"There are plenty of ways to get ahead. The first is so basic I'm almost embarrassed to say it: spend less than you earn." - Paul Clitheroe
Bridging the gap between saving money and investing
If you’re in a car accident, you will have a lot of questions right off the bat. One of those questions may be if you need to prove fault to receive an insurance settlement.
There are some situations where that’s true. You’ll be forced to prove that the car accident was at least mostly the other driver’s fault. Let’s take a closer look at those cases:
[Read more…] about 3 Times You Need to Prove Fault in a Car Accident
How do you know a given technology has arrived? When the scammers start to show up. Since the introduction of Bitcoin in 2009, nearly $11 million has been stolen in numerous bitcoin scams. Despite having been prominent in the news, many people are still not familiar with digital currencies and can’t recognize common Bitcoin scams when they see them.
For investors who want to safely get into Bitcoin, this is the article for you.
There are a lot of different bitcoin scams. This article discuss four: fradulent wallets, brand impersonators, fake mining operations and Ponzi schemes.
A fraudulent wallet is a Bitcoin application designed to look official in order to steal from you. Numerous fraud Bitcoin wallets enter and leave the market every day from credible stores on the Android and Apple platforms. These wallets upload malware along with their bogus application, allowing hackers access to critical information like your bank account and any Bitcoins you obtain. One way to avoid fraudulent wallets is to go with a well-known application like Ledger Nano, Trezor or Coinbase. You can also ask around.
Brand impersonation is commonly used in Bitcoin scams. The scam works like this: a scammer sends a clickbait type message on social media. The message appears to come from a legitimate source. The message directs the user to a site which appears to offer a useful service. The site will then entice the user to enter in their private Bitcoin key. Once the user enters a key, it is stolen and the scammer will be able to spend directly from the user’s Bitcoin wallet. See the graphics below for examples.
Source: ZeroFox
The social media security firm, Zerofox.com, found over 40,000 brand impersonator social media profiles, gathering their research from platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Google plus, and Youtube.
Nearly all Bitcoin mining operations have been called scams at one point. To clarify, a fake mining operation is defined as one that takes payments from “investors” but never actually mines Bitcoin. Usually the best way around fake mining operations is to avoid getting involved in the first place. Exercise due dilligence. Red flags for fake miners are:
A Bitcoin ponzi scheme is an operation, website or organization which falsely markets itself as engaging in cryptocurrency investing or other activity. In reality, these organizations collect money from users and pay out returns for a period of time. After a while, the fake organization stops paying out and user’s funds are stolen. In cryptocurrency, these are usually “mining” schemes which collapse when users stop buying fake mining contracts. How can you avoid Bitcoin ponzi schemes? According to the SEC, the official characteristics of a Ponzi scheme are:
Source: SEC.gov
Every investment in digital currency contains an element of risk. If you’re willing to take the risk, the best strategy is to educate yourself on how blockchain technology works. In case you aren’t clear – blockchain technology is the methodology underling Bitcoin’s value. A good resource is to check out Brock Pierce crypt currency expert. Pierce is an interesting guy, he was a child actor and appeared in the films Mighty Ducks (1992), Mighty Ducks 2 (1994) and First Kid (1996). In later life Pierce went on to become a leader in the Bitcoin community. Here is a great video where he walks you through the logistics of blockchains and how they work in today’s economy.
If you want to invest more into Bitcoin and stay safe, this video will help.
Ever run into trouble with digital currency? If so, leave us a comment below.
Photo credit: Sean MacIntee
Yep, PewDiePie made over $7 million dollars last year. This secures his spot as the wealthiest YouTuber of all time.
When this was recently revealed by a Swedish news outlet (Felix is Swedish), many people were outraged. Here are just a few (of the many!) hateful comments seen on social media:
I find what he does complete garbage. Same goes for people like paris, kardashians, etc…
The one thing that does bother me, and IS a real, serious reason is he makes more money than many of the games he “reacts” to. So… all the man hours, creativity and skill that go into making those games are worth LESS than his idiotic blubbering about them. THAT is SAD AS HELL.
pewdiepie got millions of dollars playing video games and all i got from it was divorced ha ha!!!
In fact, PewDiePie has reacted to these trolls. Watch his reaction video here. He basically says he’s no happier with money than he was when he was barely getting by. He says money doesn’t buy happiness.
However, money must buy something. He definitely wants more of it. No question about that. That’s apparent by the amount of ads he runs on his channel. Not to mention all the other ways he earns money.
This article is about how PewDiePie is able to earn over $7 million from playing video games…
As of this writing, his videos have approxmiately 9,388,272,000 views. Yes. Billions of views. These videos contain display ads. When someone clicks on an ad, PewDiePie gets 55% of the money that advertiser paid YouTube to be on their site. The remaining 45% goes to YouTube. If PewDiePie would stop caring about money, he could take down these ads in an instant.
