If you use a car, which most Americans do, then this app is for you! GetUpside provides you with cashback for all of your gas purchases. Every time you get ready to fill up your gas tank, pop open the GetUpside App to check for the Cashback offers near your location. You can view the nearest participating gas stations, the price of gas at these stations, and how much cashback GetUpside will pay YOU per gallon for using a particular gas station. After you first signup you will receive a bonus of 15 cents cashback per gallon when using code FAB72. With the average gas tank taking over 15 gallons to fill, that's about $2.25 back on your first use! Just claim the offer via the app when you're headed to the gas station, and fill up your tank using your credit card during the claim period. After filling up, take a photo of the receipt and upload it in the app, and within a few hours or days receive cashback for your gas purchase! Yes, it's that simple! You do have to use a credit or debit card for your purchases, even though you do not have to link a credit/debit card in the application. Cash and prepaid debit/credit cards are not accepted. If you choose, you can also link your credit card to the application that way you don't have to upload your receipts, but this is not a requirement. For those who like to automate things, this is a great option for you.
After your initial purchase the cashback offer will vary. I've seen as little as 1 cent up to 20 cents as the cashback offer, depending on your area. Larger cities seem to have the better cashback deals since there's more gas station competition. You must purchase your gas, and upload your receipt during the claim period. Claim periods are set for 4 hours. It may be beneficial in some cases, to claim the offer prior to going to the gas station, in case you see an offer that is higher than normal. The amount of cash back provided per gallon will change from day to day, so if you use the same gas station often you may start to recognize a pattern. If you invite a friend to use the GetUpside app, you receive the same 15 cents per gallon bonus every time a friend signs up! In addition to the initial bonus, you also receive 1 cent per gallon for every future gas purchase your friends make! This can add up over time, especially if you have friends who commute a lot or go on road trips often.
I'm Cashin' Out!
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The Drop Rewards App. Within this app you have two ways to gain cashback. You can connect your credit card to automatically receive cashback when you shop in-store or online using their Power Offers Power Offers are pre-selected stores where you ALWAYS receive cashback. As a new user you can only have 2 Power Offers for automatic cashback. I was able to select Chipotle and Starbucks as my preferred Power Offer options. The 2nd way to earn cash back is to shop within their app making ad hoc purchases with the available stores in the app. (name some stores) If you prefer using a laptop or desktop to shop, for the larger screen, you can email links to yourself to ensure you get the referral when shopping on your computer!
What would you do if you had extra cash trickling in every month, or every quarter? You could buy more stuff! Give gifts to your family and friends! Let your kids spend it! Put it into a high yield savings account! Invest it! Or...use it to pay off DEBT! If all of these options are possibilities for you, then paying off debt is your top priority. Did you know that Debt is just Investing backwards? The same way investing helps your money to grow by using compound interest, compound interest also helps your debt grow...just not in the direction you would like! Think of it as Negative Compound Interest. This interest is also a stronger force than the S&P 500 or Total Stock Market. Over the past 50 or so years, the Total Stock Market and S&P 500 have averaged around an 8% to 10% gain per year. Credit Card Debt however, currently has an average interest rate of over 17%. If you have debt with interest rates that are higher than the average gains in the stock market, then you need to focus on paying off these debts. This doesn't mean you can't use credit cards or invest, however! Good news!
A great way to start earning extra cash without working a side hustle, getting a raise, or changing jobs, is to earn Cash Back on your everyday purchases. The BEST way to use Cash Back is to pay off debt, which I would highly recommend if you have high interest Credit Card Debt or Student Loan Debt. When you use it to pay back debts, it is just like getting an immediate return on your "investment". Especially with credit cards, considering the average interest rate on a credit card is around 17% . The stock market over its history has averaged about 8 to 10%, so if you do have Credit Card debt, it doesn't mean you have to completely stop using them. Here's what I mean... Credit Cards Are A Strong Foundation
When thinking of getting started with investing in the stock market, there is a lot of initial fear for some.
Stock Back Rewards?
Before you swipe your card again, read this post! Better yet, before you spend any money, read this blog post. Sooner or later we all have to spend money somewhere. Whether it is to buy groceries, pay our phone bill's, light bill, furniture, gas for our car, maintenance of our car, eating out, new mobile phones and laptops etc... Almost every day we are spending money either in-store, through an app on our smartphone, or on a computer via a web browser like Chrome, Safari, FireFox, or Internet Explorer. Well why not get rewarded and get paid to spend money! If you're really pressed for time, here's my Top 7 of the Best Cash Back Apps. Use my referral links to receive a bonus for signing up. Otherwise keep reading for more details.
