What Are Crypto.Com Missions & Diamonds?

 Earn Up To $1,100 From Crypto.Com Mystery Boxes

If you're in the Crypto Space, and even if you're not, chances are you've heard about Crypto.Com. Crypto.Com has completely taken over Youtube Pre-Roll Ads making it impossible to miss them. In addition to the past year of non-stop ads on Youtube you've likely heard about how they purchased the naming rights to the LA Lakers Stadium The Staples Center, that transition was just completed yesterday with the Staples signage being taken down and replaced with "Crypto.Com Arena". In addition to their strong marketing effort on Youtube as well as Sports and Racing, Crypto.Com also has an attractive affiliate/referral program to incentivize users to bring aboard friends, family, and followers, and also has a loyalty program they refer to as "Missions" which allow users to earn "Diamonds" which can in turn be traded in for "Mystery Boxes", which is what we're going to be talking about in today's post. I'd be remis without also mentioning that you can get $25 in Free Bitcoin for signing up for Crypto.Com by using this Referral Link.

What Are Crypto.Com Missions?

Pretty much every Crypto Exchange has some sort of Loyalty Program, Learning Program, or some way to gamify the platform and allow users to earn Free Cryptocurrency by being active on the platform. Binance has "Tasks" that users can complete to get free crypto or bonuses, Coinbase has Coinbase Earn where users can earn free cryptocurrency by watching videos or completing short trainings and taking tests. Well Crypto.Com has "Missions" which allow users to earn "Diamonds" which they can in turn trade in for rewards which are "Mystery Boxes". Mystery Boxes when opened give users an unknown amount of CRO Coins, up to $1,100 per box. Crypto.Com's Missions can be both educational as well as purchasing incentives. While I'm sure the types of missions will change over time, however currently the Missions which include trading $20 worth of crypto on the platform, trading $500 worth of Crypto on the platform, and doing educational courses through the Missions tab. These Missions reset every 24 hours so you can continue earning more Diamonds for being active on the platform. One important thing to note is according to the TOS auto buyers do not earn you Diamonds. This means if you have a weekly Dollar Cost Averaging (DCA) auto-buy setup that will not earn you Diamonds. Because of this some of you may choose to manually go in every Sunday morning for example and manually making a purchase in order to acquire Diamonds. 

What Are Crypto.Com Diamonds?

Crypto.Com Diamonds are users rewards for completing "Missions". Diamonds are not a cryptocurrency and they have no cash value so don't hoard them thinking they're going to Moon someday. Diamonds are strictly a reward token which an be turned into the Crypto.Com store in exchange for Mystery Boxes. Now keep in mind this program is subject to change and the contents of the boxes may change, but at the time of the writing of this article there's only a single box a "Silver Box" which costs 25 Diamonds. Previously they had different tiers of boxes at various Diamond price points with the higher value boxes containing better prizes. The Mystery Boxes can contain up to $1,100 worth of CRO Cryptocurrency. I recently purchased two Silver Mystery Boxes, my first box contained 0.6 CRO and my second box contained 0.7 CRO. 

Are There Any Other Ways to Earn on Crypto.Com?

Yes so like other exchanges which allow staking and have referral rewards Crypto.Com also has these things. Crypto.Com is currently paying up to 12% staking on the CRO coin, depending upon how much you have staked, and if you hold a Crypto.Com Debit Card. Crypto.Com also has a referral or affiliate program which pays you $25 for every new users you refer to their platform. You can use this to refer your friends who are currently using bad exchanges like Robinhood, you can refer friends or family who are new to Crypto and asking for some help getting started, or if you have a large Social Media presence or a Youtube Channel you can also refer your audience. These types of referral programs can be powerful, between 2017 when Binance initially launched and today I've earned over $60,000 in Bitcoin from the Binance Referral Program. My advice would be to take full advantage of free opportunities to earn crypto. 

