be checked out, but libraries place comfy reading chairs near their “periodical” section, which is where you’ll find the magazines.
Save money with free internet
Most of us do several things online, from downloading music to shopping. But having internet at home is pricey, and restaurants often shut theirs down during mealtimes, to free up tables. If you don’t want to live in a Starbucks, the library is a pleasant, clean and comfortable alternative . . . with free internet. You can either take your own computer and use their wireless code, or use a computer they have at no extra charge.
Work on your education
Libraries have a desire to help those in education. Some sites will offer GED classes and do school supply drives for those in need. Public libraries also often offers tutoring opportunities for those who need help in class. Looking to learn a foreign language? The library has you covered, and typically owns full sets of expensive language DVDs that you can borrow for free. It’s also a quiet place to study, and conference rooms can be booked for free.
Get help with research
The library is a great place to get research information for your class paper. From science to history to old newspaper articles and historical documents, libraries can give you what you need or point you in the right direction. Larger public libraries will even have a dedicated research librarian on staff, who can find answers to tricky questions, all at no charge to you!
Looking for a job?
Job searching is tough work. It can be hard to know where to start. Many libraries have job and career resources that can help you find that dream job. Not computer savvy? The library offers resources to help you learn computer skills.
Great for kids (and grandkids!)
Your local public library does many things to get the young kids into reading. It is a lot of fun, and the library has classes especially for toddlers. They know kids that age can’t sit still for too long, so they create programs that incorporate movement with reading. For babies, some libraries even have baby yoga classes that incorporate reading and yoga. Many libraries offer online kids’ books and educational options like animated talking picture books, puzzles, music and much more.
Special Events for All Ages
Many libraries have special events for the kids and the adults. Events for kids are often during summer or school breaks. Adults can enjoy guest speakers, book signings and educational or networking opportunities. Check your library’s calendar of events. Often, they will print out a monthly calendar, which you can take home to your apartment.
Hot Tip: Placing this calendar on your refrigerator will remind you of all the free events coming up.
The local public library has so much to offer. All you need to do is be a local resident and get a library card, which is free. There’s something for everyone at the local library. It is so much more than just books it is a great service to the community.
Save more, spend smarter, and make your money go further
With all of today’s home-based tech gadgets and virtual personal assistants, smart homes are quickly becoming ubiquitous. And with high demand for connected products, so too comes ease of use, accessibility and affordability.
But as with all expenses, it’s important to budget for smart tech upgrades to your abode. Luckily, it’s easier (and more affordable) than it’s ever been. Here, we explore some of the more common smart home tech investments, along with a few things to consider when deciding whether they’re worth the cash.
Virtual Voice Assistants
These devices use natural language processing (NLP) to match a user’s voice commands and execute an action, like “Turn off the lights.” Many of these voice assistants use a “wake word,” like the name of the device (“Hey Google,” for example) in order to alert the assistant so that it’s ready to listen to you.
From online shopping to reading your email for you, virtual voice assistants have the potential to do a myriad of helpful things around your home.
Major Brands: The top players in the virtual voice assistant arena are Amazon’s Alexa, Apple’s Homepod, Microsoft’s Cortana and Google’s Home — but the list is growing. It’s been reported that Facebook may be working with Amazon’s Alexa and Apple’s Siri to create its own smart speaker in this burgeoning market.
Average Price Range: The most basic versions, like Amazon’s Echo Dot, can start at as little as about $50, while more mid-range devices go for about $130 (Google’s Home) and high-range assistants like Apple’s Homepod go for $349.
Life Expectancy: While it’s hard to predict how long these up-and-coming tech devices will last, it’s safe to say that there will be plenty of similar products for a long time to come. Not only that, but virtual assistants will likely continue to improve significantly when it comes to their capabilities, connectivity and affordability. To put things into perspective, it took 13 years for the television to reach 50 million Americans but only two for smart speakers to do the same thing.