The Best Cash Back Apps
Rankings updated 12/24
7) Drop App: Code bjse9 Get $5 Sign Up Bonus
6) GetUpside App: Code FAB72 Get 15 Cents per Gallon Sign Up Bonus 5) Dosh App: Code AJM62 Get $1 Sign Up Bonus 4) Ebates App: Code AJMOB14 Get $10 Sign Up Bonus 3) Pei App: Code 4ozbzr Get $2.50 Sign Up Bonus 2) Bumped App (Waitlist) 1) Bits of Stock App (Waitlist) SoFi Money and SoFi Invest just hit mainstream! Striking a 20 Year Deal with an NFL Stadium.9/19/2019 Social Finance is really putting themselves out there now! The Financial Services start-up, known as SoFi for short, just paid big bucks to put their name on the most expensive NFL stadium ever built! That stadium is the home of the Los Angeles Rams and Los Angeles Chargers. It is the only private company with its name on ANY stadium of a sports team. They are really stepping their marketing game up to promote the many financial products they have released this year. Who is SoFi?SoFi is a Financial Services company who provides many services. The CEO Anthony Noto is the former CFO of the NFL, former COO of Twitter, and head of Twitter Ventures. Given his background its not surprising for him to spark a deal like this with the NFL! SoFi started out providing Student Loans and Student Loan Refinancing, and have recently expanded their available financial products to other loan types including Mortgage Loans, as well as Insurance. The products which interest me particularly is the Cash Management Account and Investment Account made available in the past year. SoFi Money
This year I attended my first FinCon! For those who don't know, FinCon is a Conference for Financial Influencers and Brands. Attendees go to FinCon in order learn how to better connect with their audience, improve their craft, and of course find ways to increase their income doing the things they love! This will be my first FinCon, and first ever conference I've gone to for personal reasons. I've worked at conferences before, so I'm familiar with the general atmosphere of an event which is pretty much all day. Now I will get to experience it from an attendee's perspective, although I have a good handle on what to expect.
But FinCon is not like your typical conference. At FinCon everyone isn't dressed in their $500, $1,000 or more suit or a dress with shoes to match the price tag. From what I've seen, and heard from listening to FinCon's podcast, is that people come in what they feel comfortable in! For some that may very well be a multi hundred or thousand dollar suit, while for others jeans and a t-shirt suffice. The expectation is for you to be authentically you, and not dress to impress others just for business reasons. I like this approach, even though I understand why it is the opposite for many business conferences. But this is different! Expectations
I honestly don't know. I just want to soak in all the knowledge I can, meet all of the people I can, and enjoy spending time with other people who enjoy sharing knowledge which happens to be geared towards Personal Finance. That's what this is about for me, and I suspect many others attending. There are many YouTube content creators and bloggers, a few of which I subscribe to or follow on Social Media, like ChooseFi, His & Her Money, Graham Stephan, and Ryan Scribner just to name a few, which I know are in attendance
Before AJ Mobile Money
Let's first start off with a disclaimer. I am not a tax professional, and I do not provide tax, legal, or accounting advice. Readers should consult their tax advisors! There...I said it!
However, I thought this would be a fun math experiment. Is it possible for a middle class family of 4 to optimize their federal tax to the point where they won't owe anything at the end of the year? I think there are many ways to do this if you plan correctly! In the past I've used my income from the previous year, plus making adjustments to my W-4 withholding to try and approximate how much tax I will owe at the end of the year, so that I can get my tax bill or perhaps a refund that is as close to ZERO as possible! BIG TAX REFUNDS & BIG TAX BILLS ARE FOR SUCKERS
First let's discuss why getting a huge refund at the end of the year is not "The Move" at all. When you receive a refund, this means that you've OVER PAID what you OWED in taxes for that year. You're essentially providing the government with an Interest Free Loan! When is the last time someone...anyone, especially an institution given you an interest fee loan? For 99% of us that answer is never! The closest you'll get is a credit card balance transfer, and most charge you a fee upfront, with no interest for a certain time period. Typically 6-12 months. After this time period, if you haven't paid off your card, you will be charged interest for the remaining balance as if you were being charged interest the whole time period. Banks are in the business of making money, so a loan is a means of making money off of your need to access cash.When you pay taxes, you are providing cash for the government to take care of the country or states needs. Now it may not be as efficient as we would like it to be, but that is its purpose.
