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Simply Cash Plus Business Card from American Express Review

The Simply Cash From American Express offers empowers you to pick your own bonus cash back category. At the same time, you earn cash back on every purchase. Here are the details, including its $500 bonus offer and no annual fee.

When you’re a small business owner, you understand the importance of smart money moves. One of those moves, for instance, is picking the right business credit card. Ideally, the card will allow you to earn cash back on the things you buy most often.

Unfortunately, many business credit cards only offer cash back in certain, “traditional” categories. If you have a unique business or work from home, you may not even spend in these typical categories (like travel expenses or postage) very often.

So, how do you find a flexible credit card that will allow you to earn in the categories where you spend the most often, maximizing your cash back rewards?

Enter the SimplyCash® Plus Business Card from American Express. This card offers healthy cash back rewards in the category of your choice, without an annual fee. New cardholders can also enjoy an introductory 0% APR.

Let’s take a look at what this business card offers and how it can help you take your company to the next level.

Welcome Bonus

Learn More

When you first sign up for the SimplyCash® Plus Business Card from American Express, you’ll enjoy an excellent $500 bonus offer. This bonus is earned in two segments, depending on your spending habits.

You’ll earn the first $250 after you spend $5,000 on your card in the first 6 months of card membership. The bonus will come in the form of a statement credit.

The second $250 offer is earned once you spend an additional $10,000 in qualifying purchases on your card. This can be spent at any time in the first year of card ownership, and the bonus is also applied in the form of a statement credit.

Introductory APR

Signing up for this product as a new card holder will also net you another great bonus: an introductory purchase APR. For the first 9 months of card membership, you’ll see 0% interest on new purchases. After this 9 month period ends, your interest rate will shift to a variable rate depending on your creditworthiness.

There is no introductory balance transfer APR offer for this card at this time.

Cash Back

As mentioned, one of the best things about the SimplyCash® Plus Business Card is the flexibility offered in earning cash back rewards. As a card holder, you’ll be able to earn on the spending that makes the most sense for your company, instead of being bound to the categories that are just “typical” to other businesses. This means that if you’re a work-from-home freelancer who doesn’t travel much for work (like me!), you can still earn big on the things you do buy.

There are a few things that almost every business needs: phone service and office supplies of some kind. Well, with the SimplyCash® Plus, you will earn 5% cash back on these purchases. Rewards are offered for purchases made at U.S. office supply stores, as well as on wireless telephone service that is purchased directly from a U.S. service provider.

Beyond that, though, you can still earn above-average rewards on the everyday spending of your choice.

The SimplyCash® Plus Business Card also offers 3% cash back on the category of your choice.. The categories offered include airfare, hotel stays, gas, restaurants, car rentals, advertising, shipping, and computer-related expenses. There are some limitations on these expenses, so be sure to check with American Express about your unique needs.

Outside of your 5% on office supplies and wireless service, and 3% back in the category of your choice, you will also earn 1% back on every dollar spent everywhere else. The 5% and 3% cash back rewards are applied to the first $50,000 in spending each calendar year. Once you hit that limit, you will switch to earning 1% thereafter.

Benefits

The SimplyCash® Plus Business Card from American Express also offers other benefits to you and your business, besides flexible cash back and an introductory purchase APR. In fact, this card is even flexible in its spending power.

If you need to make a large purchase one month that is beyond your credit limit, that’s ok! You have the ability to buy above your credit limit, spending as much as you need on the SimplyCash® Plus without any fees, advanced permission, or limit. You’ll even earn cash back on that purchase.

The only caveat is that whatever amount you spend beyond your credit limit, you’ll need to pay that back in full along with your minimum payment due, once your billing cycle ends. If you need a short term “loan” or need to make an unexpected large purchase, though, this card offers you an easy, immediate, and penalty-free option to do so.

You’ll also receive a number of automatic protections and travel benefits just for using this card. For insurance, if you use your card to reserve and pay for eligible U.S. car rentals, you’ll be covered if the car is stolen or damaged. This coverage is secondary and doesn’t include liability, but can save you a few bucks at the counter compared to purchasing the rental company’s collision damage coverage.

If you’re stuck roadside with a flat tire or run out of gas, the SimplyCash® Plus can come to your rescue. Card members have access to the American Express Roadside Assistance Hotline, which will help you get back on your way.

Lastly, you’ll benefit from a few other travel perks. If your bag is lost, stolen, or damaged while traveling – and you purchased the airfare with your SimplyCash® Plus Card – you’re covered. The baggage insurance plan covers your carry-on for up to $1,250 and your checked luggage for up to $500. Also, the card includes automatic travel accident insurance, covering you on a plane, train, ship, or bus in cash of accidental death or dismemberment. If you have purchased the entire fare with your American Express card, you’re protected with up to $100,000 in coverage.

Fees

As mentioned, there is no annual fee for the SimplyCash® Plus Business Card from American Express. This is great news for a card that is so flexible and offers such high cash back throughout the year.

There is also no overlimit fee. If you need to charge above your credit limit, or just accidentally buy more than expected, that’s ok. There are no penalties involved, you will just need to pay the overage amount in addition to your minimum payment due at the end of the billing cycle.

If you have a returned payment, there is a $38 fee. The fee for a late payment on the account is up to $38. For foreign transactions, there is also a 2.7% fee for each transaction after conversion to USD.

Who It’s For

If you’re a business owner looking for a flexible, annual fee-free card that offers excellent cash back, look no further. With the Simply Cash® Plus Business Card from American Express, you’ll earn anywhere from 1-5% back on the things you buy every single day. You can earn 3-5% back on up to $50,000 in purchases each year.

You also have the flexibility to spend above your credit limit when needed. For business owners, who may have sudden expenses that are necessary to their operations, this benefit can act as a quick, no interest loan without the hassle and limit of a bank.

There is also a 9-month introductory APR of 0% on purchases, making this card an all-around excellent choice.

• Learn more about this card and other small business credit cards

Topics: Credit Cards

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How to Refinance a Car Loan

Refinancing an auto loan can save you hundreds of dollars in interest payments. In this article we walk through when and how to refinance a car loan.

When most people hear the word “refinance,” their minds automatically jump to home refinancing. After all, your home loan is likely the one that will take you the longest to pay off. So it’s the one that typically benefits the most from a refinance.

But did you know you can also refinance your car loan? This is an especially good option if you could get a much lower interest rate on a new car loan. This can save you tons of money and also help you pay off your car more quickly.

