Amazon

Is Amazon Stride Flex Worth It

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Health Insurance through Amazon Stride Flex sounds tempting, but is Amazon’s Flex health insurance worth it? What Is Stride Amazon Flex Health Insurance? Amazon contracts with drivers from several different platforms. The most public way to drive for Amazon is via the company’s Amazon Flex program. Amazon Flex drivers select a block of time they want to work making deliveries for Amazon. Since drivers get to choose the time, manner, and place of their paid efforts, all Flex drivers are independent contractors, meaning they do not get access to Amazon’s health plan. Amazon Flex health insurance is offered through an Amazon corporate partner called Stride. How Can Amazon Offer Health Insurance to Its Flex Drivers? The Stride Amazon Flex health insurance for drivers is really an interface to your state’s health insurance website, or the federal Marketplace for health plans. Republicans have made it their mission to tear down and reduce these so-called Obamacare health insurance plans, so don’t get too excited. The Stride by Amazon Flex platform asks the same questions as any of the healthcare marketplaces. You name, your age, what doctors you want to use, what prescriptions you take and want coverage for, and what conditions you …

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Amazon Flex Side Hustle Gig

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I’ve heard of a lot of people turning to side hustle gigs like Amazon Flex as a way to make extra money for saving, investing, financial independence, or retirement planning. Is Amazon Flex worth it to make extra money for investing or saving? That depends a lot on where you live, where the Amazon Flex gigs are, and what kind of car do you have. Quick update: Between July 3 and July 9 if you deliver just one block, Amazon Flex will pay you a $40 bonus. That changes some of the calculus about whether Amazon Flex is worth it to you, at least in the short term. Amazon Flex Pay Amazon Flex pay varies based upon factors like day of the week, time of day, and how many drivers are available. For harder to cover times, Amazon Flex pays more. The Amazon Flex base rate varies by city. Is Amazon Flex pay worth it? Yes, but only if you live close enough to where you pick up your Amazon Flex gigs. Calculate your time and mileage starting from when you leave your house and ending when you get back to your house. Now, figure out what you made with …

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7 Important Things To Look For From the December Stock Market

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Here we go. December 1, 2020 is a Tuesday, so the markets already got started on this week yesterday. This December is packed with interesting scenarios, events, and reports for investors. Without further ado, let’s jump into the 7 most important things to look for from the December stock market. Tesla Joins the S&P 500 Over a long enough period, the FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) at the SP500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average drives some interesting decisions. Some of them prove to be remarkably prescient, others embarrassingly reversed. There is no denying that Tesla dominates news storylines in the automotive industry. Its market capitalization certainly qualifies for inclusion in the central S&P 500 index. On the other hand, Tesla stock is highly volatile, often tied to words its CEO blurts out on Twitter, or based on meeting tight-rope high production goals. More commonly missing those goals but getting credit for being kind of close. What is Rakuten? Joining the S&P 500 will give Tesla stock a new stability that comes from being part of all those market index mutual funds and market index ETFs. At the same time, the company may inject a bit of volatility back into …

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Kohls Plus Amazon Equals Stock Bump

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Kohls Plus Amazon Equals Stock Bump 1

Weird story going around in market news today that Kohl’s, the American, brick-and-mortar, clothing / household goods chain has experienced a sizable stock bump over news that it will begin accepting Amazon returns at all of it’s 1,000+ locations. Say what? Traffic Equals Sales Whether you are online, or out here in the real world, when it comes to retail, traffic equals sales. For my online web properties, I earn more income, referral fees, ad sales, or commissions from sites that have more traffic. At Kohl’s, more traffic also equals more sales, and so… As you might guess, there are plenty of people who walk into a Kohl’s store with an Amazon-ordered survival knife to return, get the return setup, and walk right back out without even turning their head to look at what Kohl’s has in stock. But, you can also imagine the guy who walks in with his zombie-killing survival knife return, and notices a well-priced pair of binoculars, a pair of cargo shorts, or even a fun new top for his daughter on the way out. These sort of “drive by” buying impulses are the goal of sales, discounts, and advertising. A customer comes in to get …

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Is FAANG a Good Investment?

