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Is Amazon Prime Really Worth $119? For Me, Not Anymore

06.19.2021 by admin // Leave a Comment

Is Amazon Prime Worth It? Amazon Prime Cost

I cancelled Amazon Prime a year ago and haven’t missed it. After being a loyal Amazon Prime shopper for over 6 years why’d I do it? $119 per year isn’t that much money to pay for convenience. But, it’s still money that can be saved or spent on other things. Like many people I was stuck at home for months starting in March of 2020. I moved most of my shopping including groceries to online. And, while scouring every corner of the internet for masks and Lysol wipes I realized Amazon wasn’t the only player in town anymore. No company could deliver in 2 days anymore given the circumstances. I was just happy to receive what I ordered even if it took two weeks. I decided to cancel Amazon Prime but always figured I’d rejoin. A year later and I’m still off Amazon Prime. Is Amazon Prime worth it anymore and how am I surviving without a service once deemed inelastic?

My Amazon Prime Financials

When I first joined Amazon Prime I was a student (so I had a student discount). It cost $39 / year. How much does Amazon Prime cost in 2021? $119 if you aren’t a student, which was a huge price increase for me. In March of 2020 I looked over my expenses and started thinking about if I should cancel Amazon Prime. I started reviewing how many times I used Amazon Prime in 2019. In 2019 it turned out that I ordered from Amazon Prime 30 times. 9 of these orders were over $35 so I would have received free shipping anyways.

I never used any of the other Amazon Prime features so that was worth $0 to me. I also don’t shop at Whole Foods so those added discounts didn’t do anything for me either.

At the end of the day I paid $4 each order to get the 2 day shipping. Or, if I didn’t need the 2 day shipping I paid $5.66 each order to get the “free” shipping for the times I didn’t hit the threshold. Sometimes I ordered from Amazon to avoid paying $5 shipping at other places. Yet, here I was actually paying over $5 for shipping from Amazon. I just didn’t realize it because I was paying $119 flat once a year.

What is Amazon Prime really costing you? Look over all of your purchases in the past year and the times you’ve used other Prime features like watching a video for free. Deduct all the times you spent more than $35 from the total number of purchases and add in the number of times you used other Prime benefits. Then, take the $119 and divide by that total count. That’s how much you paid for Prime every time you used a benefit.

My Buying Needs Changed

When I first joined Amazon Prime I was moving into my first condo while also working full time and going to school at night. Living in the city without a car I had to ship things most people could drive and pickup themselves. I didn’t need everything in 2 days, but I did have items that cost less than $35. And, there were certain things around the house I realized I did need pretty immediately. Starting from scratch, my condo was pretty empty. When I went to make a new recipe I would find out I didn’t have the kitchen items I needed to actually make the recipe. I couldn’t wait until I had enough to put me over a $35 threshold for free shipping and being in school I couldn’t afford to buy things well in advance to get over the $35.

Now that over 6 years have passed I have most of the stuff I need. I’m not in situations where I want to cook something like salmon and realize I don’t own a baking sheet. And, if there are things such as a frosting set I’m in a better financial place than I was as a student. I know at some point I’ll have to order k-cups so if I’ll add those to the order to get free shipping.

I Became Better At Planning Purchases In Advance

When I was in school and working full time I was often focused on surviving all the things due that week. I didn’t have enough time or energy to remember in 2 weeks a birthday was coming up. If there was a holiday coming up, it was something I’d start thinking about a few days before. This led to needing 2 day shipping for gifts and other items to arrive in time.

Looking back at what I ordered in 2019 below $35 sometimes the order was as simple as k-cups or another grocery item. We ordered these on Amazon for price reasons and there was no reason to not plan ahead. I don’t have to wait until we’re out to place the order.

Amazon Competitors Like Target and Walmart Have Come Out With Good Alternatives to Amazon Prime

In years past, only Amazon Prime offered free shipping and the ability to get most orders in 2 days. Several companies had been building up their capabilities and by Summer 2020 everyone living in the United States has other reliable companies that offer 2 day shipping for free.

Walmart.com offers free 2 day shipping on orders over $35. If you want to avoid the $35 minimum and/or get free shipping next day you do need to sign up for Walmart+.

Target offers free shipping on orders over $35 as well. But, if it’s less than $35 or if you need it same day you can order same day delivery through Shipt or pick up curbside. Not only is curbside free sometimes you’re even offered extra discounts on items if you select curbside pickup. It’s not a surprise that Target sales jumped 23% in their fiscal first quarter.

Target and Walmart Prices Are Similar to Amazon Prime

There are times when Amazon is cheaper by a lot and I will continue buying those items on Amazon and wait for 5-7 days to receive it. However, after consistently looking at Walmart, Target and Amazon when buying stuff online I’ve learned that the price is either the same or only $1-2 difference for most items I buy. This is cheaper than the $4-5 per order I ended up paying for Amazon Prime.

Recently our Keurig started breaking. A replacement was $169 at Target and we could pickup curbside within 2 hours or shipped free. Amazon was $129 and free 5-7 day shipping. Walmart.com was $129 and free 2 day shipping. Plus, Walmart.com had extra credit card points from shopping through our credit card portal. We went with Walmart.

What About Amazon Prime Day? Turns Out That’s Taken Care of Too

What if you like the deals on Amazon Prime Day? First, ask yourself do you really need those items. Secondly, Walmart and Target have that taken care of too. This year both Walmart and Target are launching June sales events coinciding with Prime Day. Target All Deals Day purchases qualify for same day delivery, curbside and in store pickup. You can actually get your purchases faster than you can ordering on Amazon Prime.

Summary

I thought I would never be able to live without Amazon Prime and here I am about a year later not missing it at all. After consistently looking at Walmart, Target and Amazon when buying stuff online I’ve learned that the price may be slightly cheaper on Amazon ($1-2) but it now takes 5-7 days to get it without Amazon Prime. I never used all of the other Prime offers, so I only paid the subscription fee for the free and expedited shipping.

$119 doesn’t seem like much for the extra convenience when Amazon was the only option in town. Now that you have other options from Walmart.com, Target.com and Target same day pickup among others do the quick math to see if it’s still worth paying for Prime. Especially if you only use it for the free shipping it may not be worth it anymore. Do the quick math, ask yourself is Amazon Prime worth it and possibly save yourself $119 / year.

Categories // Smart Spending Tags // Shopping

Can You Really Afford That House? It Depends

06.01.2021 by admin // 2 Comments

how much house can I afford, housing affordability, buying a home calculator

Just when you think housing can’t get more expensive buying a home literally goes parabolic. In Denver, 65% of homes are selling for over asking price at an average of over $30,000 but many are going for even more. There are countless stories of people bidding over asking and still not coming in the highest. It’s gotten so crazy recently you may wonder how do people afford houses. You want to own a home but now you don’t know if you can afford to buy a home. How do you know if you can afford that house or not? Is renting now cheaper than buying a house? Here are a few things to consider when figuring out how much house can you afford. Know the rule of thumb for home spending but also how much should you expect to pay to maintain that home every year? How much does it cost to furnish a house? How will this home impact your other spending?

Rule of Thumb for How Much To Spend on A Home

A rule of thumb is that housing costs should be no more than 30% of your gross income (pre-tax income). What does housing costs actually encompass though? It includes your mortgage, taxes, bills like electricity, water and wifi and any repairs you may have to make. Make sure you factor in these other expenses when looking at properties. It’s easy to look at just the mortgage and tax payment and forget about the monthly and ongoing expenses.

Understand The True Cost of Home Ownership Per Year

How much does it really cost to maintain a house every year? Million Acres suggests a few different ways to estimate this. One rule of thumb is to estimate between 1% and 4% per year of the original purchase price. Another rule of thumb is to estimate $1 per square foot per year for general wear and tear and upkeep.

On top of this, you’ll encounter major repairs at some point during home ownership. This can include replacing major appliances like water heaters, renovations, adding onto the house such as a patio, deck or addition. When buying a home know how many major repairs are likely in the next 3-5 years. Ask how old the appliances are and know the average lifetime of those appliances. Don’t waive the home inspection so that you know if there are major home repairs required. If you’ll want to renovate all or part of the house factor that into your budget.

Understand What Else You Need to Buy For Your New House

You’ve bought the house, now you need to furnish it. If you’re moving from another house, the initial set up fees will be way less. When I first moved into my condo it was my first time living by myself. I had all these ideas on small improvements like painting, curtains and decoration ideas. When I went to Home Depot I was shocked that it would cost over $1,000 just for basic blinds for windows for just one room. I couldn’t believe it, I thought these costs were only to be seen for high end custom work! The bigger the house, the larger this bill will be even for the basics.

Luckily, there are a lot of financial tips to save money on furniture, decorations and other household items.

How Your New Home Will Impact Your Other Spending

When buying a house, it’s easy to only look at how much you were approved for your mortgage and the amount you’ll be paying for your mortgage and taxes every month. But, it’s not good to look at housing costs in a silo.

Where your home is located impacts your other spending. Say you’re moving from the city to the suburbs. In addition to the house you may now need to buy one, or two cars. With the cars comes insurance, gas, car maintenance, car taxes and other various fees. Do you have kids? What school district is the house located in? Will your kids go to public school or will you need to send them to private school? How much is childcare?

Of course, where you buy can impact smaller expenses like how much it costs to eat out and groceries. But, the big expenses like another car and childcare / school can make a huge difference in your financial situation. The difference between children attending public school and needing to pay for private school can run you tens of thousands of dollars a year. And, sometimes real estate taxes can vary wildly town to town, even for towns next to each other. It’s important to know what these expenses will be before you buy the house. It may result in a smaller budget for the house or even finding a different area to buy in.

Renting vs Buying a Home – Which is Better?

Ok, the above is costly but isn’t it cheaper than renting? It’s hard to put a blanket statement on which is better renting vs buying because so many factors can ultimately change that answer for individuals. It depends on where you buy, what the market is like in that location, housing appreciation / depreciation, how long you’ll stay, how much money you need to put into the house and more. Instead of guessing or making an assumption based on what you hear from someone use this data. Nerdwallet has a good renting vs buying calculator that enables you to enter in a few data points and it’ll spit out the answer whether renting or buying will be better for you.

Can I Afford A Home Calculator

Once you know if it’s cheaper to rent or buy, determine how much house can you afford. Nerdwallet has a good how much house can I afford calculator. Remember these calculators are based on the rule of thumb for how much to spend on housing. The calculator includes the mortgage, taxes, HOA and insurance. You personally need to figure out how much you’ll spend per year on home maintenance, renovations, furnishing the house and how it increases (or decreases) any other expenses. Those expenses are usually not included in these online calculators but are very important expenses to take into consideration.

Know Your Financial Goals And How A House Impacts Them

Yes, the rule of thumb for housing costs is that you should spend no more than 30% of your gross income. But, what if you only spend 20% of your gross income? How does that change what you can afford to save or what other things you can buy? Because housing is such a big expense, spending less than you can afford here can make a huge impact to how much you can save, the vacations you can afford and more. It will go much farther than skipping a $5 latte or clipping coupons for groceries. This difference can easily add up to thousands of dollars more a month in your pocket.

Additionally, spending less on housing enables you to be more flexible with major income changes. When income changes unexpectedly, or when you’re considering a career shift / retirement it’s very easy to cut back on discretionary expenses if needed. It is much harder to cut back on housing expenses. You’re pretty much limited to looking at holding off housing projects, trying to cut utility costs, and refinance if interest rates are better.

On the other hand, if you don’t travel, don’t spend much on hobbies a nicer house may align exactly to your goals. You’re going to spend most of your time at your house and want to enjoy that time.

What factors did you consider for whether or not you could afford your house when house shopping?

Categories // Smart Spending Tags // Housing

Should You Continue Working From Home? The Pros and Cons of Working Remotely After Covid

05.17.2021 by admin // 8 Comments

should I continue to work from home, working remotely pros and cons, benefits of working remotely, work from home pros and cons, benefits of remote work, what does working remotely mean

Working remotely has pros and cons. There are many benefits including saving time and money commuting, more flexible hours and ability to lead a healthier lifestyle. But, working remotely also comes with new challenges. It’s harder to connect with coworkers, it’s easy to start working more hours and could even potentially limit your career opportunities. In 2020, many office jobs moved to remote work and not by choice. We learned working remotely tips that helped make this shift easier. But, many businesses and people operated under the assumption that work from home was temporary at the beginning.

Companies have already started saying they’re open to continuing remote work. Some companies like Google expressed the possibility of a hybrid work from home model only to backtrack a few months later and share that workers can work remotely and expect 20% to work entirely from home. Other employers like Facebook said early in the 2021 that team members can work remotely from anywhere forever. On the opposite end of the spectrum JPMorgan’s CEO Jamie Dimon has shared he wants work to look like it did before starting in Oct. As we move from forced work from home to options on where we work in the future, what work model is best for you? Is it full time office, hybrid work from home or working remotely full time? Below are working remotely pros and cons to consider before you decide how you’ll work in the future.

What Does Working Remotely Mean

First, what does working remotely mean? Working remotely allows professionals to work outside their traditional office environment. Instead of commuting to an office each day to work at their desk, they can work out of their house or another nearby place like a coffee shop.

Working Remotely Pros

Many of us had a crash course in working remotely in 2020. Working remotely in the middle of a pandemic, and working remotely normally are not the same though. For starters, kids are in school and not in remote learning next to you. You’re not staying at home 24/7. Usually, there are also opportunities to work from a coffee shop, or other public area, mask free. And, if you do have coworkers in the area you can arrange a lunch or coffee date to meet and collaborate. As a result, the full benefits of working remotely weren’t all realized in 2020. There are many benefits to working remotely when we aren’t in the middle of a pandemic that should be considered when you make your decision.

Save Time Commuting And Getting Ready For Work

The biggest advantage of working remotely is the amount of time you save on commuting and getting ready. According to a study by the US Census Bureau, Americans spend anywhere from 30 minutes to 1 hour 30 minutes commuting every single day depending on state. If you commute an hour a day, working for 49 weeks a year you’ll spend 245 hours commuting a year! And, that doesn’t even include the amount of time you spend getting ready for the office.

Instead, you can spend this time doing a workout, with your family, preparing healthier meals, extra sleep or enjoying a hobby. It’s important to set boundaries here. When everyone is working remotely it’s very easy for work meetings to creep into the time you normally would have been commuting. It’s important to set boundaries so you minimize this risk.

Save Money By Eating At Home and Not Commuting

There are a few ways you save money by working remotely. The most obvious is the money you used to spend on commuting including gas, tolls and car maintenance. Did you also realize you save money on work outfits, dry cleaning, and lunches? By working remotely, you can dress in less expensive clothing that doesn’t require dry cleaning. It’s also much easier to make lunch as you’ll have your entire kitchen at your disposal.

Live A Healthier Lifestyle

When you’re working from home you have your fridge, your kitchen and all of your appliances. You have more options for what you can cook. Even if it’s just quickly warming up leftovers the opportunity to eat healthier at home is there.

When you’re working from home you can also set aside time for an at home workout. This could be a run during lunch, a Peloton cycle ride before or after work when you’d normally be commuting or another preferred workout.

This benefit was not often realized during the pandemic as gyms were closed, grocery shopping pivoted and the overall stress of the pandemic. As life begins resuming to normal and we are all safer with lower community transmission and vaccines it will become easier to live a healthy lifestyle while working from home.

Flexible Time Working

In order to have a successful work remotely culture, your company needs to pivot to defining success based on outcomes. It’s not about working 8 hours a day at certain times anymore. It’s about hitting the deadlines you committed to and producing quality work. With this shift, you have more flexibility in when you work. There will still be standing meetings you are expected to attend but you can pick your kids up from school and make up the time at another hour or another day. Work time isn’t completely flexible, but it is much more flexible than the typical 9-5 in the office. This flexibility is incredibly helpful as kids resume their usual extracurricular activities. You’re able to drive them to the activity and work from the car or activity location if needed.

Working Remotely Cons

Working remotely in 2020 had some cons that don’t normally exist. For example, being at home 100% of the time and very limited opportunities to work from a coffee shop for the day. Without the ability to freely move around we saw ourselves sitting in the same chair for hours on end. There are other cons to working remotely that may seem temporary but can continue if you’re not careful.

Not Setting Work Time Boundaries Leads to Increased Time Spent Working

If you don’t set boundaries for when you’re working and when you’re not you can easily work longer hours. Your laptop is already open and set up, it’s easier to log in again after hours to finish something. If you work in a global team you may set up early and late meetings to meet with team members in their time zone. All of a sudden your 8 hour days become 10-12 hour days.

