September 2019 Free Money News

Happy Labor Day — we hope! September should mean crisp days and an end to heat and humidity. B this year Hurricane Dorian leads the news, threatening to wreak havoc on Florida and surroundings.

For those in the hurricane's path, please take all necessary precautions! And try to enjoy the Monday Labor Day holiday as we honor laborers and the American labor movement.

Baseball continues — we have to wait for October for the World Series.Will the Red Sox have a repeat performance? Do the Astros show up along with the Phillies and Dodgers? Or are all the predictions wrong? If it’s all just too much it’s time once again for a focus on football! The NFL regular season kicks off on Thursday Sept. 5 when the Packers meet the Bears. And on Sept. 8 teams all across the country will be starting the build-up to Super Bowl LIV on Sunday, February 2, 2020.

Stay tuned & check out September’s important updates and money tips!

The government can be a great source of business if you know how to qualify for contracts. There is a lot going on with regard to Federal Business Opportunities — like 35,000+ current opportunities available plus the move to a website. Discover what it could mean for you and how to avoid scams as the transition to a new website takes place. See the latest in our review of fbo.gov.

Grants for Non-Profits

A Foundation in Texas is offering small (about $1000) grants to non-profit organizations that focus on helping women. Their target grant recipients are making a difference by helping women get trained in skills that are job-related, teaching them the basics of finance and how to create and use a budget and other useful skills and behaviors not always included in business training. Catch the latest in Grants for Non Profits.

Is the government’s own grant site worth the effort? Be sure to see our update to grants.gov is not for you! You’ll discover why some experienced grant writers think it should even be abolished! We think the site still is a great source of some kinds of information, but it’s important to be aware of the downsides as well…

Yay, Small Business Financing Opportunities!

Sometimes simple tips are the most useful — this update provides the easiest ever way to increase your chances for success with a crowdfunding campaign. See Small BusinessFinancing Opportunities.

Hey, mortgage rates are once again at all time lows — this could be the right time for you to refinance and pull some cash out of the equity in your home. See our update to Grants for Housing — and discover why there may soon be lots more affordable housing in California and other states with sjy-high prices…

Struggling to come up with the downpayment you need to have in order to buy your dream house? There are over 2500 assistance programs in the U.S. and one of them musts be for you! Take look at our update on the latest program in Down Payment Assistance.

Ready for the latest on Pell Grants? New legislation being considered could have a big (and positive) impact on students and would-be students. Like a possible increase in the maximum Pell award to over $10,000? Other additional benefits are being looked at as well.

You have probably heard about the loophole being used by many Chicago area families to try to increase their federal aid for their kids’ college tuition. They would transfer legal guardianship of the kids to another relative so that the application would only consider the child’s income — obviously much less than the parents’, qualifying them for more aid. The Feds are onto it and are closing that loophole so don’t even think about trying it (pretty sleazy anyway!). Just fill out that FAFSA with the total truth — and get it done as early as you can to maximize the awards you receive.

Fastweb and Finaid

Does the very thought of scholarships make you feel weary, thinking about sorting hundreds (or thousands) of possibilities and having to write lots of essays? It doesn’t have to be that way! Remember, scholarships really are “free money.” You never have to pay them back! You probably know that fastweb and finaid can help you tailor search results so that they are relevant to you. But did you know that they offer a lot more — like help finding a job, honing your interviewing skills and more (like tips for high school seniors)! Check out the latest in our update to fastweb & finaid!

Are you tempted to sign up for a site like America’s Got Funding? We can understand that based on their advertising and claims, but it’s important to go in with your eyes wide open if you want to give it a try. We did a trial run with them and share our results in our latest update to the site America’s Got Funding, be sure to check it out.

Our article Free Money 2016 may sound out of date but the information is still great! If you have kids and would love to get some help with the cost of childcare be sure to see the lates update in that article about Assistance for Child Care.

What’s up with your health care? Go right now to our review of healthcare.gov to find out how you might be in danger of losing your coverage — and how to avoid it!

Remember Obama’s MyRA? It’s gone but there are some new options popping up to fill in the gap. Our latest update details the action California has taken to help people build a retirement account regardless of whether their employer provides an IRA program or not. See our latest update to Obama’s MyRA:What It Means to You.

Types of Grants and Where to Find Them always provides some great leads for grants of many kinds. It also has a fun focus on grants that pertain to specific interests and skills of individuals. Take a look at the lates on Types of Grants and Where to Find Them to see if any might make one of your dreams come true…

Here’s a big one — if you’re still avoiding getting care for your teeth and gums — and your kids’ —- please see our update to Free Dental Care. It’s so important to your overall health and some important lower cost or free services could be opening up near you.

Find Unclaimed Money

We thought we had heard it all but our latest update to this article has an amazing story about someone’s jackpot. Definitely worth reading if you need some motivation to get going on your own strategic, free, and pretty easy search! See Find Unclaimed Money for an update.

And if you’re in California it’s just as important that you catch the latest in Find Unclaimed Money in California. Is that state handling its $billions of your money the right way…and are they really trying to find you?

Phone Call Scams

Yikes! By now you’re probably (hopefully) wise to the calls you might get claiming you have won a grant. They’re fake and you must ignore them! But the scammers keep getting more and more clever in ways to fool you. One is to claim they are calling with very important information regarding you student loans. Particularly hard to resist if you actually have student loans.

Other callers try to scare you big time by claiming to be from Apple or Microsoft, claiming that there is a problem with your service and you must call them right away or you could lose everything. Please don’t believe this. If you are concerned, call the real contact number for customer service at whichever company sold you your computer. Do not provide any information to the scammer calling you! Be sure to visit Free Money Phone Call Scams.

State Grants

Remember that you should always check your state’s website to look for grants and other assistance programs! States get money from the Feds which they then allocate for a variety of purposes in their states. We highlight the newest grants of some states in Grants in California, Grants in Florida, Grants in New York and Grants in Tennessee.

So the economy is great and lots of businesses are hiring but are you still looking for a job? You might want to check out Government Jobs! There are lots of them and they’re easy to search to find one that’s right for you — and apply. The types of jobs range from clerical to executive. Some of them are exciting and potentially dangerous, others much calmer. Take a look at the latest in Government Jobs.

Meanwhile if you need some more cash to help pay for back to school supplies and other necessities, consider becoming part of the “gig economy.” You can make a surprising amount of money doing jobs that let you be your own boss! One person even pulled in more than $40,000 doing proofreading part time! Definitely worth a look in How to Make Extra Money.

And last but not least, if you’re into grant writing be sure to se e our update to Grant Writing. It has some important tips about an important area you might not think to include in your grant strategy.

Happy September.