Recommended Resources
Welcome to my recommended page! This page is where you can find all of the products, companies, and services that I trust to send my 1,000,000+ yearly readers to. If you are looking to save money, invest, or track your wealth, you’re in the right place. I update this page regularly with new ways to make extra money online as well!
Please note: there are affiliate links on this page below. I only recommend products that I have fully vetted myself or use personally.
The Money Tools I Use
free net worth tracking tool
Personal Capital - Net Worth Tracking
My favorite personal finance app! I love and use Personal Capital on a regular basis – they offer exceptional, free tools for retirement planning. If you are behind on retirement savings or haven’t started, Personal Capital can help you develop a plan to reach that goal. You get both budgeting and investing tools that might make Personal Capital the only personal finance tool you’ll need in 2019.
a must-have financial emergency preparedness tool
ICE Binder - Emergency Preparedness
The In Case of Emergency Binder is really well organized and useful. The structure makes sense, and there's no way I would have been able to make something this high-quality on my own! It is a comprehensive way to organize your life in a way that makes it easier for someone to take over for you if something were to happen.
free budgeting tool
Mint - Budgeting
A powerful free budgeting app. Mint works on the premise that to understand your money, you need to have a full picture of your finances, looking at everything from your debts, budgets, bills, assets, investments, etc. They have both web and mobile options, and they’ve worked hard in recent years to declutter their dashboard to make it more user-friendly.
my preferred investing platform
Schwab - Investing
My Stock Brokerage of Choice. While I mostly invest in ETFs and could use any brokerage, I started with Schwab because one of my mentors had his accounts with them. I’ve stayed with them because of how happy I’ve been with their service, fees, and products. The investing platform is simple to use, and the app makes it easy to trade from your phone.
my preferred banking solution
Chase - Business and Personal Banking
I have been a client at Chase Bank for several years. They are local, online, and basically everywhere. On the side of business banking like setting up joint accounts with my business partners, it has been super beneficial to have the ability to walk into a branch and just sign the documents. And don’t get me started on their Southwest Airlines Credit Cards, a travel hacking must have!
credit monitoring and fraud protection
Lifelock - Identity Theft Protection
As a person whose living is made online, it isn’t hard to recognize the need to protect myself and my wife from identity theft. Those internet scammers are ruthless. I use LifeLock to safeguard us from the tricky Nigerian Prince that makes it past normal security measures.
my alternative to health insurance
Liberty Health - Healthcare Costs
My Favorite Alternative to Health Insurance. Liberty HealthShare can be a good alternative to your existing health insurance plan. Their plans are probably close to, if not lower, than what you’re currently paying, while also providing a good level of financial support for your medical needs. It is a great option for the self-employed, or families that want to lower their health care costs.
free rate finding tool
Credible - Student Loan Refinancing
The best option for comparing student loan rates. Credible is my student loan refinancing company of choice. It’s a transparent company that simplifies the student loan refinancing process. You'll be able to compare multiple rates at once with their free tool.
My Courses
high-paying side hustle
FB Side Hustle Course
This course will help you make $1,000 or more per month running Facebook ads for small businesses.
grow your blog quickly
FB Ads for Bloggers Course
This course will teach you how to grow your blog traffic and email list quickly on the cheap using Facebook ads.
Student Loan Refinancing
free rate finding tool
Credible
2 minutes. That’s all it takes to find the best student loan refinancing interest rates from multiple companies all at once. Credible is completely free, and have a 9.5/10 rating on Trustpilot with over 1,000 positive reviews. They do not utilize a hard credit pull, so your credit will not be effected in any way.
Best Personal Finance Apps
net worth tracking tool
Personal Capital
My wife and I use Personal Capital almost religiously to track our money. It allows you to view all of your accounts from one screen, and it tracks your net worth and sends you weekly spending updates. It’s 100% free to use for tracking your finances.
credit monitoring tool
Credit Sesame
I love products that my readers can use for free! Credit Sesame allows you to track your credit score without having to put in credit card info or paying a dime. You’ll also get $50,000 of free credit fraud protection when you create a profile (which is awesome). Credit Sesame is a “freemium” service (just like Personal Capital), so for the basic stuff like checking your credit score and getting alerts when your score has been updated, it's completely free to use and won't hurt your credit.
investing app
Acorns
Use Your Spare Change to Start Investing. Acorns rounds up any transactions you make with a linked account to the next dollar and invests that into your portfolio. They have also partnered with more than 200 different companies (such as Apple, Hulu, Nike, and Airbnb) to give you cash back on purchases you make with your linked account.
investing app
Stash
Grow a Portfolio That Matches Your Values. Stash is one of a dozen or so apps that lets you invest from your pocket (smartphone). What makes it so different from some of its competitors is that Stash makes it really easy to put your money where your values are. It also shows you what information you should be looking at when making your investments, all on a really easy to use platform that makes investing interesting and approachable.
saving app for couples
Twine
If you’ve ever wanted a really convenient way to set and work towards financial goals with your partner, the Twine savings app is one of the first of its kind that helps you do exactly that. Twine offers a free cash savings account and an investment account tied together with a clean, intuitive design. By offering shared savings goals, Twine is offering something new and it really is exciting.
BUDGETING app
You Need A Budget (YNAB)
You Need A Budget’s platform is built around four rules to help you “gain total control of your money.” Budgeting principle is to “give every dollar a job” or zero-based budgeting. This means that you take your entire paycheck and allocate every last penny of that money. It teaches you to be proactive with your money. It’s not a free app, but you get a lot of customer support for your money. They offer a free 34-day trial, see if it suits your needs.
BUDGETING app
Every Dollar
Every Dollar was made by Dave Ramsey, and adheres to the 7 Baby Steps he teaches his students. There are two versions-- free and paid. EveryDollar is about taking an active role in your finances, and utilizes Zero-Based Budgeting. If you are a hardcore DR fan, this one is for you.
Blogging Products
Blogging
Bluehost
Looking for affordable blog hosting? Bluehost is the hosting company that I recommend to M$M readers. As a bonus for signing up through this site, you'll receive a free domain name when you purchase a 12 month plan. Be sure to select "basic" for your hosting package to save the most money!
SPECIAL BLOG HOSTING OFFER
How to Start a Blog with Launch That Blog
Starting my blog three years ago completely changed my life. I went from being a high school band director that hated his job to working from literally anywhere that has an internet connection and choosing my own hours.
Because of this site and the skills that I picked up from blogging, I outperformed my monthly teaching income within 3 months of quitting my job. Now just three years later, this site brings in over $50,000 per month (and my best month so far was $155,000!).
I don’t have a degree in writing, and there’s nothing “special” that I have which led to my success as a blogger. I’m just a former teacher who worked hard and figured things out along the way.
And since I get emails and private messages every single day asking how to start a blog, I decided to put my teacher hat back on and show you exactly how to start your own money-making blog right now!
Blogging
ConvertKit
I just recently switched over to ConvertKit from MailChimp to handle my email campaigns and am very happy with it. If you are wanting to sell courses or products – this is a really good service. They’ll even help you embed forms if you need it, and there are all kinds of “automations” that can help you create a professional email sales funnel.