Interested in refinancing your auto loan? Here’s how:

Know When to Refinance

First, you will, of course, want to keep an eye on whether or not you should refinance. You’re likely a good candidate to refinance if one or more of the following applies to you:

• You’ve seen auto loan interest rates drop. This is the least likely scenario as of the time of this writing, especially if you financed your car through the bank. After falling gradually from 2008 until about 2014, car loan rates have started to trend back upwards. Still, it’s a good idea to keep an eye on industry trends to be sure you’re still getting a good rate.
• You’ve boosted your credit score. According to this auto loan interest rate calculator, your credit score can make a huge difference in what you’ll pay in interest on your car loan. On a $10,000 used purchase loan, you could pay an average of 15.58% interest with poor credit, or an average of just 2.73% with excellent credit. That’s a huge difference! If your credit score has increased several points since you financed your car, look at your new expected interest rate.
• You just didn’t get that great a deal on your financing. Maybe when you bought your car you didn’t know how to get the best financing deal. It may be time to shop around again to see if you can get a better rate, even if your credit score and overall interest rates have held fairly steady.
• You need to decrease your payments. Are you struggling to make your car loan payments? In this case, a refinance could get you into a lower payment by extending the repayment term. This isn’t a great option, if you can avoid it. But it can be a reasonable way to trim your budget without having to give up your car.

If one or more of these situations sounds familiar, you should at least look around to see what deal you might get by refinancing your car loan.

Find Your Break-Even Point

Before you actually shop around to refinance your car, first find out if it’s actually a good idea financially. Sure, saving a few percentage points on your interest rate seems like a good idea right off. But there are costs involved with refinancing. So be sure your savings will outweigh your costs.

To do this, you need to calculate your break-even point. This is the point–usually a number of months–at which your savings will begin to outweigh your costs.

To calculate your break-even point, first figure out if there are any fees involved with refinancing your car. This might include early termination fees on your original loan, transaction fees for your new loan, and potentially new state registration fees. Some states require borrowers to re-register their cars after a refinance. Add all that together, and that’s how much your refinance will cost.

On the savings side, get an estimate of how much you’ll pay on your refinanced loan. You could use a calculator like this one to estimate your payment based on your loan balance and credit score. Look at how much that will save you per month. Then, divide your overall cost by your monthly savings.

This is easier than it sounds. Let’s say your refinance will cost you a total of $500 in fees, but you’ll save $50 per month on your loan. It will take you 10 months to break even. After 10 months of car payments, you’ll start saving money.

Shortening Your Term

Calculating your break-even point can be tricky if your refinance leaves you with a larger or similar loan payment because you’re also shortening the term. If you can significantly cut down on your interest, you can pay off the loan more quickly for the same monthly payment. This is a good option if your payment is affordable and you want to get out of debt more quickly.

In this case, though, you’ll need to calculate your overall expenses versus your overall savings. You can do that using an amortization calculator like this one. Put in your current car loan terms and current principal. See how much you’d pay in interest over the rest of the life of your loan as is. Then put in your current principal with the new loan terms. What’s the difference in interest payments?

In our first scenario, where a refinance would cost $500, if you save $501 by refinancing, you’re saving money. Of course, it’s up to you to decide how much you need to save in total to make the effort of the refinance process worth your while.

Shop Around for New Financing

If you decide you’re likely to save money by refinancing your car, it’s time to shop around. There are plenty of aggregators online that let you shop with multiple auto loan lenders at once. You might try a couple of these, but don’t leave out alternatives like your local credit union. You can often get the best financing deal from a credit union.

Keep in mind that you should do all of your shopping for your refinance within a two-week period. Each time a lender pulls your credit history to see if they’ll lend to you, it counts as a hard pull on your credit report. These can ding your credit score by a few points. However, algorithms like FICO’s are set up to let you roll several inquiries into one if they’re for the same type of loan.

But this only works if you consolidate your shopping around into a 14- to 45-day span, depending on the particular FICO score a lender chooses to use. The best option is to keep to a two-week period. That way you know your rate shopping won’t harm you, no matter which FICO score a lender uses.

Once you find the best financing deal, you can move on to the next step.

Get Your New Loan

Getting a new auto loan is typically pretty simple. You get your documentation together, usually including the car’s information and documentation about your income. Then you fill out the application for funding. In the last step, you may have filled out preliminary applications. At this point, you’ll likely need to provide things like actual proof of income.

If the new lender approves the terms, they’ll typically work behind the scenes with your existing lender. The new lender will pay off the balance on the loan, and then they’ll take over the title. Once you pay off that loan, they’ll send you the title to the car that you now own free and clear.

Topics: debt

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Inflation: How does it affect the overnight rate this month?

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These 5 Apps Will Make Sending Money Simple

Sending money to friends and family is not always easy. With these 5 apps, however, you can transfer money, in many cases totally free.

When is the last time you went out to a restaurant with a group of friends or colleagues, and everyone at the table pulled out cash to settle their part of the bill? If you are like most people, you’d be hard pressed to answer that question. (And if you’re under 30, the answer might be, “Never.”)

Splitting bills when you’re paying via credit card or debit card can get hairy. It’s often easier to have one person pay and everyone else pay that person back. But even that can get tough unless you want to start accepting checks.

Enter money-sending apps. These apps make for a convenient, painless way to transfer cash from yourself to friends and family, or vice versa. These make sharing expenses painless and quick. Plus, there’s no longer an excuse for that one friend to conveniently “forget” to pay you back for months on end.

1. Venmo

Venmo has been around since 2009 and is now one of the most popular money transfer apps around. In fact, it’s so popular that among millennials, in particular, it’s become a verb. It’s common to hear someone saying “just Venmo me” when discussing splitting a check or expense.

Venmo’s claim to fame is that it allows users to send money to friends easily. You can link a debit card or bank account to your Venmo account. You can also carry a balance in your Venmo account. Transfers from these options are free.

You can also use a credit card to send money, but this comes with a 3% fee. It’s always free to receive money through Venmo.

Transfers to your Venmo account are available within Venmo immediately. You can then transfer that money elsewhere or save it until you need to pay someone through Venmo. You can also transfer the money to your linked debit card or bank account.

Pros: Venmo boasts an easy-to-use interface and a quick app. It also offers bank-level security, so you can be relatively certain your money is safe.

Venmo also has a Facebook-like feed where you can see who is paying whom for what. It’s kind of a quirky aspect of the service, but it can be interesting. You can, of course, decide which payments to share on your feed.

You can also start a group account on Venmo to handle money for a group like a student organization or club. This can make managing this type of money pretty simple.

Finally, Venmo allows for simple splitting of payments.

Cons: The social aspect of Venmo can also be a negative. For those who either don’t care to know about the payment activity of others, the feed can be a bit of an annoying distraction. For the privacy-minded, Venmo’s settings do allow you to turn off sharing. That way, no one else can see where or why you are sending money.

Payments are not made directly to your bank account, but rather get applied to your “Venmo Balance.” Users must then manually transfer funds from their Venmo balance to their bank account. So it often takes a few days for the cash from your Venmo balance to reach your bank account.

Another downside is that the app does not use your Venmo balance to cover transactions larger than your Venmo balance. For example, say you need to pay someone $60 and have $35 in your Venmo balance. There is no option for you to just pay the $25 difference from your linked debit or credit card. You must pay the whole payment from the debit or credit card, or make two separate transfers.

What Venmo says about their app:

“Pay family and friends in the US with a phone number or email, whether or not they have Venmo — all they need to do is create a Venmo account to claim their payment. Find friends automatically by syncing your Facebook or phone contacts.”

