Author: openjargon

• TikTok users are paying off each other's debts using views as a digital currency.
• The trend involves engaging with videos to boost views, acting as a new kind of crowdfunding.
• Despite some success stories, experts doubt the trend's long-term viability.

"We are paying off each other debt on TikTok," a creator recently declared.

The creator, named Yolanda, was gushing about the "pay off each other's debt" trend that seems to have become popular on the app.

The movement asks TikTok users to engage by liking and commenting on each other's videos and watching them for at least five to 10 seconds. TikTok then pays out for increased engagement.

Essentially, it's a way of transforming views into digital currency.

"Everyone is eligible," said Yolanda. "If we all do this, can you imagine how easy it would be if we all worked together?"

More than 4,000 videos have been posted under the #payoffdebttrend hashtag on TikTok, with creators asking for help for various reasons including medical bills, student debt, and unexpected costs.

Katya Varbanova, an influencer marketing consultant and the CEO of Viral Marketing Stars, told Business Insider it's like TikTok has become the new GoFundMe.

"But instead of money, the currency is attention," she said.

US citizens owe an average debt of $104,215 across mortgages, car payments, credit cards, student loans, and other personal debts, according to an analysis by BI using data from Experian and the New York Federal Reserve Bank. The analysis did not include medical debt, which can rack up quickly to hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Jake Heisenburg, a medical student and content creator, jumped on the views-for-debt trend on May 12. He said that for TikTok revenue to pay off all his student loans, he would need 247 million people to watch his video for five seconds.

"Which you've just done," he said. "So thank you. I appreciate it."

The requirements for earning money on TikTok are to have at least 10,000 followers and to have amassed 100,000 video views in the previous 30 days.

According to creators who previously spoke with BI in 2022, the amount TikTok pays creators varies widely from a few pennies to $17 per 1,000 views.

Many factors are taken into account to calculate the number, including the total playtime of the video, the percentage of videos watched in full, and follower engagement.

Videos have to be at least a minute long, so Heisenburg waited out the clock by talking about his mustache, eating a bowl of cereal, and asking viewers to comment with their "favorite seven-letter word."

People did just that. They commented underneath to boost engagement and liked and shared the video to try to get it onto more people's feeds. And it worked — it amassed 22 million views.

"I will ALWAYS respect the hustle for someone trying to pay off their student loans," one commenter wrote. Another said: "This is the crowd-sourcing I'm here for."

Others commented to say they had watched the whole thing.

"Honestly, everyone do this and engage," said one viewer. "Let's help him secure the bag."

A few days later, Heisenburg posted an update. He said the camaraderie that he'd seen as a result of the trend was "absolutely astounding."

He said he didn't hit the goal of earning enough to pay off all of his debts, which was in the "low six figures," partly because it would have been unrealistic.

Overall, he said he'd made $4,200 from that one video, which was "a little bit lower" than he had anticipated due to the Revenue Per Mille (RPM) — the amount of money earned per thousand views — "dropped pretty sharply" to $0.34.

"However, that is more than I used to make at my old job in two months for one video," he said.

"If that video was the catalyst for even one person to start making content or even just make a few dollars to help themselves or others out, then I'd say mission accomplished."

Markia Brown, a financial counselor and content creator known as The Money Plug, told BI she'd seen the trend growing increasingly popular since TikTok revamped its Creator Rewards Program in March.

"It's popular because people can support their favorite creators or other random strangers, and it doesn't cost them any money, just a few seconds of their time," she said.

Mark Tilbury, a TikTok content creator with seven million followers who makes videos about money and success, told BI Gen Zerz, in particular, are smart with money and have noticed that "helping each other is the key to financial success."

"It's also incredible to see how much TikTok has evolved as a platform and how much they're investing in rewarding their creators," he said.

"Although the RPMs aren't always ideal, they're better than many other apps. So anyone with a phone should jump on this opportunity to make extra money through TikTok."

Varbanova told BI it can be so effective thanks to the unique way TikTok pushes out videos.

"This would not be possible on Instagram, or Facebook, or YouTube," she said. "This is only something you can do on TikTok because of the unique TikTok algorithm. It prioritizes videos that have been proven to be watched all the way until the end by a group of people."

These aren't influencers trying to sell something or companies asking for money, she said. They are regular people encouraging each other to help by giving up a minute of their time.

However, tides on social media can turn quickly, Varbanova added, and while people tend to appreciate money struggle stories, sharing money wins can be met with calls of being out of touch, privileged, and tone deaf.

This trend seems to be different, though, Varbanova added, because it's TikTok who stands to lose out if people can pay off their debts with views.

"They're banding together against the big man, TikTok," she said. "TikTok is this big billion-dollar corporation; let's take its money."

Brown said that while it's effective now, she isn't convinced the trend will last or that the strategy will work as a long-term means of paying off debt.

There are also risks, such as people having to set aside a certain amount of earnings for taxes or having their content flagged by troll accounts.

"Additionally, too many community guideline violations will have you removed from the program with very little warning or communication," Brown said. "Do not pass go; do not collect $200."

• Interior designer Manuella Moreira shared home-decor mistakes she hates to see in a space.
• Boring powder rooms and blank ceilings are missed opportunities for home decor.
• Repeating too many of the same wood tones or metal finishes can make a room one-dimensional.

