Beating Broke

Understanding AMC: Practical Solutions To Help You Get Ready for Investing

March 22, 2021 By Justin Weinger Leave a Comment

If the madness with Gamestop and AMC stocks has you interested in investing your money in the stock market, you’re not alone. But the movement Redditors were able to garner isn’t the status quo for the average investor, so it’s not something you’ll find on a regular basis.

However, just because you missed the AMC movement doesn’t mean you shouldn’t dabble in the stock market. It just means you’ll have to grow your earnings over a more extended period. But before you decide to grow your money by investing, you should first understand what happened with the AMC Entertainment stock.

What Happened With AMC?

A large number of investors bet that the AMC stock would decrease in value, but a group of day traders collaborated to buy large amounts of the stock, which caused the price to increase. If the day traders didn’t sell the stock and bring down the price, the investors who bet the AMC stock price would decrease were going to lose large amounts of money on the deal.

The day traders who shorted their shares, or bet on a decrease, then had to buy their shares back at some point. And because the stock price was high, it forced them to pay a premium on the stock, which was good news for the other investors but bad news for them. Hedge funds lost a lot of money when it happened.

How It Changes Investing

Although large investors frequently manipulate the market in this way, keeping smaller investor gains to a minimum, this move by the day traders may have leveled the playing field to an extent. If everyone can coordinate, choose a target, and manipulate the market, significant leaps in stock values can occur at any time. The impact on the stock market’s future is unknown because these particular moves by this level of investors aren’t a usual occurrence.

For now, since the little guy can make big impacts in the stock market, it might be time to dip your toe in the pool to see what you can do. But before you can invest your money, you have to find the extra cash to grow.

Get Your Finances Ready to Jump In

With the coronavirus still bearing down on the United States and unemployment at all-time highs, finding extra money in your budget to invest in the stock market might seem impossible. And while it’s true that increasing your income at this point might be a challenge, you can at least go through your expenses to see if you can reduce or eliminate some of them to free up cash.

If you hold credit card debt, that’s the perfect place to start cutting, and you can do so by using debt consolidation. The right financial agency can look at your eligible debt and roll those balances into a single loan with one monthly payment. Having only one bill instead of many for your debts can give you the flexibility to use the extra money for investing.

Take Out A Loan

The stock market is constantly changing. One minute a stock is worth pennies and the next its value increases exponentially. If there’s an investment you can’t afford to pass up on, you could use bad credit loans to get started. These are short-term loans for borrowers with poor credit histories. You can receive a deposit of up to $2,000 to invest in stocks. Just ensure that you borrow responsibly and repay the loan in a timely fashion to avoid financial consequences down the road.

Beware of the Risks

Once you decide to invest in stocks, keep in mind that doing so doesn’t come without risk. It’s essential to do your research before jumping into a stock, and if you don’t know what you’re doing, you should seek out a professional. The last thing you want to do is lose the money you invest, so a financial advisor can help you diversify your portfolio and tailor your choices to your goals.

Grow Your Holdings

Taking the free cash in your budget and putting it to work in the stock market is exciting, but don’t get caught up in the AMC hype because that’s not always going to happen. Instead, invest in companies you believe in, take advice from the pros, and minimize your risk as much as possible when you are starting out. That way, you can have fun and grow without adding unnecessary risk to your bottom line.

Feed a Hungry Teenager Without Breaking Your Grocery Budget

March 22, 2021 By MelissaB 1 Comment

I’ve heard how expensive it is to feed a hungry teenager because they can eat everything in the house, and now I’m experiencing it firsthand. My son isn’t even a teen—just 12—but over the last six months, he’s grown three inches and put on 20 pounds. I used to think my husband could eat a lot, but our son can easily eat double or triple what his dad can eat. Then an hour or two later, he’ll tell us he’s hungry again. If you have a tween or teen, this may sound all too familiar.

However, we don’t really have enough room to raise the grocery budget, so we’re finding creative ways to keep him full.

Satisfying Foods to Feed a Hungry Teenager

There are several foods that can keep your hungry teen satisfied.

Protein

Meat can be expensive, but growing teens need protein to help them feel satiated. We make sure to serve an ample serving of protein at breakfast and during every meal. Some of our favorite breakfast proteins include homemade meat patties, eggs, or bacon.

For snacks, we like to make protein based snacks such as these Cacao Balls. Between the pecans and protein powder, this snack keeps our teen full.

Healthy Carbs

Three staples in our teen’s diet are white potatoes, sweet potatoes, and rice. He often eats rice with breakfast, homemade baked French fries for lunch, and baked sweet potatoes for dinner. These carbs help fill him up and round out his meal. After he eats an entire plateful of food and is still hungry, we give him vegetables and one of these carbs.

