If only 13% of Australians own crypto, are heaps more folks about to jump in? It’s about the same in the US. Bitcoin is just off all time highs after its epic retrace in May 2021. It’s probably time for the FOMO set in. If you’re a crypto beginner and looking for ways to get involved with crypto, you might have heard about the new crypto ETF. The first Bitcoin ETF launched in the US recently. Australia and Canada have followed suit.
However, before you jump on the bandwagon, there are some things to understand about this historic cross-over of traditional and crypto markets. In this article we will review the new Bitcoin ETF, who it might be good for, and 5 reasons any crypto newbie might think twice about investing.
What is an ETF?
An ETF is an Exchange Traded Fund, which basically means that it’s a fund listed on the stock exchange.
An ETF is an investment fund that (usually) owns the underlying assets (shares of stock, bonds, oil futures or gold bars) and divides ownership of those assets into shares. These can be traded on exchanges just like individual stocks.
This differs from buying shares in companies because instead of owning fractions of businesses, you are invested into funds containing lots and lots of companies within a particular investing theme.
As the crypto market has matured, many have called for the creation of a crypto ETF or a Bitcoin ETF.
Can you invest in a crypto ETF today?
The answer to that question depends what country you’re in!
If you are in the US, you can now invest in a Bitcoin Futures ETF – an ETF based on the Bitcoin Futures market.
In the last week, US regulators have approved the first US Bitcoin Futures ETFs: ProShares’ Bitcoin Strategy ETF (Ticker BITO).
Several other fund managers, including the VanEck Bitcoin Trust, Invesco, Valkyrie, Ark Invest and Galaxy Digital Funds, have also applied to launch Bitcoin ETFs in the United States but as yet these are not approved.
The ProShares Bitcoin ETF is a futures based ETF.
The are no Bitcoin or crypto ETFs (either Futures or Spot) approved for investment in Australia, but there are several in Canada and Europe.
The first Bitcoin ETF launches in the US today
Futures vs Spot Bitcoin ETF
Futures-based ETFs are different from spot market ETFs in that they track futures contracts rather than the spot price of an asset. A Bitcoin futures ETF follows Bitcoin futures contracts rather than the value of bitcoin itself. As a result, the ETF’s price will not correspond to the price of bitcoin.
A futures ETF is a ‘synthetic ETF’ because it’s based on financial derivatives (futures contracts) traded at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME). The fund BITO doesn’t buy and sell any Bitcoin and you don’t actually own any Bitcoin by buying into fund!
A spot Bitcoin ETF is in the works. Word is that trust fund manager Grayscale will soon apply to regulators to have their Grayscale Bitcoin Trust fund changed to a Bitcoin ETF.
What is the difference between a Bitcoin ETF and a crypto ETF?
A Bitcoin ETF will follow the Bitcoin spot price or futures contracts. It doesn’t cover other cryptocurrencies. It’s movement up or down relates only to Bitcoin’s movement.
A crypto ETF will track a broader basket of cryptocurrencies. It’s movement / price is weighted to the fund’s allocation of this basket cryptocurrencies. It make sense that the first crypto ETFs are likely to track a basket of large cap coins or more established crypto themes, like Decentralised Finance coins or Layer 1 protocols. Although there seems to be growing support for an Ethereum ETF to launch next.
Why you may be tempted to buy shares in a crypto ETF
Exposure to a new asset class
Crypto ETFs are new. Hell, mostly they still don’t even exist. But they’re coming, and large investment houses will undoubtedly be successful selling these funds to their clients as a new ‘must have’ asset class in their portfolio. They will espouse a bunch of benefits about an ETF being less risky, easier to buy and out of, more passive – all appealing traits for new crypto investors. Will you be convinced? Let’s look at these.
Diversification
If you buy into a crypto ETF that holds a basket of cryptocurrencies, then on the surface at least your portfolio is more diversified than owning one coin and you minimise risk. How? Your investing eggs aren’t all in one basket. Also, a basket of crypto may slightly dampen the market volatility of exposure to a single coin. That said, large cap crypto and crypto asset classes can move together and move wildly, so you’re not avoiding volatility altogether.
Easy to buy and sell
Investors who want exposure to cryptocurrency without actually holding any will find it easier to purchase via an ETF than going out and buying Bitcoin directly. This makes crypto ETFs accessible to traditional investors that don’t want to go through the learning process of setting up their own crypto wallet and navigating the on and off ramps into the crypto ecosystem.
For example, you can buy shares in an ETF through a regular stock broker or on an easy to use stock app straight from your mobile. To get crypto is a bit more involved and there’s a learning curve.
If you really don’t want to take the plunge buying into a crypto ETF could help avoid some of these risks – like human error in navigating the block chain. Any ETF fund manager will also do the due diligence for you. They vet the coins in the basket, so your risk of things like project failure (when the coin goes to zero) and rug pulls are theoretically less. You also don’t need to think about coin custody and cyber hacks because you won’t actually ever own any cryptocurrency.
A crypto ETF is good for crypto (but is it good for you?)
A crypto ETF is expected to bring more money into the crypto asset ecosystem. Mainstream investors may see it as opening up the possibility of large gains to traditional stock market investors. A common view is crypto ETFs will bring new money, new investors and greater legitimacy into the crypto ecosystem.
This is good for crypto hodlers like us because demand for crypto assets that we own will increase.
The price of Bitcoin has already pumped more than 10% on the news of the Proshares Bitcoin Futures ETF and the ETF will not even hold any Bitcoin!
But in the end, a crypto ETF is a traditional financial instrument. That means middlemen taking their fat fees and others controlling your money. Ask yourself, is buying into a crypto ETF a good way to start your crypto investing?
Here’s 5 reasons we don’t think so..
5 reasons to think twice about buying a crypto ETF
1. You’ll pay more
There are additional fees associated with using a fund set up by institutional investors. Instead of paying more of you hard earned fiat, you can buy crypto directly and pay less for the opportunity.
2. Wall Street gets richer
ETFs involve middlemen who clip the ticket on your investment. If you’re cool fattening their pockets, then go you. But if you know about the idea behind crypto and believe in its human good, then making Wall Street richer should grate on you.
Crypto is about decentralised system of finance where opportunity isn’t controlled by Wall Street and everyone invests from a level playing field.
3. You miss out on DeFi opportunities
Owning cryptocurrency can open up the opportunity for gains other than to the underlying asset price movement. For example, holding a crypto asset might qualify you for an ‘Airdrop’ in which you’re gifted another asset by the same crypto project (for free). We’ve received many an Airdrop that has turned into sweet profits in the past. You won’t get this owning shares in an ETF.
DeFi is also an opportunity to compound any crypto investment gains. You can own a crypto, be exposed to its market price and also earn passive income from lending that crypto or staking it in a DeFi protocol. An ETF only exposes you to the price gains or losses of the underlying crypto asset.
4. Double the market risk?
ETFs are part of the stock market (fiat currency based). Irrespective the asset an ETF covers, it may be influenced by overall stock market movements and sentiment. On top of this, a crypto ETF may be influenced by crypto market movements and sentiment.
5. It’s not the future
You don’t need to learn anything new to buy a crypto ETF. This may seem like a benefit, but is it in the long term? We would argue that with digital assets and blockchain tech growing exponentially, the sooner you learn about how to use blockchain technology and transact cryptocurrency assets, the better off you’ll be in the long term.
Conclusion – invest in yourself not Proshares
None of this is financial advice peeps, be we think crypto is here to stay. Digital assets are a growing asset class and a part of our asset portfolio. The opportunities you open up from understanding the crypto ecosystem right now can be asymmetrical.
But that won’t always be.
It’s up to you. You can invest in a crypto ETF and you might get some nice gains. Or you can invest in yourself, learn crypto and use it like we have to get to financial freedom.
If you want to join the digital asset revolution and just by crypto instead, check out our starter guide to the right of screen. It’s free and it will help you buy your first crypto safely in 6 easy steps. It even has links to everything you need on the internet. -> -> ->
If you want to escape the office and be your own boss you we know of a great income option that can be as big as you make it: manage Airbnb properties for other people. In this post, we’re going to answer the biggest questions for wanna be Airbnb managers and co-hosts. We’re Superhosts who manage our own and other people’s Airbnb properties.. So we know a thing or too about what you’re in for and this guide comes from the heart! Here’s what our article will cover:
Contents
Can you manage and Airbnb for someone else?
How does it work?
A gap in the market for good Airbnb managers
Different business models to manage Airbnb properties
How do Airbnb property managers get paid?
Do you need a real estate license to manage and Airbnb?
How much work is it to manage an Airbnb?
Do you need money to get started?
How much can you earn?
4 steps to start managing Airbnb properties for other people
Conclusion
Can you manage an Airbnb for someone else?
Yes. You definitely can manage an Airbnb for someone else. We would go so far as to say there are tonnes of Airbnb owners out there looking for reliable people to manage their Airbnb properties! We’ve been in those exact shoes.
The best thing about it? There’s loads of different ways to set it up to suit the services you offer and the needs of local Airbnb owners. Some that don’t require you to obtain a real estate license.!
How does it work?
It all starts with Airbnb owner wanting someone to manage their Airbnb property on their behalf. The types of tasks Airbnb owners often need help with include:
Existing Airbnb listings:
managing the listing on Airbnb, including bookings, the calendar and nightly rates
guest communications and resolving guest issues with Airbnb
managing or doing the cleaning and laundry
keeping inventory inside the Airbnb
managing property maintenance and upgrades
any social media (mostly on vacation rentals)
New Airbnb listings:
styling and set up for the Airbnb – sourcing furniture, linen, decor and other supplies and setting up the home within a budget
listing the property on Airbnb – setting up the account, guest communications, professional photography, payment methods etc
Airbnb management services
These tasks listed above are the types of services you would target when you manage Airbnb properties for others.
Airbnb owners may want all or just some of these services. For example ,some Airbnb owners may just want Operations Managers. Operations Managers typically cover cleaning, maintenance, inventory and any on site services. The owner may be happy to manage the listing and guest communications themselves.
What this means is that there is loads of flexibility in how you operate and what you do when you set up a business to manage Airbnb properties for other people.
Once you find a service offering that you’re good at and works for your market, stick to it!
A gap in the market for good Airbnb managers
Professional Airbnb management companies are expensive. Any Airbnb owner that engages a professional management company will likely lose a hefty part of their Airbnb profits. Management companies start from 20% (of total Airbnb revenue before costs – eek!) and go as high as 50% ‘depending on what services are involved’.
Airbnb management companies are also still rare. While Airbnb’s are everywhere around the globe, professional Airbnb management companies are not. In our experience, they operate on a volume based model, which means they are located in and focussed on large cities with lots of Airbnbs.
If you’re not located in a large city, there may be a gap in the market for you. Huzzah!
Don’t fear city dwellers, there’s still plenty of room in the market depending on your chosen business model and value proposition.
Different business models to manage Airbnb properties
From professional Property Managers to Airbnb Co-hosts
Professional Property Managers (usually incorporated businesses) manage both the Airbnb listing and the operations for the Airbnb owner. To do this, they list the Airbnb property under their name or brand. The owner simply sits back and receives their Airbnb income and performance reporting.
