Don’t Get Distracted by Dogecoin — 7 Actually Legit Ways to Boost Your Net Worth

Okay, we’ll admit it: We’re not really into Bitcoin or Dogecoin or Ethereum or whatever. We don’t care what Elon Musk tweeted today.

We’re just as interested in cryptocurrency as we are the Cryptkeeper or Krypto the Superdog.

Go ahead, call us old-fashioned. We just like regular money, that’s all. The kind that folds. The kind you can use to buy a Big Mac or a plane ticket or a new pair of shoes.

Oh, and our landlord and our power company and our car insurance company? Turns out they like regular money too, and they expect us to pay them with it. Every single month.

So, go ahead and track the ups and downs of Bitcoin or Dogecoin, if that’s your thing. That’s cool, it’s a free country. But for us, that kind of sideshow is just a distraction from the real work: Making better financial decisions and growing our money — our real money.

Here are seven legit ways to boost your net worth:

1. Stop Paying Your Credit Card Company

Blah blah blah Bitcoins blah blah. It doesn’t matter.

In the real world, what matters is that credit card debt is the most expensive kind of debt, and your credit card company is just getting rich by ripping you off with high interest rates. But a website called AmOne can help you fight back.

If you owe your credit card companies $100,000 or less, AmOne will match you with a low-interest loan you can use to pay off every single one of your balances.

The benefit? You’ll be left with one bill to pay each month. And because personal loans have lower interest rates (AmOne rates start at 6.40% APR), you’ll get out of debt that much faster. Plus: No credit card payment this month.

AmOne keeps your information confidential and secure, which is probably why after 20 years in business, it still has an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau.

It takes two minutes to see if you qualify for up to $50,000 online. You do need to give AmOne a real phone number in order to qualify, but don’t worry — they won’t spam you with phone calls.

2. Knock $540/Year From Your Car Insurance in Minutes

When it comes to the amount of normal, regular money you have in your pocket, cutting necessary expenses can make a huge difference.

So when’s the last time you checked car insurance prices? Is the answer “never”?

You should shop your options every six months or so — it could save you some serious money. But don’t waste your time hopping around to different insurance companies looking for a better deal.

Use a website called EverQuote to see all your options at once.

EverQuote is the largest online marketplace for insurance in the US, so you’ll get the top options from more than 175 different carriers handed right to you.

Take a couple of minutes to answer some questions about yourself and your driving record. With this information, EverQuote will be able to give you the top recommendations for car insurance. In just a few minutes, you could save up to $610 a year.

3. Start Investing for the Future

Investing is how you build generational wealth. If you feel like you don’t have enough money to start investing, you’re not alone. But guess what? You really don’t need that much — and you can even get free stocks (worth $5 to $200!) if you know where to look.

Whether you’ve got $5, $100 or $800 to spare, you can start investing with Robinhood.

Yeah, you’ve probably heard of Robinhood. Both investing beginners and pros love it because it doesn’t charge commission fees, and you can buy and sell stocks for free — no limits. Plus, it’s super easy to use.

What’s best? When you download the app and fund your account (it takes no more than a few minutes), Robinhood drops a share of free stock into your account. It’s random, though, so that stock could be worth anywhere from $5 to $200 — a nice boost to help you build your investments.

4. Get Paid Every Time You Buy Groceries

Grocery shopping is getting more and more expensive as prices go up. Shouldn’t you have something to show for it? Besides food, I mean.

A free app called Fetch Rewards will reward you with gift cards just for buying toilet paper and more than 250 other items at the grocery store.

Here’s how it works: After you’ve downloaded the app, just take a picture of your receipt showing you purchased an item from one of the brands listed in Fetch. For your efforts, you’ll earn gift cards to places like Amazon or Walmart.

You can download the free Fetch Rewards app here to start getting free gift cards. Over a million people already have, so they must be onto something…

5. Make Sure You’re Not Overpaying

Here’s another way to improve your cash flow: Stop overpaying for things.

Wouldn’t it be nice if you got an alert when you’re shopping online at Target and are about to overpay? That’s what this free service does.

Just add it to your browser for free, and before you check out, it’ll check other websites, including Walmart, eBay and others to see if your item is available for cheaper. Plus, you can get coupon codes, set up price-drop alerts and even see the item’s price history.

Let’s say you’re shopping for a new TV, and you assume you’ve found the best price. Here’s when you’ll get a pop up letting you know if that exact TV is available elsewhere for cheaper. If there are any available coupon codes, they’ll also automatically be applied to your order.

In the last year, this has saved people $160 million.

You can get started in just a few clicks to see if you’re overpaying online.

6. Get Paid $225/Month While Watching Movie Previews

If we told you that you could get paid while watching videos on your computer, you’d probably laugh.

It’s too good to be true, right?

But we’re serious. By signing up for a free account with InboxDollars, you could add up to $225 a month to your pocket. They’ll send you short surveys every day, which you can fill out while you watch someone bake brownies or catch up on the latest Kardashian drama.

No, InboxDollars won’t replace your full-time job, but it’s something easy you can do while you’re already on the couch tonight, wasting time on your phone.

Unlike other sites, InboxDollars pays you in cash — no points or gift cards. It’s already paid its users more than $56 million.

Signing up takes about one minute, and you’ll immediately receive a $5 bonus to get you started.

So, go ahead. Buy your Bitcoins and your Dogecoins. Keep refreshing Twitter to see if Elon Musk said anything insane about them today.

Us? We’ll stick with real money, thank you.

Mike Brassfield ([email protected]) is a senior writer at The Penny Hoarder. He likes regular money.