Tag: power

We live in a society that caters to the early birds: 8 a.m. school start times, 9-to-5 work schedules and lots of talk about the benefits of starting your day at the crack of dawn.

Well, I say thanks, but no thanks..

There’s nothing wrong with you if you’re the kind of person who stays up late to work, play or just to experience some peace and quiet in the ungodly hours of the night. In fact, research suggests night owls may be more creative, more intelligent and more mentally resilient than their counterparts.*

So, never change! And, while you’re at it, here are ways to make extra cash while burning that midnight oil.

1. Let This App Pay You up to $83 When You Win Solitaire Games

Lots of us already play Solitaire on our phones for fun or just to pass time until the sun comes up. Want to see if you can win money at it?

There’s a free iPhone app called Solitaire Cash that lets you play for real money. You could get paid up to $83 per win.

You might be thinking: There’s got to be a catch. This is definitely one of those spammy apps, right?

Wrong. There really isn’t a catch. Sure, you can pay to play in some higher-stakes tournaments, but there’s no pressure. And, in fact, there aren’t even any annoying ads.

With each game, you’ll battle it out against at least five other players. Everyone gets the same deck, so winning is totally a matter of skill. The top three players who solve the deck fastest can win real money — anywhere from $1 to $83.

Over on the App Store, it has over a million downloads and more than 15,000 ratings, averaging 4.7 stars (out of 5).

To get started, just download the free app and start playing your first game immediately.

2. Earn $300+/Month in Passive Income with Your Extra Space

If you’re like us, your garage probably isn’t doing much of anything at the moment. Maybe you have some tools in there, or maybe it’s home to your boxes of odds and ends, collecting dust.

But with a website called Neighbor, your extra space — whether it’s a spare room, an empty garage or a parking space — could be earning you an extra $300 a month in totally passive income.

Neighbor works by connecting people who need storage space with hosts who have the room to spare. The average host makes about $300 a month, but some people have earned up to $50,000 a year just by letting people park on their property.

It takes less than 10 minutes to get started. Just answer a few questions about your space, take some pictures and set your asking price. Neighbor will recommend a dollar amount based on your location and type of rental, but the final listing is up to you.

Neighbor even gives you up to $1 million in free protection as a host and offers protection plans for your renters, giving you both peace of mind.

Neighbor is an easy source of passive income, and it’s easier than most side hustles. It’s free to list your space, and you’ll only be charged a 4.9% processing fee from the profit you make each month, so there’s no risk to you.

Sign up here and see how much you could earn.

3. Get Paid to be Someone’s Buddy — We’re Not Kidding

Some night owls want solitude, while others want to get together with those on the same sleep schedule. Why not get paid to do the latter?

You can register to become a friend at RentAFriend.com, where paying users can contact you to attend late-night concerts, bar trivia nights, quiet hangouts, VIP events and more.

You can charge up to $50 an hour and set your own schedule. Why not try it out?

4. Get Paid Up to $140/Month Just for Sharing Your Honest Opinion

It sounds strange, but brands want to hear your opinion, even in the dead of night. It helps them make business decisions, so they’re willing to pay you for it — up to $140 a month.

A free site called Branded Surveys will pay you up to $5 per survey for sharing your thoughts with their brand partners. Taking three quick surveys a day could earn up to $140 each month.

It takes just a minute to create a free account and start getting paid to speak your mind. Most surveys take five to 15 minutes, and you can check how long they’ll take ahead of time.

And you don’t need to build up tons of money to cash out, either — once you earn $5, you can cash out via PayPal, your bank account, a gift card or Amazon. You’ll get paid within 48 hours of your payout being processed, just for sharing your opinions.

They’ve already paid users more than $20 million since 2012, and the most active users can earn a few hundred dollars a month. Plus, they’ve got an “excellent” rating on Trustpilot.

It takes just a minute to set up your account and start getting paid to take surveys. Plus, right now, you’ll get a free 100-point welcome bonus just for becoming part of the community.

