The System is Rigged. Here’s How to Not Let it Rob You Blind
In the 1950s, CEOs were earning about 20 times more than their average employees. Seems fair considering their title, right? Sure.
Today, according to research pulled by Bloomberg, the typical Fortune 1,000 CEO makes 144 times more than their average worker. But wait, it gets worse: at The Coca-Cola Company, CEO James Quincey makes an insultingly high 1,621 times more.
The system is rigged, man. And over the last year, it’s become a lot more apparent. The rich get richer, and many of us are just trying to make ends meet.
You can ask for a raise or try your chances playing the lotto, but neither of those are guaranteed to land in your favor. So how can you get your slice of the pie, too? Here are some surefire ways you can stick it to The Man.
1. Cancel Your Car Insurance
How would you feel if you found out your car insurance company was overcharging you by $440 each year?
Pretty peeved, we’re sure. It’s just another cog in the machine working hard to rip you off.
So, call them out. Cancel those thieves! But make sure you have better, cheaper insurance lined up.
Thankfully, a free website called The Zebra will do the shopping for you — in just two minutes.
All you have to do is enter basic information about your car and driving history, then The Zebra compares prices from more than 100 companies to find you the best price.
The Zebra says it saves its users up to $440 a year.
If you find a policy you like, you can sign up online instantly.
2. Fight the Billionaire Hedge Fund Managers
Think those high-flying billionaires on the top floor are just sitting pretty on their cash? No way — they’re investing it and making even more millions.
It doesn’t seem fair they get to have their own hedge fund managers who make them richer every day. The system wasn’t set up to make it easy for us worker bees.
But with an app called Stash , you can take on those expensive brokers. It lets you be a part of something that’s normally exclusive to the richest of the rich — on Stash you can buy pieces of other companies for as little as $1.
That’s right — you can invest in pieces of well-known companies, such as Amazon, Google, Apple and more for as little as $1. The best part? If these companies profit, so can you. Some companies even send you a check every quarter for your share of the profits, called dividends.1
It takes two minutes to sign up , and it’s totally secure. With Stash, all your investments are protected by the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC) — that’s industry talk for, “Your money’s safe.”2
Plus, when you use the link above, Stash will give you a $5 sign-up bonus once you deposit $5 into your account.*
3. Say Goodbye to Your Big Brick-and-Mortar Bank
Not that you’d be surprised by this, but the place you trust to keep your money safe and growing is getting rich by ripping you off.
First, they charge all those insane fees. Then, they make tons of interest on your money — but only give you .05% (on average). Peanuts for the poor. Billions for the bank.
So if you’re sick of getting ripped off, find an account that won’t charge you ridiculous fees and earn you way more interest on your savings — it is your money, after all.
A debit card called Aspiration lets you earn up to 5% cash back every time you swipe the card and up to 16 times the average interest on the money in your account. Plus, you’ll never pay a monthly account maintenance fee.
To see how much you could earn, enter your email address here , link your bank account and add at least $10 to your account. And don’t worry. Your money is FDIC insured and under a military-grade encryption. That’s nerd talk for “this is totally safe.”
4. Stop Paying Your Credit Card Company
How much do you think the billionaire CEO of JPMorgan Chase is making? You don’t even want to know.
While you’re stressing out over your debt, your credit card company is getting rich off those insane interest rates. But a website called AmOne wants to help.
If you owe your credit card companies $50,000 or less, AmOne will match you with a low-interest loan you can use to pay off every single one of your balances.
The benefit? You’ll be left with one bill to pay each month. And because personal loans have lower interest rates (AmOne rates start at 2.49% APR), you’ll get out of debt that much faster. Plus: No credit card payment this month.
You don’t need a perfect credit score to get a loan — and comparing your options won’t affect your score at all. Plus, AmOne keeps your information confidential and secure, which is probably why after 20 years in business, it still has an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau.
It takes less than a minute and just 10 questions to see what loans you qualify for — you don’t even need to enter your Social Security number. You do need to give AmOne a real phone number in order to qualify, but don’t worry — they won’t spam you with phone calls.
5. Stop Overpaying at Amazon
Wouldn’t it be nice if you got an alert any time you’re shopping on Amazon and are about to get ripped off.
That’s exactly what a free service called Wikibuy does.
Wikibuy’s free alerts can be added to your browser. Before you check out, it’ll check other websites, including Walmart, Target, eBay and others to see if your item is available for cheaper. It will also show you coupon codes, set up price-drop alerts and even let you see the item’s price history.
Let’s say you’re shopping for a new TV. You’re ready to check out, and you assume you’re getting the best price. Here’s when Wikibuy will pop up and let you know if you’re about to overpay. It will even let you know if you can get it delivered sooner (see photo above).
So far, Wikibuy has saved users more than $70 million.
You can get started with Wikibuy in just a few minutes to see if you’re overpaying online .
Kari Faber is a staff writer at The Penny Hoarder.
1Not all stocks pay out dividends, and there is no guarantee that dividends will be paid each year.
2To note, SIPC coverage does not insure against the potential loss of market value.
For Securities priced over $1,000, purchase of fractional shares starts at $0.05.
*Offer is sunbject to Promotion Terms and Conditions. To be eligible to participate in this Promotion and receive the bonus, you must successfully open an individual brokerage account in good standing, link a funding account to your Invest account AND deposit $5.00 into your Invest account.
The Penny Hoarder is a Paid Affiliate/partner of Stash.
Investment advisory services offered by Stash Investments LLC, an SEC registered investment adviser. This material has been distributed for informational and educational purposes only, and is not intended as investment, legal, accounting, or tax advice. Investing involves risk.
This was originally published on The Penny Hoarder, which helps millions of readers worldwide earn and save money by sharing unique job opportunities, personal stories, freebies and more. The Inc. 5000 ranked The Penny Hoarder as the fastest-growing private media company in the U.S. in 2017.
Post a Comment