Looking for a way to earn interest on your stagnant savings? Well here's an option I found which is an alternative to your typical savings account, but also provides an even higher rate of return than what you would receive even from some of the non-traditional online/app only savings accounts I've mentioned in the past. One of these options is with BlockFi. Now BlockFi is a Fintech company which focuses specifically on Digital Currencies, also known as Cryptocurrency. By holding your eligible Cryptocurrencies in a BlockFi Interest Account, or BIA for short, you can earn rates as high as 7.5%! 
​(updated  as of July 2021)

Earn interest as high as 7.5% on stablecoins and other cryptocurrencies. You can also receive your interest payments in the form of a specific cryptocurrency if you choose! By default you will receive your interest payments in the same form as the cryptocurrency you hold within BlockFi, however if you would like you can have all of your interest earnings paid in a specific coin of your choosing like Bitcoin. Your interest yield will be based on the coin type you hold in your account, not based on what coin you choose to be paid in. So for instance you can hold GUSD and receive the 7.5% rate while receiving your payment in BTC. This is a great way to grow or start your Bitcoin holdings without actually buying into Bitcoin directly if you don't want to. Essentially turning your savings into an automated monthly purchase of Bitcoin with money you may already have sitting in a savings account elsewhere. For some people this would be a way to limit their risk, while also adding a little exposure to the world of cryptocurrencies.​

I just bought a football team...no seriously I'm now a part owner of a football team. But it's not the NFL, it's the FCF. FCF stands for Fan Controlled Football, which is a league that allows the fans to become part of the game. Not only that, but they allow the average Joe to become an owner as well! I like to think of this as real life Madden Franchise Mode. 

You may be thinking, AJ, what does this have to do with Investing or Finances in general? Well this is an Alternative Investment. An Alternative Investment is when you invest your money into something other than the stock market. Bitcoin for example, to some, is considered an alternative investment, even though it was created to be a Currency. Gold, Silver, and Real Estate are all Alternative Investments. And investing in Startups like the FCF League is an alternative investment. In this post, not only will I tell you about the FCF League and why I invested into it, but I will also tell you how you can invest in Alternative Investments if you're interested. 

Robinhood is in hot water with its customers after recently stopping trading in GameStop, as well as other stocks many people in the reddit forum Wall Street Bets had their eyes on. Many are now looking for Robinhood Alternatives, and even started the hashtag #DeleteRobinhood. I've even personally noticed an uptick in the views of my Investing Tutorial videos for other investment apps. There are also Apps who are moving away from the Payment for Order Flow model, and/or providing account transfer bonuses, in order to appeal to those who may be disgruntled. 

I'll give you a list of brokerage accounts which can provide you with many of the same features as Robinhood. So first I'll talk about what are the main features that attract people to Robinhood, and what other brokerage accounts can offer you some of the same features.

User Friendly Mobile App
One of the main things that attract users to Robinhood is the easy of use, or user friendliness of the app. Now I would say that what one person considers user friendly will vary, so almost every app in this video is an app that I would personally consider user friendly. That leaves 5 specific features that I want to focus on for this list of alternatives.

1) Free Trading
2) Fractional Shares
3) Automated Share Purchases
4) Options Trading
5) Cryptocurrency

These are 5 features Robinhood offers which I believe make it a very attractive app, whether you are a new or seasoned investor. Here are the apps you may want to consider which provide some of these same features.

This is not a head to head ranking of which app is the best investment app, I will start off with the apps that provide at least 2 of the 5 features mentioned above, increasing the number of matching features as we go along.

