Me Gusta Mucho Dinero!

“Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work” – Thomas Edison

#BAM. Tell ’em Thomas! I’m pretty sure he’d approve of our Side Hustle Series, would you agree? Of which, btw, I’ll have a new one to share with y’all shortly – should be a juicy one!

Lots of interesting/fun/annoying stuff going down this week, so let’s dive right in… And as always, I threw in some new cool $$ companies I came across this week too, hope they help 🙂

In Money News…

• Maxed out my Roth IRA ($5,500) for 2014! Here’s where I came up with the money…
• Invested another $200 into Baby Nickel’s 529 account! Courtesy of a baptism gift from a family member. And one I’ll never hate receiving no matter how tacky society says it is! 😉 It’s going to last (and grow) a lot longer than some random “thing” over the next 18 years, I’ll tell you what…
• We saved/invested another $79.01 extra this week from the trusty Digit/Acorns combo
• Day care (which ends today – holy crap!) tried billing us an extra $200 on the way out… They made a mistake in their accounting which put the burden of proof on us to figure out (unless we wanted to take their word for it – hah!), and after two hours of pouring through our checks over the past two years, my wife finally found the smoking gun. Their accountant fat fingered an entry magically shorting our account by $200, jeesh… Another reason it always pays to keep documentation! (Or use a bank account that does it all for you – Thanks USAA! ;))
• Got a $382 dermatology bill 🙁 My wife needed a bump chopped off, and when my eyes popped wide open when I saw the cost of it, she quickly chimed in with, “at least it’s not $440 like I thought it would be!” To which I lovingly replied, “Well, yeah! At least it’s not $400 million too but it still sucks, jeez!!” Haha…. some people…
• We had to pay yet another graduation fee. This time $150 to I guess get the diploma? Between that and the $200+ we had to drop last week for her graduation gown (which she doesn’t even get to keep!!) we’re now at $350+. And just waiting to see what they throw by us next, jackals.

Money Question of The Week!

Every week I send out a fun Q to my VIP crew to learn more about their money, and this week we of course hovered around taxes. Being the week they were due and all, unless you filed for an extension. But if you forgot, don’t worry – apparently you weren’t alone 🙂 But stop reading this and go fix it!

Personally I don’t mind getting back $$$ because it forces you to stop and think, and then hopefully SAVE IT which most people won’t do throughout the year anyways. But I’m in the minority of the finance world here ‘cuz apparently it’s the worst thing in the world to “give the gov’t a loan” – *gasp*

If you want to join us in these riveting polls going forward, download the Reacht app here and then search “money” and you’ll find my group. I send one out usually only once a week, and it’ll pop up on your phone just like a text or call does – it’s pretty cool. Then you just hit a button to participate! We’re rocking 350+ people so far and would love to have you on board.

In Blogging News…

#1) J. Money goes world wide! I have no idea what this article says, but it totally inspired my post title today 😉 A new follower of the blog said it’s a popular Brazilian magazine which makes sense as to why it’s kinda sorta in Spanish but not – it’s Portuguese! So, acolher meus novos amigos! Obrigado por estar aqui! (gracias Google translate)

#2) Remember that “One-Page Financial Plan” book giveaway we did? Well, I keep forgetting to tell you who won (sorry), so here you! If your name is Samantha (commenter #57) or Mary (commenter #162), congrats! You’ll be receiving a free copy in the mail 🙂 And if you’re not any of these beautiful ladies, I still recommend picking up a copy at your local library or @ Amazon… It’s a good one.

#3) “Always ask yourself if you’d rather have that new item or a fist full of cash” – This was myshopping tip I contributed to a roundup this week. Some of the other bloggers dropped pretty good ones too: 11 Mind Tricks People Used Successfully to Stay Motivated and Get Out of Debt Faster.

#4) How I converted my blog to a mobile app –> WP-Touch. I’ve been getting a lot of questions as to how I made my new BudgetsAreSexy mobile app, now that Google will be prioritizing compatible sites in its mobile search engines, and all I really did was download the WP-Touch plugin and then customize the crap out of it. Anyone can install the free version which will make it compatible in a matter of seconds (if you’re using WordPress), but if you pay and upgrade you get a ton more options to pretty ‘er up. So that’s all I did! I’m not that talented!

#5) FinCon is coming, FinCon is coming!! Okay, well, in 5 months actually, but if you’re a financial blogger you know you better pick up tickets to our conference before the rates rise up more. That’s Saving Money 101 😉 If you’re wondering if you’ll get anything out of it, I can promise you that you will. Whether it’s meeting your fellow favorite bloggers, learning how to grow/build/make money off your blog, being inspired by the keynotes, or schmoozing with the 100+ companies that will try to woo your pants off, I guarantee you won’t be disappointed. Plus, hasn’t Charlotte NC been on your bucket-list for like ages? 😉

Companies That Came Across My Desk This Week…

It’s funny, once you start paying attention to all the financial products out there, it’s amazing how much more they start standing out 🙂 I only delete 90% of the press releases I get now – hah! These are the latest that caught my eye:

#1) Prism App (PrismApp.com)– This one’s actually pretty clever, and I’m surprised it hasn’t been done before? In a nutshell, “Prism puts all of your bills in one app that lets you review, manage and pay your bills for free – anytime, anywhere.” I feel like this can help a loooooot of people out there. Especially if your stuff is scattered all over the place. I asked the guy who reached out to me to pass me over more info to see if I should feature it here, and this is what he said:

So the app lets you add your bills from cable, phone, utilities, credit cards, etc. It connects with each of the providers’ online website and monitors your upcoming bills. If a new bill gets posted, you get notified immediately, and you can see everything that’s due all in one place; just like the screenshot below. When something is due you get a reminder, and you can use the app to pay. It takes one swipe of the finger to pay a bill! We don’t charge a fee because we don’t think it’s cool that you have to pay, in order to pay a bill. So far, the feedback has been awesome. People are loving the app. Instead of sitting down at your desk with a bunch of paper statements and going through each site, our customers get their bills done in a few seconds then move on with life! At peak (i.e. end of the month) we’ll sometimes pay $1M in bills just in one day!

#2) My Gallons (MyGallons.com): This one’s also another clever one! Especially as gas prices are so low right now! They pretty much give you a way to lock in today’s prices so you save a ton later when/if it goes back up (and we all know it’ll go back up and everyone will freak out again!). Here’s an example their PR person sent me:

“If a customer pre-purchases 100 gallons of fuel for $2.00 per gallon through MyGallons, and redeems 6 months later when gas prices have risen to $3.00 a gallon, the original purchase price of $2.00 per gallon would be refunded, plus the difference of $1.00 to reflect the price increase. The consumer wins by saving $1.00 per gallon at the pump.”

I don’t exactly get *how* they’re able to do this, but regardless it’s a damn good idea. You can check out their FAQs here and their fees (they do have fees!) here.

#3) Inbox Dollars (InboxDollars.com)– These guys win for the best logo of the week, haha… so cheesy it’s awesome!

I’ve heard about them over the years (they started in 2000), but never really clicked over until yesterday. They basically pay you to do surveys and games and other similar stuff online, and looks like they work with some pretty legit companies like Target and Walmart. If you’re one of these survey hustlers out there, it might be another great place to include in your rhythm 🙂 They also give new members $5 bucks when you sign up too.

This Week in “What’s the Deal, America?”

And Lastly, This:

(Hat tip to Johnny Moneyseed)

Hope this helped educate/entertain/make your work day go by faster! See ya back on Monday to discuss more fiscally sexy stuff… (ow ow)