Is it Worth It? It depends on how (and how much) you’ll be using the device. If you call on your virtual voice assistant at every whim, the upfront cost may be well worth the convenience. On the other hand, a 2017 Ovum survey of both U.S. and U.K. residents said that about 50 percent of users don’t find virtual assistants useful. Though it’s difficult to narrow down the reasons why, it’s a clear message to manufacturers that they need to up their game to stay competitive.
Smart Thermostats
Intelligent heating and cooling systems have taken the tech world by storm, particularly due to their affordability and savings potential. These smart thermostats learn users’ habits — when they leave for and come home — to optimize in-home temperatures in a way that traditional thermostats can’t. After all, if you’re going away on vacation, there’s no need to leave your AC on the whole time, but you might want to turn it up an hour or two before you return. Cue smart thermostats.
Major Brands: There’s a lot to choose from when it comes to intelligent thermostat needs. Popular brands include Ecobee4, Nest Learning Thermostat, Lux/Geo Wi-Fi Thermostat, Lux Kono Smart Thermostat, Bosch Connected Control BCC100 Thermostat and Honeywell Lyric T5 Wi-Fi Thermostat.
Average Price Range: While you can find some smart thermostats for under $100, most range from about $170 to $260, depending on their uses and features. Some cost as much as $500.
Life Expectancy: Intelligent thermostats have the potential to last just as long as traditional thermostats, as long as you maintain them correctly and don’t misuse them. However, it’s important to note that some smart thermostats are hardwired into your home while others aren’t. If yours operate on battery power, it could last a full two years before needing new batteries — but always pay attention when your thermostat alerts that its batteries are low.
Is it Worth It? Not only are smart thermostats extremely convenient, they also have massive potential for saving you some cash on utilities. While the upfront cost may be a bit hefty, smart thermostats often pay for themselves in the long run. The Energy Star program states that homes equipped with smart thermostats can save up to $180 per year on heating and cooling. What’s more, intelligent thermostats can provide you with reports that show you how to optimize your heating and cooling settings to save even more money.
Smart Lighting
Yep, even light bulbs are getting smarter these days — and not just in the “clap on, clap off!” way, either. With smart LEDs, you can connect all the light fixtures in your home to your virtual voice assistant or smartphone to control individual lights in every room. Not only is this super handy, but it can also provide an extra layer of security if, say, you’re out of town and want to randomly turn lights on and off so it appears that someone’s home. Plus, color-changing bulbs make for great mood lighting and can even sync up to music and movies for extra effect.
Major Brands: Though brand doesn’t matter as much when it comes to intelligent light bulbs, popular bulbs include the Philips Hue White, Philips Hue White and Color Ambience A19 Star, C by GE Starter Pack, Cree Connected Light Bulb, Eufy Lumos Smart Bulb White, LIFX Color 1000, Ikea Tradfri Gateway Kit and MiPow Playbulb Rainbow.
Average Price Range: While you can find affordable options under $20, some intelligent light bulb kits cost upward of $200, depending on the number of bulbs and features included.
Life Expectancy: Regardless of price, the vast majority of smart LEDs have a lifespan greater than 20 years. That’s anywhere from 20,000 to 50,000 hours — or up to five times longer than any other light bulb in stores today. Compare that to the measly 1,200 hours of an average incandescent light bulb, or a CFL’s 8,000 hours.
Is it Worth It? Even if you do decide to outfit your home with a $200 smart light bulb kit, it’s arguably still worth it. They last practically forever, they can help keep your home safer, you can control them from your smart device from anywhere you have internet access, and they’re better for the environment than traditional bulbs.
Even though the upfront cost of smart LEDs can be a little off-putting, you might consider this an investment purchase. Yes, they’re more expensive at first, but take a look at this calculation from Simple Family Finance, which added up the total costs of all three types of bulbs, plus 25,000 hours of electricity usage — this is how the expenses broke down:
Incandescent: $218.50
CFLs: $64.63
LEDs: $53.75
That’s a lot less money over the long term, which means a lot more money in your wallet for making other awesome smart upgrades to your home. Smart garage door, anyone? (Yep, they have those, too.)
