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No more survey apps, they just don’t pay well

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Here’s the thing, I started this post reviewing Swagbucks. Swagbucks is one of the most popular survey sites out there and I just wrapped up the last three hours building wealth. OK, it was more like brain melting surveys that made less than $1. That is when I just said forget survey apps.

Yes, I have only tested three survey apps ever. Those were “Swagbucks”, “Toluna” and a while ago I did “Survey On The Go”. All three times I spent hours answering such riveting questions such as “What is your age?”, “What is your occupation?” and “What is your medium income?”. 70% of the time I was told that I was not what they were looking for and the other 30% I earned a few pennies. In the case of Swagbucks, after 3 hours I made 28 points and it takes 2,500 to make $25. That’s roughly $0.28 or $0.09 an hour.

Disclaimer: There are other ways to make money on Swagbucks like signing up for free offers and downloading countless apps you don’t need that will take up all your phone’s memory. Obviously from my tone, I think these are all dumb ideas and we shouldn’t

So that’s it for me. Wallet Squirrel and I are officially done with Survey Apps. To give you an idea this is what I was making an hour on the different sites. Keep in mind, I did these while watching a movie, it was the only way I could get through these.

Swagbucks: $0.09 per hour
Toluna: $0.66 per hour
Survey on the Go: $0.20 per hour

I’ve started with survey apps because they are one of the most common ways people usually say they can make money online. I thought it would an ideal way to start. I’m glad I did, now I can cross it off and focus on some better ways to earn money…..

My Dividend Investing Strategy

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Screw chasing yields, I’ve never been into that. Usually high yields means the company is bleeding money. You’ll see some dividend investors taking large stakes in companies with over 15% yields. That’s just crazy. They’ll usually see their investment dwindle down because most companies can’t support that.

Here are the rules I follow:

1. Only invest in dividend paying stocks – I eventually want to live off the dividends my stocks produce. I would love to invest in stocks like Amazon and Adobe because I believe they have such a great strategic advantage and I’ll continue to see them do well, but they don’t produce dividends. It’s really, very sad. Just Google “if you invested in Coca-Cola in 1990” and you’ll see how a dividend producing stock will produce a better return than your average stock. It will have its annual increase PLUS it’s dividend to grow its stock. I never want to try to TIME THE MARKET selling off shares at the right time. I’m more interested in streams of income than buckets of income.

2. Windfalls should be invested in existing stock – You’re going to find yourself with certain windfalls. Sometimes it will be a large paycheck from a side hustle, sometimes it will be an inheritance or whatever the windfall it should be. You’ll want to spend that money all at once. It’s money you didn’t have before so why not use it to buy a butt load of stock? Problem is, you’ll want to buy stocks all at once and you’ll go on a spending spree. To save yourself from buying stocks you don’t know too much about, reinvest in the stocks you’re currently invested in. These are stocks you’ve vetted before, you’re better off reinvesting in them with your windfall. Whenever I receive a large paycheck ($200 is large for me) from a side hustle, I will reinvest into stocks I’m currently already in bed with.

3. Will the company be around in 50 years? – I’m slightly stealing this one from Warren Buffet, but the trick to not going crazy watching stock prices is investing in companies that will be around in 50 years. Invest in companies that you believe will succeed and ignore all the market fluctuations. That is the trick for me. I don’t pay attention to the temporary ups and down of the market. I plan to invest in the companies I believe in and take in the monthly paycheck. I always recommend you do quarterly updates with your stock/companies to make sure the CEO isn’t embezzling from the company or anything and your stock price isn’t plummeting.

4. Don’t sell your stock – You’ll be tempted but you got to know that you’ll make more if you don’t. If tempted, just look back at the graphs and you’ll see that stocks constantly fluctuate. Up and down and back again, but usually with 7% annual growth if we factor in the S&P annual growth. Just think about the people who gained so much by continuing to hold Coca-Cola through all the recessions. If you believe in the company, let it be and just keep collecting the dividends. Now if the company quits it’s dividends, then you should consider selling, but use caution. Otherwise sit back and enjoy!

The Beginning

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I first thought I’d create a WordPress site and sound like an expert in dividend investing. I set it up in a week and when I laid down my finger tips to the keyboard to type the first post “What is Dividend Investing” I froze like a deer in headlights. Why would I assume to know more than you about dividend investing? That was stupid.

Scratch that and let’s be real, legit or whatever the kids are saying today. I love to receive money (notice I didn’t say earn) and who wouldn’t? Money is awesome. It won’t BUY happiness but it’ll buy you a boat and people with boats are happy, right? I’m pretty sure Chris Janson (country singer) wrote a song about that.

How I view Investing

Have you ever played a video game where you’re economy relies on you building refineries that constantly produce resources for you? You wait long enough, or build enough refineries, you will have enough money to build a giant army and crush/destroy/annihilate your foes. That’s how I see dividend investing, but instead of winning the game, you can retire early.

Personally I hate the “R” word, retire. It’s so far away. The idea that you have to have less money now when you’re young and able to spend it, to then save it so you can use it when you’re old. Yay, you can play more golf…… That is a sarcastically view, but I do realize it’s importance.

Yet, the idea of saving or throwing money into a big pot (401k) and hoping that it won’t run out when you actually retire sounds ridiculous. People are living longer than ever and $1,000,000 spread  over 10 years is REALLY different spread across 40 years.

With dividend investing (not a new concept) I would love to have $1,000,000 all invested in dividend producing stocks generating 4% a year for me. I can totally live on $40,000 a year while I STILL having my $1,000,000 in the bank growing. Plus how cool would it be to pass it on to your kids (I currently have none) so that they would have $40,000 a year for the rest of their lives and their kid’s lives? Can anyone say college?

I still have college loans I’m paying off and I wish someone in my family did this for me. I’m hoping one my grandchildren (again, still no kids yet) reflect upon the night sky while he contemplates his zero debt and say “Man, Grandpa Andrew was pretty awesome”. I can dream.

How to pay for investing

Now I pretty much make peanuts now, which like most people do, sucks. How the hell can I get to $1,000,000 saving peanuts? What about that gigantic, whimsical, time sucking internet? You can’t throw a rock without someone saying they have made money online. So why can’t I?

While I have started my own list of how to make money online. I plan to test each of these. If it works, then I’ll add that revenue to my dividend portfolio. It’s the best way to use free money. I’ll still share the results here because I don’t want you to waste your time either. Let’s face it, I like you alone for the fact you’re reading this. So yes, I’ll share what works and doesn’t for my portfolio.

This is how it begins.