[FTC Disclosure (because being transparent should be fun, dammit!) – You should always assume that pretty much every link on this blog is an affiliate link and that if you click it, find something you like and get it, I’m gonna make some serious money. Now, understand this, I’m not talking chump change, I’m talking a huge windfall in commissions, bling up the wazoo and all sorts of other free stuff. I may even be given a mansion and a yacht, though honestly I’d settle most of the time for some organic dark chocolate and clean socks. Oh, look, a squirrel….
K, I’m back. And if I mention a book or some other product, just assume I got a review copy of it gratis and that me getting it has completely biased everything I say. Because free stuff is like a drug to me, put it in my hand and you own me, you’ve been warned (disclosure to the disclosure, that was a joke, or was it?). Much Love.
Below are short and sweet explanations of a few of my favorite financial/tech products that make my life easier. I also included some of the reasons I use them. Eventually I plan to do a deeper dive on all of these.
Below are short and sweet explanations of a few of my favorite financial/tech products that make my life easier. I also included some of the reasons I use them. Eventually I plan to do a deeper dive on all of these.
Fiverr is a game changer for anybody who is self employed, building a side hustle while working a full time job, any type of creative, or anybody who just needs some help on something. Usually when we hear the term “Outsourcing” We think of big companies paying people to handle marketing or something of the like. Fiverr makes it attainable for anybody. You can hire someone to manage an affiliate website you have, you can hire somebody to edit a video or photos for you. Essentially if you have a task in front of you, and you tell yourself “Wow I wish someone else would do this for me.” Check Fiverr, chances are there is someone you can hire to do it for you. To the left is a button for you to check out their services.
Gold Card– 90,000 Member ship reward points after qualifying purchases.
Blue Business Card– Up to $500 statement credit. (As of January 2023)
This entire topic is MASSIVE and something I fully intend on diving deeper on in the near future because I could write pages on this. But for the sake of this post, let’s keep it short and sweet. I personally use the Amex gold card (In the picture is a limited rose gold card), and amex business blue cash back card. As of right now I dont have an article on why I prefer American Express but I will soon. For the time being, if you do sign up for any of these, do your homework. Specifically the gold card, know there is a $250 annual fee that is easily made up in bonuses and credits, but you have to use them. So be sure to do your research before signing up for a gold card. As far as the business blue card, it is a great cash back card, you are credited money straight to your account after paying it off. I suggest this card for anybody who doesnt travel or eat out much, or a small business using it mostly for expenses. Cash back adds up in a huge way.
High Yield Savings account- 3.3%
CD’s- Up to 4.25%
Checking account- 1% (No account fees)
Yes I know what you’re thinking, “AMEX again, does this guy ever give it up?” First of all, no, I don’t. But this is not for a credit card, this is for bank account, both personal or business. This will be best if you also have the American Express credit card but you can still open one without the card. The reason I say this is because Amex is a relationship bank, if they see you’ve been a customer before they will be more inclined to approve a business account, investment account, high yield savings account, and my favorite of all, a high interest checking account, which is tough to find.
So whether you need a business bank account, personal account, investments, CD’s or high yield savings account you will be pleased with the options American Express has to offer.
While Webull is not the most user friendly, in my opinion, it has enough other pros that weight that out. With a little time, anybody can learn the platform with relative ease. I have been using Webull since 2020, but I also used Robinhood. Nothing against Robinhood, I just preferred Webull and when it came down to what the platforms offered, Webull blew Robinhood out of the water. A big thing I liked about Webull was that I was able to manage a Roth IRA in the same account as my taxable brokerage. Webull also has a decent crypto exchange but I would suggest using a hardware wallet if you have any crypto holdings or desire to get into crypto, I will include that in the next product. Robinhood has since input a Roth IRA as well which is great. There are also rumors of an HSA (Health Savings Account) coming to webull as well, which is a triple tax advantaged account.