5. Add $225 to Your Wallet While Watching the Late Night News

It’s been a historic year in the news. And while we hope the news isn’t what’s keeping you up at night, being a news junkie does have its monetary perks.

You could add up to $225 a month to your pocket by signing up for a free account with InboxDollars. They’ll present you with short surveys to choose from every day, which you can fill out while you watch tonight’s broadcast.

You just have to answer honestly, and InboxDollars will continue to pay you every month. This might sound too good to be true, but it’s already paid its users more than $56 million.

It takes about one minute to sign up, and start getting paid while you watch the news.

6. Earn up to $69/Hour Working From Home

We get it. You need copious amounts of coffee to feel alive at your inflexible nine to five job.

Truth be told, life would be a lot easier if you could sleep in every day, and just make money while everyone else was sleeping. But that’s not something most employers offer. But have you considered bookkeeping? It’s the No. 1 most profitable business, according to an article in Inc Magazine.

And you could earn up to $69 an hour by starting your own bookkeeping business, according to Intuit, the creator of QuickBooks.

You don’t have to be an accountant or good at calculus to be successful at bookkeeping. As long as you’re motivated, a company called Bookkeepers.com will teach you everything you need to know. It’s one of the leading training courses in the field, and it even gives you the first three classes for free.

It’s helped thousands of people launch their own businesses, including Daniel Honan, a military veteran and former painter. He never considered starting his own company, but he signed up for Bookkeepers.com, and now he’s making $50,000 a year.

It only took him three months to get started, taking one class a week. Oh, and he makes his own schedule, and earns up to $69 an hour.

If you’re just a little curious, you just have to submit your email address here to take the first free class. If you stick with it, you could be running your own business in just a few months.

7. Get Paid to Skip Going to the Store

Picture this: Buying your groceries without leaving your house… and at night. Sounds like the perfect night-owl scenario, right?

It is — and it can be rewarding, too. A free website called Rakuten gives you a kickback of 3%, 5%, 15% or more when you shop online at thousands of your favorite stores.

Between your Target and Instacart orders, Disney+ subscription and Ulta splurges, that cash back really adds up. Plus, it can be directly deposited into your bank account, or they’ll send you a check.

It takes less than 60 seconds to create a Rakuten account and start getting cash back. All you need is an email address, then you can immediately start shopping your go-to stores through the site.

Earning money for nothing? Living your best night life? Sounds like a win/win.

8. Play Bingo on Your Phone for Real Money — up to $83 Per Win

Do you play games on your phone at night to pass the time? You should see if you can make money doing it, too.

A free iPhone app called Bingo Cash lets you play for real cash. Every win could pay you up to $83.

Bingo Cash is based on the classic Bingo format, where you’ll battle it out against other players at your same skill level. Everyone gets the same board and sees the same Bingo balls. The top three players in a game can win real money — anywhere from $1 to $83.

And no, there’s no catch. There are no ads, either. You can play for free or pay to play in higher-stakes tournaments.

Download the free app and start playing your first game immediately. You could win money today!

9. Start Freelancing

If you have a way with words, consider freelancing. As a freelance blogger, you can work as much or little as you want, and at any hour of the night that you please.

To get started, check out these blogs that pay $100 or more per post.

*https://www.thehealthy.com/habits/benefits-of-being-a-night-owl/

Way back when, the only way to get your hands on some financial advice without professional help was by walking yourself to the library. Or better yet, getting rich-uncle advice over the holidays.

Now, thanks to the internet, it’s quick and easy to find advice on pretty much any financial query. But having so much information at our fingertips has its disadvantages — especially when it comes to the advice on social media, where literally everyone is allowed to share their opinions.

Sure, you can find sound financial advice on TikTok, it’s true. But just because you know how to create a viral TikTok doesn’t mean you’re a financial expert.

We’re sharing five alarming money tips we’ve seen on TikTok, plus five smarter things to do with your money, instead.

1. Dangerous Advice: The Promise of Quick Results and Easy Money 

Get-rich-quick schemes have been around since one caveman convinced the other he was a wealthy foriegn prince. Now, these schemes exist in the form of young charming influencers flaunting their wealth and claiming you can make thousands of dollars a week with very little effort. You just have to do what they did, and you’ll find the same success.

