How to Jump Start Your Personal Finance Journey with over $2,500 Bonus

Lawrence Delva-Gonzalez, The Neighborhood Finance Guy writes about financial literacy topics, Personal Finance, Budgeting, Money Management, Investment strategies, Retirement tips and more. The goal is to help you make effective decisions and set S.M.A.R.T goals with your money. The information is free but the struggle is not sold separately.

There are tons of High tech tools that can help you stick to your financial plan, budget and build your wealth. Better yet, there are even more ways to earn FREE money at the same time. Being financial literate means that you don’t have to live broke.

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Starting is the hardest part of Personal Finance Journey

Times are getting a lot tougher. It’s no longer optional not to budget and plan your way to wealth. Most families can’t even afford to survive off of a single income anymore.

As such there are a lot of ways to jump start your personal finances and create a new identity for yourself. It doesn’t matter if you are 50 or 20, aiming to be financial literate will always be profitable.

With that said, there are only three paths to wealth with one prerequisite. For starters, you have to take inventory of where you are today. This step includes knowing how much money you bring in and how much money you spend. The goal is to help you clear your head and recognize where you are in your wealth journey.

Don’t worry since you will likely be starting off behind and yet you will be 90% wealthier than the average American who is still hiding from their money. After that, there are just three moves to make, 1. Decrease your expenses, 2. Increase your income and 3. Invest the difference. The faster you can make peace with the idea that you don’t need to choose one over the other, the better.

In the Marines, we valued Problem Solving and the Win-Win strategy. This is why I provided the Net Max Financial Plan series for FREE. You read it correctly, it is FREE for you to download, print and use.

To help you hit these numbers, this article provides the tools that I use to earn as much as $2,500 annually. These are referral links, but rest assured that I wouldn’t bring them up if they weren’t mutually beneficial. If you need more help understand what to do, read “How to set up your month-to-month Million Dollar Financial Plan.“

Kick Off – Earn a $20 Amazon Gift Card for Tracking Your Wealth with Personal Capital

Personal Capital is a free app aimed at wealth builders. It allows users to track and manage their money, giving them real time snapshot of all their accounts. Users can create budgets and track spending while planning for long term financial goals such as retirement. If you want extra help, it offers expert management to help personalize your portfolio.

On top of that, they provide a $20 for $20 Referral Code. When you sign up per the terms and conditions, they will send both of us an email where you can retrieve your code.

What do they get from this $40 deal? Data – everyone is trying to figure out household spending and investing patterns so that Data source is golden.

Recently, Personal capital have been ramping up its blog content with a lot of our favorites such as Andy Hill from Marriage, Kids and Money and Anne-Lyse from the Dreamer’s Podcast. It has moments where it freezes when accessing your information due to two-factor authorization; beyond that, it’s gold. They have a robust team working 24/7 to offer great IT support.

Personal capital is the GOAT although it’s not always rookie friendly. If you aren’t tracking your wealth while you are budgeting, are you really winning?

The Platform looks like this via web but it’s just as power in the APP version

Invest Your Way to Wealth – Get $50 if you invest $100 through M1 Finance

M1 Finance is a Financial brokerage firm. Similar to Fidelity, Vanguard and etc, M1 allows its clients to invest in the market.

“I never met a man who saved his way into wealth.”
L. Delva-Gonzalez

To help you get started with investing, they provide a $50 for $50 referral for new members. Promotional deadline is set for March 31, 2022.

Their goal is to be the premier destination for SMART and passive investors. While they aren’t as robust as the old financial institutions or as open based as Robinhood, their platform boost the top companies and it’s easy to craft a killer portfolio.

The process couldn’t be simpler.

You get $50 when you create an account and deposits $100 (or $500 for an IRA). That’s +50% for the regular after tax account or +10% for an IRA account. You couldn’t duplicate these types of winnings in a month, never the less instantaneously.

With over 35,000 5-star reviews, this is Personal Finance and Investing made easy.

Earn up to $2,500 in Rewards from using high-tier Credit Cards

It wasn’t until I saw the 100,000 travel reward points offered by Chase Sapphire Reserve did I fully grasp credit card rewards. I used all those points for a virtually all expenses paid trip for two to Brazil. It was amazing to say the least.

Be forewarned that there are rules on how to use money and how to leverage debt for greater rewards. Ironically, you can also use credit cards as pathways for cashback, travel benefits and a lot more. See our top three recommended referrals below (terms apply).

Rules for using Credit Cards to Improve Your Personal Finance

If you are considering using credit cards in this matter, here are my top three tips.