Decor trends come and go, but some will always be faux pas.

And with home prices rising more than double the pace of inflation since the 1960s, making the place you live look great is as important as ever, whether it's a rental or your expensive dream abode.

To learn about things you should avoid when decorating a space, Business Insider spoke to Manuella Moreira, Los Angeles-based interior designer with 14 years of experience and founder of Manuella Moreira Interiors,

Here are the 10 decor mistakes she hates to see in other people's homes.

Moreira said she always notices when a room has a rug that's too small

"Select a rug as big as possible for the space, allowing it to anchor the furniture in the room," Moreira said. "This will also make the space feel bigger and help with the acoustics."

Your rug should also be flat enough that it fits under the gap of doors as they swing open and closed, she added.

Nightstands should never be way taller or shorter than the bed they're next to

She also dislikes when nightstands are not the right size for the bed they're anchoring

"The height of the nightstand should be within 2 inches from the top of your mattress," Moreira told BI. "This allows for easier reach and looks more proportionate."

A blank ceiling is a missed opportunity

Always consider the ceiling when designing your space.

"Adding wallpaper or contrast paint to the ceiling allows you to add height, depth, and draw the eye up," she said.

The ceiling is also an opportunity to add another texture to the room.

By thinking of light fixtures only as functional, you're missing out on decor opportunities

According to Moreira, thinking of light fixtures strictly as functional is a big mistake.

"Light fixtures are a great way to add an artful element to a room," she told BI. Choose fixtures that are sculptural, but also complement the architecture.

By hanging drapery hardware too low, you're sabotaging your own space

Draperies should be at a height that allows them to just kiss the floor, the designer explained. This gives them a very custom look.

"The drapery rod should be hung as high up as possible, close to the ceiling," Moreira said. "This adds height to the window."

Repeating too many of the same wood tones can make the room look one-dimensional

It's not ideal to buy furniture in matching wood tones when decorating a room, Moreira told BI.

In fact, your furniture should never look like you purchased it all at once or that it's part of one set.

"Consider staying within the same hue but playing with the tone or texture of the woods to add dimension and look curated," the designer said.

A boring powder room is a missed opportunity to make a statement

"A powder room is a great place to get creative, take risks, and go bold," she told BI. "Use wallpaper, paint the millwork, and/or the ceiling."

Special details, like a really cool light fixture or an interesting mirror, can make a statement and be something that your guests will talk about.

A space with warm and cool light temperatures will look busy

The designer hates to see warm- and cool-toned light bulbs within a single space.

"It's important to make sure the color temperature of the light bulbs or architectural lights are all the same within the space," Moreira said. "Otherwise, it will look like the lights were an afterthought and look very busy."

Buying the wrong-sized furniture for a space can make it feel too empty or crowded

The scale of your furniture is so important. When shopping, she said, consider the floor space you're working with as well as the architecture of the room.

"You should have good traffic flow within the space, but it should never feel like it's missing a piece or feel empty," Moreira told BI.

Try to avoid completely matching metal finishes within a space

"Many people are very afraid of mixing metals and prefer all of the finishes to match exactly," she said. "I always encourage my clients to mix metals."

This allows the space to evolve over time and gives you more flexibility when introducing new items into the space.

• A trading mistake at Citigroup in 2022 has led to a $78 million fine against the bank.
• The "fat-finger" trade caused a brief flash crash in European stocks in May 2022.
• The brief flash crash caused by the mistaken trade briefly wiped out $322 billion in market value.

A trading mistake at Citigroup has resulted in a $78 million fine.

A trader in Citigroup's London unit entered one too many zeros in a trade in May 2022, sparking a short-lived flash crash in European stocks.

The trade itself was entered during early European market hours and caused a five-minute flash crash in the OMX Stockholm 30 Index, wiping out as much as $322 billion at one point.

According to Bloomberg, the trade was meant to hedge the bank's exposure to the MSCI World Index.

While the trader meant to execute a trade that would create a basket of stocks valued at $58 million, they accidentally entered 58 million into the quantity field, ultimately creating a massive trade worth $444 billion.

Citi's trading systems fired off warnings and prevented much of the trade from going through, but not all, with about $1.4 billion worth of the trade being executed, resulting in a cascade of sales of European stocks across various European exchanges.

UK regulators investigating the trading blunder leveled a $78 million penalty against Citigroup for the mistake on Wednesday. 

"The immediate cause of the trading error was a manual input error by the trader. The error was then not identified by either of the firm's risk functions dedicated to real-time monitoring of the firm's trades, but by the trader some 15 minutes after the trade was entered into the firm's systems," the Bank of England's Prudential Regulatory Authority said on Wednesday.

The $78 million fine from UK regulators is in addition to about $50 million Citigroup lost on the trade, bringing the total cost of the fat-finger trade to about $130 million.

• Many gig delivery workers say pay has fallen on the apps since the start of the pandemic in 2020.
• One Instacart shopper shared her tips for maximizing income.
• She recommends learning to parse orders quickly and buying bags and a wagon to carry large orders.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Bonnie Harada, a gig delivery worker in Las Vegas who has completed just over 3,600 orders for Instacart. Business Insider has verified her identity and employment for Instacart. The story has been edited for length and clarity.

I started working for Instacart four years ago when I was living in California.