Mark Simmonds brings 20 years of insurance industry experience to his role as managing director and chief product officer at Esurance. His diverse expertise in many areas of the business, including product, underwriting, finance, operations, and more, help shape his writing. Visit Esurance’s website to find out more about how certain smart home products can reduce your homeowners insurance.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinion or view of Intuit Inc, Mint or any affiliated organization.
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Mark Simmonds brings 20 years of insurance industry experience to his role as managing director and chief product officer at Esurance. His diverse expertise in many areas of the business, including product, underwriting, finance, operations, and more, help shape his writing. Visit Esurance’s website to find out more about how certain smart home products can reduce your homeowners insurance. More from Mark Simmonds
The information provided on this website does not, and is not intended to, act as legal, financial or credit advice. See Lexington Law’s editorial disclosure for more information.
Breaking a lease won’t hurt your credit if all debts are paid. However, if you leave debts unpaid, breaking your lease early can cause your credit to take a hit.
Breaking a lease is relatively common and can happen for a number of reasons. Oftentimes, a new job can require you to move midway through a lease. Other times, personal issues arise that can force you to cut your lease short.
As a result, it’s rather common for tenants to leave leases early, and it doesn’t make you a bad or unreliable tenant if you must. However, landlords will still expect full payment for the entire lease term, even if you’re moving out months in advance.
If you do have to your break your lease, it’s crucial you’re not indebted to your landlord. When tenants owe landlords money, landlords will sometimes hire collection agencies to collect debts, introducing a whole new set of problems—one of which can be a hit to your credit score.
Maintaining a good credit score is important for a number of reasons. A good credit score can:
Give you more housing options
Help you qualify for low-interest credit cards
Save on insurance
Make you a stronger job candidate
Your credit score follows you around wherever you go. Therefore, when your score goes down, it can be a tremendous setback—and can take you years to reconcile.
As a result, protecting your credit is one of the most important things you can do—and breaking a lease shouldn’t have to jeopardize it . Keep reading as we explain how breaking a lease early can affect your credit and ways you can break a lease while protecting your credit.
Does breaking a lease early affect your credit?
Breaking a lease doesn’t directly show up on your credit report, but the consequences of breaking a lease, if you’re indebted to your landlord, can have compounding effects that sometimes result in a knock to your credit.
If you leave debts unpaid after breaking your lease, your landlord will likely use a collection agency to reclaim your debts. Your landlord probably won’t report the debt to a credit bureau, but the collection agency likely will.
If this happens, your credit will suffer, which can greatly affect you down the road.
Ways breaking your lease can hurt your credit
Like we said, breaking your lease doesn’t directly affect your credit, but the fallout often can. If you break a lease and don’t pay outstanding debts, your landlord may handle it in a couple different ways. A few possibilities include:
Your landlord may involve a collection agency: As we mentioned earlier, a landlord will sometimes bring in a debt collector if you don’t pay your remaining rent. If this occurs. the collection agency will likely report you to a credit bureau.
You may have trouble renting again: If your credit takes a hit, it will likely affect your ability to rent in the future. A 620 or higher is the usual score needed to rent an apartment. Most landlords run credit checks prior to renting to a tenant.
How to break a lease and protect your credit
The lesson here is that it’s best to proceed with caution when breaking your lease. Use our tips below to ensure you leave your lease with peace of mind.
Review the lease contract
Knowing your rights as a tenant is the first matter to address when breaking a lease—and the lease contract is the place to start. Sometimes, the contract will give you an easy out, like paying a small fee or allowing subletting. However, it’s pivotal you review the intricacies of the contract before beginning the process of breaking the lease, so as to be aware of your rights as a tenant.
Be transparent with your landlord
Having a one-on-one conversation with your landlord is a must if you plan on breaking your lease. If you’re transparent with your landlord about why you’re breaking the lease, they’ll most likely work with you to reach a solution that benefits everyone.
Keeping your landlord in the loop is a great way to create a line of communication and ensure they don’t take any negative action against you.