Land Banking Something Worth Looking Into - Passive Real Estate Investing

land·bank·ing

ˈlandˌbaNGkiNG/

noun

noun: land banking

1. the practice of buying land as an investment, holding it for future use, and making no specific plans for its development.

Land Banking A Passive Real Estate Strategy

Land banking is pretty simple. Like many things it boils down to buy low sell high. Buy cheap land in an area currently uninhabited, undesirable, or just plain cheap. If you think an area could grow and develope and get nicer over time there may be an opportunity to make some money as the property appreciates. 

In some cases to further add value, someone who land banks, as a real estate strategy may bring in power, water, sewers, and develope and subdivide the land for larger profits. This however is over my head and over the heads of probably most new or small-time real estate investors like myself so personally I would prefer a buy and hold strategy, selling off at some point down the road for a profit.

Lnad banking as an investment is nothing new. Several self made billionaires began by purchasing large tracts of land in California where the development opportunities hadn't happenned yet. Two of these individuals are Bob Hope and Donald Trump who have both been rewarded greatly from buying large areasa and holding the property until the market commanded a substantial return and that is when they sold. 

That said tread carefully as scams are a plenty in the sale of land and you run the risk of paying way over value for land if you're not a saavy investor.

Currently I'm just beginning the process of looking at buying raw land in Tulum, Mexico as it's a popular destination already, however as Playa Del Carmen and the Rivera Maya continue to develop further south, at some point probably all the way to Belize, I think it could be a good buy. I am hesitant buying property outside the country and from what I've heard to actually get good deals and quite honestly the way things are done down there, your not going to find much on sites like Realtor.com or online and the little you do find typically isn't deals. 

 

You really need to have some feet on the ground scouting out land for you, or even better you need to be in the area developing contacts. I'm also somewhat turned off that I will not be able to hold the property in my own name. This is typical and has been safely done for years, however it just seems odd as it's not the way it's done here at home. In Mexico you have to be 32 miles out from the coast or border to own land as a non-Mexican citizen. Obviously everything that appeals to me for the most part is beach towns and not the interior of Mexico

I'm still at the very beginning states of investigating land banking. I will do a follow up post and share what further info and strategies I find and will report back if I wind up buying anything.

In the meantime, if you have experience having done this or have info to share or even questions to ask just leave a comment in the comments section below.

Buying A Home Near A Starbucks Can Increase Your Homes Value - Who Knew?

I occasionally use the website Zillow to look for properties, look at potential rental properties I may want to buy as well as check the "Zestimate" of my homes, even though I know a Zestimate really doesn't serve much practical purpose and is more for entertainment.

Anyhow, Zillow occasionally will send me articles and e-mails on various topics. Recently they sent out an e-mail giving tips to home buyers such as how the lowest interest rate isn't always the best loan if there's pre-payment penalties or high loan initiation fees.

Can Buying A Home Near Starbucks Increase Your Home's Value?

Anyhow, one interesting thing they mentioned in the article is that homes near the Coffee giant Starbucks see an increase in home value just due to being near a Starbucks coffee shop. Who knew?

Now on the surface this may seem stupid, really someone is going to pay more for a home because it's near a Starbucks? Now personally I'm not a huge fan of Starbucks, I'm more of a Dunkin Donuts kind of guy, however I can attest to wanting to live near a coffee shop.

It may seem trivial but if you're a coffee drinker like me you have to have a cup of coffee before your day starts. I prefer getting my coffee out as opposed to brewing it at home. I realize it's not the frugal thing to do and is a waste of money, however it gets my day started and it's one of my few splurges. Also, I'm just getting a plain cup of Joe and not some fru fru milkshake coffee drink that costs $7, so not a huge loss.

I have never really lived close to a coffee shop. I often go get a coffee as soon as I wake up to enjoy at home while doing my morning routine before actually getting in the car and going to work. It may sound silly that one would choose to buy a home based on a location of a coffee shop however I have said before "man I wish I had a coffee shop down the street I could walk to" or even one a short drive away as opposed to having to drive clear across town wasting probably a half hour round trip just so I can have my coffee before leaving the house and starting my day.