2. Square Cash

Square has been around for a while as a payment processor for small businesses. It also offers options to transfer money personally. As with the other apps featured here, Square Cash is an app that allows users to transfer money through email, or by way of the app directly. In order to transfer money for free, you must link a debit card.

There is no charge to send, request, or receive money through the app, if you choose Personal Use at setup. If you send funds via a credit card, however, there is a 3% processing fee (paid by the sender).

You can also refer new users to Square Cash through the Invite feature of the app. When they make their first $50 transfer, you’ll both receive a $5 bonus in your account!

Another interesting perk of Square Cash is that it comes with its own Visa Debit card. The card is linked to your Square Cash balance, and makes it safe to make actual purchases with that balance.

Pros: This service is easy to use, and you have the option to handle money directly in your Square Cash account or send it to your bank account. For a 1% fee, you can use an Instant Deposit to get money in your bank account right away. Or if you need money to spend, you can just use the attached debit card to spend directly from your Square Cash account.

Cons: Square requires a bit more security if you’re sending larger amounts of cash. If you send more than $250 in one week, the app will ask for personally identifying information like the last for digits of your Social Security number. Once you’ve given this information, though, your limit will be raised to $2,500 for that week in most states.

What Square Cash says about their app:

“Whether splitting a dinner bill with friends or paying your landlord for the month’s rent, Square Cash is the easiest way to send money. Cash is available for both personal and business use. ”

$Cashtags: Square markets this unique feature as a “virtual tip jar.” You can use these to receive payments from outside of the Square app. You’ll create your own personal $Cashtag that links to a Square URL. Then you can give out the URL to people who want to send you cash. You can use it to split payments or even to receive tips from your website, artwork, or whatever other endeavor you have going on.

 

The $Cashtags aspect of Square Cash is also beneficial for those accepting donations or funding for specific causes/goals. A graduate could set up a $cashtag page for contributions to his mission trip in Kenya. A restaurant could raise money to support someone in their community. Or a bride and groom could set up a honeymoon $cashtag in lieu of a wedding registry. The possibilities are endless.

The biggest downside for the person accepting funds, however, is that any money accepted through $Cashtags is subject to a 1.5% fee. Payments are transferred directly to your bank account.

3. Google Wallet

You can send and receive money via Google Wallet using a convenient app or your desktop computer. Make payments by linking a debit card to your Google wallet account, and Google then transfers the money fee-free. Google Wallet is available for both Android and iOS devices.

Security: Google uses a Payments PIN for accessing your Wallet. If you ever lose your phone (or it gets stolen), you can login to your Google account and remove access to your Google wallet account on that device.

Google even goes so far as to provide 24/7 fraud monitoring, and Google covers 100% of all verified unauthorized transactions.

Pros: The Google brand is well known and trusted. It’s also quite easy to send money from the app. Just use the recipient’s email address or phone number, or send directly from Gmail. You can also use the Google Wallet site and app to do more than send money to friends and family members. You can use it for online spending quite easily, as well.

Another pro of Google Wallet is the ease of sending money. You only need to provide your phone number or email address to get money from others.

Cons: You can’t send or receive money between two countries through Google Wallet. Luckily, this should not present a problem to the majority of users.

What Google says about its app:

“Send money to anyone in the US using an email address or phone number. It’s fast, easy, and free to send directly from your debit card, bank account, or Wallet Balance. You can do all this in the Google Wallet app, or, if you’re on desktop, you can also send and request money in Gmail. When you receive money, you can quickly cash out to your bank account using your debit card, and get access to your money within minutes.”

4. Paypal

Paypal has long been the go-to method for making payments and sending money online. Utilized by individuals and business alike, the company has become a household name. Since it introduced its web store plug-in, you’d have a tough time finding someone who hasn’t used, or at least seen, Paypal.

Beyond online purchases, you can also use Paypal to send and receive money to friends and family, free of charge. As long as you use a bank account or Paypal balance, and choose the “Send money to friends or family” option, there is no fee for the transfer. For a fee, you can also choose to transfer money to friends or family from a credit card.

As with some of the other apps here, you can carry a balance within PayPal. Or you can transfer the balance to your bank account. It has a more recent option that allows you to transfer money through a debit card to your checking account. It has a $.25 fee, but it gets the money into your bank account within an hour, most of the time.

PayPal also offers the option of a Money Pool. You can join with friends and family members to collect money for a particular cause. And then it stays in your pool’s balance until you need the money.

Pros: Well-known and trusted, the relatively easy to use site allows for storage of your shipping information, credit and debit cards, and the email addresses of others with whom you exchange money. Many companies also allow for direct linking to your Paypal account. This allows for even faster checkout (or payment acceptance) on sites like Etsy and eBay.

Cons: PayPal is notorious for shutting down or freezing accounts if they see any activity they consider fraudulent.

What PayPal says about their service:

“Your cash and cards can rest easy. PayPal lets you send money to anyone’s email address or mobile number–whether it’s a friend, school, or family member. They can set up a PayPal account for free, and the money goes right into it. Send money across the street or internationally as fast as you can enter your secure PIN.”

5. Facebook Messenger

A relative newcomer to the money-transfer market, Facebook Messenger now lets you send or collect money through the popular messaging app. To make it happen, you just have to link a debit card to your Facebook Messenger account. When you’re in a message, click the dollar sign, enter the amount of money you want to send, and get it done. You can receive money the same way, as long as you’ve added a debit card to the account.

 

 

Pros: This service is easy to incorporate into social apps you’re only using, and it’s free.

Cons: It can take between one and three days to get money deposited to your account, and it only supports debit cards.

Conclusion

While it’s clear that each of these apps are trying to present their forms as unique, the functions are essentially the same. The user interfaces, fees, and security features vary somewhat. Overall, there does not seem to be a clear winner among them that stands out above the rest.

At the end of the day, which app you choose to use for your digital cash transfers is likely to be determined by which app the majority of the people in your cash transferring circle are using. You may very well end up using some combination of them. If all else fails, you could always hunt down some actual dollar bills and settle up the old fashioned way.

Do you use any of the apps named here? What did you think?

Topics: Money Management • Tools & Resources

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From Flirting to Sexual Coersion: After #MeToo, What Are The Rules?

 

This weekend I went to an amazing panel discussion called Sex, Power & Consent: Can We Talk? put on by the William Alanson White Institute of Psychiatry, Psychoanalysis & Psychology.

Throughout the day we discussed and debated many fascinating things, like what the exact difference is between sexual assault and “bad sex,” how gender roles become culturally defined (and their consequences), what role straight men can play after the “me-too” movement (other than listening), and the role invisible power dynamics play in the ethics of sex.

While all of these (and more) left me reeling with ideas and topics to write about, the topic I’m exploring today is the line between flirtation/seduction and sexual harassment/coersion.

In short, a common complaint among men these days (and some women) is that the rise of so many women calling out sexual abusers, assaulters, and harassers, makes it scary and confusing for straight men to know what’s “ok” and what’s not ok when it comes to flirting, pursuing a woman, and even getting sexual consent.

I certainly don’t feel bad for the men who are nervous (we women have been nervous our whole lives), but I do recognize that this conversation, like so many things, is deeply nuanced and not at all black-and-white.