Fruits

These are a great way to fill up hungry teens, especially in between meals. I find that grapefruit is my best bet. It’s not that expensive, and it’s large and watery, so it fills him up. Other options include apples, pears, bananas, oranges, or whatever other fruit you have on hand. I always buy a lot of fruit when doing my weekly shopping.

Veggies

Vegetables are another choice that aren’t that expensive. Organic carrots are .60 a pound at Costco. We buy the ten pound bag and prepare them as raw carrot sticks or as roasted carrots. We also frequently give the kids hummus to dip their veggies in. Whenever a vegetable is on sale, I stock up and make extra knowing that our son will have multiple servings.

Healthy Fats

Feed a Hungry Teen — Photo by Heather Ford on Unsplash

Healthy fat can definitely help fill up a teen. We’re big fans of avocado. We often make guacamole to serve with our salads and soups. We also serve it as a snack with organic corn chips. Coconut oil, coconut cream, and coconut milk are also great ingredients to use in muffins, smoothies, and desserts to help satiate your child. One of our go to favorites now is Chocolate Chia Pudding. The chia and almond milk (or sub out for coconut milk) keep him full and satisfies his sweet tooth.

Foods to Avoid

Junk Food

I know, I know, teens love this stuff. But the truth is, they can wolf down a bag of Cheetos or chips and then be hungry just a little later because they were eating empty calories. We like to keep the junk food to a minimum and rely on healthy staples instead. In the long run, when it comes to teen appetites, healthy food IS cheaper. Plus, you’re helping your child maintain a healthy lifestyle.

Fast Food

The stereotype has teen boys living off fast food. While it is temporarily filling, if your child relies on this type of food frequently, he may be facing health issues down the road.

Final Thoughts

While teen’s appetites do ramp up tremendously in the tween and teen years, feeding them healthy food without ruining the grocery budget is possible. Our family has a number of food intolerances, so we can’t rely on other staples that will help fill kids up like peanut butter and jelly sandwiches or cottage cheese, but those are also fairly nutritious options.

What are your favorite foods to help fill your growing teen’s bottomless pit? Please share.

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Save on Groceries by Limiting Junk Food

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How to Find Work During the Pandemic

March 21, 2021 By Justin Weinger Leave a Comment

If you are like most Americans, you have been impacted by the pandemic in some way. Many companies have gone out of business in the last year. People have cut back on their hours in order to keep their business afloat. Thousands of people have received unemployment for the first time ever. And for most, it is a hard journey to find a new job that can compare to the old one they used to have.

It is estimated that 4 out of every 10 people have been financially impacted by the pandemic. Maybe you are looking for supplemental income to make up for what you have lost or you are looking for a completely new job. Regardless, there are plenty of ways you can find jobs still. To make the hiring process easier, you may want to do some research. Find out where you will get your background check for the job. That way you can schedule a time to get it done in advance. A simple background check is often the last thing standing in the way for you to start your position!

Search Online

The best place to start looking for a job is online. Due to the pandemic, many jobs have shifted their open business hours and have various policies on people walking in. You don’t want to drive around all day just to find out the job has an online application.

If you know which jobs you are interested in, go to their website first and search under the tab “careers.” Most websites will have open positions listed under this tab and details on how to apply. If you don’t really know where to start and do not have specific companies in mind that you’d like to work for, try Googling it. There are a variety of search engines that you can find on Google to direct you to open jobs near you. Some of these websites even allow you to upload your application and apply to multiple open positions at a time easily.

Those search engines stay up-to-date with the newest open positions and can let you sort through the options effortlessly. You can find information on the salary, benefits, required hours, and a job description on these databases.

Call Around

If searching online doesn’t yield you the results that you’d like, you can always try calling around. It is possible that by calling various businesses that you will find vacancies that have not been posted on online portals yet. If they do not have any openings, you can ask them if it’s possible to submit an application in case there is an opening. If you do this, they might look at your application before others. It is possible that they may even call you before they decide to post the job formally online.

Ask a Friend

Lastly, it never hurts to ask around. Talk to some of your friends about if their workplace is hiring. It is possible that a coworker may know of current and future openings within a company before anyone else. Ask your friend to put a good word in for you with their boss if they are able. Word-of-mouth can go a long way in many companies.

Reach out to former coworkers and see if they ended up somewhere that might interest you. Having a friend that you can talk to openly and honestly about the job you were applying for is a great benefit. You can discuss management, salary and work environment before you ever go into the interview. Hopefully, by doing this, you will know whether or not you are a good fit for this job before you even apply.

Keep searching for that perfect job! Don’t be afraid to search in unfamiliar places. And while you wait, always keep your resume up to date.