This year I’ve decided to start traveling again. It has been many, many years since I did some travel. This year I started with a nice easy Vegas trip. We did a fully comped 5-night stay at a Caesar’s Casino Resort. We booked multiple rooms so that took care of the hotel stays for our entire group. Caesar’s Diamond+ status has several benefits that make the stays more enjoyable. (No Resort Fees, Free Drinks each day, VIP Lines, etc)

We flew to Vegas on Southwest. This was my first time flying Southwest. I didn’t pay for the tickets, so a free plane ticket was fine. There were multiple people in our group and we all got a window seat which made the flight just a little bit better.

It was nice to be traveling again. I haven’t decided on the next trip, but I’m making a list.

That’s not a moon! It’s a Sphere!

Are you traveling this year? Where should I go this year? Talk later!

The post A Quick Vegas Trip appeared first on ModernMoneyHabits.

Well, Mint the personal finance app is shutting down.

Have you tried Mint? I have a Mint account laying around here somewhere, not sure where I placed it. I remember logging in sometime during C19. But honestly, I never really liked it. I know there was a paid version, but I just tried out the free version. (The Ads ruined the experience) It was nice that you could sync your bank accounts and some other financial information.

I’ve never really been a fan of these apps that pull information, don’t get me wrong they work great, and sometimes the transaction data can be helpful if you have some unexpected charge happen out of the blue. My main problem with these apps (Other than the Ads) is that they are just telling you information that you should already know, they are showing you the past. I’m much more interested in the future.

I enjoy the planning that comes along with telling my money where to go and what to do when it gets there. Like sending money to my investments on a regular schedule. I don’t need to be reminded that I did this, I always plan for it ahead of time. I just need a calendar to do this. No other software is needed. Keep money simple.

Sure, I can easily complicate things by adding a bunch of apps that remind me that I spent $7 on an Iced Starbucks Vanilla Latte with Caramel Drizzle while I wandered around the mall waiting for my daughter to finish her “Shopping” with her friends. Do I really need to know this after the fact? My credit card company will remind me after every charge via text message just in case it wasn’t me. (You do have notifications on, right?)

I’m more of a spend-what-is-in-the-envelope kind of guy. But I use credit cards instead of envelopes and just pay them weekly. I get the security of not having my checking accounts/debit cards floating around out there “on the Dark Web” or any web for that matter. (So Scary…)

So anyway, Mint is going away. They are owned by Intuit, the same people that own Credit Karma and QuickBooks. Don’t get confused, The Mobile App “Quicken SimpliFi” was once a part of Intuit but has been spun off to be its own thing. (As far as I can tell)

If I had to choose an app to use, I would lean towards Empower. They used to be Personal Capital. I do like the Net Worth tracking of it and it can be used for free.

If I was going to pay for budgeting software, I would lean towards YNAB. The software is great for envelope budgeting and the community seems great. They also make YouTube videos that are helpful to their community, unlike other apps/software companies that I’ve seen online.

What are you using? Anything? Spreadsheets? I love a good Spreadsheet.

The post Mint is Shutting Down appeared first on ModernMoneyHabits.

Bitcoin is taking the world by storm. In 2020 and 2021 Bitcoin was in most financial headlines. Odds are very good that in 2022 it will dominate the headlines again. Let’s face it, it is not going away. It’s been 13 years since Satoshi put Bitcoin out into the universe and changed the world of currency and thought.

There is no denying that as more people get involved with Bitcoin, the price of every single Bitcoin will go up.

As I write this post $BTC is floating between $47,000 and $50,000. Just a few months earlier it hit an all-time high of $68,780. So as you can see the price fluctuates dramatically from month to month.

So the question is should you place your hard-earned cash into an investment that jumps around so unpredictable? Well, if you are worried about losing your money you should be. There is a very real chance that any money you put into Bitcoin will evaporate overnight as the price crashes lower and lower. Bitcoin is often manipulated by the Uber Wealthy that are tanking the price to push out the “scared” money and then they buy back in, taking those coins off the market. Million-dollar transactions happen every day and the market responds to it by going up or down.

Are you someone that can handle the roller coaster ride of the Crypto Market? It is way more volatile than the normal Stock Market. You will need to decide for yourself if you are up to the task.

I will tell you what I will be doing in 2022. I think that the state of Bitcoin warrants some attention. So I will DCA into $BTC. Will it make all my dreams come true? Probably not. But as far as a “Solid Speculative Play” goes, Bitcoin seems to be the best option. Could I lose everything I put into it? Yes. However, now that mass adoption seems to be kicking in, I’m hopeful that the price will go up.

My goal is to grab at least 1 full Bitcoin while still adding to my core investments. I use a Dividend Stock Portfolio and Real Estate as the core foundation of my investments so adding $BTC to it will be simple and painless.

Let me know how Bitcoin fits into your investment strategy.

The post Should I Invest in Bitcoin in 2022? appeared first on ModernMoneyHabits.

Most people don’t cry over their banks. Well, I guess I do. In the past few days, I received an email from Simple bank informing me that BBVA the parent company of Simple Bank had decided that it was time to shut the doors on my favorite online bank.

Why does this matter at all? Well, Simple was one of the OG online banks that popped up in the 2000s. I‘m always on the early adopter’s list for pretty much anything online. You could say I’m a professional Beta tester and part-time Alpha tester.