Want to know how you can turn $25 Into $10,000,000 or a Tesla Model 3? While also keeping your $25? Checkout the Yotta Savings Account! Yotta Savings is a new High Yield Savings Account which takes a well known approach to convincing people to part ways with their money...the lottery! But this is so much better than an actual lottery, because you don't lose your money if you don't win! Here's how it works...For every $25 deposited into your Yotta Savings account, you will receive 1 ticket into a weekly jackpot for the chance to win $10 Million! Yes that's right, for $25 you can get a chance at $10 Million dollars. But before I break down how to win, and what the odds are, I want to reiterate that this is actually a savings account, and even without the lottery aspects...it's a pretty good one considering the super low interest rates at the moment. I think Yotta is banking on the fact that many people would rather have their savings with Yotta, even at the current rates, vs taking a risk in the stock market or sitting their money in another account with low interest...oh and of course a chance to win $10Million Dollars!

The Slide App is made by the same company as the Raise app, used for buying and selling used or unwanted gift cards. So it’s not surprising that the Slide app takes a gift card purchasing approach with its Cash Back App! Similar to another cash back app I recently reviewed, the Fluz App, the Slide app works by purchasing gift cards within the app, then using those gift cards to pay for your purchases. With many cash back apps the amount of cash back from one store to the next will vary. So if you use a lot of different cash back apps, you may have to bounce from one to the next to see which app will give you the greater amount of cash back. Now if you use the Slide app, you know exactly how much cash back you will receive, so you just need to know which stores are available within the app! Well Slide has over 150 stores available to shop from within their app, and there’s no limit to the amount of cash back you can earn!

​Also, if you choose to add funds to your Slide balance in advance, meaning just having a balance sitting in the app, you can earn an extra 1% in cash back! This seems like it could be a waste at first glance, considering it would be better to just make the gift card purchase at the time you are actually shopping. But have you seen interest rates at the moment?!?!? There are many banks that don’t even provide 1% in interest at the moment, and by adding cash to your Slide balance, you are essentially earning 1% on the cash you have sitting in this account, in addition to the 4% cash back you will receive for your actual store purchase! Didn’t think about that, did you? But don’t fully treat it like a savings account, you really just want to put money in here that you are planning to shop with anyway. So if you have a set budget for eating out or shopping for the month, and the stores you typically use are available in the Slide app, this would also be a great way to stick to your budget. Almost like a cash envelope system that earns you cash back!

Slide has one of the lowest thresholds for withdrawing your cash back at just $15. Since all transactions have a 4% cash back rate, then you know exactly how much you’ll need to spend in order to earn enough cash back for withdrawal, $375. Many people spend that much each month between online shopping, eating out, and grocery shopping.
Once you spend $375 in total, reaching your $15 cash back minimum threshold, you can use Venmo or PayPal to withdraw your cash.

​Another option would be to use your cash back balance for future purchases, essentially giving you $4 worth of free purchases for every $100 you spend.
In the spirit of the raise app, I wanted to add an old gift card I received as a rebate, and use that to add to my Slide slide balance. This earns me a total of 5% cash back since I’m adding it to my balance, vs going direct to a gift card purchase for a particular store. This old gift card had a balance of $12.82 left on it, so I couldn’t actually use it here. When adding a balance to your account, you have to add a minimum of $25 up to $1000 to your Slide Cash Balance. However when choosing individual stores for the regular 4% cash back, each store will have their own minimum gift card purchase amount. Most are either $5 or $10 as the minimum purchase amount.

Since Slide requires you to purchase gift cards for your purchases, this limits your cash back stacking options. But have no fear, AJ Mobile Money is here to help you navigate the cash back stacking possibilities.
With every cash back stacking strategy, the 1st and most important factor is starting with a Cash Back Credit Card. Since the Slide App won’t allow you to qualify for any special categories for restaurants, travel, etc..then you want to use the credit card with the highest amount of General Cash Back. For me that’s the Citi Double Cash Card. With the Citi Double Cash Card I earn 2% Cash Back in ALL purchases, no matter the category! This means that on EVERY purchase I make using Slide, I can earn a minimum of 6% and a maximum of 7% cash back!