The truth is, there are no simple tricks that unlock the stock market, and there definitely aren’t any “real-time money glitches.” Using any of these tips and tricks is like walking into a casino and putting everything on black. It might work a couple of times, but it’s not going to work over the long term. There’s simply no reliable shortcut to financial wealth.

Do This Instead: Spend $1 to Own a Piece of Amazon, Google or Other Companies

Instead of looking for quick results and easy money, we suggest you look for reliable long-term investments. So, where to start?

Take a look at the Forbes Richest People list, and you’ll notice almost all the billionaires have one thing in common — they own another company.

If you don’t have millions of dollars lying around, that can sound totally out of reach.

But with an app called Stash, it doesn’t have to be. It lets you be a part of something that’s normally exclusive to the richest of the rich — on Stash you can buy pieces of other companies for as little as $1.

That’s right — you can invest in pieces of well-known companies, such as Amazon, Google, Apple and more for as little as $1. The best part? If these companies profit, so can you. Some companies even send you a check every quarter for your share of the profits, called dividends.*

It takes two minutes to sign up, and it’s totally secure. With Stash, all your investments are protected by the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC) — that’s industry talk for, “Your money’s safe.”**

Plus, when you use the link above, Stash will give you a $5 sign-up bonus once you deposit $5 into your account.

2. Dangerous Advice: Complicated ‘Money Hacks’

Some of the most amusing money-saving TikToks come from people sharing the most complex ways to make or save a few bucks — like working for a food delivery app just so you can get paid to pick up your own food. Or, my personal favorite: starting your own landscaping business to write off your new lawn mower.

Aside from some of these tactics being sketchy or downright illegal, you’re likely to waste far more of your valuable time and energy compared to the extra cash you’re pocketing.

Do This Instead: Let This App Pay You Up to $83 When You Win Solitaire Games 

If you’ve got your heart set on finding interesting ways to make some extra cash, there are actually some much simpler options out there that won’t have you wondering if what you’re doing is illegal.

For example, there’s a free iPhone app called Solitaire Cash that lets you play for real money. You could get paid up to $83 per win.

With each game, you’ll battle it out against at least five other players. Everyone gets the same deck, so winning is totally a matter of skill. The top three players who solve the deck fastest can win real money — anywhere from $1 to $83.

Over on the App Store, it has over a million downloads and more than 15,000 ratings, averaging 4.7 stars (out of 5).

To get started, just download the free app and start playing your first game immediately.

3. Dangerous Advice: Oversimplifying Debt

Debt is a complicated principle. Unfortunately, some TikTok creators have taken it upon themselves to oversimplify how debt works so that the information fits into a short video format.

Advice comes out half-baked, like explaining it’s good to apply for a credit card without mentioning the importance of making your credit card payments on time or monitor your credit-utilization ratio.

A lot of this advice also assumes we’re all in the same financial boat, and that there’s a one-size-fits-all way to look at and deal with debt. In reality, we’re all in different stages of our financial journey.

Do This Instead: Ask This Website to Help Wipe Out Your Credit Card Debt

So let’s talk about that debt that’s eating you up inside. The anxiety, the interest rates, the fear you’re never going to escape…

And your credit card company doesn’t really care. It’s just getting rich by ripping you off with high interest rates — some up to 36%. Websites like AmOne want to help.

If you owe your credit card companies $50,000 or less, AmOne will match you with a low-interest loan you can use to pay off every single one of your balances.

The benefit? You’ll be left with one bill to pay each month. And because personal loans have lower interest rates (AmOne rates start at 2.49% APR), you’ll get out of debt that much faster. Plus: No credit card payment this month.

You don’t need a perfect credit score to get a loan — and comparing your options won’t affect your score at all.  Plus, AmOne keeps your information confidential and secure, which is probably why after 20 years in business, it still has an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau.