This is the model with the highest fee structure as the Airbnb manager has all of the responsibilities listed above and more. It is also the model that is likely to trigger real estate license requirements and public liability insurance requirements in many states, both in Australia and in the US. There’s more details on this below.
By all means, if you’re looking to build an Airbnb property management empire in your local market, then go for it! Get licensed, insured and off you go!
However, the good news is there are also other models to manage Airbnb properties for others, where licensing is not necessary.
For example, you can co-host an Airbnb with another person (the owner) and still provide services and get paid, without having to receive the rental income.
What is an Airbnb Co-host?
An Airbnb Cohost is a secondary host role on the Airbnb platform. A cohost helps the Airbnb owner manage their listing. Cohosts can be added to a listing by the Airbnb owner.
Airbnbrestricts the activitiesthat Co-hosts can perform on the platform. Generally you can’t access the owner‘s payout or tax information. But you have access to almost everything else about the listing, enabling you to provide co-host services.
How do Airbnb property managers get paid?
Percentage fees
This is where you’re paid a percentage of the total Airbnb revenue (usually after Airbnb fees). The percentage is up to you and the Airbnb owner, but industry practice is to start at around 10%.
Remember, that’s just the management fee and it does not cover actual operating expenses! You can see in the equation below where these are deducted.
This payment method works best when you are managing all parts of the listing, including revenue, on behalf of the owner as you get to see all income and expenses. You simply take your negotiated fee from gross earnings (ex Airbnb fees). It’s easier to work this out AFTER Airbnb fees are deducted because of the way the platform reports income. Here’s an example of what it might look like.
Airbnb management fees = (total monthly Airbnb income – Airbnb fees) x 10%
Airbnb owner profit = total monthly Airbnb income – Airbnb fees – Airbnb management fees – operating expenses
You don’t have to calculate your fees this way – it really depends on what you and the Airbnb owner negotiate. You may take a percentage of Airbnb owner net profit, instead of total revenue (minus Airbnb fees).
By guest turnover
This is when you are paid by the Airbnb Owner (via bank transfer) in the form of a fixed fee per guest stay at the Airbnb. You negotiate what is included for this fixed rate.
This kind of payment method suits Airbnb Operations Managers. But make sure to be clear on what is included and what is not. For example, cleaning, laundry, gardening and basic maintenance. Any repairs, replacements etc would typically not be included in the fixed fee. They would be paid separately by the owner, although you might be responsible for organising them.
Because there can be extra duties outside of guest turnovers that sometimes need to be taken care of, it can be a good idea to agree an hourly rate to perform these one off tasks.
Hourly
You’re paid a simple hourly rate and are on call to manage the Airbnb as needed. This may include cleaning, laundry, guest check in, maintenance, gardening and the list goes on.
If you head own this path, our advice is to negotiate an ‘after hours’ rate. Airbnb management can involve night time call outs when things go wrong – like the guest can’t operate the fold out bed or misplaces the door key.
Do you need a real estate license to manage an Airbnb?
Not necessarily. It really depends on what you do as an Airbnb manager.
In Australia, if you’re receiving rental income on behalf of someone (whether short or long term), you need to have it paid into a trust account. To open a trust account for this purpose you need a real estate licence.
In the US, states vary on their real estate licensing requirements for Airbnb.
It’s really a state-by-state requirement in both Australia and the US.
The good news is, you can avoid this requirement by avoiding managing the Airbnb revenue.
How much work is it to manage an Airbnb?
It’s entirely up to you, based on your business model.
If all you are doing is outsourcing work to cleaners, handymen and linen providers for your 10% management fee then it’s not a difficult gig. You’re mostly coordinating guest turn-overs, managing guest communications (and these can be automated now on Airbnb systems) and managing inventory, quality and disputes.
The skills you need are things like coordinating, communicating staying organised and problem solving.
If you’re doing the cleaning, laundry, maintenance, and gardening yourself then it is a lot of work so make sure you negotiate fair payment for it.
Do you need money to get started?
Not necessarily. There’s no or minimal start up capital needed if you’re already an experienced Airbnb host and you’re managing outsourced activities.
You may spend $50 on AirDNA data to determine your business model and fees. If you want to advertise on Cohost Market (seed down below) you might need another $50.
You will need a car, and may need to be co-located with the Airbnb listings that you are managing. That said, remote Airbnb co-hosting is a thing. Stay tuned as we explore this in a future post!
If you’re new to Airbnb, we absolutely recommend you learn the business before starting to market yourself as a co-host. Invest in your Airbnb education like we did. Your new business and income will thank you for it!
How much can you earn?
How long is a piece of string? If you’re asking whether you can earn a full time income managing Airbnb properties for others, then the answer is definitely yes.
The amount you earn per listing, per month depends on:
Everything in our guide above.
The property itself. Luxury properties, unique properties and well-booked properties are clearly your target market. The better the listing performs, the more you earn. To earn the big bucks, you need to be able to spot a great listing, or make a good one even better!
How many properties you manage. As we mentioned previously, there are tonnes of new automation tools and platforms that have sprung up around Airbnb. Many are designed to automate the tasks of property management. This means you can build a really, really good income stream managing multiple properties with automation in place.
You can even build your own Airbnb management empire!
4 steps to start managing Airbnb properties for other people
1. Learn the Airbnb business
We can’t emphasise this enough. Airbnb is a competitive market. To successfully managing other people’s listings you need to know how to:
find Airbnb owners to work with
nail your elevator pitch about why they need you to manage their property
showcase the Airbnb listing
optimise for the Airbnb algorithm
get bookings and manage nightly rates and calendars
maximise revenue
manage guest demands and needs
resolve disputes
comply with Airbnb’s many rules and policies (or risk having your account shut down).
If you’re marketing yourself as a Airbnb manager and learning these on the fly, you will be out competed. Full stop.
Revenue will suffer and so will your income.
You certainly won’t get a look in on the type of properties that we mention above and that will earn you the highest income as a co-host or property manager.
Invest in yourself – we did!
If you’re serious about building a real income from Airbnb then our advice is to invest in yourself. We did, and it has paid off big time. We live on our Airbnb income and it’s allowed us to quit the rat race. We can be our own bosses and we automate a lot of the tasks we do.
Bnb Formulais our recommended course to learn how to successfully manage multiple Airbnb properties. Check out the incredible value that is included in this online course and register – right here!
Remember, you’re only as successful as the listings you manage!
2. Decide what services you will offer and your fee structure
You need to write down your business model and work out your minimum fee, whether it be fixed or variable (percentage). We wouldn’t suggest opening your negotiations with your minimum rate of course, but don’t undercut it either!
You might also benefit from a one month subscription to the AirDNA analytics tool. Here you can find real data and actual earnings of real listings in your area. You can also see the nightly prices and occupancy rates of these listings. With this information, you will be able to determine your fees and the types of properties you should target. It’ll cost you less than $50 for this invaluable data.
3. Pull together your Airbnb management team (if you’re outsourcing tasks)
In some cases, an Airbnb owner may already have service providers that they use for their listing. You can inherit these if you take on management. In that case, you won’t need this step.
Alternatively, you may want to pull together a core group of reliable people around you to perform the tasks of cleaning, laundry, maintenance, gardening and repairs. Your Airbnb management team should include these people:
cleaner (who does linen and inventory preferably)
gardener (for stand alone homes only)
carpenter (for broken furniture, doors, etc)
plumber
electrician
As part of this, you’ll be negotiating rates for each service. You’ll either incorporate them into your business model or clear them with the Airbnb owner. Just note that cleaning and laundry is listed separately on Airbnb and paid for by the guest directly, so rates can be market driven.
4. Market your services
Here’s where the Bnb Formula training will first come in handy. The training teaches you were to find Airbnb owners, or potential Airbnb owners. It also teaches you how to pitch to them. We’ve done these pitches successfully and the training actually works. Without it, we would have struggled to bring owners and their properties on board.
Where to advertise
Other places to list your services as an Airbnb Co-host or manager are:
Fiverr – Fiverr is a freelancer website with global and local reach. It’s popular in the US and growing in Australia.
Airtasker – in Australia you’ll find people advertising their Airbnb services on Airtasker. It’s where we went to try and find help managing our Airbnbs.
Upwork – this is an other freelance online marketplace where people go to find help with their Airbnb properties.
Airbnb Facebook groups – there are heaps of these but be careful about the group rules and any self promotion as you enter.
Cohost market – primarily in the US, UK and Canada this is a platform where you can register as a Co-host of property manager for a small annual fee of less than US$50. In return you get to market your services and search job listings specific to the Airbnb sector.
Conclusion
You can make a legitimately great income, be your own boss and quit the rat race. Just manage Airbnb properties for other people. You don’t need a license and you can build a service offering to suit your local market. In this article, we’ve provided tips about different business models, how much you can earn, and 4 steps to get started today.
It’s been 2 months now since we moved into our humble home in rural Tasmania and began our adventures in off-grid living.
Time for another update to our financial freedom journey!
What a busy period, with lots of adjustments – work, lifestyle, home life, finances, remote business running – just about everything really. 🙂
Unpacking into our new life
Before the dreaded unpacking, we camped in our little cottage for two weeks while the floors were re-done. I wouldn’t recommend it, but the floors look great.
We also had a wood heater installed, which makes for a cosy winter night with a glass of red or a tasty craft beer. The first night we ran the heater I worried we might burn the house down while we slept (we’re Queenslanders after all!). Now we’re chopping wood like maniacs and drinking more red wine than ever. Something about those flickering flames… 🙂
Before and after new floating Tassie oak flooring and our gorgeous and entirely necessary wood heater
Cheap and cheerful $100 DIY reno
We love a DIY reno and also completed a cheap and cheerful do-over of the once ghastly pink study.
To make the standing desk for two, we bought $45 worth of timber and hinges and built two trestle legs. We then repurposed a beautiful, heavy timber barn door from the kitchen into a gigantic desktop. Add some crisp white paint to the walls and ceiling and voila! The room is perfect, with a picture window so pretty it’s a dangerous distraction from blogging.
The study is where I work when it’s raining out, which it almost always is in Tasmania!
The new study with picturesque views over the back fence of wild Tasmania
We’ve had to pinch ourselves a lot in these last two months. We feel like we’ve stumbled into a huge slice of luck to be living here. But then, I’m a firm believer that luck is the meeting of preparation and opportunity. And our financial freedom was a journey we started 8 years ago…
We’ve met our curious cow neighbours and our thin Queensland blood has proudly survived the winter frost and a late spring snow.
Winter frost-scape from the back yard
My outside standing desk
A catch up with the neighbours over the side fence
Urban life to off-grid living – what has the transition been like?
One welcome adjustments and part of our financial freedom plan has been our move to off-grid living.
I confess, we’re not entirely off grid. We do have power lines. But we are off-grid for our water, waste water, septic, rubbish and 80% of our heating. For these life-time urban dwellers, it’s been a fun and a learning experience. So what exactly do we do differently now?