Look for a subletter
Subletting isn’t allowed in all lease contracts, but if it is, it can give you peace of mind in breaking your lease. Subletting, by definition, means finding someone else to take over the remainder of your lease. If you elect to sublet, it’s essential to check with your landlord first to ensure them you’re subletting to a reliable tenant.
Since your name will remain on the lease, you’ll ultimately be responsible for any issues with the subletter. As a result, it’s important to screen whoever is taking over the remainder of the lease.
Pay outstanding rent up-front
If you’re able, paying your outstanding rent balance at the time you break the lease is typically a foolproof way to ensure the landlord doesn’t take any negative action against you.
While there may be more intricacies within the lease agreement when it comes to breaking the lease, settling outstanding debts eliminates the possibility of the landlord bringing a collection agency into the picture. And in almost all cases, disputes over breaking a lease boil down to outstanding debts.
Situations when you can break a lease without repercussions
There are certain situations where tenants are protected by law when breaking a lease; therefore, it’s essential to know when you can break a lease without repercussions. The examples below vary from state to state and can require that some specific notifications are made to the owner of the property before exercising your right to break the lease. It is important to know your responsibilities under your state law before breaking your lease.
The unit is uninhabitable/doesn’t comply with housing codes: If you believe that your residency isn’t complying with health codes, look into state laws to confirm your suspicion. States have certain health codes that rental units have to adhere to. If your rental isn’t complying, you can terminate your lease without repercussion.
Tenant rights were violated: While some tenant rights differ from state to state, federal rights like anti-discrimination laws, privacy laws and the right to a habitable home protect tenants on the national level.
You’re active military: Tenants who are active duty military can break a lease without repercussions. The Servicemember’s Civil Relief Act allows military members to break leases due to their service.
Breach of quiet enjoyment was violated: The Covenant of Quiet Enjoyment guarantees that the tenant will get a peaceful environment. This is implied in lease agreements and, if violated, allows you to break a lease without repercussion.
The lease has a termination clause: Some leases include a termination clause that just involves paying a small fee. Make sure you review the lease contract before telling your landlord that you’re breaking the lease to see if a termination clause is included.
Frequently asked questions
Navigating the legalities of a lease contract can be difficult for tenants. As a result, other questions often arise when breaking a lease. Some common questions tend to be:
How long does a broken lease stay on your credit report?
The broken lease itself will not appear on your credit report, but any unpaid rent or other fees can stay on your credit report for up to seven years.
Does paying rent build credit?
Paying rent won’t build credit unless you report your payments to a credit bureau each month. In order to do this, you’ll need to sign up for a subscription service that reports rent payments for you. Your landlord will also need to sign up for the subscription in order to receive the payments through the service.
Keep in mind that it may be unlikely that your landlord will want to participate in this system, since they likely have their own system for collecting rent payments.
Rent-to-own, which involves renting a home with the intent to purchase it at the end of the lease contract, does not directly affect your credit either. Unlike mortgage payments, rent-to-own payments are not reported to credit bureaus.
Can you get debts from breaking a lease removed from your credit report?
In general, no. Unless the debt is truly inaccurate, it’ll remain on your report for seven years.
However, if you pay the debt after the judgment is already added to your credit report, you can work with the creditor to have the debt marked as “paid” instead of “open” on your report. This can improve creditworthiness and give you a better chance of receiving loans and renting in the future.
Leave your lease with peace of mind
When you break a lease, it’s best to leave no shadow of a doubt that your credit will be protected. Whether this means having a candid conversation with your landlord, paying your outstanding rent amount or finding a subletter, there are best practices you can put into action to avoid having to fix poor credit down the road.
Finding ways to fix your credit can be difficult, and often requires the help of a professional. Lexington Law’s credit repair services could help you get back on track. Get a free credit assessment today.
Note: Articles have only been reviewed by the indicated attorney, not written by them. The information provided on this website does not, and is not intended to, act as legal, financial or credit advice; instead, it is for general informational purposes only. Use of, and access to, this website or any of the links or resources contained within the site do not create an attorney-client or fiduciary relationship between the reader, user, or browser and website owner, authors, reviewers, contributors, contributing firms, or their respective agents or employers.