Let's start with a rough example: You or your family unit provides the government with $1,000 of tax revenue each month, which adds up to $12,000 total at the end of the year. Of that $12,000, let's say you really only owed $9,600. That equals $2,400 at the end of year. Unfortunately that money had no opportunity to compound in order to help your money grow in a savings account or in investments. If instead, you could figure out a formula where you pay the exact amount of taxes you will owe, after taking into account Tax Deductions and Tax Credits, then you could put that money in a savings account or invest it throughout the course of the year. Let's assume you are a tax genius, or know one, and you were able to pay exactly $9,600 throughout the course of the year. What would the $2,400 turn into? There are three main ways that MAJOR wealth is created in the United States, and throughout the World. Those 3 are by creating a Business, selling or renting properties in the Real Estate market, and investing in the Stock Market. Of those 3, guess which is the easiest to get started in, and takes the least amount of money? You guessed it, investing in the Stock Market! Well if it's so easy, why doesn't everyone do it? I think one of the main reasons is that we, as well as your traditional Financial institutions, and investing gurus, make it seem more difficult than it really is. In the simplest form, all it takes to invest in a company via the stock market is 1) Opening a Brokerage Account (as easy as opening a Checking or Savings Account), 2) Depositing money into that account, and 3) Selecting the company or companies* you would like to invest in! Yes, investing in the stock market is as easy as 1,2,3! So why do Financial Institutions, the gurus on CNBC and other forms of media, as well as your friend's coworker's 3rd nephew who hit it big in the market, make it seem like it is so difficult that you MUST pay them (or someone) to do it? Like most things in life, you can make them as simple or as complex as you want. The OracleFor example: Warren Buffett is the greatest investor of our lifetime. Over about a 50 year period, he averaged over a 20% gain per year in the stock market, while the overall market gained about 10% per year. Yes, he basically DOUBLED the average gain of the market, which means there was someone (or thousands of others) who gained less than average in the stock market. Traditional wisdom might tell you to just pay Warren Buffett to invest your money, or someone else may tell you that if you pay them you can get similar gains from the stock market. Or you could literally get the exact same gains as Warren Buffett by purchasing stock in the company he is the head of...Berkshire Hathaway, Ticker: BRK/A or BRK/B. Before 1996 you would have needed $33,500 (now over $319,000) in order to purchase 1 share of BRK/A. But in 1996, Berkshire Hathaway created a 2nd class of their stock (BRK/B) in which its cost per share was only $22 (now over $200). As you can see, both are worth about 10x more now than in 1996, so performance for both classes of stock percentage wise, are basically the same. This made it affordable for the Average Jill to invest in Berkshire stock, and let Warren Buffett literally be the captain of their investment ship. But Wait, There's More!
Creating a Budget is the first step into getting your finances in order. It opens your eyes to where your money is and isn't going, and forces you to make a change so that 10 minus 10 does not equal negative 5 (debt and interest on debt).
Analogy Not creating a budget is kind of like avoiding asking your parents for permission to do something. You know they are going to say no, so you don't ask and you do it anyway. Then later on they find out you did it, and you get in trouble. You're now responsible for the act you previously committed, and now you have to pay for it in some form of a punishment or scolding. You may not receive it immediately, or they may let the incidents pile up before they act upon a punishment.
It's the same with creating a budget. If you write down your income and the bills you need to pay, you will visually realize you may not have enough money to buy everything you want. Then you mentally have to go against what you know you should not do: go out to eat, buy new clothes, buy that new shiny electronic device, continue paying for services you don't really use (looking at you gym membership!).
For some people that's a harsh reality to face. I know it was for me. Especially after graduating from college and not having a job which paid enough for me to seriously think about paying my student loan debt. Debt is the punishment (spanking or time out) you receive for not asking permission, and the additional interest you pay on debt are the residual memories you have of that punishment. You still feel the sting or disappointment from your parents, days/weeks/months/years later right? But the next question is, after feeling the sting, did you make a change to avoid feeling it again? Or did you follow the same path? Well maybe Mom might not realize what I did, or maybe she won't catch me this time. I'll be able to make up a good story in the Future if this ever comes up. Eventually, you will pay! "Future" |
AJ Mobile MoneyHusband | Father | YouTuber | Former ATLien Subscribe!Disclosure: Some of the links throughout my site are Affiliate links, meaning, at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase or sign up for certain accounts. Affiliate links help to run this site!
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