We manage our own water supply
Our water doesn’t just turn up at the tap as it does with urban living. It’s on us to make sure we have enough water and that it’s sufficiently clean to use and drink. We run two water pumps and two ‘pump and gravity fed’ rainwater tanks. The water is not clean enough for our liking so we have ordered a whole-house water filter to be installed before the main pump to clean up the water supply to the house. We double filter our drinking water through a Dolton tier one drinking water filter inside this cute and custom pot-belly pottery urn.
In return for our efforts, our variable water cost is zero. Our infrastructure costs are sunk and contained (no water utility to put up the fixed cost component of the water bill). And we don’t complain about the rain.. 🙂
We heat our home ourselves
We had 5m3 of dry timber delivered just after the wood heater was installed. Wow. That ended up being a lot of timber! We were stacking it for days inside our shed. Two months in, we’ve used about 1/4 of our timber supply. At $120/m3 delivered plus fire starters, we’re paying $90 per month for whole of house heating.
We live with less waste, more sustainably
Here’s a revelation for you. There’s no curb-side rubbish collection in the middle of rural nowhere. Who’d have thought.
This means that we have to take our rubbish for a drive to the transfer station each week. As we are putting it in the car, we find we are way more careful about what goes into our bins. We compost our kitchen waste. We recycle everything, especially paper and cardboard into our heating supplies. We live more consciously about our waste, and more sustainably because of it.
The same concept applies to our septic and grey water. We don’t use toxic chemicals down the loo, the sink or for cleaning. This keeps our septic system healthy and respects the surrounding farmland where our grey water filters.
We are rewarded for doing these things with much lower Council rates and a satisfying sense of living more lightly on the land.
We’re more self reliant
The transition to running our own systems hasn’t been hard. There’s no noticeable difference in the quality of the essential services that we now provide ourselves. But we do feel more self reliant and prepared for any future.
And that was a big part of our ‘Plan B’; a plan to rely less on centralised systems for our own well being.
Our next step off the grid will be uninterrupted power supply, and to build a growing tunnel for home-raised fruit and veg. So much to do and learn, this retiring from a wage earner job thing sure is hella busy! 🙂
That’s all great Tara, but now show me the money, right!
Net worth
Our net worth has grown by just under $55k in the September quarter, mostly due to cryptocurrency and some superannuation gains. We also added a new ‘digital assets’ category to our portfolio. This covers off the websites and domains we own. Property still makes up the largest share of our personal wealth. We also continue to hold more cash than our emergency fund rules require as we didn’t make large investments during the quarter.
Debt position
Our good debt position hasn’t changed as we have interest only loans on our investment properties. Bad debt remains at under $10,000. We funded our move in cottage renovations with cash that we had put away because the home cost less than we had budgeted. Oh, and some sweat equity!
September quarter income
Our Airbnb income this quarter was down on expectations thanks to two weeks of lock-downs in August. We’re not complaining because we know pandemic lock downs have driven many tourism businesses to the wall.
To manage this risk ongoing, we’ve been building up a business emergency fund for our Property Management business. It’s a strategy we’re using for peace of mind that we can ride through the uncertainties of living with a pandemic. We didn’t have to draw down on that fund in August, which we are grateful for.
Our expenses
If you’re wondering how expenses might change with your financial freedom, here’s what ours now look like. We live on around $3000 per month – less than half of what we lived on in Brisbane! With lower living costs, our money goes further. This geo-arbitrage strategy has helped bring forward our financial freedom date by years. It should definitely be on your radar if you’re open to it.
Not counted in our living costs is the capital we put into setting up our cottage – $36,000 from savings. This included:
new floors throughout
wood heater supply and install
NBN wireless connection and phone signal booster antenna
DIY study renovation
a new doorway to bring the stunning mountain views into the loungeroom,
some new large appliances and yard equipment
additional kitchen cabinetry
water filter systems
Snake mesh fencing – which we’ve half installed
Ikea shelving for the study
new blinds, which have yet to arrive.
Savvy spenders, not frugalistas
Our largest expense by far this quarter was food. We’ve spent more than usual to stock up our fridge and deep freezer. Rent comes in second but it’s all from July, before we had our new home. Happily, we’re no longer paying rent.
While we’re living on about $750 per we, we’re not practicing frugality. We still go out and eat out every weekend. We’ve been on a weekend trip to Launceston and a couple of day trips. It’s just that, where we live means we don’t ‘incidentally’ spend money on things like Uber, take out and coffees. It’s much easier not to consume blindly when the shops are a 35 minute drive away… This too has been intentional.
Our savings rate
Because our income was down this quarter, our savings rate also dipped from July’s 75%.
We still managed a healthy 52%. You can check out how much you need to be saving to win your own financial freedomright here.
Our investments
In July, we said out next investment would be a rooftop solar system, which we expected to give us a return of around 20% each year. We haven’t had solar installed because it rains a lot in Tasmania. We still intend to go solar and hope we can get it installed over summer and take another big step in our off-grid living adventure.
In September we did invest some fiat currency we had sitting on the sidelines into three Layer 1 crypto projects. These investments are already paying off.
We also made a small investment during the quarter into a US based innovation ETF with a very savvy fund manager. We’ll reveal all in a post at some stage. But first, back to the off-grid living thing – there’s wood to be chopped!
Investing in stocks is a great way to grow your money. It can seem like a daunting task for the uninitiated. There are a lot of stock apps to from your mobile, but some are better than others. It’s not easy to figure out where to start, who to trust, and how much money you need when starting from scratch. If you’re just starting out, you want an app that’s easy to set up and sign in. You also need to figure out who has the lowest fees and commissions and the best access to markets. That’s why we have put together this list of the best stock apps available in the USA and Australia based on App Store and Google Play reviews. These apps can help make investing in stocks and building wealth a lot easier and you can do it on the go!
Content
In this post, we’re going to cover everything you need to know to use stocks apps for investing on the go:
We’re bringing wealth building straight to your mobile phone, so it’s even easier to get on that road to financial freedom!
What are stock apps?
Stock apps are apps that allow you to buy and sell stocks and invest in different financial products, directly from your phone. You can use these apps on Android or iPhone. There are two categories of stock apps each with their own benefits and trade offs:
Bank and broker stock apps
Fintech stock apps
We’ll go into the pros and cons of each of these below.
What should you look for in a good stock app?
The good news is there is a lot of competition to win your custom and that’s great for you as an investor. It means you should expect more from your stock app than just trading stocks. It can also mean decision fatigue when you’re getting started because there are so many apps to choose from! Don’t worry, we know your time is precious and we’ve go you covered!
A great stock app will have these features:
high levels of trust and authority
easy to set up and use
low commission and fees
Good research and market access
Responsive customer support
investment portfolio ‘bells and whistles’ to help manage your money
Some apps even offer rewards and incentives to invest and use the app!
Let’s look at each of these features in turn.
Trust and authority
Trust and authority comes from the legitimacy of an app, its history and user base. It’s easier to trust apps from companies that are regulated and licensed where required.
Trust and authority also comes from the company longevity and whether it has built a strong, satisfied and growing user base. If an app has all of these things, we would put our trust into the company and our money into the app.
Easy set up and use
Gone are the days where it takes two weeks and a mountain of paperwork to set up a brokerage account! Fintech has upped the game here. It should be easy to set up your account. In some cases – like with Stake app – you’ll be able to do it in minutes. The app should also be intuitive to use and simple to navigate. The apps on this list are clean, simple and even fun to interact with.
Low commissions and fees
There’s loads of competition in this space, which lets us really nail down the best of the best. It’s not a matter of find the lowest commission and fees per se. It’s more about whether you’re getting value for your commission and fees. There are zero brokerage apps in our list. But it’s ok to pay brokerage if you need good research and analysis to inform your investing decisions and the app provides that. We just don’t want you to pay high fees and get little value in return.
Just remember, companies have to make money so do expect some fees always. If you can’t find them, be suspicious! In the US there are also regulator fees for securities transactions to consider.
Research and market access
You should expect your stock app to provide access to investment news at a minimum. If you’re paying more in brokerage, the app should provide access to research reports and company performance metrics.
Market access is about the diversity of investment opportunities in the app. It should cover plenty of different stocks and provide choice of investment. This might be through the markets you can access or the range of portfolio options and companies covered within them.
Responsive customer support
This is a biggie if something goes wrong. You need to be able to trust the company and get in touch with a human sometimes. This one factor has made us really pair back our list. The fact is, some of the really big Fintech stock apps out there have terrible customer service. You can see it reflected in frustrated App Store reviews and when you do a Google search on the app. We’ve stayed away from those apps and so should you.
Investing bells and whistles
These apps will often market on added extras for investors. Feature’s like automated investing, fractional investing, retirement fund investing, tax optimization and so on.
Off all of these services, we like fractional investing the most. This means you can buy a slice of some of the best companies (and most expensive stocks) around without having to have enough money to buy 1 whole share. It opens wealth building up to everyone, even if you’re starting with just a little, and we love it!
Incentives and rewards
You might find incentives to sign up with a stock app, like a free stock or a small dollar value amount towards your first stock buy. Cashback rewards for credit card purchases is another popular in-app reward. Some stock apps also have referral programs that pay you in stock or money when a friend you refer signs up an account and buys their first stock.
Choosing the right stock app – bank or fintech?
As we said at the beginning, there are two types of stock apps – bank stock apps and Fintech stock apps. Each type offers trade offs against the other, so you need to make sure you start with picking which type you prefer based on what you value This will make selecting the app easier.
Bank and broker stock apps
These are stock apps developed by existing banking and brokerage services that allow you to invest in stocks from your mobile. The names of these apps may be familiar to you. For example if you are in the US there is xxx. If you are in Australia, there is the Commsec Mobile app, which is an offshoot of the Commonwealth Bank.
The pros
High trust and authority.
Bank stock apps generally rate very highly for trust and authority. Especially if the app is from the investment arm of a big bank or broker (Like Wells Fargo or JP Morgan). They’re from institutions that have been around forever, are regulated and licensed, and have government consumer protections in place. They’re a known quantity, and you’re used to dealing with them!
Research and analysis.
Because they’re spin offs of existing financial institutions with big pockets, these apps can feature great research, analysis and company performance metrics to inform your investing.
Links to bank accounts. The benefit of bank stock apps is that they link pretty seamlessly with existing bank accounts if you’re a customer of the bank already.
The cons
Paperwork and process
On the cons, big banks mean big bureaucracy and this extends to their stock apps in a few ways.
Firstly, bank stock apps are from big bricks and mortar banks that have existing overheads to cover, so they’re not cheap to use. Fees and commissions are higher per trade as these institutions have focussed on large net worth customers. If you’re starting out with small amounts, you’ll be paying high fees.
It also takes time (days!) to apply for an account to trade from with apps. In addition, the paperwork is often done by snail mail and needs to be ‘processed’. More time. I recently applied for a Commsec international trading account. It takes Commsec 7 days to process your application and send you tax forms, which you then return by post. It’s another 5 business days from there to activate your account.
Transactions are also pretty slow with these apps – it takes 2 or 3 days for your money to settle for example.
No in app rewards or incentives
Bank’s just aren’t used to doing this!