Now as we all should know stats and figures can be twisted to say anything so we do have to examine, is it strictly having a coffee shop near the house which increases home value or is the main factor that Starbucks typically is going to open stores in affluent or improving areas and therefore home values are following good areas which would grow in price whether a Starbucks is there or not. Basically this could be that Starbucks is not driving home prices, but Starbucks is simply moving into and opening up stores in areas where home values or already rising.

I woulnd't make the distance of a Starbucks a prime decision point in my home buying decision, however that said it can't hurt to have a Starbucks or coffee shop nearby.

If you're interested in reading Zillow's article you can read it at the link below...


Starbucks caffeinates home values, too, and some cities see a bigger jolt than others.

Just Setup My Lending Club Account - Why I Chose Lending Club Vs. Prosper

Recently I've decided to try out some different ways of making my money work for me as opposed to just buying individual stocks with my Scottrade account. I opened a WealthFront and Betterment account and just recently did a write-up on those which can be read HERE. I also however opened an account with Lending Club and am going to be giving that a try as well. The reason of this post is to tell you why I decided to try Lending Club as opposed to Prosper.

Lending Club Vs. Prosper

I just funded the account so havn't really had a chance to use it yet, however I was able to setup the auto-investing setting and also take a look around at the platform as a whole as well as the available notes, interest rates and ratings. I'll report back and do another post in a few weeks or months to comment on the ease of use of the platform as well as returns. In the end however after doing some research and reading some blogs I wound up deciding to use Lending Club instead of Prosper.

As far as the Pro's and Con's of each platform, both are well reviewed and well liked. In the end however there are a few reasons why I chose Lending Club over Prosper. First off most people seem to say Lending Club has a simpler and easier to use dashboard and website. Lending Club also has many more lenders and borrowers, I don't have the specific numbers in front of me but Lending Club has significantly more money being lent through the company.

One area however where Prosper beats out Lending Club according to many is it's possible to get higher interest rates through Prosper than lending club, I believe even on more well rated notes you get slightly higher interest but where this is a bigger deal is if you deal with the riskier grade notes.

As I said, in the end I wound up going with Lending Club. I can't say one is definitively better than the other but after reading many blogs and doing research I decided Lending Club was a better fit for me. Once I get the hang of how the system works I'll probably open up an account with Prosper as well and do a comparison of returns for you guys within the next few months.

Have you thought about taking the plunge and trying to make some money with peer to peer consumer lending? Why not give it a try?

Betterment Robo-Investing Platform - Pretty Good Customer Service

I despise bad customer service and let it be known on my blog and social media when it happens. I think it's also important however to recognize when someone or a company does a good job of customer service and to acknowledge that as well. Many times with online banks and investing platforms customer service is poor to non-existant.

I had signed up for my Betterment investing account the other day as I told you in a previous blog post which you can read HERE. Once you sign-up as with many things they put a couple small micro deposits in your account of a few cents. Reason being it proves you have access to and own that bank account. I had noticed my micro deposits hadn't showed up for Betterment or Wealthfront so I started a chat instantly on the Betterment website. I was helped immediately. The gentlement told me sometimes savings accounts don't take in the micro deposits like checking accounts. I asked to make the change and he said he could not help me with that but call the 800 number and they would be happy to help me.

So Far Happy WIth Betterment Customer Support & Platform

I called the 800 number. Someone picked up within about a minute. I was asked a few security questions to verify I'm me and they deleted the old account so I could add a new one. I believe if you have a larger bank like a Wells Fargo or a Chase I believe you can login on their site and verify instnatly, however with smaller banks you have to go the route of entering info and waiting for micro deposits which isn't a huge deal, Paypal and many companies do this to verify you are you.