The question that tickles my mind most is… what role do traditional views of seduction, flirtation, romance, and “courting” play in our modern dating and hookup culture?

Let’s start with some history.

A long time ago, it was a man’s job to woo a woman, and her job to simply resist or consent. He was active, she was passive. Many celebrated male love-story heroes have been the traditionally masculine type who  “refused to take no for an answer.” Not in a modern sexual-assault-y way, but in a romantic “I’ll prove to her that I’m worthy of her” way, in which he shows the woman he’s not going anywhere, and she eventually sees his worth and reciprocates.

A lot of our modern understanding of dating, romance, and sex goes back to this.

I know many women who say they want someone to “fight for them,” meaning they want someone who isn’t turned away by one or two refusals. In her mind, his pursuit and dedication prove how he feels about her; that she’s irreplaceable to him. His perseverance makes her feel deeply desired, and emotionally safe enough to fall for him.

It seems unfair to me that we might hold this “fight for me and prove your worth” expectation in romance, but then find the exact same behaviors repulsive and vile when it comes to hooking up.

But isn’t that exactly what’s happening when we talk about sexual coersion?

Back when traditional “courting” was a man’s job, getting a woman to fall in love with him and marry him was the only (respectable) way he could get laid. Yes it was romantic, but it was also very much sexual. His job was to convince, to persuade, to wait, to prove, to outlast, to earn.

While lauded romantically, is that behavior so different than what Aziz Ansari was doing in his recently scrutinized date with the woman who felt sexually violated? The big difference is that our modern hookup culture has purposefully divorced romantic feelings from casual sex.

Women are often just as interested in casual sex as men, but there is a hugely gendered difference in how we’re socialized to view ourselves and others, and those differences set us up for problems during the process of flirtation, seduction, and sex.

Men are often taught to see themselves as the center of their own story, encouraged to know who they are, and confidently go after what they want. The old traditionally masculine values of dedication, perseverance, and aggressive pursuit of your goals are still at play, and they translate seamlessly from the romantic sphere to the sexual sphere.

It is in this way that so many good men are accidentally or unknowingly sexually coersive. They’re just doing what they’ve been taught. Often they’ve also had their natural empathy and intuition socialized out of them, and taught to place their own needs first, so they end up either ignoring or being unable to accurately interpret the meaning of the body language and facial expressions of their partner.

Likewise, women are a product of our socialization, and the old traditional values.

We women have been taught to see ourselves as givers, helpers, and supporters. We’ve been taught that our value is inherently wrapped up in our beauty and sexual desirability, that our worth in based on our ability to passively “catch” the attention and approval of a good partner.

Women learn to put everyone else first, and many women become so obsessed with being what other people want them to be that they never get the chance to develop a sense of their own desires- let alone the ability to assert them to another person.

The old traditional values of passivity, nurturing, people-pleasing, and avoiding conflict are often still at play. When a man makes a pass at a woman, she often feels it is her responsibility to be nice to him, to let him down easy, or to make up a lie or excuse so as not to offend him. (How many times have you apologetically turned someone down with a fake “I have a boyfriend”?)

More importantly, when both flirting and hooking up, she is habitually aware of what other people want from her (often significantly more so than her own desires), and due to the way her identity and self-worth are constructed, she is afraid of letting them down, disappointing them, or upsetting them.

In this way many women often go much further sexually with men than they want to, often getting into situations with men who are pushing for what they want, against women who feel afraid to (or unable to) say no.

Plus all women have experienced the instant rage of a spurned man (think: the catcaller who doesn’t get the smile he feels entitled to), so we know that letting down a man who wants something from us can actually be quite dangerous.

Even with a very safe man though, it is sometimes much easier to say yes and get it over with than to stop things that are already “in motion” and have to deal with the aftermath of emotional labor.

Even though he pushed things to be in motion, saying no after a certain point often comes with one or more of the following exhausting consequences:

• Begging (as a favor to stave off blue-balls)
• He’ll want an acceptable explanation (acceptable meaning something other than us not wanting to)
• He’ll change tack and try to get us back in the mood and keep pushing further
• He’ll appeal to “reason” and justify why he deserves it
• He’ll request an alternate sexual favor (like a handjob) instead
• He’ll shame us as a “tease” or prude
• He’ll ignore our no altogether
• We’ll have to deal with the dangerous anger of a hurt male ego

Being intensely aware of his feelings, having a self-identity that requires we put other people’s needs first, and not feeling entitled to self-assertion, for many women it’s often much easier to just say yes and have sex you don’t really want or enjoy, rather than deal with all that.

Can you see how our gender roles have been passed down, and the damage it’s doing in the modern scene of heterosexual sex and dating? (There are plenty of issues and complexities among the LGBTQ scene as well, but I don’t have time to explore that today.)

While there are no black-and-white answers to this issue yet, I want to finish with a few things I think we can actually DO, because I want to make it clear that we are not stuck with this. In every moment we are each co-creating our culture, and we each have the ability (and responsibility) to push it in a better direction.

So, what should we do?

• Continue exploring this topic in conversation, listening and staying open instead of shutting down dissenting opinions.

• All genders must continue challenging and dismantling traditional gender roles and the gender binary– both in ourselves as fully socialized adults, and in how we raise children.

• Adult women must learn to cultivate and recognize who we are and what we want, so that we’re not as swayed by what other people want from us. This means painstakingly detaching our self-identity and self-worth from nurturing, care-taking, people-pleasing, and putting others first, and rebuilding it in a more self-focused way.

• Everyone, but especially girls and women, need to learn and practice clear, bold, fierce, strong, kind, graceful, and aggressive rebuffs to unwanted attention and sexual advances. We must learn and practice turning people down and saying no in different situations, with different tools. From practicing angry bravado to scare off a man who gropes us on the subway, to practicing turning down invitations with the truth instead of making up an excuse to protect their feelings, we need to be better practiced in the art of honoring our boundaries and saying no.

• Adult men need to learn to be significantly more sensitive to and focused on the emotional state and nonverbals of their female partners, from flirtation all the way to sex. A verbal “yes” might be enough legally, but all men are responsible for creating a space where she knows it’s completely ok to stop or change her mind at any moment, and she will be respected. (This means if she changes her mind at any point there is to be no begging, no whining, no demanding an explanation, no asking for a substitute sexual favor, and no shaming.)

• All genders need to work on having more “slow-down” mechanisms with regard to the normally fast-paced hookup path from flirtation to sex. We must learn to take time to slow down the speeding train, to check in with ourselves and notice what we’re feeling, and then check in with our partners to do the same. Think of these as mandatory “speed bumps” to prevent accidents.

Note: If you want to learn more practices for how to have more fulfilling and positive sexual experiences as a woman, you can come to my workshop in Asheville, NC on April 14th from 10am-1pm!!

It’s called

Sex & Body Image:
More Pleasure & Confidence In the Bedroom

and I previously announced the wrong date by accident– I said it was the 21st, but it’s officially the 14th!! For more details and to register email me.