Fintech stock apps
Fintechs are companies that operate in the finance and technology space. Usually, using better technology to bring users new and innovating financial products and services. Some of the big name Fintech’s have built their brand on financial services apps.
The pros
Low or no commission.
A lot of these apps have targeted their app products to lower net worth and younger investors. As a result, they often provide a platform for people looking to invest money into the market with minimum start up capital. To do so they have to offer low per trade brokerage commissions. They do have fees though – they have to make their money some how!
Digital wallet capabilities.
Many Fintech stock apps are actually all in one personal finance apps that offer both banking and investing. You can get bank cards with some apps, linking your investing and banking all in one place.
Access to cryptocurrency.
These apps are more likely to let you trade both stocks and cryptocurrency, if that’s what you’re after. A word of warning however, the crypto supported will be limited and the fees on transactions are not the best you can find. If you want to invest in crypto, we suggest you do it with a crypto mobile wallet.
Banks are not into crypto so you won’t find this service with them.
Rewards and incentives.
Fintech companies often offer in-app incentives, rewards and referral programs to grow their business. They’ve perfected the gamification of investing because their targeted audience is younger. We think this is a fun feature, and if it gets your to invest more in great assets then we’re big supporters!
The cons
Trust and authority score is lower than the big banks.
Some apps come with a warning in the App store that investments are “not FDIC insured, are not bank guaranteed and may lose value.”
The FDIC is the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. Being FDIC-insured means that up to $250,000 of your money is protected in the event of a company failure. The FDIC covers the traditional types of bank deposit accounts – including checking and savings accounts, money market deposit accounts (MMDAs), and certificates of deposit (CDs). Investment products that are not deposits, such as mutual funds, annuities, life insurance policies and stocks and bonds are not covered by FDIC deposit insurance.
You can find out more about FDIC insurance here. Or use their look up tool to find out whether a company is covered or not.
If the company does not have FIDC insurance it should at least offer SIPC insurance. SIPC is the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC), a non-profit organization dedicated to protecting customer assets. SIPC insurance protects you up to $500,000 or $250,000 in cash if the company goes bankrupt.
Of course, if you lose money on a bad investment, you’re not covered by any insurance!
Customer support can be dismal.
Customer support with Fintech stock apps can be hard to nail down. Dealing with customer support in a big bank can be a pain in the proverbial but at least they have this service. If anything goes wrong with a Fintech app, you may have a bit of battle on your hands to fix it.
How to vet a stock app before investing your dough
We are writing this post because we don’t just want you to put your dough anywhere. It’s important that your money is safe! Here’s how to go about vettingn a stock app before you hit download:
Check for FDIC insurance or SIPC insurance. Look for a statement in their app description in the App Store or on Google Play. Then double check this with SIPC or FDIC look up.
Do a similar check to see if they are regulated by FINRA. Or in Australia, by ASIC (the Australian Securities and Investments Commission).
Google the name of the app and see what people are searching on. If it’s all about how to contact their customer support or solve some other problem – red flag!
Read their website to know exactly what fees you’re up for. They have to make their money somehow! Fintech apps often have a different business model than banks which means they don’t make their money from you in brokerage fees. It can be more difficult to track down what fees they do charge. Look for their FAQs and financial services guide on their website!
Check out the reviews on Google Play or the App store. Read them, especially the most recent ones.
Top stock apps on reviews
Top 3 stock apps – USA
Public
Public is a social investing app with more than 1 million downloads that’s also brokerage firm. It’s a straight forward stock investing app without lots of bells and whistles but with a social twist.
Because they are a brokerage, Public is regulated by FINRA and also carry SIPC insurance.
Features
Welcome to social investing!
Social investing means you can see what others are investing in and learn about stocks that way. You can also set up investing chat groups or join them in the app. You can follow investors and companies, so that information about them will come up in your feed to inform your investing decisions.
Public is straight forward and transparent investing, which means it doesn’t have the retirement accounts and other bells and whistles of some apps on this list. Public does give referral rewards however! As an incentive to refer friends, you can get a free stock worth up to $70. T&Cs apply – your friend has to make a deposit into their account first. You get to pick from 1 of 9 different stocks and a portion of that stock is then randomly picked deposited to your account.
Fees
So what about their fees? Firstly, unlike Acorns or Stash there are no subscription fees. This means you can start with really small amounts and invest and hold for the long term and you won’t pay proportionately high fees.
Public doesn’t make money through Payment for Order Flow (PFOF), which is where a brokerage firm receives rebates on trades routed through its clearing house. Its view is that this type of fee structure does not align its interests as broker with the interests of its customers. We commend this, and it’s one of the reasons they make our top five list. Instead Public makes money from:
tips (yes you can tip them optionally if you love the app!)
0.2% on uninvested cash balances in the app.
when their clearing house lends shares to other investors and institutions. This doesn’t impact your trades however.
Betterment
Betterment has built their app around cash management, guided investment and retirement planning. They excel in automated and ‘hands off’ investment products. If you want a ‘set and forget’ service without the hassle of stock picking yourself, then check them out. To achieve this, they create a portfoilo of investments for you that are primarily based on ETFs. You set a money goal when you sign up, and Betterment customises a portfolio for you based on your time horizon and risk tolerance. You answer a few questions about yourself up front for them to do this.
Betterment is a member of the SIPC providing you with SIPC insurance protection. Their Cash Reserve Account and Checking Accounts are also FIDC insured and protected.
Features
If you hate paying tax, you’ll love Betterment. The app stands out for its automated tax tools, which help you avoid paying unnecessary taxes. They manage tax outcomes in your portfolio across all included legal accounts, using your dividends and withdrawals to improve asset location (the type of account your money is held in). They invest assets that they believe will be taxed at a higher rate in your tax-advantaged accounts (IRAs and 401(k)). They maintain assets in your taxable account that they expect to be taxed at lower rates. They also rebalance when they see chances to do so without incurring taxes.
Alongside your investment options, Betterment offers banking with rewards. With Betterment, when you spend from your Checking account or using their Debit Card, you get cashback rewards on some big name brands – like 5% cash back from Adidas and 2% from Walmart. They also reimburse ATM fees and foreign transaction fees worldwide and have completely cut out overdraft fees and minimum balances for their Checking accounts.
Fees
Betterment fees are straight forward – 0.25% of assets under management. They also make money through their Premium Plan which charges 0.4% in fees. Their advice packages another source of revenue. They also make money from merchants when you use their Visa Debit Card.
We love their transparent and simplicity – and the app is super easy to use as well.
Webull
Webull is a free mobile app that helps you invest on the go. It’s the most diverse stock app we have on our list. Webull is a US based company and the app offers commission-free stock and ETF investments from USA markets and 40 other countries worldwide.
Your money is insured as with Webull – like other apps on this list, you get up to $500,000 in protection against any bankruptcy of their brokerage firm partner (in this case Merrill Edge). They also offer an FDIC insurance guarantee for your checking and savings accounts with Webull Federal Bank.
Features
There are no minimum deposits to open a Webull account and Webull offers fractional investing. You can buy $5 worth of Apple stock if that’s all you have. You can also invest with margin loans if that’s your risk tolerance (we don’t do it!). 🙂
With Webull you can open cash and margin accounts as well as Traditional, Roth and Rollover IRAs.
Webull’s product offering is targeted at the active instead of the armchair investor. As a result you get access to better investment resources. In the app you can view various explanation videos and articles about how markets work and how to invest. In a nutshell, you’ll find better trading and market analysis tools on Webull than the other apps on this USA list.
Webull has a refer-a-friend program that offers free stock for qualifying referrals.
Fees
Webull makes it’s money from stock loans, interest on free credit balances, margin interest and payment for order flow. They don’t charge commission on trades. Certain types of deposits and withdrawals like by Wire Transfer will also attract a fee (a hefty one!) so make sure you stay away from those. It costs $75 to transfer a stock out of Webull, so once you buy with them you’ll need to stay there until you sell up or be prepared to pay up!
Top 3 stock apps – Australia
Spaceship
According to their webiste, more than 200,000 Australian’s are already investing with Spaceship. The app allows you to invest passively and to manage your investments. It also features som investment related news and editorial content.
You can open a Superannuation (retirement fund) account with Spaceship which comes with it’s own fee structure so make sure you look at the Super financial services guide if you’re into this product.
Spaceship has an Australian financial license and is regulated by ASIC.
Features
Spaceship makes investing easy and pretty fun. They have three investment portfolio options based on investing themes – Spaceship Universe, Spaceship Origin and Spaceship Earth. It takes 3 to 5 days to fund your account. Once your account is funded, Spaceship will issue you units in the fund of your choice. And that’s it! A super simple experience if you’re first getting into investing.
Fees
Their fee structure is also simple to understand, which we like. They charge zero fees on investments up to $5000. This a much better structure for investors with small amounts than the monthly subscription options from the likes of Acorn (in the US) or Raiz (in Oz). They charge 0.05% to 0.1% above $5000. So if you had $10,000 invested you’d be paying $5 a year.
Commsec mobile and Commsec pocket
We’re bundling these two together even though, annoyingly, they’re separate apps. It seems like the Commonwealth Bank has made an app for it’s existing brokerage customers (Commsec mobile) and has created Commsec Pocket to compete with the low commission Fintech apps like Acorn or Robinhood.
Commsec Mobile app is an all-in-one app for investing developed by the investment arm of the Commonwealth Bank. It’s free to download and easy to use.
There are no automated investing options or robo investing portfolio options here. It’s all about investing direct in listed market products.
Set up is easy using just your Netbank (Commonwealth Bank banking app) if you are an existing customer. A word of warning though, if you link it to a standard CBA account you’ll be hit with their $4 per month account keeping fee, which means using the app is more expensive than other options. Commsec say the fee can be waived but good luck making that happen. If you set up a Commsec CDIA (Commonwealth Direct Investment Account), there’s no account charges.
Features
Like Webull, Commsec mobile is designed for the active Australian investor. If you’re someone who knows about stock investing, has a good amount of capital to invest, and can make use of the full service research and analytics products, then this is a great stock app for you. These things are important to weigh up because you are going to be paying for their full featured investment research in brokerage fees which are not cheap if you’re investing small amounts.
Commsec Mobile features stock trading on both Australian and international markets. You can trade in the US, UK or Australia with Commsec – so if you’re looking to invest globally, it’s a good option. If you have an existing brokerage account you’ll be able to link it up too.
Commsec has a separate app called the Commsec Pocket. It’s designed for stock investors with smaller investing amounts – minimum $50 investment amounts apply. It’s basically straight forward ETF investing on autopilot with Commsec Pocket. You can invest in 7 themes like tech, sustainability and others. You also have access to investing tips and articles.
With both these apps you get the best customer support if anything goes wrong and just about the highest trust and authority score on the planet. There’s no bigger bank for Aussies than CBA…
Fees
Commsec mobile makes money from brokerage and from margin interest and other fees. Fees are specific to the type of product you’re trading, so check out their fee schedule here.
With Commsec Pocket, trades below $1000 cost $2 and you pay a fee of 0.2% for trades above this amount.
Stake app
Third on the list of Aussie investing apps is Stake app. Stake started originally as a cheap way for Australians to invest directly in international markets. They charge zero brokerage fees (but they make their money in other ways).