I also sent a message to Wealthfront. I have yet to hear back from them but it's only been a couple hours. So far however I'm very pleased with Betterments customer service and customer support which is important when your dealing with an online company without a brick and mortar location for you to visit. So far I'm impressed. Will report back on how the investments go as well as how easy the platform is to use.

Wealthfront Versus Betterment - Which Robo Investor Is Right For You?

Automated investment platforms seem to be all the rage these days with new ones popping up everyday. The two which seem to be leading the pack are Wealthfront and Betterment. Many young tech start-up entrepreneurs are using these two investor platforms and reporting great success.

 

 

I just recently signed up for accounts which both Wealthfront and Betterment the other day. I'm still waiting for them to do the verification deposits in my account so it will be a few more days before I'm active on both platforms and can truly compare and contrast these two investing platforms. I'll do a follow-up review after I use them, as well as do a follow-up every few months down the road reporting results and which platform works out better for me. Though these two platforms offer a few different types of investments, overall I'll be investing the same amount of money in each and setting the risk profile to the same on each account so will be interesting to see which one outperforms the other.

For now this is about all I have to say about these two platforms, I'll report back soon once my account is open and show you guys the dashboards and my initial impressions but for now I'll post another versus blog post from InvestorJunkie.

Betterment vs. Wealthfront – How Do These Robo Advisors Compare?

Automated investment platforms seem to be springing up all over the web. Some are gaining a reputation well ahead of the pack. Two examples of this are Betterment and Wealthfront. In so many ways, the platforms function in similar fashion. But there are differences between the two that could serve you and your investments better.

READ MORE

Entrepreneurship Does NOT Mean Leaving Stress Behind - An Entrepreneurs Mindset

I think many people long for the day they can leave behind their day job and strike out on their own and become an entrepreneur. I think many people, myself included think that you leave stress behind once you leave a job.

The fact of the matter is nothing could be further from the truth. You leave one type of stress behind for another type of stress and in many ways being an entrepreneur is actually more stressful and requires more hours than being an employee. Being an entrepreneur however is also much more rewarding both from a personal standpoint as well as to your pocketbook.

Leaving Your Job To Be An Entrepreneur - Trading One Type Of Stress For Another

If we are honest with ourselves I think we can all admit we have slacked at our job from time to time. Whether it's feeling lazy for a day, a week, heck some people skate through their whole career. Granted job stability and security isn't what it used to be but that said I think most people realize and know there's a level of efficiency and work they must meet at a bare minimum to keep their job and many people skate by working at that level. In all honestly I can't blame you, many people whether it's right or not only work as hard as they feel they are paid to work.

When you are an entrepreneur there's no lazyness and no skating as how much you make and your success or failure doesn't depend on others or a company, it all falls on your shoulders. You can't blend in with the pack and just skate by, you are the pack.

Another thing about being an entrepreneur. At your current or previous employer I'm sure there's always an IT department to run to when your having computer issues or you probably have some type of mentor or manager to run to when a problem occurs. When you are an entrepreneur there is nobody to run to, you are the problem solver. If a computer breaks you have to either fix it, hire someone to fix it or a new one. There's no expense account that comes out of your own pocket. You are your own problem solver and though you can reach out to consoltants and businesses to help this all requires time and money.

I think people fail to realize these elements of being an entrepreneur. As someone who has recently left my job to focus on my business I can tell you I expected to be on cloud 9 and life was easy and in reality I'm just as busy if not more so than I was before working a fulltime job and running my business, probably in large part because now I am 100% dependent on income from my business.

Though being an entrepreneur is a challenge it's also rewarding as well. Though some days are stressful I do find myself at times just being very happy and proud of what I started and that I'm doing things on my own. I also like that my destiny, my success, and how much money I make is on my shoulders and not dependent on if my boss wants to give me a 2% cost of living raise.