Reviewed By
Nature Lewis
Associate Attorney
Before joining Lexington Law as an Associate Attorney, Nature Lewis managed a successful practice representing tenants in Maricopa County.
Through her representation of tenants, Nature gained experience in Federal law, Family law, Probate, Consumer protection and Civil law. She received numerous accolades for her dedication to Tenant Protection in Arizona, including, John P. Frank Advocate for Justice Award in 2016, Top 50 Pro Bono Attorney of 2015, New Tenant Attorney of the Year in 2015 and Maricopa County Attorney of the Month in March 2015. Nature continued her dedication to pro bono work while volunteering at Community Legal Services’ Volunteer Lawyer’s Program and assisting victims of Domestic Violence at the local shelter. Nature is passionate about providing free knowledge to the underserved community and continues to hold free seminars about tenant rights and plans to incorporate consumer rights in her free seminars. Nature is a wife and mother of 5 children. She and her husband have been married for 24 years and enjoy traveling internationally, watching movies and promoting their indie published comic books!
By Peter Anderson19 Comments – The content of this website often contains affiliate links and I may be compensated if you buy through those links (at no cost to you!). Learn more about how we make money. Last edited February 10, 2020.
My wife and I have been using Netflix for many years now, and for the most part we love it.
When we started subscribing to Netflix we weren’t paying for any premium TV packages, but we still wanted to have plenty of entertainment options available to us. Netflix was a part of our reduced cost TV watching plan.
We’re both movie lovers, and if we have some down time, we love to just pop in a movie and watch. On average we will usually watch 1-2 movies a week. Or at least I think we do.
Within the past couple of weeks I’ve discovered a site (that apparently has been around for a while) that allows you to see if you’ve been getting the most out of your Netflix account. It tells you how much Netflix costs per movie – and will tell you just how many movies you’ve been watching. But before we get to that, let’s look at how Netflix is priced.
How Much Does Netflix Cost?
At our house we have found Netflix to be a great value, with all of it’s movie and TV watching options that it has available. They have a variety of packages that you can sign up for.
Depending upon which one you sign up for, you can get anything from limited 1-4 streams at a time on streaming only packages, or you can sign up separately for DVD packages that allow 1-2 DVD or Blu-ray out at a time. DVD and streaming plan prices current as of January 2019.
Netflix Streaming Plans
Basic – Streaming video only – 1 screen at a time: $8.99
Standard – Streaming video only – 2 screens at a time + HD: $12.99
Premium – Streaming video only – 4 screens at a time + Ultra HD: $15.99
Netflix DVD Plans
When it comes to DVD, it’s now split out from streaming, and they have two levels of service:
Standard – 1 DVD at a time: $7.99
Premier – 2 DVD at a time: $11.99
Standard – 1 HD Blu-ray at a time: $9.99
Premier – 2 HD Blu-ray at a time: $14.99
For us we found the best value to be the streaming video package that cost $8.99 While we wouldn’t mind doing the streaming only package for only $11.99 so that we could add an extra screen, we found that we really hardly ever watched Netflix on more than one screen at a time.
Something else to keep in mind – you can now get a 1 month free trial and try the service out for free!
Figuring Out Per Movie Cost For Netflix?
If you want to figure out if you’re getting the most out of your Netflix account, how can you figure out what kind of cost you’re paying for the rentals? As mentioned above I discovered a cool site called FeedFliks that will give you all kinds of statistics about your account – and help you to figure out if you’ve maximized your return on your monthly fee (or maybe if you’re watching too many movies and TV shows!).
UPDATE: Feedfliks is no longer available, the service shut down after Netflix closed down their API to third party developers.
To figure out what kind of a return you’re getting you just go to FeedFliks and link your Netflix account with their site. Once you’ve logged in they’ll pull all of your DVD and streaming video watching habits, and give you some numbers that you can use to calculate your return. Above are some of the graphs that we were shown once we signed in. Among the things we found based on our last 6 months of viewing behavior:
We watch on average 7.6 movies per month.