Last year, I moved to Las Vegas. California has mandatory minimum payments under Proposition 22, but Nevada doesn't have those. I was shocked at how much lower the pay is here.

That difference has made it more important for me to work efficiently and take only orders that make sense for me. Here are my top tips if you want to make money on Instacart:

Shop at stores you already know well — or pick a few and learn their layouts

If you're starting out, take a store or two you're already familiar with or that you regularly shop at that's close to where you live. Know that store inside and out.

Some stores tell you in the app the aisle and the exact shelf where a product is. But otherwise, you need to know the store, especially since most places in the US just pay for the order, not for the time you spend. You need to know how to get in and out of there as fast as possible.

For me, two examples are Smith's, the local Kroger-owned supermarket, and Sprouts. I know those stores like the back of my hand. I won't take shops at stores I'm not good at.

Don't be afraid of Costco orders

For a long time, I didn't take those orders because I thought they were just too big.

But guess what? Costco is actually one of the easier stores to shop at.

Costco rarely runs out of anything that somebody has ordered. You usually don't have to find a replacement and spend time on that. If you learn the store's layout, you can do it quickly.

Secondly, if you separate your orders and have all the bar codes all face up, you can get through those lines really much quicker than you think you can.

Invest in some tools of the trade

Buy a good wagon to carry groceries to and from your car. I'm talking about those little granny cart things. Mine has a 300-pound capacity, good wheels, and can fold up to fit into my car.

Good cooler bags are also important. You need them to handle food safely, but they also come in handy for carrying bulkier or heavier items, whether it's a pack of water or carrying groceries up the stairs into an apartment.

I also buy S-hooks that I use to hang bags on the sides of shopping carts as I shop. That way, I extend the capacity of one cart instead of having to get two carts when I'm shopping large orders or multiple orders at once. I also color-code the bags with clips to keep items for different orders separate.

Figure out what the best times and places to shop are

In my area, I find first thing in the morning is when orders start coming in. There are larger orders that are usually bigger tips or better pay. So, if you're a morning person and that's the time you're available, get up, sign on, and make sure you're close to one of your favorite stores or one that is in a good neighborhood that typically has good tips.

The most affluent neighborhoods are not always the best tippers. Middle-class people are very grateful and often tip well.

Look at the details of an order and be quick to claim it

Sometimes, orders disappear quickly before you can even figure out whether you want it. You've got to be quick about figuring out how many miles it is, how much it pays, and how much the tip is.

Pick the orders that meet your needs and the time that you have available to shop.

You don't want to get caught up in something that you weren't prepared for. Some orders say they're just six items, but if you look closer, you'll see it's actually dozens of "units," which means the customer has ordered lots of the same item. If you don't have time to deliver hundreds of pounds of San Pellegrino water from Costco, don't take it.

Decide what you're trying to get out of shopping for Instacart

If you need the work to subsidize your income, you could deliver little orders a couple of times a week before you go to work.

But if this is going to be your main source of income, you need to recognize that and plan for it. The pay and tips for some batches are much lower than others, so you need to know how to leverage Instacart to meet your needs.

An Instacart spokesperson told BI that "shoppers may acquire whatever tools they would like to support their work." Shoppers can verify their insulated bags through the Instacart app to get access to more batches, the spokesperson added.

Do you work for Instacart, DoorDash, Walmart Spark, or another gig delivery service and have a story idea to share? Reach out to this reporter at abitter@businessinsider.com

• Lower-income Americans are already in a recession, according to JPMorgan's Matthew Boss.
• The analyst said the US was in a "selective" recession as some consumers .
• 67% of middle-class Americans said they believed their income wasn't keeping up with the cost of living.

The US economy is in a "selective recession," as lower-income Americans are struggling to get by while upper-income consumers are doing just fine, according to JPMorgan analyst Matthew Boss.

Speaking to CNBC on Tuesday, Boss pointed to the divergence in upper-income and middle-to-lower income Americans, the latter of whom are struggling to keep up with the rising cost of living as prices remain elevated and savings dwindle. 

"You have the consumer at the high end who is being more choiceful. The low-end I do think is a melting ice cube … What I'm calling it now is a selective recession," Boss said. "[B]y our survey, over 70% of low-income consumers right now are saying that they're struggling to make ends meet."  

Other market commentators have pointed to a coming slowdown in consumer spending, especially as middle-class Americans feel the pinch of inflation. 67% of middle-class households polled by Primerica in the first quarter said they believed their income was falling behind the cost of living. 

Inflation has cooled dramatically from its highs in 2022, but consumers are still feeling the pain of accumulated price increases over the years. Consumer prices overall are 22% higher than they were five years ago, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

"You focus on that low- to middle-income consumer, they're under pressure, and the pressure is really that the inflation … continues to last. Each month that we move forward, it doesn't matter that inflation is not worsening, it's just an incremental toll on that savings that they built," Boss said.

Most Americans have likely blown through the savings they accumulated during the pandemic. Excess savings from the COVID era were probably depleted in March of this year, according to a paper from San Francisco Fed economists. 38% of middle-class respondents in Primerica's survey added that they didn't have a $1,000 emergency fund. 

Recession fears have been on the rise as Americans survey a weakening job market and anticipate rates staying higher for longer. The US has a 50-50 chance of slipping into a downturn within the next 12 months, the New York Fed estimated in its latest recession forecast.