Here are some things to think about if you are or are thinking about becomming an entrepreneur. If you have any questions or comments please leave them below.

Nobody Gets Rich Working For Someone Else - The Entrepreneurs Mindset

Nobody gets rich working for someone else. This is something I feel far too many people fail to grasp. I see people thinking I'll get educated, work hard and I'll become wealthy. It doesn't work that way. Almost nobody gets rich working for someone else.

If you truly want financial freedom and even better yet wealth, you need to strike out and do something on your own. Now that could be starting your own company, it could be investing, it could be getting into real estate and buying properties, but it's almost gurnateed you will never get rich strictly or solely being an employee of someone.

Nobody Gets Wealthy Being An Employee

Now of course there's always exceptions to the rule. Look at Mark Cubans internet radio/television company where employees had a stake in the company and everyone down to the janitors got rich. Sure those things happen at start-ups, but that said most people working at startups doin't do it for the pay, they do it because they know there's a chance getting in on the ground floor and helping to build a company they will be rewarded for doing so.

You don't have to leave your job to start a business. I'm a big fan of what people refer to as "side hustles". Now a side hustle to me and I think to most, is a business someone can startup in their spare time that requires not a lot of startup capital or equipment and something someone can do while working a full-time job. Now occasionally side hustles may turn into a full time full fledged business to where you can quit your job, othertimes they may just be some supplemental income, however that supplemental income is money you can put into investments or put to work for you so that you can get wealthy that way.

Now don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with working for someone else and having a career, but don't fool yourself thinking your going to be financially independent or wealthy  being an employee because it rarely happens. 

The Profit CNBC Show Featuring Marcus Lemonis Business / Entrepreneurship Show Review

Season One of The Profit came to an end a few weeks ago, finally getting around to writing a review and recommending you guys check this show out.

Anyone who owns a small business or considers themself an entrepreneur needs to watch this television show. Marcus is a businessman who's top objective is making money, but he's also willing to dive in and get his hands dirty as well, he's far from a hands off businessman.

I'm a big fan of the business based reality shows, however a big complaint of mine is many of these shows seem too fake or staged. I get that reality television is heavily edited and they have to create a story A show which is edited however is much different from a show which is completely staged. I used to be a big fan of Bar Rescue however that show these days seems fake and staged with fights and other things clearly setup for Drama. I don't find that to be the case with The Profit.

This show doesn't end with hugs and kisses like many of these business reality shows, sometimes he works with some very difficult people and in a few episodes they have walked away either without a deal or in at least one case with cutting a difficult partner out of the business.

First and foremost I find this show entertaining however it's also interesting to see business situations you may have faced in your personal life played out on a stage for you to view. It's easy as an outsider to see how people's stubborness can lead to their downfall. I feel there's definately lessons from the show which can be transitioned to daily life to your own business.

Overall I'm a big fan of this show. I've watched the entire first season and plan on watching season two if and when it comes out. I'd highly recommend any business owner or entrepreneur check this show out.

Don't Lose Your Money!!! The Importance Of Backing Up Bitcoins!!! MUST READ!!!!!

I had a scary experience today, almost losing my Bitcoins. It wasn't a huge amount maybe $80 worth of BTC, however that's still a fair amount of money, with fluctuating Bitcoin prices potentially someday that could be way more than $80, kinda like the recent news story about the guy who 2 years ago spend what today would be almost 3 Million US Dollars in Bitcoins, but at the time was only worth about $30.

Anyhow, this story will show you the importance of making sure you have exported your Bitcoin keys and keeping them backed up in more than one place.

You know I hear news stories about how some guy threw out a memory stick with 8 million Dollars worth of Bitcoins or someone's computer crashed and they lost such and such amount of Bitcoins. I always think how could someone be so stupid.

