By Adam Jusko, ProudMoney.com, adam@proudmoney.com. [NOTE: This post originally appeared on June 20, 2017.]

I love live music. If there’s a performer I want to see, I will generally pay the cost regardless of price (while railing away at those ridiculous TicketMaster fees!). I never regret it.

What do you spend money on that always feels worth it? I cold e-mailed a variety of people that seemed like they might have interesting answers to that question — and some were kind enough to reply!

Below are those answers. You’ll see two recurring themes: money spent on “experiences” and money spent as an “investment” in your own future success is often money well-spent. Here’s what they said:

David Pogue, Tech Columnist for The New York Times and many other things: “My mom, who considers herself a child of the Depression, does NOT like to spend money. Her picture appears in the dictionary for the word “frugal.” I mean, she folds up aluminum foil after each use and puts it back in the drawer for re-use later.

But she raised me with this motto: “When money can buy you happiness, spend it.”

She meant it, too. When there’s some apartment I really want to buy that costs more than I’d intended to spend…when there’s a fast new laptop that would be my main machine… when it MATTERS… when I can directly see that it will bring me long-lasting happiness… I spend the money. I’ve never been sorry!”

Target has released its Black Friday ad for 2019, and it includes deals & discounts happening on Black Friday, November 29, 2019.

• First off, you can see the full Target Black Friday ad brochure here.

Target stores will open at 5PM on Thanksgiving, Thursday, November 28, with Black Friday deals, and stay open until 1 AM. Stores will then close for six hours, re-opening at 7AM on Black Friday, November 29, 2019.

Early Black Friday Access for RedCard & Target Circle Members

If you are a Target RedCard credit card or debit card holder, you’ll also get “Early Access” to 100 online deals at Target.com or in the Target app all day on Wednesday, November 27. Target Circle members get early access, too, but not quite as early — these loyalty program members that don’t have the RedCard can shop the deals starting at 6PM Central Time on Wednesday, November 27.

Lending Club is a peer-to-peer lending and investing website. As a Lending Club user, you can seek personal loans that are funded by other users on the site. Or, vice versa, you can choose to be an investor, loaning money to Lending Club borrowers.

Technically, Lending Club is not a straight peer-to-peer lending/investing process. There is still a financial institution acting as an intermediary; in this case that is a bank called WebBank. WebBank technically makes the loans to Lending Club borrowers. (See who else WebBank works with.)

Why would you use Lending Club?

• If you are seeking a loan, Lending Club may be a way to get that loan at a lower interest rate than from a bank or other lender.
• If you are an investor, you may be able to get a higher return on your money than you’d get from other investments you might make.

Neither of those things is guaranteed, however.

If you have a big credit card balance sitting at 18%, 20%, or even more, you might want to take advantage of credit cards that allow you to transfer your balance over to the new card and then give you over a year to pay it off at a 0% interest rate. Some of these cards charge you a one-time fee to transfer the balance, but some have no balance transfer fee for new cardholders. None of these cards charges an annual fee.

• Amex EveryDay Credit Card – You can transfer your existing balance to this American Express card and pay no interest on that balance for 15 months. Plus, you’ll pay no balance transfer fee if you transfer the balance within the first 60 days of getting the card. This card also allows you to earn American Express Membership Rewards points on your purchases.
• BankAmericard Credit Card – You can transfer your existing balance to this Bank of America credit card and pay no interest on the balance for 15 billing cycles. Plus, you’ll pay no balance transfer fee if you transfer the balance within the first 60 days of getting the card. (The student version of this credit card offers the same balance transfer deal.)
• Chase Slate – You can transfer your existing balance to this card and pay no interest on the balance for 15 months. Plus, you’ll pay no balance transfer fee if you transfer the balance within the first 60 days of getting the card.

By Adam Jusko, ProudMoney.com, adam@proudmoney.com

You purchased an airline ticket that you can’t use and now want to transfer it to someone else who can go on the trip. Can you do that?

No.

You were probably hoping for a different answer, or at least maybe not so abrupt of an answer, but the plain fact is that you can not simply have the name changed on an airline ticket after it has been purchased.

So what should I do if I want to transfer a purchased ticket to someone else?

Well, like I said, you can’t just transfer the ticket. That said, there are two ways you might be able to change to a different passenger without buying a new ticket (well, sort of, technically you will buy a new ticket):

• If you bought a refundable ticket (versus a nonrefundable ticket), then obviously you can have the amount of the ticket refunded to you and then purchase a new ticket in the name of the person you wanted to transfer the ticket to.
• If you bought the ticket less than 24 hours ago, you can simply cancel the reservation and get a refund without paying any extra fees in most cases. Then you can buy a new ticket in the name of the person you wanted to transfer the ticket to.

By Adam Jusko, ProudMoney.com, adam@proudmoney.com

Sometimes I hear from people who have been rejected for a credit card or other type of loan despite having a high credit score. The ones who feel the most frustrated are those who know someone else that got approved for the same card with a lower credit score. How can that be? Why would a credit card company turn down a person with better credit and approve someone with lower credit?

There are three possible reasons (or at least three that we consider the most likely):

#1. Too Much Debt

It’s completely possible to build up a good credit score while accumulating debt. If you continually pay your bills on time while spending more than you pay back, you will go further and further into debt while getting all sorts of goodwill for on-time payments. After all, payment history is the Number One factor in determining your credit score, so if you only make minimum payments, your score may still increase over time.

