Free Money for 2025

 Back to getting free money for 2025.  I did not get any new credit cards in 2024, so now is the time to apply for new credit card incentives.

 To be completed:

         ☐ $500 - AMEX Business cards - Spend $5000 in 6 months  

       ☑ $750 - Chase Business cards - Spend $6000 in 3 months

Other banking deals, Hustler Money Blog, NerdWallet

Free Money for 2024

 It was hard to qualify for free money in 2024, since most banks wont give you a new credit card if you apply more than 5 cards in 2 years.  So I took 2024 off and kept my money in money market accounts yielding more than 5% APR.

Most banks do not have a strict, publicly disclosed limit on the number of credit cards you can get in a year, but they do have various rules and considerations that can affect approval:

Chase has an informal rule known as the "5/24 rule," where they are unlikely to approve you if you've opened 5 or more cards across all issuers in the last 24 months. They also review each application carefully, considering factors like recent card openings.

American Express generally limits customers to no more than 5 cards at a time. They also have rules regarding welcome bonuses, allowing one bonus per lifetime per card.

Bank of America follows what's referred to as the "2/3/4 rule," where you can get approved for 2 new cards in 30 days, 3 in 12 months, and 4 in 24 months. There's also a 24-month wait period for opening the same type of card again for a bonus.

Citi does not have a hard limit on the number of cards, but there's a restriction where bonus points are not available if you've opened or closed a card in the same family within the past 24 months.

Capital One is more strict, allowing a maximum of two cards and suggesting a wait of at least six months between applications.

Barclays does not have a limit on cards but considers your overall credit profile, including the number of hard inquiries and existing debts.

Wells Fargo generally doesn't limit the number of cards but might refuse based on the number of accounts opened in a short period or if you've recently opened another Wells Fargo card.

While these rules give a general idea, the actual number of credit cards you can get in a year varies significantly based on your credit profile, income, credit utilization, and how banks interpret their own policies. Applying for too many cards in a short period can negatively impact your credit score due to hard inquiries and might signal to issuers that you're a high credit risk, leading to denials. Therefore, most people might find 2-3 new cards per year to be a reasonable limit if managed responsibly, but this is highly dependent on individual circumstances and the specific bank's approval criteria.

Free Money for 2023

Inflation is at a 50-year high, and most checking and savings accounts pay .03 percent interest. How can we beat the system while still keeping up with inflation in a safe manner? Here are a few of the best 2023 deals! Simply open an account to receive free money. You have to spend money to get money with credit card deals!

Items completed:

☑ $150 open  $50 Fidelity account   

☑ $400 Spend $3000 Morgan Stanley account   

☑ $500 open  $50,000 Capital One Savings account  

☑ $500 - Bank of America Biz Card spend $5000 in 90 days 

☑ $400 - Truist Checking with two $1K direct deposit promo TRUISTCHK0223 

☑ $400 - PNC Checking account  

☑ $350 - Capitol One 360 Checking account   (2 direct deposit of $250) 

☑ $250 - American Express Rewards Checking $500 direct deposit 

☐  $500 -  USBank with $10K direct deposit

 To be completed:

$500 - BMO Harris bank with $7500 Direct Deposit 

$750 - Chase Business cards - Spend $7500 in 3 months 

iBonds - 9% interest max $10K per year 

Other banking deals, Hustler Money Blog, NerdWallet

Mystery shopping sites:  Get paid to shop!

- Market Force $15-$25 (Sonic, Five Guys, Raising Cane)

- BestMark $15-$25 (Ebay, Mighty Fine, Daily Juice)

- Ace  $25-$35 (Hawaiian Bros, Pizza joints)

- GigSpot - $12-$175 (Rudy's, Freda's, Hawaiian Bros)

- Pinnacle $15-50 (Woodforest National Bank)
- Sinclair $25 (Harmony)

- Ipsos $8.50 (Chevron, ExxonMobil, Panda Express)

- JobSlinger

- PrestoShopper

- Reality Based Group - (Texas Road House, Smokey Joe) 

- IntelliShop - (Jack in Box)

- Shopperhub - Yeti

Free Money in 2022

Inflation is at a 50-year high, and most checking and savings accounts pay .01 percent interest. How can we beat the system while still keeping up with inflation in a safe manner? Here are a few of the best 2022 deals! Simply open an account to receive free money. You have to spend money to get money with credit card deals!