You can set up stake in just 3 minutes and it takes a 2 days to fund your account. They have a long list of US stocks, ETFs and other investment vehicles you buy into directly. The app is easy to use and they have a refer a friend bonus program.
Stake has focussed singularly on the US markets up until now but they have Stake ASX (Australian market) coming soon. It’s currently in Beta mode and trades will cost $3. If you join their waitlist you get free brokerage until 2022.
Features
We’ve done a full review of Stake app right here that explains their fees, how they are set up and regulated, cool features and our experience using the app.
Where to next for your investing?
So you want to invest from your mobile and you’re looking for the best stock apps to do it. But what kind of investor do you want to be? If it’s the passive type, something like Spaceship (for Oz) or Betterment (USA) might suit you. If you’re an ethical investor and want your app to be aligned with that, then Public has a customer centric philosophy. If you’re an experienced stock investor and just want more mobility, then Webull and Commsec (Oz) could be for you. Whatever you chose, your money just got mobile. May you invest it wisely!
Who wants to waste time and money these days going into the bank or ATM and lining up just to cash a check or money order? Did you know that you can use a cashing app solve this problem? You can now cash your checks straight from your mobile phone with no fees, in just minutes. You can even get the money instantly if you need it. In this post we’ll explain what to know, who to use and how to do it!
A new world of banking direct from your phone
The best cashing apps are not from the big beaurcratic, fee charging banks you might be thinking off. Since the day’s of lockdown, a bunch of new fintech companies have started bringing full banking services direct to the mobile of US citizens.
The best thing about these new fintech apps? They don’t just let you cash your checks quickly and easily. Here’s a list of some of the awesome banking bonuses you get to help manage your money and build your wealth with these new apps:
fast account set up – within minutes
savings and checking accounts inside the app
savings on fees for overdrafts and transactions.
access to automatic cash advance
linked investment accounts with native, direct access to invest in stocks, ETFs, and sometimes cryptocurrency
investment features like fractional trading and autoinvest, that can help you build wealth and get to financial freedom earlier (because that’s what we’re all about at the LLP after all!)
Now these fintech apps do make money. Some of them charge a small monthly subscription fee and others make money on credit transactions. BUT SO DOES YOUR BANK peeps! There’s no such thing as a free lunch but Fintech apps are eating the lunch of the big banks by undercutting them on fees (becasue they’re all online and efficient). And who wins if fees are lower? You!
If you want to know more about how these apps can help you save, track, invest and build wealth then stick around as we navigate you through a whole new world of online money.
In the meantime, lets take a look at how cashing a check from your mobile phone works with these apps…
What sorts of checks can you cash using a Fintech app?
Most cashing apps will allow you to cash and these checks direct from your mobile:
Personal checks written to you
Commercial pre-printed checks issued by a U.S. business to you such as:
pay checks
insurance agency checks
money orders
cashier’s checks
rebate checks
stock dividend checks
U.S. Government-issued checks including:
tax refunds
federal, state and municipal government checks.
How to cash a check from your mobile phone
Simply follow these steps to cash a check with a cashing app – although menu selections may differ in each app.
Log into your app
Find the check deposit option in the menu
Select the account you want to deposit the check into (i.e. checking or savings)
Enter the check amount
Take a photo of the check – front and back. It’s critical to ensure you obtain a clear picture on both sides of the check. You may run into difficulties completing a mobile check deposit if you don’t have a good image of both sides. Clean your camera lens if the images are fuzzy or unclear. Also, make sure to take photographs in proper lighting to ensure legibility.
Review the information you entered is correct and then submit the deposit
You will receive a confirmation message that your check has been deposited in the app.
Voila! You’re done.
8 tips you need know for mobile check deposit
There are a few things you need to know if you haven’t used your mobile to cash a check before. Once you know these things, you’ll never go to bank or ATM to cash a check again!
Some apps – like Venmo and PayPal – will cash your check into to your native account. Other apps require a linked bank account to send your money too (IngoMoney).
There are some things that may cause your check to be dishonored – like the check and account name not matching, failing to sign the check to endorse it, or unclear photos. Make sure you have confirmation in the app that the check has cleared before trying to spend the money!
You need to sign the back of the check to endorse it before you photograph it
All apps will confirm that you have submitted the check successfully.
Some apps require you to keep the check for a period of time and then destroy it, others require you to write VOID across the check once it is confirmed as cashed
There are check cashing limits that apply – generally more than $5 and less than $5000 for any one check.
Your check needs to meet criteria, that we’ve included below.
DON’T SAVE THE PHOTO OF YOUR CHECK ON YOUR PHONE or anywhere online! Make sure you delete the photo immediately.
Top 5 fastest cashing apps (for a fee)
If you need your money fast and you’re willing to pay, here are the best apps to look out for. These are popular Fintech apps that allow you to cash a check on your mobile and get instant access to your money:
The fee to clear your check instantly is generally 1 to 2% for payroll and government checks with a pre-printed signature and 5% for all checks, with a $5 minimum fee per check.
If you don’t want to pay, you can still use these apps but it will take 10 days for your money to clear.
Top 4 easiest cashing apps (free)
These apps below might be a better option if you don’t want fees, and still want your check to clear quickly.
Each app has a native account – like a debit or checking account – within the app that you can cash your check to directly. You need to have one of those accounts set up to cash your check to it. But the thing is, because the companies operate solely online it is much easier to set up an account than with a bank.
If there is a native bank account inside the app you can use, it means you don’t have to cash your check in to linked bank account so you are likely to get it quicker. On top of that, these apps don’t charge you to cash checks.
Here is our list of the easiest and cheapest apps to cash a check using your mobile phone:
Yes. The are bank apps that allow you to cash checks, but you will need to have an account at the bank. This can be a painful and slow hurdle to overcome given the identification requirements of big banks in setting up an account. You also need to log in to your app, go to the menu and make sure the mobile check deposit option is turned on.
Some banks place a limit on the number of checks you can deposit with a time period, or a dollar limit on your check cashing.
Bank apps might be an easy solution if you’re already a customer, but you’re probably not getting any of the additional bells and whistles. Why not manage, save and invest your money cheaply and easily at the same time you cash your check?
If that sounds like you, its time to roll the dice with a fintech cashing app!
Does the law of attraction work for money? Probably not on its own. But paired with a clever financial freedom plan, money affirmations might just bring a laser like focus to your money ‘A game’ and put a rocket under your finances. So let’s test them out.
Some vouch for the power of money affirmations. They say they are a necessary tool if you want help to bring money into your life. Affirmations are a means to reinforce the laws of attraction, if you believe the universe will manifest for you that which your mind is focussed on.
In practice, money affirmations are positive statements that you repeat to yourself, about money, usually in the morning when you wake up and before bedtime.
The aim of affirming positive statements about money is to make you feel like more of it is already flowing through your life!
Whatever you believe, a little positive thinking about money never hurt anyone. So let’s start where money affirmations are designed to work – your money mindset.
Be a money mindset ninja
Your money mindset is important if you’re serious about becoming financially free. Why? Your money mindset dictates how you feel about money, what money means to you and your relationship with it. To have a positive money mindset means there’s no anxiety about not having money or road blocks to you making more of it.
If on the other hand, if your money mindset is one of scarcity one then money could bring up negative emotions in you because money represents fear and anxiety.
The concept goes, having a healthy money mindset will help you attract more money into your life and keep it because it has positive rather than negative associations for you. You get to become financially free much faster than if your money mindset was unhealthy!
Now let’s look at money affirmations.
What is a money affirmation?
A money affirmation is repeating a positive statement about money to yourself that’s based in truth.
For example; “I am becoming more and more financially free every day”.
This type of money affirmation aims to help you develop the right money mindset by helping to build your self-confidence around money, which in turn helps you attract money into your life.
Money affirmations are said to get their power from repetition, which is thought to be key when it comes to manifesting things in our lives. This includes money! The more you repeat the money affirmation, the faster that money affirmation will be written on your subconscious mind which will result in attracting money or anything else for that matter, into your life.
Do affirmations help?
Firstly, there are opposing schools of thought about how much help money affirmations are. Researchers seem split down the middle. Some researchabout using affirmations has found that they help because they release your mental resistance – in this case, to money.
Whatever your personal belief, we at the LLP are 100 per cent convinced of this:
As you think, so you are.
When can money affirmations help you?
Here are some situtations when money affirmations may be helpful for you:
If you feel like money is something that’s hard for you to attract or come by.
If money seems scarce or you feel a resentment towards people with more money than you money affirmations may help you change your negative money mindset.
If you have a hard time charging for your services or chasing money that’s owed you
If money is something that you worry about all the time.
How long do affirmations take to work?
Don’t expect money affirmations to manifest you fat stacks of cash overnight! Some people say it takes 21 days for money affirmations to take effect – so repeat your money affirmation every day until you notice a difference in the way you think about money and feel around money. Pay attention to what you say about money in everyday conversations and what goes through you mind when the topic turns to money.
Money affirmations can be very powerful, but they won’t do anything if you don’t do anything with them! We’re of the view that you get the best out of them if they’re supported with some real money action! Affirm and execute peeps!
Here’s where to start with your financial freedom action plan.
How to attract wealth with money affirmations
Here’s how to use the power of words and positive thinking to increase your own money vibe.
Express for success
When repeating money affirmations, you’re aiming you keep your statements positive and emotional. This is so that you can connect emotionally with what you’re verbalising.
For example, instead of saying “I hate money” say “I am a money magnet.”
It’s also effective if you speak to yourself in the present and not in the future tense. For example, say “I attract money” instead of “I will attract money.” The thinking is, you’re already in the shoes of someone that money comes easily to. You can more easily identify with and be that person.
Repeat your money affirmations in a quiet area with few distractions, where you feel comfortable and safe. Repeat your money affirmation to yourself rather than out loud.
How to release money roadblocks
If money affirmations don’t seem like they are working, try repeating money affirmations in a new way! If you feel stuck, ask yourself “What am I resisting right now?” and repeat an affirmation about releasing resistance towards money instead of focusing on attracting money into your life.
You may just be suffering from what is referred to as a money roadblock.
…money road blocks are the beliefs, habits and stories that stop you from receiving money in the most natural way possible.
Denis Duffield-Thomas, Author of Chillpreneur
In business, money blocks determine things like:
the prices you set,
your ability to charge people appropriately for your services.
How comfortable you feel chasing money that’s owed to you or
dealing with unreasonable refund requests.
What are your limiting money beliefs?
You can use money affirmations to release blocks around money. Try saying “I release all my money resistance”, and when you feel ready try adding a money affirmation on top of it such as “I am open to receiving abundance in every area of my life!”
Stay consistent with your daily ritual. Repeat your money affirmations for 21 days straight – this is the amount of time that psychologists agree upon.
Keep repeating money affirmations until you notice a difference in how you feel about money. If money is something with significant negative connotations for you, this could take more like three months.
Now its the list you’ve all been waiting for. It’s time to find those skin-tingling money affirmation to assuage any feelings of anxiety, release those money roadblocks and turn your negative money thoughts into a millionaire money mindset!