What PewDiePie has done is create a massive audience. He has millions of subscribers. Video game companies want him to play their games and hopefully have him say nice things about the product. The individual deals are private but it’s safe to assume companies would pay him tens of thousands of dollars to endorse their game. Maybe even hundreds of thousands. He has said he promotes video games for money.
He also owns PewDiePie.com. Here, you can buy video games and miscellaneous merchandise. There’s a $36 t-shirt as well as many other items.
There are no trustworthy statistics on this but you can bet people are willing to pay big money to have the world’s most famous YouTuber appear on their stage. A lot of people say he’s an internet celebrity. Really, he’s a celebrity. Period.
While nothing is for certain, it’s pretty safe to say PewDiePie will have plenty of money in his future. In 2013, he made just $4 million. He has near doubled that in 1 year. The power of compounding, am I right??
If his life continues this way, he will earn 15 million this year.
There are about 8,760 hours in a year. That means 25-year-old Felix will earn $1,712 each hour of 2015.
But PewDiePie is not alone. There are thousands of YouTubers making six-figures and beyond each year.
In most areas in the US, dumpster diving is still legal (although you should always check with your local government to make sure it’s legal where you live before you begin doing it). With the legalization of marijuana in Colorado and Washington state, it seems there are a growing number of people dumpster diving specifically for weed. As legalization takes place in more and more states, there is a good chance growing numbers of people will do this. Why? As one person explains, he makes $2,500 a month jumping into a trash can to collect the trimmings and clippings from marijuana dispensaries and grow houses.
The businesses selling marijuana have to trim and clip the plants to sell in their stores. The inferior parts of the plants end up getting tossed out, and this is what many of the dumpster divers are after. Although it isn’t the highest quality, it’s still weed. Even better, it doesn’t cost a dime when obtained this way. The video below gives a brief explanation on why this is done:
In addition, it’s important to remember that just because you find the marijuana from a place where it was legally grown or sold, that doesn’t necessarily make it legal for you to resell it. In fact, since the selling of marijuana is highly regulated in most places, this could get you into even more trouble than dumpster diving for it. While it’s an interesting trend, it’s not one you want to jump onto simply to make a few extra bucks.
(Photo courtesy of Mark)
The Scientific method for slicing cake was actually a rediscovery. Alex Bellos, the author of The Grapes of Math
Instead of cutting out a wedge, which is the way the vast majority of people cut a cake, the scientific method cuts the cake all the way across the middle into a thin slice. The thin slice is then removed from the middle, and the two sides of the cake are pushed together. They’re then sealed tightly together by placing a rubber band around the cake. When this is done, there’s no interior part of the cake exposed to the air which keeps it from drying out. That means the next time you go to eat a slice of cake, your entire piece will be moist on the inside. Watch the video below and see for yourself:
Still, it’s worth giving a try. Even better, the next time you’re with others and get the chance, volunteer to cut the cake. Then watch the eyes of those around you grow wide as you break the common etiquette of how a cake is typically sliced, and put your new cake-cutting scientific knowledge to work.
In order to be able to bid on the auction, you’ll need to fork over a minimum of $25,000 (the minimum starting bid) and be preapproved before you can make a bid. $25,000 is just the starting point, and the auction is likely to jump to a much higher price in the opening moments. The real bidding, however, is likely to come in the closing hour of the auction.
In 2013, the winning bid was just over $1 million ($1,000,100), but that was considered a huge bargain compared to years past. The 2012 price for lunch with the Oracle of Omaha reached $3.45 million ($3,456,789), the highest ever paid for the lunch, and the highest charity item ever sold on eBay. In the years 2008 – 2011, the top bids all topped $1 million, with most of them topping $2 million. It seems pretty likely that this year’s auction will again reach seven figures with the way that the stock market has performed, and go beyond the amount which was brought in last year.
The money from the auction goes to the Glide Foundation, which provides a number of services to the homeless and poor, including healthcare, housing support and rehabilitation, job training and meals. This is one of the major fundraisers for the charity which has an annual budget of $18 million. In addition to the money raised from the auction, the charity gets a huge amount of exposure from the event.
For the the winners, the topics of conversation at the luncheon are open to almost any topic, except what the billionaire might invest in next. He is more than happy to talk about his “boring” investing advice, his money tips, things that few people know about him, or virtually any other topic that may come up. You might even be able to get an inside scoop on any plans he has for the Billion Dollar Bracket Challenge in 2015.
If you’re curious as to why Warren Buffett does this lunch auction each year, the Glide Foundation asked him to answer this question in his own words. He saw the transformational power of this charity to those who the world had seemed to have given up on, and they way the charity was improving the lives of others. You can see the video below: