Blog - Page 3 of 281 - Making Sense Of Cents

Bask Bank Review: Earn Airline Miles For Saving Money

Last Updated: December 7, 2022 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 4 Comments

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Please read my disclosure for more info.

This Bask Bank Review is in partnership with Bask Bank.

Are you looking for a savings account that will allow you to travel more and help you diversify your savings?

Bask Bank offers a new and unique way to save money. With a Bask Bank Savings Account, you can actually earn airline miles instead of interest just by saving your money in a savings account.

Yes, Bask Bank will pay you to save!

Bask Bank is helping people reach their savings goals by offering three ways to save – a Mileage Savings Account rewards account holders with 2 American Airline AAdvantage® miles for every $1 saved annually, an Interest Savings Account that earns 15 times the national average APY* (as of December 1, 2022, you can earn 3.85% APY with the Bask Bank Interest Savings Account) and a Certificate of Deposit Savings Account.

That is a very competitive interest rate and one of the highest that I have ever seen.

Sounds great, right?

If you have questions, such as the below, then this Bask Bank Review is for you:

What is Bask Bank?
Is Bask Bank safe?
Can Bask Bank help me travel more?
What is the Bask Bank Mileage Savings Account?
How many American Airlines AAdvantage® miles do I earn with a Bask Mileage Savings Account?
Is Bask Bank FDIC insured?

You can learn more about Bask Bank by heading to their website here. [Read more…]

How We Bought A House And Only Pay A $116 Monthly Payment

Last Updated: November 18, 2022 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 2 Comments

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Please read my disclosure for more info.

Hey everyone! I have an update to share from a reader named Nichole. She first shared her story in August of 2021 about how she went from -$20,000 to a six-figure savings by 26 years old. Today, she is sharing her story on how she bought a house and has a low monthly payment.

The following will outline the steps my husband and I, both 27 at the time of purchase, took to buy a house during a high market.

We did a previous post titled How We Saved Over $100,000 By Age 26. Although we did not reach our original goal of paying all cash for our home, we did get our monthly payment down to $116!

Yes, you read that correctly, one hundred and sixteen dollars.

I encourage you to read our story above before reading this one, as this is an update to the previous post. My husband and I have lived in a room the past 3 years with our 3 cats, and yes, it is as bad as it sounds. We are happy to announce we are living in our own home and our cats are very happy to run around and even have their own catio (cat patio)!

First, let’s start with the house details! Below is a short description of the purchase of our home. We bought early 2022 during a hot market in Southern California. [Read more…]

This 33-year-old mom makes $760,000 a year in passive income

Last Updated: February 13, 2023 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 10 Comments

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Please read my disclosure for more info.

Hey,

This article from CNBC has been very popular so far this month, so I just want to say hello to all of my new readers.

You can read the CNBC article here – This 33-year-old mom makes $760,000 a year in passive income—and lives on a sailboat: ‘I work just 10 hours a week’

If you are a new visitor – welcome to Making Sense of Cents!

Here are some blog posts that you may find helpful and enjoy:

If you have any questions, please leave a comment below or send me an email.

Thanks for stopping by.

-Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

How I Make Over $10,000 Each Month With A Niche Site

Last Updated: November 14, 2022 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 5 Comments

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Please read my disclosure for more info.

Are you interested in starting a website? Today, I am interviewing Mike Futia on how you can start a money making niche site.

A niche site is a little different from a traditional blog, and he will be teaching you all about that today.

Mike Futia is the founder of Stupid Simple SEO, where he teaches bloggers how to scale their traffic and income with SEO.

Mike recently sold a niche site for over $100,000, and he has also taken three different niche sites to over $10,000 in monthly earnings each. I have also taken a course of his, and I highly recommend them due to the wealth of knowledge that he shares.

Plus, over 4,000 students have enrolled in his Stupid Simple SEO and Niche Site Academy programs. He’s also the founder of the software NicheFinder.io.

He is an expert on this topic, and I’m excited for you to learn more.

In today’s interview, questions answered include:

What is a niche site? How is this different from a “normal” blog?
How much money can a niche site make?
How can you monetize a niche site?
How long does it take to monetize a niche site?
What are the most profitable niches for blogging?

Mike also has a free webinar – How To Build A Money-Making Niche Site. In this free webinar, you will learn how one of Mike’s students sees 200,000 pageviews per month (in just 8 months), why niche sites are a great way to make money, his 3-step framework for creating your niche site and making money with it, and more. [Read more…]

How We Retired At 29, Travel, And Keep Our Expenses Low

Last Updated: November 7, 2022 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 10 Comments

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Please read my disclosure for more info.

Are you interested in early retirement and financial independence? Today, I have a great interview with Lauren and Steven, a couple who managed to save enough money to retire from their full-time jobs at the age of 29.

They have done some really fun things since freeing themselves from full-time work, such as spending six months in Hawaii, visiting every U. S. National Park, and more.

In this interview, you’ll learn:

What they do for health insurance now that they don’t have full-time jobs
What Lean FIRE is
When they began saving for early retirement
How they’re able to keep their expenses low
How much they spend traveling in early retirement
The jobs they had before they quit
Whether or not they still work

And more!

This interview is packed full of valuable information on reaching early retirement. [Read more…]

How To Save Money During The Holidays (20+ Ways To Save & Make Money!)

Last Updated: November 1, 2022 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 2 Comments

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Please read my disclosure for more info.

Want to learn how to save money during the holidays?

It’s the holiday season, so you know what that means! It’s time to think about holiday gifts, holiday parties, and holiday food galore!

It’s also time to get serious about gift shopping and party planning. Maybe you even have some holiday travel planned to see your loved ones.

While there’s a lot of excitement during the holiday season, spending money on extra treats, decorations, and entertaining can add up fast.

The average person spends around $1,000 on gifts during the holiday season. Plus, you still have other costs such as travel, events, decorations, and more.

Because the holidays can be so expensive, today I want to teach you how to save money during the holidays! I’m going to share ideas for keeping your holiday spending to a minimum without scrimping on the holiday cheer. I will also be talking about different ways to make extra money during the holidays – there are so many ways to do it!

I’m covering both holiday spending tips and making money because that’s the best approach if you want to learn how to save money during the holidays.

After all, the holiday season is the most wonderful time of the year (at least it should be). But it can add a lot of stress if you aren’t financially prepared to spend extra money on gifts, traveling, and entertaining.

Fortunately, there are ways to save money during the holidays that will bring you peace of mind and holiday cheer. [Read more…]

Blog Income Reports From A Multi-Million Blog (My Real Reports!)

Last Updated: October 26, 2022 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 15 Comments

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Please read my disclosure for more info.

If you’ve ever wondered how I make money, then this is for you – it’s dedicated to my blog income reports!

I absolutely love blogging, and I am so glad that I randomly started this site a little over a decade ago. Blogging has taught me so many things, and I have helped countless people improve their finances.

Plus, I have been able to earn a great income doing something I truly love to do!

One of the things I started doing in the early days of Making Sense of Cents was to publish personal finance blog income reports. They were a monthly breakdown of how much money I made and where it came from, such as affiliate income, sponsored posts, etc. I also answered FAQs and talked about different things happening in my life and business.

If you’re interested in blogging or simply want to learn more about my site, my income reports include a ton of information.

I’ll explain more shortly, but I no longer publish my income. However, I still have a lot of people asking where they can find my old income reports. That’s why I decided to put together this page.

My income reports started because I wanted to share how much money I was earning from my side jobs, which included blogging at the time. These reports included all of the income I made outside of my day job. This included income from mystery shopping, answering surveys online, selling items on eBay, and more.

Eventually, I quit all of my side jobs and focused solely on Making Sense of Cents. That’s when my reports really changed, and they became blogging income reports and showed the many different ways that I earned money from this site. [Read more…]