First, have a balanced budget that doesn’t require desperation. This requires that you move beyond living paycheck to debt. Secondly, make sure your Debt to Income ratio is low. Basically, don’t owe more monthly than you can afford in terms of your income. You can’t expect for top tier credit card companies to trust you if you really have no clue how money works. Finally, pair a new credit card with a critical high spending (expansionary) period in your life. All that to say, get a high performing reward credit card after you’ve purchased a new home or if you are moving city to city. Since you will pay around $5,000 in moving fees, you can easily apply those expenses for the introductory offers.

If you need more info, comment below or email us.

Check out The TNFG Three Musketeers of Credit Cards and Personal Finance

Check out the American Express Credit Card Referral

Earn up to 100,000 Membership Rewards points after they use their new Card to make $6,000 in purchases within the first 6 months of Card Membership.

Plus, you earn 10x points on eligible purchases on their new Card at restaurants worldwide and shop small in the US during the first 6 months.

Get $200 back in statement credits each year on Hotels.
Select one qualifying airline and then receive up to $200 in statement credits per calendar year when incidental fees, such as checked bags and in-flight refreshments
Earn 5x Membership Rewards points on flights and prepaid hotels.
Get up to $20 back each month on eligible digital subscriptions.
Up to $200 in annual Uber and Uber Eats savings.
Earn up to $100 in statement credits annually for purchases at Saks Fifth Avenue. That’s up to $50 in statement credits semi-annually.

Check out the Chase Sapphire or Freedom Unlimited Credit Card Referral

50,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening. That’s $750 toward travel when you redeem through Chase Ultimate Rewards^®.

For starters, enjoy an automatic up to $300 in statement credits as reimbursement for travel purchases charged to your card each account annually.

Earn 5x total points on flights and 10x total points on hotels and car rentals when you purchase travel through Chase Ultimate Rewards^® after the first $300 is spent on travel purchases annually.

Earn 3x points on other travel worldwide after the first $300 is spent on travel purchases annually.
Get 50% more value when you redeem for travel through Chase Ultimate Rewards.
Earn 10x total points on Chase Dining purchases with Ultimate Rewards^®.
Earn 3x points on other dining at restaurants, including eligible delivery services, takeout and dining out.
With Pay Yourself Back, your points are worth 50% more during the current offer when you redeem them for statement credits against existing purchases in select, rotating categories
Plus, earn 1 point per dollar spent on all other purchases.

Check out the Southwest Rapid Reward Credit Card Referral

Earn up to 40,000 bonus points with any Southwest Rapid Rewards personal Credit Card. That’s worth about +$500 for travel. Business owners can earn up to 60,000 bonus points with Southwest Rapid Rewards business Credit Cards.

+6,000 points every year on your card member anniversary,
3 points for every $1 you spend on Southwest Airlines^® purchases,
Earn 2 points for every $1 you spend on Rapid Rewards hotel and car partners,
1 point for every $1 you spend on all other purchases,
On top of 2 points per $1 spent on local transit and commuting, including rideshare ie Uber or Lyft,
2 points per $1 spent on internet, cable, phone services, and select streaming,
a bonus 2 Early Bird Check-In^® each year,
25% back on inflight purchases, and
Earn 1,500 tier qualifying points towards A-List Status for every $10,000 spent – with no limit on the amount of TQPs you can earn

Track and Get Started Today

Ultimately, no matter which app or credit cards you choose to go with, your personal finances will only be as productive and successful as you make it. So do not be afraid. Jump start your wealth today. Leaving it for tomorrow will not get any better.

Besides some of these free rewards will likely disappear. You are the driver of your financial vehicles. This method worked for me. I started off making only $23,000 before taxes with over $125,000 in student loans and credit card debt. I shifted my mind and constructed the identity of a victor over the personality of the victim.

90% of life is how you react. So with that said, I highly recommend getting the Personal Capital app since it’s FREE to use while giving you $20 amazon bucks. Secondly, I highly recommend that you get started with investing through the M1 app for $50 extra, this offer can’t be beat. And finally, if you love to travel like me, jump into some credit card rewards.

None of this works without you deciding if you are all in. The results are simple, but the struggle isn’t sold separately.

Disclosure: This post is brought to you by the Neighborhood Finance Guy. We highlight financial literacy information, resources, and more on your way to money management goals and personal wealth. Our goal is to help you make S.M.A.R.T decisions with our money. We do not give investment advice or encourage you to adopt a certain investment strategy. Your personal finance is up to you. If you take action based on one of our recommendations, we don’t earn a dime as of 5.2021. We operate independently.

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