When Simple opened their Beta doors I jumped on board and was pleasantly surprised by the ease of use and Simplicity of their online money management concept. They offered a nice to use digital cash envelope system, which I often offered my advice to the developers on ways to improve.

I told everyone I knew that they should open a Simple Bank account, why not it’s free. Well, over time I kind of stopped using Simple as my “Main” bank in favor of banks that allowed me to deposit cash at an ATM. This is something that all online banks are failing to grasp. They need to allow their users to deposit cash easily, instead of getting a money order and then taking a photo in-app to deposit it. Sure it’s convenient, but not optimal.

Now it seems that the current owners (BBVA) have decided to plunder and pillage, instead of making Simple a more known name in the online banking world.

As of today, there is a “Thanks for the memories” place holder on the main Simple page.

A few other things to note at the time of writing this post. BBVA the parent company of Simple Bank is also in talks with PNC Bank to decide its own future. PNC being the bigger of the two.

I also heard that Azlo Bank an online business bank was also closing its doors. Not sure why, but welcome to 2021 the twin sister of 2020. Know what I mean?

The post Simple Bank Closing Down appeared first on ModernMoneyHabits.

Budgeting 101: How to create a simple budget

First, let me get this out in the open before we continue. This is not the way that I budget my personal or business finances. I use a very different method for my financial management. I will cover what I do in another blog post. This information is for the beginning budgeter that needs to get a grip on their money and needs some simple but effective steps to get them heading in the right direction.

Welcome to Budgeting 101. If you are having a hard time managing your money or just need to get some type of game plan going so you can worry less and be that organized person everyone wants you to be, then this is for you.

The steps are easy to follow they are:

1. Write down all of your expenses and total them up.
2. Write down all of your income and total them up.

If your income is a bigger number than your expenses number, then you are in good shape.

If your expenses number is bigger than your income number then we have a small problem that we need to address right now.

If your expenses are bigger than your income you will need to reduce your expenses. Look at your list of expenses and see where you can cut back on some spending. Can you remove a streaming subscription and save $15 a month, can you remove some premium channels from your cable service and reduce the bill by $20 or $40 per month? I find it is easier to adjust a fixed bill and make a real difference on the bottom line than it is to just cut back on my morning coffee at Starbucks or skip a few breakfasts during the month.

In my opinion, it is ok to reduce a fixed bill and not feel the pain of the reduction versus sacrificing on the random little pleasures that help you get through the day and months of your life.

Ok, so now that you have reduced some of your fixed bills you should be looking a lot better than before. If your income is now bigger than your expenses, then you are done. The point was to make sure you have enough money every month to handle your bills, and now you do.

If you want to automate your bill-paying, then you can make sure all your bills are set to autopay themselves from your bank account. Just make sure you always have the money in your bank account. If you want to pay your bills the old fashion way, manually, then you will need to grab a calendar and place all your bills on the calendar so you can keep an eye on them and never miss a bill’s due date. This will require you to check the calendar every week just to make sure you always know what is happening with your bills.

So, to recap.

1. You need to know your expenses.
2. You need to know what your income is.
3. You should reduce any bill that can be reduced.
4. You need to know when the bills are due.
5. You should make sure that they are paid on time. Every time.

Remember this is just the starting point for a beginner. The game of money management can be more complicated and have several moving parts.

The post How to create a simple budget appeared first on ModernMoneyHabits.

Today is the last day of November 2020 and American Express is still pushing out record-high credit card signup bonuses to new members during a Pandemic. I applied for my Amex Platinum a while ago, so I missed the craziness that is happening right now.

Although I’m sure I speak for the many who cannot get the current offers when I say Bah-Humbug. The facts are that for everyone else that has been waiting to grab the Amex Platinum card at a super high signup bonus well this is the moment you have been waiting for.

The Amex Platinum card is considered by many to be the pinnacle of credit card status if you love or at least have a yearning to travel. Although it certainly doesn’t stand alone at the top of credit cards out there, it is undoubtedly one of the most desired cards to have ever existed. It offers 5X on Flights and 5X on booked travel through the Amex travel portal. But this card’s real strengths are in the Perks it offers to its members just for having the card.

 Holders of the Amex Platinum card can breeze through most airport lounges like the Priority Pass Lounges, the Amex Centurion Lounges even the Delta Sky Lounge is complementary to cardholders. It comes with Airline credits that can be used for inflight services and it even has a monthly Uber credit that can be used for Rides or more importantly to me food delivery. Hey, free money is always nice to have for food.

The current offers are showing up at 100k Membership Rewards Points, 150k, and even 200k for the Australian version of the card. These amounts are as good as it gets and is highly doubtful that they will go higher. They have even added extra multipliers to the card’s normal 1X on everything, such as 10X points on US Gas Stations and US Supermarkets. If you can get it is an amazing offer for both categories. This offer greatly beats out the Amex Gold Card that normally comes with 4X points on Restaurants and Groceries for its spend categories. The Amex Platinum charges an annual fee of $550US and the Amex Gold charges $250US per year at the time of this blog post.

If you plan to spend large amounts of cash on your food purchases then the Amex Gold Card is probably a better fit for you, but there is no denying that the temporary point earnings on food and gas are really just icing on the cake for a new Platinum cardholder.

If you would like to apply for the Amex Platinum, Amex Gold, or any other credit cards that I use in my day-to-day, then use the referral link here ->https://modernmoneyhabits.com/all-the-links/ You will get sweet offers and I get a bonus for sending you there, that’s a win for both of us.

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