• A group of Democratic lawmakers and advocates called on the Education Department to end MOHELA's contract.
• They cited servicer failures, including inaccurate billing, as reasons the company should no longer service borrowers.
• The Education Department has already withheld pay from MOHELA for failing its obligations.

Less than a year into the return to student-loan repayment, some Democratic lawmakers and advocates have seen enough: They want the Education Department to fire servicer MOHELA.

One month after federal payments started back up again in October after an over three-year pause, MOHELA — which services about 8 million borrowers — was the first servicer to have its pay withheld after the Education Department found it failed to send on-time billing statements to over 2 million borrowers.

Since then, borrowers have continued to cite issues with the company, including hourslong hold times to reach customer service. Some borrowers have even been notified by MOHELA that the loan forgiveness they received last year was reversed due to the company's errors.

That's why, on Wednesday, a group of Democratic lawmakers — including Reps. Ayanna Pressley, Ilhan Omar, Greg Casar, and Sen. Ed Markey — joined advocates in calling for the Education Department to end MOHELA's federal contract.

"It is time to stop their contract. It is time to fire them. It is time to listen to the borrowers that have been speaking up about the struggles that they are facing and it is time for us to do the right thing," Omar said during a press conference. "We are asking the administration to take this step forward because it is past time that we listen to the borrowers that have been suffering under the incompetence of MOHELA."

Business Insider first reported in April that the Education Department was transferring over 1 million borrowers from MOHELA to new servicers, with Federal Student Aid saying that MOHELA "requested these transfers and FSA, as part of its work to ensure borrowers receive the best service and support, agreed to this"

Pressley said that she applauds those transfers, but millions of borrowers remain under MOHELA's contract, and that should not be the case.

"Enough is enough. Terminate MOHELA's contract and put loan services on notice: we will not tolerate your negligence and exploitation; we will not let you profiteer off vulnerable student borrowers," Pressley said.

The Education Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment from BI. A MOHELA spokesperson told BI that "borrowers are not better off when outside groups spread false and misleading information about our work as a federal contractor for FSA. We remain committed to continuing to provide the highest quality of customer service to the borrowers that we serve."

In April, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren held a hearing investigating MOHELA and its management of the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program. While she invited MOHELA's CEO Scott Giles to testify before the Senate, the company declined on his behalf, instead offering private briefings to address any lawmakers' concerns.

Prior to the April 10 hearing, MOHELA said it has already been "actively engaged in conversations with the Subcommittee and has offered its cooperation in addressing any questions and concerns by participating in a series of bipartisan briefings on the identified areas of interest about student loan servicing."

Meanwhile, the Education Department has vowed to oversee all servicers, and it withheld pay for the remaining servicers in January because they failed to fulfill some of their obligations.

But Democrats have focused in on MOHELA — and they want it to go.

"There's an old saying, 'Never attribute to malevolence what is merely due to incompetence.' Well, MOHELA is both incompetent and malevolent in the way in which they have been handling the responsibility of young people's lives and their ability to plan for their future," Markey said. "It is time to fire MOHELA."

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• Online shopping portals allow consumers to earn bonus rewards for online purchases.
• Shoppers can "double dip" on rewards using a rewards credit card through an online shopping portal.
• Shopping portals typically offer rewards in the form of cash back, airline miles, or hotel points.

Introduction to Online Shopping Portals

If you don't use a shopping portal when you shop online, you're forfeiting cash, airline miles, hotel points, and bank points that could easily fund your next vacation.

What are online shopping portals?

An online shopping portal is a website that offers bonus rewards for shopping through its affiliate link. Rewards can include cash back, airline miles, hotel points, and various other loyalty "currencies."

Shopping portals offer a powerful way to supercharge your rewards on money you'd spend anyway. They're easy to use and don't alter your shopping experience. 

Here's everything you need to know about shopping portals including how to use them, tricks to maximizing them, and pitfalls to avoid.

How do shopping portals work? 

You can access thousands of merchants worldwide through shopping portals, from major retailers such as Best Buy and Apple to small brands with just a few locations. Dozens of companies offer shopping portals including Southwest, Delta, Capital One, Rakuten, and Mr. Rebates.

You can use a tool such as Cashback Monitor to quickly evaluate various shopping portals for the best reward rate on an upcoming purchase. 

Finding the right shopping portal

The right shopping portal may vary from store to store and even from time to time. Many portals offer elevated rates during peak shopping times, such as the weeks leading up to the end-of-year holiday season, or offer bonus returns during special promotional periods. 

Many airlines offer proprietary shopping portals. These are great ways to rack up bonus miles and points from the comfort of your couch.

Here are some popular shopping portals from travel programs:

• Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan Shopping
• American Airlines AAdvantage eShopping
• Delta SkyMiles Shopping
• JetBlue TrueBlue Shopping
• Southwest Rapid Rewards Shopping
• United MileagePlus Shopping
• Wyndham Rewards
• Amtrak Guest Rewards

Many travel-unrelated shopping portals pay you in cash back, such as:

• TopCashback
• Rakuten (you can choose to earn cash back or Amex Membership Rewards points)
• BeFrugal
• Upromise

Some credit card issuers like Chase, Citi, and Barclays have their own versions of shopping portals, which require you to log into your account to use them. With these portals, you can earn bonus bank points or cash back.