Because you boss doesn’t see you in an office they may not even realize how many extra hours you are putting in unless they are online at the same time as you and are communicating with you that often during the week. The ball is really in your court to set boundaries for when you’re working and when you’re not. Put blocks in your calendar. Communicate with your boss when the workload gets to be too much.

Working From Home Can Result in Unhealthy Eating

How disciplined are you when it comes to eating? As much as you have your entire kitchen at your disposal when you work from home, you also have your snack drawer readily available. You’re not stuck with whatever you packed for lunch or whatever is in the cafeteria. If you eat your lunch at 10AM at the office you are limited to what food is in a vending machine or in the cafeteria. But at home? If you eat your lunch at 10AM you have enough food to have a second lunch at noon, and a third lunch at 3PM. Or you mindlessly snack all day not realizing how many calories you’re consuming.

Working From Home Can Result In Becoming More Sedentary

Office jobs tend to lead to a sedentary lifestyle in general. But, when you’re commuting to the office you’re walking to your car, walking from the car to the office, walking to the bathroom and naturally take a few more steps even when you’re sitting in a chair most of the day.

When you work from home, you literally can sit in the same chair for 8 hours and at 5PM realize you have only taken 400 steps all day. Blocking off your calendar for a 20-30 minute walk every day can help with this. There is also an opportunity to identify calls and meetings that don’t have to be in front of a computer. If you’re catching up with someone go on a walk while you’re taking a call. Or, if it’s a call you need to listen into but don’t need to be active in go on a walk while on that call.

Harder to Establish Close Connections With Coworkers

When office jobs shifted rapidly to remote work back in March 2020 we all learned about what worked well and what didn’t together. In many cases though, you were working with people you already had established relationships with. Now, in 2021, hiring has started to pick up again. Coworkers are considering new opportunities and backfilled with someone you don’t know. How do you establish relationships with new team members, and even new managers? Not only that, how do you maintain the relationships you already have?

There are a lot of remote working tools like Slack, Microsoft Teams and Zoom. You need to create opportunities to connect with coworkers as you won’t randomly run into them. Set up 1×1 calls and know what they are interested in. If they are a foodie and a cool new restaurant is opening send them the menu and say you thought of them when you read this news. Know their birthday and reach out to say happy birthday to them.

Working Remotely May Impact Your Career Advancement Opportunities

Are you the only person on the team that is working remotely? If so, you may have less face time and interactions with leadership than the rest of your peers. You may also be the only one joining the Zoom remotely and the rest of the team is in the same conference room. This gives you a disadvantage as it makes it harder to hear, you can’t participate in side bar conversations and it’s harder to speak up. Despite this, there are still ways to advance your career when you’re the only team member that’s remote. However, you are at a slight disadvantage compared to the rest of your peers.

Your career options will be less impacted if your whole team is remote, or if most of your team is in a hybrid model. It’s much easier to participate in remote meetings when everyone is remote. Any side bar conversations are done through offline texting or IM. Everyone has the same difficulty getting a word in. Everyone is on an equal footing and it’s up to individuals to advocate for their career goals, work with their mentors and career sponsors to advance their careers.

As many companies didn’t fully embrace working remotely prior to the pandemic these same companies will go through another learning curve transitioning to full time remote or hybrid remote. New processes will need to be put into place to help keep the playing field even when it comes to career opportunities. No longer can career progression be tied to who you see in the office.

Is Working Remotely Right for You?

Don’t let pandemic fatigue influence your decision for choosing whether or not to work remotely. Especially when we’re all excited for the time we can see and connect with people in person again it’s very easy to jump to wanting to go into the office again.

Consider what is best for you based on the pros and cons of working remotely. What is your team dynamic at work? Think about what is best for your health? What is best for the way you work? You don’t have to go full time to the office or full time remote either. If you like some of the working remotely benefits and also don’t like some of the cons a hybrid work from home model may be best for you.

work from home pros and cons, working remotely pros and cons, benefits of working remotely

Categories // Career Tags // Work Remotely, Working Remotely

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  • Is Amazon Prime Really Worth $119? For Me, Not Anymore June 19, 2021
  • Can You Really Afford That House? It Depends June 1, 2021
  • Should You Continue Working From Home? The Pros and Cons of Working Remotely After Covid May 17, 2021
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