Apparently you hate money. If you didn’t, you’d be using Rakuten every time you shop on websites like Walmart and Target to save money.
They have paid me over $13,943 for things I was already going to buy for my one-person business:
They are also the reason this post is free to read. Sign up here and get $30 for free after your first use.
Rakuten isn’t just a newsletter sponsor, they are an important part of my one-person business that I’ve used for years.
The goal of this series is to hit $100,000 in a brokerage account as a byproduct simply spending money.
You can read the last post here:
I know it probably sounds insane and will likely take a while but I don’t care.
Let’s take a look at our Rakuten earnings:
Total Unpaid Points: 18,219 (Down from 65,464 due to a payout)
Cash Value: $200.41
Over the last month we didn’t earn all that much via Rakuten.
A touch over 6,000 points maybe?
As I mentioned in the previous update, this balance sits pretty stagnant for the first 9 months of the year.
I don’t do a ton of buying on the websites that pay out heavily (perhaps I should change that?).
Now let’s look at our American Express rewards balance:
Total Rewards Points: 139
Cash Value: $1.53
This thing is empty because I made a transfer over to the brokerage account prior to writing this.
Our 80,000 sign up bonus for the Schwab Platinum card should be on the way shortly which will be a free $880 as well.
After taking a hit last month, the brokerage account is looking healthy again:
Total Value: $5,627.02 (+$1,130.32)
Total Cash Value (all of the above): $5,828.96 (+$591.33)
We are looking at a monthly gain of nearly $600 all thanks to cash back and account appreciation.
$600/month isn’t enough to get us to $100,000 anytime soon but again please keep in mind that:
This is the slowest time of year for purchase activity for my business
I could be manufacturing spend but I have been lazy
I use other cards for things I am buying that don’t apply to this venture
When I buy something on Amazon for my business, I use an American Express Business Prime card.
That provides 5% cash back towards Amazon but cannot transfer these points to Schwab (this sucks because I spend a lot on Amazon).
Should I start putting that spend on a 2% cash back American Express card?
I would take an up-front hit but gain in the long by adding it to the brokerage (assuming at least 5% annual ROI).
Let me know what you think with a comment down below.
Thank you for your patience while we get this series up to speed, it is going to take a while to snowball but once it does the progress will be immense.
When you are ready, there is one way I can help you:
The Conference Room: Join 700+ members inside my private mentorship group.
You will learn how to make your first $1,000 on the internet using the same methods I used to escape the rat race.
I figured i was missing something
I am thinking if it was me and I got 5% towards Amazon purchases, which I used to invest in legos, on which I (you) get a 40 - 60 % return, it makes more sense to keep it is is. If you switched and only gained 2% which you then put in the Brokerage account , hoping to get 5 to maybe 10% return, that would not come close to what you are doing now. I get it for purposes of this new branch of the newsletter but seems to me you should stick as is purely from a return standpoint.