How to use online shopping portals

With all these options, it can be hard to discern where to find the biggest return for your shopping. Shopping portal bonuses are always changing, after all. Here's how to stay on top of the best deals. 

Creating an account and linking payment methods

You'll need an account for every shopping portal you use in order to track your purchases and payouts. You'll need to sign up with an email address and password, and you'll need to input a payment method such as PayPal in order to cash out your rewards. Some portals allow you to redeem your rewards in the form of gift cards to popular retailers such as Amazon or Starbucks. 

Making purchases through portals

Once you find the retailer you want to shop within the merchant directory, you'll be taken to the official store website. For the most part, you won't notice any difference during your shopping; the prices are the same, and the merchant code won't change when the purchase is posted to your credit card.

Each shopping portal offers a unique payout scheme for making purchases. For example:

• You may earn a fixed number of points per dollar you spend, unique for each merchant (for example, 5x points with Macy's versus 2x points with Apple)
• You may receive a few thousand points for enrolling in a food or media subscription
• You may receive 1,000+ bonus points if it's your first time using a particular shopping portal

Some portals also publish promotions that reward you for spending a certain amount of money, such as $20 back for spending $100. 

Maximizing rewards with shopping portals

Some people have a favorite portal or two, and stick with them regardless of the reward rate. But savvy consumers know to shop around for the best discounts or promotional payouts on every online purchase. Here are some tips for maximizing your earning opportunities.

Tips for increasing rewards

Shopping portal aggregators allow you to view all the shopping portal deals in one place. This can save literally hours for those who shop online with regularity.

Cashback Monitor is one of the best aggregators to use, although some shoppers also use Evreward or Cashbackholic.

Cashback Monitor quickly showcases the most viewed stores, the retailers offering the highest returns that day, and offers a comprehensive search tool that helps you find any retailer that offers shopping portal rewards. 

Enter the name of the retailer you plan to use, and Cashback Monitor will display every shopping portal that works with that particular store, as well as the current rate and form of return. Results are organized by reward category: 

• Cash back
• Travel miles/points
• Credit card points
• Other reward points

While the website orders its list of portals by return rate, you can rearrange this list to reflect your personal value of each reward currency. If you value American Airlines miles twice as highly as Southwest points, for example, you can ask Cashback Monitor to list American Airlines miles before Southwest even if a shopping portal offers 4 American Airlines miles vs. 7 Southwest points per dollar. 

To set up preferences like this, you'll have to create a Cashback Monitor account (it's free).

Use browser extensions

Internet browser extensions are an excellent way to save money when shopping online. These extensions notify you if a product you're viewing qualifies for rewards through a shopping portal. If you install multiple extensions, you may receive a series of handy pop-ups whenever an item qualifies.

The most popular extensions include:

• Rakuten
• Capital One Shopping
• American Airlines AAdvantage eShopping
• Southwest Rapid Rewards Shopping
• United Airlines MileagePlus Shopping

Rakuten is a unique portal that allows shoppers to choose between earning cash back or Amex Membership Rewards points (1 cent = 1 point). If a store is offering 8% back via Rakuten, for example, you can earn up to 8 Amex points per dollar instead of 8 cents per dollar. Since Business Insider values Amex points at 1.8 cents each toward travel, that 8% return is worth closer to around 14.4% on every dollar you spend.

If you know the best ways to use Amex Membership Rewards points, choosing to earn points instead of cash is the way to go.

Combining portals with credit card rewards

Stacking credit card rewards with portal discounts and promotions can help you save big on your shopping.

The rewards you earn through online shopping portals are completely separate from those you'll earn from other bonus opportunities, such as a rewards credit card. If you use a good credit card in addition to a shopping portal, you'll earn points, miles, or cash back from your credit card in addition to the shopping portal bonus.

For example, if you buy a laptop at Staples through the Wyndham Rewards shopping portal with your Ink Business Cash® Credit Card, you'll receive:

• 9 Wyndham points per dollar for shopping through the portal (offer current at the time of post writing)
• 5 Chase Ultimate Rewards points per dollar (5% back) for using your Ink Business Cash at Staples (the card earns 5x points at office supply stores*)

That's quite a points haul — effectively 14 points per dollar. A reasonably priced laptop will likely earn you more than 10,000 points.

You can add another level to shopping portals by incorporating additional bonuses such as Amex Offers. Amex Offers are targeted statement credits or bonus points that trigger when you enroll your card and spend at select merchants. For example, The Blue Business® Plus Credit Card from American Express occasionally offers select cardholders 10% back at Dell, up to a total of $1,500.

If you have this offer on your card and choose to buy a $500 computer monitor from Dell via the American Airlines shopping portal, you can earn:

• 1,000 American Airlines miles (2 miles per dollar for using the American Airlines shopping portal)
• $50 statement credit (10% back on my Dell purchase with Amex Offers)
• 1,000 Amex Membership Rewards points (2 points per dollar spent on The Blue Business® Plus Credit Card from American Express)

Thus, you'll earn 2,000 points and a $50 rebate on that monitor simply by triple-stacking these three deals. 