Our cost based on the DVDs we’ve watched is $3.17 per DVD.
When instant watch streaming is taken into account, we’re paying $1.17 per movie.
We’re still paying more per movie than 81% of people who use FeedFliks – so there’s room for improvement.
We’re keeping each Netflix movie for quite a long time – 9 days. We may want to try and watch those DVDs faster.
Based upon your viewing behavior, FeedFliks will also give you recommendations on how to improve your return on your entertainment dollars – and tell you where you’re doing well already.
It will tell you if you’re holding onto your movies longer than other users.
Tell you if movies in your DVD queue are available for instant watching.
Tell you if movies in your instant watch queue are expiring.
You can sign up for alerts to remind you to watch or return DVD movies.
FeedFliks also has a premium service for $8.99/year that will allow you to do more with your account including sync with your Netflix account more often, manage your queues, get email and twitter alerts and more. For me I’m not going to sign up right now as I think I get enough information just by using the service every once in a while for free.
Put Your Netflix Membership On Hold
If you’ve found that maybe you’re not currently getting the most out of your Netflix account (perhaps you’re busy – or going on vacation), you can suspend your Netflix account for 7 to 90 days at a time. Just go to [Main Page->Your Account -> Put membership on hold].
There are no charges for the time your membership is on hold. You have to return the movies you have and you can’t watch online/streaming, but everything else is the same – and you can save some money if you know you wont’ be watching much. Something to consider.
Other Video Streaming Sites To Think About
There are a ton of other streaming video services to consider besides Netflix. With many you might even get a better value for your hard earned cash.
Some of the others may be more of a replacement for your cable TV package, but at a lower price than cable (they’ll cost more than Netflix).
Amazon Video On Demand – $119.00/yr: Amazon has a video streaming service and it’s free for all Amazon Prime members. So if you’re already a member of Amazon Prime’s unlimited free or reduced price shipping on the site, you’ll get the video streaming service for free. The cost? $119/year for Amazon Prime, and the video streaming service is free. Consider pairing their streaming service with the Playon setup I’ve written about before. (Note: Free student and Amazon Mom Prime accounts do not get free streaming)
Redbox Kiosks & On Demand – $1.75-$2/rental: Redbox offers kiosks in various retail locations where you can rent movies for only $1.75-$2 a night. We love Redbox, and when we want to get a movie right away, we usually head to the Redbox at the corner gas station. Redbox also now has an on demand option where you can rent and purchase movies online for $3.99-4.99 for a rental. It’s still relatively new, but worth a try.
Philo – $16.00/month: Philo is quickly becoming the go to option for people who don’t want to pay a lot and don’t care about sports (they don’t carry sports networks, making it cheaper). They are only $16/month for their basic package, with 40 channels from Discovery, TLC and History to HGTV. Add 9 more channels for only $20! Read the full Philo review here.
Sling TV – $25/month: Sling TV is an online streaming TV offering from Dish Network that costs only $25/month and gives you premium live TV channels from the likes of ESPN, AMC (The Walking Dead anyone?), HGTV, CNN, Cartoon Network, Disney and more. For a limited time you can also get $50 off of a Roku Ultra or AirTV Player, or receive a free Roku Stick with 2 months prepaid! This is one of the few ways you’re going to get ESPN or some of these other channels without paying for cable! They also now have a cloud DVR! Ready my full Sling TV Review here.
AT&T TV Now– $40.00/month: Just launched at the end of 2016, this service is similar to Sling and Vue, and gives you 100+ channels for $40/mo for a limited time. You can also add on HBO or Cinemax for $5/month!
Fubo TV – $34.99/month: Fubo TV is a relatively new streaming service that has a ton of live TV stations, and specializes in sports content – including a lot of soccer. They currently advertise 73 channels of content, starting at $19.99/month for 2 months, then back to the regular $34.99 price. Read a full FuboTV review here.