• 2% - Citi Double Cash Credit Card
• 4% - Slide Cash Back for ALL stores
• 1% - Slide cash back for adding funds to your cash balance

Earning 6%-7% cash back on EVERY purchase is pretty huge! In fact its so good that every other cash back stacking strategy you have should use this 6% cash back total as its litmus test. If you can’t earn 6% or more in cash back with another combination of apps and credit cards, then the Slide App is what you should use. Now of course with other cash back apps there are one time bonuses, special holidays, weeks, or flash cash back offers that will likely earn you more than 6%, however those are not consistent. For instance the Fluz app allows you to earn 35% cash back on your first 3 purchases when you use a referral link like mine ?, and also 1 additional voucher for every person you invite to use the app. But for many stores their normal cash back on an every day basis is less than 4%. So if you're looking for a consistent way to earn cash back, and the stores you shop at the most are available in the Slide app, then this is a great option for those who do not like to check multiple apps for the best deal. With Slide you always know what you're going to get!

The Fluz Cash Back App is taking a Network Marketing / Multi Level Marketing (MLM) angle to earning cash back. Typically I'm not a fan of anything that even mentions MLM or Network Marketing, but I do love cash back apps, so I decided to check it out. At first glance, it's really just a Cash Back App, so I'll start there to show you how to earn Cash Back using Fluz. If you're interested in the Network Marketing portion, be sure to checkout my video overview of the Network Marketing opportunity to see how you can earn cash back from people you invite, plus the people that they invite, as well as bonuses once you reach certain levels, thus the Multi Level component of the app.

​Recently I was asked how I was able to remember all of the passwords for all of the accounts I have. As members of the Mobile Money Nation know, I review a lot of different financial accounts, most of which I actually open accounts with to test out their app first hand. Trying to create different passwords for each site, that are difficult to guess, yet easy to remember, would be nearly impossible if I relied just on my memory. 

Saving my passwords in a notebook, sticky note, or in a note app on my phone wouldn't cut it either. That's a potential security and privacy nightmare. These could be easily stolen by someone eventually, giving access to all of my accounts. With all of these financial accounts, email addresses, and the 10s to 100s of apps that many of us use on our smartphones, a password manager is essential!

I started using LastPass about 5 years ago. With several email addresses, financial accounts for myself as well as my family, and a parent who has trouble remembering their passwords as well, it was getting overwhelming to try to remember every password without using the same password over and over again. 

With LastPass all you have to remember is ONE PASSWORD. That is the password you use to login to the LastPass website, application on iOS & Android, or when using the extension in Chrome, Internet Explorer, or Safari. Once you're logged in you can access passwords for all of the websites and applications you use. You can even leave notes for yourself in the Secure Notes vault. Use this if you need to save any special instructions related to a particular website, credit card numbers, wifi passwords, or even for contingency planning if needed. Pretty much anything that you used to use a sticky note for, this is the area where you can save this information. 

What's even better is you can use LastPass to create stronger passwords. Since you won't necessarily need to remember your passwords anymore, you can use their randomizer to make longer harder to guess passwords, that meet all of the criteria of most websites these days...as far as the length, special characters, and number requirements of the password you create. ​

LastPass Premium Account is just $3 per month, billed annually for $36 a year. This allows you to store an unlimited amount of passwords for every account you have. Think about all of the email accounts, websites, apple ID, Android logins, social media accounts, bank accounts, brokerage accounts, work logins, doctor or other health account logins, retirement accounts, your kids or parents accounts, your spouses accounts, grandparents, and whatever or whoever else I may be forgetting. In fact take a quick scroll through to see all of the apps installed on your smartphone. That's a lot of passwords to remember! And you can't just make your password "PASSWORD" and expect to survive in this almost totally digital economy with hackers working 24/7 to find an easy target. ​

Form Fills:
Tired of typing your name, shipping address, billing address, phone number, email, and other information into fields online whenever you're signing up for a new service, making an order, or setting up a new account? You can safely save default information that you'll use over and over again into the form fill section of LastPass. This can include credit card information if you don't like to setup new accounts for online retailers every time you shop online, or fill out a survey. Just setup your form fill, and you're just a few clicks away from filling in all of this information instantly. If you're an online shopaholic...maybe this is a bad idea! You may not want to be able to get to checkout that fast!