It’s time to be a money magnet
Here are 10 powerful money affirmations to bring more money into your life.
1. Money is abundant – I can always make more of it. 2. I am financially free. 3. I deserve to be wealthy. 4. Money is a wonderful thing that comes into my life easily and effortlessly. 5. I welcome money abundance in my life. 6. I am worthy of a wealthy life. 7. I am receiving money easily and effortlessly now. 8. Everything I need to make money is within me. 9. Money is the source of joy, comfort and security. 10. I release all money roadblocks and negative energy about money.
Money affirmations can be a great tool to help you achieve financial freedom, but they aren’t the only tool you need. If money affirmations don’t seem like something that’s working for you, try another money technique such as creating an inventory of your limiting money beliefs or reading up on how to have healthy financial boundaries.
And don’t forget, affirmandexecute.
May you attract money in your sleep for the rest of your rich life!
Teaching your children about saving, making and investing money is probably the most important thing you can do for them apart from being their parent. Did you know that teaching your kids about investing just got a bit easier with a Robinhood custodial account? If Robinhood is not for you, then have you heard of ‘Loved: investment for kids‘? If not, read on!
Generally you have to be 18 to open an account and invest, and fair enough. Investing is a serious business and you can lose a lot of dough. A custodial account, however, is a financial product that you can access in the US and is designed to allow adults to make investments on behalf of minors.
A supervised custodial account can be a tool to teach your kids about investing and create a nest egg for their future financial freedom. Why not start early and give your kids the gift of a life they love!
With new platforms like Robinhood and Loved the process of purchasing securities is simpler. Investing has therefore become easier to understand for younger investors.
This post will teach you what a Loved or a Robinhood custodial account is, why you might consider one, and how set one up for your kids!
Teaching your kids about money can set them up to live a life they love!
What is Robinhood?
Robinhood is an fintech app that allows anyone over 18 to buy stocks, ETFs and options. They advertise as an investment platform that doesn’t require you to pay commissions (they make money in other fees however).
What is Loved?
Loved is an investing platform where families can create an investment portfolio together. Loved bills itself as ‘an app that offers stocks for kids’.
Both apps offer investing for under 18s through a vehicle called a ‘custodial account’. Let’s look at what these are and how you can use them.
What is a custodial account?
A custodian account is type of investment account that an adult can open on behalf of a minor, usually their child or grandchild.
Who is a custodial account for?
A custodial account is for investors under the age of 18. For example, teenagers who want to learn about investing with the supervision of a custodian – normally their parent.
Robinhood and Loved allow under 18s to start investing with as little as $1 to $5 in their account. Minors cannot withdraw or deposit money themselves until they turn 18 years old (or the legal age in your state).
A custodial account is also for parents or grandparents who want to invest on behalf of their children on grandchildren, in the child’s name.
Who is the ‘account custodian’ and what do they do?
A custodian is the adult who sets up, deposits into and manages a minor’s account. The custodian is responsible for managing the assets in the account until the account holder reaches adulthood or turns 18.
Who owns the assets in the account?
Once a deposit is made into a Robinhood custodial account, the money belongs to the account holder (the child) and cannot be withdrawn from the account (unless certain circumstances apply).
This type of Robinhood account is a long term investment vehicle. Any investments left need to be left in the account it until control passes to the minor at legal age. Once control does pass, the account holder has free reign over what they decide to do with the assets in the account.
Loved on the other hand allows the custodian to withdraw flexibly from the account, which makes it less a permanent investment. Minors can also have their own account login, but are not able to deposit, withdraw, buy or sell from that login.
What are the types of custodian accounts?
An UGMA account: The user can put cash, securities (financial items you can invest in, such as stocks and bonds), and insurance policies into this type of account.
The Uniform Transfer to Minors Act (UTMA) Account: An account called a UTMA account allows the user to put any type of investment into it. You can contribute cash and securities in these accounts, much like UGMA accounts. You may even deposit real estate in these accounts.
The state you live in will likely determine which type of account you have access to.
What are the advantages of a custodial account?
Custodial accounts can be a tax advantaged way to teach your child about investing. The tax rates on the Robinhood custodial account are as follows:
no taxes on the first $1,050 of income.
The next $1,050 is taxed at the child’s tax rate.
Any amount of income over $2,100 is taxed at the rate of the adult custodian.
We’re not saying it’s the best tax advantaged investment vehicle for children. A 529 Plan is better for tax purposes. But 529 Plans are also complex and your can’t do them together with your kids. The Loved and Robinhood platforms can be an engaging way to learn for younger investors and therefore a potential teaching tool.
Why set up a custodian account for your children?
To teach your kids about money and investing, and to create a nest egg they can use later in life!
Did you know that investing just $5 a week when your child is born gives them $11,351 when they turn 18? You initial investment would be just $4,420. You will have doubled your money at just 9% interest, compounding. 9% is the average US stock market return over 120 years.
A Robinhood custodian account can also be a way to help children understand the concept of investing and give them exposure to different assets like stocks and cryptocurrency. It can help teach about taxes and fees involved in trading and holding stocks, ETFs and options.
This is what Robinhood says on their website about custodial accounts:
“Robin Hood makes it easy for anyone to trade stocks, options, and digital currency without fees. This account is designed specifically for children who are under 18 years old to encourage financial literacy through investing in the stock market.”
We think early financial literacy is vital for children. The Robinhood app may just spin enough magic around the dry topic of investing to keep kids interested. If you’re using Robinhood as a teaching tool however, it’s a good idea to supervise all use of the account.
Loved puts an even greater focus on early start financial literacy than Robinhood. If you’re looking for help with tools and resources to teach your children about money and investing, then Loved is the better option. The Loved ‘Learn’ page on their website has tonnes of ideas on how to teach kids about money and investing.
How do you set up a custodial account?
With Loved, setting up your custodial account is very simple and all happens online. There’s literally a 3 step sign up process. You download the app, input and validate identities, and create profiles for the custodian and child. You do need to be a US citizen or permanent resident and you’ll have to provide your social security number.
Robinhood’s process is less far clear.
From what we could find online, a Robinhood Custodian Account Application is a paper-based process. We couldn’t find the application forms to download from the internet. This is consistent with what plenty of users say about Robinhood – customer support is lacking.
For this reason, and because the resources are better, we prefer the Loved app if you’re keen on teaching your kids investing “by doing’.
Things to know before you get started
Both platforms advertise as being commission free and with no brokerage fees to trade or app subscriptions charges. The thing is, both have to make money somehow. It’s usually through their fees. Of the two services, Robinhood is more transparent on their website about what their fees are. We couldn’t find anything about Loved. All we are saying here, is get in the know about fees before you sign up!
I’ve been contemplating some innovation investments in the US market for a couple of months now and on the weekend I decided to take the plunge. My next step was to find out how I could make the investment from all the way over here in Oz. Hopefully without paying exorbitant brokerage fees and without too much hassle. Enter Stake app.
Here’s how it all went down.
Having made my investment mind up, I consulted father Google about where I could make my purchase. The consensus on whirlpool forums (there were no other websites that could answer my question) was to do this through Interactive Brokers Australia (IBKR). IBKR is a brokerage firm here down under that markets itself as the lowest commission option for Aussie global investors.
So I jumped on their website to find out more and if it all looked good I planned to open an account.
That’s where my IBKR plans went to hell in a hand basket.
Why crypto, blockchain and DeFi will eat up the financial services industry, one millennial investor at a time
What I found when I read through the requirements to open an IBKR account incensed me. To lodge an account application I needed all the standard KYC (know your customer) requirements of a regulated financial services enterprise. Name, address, DOB, and government ID number. But here’s where it gets ridiculous. I was also obliged to provide my:
Citizenship information
Tax File Number
Employer name and address
Information on assets and income
Information on investment objectives and experience, and
Any bank or 3rd party broker account numbers for funding purposes
WTF, you say?
Why my TFN, my employer, my assets and income, and my investment experience is any of their business I’m yet to understand.
But it didn’t stop there.
On top of all that, IBKR required me to physically mail to them via snail mail certified copies of my government ID, my proof of Citizenship and blah, blah, blah at this point I just stopped reading and killed the page. It was going to take me weeks to set up an investment account just to send my money over to Wall Street…
Now, I’m a crypto and DeFi investor and enthusiast and I’m used to transacting at the bleeding edge of Fintech innovation. My investing world is now a world of mobile wallets, digital money, minimal and instant KYC verification, 3-minute account set-up and immediate access to global transactions that complete within minutes. It’s intensely gratifying to make up your investment mind and start making money on the spot. And I’m not going back
So I went back down the Google forum rabbit hole to find a better option. And that’s when I stumbled on Stake app.
Stake app – best for investing in US markets?
Here are all the critical questions answered about Stake so that you save time on research. The upshot? There are risks, and these are probably higher than investing through someone like the Commonwealth Bank’s trading and brokerage arm Commsec. But if you’re looking to invest in US markets, they offer a lot of convenience, some innovative features and cheaper fees to do so. Read on for all the benefits and our experience using Stake app.
What is Stake app?
Stake is a Fintech company that provides a mobile phone app to invest in US markets directly with zero brokerage commission. They provide access to more than 6000 US stocks and ETFs. Sounds total fly right? That’s because it is. It also explains why Stake has tripled its Aussie customer base in the 12 months to February 2021, hitting 300,000 users. On recent checking their user count has grown by another 10% in 6 months.
Now, Stake is not alone in increasing customer numbers. Stock market platforms overall have run up pretty widely with everyone bored at home in 2020 watching stock markets go on a tear and wanting to get in on the action.
But the interesting thing about Stake app is 65% of its customers are under the age of 35. More on that later.
How does Stake app work?
Stake partners with Macquarie Bank, DriveWealth, POLi and Airwallex and Citibank to deliver its services.
Drivewealth LLC is a US brokerage company. When you set up an account with Stake you are setting up a broker agreement with Drivewealth. Stake doesn’t place any trades but simply facilitates the order placement. Drivewealth acts as the broker and executes all trades on US markets.
Your shares are held in custody by Citibank in the US.
Airwallex provides mobile wallet services to Stake users.
Macquarie Bank provides services to users that operate Trust and Company accounts through Stake.
POLi provides bank integrations to move your funds into you Stake account direct from your bank account.
As Stake leverages US partnerships for its share trading service it’s not the same as buying Australian shares on Commsec. Staked does not provide your with a Holder Identification number (HIN) or Security Reference Number (SRN) for the shares that you buy. Instead, you investments are pooled with all other Stake users (which is how they provide fractional investments). You are the beneficiary of your shares not the legal owner (with a HIN or SRN).
They run the custodial share investing model, which is common place in the US so you’ll probably come across it irrespective of broker.
Who owns Stake app?
Stake is a division of Sanlam Private Wealth Australia and was founded by Matt Leibowitz, John Abitz and Dan Silver..
Sanlam Private Wealth Pty Ltd provides financial services for high net worth individuals and corporations in Australia and it seems a number of other locations worldwide.
The first thing to understand is that Stake operates under the Financial Services License held by Sanlam Private Wealth Pty Ltd. It is regulated by both the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) as well as the US FINRA and SEC (because of its partnership with US brokerage firm Drivewealth LLC) – more below.