Wishing you fiery Tuesday,
<3
Jessi

The post From Flirting to Sexual Coersion: After #MeToo, What Are The Rules? appeared first on Jessi Kneeland.

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Where to Get the Best Auto Insurance In Maryland

Our comprehensive guide evaluates the best auto insurance in Maryland based on a number of factors, including price, coverage and customer satisfaction.

When the time comes to find a brand new–or your first–auto insurance policy, the options can make your head spin. With all the companies out there, the coverage available, and even the discrepancies in price, how can you possibly choose?

While a primary concern is usually cost, you should also consider some other major factors. It’s equally important to ensure that you choose a company with excellent customer satisfaction, a proven track record of service, multiple coverage limits offered, and even options for deductibles. That way, you can meet all of your needs and your budget.

We spent hours poring over the options and data available to bring you this comprehensive guide to buying auto insurance in Maryland. In it, we cover everything that you need to know about searching for your next policy and the legal requirements before you get behind the wheel. We also talk about factors that will impact premiums in this state and which companies are most likely to provide you with the best value for coverage.

By the time you finish reading, you’ll know exactly what you need from your next auto insurance company, how much you can expect to pay, and where to look when you’re ready to buy a policy.

Our Top 5 Picks for the Best Car Insurance in Maryland

Whether you’re a new driver in Maryland or just looking for a replacement policy, you have plenty of options. Some companies are better than others – both according to ratings and the services offered. So we’ve ranked our top five picks in the state.

It’s important to keep in mind that your own personal experience may differ somewhat, just based on the coverage you choose to buy, your own personal driving record, and even where you live within the state. Based on our research and available consumer ratings, though, here are our top picks for auto insurance in Maryland:

• Best Overall Satisfaction: State Farm
• Best Customer Service: Allstate
• Lowest Premiums: State Auto
• Great If You Have a Perfect Record: State Auto
• Best If You Have a Less-Than-Perfect Record: Allstate

Maryland Auto Insurance Requirements

Each and every state has its own legal requirements for minimum auto insurance coverage. The Old Line State mandates that every driver carries at least a certain amount of both bodily injury and property damage liability coverage. Let’s take a look at what Maryland requires.

Any time there is an auto accident, there are two types of damages to consider: bodily injury and personal property.

Bodily injury liability coverage is intended to cover any injuries a driver may cause to someone else. Most states have both a minimum total amount of coverage, and a minimum amount of coverage if two or more people are injured in the same accident. Keep in mind that if two or more people are harmed in an accident, the total bodily injury coverage amount is split between them.

Property damage coverage repairs or replaces any damage that a driver’s actions may cause to someone else’s property. This could include another driver’s vehicle, objects like signage, structures and buildings, and more.

As a driver, you can buy as much coverage as you’d like. Depending on your assets, it may even be wise to purchase coverage above and beyond what’s required. However, the state mandates certain minimums that you must hold to drive there. Here are the minimums in Maryland:

Coverage Type	Minimums
Bodily Damage Liability
Death or injury of one person in any one accident	$30,000 minimum
Death or injury of 2+ people in any one accident	$60,000 minimum
Property Damage Liability	$15,000 minimum

In Maryland, drivers who have trouble finding state-minimum coverage elsewhere may be eligible for the Maryland Automobile Insurance Fund. We’ll discuss this further below.

Penalties

If you fail to hold adequate liability coverage through a state-licensed company, you’ll be unable to register your vehicle in Maryland. You’re also considered uninsured if you don’t have at least the minimum limits mentioned above. This means you cannot legally drive a motor vehicle at any time in the state.

If you are ever asked to provide proof of minimum coverage, either after you get pulled over or in an accident, you will need to present a copy of your policy. If you can’t, you’ll get an uninsured driver ticket. If you’re actually insured but just don’t have proof with you, you can always bring that to the court. There, they will typically drop the charge, though you will likely have to pay processing fees or court costs.

The penalty for failing to obtain coverage or allowing coverage to lapse is a fine of $150 for the first 30 days and an additional $7 for each day thereafter. There is an annual maximum of $2,500 for these fines, per vehicle. Plus, you’ll be subject to court costs, and Maryland will suspend your registration until you get adequate coverage. This could even mean a tag recovery agent will come and physically confiscate your vehicle’s license plates!

If you drive with a suspended registration, the state can fine you or even impound your vehicle. Failure to pay your accrued fines may also result in additional penalties in the form of a 17% collection fee. Oh, and the state can intercept your income tax return if you continue to ignore notices to pay what you owe.

Getting in an accident with inadequate state minimum liability coverage is very serious, even if the accident isn’t your fault! If you are at fault, you’ll be responsible for the damages and injuries incurred by the other driver(s). And they can sue you for these bills if your insurance doesn’t cover them. This has the potential to ruin you financially.

If you’re uninsured or underinsured and get in an auto accident, the state will likely suspend your license. They’ll fine you for your lack of coverage, as well. And it’s easy to get caught without coverage, as providers in Maryland regularly report cancelled and lapsed policies to the Maryland Department of Transportation Motor Vehicle Administration.

The only thing worse than driving without liability insurance, though, is providing false evidence of coverage. Not only are you subject to all the punishments and penalties above. But falsely claiming or presenting false proof of coverage also brings a fine of $1,000 and/or a year of imprisonment.

Proof of Insurance

Yes, you need to purchase and maintain adequate auto insurance coverage. That’s not all, though: you actually need to carry proof of that coverage on you every single time you drive.

Law enforcement officers in most states can access your insurance status through a database. But they still expect you to carry proof in a printed copy of your insurance or through the insurance company’s app on your phone.

Your proof of insurance will have certain identifying information on it. This includes the name of the policyholder, the vehicles covered under the policy, the policy number, dates of valid coverage, and your address.

In Maryland, the court can impose a $50 fine for failure to provide proof of insurance. This can happen even if a police officer can verify your coverage with the database. It’s still your responsibility to carry proof at all times.

Average Cost of Coverage in Maryland

If you’re a driver in the Old Line State, you may wonder how your premiums measure up to others across the country. Here’s a look at how drivers in Maryland fare compared to other states.

According to data provided by QuoteWizard, the average driver in Maryland pays $1,001.17 a year in auto insurance premiums. This comes out to about $83.43 a month. This is a significant jump when compared to the national average of $866.31 a year.

Broken down further, we see that drivers typically pay $607.19 a year for liability coverage alone. Beyond that, Maryland drivers are shelling out an average of $339.48 a year for collision coverage and $149.70 for comprehensive coverage.

Of course, as we’ve mentioned, your actual auto insurance costs could vary greatly from these averages. So many factors influence the price you pay, including your age, your driving record, where you live in the state, the car you drive, your education level, and even your credit history.

That’s why it’s so important to shop around before choosing a company. By shopping around, you can not only find the right coverage for you but also the right price.

Cheapest Car Insurance in Maryland

It’s incredibly difficult to compare auto insurance companies and try to say which one is the “cheapest” when there are so many factors at play. Even when you find one that is cheaper on average, you never know how your individual quote will look. After all, those averages include rates for 18-year-old male drivers in sports cars just as often as they include 45-year-old soccer moms with minivans.