Look for holiday promotions

Throughout the year, but especially around the holidays, shopping portals issue promotions incentivizing you to spend specific dollar amounts with them. They're often tiered — something like:

• Spend $250, earn 500 bonus points
• Spend $500, earn 1,000 bonus points
• Spend $750, earn 3,000 bonus points

If you're going to be making purchases anyway, it's worth perusing your favorite shopping portal to see if they've got an active promotion like this.

In-store purchases

If you're the kind of person who will scratch and claw for every extra point, you can also use shopping portals in-store. If you see something you like, simply log onto your favorite shopping portal, make your purchase, and choose in-store pickup. Many stores prepare your order in about an hour — but this strategy is only worth it if you'll be hanging around the store for a while.

Avoiding common pitfalls

Not all purchases qualify

Read the portal's fine print before you check out. Some items are exempt from earning bonus rewards (cash equivalents such as gift cards are commonly ineligible for earning shopping portal rewards).  

Ad blockers may stop up your earnings

A shopping portal works by directing you to your desired merchant and then tracking your activity until checkout. Ad blockers often prevent shopping portals from tracking you, meaning the portal won't have a record of your purchase — and you'll get no rewards.

Fortunately, many portals will warn you that your ad blocker is preventing them from tracking you, allowing you to temporarily disable it before checkout.

Some promotions disqualify your order

If you enter a promo code or coupon code at checkout, this will sometimes disqualify you from earning shopping portal rewards. It's not a rule — you can sometimes get away with it — but unless the savings outweighs the bonus points, it's better to be safe than sorry.

You may need to clear your cart before shopping through a portal

Some retailers are stricter than others, stating that you may not earn a bonus if you only click through the shopping portal once you've filled up your online shopping cart. Make sure you always read the fine print for each portal and each retailer before clicking through, since terms and conditions change all the time. 

Shopping portal frequently asked questions

How do I choose the best online shopping portal for my needs?

Consider the types of rewards you prefer (cash back, points, miles), the retailers available through the portal, and user reviews for reliability and customer service.

Can I use online shopping portals with any online retailer?

Not all retailers participate in every shopping portal. You'll need to use the portals that partner with the retailers where you intend to shop.

Is it possible to use more than one shopping portal at a time?

You can only use one shopping portal per purchase, but you can switch between portals for different purchases to maximize rewards.

How can I ensure I receive my rewards from a shopping portal?

Follow the portal's instructions carefully, ensure your browser allows cookies (for tracking purposes), and keep receipts in case you need to file a claim for missing rewards.

Can I combine shopping portal rewards with other discounts or promotions?

Often, yes. Many shopping portals allow you to take advantage of retailer sales and promotions, and you may also be able to stack rewards with those from your credit card.

• College athletes should be leveraging LinkedIn more, say athletes and experts.
• Student-athlete Sabrina Oostburg described the success she's had using LinkedIn to promote herself.
• NIL Athlete of the Year Chase Griffin also said even high-school athletes should be on LinkedIn.

The name, image, and likeness business has changed the game for college athletes who now need to self-promote on social-media platforms like Instagram and TikTok if they want to make money from NIL.

LinkedIn is another often-overlooked platform where student-athletes can promote themselves and score brand deals, athletes and experts told Business Insider.

The professional network has leaned into creator content and grown in recent years as a platform for influencers of all kinds.

Some student-athletes who have found success building their brands on LinkedIn include Tanner Maddox, a freshman football player from Villanova; Sabrina Oostburg, a track and field athlete from Belmont University; and Connor Printz, a former basketball player from Claremont McKenna College, according to Out2Win, an athlete-marketing-intelligence platform, which tracked the frequency of student-athletes posting on LinkedIn.

While Instagram and TikTok are crucial for athletes to showcase their creativity and build an audience, LinkedIn is better for connecting directly with brands, said Jack Adler, founder of Out2Win.

"LinkedIn is a better platform for actually connecting with those businesses because that's where a lot of the marketers spend their time," Adler said.

Oostburg and Printz told BI they've used LinkedIn to secure NIL brand deals and connect with agents or other professionals they want to work with.

College athletes have used LinkedIn to get brand deals and sign with talent agents

Oostburg said she landed two sponsorship deals through LinkedIn, including with the Nashville Zoo and a startup called Backhat. One of the partnerships was paid and both offered free products. She's also connected through the platform with social-media managers and business owners — and even her current agency, Raymond Representation.

Oostburg said some of her peers have laughed at her for using LinkedIn and don't see the value in it.

"I'm like, 'What are you guys laughing at?'"she said. "They don't see the vision of how you can use that for NIL."

Printz, meanwhile, has used LinkedIn to help build his personal brand and prepare for a sports career after college. Two months ago, he posted on LinkedIn his story about gaining over 100 NIL deals and over 1 million followers across social media. He said the post opened a lot of doors for him.

"It kind of went a little bit viral on there and people were reaching out to me every single day just wanting to talk," said Printz.

While Printz hasn't used LinkedIn to get NIL deals, like Oostburg, he found his agent through the platform while seeking NIL representation about six months ago.

"When I was looking for an agent, I just posted on there and had many, many people reach out," he said. "Luckily, that's how I connected with my agent."

Samantha Green, who founded the Athlete Con convention and works directly with student-athletes, said she advises athletes to post about their current NIL deals and contact brands on LinkedIn for opportunities.

"If you think about it seriously, anybody that's a head of influencer marketing at any brand is often on LinkedIn," she told BI.