Items completed:

☑$200 - Tastyworks trading account with $2000 deposit 
☑$200 - Capital One Quicksilver card- spend $500 

☑$200 - Bank of America card - spend $1000 in 90 days 

☑$500 - Bank of America Checking account - $50K for 60 days

☑$400 - Regions Checking account with $1K deposit
☑$200 - Wells Fargo Active Cash Card - Spend $1000 in 3 months 

☑ $500 - USBANK AFTER $4500 SPEND AFTER 150 DAYS  

☑$300 - SoFi account with direct deposit 

☑ $200 - Regions Savings account with $2K deposit 

☑ $500 to $1000 - Citi Bank account with $30K

☑ $100 spend  $1000 - Venmo Credit Card  

☑ $150 open  $50 Fidelity account   

 To be completed:

$500 - USBank with $6000 direct deposit

$500 - BMO Harris bank with $7500 Direct Deposit 

$750 - Chase Business cards - Spend $7500 in 3 months 

iBonds - 9% interest max $10K per year 

Other banking deals, Hustler Money Blog, NerdWallet

Mystery shopping sites:  Get paid to shop!

- Market Force $15-$25 (Sonic, Five Guys, Raising Cane)

- BestMark $15-$25 (Ebay, Mighty Fine, Daily Juice)

- Ace  $25-$35 (Hawaiian Bros, Pizza joints)

- GigSpot - $12-$175 (Rudy's, Freda's, Hawaiian Bros)

- Pinnacle $15-50 (Woodforest National Bank)
- Sinclair $25 (Harmony)

- Ipsos $8.50 (Chevron, ExxonMobil, Panda Express)

- JobSlinger

- PrestoShopper

- Reality Based Group - (Texas Road House, Smokey Joe) 

- IntelliShop - (Jack in Box)

- Shopperhub - Yeti

The Five Most Important Lessons I've Learned in 25 Years of Trading

These five key things will help make you successful at trading.

By JAMES "REV SHARK" DEPORRE 

 Jun 15, 2019 Updated Jun 16, 2019 | 10:39 AM EDT

I have been actively trading the market for about 25 years now and plan on trading as long as can operate a mouse and a keyboard. I am thankful every day that I went totally deaf and was forced to give up my career as a lawyer.

Over the past five years I have learned enough about trading to fill several books. I've probably written over 15,000 articles for Real Money. Many themes have been discussed in a variety of contexts and ways.

I deem these five lessons as the most important.

1. Profits Occur Sporadically

The market is, and always will be, cyclical. It goes through ups and downs of various magnitudes on an irregular basis.

The easiest way to deal with that fact is to embrace it. I've found that the 80/20 rule tends to apply. I will make 80% of my profits in 20% of the time. The other 80% of the time I make little progress.

The problem is that we never know when that period of peak productivity will occur. We must be constantly vigilant and ready to spring into action when favorable conditions occur. When they do occur, we have to ramp up our aggressiveness and profit while we can.

One trait effective traders share is the ability to be patient and do little for long periods of time, and then move suddenly and decisively when the time is right.

Shifting from a patient state of mind to a more active one is not easy.

2. Predictions and Forecasts Are a Waste of Time

In the many years I've traded, I've heard an uncountable number of predictions and forecasts. The vast majority have been wrong or so poorly timed as to be useless. Wall Street loves predictions and forecasts because that is basically what they sell. They convince customers that they can predict the future better they can.

The predictions and forecasts are interesting, and can help us prepare for volatility ahead, but it is the reaction to changing events that is the most important.

Moving to the sidelines as a downtrend emerges will protect you better than any prediction or forecast. It is reacting decisively that works far better than predictions and forecasts.

3. Keep Your Accounts as Close to Highs as Possible

Nothing is more unproductive than making up losses. If you lose half of your money, you have to double it to just return to even. If you are zealous at keeping your accounts near highs, you will outperform over the longer term.

Long-term buy-and-hold investing is often promoted on the basis that it allows you to compound your money and that it is what makes investors like Warren Buffett so successful. However, you compound results when you keep your accounts at highs and continue to produce returns. You can do this equally well -- if not better -- with aggressive trading, provided you focus on keeping accounts at their highs.

Compounding fails to work when you suffer big drawdowns and losses, and that happens to long-term investors and short-term traders.

If you err on the side of not suffering large losses, you will produce better returns as you compound your capital.

4. Use Charts

Charts are often dismissed as voodoo by the same people that are so confident of their ability to predict macroeconomic events, but they miss the main point. Charts are useful because they provide a framework for discipline. There are millions of ways to use charts, but at the heart of every method is cutting losses and letting profits run.

Charts are your best tool for developing a trading methodology to implement the main points I'm making here. 

5. No Trading Approach Is Inherently Superior

The best approach to the market is highly subjective. Some people do very well with trend following and momentum. Others do equally well with value plays and fundamentals. What works best will depend you how you view the market and the methodology you use to protect capital and find new stocks to buy.

Work on developing a style that makes sense to you. If it doesn't work as well as you'd like, keep modifying it. The market is constantly changing, which means what works best will shift all the time. Just make sure you keep in mind what I mentioned in lesson No. 1 above -- your profits will come at irregular cycles.

This is a very broad outline of the five key things that will help make you successful at trading.

One of the greatest things about this business is there is always a new opportunity around the corner. As long as you have capital, you have the potential to produce sizable returns.