If you are completely new to investing, you may be overwhelmed as the whole space is a lot to take in. Do not hesitate to reach out to me with any questions or concerns. I would be happy to help. Also, I shared my link so you will receive some bonus stocks to get started.
Unless you have been living under a rock for the last 6 months, I am sure you have heard about Madoff 2.0, Sam Bankman-Fried. The self proclaimed Robinhood, turned out to be running one of the biggest ponzi schemes the world has ever seen. He was able to steal, lend, and leverage somewhere in the range of 15 Billion dollars, yes, that is a B. He was able to do this because so many people were comfortable using and storing their money on his crypto exchange, FTX. Which, essentially gave up all of your rights to your money, as soon as it hit the exchange. Millions of people lost their life savings, not even in a bad investment, a lot of them just had the money in the exchange sitting in “USDC” Which is a stable coin tied to the U.S. Dollar. But because it was on the exchange it gave FTX the right to use it. This would have never been possible and nobody would have lost any money if the customers were storing their crypto on a Ledger cold storage wallet. Because when stored in cold storage, your crypto is not online ANYWHERE. It can not be tracked, hacked, stolen or lost unless you lose your Key Phrase. Which you will learn all about if you get a ledger, which if you hold ANY amount of crypto, you should get. This little hard drive has single handedly saved me the possibility of losing thousands of dollars in one of the exchange collapses. Please for your own sake, do not keep your money on a crypto exchange of any sort.
First things first, this is NOT “Passive income” like most self proclaimed gurus will preach. If anything running an Airbnb is a part time job to say the least. But, it is extremely rewarding and actually can be really enjoyable especially if you are a people person. The IRS did a study and found that the majority of millionaires had on average 7 streams of income. This is probably the second easiest stream to add to your bank account (Behind dividend stocks) In my opinion. If you own or rent a house, setup either a second entrance or rent out one of the rooms in your house, buy or build a tiny house for your backyard or driveway, rent out your basement, or even your camper! There are tons of options and Airbnb encourages creativity! The app is extremely user friendly, it screens all guests, verifies identities, makes communication effortless, and files all tax forms for you to make reporting income simple! (Hello internal revenue service) If you have any interest in being a host, click the link for more info, my link will also give you $40. If you end up not liking it, there are no commitments, you could host for one night and then never again if you wanted.
Now that you’re handling investments, credit cards, HYSA’s, Airbnb hosting, and crypto transactions all at the fingertips of your cellphone, it is crucial to be protected. A VPN will do that, when you are connected to a wifi network you are completely exposed to cyber crimes, being hacked and someone getting your sensitive information. Trust me, you don’t want to finally get your finances in order and then get hacked and have to restart. For the minimal cost of a VPN I can not stress this enough. There are plenty of high quality VPN services, I personally use NordVPN. It is relatively inexpensive, owned by an established security company (Nord Security) and is very simple to set up. If you take anything from these products, trust me this is the most important. Having a high rewarding credit card or a healthy retirement fund is useless if it is exposed to cyber crime.
Nord also offer a secure password saving software that allows you to store passwords on your device but it automatically encrypts them for you to keep them protected. I will also link that to the left.
Rocket Money (Previously True Bill) is something I have only recently started to use. For a few reasons but the biggest one that drew me to them was that they will negotiate bills for you and save you money. It will also cancel unused subscriptions you likely forgot you were paying for, and will sometimes get you a refund. That was my favorite part. It also lets you connect investment account, bank accounts, savings account, loans, mortgages and a few other features. Rocket Money is actually a great app. The biggest thing I do not like about it, is you are not able to manually enter crypto holdings which is such an easy feature to add I am not sure why they wouldn’t add it, but, to each their own. I know that will only effect a relatively small niche group of people. But if crypto is not a concern for you, there is a great feature that lets you track your net worth, which can be super useful in tracking progress, or it can be super pretentious. Choose your potion.