With that said, we took some time to compare the various auto insurance companies in Maryland to see how they measured up against one another. We used the same search criteria to see who regularly came up as a better value. Our sample policyholder? A 30-year-old single male with a clean driving record and good credit. He owns a 2013 Chevy Malibu and lives in the Rockville area.

Here’s a look at how the most popular companies in the state measured up, based on a year of their quoted price for state minimum coverage:

Insurance Company	Annual Premium
State Auto	$1,104
Allstate	$1,560
Penn National	$1,656
Nationwide	$1,716
The General	$1,740
Victoria	$1,956
Elephant	$2,100

Now, let’s take a look at how our same example guy would fare if he instead lived in Potomac:

Insurance Company	Annual Premium
Allstate	$1,932
State Auto	$2,052
The General	$2,100
Penn National	$2,196
Nationwide	$2,496
Victoria	$2,892
Elephant	$2,976

Your results may vary based on your specific ZIP Code and personal factors. However, if you live in Maryland, you can probably bank on Allstate and State Auto being two of your cheapest insurance providers in the state.

Cost of Auto Insurance in Maryland

You might be asking, “How much does auto insurance cost in Maryland?” Unfortunately, that is a question with literally hundreds of different answers.

The cost you’ll pay depends on so many variables, including your:

• Age
• Gender
• Marital status
• Driving record
• Credit report
• Education
• Vehicle(s) covered
• Whether your vehicle is financed, leased, or paid in full
• ZIP code
• Whether you own or rent your home
• Miles driven each year and the purpose of those miles (work commute, pleasure, etc.)
• How much coverage is desired

There is absolutely no way to accurately answer that question without knowing each person’s individual factors. As we talked about previously, though, the average annual cost for auto insurance across the entire state of Maryland is just over $1,001 a year. (If you’re considering liability coverage only, the average drops down to just $607 a year.)

Let’s try to narrow down these rates a bit more, though. Then, we might be able to give you a better idea of how much you can expect to pay each year for liability coverage.

To do this, we have developed four different driver “profiles.” While you probably won’t be an exact match for any of them, you can probably relate more closely to one that the others. This will let you see which companies might be worth focusing your efforts. And you can get an approximate range for your annual car insurance costs in Maryland.

Our Subjects

All four of our test subject drivers live in Frederick, MD–in ZIP code 21701–which is an area of the state with lower auto insurance rates. Keep in mind that areas like Baltimore may have significantly higher rates.

Fun fact: You’ll get the lowest average rates  in Fountainhead-Orchard Hills and the highest average rates in Baltimore.

Little Timmy is a stereotypical high-risk driver: he’s a 22-year-old college kid who cruises around in a financed 2012 Chevy Impala. His driving record isn’t squeaky clean. He’s had two speeding tickets in the last three years (no accidents, though). He drives to work and school each day to the tune of about 15k miles a year, rents an apartment, and has decent credit.

Then we have Jane and John Smith. These college-grad parents are both 42, have a mortgage on their suburban home, own a 2011 Chevy Equinox, and finance a 2014 Toyota Sienna. They drive about 16,000 miles a year and have clean driving records except for Jane’s small fender bender a couple years back. Oh, and they have good credit.

We all know at least one Straight-Laced Sally. She is single, 35 years-old with a college degree, excellent credit, and a squeaky clean driving record. She drives her paid-off 2010 Toyota Camry about 10,000 miles a year and owns her condo.

Grandpa Joe is next, age 65. He owns his home, has excellent credit, and graduated college once upon a time. He drives a 1998 Honda Civic for a total of about 8,000 miles each year, and hasn’t had an accident or gotten a ticket in ages.

While none of these is likely to mirror you and your situation, is there one that you relate to more closely?

Let’s take a look at how they measure up against one another when it comes to obtaining state-mandated coverage in the state of Maryland. (Quotes shown were provided by thezebra.com.) The costs are per month.

	Little Timmy	John & Jane Smith	Straight-Laced Sally	Grandpa Joe
State Farm	$170	$125	not given	not given
Allstate	$192	not given	$85	$119
Elephant	$206	not given	$73	$57
Penn National	$255	$158	$93	$96
State Auto	$287	$144	$63	$80
Nationwide	$306	$277	$95	$111
Victoria	$362	$263	$149	$131
The General	$468	not given	$110	$112
Liberty Mutual	not given	$235	not given	not given

As you can probably tell, accidents and citations seem to have much more of an impact on your premiums than other factors, followed by age.

Maryland’s Unique Car Insurance Rules

There are a few unique things about getting car insurance in Maryland. Here’s a look at some of their rules and the discounts that may impact your bottom line price.

No SR-22

Many states will require you to obtain an SR-22 if you get certain citations (such as a DUI or DWI), get in a serious accident, or drive without a license. This certificate notates that you have obtained a “high-risk” policy with a licensed insurance company. It often means paying considerably more in premiums.

However, Maryland is not one of those states. They might revoke your license for certain offenses. The course aren’t shy about fines and penalties. But they’re one of the few states that doesn’t require an SR-22 filing.

Credit is a Factor

Maryland is one of a handful of states that allows insurance providers to take the policyholder’s credit history into account when calculating the cost of their premiums. Depending on your creditworthiness, this could either be a good or bad thing for your wallet.

State law mandates that insurance providers cannot apply surcharges of more than 40% to your premiums based on credit history alone. But that means that serious credit-related offenses can jack your price up considerably.

However, insurers cannot increase your renewal premiums based on credit factors alone. So, if you’ve had negative changes to your credit since the last time you obtained a policy, you won’t see your premiums rise based on that factor alone.

This is excellent motivation to improve your credit score, though! Not only will it save you money on interest rates and give you access to excellent financial products. But you can also save on your auto insurance.

So is Location

Not surprisingly, your location within the state plays a large role in determining your auto insurance premiums. If you live in certain cities or even different ZIP codes within the same city, you could see a significant shift in your monthly cost.

As we already mentioned, the highest average premiums in the state are found in Baltimore. There, in ZIP Code 21216, the average annual cost is $2,423. This is a notable shift from the 21742 ZIP Code of Fountainhead-Orchard Hills, where the annual average is $1,111. That’s more than double the cost, just for living in a different city!

Maryland-Sponsored Programs

If you have trouble obtaining state-required minimum auto insurance coverage ($30,000/$60,000/$15,000) in the state of Maryland, you may be eligible to apply for the Maryland Auto Insurance program, previously called MAIF. This unique state coverage program connects drivers in need of coverage with their system of over 1,400 agents across the state, helping them obtain auto insurance.

In order to apply, you’ll need to meet a few requirements. First, you’ll need to have a valid driver’s license. You’ll also need to show that you’ve had trouble obtaining a policy elsewhere or that you’ve had a previous policy cancelled.

If you’ve tried getting coverage and been denied by at least two auto insurers, you qualify. The reasons for denial can vary, including a negative or nonexistent credit history, a serious accident on your record, too many citations, a history of lapsed coverage, or even having high-risk drivers on your policy (such as inexperienced teenagers or adults with a poor driving history).