YouTube TV – $40.00/month: YouTube launched their own live TV service that starts at $40/month and includes sports channels, and live local channels in many markets. 7 day free trial is available.
HBO Now – $14.99/month: HBO programming has only been available via a cable TV package for the longest time. Since 2015 HBO Now has provided HBO programming outside of a cable package. If you’re a fan of certain HBO shows this makes cutting the cord much more possible.
Hulu.com – $7.99/month: If you want to get TV shows and movies that you may not have been taped over-the-air, you can usually find them here the day after they air on TV. They also have a free version, although that version only allows viewing on a computer web browser, usually for a limited number of episodes per series.
Google Play Store: My wife and I tend to rent first run movies here and there from the Google Play store because it’s easy and convenient to stream the movies from our tablets to the Google Chromecast. If we’re getting a first run movie, however, we usually go to the Redbox for their $1 rentals.
CBS All Access – $5.99/month: CBS doesn’t allow streaming of their shows through some of the other streaming services because they have their own over-the-top streaming service. They do have some good shows, however and are worth checking out.
Pluto TV – FREE: Pluto TV has an app for most streaming devices that allow you to watch a 100+ channels of free video entertainment from movies and music to TV shows. Pluto is the free TV streaming service.
Are You Getting Your Best Value?
So the question now is, are you getting your money’s worth when using Netflix? At what point and at what cost do you consider it a good value? For us I think having anywhere from a $1-2 per movie cost for Netflix means we’re getting a good value.
While our cost per movie is pretty high if you only figure in DVDs at $3.17 per movie, when you also take into account instant watch movies we are paying a paltry $1.17 per movie cost. That’s not half bad, and about what we would pay even for a movie at the local Redbox.
What is your cost for your Netflix account, and are you getting your money’s worth? Are you considering subscribing to Netflix or another video streaming service? At what cost would you consider the service worthwhile? Tell us about it in the comments.
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I write a lot at Get Rich Slowly about Financial Independence, by which I essentially mean early retirement (or semi-retirement). That is, accumulating enough money that I no longer have to work. To me, escape from work has always seemed like the ultimate goal.
This is probably because my father held out retirement as a sort of Promised Land. He worked hard â if not always effectively â and he always made retirement and the end of work seem like the goal of life. And the sooner one reached retirement, the better.
But whenever I write about early retirement or Financial Independence, I get e-mail and comments from readers who never want to stop working. They love their jobs. Others write to say that we’re not supposed like the work that we do, but we’re supposed to do it anyhow. It builds character, and helps us pay the bills.
Got kids? If so, you’re probably hoping to send them to college. And you know it won’t be cheap. College costs are rising faster than inflation, and have been for decades.
But that doesn’t mean you can’t afford a good education for your kids, even if you have a modest salary or other substantial expenses. I’m not going to pretend college isn’t expensive: Full scholarships are less common in real life than they are in the movies. You’ll probably have to spend a pretty penny for the privilege of attending your son or daughter’s college graduation.
The value of a college education
Even with the skyrocketing costs, a college education is still a good deal. Post-college educations tend to garner graduates salaries that are 60 percent higher than those of high school graduates. Over a lifetime, college graduates typically earn $1 million more than those without college educations.
I’m back, and I sound just like your mom: Save that damned emergency fund, already.
This week (Feb. 24-March 1) is America Saves Week. And not a moment too soon: As a nation, we’re losing ground. An ASW survey shows that just 51 percent of us have a savings plan with specific goals; four years ago that number was 55 percent. (Still too low, IMHO.) Just 40 percent of us have budgets that allow for savings at all, compared with 46 percent in 2010.
The ASW report notes several reasons (stop me if these sound familiar): relatively high unemployment and underemployment rates, stagnant wages and the struggle to pay off homes. (Hint: In the past four years, the number of homeowners who expected to pay off mortgages before retirement dropped 10 percent.)
The months of spring might have thrown all of our plans to the bin, but we can still be grateful for what we did have: a decent internet connection and access to a Netflix account. With a fresh season of Better Call Saul ready for us to binge on, it only makes sense for die-hard […]
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