Stake’s website states that if their business goes under, you still have access to all your cash and securities through broker partner, DriveWealth and share custodian Citibank & Velox Clearing LLC. We’re not too sure how easy it would be to access these companies from Oz however.
Stake also holds Professional Indemnity Insurance cover for the activities conducted under its licensee authorisations of up to $500,000. The insurance is provided through US Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC) who acts for investors if their broker goes bust.
What are the benefits of using Stake app?
After using Stake for a while now the benefits over a standard brokerage are pretty clear
Easy, instant account set up with mobile trading
Fractional investing
Save on trading fees for smaller amounts
Let’s look at each of these.
1. Easy, instant account set up with mobile trading
It takes three minutes to set up your account. No need for certified documents sent via snail mail. No tax file number requirement and certainly no questions about your income and assets or your investing experience. Stake also submits your US tax filing document on your behalf for $5, saving you time and paperwork. The way financial services should be.
2. Fractional investing
You can buy fractions of a stock. This is a great offering for investors with a little money to start or for anyone who wants to dollar cost average in to the market. It also means you can buy a stake in some of the biggest companies in the US with shares trading above $1000 each. And you don’t need $1000. Think Google, Apple, Tesla, Amazon. The only thing to remember is the FX fee structure for Stake. You need to buy at least $300 worth of any stock or you will be paying more than their advertised 0.7% fee on the trade (they have a $2 minimum fee on small trades).
3. Save on trading fees for smaller amounts
For example, Commsec fees for international trades are:
Broker fees
USD $19.95 for trades up to USD $5,000
USD $29.95 for trades up to USD $10,000
0.31% for trades above USD $10,0001
Plus, FX (exchange) fees of 0.6%.
Stake fees are 0.7% or a $2 minimum.
4. Easy tax reporting
Stake allows you to track your portfolio & run tax reports using Sharesight. This includes completing your CGT, Taxable Income Reports and calculating your Unrealised Capital Gains. They also generate a Sharesight CSV within two weeks of the end of each tax year. You can check out more information on Sharesight’s website.
How does Stake make money?
Stake charges an FX margin fee of 0.7% per trade (minimum $2 on any trade). It also makes 0.5% on any express funding requests you make (which provides cleared funds in USD the next trading day).
There is a 2% fee for funding your Stake account with a credit or debit card, but you can just fund for free via POLi bank transfer.
They also charge $2 to withdraw from your Stake account.
If you want to transfer your stocks out of your Stake account to another broker, be prepared to pay some hefty fees for the privilege ($100 per transaction)
The company also earns some interest on the cash in the trading accounts and earns revenue from their premium offering, Stake Black which comes with a $9/m subscription fee.
What is Stake Black and do you need it?
Stake Black is Stake’s premier trader service. It comes with a subscription cost of $9 per month or $7.50 if you pay annually. For the fee, Stake Black offers added extras like instant buy against sold trades (instead of waiting for settlement), Wall st analyst buy and sell ratings and price targets, as well as full company financials.
You’re only going to need it if you don’t have access to the data elsewhere or if you are day trading and need to access your capital quickly.
Our experience using Stake
Like I was saying at the beginning of this post, we chose Stake partly because it offers an easy three minute sign up with instant KYC verification. We literally had our account up and running and funded in under 5 minutes. Big tick.
Free stock offer ‘up to $150’ – is it worth it
While Stake advertises a free share valued at up to $150 and uses examples like Nike or Dropbox (worth a fair bit per share), you may also get what they call the ‘mystery share’ option. This is because the stock you actually receive is dependent on a ball drop game in the app. We ended up with a random share worth $3.26 or so from our ‘sign up bonus’. We’d like to know if anyone has has received the more expensive Nike stock, or the whether the game is designed to give you the random, cheap ‘mystery’ share each time. The offer seemed like a gimmick to us so don’t sign up for the free stock alone.
To qualify, you sign up with an individual account and fund your account within 24 hours of setting it up. It’s easy to fund your account by sending a few hundred bucks from your bank account through POLi.
You’ll be able to claim your free stock during the sign up process. The free share lands in your account within 3 days and then you can sell it for cash or keep it as an investment.
Funding our account
We didn’t choose their express service to fund our account (for a $3 fee) and needed to wait 3 days for our money (in USD) to arrive. This point we are marking as a fail for Stake because as blockchain continues to infiltrate Fintech companies, users will become accustomed to instantaneous settlement without the $3 fee. Crypto and DeFi on-chain transactions already achieve this for their users. Stake seems like a step back to conventional finance in this respect.
Using the app
It was simple to navigate the Stake app, search on the stocks we wanted to buy and purchase those stocks. The app is user friendly – just don’t be afraid to tap on the different icons and see what is in each part of their menu. They have a wallet dashboard where you can see all of your investments, on the one screen as well as your cash holdings. There is also a stock watch list you can build and a stock search bar. The app also has a US markets overview feature where you can see market news and top stock movers and shakers.
Stake’s next move
Stake wants to shake up super funds for its millennial users. It’s looking to give cheap and easy access to self managed super in the same way it’s led its young investors to Wall Street with zero broker commissions.
Stake claims that customers want control, lower fees, transparency, and the ability to invest in what they want in their own super. The service will aim to take care of all of the paperwork and administration for super funds so owners can focus on investing.
Sounds like a disruptive Fintech idea if they can make it work – we’ll be following with interest.
There’s also apparently ASX trading coming soon to Stake.
ASX trading coming soon to Stake
The final word – it’s time to innovate or die for financial services
Millennials are the first generation born online. They’re also entering their peak earning and disposable income years. Their preferences and habits reflect this and will change financial services as we know them, and quickly. Stake app and other disruptive digital wallet models will be the early beneficiaries. Their exploding customer numbers reflect this. We signed up because what Stake offers is more convenient, flexible, and cheaper, than many of the conventional investment houses. But we’re not putting all our investment eggs in the Stake basket.
It’s worth acknowledging that even these new and disruptive Fintech companies like Stake still require T+3 to fund your account and T + 2 or 3 to settle trades.
Blockchain transactions of cryptocurrency can already do this instantaneously.
The danger for Stake is that customers will leap frog them and jump straight onto the Blockchain once crypto services become simple and user friendly. Only time will tell.
Oh, and if you want to know what we invested in, it was the genius of Cathie Wood. But you’ll have to stick around for more on that later 🙂
I once stood awestruck and alone at the the top of the incredible Gama valley in the Tibetan Himalayas. I was also slightly panicked that I may just be lost and about die in the Tibetan wilderness. “But what has this got to do with financial freedom quotes?” you ask.
Our values and beliefs, the decisions we make, and where they take us.
You see, what popped into my head in that moment with the trek into Mt Everest in front of me was “How did a 22 year old girl from Oz, come to be here in the Himalayas, doing this?”. (Figuratively speaking of course. I had been bouncing around in the back of early model Toyota troop carrier for days, across vast and dusty valleys with no roads to be seen…)
The answer? A combination of my values, beliefs and decisions I’d made, taken from everything I’d learned and experienced to that point.
The same question drifted into my head yesterday as I stood at the Cow Bar which rests on the back fence of my recent cash-purchased home. I contemplated the stunning Valley of Views that I now live in, and my new life. The answer this time was the same; 8 years worth of building new values and beliefs about wealth, and decisions taken from everything new I’d taught myself about money.
This is where the financial freedom quotes come in.
What are your beliefs about money?
If you think the wealthy are a bunch of greedy bottom feeders you’ll probably never be wealthy. Because what you think about money determines the role it plays in your life.
What if I told you that our beliefs about money are based on myths from another era and hold us back in life? Here are some examples:
Myth money mindsets
Millionaire money mindset
There is never enough money
There is always more money and more opportunities
You have to work really hard to make money
There are easier ways to make money
You can help people OR make money, but not both
Money gives people the opportunity to contribute to others and make a powerful impact.
Retirement is for when you’re old
Retirement is for when you want
The world is a zero sum game – if I get money I’m taking it from someone else
Remember, there is always more money (they’re printing it after all)
My advice on all of this is to explore your money mindset. And no, this is not not all rah, rah fairies and unicorns. Pay attention to the words that come out of your mouth when it comes to money. The things you say, like “Money doesn’t grow on trees you know”, reflect your values and beliefs about building wealth. Values and beliefs that can manifest and limit you to the status quo.
Write these things down. Then consciously challenge them.
One way to do this is to surround yourself with new values, new beliefs and different attitudes about money. Read books and quotes and re-educate yourself. The pay offs can be huge.
If you want to know more about how this works, ‘Chillpreneur” is a great, fun book to get your money mindset flowing.
14 financial freedom quotes to live a wealthy life
The list you’ve all been waiting for! Here are the money beliefs and values that have guided us over the last 8 years, expressed in our favourite financial freedom quotes of all time.
I hung them on the fridge door, put them into my screen saver, read them on my daily commute and remembered them whenever I found a financial opportunity or saw a fork in the road. And things began to change for us.
These 14 evocative quotes reveal what we believe it takes to build wealth and get to financial freedom. They have provided us direction and driven our financial decision making every day for 8 years. We hope they do the same for you.
1. Time is our most valuable asset
“Everyday is a bank account, and time is our currency. No one is rich, no one is poor, we’ve got 24 hours each.” –-Christopher Rice
“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do.” —Mark Twain
Time is THE great leveller. We worked out 8 years ago that time is our most valuable asset. We were selling it so cheaply! So we went about putting our time to greatest use; spending it on building wealth to buy back our time in the future.
We also realised that each day what we did in the next 24 hours would determine the path of our future. The same for the day after that. Everyday we did SOMETHING that would help our financial future.
2. Life IS the goal
“The goal isn’t more money. The goal is living life on your terms.” –Chris Brogan
“Wealth is the ability to fully experience life.” –Henry David Thoreau
Our goal was born from a burning desire to take back control of our financial future after struggling to stay employed through an epic workforce slash and burn in 2012. We realised that life is the goal. And ours was passing us by in ways we were not happy with.
3. To build wealth, you have to invest in yourself first
“An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.” —Benjamin Franklin
“If you fail to plan you are planning to fail.” — Benjamin Franklin
So we began to learn about how to build and keep wealth. We read books, we attended training courses, we invested in our own financial literacy. We still do this today. We also came across the Financial Independence Retire Early (FIRE) movement and the crazy idea that working until you are 65 is, well… crazy!
Mind. Blown.
We started to reprogram our brains. We learned all we could about FIRE, building passive income, tax effective investment structures, and how to build wealth. We learned do-it-yourself renovating, real estate investment, property styling, the share economy, blockchain technology, digital assets… We’re still learning.
4. Money comes in abundance if you just plant the seeds
“Someone’s sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago” — Warren Buffet
“If you approach the ocean with a with a cup you take away a cup full. If you approach the ocean with a bucket you take away a bucket full.” — Ramana Maharshi
In 2012 we started planting investment seeds that we could harvest the rest of our lives, and tending them with patience. We’re still planting…
5. Thinking like everyone else will get you where everyone else is
“Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.” —Steve Jobs
I’ve always been a contrarian and challenger of mainstream thinking so FIRE appealed to me. We started following the FIRE movement in earnest. I’ve also been in tech and innovation for much of my working career, and leveraged these skills to help build wealth.