To learn more about the Maryland Auto Insurance program or apply for coverage, visit their website.

Top Car Insurance Companies in Maryland

Wondering who is the most popular auto insurer in Maryland? Here’s a look at seven of the top providers, and the market share that they hold in the state.

State Farm holds the highest market share with 17.6 percent of insured drivers. GEICO – which is actually a combination of both GEICO General and GEICO (Government Employee Insurance) – comes in a close second with 16.4 percent overall. Next up is Allstate with 8.5 percent of the market, followed by Nationwide with 6.3 percent.

Together, these four companies insure just shy of half the drivers in the entire state of Maryland.

Customer Satisfaction

You’re probably wondering how each of these companies fares when it comes to customer satisfaction. Well, we took a look at the most popular ratings bureaus–A.M. Best and JD Power–to compare them against one another. These two ratings bureaus not only compare what customers think about services, but also how the insurance companies compare in terms of financial security.

State Farm

This company serves the biggest auto insurance market share in the state of Maryland. Here’s how they are rated in customer satisfaction and stability:

• A.M. Best: A++ for financial strength rating and aa+ for long-term credit issuer rating
• JD Power: #12 in the region with a 2-star rating in overall satisfaction

GEICO

Two divisions of this company combine as the second-largest auto insurance market shareholder in the state. Here’s what its customers think:

• A.M. Best:  A++ for financial strength rating and aaa for long-term credit issuer rating
• JD Power: #8 in the region with a 3-star overall satisfaction rating

Allstate

Allstate is the third-largest insurer in Maryland, with an 8.5% market share. But it ranks above all of the others mentioned here in customer satisfaction ratings from JD Power.

• A.M. Best:  A+ for financial strength rating and aa- for long-term credit issuer rating
• JD Power: #7 with a 3-star overall satisfaction rating

Nationwide

This company insures only 6.3% of drivers in the state, bringing up the back as the 4th largest market share insurer in Maryland.

• A.M. Best: A+ for financial strength rating and aa- for long-term credit issuer rating
• JD Power: #10 in the state with a 2-star overall satisfaction rating

Need More?

If you still want to know more about driving insured in Maryland, the requirements for such, and any resources provided by the state, you can check out the state’s website. They have a wealth of information regarding regulations, state laws, fines and penalties, and even suggestions for licensed insurers.

You can view their website here.

Topics: Auto Insurance

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What is a Monoline Lender?

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10 Best Cities for Recent College Grads

Using data complied for multiple sources, we’ve created this list of the 10 best cities for recent college grads.

Unless you’re chasing a specific job after college graduation, you might be free to live just about anywhere. That’s why we pulled together this list of the 10 best U.S. cities for recent college graduates.

On this list, you’ll find cities that are growing and vibrant, and that have a variety of attractions for twenty-somethings. First, we’ll break down how we ranked cities. Then, we’ll give you the top 10 cities you may want to check out when you graduate this spring.

How We Ranked the Cities

To rank the top cities, we used a decision matrix that gave different weight to different ranking factors. Here are the basics of how we did it.

Population

First of all, we started off with a list of midsize to large U.S. cities. The thought here is that cities with a bigger population typically offer more variety, as well as more job opportunities. We used this list, based on the most recent U.S. census data, to start with a list of cities with populations of at least 400,000.

Note that population wasn’t a ranking factor. It was just our starting point for deciding which cities to research.

Income versus Cost of Living

In a similar city-ranking article, we looked exclusively at cost of living. But for new grads, that’s not a holistic enough measure. Some of the more expensive cities on our list also come with higher-than-average salaries.

So we looked at the average cost of living rating divided by the per capita income. This let us rank the cities based on their relative costs of living.

Keep in mind that this is not a strictly scientific option. Depending on your industry, you could make much more per year than your city’s per capita income. So you may be able to easily afford living in a more expensive city. But this gave us a good idea of the cities that are generally more affordable based on average incomes in the area.

Employment Growth and Unemployment

We ranked these two factors separately, giving employment growth greater weight than actual unemployment. The thought is that if new industries are growing in a city, recent graduates may be able to find jobs, even if overall unemployment is somewhat high. With that said, moving into a city with an exceptionally high rate of unemployment may not be the best idea. So we gave weight to both factors.

We pulled both numbers from this chart from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. For unemployment rate, we looked at the most recent option, which was December 2017 at the time of this writing. For employment growth, we looked at the difference in the unemployment rate from December 2016 to December 2017.

Ease of Transport

Many college graduates value the option to get around town without a personal vehicle. So we looked at WalkScore’s ratings for walkability, bikeability, and public transit. This was simply a combined score made up of all three ratings for a city.

If you’re interested in a particular type of transport, such as public buses or biking to work, we suggest checking out WalkScore. And keep in mind that even if the city as a whole has a relatively low rating, your address can vastly impact your ability to get around car-free.

My native Indianapolis doesn’t have a great score in this category, comparatively. But I am able to either bus or bike to work most days because of where in the city I live and work.

Rent Costs

We looked at this January 2018 Apartment List data on average rental costs of one-bedroom apartments. Moving into a larger apartment with roommates will nearly always save you money. But we figured one bedrooms would be a better way to understand how much single people in a given city might pay to live there.

Restaurants and Nightlife

This is a bit harder to rank, considering you can find good restaurants and bars in just about any city in the U.S. if you know where to look. So which cities should get bonus points for having great restaurants and excellent nightlife? We actually relied on other rankings to give us this information.

We looked at several articles like this one from Zagat. If the cities on our list were mentioned by reputable news sources like these, they got some bonus points in these two categories.

Don’t worry, though. Since this area is so subjective, it had a relatively lower weight in our categorization. But check out our listing below to find cities that scored particularly well in this category.

Public Spaces

When you’re just starting out life with your first job, having free stuff to do might be important. So we bumped up the scores of cities with robust public library and parks systems. We found this information on the cities’ own websites listing their public spaces.

What We Didn’t Rank

This list may seem incomplete to you. What about things like outdoor attractions? Weather? Air travel options? Specific industries?

We didn’t rank these options at all because they are too subjective. Maybe you prefer to tour a beautiful art museum on the weekend. But maybe you’d rather be mountain climbing. Maybe you like to experience all four seasons, or maybe you prefer it to be hot and sunny most of the year. And you might be looking for a city with a fast-growing tech sector. But maybe your degree is in something completely unrelated.

At any rate, we’ll mention notable outdoor attractions, weather conditions, and industries for the cities we rank below. But these weren’t included in our decision on the top 10 cities.

So without further ado, here are Dough Roller’s top 10 best cities for recent college graduates.

The Cities

1. Dallas, Texas

Population: 1,317,929

Cost of Living Score: 97

Per Capita Income: $23,616

December 2017 Unemployment: 3.1%

Walk/Bike/Transit Scores: 46/39/44

Average One-Bedroom Apartment Rent: $880

You may not think of Dallas as a party city, but it ranked well on several lists of cities with the best nightlife. Plus, it’s got literally hundreds of public parks and a large library system. So whether you’re in for a night on the town or a quiet afternoon at the library, Dallas has something to offer. Dallas is also becoming well-known as a food hub, with a variety of interesting restaurants to try.

