Company Profiles: Spotlight on Travel and Tech

The goal of investing is to make money. But what if you could invest, make money and help improve the global community at the same time? That’s where sustainable investing and The Forum for Sustainable and Responsible Investment (US SIF), a Washington, DC-based organization tasked with advancing sustainable, responsible and impact investing across all asset classes.

The organization’s mission is to rapidly shift investment practices toward sustainability, focusing on long-term investment and the generation of positive social and environmental impacts. Members include a wide range of organizations, including investment management and advisory firms, mutual fund companies, broker-dealers, non-profits and pension funds.

Planning for retirement is not an easy task. With jobs, bills, kids, mortgages and other financial commitments, the prospect of putting aside money for use years down the road can seem impractical.

With proper planning though and smart financial decisions, the road to securing a happy retirement does not have to be rocky, especially for working women who sometimes get lost in the financial shuffle.

When it comes to your money and finances, nobody wants to pay more taxes to Uncle Sam. That’s why now is a critical time to check up on your tax health, with the end of the year approaching and Congress considering an overhaul of the nation’s tax code.

One of the ways you can assess your tax situation is through the help of an agent. James Adelman is an agent in Tulsa and the president of the National Association of Enrolled Agents (NAEA). He spoke to RewardExpert about how working with an enrolled agent can benefit you.

It’s no secret that holiday shopping can do some damage to your bottom line. Unless you create a gift-giving budget based on what you can reasonably afford—and commit to sticking to it—it’s all too easy to run up your credit card balances and end the year in unexpected debt. However, there’s a sneakier financial danger you may not have considered. It’s known as identity theft, and unless you take steps to protect yourself, you may be putting your financial future at risk with every online purchase.

Whether you’re shopping for a new television set, baby toys, a crockpot, or the perfect shade of lipstick, it’s always more fun when you can snag a great discount in the process. Thanks to DealsPlus, an online community of bargain hunters launched in 2006, racking up savings on everything from the products you buy every day to special gifts, travel, and event tickets can become a regular occurrence.

Nearly everyone these days is looking to save more money and earn more money, too. While staying on top of financial goals can be overwhelming, there are companies that offer critical data, information and guidance to help a consumer keep of track of their finances. That includes Money Dashboard. The Edinburgh, Scotland-based website was founded in 2010.

“The mission is to help UK consumers make their money go further by empowering them to make informed financial decisions,” said Sean MacNicol, engagement manager for Money Dashboard, who spoke to RewardExpert. Besides its desktop site, Money Dashboard is also available on mobile, iOS and Android apps.

U.S. households are carrying $1.4 trillion in student debt according to the latest analysis by Experian, a consumer credit reporting agency. That’s a lot of education loans and, in fact, Experian’s analysis shows that more than 13 percent of U.S. consumers have one or more on their credit file.

Fiserv bills itself as a leading global provider of financial services technology, focused on enabling its clients to create and deliver financial service experiences at the “speed of life.” The company’s client base includes millions of consumers and thousands of financial institutions, businesses and organizations that rely on the moving and management of money and information every day.

If you love buying holiday gifts at deep discount but hate dealing with Black Friday crowds, you’re not alone. According to an eBay Holiday Shopping Survey, 72 percent of shoppers start buying gifts early in order to find a better selection. However, 76 percent would still rather give something up—such as social media for a week (38 percent), sugar or carbs for a month (35 percent), or caffeine for seven days (32 percent)—than stand in line on one of the biggest shopping days of the year. One in four (26 percent) would even rather have a root canal than line up in the hopes of scoring a holiday bargain.

How much does the average American family spend on entertainment each year? According to data on consumer expenditures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the answer was $2,913 in 2016, an increase of 2.5 percent over the year prior. That’s a lot of cash in an economy in which wages are stagnant and the costs of essentials such as food, housing, and healthcare continue to grow.

How much food do you throw away each year? If you live in an average American household, the answer is $640 according to a study by the American Chemistry Council. Other surveys have resulted in much bigger estimates, up to $2,200 in food waste per family annually. Either way, that’s a lot of wilted produce, expired dairy, and leftovers winding up in our nation’s landfills each year. And a whole lot of wasted money to boot.

With the end of the year approaching, people are starting to think about the holidays and how to spend their money wisely during the busy gift giving season. But this year, consider giving to not only your friends and loved ones, but charitable organizations and non-profits as well. A good portion of the funds that support their good work throughout the year are collected during the holiday season.

It’s a dream for many people to travel to amazing places without spending a ton of money – especially those who are on a budget. It’s even more of a dream to think that you could make money on the side while you’re exploring the world. With Wimdu, you can make those dreams come true as you beef up your bank account while you’re on the road. Wimdu is a home and apartment sharing site, offering accommodations around the world. Much like rivals Airbnb and HomeAway, Wimdu’s platform allows owners to rent out their homes. Meanwhile, travelers can book rooms at a low cost, making it a financially-winning proposition for both traveler and host.

Many Americans and American businesses would love to save more money and pay less taxes. The issue is heightened even further, as the Trump Administration and Congress considers making significant changes to the US tax code. Plus, the end of the year is nearly upon us, so many taxpayers are making last minute plans to put themselves in the most financially-prudent position ahead of next year’s tax filing deadline.

Whether you count shopping among your favorite hobbies or dread spending money in any form, the free Shopkick app can make all of your purchases more fun. Based in Redwood City, California, and founded in 2009, Shopkick is on a mission to reward consumers for the shopping they already do as well as drive sales for retailers without the use of coupons or discounts.

Student loans are big business. According to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, more than 44 million borrowers now carry more than $1.4 trillion in education loan debt with the average debt per student borrower at $27,857. These are numbers that will continue to grow as the cost of tuition rises along with interest rates on federal and private student loans. In July, the interest rates on new federal loans increased to 4.45 percent. The average variable rate on private student loans grew to 7.81 percent, while the average fixed rate stood at 9.66 percent.

Do you know what CMOS, GPIO, Microkernel and Boot Sector to 411, Beast Mode, FTW and PHAT mean? The online world is full of technical terms, slang phrases, acronyms and abbreviations that sometimes only make sense to computer programmers, IT professionals and teens—until now.

Thanks to Sharpened Productions’ TechTerms and Slangit dictionaries, even those of us who are less than technologically savvy or long past our teenage years can now decipher the often-confusing jargon we may encounter in tech blogs and software manuals as well as on our children’s mobile devices.

Segmint offers a technology platform that leverages actual consumer data to help marketers send relevant messages at the precise moment they’re considering a purchase.

“It’s like looking at your credit or bank statement, and making sense of all of that data,” according to Rob Heiser, co-founder, president and CEO of Segmint.

The cryptocurrency ecosystem is changing, thanks to companies like ShapeShift that are giving individuals the power to digitally exchange assets quickly and without possessing an account. The company vows that a user will never have to create a password, submit an email address or sign up in a lengthy process. ShapeShift’s goal is to be the fastest, most private and most convenient way to swap digital currencies.

If you routinely store files somewhere other than your computer’s hard drive, you are probably saving them to the cloud—the network of servers that essentially make up the Internet. While some cloud servers host services—such as Adobe’s Creative Suite or Gmail—others store a variety of data and are becoming increasing popular with business and individual users alike. Dropbox has over 500 million users. Google Drive boasts more than a million paid customers, and millions more who subscribe to Microsoft’s Office 365 use OneDrive to store their documents, photos and videos remotely.