Today however I almost lost my Bitcoins, let me tell you how it happenned. I had my wallet key on the desktop of my computer and a memory stick. I wound up creating a new walleet however and sending all my coins to it. I saved it on my desktop but didn't back it up and transferred my coins there. I had intended to create a few backups but was in a rush and said I'll get around to it next time. Next day on my computer I wind up getting confused by all the old MultiBit keys on my desktop so I delete them all and say later I'll export to my desktop and a zip drive. Well I got lazy or busy and didn't do it.

So I login today and I get a message from MultiBit, there's a new version out. It winds up automatically updating for me, great right? Not so much, when the new version is downloaded I now see the left part of my screen which normally shows my wallets is blank. The new update had deleted my wallets. I was upset because I remembered I had deleted my keys and hadn't taken the time to re-create and resave my keys. Fortunately for me I hadn't emptied my recycling bin so I was able to restore the key and get my Bitcoins back but they could have been lost. This goes to show the importance of keeping copies and backing up your Bitcoin wallet keys.

Flat Fee Real Estate Listing Services - Review & My Experience.

I was in the market to sell a rental property I owned. Most of my rentals are in the city of Chicago and I had one or two rentals still out in the burbs. I kind of wanted to consolidate everything to one area so was looking to dump a property in the burbs. Now I've sold houses on my own before and like many people say, it's not rocket science, if I can save myself 30K I'll do it myself. Your right, its not rocket science but having a realtor can be valuable for the paper work, doing the showings for you and is just more convenient.

Sometime back I had started a thread on a forum asking about inexpensive flat rate realtor services. I wanted to share my experience with others who may be wresting with whether to hire a realtor or go it alone. Now if you have time to kill may as well try selling on your own first, it can't hurt and maybe you save yourself 10's of thousands of dollars. In a time crunch however I'd almost have to say go with a realtor.

I wound up paying a company $250. They had a licensed Reatlor on staff but it was basically a flat fee self service type agreement. I filled out a document with relevant info about my home and picked a price to list at. I did do some research and looked at some comps before selecting the amount. I actually wanted to list it lower but a realtor working in my neigbhorhood urged me to list higher. Why I listened I don't know but I did. I feel I listed a bit high.

There weren't many showings, pretty much few and far between, especially for the market my home was in. I feel this basically boils down to a few reasons. First off, I was priced a bit high. I was selling in the winter when most families don't want to move plus all the Christmas chaos. I think would I have waited til Spring things would have moved quicker.

Secondly, they listed my property in a confusing way. It said something to the effect of this was a exclusive right propert and said I would show the home and do all the paperwork. This is not normally how self service listings appear. I feel this hurt me as people maybe wrote me off as a confusing deal or short sale or something along those lines.

After a few weeks with little action I contacted the companies appraiser to find out how far off on price I was. He actually really helped me out by talking me out of his services and giving me some info and advice which I really appreciated. He told me I was priced too high and also said this error mentioned above is scaring off realtors most likley.

As far as pictures the company I hired took pictures, I have a decent camera and though not an expert kinda enjoy photography. I threw their pics in the trash, well the trash box on my computer at least and used my own. Their photographer sucked. I feel like along the way I maybe made some mistakes with potential buyers and agents.

At this point I had another apartment building in the Pilsen neighborhood of Chicago and wanted to sell before that was off the market so decided to go with a traditional realtor. I did negotiate the commission to 1/2 of his normal commission as I buy and sell a fair bit of properties and he knew he could get more of mybuinsess in the future.

It wasn't that I couldn't handle the paperwork or anything like that but time was a factor if I wanted to pick up this other property. If this wasn't the case I probably would have held out til spring and did a price reduction. A few months prior to my listing I was even seeing bidding wars on some properties in my area.

After talking to several realtors I settled on a local realtor who specializes in investment properties, I figure maybe I'll use him sometime down the road as well. The property owund up selling in 3 weeks and I had to do almost nothing. Yeah it's great to save a few bucks but don't do this if you don't have a clue what your doing and don't do this if your in a rush, just go the route of a traditional Realtor.