Bumped worked and things I question

Several months ago I put myself on the waiting list for a new app called Bumped that paid its shopping bonuses in the form of stock of the company you were shopping with. To me, it seemed like the ultimate customer retention play and I gladly waiting for my invite to join. It came last week and I was asked to chose places I like to shop by category and to pick one in each. 

The categories are listed below and if I’ve chosen, the company I’m now earning stock in:

1. Warehouse Club = Sam’s at 1%
2. Coffee = Starbucks at 2%
3. Convenience Stores/Gas = .5% at BP, Chevron, Exxon or Shell?
4. Entertainment = 2% at AMC, Cinemark, Fandango, Netflix or Spotify?
5. Family Dining= 2% at Chilis, Olive Garden, Outback, or Red Robin?
6. Grocery = 0.5% at Kroger. My $487 gift card earned me $2.44 in Kroger stock.
7. Quick Eats =3% at Burger King, Chipotle, Jamba, McDonalds, or Subway.
8. Ride Share=1% at Uber or Lyft
9. Vineyards=1% at Willamette Valley.

To me, this seems like a no-brainer app to link your cards to. We all need Coffee, gas, dining, quick dining and rideshare on our way to Kroger family stores to buy gift cards. I attempting humor here, but if these companies are going to give us stock for buying their products that we use by habit on a day to day basis, why would we not take advantage of the opportunity?

My earnings

So I earned $2.44 extra on my gift card purchase. Big deal!!! One-time purchase I agree, but we shop every week of the year. Sometimes just groceries, sometimes a gift card falls in the cart. Same with gas and dining and rideshare and coffee.

As I watched the SoFi accounts play out and get signed up for, I was shocked that very very few people took advantage of the SoFi Invest account. Everybody loved the Money they can spend today, but very few looked to the future growth of stocks and getting started for free?

Think ahead

I have a rather large stock portfolio after some lucky events and frugality in my lifetime. I picked up the Vanguard ETF VOO for free. It pays dividends, increases in value and allows for dividend reinvestment. One of my grandkids someday is gonna own VOO and, if I regularly contribute a few bucks to the account, it will have a meaningful balance down the road.

VOO is up from $198 per share in 2017 to $283 per share now. It follows the S&P 500 and sure beats that 2% savings account we’ve got.

Final thoughts

OK. Off my soapbox, but think about the small incremental improvements you can make in your life with some of the deals being placed in front of us.

Do I care about $2.44 here and $0.08 cents a day from Starbucks and .15 cents of BP stock with every fill-up or $0.24 cents every time at Mickey D’s?

If I’m almost 70 and thinking about it for my grandkids, maybe you younger guys and gals should think about it for yourselves or your children.

Here’s a Bumped referral to move you up the waiting list quicker: (no referral) See if it works for you long term.

And look again for your long term future at SoFi Invest now offering $100 in FREE STOCK when you open an account with $1000. That’s a 10% return your first year.  Nice Start. (I get a referral here)