We consciously kept thinking differently. We challenged mainstream investment advice and made up our own minds in our own heads.
6. Passive income comes from hard work and persistence, with little pay off at the start
“The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary.” —Vidal Sassoon
We worked our butts off going to our full time wage earner jobs and then creating wealth building side hustles on weekends. We did this 7 days a week for a few years, with little reward. We stayed focussed on our goals and our new values and beliefs. We knew the wealth would come if we persisted.
7. No risk no reward
“the biggest risk of all is not taking one.“ — Mellody Hobson
We took financial risks. Sometimes we lost money. That didn’t stop us. Instead, we learned from it. We thought about how to do it better next time. We kept taking risks and slowly they began paying off. As did our hard work to build passive income streams.
8. Bring value that no-one else brings
“Help a million people and you’ll make a million dollars” – Matt and Liz Read
“What we really want to do is what we are really meant to do. When we do what we are meant to do, money comes to us, doors open for us, we feel useful, and the work we do feels like play to us.” —Julia Cameron
“If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got.” — Henry Ford
With passive income streams in place, it’s now time to reinvent ourselves again. Get some fresh blood flowing through our veins, new thoughts ticking in our brains.
Our new goal is to help a million people online. We’re going to do it by being round pegs in square holes and focussing on what we love.
We’ll know when we’ve got there using the analytics for our websites. We also know if we can do this, we’ll be wealth and financially free.
The Final Word – financial freedom is the feeling that you’ve made it
These financial freedom quotes may not resonate with you. But here’s the good news – you can go find your own!
Indeed, we hope this post inspires you to read some financial freedom books, plant some seeds, take some risks, help a million people. be trouble maker. Or even better – do your own version of all of these!
We promise, you won’t regret it. And it may just change your money mindset and your life.
Psst…. Want to know how to make $187 free PayPal cash in the next month sitting on your couch doing nothing? If you’ve Googled ‘make money online PayPal’ and found this post, then get ready for some legit passive and free money to come your way.
We at the LLP love free money, especially if its passive income. And the thing about multiple little streams of passive income is that it all adds up to your financial freedom. So we’ve gone hunting the internet for the best ways to make real money online doing absolutely nothing. You just have to sign up to a few apps and download a browser or two. Real legit cash for barely lifting a finger peeps. Not kidding.
Legitimate and free ways to make money online PayPal
We’ve run dozens of ‘rewards” apps through their paces and have come out the other end with 6 legit opportunities that are definitely worth a few clicks of your mouse.
Our research sifted painfully through loads of dodgy casino and gambling apps and apps that pay peanuts for hours of your time – that’s not passive income!
We’ve weeded out the ‘best of the best’ passive earning opportunities that actually pay you a steady amount sweet, sweet cash.
Summing up, these are the apps that DON’T require you to spend extra money to get rewarded. You just have to do what you’re already doing. So you’re definitely net better off at the end of the month getting onto this little gravy train side hustle.
It’s free money because you’re earning it just by doing what you do in real life each day. The money is passive because you’re not required to trade your time for the money you earn. It’s also interesting, because it sheds light on the value you bring to companies around the world as an internet consumer. No harm monetising that now, is there?
What do you need to do to make $187 in the next month, online?
The beauty of our research is that we’ve targeted apps that only require things you will likely already have or reward activities you’ll already be doing. We don’t want to you spend extra money on stuff you don’t already buy or need. Here’s all you need to get $187 bucks for free:
an internet connection,
the ability to do your normal weekly shop online (lets face it, since 2020 we’re all online shopping converts)
a few healthy habits each day, and
at least one friend or family member.
If you’re fortunate enough to be a US resident, then booyah – all of these offers are available to you. Get ready to get paid my US financial freedom seeker friends.
Not in the US? It’s still worthwhile checking out which ones you can get access to.
Our favourite passive income earner
Honeygain is our favourite of these online money making apps because we know how much we pay for internet services (eye roll). We love the share economy and it’s genuinely awesome to get a little coin back for our unused bandwith each month.
If we’ve made you moolah with this great content piece about how to get some free money please share the love and sign up to Honeygain with our link right here.
Here’s our top 5 new and legit ways to make money online straight to your PayPal account:
Share your internet bandwidth with Honeygain
Get cashback for your weekly shop on Rakuten
Buy online to earn free Dosh
Shop, play and watch for cash with Inbox Dollars
Free moolah for your healthy habits on Achievement app
Get paid for data you give away with SavvyConnect
The great thing is, earnings from these 6 passive income ‘no brainers’ are validated by thousands of Trustpilot reviews. If you don’t believe us, you can just look it up.
How much can you earn in your first month?
To calculate what you can earn in your first month, we’ve made some realistic assumptions about your everyday habits.
All you need to do is:
sign up to each service,
refer one person (your other half or one friend),
buy more than $400 worth of goods online in a month (covering a lot of items and brands, from everyday groceries to one-off buys) and
take one survey a week (which most of us do anyway without getting paid for it).
Here’s our analysis of what you get.
App
Sign up bonus
Rewards
Surveys
Referrals (1 person)
Totals
Honeygain
$5
$37
NIL
Fixed $5 + Recurring 10% = $8.7
$50.70
Rakuten
$10
$9
NIL
$30
$49
Dosh
$5
$3
NIL
$10
$18
Inbox dollars
$5
$0
$10
$4
$19
SavvyConnect
$0
$15
NIL
$1
$16
Achievement
NIL
$5
$30
NIL
$35
Totals
$25
$69
$40
$53.7
$187.7
Honeygain rewards based on 5 devices, 10GB daily, Content delivery for 12 hours a day; Rakuten rewards on a $300 shop per month, Dosh rewards on a $100 shop per month
The passive income, free money winners
1. Share your internet with Honeygain
Honeygain pays your to share your excess internet bandwidth in the background. The app uses your network not the storage device but it’s still probably only useful for folks on unlimited home internet plans. If that’s you, read on.
There is a great calculator on the Honeygain website that shows what you could earn with both the Default Network Sharing service and the Content Delivery service. The Default Network Sharing pays your per kilowatt of excess shared capacity. The Content Delivery service pays you for the number of hours your device is connected to the internet with Honeygain active. Both run together to compound your earnings.
HoneyGain is programmed to never use more than 10% of your bandwidth at any given time so theoretically shouldn’t slow anything down while you are surfing the net.
It’s only available on desktop devices for Mac users but there is an Android app for mobile.
You receive 6 credits for each hour your device is connected to the Honeygain servers. You earn more with more devices connected to different ISP addresses. Your payouts are either USD in PayPal or Bitcoin.
We received a $5 sign up bonus when we joined Honeygain. In addition, Honeygain offers a further $5 for each referral plus a recurring payment equal to 10% of that person’s Honeygain earnings. So share the love if you dig this article and use ourlinkto get your moolah!
Honeygain pays you for your extra bandwidth
2. Get cashback for your weekly shop on Rakuten
Rakuten is possibly the greatest shopping rewards program online. It’s the best one we found anyway. Rakuten has partnered with some of the biggest brands on the planet like Nike, Macy’s Walmart, Target, Nordstrom, and Priceline. They offer cashback rewards for shopping that you would do anyway, through their app. Rewards can range from as little as 1% all the way up to 10% depending on the brand offer.
Impressively, Rakuten has recently introduced a browser extension on Chrome which makes using them super easy. You just shop online as you usually do through the Chrome browser and up pops the cash back percentage for every participating retailer as you Google stuff. The browser automatically applies coupon codes as you shop, so there is no need to manually enter anything at checkout.
It’s a super smooth rewards experience that pays actual dollars back to you for things you would buy anyway.
Rakuten pays a $10 welcome bonus for your first $25 spend. They also have the most generous referral program on our list – you get a crazy $30 per person referral and your friend gets $30 too.
3. Buy online to get free Dosh
Dosh is another shopping app that we thing is worth your while. They have a great $5 bonus when you sign up and offer up to 10% cashback on purchases for shopping, dining and travel. Dosh has partnered with the likes of Starbucks, H& M, Macy’s and Walgreens. There’s every chance you can use to to buy things you normally would anyway. The rewards are only for shopping with a credit or debit card and you need to link these to the app.
You also get a totally dope $10 each time someone you refer links their credit or debit card to Dosh. You can cash out rewards when you reach $25 and get that cash straight to your PayPal account. If you’re account is inactive for 12 months you’ll a $5 fee.
4. Shop, play and watch for cash with Inbox Dollars
Inbox Dollars rewards you for access to your online behaviour and by shopping with certain brands. They are partnered with big names like Netflix, Walmart and Target so it’s generally pretty easy to find ways to earn in the app. Inbox Dollars claims to have paid out $80 million in rewards paid out since 2000.
The app pays you to do certain ‘tasks’. There are 13 ways to earn rewards from shopping and reading emails, to playing games and watching videos. You get coupon cash rewards for groceries as well as cashback offers on top for every coupon redeemed. That’s a double money whammy.
Tasks generally pay $2 or less on average and surveys typically pay from 50 cents to $5.. You also get a $5 sign up bonus and 30% of equivalent earnings for anyone that signs up with the through your referral link as a recurring bonus.
Once again, to the dismay of our global readers, Inbox Dollars is limited to the US.
You can redeem your points for cash once you reach $30 via PayPal.
5. Get paid for data you give away free with SavvyConnect
SavvyConnect pays guaranteed monthly incentives up to $15 ($5 per device) for US residents They collect your internet usage data for behavioural research.
The payout criterion of one member per device means you need three people in the household to be active and connected to the app. You also need to meet the 7 days device usage per month per device minimum, something we expect is easy for most households. But if you can meet these criteria then that’s literally all you have to do to get $15 per month.
You can also boost earnings with referrals and request payment once you’ve reached $1 in referrals although unlike the others on this list, while PayPal appears to be coming currently payments are by check through the mail.
6. Free moolah for your heath habits on Achievement
Achievement app is compatible with both iOS and Android (US residents only) and pays you to understand your health habits like walking, running cycling, logging food, weighing yourself, meditating, and sleep tracking.
All you have to do is connect up other popular mostly health related apps to Achievement and you can earn points. Achievement collects data from these other apps so once you have linked everything you just go about your normal health regime. Or you can use the app as a motivator to be more active.
Points are slow to accumulate and this is the lowest earning app on our list, but it’s also the healthiest so we thought we’d include it. It’s a little bit of passive income that you earn for staying fit and healthy. Walking 20,000 steps a day earns you about $20 a year on the app, but it’s not the only point earning activity. If you’re really into fitness, health and meditation we think the app is worth it.
You can redeem your points for cash when you hit 10,000 points, which is worth $10USD. Money is paid to your PayPal account within 7 Days of redemption.
The real money with Achievement is made participating in ‘Achievement studies’ where you data contributes to ongoing research about specific issues. These Advanced Health surveys can pay between $60 and $200 per survey in addition to daily points.