Green said athletes can also make more of a name for themselves on LinkedIn than on other platforms.

"There are a million athletes on TikTok. There are a million athletes on Instagram. But who are the ones actually putting a business presence forward and building a brand as a professional while still being a college athlete?" Green said. "Few and far between are on LinkedIn, so you'll really stand out."

Chase Griffin, a UCLA quarterback who was named the 2022 NIL Male Athlete of the Year by NIL Summit and Opendorse, is also proof of the opportunities athletes can get on LinkedIn. Griffin, who's scored more than 30 NIL deals during his career, landed his first through LinkedIn. 

He advises any athlete in college or high school to create a LinkedIn profile because it can set them up for future success. 

"LinkedIn can play a huge role in making sure that you have a network vesting while you're still in college," he said. "That way, once you leave your campus, you're still tied to your network, and you've been able to put your accomplishments and accolades out in front of the companies that you're going to work for."

Griffin said his LinkedIn presence has helped shape his early career, and he plans to continue building his audience and content on the platform.

 "If you're doing NIL or not, as a college athlete, you're also a college student," he said, "and LinkedIn is the spot to be for college students."

• Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s early life was overshadowed by the murder of his father.
• He later struggled with a drug addiction.
• After his most humiliating moment, Kennedy reinvented himself as an environmentalist.

Robert F. Kennedy's children have spent a lifetime trying to add their marks to their slain father's legacy. They made history in public service, followed his footsteps into Congress, and contributed to an Academy Award-nominated documentary. Like their relatives born into the generation after Camelot, some struggled to shake the tinge of tragedy and scandal that continues to hang around the famous family.

Robert F. Kennedy's namesake has seen all elements of this journey.

The first Kennedy to run for the presidency in decades, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is doing so without the family's well-documented loyalty. Instead, some of his siblings have begged him to drop out. For years, they have worried, in increasingly public ways, that he's eroding the foundation of why the nation reveres them so much in the first place.

The son of the expected next Kennedy president.

Born into privilege in 1954, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was raised between Massachusetts and suburban Virginia estates. He took an early interest in the outdoors, an affinity aided by the menagerie of animals kept at Hickory Hill, the family's McLean, Virginia mansion. He was the third of the 11 eventual children born to RFK and Ethel Kennedy.

He was asleep in his dorm at Georgetown Preparatory School on June 5, 1968, when a priest awoke him. He wasn't told what was happening, only that a ride would soon take him back to Hickory Hill. At the family home, he was told his dad had been shot the night before. He, Kathleen, and Joseph P. II flew out on Vice President Hubert Humphery's plane in a rush to be by their father's side.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was later a pallbearer at his father's funeral, joined by Astronaut John Glenn and former Defense Secretary Robert McNamara.

The 14-year-old never returned to Georgetown Prep, which now counts two Supreme Court justices and multiple lawmakers among its influential alumni. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. bounced between three private schools before graduating from high school.

At Millbrook School in New York, he briefly kept a lion cub gifted to him by former "Tonight Show" host Jack Paar. Kennedy was forced to find a new home for the animal, aptly named Mtoto Mbaya, "Boy Boy" in Swahili, after a string of incidents, including when it bit the backside of the school's zoo keeper, according to "Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and the Dark Side of the Dream," an unauthorized 2015 biography. It wasn't the animal that got him kicked out.

Kennedy had begun to use drugs and not just marijuana, according to the 2015 book. Officials became increasingly concerned that they would be held responsible if another Kennedy died on their watch. Years later, Kennedy would tell Oprah that the source of his drug problems didn't truly matter. He viewed his problems more as being a product of the 1960s. Whatever the reason, his drug use would lead to repeated brushes with the law.

Kennedy graduates from Harvard, but drug use continues to hang over him.

After graduating from high school, Kennedy attended Harvard, the alma mater of his father, uncle, and grandfather. Like JFK, RFK Jr. would see his senior thesis turned into a book. Unfortunately for him, reviewers reacted harshly to the tome about federal judge Frank M. Johnson Jr., whose rulings played a major role in the Civil Rights movement.

After briefly attending the London School of Economics, Kennedy graduated from the University of Virginia Law School. While in Charlottesville, Kennedy met his first wife, Emily Black. Their wedding in Black's native Bloomington, Indiana, received international coverage as the Midwesterner joined the nation's foremost political family. The couple had two children together.

He filed for divorce in 1994 in the Dominican Republic, taking advantage of a local law that allows foreigners to file for divorce there and potentially trying to avoid media scrutiny.

In March 1982, Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau, whom JFK had previously appointed to lead the famous Southern District of New York, hired RFK Jr. as an assistant district attorney. The famous son's first brush with politics in New York, the state his father represented in the US Senate, did not go well. Kennedy struggled to pass the bar exam. He resigned in July 1983.

Months later, Kennedy would spark his largest legal scandal. While on the way to receive treatment in South Dakota for his addiction, a fellow passenger found him sick in an airplane's bathroom. Local authorities later found a small amount of heroin in his belongings. He faced up to two years in prison, according to The New York Times. Kennedy was sentenced to probation and community service.

Kennedy found a new advocacy after his lowest moment.

Kennedy's lowest moment led to his greatest reinvention. As part of his community service, he worked for the Natural Resources Defense Council and was later connected with the Hudson River Fishermen's Association. Robert Boyle, founder of the New York environmental group, began to mentor Kennedy. The organization already had notched major legal victories, but Kennedy's star power would help take it to new heights.