Security Challenge:
The Security Challenge section is an area that can help you with increasing the security of all of the accounts that are saved in LastPass. LastPass can analyze the complexity of individual passwords, as well as let you know if you've used the same password too many times across multiple accounts. If someone were to figure out your password for one account, they would definitely try that same password to try and login into any other accounts they're able to find. With Security breaches happening essentially all the time now in this digital world, your password could have been stolen from one of the many websites you log into, and then sold on the dark web. Just search on your favorite search engine for the phrase "recent security (or data or privacy) breaches" and you'll certainly find one related to an account you use! PrivacyRights.org is also an excellent source to keep up with recent breaches.

A great feature with the Security Challenge section is that if you do have a lot of overlap, or a lot of passwords that are easy for hackers to guess, you can run the Security Challenge and receive a score on how susceptible you may be based on your password choices. Then you can change the passwords to all, or most of your online accounts in one click! You will get a list of recommended changes for: Compromised Sites, Weak Passwords, Reused Passwords, and Old Passwords which have not been changed in a long time. With some of the websites you will have the option to select a checkbox for those sites, and let LastPass change the passwords on all of those site in one click by running a script it uses for those sites. If LastPass has any issues changing the passwords, or if the sites show up in the list of sites they're unable to automatically change, just click on the "launch site" button. This will allow you to go to each site manually and change the password. Now that your'e using LastPass, I would recommend just using the random password generator since you won't ever need to remember anything other than the password to log into the LastPass app and Browser Extension.

LastPass Family Plan makes it easy for families to share passwords, either on a permanent basis, or emergency basis. With the Family Plan, you can have up to 6 Total users all for just $4 a month! Each user has their own login to LastPass, so you don't have to share your main login password with each family member if you were all using the same account in the past. One of the issues you would run into if you were to use the regular premium account with multiple people, on multiple devices, is that you may be asked to login into LastPass again. But also with multiple people needing to remember the same password, it's much easier to just have a different password for each individual user. You as one user will already have multiple devices you have to account for, so don't add more by sharing one Premium Account! For desktop/laptop use, LastPass essentially gives a specific device in a specific location access for 30 days. You can name the device as well, that way if you need to check login history to ensure no one has access to your account that shouldn't, you will be able know because you may be asked to verify your login via email. You can also setup the LastPass Authenticator app, or a 3rd party App like the Google Authenticator, to use as two factor authentication (2FA). I personally use the Google Authenticator app, but this is more because I was already using this app for access to other websites and applications prior to starting the use of LastPass. Using the LastPass Authenticator is much more efficient, because it will automatically recognize the LastPass Authenticator which can be setup for push notifications. With Google Authenticator you'll need to open this app separately, then enter the current code into your browser or phone in order to authenticate your login session. You won't need to do this on a regular basis, only if you log into LastPass from an unrecognized device or location.

Sharing Passwords:
In addition to having access for 5 additional users for just $1 more than the premium account, the main feature that stands out for the Family Plan is Sharing passwords. If there are certain logins that you want all, or just some, of your family to have access to, you can setup Sharing Folders for those accounts. Passwords related to your finances, taxes, medical, insurance, or even just entertainment accounts can be shared with the whole family or just certain members. You can even setup a folder for your kids email or social media accounts. Or maybe a folder for that forgetful family member, or non-tech savvy family member you're always helping with online activities. It's definitely worth the extra $1 per month to get all of your family's password lives in order, instead of keeping all of this information in your head or on a sheet of paper that others can easily access.