However, when your debt reaches a certain level and you apply for new credit, a card issuer may look at your debt and say “No way.” Sure your credit score is good, but to that credit card company your debt makes you look like a bomb about to explode, and they’d rather not be the ones hurt when your financial world falls apart.

By Adam Jusko, ProudMoney.com, adam@proudmoney.com

I recently got a mailing from Synchrony Bank about their Synchrony Mastercard, a credit card offering 2% cash back on all card purchases. I had been aware that Synchrony had transitioned old Toys R Us/Babies R Us customers to this card (after Toys R Us went kaput), but had never seen it advertised as a card you could apply for directly. Now Synchrony is offering it to some potential cardholders by mail only. (You won’t find an online application as of this writing; the invitation directs you to mastercard.synchrony.com, but you need an authorization code from the mailer to apply.)

No Annual Fee and Competitive Cash Rebate

The Synchrony Mastercard has no annual fee, and its 2% “flat” cash back rate on all purchases is competitive with the Citi Double Cash card, often thought of as the standard-bearer for flat cash back cards on the market. (Very few credit cards will give you 2% on all purchases; most have a lower cash-back rate or give higher rebates in only certain purchasing categories like gas, groceries, etc.)

The cash back you receive is automatically given as a statement credit, meaning it is credited to your account to offset charges you’ve made to the card. You don’t have the option to actually get the cash in your hand.

Bonus Opportunity

You can earn a $150 bonus if you spend $1500 with the card in the first three months of having it. (At least that is the bonus offer I got.)

By Adam Jusko, ProudMoney.com, adam@proudmoney.com

The Costco Anywhere Visa is a cash back credit card only offered to Costco members. It is issued in partnership with Citibank.

Cash Back Formula Explained

You’ll earn cash back with the Costco credit card in the following ways:

• 4% cash back on gas purchases at Costco and gas stations on up to $7000 per year of gas (1% beyond that)
• 3% cash back on restaurant and travel purchases
• 2% cash back on Costco purchases
• 1% cash back on all other purchases

There is no opportunity for a signup bonus with this card, so you don’t have the opportunity to earn a quick $100 or $200 upfront like you do with many other cash back cards.

Redemption Procedure Gets A Thumbs Down

You only get your accumulated cash back once per year, in February, based upon your earnings in the prior calendar year. In addition, you get a rewards certificate sent to you that you must bring to a Costco store to get your cash back or to use toward your Costco purchases that day.

We don’t like this. First, most people like to have the flexibility to redeem their rewards more than once per year, even if those rewards are fairly small. Second, by forcing you to redeem at a Costco store location, Costco seems to be subtly trying to get you to use your rewards on more Costco purchases. They could just as easily give you those rewards as a statement credit, thus allowing you to put them toward any of your card purchases.

For the most part, this is a small quibble. Most people don’t redeem more than once per year, and the procedure that forces you into a Costco store is probably more about making you “feel” the reward (and feel good about it) than it is about forcing you to buy more from Costco. (The truth is you will probably buy plenty more from Costco than the amount of your rewards anyway, or you wouldn’t have paid for a Costco membership in the first place, amiright?)

By Adam Jusko, ProudMoney.com, adam@proudmoney.com

For people trying to build a good credit history, credit utilization can be an important factor in raising their credit scores. Credit utilization — sometimes called debt-to-credit ratio — is the percentage of the available credit on your credit cards that you are actually using. For example, if you have $10,000 of available credit on a credit card (or cards) and you have a total balance of $1000, your credit utilization ratio is 10%.

While we advise keeping that ratio low — under 30% at least, but under 10% or even 5% if you want to be aggressive in building your score — some people worry that paying off their credit cards each month will put their utilization at 0% and thus not show up as a positive on their credit reports. This worry leads to some counter-intuitive (and wrong) advice about carrying a balance from month to month to show that you are using credit wisely.

Pay Your Cards Off In Full!

So, before we go any further, let’s be clear: carrying a small balance on your credit cards from month to month does NOT help your credit score. It is NOT necessary to pay interest in order to build your credit score. It will NOT increase your score faster than paying off your cards in full. Pay off your credit cards completely each month. Do not pay interest with the idea that you are somehow helping your credit history. You will end up paying good money for no benefit.

If we were looking for an opportunity to work from home, these are the 15 opportunities we’d tackle first. All are legitimate stay-at-home work jobs, and this site does not receive any compensation if you choose to work with one of them. (See also: How To Make Money Without A “Regular” Job)

• Enterprise – The well-known car rental company often hires at-home customer service representatives and reservation agents who work with Enterprise customers by telephone.
• TTEC (TeleTech) – Offers work-at-home customer service opportunities. From their site: “As a TTEC@Home associate, you’ll use TeleTech’s proprietary technology to support and assist customers with a variety of customer service and technical needs. This could include helping customers over the phone, via chat, or on social media. Best of all, you can do it all while wearing your slippers or flip flops! (To get started, you’ll need internet access and a home phone.)”
• American Express – Offers a variety of “virtual career opportunities” that could let you work from home. The Travel Counselor/Customer Service telephone jobs will probably be the most interesting if you don’t have the specific skills required for other Amex remote jobs. (After clicking through, search “virtual” in the job title field to see current work-at-home jobs.)