Dallas’s major industries include technology, financial services, and defense. Forbes rates it the #10 best place for business and career growth, and #15 in job growth. The city’s top attractions include its beautiful arboretum, the George W. Bush Presidential Library, and several museums.

2. Columbus, Ohio

Population: 860,090

Cost of Living Score: 90

Per Capita Income: $23,020

December 2017 Unemployment: 3.7%

Walk/Bike/Transit Scores: 41/31/47

Average One-Bedroom Apartment Rent: $730

Columbus had staying power on our list through all of the financially-related rankings. It’s an affordable place to live, with a low overall cost of living and very low rent. But that’s not all it has going for it. Columbus also has a nice library system and a huge system of city and neighborhood parks.

Columbus’s fastest-growing industries include technology, insurance, and education. Forbes rates it #11 on its list of best cities for business and career growth. The city’s zoo and aquarium are well-known, as is the Franklin Park Conservatory. But you can find any number of interesting local attractions, including some historic locations in Columbus.

3. Detroit, Michigan

Population: 672,795

Cost of Living Score: 81

Per Capita Income: $22,319

December 2017 Unemployment: 4.2%

Walk/Bike/Transit Scores: 55/38/55

Average One-Bedroom Apartment Rent: $680

Even after the auto industry crash of the early 2000’s, Detroit remains known as Motor City. It’s not exactly the first place you might consider when choosing a city to settle in. However, if you’re interested in investing in cheap property in a city that is starting to turn things around, Detroit could be a good option. It boasts incredibly low costs of living to help your paycheck stretch further.

Growing industries, besides traditional auto manufacturing, include technology and bio-science. Detroit is also nearby to many great outdoor adventures on the lakes or even in Ontario, Canada. And you’ll find that the city has a growing restaurant scene, as well as a large network of parks and public libraries.

4. Portland, Oregon

Population: 639,863

Cost of Living Score: 121

Per Capita Income: $31,377

December 2017 Unemployment: 3.6%

Walk/Bike/Transit Scores: 65/51/72

Average One-Bedroom Apartment Rent: $1,120

Sure, the cost of living is high in Portland, but so are the average incomes. If you can land a good job in this city, it’s an excellent place to live. It boasts one of the highest scores for walk/bike/transit in our list. So if you’d like to live life car-free, Portland could be a great option for you.

With growing industries in technology, manufacturing, and recreation, Portland made #1 on the Forbes list of the best places for business and careers. Homes and rent are expensive here, but if you’re an outdoorsy person, Oregon is a fabulous place to live. Its attractions include a variety of parks, as well as proximity to a variety of outdoor attractions, science museums, and more.

5. Louisville, Kentucky

Population: 616,261

Cost of Living Score: 89

Per Capita Income: $21,756

December 2017 Unemployment: 3.2%

Walk/Bike/Transit Scores: 33/28/43

Average One-Bedroom Apartment Rent: $650

If nightlife and fancy restaurants aren’t high on your list of must-haves, Louisville might be the best option for you. With growing industries in health care and tourism and a low cost of living, it’s a good place to settle after graduation.

Of course, Louisville is a big tourist town with well-known attractions like Churchill Downs, the Louisville Slugger Museum and Factory, and Kentucky Kingdom. But you can also just settle into a quiet life enjoying the local libraries and parks, or venturing throughout Kentucky to camp, climb, and explore on the weekends.

6. Baltimore, Maryland

Population: 614,664

Cost of Living Score: 101

Per Capita Income: $29,771

December 2017 Unemployment: 3.9%

Walk/Bike/Transit Scores: 69/58/56

Average One-Bedroom Apartment Rent: $950

Baltimore boasts East Coast living at lower prices. It gives you fairly easy access to other large cities on the East Coast without having to pay New York City rent. Its major growing industries are health care and bio-science.

Baltimore gives you easy access to the sea, and it has plenty of interesting attractions, including the National Aquarium. If you’re a history buff, living in Baltimore gives you endless options for entertainment, too.

7. Houston, Texas

Population: 2,303,482

Cost of Living Score: 91

Per Capita Income: $21,701

December 2017 Unemployment: 4.3%

Walk/Bike/Transit Scores: 49/37/49

Average One-Bedroom Apartment Rent: $840

The largest city on our list by quite a bit, Houston has plenty of variety to offer. It’s well-known for a busy nightlife scene and a variety of interesting restaurants. And it’s a great place to go if you want to work in energy, aerospace and defense, or bio-science.

You’d think Houston would be one of the more expensive cities on our list since it’s so large. But that’s not the case. You can get a one-bedroom apartment for a very low rate here. And it’s full of public attractions like parks but also a variety of paid attractions like the space center, zoo, and aquarium.

8. Austin, Texas

Population: 947,890

Cost of Living Score: 105

Per Capita Income: $24,516

December 2017 Unemployment: 2.7%

Walk/Bike/Transit Scores: 40/34/52

Average One-Bedroom Apartment Rent: $1,120

You’ve probably heard the slogan, “Keep Austin Weird.” It started as a call for Austin residents to support local businesses, and it’s something they still take seriously. With that said, it’s still home to growing industries, including technology, pharmaceutical, and biotechnology. And Forbes ranks it as the #8 best city for businesses and careers and #5 in job growth.

While Austin can be a fun place to live, known for live music, great nightlife, and a bustling restaurant scene, it’s also really expensive. Its average rent is one of the two highest on our list. Still, if you get a job that lets you afford it, Austin is a great place to build a life.

9. Phoenix, Arizona

Population: 1,615,017

Cost of Living Score: 95

Per Capita Income: $21,907

December 2017 Unemployment: 3.9%

Walk/Bike/Transit Scores: 41/32/54

Average One-Bedroom Apartment Rent: $820

If you want to live where things stay hot most of the year, Phoenix might be the city for you. Its cost of living is a bit higher than the national average, but rent isn’t terribly expensive. And it has a growing technology industry that may make finding a job easy. In fact, Forbes ranked it #37 for job growth.

Phoenix isn’t known for its restaurants, in particular, but it does offer plenty of party and nightlife options. Plus, it’s got lots of local parks to explore. And if you’re an outdoors explorer, there’s nothing like the stars in a desert sky at night.

10. Indianapolis, Indiana

Population: 855,164

Cost of Living Score: 84

Per Capita Income: $23,198

December 2017 Unemployment: 2.8%

Walk/Bike/Transit Scores: 30/24/41

Average One-Bedroom Apartment Rent: $690

I may be biased since I live here, but Indianapolis is another great place to call home. With growing industries in health care, pharmaceuticals, insurance, and technology, there are plenty of great jobs to be had. And the cost of living is comparatively low. Forbes placed Indy at #21 on its list of best places for business and careers.

Indianapolis has a restaurant scene that’s becoming nationally known. And it has some great attractions, including state parks, a great library system, and one of the best children’s museums anywhere.

Topics: Money and Life

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