So for any of you out there who need help keeping up with your passwords, or want an easy to use tool to keep your passwords safe, and make them more difficult for snoopers to guess and use, checkout LastPass Premium or LastPass Family. It's been a really useful product for me. If you have any questions about the product, my experience, or you would like to share your experience, be sure to let me know in the comments below!

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​The iBotta App is a receipt based cash back app, which gives you cash back when you purchase specific items at specific stores, and then upload your receipt to claim the cash back. Usually I prefer using cash back apps which do not require you to upload receipts, but I did want to take some time to review this app since it could be a great way to earn cash back in addition to my favorite automated options as part of a cash back stacking strategy.

How do you earn cash back with iBotta? iBotta has partnered with several retailers to offer cash back when you upload your receipts to their app. You receive cash back when you purchase specific items offered within the app. Cash back can range from a 10 cents to a few dollars for one item. There are some items you can purchase which end up being free once you claim the cash back within the iBotta App. In my experience these are typically new products, or a new version of a product that companies are trying to sell. 

Some of the most popular retailers and grocery stores are available in the app, including: Walmart, Target, Costco, Sam's Club, Kroger, Publix, Aldi's, Whole Foods, and many many more. Click on the name of your retailer of choice, then check for the available cash back offers at each store. Some stores may offer different items than others, but many of the cash back offers are the same for all stores. However also keep in mind that just because the offer is available at the store you choose in the app, this does not mean that your local store necessarily carries the specific item being offered. When I first signed up for iBotta, there was a new Campbell's soup which was offering an over $2 cash back offer, which essentially made the cost of the soup free. However I checked with 3 of the Publix's in my area, and none of them sold the specific flavor of Soup listed in the cash back offer. I did however find it at my local WalMart. It may be possible to check this with the individual stores using their apps, before you actually go shopping in order to know what you will purchase before you get to the store. For those of you who make a list before grocery shopping, include walking through the iBotta app with your normal list creation activities to maximize use of the app.

Lets start with the easiest way to earn cash back, and that's with the "Any Item" item list. This allows you to earn cash back for buying generic everyday items like bananas, apples, cheese, diapers, or whatever is being offered at the time. Typically for the Any Item list iBotta may ask you to watch a short video or take a short survey to activate the Any Item option, and then these cash back options can be used to receive cash back at any of the available stores within the app. No matter the brand of the item, as long as you make a purchase in that category you will be credited for cash back.

For the rest of the items available in the app, you can search by category, or look at the list of What's Hot, New Offers, or Best Value! I like to check the Best Value list first to see where I can maximize on my cash back, then I scroll through the full list of offers within the particular store I am planning to shop at. Once you start to use the app on a regular basis, then you can just look at the New Offers to save yourself some time, as well as the Buy it Again section for items you purchase on a regular basis. This way you don't have to scroll through all of the possible cash back items each time you open the app. This is a huge time saver!

Once you've added all of the offers you would like to purchase at your local store, you can then take a look at the "Your List" section to view all of the cash back offers you have marked within the app for that particular store. If you already have your general shopping list, you can use this as a secondary shopping list to ensure you actually purchase all of the items you are going to receive cash back from when you shop.

Once you've made all of your purchases, all you have to do is go to the "Redeem" section at on the bottom row of the app, select the store, then take a photo of your receipt within the app to upload it and claim your cash back offers. The app should recognize your purchases from the receipt, but if not you will be asked to scan the specific product you purchased for proof of purchase. I have messed up in the past by buying the wrong product, whether it was due to being the wrong size or wrong flavored item. Be sure to double check these specifics before purchasing. 

With some retailers there is an automated option to receive credit for your cash back offers! Two stores I have personally used are Publix and Target. With both options you have to already have or create an account with those specific stores, then link that account to the iBotta app. This way when you use those store apps to make purchases, the purchases will also link to iBotta for recognition of your purchases without the need to upload a receipt. I like to use these options when I can, that way I don't have to worry about forgetting to upload my receipts after I get home. Any way I can find to automate things of this nature, I take advantage of to ensure I get every cash back offer I can with the individual stores as well as with iBotta!