He was so committed to his new career that in 1994, he married Mary Richardson, a longtime friend of his sister Kerry Kennedy, aboard a ship on the Hudson River.

But his relationship with Boyle did not last. His mentor later recalled that he was less than thrilled about the celebrities Kennedy soon brought onto the organization's board. He also chafed at his former protegé's other actions, particularly Kennedy's decision to hire a scientist named William Wegner. Kennedy defended hiring Wegner, who had served time in federal prison, saying that giving him a second chance was the right thing to do. Boyle was incensed given that Wegener was sentenced over his connections to a bird smuggling ring. Boyle and seven other officials later resigned from Riverkeeper's board in protest.

"I think he's a despicable person," Boyle told Kennedy's unauthorized biographer in 2014. Boyle's children recently told The Washington Post that his father later couldn't even bear looking at the Hudson as it was too much of a reminder of Kennedy's betrayal.

As for Kennedy, his environmental advocacy became the foundation of his fame. In 1999, Time Magazine named Kennedy one of its "Heroes for the Planet" as part of a series of reports on leading environmentalists.

While gaining fame, Kennedy began to notice problems with his voice. He recently told The Los Angeles Times that he was 42 when he first noticed the problem. Kennedy was later diagnosed with spasmodic dysphonia, a rare neurological condition that affects muscles in one's voice box.

In 2010, Kennedy filed for divorce from Richardson, the mother of four of his six children. Two years later, she died by suicide at the couple's former Bedford estate.

After years of environmentalism, Kennedy became the face of anti-vaccine advocacy.

After decades of environmental advocacy, Kennedy prepared to make his most controversial turn. In his retelling, mothers began to approach him at events to question whether vaccines had affected their children.

In 2005, Kennedy wrote a piece for Salon and Rolling Stone that is now regarded as establishing him as a major player in spreading vaccine skepticism. Despite his claims of a major conspiracy over a mercury-based preservative that had already been "removed from all childhood vaccines except for some variations of the flu vaccine in 2001," according to STAT. Within days, Salon, which published the piece online, issued five corrections. In 2011, the site decided to retract the article entirely.

In 2014, Kennedy married the actress Cheryl Hines, best known for her co-starring role in the Larry David-led "Curb Your Enthusiasm."

One year later, Kennedy joined the World Health Defense Fund. He continued to be involved with Riverkeeper, but his anti-vaccine advocacy overwhelmed his public persona.

Kennedy's name fueled his rise in the movement, which drew on the credibility of his environmentalism and his famous family. In turn, the now-presidential hopeful began to cobble together what the Associated Press would later deem "an anti-vaccine juggernaut" that he deployed when the COVID-19 pandemic arrived.

• Baby boomers are pumping $76 billion of savings into the economy, helping avoid recession, Ed Yardeni wrote.
• The generation is spending heavily on services, boosting payrolls and income, he wrote for the FT.
• Traditional recession indicators focus more heavily on the goods economy.

Talks of a looming recession are flaring across Wall Street, but the savings war chest of baby boomers has staved off a US downturn.

That's according to market veteran Ed Yardeni, who broke down why recessionary doomsayers are misguided. Among his main listed factors are the retirement generation's rising spending habits, amplified by a transition into retirement.

"Most importantly, the baby boom generation has started to retire with a record $76 trillion in net worth," he wrote for the Financial Times. "They are spending on restaurants, cruises, traveling and healthcare. All these services industries have been expanding their payrolls, thus boosting real incomes, and fuelling more spending."

That counters gloomy expectations of an impending consumer slowdown, which has been the basis for why the economy will eventually buckle. 

Instead, only the goods sector has shown signs of a growth recession, Yardeni said. But that's after the lockdown's hard-to-beat buying spree; today, goods spending remains at a record high when adjusted for inflation.

It's a fresh take on what the post-war generation can offer, given that retirees are often framed as a source of economic strain on younger individuals. With 4.1 million minted each year through 2027, some fear this will burden everything from equities to the labor market.

But to Yardeni, they're the reason no consumer recession has appeared in the past two years, he separately wrote in April:

"The Baby Boomers watched a lot of 'Star Trek' during the 1960s. They certainly took to heart Spock's mantra 'Live long and prosper.' He should have finished the thought with 'Then retire and spend it all before your expiration date," he then said.

Retiree consumption is one of many recession-canceling factors that Yardeni listed in FT. 

In his view, analysts were correct to originally expect a downturn, given the Federal Reserve's aggressive hiking cycle and a number of flashing recessionary indicators. 

But the problems typically brought on by tight monetary policy have largely been overcome, such as a credit crunch and speculative bubble. Although a banking crisis did appear last year, the Fed's emergency response was enough to squash credit fallout.

What's more, higher rates actually strengthened consumer resiliency, as households accumulated bigger returns on bank deposits and money market funds.

Meanwhile, the baby boomer focus on service spending may also have deformed indicators, making things look gloomier than they are.

"And what about the Index of Leading Economic Indicators?" Yardeni said. "It hasn't worked so well because it is heavily skewed towards the goods economy, which has been relatively weak, and it doesn't give enough weighting to the services sector, which has been strong."