It takes less than a minute and just 10 questions to see what loans you qualify for — you don’t even need to enter your Social Security number. You do need to give AmOne a real phone number in order to qualify, but don’t worry — they won’t spam you with phone calls.

4. Dangerous Advice: Aggressive Investments

Another big trend we’re seeing on TikTok is influencers sharing the success they’ve had with aggressive investments — like taking equity from their homes to invest in more properties — resulting in a steady, passive income.

These types of investment can work, but again, it’s not a one-size-fits-all solution for everyone. Plus, it comes with a lot of risks and a lot more hard work than any of these influencers care to admit.

When you’re borrowing equity from, say, your house, to invest in something new, just remember you’re going into more debt to do so. If your investment fails, you could lose your house, and more.

Do This Instead: Earn $300+/Month in Risk-Free Passive Income with Your Extra Space 

There’s actually a safer way to make a passive income. So, before you take out a huge loan and go all in on that fixer upper down the street, take a quick look at the existing space you have.

If you’re like us, your garage probably isn’t doing much of anything at the moment. Maybe you have some tools in there, or maybe it’s home to your boxes of odds and ends, collecting dust.

But with a website called Neighbor, your extra space — whether it’s a spare room, an empty garage or a parking space — could be earning you an extra $300 a month in totally passive income.

Neighbor works by connecting people who need storage space with hosts who have the room to spare. The average host makes about $300 a month, but some people have earned up to $50,000 a year just by letting people park on their property.

It takes less than 10 minutes to get started. Just answer a few questions about your space, take some pictures and set your asking price. Neighbor will recommend a dollar amount based on your location and type of rental, but the final listing is up to you.

Neighbor even gives you up to $1 million in free protection as a host and offers protection plans for your renters, giving you both peace of mind.

Neighbor is an easy source of passive income, and it’s easier than most side hustles. It’s free to list your space, and you’ll only be charged a 4.9% processing fee from the profit you make each month, so there’s no risk to you.

Sign up here and see how much you could earn.

5. Dangerous Advice: Distractions

Many TikTok influencers focus on fun and trendy financial tips and tricks in an attempt to gain more followers.

Like, have you ever found yourself labeling hundreds of colored envelopes in an attempt to save money? Or, did you try and fail to get extra money from your airline after watching a very engaging and entertaining influencer act out a fake scenario with indisputable success? If so, you might’ve been duped by the latest trending TikTok instead of focusing on your long-term financial goals.

Do This Instead: Keep Your Eye on the Prize and Add up to 300 Points to Your Credit Score

When it comes to your credit score, it’s important to stay organized and keep tabs on it. After all, it’ll play an essential role in any big purchase you want to make — whether that’s a home or a car.

So if you’re looking to get your credit score back on track — or even if it is on track and you want to bump it up — try using a free website called Credit Sesame.

Within two minutes, you’ll get access to your credit score, any debt-carrying accounts and a handful of personalized tips to improve your score. You’ll even be able to spot any errors holding you back (one in five reports have one).

James Cooper, of Atlanta, used Credit Sesame to raise his credit score nearly 300 points in six months.**** “They showed me the ins and outs — how to dot the I’s and cross the T’s,” he said.

Want to check for yourself? It’s free and only takes about 90 seconds to sign up.

Now What?

Keep a wary eye out for these dangerous tips on social media. Always check out a TikTok influencer’s credentials and background. And always do your own research before you take any financial action.

Good luck out there, and whatever you do, don’t put all your money on black.

*Not all stocks pay out dividends, and there is no guarantee that dividends will be paid each year.

**To note, SIPC coverage does not insure against the potential loss of market value.

For Securities priced over $1,000, purchase of fractional shares starts at $0.05.

***Like Cooper, 60% of Credit Sesame members see an increase in their credit score; 50% see at least a 10-point increase, and 20% see at least a 50-point increase after 180 days.

Credit Sesame does not guarantee any of these results, and some may even see a decrease in their credit score. Any score improvement is the result of many factors, including paying bills on time, keeping credit balances low, avoiding unnecessary inquiries, appropriate financial planning and developing better credit habits.