Earn More With Bonuses:
In addition to the individual cash back offers, iBotta offers Bonus offers. These bonuses can be related to purchasing multiple of a specific product, having a streak of purchases at a particular store, or reaching a specific dollar amount of cash back offer claims within a particular time period. These help to boost your cash back offers when you use the iBotta app on a consistent basis. You can even join forces with your friends and family you invite to use the iBotta app, and they will be included in your Teamwork section of your Account. As a team you can earn Level 1-4 bonuses.

Categories:
Categories of stores you can shop at include: Grocery, online shopping, clothing, health & beauty, restaurants, travel, home and auto, entertainment, and much more. You can even Pay with iBotta.

With the Pay with iBotta feature, you can literally use the iBotta app to pay for purchases. The same way you would with Apple Pay, Google Pay, or PayPal. Just check the Pay with iBotta section to see which stores provide automatic cash back when you use the iBotta app to pay. You can sort from alphabetical order or by stores which provide the most cash back. You can also make a list of favorites so you can easily see how much cash back you can earn, or search by category when you're getting ready to make a purchase. Cash back can range from as low as half a percent up to as high as 10%. This is in addition to any cash back you can receive when you use their cash back offers for individual products, so don't forget to upload your receipts to receive the additional cash back. 

However there is one downside to using the Pay with iBotta feature, and that is the fact that all purchases are final! You cannot return items and receive it back on your credit card, because technically your payment method is the iBotta App. So if you plan to use this feature, maybe using it for an item you know there is a potential for you to return is not a good idea. You may be able to receive store credit or a gift card at some retailers for items purchased using the Pay with iBotta feature. This return problem does not apply to the normal purchases you make with your actual credit card when you receive cash back from iBotta, just to the Pay with iBotta feature within the app. So if you actually physically swipe your card at the retailer, and just upload your receipt to iBotta for the individual cash back offers, then this rule does not apply. ​

Despite all of the great options and ways to use the iBotta app to earn cash back, I don't always fully take advantage of these features. I'm more of a spontaneous shopper when it comes to groceries, and I don't always remember to check the app to activate the individual cash back offers. This is why I prefer the automated cash back apps, where I just receive credit automatically whenever I use my credit card. However if you take the time to check the iBotta App and activate these offers, you can earn a lot of cash back!

Do you use the iBotta App? If not be sure to use a link in this post to get started today! If you already use the app, let us know which store is your favorite, which store you get the most value from in combination with the iBotta app, and which stores you use the Pay with iBotta feature if you use it at all. Pretty much let us know your experience with this app!

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Rakuten, formerly known as Ebates, provides cashback when shopping in-store at certain restaurants and retailers, through their mobile app, or using the browser extension on your laptop or desktop computer to make online purchases. Rakuten is maybe the most popular cash back app available, and certainly has the widest selection of online stores to choose from. Rakuten bought out Ebates which is also one of the oldest cash back Apps around.

The Dosh App is a Cash Back App which provides cashback when using your credit or debit card via in store purchases, purchases within the Dosh App, as well as via online purchases on your laptop or desktop! When using a Debit Card you must make a credit card transaction, meaning not to use your pin number. Otherwise transactions won't be recognized. The reason it does not work with debit transactions is because Dosh, like many cash back apps, works through the credit card processing company. Debit transactions go straight to the bank instead of a credit card processor. But with Dosh every purchase doesn't need to start within the app to receive credit! Any "Online Offer" listed in the app will receive credit from Dosh once they receive confirmation of the transaction from the credit card processor, and you don't have to start your transaction from within the Dosh App. All of their "Online Offers" are stores where you receive cash back automatically! Receiving cash back can take up to 30 to 45 days before it is available for withdrawal. The reason it COULD take this long is to ensure items are not returned, as this is a typical return period for most retail stores. Your cash back may continue to show as "pending" during this time period.