You don’t need to be a computer whiz to take advantage of technical hacks. The power of the internet allows anyone to discover new, clever, faster, more dynamic ways of doing things. Whether you want to learn basic coding so you can build your own website, plan smart for retirement, figure out the strongest keywords for a piece of content you’re using in a marketing campaign, discover free research tools, or look to take out a student loan and return to college, you can do it all and it won’t cost you a dime. Here are some of the most useful tech hacks that you can start using right now.
Download Free Retirement Planning Software
Financial websites let you download free, simple retirement planning tools. Some are more sophisticated than others, so you might want to test drive a couple before deciding which one is right for you. They’ll prompt you for bits of input data and then show you how to achieve your retirement goals.
Use a Student Loan Calculator
Search for student loan calculators online and you’ll be surprised at how helpful these little apps are. After you input a few simple parameters, you’ll be able to see exactly how long it will take to repay various education loans based on interest rates, repayment periods, monthly payment amounts, and more. In fact, today’s student loans offer some of the most competitive interest rates ever and allow borrowers many years to pay back the principal balance.
Use Search Engines to Find Keywords
If you’re needing targeted keywords for an article, try using your favorite search engine’s auto complete function. Most of the large engines allow you to turn this feature on and simply type in a relevant first word of your query. For example, if you enter dog houses and the auto complete will show you the most commonly searched additional words, like dog houses for large dogs, or dog houses you can build yourself, etc. Most engines return the top ten search queries in order of frequency.
Use Library Portals for Deep Research
Want access to the world’s best-rated encyclopedias but don’t want to pay the monthly online subscription rate? You can get a library card at your local municipal office and use their online subscription to do your research. This is probably one of the best-kept secrets among researchers. You stand to save several hundred dollars per year just by signing up for a free library card.
Take a Free Coding Class Online
Would you like to take control of your website and stop relying on templates? You can do it, and it won’t take month-long courses in computer science and programming. Check one of the many online video tutorial sites and search for basic coding classes. Try to locate one that deals primarily with basic coding for website building. In less than a week, you can be creating your own dynamic websites. Coding can be boring at first, but after you gain a bit of experience, you’ll realize the vast amount of power it offers to those who stick with it.