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Even if you’ve never heard of FAANG, chances are you have heard of all the stock components and maybe even contemplated an investment in one or more members, but is FAANG a good investment or bad investment? What Is FAANG? Let’s start from the beginning. FAANG stands for Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Google. As you can probably tell, these are very big, very well known, technology stocks. They are also frequent investments among investors who only invest in a few individual stocks, people often called Main Street investors (as opposed to Wall Street investors). One omission from the list is Microsoft, which is also a very large, very well known, technology company. Unlike the others, however, Microsoft’s stock is not well loved by Wall Street investors and analysts, in large part due to its sideways performance from 2002 to 2013. While its stock has recently done well, it still doesn’t have the same shine, or flair as the others. Perhaps this makes it a less “noisy” investment with fewer fair-weather, amateur, investors? That’s an article for another day. For professional stock analysts and investors, FAANG represents a quick look at the “new” titans of American business. Each of these …

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Amazon and TurboTax Refund Special

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So, I haven’t had a chance to dig through all the details yet (I will soon), but there is a new wrinkle in the tax software refund game. Consider this your, “Wait, there might be a good option here before you buy,” post, not your go for it post. For several years, there have been various offers about what to do with your tax refund. For example, H&R Block got into trouble a few years ago by directing refunds into IRA accounts that had fees and charges that made them a bad deal. This year, TurboTax has an interesting new twist for Amazon shoppers. Amazon Gift Card Bonus from TurboTax TurboTax is one of the most popular tax software packages. (Look for full details and review of TurboTax and Tax Cut coming soon on Finance Gourmet.) There are tons of ways to buy TurboTax including online, via direct download, and of course, via boxes of software in stores. The first rule of buying TurboTax is never pay full price. There are always sales, and deals, and bundles of software that make buying TurboTax cheaper. The most common offer bundles Quicken, which is also an Intuit product with the tax software, …

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Amazon Stock vs Apple Stock

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The stock market does not always make a lot of sense, especially over the short-term. Stock price changes occur for silly reasons a lot of times, whether a news event around the world, or the comments of a TV personality. I think perhaps the most instructive lesson comes from the fictional movie Wall Street where you can hear the financial news on a TV in the background explaining what happened with Blue Star Airlines stock, which, of course, is not at all what happened. However, over the long-term, the stock market tends to shake off the manufactured volatility from trading programs and over/under reaction to news and eventually move stocks in the general vicinity of where they should actually be priced. This can take a very long time; witness the completely irrational internet bubble of the late 90s, which lasted years. What makes trading stocks so tricky is that it doesn’t matter if you are right. All that matters is what everyone else thinks is right. Amazon vs Apple Earnings and Stock Prices One of the latest head scratchers that has everyone talking is what happened with Amazon’s stock price and Apple’s stock price following their earnings announcements and press …

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Online Banking Security Internet Privacy

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When it comes to protecting your privacy online, nothing is more important than a good browser data clearing tool. Deleting your cookies through a web browser’s interface hasn’t been good enough for a long time. Fortunately, utilities like CCleaner and Glary Utilities as well as Firefox add-ons and Chrome extensions fill the need to completely clear your private data from browser cache, flash cookies, and so on. What we need now is a way to manually and selectively protect certain cookies from cleaning. A lot of banks and financial institutions are requiring users to take an extra step when accessing their account information from a new computer that has never accessed the site before. For example, Chase Bank, which handles the Amazon Rewards Visa Card, requires users to get an authentication code via text message or email to one of the numbers or addresses on record with the account in order to log in from a new computer. Bank Login Register Computer First Online banking customers at ING have to answer one or more of their extra security questions in order to access their high-interest online savings account or online checking account. This extra layer of security helps prevent hackers …

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Online Bargains Aren’t Always Great Deals Check The Details First

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Black Friday has come and gone. Cyber Monday is history. Yet, online shopping continues in full force. Various reports suggest that online shopping has increased dramatically this year, likely due to the increasing usage of broadband connections in the home, and the draw of huge savings secretly located on the Internet if you can just find the right combination of coupon codes, discount websites, and wholesalers online. However, as always, when it comes to personal finance what you don’t know can hurt you. Make sure you understand all of the details regarding online shopping for bargains. Otherwise, you may get burned. Amazon Makes Online Shopping OK Not long ago, online shopping was the exclusive providence of very specific people, typically techies, and ultra-bargain shoppers who linked together in electronic discount finding groups reminiscent of the old coupon clubs. A few appearances on Oprah by folks like "Coupon Mom" helped drive online shopping and deal finding to the forefront of the American consciousness. But, what finally pushed online shopping over the edge from the wary, angst filled, activity it used to be to a common shopping method used by teenagers, little old ladies, and the technological inept alike was the legitimizing …

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